by A. P. Madden
They watched the wreck burn.
“Do you think this was the person of interest?” Naomi asked.
Luke glanced at her. “You don’t need to keep calling her that. You sound like a detective.”
“The woman, then.”
“It could be,” Luke said. “It probably is. We haven’t seen anyone or anything else. If I had to make a guess, I’d say yes.”
“That was a very convoluted way of saying yes.”
Luke shrugged. “I could be wrong.”
Naomi didn’t say anything for a minute, and Luke realised she was watching him.
“What?”
“Nothing, it’s just... You don’t need to question every decision you make.”
“I’m not.”
“You are. The tracks, the rifle, this car. You haven’t been confident about anything since we left the factory.”
He didn’t say anything.
“Let’s investigate the area and see if there’s any sign of where she went next,” Naomi said.
“You sound like a detective again,” Luke said.
She smiled. “If I’m the detective, what does that make you? Watson?”
“You wish. I’m Sherlock, you’re Watson.”
“In your dreams.”
Luke laughed and walked past the wreckage. “I don’t see any tracks, but this looks too staged to be an accident, so...”
“So?”
Luke started to second-guess himself, but he stopped those thoughts in their tracks. Naomi was right, he was doubting himself.
“We go back to the road,” he said. “And we keep going. She was going east, so we’ll keep going that way, too. The fire is fresh. She can’t have gotten far.”
“Sounds good. Let’s go.”
***
Chapter 27 - Addison
Naomi and Luke heard the voices and the screaming before they saw them. They shared a quick look before running towards the noise.
“They sound like children,” Naomi gasped.
“And a woman,” Luke said.
“Could it be the woman from Morgan’s camp?”
They ducked through a sparse cluster of trees at the edge of the forest. Luke grabbed Naomi before she ran out onto the road and pulled her back.
“What are you doing?” she hissed.
“Careful,” he said quietly.
Naomi peered around the last of the trees, and he felt her tense beside him. Half a dozen men with dirty clothes, hard eyes and mean grins. They were clearly living rough, and he saw a beat-up old pickup truck parked up the road. Each of them had a weapon - a rifle, a shotgun, two handguns, a baseball bat and a crowbar.
And they had surrounded the woman.
She wasn’t what Luke was expecting. He thought Morgan’s people would be tough, hard-eyed and cold. The reports had said children, but Luke still expected the adults in the car to fit with the idea of Morgan that he had in his mind.
The woman on the road gathered her children behind her with one arm. She looked scared but determined, and she held a pistol in her other hand.
“Leave us alone!” she yelled, brandishing the gun.
The men surrounded her, forming a loose circle around her and the kids. The oldest was a teenager, and he held a long, serrated kitchen knife in his hands. The younger two were unarmed and clinging to their mother’s legs.
“We have to help them,” Naomi said.
“Stay here,” Luke said. “I’ll take care of it.”
“We go together.”
“Naomi-”
“Don’t.”
He nodded. “Stay behind me.”
They stepped out together and raised their weapons.
“Hey!” Luke shouted. “Leave her alone!”
The men looked over at them, scanned the empty trees behind them, and they started laughing. A few of them stepped towards them. Their hard eyes skimmed over Luke and locked on Naomi, and they laughed again. It was harsh, ugly laughter that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He pulled Naomi closer behind him.
“What's this?” one of them said. “You out for a walk with your girlfriend, boy?”
Lie.
Luke heard Caelan’s voice in his head. Urgent and demanding.
Lie. You’re like them. Make them believe it.
“Not my girlfriend,” Luke said, forcing a smirk. “Just the lucky girl who gets to keep my bed warm until something better comes along
The men laughed and jeered loudly.
“Is that so?” one of them said, sauntering forward. “Keep an eye on her,” he ordered, gesturing towards the woman with the children.
She hadn’t risked trying to run, yet, and she was watching Luke and Naomi closely.
“That’s right,” Luke said. He held the smirk in place and looked at Naomi. “Go on, tell them.”
She hesitated, obviously torn between confusion and insult. He could see her realising what he expected her to do, but she had been silent for too long to make it convincing.
“She doesn't talk much,” he said, looking back at the men. “She’s been quiet ever since I met her.”
“I could change that,” one of them said with a twisted grin. “How about it, girl? Want me to show you what it's like to be with a real man?”
Luke stepped in front of her and blocked her with his body, both to protect her and to keep up the act.
Stake your claim.
“She's mine,” Luke snarled. “If you want what's mine you'll have to go through me to get it.”
The leader held up his hand, and the other men stepped back. “No need for that, boy. You’re entitled to your property, just as much as we are. I’m Eddy.”
Luke waited for a fake name to come to him, but he couldn’t think of any. At all. Of all the times for his brain to go blank...
“Luke,” he finally said.
“Listen, Luke, we’re pretty busy here,” Eddy said. He nodded to the woman and gave Luke a conspiratorial smile. “You know how it is. How about you forget this and we both go about our business? Everybody wins.”
