Carrion (The Bren Watts Diaries #1)

Chapter 52

Don't Stop Me Now by Queen boomed from the Jeep's speakers. Logan, Miguel, and I found ourselves singing along to the lyrics as I drove the car at a steady thirty miles-per-hour, glad that they hitched a ride and kept me company throughout our pied-piper operation.

Armas stayed quiet at the back, nervously looking at the growing horde at our tail, but Miguel and Logan shot a few that got too close for comfort.

"This is target practice!" Logan said, using his rifle like an air guitar as the music swelled, letting out a slew of curses and spat at the vectors' direction. Even I joined in, throwing a middle finger to their path.

We lost them on the road to the highway going out of town.

I didn't want them to accidentally find the mansion where the others were, even though the house was way south of the village. I killed the Jeep's engines and the radio, watching as the vectors ran and disappeared up the exit ramp toward the highway.

"Tonight, I'm gonna have myself a real good time..." Miguel sang softly from the back.

"Hyenas, you say?" Logan asked, gaping between Armas and me. "Damn. We have vectors, and now we got wild animals."

"They kill vectors, so that's good enough for me," Miguel said.

"And us, dude. That's gotta be some magic universe shit," Logan said, shaking his head and throwing his middle finger up the sky. "Fuck you, Universe! Come and get my damn ass."

"Careful what you wish for," I mumbled, laughing.

"Yeah, I wish I could bitch-slap some sense to it. What did humans do anyway to deserve this?"

"Destroy the planet?" I said, shrugging.

Miguel paused. "Yeah, well, we're good at that, too," he chimed in, "But I was just living my life, cooking meals, living paycheck-to-paycheck, and then they throw wrenches on us innocent folk. What kind of god does that?"

"I wouldn't know," I said. "There are good gods, there are jealous gods, and there are malevolent gods or something. I don't pay attention much to religion. The only thing every god has in common is the ego. Big, big, egos."

"I think the others are done loading the supplies by now. Should we head home?"

I looked at my watch and smiled, relieved that the night was almost over. "Yes. Finally. I want to sleep for a day."

We watched as the tail end of the horde disappeared up the ramp, waiting for another couple of minutes before starting the engines and headed back to the main road where the others were. We drove out of West Point within the hour, going back to the mansion.

I felt content that no one died tonight. No. Content would be the wrong word. I was beyond ecstatic! There were a lot of things that could have gone wrong, and for the first time, I was happy our plans went off with a good run, even though I stumbled upon an armed soldier and a mad pack of hungry hyenas. I took every victory I could get!

I almost cried, but I didn't want anyone seeing me like that. When we got back to the mansion, Luke gave me a tight squeeze on the shoulder, told me how great everyone performed today, even managed to compliment Aria fro being level-headed in treating Armas's leg. In turn, I praised Luke for stepping up to the plate.

Luke gave me a sheepish grin. "I owe it all to you. I guess that talk this morning worked wonders."

I smiled. As we sat there, sipping a steaming cup of jasmine tea that Miguel prepared, I felt Luke's hand on my lap. I let it rest there for a long while.