The Hungry 5: All Hell Breaks Loose (The Sheriff Penny Miller Series) (7 page)

Before Miller could respond with a remark about Brandon, Gary stepped forward. Miller realized that, though he’d been there, he hadn’t participated all that much. He’d avoided working to clear the opening. He’d just been watching from afar.

“Looks like today’s your lucky day, Sheriff.”

“I suppose so.” Miller debated then began to walk out into the open.

“Shit!” said Brandon. “Everyone get back down into the caves.”

“What’s going on?” Rat asked.

But no one answered. They just scuttled off into the darkness like giant cockroaches.
Where the hell did that image come from?
Miller thought. The idea made her shiver. The cult members were like huge insects that had somehow survived the worst plague in human history. They lived down below on the garbage left behind.

Miller decided to take a calculated risk. She had to see what had happened to Scratch. She listened, but did not hear a drone engine. What was Brandon worried about then?

“Sheriff, you must come back inside,” said Gary. “It isn’t safe.”

“I’ll just be a minute,” Miller said. She walked up the incline toward the open air.

“You haven’t got a minute,” called Brandon. “Maybe only seconds. There’s a drone out there, and it’s heading this way. They move damned fast.”

“Then I’ll be quicker.”

Miller could see a fresh layer of dirt, thrown up by the explosions. She let her eyes roam over the dirt and rocks near the entrance.

Miller spotted a fresh set of boot prints, certainly big enough to be from Scratch. The tracks headed off to the right and the trail led around the corner of a large, red rock to the south of the cave.

“Sheppard, Rat. Front and center. I’ve got a trail. I’m going out.”

“That’s suicide!” called Gary. “Do not do that.”

But both Rat and Sheppard came up and out of the cave. They shaded their eyes. The three of them stood side by side at the entrance. Rat grunted. Sheppard didn’t see the tracks right away so he looked up at the sky instead.

“There.”

“I’ve already got ‘em,” said Rat.

“And I’ve got the drone,” said Sheppard. “Gary and Brandon are right. It’s headed back this way. I don’t know how they knew, but they did. Maybe their ears are sharper from being down below for so long.”

“We’re going after Scratch,” said Miller. “How much time do we have?”

“I don’t know. Seconds?”

The three of them ran outside. They followed the trail of boot prints to around the corner and behind an enormous red rock. The prints continued on and went under a large overhang, and then led down into another cave. The drone could be heard now, buzzing like a gigantic mechanical mosquito.

“Scratch!” called Miller. “Can you hear me?”

Miller, Sheppard, and Rat moved towards the new cave. The ceiling was much lower than the ones they had become used to. Miller had to crouch down to peer into the darkness. She started to back out again.

A hand shot out of the darkness and pulled Miller inside.

“What the hell?”

“Shh!” said a male voice. “Get in here, you guys. We are already hip deep in shit, and you’re calling down an avalanche.”

“Scratch?”

“Penny, if you want to live, let’s all just shut the fuck up!”

Inside the smaller cavern, Miller’s eyes were again having trouble adjusting to the dark. Miller, Sheppard, Rat, and Scratch all barely crammed themselves inside the small space, just out of sight, hidden from the eye in the sky now lurking outside. They sat shoulder to shoulder, scrunched down and waiting.

“The cannibals are still here,” said Scratch. “Down below and on the other side of this wall.”

“We know.” Miller hugged him impulsively. She wished she could see his face clearly. His stubble rubbed her cheek. “Don’t worry, Scratch, they told us they are not cannibals any more.”

“Ah shit, is that why we’re all crammed into this fucking hole right now?” asked Rat. “They’ve been helping us dig.”

“No, the reason we’re crammed into this fucking hole right now is because the damn Army is almost here.”

Miller tried to stand up straight, and promptly banged her head on the low ceiling. “Ow! What the hell do you mean, the Army is here?”

“Almost, I said. Look, there’s not that much time to explain. I’ve been hiding further down, where there are some air holes leading into the cult’s main cavern. They’ve got a ham radio down here, and they’ve been talking to someone about us. I am betting it’s the Army, probably back at Crystal Palace.”

“What are you saying?” Miller felt her stomach going cold.

