Aegis Incursion (31 page)

“No. I’ve been calling her and she usually comes, but she hasn’t this time around.”

Just then, they heard a quiet meow. Aari leaned back in time to see a tortoiseshell cat walk light-footedly in from the study. Katherine groaned, then reluctantly beamed and picked up the cat. “She was inside the whole time!”

Her husband chuckled. “That sneaky feline . . . ”

Marshall slowly got up, Aari and Tegan following suit. The Sentry passed Josh the two other containers and hugged the couple again. “Thank you for the wonderful lunch, guys.”

Katherine put the cat down so she could give him a proper hug in return. “It was our pleasure, Marshall. You and your friends are welcome here any time.”

Aari and Tegan said goodbye to her and headed back to their car with Marshall and Josh. The two were walking ahead of the teens and talking quietly but were still audible to Tegan and Aari.

“This is really crucial, Josh. No one in the League has ever seen anything like this. It has a global reach and it’s very destructive. We don’t know what the ultimate purpose behind this attack is as of yet, but we’re working on it.”

“I understand,” Josh responded quietly.

As they reached the car, Aari felt his phone vibrate in short bursts inside his pocket multiple times. Frowning, he pulled out his phone and took a look at what was causing the alerts. “My Twitter feed is blowing up,” he said. “There’ve been more riots in major metropolitan areas across the country.”

Josh looked down at the containers in his hands. “Maybe I ought to go to the lab and get started this evening.”

Aari barely heard him as he was busy scrolling on his phone. He was about to put it away when a passing headline caught his attention. He quickly clicked the link. “Looks like things are getting out of control in India and China. Apparently China has started mobilizing its military.”

“What for?” Tegan asked.

“Looks like it’s to quell the unrest there.”

Marshall leaned against the car. “I'm not so sure about that,” he murmured, and his next words disturbed Aari. “My gut feeling says there’s something else brewing.”

M
ariah and Jag hopped out of the pickup and gave each other puzzled looks. The Walmart parking lot was ridiculously full for a late Sunday afternoon, yet the grocery stores they’d visited in the last half hour were all devoid of customers. They’d managed to get dinner for Jag’s grandfather and were searching for bread for themselves and Kody, who’d remained at the house.

Jag made sure the truck’s doors were locked, then walked with Mariah toward the store’s entrance. They had to traverse the entire length of the parking lot since they’d only managed to find a spot at the very far end. As they approached the front of the store, they were met with the sight of a long lineup outside the building. Groups of people were hurrying through the entrance, but the rest were in line.

Mariah nudged Jag and indicated at the waiting crowd. “What in the world?”

Jag fiddled with his pendant. “I don’t know . . . ”`

They walked past the lineup to the doors where two uniformed security personnel were standing. Mariah paused when she saw a sign taped to the wall beside the guards. “Are you kidding me?” she sputtered. “We have to get in line if we want to buy bread or grain products?”

With a resigned sigh, Jag steered her to the back of the line. As they passed by the men and women, they noticed that the people seemed restless; some even appeared downright agitated. There was a group of three men standing in the middle of the lineup; a couple of them wore sleeveless shirts that showed off tattoos and rippling biceps. They were drinking from soda cans, but Mariah caught a whiff of alcohol.

Impatient people and booze. Not a good mix
.

“There are so many people here,” she said as they took a place behind a small, kindly-looking elderly woman. “Maybe a hundred or so. Do we really want to stand in line for bread, Jag?”

“We need something for breakfast tomorrow,” he replied, weary.

“Can't we just get eggs or something for now?"

He looked like he was considering it when the woman in front of them turned around and smiled. “This is happening in grocery stores everywhere, sweetie. We’re here because every other store in town has run out of bread. If you want to get something else, though, you’d better be quick.” She nodded at the people walking out of the store. “Those folks are clearing the shelves in a hurry. But these ones here, including the out of town types,” she added, lowering her voice as she looked down the line at the men who were drinking, “decided that they would stay in line to get bread regardless.”

“If this is the only place with bread, the prices must be really jacked up, huh?” Jag asked.

