The Life After War Collection

by Angela White

  “What about the weather?” Marc asked, lacing up his sturdiest boots. He didn’t know how long this hunt might take or where it would lead them. He wanted to be prepared.

  “Cold as hell, but no storms coming other than the one that went northeast of us yesterday.”

  “Good. Help keep things under control here while we’re gone,” Marc ordered.

  “You know it.” Jeremy wasn’t glad they had more trouble, but he was glad to be needed after his screw up. He was also grateful that Samantha hadn’t been told.

  “Keep track of Angie?” Marc asked suddenly.

  “I’ll go to her as soon as we’re done,” Jeremy vowed.

  “We’re done,” Marc dismissed.

  Jeremy exited the brig, eager to do the quiet labor.

  Marc shoved a thicker coat into his kit and went to the bottom tunnels.

  “Is everyone here? Ready?” Kyle asked.

  “Is she with them?” Seth demanded as he joined the guys in the top floor training room, wearing a copy of their uniform and gear despite not being Special Forces yet.

  “We don’t know,” Neil answered curtly, sporting more equipment than he knew what to do with. Marc had insisted.

  Becky’s note had been short. Seth replayed it repeatedly in his mind, falling in line behind the two teams when they exited the training chamber that held their lockers.

  I’m a danger to this camp, to every person here, because I can’t control my nightmares. When I can, you’ll see me again.

  Seth could feel the yearning for death in her words, the impossible goal of erasing the past in the scribbled letters. Becky wasn’t coming back.

  The mission team stopped at the medical bay to collect Doug and Jennifer, then marched down to the corridor that the kids had taken.

  Marc advanced into the darkness as soon as the team came in sight. He’d already been here, updating the fresh Eagles at this checkpoint. There was no other way the kids or Becky could have gone.

  Most of the team believed they would locate the entire group huddled together for warmth before they reached the end. The children hadn’t taken their coats.

  “How long have they been gone?” Doug asked worriedly. He was ashamed for not taking the time to tell the boys that they wouldn’t be handed over to the Mexicans, but he hadn’t imagined that was an issue.

  “Marc narrowed it down to two hours,” Daryl answered. He and the big man were bringing up the rear as the quicker men hurried to protect Marc.

  “Let’s move!” Marc called from the icy darkness ahead of them.

  The team shifted into a faster pace, breath steaming out around them like small clouds of moist, ominous fog.

  6

  “Coming in,” David called, spotting the light from Adrian’s fire, but not the man himself.

  Adrian grunted, emerging from the wall as if he had been a part of it. His new clothing was a perfect match to the stone.

  “You need something?!” Adrian barked. He didn’t want David getting in trouble for visiting him.

  “A place to crash. You got room?”

  Understanding the choice the healing man had made, Adrian lifted a brow. “You sure? It’s cold down here.”

  David slung his gear to the ground near the flames and knelt by the coffee tin that was boiling over on the fire, causing it to spit in protest. “Not very warm up there without your woman in charge. That Ghost is some piece of hard work.”

  Adrian nodded. It was a fair assessment. Marc was harder than most. He had a moral line that was absolute. He wouldn’t break it if he could help it, but the apocalypse combined with leadership of Safe Haven would give the man new insights into survival.

  “You eat yet?” David inquired, handing Adrian a cup of the burnt coffee.

  “I have a wonderful meal of ramen noodles planned. I found a case of chicken flavor last week.”

  David grimaced. “You know those things are poison, right?”

  Adrian laughed. Unable to help it, amusement bubbled out into the tunnels, spreading light that he no longer had the right to share with his herd. Horrible sadness stopped the mirth, replacing it with sullen depression.

  David dug through his bags and pouches. Very happy with the minor pain instead of flaring agony in his ankle as he bent and knelt, he labored silently for his mentor. He already felt better, being down here than up there. This is where he belonged.

  Adrian sat down on the flat rock and opened his notebook. He had put it down when he’d heard the steps. With the Mexicans on their doorstep, he was twitchy, not inclined to take chances.

