The Changing Earth Series (Book 2): Without Land

by Hathaway, Sara F.

“These guys are contract fighters. They don’t screw up,” Sergeant Pontever assured him.

  “Mercenaries?” Sergeant Walker seemed surprised.

  “The best of the best,” Pontever said. “The landowners want this place cleared out quick.”

  Erika heard gunfire in the distance. It seemed the mercenaries were starting on their mission. A jeep came roaring back to their bus, and Private Foster came through the door.

  “Sir,” he saluted Sergeant Walker. Sergeant Walker returned the salute and they lowered their hands. “You can move up and start your sweeps. I don’t know what this ragtag group will accomplish, but have at it,” he said, rolling his eyes.

  “Thank you, Private.” Sergeant Walker glared at him disapprovingly.

  Penni leaned forward and whispered to Erika, “I thought we were rescuing people, not conquering them.”

  “I thought so too,” Erika admitted quietly.

  The bus began to move forward, and Sergeant Walker came by to unlock the rest of the teams’ cuffs. Everyone rubbed at his or her wrists when the metal was removed.

  “We are rescuing them,” Sergeant Walker said to Penni when he reached her. “Everything Erika told you about the lake and its instability is true. These people are currently landowners, which blocked us from removing them in the past, but now they are fighting for land that will not be there soon and that makes them refugees. They just don’t want to face reality.”

  “You mean, they don’t want to go to some camp to get loaned out to one of those farmers down there,” Penni countered. “I don’t blame them.”

  Greg glared at her for talking to the sergeant like that. He knew they had to maintain the fragile balance that existed or they might be stuck in that same camp forever.

  “Right,” Sergeant Walker admitted humbly. “Let’s go!”

  CHAPTER 26

  AS THEY FILED out the door rain began to fall. It swept over the town like a monsoon. The drops were so big and thick it instantly soaked them to the bone, but they welcomed it. They had lived so long in a parched foreign land that the natural shower invigorated their souls. Everyone, that is, except Penni and Nancy; they loved their sun and were instantly dampened by the changing weather.

  Erika doled out their assignments again as she watched each one of them exit the bus. “Vince, Rob and Star, you’re on food and garden supply salvage. Don’t forget Mathew wanted good dirt, so let’s get that truck filled up. I’ll send more people your way as we get the town cleared. Harold and Dexter, go join up with Team A to establish communications with headquarters and then start gutting this place of useable equipment. Greg and Mitchell, you are going into the buildings first to make sure they are still structurally safe to be in. Betsy and Penni, meet up with the medics from Team A to secure any injured folks for the ride home. Nancy, Roxy and Jen, you’re with me. We are looking for clothing and material we can take back with us.”

  “What about me?” Kim asked as she limped out of the bus.

  Erika had always felt very protective of Kim. After they had made it to Erika’s mom after the Great Quake, Kim and Jen had gone out horseback riding. A hungry mountain lion had mistaken them for lunch and attacked. Jen had fended off the lion with a stick and intimidation until Erika and Vince arrived on the scene and dispatched the animal. The crazed cat had done its damage, though. Kim’s leg had been ripped open like soft putty. She had fought through the fever and infection that came with the wound but carried a permanent limp from the experience.

  “Kim, you meet up with the cooks from Team A and help with the food.” Erika knew this would keep her occupied and safe.

  “Yes, ma’am,” she answered quietly.

  Erika could see she was bummed out, but she didn’t have time to worry about that now.

  Terrance was impressed by Erika’s ability to step into this leadership role. “All right, people, you have your assignments—now let’s get going.”

  Sergeants Walker and Pontever took the point with their guns drawn. The grubby houses had already been cleared, but they were still on the lookout for stragglers. As they entered the first building Erika felt a sensation that she feared very deeply from her past. The sound of thunder in the distance, but it wasn’t thunder. Then there was rumbling under her feet. They all stood frozen in place. In their minds they were instantly transported back to the Great Quake that they had so desperately escaped.

