After Days (The After Days Trilogy) (22 page)

Behind the two new arrivals, the
driver of the Hummer sat up straight in his seat and began screaming at the one manning the machinegun turret. The woman’s companion walked calmly to the soldier he had winged and stood over him, before coolly shooting him through the eye.

I recognized the woman now, it was Huian. I began to yell a warning as the turret on the Humvee swung towards her, but my voice was drowned out by the rapid fire of heavy machine guns. The helicopter’s weaponry was brought to bear on the
ground vehicle.

The Humvee jumped and quivered as it was torn to pieces by the armor piercing shells and forced forward into the gas pumps of the abandoned station. The hellfire ended after about thirty seconds. There was no movement in the smoking p
ile of twisted and chewed metal.   

             
Huian gave a thumbs up towards the helicopter and I looked over to it as two men dressed in urban camouflage uniforms opened the side door of the chopper. They unloaded a black motorcycle, then got back in and slid the door closed. Huian’s black uniformed companion approached her and they had a brief conversation before he ran back to the chopper and climbed in beside the pilot. The rotors started turning faster again and the chopper rose into the air, turning a tight arc before heading back in the direction from which it had come.

Huian
watched it go and then walked over to the motorcycle and kicked the stand up before pushing it into the shadows at the side of the gas station. She cast a glance back at the garage and then started walking directly towards us. Luke started to raise his crossbow but I put my hand on his arm and shook my head.

He lowered the weapon
, but I could tell he was tense after what he had just witnessed. I had the .38s in my pockets with my hands on them when she pulled open the door and stepped into the darkened interior of the gas station. She spotted us immediately and her hand dropped imperceptibly towards the pocket where she had deposited the pistol she had used so recently against her countrymen.

She stopped but made no move to draw it. She looked both
of us over in a quick and matter of fact way that I found somewhat unnerving. I could see she was assessing what, if any, threat we were to her. Even more unnerving was how she seemed to dismiss us as threats right away.

             
“I must speak with Sonny,” she said. “You follow him?”

             
“Actually, it is the other way around at the moment,” I said. “Sonny got hurt so I'm in charge until he's feeling better.”

             
“Hurt? What happened to him?” she asked, there was no effort to hide the concern her voice held.

             
“He was shot, when we went to get the truck you left for us,” I replied. “The bullet didn't hit anything vital but he lost a lot of blood.”

             
“But I called the watch teams away from there,” she said, surprise in her voice.

             
“Too bad you couldn't do the same with the Tigers,” I said. “They're the ones that shot him.”

             
“Damn it, I told him to be careful,” she said.

             
“I'm Isaac and this is Luke,” I said. “Luke, check if the road and sky are clear, then run and get Sonny for Miss Huian here.”

             
“Sure thing,” Luke said, looking Huian over much as she had looked us over.

I couldn’t help but do the same. Although she was unmistakably an adult she wasn't much taller than me, standing maybe five and a half foot, and her shoulder length black hair fell straight from beneath her tight fitting black cap.

Looking at her black uniform, I could see very few insignias except for the epaulettes on her shoulders. Each had a single gold star, the Chinese Army designation for the rank equivalent to a Major. She was thin, with small breasts, but there was nothing weak looking about her, and she moved with the easy grace of a cat getting ready to pounce on a mouse.

“How do you know my name?” Her raised eyebrow and the way her eyes drilled into me told me she was reassessing her first impressions.

              “I overheard part of your conversation with Sonny the other night,” I said. “Why are you here now?”

             
“As soon as word of the incident at the bridge came across the radio, I thought that it might be Sonny and his followers,” she replied. “I came to see if I could throw them off your scent again.”

             
“By killing a whole patrol
?
” I asked sarcastically. “How did you know that we were here? Although I am thankful for your timely appearance, you must admit that it looks suspicious.”

             
“I knew you were here,” she said with a slight shrug. “We intercepted real time satellite data of the bridge incident and its aftermath. I saw the truck pull into this filling station before our technician corrupted the data and passed it along to the proper department.”

             
“Who is ‘we’?”

             
“We are the group that tried to stop this whole tragedy from happening in the first place, and having failed in that, we are now working to make amends as best we can. We are ‘The Shadow Cloaked Seven.’”

             
“Seriously? That's what you call yourselves?” I asked, one of my eyebrows arching slightly.

             
“It sounds better in Mandarin,” she replied, anger at my light-hearted taunting touching her eyes. For the barest of moments I thought I saw her aura of supreme confidence slip a little. “Why you? Why are you the leader with Sonny injured?” She asked.

             
“I think it is because I was the leader of my own little band when we joined up with Sonny and his students,” I said. “After Sonny went down we held a vote to see who would be the one to make the decisions when they needed to be made. We knew we wouldn’t always have time to form a consensus. I was chosen. Although, right now I wish that they had chosen somebody else.”

             
“Why is that?”

             
“Two of our people are injured too badly for us to safely transport. We have to get out of here soon or risk being discovered, no offense to you for helping us, but your little massacre out there only makes things worse. It will only be a matter of time before they are missed. We have to move now. I just don't know what to do with Mark and John.”

