He was left with Butch. “I smiled for the camera to show them we weren’t stealing this stuff. Did I give us away to these guys?”
Butch crawled for a few yards, then crouched. “Even if they knew our names and addresses, we’re miles from what’s left of our houses. It would do them no good. Besides, this guy is pissed because we liberated his cart, not because we stole from the store.”
“You don’t seem worried,” he said dryly.
Butch took a peek toward Bass Pro, but a shot belted out the instant he did. The big man ducked reflexively. “There are more of them gathering. We have to get the hell out of here.”
“Psst!” Haley called out from across the median. “Are you two coming?”
They shared a humorous look. “I guess we follow her.”
He found it funny to think of how he’d pinballed through the morning until he was standing in front of that cart full of guns. In any other scenario from throughout the rest of his life, he never would have imagined taking the offered weapons, but he’d fully intended to pay for them up until the second someone began shooting. Now he was committed to keeping his rifle, if only to avoid being killed by the assholes who kicked off the shooting in the first place.
Ezra hopped the wire fence in the median and stayed a few paces in front of Butch, who kept looking over his shoulder for the pursuit.
When Ezra came to the far edge of the highway, he was surprised to see a blue pickup truck skid to a stop on the frontage road next to the interstate. Haley and Liam stood about thirty feet down the hill, perhaps twenty feet from the truck. A man flung open the driver-side door and hopped out. Ezra’s blood turned to ice as the security goon raised a pistol and fired.
Haley jumped on top of her dog, an action he saw through his increasingly tunneled vision. He already held his rifle at his side, so he flung it in front of him while he worked to unlatch the safety. It was a maneuver he’d practiced a lot over the years.
Ezra was almost ready to fire when Butch appeared in his peripheral vision. In the split-second moments that passed during the preparation of his rifle, Butch already had his out and trained on the TKM employee.
Butch got off three shots before Ezra let go of his first. The loud reports barely registered as background noise with all the shooting they’d endured the last few minutes. All he could focus on was the man holding out the pistol.
And the woman smothering her dog.
Chapter 18
Denver, CO
A man in a blue shirt ran through the broken front doors of the office building. Grace had expected her people to come through, but she saw them standing in the entryway as they let the guy go first. She also saw his pistol waving wildly as he ran.
“Get out of my damned way!” he yelled to no one in particular. He glanced down at his shirt, seeming to notice the purplish stains of blood. After touching his side and wincing in agony, he looked around the cluttered street. Several people ran in front of him, fleeing for their lives without realizing he held a pistol. When the injured guy saw Grace crouched next to the dump truck, he aimed his gun at her. “Stay out of my way!”
She held up her hands though she didn’t say anything.
Glass shattered before he could proceed. A string of gunfire sounded from the lobby, tearing the man through the middle, opening up many new blotches of blood. He continued to look at Grace, though no longer with malice or fear. Seconds later, as two dangerous-looking men emerged through the broken front windows, the man fell over face-first.
She could hardly catch her breath, her heart was racing with such intensity. If the shooters had missed the man, they might have shot her instead. Based on the other bodies she’d seen lying in the streets, her death wouldn’t even have been a blip to these people. The two miners barely glanced at the dead guy before they went back inside.
Asher rushed across the broken glass, surprisingly surefooted. “Are you okay?” he asked with concern.
Shawn followed, then Angela and her team reluctantly joined them.
“I can’t believe that just happened. Can you?” She stood up and reached out her arms, which Asher correctly interpreted as her needing a hug.
“We can’t stay here,” Shawn advised. “We run the risk of getting shot almost anywhere down here, apparently.”
Asher chuckled as he let her go. “I’m glad none of us are wearing blue. That man was in a TKM shirt. I really don’t think anyone likes them. Certainly none of the construction guys back in the lobby.”
