There was the torrential rain and rivers of mud to slow him down, and the problem of a small army between here and the FURC. Ken could take care of getting them through the gates. Assuming they got that far. But now, having found Kat, he refused to believe they wouldn’t make it all the way home.
Chapter 18
Behind the Front
8:10 p.m. Monday, March 3rd
LISA threw her hands forward to keep from colliding with the dash as Susan slammed on the brakes just as they came to the north gate. The buggy slid sideways on the grass and stopped a good yard before the iron bars blocking the gap in the perimeter wall, to the clear surprise of the three guards standing there. Lisa found herself smiling.
These larger carts could really move when they weren’t pulling a string of other sections or loaded down with passengers—and she’d discovered what would happen when she asked Susan to step on it. Of course, Lisa felt a bit wobbly as she stepped out. And she should’ve worn her seat belt.
She waved Susan back as her partner started to get out of the cart. “You might as well just sit tight. You’ll have to move it out of the way to let MacTierney and the rest through.”
Susan nodded and immediately pulled the cart off to the side and out of the way, then climbed out to come stand beside her partner. And Lisa briefly wondered if David would mind having Ben for his partner. But then who’d finish the kid’s training?
She turned to face the guards. “Open this gate and get ready to go out and open up the gate in the security fence.” But the guards just stood there. “I said to open up. Our people could be here any minute now.”
One of them took a half step forward and stared at her. “We won’t just open the gates on your say so—only on a direct order from a superior.”
Lisa felt her jaw clenching and wished she’d had the chance to retrieve her gun before rushing here—she settled for glaring at them while thinking about who to call. Chief Cameron would be busy dealing with things at the main gate. Sgt. Carruthers would be on duty there and might be otherwise occupied. Which only left Sgt. Rose, at home with his family—and sure to be irritated at being disturbed.
She was taking out her FURCS pad to go ahead and disturb him—it was an emergency, after all—when one of the smaller carts trundled up from behind. She turned to see Salazar and Gabe arriving. And as much as Lisa disapproved of Salazar on general principle, she was happy to have his reinforcement. As long as he didn’t believe he was going to take over. Now it was four from Security to three of the Guards—she might not need to call on Sgt. Rose for help.
Before she turned back though, she saw Gabe’s eyes go wide as the girl looked past her. Imagining the guards might be causing trouble, Lisa turned to have her attention captured by lights flying toward the gate from across the field outside. Headlights.
There was no time to dither—action was called for, no matter who was approaching them. And yet all of them stood there frozen, watching as the lights loomed ever closer. Though right at the last minute the guards did scramble for their rifles—by which time they would’ve been too late.
However, the oncoming vehicle didn’t ram the fence. It skidded to a stop right before it. Everyone froze again for a moment—until the passenger side door flew open and a young man jumped out, waving at the guards.
“Stop standing there and come open these gates before we have unwelcome company.”
From the way the guards now hopped to obey, that boy had to be Sgt. MacTierney. At least the job was getting done. And with the sergeant would be the others they were expecting—Lisa wanted to see which one of them had been driving.
The guards had rushed to slide back the gate in the perimeter wall. Now as they were swinging the gate in the security fence open, the sergeant stalked straight through the buffer zone. Behind him came an armored personnel carrier in desert camouflage—barely squeezing through the open gates, though they’d been opened all the way. Crawling along, it did make it through, and without a scratch.
The guard who’d questioned her authority was holding his rifle at the ready and scanning the dark beyond the gates while the other two hurried to relock them. At the same time, five women extricated themselves from the vehicle, where they must have been crammed in tight.
The first one out on the driver’s side was a tall blonde with her hair up in a multitude of intricately intertwined braids—the capable driver. She closely resembled three of the other women, who had to be Chief Cameron’s wife and daughters. One of those daughters might’ve been a twin to her mother. And the fifth woman, who didn’t look like she belonged with the others at all, had to be Lacey.
