“Thank you, sir,” Cadogan replied.
As Cadogan left Cain walked in.
“Bram, we have a problem,” Cain said.
“What is it now?”
“I need to see the files of everyone that’s arrived in the city over the past week that wasn’t brought in by a recruiter.”
“All of those records are in the administration building. What’s going on?”
“The woman and boy I brought with me from my recruitment trip told me of a man and his family that were on their way to Cincinnati.”
“So?
“I need access to those files.”
“Why?”
“Because they’re a threat to our cause.”
***
Paul pulled open the filing cabinet and thumbed through the folders inside. He pulled out one labeled “Mike Grant” and handed it to Cain.
“You cleared him yourself?” Bram asked.
“I did,” Paul answered.
“This profile is shit,” Cain said, thumbing through the pages of Mike’s file.
“I followed protocol in every are—”
“Where is his family?” Cain asked.
“The hotel on Seventh,” Paul answered.
Cain left without another word. Bram followed him out of the office, jogging to catch up with him.
“Tell your men to hold his family,” Cain said.
“I was told that Mike Grant was killed at the bridge. Holding his family won’t accomplish anything, Cain.”
“Not according to his profile.”
***
Sergeant Blake busted down the door to Mike and Anne’s room.
“They’re not here,” Blake said, through his radio.
“And the children’s room?” Bram asked.
“Empty.”
Bram slammed the radio on the ground. He knew that if the family was gone, then Mike was still alive, and if Mike was still alive, then Wyatt had got to him.
“Son of a bitch,” Bram said.
“We need to gather whatever resources we have and comb the city. According to the reports his wife was at her job yesterday, so the earliest they could have left was last night. Unless they managed to steal one of the vehicles, they can’t be far,” Cain said.
Bram gritted his teeth and shoved his finger into Cain’s chest.
“Find them. Now.”
Sergeant Blake exited the hotel and met Bram on the street.
“I want this city turned upside down. If they’re still here, then I want them found, understood?” Bram asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“And double the men at the factory. I don’t know how much Mike knew, but if he found out about the factory, that’s something Wyatt would have pried out of him.”
Blake ran off and Bram hopped back into his Jeep.
“Take me the factory,” Bram said.
***
Freddy’s legs were swinging off the edge of the seawall. His heels smacked the concrete. Kalen was sitting next to him. All of a sudden he gasped, making Kalen jump.
“Jesus. What was that?” Kalen asked.
“I left it,” Freddy said.
“Left what?”
“Kalen, we have to go back.”
He was grabbing her hand, pulling her toward the city.
“Freddy, go back for what?”
“I left the watch Dad gave me in our room.”
“It’s okay. Dad won’t care. Trust me.”
“I care!”
He started crying. He couldn’t believe he left it there. His dad trusted him enough to let him have it, and he’d taken such good care of it. He couldn’t lose it now.
“Freddy, we can’t go back,” Kalen said.
“Kalen, please.”
His hands were folded together, begging her to take him back.
“It won’t take long,” Freddy said.
“You know exactly where you left it?” Kalen asked.
“Yes,” he said, nodding emphatically.
“All right, we don’t have a lot of time though. Come on.”
***
They were almost to the factory. Mike had over one hundred men behind him. He did his best to keep them out of the paths of what traffic still existed in the city, but it was harder with the larger numbers.
The lieutenant joined Mike at the window of the building they were hiding behind. Mike nodded to the end of the street where the factory was located. There was a lot of activity going on, more so than when he located it earlier.
“There it is,” Mike said.
“Shit.”
“What?”
“I knew it’d be guarded, but I didn’t think they’d have that many men.”
“Your guys can’t handle it?”
“A lot of the men that Bram has were men I used to serve with. Even with everything they’ve done it’s not easy killing your brother. I was hoping we could avoid as much death as possible.”
“It’s impossible to avoid that these days.”
Mike held up his part of the bargain. He brought them to the location. Now it was time for the lieutenant to hold up his end of the deal.
“All right, I brought you to the factory. Now, you get me and my family out of here,” Mike said.
The lieutenant nodded and radioed the unit watching Mike’s family.
“We’re good here. Take the Grants and the others across the river.”
This was it. Mike was so close to getting out of here, getting his family somewhere safe.