Grace removed her hat, brushed her hair back with her fingers, then put it back on. It gave her two or three seconds of centering to gather the willpower to continue toward the source of all the chaos. She waved everyone to go behind the dump truck and into the street. “Come on, we’ll use these trucks as cover and slowly make our way toward wherever Angela says we should.”
“The direct route is there.” She pointed to the street Grace had seen from above.
“Uh, anywhere but there. We have to avoid that way. There are snipers up on the top floor aimed toward the rock. If they see us…” She left it unsaid, but Angela knew what she meant.
Angela pointed in the opposite direction. “We’ll head this way.” The professor took them down a slightly less busy side street, then they resumed walking toward the rock in the roundabout way she’d planned. The zigzag pattern took them well away from where they started, though the streets were always stuffed full of trucks.
The professor waited a few minutes before checking behind them. “We’ve stayed out of view of those snipers, like you recommended. We should be good.”
She remembered what the nice sniper had told her. The confusing rush of people going back and forth had barely let up, though as she approached the rock, men seemed to do less moving, since it was so crowded. “We have to avoid doing anything threatening to these work crews.”
“Or they’ll call in death from above,” Asher added with a desert wind’s worth of dryness.
After walking for a minute or two, Grace got closer to Angela. “Is this all worth it to you? The science part, I mean. Why don’t you simply pay one of these professional mining companies for a chunk of the rock?”
“I have to know what it’s like as part of the larger structure. When we get there, I can take precision photographs of the whole thing, collect a small sample of native materials, and be content we’re getting a fundamental baseline of data. I can’t do any of that with a thirdhand piece. It’s why I needed you and your guns to get us there.”
She was proud to be helping an academic. All the other men around her were only chasing the net value of the rock. This woman was interested in the science of it. The coincidence of finding each other had to be providence, she reasoned.
I hope you’re having good luck, too, Dad.
Grace and Angela worked their way across an intersection which was a mish-mash of pickup trucks, dump trucks, excavators, and tractors, all pointed in different directions. It was as if they’d squeezed into the junction intending to make it impossible for anyone to leave. Some of the trucks probably tried to get out of the jam before it turned into dried cement. One tractor had pushed away several pickups before it got caught up in a huge orange rock hauler. Now both vehicles were ruined.
Once clear of the roadway disaster, they walked another block before reaching what appeared to be an empty street.
“Why aren’t there any trucks on this next one?” she asked, not sure if what she saw could be real.
“That’s where it rolled in,” Angela motioned ahead. “The pavement is too broken up for most trucks to try using it.”
Grace was astonished once she saw it really was empty. “Hard to believe they couldn’t pave it over with all the construction equipment they have around here.”
Shawn hopped over a piece of cracked sidewalk. “They can’t get in there. Too many trucks blocking the way.”
“They screwed themselves,” Asher mused.
When they reached the end of th
e block, Angela peeked around the corner. “There it is,” she said. “Two blocks to go.”
The three of them followed her lead and took in the sight. Being closer to the rock made it seem a lot larger. A ten-story building sat nearby, giving it perspective. The five-story office tower where the asteroid piece had come to rest seemed small with the mega boulder wedged in front of it.
“Do you know where to go from here?” Grace asked.
Angela shook her head. “I still don’t see the tents. I think they’re around the side of the asteroid piece, so we can’t see them from here. However, I see guys with guns right there. I bet every street this close to the rock is going to have the same problem.” Angela pointed to a dump truck parked near the boulder. At least four men were in the dumper, holding black rifles over the edge and threatening anyone who walked close to them. It was unclear if they wore the blue of TKM or were with someone else.
Looking ahead to the rock, Grace noticed how it sat against the building, but also how it seemed nestled inside the pavement. It was almost at the intersection of four of the streets, giving them multiple avenues of approach.
“Ash,” she said quietly, “We’ve seen trucks packed in like sardines around the rock. Do you think we could sneak through the buildings to get closer?”
