Deceptive Innocence
July 17th
Near Holly Springs National Forest
1
“Wait.” Angela’s voice was different than it usually was when she was about to tell him of things they needed nearby. Adrian slowed to a gradual stop, fighting the heartburn.
“I’ll be right back.”
She was out the door before he could protest. Though she had a shadow, Adrian followed.
Angela stopped on the sidewalk, straining to view into the scraggily trees that lined the block of dark, paint chipped homes
After a moment, she walked slowly toward the tallest row of branches, gaze darting nervously around. It was bad here. She could feel…
Angela looked up. “There.”
Adrian struggled to spot whatever she had. When he finally realized what the small, huddled shape was, his heart thumped. He would have rolled right by if not for her.
“That branch is ready to break.”
Adrian was studying the big tree. “Yeah. Look further up.”
She understood as she spotted the other shape, this one clearly dead. “Followed his cat up and got stuck.”
Adrian was glad there were no live cicadas in the trees. Plenty of eggs waiting for spring though, and he began searching for the right way to rescue the boy.
“Or they both hid and the cat couldn’t last as long as the kid,” Adrian offered, trying to distract her from the plans he could sense forming in her mind. “Lots of bullet holes and casings.”
Angela considered the branches, mind working the puzzle. Before he could argue, she lunged upward and began scaling the tree.
In view of their convoy, her actions drew immediate attention. The Eagles scrambled to secure the area as people climbed from their vehicles for a closer look.
Roughly half way, Angela glanced up to find the child staring at her with crushing gratitude. It was a relief so powerful that she smiled as tears pricked her lids. Another of her lost children, found.
“I’m Angie.”
The boy was younger than 10 and older than five, with matted brown hair and skin so dirty, she wasn’t sure if he was black or not. His dark brown eyes ran with tears, cutting a path through the grime that gave her a hint of his lineage. Middle Eastern.
“Hanali.”
Craaaccckkk!
The tree was thick, but brittle. The branch she had just left snapped. It fell heavily to the ground, causing people to scatter. Now that she was over half way to the top, the wood was weaker, rotting from the top down. She had to reach further to find a good grip, earning splinters.
Some of her grabs were risky, making the men below mutter.
“How long have you been up here, Hanali?” she distracted the child as the wind blew against the tree, causing it to sway sickeningly
She pushed herself to grab the last branch and hauled herself into the fork where he was clinging to the trunk.
“A...week? Many days.”
She gave him a quick look over, spotting the backpack that had surely saved his life. “Smart to carry stuff now.”
The boy put a hand out, like he couldn’t believe she was there.
“My mother had hair like yours. Black...long.”
Angela didn’t hesitate to pull him carefully into her arms and let him cry on her chest.
“I’ve been so alone!” he wailed.
She rubbed his tangled hair comfortingly, keeping a tight grip on the tree with her legs as the wind hit them again.
“I’m here now, Hans. I’m here now.”
His thin arms tightened around her neck at the nickname his mother had used. When Angela began to whisper, he nodded against her neck.
“Okay. Eyes closed?”
She slowly shifted him into position. “Yes, and hold tight, but remember that I have to breathe. Don’t squeeze my neck.”
He was shaking, terrified, and she quickly used the rope from her belt to tie them together. It wouldn’t hold for long, but it would buy a few seconds for action.
“Okay. Onto my back, like when you were a baby.”
She held still as he slowly wrapped himself around her. His legs were thin, hard knots against her hips and she wished she had another rope to tie them around the middle as well as the wrists.
“Angela.”
She found Seth in the tree next to them, a long coil of rope over his shoulder.
She held up a hand, being careful not to overbalance, and a second later, the rope fell roughly over her fingers.
She snatched at it, got the end.
Angela slid the rope around them and carefully tied it, stomach in knots as she secured him. Now, she had to get him down.
Adrian observed with the rest of them. Sending up the rope was all he could do beyond the inflatable catchers that the men were hurrying to set up under the tree. His heart thumped as she began the slow climb down.
Her feet came first, each perch sought and tested carefully before she put their weight on it. The crowd’s muttering rose as the wind howled through the trees, shaking them. Leaves and drops of sticky liquid fell over the people.
Snap!
Angela jerked them back up as the branch gave, bending enough to tilt her feet down. Breathing roughly, she slowly eased them to the other side of the trunk, using the alternate route she’d chosen on the way up. It was almost straight down, but nearly branchless and she scaled the thick trunk like a cat, using the sides of her boots and her fingers in the bark cracks to crawl down.
As she neared the last 15 feet, the bark became too slippery to get a grip and she reluctantly switched back to the front, where the branches were wider spaced but thicker.
She eased her foot down and the branch cracked off, causing her to jerk them up against the trunk again while she recovered her balance. The rest of the branches were too thin or weak to hold them, and Angela gritted her teeth in concentration. Her arms and legs were aching with the effort it took to hold them in place against the wind. The witch was ready to handle it, but with so many witnesses, she had to be careful. Her people were just starting to accept magic. Too much of a show would have the opposite effect that she needed.
“I’m gonna drop him to you. Five seconds!” she called to the people below them.
When the boy tightened his grip, she sent a calming mutter over them both. “They’ll catch you, Hans. I promise.”
Before he could respond, she drew her blade and quickly cut through both ropes that bound them.
She heard the sound of the buoyant catchers and people murmuring in comfort... then a thick crack above her head.
The falling branch hit her arm like a dead weight and she was knocked from the tree in a heavy thud of pain, falling through toward the ground.
