by Payne, T. L.
NO MAN’S LAND
Fall of Houston Series, Book Five
Copyright © 2021 by T. L. Payne
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Deranged Doctor Design
Edited by Melanie Underwood
Proofread by Kay Grey
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Check out other Books by T. L. Payne
The Days of Want Series
Turbulent
Hunted
Turmoil
Uprising
Upheaval
Mayhem
Defiance
Fall of Houston Series
No Way Out
No Other Choice
No Turning Back
No Surrender
No Man’s Land
The Gateway to Chaos Series
Seeking Safety
Seeking Refuge
Seeking Justice
Seeking Hope
Created with Vellum
For Dockery
Contents
Prologue
1. Will
2. Savanah
3. Stephens
4. Savanah
5. Will
6. Stephens
7. Will
8. Will
9. Will
10. Savanah
11. Will
12. Savanah
13. Savanah
14. Will
15. Isabella
16. Savanah
17. Will
18. Stephens
19. Will
20. Isabella
21. Will
22. Stephens
23. Isabella
24. Will
25. Stephens
26. Isabella
27. Stephens
28. Will
29. Stephens
30. Will
31. Stephens
32. Will
33. Isabella
34. Will
35. Stephens
36. Will
Sample Chapters
Also by T. L. Payne
About the Author
Prologue
Illinois Governor’s Mansion
Springfield, Illinois
Event + Five Months
Simone Perez held her badge up and batted her eyes at the guard as she approached the front of the historic red-brick mansion. The guard opened the gate and nodded for her to proceed to the next checkpoint. She could feel the soldier’s eyes on her as she passed him, and she walked toward the portico covering the front entrance to the massive structure. She was accustomed to this type of attention. She knew how and when to use her charms to gain what she wanted, but there hadn’t been much use for them lately. It seemed she had climbed as high up the career later as was possible—without replacing the general, and he wasn’t going anywhere.
General Walter Dempsey never left the mansion that was now his headquarters and home. He rarely had visitors these days. He’d grown paranoid after repeated attempts upon his life. It seemed the citizens of his newly formed government didn’t care much for his administration. Despite being fed and protected by the government, they resented being forced into labor camps and separated from their families. It was all necessary of course, but they didn’t see it that way. They had no idea what it was like out there in the rest of the country. Being assigned a job in the fields and factories, and working for their food, shelter, and protection, was such a small price to pay.
Perez thought they should have to see first hand what people outside the safe zone were having to do to survive. Despite the crackdowns on gatherings and organizing, groups had repeatedly attacked the capitol, and Homeland Security forces were on constant watch for plots against the governor’s mansion. Springfield and especially the area around the mansion had been off-limits to anyone but the military guarding Dempsey.
Perez stopped outside the door and checked her uniform. She buttoned her blouse to cover her cleavage. She didn’t need to use her charms on Dempsey. They’d known each other for years. He’d recruited her for the job at FEMA and encouraged her involvement with Gerald Aims, the director of Region Five’s Response and Recovery Division. Now Dempsey had summoned her for another mission.
Perez knocked and Dempsey’s aide opened the door. “Leave us,” Dempsey barked.
His aide nodded and left the room. Dempsey pointed to the chairs in front of his desk and Perez took a seat. She leaned back, crossed her long, lean legs, and folded her hands in her lap. She waited for him to look up from the folder he was holding.
Dempsey leaned forward in his chair, placed his hands on the large mahogany desk, then leaned back and brought his hands together, interlacing his fingers.
“Simone, I have a mission for you. I want you to infiltrate Latham’s government. I need intel. I’ve received word that they’re putting together a unit to spy on me.”
“I can do that,” she said. She nearly choked on the words. It was the very last thing she wanted to do. She had worked very hard to get the cushy job she now held. She had just finished decorating her new office, and her house on the edge of town was spacious and comfortable. Giving all that up to sleep on a cot in some filthy refugee shelter for weeks as she wedged her way into Latham’s inner circle had not been in her career plan. She reached up and ran a hand down the length of her ponytail. She had pulled her long, jet-black hair into a ponytail for her visit to Dempsey. He was a stickler for his staff looking sharp and professional. Why it mattered now, she didn’t understand. Who was there to impress? It wasn’t like foreign dignitaries or anyone else important called on them.
“I want to know everything you can learn about this new president and what his intentions are when it comes to Region Five,” Dempsey said.
“Do you really think they’re a threat to us?” Perez asked.
