The McClane Apocalypse Book 4 (46 page)

A few of the family from
inside the house start emerging to join them. Hannah will stay
inside with the children to ascertain their safety and reassure
them of their security. Likely the gunfire had awakened those who
were still asleep if Hannie hadn’t already done so to help them
hide. John is embracing Reagan affectionately under one of the
lights. Simon is on his knees beside his
sister,
his rifle discarded
haphazardly near him. Sam joins him there, kneeling and supporting
Paige’s head. She is just coming around. Her light eyes are
unfocused.

Grandpa comes over to the cluster of
family members. Condo Paul has another man held at gunpoint. He’s
bleeding from his right shoulder. Nobody offers the man assistance
to slow it.

“Everyone ok?” Derek
quickly
inquires
after the family.

“Yes,” Sue replies as she hugs her
husband around his waist and cries unashamedly.

“We’re just fine, Derek,” Grandpa
declares. “Were these the men from the clinic
yesterday?”

Derek leads Sue a few feet away, and
Kelly nods to Grandpa to answer his inquiry before jogging away
again. He’s going back to the porch to ascertain that the fire is
completely out.

“Crap,” John notes, “the house took a
beating.”

“It’ll be easy to repair,” Grandpa
says reassuringly.

Sam’s not sure if it will
be or not, or if Grandpa is just trying to make everyone feel
better about their beloved home. It looks scorched and black,
charred to a crisp. She’s not even sure if it is safe to
walk
on the porch deck or
stairs
to get in the back door. John offers
a comforting,
strong
hand to Grandpa’s shoulder in return for the
motivational words regarding their home.

Reagan joins her on the grass near
Paige’s head and takes over. Sam stands and backs away, giving the
doctors space to work with Simon’s sister.

This was not a random
attack. These men had outmaneuvered them. They’d allowed the
soldiers to leave the farm abandoned and had waited for their
opportunity to strike. How had they found them, though? She’s not
sure where the escapees are going, but she is quite sure that the
men in the family will apprehend them soon. Single gunshots ring
out periodically for the next few minutes. Sam believes the men are
finishing off the wounded. They’ve left one man alive to be
questioned, but the rest are being killed and put out of their
misery. It’s a brutal act, one that she’s not so sure Simon’s
sister or friends would approve of since they are new to the
family. But Sam especially understands the importance of
annihilating their enemy
absolutely
. These men had come here to
kill them, rape them, God knows what else. They had formed an army
of over fifty people before and built up a stronghold at the Target
store. They could do so very easily again if they are allowed to go
free. Again she wonders what Grams would think of this? Would she
want them to show these injured men mercy or finish them off? She
misses her so. She misses the wise counsel she offered the family,
the humanity behind her reasoning, and most of all, her warm
hugs.

Talia and Bertie have also
joined them from the house. Sam
hugs
them both, each offering the other
what small amount comfort they can.

“Where’s the other lady?” Sam asks
Talia because she can’t remember the woman’s name who has been
staying at the Reynolds’ place. She must be even more traumatized
than she was last night when the men had rescued her from Tim
Lafferty’s cabin in the woods. She has been through quite the
ordeal.

“Vicky is in the basement with Hannah
trying to get the kids to calm down,” she explains
patiently.

“I’ll go in and help,” Sue volunteers
as she comes over to them. She has settled down considerably under
the care of her devoted husband. “Hey, are you ok, Sam? You look
pretty banged up, sweetie.”

“Oh, yeah, I just slipped and fell
down in the driveway,” she stammers, not wanting or needing any of
the family’s worry. There are bound to be more important issues to
deal with tonight other than just her own clumsy
foolishness.

“Well, all right, honey, but you’d
better let Reagan or Simon get you cleaned up later,” Sue tells her
and pushes a lock of Sam’s hair back, tucking it behind her ear
affectionately before jogging over to the house.

“Hey, where’s Gavin?” Talia asks
her.

“Oh, I’m not sure. Let’s
ask John if he saw him. He went that way after he left me and Simon
on the hill,” Sam suggests as they walk past Simon and
Grandpa,
who are
both now helping Paige to sit up very slowly. She’s awake again,
thank goodness. His sister looks very surprised to be on the
ground, so Sam believes that she’s just had her bell rung, as the
men always phrase it.

“John, where’s Gavin?
Didn’t you see him at the front of the house?” Sam asks when they
find him in the crowd. Reagan and he have
parted,
and she is now looking at
Chet Reynolds, who has been shot.

“Just grazed your shoulder blade,
Chet,” Reagan is saying as they pass her. “Hey, Talia! Give me a
hand here, would ya’? Let’s get him and Paige over to the
shed.”

“Sure, but where’s Gavin?” Talia
inquires again.

John averts his eyes and then says,
“I’ll find him.”

“Oh my God!” Talia exclaims. “Where is
he? Is he dead? Where is he?”

“Stay here. Let John find him,” Reagan
orders her.

Grandpa rubs his forehead roughly and
asks, “Any others wounded, John?”

“We lost a
few,
and a few are
injured,” John recounts with a furrow of his brow. “This place is
about to be bombarded with shot up men. They’ll probably bring
whatever women or kids are left over there to our town until we can
get them set up permanently and get it all straightened
out.”

Grandpa nods with understanding.
“Right. Let’s get moving, people!”

Chapter Twenty-two

Cory

His injured horse is tucked
away safe and secure in a dilapidated,
run-down
barn just outside of the
Columbus city limits. They are within a few miles or so of the city
and well within the areas that he will raid. Damn Dog is with him
tonight on this run. He’s curious to see what this farthest
northwest side of the city has to offer.

