Gateway to Chaos (Book 2): Seeking Refuge

by Payne, T. L.

  They’d just barely made it to the side of the building before the SUV came into view again. They huddled next to the building, staring up at the highway.

  “Are they turning this way?” Sheena panted.

  “They are just sitting there,” Lucy said.

  “Maybe they didn’t see us,” Alicia said.

  Brandon pointed over his shoulder.

  “I don’t think we should wait around to find out. Let’s head behind that building.”

  Antonio attempted to protest as Tom and Gage slid their arms around his back and began heading in that direction. His protest stopped when they heard the SUV heading down the alley toward them.

  “Run!” Lucy yelled as she passed them heading toward the large parking lot in front of the Academy Sports store. Raine looked up at the expansive white building as she followed Lucy. They ran through the store’s parking lot and around to the east side of the building.

  “There. We’ll have to jump the fence,” Brandon said. He held a hand out to Lucy and helped her over the short chain-link fence. The group took turns climbing over. As Raine threw her leg over the top, gunfire erupted behind them, startling her. Raine’s pant leg caught on the top of the inter-locking steel wire. She landed hard on the ground, her leg still stuck. She pulled and kicked trying to free her leg. Lucy ran back and grabbed her by the shoulders, yanking with all her might until Raine’s pant leg ripped free.

  An engine roared. The vehicle came into view.

  Raine scooted back on her butt behind a nearby bush. Her breath came in ragged gasps. Her lungs hurt as she breathed in the cold air. Lucy stood and held her hand out. Raine sucked in a tight breath. It took all the courage she had to take Lucy’s hand and move from her hiding spot. Raine watched over her shoulder as they ran to catch up with the others in front of another strip mall.

  The group ran to the end of that building and was just about to cross another parking lot when the sound of a second vehicle echoed between the buildings.

  “Go back! Go back!” Tom called, waving his hands wildly as he ran.

  “Are those the same guys?” Alicia asked.

  “That’s a truck,” Tom said.

  Tom scooped DeAndre up into his arms.

  “There’s more of them?” Sheena asked as she ran alongside him.

  “Let’s go. This way,” Gage said, waving them over.

  They ran behind another strip mall and then a bank before coming out on a side street. Gage started to turn right out of the parking lot.

  “No, Gage. That’s Manchester. They’ll see us,” Lucy said. “Go left.”

  Gage nodded and turned left down the side street. The rest followed him. After a few minutes, the sound of vehicles faded. They slowed to a walking pace, continuing on Howard George Drive and trying to work their way back to Route 141.

  “I think this may lead back toward the highway. At least it’s in the right direction, anyway,” Alicia said.

  After fifteen minutes of not hearing any engines, Raine thought maybe they’d be able to make it back to the highway and continue on to Alicia’s house. They had to stop at a sharp bend in the road to wait for Antonio, Sheena, and DeAndre to catch up. When she saw Antonio’s face contorted in pain, Raine knew that any hope they’d make it to Alicia’s before dark was a pipe dream.

  “We need to find a place to rest,” Raine said.

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. We really need to put distance between us and those vehicles,” Brandon said.

  Raine knew he was right, but how could they keep going? They needed those sleds. If they had them, maybe they stood a chance, but Antonio and DeAndre couldn’t keep running without them.

  “Let’s stop just for twenty minutes or so. While everyone rests up, I want to see if I can find something to make sleds out of,” Raine said.

  Brandon glanced at Antonio and nodded.

  “I’ll look too.”

  They continued walking until they came to the back of the Academy Sports store. Brandon ran ahead to one of the loading bay doors. He tugged on it, but it didn’t open. Raine and Lucy ran over to help him. Raine glanced down. Lucy held her pistol at her side. Brandon still had the pistol he’d taken from the dead man back at the glass repair shop. She clutched her pipe wrench tighter.

  They continued along the building trying every door, but they were all locked tight. They walked to the end of the building without finding any way in.

  “I don’t think we should go around front. We’d be too visible, and there’s no place to hide if those guys come back,” Brandon said.

