by Angela White
Becky heard the banging as she walked by the port-o-lets that were off-limits because they were over-full.
Thud! Thud!
Becky realized someone was inside the last john and quickly unsnapped the lock that had been put on it by the Eagles. She looked around suddenly, wondering why those on duty hadn’t noticed the banging.
She spotted Tucker and Anderson snickering in the shadows and understood as the door slowly swung open. They’d let this happen.
Matt’s condition was indescribable, and she was downwind. Becky immediately turned and threw up.
Matt walked toward the shower campers with his hands balled into fists. All thoughts of Cynthia, the newspaper, and his dad were shoved to the rear by his rage. They wouldn’t get away with it this time.
Becky waved off Seth’s concern as he rushed to her side. “I’m okay...hang on...blahhh...”
Seth caught a whiff of what had caused it and saw Matt. He started to ask the guards what had happened, and then understood as he saw who they were.
“They’re the ones...letting Dale get hurt, too,” Becky forced out, needing the distraction to settle her guts. “Scared to get Adrian’s fists...set the new rookies up for it instead.”
Seth understood more than she thought. Those two were also being watched for the way they were hanging out with the younger girls in camp.
“Adrian should give them a lesson,” Neil stated, coming over from his place on the showers. He’d quickly traced Matt’s shit trail to here.
Becky tried to spit out the taste. “But not by us. Matt’s had enough.”
They all looked toward the showers, where people were rushing out, half-clothed and gagging, as Matt went in.
“I don’t know what he has in mind, but anyone who’s ever picked on him should be careful.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Neil scoffed lowly. “Matt pay it back?”
Becky wiped her face with the shirt Seth had taken off. “That was a breaking point for him. Matt’s gonna change now, and I think maybe some people are in danger.”
Seth and Neil took those words to heart, instantly flashed to the mass shootings of the old world.
“We’ll watch him.”
Becky tossed the shirt into the fire-can that would be lit later. “Good.”
She moved toward the medical tent, stomach rockin’ rough.
Seth was staring at her in a thoughtful way that had Neil raising a brow. “Everything okay?”
Seth shook his head, reeling. “No. She’s been lying. To me, the camp, Adrian, to all of us.”
“Who?” Neil frowned. “Becky?”
Seth nodded, watching her hold her stomach as she ducked into the large medical tent. “She’s like them, Neil. And...” Seth’s face flooded with fear. “She didn’t get off with just a rape.”
Neil blanched. “She’s late?”
Seth nodded in misery. “Five weeks since he took her. Not one drop of blood.”
Neil thought quickly. “Only a week over. Life is stressful now.”
Seth’s voice lowered. “This isn’t the first time she’s thrown up.”
Neil frowned. He’d seen her getting sick last week after evening mess, but thought the chili hadn’t sat well. It sure hadn’t with him. The bed farts had been awful.
Neil didn’t want to pry, especially since this was the first conversation Seth had held with him in that five weeks. His words of Seth being dead to him hadn’t felt right after talking with Kyle. The obsession these men felt toward their younger females was hard to loathe after seeing the results.
“And how long have you two been...?”
Seth’s eyes didn’t lose their misery. “Two week after.”
Neil nodded, thinking the moment he’d witnessed on the tent wall hadn’t been their first time and he was still a bit pissed over it. “Might be yours, then.”
Seth hadn’t thought of that. “I...”
Neil moved away as that stunning realization sank in. The odds on it were slim, but at least there was a hope for them. Neil had no doubt about Seth sticking by her, and that helped to calm his anger. He didn’t like it that Seth had let their relationship become physical so soon after Rick’s attack, but it was over and done now, and she was slowly improving. If that changed, though, he would know it. After all this guilt and remorse, Neil knew he’d been checking up on her for the rest of his life.
5
“I won’t do that.”
“But I don’t want one right now,” Becky said firmly. “If ever.”
