The Peacekeepers. Books 1 - 3.

by Ricky Sides

  Kevin recited five different locations throughout the city that he used to leave messages for Reggie. When he’d finished detailing this list, Pete turned to his guards and said, “Secure this chamber. No one leaves, and no one enters for the next few minutes.”

  Ten women split into two groups with half going to each tunnel that led to the central chamber. Once there, they drew their pistols and chambered a round. They made certain that their safeties were off and signaled when they were ready.

  Pete smiled at Kevin. He knew that his next question would cause a commotion in the chamber. “Who is your accomplice? I know that there are two of Reggie’s agents in the group. Name the other agent.”

  Kevin looked defiantly at Pete then, as if he had finally achieved a victory over him. He said, “I’ll tell you, but it won’t do you any good. James left days ago and hasn’t returned. He’s either dead, or with Reggie now.”

  “James who?” Pete demanded.

  “James Watkins,” Kevin replied.

  “Was he the one who tried to shoot me in the back, or was that your handiwork?” This question caused an audible gasp to run through the chamber.

  Kevin laughed and then said, “You sure looked funny, rolling around in that tunnel.” Frowning he added, “If I hadn’t missed you that day, I wouldn’t be standing before you now.”

  Pete surveyed the prisoner. He stepped up face to face with the man and said, “You were arranging things so that Reggie and other Marauders would hit us as we tried to leave the shelter. What did you think would happen to the children when Reggie and his group ambushed us?”

  Kevin stared defiantly into Pete’s eyes and said, “The same thing that happened to Sergeant Jackson’s kid. As a reward for betraying the group I would personally get three of my own choice and I got first picks.” He laughed then, as outraged shouting erupted all over the chamber. The sounds of his sick laughter echoed in the chamber. “That would have been quite a party!” he said.

  Pete quickly stepped behind Kevin. He pulled his pistol and shot the man in the back of the head. Kevin never knew what hit him. He was dead before his body fell over.

  Pete turned to face his people. He said, “I promised him an easy death if he cooperated. He did so I kept my word.” He turned and walked out of the chamber, accompanied by several guards who were not yet convinced that all of the traitors had been ferreted out.

  Bill stepped forward and pointed to four men. “Take the traitor and bury him somewhere in the shelter.”

  One of the men assigned to the burial detail was responsible for the sewage system. He told the other men in the detail what he had in mind and minutes later, the job was finished. They reported back to the assembly hall and Bill asked how they’d buried the man so fast. The young private stepped forward and said, “Sir, we buried him in the sewage dump!”

  Bill smiled and said, “A fitting end for a traitor who thought he could prey on our children.”

  There were many murmurs of agreement with that sentiment.

  Chapter 38

  Jim used the two weeks that Lacey had asked for to stockpile gasoline and diesel fuel. He drove his truck to Athens and dropped the trailer at his secluded retreat where it should be relatively safe. On his way out of Athens, he stopped at his old house and visited the former trucker. He asked if his brother or Pete had been there, but the man assured him that neither had come by asking about him. He spent a few hours with the trucker talking about the many things he’d seen and explaining the armor plating he’d felt the need to add to the truck. The trucker was sad to see the lines of the beautiful Peterbuilt had been ruined by the addition of the armor, but he recognized the need for such custom work. He especially understood when he heard about the encounter in Meridian. Before Jim left the trucker, he asked him to tell his brother or Pete that he would be in and out of town for two weeks and could be found at his other place. When the trucker asked what that meant, Jim had smiled and said, “They’ll know.”

  While he was in town, he discovered that many things had happened in his absence. The police force had disbanded as, one by one; the officers had to seek other means to provide a livelihood. Even if the pay had remained in place, money no longer had its pre-disaster relevance. Everything was done by the barter system now. The city population seemed to have decreased, and there was much less traffic on the streets.

