by Angela White
Kenn sighed unhappily. A small part of it was gratifying, but he was trying not to enjoy it. He’d changed enough to recognize that as wrong. He was also able to guess that most of it was still his shame hoping for an out, for an excuse so he didn’t have to carry this guilt, but life didn’t happen that way. Even Adrian had to take his lumps.
“So, is he trying to take your man or what?” Kenn brought the conversation back to where it had been, trying to decide how much he now had to ask Ray to hide for him. Angela and Marc couldn’t find out about his gift yet.
Ray thought on it again. “That’s sure what it looks like.”
“And you’re gonna put up with that?” Kenn asked incredulously.
Ray didn’t answer.
Kenn knew what the silence meant. Just because Ray was gay, that didn’t mean that he didn’t have the exact same reactions as any other man to a romantic relationship. “Are you ready for it to end?”
Ray shrugged again, telling Kenn it was on his mind. The only time a man didn’t answer another man on that question was when he was still evaluating his options.
Kenn let it go, understanding that was a sensitive topic, but also aware that they weren’t alone, so Ray was unable to speak freely. Many of the camp members behind them, with an ear turned toward this conversation, would be more than happy to run to Dale and let him know that Ray was discussing their personal life. In Kenn’s experience, the woman was never happy about that. He didn’t believe a gay relationship was any different. People didn’t like it when you talked about them behind their backs, no matter the intent.
“Beer after duty?” Ray asked. They were both scheduled in the entertainment areas until dinner.
“Sure,” Kenn agreed. He would have anyway because Ray had dangerous information, but Kenn was also eager to spend a couple hours hanging out and not worrying about the future. There hadn’t been much of that during Adrian or Angela’s reign.
3
“What do you mean they don’t care?”
Neil closed the thin door to Marc’s security cavity. Most of the camp was in the showers or the mess to start their morning, but he didn’t want to take a chance on being overheard.
“They don’t care if she slaughtered the train people. They want her to come home right now. About half of them asked if she left because she thinks they won’t understand.”
Marc stared, unable to believe that reaction from a camp that had been founded on strict morals. How had this happened?
Not sure if Marc wanted anything from him, Neil waited restlessly. The news should be a relief for the new boss. If the camp wanted her here and Marc wanted her here, which Neil knew he did, then there was nothing preventing her from resuming leadership.
“Except her pain,” Marc reminded tonelessly. “Don’t forget that we lost a baby.”
Neil grimaced at his own thoughtlessness. “I’m sorry.”
“I shouldn’t be in your head anyway,” Marc said tiredly. He hadn’t slept long before the camp had risen. “I know you’re loyal to her.”
Neil joined Marc at the small wooden table. Angela had insisted that all their furniture be flammable. When questioned about the dangers, she’d said freezing to death was much slower than a fast fire. No one had argued the logic. If all of their power sources failed, they could still burn the furniture as a last ditch effort to survive. The lengths she’d gone to and the details she’d covered during each stage were amazing.
“Yeah,” Marc agreed. “But she can’t come home until we find the other threat.”
“Is it just one?” Neil asked hopefully.
Marc scowled. “We don’t know. She can’t see it. There’s a blind spot. That means someone is having second thoughts, but I don’t want to count on it going our way. All traitors have to be dug up.” He slid his notebook around. “I’m working on a rotation where the descendants can scan all members of the camp and clear them.”
Neil both hated and loved the idea. Before the war, it would have been an unforgivable invasion of privacy. Now, this was necessary to ferret out their weasels.
“It’s still an invasion,” Marc warned. “It was a hard choice.”
“I can imagine,” Neil sympathized. Marc’s moral line was thick. Crossing it would cause him pain–much like Safe Haven’s other leaders. Each of them had been tormented. Marc would be no different.
“How long will this take?” Neil asked, noting that Jennifer was the sole person assigned to scan so far.
“Weeks, at best,” Marc admitted. “I may call a camp meeting to knock out a big batch. We can work the rest in after that.”
Neil considered what the camp might need or want that would entertain a large gathering. He came up with, “Do we have a telescope?”
