Sleeper Cell Super Boxset (123 page)

That man didn’t care who she was, what she wanted from life, or how it made her feel. The man had no regard for the nightmares she’d had since that day or the number of pills she took to stop making her feel anything than the hate she filled her mind and heart with to replace the fear. He didn’t care about any of that. All he cared about was taking what he wanted.

Kalen knew the bikers in town were the same way. They rode in, killed who they wanted, and had zero regard for what it meant to own something, to work for something, to truly value something.

All of them were the same in Kalen’s mind. There was no difference between the face of the man in the forest and the faces of the bikers in town.

“Kalen, are you okay?” Mary asked.

Kalen was squeezing the rifle’s handle so hard that her arms were shaking. She suddenly became aware of the sweat on her face. Her knuckles had turned white, and when she removed her hand from the pistol grip on the front of the rifle she felt her skin peel off like Velcro.

“I’m fine,” Kalen said.

She wasn’t sure how much time she was going to get before her family realized she was gone. She knew that once her dad came home he’d come looking for them at the shooting stand, and when he saw they weren’t there he’d be worried.

That was the only thing weighing on her. She knew not coming back alive would hurt her family. She understood what it would do to her father, how it would change him, but this was her choice, and it was a choice she had the right to make.

***

The rifle still felt awkward for Mary. She wasn’t used to the weight or the feel of it. Kalen had explained as much to her about shooting as she could. She did her best to pay attention, to try and focus on the task at hand, but her mind wandered.

Thoughts of her mother, her father, and her sisters flashed like lightning strikes in her mind. Her imagination ran wild with the horrors the biker gang was committing on her mother.

At night she lay awake, still feeling the rocking of the bed she was on as her mom lay next to her with that biker on top of her. She could still hear his grunts, heavy breaths, the violent commands he barked at her, each syllable sending a tremor through her body.

The longer they walked, the more she questioned what she was doing. She knew it was fear that was fogging her mind. She tried focusing on the thought of protecting her sisters, but it didn’t seem strong enough to keep the fear at bay.

Mary kept a few steps behind Kalen the entire journey through the woods. She watched Kalen, observed how she moved, how she carried herself. The girl she saw the first day she arrived at the cabin was gone.

Mary remembered seeing how out of touch Kalen was. When she took Kalen back to her room where she passed out on the bed, she figured she was on some type of drug. Then when Mary found the bottle of pills in the nightstand, which were almost empty, it confirmed her suspicions.

When Mary told Kalen what happened to her family, she saw something change in Kalen. A switch flipped. Kalen’s resolve hardened. That’s what made Mary follow her. Mary was leaning on Kalen’s strength to help find her own.

“How do you do it?” Mary asked.

“Do what?”

“Act like you’re not afraid.”

“I don’t.”

“Well, you’re doing a good job of hiding it.”

“That’s just it. You can’t hide it. You can’t shove something that big into a corner without it being seen. So you expose it to the light for everyone to see, then instead of you being afraid of the fear, the fear becomes afraid of what you’ve done to unmask it. The fear yields to you.”

“What if you can’t control it?”

“Then it kills you. Either way, your struggle’s over.”

Was that her fate if she accepted her fear? She’d never been in any position like that her entire life. She’d never experienced the type of fear and pain that she’d felt over the past two weeks.

There was a time when the only things she was scared of were the final exams at school and seeing what she got on her report card.

But the lump in her throat wouldn’t give way, and the pit in her stomach wouldn’t fill up. What she was feeling was endless, and she couldn’t see a way out.

***

Frankie dumped the rest of the red fuel cans on the concrete next to the bikes. He managed to pull a total of twelve five-gallon cans from the mechanic’s shop.

“We can try and siphon some gas out of the cars, but aside from that, this is it, Jake,” Frankie said.

Jake counted the bikes in the row. Most of them still had some fuel left in the tank, but the majority of them were low. The ride from Cleveland drained a lot of the gas they had. The old bikes they rode here managed to survive the EMP blast because they didn’t have any microprocessors in them, but they also had terrible gas mileage.

“Any bike that’s below a quarter of a tank, fill it up. I want everyone able to ride,” Jake said.

Frankie grabbed two other members, and the three of them started checking the bikes’ fuel gauges.

Jake pulled out the map with the radius of how far the girls could have traveled. He figured they stayed close. There were a handful of cabins Frankie was able to find in the county office. He wanted to start hitting those first. If they traveled through the woods, it would be a good place to start.

Tank, Jake’s vice president of the club, came up behind him. Tank’s eyes were hidden behind his shades. His long gray beard was greased with grime and clumped together from weeks without a shower. His belly poked through the space between his cut, the buttons barely holding back the weight behind them.

“Jake, we need to talk,” Tank said.

The two men walked out of earshot of the rest of the club.

“I don’t know if this is the best time for us to be doing this,” Tank said.

“One of our brothers is dead. You don’t want to make sure whoever did this pays for that?”

“You really think those girls killed Garrett? C’mon, Jake. They’re long gone and starving somewhere in the woods.”

“Well, if they’re close by just sitting under the trees in the shade, they’ll be easy to find.”

Jake slammed his shoulder into Tank when he moved past him. Tank put his hand on Jake’s shoulder to spin him around, but Jake twisted the old man’s hand. Tank winced.

“We are going to find whoever did this. I don’t care what it costs us, you understand me? Diablos don’t let one of their own die without the bastards who killed them answering for their crime,” Jake said.

Jake let Tank’s hand go. Tank backed away slowly, both hands in the air, surrendering.

