Legion of Despair: Book Three in The Borrowed World Series (28 page)

“Charlotte, it’s okay. You don’t need to cry. You’re alive,” Debra whispered. “You’re alive, sweetie.”

Charlotte opened her eyes and looked at her mother. “That’s
why
I’m crying,” she said. “I’m crying because I’m still alive and I don’t want to be.”

There was a moan from behind them. Gary had forgotten about the trooper in the midst of his fear for his family. He found Travis lying on his back, attempting to staunch the spurt of arterial blood from his neck with his fingers. Gary knelt beside him. The man had been wearing a heavy military plate carrier but several buckshot rounds had gone above the armor and caught him in the throat. The blood ran like a faucet. Gary tried applying pressure by placing a bandana over the wound but it was hopeless. In the days of 9-1-1, he might have had a fighting chance. In this world, he had none.

Gary noticed Travis looking him in the eye.

“Why did you do it?” he whispered. “I was going to let you go.”

“Do what?” Gary asked, confused.

“Let your people shoot me.”

“I-I… didn’t d-do anything,” Gary stammered.

“I would have let you go,” Travis said. He was weaker now, his voice slowing, his eyes shocky.

“He wasn’t one of my people,” Gary rushed to explain. “He’s one of the people that killed my son-in-law.”

The explanation fell on deaf ears. The trooper was gone.

“Shit!” Gary yelled. He beat on his thighs with his fists. He stood and yelled it again. “Shit!”

Will came running up with his rifle in his hand. “We need to get out of here,” he said. “There are a lot of houses up in that neighborhood and people are starting to come out and look. We need to be gone before someone comes down here.”

That thought cleared Gary’s head quickly. He grabbed the trooper’s Tavor rifle and handed it to Will. “Put this in the truck and shut the back door.” He grabbed six spare mags from Travis’ vest and the Sig that he’d dropped beside him. He found two spare Sig mags on his belt and he took those as well. It wasn’t so much a calculated move as a reaction to gather what resources he could immediately lay his hands on.

“I’m sorry,” Gary said to Travis’ body.

“I’m not,” Will said.

“How can you not be sorry?” Gary said. “He was just doing his job. He didn’t deserve this. He died thinking we did this to him on purpose.”

“If that cop hadn’t opened that door, who would have been the next person opening it?” Will asked. “Who?”

The realization dawned on Gary. It would likely have been him. Or it would have been Will. Either way, his family would have lost another man. As badly as he felt about it, he would rather it be the trooper than he or Will. His family couldn’t sustain another loss.

“We need to get going,” Will urged.

Gary ran to the cab of the truck, which he’d fortunately left running, because they didn’t have time now for boosting cars. People were getting closer to the road. He snatched up his radio. “Let’s get out of here.”

Everyone piled into their cars and pulled out, the vehicles in the back swerving to avoid the two dead bodies. As they slipped through the concrete barriers and past the intersection, Gary could see people coming down the street from a nearby neighborhood. Some of them appeared to be carrying weapons. The obvious conclusion that those strangers would arrive at when they came upon the scene would be that Gary and his people had killed the trooper. It’s what he would think under the same circumstances. They would have to hide the truck when they got to Jim’s and then get rid of it at the first opportunity. It was the most obvious of the vehicles and if there was any sort of law enforcement in place at all, they might be looking for it.

Gary took the radio off the dash. “Jim, you read me?”

The response was immediate this time. “Jim here.”

“We’re coming in hot,” Gary said. “We hit stormy seas.”

“Understood,” Jim said. “You know the road by the old school near my house?”

“I do.”

“Turn there and go four miles,” Jim said. “Then turn right and take the first left. Go about one half mile and I’ll be waiting for you by the side of the road. There will be folks with me to help.”

Gary felt better already. “Appreciate it,” Gary said. “We’ll see you in a few.”

Chapter 18

The Valley

After receiving Gary’s radio transmission from the road, Jim drove to the end of his driveway to wait on him. He’d sent Buddy, Lloyd, and Pete up to Henry’s farm earlier to get the house presentable. It wasn’t like they were staging it for HGTV or anything, but there were a few things that needed immediate attention.

They opened the windows to let in some fresh air. They pulled up the hallway carpet, removing the bloodstain from where Henry’s wife bled to death at the hands of Charlie Rakes. They also gathered and removed the accumulation of trash from when Charlie and his family had lived in the house. What could be burned was dealt with in the backyard. Non-burnable trash went to a sinkhole back away from the house. It was the same way they did it in the country a century ago, before landfills, transfer stations, and community dumpsters. Garbage pickup had never been available out this far and, at this rate, wouldn’t be for a long time coming.

Ellen and Nana had fixed a box of ready-to-eat food for the family. It wasn’t like in the old days, when Gary could just send out for pizza since it was moving day. Jim didn’t know what they’d fixed, but it smelled good in the cab of the truck.

When Jim heard a truck approaching, he recognized it. The exhaust on that truck had been rusted out for years and had a particular sound to it. He’d told his crew to get it fixed but they kept putting it off. There was no sense in Gary stopping his whole entourage in the road just for a greeting when they were this close to their new home. Jim pulled out in the road, waved to Gary to follow him, and led the convoy directly to Henry’s farm.