  After adding a bit of tinder and a few logs to the fire, David poured his canteen into his cooking pot and placed it over the fire, with the lid. While he waited for it to boil, the soldier gathered a few items, mixing them together in the tiny frying pan that had come with the camping cook set. He still didn’t speak.

  Adrian watched the man assemble a meal, stomach growling. He’d missed real food since his banishment, along with toilet paper and coffee that didn’t taste like ass.

  David covered the pan and used two bottles of water to fill his small kettle. He added two tea bags and the rest of his personal stash of sugar to the kettle, then replaced the lid. As the first pot came to a boil, David deftly slid it onto the stone floor and placed the frying pan over the flames.

  The large baggie of jasmine rice captured Adrian’s attention as David dumped it into the first boiling water and used the lid from the frying pan to trap the heat.

  Adrian realized he was being given a gift. “Who sent it?”

  “Li Sing said to hurry up. He needs someone to play chess with.”

  “Tell him I’m working on it,” Adrian replied happily.

  “I will.” David pushed the kettle onto the flames before swirling the frying pan around. A wonderful smell began to fill the tunnel.

  David set out one bowl and a large mug with a lid.

  “You’re not eating?” Adrian asked.

  “No,” David snorted. “I couldn’t swallow another bite. Li forced me to make it while he watched. Would have been rude not to eat it when he told me to.”

  Adrian was impressed with Li again. He’d wanted to be positive that Adrian got enough food to hold him through a full day. He couldn’t do that if his company needed to be fed, too.

  David rotated the frying pan and the kettle every couple of minutes, slowly warming both until they were fully heated. The tuna stir-fry over rice had been amazing. David wanted to witness Adrian’s expression when he tasted it.

  “Coming in,” a familiar and not entirely welcome voice called from the Safe Haven direction.

  David noticed Adrian’s tension and shifted so that he had a clear shot at the new guys if it was needed. Everyone here referenced Jeff and Kevin as if they were saints, but David wasn’t taking the chance with Adrian’s life. The new bruises the blond had were glaring in the firelight as if to support the choice.

  Jeff and Kevin appeared through the gloomy passage, both cold and concerned.

  “Have you seen Angela?”

  Adrian was on his feet in an instant. “What?”

  “He hasn’t,” Kevin confirmed. “I told you she wouldn’t do that.” Kevin flashed Adrian an uncomfortable glance. “Jeremy is looking for her. We don’t want to bother Marc and we don’t want to piss her off if she wants some free time. We stopped by the medical bay to talk to her about Sally, but she isn’t there.”

  Adrian hit his radio. “Who has the Raven?”

  Silence came for a moment and then Angela’s voice, “I’m fine. Visiting with an old friend.”

  “Chauncey,” Adrian guessed.

  “Yeah, what’s up with him?” Kevin asked curiously. “We’ve never had a prisoner before, at least, not for so long.”

  Adrian didn’t mention Kevin’s use of the word ‘we’, but Jeff noticed it and scowled.

  Adrian didn’t know what to say as he sat down, eager again for the food since Angela was all right. “Don’t let
the boss lady spend too much time with Chauncey. He’s bad news. He plays with her mind worse than I ever did.”

  Jeff took the warning to heart. Now that he was here, his feelings of duty and loyalty to Angela and Safe Haven were returning by the minute. He couldn’t wait to be gone again before this place sank the claws back in too deep for him to escape.

  “How did you guys get hooked up with Sally?”

  Jeff sent Adrian the mental story of all they’d gone through, tolerating the slime ball because Angela had said it was important. He hadn’t snooped on Adrian’s moment with Sally, but he was now thinking that he should have.

  “Wow. She’s nuts. You’re lucky to have gotten out,” Adrian declared when it was finished. “Are you sure you want to leave Safe Haven for that?”

  “Yes,” they answered in unison, tones clearly implying he was the reason.

