by Angela White
“I’ve done more than consider it, you self-righteous prick,” Marc snarled.
“You told her you would?” Adrian asked, shocked.
“And she shut me down quick enough to make my balls hide, so save that shit. I’ve always been willing to do whatever it takes to make her happy. You want to rut like a dog and gloat.”
“I’d never gloat,” Adrian muttered. “I’d love her as much as you do.”
“Oh, shut up!” Marc ordered, increasing his pace. “You don’t know how to love.”
The two men fell silent as the gates appeared, full of life and light.
I miss that, Adrian thought, and quickly hid his misery.
Marc could have felt sympathy, but he knew better than to trust the former leader. Adrian was a coiled rattlesnake, waiting for the right moment to infect his prey with poison.
Marc studied the changes that Angela had made during his short absence, approving. The long fences provided a path for new people to follow and Zone B was now the closest to the main gate, indicating that it had now been rotated to be the ‘good’ area. Marc liked that, knowing strangers couldn’t use that knowledge against them if it was always changing.
Tarps of plastic hung over the long tunnels that would provide shelter for the herd while they waited. The ends were staked into the ground and covered with brush so that they would stay down. In just a few days, the shifting winds would have sent enough dirt and debris to bury the edges in inches of thick padding that would also keep in the warmth. It was a brilliant setup, but it implied too many people were coming their way and Marc realized she must be ready for the camp to know about the flood of refugees coming their way.
The gates swung open, Billy and Zack coming out to greet them, and Marc lifted a brow toward Adrian. Well?
Adrian was staring at what he could discern of the inside, and his voice was like the rock that surrounded them as he answered, “Kill me or share her, but I’m never leaving. I’ll be in your mirror for the rest of our lives.”
Adrian strode for his site with his head up and his anger held in check. If Marc thought he could be bought off with a night or two of sex, he was sorely mistaken. I’m in it for the long haul. When your clock runs out, I’ll be all over that and she’ll be complete for the first time in all her lives. She deserves that and so do I. Not every man on the planet has the strength to accomplish what I have.
8
“Safe Haven is a place of second chances,” Zack stated, already chilled to the bone after spending a short time with the lunatic woman. Marc’s brig had real bars and real cells, and Zack had locked her muttering form inside with relief.
“If you change your ways, you could eventually be allowed to be one of us,” Zack lied. Even if Angela wanted this looney, Marc and the Eagles would never allow it.
“I’ll ask you some questions and you need to tell me the truth. After that, you’ll get a blood test to make sure you’re not ill. You won’t be mistreated or–”
The woman interrupted him with a long laugh that sent chills down his spine. When she stopped, she turned empty orbs on him and went quiet.
Zack hid a shudder behind an itch and knelt down to be at eye level. “Who was the man underground?”
“Did he survive?” the woman demanded, surprising Zack. He instinctively said, “No.”
“Good!” the woman spat. “We were going to eat him, but he swore he was a state governor and we kept him for a bargaining chip with the bunker.”
“There’s a bunker still in use?” Zack asked, surprised again.
“Not now,” the woman admitted. “There were riots, revolts, something like that. We were all sent out ahead of it.” She examined Zack with a sane, pitiful expression. “Could I really stay?”
Zack nodded. “I need to know one more thing. How many of you are still out there?”
“We had ten in our group,” she answered, retreating from the bars. “You didn’t say maybe, if I follow the rules. You’re lying!”
“Yes,” he admitted. “You’ve been found guilty of attempted murder, murder, kidnapping, abuse of a corpse, and a lot of other terrible things. The sentence is death.”
She opened her mouth to scream, or maybe to laugh again, and Zack quickly shot her.
He holstered the weapon with a suppressor that Eagles were supposed to carry. Was that right? he asked himself, gun hanging limply as he stared at the body. Was it just?
“Yes,” Marc stated, entering the brig and locking the door. “Besides all the evidence at that farm house, I’m sure you noticed she was bat-shit crazy.”
“Yeah,” Zack grunted.
“She was guilty. You carried out the sentence.”
“Do I…hide the body?” Zack asked reluctantly. He wasn’t sure about Kyle’s methods.
“No,” Marc answered, opening the cell door with his master key. “I’ll take the hit on this one.”
Marc lifted the body over his shoulder and took it outside.
The shocked expressions and justified shouts greeted him as he marched to the gate, and Marc agreed with them. He was tired of being shot at, of being hunted, and this was how those people needed to be treated.
Marc went through the gate when Zack opened it, the former trucker curious as to what Marc had planned.
Marc dumped the body on the ground near Zone C and then began the revolting task of tying it to the fence. Marc was glad there were only a few refugees in Zone A to witness him take a marker from his smallest kit and draw a word on her forehead.
Killer.
It was a warning to those hoping to get inside their gates, and also to those who already had that honor. Safe Haven would no longer show any mercy.
9
Samantha held David’s hand as he bit down on the rubber ball. His screams were burnt into her brain and Samantha couldn’t stop saying how sorry she was.
The doctor had broken off the shaft and was attempting to drive the rest of the shaft through the leg to get it out.
