Jaded Warriors book 2 (Jade Series)

Chapter 19

Chapter 19


“Deanna!” I yelled, as I ran through the house. I stopped at Megan’s first and she wasn’t there so I made Deanna’s my next stop.


“Jade! Where have you been?” Deanna came from the kitchen and met me in the hallway. Megan appeared behind her in the doorway as she held a crying Rylie in her arms. I skated around answering Deanna’s question with another question. “What was that?”


“The oil refinery…”


“What! What happened?”


“I don’t know…” The terrified look on Deanna’s face sent my heart into a panic as I looked to her for reassurance, but I got none. The door opened behind me and I whirled around to see Olivia with a crying Grayson, Corby and Maya. Both of them wide eyed and held their fear just below the surface.


“Deanna, can they stay? I’m going to go see what happened.”


“I’m coming with you.” Deanna replied without a blink of an eye. “Megan?”


“Sure, Jade’s here now…”


“No, I’m going too.”


“What!” Megan cried.


Deanna went to protest as I cut her off. “I’m going… Please.”


Deanna hesitated with a sigh. “I guess… from the sounds of that explosion, we may need your help.”


“Fine, I’ll stay with all the kids,” Megan said. I walked over to Megan and gave her a sympathetic smile. I softly brushed over Rylie’s fuzzy dark head with my fingers and gave her a kiss. "Five kids, two babies, I should be good."


"You don't really have to watch Hannah and Hayden, they're old enough to take care of themselves and help you if you need it," Deanna replied as she gave her children a stern eye. They both nodded with silent agreement and Hannah walked over to Olivia and took Grayson from her arms. It didn't take long for his fussiness to wane as she bounced him on her hip and he started to laugh.


“Someday, Jade… This will be you.” My mouth dropped open at her insinuating comment, as if she was sending me a dare.


I gave her a smile. “Still not going to happen.” I almost sang as with each syllable my voice raised a notch.


“If you’re coming, Jade, let’s go.”


“Coming,” I said, and ran out the door.


It seemed to take forever to arrive at the refinery as I sat in the back of Olivia’s solar powered, battery operated, energy efficient car. One of the perks of being the Mayor she’d received before the virus hit, she informed me, proud of the fact that she didn’t need fuel. I had asked her about the car the other day since she spent a lot of her time driving around, helping where she could.


“Does this thing go any faster?”


“I’m going seventy, Jade,” Olivia replied, as she glanced at me through the rear view mirror. I gave her a pouty frown as I tried to hide the worry I held deep in my chest. “We’ll get there.”


“What will we be doing?” I asked, as I scooted up in between the seats to see her and Deanna as she turned to me.


“Probably helping with the wounded, you stay with me. If Kane doesn’t kill me, Gage will for letting you come,” Deanna said.


Olivia looked at me through the mirror again, but said nothing. “Okay, just tell me what to do Deanna, I want to help, but I don’t want to be in the way.”


“Unfortunately, there will probably be plenty to keep us busy for a while.”


The thick billowy smoke filled the sky and blocked out the sun, as we got closer. The dread in my heart became as black as the cloud that loomed overhead and I feared the worst. I forced myself to stay calm, focused.


The refinery looked like nothing I had ever seen. My heart sank. With about a mile left to go before we got there, I saw flames as they roared and raged out of control. Four buildings on the east side of the refinery burned fiercely and I gasped at the sight of it. Suddenly terrified, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be here or not.


As we neared, I saw men as they scrambled around. It looked like a bunch of chaos to me, panicked, directionless, as they fought to regain control. I heard the low drone of a muffled alarm, eerily annoying, a constant reminder of the devastation.


“The tent, Olivia, head over there!” Deanna said. The panic in her voice rose. Her and Olivia practically jumped out of the car and ran for the tent with a big red cross on the side as I stepped out and stared in disbelief. My eyes stung as thick black smoke choked out the sky and I coughed as black flakes of ash, fluttered down from the sky.


The alarm, no longer muffled, louder than I expected and I wished I had ear plugs. Gunfire sounded in the distance, random sporadic shots and then return fire. I had no idea where it came from, who shot, or how close it actually was to us but I hoped it moved further away. I realized at that moment, how close we were to the front line.


