Chapter 9
Liberty
Charlie was practically vibrating as we made our way through the darkness. She had both of her guns out, with her dark, braided hair trailing behind her as she took point on our food run. I watched her quietly, jogging behind her as Levi, Glory, and Faith brought up the rear, triangular style, just as we had always practiced. Sawyer kept up with me nervously, watching with wide eyes as we moved down the once-paved road.
"I've got movement at ten," Levi whispered.
As one, we slowed to a stop and I stared into the night, feeling my senses come alive. Each of my sisters' breathing was steady and calm. Charlie and Levi were calm as well, but their adrenaline started kicking in, ready for a fight.
Charlie turned back to me, asking permission to move further ahead and take out the first group of demons as they arrived. I nodded once, but whipped around, hearing the snarls and growls of hellhounds behind us.
"Thinkin' they've got us pinned," Levi muttered, shaking his head. "You'd think they'd learn."
I pressed my lips together, shaking my head. "You'd think." I took a deep breath and steadied my weapons, hanging loosely at my sides. "Split and flip," I muttered, knowing very well that my family heard me as if I had shouted. As one, Levi and Faith took a step out and turned towards the south, back from where we came, facing the hellhounds. Charlie and Glory stayed facing forward, waiting for the smoke demons to come, screaming at them from the north. I stayed in the middle, back to back with Sawyer and took a deep breath, my abilities thrumming to life and electrifying the field around us.
I smelled them before I saw them; hellhounds reeked of blood and sulfur and I did what I could to breathe through my mouth before I gagged. The smoke demons were circling us as well, bouncing off the shields that Glory and I created around the group.
Raising his sawed off, Levi fired rounds of Weapons Stone salt into the air; something of Charlie's own design. She discovered that if she put rock salt into a rock tumbler and let it run for about thirty minutes, along with pellets of Weapons Stone metal, it was the perfect mixture of dust to eradicate the smoke demons that threatened us so often without having to fire as many rounds. It saved us both time and ammunition.
From behind me, Faith lifted both her hands to the sky and closed her eyes. The smoke demons that were left after Levi fired three rounds were stripped from the air and forced suddenly to the ground, turning to an ugly, smoking liquid, leaving nothing but scorched earth beneath it.
I turned in time to see my sister and cousin, both smiling as they fired Weapons Stone bullets into the beasts that ran full-tilt towards us. The creatures yelped as they hit the ground, then Faith did the same as she forced what was left of them into the dirt. Once again, the air around us was still and I smiled lightly, seeing how smooth our dance had become.
Sawyer huffed out the breath he had been holding and turned to stare at me. "That," he whispered, shaking his head in awe, "that was the most incredible thing I have ever seen."
"Dude," Charlie made a face and shook her head, tendrils of dark hair coming loose from her braid. "That's a Tuesday." She giggled and stuffed one of her guns back into her shoulder holster as we continued walking down the road. "You should see us in a real firefight."
Glory and Levi nodded with grins on their faces. "This is what we were built to do," Levi continued. "The bonus is that we enjoy it."
"It shows," Sawyer whispered, nodding slowly. "I wish we had met up with you sooner. Maybe my dad and sister wouldn't have been taken."
Smiling sadly, I shook my head. "If they had been with us, they would have been safe," I commented. "And there's still hope. If we can find them, we can probably push the demons out and get them back."
"I don't know how," Sawyer answered. "The demons made them shoot themselves in the chest. Said they had to stay to keep their…'meatsuits' alive." He shuddered involuntarily. "It was awful to watch."
None of us knew what to say, so we opted to stay silent, our boots stepping lightly through the dirt and mud on the semi-paved trail.
It had been years since the last government truck had attempted to fix the pavement on the highways that wove through the towns and cities across America. It just hadn't been a priority. The minimal government that still existed did its best to help its civilians stay alive; organizing food banks and tiny farms that still managed to produce enough crops to keep villages going. Fishermen on the coasts caught enough to feed their families, and if they were lucky, turn a profit by trading for other goods that could be eaten. The United States, on the whole, had turned pescatarian, surviving only on fish and things you could grow or hunt on your own. We just didn't have access to livestock anymore. It drove Daddy crazy, not being able to have a hamburger any time he wanted.
"There's an old Walmart up here," Glory began, gesturing vaguely to the road ahead of us. "Sometimes it's still stocked, and every once and a while, it still has fresh stuff for sale or trade."
I nodded, "Yeah, I figured we'd hit that first, but there's a farm about five miles from here that usually is open for barter."
"Did we bring anything to trade with?" Sawyer asked, turning towards me and lifting his eyebrows. The more we interacted and the more I got to see his real facial expressions, the more attracted to him I was.
Glory smirked at my thoughts. You're just happy he's not a Winchester, my sister's thoughts echoed through my mind. And, bonus, he's your age!
"Stow it," I muttered, shaking my head. Sawyer turned, confused. "No, not you. I was talking to my sister," I corrected, realizing I had spoken out loud. "But yeah," I continued, refocusing on his question. "We always have things to trade."
Sawyer didn't bother saying anything, but simply lifted his eyebrows, questioning me.
Charlie turned, holding out a single bullet, glistening in the moonlight. "Weapons Stone ammo," she answered, winking. "We can produce them for free and they're worth more than a bag of potatoes, that's for damn sure."
…
Glory
We were close enough to the farm to see the lights on in the barn when I heard it. There were screams in anguish and terror as people realized that they were under attack from creatures they had very little ability to fight. I whipped around, not knowing if my sisters heard it as well, but I could tell from the looks on their faces, it came to them as clearly as it had come to me.
"I know, I hear it," Lib whispered, moving closer to Charlie and Levi. "There's a town under attack," she muttered to our cousins, shaking her head. "Too far to get to without jumping."
Faith was closing her eyes, listening carefully to the sounds around us, while at the same time, retreating inwardly, searching in earnest for the town being pummeled.
Grace, a familiar voice reached out in our minds, all of us linked through Mom. Grace, we're gonna need some assistance on this one.
"It's Ryan," Charlie's bright blue eyes shined in the moonlight. "He's in Tulsa with Angelique and Santi." She stared at Libby, waiting to see what she would decide to do.
Lib stood, waiting and staring blankly at something over my shoulder as she concentrated on our psychic connection with each other. "Wait until Mom answers," she whispered. "Stick with the plan. Keep moving to the farm," Lib began walking again, slower this time, but still headed in the right direction. "We'll get food and do what Mom and Auntie Luck decide to do."
We nodded in tandem, all falling into step with my sister. Sawyer followed as well, his eyes still wide as if he expected monsters to randomly appear in front of us. "We're safe here," Faith murmured reassuringly. "There's nothing close."
Nodding slowly, Sawyer moved closer to the center of our circle as we walked. I knew it was because he had never been with a group of kids his own age that had been able to defend themselves the way we could. I walked proudly with my sisters and cousins, heading for the bright lights of the barn.