The lobby of the corporate office building was almost as torn up as the windows on the outside. Thousands of sheets of paper had fallen to the floor, and many were blackened by fire. It reminded her of a retreating army burning all their secret documents before clearing out.
“The asteroid must have been pretty hot when it came through,” Asher said, using his foot to slide a document back and forth on the gray tiles. “This level has evidence of flash burns everywhere.”
A small waiting area had been upended and thrown against a wall. Grace walked right by it to get to the elevators. While there was some electrical power to a few of the overhead lights, the buttons for the elevator didn’t come on when she tapped them. “Dang! We have to walk up the steps.”
Asher was already at the door to the stairwell. He bowed. “After you.”
“Thanks, Sir Creighton,” she laughed.
The walk up the steps took longer than she wanted. Her months as a park ranger had upped her cardio game to the point the stairs presented little challenge to her. It wasn’t as hard as hiking to the observation tower on Mt. Washburn, or to the lower falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Even so, Shawn Runs Hard wasn’t living up to his name.
“I’m sorry. You two should go on. I’ll catch up.” He smiled sheepishly in the red glow of the emergency lights. “Did I mention I used to smoke a lot?”
“It’s fine,” she replied, wanting to take him up on his offer, but knowing it was better to stick together while they were in the dark stairwell.
Shawn took a few more steps, making it to the landing of the eighth floor. “Two more to go.”
It took almost as long to go the last two flights as it did the first eight, but as soon as they were all on the top floor, and back in the light, she let the man rest. She pulled Asher toward the opening at the front of the building.
“I’ll catch up,” Shawn wheezed.
Asher breathed hard, too.
“Don’t tell me you’re out of shape still?” she taunted as they walked across a half-lit office filled with cubicles and desks.
“No, I’m fine. You’ve kicked up my endurance about ten notches with all we’ve done. Getting little to no sleep these past few days has also helped me zone out in these situations.”
They neared the open windows, but a man’s head in a nearby cubicle caught her attention. She halted as the guy looked her way.
“He’s got a gun,” she said under her breath.
He balanced a long military-looking rifle on top of the cubicle wall, but he aimed out the window and down. Aside from nodding to acknowledge she was there, he paid no more attention to them.
“Let’s go this way,” she whispered to Asher.
She’d only gone about thirty feet before seeing a second man. He wore a camouflage baseball cap, but seemed no more official than the first guy. Like the other man, he also aimed a rifle out the window. He spoke into a tiny yellow radio.
“What the hell is this place?” Asher said dryly. “Look at them all.”
About ten feet beyond the second man, there were at least three other shooters aiming out the window. None of them were firing their various rifles, and she had no way of knowing if they were all together, but they’d trained their sights on roughly the same target.
Grace finally glanced out the window holes. Outside, about five blocks down the canyon created by the buildings of lower downtown Denver, a huge black rock sat in the street, partially butting against one of the brick structures. Some of it was underground, and a good chunk had been scraped off the sides, but it was obvious the round-shaped black orb was an object from outer space. From where she stood, it appeared thousands of people had come to pay homage to it. They crowded tightly around the base of the rock, with thousands more waiting in the rows of trucks in the streets. Several huge cranes also tried to go over the people. One of the crane arms rose from a sixteen-wheeled truck on the street below. Its arm reached out over the rock, reminding her of a tiny fishing pole above a huge meatball.
“I think we’ve found what we’re looking for,” she said dryly.
She’d said it loud enough for three or four of the snipers to overhear her. She realized the mistake when she drew her attention back inside the office. The eyes of the men were now trained on her.
Asher whispered, “You shouldn’t have said we were here for the rock.”
St. Charles, MO
Ezra only needed about ten seconds to figure out who was responsible for what was taking place in the gun department. The men behind the counter wore navy-blue polo shirts or dark blue windbreakers. The white block letters TKM were prominent on their attire. No Bass Pro workers were anywhere in sight as guns were loaded into waiting green carts.
He leaned closer to Butch. “I think we missed our buying window.”
Butch pursed his lips then ripped off his hat and waved it around. “Hey! Leave some for the rest of us!”
A few spectators harrumphed from nearby, signaling support for the statement. Others clapped and hooted. Ezra sensed a rising tension all around, as if the watching and waiting wasn’t a voluntary pursuit for other shoppers.
One of the men in the blue polo attire stepped in front of the counter. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are operating with the approval of your mayor, the governor of Missouri, and, we’ve just learned, the Secretary of Homeland Security. TKMSS, or Tikkanen Kinetic Mining Security Services, has bought out the entire inventory of this store, which local authorities have graciously saved for us. We’ve done the same at your Walmart and the mom-and-pop gun stores here in your fine city. I assure you this is for your own protection. The men and women of my organization are now responsible for your security, a duty we take very seriously.”
Butch craned his neck to see the man. “We can take care of ourselves, thank you. Let us buy what we need before you clean it all out.”
