Trent’s skin itched. He didn’t trust the man. The air practically stunk with his ambition. No doubt, Jake lacked the vision to build a new society but not the drive to take it over once it was established. Trent flicked a snowflake from his shoulder.
Jake Turner was temporary help only but he could be exploited.
“Are you familiar with the area?”
Jake pointed across the East bound interstate. Buildings jutted up through the gloom. “That looks like a mall to me.”
Trent recognized several clothing chains. Asshole. “Let’s go.”
“What about them?” Jake jerked his chin toward the teenagers.
They trickled between the lanes of cars. A few even climbed behind the wheel.
“They’ll be fine.” Light winked off the rifle. Then again, Trent didn’t plan on this being a one-way trip. “Give Ernest the rifle in case anyone gets ideas.”
Like shooting me in the back.
Jake nodded, pivoted about and ran back to the twin brothers. He climbed into the driver’s seat as Trent secured his seatbelt. Heat blasted from the vents when he turned the ignition.
Trent rubbed his hands in the warm air. He deserved this small luxury.
Slamming the truck into gear, Jake grinned. “I always wanted to take one of these things off-road.”
Jake gunned the engine. Metal crunched as he plowed the truck through the stopped cars.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Trent strangled the seatbelt and braced his legs on the floor.
“Relax.” Jake cranked the wheel. The truck rumbled through the snow, half on the shoulder half off. “I’m in control.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Manny rose on his toes to see above the crowd. Where was this leader guy? Maybe if he could speak to him, he, Rini and Beth would be allowed to wait for the soldiers. He didn’t want to be part of the new society. He wanted to be with Wheelchair Henry and the niños.
Shifting to the right, Manny felt his jeans slip below his hips despite the rope tied around his waist. He glanced down.
Rini had hold of his belt loop. “What do you see?”
“Nothing.” At five-ten he was too damn short. He hitched up his jeans then shifted left. Again his pants dropped. Now what? He looked down.
Beth had hold of the loop on the other side.
He tugged up his pants and held them with one hand.
The taller kids in front of him swayed, blocking his view. When the man yelled at them to get to it, they scattered.
And Manny got his first look at the leader. Blond hair, blue eyes and tall. His breath lodged in his throat, choking him. Oh God. No! He spun on his heel. It couldn’t be him!
Beth collapsed against Manny, curling around his body.
He caught her. His fingers dug into her back as he raised her. God, he was shaking so much, her teeth practically rattled.
“Wow!” Rini released his pants. “He’s kinda good looking.”
“What?” Manny checked over his shoulder. Maybe he imagined it. Maybe the man wasn’t his nightmare come true. He blinked and watched the man move away.
No mistaking. It was the man from Wheelchair Henry’s neighborhood, the one who’d murdered his wife. The one Manny witnessed throwing a woman’s bloody body from a balcony.
“What’s wrong with you?” Rini poked him in the shoulder. “Just cuz the guy is hawt doesn’t mean I’m sticking around. We’re going to stay and wait for the soldiers.”
Stay? Hell no! They were going to run away. They weren’t safe here. Manny opened his mouth.
A woman screamed.
The hair on the back of his neck stood straight up and his stomach clenched. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about what that man is doing to her.
Rini latched on to his arm. “You don’t think—”
“He’s raping her.” Beth clawed up his chest to stand. “That—That man, the speaker, he’s the one who…” Her hands moved up and down her bruised body. “He tried…”
Manny dragged his hands down his face. He could handle being a target but not Rini and Beth.
“Oy!” One of the men pointed his gun at Manny. “Get to work clearing the cars or you don’t eat.”
Manny grabbed the girls’ hands and pulled them through the lines of cars. “We need to get out of here.”
“Uh, yeah.” Beth wrapped herself around his arm, squeezing between two sedans at his side instead of behind him. “Do you think he’s seen me?”
“I don’t think so.” Manny watched the lead truck shove cars out of its way.
Another scream pierced the air.