“I’m sorry, but it’s against my moral code, as well as Adrian’s rules. I won’t do that,” John stated.
“I will.”
John and Becky looked up to see Jennifer in the flap.
Dog glanced around her leg to check the tent and then vanished.
John scowled. Despite seeing Becky nearly every day since her attack, he still hadn’t gotten into her head. He might be able to do so now, while she was so scared.
“She’s scared because she thinks it’s Rick’s. Can you tell her differently?”
John hated Jennifer in that moment. “No, but it doesn’t change anything. We need babies, and there’s a chance that he’s not the father.”
Becky listened to their lowly held argument, stomach settling from the pill John had given her. The positive test was on the tray between them.
“You have no right to deny her an abortion,” Jennifer stated.
“You have no right to offer her one!”
Becky stood up. “It’s my choice, right?”
“I’d like a say in it, too.”
Becky cringed at Seth’s voice behind Jennifer.
Instantly uncomfortable, Jennifer stepped aside to let Seth go by.
Not angry, Seth gave the pregnant girl a comforting nod. Jennifer and Becky had become friends. He had no doubt Jennifer would support her keeping the baby if that’s what Becky really wanted. Her own impending motherhood was proof of that.
John eased out of the tent to give them privacy, and Jennifer fell in with his angry stride. “I’m not evil, you know.”
John stopped and spun around, meaning to say exactly what he thought about that, and Jennifer cringed back in fear.
The doctor froze. “You’re scared of me? I couldn’t hurt you if I tried.”
Jennifer couldn’t stop the tear that rolled. “I’m sorry I made you mad.”
John watched her waddle away, shocked into understanding that she wasn’t nearly as hard as those females had given her credit for.
“I assume you’ll make that up to her?”
John nodded at Kyle’s curt order. “Yes. I didn’t realize she was...”
Kyle supplied the words. “Terrified of men? Of all men? She is. I’m working on it, but so far, she doesn’t respond much to other people.”
John thought of how she’d stepped up to defend Becky’s rights, but backed down from Seth. “Adrian can help her, too.”
“After the birth.”
John shook his head, ashamed for his previous assumptions. He’d known Jennifer was like Angela, but as with the camp, he’d thought she was manipulating Kyle. “Set it up, now. She’ll need the strength if her twins don’t survive.”
Kyle blanched. If the doctor and Angela were preparing her for it, then the deaths were set.
6
“That’s what you want?”
Becky flushed. “Yes.”
Seth understood, even though he didn’t agree. “I’ll clear it with Adrian.”
Becky shook her head. “I don’t want him to try to talk me out of it.”
Seth saw her fear and had to ask again. “You’re sure?”
Becky began crying, and Seth found another box of tissues. Her silence said she wasn’t. What did she need?
“You know I’d stick by you, his or not?”
“I know. I just don’t think I can do it, Seth.” She stepped closer, needing him to know what was in her heart. “If I knew for certain it was yours!”
/>
Seth surrounded her with his big arms. There was no way to know that until the birth, and by then, she would be attached. She was afraid of hating her own child, he realized.
“I’ll talk to Adrian,” Seth repeated, heartbroken for her. “I’ll get him to agree.”
A tap on the flap got their attention, but neither of them moved.
Peggy stepped inside with a neutral face. She didn’t like Seth, but Becky needed her. John’s quick words had made that clear.
“What?”
Peggy blinked at Seth’s snarl. “I want to talk to her–alone.”
Seth looked down to see Becky shaking her head.
“Later maybe,” he answered.
“After you’ve forced her to kill my grandchild?”
“I don’t want her to do it either, but that’s not our choice to make!” Seth growled in angry frustration.
“You haven’t…” Peggy stopped, confused. “You want it?”
“More than you do,” Seth grunted. Mother-in-laws never changed.
“And she doesn’t...”
Seth rubbed Becky’s shaking shoulder. “She doesn’t want to have Rick’s baby.”