  Sergeant Walker saw all of them freeze and go white. “Come on people, just a little tremor. I told you this area was unstable.”

  Erika looked to her mom and saw her thin frame frozen in fear. She saw the same terrified look in Roxy’s and Jen’s eyes. The terror was preying on them. She mustered up all her courage so she could be strong for them. “Come on, we got a job to do!” She pushed on ahead through the building behind the sergeants.

  Greg and Mitchell followed and went to work checking each room and then clearing it for the next team. The first building they had entered was a merchant’s shop and home. The downstairs had been a hardware store and the upstairs was furnished with a kitchen and a bedroom. Erika noticed there was no TV in the sitting area. Nancy was already pilfering the place for useable tools for different trades around the camp and squealing with joy when she found something for her personal projects that she never thought she would be able to obtain. Roxy was enthralled with how soft the bedding was. She decided to take the comforter from the bed with her.

  The mercenaries had made quick work of clearing the town. The people were corralled into the movie hall that was at the other end of the town. Even the mayor, who had lived in a lavish mansion, looking out toward the lake, was now on his knees in front of Commander Burns. A sense of urgency was thick in the air as the rain continued to pour down. It was all hands on deck as they went through each building, getting what they had been sent for. On the left side of the road there was an alcohol-producing building that was immediately emptied for its precious equipment and products. Then there was a shoemaker’s residence that was also stripped of its valuables. After that were three buildings that had been used as quarters for the residents of this town. Right next to those was the movie house, which was hustling and bustling with commotion.

  Nancy, Roxy, Jen and Erika sorted through people’s belongings and took whatever was in good shape. On the right side of the road, after the hardware store, there was a blacksmith’s shop. The mercenaries had ransacked the house beyond that. It had housed the affluent families of the town. Then Erika’s group stuck gold! It was a building full of different types of materials for making clothing. Next to it was an eatery and little market that had a bakery as well. Team A was helping Vince at this building. As soon as they got what they could, Vince was headed upriver to check out the town’s garden sites and look for dirt and seeds. Erika watched him leave up the hill with a group of mercenaries. Their guns scanned the horizon.

  Nancy, Jen, Roxy and Erika were joined by a couple more people from Team A, as well as Greg and Mitchell. The fabrics found here were of outstanding quality and Nancy didn’t want to leave anything behind. Even Private Jacob Foster had been sent, against his will, to help.

  Erika and Greg were removing bolts of fabric from a stack. As they removed the last few, Erika saw a strange rectangular shape on the floor.

  “Hey, Greg, check this out,” Erika yelled to Greg who was carrying out a big roll of material. He put it down and came over to her.

  “Check what out?” Private Foster had been watching Erika closely.

  “I found a trap door, I think…sir.” Erika hated having to call him that.

  “Let me look at it.” Private Foster pushed Erika out of the way and bent down to open it.

  “Don’t you think we ought to tell someone about this…sir?” Erika knew most of the people here were unarmed, including herself, and God only knew what awaited them down there.

  “Recruit Moore,” he said in a demeaning tone, “I am more than capable of handling whatever is down there.” With a defiant a
ttitude he opened the lid.

  A wild-eyed man holding a gun stared back at Private Foster, who was still scrambling for his rifle after he had slung it to lift the wooden door.

  “I don’t think so, boy,” the man with the gun said. He had his total focus on Jacob.

  Erika saw her moment and without thought she reached down and grabbed Jacob’s side arm from its holster. She fired the gun, and the man’s brains splattered across the people that stood behind him.

  Private Foster quickly raised his rifle and declared, “Nobody move or you’re dead.”

  Erika’s feet slowly took her backward and her hand fell to her side. The gun slipped from her fingers and thumped on the floor. She had done it again. She had killed another. Her face was white and she felt nauseated. What had she killed him for, because he wanted freedom? He wanted to live free of a refugee camp. She felt like she was going to pass out.

