Eden's Promise, page 9
She came awake then, and turned to look at him, but he didn’t have time to explain.
“Stay here, stay down,” he snapped, and slid from their perch to creep toward the opening of the truck.
Another rattle outside had him ducking. Closer this time. He peeked out to see muzzle flashes over a rise. Shit. Automatic weapons. Just from that he could tell they were outnumbered, and he felt outgunned, even though he’d managed to retrieve their guns from the culvert in Tacoma. He fished his automatic out of his pack and checked the magazine, then jolted when Eden slid up to the tailgate beside him.
“I told you to stay down!”
She pulled out her own gun. “Are we under attack?”
The truck started rolling, putting him off-balance again. He braced himself with a curse, but being on the move was good. The last thing they needed was to become a sitting duck here. He lifted his gun, waiting to fire, not wanting to make them a target, not when Eden was vulnerable.
The collision knocked them both to the bed of the truck. Eden’s gun went flying. He heard it clatter against the metal bed as he caught himself from hitting his head on the corner of a crate. Jesus. He rolled onto his stomach to make sure Eden wasn’t hurt, then belly crawled in the direction of the sliding gun.
“What happened?” she asked, breathless.
He knew. “Get your gear,” he grunted as his fingers brushed the butt of the weapon.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw her start to climb up the crates.
“Get down!” he snarled, closing his hand around the grip and rolling over to grasp her ankle, yanking her down, feeling only a little bad when she landed hard. “Your pack is up there?”
She nodded, wheezing.
He swore again, then climbed up, quick as he could. He caught the edge of the blanket, yanked, and caught her pack as it tumbled down.
“We’re going out the side, under the canvas, and you’re going to follow my directions to the letter, do you understand?”
Her eyes widened when he jabbed his finger toward her face, then she narrowed them, but she nodded. He moved toward the back of the truck, gauging the location of their attackers based on the sound of gunfire.
Surrounded. Damn. Just as he expected.
“I mean it, Eden. Stay close and do what I say.”
She nodded again. He hooked his pack over his shoulder—damn, he wished he didn’t have to worry about it, but they’d be in bad shape out there in the wilderness without any supplies. He edged to the side of the truck, loosened the canvas and slipped out between the metal bed and the canvas covering. He wanted to reach for her, but needed to be alert, to see if anyone had seen them.
“Now,” he snapped, but before the syllable had died, she was beside him, crouched on the road. He moved along the side of the truck, staying in the shadows as much as possible, listening for her footsteps, for the enemies. They moved from the side of their truck, Aaron peeking in the window only to have his fears confirmed. The driver was dead, the passenger slumped as well. No time to confirm. He had to get Eden out of here.
He led her alongside the front truck, eyeing a rise to the left of it, wondering if they could make it without being seen.
They’d have to chance it because the attackers were going to come claim their prize.
“I want you to go as fast as you can right up there, in a zigzag pattern.” He pointed. “Don’t look back. I’ll be right behind you.”
“The guardsmen—”
“Too late for them. Just go.”
She staggered a little. “What?”
“Goddamn it, Eden, fucking go!”
She took a deep breath and took off, doing as he told her. He held his breath waiting to see if any of their enemies rose to fire, his gun at the ready. When they didn’t, he took off after her, shielding her body with his when shots rang out. Bits of rock and soil struck his legs as bullets impacted the ground around them.
Fuck, fuck, fuck! She was too too far from the safety of the rise.
Reaching deep for a surge of energy, he caught up with her, grabbed the back of her belt and hauled her up, almost throwing her over the rise. Her grunt of pain made him flinch but he’d had no choice. He had to get her out of the line of fire. Amid a new hail of gunfire, he scrambled after her, hoping to shit that wasn’t shrapnel biting his legs and ass. He tumbled over the rise, his boots striking something soft, eliciting another grunt of pain.
Shit. He crept up, just to make sure they were out of the line of fire, then twisted to look at Eden. She was on her back on the incline, panting, her hand on her side.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, his voice hoarse.
“Kicked me,” she wheezed. “Just—a minute.”
He didn’t think they had a minute, but if he’d broken her rib, then they were toast. No way could she run. He scrabbled toward her, ignoring the tufts of dry grass that dug into his arms, and pressed lightly on her ribs. She winced but not the way she would if it was broken.
“Knocked the breath,” she gasped.
“We’ve got to go.” He closed his hand around hers and scanned the landscape. Trees, not far away. They could make it if she wasn’t hurt. He rolled to his feet, pulling her with him. His legs still stung, but he didn’t have time to check the damage. Again he shoved Eden in front him him, trying to hear the enemy over the sound of their own footsteps pounding dry ground. Eden stumbled and he yanked her upright by the elbow, pushing her forward. His entire body was tense, waiting for the impact of a bullet. The trees grew closer. Closer.
He pushed her into the darkness of the forest and dodged behind a tree, pulling her with him, crouching and drawing her down to a sitting position. He pinned her against the tree and looked around the edge, watching for their enemies.
Maybe they wouldn’t attack. Maybe they just wanted the haul. He and Eden were no threat. They couldn’t report the ambush to anyone. They were only in danger if the men wanted to kill them.
