Complex Three (The Savage Horde Series Book 3)

by Chris Bostic

  “That doesn’t make it right,” Jade objected. “Someone else might be offended.”

  “That doesn’t make them right either. Does it?” Connie sat his bowl by the sink.

  Jade quieted. As Connie returned to his seat, Faith said, “You can call me whatever you want, Sarge.”

  “That’s my line,” Jade said, obviously growing flustered. She stood and headed for the basement door. “We need to check on Smig and Mira.”

  Joe didn’t want any part of that. To stall, he asked, “So what’s this Mira all about?”

  “She’s normally very sweet,” Jade said. “I don’t know what got into her. It must be the new programming.”

  “Well she’s not the smartest,” Faith offered. “Maybe I was lucky to get stuck with Smig.”

  “Barta can handle her better,” Jade snapped. “She can handle anyone better than you can.”

  “Easy, ladies,” Connie said, rising to his feet to move between the sisters. “Just tell us more about why she freaked out.”

  “She was programmed by our creator to not respond to any commands other than his own, and to fight back against any outsiders,” Faith answered. “She tends to take things a little too literally.”

  “You can say that again,” Barta said. “She was a royal pain. Never could think for herself.”

  “So Smig is going to fix her?” Joe asked.

  “Sort of,” Jade said. “He’s going to remove some of the roadblocks that would prevent her from going with us, and hopefully get her to ease back on the whole stranger-danger overreaction.”

  “Let’s hope.” Connie rubbed his bandaged arm. His biceps flexed in a clean, snug t-shirt that was nearly as tight as Faith’s clothing. Joe avoided mentioning the comparison.

  “Or we could leave her here,” Leisa interjected. Five heads turned to look at her. “What? Joe told me how crazy she got.”

  “She has a point,” Joe said. “We need to move on. If some of you can’t, uhm…keep up, then maybe, uh…”

  “You want to leave them behind?” Jade said. “After coming all the way here with me?”

  “I’m not trying to start a big fight,” Joe said. “I’m just thinking we brought you home, and now it’s time for the rest of us to get going to find ours. It’s Leisa’s turn.”

  “I’m coming with you,” Jade said. “All of us should go.”

  “Yeah.” Faith grabbed Connie by the wrist. “I want to come.”

  “Me, too.” Barta smiled and edged closer to the other side of Connie. “You can’t leave me.”

  “Maybe Sarge should stay here,” Leisa said. “They obviously like him better than the rest of us.”

  Joe was nearly ready to agree, but he wasn’t willing to leave his sergeant behind. The man had been invaluable ever since the onslaught behind enemy lines. Still, the idea of being burdened with less than fully ambulatory companions didn’t sound like a good idea to him.

  “Shouldn’t someone watch the house?” he asked. “Maybe take care of Mira or Smig?”

  “Like Faith and Barta?” Leisa added.

  “You don’t want any of us, do you?” Barta asked, losing the syrupy sweetness for the first time.

  “It’s not a matter of wanting,” Joe said. “I’d love to take you all, but I, uhm…I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  Jade twitched, but remained quiet.

  “We can come back for you,” Leisa suggested. “Maybe find a vehicle?”

  Joe was annoyed he hadn’t thought of that himself. He figured that came with the realization that no one had vehicles in the new world order. Mobility was a privilege that the commoners didn’t deserve—seeing how it kept them from banding together in larger, more mobile groups.

  “You don’t have one here, do you?” Joe asked Jade. She held up a hand to shush him, and stepped farther away toward the front door.

  “We do,” Faith answered excitedly. “There’s an old van in the garage. You could bring us!”

  Connie nodded. “If it runs-”

  “Quiet!” Jade whispered harshly.

  Faith couldn’t listen, saying, “What’s the matter, baby sis?”

  Bruno and Bruce answered for her. Though back outside, Joe could hear their rumbling growls emanating through the walls.

  He shared an anxious glance with Leisa.

  “Someone’s coming,” Jade said. “A lot of someones.”

  CHAPTER 12

  “It’s after dark,” Joe said, and the realization quieted him. The only enemy that preferred to move after nightfall were the savages.