  Greg saw her slumping and ran to catch her. “Way to go, quick draw McGraw!” he said jokingly as he cradled her in his arms. “Looks like we know who the killer is today!” Greg had never felt the remorse. He felt that if you had to kill to protect yourself, your family, or your friends then there was nothing to feel bad about. In a way he was right. This was a new world, and desperate things had to be done to survive.

  “What’s going on here, Private?” Sergeant Walker had been at the doorway where he could oversee both the gathering of supplies as well as the loading of the truck. He had begun to walk to the back of the building as soon as he heard a commotion between Private Foster and Recruit Moore. He had rounded the corner just in time to watch Erika grab Private Foster’s sidearm and shoot down into a hole they had found. He knew Erika had saved the young Private.

  “There’s people down here, Sergeant,” Private Foster replied shakily. “I …he…she,” he began to stammer.

  Sergeant Walker approached the hidden space with his weapon drawn and said, “Go secure that weapon, Private Foster.”

  “Yes, sir,” he replied. Rapidly descending the ladder, he grabbed the dead man’s gun.

  “Now check those people for more weapons,” Sergeant Walker ordered.

  “Yes, sir,” Private Foster replied, turning to yell at the group of people.

  “What happened here?” Commander Burns thundered as he entered the scene. Sergeant Pontever had retrieved him after the gunshot.

  “Sir,” Sergeant Walker replied, “Private Foster and Recruit Moore uncovered a mass of people hidden here, sir. One of them was armed and perceived as a threat. Recruit Moore feared for Private Foster’s life and dispatched the man with Private Foster’s sidearm, sir.”

  “Recruit Moore did this?” The commander questioned the story.

  Erika was back on her feet now, watching the drama unfold in front of her. She feared what the repercussions of her impulsive move would be.

  “Yes, sir,” Sergeant Walker said stiffly.

  “Why wasn’t I contacted when the trapdoor was found? Recruit Moore is just a supply recruit with no authority to engage with citizens without a direct command to do so.” Commander Burns seemed calm and clear.

  “Private Foster made the decision to breach the doorway without authorization. He was taken by surprise upon the breach. He was hasty and let his emotions get ahead of him, sir.” Sergeant Walker was right; the private acted too impulsively and went against all of his training.

  “I want your people out of here. We will clear the refugees in here, but we’re running out of time.” The Commander was urgent with his orders.

  As Erika exited the building the rain continued to soak her. Her feet stuck in the mud that was filling the street. She followed its path and saw it was from the side of the hill that held the mountain lake in place. The noise from the trucks roared in her ears. They were loaded to the brim and headed out for safety. A group of mercenaries came into the building to take care of the new refugees they had found.

  Betsy and Penni had helped to rescue everyone from the town that was sick or injured in the fighting. They loaded the individuals onto the trucks, and they had left town with these individuals an hour ago. Kim was also gone. She had left with the food crew to go to the next camp location and get ready to feed all the people who had helped with this effort. With the instability of the town, they were not setting up a kitchen here.

  Vince, Rob and Star had done their duty spectacularly. Rob and Star had filled a truck with dark, rich, fertile soil for the gardens back home. Vince had found their seed stocks and had some guys from Team A load another truck halfway to the top with sacks of them. It was worth more than gold nowadays.

  Harold and Dexter had helped with getting a quality connection to a base here in Colorado. The mystery began when they searched the town for communication supplies. There was nothing. The hookups where computers and phones had been were there. The lines were hot but all the gear was gone. It had all been cleared out long before they got there.

  Erika’s team members, who were still in town, gathered back at their bus. They were watching people filing out of the movie house and loading into transport vehicles when suddenly their knees responded to a quaking deep in the earth. Erika looked wild-eyed at her friends and family, and they met her stare with the same scared look.

