Tabernacle (Super Pulse Book 3)

by Dave Conifer

  “I don’t know where they’re taking him,” Nick answered. “Does anybody here have any bandages or anything at all?”

  “Not so much anymore,” Jim said. “We have a nurse, here, though. I’ll try to track her down. Her name is Christie. She’ll get him fixed up. That’s the best hope for —“

  “Christie Moon?” Nick asked. “Yeah, she was there!”

  “You’ve met Christie?” Jim asked, surprised.

  “Yeah,” Nick said. “I guess you could say that.”

  ~~~

  There was nothing left that Nick could do for Dewey, knowing he was in the hands of the best medical team available. He knew the sporadic gunfire at the end of the block, where invaders were still massing, was what he should be concentrating on. He and Savoy Street had won round one, mostly by surprising the enemy. Round two might be a different story. It was time to find out.

  John and Jim filled Nick in quickly on what was happening. That end of the block had always been the access point by which the invaders came into the neighborhood. It had always easy for them. This time would be different, after Jim had convinced John to frontload the defenses. Anything larger than an ant that tried to get onto Savoy Street from that end would face withering crossfire and wouldn’t last long, Jim boldly told Nick before lapsing into a coughing fit.

  When the first enemy truck tried to do just that, a steady line of fire from both sides of the block quickly knocked the truck out of service. Watching from the porch of a house, Nick saw the windshield reduced to rubble in a matter of seconds. The rest of the truck suffered a similar fate, its exterior now dotted with circular gashes where it had been peppered with gunshots. The three men in the cab and four in the bed slumped in a bloody death as the truck careened to a stop against the curb.

  “Yes!” Elise shouted from behind him, on the porch of the house that had turned into a de facto command center. Nick wondered what her reaction to such a scene would have been before her life had become a nightmare. “Try to keep a few of ‘em alive! We still need to get our daughters back!”

  “We’re using too much ammo too fast,” John said. “We have to hold out until Carly gets back with reinforcements and trucks,” he reminded them. “This kind of overkill is gonna’ backfire.”

  “What do you mean?” Jim said. “Your camp’s just a half hour away, I thought.”

  “Yeah, assuming there’s no trouble along the way,” John said. “That’s a big assumption.”

  “Not only that, but Carly has to talk them into coming at all,” Nick pointed out. “I don’t remember that being part of the mission. I mean, we all knew we’d need more vehicles to get everybody out, but nobody ever really bought into that. And they sure didn’t expect to be getting into a war like this.” His voice trailed off at the end. He was delving into dangerous territory, given that John was a member of The Committee.

  “Why wouldn’t they come?” John asked. “I don’t expect a problem with it.”

  “Well, what happened to all the military support that was supposed to be going along with us?” Nick challenged. “We already have a man down, and we don’t even have a band-aid for him. I just don’t know that they’re as committed to this as we hoped they were.”

  “They’ll be here,” John insisted. “But it’ll take more than a half hour, Jim. They have to pick people, and get the trucks ready. Then, like I said, we have to give them time to actually get here.”

  “So what do we do?” Jim asked.

  “Get one fighter from each house here in an hour for a meeting,” John said. “Here’s what we’ll do. The houses on the south side will be responsible for defending the street. All they have is woods behind them. These yahoos aren’t gonna’ get out of their trucks and come at us through the woods.”

  “They could still come at us the same way me and Dwayne and Dewey got here,” Nick pointed out. “It’s more of a direct route.”

  “Let me finish,” John snapped. “The shooters on the north side will go to the back of their houses and watch for anybody sneaking around from that direction.”

  “My bad,” Nick said.

  “And above all, we tell them to go easy on the ammo,” John said. “We just burned through a ton of it on a single truck, and most of that came after the guys in it were long dead.”

  “How about we check out the truck and see what guns we can scavenge up?” Nick asked.

  “I don’t know about that,” Jim said. He leaned over the porch railing and stared into the distance. “There’s still of bunch of those cowboys within rifle range. They might take a few shots at us if we show ourselves. Unless we’re going on the offensive, we should just stay out of sight.”

