Crashing Down - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (The Ravaged Land Series Book 3) (21 page)

“
W
hat are
we going to do?” Sienna said nervously. She came over by us and huddled in as if she was afraid to be at the other window alone.

This made everything twice as bad as it already was. Now, our only exit was blocked, and it was blocked by the worst thing I could imagine. I’d rather face a pack of dog-beasts than the HOME army.

“I have an idea,” Penn said as he charged out of the door.

“Wait!” I said reaching out for him, but I was too slow. He was gone. I stepped into the doorway and felt paralyzed by the sight. The army they had accumulated back in Washington had been big, but it was nothing compared to what was here now.

The convoy was all lit up and moving our way. There were several delivery trucks which I would wager had piles of dog-beasts inside. Some soldiers were in cars, others in trucks and a few on motorcycles, while many walked along. There was even a small fleet of four-wheelers. I didn’t have to see their weapons to know that they were all armed.

Penn was running through the camp pounding on the sides of the trailers yelling for everyone to wake up. “HOME’s here! They’re here right now! Get up and fight!”

“Dominick’s going to think he’s responsible again,” I said looking over my shoulder at Dean.

“Hopefully, we’ll be long gone before he even gets a chance to make any kind of accusations,” Dean said exhaling so big that it blew my hair at the side of my face forward. I hoped he was right. Whatever the plan was to get out of here, it needed to be put in motion before it was too late.

“With HOME blocking our exit,” I said nodding at the front gate, “we won’t be going anywhere.”

Lastly, I saw Penn heading towards Dominick’s trailer. He was so far away from us that it made me nervous. My hands were shaking. I couldn’t see him anymore once he turned the corner towards Dominick’s front door. My shoulders were starting to hurt from holding my muscles so tight.

Even when I saw Penn running back towards our trailer, I didn’t feel much better. I could hear Dominick shouting orders from as far away as we were. Thankfully, he didn’t force Penn to stay by him at gunpoint.

“Oh God,” Penn said trying to catch his breath, “everyone in here is going to die. None of these people have a clue what they are doing. Not to mention they’re too weak. Look at them!” He pointed out towards the HOME army. The closer they got the larger they looked. Their size was frightening and impressive. Clearly they could have come with a third as many people and still taken the camp out with ease.

BOOM! BOOM!

I ducked down and put my hands over my head. The noise even at this distance was powerful. I didn’t know if HOME was launching some kind of attack or if it was something else. Once I saw the pieces of what I assumed had been a four-wheeler raining down I knew what had happened.

The army stopped moving. Which I knew would only be temporary once they figured out what had blown up the four-wheeler. Surely Dezzie had warned them about the minefield but since it hadn’t been mapped out there was bound to be… mistakes.

Maybe there had been a couple well placed mines so that if an intruder did approach and set one off, it would alert the camp. Lucky for them Penn had already alerted them because otherwise they wouldn’t have had enough time. Although even with the extra time, it wasn’t going to make much of a difference.

“We are so screwed,” I said as I watched the HOME army regroup. They started their march forward again, only now they moved a little slower.

Everyone in the camp was scrambling around looking to Dominick for answers. And Dominick was probably wondering by now where Dezzie was. He would likely come for us too.

I was almost surprised when I saw the men lining up at the front of the fence placing their guns into strategically placed holes that they could shoot from. It only took about four seconds after the resistance started shooting, for HOME to return fire.

“I think we take our chances with the minefield,” Penn said looking out over the fence behind us. There was a grouping of trees not too far back from where we stood. “I don’t think there will be any mines in there. At least I hope not.”

It was a total guess, but at least maybe since it came from Penn it was a somewhat educated guess. I had to hope. Maybe it had been something they taught him in some class at HOME, like, ‘Navigating the Minefield 101,’ or something.

HOME was at the gate. The back and forth gunfire was deafening and terrifying. Every few seconds there was a loud bang that sounded as if they were slamming a battering ram into the front gate.

It was now or never. We had to do something. It was time to make our move. Another mine in the opposite direction had been set off. Somehow I knew based on where the explosion had been that they were trying to surround the camp.