“Or we could go under everything,” he suggested, gesturing into the rubble-strewn path up the street. “If it broke through the surface, maybe there’s room for us to crawl into the drains. Then we could get right up to the rock and pop out close to the TKM tents.”
She took a few moments to think it over, listening to the continuing gunfire echoing up and down the streets. If they had even the slightest chance of being able to make it the last two blocks out of the view of those crazy people, she’d feel a lot better about Angela’s plan to help them find the TKM area.
“Ash had a good idea. We’re going to sneak in underground.”
St. Charles, MO
The TKM man fell backward after being shot multiple times. He careened off the open door and slumped into a heap next to it. Ezra had no idea if he’d landed any shots, but Butch surged forward and down the hill like he was part of a bayonet charge.
“Wait!” he shouted, not sure if there were other threats. The driver had gotten out of the truck, and he didn’t see anyone in the bed or passenger seat, but he wanted to be certain.
“No way, E-Z, we’ve got to get to her. ”
Butch set his rifle in the grass next to Haley and seemed reluctant to touch her. Ezra strode up, casting a suspicious glance at the stone-still man. As best he could tell, Butch hit him all three times, putting two in his torso and one in the side of his skull. Once certain he was dead, Ezra focused on Haley.
“Is she…” He couldn’t get the words out. He was positive Butch felt something for the young woman.
“I’m fine,” Haley replied.
As soon as she spoke, Butch grabbed her by the waist and got her upright. She held Liam firmly in her arms as she came up.
“Thanks, cowboy. That was a close one.” She shifted the puggle in her arms, letting Liam lick her face as she spoke in puppy-talk to the little guy. “You and I almost bought the big one, you know.”
“You’re brave as hell,” Ezra remarked to her.
Still talking in puppy-speak, she added, “I couldn’t let this little lovey get hurt.” She looked toward him with a more serious expression. “That man surprised the crap out of me. If I’d had more time, I would have used my rifle, but I did what I could to minimize who got hurt.”
Butch pointed to her white shirt, which now had two holes near her stomach. “Are you sure you aren’t shot?”
She struggled to lift the hem of her blouse, revealing washboard abs. She patted herself, content there were no holes. “I think it went through my shirt when I was hunched over, trying to wrangle this little fella.”
Ezra rubbed his chin, aware they’d dodged a literal bullet.
Haley handed Liam to Butch, who readily took him. She walked over to the TKM man, took his pistol and set it in the bed of the truck. Then she glanced back. “We’ll take this truck to where I was going to take you before. This will help us get there a lot faster.”
“Are you nuts?” he said without thinking. Softer, he added, “Well, I mean they’re going to be looking for us in a truck as soon as they find this guy.”
She shook her head. “Trust me. Whatever trouble you think we’ll find with these mining idiots, it will be a lot worse with the police. They’re on a mission to find every gun in the county; have been since about ten minutes after the asteroid fell down. I want you two to be able to defend yourselves when you leave my slice of heaven here in Saint Chuck.”
He was torn as to what made more sense. Looking around, there were a few businesses, but they all appeared closed. Their chances of being seen were minimal. Plus, everyone would have eyes on the parking lot of the Bass Pro, which continued to sound like a gunfight from the movies. “All right. We’ll take the truck.”
Ezra made like he was going to get in the driver’s seat, but Haley stepped in a second before he was able to get to the door.
“I’ve got this,” she said in a friendly voice. “I know where we’re going.”
“But we don’t want to get you in trouble,” he said lamely. He didn’t want to play the woman card, because he wasn’t sexist, but he was tempted to play the age card. Of the three of them, she was the youngest. And despite her age, nothing about her suggested she’d surrender her spot once she was at the wheel. She started the engine and idled, giving him and Butch time to put their packs and fishing poles in the back and walk around the other side.
“You trust her?” he asked quietly.
“Definitely,” Butch replied, petting Liam’s head. “So does this little puppers.”
