Fallen Earth | Book 1 | Remnants

by Morrow, Jason D.

  She didn’t think the prisoners would actually know any more than she would, but it was disconcerting to hear all the same.

  She had caught Alex looking at her several times since he had been brought into the library. The guards had been much more diligent about making sure hostages were where they were supposed to be ever since Gwen had escaped the first time, but when two of the guards engaged in conversation for even a moment, Alex didn’t waste time scooting next to her.

  “Your dad is here,” Alex whispered out the side of his mouth. He looked around him to make sure no one was listening. Finally, he looked at Gwen in the eyes. “Did you hear me?”

  The words sent a flood of emotions through Gwen that made her want to laugh, cry, and scream out in anger all at the same time, but her face remained neutral.

  “I think he’s in the woods,” Alex said. “I don’t know much more than that. The prisoner who was in the knife fight with the other prisoner is helping him.”

  “Are you serious?” She didn’t look at Alex, but she was afraid that her voice carried. When the guards didn’t look at her, she glanced at Alex. “How do you know?”

  “He told me,” Alex said. “I don’t think he was lying.”

  Gwen thought about the moment when the prisoner had handed her one of the pills off the ground. Then she remembered that the looks he had been giving her weren’t angry or menacing like the other prisoners. He had been sincere. Almost caring.

  “He wasn’t lying,” Gwen said, feeling a renewed sense of hope. Questions spilled through her mind—questions she knew Alex wouldn’t have the answer to. Where had her dad been this whole time? What was their plan for saving the town? Did he have backup?

  “I’m sure right now your dad is just trying to figure out a way to help without getting you killed,” Alex said. “You know what Savage wants, right?”

  Gwen nodded. Of course she knew. She was torn about wanting her father to come in and save the day. The moment he showed his face, Savage would have a gun to her head.

  She turned her head to Alex and patted the large hoodie pocket. “I’m ready for whatever happens,” she said.

  Alex looked down at the pocket, then up at Gwen, his eyes wider than before. He looked like he wanted to tell her to be careful or to make sure she would wait until the right moment to use the gun, but he kept his thoughts to himself. Instead, he nodded and took a deep breath.

  Gwen knew exactly when to use the gun. She wasn’t going to give it up only to have it taken from her. She wasn’t going to take down some lackey who would just as soon run from the town than be in a gunfight. No. She would wait until the very last moment when there was truly no other option—when Savage wasn’t expecting it. If she was going to die, she was going to make sure Savage went with her.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  As the McClure family started passing guns around to each other, Leland had a sick feeling in his stomach about what was about to happen. He didn’t like the fact that even Ruthie was given a rifle nearly as big as she was. Leland stood in the corner of their kitchen as Jeff continued to bring guns up from the basement. Leland ignored the fact that almost none of them were registered, and more than half of them illegal. Still, their collection outnumbered Leland’s by a large number.

  In fact, there were so many weapons there was no chance of them carrying all of them, but they wouldn’t have to. Two to three guns per person would be plenty, Leland thought.

  Uncle Frank had been hesitant about allowing the sheriff inside the house to look at their guns. He had said something about it being a trick as an attempt to put them all in jail. But Uncle Frank was quickly dismissed by Grandma.

  Grandma McClure ordered the family around with efficiency and determination. There was something in her that saw the truth in Leland’s eyes. The truth had set her in motion, and she was ready to defend her family. The same wasn’t necessarily true for Alice or Roy, except they weren’t exactly trying to stop the fight. Leland suspected that Alice was in a little bit of shock, hearing about the town and the fact that one of her sons was stuck in the middle of it. Roy watched his other two sons bring guns up from the basement as he bit his lower lip, examining each weapon, determining what would be the best to take into battle.

  “What’s our strategy?” Roy asked.

  “I’m not entirely sure, “Leland said.

  He went through every bit of information he could think of about what he had seen in the town. Of course, he left out the part that the only reason Savage had taken over the town was for revenge. He didn’t think that would sit too well with the family, considering their son was in danger because of it. At the end of the day, a madman had taken over the town, had killed people, and was threatening to kill more. Leland knew it started because he had shot Savage’s daughter, and he regretted that with every bone in his body. No innocent life should have to die at the hands of a law-enforcement officer. But at the same time, he couldn’t blame himself for a large group of prison inmates taking over town and threatening death for all involved.

  He didn’t think it would help the situation any to tell them the gritty details of Savage’s motivations. The truth was, everyone in Hope faced this together, and it was likely they would’ve had to face some prisoners because of the power outage anyway. To this degree? Probably not.

  “With that many prisoners, we should probably try to surround the town as much as we can,“ said Uncle Frank.

  “So, that makes five of us to try and surround the town?“ Leland said, thinking to himself.

  “No,“ Grandma said slowly. “There are eight of us total. It’s not gonna hurt anything for everybody to be involved. Even Ruthie can shoot a rifle from far away. And I’m guessing the enemies are all wearing jumpsuits.”

  “I don’t feel good about you, Alice, and especially Ruthie, going out there to find a bunch of prisoners. It would go against everything I am to allow that.”

