“Look for stairs!” Rick called out to Jane and Dr. Evans, both of whom were ahead of him. The heavy bags weighed him down and he took in deep, gasping breaths of air, fighting against both the load he was carrying and his general state of exhaustion.
“Over here, quick!” Dr. Evans poked his head out from a doorway ahead of Rick. Rounding the corner, Rick saw a wide flight of stairs leading both up and down. Jane was already on the next landing up, moving with purpose despite her injury and everything she was carrying. Rick motioned for Dr. Evans to go after her before releasing the hook on the back of the door that was holding it open. He caught it before it slammed shut and slowly closed it before turning and heading up the stairs after Dr. Evans.
The second floor of the building had all of the doors in the hall opened, and as Rick walked along he could see that the majority of them appeared to be conference rooms or shared work spaces. The layout of the larger rooms reminded him of classrooms in college, and he wondered what they were used for before the State Department took over the complex from the Navy.
“Rick, down here.” Jane’s whispered voice echoed down the hall and Rick followed it until he reached a large room with several rows of windows looking out into the center of the compound. Dr. Evans and Jane had already dropped most of their supplies on the floor and were getting their rifles out and at the ready. Rick did the same, and the three each took up a post at a separate window in the room and peered out at the scene below.
The three gang members that had been trying to get over the gate had been successful, both at getting over it, as well as opening it for their friends. A cluster of men and a couple of women were standing and walking around the vehicle parked in the middle of the compound. They were talking and shouting at each other, and though it was hard to make out what they were saying through the mix of English and Spanish, it quickly became apparent that they weren’t sure what to do with the vehicle.
After a moment of arguing amongst the group, a man and woman rounded the corner of the far building. Each of them wore a large black jacket and jeans, and their tattoos and hairstyles were more elaborate than any of the others. The immediate cessation of the arguments between the gang members at the mere sight of the pair instantly drew Rick’s attention, and he focused on them as the man began to speak.
“Where are they?” Rick had to press his ear against the glass to hear the man, and he hoped that the thick curtains around the sides of the windows would provide enough concealment to keep him from being spotted.
“Dunno. Took us forever to get over that gate.” The man spoke in English, but with a heavy accent.
“Did you search the buildings?” The man stepped up near the car and looked in through the windows at the empty seats.
“Not yet; we were going to search the car first and—”
The relative calmness that the apparent leader of the gang had been demonstrating evaporated. Faster than Rick’s eyes could follow, the man whippe
d out a small collapsible baton from his back pocket and began flailing about with it, striking at everyone he could reach while he screamed at them in Spanish. Near the end of his rant, as the gang members were still running around the car, trying to escape his wrath, he stood still, breathing heavily as he shouted at them. “Find them! This thing’s completely empty! If they had anything on them, they took it with them, so go! GO!”
He waved the baton menacingly and the gang scattered, forming into small groups as they spread out through the compound. The woman who had walked in with the leader strode up next to him and wrapped an arm around him, which he shrugged off before turning his eye to the windows on the buildings in the compound. His eyes moved quickly, scanning them for signs of life and movement, and Rick barely pulled his head down below the windowsill before the man looked in his direction.
“Oye! They’re up there! Get after them!” The man’s shout was loud and forceful, and even though Rick couldn’t see what was going on, his heart sank as he saw the curtain next to him jittering back and forth. He glanced over at Jane and Dr. Evans, both of whom had ducked out of sight far earlier, and shook his head at them. With their position compromised, their day was about to get much, much worse.
Chapter 5
The Waters’ Homestead
Outside Ellisville, VA
The early afternoon turned into the early evening before Dianne and Tina finished burying the body of the man in the black jacket in a shallow grave. They put him next to the body of the first man Dianne had killed, digging as deep as they could through the cold earth filled with rocks and tree roots. After they finished, they put the shovels away and checked on the animals again. The barns smelled awful and the animals were restless from spending so much time indoors, but Dianne topped off their food and water and whispered words of encouragement to them. While they hadn’t played an integral part in the survival of her family thus far, she knew that she had to keep them safe through whatever storms might come, as they would be vital for sustaining a long-term supply of food.
The evening shadows were growing long as Dianne and Tina trudged up onto the back porch. Dianne raised her hand to knock on the wooden cover but someone inside was already unlocking it from the inside. Dianne and Tina stood back as it swung open to reveal Sarah looking out at them. She wore a mask of concern on her face, though she appeared in better spirits than she had in days, and for good reason since Jason was still looking better and better.
“You two okay?”
“Yep, we’re good.” Dianne nodded as she and Tina stepped inside and took off their shoes. “We buried one but the other got away.”
“Mark said you nailed him in the back.” The reply came not from Sarah, but from Jason, who was sitting up on the couch, looking alert as he worked on disassembling and cleaning a semiautomatic pistol. “I’m surprised he got away.”
“Must not have hit any vital organs.” Dianne raised an eyebrow at Jason. “Aren’t you supposed to be in the basement with Jacob and Josie?”
Jason motioned toward the ceiling with an upward nod of his head. “After things died down out there I had them go up and stay with Mark. Figured it was better than all of us sitting around down there with nothing going on. More eyes and ears keeping watch, you know?”
“Good thought.” Dianne shrugged off her coat. “You been keeping an eye on the cameras?”
“I have,” Sarah replied, “but there’s been nothing on them except you two out there.”
Dianne sighed heavily as she pulled a chair from the dining room into the living room and sat down in it. Her back, legs and arms all ached from the work she and Tina had put in, and she wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and fall asleep. The appearance of the two men had, unfortunately, confirmed some of her worst fears, and taking a breather was out the window until she felt like the situation was resolved.
“I want two people on each watch shift tonight,” Dianne finally said. “One splitting their time between windows and the cameras and one dedicated to the windows.”
“You expecting something bad to happen, Dianne?” Jason looked up at her.
“Yeah. Yeah, I am.” Dianne didn’t elaborate, but as a somber mood set in across the room, Dianne couldn’t help thinking about the possibilities of what might happen next. If the man in the blue jacket survived—which she suspected he did—then he would undoubtedly have made contact with his friends, and they would be on the way to the farm at that very moment. Dianne desperately wanted to do something to prepare for the probable arrival of the group from the gas station, but they had spent every waking moment of the prior three days preparing and there was nothing left to do but sit, watch and wait.