Glory (Book 5) (14 page)

Chapter 15

Adam sat with his back against the school wall. He was on watch with Charles. No one else had seen anything so far. No creatures. The men hadn't come back.

He looked out into the distance. Though the moon was bright and the stars twinkled, it was far too dark to see anything aside from a few trees. He took a deep breath and felt his nerves settle.

It's nice out here tonigh
t
, he thought
.
Quiet. Peaceful
.
Even with everything that had happened, things fel
t
righ
t
.

He turned to Charles. The old man's brow was furrowed, his lips tightly closed together.

"What is it?" Adam asked.

Charles broke his concentration and turned to Adam. "Sorry, what?"

"What is it? What are you thinking about? The men?"

Charles turned and looked back out over the landscape. "No, I was thinking about Jane."

Jan
e
. He had been too preoccupied with everything else tonight to give her much thought. He felt a guilty about that. "Do you think she's still out there?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Where?"

Charles didn't answer. He couldn't. There was no way that any of them were going to know where she had gone.

"Sorry," Adam added quickly. "I didn't mean for it to come out like that."

"I know," Charles assured him.

"I followed the direction you told me."

"I know," Charles said again. "And I know that you tried your best. But I still think that she's out there. And I think that she's safe."

Adam wasn't as certain, but he wasn't about to say that. "Do you think she's going to return?"

Charles ran his hand over his lower jaw and closed his eyes. "No," he said after a deep breath. "I don't think that she is."

Adam was surprised. He had assumed that Charles would have thought she'd come back. Or that he would have hoped for it enough to believe it.

"I want her to come back," Charles explained. His lips trembled. "I really do. But I think that she had too many problems, too many things going through her head."

They all did
,
Adam thought. Images of the men he had killed flashed through his mind. The difference was that they each had their own way of dealing with things. And some were better at it than others.

"I tried to talk to her about it," Adam said.

"I did too," Charles replied. "Actually, w
e
di
d
talk about it a little. But she never really opened up to me. Since everything started, she had had to do some pretty horrible things. I guess it was too much to handle." The old man took another deep breath. "You know, she said that the daughter who haunted her was a lot older than her real one? That was something I never really understood. Why would an older version of her daughter haunt her? Where would that image have come from?"

Adam didn't know, so he didn't bother with an answer. Instead, he said, "I wish I had done more." And he really did. He didn't like the idea that Jane had been suffering, didn't like that he hadn't been able to help her.

"We all do," Charles agreed.

Adam and Charles sat the for a while without saying anything. Their thoughts drifted from Jane and her troubles to their own lives and what had happened to them since the change.

"You think they're going to come?" Adam asked.

"I hope not."

"Me too. But that doesn't mean that they won't."

"No, it doesn't mean that they won't.” There was a brief pause as the two of them thought about what that meant. Then Charles spoke again. “Do you still think we should leave in the morning?"

Adam stared a Charles for a moment before asking, "Why do you ask that? Do you think we should stay?"

"No," Charles said softly. "Deep down, I know that we should go. It isn't safe here with those men coming. And I still think that we need to find other survivors. But…well…I keep thinking about Jane."

"Jane?"

"If we leave, then she's never going to find us. We will have lost her forever."

Adam hadn't thought about that, but the old man was right. "I thought you said that you didn't think she would come back," he pointed out.

"I know I said that. And I don't think she will. But if we leave, it's definite. She'll have nothing to come back to." The old man mumbled something to himself and shook his head. "I'm just being stupid. A sentimental old man."

"No, no, I understand what you're saying. It makes sense. But can we stay for that? It's a pretty big risk."

"It is." Charles paused. Adam waited for him to say more. "It’s probably for the best if we go. We need to find other’s like us.more survivors. Especially if we have to worry about all of the bad people out there."

Bad peopl
e
. There wer
e
ba
d
people out there. Wandering around. Coming to attack.

