Revolution (14 page)

             
"It'll be great,"
he
said with as much spark as
he
could muster. "
It's the perfect hideout, plus Pastor and the others had quite a stash of supplies we had to leave behind there. It should help."
             
"Food?"
I
asked excit
edly
.
I felt the pulse jump in my neck.

             
"Yep. A couple crates if it."

             
I sighed and sagged against him. "Oh, thank God. I was so worried about feeding everyone. That helps some." I turned my
head to lay against his, my side
to his front. He rubbed his nose against my forehead, breathing me in.

             
We heard s
creeching tires and looked up
. The Jeep
was swerving and br
aking swiftly. I gasped as it went up on two wheels trying to avoid whatever was in the road.
Merrick pressed me to the seat along with Lily with his outstretched arm.

             
Je
ff cursed and slammed on the br
ak
e
s, too. The van behind us did the same. The stench of burnt rubber filled the van, but I was barely breathing waiting to see what was going on. Merrick and Jeff both cocked their heads at the same time. Ryan was talking to them. Jeff cursed again and yelled, "It's a trap!"

             
Merrick nodded, his eyes unfocused as he listened or spoke Keeper talk. I held my breath. Cain's door opened, then Ryan's. That was when I saw the dark object on the pavement. It was a body…

             
Then people jumped out of the ditch with guns, yelling and pointing, crouching as they barked orders like a military mission. The body from the pavement lifted fluidly and bounced on its toes. It was a girl, or woman I should say, and she was smiling. She trailed her fingers across Cain's chest in a cocky
Nana B
ooboo
motion, but that was so stupid. I held in my cringe when he grabbed her around her neck and swung her to hold her hostage against his chest.

             
The ditch men traded glances that said
I
s she worth the fight?
What was this? Some elaborate
,
but apparently horribly thought out plan to what? Rob us? I rolled my eyes and huffed. Idiots. I guessed people were just desperate.

             
But when they started moving toward the van, toward Lillian and Ellie, Cain was done playing. He tossed the woman aside, probably because they didn't seem too worried about her anyway, and clotheslined the guy closest to him.
Daniel blurred passed the van to help Cain with Max on his tail.

             
"Ah, crap," Jeff complained and opened his door just as Merrick was opening his. "Stay here with Billings, sweetheart."

             
"You, too," Merrick said
to me
and they both blurred to Cain's side. Ryan had jumped out of the Jeep, too
,
and was already helping keep the guy
'
s friend
s off Cain. Though
he
didn't seem to need much help. He kicked one guy in the guts and then punched another in the throat. They both went down and the other robbers looked around in question. The Keepers yelled back and forth with them, probably trying to get them to join us or something.

             
The knock on my window startled Lily and I both. I glared at Danny before cracking the door to talk to him. "Don't sneak up like that."

             
"Sorry. What's going on?" he asked and looked at the fight as if he wanted to join them.

             
"Someone tried to rob us or something," I mused and squeezed a sleeping Lily on my lap. "What are you doing?"

             
"Just seeing if they needed help."
He glanced at Billings. "Why aren't you helping?"

             
"Woman and children duty," he said calmly.

             
"Uhuh. Well, I guess I'll- oomph," Danny cut off and I looked up just in time to see him get tackled. I scrambled to the window to see and saw Danny
slap the guy's face and compel
him to ro
ll over and play dead
. He got up furious.
"Hell
'
s bells, man!"
             
Merrick blurred
to us
and puffed an aggravated breath. "Sorry. They didn't believe us. They think we're trying to trick th
em into showing us where they're
staying. I don't know what we're going to do with them."

             
Billings leaned over Marissa and yelled, "Hog tie 'em"!

             
Merrick and Marissa shared a look before she said, "For once, I'd go with what this one says. Let's just secure them and leave them."

             
"I take offense to that, but I'll help anyway," Billings spouted indignantly and got out.

             
"She fell asleep, huh?" Merrick asked, looking at Lily.

             
"Yep. Girl can sleep through a freight train."

             
"Good," he said wryly. "She needs to learn to sleep with fifty other people in the room with her."

