Carved In Stone, page 29
Jay and the bald man stayed out of the way as Vlad approached the noisy fire, expecting him to cover it or kick it out the rest of the way. They didn’t expect Vlad to laugh.
Vlad continued to express his amusement as the wind blew harder, bringing more snow. He’d forgotten the first rule of hunting. Use whatever was most abundant.
“Are things okay?” the bald man asked. He was about ready to flee to their town, or maybe even further. He didn’t think these Safe Haven people could be beaten.
“Fine, fine,” Vlad answered distractedly. “With the snow, will come new opportunities, my friends. We’ll reach out and grab them.”
Confused, the bald man put his head back down and tried to sleep through the cold. Maybe everyone had gone insane since the war. That would explain things.
“Get up!” Vlad ordered, kicking at the man. “You have to go to town–now.”
The man didn’t protest, leaving quickly instead. He would locate a place to hole up for the night where it was warm, and he would be away from Vlad.
He was quickly gone and the lone man by the fire cackled again. He wasn’t beaten yet, not by any means.
11
Angela slipped from Safe Haven’s safety via a weak set of fence links that she planned to have Marc reinforce. Until then, it made for a convenient escape route.
Angela slid down the embankment and then took a winding path through the trees that led her up the hillside. Conner and Kendle couldn’t help her, and she wouldn’t allow Adrian to even try. That left one solution and she’d made the choice to take it. She was already damned. There was no reason to resist now, not if it would save the baby.
She stopped in the shadows of Zone C, listening to the shouts, the hatred. This is so wrong. I can’t believe I’m doing this.
The witch remained silent, also surprised. The demon wasn’t positive that Angela would follow through, but if she did, everything would change again and forever this time.
Angela let her feet take her to the rear corner of the gated site, zeroing in on ugliness. She didn’t need to hear the conversation to know it was bad, but she listened anyway, hoping it would ease her guilt.
“They’ll open the gates in the morning and we’ll grab whoever it is.”
“They said supplies were coming in this load, so they’ll have too many guards.”
Angela came close enough to peer at the man and woman who were hunkered over a tiny fire to plan their attack.
“We have guns and ammo now, thanks to the daily runs. They won’t be expecting that.”
Angela tried to feel angry that they were plotting to kill her Eagles, but the wrongness of what she was about to do refused to fade.
“We still can’t get through their gates,” the man insisted, rubbing his scared arm. “How do we short-circuit their power?”
“If we can get the right hostage, we’ll be let in,” the woman answered.
Angela swallowed a snort. Why does everyone think I’ll negotiate? Have I been too soft?
“How about we act like we have an outbreak and lure the doctor in? You heard those sentries talking about the Cholera down in town.”
“Yeah, that might work. Who do we have that is sick enough?”
“Harvey’s boy, Joel. He had the influenza last month and still doesn’t sound healthy.”
“He isn’t,” the man agreed. “We’re still studying him for signs he’s carrying something.”
“So we can spare him,” the woman pointed out. “While they’re killing him, we’ll be grabbing their doctor.”
Angela had heard enough to ease her conscious, but she knew the guilt wasn’t going to leave her after this. If they’d had Rick trapped this way, he would have still received a fair trial.
“Why don’t you bargain with me?” Angela offered, coming from the shadows. “If you have their boss, the guards will open the gates.”
The conspirators flinched and then they recognized her. Not spotting any patrols, both of them came towards her at a fast run.
Angela waited for them to scale the fence, thinking she would have to add that to the security list.
The woman was the first one over and she dropped in front of Angela with a raised fist.
Angela sent a current of heat into the woman’s stomach that took her to the ground. She then faced the much larger, healthier male and began pulling.
Marc forced himself to remain in the shadows. He hadn’t been there for the other kills and he viewed the quick attack in uneasy disappointment. She drained both lives in seconds, not reacting to the woman’s pleas for mercy, and Marc could actually see it helping her. Skin glowing, fullness returning, even her hair was becoming the glossy black that he loved, and Marc rotated toward the hole in the fence she’d come through. He wasn’t sure how he felt about it, only that he didn’t want her to know he had witnessed it.