“They turned us in. The military is sending a Special Ops team to extract us like a rotten tooth.”

“Oh, shit,” Rat said.

“If he’s right about that, then we have yet another big problem,” Sheppard said. “We just can’t seem to catch a break.”

“Well, thank you Captain Understatement. Any other amazing observations you want to make?” Scratch kicked a little bit of dirt onto Sheppard’s boot.

“Well,” Sheppard said, “at least they were telling you the truth about not being cannibals any longer. They must be getting supplies from the Army, probably just enough to keep them alive and make them totally dependent. Not bad thinking on the Army’s part, actually. Get good intel from eyes and ears on the ground. Maybe they help to trap research zombies, and turn in human stragglers.” Sheppard paused. “Wait. Actually, the only flaw in your theory is that they are dealing with Crystal Palace. I was in command there for months, and I would have heard something about this.”

Miller considered the point. “Yeah, and you didn’t have drones, either. But maybe our psychopathic friend Rubenstein set all this up without filling you in, Karl. I wouldn’t put it past him.”

Sheppard thought for a moment. They were missing something, and they both knew it. “I wouldn’t either, but…”

“We’ve got more than a mess on our hands. We’ve got five or six of the enemy just around the corner, more down deep, and the only thing that’s keeping them from coming after us is that they are afraid of the drones.” Miller looked at them all. “Does anyone still have a decent weapon?”

After a long pause, Sheppard said, “You’ve still got that pry bar, Penny.”

“That’s it?”

“I’m afraid so,” said Sheppard. Rat nodded her agreement. “We dropped our tools in the cave when we followed you here. The guns are in the rubble.”

“So, summing up, the good news is we’re back together. The bad news is that we’ve got the Army on the way, a group of ex-cannibals with questionable motives hiding a few yards over, and the only weapon we have is this fucking pry bar.”

“Guess that’s about the size of it, Penny,” Scratch muttered.

“Wait, don’t forget the drones,” said Sheppard, helpfully. “They will pretty likely kill us the second we step outside.”

Miller laughed quietly. Eventually so did the others. “Damn, this day just keeps getting better and better.”

Miller listened for the faint sound of the drone engine as it searched for them, that insect-like humming from overhead. She kept her people in a crouch until it had passed them by. The pilots seemed prone to flying long, looping patterns. The craft would be back, but not for at least a couple of minutes. She looked at her team with a warm feeling in her stomach. They were safe for the time being, or so she hoped, but they’d need one hell of a smart move to take them to the next level. Miller studied their situation. She surveyed Scratch with his fairly short hair and beginnings of a new beard.
From this angle, he almost looks like… Yes!
Miller came to a decision. The others just sat quietly, waiting for orders.

“Okay, here’s the plan. We bluff.”

“Whatever you say, Penny,” Scratch said as he got to his knees. “As long as we do something besides sit here and pee in our jeans waiting to die.”

Miller hefted the pry bar. “Follow my lead.” She took a deep breath and began shouting at the top of her lungs. “We found him! Praise God! He is alive! We found Terrill Lee!”

Catching on, Sheppard and Rat cheered and whistled. “We found him!”

Scratch shot her a strange look shrugged. He shouted too. “Praise the lord, we found him!”

Frustrated, Miller turned to Scratch, and punched him in the arm. “
You’re
Terrill Lee, Scratch,” she whispered.

“
I
am?”

“I’ll explain later. Just act like a savior and let’s hope these people buy it.” She went back to whooping and hollering. She peeked out of the cave. The sky above was indeed clear. She saw the bright sun, a carrion bird and a few wisps of cloud but no drones. Miller stepped out of the small cave.

Led by Miller, the little group went out into the light and hurriedly jogged back around the large, red rock. The sun cast long shadows on the hot sand. Miller saw people with comically startled faces lining the entrance to the main cave. She hustled Rat, Sheppard and Scratch forward. At the last moment, the waiting faces moved aside. They all slid down the slope, moving as a group, and walked down into the safe darkness of the opening, where the excited cult members were waiting. Some of them were already clapping their hands and laughing. Miller knew Scratch would seem familiar. She just hoped the ruse would work. She addressed the leaders.

