The McClane Apocalypse Book Three (49 page)

"Ok, bro, let's roll," Kelly says.

He and Cory start walking as the others
follow.

"You got their guns?" John asks his brother
and watches as he pulls them out from behind him, out of the
waistband of his jeans.

"Got 'em," Derek answers. "We took their
crate of shit out to them earlier, and they were bitchin' already
about it not being enough food."

"It isn't gonna matter in a minute," John
tells his brother with a frown. Derek just nods.

Together they move as a group toward the
campsite. Simon and Sam are welcomed into the back of the home by
Doc who gives John a firm nod before he shuts and locks the door to
his home. There is more perspicacity in that one look than there
could be in a thousand words between them.

When they get to the campsite which is
mostly packed up, Uncle Peter comes forward.

"Where's the rest of our group? Have you
guys seen them?"

The men ignore him, and Derek tosses the
guns onto the ground in front of him as the other squatters gather
around and two of them come out of the RV. Even the women have come
out.

"What's this "B" on the peaches mean? And
there's two cans of green beans marked with a "B," too. Does that
mean that they're bad?" toothless hadj, Amber, asks.

She is the woman that Simon said knew of the
murdering of Sam's family and had done nothing to stop it.

"It means best," Reagan says snidely.

John is pretty sure that she's lying.

She just keeps right on going with it
though, "Grams wants her guests to have the best."

"Where's our friends? Have ya'll seen 'em?"
Buzz asks.

He rubs his bald head while shifting his
weight from one skinny leg to the other. His eyes dart around
nervously and end up on Kelly's rifle.

"Who owns these guns?" Derek asks
impatiently.

"What? What the fuck you care now?"
Huntley's father Frank demands. "We asked you a question, boy?
Where's our friends? What happened to them?"

The way that he is acting tips John to the
fact that Frank knew something was going to go down today.

"Who do these guns belong to?" Derek
asks.

His brother chooses to ignore Frank and his
open disdain and insults, and repeats his original line of
questioning.

"Who used these guns?" John demands more
firmly.

"That one there, the smaller pistol, that
one is Levon's," Buzz answers with forthcoming honesty.

Nobody is surprised to hear this weapon
belongs to the criminal-minded man who now lay dead in the
woods.

"And the 9 mill? Whose gun is this?" John
asks impatiently.

"It's mine, why the fuck you wanna' know?
Did Bobby find Sam? Where the hell are they?" Frank barks.

"How did you guys come to be with Samantha?"
Kelly interrogates.

His grip clenches on the forearm of his M16.
His knuckles turn white. John's seen this many times. It usually
happened right before they were air dropped into a hotspot.

Buzz seems confused, but the uncle glances
away. Frank, on the other hand, boldly steps toward them.

"Why the fuck you wanna' know that? What's
it to you?"

"Just answer the question, Frank," Derek
demands. "How'd you guys get that girl? We know she just lives a
few miles from here. So how come if you're from Arizona or wherever
you're all from, do you guys have a teenage girl from a few miles
away traveling with you?"

"Don't fucking worry about it, prick. That
bitch was Bobby's little plaything, not ours. So what's it to you?"
Frank snipes.

"Where's her family then?" Kelly barks
angrily.

"Who knows? Who fucking cares?" Frank lies
so blatantly.

"This 9 mill is the same one that was used
on her parents and siblings, Frank. That's why I'm asking," Derek
pursues with deadly antipathy.

John is not mirroring his brother's
calmness. Frank's eyes widen and take on a new look of being caught
in the headlights for the briefest of moments before turning angry
again. John and Kelly both regard each other for a moment. They
know a liar when they see one. They've done this a hundred times
interrogating terrorists. The eyes never lie. Kelly nods and John
returns it.

"So fucking what? You ain't the sheriff
around here, asshole. I make my own rules. I do what I got to do to
survive. Now I asked where's our friends, dickhead? Did Bobby find
that little bitch or what? Where's Levon and Bobby, you assholes?"
Frank shouts to everyone and flails his arms wildly.