“Too late for that.”
Marc found her right behind him and waited for the revulsion or disgust that he expected to feel. When nothing came, he met her eye in confusion. “Why?”
“I hate him as much as you do. I’d never let him taint our child.”
Marc was a bit stunned and asked,” This won’t?”
“No,” Angela sighed unhappily. “She’s innocent. I’m the one who’s damned.”
Marc followed her, motioning to a guard who saw them come in, to have the hole in the fence fixed come dawn. He didn’t know how to handle this ruthless stranger–that was clear to him.
Angela waited for him to be close enough and then slowly reached out to take his hand. His flesh wasn’t yielding at first, but he caved quickly and let her place his hand over her stomach. There was now a small bump and Marc was immediately fascinated by the feel of it.
“Would you deny her life, to allow evil a place inside our gates?”
“Never!” Marc swore, letting himself be convinced. “Never.”
“They’re going to die,” Angela stated, glancing at the zone where the noise had yet to settle down. “This way, they’ve served a purpose.”
Marc found that hard to argue with, especially after overhearing their plotting. He didn’t disagree with Angie’s choice, only her methods.
“I have the same reservations,” Angela stated. “But I want this baby, Marc. There isn’t much I won’t do to keep her alive.”
The only life Marc valued more was hers or Charlie’s and he tugged her into his arms for a long hug. “Whatever you need, baby-cakes.”
Angela wiped her tears on his shirt, hoping he didn’t notice. He was so much better than she was. She didn’t deserve someone so good. She deserved to be with a terrible person...like Adrian.
Adrian studied the couple. Kendle was still sleeping blissfully in his tent, but Adrian had known Angela was close. It had drawn him from Kendle’s warmth in time to watch her take two life forces to heal herself. It was something he’d never thought to witness her do, and while it hurt him–he’d corrupted her–it also gave encouragement.
“She’s giving in to the dark side,” he joked to himself. “There’s hope.”
Adrian reluctantly returned to his tent, telling himself to be patient. She would try very hard to abide by the natural laws for a while now, to prove to herself that she hadn’t slipped that far. It would be a while yet before an opportunity to bond with her through these mistakes presented itself.
“I can wait,” Adrian crooned. “I’ll wait ‘til hell freezes over to have you and I won’t care if you’ve gone bad. Marc won’t take you that way, but I certainly will.”
Chapter Fifteen
1
“Go on and print it out,” Angela stated, folding the paper. She would go over it in detail later, especially the interview Cynthia had done. Everyone would want to read that a few times.
“You want me to change anything?” Cynthia asked, a bit nervously. Some of the wording wasn’t very supportive of the current leadership.
“Nope,” Angela answered. “Our people deserve the truth. You’ll give them that.”
“I’ll have it ready to hand out in the morning.”
“Good.”
Surprised, Cynthia left Angela to her stack of papers. She hadn’t expected the first draft of her paper to be approved. In fact, she hadn’t been certain any of her drafts would make it. She’d expected censorship and lies, not freedom to tell the truth.
“I’ve read that draft,” Greg stated, also sorting through stacks of papers. “It might cause some problems.”
Angela didn’t tell him that sometimes problems were useful. Cynthia would help her push these people back into American values and strength. It had built the country once and they needed it now, more than ever.
Angela opened her notebook. “I think I’m ready.”
Greg lifted the first sheet and they got on with the morning updates. “We had another group of refugees come in around dawn. Marc put them in Zone A.”
“The doctor’s home,” Angela stated, able to feel the displeasure coming from the medical bay. “Get him on the testing.”
Greg wrote it down and continued, “The ants are making a home in the secondary cave we chose–the one that connects to ours. Is that okay?”
“Yes,” Angela answered. “But keep them out of ours. Some of our sheep haven’t accepted them yet and sharing the cave with them during the snow drew a lot of complaints.”