  “And we’re not doing that,” John said firmly. “Our greatest advantage is that they have to expose themselves to attack us, while we’re dug in. We’re not giving that up for anything. All we’re trying to do is stay alive until the cavalry comes to save us.”

  “Uh, whatever they were talking about up the street,” Nick said, “It sounds like they’re done talking.” They could hear the sudden roar of engines. At least five trucks were now heading their way.

  “They’re making this too easy,” Jim said. “The same thing’s gonna’ happen.”

  “We’ll see,” John said. “Nobody said these guys were stupid. I just hope everybody’s ready.”

  Moments later it was clear that the enemy wasn’t following the same script this time. The trucks raced toward the opening of the Savoy Street gauntlet. Just before reaching it, however, the column split into two, one veering left and the other right where they disappeared on residential streets. When the sound of the engines died away, Nick wondered what their tactics were going to be. This time, Nick suspected, they’d attack on foot, and be more careful doing it.

  “It’s not that complicated,” John said. “All we need is for everybody to look out their back windows this time, instead of the front.”

  “What if they go into the woods?” Nick asked.

  “Which is what it looks like they’re doing,” Jim said.

  “It gives them more cover,” John said. “But it doesn’t change anything. They still have to come out in the open if they want to get at us. We just saw what’ll happen when they do.”

  John and Jim, who were clearly in charge, decided that one of them should watch the south front, the side up against the woods, and the other should take the north. When Jim elected to cross the street to the south side, John quietly told Nick to go with him. “He misses a lot,” he whispered. So Nick invited himself as gracefully as he could and tagged along with Jim. This time Nick remembered his rifle and a handful of magazines.

  “I know these houses are armed up pretty good,” Nick said to Jim after they were settled in their perch, a second floor window overlooking the woods. “But the last attack came from the street. Do they know the enemy went into the woods?”

  “Your man John sent runners to every house, giving them the updates,” Jim said, his words whistling from his near-toothless mouth. “Every window on the back sides will have shooters.”

  Everybody was braced for an immediate attack. In the house Nick occupied they seemed to be relishing the moment, looking forward to a chance to mow their tormentors down in the no-man’s land they’d have to cross. The situation seemed ridiculously favorable to them. But the enthusiasm slowly gave way to confusion and angst as time passed with no attack. Had they missed something? There was nothing stirring in those woods.

  “I wonder if we should take a few shots into the trees to see if anything moves,” Nick said to Jim. “It’s been hours since we’ve seen any of them. Are they still in there?”

  “Maybe you should go back over to ask John about it first,” Jim said. “I’d like to know what he thinks about all this.” Nick nodded in agreement and left the house.

  The street was deathly quiet when he stepped outside. The vanquished truck was still parked unceremoniously in the street. Various fluids had drained out of the bottom
and stained the asphalt. None of the occupants looked any more alive than the truck itself. Nick kept his distance anyway. Death was a smell he was learning that he wanted no part of. As he circled wide of the truck he heard a few far-off sounds that broke the silence.

  Faint with distance, it nevertheless sounded like engines, and it was coming from the direction of the town center. It had to be Carly! She’d turned it around a lot faster than he thought possible. They were just a few hours from rescue now. Maybe there didn’t even have to be a battle.

  The battle! Carly had no idea how things had changed since she’d left. Nothing but a dying town on its last gasp when she’d left, Lockworth was now a powder keg. Unless they were warned, they were liable to drive into a meat grinder that they wouldn’t survive. He had to get over there to warn them of the danger. Judging by the buzz of engines, there wasn’t even time to alert John. He’d take the most direct route there, the same one they’d used hours earlier to flee the town square under hot pursuit.

  The streets were crawling with the enemy now, so it wasn’t going to be as simple as it had been earlier to get from here to there. The growing shadows would help. Aside from the enemy, he was afraid of his own side, comprised mostly of vengeful locals who would shoot at anything that moved. He went to the far end of the street, an area they hadn’t focused their firepower on, and guessed his way toward the town square as best he could.

