Bitter Cold Apocalypse 2 (A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller) Page 15

  We’d chosen men of all ages, but we’d worked hard to choose only those who we thought had the best chance of coming back. We needed men who were strong and healthy and willing—but we also wanted men who were smart and quick enough that they’d be able to get through the coming day or two without getting caught. Or killed.

  “Whatever we do, it’s going to have to be subtle,” I had told the others. “We’re going to be outnumbered, regardless, so we’re going to have to find a way to sneak into town, right under Randall’s nose. So I need men who can be quiet and crafty. I need men who can sneak. Not ones who have to stomp and yell.”

  That had immediately crossed several of the more rambunctious men off the list, and we’d quickly decided that we would tell them we were leaving them here to help Angie with controlling and protecting the crowd.

  It was only half a lie. Because the further we got into planning, the more I started to realize that we were going to be leaving a huge vulnerability here, with the women and children and the elderly. Yes, we were going to be attacking Randall and his men, and theoretically they would all be in town when we got there, and then would all be engaged in the battle with us.

  Theoretically, they wouldn’t know where we’d stuck the more vulnerable of us. And they wouldn’t have time to go searching.

  But…

  I’d dealt with Randall, and I’d found him to be far more clever than one would expect. He’d been able to chase us through the snow and ice when he shouldn’t have known where we were going, and he’d been able to catch up with us when he shouldn’t have. Then he’d managed to gather enough men to actually attack the village—with weapons they should never have had.

  I wasn’t willing to say that he was more intelligent than us. But he had something working on his side that made it impossible to trust that things would go our way.

  I was going to feel a whole lot better knowing that we were leaving ten armed men here to make sure they didn’t go Randall’s way, either, if any of his men happened to guess that we were sheltering our vulnerable at Marlon’s estate.

  In the end, we counted eighty men and women who we thought we could take with us. It was a fair number, and though we were certainly going to be outnumbered, we were also counting on sneaking into town and taking them by surprise. And in that situation, it wasn’t the numbers that mattered.

  It was how quiet we could be on our way in, and how quickly we could jump on them. Get there quietly enough so that they didn’t even see us coming, and it wouldn’t even be a fair fight.

  Which was exactly what I was hoping for.

  I looked up from the list and caught Marlon’s eye, then looked to Bob. “Any idea how we’re going to be able to sneak this many people into town?” I asked.

  Bob shook his head, but I saw Marlon wearing the look that meant he had something on his mind.

  “What?” I asked. “Speak. Share it with the class.”

  He grinned at me. “I have a few ideas, but I’m still working on them. I promise I’ll share them as soon as I feel they’re developed.”

  Well, that would have to be good enough for now. Besides, I didn’t have time to sit around waiting for him to give in. I had a wife and daughter to say goodbye to before we started our march back to town.

  “Remember,” Angie said, squeezing me tightly. “You promised to come back to me.”

  I squeezed her back, then put an arm out and pulled Sarah into the hug. “And you know I always keep my promises,” I said roughly, fighting the tears that were threatening at the thought of leaving them. “You can take that to the bank.”

  Angie stood back. “You know, I’ve never really understood that saying. Why would you take a promise to the bank? And what exactly would you expect to get out of it?”

  I could see that she was joking to try to relieve the stress of the moment, and I let her have it. Because I wouldn’t have traded places with her for the world. I’d never been on her side. Never had to sit and watch someone walking away from me, knowing that they might not come back. Knowing that they were putting themselves in danger so that I didn’t have to—but that it might cost them their life.

  I couldn’t imagine doing it. So I wasn’t going to make light of the fact that she got to sit around in the house while I was off doing God knew what.

  Besides, I wasn’t stupid. I knew how much danger we were leaving them in. And yes, we were leaving armed men to protect them. But ten armed men against whoever Randall might send…

  It might not be enough. I was terrified that it wouldn’t be enough.

  I reached out and ran my fingertips gently down her cheek, trying to memorize her face. The bright, burning hair, and those intensely blue eyes. The full lower lip that grew firm only when she was really convinced of something. The way she tilted her chin up to try to accommodate for her short height—and the way she could take on anyone, without fear.

  She was the best part of me, the best part of my life, and God, I wished she was coming with me. Wished I could keep her by my side, to give me the strength I was going to need. But I knew that taking her would come with its own set of problems.

  Because the moment I brought her into the picture, I would have to start protecting her. And I might not have the time or ability to do that once the bullets started flying.

  “This is the safest place for you,” I said gently. “But please promise that you won’t go looking for trouble. Don’t do anything stupid. Don’t do anything brave. Don’t try to be a hero.”

  She leaned into my hand, smiling tenderly. “I would tell you the same thing. But I know you can’t keep from doing it. Just come back to me after you’re done with all your heroics, and we’ll call it even, eh?”

  I nodded, then kissed her gently on the forehead. I turned and kissed Sarah, telling her to take care of her mother, and then turned and joined the rest of the men.