I looked around for Gage, for Kane, desperate to find anyone who I might know.  I searched the faces of the men as they hurriedly went about. Many were injured, some attempted to help those who were hurt and others were doing whatever they could to contain the blaze and prevent it from spreading to the other buildings.  The fire grew extremely hot, even from where I was and I worried about the possibility of another explosion.


“Jade! Come on!” Deanna yelled over the alarm, waking me from the shock, the disbelief in what lay in front of us.


My eyes followed two men who carried another who bled and looked barely alive to the tent I headed for. I ran after Deanna, scared, terrified as I realized that it was a very real possibility that one, if not several of our men could be wounded or killed.


“Don’t even think about it right now, Jade. I know you’re worried and scared. So am I, but right now, we need to focus! Look at me.” I glanced at Deanna, as my heart beat wildly. I felt lost, unsure of what she wanted me to focus on. “Just stay close and help me.”


“Okay…”


I forced my mind to clear as I went through the motions. I did what Deanna said. Hold pressure, clean that wound, wrap another. Bring the next man in. Then it repeated all over again. Hold pressure… clean… wrap… next.


The minutes moved by and turned into hours, still without a sign of our men. I recognized not one of the inured that passed before me and they continued to come, one man after another, without stop, without rest and without relief for myself from the view of the bloody injuries and burns that marred their worn bodies. At first I paid attention but after a while, their faces looked the same, became a blur and I wasn’t sure I would recognize a familiar face now if I saw one.


The alarm stopped sometime during the madness but it continued to play in a warped echo in my mind. I wasn’t sure exactly when it stopped. My head pounded from it and I rubbed at my ears.


“Take a break, Jade. Five minutes and get a drink just outside of the tent okay.”


“What about you?”


“Just bring me one, will you please,” she asked, "and come right back."


“Okay…”


I walked outside, only to find myself surrounded in darkness. Night had fallen and I hadn’t realized how late it was until now. The moon and stars choked out by the thick smoke. The sky would have been completely black if it wasn’t for the fire. It cast enormous dancing shadows, darker than the ebony night that taunted amongst the flicker of the bright orange glow of the flames. It still raged out of control, as tall as a four-story building maybe two thousand yards away and in spite of its size, the night was still bitterly cold.


The snow surrounding the tent, trampled down by men's footsteps, was an uneven mess of solidified mud, frozen by the bitter cold night.  I pulled my coat closer around me and chose my steps carefully as I looked around.


I found the water, protected from the thin layer of ash, by a shade tent on a makeshift table of sawhorses and a sheet of particleboard. At least a half a dozen, five-gallon orange coolers lined the top. A fifty-gallon barrel sat close to the tent. It contained wood with a blazing fire for warmth and with dozens of breather holes punched in the sides, glowed like a jack-o-lantern on Halloween. Several tin cups littered the table along with three that lay scattered on the frozen ground.


My white cloudy breath puffed around me as I searched for a clean cup. I hated to be fussy, but the less than sanitary conditions left me queasy. I wiped the rim of the cup with the inside of my shirt, rinsed it once and filled it to moisten my parched tongue and scratchy throat. I didn’t realize how much I needed a drink and took another. I turned to fill the cup for Deanna as I heard Olivia’s voice carry over the commotion. I glanced over my shoulder to see her as she argued with a large man and I took a step closer to get a better look.


“Is Mike Thornton back yet?”


“No!” Darby fumed, barely recognizable by the grime that covered him. He shouted angrily back as he walked towards the water cooler, a voice I would always be able to place. He pushed rudely past me, forcing me aside, and then filled a cup with water as he wasted a good portion of what he poured onto the ground.


“What about Charles? Have you seen him?”


“Yeah, he’s running around here somewhere.”


“Have you seen Joel or the others?”


“No I haven’t, last I saw Kane, his group was over by the third holding tank but as you can see, it’s blazing right now.”


“Did you see him since the explosion?” Olivia asked. The worry in her voice sent chills over my skin as my heart plummeted to the pit of my stomach.


“No, before… But you can bet as soon as I do see him if he’s alive I will beat the shit out of him myself. His shipment was supposed to be here days ago! The Militia could break through at any moment. We won’t be able to hold them back for long! I should have known not to trust him to keep us supplied!”


“It’s not his fault, Kane’s runner has been gone over a week, I’m worried something might have happened to him.”