             
“You should leave them behind,” she replied. “It is harsh, but sometimes as a leader you have to make hard decisions…decisions for the good of the group. Whatever you do, you need to do it as soon as night falls.

“
That’s as long as my group will be able to delay action in this quadrant. And believe me, I didn’t have a choice about the massacre, it was them or you, there was no way I would have been able to explain calling them off. Leave the two injured; if they do not fight back when the soldiers find them they will not be killed, in fact they will probably have their injuries tended to.”

             
I looked at her dubiously. I had a feeling that when the Chinese army arrived and found what was left of the patrol, they would not be kind to survivors, but I had no option but to trust what she said was true. We had no way to care for critically injured, but the very fact that I would have to rely on our destroyers ate at me.

“Tended to and then shipped off to be slaves?” I asked, not concealing the look of disgust on my face.

              “In the short term, yes,” She said. “But one thing my group is trying to do is to get the Government to recognize the freedom and rights of the children of America. It is too late to save the United States, but if we are successful, its descendants will be able to live as free and equal citizens of New China.”

             
“Jesus…New China? Seriously? I think the definition of freedom that American kids know is a bit different than what you bastards offer…” I said, bitterly. I saw hurt in her eyes, and I softened my tone.

“
Look, I know that you mean well, but you have to understand, your people murdered our country. Killed nearly everyone in it and there are still kids dying…babies. What did you think would happen when you killed mothers and fathers? China gave a death sentence to everyone that wasn’t old enough to look after themselves. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m never going to forgive that.”

             
“I understand you are angry, but resistance is futile, you have to try and adapt to survive, things can never go back to the way they were...” she said.

             
“Huian, what are you doing here?” Sonny's voice came from the door way, and we both looked over.

             
“I came to help if I could,” she replied, turning from me. I half expected her to run to Sonny, but they looked at each other with almost a sense of mistrust. “There's not a lot I can do, but if you tell me your route from here I can do my best to keep the searchers from zeroing in on you.”

             
“Well after that performance I’d say you just made things a lot worse for us, not better. I’m not telling you where we’re going, that might be just as dangerous as staying here.”

             
“You still don't trust me?” She asked. “Just give me the route for the next fifty miles then, after that you should be out of the search radius.”

             
“I honestly don't know who or what to trust anymore,” Sonny said, before looking over at me. “Isaac, can you give us a few minutes?”

             
“No problem,” I replied. “I'll go keep an eye on the others. I have some aspirin for John, it might help take the edge off.” I had decided I would give him the option of pain relief after explaining the dangers of blood thinning. I know I would want that choice if it were me in that much pain. I squeezed past Sonny where he still stood in the doorway and jogged back to the garage.

19

As much as I hated to admit it, Huian had given me plenty to think about with regards to my impending decision. In fact, she had brought up an excellent point about the leader putting the group ahead of any one of its members. When looked at from that point of view, I really didn't have a decision to make at all.

I just had to figure out how I was going to tell the others that we were going to have to leave Mark behind. I knew that it was the right... no… the only course of action that I could take, but that didn't make me feel any better about it. Maybe I'd ride up front with Sonny when we left, after all, I didn't think that I'd be able to sleep with the regret eating away at me. Being a leader was hard.

              “How's everybody doing?” I asked Samara, who was still crouched on the mat by the wounded.

             
“Mark woke up for a few minutes a while back,” she said, “he asked for some water and passed out again right after he drank it, I still don't think he knows how bad he's hurt.”

             
“I can't walk and my leg hurts like hell,” John replied for himself. “But I'm in better shape than him. What the hell were they shooting at us?”

             
“Vehicle mounted auto-cannon,” I replied, “probably armor piercing rounds.”

             
He shook his head.

“Here, these might help take the edge off, but they can thin your blood.” I pulled out one of the small bottles of aspirin and tossed it to John. “Don’t take a lot, just in case. I guess
we should be glad more of us didn't end up like Mark and Karen. You're lucky to only have a broken leg,” I said. “Although, I'm sure you don't feel very lucky right now.”

             
“I do actually; we all thought we were toast when we heard that helicopter outside and the shooting. What the hell happened?” he said.

I gave him and the others a brief version of the short but nasty clash between Huian and the patrol. John whistled, “They took out a whole patrol? No wonder she told us to get the hell out of Dodge.”

              While Luke and I had been searching the gas station, Sonny had straightened John's leg out as best he could and duct taped a couple of short lengths of two by four to each side of the break, a makeshift splint to keep it straight. It would probably work for now, but the break had looked really bad, and if he didn’t have any other problems like internal bleeding or infection, I doubted if he would ever walk again without a limp. It had looked to me like the type of break that would require rods and pins to hold the bone together. 

I'll give him the choice, I thought, stay and maybe the Chinese can fix his leg right, or come with us and remain free but at a cost of maybe never walking right again. It was a choice that the unconscious and more gravely injured Mark would not be getting.

              John took a couple of the aspirin and washed it down with water. I glanced through the open back door of the truck and saw that Indigo and Allie were both curled up in sleeping bags on top of the raised mat that we had initially set up for Sonny.

