Lone Survivor (Book 4): All That Rises

by Hunt, Jack

  Lukeman got up from his chair shaking his head. “Why do I have a feeling this isn’t going to work?”

  “Oh, ye of little faith.” Bennington had his feet up on the desk and was sipping on hot coffee.

  He sighed. “Harris should have left to this to me.”

  “Why would he, you didn’t perform well in Belfast, did you?”

  Lukeman narrowed his gaze. “Let’s not forget if it wasn’t for me and my guys you’d probably be lying in a pool of blood. Show me some respect.”

  Bennington laughed. “Anyway, where’s Harris?”

  “He got a radio transmission from Castine.”

  “He still banging her, is he?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “No. I guess not. So who’s the legs?” he said gesturing with his head to the dark-haired woman. “Looks like she’s taking over.”

  “Brooke Stephens. One of the higher-ups at FEMA. Her visit with Harris didn’t go well. She wasn’t impressed with the way things are being handled, hence the reason why Harris is banging, as you so bluntly put it, your town manager.”

  “She’s not mine. Heck, if I had my way I would put a bullet in her head. From what I can tell she’s playing both sides of the fence. I don’t trust her.”

  “Well at least that’s one thing we both agree on,” Lukeman said. He removed a cigar from his mouth and blew out smoke as he stood by the entrance to the tent. “But you know how he is. I’ve tried multiple times to get him to rethink, approach this from a different angle but he won’t listen. Meanwhile my men are dying because of it.”

  “I’m curious, Lukeman. Why are you still taking orders from him?”

  Lukeman looked at him. “Because I was assigned here. It’s my duty.”

  “No. It was your duty. Times are changing, soldier boy,” Bennington said getting up and heading over to the A-frame. “Dwindling resources, soldiers going AWOL, the end is written on the wall my friend, no pun intended.” He pointed to the map of the towns. “By this time next month, there will be two, maybe three more towns digging their heels in the ground. What then? I mean, Castine is just a blip on the map. Don’t you want something more? Surely you have family?”

  “I have my orders.”

  “And you’re good at following them. I admire that. Though there is no fucking way I would have joined the military. Having people bark at me and tell me how high to jump. No. I’m just wired differently. Now, if it was me giving orders. Well, I might be open to that but…” He looked at Lukeman who was fixated on the camp outside.

  Since his arrival, Bennington had been studying the hierarchy in the camp, observing the interactions between Harris and the military, because after losing friends at the hands of the militia he figured the only way forward from here was if he could rally a new group together, people that were used to taking orders, people that were capable and skilled and used to risking their ass for the great red, white and blue. He’d taken every chance to chip away at Lukeman; understand him and find a common ground, but he was a difficult man. Still, he wasn’t giving up.

  “So. Family?” he probed again.

  “Single,” Lukeman replied.

  Very good. No ties. Nothing to draw him away.

  Bennington took a deep breath. “I admire your dedication though I have to wonder if it’s a little misplaced.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well,” Bennington motioned to the map. “You’ve been at this… seven months, right? And what do you have to show for it? You sleep in a shitty tent; you work hours upon hours taking orders from a pinhead who wouldn’t know his way around a gun if you stuck one in his face. What are you getting out of it? And don’t say a sense of serving the country or any of that bullshit spouted by army guys when they return from tours. As you know as much as I do that no one cares, especially your government. You’re just a number,” he said pointing to his uniform. “Once you’ve put in your time, someone else comes along and replaces you and the wheels on the bus go round and round,” he said making his way over. “Surely you want more than that? I mean, don’t get me wrong, right now you think you have the respect of your men, hell, the respect of every person in this camp, but do you?”

  Lukeman frowned. “I don’t live for the applause.”

  Bennington laughed. “Please. Be honest, Lukeman. We all do. Just some of us are willing to admit it. The rest are just trying to impress others by acting like they don’t. Reality is no one cares,” he said patting him on the shoulder. “A month, maybe two at the most. All those people out there are going to know what a fuck-up this is and what will you do then? Try to control them? No. You know that would be futile. You see, the only thing we really can control is ourselves. So why not work for ourselves?”

  “Are you suggesting I go AWOL?”

  Oh he had him. He could see the look in Lukeman’s eyes. A waning of interest in the camp, in following Harris’ orders, and being a puppet on a string for a government that had collapsed. This was progress. A chip here, a chip there, every interaction was shaping his outlook on the future. “AWOL would imply you walked away without official leave. When was the last time you spoke to anyone who was from the military?”

  Lukeman smiled. “A long time ago.”

  “What kind of infrastructure do you know exists beyond this and other camps?”

  “I don’t.”

  “Exactly. And do you think that if the lights would come on tomorrow that anyone would care if you left your post?”

  He narrowed his gaze at Bennington. “What are you suggesting?”

  “I’m not suggesting anything. God forbid I give you orders. That’s not my way. But I am asking you what you want? Has anyone asked you that? What do you want, Lukeman?”

  Lukeman took a deep breath. “I want you to stop filling my head with doubts. How about we start there?”

