Vessel: The Demontouched Saga (Book 4)

by Douglas Wayne

  “Afraid I’ll screw something up?”

  “It’s not that, Mitch. This is serious work. One wrong move can get someone killed. I don’t want to go through that again.”

  “What happened?” Uriel asks, taking a seat next to him.

  “About six months after,” he looks over at Uriel, who nods. “We had just taken control of the hotel, not that we had to fight for it or anything. After a few weeks it became clear that someone needed to restore the power. Being the entrepreneurial type I am, I figured it would be a good way to cash in.” He places his plate on the coffee table and kicks back on the couch. “I wasn’t doing it to take advantage of people though. I was doing it to get my people supplies.”

  Uriel nods.

  Nal may have set up dozens of businesses handling the seeder side of life, he did it knowing the people that were left would typically be attracted to those things. I think if he could have built his empire doing anything else, he would have, but he was looking out for his people.

  The hotel was a front, just the place where he did his business. It was also the place where he stored all the supplies he acquired from his deals. Most of that stuff wouldn’t stay in the hotel for long before being shuttled around to a few communities, much like this one.

  His only downfall is that he had trouble protecting things. He was too spread out. It wasn’t long before one community fell, followed by the others. He went from leading nearly three thousand people to about three hundred overnight. Since then, he has been protective of what little he had left.

  “Anyways, I grabbed a few guys and took a trip down to the power plant down by the river.” He leans forward, putting his head in his hands. “I should have been more careful about who I brought. We worked as a group at first, getting everything fully shut down. But when we went to turn things on, I had us split up. It had taken a lot longer than I thought it would, and we were fighting darkness, so we got in a hurry.”

  Uriel hands him a tissue he uses to wipe off his eyes. He nods in thanks.

  “I sent James and Paul to hit a few of the stitches near the cars, figured they could get them all warmed up for the ride home,” he says. “I smelled them long before I saw them.”

  “What happened?” Sara says.

  “Arc flash, I imagine. We weren’t wearing protective gear. No rubber boots, rubber gloves, nothing. We came in wearing the clothes on our back to do one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.”

  “It’s not your fault.” Uriel puts a hand on his leg and her arm around her back. He leans in slightly, putting his head on her shoulder. This is a softer side of Nal than I’m used to seeing. He always seemed to to be the calm, collected type. I know he busted his ass to look after his people and keep them safe, but never once did I know he took it this far.

  He wipes his eyes on the tissue before leaning forward again. “After that, we went back through the plant to shut things down and left. I didn’t bring anyone back there for a week after that though I was back there first thing in the morning to bury them.”

  “Wow, you didn’t have one of your people handle it,” I say.

  “I wanted to do it as a reminder of what happens if I get lax,” he says. “Growing up, I never thought I would be that guy who would lead a group of people at anything. I was that kid who was picked last in gym class, for God’s sake.”

  “But you had the gift,” Uriel says. “And you will get the chance to use it again.”

  Nal looks over at her and smiles. “I won’t fail you again.”

  She brushes his hair behind his ear before kissing him on the forehead. “You didn’t fail me the first time.”

  “OK, enough sappy time,” I say. “If you are going to be in charge, I need to know what to do.”

  He reaches behind the couch, pulling out a large red three-ring binder. “I already have that figured out.”

  - 5 -

  The drive through the river valley is surprisingly pleasant. I never thought I could get used to living in a place like this, now I almost long for it. It would be nice to move into one of these abandoned farms and walk away from everything.

  No more demons.

  No more explosions.

  No more problems.

  Just Sara. Me. And a few dozen cows.

  “You done daydreaming, princess, or do you need some more beauty sleep?”

  I backhand him in his arm, making sure I don’t hit him hard enough to nudge the steering wheel. The last thing I want is to be in a car accident all the way out here.

  “Way to ruin the moment,” I say.

  “Sorry, but you’re up. From here out we can run into anything,” he says. “I just have to assume my people aren’t here anymore with the grid is as unstable as it is.”

  I nod, focusing my attention on the horizon. As you can imagine, Nal has me firmly on guard duty. Out of all the people we pulled in from the mall, and that Uriel had in her compound, none of them has any combat or policing background except for the soldiers.

  Commander Stevens told us he would set up a regular rotation of people to guard the plant eventually, but he needed time to get things in order after yesterday’s attack. We didn’t lose too many people, but many of the cars sitting out front were pretty much destroyed. It’s very hard to drive a car around that has a hole in the gas tank. Last I saw, he had sent a few men into the city to find a few tow trucks, something I’m surprised they didn’t have in the camp to begin with.

  “We have two more turns before we reach the plant,” Nal says. “This was about the point I insisted on the guard being. There aren’t many roads in and out of here. As you can see.”

  I look over to my right, noticing three black trucks sitting side by side about a hundred yards off the road. “Those look familiar?” I say.

  “Nope,” he says. “Not unless they found the trucks somewhere.”

  “We should pull off over here,” I say, pointing to a barn off in the distance. “I don’t think driving in is a good idea.”

