The Life After War Collection

by Angela White

Sloppy Floyd State Park, Georgia

  1

  “Set it up, Eagles. Kenn and Kyle have Point.”

  Safe Haven was no longer able to be with only one Point man during the day and evening hours. Only overnight still used that setup, but that would probably change too when Marc returned.

  Searching the area, and also what was ahead of them, Angela flinched mentally and slammed that deeply shrouded door.

  The ‘sloppy’ park was exactly that. From walkways to public buildings, the mold climbing everything left Angela no choice but to camp them in the middle of the road leading in. The waters were up as well, and it made for an unpleasant walk while patrolling the perimeter. Even the playground equipment was layered with thick, black clumps that had forced them to soothe the kids with an extra hour in the training tent. The Eagles couldn’t wait to be gone, but they were also worried about the next stop. Everything in the east was either bad, going bad, or on the edge of areas that were both. Would Lookout Mountain be better?

  The Eagles rushed out to secure their newest campsite and Angela leaned her head against the seat of the truck that Adrian was driving. Only thirty more miles after this and then they could stop running.

  They were making better time now. As Safe Haven had traveled over the last weeks, the roads were cleared. Sometimes it was because those towns with survivors wanted them to be gone as fast as possible, but sometimes it was to help. As their convoy passed the last two towns, they’d seen tow trucks putting the wrecks back, hoping to delay the soldiers even though they weren’t going to fight. Some areas had also realized that Safe Haven wouldn’t be able to forage for supplies as easily and were sending in loads of goods in crates and boxes that the Eagles collected gratefully. It eased the burden on them. Their camps, Safe Haven and those around them, were being flooded with wounded from the battles. Food was being tightly rationed right now, and through it all, no one could tell her anything new about Marc. Their Ghost had vanished.

  “How does it look?”

  “It’s clear, but there’s a shadow overhead,” she answered with that voice of the dead.

  Adrian knew she wasn’t referring to the layers of grit that were lighter or heavier, based on what weather had blown through the night before. “Can I help?”

  “No,” she answered tiredly. “It’s too dark. Wish I could give you more.”

  So do I, Adrian thought.

  Angela winced.

  Adrian joined the securing teams instead of trying to comfort her. After the ways he’d pushed, she wouldn’t accept it. She mostly hated him now. He’d been successful.

  Angela waited until the clear call came and opened her door. It was a surprise to find Candy standing there.

  The hairdresser didn’t look good. Lee’s murder had been rough on her. She’d closed the hair tent and stayed inside it since the funeral. The only time she came out was when one of the den mothers forced her to shower. Most of the time, Charlie took her a tray. Angela had planned to give her a little more time, then go punch through the grief in much the same way that Adrian was doing to her.

  “I’m pregnant.”

  Angela climbed from the truck and gave Candy a searching look. From the sunken eyes, to the wild hair, it was clear that Candy wasn’t in the right shape to welcome new life into the world.

  “How can I help, Candice?”

  Candy’s shoulders straightened at the name. “Yes, that’s who I am now. Candy’s dead. She was buried with…”

  The hairdresser turned away and Angela braced herself before reaching out. “Candy…”

  Slap!

  Angela caught herself on the truck door, but didn’t return fire. She held the same rage in her heart. She understood that it had to go somewhere.

  Candy’s face was blank. She didn’t know why she’d struck out, only that she needed to.

  “I want you in the Kai lessons. When you pass a mental evaluation, you’ll get time on the range.”

  Candy’s voice was toneless. “I want to be on your team. I challenge you!”

  Instead of hitting again, Candy began to cry.

  Angela pulled Candy close and held her while she sobbed, struggling not to do the same herself. At least in her case, there was still a tiny bit of hope. Candy knew Lee wasn’t coming back and nothing would change it.

  “I accept you.”

  Candy’s sobs became harder and Angela gently pushed her into the arms of the Eagle who appeared the most concerned. “Take her to the doctor. He’ll want to drug her, as he always does, but refuse. Make him actually talk to her. No meds without my approval.”

