by Angela White
“Feed him,” Donner ordered. “Take him down and cuff him to the couch so he can sleep.”
Adrian fell when Trey unsnapped the chain. He struggled to help drag himself over to the couch. His body didn’t want to obey. He couldn’t remember a time when he’d been in worse shape.
“We’ll be contacted soon,” Donner began, taking the seat near Angela’s evenly breathing body. “You’ll answer some questions I have.”
Adrian nodded. He put both hands to his neck, moaning at the sharp lance of agony. “Whatever you want, just don’t hurt her.”
Donner smiled coldly. “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.”
Adrian tried to eat everything in the MRE that Trey tossed onto the couch, but his guts wouldn’t hold much. He forced himself to take all of the water in the bottle and he sank down onto the softness with a grunt.
“Can I have a smoke?”
Donner gestured.
Trey lit one, then threw it onto Adrian’s grimy chest.
Adrian enjoyed the brain-fog that the first drag gave him, but the pain from the cough reminded him of his waking thoughts. “I’m not doing well.”
“I noticed that,” Donner agreed. “Something in the air down here doesn’t agree with you.”
Adrian’s chuckle was weak.
Donner frowned. “I’d heard you were a hard-ass.”
“Before Marc came, maybe,” Adrian said bitterly. “I was younger then.”
Donner snorted out laughter, as he understood the old bull, new bull reference. “That’s rich. Why didn’t you kill him?”
“I did,” Adrian stated resentfully. “And she saved him.”
“So you gave up? Unlikely.”
“I sent him to the front lines where he was killed again and brought back by another of his devoted harem!” Adrian spewed. “He can’t die.”
Donner was forced to accept that what his men had been telling him was the truth. The Ghost was alive.
“It’s him on my trail, huh?”
“Yeah.” Adrian dropped his cig into the tray so that Trey couldn’t eat the remaining food as he’d been doing to torture Adrian further when Donner wasn’t around. “It will suck to be you if he catches up before you reach the big bunker.”
Adrian rolled onto his side as best the cuffs would allow, easing the pressure off his broken ribs. “Thank you for the food.”
Donner didn’t answer. He waved Trey on and returned to the main car, scowling. He hadn’t counted on the child’s father being alive, let alone coming for his family. His hub trap might not be enough. He would have to come up with something else for the Ghost. Thanks to the destruction Marcus Brady had wrought upon the first battalion, Donner knew not to underestimate him. When Marc came for his woman and child, Donner would be ready to give him the welcome he required.
Donner glanced over at Adrian. First though, he would gain some much-needed information and secure his deal with the bunker.
3
“Answer me!”
Adrian shouted hoarsely as Donner sent fire into him again, but there was nothing to tell the evil Major. No one knew what the Master Call would bring.
Donner had tired of playing with his toy, but he wasn’t allowed to kill Adrian until there was a response from whoever was on the other end of such a call. Adrian had been insisting there hadn’t been a response and wouldn’t be. Donner knew he was lying, but he still couldn’t break the man.
“I’m not lying,” Adrian gasped. “I don’t know what’s coming.”
Donner gestured and the soldier chosen for this duty swung again.
Two cars away, Angela was feigning sleep while Trey ate her lunch and chuckled over Adrian’s pain. Trey had turned out to be much more dangerous than she’d thought, starving her, grabbing her when Donner wasn’t around, beating Adrian while he was unconscious. Angela wasn’t sure how much more she could take of it.
The monitor near the door beeped and Trey went to answer it, wiping away telltale crumbs. “What?”
Benjamin stared icily at the mercenary, angered by the lack of respect. Trey had to know who was calling.
“Get Donner.”
Adrian scream echoed through the cars, and Trey smirked. “He’ll be a few.”
“Working on Mitchel?”
Trey nodded, moving aside so that Benjamin could view Angela. “Takes care of her, though. You guys got some sort of deal, right?”
Benjamin already didn’t like where this was going. “She holds value.”
“How much value?” Trey asked, sitting down next to her. “Cause she holds a certain…appeal, for me.”
Benjamin frowned. “Name your demands quickly, before your master returns and kills you.”
“I’ll bring her to you and I get to stay. Donner isn’t going to, you know. There’s a small lab before we cross under the Mississippi River. He plans to stay there until she has the baby.”
“And you’ll kill Donner, I assume?”
“Of course,” Trey answered confidently, running a hand over Angela’s dirty braid. “Is it her or the child you want?”
“Both.”
“Figures,” Trey lamented. He rose and went to stand in front of the screen. “I need it written and sent to me, with your signature. I stay with you. Don’t care what happens to anyone else.”
Benjamin slowly nodded, noticing a new problem, but not speaking up about it. He hated having to negotiate with the help anyway. “I’ll draft it as soon as we’re done here. Anything else?”
Trey started to answer and felt the cold hand of fate settle onto his brow.
“I promised you something, Trey.”
The mercenary spun in surprise to discover Angela standing behind him. He opened his mouth to shout for Donner and found himself frozen. I can’t move!
Angela rotated to look at Benjamin, finally face-to-face with her true enemy. “Hello, Benny.”
