“Lauren Russell!” Woo Tang called. “You must not leave! A follow-up attack could occur without warning! You must remain where it is safe!”
“It isn’t safe anywhere anymore. I’m going, Jae. I have to know. And I’m not sorry.” She cranked the engine and spun tires all the way to Trout Run Road, disappearing soon after in the rising dust.
Woo Tang’s face tensed, as did his grip on both radios. He cursed aloud, then tried calling Will to notify him that Lauren was en route to their location, but it was no use. The channel was inundated with frantic calls once again, rendering the frequency useless. His frustration redlining, he wound up and threw both transceivers into the woods.
Richie approached him from behind with an expression displaying a notable level of sincerity, possibly for the first time in his life. “Chief? You good?”
Woo Tang regarded him calmly and bowed a tinge. “Our long-range communications capabilities were severed irreparably today. Sending word beyond the environmental walls of this valley is no longer viable in our current state. It has become paramount that we reestablish contact with the unit.”
“I agree fully. That won’t be easy with Neo laid up.”
Woo Tang nodded understanding.
“You, uh…want me to go there, don’t you?” Richie inquired. “To Rocket Center.”
“It is a perilous journey bearing an assortment of risks, as you already know. It brings me no comfort to request this of you or anyone, nor would I, had I not deemed it entirely unavoidable.”
“I don’t care about risks or comfort,” Richie said. “Give the order, Chief. Give me an order, and I’ll follow it. I’ll get this done. We lost a lot of good guys today, and any one of them could have been me. I was spared for a reason; maybe this was it. I’ll do whatever it takes.”
“Very well. Go. Convey what has taken place here, but do not go alone. Take two men at maximum and as much firepower and armor as your team can carry.”
Richie brought his feet together and stood at attention. “Aye, Chief.”
“Good luck, Corporal. And do not stop for anything.”
Chapter 28
When Lauren arrived at the former address of Michael and Kristen Perry, she skidded the ATV into the gravel driveway, killed the engine, and leapt from it while in motion. It veered away from her, yawed left, and drifted to an eventual standstill in the tall unkempt grass of what at one time had been a well-pruned and ornately decorated front yard.
Nothing remained of the house aside from a charred, debris-filled foundation. Wafting columns of smoke rose into the air, merging into a murky cloud above areas still aflame. The aboveground fuel storage tanks were no longer. Several of the tractors, trucks and dozers that had remained parked here since Michael Perry’s death were now ravaged beyond the point of repair, and a trio of all-terrain vehicles, one knocked on its side, sat in a line at the driveway’s edge, their tires melted and flattened, bodies heat-scorched down to their frames.
Will Sharp and another soldier, whom Lauren recognized but didn’t know, were standing between her and the smoldering ruins left behind in the attack’s wake. They had moved closer together since her arrival and, for some inexplicable reason, appeared to be guarding something from her or, more accurately, guarding her from it.
Unwavering and unabated, she marched directly to them, scrutinizing each look she was getting until she could grasp the enormity of the terrible news they retained by facial expressions alone, especially the one being conveyed acutely to her now by Will Sharp.
She looked away and past him to where three human forms lay parallel to one another, each silhouetted beneath cloaks of pale fabric. The painful knot in her stomach tripled in size, and the ache of nausea crept into her abdomen. Her teeth began chattering, and she felt obnoxiously warm all over. Lauren didn’t know how, but she knew who had died, even though every contentious ounce of her being refused to accept it as true.
She could feel Will trying to pull her stare into his, but she couldn’t look at him. She couldn’t look away from the dead, knowing what she knew. “Is it…” she began, only for her voice to fracture into a sullen, whimpering demise. “Is it…John?”
Will rolled a set of trembling lips against his teeth, sparring internally with himself over what he knew to be certain, his choice of response, and the effect it would have. Soon after, he yielded a single modest nod.
Lauren jerked her head away in absolute dismissal, refusing to accept his reply. Shaking, she stared hard at the three blackened ATVs, folded an arm tightly to her, rested an elbow atop, then raked her teeth against her knuckles. “Norman, too?”
He nodded again. “And Kristen, the lady who used to live here. Peter from across the road was first on the scene. He confirmed it…said they were here to get gas.” Will took a moment to gauge just how far gone she was. “I’m sorry, Lauren. I truly am sorry.”
“So am I.” Then Lauren screamed hellish rage at the sky and exploded into torrential tears that drenched the sullied skin of her face. She trembled violently and set forth, trying to force her way past, but Will moved in to block her way.
“Lauren, no. Please…you can’t go over there.”
“Get the fuck out of my way, Will!”
“No, I won’t! I won’t do that,” he growled back, pushing her by the arms. “Listen to me…you don’t understand.”
“What is there to understand?” She pounded her fists against him, his chest resonating a cavernous tenor beneath her bile. “Get out of my way!” Lauren’s fists stiffened, and her body tensed wrathfully as if she were readying to wage war with the world. Her eyelids expanded, welling to their seams with woeful fluid while she gnashed her teeth like a rabid animal. And then, gradually, she succumbed and lost every last bit of her control. Her muscles went limp, her body sagged, and she came