“Get off my back Olivia, and stop defending him! We can’t afford these kinds of mistakes!”


Darby stormed off towards the blaze again as Olivia started after him.


“Olivia!” I called out. She turned towards me, the worry on her face wiped away briefly, an attempt to hide it from me.


“Not now, Jade.”


“But wait!” I ran over to her. Her anxiety intensified as I neared. I spoke low as I huddled close to her in an attempt to deter any ears that listened. “Olivia, a man approached me at the farm. He was looking for Kane. He said he had something Kane wanted but whoever was sent to meet him never showed.”


“What!”


“I was at the farm with him when the explosions went off so I left. I didn’t get a chance to see what he had for Kane, he wouldn’t say. I think they were weapons.”


“Hispanic man?” She questioned. Her worry caused her voice to crack.


“Yeah…”


“You did what? Jade!”


“Save yelling at me for later, take me back, I need to go find him. I think he has Kane’s weapon’s supplies.”


“Let’s go find Deanna and see what she wants to do, and then we’ll go.”


We walked into the tent. Deanna’s cup was still in my hand thankfully since I forgot she sent me for water. She wiped at the moisture on her forehead. I handed the cup to her and she drank it quickly, down to the bottom.


“Want another, Deanna?”


“Yeah, please.”


“You tell her Olivia, I’ll be right back.”


“Nice one, Jade. Way to get out of telling her yourself.” Olivia scolded, as she gave me a less than happy look. I smiled at her briefly as I turned away.


“Get out of what?” Deanna asked, as I walked away towards the water cooler.


When I returned I handed the cup to Deanna again and I watched as she downed it for a second time. I looked at Olivia as Deanna gave me a hug.


“Get going, Jade, and you better be careful.”


“Okay, I will.”


***


I stared blankly out the window into the inky darkness as Olivia drove in silence. I couldn’t shake my worry and by the heaviness in the air between us, I knew Olivia felt the same. She knew I overheard her conversation with Darby, so she knew I heard him say he saw Kane last near the explosion.


“They’re okay, Jade, they have to be. Gage is tough, so is Kane and…”


Tears surfaced and I brushed them away. “I know…” But as tough as I knew they were it still didn’t change the fact that neither had shown up. In fact, I hadn’t seen anyone, Joel, Casey, Chale or Elias, Deanna’s husband, none of them. If caught in the blast, they wouldn't have survived, despite of how tough they were.


It took us about thirty to forty minutes to get back to Little Creek but it seemed to take all night. As we neared the empty lot where my home once stood my worry for the guys shifted to dread as I remembered Mateo insisted I come alone. “Park here, Olivia,” I quickly asked her to pull over. I wasn’t even sure if he would be at the farm and I wondered where he stayed when he wasn’t lurking around through trees. “I’m going…”


“I’m not letting you deal with that man alone, Jade. Kane told me what he was like.”


“I’ll be fine, he said earlier not to bring anyone… I don’t want to push him away. Kane needs this trade to happen, Olivia. Besides, I don’t even know if he’s there, I hope he is… I have no idea where to find him.”


“Jade, I can’t…”


“There is a rifle just inside the shed door. If anything happens I’ll fire it okay.”


“You have ten minutes.”


“It’ll take me five to walk there, and another five to walk back, twenty.”


“Okay… Twenty.”


“I’ll be right back.”


I hastily make my way down the beaten trail, through the crunchy snow that had settled at the base and clung to the tall, uncut grass along the side of the road to the farm. A path I’d taken many times but for some reason it seemed to go on for miles. I pulled my coat closer around me and set my nose further into the collar in an attempt to thwart off the freezing temperatures that bit at my numb cheeks.


Finally, I reached the beginning of the long, gravel covered drive to the back of the house. My steps slowed as I headed back to the shed, the original intended meeting place Mateo had set for me.


I came to the door, paused with one hand on the icy doorknob and took a deep breath. The air from my lungs visible in a white cloud in front of me while the nervousness inside of me suddenly obvious as it was released through the trembling in my fingertips.


The pitch black night without a moon to give light made it difficult to see more than three feet in front of me. I cursed at myself as I realized I should have took a moment to be better prepared, a flash light perhaps, maybe a gun. I told Olivia I had a gun here, just on the other side of the door, but I just said that to calm her.