Marc smiled a bit at the images in Neil’s mind. “I’d spend time there. Sounds nice.”
Neil began to make notes; already falling into the zone where doing his job came naturally.
Marc let him work, glad to have that solved for the moment. Neil would set up a viewing area and Jennifer would be the steady guard on it, giving her an excuse to observe that crowd and converse with them.
“Members will like this,” Neil pointed out. “It’ll earn you points.”
“Good,” Marc approved. He was determined to leave with the same stellar reputation that he’d brought in.
Now bunkered in a small alcove nearby, Chauncey laughed, letting it carry.
“You think you know, Marcus Brady,” Chauncey warned, staring at the pictures of islands that he’d pasted over the hard stone with spit and floor dirt. “But you will. Angela and Adrian have learned it. Your turn has arrived.”
Chauncey nervously stood up as steps approached.
So did the sentry, though he was hoping it was Marc coming to smack the traitor around a bit.
“Come with me.” Kyle unlocked the gate, not certain that he approved of the man being allowed to shower and eat with them. After helping the government, Chauncey deserved to die. However, that standard would remove many of the new inhabitants that Kyle did approve of being given a second chance. He was able to recognize his own bias. This man had endangered Jennifer. That was why he didn’t like him.
“I am sorry, you know,” Chauncey volunteered, limping slowly after a month in a cell. His body had stiffened and weakened.
“I don’t believe that,” Kyle told him, pointing toward the correct tunnel for the cafeteria.
“I like to wash before breakfast.”
Kyle lifted a brow, but grudgingly took the man to the nearest wash area. As they entered the steamy stone impression, Chauncey’s delight overflowed.
“Hot water! Can I have a shower? Please, oh, please?!”
Kyle couldn’t stop the reluctant grin. He’d felt the same way when Adrian had first hooked up showers for the camp, months after the war. Some more of Kyle’s bitterness over Adrian faded at that thought. The man really had done a lot for them. He’d given everyone moments of joy like this repeatedly during his time as leader.
Now experiencing guilt, Kyle pointed Chauncey toward a shelf with towels and hygiene products. “You have ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes with the water running?” Chauncey questioned incredulously. “Are you crazy? You can’t waste that much.”
The two Eagles on duty chuckled, as did the few men who were using the showers.
“We have plenty of water,” Kyle explained, thinking about the row of gigantic water heaters that Theo’s team had assembled in place. “We recycle about 85% of what the camp uses. You can have ten minutes, like everyone else.”
Overjoyed, Chauncey immediately began to strip the grimy clothes from his crusty body.
Kyle and the others didn’t avoid looking at him even though they wanted to. Security took precedence over nudity and the guards scanned continuously for problems. Most dwellers waited until they got behind a stall to take off their clothes, but Chauncey pranced across the damp, warm floor with his man parts dangling. It was embar
rassing and heartwarming at the same time. In that moment, he was an innocent child discovering the joys of a bath with toys.
“You have toys?!” Chauncey squealed in delight.
Kyle pointed him toward the box of scrubbers, ducks, and balls. It was usually the kids who played with them, but the Eagles occasionally came in after lessons and tossed the balls around while cleaning. Angela had foreseen the harmless entertainment going over well. She’d been right.
“What can you tell us about the history of the descendants?” Barry asked. He had sentry duty until Kyle’s crew was ready to depart for the train station, but this chance alone with Chauncey wasn’t likely to come again soon.
Also interested in that answer, Kyle took up a position near the exit, where he would be able to hear this conversation and any problems coming from the camp.
“Lots,” Chauncey replied, shifting around with an armful of colored plastic balls and his own swinging sack. “What do you want to know?”
Kyle was laughing, unlike the guards who were still fighting the urge. He now understood how someone could force this man to do whatever he or she wanted. Chauncey wasn’t stable, in several ways.
“Have they always been around?” Barry forced out through the amusement.
“Are they really descendants of God?” Zack added. He didn’t care about the man’s giant, snake-like, curled up… How can it stay curled when hanging? My dick doesn’t defy gravity.