“I’m sorry for my sins,” was all she had time to think.
Adrian grunted at the impact, staggering as she slammed into his outstretched arms and dropped to the ground. Her head rolled against his arm, blood drops sprayed across her face from hitting the other branches on her way down.
Adrian felt his gift reach out to her, lending strength.
“Mom!”
Charlie was trying to shoulder his way through the crowd now around them.
Adrian waited without breathing for her lids to open.
Angela struggled to wake, the blow a hard one, and she winced at the brightness. Where’s the layer of grit that keeps this from happening? was her first thought and then she became aware of Adrian holding her, his face full of intense concern. What she could see over his shoulder made her heart thump with joy.
“The boat...south, then southeast.”
A second later, she opened her eyes to find herself in Adrian’s arms and surrounded by camp members. “What happened?”
Adrian let her sit up as she stiffened and slowly faded into the mob as Charlie made his way through them.
“You okay?”
She started to nod and had to close her lids as dizziness took her balance. “Yeah. Slight concussion, I think.”
She slowly pushed herself to her feet, using Charlie’s arm to steady herself, but even as he suggested she go to Doctor Brooke, she was turning toward the boy she’d brought down.
He was standing by himself, observing them with a scared, hopeful expression.
She opened her arms to him. “Welcome to Safe Haven, Hanali.”
The child didn’t hesitate.
Charlie’s firm hand on her shoulder kept her from falling when he dove into her embrace.
Angela slowly led him to the medical tent that was now being set up, swaying. Everyone was missing John and Anne, but they were grateful that another doctor had come. Their last group of new arrivals before leaving the spring had been a medical man and small group of nursing students who’d survived together by hiding inside an armored truck. They had picked up more than forty people in Little Rock, though all but Conner had joined after the fact. When Adrian’s magic had blasted through that ravaged city, not just magic users had answered his call.
“Let Dr. Brooke look at you and I’ll be in next.”
She turned away before the boy could beg her to come along. Charlie was there to steady her when she swayed.
“Mom?”
She held up a hand, concentrating, and found a pair of intense blue eyes observing her from across the hoods. No words or thoughts were spoken, but everyone felt their bond, their connection.
Charlie stiffened at her side. The feelings in that look were impossible to miss. There was something between her and Adrian, and it was strong. He went to his assigned vehicle, glaring.
“He’s hurting. We don’t like that.”
Angela didn’t glare at Lee, keeping her focus on the pain instead.
“Can you help him?”
“He wants what I’m not free to give,” Angela denied through the waves of nausea.
“But you care,” Lee protested, blurting more than he’d intended. “We all know it. You want him.”
Angela’s cheeks and neck flushed a deep crimson, and Lee flinched as her head snapped up to reveal eyes of the same color.
“Would you betray Candy?”
“To keep this from falling apart? Yes,” Lee agreed reluctantly.
Angela sighed, pulling the anger in. “So would I, but not now, not like this. Give him time, Lee. He’ll adjust.”
Lee wasn’t so sure about that, but it was heartening to have her refuse the request. He hadn’t wanted to make it. He liked Marc. They just needed Adrian more.
2
“He’s on that damn laptop again,” Samantha complained as Neil joined then. “Can’t you order him to give it a break or something?”
Neil heard the serious tone and stored it. Why was Samantha worried about that?
“Maybe. You’ll have to give him something else to do.”
Samantha snickered. “I could ask him to take my shift tonight over the teenagers. That’s always a blast.”
“We’ve got Kevin training people on the radio. One of them will take it over full time.” Neil stated quickly, not wanting Sam to get in trouble for joking during a mini-meeting.
Angela didn’t protest and Neil wanted to make sure she understood what that meant. “He’s yours now.”
Angela flipped her ash into the can they were passing. “He always was. Next?”
Neil frowned. “Adrian usually rewards them when they come around.”
“I’m not Adrian,” she denied coolly. “You have to do more than that to impress me.”
Neil swept the mess, wondering if the burnt towns and graves they’d been passing all week were the reason the eating area was staying so empty now. He didn’t want to admit that it was because of how many camp members they were losing. Angela and Adrian were heartsick over it, but they weren’t stopping anyone or sending men to talk to them into coming back.
“A man needs to keep his hands busy,” Kenn joked as he spotted Tonya coming from the medical area.
“What’s she doing?”
Angela picked out the redhead and went back to her notes, glad of the painkiller she’d been given. Her shoulder was throbbing. “Dropping off more supplies to the new doctor. He said the results were surprisingly hopeful and he wants to try another batch.”
It was interesting to have each team’s assigned medic attending the doctor’s classes, but it was also a way to be sure the new man was living up to John’s standards of care. Their medics were less than rookies, but their training had to start somewhere and waiting until later wasn’t an option.
Kenn replayed his morning of breaking down the camp. Tonya had told him Dr. Brooke was going to come by the pharmacy tent to pick it up once they got settled at the new site.
Angela sighed, weary even though it was only lunch time. They’d been on the road for days now. “She’s doing work for me, Kenn. Let it go.”
That made Kenn reconsider the not-so-great possibilities. If Angela did have Tonya on something, the redhead would have told him. For both females to cover it up, it had to be serious.
“Are things all set with the site?”
“It’s all wired,” Kyle reported. Each campsite they left behind now was deadly.
“Any word yet?” Samantha asked. She was the only one who thought it could be anytime now.
“No,” Angela answered.
She left the table.
