Redaction: The Meltdown Part II (41 page)

All the more reason to set up along the official exodus routes. He could choose the worthy from the dregs.

Hunching his shoulders, Ernest trudged through the snow. His footprints punched holes in the pristine whiteness. He rapped twice on the door but made no more to open it.

Trent counted to ten then pushed it open.

“Everyone’s out.”

“Good.” Trent climbed down and stepped onto the road. Snow dribbled icy fingers into his boots. The cold soon soaked his jacket. He’d have to do a little shopping. These clothes wouldn’t do for a man in his position.

Following the path Ernest cleared, Trent reached his people. Faces turned to him. Young and full of fear. Soon they would transform into an eagerness to please.

“My good people…” He opened his arms like the preacher had done. “As you can see, our path is blocked by these cars.”

“Where are the soldiers?” a woman piped up. The skinny teenage boys shifted until he spied her. The bitch that had made trouble earlier.

“They have deserted us.” Trent waited until his words sunk in. “But I have not deserted you. We will unite under my leadership and form a new society.”

“That isn’t right.”

Trent scanned the crowd until he found Gary Everett leaning against the tree, cleaning his nails with his knife. “Gary perhaps you can teach that woman some manners. It isn’t polite to interrupt when someone is speaking.”

“You can’t do this!” she yelled at him.

The girls cowered in a heap to the right. Most of the boys fell back but a few remained blocking the path.

Not moving forward, Gary twirled a knife in his hand.

Trent’s fingers curled into fists. He eyed the man with the gold cross. “Jake.”

Jake brandished one of the rifles they’d collected after tossing aside the soldiers. He fired off two shots. The crowd ducked and covered their heads. “Trent is our leader and you will do as he says.”

The boys moved aside.

Gary sauntered closer to the woman.

She raised her hands. “Stop right there.”

Gary slashed at her palms.

She turned on her heel and sprinted for the woods.

Gary pounced on her before she made ten feet. With one hand, he grabbed her by the hair and dragged her toward the pines. She kicked him until he backhanded her. Once. Twice. On the third time, crimson sprayed the snow. He kicked her once then reached down, pulled her up and slung her over his shoulder.

There. Much better. Trent smoothed his clothes. “Now, I know some of you are under age so this next bit is going to be a treat.”

His audience still faced Gary and the woman. What is wrong with them? Trent clapped his hands. A few heads turned. “Jake.”

The man fired two more rounds.

Finally his people gave him their full attention. “As I said, your new orders will be a treat. I want you all to pick a car and drive it off the road. Crash them up a little if you want.”

A pimply face youth in front raised his hand.

“Yes?”

“When do we eat?”

Trent smiled. Yes, he had the power here. “After we’re through and… the person who clears the most vehicles gets two MREs and the person who clears the fewest gets none.”

Brilliant motivation, if he did say so himself.

They didn’t move.

“Get to it.”

The boys dashed forward. The girls were slower to respond. Useless females—only good for one thing.

“We’re going to need warmer clothes.” Resting the barrel of his rifle against his forearm, Jake Turner loped toward Trent.

Trent’s skin itched. He didn’t trust the man. The air practically stunk with his ambition. No doubt, Jake lacked the vision to build a new society but not the drive to take it over once it was established. Trent flicked a snowflake from his shoulder.

Jake Turner was temporary help only but he could be exploited.

“Are you familiar with the area?”

Jake pointed across the East bound interstate. Buildings jutted up through the gloom. “That looks like a mall to me.”

Trent recognized several clothing chains. Asshole. “Let’s go.”

“What about them?” Jake jerked his chin toward the teenagers.

They trickled between the lanes of cars. A few even climbed behind the wheel.

“They’ll be fine.” Light winked off the rifle. Then again, Trent didn’t plan on this being a one-way trip. “Give Ernest the rifle in case anyone gets ideas.”

Like shooting me in the back
.

Jake nodded, pivoted about and ran back to the twin brothers. He climbed into the driver’s seat as Trent secured his seatbelt. Heat blasted from the vents when he turned the ignition.

Trent rubbed his hands in the warm air. He deserved this small luxury.

Slamming the truck into gear, Jake grinned. “I always wanted to take one of these things off-road.”