  Despite the long hike over the mountains, he knew they hadn’t gotten that far away from the prison camp. Worse yet, the savages were surprisingly fast despite their lack of vehicles.

  “Savages?” Leisa asked Jade while Joe still agonized over the possibilities.

  “I don’t know.” Jade crept closer to the door. She cocked her head to listen, but any ambient sounds were drowned out by sudden howls from the dogs.

  “The boys are going wild out there,” Faith said from the kitchen. “Maybe you should take us to the garage.”

  “Fine,” Connie replied. “Show me the way.”

  Joe heard his sergeant take his coilgun from the pile on the table, so he rushed back into the kitchen to grab his own and Leisa’s. He noticed Connie carrying Faith over his shoulder. The two of them disappeared out the far side of the room, past the stove and chiller.

  Joe hurried back to the front room to find Jade with her ear pressed against the door. Leisa was next to the window. Seeing how it was covered over in a black film, she couldn’t catch a glimpse of anything outside.

  “Here you go,” he said, handing over her weapon.

  “Thanks,” she mumbled and turned her attention back to Jade. “What’s happening out there?”

  “Vehicles for certain. Older ones. Maybe farmers’ trucks with refugees, like I heard back at the prison camp. No gunshots…yet.”

  “Could be someone looking for a place to stay.” Joe tightened his grip on the weapon. While he wouldn’t begrudge sharing the house’s meager supplies with others, they couldn’t feed more than half a meal to a mob. A mob that might tear the whole house apart.

  “Sarge has gone to check on the van,” he told Leisa.

  “Should we go?”

  “Whoever it is, they’re coming this way,” Jade said. “A lot of them. Can’t you feel the house shaking?”

  “Not really,” Joe said, but he had no reason to doubt her.

  “Any clucking? Humming?”

  “Not yet,” she said, continuing to tack on that pesky word implying there was worse to come. “Hold on. There it is.”

  The dogs howling grew in intensity. The anger in their voices shifted to a yelp when a bright flash tore through the darkened windows. A thunderous rumble thunder followed a few seconds later.

  Jade clutched her ears and staggered away from the door. She bent over at the waist while Joe watched helplessly. He knew her hearing was super sensitive to loud sounds, to the point she’d been nearly useless while the battle had raged around the prison camp. But there was a solution that she’d mentioned before.

  “Do you have any of those special headphones here?” Joe asked when she uncovered her ears.

  “There could be,” Jade replied. “Down in the lab.”

  “Then let’s go. Quickly.” Joe extended an arm to Leisa to pull her to her feet.

  “Don’t we need to find out how far away they are?” Leisa asked, holding onto her coilgun and the window sill with a death grip.

  “It’s at least two miles. We have time.” Jade said it with such confidence that no one could argue. “We can barricade ourselves in the vault if it gets too bad.”

  “I’d rather not,” Joe said, thinking about the way Mira had reacted earlier. Nor did he want to think about being locked up in a confined space again, or trapped behind enemy lines. “I think it’s time to move.”

  Leisa seemed hesitant to agree. Nevertheless, she foll
owed them back to the kitchen and toward the basement stairs, brushing past Barta.

  “Be right back,” Joe told her as they hurried past.

  He took the steps two at a time, and ended up by the furnace well ahead of the others. As he marveled how there was no sign of a door, the others finally caught up.

  With the touch of a hidden mechanism by Jade, the concrete wall moved.

  “Sure you don’t want to wait out the storm down here?” Leisa asked him as they continued down.

  “Tempting…but no.”

  The farther down Joe went, the more he wondered. They could probably survive for a long time. It was practically a doomsday bunker, minus the food and water. And a bathroom.

  Still, he had places to get to, with Leisa’s farm at the top of the list. He figured they could beat the oncoming horde if they hurried.

  “Anything else we’re gonna need from down here?” Joe stopped on the steps to ask Jade before she entered the giant room.

  “I don’t think there’s much of any practical use outside of here.”

  Leisa grabbed Joe’s wrist before he could file in behind her. “You’re sure about leaving?”