Luke hesitated.
“Walk away,” Eddy said, and his voice hardened. “Now.”
They were outnumbered and outgunned - they couldn’t win this fight. They should turn around and forget about this whole thing. It was the smart choice. It was what Caelan would do.
Get out of here. Take Naomi and go.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Luke said.
“Why are you so interested in the woman?” Eddy demanded. “She’s ours. We found her first. You get it, don’t you?”
Luke scrambled for a reason that wouldn’t get them all killed, or worse.
If she was the same woman from the car, and she had ditched it because these men were chasing her... They might have followed her all the way from Morgan’s camp.
“She’s not yours,” Luke said, squaring his shoulders. “She belongs to Morgan.”
The men stared at him. The moment of silence stretched out, and Luke’s thundering heart threatened to pound out of his chest. It was a shot in the dark. He had wagered their lives on a complete guess.
“He sent you?” Eddy’s eyes narrowed, and he ran his eyes over Luke again. “Aren’t you a bit... young?”
Luke didn’t let his relief show on his face. “We’re not the only ones looking for her,” he said, ignoring the question. “The other groups will see the smoke from the burning car, too, and they’ll come looking. Trackers and fighters and a whole lot of guns. It’s only a matter of time before they find her, and then they’ll find you.”
Eddy didn’t look worried, even though his men all exchanged nervous glances.
“If this is true - and I haven’t decided if I believe you, by the way - then why aren’t there more people with you? You don’t exactly look like Morgan’s best men. Or women,” he added, leering at Naomi. “And you have, what? Two guns and a couple of knives? Where are all these weapons you mentioned?”
Luke didn’t think his mach
ete was small enough to be called a knife, but now wasn’t the time to argue about it. Why would Morgan have sent them alone? It didn’t make sense. His lie was starting to fall apart.
You’re not alone.
“We’re not alone,” Luke said. “We were part of a bigger group, but I wanted some time alone with her.” He jerked his head towards Naomi. “The smoke caught our attention.”
Eddy watched him for a few seconds. “I believe you. If I was walking around all day with a girl who looks like her, I’d be doing the same thing.”
Luke hated the way the man looked at Naomi, but he forced himself not to react.
“What are you doing, boss?” another man hissed and shot a glare at Luke. “He’s lying. He has to be.”
“How else would he know who she is?” Eddy demanded, pointing at the woman behind him. “He has to be from Morgan’s camp.”
They lowered their weapons. Once they believed Morgan was onto them, they gave up. They were terrified of him. Their guns were pointed at the ground now, but they were still ready to fire, and Luke didn’t like his chances if they decided to attack. He wouldn’t have time to get Naomi behind cover.
“If we let her go, maybe he won’t bother chasing after us,” another man suggested.
“Maybe,” Eddy said.
Luke saw movement in the corner of his eye as the men kept talking. The woman whispered something to the oldest child, a teenage boy. He nodded and grabbed the younger children, picking them up under his arms.
“Get ready,” Luke whispered.
Naomi still had her eyes on the men. “What?”
Eddy was mid-sentence when the woman lifted her pistol and shot him in the head.
The gunshot shattered the quiet and the men roared in shock and outrage. Eddy hit the ground, and then everything happened at once.
The men turned on her and she fired again. A second man fell. The men rushed to return fire, but Luke and Naomi fired at the two men who still had guns. They managed to fire once, but the shot went wide and missed the woman by inches.
The men still standing had melee weapons. One went for the woman, the other came for Luke. He fired again, and the man stumbled. He fired again and the man dropped his pipe.
Luke stared at the dead man. For a moment, his face was different. Different hair, different eyes. It was Warren. He was dead all over again.
“Luke.”
He blinked and everything was back to normal. Naomi had one hand on his arm, and the other was pointing her gun at the only other person still standing.
The woman.
Luke ignored the man on the ground and focused on her.
“You’re not with Morgan,” she said.
Luke still wasn’t sure whose side she was on. “What makes you so sure?”
“I know all his men, and you’re not one of them. I never forget a face.” She glanced at Naomi. “And you’re definitely not one of them. Who are you?”
“Friends,” Luke said. “We don’t want to hurt you.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Naomi stepped forward. “You’re injured.”
The woman glanced down at her shirt. A small patch of blood was seeping through the fabric. “It’s just an old injury. All this movement must have opened it back up.”
“I can take a look at it,” Naomi said.
Her eyes narrowed. “You’re a doctor?”
“Kind of,” Naomi said. “I’ve had some training with injuries.”
The woman looked between the two of them again, and then she lowered her weapon. “Alright.”
Luke kept his gun ready at his side and stayed close to Naomi as she walked forward.
“Can you show me the wound?”
“Oh, not me,” she said. “But you can take a look at my oldest, if you don’t mind.”
Luke looked over as the children returned from the forest. The teenage boy was watching them warily, but the two younger kids, a boy and a girl, ran straight to their mother.
