Cassy noted how Michael asked this without apparent emotion. He was all business at the moment. If she said she couldn’t do it then he’d think of another way around, she was sure, but it would be something even more dangerous than traversing open terrain between two groups of people with unknown intent. The thought scared her.
“I’ll make it,” Cassy said, her face expressionless. This was going to hurt like a bitch, but there was no help for it.
Ten minutes later, Michael had explained the plan, and the route he thought was best and drilled into them several times that if someone started shooting at them, they had to reach that cover before any other consideration. Getting caught in the open in a crossfire would mean death. He looked hard at them and didn’t pull any punches as he spoke. No one had any doubts about their situation.
“Now,” Michael continued, “listen up. Each child needs to go with an adult. If a kid gets shot, carry them. If an adult gets shot, keep fuckin’ running. Better one down than all. I’ll go after anyone down later if they’re alive. If you get shot, lie still and wait until the firing stops, then look ahead for me. I won’t willingly leave one of our clan behind, I promise you all. While you cross, I’ll stay in position on overwatch and then follow and regroup with you once you’re in the trees across the field. If the enemy fires on us, I’ll be right here to take them out. Jed, you’ll have to take two of the kids with you. Too dangerous for me to take one. Are we clear, and are we ready to move out?”
Silent nods all around, and the others picked the child they would move out with. Five kids. Six adults, including Cassy’s daughter, Brianna. Though only thirteen, she’d have to be an adult for now because Cassy wasn’t well enough to carry even Michael’s five-year-old son, Nick. The task of leading Nick would fall to Jed, who would have two kids with him.
“Alright then. You all know the plan. It’s time to move out. You can do this, folks. This is our clan. These are our kids and our people. We will make it. Don’t be scared—save your fear for later. For now, it’s time to man up, take a deep breath and do this.”
Cassy nodded and offered up a silent prayer to a God she wasn’t sure she believed in. Please, God, let us get through this and if anything goes wrong, let the kids be safe.
- 4 -
2100 HOURS - ZERO DAY +6
THE CLAN MOVED north to the strip of trees that ran east-to-west, separating the occupied garage from the house. Now creeping westward among the trees, they stayed as silent as a dozen untrained people could. The light rapidly dimmed as they approached the western edge of the trees.
Cassy saw Michael again give the hand signal to rally around and crept forward with the other adults. When all had come close, Michael said, “Okay, this is it. When I give the signal, move in a crouch as fast as the kids allow. Head straight at those closest trees across the field, while I stay in position to defend. Once you are all across, I’ll move out. I have to keep this plan simple for the kids, but I know we can do this.”
Cassy understood that he really meant the plan was kept simple for everyone since Michael was the only one with real training and experience, but she nodded anyway. Michael was pretty darn good at this stuff, for being so quiet most of the time. The speech reminded everyone of the kids and took their minds off of their own fears. Five star job, she decided.
Michael crept ahead again, sidling from cover to cover until he was near the tree line closest to the auto body shop. He kept still for about a minute, watching, and then raised his arm to wave the clan forward. More or less all at once, the group quietly moved to the last few trees and then, as Michael had directed earlier, moved out in pairs. One adult and one child left the trees, crouched as low as they could go and still move, as fast as they could without running. Five seconds later, the next pair. And then the next.
Cassy was the next-to-last to go, leaving only Jed and of course Michael. She took two deep breaths and then rushed out. Crouching low caused a sharp spike of pain to stab through her shoulder, and she nearly cried out but stopped herself by biting her lip. She was certain she bit hard enough to draw blood. The ground was uneven, and she recognized the tell-tale signs of a farm field left fallow. Once she stumbled to her knees, but with a hiss of breath from the pain, she was able to rise up again and continue. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Jed leaving the trees, the last of the clan besides Michael. So far, whoever was guarding the garage to the south and the house to the north had not noticed them, and she prayed their luck continued. Cassy saw that the first of the group to leave the trees was almost to the opposite tree line, almost safe. Cassy was still some 150 yards from safety, however. She put her head down, focusing on the terrain and on putting one foot in front of the other despite the pain in her shoulder.
Their luck was not to last. As the second adult reached the safety of the trees, a shot rang out from the south. A second later came another shot, quickly followed by one from the north. Cassy remembered what Michael had said and simply kept running, no longer bothering to crouch. Every time her foot came down the pain spiked again, and soon she saw spots and realized she was very near to passing out. If she did, her only hope would be that Michael made it out and somehow rescued her. She risked stopping for a few seconds to let the rising pain subside. It was either stop or pass out.
Jed and crew ran past her. He stopped and turned back to help while the two children kept running, but Cassy waved him on. He nodded once and was gone. That Jed was a no-bullshit guy, redneck as they come and had his share of “character defects,” but his heart was good. In his world, Cassy thought, if an adult said to go on then that’s what he’d do—Cassy was a grown woman and could make her own decisions. Cassy spared a smile.