Peggy hadn’t realized, had mostly forgotten about the rape in favor of hating Seth and Adrian for keeping her away. “Rick’s?”
“We don’t know.”
Seth’s words were sharp, but the mother heard the concern, the plea for her to help change Becky’s mind. That’s what she’d come here for, but the thought of making Becky have her rapist’s baby was something no mother wanted to do.
Seth motioned toward the chair. “Sit down?”
Peggy went slowly, watching her teenage daughter cling to Seth. Becky wanted to be with him. Seth had been by her side throughout her recovery. He wanted the baby even if it wasn’t his. Sinking into the chair, Peggy was forced to accept that she’d been wrong.
Seth slowly guided Becky to the other seat. “I’m going to send someone to cover my post, and then I’ll be back. Okay?”
Becky slowly let go of him, face bright red and shiny from her tears.
Seth paused in the flap, looking back. The two females were staring at each other with more true emotions on their faces than he’d ever seen them share. Seth ducked out as Peggy held her arms open, and Becky instantly went to her.
Adrian was near the tent and handled it quickly. “What she chooses. Anne and Angela will handle it if John won’t.”
Seth was grateful, but his own need was clear, too.
Adrian sighed. “Freedom, Eagle. It’s not always as easy as just letting them fight.”
Seth let his boss see his pain, the only one he would share it with. “I long to be a dad again.”
So do I, Adrian thought, eyes going to Angela as she moved into the training tent. He looked back at Seth. “She’ll remember how it felt to carry life, even if only for a little while. You’ll have the opportunity again, and then, there won’t be a ghost to mar it.”
Seth took those words to heart and let them ease some of his fury at the situation. Adrian was right. In time, he would fill Becky with his sons and daughters, and Rick wouldn’t be anywhere in that picture.
Adrian motioned toward the showers, where Matt–naked as the day he was born–had just come out and begun drawing attention. “I want him in the Eagles. Can we do that?”
Distracted with a challenge, Seth grunted thoughtfully, “If he doesn’t snap, yes.”
“That’s why he needs to be an Eagle, Seth. If he isn’t, that snap might come on this camp, and I’ll have Kyle remove him before I let that happen.”
Adrian gave the undercover cop a hard look. “You’ve saved Becky, given her a chance at a future that shouldn’t have existed. Do the same for Matt and let the victory fill your heart when she follows through. Becky doesn’t want to be a mom yet. She wants to be one of us.”
7
“North looks bad. We only paralleled it for a little while. The mutations and smells are unbelievable. I thought I was watching a bad horror flick from the 1980s.”
Kenn had just gotten his full clearance from John and come to deliver his report in person, despite already sending it in on paper.
Adrian sighed. Oklahoma was known for a rich, black soil that was perfect for raising food, but not any longer. The deer here were deformed, and mutating more with every month’s fresh litters. Since the deer were herbivores, that meant the ground was now contaminated enough to produce poisoned food. Predators would get a strong dose with each meal, and eventually, so would the humans who had to hunt those predators for food. An ugly cycle, it would take a decade for the effects to wind down.
They were camped on the state line, and Adrian was glad to be entering another state, but he wasn’t expecting better conditions. Now surrounded by empty fields instead of rotting plants, Adrian was sure they would start finding starvation as they traveled. They’d thought the west was bad, and Adrian had been grateful to find Middle America almost intact, but the eastern edge…it was ugly. The death tolls from their battles with nature had leveled off, but what happened when they went into Little Rock might start it all up again. It was a shared thought.
“We also saw something you’re not gonna like,” Kenn stated.
Adrian braced for it. “What?”
“Tenkiller Lake was totally dry, like it hasn’t held water in months.”
That boded ill for the springs they hoped to gather water from. The camp was going that way to start collecting water as soon as the mission team returned from Little Rock. If there was no water here, the springs might also be dry.
“Up to fate now,” Adrian stated. “We’re too low on fuel to get to another area.”
