Tabernacle (Super Pulse Book 3)

by Dave Conifer

  “We’re practically on top of the road,” Con whispered fiercely when they’d regrouped. “Lay flat and don’t move!”

  “This is bad,” Carly said. “Those two white vans are ours. I know them like the back of my hand. My dad and I rebuilt them. So what are these guys doing with them? Something must have happened back at Tabernacle! We have to get down there fast!”

  “Oh, the shoe’s on the other foot now, isn’t it?” Dex said. “Now who’s worried about the home front?”

  “Of course I am!” Carly said, ignoring his point although she fully understood it. “We didn’t know they’d been all the way down to Tabernacle. Who are these people?”

  “You sure they’re your vans?” Con asked. Both were now passing directly in front of them, affording Carly her clearest view yet.

  “Positive,” she told him. “Me and my dad practically built them from scratch. There’s no doubt in my mind.” She took a deep breath. “I’m pretty scared now. This must be some kind of super army we’re up against.”

  “They’re not a super army,” Con said firmly. “They’re just a bunch of wild bullies who have guns. And they get their jollies attacking other people who don’t.”

  “My people have guns,” Carly challenged. “Plenty of them. And it looks like it didn’t stop them from attacking us.”

  “Yeah, that bugs me,” Con admitted.

  “So what do we do?” Dex asked.

  “As far as I’m concerned, nothing’s changed,” Con said. “We stick to the plan. As soon as they’re out of sight, we hop in the van and get to your camp. It should be light enough now that we can make good time. Agreed?”

  ~~~

  “So this is the place you call home,” Dex said after Carly pulled the van off Route 206 and rumbled up the dirt road. By the time the archway over the entrance came into view, Carly decided she’d had enough of the farce. The journey from Tabernacle had been predictable ever since they’d watched the column of vehicles headed for Lockworth. It angered her, however, every time one of the brothers found another way to imply that neither of them had ever been anywhere near the camp. They were trying too hard. It was time for all of them to come clean.

  “Look guys,” she said after stopping the van in the middle of the road within sight of the entrance. “We need to talk. Once you’re seen here, it’s gonna’ be touchy. I know you’ve been here before, and so will they. It’s okay. We can make it work. But not if you keep trying to pull the wool over my eyes. So just stop it, okay? We’re handling it.”

  “What are you talking about?” Dex asked, now animated. “We—“

  “Dex, cool it,” Con told him. At that moment Carly knew which of them was the older brother.

  Carly twisted in her seat to face Dex in the back. “Here’s the deal. In a few minutes you’re gonna’ be face to face with some people that are gonna’ remember you, and what you did here,” she warned. “Just like Nick remembered. I’ll be meeting with them before hand to smooth things over. Just don’t try to fool anybody and it’ll all be good.”

  Con touched Carly’s shoulder. “Somebody’s coming,” he said. “We get the message.”

  “Everything looks normal,” Carly said. “If there was an invasion, it must not have been a total disaster, anyway.” After imploring the brothers to stay in the van until she was back, she opened the door and stepped out slowly, not wanting to give the three Sec Forces anything to be alarmed about. Nevertheless, she thought it odd that they approached so carefully. Wasn’t it clearly one of their own vans? That underscored her own worries about what she’d seen earlier that morning. It told her for certain that vans had been stolen from Tabernacle. She walked toward them, and they toward her, the two sides converging about thirty yards from the gate. “It’s an emergency. I need to see Carlo right away,” she told them. Then she remembered that somebody might recognize the Bailey Brothers. “And stay away from that van until me or Carlo comes back. No exceptions.”

  Twenty-one

  After they’d sent Carly off with the Bailey Brothers, Nick knew he wasn’t ready for sleep. He’d bid everybody else goodnight, which felt odd because dawn was already breaking, and was now lying in a makeshift bed in somebody’s basement. Sleep simply would not come.

  It wasn’t that he didn’t need it. He’d been up most of the night helping with preparations for Carly’s trip back to Tabernacle. It was more about the nagging feeling that he had unfinished business to tend to. This entire mission had come about because of a promise made to and about the Moons. Although it appeared that his plan to rescue them and bring them back to Tabernacle was going to work, he didn’t feel good at all about his brief conversation with Christie. He needed to fix that, even if it came in the form of a full confession. Doing that with Elise had eased his mind before, but the relief hadn’t lasted. Maybe he needed to take it one step further and say the same things to Christie.

  There’d be at least a day before Carly returned with the trucks and vans needed to get everybody out of Lockworth. That’s how long he gave himself to make it right with Christie Moon. It was too early to start now, though, he told himself. Surely she and her daughters were still sleeping. He knew he should do the same. And now that he had a plan, he thought he’d be able to. He’d go find her later that morning, after a nap.

