Escape from the Damned (APEX Predator Book 2) (14 page)

“What the hell was that?” demanded Mike.

“I think,” SSgt Brown started.  “We have just been placed in custody as witnesses to an accident.”

“Why?” asked Theresa.  “We didn’t do anything wrong.  We just had an accident.  That’s not a crime is it?”

Kerry looked to the teenager.  “No it isn’t.  I think he’s just pissed that his little girl got killed.”

“That’s right sweetheart,” Jen added.  “He’s just surprised and is hurting.  It’s natural.”

The girl began to sob.

“That’s what scares me,” she said.  “Daddy used to always say make sure and kill an animal that is injured.  When they’re injured and scared, that’s when they’re the most dangerous.”

The room got very quiet.  One of the younger kids began to sob along with Theresa.  The mood of the room took a collective dive.

“Look,” SSgt Brown barked.  “It’s going to be fine.  They let us keep our weapons.  If they wanted us to be prisoners, we’d have been disarmed.”  He wasn’t sure how much he believed what he just said.

“Yeah,” Sgt Procell added.  “We can still defend ourselves if we need to.”

As if on cue, the door opened and Ms. Hebert strode into the room with two armed firemen.  She carried a yellow legal pad and pen.  Jen couldn’t help but notice that, even in her jeans and tennis shoes, she looked like a lawyer.  Jen had seen her kind before at depositions.  A knot formed in her stomach.  This was going to be painful.

“Ok, I have a few questions for each of you.  First, who was driving the vehicle that Terry hit?”

Sgt Procell stood.  “That was me.”

“Please follow me Sergeant,” she ordered.  It occurred to SSgt Brown that Sgt Procell had neither introduced himself to her, nor identified his rank.  She knew something about the military rank structure.  He was even that much more unsettled.

“So, you’re telling me that Terry was driving too fast on the wrong side of the road?”  The woman had rephrased the question several times.

“No, he wasn’t,” the young NCO answered.

“Wasn’t what?” she demanded.  “Wasn’t driving too fast or wasn’t on the wrong side of the street?”

“Wait!” he was getting frustrated.   It didn’t occur to him that was exactly what she wanted him to feel.  “He was driving too fast, yes.”

Before he could finish his statement, she interrupted again.  “So he was on the correct side of the highway?”

“Yes!” he shouted.  Finally this friggin’ woman was getting it.  “He was in the right lane; we were on the wrong side!”  Uh oh, he thought.  Her changing expression told him that was what she’d wanted to hear.

“So, why were you on the wrong side of…?” 

The door opened again.  Ms. Hebert and her escorts entered.  “Follow me please,” she ordered, pointing at SSgt Brown.  She spun on her heels without giving him time to protest.

As the door closed, the others began chatting nervously.

“Where is Sgt Procell?” Mike asked no one in particular.

“I don’t know, but she seems to know exactly who and what she wants before she walks into the room.”  Kerry was beginning to get worried herself.

The pattern continued for another several hours.  Pvt Jackson, then Jen, Mike, Kerry, and the rest were questioned and did not return to the room.  Finally the room was occupied by Theresa and the two middle school children.  Both were crying.  Theresa was scared too, but someone had to act like an adult.  She fought back her fears.

She began thinking of ways to get out of their predicament.  She still had her shotgun.  The kids each had knives.  They could try to get the guard to open the door and try to overpower him.  She quickly dismissed that plan.  She didn’t know what to do after that.

She pulled the shotgun closer.  There was something comforting about the cold black metal.  She let the cold soak into her hands.  She placed it between her knees and let her head rest on the side of the barrel.  The cold metal on her head helped her to formulate a good plan.  She knew they couldn’t shoot their way out.  She didn’t know where the others were.  She didn’t know if they were alive or dead.   She thought about her brother Davy.  She missed him so much.  He would know exactly how to get them out of this situation.

