The Life After War Collection

by Angela White

  Cynthia: Cute. Thank you for the interview.

  Marcus: My pleasure.

  Reporter’s final thought

  I feel snowed. We all know Marc can be charming and that he uses it to distract people. We usually approve, but in this case, it could cost our lives. Personally, I trust Marc. I also believe Angela wants us what’s best for us. But the reality is this: The long winter, combined with all those refugees, could kill us. Safe Haven might no longer exist. Is that worth the risk for a few more good people? We already have enough men and women here to rebuild our lives. Let the rest of the refugees do the same–somewhere else.

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  Pick up a potted vegetable plant or two!

  Food could become scarce if this winter gets as bad as people are worried over. Do your part and grow a vegetable! Pick up a potted plant at the topside garden area and take it to your bunk. The pots are bio domes that you close in the evening to provide protection and hold in warmth. These plants require little light and only a little water, so it will be easy for everyone here to grow their own favorite vegetables. Stop by and get yours today!

  *Area will be open from 9am to dusk.

  Get your winter gear!

  All supply trucks now have winter gear. They will be open from 7am until dusk. Don’t take chances with your health. Get set for the storms before they arrive.

  Contest Reward Party!

  48 hours from now, we are having a party to celebrate moving into the cave. Details will be posted on the boards in all mess areas. This is a housewarming party, so bring a treat and join your fellow survivors in triumph. We made it. We’re here. Let’s party!

  Page 4

  Safe Haven Code of Conduct

  1.) Abuse (Mental, physical, and verbal) is forbidden.

  2.) Fighting, property damage, and violence for any reason but self-defense is not allowed.

  3.) Sexual Assault is a capital offense! Punishable by death, or branding and banishment

  4.) Killing for any reason other than self-defense is a capital offense! Punishable by death.

  5.) Child abuse is a capital offense! Jury vote. Guardian will overrule any decision but death.

  6.) Rape is a death sentence.

  7.) Treason/ Mutiny is also a death sentence. Leadership will only change by camp vote. When more than half of the camp agrees, a new leader will be voted in.

  Crime Reports

  To report a crime, simply tell any Eagle. They will handle things from there.

  1

  “She’s still letting people in!”

  “Yes,” Adrian confirmed Justin’s observation. With David recovering in a guarded hammock behind them, Justin had stepped up to be XO. He and two of the others would remain here to watch over David. They had orders to bugout if the refugees came up.

  “Is she crazy? Listen to them!” Justin demanded, concerned. “Look at it. Those are bodies!”

  “Yes,” Adrian confirmed again, heart breaking for what Angela had to be feeling. “She’ll keep taking them in until the camp or Marc puts a stop to it.”

  “Why would she take that risk?” Justin was getting angrier as bottles and debris were thrown toward the main gates and the more docile zones. “I’d use Ma Deuce in that tower and kill them all.”

  “Those are Americans, soldier!” Adrian snapped at the suggestions of using the .50 caliber that Marc had installed on top of the tower. “She’ll never throw them away lightly.”

  “They don’t have the room or the supplies for that many people,” Justin continued to argue. “There has to be five hundred refugees down there!”

  “Easy,” Adrian cautioned. The masses were staying by the gates right now, but as they got more desperate, Adrian expected them to spread out. He didn’t want their conversation to be what triggered that behavior.

  “Does she at least have a way out of there?”

  “I would imagine that she has several,” Adrian answered, narrowing in on a fight at the entry to the evaluation area. Most of the scavengers here were still armed, but the physical fights were common, whereas the gunfire had been light. Even in the starting frenzy, the mob was saving their bullets for the guards inside the gate.

  “What are we supposed to be doing right now?” Justin asked, calming. He’d needed to vent his frustrations. He was an Adrian supporter, but he was also fond of Safe Haven. He wanted both to do well.

  “We have to finish clearing that road.”

  “That’ll take months,” Justin pointed out. “And it’s making it easier for people to reach us.”

