Far from Done: Far Series Book Six, page 28
The woman had a good lead, but Eden’s legs were longer, and she managed to catch up in no time. Once she had, she pounced like a cat, flying through the air and slamming into the much smaller woman. The two rolled a few times, looking like a tangle of limbs, before finally coming to a stop with Eden on top. It didn’t keep the other woman from fighting. She flailed and roared and tried to twist free, but Eden was too much for her.
“Calm the fuck down,” Eden said, putting her hands on the other woman’s shoulders and forcing her to stay still.
The woman sneered up at Eden, her bottom lip curling in fury. “Get off me, you cow.”
“Cow?” Eden shook her head. “That’s a new one.”
The woman said something else, but I didn’t hear what it was because I was too focused on her face. I’d seen her before. In Elizabethtown. Talking to Peters. I thought back to that day, replaying the scene. The two had been in an alley, deep in conversation. At the time, I’d assumed he was hitting on her even if she hadn’t really seemed like his type. She was too plain, and he usually went for women way out of his league. Now, though, I couldn’t help wondering if it had been something else. Could there be another reason they’d been talking? Something that had to do with this place? With the vultures?
My mind was spinning in circles as I replayed everything Peters had done and said lately. Not wanting to increase security, not thinking it was a big deal that the vultures were trading in Elizabethtown, then quickly agreeing to this mission. Take no prisoners, he’d said. Could there be a reason he wanted them all dead? Vengeance, yes. But could there be something else going on? Maybe something he didn’t want us to discover. Such as his connection to the vultures…
I focused on the woman. “What’s your name?”
Her upper lip curled, making me think she wasn’t going to tell me, but a second later, she spit out, “Roberta. Thought you’d know that by now.”
“We know that’s what you told Justin.” Eden hauled the woman to her feet and shoved her against the wall. “Who knows what the truth is.”
I ignored her and focused on Roberta. “How do you know Peters?”
Eden still had her hands on the woman, was still pushing her against the wall, but she looked at me with wide, shocked eyes. “She knows Peters?”
Again, I ignored her. “Tell me.”
“I’m not telling you a thing,” Roberta snorted.
Eden wrapped her fingers around the woman’s throat, pushing her into the wall as she leaned closer. “You’re going to tell us everything you know.”
“Or what?” the woman said, her voice raspy from the pressure on her throat.
Without warning, Eden threw a punch, her knuckles connecting with the woman’s left eye. Roberta grunted in pain, but barely had time to recover before Eden punched her again, this time in the stomach. I actually heard the air whoosh from her lungs.
“Now, talk,” Eden said, once again pushing Roberta into the wall, which I was pretty sure was the only reason she wasn’t on the floor.
Roberta wheezed and gasped, trying to catch her breath, but Eden was impatient. She slapped her upside the head, sending her skull slamming against the hard wall.
“Talk,” Eden demanded yet again.
“Okay. Okay.” The woman gulped down mouthfuls of air. “I’ll talk.”
She coughed, shook her head, and when she still didn’t tell us what was going on, Eden lifted her hand as if ready to hit her again.
“He’s my brother!” Roberta blurted out. “Peters is my brother.”
“Holy shit,” Eden said, dropping her arm to her side.
I stepped closer to Roberta, who shrank away. “Tell me everything. Now.”
She launched into an explanation, blubbering as she told me how Peters had started two groups at the same time, putting her in charge of this one while he took the much more visible position in Elizabethtown. “He knew people would need stability, but he also knew how important it was to be ruthless in this world. Since most people wouldn’t accept that as an option, he came up with this idea.”
“Why not just be a tyrant?” I asked, still confused by his motivation. “He could have forced people to fall in line if he really wanted to.”
“Richard has always wanted to be in charge. To be the hero, even if it was all an illusion,” Roberta said as she wiped her face with the back of her hand, smearing blood and snot across her cheek. “Ever since he was a kid, he wanted everyone to see him as a bigshot. He’s always been good at manipulating people. He plays the victim if he needs to, the leader if it gets him farther. Basically, whatever the situation calls for, he’s the perfect fit, and he’ll do whatever he has to do to stay on top.”
“Because he’s a psychopath,” I said, remembering Kiaya’s lesson about the difference between that and a sociopath. “He has no conscience and he sees people as objects he can use to his benefit.”
“Yeah.” Roberta looked away. “He’s always been like that.”
“What about the other settlements? The kids?” Eden asked. “Why kill everyone and kidnap their children?”
“He wants to control everything around here, not just Elizabethtown.” Roberta lifted her head, her eyes on me. “You’re the one with the baby, right?”
“Yeah,” I said, my back stiffening at the thought of her knowing about my daughter.
“He was plenty pissed about that, let me tell you. It was supposed to be Petersburg. It was supposed to be named after him.”
“It wasn’t my idea to name the place after my daughter,” I said, although I didn’t know why I bothered. Who cared what she or Peters thought?
“Yeah, well, he was still pissed,” she said, then shook her head. “Anyway, he wants to control everyone. He thought the other settlements getting attacked would encourage people to move to Elizabethtown since it was safer, but he also wanted a constant influx of goods coming in so people would stay. Why leave if you can find everything you’ll ever want or need inside the walls, you know?”
