by Angela White
“By omission, yes.” Anne didn’t remind him that he’d done the same thing to her in the beginning of this new life. She didn’t need to. “I’m sorry for it.”
“But you’d do it again!” he accused, ignoring the rocking ambulance. The wind hadn’t let up much. Neither had his anger.
“Yes, and so would you. I had to find out on my own.” Anne gave him what he needed to be able to accept it–the truth.” You broke our trust first.”
Hearing her say it smashed through his furious indignation. John’s shoulders slumped.
Anne hated his misery. “I hope to prove my loyalty, and to earn back your love.”
“I always have love for you!” John immediately denied.
The wife finished leading him into giving her what she had to have. “I can wait until you’re too sick, if that will make it easier on you…”
John’s anger broke under a flood of terror. “No, please don’t… I want those last moments with you!”
Anne gasped at the unforgiving anguish ripping through her chest. Her husband would die soon, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
They reached out a hand at the same time for comfort, grips tight. Neither could imagine being without the other.
The truck in front of them slowed and came to a stop, forcing them to do the same.
John motioned to the glove box, expression daring her to protest. “Get it.”
Anne reluctantly retrieved the gun he kept there, nervous. She’d only had a couple of quiet lessons.
Lee came to the window, and John quickly rolled it down. “What is it?”
“We have two injured camp members catching up,” Lee told him grimly. “They need care. I’ll drive.”
John and Anne switched to the rear of the ambulance to wait, assuming the mission team had run into trouble.
After a long minute of exchanging hurt, needful glances, John slowly tugged his wife closer. “Together for the rest of it?”
Anne nodded, holding onto him, to his comforting life force. “You know it.”
John winced, but didn’t let go.
They stayed that way until Samantha opened the door, looking like she’d been beaten. Behind her, Seth was carrying Becky, who clearly had been.
John moved aside to let them in, pushing back the pain and worry to do his duty. There would be time for mourning later.
3
“This is an off-limits area! State your business!”
The sight of Marc on the dock of the warehouse, alert guards in the shadows around him, allowed Adrian to breathe again. He hated being split up.
“I own the place,” Adrian joked tiredly.
“Welcome home...Boss.”
Adrian’s eyelids began to sting. Even if it was only a show for the men, Marc’s tone was more genuine than Adrian felt he had any right to.
Adrian grunted in weary annoyance with his emotions. I need sleep. “Kenn has Point. Get us set up for a week.”
The camp members, who had also been without Adrian for much longer than any of them were comfortable with, rushed from their vehicles.
“Let them through,” Adrian ordered. He was quickly surrounded.
While the Eagles got the camp set up, Adrian allowed his people to see and hear the battle. Cynthia had surrendered the tape recorder in her pocket as they pulled in to lead the convoy. She was his now, in more ways than one.
Adrian motioned to the reporter, telling her silently that she was on her own time.
Cynthia nodded, but didn’t leave, and Adrian had to decide if she knew the codes or only was acting as if she had understood.
Okay to stay? Cynthia sent. She didn’t want to leave his guard until Kenn had camp set up. Less distractions would keep their guards watching what they were supposed to. If she and Rick could sneak through the shadows and get to the chain of command, then so could others.
Adrian grinned at the reporter. “You’re my shadow until camp’s up.”
Cynthia smiled back, blushing a bit at his open reversal of her outcast status. “Thank you.”
Adrian pushed out a wave of pleasure. “My honor, Cyn. My honor.”
Those around fell quiet at the interaction. Cynthia wasn’t an outcast anymore! How had that happened?
The tape was playing, coming to the end now, and Adrian stared at Cynthia as the gunshots echoed. He owed her so much. They all did.
Bang!
Bang!
“She’s hit!”
“He’s dead! Cesar’s dead!”
“Who did it? Did Adrian get him?”
“Other side’s pourin’, Boss.”
“No. It was Cynthia.”
The powerful recorder had captured the talk of the Eagles as Adrian fought to save Angela.
“Cynthia shot him?”
“Good thing, too.”
“Yeah, his next shot would have killed Angie.”
“Pressure!”
“Damn. Look at that puddle spread. One hit might still be enough.”
Adrian switched the player off. “You have one request from the top two team leaders. Use them wisely.”
The camp understood that she was to be rewarded. They surrounded her next, and Cynthia was forced to pass guard duty to someone else in favor of being accepted back into the herd.
“Took a call, Boss.” Kenn shouldered his way through the crowd. When he sent a hard glare around, most of the people headed toward the familiar mess now taking shape behind them. The others fled for bathrooms and showers, all eager to discuss what they’d been through. The center fire would be busy as Safe Haven compared stories and drew conclusions.
“The mission team had a delay. One of the slaves is pregnant and having trouble. Kyle stayed, says he’ll catch up in a few hours.”
“Fine,” Adrian approved the slow travel, always eager to welcome new children into his flock. “What about the doctor?”
“Ambulance should be here anytime.” Kenn had been glad to hear that Samantha was safe, and shocked to find out that Becky wasn’t in any of the vehicles he had sent out. It was a perfect example of his leadership–just not good enough.
