August Burning (Book 2): Survival (25 page)

“Their existence threatens us, Bennett. They will come here, and assume command. We cannot let that happen.”

Bennett frowned. “Sir, I…”

Agis clasped him like a father on the shoulder. “Bennett, you told me I could count on you. Is that still the case?”

“Of course,” Bennett mumbled.

“We cannot trust outsiders. There’s no telling what they might do. I do know one thing for certain. They will attempt to take what we have here, change it, and morph it to meet their desires. I will not allow the community to come under that threat. Do you understand?”

Bennett nodded sharply. “They cannot be trusted.”

Agis popped the cap off another vial of pills and crushed it for Bennett. Then he guided his head down and encouraged him to snort it. “Exactly. We must strike first, then. I figure I can trust about twenty men to keep a secret. At least till it blows over. The people can be told something more convincing after the threat is neutralized.”

Bennett closed his eyes, feeling the high coming on strong. “Yes.”

“Bennett.” Agis’s eyes were bloodshot, and dark. “Where would be a good place? To take them down? To ambush them?”

Bennett opened his eyes slowly. He thought for a long time. Then it came to him. “The Ravines.”

Agis leaned back. “Ahhhh. Excellent Bennett. Excellent work. Leave me now. Take this though,” he pressed a bottle of painkillers to his hand. “Good work, son.”

Bennett stumbled out of the door, trying to think where Layla would be at this hour.

…

Adira sat up suddenly. Despite the chill, her body was covered in a sheen of sweat. Her heart was pounding and her limbs were quaking with fear. She had been reliving the moment she had been attacked. She looked to her side, and there was Jaxton, sleeping softly.

She could hear the others, all around them, breathing. It made her feel immensely better; they were all trusted friends. But she would not be able to sleep again till the adrenaline had worn off.

Adira rose and stalked out of the room like a cat. She thought she might try convincing the night guards to let her walk outside again. Snatching up her heavy coat and hat, she stole out of the room. She heard voices coming down the hall, and for some reason, she wanted to hide. Pressing herself into a janitor’s closet, she waited in darkness.

They wore heavy boots. Two dozen figures trudged past her hiding spot, saying nothing as they walked. They wore all black, with heavy body armor, kneepads, gloves, and masks. Their faces were painted dark. All were armed.

Adira found her mind racing. What the hell was going on? Were her friends in danger? She waited until the armed men had moved a considerable distance down the silent hall before she emerged. To her relief, she followed them past her classroom, and down the music-wing stairwell. The group stopped just inside the south exit, where the typical night guard was nowhere to be seen. Adira waited inside a classroom five meters away. She could hear voices, but no distinct words. She listened as they dismantled the door barriers and pressed magazines into their rifles. There was a prolonged shuffle, and then there was silence.

Adira risked a glance. They had left. She raced to the glass and found their shadows disappearing into the pale moonlight. Adira hesitated on the door, realizing she had no idea what was going on. Jaxton would be livid. She pressed open the door, and stole into the frosty night.

The night was frigid, and cloudless. By moonlight, she could make out the little band of dark men working their way down the road ahead. She prayed they would not enter the forest. The night was utterly silent, and she had no doubts about her ability to stay quiet on a bed of leaves. The band took off at a light jog under the full moon, and Adira quickened her step to keep pace. They moved passed via the main street, down into the rich suburbs near the east, where great silent mansions sat on frozen hills. Within an hour, Adira realized she had no idea where she was in that frigid dark. The stars twinkled overhead as her limbs began to protest and the eastern ridge drew up before them like a great black wall in the sky. The group abandoned the asphalt and veered left onto a gravel road that snaked between the silent trees. Were they hunting?

Adira dropped back to avoid being heard, snugging her hat tightly around her skull. The ridge drew up before them, blocking out thousands of white stars. She looked down. They had taken a hiking trail into the forest. She swore softly. This was too much. Reluctantly, she continued, advancing into the glens of swaying trunks one hundred feet behind the last armed man.

She could see them ahead, a bristling line of trudging shadows advancing into the wild. The ground before her broke up, till it became rocky and treacherous. Then the group stopped ahead. They all crouched, and Adira could hear muffled voices. The group remained this way for a long time, so long Adira was tempted to head back down the trail and find her own way home. This had been folly.

One man stood, and the others followed. She could see a set of nervous eyes caught in the moonlight blinking at her tree, scanning the rear.

Without a whisper, the group broke off the path and fanned out in the forest, using the rocks to prevent noise. Adira forced her nervous limbs forward, spurred on by her natural curiosity. The rocky hill continued upwards, till a gap in the ridge was visible, through which poured white starlight. She knew this place. The Ravines. Then she heard voices, and saw torchlight. She crept around the great frigid boulders and perched herself on an outcropping that edged out over the Ravine. Forty feet below, shouldered by great spurs of rock, there was an encampment.

She counted ten large tents, and the remains of several campfires. Two were still burning, and were surrounded by armed men in camouflage, with helmets. She spotted guards chatting to each other at either end of the encampment, their gloved hands resting on powerful assault rifles. Suddenly, her thoughts clicked. They were going to die.

Adira panicked, and she felt her limbs freeze with indecision. Who were they? Why was Agis attacking them? Should she warn them? From her vantage point among the boulders, she could make out the shadows filtering among the boulders at height. They secreted themselves behind rocks and leaned out over the lip. Several more were moving down to the left and right, to gain purchase on ground level. She could not move, or they would see her. She suspected the only reason they had no so far was due to their focus on the task at hand.

Her mind reeled. Standing next to the campfire directly below her was someone she knew. Someone she had seen before. She recognized his gait, and the back of his head. He strolled among the guards, greeting them and cracking jokes. He paid no mind to the rifle strapped across his back. As he turned, she saw the rifles on the cliffs raise. Then it clicked. It was Troy, the army officer who had left them in the capital, at the onset of the infection. Jaxton’s childhood friend, still with his great bushy beard. Adira screamed.