"Same place you're going," John says and
shoots the man two times point blank to the chest with his Kimber
custom .45 and he falls hard. Some of the men in the Special Forces
have guns custom made and donated to them from different gun
manufacturers. John's has his name and squad engraved into it.

Jasmine screams and starts crying, and the
other men back up abruptly. Buzz even trips over his own two feet
and falls. He doesn't get to his feet but scuttles backward until
he reaches Rick.

"You cold son of a bitch. What the hell's
wrong with you, man?" Rick screams.

He runs to Frank and presses his fingers to
the other man's neck. John would like to tell him that this isn't
his first kill shot. There's no point in checking him. Rick is
normally a quiet man, and he's not given them trouble yet. However,
John reminds himself that this man is the cousin of the now dead
Levon.

"This gun and the other one were used to
kill Samantha's family," John tells him as he kicks the 9 mill
toward them.

"No, man. You ain't got that right" Rick
starts as he stands again. "Nobody killed them. We wouldn't do shit
like that! Frank told us her family was already dead. He
didn't…"

"He killed them and so did Willy and Levon
and Bobby, and they're all dead now, too," Cory jumps in
angrily.

"What? You killed them? You killed all of
them? Oh my God!" Jasmine screeches. "No, they wouldn't do that.
They wouldn't! They couldn't have killed her family! Could
they?"

She is talking to herself, trying to
convince herself, and her hands cover her ears. She squats in a
hunched position in the gravel. She's hysterical and bawling. Buzz
has moved closer to Rick again and literally cowers behind the
bigger man.

Amber is unusually quiet and has retreated
two steps. John keeps her in his periphery.

"And you knew about it, too, didn't you?"
Kelly asks Amber and advances.

The woman stops retreating and juts out her
chin defiantly.

Kelly keeps hammering his point, "You knew
what they did to her family and you knew what Bobby did to Sam all
this time, didn't you?"

"Yeah, so fucking what?" she finally
responds with acid in her tone. "You sons a' bitches ain't got a
clue. Fuck you. You sit around here playin' farm while the rest of
us has had to scrap around for nothin' out there. Nothin'! We've
had to kill and steal just to stay alive."

"Yes, you have. You've killed innocent,
fucking people, you stupid bitch!" Derek shouts angrily.

He rarely loses his crap, but this situation
has gotten so bad with these people. And they all know that this
woman was a part of Sam's abduction, perhaps others, too. Perhaps
some of the people that Great-uncle Peter had said succumbed to the
sickness had also been their captives, their victims. Amber knew
they were going to ambush Sam's family and kill them. She's as
insane and sick as the men.

"How could you stand by and let them kill
her family? Did any of them rape her, Amber?" Kelly demands.

"Fuck you, Army boy," Amber rails. "You
don't know what it's like. That little fucking whore teased around
all
these men, and she had it all before the shit hit. You
shoulda' seen her house! And her fancy, fuckin' snotty parents what
thought they were better than us. Spoiled little rich bitch was
what she was flirtin' with all the men in our camp. That bitch got
what she deserved."

John watches as his friend walks away from
her because Kelly is probably afraid he's going to lose control and
do something violent. Kelly has a slightly higher amount of
self-control than John and always has. John's next plan is to take
Amber behind the bus to shoot her so that Kelly doesn't have to do
it.

But suddenly the toothless skank comes at
Kelly with a knife which he doesn't see because he'd underestimated
her and turned his back to the enemy. A shot rings out behind and
to the right of John, and when he turns to see, he's not surprised
that it came from Cory's pistol. The young man has shot Amber in
the head with his .9 mill.

Jasmine the stripper is crying in earnest
and hugging her arms about her waist. When John looks to his left,
Derek's pistol is also drawn.

"Oh my God. Oh my God. I didn't know
anything. I swear!" Jasmine begs for her life.

Buzz and Rick begin doing the same. Buzz
actually stars weeping like Jasmine. John glances over at Reagan.
She's staring at her feet and shaking her head. She has paled
considerably, but she's not trying to stop the killing.

"Hey, this is outta' control!" Uncle Peter
shouts in a panic. "Hey, man. Reagan, tell these guys to calm down.
Tell them, Reagan."