  ~~~

  “Nick, get up!” A hand shook his shoulder. “We have trouble!” In a split-second Nick replayed everything he could remember from the last few hours. He recalled sending Carly and the boys off, and then crawling into the first open house he could find on Savoy Street for some sleep. How long ago had that been?

  “Get up!” This time it was an order. He pushed off the towel he’d used as a cover and rolled toward the voice, which turned out to be that of John Markle. “Be out front in five minutes!” he told Nick as he ran out.

  Nick staggered across the room to the narrow basement window and looked out at the woods. The sun was high enough in the sky that he knew it was getting close to noon. He’d slept a lot longer than he’d intended to. Quickly pulling on his jeans and boots, he scrambled outside. Still groggy and grumpy from lack of sleep, he found that he couldn’t care less that John “ordered” him outside. At the same time, he was desperate to find out what was going on.

  “They’re downtown,” Jim Crowley was already saying. “Where they always start. But they’ll be here soon. God knows what they’re looking for this time. They have to know by now we have nothing left.”

  There were about thirty people gathered around Jim. John was by his side, as was Dwayne. Nick saw Dewey and Linda a few feet away, so he headed toward them to see what they knew.

  “We’re all going back to the hideout in the woods, right?” a woman said. “I already sent my boys that way.”

  “No! Not this time, Vicky!” It was Elise. “Bring your boys back. They took my daughter. And some of yours, too!” she shouted at the startled crowd. The murmur of conversation dropped away almost immediately. “And this time we can fight back! That’s what I’m doing!”

  “But we’re only a day or two from getting away from here!” Vicky protested. “We just have to survive that long in the woods and we’re saved!”

  “Saved?” Elise snapped back. “Easy for you to say! You’ve still got your husband and your boys. My husband’s dead and the ones who did it took my girl! I’m staying and fighting. Some of the men coming after us know where my daughter is. I’m not leaving until I get some answers.” She looked at Jim and John. “Where are the guns?” she demanded. “Why aren’t you passing them out?”

  Nick watched as civic pride and a deep-seated anger pulsed through the crowd. Elise wasn’t the only one who wanted revenge on the ones who’d marauded through their town. And now they had what they needed to hit the attackers hard. Knowing that the counterattack would be completely unexpected would make it even better. Nick sensed that until then, Jim was indeed planning on withdrawing into the woods to hide, but he knew by the tone of the crowd that
most wanted to stand and fight. And that was before the next man spoke.

  “They might be coming for the rest of our daughters now!” he said. “No matter where we hide! Back in the woods is the first place they’ll look!”

  “Right on, Coop!” came a man’s voice from behind Nick. “We’re not gonna’ roll over so easy this time!”

  “We already know they’ve helped themselves before!” Coop continued. “That’s all we have left that they might want. Our people. And yet they came back. Connect the dots and wise up! And somebody get me a rifle! I’m staying here and I’m fighting!”

  The applause and shouts of approval, although somewhat feeble because most of the gathered crowd was weak with starvation, told Nick all he needed to know. There was going to be a battle. He’d made it over to Linda and Dewey by then. “Come on,” he said, before pushing through the crowd to where Jim, John and Elise were. “Your man Coop is right,” he told Jim. “Whoever these men are, they’re not gonna’ let everyone just slip into the woods. We can’t count on it, anyway.”

