“Teenage Mutant ghosts,” Ryan said casually.
“Eerie,” Riley said.
They waited, listening to the raging storm. The pressure of the water was rocking the entire mall. The sound of rushing water underneath the breezeway mirrored a river. Trenton reappeared carrying a sports bag. He set it on the floor near Conman and Riley. He withdrew two bottles. One was a half of a bottle of Pendleton and the other a full bottle of cheap Vodka. Reaching in, he removed a medical kit.
“Score.” He handed the Pendleton to Conman. “For the pain.”
“Party.” Conman tried to sound enthusiastic.
Trenton handed the second bottle to Riley. “To sterilize the wound.”
“Good job.” She said. “Easy on the whiskey Conman.”
“Why, you want some?” Conman asked.
“It’ll thin your blood goofy.” She said. “Maybe we can push a freezer or something over and lay him down on it.” Riley searched the darkness.
“Come on! It’s Sears. I do believe they sell mattresses here." Conman said abruptly. "Trying to lay my ass on a freezer. I'm wounded doesn't anyone care?"
“We need to stay far from the windows. Last time I checked, a Honda Civic had made its way through one of the bigger ones.” Trenton said.
“There’s a decent place to lay him down over here,” Adam said gesturing towards the men’s department.
Riley stood up and slung Conman’s weapon over my shoulders. Ryan stepped forward to help me lift Conman to his feet, but Jack and Adam intervened.
They weaved through the store towards the men's section. There was a cleared off display table with several thick comforters on top. They helped Conman to the table. He took several glugs of whiskey before lying down. Trenton stood behind Riley with a flashlight on the wound. He held the Vodka bottle while she opened the medical kit and sifted through the instruments. There were tools still packed and sealed in plastic. Adam had found her a bucket to sit on, so she nestled in close to Conman's shoulder. She sat there for a minute analyzing the wound. She took the whiskey bottle and took a swig. The amber liquid slid down her throat like warm honey. She took another.
“Where did you find all of this stuff?” She asked Trenton.
He smiled shyly, “here and there.”
"Okay. Trenton when I have all this open flesh pulled back, I need you to pour some of the Vodka on it, all right?" Riley stared down at the pieces of flesh ripped away from Conman's shoulder. She gloved up and started fishing for pellets.
With the light, Riley could catch a glimpse of shot still stuck inside the muscle in his arm, so she went there first. Plucking out all the shot, she could see. Conman gritted his teeth but never jumped or cried out. Trained to be tough, they reflected the victors and fighters they had become. Riley kept wiping away the blood and pouring small amounts of Vodka on the wound. In return, the flow of blood was starting to decrease. She forgot about the storm roaring outside, and for a short while, they were quiet. Trenton kept close to her, watching.
“You guys see any tigers in the mall?” Jack asked breaking the silence.
“Domestic cats. No tigers.” Adam said. “Just those people. Wax people, that’s what she called them. We just call them assholes.”
“How many have you seen?” Jack asked.
“Hard to say. The sick cling to the dark side of town and prefer lower light. I think whatever the addicted are taking makes for sensitive eyes." Adam looked from Ryan to Jack. "You two brothers?"
“Yep," Ryan replied. "Big brother here is the boss, but I never listen to him."
Adam chuckled. “How many did you get out there?”
“A handful.”
“There’s more,” Adam said. “It’s not unusual to have exotic wildlife running around Sacramento. I saw a few giraffes a month or so back. Who saw the tiger?”
Riley waited for Jack to answer. Jack was an expert at saying little careful not to put people in danger.
“I saw the tiger.” She said softly.
“I saw it too,” Ryan said.
She was adjusting to the light Trenton was giving her. Deep inside the mall, a loud explosion sounded, shaking the foundation of the building one more time. It sent the cement walls and beams into a shaking motion. A fine powder fell from the ceiling and onto Conman. The flashlight in Trenton’s hands shook sending the beams of light bouncing. Riley froze waiting for the building to crumble.
“What was that?” Riley whispered.
“You need to get him stitched up Riley,” Jack said urgently.
Ryan was out to the front. No longer at ease but alert and ready to flee or fight. Adam joined him as well as Jack. She glanced down at her gun reassuring herself that it was near. A minute passed after the explosion and a loud crashing sound echoed from the front of the store. She recognized the sound, the sound of something lunging at the barrier. The tiger had smelled the blood and was on the hunt once more. He let out a cry that was enough to curl toes. He didn’t sound just hungry. He was pissed.
“Holy shit,” Adam whispered.
“Hurry up Riley.”
“I’m hurrying.” She said ignoring Conman, who was sweating a little more. His teeth clenched together from her plunging into his flesh stitch by stitch. Trenton was holding the light and at the same time gathering packing for the wound. She had only known him for over an hour, and already she liked the kid.
