The Changing Earth Series (Book 2): Without Land

by Hathaway, Sara F.

  “Doug and his man, Steve, caught me and Greg in the supply area.” Vince wasn’t about to watch Erika go through this by herself anymore and spoke up. “They told me they had Erika and knew one of us was her husband. What could I do? We surrendered.” Vince was feeling the alcohol strongly as well. Usually he was a quiet, reserved guy but right now the words flowed easily. “They beat the living daylights out of us, bound us with zip ties and carried us to the room where Erika was supposedly captured. Little did they know, nobody takes down my little firecracker that easily, huh, babe?” Vince was so proud of her he hugged her tightly.

  Erika was lost in her own thoughts. For nine years they had never once discussed the specifics of that day. They knew all the ins and outs of one another, but Erika had never known it was because of her they surrendered. Vince had laid down his gun for her safety. He put his best friend in danger, and he had faced the brunt of Doug’s fury for her. Her mind was blown away by this new information, and she was a little embarrassed that she had never asked him about it before.

  “What did you do then, Erika?” Cole demanded, completely engrossed in the story.

  “I killed him!” Erika was a ball of spinning emotion. “I killed him and Steve would have killed me if it weren’t for Henry, and he’s gone because of me.”

  “And he died with honor!” Harold spoke up. He and Erika had this conversation many times in the past.

  Cole sat back in his chair. He wasn’t done with her yet, but he needed to process this new information. He was a man that had killed for a living. He knew the emotions that came with that burden. Some things had to be done, though. Especially when you’re protecting innocent people from a tyrant.

  “So you’ve been at the Las Vegas camp for nine years now, right?”

  “Yup,” Erika responded frankly. “Nine years of bliss!” she chuckled.

  “You were there during the riot, then,” he poked on.

  “Yup.” Erika already re-lived so many nightmares to night she wasn’t surprised this was his next question.

  “Were you part of the riot?”

  “Yes, sir, I even helped to organize it.”

  “Really?”

  “Yup and I spent months in that box, paying for it.”

  “Oh, I’m sure you did. The generals at the capital didn’t like hearing that news at all.’

  “Well, that was all a lot of years ago. Times are different now. This is the new world, and we are all just trying to find our place in it,” Erika retorted, trying to convince him that she was someone that could be trusted now and would never be involved in such activities if she had the same choice today.

  Cole moved on to asking easier questions: What training she had done before the quake and how she had come to know Vince? This lightened the whole mood and people began to smile again. The celebration continued long into the night.

  It grew late. Erika could hear the pitter patter of the rain on the tarp begin to slow. She watched as individuals started to slip away one by one to their own respective sleeping areas. Cole kept Erika engaged. He asked her all kinds of questions, trying to figure out her inner being. Why she did this and why she did that. Vince looked at her with sleepy eyes. He gave her a comforting hug and whispered in her ear that he was going to lie down. She assured him that she would be all right and he left for their tent.

  Cole could feel her tension level increase when Vince left, even though they were still discussing light topics. Cole knew Vince was her security blanket and now she was alone.

  He stayed on mediocre topics for a while. Erika answered his questions about each one of her team members and what their individual stories and skills were. They had another glass of alcohol, and Erika wished he would just grow tired of asking her questions so she could go snuggle up with Vince in bed. She knew this man was a higher-ranking officer, though, and she had no choice but to stay put and keep participating in his interrogation. She was not going to ride all the way home in chains.

  “Why have you stayed at the refugee camp for so many years? Some landowner must have offered a place for your family in all those years,” Cole continued to prod.

  “Honestly?” Erika could have just given him a partial truth about how her family was together and that was enough for her.

  “I wouldn’t expect anything else,” Cole answered.

  “Because I think this whole thing sucks!” Erika said bluntly.

  “How do you mean?” Cole couldn’t wait to hear this.

  “How do I mean? Are you freakin’ blind?” Erika snapped.

  Cole gave her a look to keep her in place. He didn’t want to rile her up again.

  “My kids have been neutered. My life has been stolen, directed, orchestrated by a government telling me it’s for my own good. The men who come to inspect us like cattle are despicable. Who thought this up? Why are people being treated like this? In America, the land of the free indeed.” Erika laughed but deep down she was afraid she had overstepped her bounds. Why was she always so honest? She should have just kept her mouth shut. She blamed it on the alcohol, but she knew she would have said it anyway.

  “You understand what happened to the country, don’t you?’ Cole asked her calmly.

  “Yeah. I get that and I wish to God it never would have happened, but come on. We could have made it as a people, as an American free people.” Erika countered.

  “You understand what happened to the world, don’t you?” Cole questioned again.

  “Yes, sir! I said, I get it!” Erika said, irritated. How could he just sit there all calm and collected, she wondered. “I just thought America was better than all this.”

  “The government took control for the good of the all the people, Erika,” He was still as cool as a cucumber.

  “Or so they keep telling me,” Erika rolled her eyes. He was just the same as the US Military men. She thought maybe because he was operating outside the formal system he would get it. It was just the same rhetoric, though: The government was taking care of the people, their actions were good for us, and we should just accept that quietly.