  “There. Across the street,” Raine said, pointing to a slight opening in a loading bay door of a single-story, red brick building. With all its loading docks, it looked like some type of warehouse. The sign in front of it read, “Langsford Industries.”

  “What is this place?” Lucy asked as Brandon slid under the crack at the bottom of one of the bay doors.

  “Some type of warehouse, I think,” Raine said.

  A moment later, Brandon appeared at the service entrance to their left. Lucy followed Brandon inside as Raine ran back to tell the others.

  They gathered in a large, open warehouse filled with pallets of boxes, mailers, and rolls of plastic wrapping for some sort of packaging and mailing operation. In the main warehouse, pallets of goods sat waiting to go out.

  Raine read the label on one of the boxes. “This one is flea and tick meds for dogs,” Raine said.

  “Too bad it’s not food or water,” Alicia said. “I really could use a drink.”

  Brandon dropped the duffle on the floor, pulled a Gatorade from the bag, and handed it to Alicia.

  “It’s frozen,” she said as she took it.

  “We need to make a fire so we can thaw them,” Brandon said.

  “This place may have a breakroom with a gas stove. It’s worth looking,” Lucy said.

  “What makes you think a gas stove would work?” Tom asked.

  “My mom’s worked when the lights were out,” Lucy replied.

  “Let’s go see. We can check the rest of the building and see what we can find,” Brandon said.

  Alicia pulled a four-foot-tall bag of packing peanuts from a corner and sat on it like a giant beanbag chair. Tom smiled and grabbed another and placed it on its side.

  “Here, Antonio. Take a load off that leg.”

  “Sheena,” Gage said as he pulled a large sheet of packing foam from a shelf. “Wrap DeAndre up in this and then we’ll wrap him in plastic. It will help warm him up.”

  “That’s a great idea, Gage,” Alicia said. She jumped down and pulled a large roll of plastic wrap from a shelf.

  Raine looked back as she followed Brandon and Lucy toward the door to investigate the rest of the warehouse. Gage already had DeAndre wrapped up like a mummy, and Alicia was wrapping her own feet.

  Raine chuckled.

  Raine, Brandon, and Lucy found the breakroom on the far side of the building. There was a stove, but it was all electric. There was nothing but condiments in the refrigerator. It looked like someone had already cleaned the place out. Containers filled the sink and the trashcan. Raine doubted they’d find anything edible in the building, but they kept searching.

  At the front of the building were the administrative offices. Raine stared out the window while Lucy and Brandon riffled through desk drawers looking for the staff’s lunch or snack stash.

  “Score,” Lucy yelled and held up a half-eaten box of Girl Scout cookies.

  Raine scrunched up her face. “I bet those are pretty stale.”

  “I don’t care,” Lucy said as she stuffed a thin mint into her mouth. “They’re food.”

  Raine caught movement in the corner of her eye and turned. A man and woman were running from the back of Academy Sports. Gunfire cracked, and Raine jumped.

  “Get down,” Raine yelled.

  Brandon and Lucy both pulled their pistols from their waistbands and moved toward the window.

  “I didn’t he
ar their vehicles,” Lucy said as she pressed her back against the wall.

  “Me either,” Raine said.

  “How many of them are there?” Brandon asked, crouching then moving under the window.

  “I only saw a man and a woman, but they weren’t the shooter, though. I think they were running from them,” Raine said.

  Brandon peeked out the window.

  “Where did they go?”

  “I don’t know. They were running this way.”

  “Shit,” Brandon said and ran toward the door. “We have to get back to the others.”

  Alicia stood with a large pair of scissors held over her head in the direction of a man and woman.

  “We aren’t a threat. We don’t want any trouble,” the man Raine had seen outside was saying.

  The woman took a step back toward the bay door. “We’ll leave.”

  “Stop right there. Don’t move,” Brandon yelled with his pistol trained on the woman.

