She jumped and took a swing.
Eddie ducked. “Sorry it took me so long to get here.” Two dead rabbits dangled from his fists. “But damn, you’ve got some excellent moves, Warrior Princess.”
Pride shoved her tears to the surface. She wrapped her arms around her chest. She’d done this. “What do I do now?”
Her self defense teachers told her to run away and call for help. That didn’t exactly apply now.
“You going to fucking help me, bitch.”
“Mind your language, asshole.” Eddie kicked Trent in the ribs. Despite the crunch of bone, Trent didn’t flinch. “We don’t do anything. He’ll either suffocate in a couple of minutes or the coyotes will eat him.”
“You can’t do this.” Trent twitched.
“Yeah, I can.” Eddie pulled her bra from his pocket, wadded it up and stuffed it into Trent’s mouth. “But I don’t have to listen to you. Sorry, babe, but you’re not getting your boulder holder back.”
A vein throbbed at Trent’s temple. His shouts were a garble of noise.
“It’s okay.” Tremors traveled up and down her spine. Hot tears mingled with the blood pouring out her nose. How was she going to live with this?
Eddie kissed her hard.
She blinked and sniffed. Blood and snot hit the back of her throat. “What did you do that for?”
“Because I’m proud of you.” He daubed at her face with the hem of his shirt. “Do you think Tina or Becky or anyone else would have been able to take out this piss ant?”
“No.” She shook her head. They hadn’t been drilled like she had.
“Exactly. You protected your people like a leader does. You did the shit work leaders do.”
“But I killed him.” Leaders didn’t do that. She blinked. Leaders ordered it done. Did that make her better or worse?
“You didn’t kill him.” Eddie wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “See, he’s still breathing.”
His body heat chased the cold from her marrow.
“And he’ll go on breathing until the coyotes get here.” After one last squeeze, Eddie walked over to Trent. Using her sharpened underwires, he slit the rabbits’ bellies. Their insides tumbled out and splatted on Trent’s stomach.
Audra covered her mouth. Good Lord, the smell was horrible. “What are you doing?”
Standing in the middle of the baseball diamond, a coyote sniffed the air. Another soon joined it. Then another.
Eddie milked the blood from the cuts and dribbled it over Trent. “Garnishing the main course.” He scooped out the heart and lungs and dropped them onto Trent’s groin. With the gutted carcasses swinging from his hands, Eddie strolled toward her. “Let’s go cook these up and leave the coyotes to their meal.”
“Eat?” She swallowed the vomit in her mouth.
“You think I’m going to waste this fancy bit of tail on him?”
It wasn’t right, letting the animals eat another human being. She glanced at Trent. Hatred blazed in his one good eye. She shivered and held onto Eddie. Then again, Trent would have done far worse to her if he could. She turned her back on him.
Trent Powers wouldn’t hurt anyone ever again.
From the corner of her eye, she watched the coyotes lope closer. She rested her head on Eddie’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Fifty
The bastards! Using his tongue, Trent shoved at the gag in his mouth. Did they think they could just leave him? He was Trent fucking Powers. As soon as he got the gag out of his mouth, he’d yell for Stuart.
Stuart would help him.
That loser didn’t like being under a woman’s heel. They were kindred spirits. And Trent would use him until he regained the use of his limbs again. That asshole who’d dumped guts on him would pay first.
Then that bitch, Audra.
A door slammed shut.
Fuck! Stuart must be done shitting his brains out. Trent rammed his tongue into the gag swelling in his mouth. Fabric looped around his tongue. When he tried to yank free, the material slipped deeper into his mouth. Son of a bitch!
The wind carried the scent of crap and the voices.
He picked out Stuart’s from the lot. What was the bitch and her lover telling him?
Sweat pricked his temples when he tried to raise his head. Dead grass met his eyes. Dammit! If he couldn’t see them, Stuart wouldn’t be able to see what those two had done to him.
Stuart had to see him!
Trent couldn’t end this way. He was too smart, too good looking, too talented. He dug the back of his skull into the embankment. Maybe he could pull himself up. Maybe then Stuart would see him.
Engines started.
What the fuck? Trent’s heart beat faster. This wasn’t happening to him. He worked harder but didn’t seem to go anywhere. His eyes burned and his vision twisted. Fine. He didn’t need Stuart. The man was pretty much useless anyway.
