"Y'all had trouble out here?" the cop asked warily.
"In these times,” Jenkins said with an air of sadness, “trouble’s never more’n a heartbeat away. We had a few run-ins with some rough sorts, trying to take over neighborhoods."
The cop spat on the ground. "Nothing but barbarians and thieves," he cursed.
Cisco clenched his teeth, and forced himself to relax his hands, which had involuntarily curled into fists. “They’ll get what’s coming to ‘em,” he said.
An older man who detached himself from the group of refugees called out as he walked forward. "What's the word, Bill?"
The cop turned and waved the newcomer closer. "Gentlemen, this is Greg Newhouse, he's kind of the…I guess you could call him the leader of this little band. He was on the…what were you, John? Alderman or councilman?"
"I was an alderman," the older man said with a self-effacing smile. He reached out with a politician’s smoothness and shook hands with Jenkins and Cisco. "Nice to meet you, boys."
"Bryce Jenkins, CPA."
“Juan de Francisco.”
"CPA?" asked the newcomer.
Jenkins held up a hand in apology. "Sorry, it's a habit. Charleston Protection Alliance. You folks looking for a safe harbor?"
The tension in the old man's face slackened, and his shoulders relaxed. "Thank God," he said. "Pastor’s gonna be real excited—his prayers have been answered!"
"How many folks you got?" Cisco asked in his most professional voice.
"Oh, there's a good number of strong backs," the cop said. "Probably twenty men and teenagers, maybe a dozen women, and a handful of kids. That going to be a problem?"
“Anyone armed? We’re always looking for people that have weapons—we need help with guard duty at the nature center,” Cisco said.
“Guards?” asked the old man.
“Well,” Jenkins said quickly, “once everything went sideways, the critters are getting...frisky. We’re having some problems with scavengers trying to steal food, that kind of thing.”
The alderman nodded. “Makes sense. Without human presence to force predators into the forests, they’re moving back in to take over.” He looked at the cop. “Well, to answer your question, no...Bill here’s got the only gun I know about.”
Cisco stepped forward, whipped out the pistol from the small of his back, aimed at the cop’s face, and pulled the trigger. The clap of thunder that erupted from his gun silenced the chattering crowd and echoed across the open space. He waited for the body to drop to the ground, then aimed at the old man. "Don't worry, nobody else has to die. Y’all are under my protection now.”
“What? You—”
Cisco cut the old man off. “And there's only one rule. You want to live, you do what I say."
"Y-y-you murdered him!" the old politician sputtered. "You're no better—"
"You tellin’ me you're not gonna join us?" asked Cisco.
The old man grew red in the face. "No!"
The pistol barked again, and a second body thumped to the ground on the hot pavement. Cisco lowered the pistol and glared at the refugees, who shrank in on themselves, clustered together like a school of fish. "Anyone else want to break the rule?"
Jenkins stepped up next to him. "Anyone who joins us willingly can have their share of food and water. There's more where this came from," he said as he pointed at the truck bed. "Life as you know it is over. Things are going to get a lot harder, and the quicker you begin to realize that, the easier it’ll go for you. Now. I'll ask one more time," Jenkins said as he pulled his own pistol free. "Who wants to join?"
It took a few moments, but every single hand in the group raised, except for the children, who cowered behind their parents.
Jenkins turned to Cisco. "What’d I tell you, boss? You got your army."
Cisco smiled.
Chapter 2
Lavelle Homestead
Bee’s Landing Subdivision
Northwest of Charleston, South Carolina
Cami Lavelle frowned at Mia Stevens. "I swear, Mia, if you try to put that spoon in my mouth one more time…"
The younger woman's eyebrows knitted together. "It's not like I want to do this, Cami…Amber said you're supposed to be eating soup right now, and if you're not going to do it yourself, then she said we had to spoon feed you. I'm the only one that's available to help with this right now...I've kind of become her assistant, I guess…"
Cami sighed and leaned back into the pile of pillows behind her head. "I'm not mad at you Mia. I’m just…frustrated."