“I’ll have Jennifer pass the message for them to stay out of sight for a while,” Greg offered.
“Good. She’ll do it without hurting feelings. Have an extra bin of scraps delivered to them each day. That’ll help them not feel shunned.”
Greg wasn’t sure about ants having emotions, but he didn’t bring it up. He was one of the people who didn’t care for the sight of the mutations, but he did recognize their usefulness.
“Have her ask them about helping take some of our heavier equipment down to the bottom levels,” Angela said suddenly, running with the new idea. “They can still carry a hundred times their own weight, so that could be very useful.”
“I agree,” Greg replied, stifling a protest about having to labor with the ants. If they could carry the heavy machinery down, that would be more than useful. It would be amazing.
“We’ve gone through the first week’s loads that came in. Shane found two wood gas generators at the lumberyard and Theo’s already using them. He said he’ll need a safe place to store the fuel we get from them.”
“That rocks!” Angela exclaimed. “Have it put in a truck by itself and I’ll send it out to locations that need it.”
Greg didn’t ask for details on that, knowing the answer wouldn’t be one he cared for. If Angela felt the need to stock locations for an emergency, it probably meant that trouble was already verified and coming.
“Not always,” Angela tried to soothe. “Sometimes I’m just being careful.”
Greg still didn’t ask any questions. “We’re not uncovering much food. The stores have been cleaned out.”
“I expected that,” Angela told him. “We’ll do more rationing, quietly. Here’s a list of things for the cook and the garden crews.”
Greg read over it and approved of them. Subtly changing their diet to more bread-based items would slow their supply usage, though it wasn’t healthy. To combat that, Angela was having more vitamins passed out, and releasing their reserve of fish to be consumed now. It would add a couple weeks to their estimates. “No problems on these. Most people won’t notice.”
“Good. I hope it will only be that way for a month or so, and then we’ll have the second harvest from the garden. How are we on animals?”
“Not great,” he replied checking a sheet. “And we don’t have anyone free to go searching.”
“We’ll cover that next week. Gatherers become stockers and we’ll be able to spare a couple of teams then.”
“Good. Next is an update on the settlement in general.”
“Yes, where are we on everything? Any chance we’ll make the morning’s deadline?”
“None at all. The plumbing should be finished today, along with the power. Air is done and working well. A few reports of groans and creaks, but we’ve all agreed that’s normal, considering that we’re drilling, banging, and making plenty of noise while we sweat.” Greg scanned the sheet again. “I’d say we have a shot at twelve days, unless something happens to speed things up.”
Angela wasn’t worried over it. She’d known her deadline wasn’t reasonable, but the cold weather was coming and hurrying these people along had been necessary. “What about sanitation and escape routes?”
“The sanitation will be finished tomorrow, if we can get more septic equipment. We’re stuck waiting on loads to come in for that one. However, the escape routes have been reconned, mapped, and we have guards posted.”
“Excellent,” Angela praised. Exiting the cave through those damp bottom tunnels wouldn’t be pleasant and she hoped they didn’t need to use them.
“We do have full loads of wood, gravel, sand, and dirt. Very low on water and fuel.”
“That’ll be better after today,” Angela informed him. “The water from Neil’s run will hold us for the rest of the month. We also have a team collecting from the northern oil refinery now.”
“Okay. Next is...Eagle training. Marc left sheets for you to approve. Said Kenn and Shawn did well on them.”
“I’ll go over it later, with these other things,” she said, placing the papers into her book. “Who do I have meetings with today?”
Greg consulted his schedule. “They’re all covered. Marc handled the doctor, Samantha told Conner he isn’t getting in here yet, and that’s it.”
“Really?” Angela gushed. “I’ve got a free hour?”
Greg laughed at her innocent pleasure. She was cute when she wasn’t being the boss.
“Last thing I have is Tara–she asked for a different job. I told her we need hands in the caves and she agreed to try that.”