“Oh, yes. It’s nearly tripled now.”

Mariah winced.
That’s crazy!
She shook Jag's arm slightly. "So should we get something else then?
"

At that moment, the line moved forward a bit. As if that was a signal for Jag, he replied, “Let’s just wait it out.”

Mariah grumbled and folded her arms. A woman several spots ahead of them was struggling to keep her children under control. Three of them were milling around her legs while the youngest was in her arms, wriggling and getting loud.

“I wanna go home, Mommy!” he howled. “Hoooome!”

The woman tried desperately to shush him but this only seemed to make it worse. The child started wailing and screaming. Mariah and Jag politely looked away as the woman blushed, clearly not wanting any attention drawn to her.

“Hey!” a rough voice called. “Shut your mouth, you little punk!”

Appalled, Mariah searched to see who it was that was being so uncouth. She wasn’t entirely surprised when she saw that it was one of the three muscled men. He had a thick beard and wore a baseball jersey. Gulping down the rest of his drink, he crushed the soda can in his meaty hand and tossed it aside, belching.

“Disgusting,” Mariah hissed.

Jag rubbed her arm to calm her. “Shh, ignore him.”

“He yelled at a child!”

“I know, but I’m not sure you want to be confronting him, especially since he’s looking pretty plastered right now.”

Mariah, tempted to gesture rudely at the drunk, kept her peace as more people joined the line. She saw men and women exiting the store at the far end of the building with bags in their hands. It occurred to her that most others in the lineup were observing those shoppers, too.

A man spoke up behind her, jolting her out of her trance. “What is this, the Soviet Union? I can’t believe we’re lining up
for bread!
This is the United States of America, for god’s sakes!”

A few people muttered in agreement. Mariah could sense the restlessness growing in the crowd. All she wanted was to get the bread and leave the area but the line was moving very slowly. Forty minutes later, she and Jag were twenty people away from the store entrance.

“Nearly there,” she said, pleased.

Jag grimaced. “Not quite.” He motioned her over to his side so she could see what he meant.

Through the automatic glass doors at the entrance, she saw that the line of people didn’t magically dissipate as it entered the store. Stanchions had been placed inside the doors, with chains snaking deep into the building. People were still lined up between the stanchions, some talking to each other and others looking down at their phones.

Mariah snorted. “Sure hope they’ll have enough left for us.”

As if waiting for Mariah’s words, a woman’s voice, cloaked in a Kansas twang, came over the store’s exterior speaker. “Dear Walmart customers! As we have a limited supply of bread and other baked products at this time, we regret to inform you that the lineup to the bakery section is now closed. You are welcome to shop for our other low-priced items in store.”

She continued speaking but her words were drowned out by the uproar from the waiting crowd.

“No!” the woman with four children cried. “I’ve got no bread left and I’ve been to six other stores! I need to feed my kids!” Holding onto her youngest with one arm, she grabbed the hand of another child and hurried past everyone else to the front of the line with her two other kids running to keep up. Those in the line protested and hurried after her.

“To hell with it,” the man wearing the baseball jersey barked. “I ain’t havin' none of this!” He and his friends ploughed past the guards, knocking them to the ground on their way into the store.

Others started to run after them, trampling the guards as they rushed in. Mariah stared at the scene unfolding before her, horrified. Jag grabbed her around the waist and pulled her off to the side as more people pushed toward the store entrance, shouting at each other to move out of the way, not bothering to stop for anyone who was knocked down in the fracas.

A scream reached their ears, followed by the shriek of a child. “
Mommy!
”

Mariah pulled away from Jag and caught sight of the woman with the four children. She was lying on the ground not far from the guards and was being trodden on. Her wailing kids tried to reach her, all of them with tears streaking down their faces. A couple of them were forcefully pushed aside as people continued rushing into the store.

Mariah started to run toward the commotion but Jag held onto her tightly. “What are you doing?” he demanded. “It’s a free-for-all over there!”

“That woman is being trampled!” she shouted. “And I think one of the guards got knocked out!”

