Page 2 of Redemption (Devil Dogs of the Apocalypse #4)

Just as Aly’s about to exit the room, however, a muffled whimper sounds from the corner.

We wait a second. And then, from under her mountain of blankets, Sadie’s head pops up.

I barely see her eyes in the mess of them, but she sees us, and, without a second glance, bounds out of her pillow fort, heading through the door before us.

While this place is practically perfect in every way, there’s one thing I wish this place had in the main house: bathrooms. Unfortunately, those particular facilities are across the courtyard in a separate building and require a bit of a walk to get to.

But hey, beggars can’t be choosers. At least we have functioning toilets within walking distance as opposed to just a sad, barely able to be considered private, bush in the woods.

We already have more than most at this point.

Step by step, we descend the stairs and cross the foyer to the main entrance.

Cool morning air flows across my naked chest as I open the door, stirring goosebumps as we move out onto the steps.

Without waiting another moment, Sadie leaps off the staircase and over to the side where a patch of knee-high grass offers her the perfect spot to do her business.

I can’t wait for her to explore the gardens here to their fullest. There are at least a half dozen of them and, while they’re wildly overgrown and barely manageable at the moment, I plan to restore them.

Especially with all the time we’re going have on our hands now that we’re not running for our lives anymore.

Turning to Aly, I confirm, “Good to go?”

“Yes, sir,” she responds, saluting me and making my teeth grind against one another at the honorific title. She knows it drives me nuts when she calls me that, but I’ll get her back later.

“Ok. Got your gear?”

She nods, “Always.”

I grin approvingly. “That’s my girl.” Taking her hand, we walk together down the first couple of steps. “I’ll see you in a few minutes. If you hurry, we can watch the sunrise together when you’re done.”

She gives me a smile bright enough to light up the world even more than the rising sun in the distance and says, “You got it, big guy,” before taking off toward the stables to the left.

If it wasn’t for the dual fence-line barricading this place like a fortress, I would have never let her walk through two buildings on her own just to get to a bathroom.

Thankfully, the high walls and treacherous drop offer a bit of reassurance to an otherwise skeptical apocalypse survivor such as myself.

But even with the perimeter’s offered security, I don’t move from my spot, choosing to keep watch over the most vulnerable point in the entire place.

The entrance.

While there are wrought iron fences shielding against a breach to the main access point of the property, you can still see through them.

Which means anything out there can see us in here and choose to leap over the fence, ram through it with a truck, blow up one of the houses on either side of the outer gates, or simply walk right onto the property just like we did.

Not on my watch.

Eventually, I plan on fixing this deficiency in our perimeter’s security, but, as of right now, it’s blatantly vulnerable.

I lift my rifle over my lap and take a seat, scanning the linking roads for everything and anything that might seem suspicious.

I’m surprised yet equally relieved we haven’t seen anything hostile since we got here, only the small grouping of zombies Aly successfully dispatched when we’d first arrived.

A smile graces my lips as I think back on yesterday.

The fire in her eyes after she took them all down herself.

She’s gotten stronger, more confident in her abilities since we first met.

Defiant and stubborn as well, but definitely a mighty little thing to behold.

I can’t wait to live the rest of our lives here and see how much more we evolve with one another.

We just need to turn this place into Fort Knox or Area 51 to make sure no one ruins what we’ve fought so hard for.

After we left that Phoenix Rising town, I thought for sure they would’ve had someone follow us.

I waited up all night at that broken-down barn for one of them to show their rotten face just so I could end their meager existence for daring to spy on us.

We were exhausted, weak, vulnerable. All of us, even though I don’t care to admit it.

If the malicious intent we each felt back there decided to materialize into something real?

Something substantial? I’m not sure we could have defended ourselves against it.

At least not without taking on more damage than we could afford.

But it’s been two days since Phoenix Rising. Two days since there was any sense of a hostile presence surrounding us. Two days since there were any signs of humanity other than myself, the guys, and Aly.

Two days... of nothing.

If they were going to do something, they would have done it already.

Taken the chance closer to their home base where there was less of a possibility for error.

Once we got those motorcycles from the barn, they would’ve had no way of knowing where we were headed.

No way of following our trail without us realizing it.

It’s been two days of freedom .

I know I’ll always remain vigilant—it’s in my nature to do so—but, ever since we got here, I feel as if I can finally breathe.

Finally take in my surroundings without scanning for imminent threats twenty-four seven.

I can actually feel the weight of burden lifting off my shoulders as the minutes go by and it’s.

.. it’s more than I could ask for. To be here with my family. ..finally safe and, soon to be, secu—

My head perks up as Sadie starts to bark and whine, my attention completely stolen away as a familiar, yet unnatural, sound filters in from somewhere beyond the gates, becoming clearer and more defined as the seconds go by.

The mechanical whirring, a distant memory from before The Fall, about to become a nightmare of my present, turns louder and louder.

What in the fuck?

Instantly on guard, I rise to my feet, lifting my rifle and scanning the grounds beyond the gates for the culprit.

It’s unnatural, definitely something electrical but the grid has been down for over a year.

Whatever electricity we can afford is granted to us in the form of renewable energy like solar or wind power, or mind-numbingly loud generators.

This, however, is distinct. Quiet, yet overwhelmingly jarring in the raw silence the world has fallen into.

If it were the season for them, I’d blame the noise on a predictable cicada emergence, but as it is, they’re not due for another few years.

The droning hum glides closer and closer, seeming to surround me yet remaining invisible. My pulse skyrockets at the ominous intention.

Without taking my eyes off the road, I open the door to the main house and yell for the guys. If I need to defend this place, then I’m going to need some backup. Either one of them is going to have to go and bring Aly back over here or cover my post while I do.