Lisa turned to MacTierney. “I’m sure you must be tired, Sergeant, but someone of rank needs to be here to supervise the defense. We’ve got other troubles, and no one else can be spared right now.”
The sergeant nodded. “I’m alright. I guess I’m good to take charge here until someone else comes along.” At least the boy hadn’t spouted some nonsense about needing special authorization. He just walked over to the vehicle he’d arrived in to grab a rifle and a duffel bag, then marched over to his fellow guards.
The women who’d arrived with him were busy stretching and unkinking from their journey. Lisa stepped over and addressed them as a group. “I’m Security Officer Lisa Courdray. We need to get you all out of the way of any fighting that might happen here, when these Aryans who’ve been pursuing you show up.”
The Cameron daughter who’d been driving that tank lifted her chin. “Can’t we stay and help?”
Lisa shook her head. “I’m glad you want to, but the guards here will be perfectly capable of defending the gate. And it’s their job. Mine is to get your family to a more secure location.”
The older woman Lisa had assumed to be Mrs. Cameron stepped forward and glared at her. “I want to see my husband. Now.”
Up close, Lisa saw one side of the woman’s face was bruised and swelling—but now wasn’t the time to ask about that. “And my orders are to take you to him. Chief Cameron is at the Guard HQ on the opposite side of the compound though, near the main gate. We brought one of our big carts to take you. I think you’ll all appreciate the room and open space after being crammed into that thing.” She glanced over at the parked vehicle. “If there’s anything you really need, grab it now. But we need to move fast. Someone will come along and bring the rest of your stuff later.”
At that moment it began to rain. Even with the gusting wind, sure to drive the rain under the canopy of the cart, it would have to be an improvement over how they’d traveled here.
Without a comment, they all rummaged around the inside of the vehicle to retrieve their bags. The one who’d been driving also grabbed a large, intimidating rifle from the back of the cab. Lacey shivered in the rain and was the last to grab her belongings.
Lisa sighed and herded them all onto the cart’s passenger benches. “We need to get a move on.” Of course Susan was already seated behind the wheel, and ready to roll. Once the women were all settled, Lisa sat next to her partner with relief and said in a low voice, “You don’t need to hurry as much as you did on the drive over.”
Susan nodded and pulled away at a moderate pace, leaving the north gate behind them and heading south for the Guard HQ. While Lisa wondered what was going on there. Chief Nelson hadn’t had the time to explain everything before he took off.
Shaking her head, Lisa decided to wait and see when she got there. Right now she was more curious about her passengers, and they were right here to examine, so she threw her arm over the back of her seat and turned to look over her shoulder at her charges.
Kat had mentioned Lacey in her brief message. The woman’s stringy brown hair had gotten soaked in the rain, and she looked thin and rather pathetic. Mrs. Cameron probably had good reason for being cranky. Aside from missing her husband, she was sporting that nasty-looking bruise swelling half her face—she likely needed medical attention, but that would have to wait.
“Di
d one of these Aryans we’ve heard about do that to you, Mrs. Cameron?”
The woman snorted. “It was your Lt. Miles who did this.”
Kat did that? Lisa assumed Kat must’ve had a good reason to hit the chief’s wife, but of course she couldn’t leave it at that. “If you want to file charges, I’m sure the appropriate action will be taken.”
She shook her head and snorted again. “I’ll settle the score myself. There’s no need to make this formal.”
Lisa just nodded—and wondered if Kat should be more worried about this woman’s score-settling or how Chief Cameron would react. At least without charges being filed, Lisa shouldn’t find herself having to deal with the situation, whatever it was.
She shifted to take in the three daughters who were similar, but different. The one with her large rifle and those complicated braids looked like she’d be the oldest, while the brunette with her hair loose had to be the youngest. That would make the spitting image of the mother the middle daughter.
“Can you tell me your names?” The three girls all volunteered the information. Mrs. Cameron just glared, and Lacey sat with her head bowed.