The guy in charge was as tall as Butch, but quite a bit skinnier. He didn’t look like a warrior, but Ezra didn’t think he looked like one, either. It was dangerous to make assumptions. The scowl on the man’s face suggested he didn’t want to deal with men like Butch. Everything he knew about TKM suggested they were people used to getting what they wanted. Even the wandering man back on the muddy riverbank near Alton seemed insulted when he and Butch refused his offer.
“Butch,” he whispered, “we shouldn’t antagonize them.”
Butch spun around. He looked at him first, then at Haley. “I’ve always said we need weapons if we’re going to survive out on the road, or on the boat. Or in a house. You know we almost died, even with guns, when we ran into those pirates. If these mercs are allowed to clean this place out, we’ll be at the mercy of the world.”
Ezra agreed with every word his friend had said. Except there were only three of them, and about twenty heavily armed contractors. If they bragged they’d received the blessing and support of every level of government outside the store, his chance of changing their minds was probably close to zilch. It was far safer to get out of the store with what they had and hope to find weapons somewhere else.
Still, he had to say something. Rather than give Butch only bad news, he turned toward the man in the polo shirt. “We’ll pay double face value for a pair of ARs. I lost mine when I came into town. The police took them right off our backs.”
The man glared, trying to see him across a smoky room. The guy was probably in his mid-thirties, with slicked-back black hair, a pointy nose, and tanned skin. As men shifted in front of him, Ezra caught sight of the large pistol holstered at the man’s side. His impression shifted from busybody bureaucrat to a man who was unafraid to stand in front of citizens and forcibly remove firearms from them. He knew the guy would never agree.
Polo guy spoke to the whole room, not only to Ezra. “I’m sorry, we can’t make exceptions. I will say, though, if you have any firearms you’d like to sell to us, we will be very generous with our offers. Our fellow citizens need us to provide their security, and you can help us hel
p them.”
This time there was some clapping in support.
After watching with amazement as some of the citizens walked their personal weapons up to the counter, Ezra spoke under his breath. “I tell you, everywhere we go seems to find a different way to endanger our lives. If that guy is in charge of protecting us, and these people think he’s on the level, I’m going to go ahead and declare we’re doomed, you know?”
He shifted on his feet, expecting some reply from Butch or Haley, but when he turned, they and the cart were gone. “Yep, we’re doomed.”
Chapter 16
Denver, CO
The thing that struck Grace while looking out the tenth-story windows was how some of the people down on the street had already been shot and left for dead. Miners moved around the bodies like current around boulders in the rapids. As her focus returned to the office space and the snipers looking at her, she put up her hands to signify her peaceful intentions. Then she said the craziest thing she could think of. “I’m with the National Park Service. We’re considering whether to declare this a new national park.”
They gave her blank stares.
“You know, because it represents a literal piece of history for our nation.” She laughed, trying to stoke a similar reaction in the men. She took it as a minor victory they looked at her but didn’t point their rifles in her direction. “In any event, we aren’t here to stop anyone, or interfere with anything, okay? In fact, maybe you can help us. We’re looking for the TKM headquarters.”
An older man stood up. He’d been six or seven cubicles down the row. “I’m with TKM. Why are you looking for us?”
Grace’s people-watching skills kicked in. She noted how most of the men went back to their posts, looking outside, rather than watching her. At first blush, she was glad to see them look elsewhere, but it also meant the TKM man carried some weight in the sniper nest. She fought the urge to shrink in the face of the armed man, who remained at his station. Instead, she walked down the next row, seeking to get closer.
“Hi. As you can see, we’re with the park service. As I told the other, um, gentleman, I’ve been sent to investigate the possibility of turning this location into a federal park. I just need to speak with someone in charge.” She put on her professional smile, the one she broke out when dealing with ignorant park visitors.
The man was dressed in desert camouflage shirt and pants. His rifle sat on top of two walls of the cubicle. It was patterned with muted mustards and browns, painted to match the man’s dress code. It wasn’t a military uniform, however. “The head office guys are over in that building behind the dig site.” He pointed down the street, beyond the rock.
“The one with windows?” she asked. The building was at least as high as the one she was in, but unlike most of the other structures surrounding the asteroid piece, its windows were smaller and mostly intact.
He nodded and thumbed in that direction. “You’re going to want to wait a few days, though. All our people are down there at the rock doing important work.”
One of the other snipers hissed.
The TKM man laughed. “Not everyone likes the fact we got here first.”
“No one does!” a man farther down the line shouted.
“No one does, apparently,” the man added in a cordial tone. “But we all get along.”
A concussive explosion nearly knocked her hat off. One of the closest men had fired a shot down into the crowd and the low ceiling seemed to amplify the concussion. A second man stuck his head up next to the shooter. “Hit.”
She figured the other man had been on the ground, using his binoculars to look outside. Suddenly, she came to terms with the fact there was a small army on the floor with her.
“Well, we’ll try to get over there.” She took a few steps directly away from the row of windows, but she hesitated before leaving. Instead, she got the attention of the TKM man again. “You aren’t going to shoot us in the back, are you?”
He laughed sympathetically. “Only if you threaten one of my men. It’s what we’re all doing up here. There are a hundred other guys from a hundred other companies on the top floors of other buildings surrounding the rock. I have no intention of shooting someone like you, but I can’t vouch for these others. Be careful down there.”
