by Dave Conifer
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I’m good,” Nick answered. “Dewey took another bullet, though.”
“Oh no,” Sarah said, before recognizing the disheveled man next to Nick. “Dwayne, I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“I see you met my friends,” Nick said to Sarah, a smile crossing his face. “How do you like those Bailey Brothers?”
“Nick, we just lost Tom,” Sarah said. She pointed at a body in the road by the vans. “He’s right there.”
Nick’s face fell. “What do you mean, lost? He’s dead?”
“Yeah,” said Matt. “About a minute ago.”
“What? Here?” Nick asked.
“He’s right over there,” Matt said.
Nick ran over and knelt next to the body, which, indeed, was Tom Hellikson. Why was he even here? He was glad, at least, that he’d apologized to Tom’s face for betraying him a few months earlier. That wasn’t something he’d have wanted to rue for the rest of his days.
He gently closed Tom’s eyes with a finger and thumb. He’d just lost a good friend. Even though he knew just about everybody still alive had experienced that as well, it still hurt. He stood and wiped his eyes with a dirty sleeve before rejoining the others. “I’ve known him for a long, long time,” he said. “Back in those days, I sure never thought it would end like this for him. Or any of us.”
“Sorry about your friend,” Con said. “But we still have work to do.”
“We have to take his body back to camp,” Nick insisted. “Let’s put him in the back of the van.”
“You mean, in with us?” Dex asked. “For real?”
“For real,” Nick said firmly. “He’s one of us. Somebody grab his feet.”
After Tom was in the van, the leaders conferred in the street. The Baileys explained that the real battle was happening on Savoy Street, and that’s where they needed to go next. They’d leave the U-Haul truck parked where it was until the area was completely secured. The rest of them piled into the vans and moved cautiously forward in the dark.
When they pulled onto Savoy Street, Nick and probably everybody else expected the worst. On the other hand, it occurred to him that there hadn’t been any gunfire in quite some time. Maybe, whatever had happened, it was all over. Except for a few abandoned vehicles, most of the block was quiet and deserted. As they moved further down the block, however, it became more and more evident that a fierce battle had ended just a short time earlier.
After they rolled over four or five corpses, Con relented and turned the lights on. The resulting view was sickening. There were dead men everywhere, their bodies bloody and contorted. The closer they got to the end of the street, the more lifeless casualties they had to drive around. It had been a bloodbath. Some of their vehicles were still running, because their drivers were too dead to switch off the ignition. Nick remembered Elise’s suggestion that these guys didn’t have as much firepower as it was once believed. As he took in the scenery, he now realized that this had indeed been the case.
“We’re home,” Dex said after they stopped at the compound. “Looks like we missed all the fun.”
“Doesn’t bother me a bit,” Matt answered.
“So how are they gonna’ know it’s us?” Con asked. I don’t want to step out and get shot down like the rest of these jokers.”
“Turn the vans a bit so they can get a better look at us,” Sarah suggested. “They’ll know these are Tabernacle vans. At least our people will. That’ll help.”
A few minutes after they’d maneuvered the vehicles, the front door of one of the houses cracked open and Jim Crowley stepped out. “It’s us, Jim!” Dex shouted. “The Bailey Boys are home! What’s for dinner?”
~~~
When Nick and the rest of the crew walked through the compound, they heard a lot of sobbing. They quickly understood that these were tears of relief and joy on the part of people who’d expected to die, but now had hope again. Elise confessed to Nick that not many of the Lockworth residents had ever believed the plan would work, and that the Tabernacle vans would be leaving without them. It was only now that they understood that they and their children had a place to go and a chance to stay alive.
John described the battle, which had gone the way Nick thought it had after seeing the carnage outside. Waves of attackers were repelled, over and over, until the last few stragglers gave up and melted away into the woods.
“Did Kevin Conners and his son make it back here?” Nick asked.
“Who?” John replied.