“What?” the lieutenant asked. “Well, find them.”
“What’s going on?” Mike asked.
“Your kids ran off.”
***
Freddy and Kalen kept to the outskirts. Kalen didn’t want to turn deeper into the city until she absolutely had too.
They finally made it to the cross street where their hotel was located. She could see a few military vehicles sitting out front.
“They know we’re gone,” Kalen said.
She knew how much Freddy wanted to get that watch, but this was too risky. There was no way they were going to get inside that building. It was locked down.
“Freddy, we should go back. We can’t—”
Kalen turned around and he was gone. She panicked. She looked down the street and could see his figure sprinting down the sidewalk toward the hotel.
“Shit.”
He was fast for a kid, but she was gaining on him. She could feel the stitches on her forehead throbbing. It felt as though they were going to burst and blood would just pour out of her, but she pushed through it.
Freddy was fifty yards from the hotel, and Kalen was ten yards from Freddy. The soldiers had their backs to the both of them. Kalen reached out her hand and grabbed Freddy’s shoulder.
She yanked him into an alleyway, concealing them from the street. He squirmed, but she had a good grip on him.
“Are you crazy?” Kalen asked. “Those soldiers are there because of us. If they see you, you’re a goner.”
“I’m not leaving it behind.”
Freddy pushed Kalen off him. She recognized that stubborn look and realized he wasn’t going to give up.
“C’mon then,” Kalen said.
Kalen led Freddy down the alleyway of the building with the fire escape next to the hotel.
They climbed the metal stairs, as quickly as Freddy’s legs would let them, and when they made it to the top Kalen walked to the edge of the roof.
“We’ll have to jump for it,” Kalen said.
Freddy tiptoed to the edge and peeked over. His eyes were as wide as watermelons. She knew he wasn’t going to jump.
Freddy took a few steps back and when Kalen walked over to him he sprinted off.
“Freddy, no!”
Before she could grab him he leaped over the edge and barely landed on the other roof.
Kalen’s feet skidded to a stop right before she reached the edge herself.
“Jesus Christ! What were you thinking?”
“You said we had to jump. So I jumped.”
His answer was so innocent and matter-of-fact that she had to chuckle a little bit. She backed up and jumped over to join him.
Kalen tussled Freddy’s hair and shook her head.
“You’re one crazy kid.”
The two of them descended the stairs and found the window where their dad snuck in. Kalen poked her head through first to make sure the coast was clear then went back for Freddy.
Once they were in the room Freddy made a beeline for the table next to the bed and pulled the drawer open.
“Got it!”
“Okay, now let’s get the hell out of here. Mom’s probably losing her mind.”
When they made it back to the window to leave, the sirens went off. Kalen wasn’t sure which direction it was coming from, but when the gunfire echoed in the distance she was afraid that she and her brother missed their chance to get out of the city.
***
“Concentrate fire on the west side!” the lieutenant ordered.
The moment Mike heard that his kids disappeared he ran back toward the river, but the lieutenant stopped him.
“I have to get back to my family,” Mike said.
“I can’t let you go in the middle of this.”
“It’s not your decision.”
“You see that!”
The lieutenant pointed over to Bram’s forces who were gathering at the end of the road. Some of the vehicles were being mobilized.
“I need every available man to stop those bastards from getting to us. And you’re available.”
He shoved a rifle into Mike’s chest. Mike flipped the rifle around and aimed it right at the lieutenant’s head.
“You gonna shoot me, Mike?”
“That’s why the gun’s aimed at your head.”
“You’re not gonna shoot me. If you do that you’ll never see your family again. But they’ll see you, or what’s left of you after my soldiers pump you full of lead.”
Mike’s finger itched over the trigger. He wanted to pull it. He was sick and tired of the shit that he had to go through in order to be with his family. Maybe this was the only way out.
No.
He lowered the rifle and the weapon was taken from him. His hands were tied behind his back and he was shoved down onto the ground, hard.
“Now, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. You help us, and I make sure to get you back to your family as quick as possible. The sooner that building is rubble, the sooner you can find your kids.”
Mike knew what Anne would want him to do, so he just decided to go along. And he figured if he managed to take out some of the soldiers who would be looking to hurt his family, then that was a plus.