“Which is where the items stolen from the other settlements come in,” Eden said.
“Yeah.” Roberta sniffed.
“And the kids?” I asked.
“They’re workers.” She shrugged. “They do the planting and harvesting. All of it can be taken to Elizabethtown and traded. Eventually, Peters planned to have a rescue mission and save some of the kids to make him look like a hero. I don’t know when, though.”
“That son of a bitch,” I muttered, then ground my teeth as I thought it through. Roberta’s explanation rang true, but something was still bugging me. “What about you? What would happen to you during this rescue mission? The kids would have given you away.”
“He told me he’d tip me off so I could escape.”
“How?” I asked, shaking my head. “Our walkies wouldn’t reach this far.”
“He has a ham radio set up in his house.” Roberta rubbed her cheek where Eden had hit her, which was swelling. “It’s always been a hobby of his.”
“Well, it must be on the fritz,” Eden said, her eyebrows arched, “because he didn’t call you tonight,”
Roberta’s mouth scrunched up, and she looked down. “He did. Just too late.”
Meaning he’d been willing to sacrifice his own sister to keep his part in all this a secret. He really was a psychopath.
“That’s the only reason I’m telling you anything,” she said, lifting her gaze once again. “When the alarms went off and I realized Richard had called me too late, I knew my time was up. It was no surprise, really. He’s always been ruthless, and I knew I was as expendable to him as everyone else.”
Eden turned to me. “It’s why he said no prisoners. No survivors. He didn’t want us to find out the truth.”
I shook my head, fuming. “I can’t wait to get my hands on the weasel.”
“You and me both,” Eden replied, then jerked her head toward Roberta. “What do we do about her? Take her back so she can verify all this or end it now?”
I gnawed on my lip as I considered it. There would be people loyal to Peters inside Elizabethtown, but I didn’t think it mattered, and no matter how much I detested the man, he was right. We didn’t have the resources to keep prisoners.
“No survivors,” I said, my tone firm despite the unease in my stomach. “We end this now.”
Eden raised her gun, aimed it at a wide-eyed Roberta, and said, “With pleasure.”
She pulled the trigger without hesitation.
33
Kiaya
The fires were out. I knew because we’d passed the front door a little bit ago, but the hall was still clogged with smoke, and it made the going slow. I pressed my back to the wall and blinked, hoping the moisture in my eyes would clear my vision or at the very least stop them from burning. It didn’t work. The smoke was thick, filling my nostrils and lungs, making everything burn. Making me cough. Making me feel like I was suffocating.
Doug grabbed my arm, pulling my attention his way. I blinked, but like before, it didn’t help. The smoke was as disorienting as it was smothering.
“You okay?” he asked, then turned his head and spit.
“This isn’t good.” My voice sounded raspy in my own ears, and I coughed. “There’s too much smoke. It could damage our lungs permanently.”
He nodded but was too overcome by a hacking cough to say anything.
I looked behind him to where the rest of our group stood. Two guys from the West Milton settlement, as well as Max and Jace. They looked as bad as I felt.
“We need to move,” I said, raising my voice so they could hear me over the shouting and bursts of gunfire. “To get somewhere not as smoky.”
I let out a cough that hurt my throat. It felt scorched, and so did my lungs, and I was afraid if we didn’t get out of here soon, we’d pass out from the lack of oxygen. Of course, that meant moving, which was no easy task, considering I had to bend over when more coughs broke out of me.
“Kiaya!” Doug said between his own coughs.
“I got her,” Jace said in a ragged voice.
He was at my side in a second, his arm through mine, supporting me as he moved forward. He coughed as well, but either he’d inhaled less, or the cigarettes he was so fond of had made him used to breathing in chemicals, because he didn’t seem nearly as affected as the rest of us. Thank God, because I wasn’t sure I would have been able to move without his help.
Farther down the hall, the air cleared a little, making it easier to breathe. It wasn’t until we turned a corner that Jace finally released me, though.
“Sit,” he said as he pulled his backpack off. “I’ll get you some water.”
I obeyed without thinking, wheezing, my eyes watering, my throat burning. Doug plopped down next to me, coughing as well, and the rest of our group followed.
Jace knelt and held the water bottle out. “Drink.”
I took it gratefully, gulped some water down, then passed it to Doug. While he drank, I wiped my eyes with the hem of my shirt, not caring that I exposed myself in the process.
“Thanks,” I said once my shirt was back in place.
“Glad to know I’m good for something.” Jace stood and looked around. “That has to be the gym.”
He jerked his head toward a set of double doors on the other side of the hall. They had what appeared to be a bike lock looped through the handles.
I dragged myself to my feet, still coughing, my eyes still watering. “You think the bolt cutters will work?”
“It’s worth a shot,” Doug said in a scratchy voice.
He and Jace headed that way while I turned to Max and the other two guys. “Keep an eye out. Shoot anyone you see.”
They nodded.
I jogged over to join Doug and Jace, who were already at the door.
