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BEN
As he rushes away to get Kate, his premonition kicks into high gear. This is the shoe drop he’s been expecting. Whatever Alvarez is about to tell them, it’s not going to be good.
A short time later, the entire Creekside crew, minus the children, is gathered around the ham radio. It had taken only minutes to wake everyone.
“Foot Soldier, this is Word Smith. Over.”
Several heads swivel in his direction, Kate’s the first among them. Ben feels his face heat and keeps his eyes locked on the ham. Why the fuck had that handle popped into his head?
“Word Smith, this is Foot Soldier. Everyone there?”
Kate takes the receiver from Ben. “Foot Soldier? This is Mama Bear. We’re all here. What’s your status? Over.”
“Not good, Mama Bear. We’re fucked. Over.”
“That is not a detailed report of the situation,” Kate grinds out. “Details, Foot Soldier. Right now. Over.”
“Remember those bandits I told you about? The ones who kidnapped our people?”
“Yes.”
“They’re back, only there’s more of them. It started with raids on the perimeter of our land. The livestock. The horses. The orchard. The fish we left out to dry. Then a few of our people disappeared.”
Ben feels his temper start to boil. He grips the edge of the table, fighting against the flashback that tries to force itself to the forefront.
“We formed search parties. More of our people disappeared,” Alvarez says. “Then over two dozen people on bicycles were spotted north of Fort Ross on Highway One. They were heavily armed and heading straight for us. We secured the fort just before the bandits arrived.”
Kate’s knuckles are white around the receiver. “What’s your situation now?” she asks.
“Mr. Rosario, the bandit leader, wants Fort Ross.”
At the mention of the name Mr. Rosario, Kate’s entire body stills. Ben’s hackles go up at the sudden rage that paints her face. He doesn’t know who this Mr. Rosario is, but Kate’s reaction is enough to make him want to start shooting something.
“It gets worse,” Alvarez says. “Rosario has seven of my people. She’s given us twenty-four hours to surrender. After that, she’ll execute one of them every day she has to wait.”
Seconds tick by. Kate visibly wrestles with her anger, jaw clenched so hard Ben can hear her teeth grind.
“Twenty-four hours?” Kate barks. “When did the clock start ticking?”
“Twenty-seven minutes ago.”
Kate leans over the table, her face a set mask of determination. “I’m coming, Foot Soldier. Hold on. I’ll be there. Over and out.” She slams the receiver down on the table, glaring at everyone and nothing. “Will someone please tell me why that crazy bitch is named Mr. Rosario?” she shouts, lifting her eyes to the ceiling as though the answer might drop from the sky.
The room stills, everyone frozen by this uncharacteristic display of anger.
Reed tentatively raises a hand in the air. “Mama?”
“What?” Kate snaps.
“I know the story of Mr. Rosario.”
“Tell me.” She attempts to rein in her fury and completely fails.
“Mr. Rosario was the original drug lord of northern California. When his wife caught him cheating, she cut off his balls and locked him in a shed in the woods and left him there until he starved to death. His wife took on his name and took over his business. The story is that she set up a compound around the shed where he died. She runs all her operations from there.”
Hands on her hips, Kate glares. Not at Reed, but past him, like she’s seeing a memory she’d rather forget. Ben can relate to that.
Then she stalks out of the room, leaving everyone sitting there in stunned silence.
Ben is the first one to move. Kate isn’t going anywhere without him. He charges out the door after her, Carter and Jenna right on his heels.
Kate is inside her room, shoving supplies into a running pack.
“Mom?” Carter pokes his head around the doorframe. Ben and Jenna hang back behind him. “You can’t do this.”
“My friend is in trouble,” she replies, not looking up. “I’m going to help him.”
“Did you hear the part about Fort Ross being surrounded and outgunned by a band of raiders?” Carter says. “You can’t go.”
Kate spins on him. “You know what that bitch did to me and Frederico. She captured us. She chained a collar of bells around our necks and pushed us out into a forest infested with zombies. We almost died trying to get away. She did it for her own entertainment.”
Ben sees red. The mental image of Kate with a collar of bells around her neck makes him want to strangle something.
“I’m going with you,” he says.
Kate flicks a glance at him, nods, then goes back to shoving supplies into her pack. “This will be a volunteer mission only.”
“Um, Fort Ross is two hundred miles away,” Jenna says. “It’s not safe to drive. You saw what happened when Leo and his people tried to drive.”
“You’re a badass, Mom, but even you can’t run that far in twenty-four hours.”
Kate straightens, flinging her pack over her shoulders and snapping it into place. “I’m not going to run. I’m taking the boat.” She marches past them and into the bathroom, filling her pack bladder with boiled water kept in jugs on the floor.
“What boat?” Carter demands.
“Susan’s boat.”
“You don’t know how to drive a boat,” Jenna argues.
“I’ll have Susan show me.”
Carter turns to Ben. “Will you talk some sense into her?”
“We just need to take enough firepower to blow those fuckers to the moon and back,” Ben says. “That will take care of them. We can figure out the boat.”
Kate spins toward him, jabbing a finger into his chest. “That’s what I’m talking about. You’re in charge of pulling together everything you think we’ll need. I’ll get the alpha zom recordings.” Her mouth sets. “I’ll sic an entire horde of zombies on that bitch if I have to.”
“Mom!” Carter shouts. “This is a suicide mission!”
Kate blinks, briefly coming down from her state of focused rage. She grabs Carter in a fierce hug. “I can’t lose Alvarez, baby,” she says. “I just can’t. I already lost Lila and Jesus. I can’t lose anyone else.”
“Those were accidents,” Jenna says. “We all miss them, but it’s no one’s fault they’re gone. Don’t throw yourself away trying to fix something that can’t be fixed.”
“We can do this.” Ben steps forward. “A small guerilla team. Me. Caleb. Ash. Reed for his speed and Eric for his sniper skills. We boat down the coast. It won’t take more than seven or eight hours. Those assholes will never know what hit them. Like you said, we’ll take the alpha recording. If we can’t out-gun them, we’ll turn the zoms on them.”
Face contorted, Carter glares at Ben. “Just because you’re in love with my mom doesn’t mean you have the right to encourage her suicide mission!”
The room goes silent. Kate’s face turns red.
Ben considers crawling under a table. He stomps out of the room instead. “I’ll go get the guns.”
He slams the door behind him. Maybe sometime in the next twenty-four hours, he’ll regain some of his self-respect.