She blinked. “That’s the nicest thing anyone from TKM has ever said to me.”
The man smiled, then seemed to study her. “You know, you look familiar. Have you been on the TV or something?”
“Nope,” she said too fast. “I’ve been driving for the past few days. I haven’t even seen a television since the sky fell.” Grace turned around and ran into Asher.
“Go,” she said quietly. “We’ve got to keep moving.”
They hustled back to the stairs, but the door flung open as they arrived. Two more men came through. One of them reflexively pointed at handgun at her, but then continued toward the windows.
Once clear, she threw her back against the inner wall of the stairwell. It helped relieve the tension and frustration of the last few minutes.
“You all right, Grace?” Shawn asked with concern. “You handled yourself well in there.”
It hadn’t felt that way. The gunshot totally threw off her game. Her heart hadn’t slowed since the blast and now she was winded from the fast exit. She rubbed her hands together to bolster herself.
“We have to find another way to reach the other side of the rock. I don’t trust any of those men not to shoot us in the backs. We’ll stand out, too, with our ranger hats and uniforms.”
On the way down the steps, she weighed the costs and benefits of ditching the uniforms. They would give them far more credibility when they reached the TKM headquarters, but they might be magnets for trouble on the way there.
She had ten flights to think it over.
St. Charles, MO
Butch and Haley sped the cart down a side aisle with the conspiratorial speed of two teens pulling a prank. At first, he worried they were doing it to annoy him, but he spotted a TKM man pushing a cart even farther ahead. As Haley got Liam out of the basket and placed him and his leash on the ground, Ezra figured out what they were planning.
“No,” he hissed.
The dog sprinted ahead once given his freedom, and it went right for the exciting new man with the accuracy of a torpedo in the water.
Ezra knew what was going to happen next but had no idea why Haley was doing it. The puggle barked excitedly as it approached the man, which made him halt with obvious surprise. He bent over to pet the brown ball of fur, but he froze in place as Haley and Butch arrived.
When Ezra caught up, he found Butch shielding Haley’s little pistol as he aimed it at the TKM man’s stomach. While Butch covered the man, Haley stepped on Liam’s leash, then picked him back up. When she stood up, she flicked her head sideways to get her loose bangs out of her eyes. Both of the youngsters acted like what they were doing was no big deal.
“We don’t want any trouble,” Ezra said, arriving late.
Butch spoke in a low voice, but with force. “We only want to buy those rifles in the cart. This lady needs one, and so do the two of us.”
The man took a step back. He was a middle-aged, medium-build, average-looking type of guy, but he sported a well-manicured handlebar mustache that could have come from an Old West movie. “Be my guest. Not sure how you’re going to get them out of here, though. The only people buying guns today are dressed like me.” He tugged at the TKM letters on his shirt pocket.
That threw Butch off his plan. Ezra saw it. The man saw it. Ezra decided to step in and swing for the fences. He yelled loud enough for those nearby to hear him. “Hey everyone, who wants some rifles?”
The words brought shoppers in from six aisles over. Within moments, there were twenty men from multiple directions drooling over the firearms. Butch wrapped the little black pistol in his shirt, but kept it pointed in the man’s direction. To the arriving shoppers, he added, “We only need a second to pick out a
few.”
Ezra picked up a little shotgun and handed it to Haley.
“Screw the peashooter. I don’t want anything so dainty. I want this.” She ignored the offered shotgun and pulled out a wood-grained AK-47. Haley’s eyes lit up as she brushed her cropped orange fingernails along the stock. It was about all she could do with the dog still in her arms.
He looked around, not sure how much time they had. The men he’d summoned were about to descend on the cart like buzzards at fresh roadkill. “I respect your choice, I really do, but I’d recommend taking an AR-15 instead.” He shuffled through the boxes of ammo at the bottom of the cart, noting the lack of 7.62x39. “They didn’t put any ammo for it in here. There’s lots of 2-2-3, though.”
She looked at him like he’d crushed her dreams. After taking a few seconds to think it over, she gently placed the old school AK into the basket and pulled out a modern sporting rifle along with a small 50-round carton of ammo. “I guess this will be all right.”
Ezra snagged a similar style rifle, his own box of ammo, and then looked at the nearby men. “The rest is yours.”
If he’d thought about it, he might not have shouted so loud to bring in so many customers. It probably wasn’t his smartest move considering it was a panic-buying situation. As expected, they converged on the cart like it was carrion.
“Holy shit!” he blurted as he took a few steps back.
The TKM man was already gone.
“We have to go,” he said to Butch.
He tossed his rifle in Haley’s cart and pushed it toward the front of the store. The guns had already been unlocked by the TKM men behind the counter, so he was free to load it on the spot. It was a recognizable error on the part of those men, as guns weren’t supposed to be loaded inside the store. As he put more of the pieces together, he recognized he’d created a powder keg.
Sure enough, the second he saw the checkout lanes, a muffled gunshot came from behind them.
“Damn!” Haley said with a jump.
Crush: Impact Book 4: (A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller Series) Page 12