  Zack led Candy away without the disapproval he wanted to express. He didn’t like the handprint on Angela’s cheek and neither did anyone they passed. All of them scowled at Candy, but Zack held it in. If she’d deserved a punishment for it, Angela would have knocked her on her ass. That meant she didn’t and Zack followed his orders to the letter.

  When the doctor insisted he leave, Zack threatened to call Adrian. None of them liked the new man. Doc Savage, as he liked people to call him, was still stuck in the old world mindset. When that changed, he might become popular with his patients, but not until he stopped treating them like a number. When he got to know his people, then they could do the same with him.

  2

  Seth stuck to Angela’s side as she went to the bathrooms to keep order. They had four hundred refugees here now and the lines quickly got people into bad moods and short tempers. They had put all the old port-o-lets up, but it still wasn’t enough. No one liked shitting in the woods and Angela didn’t blame them.

  She paused, face clouding…

  Seth waited tiredly. He was anticipating being camped for more than two days at a time. They hadn’t been since they’d left Arkansas and the strain was hanging over all of them.

  “Bathroom tents,” Angela instructed, resuming her stride. “Put the camping setups in them, along with items will people need.”

  Seth wrote it down, expanding on it automatically, and went to find Becky. She was quick at tent setups and she needed to do that type of work to help with camp issues. It would get their situation accepted sooner.

  Noting Seth’s slight limp as he left, Angela realized he was exhausted. They all were. It was almost time for a break.

  Angela heard Dog’s soft pad fall in with her and ignored him. Dog wanted Marc found and he wasn’t settling for any other answer.

  Please!

  That was something he’d never sent to her. Angela stopped, froze in place by his agony.

  Dog shoved images into her mind, showing her the bond between them. Angela’s fists clenched. “Why don’t you go find him?”

  I swore I’d protect you! Dog snapped, drawing attention from those around them.

  Angela knelt down and placed a hand on Dog’s stocky shoulder. “I love him, too. We have to have faith.”

  Dog ducked out of her touch and stalked into the shadows of the campers being pulled into place.

  Angela grunted unhappily as she rose. If they didn’t hear something from the crew still at the base today, she’d call them and get a final word from the scene. And then remind the camp that Marc wouldn’t have planned to be inside when it collapsed.

  “Yes, he would have and you know it!” Charlie’s loud voice carried.

  Angela couldn’t take much more. She knew that and she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to comfort her son when she couldn’t do it for herself.

  Feeling her chaotic emotions, Charlie came to her and Angela surrounded him with her love.

  The emotional scene was witnessed by the camp and Eagles, and their pain made for even shorter fuses and guilty laughs that were quickly silenced.

  Those in camp who had lost someone since joining tried to encourage her with small words and gestures, but they knew what was coming. It was unbearable to hear them thinking of all the ways Marc could have been lost.

  “He’ll be back, boy,” she whispered for both of them. “He said he would. H
e will.”

  Charlie reached out to wipe at her cheek and Angela chuckled, in the middle of doing the same for him.

  “I love you, Charlie.”

  Charlie flushed. “Same to you, mom.”

  Angela slung a hand around his widening shoulders and went to do her duty.

  Inside, another piece of her soul turned black.

  3

  “Leave him be.”

  Dale stopped with his hand out as Ray quickly slid between him and the wolf.

  “Dog’s okay,” Dale protested, moving around him.

  Dog allowed Dale’s touch, but bared his fangs at Ray.

  “No,” Dale protested openly. “It’s not his fault, you know. Or hers. Marc chose this.”

  Dog whined and Dale rubbed his ear. “I wish he was, too. I always felt safer when Marc was around. He saved my man once, you know?”

  Ray realized that Dale had a bond with Dog, and reluctantly backed off. Dog had growled at Angela and Ray hadn’t liked it. It wasn’t that long ago that their working animals had revolted.

  Dog moved away from them. Worried and alert, both men saw the wolf avoid Chris as he came from the animal tent.

