“You think if we get the power on, it will resume like normal?”

  “Yes. I hope we’ll only have to collect the fuel.”

  “That would be great,” Ryan commented.

  “You found the generator shed?” Clyde asked from the bedroll where he and his sons were still enjoying the warmth. He had woken when she’d come in, but he hadn’t heard her depart.

  Kendle didn’t reply. She’d had time to consider things and now wasn’t positive that making a deal with these locals was a good idea.

  Clyde sensed her reluctance to talk and put his head down. “Let me know when you’re doing it. The noise will bring problems, maybe. We’ll help if it does.”

  Kendle opened her mouth to tell him to get ready, but a horrendous squealing filled the air.

  Clyde’s lids popped open in dismay. “Now?”

  Kendle grinned. “We’re go-getters, Clyde. The sun rose. That’s all we needed.”

  Clyde rolled his eyes. “Sounds like Safe Haven shit to me.” He nudged his boys. “Come on, kiddies. The lady says we need to rise and shine.”

  Kendle snickered as the boys rose, grumbling about slave drivers.

  “That was the last town we went through,” Kendle told them. “They didn’t care for earlier risers there either. Must be why we made it out with our gear and our lives.”

  Clyde flushed, but didn’t argue. The apocalypse had given everyone the license to sleep in. It just wasn’t wise to do so.

  Kendle glanced around at her group. “Get ready for trouble.”

  “How long to finish a batch once it’s started?” Scott asked.

  “No idea. Might be days.”

  “Days?”

  “Days?”

  Scott and Clyde’s voice merged to form one large whine.

  Kendle grimaced. “That’s it! Get up and get to work! I want us gone.” She couldn’t let them get lazy or careless. It would kill them all.

  “We need milk for the twins,” Rita called.

  Kendle sighed. She’d known that, but hadn’t made plans for it yet. She looked at Clyde with a lifted brow.

  “Not in months,” Clyde told her. “Milk products of any kind are high trade items. They go fast.”

  Kendle considered her options. She gestured to Josh. “Find me a suburb near here.”

  “You gonna walk?” he asked. They were using the last of their fuel to prime the generator.

  “Yes. The closer the better.”

  Josh poured over the maps, not sure why she wanted a suburb. “We have one about three miles to the east. Condos.”

  “That’ll work,” she approved, marching to the corner for her kit. “People relocated to the suburbs to raise a family. There should be formula and diapers in some of those homes. No one ever cleans it all out because no one’s needs are the same when they scavenge.”

  Kendle was ready to leave in minutes. She stopped by the shed, where the generator was huffing and puffing in protest of the ten-month pause between shifts.

  “I’ll be back in about six hours,” Kendle told them before they could ask about her being geared up. “The twins need milk.”

  “I’m coming with you,” Tommy stated. “We never forage alone.”

  “Can we do that?” she asked. “I wasn’t sure about weakening the group here since we’re making so much noise now,” she called over the squealing and puffing.

  “We don’t go out alone,” Ben supported. “I’ll cover things.”

  Tommy finished filling the generator with the can he was holding and then replaced the cap. “Six hours. Hold down the fort.”

  Ben snickered. “We’ll have supper waiting, Pa.”

  Kendle and Tommy laughed as they strolled out, aware that none of them were amused. Being split up was dangerous.

  “I’ll be a minute getting my kit.” Tommy jogged into the refinery, aware of Tyler and Josh in the trees with rifles on their knees.

  Kendle waited restlessly, hating this. She wanted to be in Safe Haven more than she ever had. A team this size couldn’t survive for long. Humans had to come together or they would die out.

  4

  “Why isn’t this place looted?”

  Kendle and Tommy were kneeling behind the tall, open iron gate of the complex. All of the homes were dirty and there was debris on the tiny porches and balconies, but the doors were all fastened and most of the shades were drawn.

  “Maybe there are people here,” Tommy whispered. “We should try somewhere else.”