Angela’s demeanor turned cold. “Any word from her settling partners?”
“None that I’ve noticed,” Greg answered, scanning his papers again. “She follows the rules and stays out of the way.”
“And Missy?”
Greg gestured toward the kids’ area, where a large group of children and their chaperones were lined up to enjoy field trip day. Missy was with Leeann, and the two girls were chatting happily and ignoring everything else around them.
“Seems content enough.”
Angela didn’t comment, staring at the little girl. Missy’s gifts were incredible, but Angela was loathe to have her use them. She needed time to be a kid before being a descendant consumed her life.
Angela stood up, pocketing her notebook. “I’ll be on rounds.”
Greg nodded, thinking she looked better today than she had the entire time they’d been here. It was heartening, and Greg was whistling as he strolled to the front gate for a check-in with the sentries over Zone C. That was the only area he didn’t have an update on yet and at lunch, he wanted to have it ready if the boss asked for it.
Angela headed for the female tents, hoping to catch Hilda before she started her day of laboring in the caves. If Hilda were willing, she would submit to a new exam and discover if she and the baby were out of danger for a while. The life forces were capable of healing many things and Angela needed to hear that her horrible gambit had succeeded. She’d already given her soul to these people. She shouldn’t be required to sacrifice her unborn child, too.
2
Neil slid into the shower stall with a groan. “That feels good.”
A few stalls over, Jeremy chuckled. “Yeah, hot water will cause that reaction.”
Neil let it beat on his sore shoulders while he stared through the window. He and his team were going back out after lunch mess, to supervise the collection of water from the treatment plant. As he stared, he caught a glimpse of Samantha going by. Her pace wasn’t the confident stroll that Neil was used to and he frowned.
“Can I talk to you about something?” Neil asked, leaning against the stall.
“Sure,” Jeremy answered, not hearing the tone. He was busy ignoring his body while he washed.
“Have you, uh.” Neil flushed. “Have you and Samantha been... You know.”
Jeremy grimaced. So much for ignoring my needs. “No, not since the night we got here.”
Neil felt the heat rise at that memory, but the concern overruled it. “I haven’t either.”
Now Jeremy was the one frowning as he realized what Neil was getting at. “You think she’s hiding something or just not in the mood? We’ve all been pretty busy.”
“I’m not sure,” Neil confided. “And I’m out again after lunch, so I can’t watch her.”
“I can,” Jeremy offered, rinsing. “I will.”
Neil got a rag wet. “I know it’s only been a little over a week and being pregnant has to screw with things, but it isn’t normal for her. You know?”
“Yeah.” Now that it had been pointed out, Jeremy agreed. Samantha’s sexual appetite was new to them, but it had been voracious from the instant they’d started having contact. For her to go cold turkey wasn’t normal. “I can try to talk to her about it.”
“That’ll go well,” Neil snorted. “Let me know when you plan to do it so I can be there to sew you up.”
Jeremy snickered. “Okay, I’ll let you know if I spot anything we should be worried over.”
Neil hoped that would be enough. He already knew Samantha wasn’t going to want to talk to them about anything that might be wrong. “Do you think she’d talk to someone else? Like maybe Cynthia?”
Jeremy considered it. “They have gotten close. Maybe.”
“I might mention it to her before I leave,” Neil stated, soaping up. “You’ll have to deal with the fallout if Samantha figures out it came from us.”
“Yeah, but it’s worth it to make sure she’s okay.”
“I agree,” Neil said. “I’ll do that when I’m finished here.”
Jeremy didn’t tell Neil that he’d seen Cynthia stomping toward the gates, where the next teams were getting set to leave for the day’s labor out of camp. The reporter wasn’t happy and Jeremy was almost certain it was because Conner was working with them. He wasn’t supposed to have that information, but he’d overheard Samantha and Cynthia complaining about it. Jeremy wasn’t happy about the arrangement either, but he trusted Angela and if she thought the boy deserved a second chance, then he did.
