After a long pause, Sheppard said, “You’ve still got that pry bar, Penny.”
“That’s it?”
“I’m afraid so,” said Sheppard. Rat nodded her agreement. “We dropped our tools in the cave when we followed you here. The guns are in the rubble.”
“So, summing up, the good news is we’re back together. The bad news is that we’ve got the Army on the way, a group of ex-cannibals with questionable motives hiding a few yards over, and the only weapon we have is this fucking pry bar.”
“Guess that’s about the size of it, Penny,” Scratch muttered.
“Wait, don’t forget the drones,” said Sheppard, helpfully. “They will pretty likely kill us the second we step outside.”
Miller laughed quietly. Eventually so did the others. “Damn, this day just keeps getting better and better.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Miller listened for the faint sound of the drone engine as it searched for them, that insect-like humming from overhead. She kept her people in a crouch until it had passed them by. The pilots seemed prone to flying long, looping patterns. The craft would be back, but not for at least a couple of minutes. She looked at her team with a warm feeling in her stomach. They were safe for the time being, or so she hoped, but they’d need one hell of a smart move to take them to the next level. Miller studied their situation. She surveyed Scratch with his fairly short hair and beginnings of a new beard. From this angle, he almost looks like… Yes! Miller came to a decision. The others just sat quietly, waiting for orders.
“Okay, here’s the plan. We bluff.”
“Whatever you say, Penny,” Scratch said as he got to his knees. “As long as we do something besides sit here and pee in our jeans waiting to die.”
Miller hefted the pry bar. “Follow my lead.” She took a deep breath and began shouting at the top of her lungs. “We found him! Praise God! He is alive! We found Terrill Lee!”
Catching on, Sheppard and Rat cheered and whistled. “We found him!”
Scratch shot her a strange look shrugged. He shouted too. “Praise the lord, we found him!”
Frustrated, Miller turned to Scratch, and punched him in the arm. “You’re Terrill Lee, Scratch,” she whispered.
“I am?”
“I’ll explain later. Just act like a savior and let’s hope these people buy it.” She went back to whooping and hollering. She peeked out of the cave. The sky above was indeed clear. She saw the bright sun, a carrion bird and a few wisps of cloud but no drones. Miller stepped out of the small cave.
Led by Miller, the little group went out into the light and hurriedly jogged back around the large, red rock. The sun cast long shadows on the hot sand. Miller saw people with comically startled faces lining the entrance to the main cave. She hustled Rat, Sheppard and Scratch forward. At the last moment, the waiting faces moved aside. They all slid down the slope, moving as a group, and walked down into the safe darkness of the opening, where the excited cult members were waiting. Some of them were already clapping their hands and laughing. Miller knew Scratch would seem familiar. She just hoped the ruse would work. She addressed the leaders.
“Gary, Allison, look! Terrill Lee is alive. He is here again, in the flesh.” Miller displayed Scratch and walked around his body like he was the newest car on the lot. She turned to the others. “Can you believe it? Your savior, the slayer of Abraham, is still alive!”
Miller felt a little queasy, for just saying the words hurt her to the core. That was the only reason she cared about the deception. She owed nothing to these people, who were likely planning to sell her friends for a cardboard box of food bars. In the shadowy cave, Scratch could almost pass for Terrill Lee. Once the group got going, anyone with doubts about that would be likely to get shouted down. It was their only play. This would work because it had to work.
Miller expected Gary the lawyer to question their claim, since Scratch was close to a head too tall, but he just looked up at Scratch with a wide smile and open arms. “It’s good to see you, son!”
The others began speaking all at once, thanking Terrill Lee for—as one of them put it—“pulling the holy trigger” to free their people from bondage. They all seemed to accept Scratch in the assigned part. Things had happened so quickly back then, most of them had been starving and terrified, so the fact that Scratch had shorter hair and less of a beard and seemed like someone they’d seen before had done the trick. Soon ten conversations were running at once. Miller was having trouble following any of them. Gary and Brandon seemed happy that Father Abraham was dead, but then, so did the others, though the group at large seemed to venerate Abraham as a martyred saint. Regardless, Terrill Lee, as personified by Scratch, had done the right thing in their eyes. Miller fought down a grin. For once, they’d gotten lucky.
