The Omega Protocol Chronicles (Book 1): Exodus (39 page)

“I’ll get you some breakfast. We’ll get someone else to take over later. I want to take you and a couple of the others for target practice today. It’s been awhile since we went out and I want to show you guys a few new things.”

“Cool. Thanks.”

Malcolm joined the others that were gathering around the table to dig into breakfast. The children were chattering with Kim and Claudia. Alan sat grim faced next to Jenny, who was rubbing a soothing hand up and down his arm as she whispered in his ear.

The man was struggling with his own remorse over leaving his brother behind and Malcolm reminded himself that he should go a bit easier on him. Alan could be antagonistic but he’d earned some slack due to recent events. Craig was still in his tent and, if everyone had kept to the schedule, Quinton and Claudia were down at the road on watch duty.

He passed by Kim, reaching out to let his fingers glide over her waist and they exchanged secret smiles. He stood at the head of the table, watching everyone for a moment before clearing his throat to get their attention. They were quick to quiet down, everybody used to the routine of their morning meetings.  

“I’m going to take out the people who need target practice after we’ve cleared away breakfast. We’ve been slacking on training lately. We’ll head out to the gorge, it’ll bounce the sound so if the locals managed to figure out we’re in the park, they will have a hard time pinning down our location.”

He nodded towards the van. “I’ve got Trey on the radio to see if we can find what frequency they’re using. If we can pick them up, we can figure out their movements for when we go back to look for the others. We’ll take turns on the radio until we find them.”

“What are we supposed to do, Uncle Malcolm?” Matthew called out. The kids were always eager to join in helping around the camp, though Malcolm was sure that the eagerness was because they believed that if they kept asking, they’d eventually get a cool job to do.

“You’re going to be on water duty with everybody else. Haul, boil and bottle as much as you can and pack it up.” The twins groaned, their plan for a cool job foiled again. “We should also take down the tents, pack them up just in case. We can set them back up each night. We need to be ready to go at a moment’s notice.”

With the day’s agenda set, Malcolm walked over to pick up a bowl to bring to Trey but before he could get too far, Alan was coming up to talk to him.

“You really think you can find them on the radio?” he asked and Malcolm nodded, continuing towards the van.

“With the amount of freaks we saw in there and they have to communicate with each other so their mobile patrols stay mobile. Radios are the only way they can be doing it.”

“I want you to promise me something.” His words and the hand he put on his shoulder had Malcolm stopping and turning to face him. “If we find out where they are, I’m going after them and you have to promise you won’t try to stop me.”

“Alan, this isn’t about revenge. If we find out their movements, we’ll know how to avoid them when we go back to look for Travis.”

“Don’t bullshit me, Malcolm. You and I both know my brother is dead. Those assholes weren’t looking to take men prisoner. If he was alive, he’d be back here. He isn’t so he’s dead and they killed him. It doesn’t matter if they pulled the trigger themselves. They were the reason we got split up and that’s the reason he isn’t here now. He was my little brother and I want someone to answer for what happened to him!”

Alan was shaking with rage, his fists white knuckled as he dug his nails into the palms of his hands. His eyes burned with an intense fury Malcolm had rarely seen. Malcolm wasn’t ready to give up on Travis yet but he couldn’t fault Alan for believing he was gone. And maybe Malcolm was deluding himself in being hopeful, not ready to submit himself to the guilt that would come if he accepted Travis had been lost on his watch.

The least he could do was to make the promise. If it had been Janet in Travis’ place, he would want Alan to grant him the same vow. He understood the need but he didn’t like it. Revenge always clouded a person’s mind, made them reckless and this was a time when recklessness could get you killed. Malcolm knew that if the time came to gran Alan’s wish, then he would go with him and do his best to keep them safe and whole.

“As long as it doesn’t put the rest of the group in danger, I promise to let you go.” He held out his hand and Alan took it, shaking to seal the pact. “And I promise if the time comes, I’ll go with you.”

“You don’t have to,” Alan said, wrinkles forming between his eyes as he looked at him with confusion. “Travis isn’t your family. It’s not your fight.”

“You know, I don’t just talk to hear my own voice,” Malcolm smirked. “I meant what I said at the funeral. He’s my family just as much as you are.”

Alan’s eyebrows shot up high on his forehead. “Really? I’m your family? Come on, man, I know you’d love to knock my teeth in given half a chance.”

“That’s true but it doesn’t make you any less a part of the family. Everybody’s got a relative they want to crack upside the head and if they don’t, it’s because they’re the relative everybody wants to smack around.”

Alan actually managed a smile and scratched at the stubble on his throat, running a hand up over his face before taking a breath.

“So if we’re family, can I ask one more thing from you?” Malcolm nodded for him to go ahead. “If I go and something happens to me, you promise to take care of Jenny and the baby. They’ll have nobody else looking out for them.”

“Of course,” Malcolm promised without hesitation. “They’re a part of the family too.”

“Thank you,” Alan said, his voice shaking with emotion and he quickly turned away from him.

It was the first time Malcolm had seen him express a feeling other than anger at their situation. Despite his conflict with the man and his less than respectful opinion of him, Malcolm could see the man cared for his wife and unborn child and that raised him up a bit in Malcolm’s estimation.

He put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing once to let him know that he got it and he wasn’t going to shame him for letting a crack in his armour show. “Why don’t you take over radio duty from Trey, since you’ve got the motivation for it. We’ve got to get ready for target practice.”

Subject File # 745

Administrator - You and her seem to be polar opposites in many ways. It’s interesting that you’ve bonded so well.

Subject - What’s that supposed to mean?

Administrator - You’re surly, she’s quick to laugh. You keep to yourself, she’s always looking to chat with someone. The whole opposites attract thing, I suppose.