“Jade, is that you?”


I whirled around at the voice that came from behind me. I squealed and practically jumped out of my skin as Raύl shined a flashlight towards my direction and blinded me with its brightness. 


“Raύl! You scared me!”


“What are you doing here girl?  And where have you been, I’ve been over to Gage’s several times and you haven’t been there.”


“I went to the refinery with Olivia. Did you hear the explosions?”


“Yes, but I’ve been out with the cows on the winter grass out west. What happened?”


“Something went wrong at the refinery, it looks like a bomb was dropped, Raύl.”


“Oh…” He paused, the darkness masked his face but his voice sounded distant, vexed and full of concern. “It’s after one in the morning. You should be home in bed.”


“Kane is waiting for a shipment and I thought it was in here.”


“There’s nothing in there, Jade,” Raύl said, as he opened the door.


Panic rippled through me, worried Raύl would find Mateo on the other side, but it was short lived as he shined the flashlight through the door only for me to see it empty, just the usual farm stuff, no crates or boxes full of weapons, no Mateo. The disappointment was evident in my sigh and I felt my frustration build, as I wanted so desperately to help Kane.


“Did Kane send you?” Raύl questioned, doubtful as if he couldn’t believe Kane would ever send me for such a task. He was right though, if Kane knew what I’d done this time, he would be furious with me.


I felt a knot form in my throat and the tightness of my chest did not make breathing any less hard. My chin quivered as tears formed and I fought desperately to push them aside but I couldn’t calm my fear that something bad had happened to them, I didn’t know, just a feeling, a bad feeling. My voice wavered as I tried my best to answer Raύl’s question.


“No…”


“Listen to me, Jade. You can’t worry about what might or might not happen to Kane or Gage. You will make yourself sick girl. These times aren’t easy for anyone. He’s faced danger many times and has come out of it strong. What is meant to be with those men will be. You can’t stop it. They are doing what they were born to do, to protect those who need protected, to preserve our way of life, to fight those who want to destroy us.”


“I couldn’t find him there. I couldn’t find any of them.”


“That’s because they are right in the middle of it, a place where you cannot go my dear. Come on, Jade, let me take you home.”


“No, Olivia is waiting down the street.”


“Then I’ll walk you.”


The soberness of my mood lifted some as I let Raύl’s words offer me some comfort as we headed towards the end of the driveway. As we neared the road, I saw headlights appear and Olivia’s car turned into the drive.


“Is this your friend, Olivia?”


“Yeah, I was gone longer than I was supposed to.”


“Okay Jade, I will see you tomorrow.”


I moved slowly as I positioned myself into the seat. I felt worn, beaten and suddenly very tired. I looked at Olivia, exhaustion evident on her face as well.


“What happened, Jade?”


“He wasn’t there. He promised me he wouldn’t leave.”


“Well sweetie. It’s late,” Olivia said. I cringed at the term as I felt my frustration build. I wasn’t a little kid and didn’t like being treated as one. “Let’s go get some sleep and come back in the morning, okay. Do you want to come home with me tonight?”


“No, I want to sleep at Gage’s.” I wanted to sleep in his bed, smell his scent on his pillow, dream of him next to me. I’d slept for too many nights away with Megan. I needed to be at his home and Olivia pulled into the drive. The house was dark but I expected it to be that way.


“Okay, I’ll pick you up at eight and we’ll try this again in the morning.”


I walked through the front door and made my way to the fireplace in the living room. I felt for the matches as I removed the glass chimney from the kerosene lamp. I struck the match on the side of the box and caused the sudden spark and sizzle of the flame as it swallowed up the tip of the match. I lit the wick. The flame grew and the dim lighting flickered across the room as I replaced the chimney.


The house was quite cold and I shivered as I tried to decide if I wanted to spend the time to build a fire or brave the cold under extra blankets. I stared vacantly at the long dark shadows as they danced along the walls but a knock on the door woke me from my trance. I walked slowly back to the door and without a thought about it I opened it.


“Olivia, I told you I would be fine.” I said, with part irritation and part exhaustion in my voice as I opened the door. But my eyes widened with surprise then fear as my heart instantly started to pound viciously in my chest. I realized a little too late that the figure that stood under the shadows of night wasn’t Olivia.