But why they were going to bother surrounding the camp I didn’t quite understand. They were going to lose men in the process, but maybe they didn’t care. Maybe those in charge hadn’t even told the army men about the mines. After all, it was HOME, they likely didn’t care about losing a few men in exchange for taking out a whole resistance camp.

The mines wouldn’t take out nearly enough of the HOME army to help the resistance in any significant way. If they planned to stay alive, they were going to have to do something much different than what they were doing.

If we ever got out of here, HOME would probably take us out too. For all I knew they already had the place surrounded. But if we stayed here, our chances at survival were zero.

“Let’s go,” Penn said leading us to the portion of the fence that was closest to the trees. It was surprising how fast we were able to run when we were in such a weakened state. That was how badly we wanted to get away.

I put my palms out to stop me from slamming too hard into the wood fence. My eyes were already focused on the top wondering how we were going to get over. It was at least two, maybe three, feet higher than I stood tall. Dean and Penn started to boost Sienna up. I couldn’t stop myself from looking back at the commotion going on behind us.

It wasn’t that I cared, but I wondered where Dominick was. Did he go hide somewhere when he saw what they were facing? Surely he wouldn’t risk his life for anyone in this camp. Penn lightly put his hand on my shoulder, “You’re up.”

They hoisted me up, and I grabbed the top of the wooden fence. I was pretty sure I got at least ten slivers just by putting my hand down on the rough wood. I used whatever strength I had left to pull myself over while they pushed at me from below.

Once at the top I swung my legs and let myself fall. My feet stung when they hit the ground and I toppled forward, but I was fine. I hadn’t broken anything and was in one piece.

“Are you OK?” Sienna asked helping me to my feet. I could tell by the mud stains on her knees she must have done the same thing.

“Yes… fine,” I said brushing the mud off as best as I could. Dean was already pulling himself up the fence when I turned to look at the minefield that stretched out between us and the small forest. I couldn’t tell if there were any mines or not, either it was too dark or they were well hidden.

Dean landed with a
thwomp
next to me, but at least he managed to stay on his feet. Penn was on top of the fence looking out over the chaotic scene inside the camp.

“Come on!” I said urgently. The waiting and looking made me anxious. What if they see him and start shooting? Not to mention we had to figure out a way through the minefield.

“It’s Dominick,” Penn said as he swung his legs over. “He’s running this way.”

“Let’s go,” I said, hitting my thigh repeatedly as I peeked out through a crack in the fence. Dominick was indeed running in our direction and it seemed by the look on his face he had seen us too.

I pulled away when it seemed as though he was looking right at me. He had looked both scared and angry. I took a breath and looked back at him the same time the gunshots rang out. Dominick stumbled a few steps and then he fell to the ground. I moved away from the fence. I didn’t want to see what would happen next. It wasn’t like HOME was going to let Dominick live.

“Follow me,” Penn said stepping out in front of all of us. I hadn’t really thought about what we’d do if we actually got over the fence. “Don’t stay too close, but step exactly where I step.”

He didn’t waste any time before he started leading us towards the forest. Penn’s head was down looking closely at the ground as he took each carefully calculated step. Whatever he was doing, it was working.

Following Penn involved an amount of trust. Although she was several feet back, Sienna would step where she’d seen Penn step and I would step where she had. And Dean was behind me doing the same. All of us putting our trust in Penn’s steps.

“Oh!” Penn said noticing something off to the side. “It’s a path!”

“That’s a good thing right?” Sienna asked glancing back at Dean and I. I shrugged and spotted the path several feet away from where we were standing.

“They must use it for something,” Penn said as he carefully made his way over to the path. “It’s even marked!” he said pointing to a little flag-like marker that was barely visible in the dark. The moon hung low in the sky which thankfully provided us a small amount of illumination.

Once I was on the path I turned around to watch Dean, but he just stood there staring at us. His face was contorted. He shifted his eyes towards the resistance camp and then back at us.

“Dean?” I said scrunching up my nose at him.

“We have a problem. I think you guys have to go on,” he said holding his body perfectly still. I glanced quickly at the fenced in camp, but no one was rushing towards us. No one even knew we were back here, and if HOME was still working on surrounding the camp they hadn’t made it back this far yet.

“What are you talking about?” Sienna said gesturing for him to hurry. “Come on!”