  And I walked away without looking back. Because I knew that looking back would be way harder than anything I had to do in that town.

  28

  The march back through the forest was quicker this time, with fewer people to watch out for and all of those people being not only adults, but also in fairly good shape. We kept to a tight pack, our eyes on the forest around us, our hands on our guns, and Marlon and I traded places at the front and back of the pack to keep everyone in line.

  But we didn’t see anyone. No spies from Randall’s camp, no lookouts, no one trying to attack us. We didn’t even see any animals this time, and for that I was grateful. The last thing I wanted was to get into another hand-to-hand fight with wild animals that had gone crazy with the weather phenomenon.

  Actually, the last thing I wanted was to see any sign of Randall before we were ready.

  In the end, I got that wish. Mostly. Because we didn’t see any sign of him until we got back to our original campsite.

  The barn was still in the same place, looking just as dilapidated and run-down in the light of day as it had in the middle of the night. More so, now that we could see exactly how bad it was. The roof had almost completely fallen in, and the walls were more empty space than wood. Given the lack of shelter and the weather we’d been having, I thought as we walked up to it, we were damn lucky no one had frozen to death the one night we’d stayed in there. And we’d definitely been right to think that we couldn’t stay any longer than that. This old structure would never have been enough protection—and from what I was seeing, we would have been running a high risk of it actually falling on us at any moment.

  Still, this was the place we’d chosen to regroup before we started with our plan to retake the town, so this was where we were going to be stuck for the time being. The sun was still up and the day was relatively warm, which meant that the lack of shelter would be less damaging, at least.

  Then we got into the barn itself and realized that this place wasn’t actually safe. It wasn’t safe at all.

  We hadn’t left much here the morning we marched out, since the people had be
en up early enough to pack everything, and we’d known for a fact that we would need every supply we could get our hands on during our journey. So it wasn’t like there was a bunch of trash strewn across the ground or anything like that.

  But what we had left had been completely ripped apart.

  Like I said, it wasn’t much. But a couple of people had left some clothes behind, and there had been trash from snacks, as well as the remains of about fifty small fires and three enormous ones. And all of it was decimated. The trash was picked apart, the clothing had been absolutely shredded, and the fire pits…

  “What did they think we’d done, hidden our escape plans underneath the fire pits?” I asked, mystified.

  They looked like they’d taken bulldozers to each of the sites, digging into the snow and soil underneath and turning it over like they’d been looking for buried treasure. The entire place was a mess of mud and slush now, most of it freezing over again as the temperatures had dropped.

  “Randall,” Marlon said, his voice tight.

  I looked at him in silent agreement. It was the only answer, not only because we were in the middle of nowhere but because they’d obviously been searching for something.

  “Maybe they were just trying to make sure we couldn’t use them again if we came back,” Bob observed quietly. “Trying to ruin the campsite so we’d have to start over again?”

  “Possibly,” I answered. It did make sense.

  Or it would have for anyone more rational than Randall. Anyone who thought ahead in that sort of manner.

  When it came to Randall and his cousins, though, I expected pettiness over forethought, and outright mean behavior over anything rational. I was betting they’d done it just because they were pissed they hadn’t gotten here in time and needed to take it out on someone—or something.

  “I’m just glad we got the people out of here before they arrived,” I finally said. “And since they’ve already been here, I don’t think they’ll be back. Even someone as stupid as Randall had to see that we’d passed through here but weren’t planning to return. If he’s still searching for us, he’ll be searching somewhere else.”

  It was good news as far as us still using this barn as a base. I just hoped that if Randall and his men had moved on to searching some other location, that it wasn’t anywhere close to Marlon’s house.

  Still, I turned to the rest of the group, trying to keep our momentum. We were here and we were mostly ready. I didn’t have time to start worrying about the people we’d left behind now. We needed to do what we’d come here to do.

  “The good news is that we got here early,” I told the group. “It’s going to mean a long afternoon of waiting, but it gives us some time to spec out the situation. Everyone is going to hunker down here for the afternoon. Have a snack, have some water, take a nap. But make sure you always have at least four lookouts out there, at varying distances from each other. One lookout can be shot, maybe even two, but if you have four—or even five—then at least one of them is going to make it back to you in time to warn you of an invasion. Keep your eyes and ears open. If you see Randall or any of his men, don’t shoot them. Capture them and keep them here so I can talk to them when I get back.”

  I looked through the group, searching, and finally found Henry, who had volunteered to come back with us to sack the town.

  “Henry, you’re in charge of that particular aspect. You know Randall and his friends best. If you see any of them in the forest, I’m counting on you to point them out.”

  “You got it, Cap,” he said, all business. “I’ll keep my eyes peeled.”

  I nodded back at him, glad to have him on our team, and then turned to Marlon.

  “In the meantime, you and I are going to go out there and see what we can see. I want to know exactly what Randall’s been doing while we’ve been gone, and start figuring out how to get into town without them seeing us. And I want to know exactly where we need to go to find this magical communication device of yours.”