  He took some incoming fire when he was about halfway there, the bullets striking a concrete sidewalk near the hedges he’d used for cover. He felt the sting of cement shrapnel on his face and arms, but was otherwise unharmed. After a minute of quiet he crawled out of the bushes on his hands and knees and moved on, because the message he was carrying simply had to get delivered.

  As he approached his destination, some of the noises troubled him. There were engines, to be sure, but some of them were motorcycles. Unless things had changed drastically in two days, there were no motorcycles at Tabernacle.

  Now wary, he reached the church they’d observed the square from earlier. Noting that the bodies of the two men were gone, he scrambled inside and ran to the window. One look told him that he’d been wrong about what he’d heard. The vehicles that had just rolled into town were not the rescuers from Tabernacle at all. He was looking at a town square full of men, cars, trucks and bikes that hadn’t been there before.

  Reinforcements had come, all right. But they were for the other side. He wasn’t sure what could be done about it, but he had to get back to Savoy Street to alert them that the odds just got worse. If they knew what was happening, at least they might have a chance to prepare for an even greater onslaught.

  Twenty-four

  “I’m so sorry about your father,” Sarah said after finding Carly with one foot inside a van as she sorted through rifles. “I can’t imagine how horrible it must be to come home to this.” Even though she didn’t know Carly well, she stepped forward to embrace her and felt quite natural doing so.

  “Thank you,” Carly answered, a crystal tear drop clinging briefly to the tip of her nose before dropping off. Her eyes were red from crying. “I don’t know what I’ll do without him. I—I just don’t know.”

  “I can only imagine,” Sarah repeated.

  “My mom left us when I was about two,” Carly said. “I’ve tried, but I have no memories of her at all. All I ever had was Dad. He was always there for me. I mean, anytime I was up against anything, he was right there.” She sighed. “I have to do it on my own, now, that’s all.”

  “Well, I know it’s not much,” Sarah said. “but I’m here for you. So is everybody else. We’ll never fill your father’s shoes, but maybe we can help.”

  “Thanks,” Carly said lifelessly. “I know you just lost your husband, so you can relate.”

  “I don’t know for sure if I lost him,” Sarah said. “I guess it’s a different kind of pain.”

  “I’m just trying to keep busy for now,” Carly said. “It’s what he’d want. It’s what he’d do. And we have to get this convoy on the road. The ones we left up there are in danger.”

  “What?” Sarah asked. “What happened?” Carly spent a few minutes describing the trip, and then, more importantly, what she’d seen on the way home. She ended by explaining what could happen in Lockworth if that mob was heading there.

  “So that’s what they were saying about the stolen vans,” Sarah said. “You’re saying Nick and the others are about to get attacked?”

  “Well, yeah,” Carly said. “That’s why I got back here so fast. And that’s why I’m trying to get these trucks on the road as soon as I can.”

  “How many people are going?” Sarah asked. “Are they sending any Sec Forces this time?”

  Carly nodded. “Sounds like it, from what Carlo said. About eight of them, I think. It ought to be more, but Carlo still doesn’t want to leave this place unprotected.” She looked off into the distance and took a deep breath. “There’s been too much of that going on, lately.”

  “I’m—“ Sarah began.

  “I wasn’t fishing for sympathy,” Carly said. “I’m good.”

  “Okay,” Sarah replied. “So what was it like there? What were the people like?”

  “They weren’t much different than us,” Carly said. “Except they have nothing. They’re starving to death and they’re living like pigs. Just like we’d be if we didn’t have this place.”

  “Do you think they’ll survive?” Sarah asked. “I had no idea it was like that when Nick told me about the trip.”

  “Not without our help,” Sarah said. “These are some bad hombres coming after them, from what the people in Lockworth told us. And I don’t mean like the guys who attack us here for food. That’s just the beginning with these guys. They’ve got guns and trucks. The people in that town don’t.” She shook her head. “I don’t think we should have left any of our own people behind, even if we were coming back. They’re in for a tough fight, and you don’t want to lose a fight to these kinds of nasty dudes.”

  “Yeah,” Sarah said. “I hear ya’. Should have brought ‘em all home today.”

  “John had a plan,” Carly said. “And he was in command.”

  “Hey, is Carlo still around here somewhere?” Sarah asked. “I need to talk to him all of a sudden. Something just came up.”

