Glory (Book 5)

by Michael McManamon

  He looked out into the distance. Though the moon was bright and the stars twinkled, it was far too dark to see anything aside from a few trees. He took a deep breath and felt his nerves settle.

  It's nice out here tonight, he thought.Quiet. Peaceful.Even with everything that had happened, things feltright.

  He turned to Charles. The old man's brow was furrowed, his lips tightly closed together.

  "What is it?" Adam asked.

  Charles broke his concentration and turned to Adam. "Sorry, what?"

  "What is it? What are you thinking about? The men?"

  Charles turned and looked back out over the landscape. "No, I was thinking about Jane."

  Jane. He had been too preoccupied with everything else tonight to give her much thought. He felt a guilty about that. "Do you think she's still out there?" he asked.

  "Yes."

  "Where?"

  Charles didn't answer. He couldn't. There was no way that any of them were going to know where she had gone.

  "Sorry," Adam added quickly. "I didn't mean for it to come out like that."

  "I know," Charles assured him.

  "I followed the direction you told me."

  "I know," Charles said again. "And I know that you tried your best. But I still think that she's out there. And I think that she's safe."

  Adam wasn't as certain, but he wasn't about to say that. "Do you think she's going to return?"

  Charles ran his hand over his lower jaw and closed his eyes. "No," he said after a deep breath. "I don't think that she is."

  Adam was surprised. He had assumed that Charles would have thought she'd come back. Or that he would have hoped for it enough to believe it.

  "I want her to come back," Charles explained. His lips trembled. "I really do. But I think that she had too many problems, too many things going through her head."

  They all did, Adam thought. Images of the men he had killed flashed through his mind. The difference was that they each had their own way of dealing with things. And some were better at it than others.

  "I tried to talk to her about it," Adam said.

  "I did too," Charles replied. "Actually, wedid talk about it a little. But she never really opened up to me. Since everything started, she had had to do some pretty horrible things. I guess it was too much to handle." The old man took another deep breath. "You know, she said that the daughter who haunted her was a lot older than her real one? That was something I never really understood. Why would an older version of her daughter haunt her? Where would that image have come from?"

  Adam didn't know, so he didn't bother with an answer. Instead, he said, "I wish I had done more." And he really did. He didn't like the idea that Jane had been suffering, didn't like that he hadn't been able to help her.

  "We all do," Charles agreed.

  Adam and Charles sat the for a while without saying anything. Their thoughts drifted from Jane and her troubles to their own lives and what had happened to them since the change.

  "You think they're going to come?" Adam asked.

  "I hope not."

  "Me too. But that doesn't mean that they won't."

  "No, it doesn't mean that they won't.” There was a brief pause as the two of them thought about what that meant. Then Charles spoke again. “Do you still think we should leave in the morning?"

  Adam stared a Charles for a moment before asking, "Why do you ask that? Do you think we should stay?"

  "No," Charles said softly. "Deep down, I know that we should go. It isn't safe here with those men coming. And I still think that we need to find other survivors. But…well…I keep thinking about Jane."

  "Jane?"

  "If we leave, then she's never going to find us. We will have lost her forever."

  Adam hadn't thought about that, but the old man was right. "I thought you said that you didn't think she would come back," he pointed out.

  "I know I said that. And I don't think she will. But if we leave, it's definite. She'll have nothing to come back to." The old man mumbled something to himself and shook his head. "I'm just being stupid. A sentimental old man."

  "No, no, I understand what you're saying. It makes sense. But can we stay for that? It's a pretty big risk."

  "It is." Charles paused. Adam waited for him to say more. "It’s probably for the best if we go. We need to find other’s like us.more survivors. Especially if we have to worry about all of the bad people out there."

  Bad people. There werebad people out there. Wandering around. Coming to attack.

  Adam opened his mouth to agree with Charles. But the more that he thought about it, the more he realized he wanted to stay. They had made a nice home here. Had found comfort. Laughter. How could he let that be taken away from them?

  “I’m so confused,” he said. “I don’t know what to do.”

  "Do you want to stay?" Charles asked.

  Adam nodded. "But I also think that we should go."

  "Hmmmm," Charles concluded.

  And they left it at that.

  *

  As soon as the sun started to rise, Adam stood up from the ground and helped Charles get to his feet. "Well, that was easy," he said. "No sign of any of those guys."

  "No," Charles agreed. "We got lucky."

  Day 25

  Chapter 1

  Everyone was sleeping when they arrived, but Adam couldn't let them stay that way. He had to wake them up so that they could get going…if that's what they all still wanted to do.

  He, himself, wasn't all that sure anymore. After talking to Charles and thinking more about it, he didn't know that he wanted to leave. A part of him was telling him to stay, to fight for what was theirs.

  He walked over to Claire and kissed her cheek.

  "Morning already?" she asked.

  "It is. Time to get up."

  When everyone was awake, they met at their usual spot in the middle of the library.

  "What's the plan?" Scooter asked.