  Grandma looked at him with a scowl on her face. “So, you’re sexist. You don’t think a woman can handle a gun? Who do you think taught the whole family to shoot?” Her hands tightened on the rifle, then she pulled out a magazine and checked it for ammunition. Satisfied, she jammed the magazine back into the gun and cocked it so it was ready to fire.

  “Fine, but not Ruthie.” Leland couldn’t even believe he was having this conversation. “What if one of the inmates were to find her after following the sound of a shot?”

  “Then they would die,” Grandma said. She handed the loaded rifle to Ruthie who took the gun from her with confidence. “Ruthie’s one of the best shots among us. Has a sharp eye.”

  Ruthie nodded, then smiled.

  “She’ll stay near me,” Roy said. “If things don’t go right, she will take off for the house like any of the rest of us.” He stared at the sheriff. “I haven’t forgotten that you’re the reason my boy is stuck down there. You arrested him last night for what? Being too loud?”

  “He was throwing bottles at a bank ATM,” Leland said dryly. “He’s lucky I didn’t charge him with something more serious.”

  “Doesn’t seem too lucky to me,” Gregory said from the corner of the room.

  Everyone was silent. Some of them looked down and fiddled with their guns, and a couple of them stared at Leland waiting. They all wanted him to recognize what they were doing for him. They wanted it understood, out loud, that the sheriff needed them—that he was desperate for their help. They wanted to see a break in Leland’s pride even though he didn’t think he had any pride left. He didn’t care about pride. At this moment, he didn’t care about the law. He just wanted to take care of his daughter.

  “I can’t do any of this without you,” he said, looking at all seven of them in the eyes, one-by-one. “Without you, I’m just a man with a few shots in a pistol. Without you, I’m a dead man with a dead daughter. I don’t expect you to help me just for the sake of helping me, but you do have your own family to consider. I’m sorry Bryson is down there. I couldn’t have known
something like this was coming. Not in a million years, you know that. But what I can do is promise you I’m going to do everything I can to make your son safe. To make everyone in that town safe.”

  He looked down at Ruthie.

  “A few things are going to happen down there that we won’t be able to unsee,” Leland continued. Then his eyes traveled to Alice and Roy. “They are the kind of things you see for the rest of your life. That’s why I don’t want her going down there. I know she’s probably as good of a shot as I am, but she is the one that will have to live with the nightmares that will haunt her for years to come. That goes for all of you, really.”

  “I’m not afraid to kill nobody,” Ruthie nearly shouted.

  “I never said you were afraid,” Leland said. “But above anything else, it’s my duty to protect innocence.” He looked at Alice, then Roy. “You lose some of that innocence real quick when you kill someone.”

  The room was quiet again, and eyes flitted from one set to another. Finally, Grandma spoke. “Ruthie, you’re gonna stay back here and protect the house. If anyone in a jumpsuit comes toward it, fire at their chest and make a run for the woods, you hear me?”

  Grandma said the words with a finality even a little girl couldn’t argue with. Ruthie was visibly upset by the order, but she didn’t voice it.

  With a silent agreement, the family and Leland walked out of the house to talk strategy. The McClures each talked of points in the woods surrounding the town that Leland hadn’t considered. It was almost as if Jeff and Gregory had spent a lot of time talking about how they would manage their own takeover of Hope.

  Each spot in the woods held a decent vantage point of the town, most notably Main Street. Since the woods were elevated all around Hope, the woods held the best cover and protection.

  They would be able to snipe anyone in a jumpsuit, but that wasn’t much of a plan. Leland was free in telling them that the group was led by Jim Savage, though he was only a news headline to them. Still, he explained that if they could take him out, the others might not put up as much of a fight. But if he was leading them, they might stick around and follow orders.

  “All of this is well and good,” said Uncle Frank, “but none of this means anything unless we have some sort of a plan. Really, what we need is somebody to draw them out.”

  Uncle Frank was unfortunately right. Leland had thought of this a couple of times on his way to the family’s residence. He had thought of them helping him in this crisis, but they couldn’t very well storm into the town with their guns blazing. They were severely outnumbered, so they had to use the woods as their cover. The problem was, the moment the prisoners started hearing shots fired from the woods, everyone would start taking cover. And then, Savage would use the townsfolk against Leland and his crew. They would be forced to stop firing. Savage would have no problem killing every one of the townsfolk in response to continuous fire.

  “Obviously, I’m the one that’s going to have to do that,” said Leland. “At the end of the day, it’s my job to bring these people to justice, with or without backup.”

  Still, Leland wasn’t sure he could just draw everyone out. For one, he was afraid that the moment he showed his face, Savage would kill his daughter. That wasn’t a risk he was willing to take. At least, it wasn’t a risk he was willing to take with only him and the McClure family. But, it wasn’t just him and the McClure family. He still had Henry in there. Henry was still on Leland’s side, which meant Gwen still had a little added protection. He already knew that Henry had seen his daughter. He had been given the thumbs up, which meant she was there and she was alive. Henry had given Leland his word that he wouldn’t let anything happen to his daughter.

  Leland had a better chance of saving his daughter’s life if he showed his face than if he did nothing. That was the situation he faced now, and there was no turning away from it. Leland was going to walk into that town, do whatever he could to draw out as many prisoners as possible, particularly Savage, and he would die trying to save his daughter’s life.

  The dying part didn’t bother him so much. What bothered him the most was the fact that he had very low odds for success. If he had to guess, he figured that the town was doomed, including him, including his daughter. But odds were just that: odds. The greater the odds are against you, the greater the reward. Leland was never much of a betting man, but if a bet is all you have left, you might as well hope for the best.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Even though Savage had let him go, Henry wasn’t counting his blessings yet. He checked over his shoulder several times as he ran through the woods to make sure no one was following him, until he was pretty sure he was safe. That didn’t mean there weren’t other prisoners in the woods, however. Henry wondered a couple of times whether or not Savage had inmates hidden in the woods waiting for him, ready to shoot him if he accidentally approached.

  Like a deer aware of the hunter but unable to see him, Henry sprinted toward the spot where he had left Leland. He knew the sheriff wasn’t going to be there, but surely he wouldn’t be far off. If he wasn’t where Henry had left him then that probably meant he had gone to find the McClures, but Henry didn’t know where that was, and guessing wasn’t going to help him.

  He finally reached the spot where he had left Leland and sure enough, the sheriff was gone. Henry stopped to catch his breath, looking in every direction, trying to convince himself that no one was hunting him. Perhaps Savage had actually wanted Henry to give Leland the message—Savage was willing to kill Leland in front of his daughter instead of the other way around.

  Henry wasn’t sure the statement was true; he knew it could be just another attempt to draw the sheriff out of the woods. Still, he and Leland were going to have to do something, and staying away from the town only agitated the prisoners more and more.

  The whole takeover had only lasted a few hours so far, but Henry guessed it wouldn’t be long before the prisoners got too restless. If it weren’t for the hostages, or if there were only a few hostages, this might be okay. The prisoners would start fighting among each other and maybe even start killing each other. But with so many hostages, they would probably start taking out their aggression and anger against the citizens of Hope. He feared they would slaughter the whole town because they were antsy.

  As Henry stood in this spot alone, he realized it was the first time since he had escaped the prison last night that he was free to do as he wished. Even after the escape, his freedom had been limited to making sure he wasn’t spotted somewhere either by cops or watchful civilians.

  There were no handcuffs. No one was pressuring him to help or to fight. No one was even looking for him. If this power outage was as big as he thought it was, then law enforcement had a lot bigger issues to deal with than a single fugitive from Lone Oak, especially since there were hundreds of them out now.

  No Leland. No law enforcement. No other prisoners watching him. He looked at the ground and even saw where he had left the hoodie and jeans he had stolen off the gas station attendant. He could grab them and be a free man. Depending on what the world looked like at the moment, that might not mean what it meant even twelve hours ago, but either way, he could walk away from all this and he would more than likely live longer than if he stayed behind to help.

  He didn’t owe Leland his help. In fact, Leland was the reason Henry was here in the first place. If the sheriff hadn’t picked Henry up at Fristo’s he would have already been his way.

  He picked up the hoodie and jeans from the ground and shook off the leaves and dirt. He could be rid of the jumpsuit. He could toss it to the ground and leave behind the man he used to be—leave behind how everyone else saw him. Before the power outage, he would have made the news. People would have been looking everywhere for him. Now, Henry Tash was a nobody. He had the chance for a truly fresh start.

  He began taking off his prison jumpsuit, almost excited by the idea of being rid of this place. Then he stopped.

  No. He couldn’
t do this. He couldn’t abandon Leland to fight off the prisoners alone. Even if he had the McClure family helping him, what good was Henry out there in the world by himself? Sure, he had his brother in Chicago, but was going into a large metropolitan area a better choice at this moment? Would he do any better there?

  He knew that running away was expected of him. He knew Savage didn’t expect him to go looking for Leland. He knew Leland expected Henry was going to run away. He had no ties to this place. He had no loyalties. All he had was his conscience.

  Henry had been in prison for murder, and rightfully so. But that didn’t mean he didn’t care about right from wrong. That didn’t mean he was a sociopath like Jim Savage, who didn’t care about the lives of others, who lived by a moral code that wasn’t the same as everyone else’s. Henry knew he could help, and having come this far, did he really have another choice? Could he really live with himself if he just took off, never to see this place again? He would always wonder what happened in the little town of Hope. He would always wonder if the sheriff was killed or if he succeeded in saving his daughter. Was Henry really willing to let all that fade into mystery?

  No, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself. The sheriff had trusted him. Or at least, the sheriff had forced himself to trust Henry. He had released him of his handcuffs, and he had even given him a gun, all out of desperation to save his daughter.

  Henry knew what it was like to feel desperate. He knew what it was like to fear the loss of a loved one at the hands of someone terrible. And what would leaving do for him anyway? If the world was as bad as he thought it was, then he would need a community to lean on. On the other hand, if the world wasn’t as bad as he thought it was, his status of being a wanted man wouldn’t change. He would be hunted again, and the law would not rest until he was behind bars forever.