“I think I’m standing on a mine. I won’t let you guys watch this,” he said, and it looked as if he had even stopped breathing. “Please… just go. Penn take them. Get out of here. Keep them safe. Protect them.”

Penn shook his head slowly, “Dean… I—”

“Please just go!” Dean said just a little louder than his normal speaking voice. If HOME hadn’t been nearby, he would have shouted the words at us.

“Dean listen,” Penn said, almost wearing a smile. I looked at him through narrowed eyes. I couldn’t figure out what about this was even close to funny. “If you stepped on a mine it would trigger almost instantly. You’re not on a land mine.”

Dean looked down at his feet. I could tell he wasn’t fully convinced. “But I heard a click,” Dean said slowly sliding one foot to the side.

“Stay here,” Penn said to me and Sienna before he walked over to Dean. I wanted to stop him. If Dean was right and something would happen, we’d lose them both.

Penn got down on the ground and looked around his feet. He dug around a little into the ground and slowly turned his head up towards Dean.

“Holy shit,” Penn said as he carefully backed away. “I think it’s a dud. Or it would have gone off. I think… but just in case I’m wrong, once we are far enough away, jump as far as you can towards the path and cover your head.”

He came back over to us and hastily led us down the path away from Dean and the mine. We had the trees overhead but Penn still instructed us to cover our heads with our hands.

“Jump!” Penn shouted while he waved his arms at Dean. The second Dean launched himself off of the mine Penn was on top of us like an umbrella.

My face was scrunched up so tightly I thought my skin was going to crack. I didn’t want to see. I didn’t want to hear. I didn’t want to lose Dean.

But when I hadn’t heard anything, I pushed Penn’s arm out of the way. Dean was peeling himself up off of the ground. My body relaxed and my lungs filled with air. I pressed my fingertips down my cheeks, stretching the skin as if I was trying to wipe away the stress.

Before Sienna and I were even back on our feet, Penn was leading Dean down the path towards the trees. My hands were shaking, or maybe my whole body was shaking. This wasn’t over. For all I knew there were mines littered inside the little forest.

“Let’s keep moving,” Penn ordered, and we followed him through the trees. I didn’t know if he had found a path or markings, it was too dark for me to see much of anything. The surrounding trees were blocking out the moon and therefore the small amount of light we had. I still tried to step into Sienna’s footprints just to be on the safe side.

We continued to walk in a line for a good while until Penn abruptly stopped. Sienna slammed into him and I into her. Dean pressed his hand into my back catching himself so he didn’t slam into me and mow us all down.

“Shit. No way,” Penn said under his breath.

“What is it?” I said whispering as I peered out around him. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was over.

S
tanding in our way
, were six men from HOME all in their uniforms and all extremely thrilled they ran into us. Not that even for a second I thought they knew who they had actually run into, but that wouldn’t matter.

They were just happy they ran into anyone at all. What they’d do with us now… well, I had a guess. And it wasn’t good. After what I’d seen transpire in the past, I figured this was the end of the line for all of us.

“Come out, slowly and put your hands up where I can see them,” one of the voices said. I moved around Penn and positioned myself behind a dying shrub. “Slowly… slowly.”

I stared at the ground not wanting to even look at the men. They hadn’t recognized us, or if they had, they would have killed us on sight. Dean was standing next to me, very close, which I believed was intentional. He coughed, and it sounded like he said something, but I couldn’t figure out what until I looked up.

Standing in front of us, not having any idea who we were with our new looks, although maybe he wouldn’t have known anyway, was Ryan. He was off to the far right of the other five men aiming his gun at us.

My heart had skipped a beat. Not because I still had feelings for him, although I’d always have a special place in my heart for him, it was because he was Ryan. He had saved us. He was someone I’d known, loved, cared for and now here he was standing with the men who were going to kill us. Maybe he’d kill us.

“Tie them up,” the one who was doing all the talking said. I assumed he was the one in charge. If they were going to bother to tie us up that meant they were taking us with them. Everyone else at the camp was having bullets put into them but us they were going to take hostage?