  Jim bobtailed the Peterbuilt out of town and went in search of tankers. He managed to find one late in the day in the state of Tennessee. He hooked his rig to it and spent several days filling it up at abandoned service stations. Once the tanker was full, he drove back to Alabama under the cover of darkness and dropped the tanker at his retreat.

  He wanted to stay busy. When he just sat around, he missed Lacey and Evan so much that it made him miserable. Therefore, he headed out again in search of a tanker. It took two days to locate one. When he was examining the tanker, he smiled at his good fortune. The tanker was already full of gasoline. He carried his lucky find back to his retreat and stayed the night inside his shelter.

  The next morning he left in search of more tankers. This time he headed west. He found two tankers loaded with diesel fuel and one loaded with gasoline. By the time he got these three tankers parked at his retreat, which was rapidly becoming a fuel dump, it was time to give thought to going back for Lacey and Evan.

  Before he left town, Jim went in search of the Parkers. When he arrived at their house, he learned from a neighbor that they had left several weeks before. They had gone in search of some relatives out of state.

  Jim had felt saddened by this. He hoped they found what they were looking for, but was afraid they would only find death.

  He left their old residence and headed out for Aliceville. Jim knew he would probably be a day early, but he was tired of waiting to see Lacey and Evan. He desperately wanted to be with them. He was bobtailing again. He wanted to get an empty trailer to transport their belongings to Athens. He had also loaded the stores of food and other supplies.

  ***

  Lacey and Evan got up early the day before Jim was due to return. They spent the day packing the things they would be taking with them when they left with Jim. Late that afternoon Lacey found Evan in his room. He was looking at several photographs of his father. Some of the photographs were of Evan and his father. Evan was crying when she walked into his room. She walked over, sat beside him on his bed, and held the boy as he cried.

  “Evan, I know you miss your father. I miss him too. He was such a good man and he loved us both very much.”

  “I was just thinking about all of the things we used to do together.” The boy wrapped his arms around his mother’s neck and she could feel his tears on her cheek. Soon she too was crying, as memories of her husband came flooding in.

  Evan pulled back from his mother and said, “I didn’t mean to make you cry. I’m sorry, Mom.”

  Lacey hugged her son and responded, “You’re such a good boy. You didn’t make me cry. I was remembering your father too.”

  “You were? Do you remember the time that Dad and I went fishing?”

  “I sure do, Son. You guys brought back a lot of fish,” she replied and smiled at that memory.

  Evan’s face took on a serious expression and he said, “We didn’t really catch all those fish. A man in a boat gave them to us.”

  “I know. Your father told me that night.” She looked at her son with love radiating from her eyes and asked, “Evan, are you sure you want us to go with Jim? I know you like him, but if you don’t want to go with him, you need to tell me now.”

  Evan sadly stacked the pictures on the bed and turned back to face his mother. A single tear rolled down his left cheek as he said, “I want us to go with Jim. I like him a lot and I know you like him.” Turning to the pictures once more he stared at the top picture of his dad standing in the yard with a very young Evan perched on his shoulders. His father was holding his hands to ensure that he didn’t fall. Evan said, “I like it when we talk
about Dad and the things we used to do together. I’ll miss that when we go with Jim.”

  Lacey hugged her son again and struggled to control her emotions as she sought to formulate a response to her son’s misgivings. She felt her son patting her on the back and he said, “Mom, its okay. I’ll get used to not being able to talk about Dad when we go with Jim.”

  “Oh, Evan, whatever gave you the idea that you wouldn’t be able to talk about your father when we go with Jim?”

  “Last year, my friend Lucy’s mom married a man. She told Lucy not to be talking about her father anymore so I thought that it would be the same for us.”

  “No, darling. It will never be that way with us. Jim’s not that kind of man. If he were that sort of man, I’d never consider going with him. In fact, I suggest that you speak to Jim about your father sometime. I think you’ll find that he is interested in most of the things you consider important.”

  A growing excitement seemed to radiate from Evan then as he said, “You mean I can hang the pictures of Dad in my room? We can still talk about him?!”

