THE ALPHAS Box Set (2 page)

VI.

Damian called a halt at midday when the sun became unbearably hot. There was no shade, they had agriculture and the highway department to thank for that, but at least they could rest for an hour and have something substantial to eat. He ate away from the rest of the group, his gaze constantly sweeping the horizons.

He saw Roxanne picking her way between the people and mentally prepared himself for another battle. “How long do you think it will take to reach another town?” she asked, her voice gentler than he had been expecting.

He shook his head. “Two or three days. I’m not from this part of the country, I know my way from city-to-city but the smaller towns …” He shook his head again.

“So why are we trusting you to be our guide?” The anger and resentment were back.

“Because I have military experience and a map. Are they keeping up?”

She nodded. “We have wagons for the children. It was Susan’s idea.”

“Give her a medal. We’ll need to get moving soon. Get them packed again.”

Her eyes narrowed but she didn’t argue.

The complaining started mid-afternoon. The elderly were tired and sore. By the time the sun had moved directly ahead of them in the sky even the middle-aged members of the group were starting to grumble.

Shortly after that Damian realized that the group was lagging. He grabbed Ryan. “Stay here, keep an eye on these people. I’ll go see what the hold-up is.”

He found Roxanne and Matt in front of a large group of people, arguing. The half dozen people behind Matt were remarkably well dressed for the crisis at hand and were sweating profusely. “We’re stopping for a break,” Matt said.

Roxanne shook her head. “We need to cover as much ground as possible. You can eat and drink while you walk.”

Before the grumbling could overwhelm her Damian stepped up and said, “What’s going on back here? Do you want to get separated? Left behind? I told you how it was going to be when we left. If you don’t like it turn around and go back, otherwise get your asses in gear. Daylight’s wasting.” He turned to resume his position at the head of the column but Matt stopped him.

“Who put you in charge anyways? You’re nothing but a drifter.”

“I’m a second lieutenant with active combat experience. What are you?” He waited but Matt didn’t answer. “I said walk forward or walk back but stop holding up the group.”

Roxanne followed him when he walked away. “I don’t need your help,” she said.

“Like hell you don’t. You were ready to let this group fall apart. You want to lead,
Roxie
? Stop pussy footing around and lead. If you’re too nice to people, you’ll all die out here.”

VII.

Damian was already up and eating by the time the first of the group crawled out of bed. They struggled from the tents and sleeping bags as sunlight and the sound of the birds intruded on their sleep. He sat shirtless in the cool dawn light eating a thick sandwich with the last of his cheese and cured meat. He took small sips from his water and shook his head. They were slow, disorganized, and tired.

“They won’t survive out here,” he said as Roxanne joined him.

“They’ll adapt.”

“They’ll die.”

“Were you always this pessimistic?” She didn’t wait for an answer. It was hard to fight with a half-naked man who looked like he could model underwear. Unbidden her mind stripped her mental image of him down to a pair of snug white boxer briefs and her heart did a hard flip-flop. She stalked off trying to leave the image and the rush of desire behind her.

She stayed near the center of the group for most of the day, reminding people to drink as they walked and encouraging them to keep walking. Damian was leading and Matt was bringing up the rear while Ryan and Sean took either side, all of them watching for potential threats.

It was strangely quiet, even with the murmur of conversation around her. No airplanes roared in the sky and no cars passed them on the road. There were no blaring radios or ringing phones, just bird song, footfall on pavement, and tired voices.

At midday she approached Damian again, trying not to picture him on a package of underwear. “What are the chances of that house having running water?” she said, pointing across the field to a lone bungalow.

He shrugged. “Fifty-fifty.”

“We’re going to check it out. We’re running low on water already.”

He could see she was braced for a fight but his own water supply was also running low so he said, “Leave Ryan in charge, I trust him not to take off on us. Grab one of those wagons and the two of us will make a quick detour.”

Everyone was relieved at the news that they were getting a longer break, and that they would soon be able to refill their water bottles. Not even Matt could find something to complain about.

It was a short jog across to the house with the wagon full of empty water containers carried between them. Damian was impressed with the way Roxanne kept up. She was out of breath when they reached the front steps but still managed to take them two at a time.

She banged on the door for a good long while then tried the handle. “Locked.”

Damian took out his hand gun and used the grip to smash a fist-sized hole in the one window on the front side of the house. Reaching in he flipped the latch and slid the window all the way open. “Go on in. I’m going to look around the yard.”

She nodded and ducked through the two foot by two foot window flashing him a clear view of a firm round ass. He stared shamelessly until she disappeared and jogged around to the back. In the garage he found an empty stall and a small car. He located a jerry can and set about the distasteful task of siphoning the fuel out of the car, and then the lawn mower. He also grabbed a jug of motor oil and a bag of assorted tools. In the shed he found a garden wagon and loaded his other prizes inside. He pulled it around front to find Roxanne’s wagon half full of containers of water. When he tried the door it opened and he smiled. He wasn’t fond of the idea of crawling through the window.

