Revolution (Collide, #4)(21)

"Uhuh. Well, I guess I'll-oomph," Danny cut off and I looked up just in time to see him get tackled. I scrambled to the window to see and saw Danny slap the guy's face and compel him to roll over and play dead. He got up furious. "Hell's bells, man!"

Merrick blurred to us and puffed an aggravated breath. "Sorry. They didn't believe us. They think we're trying to trick them into showing us where they're staying. I don't know what we're going to do with them."

Billings leaned over Marissa and yelled, "Hog tie 'em"!

Merrick and Marissa shared a look before she said, "For once, I'd go with what this one says. Let's just secure them and leave them."

"I take offense to that, but I'll help anyway," Billings spouted indignantly and got out.

"She fell asleep, huh?" Merrick asked, looking at Lily.

"Yep. Girl can sleep through a freight train."

"Good," he said wryly. "She needs to learn to sleep with fifty other people in the room with her."

"Me, too," I grumbled. I looked out to see them tying the guys, back to back. "What was up with them?"

He huffed and leaned his big tan arms on the window. "They thought we were part of the Enforcers. They think you guys were prisoners and we took all of your stuff. They were about to pull a Robin Hood act and steal it for themselves and the other misfortunates."

"Others?"

"They claim to have a big pile of people somewhere. Whether it's true or not, we can't risk trying to join forces. We just need to get where we're going and settle in first."

"Yeah." I shook my head. "Wow."

"Let me make sure everything's situated and then we'll go."

I nodded and stroked Lily's hair. When it was a common, mundane event to have to tie up strangers and leave them on the side of the road, you knew things had gotten bad.


We pulled up in front of a seriously busted up wooden warehouse looking… thing. Merrick was right. Danny had destroyed the place. Jeff and Pastor went first to make sure that no one had found the basement and all the resistance goodies they'd been collecting.

I hugged Lily's sleeping body to mine. I wondered how all of this was going to work. As I stepped out of the van with Merrick's help, I looked toward the town to see billows of black and gray smoke hugging the sky. Cain and the rest of them followed my line of sight and we all gawked at the sight.

Then I gasped when a Marker came into view in the distance. Then another. Merrick grunted and strained to see better. Was this real? Markers flying right over the town, not even trying to hide?

I looked up at Merrick for answers, but I could tell by his face that he had none. I felt my arms tighten on my precious cargo out of instinct. Things really were going to hell.

Jeff and Pastor gave the all clear and we all eased out of the vehicles and climbed a ladder to the roof. Merrick took Lily from me and jetted the ladder with ease. It was impressive to say the least.

We got a better look at the city now that we were higher and it didn't make it look any better. The smoke and haze covered it completely and it was wide and encompassing. "We'll talk about it," Merrick said and urged me to his side as he woke Lily to get us into the tunnel. "Let's do one thing at a time and get all this stuff inside first."

I nodded and made myself look away from the destruction of Effingham. All those people. Something bad was happening. No wonder those people tried to rob us. Things were way worse off than we thought.

We followed them over to the elevator and took turns going down. The stairs were a sore subject it seemed and Danny's face turned red and angry when I asked if we could just take them instead. So I didn’t bring it up again.

It was quite a trip and once we arrived, I wasn't really impressed, as bad as that sounds. I thought there would be some semblance of rooms or separation, but there literally was none. It was one big room with a couple of doors that I assumed were closets or storage sheds. Merrick immediately went to the stairs and began to put stuff in front of it to block it. He laid a chair sideways and then threw a broom and box on top of that. He turned to look at everyone. "No one goes on the stairs under any circumstances."

"Duh," Rylee spouted and then yelled at someone for messing with her 'things'.

"Now, Rylee," her father admonished. "Just because we lived here first doesn't mean you can claim everything as yours." She huffed and pulled the chair away from Ellie anyway. She plopped herself down and crossed her arms violently. "Ok, home sweet home," he announced and sighed as we all looked around. "We better just be happy to have a roof over our heads, yeah?"

"Even if it could collapse at. Any. Moment," Rylee said looking at the roof with disdain. We all glanced up. It looked sound and safe to me. I got it. She was speaking figuratively. Ah…

"All right," Jeff said and swiped his face with a hand, "it's been a long day. Let's get settled in, guys."

Merrick was walking all around the crates in the middle of the room. They were marked "Canned Goods" and "Explosives". There were lots of them. "Where did you get all this stuff from?" he asked Pastor.

"Well," he drawled and smiled, "the Lord provideth."

"So you're not going to tell me," he remarked and scowled.