Rat looked on with cynical smirk. Miller warned her with a glare.
“Hey,” Scratch was saying with a modest smile, “it was nothing, really. That kind of thing is all in a day’s work for a guy like me.” Then he looked at Miller, Rat, and Sheppard, who stood in a knot off to the side of the adoring crowd. “It’s too bad we have to beat feet out of here so soon, but the truth is, I think we’d best be on our way.”
“No!” a woman called. “You can’t be going so soon.”
“Going?” Gary the lawyer tuned in at once. “Oh, no, we couldn’t let you do that! Now that we’ve found you, we also can’t let you leave without at least honoring you with a dinner.”
“Sc—Terrill Lee is right,” Miller said. “We do need to be moving on.”
Gary went on as if he hadn’t heard a word. “Terrill Lee, your vehicles were blown up by the drone, so you’re on foot now. You might as well stay the night, collect some fresh supplies and rest a bit. You can leave in the morning.”
Miller thought, did we tell them that? I can’t remember…
Scratch said, “We don’t want to impose.”
The crowd mock-booed and hissed and then laughed. The mob noise echoed in the cave. As if choreographed, the happy group surrounded the four of them and slowly pressed them deeper into the underground corridor leading to the quarters down below. If they wanted to run, they’d have to fight their way out. They’d have to buy some time and sneak away. Reluctantly, Miller allowed herself to be led down the tunnel.
Sheppard tried again, as they nudged him forward next to her. “Wait, listen to the Sheriff.”
“It’s settled then, you’ll stay the night,” Gary said cheerfully. The others noisily agreed. Miller studied their faces. They all seemed genuinely happy and excited. That is, everyone but Brandon.
Miller caught an odd look on the guy’s handsome features, as he studied Sheppard with what appeared to be growing concern. Grabbing onto that one clue, Miller turned to Sheppard as they walked along, and whispered in his ear. “Karl, I do believe this would be a good time to go over there and make friends with that cute guy.”
“Brandon?” Sheppard actually blushed. “Penny, this is neither the time nor the place to play matchmaker. We have other things to worry about at the moment.”
Miller put her hand on his shoulder. She leaned in closer. “You’re not reading me. The plan was to bluff our way out of here, remember? I don’t care if he’s not your type. You seem to be his.”
Sheppard shrugged. “What do you want me to do?”
“Just bat your eyes at that dude and get him to show us the back way out of here. Think you can handle that?”
Sheppard nodded, but with some visible reservations. “I understand.”
“Good. Now put your little soldier to work. Duty calls.”
Sheppard glared at her. “You did not just say that.”
Rat leaned over from the other side and said, “Everyone likes a man in uniform.”
“And don’t forget we need weapons,” added Miller. “Just do it for the team.”
Sheppard opened his mouth to protest again, but then closed it once more. He shrugged and drifted casually away from Miller and Rat a
s they walked. When they came to the next bend in the tunnel, Sheppard slowed and ended up next to tall, blond Brandon. He said something sotto voce and Brandon responded. The two men whispered. Brandon said something with a smile, and Sheppard chuckled in reply.
The mob marched deeper into the mountain. Miller studied their hosts with anxiety in her chest. Some kind of old fever seemed to have overtaken the group. The ex-cannibals began chanting, and in their enthusiasm hurried Scratch, Miller, Rat, and Sheppard forward. They walked only by torchlight. Miller held the pry bar casually at her side. She was not about to surrender her only weapon. The other digging tools were being carried by Shane and Jennifer. Miller didn’t figure that for an accident. This was a trap of some kind. Allison led the way. Gary brought up the rear. They were clearly in charge.
Miller and Rat kept walking, but now Miller had her eyes on the conversation between Sheppard and Brandon. She was quietly counting the minutes as they passed, knowing full well that a team far more powerful and heavily armed was already on its way to collect them. Fuck, the dang Boy Scouts would have presented a threat at this point, considering how desperate and tired and thirsty Miller and her team were at the moment. She had made her only possible move under these circumstances. Sheppard had best turn on the charm, or they were all good as dead, one way or the other.