“I’ll need both my hands to help,” Mike said.
***
Bram spotted the rebels through the streets on his way to the factory. He radioed for soldiers immediately and almost crashed through the gate when he arrived.
Beth met him out front with a group of men and immediately started to mobilize against the rebels.
Bram made his way into the factory and met with the head engineer.
“Where are we at with completion?” Bram asked.
“We weren’t scheduled to load the missiles until tomorrow, sir.”
“Well, I want them loaded now! Do you understand me?”
“Sir, we don’t have anywhere to take them.”
Bram grabbed the engineer by the throat and slammed him against one of the piles of missiles. He was choking the life out of him, and the engineer clawed at his arm.
“Anywhere but here will do just fine.”
***
Joey had the radio close to his ear. He was waiting for any sign of action. Cain never assigned him a post. All he was told to do was scour the city and look for any signs of the people from Carrollton.
He wanted to find them more than his mother did. He was consumed by it. Ever since he killed Jung’s children he needed more.
When the radio call went out for soldiers to head to the hotel to gather the Grants, Joey followed them to the address given.
His short legs pumped as hard as they could against the pavement and his rifle was tucked tight under his shoulder.
It took him twenty minutes to make it to the hotel. The soldiers were already out front when he arrived. He recognized a few of them, but when he saw Bram he knew it was serious.
Cain had introduced him when they first arrived. Out of all the people Joey met, including Cain, Bram was the one who frightened him the most.
He couldn’t put his finger on exactly why. It was the combination of his expensive clothes, the massive apartment, the way he spoke. Bram embodied a way of life that Joey had never seen before. He didn’t like it.
Joey tucked himself in an alleyway two buildings down from the hotel. He was glancing north when he saw Freddy, running as fast as he could toward the hotel with his sister right behind him, and then they disappeared in an alleyway themselves.
Time to hunt.
***
The artillery from Bram’s forces blasted the buildings the rebels had scattered to for cover on their march toward the factory.
Dust, concrete, and rebar scattered the ground. Chunks of asphalt were sent flying into the air, landing on cars and smashing through windows, when the explosives hit.
Mike was covered in dust. He could barely keep the rifle in his hands. His fingers felt as if they were made of steel. He wasn’t even sure if he’d be able to pull the trigger.
“We need to get the hell out of here now!” Mike said.
The lieutenant was still by his side, barking orders to his men.
“We can’t turn back now,” the lieutenant replied.
“You told me you’ve never lost a man in your unit. We’re sitting ducks here. We need to get out.”
Mike could see the turmoil in the lieutenant’s eyes. He could tell the man wanted to pull out, but his orders overrode his instincts. They couldn’t retreat.
Mike crawled over to the front of the building. The military trucks were pushing forward down the street. It wouldn’t be long before they were right on top of them. He went back over to the lieutenant and grabbed his shoulder.
“Have one unit stay here to continue pressing fire. Tell the rest to retreat to the rear of their buildings and head up the streets behind us to the factory,” Mike said.
“Our building doesn’t have an exit. We checked,” the lieutenant answered.
Mike yanked one of the grenades off the lieutenant’s belt and put it in his hand.
“Make one,” Mike said.
***
Once the sirens went off Anne pulled Sam to the side. She begged the soldiers to go in and look for her children, but they wouldn’t budge.
“I have to find them, Sam,” Anne said.
“We don’t even know where they went,” Sam replied.
She had to do something. She couldn’t just sit there and wait, not with everything that was happening.
“Sam.”
“All right. Where do we start looking?” Sam asked.
***
Beth was right up front, leading the soldiers and vehicles down the street. Her rifle was up, firing into the group of rebels to the left.
She picked off as many as she could. That focus that fueled her was still burning slow, steady. It marched over her, stepping in unified rhythm.
Each time she pulled the trigger the burn intensified. With every bullet that flew from the rifle’s barrel the desire to kill grew.
The pieces of lead flew through the air, slicing the flesh of the rebels. In her head she pictured the faces of all the people she’d ever wanted to hurt. All of the individuals who belittled her, any who thought they were above her.
No Power: EMP Post Apocalyptic Fiction Thriller Super Boxset Page 150