  CHAPTER 27

  THEY RAN ONTO the bus. Sergeant Pontever was already at the wheel and ready to go. Sergeant Walker scrambled up the steps as Vince pulled the lever and shut the door. Pontever smashed on the gas pedal. Everyone on the bus ran past their seat to get a view of the action out the back window. There was a huge rumbling sound and then the mud came crashing down. Anyone that had been by a vehicle was in it and leaving town as fast as they could. Anyone stuck in a building was doomed. All there was left to do was pray. It was utter chaos as the vehicle sped down the road slipping and sliding, but Sergeant Pontever kept the bus in front of the mudflow. Then the water came. It went faster than the mud and slammed into the bus like a wrecking ball. The mountain had given. The only thing that saved them was the main flow of water had diverted off the west side of the hill, and they were leaving out the south side.

  When the dust had settled, their vehicle fared well. Its iron-cage armor had done its job and protected it from falling debris, but others had not been so lucky. The mercenaries had lost two men to the mud. Team A had gone back to try to rescue any survivors after the water receded. They had also lost two in the process of saving five more lives. Out of the three hundred people they had found in the town, only one hundred and three had made it out. The people had been the last thing to be packed and loaded. The supplies had been the priority. Erika found out that twenty of those people saved had been from the hole she uncovered. She was sickened by the news of how individuals had been left behind. She felt that they could have gotten all those people out.

  The whole ordeal had been a roller coaster of emotions that Erika had not experienced in a long time. If she had Daniel with her, she would have snatched that gun in the front of the bus off its hooks and taken her family to freedom, run away to some woodlands so far out in desolation that no one would ever find them. The truth was Erika had to wonder if those places even existed anymore. There was so much less land now. It was flooded or in drought or lost to sinkholes and quakes, or taken over by ocean. The frustration was burning a hole in her.

  “It’s okay, baby.” Vince saw she was deeply concerned about something and he had his own reservations about the experience they had just witnessed. “We made it. We accomplished our task. Let it go. We can’t go back. God had us right where he wanted us to be.”

  “That’s right.” Sergeant Walker overheard Vince’s comment. “You all did a fine job out there and our superiors will be very happy. I say it’s time for celebration!” He sounded so chipper and his voice boomed. Erika had never seen him like this before. She watched as he uncovered four bottles of alcohol that he had pilfered from the town.

  “Oh, hell yes!” Greg said. He jumped up and did a little dance to the front of
the bus. Sergeant Walker handed him one of the bottles and he opened another. They clicked their bottles together and Sergeant Walker said, “Cheers to you, sir, for doing your job and keeping your team safe.”

  Then the bottles were passed around. Alcohol consumption in the camp had been a risky treat. People made it and drank it but the penalty for getting caught with the uncontrolled “good stuff” was severe. The alcohol had a powerful effect on Erika and her team, and they talked and laughed, happily celebrating.

  Before long, they made it to the rendezvous camp that was on a farmer’s fallow field. Tents had been pitched and everyone joined in the fun, everyone except Commander Burns and the new refugees. The refugee transports were driving straight through the night to their respective refugee camps. Commander Burns was in attendance, but Erika noticed that he just sat alone in his tent. The lantern was burning and he sat humped over, staring at paperwork on the table.

  The endless rain definitely made the fire-making more difficult. In the end, everyone piled into the larger tents and connected them with tarps hung in the air. The heat of their bodies kept everyone warm and soon food was served. After a day of working so hard, they were ravenous. They devoured the rations like wild dogs and then continued drinking and telling stories.

  Erika had not had this much fun since she had lived at the Lotus Camp with her family after the Great Quake. She delighted in the relaxed feeling and the great stories. One story was told by a mercenary of how he and his family had survived the flooding of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They had formed a top for their rowboat and sat, crouched and cramped, waiting for the water. It hit like a million pounds of force, but they floated to the top like a bobber and rowed with the few other survivors to the safety of the Wisconsin coastline.

  “That’s nothing,” Dexter boasted, trying to sound impressive, “My mom made it out of Sacramento, California. She’s the lone survivor.” Dexter was drunk and had found a confidence he didn’t know he had.