  “No,” Adrian corrected. “None of these people came from the south.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “When winter blows in, you migrate,” Adrian explained. “But when you’re already south, you stay put.”

  Female screams echoed and then gunfire came as the men guarding Safe Haven’s gate began shooting into the fighting men by the evaluation area. The fight had broken through the first gate and caught a woman in the chaos. Once she was down, the fight had shifted to a gang rape, but they’d forgotten they were in range of the Eagles.

  Adrian was proud of himself, proud of Angela, and yet, terrified for both of them. Safe Haven would leave after this, he hoped, and their sacrifices would finally be proven worthy. The flood of misery surrounding his former camp was going to be more than they could handle. Angela would make sure they got to witness the worst of it, to convince them that leaving was the right thing to do. It was likely the hardest thing she’d ever done. Adrian mourned and celebrated for her, at the same time. He understood what it was like to fight this hard, to never relax your strict plans. Because she had the strength to follow through, their country would survive. In time, the ripples would spread out and relight this dark land with fierce hope and pride.

  “We’ll go down the rear path,” Adrian stated, going toward the site that had been camouflaged. David had two sentries. Adrian headed for the road that had now been cleared for five miles. That was only far enough to get them trapped.

  2

  “We have a tail,” Tommy stated, staring in the mirror as Kendle drove.

  “It’s Conner.”

  Tommy frowned at her calm reply. “He’s been banished!”

  “We’re not in camp, are we?” Kendle pointed out. “Angela owes him for helping a member.”

  “Conner was in camp to help someone?”

  “No.”

  Tommy considered what that meant. Conner was doing good work, probably for the boss. Before it all went to hell with Adrian, that had meant the person was trying to earn forgiveness.

  “Does he deserve it?” Tommy demanded as he steered around a garbage truck that appeared to have been loaded with furniture when the war came. The mold on the truck was defying the cold to remain alive. “Can he be trusted?”

  “For this run, he’ll shine like a new penny,” Kendle predicted. “In Safe Haven, around Candy? Hard to guess at.”

  Tommy wondered what would happen if he said no to the boy joining them. If Conner was here, he would have some proof that Angela had approved it. Tommy decided that if he did, he would accept the boss’s wishes for now and complain upon his return.

  “That’s what I chose to do,” Kendle confided. “This is important. I won’t let Adrian’s son interfere in our mission.”

  That was what Tommy liked to hear from his teammates and he gradually slowed to a stop. The vehicle behind them also pulled over, driver and six passengers staring curiously until they saw Conner. Then the stares became scowls and mutters floated through cracked windows.

  “What is he doing here?”

  “Get rid of him while you can!”

  Tommy didn’t scold his team. The boy had a right to know how people felt.

  Conner flushed under his helmet and chose to leave it on. He didn’t talk, just handed Tommy a note. He’d read it before leaving his father’s site.

  “Says it’s up to us,’” Tommy informed them. “If we can’t use hi
m, he’ll be assigned to Zone C.”

  “Wow.” Kendle was speechless. She couldn’t believe Angela would do that.

  “Guess she always knows what buttons to push,” Tommy commented thoughtfully, wondering how best to tell the people behind them. His own passengers were remaining silent out of respect, but Tommy could feel their disapproval.

  “Take the note to the driver behind us. Tell them I said to vote. Then come to me and wait.”

  Conner went quickly and Tommy twisted around to scan those in his vehicle. “Keep him or send him to his death in Zone C?”

  It was a tense ten minutes for Conner. Tommy’s vehicle had all agreed to let him come along, but the other seven people were still arguing it out. If all of them said no, the vote would be theirs and he would be sent to live in the zone for bad people. It meant this was his forgiveness vote, and Angela had done it in such a way that no one had known it coming. There was also no one here on his side to speak for him, which kept Conner a nervous wreck while he waited silently by Tommy’s open window.

