Chapter 276: She Had Seen Enough Demonstrations

DOVE’S POV

Dove grabbed the nearest boy by the back of his shirt and shoved him toward the yard before the light left the man’s hand.

"Behind the wall. Both of you. Now."

Dove activated her shield as Edrik took the cook’s shoulder and drove him after them. It would stop bullets while she crossed the open gate. It would do nothing about the light gathering in the attacker’s hand. The older driver ducked beside his car as a bright burst hit the road above the food truck. Concrete and dirt flew outward. The truck rocked, its smiling potato tilting toward the reservoir, and Dove’s ears rang so hard that she couldn’t hear herself swear.

The attacker staggered against the guardrail after the throw.

There. The pause the survivor had described. Real, but not long enough to stand around admiring.

"Move the car!" she yelled at the older driver. "Through the yard, keep going!"

He got behind the wheel. Dove pulled the second boy away from the gate as the car lurched past. Edrik stood at the entrance with one hand against the van’s open metal door, using it to cover the crossing. A shot struck it, making Dove flinch even though she knew what his hand was doing.

He wasn’t a wall around the whole world. He was one man protecting one piece of metal while she got people out of the line of fire.

She had to use the time.

The next car couldn’t turn because a fallen section of wooden fence lay across the far gate. Dove ran to it, staying behind the maintenance yard’s concrete wall. She touched the loose panel and sent it into storage. The opening cleared, and she waved the driver through without stopping to look impressed with herself.

Sprout warned that the shield had faded. Dove pressed closer to the wall; she had no second use today.

The boys’ father had their bags over one shoulder and both children in front of him. He looked toward the truck once, a horrible little hesitation that Dove understood too well.

"Your kitchen isn’t worth your kids," she said.

That moved him. He followed them through the rear gate and into the older driver’s car, leaving the truck where it was.

Dove turned back for Edrik.

He was still at the front entrance. One man had come down the bank and tried to get around the van. Edrik caught his arm before the gun came up, slammed him against the door, and took the weapon. The man’s knees folded. Edrik didn’t waste a second looking at him afterward.

"Dove, van."

She ran to the driver’s side, climbed in, and started the engine with fingers that wanted to shake. Wanting wasn’t the same as doing. She tightened her grip, breathed once, and reversed far enough to turn into the yard.

Edrik moved with the passenger door, keeping his hand against the metal until the concrete wall hid them from the men above. Then he climbed in and slammed it shut.

"Straight through," he said. "Don’t stop for me to be comfortable."

"I wasn’t going to offer a cushion."

The van bounced across the yard and out through the gate she had cleared. Ahead, the older driver’s car was already on the service road, following the second vehicle. Dove gave them room instead of trying to squeeze past. If one panicked and stopped, she’d have two cars and a gunman between her and the next turn.

*Sprout, map?*

*I cannot provide an unseen road survey.*

*Worth asking.*

She used the paper sketch instead. The service road curved north, joined a wider road near a pumping station, and passed several buildings before that. Actual turns she could see, not a glowing line promising everything would be fine.

Another burst struck behind them. The rear window flashed white, and dirt rattled across the roof. Dove kept driving until the curve hid the maintenance yard.

Edrik watched through the back window. "He’s slower after the second one."

"Good. I hope he gets a headache and steps on every Lego in Michigan."

"I’ll settle for catching him."

She knew he meant it. His voice had gone quiet in the way that usually meant somebody else’s day was about to become very short. She reached across long enough to touch his wrist, then put both hands back on the wheel.

"Stay with me first."

"Always first."

The words reached her more deeply than a promise shouted over gunfire would have. He could want to kill them and still choose to stay beside her. She needed that choice more than she needed proof that he was dangerous.

Dove checked the mirror again and saw both boys below the back window of the car ahead. One lifted a hand when he noticed her looking. She lifted two fingers from the wheel in return. It wasn’t a grand victory, but those children had been standing beside the truck when the first light appeared. Now they were moving away with their father. She let herself keep that much good from the mess.

At the next wide stretch, the older driver pulled close enough to wave them ahead. His car was running, the boys were inside, and the cook leaned out just long enough to shout his thanks. Dove pointed toward the main road on the sketch and called for them to keep going to the staffed stop.

She wasn’t taking them into whatever followed her. They had their own way out now.

The van’s mirror showed movement behind the curve. Two men came down the service road on a small motorcycle. Farther back, a vehicle turned away from the food truck instead of stopping to search it.

Dove’s stomach tightened. They weren’t interested in the supplies she’d left behind. They were interested in her.

At the far side of the reservoir, another road ran parallel to theirs. Through a gap in the trees she saw a familiar recovery truck moving north, matching their direction without trying to catch the families.

Edrik saw it too. "They’re cutting across."

Dove looked at the next turn on the map, then at the road leading toward Thorne.

She couldn’t keep driving north and hope they got bored. If she did, she would bring them straight to the husband who couldn’t run yet.