He waited, still, Eden’s ragged breathing gusting against his throat, her chest heaving against his, the fingers of one hand clinging to his shirt, her other hand gripping her pistol. He tightened his fingers on her hip, reassuring, though he wasn’t sure if he was reassuring her or himself.
He didn’t know how long they crouched there, but Eden’s breathing evened out, his thighs ached, and no one came over the ridge. He could hear the banging of crates and metal, the slamming of doors, and finally one, then two, then three engines roared to life and the trucks rumbled off.
Only then did he push to his feet and reach for her. “You okay?”
Her eyes were huge in the dim moonlight. “They just killed them.”
His jaw tightened. He couldn’t forget that all this was new to her, fighting and seeing people she knew dead. “They would have killed us, too. You did good, you listened to me. Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
He bent and ran his hand down each of his calves, though the stinging had stopped. No blood. Good.
“We’re going to stay in the trees, but not too deep. We don’t know what kind of wildlife is out there, and I don’t want to waste ammunition if we don’t have to.”
“So we’re walking to Sacramento?”
He looked at her a long moment. What they needed to do was walk to the coast, find a boat, and get back to the safety of the island. It would take less time and made more sense. But he’d made a promise, and Kelly was waiting for them. Her mother was waiting for them.
Instead he said, “We’re walking to Sacramento.”
***
The sun rose shortly after, but the light and heat barely penetrated the forest. Eden shivered and wished for the blanket they’d left behind. Her thermal shirt and flannel weren’t making much of a difference against the damp chill.
Aaron kept his gun drawn, and the line of his body was tense as he tried to see in all directions at once in the dim light. The forest was dry, with lots of fallen trees, lots of stumps and branches for them to maneuver around. The ground was cracked and dry. On top of everything else, was the mainland in a drought? That would make food even more scarce. And each step they took crunched leaves and grass, so loud to her ears. Would people hear them coming? That couldn’t be good, so she tried to step lightly, despite her exhaustion.
They stopped briefly around what she figured was lunch time and by nightfall, she could barely put one foot in front of the other. The early season cold front was sapping what little energy she had. But she wouldn’t ask him to stop, not when they had no shelter and she knew he had to be as cold as she was.
Aaron stopped and opened his pack, passed her an MRE. Her thighs protested standing still, and then protested as they started walking again. She may have let out a small whimper because he glanced over.
“I’m looking for a place to stay,” he said, his tone low. He hadn’t spoken much the whole trip, probably afraid to be overheard.
She nodded, not trusting her own voice.
But they hadn’t encountered even one house. She feared they might be passing them by mere feet, unable to see much through the dense trees.
She didn’t know how long they hiked before he said, “There.”
She didn’t know what the hell he saw, because all she saw was tree shadows and darkness. “What?”
“I saw light glinting off something. A window, I think. Come on, sweetheart.”
If she’d been more lucid, she would have wondered about that endearment, but all she could do was put one foot in front of the other and hope he wasn’t wrong.
He wasn’t wrong. There was a house, all right, but he pulled her behind a nearby tree when she would have headed straight for it. It was a two-story log house that blended into the forest, and unlike other houses they’d encountered in Tacoma and on the road, it looked well-kept—no weeds growing up or shrubbery taking over.
“Someone lives here,” she murmured.
He nodded. “Someone does. If I had a place out here at the end of the world, isolated like this, and I’d been prepared, I would not take kindly to strangers.”
She merely blinked, her brain too foggy to process.
“Think of how your father reacted to strangers coming to the island. Do you think these people would react differently?”
She couldn’t stop the whimper of disappointment, couldn’t stop her shivers. She shook her head. Anyone they came upon here would react as her father had, wouldn’t they? No wonder Aaron and Jodie believed the world would never be the same—people had learned how to look out for themselves, and themselves alone.
At Aarons’s prodding, she forced her feet to move forward again, following him away from the house.
He made a sound of alarm, and slammed his body into hers, knocking her to the ground, knocking the wind out of her as something whistled over their heads and stopped with a thud.
“What—?”
“Booby trapped, goddamnit. Keep low, watch where you put your feet. Paranoid bastard.”
She turned to see him inspecting what looked like a spear buried in the trunk of a tree. “Was that—?”
He grunted an assent and pressed his hand to her back, holding her in a crouched position. But she knew not all the threats could be high. How could he see where to step, where to steer her? Then she saw a trip wire and threw herself back to stop him from, well, tripping it. He caught her arms, holding her against his chest until she caught her balance.
“Good girl,” he murmured against her ear.
Shaking off her nerves—God knew what that wire was attached to—she forged forward.
And felt the ground give beneath her.
Chapter Nine
Aaron felt rather than saw Eden disappear with a scream in front of him. He lunged forward, catching her pack, digging his fingers in, before reaching around with his other hand and grabbing her arm. Her weight pulled him forward, onto his knees, then onto his belly as the full weight of her body and pack clung to his arm.
Only then did he see the round pit she’d fallen into, probably seven feet across and fifteen feet deep, and shit. With spikes lining the bottom. Eden dangled on the side, feet trying to find purchase so she could climb out. He dropped to his chest to get a better grip on her.