Kenn put his notebook away, ready to follow through on the idea he’d had earlier. Tonya deserved what he was about to do. “If not, we’ll find another refinery or treatment plant.”
“Yes. We’re far from beaten. It’s just going to get a little tougher to keep us all alive now.”
Kenn indicated the group around the bonfire. “Harder for some than others.”
It was Kenn’s way of asking if it was okay to try and Adrian clapped him on the shoulder. “I think you’ll be surprised.”
Kenn went that way, motioning to the nervous woman waiting in the shadows. “Come on, rookie. Just don’t throw anything at me.”
Adrian was still surprised to be including Tonya and Cynthia in anything, let alone the Eagles. He watched as Kenn and Tonya approached their two biggest enemies and waited to be judged forgiven or not.
Seth and Kyle exchanged resigned glances as the couple waited, not speaking or forcing anything. A simple head shake would get rid of them.
Kyle gestured at Becky. “There’s room for you, if they slide down.”
Meaning it was up to them.
Becky was aware of Seth’s tension, his need to keep old grudges flying, but her mind was in other places. She put a hand on Seth’s arm to keep him from protesting. “There’s room.”
The undercover cop gave in without much of an argument. He too, had other things on his mind. “Fine. You can tell us about the look on everyone’s face when the rabbits attacked.”
Grinning, Kenn guided Tonya to the inside place, where she was surrounded, protected. It was noticed because the action said he cared about her safety.
Tonya kept her mouth shut, allowing the contentment to linger instead of chasing it out with the next plan or goal. She’d never been around people who could accept her flaws without taking advantage. She wasn’t used to it at all, but some of Kenn’s talk was rubbing off. She’d always known about the dream, but until she had let herself view it through his eyes, she hadn’t understood. If she had, she might have stood an honest chance as Adrian’s legal mate. If she’d just stopped and listened, even once, she would have wanted to be a part of this.
Back in Nevada, Tonya had thought only the top man would work for her, but after all these months, she’d come to think that where she was, was good enough. Maybe
it wouldn’t have been with any other man in Adrian’s Army, but Kenn knew how to handle a real woman.
It helped that he was as lusty as she was. They had sex in cars, over motorcycles, in the showers, against walls and trees, and anywhere else that the mood hit them. She didn’t have time to work on another man or plan. When she wasn’t sneaking around with her Marine, she was cooking, cleaning, sitting, collecting trash for the nightly burning, and a hundred other nasty chores that Kenn called ‘FND’ work.
“Room for another?”
Becky stiffened.
Seth looked at her, questioning if her forgiveness extended to someone who’d actually done her harm.
Becky stared at Neil, choosing his fate and her own. She didn’t hate him as much anymore, but they would never be friends.
Neil waited nervously, hoping she would give him the chance to atone.
Becky’s stomach lurched, reminding her that she wasn’t able to cast stones. Neil wasn’t the only one who’d made mistakes. Hers, in comparison, now seemed worse.
“Sit down.”
Becky’s choice broke some of the tension, and Neil took a seat by Kyle.
He flashed a grateful smile and watched Becky’s face tighten. Her eyes narrowed into that squint he’d been warned about, and Neil broke the contact, not wanting to ruin the gift she’d given by allowing him to be here.
Becky pushed the hate back down, controlling herself like Jennifer had instructed. The things that she could do were different than Adrian’s other special people, but they were also more volatile. When she wanted to see blood, it flowed.
Silence settled over the group, each lost in their own thoughts about the trials they’d gone through.
With the exception of Neil, this group was almost content now.
“Damn.”
Neil remembered to breathe as Marc and Angie came out of their tent, clearly fresh from an intimate moment. They were still holding hands and smiling, exchanging quick kisses. It was enough to make a trooper sick.
Neil got up and left the fire, vanishing into the darkness. Maybe he’d take one of the camp women up on their offer and at least have a warm heart next to him occasionally. He missed human contact more than he could say.