  Whitney flashed lights to let Tommy know they were ready.

  “Go find out,” Tommy ordered. This was another part of atoning–facing the people. The way Conner was handling himself so far was good.

  Everyone turned around or observed in mirrors, curious as to Conner’s final fate. It could all end here.

  Whitney glared at the boy. “Take off that helmet.”

  Conner removed it to reveal a pale skin under scarlet cheeks. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think anyone wanted to see me since I look like my dad.”

  It was a reminder that he wasn’t Adrian, but Whitney didn’t need it. “We voted to let you come along, but you’ll be watched until we know if we can trust you.”

  “Thank you,” Conner said quickly. “I’ll be helpful. I promise.”

  “That’s why we agreed, so be sure that you are,” Whitney warned. “But as far as we’re concerned, your banishment has been lifted, with conditions. This trip is the first step in your probation. The next part comes when you’re in camp and Candy walks by. If we witness one leer, we’ll shoot you and pike your skull on the front gate like Marc did that woman killer. Watch your six, rookie.”

  3

  “Have you found out anything about her?”

  “No, and I’ve tried. She’s great at deflecting questions.”

  “I noticed that. Other than Shawn, does she have any friends here yet?”

  “She’s had lunch twice with that new guy–Jayson, but that’s it. Even the den mothers have given up.”

  Angela was outside the door to the main medical bay. They now had three wide canvas shelters connected for their medical needs. Hilda oversaw one, Dr. Reynolds supervised one, and Millie and Mandy were occupying the third. Those two females had chosen to work together and the doctor was staying busy moving between the three areas.

  “It’s a chore to keep watching her. I’m always so tired!”

  “I wondered if she should be roaming free. I’m glad she isn’t, but there are a lot of new people. I don’t recognize enough faces at meals.”

  In the wing nearest to the main flap, Theo and Candy were talking. Theo’s leg had been casted, but there was no sign of life in it. Dr. Reynolds had declared it paralyzed and Candy had come as soon as Theo was allowed visitors. Candy was keeping him busy with chatter and questions, trying to prevent him from dwelling on his injury, but Angela expected that to fail soon. Theo wasn’t the type to be distracted from the future, no matter how grim.

  “Any idea how to keep all those assholes outside the gate?”

  “Angela and Jennifer are picking through them. It takes time. How are your shifts with Conner around?”

  “Awkward, but getting better. I heard he went with Kendle, so I won’t have to worry about it for a while, I guess.”

  “The boss will feel better when the rest of the teams return.”

  “They all copied Marc’s order.”

  “Yeah, he still sounded pissed. I can’t believe Shawn did that.”

  “And in the kids’ camper. Peggy was furious.”

  “I heard Angela laughed.”

  “Well, didn’t you?”

  Angela resumed walking. She’d gotten an update on a few things and she was confident that Candy would keep Theo occupied for at least another day or two. After that, life would distract him. As it was, the crowds outside the gate were making Safe Haven people extremely uneasy. Several of them had come to her this morning to express their concern. Angela had explained about the reinforced gates and the patrol that was staying tripled in that area, but her camp wasn’t stupid. If she kept pushing them to take the refugees, they would rebel with an emergency vote, which was the goal. This was how their future would be for years if they remained in these mountains. Some of the people had even suggested she get rid of the refugees through magic, giving her the sign she’d had to wait for. Her camp was turning away from the idea that Safe Haven could shelter everyone, concluding that there wasn’t enough food and water for that many people, let alone enough Eagles to provide security. Cynthia’s paper had brought the topic front and center. Angela had gone over it last night. Right now, she had to supervise the gate while Marc tried to sleep through the noise. Knowing she would be out here with the Eagles would prevent him from really resting. He would be up long before he should be, to verify that she was okay.

  Angela waved off her shadows in favor of both Special Forces teams. This was the first active duty she’d scheduled them for and all fourteen men were lethal. Even the rookies she’d assigned to their teams would shoot first and talk later–exactly what this situation called for. If the mob chose to attack while she was outside, people would die.

