by Angela White
Doug began pouring beans and meat from the thermos into small cups.
“Try it.”
The women did reluctantly. They knew how to cook. They’d been raised on it, most of them, and the idea that they could have boiled the water and left it alone was a strange mystery to be tried with a braced mindset.
Angela didn’t hang around to wait on the results. She’d already shared that moment with Kyle’s team. She hadn’t known it either. Few of America’s ‘modern’ generation had.
The next training area also dealt with food. The refugees of the war would eventually starve or freeze without this knowledge. It hadn’t been given by the government before. In fact, it had been ridiculed. Those people weren’t around to say they were sorry, and it was still hurting all of them. Society needed those absent skills, the missing parts of the great American herd.
“If you find a big stash of food, you can’t carry it all. Even if you could, it would quickly go bad. The machines on the tables are dehydrators and vacuum sealers. This is the best way, next to freeze drying, something we can’t do easily anymore. We’re going to play with these, gentleman. I don’t want to hear that it’s women’s work. You will bag your own food for the battle and keep it on hand.”
Neil was giving his team the class, but his firm words were mostly for the two dozen camp members also in attendance. “However, if there is no machine or power source around, you can still prepare your food. Use fire.”
Neil pointed at the small oven he’d made from cardboard and tape. “I know it doesn’t look like much, but it works. There are many ways to do it, but this was the style I used with my dad on camping trips. He taught me, and now, I’m passing it on to you.”
Neil uncovered a cardboard box that resembled a small oven, even down to the SH logo in the corner. “Place the foil over all the surface areas. Use the top to draw the light from the sun with the foil, and leave the flap open a crack. We used to be able to do this on baking sheets in our ovens, but now, we use the sun. It never needs fuel tabs, but it can still burn you, so be careful when you cook using it tomorrow. Let’s start building.”
Angela wanted to do her own and try it, but there were more important things for her. She left after delivering an approving nod to the teacher.
“Let’s dump the garbage for the ants…”
Angela turned to find Charlie and Conner carrying the bags toward the gate. She sent a quick motion for Zack to go with them. The boys liked to do the work because it gave them a chance to test her theories, but they were also a bit more reckless than she cared for. Also, Charlie’s tone was off a bit. She would catch him later and ask if he needed to talk. The time he was spending with Tracy had to be sending his hormones into a tailspin.
Angela studied the anthills that were still staying on the west side of camp, then the fires of the groups around them. Two more had come, bringing their totals up to nine other small societies revolving around the light of this one. She’d made it clear that the ants were to be left alone, and Kenn was having the patrols make sure, but she thought maybe the ants were in danger anyway.
“We could shield them.”
Angela shrugged at Jennifer’s comment, thinking the young mother appeared a lot more at peace now. “Not unless we have to. There are bigger things to cover.”
Jennifer sighed, understanding. She, too, liked the idea of having an animal army, even if it was only giant insects.
Angela placed a hand on the teenager’s arm and the shield above them rippled with purple and orange.
Angela let go. “I’m sorry.”
Jennifer knew why she was getting the apology, but didn’t accept it.
“I don’t blame you. I have a beautiful daughter because of what you did for us. Let that guilt go.”
Angela didn’t answer. Those who weren’t leaders didn’t understand that you never let it go. It got buried so that the zombie of it could reappear in your dreams.
“If they saw the ants helping, the outsiders might leave them alone.”
Angela frowned at the wording, but didn’t correct Jennifer. Each of the groups around theirs had different rules and laws, different customs. It was America, there was supposed to be differences, but she didn’t like it. She also didn’t have the manpower to try integrating any of them at this point and had left them under their own care. Marc had known what he was doing by sending the camps here. She believed that.
“I’m still not sure how they’ll help,” Angela confessed tiredly. “I just know they will.”
Jennifer stared at the insects thoughtfully. When she spoke, she sounded like a determined XO.
“I’ll come up with something.”
The teenager drifted toward Charlie and Conner while writing it in her book.
Jennifer was carrying a lot of hate and darkness, but the brain inside those prisons was a gift that Angela intended to use. Kyle may not realize how smart his chosen mate was, but she and Adrian were clear on it. Jennifer had done what they had, what their kind was forbidden to do. It had made her powerful in a number of ways.
Angela pushed away the longing. Their gifts would be unstoppable when the soldiers arrived. She would get her fill and then some.
2
The sight of Kenn storming through the camp wasn’t anything new. Neither were the blue hands or the blue clothes that refused to be washed of the stains. It also wasn’t unusual to see him with a blue face. The number of balloons that popped when he worked in the supply trucks was astronomical.
Kenn stomped into the mess where only a few of the happily eating campers even looked up. When the others did, they swept the signs of his ordeals and then glanced away before laughter could escape.
As he stood before them now, there was a feeling of something coming. People walking by began stopping to observe.
Kenn glanced around, big fists clenched. As he glared, the conversations stopped and more people took notice.
Angela and Samantha, doing rounds before eating, also paused nearby.
“I’m sorry.”
All of them were shocked.
Kenn’s next words added to that feeling.
