Two Wolves and a Sheep: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller (Minus America Book 4)

by EE Isherwood

  He shot at the biker three times, hitting with each one.

  “Four,” he said in an even tone, keeping track of his rounds fired. To Emily, he whispered, “Fire like hell. I’m getting out.”

  “What?” she replied.

  Despite the question, he trusted her absolutely to do as he asked. He kicked open the door, avoided stepping on the dead guy, aimed in the direction of the next target, and fired multiple times as he ran alongside the truck.

  He counted another six rounds.

  Emily banged out a steady flow of shots as he stayed low and hustled to the rear of the SUV. When he rounded the corner to get out of the men’s sight, he glanced back to see whether he’d hit anyone. Another guy flopped on the ground, out in the open, though he couldn’t say if it had been him or Emily who’d brought him down.

  “At least three down,” he said, desperate to control his runaway heartrate and the pounding of blood through his eardrums.

  The first return shot came in. Emily yelped as the sound of a metal plink tore into the truck somewhere up front.

  He raised the liftgate. “You okay?” he asked her through the compartment.

  She was low in the front seat. “I’m good. I’m getting out.”

  He whispered, “Shoot from underneath.”

  The next few seconds belonged to the bad guys. Both he and Emily were repositioning, giving the bikers a chance to get into the fight. He hated to do it, but he only had five shots left in his semi-automatic pistol and there was at least four men left to shoot. Those were terrible odds.

  Emily had made a good decision abandoning the interior of the truck. Once the element of surprise was lost, she’d gotten out of there before everyone shot through the window.

  Bullets hit the truck in several places. The men screamed orders to each other. All the while, he calmly reached in and pulled out a Benelli M4 shotgun from his stash of stolen firearms. Up until this moment, Ted hadn’t needed a close-combat gun, but he was glad he’d taken it. Thanks to Meechum, it was already loaded with five rounds of buckshot, with an extra already in the chamber.

  He waited until he thought Emily was in position, which took three or four seconds. His heart was about to burst from his chest. The familiar sensation of tunnel vision crept up on him. It was deadly business he was about to do.

  Ted leaned around the back of the truck.

  One of the shooters already had him lined up from a kneeling position behind the frame of his motorbike. They fired at the same time.

  The thump of the heavy combat shotgun kicked against his shoulder, and probably blew out his overtaxed eardrums, but the man took grape shot in the face and chest. His bike seat exploded, too, sending white stuffing into the air.

  He lined up the next man, but he fell almost as he watched. Emily had taken her shot from under the truck. It caught the man in the knee, causing him to collapse onto the gravel. She dealt a few kills shots once his side was exposed.

  There were two men left, both toward the back of the line of bikes.

  Ted fired all five of his remaining cartridges, peppering them over and over with buckshot. His intention was to put the fear of god into them as he abandoned the shotgun and switched again to an AR.

  Emily never let up on her rifle, either. He wished he could tell her to shoot and scoot, but there wasn’t time, plus if they didn’t know already, he didn’t want to give the bikers a clue as to where she was.

  “I’m out!” she screamed.

  He would have to teach her not to give such tactical details away, too.

  Ted didn’t need much time. He pulled out the rifle, primed the first round, and aimed it at the men. At the same time, one of the guys had popped up.

  “I surr—”

  Ted shot him out of instinct, directly through his throat.

  “Oh, shit,” he blurted.

  The guy stood there for two seconds, then fell over backward.

  There wasn’t a sound on the parking lot, save for the wind.

  He retreated behind the truck, pulled out one of the extra ARs, and went over to Emily. She’d hunkered down behind the rear tire, which was smart. “Here. Cover me.”

  “Where are you going?” she asked with surprise.

  “I thought there were two left. I have to make sure they’re all dead.” He assumed he’d hit the second-to-last guy when he unleashed the volley of shotgun shells.

  She nodded grimly. “Be careful.”