Jim found the gate open and eased through, the truck bouncing a little on the cattle guard. Pete, Buddy, and Lloyd were sitting in the shade of the porch. He saw Buddy spin the lid back onto a mason jar and pass it to Lloyd, who tucked it into a bucket of tools. Pete was sipping on a Dr. Pepper he’d come up with somehow. Jim drove toward them, then pulled out of the way to make room for the mass of vehicles following him.

Gary pulled in behind him and killed the engine on the box truck. He slid out the door and slammed it shut behind him. Jim got out and walked toward the man. He extended a hand, then withdrew it and instead hugged his friend. Over the course of walking hundreds of miles, he figured the grade of their friendship had gone up a notch.

“It’s good to see you, Gary.”

“You too, Jim,” Gary replied.

“I’m sorry things have been so rough up your way. I didn’t come back to a picnic either. I had to kill a man within fifteen minutes of getting home.”

“Yeah, it definitely wasn’t the homecoming I imagined,” Gary said. “I thought after what we’d been through, I kind of deserved more. I thought the world owed me at least a couple of good weeks of wearing flip-flops in a lawn chair.”

“So much for that,” Jim said.

“No kidding.”

Gary’s family had been hanging back and allowing the two men a moment to reconnect, then began filtering over. Everyone was introduced.

“Jim, you remember Will, don’t you?”

Jim nodded and extended a hand to Will.

The rest of the introductions were rushed since Charlotte needed to get off her feet. Jim quickly showed Debra and Sara to the master bedroom and they escorted Charlotte, making sure she laid down on the bed. Jim had warned Lloyd, Buddy, and Pete not to mention anything about the death in the house or the bloody carpet. He hoped they remembered.

Outside, Jim found Gary speaking with Alice in the front yard. Jim hadn’t seen Alice. She’d not gotten out of the car when he was out before and he had no idea she was even with them. Gary hadn’t mentioned it.

He approached the two. “Alice, I want to apologize for being such a—”

His apology was cut off when Alice grabbed him in a tight embrace. “You have nothing to apologize for, Jim. I had a lot of time to think on my way home. I should have realized that you had a better idea of what was going on. I just couldn’t admit it, either to myself or to you all. I guess I’m hardheaded.”

“I was still a dick,” Jim mumbled.

“Just because you were a dick didn’t mean you were wrong,” Alice said. “I’ve known you long enough that I should have been able to separate the messenger from the message.”

“I’ve been trying to work on that same thing for years,” Jim chuckled wryly. “If you won’t allow me to apologize, I at least want to express that I’m sorry for whatever hardship led to you being here.”

Alice smiled. “I’ll accept that. Thank you.”

“Where’s Rebecca?” Jim asked. “She still convinced that FEMA is going to get her home? I wonder if she made it yet.”

Alice’s smile dropped like a rock. “She didn’t make it. She was murdered.”

Jim was genuinely shocked. He and Rebecca had butted heads over the years but he did have kind of an admiration for the woman. “How?”

“We met up with a man in the camp. He wanted to leave with us, but they made it hard to leave. When we finally got out of there, he came with us. He turned out to be mentally ill. I was pretty much done with the two of them but he killed Rebecca before I could part ways with them. I got up one morning and found her dead. He’d stabbed her repeatedly. I still have nightmares about the sight of it.”

Jim didn’t know what to say. He touched Alice’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this, Alice?” Gary asked. “I had no idea what you’d been through.”

“You had your own problems, Gary,” Alice said. “You didn’t need to hear about mine.”

Gary shook his head.

“Then I had the misfortune of crossing paths with the same man again in Bluefield. How’s that for luck? I went to sleep in an abandoned car on the highway and woke up zip-tied to a pole in his basement. His mental illness was getting worse and, besides Rebecca, it turned out that he had already killed his mother. He was going to kill me too.”

“Oh my God,” Gary whispered.

“You obviously got away,” Jim said. “How?”

It was part of the difference between Jim and Gary that Jim did not dwell on the fact that Alice had experienced such an awful event, and instead chose to focus on the fact she’d escaped it.

Alice looked Jim in the eye and he found a cold practicality that had not existed there before. “I severed his femoral artery with a broken piece of wire. Then I stabbed him with his own knife and shot him in the face.”

There was something in the way she said it. It was almost a challenge. She was throwing out her deed and seeing if they could accept who she was now. Seeing if they would believe her. Gary looked taken aback; Jim was impressed.

“I knew there was a fighter in there,” Jim said. “I knew it because of the way we used to fight.”

Alice found her smile again. “Speaking of that, I stayed in the office the other night and I found the message you left on the wall. I knew you left it for me. I can’t tell you how much it lifted me up to find that.”

“Did you find the note I left on the candle? About how you must have missed it in your
safety inspections
?”

“I did,” she said. “I’m pretty sure I laughed about it, but I may have cussed you too.”

“Have you been home?”

“No, she hasn’t,” Gary answered for her. “When I found her, she was weak from a stomach bug and I offered to let her take one of our cars if she’d wait a day and come with us.”

