From The Ashes (Life After War) (81 page)

“
Come on!” Billy shouted, grabbing his arm.

Daryl helped push himself along, everything distorted and painful to his burning ears.

“
Stay down until it wears off!”

Daryl crouched at Billy's feet, clumsily reloading as blood trickled down his neck.

The room they were in was stacked with metal barrels of ammunition that the Eagles dug into without grins at the find. There wasn't time for it.

Ping! Pop!

Booomm!

The wall across from them exploded, sending shrapnel through the air.

Daryl grunted as Billy shoved him down, and felt something slam into the brick above him.

“
Die, damn you! Die!”

Kenn directed the Eagles toward the door. “Let's clean house while Adrian does the same.”

Savage agreement as the team reloaded, getting into formation. They would roll through the Major's compound like they owned it. When it was over, they would.

Kenn raised a hand, waiting for Daryl to give a shaky nod. “Go! Go! Go!”

4

Shannon spit at the coward who'd hurt her so much. “Die, damn you! Die!”

Adrian let her pull the trigger–he'd already counted and knew what would happen.

Click!

Shannon flung the empty gun at Garret. “Ahh!”

The Major stood up, remembering to breathe. “You'll be hunted animals as soon as I call the bunker.”

“
You won't be alive to see it!” Shannon sneered.

Adrian placed a light hand on her arm. “Would you like me to carry the load?”

Shannon's face tightened. “I've got the new sickness–the one they let out during the War. Knowing I killed him will make my last weeks tolerable.”

Adrian's heart broke as he slid his knife into her hand.

Trapped, Garret once again became dangerous. “Don't count on so long, Shan!”

“
Just as long as you die, pig!”

Shannon threw the knife as Garret tossed his hidden weapon.

“
No!”

Adrian lunged for her, but it was too late. The homemade disc sent a dozen bullets plunging though the room.

Three of them hit Shannon in the chest and knocked her back against the wall.

Adrian ran to her. This time, there were no bugs or flesh charring into lighters. There was only blood pouring from the first woman he'd ever loved.

“
Conner!”

Adrian leaned close. “He's alive.”

Shannon's face relaxed into the semblance of a smile. “Stay with you?”

Adrian clasped her hand. “Always.”

Shannon's body arched, death hovering... then it ruthlessly snatched what Adrian couldn't ever replace.

He clutched her close, a part of his soul smoldering in his chest. Three of his females in as many months!

Angela.

She'd be next. He would try to be happy for her and Brady, and console himself with knowing it was a sacrifice for the greater good. He could survive without Angela. Safe Haven wouldn't. She was too important to even take the risk.

If not for the drugs, Angela could have destroyed Garret's compound by herself. Her gifts were still growing, but to be able to physically manifest fire only hours after being darted showed incredible strength. Adrian had never known anyone who could access their powers for at least a full day.

That took Angela from a powerful defensive tool and placed her directly at the top of their protection. Once she learned to store and ration the energy that he planned to insist she draw daily, she would reach a new level of awareness, and so would his camp.

Fire had been her last evolution, and based on that, Adrian thought the next one would be just as revealing and volatile. His own powers had peaked during the lab tests, but Angela wasn't being given drugs for control or being used up before the Demon inside could evolve. Her gifts would grow unchecked.

Adrian motioned to the Eagles in the doorway that Kenn had slowly opened. “Find out where his personal guard and perimeter patrols are. Then, set up a welcoming party.”

5

Cara followed Hudson from a distance. She'd slid into Garret's residence to observe through the open door when Lenore showed up. The Major had underestimated his target.

Cara wasn't sure why she was following Hudson, only that if Garret's main man thought it a good idea to leave, then she should, too. Cara had lost her leadership over the snake women. The Major would provide no protection, even if he was lucky enough to survive, which she doubted the new people would allow. Cara didn't know what to do. She had also underestimated them and lost it all.

Ahead of her, Hudson stopped, stiffening in the unmistakable stance of discovery.

Cara hurriedly moved closer, feet silent as she half ran, half slithered over the debris. What had Garret's XO found?

Hudson stared in hatred.
He lied!

Adrian had goaded Shannon into killing the Major. She never would have done it without that final push, and Mitchel had known it. He'd forced her to betray her husband. Adrian was just as much an evil genius as Garret.

Hudson slid behind a falling-down greenhouse and waited for the trio to go by, plans spitting themselves out rapidly. Maybe this run didn't have to be a complete failure.

Hudson felt that heavy sense of ‘the end’ lift from his shoulders. The bunker would be perfectly happy to accept the bodies from him instead of the Major. They would rather have them all dead than roaming free, and there would still be a reward.

Hudson spun suddenly, raising his gun. “Come out.”

Cara revealed herself reluctantly, eyeing the man with dislike, but no real hatred. Hudson had tolerated her while she was Garret's woman, and she'd done the same for him. There was no reason they couldn't work together.

Hudson slowly lowered the gun, aware of Cara staring toward the trio that had missed them in their hurry to reach the compound. Hudson, like Garret, thought the snake mutations were an improvement over females of the past. In this new world, snakes were all that existed in both male and female populations, and that was easier to remember with Cara's girls.

“
What do you want?”

“
Conner,” Cara replied promptly.

Hudson stared at her, thinking it would be easier with two sets of hands. “Only until we reach the bunker. Then he goes inside for the reward.”

“
Agreed.”

