The Changing Earth Series (Book 4): Battle for the South

by Hathaway, Sara F.

  “Can I, Grandma?” the boy pleaded.

  “Yes, you can go play, but stay close to the house and I’ll call you back in a bit,” Kay agreed, knowing Bennet must have something important to discuss.

  “Okay,” the boy shouted, flying out the door.

  “What’s going on, Master Sergeant?” Kay wondered as the door closed.

  “I was surprised to see Daniel here,” the master sergeant remarked.

  “He’s staying here for a couple of nights,” Kay explained. “Vince and Erika said they received authorization to go hunting for a couple of days to get some alone time. They said they obtained your signature on the documentation.”

  “They did, huh?” the master sergeant chuckled.

  “Where are they, Master Sergeant?” Kay insisted.

  “That’s what I’m going to find out. I wanted to know if they took Daniel,” he explained.

  “Took Daniel where?” Daniel asked, opening the door.

  “Daniel! You know better than to eavesdrop outside doors,” Kay scolded.

  “Where are my parents, MSgt Bennet,” the boy demanded, ignoring his grandmother’s scolding.

  “I don’t know, Danny,” Bennet answered him honestly. “I think your mom and dad found out that your Grandma Nancy and their friends in the Las Vegas camp may be in trouble. I think they went to help them.”

  “What kind of trouble,” Kay wondered.

  “They left me behind?” Daniel muttered, drooping his head toward the floor.

  “If they did leave, Danny, they could be in big trouble,” Bennet responded, addressing the boy’s concerns first. “I know your mom and dad, and leaving you would not have been an easy thing for them to do. But, taking you into all that danger would have been a stupid decision. They know you are much safer here, with your grandparents,” Bennet tried to convince him.

  He had formed a strong bond with the boy during a winter they had spent trapped together in a cabin in Montana. His heart was breaking to see Daniel distraught over his parents’ absence. He looked to Kay, hoping she would intervene and console the boy, but she hesitated.

  “You’re going to find them, aren’t you?” Daniel asked. His eyes were filling with tears.

  “I’m going to try, Danny,” the master sergeant admitted, trying to keep his voice steady.

  “Take me with you, MSgt Bennet,” Daniel pleaded.

  “Danny,” Bennet stammered. “I can’t do that, son.”

  “Yes, you can. You know I can shoot. You taught me. I promise I won’t give you any trouble like my mom. I’ll listen to every word you say and do exactly like you tell me,” Daniel insisted.

  The master sergeant squatted down to look in the boy’s eyes.

  “Daniel, your parents left you here because you are safe here. It was a smart move. Major Virgis will be at the base. I’ll be sure to get messages home, but I can’t take you, Daniel,” the master sergeant concluded.

  The boy lunged into Bennet’s arms and hugged him, sobbing.

  “What’s going to happen to them when you catch them?” Daniel worried.

  “I don’t know, Daniel. I guess it depends how long it takes,” Bennet admitted. “Danny, your parents love you…and I love you,” he told the small boy, squeezing his quaking body.

  “Just bring them home, Master Sergeant,” Daniel sobbed.

  Kay approached the boy and touched him on the shoulder softly. He left MSgt Bennet and clung to the affectionate woman tightly. Bennet rose.

  “What danger is Erika’s mother in, Master Sergeant? Kay wondered again, holding Daniel in her arms.

  “I’m not authorized to talk about the details right now, Kay. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything,” he told her as he left through the door.

  “They left the boy, let’s head out,” MSgt Bennet stated flatly to the corporal as he passed by him.

  Bennet quickly wiped away a tear from the corner of his eye, hoping Corporal Smith had not noticed. How did I let myself get so close, he wondered? His heart was aching for Daniel and guilt filled him. I forced them to make this decision.

  Chapter 3

  Within hours of leaving Earl and Kay’s home, Bennet and his team were screaming across the water as fast as their boat could take them. They were aimed for the paddleboat that Sean’s band had boarded. Feeling the gentle splashing of the small seawater droplets hitting him, Bennet watched the sun set on the Western horizon. He couldn’t sit still so he got up and paced the deck, lost in thought. Soon it would be dark, but the sky was clear and the paddleboat, lit up in celebration, should be easy to spot.