  “I agree,” Kendle stated. “There are two more apartment complexes like this near here.”

  Tommy and Kendle jogged toward the main road. They both hated being in the open, but running through yards was just as dangerous and much more time consuming.

  “Do you believe we’re crazy for passing up an almost sure deal?” she asked as they reached the main road and hunkered down to view it before they stepped out.

  “No. If they’ve survived as a community, we have no cause to steal from them. Eagles do the right thing.”

  “Like with not killing Clyde and his sons for the three cans of gas last night?”

  “Yes. We could have and that might have even gotten us all the way home, but Adrian always told us one bad deed gets repaid with two.”

  “Meaning we might have had something else go wrong before we could get there?”

  “Exactly. They might also have had family that would have suffered with them being gone, maybe even died. We would have earned the bad karma from that, as well. There are ripples to everything that a person does. Eagles are trained to be conscious of that.”

  Kendle was glad. She wouldn’t have been able to sleep if they had killed innocent people for any reason, let alone one as petty as cans of gas.

  “We’ve got a mile and a half,” Tommy told her, viewing nothing moving on the road. The main street was lined in neatly planted rows of trees with bars around them and trash cans on either side. The iron light poles still boasted bits of faded tinsel that reminded them the war had come at Christmas. Stores had been looted and windows were broken, but he assumed that was from the weather after he spotted a tree branch that had impaled the glass window of an appliance rental shop.

  “You good for this?” Tommy asked. He hadn’t forgotten that she’d been injured to secure their freedom.

  Kendle nodded, even though her legs and arms were aching. “You know it.”

  Tommy flashed his approval. “You’re good. Come on.”

  Kendle followed him onto the main road, forcing her mind into that place where pain was just pain and not something debilitating. They needed milk. She would get it.

  Tommy and Kendle approached the complex cautiously, happy to spot kicked in doors and spray painted graffiti that was so fresh it hadn’t faded yet. The two suburbs were nearly identical with their matching brown and white condominiums and soccer vans displaying families of stick figures in the rear windows. Even the mailboxes and sheds were the same cheap, copied design that had taken over real estate offices and middle class lives.

  “Much better,” Tommy exclaimed, giving Kendle time to recover before they went in. Looted areas were actually the best places to search for odd, non-common items. Tommy doubted they would find canisters of formula, but powdered milk was something people had used during camping trips and in diet combinations. In the past, the poorer populations had recognized the benefits of powdered products, but the middle classes had now caught on. The rich had also used some powdered items, but they’d been more able to afford to replace perishables and had been more likely to have the fresh versions. Didn’t do much good for them now, Tommy contemplated. They’d been healthy when the war came but unable to maintain it when their food ran out.

  “Which one?” he asked her pointedly.

  Kendle drew in a breath and concentrated, trying not to be nervous about using her gifts in front of him.

  “That one,” she chose, pointing. “There’s something in there.”

  “How can you tell?” he asked curiously, as they walked toward the middle row home.

  “It’s a signature in my mind,” she explained. “Like a heat source but it’s yellow.”

  Tommy shrugged, not understanding. “Okay. I’m first in. You watch my six.”

  Kendle kept her gun ready, but she didn’t think they would need it. She’d scanned the entire street of homes. No one was here. Kendle wished she’d taken the time to do it last night and even as far back as right before Market Town. She’d been afraid to alienate the men on the mission team by trying to act like Angela or Jennifer. That backfired, she scolded. Acting like them is exactly what I should be doing.

  Kendle went into full alert as she followed her partner into the condominium.

  “Do you know which floor?” Tommy asked, sweeping the tiled kitchen and hallway that were coated in filthy dishes and trash. It looked as if it had been used for a flophouse.

  “Low,” she responded, flipping on her light when he did. She pointed hers toward the ground so she didn’t blind him with glare from the mirrors and pictures they were passing. Nice art collection, she thought, recognizing some of the expensive knockoffs. She’d loved to visit museums on her downtime during trips for her show.