Benjamin felt her tinkering. Her witch was coming through the screen! He tried to switch off the communication, but it was too late. Angela sank into his brain as if she’d been born there.
“Stand up,” Angela ordered.
On the screen, Benjamin’s eyes never left hers as he did what he was told.
“Draw your weapon.”
Angela could see him trying to fight, to resist what was coming. She increased the force, draining herself to insist, “Put it in your mouth!”
His arm slowly raised and Angela grinned at him, voice full of ruthless satisfaction. “You have been found guilty of treason against the people of this country. I sentence you to death.”
Mentally, Benjamin was panicking, but Angela only laughed as he opened his mouth and shoved the barrel inside, breaking off two of his teeth as he tried to clench them shut.
Tears streamed down his red cheeks as he screamed silently–not begging, but in angry, frustrated disappointment.
“Pull that trigger!”
4
The reaction came quick. The body dropped to the floor, footsteps flooded in to find their leader dead.
Angela’s voice and power stunned them. “I find you all guilty!”
Angela pushed harder than she ever had.
A blast of energy slammed through the bunker room, causing soldiers to flee, many of them drawing their guns in defense against coworkers suddenly going insane and attacking. Shots and screams echoed as Angela used her gift a last time to capture the nearest female on the screen.
“Stay a minute… Marcella, is it? Let’s talk, dear.”
On the screen, the stern woman nodded, eyes wide with terror. “What…Whatever you want.”
Angela smiled, the first real bit of happiness she’d felt since going into Little Rock. “Excellent answer. You may live another day. Those with you will not.”
Marcella waited, unable to move and not completely sure she wanted to. The power in her mind didn’t seem evil, just insistent.
“I want you to do something hard for me. Can you?”
Marcella nodd
ed, getting the images Angela was sending, the new goal.
“I require the lives of every evil male in that bunker and across the country. You’re going see that I get them.”
Marcella nodded again, in a daze but able to think enough to understand that a coup was taking place and she was in the heart of the conversion zone.
“Good. Go lock the door and then open the files that control the life support systems.”
5
Adrian screamed again as Donner sent flames up his spine. “What do you want from me?!”
Donner heard the cracking tone he’d been pushing for.
“Tell me,” Donner invited, sitting down at the table. “Whose baby is she’s carrying?”
“Mine!” Adrian growled, sagging against his chains.
Donner had been reading descendant faces in the labs for as long as Adrian had been a specimen in one. “So, it was the Ghost you lost to. No wonder she gave you up so easily.”
Adrian was trying to block his thoughts of the Call and it left him open to Donner prying at other doors, witnessing his humiliation by Marc.
Donner chuckled at some of the images, rubbing it in when shots of intimacy flashed.
Adrian slammed that door with a brutal shove.
Donner took advantage of the moment to yank on the other, suddenly unprotected door and managed to get it open enough to peer inside before Adrian could react.
“You lying scum!” Donner roared, shoving away from the table. “I’ll kill you both for this!”
Adrian ducked the swing as best he could. He let Donner’s momentum spin them toward the wall, where he was able to get his foot on the edge of a shelf and leap up enough to wrap the chains around the Major’s thick neck.
“You know,” Adrian gasped out, struggling to tighten the grip. “You have been a pain in my fucking ass since the moment you landed.”
Adrian used his rage and his bitterness to pull out strength that he rarely used. His arms locked in place while Donner twisted and jerked violently, trying to free himself. “The bunker will make contact whether you’re dead or alive, Major. You’re now expendable.”
“Never laugh at witch,” Angela commented, staggering against the doorframe as blood dripped from her nose. She’d come to witness this moment for herself, instead of just in the witch’s visions.
Angela’s weak voice at the door wasn’t a surprise, but Adrian refused to let go of his victim. Donner was realizing he was about to die here. Adrian could feel him drawing power to send them both up in flames. Those eyes would be glowing bright green right now if he could see them, Adrian was sure. That shade was a dangerous warning. It was how Donner had controlled the power of his team for so long without any true gifts of his own. He could steal.
Adrian wrenched Donner around, and slammed his face into the window, shattering the glass. He jerked him away a bit.
Donner felt what was coming next, but had no way to avoid it. “No!”
Adrian slammed Donner forward again, using the jagged glass as his weapon. The shards punched through Donner’s eye, and then his brain, sending blood and spasms down his body.
Adrian, still furious, grabbed Donner’s head and twisted until he heard that satisfying crunch of a broken neck. Donner had escaped justice too many times. Angela would have to change her plan.
“That won’t be necessary,” she stated, still leaning against the doorframe. Donner had wanted to gaze on the Master’s face so badly that he’d given his life, but Adrian had taken his sight, hopefully denying him even that final reward upon death.
The success was on her face, but Adrian didn’t ask for details. If she wanted him to know the outcome, she would tell him.
Angela didn’t. She motioned at a scared soldier to unlock him. When she’d mentally grabbed the bunker people, it had also snared the two soldiers Donner had placed in the car to guard her.
“See that Adrian is taken care of.” She shut her lids and the gently swaying train came to a rough stop.