  Bennet was watching the buildings on the coastline go by. They were just passing the southern border of the central region.

  He looked back out to the water as Corporal Shaver announced, “I see it, Master Sergeant.”

  “Get ready to board, Corporal Shaver and Smith. Sgt Jensen, you stay with the boat,” MSgt Bennet ordered.

  “Yes sir,” the men responded.

  “Ahoy,” a man yelled from the paddleboat.

  “MSgt Bennet of the Mercenary Army requesting permission to board,” he demanded.

  “Yes, sir,” the man replied, throwing down a rope.

  The rope hit the boat with a thump. Bennet snatched it up as soon as it landed and scaled the side of the boat with ease. The corporals followed him. On the deck, he instructed the man who had hailed them to take him to where the band was located.

  Sean was on the large stage in the middle of a concert hall. His band played loudly to a throng of people, dancing to the beat. Bennet spotted Star standing off to the side. Her beauty had always aroused him. She had her hair pulled back, so it bunched on the top of her head and fell gently behind her delicate ears. Its wavy curls were offset by a small braid that hung down behind her. Her body was muscular, and he knew it was the body of a warrior. Her crystal-blue eyes made contact with his and he approached her.

  “MSgt Bennet,” Star remarked in a surprised tone of voice, watching him approach. “What are you doing here?”

  He stared at her intensely, judging her body language. She knows, he told himself.

  “Where is she, Star?” he requested.

  “Who?” Star wondered innocently.

  “Don’t play me, Star. You know exactly who I am talking about,” he growled.

  He was trying to keep his calm. Star had a special spot in his heart, but he was used to being in control. He was used to giving orders and having them followed. Physical violence to ensure this was understood was a tool that he had found useful in the past. He pictured himself grabbing Star’s soft neck and shaking her back and forth. She might tell me then, he thought.

  “MSgt Bennet.” Her sky-blue eyes met his firmly. “I have no idea what you are talking about,” she insisted defiantly.

  Star figured Bennet was probably going to throttle her. They had spent many hours training together and she was aware of the beating this man could dish out. She was already watching the vein in his forehead bulge, but she would never break her loyalty to Erika, her mother.

  “We need to go someplace to talk, now!” he snapped.

  Bennet watched her firm backside sway from side to side as she led him down the corridor to the same room her mother had occupied just hours before.

  “We can talk in here,” Star stated outside the door.

  “Go ahead, I’ll be there in a minute,” he barked.

  Bennet smelled Star’s scent thick in the air as she passed by to enter the room. He slammed the door behind her and turned to address his corporals.

  “Don’t lock anything down yet, until I get finished with Star, but I want this boat searched from top to bottom. Tell Sergeant Jensen to circle around a few times,” he concluded.

  “Yes, sir,” the corporals replied, heading off to follow their orders.

  The master sergeant burst into the small room. His massive size seemed to fill half of it, and anger radiated out of every pore the man possessed. Star didn’t respond to
his energy and sat nonchalantly in her chair, picking at her fingernail.

  “Where the fuck is she, Star?” the master sergeant snapped at her.

  “Are you talking about my mom, sir?” she responded absently.

  “Star.” He bent down and stared into her gorgeous blue eyes. Their sparkle reminded him of the Montana snow and the many hours they had spent together on the hunt for small game.

  “What?” she answered.

  “Tell me where she is. I know she and your father left the region with you,” he explained.

  “MSgt Bennet, if that was the case, I would tell you,” Star tried to convince him. “I have no reason to lie to you. I love you like an uncle.”

  “Dammit, Star!” He spun on his heels, pacing across the room. “Don’t pull that sentimental shit with me. I know you well enough to know when you are full of crap.” He spun around again furiously and marched up to her.

  “Where is she, Star!” he spat, grabbing a handful of her hair and pulling her head back so she had to look up into his eyes.

