John swung his attention from right to left. A few yards away were two more bodies. Bullet holes riddled the shack. Blood-soaked hundred-dollar bills led from the hut down to a set of tire tracks.
The place was eerily quiet. The bodies weren’t bloated, which told John they hadn’t been here long. It would likely be impossible to tell exactly what had happened, but the slaughter here had been over money, probably a lot of it, judging by the hundreds sprinkled on the ground like fallen leaves.
Once he was certain there weren’t any immediate threats, John made his way over to the shack. Perhaps there was something useful inside. Food, ammunition, weapons. The latter was already a given since rifles and pistols lay next to each of the dead men.
The man in the shack was dressed in blue overalls and looked to be in his early sixties. He’d been killed by a rifle round to the head. Next to him was a twelve-gauge pump shotgun. Even from here, John could see both of the dead attackers had been peppered by the old man’s shotgun.
Inside, John found some candy bars, a few cans of food and vegetables but little else of importance. He was about to leave when he spotted two books on the table. Both of them were on hydroponics and hydroponics systems. John picked them up and leafed through each quickly.
If they could use this to rig up a system that worked, the Patriot camp could quadruple food production while reducing water consumption by the equivalent amount.
Of course, given their shortage of weapons and ammo, it would be unforgivable for John to leave all of this for someone else to scavenge. On the other hand, he knew dragging home several rifles and pistols just wasn’t realistic.
Over the next thirty minutes, John carefully hid the weapons and ammo he’d found several feet into the forest. An old tarp from behind the shack would help keep them dry until he returned at some point to collect the stash.
The books, however, he took with him.
Chapter 26
Diane was lying in her bunk watching as the late afternoon sun painted the prison cell walls a rich shade of orange.
Above her was Kay, still bruised from her own meeting with the Chairman, although she was doing her best to hide it from her daughter Natalie. In spite of Diane’s gentle questioning, Kay didn’t want to discuss what had happened. Either way, that creepy guy had put his hands on her, that much Diane knew. It was a fate Diane had only narrowly avoided.
In the next cell over, Gregory, Emma and Natalie were sitting on the floor playing Gregory’s favorite game: Slap Jack. The idea was simple. One player hovered her hands palm down over another player who held theirs underneath in a mirror image. From the bottom, the slapper tried to strike the top of her opponent’s hands before she had a chance to move them away. A successful hit meant she continued. After a miss, they would switch positions and payback would ensue. The kids had played the game for hours yesterday, until the tops of Emma’s hands were glowing red.
Most of the time the cells were so hot that beads of sweat would soak their clothing. Every night, once the sun set and the room became pitch black, there was little option but to sleep.
Although she was watching the kids play, Diane’s mind was elsewhere. She chided herself whenever she let her mind go over how many laws the Chairman was breaking by keeping them locked in here. For starters, they hadn’t been read their Miranda rights. Their refusal to hand over their weapons to the men in black cargo pants hadn’t lasted much longer than it took for them to shoot Tim dead. Hard to believe that their apparent hostility was enough to end a man’s life.
And this was why Diane hated when her mind tried to grasp the legality of their imprisonment. The old laws were clearly gone. They’d gone up in the same puff of smoke that had fried every electrical circuit in the country. This was exactly when regular citizens needed to arm up and defend the tattered remains of the Constitution against enemies both foreign and domestic. But it seemed the Chairman was following a president with a different set of plans. If he thought he was caving in to the practicality of the current emergency, then he was jeopardizing and perhaps had already killed everything that was great about this country. The irony of dissolving the Constitution, effectively stripping citizens of their rights and privileges, in order to preserve them was not lost on Diane. And with nothing to do in this tiny cell but sleep, think and slip her kids some extra food to ensure they were properly fed, she couldn’t help spin herself into useless circles.
Just then the door to the jail opened and one of the meaner-looking guards named Edward sauntered in. He had narrow shoulders and couldn’t have been taller than five foot four, but the scowl on his face made it hard to meet his cold eyes. Every second day it was his job to come in and hand them their food. Since they’d been here, what passed for food tended to be stale bread and mushy beans. A stuffy room with poor circulation and a dozen other inmates all on a diet of beans only added insult to injury.
Edward stopped before Diane and Kay’s cell and ran his club along the bars, a sign for them to approach and take the food through the slot. Diane went forward, feeling Edward’s eyes passing up and down her body. The first food tray was in the slot already. She reached down to grab it, but he held on tight to his end. Glancing up, Diane caught his glare and tried not to let on that her chest was tight with fear.
“You Diane?”
Diane was too frightened to say anything. Edward’s forearms were powerful and covered with tattoos. By the looks of things, he should be the one behind bars, not her. With a snap of his wrist, he could have his hand through the bars and around her neck.
He asked again, this time more forcefully. Perhaps he’d heard what she had done to the Chairman the day before and was going to get even. Diane swallowed hard and said yes.
“Listen very carefully. Your husband John’s looking for you. Asked me to find you and your kids. Wanted me to tell you to be strong, that he and others are coming to get you out of here.”
Tears were welling up behind Diane’s eyes at the news that John was alive and looking for them.
“Keep it together,” Edward scolded her in a gruff voice. “I got exactly ten more seconds before the other guards here start getting suspicious. Word is the Chairman’s taken a liking to you. Not sure exactly what you did, but I hope he didn’t do to you what he did to your friend over there.” He motioned to Kay, who was starting to sit up. “I’m doing what I can to get you and your family transferred to a more comfortable spot, got it? But I’m not making any promises.” Looking down at the tray of food, he said: “There’s a present in your beans. It’s all I could get at the moment. Keep it hidden. And if the Chairman takes you out for another chat, use it on him.”
Edward then shoved the tray at her in mock anger. “You gonna take your food or not!”
The commotion brought the attention of the other inmates who looked on with worry.
“Yes, I want it,” Diane said in a low voice and took the first tray and then the second.
She handed the second to Kay, who arrived beside her just as Edward lumbered over to the next cell.
“What was that all about?” Kay asked, her voice slightly distorted by a swollen bottom lip.
“I’m not entirely sure,” Diane replied. She went and sat by the corner of her bunk and stirred the beans with her spoon. As she did the top of a knife handle began to emerge.
Diane’s head snapped up at once. She was suddenly worried that those around her knew what Edward had done. And, more importantly, that he wanted her to kill the Chairman.
But everyone around her was busy eating.
Don’t be silly, she told herself. No one saw.