“I get the impression from Timmons that he is being pressured to add our numbers to the NAPC.”
“If I was there, I’d probably have to fight the alpha. After kicking his ass six ways from Sunday, I’d have to take over and I’m simply far too busy for that nonsense.”
Terry turned his back to the map so he could look at his wife. She was sprawled across it, her head propped on one hand.
“I see how busy you are.” He hiked a cheek on the table so he could sit next to her. He rested his hand on her hip as he looked back to the map. “Imagine if we had the whole of the NAPC on the watch for Forsaken?”
“I wondered how long it would take you before you pulled the whole god and country thing on me. Do you really want to me to go fight Timmons’s son?”
Terry knew his answer as well as she did. He massaged her hip and buttocks, before climbing on the table to lay next to her.
“It would make our job easier.”
“Our job?” Char asked.
“Keep the world free from evil. Allow humanity to flourish.”
“The world you lived in, before the fall, was a violent one. Your job was violence. You have much less of that now.”
“Yes,” Terry said easily. “Because the WWDE was merciless and purged the Earth of good and bad alike. We were there to squash the evil when it rose, but the closer we get to how it was in the before time, the more it gets like it was. We are in a lull until one man decides that he wants what another man has. I feel like we should let them. The only thing we can do is make sure that it doesn’t turn into a Forsaken feeding ground. That’s not very noble of me. We should work to prevent all war. No one walks away from a war the same. It changes things. It changes people.”
He turned on his back and looked at the ceiling. Char pulled herself close and put her head on his chest.
“The right war can make things better. You, my love, are fighting the right war. I don’t always understand what drives you, but know how happy you are when you can walk through an area at peace, not worrying that someone is going to attack you. I trust you completely. I know that whatever you decide will be in the best interest of the planet. I know that when judgment day comes, whenever Bethany Anne returns, she will not find you lacking. That is your standard, isn’t it?”
Terry thought about it. “You know me better than I know myself. Maybe that standard is what’s getting me down. It’s been a long time and the more the population grows, the more is slipping through my fingers. I know that being away for fifty years had nothing to do with it. We needed the kids to find their own way. They did, and they’re better for it. The disbanding of the majority of the FDG, the realignment, all of it. Being smaller means that we need to execute more wisely and to do that, we need information. The NAPC has that reach. You have to fight Joshua, and you have to win.”
Alameda
“Ted, dear, you haven’t been home in weeks!” Felicity drawled while running her hand up and down his arm suggestively.
“Let me show you this!” Ted said excitedly. She followed him willingly, understanding that to get something, she had to give something.
Ted led her outside where the framing and superstructures of three different dirigibles were in various stages of construction. Ted’s gravitic engines had already been installed on the gondolas and were ready to be tested once the fabric was stretched and sealed.
The fabric was the holdup even though they had suppliers bringing ships filled with material from all over the world. Ted wasn’t impressed by the global reach that Mary Ellen and William had established.
Kimber and Auburn’s son Kailin had returned from a walkabout with the decision to rejoin civilization. Kim and Auburn could not have been more pleased. The boy had been enhanced, but had not gone into the FDG. Mary Ellen and William readily adopted their cousin as the heir apparent to the empire that they had built. They saw him as their legacy.
They had no regrets. With Ted’s new engines, Walton Industries was going to revolutionize the world.
It would start when the first dirigible raced skyward on its way east, to link the two coasts and the major cities in between.
Ted didn’t understand what was taking so long. “I don’t get the holdup!” Ted complained, throwing his hands up in frustration.
Felicity had stopped telling him not to make a scene or get upset with the ways of mere mortals. Not once had it worked over the past seventy years. “They’ll get there. You need a vacation, something to take your mind off this business. You’ve done your part, magnificently, I’d like to add. Now you have to wait on those who aren’t you. You are coming with me.”
Ted shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at the ground while he shuffled his feet. She worked her way to his front so she could wrap her arms around him and look up into his face. “You are an incredible man,” she whispered to him. “A great father to our children and you are the one who brought civilization back to humanity. Engineering, my dear. There is no one better than you.”
Felicity started kissing his neck.
“That tickles,” he giggled, taking his hands out of his pockets so he could hug his wife. “You are right, Felicity. I am a great engineer.”
Felicity sighed. “I do declare. What am I going to do with you?”
WWDE + 135
Flying to New York City
Char didn’t go to New York right away. She waited until she could fly on the maiden voyage of the Spires Transcontinent, the first dirigible produced by Walton Industries.
As they waited, Char trained multiple times each day, with all the opponents. Even Sarah Jennifer stepped into the ring to face her grandmother, but Char had no choice but to fight at full speed. Sarah lasted ten seconds at most.
Gene lasted forty-five, but only because his skull was too thick and withstood the pounding that Char gave it. She walked away untouched.
Terry accelerated as fast as he could. Char stood toe to toe as they struck, blocked, and counterpunched.
They hobbled Char so she had to remain balanced while multiple attackers came at her. They even took the pod to Japan so Terry and Char could train directly with Akio and Yuko.