Clods of dirt exploded into the air all around her as bullets struck nearby. Fuck and damn! Those bastards had seen her. Of course they had, she realized. She must have been the one they saw, and here she was standing still. She bolted from her spot, with adrenaline narrowing her vision; she didn’t see the stone that tripped her, but suddenly she was on her face in the dirt. The fall knocked the wind out of her. Gasping for air, she frantically spun over onto her back and looked around. Muzzle flashes could be seen to either side as the people in those buildings fired, mostly at her. Where the fuck was Michael? Oh God, he must have been hit. There was no other explanation for why he wasn’t returning fire from his position in the trees.
Cassy realized with sudden calm and clarity that she was about to die. Even firing in the dusk light, they would eventually hit her and then it would all be over. She couldn’t crawl because of her shoulder, and if she tried to get up to run they would only have a better target. She lay back and waited with eyes closed, resigned to her fate, and prayed once again to thank whatever god existed that her children had already made it to the far trees. At least she had the foresight to tell Frank how to get to her homestead. The clan would make it. Her children would make it home.
A bright light shone through her closed eyelids. Confused, she opened her eyes to look around. To the south, where the garage had been, there was now only a mushroom cloud of fire and smoke. She heard screams in the distance, but within seconds, they stopped. The muzzle flashes from the northern house petered out and then stopped altogether.
Thank you, God… Fighting the pain, Cassy rose to her feet still gasping for air and stumbled toward the tree line and safety. It was slow going with the wind still knocked out of her, but she pushed herself as hard as she could.
There was a sound to her left. Cassy fearfully turned her head to look but realized with a start that the noise came from Michael, who was sprinting toward her. He skidded to a stop when he reached her and without a word grabbed her around the waist with his left arm. He half helped, half dragged her toward the trees.
Moving as fast as she was able, they quickly reached the tree line but kept going until they were some fifty yards into the woods. The rest of the clan followed along in silence until Michael stopped to gently help Cassy to the leaf-litt
ered ground.
* * *
2115 HOURS - ZERO DAY +6
Frank took stock of the situation. Michael had used only half a dozen rounds and was the only one who had fired. That irritated Frank on principle, but he reminded himself that those were Michael’s instructions. Well, Michael knew how to do this stuff better than anyone else, but it still left a sour taste that he’d been unable to really contribute during the riskiest parts. He was sure he could have helped.
But his initial irritation was overshadowed by the fact that no one following Michael’s plan had been seriously hurt. Jed had fallen into the tree line when a bullet grazed his leg and had a bruised knee that made him limp slightly, but the graze itself was easily bandaged. Cassy’s ankle wasn’t sprained, thankfully—she’d suffered enough lately without that, and they didn’t need her moving any slower than she already did. Nor had her shoulder opened up again when she fell. All good. Most of the kids had started to cry out of fear when they got to the safety of the trees, but none had frozen in place out in the open when the shooting started. Again, all good.
Michael finished his check of everyone in the group and sat next to Frank with a grunt.
“Well, your plan worked, Michael. We owe you our lives. Those assholes opened fire without so much as a warning. I hope you killed them all.” Frank’s jaw clenched, and he wished he could go back and kill every damn last one of those bastards again, plus any Michael had missed.
Michael frowned, and his eyebrows furrowed as he stared at Frank. “No, Frank, I did not. I killed who I had to, and no more. Fact is, we all made it only because the garage had a huge propane tank at the back of the building. Must have been grandfathered in or done without permits, because it sure wasn’t to code. I blew the shit out of that fucker, but propane burns in a flash without so much heat. Even people in the blast could have survived if they weren’t shredded by shrapnel from the tank or from the cinder block wall. But it gave them something more important to worry about than us.”
Frank didn’t flinch from Michael’s gaze. “That’s too bad. They shot at my people, and I wish we’d been able to do more to them. Like slit every damn one of their throats and watch the light leave their eyes as they died. They shot at kids, and they deserved more than they got.”
Michael slowly shook his head, disapproving. “Frank, they’re civilians. They are scared of people taking what little they have, and they probably haven’t eaten more than a candy bar in days, with no light at the end of that tunnel. They were doing exactly what we are—taking care of their own, as best they can. If your kid was starving, I’d kill anyone I could just on the chance they had something for your kid to eat. Same for the rest of us. Frank, someday you’ll understand that we aren’t any better than them. Just luckier.”
Frank finally looked away from Michael’s iron gaze and stared at the ground in front of him. Michael’s words made sense, and Frank tried to reconcile himself to what his friend had said. But deep inside, he just knew Michael was wrong. We are better than them, he insisted and tried to convince himself that he would never do what Michael had said, no matter what. Deep inside, though, he worried that Michael was right, and hated himself for admitting it.
- 5 -
2130 HOURS - ZERO DAY +6
SWEATING FROM THE pace, Jaz was relieved when Michael finally said they were far enough away to rest safely for a time. In the days since the lights went out, she had done so much walking and running, not to mention carrying a heavy backpack, that she had lost several pounds. Better yet, it was all fat; her muscles were getting more toned. But the blisters on her feet were gross. She had found better shoes, but they were so not pretty. Blisters and ugly shoes, OMG, it wasn’t her. It wasn’t.