She wasn’t in the kitchen. He frowned.
‘Maybe this place isn’t abandoned after all.’
He pulled out his sidearm and made his way carefully down the hallway. The office was empty, as were the two bedrooms he passed. He heard movement behind door number four and he slammed it open pointing his gun at a naked Roxanne. She shrieked as he twisted away, shutting his eyes.

“What are you doing?” he shouted.

“I had a shower!”

“Lock the door next time!”

There was a moment of silence as his heart pounded in his chest, and then she started laughing. “The world has gone to hell in a hand basket, I don’t know the next time I’ll see a real bathroom, and you’re worried about me locking the door?”

Her laughter made him smile. “Can we just rewind?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m going to walk in that front door and say ‘good, there’s running water’ and we’ll just take it from there.”

She laughed again. “Sure, and while you’re there could you load the larger containers I left in the kitchen? I’ll be out in a minute.”

“Yeah.” He holstered his weapon and went back to work. He’d just loaded the last jug when she appeared in the doorway.

“You could shower too, if you wanted. I want to look around a little more.”

“What else could we need?”

“I don’t know yet, maybe there’re some clothes in the drawers, or some camping supplies. There has to be something useful left in this place.”

“Okay, okay, but make it quick. I won’t be long.”

As soon as he stepped under the hot spray he knew he could stand there until the water ran cold. Instead he scrubbed hard and soaped up. His mind wandered back to that quick glimpse of her body. She was tanned and toned but still feminine soft. His cock stiffened at the memory and he grabbed it with one soapy hand. It didn’t take long for him to bring himself to the edge of release, especially with sexual fantasies of Roxanne playing through his mind.

She had stood here only moments earlier, running her hands all over her body. Had she touched herself?
‘God, what an image. If only I had walked in on that.

He braced one hand against the wall of the shower as he blew his load and finished washing up. The hot shower and the sexual release left him feeling as relaxed as a man could feel when facing the end of the world.

Roxanne loaded up both wagons and two hiking packs she’d found with clothes, outerwear, food, soap, all the kitchen knives and scissors, a sleeping tent, a kitchen tent, two tarps, and every blanket and towel she could lay her hands on. The wagons were heaped and secured with kitchen twine. Damian looked at the load and huffed. “So much for travelling light.”

“It’s all necessary,” she said. “We can spread it around and it won’t seem like quite so much. We need to get back.” She shouldered her pack, grabbed a wagon, and set off without waiting for a reply. He sighed, loaded up, and followed after her.

They received a warm welcome and the supplies were quickly dispersed. They started west again with renewed energy and no more complaining.

VIII.

By midday on the third day the complaining had started again and Roxanne wasn’t surprised to find Matt at the center of it. “What the hell is it this time?” she said.

“We’re tired of walking. We should have driven. There were enough cars back in …”

“How far would they get? There is no fuel.”

“The gas stations …”

“Overrun by gangs and thugs. And how did you plan to get the cars out of the rubble? You remember climbing a lot of rubble to escape the city, right?”

He changed tracks suddenly. “And why the hell do we have to listen to you?”

“Because listening to me is what got you away from Bismark. You had the choice to stay but you listened to me, you chose to follow me. No one is forcing you to be here. You want to lead? Take whoever is willing to follow you and strike out on your own. Go back, or go find some cars, or do whatever you want. If you want to come with us, eat our food, drink our water, you listen to me.”

“I don’t want to listen to you. I don’t think you’re fit to lead.”

“That’s too bad,” said a deep masculine voice behind her. “Because I say she’s my second in command and that you have to listen to her because she’s right.” Everyone was looking at Damian now, and glancing at Ryan and Sean who stood behind him with their hands casually on their weapons. “Without her you’d have stayed at the city. I saw the cities in the south go to hell. Some were taken over by gangs. It was a city-wide war for territory and everyone who stayed was forced to fight, or whore, or slave away for the gangs. Some were taken over by the big corporations and if you think that’s better, you’re wrong. You hated your job before? Now you’ll do one even worse, for no money, barely any food, a crap bed in a crowded dorm, and if you don’t like it you’ll be shot. So we’re looking for somewhere safer and when Anne here talks, you listen, because she’s talking for me. And we’ve already discussed my credentials to lead. We’re leaving in half an hour.”

IX.

The village was surrounded by a make-shift wall made of metal siding, cars, and scrap lumber. Two armed men stood on low towers on either side of the gate. They levelled their guns at the approaching group and Damian called a halt. Roxanne jogged up to the front of the group.