  “Stairs here,” Tommy called quietly. “and a door at the bottom.”

  “Why isn’t it kicked in?” Kendle wondered.

  “We’ll find out,” he answered, going down. “Stay there.”

  Kendle waited as he examined the barrier.

  “Looks like they tried to kick it in,” he said. “Lot of scuff marks.” Tommy bumped it lightly with his shoulder and groaned. “Oh, yeah. That’s reinforced.”

  “So there are probably bodies in there?”

  “Yeah, that’s usually been the case when we’ve found one of these rooms,” he told her. “They lock themselves in to wait out the first couple weeks of chaos, but they did too good of a job on the seals and ran out of air.”

  Tommy tried to be quiet as he pulled the crowbar from his kit and got to work, but the noises echoed loudly to their ears.

  Tommy grunted in effort, prying with his legs… The door popped open, squeaking.

  He peered in, gun changing places with the other tool. “Wow.”

  “Bodies?” she asked, steeling herself.

  “Yeah, but it’s not as bad as some of them.”

  “Then why the…” Kendle paused in the narrow doorway. “Is that cheese?”

  “And it only has mold on the edges!” Tommy exclaimed. “There’s also wine.”

  The wine room was small and rectangle, with two chairs and a serving tray between them. On the tray was a football sized block of cheese and a few empty cracker packs. The two wine glasses still held drops of the potent alcohol in the bottoms.

  Kendle scanned the small space and found the short shelf that still had several bottles in the rack. She also spotted two bodies on the narrow couch and faded red sprays on the wall.

  “They didn’t run out of air.”

  “No,” he agreed. “They ran out of hope. Get those guns. We always resupply ourselves from the dead. It’s crazy not to. They don’t need it anymore.”

  Kendle swallowed her revulsion to take the weapons lying in the laps of the skeletons that were too runny for her liking. She understood the cool conditions of the basement had preserved them, but it made her even more eager to go.

  Tommy and Kendle filled their bags with wine and cheese, along with two of the corkscrews and a roll of summer sausage they found stuffed in the tiny cup cabinet on the wall. For a scavenging trip, the haul was great, but for what they needed, it wasn’t enough.

  “Let’s check the shed,” she suggested, sliding her kit to the porch. Despite the chill and the wind, she was glad to be outside.

  Tommy popped the lock and opened the shed. It was neatly lined with all the equipment the ground workers would have needed to care for the property. “Lawnmower…chainsaw…gas can!”

  Thrilled over the find, he hurriedly grabbed the can to verify it contained fuel.

  “We’re good,” Tommy stated, replacing the cap. “About half of what we need.”

  “You want to drain these or search for more cans?” Kendle asked, pointing toward the lawnmower and the chainsaw.

  Tommy considered. “Let’s check other sheds. If we don’t find anything bigger, we’ll do the smaller tanks then.”

  It took them another hour to hunt up and drain enough gas to get them to Safe Haven. The sun was high in the cloudy sky when Kendle pointed at the next street. “I see another yellow signature.”

  Tommy led her across the yard of a farmhouse and into the parking lot of a small shopping strip. In the rear corner was a daycare center.

  “It’s been looted.”

  “But these cars haven’t been,” she pointed out, going to a red Toyota with shattered windows. “Let’s get these trunks open. Look for diaper bags.”

  The cars in the parking lot were mostly minivans and wagons, all complete with dice and air fresheners hanging from dusty mirrors. None of them were easy to open. Tommy had to resort to cracking the locks with a screwdriver and the crowbar.

  “Yes!” Kendle exclaimed after the fourth trunk flew open. She grabbed the pink diaper bag, digging into it eagerly. “We have two cans of formula! Expires…2014! We’re good!”

  Kendle and Tommy quickly loaded up a few other items from the trunks. It would take them all of their remaining hour to reach the refinery and maybe a little more. Neither of them wanted to worry their teammates. Being apart was stressful enough. Being late was cruel.