“No, I haven’t seen them,” Jim said. “I thought they’d be with you.”
“Dewey, you managed to get yourself shot again?” Sarah asked when she found him lying on a sofa that was so short that his legs were dangling over the side. “What are we going to do with you?”
“You don’t look so good,” Dwayne told Dewey. “We need to get you back home so Dr. Grover can patch you up.”
“Again,” Sarah said.
After a few minutes of discussion, it was decided that there was no point in waiting around any longer than necessary before loading up and moving out. In fact, getting out as quickly as possible was the smart course of action, just in case the enemy was sending more fighters. After the U-Haul truck was sent for, the Lockworth residents were told plainly that they could only bring what they could carry, and that no escort could be provided for them if they chose to go back to their houses for any personal items. From what Nick heard, they all decided to leave behind whatever meager possessions they still had rather than risk walking the streets one last time.
~~~
“I’m not leaving,” Elise told Nick later, when their paths crossed in the foyer of one of the houses. “Not without my daughter. If she’s still alive, and she ever breaks free, this is where she’d look for me. So this is where I’ll be.”
Nick was speechless. He didn’t have the heart to tell her what he believed, that her daughter was long dead if she’d been taken by these freaks. He spent a few minutes trying to talk her out of it. It seemed like a waste of her own life to stay there. She’d never survive the winter, even if the attackers never set foot in Lockworth again. But she wouldn’t hear of leaving. In the end, he told her he’d make sure she was left with some supplies, a rifle and some ammunition. It didn’t seem like enough, but he didn’t know what else to say.
There was some free time before the truck would arrive, so Nick searched for the Moons, whom he found sitting quietly on the floor upstairs in one of the houses. “Everything okay?” he asked cautiously, remembering how frosty Christie had been the last time. “I guess you heard we’re going back to camp soon. You’re coming, right?”
“Of course,” Christie answered. “Why wouldn’t we?”
“I guess I’m a little spooked right now,” Nick admitted. “Elise just told me--what’s her last name again? Anyway, she told me she’s not coming with us. She wants to stay here, just in case her daughter comes back.”
“Knight,” Christie said.
“Right, that’s it,” Nick said.
“Don’t tell me,” Christie said flatly. “You told her that was dumb, because her daughter’s not coming back. Ever.”
“Of course I didn’t say anything like that,” Nick said. “I said we’d leave her some supplies.”
“So chivalry isn’t dead, after all,” Christie said sarcastically.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nick asked, tiring of her attitude and having a hard time not showing it.
“Oh, nothing, I suppose,” Christie said. “I can understand her feelings, that’s all. She doesn’t want to turn her back on the most important person left in the world to her. But at least you’re leaving her a few slices of that venison you brought so much of.”
“We’re trying to save her life,” Nick said curtly. “But she won’t let us. That should count for something, even if we can’t save her daughter.”
“Something,” Christie said. “But not enough.”
~~~
John was coming inside from the backyard when Nick made his way downstairs, angry and confused about everything Christie had said to him. “Hey, I’m glad you made it back in one piece, Nick,” he said. “Too bad about Tom Hellikson, although I’m not even sure why he was here in the first place.”
“He was my best friend,” Nick said. “I was never so sure about that as I am now, the way it feels in my gut.”
“Sorry, buddy,” John said.
Nick heard voices outside, where John had just come from. “What’s going on out there?” he asked.
“That’s where the prisoners are,” John said.
“You took prisoners?” Nick asked. “That doesn’t sound like you.”
“Yeah,” John said. “But only because we were trying to conserve ammo. I’m not sure what we’re gonna’ do with them. Maybe nothing. Maybe just leave them as they are.”
“How many are there?” Nick asked.
“Go see for yourself,” John said. “They’re all tied down real good, and there are guards out there.”
Nick decided he wanted to have a look. He was still curious about whether the two men he and Linda had encountered when the tire went flat were part of this group. Even if they were, it was a long shot that they’d survived long enough to be taken prisoner, but it couldn’t hurt to check.