“Bone, I think,” the doctor muttered, shoving harder. “Can’t cut it out. Has to go through.”
“Pull it,” Angela ordered. “We’ll treat the side effects of that.”
The doctor reversed his force and the shaft slowly inched out of David’s ankle.
The wooden shaft popped out with a nauseating sound and blood gushed from the wound.
David’s scream cut off abruptly as he passed out and all of them were grateful.
The doctor hurried to pack the wound and control the blood loss, and Angela squeezed the blood bag gently. She hadn’t trusted Samantha or the doctor to be reasonable enough to be left alone together for long, but she hadn’t interfered with his choices. He was trying to do his job and she had to let him.
The doctor wiped sweat from his brow and then smeared a gob of antibiotic ointment around the wound. He also shoved a generous amount into it, quickly replacing the soaked packing.
“I can’t stitch it…no staple would hold it… I’ll cauterize it!”
Angela nodded when he surveyed her for approval.
“It’s what I would do, if that helps you,” she stated calmly. “After you check for splinters.”
“That’s good.” He nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”
He rushed from the tent that had been set up behind the main medical tents to give them privacy, and Angela spent a minute observing Samantha. The storm tracker looked healthy despite the events she’d been a part of. In a few weeks, that could really matter.
“I’m so sorry!”
David groaned weakly and Angela placed her hand on his shoulder. She didn’t have the spare energy to send out the healing orbs, but she was able to dull his pain a little. David was allergic to morphine and they didn’t have many other painkillers that would work during surgery.
“Thank you,” Sam whispered as David’s body relaxed and his teeth let go of the bit.
Angela transferred her hand to Samantha’s shoulder. “Sleep for a while.”
Saman
tha felt her lids shut and she obediently lay down on the bloody cot by David’s arm. She faded into sleep while yawning.
Angela let go of her and found David sleeping also. Approving, even though she hadn’t meant to do that, Angela stayed with them. She wouldn’t leave them alone with the doctor, the same as Samantha wouldn’t have left her if the situation had been reversed. As she stood vigil, Angela listened to her waking people.
A small group walked by, talking about the pancake breakfast with five types of syrup for folks to try. They’d had pancakes a lot over the last couple of weeks, and Li Sing was busy introducing new items to keep people happy.
Not far from the flap where she was standing, Angela heard Doug and Darian discussing the rules for the Eagles. They left easy hearing range too quickly for her to pick up more and she let it go in favor of listening to the next group complain about the colder weather they had today. She had plans to open the winter supply truck next week, but she would do it sooner if necessary. She needed Safe Haven people to stay as healthy as possible.
“It’ll be soon,” a cheerful voice stated as they walked by. “We’ll have the new teams list and restart the in-depth training. You’ll love it.”
“And hate it, right?”
“Oh, yeah,” the Eagle joked with his rookie trainee. “You’ll remember it.”
Those lists would be going up this afternoon, at the same time they were moving people into the cave.
“They’re coming soon,” a young voice said, coming from the opposite direction.
Working crew, Angela thought.
“And they’ll win?”
Angela narrowed in. Who did that scheming voice belong to?
“That has not been revealed.”
“You’d better not…”
The pair got out of range and Angela stored it. She’d recognized the voices.
After a little while, there were too many threads to keep memorizing without missing details and Angela took a book out to make notes. She passed the morning listening to her people and adjusting plans, even when the doctor returned and his patient woke. There were important items to be covered and it was a good use of this time. Later, free minutes would be nonexistent for them.
“I need to show you something before we go in quarantine,” Marc said, joining her in the tent. He ignored the sleeping patients, but waved at the doctor. “You need a cup of juice or something, don’t you? Go see your boys.”
The doctor didn’t argue. He hated it when Angela was here and to have her mate in these close quarters too, was too much.
Marc quickly played the video for her, and Angela automatically counted the number of people. Ten, she decided. We’re short one.
The woman they’d executed was standing where she would be captured fully by the camera and she held up a sign that said, “Give him to us or die.”
“Meaning Adrian?” Marc wanted to clarify.
“I would guess so,” Angela answered as he shut it off. “But Conner is a healer, so it might be over him.”
“What do you want done about it?”
Angela sighed. “Nothing. Unless it comes to us or attacks a crew, we will not engage this enemy yet.”
10
Moving an entire camp of three hundred people into a cave was backbreaking, tedious labor. Long lines formed an assembly for most of it and a few hours of labor saw a dent. Once the small items were inside, the larger furniture had to be lowered with ropes, pulleys, and sweat. Small injuries and constant complaints were the tune of the day and the medical staff stayed busy applying band aides and stitching gashes. Angela was relieved it wasn’t worse. She had the ants on the bottom floors, helping to lug equipment into place, but she’d chosen not to have the strong insects do the heavy lifting up top.