When Brandon laughed out loud, Miller and Rat exchanged a wan smile and breathed a sigh of relief.
Scratch broke away from his adoring new fans. He caught up with Miller and leaned over to whisper in her ear, “Are you watching Karl? I think he’s maybe getting a little too friendly with the enemy. Should I be worried about him going rogue?”
Miller smiled. “Don’t worry, he’s on assignment.”
Scratch caught on fast. “Ah, doing a little undercover work, huh?” He put his arm around Miller’s waist. “I know that with everything going on, it wasn’t the right time when we were back at your house, but… you know… I miss you, Penny.”
This was not the time to be discussing their relationship. Didn’t Scratch understand that they needed to survive the next few minutes?
“I’ll take it under advisement,” she said. She tried to cover her cold remark with a smile, but Scratch just looked at her in the flickering torchlight.
A few moments later, the group finally reached the bowl-shaped arena, and Gary held up his hand. They all stopped. Gary looked up and pointed at the open sky. Everyone went silent. In the distance, one light gray shape, almost invisible against the bright sky, flew in a rough figure eight formation. The sun glinted off the pod-mounted optics of the drone. It was still searching for them.
Moments later, another drone appeared and dropped into a similar pattern.
Jesus, two of those suckers.
“Can those things really fly in formation?” asked Scratch.
Rat just said, “It seems so.”
“It’ll just be a moment, and then we can head down into the ceremonial chamber,” Gary said. “You know, where Vanessa is waiting.”
“Gary, look…”
“We will have a feast—a regular, civilian feast, mind you, Sheriff Miller—and then we’ll let you choose whatever you need from our supplies. Tomorrow morning you can be on your way.”
For a brief moment, Miller almost wished she’d just been shot up with zombie accelerant again. With the pry bar she could have taken them all out and freed her friends at the same time. Without the Super Solider Sauce and surrounded by a small mob carrying tools and torches and hidden guns, the odds favored the enemy. She was just a normal woman again. She’d have to trust her original plan and be patient. One thing was for certain, they couldn’t wait for morning. They’d have to run for it, one way or another.
“Almost ready, Sheriff,” Gary said.
Miller nodded, but in her head she was doing math. The crowd would fade away in time. Miller, Rat, Scratch, and Sheppard were four. Gary, Allison, Jennifer, Shane, and Brandon were five. If Brandon switched sides, it would be five to four in Miller’s favor. And if they could get two of the enemy to turn, it would make it easier to vote someone off the island.
Miller studied Shane, who she hadn’t spoken to much while they were digging. He carried a pickaxe and another pry bar, and quite possibly a pistol under his shirt. Shane was in his mid-twenties, and kind of on the gangly, awkward side.
Miller got Rat’s attention and nodded in Shane’s direction. “Equal treatment,” was all she whispered. “Go get him.”
Rat got the message. Despite having her jaw broken by Miller—and then super-healed by the fading effects of viral acceleration—Rat was a knockout by anyone’s estimation. Her fading bruises were invisible in the almost-romantic lighting. And both women knew instantly that six to three beat the hell out of five to four any day. Miller smoothly distracted the others by walking to the edge of the warm sunlight and staring up at the drones again. Meanwhile, Rat crossed over to stand near Shane. They began a quiet conversation. Miller tried to ignore them, so as to not draw undue attention to them. It didn’t seem to matter. Everyone’s attention was on the drones.
The drones circled again perhaps a half mile away now but would soon be coming back. Gary, Allison, and Jennifer also kept their eyes on the sky. No one wanted to cross the open area before it was safe.
Miller and Scratch stood side by side, watching Sheppard and Rat do their work. Scratch leaned down and said, “Do I maybe get a covert assignment, too, boss?” He looked up at Jennifer, who was young and pretty, though like the others, she was clearly in need of a shower. “I’m always willing to do my part.”
Miller’s head snapped up. “Yes. Your assignment is that you get to continue being Terrill Lee. Now, keep quiet.”
