The Life After War Collection

by Angela White

  8

  “Angie?”

  Marc stepped in front of her, being careful not to draw the attention of the witch bathing in Trey’s blood. The mercenary had stopped screaming on the last swipe, throat ripped out. Marc didn’t think he would be alive much longer.

  “She only silenced him for me. She’ll keep him awake enough to feel it,” Angela warned. “Don’t underestimate her hatred.”

  “I won’t.” He stared at her blood-covered body, noticing how the layers of it seemed to be growing. Because the witch was coating herself with it? Maybe. There was still a lot that he didn’t understand about their magic. They’d discover it in time, he assumed, now that they had some of that.

  “I don’t think that’s…”

  The rumble under their feet was unmistakable. Marc cradled Angie close while the quake ripped through the area.

  Unlike the tremors they’d dealt with in the past, this one didn’t stop right away. It kept rumbling, kept rocking and swaying until Marc took them to the ground to wait it out. All around them, men were being flung down.

  A big one, he thought. Only not in the west, here!

  Angela felt the witch return to protect her and burrowed into Marc’s big arms as the ground slowly stilled. They weren’t meant to die here. Knowing was indeed a comfort in situations like this.

  Marc caught the thought and found himself asking the one thing he’d avoided the entire time he’d known her. “Angie, how do I die?”

  She immediately began to sob, tears spilling in thick rivulets.

  Marc forced himself to be quiet and wait instead of taking it back.

  “Adrian.”

  Marc had already thought of it. He’d only needed confirmation. “Is it a fair fight?”

  Angela ignored the clean clothes he had dug up and held out. “Yes, but you can still change that future. It doesn’t have to be that way!”

  Marc smiled softly, no longer bitter, only tired. “Yes, it does. There’s only one of you and two of us. How could it ever end any other way?”

  Angela didn’t answer, drained and blurry now that it was truly over.

  Marc gently swept her into his arms and carried her from the train. He leaned her against Neil’s strong side and moved toward the large, ragged band of survivors who would always have a place in Safe Haven and with him. “We won. We did it! There’s just one more thing to handle and then we can begin our new lives.”

  The fighters cheered loudly, happily, as Kendle asked, “What’s the one more thing?”

  She had an arm around Adrian, healing without being asked.

  Marc grinned, tossing an arm around Kendle’s gun hand. “This.”

  Marc drew and fired into Adrian’s chest, five times in rapid succession.

  The reports echoed, sending men to the ground and fighters to the train doors for cover.

  Marc and Adrian were locked in eye-to-eye combat as the blond slid to his ass in the tunnel, pouring blood. Adrian tried to ask, but the wounds were already affecting his control of his body.

  “She said it was a fair fight, but that I didn’t have to do it that way. She meant make peace, of course.” Marc leered as Adrian coughed out blood and puke. “You can die now.”

  Adrian gathered what strength he could and shoved into Marc’s mind.

  You can’t kill me. Only she can and she won’t! This is why!

  Adrian forced Marc to witness what they’d seen during the Call.

  “It was always me!”

  Adrian spared Marc nothing, including Elliot making love to Eve and Eve groaning his name in ecstasy.

  “Always mine!”

  “I should have known,” Marc snarled, fury overwhelming. He fired another shot into Adrian’s gut, drawing a scream. “Thank you, Lord. I hope you enjoyed it, too.”

  Kendle hurried to help Adrian.

  Marc spun around. “No! Let him die!”

  Kenn rushed to get between her and Marc, determined to take a beating to buy time. “You don’t get to make that choice!”

  Marc growled in frustration, arm drawing back, and the ground split open under his feet.

  Marc leapt to the side, anger replaced with instant understanding. Angela wasn’t the only one protecting Adrian.

  “Damn you!” Marc swore, staggering over to cover Angela. “Why can’t he just die?!”

  Arching in agony as Kendle healed him, Adrian heard the curse and laughed through the pain. He knew exactly how Marc felt.