  “That’s the first time I ever heard Stu Cooper say more than ten words,” Jim observed. “And I’ve known him for fifteen years. He’s a long-time hunter, so I know he can handle a gun. But I never knew he had that kind of fire in him.”

  “I think we should arm up everybody who can fight,” John said. Nick was shocked. He’d thought John would be the toughest to convince. This was the man who’d been dead set against this mission in the first place, because he couldn’t have cared less about the beleaguered residents of another town. All that had changed. “Everybody else gets back into the trees or in the basements. What do you say?” he asked Jim.

  “Okay,” Jim agreed. “We stand and fight.” He ran his fingers over his battered head. “I can’t do too much anymore, but if there’s an extra gun, you can count me in.”

  ~~~

  Within an hour John had set up the defense perimeter and was organizing the rest of the fighters, many of whom were angry mothers. Nick wondered, not for the first time, whether this man had some military experience that nobody else knew about. It was either that or he simply had a knack for it. Either way, Nick realized that John was serving on the wrong subcommittee back at Tabernacle.

  Dwayne and a local resident Nick didn’t know were assigned the task of distributing weapons, which they did from the front porch of a house. Nearby, Linda hurriedly ran five-minute clinics on how to shoot. Each freshly armed band that walked away from the porch cradling their newly-issued rifles was required to attend. They didn’t use live rounds for practice. That would save ammunition, and more importantly, preserve the element of surprise against the mob that was congregating just a mile or two away in the town square. Linda was confident that so long as they knew which way to aim the barrel and how to pull the trigger and reload, they’d be as effective as they needed to be.

  The area they’d decided to defend, the single block of Savoy Street on which everybody now lived, was so small that they were able to set up an impressive array of concentrated firepower. The end of the block that was nearest the center of town, the route that had been used to attack the street in the past, was particularly loaded, with shooters concealed in and around both corner houses. Fighters were also posted up and down the block in strategic places. The entry point to the hideout in the woods also boasted a half-dozen armed guards, each behind a sturdy tree.

  When Nick wondered aloud what the invaders were doing across town, John suggested that he take some men and have a look for himself. “We’re locked down pretty tight here,” he said. “But it’d be nice to know what’s happening over there.”

  “Is that an order?” Nick asked.

  “Nope,” John answered. “Just a suggestion. If you do it, make sure you take a rifle with you. They won’t be expecting that, even if they see you. Just hightail it back here if that happens.”

  “I’ll try not to shoot,” Nick promised.

  “Good,” John replied. “They already know we have a gun or two, but they have no clue how bad we can hit them. I’d like to keep it that way.”

  “Should I go alone?” Nick asked.

  “That’s up to you,” John said. “I can’t boss the locals around, but I think we could get one of ours to go with you. But it’ll be your job to talk them into it.”

  Nick considered this. “I’ll go alone,” he finally said. “But give me a half hour, okay?”

  ~~~

  “I wanted to talk with you real quick,” Nick said when he’d tracked Christie Moon down. He motioned at two young girls seated at a table in the next room. They were hungrily devouring some of the venison that Nick’s team had brought. Nick sat on the floor in front of the folding chair she was parked in. “Are they your daughters?”

  “They are,” Christie said, her voice flat and dull. “They have no father now. So what can I do for you?”

  “I don’t have a lot of time,” Nick said. “We’re digging in for a battle. You already know that. After this, I’m sneaking over to scout the other side.”

  “They’re at the police station, no doubt,” Christie said. “They always go there.”

  “See, here’s the thing,” Nick said. “I’m confused, because I thought you’d be glad to see us. We’re here to rescue all of you, and we’re going to get that done.”

  “Thanks,” she said, completely without emotion.

  What’s with this woman, Nick asked himself. “I came here out of respect for your husband and what he said to me. But you seem, well, angry,” he said. “It’s not what I expected.”