Somebody had set up torches in the backyard for light, which made for an eerie scene as Nick began his inspection. About two-dozen prisoners were tied to a stockade fence, where they were seated in a row with their hands behind their backs. The faces of many glistened with blood and sweat, despite the chill. Most of them were calling for water, some less politely than others.
Nick wondered what their fate would be in light of what John had told him. It probably wasn’t going to be a happy ending for them. It wasn’t his call and he didn’t want to think about it, even though he was well aware of the heinous crimes they’d committed. Wondering why he’d bothered to go back there at all, he turned around to leave after walking past only a few prisoners. It was too dark to see anything. There was no reason for him to be there.
“So we meet again,” came a raspy voice from behind. “Still shooting that Remington? The 798?”
Nick’s blood ran cold as he processed what he’d just heard. He pulled one of the torches from the ground and held it up to the faces of the prisoners until he saw the one he knew had said those words.
“Yeah, it’s me,” the prisoner said, his face a mask of pain. “From next door, back in the old neighborhood, man. The Outhouse Coalition, right?”
“Chuck?” Nick stammered. “Chuck Jevik? You’re with these guys now?”
“Hey, I had to go somewhere,” Chuck said. “After what I did, Cronin woulda’ killed me if he’d have found me. I mean, one on one I could take him with no problem, but with all those sheep he’s got licking his boots, I wouldn’t have lasted very long. So yeah, I’ve been living and working with these fine gentlemen.”
“I always wondered where you ended up,” Nick said. “I didn’t think you’d stay in Crestview to die. You’re not the type.”
“What are you planning on doing with us?” Chuck asked. “Hose us down with those rifles that half of you don’t even know how to shoot right? Present company excluded, of course,” he added, one corner of his mouth turning up. His attempt to smile was defeated by exhaustion and fear. “I taught you myself.”
“It’s not up to me,” Nick said. “But I think they’ll just leave you like you are now.”
“Come on, Nick, you can’t let them do that,” Chuck said. “To me, at least. It’s certain death. We’re old pals, remember? We were neighbors.”
“Well, speaking of death, how many times did you attack this defenseless town?” Nick asked. “Some of the locals would come in here and tear you apart by hand if we let them.”
“I’d like to see them try,” Chuck said. “But this is my first time here. I swear to God, man. I heard about what they did. Hey, can you get me some water?”
“Even before that, you double-crossed us back in Crestview,” Nick said. “You were spying on us for Cronin.”
“Maybe so,” Chuck said. “But don’t you remember what I did after that? That night when you were pulling the solar panels? I double-crossed Cronin and saved your life, boy,” he hissed. “So how about you return the favor and let me go?”
“I can’t do that,” Nick said.
“Sure you can,” Chuck replied. “What’s stopping you? Look, I’m shot anyway, if that’s what’s bothering you. I’ll die either way. Just let me die on my own terms.”
“I’ll get you some water,” Nick said. “If I can. That’s the most I’ll do. You made your own bed, Chuck.” He turned and left, ignoring Chuck’s pleas for freedom until he could no longer hear them.
~~~
It was then, as the recent conversations with Elise Knight, Christie Moon and Chuck Jevik ran through his head in parallel, that the idea came to Nick. And as ideas went, it was a good one.
Twenty-eight
Chuck was sitting against the fence with his head hung low, as though he was on the verge of nodding off, when Nick went back to him a few minutes later. He felt around until he found the rope that held Chuck to the fence, and sliced through it with a knife he’d found, of all places, in the kitchen. “We need to talk,” Nick said quietly, before pulling Chuck to his feet and guiding him to a dark corner of the yard. Chuck moved without much difficulty. Nick was already doubting his claims that he’d been shot. It didn’t matter, though. Actually, Nick decided, it would be better for his own purposes if Chuck was uninjured.