Scratch’s taunt bothered her more than she’d expected. To have him so easily switch gears and offer to catch the attention of a twenty-something curvy brunette just didn’t sit well. She tried to shrug it off. Hell, he might even be right. Maybe he should go make friends. But she knew she was pushing it with two attempts to subvert the enemy. Three was bound to blow up in their face.
Miller couldn’t believe the frivolousness of her thoughts. She could work out her relationship with Scratch later, when death wasn’t floating overhead at two thousand feet or waiting right around the corner with semi-automatic rifles and stun grenades.
The drones moved to the west and were soon almost out of sight. Miller checked on Sheppard, who was quietly whispering to Brandon. He looked up and nodded. Miller was surprised. She didn’t expect he’d have been able to gain Brandon’s trust so quickly. Had she underestimated Sheppard—or overestimated Brandon?
One down.
Rat came back to stand next to Miller.
“No dice,” she said. “But I managed to get his weapon away from him.”
Miller nodded imperceptibly, but didn’t allow herself to smile or react in any way. “Do you think he suspects anything?” she whispered.
“Nope.”
Miller lifted her pry bar.
Gary said, “Okay, the drones are gone now, it’s all clear.”
After a moment, Jennifer, Shane, and Allison stepped forward, followed closely by Gary. No one else moved.
“Sorry, this is where we get off,” said Miller.
Gary looked surprised. He reached for his pocket, presumably to produce the hidden pistol. Miller stepped in close. Her eyes went bright with rage when she put the hook of her pry bar under his chin. “Don’t do that.”
Allison and Jennifer dropped their tools with a clatter, but didn’t even have time to reach for their weapons. Both Sheppard and Rat produced very serviceable-looking guns of their own. Sheppard had a Glock and Rat now held what looked a lot like a silver-plated Firestar. Brandon had crossed over to the good guys, as she had hoped.
Gary, Allison, Shane, and Jennifer immediately raised their hands.
“These tunnels lead north quite a ways, if I remember my local lore,” Miller said. “You’re going to show us how to get of here saf
ely.”
“No,” said Gary. “I won’t.”
“Okay,” said Miller. “Rat, Sheppard, get ready to shoot one of them.”
Allison and Jennifer visibly blanched. Shane looked like he was ready to wet himself.
Gary didn’t blink, but he didn’t drop his hands either. “You’re bluffing. You won’t shoot me.”
“You’re right,” Miller sighed. “I’d rather not.”
She stepped forward and whacked Gary in the kneecap with the pry bar. The bone cracked like a piece of plastic.
“Son of a bitch!” Gary fell down. He grabbed his knee with both hands and rocked back and forth. He wailed like a paid mourner.
Allison and Jennifer panicked and turned to run. Sheppard quickly raised his pistol and shot Allison in the leg. She went down, hard. She cried out, and quickly dragged herself behind a large rock. A small trail of blood led right to her position. Meanwhile, Jennifer and Shane disappeared into the far tunnel.
Rat turned to Brandon. “Okay, kid, how long before they bring help?”
“Not long,” said Brandon. “I can show you the way out. But you have to take me with you. They’ll kill me for betraying them.”
Miller looked Brandon straight in the eye. “You get us out of here, and we’ll do what we can. But you have to do your part first.”
Brandon turned to face Sheppard, not Miller. “Thanks for trusting me, Karl.”
Sheppard frowned a little. “Thanks for helping us out.”
Brandon reached out sideways for Sheppard’s hand. Sheppard looked down at it like it was a snake about to bite him. He looked around at the others, then directly at Miller. She nodded. They weren’t out of this yet, and it was better if the kid thought Sheppard was into him. Hell, maybe he was. But none of it mattered if they didn’t get the hell out of there, and pretty damned pronto.
Sheppard put his hand in Brandon’s, squeezed it, and smiled wanly. After a moment, they each let go.
“Let’s move out, Brandon,” Miller said. “When the Army gets here, I don’t want them to see anything but our asses going over the back fence.”
The Hungry 5: All Hell Breaks Loose (The Sheriff Penny Miller Series) Page 6