  “I don’t know!” She pulled her head straight again, despite the pain. She rose from her chair, sending it flying backwards, and stared him in the eyes.

  “You’re as stubborn as your mother,” he hissed. “Fine, Star, we’ll do it your way.” He left her in the room and found Corporal Smith searching the nearby rooms. “Go tell the captain to lock the boat down. I want everyone traveling under the band’s cross-regional passes assembled immediately.”

  “Yes, sir,” he confirmed.

  Before Smith could leave, Corporal Shaver approached, “Sir, I found a passenger who saw a man and a woman leave on a small boat earlier with another man. He said they left a couple of hours before we got here,” the Corporal explained.

  “Good job, Corporal,” the Master Sergeant congratulated his efforts. “Give me one more minute. I’ll meet you back at the boat.”

  “Yes, sir,” the men replied.

  MSgt Bennet strode back through the door. He gently clicked the door shut and chuckled at Star, wearing a naïve look on her face. He was drawn to her crossed legs slowly tapping as she sat in the chair.

  “Smart, Star,” Bennet commented.

  “What are you talking about now, master sergeant?” she mused.

  “You got her off the boat already, didn’t you?” he queried.

  He noticed her facial expression change slightly. Her eyes opened a little wider and she gulped, but rapidly regained her careless demeanor.

  “Yup, you got it all figured out. How did you ever get so smart, master sergeant?” she questioned sarcastically.

  His fists balled up and he started to pace a little as he grew tired of her disrespectful attitude. She’s taking this charade too far, he told himself.

  “You know, Star, our friendship will only let you get away with so much. I could pull all your cross-region passes right now and send you back home,” he threatened, feeling calmer now that he had the upper hand again.

  She sat up more attentively.

  “You wouldn’t,” she replied.

  “I could, rather easily,” he told her.

  “Please don’t, Master Sergeant,” Star pleaded.

  “Did she come with you?” he asked, sitting down next to her.

  Her eyes hid the truth and Bennet knew it, but Star wouldn’t answer his question.

  “Look, Star, if I don’t find them and the Federal Forces do, it will be prison camp for sure. If they aren’t executed instead. You know I only have their best interests at heart. I just need to take them back to the Northern Region,” the master sergeant said softly, gazing into her eyes and breathing in her delicious scent.

  “Then why didn’t you tell her my grandma and all our friends are in danger?” Star lashed out.

  “Then she did come with you?” he prodded.

  “Yes,” Star admitted quietly.

  “Who did they leave with, Star?” he pushed her further.

  “I won’t tell you who she was with, Master Sergeant, but I will tell you where they are headed,” Star responded half-heartedly.

  “Where?” he asked skeptically. He carefully watched her facial expressions, unsure if he could believe her at this point.

  “Shreveport in Louisiana,” she replied quickly.

  “Really?” he wondered. His gut told him she was still lying. Her mother had raised her well, and she would stick to her convictions.

  “Okay, Star.” The master sergeant stood up. “That better be true, or you’ll never leave the Northern Region again.”

  The door made a small click as he left her alone in the room. He had gotten what he wanted, confirmation that Erika and Vince had left the region with her. Wasting more time on details wouldn’t do him any good. Now he needed to get to a coastal Southern Region Base, so he could put the Mercenary Army on the coast on alert. Hopefully, a trigger-happy grunt won’t kill them, he mused.

  Chapter 4

  The relentless wind ripped at Erika and shivered through her body as the dinghy bounced through the waves. She focused on the tiny lights on the coastline sparkling on the water as they quietly puttered by in the distance. The going had been painfully slow. Melvin seemed to know where he was headed, but Erika knew he did not want to get too close to the coast. She was unsure how to feel when a larger boat, with no lights on, came into view out of the darkness. Melvin did not appear to be concerned, and Erika felt he looked relieved. The dinghy was deflated and stored as they boarded the new boat.

  “A change of boats is brilliant,” Erika remarked, impressed, as they boarded the fiberglass fishing boat.

  “If anyone saw us now they have the wrong boat description, and she’s a much faster vessel,” he explained, rubbing his hand across the steering wheel.