  5

  “Do you hear that?”

  Tommy nodded. It sounded like something with big machines was running. The echo was coming to them loud and clear.

  “Sounds like they got it going.”

  “That would be good for both groups,” Kendle pointed out. “We can all go our separate ways with full tanks.”

  “Will they?” Tommy asked pointedly.

  “I didn’t get anything bad, but in this world, that’s a hard question to answer,” she stated vaguely.

  Tommy got his gun out again, fingers raw from having so much time off and then being at it again. “Go around the side. Let’s make sure we haven’t had any more company.”

  Kendle hurried to the edge of the wide building as Tommy rushed toward the front. He didn’t see the guards in the trees as he made it around the front, increasing the tension.

  “Hello inside!” he called.

  The lack of voices or greetings sent chills over Tommy. Following his instincts, he dove to the ground just as the bullets began to fly through the windows and door.

  Slugs pinged off the wood and concrete as he crawled toward the ditch that ran along the road. Tommy flung himself down the small hill, relieved when he didn’t sense pain from any injuries.

  The gunfire didn’t stop.

  Tommy realized Kendle was being shot at now. He popped up in time to witness her jumping through the window.

  Tommy sighed in admiration. Damn, I like her. He gained his feet and ran in the front entrance while everyone inside was hopefully distracted by her gutsy move.

  Bang! Bang! Kendle drove the three women back. She didn’t know who they were and she didn’t care. She was tired of people holding her team hostage, threatening them. She wasn’t negotiating this time.

  Kendle angrily fired again, bullet smacking into the short female with the AK. The body hit a nearby shelf, midsection blooming red.

  Tommy fired at the braided woman with the machete who lunged at Kendle, shooting her in the shoulder. Shouting, she stumbled into Kendle, knocking them both to the ground.

  Tommy wanted to make sure Kendle would be okay in the immediate struggle that ensued for the machete, but the older copy of the short woman jumped onto his back and slid her knife into his cheek.

  “Ahhh!” Tommy slammed himself backwards into the desk and then the wall, dislodging his attacker. He spun around and quickly punched her in the face as she lunged forward with the bloody butcher knife.

  Knocked out, she dropped heavily onto the floor.

  Tommy turned around to help Kendle.

  Kendle was swinging the machete repeatedly, methodically hacking off limbs at the joints. Gore splattered across the window.

  I think I’ll wait ‘til she feels like she’s done. Tommy scanned the rest of the building that he could discern, not finding their team. The gear was where they’d left it and the refinery around them was loud with noise and movement of the big machines that could hide anyone still lurking. Tommy reloaded his gun and looked at Kendle, hoping she was ready.

  Tommy’s actions snapped Kendle into awareness. She dropped the bloody weapon, wiping an arm across her face so that she could view through the blood.

  Tommy waved her toward the rear, hoping she obeyed and didn’t flip out on him.

  Kendle forced herself to step over the mess to take the far aisle.

  Tommy let out a breath and covered the opposite side.

  Kendle spotted two big women standing in front of their bound men and Rita. She didn’t see the twins at all.

  We’re under the carpet, a voice stated clearly in her mind. They wanted us.

  How do they know about you? Kendle asked, only a little surprised that the kids were able to communicate this way at so young an age.

  Market Town sent them.

  I should have known. Kendle risked a quick peep around the corner to verify that Tommy was in place. She saw his fingers waving three…two…one…

  Kendle stood up and strode forward, following their training for a situation like this one. Tommy was the top gunslinger in Safe Haven after their leaders. That made her the decoy.

  “Hey! I want my team. You have no idea what I’ve already done to keep them.”

  The women turned toward her, but didn’t fire. They’d clearly been waiting for her to come.

  “We got the men we wanted. We need the babies and we’ll go,” the redhead who was the most wrinkled stated, lifting a worn AK. “Where are they?”