by Angela White
She slid off the bunk and backed up against the wall, as Kyle and Adrian stepped shoulder-to-shoulder in front of her. “Come in and get me, Major.”
Garret pointed his gun at Conner. “If you don’t come out, I’ll kill him.”
“Your orders say he has to be alive,” Angela sneered. “Nice tr–”
Pop!
“No!”
Conner’s leg began pouring blood, and Angela screamed again, in rage this time. “You’ll die for that!”
“Dart her!” a young voice insisted in panic over the intercom. “She still has her powers!”
“We have a breach!” the Major’s personal guard shouted from the door. In his hand, the scanner was flashing brilliantly.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Major! We need you! Now!”
Gunfire outside reluctantly drew the Major and his guards. They all rushed from the room as Garret threw an angry order over his shoulder. “I want them ready for transport! Knock her out. She goes upstairs.”
2
“He says he’s Mitchel’s XO,” the gate guard stated nervously.
There was only one man standing outside the compound gates, but the monitors showed nearly forty green dots in the area. Despite their deals, it would seem that Adrian’s loose ends had found some help after all.
Garret considered the uses and hesitantly stopped the guards from opening fire as they wanted to. “Stand down.”
The hunters frowned, but obediently stepped back.
The Major waved his personal guards along and strode confidently outside. He didn’t need Mitchel’s right hand as leverage. However, he was always on the lookout for more useful men to add to his collection. Like the Italian killer in Adrian’s cell. Garret occasionally made exceptions in race when the man was useful, but Kyle would be gelded. Continuing that line, in this country, was now illegal.
Garret waited for the guards to open the iron gate they’d installed in their first days here, and then stepped out to meet the lone Marine standing in the middle of his street. The Major would have known what Kenn was without picking out the dog tags and tattoos. It was in those steel blue eyes and firmly planted boots.
He’s set to kill me, Garret thought, starting to think he might need to scour Adrian’s top people for new hands. Adrian knew how to pick hard men, no argument there.
“If you kill me, he dies,” the Major warned.
Kenn could feel Adrian somewhere inside that well-fortified building, and the silent order was clear. Adrian wanted this man dead, but Kenn already knew he wouldn’t be the one to do it.
“I’m surrendering.”
Garret frowned slightly. “With your gun in hand?”
“Surrender, not suicide,” Kenn replied, taking in how many, where to hit, and accepting that his hopes of rushing inside were unrealistic.
Garret chuckled. “Just you? Where are the rest of his men?”
Kenn scowled. “You don’t have them in there?”
The Major gloated. “Guess they didn’t survive the snakes and vines.”
Kenn took a step forward in mock rage.
Garret raised his own weapon. “Stop.”
Kenn did, playing the role. “I go where he goes.”
Garret shook his head, frowning at the sense of danger. The Italian might be a well-heeled killer, but this man was lethal.
“I think not.” The Major pointed toward his tower guard. “He’ll kill you in three seconds.”
Kenn was loose and ready. “I only need one.”
Garret hesitated to give the order. His death was in that 9mm, even if the Marine died, too.
The Major tried to calm things down, recognizing a kindred soul. “You can’t save him. He’s been marked for termination.”
Kenn growled. “By who? You?”
“He’s been on my list for almost two decades,” Garret stated, subtly motioning his hunters to kill, not capture, when it started. “The official order came down today. The government has declared him a threat to national recovery.”
Kenn took that in with no change in expression, but inside, worry boiled. The government was finally rearing its ugly head. “I can pay a bounty.”
Garret was surprised, but played along. “You can’t afford the pound of flesh he owes, let alone the final reward.”
“Will you trade something for him? I have access to a lot of the old world.”
Garret laughed, scornfully taunting. “I take what I want!”
Kenn had expected that, but he’d had to try. It was what Adrian had taught him. “Then, take this!”
Kenn pushed the button in his pocket.
Booommm!