They were assuming Marc was busy causing damages and delays, but the deadline of the soldiers coming was fast approaching. Kenn and Kyle were saying they’d have word in the next week. Angela had said ten days. Adrian claimed three weeks. His estimate wasn’t taken seriously. That was nearly double the time they’d thought to have to prepare and none of them were willing to count on it. In their allotted days, they were making steady progress though, and Angela walked through the camp, using those signs to bolster her flagging spirits.
“I miss you, Brady,” she whispered, rubbing her shoulder.
3
Jennifer swept the fully packed truck that Kyle had prepared for her departure. She was driving it during this move, but still wasn’t sure if she could take it out into the wilderness. Safe Haven had become her home.
“Can I carry something for you?”
Jennifer slowly put the baby into Kyle’s arms, sure that’s what he really wanted. They might not be saying much to each other, but Kyle and her child were already bonded.
“The cord fell off this morning.”
Kyle grinned, but it didn’t light his face with happiness the way she’d come to expect.
“You save it?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
It was like this with them now–closed off and remote. Kyle longed for their bond back, but wasn’t sure what to do. He’d betrayed her. He had no right to expect forgiveness or another chance. He wouldn’t ask for either.
Jennifer caught the thought and snapped her mouth closed on the words that wanted to fly out. She’d briefly considered Conner’s point after he left and it had been in her mind since, but she hadn’t pulled it out for an in depth examination. She was scared to find out if Kyle had hurt her too badly. She’d told him she wouldn’t be able to let that go. And I was right…wasn’t I?
Kyle let the love for the baby fill his heart in place of its mother. How would he ever let either of them go?
Jennifer tensed and Kyle gently handed her the baby. “I gave you my word.”
“That means nothing,” Jennifer retorted lowly. “I don’t trust you.”
Kyle’s heart broke again and he turned away from her before he could fall to his knees and beg. She was right to suspect him. She should have all along. He was unfit for love, for compassion or mercy. He didn’t offer those things to his enemies and he didn’t deserve them either.
Jennifer didn’t want to feel his pain, but that was impossible. The waves of loneliness were the worst. She hated it when he isolated himself. He’d been doing that his whole life, closing off the emotions, and Jennifer suddenly couldn’t stand it anymore. She had to get through his hard shell and find out what was underneath.
“I’m leaving as soon as Marc gets back.”
Kyle froze, shoulders becoming two stiff rocks that could have any reaction. When he turned around, Jennifer gasped at the agony on his face.
I won’t hold you.
The silent words were full of pain. Jennifer began securing the infant into the car seat before she could ask him to come along.
Kyle slowly forced his feet away from her, feeling like he had nothing to live for.
“She needs something from you.”
Kyle looked over to discover that Conner had been listening. “What?”
Conner shrugged. “I’m not sure, but I’d ask her about it before Marc gets back.”
Their radios crackled with Angela’s hard voice, “Throw the scraps to the ants and load up. It’s time to roll.”
4
“I’d like you to go with the next water team.”
Samantha waved Angela inside the tent, a bit surprised. They’d only been camped for an hour. After Grenada Lake, the Holly Springs forest was like a cool balm on a sunburn. The Eagles liked the thin, tall trees and the camp was enjoying the trails and activities. They were spread out a bit wider than the Eagles would have liked, but the number of people with their own small fire in front of their tent had grown. That required room.
“Leave?”
“Neil’s full team will be your protection. I’m sending another level for protection on the water crew.”
“And what do you need me to do that I’ve got an entire team of killers at my disposal?”
Angela’s eyes blazed for a second, revealing her worry. “Look, listen. Find out what’s coming next.”
Samantha’s heart thumped. She’d thought the tension was from everything they had going on, but apparently, she’d been wrong. “You felt something.”
“Yes. It was dark, deep. Try to get a read on it for us.”
“I’ll get my kit together now.”
“Neil will come grab you when they’re set to roll out. Should be around dawn.”
“Is there anything else you’d like me to do before we go?”
Angela considered. “Yes, there is. Go play with the kids. They’ve never seen dust whirls like you’ve been making.”
Samantha understood what Angela was trying to do, but the weight of the duty was scary. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. When the kids accept us, so does everyone else.”
Samantha began gathering her gear and Angela went to the next area. A leader’s job was hectic on the best days and she hadn’t had many of those yet. What if one of the supply teams ran into trouble? What if she got them killed?
Angela sighed. There was little she could do to stop it now. They had to have the fuel and water, but they also needed Samantha’s attention on whatever was headed their way. Personal safety had to come behind camp survival. All of them had been told that when they’d signed on. It hadn’t changed just because leadership had.
5
“Is it normal? The way your hair is changing color?”
Angela was too tired to lie. “Yes. Overuse is rough on us.”
Kyle glanced over to where Jennifer was leaving last minute instructions for the baby before her lesson with Angela’s team.
“Will it happen to her?”
“Yes, and sooner rather than later, I’d guess. She’s full of fire, but it’s being fueled by her pain. If she doesn’t use another source, she could literally eat herself alive.”
Kyle turned to stare at Angela’s cleverly hidden streaks of gray. “Am I enough?”
Angela understood he meant that in several ways and chose to answer the easiest. “Your emotions are too bottled up to allow a reserve. If she pulls from multiple…”
Angela sighed at the instant, impotent anger that hit her. “Marc feels the same. I try…tried to do it when he wasn’t around.”
They both thought of her moment with Adrian on the road a while back, but neither mentioned it.
“And in the other way?”
She hated to hurt him, but he had to know how to help. Jennifer wasn’t grieving or releasing anything and that was dangerous.