He could practically taste the pain behind it. In front of him, two teenagers wrestled a body from behind the wheel of a red Chevy. A blue PT cruiser bumped down the incline into the stand of pines.
“I can’t believe he’s a rapist.” Rini jogged behind them. “I mean he’s cute.”
Cute. Cute! How can she be so stupid. Manny stopped and turned. He crowded Rini against the side of a Ford pick-up. “He’s a murderer, Rini.”
Her blue eyes widened in her mottled green and yellow checks.
“He’s the man I saw dump that woman into the garbage pile. He’s the one the soldiers think killed his wife.”
Rini shook her head. Her spiky blond hair fluttered with the motion.
Didn’t she see? Didn’t she understand that he was a monster? “He’s the reason we had to leave the neighborhood and find the soldiers.”
“Stop scaring her.” Beth wedged herself between him and Rini. “I thought he was cute once too. When I first met him.”
Manny threw up his hands. What the hell was wrong with them? Shoving his hands in his pockets, he stomped down the road.
“But I was wrong. There’s a monster underneath.” Beth wrapped her arm around Rini’s shoulders. Their footsteps crunched behind him. “One that did this to me.”
“Why can’t people look like what they are?” Rini moaned.
“Manny does.” Beth giggled. “He’s nice and nice looking.”
Manny tripped over his feet. He caught himself on the side of a Ram truck. How did they get to talking about him? “We need to get out of here.”
Beth shoved her black hair out of her eyes. “How?”
He scoped out the men with the guns. One stood on the hood watching them, the other on the shoulder, writing his name in yellow on the snow. Although they were forty yards away, he didn’t want to chance bullets hitting them.
A yellow cruiser bumped down into the ditch. The kid inside hooted when the bumper crunched into a tree.
Another scream. Louder this time.
His ears ached from the pitch.
“Can we help her?” Catching up with him, Rini squeezed his hand.
He didn’t know if he could help her—or any of them. “We can try.”
Standing near a black SUV, two boys whispered, looked around then whispered again. One moved his finger over his palm like the lines were a map. They flinched as the next scream started almost before the other ended.
Guess he wasn’t the only one planning an escape.
Manny and the girls would have better luck with others. Wheelchair Henry had taught him that. “Come on.”
Slipping through the cars, he approached the two kids. Snow crunched under his sneakers.
The two looked up, suspicion narrowing their brown eyes.
“What do you want?” The boy on the left spoke first. He was about an inch taller than the other. Lift tickets clung to his black jacket and fluttered like toe tags.
Manny took a deep breath. If they squealed, he and the girls were in big trouble. “I’m Manny. This is Rini and Beth. We’re getting out of here. To find the soldiers.”
“Oy!” The guard on the side of the road yelled at them. “This ain’t no cotillion. Move those damn vehicles.”
Manny shook his head. What the hell was a cotillion?
“Thanks for drawing attention to us.” The kid sneered and his lift tickets jerke
d in agitation.
“I just thought you wanted to go and help her.” After jerking his chin toward the woods, Manny opened the door of the SUV. Thankfully there wasn’t a body inside. He shifted it into neutral.
Rini climbed into the seat and cranked the wheel so the tires headed toward the woods. “Ready.”
Manny braced his hands along the frame. “We’re going to push you down the slope. Once the car stops, get out and run into the woods.”
The two boys moved to the back. “Why are you going to help us rescue our aunt?’
Their aunt? Crap, now they’d have to suceed. No one should have to lose a loved one like this. Manny shoved the car. His feet slipped in the snow. “We have a better chance of surviving if we stick together until the soldiers arrive. “
The taller boy grunted. “I’m Pete. This is my brother, Paul.”
Paul waved a blue glove and shivered in his green hoodie.
Beth’s hands slipped along the passenger door. “Now that that’s out of the way, we need to do this on the count of three. One. Two. Three.”
The SUV inched forward, slowly at first, then gained speed as it bumped off the curb. Manny released the frame and stepped back. It slammed to a stop after coasting a short distance and the horn honked.