More people would come through this site. The soldiers had set it up as one of the points on their stupid evacuation routes. Someone would find him. And they would be worthy of his leadership.
Worthy of him.
Soft footfalls sounded near his head. Ah, so Stuart hadn’t left him after all.
A shadow stretched across his legs—sharp ears pointed above the head.
Trent blinked. No. He turned his head. A coyote sniffed the air then lowered its head. Golden eyes fixed on Trent then slipped to the steaming entrails on his stomach. He shook his head. No. Get away!
The gag stifled his commands.
The coyote closed the distance and dug into the pile. Pressure built on his groin.
He felt that. He was getting better. Now if he could just move his hand… He tilted to the side. Yes, he—
Another coyote had his hand in its mouth. Red blood streamed down his arm, spotting his sleeve and the ground.
His eyes bulged and terror ripped through him. A scream tore out of his throat as a third coyote chomped down on his other arm and snapped bone.
Chapter Fifty-One
Colorado
Mavis stood under the awning dug into the side of the mountain. Clean air scoured her lungs. People filed into the tents set up in the valley then snaked up the trails to the various mine shafts. The afternoon sunshine sparkled on the snow capping the jagged peaks. It was beautiful. It was damn cold.
David pressed a cup of coffee into her hands. “We made it.”
“Yes, we did.” Sunnie was over the worst of her sickness. Trent had been dealt with. Life was good. She inhaled the sweet aroma then took a sip. Bitterness exploded across her mouth. Lister must have brewed it. She scraped grounds off her tongue and watched more people register.
“Eddie Buchanan.” The young man in army fatigues set his gas mask on the table. “If it has a motor, I can fix it.”
Leiutenant Sally Rogers tapped in the information then fingerprinted him. “We can always use a good mechanic.”
“Audra Silvestre.” The slim woman next to Eddie offered when Sally turned to her. “Teacher.”
Sally beamed at her. “We definitely needs those as well. Now would you like to stay with your group or a small bump-out in the cave?”
Audra glanced at Eddie who nodded. “With our group. After everything we’ve been through, they’re family. And family sticks together.”
David blew on the steam dancing over his mug. “That group is the mother lode. A couple of teachers, a principal, a deputy, lots of kids, and, get this, a registered nurse.”
It was a good day. Really. Yet those who weren’t here nagged at Mavis. She’d made so many mistakes. She hoped sending Papa Rose, Brainiac and Falcon into the field wasn’t one of them. “Any word from our men?”
“Not yet. But they’ll wander in.”
Maybe. Background radiation was slowly increasing. Someone’s nuclear power plant had melted down. More would follow. People had days, maybe hours, to get here and hide underground.
Sally burst out of a tent, looked around and jogged up the t
rail to Mavis. A man in a blue Royal Air Force uniform chased after her.
“You’re not going to believe this, ma’am.” She shook a handful of dog tags at her. “It’s the British. They’re invading.”
The British airman behind her shook his head. “Not an invasion, mum. We had to draw lots for places underground and…”
And some people had lost.
She couldn’t imagine would it would be like to have only half a family saved.
“We figured we’d come here since we’re poor, tired and wretched. Fortunately, we didn’t huddle en masse upon your shore but landed safely at Durango airport.” He finished the reference in case she didn’t recognize the words etched onto to base of the Statue of Liberty. “There were Germans and Poles following our exhaust.”
“Register them, Lieutenant.” They couldn’t afford to turn anyone away. Mavis checked her tablet. Three thousand two-hundred twelve survivors. And they weren’t clear of the anthrax yet. She hugged the computer. It had to be enough.
“More will come.”
“I hope so.” Five thousand would be a nice number. Surely the human race would survive with that many people.
“I have something that will cheer you up.” David eased the computer from her hand. He flicked through apps then tapped on the screen. Spinning it around, he showed it to her.
Mavis peered at the smear on the desert floor. She zeroed in on the image. A head came into view then a torso. So did the murder of crows pecking at it. “A corpse?”
“It’s Trent’s.” David smiled. “Or what’s left of him. Given that he made it back to camp, the bastard hooked up with another group. They didn’t stand for his bullshit.”