The questions flew hard and fast for a few minutes where Chauncey stood in front of them and answered patiently. Barry finally waved him into the shower, even though he still had queries. He couldn’t behold the man’s balls any more. As it was, all the toys in here would now have to be replaced or he would never get the image out of his mind. That was the longest schlong he’d ever seen. The thought of it hardening was enough to make Barry ashamed of his own penis. He couldn’t match that with a generous extension.
As Chauncey vanished under the water, filling the steamy stall with squeals of delight and squeaking balls, Barry and Zack exchanged raised brows of intimidated awe.
“Can you imagine the wife?”
Barry burst into laughter that he tried to smother. “Not after he had it. You can’t Kegel that back into shape!”
Kyle held onto the wall through his mirth. He still wasn’t sure why Angela had insisted that Barry be bumped up after so short a training period. Despite saving Marc, the new man hadn’t actually earned his slot on Special Forces yet, but he was definitely a good duty partner.
“This is so nice!” Chauncey shouted, blowing water against the stall.
Kyle deliberated on how Chauncey could be so cruel as to betray his own kind, while being a child the rest of the time. It was how Jennifer could be a killer, but also still be afraid of some men, he assumed. Humans were complex creatures with deep layers of filters that protected their every contemplation, cushioned their every moment of reality, but even the war hadn’t been able to strip their passions, of love. Light would fill the world again. The apocalypse wouldn’t be the end of humanity. Safe Haven was proof of that, but Kyle was positive people across the world were the same. With or without magic, humans were special.
Kyle thought of the baby waiting for him, able to feel her anticipating their bedtime routine even though the day had just begun. When his shift ended at night, he had been going to Autumn’s crib for an hour of father time. They both loved it, though sometimes it was hard. The baby had begun to sense things about her birth that neither he nor her mother was ready to handle yet.
Kyle frowned as a cold chill floated through the tunnel. Following his instincts, he hit his radio. “Time for a check-in.”
Chapter Twelve
Move Away from the Pen
1
Samantha fought to concentrate. She’d had duty over the air quality monitoring cubby for the last week, sleeping when someone could be spared to watch the dials. They were keeping the sensor numbers quiet for now, hoping they didn’t need to reveal the charts at all. To do that, they had to limit who had access to this small compartment. As a result, only she, Neil, Jeremy and Jennifer were taking shifts.
Sam jumped as the small timer went off, sending the loud buzzing through her foggy brain. She hurriedly slapped her hand on it, sighing. “Time to check on the donuts.”
Samantha got her pen and notebook out, scanning her neat script. She checked the gauges and found the numbers the same. Sam dutifully recorded them and then leaned back in the chair. She would give someone another hour to relieve her.
The monitor behind Samantha showed the proof of the second snowstorm that she’d predicted, thick clouds roiling toward them from the west. It would carry cold and precipitation, but also the contamination from Yellowstone and any fallout from meltdowns near there or along the way. Angela had been right to bury them.
The thin door opened a few minutes later, letting Jeremy in. His shift was finished, but he wasn’t pulling the hours that Sam and Neil were. He wanted her to go to the couples’ area and sleep.
His heart settled into a contented rhythm as he spotted her sleeping features. I love you, he thought. You’ll never know how much.
Samantha didn’t wake, busy fighting the pull of the dreams that wanted her to fly away in them again. She’d been having those more and more, dreaming of the island and the boat ride to get there. Terrible storms were already preparing for their passage.
Jeremy knelt down next to the chair, placing a gentle hand over her slight stomach bulge.
Sam, waking slowly, slid her hand over his. “They’re sleeping.”
Jeremy laid his ear against her belly, fascinated. I’m having a son!
Samantha stroked his clean hair. I’m sorry I can’t pick one of them, she thought suddenly. They both deserve a full life with a real wife.
Pain lanced through her heart, but Samantha controlled it, not letting the babies feel it and respond. She’d tricked the cancer, but the clock hadn’t stopped ticking. It had taken her a month to figure out why she wasn’t happy, despite being spared. Because she hadn’t been. Death was still over her shoulder, over all their shoulders while they lingered here. The dreams were warnings that time was getting short. Angela had to call the bugout soon.