“Only someone of the same kind can truly handle us the way you mean.”
“Soul mates and that BS.”
“I don’t have any evidence of that,” Angela hedged curtly. “All people need someone who matches them, but the descendants match with everyone.”
“Purposely.”
“Yes. We were made to help, but also to repopulate, to replace some of the talents that were lost. Some will have multiple mates, many will have one. It depends on the bond.”
“And fate?”
“Yes” Angela’s eyes went to the medical tent against her will. “Through our lives, we’ll be attracted to dozens of people. It’s up to us and the strength of the draw, if it goes any further.”
“And if a group of you and a group of us are together, you’d pick your mates from your own kind, right? To be fulfilled?”
Angela sighed, forced to face the truth. “Yes, and no. We populate, as well as draw and build. Part of our duty is to spread our DNA, to mix with human and create the next generation. Without them, the world won’t recover. Adrian brought us together, but to spread his light over an entire planet will take children–ours.”
“You didn’t answer the question.”
“She means that very few of us will refuse to spread ourselves among you, even if we don’t particularly care for that impersonal fit. We can’t. It’s part of why we’re here.”
Adrian kept going instead of joining the conversation like he wanted to.
Kyle continued to torture himself. “Who should she draw from?”
“Whomever she wants. You don’t get to pick.”
Kyle barely felt the scold. “Who in camp would help her get back to normal?”
The witch, tired and lonely, snapped at him through Angela’s lips, “Anyone, but you. Back off.”
“What if I can’t?” he questioned, voice a rough whisper.
The witch refused to play games. “She’ll run. She’s already considering it. Being here is hurting her.”
Those words beat in his brain. Of course! Safe Haven was a constant reminder.
“Kyle?”
He didn’t answer Angela’s resigned call.
She watched him walk away. Adrian had been right. Where Jennifer went, so did Kyle. The only hope they had of her staying was the anger from the way her infant had died. She would want revenge and Angela planned to feed that. By the time the battle came, Jennifer would have hardened a bit and might consider staying.
“It’s up to fate, now,” Angela muttered, picking out her guards. “And Marc.”
6
“Are you going to tell me? I can’t let this go until you do.”
“No.”
“Stop being an ass, mom. He’s better than dad was.”
Peggy and Doug both stared at Becky in surprise.
The teenager didn’t take it back. “Dad didn’t want her to work. He called her a lot and distracted her intentionally. I’ve always thought it was his fault, not yours.”
Peggy’s tears were hard to look at, but even harder to feel. She pushed herself up and started to fade into the shadows, wishing Anne were here to talk to.
“Wait.”
Doug’s command halted Peggy’s retreat. She didn’t turn around.
“Do you want to work in the medical areas here or would you rather stay a den mother?”
“She wants both, and a little more,” Becky supplied, standing up. “I’ll let you guys have a few minutes alone.”
Doug stayed where he was, willing her to turn around. When she did, he viewed her with curiosity. “What’s the little more?”
Peggy flushed.
Doug understood. “Me?”
“Don’t sound that way!” Peggy snapped. “You’re a good man.”
Doug grinned. “I’m not a little anything, Darlin’. You know that.”
Peggy evaluated his big frame with a heat that sent shock into Doug. She wants me!
Peggy left him standing there. Doug would make his own choices. She wasn’t going to browbeat him or explain away the awful thing she’d done. If he couldn’t accept her without the details, then that was that.
7
“How are you handling things?”
Charlie paused in the daily shoveling that he and the other teens had been doing in the livestock trucks. He was the last one here. He’d sent the others on to have some time alone to think.
“I feel bad that I didn’t try harder to warn my mom, but that voice inside says it was for the best.”
Conner understood how guilt and reality often slammed into each other in a person’s mind. “Anything I can do?”
Charlie started to say no, and then gave, “We used to bunk together, spend those bad hours bullshitting or drinking. I don’t do that part anymore, but if there was someone else in the tent, maybe…”
“The voices would be quieter?” Conner supplied.
“Exactly.”
“You sure you want me as a bunkie? The camp still isn’t sure if I’m an assassin.”
Charlie’s tone was pointed. “That’s what you get in return for all the talking I’ll do.”
Conner chuckled. “I’ll clear it with my dad.”
“You don’t need to.”
Both boys turned to find Adrian in the shadows.
“She already said it was a good idea, for me to handle it when you two were ready.”
Both boys were happy and Adrian left them to plan it out, grateful. He hadn’t been sure if the darkness festering in Conner might remind Charlie of Matt too much to allow those bonds to form.
“Angie knew better, though,” Adrian murmured. “She knew Charlie would take this moment to make up for Matt and ease his own guilt.”
Absolutely perfect so far. He couldn’t have been more satisfied with the choice he’d made to place her in control of it all. No one else would have gotten close to this just from following his notes, and she wasn’t doing even that after today. She’d made it through all of his books, gotten it rolling, and was running on instinct now.
“Damn you,” he swore, cursing fate. “She’s perfect for me. Damn you!”
All around him, destiny laughed callously at his pain.
8
“Damn it!” Angela slung the bag to the ground, pissed. “You can’t keep doing that!”
Late afternoon found Safe Haven a few miles further down their long road, camped, with classes in full swing.
Kenn started to handle it, but Tonya waved him off. Angela had been right when she’d said the men didn’t know what she was planning. Crista had to do this right or they were all dead.
“I’m sorry!” Crista exclaimed huffily. “I can’t keep it straight.”