Mia leaned forward over Cami's bed, and held the spoon out, brimming with steaming red liquid. "Come on Cami, you can tell me all about it—just eat, please."
"Look, I may be injured, and exhausted—"
"Amber says that you're suffering from exhaustion and exposure," Mia offered.
Cami arched her eyebrow. "Since when did Amber become a doctor?"
“Well," Mia said as she blushed. "Everybody's kind of treating her that way lately…"
"Good grief,” Cami muttered. “I go away for a couple days and everybody gets delusions of grandeur…"
Mia leaned forward again and pressed the spoon toward Cami's face and grinned. "Come on, open up! Here comes the choo-choo!"
Cami's anger melted away and she laughed. "Does that actually work on the boys?"
Mia smiled and tucked a lock of curly hair over one ear. "Not so much anymore with Junior, but sometimes with Caleb.” She smiled. "Is it working with you?"
"Why, is Dr. Amber going to be mad at you?"
Mia's face paled. "I'd rather you be mad at me than her…"
The corner of Cami's mouth quirked. "Really?"
"I'll tell you all about it, if you promise to eat."
"I'll eat—if you let me do it myself," Cami said as she crossed her arms.
Mia nodded. "Deal." She handed over the bowl of tomato soup and a spoon. "Amber said you like it with crackers and little cheese on top, but we don't have any cheese…and—"
"It's fine," Cami admitted with a smile as she struggled to sit up and accept the bowl of liquid nourishment. "I'm so hungry I could eat a dead horse."
Mia made a face. "Then why were you fighting me?"
"Hey, I said I was injured, not an invalid." Cami muttered as she took a spoonful of the blood red broth and brought it to her lips. "Oh, my gosh…this tastes so good," she moaned.
Mia sat back on the bed and fidgeted with the hem of her skirt. "Oh, good—I'm so happy to see you eating again."
"Now, what's all this about Amber being the doctor in town?"
The hammering stopped outside, and someone cursed.
“Maybe you should tell me what's going on with the construction site?” Cami suggested. “Why are there so many people pounding on my house?"
Mia smiled. "Well, what with the hurricane damage…not to mention all the fighting…there’s a lot of bullet holes and damaged plywood, you know…"
Cami stirred the soup. "I get that, but why here? I'm sure there's more than one house in the neighborhood that's been damaged by the storm…"
"Oh, there are—there's lots of houses missing shingles—over on my side of the neighborhood a tree fell on one of the houses…"
"Well, then," Cami said as she scooped up another spoonful of tomato soup, "why is everybody here?"
"Well…" Mia shrugged. "I guess this house has kind of become like the headquarters of the neighborhood or something."
"The headquarters?" Cami asked suspiciously.
"Well, yeah…I mean, when Cisco attacked, both times we fought him off here. And then before that—"
"Flynt…" Cami muttered as she stared down at the soup.
Mia nodded, color creeping up her neck again. "Oh, Cami, he did such a good job holding everything together while you were gone."
"Wait a minute, that sounded like you think I'm the one in charge here," Cami said.
Mia shrugged again. "Well, everybody kind of thinks so…I guess that's
why they started repairing the neighborhood with fixing up your place. At least, Gary asked them to."
Cami took another mouthful of soup and mulled over Mia’s statement. "I don't know if I like the sound of that..."
"Well, honestly, who else is going to run this place?” Mia asked with a hint of exasperation in her voice. “You've already saved us from attack a couple times, you helped organize putting out the fires, you—"
"Yeah, but Flynt was there, too…" Cami interjected.
Mia shook her head. "Cami, I won't deny that Flynt did a great job during the storm…but trusting him with the leadership of the whole neighborhood? I don't know if there's too many people that would go along with that…I know I'd be much more comfortable with you in charge. And I’m not alone."
Several pairs of feet thundered down the hallway. Grunts and curses echoed, the sounds of men carrying heavy loads up a flight of stairs. Something thudded into the wall and made Cami's wedding picture quiver.
"What in the world?" she asked, looking up from the soup.