She’d been in on all the briefings about Texas and the fight to repel the Chinese. Latham’s success repelling the invasion had come as a shock to Dempsey. He had been misled by his communist handlers. They had oversold their capabilities—or they had underestimated the strength of the American military. Dempsey had never expected to have to defend his kingdom. Perez hadn’t been so naive. She’d been concerned when she’d learned of Dempsey’s alliance with the axis of evil that had attacked the country. She didn’t buy into his excuse that it was the only way to save lives, and she wasn’t convinced that the communist parties of China and Russia would leave them alone once they divided up their conquered territories. In fact, she was quite sure they would not, especially once they learned of the vast resources Dempsey had hoarded away.
“Threat?” Dempsey asked. He turned and looked out the expansive windows lining one wall of his office. “We are better armed and supplied. Our soldiers are capable of repelling any attack.”
Perez noted a “but” in his tone.
“I want to head off any trouble before it reaches our doorstep. I will not allow anything to stop our progress. We are nearing completion of the repairs on the power station. Soon we will have electricity to power factories and be on our way to rebuilding our nation.”
“Is the rumor true? Has Latham restored electricity to Texas?”
Dempsey huffed and leaned back in his chair. He glared at her.
“See, that is the sort of thing we need to
stop. We can’t have these rumors running rampant here. I have enough trouble with the folks in Peoria, Chicago and some of the other detention facilities. I don’t need them getting misinformation like that and becoming upset with our progress.”
“Who’s going with me?”
“Watts and his team. You’ll submit your reports to him and he’ll get them to me.”
Perez resisted protesting. She disliked Watts immensely. He had been a dirt bag before the EMP attack. Now he was an arrogant, misogynistic dirt bag. This assignment was going to suck so much. She wanted to hurry and get it over with.
“How long will I be down in Texas?”
“Until I find out everything I need to know about Latham and his plans.”
Perez stiffened. She knew she couldn’t refuse. She would just need to find a way to get the information quickly.
“What’s my cover story?” she asked.
He smiled. “You’ll come up with something. You’re a clever and resourceful girl.”
One
Will
Highway 10
Pulaski County, Arkansas
Event + Seven Months
The platoon had been marching since before dawn and it was past dinner time. Will Fontenot was more than ready to stop and make camp for the night. He was walking on point ahead of the group and as they approached Williams Junction, he noticed something odd at an abandoned convenience store at the intersection of Highway 9 and Highway 10.
Will knelt down and scrambled toward the ditch as he held a fist in the air to halt the platoon. Sergeant Talbot rushed forward and stopped beside him as everyone dropped low in the ditch closest to their side of the road
“What is it?” Talbot whispered.
“There—at the convenience store,” Will said.
Talbot retrieved a pair of binoculars from his rucksack and scanned the store. “Looks deserted to me,” he said.
“There’s a cigarette smoking on the sidewalk by the door. I figure they heard us coming and pitched it before running inside.”
“You’re right, private. Good eye,” Talbot said.
Talbot scanned the area again as the platoon leader, Lieutenant Brown, arrived and dropped down next to him.
“What do you have, Talbot?”
“Unknowns inside that store who probably saw us coming, sir.” He handed the binos to Brown. “On the sidewalk outside the door.”
“Shit fire,” Brown said. He handed the binos back to Talbot.
“Sir, I’d like to send two men around back—I want eyes on any rear exit. I can send two teams to the west side and to secure the side facing Highway 9.”
“Get ‘er done,” Brown nodded.
Everyone stayed where they were as Talbot sent eight soldiers on their way. Once they were in place, Talbot told Will to cross the road and watch the side door. After he was in place, Talbot called out. “You inside the store, this is the United States Army. Come outside and with your hands in the air.”
They waited for more than a minute, but no one exited the building. Talbot shouted the same instruction again and a second later a shot rang out on the opposite side of the store. Talbot watched as one team made entry into the store. Two minutes passed as Talbot waited for information from his soldiers.
“All clear!” one of the soldiers yelled as he walked out the front door of the store with his rifle pointed skyward.
Will, Talbot, and Brown approached and as they rounded the corner of the building, Private Ramirez was standing over a man in his early sixties. A few feet away, Private Rose picked up the man’s shotgun. “It’s empty,” she said.
“Crap!” Ramirez said, dropping his head and turning away from the body. “Why didn’t he just come out like he was told.”
“We’ll never know the answer to that question. You shot him before he could explain,” Rose said.
“He had a freaking weapon, Rose. What was I supposed to do, let him shoot someone and then ask if it was loaded?”
Rose threw her hands in the air and stepped back. Ramirez huffed and knelt beside him.