Kenn knew it. “I’m sorry.”
Adrian didn’t make him feel worse. He’d had to leave Kenn in charge while they handled the slavers, but he’d known as they left that it wouldn’t go well. That rock-and-hard place was gone now.
“You did the best you could. Make plans for the things that got out of control, so that it’s covered next time.”
“Next time?”
Adrian snorted, low on patience–on everything. “You don’t really think the slavers were our only enemy, do you? We’ll have to this again. Get ready for it.”
4
It took a while for Safe Haven to settle down.
The livestock was fed and watered, the dogs were put out, and four common tents surrounded them with the flapping they had all gotten used to. It sounded like home, and almost felt that way. The perimeter was widened, the flag put at half-staff, and the mess and bathrooms were growing full of unwinding people that would crash hard tonight in relief. The threat was over and their shepherd had returned.
Now doing rounds, Adrian watched the sky swirl and fluctuate around the perimeter. The power here was growing. Each challenge they faced sent nourishment into the magic seeds that were planted in his Haven. They’d come through what he had assumed would be the hardest part–surviving the first six months. Now, the future was here, full of possibilities and pain. At the moment, it was exhausting, but even under his weariness, Adrian knew what the next chore was. Magic was about to become a part of his duties–blending it in and training it to protect the sheep instead of itself.
“It’s almost time to form the council,” he slowly decided. If I’m still leading them after Little Rock, the first Presidential Cabinet of the new world will be chosen. If I’m not...
Adrian’s head turned toward the warehouse, but he didn’t finish the thought as movement nearby caught his attention.
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Just the Ants.
Adrian didn’t understand why the mutations were occurring so fast. The chemicals in the ground wouldn’t cause changes this quickly, and neither would eating from infected corpses. They had to have another contamination source, a powerful one.
It scared Adrian, and not only because of the obvious danger. The ants’ determination to survive was as strong as the human will to live. If not for the dogs and the wolf running them off, the bold insects would probably be fighting them for space in their tents. As the ants continued to grow larger, these methods would become ineffective. They could only do a basic routine with the dogs, unlike the wolf, who understood them.
Adrian changed directions, blending into the trees as if he were a part of them. “Dog?”
The brush rustled to his right, and the wolf padded to his side with matted fur and a tense demeanor.
Realizing Dog had been close, Adrian frowned. “Where’s Charlie?”
At the mess with his playmate. They’re feeding the strays.
“Serving the trays,” Adrian corrected. “Who has guard?”
A rookie.
“Who made that call?”
Kenn.
Before Adrian could hit the button on his mike, Dog gave a soft growl. The pup is safe. Nature outnumbers us. That is our problem.
To their right, a single-file line of ants was slowly crawling up a moldy tree just outside the perimeter tape. The line stretched into the distance, where cone-hills rose from the ground like pimples on skin. Soldier ants surrounded the line, larger and more aggressive than the rest of the colony. Their hard black eyes returned to Safe Haven’s protection repeatedly–the dogs and the people–but it was the wolf that they studied.
“Be careful out there.”
Dog understood why he was getting the warning. Yes. I suggest only pairs for patrols.
“I have some ideas, but I need to get the dogs following orders the way you do. Is that possible?”
Adrian moved toward the warehouse while he waited for the mental answer.
Not unless I talk to them.
“You can?”
Dog snorted heavily, shaking his body to clear some of the scent of civilization. He missed the wild. What message shall I relay?
Adrian accepted the newest oddity with a brief mental lurch. Discovering that an animal they had always considered inferior was actually capable of cross-species communication, was humbling. “They have to lay down scents around the camp each time we set up.”
They’re already doing that, the wolf answered with disgust. Like the Eagles, he was also tired enough to snap at anyone who came too close. The perimeter reeks of mutt.
Adrian chuckled lightly. “Chemicals and urine don’t detour the ants, but all of the mutations avoid places where you’ve rolled off dead fur.”
Yes, that’s good. And smart to have noticed. Perhaps you were a wolf in a previous life?
Adrian realized the animal was joking with him and replied, “Perhaps you were a human.”
I was cleaner than those here, the Wolf growled lowly.
“We’re rationing, cutting shower times,” Adrian explained, missing the wording in his exhaustion. “Three hundred of us use more water each week than what we’re finding.”
Dog looked up in golden-eyed amusement. Have you encouraged licking?
Adrian snickered. “If I did that, our species would die out from lack of mating.”
In exchange for being able to lick myself, I’ve been given a tongue that takes layers of skin with each stroke. Why create such horror?
The wolf snorted in bitter amusement that almost made Adrian recoil–it was much too human. “Maybe that’s why pups are so wild. It drives them crazy.”
Not pups, Dog corrected gently, sensing Adrian was ready for guidance outside the realms that he was already familiar with. Men. Each life born into the animal kingdom now is a human spirit, paying for mistakes.
Adrian’s mind shuddered, step pausing as that awful truth locked into place. It fit too perfectly.
Nature was gentle in the Garden. When it was sealed for man’s crimes, the world changed.