  “I agree,” he says with a wicked grin on his face.

  I roll down the windows of the Expedition and squeeze my body outside keeping my butt on the door. I point over towards the barn we are going to park next to, signaling the cars behind us. Hate to have one make a turn now and ruin the plan.

  He turns off on the gravel road leading to the barn, I look back in the mirror, noticing the large cloud of dust our convoy is throwing up. “Hope they don’t notice the cloud,” I say.

  “We should be fine,” he says. “I know a pass around the back we can use to get in. Right along the river.”

  “Smart,” I say. “Glad you scoped this out already, I would have still walked there, but went through the front.”

  “That’s why I’m in charge,” he says, smiling. “Besides, you haven’t seen the best of it.”

  Nal walks over to the front doors of the large red barn we are parked behind. It looked typical as far as barns go. That is to say that if it could fit on your lap without crushing it, you would swear you played with it as a kid. I sit back and wait for the doors to go ‘MOO’ when Nal opens the door. He reaches into his pants, pulling out a large ring of keys. The type of contraption you would have expected to see on a security guard in a mall. I’d almost swear they would have made a master key that could open all the stores and doors up, but instead they gave him individual keys so you can hear him coming from three stores down. I’m sure there was a practical reason for the large keyring, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the noise wasn’t part of it.

  When the doors open to the sound of a rusty hinge and not the ‘MOO’ I’m expecting, I snort. Maybe I should have got out of the house more often as a kid.

  “Viola!” he says, pushing the doors out of the way. “Our chariots.”

  “Holy shit, Nal. When did you get all of these.”

  “I didn’t want to make it obvious that someone was in the plant when we got it running the first time,” he says. “So I brought up a truckload of golf ca
rts from that place that sells them in O’Fallon.”

  “You’re smarter than I give you credit for,” I say, laughing. I remember seeing truckloads of golf carts being trucked around for years. I figured they had a plant or sales office close for me to see so many. Guess I was right.

  “I appreciate the vote of confidence,” he says. “OK people, here’s the plan. We need to get these carts out of the barn and get them gassed up. While you three are doing that, the rest of you are going to park the cars inside the barn.” He looks around the group a few times before speaking again.

  “I’m sure you guys saw the trucks in the field behind us.” The group looks at each other before muttering something that sounds like a ‘yeah.’ “I’m going to assume there is another group there trying to turn the power back on,” he says. “We also need to be prepared for the reality that they already have the power back on to their sectors and that they are going to do whatever it takes to keep us out.”

  “Won’t they want help keeping it up?” one of the men wearing blue jeans and a long sleeve plaid shirt says.

  “They might,” Nal says. “But they also might be using it to barter for supplies.”

  Like he used to do. Part of the reason for getting things back online was for his comfort, sure. But he knew that he could name his price when it came to selling it off to others.

  “I assume you all took my advice and brought a firearm,” Nal says.

  Most of the crowd nods their heads. The two or three that didn’t look young. Probably not comfortable firing one yet. Something we need to change once we get back to the compound.

  “The most important thing we can do here is move as a group. Since he has powers that can keep the rest of us safe, Mitch will take the lead. Unless he tells you to, you need to keep your weapons holstered at all times. We don’t want to start a firefight unless we have to. Once we are inside the plant, we will discus the next phase.” He looks around the group a few times. “Any questions?”

  The crowd looks around at each other, but nobody speaks up for about thirty seconds.

  “Good,” Nal says. “Now get to work.”

  “Thanks for the warning pal,” I say. “Didn’t realize I was signing up for Operation Meat Shield.”

  Nal laughs. “Blame Canada, right?”

  I loved that movie, and the show. One thing I miss about life after the Rising is the lack of cable television. Sure there were a shit load of channels I would never watch, but there were a bunch I couldn’t get enough of. It was going to get to the point of having to watch three or four shows at once just to keep up with your shows.

  Come to think about it. Maybe it was better for it to be gone.

  Nal and I shoot the shit for a few minutes while the rest of the team gets things moved around. Part of the benefit of being the boss’ right hand man. Without the usual ass kissing. When the last of the cars are moved in the garage he moves to address the men again.

  “From this point, we need total silence. The carts will compromise our position enough without you talking to each other. Drivers,” he says. “You need to stay close to the cart in front of you and keep your eyes on the road. Your passengers can be your eyes if anything goes wrong.” Nal looks down at his watch. “By my estimate we have about seven hours of daylight left, so we don’t have time to mess around. I don’t know about you, but I plan to be back on my couch long before nightfall with a cold beer in my hand.” He sits down in the driver’s seat of a white golf cart.

  “Ok people,” I say. “Let’s move out.” I take a seat next to Nal.

  Our cart is the oddball of the bunch as it only has two seats with a compartment behind us for our gear. The other carts are all four seat models, each a different color. He had a large cart in the barn we left alone. Probably something he used when he first got the grid back up.

  He follows the gravel road towards a large two-story ranch house on a hill. This area has been known for heavy flooding in the past, so many of the people here in the bottoms built their houses up higher as to avoid the damage. It’s a shame the businesses just a few miles away haven’t learned that lesson.