Angela jerked a hand at Kenn. “He’s as much a rookie at following my lead as you are, but he’ll get it right. When we’re done, someone, anyone, tell her why he can do it and she can’t.”
Angela turned her back to Kenn, not the least bit afraid of him anymore, but nearby Eagles still tensed when he neared her. Old habits were hard to break, but the closed aura around Kenn also still made them leery.
The other females took their places and the busy areas around them slowed a bit as the routine restarted. Angela working her team was fascinating to most of them. For the men, it was a turn-on, but also a lesson in respect. They liked knowing that the women would work as hard as they did.
Kenn fired the paintball gun at Angela first, as an enemy would, and Becky was there to deflect it with her shield. A bit awkwardly, the teenager used the momentum to spin around and provide cover for the person next to her to reload.
Jennifer slammed a mag in place and fired a round at Kenn as Becky reloaded.
Kenn ducked the shot easily, returning fire. He hit Jennifer in the chest, drawing a scowl from the man walking by.
Jennifer swore, taking herself down. As she fell, she tossed a paint balloon that represented the grenade she would use during the battle.
Kenn jumped aside, but was unable to avoid the pink splatter. He turned to the right and let his own grenade fly. It coated two of her team, removing them.
Kenn saw only his arm and side was hit, and decided he should be able to keep fighting until he bled out. He shoved to his feet and opened fire again.
Angela ducked the blast, waving Tracy and Samantha forward.
Both females fired together and rolled to avoid the incoming. It was nicely timed and obvious that the women had spent time practicing it on their own.
As the routine finished, a few people around cheered, but Angela didn’t let her girls join them. “Don’t celebrate until we get it right as a team.” She wiped the sweat from her cheek. “Someone tell Crista why she isn’t remembering which way to turn.”
Samantha spoke up, hoping to get it over with quickly. “She hasn’t been practicing. When she does, it’ll become almost automatic.”
“Yes. If you don’t show signs of improvement, you’re off my team.”
Angela left them standing there, exchanging nervous, unhappy looks. She was hoping Crista would notice on her own, but they also needed to help their weaker members shore themselves up and these training lessons would accomplish that if they could bond. She’d given them a way to do that. It was up to Crista to make good on it. Right now, she wasn’t pulling her weight.
Kyle paused to listen when he saw who took up a hard stance in front of Crista.
“What’s the deal?” Jennifer demanded, breathing roughly. “You saw her plan. What gives?”
Crista flushed. “I didn’t put in enough hours on it.”
“Should we get rid of you now?” Jennifer followed up angrily. “The rest of us sweated our asses off last night, working together after mess. Where were you?”
Crista flushed darker. “Out.”
“Uh-huh.” Jennifer looked around the team. “Vote now. Stay or go?”
“Go.”
“Go.”
“Go.”
Only Cynthia said differently and even her voice was reluctant. “Stay, if she’ll start working.”
“Looks like you’re off the team. Turn in your gear and go get a camp member job from Zack,” Jennifer sneered arrogantly.
Crista couldn’t do that. She wanted this. “You can’t get rid of me!”
Her shout had the team stopping, turning around.
“And why not?” Jennifer asked, raising her goggles to reveal glowing orbs. “We don’t need you if you won’t work. There are a lot of women here who want these slots.”
“I will work on it. I’ll put my other…activities on hold.”
Jennifer wasn’t convinced, but it didn’t matter. Angela was annoyed and that did.
“You’d better,” Jennifer warned, sounding exactly like she should for the position she’d been gifted with. “As your team members, this is the only warning we’ll give you. Get your shit together or get out.”
9
Angela stomped through the perimeter shadows, trying to decide if she needed to reorder her team. Adrian had told her a while ago that the first set of names likely wouldn’t all stay. It was the nature of the job, but Angela needed each of these women for her plan. Crista might not have been working on it very much, but her aim was still spot-on.
“Maybe a break,” she mused, rounding the corner of the vet area.
Whoosh!
“I can give that to you, Angela White.”
The dart hit her in the neck and brought her to her knees before the latest assassin.
Angela sent out a weak call for help, but it was too late.
“That was my brother you hurt in Little Rock,” the child sneered coldly. “That you killed.”
Angela couldn’t answer, couldn’t use her gifts, her body. The drugs felt the same as what the Major had used in that doomed city.
Angela slumped to the ground.
The child was ten at most, with bright, blue eyes full of malice. “They said to do the same to you, but I need to hear the screams first.”
The boy came forward eagerly with his knife out as Angela felt the drugs overwhelm her. You’re not gonna get it, kid, she thought, surrendering to the grayness.
“Quick! Pick her up!”
The two children struggled to move her body on their own without alerting anyone. All they had to do was hide her and keep her drugged. The men that were on the way would do the rest, but Clifford couldn’t stop the need to make her pay. He sliced at random as the others dragged her under the tree cover and out of the perimeter.
The men on the area, Wade and Max, wouldn’t be getting up. Angela was the only one they were supposed to leave alive if caught.
10
“Did you hear that?”
“Nothing,” Becky answered, finally starting to like her new life just a bit.
She took in Seth’s tense posture and waved a hand. “Go on. I’ll find Angela for a check-in.”
Seth was extremely uneasy. The voice in his mind had only shouted one word and he hadn’t been able to make it out clearly. Had it been a call for help?
Seth thought so and began a round of the camp, searching for problems.
Becky disappeared into the medical tent, but came out seconds later, with a pale man behind her. They’d all thought Angela was with Adrian.
Adrian wasn’t worried about spooking the herd, only finding his lost lamb. He hit the radio. “Raven location?”
