DEAD: Darkness Before Dawn (4 page)

He had lost a foot and both Aleah and Heather had suffered lost fingers from the effects of frostbite. And don’t get him star
ted on that insane Major Beers and the folks from The Basket. No, he had fought and scratched to reach this point. He was ready for things to start going his way for a change.

That night, there was a large dinner. Most of it came from cans, but it was still one of the best meals any of them had had in a long time. There was laughing, and even some songs around the campfire. That night, Kevin snuggled in close to Aleah and fell asleep with her steady breathing acting as a hypnotic lure that allowed him to drift off into peaceful slumber.

***

Sliding down to his butt beside the house, Kevin opened the cylinder of his pistol and dumped the empty casings to the ground. He shook the box until the last of the bullets fell into his gloved hand. Fumbling with them in his haste, he loaded the pi
stol quick and peeked around the corner. He did not see a thing, but he knew they were out there.

“How the hell did life get so fucked up in a span of forty-eight hours?” he muttered.

“I blame it on global warming,” Catie said from beside him. She was currently thumbing rounds into the magazine of her shiny Colt 1911A.

“You see any sign of Trent?” Kevin whispered.

“He was three houses down…saw him dive over the fence into the backyard. I haven’t heard any shooting from down that way, so he may be making his way up to us,” Catie answered.

“Okay, you see that torched out red pickup?” Kevin asked as she joined him in looking around the corner of the house where they had sought cover.

“Yep.”

“You make for that and then to that house with the boarded
up windows. I figure if we can get to the side of the house, one of us can go around back. I have two Molotovs left. I will hurl one at the front door to try and spook them. If they come out front, I got ‘em…and if they make a run for it out back—”

“How about you give me one of those things? Maybe the back windows are not boarded up, and if that is the case, I can actually chuck one inside…that will ensure they come out,” Ca
tie interrupted.

Kevin nodded and slung his pack from his shoulder. He handed one of the firebombs to Catie and then gave her a nod. As soon as she started to run, he op
ened fire at the front of the house. He had no intention of hitting anything; he simply wanted to keep their heads down so that she could get to the other side of the street without having to dodge any bullets.

From a few blocks over, he heard a quick flurry of gunfire
and a shout that sounded like Trent! He hoped his people were on the winning side of the exchange. However, he did not have the time to give it much thought at the moment. Catie had reached the truck and was scurrying along the tall hedges to get beside the house that was their current target.

Taking a deep breath and making a habitual lunge to test out his prosthetic foot, he made his move as soon as Catie gave the nod. She popped out from beside the house and fired off a few quick shots. This was the riskier form of cover since they were relying entirely on their enemy reacting to the sound. She was in no position to actually hit anything.

It proved to be a waste of bullets. Kevin was ten steps away from cover, which basically put him in the middle of the open ground between his cover and the truck when somebody from inside the house opened fire with their own gun. He was grateful they were not all that bright. The roar of a shotgun sounded, but he was far enough away that the danger of any substantial hit was almost nil. He felt something tug at his jacket, but he did not have time to see how bad the damage might be.

Catie signaled for him to stay put. She indicated that she would slip around back. Pointing at her eyes with two fingers and then the front door, she gave him the universal “keep watch” sign. Kevin nodded and moved up snug to the front wheel so he could see. As she vanished over the fence, he let his mind drift back to how this all started just a relatively short time ago.

***

“I don’t know if this is anything to be worried about, but I think I saw some lights moving around over by that big church,” Trent Lomax announced as he walked into the open rec room that served as the community sleeping quarters.

“What do you mean?” Catie asked.

“Lights…you know, devices powered by some sort of po
wer supply like batteries,” Trent said with a tone that made Kevin think that perhaps those two did not get along very well.

“I don’t have time for your crap right now,” Catie snapped as she got to her feet and started putting on her field gear.

“I told you exactly what I saw. Lights. Big church area. What else would you like me to share?”

Yep
, Kevin thought,
these two did not like each other
. “We don’t have time for your bickering,” he snapped as he made his way to his feet.

“Whoa!” Heather and Aleah said in unison.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Aleah reached up and grabbed his wrist.

“Just up on the roof.”

“You aren’t going anywhere.” Heather stepped up beside Aleah, folding her arms across her chest. It had been almost two weeks and these two had hounded his every move up to this point.

A muffled rumble sounded and seemed to shake the walls. Several of the children cried out, many sitting bolt upright in their sleeping bags. The lanterns hanging in the room swayed just a little.

“What the hell?” Catie snapped as she made her way over to the door and opened it a crack. “We may have trouble.”

“Maybe I should have stayed in my coma,” Kevin muttered to himself.

“We need to suit up and get out there to at least see what is going on,” Catie said as she pulled the door shut and turned to face the room. There was a sudden flurry of activity.

“Okay, everybody just hold on,” Kevin announced and held up his hands. “For one thing, we have no idea what is out there. This could be Major Beers for all we know. We don’t have a chance in hell against a force like that in a firefight. Or, it could be some raiders passing through. Those sorts usually like cau
sing as much mayhem as possible. Plus, if they are trying to flush people out, we would be playing right into their hand.

“Sean…Deanna, I want you to have the kids up and dressed, but I want you all to stay put. Deanna, you stay in this room with them and keep them calm and quiet. Sean, as soon as everybody is packed, you get up on the roof and keep watch, the first sign that something bad is headed this way, I want you guys to fall back to that toll booth on the interstate. Stay there as long as you can. If you need to, get back across that bridge and find a spot to hide where you can see the freeway. If we don’t come within three days, you guys are on your own.”