He swore under his breath. Ten yards separated Rini from the woods. And thanks to the blare, the men were looking his way.
Rini rolled out of the door and crouched in the snow.
“Stay,” Manny hissed to her then motioned for Pete, Beth and Paul toward the next vehicle, walking backward so he could watch the men.
The guards stared back.
“Don’t hit the horn when it’s your turn.” Pete glared at Beth.
“I won’t.” Crossing her arms, she walked to the front of the sedan. Sighing, she yanked open the door and screamed when a body fell out. The seat belt caught it at a forty-five degree angle. Liquid oozed out of the cracks in the skin.
After a few seconds, the guard looked away.
Manny waved for Rini to run for the woods.
Crouching low, she bounced over the snow and slipped between the trees.
“That’s not good.” One boy grabbed the body by the arm and tugged it the rest of the way out. “She left tracks. We’ll all leave tracks.”
Manny eyed the holes in the snow. The white stuff hadn’t really accumulated under the trees. “We’ll be fine once we get into the woods.”
He hoped.
Beth shifted the sedan into neutral but didn’t get behind the wheel. She cranked the wheel then set one hand on the dash and the other on the door frame.
Black stained the seat.
Manny opened the back door and shoved the corpse inside before joining the boys in the back.
This one went a little farther than the other.
He checked their guards. Neither was looking their way. “Go!”
Beth ran for the woods.
He turned to the next vehicle and groaned. The bumper of the truck reached his chest and the tires were wider than he was. “Damn.”
“Yeah.” Pete dusted his hands on his pants. “I say we all go after this one.”
“Agreed.”
Scrambling inside, Manny released the brake. They worked the vehicle back and forth until finally they got it moving. His arms trembled by the time it rolled down the hill. As it moved up the next, he sprinted after it then headed for the woods.
“Hey!” One of the guards yelled. “Get back here.”
He pumped his legs harder, kicking the snow in front of him. Damn this was hard.
The gun popped. He reached the woods.
Standing in dark wood, Beth waved at them from in front of a pine tree trunk. “This way.”
Manny veered toward her, too late realizing they were heading back toward the guards and their guns. Rini dashed between the trunks in a flash of color. With a burst of speed, he caught up with Beth. “Are you nuts?”
Rini stopped in a small clearing. Gray sunlight shone on the brown and white ground. “We’ve found blood.”
Jesus. He’d forgotten the woman.
Pete and Paul overtook him and burst into the clearing. “Where?”
Manny staggered to a stop next to Beth.
“Here.” Rini pointed to the ground. Red spots dotted the brown pine needles. A single set of footprints stomped the snow.
“We’ll follow them to Aunt Alma.” Keeping an eye on the ground, Pete jogged to the right. Paul followed hard on his heels. Soon they were shadows in the dim light.
Beth and Rini entered the woods next.
Manny followed.
Pete disappeared, then Paul went down.
What was going on? His heart beat double time.
Rini yelped and was jerked to the right.
“No!” Manny reached for Beth.
Someone slapped a hand over her mouth and pulled her into a clearing.
No. They wouldn’t get them. Manny slapped away a bough just as the woman screamed again. He stumbled over something. Air slammed from his lungs. He rolled over and raised his fists.
A man loomed over him. Sunlight glinted off the rifle in his hands.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Relax Manny.”
They knew his name? Oh God, he was going to die. Manny blinked the man into focus. Tan and green jacket. Wide grin. Helmet. Not a man; a soldier. One he knew. His gaze shifted to the name on the right side of his jacket. “Robertson?”
“Yep.” Robertson grabbed Manny’s wrist and pulled him to his feet. The German shepherd sniffed Manny’s leg then moved on to Pete. “Sorry about that, we didn’t have time to take out the garbage.”
The soldier nodded to the body at Manny’s feet.
A knife stuck out of the man’s throat. He recognized him as one of the murderer’s men.