He and the dog stick to
side streets and as close to the walls of buildings as possible to
avoid being seen. Last night hadn’t gone as well as he’d have liked
since assholes had shot his horse, so he’s hoping for better luck.
Voices in the distance catch his attention, and he and the dog come
to an instant halt near a McDonald’s restaurant complete with the
indoor play place. What he wouldn’t give for a box of grease
sticks, otherwise known as French fries. Or a milkshake, he
reminisces. That would be good about now, too. And just to mock
him, his stomach
gurgles
loudly in protest at missing lunch and dinner.
Damn Dog cries softly.

“Shut up,” he growls in a subdued
tone. “You got your dinner, remember?”

She hangs her head in shame
as they continue to move forward. He’d
caught
a rabbit earlier this
afternoon in a snare and had given the whole thing to her. He’d
been too busy tending to Jet’s gunshot wound to be bothered with
the rabbit. They’d
made
the trek away from the zoo and found a farm where
they can rest a day or two. He’d
risen
before dawn and grabbed the rest
of the medical stash in the veterinary clinic. A group of people
had shown up at the zoo midmorning, and he highly doubts they were
there to tour it and gaze at caged animals. He didn’t stick around
to find out. They were likely just using it as either a shortcut to
get somewhere else or as a temporary shelter like he had.
He’d
led
his limping horse and the dog away as quickly as he could. He
hadn’t even had enough time to snag a chicken or duck in the
process, but he had grabbed a few flakes of hay. Getting the
stallion to safety was priority number one, so he had no time to
venture around too long before invaders had ascended on his
peaceful reprieve.

The sound of voices is
getting closer, so Cory opens the door to one of the taller
buildings, an office building of some sorts and
slinks
inside. A rabbit
scurries in front of them, but Damn Dog doesn’t try to pursue it.
Cory bypasses the security check-in station and uses the escalator
that hasn’t moved in years. The building is like something out of a
scary movie where zombies roamed the earth and humans were
the
minorities
. He half expects a hoard of them to come tumbling down the
non-moving stairs of the escalator. Dim moonlight rains down
through the skylights one story above. There aren’t any dead bodies
anywhere which leads Cory to believe that this place was where
people had worked and had stopped showing up for said work soon
after the first series of tsunamis. Most folks
simply
stopped reporting to
their jobs once they realized that it was more important to stay
home and defend their families and forage for food and supplies. A
flock of barn swallows swoop
on
him and the dog. She barks once and
tries to catch one in her jaws. Cory
chuckles
at her. Nothing surprises him
anymore. He’s seen all manner of wildlife in commercial buildings
and homes since the fall. There are no clear boundaries for animals
to understand where they should and shouldn’t go.

“You’re a real badass, aren’t you?” he
mocks. Damn Dog just replies with a sloppy, wet grin.

Once they are up on an
elevated position on the second floor, Cory can spy down on the
remains of the small neighborhood through an office window. He uses
his binoculars. If he
would’ve
continued straight down that
street, he and the dog would’ve come to a gated community less than
a mile away. Gated would not exactly be the right word for it.
There is a barricaded street where two men in military clothing
stand guard with rifles. The area is cordoned off with high-tensile
fencing like they use in the cattle pasture back at the farm. It’s
not really good for keeping anyone out, but those two guys with the
guns look capable with them. Several lanterns that appear to be gas
powered are at the top of the two
primary
entry fence posts. Questions
start whirring through his mind.

His dog growls low in her
throat and backs up two steps. The sound of something out in the
hallway being accidentally bumped into alerts Cory that they are no
longer alone. He crosses the room, skirts around a desk and a
tipped over
filing
cabinet and
listens
near the door, his back to the
wall.

A person crosses the threshold, and
Cory pokes the tip of his rifle into the man’s back.

“Freeze, fucker,” he demands with open
hostility. “How many are with you?”

“Nobody!” she says hastily. “It’s just
me!”

Cory yanks her hood down from her
coat, revealing a full head of blonde hair pulled back into a
ponytail.

“Hand me your weapon,” he
orders.

Cory is surprised when she gives over
a simple dagger from her waist. “Turn around.”

When she does, he gives her a quick
pat down looking for more weapons. “What the hell are you doing
running around the city at night with just a knife?”

She bites her upper lip and
shrugs.

“Nobody’s with you?” he asks and peeks
out the door again.

“No, I told you,” she answers. “I
snuck out, ok? Shit! My dad’s gonna kill me.”

“Where did you sneak out from?” he
asks of her. She can’t be more than fifteen or sixteen. She’s way
too young to be trying to creep around a city by herself with
nothing more than a knife.

She begs, “Please don’t hurt me,
mister.”

“What?” he asks with incredulity. “I’m
not going to hurt you. Where do you live? I’ll make sure you get
back home safe.”

Without asking permission, she goes to
the window and points. “See? Down there? That’s my town. My whole
family lives there.”

“That’s your town? How many people
live there?”

“Oh, um, I think we have around
seventy families now,” she reveals. “What’s your name?”

“Cory,” he answers curtly.

“What’s your last name,
Cory?”

“Doesn’t matter. We’re not
here to make friends. I’m taking you back,” he states.
Hopefully,
those
sentries don’t decide to fill him full of holes. But he can’t leave
this kid out here unsafe and unprotected from potential jackasses
who would hurt her. “Let’s go,” he barks with anger.