Bitter Cold Apocalypse 2 (A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller) Read online

  Then, one by one, the men started running toward the river, each of them holding something roughly sled-shaped in front of them. When they got to the river, they each flung themselves forward, onto the ice…and started sledding across.

  Those were sleds. And they were going to use them to try to get across the river safely—the same way John and Marlon had used the canoe to come down the river with Angie.

  Which meant the town of Ellis Woods was out of time. Marlon hadn’t thought they’d actually be able to get across that river so easily. Now he saw that he’d been wrong.

  Marlon was on his feet and running before he even bothered to shout back to Joe. They had to get out of there. Had to get back to Town Hall and prepare the people of Ellis Woods. Because they were about to have trouble.

  13

  JOHN

  We flew through the forest, skimming over and through the snow as quickly as we could, the sound of the men behind us growing fainter and fainter as they stopped chasing us and made for the river. I didn’t have the first clue about why they were heading that way, or how Randall thought he was going to get them across the ice without sending them through it instead, but that didn’t matter right now. How he did it didn’t matter.

  All that mattered was that he was going to try it. And they had to have over one hundred men by now—with loads of weapons, some of them bigger than anything we had in the town. Given that the town was made up of mostly families—men with children and wives, who would be trying to protect their loved ones—it didn’t take a genius to realize that the fight was going to be unbalanced.

  The townspeople weren’t fighters. They were hunters, but most of them only did that on occasion. For the most part, they went grocery shopping like any person in the big city, and though they kept guns in their houses, I could guarantee that almost none of them had ever expected to use those guns for self-defense. Many of them probably hadn’t been trained for it.

  And shooting another human being was completely different from shooting a deer for meat, or even sport. Actually holding a gun up, sighting on a human, and pulling the trigger…

  I shuddered as I ran, and then increased my pace. I’d done that exact thing far more times than I cared to count, and it had never gotten easier. It had never stopped wounding me in a way I’d never figured out how to explain. And most days, I thought that the ghosts of every man I’d ever killed were still following me around.

  And I had the training to get it done. The training to put my emotions to the side and pull that trigger when it needed to be pulled. Most of those people in town didn’t have that.

  The men that Randall had gathered, though… I wasn’t going to put it past them. I hadn’t spent a lot of time with Randall and his cousins, but I’d spent enough time with them to know that they hadn’t hesitated when they’d decided they needed to kill me. They’d barely even thought twice about it. And if that was the kind of people Randall and his cousins were, then it made sense to think that most of his friends were the same way.

  Most of his friends.

  I slowed down a bit and let Henry catch up to me, trying to gather my thoughts into enough clarity to form questions.

  “What are they going to do to the townspeople?” I huffed, once he drew even with me.

  “What?” he gasped, throwing me a glance that said he thought I was actually going crazy right here in the middle of the forest.

  “What do Randall and his men want with the townspeople?” I was almost shouting now in my panic and desperation to get him to understand. I needed to know how much danger those people were in.

  How much danger Angie and Sarah were in.

  Without me there to protect them. Without me there to lead them to safety. Dammit, why had I thought it was a good idea for me to come out here and try to do recon on Randall’s camp? Why hadn’t I sent Marlon instead, so that I could stay in the town and get ready for any potential invasion?

  Because you’re the one used to running missions in the field, not him, the voice in my head whispered.

  You don’t even know that! I answered sharply. And that was the truth. I didn’t have a damn clue who Marlon was, or what he was capable of. I didn’t know he was better off staying in town. I didn’t know whether he could run missions like this.

  I’d never even bothered to ask. Hell, I’d just assumed that I would be the better man for the job. And I should have damn well known better. I should have seen this coming. I should have known that it would be better for me to stay in town and protect Angie and Sarah.

  Suddenly I realized that Henry had said something, and that I’d missed it in the chaos of my thoughts.

  “What?” I shouted back.

  “I said they don’t want anything with the townspeople!” he shouted, his breath coming quick and shallow. “They don’t care about them! They only want those weapons!”

  Right, well that was a good thing, right? If Randall and his men only wanted the weapons, surely it would mean that if the townspeople just gave up the weapons, they could…well, not go their separate ways peacefully, most likely, but almost certainly get out of there without too much bloodshed.

  But then I remembered the gleam in Randall’s eye in that shack in the woods, and the optimism I’d been starting to feel grew suddenly dim.

  “Are they going to leave the townspeople alone?” I asked. “Get their weapons and get back out again? As long as the townspeople don’t fight?”

  There was a short pause, and I knew the answer to my question before Henry even opened his mouth.

  “Not a chance,” Henry replied grimly. “Randall’s hated everyone in that town since he and his kin got thrown out. He’ll use whatever excuse he can to start shooting. The town’s only hope is going to be for them to put up a defense and be ready to fight their way out of there. Otherwise Randall is going to kill them all.”

  Dammit. That wasn’t what I’d wanted to hear. And as I increased my pace again, the break in the trees where we’d find the bridge already opening up in front of us, I had only one thought.