“Okay, brother. Okay,” Tank said.

“And you make sure the rest of the club knows that too,” Jake finished.

Keep the club together.
That’s what Jake needed to do. He couldn’t let his club waver now, not with what they had in front of them. He knew his men would need a distraction. If the group wasn’t heading somewhere, anywhere, with a goal in mind, they would fall apart.

Jake passed the pile of burnt bodies on the way to his room. For better or worse, he was their leader, and no matter what hell he brought on them, they’d follow him to the end. That was their brotherhood, a family of death.

***

The perimeter of the town was deserted. Kalen couldn’t see anyone on patrol. From what Mary had told her, the biker gang had men on watch around the clock.

When she double-checked the east end of the town, she figured they were either gone or focused on something important. Either way, they had a clear entrance.

When Kalen came back from scouting, Mary looked like she hadn’t breathed since she left.

“You ready?” Kalen asked.

Mary nodded her head quickly, avoiding Kalen’s eyes. Kalen grabbed Mary’s chin and pulled her face toward hers.

“We can’t have any doubts once we cross this line. I need to know now if you’re ready for this,” Kalen said.

“I’m ready.”

“All right then. Stay close behind me. I’ll find you a good spot with cover, and then I’ll position myself. I think they must be gathered together since there aren’t any patrols. Let’s go.”

The two girls left the cover of the tall grass and headed for the first building on the right side. They inched their way up the street, ducking behind cars, doors, anything large enough to hide behind.

Kalen kept glancing back at Mary, still behind her. Every time she checked to see if Mary was there, she expected her to be gone or frozen in the last spot she saw her. Kalen was having second thoughts about bringing her along. She needed someone who was willing to do what it took. She needed to have confidence in her partner.

A team was only as strong as the weakest link, and Mary wasn’t looking very strong. If Kalen’s life came down to Mary’s ability to keep her alive, it wasn’t going to end well. But it was a fate she’d come to terms with.

It was an odd feeling though, thinking about death with such indifference. Kalen never considered it before. It seemed so far away, like a dream you couldn’t remember.

The days of boys, parties, and going to college just weren’t a part of her reality anymore. The only thing that felt real was the rifle in her hands and the extra magazines loaded in her bag, smacking against her back as she pressed forward.

The motel sign was just ahead. Kalen recognized it from Mary’s description. When she saw the group of a dozen bikers starting their bikes, she whipped around to grab Mary’s attention.

“They’re leaving!”

But Mary’s eyes were focused on something in the courtyard of the motel. Kalen followed her line of sight to the pile of black and brown figures stacked around a pole. There was something tied to the pole, but she couldn’t tell what it was.

Mary stood up, oblivious of being seen. Kalen yanked her back down.

“What are you doing?” Kalen asked.

“That’s… a person… on the pole.”

Kalen peered through the scope on her rifle. When the object on the pole came into view, her stomach turned.

It wasn’t a person anymore. It was a charred piece of meat slumped over a pile of another dozen burnt bodies.

“Jesus,” Kalen said.

She wanted to look for a building with a second-story window to give them the advantage of higher ground, but she wasn’t sure if they’d have time now.

A few bikers had already started to weave through the parking lot and onto the street. When three of the bikers disappeared heading toward the west side of town, Kalen checked to see if the others would be joining them, but no one else showed.

“Must be a scout party,” Kalen said.

“What did they do to those people?” Mary asked.

“Mary, listen to me. I’m going to the other side of the motel. I’ll fire a few shots in the air to draw them out. When they do, you open fire, understand? If it gets bad, head back for the tall grass.”

“It was a woman tied up there.”

“Once you open fire, I’ll start taking them out on my side. We’ll bottleneck them. They’ll think there are more than two of us in the beginning, but that’ll only last for a little while.”

“There’s a reason she’s up there. Why is she up there?”

“Mary!”

Kalen shook Mary’s shoulders, trying to bring her back to the moment.

“You want to help that woman on the pole? The one they burned? The one they hurt? Shoot them, and don’t let up. Here,” Kalen said, giving her two of the loaded magazines. “If you need to reload you shove the magazine in like this, and rack the chamber. You’ll only need to do it once.”

Mary nodded.

“Remember, bring the rifle to your eyes, squeeze the trigger, don’t pull it, and be prepared for some recoil. It’ll hurt the first couple times,” Kalen said.

Kalen took off, leaving Mary behind one of the cars. She kept low, sprinting toward the other side. Once she was clear and caught her breath, she closed her eyes.

Focus. This is why you’re here. You can do this. You can do this. Just do it.

She aimed her pistol in the air, poised to fire the opening shots that would draw the bikers out, but just before she squeezed the trigger she stopped herself. She peeked back around the corner of the building she was hiding behind and saw the row of motorcycles that were still parked in the lot. She smiled.

“Might as well make an entrance.”

She brought the Harleys into her cross hairs and squeezed the trigger. The bullets blasted through two of the bikes closest to her, knocking them over.

Shouts from inside the rooms immediately followed. The bikers had their guns drawn, rushing outside. When Kalen heard the shots from Mary’s rifle, she ran for a parked car that had a better vantage point in front of the motel.

One of the bikers must have seen her because as soon as she ducked behind the car’s engine, she could hear the thud of bullets hitting the metal.

Be patient. Wait for your shot. Draw them out.

There was a break in the firing. Kalen jumped up from her cover. There were five of them she could see. The closest was out in the open, exposed. He tried to make a run for it, but Kalen had a bead on him.