  “Really, we didn’t know anyone was in here. We were just trying to get away from the people shooting at us. We’ll go,” the man said, his hands raised, palms facing out.

  Brandon twitched the barrel of the pistol slightly. “Move it.”

  The woman returned to stand by the man.

  “Who’s out there? Who is doing the shooting? Do you know how many of them there are?” Raine asked. She wasn’t concerned with these two. She worried about the ones chasing them.

  The man looked at the woman and then back at Raine.

  “I’m not sure how many are out there right now, but there’s at least thirty or forty in their group. They’ve been running up and down Manchester today,” the man said. “Are they looking for you guys?”

  The color in Brandon’s face drained. Raine ran a hand across her forehead then down the length of her long hair. Thirty or forty? Did he say thirty or forty people? That was an army. Did they all have guns? How in the world were they going to get away from that many people?

  “Where did you come from?” Raine asked.

  “We’ve been hiding in the stockroom of the sports store. We needed water. We couldn’t wait any longer. When all the commotion started, we thought they were off looking for someone else so we could just slip away, but they must have a crew still inside the store because as soon as we stepped out, they spotted us."

  “We were just over there a little while ago. We tried all the doors. I didn’t see anyone hanging around out there.”

  “Must have just been our unlucky timing, then. I’m Scott, by the way,” he said, lowering his right hand.

  Brandon stiffened and motioned for the man to get his hand back into the air.

  “Lucy, you got them?” he asked.

  “Yep,” she said.

  Brandon handed his pistol to Raine. She gripped it tight and pointed it at the couple.

  Brandon walked cautiously up to the man.

  “I’m going to pat you down for weapons. If you move, those two lovely ladies are going to fill you full of holes. Got it?” Brandon said, reaching out and patting the man’s right coat pocket.

  After searching Scott, Brandon turned to the woman.

  “What’s your name?” Brandon asked her.

  “JJ.”

  “Where are you from, JJ?”

  JJ gritted her teeth as Brandon ran his hands down one leg and up her other. “I grew up down in St. Francois County near Marble Hills.”

  “What are you two doing here?” Lucy asked.

  “We brought a friend up to stay with her sister,” Scott said.

  “They don’t have any weapons,” Brandon said, backing away from them. “You can lower your hands, but no sudden moves.”

  “What’s up with this gang or whatever that’s chasing us?” Raine asked, lowering the pistol to her side.

  “From what we overheard, they were all strangers a week ago. It seems that they formed a group to protect all the merchandise in this area. Some lived nearby. Some were stranded here when the EMP knocked out their vehicles. Their numbers don’t seem to be growing, though. Their leader seems to be pretty strict and keeps them on a tight leash.”

  “Well, don’t they sound like a lovely group,” Lucy said.

  “How many running vehicles do they have?” Brandon asked.

  “Two. Maybe three. We haven’t been able to stick our heads out long enough to get a look at them. But from the engine noise, at least two,” Scott said.

  “Have a seat,” Raine said, pointing to one of their packing peanut chairs.

  Scott and JJ took off their backpacks and set them on the floor before lowering themselves onto the bag.

  “They don’t use the vehicles much. That's why we knew something was up today. Yesterday, we overheard two of them talking. They’d caught a man and woman in one of the stores and had taken them hostage. They said they were looking forward to watching their leader interrogate them. It sounded like they were doing it for sport,” JJ said.

  Raine swallowed hard. She’d overheard them say that they were supposed to bring them back to that woman. She shuddered at the thought of what they might do to her if they caught her.

  What would they do with little DeAndre? There could be sick pedophiles in that group. She wouldn’t let that happen to him. They’d have to find a way to escape this horrible place. Or fight. They had two pistols. She wasn’t sure how many bullets they had.

  “Do they all have guns?” Raine asked.

  “I don’t know. I imagine. All the ammo was gone from the sports store, but that could have been from other looters as well.”

  “I don’t think they are the only group trying to get a foothold in this part of town,” Scott said.

  “Have you seen others?” Lucy asked, moving closer, her pistol now at her side. She obviously wasn’t letting her guard down quite yet.