The front of the shopping complex across from them exploded, sending shrapnel flying over the street. Flames and acrid smoke rolled their way.
Kenn hit the button a second time and the small house next to the compound gushed outward in a violet eruption of flames and wooden slugs.
Garret ran, given cover by his guards, and Kenn unslung his rifle, ducking behind the edge of the alley wall from the firing tower guards. The Major was quickly out of sight, but his men weren’t.
Hunters began falling, screaming in agony from well-chosen shots. Garret should have at least listened to the deal. He’d insulted Kenn, and there was a price to pay for that.
Pop-pop-pop!
3
“Step aside!” Angela hissed, sweating furiously.
The second they were clear, she released the ball of energy and blew the door off their cell.
Before they recovered from the blast, she was at Conner’s side.
“Help! The prisoners are...Ahhhh!”
Kyle and Adrian were hoping that sound over the intercom meant their lost men had found them. They weren’t prepared to see the snake clerk from the tunnels come through the door.
Cara rushed to Conner and began helping Angela as she searched for the slug with her fingers.
“I’m your ride,” Cara told them, holding the cloth where Angela pointed.
Adrian looked around. “I think we’re ready.”
Conner stirred, surprising those who knew he’d been darted.
Angela motioned to Kyle. “Grab him. I’ve got your six.”
The mobster didn’t hesitate, and Cara led the way to the door. She liked working with people who were as organized as she and her group were.
Kyle left the Major’s control center the same way he’d entered it–walking single file, carrying an unconscious loved one. For Kyle, Adrian’s son was like Adrian himself, to be protected. It was also a flashback to the rest stop, but this time, Kyle was glad to find it held little power over him. He’d survived it. That was a ghost he could finally let rest.
“This way.” Cara led them through the debris-laden alley behind the brick building that only Kyle had viewed upon entering. His first thought, Now, that’s a fortified place, still held. From bars over windows with currently unmanned gun-pods, to the razor wire and dead spotlights, the Major knew how to shelter-in-place while he got a job done.
Kyle was impressed with everything about Garret’s setup and plan, except for the man himself. The soda bottles in place of lights and solar generators for the rest of their lighting was very efficient, as were the solar dehydrators and small farms on each rooftop. The only thing that kept this from being a perfect compound, despite the evil running it, seemed to be Garret’s lack of consistent correction. After his own background and then being with Adrian so long, Kyle had recognized the dooming flaw almost instantly. If Garret let one kill or steal from him, but beat another for backtalk, it sent out mixed vibes that caused dissension. Leaders had to remain leaders. Now, if Garret had immediately killed Adrian as soon as he’d had him in custody, it would have been over. Adrian had also made mistakes, but Garret hadn’t caught them.
Bang!
The gunfire was directly behind them, and Cara took off running.
It quickly became keep up if you can, and the three of them were careful not to l
ose sight of each other, though, they had to guess on Cara’s direction more than once.
Cara took them toward their waiting men, and then away from the meeting place. She scaled the broken walls and mounds of filth as if they weren’t even there, increasing speed.
They tried to keep up with her, but unlike Conner, who’d been leading, Cara was now evading. After only minutes, they were lost, and Cara was gone.
“But we’re free,” Adrian told Angela when she would have complained. “Just be grateful and go back to caring for yourself. Rookie lesson X, one we haven’t covered yet.”
Angela took it in humbly. He was right. Cara had risked her life to help them, though they didn’t know why. During the run, there hadn’t been time to ask.
“Where to?” Kyle asked.
“We hunker down and watch for a signal,” Adrian stated, eyeing the lengthening shadows. “We can’t be out here walking when night falls, unless there’s no other choice.”
Angela and Kyle began searching for a shelter in their surroundings.
Adrian gently took Conner’s weight into his arms. Heavy and awkward, it was still the first time he’d held his son in a very long time. It was something he would cherish now, in case there wasn’t a later.
“Rooftop or trees?” Kyle asked, missing his Glock.