Sarah had wanted to go, but Terry said no. She remained behind to train with the Weres. She found that she was faster than them, but their experience usually swayed the match in their favor. She took beating after beating, but she always returned a little bit better than she was before.
Nick, Edwin, Samantha, and Tyson always watched the matches, but trained separately. Even if Char took it easy, she would end up killing the unenhanced. Nick’s short time in the pod doc had given him a slight advantage over the others, but Edwin’s size still won out.
Tyson’s intelligence kept the group focused. They needed to be ready whenever they got the call. They spent a great deal of time with the training platoon.
At one point, Kurtz asked to double the size of the active members because of the logistics demands of training in multiple areas simultaneously.
They held a competition and a number of the reservists were brought back to full-time. Others had moved on, but there were no hard feelings. Everyone served based on the needs of the Force, not on their personal desires.
Terry left Kurtz in charge as the pack headed to New York City, having secured rooms aboard the first commercial air flight in one hundred and thirty-five years.
Eight Werewolves were joined by two Werebears and two Weretigers. Fu and Felicity joined their husbands for the flight.
Kailin also joined so Ted could teach him how to fly the ship. He thought it important to learn how to do what he would ask others to do for him. Ted was reluctant to hand over the controls, but did so after Felicity’s polite encouragement.
Gene and Bogdan had to remain in their rooms. The motion of the dirigible made them uncomfortable. They flew in a pod without a problem, but being able to see the earth far below made their knees buckle.
Like father, like son.
Terry and Char
enjoyed it immensely, hanging out by the windows and watching as they progressed at a slow and steady pace. The pods crossed the country in no time and they rarely saw anything.
Travel as it was meant to be. Relaxing. Something to be enjoyed. Days spent in relative luxury, stopping at various places along the way to visit and sightsee.
“When do we recharge the engines? Will they make there and back without hooking up?” Terry asked after he made his way into the small cockpit to get a tour from Kai.
Ted hadn’t offered. He didn’t like strangers in the cockpit. Terry tried to make the case that he wasn’t a stranger, but it fell on deaf ears. Ted was still angry about the bloody handprint on the sailboat. He even called Terry ‘the Defiler’ at one point.
“The entire top of the dirigible is made of solar panels. The engines recharge as we fly. They charge almost as quickly as they are discharged. Whenever we stop, they are topped off and we leave at one hundred percent.”
“Genius, Ted. Always. Genius,” Terry told the Werewolf. Ted didn’t reply as he watched Terry’s hands closely to make sure he didn’t befoul Ted’s cockpit.
“First stop, Denver!” Kailin called out. He accessed the ship-wide intercom. “First stop, Denver, coming up in a couple hours. Denver ground crew, please prepare yourselves.”
“Denver?” Terry asked.
“You bet, they’re building back up. They don’t have central power, but they do have a growing society,” Kai explained.
“How did I not know that?”
“You don’t know a lot of things,” Ted said, continuing to watch Terry’s hands. TH put his hand on a clean surface and pressed down, leaving a hand and palm print. “That’s it! You’re out of here!”
Terry left the cockpit with a smile. Ted scrubbed furiously at the panel to buff it clean. The door closed. Terry looked at it. Char waited in the narrow hallway leading from the cockpit to the dining and lounge areas.
“I suspect I shall never set foot in there again.”
“I heard,” Char replied, leading Terry back into the lounge where they found empty seats near the window to watch the Rocky Mountains that weren’t very far below them. The dirigible maintained sufficient height to clear them but no more.
“I lived down there for twenty years,” Terry said. He wasn’t talking to anyone as he was on his own journey, retracing his steps from a previous life. “Fate. Werewolves. Fear and friendship. I miss Margie Rose.”
“And Mrs. Grimes,” Char added. “They kept us grounded.”
Terry laughed to himself. “Margie Rose pegged us as a couple, tried to get us together, and then was offended when we slept together, even though we weren’t doing it.”
“I think she was well aware when your prudishness turned that corner.”
“You pronounced ‘honorable man’ wrong.” Terry raised his eyebrows to see if he had gotten a rise from his wife. She didn’t take the bait.
“You let me walk around with that scar on my face for two years.” She turned her nose in the air. Terry put his coffee down and took her hand, holding it gently. A perfect fit as it had been from the start.
“Denver, huh?” Kaeden asked, sliding a chair close to his parents. Kim, Auburn, Marcie, Cory, Ramses, and Sarah joined them. “Do you think it’s the people who stayed behind?”
“I do,” Terry replied. “The mountains will provide. Heaven knows they sustained me, as well as Char and her pack. Why not a new population in Denver?”
“We shall see,” Char said, looking over the landscape. The Fallen Lands were to the east. The Wasteland. Below them, the world was green and fertile. It only made sense that people would find where they could hunt and farm.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Denver
There was no welcoming committee. The dirigible landed in a grassy field to the south of the population center nestled into the foothills west of old Denver. The ground crew jumped out with their tools to establish a solid foundation to which the airship could be tied.
