James Hunt - GMO 24 - The Coalition

“Clandenwhat?”

“Never mind.”

“They questioned me for over an hour, but I just told them that I didn’t know anything.”

“I know you didn’t say anything, Alice. If you did, you wouldn’t be here right now.”

“Oh.”

The words came out in a defeated whisper. Alice kept her head down and fiddled with the rags she wore as a shirt. Warren gently nudged her am.

“Hey. You know Alex went to go and get Daniel, right?” Warren asked.

“He did?”

“Yeah. I told him he was an idiot, but he did it anyway. And judging by the amount of company we’ve received today, I’d say he made it.”

“Do you think he can do it? Can he bring Daniel back?”

Warren remained silent. He was focused on the ruckus coming from inside the house. The sentries were shouting at one another. The next moment, a few of them started running outside with their guns pointed at Warren.

“You! Get up! Now!” the sentry ordered.

Warren pushed himself up, using Alice’s small shoulders to help steady him. “What is it?”

The sentry’s answer was a pair of cuffs around Warren’s wrists and a shove face-first into the ground. “We got you, asshole. We found your stash.”

Warren immediately started squirming, trying to thrust the sentry off of him. “No! You idiots!” He quickly turned to Alice. “Alice! Get dow—”

The explosion that followed rocked the foundation of the house and shook the whole community from the ground up. Concrete and broken glass rained down and littered the yard. A solid ringing sounded in Warren’s ear, and when he looked over at the house, the front half had been completely blown away.

The desk in Gordon’s office crashed to its side, toppling piles of papers and office supplies, and his computer smashed to the floor. Gordon rammed the tip of his foot into the underbelly of the desk repeatedly, splintering the wood underneath, spouting as many curses as he could come up with.

Once the rage had exhausted him, Gordon stopped. The tip of his foot throbbed as he sat back down In his chair. What was left of Alex’s seed bank and food storage was blown to smithereens, along with a portion of his men. The brutes that made up the muscle of the Soil Coalition were only good at one thing: breaking things.

It was an attribute that Gordon had exploited many times to his benefit. The goons could break bones, doors, walls, windows, and from time to time, the defiance that some of the community members exhibited, but that same brute force and less-than-delicate touch also caused quite a bit of collateral damage. However, this was the first time they’d ruined something this important.

The door slammed against the wall when Gordon made his way out of the office. The two sentries guarding Alex’s cell stepped aside and let him enter.

“Bad news. My guys found your stash, and a majority of them are dead and crispy. Smart rig with the explosion. But then again, it doesn’t take much to fool these guys,” Gordon said.

Alex didn’t say anything. He continued to cradle the side of his swollen face and pushed himself from lying on his side to a sitting position.

“So the deal’s off the table,” Gordon said. “You’ll be taken to a farm camp immediately. And I’ll make sure it’s one where your friends won’t be.”

Gordon turned to leave, but before he made it out of the cell, Alex pulled his hand away and mumbled through his swollen cheek and lower lip, “What makes you think that was all of it?”

“Bullshit.”

Alex flashed something that Gordon thought resembled a grin. Gordon tapped his foot. The throbbing had lessened and was replaced by a slight tingling. “Where?”

Alex shook his head. “No. This time I go. I don’t need your guys blowing up any more of my stuff.”

“Fine. But we leave now. Guards!”

It was a four-hour drive to Alex’s community from Topeka, and that was if the weather conditions remained favorable.

Gordon chose to ride with Alex and sat right next to him. It was a three-row seat SUV, with two sentries up front and two in the back. “They’re from the seed silo, aren’t they? Is that why you joined that detail when all of this shit went down?”

The vibration of tires on potholed asphalt was the only response, along with the slight clink of metal when the sentries adjusted their rifles. Another dip in the road jerked their bodies from side to side. The car’s shocks squeaked under the strain of its full load. Gordon leaned a little closer, looking at Alex’s reflection in the window as he looked away.

“You ever miss it? The power?”

The lumps on Alex’s face made it hard to read, but Gordon could swear he saw Alex’s jaw tighten in the window’s reflection.

“No?” Gordon asked. “Well, more for me then.”

They were only ten minutes away from Alex’s community now. He’d run through all of the different scenarios of how it would play out. The seeds he had stored under Harper’s house were his only real bargaining chip now. Once those were gone, he’d lose all leverage. And he wasn’t even sure if the pardon deal was on the table anymore. This would end in one of two ways: either he would be sent to a farm camp, or they would kill him. Alex didn’t like either of them.

The Main Street community structures came into view. Less than five minutes away now. Alex tried concentrating on the last time he had been in Harper’s house. Did he have anything there that he could use? The cloud of hunger loomed over his mind, fogging his train of thought. Focus. Alex shook his head sharply, fighting off the pain throbbing in his head when he had his answer. The kitchen.

The tires of the SUV splashed through the mud road, past the community stores and buildings, and made its way up to the cul-de-sac. The brakes squealed to a stop. The driver got out and popped the door open. Warren was in similar cuffs outside the house.

“Well?” Gordon asked.

Alex nodded to the Harpers’ house. Two of the sentries walked on either side of him, with Gordon right in front. They stepped inside Harper’s house. Like most of the homes, it was fairly empty. Most people had burned their furniture for warmth during the first winter.

“Show me,” Gordon said.

“Through the kitchen. In the back,” Alex answered.

“You first.”

The restraints around Alex’s wrists hid the trembling of his arms. He controlled his breathing to steady himself. He stepped through the doorway into the kitchen, the two sentries following him. His eyes immediately went to the sink. Each step closer brought the bottom of the sink into view, and every inch that appeared without the outline of a knife caused panic to overtake him. Alex moved closer to the edge of the counter, trying to get a better look inside the sink. And then, just before the bottom of the sink appeared empty, he saw the faded black handle of a knife.

Using both cuffed hands, he swiftly snatched the handle of the knife. The doorframe to the kitchen was small, causing the two sentries to cluster, making it awkward for them to reach their rifles. Alex brought the tip of the blade into the side of the first sentry’s neck. An eruption of blood spouted from the contact. Blood squirted between the sentry’s fingers as he tried to stanch the bleeding. Before his partner could reach for his sidearm, Alex brought the blade of the knife across his throat as well.

With both sentries clutching their wounds, attempting to hang on to the last few seconds of life they had left, he shoved both into the kitchen’s hallway, bottlenecking the only entrance, keeping the knife in hand, and sprinted out the back. Dirt flew up from his heels. One hundred yards away was the forest of dead trees, clustered together in a decaying shamble.