Concerned about his charges, one of the guards approached them. It was one of the Lockworth residents. Nick waved him off without a word. What he was about to do wasn’t negotiable, and it was personal.
“How about untying my hands?” Chuck growled.
“Not yet,” Nick said. He pulled a canteen from inside his jacket. “But I got this for you. Sit back down and tilt your head back.”
There was a lot of coughing and choking involved, but within two minutes Chuck had drained the canteen. “Thanks, man,” he said. “I can’t tell you how good that tasted.”
Nick considered lashing Chuck to the fence again, but decided that he was so weak and dehydrated that he wouldn’t try to run. “I don’t have a lot of time here, Chuck,” Nick said. “Just answer my questions. It could save your life. Where’s the headquarters of your group? Could you lead me to it if you had the chance?”
“What are you talking about?” Chuck asked.
“You heard me,” Nick said. “Yes or no?”
Chuck took a deep breath. “Yeah, sure,” he said. “They took over a corner of Fort Dix. It’s no secret.”
“Wow!” Nick said, a little too loudly. “The army base? They’re not part of the government or anything, are they?”
“These losers? No way,” Chuck scoffed. “The army’s long gone from that place. These guys are just there for the buildings.”
“Next question,” Nick said. “How many men are there? How big is this group?”
“Big. It’s about two-hundred people,” Chuck said. “But a lot of them came down here and got slaughtered like dogs. Hey, you got any more water?”
“How well-armed are they?” Nick asked. “The townies here thought they had a ton of guns. But it doesn’t look that way after what happened here tonight.”
“They’ve got a few,” Chuck said. “They probably have a lot fewer after today, just like they have a lot fewer men now. They sure don’t have as much as you all have.”
“Are there women in the camp?” Nick asked, being purposely vague in hopes of getting an honest answer.
“A few of the guys have their wives or girlfriends there,” Chuck allowed. “Me, for instance. Bela’s up there right now.”
“Any besides wives and girlfriends?” Nick pressed. “I want the truth. Your life might depend on it.”
“Yeah,” Chuck said. “It’s
kind of ugly. It was going on before I got there. I swear to God. They have some women that get, you know, passed around.”
“Against their will, right?” Nick asked. “Like, they’re not free to leave?”
“Right,” Chuck said. “Look, I’m not proud of that. You know I—“
“I think some of those girls came from here,” Nick said, cutting him off. “That’s what I need to talk with you about. What are the chances of breaking them out?”
~~~
“John, you got a second?” Nick asked when he caught up with him.
“Sure,” John said. “The truck ought to be here soon. You just about ready to head home?”
“John, I’m not going home,” Nick said, bracing himself for John’s anger. “Not yet. I have something I need to do. I was just gonna’ slip away, but I don’t want you to waste any time looking for me.”
“What in the world are you talking about?” John said. “What is it with you? This whole crazy mission was your idea. You got your way. And that’s not enough?” He shook his head. “You had me going for a while, but Grover was right. You are all about you, and nothing else.”
“John, I don’t want to tell you any more than I already have,” Nick said. “This way, you don’t have to take any flack for it when I do get back to Tabernacle. I just disappeared, that’s all you know. But I’m doing something good. You’d like it.”
John eyed him for a moment, and then threw his arms out in a gesture of surrender. “Okay. You’ve earned it, I guess. I’ll take any heat if I have to. Whatever you’re doing, are you doing it alone?”
“Elise Knight will be with me,” Nick said. “But she wasn’t going to Tabernacle anyway. She’s waiting for her daughter.”
“Is that what this is about?” John asked.
“It’s better if I don’t answer that, John,” Nick said. “But can I have three rifles and a bag of ammo?”
~~~
Despite the town’s triumph, Elise looked downcast and without hope when Nick tracked her town. Her spirits picked up considerably when he told her what he had in mind, and invited her along. After that he found Sarah, because he thought he owed it to her to tell her what his plans were, but he was shocked when she wanted to come along.