  ~~~

  “Let me go to Lockworth with your men,” Sarah said after she’d tracked Carlo down in the cab of the U-Haul truck that was being readied. “I can help. You know I can. And if you’re only sending a few men, they can use all the help they can get.”

  Carlo put down the box he was holding and turned to face her, an amused look on his face. “First of all, all my ‘men’ aren’t dudes. Three of the ones going are chicks.”

  “Oh,” Sarah said. “I didn’t know you had any of those in the forces.”

  “And second of all,” Carlo said, “I’d send you if I could. You’re a better shooter than just about anybody I have. But it’s not up to me. My bosses told me exactly who and how many I can send. You weren’t on the list. That means they already have you penciled in for something else. It wasn’t negotiable.”

  “They don’t have me penciled in for anything,” Sarah said. “Roethke’s giving me busy work.”

  “Beats getting shot at,” Carlo replied. “Why would you want to do this?”

  “Two good friends are up there,” she said. “We don’t turn our backs on each other.”

  “That’s right, Dewey went along, too,” Carlo said. “I forgot about him. Even so, I don’t think I can make this happen, Sarah.”

  Sarah hesitated. “What if I gave you something in return?” she asked.

  “Like what?”

  “Roethke tried to recruit me to your new sniper team,” Sarah said. “I turned him down flat. But if you let me go today,” she continued. “I’ll do it, if you still want me.”

  “I don’t know, Sarah,” Carlo said. “Of course I want you as a sniper. But I could get in a heap of trou
ble for this.”

  “How?” Sarah asked. “You’re not even going. How are you supposed to know I stowed away on the truck? I’ll be the only one who knows you know, and I won’t tell.”

  Carlo thought it over for a moment, and then nodded. ”Well, if that were to happen, and I have no reason to think it will, then, hey, what could I have possibly done about it?”

  ~~~

  Sarah promised to be back within an hour, and then left to gather a few things back at the Village. She still wasn’t completely certain that she’d follow through on this. Hadn’t she scolded herself just a few weeks ago when she deserted her girls for the folly of finding her husband back in Medford?

  Nick wasn’t even her husband, or their father, but she knew if she did this, it was for him. It wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t right either. She couldn’t understand what was driving her to do this. Did she still feel she owed him for rescuing her and her daughters from the bridge? Or was it something else?

  ~~~

  When she came back, she wasn’t alone. By chance she’d run into the rest of the Outhouse Coalition, who’d all returned from afternoon work and were waiting around for dinner. When she revealed her plans, which she’d already told her daughters about, Matt and Tom quickly approached their wives and received reluctant blessings to go along. They feel like they owe Nick something too, Sarah told herself.

  Carlo nodded discretely when he saw her, but did a double-take when she gestured at her escorts, one on each side. The three of them climbed into the back of the U-Haul truck, where they found a single rifle and a shoulder bag of ammunition. Except for that, the truck was empty. They knew that was no accident. If all went well, it would return to Tabernacle loaded like a cattle car with new residents who’d be thrilled to be there.

  A few minutes after they’d settled into a corner to wait for the journey to begin, they heard the metallic patter of two more rifles shoved in through the open door. Sarah smiled. It had to have been Carlo himself. They barely had time to grab the new guns before the door rolled closed, plunging them into darkness for the ride to Lockworth.