by Lowry, C. L.
Wolff took his time advancing toward the male, making sure to scan the area. He had to make sure this was not some sort of ambush. If anyone popped out with any surprises, Wolff was ready to put them down. The small team that joined Wolff also had their guns trained on the mysterious man. This caused a smile to spread across the man’s face. He was happy to receive the warm welcome from The Association.
“Get the fuck out of here,” Wolff barked. He could not believe what he was seeing. Better yet, he could not believe who he was seeing. “Dale?”
“Surprise, motherfucker!”
“What, you rose from the dead, you crazy son of a bitch?”
Wolff let his rifle hang and extended his hand. Both men shook hands and embraced each other.
“They told us you died.”
“Who told you that?”
“Rob and Benny. They said you got attacked by some of those fuckin’ beasts, and you didn’t make it out.”
“Is that right? That’s what they said, huh?”
Wolff scrunched up his face. “What? Is it not true?”
“Well, let’s just say I did die, but now I’m back.”
Wolff looked back to his men. “Do y’all see this? He’s back from the dead. The return of the infamous Dale.”
“The Reaper.”
“What?”
“The Reaper. Dale is dead. This is the return of The Reaper.”
“Interesting. The Reaper. I like it. So, what brings you back, old friend?”
“I need to speak with Micah. I have a proposition for him.”
“Micah isn’t here right now.”
“Where is he?”
“He’s out on a scavenger hunt. He took a bunch of our people with him. If you need something, you can go through me because I’m in charge.”
“You’re in charge? Where’s Adina?”
“She’s inside.”
“So, why are you in charge if she’s in there?”
“It’s a long story. Let’s just say that she isn’t currently fit for her duties.”
“So, where exactly did Micah go?”
“He went on a run really quick.”
“A run? Since when did Micah start going on runs?”
“This one is a very important one, and he doesn’t want to risk any mistakes being made. Somebody attacked Adina and Micah’s out looking for the guy.”
“So why the hell are you here and not out there looking with him?”
“Because he is small minded, and I’m focused on the bigger picture. Micah has gone crazy. He tried taking all of our resources for his lil’ bullshit hunt, but we weren’t doing shit but wasting time. That dude is long gone and for all we know, he’s probably dead. I lit him up when he was trying to get away.”
“I’m actually surprised to hear this,” The Reaper replied as he rubbed his chin. “Micah has always known there was a split in loyalty when it came to The Association. Why in the world would a king ever leave his castle unattended.”
“Because he should have never had the throne. It’s mine now and we’re going to do things a lot different around here. The way Adina always wanted it.”
“Well, if that’s the case, I come bearing a gift.”
“Another gift, besides that burning car you smashed into the front gate?” Both men laughed.
“Yes. Seeing as though you have found yourself with new responsibilities, I am here to provide you with an army.”
“An army?”
“Yes. Hundreds of men and women that are willing and ready to follow orders.”
“Where did you find these people?”
“Below the surface, with the rats. They’ve been down there for a long time, and they are more than deserving of a new home. I want this to be their home but if it’s too much for you to handle, then we’ll find somewhere else to call home.”
“Not at all, friend. Your people are more than welcome to join us. But they are your people, and you should be the one to lead them. I want you to be by my side. Let’s get rid of this stupid hierarchy that this place had before and let’s rule these people together.”
“That sounds like a plan. What about Micah?”
“Well I’m sure the next time I see him, he’ll be trying to kill me for leaving him, so I guess I have to be the one to strike first. When they come back, we’ll take them all out.”
CHAPTER 39
The minivan pulled up to the borderline of The Saviors territory. Armed security slowly approached, identifying the occupants. It had been a few hours since the teens had left for their rescue mission. “Where the hell did y’all go?” a loud, boisterous voice yelled.
Destiny sank into her seat once she heard her father’s voice.
“Uncle P, I can explain everything,” Neil said, hopping out of the minivan.
“There’s nothing to explain. Why was my daughter outside of the camp?”
“We just took a quick ride, Uncle P. It was nothing serious.”
Patrick grabbed Neil, almost lifting him off the ground. “Listen here, boy, my sister has been very lenient with you and let you run free and do whatever you want. But when it comes to my daughter, you better believe that you don’t get to take her anywhere without my permission.”
“Daddy, get off of him!” Destiny yelled. The young teen was scared of facing the consequences of leaving without permission, but she wasn’t going to watch her cousin get in trouble for her decisions. “Daddy, it’s not his fault.”
“Where did you go, Destiny?”
“I was going to take a walk with my new friend, and Neil offered us a ride so we would have protection. He also brought a few of his friends.”
Patrick eyed up the minivan and saw the other three teen boys and snapped. The last thing a father wanted to see was his daughter going missing, and when she came back, it was with a group of boys. “I’m only going to ask you one time: what the hell were y’all doing?”
Neil was scared to answer the question honestly, but he had no other choice. “Uncle P, Destiny’s friends went up to this church off of Rising Sun Avenue to look for some other kids that they thought might be dead. We went up there, and those kids weren’t there, but we were able to snag some food and weapons out of that spot. That’s it. That’s all we did.”
