Survival Rules Series (Book 3): Rules of Darkness

by Hunt, Jack

  His father scoffed. “All right. I get it now. You blame me for Ella’s death. Because if I hadn’t come into town, she would have been there with me.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “You didn’t need to. You’re doing the same with Ferris. This is how it starts, Corey.”

  He took a sip of his coffee. “How what starts?”

  “The downward spiral.” His father shifted his weight from one foot to the next. “First it’s the blame, then you start drinking to deal with what’s going on in your head, and then you push people away.”

  “Well I’m glad to see you admit your own shortcomings, Dad. That’s refreshing. A little late, but refreshing.”

  His father jabbed his finger at him. “Don’t be sarcastic with me. You want to go down this path, by all means, but you are not dragging others down with you. Or placing their lives in jeopardy. I might have made some mistakes raising you two but I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let you do the same.” He paused for a second. “Do you even know what Ferris did to try and save Ella? Or are you so intent on finding fault that you can’t see the forest for the trees?”

  Corey gritted his teeth; he could feel anger rising.

  “He risked his life, and his men’s lives to get Ella out of there. What happened to her was terrible, but it had nothing to do with Ferris.”

  “And you know this because you were there, right?” Corey turned to him and stood up, squaring off. At one time his father’s size made him tremble but that was before signing up for the military. Now he paled in comparison. “That’s right. You don’t know shit. All you know is what he’s told you.”

  Ferris looked over. He must have overheard. He was still talking with Hudgens but he kept glancing their way.

  “The fact is you didn’t care for Ella the way I did. How many times did you say she made me weak? That she was a crutch?”

  “I cared for her as if she was my own daughter.”

  “Then why did you leave her there?”

  Corey brushed past him. His father didn’t say anything as he exited the room. He was done talking with them, done helping, nothing came from it. No one in the town really knew what was going on. It was a farce. They were living on borrowed time. Raiders would return. Whether it was the same group or another it didn’t matter. He thought he could push her from his mind, focus on work and coast through his grief but his father was right, and he hated to admit it. All he felt was anger every day. He wanted someone to blame. Anyone but himself or Ella. For all the training he’d received from his father, none of it had prepared him for losing the one he most cared about.

  Leaving the building through a side exit he made his way over to the green utility truck and hopped inside. He fired it up using a spare key and reversed out. As he drove out of the lot, one of the officers tried to stop him by getting in the way of the truck. Corey swerved around him and continued on. Would they follow? He didn’t care. He drove up through the town, heading for his home. He hadn’t returned there since Ella’s death. As much as he wanted to, seeing it would have crushed him, but that was three weeks ago and he refused to let grief hold him captive.

  He gave the gas pedal some more pressure as he passed through the town and took in the sight of burned homes and what remained of a once thriving town. Everyone had been affected by the blackout in one way or another. How many others had lost loved ones? How many others were in a worse state than him?

  His mind drifted to the many days he’d shared with Ella.

  Tears welled in his eyes and trickled down. He wiped them fast, a habit ingrained from being a kid who didn’t want to show weakness in front of his father. His mind circled to those final moments in the hospital. He thought he’d feel satisfaction, relief from the pain when he killed Gabriel, but it had done nothing. Vengeance didn’t change anything. He was still without her.

  Corey eased off the gas as he came onto Woodland Star Circle.

  He veered into the driveway and took in the sight of his once-beautiful home now lying in ruins. The grass was overgrown, weeds were out of control and someone had graffitied profanity directed at the government on the front of the house. His home wasn’t singled out, he’d seen many like that along the way. Abandoned houses torn apart as the desperate went house to house searching for anything of value.

  After killing the engine, he sat there hesitant to get out.