  He shrugged. “I guess. I’d rather find our parents than hide out…or have to fight our way back to safety again.”

  “I can’t argue with that.” Leisa squeezed his hand and wheeled around. “Then I’ll go back up and get water for the trip.”

  “Good call. Food too,” Joe suggested, and she was off with a quick nod. “Thanks, babe.”

  Jade was halfway across the room by the time he entered. She had stopped to rummage through a couple workstations on the side of the lab close to where Mira had been forcibly subdued.

  Mira was sitting in a chair on the opposite side of the room. With her eyes closed, her tiny frame and countenance appeared childlike. She seemed incapable of the animalistic violence she’d displayed earlier.

  Smig worked behind her, and was just tall enough to match her seated height as he looked at the base of her neck.

  “It sounds as though we have some unexpected visitors,” he said matter-of-factly when Joe caught his eye.

  “Yeah. We’re moving out.”

  “I am nearly finished here. Just need to roll out a few more lines of code, and Miss Mira should be ready to rejoin civilization.”

  Joe wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He kept quiet until Jade came back over with a set of tiny earbuds in her hand.

  “I expected something larger, like a helmet or something,” he remarked.

  She slipped the first one in. “These earpieces are pure genius.” She put in the other, and took him aback by shouting, “No matter how loud the volume, everything peaks out at a comfortable level!”

  He covered his own ears. “Now you’re yelling.”

  “Sorry.” Jade stuck a finger in her ear and twisted it. “That’s better.”

  “Much,” Joe whispered as softly as he could. “You hear that?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Then let’s go. Leisa is gathering food.”

  Jade looked over to Smig before agreeing. In that time, Joe took off for the steps.

  Smig said something that sounded like they would meet the others upstairs, but Joe wasn’t sure how. He didn’t know how Smig had made it down there in the first place; however, he was more concerned about getting away from the house, and was soon at the top of the vault’s steps waiting for Jade to catch up.

  “Do you need to pack anything?” he asked.

  “Clean water is helpful.” She tilted her head to the side. “Maybe a change of clothes.”

  “You’re such a girl.”

  “I don’t understand,” Jade said, but Joe was too busy hustling up the next set of stairs to the kitchen to explain.

  He found Leisa throwing open cabinet doors while Barta sat at the table watching her curiously. A big pile of boxes littered the once empty island, but there wasn’t much more than dried fruits and granola bars.

  “Not the best, but better than nothing,” she said, rushing past Joe to grab a couple backpacks that she must have found somewhere in the house. “We need to hurry!”

  A rumble from outside sounded closer than Joe had expected. The house shuddered as if the sound wave carried a stiff gust of wind with it.

  “Crap. Sounds serious.” Joe turned to Jade. “Grab what you need, now!”

  “Yes, sir,” she said and snapped off another brisk salute. In a flash, she headed upstairs. Joe helped Leisa load the packs. Then they went to work on filling water bottles.

  Connie stuck his head in the door. “I’ve got the vehicle running. Come on!”

  Joe did a quick mental head count. Five androids and three humans equaled a good-sized load for an ordinary vehicle. He gave another thought to leaving a few of Jade’s siblings behind.

  “Now, people!” Connie yelled. “I’m leaving.”

  “Yes, Dad,” Leisa said, screwing the top on a final water bottle. “We’re ready.” She looked to Joe and paused. “Right?”

  “Yeah.” He headed for the garage with a pack in one hand and coilgun in the other. In his mind, Connie could make the decision as to whether they left the others behind.

  “Jade!” Sarge bellowed from the doorway. “C’mon, darling!”

  Barta continued sitting at the table as if she had no part in the play. Joe locked eyes with Connie and nodded toward her as he hurried to the garage.

  “What do you think?” Connie asked.

  Joe wasn’t used to his sergeant asking for his opinion. He stopped in the doorway and looked back at Barta.

  With a jerky motion, she gathered her long blonde hair. She tied it up with a hairband and let the ponytail fall down her back as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

  “Are you coming?” Connie asked her.