  “Where are we headed, Melvin?” Erika wondered.

  “Lufkin Port in Texas,” Melvin replied.

  His attention never left the dashboard as he used the stars to navigate home. The vessel was small and hard to detect; no lights turned them into shadows. For hours, they traveled rapidly across the water, redirecting course here and there to avoid unwanted attention. The constant hum of the motor chopping through the water began to slow as Melvin pulled back on the throttle, decreasing the speed of the boat.

  “Okay, guys, this is how we are going to do this,” Melvin declared.

  “Do what?” Vince queried.

  “See those lights way out on the horizon on the left?” Melvin asked, pointing his finger into the blackness.

  “Yeah,” Vince and Erika answered.

  “That’s a line of battleships patrolling the entrance to the Mississippi Sea,” Melvin explained.

  “So, how are we going to do this?” Erika wondered, eager to make landfall.

  Melvin got up and opened a container holding two rubber diving suits.

  “These suits will protect you from the water. Under the boat in the center is an area that pops up. There’s a shelf for you to conceal yourself in there,” he answered.

  “Are you serious?” Vince gasped.

  “It works,” Melvin encouraged him.

  Erika stood there, unable to come to terms with what she was about to do. The fact that she was claustrophobic was the least of her concerns. Her past experiences with suits and the toxic sludge didn’t go well. Driven to accomplish her mission, she took the suit and began putting it on. Vince looked at her in disbelief. Shrugging at him, she finished fastening the clasps. Vince followed her lead.

  “Once you put your helmets on, I’ll open your air supply. You have an hour’s worth, but we should be there within thirty minutes,” Melvin instructed.

  “Got it,” Erika replied, pulling the helmet over her head.

  Melvin turned her around and clasped the helmet. She heard the air hiss in her ears as he turned on her oxygen supply. Then he did the same for Vince.

  “I’ll bang on the boat three times when it’s all clear,” Melvin told them.

  Erika gave him a thumbs-up and then
entered the water from a platform off the back of the boat. Her heart pounding, her mind panicking, she waited for Vince. Soon he was beside her and when his wild eyes met hers, they both calmed down. Diving under the boat, they felt their way along to the indicated chamber underneath. It was little more than a tiny cubby to lie in, but if it got them past the patrols, then it was the best thing in the world.

  Erika wedged herself onto the tiny shelf with Vince squeezed in next to her. Her mind flashed with memories of surviving the Great Quake in a concrete bomb shelter. The horrible images of the bodies in the water haunted her forever. The stifling misery of the suit of cellophane and duct tape she had made to survive the toxic sludge of a lake that filled Sacramento. The pain the suit caused when it melted to her skin. Calm down, calm down, she chanted to herself.

  Vince found her hand in the dark and held it tightly. The water rushed past them as the speed of the boat increased for a time. Then it slowed and stopped. Erika hoped they had made it. She heard additional footsteps on the boat, but then they began to move again.

  Just when Erika thought she couldn’t take it anymore, the boat began to slow, and it stopped again. Vince and Erika waited anxiously, listening for the three taps to come from above. Finally, they heard it. Erika couldn’t leave that cubbyhole fast enough. They rolled back into the water, scrambled to the back of the boat, and climbed aboard.

  “Nicely done, guys!” Melvin announced. “We even got boarded by the mercs. That doesn’t usually happen.”

  Erika looked at Vince struggling to remove the suit. “Bennet,” they concluded in unison.

  They followed the new seaside down a deep canal and docked the boat in a covered boat house. Vince and Erika had their weapons strapped tightly to their bodies, hidden under loose-fitting jeans and jackets. Erika’s nerves tingled, attempting to sense any danger in the area.

  She missed her team. Usually, Dexter, her eldest son, and Star would be out scouting, and she would be holding Daniel tightly. Now it was just her and Vince. Remembering the last time Vince and Erika had charged off alone to save the people they loved brought back some mixed emotions. It was twelve years ago after the Great Quake. They had accomplished their goal and saved a lot of innocent people, but others that were near and dear to them had died. She and Vince got pretty banged up themselves.