Lisa fixed on Grace. “You were the one driving up to the gate—you almost gave those guards heart attacks. And easing that wide tank through without a scratch, where did you learn to drive like that?”
The girl shrugged. “It was nothing. Dad taught me.”
“Well, I was impressed. Not that there’s much driving here at the FURC, unless you end up working for Security…” Lisa let the suggested invitation lie there. They would probably want to take time to settle into the community before making decisions about their roles here.
Lisa tried to think of anything else to talk with them about, but for once she came up blank. They were all quiet and subdued as they trundled along. The silence was punctuated by the occasional boom of thunder against the soft drone of the rain. And with the modest pace Susan was setting, they were all getting rather wet.
At least they were getting fresh air, too. And all of them wore a coat or jacket for warmth, including Grace’s rifle. “It won’t be long now,” she told them as she glanced out at the passing dark. “Then we’ll get you indoors and dried off.” They would arrive at the Guard HQ soon, sooner than Lisa was looking forward to, under the circumstances.
It was in one of the quiet intervals between the booms of thunder that she thought she heard shots in the distance. She looked at her partner, but she didn’t seem to have heard, or wasn’t reacting. But before long they could all clearly hear the shooting. Lisa thought it was coming from ahead of them, up by the main gate, which wouldn’t be unexpected.
Her partner answered the unvoiced question. “I can see the Guard HQ now. Those shots are coming from farther away. Outside.”
Lisa heard the deep crackle of Chief Cameron’s wife. “Take us to the main gate. That’s where Ken will be, where the action is.”
“It won’t be safe there, Mrs. Cameron. And I’m sure your husband will return to the HQ as soon as he can.”
“I don’t care about safe, and I don’t want you to take me where my husband’s going to be. I want to go where he is now.”
Lisa stared into the other woman’s eyes for one long moment, thinking. It would be more difficult for her to control the situation at the gate, but she’d find more support there as well. If Chief Cameron were there, he’d be welcome to deal with his whole family. While Lisa handled her own task.
She nodded. “Alright. We’ll go to the gate first and see if your husband is there—although I expect he’ll only tell you to go wait at the HQ. And while we’re there, I don’t want any of you to get involved in the fighting, whatever’s going on. You’ll all stay away from any action. Understood?”
Fiona grumbled something Lisa took for assent while the others nodded. One more meekly than the rest. It would have to be good enough.
Lisa glanced at her partner. “You heard?”
Susan nodded with a frown that hardened into grim determination. At least her partner still had her firearm—Lisa was really missing her gun, more so as she listened to the sporadic sounds of shooting as they neared the main gate. At least it didn’t seem to be all-out war.
When they were close enough to make out the details, Lisa saw a number of guards on either side of the gate in the perimeter wall, having climbed up the newly built steps to sit with their rifles aiming through the spikes on top. And next to the gate she saw David.
Not wanting to get too close to those guards and their weapons, Lisa signaled Susan to stop the cart. David had been staring out into the dark, but when the cart’s headlights picked him out of the night, he turned and smiled at them. Only as he trotted over did Lisa notice he was wearing his weapon and carrying a metal gun case. Hopefully he’d be careful. But David was busy noticing her passengers.
He called them out by name. “Fiona! Patience and Faith! Grace, too. No one told me you were on your way. What are you doing here though?”
Since only David could see her expression, Lisa rolled her eyes. “Mrs. Cameron insisted I bring her to her husband, and she believed he’d be here.”
The woman herself was climbing off the cart to approach David. “Where’s Ken? Why isn’t he here where the fighting is?”
The boy only grinned at her curt manner. “All the real action is on the outside, so that’s where he went.”
Lisa looked at David. “Then I’d better take his family to the HQ to wait for him there.” While her former partner was still holstering his handgun on his belt, at least he had it fastened properly.
He shook his head at her. “I don’t think there’s anyone at all inside the building right now. Maybe you should take them somewhere else. Like Chief Cameron’s quarters.”