She noted the lack of hands and feet. The dark trails leading away from the body. “Looks like coyotes got him.”
“Yup.” David caressed the picture. “I hope he didn’t give them indigestion.”
Black humor seemed a fitting tribute to the asshole. “I’m sure he did.”
“Is this our new home, Papa?” A small voice squeaked. “I’s afraid of the dark.”
“I’ll be here, Toby. Papa Rose will keep you safe.”
Papa Rose. Mavis whipped around at the sound. What are the odds of two men having the same nickname?
The bald man huffed into view. A preschooler perched on his shoulders.
“I’m not afraid of the dark.” A nine year old girl tossed her dreadlocks over her shoulder. She released a lanky African-American man’s hand and skipped after Papa Rose. “I’ll keep you safe.”
Falcon, too.
David leaned down and whispered into Mavis’s ear. “Told you.”
“I’m not afraid of the dark either.” The blond haired girl holding Falcon’s other hand looked up at him. Shadows clung to her pale eyes.
“Of course, not Jillie. You’re very brave.” Falcon ruffled her hair.
Mavis rose on tiptoe to peer around them. Where was the third man? Where was Brainiac.
Papa Rose paused. He dipped his hand in his pocket. Metal jingled then clunked against the table. “We bought you thirty more hours, ma’am.”
Mavis’s chest clenched. Dog tags. Brian Acreman. Ensign. US Navy. She raked them from the table. “He won’t be forgotten.”
Falcon scooped up the blond girl and held her close. “No, ma’am. He won’t.”
Without another word, they tromped up the hill and were swallowed by dark mine entrance.
“You shouldn’t blame yourself. They volunteered to go.”
“I wasn’t.” She didn’t know what that said about her. That she could cast aside lives so easily.
“So what were you thinking?”
“Something John F. Kennedy said.” It was corny but the words touched her like a live wire. “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us good or ill, we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure our survival.”
“We’re going to do more than survive, Doc.” David laced his fingers through hers and tugged her toward the mine’s entrance—a dark hope in the fight ahead. “We’re going to live and be happy.”
She sighed. “I think I like that quote better.”
Author’s Note
Should any of you refer to the information in this book about Palo Verde to plan nefarious activities, you should know that I’ve deliberately altered key bits and was vague on others. As a long time resident of Phoenix, I do not want to wake up with a Radiation Tan.
Ever.
The quote at the end by John F. Kennedy is deliberately changed to reflect the trials that occur in the story. The actual one reads:
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty. Inaugural address, January 20, 1961.
Thank you for purchasing a copy of Redaction: The Meltdown. Look for the sequel featuring our survivors in the caves of Colorado coming December 2012.
If you’re interested I have two scifi horror short stories available:
Intelligent Design: LifeNeeds Corporation’s Board of Directors are looking for the next big thing to meet the demands of an ever-changing market and fill their pockets. While the heads of LifeNeeds Research and Development departments scramble to survive in their cutthroat business, C’Bre Rah designs a marketing plan to die for. Will he save his project from budget cuts and make humanity the latest commodity hawked on the universal market? Intelligent design: Sometimes it’s better to make up your own purpose for being than to discover your creator’s true intent.
Kindle
Nook
2012: Winter Harvest: Out of the galactic equator comes a race intent on harvesting every last human on Earth. Now on the longest night one man and one woman will find the key to prevent the human race’s extinction.
Kindle
I’m also on twitter http://twitter.com/#!/LindaAndrews
And facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Author-Linda-Andrews
And have a blog: http://lindaandrews.wordpress.com/
About the Author:
Linda Andrews lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her husband, three children and a menagerie of domesticated animals. While she started writing a decade ago, she always used her stories to escape the redundancy of her day job as a scientist and never thought to actually combine her love of fiction and science. DOH! After that Homer Simpson moment, she allowed the two halves of her brain to talk to each other. The journeys she’s embarked on since then are dark, twisted and occasionally violent, but never predictable. If you’ve loved one of her most demented creations so far, she’d love to hear from you at lindaandrews at lindaandrews dot net
Contents
Title page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Ei
ght
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Author’s Note
About the Author:
Table of Contents
Title page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Redaction: The Meltdown Part II Page 43
