by Hunt, Jack
Another sudden flurry of rounds, this time from the rear, answered that.
More glass shattered. Erika had taken Bailey and placed her in a room at the rear of the house before re-emerging. She pulled the Glock from her holster and dropped down trying to watch the rear entrance.
For close to ten minutes they exchanged gunfire until it went quiet. Erika gave Tyler a terrified glance. He wished he could put her mind at ease but maybe this was for the best. He could tell her all day of the dangers of staying on her own but sometimes people only learned when their lives hung in the balance. Their best chance of survival was to stick together, watch each other’s backs and hope to God they made it to the next day. Another assault of rapid fire. His heart sped up as drywall dust scattered, filling the air like emptying a bag of flour. Suddenly, Erika unleashed one round after the other, five, maybe six shots. Tyler wiggled across the floor trying to make his way over as he could see her hands were shaking. She was doing the best she could and it wasn’t her inability to fire that worried him as much as it was having her go into shock. It had happened to him a long time ago, he knew the signs. All the color draining out of the skin, sweating, nausea, and darkness creeping in at the side of the eyes.
“I’m coming to you.”
She nodded but said nothing.
Nate fired a few more rounds.
“They’re trying to gain ground,” he yelled. “Pushing forward towards the Jeep. Please tell me you have the keys.”
“Of course,” he said. They could try hotwiring it but that took time and exposing themselves to Nate’s line of fire, and no one in their right mind would attempt that. Erika popped her head around the corner and fired again, two more rounds. When Tyler got close enough that he could see the rear door, he spotted a dead guy laying in the doorway. She’d taken one of them down. No wonder she was shaking.
“Remember to reload,” he said pressing his back against a wall across from her. “Okay?” he asked, trying to reassure her and get her to focus on him instead of the ever-present danger.
More bullets tore at the wall near them.
Tyler fired back and saw a large guy run for cover.
“Speak to me, Nate.”
“I’m still here.”
“Good.” Tyler nodded. “Conserve your ammo. Only fire if you have a clear shot.” Since losing the other two supply bags, they now had a minimal supply of everything — bullets included. Although if they made it out of this unscathed, they could take their attackers’ weapons, and whatever else they had on them.
There was a long period of silence. Every few minutes, Tyler would peer around to see if anyone was trying to get by undetected. He looked over at Erika who was staring at her dead mother.
“Tell me something,” he said trying to distract her. “You never told me why a woman like you is single.” Tyler took another peek around the corner. It was still clear. “It wasn’t on your profile or in any of your texts. A lot of the other women gave some blurb about how long they’d been out of their previous relationship, and you never said anything. I figured you’d have a ring on that finger of yours by now,” he added. She gave him a confused look as if she was juggling thoughts of her mother and what he was saying.
“I did have a ring,” she said looking down at her hand. “I gave it back after I found out the asshole cheated on me.”
“Your fiancé cheated on you?”
“Yeah. Clichéd, right?”
“Common, you mean,” he replied. “Well his loss, right?”
She got this smile on her face. It was brief but enough that he caught it before she nodded and looked back at her mother. Again, he tried to shift her focus. “At least you made it to that stage. I know you think our date went bad but to be honest, it went pretty well compared to my past ones or lack thereof.”
Erika snorted. “Are you joking?”
“I wish,” he said taking another look. He wanted to get closer to the rear entrance. Drag the dead guy in, collect his weapon and close the door but he couldn’t see the other guy. “Let’s just say I’ve not had much luck with women.”
“I would have thought someone like yourself would have had women fighting for your number.”
He laughed. “You’re a good shot but a terrible liar.”
She chuckled then it faded. It wouldn’t be easy to recover from losing her parents but it was possible. “I lost my mother a long while ago,” he said thinking back. “She suffered a stroke, and never really recovered. The doctors gave her a year. She lived more than that and then succumbed.”
“Were you young when you lost her?”