  Adam looked at him, though didn't answer the question. "I want to talk about something else first," he said. Everyone paid close attention. "Yesterday I know I said that we should leave. We need to find other survivors. We need to find safety. But I can't lie…part of me wants to stay here too."

  "You do?” Claire asked.

  "For a while anyway."

  "And what about those men?" Julie asked, glancing out the windows. "What if they come back?"

  Adam could see that they were all wondering about that. He had spent most of the night thinking about it as well. Though he always came back to the same conclusion.

  "We fight them," he said. He spoke with conviction. With strength. He could see that no one else was as sure. "We have guns. We have supplies. We could do it."

  They took time to think about his suggestion. Worried. Frightened.

  It was Alice that finally broke the silence. The old woman ran her finger along his gun. "You mean we should kill them," she said. "Is that what you really want?"

  It was a fair question,Adam thought.And, no, it wasn't really what he wanted. But he didn't want to keep running all of the time, either. He wanted to take a stand.

  "It's not that," he said. "It's just…"

  "He's right," Claire interrupted. "There are a lot of people out there who want to hurt us. No matter where we go, we'll run into them. We have to face them sooner or later. And, like Adam said, we have the guns and supplies. The school is a good place for us to fight."

  "Better than being caught out in the open," Marianne added.

  Adam nodded at her.Some of them were on his side. "What do you all think?" he asked. "Should we stay?"

  Shelly answered first. "I want to."

  Then Claire. "Me too."

  Then Marianne. "And me."

  Adam turned to Scooter, surprised that the young man hadn't said anything about it yet. "Are you okay with it?"

  "I'm okay with it," Scooter replied. "Just a bit worried about how we're going to do it."

  "We're all worr
ied," Adam said, despite the fact that his voice conveyed his growing confidence. "But I know we can do it." He turned to Julie. She nodded. Charles and Alice agreed as well. "Then it's decided - we stay and fight!"

  Adam looked around the library, searching for a way to barricade the room. There were several chairs and desks. They could move a few of the bookcases in front of the windows. They could...

  “Hey!” a voice called to them. A man from outside. “You in there?”

  "They're here already!" Julie cried.

  Adam felt a lot of his confidence leave him. Though that didn't stop him from walking over to the window, gun steady in his hands. "Who's out there?" he shouted.

  "Who's outhere?We're out here. And pretty soon we're going to come in there to take what's ours."

  "There's nothing of yours in here, so keep moving."

  "Keep moving?" The man started to laugh. The others out there joined him.

  Adam turned back to his group. At the sight of Claire and Shelly, he felt his resolve return. More than that, he felt his anger begin to course through him.He wasn't going to let anyone hurt them!

  "All right," Adam said, "grab all of the guns."

  Claire ran to them and handed them out. Julie took the one she had used in town. Marianne took one, deciding that her knife wasn't going to be much help anymore. Adam already had his own.

  "I'll be fine with this," Scooter said, holding up his axe. Though the truth was there wasn't a gun for him to take anyway. Claire had taken the last one.

  Claire handed out the ammunition next. When she was done, she looked over at Adam to tell him that they were ready.

  Adam nodded, then shouted to the men outside, "If you try to come in, we'll kill you!"

  "Oh, yeah?" the reply came. "With what?"

  "With guns?"

  "You'll shoot us?"

  "Yeah, we'll shoot you."

  There was more laughter. Then there was gunfire.A lot of it. But it hadn't come from Adam or any of his group.

  Bullets shot in through the windows. They shattered the glass. The stuck into the walls.

  Everyone dropped to the ground.

  After a few moments, it stopped.

  It was then that Adam could hear Emily screaming. He turned to look at her, thinking that she might have been hit. Instead, it was Alice. The old woman was lying on the floor, blood pouring out of a bullet that had slammed into her neck. She wasn't moving.

  "Damn," Adam said. "Is anyone else hurt?"

  "We're fine," Claire replied.

  Emily continued to scream, but Adam couldn't worry about that now. He had to focus on the men outside. Unfortunately, from where he was on the ground, he couldn't see them. He didn't know how many of them were out there. Or how well they were armed.

  "We didn't hit any of the pretty ladies, did we?" the man called in.

  "Fuck off!" Scooter answered.

  "Fuck off?" The man started to laugh again.

  As had happened so many times before, Adam didn't know what to do.Where should they go? How could they defend themselves?He had no idea.

  "How about you let the girls out?" the man outside continued. "And we'll let you men go free."

  "Fuck off!" Scooter shouted again.

  Adam glanced at Scooter, then turned to Alice. The old woman continued to bleed out onto the floor. Emily was still there, staring at her. Her screams had turned into more of a whimper as Julie cradled her in her arms.

  He wasn't going to let anything else happen to them!

  He motioned for Scooter and Claire to come to him. They crawled along the floor.

  "I want you two to stay in this room," he said. You're going to have to protect the windows. Make sure that they don't come in. If you keep down, they won't be able to hit you."

  "And what are you going to do?" Claire asked, concern in her voice.

  "I'm going to go out into the halls. I have to make sure that they don't get in to the school. If they trap us in this room, we won’t stand a chance."

