Carved In Stone, page 8
Then why is she concerned? the demon queried.
Marc ran it again and still didn’t see how there could be so many or how Adrian would have sensed them without Angela’s gift. But she hadn’t known and she’d been searching their surroundings actively after becoming a rookie. What was he missing?
Marc followed a sentry’s direction to discover Angela standing near the new shooting range, staring at the sky to their east. It was cloudy, almost hostile even, but not more so than usual.
“What is it?”
Angela was still scanning and she let Marc into the smallest area of her mind that she could close. It took too much energy to let anyone in all the way right now.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Marc groaned in annoyed frustration.
Angela gently pushed him out and felt her muscles ease. It had only been a few days since she’d been belowground with Donner and the effects of that ordeal were hitting her harder than she had expected.
“What’s the plan for this one?” Marc demanded. “He’s had a plan for everything else.”
“Not for this,” Angela answered distractedly. “He left it for his successor because it was too big for him.”
Marc stared at her worriedly. “You’ve got it covered?”
As much as she wanted to say yes, Angela couldn’t. “This is beyond me as well.”
Her thoughts went to the few members who might have the minds for the problems they were about to face, but she didn’t think there was anything that anyone could do at this point. The reactors were melting down. Even if they had ten trained, equipped teams, they still couldn’t reach all of them. The time for generators and final attempts had all been passed before Safe Haven arrived in these mountains. The remnants of the East Coast were going to be wiped from existence and she didn’t have the energy to call out and warn anyone.
“I led them into a future radiation zone,” Angela stated, voice shaking. “And he let me!”
Marc wasn’t positive that Adrian had known, and didn’t respond to that part. “You can only cover so much. You have to forgive the errors and go on. You know that.”
Marc slid an arm around her shoulders and Angela leaned against his comfort, but she didn’t take the words to heart. Marc would do anything to ease her pain, no matter if she deserved it or not.
“Yes, I would, but you don’t deserve the guilt for this one. There is nowhere else. The west is heavily contaminated where it isn’t destroyed. We barely survived the Midwest and nature’s anger. Now we’re in the last place we can run to and we...”
Angela’s guilt increased at the open pain ripping through Marc. He was quickly reaching the conclusions she had as soon as she realized the numbers didn’t include zones from the north, south, and or the east. Adrian had known, and let them come here anyway.
“How could he do that?!” Marc growled.
“He knew it would push them out instead of staying here for the winter.”
“What’s wrong with wintering here?” Marc questioned angrily. “We all need a break.”
“Because then we’d never leave,” Angela answered gravely. “And that will wipe us out.”
“How? If we make it through the winter, we can survive here. We don’t need to leave.”
“We won’t.”
“Won’t what?” he asked.
“Survive the winter. We’ll starve.”
“But we have all those new ideas for–”
“For a year?”
Marc knew she’d never been wrong and now he understood why she was so concerned. “A full year?”
Angela trembled as the wind blew against them. “More by a couple of months. We’ll be reduced to eating our dead. Then, each other.”
“We have to find a new place.”
“Yes, but not here,” she stated, glad most of the ash was gone. “It’s time to go south.”
Marc opened his mouth to deny that and Angela walked away without saying anything else. Marc’s instant need to fight the idea was a common one in Safe Haven. They’d beaten the government and were now at the top of the food chain. Few people understood why they needed to leave and unless she could make them, they wouldn’t budge from US soil.
Marc would have followed her, but his demon brought up another fact.
She isn’t going to tell them yet. She’s taking them into the caves.
Why? Marc asked, confused. If we have to go, why do all this anyway?
Because it’s the only way these sheep will leave, the demon replied sadly. She will have to watch them die by the hundreds before the truth can be accepted.
She can’t take that, Marc protested.
She has to, the demon replied gravely. Our very existence depends on it.
2
“We can’t do it in that time period. You have to make her understand.”
“Right,” Kenn snorted, gathering the equipment for the day’s labors. “‘Cause she values my opinion.”
Kenn was scheduled to mark off tent spaces. Tomorrow, he would get their activities and classes running. The medical bay and Eagle training tents were already open for use. It would be a busy week.
Theo’s brows scrunched together. “I mean it, Kenn. We can’t run the pipes, set up power, and get everyone inside in ten days. No one can.”
Adrian could, Kenn thought and wisely kept that to himself. “Shortest time?”
“A month,” Theo shot back immediately. “We haven’t even been in the cave yet and the clock is already rolling on day one.”
“I’ll talk to her,” Kenn said. “But don’t expect it to matter, is all I’m sayin’. She does as she sees fit. You know that.”
“And normally I respect it, but this time, she’s asking too much for the skills we have here.”
Kenn left the building tent without any of it showing in his expression. He hadn’t thought it was doable either, but Angela was forever surprising him. Maybe she had this covered.
Kenn took a minute to survey the area Angela had led them to last night. It was a relatively flat spot surrounded by trees on two sides. The south was rocky roads and the north was a mountain, right up close and personal. Kenn could discern the bird nests in the crags and the gaping hole their men would soon descend into. It was humbling and haunting. He wasn’t one of the people who were happy about going underground. He didn’t fear the walls closing in. He feared falling.