Jeremy slowly helped her to her feet. “Get some sleep.”
Enjoying the fresh scent of his cologne, Sam kissed his cheek and staggered toward their bed. Once Jeremy had chosen to fight his fear of being in the mountain, he’d easily conquered it. She was proud of him.
Jeremy settled into the chair, doing a quick sweep of all the gauges and monitors. The levels outside were the same as they had been the entire time that Safe Haven had been watching them–roughly three months–but the numbers down here in the mountain were lower. The personal badges stuck to the stone above the monitors and below the air vent were well under former safety levels for employees in power plants. If the numbers began to climb down here, then Safe Haven would have a completely new set of problems.
Enjoying the swimming head he’d brought with him from the shower, Jeremy switched his radio on. He wanted to be aware of anything that might happen in their caves. It had been quiet so far, other than the train. Jeremy wasn’t sure how he felt about Angela’s methods to rid them of that issue, but there was no denying that he felt safer for it. None of those people would return to hurt them later. The camp was almost proud of it, as if they’d sent out an army to fight and had won. Jeremy didn’t find any honor in poisoning, but that was the least of his worries where survival was concerned. Except…he didn’t want to serve a boss who was capable of that. I want Adrian back, he realized in disgust. I really do. What the hell is wrong with me?
Passing the room, Marc felt his good mood vanish. More than a few members were wishing the same thing. They’d had time to weigh all that had happened. Adrian had refused to give Safe Haven to the government, at great risk to his own life. He’d also left them in great hands with Angela. Time was passing and anger was fading.
>
“Not mine,” Marc muttered. He didn’t want to revive their open rivalry, but it rankled to know that Adrian was being forgiven when he deserved to be hung. Marc envisioned his plans, of the hands-on method that he’d chosen for the Jody’s final moment. A dry grin stretched his lips, good mood returning. Three hundred days from now, he would wrap his eager, strengthened arms around Adrian’s neck from behind and snap it. Not even a descendant would be able to resurrect him from that.
“Three hundred and counting,” Marc chirped, strolling toward the cafeteria for a mug of Li Sing’s hair-growing coffee. “Three hundred and counting.”
On his way, Marc slowed for the footsteps coming from the lower passages. They sounded urgent.
He twisted around in time to be hit with the butt of a rifle, flashing him to the mistakes of his youth.
Glad the hit hadn’t been hard enough to knock him unconscious, Marc kicked out harshly as he fell. Screams echoed through the cave as the man’s knee shattered.
Marc hit his button, sweeping for more trouble through blurry vision. “Minor accident, no worries. Anyone need a hand?”
No reports of attacks came, telling Marc that he was the target.
Shane, the guard on the area, skidded to a halt in surprise as he rounded the corner. “Not another one!”
“Yeah,” Marc concurred with the frustration. “Get the doctor to knock him out, and then pick a cell.”
Three more Eagles joined him with guns drawn.
“He fell off the ladder and broke his leg,” Marc informed them. “Tell people to be careful.”
Morgan motioned the others to carry the screaming man to the medical bay, not challenging Marc on the lie. The nearest ladder was ten yards away.
Marc followed, recognizing the injured assassin as one of their newest arrivals. This one, and a few others, had come in together right before the avalanche, seeming like decent folks who needed a little help. It added a fresh layer of danger to the caves for Marc, who had cleared the man himself. It already felt like they were being betrayed daily and they had no way of knowing how many more assassins were in here with them. He had to find a way to scan everyone in Safe haven, but they desperately needed a foolproof method for the descendants, who knew how to shield their thoughts under multiple layers. He and Jennifer had been in a hurry, but they also weren’t as strong as Angela was, so they’d skipped layers and made mistakes. Marc assumed Angie had done that as well as her gifts grew, or they wouldn’t still have long-time assassins in here with them. Until he had a way to bust through all the layers at once, it would continue under his watch.
