Hell's Fortress by Daniel Wallace, Michael Wallace Read Free Book Online Page A

want to find Steve?”
    “Of course I do. But we have no supplies. No weapons. Grover is a kid. Trost didn’t ask to do this.”
    Miriam turned to him. “Trost, no more equivocating. Are you in or not?”
    He dropped his hand from his head and rubbed instead at his walrus mustache. He looked steadily at Eliza. “Jacob rescued my daughter from Las Vegas. He gave us a home in Blister Creek. You know I don’t believe in your church, but I respect your brother. And I owe him one. It’s your call.”
    “Grover?” Eliza said.
    “I told you,” Miriam said. “He can go home alone—probably get scorched on the road by a drone—or he can come with us.”
    “That’s not fair,” Grover said.
    “Suck it up,” Miriam said. “This is your chance to be a man. To prove your worth to the Lord.”
    “Please stop the religious stuff,” Eliza said. “I need to think clearly—that’s not helping.”
    Miriam shrugged. “Fine. The next few years are going to be ugly, whether it’s the end of the world or not. We need men and women, not boys and girls. This is Grover’s chance to mature. Right now he’s a boy. When we return, he’ll be a man.”
    “ If I return,” Grover said. “What if I don’t?”
    “You think it’s chance that took you out of that bunker?” Miriam asked. “Are you saying your brother died for some random shake of the cosmic dice? No, the Lord pulled you out for a reason. This is it.”
    That sat uncomfortably in the air for several seconds before Eliza cleared her throat. She already knew which way this was going to go. She was desperate to go west, to find a way across the deserts of Utah, Nevada, and California. To find Steve and throw herself in his arms. Grover was dead weight, in her opinion, and Trost wasn’t quite as useful as Stephen Paul would have been, but Miriam?
    Lillian would have been fine, but Miriam was a killer. Former FBI. Cold-blooded defender of the saints. Eliza felt bad for David and his children, but was suddenly more confident of her chances of getting through to L.A. If only she could figure out logistics.
    “We have no animals, little food,” she said. “No weapons. Everything Jacob sent with us those jerks stole.”
    “We tighten our belts and cross the mountains,” Trost said. “When we come down the other side, we’ll be in Cedar City. Assuming it’s still there. I have friends in town. They’ll restock us.”
    “Even if they’re starving?” Eliza asked.
    “Trust me. They’ll do it.”
    Miriam rose to her feet and hoisted the sole remaining saddlebag, light enough it could be carried by one person, slung over the shoulder. “Good, then it’s settled.”
    “Again, what about the drones?” Eliza said.
    “They’re watching the highway. North-south. We’re headed west, over the mountains. Do you think we can reach the foothills by dusk?”
    Miriam didn’t wait for an answer, but stepped out of the rock shelter and trudged into the dusty sagebrush plain, heading west. Trost climbed to his feet and gestured for Grover to do the same. Miriam was already thirty or forty feet away and moving swiftly. Grover set out after her, but Trost waited for Eliza to move.
    Eliza looked after her sister-in-law. What was it Jacob said about Elder Smoot? You can’t stage-manage a grizzly? What about a lioness?
    Trost gave Eliza a penetrating look. “There’s a reason why your brother wanted to send Lillian instead of Miriam. And it’s not just because Miriam is a nursing mother. My advice? Keep that one on a short leash.”
    “And how am I supposed to do that?”
    “I don’t know, but if you don’t, this is going to be a bloodbath.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    Jacob lay next to Stephen Paul, who had a shard of wood jutting from the small of his back. The wagon had showered off splinters like a Gatling gun firing crossbow bolts. One of them had hit its mark. Jacob had dragged his companions off the roasting highway, then forced them down.
    “Don’t move.” Jacob’s