Subject - What kinda bullshit question’s that? Thought this was supposed to be ‘bout makin’ sure the trauma didn’t turn us into lunatics, not ‘bout who likes who.

Jackson shot up from the ground, disoriented and unsure of where he had woken up. He spotted Audrey and Hannah curled up asleep in their brightly coloured sleeping bags and it all came back. He cursed when he saw the other sleeping bag empty and the keys he had dropped by his head were gone.

Woman had probably up and took the van, leaving them stranded. He never should have trusted her. She wanted to steal it once, he should have known she was just waiting for another chance. No wonder she suggested they not take watch, he had been dead on his feet and she knew he’d sleep through a bomb going off.

He continued to curse as he stomped out of the tent, nearly tearing the zipper from the canvas when it caught. The scent of roasting meat was the first thing that hit him and his stomach rumbled. His steps faltered when he saw Veronica sitting at the fire pit, turning a makeshift spit over the flames.

She smiled brightly at him despite the fact that it would have been impossible for her not to hear him cursing her out a moment ago. “Morning, sunshine.”

“Mornin’,” he grunted back, his attention going to the small animal she had cooking over the fire. Grease dripped off of it, sizzling as it hit the flames and it caused his stomach to grumble loudly.

“Sounds like your stomach is going to be disappointed,” she said. “I don’t see why a ‘traitor bitch’ would share any of this with you.”

“Sorry ‘bout that,” he mumbled. “Didn’t mean it.”

“Yes, you did,” she replied, all matter of fact. “It’s fine. If I had run off, I’d deserve every word of it but I didn’t and I’m not going anywhere so stop worrying about it.”

She made him feel stupid for thinking badly about her but that was his default setting. He learned early on in life that people were out to screw you. He didn’t see how a plague would change that. He barely knew this woman. Sure, she had nice words and a pretty smile but that didn’t mean anything. He had been fooled by the same in the past.  

“Now that we’re past that, time to eat. Meat is almost done, a couple more minutes, but you can help yourself to the eggs,” she told him, nodding to the pan nestled in the corner of the fire pit that held half a dozen eggs, cooked sunny side up.

He looked up at her in disbelief. “Where the hell ya get this stuff?”

“I got the eggs from a duck’s nest down at the edge of the pond about half a mile from here,” she told him as he picked up a plate and dished himself up a couple of eggs. “When I went to get wood yesterday, I set up a couple snares. This rabbit was in one of them this morning.”

He was impressed. If it had been left up to him, they would be chowing down on more of those mealy granola bars and some strawberry jam for breakfast.

“Oh and there is coffee in the thermos over there,” she said with a nod towards the blue thermos.

“Don’t tell me ya found coffee out in the woods too.”

She laughed. “No, there was a canister of instant in the back of the van. I just boiled the water.”

“Yer tellin’ me that there has been coffee in that van all this time? Shit, I coulda used it.”

He grabbed up the thermos, taking a moment to savour the scent of it before pouring himself a cup. When the first taste hit his tongue, he groaned in pleasure, eyes squeezing shut to block out the rest of the world so he could better taste the delicious bitterness.

“Sweet Christ, that’s good,” he moaned and opened his eyes to find Veronica smirking at him over the fire.

“Would you like me to leave you two alone?”

“Funny,” he snorted but her teasing wasn’t enough to stop him from chugging down the rest of his coffee greedily. She didn’t say anything else, her focus on the rabbit as she took it off the spit and began to carve it up.

He watched as she worked quickly and efficiently, the buck knife comfortable in her hand as she sliced the meat off the bones. She had two plastic containers in front of her and tossed the bones in one and the meat in the other. When she was done, she handed the one with meat to him and sealed up the bones.

After he took his share, he handed the meat back to her, an eyebrow raised in a silent question as he nodded at the one filled with bones.

“The meat will be enough for breakfast and lunch and I can make a soup from the bones for dinner,” she told him. “When you hunt, you use every part of the animal.”

“Ya gonna sew yourself a hat from the fur?” he joked and he saw a pink tinge rise up on her cheeks. “Ya really are plannin’ that, ain’tcha?”

“Well, I was thinking gloves for the winter,” she said with a shrug.

For the first time, Jackson felt like he was on even ground with this woman. Since she had come storming into his life, he had felt like she was always sure of herself. She was smart, charming and confident; all the things he would never be. Now she was embarrassed and, for once, he felt like she was finally a person he could meet eye to eye.

“Don’tcha have to dry the skin out so ya can wear it?”

She nodded. “I made a tanner, I’ve got it set out behind the bushes. I figured the girls didn’t need to see Peter Cottontail skinned first thing in the morning.”

“Ya really meant it when ya said ya could get us food out here.”

“My dad taught me everything he knew,” she said with a wistful smile.

“Ya were close with your dad, huh?” He regretted his words when her face twisted in pain but she was quick to force it back and answer him.

“We are…we were. My whole family has always been close.”

Jackson wondered what it would have been like to have that. He had never had much of a family to speak of. His mother had dragged him from place to place, chasing whatever high or man she had in her sights. The brief time social services had mandated he live with his Gran had been the best of his life and he had a taste of what Veronica was talking about. He and Gran had been a real family then but soon enough, his mother had showed back up, sober and parroting the words the social workers wanted to hear. Then he was back with her, his time with Gran just a memory.

“Sorry to bring it up,” he said.

“It’s okay. It’s just…losing my parents, it’s still fresh, you know? It hurts to think about them but, at the same time, it hurts not to think about them. It would be easier to deal with if there wasn’t the whole end-of-the-world thing to cope with too.”

“Do ya think the girls get how bad things are out there?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Hannah doesn’t get it at all, she’s too young. Audrey has an idea but she doesn’t understand the extent. Hell, I don’t think we do either.”