  “Doubts? No. I’m a realist. The power grid won’t be turning on. If there is one thing the people of Castine have right, it’s that holding out hope for the government to come in and save the day is a joke. It’s built on a faulty premise, and I can tell in my short time here that FEMA is one step away from losing its grip on these people. What happens when that happens? Who do you think they will turn on first?” He patted him on the back. “Chew it over, soldier boy.” And like that he walked out of the tent with a smug grin on his face.

  12

  The tension in Emerson Hall that evening could have been cut with a knife. Sam observed the knot of locals as they squeezed into the room. Many remained in the corridor because there just wasn’t enough room. He sat at the front of the room with a small group that were in charge of taking notes, questions and complaints. Ray hadn’t taken his eyes off Teresa for even a second since she placed the call to Harris. He scanned the faces noticing that Sara was distracted by Landon because he was eyeballing Jake. That was a disaster just waiting to happen. The only two that weren’t in attendance were Eddie and Max. He could only imagine what they were doing.

  “Okay. Let’s call this meeting to order,” Sam said rising to his feet. “If any of you have questions there will be time to answer those at the end of the meeting, in the meantime I’d appreciate your attention while we get through what we have to tonight.” He looked down at his paperwork where he’d outlined some of the bullet points he needed to go over. “As you’re all aware we have been working closely with Rodney Jennings to see the introduction of wind and hydro power. Rodney is confident that with the assistance of a group he can have something together within the month. Rodney, did you want to add anything to this?”

  He shook his head and shriveled back into the crowd.

  “Will it power every house?” a woman asked.

  “Initially no. It will be used for the main center of operations at the Maritime Academy. There will also be a small hospital set up there. Depending on what Rodney has in mind, and how quickly we can get our hands on the material he’ll need to build all of this, we should start to s
ee homes powered again within the year.”

  “Within the year?” someone bellowed. “Are you kidding me?”

  “Resources will be focused on the elderly first, and the young. The rest of us will have to wait.”

  “What a joke.”

  “Sir. The fact that anyone is doing anything is a miracle. Now if you don’t like it, you know where the door is.”

  The guy got up and flipped the bird at Sam and stormed out.

  Sam was unfazed by it. “That goes for anyone else. This community owes you nothing. Anything that is done to improve your lives is a bonus. Appreciation goes a long way but if you want to grumble and act like a self-entitled asshole, then the best of luck to you. We don’t have time to deal with drama queens.”

  The guy who’d left returned and cursed at Sam before kicking a chair on his way out. People just got out of his way. There was no point in trying to stop him unless he tried to hurt someone. Sam had learned that lesson from the last meeting they’d had when he attacked Bennington.

  “We are trying to rebuild a community. It’s not easy especially with FEMA breathing down our necks and wanting to take what we have.”

  “Yeah, what is the deal with that?” Ally Stephens asked. “We haven’t been required to hand over 50 percent in quite some time. Have they backed off?”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” Sam said. He looked over at Ray and Teresa. “We recently came under attack.”

  “What?” A slew of people began talking among themselves. “Why didn’t we hear about this?” “When did it happen?” The questions came hard and fast.

  “Because it occurred outside of Castine. Three of our guys are dead,” Sam said being honest with them. “We know who is responsible and we’ve taken steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again but…”

  “How?” someone shouted.

  “How what?”

  “How are you ensuring it doesn’t happen again?”

  He looked at Ray and he gave a nod.

  “Ray and his crew will be leaving.”

  “What?!” There was uproar. He knew it would happen. The only thing keeping these people steady was the knowledge that the militia were protecting the town.

  “It won’t be permanent. It’s a temporary solution until we can bring those who killed three of our own to justice.”

  “And by justice you mean killing them?” an older lady asked.

  “We will do whatever is necessary.”

  “And does that involve stealing our weapons and destruction of property?” Benjamin Willis squeezed through the crowd followed by his wife. Both of them looked as if they had been through the wringer. With bruised and cut faces they garnered the attention of everyone. Behind them a few other locals muscled their way in with similar injuries.

  Sam frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about Ray’s guys hitting our homes in the dead of night. Stealing our weapons and roughing up my family. Our home is in ruins because of you.”

  Sam looked at Ray. “Care to shed some light?”

  Ray rose from his seat. “I think you are mistaken. We haven’t touched you or your property.”

  “Really? You think we did this to ourselves?” Benjamin turned and two more families stepped forward and recounted what happened to them. “They were wearing the same uniforms as you!” he said jabbing an accusing finger.

  Ray was quick to jump on those accusations. “Go on then. Which one of us did it?”

  They turned and looked over the faces of his crew. Not all of them were there as there still needed to be folks manning the checkpoints. “Well they’re not here but it was definitely you. They said you were taking supplies and weapons.”

  “I never ordered that.”

  Once again there was uproar. Sam shifted over to Ray and whispered in his ear. Ray nodded and looked back at Benjamin. “How many of my men were there?”

  “Several.”

  “How many were wearing the uniform?”

  “One.”

  He clenched his fist and cast a glance at Sam. “I had nothing to do with this but we think we know who is behind it.”