“I am. I haven’t been that way in a while now and I’m making amends and helping, and damn it, can you please turn my piss back to normal? I almost shit myself.”
Laughter, thick and needed, rolled over the camp.
Angela’s was the only one missing. Samantha was still chuckling as she caught up.
Kenn glared at the happy crowd. “Can I be forgiven now?”
“I think I’m done,” Allan casually stated, chuckling. “What about you, Jeremy?”
Jeremy grinned wider. “Yeah, I guess we’ve gotten our money’s worth.”
Kenn hadn’t expected it to be Eagles. He scowled angrily, but didn’t shout at them like he wanted to.
“What do I need to do to get rid of the color?”
Zack cackled from behind him. “It’ll wear off in a few days if no one doses you again. It was Methylene Blue.”
“Three of you?” Kenn asked, confused.
More laughter spilled out and Zack shook his head. “No, not exactly. Seth and I turned you blue on the outside. Daryl helped there, too. Kyle did the honor of your insides.”
“I did the water bucket,” Peggy spoke up. “Almost used cow piss, but the animals aren’t very friendly these days.”
Snickers came and then more voices confessing:
“I put the oatmeal in your shoes,” Joseph stated.
“I switched your rolls of toilet paper for cotton balls glued together,” Jeff snickered.
Kenn gaped. They’d all been against him.
“I did the vomit trip,” Tracy laughed from a rear table. “With some help.”
“Why would you all do that?” Kenn was baffled as they cackled at him.
“Because I asked them too.”
Kenn’s stomach dropped. I should have known.
“Yes, you should have. I told you that you’d pay.”
Charlie was leaning against the mess truck in arrogant triumph. It instantly reminded everyone of his absent father.
Kenn waited, bracing to be struck from his place again.
“I don’t want that now,” Charlie stated, openly reading his mind. “But there is something you have to do.”
“What?” Kenn asked warily. He could feel the trap, but couldn’t determine from which direction it was coming.
“I need a running target for my team practices at night. You’re it.”
When Kenn started to protest, Charlie turned from the approving mess with a light warning, “Unless you’d rather keep pissing blue. Did you know you were the one who collected the Methylene? Ironic, huh? We’re gonna start calling you Smurf-balls.”
Kenn heaved a resigned grunt as the laughing resumed. “One running target, check.”
3
“It’s getting worse here. We can’t recover the bodies or try to dig for survivors. They’re attacking at all hours, returning the favor. We’re sleeping in shifts as the fighting continues.”
Marc’s weary voice over Safe Haven’s speakers had all of them in and outside the gate mesmerized with fear and anger. He’d brought every class and activity to a screeching halt as soon as Angela told Kevin to pipe it over the new speakers. Kenn had rigged them up recently for this purpose.
“We’re pinned in, using the deepest areas so they can’t bunker-buster us out. There are only three days ammunition left and then I’ll have to get mean. If you’re close by and can fight, I need you. If you’re close by and trapped, stay down and get out when they take us. Go to Safe Haven. You’ll be free there.”
The static came for a few seconds and then Marc’s voice echoed again.
“If I go to sleep, none of us may wake up. To fill the time, I’m going to tell you a true story. I’m going to tell you what caused the end of our world.”
Aching, Angela tuned it out. She knew what he was going to say, but it would only stir her up when she needed to calm down. Unlike the camp, who needed to know the truth before they would be ready to fight, she needed to un-hear Marc’s desperation. It was killing him that his men were dying. It was what he’d brought them together for and she could feel his sorrow. It matched her own. What good life takers they’d become.
What if he doesn’t come back?
Angela shoved the witch aside and cowered inside her crypt. “You can have it.”
Greedy enough to want full control, but in love with her host, the witch offered another solution.
Let Adrian in.
Angela wouldn’t do that, not willingly.
Just stay where you are and I’ll…
“No.”
The witch roughly yanked Angela’s arm and shoved her forward. Then get out of here and go do your job!
Forced from her mental shelter, Angela drew her armor on tighter and tried to pretend her soul wasn’t darkening faster than the moon could rise.
4
“I want a team put together.”
Angela’s words were met with unrest instead of the support she’d been expecting.
“Marc told us what to do when this moment came,” Kevin told her, not making eye contact. “No team is allowed to leave Safe Haven for any type of rescue attempt.”
“He made it very clear that anyone who left you unprotected would be on the receiving end of his wrath,” Kenn added.
Angela viewed Kenn in a hateful glower. “I know what your plan is, Smurf-balls. Shut up.”
Smirks and pointed leers came at her open defiance of Kenn’s power over her. It was a good moment.
Angela let the men have it, turning her back to the table. She pulled on her falling levels of patience and control, but her voice wasn’t the rock these men were used to hearing.
“Either I’m the leader here or I’m not. Put a team together to go pull our men from that damn base. Do it right now!” she ordered. “Or I’m resigning. Tonight.”
Angela left the mess amid the protests.
“He should have foreseen that coming,” Adrian commented.
Kenn waited until she was out of earshot. “Well?”
