The Renegades (Book 3): Fortress Read online

  “About that,” Theo jumped in. “What’s out there right now is just stage one. When it’s safe enough we are going to see if we can scavenge together some corrugated metal and place that around the walls. I know right now it’s not the best situation. But it’s all we have to work with.”

  I laughed. “When it’s safe enough. Forgive me for stating the fucking obvious but have you been out there? It’s not getting any better. It’s never going to be safe enough.”

  Silence fell over the room.

  “We’ll help you,” Dax immediately said to Theo.

  I shook my head in disbelief. “A few more days and I’m gone. I’m going to NORAD, Dax, with or without you. They are expecting us and I’m not going to leave them there alone.”

  I didn’t stick around for his answer. I trudged back up the stairs into the daylight. Liam sat on a log with a few others. He sneered at me. Yeah, fuck you too. This place was starting to lose its warm fuzziness real fast. I would have left immediately had Specs been well enough to leave, and if the others were in agreement. But none of them were and I couldn’t blame them. Everything we needed was here. But something told me that relying on any place that was on dry land for any length of time was a bad idea. The only way we could really be safe was if we were on a boat or an island that was infection free. A place where crops could be grown, fish could be caught, and where there was zero chance of being invaded by assholes. But that was just a dream.

  * * *

  By the time late evening rolled around, I was getting antsy. We hadn’t had the luxury of feeling protected in a long time. Besides, all the sitting around waiting for Specs to wake up or turn was taking its toll on Eva and all of us. Even Baja wasn’t his usual joking self. He had taken to walking the wall and chatting with a few of the locals. I returned to where Specs was. When I came in I found him awake talking to Eva.

  “Hey buddy,” I said while pulling up a chair.

  “Well, I didn’t bank on this,” he replied groaning as he lifted his bandaged-up stump.

  I wanted to crack a joke about how he still had one hand left to take care of business but decided it wasn’t the best time.

  “How you feeling?”

  “Like crap.”

  “You’ll soon be up and going.”

  His eyes dropped. I looked at Eva. There was no cherry coating it. The situation had turned bad and there was still a slim chance he could turn. I thought back to Garret. If Specs turned I wasn’t sure I could be the one to push the knife in. I had known him his whole life.

  “I’ll check back in on you later,” I said, turning to leave. I could feel myself beginning to choke up.

  “Johnny,” Specs called out.

  I looked back.

  “Thanks, man. For doing it.”

  I nodded. What was I meant to say to that? Oh no worries, I love chopping my friends’ hands off. Outside I leaned up against the hut and tried to get a hold of what I was feeling. It never failed to amaze me how easily my emotions could overwhelm me. Fear, loss, guilt. They would niggle at me. Eating me up from the inside. Making seemingly easy tasks almost impossible to do.

  “You okay there?” a voice said from behind me.

  I turned to see Danielle. I let out a large breath.

  “I guess so. I’m…” I trailed off. “No, not really.”

  “Come, I’ll take you over to Marlin’s and get you a beer.”

  I screwed up my face. “What’s Marlin’s?”

  She smiled. “As most of us are starting to see this place as a small village, a very small village, people wanted to start naming places. Giving it some sense of familiarity. Marlin’s was a bar back in Denver. We all used to go to it. It was one of those places you could just hang out, listen to music, play some pool, and drink.” She placed her hands behind her back as we walked. “Oh and they had some of the best food.”

  She closed her eyes reminiscing.

  “A bit like Cheers, the TV show?”

  She snorted.

  “So is the real owner here?” I asked.

  “No, but we’ve done our best to kind of make the place what we remember.”

  Now four acres is pretty big. Imagine a large American football field. Take four of those and you’ll have an idea of how large the fortress was. There was more than enough room for homes and different stores. They had created quite a stockpile over the years. The fortress was designed in such a way that gaps between buildings were like narrow alleys. Most only allowed enough room for one person to go down them at a time but it must have given people a sense that they were living in a tiny village.

  When we arrived at Marlin’s someone had created a sign that hung outside from a metal post. It moved ever so gently back and forth in the breeze. Inside was a small bar with five wooden stools. Instead of a pool table they had what looked like five-pin bowling. It was the strangest thing I had ever seen. These folks were truly trying their best to create some sense of normality. Even if it did resemble something concocted from the mind of Pinocchio. Behind the bar, if it could even be called that, was an old burly guy. Three other people were sitting on stools smoking while drinking from metal beer mugs. There were no hand pumps for pulling beer. Everything they had was in crates.

  “Caleb, meet Johnny. Johnny…”

  He nodded, wiped his hands on a small towel around his waist.

  “Pleasure. I hear you are quite a troublemaker,” he said.

  I looked at Danielle. “Huh! And there was me thinking Liam was the one to blame.”

  “So what can I get yah?”

  “My treat,” Danielle said.

  I frowned when she tossed on the bar two small coins carved from wood.

  “Are you serious? What the hell is that?”

  “We don’t have money anymore, but we have these.”