"Oh,” Mia said with a dismissive flip of one wrist, “that's just Mitch and Rufus."
Cami blinked. "Mitch? And Rufus? What are they doing—remodeling?"
"Well, Mitch is still recovering from getting shot when he went after Amber…but he’s still...nobody really wants him to be out on guard duty and fighting, you know? He’s kinda weak. So, he volunteered to help with setting up Marty’s radio when he’s not helping Amber."
Cami put the spoon down. "Marty’s radio?"
Mia smiled. "Oh, it's awesome! Remember when everybody started taking things out of Marty's house? Back before the storm hit?"
Cami nodded. "Yeah, no...kidnapped...”
"Oh...that’s right, I’m sorry...”
“It’s fine,” Cami sighed. “What about this radio, now?”
“Well,” Mia continued, “Marty made sure they got the radio out first. It's been sitting in those boxes and crates in the spare bedroom down the hall.” Mia pointed toward the door. “Now they’re setting it up."
Cami frowned. "Didn’t he have some kind of big antenna set up? Out in one of the trees in his backyard?"
"Yeah, that's the best part—keep eating please—Marty says all we have to do is run a wire to it, and we can hook it up right through your attic!"
Cami blinked. "He wants to run a cable through my house now?"
"It's gonna be great, Cami! We’ll be able to find out what's going on in the world again! Ever since the neighborhood party, no one's been able to run the radio…because Marty's the only one that knows how."
Cami ate her soup and nodded.
"And now that he's getting better,” Mia said, “he's all kinds of excited to get back to work on the radio. It’s all he talks about."
Cami mumbled agreement and looked at the soup. The red liquid was the same color as the blood that had splashed across her living room when Marty had tried to defend Amber. After the brief, but violent gunfight, the old man was left on the edge of death. Cami had found him while desperately searching for her daughter, and he'd revealed a heart condition, and that he’d run out of medicine.
She looked up at Mia and smiled, as the younger woman continued to talk about how excited everyone was to have the radio set up, and how Marty seemed to be doing so much better. Cami didn’t have the heart to ruin her mood.
"Is he teaching someone to run the radio?" Cami asked nonchalantly as she scooped up another spoonful of tomato soup. It really would taste better if she had a bit of shredded cheddar on top—and some crackers—but after enduring her captivity without food, she wasn't about to complain.
"Yeah, Mitch seems to be really interested in it,” Mia continued, “and Marty's only too happy to tell him everything he can. They’re setting up the final bits of equipment…I think," Mia said as she looked down. "It's all pretty confusing, honestly. There's tons of wires and cables and little consoles with blinking lights…” She leaned in conspiratorially. “It's a hot mess, if you ask me, but Mitch and Rufus seem to be having a good time. When they're not in there messing with the radio shack—
Cami looked at her with a blank expression on her face.
“Oh, sorry, that's what they're calling the spare bedroom—"
"Oh, are they? When did that start?" Cami asked with a slight smile.
Mia shrugged one shoulder. "It just kinda happened, I guess. Anyway, when they're not in there setting stuff up, one or both of them are down there with Marty, writing down everything he's telling them. I try to listen in when I'm down there tending to him and changing his bandages and stuff, but it's all gibberish to me. They're always talking about radio frequencies and dials and all kinds of scientific stuff.” She smoothed out her skirt and nodded. “I'll just be happy when it works."
Cami smiled sadly. "You and me both." She glanced down at the soup again, unable to look Mia in the eye. If Marty is that desperate to pass on the knowledge he has, he knows the end is coming soon.
"How's the soup going?" Mia asked as she tried to peer into the bowl. "Amber said I'm supposed to make sure you eat the whole bowl."
Cami smiled around another spoonful of the red broth. "It's going pretty good, I guess," she said after she swallowed. "Now, what's this about Amber being the town doctor?"
"Well, it just kinda happened, too, you know? We were all so worried about you, and with the storm, there wasn't much else to do but take care of everybody…so when anyone got hurt—and there were a surprising number of people that got injured during the storm, just walking around or tripping on things...accidentally cutting their hands. It was kind of crazy."