Ezra rolled his eyes, though Butch wasn’t facing him. “I do, too,” he admitted. Anyone who would dive on top of her dog to save it from a hail of bullets couldn’t be all bad.
As they started driving, Ezra looked back to see if the man’s body was obvious in the shallow ditch next to the service road. It stood out to him, but so did the man coming across the highway.
“Oh, crap,” he said, pointing back. “That guy from the store followed us up and over the interstate lanes. He’s going to find out what we did in about thirty seconds. We have to go straight to our boat and get out of this town.”
Haley turned down a side street. “Don’t worry, the river is never far. I’ll have you back at your boat in no time. I just have to make one quick stop to check on a friend.”
Denver, CO
Dorothy and her laptop sat quietly at the end of the table as Petteri talked with Diedre. He went over what he expected of her during her call with her brother, Asher, and he talked about how important it was for Diedre not to reveal the suspicion he was a terrorist. His intention was to get the man to reveal his location so his team could go there to terminate him, though he told Diedre his only goal was to help Asher get away from the dangerous park ranger.
Finally, after all the instructions, he returned her phone.
“Can I have a moment of privacy?” she asked hesitantly.
“I’m afraid not,” he answered with gobs of fake sympathy. “The lawyers were clear on the way they want this to go,” he fibbed.
“Fine,” she exhaled.
After dialing, he leaned over to her. “Please put it on speakerphone, so we can help answer any questions as they come up.”
Diedre obviously didn’t want to comply, but she seemed to recognize the choice wasn’t hers to make. Once the phone started ringing, she put it on speakerphone and set it on the conference table in front of her.
It took a few rings before a man answered. “Diedre! Is that you?”
“Yeah, Asher.” She choked up. “It’s me.”
“What’s wrong?” Asher asked immediately.
Diedre looked cautiously at him. After all the time he’d spent reminding her she could
n’t tell him where she was, he was afraid she’d do it anyway. He was ready to snatch the phone if she went off script. Thankfully, she relaxed and spoke normally. “Nothing’s wrong. It’s been a while since I’ve heard your voice. A lot of people are dead out there. I’m glad you aren’t one of them.”
Asher laughed, sounding less stressed. “You have no idea, sis. Where the heck are you? I’ve got a million things to tell you about that schist-for-brains running TKM.”
Diedre didn’t laugh, even though Asher was guffawing on the other end. Schist was a type of rock, he knew, though Petteri remained emotionless at having it used to describe him. Once Asher settled, he seemed put off by her lack of response. “Come on, my goofy sayings always make you crack up.”
“I’m sorry. I was working at mission control for the Petteri-2 when things went wrong. Now I guess I kind of feel like this is all my fault. I hope you understand why I don’t really want to talk about it.”
The brother became more serious. “I understand completely. That’s why we’re in Denver. We’re going to sneak into the TKM offices and talk to your boss’s boss’s boss. We’re going to complain to the head guy himself.”
Diedre looked his way, searching for what she could tell her brother. He flashed the symbol for her to mute the phone, which she did. “Ask him where he is. I told you they’re terrorists. They’re coming right for me!”
She turned back to the phone with a hangdog attitude. It took her twenty seconds before she tapped the button to turn off the mute.
“You there?” Asher asked.
“Yes,” she said sadly. “It sounds like you have things figured out.”
“Hell yeah. I’m with a kick-ass park ranger. You’d love her. She’s all action and all brains.”
“I bet she’s cute,” Diedre said. “I can hear it in your voice.”
The line went silent. “Dang, sis, why don’t you out me to the world? She’s sitting right here.”
A woman’s voice cut in. “Hi, Asher’s sister, nice to meet you!”
“Nice to meet you, too.” Diedre laughed, leading Petteri to get anxious for her to get back to business. He tapped on the table, getting her attention. She looked over and nodded in acknowledgement.
Crush: Impact Book 4: (A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller Series) Page 14