The door, it opens inward.  That means there is a blind spot behind it.  That was her advantage.  The next time someone came in, she would take them from behind.  She would force them to give her friends back to her, or she would kill them.

She moved around behind the door.  Perfect.  She crawled to the other two.  She had them move so they were in the corner on the side the door opened.  That way whoever came in would have to enter the room and would have their back to Theresa.  She could do this.

The wait seemed to last forever.  Finally they all heard the click as the door was unlocked.  A figure walked into the room, looking at the two kids crying in the corner.  It took Theresa a minute to realize the person entering the room wasn’t Mrs. Hebert.  It was a young girl.  And she was carrying a tray with plates and glasses on it.

It was too late.  She was already racking the slide on the shotgun.  The girl was about Theresa’s age.  The sudden sound behind her caused her to drop the tray of food to the floor.  The crashing of dishes brought the door guards rushing into the room.

Theresa tried to keep things from escalating but couldn’t control the situation.  The guards drew their weapons on the young girl and began to shout.  This scared both her and the girl at whom she was pointing the shotgun.  The girl began to scream

Other adults began to flood into the doorway.  One was obviously the girl’s mother.  She began screaming hysterically when she saw the newcomer pointing a gun at her child.  Theresa couldn’t get a word in over the shouting and screaming adults.  All she could do was rotate around the girl so that the girl shielded her from the horde of panicked adults.

Finally things settled a little as the adults realized that Theresa wasn’t going to just shoot the girl outright.

“Please,” the mother pleaded.  “Please don’t hurt my baby.”

Theresa couldn’t see the girl’s face.  She imagined that her face mirrored the terror on her mother’s face.  Heck, Theresa thought, I’m sure I look like that too.  Time to be a big girl, she told herself.

She leaned her head towards the girl.  “Don’t be scared sweetheart,” she whispered ever so quietly.  “I really don’t want to shoot you.”

“Where is my family?” Theresa demanded of the adults.  “I want to know where my family is right now or I’m going to shoot.”

“They’re fine,” answered one of the firemen.

“I need to see them right now!”

The door to the room Sgt’s Brown and Procell were in opened.  Sam Reynolds entered.  SSgt Brown could see he was again stressed.

“We have a problem and I need your help,” he announced.  Both men could hear the tension in the fireman’s voice.

SSgt Brown leaned back in his chair and interlocked his fingers behind his head.  He and Sgt Procell had been locked in this room for the better part of two hours.  Both had their weapons taken from them, under protest of course.

During the course of the questioning by Mrs. Hebert, it was decided that SSgt Brown and Sgt Procell bore some responsibility for the death of Sam’s daughter.  Sgt Procell was driving a vehicle on the wrong side of the road and SSgt Brown had ordered him to do so.  Both were placed under arrest until their new hosts could decide if they had actually committed a crime.

SSgt Brown had learned that after things fell apart, and this group had banded together, they had adopted some rather interesting “laws”.  The most concerning right now was the law that stated that any living human, who through negligence, action, or omission, causes the death of another living human was subject to punitive action.

“Go on,” the soldier said with a smirk.

“We have a hostage situation and I need your help.”

“Hostage situation?” Sgt Procell asked.  “What do you mean?”

“Well,” the Captain started.  “One of the kids in your group is holding one of our kids at gunpoint with a damned shotgun.”

SSgt Brown couldn’t control his laughter.

“What the hell is so funny, Sergeant?” Sam demanded.

“You spent all that time separating us and disarming us and you didn’t disarm the toughest troop I have.”  He continued to chuckle.  “If that little girl is pointing a gun at someone, you’d better do anything she asks or be prepared to bury someone.”

“Well, she wants you.  She’s demanding to see her family.”

“Her family is dead.  She watched her brother shoot himself in the head after he fell into a horde of zombies.  That girl has a few demons running around in that pretty little head of hers.  You’ve got yourself a problem there.”

“Are you going to help me or are we going to have to shoot that little girl?”

“You willing to lose a kid?” SSgt Brown demanded as he rose from the chair.

