Defensive Instinct (Survival Instinct Book 4) (24 page)

After travelling all day, everyone was weary, no longer caring about Danny walking alongside the horse. Throughout their journey, Evans would drop from the front of the line to the back, checking on both party members and prisoners, and then walk back up along the opposite side, asking the people there if they were all right. As the sun began setting, casting the sky in a vivid orange, the black and white cat trotted alongside Evans again, only to disappear when Ki-nam came near on his horse.

“Elijah checked out that space marked on their map. It looks like somewhere we can spend the night; it’s big enough.”

“Good, everyone could use the rest.”

From mouth to mouth, word was passed down the line that they would be stopping for the night soon. The news lifted the spirits of the party members, all of them eager to take a break. Having memorized the map, which Ki-nam carried, Evans led the party to the marked location. It was a recreational centre and Elijah stood outside, waiting by a pair of double doors that led into a gymnasium. The band of teenagers he had brought with him for the reconnaissance mission were already set up inside, their lanterns glowing in a corner they had claimed for themselves.

At first, Evans was unsure if the gym would fit everyone plus the horses and carts, not comfortably, but when he got inside, he saw that a pair of doors in one wall led to a second gymnasium.

“Have you searched the rest of the building?” he asked Elijah as people began streaming in behind them; some party members found spaces for themselves, while others didn’t settle in yet, waiting for Evans to give the okay.

“No, but see these fold-up bleachers? With a bunch of us, we can easily move them to barricade the doors that lead into the rest of the facility. Unless you want to see what else is here? There might be more rooms we can spread out in.”

“No,” Evans shook his head. “We’re only staying here the one night, so we’re going to stay close together. Gather some volunteers to move those bleachers.”

Elijah nodded and set to work.

Evans guided most of the people into the second gym, planning to keep the horses and carts near the door where they had entered. Although the prisoners’ smaller carts fit through easily enough, it took more careful manoeuvring to get their own through. The horses were unharnessed and, accompanied by a monitor each, they were taken to nibble on the grass in a nearby overgrown lot. Bryce and Lenny were still bound to their chairs, but now sat against one wall of the gym. They watched the procedures with Danny, who stood bound next to them, the end of the rope that had been tied to Thumper now tied to a bracket in the wall.

“Where are we going to keep them?” Arman asked in a low voice, his head flicking toward the prisoners as the final cart was squeezed in through the doors.

“There’s an equipment room there. We can put them inside and put a guard at the door.” Evans had opened every door in the gym before they could be blocked off, verifying what was on the other side. As soon as he saw the equipment room, he knew he was going to put Danny and his friends in it.

Eventually, the horses were brought into a section that was roped off for them by using the carts as posts. Evans untied Danny from the bracket. A couple of men joined him, ready to pick up the two who were bound to their chairs. Once Evans gave the nod, they brought the prisoners to the equipment room.

“Untie them; they won’t be able to do anything in here,” Evans ordered, taking off the rope that held Danny.

One of the men grunted in disagreement, but they all obeyed, freeing Bryce and Lenny from the chairs. It was pretty obvious the prisoners couldn’t do much in this room. It was small, smelled of rubber, and was very dark once the metal doors were shut. All the equipment had been removed as a precaution, even the single dead light bulb. From the other gym, Evans could hear some of the kids giggling with delight, punctuated by the bouncing of a recently inflated basketball, and overlaid with the rumble of the spinning wheels of scooter boards. Evans thought they should take the air pump with them and maybe even the scooter boards; they might come in handy one day. He’d take a closer look at them later.

“I’ll make sure you get some dinner provided you behave yourselves in here,” Evans told the prisoners as he stood in the doorway. They were all rubbing the spots on their skin where the restraints had been tightest. Evans then shut the door, casting them into darkness.

In the second gym, almost everyone had already set up their tents and tarps; each one a glowing bubble from the lantern, flashlight, or candle inside, the canvas jiggling as people laid out their sleeping bags and mats within. In the aisles formed by the tents, kids were racing on the scooter boards, zooming along the dusty hardwood from one wall to the other, occasionally spinning out of control. Older teenagers were also finding joy in the small square boards with the four omnidirectional wheels.

Back in the first gym, most of the people had opted not to bother with the privacy of tents and tarps, merely laying their mats and bags down on the floor. Evans picked out a spot for himself near the equipment room, intending to make sure that the door remained shut; that no one opened it from either side. No sooner was his mat laid down, than the black and white cat reappeared, making himself comfortable on Evans’ stuff. Evans sighed at the thought of car hair and possibly fleas transferring to his things, but at least his bedding would be warm when he decided to lie down.

Going back outside, Evans waited for the other party members who wanted to talk about what was going on. During their walk, it had been decided they would meet just outside wherever they stopped for the night. Evans stood under a long-dead light pole in a weedy parking lot, far enough away from the door to prevent accidental eavesdroppers, but close enough for his solar-powered lantern to be spotted. Eavesdroppers weren’t really a problem; Evans let whoever wanted to, come to these things, but he understood that some people didn’t want to know, and others didn’t want their kids knowing.

Ki-nam and Arman showed up first, Elijah and Old Salt following not far behind them. Evans suspected he’d see the same group as when they decided to leave the townhouse, but then wasn’t surprised when more arrived this time. The same mother as before was here; however, the father of a different family joined her. Two of the newcomers came to participate: an elderly man on wobbly legs, and a couple of members from Arman’s team, most notably those who had found Wycheck. Even Leo came out, despite his dislike of groups and decision making. He lingered around the fringes of the meeting. He was probably there to make sure nothing happened to the horses.