  "I'll come with you," Marianne said. He hadn't heard her creep up to them. He looked at the woman. It was strange to see her holding a gun instead of her purse. He wasn't even sure if she knew how to use it.

  "Okay," he said. "Come with me."

  "What about me?" Shelly asked. She had also come up to them. "I want to do something."

  Adam wasn't going to argue. Not this time. He wanted to keep her safe. But they also needed all the help that they could get. "Grab the rifle from Julie. I want you to guard the library door. Stand out front of it and keep an eye out for Marianne and I."

  Shelly nodded.

  "Julie," Adam yelled over to the woman. "Take the kids and go over there." He pointed to a part of the library that was sheltered. He didn't think that they would be in much danger there if the men started shooting again. "Charles, go with them. You have to help keep them calm."

  "Sure," Charles crawled over to Robert and brought the little boy over to the spot that Adam had mentioned.

  When they were settled, Adam turned back to his group. "All right, we can do this!" He felt like he was giving a pep talk to a football team.Except this wasn't a game.

  Next, he and Marianne made their way over to the library door. Shelly came with them, gun in her young hands.

  Adam opened the door and looked out of it. No one was in the hallway. He listened and couldn't hear anything.

  "I don't think they're in the school yet," he said.Maybe the men weren't too sure about who was in here, what type of defences they had.

  Adam looked at Marianne. "Ready?"

  She nodded.

  "I'll go to the left and check the stairwell. You take the right…but only to the end of the hall. All we need to do right now is make sure that they're not in the school."

  Again Marianne nodded her head.

  Then they were off.

  Chapter 2

  Adam walked down the hall, constantly expecting one of the men to jump out and attack him -even though he was pretty sure that they weren’t in the school. He kept his gun steady, held up in front of him. His finger lightly upon the trigger. If he saw one of the men, he'd shoot…without any hesitation.

  He came upon the side door that led to the playground and looked through one of its windows. No one was on the other side of it.

  He looked up and saw that there was a way to lock it. But he needed a tool. Something like an Allen key. And he didn't know where he could find one.

  He looked back at Shelly and tried to smile at her, to tell her that everything was okay. But he knew that it wasn't the truth. They were in trouble. And it would take a lot to get out of.

  What about the door?

  He kept his eyes on Shelly.She was here. She had a gun. She could shoot whoever came inside.

  That idea settled heavily on him. He didn't want her to kill anyone else. The man at the farm had been more than enough.

  They didn’t have a choice.

  Another forced smile. Then he turned and saw Marianne making her way down the hallway. It was easy to make out her bright yellow shirt.

  With all that was happening, he found himself wondering why she hadn't changed it.She must have been wearing it for days. Maybe weeks. It was covered in blood. Covered in dirt. There were more than enough clothes out there to change into.

  He decided not to think about it.There were more important things to worry about.

  He focused on what to do next:go upstairs.He could get a better look at the men from up there. See how many there were,where they were.

  He looked back at Shelly and waved to her. She waved back. Her gun in her other hand.

  He pointed up to let her know that he was going to go upstairs.

  She replied with a look that told him she wanted to tell him to stay. Yet, that she kept her mouth shut.

  "I'll be back soon," he said. Not loud enough for her to hear. But enough so that she could make it out on his lips.

  Though the expression on her face stayed the same, she no
dded.

  He headed upstairs.

  *

  Marianne walked away from Adam. And, for some reason, she wasn't all that scared. She hadn't planned on doing anything heroic. She was just going to look at the end of the hall, to see if any of those guys were there. That was it. Simple. Nothing to worry about.

  Marianne squeezed her gun. She had never shot one before. She had never actuallyheld one before. This was all new to her. But so was most of everything that had happened in the past few weeks.

  It was all new. Everything. The world. The people. Her life.

  She squeezed the gun again and pointed it out in front of her.If one of those men stood in front of her, she'd shoot. No question.

  No, she really wasn't scared at all.

  *

  Claire creeped up to the window. She wanted to look out of it, but was afraid. And for good reason. The old woman had already gotten shot. Claire didn't want to join her.

  She looked over at Alice. Alice lay sprawled the floor. She had knocked over a few chairs in her fall. Blood dripped onto the floor, making as sound that Claire was positive she could hear.

  It's just my imagination, she told herself. Though that didn't make her feel any better.

  Claire turned back to the window with another urge to look out of it.

  Don't be stupid, she told herself.

  She crept closer to the wall. But that was the most she planned to do.

  "Do we have a deal?" the man yelled from outside. "You give us the women, we let you go."

  Claire had no intention of answering. She didn't want to give anything away.Let them worry about what was going on in here. Let them guess.

  In any case, Scooter answered for her. "Fuck off!" he yelled. It was his usual reply. But it was also one that Claire thought best under the circumstances.

  She waited for more shots to enter the library. Nothing happened.

  The man outside called to them a few more times. Nothing special. Just the same old stuff.Give us your women and we'll let you live.If you don't, we'll come in and take them.

  She looked back at Scooter. The more she thought about it, the more she liked his reply.Fuck off. It was so simple, but said so much.