“That was a good plan,” Jim said. “Safer than traveling alone.”

“Trust me, I know,” Alice said. “And now that you all have safely arrived, I’m going to empty this vehicle and go check on my own family.”

Lloyd and Buddy conveniently strolled up at this point to introduce themselves.

“I’ll be glad to help ya’ll unload,” Lloyd said. “Unfortunately, if we wait too much longer I’m going to be too drunk to be any help.”

“I second that amendment,” Buddy said, extending a hand to Gary.

After introductions, they quickly emptied the vehicle that Gary was lending Alice. The contents were piled in the yard to haul inside later. As they prepared to say their goodbyes, Gary moved forward and hugged Alice.

“Thanks for being there for us,” he said. “You were a big help.”

“You’re welcome,” she said. She turned to Jim and extended her arms.

Jim smiled, then hugged her. “I think there’s going to be safety in greater numbers,” Jim said. “If you and your family need a group, you’re welcome to come join us.”

They broke the hug and Alice smiled at Jim. “I sincerely appreciate that,” she said. “I may be back.” She turned to walk off.

“Alice,” Jim called. “We’ve been keeping in touch with radios. We’re monitoring channel ten. If you need to get up with us, that’s how.”

“Got it,” she said. “Channel ten. Thanks.” She got into the vehicle, pulled out, and was gone.

“She’s different,” Jim said, watching her drive off. “You can tell her experiences have changed her.”

Gary nodded. “No kidding. The woman nearly blew my damn head off,” he said.

It was so unexpected that Jim started laughing. “What?”

“In the hallway at work,” Gary said. “When I went to get the truck, I stopped by my office and startled her. If I hadn’t ducked, she’d have killed me. She actually fired at my head and the door deflected it.”

Jim shook his head. “Well, do you want to unload the big truck or leave it until tomorrow? I know you guys have had a long day already.”

“We need to unload it now. It will have to be hidden as soon as possible,” Gary said. “We had trouble at the roadblock and people may be looking for this truck.”

“You kill Travis?”

“
We
didn’t kill him, but he’s dead and people probably
think
we killed him,” Gary said.

“I never did like him.”

“Apparently it was mutual,” Gary said. “Which you might have mentioned before I went ahead and told him that you and I were friends. It didn’t help things.”

“Sorry.”

“We’ll talk about it later,” Gary said.

“There’s food,” Jim said. “I forgot to mention that. My wife and mom sent it.”

“I’m starving,” Will said.

“We can eat while we unload,” Gary said. “I won’t be able to rest until this truck is out of sight.”

“When it’s unloaded, there’s an equipment shed we can put it in for now,” Jim said. “It’s tall enough that we can drive it in and shut the doors.”

They worked for two hours to unload the contents of the truck. The men did most of the unloading while the women kept the children out of trouble, looked after Charlotte, and set out the food that Ellen and Nana had sent for them. Jim had originally planned on having a little get-together at his place to welcome Gary’s family to the neighborhood, but the mood was too somber after Dave’s death. It was not the time for a party.

When the unloading was done, Gary and Jim made plans to catch up the next day and start on their security plan.

“I appreciate this, Jim,” Gary said. “I don’t know how things would have turned out if we’d stayed in our home.”

“You’re welcome,” Jim said. “I’m pretty sure you would have done the same for me.”

Jim gathered his weary crew and loaded them into his truck for the short drive back to his place. Lloyd climbed in the front to ride with Jim. Pete and Buddy rode in the back. It was just past sunset and the sky was beautiful in a way that made conversation unnecessary.

When Jim reached the turnoff for his driveway, he asked Lloyd if he wanted him to take them the rest of the way up to Buddy’s house, but Lloyd declined.

“We had a good time walking the other evening,” Lloyd said. “I think I’d like to do it again. An evening stroll is good for the soul.”

“The next time you walk up the road singing in the dark, you might not be so lucky. Someone might hear you and shoot your dumb ass,” Jim warned.

“Then I would die a happy man,” Lloyd said, meaning every word of it.

“Have it your way then,” Jim said. He turned off the road and crept up his driveway. He approached the house and Pops, Nana, and Ellen came out, waiting on the porch. They were obviously anxious to hear about Gary’s experience. Jim was glad Ariel was not there on the porch to hear it. It was not a story fit for young ears.

Jim stopped the truck and everyone piled out.

“How’d it go?” Pops asked.

“I don’t even know where to start,” Jim said. He took a seat on the steps and Pete lumbered up and sat beside him. Jim put an arm around his son and patted him on the shoulder. The evening was pleasant and the lightning bugs were flickering through the pasture. The moon and a few planets were beginning to emerge in the darkening sky. The night would be every bit as beautiful as the evening had been.

“Excuse me, but I ain’t got the stomach to hear this story again,” Buddy said. “Once was bad enough. Are you staying, Lloyd, or are you ready to head back to the house?”

Lloyd had just plopped himself down on the steps, too. “I just got comfortable but I suppose and I can get uncomfortable just as easy.” He started to get up.

“Don’t rush,” Buddy said. “I ain’t leaving without saying goodbye to that little peach. Where’s she at?”