  “Bullshit. It was your crew.” Benjamin tossed a water canister at Ray. All hell broke loose as Ray’s guys rushed in and those in attendance, specifically the families who had just shown up, fought back. Somewhere in the hustle and bustle of it all, Sam noticed Teresa was no longer in the room. “Ray. Where is she?”

  They turned and scanned faces. Ray bellowed for a few of his guys to check outside while he went for the closest exit near the back of the room. “Oh yeah, that’s it. Run!” Benjamin said. “See, I told you.”

  They had it all backwards. Sam took out his gun and fired a round into the air drilling a hole in the ceiling. “Enough!” he cried. “You’ve got this all wrong. We’ve been set up. Bennington was behind this.”

  “Oh, that’s a good excuse,” Benjamin said pressing forward, pulling out a tire iron from inside his coat.

  Sam raised his gun at him. “Put it down. Now!”

  “You going to shoot all of us, Sam?”

  “No. Only you. Put it down.”

  Benjamin stared at him before dropping it on the floor. It clattered and he backed up. “You would defend a man whose men assaulted me and my family?”

  “I don’t believe that’s the case.”

  Benjamin saw his chance. He had an audience of people who were already at their breaking point. “What about all of you? What do you believe? Do you think we are making this up?” He turned 360 degrees. “Who do you believe. Us or them?”

  Jake stepped forward trying to get people to calm down. “Listen up. People. Please. We won’t get anywhere if we begin to turn on one another. Now until we can prove that Ray’s guys were involved, do me a favor and back off.”

  “Don’t listen to this fool,” someone yelled pushing forward and bumping into someone else, causing them to lash out. Before they knew it an argument ensued among those in the room and it soon spread into the corridor. Fists were thrown and before Sam could stop it, locals were on top of one another. One would pull another off only to get blindsided in the face by a fist. Sam fired two more rounds just above their heads. The group dropped, looking at him in fear.

  “I swear to God, I will arrest every last one of you if I have to.”

  “You’re not a cop anymore,” Benjamin said.

  “No. No I’m not, but this is not how we conduct ourselves. We’re better than this!”

  Benjamin stuck a finger in his face. “We are done listening to you.” He turned and yelled to the others. “Anyone else done with this meeting follow me.” He charged out and others followed leaving less than forty in the room. Ray returned through the same door he exited and shook his head.

  “She’s gone. I knew we shouldn’t have trusted her. You should have let me kill her when I had the chance.” Ray called out to his men. “Let’s go.”

  “Where are you going?” Sam asked.

  “Where we should have gone to begin with — Belfast. We are done here.”

  “That’s it? What about Bennington? Harris? The military?”

  “You’re on your own!”

  Sam tried to get him to listen but he wouldn’t. It wasn’t long before the rest of the crowd thinned out.

  Later that evening, back at the Manor, Landon sat with a cup of herbal tea in the sunroom with Dakota and Beth. Grizzly gnawed on a bone that Rita had given him before retiring for the evening. Sara came into the room and closed the double doors behind her, she wrapped her arms tightly around her body as if she was cold and rubbed her arms. “Here,” Beth said. She scooped up a throw blanket that was on the back of the sofa and handed it to her.

  “Thank you, hon,” she said, her eyes darting over to Dakota and Landon who were chatting. Dakota noticed and got up.

  “Well I should turn in for the evening.” She smiled politely as she passed by Sara. Beth crouched beside Grizzly and ruffled his hair.

  “I shou
ld too, c’mon boy. You can bring it with you.” As she was heading out of the room she turned to Sara. “Max not back yet?”

  “Haven’t seen him. Lately he has a knack of coming and going as he pleases.”

  She gave a nod and headed out leaving them alone. Sara wandered over and took a seat across from him. “Dakota seems nice.”

  “Yeah. She is. She’s been through a lot. We all have.”

  “Beth was telling me a little about your time on the trail.”

  “Oh, was she,” he said, a smile forming.

  “Said if it wasn’t for you she wouldn’t have survived.”

  “I think she’s got that the wrong way around. I owe a lot to her.”

  “Said you saved her life. That true?”

  He stared at her then lifted up his top to show her the scar from Billy’s knife. Her mouth widened and instinctively she reached out to touch it then stopped halfway and pulled back. “I nearly died out there. It’s strange what you see when you’re on the brink of death. I saw Ellie.”

  “Ellie.”

  He nodded.

  Sara’s chin dropped.

  “Look, Sara. I know we’ve all been through—”

  “I killed someone,” she blurted out, cutting him off. “So did Max. In fact he killed multiple people.” Even though it was true it still felt strange to say it. She wanted to get it out there as she still hadn’t told him. “I just thought you should know.”

  He nodded and looked out the window into the darkness. “I did my fair share of killing too,” he replied glancing her way. “And I expect it won’t be the last.”

  She closed her eyes for a second. “I thought you were dead, Landon. I would have never got involved with him had I known.”

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  She frowned. “But you must have some reaction to it.”

  “You saw it. I left.”

  “But then you returned. Why?”

  “Because I’ve been away too long. I realized a lot of things out on that trail, Sara. Things about myself, us, our kids, life.” Landon shook his head. “Do you love him?” he asked.

  “Jake?”