“Food and weapons out of a church?” Patrick asked skeptically.
“Yes, sir. You can take a look in the back of the van. All of the stuff is back there.”
The large man pushed his nephew back on the ground and stomped over to the minivan. The other teens all ran out of the way. They did not want to face the wrath of Destiny’s father. He opened the back and spotted the supplies that his nephew mentioned. He examined the weapons first, impressed with the load that was brought back. Then, he looked through the boxes of Sade’s snacks.
Patrick ripped open a pack of the jerky and wolfed down the dry snack before frowning in disgust. “You could have left this crap back where you found it. It tastes like cardboard.”
The teens all laughed at the comment, including Sade. “It’s vegan. It’s good for you,” she said.
“Well, it tastes bad for me,” he replied. He turned to Destiny, who was trying her best to avoid eye contact with him. “You’re grounded, young lady!” he yelled. “Now, come on. Let’s go. You, too, Neil.”
Destiny marched away with her father. Other members of the camp had gathered around to see the parenting show. It was all smiles and smirks in the audience.
“How do you get grounded during an apocalypse?” Terrence joked.
The other teens laughed.
“Is he always like that with her?” Levi asked.
“Yup. Mr. P does not play about his daughter. Destiny is usually up in her room when the rest of us hang out. He has her paranoid. He also has Ms. Latoya check on Destiny constantly to make sure that she’s following his rules.”
“That’s insane. I feel sorry for her,” Sade added.
“Well, that’s enough of this spectacle. Where do you
want us to take this stuff?” Jameel asked.
“Am I allowed to take it to my room?”
“Not really,” Levi said. Fill your bag up to the max, and I’ll put the rest up in the inventory room.” Sade cocked her back, trying to process what Levi had just suggested. “Come on, Sade. You can’t just hoard things in this place. We have to share with everybody the same way they share with us. Nobody is going to touch this nasty stuff anyway. You’re probably the last vegan on earth.”
“Whatever. I don’t know how much longer you meat-eaters think you’re going to last in this world. You better start eating those creatures,” she said while chuckling. “I’m sure mutated meat tastes like chicken.”
Sade began stuffing her backpack with snacks. Levi reached into the back of the minivan and grabbed two pistols, tucking one into Sade’s bag. “Keep this with you at all times,” he whispered. She nodded in agreement. The other one, he placed in his bag. Levi figured it was time to upgrade from the bat. Although he never fired a gun before, he realized that he would not get far with just his bat.
The Saviors camp was very structured. Maverick only wanted certain people carrying weapons. Everyone could not be trusted. Although no one had betrayed the group in a formal sense, Dalton was not the only person to have their own personal opinion about how the group should be running and what they should be doing. Some people were welcomed back with open arms after leaving, but there were others who never made it back at all. Levi was taking a risk by arming himself, but that was a risk that he was willing to take.
The teens drove the minivan over to one of the inventory rooms and began unloading. Sade stepped into the room, amazed by the products that were on the shelves. “You mean to tell me they got all this food stocked in here, and that lady only gave me crackers and ketchup?”
“We have to eat in portions. That’s the only way we can guarantee that the food will last,” Terrence said. “Maverick said if everyone just ate what they want, we’ll be out of food in a matter of months.”
“Who is Maverick?”
“He is one of the leaders of this place. I think he used to be a cop or something like that. It’s a few dudes at the top, and they make all the rules. Maverick is just the one that puts everything together.”
Sade was impressed. She was starting to see what Levi saw. It was so much different than the life they lived in the church. Going back to the church gave her closure, but the disappearance of Jayven and Cameron still needed to be solved. She still wanted to find her friends, but she just did not know where to look.
“Why do you look like you’re up to something?” Levi asked.
“We need to go back.”
“Go back where? The church? We just searched that entire building, Sade. There was no sign of them in there.”
“So, where could they be? They have to be in one of those buildings. You know they wouldn’t have gone far. I’m sure if we keep looking, we’ll fi—”
“We did look!” he barked. “And we found nothing. I’m sure if we go back there and look some more, we still won’t find anything.”
“So, you just want to give up?”
“No. I’m not giving up.”
“Let me ask you a question. Did you even try to look for me?”
“That’s not fair to ask. You know that I tried looking for you.”
“So, why is it so easy for you to give up on them? They’re not just our friends, Levi. They are the only family we have left.”
“Don’t you think I know that? I was the one that was there, Sade. Not you. I was the one getting shot at and left in that church to die, not you. So, stop with the lectures.”
A hard smack knocked saliva out of Levi’s mouth. “How dare you say that to me?”
Levi held his face and watched as Sade stormed off.
CHAPTER 40
Sade sat in her room in tears. The other girls had not come back from performing their duties yet, so she had the room to herself. Levi’s words cut like a knife. So, that’s how he really feels about me, she thought. He feels that I left him. Although she had ran off to her room, she was parked right at the window with her eyes on her friend. He was still unloading the minivan with the others.