Adrian grunted, rising. “I’ll walk before I take over like this. You make your own choices.”
Adrian followed her and those left behind were forced to ignore the possibility of Marc’s displeasure to start making plans. None of them wanted to die or have Marc killed, but it was easier if their current chain of command stayed together. They hadn’t missed that fact.
Adrian trailed her, but gave plenty of space. She wanted time to think, to figure out what came next. She knew what he’d said, how he longed to be the one who led this mission. Would she send him? He was the only one besides Kenn who might even have a chance at it.
No.
Her broken tone in his mind was proof that she wasn’t allowed to do what she wanted either. “Why not? You don’t need me here.”
Angela stopped at the edge of the perimeter to use a moldy tree for support. “Yes, I do. I don’t want you in the same ways, but I need you. So do they.”
“You won’t risk the herd for him.”
“Never.”
“It hurts to accept what’s honestly inside, to allow yourself to be who you are. You love the sheep more than your mate, as do all the Eagles. Well, maybe not Kyle anymore, but once Jenny…”
Angela left him standing there, not caring about his attempts at distraction or the reality check he felt she needed. The pain in her heart was too heavy to carry. If they didn’t go, she would be on her way come dawn. That was the reason Adrian couldn’t be sent. She wasn’t strong now. She was crumbling by the hour and even if she sent him, she might still break and fly to Marc’s side, leaving Safe Haven without a leader. That couldn’t ever happen.
“It will, though,” Adrian vowed from behind her. “If you leave, I’m duty-bound to protect you. So are the Eagles. If you go, so do we.”
“And so would everyone else.”
“Yes. You’ll lead them to slaughter,” Adrian confirmed.
Angela began silently begging fate to spare Marc. “I want two teams sent instead of one.”
“You’ll stay here while I relay that?”
Angela pulled her gun and headed for the training course, where a large group of camp men were being instructed. “You’ll hear me the whole time you’re gone.”
Adrian still hurried, and he did keep track of her shots echoing furiously across the camp.
5
Another radio report like that and she’ll come to you. We can’t stop her.
Adrian sent the message to Marc as hard as he could, hoping Angela didn’t pick up on it while she was shooting. Those moments were often daze-like, so he had a hope that she wouldn’t. He had his own mental lines to use, but Angela was evolving faster than any descendant he’d known. There was no way to be sure that she couldn’t hear him.
Adrian listened for a return message from Marc, but there was only a tired hatred that didn’t make it far through Safe Haven’s strong boundaries before it was gone.
Adrian sighed. He wouldn’t sleep again tonight. Her misery was his now, and not being able to challenge those bonds like he wanted to made for a surly former leader roaming the camp.
In the QZ parking area, two full teams were preparing for departure. The top Eagles had seen enough by now to understand that Angela had complicated plans to ensure their victory and each of them felt that Marc’s anger was a small price to pay to keep her here and working. Even Adrian hadn’t accomplished as much in this short of time.
That fact was also on Adrian’s mind as he stepped aside for two team members who were carrying heavy crates from the weapons truck. Despite how deeply he cared and how hard he’d tried, Angela was a better leader. Why?
She only lies when she has to, when it serves the good, his own mental voice spoke up brutally. You commit sins for your own convenience.
Adrian didn’t deny it. Instead, he asked what mattered to him, to
the future he could almost taste. How close is she to giving in?
Chapter Twenty-Four
Let’s End This
August 17th
Little Rock AFB
1
“Top floors are finally secure, sir.”
Colonel Hack took the sheet of damages and casualties without glancing at it. “And the bottom?”
“Still the same. As soon as we clear an area and post security, it blows up or collapses. It’s getting hard to find Point men. Same for the roads they used. As they fled, the rebels blew them up or rigged them. We’ve had serious damage to every platoon.”
Hack crumbled the paper and tossed it onto the desk. “How many men do we have left?”
The Sergeant didn’t tell his commanding officer that the stat was on the paper he hadn’t checked. “A hundred and fifty.”
“Damn them!”
Sergeant Davies retreated a bit as the Colonel began pacing. This one wasn’t a fat body sent by command. He was dangerous.
“We started out with over a thousand!”
“Yes, sir. The Ghost has been quiet effective, but we’re here. Base will send reinforcements as soon as we call for them.”
Hack wasn’t ready to do that. If he had to have help, base wouldn’t let him keep command. They’d send out the Butcher.
“Gather them up, fifty per group. Keep them together until...” Hack glanced at his watch. “Last attack was an hour ago…wait three more and then send the entire team into the bottom floors. All remaining men. Flush them out.”
The Sergeant left with doubts. The Ghost and a few of his friends were still inside the base, setting and carrying out traps. Davies thought maybe he would spend the raid time in the commander’s office for protection.
Hack kicked the door closed, hating the closet-sized room, but all the others had been destroyed. Like the damn rebels had sensed it would irritate him and done it on purpose.
The newly appointed Colonel flopped down in the chair, crazy mind spinning. It had been a hell of a fight to get here and he wasn’t going to be pushed out by only one or two men…
