Chapter 18 The Family Philips
Mercy swore. The NSA helicopter was feet away, in the library carpark. A soldier stood guard, a cigarette in his mouth. She scanned the rest of the carpark and saw nothing but abandoned cars and a dumpster at the far end.
A radio crackled, the guard raised a walkie talkie to his ear. He opened the helicopter door and climbed in. More voices, on the left, armed men appeared pushing three handcuffed prisoners across the tarmac. Mercy squinted at the prisoners’ faces and recognised two from Leo’s group. They were heading towards the helicopter. Mercy closed the window and dropped down to Tawny and Rose reporting what she had seen.
“Just our luck—” Rose said, “we hole up right under the NSA’s nose.”
“What do you want to do? What’s our objective here?” Tawny asked.
“What do you mean?” Rose said. “We gotta free those prisoners, that could easily have been you or me out there—”
Mercy felt her chances of seeing Flynn diminishing by the minute, she was so close, but Rose was right, they needed to try and free the prisoners. “We don’t know how many soldiers they have. We need to see and if the numbers stack up, yeah… let’s do some recon,” she said.
Rose nodded. “Let’s go.” She headed to the door.
Without warning a burst of automatic weapons fire came from outside, the window shattered above Mercy’s head, bullets thudded into the side of the building. An explosion went off nearby, screams pierced the air.
“Go, go, go—” Mercy shouted.
They piled out of the washroom and went back to the open window. Rose climbed out followed by Tawny. Mercy clambered through and watched as Rose and Tawny sidled along the wall towards the carpark at the rear of the library. Mercy followed, monitoring the left flank, she saw figures skulking behind the cars on the other side of the carpark. A loud sound erupted nearby and the cars exploded in flames.
Grenades, shit—
A NSA soldier rounded the corner, his clothes and face on fire. Rose stepped to one side and shot him twice, he crumpled to the ground the smell of his burning flesh heavy in the air. Rose stepped around the body, crept to the end of the wall and peered around it. She disappeared around the corner, Tawny followed her. Mercy heard a shot from above and looked up but saw nothing.
Sniper—
Mercy returned to the window and climbed through, she turned right and burst through the doors at the end of the corridor into a lobby, she swept the area with her rifle torch. A staircase lay on one side. She ran up two flights of stairs. On the second floor she went down a corridor and found a door marked: ROOF ACCESS.
She went through and climbed another flight of stairs to an open door and stepped out onto the roof. Screams and more shots came from the carpark, she crouched, running towards the commotion. Two uniformed NSA men, one with binoculars the other with a sniper rifle lay on the roof facing the carpark.
Mercy approached them and opened up with her AR-15. The two men died instantly. She looked behind her and seeing no other threat she crept to the roof edge and looked down into the carpark. The helicopter was on fire and belching smoke, a group of non-uniformed people were emerging from the opposite building. She saw Rose and Tawny leading the three prisoners away from the helicopter. The shooting had stopped.
Tawny stopped and stared up at the roof. “Good job Mercy. Come on down.”
Mercy frowned, she didn’t know who the other people were, but if they were fighting the NSA they were friends. She took the binoculars, the M40 sniper rifle and six grenades from the sniper team and returned to the carpark. As she climbed out the window a loud explosion shook the library. Dust and debris rained down, she fell to the ground her ears ringing.
Mercy lay dazed for a few seconds unable to move. A figure silhouetted against the burning helicopter walked towards her carrying a shotgun. The man crouched down and extended his hand. She looked up into his face, his eyes were a piercing blue. He had one of the most impressive beards she had ever seen, he smiled, revealing a mouth full of gold teeth.
“Welcome to the Family Philips, the name’s Seb, thanks for taking care of that sniper up there, they were killing our asses. Come on Mercy Dawes, it’s time to get you out of here before things really hot up.”
“Wait, how do you know my name?” Mercy said, pulling herself up.
“Brought a few of your people down to Russell Lake a short time ago. A guy called Leo and some others, he told us to keep an eye out for you. That chopper was hunting us with thermal cameras, we raided Shearwater Air Force Base a few days ago. Now that we’ve nailed the chopper we can return to our camp. It would’ve traced us back and with that minigun—”
“So they were hunting you, not us, we just got caught in the crossfire—” Mercy said.