Adam opened his mouth to agree with Charles. But the more that he thought about it, the more he realized he wanted to stay
.
They had made a nice home here. Had found comfort. Laughter. How could he let that be taken away from them?

“I’m so confused,” he said. “I don’t know what to do.”

"Do you want to stay?" Charles asked.

Adam nodded. "But I also think that we should go."

"Hmmmm," Charles concluded.

And they left it at that.

*

As soon as the sun started to rise, Adam stood up from the ground and helped Charles get to his feet. "Well, that was easy," he said. "No sign of any of those guys."

"No," Charles agreed. "We got lucky."

Day 25

Chapter 1

Everyone was sleeping when they arrived, but Adam couldn't let them stay that way. He had to wake them up so that they could get going
…
if that's what they all still wanted to d
o
.

He, himself, wasn't all that sure anymore. After talking to Charles and thinking more about it, he didn't know that he wanted to leave. A part of him was telling him to stay, to fight for what was theirs.

He walked over to Claire and kissed her cheek.

"Morning already?" she asked.

"It is. Time to get up."

When everyone was awake, they met at their usual spot in the middle of the library.

"What's the plan?" Scooter asked.

Adam looked at him, though didn't answer the question. "I want to talk about something else first," he said. Everyone paid close attention. "Yesterday I know I said that we should leave. We need to find other survivors. We need to find safety. But I can't lie…part of me wants to stay here too."

"You do?” Claire asked.

"For a while anyway."

"And what about those men?" Julie asked, glancing out the windows. "What if they come back?"

Adam could see that they were all wondering about that. He had spent most of the night thinking about it as well. Though he always came back to the same conclusion.

"We fight them," he said. He spoke with conviction. With strength. He could see that no one else was as sure. "We have guns. We have supplies. We could do it."

They took time to think about his suggestion. Worried. Frightened.

It was Alice that finally broke the silence. The old woman ran her finger along his gun. "You mean we should kill them," she said. "Is that what you really want?"

It was a fair question
,
Adam thought
.
And, no, it wasn't really what he wanted
.
But he didn't want to keep running all of the time, either. He wanted to take a stand.

"It's not that," he said. "It's just…"

"He's right," Claire interrupted. "There are a lot of people out there who want to hurt us. No matter where we go, we'll run into them. We have to face them sooner or later. And, like Adam said, we have the guns and supplies. The school is a good place for us to fight."

"Better than being caught out in the open," Marianne added.

Adam nodded at her
.
Some of them were on his side
.
"What do you all think?" he asked. "Should we stay?"

Shelly answered first. "I want to."

Then Claire. "Me too."

Then Marianne. "And me."

Adam turned to Scooter, surprised that the young man hadn't said anything about it yet. "Are you okay with it?"

"I'm okay with it," Scooter replied. "Just a bit worried about how we're going to do it."

"We're all worried," Adam said, despite the fact that his voice conveyed his growing confidence. "But I know we can do it." He turned to Julie. She nodded. Charles and Alice agreed as well. "Then it's decided - we stay and fight!"

Adam looked around the library, searching for a way to barricade the room. There were several chairs and desks. They could move a few of the bookcases in front of the windows. They could...

“Hey!” a voice called to them. A man from outside. “You in there?”

"They're here already!" Julie cried.

Adam felt a lot of his confidence leave him. Though that didn't stop him from walking over to the window, gun steady in his hands. "Who's out there?" he shouted.

"Who's ou
t
her
e?
W
e
're out here. And pretty soon we're going to come in there to take what's ours."

"There's nothing of yours in here, so keep moving."

"Keep moving?" The man started to laugh. The others out there joined him.

Adam turned back to his group. At the sight of Claire and Shelly, he felt his resolve return. More than that, he felt his anger begin to course through him
.
He wasn't going to let anyone hurt them!

"All right," Adam said, "grab all of the guns."