  At the end, he crosses the paved street, taking us to a path of dirt in a drainage ditch on the other side. From here I can easily see where we are going because the path is well worn. Nal probably had his guys take the carts every day to and from the plant, just to give the impression of the place not being guarded.

  Soon I see the view of the Missouri river as we pass through a tall patch of brush. I can tell the river is down by looking at it. Probably has a lot to do with the lack of rain lately. This area is funny like that. In the late winter and early spring months the rivers are all full to the point of flooding. As the summer months come into play the rain tends to slow down, even stopping at times until late in the fall. It doesn’t always happen that way, as we learned in ‘93, but it doesn’t break the pattern often.

  “Hold on,” Nal whispers. “Path gets bumpy from here.”

  I nod, putting on my seatbelt to hold me in. I’m about to reach over to help Nal with his, but see it’s already on. At least he gave me a little notice.

  The grass path quickly changes to a dirt path with large rocks about fifteen yards from the river. To the right I notice the electrical towers as they poke above the tree line. From what I remember about this plant, it relies on a mix between the current of the river and windmills to generate electricity. They wanted to create a plant that was more eco-friendly. Unlike the coal burning powerhouse on the other side of the river. They were planning to install grids of solar panels around here before he Rising too. It’s a shame, we could have used the boost.

  Nal taps me on my leg, taking me out of my daze. He puts his fingers to his eyes and points back towards the tree line.

  I nod. I know what that means.

  He sees movement.

  He keeps driving forward, not stopping until we are about thirty yards in the woods. Veering off onto a game trail, I can see he is taking us to a set ten of large garden sheds grouped up in two rows of five.

  I look over at Nal, who smiles back. Even still he has secrets on me.

  I jump off my cart to open the doors for him, then turn around to see the others doing the same. We all gather in the middle of them as the doors are closed.

  “From here, we go on foot,” Nal says. Walking ahead. He takes a few steps before turning around. “Coming, princess?”

  I sigh before jogging to catch up to him. He won’t let that name die, will he?

  - 6 -

  We approach the end of the woods and kneel down behind some shrubbery.

  “I see at least five of them,” I say, pointing them out.

  “Six,” he says, pointing to the rooftop.

  “Still sure of the front entrance,” I say.

  He nods.

  I walk out in the open after stepping over the last of the brush on the edge. We approach a tall chain-link fence on the outer edge of the property. I turn around to grab a pair of bolt cutters out of the bag when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I look over at Nal, who is pointing towards the back. Turning my head, I see what he is pointing out. A section of the fence that has already been cut.

  This man is far more prepared than I could have ever known. I was already impressed with how he was able to get us out of the hotel, this is taking it to the next level.

  We follow the fence, walking around to the section of cut fence. Once we are there I see it has only been sliced in one spot. There is a section about three feet tall and maybe a foot wide for us to slide through. I look around the group and smile, glad that none of the chubby guys came along.

  Nal puts his finger to his lip before I step through. I shake my head at him before stepping through carefully.

  Like he had to tell me to be quiet.

  Once I’m through, I turn around and grab the bag from Vince before Nal steps through the hole. One by one, the men step through the hole in the fence until we are all on the other side. I han
d the bag back before walking off again.

  Nal leads us around the building to the opposite side. I guess he wants to see if there are any other people standing on the other side before we walk to the front. Solid move if you ask me. Another reason he wanted to take the lead.

  When we reach the corner, Nal signals to the group to wait, while he peeks around the corner. I’m about to poke my fat head around Nal’s when Vince hands me a piece of metal with a mirror on the end. Just like the type you see at the dentist’s office, but longer. Probably from a mechanic’s shop if I had to guess. I nod in thanks as I take it from him.

  Nal jumps slightly when I move the mirror past his head. I wiggle it around a few times before I see what I’m looking for. They have three more men on this side.

  Well, we at least have the advantage, though I wish we had a few people with combat experience. I guess that’s why they called in the big guns, I think with a smile.

  “Ready?” I whisper as I hand the tool back to Vince.

  He nods.

  I step around the corner, ahead of him. This is part of the unsaid portion of our agreement. Yes, he gets to lead, but I need to be in the front. He doesn’t voice his concern because he knows I have trouble hitting metal through things. He could have a dozen bullet holes in his body before I felt one. Not the scenario we want to see.

  “Who are you?” the man asks ahead of me. He is wearing an orange tee-shirt and a long pair of jean shorts that doesn’t look flattering against his heavily scarred legs.

  “We’re here to get the plant back up,” I say, raising my hands in the air.

  “This is our plant now,” the other says, wearing a black cap and mirrored shades to go with his skater shorts and Thrasher tee shirt.

  “I see,” I say, taking a step forward. “From what I’ve seen, you could use some help getting the grid back up. With the blackouts and all.”

  “We don’t need help,” skater kid says. “Our camp is working just fine.”

  “What’s it going to take for you to turn our grid back up?” Nal asks, stepping to my side. A little close for my comfort, but still far enough back to keep safe.