This is the first time he's spoken. It's not
surprising, though. He usually slinks into the shadows like a
rat.

"Did you rape Jennifer Miller-Durant, Uncle
Peter?" Reagan asks calmly. "Did you rape my patient who died?"

Her repetition of the woman's identity is
hammering it home to John that she took that woman's loss a lot
harder than she let on. She wants all of them to remember her name.
She wants everyone to know that she took this woman's care as her
patient seriously. She is apparently not feeling too upset over the
loss of Amber the toothless skank, though. The boss has a fierce
sense of right and wrong, and she knows that what has been done to
Sam is wrong. They all do.

"No way. No, Reagan. She was my girlfriend.
I told you that. I told you," he pleads.

Great-uncle Peter's pleas lack an earnest
believability because of the fear in his vacant eyes.

"How did she come to be with your group?"
Derek interrogates.

"How? Um, she just did. Yeah, she was with
our group. Wasn't she, guys?" he looks to the other two remaining
men who won't answer.

"Was she?" Kelly demands of them.

Buzz and the stripper won't make eye
contact, but Rick steps up and seems willing to talk.

"I… I don't know. She was already with him
when me and Buzz got with the group," Rick answers and is more
believable. "We didn't know they were doing anything like that. We
thought Sam wanted to be with Bobby. We didn't figure it out till
we got here that she didn't 'cuz she kept leaving us to hang out
with you guys instead. And Jennifer, she was real quiet most of the
time and then within a week or so of us joining up with the group
she got sick. So I really never talked to her. I swear. We were
just with the group 'cuz we figured it would be safer that way. My
cousin Levon told me to meet up with him in Cincinnati at Buzz's
house right when everything fell apart. So that's where me and Buzz
waited for him. We wasn't even sure if he'd make it, but he did.
And he had all these people with him. It's just safer to stick
together or join up with a group. It's too dangerous out there to
be on your own anymore."

"She was with me, damn it!" Uncle Peter says
angrily this time. "These jackasses don't know what they're talkin'
about."

A bead of sweat rolls down his forehead and
his eyes dart shiftily around.

"What was her age? Where was she from before
this all started? What were her parents' names? Do you know
anything about her? Or were you just using her like you use
everyone, Peter?" Derek demands.

Great-uncle Peter looks at his feet and
sweats harder.

"She was
with
me," he insists.

"That's not what we've heard," Reagan tells
him.

This sucks. John wants to just shoot this
piece of crap, but he's not sure how Herb and Maryanne would feel
about it.

Reagan turns away from her uncle and the
rest of his group. She tugs John's arm, and they walk a short
distance away toward the machine shed while the other men keep
their guns trained on the visitors. Her brows are pinched with
stress, and she sighs heavily as if exhausted. The bruise on her
cheek and lip and forehead are ripening into a dark purple which
further incenses John. She says nothing but stands there for a few
minutes quietly thinking.

"Kill him and send the rest on their way,"
she finally states decidedly.

John's jaw wants to drop to the ground, but
he manages to keep it under control. "Are you sure, Reagan? He's
your grandmother's brother. We could just send them all away."

"He raped her. I'm sure of it. I can tell
he's lying. He's always been a piece of shit liar. Besides, Sam and
Simon have already said as much," Reagan says on a sigh.

"We could just let him go, let him leave,"
John offers an alternative, although he doesn't really want to.

"No," she answers and shakes her head.
"He'll come back someday. He'll come back the next time with guns
and a lot more men."

John nods. "I know."

Her decision comes simply but not without a
burdening heart. It's written all over her lovely features.

Reagan looks directly up at him and
continues, "I wouldn't be surprised if he knew about the takeover
today, either. Or what happened to Sam's family. They have probably
done that to other families, and I'm sure he played a part in it.
He came to this farm with these bastards to take it over. He just
didn't think they'd meet with resistance from you guys. He could've
come alone to seek shelter, but he didn't. He brought a violent mob
here to overrun us. If you don't kill him, I fully believe that
he'll come back another time. The next time he may bring fifty
people here to overrun us."