  “Nothing’s free, you know,” Caleb said. “If it was, that mob out there would have drunk our entire stock by now. Isn’t that right, gents?” he said to the others who nodded with all the enthusiasm they could muster.

  I looked at them with curiosity.

  “So how are they earned?” I asked.

  “Doing work around the place, going out and bringing in food can get you some serious bank.”

  I nodded. So that’s why Liam had been so eager to drag that deer back. Still, it was a stupid move. Had he been smart he would have ditched it. The Z’s would have got a good feast and left us alone. Maybe then Specs would still have both hands.

  “What do you have?” I asked Caleb.

  “Some of our fine homemade elderberry wine, or if you really are in for a treat, though it will cost you a bit more…” He disappeared around a corner and came back with a Budweiser and a Heineken.

  “Damn. I haven’t had one of those in a while.”

  “Which one?” Danielle asked.

  “Heineken.”

  “We’ll take two, Caleb.”

  She fished in her pocket and pulled out a few more coins.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “My pleasure.”

  We watched Caleb bust off the metal tops on the edge of the bar. I almost downed the contents of the bottle in one go. They weren’t cold but the first swig tasted like heaven.

  “Cheers.” We tapped our bottles together. Maybe I could get used to this.

  GREAT ESCAPE

  I didn’t imagine it would be long before tempers were lost and discord broke out. We heard a commotion outside. I glanced through a window to see what looked like a guy covered in blood. He literally looked as if someone had drenched his head in a bucket of pig’s blood.

  “What the hell?” Danielle said, leaving her unfinished beer on the counter and dashing out. I followed close behind. Several people were trying to understand what this poor kid was saying. He couldn’t have been more than fifteen years of age. Why on earth were they sending kids out to patrol?

  “They stole our weapons.”

  “Who?” Liam asked.

  He gasped as he took a dr
ink of water. A woman nursed his head with a wet cloth. I looked into the steel bucket. The water was red. It swirled around as she wrung out the cloth.

  “There’s about six of them. Hunters or something like that. They killed Michael right in front of us.”

  Michael, I soon came to learn, was older than the other three. He was meant to be in charge of their group while they were out. They had traveled south a little too far, to a place called Sugarloaf Mountain, which was a cone-shaped peak close to the summit of Medicine Bow Peak. Apparently there were over sixteen campsites situated around Lewis Lake. A lot of fishermen and hikers used to go there because it had some of the best fresh fish you could find in Wyoming. Not that it mattered now; the lake was probably full of Z’s.

  “Lance, where’s Tommy and Reed?” Liam asked.

  “I don’t know. I barely escaped. They chased me,” Lance replied.

  “Did they follow you?”

  “No, I think they gave up after a few miles.”

  “What the hell were you thinking going out that far?” Liam spat.

  I shook my head and scoffed at his words. Liam must have seen me as he immediately charged over.

  “Problem?”

  “Yeah, it’s kind of ironic that you are harping on at him about how far they went when you did the exact same thing. Sounds a lot like the pot calling the kettle black.”

  “Really, you want do something about it?” He squared up to me as if he hadn’t learned from the last punch.

  “Liam, drop it,” Danielle said.

  Liam nodded with a smirk on his face. “What? You siding with them now?” His eyes darted back and forth between Danielle and me.

  I chuckled. “Please, take a seat before I put you in one.”

  “What did you say?”

  He straightened up to me again. I could see his hand dancing near his knife.

  “If you are going to use that, you better make sure you kill me as you won’t get a second chance.”

  Liam’s buddy Ray immediately jumped to his side. “Is that so?”

  Benjamin came over, put his arms between us, and intervened. “Guys, arguing isn’t going to get us any closer to finding out where they’ve gone. Now drop it.”

  Liam glared at me. I’d had about enough of his crap for one day. He released the grip on his knife. When he turned and walked off he had a look of disgust on his face. Ray snorted then joined him. Benjamin instructed someone to go get Theo.

  “Give him some room.”

  The guy was small. He couldn’t have been more than a buck twenty wet. As they washed clean his head, we could see a deep gash just below the hairline. Someone had smacked him pretty hard. We soon found out that it had happened as he tried to make his escape. After he was given a warm drink and was able to catch his breath, he began to tell us.

  “We came across a bunch of camper trailers, a fire, and what looked like six men. Michael just assumed that they would be friendly. You know, maybe they would be glad to see someone other than the dead. But it went south on us real fast. We didn’t even know what the hell was happening. One moment they had us joining them for a beer around the campfire. The next moment two of them came out of their campers saying we were faggots. We tried to bolt but they had us surrounded.”

  “How old do you think they are?” someone in the crowd asked.

  “I dunno, maybe late thirties?”

  “Military?” another man asked.

  “Rednecks, every single one of them.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “Well, let me see. They had a lake to swim in but instead they put a tarp in the back of their truck bed and filled it with water.”

  “That’s kind of cool actually,” Baja remarked.

  “Of course, then there was that Southern drawl.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Theo said upon arriving. “Are the others dead?”

