Behind us, I could hear a voice shouting out orders. A voice that I recognized. A voice that brought back the terror of a night spent in a cabin that wasn’t ours—with a man that I knew was going to try to kill me, come morning.
Randall.
He’d managed to catch us again. And this time, he’d brought a number of friends with him. I could only hope that their aim was as bad as whoever had been shooting at us on the river. They had to be at least five hundred feet behind us, given the width of the river, and we were moving targets. Not quickly moving targets, but moving targets nonetheless.
If we could just hit that alley before they got settled, we’d be okay. I hoped. I prayed.
Twenty feet, I thought.
Behind us, more shouting. Randall giving orders.
Ten feet.
Five feet. But Angie was starting to flag. She was tired, cold, and wounded, and we’d long since gone through her reserves.
And then we were shooting into the alleyway. I ducked down, scooped Angie up, and fled toward the street ahead of us, Marlon taking up position behind me as we sprinted for the safety of town.
Behind us, I could hear the group letting off the first of their shots. But it was too late. We were already in the lee of the building.
We shot out into the street, our breath ragged, and came to a staggering stop, each of us staring dazedly around, shocked at the sudden return to the normalcy that was town life.
There weren’t many people on the street, and the ones that were there were obviously frightened. The EMP, I remembered. These were people who had seen their way of life suddenly disrupted, with no reason and perhaps very little explanation. They’d likely been cut off from civilization entirely—I didn’t think there had been enough time for the government or the military to send anyone to explain anything—and they probably didn’t know anything more about what had happened than we did.
I turned slowly, my eyes roving over the town as I tried to fit it into this new version of the world. All the lights were out, of course, and there were no cars on the street. The three signals I could see on this block were just dead. They weren’t even blinking to indicate that they were broken.
The town had generators, I thought. Every town in this area did—just in case of electric failure. But they would only be in certain areas. The mayor would be, I thought, collecting everyone and funneling them to those areas. To keep them warm. To keep them safe.
That was where we needed to go. We needed to figure out where all of the people were, and get there. That was where we’d find the mayor, the chief of police. That was where we’d find the doctor. And Sarah.
Above anything else, that was where I’d be able to tell the people in charge that there was a group setting up outside of town, evidently hellbent on causing trouble for reasons I still didn’t understand—but definitely needed to figure out.
Because we were too far out from any military bases to be expecting help already. And this town was too small for it to be of much importance to anyone else. We wouldn’t be the first place they would send their soldiers. Hell, we probably wouldn’t even be one hundredth. It could be weeks—maybe even months—before we heard from anyone, unless we went out in search of answers on our own.
And that meant that for the time being, and when it came to defending ourselves against whatever ragtag group of outlaws Randall had managed to put together, we were well and truly on our own.
“Let’s get to Town Hall,” I said roughly. “I expect that’s where they’re gathering people. That’s where the mayor had the biggest generator, and they’ll want to have everyone there where they can keep them warm.”
“Lead the way,” Marlon answered quickly. “Because we’re going to need to do more than just find the people.” He gave me a long, intense stare. “We’re going to have to get them ready to defend the town against Randall and whoever else is out there.”
I gave him a nod, understanding all of the things he wasn’t quite saying, and then swiveled on my heel and started running for the next block up. Town Hall was close to here, thank God. And I wanted to get there as quickly as possible.
I didn’t know where Randall had found men crazy enough to fight on his side. But I knew they were coming. And we needed to get Ellis Woods ready to defend itself.
25
When we got to Town Hall, we found that I’d been right: This was in fact where the leaders of the town were gathering everyone. The building was a large, open format, complete with the thick, heavily engineered walls this area of the country required. I’d spoken with Angie’s uncle, Mayor Bob, when I first moved to town, and had been told right away that the hall was the gathering place should anything happen. Large snow storms. Lack of electricity.
Nuclear EMP/solar storm that took out anything resembling heating, communications, or light.
Bob was a good mayor and had good people around him, and they’d had extensive planning for this sort of situation—or rather, a situation that might resemble this one. I’d actually been a part of the party that had helped him move the new generator in last year, and then hook it up. Hell, we’d had a huge party in the hall, powered by nothing but the generator. So I could vouch for its ability to heat the place. Keep it livable.
As we stood in the entryway, our eyes on the hundreds of people stuffed into the area, I found myself appreciating his foresight more than I had at that time, though. Outside, the town was cold and dark, looking as if it had been completely deserted. Looking as if it was housing nothing but the dead.
In here, though people looked frightened and confused, they were also flush with warmth—and well-lit. They might not have been laughing, but they were crowded together in groups, against a backdrop of tents and picnic tables, talking quietly about the situation.
No one was panicking. No one was freezing slowly to death. And that meant a whole lot more than I had realized it would. After the last two days in the forest, it felt… safe.
I felt safe.
Then I heard someone screech.
“Mom! Dad!”
I turned just in time to see a blur of movement rushing toward us at light speed, and stepped toward it just in time to catch Sarah as she launched herself into the air. I nabbed her before she could hit her mom—who was barely stable on her own two legs—and pulled her quickly to me.
“Sarah, girl, we’ve been so worried about you,” I whispered against her hair. Then I pulled her back and stared into her deep blue eyes. “Are you okay? Is everything okay?”
“Dad, the power went out,” she said, those eyes growing wide. “And the sky turned yellow. What is it?”
Before I could answer, though, she realized that she was neglecting her mother, and squirmed to get down.
“Mommy, Mommy!”
“Be careful, little bug, your mom had an accident, and her leg isn’t feeling too good,” I warned as I put her down.
Sarah came to a quick stop and stared at Angie, her mouth opened into an O.
“Mommy, you have a robot leg,” she said, obviously torn between being impressed and being horrified.
Angie, unable to get to her knees, bent over at the hip and held her hands out to her daughter. “Don’t worry,” she said, laughing. “It’s not permanent.”
I laughed too, but I could see Marlon standing behind Angie, his face serious, and I nodded once to him. Angie might be feeling better right now, but that adrenaline was going to wear off sooner rather than later, and when that happened, I wanted to have a doctor handy.
I also wanted to talk to the man in charge about what we’d seen outside.