“Rooftop,” Adrian chose, adjusting Conner’s weight so that he could elevate the leg a little.
Kyle pointed. “I suggest that transmitter tower. It has a small utility stair that you can usually only see from one side. Just need to scavenge some cover along the way.”
Adrian nodded to Angela, “Give him that pissy little thing Marc insisted you carry on your thigh. He might be able to put someone’s eye out with it.”
Angela grinned. She’d said about the same thing.
She handed it over and gave a slight frown when she saw Kyle take a quick sniff of it. What the hell was that?
“Let’s go.”
Kyle took point, and Angela fell in between them, hands resting on empty holsters.
Around them, the silence was nerve-wracking.
They moved steadily south, feet crunching through layers of debris while even more began to hide them from view. They stepped lightly around and through horror, wood, and death, and it didn’t take them long to realize there was a path. Angela picked out the trails in each direction, barely visible as they wound through collapsed houses, burned businesses, and upended, reshaped cars. Their feet squelched, sometimes sinking alarmingly.
They went west and then south again as the piles grew larger, sharper. Almost like they’ve been stacked, Kyle thought, and then realized they probably had been to create the maze they were now deep inside of. It would be hard to spot them from anywhere; the debris was that high.
“Where are you going?” Kyle asked as Angela broke off from the formation and veered toward a line of partially collapsed stores.
“Getting something we need.”
The Premium Pet Products store was half-crushed and half-collapsed against the neighboring convenience store, and the smell of dead fish was strong as they neared it. The small piles of bones near long-gone windows gave the whole block a sense of doom.
Adrian indicated for Kyle to follow her, and gently set Conner’s body on a mostly clear patch of concrete. When Angela disappeared into the pet store, moving carefully over charred rubble and sharp metal, Kyle was on her heels.
Angela stepped carefully, penlight glaring off bodies and gore as the reek of aquatic decay permeated the disturbed air.
She walked down the two aisles that were still intact, noticing this store didn’t seem looted, only damaged. She was counting on that. No one thought of going to a pet store when the end of the world came, but that didn’t change the fact that it held a vital item. In their case, it was now as valuable as water.
Angela blew the dust and layer of webs back to read the small bottles, and grabbed the edge of her shirt. She swept them all into the makeshift carrier and went outside.
“Fish medicine?” Kyle asked, as Angela dumped the tablets into her pocket.
“Surprised to know it’s the exact same ingredients as human antibiotics and legally bought?”
Kyle scowled. “That was the old world. $150 bucks for a ten day supply for a child with Strep throat, and yet the same medicine for a fish ailment was...” He picked up an empty bottle. “$33.89.”
Kyle tossed it away angrily. “And people wonder why it all fell.”
Adrian helped Angela force one of the small pills down Conner’s throat, getting him to swallow as he began to wake.
“We need to get under cover,” Adrian informed them, picking Conner up. “Night’s coming.”
Kyle took Point again, and they headed for the tower as the clouds roiled above them.
Faint drops sizzled on their skin, and they hurried to get under cover. The rain was coming.
Except it didn’t. The sky looked ready to burst, but they stayed dry.
The radio tower’s base was nearly covered in the rotting wood of a lumber company across the street, and it took them a long bit of climbing to reach the narrow platform. Once on it, they quickly settled down and tended the issues they were able to handle.
From their new vantage point, they could see movement of Garret’s hunters and survivors fleeing the city ahead of the Major.
4
“Where did they go?”
Kenn didn’t bother to answer, since he didn’t know. Cara was supposed to lead Adrian away from Mansion Row and then double back. Kenn wanted to grab one of the Major’s loaded vehicles for the ride out of this hellhole.
It had now been an hour, and there was nothing. No Adrian, no Cara, not even any noise. It was colder now than when they’d first arrived in Little Rock, and the chill in the wind wasn’t comforting.
“She set us up.”