  His mind created imaginary pictures in his head. He heard the sound of Ella’s voice, bullets striking windows, and saw drywall dust explode. How scared was she? He would never know. Corey took a deep breath and pushed out of the vehicle. He made his way into the house, glass crunching under his boots. The walls were peppered with bullet rounds. It was like someone had taken a machine gun and let loose. Daylight filtered in from a hundred different places like precision lasers cutting through metal. His father’s words played back in his head. Did he even know what Ferris had done to try and save her? He didn’t, even though Ferris had offered to tell him. He’d refused to listen. Now as he walked through the hallway he yearned to know. Where was she? Which way out did she go? It was as if he was hoping to find a flaw in the advice given to her. Something more he could hold over Ferris’ head.

  Corey stopped in the doorway of the living room and spotted an overturned photo frame. He could tell from the frame alone which photo was inside. Crossing the room, he soaked in the devastation. He scooped up the photo and turned it over. The glass was cracked and covered in dirt. He pulled away some of the glass and retrieved the photo from inside. Friends of theirs had taken the photo. Ella was ten weeks pregnant. Corey was behind her, his arms wrapped around her, holding her belly. Both of them smiling, full of life, full of hope. He tucked the photo into his pocket and continued on. No one had been in to clean up the dry blood but he could see where bodies had been dragged out.

  The only information he’d got was the location of where they found Ella.

  He swallowed hard as he exited the rear of the home and made his way across the yard. Chief Bruce had told him that they’d tied a purple ribbon to the tree close to where she’d fallen. It didn’t take him long to spot it through the overgrown brush. He stopped walking and stared from a distance, apologizing under his breath to Ella for not being there to help her. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Tears streaked his cheeks as he waded through the high grass and brush until he made it to the spot. Corey scanned the ground for blood, anything that would indicate the exact spot. But there was nothing. Heavy rains would have washed blood away. Corey dropped to his knees, overwhelmed by loss.

  The pain was so sharp he could barely catch his breath.

  In three weeks he’d gone through every emotion possible, and he knew that it was only the beginning. It would take months, maybe even years before time took away the pain. The only comfort he found came from the knowledge that one day he would wake up and it wouldn’t sting as much. He’d learned this from losing his mother.

  He wasn’t sure how long he knelt there in the grass sobbing before he heard a familiar and comforting voice. “Corey. Brother.”

  Still kneeling he cast a glance over his shoulder just as Tyler came up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Tyler?”

  He’d never felt as happy to see him as he did in that moment. Tyler had grown a thick beard since he’d last seen him. As he hugged him, he spotted over his shoulder a woman with dark hair and green eyes with a bow over her back, and a gun in a holster at her hip. She smiled but said nothing.

  “Who’s this?” he asked.

  “Oh. Um. This is Allie. She’s from Jude’s camp.”

  He gave a nod to her and she said hello before stepping away and looking off towards the house. Tyler patted Corey on the back. “It’s good to see you. We need to talk,” Tyler said. “It’s about the raiders. I know where they are.”

  9

  “No one is to know. You understand?” Corey said. Tyler offered back a confused expression as his brother came out of the shed with a shovel
and proceeded to walk to the end of the property and begin to dig. He looked back at Allie, and she shrugged, also trying to make sense of it. It was like everything he told him went over his head.

  Tyler pulled out a toothpick that was wedged in the corner of his mouth and tapped the air. “First, care to tell me what the hell you are doing? Second, did you not hear a word of what I said?”

  Corey sunk the shovel into the earth, and jammed it farther in with his boot before pulling out a large chunk of dirt and tossing it to one side. “I heard. But we’ll be needing this.” He continued digging without explaining. Allie walked over to Tyler and tapped him on the shoulder and jerked her head towards the house. He followed her so they were out of earshot.

  “Look, no offense but when you said we needed help I thought it would amount to more than your brother. Additionally, he seems as if he’s a little unstable.”

  “He just lost his wife.”

  “Okay, well that explains things but on the other hand it raises some serious concerns. Is he up for this? I mean you saw the way we found him — mumbling, sobbing.”