Silence.
“Raven, check in.”
More thick silence.
“Damn it!”
Adrian went to do his own searching and Becky stayed with him, gun in hand. Too worried to think about anything else, Becky didn’t realize the honor she was being given by the other Eagles who let her guard their idol. They’d knew how serious she was now, how dangerous she could be. She’d been noticed.
“Angela?”
The calls began to float through camp, waking people who joined the search. It wasn’t long before the entire camp was roused, but the person they all wanted to see come from a camper or tent didn’t appear.
Seth made it to the outer perimeter, not noticing anything out of place until he actually got to the tape. Behind the yellow banner was a section of their new fencing. It had been cut.
Seth raised the alarm with worry burning brightly in his gut.
11
“Stop playing around and kill her!”
Clifford reluctantly positioned his bloody blade at her throat. None of the wounds was deep so far. He wanted her to suffer first, but the drugs made that impossible.
“Her hand’s showing!” the other child hissed. “Grab it.”
Clifford snatched her wrist and jerked it under as the area flooded with people and light. All three of them were aboveground, only hidden by a cleverly painted tarp. They’d planned to stay down, drugging her until they could take her out of camp.
A hard male voice cracked over the radio. “Lock us down! We have a breach in the north wall!”
Three minutes after Seth’s call, Adrian and Becky had followed Angela’s light, but well known tracks to the animal area. A dozen men surrounded them as they searched.
Seth ran through the camp, doing a fast search, and found himself in the animal area as if being called to it. Adrian and Kenn were busy scouring the ground nearby for tracks, but Seth didn’t join them. He could almost feel her, almost smell her. What the hell? Was she hiding from them?
Seth’s eyes widened as he made the connection, and motioned to Adrian.
Adrian snorted angrily as the pieces fell into place. “We have a sleeper, gentlemen. Start kicking and slicing the trees and ground. If you hit a vein, let them bleed.”
No one said Angela might be hit, but many of them were thinking it.
“She’s here,” Seth declared suddenly. “I’m close.”
Before he could kick the area in front of him, a dart sailed out and plunged into his thigh.
“Seth!”
Becky was at his side as he fell, ignoring the warnings from the men around them.
Another dart flew out of nowhere and hit her in the neck.
“There!”
Adrian and Kenn tackled the tarp-covered forms that sprang up and tried to run.
“There she is!”
Eagles surrounded Angela’s bloody body, glad to find her breathing. Each time this happened, the feeling that they would only recover a body became stronger.
It was quickly clear that the assassins weren’t adults to be handled in the usual way. Kenn made the discovery after knocking Clifford unconscious through the tarp.
The boy fell out of cover and Kenn leaned back in revulsion. “Who the hell sends kids to do their wet work?”
Adrian shoved the other boy, struggling, into Kyle’s angry arms. “Our enemy. Dump them outside the fence and get the hole patched up.”
“You can’t win. Surely you know that.”
The matter-of-fact tone of the second child chilled the blood of the men listening. What had this child been through that he held no compassion?
Adrian waved Kenn on.
The Marine hefted the unconscious child over his shoulder, and then pointed. “Start walking or I’ll knock you out.”
The sullen boy did as he was told, throwing glowers over his shoulder at Adrian.
“I’ll get the doctor,” Cynthia offered.
“I’m here.”
They peered up to find Jennifer pulling the bleary new man through the trees. She didn’t let go until he was at Angela’s feet.
Everyone was quiet as the doctor examined Angela’s wounds, then started binding them.
“Well?” Becky asked snottily. “Your mouth work?”
Dr. Brooke frowned up at the girl. “As well as yours. You got a question? Ask it.”
Becky flushed angrily. “Is she okay?”
He tied off a bandage. “All shallow, only a few stitches needed, breathing’s good. Help me get her to the medical tent.”
Kenn and Kyle unloaded their burdens at the fence after taking their darts.
“Go on. Get lost.”
The older boy immediately turned west and began walking.
“Hey!” Kyle called. “Take him with you!”
The boy didn’t slow down or even glare at them.
“He was supposed to kill her, not slice her up. He’s your problem now.”
Kenn and Kyle stared after him in shock, both thinking a quiet bullet right now would be the best solution for both intruders.
They turned away reluctantly. Assassins or not, these were only brainwashed kids who should be with their mothers, not roaming the wastelands on murder missions. It was yet another heinous crime that their enemy would pay for.
12
“Where was her shadow?”
Adrian looked around in fury. “Who had duty?”
Zack pointed to the two bodies in the shadows. “Wade and Max.”
Adrian swore under his breath. The enemy knew kids wouldn’t be suspected. He’d almost lost her again. It was time to implement the second part of Marc’s plan. Angela wouldn’t like it, but she couldn’t argue now.
Adrian spotted Charlie and Conner near the QZ gate, and joined them in their observations of the unconscious boy.
“Do you know him?”
Conner’s voice was cold. “Clifford and his brother were in charge of the others. They like pain.”
“And what do you think we should do with him?”
“He’ll probably take off as soon as he wakes,” Conner stated. “Charlie and I want to deliver a warning for him to take.”
Adrian left the teenagers alone, able to feel their anger. When the fight started, these two would be in the thick of it, extracting their pound of flesh. The enemy had no idea how big of a mistake this was. Even the camp members were calling for blood now, many of them lining the tape behind Conner and Charlie. When the peace-loving herd wanted violence, there would be hell to pay.
13
“Please…help me.”
The pitiful whisper made the man seem more human and Sam moved closer, as she always did in her dreams, her nightmares.