“Look I’d love to chat with you longer, but we gotta leave, the area’s hot now, the tropes will wake up, so let’s go—”
Mercy picked up her AR-15 and gave the M40 sniper rifle to Seb. They made their way across the carpark and followed a track down to a lake shore. Three boats with outboard motors were partially hidden by low bushes. They walked along the shore, Mercy saw figures in the bushes. Seb called out and six men and a woman, all armed, stepped from cover.
“OK family, we need to haul ass, this’ll be trope central pretty soon. Let’s go, let’s do it,” Seb pointed at the boats and started pulling the nearest one towards the water.
Mercy stepped forwards to give him a hand and gasped when she saw Leo unconscious on the floor of the boat, Murphy lying at his side. Murphy looked up, saw Mercy and leaped out of the boat, his tail wagging.
“Keep that dog quiet, or I will,” Seb said through gritted teeth as he heaved the boat into the water.
“Don’t worry, I’ve not heard him bark so far,” Mercy replied, she looked across at the other boats and saw four of Leo’s kids helping out.
Minutes later they were cruising across the lake. Mercy leant over Leo and put her hand on his head, he did not respond. She looked at Seb her eyebrows raised.
“He ran into my people, they thought he was a trope. They hit him, sorry, he’s out cold. The others with him explained who they were and joined us. You gotta understand, we’ve lost a lot of people to tropes and the NSA—” Seb looked back at the library, receding in the distance. The flames from the burning helicopter lit up the sky. “But we did good back there, their supply of working choppers and aircraft ain’t limitless.”
Mercy pulled Murphy close and ruffled his ears, he nestled his head on her leg. Ten minutes later they were on the lake’s southern shore. Figures broke from the trees and helped to pull the boats into cover. Mercy watched as Leo was lifted and carried away by three of Seb’s people.
Mercy found Rose and Tawny near one of the other boats. “You guys OK?” she asked.
“Yeah, some show back there,” Tawny replied. “One of the prisoners we rescued was Philips family, the other two were Leo’s kids. It looked like the NSA were going to execute them. Rose popped two soldiers, I got the other—”
“OK, good, let’s just see where this goes. We’ve made contact with these people, not quite in the way we’d wanted but here we are. Keep your eyes and ears open, remember we don’t know these guys—” Mercy said.
Seb called them over. “OK, I need you to trust me. We’re gonna walk to our camp, its location is secret, you ain’t family, so I gotta ask you to put these on.” He handed them three blindfolds.
“You can’t be serious,” Rose said putting a hand on her Glock.
“Look Seb, we just helped you destroy a chopper, a sniper team and we helped free one of your people. I think that makes us family,” Mercy interjected.
Tawny looked at Seb. “I ain’t letting any man put a blindfold on me,” her voice was full of steel.
Seb gave them a look. “Right, you’ve got a point Mercy Dawes. I’ll make an exception, besides one of my lot remembers Leo from a while back, seems he came here looking for his family. The Colonel’
s got Leo’s brother and sister in his goddamn compound.”
“OK then, what are we waiting for? Let’s go,” Rose said.
They set off through the trees. Mercy was dimly aware of Seb’s people moving through the forest on either side. The smell of moss and damp soil filled her senses. Murphy stuck by her side, it was comforting to have him around. They crossed a series of roads and passed some large buildings and wasteland ending up at a fenced off area. Shapes loomed up beyond the fence, Mercy looked along it and saw a rusted sign: KEEP OUT, OIL TERMINAL PROPERTY.
Seb’s men walked along the fence until they came to a gate, keys were produced and the gate unlocked. They followed and were led towards the interior. It was only when they were beside the hulking shapes that Mercy realised they were oil tanks. Unease crept through her, she approached Seb.
“Surely the NSA have this place locked down?” Mercy asked.