Kenn spotted the Point man and approved the change from Allan. That man had been switched to radio coverage for the day. Angela had turned the radio over to Kenn and Tonya when they arrived here, saying they needed to search through the Eagles and find at least two more people to cover the airwaves. Kenn liked the idea of being Safe Haven’s mouth, as did Tonya, and they’d stayed up late discussing how to do it. They’d gotten so involved that they’d crashed without having sex. It was a big adjustment that Kenn had never thought he’d be happy with. He liked a knockout at bedtime, but things were shifting rapidly in this new life and he was learning to handle it without the anger.
Kenn spent the next hour traversing the camp to make sure everyone knew where they were supposed to be. At lunch, he would have Allan announce the schedule over the radio in code. It would cover all the shifts, since everyone was here right now.
Except Adrian, Kenn corrected. He was hoping Theo was wrong and that it could be done in ten days, because Kenn planned to ask that Adrian be pardoned. And considering some of the other requests Angela was likely to get for their rewards, Kenn thought his might be the easiest to for her to grant. What Cynthia desired didn’t even seem possible to the Marine, despite all the proof of the magic around him and Kendle wanted time alone with Marc. Kenn mostly expected Angela to welch on the offers, but he wasn’t entirely sure. If it were bad enough, she would give Kendle a night with Marc to save these people.
“You think so?”
Kenn flinched. He hadn’t heard her come over.
Kendle snickered and remained by his side. After waiting a few seconds, she repeated her question.
“Yes,” Kenn answered. “But it would mean something awful is coming for us, so don’t wish for it!”
Kendle stopped, shocked, as Kenn strode off. She wouldn’t wish it anyway, would she?
Of course, you would, that voice inside replied. But you would hate yourself even more afterward.
Kendle veered toward the garden trucks that were in the process of being replanted, soothed with the response. She had enough self-loathing. If she added to that weight, it would have to be for more than one night.
Kendle let her feet take her to the rear, where the gate was open for teams going in and out. No one else was supposed to leave, but Kendle walked through the gate without reporting to any of the frowning guards. They knew where she was going.
Kendle followed the rocky, weed-dotted path that had clearly been here before the war. It appeared that it had been traveled since then, too. She could tell by the beaten weeds growing around rocks instead of over them and how the garbage on the trail wasn’t molded into the ground yet. People had been here recently.
Kendle didn’t speak as she entered Adrian’s small camp. The five soldiers lounging around a small fire regarded her in surprise as she stepped between them, but no one interfered with her progress. Despite her being on their hit list, they all went back to snoozing when Adrian didn’t order her removed or shot. She’d killed patrols and teams by herself and led dozens more into lethal traps. She was enemy number three to these soldiers and it offended her that Angela was above even Marc in that pecking order. Isn’t there anything that bitch is bad at?
“You can’t do that around me.”
Kendle found Adrian in front of the flap of his battered tent, smoking and drinking from a bottle of Wild Turkey.
“Gonna be one of those days, is it?” she asked, keeping her distance. She didn’t like drunks.
“I mean it, Kendle. Stop hating her for her strengths.”
Kendle sighed, taking a seat on an overturned bucket. “What about her weaknesses? Are those fair game?”
Adrian took a long swig, not answering.
Kendle didn’t follow the remark with another snide comment. Instead, she examined the man she was pinning her hopes on. In the light of dawn, he certainly didn’t look like much.
“Good morning to you, as well,” Adrian retorted.
Kendle flushed as she recognized that moment of being too sober to get drunk, unless you wanted to go straight to the pass out stage.
He’s in the early stages, she thought.
“Maybe,” Adrian agreed mildly. “The least of my worries.”
“Will it become one of mine?” Kendle asked, tone accusing.
Adrian gently sat the bottle on the ground. “Unlikely we’ll be together that long.”
Kendle still didn’t feel any sting, except knowing it would be Angela that he went to. “So what’s the agenda here? People are asking and I’ve been told to get that answer.”
“By the sheep, the wolfdogs, or the boss?”
“The first two. Angela hasn’t even mentioned you.”
Adrian didn’t wince. Of course, she wouldn’t mention him to anyone. She had to put distance between them right now.
“And later?” Kendle asked eagerly. “Later, she’ll call for you?”
Adrian’s gaze swung toward the busy camp that was sending all sorts of noise echoing up the mountain. “Not even if her life depends on it. She’ll never break her vow.”
“Which one is that?” Kendle retorted lowly. “She’s made a lot of them.”
“And delivered,” Adrian pointed out, evading the question. He didn’t want to talk about how strong Angela’s love for Marc would make her. “If you didn’t want her man, what would you think of her?”
Kendle didn’t want to discuss that, and she pointed toward Conner’s tent. “What about him? Where does he fit in while you lurk out here?”
“Lurk?” Adrian questioned coolly. “I’m in plain view.”
Kendle grunted. “Fine. What happens when the winter comes and the snow covers your little area? You guys don’t have a cave to hide in.”
“Don’t need one.”