  Chris glanced at the wolf, and quickly dismissed the animal, but Dog’s eyes lingered on the vet.

  Dale opened his mouth. “Did you...”

  “Shut up,” Ray hissed as Chris joined them.

  Terrible actors, they were saved by Dog’s howl.

  “Woooooo…”

  The mournful sound echoed across the camp. It continued for the next hour.

  Adrian was the one who got it to stop and it broke Angela’s heart a little more to witness him damaging Marc’s bonds there, too.

  “He’s gone, Dog. You know that. Your vow to him is over if you want it to be. Go search. I’ll care of her.”

  Dog’s snarl didn’t keep Adrian from sinking down on his haunches. “If you think he’s out there, show us where. Jax hasn’t found a sign of him and neither has Kenn.”

  Dog whined.

  “Don’t you think she’s tried to call him?” Adrian refuted. “My mind rings with it at night.”

  Dog slumped down. I don’t hear her now.

  Adrian also slid to the ground. How weird it felt to be offering an animal hope! “He isn’t answering. Either because he can’t or he won’t. I don’t believe that he can’t.”

  Dog looked Adrian straight in the eyes. You want her. Of course, you think that.

  “I do want her, but I also want her to be happy.” Forced to accept it, Adrian glanced away. “I’d give her Marc if I could. I feel it, her misery. It’s only growing and I can’t shake her out of it like I thought I’d be able to.”

  You underestimated them both.

  “Yes,” Adrian agreed. “That’s why you should go and find out, Dog. Not for yourself, but for her.”

  Dog padded toward the QZ gates a second later. He’d only needed a reason that he could believe in.

  Adrian gestured for Zack to open the gates, but that Eagle glanced to Angela for confirmation. When she nodded, face hardening, Adrian felt her wave of loss. So did the camp. The shield above them roiled a violent red for a brief moment before settling into an ugly green of mixed emotions.

  “We need to hear something soon,” Kevin stated, joining him.

  “Tonight,” Adrian informed him. “I’ll make the calls. You get her to take a sleeping drink and rest. She’s starting to make herself sick.”

  Kevin clamped his lips shut and returned to his post. He didn’t approve of Adrian’s methods, but he also couldn’t tell him why. The blond hadn’t picked up on Angela’s secret yet and Kevin wasn’t going to be the one to clue him in. When Adrian found out, it would change everything.

  4

  Jennifer lingered near the still packed Chevy. Kyle was making sure it was restocked each time they broke camp. He never mentioned it anymore–that or her leaving–but she knew he was waiting for her choice.

  “Are you okay?”

  Jennifer didn’t answer that dangerous question either, only hugged her sleeping infant closer. In the distance, the mountains beckoned. Behind her, the enemy was coming.

  “They’re on the way…”

  Kyle had heard that tone enough to know what it meant. He sent a quick signal to the guard on duty as he stepped closer, Get the Boss. Now.

  “They’re coming here?”

  “Oh, yes,” Jennifer confirmed. “The power we shelter has been reported. They want all of us.”

  Jennifer peered down at her daughter, at the perfect innocence she would kill for, die for, if her visions weren’t changed. “She’s what they want most. The bunker isn’t producing children. I dream about it.”

  Angela joining them was only a small bit of relief.

  “How long, Jenny?”

  “Now.”

  The radio lit up before her words faded.

  “Base! Incoming, base! We have planes!”

  Safe Haven began scanning the sky as Angela hit the mic.

  “Get out of there!” she ordered.

  “We are! Looks like they’re all landing. We’ve lost the base!” The radio squealed as Quinn’s panicked voice came from across the camp. “I repeat, we’ve lost Little Rock base.”

  “How many?”

  Silence for a minute where refugees everywhere waited with baited breath.

  “A dozen so far, but we can hear engines coming,” Jax finally answered them, clearly running with a group of people.

  Angela’s voice was as firm as she could make it. Marc should be the one delivering these updates. “Lookout Mountain. Come home.”