Riley tied off the last stitch and wiped away the blood. Using the Vodka to soak the wound, she took another slug of the whiskey and then handed it to Ryan. He took a glug and gave it to Jack. Team whiskey to the core. Night fell, the temperature dropped, and cold air was beginning to surge through open sections of the mall. The whiskey would keep them all warm. The buzz was the bonus. She helped Conman get into the new shirt and sweater Adam had gathered and grabbed a dark jacket off the rack of clothes not far from where she'd been.
The movement was slight. Riley saw the chocolate stripes of the giant cat crouched down behind a rack of big and tall. In the shadows, a paw lifted then swatted the air in a swiping motion. Riley, frozen, kept her eyes on the cat. Only the front part of his body was visible in the dim light. Unsure if what she was seeing was her imagination, she prayed someone would notice her stillness of fear. Teeth exposed under snarled lips followed by a hiss. Riley couldn't find her breath, and just as the air had filled with noise, it grew eerily quiet. There was nowhere to run. If the situation couldn't get any worse, it did. Trenton's flashlight went off, and darkness encased them leaving the team as perfect prey.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Jaden listened to the turbulence outside. Frantic that her mom may not hold up in the storm but instead look for her, she stewed with worry. If it weren't for the concussion she'd suffered, she'd be out there looking for her. Every time she stood up, she felt like she was on a roller coaster dropping off the tallest climb. She planned to ride out the storm while hoping her mom was in a safe place. Ellie was right. The city, large in comparison to one girl, and foul play had already tried to steal her away. Crossing in the forbidden territory had earned her a flat tire. Unfortunately, there had been no training for that. Even if she had tried to fix, they would have snagged her the minute her back turned. She had lost the car and all the items she’d gathered.
The tree overhead tapped the roof angrily. The wind pushed the branches closer and closer to the house. The limbs caught the roofing scraping across siding and eaves. The rain hadn't stopped for hours. The sound of the drumming water was constant as well as the thunder above. Ellie came into the room as if reading her thoughts. Ellie, worried about her boys, sat as they tried to comfort the other.
“Not home yet?” Jaden asked rolling over to her side slowly.
"No. I don't know why I worry. The boys can take care of themselves." Ellie said.
“My mom would say the same.”
“Where have you been keeping?” Ellie asked sitting down across from Jaden. The oversized stuffed chair placed near the bed for a
reason. For a mother who watched over her sick or wounded child.
“Ten miles out of El Dorado,” Jaden said. “Friends of mine. His parents were preppers.”
“Are you altogether then?” She asked.
“No. I don’t know what happened to them. My parent’s lived in town here. Kit’s was the safest place I knew to go.” Jaden replied softly. “My mom only goes as far as she needs to go to get our supplies. We haven’t been apart since the night of the Shift. I shouldn’t have gone without her.”
“Mmmm," Ellie said. "Us moms have this sense within us. We know if our children are safe or not."
Jaden smiled. "You mean you know if they are alive or dead." There was comfort in Ellie's words.
“What about you?” Jaden asked.
"I lost my husband to cancer almost a year before it all happened. He was a good man, an honorable man. I'm almost glad he passed before all of this." She sighed. "Trenton was at a birthday party down the street, and Adam was home with me. Someone knocked on the door. It was my neighbor Susan. Always a sweetheart to everyone around her. She was hurt pretty badly. At first, I thought someone was playing a cruel joke on me, but then she fell at my feet. She died right there."
“That’s awful," Jaden said. The vision of her dad on the grass below her window flashed in her mind. His broken voice calling for help.
"Adam tried calling 911, but the lines were busy. He pulled me in the door and drug Susan's body in. Then we went to the garage and got in the car. I was in shock but Adam, Adam he was in control. We drove down the street to find Trenton.”
She stopped for a minute letting the thunder and rounds of the lightning a chance to pass. The loudest made us both jump. "We got to the Hartfield's home. Adam and I knocked on the door several times, but no one answered. It was late, past midnight. Adam broke in. Trenton was hiding in a closet. He was the only one alive. It was like he had that drive deep down inside him to survive and he did."
Jaden heard the missing pieces in her story. Ellie was sparing her the gruesome details, but Jaden was a veteran where the shift was concerned, and the missing pieces quickly filled in.
“Adam grabbed Trenton. We drove to the cabin we used to take the boy’s too in Tahoe. Just last year we came back and found this house.”
“My dad died,” Jaden said. “Our neighbor killed him.”
Ellie shook her head. “We got complacent. Something so disastrous could never happen to us. We always figured it would be an attack on another country.”
“Not a full moon,” Jaden said. “Sounds more like a myth, urban legend of some sort.”
“No one even knows if it was the moon?”
The lights flickered in the house as the intensity of the storm picked up in strength. There was a faint rumble in the distance. Jaden could hear it, but she couldn't identify it. Neither one of them said anything. The lights flashed, and then total darkness arrived. The room became a black abyss. The wind forced heavier branches across the roof of the house with such pressure shingles lifted and ripped.
“I have a flashlight or two," Ellie said in a soothing tone.