“Because evil was born unto the animals,” Adrian guessed, dazed as his mind sorted a batch of puzzle pieces in a back corner. This was an ancient mystery–one mankind was cursed by–and Dog may have just given him a key piece.
Yes. They only began killing when the evil of men took control.
“And the apple?”
Dog looked up in confusion. He had forgotten most of the world he came from, the fast vibrant life that he’d held before. He remembered his part in it, but only that much.
“What was the crime that got man banished from the Garden?” Adrian rephrased the question.
You already know what they did to curse us, Dog stated. It’s why clean spirits pass on, but evil stays–constantly repeating in both human and animal populations.
“They lay down with the beasts,” Adrian muttered the theory he’d held for some time now. “HE stepped away for a breather, and they went crazy with their discovering.”
And cursed an entire world, Dog confirmed.
“The first births?”
Dog wasn’t sure how much the man was ready for now–Adrian’s eyes were slightly feverish in the coming light–but he answered, Was animal-like. Its sibling was human. When the mistake was understood, the first son was banished to the wilderness, where he watched his brother with jealousy that became hatred. How could he do anything else but kill to reclaim what he had lost?
“So earth...”
Is Hell. There is no better place to punish, than where the crime was committed.
Adrian was aghast. “How do we fix a curse like that?”
You cannot change what has been, only what may be.
“Meaning?”
The war gave one chance for mankind to repent, to get it right, and you are leading that grueling charge. You have to convert them, rip away the evil, and make them believers.
“That’s what Safe Haven already does,” Adrian argued. “One ugly step at a time.”
The head start is too big. You could convert every survivor on the entire planet, and it would not be enough.
“How then?”
STOP!
There were rules, and Dog heard the mental warning clearly–he wasn’t allowed to share the answer.
“I only want human suffering to end. I’d never use anything you tell me to gain power,” Adrian pled.
Dog broke the rule without caring what punishment he might receive. Adrian was the shepherd. He needed this information.
If drawn by a bright enough light, lost souls might come, ready to mend old hatreds and be reborn in peace. Such might shift the balance of good and evil to man’s favor.
Adrian tried to estimate a number of lost souls and couldn’t. “How do I convert them once called?”
The same as you do your living herd, Dog answered. Carefully.
5
“The Ambulance and escorts are back.”
“Copy.”
When Adrian got to the QZ, he found Seth waiting for him at the tape. The headache in his temples grew worse as his mind continued to sort through all that Dog had shared.
“Rick’s dead.”
Adrian didn’t congratulate Seth, sensing the damage was bad. “And?”
“And Samantha has a concussion and a face that looks like she went five rounds with a Heavyweight,” Seth sneered. “She got off easy.”
They both turned as the ambulance door opened, watching John and Anne help Becky into a wheelchair. Even covered in sheets and the haze of drugs, it was clear what she had suffered.
“She doesn’t want to talk to you or her mom yet–said if you make her, you’ll both be sorry,” Seth stated.”
“What did John say?”
Seth’s hands clenched. “John wants her under 24-hour suicide watch in the medical tent.”
It was still better than what Adrian had expected upon finding
out Rick had also taken Becky. “And Samantha?”
“I’ll live.”
Sam climbed from the ambulance slowly, grateful to John for insisting on the painkillers. She felt like shit and not the normal kind, but a pile that had been rubbed across the sidewalk by dozens of feet.
Adrian immediately went to help her, scowling at her misshapen face and bandaged hands. “I’m sorry.”
“I brought him here,” Samantha replied stiffly. “You don’t owe me that.”
“Rebecca won’t accept it, either.” Seth muttered, shattered in a way that he had no idea how to fix. “She hates everyone.”
“Adrian didn’t do this. Neither did Neil or myself, Samantha stated firmly. “Rick did and in time, she’ll realize that.”
Sam turned toward the QZ’s small parking area, where the guards were preparing for the mission team’s triumphant arrival. Extra tents were going up, the mini-mess was being erected, and the smell of food was wafting over them. Very soon now, she would have to face her own mistakes and sacrifice her desires to repair the damage.
“You headed for a tent?” Adrian asked, sure John wanted her resting.
Samantha’s eyes stayed on the parking area, where camp women were gathering–some waiting to help the new people, some waiting to care for the Eagles. “There’s something I need to do first.”
Adrian recognized the tone and waved an alert-looking rookie over. “Stay with her. She gets out of your sight, you’re out of my army.”
Samantha and the rookie both frowned, but Seth nodded in approval. During the ride, Sam told him how Rick had waited for the rookies to leave her alone during the shift change. He’d grabbed her from the shower during the lapse. None of the camp’s special people would ever be without guards again.
Engines swelled, and the redhead crossed his arms over his chest, face tightening. He hadn’t argued with Samantha about it not being anyone’s fault but Rick’s. She was beaten and medicated, why bother? However, Neil, who Seth could see as the trucks rolled closer, hadn’t suffered anything. He didn’t even know what had happened, but Seth was about to make sure that Neil was aware of the debt he owed to the devastated girl who had chosen to stay in his tent.
6
“You are approaching an American M-Military Refugee Camp. Identify yourselfs!”