  “Oh yes, Evan,” said Lacey with tear dimmed eyes. Anytime you want to, or need to, son. And do think about talking to Jim about it too. I think you’ll find him very understanding.”

  “Good!” Evan said. “Jim’s coming tomorrow right?”

  Lacey said, “He’s supposed to, but he could be delayed. You know how bad the roads are these days.”

  “Good. I can’t wait to see him again.”

  “Neither can I,” replied Lacey with a wistful smile.

  They spent the remainder of the daylight hours getting ready for the move. They took down the family photographs and packed them carefully along with all of the photo albums. They packed all of their clothes. Evan’s VCR and tape collection was prepared for loading, as was his comic book collection. They laughed and joked as they carried most of these things down and stacked them in the living room in order to facilitate the move. Lacey was taking her best kitchenware too.

  They both seemed happier when they stayed busy for in fact, they both missed Jim terribly and just sitting around made the time seem to drag by. Nevertheless, Lacey was glad she’d asked for two weeks. It had taken most of that time for Evan’s misunderstanding of the way things would be to manifest itself so that she could resolve it in her son’s mind.

  ***

  Evan and Lacey had just sat down to eat their evening meal when someone tried to open their kitchen door, but since it was locked, the intruder was unable to open it. The handle shook violently and someone kicked the door hard.

  Lacey jumped up and went to the kitchen counter where she had left her pistol while she was cooking. Leaning down she whispered in Evan’s ear, “Stay behind me. If I turn to run, you do the same. Do you understand me?”

  Fear was etched sharply in the young boy’s face, but he nodded his head and said, “Yes, Mama.”

  Lacey backed away from the door and aimed the nine-millimeter pistol at it. She remembered Jim’s instructions about what to do in this precise scenario, so she waited for the door to shake again. When it did, she fired three rounds at chest level, grouping the shots about six inches apart in a horizontal line to maximize the odds of hitting the intruder.

  Slowly Lacey moved toward the door. She needed to find out whether or not she had killed the intruder. As she went toward the door, she held her pistol out in front of her. She was ready to fire again, if the intruder kicked in the door as she approached.

  She had covered half the length of the room when suddenly the window over the kitchen sink crashed inward. Lacey spun toward the window bringing her pistol into her line of sight as she did do. She saw a man with a baseball bat standing just outside the shattered window. She fired three more rounds in rapid succession as the man dropped from view. She didn’t know if she had hit him or not, but she suspected that she had missed him.

  Lacey was frightened. Now her attention was torn between the door and the window. She slowly backed up toward the door that led to the living room.

  Behind his mother, Evan did as she had instructed him and stayed right behind her. Every nerve in the boy’s body was screaming for him to run and hide, but to his credit, he stayed with his mother.

  As Lacey backed toward the doorway to the living room, she fanned the pistol back and forth between the window and the door. “Oh Jim,” she thought. “I need you.”

  At that moment, Lacey had a frightening thought. “What if the intruder was trying to enter the house through the front door now?” Turning to her son she said, “Evan, turn around and look into the living room. Tell me if you see anyone trying to break in.”

  Evan turned around and stared fearfully into the living room. He saw the shadowy outline of a man walk past one of the front windows and step onto the porch. He said, “Mom!” and pointed to the door.

  Lacey spun around and saw that her son was pointing at the door. She aimed her pistol at the door and waited for the intruder to attempt to break it down, just as Jim had taught her. This would maximize the possibility of hitting the intruder, because for an intruder to break open the door he would have to be directly behind it.

  Through the small window in the upper half of the front door, Lacey saw the shadowy form of a man. Her finger slowly tightened on the trigger. She held the tension right at the breaking point. Jim had taught her that this was the most accurate way to fire a pistol. She now had the man’s head firmly targeted, and she knew from practice that it would only take a couple of ounces of pressure to discharge her weapon. At that moment, Lacey was sure that the intruder was about to come crashing through the front door.