“Too young,” he said. “My father worshiped the ground that woman walked on. After she died, he went to pieces. Kind of unraveled like society is now. Anyway, he was a survivalist, a prepper you might say, though to most of the townsfolk he was a headcase.” Tyler shuffled into another position to get a better look at the rear yard. He continued talking as he moved. “From an early age he would take me and my brother out and run us through these insane survival-based scenarios. You name it, he took us through it.”
“That’s good, right?”
“Now, yeah, I see the value in it. Back then I didn’t. I just wanted a normal life, a father I could throw a ball with and someone who would show up at my school and be proud.”
“He wasn’t? Proud I mean?” Erika asked.
“If he was, he had a weird way of showing it.”
His mind flashed back to multiple instances of getting homeschool exam results, or achieving any of the goals he’d set for them like memorizing the sixty-eight medicinal plants that could be substituted for drugs, and which state they could be found in. That was just one of the hundreds of things he’d drilled into them like a boot camp instructor. Even after years of living away from home they were still there at the forefront of his mind, as fresh as the day he learned them.
“Is that why you carried that bag around?”
Tyler chuckled as he returned to the wall and slumped down across from her. “It became a habit, almost like a security blanket, or a crutch, you could say. Better to walk with the devil you know than the one you don’t.”
He often felt like an outcast. Even on the few occasions he managed to lie to his father and spend time with some of his old pals from school, he quickly learned that he didn’t have anything in common with them. They would talk about music, movies, TV shows and the latest sports but he’d fallen out of touch with that. Those were a distraction. Nothing good came from them, his father would say. It dumbed them down and took away from time that could be spent memorizing radio frequencies, what to do before, during and after every natural disaster, hand signals, trail signs, Morse code, first aid, gun and fight training, and survival skills.
“Sounds like he had a lot of rules.”
“He did.”
His mind began going through them like a Rolodex — having the right mindset, practicing awareness, sharpening senses, avoiding automatic behavior, avoiding knife fights, throwing a power punch, adapting and overcoming, masking up, not being a hero, using paracord, tying knots, defending yourself, using first aid, using plants as meds, collecting and purifying water, staying dry, lighting a fire without matches, handling guns, target practice, signaling and navigation, setting up a campsite, food prep, fishing, firearm maintenance, reinforcing a home, stocking the right supplies, wound control, setting broken bones, treating for shock, using solar power, staying clean, and the list just went on and on… There wasn’t a day he wasn’t learning something new or having to prove to his father that he could remember what had been taught to him. Even when they knew the basics, his father could find ways to take it to the next level. He was a wealth of information, and when it came to survival there wasn’t anyone he knew who was more prepared.
Another eruption of gunfire, then Nate shouted out, “They’ve backed out.”
Tyler peered around and made a dash for the door. He dropped down, and waited before cutting the corner to
make sure the coast was clear. The guy Erika had killed was a run-of-the-mill Caucasian guy, no different than someone he might see walking down the street in Vegas. He retrieved an AK47 from him, then shoved his body outside before locking the door behind him. Nate dealt with the front door. It wouldn’t stop them from getting in, as the home was spacious and most if not all of the windows had been shot out. But he certainly wasn’t going to make it easy.
“We should leave,” Nate said. “Before they come back.”
Tyler looked at Erika who was fixated on her mother. “In the morning.” He glanced at Nate and he acknowledged the request with a nod. That evening they buried Erika’s father and mother out back. As the sun set and another day gave way to darkness, they listened to her say a prayer before sobbing over their shallow graves. It didn’t matter what her background was, or how wealthy, arrogant or self-entitled they had been in life, no one should have to lose parents that way.
Erika placed a few wildflowers on their graves and then they went back in and settled for the evening, hoping their attackers didn’t return.
26
Without a vehicle, covering the forested landscape was slow and cumbersome. It would only be a matter of time before they were spotted. A large group drew attention. And now they knew what Gabriel looked like, he would have to reconsider his original plan. It was then he began to entertain the initial idea of splitting up.