“No, I’m not willing to let a mother watch her kid get blown away from a crazy assed teenager.”

Good, thought SSgt Brown, he had some leverage.

“I’ll tell you what,” he said.  “I’ll make a deal with you.”  He reached into his pocket and pulled out the letter that the chopper pilot had dropped.  He tossed it to the fireman.  Captain Reynolds looked at it.

“Is this real?”

“I don’t know about the river patrols, but the crew chief of a CH-47 dropped it while we were policing up your injured man.  I have no reason to doubt it.”

“So, what do you propose?”

“I propose we get the hell out of here.”  The fireman gave him a puzzled look.  “Here is my proposal:  One, you drop all the charges against me or any of my people.  You can have your lawyer tell your folks that we weren’t part of your group when the accident happened, and did not fall under your laws at the time, something like that.”

The fireman nodded his head in agreement. 

“Two, you agree to keep a majority of my group under your protection while I’m gone.”

“Where are you going?”

“Look, my big truck is in-op.  We can’t all fit in my Humvee.”  He paused for a moment as he mulled over who to take with him and who to leave behind.  “So, I’ll take Theresa, Sgt Procell, and Pvt Jackson to the river.  We’ll flag down a boat and have them send a chopper here.  That CH-47 should be able to evacuate everyone here.”

“I think we can work that out. Just one question though,” Sam said.  “How do you know your people will be safe here while you’re gone?”

“Oh, I forgot about that part.”  A crooked smile began to show.  “I’ll be taking your Ms. Hebert with me.  Call it an exchange of hostages.”  Checkmate!

The fireman thought about the soldier’s proposal.  He sure didn’t want any harm to come to anyone.  He wanted so badly to believe that there was hope outside of this fire station.  Plus, Ms. Hebert could be quite a pain in the ass.  She had, in fact, been a personal injury attorney before the world died.  He didn’t envy SSgt Brown and his people if they took her along for the ride.

“Ok, you got a deal.”  The two leaders shook hands.  SSgt Brown believed it was the first time he’d seen Sam smile.

Theresa was terrified.  She was beginning to realize she hadn’t really thought this through.  She didn’t know how long she’d been holding the gun to the girl’s back.  But, it felt like forever.  She was hungry and had to pee.  The sweat from her hands was making the gun slick in her hands.

She heard the sound of combat boots walking down the hallway before she saw them.  The entire family was there in the doorway. They were all armed.   All of the others had backed away; all, that is, except the little girl’s mother and the older man.  He stopped behind the girl’s mother and whispered something into her ear.  She looked at him, shaking her head.  He whispered something else into her ear and she retreated.

SSgt Brown spoke first.  “Theresa, can you put the shotgun down?”  He spoke in a very calm even voice.  She wanted to, she so wanted to.  But, she didn’t trust the others.  They had taken her family away from her.  They would try it again.

Jen stepped forward.  She smiled.  Her voice was soft and slow.  She made Theresa feel at ease.  She explained the situation to the young girl.  She spelled out the deal SSgt Brown and Captain Reynolds had struck.  She left out the part where Theresa left with the soldiers.

“You’re sure we’re going to be ok here?”

“Do you want to leave?”  Theresa nodded her head “yes”.

“Then you can go with Sergeant Brown.  He can take you somewhere safe.”

Jen held out her hand to the NCO and snapped her fingers.  He reached into his pocket and produced the note.  She held it for the girl to see.

The girl began to sob again.  Theresa lowered the shotgun.  SSgt Brown grabbed it and made it safe.  The girl ran to her mother.  Theresa cried.  Jen stepped in, embracing her.

“We’ll have to clear the front of the building before you guys can leave.  You attracted a crowd when you got here,” the fireman announced.  “In the mean time, let’s get some dinner.  You guys can move out in the morning.”

As they passed, he told SSgt Brown he still needed to tell Mrs. Hebert of their deal.  He advised SSgt Brown to watch the next round of fireworks.