  I hoped to all hell that Marlon had been smarter than I was, and more prepared. I hoped he’d already had a plan in place to either defend the town, or get those people the hell out of there.

  14

  MARLON

  Marlon raced for the Town Hall, Joe hot on his heels, his mind skittering through the plans he’d already put in place for this exact situation. No, he hadn’t expected Randall to come right across the ice like that. Yes, he’d most certainly thought that they’d have more time. And he’d definitely thought John and Henry would have been back in town before they had to deal with this.

  He’d been counting on John’s knowledge of the people of the town—and of the town itself—to help him. Been counting on John’s natural leadership ability. His training.

  He’d also been counting on the fact that these people would have a loyalty to him and would actually listen to him when he told them it was time to go.

  As it was, he guessed he was just going to have to depend on Mayor Bob for that aspect. Because he didn’t know where John was or how long it was going to take him to get here. Hell, he didn’t even know if John was going to make it in time to be a part of the coming battle.

  He also didn’t know whether John was actually still with the living, though he put that thought quickly to the side as incredibly unusable right now.

  He did know that he couldn’t let any of that stuff bother him. Yeah, it had been an awfully long time since he was in the field. Even longer since he’d gone to battle—and even longer since he’d had to plan an escape.

  But he was going to have to get those skills working again, and fast. This situation wasn’t going to allow for anything to happen slowly.

  He just hoped that Bob had done what he had asked of him. He hoped that the people were at least partially ready for what was about to go down. Because he could already hear the increasing sound of men behind him, and he knew what that meant.

>   Randall’s men had already started reaching the town’s side of the river. They were already climbing the embankment that led right into the streets of this village. And Marlon’s time to get this escape done was growing extremely short.

  By the time Marlon and Joe got to Town Hall and skidded to a stop in the snow banks in front of it, the front doors were already closed—just as he’d told Bob they needed to be. Which was a good sign.

  He hoped he’d find more good signs inside.

  Marlon started banging on the door the moment he was close enough. “It’s Marlon and Joe,” he said firmly.

  The door opened a crack and a single eyeball appeared on the other side and looked them up and down once, then again.

  “For God’s sake, Sean, they’re right on our tails. Open the damned door!” Joe muttered, moving closer to the crack.

  The eyeball disappeared, and a moment later the door swung open to reveal Sean, the chief of police, and Mayor Bob.

  Marlon walked in quickly, pushing through the men to get in the door, then reaching back to pull it quickly shut behind Joe.

  Bob looked from one to the other, frowning. “Where are John and Henry?”

  “Whereabouts currently unknown,” Marlon said sharply. “And that’s not important right now. Wherever John is, I have faith that he can take care of himself—and Henry, to boot. Right now we’ve got bigger problems. Randall and his men are on their way across the river. The attack that we discussed is happening now.”

  Bob took two seconds to process that information, then nodded firmly, and Marlon thought once again how lucky this town was to have a mayor like him. Few men were so quick to process information and move forward, but Bob was one of the best he’d ever met.

  He was glad he could count on Bob right now. Because the next hour or so was going to be incredibly stressful. And, if they were unlucky, bloody.

  “At the bridge?” Bob asked, already turning and striding toward the main room of the building.

  Marlon fell in right next to him, leaving Sean and Joe to bring up the rear. “Unfortunately, no,” he replied. “They’re coming over right below town. Right across the ice, on sleds. Which means that if they make it without falling through, they’re going to get up the embankment and into the outskirts. They’re going to be here a whole lot more quickly than we thought, Bob.”

  He saw Bob shoot him a look out of the corner of his eye, saw his mouth tighten, saw the wrinkles around his eyes grow suddenly deeper.

  “Then we need to move,” the mayor observed. “Now. Not later, like we expected.”

  “Now,” Marlon agreed. “Our plan still holds, but we’ve got to move more quickly, and we’ve got to be more organized. Do you have your people ready?”

  “As ready as they’re going to get,” Bob replied. “We spent the last hour following your directions. The defenders are ready, the runners are ready, and I’ve even had some of the older kids in the supply room, packing things up.”

  Bob threw open the door to the largest room in the building and walked through it, gesturing around him as he went.

  “If we don’t have it yet, we’ll leave it behind,” Bob continued. “It’s not worth the risk to our people to try to keep it. Though we’re going to have to hope that they come through town, grab what they want, and then get the hell out so we can come back. We’re going to need that shelter, Marlon. We won’t survive a night in the forest, I don’t think.”

  Marlon gave him one short nod, his eyes already roving across the room, his mind working at warp speed as he went through the plan he and Bob had laid out that morning. If the people were ready, then it was time to follow through on that plan.

  Time to get the hell out of here before Randall could do the damage he was so intent on doing.