"They kept you hopping, eh?" Cami asked with a smirk.
Mia nodded. "Oh, totally."
"Sounds like Amber is doing a pretty good job."
Mia smiled. "With that book she's got, she's been doing great. You'd be real proud of her," Mia said.
Cami smiled broadly. "I am."
"I mean, it's not like she's been doing surgeries or anything like that," Mia insisted, "but she's handled all the minor stuff. I've kind of been roped in as her assistant."
"Nurse Mia, who would've thought?" Cami said with a smile.
Mia blushed and smoothed her skirt again. "It's definitely taken my mind off of…you know, Jimmy."
Cami nodded and they sat in silence for a moment as she sipped her soup. "Has anyone else come back from Charleston since I've been gone?"
Mia shook her head. "Nobody's arrived in the neighborhood in a while. Though a couple of the scouts reported people out walking on the roads around us, nobody's actually come close. Personally, I think the signs out there in the ditch are scaring people off."
Cami smiled. She remembered insisting that they put the signs up to warn of the dire consequences of attacking Bee’s Landing. Flynt had readily agreed, and between the two of them, they'd posted several signs around the neighborhood warning would-be attackers that death waited for them in Bee’s Landing. The fresh graves of Cisco's men, killed during the first assault, had only added an emphatic point to that message.
"I…I'm not holding out much hope…” Mia admitted. She looked down. “It's been so long..."
Cami nodded, put the spoon down and took Mia’s hand in hers. She winced at the pain in her wrist, the wounds from her restraints in Cisco’s camp hadn't even begun to heal yet. "Don't give up hope, Mia."
"I know," Mia said, but she looked away. "Jimmy wasn't like…he wasn't like you and Reese. He wasn’t…isn’t...very good at doing, you know, outdoor stuff."
"That doesn't mean anything," Cami said in a whisper. Though her heart thrilled to hear someone else confirm Cami's deepest hope that Reese could survive. "I'm sure there's lots of people out there that were trapped in the tsunami and are just now making their way home. Without cars, it's gonna be a slow walk through all the wreckage and debris."
"You might be right," Mia said with a sigh. "I just…it feels cruel to keep the boys thinking that Jimmy is still out there. I've…I
think I've given up,” she said, as her voice thickened and her eyes glistened. “I don't think I'll ever see him again." She sobbed and covered her face with her hands
Cami struggled to sit up, then embraced Mia with both arms. "It's okay…let it out," she said as the younger woman wept.
A knock at the door frame made Cami and Mia look up from their embrace. "I sent Mia to check on you…and now you’re taking care of her? What's going on?" Amber asked from the doorway.
Mia laughed and wiped at her eyes. "Oh, it's fine, Amber. I was just—we were just—"
"Mia's been takin’ real good care of me," Cami said quickly. "Apparently under the doctor's orders?"
It was Amber's turn to blush. "Well…I do what I can."
"You've grown up," Cami said softly.
"Amber?” Mitch called from downstairs. “Travis smashed his thumb with a hammer…anything you can do to help?"
"You have to tell me how everything's going…" Cami said. “Is Mitch your nurse assistant now?”
Amber smiled and turned from the doorway. “I’m coming, Mitch!” she called down the stairwell. Looking back at Cami, she grinned. "I'll be right back,” she said, ignoring Cami’s comment about Mitch altogether. “In the meantime, Mia, please make sure she finishes that,” she said, pointing at the soup. “I know she's trying to stall, but she needs the nutrition in that soup. And make sure she drinks plenty of water, too."
“Sure thing, Amber,” Mia replied with a nod.
"Amber? You in here?" another voice called out.
“She’s upstairs,” Mitch’s voice answered from downstairs. “She’ll be down in a second…”
Amber sighed and shot Cami a long-suffering look. "I'll be right there!" She yelled down. She waved one more time, then disappeared around the corner.
Cami continued to smile as she watched the empty doorway. "Reese would be so proud…" she murmured, her voice wavering.
Chapter 3
Broken Tide | Book 6 | Breakwater Page 2