  He kept his rifle trained on the chaotic pile of bodies and bikes, but he didn’t leave the safety of the corner of the truck. None of the men moved, suggesting they were all dead. It was a tribute to how close they’d all been in the battle. A hit at point-blank was a death sentence.

  Ted was thinking how lucky they’d been until he noticed the nearest man, the guy who’d come up to the truck in the first place, looking at him with living eyes. He was unarmed and reached out with one hand, as if he was trying to talk.

  “What?” Ted asked, still shielding himself with the truck’s back corner.

  “Our map blew away in the wind. We only wanted to know how to get back to base from here. Why…”

  The man expired mid-sentence.

  Ted leaned against the truck, battle tension draining out.

  The battle for Nowheresville, Colorado, was over.

  NORAD Black Site Sierra 7, CO

  When the elevator opened, Tabby expected a fight. She was ready for it. Almost savored it. Anything to feel like she was in charge of her own fate, no matter how futile. However, she was instead met with absolute blackness.

  “What the?”

  A second later, ceiling lights flickered on, as if they were triggered by motion. It revealed a long, thin chamber made of bare metal paneling that wasn’t much wider than a one-car garage. It smelled like an oil-change business, as if lots of machinery was working in the background.

  She slowly walked out, wary of an ambush.

  The space was barely long enough to fit four elevators along the same wall. Those closest to her were labeled Transfer 1. The others were labeled Transfer 2. There was also a large diagram between the two sets, as well as computer equipment inset in the same wall.

  “This keeps going down,” she said to herself, pointing to the map illustrating how the elevator system worked. There were four more landings between her and the bottom of the ten-mile pit David was so proud of showing off.

  She briefly thought about staying on the platform where she was. There were no guards, of course, and it was off the beaten path if the motion-activated lights were any indication. But Tabby didn’t want to sit in a dark room with nothing else in it. Plus, there was nowhere to hide if an elevator car did show up.

  She pushed the button next to Transfer 2 to go to the next station. The door opened, revealing a car identical to the last one. On the ride, she built up her righteous anger, again ready to fight anyone when the doors opened. However, the new transfer station was the same empty box as before.

  “This is going to get old real quick…”

  She’d entered a loop. Each time she got in the elevator, it took about ten minutes to reach the bottom of the segment. She exited, saw the same thing, and wondered if the sensation of motion was designed to throw her off. If the feeling persisted, she was going to drop crumbs on the floor, like the nursery rhyme.

  “No, I’m moving,” she whispered, looking at the map on the wall of the new station. A little ‘You Are Here’ star showed her in the next lowest landing from the one she’d left. Eventually, after entering the car for Transfer 6, she knew the final stop was coming. When those doors opened, she was absolutely convinced the fight she’d been seeking was about to take place.

  The elevator car rattled and came to a stop. After a pause, the doors slid open with a squeal. She was hit in the face with warm, humid air, which smelled a little like the woods after a rain. Compared to the sterile environment of the ride down, it seemed as if she’d gone back outside.

  The lights w
ere already on. A rounded rock-carved tunnel went left and right. Going right would take her by the second elevator, so she chose to go that way.

  Tabby followed the curvature for a few yards before a long set of windows appeared on the left. No one was around, so she took a peek, interested at what could be inside a window ten miles underground.

  “Ah ha,” she said, recognizing the deep circular pit containing the superweapon.

  A voice caught her by surprise. “David, is that you?”

  An older man came around the corner, eating from a soup can. When he saw her, he froze. “Who are you? No one is supposed to be down here.”

  “David sent me,” she fibbed.

  “Why?” he asked, eying her attire.

  “Um, because I’m doing a safety inspection tour for him.” She winced at how lame it sounded, but she went with what she knew. Every so often, the city of Bonne Terre would send down an inspector to check out her parents’ mine. They claimed it was to check on safety issues and ensure the tourists weren’t exposed to dangerous materials, but Dad always claimed it was the city’s way of shaking them down for a few bucks.

