Endless Flames (Surviving Ashes, Book Four) (17 page)

Jacob didn’t seem to care what Berke had to say. The new people were fascinating and his gaze kept swinging back and forth between Mav and Mason. He lifted the teething ring to his mouth as if he were eating popcorn and waiting to see what new attractions unfolded. Berke truly wished this little boy’s future hadn’t been twisted into some apocalyptic death match.

“Did this guy give up numbers?” Mav asked in a low tone while letting Mason take care of their long-term guest. “As you can imagine, we’re low on security at the moment. We have a rotation every twelve hours up at the hot springs, two overlapping observation points at the entrance, one on the south slope just north of the checkpoint and one on the east side right above it. That doesn’t include a roving patrol monitoring the lodge grounds on foot and another posted in the radio room to scour the video feeds we’ve managed to put into place and listen for radio traffic on various nets we’ve established.”

“He’s saying around a dozen Alphas and fifteen more Bravos, but that’s most likely lower now considering Owen’s elimination of the recon element who were waiting on Webb’s lead,” Berke offered up, wishing he could give a more concrete answer. “Steven Allman is the name of the asshole leading this group of shitkickers. He’s holed up in one of those Soviet era Civil Air Defense (CAD) bunkers somewhere near the Canadian border. Chances are they had an airstrip in close proximity. Far enough away to camouflage his presence, but close enough monitor all our radio frequencies.”

“Mabel’s son, who studied electronics at a vocational school, tried to prevent that from happening. We realized a little too late the type of people we were dealing with and let out a little too much information before we tightened the screws.” Mav swung his gaze over to where Mason had gotten Webb up off the ground and was making his way to the door. “Let’s bag him and take him back to base camp. We’ll figure out our next move then. No sense in feeding him any more intel before we lock him in one of Tank’s cells. We’ll get the 411 on this gang’s location first thing. I’m done being on the defensive.”

“You realize we could very well be doing exactly what Allman wants by taking Webb into the camp,” Maxie surmised, crossing her arms as she offered up her opinion. Mav’s look of interest signified his realization that he’d just gotten another individual for the security detail he’d stated was lacking. “I understand we don’t have a choice but to take Webb with us, but we should really consider using him to reach out to his section chief to dissuade any future forays.”

“You want us to make contact by radio and what? Start a neighborhood?” Mav asked with what sounded like admiration. “That’s gutsy, but there’s nothing to discuss. They want our shelter and provisions. That’s not going to happen while we’re still breathing.”

“No, it’s not,” Maxie agreed, shooting Berke a sideways glance of contemplation. Just what was she up to? “But Allman doesn’t know that and it will give us the perfect opportunity to set up a dialogue for something he might want even more than our little hole in the ground.”

“Berke, you sure know how to pick ’em.” Mav rocked back on the heel of his boots, clearly wanting to know more of Maxie’s proposal. “What exactly would this Allman guy want even more than our lodge?”

“He’ll want Fairchild Air Force Base down in Spokane.” Maxie shrugged a shoulder, clearly having listened to what Berke had been saying about the areas in Washington that could have been an alternate safe haven had something gone wrong south of here. “Allman sounds like the type of man who’d want secure communication access to Mount Weather in Virginia and the supplies that were going to be his before they were diverted. We all know that’s where our top government officials are holed up and he might just want access to what’s left. What better way to get it than a military base with all the functions, supplies, and armory he could ever want in this type of situation.”

“Let me get this straight,” Mav said with a hint of disbelief in his tone. Berke didn’t have a doubt as to what was going through Maxie’s head, but she’d have to clarify her rather dangerous proposal for Mav’s benefit. “You want to offer up a military base to a traitor who’s already shown psychopathic tendencies? First, we have no real ability to provide what you’re suggesting. Two, I wouldn’t even consider it if we did. Fairchild Air Force Base has an arsenal that makes ours look like little toy soldiers.”

“I didn’t say we had access to Fairchild, only that we needed Allman to believe that we did. Let the Air Force Security Forces personnel eliminate our problem child.” Maxie finally smiled, her blue eyes coming to life now that they were closer to their destination. Three weeks living minute-to-minute wreaked havoc on one’s mental state. “You see, it’s not our place to deal with tyrannical men who’ve lost their way. It’s our well-armed military who have been given carte blanche to handle these types of dangerous assholes. All we need to do is make sure the commander at Fairchild knows who and what is coming for them before we cut them loose.”

Berke hadn’t been sure of where Maxie was headed with her contemplations, but now it all made sense. It was a risky proposal on several fronts, but it was better than the alternative. He couldn’t help but reach for Maxie and pull her close, pressing his lips against her hair. She just might have saved all of their lives.

“Tank is going to love her. Does she play poker?” Mav asked, slapping Berke on the back as he walked toward the garage door and pulled out the block in the track. He then donned and readjusted the straps on his gasmask, getting ready for the brief trip home. “Rev that Mule up and let’s hit the road. The welcoming committee is waiting with hot chow.”

“I
can’t believe
you actually caught Spot,” Berke said as he steadily and slowly drove the Mule behind the three horses in front of them. He kept the lights off and the RPMs low in order to maintain some level of stealth as they moved out to the east. The low hum of the engine had put Jacob to sleep ten minutes into the trip, per his usual routine. She’d been too busy surveying the area ahead to ask the multitude of questions running through her mind and was grateful when he’d brought up something so mundane. “He’s younger than I thought.”

“I don’t even want to imagine what happened to his mom,” Maxie murmured, turning around and peering behind her seat where she’d placed the plastic pet carrier. Two green, wary eyes peered back at her through the tan-colored grate. “It’s okay, Spot. We’ll be home soon.”

