Seeking Shelter
pain forcing her awake from a brief unconsciousness. A horrid ringing in her ears was all she could hear, and the air was heavy, clouded with smoke and dust.
Lifting a hand to her face, she felt the searing tenderness of a cut on her brow. She sat up, coughing, streams of pebbles and small debris sliding off of her. Her whole body ached. It took a second before she recalled what happened, but when she did, her senses snapped back. Craning her neck, she looked around the area for any sign of movement, expecting a render to come barreling through the smoke after her. When she didn’t see anything, she staggered to her feet and began searching among the piles of rubble for the stranger that had been with her. There was a chance she survived the explosion too.
Circling what remained of the jagged perimeter of a building, Jacklynn stopped short and immediately swerved back, pressing her body to the wall. Renders, six of them, loomed out of the shadows. Probably the same ones from before, she thought. Cautiously, she peeked her face around the corner. She wished she hadn’t. The group of hunters surrounded an unmoving figure on the ground, three of them crouching and tearing into the body. Jacklynn barely recognized the corpse of the frantic young woman she had helped earlier. Bringing her head back around, Jacklynn closed her eyes, trying to steady her shaky breath. Then she inhaled her resolve. It was too late to do anything about the girl. It was too late to help any of these people. Now she could only try to slip away unnoticed to find her way to the shelter … and pray Thaddeus and Isaac had already reached it.
Sliding around the side of the demolished building, Jacklynn glanced down the empty street. Seeing nothing but unrecognizable ruins, she started forward when movement from an unexpected direction caused her to freeze.
Four renders stepped out from around the wreckage of a burning truck. Three of them carried mangled bodies, following closely behind the leader, who held a recognizable vein-covered gun in its hands.
Jacklynn sank back into the shadows and watched as the group strode across the street to a waiting render dropship. When the two remaining hunters climbed into the small vessel’s dark interior, Jacklynn shook her head, bewildered. Nothing about this situation made sense. Why did the renders suddenly decide to attack Omaha? She couldn’t be certain, but she had a sinking feeling that it may have had something to do with her trip to the outpost to rescue Isaac and the other kids. Perhaps this was the renders way of retaliating.
On the other hand, the renders often seemed to act without reason or remorse.
Unsure of what else to do, she crept back to a narrow doorway to wait until she knew all the hunters in the area were on board the dropship. She crouched in the shadows for almost ten minutes, watching render groups appear and head toward the waiting vessel. Some returned empty-handed, others carried human bodies with them. Most of the people were already dead, but even at a distance, Jacklynn could see a few were still alive, too weak to fight back. She watched, muscles tensing, as the last of the live humans were loaded on board. They were the unlucky ones.
Finally, the ship revved and lifted into the sky, flying out of sight. Jacklynn forced herself to her feet, despite the heaviness of her body. Somehow her mind seemed heavier. Each step through the once familiar streets sent waves of barely suppressed shock and grief shooting through her body. Her knees threatened to give out.
This place wasn’t a refuge anymore. Now, after all of this carnage had rained down on them, part of her questioned how this could be the haven people had talked about. She had wanted to believe it. For a while, after she and Isaac had settled here, she even convinced herself it was true. After all, this city was home once. But deep down she had always known: Omaha was no more exempt from the renders malice than any other place. It never was.
Though Jacklynn’s body continued to limp along, fueled by what little adrenaline remained, her thoughts were in a haze. She couldn’t remember how far she’d come or from which way. The exhaustion was almost overwhelming. Somehow, she managed to reach a more open section of the city, just south of the west gate. Stepping away from the shadow of a building, she knew she was in the right place when she noticed other survivors converging on the area from different directions. Her scattered thoughts cleared up almost instantly as she scanned the faces, hoping.
She looked on for a couple of minutes, but her heart sank when she didn’t catch sight of Isaac’s familiar frame or Thaddeus’s copper hair among the crowd.
“Come on, move it!” a soldier barked as the people approached. “These bunkers only do us good if the renders don’t see us going in.”
Jacklynn ignored him for the moment, slowly turning to search the area one more time. She didn’t want to set foot in that shelter without them. Just when the last shred of her hope faded, she spotted two figures limping out of the shadows of an alley several yards off. Watching them step into the dim light, she recognized Thaddeus and Isaac instantly. Their bodies coated in dust, with Isaac leaning heavily on the doctor for support, they headed for the shelter without noticing her.
“We can’t,” she heard her nephew croak. “Aunt Jack’s still back there somewhere. We should’ve never—“
“I’m sorry, Isaac,” Thaddeus interrupted. He sounded spent. “We couldn’t stay. You’re in no condition to put up a fight right now, so I had to make a choice, and I chose to get you to safety first.”
“But you’ll go back for her?”
“He doesn’t have to,” Jacklynn said as she limped over to meet them.
The two men halted at the sound of her voice, wide eyes settling on her as she approached.
“Jack,” Isaac whispered, relief flooding his eyes.
Jacklynn closed the distance between them and pulled her nephew into a powerful hug. A second later, Thaddeus wrapped his burly arms around them both. They stood there, all their worries melting away for the briefest of moments, until the call of the soldier drew them back to reality.
“Let’s get down there,” Thaddeus urged, glancing over his shoulder at the ominous red sky in the distance. “It won’t be long before renders overrun this area.”
The three wasted no time. Ignoring the distant screams behind them and alien and human gunfire alike, they shuffled over to where the other survivors were being routed underground into the bunker. Thaddeus, Jacklynn, and Isaac started to head down behind the other citizens, but Isaac stopped just shy of the entrance and looked back at the blazing glow on the horizon.