  “Why are you dressed like a homesteader?” The man was in his fifties or sixties, she guessed, though he had perfectly black hair in a professional cut. His face looked extremely familiar to her, though she couldn’t place him. He was tall and stood up straight, despite his age. While he’d been surprised, at first, he’d quickly recovered. He spooned out more of his canned food after asking his question.

  “Inspecting is what I did before I joined David’s troupe.” She hesitated, not sure if troupe was insulting or not. She had to remember to be impressed by David and his outfit, not disgusted by it. “I worked for a small town in Missouri.”

  “The Show-Me State, huh? Are you going to show me your credentials? I don’t see where you could put them in an outfit like yours.”

  She blushed. The guy wasn’t creeping on her, but she would never get used to being dressed as she was.

  He kept speaking. “I didn’t mean anything bad. I’ll show you around if you want. No ID required. It gets lonely down here. I’m President Kirby Tanager, by the way, though I’m certain you knew that.”

  Tabby gulped, suddenly recognizing him from the news. Despite encountering him at the bottom of a ten-mile deep destructive weapon, she went into fangirl mode at meeting someone who was legit famous.

  “Oh, sure. I knew it. I’m Tabitha Breeze. Pleased to meet you.”

  CHAPTER 20

  Eastern Colorado

  Ted stood there in disbelief at what they’d done. Wind buffeted against his face and chest, but he barely noticed it. The choice to attack was the right one at the time, but something in the dying man’s plea about being lost hit him in the gut. Looking at them closer, they weren’t much older than kids.

  Emily reloaded her rifle while standing at the open liftgate. “We should move them, don’t you think?”

  He reoriented on her, glad to look away from the corpses. “Yeah, but let’s hurry. If they have tracking on their bikes, like Kyla suggested, it won’t be long before they figure out the group isn’t moving. They’ll likely send someone to check it out. When they find them…”

  She caught on. “They’ll suspect it was the same famous couple from Fort Collins.”

  He touched his nose. “You got it.”

  It took them less than ten minutes to move the bodies and bikes behind the nearest house. It was ugly business, especially the bodies, though the blood-covered bikes weren’t any fun, either.

  Once in the SUV and on the road, he looked back at the lonely town, drawing in a breath of the fresh, hay-scented air. “We got lucky back there. My gun jammed at the worst time.”

  “Ain’t that always the case? It’s why Special Agent Melvin Jones, my instructor, always recommended I carry a revolver. Less chance for errors.”

  He nodded appreciatively. “Yeah, well, your revolver is in the back, actually. I don’t carry it because it only has six rounds. The pistols we took from the gun collector hold fifteen. I wanted quantity, you know?”

  She patted the same model pistol she kept holstered at her side. “I like the numbers, too, but after what I saw, I might trade this in for my old reliable.”

  He looked ahead, out to the horizon. Once again, it was flat and devoid of all signs of humanity, save for the road. It gave him a chance to think back on the ambush. The feeling of having done wrong faded with each mile. He knew they were in enemy territory and it was either them or him. The smart play was killing them without a fancy declaration of war. Grim, brutal business.

  While moving the dead, they’d talked about ditching the distinctive silver SUV. He’d already proven it was possible to ride the motorbikes into enemy-held strongholds, which might come in handy at NORAD, but they still had a long way to go. Riding bikes in the strong winds would be dangerous and keep them from going as fast as he could go in the truck. Finally, if they traded down to the cycles, they wouldn’t be able to carry all the food and firepower now bouncing around in the back. They’d already spent enough time in Nowheresville; he didn’t want to risk searching for other cars and trucks to steal.

  Ted studied the rearview mirror for a moment. Wind whistled through the bullet hole in the long side window behind them. The bullet had been meant for his head…

  He tried to refocus on what they needed to do. “You reloaded everything?”

  “Shotgun, my AR-15, and yours. I didn’t get your pistol.”