  “Sorry to have bothered you about Angela,” Jeff stated. He quickly exited the tunnel, unable to stand being around his former boss. He’d been gone long enough to understand that his anger was from the disappointment and betrayal. Crista’s death had been an awful accident on the part of Safe Haven’s leadership, as had Tracy’s assault and the other injuries and deaths they’d suffered. Fights for freedom required that type of sacrifice. Jeff had accepted it years ago. What he couldn’t accept was the betrayal that had come from someone he might have once considered a brother.

  Adrian tensed as a wave of pain that he wasn’t allowed to feel slapped at him. “Oh, you little liar!”

  Kevin lifted a brow, but Adrian wasn’t going to pass the job to someone else.

  “She isn’t with Chauncey anymore. I’ll be back,” Adrian muttered to David, heading for the next level. “Will you be my escort?” he asked Kevin, who had lingered upon Jeff’s departure.

  Kevin consented, though he wasn’t positive that a former Eagle was enough for the camp or for Marc. He would claim that he hadn’t known the new rules so Adrian would get the blame if there were trouble.

  “There won’t be,” Adrian assured, increasing to a jog. “Marc’s busy or she wouldn’t be alone.”

  Kevin heard the tone of anger and wondered, Why couldn’t Angela be alone?

  “She’s not herself, from losing the baby,” Adrian explained stiffly. He increased his pace again, forcing Kevin to concentrate on his footsteps around gaps and piles of rocky debris instead of asking questions. Kevin wasn’t as familiar with these lower caves as Adrian was. He hadn’t spent the last month alone in them.

  “Where is she?”

  “We’ll have to search,” Adrian answered. He lit up the bond that he and Angela had created through the forbidden call, swarmed with hatred for the slobbering voice on the other side of the barrier that had refused his pleas for help. If the day ever came that the situation was reversed, his reply would be the same.

  A golden wisp lit up before them and then faded.

  “What was that?” Kevin asked quietly, fascinated.

  “My tracker,” Adrian hedged, not wanting Kevin to know any more details than he might already.

  Ignoring the sentries on the stairs, Adrian stopped at the top and waited. The small golden ball lit up for a brief second and took off up the damp wall.

  Adrian quickly went to the next level, not answering the questions of anyone he passed. Because he had an escort, the Eagles let him go.

  Adrian tracked Angela to the rear of Safe Haven’s storage space, wedged in between dusty bags of wheat and flour. Tears were dried to her cheeks.

  “Angie.”

  Adrian kept his distance as Kevin went to her, blocking the view of anyone who might have followed them. A minute later, he had her on her feet.

  Adrian reluctantly backed out of the compartment. Marc wouldn’t like it when he found out who had helped her. He didn’t need to be there to feel it.

  Kevin took Angela to the medical bay, glowering at her guard as he came running toward them in panic.

  Brandon opened his mouth…

  “Shut up!” Kevin hissed, catching Angela’s need for this to remain between them. “Get her arm.”

  Certain that he had lost his rank, Brandon gently took Angela’s arm and helped get her settled with the doctor and students, who scolded her the entire time.

  Angela didn’t respond. She stared at Peggy’s unconscious form in misery, refusing to glance away until the doctor finally sedated her to get away from the creepy tension. She clearly wasn’t doing well.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Would You Believe?

  1

  “Do you hear that?”

  Kyle shook his head. He didn’t hear anything except for their funny echoes rebounding off the stones, but he didn’t doubt Jennifer.

  Jennifer wasn’t sure why the kids weren’t on her mental grid. It bothered her that Marc couldn’t detect them, either. She was positive they weren’t dead, though. She was bonded with some of the missing children. She would feel it.

  The tunnel was icy. The temperatures in these surface caverns were below freezing. They wound along the earth like a large snake trying to dig a way into the mountain. She shivered, straining… “Listen.”

  The team stopped, waiting to hear anything.

  A soft whimper of relief broke the silence.

  “It’s them! They’re here!”

  “I told you they’d come for us.”

  Jennifer and Kyle led the men forward, eager to comfort and then scold the children.