Jake gunned the engine. Metal crunched as he plowed the truck through the stopped cars.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Trent strangled the seatbelt and braced his legs on the floor.

“Relax.” Jake cranked the wheel. The truck rumbled through the snow, half on the shoulder half off. “I’m in control.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

Manny rose on his toes to see above the crowd. Where was this leader guy? Maybe if he could speak to him, he, Rini and Beth would be allowed to wait for the soldiers. He didn’t want to be part of the new society. He wanted to be with Wheelchair Henry and the niños.

Shifting to the right, Manny felt his jeans slip below his hips despite the rope tied around his waist. He glanced down.

Rini had hold of his belt loop. “What do you see?”

“Nothing.” At five-ten he was too damn short. He hitched up his jeans then shifted left. Again his pants dropped. Now what? He looked down.

Beth had hold of the loop on the other side.

He tugged up his pants and held them with one hand.

The taller kids in front of him swayed, blocking his view. When the man yelled at them to get to it, they scattered.

And Manny got his first look at the leader. Blond hair, blue eyes and tall. His breath lodged in his throat, choking him. Oh God. No! He spun on his heel. It couldn’t be him!

Beth collapsed against Manny, curling around his body.

He caught her. His fingers dug into her back as he raised her. God, he was shaking so much, her teeth practically rattled.

“Wow!” Rini released his pants. “He’s kinda good looking.”

“What?” Manny checked over his shoulder. Maybe he imagined it. Maybe the man wasn’t his nightmare come true. He blinked and watched the man move away.

No mistaking. It was the man from Wheelchair Henry’s neighborhood, the one who’d murdered his wife. The one Manny witnessed throwing a woman’s bloody body from a balcony.

“What’s wrong with you?” Rini poked him in the shoulder. “Just cuz the guy is hawt doesn’t mean I’m sticking around. We’re going to stay and wait for the soldiers.”

Stay? Hell no! They were going to run away. They weren’t safe here. Manny opened his mouth.

A woman screamed.

The hair on the back of his neck stood straight up and his stomach clenched.
Don’t think about it. Don’t think about what that man is doing to her.

Rini latched on to his arm. “You don’t think—”

“He’s raping her.” Beth clawed up his chest to stand. “That—That man, the speaker, he’s the one who…” Her hands moved up and down her bruised body. “He tried…”

Manny dragged his hands down his face. He could handle being a target but not Rini and Beth.

“Oy!” One of the men pointed his gun at Manny. “Get to work clearing the cars or you don’t eat.”

Manny grabbed the girls’ hands and pulled them through the lines of cars. “We need to get out of here.”

“Uh, yeah.” Beth wrapped herself around his arm, squeezing between two sedans at his side instead of behind him. “Do you think he’s seen me?”

“I don’t think so.” Manny watched the lead truck shove cars out of its way.

Another scream pierced the air.

He could practically taste the pain behind it. In front of him, two teenagers wrestled a body from behind the wheel of a red Chevy. A blue PT cruiser bumped down the incline into the stand of pines.

“I can’t believe he’s a rapist.” Rini jogged behind them. “I mean he’s cute.”

Cute. Cute! How can she be so stupid. Manny stopped and turned. He crowded Rini against the side of a Ford pick-up. “He’s a murderer, Rini.”

Her blue eyes widened in her mottled green and yellow checks.

“He’s the man I saw dump that woman into the garbage pile. He’s the one the soldiers think killed his wife.”

Rini shook her head. Her spiky blond hair fluttered with the motion.

Didn’t she see? Didn’t she understand that he was a monster? “He’s the reason we had to leave the neighborhood and find the soldiers.”

“Stop scaring her.” Beth wedged herself between him and Rini. “I thought he was cute once too. When I first met him.”

Manny threw up his hands. What the hell was wrong with them? Shoving his hands in his pockets, he stomped down the road.

“But I was wrong. There’s a monster underneath.” Beth wrapped her arm around Rini’s shoulders. Their footsteps crunched behind him. “One that did this to me.”

“Why can’t people look like what they are?” Rini moaned.

“Manny does.” Beth giggled. “He’s nice and nice looking.”