The combination bike lock was made of thick wire and coated in rubber tubing, so it didn’t rust. It was thicker than the chain link had been, but I thought the bolt cutters would do the trick. At least I hoped it did since we didn’t have another option.
Doug pulled the cutters from his bag and gently pushed me aside. “Let me.”
It wasn’t sexist. Cutting through metal required muscle, and between the three of us, he was clearly better equipped for the job.
Jace and I stood back, while Doug went to work on the bike lock. I was still coughing a little as my eyes darted around, not wanting to let my guard down for even a second. The smoke had cleared even more, making me think someone had opened the doors, and the hall was quiet. The constant shooting from when the vultures first tried to make their escape had stopped, but the occasional gunshot still cut through the silence. Every time it happened, I had to remind myself we weren’t the bad guys here. These people had attacked us first. They’d killed almost everyone at the hospital, had stolen all our supplies, and had taken kids. They deserved this.
It was an easy thing to forget when I knew each gunshot meant someone was dead.
The bike lock gave, and the clang of metal against metal broke through my thoughts.
A second later, it clattered to the floor, and Doug stepped back.
“You ready for this?”
He looked between Jace and me.
“Yeah,” I said.
Jace’s head bobbed as Max and the other two guys came over to join us. We had our guns out and ready since we weren’t totally sure what we were going to find. Yes, we assumed this was where they were keeping the kids, but we didn’t know anything for certain. We didn’t want to be caught off guard.
“Here goes,” Doug said, then yanked the doors open.
The room was pitch black, but the little bit of light in the hallway illuminated the scene enough that I knew we were in the right place. I pulled my flashlight from my back pocket and flicked it on, panning it around and illuminating the dozens of beds lined up in front of us. Children cowered on top and beside them, shying away from the beam when I panned it around. Either they were scared, or it was too bright, I wasn’t sure which. Maybe even both, though.
I lowered it a little.
A girl on a bed to my right sat up. “Are you here to help us?”
“We are,” I said.
A child behind her stood. It was a boy of around seven, with hair so blond it almost looked white. “Do you know where my mom is?”
I swallowed against the lump of emotion in my throat. “I don’t. I’m sorry. But we’re going to make sure—”
“Kiaya?”
I turned at the familiar voice, panning my flashlight around, scanning the faces until I found Mike. He was walking toward us, moving between the beds. At first, his expression was stoic, but slowly it morphed into a smile as if he’d just realized he wasn’t seeing things.
He stopped in front of me, his smile huge. “You got my message?”
“We did.”
I knelt, then changed my mind and stood. He’d grown several inches in the last few months, and we were no longer eye level like that. He’d thinned out, too, and now looked gangly. I wasn’t sure if it was the extra height or if he hadn’t gotten enough to eat, but I suspected the second one. There was a cut on his cheek, and his hair was too long—clearly none of these kids had been groomed—but otherwise he looked okay. Not sickly. That was good.
“April brought it to us,” I told Mike. “And she helped us find you.”
“I knew you’d come.” He looked past me, scanning the faces of my companions. “Is Devon here?”
Mike always had looked up to Devon.
“He is,” I assured him. “And Gabe and Ryan and Brian and everyone else. We all wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Mike looked back at me. “Rowan?”
“She’s home. With her daughter, Elizabeth.” I placed a hand on his shoulder. “And Lexi and Zara, too. They’re okay. We’re all okay.”
He swallowed, then in a voice so quiet I could hardly hear him said, “We’re okay.”
“We’re okay,” I repeated.
That was when Mike did something he’d never done before. He threw himself against me, wrapping his arms around me so tightly I thought I might suffocate.
“I’m so happy to see you.”
I hugged him back, blinking away the tears that sprung to my eyes. “I’m happy to see you, too.”
34
Doug
I was too choked up to say anything as Mike and Kiaya hugged. It wasn’t like the kid. Wasn’t like Kiaya, either, if I were being honest. I got it, though. After nine months, finding him had seemed more difficult than locating a needle in a haystack, and we’d all about given up hope. Yet here he was. Safe and sound.
It was as close to a miracle as I’d ever witnessed.
Mike pulled away after only a few seconds. “There are other kids. Older ones in another room.”
“Do you know where?” I asked him.
He switched his attention to me. “Down the hall, I think.”
Kiaya turned my way. “Max and I can stay here if you want to go check it out.”
“Yeah.” I looked around. “I can do that.”
I’d only taken one step toward the door when Jace said, “I’ll go with you.”
For probably the first time ever, I didn’t flinch at the sound of his voice. Even if I’d wanted to argue, I wouldn’t. I could use the backup, and I wanted to leave Max and the guys from April’s group with Kiaya and the kids in case someone showed up. They needed more protection than I did.
“Thanks,” I said, and Jace’s head dipped once.
We charged out of the gym, guns and flashlights in hand, and continued down the hall. It was dark and deserted, without a single light on in any of the rooms we passed. I shone my flashlight into them, anyway, illuminating the contents. Boxes of food, stacks of clothes, dozens upon dozens of shoes, and other supplies. Basically, everything these vultures had stolen from other people, all of it just sitting here collecting dust because it was way more than they could ever use. Well, not ever, but not for a long, long time.