  Tyler looked over his shoulder. Corey was now down on his knees scooping out handfuls of dirt. That was his only regret. Spending the past three weeks at Camp Olney had meant not being there for his brother, but he assumed he wouldn’t have been in a receptive frame of mind anyway. “Leave it with me. Give me a moment.” He went over and noticed his brother had unearthed a green container. “Is that an ammo can?”

  Corey nodded, sweeping away dirt around the edges until he was able to find the handle. Burying essentials was survival 101. Anyone with a lick of sense buried a survival cache, specifically guns and ammo just in case martial law came into effect and guns were confiscated. Goods were often enclosed in heavy-duty containers that were air-tight and used for guns, emergency gear, documents and valuables. They came in varying sizes. Most were six-inch wide PVC pipe that ranged from four to six feet in length and had a cap on either end, others were nothing more than military surplus ammo cans. “Here, give me a hand,” he said. Tyler dropped to a knee and grasped a handle while Corey continued scooping out dirt to free the container. Seconds later it came free and he pulled it out. Corey cracked it open and emptied it out. Inside were a mid-length AR with collapsible stock, a Ruger 10/22, a Remington 870 shotgun, a Glock with spare magazines, plenty of ammo for all the weapons, a crank-powered radio, a two-way radio, a large survival knife, a pair of night vision binoculars, a bag of survival tools, small solar panels for charging batteries and some freeze-dried food. “That should come in handy.”

  Tyler’s brow furrowed. “Um. Not to point out the obvious but why did you dig this up when we could just go to the cabin?”

  “He can’t know about this trip.”

  “Which brings me full circle to what I said earlier. We need everyone we can get. This is a large group and believe me, they are not playing around. I’m talking fully armed and dangerous,” Tyler said.

  Corey lifted his eyes as he sifted through the contents. “Someone in town is working with them.” He brought him up to speed on what had occurred the day before. “It’s the only way they could have known about the supplies delivery from the school. Someone had to tell them.”

  “And you think it’s Andy?”

  “Andy? Is that what you’re calling him now?” He cocked his head to one side. “And, why have you been gone so long?”

  “He didn’t tell you?”

  “Tell me what?”

  Tyler rolled his bottom lip under his top teeth and then wiped a hand across his lips.

  “Andy isn’t my father. Jude is.”

  Corey stared back for a second before he responded. “He told you this?”

  Tyler nodded.

  “And that’s why you took off?”

  “Wouldn’t you?”

  Corey squeezed his eyes shut. “No. No, that’s bullshit.”

  “Think about it, Corey. It makes perfect sense. All the times he would go off on me. He always treated me different from you. If anyone was getting that belt of his, it was me.” Tyler stared at him. “What? You think you had some ability to talk him down from a ledge when others couldn’t? He listened to you because you are his son. I’m not.”

  Tyler could see he was trying to process it. Hell, he’d spent the last three weeks trying to come to terms with it only to have his mind blown again by Allie. Corey blew out his cheeks and exhaled hard. “What a shit storm. Look, just grab what we have here. I have a few more of these to dig out and then we need to head to Evergreen.”

  Tyler frowned. “Why?”

  “I just told you. We can’t trust those in town. But there are some I trust.”

  Tyler nodded as Corey went a few feet away and began digging again. He gathered up the contents and looked over at Corey. “We can trust Nate and Erika. We’ll swing by and pick them up.”

  “That’s gonna be a little difficult.” Corey stopped digging. “Erika is in the hospital.”

  “What?”

  “In a coma.”

  His jaw went slack.

  “Nate is with her. She’s stable but…” he trailed off for a second. “She’s suffering from some kind of head trauma.” Tyler nodded slowly as Corey continued digging. A wave of guilt washed over him. A sense of responsibility. They were his friends, his guests. He’d just taken off without telling them where he was going. Tyler carried the can over to the truck and loaded it into the back. Once Corey had unearthed three more containers they headed for Evergreen.