  9

  “Get them inside!”

  Samantha’s distorted shout drew enough attention from the guards to get them following. She used their hand codes to remind them of what to do during these moments. It wouldn’t prevent all of the panic, but there were few issues they hadn’t already dealt with. It wasn’t as chaotic as it could have been.

  Samantha stayed down, watching for cracks and waiting for the nauseating rumbling to ease off.

  It didn’t.

  Samantha listened to the growling earth below them, aware of a shift in the air, as if it had gotten ten degrees hotter in an instant. Her mind began calculating possible faults, comparing it to what she remembered. Then the ground under them began splitting open and the time for thinking was gone.

  “Shit!” Samantha scrambled to her feet and ran with the rest of the camp toward the carpet warehouse that Angela’s final instructions had sent them to yesterday. People stumbled inside, shoving and shouting, and it was a clear moment for Samantha on why they need to have descendants in charge. Without the proper shelter, they would be dying faster than they could breed. It was obvious that someone among them had foreseen this happening now. Sam had odds on Angela, but it could have come any number of people. She only wished she’d been able to predict today and be more prepared. She never would have let them outside.

  “Stop berating yourself and help me!” Cynthia shouted, handing her a crying baby.

  Samantha felt her body respond. For one second, nothing else mattered but the tiny life in her arms.

  “Look out!”

  Samantha ducked automatically, covering Jennifer’s baby with her body.

  Daryl pulled her away from the falling stone.

  The roof above the doorway collapsed, trapping the last of them to enter in darkness as they pushed their way toward the door they’d come through this morning. They knew it was there but with the cloud of dust that was causing constant coughing, it was impossible to discern.

  “Light us up!” Kenn shouted, flipping on his own.

  Once they could see, things quickly calmed down a level, but everyone was aware of screaming children, muttering camp members stuffed into a huge cutting room, and the rough grumble of the earth under them that still hadn’t faded away.

  “Did they bomb us?”

  “What is it?”

  Confused voices called out for answers and Samantha forced herself to stand up, though she refused to surrender the baby that she was instinctively rocking. “Calm down. It was a quake. Take it easy.”

  Her words were repeated and sent to those huddled in the rear rooms. The screams slowly faded below the sound of grinding rock.

  Samantha had never known a quake to last this long. She wasn’t… Her mind flipped her into the zone, showing her what she’d missed.

  “Yellowstone.”

  Several people around her frowned at those words. Adrian had mentioned the super volcano more than once.

  “Man, when does it end?” Sam wondered what so many before her asked. She received the same answer that they had all loathed.

  “It doesn’t,” Daryl repeated what Adrian had told them in Oklahoma. “We have to survive it.”

  “When will they get here?” Samantha asked tiredly. She and Cynthia weren’t enough to keep these people together.

  “At least two days, maybe three.”

  Sam sighed resignedly. “Okay. Let’s get the wounded handled and rooms set up. We’ll stay here until the boss gets back.”

  10

&nbs
p; Marc kept his group by the train until the ground was completely still. The sound of collapsing structures was now the loudest noise and Marc wanted to be out of the ground more than he could say. The concrete tunnels had showered them in dust and pebbles, and thankfully, had held, but for how much longer?

  Marc stood up, tugging Angela along with him. He’d spotted a hatch. “Who has rope?”

  Marc kept Angela by his side as he directed the fighters on how to blow it open and rig the rope to get them all out in the fastest way. They’d been lucky to have no injuries from the quake that were fatal, though the walls could have collapsed on Adrian. Marc would have ordered a celebration right then and there.

  “What’s that sound?”

  All of them looked to the west, where the sky seemed to have been swallowed by an early nightfall.

  “Bugs or birds, maybe,” Becky said, sending out her grid as Marc did the same, only in a different direction.

  He suddenly knew what was coming and concern rose. “Where can we go?”

  Becky was speechless.