  “How should I act?” Christie asked. “Should I cry? Should I get on my hands and knees and thank you? Tell me what you expect and I’ll do it.”

  “I thought—“

  “You killed my husband,” Christie said in a hushed tone after leaning forward. “And then you popped up out of nowhere and sprang this on me just a few hours ago. So tell me what you expected, again?”

  “I never said I killed your husband,” Nick stammered.

  “I’m not stupid,” Christie said. “I think you should go. Just leave me alone.”

  ~~~

  Nick ended up grabbing Dwayne and Dewey, who were both willing to go with him. He’d have preferred Linda, but she’d already been tabbed for guard duty and was unavailable. They chatted with Jim long enough to scratch out a rough map, and then set out for what Jim referred to as “downtown,” each with a rifle slung over a shoulder. Nick felt silly as they hunkered down and ran from house to house while trying to stay out of sight, like something he’d seen on countless war newsreels. On the other hand, he had no doubt that there were people along the way who would be happy to take a shot at him. Better to be cautious.

  They heard the enemy long before they saw them. It sounded more like a fraternity party than an invasion. There was a lot of whooping, shouting, and shooting. The tapestry of sound told the three scouts that whatever was left of the shop windows and obsolete street lights was being used for an enthusiastic session of target practice.

  “Let’s go in there,” Dwayne whispered, pointing at a church. “We should be able to see ‘em.” Nick nodded his agreement. Still bent over, they reached the front door, which was sheltered from view by two oak trees.

  Dewey grabbed the metal door handle and jerked, only to find that it was locked. “Can we, like, shoot it open or something?” he asked.

  “Have you ever actually done that?” Nick asked. “I’m not sure it’s so easy like it is on TV. What if the shot ricocheted back and hit us?”

  “And what if somebody hears the shot?” added Dwayne. “I’d rather knock out that window.”

  “Stained glass,” Nick said quietly. “But we don’t have a choice. This is too perfect. Who wants to do it?”

  Without answering, Dewey took the butt of his rifle and jabbed it into the colorful glass, which fell away more than it shattered, in a twisted mass of glass and metal. After kicking out what was left of the beautiful window, he cont
orted his lanky frame and squeezed inside.

  Nick was glad they didn’t have to go anywhere near the altar. He wasn’t a religious man, but it wouldn’t have felt right. Instead, they were afforded a decent view of the square from a series of side windows, all of which were plain glass. The relative darkness of the church made them feel safe enough to approach the windows and watch what was happening.

  Trucks were parked haphazardly pretty much everywhere. Nick couldn’t count the men because they were moving around in a whirl of destruction as they ransacked what was left of the square, but it looked like there were about thirty of them. He’d expected more. Then again, these men thought they were rolling into an unarmed town. Whatever their intentions were, how many men would they need?

  Their demeanor and appearance reminded him of the two men who’d emerged from the woods when he and Linda were guarding the disabled van on the way to Lockworth. He couldn’t put his finger on it now anymore than he’d been able to then, except that they were somehow cleaner, fitter and more self-assured than any of the ragged armies that had shown up at the gates of Tabernacle. Of course, the very fact that they had running vehicles and working firearms set them apart, and they obviously knew it.

  Wherever they came from, this was a formidable group. Despite the bluster back on Savoy Street, the best possible scenario would be to stay out of view and hold them off long enough for Carly to come back with the trucks so they could get everybody out safely. With any luck, they’d never see them again.

  At least that’s what he thought until he looked more closely at the two white vans that were parked against a stone wall on the other side of the square. They looked familiar. In fact, he was certain they were part of the Tabernacle fleet. But that made no sense. How could that be?

  If he was right, and he of course hoped he wasn’t, this represented trouble, because it meant that this group of sadistic, violent parasites had already had contact with Tabernacle. And it had happened during the short time they’d been away. It might still be happening now. Nick wondered if Carly, at that very minute, was driving into a battlefield.