  Marc was busy scanning to find out what had happened with Becky and the two missing women. He scowled at the images of the two females running straight out of the corridor into the cold and waiting arms of the Mexicans. He didn’t want to imagine their fate.

  Ahead of the team, the tunnel curved, making a small pocket protected from the wind. They found the eight missing kids there, huddled behind a small fire. They were all grateful to see the Safe Haven adults.

  Roy and Romeo stayed back as the other kids ran forward to hug their rescuers. The Eagles quickly drew coats from their kits and tried to warm tiny hands.

  Doug went to his boys, kneeling down. “Why?”

  When they wouldn’t answer, Doug took their cold hands and led them to the others. “Come on. Get your coats on and we’ll talk on the way home.”

  The boys went willingly, exchanging glances of relief. They both expected to be punished for running away, no matter how scared they were. Safe Haven’s adults were brave. They wouldn’t understand being afraid.

  “Not true,” Jennifer corrected, running a caring hand over Roy’s short, stiff hair. “We were scared when we found you gone. It would hurt us to lose you.”

  “Yes!” Doug zipped the smaller boy’s coat and lifted the grateful child into his arms.

  Jennifer took Romeo’s hand, reading what had happened while he thought she was comforting him. “Did you see Becky?”

  “She made us come back,” Romeo admitted. “We saw her and followed. When we realized there was a way out, we voted to take it. Becky was down at the exit, waiting for dark she said, when the other two girls ran out.”

  Roy peered up at Doug. “She was mad at us. When she shouted, we ran.”

  The adults were happy that Becky had sent the kids back, but also angry that she hadn’t escorted them.

  “We were coming, but it got so cold!” Romeo complained. “We voted to build a fire and wait for the Eagles. We knew you’d find us.”

  Doug hugged both children, parental growl echoing, “We won’t let them take you!”

  Jennifer had mentioned that possibility for the behavior on the way down the tunnel.

  Marc gestured half of one team to escort Doug and the kids.

  As the marching commenced, Kyle kicked out the small fire and waited for Jennifer to take the lead again. Marc was having her guide them down each set of adjoining corridors, trusting her to track as she’d been taught. Kyle didn’t tell her that every man here had also evaluated the evidence after her and arrived at the same co
nclusions. It was likely that she already knew, but it was to be expected. Eagles were taught to do the math for themselves, as well as to trust their leader. Problems only arose when one of their totals didn’t match up, something they needed to know anyway.

  Seth stayed in the rear, dwelling on bad thoughts. He didn’t care that the men here outranked him. That wasn’t why he stayed back. Seth knew he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be leading a mission. A few months ago, he would have been fighting for the lead, but he wasn’t Marc or Adrian. The best people for this job were already doing it.

  Jennifer and Kyle rounded another corner, only to stop again. Becky had written a message on the wall, carved with her knife. A small flashlight was shoved into the crevice across from it so the words wouldn’t be missed.

  Unless I’m a hostage, stop chasing me.

  Jennifer and Kyle stepped aside to let Seth read it, not sure what to do. Marc and Angela would probably say to locate her anyway and be certain that she was okay, but Adrian would say it was her right to leave or stay. It was a hard choice. These men had been trained using Adrian’s methods, but Marc was in this rescue party.

  Seth regarded the message for a long time, fury and disappointment warring with common sense.

  Jennifer and Kyle went to opposite ends of the curve to wait, the team between them.

  Seth slowly twisted toward Marc. “Is she?”

  “No,” Marc denied. “We have one prisoner right now. Chauncey.”

  “Then, I’m going after her,” Seth chose. “I’d like the escort if you want to send a few people with me.”

  Relieved, nearly everyone nodded. If Becky made it out, the Mexicans would get her. Her time with Rick would seem like a vacation in comparison and Seth wouldn’t be there to save her this time.

  Marc knew where he was needed most. He gave Seth all but two of the men and hiked up the corridor to help Doug and the others with the kids.

  Seth turned toward the bottom of the tunnel and resumed walking. Behind him, the Eagles came, but Jennifer didn’t retake the front of the group. Seth was the leader now. She was his protection.