The rest of the soldiers exited the store by the same door as the dead man. One by one as they filed by, each of them stared down at the frail looking man. His clothes were clean and, except for a patch on his left knee, they were in good condition. Will scrutinized the man’s hands. His nails were clean and trimmed. Other than being thin, he didn’t appear to be near death like most people they ran across these days.
“Roll him over,” Lieutenant Brown said as he walked up to the old man’s body, and gestured for Rose to hand over the dead man’s shotgun.
As Rose handed Brown the weapon and knelt to roll the dead man onto his back, shots rang out from across the road. Everyone scattered, seeking cover, and began returning fire. Will dove to the ground and crawled around the corner of the building. Rounds dug chunks out of the side from the building peppering Will with tiny chunks of concrete. He rolled over, took up a good prone fighting position as he’d been taught, and began returning fire around the corner of the building.
Ramirez was pinned down; the dead man’s body his only shield. A round struck his boot and he cried out.
“Medic! Medic! I’m shot! I’m hit!” Ramirez yelled.
“We got you, Ramirez. We’ll get you out in a second,” Brown shouted.
“Cease fire, cease fire!” Talbot hollered.
The shooting stopped abruptly, and Will scanned an outcropping of rock across the road where he believed the rounds had come from. He saw no movement, but to the right of the largest boulders, sunlight reflected off shiny new brass littering the ground.
Will pointed. “Sergeant Talbot—there to my twelve o’clock, near the boulders.” Talbot, who’d taken cover behind an ice machine, scanned the area through the scope of his rifle.
“Bryan, O’Neil, across the highway.” He pointed. “Go check it out!”
Bryan and O’Neil took off across the road in front of the store as everyone else trained their rifles on the area where the boulders sat. They disappeared behind the boulders and a few minutes later, Bryan yelled, “All clear, Sergeant Talbot,” and began walking back to the convenience store.
“They unloaded a magazine on us and then booked it,” Bryan said as he approached Talbot. “Want us to pursue them?”
“Evans, Smith—go with Bryan and O’Neil and see if you can track them down,” Talbot said. “Squad leaders, let’s get these other buildings cleared around here so we don’t get shot at any more.”
Will and a few others began clearing the area north of the store. This was a rare encounter—they rarely ran into living people while out on patrol. They would see a few bodies in ditches or in homes they cleared near Robinson Maneuver Training Center in North Little Rock where Will and Isabella had been receiving their training. On the rare occasion they found survivors, they’d been instructed to escort them back to base for relocation to Texarkana. Most were eager to go. Some were not. Will assumed that the gentlemen lying dead on the ground and whoever had been doing the shooting were among the ones who didn’t want to be “rescued.”
Will and Corey approached a weathered old shed. Corey had been the only one from her family to make it to Texarkana after the Chinese overran their home south of Savanah’s homestead. She’d been on her way to alert the Sugar Cove Road community when it happened. When she had arrived back home, she learned her entire family had been killed in a firefight. Corey had hooked up with other refugees and made it to the shelter in Texarkana a week after Will and the others. She and Isabella had grown close during their training at Little Rock.
“I volunteered for the horse brigade. I’d rather be out here than stationed in Houston or Dallas pulling security,” Corey said as they consolidated ammo to ensure they both had equal amounts of ammo before they began clearing the building.
“Horse brigade? What type of missions could you do on horses?”
“I imagine what we’re doing now,” she said, as she approached the door of
the wooden building. She gestured to the door that stood open, and Will tapped her on the shoulder. Moving quickly, she passed through the doorway and to the right, followed by Will who turned left. They each swept their side of the shed until the trajectory of their rifles crossed in the center on the far side of the shed.
“Clear,” Will said.
“Where’s this horse unit going to be stationed?” Will asked, surprising himself for considering it.
“In Little Rock.”
“Have you spoken to Isabella about it?”
“Yeah. She’s interested, but she didn’t think you would be—not with Cayden being back in Texarkana.”
The military wasn’t allowing families to join soldiers on assignment outside of Houston, Dallas, and Austin. He and Isabella had discussed it. It seemed to be the only option for them to be with Cayden, Savanah, and the other civilian members of their group. Of course, Savanah wanted nothing to do with being relocated to any city. She was still talking about them finding an abandoned farm close to the shelter. Will hadn’t told her yet, but the military wouldn’t allow it. All civilians had to be within the safe zones.
Will wasn’t looking forward to going back to Houston either. He’d need to talk to Isabella. They needed to find a way to have a group meeting so they could all discuss their futures and get on the same page. If Savanah remained adamantly against the city, maybe the horse brigade would be his and Isabella’s best option. She’d love spending all that time with horses.
