“You asked for this now finish it.” He gestured toward the door.
Jenny shook her head. “No. The baby. I can’t… I can’t risk getting hurt.”
“Damn it, Jenny! You dragged us out here in the damn snow for your selfish— whatever the hell the reason was. You’re not backing out now. Sometimes we don’t get a choice. Sometimes you just have to handle what comes your way. That baby isn’t an excuse. She’s gonna be your reason to live. To push through. You either want to fight and survive or not. And whatever your choice is will affect your baby! So it’s time to grow the fuck up!”
She swallowed. The truth hurt going down. The mix of emotions that had swelled inside her throat pained her to ingest. He’s right. I have to learn to protect my baby. I don’t have a choice. She stared blankly into the house. The rifle shook in her hands, her muscles beginning to burn from its weight. I just have to train until I’m the best. I have Danny. I have Sherman. I can do this. “Danny, hold the entrance.”
“There you go.”
“Sherman, seek!” she called out.
The retired police canine curled to the right and through the foyer toward the back hallway. Jenny went left into a living room. Drywall, absent paint—no carpet or hardwood, simply plywood subflooring riddled with wet footprints. Someone had certainly been through here. Fairly recent by the looks of it. Luckily for Jenny, if anyone was still here and absent-minded enough to move, there would be no hiding it. The clacking of Sherman’s claws echoed around the corners of every room. There was little doubt that any other movement wouldn’t be so easily heard.
Stealthily, she advanced through the unfinished living room, past a fireplace, posting up at the corner with her eyes floating over the rifle’s sights. The wet prints tracked through a galley kitchen and cut right to a door sitting partially open. Jenny pulled it wide, then descended a flight of stairs leading into the basement. Bare walls of the foundation. Concrete floor. Studs separating what would have been different rooms. A waste of time. No one. It was cleared within a minute of entering.
Back in the kitchen, she turned right from the basement, continuing into the dining room. More of the same. Nothing but bare walls and plywood. In the family room, at the rear of the house, she double-checked the backdoor. Still locked. From there, she came full circle into the foyer. A flight of stairs to her right and a hallway that led into two first-floor bedrooms. “Hier.” Sherman promptly exited one of the back rooms and went to her, settling in at the foot of the stairs leading to the second floor.
“Bleib.” Sherman held his position while Jenny went and searched the first-floor bedrooms for her own peace of mind. “All clear down here.”
Danny threw a thumbs-up over his shoulder, still holding the rifle pointed out the front door.
Upstairs, the floor creaked.
Shit! Jenny spun her rifle toward the top of the stairs. Sherman barked, but stayed put. “If you’re up there, announce yourself!” Jenny shouted. “If you don’t come down on your own, my dog will find you, and he will bite you! No one needs to get hurt!”
Another creak of the floor.
“You’re not leaving me with much choice!” She kept the muzzle trained at the top of the stairs. “Last chance!” Nothing. She readied herself with a few breaths. “Alright, boy… Seek!”
Sherman shot up the stairs. Jenny crept behind him, working her rifle along the unpainted walls atop the landing. Where the hell are they? The house had fallen into silence, giving nothing away. No clues to her adversary’s position. Sherman cut left from the stairs, and Jenny held the top, focusing the rifle toward a closed door at the end of the hallway to the right. Come on, boy. We got this!
Once Sherman returned, he and Jenny took to the last room in the house. He tried nudging it open but couldn’t. Jenny braced herself against the wall and steadied the rifle, forward and level toward where the door would open. She stood listening, nervous. This is it. The last place in the house.
With one hand, she flung the door open, banging it against the wall. Sherman wasted no time storming through. Briefly, she saw that the left side of the room sat empty, but the door’s recoil from hitting the wall blocked her view of the nearside. She stepped through the gap and backed into the far corner, her rifle fixed on the nearside, her only unknown. Again, nothing. Another empty room. Only the stiff wind from an open window gave the room any life. Sherman had his paws on the windowsill. “What you got, boy?”
Below the window, on the roof of the garage, distinct bootprints led into the backyard and disappeared up the hill toward the Depot. Jenny leaned against the window frame in an attempt to see if she’d missed something. What the hell just happened? Only a single trail of prints. She pulled the window closed. “Danny, we gotta get back! Whoever it is left for the Depot!”
“Just hold up a sec!”
“Didn’t you hear me?!” She shouted, rushing from the unfinished bedroom. “They’re heading back to the Depot!”
“I heard you. Just sit your ass down in that room. Show me what you’re talking about.”
What the hell is wrong with him? She returned to the window to verify what she had seen. Again, just the single trail of footprints through the yard and up the hill. At least I’m not going crazy. Dumbfounded with Danny’s indifference to the threat, she slid her back against the wall and sat, waiting with Sherman’s head in her lap.
The front door slammed a few times—a futile attempt to close it with its broken frame. Eventually, Danny gave up, and the clopping of his boots echoed up the stairs. “Where you at?”
“Where you told me to be.”
“You find anyone?” he asked, smiling as he entered the room. She still felt herself shaking from the adrenaline dump and didn’t appreciate the blithe look on Danny’s face. “You catch the guy?”
“I said they got out and were heading for the Depot.” Her face was stone cold. “We need to go and warn them.” She tried to stand, but Danny palmed her head, keeping her from getting up.
“Relax, kiddo.” Danny tousled her sock hat then sat down beside her.
“I should have moved faster. Shouldn’t have second guessed myself so much. Now, they got away.”
Danny couldn’t help himself any longer and began laughing. “Training. It’s all training.”
Annoyed, her eyes caught his. “You’re playing me?”
“Not exactly…” He smiled again. “Someone was here. Once you got inside, he went out the window and down the garage. So, you did what you were supposed to do. Great job.”
She stood. “You’re a dick.” Her eyes went back to the window. “Who was it? Who’d you talk into risking a broken leg sliding down the roof here?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Matt?”
“Why’s it matter?”
“Because it was stupid.” She continued staring out the window. “At least let them know I appreci—” Jenny’s stomach twisted into knots. Her eyes went wide. Oh, shit… In the distance, four strangers traipsed down the street from the mouth of the cul-de-sac. Black uniforms. Unmistakably Second Alliance. She felt faint, touching her hand to the wall, sinking slowly toward the floor.
“It’s…” The room began to spin. “It’s…”
“What? What is it?”
Danny’s feet scraped against the plywood as he clambered to his feet to help ease her to the floor. “You okay?”