“Because you’ll be in Safe Haven?” she guessed.
“Conner will,” Adrian replied.
“And where will you be?” she demanded, aware that Conner’s fake snores had stopped.
“Working,” he answered cryptically. “Like you.”
“On what?” she wanted to know, distracted.
“Your former career is about to be used,” Adrian stated, standing up. “Remember your episodes on rappelling and rock climbing?”
Kendle nodded, flashing to scrapes, soreness, and a few heart-stopping moments of adrenaline-laced excitement. “Vividly.”
“Good. Be prepared and you’ll earn points with her.”
“Won’t she know it came from you?”
“Of course. The points come because you were smart enough to follow the advice. She likes anything that helps her goals along. She doesn’t care who they come from.”
Kendle stewed on that as Adrian walked by her, not concerned that he was in his boxers or that he lingered next to her to place a soft kiss on the top of her head.
“Don’t ever call her a bitch around me again. Please.”
Kendle swallowed, nodding nervously. The menace under the request was clear.
Adrian went by her, kicking snoozing soldiers as he passed them. They jerked awake in confusion and annoyance.
“What?”
“We under attack?”
“Where’s the coffee?”
Adrian whistled cheerfully and disappeared down the farthest path.
Kendle ignored the whining men around her who had mistakenly thought sleeping in would be their life now. If she could get ahead of Angela on enough things, Marc would like her, but more importantly, he would respect her. If she could pull off something big that way, she could earn real points and Marc would be forced to acknowledge that publicly. It would settle down some of the more outspoken people who hated her associating with a traitor.
The sky rumbled loudly and Kendle slowly went back to camp, deep into planning lessons that would give her successes that would be noticed. Safe Haven had a number of problems. How many of them could she fix?
Adrian knelt by the small creek and fished out the now cool Cokes he’d dropped in last night. It wasn’t the same as ice from the mess, but it would do.
He wiped off a stump and flopped down, now feeling the small amount of alcohol that he’d consumed. An empty stomach and drinking were not a good mix.
He lit a cigar, wincing a bit at the thought of how the doctor would react to him smoking and drinking so soon after a heart attack. That lecture would be long and graphic.
Adrian only spared a brief moment thinking about the way he’d evaded and manipulated Kendle. She was a babe in the woods, even compared to how Angela had been when she’d come to Safe Haven. Kendle needed a daddy, not a lover, and Adrian still wasn’t happy to have to be both. Marc had known it would take a lot of time, energy, and focus to help Kendle and he’d also known that if Adrian failed, Angela would be disappointed. She wanted Kendle to settle in and be happy, but Adrian already knew that wasn’t possible with him. Kendle needed a mate who would only love her. Adrian was confident there were men who could do it, but not until she recovered from her illness. Few Eagles would know what to do with her violence. It was a wonder that Marc had, considering the way he’d coddled Angela.
Adrian listened to the camp, to the voices and the sounds of an existence that he was no longer a part of. He’d given them up, like he was supposed to, but this living afterwards hadn’t been in his plans. He had no idea what to do with himself now, but he’d also predicted this issue back when he was busy scribbling in notebooks daily. Angela would read those notes and if she cared about him it all, she would cover it.
And if not?
“Then it’s over.” Adrian sighed deeply and tilted the bottle up. There was nothing more he could do to influence her. She was the boss and he was a traitor. His life was hers to use, give, or leave behind.
3
“Save us a table,” Tonya instructed the rookie females she’d chosen from the list in the mess. The contest board was going to be handy for keeping track of people and locations. “I’d like hot tea with whatever sweetener we’re being offered.”
The rookie females, all happy to have been picked for something so fast, rushed off, each planning a way to curry favor. Tonya was on the boss’s team, had fought in the war, and she had their respect.
Tonya knew they’d eventually discover that she wasn’t on the team anymore, but wasn’t worried about their reactions. Angela would help her keep the place she’d earned.
Tonya spotted Kenn near the entrance to the cave and hurried to catch up. “She has me working on the pharmacy today. Where do you want it?”
“If she sent you to me now, it goes in the main row. Give me an hour and I’ll have the spot marked.”
“Great.” Tonya lingered, staying with him as he measured and taped off a large square of rocky, weedy ground. Angela wasn’t wasting fuel or energy on mowing, insisting that the weight of their tents and vehicles, and traversing the areas every day would keep most of it down.
They both looked over as a silence fell among the laboring people around them. They found Samantha, Jennifer, and Cynthia headed for the training tent, with Kendle a few grudging paces behind. The front females were joking and chatting, while Kendle’s sullen expression screamed worlds.
To backdrop this image, Allan’s voice droned through the radios, “Rookie signups are now halfway full. Get in line soon. Everyone wants to be one of us.”
Kenn and Tonya exchanged glances of misery and annoyance. Kenn knew she was resigning and approved of it, even sympathized with her, but Allan’s boring dialogue was a concern to them both and it overrode her misery. Getting new people into the Eagles was still one of Safe Haven’s top goals and that lifeless call wouldn’t be responded to.
“I’m on it as soon as the pharmacy is up.”