“Gary, Allison, look! Terrill Lee is alive. He is here again, in the flesh.” Miller displayed Scratch and walked around his body like he was the newest car on the lot. She turned to the others. “Can you believe it? Your savior, the slayer of Abraham, is still alive!”

Miller felt a little queasy, for just saying the words hurt her to the core. That was the only reason she cared about the deception. She owed nothing to these people, who were likely planning to sell her friends for a cardboard box of food bars. In the shadowy cave, Scratch could almost pass for Terrill Lee. Once the group got going, anyone with doubts about that would be likely to get shouted down. It was their only play. This would work because it
had
to work.

Miller expected Gary the lawyer to question their claim, since Scratch was close to a head too tall, but he just looked up at Scratch with a wide smile and open arms. “It’s good to see you, son!”

The others began speaking all at once, thanking
Terrill Lee
for—as one of them put it—“pulling the holy trigger” to free their people from bondage. They all seemed to accept Scratch in the assigned part. Things had happened so quickly back then, most of them had been starving and terrified, so the fact that Scratch had shorter hair and less of a beard and seemed like someone they’d seen before had done the trick. Soon ten conversations were running at once. Miller was having trouble following any of them. Gary and Brandon seemed happy that Father Abraham was dead, but then, so did the others, though the group at large seemed to venerate Abraham as a martyred saint. Regardless,
Terrill Lee,
as personified by Scratch, had done the right thing in their eyes. Miller fought down a grin. For once, they’d gotten lucky.

Rat looked on with cynical smirk. Miller warned her with a glare.

“Hey,” Scratch was saying with a modest smile, “it was nothing, really. That kind of thing is all in a day’s work for a guy like me.” Then he looked at Miller, Rat, and Sheppard, who stood in a knot off to the side of the adoring crowd. “It’s too bad we have to beat feet out of here so soon, but the truth is, I think we’d best be on our way.”

“No!” a woman called. “You can’t be going so soon.”

“Going?” Gary the lawyer tuned in at once. “Oh, no, we couldn’t let you do that! Now that we’ve found you, we also can’t let you leave without at least honoring you with a dinner.”

“Sc—Terrill Lee is right,” Miller said. “We do need to be moving on.”

Gary went on as if he hadn’t heard a word. “Terrill Lee, your vehicles were blown up by the drone, so you’re on foot now. You might as well stay the night, collect some fresh supplies and rest a bit. You can leave in the morning.”

Miller thought,
did we tell them that? I can’t remember…

Scratch said, “We don’t want to impose.”

The crowd mock-booed and hissed and then laughed. The mob noise echoed in the cave. As if choreographed, the happy group surrounded the four of them and slowly pressed them deeper into the underground corridor leading to the quarters down below. If they wanted to run, they’d have to fight their way out. They’d have to buy some time and sneak away. Reluctantly, Miller allowed herself to be led down the tunnel.

Sheppard tried again, as they nudged him forward next to her. “Wait, listen to the Sheriff.”

“It’s settled then, you’ll stay the night,” Gary said cheerfully. The others noisily agreed. Miller studied their faces. They all seemed genuinely happy and excited. That is, everyone but Brandon.

Miller caught an odd look on the guy’s handsome features, as he studied Sheppard with what appeared to be growing concern. Grabbing onto that one clue, Miller turned to Sheppard as they walked along, and whispered in his ear. “Karl, I do believe this would be a good time to go over there and make friends with that cute guy.”

“Brandon?” Sheppard actually blushed. “Penny, this is neither the time nor the place to play matchmaker. We have other things to worry about at the moment.”

Miller put her hand on his shoulder. She leaned in closer. “You’re not reading me. The plan was to bluff our way out of here, remember? I don’t care if he’s not your type. You seem to be his.”

Sheppard shrugged. “What do you want me to do?”

“Just bat your eyes at that dude and get him to show us the back way out of here. Think you can handle that?”

Sheppard nodded, but with some visible reservations. “I understand.”

“Good. Now put your little soldier to work. Duty calls.”

Sheppard glared at her. “You did not just say that.”

Rat leaned over from the other side and said, “Everyone likes a man in uniform.”