Seb looked at her, “They did, but they used this stuff burning the tropes out of the city in the early days. It was kill or be killed, total war, they basically used all the oil on this site then abandoned it. They still got plenty of fuel over at Shearwater; one of the reasons we keep attacking the place. But here, it’s got that fence, keeps some of the tropes out and we’ve got steel tanks to hole up in. NSA haven’t thought to look for us here, least not yet. The other families got their own places but I reckon this is the most secure.”
Mercy nodded trying to understand the scale of the burning that must have used so much oil. “They must have burned whole city blocks down—”
“Yeah, the core is a wasteland now. But new tropes turn up every day from the outside; from Bedford, Fall River, Wellington, you name it. Think they smell the human stink from the Citadel, wherever there’s people there’s plenty of stink. Tropes seem to like holing up in the burnt out buildings in the core, they raid the Citadel when the wind carries the scent to them. They used to raid at night but in recent weeks they’ve been raiding by day too, keep hearing them heavy machine guns open up during the day. The NSA resupply the Citadel from all over, they got enough choppers and fuel at Shearwater.”
Mercy chewed her lip. “Yeah, but there’s always more tropes than bullets—”
Rose spat on the ground and echoed, “Damn right, bullets always run out in the end—”
They came to a cluster of older oil containers set away from the bigger, more modern looking tanks. Seb went up to the nearest rusting hulk and banged on its side. A grating sound came from within and a whole panel opened inwards.
“You made it Seb, we saw you coming. What’s it been? Three days?” a woman’s voice came from within.
“Hey Crimson, yeah, three days. Got some guests here, look after them for me. I’ve got to speak to Denton, debrief him on the mission.” Seb turned to Mercy, “This here’s Crimson, she’ll look after you and your people. My men have taken Leo to the infirmary to get him checked out so don’t worry, we’ll bring him here once he gets the all clear. You’re free to keep your weapons. OK?”
Mercy nodded, a wave of fatigue washed over her. All she wanted was some food and a few hours rest, they could figure it out after that, when Leo was back. “Yeah, Seb, thanks. Food and some shut eye would be welcome.”
Seb left them with Crimson who showed them to a row of camp beds. Candles provided enough light to find their bearings. Four others from Leo’s group filed in and were greeted by Crimson. She gave everyone blankets and a hot drink.
“I’ll put some oatmeal on for us, it’ll be ready in twenty minutes, there’s a screened off area over there if you want a wash. I’m afraid the facilities are basic as you can see, ask if you have any questions.” Crimson went over to a makeshift kitchen area and set about preparing the food. Mercy chose a camp bed and sat down staring at the floor. Murphy lay beside her and yawned.
Tawny came over. “What do you reckon?”
Mercy was silent. She raised a hand to her forehead, she could feel one of her headaches coming on. “Wherever there’s people there’s trouble. People politics, this place is no different, the Angels were no different. So Seb’s reporting to this Denton. Sounds like he’s the head honcho, he’s the one we’ve got to get on side. That’s where my money’s at. But right now I don’t give a damn, I just want to close my eyes and get some rest, so can you—”
“Got it—” Tawny replied standing up.
Mercy lay down on the bed, Flynn’s face was the last thing she saw before sleep took her.
Chapter 19 Denton
Mercy slept a dreamless sleep. She woke feeling hungry, she looked around, the previous day’s events returned to her. Tawny and Rose were asleep in the camp beds next to hers. She sat up, Murphy lay at the foot of her bed, his nose twitched and his eyes opened, he lifted his head and regarded her with a puzzled stare.
“Guess it’s just you and me boy,” Mercy said, yawning. She picked up her AR-15 and wandered over to the kitchen area. A large pot lay on the table, she looked inside and saw the remains of the cold oatmeal, a spoon and jar of honey lay nearby. She ate a few mouthfuls of the cold porridge, it tasted good with the honey. Murphy looked up at her with big eyes, riveted by the food. She put three large spoonfuls of porridge on the floor for him, he sniffed the food and lapped it up.
Mercy drank her fill from the jug of water on the table. She heard a noise near the door and turned to see Crimson walking towards her. Mercy put the jug down and took Crimson in; medium height, toned, athletic, long auburn hair, determined eyes, about twenty or twenty one. It was difficult to put ages on people now, they either looked young or old there was no middle ground.