The woman sat holding a cloth to her swollen lip, but otherwise unharmed on a fallen log.
A big soldier stood at her side. “Okay, one more scream, but this time I want you to kinda strangle off on the end.”
She took a sip from her water bottle. “If it helps.”
Paul and Pete fell at her feet, touching her hands, knees, and arms. “Aunt Alma, are you alright?”
“Sure, they rescued me before he could do anything.” She cupped each of their cheeks. “I told you we could trust the soldiers.”
“Manny.” Robertson snapped his fingers in front of his face. “How many bad guys are there?”
Rini and Beth walked from the woods, arm in arm chatting to the soldiers on either side of them.
Everyone was safe. Everyone was okay. Manny swatted at the needles sticking to him. What had Robertson asked? Oh, yeah. “With him gone, there’s four left. But only two stayed to guard us.”
Robertson’s face flushed red and he bit off one word. “Trent?”
Manny retreated a step. Whoa. The soldier was one pissed off dude. “Who?”
“The man you saw kill that woman from the old neighborhood.”
Trent. Manny rolled the killer’s name around in his head. Trent seemed like he’d sell fancy things, not murder people. He mentally smacked his forehead. Now he sounded like Rini. “Um, Trent and another guy took off.”
“Do you know where?”
“They talked about shopping,” Pete spoke up. “I saw them break through a fence, heading toward a bunch of buildings.”
“Damn,” Robertson swore softly. His fist pounded his thigh. The dog dropped to the ground and waited.
Manny reached for him then dropped his hand. “What’s wrong?”
“That’s where our people are. Colonel Dobbins thought we should pick up some blankets and jackets since we had to wait for you to show up.”
Manny’s stomach rolled when he made the connection. “Wheelchair Henry?”
Robertson nodded. “Everyone.”
Oh no! The niños. Manny lurched forward. He had to get to them.
Robertson grabbed his arm, spinning him back into the clearing. “
I know you want to go to them, but I’m asking you to trust us.”
“With all you here, who’s watching them?” Protecting them. If anything happened to the niños, he’d never forgive himself. They were his responsibility. A responsibility he’d shirked just to be normal for a bit.
And look what happened.
“We’ve got three armed Marines and Colonel Dobbins.” Robertson leaned closer. “I’ll say this for your ears and if you ever repeat it, I’ll deny it even under torture.”
“What?” What was he talking about?
Robertson looked around. “Even sick, the Marines are more than enough to take out Trent and his asshole. Of course, given that your Wheelchair Henry is Army Special Forces, he doesn’t need the jarheads to take out the trash.”
“But he’s…” Manny stilled his tongue. The man had done more to help him survive than anyone. He wouldn’t speak disrespectfully of him.
Robertson rocked back on his heels. “Hell, man, that’s his secret weapon. They’ll underestimate him and bam!” He punched his fist. “They’re dead before they hit the ground.”
The information shuffled around Manny’s head. Blind Connie and Mildred had protected the niños earlier when the soldiers had been fired upon. So had a lot of other people. His heart resumed a normal beat in his chest.
“I hate to ask it of you man, but my men and I can really use your help.”
Manny tensed. The soldiers wanted his help? He’d held a gun earlier but the weight of it… God knew if he could even fire it.
Robertson waved to the kids and the girls. His men drifted back into the trees, melting in the shadows. “I need you guys to go back.”
“Back?” Manny resisted the urge to clean out his ears. He couldn’t have heard right. They’d just got here.
“I know you wouldn’t want to leave the others.” Robertson rested his hands on his gun. “And we can’t go in there guns blazing. Those assholes are bound to take some people hostage.”
Manny’s stomach shifted like he’d swallowed handfuls of bee-bees. It wasn’t his problem. He’d only promised to look after Rini and Beth. To see to the woman. The bee-bees settled dragging his stomach to his knees. But he’d promised to help take care of each other. And those girls the sergeant-major had rescued were part of that. Part of what he left behind. “What can we do?”
Redaction: The Meltdown Part II Page 33