Many hours after leaving the last family they had holed up inside a cabin several miles away so he could think. Inside, he found a map of the area. Gabriel swiped off cutlery and plates from the kitchen table and laid it out. “Okay, listen up,” he said looking at Marcus. “I want you to take Hauser, Perry, Manning, Rutwig and Davis. Use the boat down at the dock and head across to the other side then, go south towards Apgar, north on Camas Road. That will take you around onto 486, then you’ll get on to Cedar Lake Road and that will lead you into Whitefish.”
“And what about you?” Marcus asked leaning back in his chair.
“Torres, Bill, Jericho, Owens, Reid, and Lee will come with me.”
“Oh c’mon, let me take Torres and Jericho with me.”
“I need them.”
“But I don’t trust these other guys. If we get pinned down, we don’t stand a chance.”
“You won’t. Hauser has spotted the group just north of here. They are still going house to house. You will cross the lake and come out on the northwest side.”
“And you?” Marcus asked.
“We’re heading into Glacier.”
“But you heard what that old man said. That’s where the ranger headquarters are. That town will probably be crawling with cops.”
“You have too much faith in the system.”
“The system is what caught us in the first place.”
“Marcus.”
He shook his head. “I don’t like it. It doesn’t feel right. Why do you want us to divide now? You were adamant that we were stronger together.”
“We are. But there are too many of us to avoid detection. If there are blockades set up along these stretches of roads, we need to stay low key, blend in, not stand out.”
“And you think dividing will do that?”
“Divide and conquer, brother,” Gabriel said taking a hit on a cigarette.
Marcus frowned. “Why do I get a sense this has more to do with the fact that they know what you look like and they were last seen on the north side?” He raised an eyebrow at Gabriel and waited for an answer.
“You want us to go across the lake and you head into Glacier, fine.”
“No. We’ll go that way.” He jabbed an accusing finger at him. “But I don’t like this one bit. I think it should be down to the group to decide.”
“Too many views. It will only complicate things. We need to be decisive. They are looking to us to lead them.”
“No they’re not. Hauser would have gone with Jesse, and I’m sure some of the others would. You have been playing them since we waded out of the lake.”
Gabriel looked off to his right and left. The rest of the men were outside keeping an eye out for the cops. He was concerned about what they heard. If they even sniffed weakness or sensed that he and his brother weren’t on the same page it could get ugly. It was the same in the can. Leaders rose not because they were put there by others but because they chose to not follow. It was a power move. Marcus was right. He had been playing them since the crash but if it wasn’t him, one of the others would have taken the mantle.
“Decide what you want, Marcus, and go with it, but don’t sit there griping.”
With that said, Gabriel got up and walked over to the window and looked out. The cabin they’d raided was empty and nestled into such a thick area of the forest, they had almost walked by it without noticing. It was perfect but it wouldn’t last. Eventually the cops would come across them. The only way forward was to keep moving.
He heard his brother come up behind him.
“Why Whitefish? Why not another town? Columbia Falls or West Glacier seem as good as any other.”
“I talked to the old man before we left and had him fill me in on the details. Its size, its location near fresh water are something we need to bear in mind when trying to establish ourselves and take control.”
“Take control?”
He glanced at Marcus. “Never before has an opportunity presented itself like this. There are sixteen police officers in Whitefish, and no means of communication to surrounding towns. If the lights come on tomorrow, do you want to be caught hidden away in some dusty old cabin, cowering? Or do you want to go out in a blaze of glory and be remembered for all time?”
Marcus chuckled. “I want to live.”
“For how long? Running from town to town? State to state? What life is that? But think about this brother — if the power grid doesn’t work again, do you want to run a town? Hell, run a county?”
Marcus scoffed. “You know, brother, I can appreciate your fortitude and vision but don’t you think you are asking for trouble?”
“Have you forgotten your own advice?” Gabriel asked, turning and facing him. