Minus America (Book 3): Rebel Cause

by Isherwood, E. E.

  “If we can delay them getting down here, we’ll have a better chance of finding a car and getting the hell out of Minneapolis. I’m shutting off what I can, but yes, we’re leaving immediately.”

  “Just shut it all off?” she asked, looking at a nearby computer.

  Uncle Ted nodded seriously. “Yes. Everyone can hit power buttons. Do whatever you can for the next sixty seconds, then we haul ass for safety.”

  At the appointed moment, they all converged on the exit door. Her uncle seemed satisfied at what they’d done, but not all the way. “I can’t shut off the lights on the third landing strip. It’s either controlled from a second tower or is on a different generator.”

  Emily smiled. “You did good. It’s almost black out there.” The city of Minneapolis was mostly dark, except for five or six fires burning in the night. The power feeding into the city must have failed over the past couple of days.

  “Okay, go!” he insisted.

  Kyla followed Meechum down the stairs. No matter how much she tried, Kyla wasn’t able to get the jump on the Marine, so she had to trail behind rather than lead.

  They ran through the empty terminal, which was now almost completely dark, save for a few emergency lights. Even with that bit of illumination, she stepped on clothes left by fallen people—an act which gave her goosebumps no matter how many times it happened.

  “Can we set up a decoy? Make them think we’re holed up in a room or a cafe?” Meechum spoke in a low voice as they passed more gates.

  Uncle Ted cursed at himself. “I should have left the plane running. It might have bought us some time. As it is, I think our only chance is to run where they least expect. We have to get a car and get out of here before they arrive in force.”

  “How long do we have?” Emily asked.

  “If those jets come directly to this city, they were about thirty minutes out when we were up top. Now we’re talking about twenty minutes, tops. The chase plane who followed us is a lot closer. They could land at any time.”

  She looked outside, hoping not to see a plane landing in the darkness.

  They all had weapons, so she wasn’t as scared as she might have been otherwise. Almost getting her head shot off in Central Park had given her respect for what it meant to get into a gunfight, and she wanted to avoid it if at all possible, but she would fight hard to defend Uncle Ted, and Emily, if she had to. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind Meechum would do the same. The sense of camaraderie helped a lot.

  Uncle Ted took them through a door that once had a jetway attached to it. Instead of the long walkway, there was a short flight of stairs. “We’re going that way.” He pointed to the end of the taxiway, which was a wall of blackness, even compared to the rest of the darkened city. “I think it’s a river.”

  They ran alongside the terminal, dodging parked planes, luggage bins, and maintenance vehicles. As they neared the end of the building, she wondered if they were missing the obvious. The little flat-topped vehicles were a lot like the ones she’d seen inside the aircraft carrier. When she passed close to one, she halted.

  “Hey, Uncle Ted, why don’t we take one of these?”

  The rest of them stopped, and the clopping of feet stopped, too. That made it easier for her to hear the approach of a jet.

  Minneapolis, MN

  “How much fuel does this thing have?” Kyla asked from her spot on the back of the airport dolly tug.

  Ted knew it didn’t have fuel; it had a battery. “We’ve got a good charge.” The low-profile design allowed for two people to sit in the front, and the other two could spread out in the small cargo bay. It had no roof, and only sat about three feet off the ground, allowing it to go under the wings of aircraft. It wasn’t made for long trips. “I have no idea how far that will get us.”

  The first plane landed while they rode into the woods beyond the landing strip. They got lucky, however, when it came down on the lone runway with power. It was on the far side of the terminal, relative to their escape route. By the time they’d cut through a short stretch of woods and sped onto an urban bike path, they were beyond sight of anyone at the airport.

  “This thing runs on electric,” he said over his shoulder. “I hope the battery charger was on until the last second.” It almost certainly wouldn’t have been one of the things on the generators. “Or that the kid driving it thought enough to put it on the charger at all, right, Kyla?”

  He beamed a smile back to her; the moon provided enough light to see her teeth. Her mother had told plenty of stories about Kyla’s teen antics with electronics. Keeping her off the tech was a constant battle his sister hated to fight, but one he often told her was important. However, no matter how much he bolstered her, she couldn’t teach Kyla the importance of keeping things charged all the time. Was she still like that?

  “You and Mom talked too much,” she deadpanned, before falling silent.

  He thought she’d taken it the wrong way; he only wanted to kid around with her to keep everyone from thinking of how they were riding a piece of airport equipment down the middle of an urban bikeway in downtown Minneapolis. A few seconds later, and right before he was going to apologize, she added. “And she only told you the bad stuff about me, I’m sure.” Her light laughter unloaded the ton of bricks weighing down his chest.

  “My sister told me a lot of things—you know how much she loved to talk—but she never had anything bad to say about you, Kyla. In fact, she could never believe her luck at how well you turned out, considering she was by herself.” He didn’t dare open the can of worms about her father. It was bad enough her mom was gone.

  “Thanks, Unk,” she replied.

  They rode the bike path in darkness for another hour. It remained paved and sufficiently wide for the small four-wheeled tow truck, but it couldn’t do much more than ten or fifteen miles an hour. When the path went below a bridge, he knew it was time to switch modes of transportation. He ran the cart under cover but didn’t drive out the other side. “We have to leave this here. If they somehow figure out we took this, they’ll have to find it on foot. The bridge will block them from above.”

  “Smart,” Meechum replied.

  Emily hopped out and came around to him before he could get out. “Will you let me drive next? You haven’t had a break…since last night.”

  “Neither have you,” he said defensively.

  She put her hands on her hips in a pose that all women seemed to know. “Are you going to let me or not? I could order you, you know?” Her smile was so big, he saw it despite being inside the dark tunnel.

  Ted sighed. “You love playing the presidential card, don’t you?”

  “Hey, if I can’t rule over you, what good is it to be in charge?”

  Outside, the distinct whine of jets echoed in the night.

  “Sure. You can drive. As long as we get the hell out of this city.”

  Folsom, CA

  After Dwight and his partners burned several blocks of Main Street, a woman on a little scooter came through while blowing a whistle. When she had their attention, she pulled out a small bullhorn, allowing her to be heard over the roar of surrounding fires.

  “Your presence is required at the next rally point. Your fire team leaders know the coordinates. Please leave this area immediately.”

  The other burners secured their flamethrower equipment to their bikes, as did he, but the second he had it on tight enough, he started his bike and sped away from the raging fires. However, he had no intention of going far; what he needed was only two blocks over. Poppy had been looking all over town for him, and she led the way.

  “You were wrong, Poppy. The store was an extra block over.” He didn’t hold it against the little bird. She’d gotten him close.

  Poppy yelled back at him, but he didn’t think her bad language required a reply. He’d done his mission for Bernard and his people. Now it was his time. The liquor store was unlocked, as was everything else, which made it easy to get inside and go right for his favorit
e aisle—the biggest bottles with the highest alcohol content.

  He picked up a plastic gallon-sized bottle of Tequila, ripped off the paper around the cap, then tried to unscrew it. His hands were trembling as if California was having an 8.0 earthquake, so it became impossible.

  “Stop it!” he ordered his hand.

  Poppy laughed. She sat on the checkout counter, perhaps wanting to see if he’d leave some money in exchange for taking the bottle.

  “Shut up, bird. I know what I’m doing.” He threw the bottle on the floor in frustration. It bounced with a sickening sloshing sound, but it didn’t pop open as he’d hoped. While it spun around on the floor, he held up both of his hands, palms up, and couldn’t believe how much he was shaking.

  “This isn’t me,” he complained. “I just want a bottle and a warm place to sleep.”

  Bernard and the others were out there, probably looking for him. A remote section of his brain registered that as dangerous, but he’d been without his fix for over twenty-four hours. His body no longer cared about danger or rules. It simply knew what would happen if he didn’t have his drink.

  He went down the aisle until he found a glass bottle. It was a 750-milliliter of gin. It didn’t matter to him what was inside, he’d have drunk cough syrup if it was all he could get. He took the bottle to the front of the store and smashed the neck on the checkout register.

  “Open up!” he demanded.

  His first strike didn’t break it, so he had to do a second one. When the bottle cracked open, it sent gin spraying all over the register and counter.

  Poppy complained as usual, but he wasn’t listening to her.

  He lifted the broken bottle to his lips but happened to look at the front door. Bernard had found him and stood there quietly observing his breakdown. Poppy spoke again, and that time, he listened.

  “I see him now,” Dwight replied to her. Somewhere in his subconscious, he remembered he could get into trouble for being inside a liquor store. The words wanted to come bubbling out of his fuel-starved brain, but it remained mired deep inside. If there was a price to be paid, he was willing to pony up, as long as he could taste alcohol one more time.

  He lifted it close to his lips but hesitated. Bernard still hadn’t moved. It was unnatural.

  He slammed the bottle on the counter, nearly breaking down into tears. “I know what you’re going to say, but I don’t care. I didn’t come here to burn things, man. I don’t think I can do it again.”

  Bernard stepped closer. “It’s your call what you want to do. I can’t babysit you around the clock, and there’s a whole country of liquor stores ripe for the picking. However, you might want to hold off until you see the big event. Once you know what our true goal is, and how fast we can achieve it, you might think twice about going back to your old habits.”

  “Something big is happening?” he asked.

  The other man nodded.

  Poppy flew to the back of the store, but she whispered in his ear as she went by. She asked if he would at least let her out the door before he killed himself. Her blunt assessment of his actions made him reconsider, or at least delay.

  “All right, for her sake, I’ll check out your big surprise.”

  Bernard tilted his head like he’d heard him wrong, but then relaxed and waved him out. Dwight set down the bottle of gin, opened the door for Poppy, then walked out to his bike. He rolled it into the middle of the street, intending to hop on and follow Bernard, but the other man stayed back. In one smooth motion, Bernard kicked on his flame thrower, shot a stream of gas into the liquor store, and lit it up.

  The resulting explosion knocked him backward off his bike. It hurt nothing but his pride, but the jarring hit knocked some sense into his crippled brain.

  Bernard and his people played for keeps.

  CHAPTER 19

  Minot, ND

  Ted woke up in the front seat of a strange car. The world outside was flat for as far as he could see, and the starry sky met the line of the horizon wherever he looked. The driver had the car at a high rate of speed, but the headlights weren’t on, adding a strange element of danger to his spot in the front seat. For a moment, he had no idea where he was or who he was with. He’d been having a weird dream he was traveling with the President of the United States, a female Marine, and, strangest of all, his niece. None of which could be true.

  “Hey, sleepyhead,” a woman cooed softly. It sounded like Nancy, but he’d had a dream he was divorced from her.

  What?

  He sat up in the seat, sure his eyes weren’t working right. He focused on the road, which was whipping by in the night with barely more than the parking lights of the car he was in. And it was the president. Emily was behind the wheel. Ted looked into the back seat. As expected, Kyla and a Marine woman were back there, each asleep on their side.

  He whispered, “I’m awake.”

  She kept her eyes forward, which seemed to be a necessity. As they sped along, she shifted lanes, and he saw a dark shape as they passed it on the interstate. As the world settled back to reality, he figured out what she was doing. “Keeping our profile down by not using the headlights, huh?”

  Emily glanced over for a second. “We’re lucky the moon was almost full. We’re also lucky there aren’t many vehicles on the highway in the middle of North Dakota. I’ve been able to make good time.”

  “How long?”

  “Seven hours,” she replied. “Including one fuel stop.”

  That surprised him, and he couldn’t hide his expression from her.

  “Yep, you were so tired, you didn’t wake up when I went into the hardware store, got a siphon, and took gas from a second car there in the parking lot. I’d planned to use another car, but you all were zonked, so I tried not to wake you.”

  He was happy to be at the target city, no matter how they got there.

  “Were we followed?” he asked. When they abandoned the airport tug, he’d been on the alert for aerial reconnaissance aircraft, certain they’d track them down and take them out with missiles, guns, or the thing that zapped everyone else, but none of it came to be. They found the fuel-efficient sedan and had apparently avoided detection all night, given they were still alive.

  “I haven’t heard a thing, and the sky has been quiet. If anything was up there, we’d see it. The skies are so clear up here. It’s easy to forget how beautiful it is out in the country when you spend so much time in Washington, D.C.”

  He figured she was talking about herself.

  “Where are we?” he said, getting back into the proper mindset of the mission.

  “The signs took us through the town of Minot. It was completely dark, like power was gone. However, you can see the lights up that way.” She pointed out the windshield. “The signs for Minot Air Force Base have been coming hot and heavy the last few miles. We’re almost there.”

  The base glowed like a circus tent, lit up to draw patrons from miles around. However, now that he was awake and aware, he had Emily exit at a cross-street and pull to the side of the road without using her brakes. “Let it roll to a stop, then jam on the emergency brake.”

  He half-turned to the back. “Hey, Kyla. Wake up. Lance Corporal Meechum, wake up.”

  The Marine woke up with her pistol already in her hand, though it wasn’t pointed at anything. He held up his hands anyway and tried to be friendly. “Don’t shoot.”

  “Are we there yet?” Kyla mumbled. A second later, she glanced over at Meechum and her gun. “Wait. Where are we?”

  The Marine stowed the weapon in her holster, then sat up straight, yawning. Kyla gave him a bleary-eyed thumbs-up sign as Emily stopped the vehicle.

  “All right, guys, we’re going to leave the car here, but remember where it is for when we come back. I think we’re far enough away not to be noticed, even when the sun comes up. The airport has to be at least two miles away.” There wasn’t a hill in sight, but Emily found a fallow field with some high grass that shielded them from being spott
ed.

  They all carried their weapons as they walked through the high grass toward the airport. The runway was closest to them, while the rest of the buildings on the base were behind it. If they’d come in from the north, it would have been a lot harder to see what they were dealing with. As it was, he had the perfect angle to see the planes on the three-mile-long runway.

  Ted was proud they’d made it to the air base, but it was out of his knowledge as to where to go from there. “Well, we made it, Marine. What do we do next?”

  Everyone looked to Meechum.

  East St. Louis, IL

  Tabby and the two teens ran to the roof’s exit door with plenty of time to spare before the airborne drone arrived. However, after making sure Audrey and Peter went through and headed down the stairs, she turned to see Deogee and Biscuit running in circles all over the rooftop.

  “Come!” she cried out.

  Deogee seemed anxious to go to her, but the other dog wasn’t cooperating. She knew the puppy crazies when she saw it. Biscuit had been spun up by all the running, and she thought it was a game. Instead of going into the dark staircase, the dog instead chose to stay on the roof where it was lit by the fires across the river.

  The whirring sound of the drone came from somewhere nearby, probably close to the door and top of the staircase. She didn’t think it was safe to go out and try to chase the dogs, but she wanted to take another shot at calling them over.

  “Deogee, come!” she hissed, afraid being too loud was going to give them all away.

  That time, the wolf almost made it to the door, but Deogee looked back at the black dog, still running in circles. Biscuit wasn’t going to come over without someone grabbing her collar and dragging, and the wolf wouldn’t leave her.

  Tabby decided to let the dogs stay on the roof. If the drones found it odd, then so be it. Her primary concern had to be for the kids. She left the door open for the pups but chased after Audrey and Peter. They were somewhere down in the darkness of the old warehouse.