Manny tripped over his feet. He caught himself on the side of a Ram truck. How did they get to talking about him? “We need to get out of here.”

Beth shoved her black hair out of her eyes. “How?”

He scoped out the men with the guns. One stood on the hood watching them, the other on the shoulder, writing his name in yellow on the snow. Although they were forty yards away, he didn’t want to chance bullets hitting them.

A yellow cruiser bumped down into the ditch. The kid inside hooted when the bumper crunched into a tree.

Another scream. Louder this time.

His ears ached from the pitch.

“Can we help her?” Catching up with him, Rini squeezed his hand.

He didn’t know if he could help her—or any of them. “We can try.”

Standing near a black SUV, two boys whispered, looked around then whispered again. One moved his finger over his palm like the lines were a map. They flinched as the next scream started almost before the other ended.

Guess he wasn’t the only one planning an escape.

Manny and the girls would have better luck with others. Wheelchair Henry had taught him that. “Come on.”

Slipping through the cars, he approached the two kids. Snow crunched under his sneakers.

The two looked up, suspicion narrowing their brown eyes.

“What do you want?” The boy on the left spoke first. He was about an inch taller than the other. Lift tickets clung to his black jacket and fluttered like toe tags.

Manny took a deep breath. If they squealed, he and the girls were in big trouble. “I’m Manny. This is Rini and Beth. We’re getting out of here. To find the soldiers.”

“Oy!” The guard on the side of the road yelled at them. “This ain’t no cotillion. Move those damn vehicles.”

Manny shook his head. What the hell was a cotillion?

“Thanks for drawing attention to us.” The kid sneered and his lift tickets jerked in agitation.

“I just thought you wanted to go and help her.” After jerking his chin toward the woods, Manny opened the door of the SUV. Thankfully there wasn’t a body inside. He shifted it into neutral.

Rini climbed into the seat and cranked the wheel so the tires headed toward the woods. “Ready.”

Manny braced his hands along the frame. “We’re going to push you down the slope. Once the car stops, get out and run into the woods.”

The two boys moved to the back. “Why are you going to help us rescue our aunt?’

Their aunt? Crap, now they’d have to suceed. No one should have to lose a loved one like this. Manny shoved the car. His feet slipped in the snow. “We have a better chance of surviving if we stick together until the soldiers arrive. “

The taller boy grunted. “I’m Pete. This is my brother, Paul.”

Paul waved a blue glove and shivered in his green hoodie.

Beth’s hands slipped along the passenger door. “Now that that’s out of the way, we need to do this on the count of three. One. Two. Three.”

The SUV inched forward, slowly at first, then gained speed as it bumped off the curb. Manny released the frame and stepped back. It slammed to a stop after coasting a short distance and the horn honked.

He swore under his breath. Ten yards separated Rini from the woods. And thanks to the blare, the men were looking his way.

Rini rolled out of the door and crouched in the snow.

“Stay,” Manny hissed to her then motioned for Pete, Beth and Paul toward the next vehicle, walking backward so he could watch the men.

The guards stared back.

“Don’t hit the horn when it’s your turn.” Pete glared at Beth.

“I won’t.” Crossing her arms, she walked to the front of the sedan. Sighing, she yanked open the door and screamed when a body fell out. The seat belt caught it at a forty-five degree angle. Liquid oozed out of the cracks in the skin.

After a few seconds, the guard looked away.

Manny waved for Rini to run for the woods.

Crouching low, she bounced over the snow and slipped between the trees.

“That’s not good.” One boy grabbed the body by the arm and tugged it the rest of the way out. “She left tracks. We’ll all leave tracks.”

Manny eyed the holes in the snow. The white stuff hadn’t really accumulated under the trees. “We’ll be fine once we get into the woods.”

He hoped.

Beth shifted the sedan into neutral but didn’t get behind the wheel. She cranked the wheel then set one hand on the dash and the other on the door frame.

Black stained the seat.

Manny opened the back door and shoved the corpse inside before joining the boys in the back.

This one went a little farther than the other.

He checked their guards. Neither was looking their way. “Go!”

Beth ran for the woods.

He turned to the next vehicle and groaned. The bumper of the truck reached his chest and the tires were wider than he was. “Damn.”