  Angela waited for Ray, who had Point over the gate, to unlock it, not reacting to his frowns or mutters. She could hear the wildness out there and understood his concern, but this was her job.

  Angela entered the first gate and waited to hear the lock click before she entered the reception area. The crowd around this fence was patiently waiting to be evaluated, but the groups behind them were loud and angry that they had to wait in the cold. There were no less than six hundred people here. When Angela scanned them with the witch, she was disappointed to discover that more than half couldn’t be allowed to join them and that was just from obvious problems. The bright glow of thievery, abuse, and corruption was unmistakable–especially in the group that had moved up during the night.

  Angela read the sentry notes on them, frowning as she found out they’d taken over two smaller camps and forced them to give up the location by Safe Haven’s gate. The women in the captive clan had been abused before the Eagles could interfere. The offenders in the large group had been grabbed, shot, and added to Marc’s gruesome display, but the notes said he wouldn’t do it again. Sending men outside at night was a big mistake.

  Angela sat down between four Eagles with rifles in hand, glad of the fencing between her and the mob. As she regarded the next notes, the noise pushed in on her. This crowd was dangerous. She couldn’t let her medical personnel come outside today. It wasn’t safe, even with the patrols and fences. As it was, Angela wanted to go back in now, but knew it might trigger a negative reaction. She needed to appear in control and she signaled the next group of refugees forward through the cold wind.

  “No, you won’t be able to carry a gun unless you’re an Eagle.”

  “Then I want to be an Eagle!”

  “That’ll be a while. We have to make sure we can trust you.”

  In the next little cage over, Jennifer sounded like she’d almost had enough of repeating the same answers. Angela understood.

  Jennifer sighed, pushing a paper under the small gap between the fence and table. “Fill this out.”

  She placed a yellow card on the table as well. “You’re being assigned to Zone A. If you can follow the rules and prove you’re a good person, you’ll get into a better zone and maybe make it inside.”

  Jennifer’s words told
Angela the man probably wasn’t capable of being reformed, but it was clear that the teenager was tired of sending people to Zone C.

  “Take a break,” Angela ordered.

  “Thank you.” Jennifer rose right away. The tension out here, combined with the noise, had given her a nasty headache that interfered with reading people’s thoughts. She also kept getting snatches of a conversation happening inside Safe Haven, but the words about C-4 made no sense to her. They couldn’t blow up six hundred people.

  Angela studied the man in front of her without any change in expression at the burn marks and bruises. The wild expression and knife clutched in his grip said whoever had done it to him was still a threat, and Angela dug deeper to be certain of the choice. She found no issues with the man that Safe Haven couldn’t help and passed him an orange card. Earl would become an Eagle and then he’d never have to feel this way again. She would see to it. “Zone B. Fill this out.”

  The noise increased as Angela processed people at a faster rate than Jennifer. Refugee groups moved up as she kept sorting, but the line behind them kept coming. It stretched down the hill and out of sight. As the groups rotated, fights broke out between those moving too slowly and those who were in a hurry. Vehicles were damaged as inexperienced drivers tried to navigate the small spaces, hitting tents as well as people. It was chaos.

  Angela felt the tension increase among her guards as the next group came through the steady wind to be evaluated. The ten men were quiet and alert, heavily armed with smirks that warned of bad intentions. They strolled toward her in a line that cleared a quick path through the refugees.

  Angela’s Eagles stood up, glowering.

  Angela didn’t need to scan the men, but she did anyway to be positive later. Without someone to beat her plans off, she was having doubts in a few areas and the refugees were a part of that–mostly because of the women and kids. Behind the men, but still a part of that smirking group, were four females that Angela hated to assign to the same zone, but she had no choice. The women appeared to be just as corrupt as their men, and no amount of survival skills or pregnancies were worth letting that type of evil into her peaceful herd.