If she couldn't kill Hudson by then, she would do what she had with the Major–become the bunker commander's woman so she could wait nearby for an opportunity to grab the gifted teenager. With Conner at her side, her people would survive.

Hudson motioned toward the trio that was almost out of sight. “The drugs should keep them from using their powers for at least another twelve hours. Go be friendly and take them to the Major's sealed room, huh?”

Cara went without a word, already liking the bravado of Hudson's plan. Hopefully the new people would make the mistake this time.

Watching her slither along the debris, Hudson pulled the radio from his belt and began clicking the mic.

When he finished, there was an immediate set of clicks in answer. Without knowing Garret's code or having their mental gifts to rely on, Mitchel and his men would be blind.

6

“
They've taken over the compound.”

Nuna stopped their march, wanting to see for herself.

The binoculars revealed it to be true, and the snake leader battled with herself over the choice she'd made. She could have had him!

“
We missed out on a good moment there,” one of the other women stated. “We might have gotten the supplies and escortsss.”

Nuna wasn't listening to the mutters and complaints. She was making a new plan.

“
It's not over, though, isss it?” Nuna questioned, drawing their attention even though it was clear she was talking to herself. “We saw the other group. We know there's more fighting to come.”

The leader waved her girls back into line. “Get usss to a better vantage point, and we'll make a group choice on where we go from here.”

That satisfied the others, and the line of snake women began sliding through the moldy trees, hating the way Nature felt. They would miss those dank sewers and brutally cold nights underground. Topside was hell.

7

“
Let's go. We have loose hunters to round up before burials.”

The team of Eagles left the room behind Adrian, and the others in the hall followed. Shannon had taken the Major's life and sacrificed her own. She'd known her life was over anyway if Garret won.

Shannon had suffered from night sweats, and they'd gotten to know each other while he calmed her down. Adrian had planned to marry her and settle down. At that point, he hadn't been a hunted animal, but a valued tool to be rewarded.

Adrian stood up, not letting himself dwell on the signs of abuse. Her trials were over now–she could rest in triumph.

Adrian moved outside and through the alley with a bleeding heart. He had to tell Conner he'd failed.

The Eagles couldn't have been happier–they were back with Adrian. Being away caused a sense of desolation that each man hated, but also depended on. If the time ever came that they didn't feel this way, it would be time to get out.

Adrian expected to see Conner, on Kyle's back, with Angela leading them. They should be stumbling over debris...

Adrian stiffened. He'd made a mistake.

“
Which way, Boss?” Kenn didn't like the hesitation or panic he was picking up.

“
They should have already been here.” Adrian was running through all the places they'd been, the people they'd had contact with, and the things they'd affected.

Kenn was only a step behind Adrian, but unlike the leader, he skipped the things he didn't think mattered and managed to arrive at the same conclusion, at the same time. “Another trap.”

Adrian didn't answer, instead waving tired Eagles into a tight perimeter. Even without contact, it felt detached, impersonal.

“
Should we start searching?”

Adrian shook his head, cursing Garret. The sound of Shannon screaming had upset Conner so much that there had been no choice but to come quickly and try to save her life. His mistake had been doing it alone.

“
Boss?”

“
No. The drugs didn't stop Angela's gifts in the cell. She'll contact us.”

8

Hudson hurried through the dank sewer, mentally counting as his alarm did the same. They had to be on the way out of here when it went off, just in case he'd miscalculated the fuse. For the first time in his career, Hudson couldn't be sure.

He hurried by the stack of water and food barrels that the Major had been storing down here as they were found, knocking over a smaller tub of rice. Various forms of life immediately began flying toward the unexpected food.

The noises echoed through the tunnel and he jogged quicker. He hated underland! When he handed over the bodies, he planned to ask for an assignment in the West, where underground was so toxic that it was forbidden to go there.

Hudson shoved the next creaking door open and moved into the dankness with a grimace. Thanks to the snakes, it always smelled like heavily decaying copper.

“
Fresher today,” he muttered, finally reaching the main intersection of the Major's storage bunker. Except against water and snakes, it was perfect.

“
Cara?”

Hudson pushed the automatic open button on the heavy steel door with an uneasy feeling. Maybe she hadn't been able to get them to come down.

He pushed the thick door open with both hands, peering uneasily into the black room.

Thwap!

Hudson clutched at the knife hilt, gasping for air that couldn't get through. He slid to his knees, suffocating and drowning in his own blood.

“
Catch the door!”

Conner hurtled his hurting body into the closing gap before the door could lock them in darkness again.

Angela shoved Cara's heavy body off of her and gave Kyle an approving grin. “Nice throw.”

Kyle chuckled. “You did the dirty work. Best cat-fight I've ever heard.”

Angela laughed, glad of the eyes that had let her find Cara in the chaos. They'd been expecting trouble when she tried to close them inside, and Conner had been the one to pull her inside, too. The snake clerk had immediately started fighting from there.

Angela grabbed the blow gun and a few darts from Cara's belt, then jerked her knife from the woman's chest. She did it without a wave of nausea, showing another level of progress.

Kyle did the same, and then slid an arm around Conner's waist. “Let's get the...”

Beep! Beep! Beep!

The alarm was incredibly loud, and the trio stared at it. The face of the watch on Hudson's bloody wrist flashed in brilliant red warning.

Beep! Beep!

Angela and Kyle tried to decide if it mattered, but Conner knew.