Claire ran to them and handed them out. Julie took the one she had used in town. Marianne took one, deciding that her knife wasn't going to be much help anymore. Adam already had his own.

"I'll be fine with this," Scooter said, holding up his axe. Though the truth was there wasn't a gun for him to take anyway. Claire had taken the last one.

Claire handed out the ammunition next. When she was done, she looked over at Adam to tell him that they were ready.

Adam nodded, then shouted to the men outside, "If you try to come in, we'll kill you!"

"Oh, yeah?" the reply came. "With what?"

"With guns?"

"You'll shoot us?"

"Yeah, we'll shoot you."

There was more laughter. Then there was gunfire
.
A lot of it
.
But it hadn't come from Adam or any of his group.

Bullets shot in through the windows. They shattered the glass. The stuck into the walls.

Everyone dropped to the ground.

After a few moments, it stopped.

It was then that Adam could hear Emily screaming. He turned to look at her, thinking that she might have been hit. Instead, it was Alice. The old woman was lying on the floor, blood pouring out of a bullet that had slammed into her neck. She wasn't moving.

"Damn," Adam said. "Is anyone else hurt?"

"We're fine," Claire replied.

Emily continued to scream, but Adam couldn't worry about that now. He had to focus on the men outside. Unfortunately, from where he was on the ground, he couldn't see them. He didn't know how many of them were out there. Or how well they were armed.

"We didn't hit any of the pretty ladies, did we?" the man called in.

"Fuck off!" Scooter answered.

"Fuck off?" The man started to laugh again.

As had happened so many times before, Adam didn't know what to do
.
Where should they go? How could they defend themselves
?
He had no idea.

"How about you let the girls out?" the man outside continued. "And we'll let you men go free."

"Fuck off!" Scooter shouted again.

Adam glanced at Scooter, then turned to Alice. The old woman continued to bleed out onto the floor. Emily was still there, staring at her. Her screams had turned into more of a whimper as Julie cradled her in her arms.

He wasn't going to let anything else happen to them!

He motioned for Scooter and Claire to come to him. They crawled along the floor.

"I want you two to stay in this room," he said. You're going to have to protect the windows. Make sure that they don't come in. If you keep down, they won't be able to hit you."

"And what are you going to do?" Claire asked, concern in her voice.

"I'm going to go out into the halls. I have to make sure that they don't get in to the school. If they trap us in this room, we won’t stand a chance."

"I'll come with you," Marianne said. He hadn't heard her creep up to them. He looked at the woman. It was strange to see her holding a gun instead of her purse. He wasn't even sure if she knew how to use it.

"Okay," he said. "Come with me."

"What about me?" Shelly asked. She had also come up to them. "I want to do something."

Adam wasn't going to argue. Not this time. He wanted to keep her safe. But they also needed all the help that they could get. "Grab the rifle from Julie. I want you to guard the library door. Stand out front of it and keep an eye out for Marianne and I."

Shelly nodded.

"Julie," Adam yelled over to the woman. "Take the kids and go over there." He pointed to a part of the library that was sheltered. He didn't think that they would be in much danger there if the men started shooting again. "Charles, go with them. You have to help keep them calm."

"Sure," Charles crawled over to Robert and brought the little boy over to the spot that Adam had mentioned.

When they were settled, Adam turned back to his group. "All right, we can do this!" He felt like he was giving a pep talk to a football team
.
Except this wasn't a game.

Next, he and Marianne made their way over to the library door. Shelly came with them, gun in her young hands.

Adam opened the door and looked out of it. No one was in the hallway. He listened and couldn't hear anything.

"I don't think they're in the school yet," he said
.
Maybe the men weren't too sure about who was in here, what type of defences they had.

Adam looked at Marianne. "Ready?"

She nodded.

"I'll go to the left and check the stairwell. You take the right…but only to the end of the hall. All we need to do right now is make sure that they're not in the school."

Again Marianne nodded her head.

Then they were off.