  “Can I go to bed now…sir?” She snapped the question at him. Erika was done with this and him.

  “Yes, ma’am, you may and thank you for answering my questions,” Cole said warmly.

  Erika felt his sincerity but was too irritated to respond kindly. “As if I had an option, sir.” She added the sir with a smile and left the tent.

  CHAPTER 30

  ERIKA FOUND VINCE cozy under a blanket. She laid down next to him and he wrapped the blanket and his arms around her.

  “Everything okay, babe?” Vince wondered, “That guy was relentless.”

  “Yeah, you know it’s a lot of stories I really enjoy reliving…” she reflected. “Hey, Vince…you never told me you surrendered because of me.”

  “You never asked,” Vince replied sheepishly. “It was a long time ago and I wasn’t going to lose you all over again. Live together or die together, remember?”

  Erika chuckled at him. “Oh yes…I remember.”

  Vince hoisted himself up on one arm. She turned to look into his beautiful eyes.

  “I love you, Erika,” he said, leaning down and kissing her on the neck.

  “I love you too, babe,” she retorted, responding to his gentle affection.

  She lifted her head to return his kiss. Then she turned her body around to face his. He felt the effects of the alcohol and his need to make love to her. He gently fondled her breast as he kissed her again. Then he reached down and undid the button on her camouflage pants as she slid them off. She rolled back over to put her pants onto the floor and Vince grabbed her butt firmly. He squeezed gently and then gave her a little slap.

  “Hey, you better watch it,” she said softly as she rolled back over to face him. “Let’s see what we have down here.”

  She pulled at the button on his pants until the material slid off the metal and then she slowly unzipped his pants. She felt his erect penis throbbing unde
r his underpants as she slid his pants down his legs. He could feel her breath tantalizing his desire. She gently blew her breath all the way up his body until she reached his neck. He chuckled softly at the tickling sensation. She kissed him, and he grabbed ahold of her by her butt and smashed her body into his. They made fierce, passionate love and lay together long into the early hours of the morning, desperately fighting back against the memory of the time they had almost lost one another.

  Finally Vince dozed off but Erika lay awake staring up at the tarp. She didn’t know why sleep evaded her again that night. It could have been the mixed feelings she had about the “rescue mission” they had completed that day. It could have been all the past that she had to relive with Cole. It could have been the endless curiosity about why he had asked her all those questions. Her brain was an unrelenting machine churning away at turbo speed.

  When she saw the daylight start to illuminate the tent, she decided to get up. She tucked the blankets in tightly around Vince. Outside, the rain had picked up again. It was so nice to smell the moisture thick in the air. She was used to life in Las Vegas now, where the drops rarely blessed them. Erika smiled when she thought of her night in the rain with Sergeant Bennett. He had been right; they were going to see a lot of rain in Colorado.

  In Las Vegas, while she was on the water line bucketing the precious water, Erika had wondered how Lake Mead could stay so full. She was aware that before the Great Quake the human population centers in the Southwestern United States had been sucking it dry. She just figured that with so little demand on it, the lake was naturally filling up again. After witnessing the lake spilling down the mountain yesterday and seeing the quantities of rain they were getting here, Erika couldn’t believe that Lake Mead wasn’t completely spilling over.

  She found a canvas chair on the edge of the camp and sat quietly, watching the clouds turn shades of radiant orange and pink as the sun began to peek up over the eastern mountain range. She soaked in the beauty of every tree and pine needle she could see. She inhaled the scent of the forest she had been denied for so long. As her eyes panned the horizon, Erika noticed that Commander Burns was already up too. He was packing up his things. His grand size dominated the tarped area as he moved about from one side to the other. He noticed her watching him and signaled for her to come over. Erika wanted so bad to just sit there in the silence and sort through her thoughts but this was an order from a commander, so she slowly slid from her resting place and went to stand stiffly in front of him.

  “Recruit Erika Moore, was it?” he asked as if he didn’t know.

  “Yes, sir,” she replied crisply.

  “You killed that civilian yesterday?”

  “Yes, sir.” She was just as crisp this time, without a moment of hesitation.

  Commander Burns rubbed his flattop haircut with his hands and sighed. He continued getting the tent in order so the gear could be loaded onto a vehicle. Erika just stood there, awkwardly waiting for him to say something.

  “Private Foster is going to be sent back to Kansas to do more training at the base there. Obviously his basic training didn’t stick. You made the right decision in this case, but you understand you were not authorized to be firing a weapon?” he said as he rolled up his sleeping pad and tied it tightly.

  “Yes, sir.” Erika didn’t know what else to say. She didn’t want her brashness to get her into trouble again.

  “Go get your crew loaded, Recruit Moore. I will discuss this issue with my superiors and let you know what will happen next,” Commander Burns said, looking at her sternly.

  “Yes, sir.” Erika turned and left. Her mind raced faster with this new motivator. She wondered: What would they do to her now? Should she have even saved that boy? How could she not?

  When she exited Commander Burn’s tent and looked around, the camp was in a very different state. The sun was much higher in the sky. The mercenaries were all packed and just about loaded. Sergeant Walker was already barking orders to the new recruits, directing them to get their gear loaded on the bus.