“I got you, I got you,” he said, hoping to God he did. Suddenly her weight eased slightly and she wasn’t so wiggly. “You need to drop the pack.” The damned thing weighed as much as she did. No wonder she was tired.
“Can’t. We can’t lose our supplies.”
“Sweetheart. I can’t pull both of you up. You’re going to have to let go.”
She grunted and shifted, never easing up on the death grip she had on his arm.
“Take the pack,” she said a few moments later.
“The hell I will. I’m not letting go of you.”
“I’ve got a root or something here. Just for a minute. Take the pack.”
He slackened his hold testingly, but she wasn’t lying. She was holding on to something. He reached past her, sank his fingers into the soft pack and hauled it up to the ground beside him before grasping her hand again. Yes, God, yes, so much easier to pull her up now. She shifted and gripped his forearm with her other hand, climbing up the wall of the pit until he was able to grab her under the shoulders and haul her to the ground beside him. Both of them tumbled onto their back and stared up at the darkening sky, breathing heavily.
So heavily they didn’t hear anyone approach.
“Well, what do we have here?” a voice said from the darkness.
Aaron flipped Eden beneath him, shielding her with his body, and glared up into the barrel of a rifle.
“We’re just passing through,” he said, still breathless from the effort of pulling her up. “We don’t want anything from you, and we don’t have anything you want.”
“Sure about that?” the man asked, prodding Eden’s pack with the toe of his boot. “Seems pretty full to me.”
Aaron got a better look at him once he was able to switch his focus away from the gun. The man holding it was bearded and thin, his cheeks hollow and his clothes hanging from him. Beyond him, three other men ranged around them, all armed. Oh, hell. These men were starving. And the glint in the first man’s eyes gave Aaron a bad feeling in his gut.
“Blankets and the like. Some MREs. Nothing of value.”
“Well, son, things of value these days are things I want and you have.”
The man dragged the pack closer to his feet and flicked on a flashlight to look inside as the other three men held them at gunpoint. Aaron’s gun was in the holster at his hip, beneath his jacket, and the rifle he’d taken from the National Guardsman was on the ground somewhere, where he’d dropped it when he’d gone after Eden. He gauged he couldn’t get to either without getting his own head blown off.
“Don’t even think about it, tough guy.” The man with the gun looked past them to aim the flashlight into the pit. “Here we thought we were going to get a deer, something to eat. Guess we’ll have to make do.”
He aimed the flashlight back on Aaron, flipped it between him and Eden. “Get ‘em up,” the man with the gun said. “Get his weapons.”
Two men grabbed him by the arms and hauled him to his feet, patting him down, grabbing his pistol. The cocking of a gun below him registered seconds before the sound of a .357 fired three times. The man with the rifle and flashlight fell back, Aaron’s arms were suddenly free and he dropped, just as Eden rolled to her knee and aimed her gun at the fourth man, who turned and ran into the forest.
“Shit,” she said, getting to her feet, only to have her leg snatched from beneath her by the man with the flashlight, who lay panting on the ground.
In the dim beam of the flashlight that rolled across the ground, Aaron could see the bearded man was shot in the shoulder. He stepped on the man’s wrist, sweeping down to retrieve his own gun from the man’s belt. He aimed his weapon at the man’s head.
“Check them,” he said to Eden, nodding toward the other two men.
She scrambled to do his bidding and he heard a gasp from the darkness. “Dead,” she said, her voice a little strangled.
The man beneath him groaned, a pain not physical. Aaron aimed his pistol at the man’s head, but the man’s eyes were closed, his face twisted.
“The other?”
He heard her crunch across the leaves—funny that he hadn’t heard them when the men approached—held his breath as he waited for her assessment.
“Alive, but barely. Chest shot, lung punctured, I think.”
“I’m not taking him to the ER,” he said sharply. “I just want to know he’s not coming after us.”
“He’s not. Can’t be sure about the one who got away.” She joined him over the injured man Aaron was watching. “Are there more of you? Is he going for help?”
Just what they needed. People pursuing them. The man at his feet chuckled, and Aaron kicked the side of his head.
Silence.
“We gotta go.” He gathered the weapons, then held a hand to her.
She scooped up the backpack and took his hand. Together they hurried down the mountain.
“Why this way?” she asked, trying to catch her breath.
“Because if there were people in the forest with supplies, you think those men would have been thinking about eating us?”
She stopped so suddenly his arm jerked behind him. “You don’t really think—?”
“I absolutely do. I’ve seen it before.”
She shuddered, but didn’t move forward.
He pivoted on her and gripped her arms tightly, forcing her to look at him. God, he hated being rough with her, but he didn’t have time to coddle her. “Don’t you freak out on me now, Eden. We’re not done. So get your shit together.”
“I just killed a man, Aaron.” Tears filled her eyes.
“I know, sweetheart, and I’ll help you work through that. It will be rough. But it was necessary, or, hell, we’d be barbecue right about now.” He wanted to pull her into his arms and comfort her, but God knew if there were more of the damned cannibals ready to hunt them down, if for no other reason than revenge.