  “No, but we overheard them talking about another group. They’re down closer to Interstate 270. They could be working together. I don’t know,” Scott said.

  Silence fell over the room as everyone contemplated being trapped inside by two groups without food and only a few frozen bottles of water and Gatorade.

  Antonio’s stomach growled loud enough for everyone to hear. DeAndre laughed, then said, “I’m hungry, Momma.”

  Sheena reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a napkin. She opened it and handed DeAndre two crackers. DeAndre looked up at her with pleading eyes. “That’s all I got, baby.”

  JJ bent over and reached for her bag.

  Lucy raised her gun and shouted, “Stop. Don’t move.”

  “I’m sorry. I was just going to get the boy something to eat,” JJ said, raising her hands.

  “Brandon,” Lucy said, motioning to the backpack.

  Brandon kicked the pack out of JJ’s reach then bent down and opened it.

  “Wow, you’ve got some gear in here.”

  “We tried to scavenge as much as we could find. There isn’t much left. That group has been making daily trips to clean out the store. I’m not sure where they are taking it, but they must have a lot of room,” Scott said.

  “I bet it’s that group holed up in that grocery store by Baxter Road,” Raine said.

  “I can see why they’d want to protect that,” Antonio said.

  JJ nodded in the direction of her pack. “In that top pouch is a couple of energy bars for the boy.”

  “Did you see a camp stove inside the store?” Raine said, imagining all the camping and backpacking gear that would have been in there. All the things that would help them survive the cold.

  “Yeah. There was a pallet of them,” Scott said.

  Raine turned to Brandon.

  “We need to go in there. We need one or two of those stoves to thaw our drinks.”

  “We can’t risk that. You heard them. They have people watching that store,” Brandon said, pulling a Cliff bar from JJ’s pack and handing it to DeAndre.

  Raine’s mouth watered as she watched the boy open the wrapper and take a bite. She wa
s so hungry. She’d never experienced hunger pangs like that before.

  “We have stoves,” Scott said.

  Alicia jumped down from her beanbag chair and stepped toward the backpack. “Oh my God! Really! Can we use one? We have drinks, but they are frozen, and I am so damn thirsty.”

  “Sure. It’s there near the top,” Scott said.

  Brandon grabbed Scott’s pack and pulled out a package of wool socks. He held them up.

  “Are there any more of these left in there?”

  “Some. We each took two pairs,” Scott said.

  “What else is left in there?” Brandon asked.

  Lucy turned toward him. “I thought you said it was too dangerous?”

  “If there’s still stuff in there that can help us survive this cold, I think I should try to bring it out.”

  “You can’t go in alone,” Raine said.

  “I think it’s the least risky way. I can go in alone, grab some gear, and run back over here before I’m noticed. A group of us is more likely to get caught.”

  Lucy raised her pistol to her chest. “I should go with you. I can watch your back and fight if necessary.”

  Brandon appeared to think it over. “When is the best time of day to move around in there?”

  “At night. It is usually pretty quiet after dark. Except for yesterday. I’m not sure what was up, but they had a pretty protracted gun battle over at the electronics store across the street,” Scott said.

  “Between three and four a.m. may be the best time. They change shifts,” JJ said. “I heard them complaining that someone was late relieving them from guard duty about that time.”

  “Okay, Lucy. You come with me and stand guard as I search for supplies. We’ll head over there around three a.m.”

  Chapter 17

  Langsford Industries Warehouse

  Manchester, Missouri

  February 20th

  JJ set the small foldable backpacking stove on the concrete floor near the loading bay door. Raine used to have a stove similar to it. Raine knew that the three and a half ounce can of butane and propane mixed fuel should last awhile if they were only melting the frozen drinks.

  Brandon dropped the plastic bottles on the floor and banged them a few times to break up the ice. As he cut the bottoms off the bottles, JJ set a twenty-ounce stainless steel cooking cup on the burner. It didn’t take long for the frozen liquid to melt.