  We stared down at the town from the trees, mimicking the last time we’d been on lookout together. This time, of course, it was still bright and sunny out—which made it both easier to see the town, and more dangerous to be watching it from trees bare of leaves.

  Unfortunately, we didn’t have much choice. We needed to know exactly what was going on in there…and what we were going to do about it.

  I got as close to the trunk as I could, counting on the camo I was wearing to help me merge with the brown of the trunk, and brought the binoculars up to my eyes.

  The town I knew and loved came right into focus, and I stared at the town square, the hardware store at the corner, the cafe on the other corner, and the breakfast spot where Angie and I ate breakfast every Sunday morning. A part of me cringed at the thought that those places were all shut down now—and that Randall and his men might be taking advantage of the stores where I’d spent so much of the last year—but then I brought myself back to the task at hand and turned my view to look for men or weapons or guards or vehicles.

  It didn’t take me long to find them. Several men were walking up and down the main street on either side of the town square, guns resting on their shoulders in the stereotypical “guarding” stance, their eyes swiveling back and forth as they watched out for anything suspicious. Considering the fact that they were the sole occupants of the town at the moment, I found it ridiculous and pretentious.

  Considering, though, that they had to know I’d be leading some attempt at taking the town back, I supposed it was understandable.

  Because Randall had to know I was coming. He just wouldn’t know when…or how.

  Speaking of which.

  “Guards in front of Town Hall,” I said, bringing the binocs down from my face. “I’m guessing they’re still holed up in the building, seeing as that’s the only one big enough to hold all of them. Easiest answer, and that feels like Randall to me. I don’t think it’ll be hard to get them cornered in there. But how are we going to get into the town in the first place? We won’t be able to go in the same way you all got out. They’ll have that door guarded.”

  Marlon put his own set of binoculars up to my face, but to my surprise, he turned away from Town Hall—and its guards—and looked three doors down, instead…at the town’s tiny library.

  “We’ll be getting into town through the library,” he responded quietly.

  I looked from the library to him, and then back again, completely confused.

  “Come again?” I finally asked. “Why the hell would we get in through the library?”

  He turned to me. “We have to assume they’ll have guards posted around the borders of the town,” he said blandly. “So we can’t just walk in and catch them by surprise. But I know something Randall doesn’t. I know something no one else does. And I think that tonight’s the right time to let you in on my secret.”

  29

  The sun was long gone by the time we crept through the woods as a larger group, and even this group wasn’t that large. We’d realized very quickly that we couldn’t all go tromping through the woods together—not if we wanted to get to our goal in one piece and without being detected.

  We might be outdoorsmen, and we might think that we were trying to be quiet, but the truth was that eighty people could never be completely silent. Not in a forest that was only partially lit and full of things that might trip us up. Our natural noisiness—our natural humanity—would virtually guarantee that anyone who happened to be keeping a lookout on the back side of town would either see or hear something.

  And we just couldn’t afford that. We already knew we were going to be badly outnumbered. No, we were no longer out-armed, thanks to the stockpile of weapons at Marlon’s house. But even if we each managed to shoot both of our weapons at the same time, eighty men against a force that we estimated to be twice that size would almost always lose.

  We couldn’t take the chance of being discovered before we were in position. Which was why we’d brok
en down into smaller groups of ten. We’d decided that ten men could travel more quickly—and more quietly—than a large group of eighty.

  I was at the head of the first group. Which meant that my group was…well the guinea pig, more or less.

  I heard the sound of an owl taking off from a tree in front of us, then, and motioned violently for my men to get down or melt into the shadows. Although owls are some of the most deadly hunters in the sky, they’re also extremely large birds, and can make an awful lot of noise when they first decide to get out of a tree.

  Enough noise to attract the attention of anyone keeping an eye on the back side of town. Enough noise to potentially make someone come check on things. And if I didn’t want to get caught by Randall in a group of eighty, I wanted even less to get caught in a group of just ten.

  Around me, the men dropped down or backed quickly into the shadows thrown by the moonlight, and I slipped behind a tree trunk, leaving one eye out to keep the town in sight. I had to give it to the men, they were quick to follow orders when I gave them—and they didn’t even know exactly what we were doing.

  Come to that, of course, neither did I.

  Go to the edge of town, Marlon had said. Right outside the schoolhouse, he’d said. Stay there, and I’ll show you something you won’t believe.

  If it had been anyone other than Marlon, I would have thought it was some sort of joke. But I’d seen enough magic from him over the last few days to take him at his word when he said he held information that no one else had. I still didn’t know how it was going to get us into town—or how it was going to help us defeat Randall and his men—but when it came to Marlon, I was willing to bet on him knowing what he was talking about.

  I cast my gaze back toward the direction of the barn, scanning the forest for any sign of Marlon and his group, who had been right behind us, but I couldn’t see any sign of them. I didn’t see any sign of anyone else, either, and I was grateful for that.