  “Yes, ma’am!”

  Angela dropped the mic and went to calm the herd, but in her heart, there wasn’t light left to give them. The teams hadn’t finished digging through the rubble. Marc could still be in there.

  He’s been out since it collapsed, the witch refuted. We would know if he was dead.

  Then why won’t he answer?

  He’s doing the right thing.

  Angela staggered as the truth sank in.

  “He left me. Again.”

  5

  Hours later, Angela was alone in her tent, much to the displeasure of the nervous Eagles and Adrian. She’d done a good job of calming the camp and hadn’t stopped any of the few that had chosen to split. She’d gone to dinner and left an untouched tray though, and her appetite had been good until now, even with Marc missing. She’d said the right things and performed the correct actions, but few of her men thought she was all right.

  Samantha was on duty outside Angela’s tent, along with Becky. The two females stood their post with blank expressions and thumping hearts. At some point, Adrian or one of the Eagles would want a report on Angela that they couldn’t give.

  Neil and Seth appeared near the shooting range, finishing their class with the Level Five shooters. When they came towards Angela’s tent, both females on duty started hoping for something, anything, to distract the men.

  “She said four hours,” Becky whispered. “It’s been one and a half.

  Samantha was still hoping that someone would pull Neil’s attention from them. “She would have counted on them checking.”

  “Yeah, she counted on us buying her time and we’re not gonna…”

  Becky shut up as Neil and Seth got in hearing distance.

  Samantha knew she would have to do the talking. She spoke up before either of the men could ask specific questions. “No change. Any new calls?”

  “Not a word. You okay?” Neil asked as Seth walked toward the flap.

  Samantha slid in front of Seth, tone hard. “She wants to be left alone. Give her some time.”

  Seth didn’t like the feeling he was getting, but knew better than to challenge the two females on duty. He stepped back to let Neil handle it.

  Neil already knew. It was in Samantha’s averted gaze when he tried to make eye contact, but he also knew better than to provoke without proof.

  When he left
them standing there without saying anything, Seth quickly followed, hoping they were going to find Adrian.

  “Her time’s up,” Becky guessed.

  “Yes,” Sam confirmed heavily. “Let’s go have a cup of coffee and tell them what she said.”

  Behind them, Neil and Seth cut slits in the rear of Angela’s tent and slipped inside to find it empty.

  Neil didn’t see Samantha’s shadow anymore and understood the girls had they were busted.

  “What’s going on here, Neil?” Seth demanded.

  Neil let out a frustrated breath. “Isn’t it obvious? She’s gone to find her mate.”

  6

  “She did what?!”

  Adrian’s furious roar sent silence through the entire mess.

  Samantha withered under his anger, but Becky didn’t care. She wasn’t bound to him the way the others were.

  “She said Kyle has command, with you as his XO. If the camp doesn’t like it, to hold a vote right now. She said she wasn’t coming back without finding Marc, and that if he was dead, she would try to take out as many of them as she could along her own path to hell.”

  Samantha put her head down as the stares became hostile.

  Becky finished the message. “She also said she could have blown her way through the gates, that we couldn’t have stopped her. You have no idea how powerful she’s become.”

  “Where’s Charlie?”

  Tracy’s voice in the crowd sent a new rumble of discontent through the masses.

  “Here!”

  Charlie went to Tracy and slid an arm around her waist. “I saw mom off. She wants me to help protect everyone. She said I’ll save lives here, that if she and Dog can’t find dad, no one can.”

  The crowd grumbled and muttered, but it was accepted. By leaving her son here, she’d proclaimed her loyalty to them, but also her need to be with Marc.

  Adrian found himself the center of attention as questions flew, and he was forced to offer solutions and start resuming his former duties. He loathed every minute of it. Angela was out there alone. He would never sleep again.

  Charlie led Tracy away from the others, keeping his voice down even when they were out of range. “She gave me her approval. You’ll stay close, night and day, so you can’t be a target to get to me.”