  The moment he walked through the doors, Marlon could see how busy the townspeople had been in his absence. This room had once held a small city of tents, butane stoves, lamps, and people, neatly divided up by open avenues between the rows, but now…

  Every tent had been tidied away, every stove was dismantled. Some lamps still peppered the room, casting their glow into the gloom of the dimmed lights. But those were few and far between. The rest of the room had been reduced to packs and bags—and people milling about, looking like they were on high alert. Ready to go.

  Ready to run.

  “Oh, well done,” Marlon murmured to Bob, his eyes scanning quickly over the room. “And the supplies?”

  “The oldest boys are in that room, packing as fast as they can,” Bob answered, gesturing toward one wall of the room, where the supply room broke off. “We figured it was a good use of boys who thought they were old enough to help defend—but weren’t.”

  “But they can shoot,” Marlon guessed. “So if they’re the last ones out of here—”

  “They’ll be able to cover their own tracks,” Bob finished for him. “Exactly.”

  Marlon stopped at the front of the room, where everyone would be able to see him, and clapped his hands.

  “People of Ellis Woods!” he shouted into the cavernous space. “Some of you know me, some of you don’t. I was hoping to have John here with me to take over this part, but it looks like he’s still out on an…errand, so you’ll have to make do with me, I’m afraid.” He gave them a rueful grin and waited for the murmuring to die down again.

  They all knew John. None of them was happy to hear that he was missing in action. Marlon thought that most of them probably knew John well enough to know exactly what that meant.

  He very studiously avoided looking for Angie, knowing that he would like the look on her face even less, and continued with his speech.

  “As Bob has told you, Randall Smith and a band of outlaws are outside of town, trying to get in.” He didn’t know that they were outlaws for sure, but it seemed like the best label for them. “Randall left some things here and thinks that he has the right to come in and take them again. Your mayor and I have discussed this, and have decided that it’s better to get the hell out of Dodge rather than staying to fight it out. As such…”

  His voice turned serious, and commanding—for all he knew, Randall and his men were already in town and on their way here.

  He didn’t have time for speechifying.

  “—We’re going to be escaping through the back doors of Town Hall. Please make your way there now, as quickly as possible. Women and children first, with the people we’ve chosen as guides. Men, you know your duties. End of the group, and keep your wits about you. You’re going to be providing cover for the rest of them. If you’ve been picked as a defender, make your way to the front of the building at this time. Move, people!”

  There was a sudden shuffling, and within seconds, people were moving in two different directions: women and children toward the back of the building, going in a chaotic mass, and the men who had been chosen as defenders moving toward the front of the building, falling into a natural line as they moved.

  The plan was simple. Get the women and children out, put a group of men right after them as a buffer, to watch their flanks, and move the strongest of the men to the front of the building. Those were the defenders, but they were also the decoys—the ones who were going to keep Randall and his men from noticing that the women and children were escaping through the back.

  He hoped.

  He started for the weapons room, Bob, Sean, and Joe right behind him. These three were defenders, along with Marlon himself. They needed to arm themselves before they made their way to the front of the building.

  “You’ve got someone you trust to lead them into the forest?” Marlon asked.

  Bob gave him a jerky nod. “One of the best woodsmen in town,” he confirmed. “He’s got orders to get them to the old barn about a mile from here and wait for us there.”

  “And your best men are staying here with us,” Marlon continued.

  “They are. The older men are going out with the larger group, armed, to protect them. The younger ones—the stronger
ones—are staying here.”

  Marlon nodded, his mind still moving through the plan. Randall would know that they’d gathered everyone in Town Hall, he knew. Randall and his cousins had been a part of the town for long enough to know what the emergency directives were and to know that Town Hall had the emergency generators that would keep the townspeople alive if the worst happened.

  So he knew that Randall would be coming here. They wouldn’t have to send anyone out to lead him to the building.

  They also couldn’t let on that most of the supplies—and weapons—had already left the building, via the large group now making its way into the forest. Town Hall was conveniently built on the edge of town, which meant that its back doors led right into the forest. He didn’t know whether that had been intentional or not, and he didn’t care.

  Right now, it flowed right in with his plan. And that was all that mattered.

  At that moment, they reached the weapons room, and Marlon strode in quickly, his eyes on the walls around him. Those walls had been only partially emptied, and though it took him a moment, he nodded in approval when he realized why.

  “We figured Randall needed to find at least some of his weapons here,” Sean said, seeing Marlon’s nod. “If he discovered that we’d taken them all, he would be more likely to follow us into the forest to try to take them back.”

  “Smart,” Marlon replied.

  He took two steps forward, grabbed an RPK machine gun off the wall, and handed his sniper rifle to Sean.

  “I’m not as good with that thing,” he told him bluntly. “Give me something that takes less finesse, any day.”

  Bob cocked his head in momentary thought. “I would never have thought it,” he said wonderingly.

  Then the moment was over and they were moving back out of the armory and toward the front of the building. Marlon cast a glance to the rear of the building to see that the group there was coalescing into something that resembled order as they made for the doors, and that several men were shouting orders to the families. Most of them had bags full of supplies and tents, and he hoped they were all dressed in their warmest clothes.