He didn't think it was because of the resources. He didn't think it was because they were scared of the soldiers. They would come after them because Diana was in charge, and she hadn't forgiven them for exiling her father. She was flighty that one. To hear Allen tell it, she had all but begged him to have her father removed. Either she had some emotional issues, or she was trying to consolidate power like a third-world dictator plotting the demise of her political rivals.
The frustrating part was that he and his men had absolutely no designs on the Nike campus. At one point, he had thought maybe they could stay there and work together to build some sort of future, but that was not to be the case, not with Diana in charge.
He shook the thoughts from his head and cursed himself for not staying in the moment. A lapse of thought in the field could lead to disaster. Was his mind going as well as his hip? Fuck getting old.
They pushed through some underbrush behind an office building, and Tejada took a look around to see that all of his men were present. Their breath came from their mouths in big white clouds, and snow fell all around them. He could see shapes moving in the distance behind them, while ahead of him, he could see the dead ringing the wall of the Nike compound. They had made it.
"Send it up," he told Day. Day rummaged around in his pack and pulled out a flare gun. He loaded it, aimed it in the air, and with a weak pop, it sent a flare up into the sky. It hung there, like a small, red sun against a gray sky.
"Let's move," Tejada said. "Make sure you're fully loaded. We want to hit that wall at a run and not look back.
Now it was time for Amanda to do her part.
Chapter 2: Lowering the Drawbridge
Amanda had stayed behind, not because she didn't want to go with the others, but because Tejada had asked her to. He didn't trust the Nike people to do their job. She couldn't blame him. She still remembered Nathan pulling her to the side in one of the Nike buildings, the look on his face, the words that came from his mouth. "They're going to kill them all."
She didn't know if she and Rudy were included in that statement. The Nike people didn't treat her any differently than they did one of their own. But Rudy was a different story. He wasn't the type to engender kindness. Though he had changed since they first met, he lacked the charisma that would make a stranger want to strike up a conversation with him. She couldn't take that chance. For a while, she had wanted to stay here, but Diana was making that impossible.
As she thought of the woman, Diana appeared from the nearest building. Amanda was busy overseeing the hauling of the ramp to the other side of the compound.
"Stop!" Diana called, and Amanda's stomach dropped.
The men dropped the ramp and turned to see what Diana wanted.
"What are you doing?" Amanda asked.
Diana didn't even spare her a glance. She walked up to the group of men that had volunteered to help carry the ramp, and she said, "You're needed elsewhere. We have too many of the dead on the east wall. I need you to clear them out."
The men all looked at each other. They knew what Diana was doing, and say what you will about the people living on the campus, but at least they hesitated before following Diana's command.
"This is bullshit!" Amanda shouted.
"We have to clear the wall," Diana said, ending all argument.
She turned and walked away, the men following her, their rifles held in their hands. They looked over their shoulders, and Amanda could see how conflicted some of them were, but you didn't cross Diana. That much was obvious. She had her own hand-picked goon squad, and she had seen more than one of the Nike people appear in the morning walking gingerly, their faces covered in bruises.
She turned to the ramp and walked over to it. She pulled on it, but it wouldn't budge, not even an inch. It was too heavy for her by herself. She looked around for anything that she could use to help drag the ramp, but she was alone. Snow accumulated on the ramp as she stood there thinking.
Panic began to well up in her chest, and she paced back and forth in the snow. She threw back her head and screamed, "Help!" The only answer was the soft moan of the dead at the wall and the soft rasp of snowflakes as they settled to the ground. Then she heard a hum, low, electric. She waited patiently, and then she saw him, Nathan, his glasses taped together, his face perpetually swollen. He didn't give a fuck about beatings, and he seemed to be the only one of Diana's followers that voiced his actual opinion. Fresh bruises covered his cheek. He bounced along the campus grounds in an electric golf cart.
When he smiled at her, she saw that he had lost a few more teeth. "Left you alone, did they?"
She didn't know what to say. Her body spoke for her as tears came to her eyes.
"Hey, hey, there's no call for that. We got this." He pulled the cart in