Troy turned his head skyward in terror at the primal echo, and the rifles above opened up. A chattering thunder from twenty-five rifles snapped and cracked off the frigid rock walls. Adira pressed her body against the ground, and saw hails of gunfire shredding tents and men. Those with weapons raised them and fired blindly at the walls of the ravine, to no effect. Agis’s men on the ground opened fire from either side, so the tiny camp was swarmed by a deluge of hot lead.

…

Adira was too scared to move. She was certain they had heard her scream. It was an eternity before the snaps of thunder ceased, and even then she refused to budge. She wasn’t sure when she fell asleep, but at some point she slipped into a restless dream of screams and gunfire. When she opened her eyes, it was dawn.

Adira crawled over the edge of the ravine, and there was death below her. The corpses were stacked knee high, their limbs cascading out of the rigid pile haphazardly. It was a beautiful, clear, day. She puked. She could see the heat coming off it. And there was frozen blood everywhere.

When she reached the bottom, she saw the tents had been taken, along with all the supplies. She looked to her feet. Spent metal shells littered the rocky valley floor, signs of death everywhere. Adira staggered, stunned by the revelation of what this meant. There was no doubt who was behind it. And there was no doubt what it meant for the safety of herself, and her friends. She had to tell the others. She took off at a run, ignoring her revolting stomach.

“Adira! Is that you?!”

She was sure whoever it was could hear her own heart hammering away. Then she turned, and the relief which swamped her approached ecstasy. Troy lowered his weapon, and came out from behind a boulder. She ran to him and clasped him, so pleased was she he was a friend.

“Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ you’re alive.”

Troy scanned the rocky defile behind her with pained eyes. “Are you alone?” Without waiting for an answer he whistled fast and low. Behind the maze of rocks to his rear emerged ten men in combat gear, who filtered out to the rocks beyond.

“Troy. I’m alone. I wasn’t with those men. Jesus I don’t even know where to start. I-“

“Adira. Get us out of here. Where can we go, somewhere safe, where they wouldn’t know where to find us,” Troy commanded, his bushy beard hiding a thick jaw.

A handful of others stumbled out from behind the rocks, civilians all with manic eyes and twitching hands.

“Who the fuck is she? Is she with them?” A girl Adira’s age jabbed an accusing finger through the glacial air.

“She’s not. She’s with us. You’re with us, aren’t you? Our lives are in your hands. Now go. They could still be out here.”

Adira inhaled rapidly, and led them deeper into the forest.

Chapter Seventeen

Layla laid her hands on his chest, but he pushed them away. “Not now.”

“You did so good,” she crooned, but Bennett was not interested. “You saved us.”

He spat on the gym floor, wishing he had more pills. He wanted some. And then he wanted to sleep- it had been a long night. He had not processed what they had done, and he didn’t want to.

The others milled around him, having already heard from drunken lovers what had happened. The gymnasium was full once more, all eyes turned to Agis as he mounted the bleachers.

In his hand, he held a camouflaged helmet. This, he rose. “Brothers and sisters. I want you all, to look around you. Look around you, and find someone who serves the community. Find someone who was out there last night, defending us all. A round of applause, for them. Without them, we could be under attack this very moment.”

The crowd clapped heartily, though there were noticeable sections of quiet. Bennett scanned and found the largest, led by Jaxton.

Agis continued. “Last week our scouts reported a band of vicious rogues was inbound to our town, to our…Citadel. They spurned all attempts at diplomacy, and made it clear what they were interested in.” He reached out and hoisted Harley onto the wood. “They would have taken our women, and our supplies. And they would have killed us all!”

The crowd hooted its disapproval. “Their guise was in that of our honorable military, no doubt killed by them at some point prior. Last night our men defeated these scoundrels, and kept us all safe.”

He raised his hands for quiet. “Fortune favors the bold, friends. And we have been rewarded for our audacity.” He indicated someone in the back. Several officers strode forward with big boxes, and placed them before the crowd. “Behold. The scum’s supplies, now ours.”

Bennett didn’t want to listen any longer. He was pleased. They had been a threat. And he had helped neutralize it. He deserved a reward. He would have to talk to Agis.

Across the gymnasium, Jaxton was staring at Agis and his cronies with barely contained rage. Jaxton knew his friends were with him, no matter what came. He gathered them close. “Adira, how far are they on foot?”

She gulped. “I led them to the old wooden church, the one on the eastern ridge and thru the Ravines. I’d guess, two hours walk.”

“Bennett looks pretty tired over there,” Liam said suspiciously.

Jaxton snapped to Adira. “Was he there? Did you see him?”

She shook her head. “I couldn’t make our their faces. They all had masks on.”

“I’ve been complacent for the past month. I know that. That ends now. Within the fortnight, we take Agis down,” Jaxton growled as his friends drew closer.

Wilder clapped him on the back with savage pleasure. “Good to have you back. I thought we’d lost you.”

Jaxton looked to Adira. “Take me to Troy.”

…

“I had been in contact for…I don’t know exactly…a week I think. I had no idea if you guys were going to be here.” Troy shoveled scraps of meat into his mouth in between words. The survivors of the ambush were sprawled out on creaking pews in the old church, its whitewashed walls cracking and peeling.

“We had no idea…no idea until Adira made it back. I’m...sorry,” Jaxton said with the shame of inadequacy.

“He lured us in. Even recommended the Ravine where it all happened. I can’t believe I let myself by so fucking duped.” Troy launched the last handful of venison against the wall. One of the women in his group snatched it up and her teeth flashed.