Gene and Bogdan hurried through the gondola and jumped to the ground, standing shakily for a moment before grabbing each other in a bear hug and pounding each other’s back.
“Come on, Uncle Gene, it wasn’t that bad,” Kae said as he joined the group on the ground to offload supplies for the ground team to establish a commercial facility. Five of them and five warriors from the training platoon to provide security were deposited. There was another group of ten for Chicago and ten for Pittsburgh. Butch and Skippy had secured a facility and workforce in New York City, where they still wielded significant power.
“How long?” Terry asked Kailin.
“We can leave as soon as the ground team is set up. A few hours, maybe?” Kai looked indifferent.
“You don’t need to meet with the locals or anything like that?”
Kai shook his head. Char had her eyes closed as she faced the city. “I think we’ll be here a bit longer,” she suggested. “Terry and I and some of the others need to go into town.”
Terry knew that look. “I’ll be right back,” he told her as he hurried to their small cabin to recover his weapons and gear up. He brought Char’s belt and pistols. She took them without question. The others reappeared with their gear. Kai would have been alarmed if he hadn’t been raised around warriors.
“We’ll be back as soon as we can. Don’t leave without us.”
Char was in the lead, walking determinedly toward the town to the north. When they were clear of the crew and out of sight of the gondola, they started running. Terry never worried about having the pack in one place at one time. Anyone powerful enough to take out the group would have an easier time if they were separated.
They kept their spacing as they ran. Butch and Skippy were keeping up. Terry was pleased at their change in attitude after going to the city with Timmons and Sue. There was nothing like a pack to keep a Werewolf honest.
“How many?” Terry finally asked.
“I felt five, but there could be more. They might be underground. We’ll see as we get close. Marcie?”
Marcie unfocused her eyes, jogging easily to keep pace. “Seven,” she said. “Two underground, five above. All of them close together, and they know we’re coming.”
Char ran faster. “That’s a real pack.” She leaned over her shoulder. “Be careful, people. You kids stay behind us.”
When one is over two hundred years old, someone who is only one hundred can be called a kid.
They didn’t take it negatively. They knew what she meant. Anyone who couldn’t sense those tapping into the etheric needed to be behind those with the ability to ‘see.’
They slowed and spread out as they approached a series of large warehouses. They didn’t need to surround them all. Only the one with the pack inside, where there was a stairwell that led below.
Terry waved four of the Werewolves to the rear with Gene and Bogdan. He told Aaron and Yanmei to remain out front with Shonna, Merrit, Ramses, Cory, and Sarah. The others were going inside.
Terry looked at the door, rough cut from sheet metal. They stood aside as he yanked it open.
No trap. Char stepped into the darkness, her eyes adjusting nearly instantaneously. Terry followed her in. A warehouse with minimal stock, a great open space where a table and a few chairs were near an old Franklin stove, vented through the side of the building.
Five young men stood around. There were other people inside, too. Non-Were. They stopped to look at the newcomers.
Char checked the floor for trip wires or other traps, finding it clear. She strode boldly to the pack.
“Who’s the alpha?” she asked without preamble.
“Fuck you,” the closest to her said. Before the last syllable escaped his lips, she’d slammed his face through the table.
“If I want any lip from you, I’ll peel it from the floor. Who’s the alpha?”
“Downstairs,” one of the Werewolves said. The one next to him slapped his arm. Char’s eyes flared purple in the semi-dark of
the warehouse. Terry remained calm, but tensed. Marcie’s eyes glowed a faint red.
“What the fuck are you misfits?” the man farthest away asked as he inched backward.
Marcie rushed around the group. The man crouched for an instant and changed into a Werewolf. It bared its fangs, slobber dripping from its muzzle as it anticipated biting an enemy. Marcie continued forward, accelerating on her final approach.
The Werewolf opened its mouth and darted forward, aiming for its target’s right arm. The Werewolf snapped its jaws shut on empty air. Marcie dropped her hand low, coming up under the creature’s jaw, clamping her merciless grip on its throat. She carried its momentum over and past her, then she wheeled and drove the Werewolf’s face into the concrete floor. She stood and punted the stunned creature over the broken table into a heap near its packmate.
Marcie stood, brushed herself off, and walked toward the stairs. “Come on up there, Mister Alpha. We’d like a word.”
She waited.
They all waited.
They all heard the sound of two people climbing the stairs.
“Who comes into my house and barks like puppies wanting a saucer of milk?” the older Were said in a slight southern accent. He wore a shirt and tie with casual slacks.
“Saucer of milk?” Terry wondered, shaking his head. “I’m thinking you guys aren’t the A-Team.”
The alpha growled and gritted his teeth. His yellow eyes shone through the darkness.
“Seize her,” he ordered the Werewolf climbing the steps behind him.
Marcie waited, weight balanced and muscles ready. The Werewolf snarled as it reached for her, expecting the human to comply. Marcie lashed out with the heel of her hand, catching the Were on the chin and driving his head backward so ferociously, it snapped his neck and threw him backwards.
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