Jaz looked around the group, thankful that everyone had made it through the little skirmish. She saw Cassy sitting with Michael and his wife, no doubt talking about prepper stuff as usual. Cassy wasn’t exactly friendly yet, but at least now she didn’t feel like Cassy wanted to cut her throat while she slept. And she only took a backpack from Cassy. So build a bridge and get over it, already.
Jed’s wife Amber was talking to Ethan. Well, Jaz had been around long enough to know what was going on there, even if Jed and Ethan didn’t. Men. They all wanted it, and none of them had a clue. Amber was bored of Jed and ready to get into Ethan. Men were dumb and never seemed to know when a girl was into them even if she made it totally obvious. But that was cool—let the two of them talk. That left Jed sitting off to the side by himself, which suited Jaz just fine.
Jaz plopped down beside Jed, her arm brushing against his, and he turned to smile at her. “Heya girlie, how you doin’?” His eyes briefly roamed over her before locking with her own eyes.
A thrill went through her then. Men almost always did that, unless they were gay—her gay friends never did that unless it was to check out her outfit—and she usually didn’t even notice anymore. It was just what men did. But when Jed looked at her, she felt her heart beat just a little faster. It had been awhile since any guy got a rise out of her, she suddenly realized. Maybe something was wrong with her.
“I’m okay,” she told Jed. “Like, not totally okay because you scared the shit out of me out there when the bullets started buzzing around, but I’m holding up.” She looked into his eyes, his blue eyes that sorta swallowed her up, and counted to three before looking away with a smile. That was being coy, her mom had taught her. It often worked. “I thought you got shot,” she added, putting a little wobble into her voice.
“Oh, and that worried you, did it? Best be careful, or a man will get to thinkin’ you like him or something.”
Again with that smile of his. And it seemed to drown out all her worries, all her bad memories, and hidden secrets. Maybe she really did like him. Yeah, the more she thought about it, the more she thought maybe she “like liked” him. But he was married…
“Of course I like you, Jed. You’re strong and good, and rough around the edges. You’re, like, a good friend maybe. I hope you are. But you know you have other responsibilities. I don’t know if Amber is okay with you having a friend like me.”
Jed looked far away and was silent for a long moment. Finally, he said, “Jaz, me ’n Amber haven’t been what you call ‘close’ in years. Not since we lost our other son, drowned in the crick. She blames me. I reckon she stays with my sorry ass out of love for the kids. She surely does love them, you know. But I seen how she looks at Ethan. Same as she used to look at me before I asked her out the first time. And he’s a good man, that Ethan. I think we’ll all be in this together for longer than we might think, and I reckon I don’t much worry about what she and Ethan do together down the road. But right now isn’t the time and not all secretive and sneaky when they do. I hope.”
Jaz froze. Oh God, he’d never opened up like that before, not in any of their sometimes long talks along the way. The guy was hurt, but still only wanted Amber to be happy! She’d have to seriously reconsider this guy. Maybe he wasn’t so rough around the edges after all. And Jed said he and Amber had been distant for years. Long enough for him to come to grips with it. No need for rebounding, maybe. Oh, what the hell was she thinking? Did she really like him like that?
“Jed, it like, hurts me to hear that. She’s a good person, but so are you. I think both of you should have a chance to be happy. If you’re okay with her kicking it with Ethan, maybe she’ll, like, be okay with us being friends? I kinda think maybe we could be… really close friends. I want to be.”
Jed slid an arm around her waist, and she rested her head on his shoulder. Jed let out a long, deep breath. “Jaz, you got more in your head than just friends. I think. I been thinkin’ about that too, for a while now. I haven’t smiled a real smile in a long, long time before you came along. I like being around you, girlie. You make me smile again. Let’s ease into it and see how Amber deals with us being friends. Okay?”
With that, Jed stood and strode over to Michael and Cassy without a look back. Jaz had an av
alanche of thoughts all tumbling around in her head, and she stared into the trees, thinking. Then she glanced around when she realized she’d spaced out. Jed and Michael were talking about something or other, but not Cassy. Sitting by Michael, Cassy stared at Jaz with one eyebrow half-raised, and she felt her cheeks flush red. Cassy made one curt nod and then turned away to Michael and Jed’s conversation.
Jaz was once more alone with her thoughts, wondering what Cassy meant when she nodded at her like that.
* * *
Just before the sun went down completely, Cassy and the others finished preparing the make-shift encampment; latrine dug, coals burning merrily, and wool blankets set up as lean-tos around the fire, with another wool blanket under each lean-to set atop a bed of leaves and needles to insulate them from the ground. Sleeping in the rough with comfort, Cassy smiled to herself.
To the south was the town of Devault; occasional gunshots could be heard from there, faint reports carried on the wind. Cassy and the others had already been briefed for the next day’s run because Michael insisted everyone know the plan just in case they had to flee during the night. Everyone could meet up at the next day’s encampment spot, if necessary, even if they split up and traveled alone. In the morning, they would travel along the I-76 greenbelt to the west until it ran out in a few miles, then bypass the town of Eagle by diverting north, and then, by the end of tomorrow, they should be in a thick greenbelt west of the little village of Ludwig’s Corner.
Dark New World (Book 2): EMP Exodus Page 3