Sade held her injured arm. The incident from that day was now playing back in her head. She did not remember much after falling through the awning, but she did remember the gunshots. She did remember how scared she felt and how Levi’s words made all that fear go away when he told her to jump the roof.
“You must be grounded, too, huh?” Destiny asked, walking into the bedroom.
Sade quickly wiped the tears that were running down her face, but the pools were still in her eyes, and her nose had turned red.
“What’s wrong?” Destiny asked, running over to Sade and embracing her.
The tears just began flowing down Sade’s eyes. She was pouring her heart out on Destiny’s shoulder. The tears were contagious because they started falling from Destiny’s eyes too. The two teens were letting it all out. They spoke no words; it was just tears.
Hours had passed, and Latoya returned to the home with the other girls. Patrick had tracked her down and gave her an earful after chastising the kids upon their return. Latoya understood Patrick’s parental instincts, but she also knew Destiny’s potential. She did not even realize everything that the teens witnessed today. What the adults thought was just an adolescent rendezvous was actually a life-changing experience. None of the teens would ever be the same.
Latoya entered the home, looking for Destiny. She wanted to have a chat with the teen following the conversation she had with her father. Destiny wasn’t in her assigned area. I know this girl didn’t sneak out of this house when she knows her dad just grounded her. Latoya looked all over the first floor, but there was no sign of Destiny. She even asked some of the other girls, but they hadn’t seen her.
Latoya walked upstairs and peeked into the room Sade was assigned to. She saw the two girls laid out on the floor, sleeping like babies. Latoya smiled. After that initial encounter with Sade, she was happy to see her making friends.
Latoya decided to clean up the girls’ belongings so that the other teens wouldn’t bother them. She picked up Sade’s bag, and most of the contents fell out, including the snacks and the handgun that Levi tucked inside. Latoya was disturbed by the discovery. She ran out and headed to Maverick.
“We have a problem,” Latoya said, standing in front of Maverick, Seth, Helena, and Noah.
Most people in the camp had interactions with Maverick, but not many people interacted with Seth, Howard, and Noah. The four individuals were structured like the different branches of the United States Military, and they oversaw all the operations within their respected branch.
With his law enforcement background, Maverick was in charge of the day-to-day operations outside the camp. This included putting together search teams and rescue teams and strategizing offensive tactics. Seth had a military background and was in charge of the camps defenses. He put together teams who protected their territory but also worked on defensive strategies and the expansion of the group and their territory. Helena was a medical expert. She worked closely with the doctors and nurses in the group to keep members healthy but to also get other members trained too. Noah controlled everything else, including the inventory, housing, and other elements that were specifically geared around the lifestyle of each member of the group. None of them worked exclusively by themselves because an action in one area seemed to have an effect on the other three areas, so it was important that they had effective communication and transparency. Most people saw Maverick as the leader of The Saviors because he was the most vocal out of the bunch, but in reality, The Saviors had solid leadership.
“What is it? What’s the emergency?” Noah asked.
The four heads of The Saviors sat at a round table in an old event hall that they had transformed into their headquarters. Latoya threw Sade’s bag on the table.
“What is this?”
<
br /> “Open it up. I found it in the new girl’s room. I think she stole these items out of the inventory, and I have no idea where she got that gun from. I saw her talking to that new boy that works in inventory as well. This isn’t good.”
“What are you saying, Latoya?”
“I’m saying that there may be an issue here. I talked to Patrick earlier. He’s one of the firefighters. He told me that his daughter was out with those kids and that they took her to some church. They didn’t ask anyone for permission to leave the camp, and who knows what they were doing or trying to do out there at that church?”
“As you know, Latoya, since the Dalton incident, people are allowed to leave the camp at their own free will. Those kids leaving doesn’t mean that they necessarily did something wrong,” Maverick said.
“But I was told that Dalton and the people that murdered him were all slaughtered. What are we going to do about that?”
“Who told you that?” Maverick asked, slamming his hands on the table and standing up.
Latoya flinched at the action. She didn’t mean to blurt out that information because she wasn’t privileged to know the details of that mission. Maverick was fuming because someone on his team was leaking information to Latoya.
“Maverick, have a seat. You can work out that issue later,” Helena said. “I would like to have a discussion with these kids and figure out if these allegations are true.”
“And what if they are?” Latoya asked. “What are we going to do about it? We can’t just let them stay here. They are dangerous.”
“Oh, come on. This is ridiculous. They are just kids. We haven’t even heard their side of the story yet. Maybe there’s a perfectly good explanation for this bag,” Maverick said.
“Is this girl on one of your search teams, Mav?” Seth asked.
“No, she’s not.”
“And she’s not a member of any of my security teams, so tell me how she got her hands on a gun.”
Maverick took a deep breath. Seth did not hold back with the sarcasm, and Maverick was not in the mood for it. Ever since the Dalton incident, Maverick felt that his leadership was always in question. He was sick of taking the blame for individual actions. “I don’t know how she got that gun.”