As the morning became afternoon and the bigger things disappeared from their main encampment, Angela made notes for downsizing the topside. With well over half of the herd moving in today, it would clear a lot of room for new projects–like the fuel facility she hoped to have Theo and Jennifer design around the wood gas generators. Then, there was the solar farm and the winter crops. She wanted those things in place before the chaos hit. There was still a small chance that the tide would flow west and miss them, and if that happened, they might be able to stay here, underground, for as long as winter wanted to rage. The temperatures underground stayed at a constant 50°-55° below ten feet, and they could blow a new entrance to accommodate the larger animals and trucks if needed, then seal it up with bricks and mortar. It all depended on the north runs, and what may or may not come from them.
“Angela to Level One,” her radio crackled.
As Angela keyed her mike to show she’d heard, she could feel Marc’s tension from across the camp. He had slept for a few hours and then got up to help with the transfer. He was currently supervising the lines to make certain the items coming through were approved for this stage, but also to make sure the people weren’t getting too tired to keep hefting things along. He was switching them all out every couple of hours, sending them to have a meal or nap, and he had no trouble keeping track of where people were or who was supposed to be doing what.
Below them, Theo and Jennifer had control of the cave, with Kyle on their heels as an enforcer and protector. Angela was positive he would end up being labor instead of those. The people wanted this–they wanted to be inside and feel safe–and they wouldn’t goof off or cause trouble during the move. Afterward, when the need to celebrate a great day’s work came, was when Zack and his men would have to stay on their toes. She had that shift sleeping in a large common tent along the cliff right now, hoping if they were over there, they would be undisturbed enough to rest up for tonight’s duty.
Angela made it to the cave entrance before Marc appeared. She entered the cavern without a rope for the first time and felt a hand settle firmly around her arm.
“Me or the rope?”
Angela grinned. “You, of course.”
Marc kept a good grip on her, especially as they went down the metal fire escape-like stairs that now led into the cave. It took them down the first forty feet, past a wooden floor and then another. This was the main entrance and it led straight to their homes. To reach floor one or two, you had to take a different set of stairs that ran up to each level from the third floor.
The stairs circled down another twenty feet and Angela beamed in delight at the living quarters. She hadn’t been down here since assigning the rooms. “Wow!”
Theo and Jennifer were waiting for her, and they both wore expressions that said they needed to hear her gush over their labors. It wasn’t a problem, as Angela was thrilled.
Marc listened with half an ear, scanning the other people. Despite the grumbles over the labor, everyone was in a good mood and they were right on schedule to be able to settle them down tonight at close to the normal time–in the caves. It would be a long evening of walking these caverns to make sure people were behaving and equipment was functioning properly.
All the builders were now fixers and testers. For the next two weeks, that group of people would stay in the cave and do exactly what the job title implied. As with any new home, the cave would have problems. Marc thought the first one would be the dampness. Drying things out down here was a key to good health. People didn’t do well in prolonged damp conditions and Marc would be glad when the vents made a noticeable dent in the moisture. They might even have to upgrade to a more powerful setup for that.
Kyle, with Autumn snuggled securely in a carrier on his chest, gave Marc a gesture. He twisted around to find Shawn and Greg waiting by the stairs.
Marc waved them over, not leaving Angela’s side. “What’s up?”
“We’ve got the video to clear a bit, enough to be sure in the count,” Billy stated, coming down the last few stairs to join them.
Marc took the camera and hit play. He saw the landscape where he’d placed the camera and the edge of the alarm disc sticking out from an under the rock he’d used
for cover. For ten seconds, nothing moved except the weeds in the wind. Then a bike came into view and behind it, a whole group of them. Marc counted ten all together.
“How many bodies from the house?” Marc asked, already certain it was nine.
“Nine,” Billy answered. “I asked Samantha.”
Marc gave him the camera. “We’ll handle it.”
The men were positive that Marc would and each of them put it out of their minds in favor of admiring the huge cavern around them. If not for the tops of the walls and the ceiling, it might be a basement with paneled walls and carpeting. Everyone had done good work here.
“We need a few more hands on level one,” Theo hinted, pointedly sweeping the stationary men with Marc.
The men chuckled and went to help.
“Can you help me with these blueprints?” Theo asked, looking at Marc. “I want to make sure we’ve left enough room for a few vehicles.”
Theo and Marc examined the papers while Angela and Jennifer walked through the main living area. Along the hard walls were the beds–all bunks that were three-deep. Each had a rail and a long ladder nailed to it. There would be curtains to separate them soon, and then they would finish the couple’s area. Within a few days, there would also be chairs and shelves of books and games. If they did get to spend winter down here, they would all need activities to keep from going stir-crazy. Angela was hoping they might even get to construct an Eagle training area, but that was too far out to count on. If it happened, it would be in the dead of this coming nuclear winter, when they couldn’t do anything else.
Autumn woke up and began to fuss against Kyle’s chest, and Jennifer went to her, cooing softly.
Angela kept going, taking notes and making plans. She dug through her knowledge of setups, wishing she had more experience in this. It was important that they got it right the first time.
Angela eased into the short tunnel off the living area, wanting to determine how much they’d accomplished on the bathrooms. Next to the living space, this would be the next most used spot, and it had to accommodate hundreds of people, multiple times every day.