“What can I do?”
“Kill me,” came the immediate answer.
Before she could tell him no, her hand raised the gun.
The man moaned. A wet, liquid sound, she heard the grinding of his jaws as he coughed violently. Scarlet flew from his mouth, ejecting one of his teeth, and reddish drops of agony rolled down his distorted face.
“Please!” he begged.
Sam raised the gun again as his gasps for air filled the room. His body was no longer responding to his commands, the radiation destroying him from the inside out.
The man raised a finger, skin sliding nauseatingly to the side of the bone. “Please…do it now. Don’t know...anything else.”
She tried to smile as she raised the gun. “I’m Samantha.”
“Pat...M-Michaels.”
She smiled in horrified recognition, and when he closed his eyes and tried to nod, she pulled the trigger.
The shot echoed, his body jumping like Melvin’s had when she hit him with the Taser.
Sam jerked awake, covered in sweat.
She sat there, listening to the active camp as she tried to get her breathing under control. Pat Michaels was a ghost she would be haunted by forever.
Samantha slowly became aware that there was a problem. The voices were loud for this time of night and angry. Footsteps weren’t crunching peacefully, but stomping about in determination. Something had happened.
Samantha hurried to pull on her boots, mind going to her men. Were they okay?
Haunted by her nightmare, Samantha wasn’t ready to be grabbed as soon as she came from the tent. Her shriek pierced the air.
Neil let go as if burnt. “Hey, it’s okay! It’s Neil! Easy.”
Samantha’s breathing came in gasps.
“Are you all right?”
“Nightmare,” she forced out, sending a sheepish look around to let those who’d come running know she wasn’t hurt. “Sorry. I’m jumpy.”
“With good reason,” Neil stated and quickly filled her in.
“Until they’re finished sweeping camp, I’d like you to stay close.”
Sam didn’t have a problem with that. “Where’s…”
“Right behind you.”
Samantha turned to find Jeremy helping calm the camp, and felt her heart ease from the knot it had twisted into. She wasn’t sure what she’d do if anything happened to either of her men.
“I need to check the showers and supply trucks. Come on.”
Samantha fell in on Neil’s right, giving Jeremy a soft smile as they went by. She could tell he’d been concerned for her too, had probably been waiting for her and Neil to show up so that he could concentrate on his duty. She loved him for it. They may hate the setup, but it was powerful.
Jeremy caught sight of the female trailing them and rolled his eyes. Didn’t Bridget understand they were Sam’s? Everyone else did.
14
Bridget kept after the couple even when they both turned to glare at her. She wanted Neil, wanted them both to know it. The trooper would be hers before too much longer. She had a plan.
“Neil, can you…”
“Not now!”
His tone was sharper than Bridget felt it needed to be and she turned for camp in a huff. “Keep blowing me off, Neil. You won’t sense my hit until it flattens you.”
Samantha couldn’t stay quiet, not after the way she’d woken. “You need to talk to her if you’ve changed your mind about me.”
Neil stiffened. He hadn’t thought Samantha knew that he’d accepted the offer from Bridget. “I don’t want her.”
Samantha did what she didn’t want to. She offered him freedom. “You’re entitled to company when I’m not around, Neil.”
“And Jeremy?” Neil blurted out. “Is it okay for him, too?”
“Yes.”
Neil stopped, hands going to her shoulders. “But will you still want us…me?”
Samantha ran a gentle hand along Neil’s jaw, but couldn’t lie. “No.”
“That’s not fair,” he protested half-heartedly. He didn’t want anyone else.
Samantha sighed. “Yes, it is unfair, but that’s life in case you hadn’t noticed.”
Neil had known deep down and wasn’t as upset as he knew he should be. “I had, as a matter of fact.”
Neil slid his arm around her waist and pulled her close as he got them moving, trying not to consider what would happen to them if Jeremy found someone else and Samantha refused to be with him anymore. The odds on that were as likely as himself running to someone else. The descendants left their mark on a person, be it man or woman, and there was no escape. If they wanted you, that was all that mattered.
15
By dawn, there was a large group of camp people and Eagles waiting around the QZ gate. Clifford hadn’t woken yet from Kenn’s single hit, but they were all waiting for him to. His reception wasn’t going to be nice, but it was the only thing these caged-in camp members could do. They wouldn’t leave the safety of the fences. Conner and Charlie were the only ones to do that, with a heavy escort.
Clifford began to groan as he woke.
Conner motioned for Charlie to be ready for an attack. “They train us to shoot first.”
Clifford hated the two boys on sight, but he seemed to know an attack would get him killed by the Eagles clustered around them.
“What do you want?” he snarled angrily, standing up. “Kill me and be done with it.”
“We don’t kill kids,” Charlie stated, trying to get inside his mind. “Why would you work for someone who does?”
“They don’t kill us,” Clifford spat. “They send us out to…”
“Die,” Conner interrupted. “They didn’t expect you to accomplish the mission. Your deaths were only meant to scare us.”
Clifford sneered. “I could have killed her. I had the chance.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Clifford spotted Angela on the other side of the fence and lunged her way.
Conner and Charlie hit him at the same time. It was a mental blast that took the rebellious child to the ground.
“I killed his brother, in Garret’s compound.”
Charlie glanced up in surprise as he read it from her mind. “You did that?”
Angela didn’t betray her own waves of guilt. “Yes. This is war.”
Clifford began foaming at the mouth, held in place by invisible bonds that the camp was staring at in suspicion and wonder. “Let me go! I have to hurt her!”