“Isaac, what’s wrong?” Jacklynn asked when she noticed he’d stopped following.
The teenager swallowed. “Beth and Christopher are still out there.”
Jacklynn’s eyes softened at the worry in her nephew’s voice. “I know,” she began, “but they’re smart. I’m sure they found a place to hunker down.” She tugged at his sleeve. “Let’s go.”
Reluctantly, Isaac followed her down into the cramped shelter, and the door was slammed behind him, plunging them all into darkness.
Thaddeus stood with slumped shoulders in the ruins of the clinic lobby, the shotgun slipping from his grip to clatter to the ground. He fought back tears, but couldn’t mask the devastation that crept over every feature. He tore his gaze away from the remains to scan the area, despair in his hazel eyes.
The silence after the attack was unnerving. With the sunrise, the destruction that had taken place the night before was revealed; a scorched landscape enveloped in red light and shrouded by the deep shadows cast over the area.
Houses and businesses had been severely damaged or completely leveled. Corpses lay everywhere in tangled knots while survivors searched among the ashes for missing loved ones. In the distance, a child sobbed. Those in need of medical attention crowded the makeshift tents the security force had set up in the streets. The soldiers and any surviving doctors attempted to help the injured, but many were beyond saving.
Looking back down, Thaddeus swallowed the fiery lump in his throat and closed his eyes, pushing the tears free. Guilt stabbed through his chest for not helping the others as he should have. He was a doctor, after all. But for the moment, he couldn’t find the strength to move from where he stood, as if the cinders had hardened around his boots, fastening him to the ground.
Something slipped gently into his left hand, and he glanced down to see fingers intertwining with his. Lifting his head, he met Jacklynn’s sympathetic brown stare.
“I’m sorry, Thaddeus,” she said, her tone soft.
Thaddeus couldn’t bring himself to speak at first, then his grip tightened around her hand. “Me too.” He paused and looked around at the debris before finishing. “It’s just stuff, though. I suppose I can live without it.”
“Some of it was more than that,” Jacklynn replied as she leaned her head against his shoulder. “You built a good life in this little clinic.” The doctor gave her a solemn nod. Reaching her free hand back into her jacket, Jacklynn pulled something loose. “I know we were in a rush to get out of here to find someplace safe, but I managed to grab this.” She brought his doctorate certification into view and his eyes brightened ever so slightly. She handed it to him. “I know it’s not much. It’s just one thing out of everything you’ve lost. But at least it’s something to remind you of what you created here.”
Thaddeus stared at her with a twinkle of admiration in his eyes. “Thank you, Jacklynn,” he whispered. He was surprised to find the woman going up on her tiptoes to place a light, lingering kiss on his lips. Then she broke away, gave his arm an encouraging rub, and turned to rejoin Isaac, who stood off behind them. Thaddeus remained where he was a few seconds more, studying the dusty plaque in his hands with a sad smile, before walking back to the other two. As soon as he approached, a voice shouting Isaac’s name brought everyone’s attention up.
Christopher and Beth were coming toward them, but Beth was running, tears of relief in her eyes. She sprinted up to Isaac, stumbling over a broken slab of concrete, before righting herself and wrapping her arms around his neck.
“You’re okay!” she said, the words somewhere between a sob and a laugh.
Isaac flinched a little but returned the hug. “You too,” he said quietly before they released each other. He studied her and then looked over at Christopher as he walked up to meet them. The older man had a shocked expression on his face when he saw what was left of the clinic.
“I’m glad you all made it out alright,” he said as he looked over the wreckage. “I’m so sorry, Thaddeus.” The doctor nodded at his friend but said nothing.
“Chris,” Jacklynn began, her expression grim. “Do you have any idea why the renders attacked us here, out of the blue?”
The man frowned. “I can’t be certain. My best guess is that the renders are dealing with a food shortage. This was likely a desperate act to harvest us, judging by the number of people they captured alive. Right now they’re estimating around two hundred were taken, possibly more.”
At this news, everyone was quiet with stiff faces and shoulders. No one made a move to speak until Thaddeus stepped forward a little, sending a concerned glance toward Jacklynn.
“Do you think …” he started to say, then paused and swallowed. “Do you think this happened because we rescued the kids from the outpost?”
Christopher said nothing, only giving the doctor a disturbed look, but the glimmer in his eyes seemed to confirm his agreement with Thaddeus’s suspicion. If Isaac, Beth, and the other young people had been taken to the outpost to be used as a food source, then it wasn’t much of a stretch to assume the attack the previous night was the renders attempt to replenish their supply.
“Not one more,” a new voice joined the conversation. The group turned to see Chief Byram Abel limping up to them with bruises and cuts on his face. Despite his clear exhaustion, he still carried himself as one with authority and one with an obligation to every burden and worry that weighed on his back. He stopped beside Christopher and gave him a knowing, almost apologetic look. “I refuse to lose anyone else. The renders have left us with nothing, but somehow, they keep coming back to take more. I think it’s time we take the fight to them, like you said. We’re bringing those people back home. To do that, though, I think we need to hear that plan of yours, Mr. Atwater.”
Christopher’s surprise was apparent, but he quickly suppressed it with a stiff nod. “There’s no solid plan, Chief. At least, not yet.”
Abel looked him in the eyes, fierce determination settled in his own. “We’d better get started making one then.”