  “They weren’t when I left. I’m sorry, Theo, but I was scared for my life.”

  He put his hand on the kid’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Lance. You did what you had to.”

  “So when are we going to get them?” I asked.

  “We’re not,” Theo replied, beginning to walk away.

  I bristled. “What? You heard him, they could still be alive.”

  “It’s too risky.”

  “Okay, so we go in the morning.”

  “No. I won’t lose any more people. We’ve already lost Michael. That’s enough.”

  “What about Tommy and Reed?” Liam asked.

  “They knew the dangers of going too far.”

  “This place is a joke,” I said, shaking my head.

  Theo turned around, his eyes narrowed and I could see he was not accustomed to having people question him.

  “If you don’t like our rules, you are free to leave. No one is holding you here. But if you stay, you are to abide by what I say.”

  “Sounds like dictatorship to me.”

  Danielle, his daughter, could tell this was about to get ugly fast. Baja, Elijah, and Dax crowded round. Liam stood off to one side with a smirk on his face. He was loving every minute of it.

  “No one is going to get them. You understand? I have made myself clear.”

  With that said he walked away. I looked at the others. “Do you still want to stick around here?” I kicked the earth beneath me and retreated to the hut we were in for the evening.

  * * *

  Lying on my back, I tossed in the air one of the small wooden coins Danielle had given me. I caught it and held it between my fingers. Engraved into the wood were the initials TJ which stood for Theo James. Was that how a society was formed before the apocalypse? Did it all come down to one man or woman making a stand and declaring they were going to lead and everyone else was to follow? Or was it a group decision? And who put that group in charge? Who determined that one group would make rules for others?

  I scoffed, tossing the coin back up in the air again. Of course they gave you the palatable version of the formation of government in history lessons at school. But was it as clean as that?

  Who knew?

  I barely listened when the teachers would harp on about the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. I think I fell asleep in that lesson. It wasn’t that history bored me, as much as the idea of one group determining what was right for all seemed so restrictive.

  Sure people thrived within boundaries. Most, if given the choice would rather someone led the way, told them what to do and when to do it, than figure it out themselves. But who benefited from that?

  I pressed my fingertips into my forehead and kneaded the tension that was building. I turned over on my side and tried to push out all of the reasons why it was a good idea to stay. And yet, was there anything better out there? There would always be someone, or some group trying to make the rules. Good or bad. There were pros and cons to anything. No one had a better model or way of doing things. With authority over others came power, and that could corrupt a person very quickly.

  “Hey,” I heard someone whisper. I turned to my right. Standing in the doorway looking nervous was Lance. He looked a lot less like a newborn baby covered in blood and shit. I rolled off the bunkbed and hopped down. He disappeared. I followed. Outside it was dark. Under the light of the moon I followed him down through a few of the alleys until we reached a section of the wall furthest from those who patrolled.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Listen, I can show you where they are if you still want to go?”

  “You heard what Theo said, right?” I asked.

  “The only reason I am back here is because of Tommy and Reed. I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to them and I could have helped,” he replied.

  “We don’t have any weapons.”

  “Yeah we do.” Again he looked around nervously. He crouched down and ran his hand across some dirt to reveal cream-colored leather. Pulling it out, he pulled back the leather to show me an assault rifle, handguns
, and crossbow.

  “We aren’t going to need that many.”

  “Yeah you are,” a voice said behind me. Elijah and Benjamin were scurrying towards us. Not far behind them was Baja. “I knew you old dogs were up to something.”

  “We need to go now,” Lance said. He pushed at a section of the wood and it slid out like a drawer. Someone had cut away a large enough chunk of wood that a grown adult could get through easily.

  “Um, I’m guessing that wasn’t meant to be there,” Baja said.

  “Let’s just say that not everyone was on board with Theo’s rules. A few of the families created this as a means to escape just in case he started to become all Hitler-like.”

  Baja snorted as we ducked down and hurried through the entrance to the outside. Lance shoved it back into place just as a flashlight from above us swept the forest floor. We stayed flat against the side waiting until the person continued on, then we made a break for it.

  Now by day the forest was dark, but at night it was pitch-black. We couldn’t use lights until we were out of sight of the fortress, all of which meant traipsing our way through thick undergrowth and tripping over every few feet.

  “Go, go…”

  It took us a while to make it to a distance that wouldn’t catch the attention of those patrolling the perimeter.

  “How the hell do you know where you are going?”

  “I always go with the south group when they send us out. I’ve been on this route countless times.”

  “You know Theo will go ape shit when we get back,” Baja said.

  “Ah, screw him,” Elijah said. “Punk ass bitch telling everyone what to do.”

  Baja nudged me. “I like this guy.”

  We must have traveled for what felt like two hours. I was sure we were lost but Lance plowed ahead without a moment of hesitation.

  “So I’m curious, what’s the deal with you two?” I asked Elijah and Benjamin. Benjamin snorted.

  “You don’t want to know.”

  “Ah go on. Tell him,” Elijah added.