“Maybe.” Kenn shrugged. “Either way, Adrian’s free.”
Kevin’s training resurfaced in his tired mind. “We need a signal!”
“But not just anything will work,” Kenn pointed out. “Asshole knows Adrian’s methods too well. This has to be something Angela will recognize, or we’ll all be in cells this time.”
“Like what?” Kevin asked, hating this feeling of isolation, but more than enjoying the rush from it. If they survived, he would gain another jump in rank and have more respect for himself.
“They’ll watch hardest as it gets dark, when they have a clear view,” Kenn muttered. “We’ll settle in somewhere until then. Pick it, rookie.”
“Unless we want to swim with the fish, I’d say high,” Kevin answered. “The billboard would be a good vantage point.”
Kenn motioned him to take the lead, thinking he would be glad when Adrian was back with them.
“I’d even take Brady,” he muttered, wincing at his own loud steps. The debris was impossible to avoid.
Kevin squinted upward for a moment and then did the same on the other side. “Hey, we’re in luck! One of the panels over here is hanging down. We’ll be out of sight.”
Kenn followed Kevin up the rusty ladder, straining a bit under the weight of the kit that he was now damn glad to have. Kevin didn’t have his, but Kenn’s kit would allow them both a comfortable couple of hours. Being prepared had advantages.
From their wide perch, Kenn could see the top of the Major’s compound and a small group of guards on the roof. In the other direction, he picked out the street that would lead them home.
Garret’s compound was a fancy house in the middle of four others. He’d knocked out the side doors and windows to create an adjoined compound of three-story brick buildings that were being heavily patrolled by his bodyguards. His bounty hunters didn’t do a turn on guard duty. They were above pulling watch duty.
The center building housed the cells and Garret’s personal residence, and Kenn knew that’s where Adrian would be stashed. Kenn eyed the stores across the street and the small refrigeration company on the corner. Neither
had been damaged in his first explosions. Maybe he could do something with them.
“Damn. You’ve got some great stuff in here,” Kevin stated a bit later. “My kit was light in comparison.”
Kenn leaned back, soaking up the praise. “Years of missions taught me that the manual never has it all covered.”
Kevin scraped the last of the applesauce from the packet and muffled a belch that could have echoed for a while. He began to clean up their mess.
Kenn shook his head. “Leave it. If someone catches a movement, we can send a piece of debris flying on the wind for cover.”
Kevin was also absorbing information. Most of the Eagles loathed the Marine, and while Kevin didn’t want to be best friends, he did want to learn whatever Kenn wanted to teach.
The billboard, asking those in Little Rock to visit the children’s museum often, swayed uneasily in the wind, creaking and groaning. Kevin didn’t care for heights, but the view was great. Among the rubble, they’d discovered paths and Kevin was currently trying to figure out where they led. Many of those routes through the decay weren’t random. “What are we using for a signal?”
Kenn pointed to the kit. “You tell me and remember your lessons.”
Kevin began digging again, paying attention this time. He came up with starting a fire, glow sticks, a flashlight, and a mirror. “The flashlight?”
“Too noticeable,” Kenn corrected “Try again, but rule out using light to communicate.”
“Can’t you...uh, I mean... You know.”
Kenn shrugged. “Been trying. If she could hear me, she would have responded.”
Kevin frowned. “Do you think they’re okay?”
Kenn snorted. “This is Angela, who crossed the country with only one man for backup, and Adrian, who’s been doing this his whole life. Not to mention his trained assassin and the teenager who’s been surviving here for six months. If you want to worry over someone dying, consider how the rest of the team’s gonna feel when they find out Cara betrayed us.”
Kevin hadn’t considered that. His voice became cold. “They’ll kill them all.”
Kenn, in full training mode now, corrected again. “They’ll strike a deal, try not to have to honor it, get us out of here, and then we’ll help kill them. Make sure you have the order correct, because Adrian won’t leave any of them alive after what they’ve done and forced his son to do.”