  “Bugs and birds. Also dogs,” Kendle confirmed, feet starting to inch toward the tunnel. She had let go of Adrian, who was no longer full of holes, but was still on the edge of death. He slid to the ground unnoticed. Next to him, Kenn stared at the sky, thinking they didn’t have air horns this time.

  “Can we use the train?”

  Angela moaned in protest, but Marc immediately detoured that way. Hours behind those bugs and birds would be an ash storm. And then people, survivors. Safe Haven would need its leaders there either to welcome or to eliminate them.

  Kenn was the only one who thought of Adrian. He didn’t want Adrian dead, but down there, it could happen. Marc would never forgive the blond.

  “Can we make it to camp with him?” Jeremy asked lowly, turned away from the others. “I see a truck you can hotwire.”

  Kenn wanted to, but no matter what happened with Adrian and Conner, Kenn had earned his place back. He wasn’t leaving until Marc told him to. “No. No fuel or gear, and no time to collect. He’s not good. Kendle said he had to sleep and eat before he was bounced around.”

  Jeremy and Kenn struggled to get Adrian back down in the tunnel by themselves without hurting him further. They managed it only because of Kenn’s determination to uphold his vow to Adrian.

  “I’ve got you,” Kenn whispered. “Just like always.”

  Marc was waiting at the bottom of the rope. He’d already sent people to get the train rolling, and settled Angela into the front car’s lounge. She’d refused to take any of the cots scattered through the train.

  “He’s not going with us. If you want him brought in to stand trial, find a way to get him there. Make your choice now.”

  Jeremy knew what his priorities were even without Neil’s pointed glance at the door to the train. Jeremy let go of Adrian, giving Kenn an apologetic look as he took his place by Neil.

  Marc stared at Kenn with an expression that said he knew everything going through his mind. For all Kenn knew, he did, and then the moment was gone.

  “I won’t leave him, not like this. It isn’t right.”

  Marc shrugged. “That never mattered to him. Wise up before he throws you under the bus.”

  Adrian opened his eyes to search for the only one he cared about. He found her leaning heavily against the window inside the first train car. “You knew.”

  Angela nodded wearily from the doorway, unable to rest alone. “Of course. It had to happen here, out of view of the herd. When I said your life for his, I always meant Marc.”

  Adrian’s cry of pain caused Angela to flinch as though she was feeling it.

  Marc stormed to the train. He disappeared inside, calling, “Get us moving!”

  Kenn stood there with an arm under Adrian’s, respiration not even yet from the trip down watching the train slowly roll away. He had no idea how he would get Adrian to Safe Haven, but he had little doubt that was where his boss would go once he could travel.

  Kenn heard the birds and bugs start to pass over and hefted Adrian’s body up to get moving. He would follow the train for a while and stay away from the open areas where the fleeing wildlife was sure to try to take cover. Down here, they were safer.

  “Wait.”

  Kenn spun in surprise. He hadn’t known anyone else was still here.

  “Let me help him a little more before you drag him around all night.”

  Kenn laid Adrian down and watched Kendle send those mysterious orbs into Adrian’s body. The castaway had injuries too, but Kenn saw they were scabbed. He assumed she’d tried to heal herself, because the stream of orbs was weak.

  Kenn put a hand on her arm, trying to help.

  Kendle flinched, swing out.

  Kenn fell against the tunnel wall, smacking his head, hard. As he faded into the grayness, his last words were, “Don’t teach Tonya that.”

  Unable to take being down in the tunnels, and fed up with the way things had gone since she returned to America, Kendle stood and detoured to the rope. She didn’t care about birds or bugs. Her rage wasn’t as bad now, and for the first time since the wave hit her cruise ship, she felt almost normal. She needed to do some hard thinking and determine what her future would hold. She’d made the choice to live. That had been the first step. Now, she had to figure out what came next and the two men at the bottom of this tunnel had nothing to do with that.

  11

  “Come on out before I get upset.”

  The vet had lingered, waiting to witness Marc carry Angela from the ground with loving care. He’d viewed Adrian’s bloody body and Kendle healing him, but he’d only wanted to behold one person emerging. The vet had hid his joy as best he could when Marc brought her up alive.