“Didn’t want to wake you,” Crimson said.
“Yeah, just crashed out—” Mercy’s voice was flat.
“Nice dog you got there.”
Mercy looked at Murphy and pulled a face. “He’s sort of adopted me, can’t shake him off. He’s quiet, doesn’t bark, he’s wise, seen too many tropes, like all of us I guess.”
“Yeah, damn right.”
Crimson paused and leant against the table. Mercy allowed the silence to linger, she noticed her headache had gone. Crimson broke the silence, “So what’s your story? Why are you here?”
Mercy gave Crimson the broad brushstrokes of her fight for survival in Manhattan since the Fall, her abduction by the NSA and escape to Sable Island and the events at Porters Lake leading to their meeting with Seb.
Crimson listened without interrupting. When Mercy had finished Crimson took out a cigarette and lit it, she offered one to Mercy.
“No thanks, never got into smoking,” Mercy said.
“So the NSA experimented on you. What do you think they’ve done?” Crimson asked.
Mercy showed Crimson her abdominal scar. “They say they’ve put some biotech in there which makes me invisible to tropes, the plan was to bring me and the others back to Fort George for more tests. Then they wanted to send me out into the field against the newer tropes—”
Crimson let out a low whistle. “Yeah, they’ve got labs at Fort George. That’s some sick shit you’ve been through.” She looked at her cigarette. “So you want to raid the compound over at the Citadel? We tried that in the early days, lost some good people, they’ve got serious firepower over there. I doubt Denton will go for it, unless there’s something in it for him… I mean us.”
“Tell me about the set up here. Leo said there were a few families and some others on this side of the city, sort of a resistance—”
Crimson snorted. “Resistance? I wouldn’t call it a resistance, not like them down south. We’re more—”
“Wait, what do you mean like them down south?” Mercy asked, her voice tense.
Crimson blew out smoke and looked at Murphy. “Well we don’t know much but somewhere down in Texas, Galveston direction, there’s been radio signals, from time to time. There’s someone there called Constantine, they’ve got survivors. Working on a cure, they got scientists, like the Colonel except they say they represent the true government, or
what’s left of it. I don’t know who to trust anymore, there always seems to be someone else with more guns, a bigger stick, more firepower—”
“Constantine?” Mercy repeated remembering the radio signal she had intercepted at Montauk airport.
“Yeah, but that might as well as be on the moon for us up here,” Crimson said.
Mercy breathed in Crimson’s second hand smoke, it was comforting, it reminded her of the time before the Fall. “Tell me about the families, about Denton. What’s the deal up here?”
Crimson removed a flake of tobacco from her lip and looked at Mercy. “Well no doubt you’ll meet Denton later, you can make your own mind up about him. He’s a leader, a survivor, people follow him, he’s strong, blah, blah, blah.” Crimson lowered her voice and looked around before speaking, “But he’s got history you see, he’s got criminal roots, he’s ruthless. He even betrayed one of the other families to the NSA; gave the family bad intel, set them up so they lost a lot of people then he took their supplies, what was left.”
Mercy sighed, “I’ve seen it before.”
Crimson took a drag on her cigarette. “Yeah but the guy he double crossed was his own brother.”
Mercy looked up. “Shit,” she was getting the measure of the man. “So what’s his passion, beyond survival? What does he want most?”
“He wants to be top dog of course, he wants to take the Citadel and rule the roost. Isn’t that what all men want?” Crimson spat the words out.
“You don’t seem too fond of him yourself,” Mercy ventured.
“He keeps the wolves from the door,” Crimson whispered, her hand shaking.
“What about you? What’s your story?” Mercy asked.
Crimson snapped her head up. “I don’t have one, the only way to survive is to forget about the past, all we have is now, gotta live each moment like it’s your last.”
Yeah, I’ve lost people too— Mercy thought.
“Fair enough, got it,” Mercy said, dropping the subject. “So how many are here?”
The Survival Chronicles (Book 2): Angel of Mercy Page 16