Jaden listened. When Ellie turned on the flashlight, there was little comfort. "This isn't a typical storm,” Jaden said.
An explosion of thunder released overhead shaking the house rattling the windows. Arcs of white light cracked outside the window lighting up the room. Long fingers of electricity snaked downward.
“It’s getting worse,” Ellie said getting to her feet. “I think we better move downstairs.”
Jaden rolled onto her back trying to sit up. The floor spun in front of her but she willed it to stop and then nodded to Ellie. Glass shattered in the next to the room. A surge of wind rattled the door with a violent force. It felt as though the house was about to come apart.
“Come on. We need to hurry.” Ellie urged.
Jaden used Ellie as her crutch. They moved down the stairs and into the main bedroom. The house trembled, and the floor under their feet shook. Ellie hesitated.
“Time to go.” Ellie pulled Jaden with her towards the garage. She grabbed a set of keys stopping long enough to write in big letters, “SAFE” on the wall.
Ellie opened the passenger side of the SUV. Jaden tried to climb in. She grabbed the edge of the cab to steady herself.
“Get in Jaden.” She urged.
As small as Ellie was, she didn't lack in strength. She lifted Jaden up into the truck and then ran around to the other side. With only a flashlight guiding her, she climbed in.
“Crap.” She said putting the key in the ignition. “No electricity.”
“What’s wrong?” Jaden asked and then looked back. The garage door. “Lift it or ram it.”
Ellie got out pausing at the door. The sound in the garage was far louder than in the house. The sound of glass breaking glass and loud pops pushed Ellie to open the garage door manually. It was halfway up when the wind pushed her backward sending debris and water through the opening. She regained her footing getting the door up just enough to get the SUV out. She climbed back in soaking wet.
“You’d better buckle up.” She said. “This is going to be one helluva a ride.”
Jaden reached stiffly for her buckle fighting back the searing pain in her body. “Where are we going?” She asked.
“Somewhere safe,” Ellie said looking at the house as she backed out of the drive. “I hope we can get through.” The headlights shone on the front of the home just as the giant tree in the yard crashed down on the roof. The tree splinted slicing the house in half. There were no sparks or flames as the grids had all gone dead. In a final display of anger, lightning cracked overhead. There was an array of electrical fingers wrapping around the neighborhood making a nearby house glow.
“Whoa!” Jaden said. “That was close.”
Ellie steered the SUV down the street carefully weaving in and around debris and pools of water. They continued at a steady pace until they reached the highway. Jaden had no idea where they were going. The headlights were dim through the sheet of water, and the darkness gave no clues. Several other sets of lights moved slowly down the highway and out of sight until another few came in view.
At some point in the drive, Jaden thought she might get sick. The pain was so great that it was making her queasy. At some point and numb, Jaden fell asleep to the sound of water splashing under the tires, and the rain was hitting the windshield outside. The warmth of the truck had put her into a peaceful sleep.
Ellie pulled into the Arco Arena flashing her headlights in code that would allow her entry. She hoped Adam and Trenton would be inside but doubted it. Jaden was sleeping in the passenger's seat, the pain pills working their magic. She waited to peer through the pounding rain at the bay door waiting for it to rise. She flashed the lights again feeling a slight rush of panic. The doors slowly raised and the light from the inside filtered out into the stormy night lighting her path inward.
Several men dressed in army fatigues stopped Ellie short of the door bearing semi-automatic weapons. They directed her to roll down her window, and the older of the two men stepped forward. The rain and wind made its way past the cement barrier and into the cab of the SUV.
“What are you doing out so late Miss Ellie?” He yelled out as Ellie handed over her ID. Even though they knew her, ID’s were mandatory for safety purposes.
“Hey, Tom. A tree fell through our roof.” Ellie tried to yell back. “Wicked storm this one.”
“Who’s the girl?” He asked looking into the cab.
She leaned back so he could see Jaden. “Adam rescued her. She’s hurt.”
Tom motioned to another man and then guided her in. They stopped, a man opened the passenger side of the car. Tom helped Ellie get out. The door closed behind them shutting out the wind and rain. Ellie wiped the water from her face and looked over at Tom. He was the first one Ellie met when the boys brought her here.
"We'll have Jerry take her on over to the medical ward. They'll have to check her out."
Tom said. "park it when you're finished."
“I understand Tom,” Ellie said.
Tom handed her a towel, and she wiped the water from her face. "Is there a place I can wait until their done?"
Tom nodded and started to lead her through some double doors. “Would you like some coffee?”
“Please,” Ellie said. “Have you heard from the boys?”
"We lost all communications about an hour or so ago. Don't worry though. Those two can take care of themselves."
They entered a large dining area. The lights were on a lowered dim, and there was no one but the two of them around. Tom pulled a chair out for Ellie and went to the coffee pot pouring two steaming cups of coffee. He gathered cream and sugar and brought it to the table.
In the Shadow of the Tiger (The Fighter Series Book 2) Page 21