“What is it? It’s not dark enough to stop.”

“I don’t think they want us getting any closer.”

She nodded. “Ryan and Sean will come with me. I should go talk to them.” She didn’t even think of including Matt who had been demoted from official guard to regular refugee.

Damian rolled his eyes. “Looks like I’m babysitting.”

She ignored him, gathered her guards, and put on a brave face. The men atop the wall allowed them to approach but didn’t lower their weapons.

“Who are you?” the one on the left shouted.

“My name is Roxanne,” she called back. “We’re from Bismark. We’ve been walking for days. The city is in ruins, we need a safe place.”

“We can’t let you in,” he said. “Go back up the road the way you came to the crossroads. You can camp there for the night.”

“Why can’t we camp here?”

“We don’t want to protect you, or have to protect ourselves from you.”

“Please, we have children with us.”

“We can trade if you need food but we can’t let you in.”

She looked at the guns for a long moment. “Fine, we’ll move back and we’ll send someone to trade for food.”

She stalked right past Damian and started rounding up the group. Once she had them settled she loaded up everything they could spare into the wagons and returned to the gates. They didn’t get much food and the villagers tried to take the wagons, but she refused to part with them.

“Will you at least let the children in?” she begged. “Most of them are orphans. They won’t survive on the road. Please.”

“We took in a lot of people already,” an older woman said. “They came from all around here. We can’t defend enough farm land to feed the people we already have. We can’t take anymore, especially not children too young to work. I’m sorry.”

“Is there anywhere else we can go?”

“I’m sorry,” she said again.

When Anne returned with the food she saw Damian talking to Ryan. She fully intended to ignore him, but he fell in step beside her and followed her to her tent. He said, “There’s still some light. I’ll be moving on.”

She turned on him. “And what are we supposed to do?”

He shrugged. “Stay here. Move on. I don’t know and don’t rightly care.”

“You were supposed to guide us to safety.”

“No, I was supposed to guide you to the next town.”

“You wanted to be in charge!”

“Now I don’t. You’ll only slow me down. I’ll just grab some supplies and …”

“No. Whatever you have left from Bismark you can keep but you will not touch what I traded for.”

“What you traded for? I helped you scavenge, remember?”

“I didn’t need you for that. And I’m sure you kept a little something from that expedition for yourself.  If you need more supplies you can go to that village and trade. If you try to steal from us I’ll have you shot.”

“Afraid of pulling the trigger yourself?”

She pulled a hand gun from the holster at her side with the ease of someone who had handled a gun before and levelled it at him. “We could test that theory. Get out of here.”

He stepped forward until his chest was pressed against the gun. Without flinching she pulled the slide back, chambering the round.

Memory snapped over reality and everything but the insurgent in front of him disappeared. His reflexes were sharp as ever and he grabbed the wrist, pushing down with a twist. In one smooth motion he spun the insurgent and locked him in a headlock. The gun pointed skyward and a single shot rang out.

The shouting, English and not Arabic, pulled him back to reality and he dropped Roxanne to the ground. She was still coughing when Ryan ran up, gun drawn.

“What happened? Did you see something?”

Roxanne waved a hand dismissively. “Swallowed a goddam bug,” she said. “No emergency, just target shooting, sorry, should have warned you.”

Ryan levelled his stare at Damian. “You’re military, you should know better.”

“This situation is new for all of us,” Damian said. “Just go tell everyone that the coast is clear.”

“Yes sir.”

“They respect you,” Anne said, climbing to her feet. “When were you discharged?”

“What are you talking about?”

“The PTSD. When did they kick you out for being unstable?”

He shook his head.

“They listen to you. I’m betting Ryan and Sean aren’t used to taking orders from a woman, and Matt doesn’t want to take orders from anyone but at least you’re scarier than I am. Stay. You can be in charge, you can give the orders, but every decision comes through me first.”

“So all of a sudden you want me to be your puppet? What do I get in exchange?”

“Food, shelter, no one asking questions about your mood swings or other PTSD symptoms, a few extra guns at your back …”

“At my back or pointed at my back?”

“I won’t hesitate to protect these people, even if it means shooting you. But I’m not a power-hungry trigger-happy lunatic either.”

“Good, because you have nerves of steel. Where did you learn to handle a gun?”

It was her turn to shrug and the way she smirked at him stirred something low in his gut. He shifted, trying to put the thought from his mind before it became obvious that he liked what he saw. She turned and reached to retrieve her gun; while it kept her from seeing the way his pants tightened, the view of her ass did nothing to calm him.

“I need to set up a watch for tonight,” he said. “I’ll come back and we can discuss where we’re taking this circus next.”

She turned to reply but he was already jogging away.