Jag let go of her and looked toward the turmoil. As the screams from the children grew louder, a fire lit in his eyes. “Okay, okay—I’ll clear a path to them. You get the lady and her kids, I’ll get the guards. Ready?”

Mariah grasped her pendant and nodded. Jag hunched forward, as if preparing to ram the crowd with his head, and charged. Mariah followed close behind as he pushed and heaved both men and women out of the way. There were yells of protest but Jag didn’t stop. He ran through them, forging a path like a bull until he and Mariah reached the fallen woman and the security guards.

Mariah pulled the semi-conscious woman to her feet. She struggled against the crowd, which had resumed its course into the store. Holding the woman tightly, she managed to force her way through to safety. The four children, seeing Mariah guiding their mother away from the mob, tottered after her, arms out as they sobbed. Mariah sat the woman down against a wall and checked to see how badly she was injured. One hand was hanging limply at the woman’s side and there was a gash along her forehead. She had several unsightly welts on her face and arms and she could barely open her eyes. Mariah did her best to stem the blood coming from the wound before realizing that she herself was trembling. She saw the four little ones trying to get close to their mother and made way for them.

The youngest one whimpered as he shook his mother. “Mommy? Are you okay? Mommy?”

The woman let out a weak acknowledgement. The boy looked at Mariah, scared, wide eyes pleading. Mariah wasn’t even able to fake a smile but she gave the boy a protective half-hug. “It’s okay. Your mommy will be fine.”

Jag appeared beside her, one guard slung across his shoulders, awkwardly half-carrying and half-dragging the other. He got them both into sitting positions beside the injured woman and fell onto his back end beside Mariah, sweating. “It’s a mess in there,” he said, panting for breath. “I took a look inside and it’s . . . it’s terrible. This turned nasty really fast.”

Sirens could be heard in the distance. Mariah went to take a look to see if she could spot the police cruisers. As she did, she saw a family of four rushing out of the store at the other end of the building, carrying full shopping bags.

A man shouted nearby, “There! They have it! They’ve got bread!”

The mob started toward the family like a pack of wolves closing on their prey, hurrying until they broke into a run. Mariah searched around wildly for anything that could be used to shield the family from the horde. There was a line of shopping carts along the edge of the parking lot nearest to the store.

Perfect
. She narrowed her focus on the last cart in the line. Within the next second, the entire train of carts rocketed toward the mob. The man leading the pack stopped only just in time as the train rumbled past him and smashed into a retaining wall with a deafening crash, sending broken pieces of the wall and metal parts flying.

There was a collective gasp of shock as the mob came to a halt. Mariah looked toward the family on the other side of the pile of mangled shopping carts. Seizing the reprieve, they were fleeing to their vehicle. Relief threatened to weaken Mariah’s knees as they sped out of the parking lot and away.

When she made her way back to Jag, she found him eyeing her, stunned. “You smashed the wall,” he said.

She wrapped her arms around herself. “Yeah. Sorry.”

The wails of sirens grew louder. Bright, flashing lights lit up the store grounds as police vehicles swerved into the parking lot. Armed cops rushed into position to restore order. A policewoman spotted Mariah and Jag and hurried over to them. She took a quick look at the injured woman and guards before pulling out her radio to call for medical assistance.

Ambulances began arriving not long after along with more police vehicles. The EMTs assessed the situation and began treating the injured. The pair watched for a few minutes before Jag took Mariah by the arm. They melted away from the scene and went back to the pickup truck. Jag drove out without a word, leaving the scene of the riot behind.

Mariah leaned against the door and blankly watched the town go by her window. She had stopped shaking but her body felt weak as the adrenaline subsided.

The entire scene involuntarily replayed in her mind.
How did that happen? Aren’t we more civilized than that? This shouldn’t have happened. Oh my God, they just trampled that woman. They stepped on her while her kids were watching. No one tried to stop them. I don’t . . . I . . .

Jag broke her line of thought. “Hey, ’Riah?”

“Huh? Yeah?”

“You look pretty shaken up . . . ”

Her fright turned to vehemence. “Obviously I’m shaken up! Didn’t you see what just happened? What
was
that, Jag? Everyone suddenly flipped out and turned into animals!”