“I’m Addison, by the way,” she told them.
“Luke,” he said.
Naomi frowned when she saw the boy’s arms. He was wearing a t-shirt, and his arms were covered in scratches. Most of them were shallow, but a few looked worse.
“What happened?” she asked.
“We tried to cut through the trees to get away from those men,” Addison explained. “We went too deep and ran straight into a mutant den.”
“It looked like a nest,” the boy added.
“We had to run,” Addison said. “Dean went straight through a thorn bush.”
“I was kind of busy trying not to get eaten,” Dean retorted.
“We didn’t have anything to clean the cuts,” Addison said. “Thanks... I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”
“Naomi.”
“Thank you, Naomi. I owe you one.”
“It’s fine,” she said with a smile. “I’m happy to help.”
Addison watched her for a moment, and then she nodded.
“Where are you going?” Luke asked.
“East.”
“Anywhere more specific?”
She shrugged. “Why do you want to know?”
Luke knew he couldn’t just ask her outright about Morgan and the camp. He needed to play it smart. Besides, he knew he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he didn’t help those children get to somewhere safer.
“Maybe I feel bad for the lone woman and her young children,” Luke said drily. “Shocking, I know, but not everyone you meet is a monster.”
She gave him a thin smile. “You’d be surprised.”
“We can help you get there,” Luke said.
Addison looked like she wanted to argue, but her eyes landed on the dead men behind them, and she nodded. “Okay.”
***
Chapter 28 - Who Are You?
Luke, Naomi, Addison and the kids walked for hours. They took regular breaks, far more often than Luke was used to, but he didn’t comment on it.
Luke kept an eye out for any movement behind them, even though he was sure he would notice them long before they were close enough to be a threat. Naomi and Addison were doing the same, but none of them said it out loud. The children were always within earshot, and they didn’t want to scare them more than already were.
To Luke’s surprise, the kids were quite resilient to everything they had been through. Dean seemed more interested in the attention he was getting from Naomi because of his scratches, while the two younger ones - the twins, Ben and Clara - had already bounced back and were chatting excitedly about everything they saw and everything they thought of.
“Are you finally going to tell us where you’re going?” Luke asked. “We know the area pretty well. If you have a specific group in mind, we can point you in the right direction.”
“I know where I’m going,” Addison said. “But thank you for the offer.”
“And where is it that you’re going?”
She looked at him and shrugged. “Alright, I’ll tell you. I suppose if you were going to try anything, you would have done it by now.”
“Oh, can I tell them?” Clara asked, bouncing up and down. “Please?”
Addison smiled. “Go ahead.”
“A military camp with soldiers,” Clara said. She was clearly very proud that she had been trusted with the secret.
“Wow,” Luke said. “That sounds amazing. Have you been there before?” he asked Clara.
“No,” the girl said. “We’ve been waiting. Mom says they’re getting it ready for us.”
Addison smiled. “It’s a new group. They weren’t ready to take in anyone else until recently.”
“Are they from the super-city?” Naomi asked.
“No,” Addison said. “Although, I’m surprised you know about that.”
“We hear things,” Luke said. “How did you hear about the military group?”
Addison smirked. “I suggested the idea. Despite what you might think about Morgan’s group, n
ot everyone who joins him is a bad person. Some people just want a roof over their head and something to do with their days. Occasionally, we get people with military training. Morgan is thrilled, of course, but the soldier-types don’t usually like to follow a man who’s gone mad with power.”
“So you suggested that they start their own group?”
“Something like that,” she said. “I... I had access to some of Morgan’s plans. I told them where to go, where he would be least likely to notice them.”
“Where did they go?”
“Telling you would make it too easy,” Addison said with a smile.
Luke had to laugh. “Of course.”
“You still don’t trust us?” Naomi asked.
“I don’t trust anyone,” Addison said. “Once the soldiers are ready, they will start sending scouts out to tell survivors about their camp. Until then, it’s a secret, and it’s not mine to share.”
Luke couldn’t argue with that, even if it was frustrating. Besides, it wouldn’t be too difficult to narrow down the possibilities. There weren’t many places east of here that were suitable, so it wouldn’t take long to find them.
They spent the night in the ruins of a building that might have been a house, once. Now, it was little more than a shell of what it used to be, but it still had a roof and three of the four walls were standing. The fourth wall crumbled in places, but overall, it looked stable.
“I’ll take the first watch,” Luke said.
“I’ll take second,” Naomi said.
Addison nodded. “I’ll wake you up to take over, Naomi.”
Luke set himself up by the largest gap in the broken wall, and they settled in for the night.
***
Morning rose and Luke groaned when he felt someone shaking him awake.
“Mom says it’s time to leave,” Clara said.
Luke looked over at Addison. She had taken over from him sometime after midnight, but it felt like he had only been asleep for a few minutes. He didn’t expect to fall asleep so easily, but exhaustion pulled him under.
