Unknown (Unknown Series Book 1) (24 page)

“Three.”

Three in the afternoon? Holy crap! My head was groggy as I stood and quickly fixed my hair, nearly toppling over as I rushed to put my legs in my jeans.

I joined my family in the living room. The DRI man and woman came in and declined to sit in the chairs we offered. The rest of us took our usual spots: Dad in the recliner, Grandpa in the rocker, Abuela and Mom sandwiching me in the middle on the couch. I could feel Mom shaking.

Dad stood and pointed to the hunting rifle, handgun, bb gun, and bullets that he’d placed on the table by the door. “There’s everything,” he told them.

“Ah.” The woman gave him a warm smile. “Thank you for your cooperation. We’ll just have a quick peek around the rest of the house and inside your vehicles, then we’ll be on our way.”

She motioned to the man, who motioned outside. Four men in full SWAT-like gear with masks and guns came into the house and passed us. Abuela put a hand to her chest. I wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of it. Overkill, much? But then I got nervous. I resisted the urge to take Mom’s hand or look at Dad and Grandpa, anything that might rouse suspicion that we were hiding something.

I chanted silently in my head,
Please finish, please leave.

Nearly ten minutes later the men came back in and gave a hand signal to the male DRI. I stood to the side, and the police man standing closest to me, angled himself toward me, shifting close. He lifted his mask enough to give me a leering grin. I sucked in a shocked breath. His face was fuller now, but I immediately recognized the man who’d come to the door asking for food.

He quickly pulled his mask back down and filed in with the other three men. My eyes darted around the room, but the others had all been distracted and hadn’t noticed. A disgusted chill slithered through me. How had that sleezeball been hired?

“All clear,” the DRI man said with a smile, and the four police guys marched out. “Just one last thing. We’ll need to see into the garage and the room above it.”

Shit. My attention completely switched from the creepy guy to the situation at hand.

Without hesitation, Dad said, “Of course.” He pulled his keys from his pocked with complete poise and handed it to the man. “This is to the storage room upstairs. You’ll find that my father has been in crisis-savings-mode for years.” He chuckled. The DRI looked toward Grandpa with amusement, but he only glowered from his rocker.

Dad put his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. The male DRI headed outside while the woman stayed with us, her hands clasped in front of her skirt. A pleasant expression remained on her face while sounds of scuffling came from the adjacent wall above the garage. Grandpa stopped rocking.

“I hope everything has gone well today,” Dad said.

The woman gave a tight smile. “Things have been . . . expedient.”

“That’s good,” Dad said.

Oh, God. With each passing second I thought I’d be sick. A bump sounded against the wall and we all looked up as if we’d be able to see something. I tried to place where the sound had come from. The bed area? But the hidden gun cabinet was right beside the bed.
Oh, God!

“I hope you find them all,” Dad said. He looked intently at the woman, trying to garner all of her attention. “And if the DRI or government need me, I am happy to help in any way.”

“That’s right, Top,” she said, shocking us all by using his Army nickname. “I take it you haven’t been able to work since this all began.”

“No,” he said, crossing his arms. “And it’s driving me crazy.”

“I’ll bet.” Still with that smile. “Thankfully we’ve had no shortage of volunteers, so you’d do best right here with your family for now.”

He looked prepared to argue, but the front door opened and the DRI man came back in. My stomach flipped. The two of them met eyes and he slowly raised his hands, giving her a signal. She nodded tightly then turned to my father.

“We are finished here. Thank you for your cooperation.”

I felt Mom’s entire body shiver next to mine. I tried to let out my tight breath as quietly as possible.

“One thing,” the man said, stepping forward. “That’s an awful lot of food you have up there. Did it occur to you to bring more to the donation last night?”

Dad cocked his head innocently. “The paper said for each family to bring two items. We did that.”

The man laughed. “Well, yes, but . . .” His smile disappeared. “There are many people in your county who are in far worse need than you. So I’m sure you’ll understand if we don’t reward your compliance today with a box of reserves.”

Dad gave a curt nod. “Of course. I understand.”

“Good. Remain indoors until tomorrow morning unless notified otherwise.”

They turned and walked out. On a whim, I ran past my gaping parents and called out the DRI woman on the porch. She needed to know.

I whispered to her, watching as the men walked away. “I just think you should know that the last man there,” I nodded toward them, “tried to force his way into our house last week.”

She looked toward the men and gave a solemn nod. “Mm, yes. Starvation makes people act in deplorable ways. But I can assure you he passed all of our measures.” I opened my mouth to say I didn’t think hunger was his only driving force, but she cut me off in a curt voice, saying, “Remain inside until the morning.” And she walked away. My hands clenched.

I went back inside and Dad locked the door behind me.

“What was that all about?” he asked.

I weighed whether or not to tell them. The thought of Dad freaking out and causing a scene made me decide to lie. “I was just asking her about the clinic. Making sure I wasn’t needed today.” Acid churned inside of me. The way the guy had looked at me had been a power play. He’d obviously remembered me, and he hadn’t been at all worried about repercussions for his actions. Dad patted my shoulder and gave me a proud smile. I tried to put the man from my mind.

“We did it!” Grandpa whispered. His straight face turned to the hugest crap-eating grin I’d ever seen. He looked like the freaking Joker. I had to slap a hand over my mouth. Mom pressed her lips together and leaned back, bringing her knees to her chest in glee. Dad shook his head, also grinning.

After a minute passed and the DRI were far down the street, Abuela said, “I no like them.”

And we all burst into laughter.

I
was starting to get used to the complete darkness at night. It sort of signaled bedtime to everyone, whereas before we would have stayed up past dark to watch television. Now we preferred to save candles and propane and just go to bed. And if it weren’t for the battery-operated kitchen clock, none of us would even know we were going to bed so early. My body certainly wasn’t complaining about the rest.