“So by now you all know where we’re going,” Evans started off with.

“What’s going to happen when we get there?” was the immediate response from the father.

“The majority of the party will hang back; only a few volunteers will continue forward to see about this container yard.”

“What if they’re hostile?” the elderly man asked. Several people jumped on his question in agreement while others answered him, saying they had already proven themselves to be hostile.

“That’s something we’ll have to figure out when it happens,” Evans shrugged. “We don’t know anything about that place yet.”

“Get the prisoners ta tell us,” Old Salt offered his opinion. “Get them ta talk about the defences there.”

Several more cries of agreement.

“They’re not going to tell us anything,” Evans shook his head.

“How do you know if you don’t ask?” Elijah wondered, his voice making it an actual question and not a judgement.

“If someone grabbed you in the middle of the night and was heading toward your camp, would you tell them anything?”

“Anyone would talk if you hit them hard enough,” one of Arman’s men grumbled.

“Yeah, they’d talk, but would they tell the truth? Probably not. Besides, do you really want to be the man that tortured someone? Because I gotta say, I wouldn’t want to travel with you if you do.”

Arman’s man turned sheepish and looked down at his feet.

“And that goes for all of you. If this party turns sour, I’m out of here. I understand beating on that young man, Bryce, the first time. People were angry and upset, needing a release. I’m sorry it had to be on him, but that’s not going to happen again.”

A few exchanged looks, considering Evans’ threat to leave. Evans knew it wouldn’t happen. They would have to get the whole party on their side. If they didn’t, and they made a move against him, they’d be cast out on their own. The reason people joined the party in the first place was so that they weren’t alone anymore.

“Can’t we just not go to this container yard place?” one of the newcomers asked timidly.

“These people are murderers!” Arman turned on her. “We know for a fact they killed Wycheck, and they probably killed the others as well.”

“Others?” the father asked, as a ripple of similar concern waved through those who weren’t in the know.

“Remember Carol? Lee? Moore? They didn’t just disappear or have an accident. Someone cut their throats.”

“And you didn’t tell us?” the mother wheeled on Evans.

“There was never any danger to the group,” Evans attempted to calm her. “Everyone who was killed was alone when it happened. There’s a reason I always tell people to partner up, to never be by themselves.”

A couple of people now looked at Arman, wondering why his searchers hadn’t followed this basic instruction, one they virtually all knew before even joining the party. It was dangerous to be alone.

Arman didn’t bother to give them a real response. “We can’t let them get away with this.”

“What if their place is unassailable?” the old man questioned. “If they’re as dangerous as you say, maybe we should just leave them alone.”

“We’re going to at least investigate,” Evans answered. “Knowing where people are and what kind of set up they have has always benefited us in the past. As I said, once we see the place, we’ll make a decision as to what we’ll do next. We’ll be there tomorrow.”

Evans sighed as the group went over the same ground, again and again. It was essentially a discussion of anger versus fear. They weren’t going to come to an agreement, so he planned to do what he said he’d do, as it was the best middle ground he could find. Only volunteers would go near the container yard, the rest could stay safely back. Whatever happened after that would happen; Evans just intended on surviving it.

When the others realized that further talk with this group was pointless, punctuated by the arrival of a handful of zombies, the meeting was called to an end. In the darkness of night, they headed back inside the gyms leaving behind Arman, Ki-nam, and Elijah to take out the dead. Evans knew the group members would discuss things further with people who were likely to take their individual sides, who would see things from the same perspective. As he shifted the cat and lay down on his bedding, he was glad that they would be there by tomorrow. Any longer and his party might tear itself in two.

***

This time, the prisoners were with the first cart. Evans had ordered that all three of them be tied up as Danny had been the other day, bound to the team of captured horses pulling one of their own carts. There had been some disagreement about this; people worried that with all of them together, they might make some sort of break for it, but Evans managed to persuade them that that wouldn’t happen. He personally walked beside the prisoners, Leo drove the cart, and Arman and several of his men surrounded them. They wouldn’t get the chance to attempt an escape.

“Anything you want to tell me about the container yard before we get there?” Evans asked Danny without looking at him.

Unexpectedly, Danny actually spoke. “You’re making a mistake.”

“How so?”

This time Danny kept his silence. His words could be taken several ways, and Evans wondered which way he had meant. It could be that Danny was protesting his innocence again, or that the container yard was going to slaughter the party when they arrived. Either way, Evans knew he couldn’t stop what was unfolding, only mentally prepare himself for it.

It was a very silent journey with the party members worried about what was to come. Those who could do so while on the move checked that their weapons were ready, while others held tightly to loved ones. Some of them had been in a battle before, even a siege after some slavers had kidnapped a few of their people, but this was the first time they were so divided about the attack. Once someone died, and Evans felt sure that someone would, they would all swing one way or the other, retreat or push forward.

“There’s the warehouse,” Arman pointed.

It had been decided that the party members who weren’t volunteering were going to stay with the horses, carts, supplies, and children in a warehouse on the outskirts of the container yard. Not knowing how much of the container yard was inhabited had made it a bit of a risk, but Evans didn’t want too large a gap between them. As they approached, Evans was pleased to see that it was a stable-looking structure, clearly unused. Debris had built up along the edges, predominantly on one side, over the course of several storms. Some of it had to be cleared away to get the doors open. Once it was, a few holes were discovered in the roof at the far end that let in the light, but it would do. There was easily enough room for the entire party to fit inside while avoiding the holes.