Maxie was still trying to wrap her thoughts around everything that had occurred within the last couple of hours. How could a three-week trip go by so slowly and without pause, only to end up like this? The only word that came to mind was SNAFU—Situation Normal: All Fucked Up.

The long, slow trip out River Road took quite a while as they moved along at a slow gait trying not to capture anyone’s attention. Eventually they passed a checkpoint at the bottom of a hill and crossed a small bridge over a culvert that curved upward toward the north.

The Mule had no trouble at all climbing the somewhat steep hill up toward the lodge pulling the trailer they had loaded with supplies, allowing Maxie to look through the windshield on either side of the tall embankments. It didn’t appear completely impossible for a person to trek through that kind of terrain, but it did make it more difficult for anyone trying to seek entry into the sloped valley between the ridge, which rose into the distance to either side.

“Your idea has some merit,” Berke commended without taking his eyes off the gravel road in front of them. The wipers, which Berke had replaced with brushes, were working hard at keeping the ash clear from their line of vision through the etched glass. He now used the headlights with the added LED light bar to give them and the horses the ability to see somewhat clearer than what their journey down and back had most likely offered. “You’re going to rub a hole through the band of your watch if you keep that up.”

Berke was talking about Maxie’s bad habit of running her fingernail over the notches on the wristband of her watch. She stopped and rested her elbow on the door, inhaling deeply to calm her fatigued nerves. What if her plan went awry and she was just placing them all in more danger by dealing with this madman? She closed her eyes and winced at the burning sensation her suggestion caused. She was losing steam and needed more than only three hours of sleep in one session.

“What if I’m wrong about how gullible this asshole is?” Maxie asked in a meager whisper, wishing she’d just kept her mouth shut. She was beginning to understand the remorse Berke was experiencing upon realizing what his words and actions with Paige had put into action. The dominos had fallen and no one liked where they’d landed with the death of a fellow lodge member. “Maybe we should reconsider and come up with a better idea.”

“Trust me, we’ll run it through the pros and cons before we decide on anything.” Berke shifted the Mule into a higher gear and let up on the engine when the incline leveled out somewhat for what looked to be a brief period. It was hard to tell with the ash falling down like steady light snow and blanketing the area with a thick one-inch layer. “We’ll all make a decision as a team.”

“Do you think Webb made that shit up about Van being delayed?” Maxie inquired, knowing that planted seed would be growing soon.

“Mav would have told us if there’d been a problem,” Berke replied vaguely, shifting down once again as the horses picked up the pace, heading farther along the slope. He kept a good distance between them should something go wrong and one of them lost their footing. “Van’s ETA was this morning, just like ours. We’ll know for sure if there’s any truth to Webb’s statement within a matter of a few hours. Open radio traffic will cease now that we know our transmissions are being monitored. That is, until we establish code words, although we will have to rely on them when necessary and reveal as little as possible to the opposition.”

Maxie didn’t know Van personally, but anyone would be a fool to mess with him if he were anything like the rest of his teammates she’d met. Mav was very similar to Berke in that they were both professional former Marines who got the job done right, but Mason seemed to have a dark side that anyone could sense from a mile away. Combine his dark gaze with his quiet demeanor along with the underlying intensity, and one might think he disliked people in general.

“It’s not going to be easy, is it?”

Maxie didn’t need to clarify her question. This natural disaster that had plummeted them into an apocalypse wasn’t anything like those shows portrayed on television. The stench of sulfur from the ash wasn’t something one became used to easily and it permeated their every pore. The survival instinct made some people into nothing more than animals, losing the very essence of their humanity a grain at a time along their path. She now had to raise Jacob in a society where no one could really be trusted as a matter of course and it made her dejected to think this was how he would know civilization. The bad part of it was it would only get worse as their resources began to become increasingly exhausted. The next harvest from the world’s breadbasket was at least ten years off.

“No, it’s not,” Berke answered honestly and quietly, releasing the steering wheel with his right hand and reaching out for hers. She gratefully laced her fingers through his and held on tight, grateful he was by her side. “But we’ll get through this together. We’ll—”

Berke eased up on the throttle as the horses slowed, approaching two large gates that had appeared through the ash in the distance. Two men were standing guard with full-size ARs in their hands, while a third one carried an M4 carbine. They called out an all clear and unlocked the entry. All three individuals were covered with grey residue, although it was apparent they brushed it off of themselves every once in a while. The latest camouflage pattern was soot grey apparently. Large black flak jackets and gasmasks concealed their identities—not that she would have known them anyway.

Mav pulled on his reins and turned his horse around, the rigged mask for his long muzzle an ominous sight to behold. Mason was the one to first makeshift the breathing apparatuses, according to Berke. It was ingenious and something they would need to continue to fabricate at all costs, but especially for the protection of those beautiful animals. Horses would once again become the most common mode of travel across any measure of distance with a heavy load.

“Pull up to the front of the bunker,” Mav called out, his words muffled by his gasmask, as well as by the window of the Mule. “You can get cleaned up before heading to the lodge for some hot chow. We’ll unload the back later after the bunker working party uses the air knife to scrape off the crap and wash it down.”

Berke nodded his agreement, obviously knowing where to go from their point of entry into the mine. The ash wasn’t nearly as thick here like it was in town or farther south, so Maxie was afforded a partial view of what this land must have looked like prior to the eruption. She was able to make out golden lights from what looked like the main building to their right as they drove around it on a curving road between it and the cabins. It appeared quite massive, with a large screened porch. At least, she thought it looked screened in. Her second thought was that it must take a hell of a generator to output that much electricity in order to light up the lodge and all the cabins, not to mention the bunker that was around back somewhere.