Anger surged from the crowd around Angela. She calmed them down with only a few words. “He’s not staying, but it’s not all his fault, either, The same as it wasn’t with Matt. Outside influences change things. You all know that.”
Angela waved for the Eagles to escort her boys into the QZ gates. It made her nervous to have them outside of it.
“Let him up. He’ll leave. Won’t you?”
Clifford tried to resist the voice in mind, her voice. He didn’t want her there!
“No!” he paused, shaking with the effort of battling her in his mind. “Get out!”
Angela raised a hand and jerked it toward her.
Clifford froze like he’d been shot, then slumped over.
“She killed him.”
“Is he dead?”
“He deserves to be!”
“Did you catch that?”
“She did that without a knife…”
Angela lowered her arm and slowly turned to face them. “He’s sleeping. When he wakes up, he won’t remember being here. Let’s pack up and roll.”
For one instant, no one moved, each making their choices. The casual demonstration of power had been done so openly that shock was the biggest emotion. The bubble around them vanished.
Unaware of the power shift that could happen here, Charlie gave Clifford a nudge with his foot as he went by, but saved the vicious kick he’d wanted to deliver for his mom’s injuries. It was hard to hate the boy after hearing the ugliness in his mind. It was easier to pity.
The camp felt vindicated by Charlie’s action, and it snapped them out of the fearful consideration they’d fallen into. With only a few leery looks, they began to go to their tents and vehicles. In the parking area, Sam and the water team left mostly unnoticed.
Angela didn’t look at any of them, including Adrian. She could feel his rage at her choice to expose herself without any protection plans, but it hadn’t been something she’d meant to do yet. Clifford’s mind was indeed ugly. There was no chance they would ever turn him to their side. Making him forget it all for a while was the best thing she could do. Killing him, a ten-year-old boy, wasn’t considered. Safe Haven didn’t do that to her children, any of them, and Clifford would have been one of theirs if fate hadn’t decreed him to serve the other side.
“What’ll happen to him?” Charlie asked.
“They’ll take him back when he remembers who he is and reaches their bunker,” Adrian said. “They don’t have many as angry as that one. They’ll want him.”
“Will he be punished for failing?”
“Of course. Our enemy has no mercy.”
16
“Why are we stopping?” Samantha asked groggily.
Neil put it in park. “We’re a mile away. We’ll go in at first light so we can evaluate the danger.”
Samantha shrugged sleepily. “Makes sense.”
“You okay?”
Samantha opened her door as the guards gave an all clear sign. She’d fallen asleep not long they’d after piled into the trucks. The nightmare had drained her.
“Yeah, just tired.”
“We’ll get you in a tent and fed, ASAP.”
Samantha snorted in protest. “I’ll take a bedroll like everyone else and you’re not allowed to cook. I know all about you.”
Neil chuckled. “I was the king of the microwave. Never used flame.”
“It shows. I need to do some…searching.”
“Stay in the perimeter.”
Samantha didn’t answer, slowly wandering westward.
Neil waved two of his team with her. She had a job to do, too.
Samantha sank down to the sloppy ground, ignoring the shadows and the mud, listening. The wind gusted against her, cool and dry now, and the blades of grass trembled delicately under her fingertips.
Waves of energy, of life and also of death came through the ground, powerful and unstoppable. Despite all the damage that humankind had inflicted, mother earth had woken and was trying to heal herself–violently where necessary and even where it wasn’t.
“What do you feel, Sammi?”
Jeremy’s soft question brought an unhappy expression to her face. “More death. There was an earthquake, I think, in the west.”
“The west?” Jeremy repeated incredulously. She could sense things that far away?
“The tremors are still rolling out, sending vibrations through the earth’s crust. I can’t pinpoint it without equipment, but it’s too strong to be from the coast and too weak to be from the New Madrid line.”
Jeremy had his notebook out. “Worst case?”
“It’s Yellowstone. If that happens, we only have a few weeks until the winds carry the ashes our way. You know what that is?”
Jeremy’s mind raced, bringing up history channel specials viewed under calmer days. “Glass, right? Tiny shards?”
“Yes. We breathe it, we die. If Yellowstone blows, we’ll have to hole up immediately.”
“It’s okay,” Jeremy tried to soothe as he finished writing her notes. “She’ll make plans for it.”
“You’ll tell her as soon as we get home.”
Jeremy ran a calming hand over Samantha’s hair. “Right now, if you think I should.”
Samantha relaxed at being believed. She still hadn’t gotten over those scars. “It’s okay for now. Just don’t forget to tell her.”
“I won’t.” Jeremy gently took her by the arm. “Come on. Neil’s got the food ready.”
“I told him he wasn’t allowed to cook!” Sam groaned.
“So do the rest of us,” Jeremy joked. “We always offer to trade, but he insists that he’ll get better with practice.”
“That makes sense,” Samantha caved.
“No, it doesn’t,” Jeremy snorted. “It’s been seven months. The taste never changes.”
“Burnt?” Sam guessed, leaning against his heat.
“Shit,” Jeremy replied promptly.
Samantha’s laughter floated over the wastelands and brought life with it. Eggs hatched, bugs dug their way from the ground, and birds broke into song.
Jeremy missed all of it, busy thinking about getting her settled, but Samantha noticed and was overjoyed to have nature respond. Her gifts had evolved into power that she’d never dreamed to be honored with.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“For what?” Jeremy asked.
Samantha grinned. “Not you, Fate. I’m glad I’m here, that I am who I am now. The war changed everything.”