  “I could have healed him completely,” Kendle said quietly. “But Marc wanted him in pain for the ride and then in the medical tent, out of his hair.”

  “And you’d give Marc anything?”

  Kendle shrugged. “I understand his hatred. Adrian is a manipulative son of a bitch.”

  The vet instantly liked Kendle and found himself joining her on the logs around the fire. When the rest of the rescue party had left, Kendle had remained behind, wandering the area until the last of the daylight faded, tying to conquer the fear that had almost kept her from following Marc down there. She had made a fire and stayed close to it, clearly not sure that being in Safe Haven was what she wanted anymore.

  “I didn’t want it before, but Marc was there.”

  “And now?”

  Kendle sighed, a painful sound of neglect. “Too hard, maybe. I’m not normal.”

  “You’re a descendant,” the vet pointed out. “Not supposed to be normal.”

  Chris dug in his kit and tossed a pouch by her feet. He opened his own and had a light meal, listening to the sounds of nature cleaning up the mess below them.

  “What are you doing here?”

  It was a question that hadn’t occurred to her right away. She watched the vet tense and had a brief moment when she felt like she might be in danger. Then it passed and she waited patiently, content with the company.

  “I love her.”

  Kendle winced, slapped. “Yeah, that figures.”

  Chris shrugged. “She doesn’t know and wouldn’t care if she did. I had to come to make sure she was okay.”

  “You drew the arrows,” Kendle exclaimed, studying his red fingertips.

  He didn’t answer, face melancholy.

  Kendle left him alone. He understood how she felt. He also wanted something he could never have.

  “Is her whole damn camp like that?” Kendle asked. “’Cause that’s a little much, you know?”

  Chris nodded. “Considering I’m eightieth on any list, I sympathize.”

  Kendle was startled into a snicker and the vet joined her, allowing the small release of emotions that he usually shared with Ray and Dale. Kendle wasn’t like the others. She didn’t expect him to be normal because she wasn’t. It made i
t easier to connect with her.

  “Because I’m screwed up,” she confessed. “Otherwise I probably would worry over you. Be careful with your actions or someone will notice.”

  “I have been,” he stated, tone hard.

  “What’s your excuse for being gone all this time? Or are you not going back?”

  “Are you?”

  Kendle wasn’t sure. “I’ll make the choice come dawn, I think. See how tonight goes with the thinking.”

  “I’ll tell them I got lost, fell down and got knocked out. I’ll have someone discover me on a patrol.”

  “Smart,” she observed, not caring that he was lurking. If he flipped and killed Angela in his obsession, all the better.

  “I’d never hurt her!” Chris snapped.

  Kendle stared in shock. “You’re one of us. You’re a descendant!”

  Chris realized he’d given himself away and shoved to his feet. “Damn you!”

  He stomped into the darkness.

  Kendle chose to pretend she hadn’t run into him at all. “I stand by the thought,” she grumbled angrily. “If he flips out and kills her, Marc will come to me.”

  It was almost reason enough to go try living there again–that and the feeling of aloneness settling onto her shoulders. Marc wouldn’t notice her absence for days or more. She could be free now, if she had the guts to break away.

  Do I?

  Kendle hung her head.

  No.

  Humiliation was still better than isolation. Her time as a castaway had destroyed her.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Soft Kisses and Sweet Rocking

  1

  “Does this feel odd to anyone else?” Billy asked.

  A small group was in the front train car, watching the tunnel go by, but the sense of traveling backwards was strong. The concrete appeared to do the same.

  “Me,” Becky said, scanning the monitor that showed where they were going. She could feel the worry in camp, the need for Angela to be there, and wished they could make the train go faster. She’d already suggested it, but Billy had refused, saying it wasn’t the same as going forwards for any vehicle. Becky had no idea what he meant, but the feeling of needing to be in camp was strong for all of them.