  “You mean me?” Barta seemed confused. She scratched her head before clumsily rising to her gigantic feet. “I would like to, I think.”

  “Then get over here.” Connie strode past her to stop at the base of the steps to holler upstairs. “Dammit, Jade! Hurry up!”

  “Don’t you curse at me, mister,” came the muffled reply. “I’m trying.”

  “Try harder.”

  Connie huffed and pushed his way past a stumbling Barta. Joe exited the main part of the house, and stood astonished in a cavernous enclosed room that stored what looked more like an old-fashioned school bus than a van.

  The row of windows along the side did not look the least bit safe, nor did the oversized, knobby tires. The vehicle was unnaturally high, sitting precariously tall on a jacked up suspension that made it look like the bus would tip over in a stiff wind.

  “I don’t know about this,” Joe said, lingering alongside the bus by its narrow entry door. A cloud of fumes filled the room. “Phew, it stinks too.”

  “It runs on reclaimed vegetable oil,” Barta said matter-of-factly.

  “And not very well. It was a pain to start.” Connie gave Barta a semi-gentle shove to her back. “Now get up in there, sweetheart. Faith is waiting for you.” He looked at Joe and Leisa. “You guys too.”

  “You’re not having second thoughts, are you?” Leisa whispered to Joe.

  “More like third. That vault is looking better and better.”

  “I know.”

  Leisa headed for the steps. Joe followed her up inside the bus. There were two seats on each side of a narrow center aisle. He gestured for her to take the first one on the right to where they would be sitting across the aisle from Faith and Barta.

  Throwing his backpack into the row behind him, he waited for Leisa to sit down. The second she did, Jade burst through the doorway to the house carrying a wadded up blanket over her shoulder like a hobo might carry a giant pack.

  “I’m here,” she chirped.

  “About time,” Connie grumbled. “What is all that crap?”

  “Just a few comforts of home,” she said, and skipped on over to the bus. “Sorry I took so long.”

/>   “You’ll be sorry if we can’t get outta here.”

  “There’s still time, Sarge,” she said, brushing her slender fingers along his arm. “Relax.”

  “Not now. Not ever.” He pointed for her to find a seat in the back, and headed up to settle into the driver’s seat.

  “Not so fast, Sarge,” Jade said. “We need to wait for Mira and Smig.”

  Connie cursed again and beat his fist on the steering wheel. “How long is that gonna take?”

  “Not very,” Jade said. “They’re coming right up.”

  Barta screwed her face up. “I wouldn’t be so sure, baby sister. She might be fast, but Smig is the definition of Semi-Mobile.”

  “That’s not nice,” Jade said.

  “But it’s true,” Faith interjected. “I might be a little wobbly sometimes, but he’s impossible. At least I could get myself into the vehicle.”

  “What?” Connie interjected. “You had me carry you.”

  “It seemed like you wanted to,” she said. “And you’re so good at it.”

  “Oh, brother.” Joe buried his head in his hands and remembered all the reasons why he’d wanted to go on alone. “We’re never gettin’ outta here.”

  “Here they are,” Jade said. “See. I told you.”

  Joe looked up to see the garage door rolling open. “What the heck?” He tensed, expecting savages to rush inside. He gripped his weapon, struggling to raise it in the cramped seat—not that he had a clean shot with Leisa up against the window.

  Fortunately, nothing was out there but the outlines of dark trees painted eerily on an even blacker sky.

  “Where?” Connie asked. “I don’t see sh-”

  “Over there,” Jade said, flying up the aisle to the front of the vehicle. “Get this thing moving.”

  “Aren’t you bossy?” Connie slipped the vehicle into forward gear, which was accompanied by a loud thunk and a lurch that threw Jade backwards.

  Joe dropped his coilgun, and extended his hands to catch her. They ended up planted on her toned, shapely backside. She slid into his lap, and turned around to purr, “Thanks, babe.”

  With a wink, she hopped off his lap and slipped her way back up to the front.

  Joe cringed. Seeing no reaction from Leisa, he breathed a sigh of relief and tried to peer around Jade as the bus creaked outside into the murkiness.