  She held her breath as she saw the man’s hand raise toward the window. “This is it,” she thought. When she had fired the weapon the first two times, it had been different. She had been reacting to the intruder without forethought, and her training had taken over without conscious thought on her part. This time she could see him begin the attack on the door and anticipate that attack. Her finger tightened imperceptibly on the trigger. Time seemed to slow down for her. As she saw the shadow of the man’s hand draw back to land a blow on the door, she heard her son catch his breath. Fear, the likes of which she had never known, threatened to paralyze her body.

  The man’s hand descended and he gently knocked on the door. Lacey had set her nerves to pull the trigger when the man struck the door. When he knocked on it, she almost fired anyway. For the first time doubt entered her mind. ”What if this is just a neighbor?” she asked herself.

  “Who is it?” she asked in a shaky voice. Shaking her head in frustration, she realized that whoever was at the door couldn’t possibly have heard her. She had barely heard her own voice. She asked, “Who is it?” and this time she had spoken in a loud and clear voice.

  “Lacey. It’s me Jim.”

  Lacey ran to the door and flung it open. She threw herself into Jim’s arms and said, “Jim, help us please!”

  Seeing the pistol in her hand, Jim gently pushed her away from him, and asked, “What happened?”

  Lacey and Evan quickly told Jim about someone trying to break into the house. As soon as they got to the part about the kitchen door, he drew his own pistol and headed for the kitchen. Seeing no one there, he returned to the living room and said, “You and Evan go into the bathroom. Lock the door, and don’t come out until I come for you. Lacey, if someone tries to get in the bathroom you do the same thing you did to the kitchen door.”

  Nodding her understanding, Lacey flicked the safety on her weapon and ushered her son into the bathroom. Jim waited until he saw the bathroom door close, and then he went out the front door. He made his way around to the back of the house and searched the area. He found blood by the back door. Lacey had indeed hit one of the men. He also found evidence that there had been two men. He saw blood in two spots in the yard as he searched with a small but powerful flashlight, but there was none by the kitchen window. After a careful examination of all of the evidence, he reasoned ou
t what had happened. Two men had tried to break in. Lacey had hit the man at the back door. His partner had tried the window. Her response to both attempts to gain entry had discouraged the two intruders. The man from the attack on the window had escaped injury and stopped to help his wounded partner make their escape.

  Jim returned to the house. From the living room he yelled, “Lacey, it’s all right. You can come out now.”

  Lacey came out of the bathroom and Evan followed immediately. It appeared to Jim that she had calmed down considerably since he had arrived. She hesitantly asked, “Did I kill the man at the back door?”

  Jim stared into her beautiful green eyes as he said, “I can’t be sure. You definitely hit him. There was blood in several spots behind the house. I know you hit him, but there isn’t a body there. It looks to me as if his partner helped him escape.” With a smile and a wink, he said, “I don’t think either of them will want to come around here anymore.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Lacey said in relief.

  “Well after tomorrow it won’t matter will it?” he asked.

  “Why won’t it?” Lacey asked.

  Fear stabbed at Jim’s heart. For a moment, he was afraid that Lacey had decided not to come with him after all. His voice trembled with emotion when he asked, “Aren’t you and Evan coming with me tomorrow?”

  Comprehension dawned on her face then. She leaned against Jim taking his hands in hers and said, “Oh yes, Jim. We are going with you.” She kissed him passionately.

  When they broke their embrace Jim’s eyes took in Lacey and Evan. Smiling in happiness he said, “It’s been a long two weeks. I missed you both so much that I’m afraid I got impatient and came back a day early.” He looked at Evan and asked, “How have you been buddy?”

  Evan smiled and said, “Fine.” Then the boy ran to Jim jumping up at the last second. Jim caught him in midair and hugged him close. Reaching out with a free arm, he snagged Lacey and pulled her into a group hug. To the boy he said, “Hey, I missed you too. I brought you a present.”