Lisa didn’t like that idea for several reasons. “I have to find someplace for Lacey, too. But getting them settled can wait. What they want is their husband and father. And he’ll come back to the Guard Headquarters before going anywhere else.”
“Lacey?” David looked over her shoulder, finding the one stranger among her passengers. With a shake of his head he dismissed her and returned to Lisa, giving her a look like there was something he’d rather not explain out loud. “They could wait here—that small guardhouse might get cramped, but they would be out of the rain. And then they’d know the minute Ken comes back.”
Before Lisa could nix that idea, Mrs. Cameron interrupted. “I’m going out there. Where Ken is.”
David shook his head again. “It’s too dangerous out there, and besides—”
The woman barked right over whatever his explanation would’ve been. “He’ll need my help, then. And Grace should probably come, too.” She looked back at her eldest daughter. “And bring Frank.”
David seemed alarmed. “Ken’s already got the help he needs—Chief Nelson is with him. Or rather the other way around. Besides, you’re not armed, and we don’t have a weapon to spare.”
Mrs. Cameron snorted and opened her oversize denim jacket to reveal a forty-five caliber semi-auto in a shoulder holster. “That’s firepower enough for me, and you know what Frank can do. But seeing as you don’t have a gun to loan Faith, I guess she has to stay behind.”
David’s sigh seemed to be relief mixed with resignation. “I’ll keep an eye on her and Patience for you.” Turning to a couple of guards at the gate, he gestured and they began to open up.
Lisa finally had the chance to ask the question foremost on her mind. “Frank?”
Grace had left the cart and come to stand beside her mother. She lifted a corner of the long coat she had wrapped around her rifle. “This is Frank.” The girl had named her gun.
Lisa shook her head. “Why Frank?”
Grace smiled. “Because he’s very direct.”
“Do you have enough ammunition for that?” It wouldn’t help anyone to carry a rifle out there with only one shot in it.
The girl nodded. “Two box magazines with four rounds each. And one in the chamber
makes nine. It’ll be enough.” And then she re-wrapped her gun and turned to follow her mother through the gap in the gate the guards had opened for them.
There was nothing Lisa could do to stop them, even if she wanted to. So, together, she and David watched the mother and daughter waltz through the darkness of the buffer zone as if they were going out for an evening stroll.
After they’d gone, and the guards were closing the gate, David looked at Lisa and grinned. “By the way, I’ve got your gun to give back.”
He lifted the case he’d been carrying and set it on the hood of the cart and began to unlock it. “All our weapons have been cleared.”
Which Lisa already knew about, but this wasn’t the time or place to mention that, or to ask how and when David had gotten clearance to open up locked gun cases. And it wasn’t the best time to be getting her gun back.
Right then a close lightning strike was immediately followed by an ear-splitting crack, which was followed by a screeching thunk. “That wasn’t thunder,” she exclaimed, not expecting a response.
“That was Frank.”
Lisa saw that Faith and Patience and Lacey had all left the back of the cart to stand and stretch. It was Faith who’d spoken. “Specifically, it’s the noise Frank makes when he’s killing vehicles, not people. It seems your Lt. Miles has had a restraining influence on my sister.”
David met Lisa’s incredulous stare with one of his own. Kat had a restraining influence on someone? He shook his head and turned back to unlock the gun case. As he began to open it, Lisa was keeping Lacey in her peripheral vision, so she saw as the woman sidled closer on David’s other side.
As David opened the gun case, Lacey darted in, pushing him aside and reaching for one of the nine-millimeters. Lisa was already there, slamming the lid down and almost taking the woman’s fingers off.
Lacey had jerked her hand back with lightning-fast reflexes, spinning and backfisting David across the side of the head. The boy went down like a sack of potatoes. She knelt down and tried to wrestle his gun out of its holster.
Starting the Slowpocalypse (Books 1-3 Omnibus) Page 42