I was nearly asleep when I heard a
pop, pop, pop
in the distance. Gunshots? I flung off my blanket and slipped my feet into sandals. Dad and Mom came out into the hall at the same time as me. I recognized their silhouettes in the sliver of moonlight shining through the windows.

Dad whispered, “I think it came from out back, maybe Coyote Springs.”

Coyote Springs was the small neighborhood that our property backed up to. It was an older neighborhood. The development was surrounded by a wooden fence, but in the past five years the place seemed to be falling into disrepair. Some of the older residents had sold their homes or passed away, and the market for the older homes was down. Drugs and crime had become a problem.

We looked around for government people before jogging through our acre of low-cut lawn toward the fence, where smoke rose in the distance. Voices yelled from the streets. It was hard to see through the overlapping slats of the fence, so Dad grasped my waist from behind and lifted me up to look. I hoisted myself to the top of the fence until my elbows locked, putting all my weight on my arms while my legs dangled. Dad held my calves. I had a good view of a row of unkempt backyards and backs of small houses.

Flames and smoke rose from the next street over, sending a billowing cloud of gray up into the dark blue sky. “One of the houses is on fire.”

Between the houses I could see to the street. Everything was hazy but my eyes adjusted to the small bit of light from stars and the moon. Shadowed figures darted in the street.

“People are running . . .” I whispered down to them. I had to squint to make everything out. Except the fire rising even higher. That was clear.

My eyes widened at the sound of simultaneous stomping feet. Dark-dressed men were running down the street—it took a second to realize they were police—like the creepy man and other ones who’d searched our house earlier. And then a loud voice rang out through the screech of a megaphone.

“A mandatory curfew is in effect. Return to your homes at once.”

People in the streets were shouting back. It sounded like they were refusing. Rebelling. And then, to my horror, the police opened fire. Screams sliced the air. Bodies fell. People ran. Oh, my God! My arms gave out and I fell back into Dad’s embrace.

“What’s going on?” came Rylen’s voice behind us.

Dad nearly dropped me as he spun, and I got my footing.

“Jesus, Ry,” Dad said. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“They’re killing people!” My voice trembled.

“What?” Mom grabbed my hand.

“We have to get inside!” I kept hold of her hand and pulled her as we ran back to our house. Rylen was just ahead of me and I squinted as I made out something long slung over his shoulder.

“Do you have a
gun
?” I hissed. He didn’t answer until we wrenched open the sliding glass door, slipped inside, and locked it behind us. Mom lit a single candle as Dad closed all the shutters.

I gawked at Rylen and his hunting rifle. “You didn’t hand it over?”

Rylen gave a shrug. “My dad’s been hiding things from the cops for years.”

“You can’t run around outside with it, Ry!” I whisper-yelled, feeling panicked. “They’ll kill you! They’re shooting people for being outside during the curfew!” My whole body trembled, and Dad pulled me to him.

“Sh, honey, we’re all safe. Rylen won’t do anything stupid.” I pulled back in time to see Dad sending his
you better not
look to Ry, who gave a nod.

“How’d it go at your house?” Dad asked him.

“We gave over two of our four guns. When I told them I was reporting to base tomorrow, they told me not to bother. That the base was shut down. Can you believe that?”

Dad’s face scrunched. “I haven’t been able to get ahold of Tater’s base in days.”

“Yeah, they said the bases are dispersing so that individuals can help their communities locally.” Rylen shook his head. “She said only the elite were being used for war efforts. I guess the bombers?”

“That makes no sense,” I said. “They should be utilizing the military.”

Dad crossed his arms and seemed to be having dark thoughts. Another series of gunshots rang out from a distance and I jumped.

Dad eyed me. “What exactly did you see in Coyote Springs, Amber?”

I circled my arms around my torso. “They’re shooting people who are out of their houses.”

“Who are?” Mom asked. “The DRI?”

“No. The cops like the ones who checked our house for weapons today.”

“Damn,” Rylen whispered. “They’re calling them the DRP. Disaster Relief Police. Were the people trying to attack them? Did they have guns?”

“No!” I shook as I remembered. “They were unarmed as far as I could see. They were just standing in the road and in their yards, yelling stuff.” I wish I could have heard.

Mom looked as horrified as I felt. “What on earth is happening?”

“Well,” Dad said gravely. “They made it clear they were assuming everyone to be guilty until proven innocent.”

I recalled that comment at the town meeting. But God . . . were they just going to literally kill anyone on the spot, even for protesting or whatever they were doing in Coyote Springs?

Rylen rubbed his hair. “After they told me the base closed, I asked about joining on to the police force to help, but they told me they had enough.”

“Same here,” Dad said.

I couldn’t hold it in any longer. “One of the police guys at our house tonight was the same man who came to our house for food and tried to push his way in.”

Their angry faces turned on me. I told them how he’d lifted his mask enough to show me his face and give me a creepy smile. Dad and Rylen both wore deadly expressions like they would strangle him without hesitation if he were in the room right now.

“Why are they hiring men like that,” Mom asked, “and turning away men like the two of you?”

None of us had the answer to that, though.

Dad shook his head, exasperated. “None of it makes a damn bit of sense.”

I walked to the sliding glass door and pulled the curtain aside enough to peer out. Smoke and flames still rose, but no more gunshots. All was quiet. Rylen sidled up to me and put his cheek close to mine to peer out. His sudden nearness and the scent of him sent a burst of need streaking through me. On instinct, I dropped the curtain and stepped away. His gaze honed in on me, inspecting.

“What is wrong with you, Pepper?” he asked. “Why does it feel like you’re mad at me all the time?”