  Erika never saw Cole again. They were packed and gone by the time the last of the recruits’ supplies were loaded and Star and Kim were serving breakfast on the bus.

  She was finally back at Vince’s side, gazing out the window. She watched the beautiful mountainside roll by. Her body’s need to rest took over, and she fell asleep before they even reached the vibrant town they had passed on the way up the mountain.

  CHAPTER 31

  “ERIKA! ERIKA...ERIKA!” Vince’s voice echoed through the darkness.

  Erika slowly opened her eyes. Her head was foggy; she couldn’t tell if she was dreaming or not.

  “Erika!” Vince’s voice screamed to her.

  Her eyes flew open. She was looking through a glassless window to the bus. A cliff loomed below with raging water violently smashing the frail sides. She jerked her head up and a drop of blood splatted into her eye. She blinked vigorously as she turned and saw Vince hanging over the back of the seat reaching for her hand. Glancing to the front of the bus before grabbing Vince’s hand she saw Sergeant Walker pinned under the front seat. Sergeant Pontever was frantically trying to pull his body out.

  “Just grab my hand!” Vince shouted at her.

  Erika turned and reached out for him. He grasped her arm and with the force of a thousand men he had her over his shoulder and out of the bus before she could blink her blood-soaked eye.

  “What about Terrance?”

  “We got this, Erika,” Greg reassured her, “Penni, check out her head.”

  Penni ran over and she and Besty helped guide Erika away from the action. She saw Vince, Greg, Harold and Star headed toward the bus that was precariously teetering on the edge of the cliff.

  “Wait girls, I gotta go help,” Erika demanded, trying to break free of her friends’ grasps.

  “Erika.” Penni shook her for a moment. “You are bleeding and half out of it, so you really think you’re going to be of any help right now? Come on.”

  Erika could feel the seriousness of Penni’s request in her voice. She relaxed, allowing herself to be led to a place where they had stacked any supplies they could salvage from the bus. Erika sat down and fidgeted nervously.

  “They are gonna make it,” Penni gently told Erika. She sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than Erika.

  Penni had Erika lay back so she could irrigate the wound on the top of her head with some alcohol. It burned like hell but Erika just sat still.

  “It’s actually not that bad, just a bleeder, right here on your hairline. We can get a Band-Aid on that easy, peasy, lemon, squeezy,” Penni said cheerfully. It was her way of camouflaging the worry.

  Just as she finished applying the Band-Aid to Erika’s head, the two women heard Betsy yell, “They got him! Get ready!”

  A screaming Sergeant Walker, being carried by Sergeant Pontever, Vince and Greg came around the corner. The teens were fast on their heels. Everyone had pitched in for the rescue effort, and now it was time for Penni and Betsy to do their jobs. Erika quickly moved off the makeshift bed they had made as Sergeant Walker was plopped down in her place. Erika almost vomited when she saw his legs. The blood oozed out everywhere, and the top was similar to the texture of ground beef.

  Penni saw Erika start to lose it. “Just go,” Penni demanded. She didn’t need any further complications to this already impossible situation.

  Everyone migrated to the shade of a nearby Juniper pine. It didn’t provide much shade but it would have to do for now. Sergeant Pontever stayed behind with Terrance. Her face contorted into a desperate look of concern, and her brown ponytail blew in the wind. Penni and Betsy put her to work helping them. Sergeant Walker’s screams died down as Betsy stuck him with one of the precious vials of morphine they had available. He wouldn’t want to feel what was happening anyway.

  The guys and Star were still panting heavily from their recent adrenaline rush. Greg looked at Vince and they started laughing. �
�Holy shit, dude! I can’t believe we made it,” Greg chuckled with relief.

  “Seriously, that was some crazy shit!” Vince admitted.

  “Good job, guys,” Harold chimed in.

  Vince noticed Erika and came over to give her a big hug. “You doing alright, there?”

  “Yeah,” Erika admitted, still in shock from the chaos around her. “What happened?”

  “It was nuts, mom!” Dexter spoke up. “When we got up to the bridge the water was going right over it. Dad said we probably shouldn’t go but they tried it anyway. Just as we got across, woosh.” He violently flailed his arms in the air. “No more bridge!”

  “Yup and Team A was right behind us,” Kim spoke up as she came limping to Erika’s side. She was a full head taller than Erika now, and Erika marveled at how pretty she was. Her strawberry brown hair was feathered around her soft face and delicate nose.

  “Mitchell and I ran down the edge of the river to see if we could find the bus, but there’s no sign,” Rob, Kim’s brother, spoke up. He had been about nine when the first quake hit and he had grown as well. He now towered over Erika and he looked like his grandfather, Henry. He had the same lumberjack build and searching brown eyes. “Mitchell and Jen are still down there checking.”

  Erika’s mind was aflutter but she remembered Sergeant Bennett. His orders and directions rippled through her mind. “Okay, so other than Terrance our team is uninjured?”

  “Yeah, Terrance and you,” Vince added, softly touching her head.