It didn’t make sense. Unless… they were going to take us back to interrogate us. It was easier to round up four people than it was a whole camp full of people. They were going to try to get information from us. But what they didn’t know is that we weren’t resistance. We didn’t have any information.

But once they figured out who we were, we’d be killed. Actually I’d wager we were going to get killed either way. Once we were of no use to them anymore it would be the end. And if they found those markings on Penn, he’d be the first to go.

The five other men started walking towards us. I took a step back, but I bumped into Dean. He kept me still, so it didn’t appear as though I was making any sudden movements.

“You’re coming with us. If you do so without any trouble, you will not be harmed. You have my word,” the one in charge said.

I almost laughed out loud. None of us were dumb enough to believe that. And the leader said it almost as if he believed it to be true. But he had to have known what would really happen.

“Where are you going to take us?” Penn said pushing his fist into the palm of his other hand. He tilted his head to the side and looked at each one of them carefully. I knew enough about Penn to know what he was doing. He was sizing them up. He was making a plan.

The one in charge raised his eyebrow at him. I could tell Penn was making him nervous when he tightened his grip on his gun. “You don’t have much of a choice here,” the one in charge said calmly.

“Down,” Penn said in a hushed voice that was intended only for our ears. I dropped as Penn pulled out his gun and rolled down to the ground. He fired once. And then a second time.

I peeled my face out of the dirt just in time to see two of the men fall to the ground. “Run!” Penn said and pulled Sienna up off of the ground with him.

The remaining four men were stunned and looked at each other as if they couldn’t understand what had happened. They hadn’t planned for ninja, gun-slinging Penn. The other resistance camp members they’ve dealt with in the past probably didn’t have Penn’s training. Or any training for that matter. Ryan and the other three men had dropped the ropes and replaced them with their guns.

“Gogogo!” Penn said, and we raced away barely looking where we were going. If there were mines in this forest, I didn’t know how we hadn’t stepped on any by now. Behind me, I could hear the pop-pop of their guns as they fired into the darkness. Maybe I should have pulled out my gun to shoot back, but for whatever reason, I didn’t.

We moved our feet as fast we could and it was almost too hard to keep up with Penn. If we weren’t tagging along with him, he’d be safe by now, but we were and we were slowing him down.

“Whoa!” Penn said as he slid to a stop. He put his arm out to stop Sienna and I from falling over a steep cliff. Somehow Dean had managed to stop himself even though he had one foot out over the edge. He swung it back and was able to get all of his weight shifted back on the right side of the cliff without losing his balance.

I saw a flash of movement in the darkness and blinked as if something had been moving towards me. When my eyes opened again, Dean was no longer at my side. I reached out my arms and looked at the ground to see if he had simply fallen. But it was just empty space, “Dean!”

There was some movement down below and I could hear the rustling and crunching of leaves and twigs. Someone must have tackled him and they were rolling down the hill. Which meant they had caught up to us.

Right as I turned around so I could see if someone was heading our way, something slammed into me. My body rocketed forward and I hit the ground hard. I slid and rolled down the side of the steep cliff as the world spun around me. I was pretty sure Sienna wasn’t too far away because I could hear small noises and grunts. Someone must have pushed us both down and they were likely tumbling down after us.

I couldn’t focus on anything. All I could hear was the crinkling and crunching of leaves and small branches as we tumbled towards the bottom. Someone gripped my arm but whoever it was couldn’t hold on. The rough dips and bounces caused them to lose their grip.

My body only stopped moving because I slammed into a log, or a tree stump. It felt like my eyes were still rolling even though I wasn’t. I didn’t know what happened to Sienna or the guy who had been rolling down with us.

I looked up the hill. The moonlight filtered through the branches just enough so that I could see Penn on top of the hill. He was fighting two men at the same time. None of them were shooting their guns, so I had to assume he had somehow disarmed them.

There had been four men left after Penn had taken out the first two, which meant that if two were up with Penn, two were down here with us. We had a fifty percent chance that one of the two down here was Ryan.

I could tell that I wasn’t at the bottom of the hill, but I wasn’t too far away. Whatever had stopped my fall had stopped me just before the bottom. Although I hadn’t spotted anyone, I assumed everyone else was at the bottom, well everyone except for Penn.