             
"Me, too," I grumbled. I looked out to see them tying the guys, back to back. "What was up with them?"

             
He huffed and leaned his big tan arms on the window. "They thought we were part of the Enforcers. They think you guys were prisoners and we took all of your stuff. They were about to pull a Robin Hood act and steal it for themselves and the other misfortunates."

             
"Others?"

             
"They claim to have a big pile of people somewhere. Whether it's true or not, we can't risk trying to join forces. We just need to get where we're going and settle in first."

             
"Yeah." I shook my head. "Wow."

             
"Let me make sure everything's situated and then we'll go."

             
I nodded and stroked Lily's hair. When it was a common, mundane event to have to tie up strangers and leave them on the side of the road, you knew things had gotten bad.

             
We pulled up in front of a seriously busted up wooden warehouse looking… thing. Merrick was right. Danny had destroyed the place. Jeff and Pastor went first to make sure that no one had found the basement and all the resistance goodies they'd been collecting.

             
I hugged Lily's sleeping body to mine. I wondered how all of this was going to work. As I stepped out of the van with Merrick's help, I looked toward the town to see billows of black and gray smoke hugging the sky. Cain and the rest of them followed my line of sight and we all gawked at the sight.

             
Then I gasped when a Marker came into view
in the distance
. Then another. Merrick grunted and strained to see better. Was this real? Markers flying right over the town, not even trying to hide?

             
I looked up at Merrick for answers, but I could tell by his face that he had none.
I felt my arms tighten on my precious cargo out of instinct. Things really were going to hell.

             
Jeff and Pastor gave the all clear and we all eased out of the vehicles and climbed a ladder to the roof. Merrick took Lily from me and jetted the ladder with ease. It was impressive to say the least.

             
We got a better look at the city now that we were higher and it didn't make it look any better. The smoke and haze covered it completely and it was wide and encompassing. "We'll talk about it," Merrick said and
urged me to his side as he woke Lily to get us into the tunnel. "Let's do one thing at a time and get all this stuff inside first."

             
I nodded and made myself look away from the destruction of Effingham. All those people. Something bad was happening. No wonder those people tried to rob us. Things were way worse off than we thought.

             
We followed them over to the elevator and took
turns going down. The stairs were
a sore subject it seemed and Danny's face turned red and angry when I asked if we could just take them instead. So I didn’t bring it up again.

             
It was quite a trip and once we arrived, I wasn't really impressed, as bad as that sounds. I thought there would be some semblance of rooms or separation, but there literally was none. It was one big room with a couple of doors that I assumed were closets
or storage sheds
.
Merrick immediately went to the stairs and began to put stuff in front of it to block it. He laid a chair sideways and then threw a broom and box on top of that. He turned to look at everyone. "No one goes on the stairs under any circumstances."

             
"Duh," Rylee spouted and then yelled at someone for messing with her 'things'.

             
"Now, Rylee," her father admonished. "Just because we lived here first doesn't mean you can claim everything as
yours
." She huffed and pulled the chair away from Elli
e
anyway. She plopped herself down and crossed her arms violently. "Ok, home sweet home," he announced and sighed as we all looked around. "We better just be happy to have a roof over our heads, yeah?"
             
"Even if it could collapse at
. A
ny
.
M
oment," Rylee said looking at the roof with disdain. We all glanced up. It looked sound and safe to me. I got it. She was speaking figuratively.
Ah…

             
"
All right," Jeff said and swiped his face with a hand, "it's been a long day. Let's get settled in, guys."

             
Merrick was walking all
around the crates in the middle of the room. They were marked "Ca
nned
Goods
" and "
Explosives". There were lots of them. "Where did you get all this stuff from?" he asked Pastor.

             
"Well," he drawled and smiled, "the Lord provideth."

             
"So you're not going to tell me," he remarked and scowled.

             
"Oh, I'll tell you, but I don't think you'll believe me." He laughed. "We were walking down the road toward this place. Well not toward it, just walking. They were more of us then," he said sadly and then went on. "We had just about used every resource we had. No food was left and we were basically looking for a place to die peacefully. And then there they were. They were sitting smack dab in the middle of the road."