  The journey south would usually take around thirty minutes if they’d gone direct but as Corey had pissed off the police department by taking one of the only operational vehicles and was adamant about avoiding roadblocks, they had to add an extra twenty minutes onto that by going through Halfmoon, and past Glacier Park International Airport.

  Evergreen was a small community of almost eight thousand located in Flathead County just northeast of Kalispell. Tyler hadn’t spent any time there but had passed through multiple times. Most locals stayed in their own towns and occasionally ventured into larger cities like Kalispell to shop. Policed by the Flathead County Sheriff’s Department they didn’t expect to encounter too much trouble in Evergreen as they had their hands full in Kalispell, but to be on the safe side, Corey wanted to temporarily ditch the truck in the woods a couple of miles outside of town and hike in to be on the safe side.

  “Remind me again why we’re going here?”

  “To meet an old Marine buddy of mine.”

  “Okay,” Tyler said casting a sideways glance at Allie who also looked perplexed. Corey had said very little about what he had in mind.

  “Look, Corey, I’m all for catching up with friends and shooting the breeze but shouldn’t we be gathering together a group?”

  “We are,” he said looking at him for a second before gunning the engine.

  The truck roared as they sped down Highway 2. Once they made it to Rose Crossing, Corey veered left and went on for another fifty yards before pulling into a heavily wooded area. He drove that truck as deep as he could inside, and then killed the engine. Once out they covered the top, back and sides with branches and brush and then stepped back and made sure it wasn’t visible from any angle. “That should do the trick,” Corey said.

  “I don’t feel good about leaving it here and especially not with that cache in the back,” Tyler responded.

  “Did you see anyone on the road?”

  “No but…”

  “It’s fine,” Corey said slapping him on the shoulder as they walked back out to the main road and trudged on south. “Besides, there are countless abandoned vehicles.” All the while Tyler couldn’t help but wonder if the whole trip was a complete waste of time. He’d wanted to bring it up earlier but Corey seemed convinced.

  “What if he isn’t there?”

  “He will be.”

  “Does this friend of yours have a name?” Tyler asked.

  Corey looked at him as he adjusted the c
arbine slung over his shoulder. “Do you believe Andy?”

  Tyler frowned. His question caught him off guard. “Okay. What are we talking about? How did we go from your friend to him?”

  “Forget my friend. This is bigger.”

  He could see it was bothering Corey. Who wouldn’t be pissed to find out that they’d been lied to? It wasn’t just Tyler, it was his brother.

  Tyler scratched the back of his head and looked on up the road. Either side of them was a flat landscape of farms. They walked past a company that had at one time sold modular homes. The ones they had on display had been broken into, windows smashed and one even had siding ripped off it. Nothing was off limits now.

  “Yes. I believe both of them. They told me they didn’t say anything because of mother,” Tyler replied.

  Corey shook his head as they ambled along the edge of the dusty road. Allie listened in but kept her mouth closed.

  “Are you saying you didn’t know about this?”

  His eyes widened and he shot Tyler a look of surprise. “Of course not. Don’t you think I would have had something to say about it?”

  “I figured you didn’t but he gave me the impression that you might have known.”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  The last stretch of the way was spent in silence.

  It took around twenty minutes to breach the town limits. Instead of heading straight down the main street they veered off to the right and walked down a line of railway tracks and then crossed over to Shadow Lane. “By the way. You two hang back. No matter what he does, I don’t want you stepping in, you understand?”

  Tyler frowned but gave a nod.

  “He can be a little high strung, and we haven’t exactly seen eye to eye for some time.”

  “I thought you said he was your buddy.”

  “He was. Emphasis on was.”

  Tyler threw a hand up. “Oh, great.”

  Once they reached a wide gravel driveway that led up to a one-story clapboard home with a blue truck outside, Corey told them to wait by the entrance. “Again, don’t do anything. I don’t want to have to pull a bullet out of you.”