It looked like a scene from an action movie the way his shadow danced around fighting both of them. Penn dropped down to the ground, picked something up and shot one man pointblank. He spun around and shot the second man right before he was about to throw him down the hill. Then Penn disappeared into the shadows.

I got up to find Sienna and Dean, but the hill was steeper than I realized and I was still too dizzy. My butt hit the ground hard, but I was able to keep myself mostly upright as I slid down the rest of the way.

Sienna was laying on the ground. Her eyes were closed. I knew I had only heard two gunshots, the two from Penn. She hadn’t been shot, maybe she was unconscious. I started to shake her but when she opened her eyes I knew instantly that she wasn’t looking at me.

I turned around to see the HOME army guy looming over us. He reached down by his side and removed a gun from a holster.

The crazy way the HOME army guy was grinning at us made my skin crawl. He wanted nothing more than to pull the trigger. My breath caught in my throat and I closed my eyes as I grabbed onto Sienna. I didn’t know which one of us he was going to take out first and it really didn’t matter.

When the gunshot rang out I screamed. I was still alive. Sienna screamed at the same time and she was still holding on to me, so I knew she was still alive too. I opened my eyes and saw the HOME army man drop down to his knees. His eyes were empty. Then he fell face first into the mud near my feet.

“Where’s Dean,” Penn said scanning the area. He lowered his gun but kept it ready.

I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. Did Penn really expect me to be able to answer after I had just stared down the barrel of the HOME guy’s gun?

Sienna and I were both lucky to be alive. If Penn hadn’t come along when he did, we’d both be dead. I hadn’t expected Penn to appear at the last minute to save us. When I heard the gunshot, I thought for sure Sienna had been shot.

How could Penn be so calm? It was like he had some kind of superpower that allowed him to shut off all parts of his brain that would distract him from accomplishing what needed to be done. It must have come from all of the training he had gone through. Because whatever it was, I didn’t have it. I couldn’t stop thinking about how close to death I had been.

“Come on!” Penn said shaking my shoulders as if he was trying to wake me up, but I wasn’t sleeping. The urgency in his voice was clear but my brain was on delay.

Sienna and I clung to one another as we followed Penn further away from the cliff. We needed to find Dean before he ended up in the same situation and Penn wouldn’t be there to fire his gun at the last second.

I heard the fighting before I could actually spot them. Dean and Ryan were deeper in the trees and grasses exchanging blows.

“Ryan stop!” I shouted before I could think, but it didn’t matter, my words hadn’t stopped him. Instead he started groping through the nearby grass and somehow I knew he was looking for his gun. He must have dropped it, or maybe Dean had knocked it away. Where was Dean’s gun?

Dean shoved him, and Ryan lost his balance. We quickened our pace. Dean started to get away but the ground must have been slick because he slipped. He started crawling away on the muddy ground in our direction.

Ryan stood up and fired his gun. He didn’t even think about it. And if he knew it was Dean he was shooting at, he didn’t care. He did it anyway.

“Stop!” I yelled again, but they didn’t stop. Ryan walked towards Dean as he was madly crawling to get away. He shot again. If he had hit Dean, it hadn’t been enough to stop him. Dean reached behind him for his gun, but when his hand flapped around I knew it wasn’t there. It must have fallen out on the hill or during their fighting.

Ryan was standing right over Dean. He pointed his gun downward, there was no way he was going to miss the shot.

Click, click, click.

“Fuck!” Penn shouted, and I heard more empty clicks.

Then I heard it. The gunshot rang out louder than any other I’d heard. I watched, waiting to see if Dean would move, but he didn’t. His body was still.

I wanted to scream. Ryan took another small step, but he didn’t shoot again, instead he toppled over and hit the ground like a rock. Dean shifted away. He had moved. Dean was alive. But his hands were empty.

I looked over at Penn as he stepped up next to me. He was holding his gun, but he stuffed it into his waistband and quickly put his hand on my arm.

If Dean hadn’t shot him and Penn hadn’t shot him, then who had? A loud buzzing noise filled my ears as my eyes moved down. My body started to sway back and forth when I focused on my shaking hands. The hands that were holding the gun still aimed at the spot Ryan had been standing.

It was me. I pulled the trigger. I killed Ryan.