Time ticks by and I’m half a second away from losing my grip on reality as the insufferable sound consumes the courtyard, seeming to be coming from every direction around me all at once.

My focus turns left, right, up, and down, scanning everywhere to find the source but still coming up empty.

I take a steadying breath and lift my gun, planting my feet on the top step just in front of the doorway, ready and waiting to take a stand against who or what might be coming at us.

“Guys???” I repeat, poking my head through the doorway and hoping they can hear me from all the way down here.

The whirring grows even louder and then changes into something even more unexpected.

Music.

Soft music in the distance.

I try to figure out where it’s broadcasting from, but it’s too wild, coming from one direction and then changing course to emit from another.

The pattern, indistinguishable in its chaotic nature.

I chase the sound, my weapon poised and ready as my gaze swings this way and that.

Searching. Hunting. The melody crescendos, an old Bob Marley tune blinding me to everything else around me as I urge myself to find the source. It’s as taunting as it is....

Fuck!

This is all a distraction. A means to keep me looking for that thing when I need to have my attention elsewhere. Like getting to Aly. Now.

“Hawk!... Cole!” I repeat urgently through the open doorway at my back.

I’m about to say fuck it all and make a run for the restrooms when, finally, I see it.

The source of the mechanical buzzing: a drone, flying in a circle around the Palace.

It must see me home in on it—my gun raised and following its direction—and quickly descends to eye level, hovering in the middle of the courtyard.

In the military, I was able to witness the potential for drones to function as flying gunships.

Capable of being equipped with anything from non-lethal weapons like rubber bullets or sound cannons, to small arms such as rifles or machine guns, and extending all the way to explosive ordnance like missiles and bombs, the extraordinary tech available to modify a drone’s purpose makes them formidable weapons on the battlefield.

But this one isn’t equipped with any of that.

No rigging under the main frame to indicate a weapons cache, or any additional modifications that would indicate any sort of hostile use.

Looking at this one, it’s simply being used as a surveillance and reconnaissance tool. Which means we’re being spied on.

I’m about to shoot the fucker out of the sky when I hear the door behind me open wider, signaling that my brothers have finally decided to show up to work today.

Refusing to take my sights off the threat in front of me, I give them the rundown.

“Hey, we got some trouble coming our way, and Aly’s still in the bat—” I start to say the words—start to make a plan to have Cole and Hawk get their asses over to the bathrooms on the other side of the stables and protect our girl—but then a sharp, sudden pain erupts in my upper back.

My heart stills in shock as everything narrows to that singular point and the fact that Aly still hasn’t returned yet.

Fuck. No....

I lift my rifle and start to turn around, only to hear the unmistakable thwoop of a gun firing for a second time and then a third, the shots hitting me in my shoulder and neck. I stumble back at the contact, pain shooting through me as the reality of my situation hits me even harder.

We’re scattered. Me, by myself on the front steps. Aly, also alone, somewhere between here and the restrooms on the other side of the property. Then, there’s Cole and Hawk, still upstairs and probably sound asleep, oblivious to the invasion and the danger they’re in.

The earth tilts as I fall sideways, feeling myself growing weaker and weaker, my breaths turning harsher as I try to make sense out of all this.

The cool stone is unforgiving as I crumble down to meet it, gravity taking me hostage.

I lie there stunned, immobilized in an instant.

A bitter end to a fight I didn’t even get a chance to defend myself against. Strength waning, I’m barely able to turn my head in the direction of where the shots came from.

When neither Hawk nor Cole fills the space, my world crumbles to ashes before my eyes.

“Good morning!” greets a man I’ve never seen before in my life. A man that was somehow able to sneak into the Palace and is now walking out the front door as if he owns the place. A man... who is still holding the gun he just shot me with.

“Did you say she’s in the bathroom?” He looks in the direction of the stables as everything around me starts to spin and I’m barely able to hold on. He points to the left, in the very direction Aly went only a few minutes ago. “The ones over there?”

“Fuck you,” I growl, the harsh words heaving themselves out of me but having absolutely no effect on my attacker.

He presses his boot against the side of my ribs, pressing me down further against the concrete.

My breathing stutters, becoming labored and more difficult to draw in precious air.

I try and force myself to maintain eye contact with the man standing over me, refusing to offer any sign of confirmation as to where Aly is, but soon enough, regardless of my stubborn will to remain present and alert, my vision blurs.

The man’s figure, distorting before me in a wavy haze, looks down on me with a knowing smile.

“Ah, no matter. We’ll be sure to find her.

Don’t you worry your little heart none.” His southern drawl lingers in the air as he looks up into the sky.

“Alrighty, Drone, go find her.” The whirring sounds of the drone’s blades dissipate at the command as he lifts his weighted foot from my side and takes a step off the landing.

Regardless of my overwhelming need to defend and protect those I love, the fight within me slowly ebbs, leaving me numb and helpless.

The possibility of keeping my family safe and unharmed—my entire purpose—fades away before my very eyes.

And then, with one final drop of his boot to the rocky drive below, my assailant leaves me, abandoned in my withering state right there where I fell.

A pile of bones and discarded flesh.

The world around me darkens as I lose myself to my inevitable fate.

Pathetic.

Useless.

At least Cole and Hawk still have a chance to get to her. To find her before they do. But then again...

Hawk and Cole never came outside...

Never even made it down the stairs...

For all I know, and against all of my hopes for a way out of this mess, they’re probably just as fucked as I am.

My eyelids flutter as I try my best to focus on staying awake, to force any muscle on my body to listen and fucking move for me so I can save them before it’s too late.

But it’s no use.

All I can think, as my eyes close one last time, is that even after all the hurt, all the heartache, all the training, all the months and days and hours and minutes I spent preparing to avoid this exact scenario, it didn’t matter in the end.

I still didn’t do enough to keep them safe.