The two oldest children nodded their understanding. Kevin hobbled over to a chair and began to fasten his prosthetic.

“And just what do you think you are going to do?” Aleah came over and stood above him with her hands on her hips.

“We don’t have time for this,” Kevin said as he looked up at her. “I’ll be as careful as I can be, but we need to get eyes out there and see what is going on. This is just an observation mission. We are not going out there to fight anybody.” He sat up and looked around at Heather, Trent, Catie, and Aleah. “Does everybody understand? This is not a confrontation…this is scouting to see just what is out there.”

“And so we are supposed to go out and do what exactly?” Catie asked.

“What part of scouting do you not understand?” Kevin turned to the diminutive woman. “For now, we are just trying to get eyes on whoever this is. I think we can agree that going up against an unknown number of potential enemies is a bad idea. We do not know a thing about these folks. They could be normal, decent people.”

“Yeah, because we have run across so many,” Catie huffed.

“I don’t know how you handled things before,” Kevin limped over to Catie and stared down at her, “but we don’t just attack people for no reason. We don’t know what is going on and until we do…this is a recon mission. Period. Are we clear?”

“Crystal.” Catie closed the handful of inches that separated her and Kevin and looked up at him with a squinty glare. “But know this, the moment that
I
feel in danger, I am doing what I have to.”

“And you know this,” Kevin said back in a whisper, “if you endanger any of these people going all gung ho crazy, I will deal with you personally.”

The two stared at each other for a moment, neither seeming inclined to break the other’s gaze. Surprisingly, it was Trent who stepped in between them.

“Enough of the pissing contest,” Trent snapped. “We have bigger problems. And I just want to go on record as saying that I don’t think Kevin should be part of this little mission or whate
ver it is.”

“Noted.” Kevin broke away from Catie’s icy gaze. “Now let’s get moving. Deanna…Sean…do you have any questions?”

Sean started to say something but Deanna gave him a sharp elbow. “Nope…nothing,” he managed.

Kevin was surprised at how ingrained he was when it came to putting on his gear. He was even starting to get used to his missing foot. While he would not be winning any sprint races, he had become very adept in moving with urgency. He was zipping his heavy leather jacket when he felt something grab his arm.

He glanced down to see Rose looking up at him. She had her arms out and open. It took him a few seconds to realize what was going on. Taking a deep breath, he knelt down and gave her a hug.

“Please be careful,” she whispered in his ear. “I was just starting to think I liked you.”

Kevin pulled away and his smile vanished immediately. He had mistakenly thought that she was making some sort of joke; the expression on her face said otherwise.

“I’ll be careful,” he assured.

He joined Catie, Trent, Heather, and Aleah outside the little park and rec building. The night was chilly and a steady breeze added to the briskness. The smell of burning carried on that breeze.

“The wind is blowing this direction,” Kevin said to nobody in particular.

“So…what’s the plan?” Trent asked the group.

“Since the fire is just four or five blocks away, I suggest each of us take one of the streets from D to G and move up to 110
th
Street, then hook over one block to the west and come back down from the north. That will do a couple of things. For one, that will let us get a look at what sort of activity they might have stirred up. Second, it will have us come at these folks from the opposite direction of the kids,” Kevin said in a rush as he laid out his impromptu plan. “I suggest getting into the back yards. The streets might be a little dicey right now.”

“I would like to suggest something.” Catie stepped forward. Kevin gave her a curt nod, unsure of what she might say. “Kevin has been out of it for a while and is not familiar with our signals. I suggest that he and I move together. We can just skip sending somebody down D Street. Also, we only have the four flare guns, so that would mean that one person would be without if we all five split up.”

Before anybody else could say a word, Kevin spoke up, “That sounds like a good idea.” He noticed Aleah and Heather both snap their mouths shut. Honestly, his sole reason for jumping in so quickly was simply because he did not want them wasting another second.

With final pats on the shoulder, and a kiss and hug shared between Aleah and Kevin, everybody slipped away into the night. Kevin and Catie had drawn ‘S. Ave G’ which was the closest to the burning church.

“So why you and me?” Kevin asked as soon as they were away from the others.

“You aren’t back to a hundred percent yet,” Catie said as she climbed over the first fence and landed without a sound in the back yard. “You would try to watch out for Aleah and get both of you killed. Same goes with you and Heather…you guys have history and that is the role you are used to and would pro
bably try to slip into without even thinking. Trent does not know you and might leave you in a heartbeat. The fact is, you are our leader and need to be preserved. I am the best person qualified for that act.”

Kevin tried to think of one single thing she had said that he could offer an argument against and came up empty. Every si
ngle bit of it was logical and made perfect sense.

They moved quietly through the first few yards and Kevin was finding out in a hurry how weak he still was from his recent brush with death. The
limitations of his foot were actually the least of his problems at the moment.

Just as Catie was about to swing herself up and over the fence between the next yard and the one they were currently in, there was a commotion just to their left. The problem, besides the darkness, was that
the houses were actually packed in pretty tight. Also, the blaze was in that direction which made everything to their left nothing more than inky black shapes.

“I’m telling you…I swear that I heard something,” a voice hissed.

Kevin was certain that whoever it was that was speaking had to be less than a dozen feet from them. Catie had frozen; one leg up and over the top of the five foot high white picket fence that ran the length of the yard.