  “I did mine,” he replied. “I wanted to check if there were any defects in the mag. To my eye, it looked fine. I hope it was a one-time deal, but now you’ve got me rethinking which pistol I want to use, too.”

  “Take whatever you need, including my personal one. You’re the front-line guy. I’m simply the backup.”

  He laughed at her lack of politician’s ego. “You were the one who saved both of us back there. If you wouldn’t have fired, the man would have gotten his gun out faster, and it would have gone a whole lot different.” The realization made him feel even better about his choices.

  Ted continued, settling more comfortably into his seat. “Looking ahead, we’re going to travel south some more. We’re so far east of NORAD, I don’t think they’d ever suspect where we’re going, even if they do tie those dead men to us. Once we get a few more miles behind us, we’ll head west again. Then we’ll be in a favorable position to sneak up on our target.”

  The wind sheared against the right side of the truck, almost suggesting his target to the west was pushing back against his plans. Ted tried to ignore those thoughts, though he constantly returned to the reason he’d left Kyla behind. They were already hip-deep in killing and destruction, and they hadn’t even reached the enemy headquarters. When they got there and did what he intended to do, it was becoming clear their chances of escape were not going to be favorable.

  Still, the only thing that mattered was fighting back, while there was still time.

  Every nick into the skin of David’s invasion force took them one step closer to stopping him.

  The Wrong Place

  Deogee had spent a day and a night walking in the place with the strange light. After leaving the warehouse where she’d lost track of her new friend Tabby, she and Biscuit searched for their smells on the ground, but they weren’t there anymore. She didn’t understand how such a thing was possible, but it obviously was.

  “Can we play with this fun thing?” Biscuit said, jutting her nose into a floating plastic bag. It was the same type of airy grocery holder often used by her friend Melissa, back before Melissa disappeared, leaving only her yellow sneakers.

  The thought made her wonder if her new friends had disappeared in the same way. One second, they were there. The next, poof, gone. It wasn’t even the same as a game of hide-and-seek, because her human friends never reappeared.

  She barked once. “Biscuit, tell me one more time if you can smell our friends.”

  The black lab h
ad her head completely inside the bag now. She whipped her head from side to side, trying to shake it off, but it was caught behind her ears. To Deogee, it seemed a simple problem to solve, but the other dog couldn’t see the big picture.

  It took several more barks, and a quick pounce on top of Biscuit’s head, but the bag finally came loose. The other dog watched it blow away.

  “Biscuit!” she barked.

  “Yes?” her companion finally replied.

  “Do you smell anything…familiar?”

  The lab sampled the air. “Now that you mention it, nothing has smelled like home since we left our friends. None of the scents here are good. No trees. No grass. My pee doesn’t smell right, either.”

  Even for a dog, it was too much information.

  Deogee barked. “We have to go back to a familiar place. Maybe we’ll pick up their scent again.”

  “Ooh! Where are we going?”

  “Back to your home,” Deogee said grimly. “We’re both going back home.” She took off for the bridge, which was step one in retracing her path.

  She’d left her friend Rose’s body back in those woods, then walked a long way and crossed a river before catching up to Tabby’s pack. It was a bit challenging to find the same path in return, since many of the black-wheeled little homes were overturned and flung off the roadways, and most of the buildings were damaged, like they’d been swatted repeatedly with a rolled-up newspaper.

  The sun was well across the odd-colored sky by the time they found Rose’s big home. Her feet were sore from being on the hard ground the humans called roads, but as she trotted toward the bushes where she expected to find Melissa’s yellow shoes, she became agitated the instant she didn’t see them.

  She whined.

  “What did you find?” Biscuit said, fear in her voice.

  Deogee ran over, sure it was the bush where they should be. “Melissa! Her skin coverings were here yesterday, but now they aren’t.” She idly thought it might be because of the odd color of the sky, and the lack of any familiar smells, but she wasn’t able to piece it all together.