Not ready for it, the soldier unlocking Adrian was thrown through the window and impaled on one of the same shards that Donner had been.
“Guess I’ll have to work on that one,” Angela murmured, going back the way she’d come. “You’ll have to take care of yourself.”
The train stopping brought the remaining solders rushing toward them.
Angela placed Trey at the door, forcing him to do her bidding.
“She says you can get lost or face the Ghost, but if you come in here, she’ll take your souls.”
Of those three choices, the soldiers still couldn’t make the right one. Well-armed now and fed again, with no slugs or explosives flying by them, their egos refused to believe they couldn’t take her.
“Kill that witch! Fire it up!”
The soldiers also rushed toward the other cars, eager to slip in from the rear. Fighting began there, Adrian blocking their way.
6
“Are you sure?”
Jeremy nodded, face buried in the screen as Becky led him forward. She’d gotten tired of him tripping over things instead of paying attention, but she hadn’t scolded. Jeremy was tracking the only moving thing in this area.
“It’s stopped, half a mile up,” Jeremy stated firmly. He shut off the device and stored it in his kit. “We should see it any time.”
Marc motioned the top men to go, indicating the rookies to take the rear. He moved forward in the darkness without a light or guide. Debris under his feet shifted, sometimes squeaking and scurrying away.
Marc picked out a large shadow and then gunfire lit up the tunnel in front of them. It took a second for him to realize they weren’t the target. “Hold your fire!” he called to his team, hoping the fighting ahead would cover his voice.
As they neared the battle, Marc realized the soldiers were firing on their own train and broke into a run. There was only one reason for them to do that. “No mercy, Eagles! Kill them all!”
Marc’s voice coming from the darkness was a nightmare for the soldiers, most of who immediately tried to surrender to the Ghost.
Marc was having none of it. He sliced and shot his way through to the car that had bloody bodies already outside of it.
“Angie!” Marc leaped into the car.
The Eagles behind him followed his example, killing every man who didn’t flee their wrath. They were sick of being hunted by the government. There was no reason to submit to it ever again.
Marc spotted Adrian in the corner with bodies and gear piled on top of him. His hand moved weakly, threatening to pull the pin on a grenade.
Marc was again disappointed that Adrian hadn’t died.
Adrian had felt Marc step onto the train and held up the grenade in his own defense. Now was the perfect time for his rival to be rid of him.
Marc ignored the thought. His next chance would come around again shortly.
Marc pushed open the door to the front railcar, aware of a crunching sound that sent urgent warning signals into his brain.
He stepped inside, carefully flipping the light switch up.
“Ugg!” Trey gasped, pouring blood. “Elp E!”
Marc didn’t even consider it. Not that he could have anyway. The damage had already been done.
Marc turned his attention to the true danger in the car.
The witch was beautiful and terrifying as she lunged forward to sink her fangs deep into Trey’s arm. The scream as she tore out the chunk of flesh was awful. Free for the first time in centuries, the witch swiped out to rake a fresh layer of blood from Trey’s face. She rubbed it down her cheek, moaning in delight.
Angela turned away from the gruesome scene. She waited calmly for the witch to be done and the battle outside to finish, mind once again on the future. They’d won this war. Their losses were heavy, but they would go on. Where and why was the next big choice, and she hadn’t forgotten that. The bunkers were about to experience a true survival situation, but she would always worry about them recovering. No damage she d
id to them would ever be enough.
7
Ignoring the panic around her, Marcella locked the door to her tiny room and went to her bed, where she pulled out a small trunk that held all the remaining remnants from her old life. Before the war, Marcella had been an instructor for the Navy. After the war, she had been reduced to coffee girl and pok-ee when Benjamin had needed intimacy that he couldn’t get elsewhere. It had been a sad existence.
Angela’s words rang through her mind.
“I require the lives of every evil male in the bunker and across the country. You’re going to give that to me.”
Marcella had dreamed of cutting loose on the males here, but the idea of dying had stopped it from being more than an amused smile occasionally playing on her lips. Now, thanks to a voice from across the country, she would live the dream.
You may die doing this. Your sacrifice won’t be forgotten.
Marcella found that she didn’t care if she died in the next ten minutes or in ten years. The vision Angela had shown her of the future was worth every life she could give, starting with those here.
Marcella strapped on her breathing apparatus, grinning like a loon under the SCBA. Safe Haven wouldn’t be followed. Angela’s future would be realized.
Marcella went to the control panel near her door, hearing female and male screams, which indicated that the men were getting the upper hand. They outnumbered the females by four to one. It made Marcella confident in her weapon.
She hit the sequence of buttons that Benjamin had used once to bluff anther bunker, threatening to suck the oxygen straight out of the rooms. Even with the doors shut tight, only a few people would survive.
Marcella typed in the reason for the immediate extermination.
Uncontrolled pattern of behavior, of infection, that resulted in damage and chaos that can’t be reversed. Infection levels are at 97%. Recommend complete purge.
The computer flashed a verification request.
Marcella took the hand from her bag and cackled as she used Benjamin one last time. Before, it had been for safety and extra supplies. This time, it was to activate the failsafe and give life to her new dreams.