They seemed to be sleeping so I decided to
leave them for the time being and continued on around the truck. Near the front of the truck I found Ben and Brooke. Brooke was seated on a small wooden crate, one of the many things lying around the garage. Ben was sitting cross legged on the floor next to her. Brooke looked up and smiled as I approached.

             
“How's the ankle?” I asked.

             
“Oh, it's feeling much better since Ben taped it,” she replied. “Not going to be running sprints any time soon, but I can walk on it with no problem. I think I just turned it, not even sprained.”

             
“Good to hear,” I said, nodding. “How about you, Ben? How are you holding up?”

             
“What's that term you American’s say? Keep on trucking...well I'm trucking,” Ben said, glancing up at me. He looked exhausted.

             
“We're not bugging out of here until nightfall,” I said.

I explained quickly what had happened outside. I was surprised by Ben’s lack of response, he was clearly emotionally and physically exhausted. “Why don't you both try to get some rest in the meantime? It looks like
Allie and Indigo are already asleep in the back of the truck, I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you two joined them.”

             
“What about you?” Brooke asked. “You look like you need to sleep at least as much as we do.”

             
“I plan on trying to get some sleep when we leave,” I mumbled, trying not to think about Mark. How would I be able to sleep knowing what had to be done? I had a feeling that even when I got to rest, sleep would be a long time coming.

             
“Something's wrong,” Ben said. He was looking at me keenly, suddenly more alert now that he sensed a friend’s distress. “There is something that you're not telling us.”

             
I felt my shoulders sag as I leaned against the front passenger side fender of the truck; the metal was dented and scraped from the ricochet off of the Chinese vehicle back at the bridge. I looked at Ben and Brooke, started to say something and then stopped, unsure really how to start.

             
“Well, spit it out.” Ben said.

             
“Mark is hurt too badly for us to properly care for,” I said, looking at the ground instead of at them. “We are going to leave him behind, and John too if he wants, in hopes that the Chinese will find them and provide any needed medical treatment.”

             
“That makes sense to me,” replied Ben. “If Brooke or I was too injured to carry on, that is what I'd want you to do with us. As long as there is life there is hope, even for a prisoner.”

             
“Just because it makes sense doesn't make me feel any better about it. I feel like an asshole for even considering it, let alone going through with it. The Chinese aren’t known for their sense of compassion. It could be a death sentence. Plus, I don't think Luke will like the plan, it'll grate on his ‘hero’ attitude, always wanting to save everybody.”

             
“Luke's the one that convinced everybody to make you the leader,” Brooke said. “He'll keep following you even if you make a decision that he doesn't agree with, it's not as though he's some sort of wanker.”

             
“I've heard that word used before, but I'm not really sure what it means.”

             
“What word, wanker?” Brooke said with a slight laugh.

             
“Yeah.”

             
“Well, it literally means, 'one who wanks' and wanking is, you know, playing with yourself... jerking off,” Ben said, trying to hide a smirk that was starting to form around the corners of his mouth. “We generally don't use it that way though, we use it to mean something like you Americans mean when you call a person a jerk.”

             
“Ah, got it,” I said, nodding with understanding. “Wanker, I like that word.”

             
“Who's a wanker?” Luke asked, coming around the front of the truck.

             
“No one, Ben and Brooke were just giving me an English lesson.” I put my hand on his arm. “We should talk about Mark, You're probably not going to like this, but he won’t be able to come with us.” I told him my plan. His face darkened while I spoke and the deep frown on his face told me I was right about him not liking it, but so was Brooke when she had said he would accept my decision nonetheless.

              In the end, with some dissent, the others in the group also agreed that leaving Mark behind was the best course of action for the good of everybody, although nobody particularly liked the idea.

Samara
decided to stay too. She wanted to remain behind and watch over him, despite the fact that we all tried to talk her out of it. Much to my surprise, John also decided to stay and allow the Chinese to capture him in hopes of having his leg fixed up properly.

“Who knows, if they fix me up, maybe I can gather some information that can be used in the future. I know roughly where I will be able to find you guys if everything works out.”

I felt better about leaving Mark now that John had elected to stay, although I didn’t hold out much hope that I would ever see any of them ever again. We tried to talk Samara into coming but she was adamant, and I could tell that it wasn’t only for selfless reasons.

It was clear that she was tired of running. We unpacked some food and water to leave with them while they waited fo
r the Chinese army to find them and I left the other small bottle of aspirin with John as well. I offered to leave them a weapon too, but was declined; John and Samara felt their chances were better if they were found unarmed.

             
Sonny had come back into the garage about twenty-five minutes after I left him in the station with Huian. I heard her go, the high powered motorcycle was loud, and she was clearly in a hurry. He told us that she'd try and delay the discovery of the missing patrol until the next morning, hopefully giving us plenty of time to get away if we left at nightfall, as we planned.

He looked unhappy and I guessed that his feelings for her still ran deep. He said he was feeling up to driving for a while, but it was decided that I'd ride up front with him to spell him if he needed it. Knowing that I had a long night ahead, and that my decision about leaving the wounded was made for good or ill, I finally managed to lie down and fall asleep for a few hours.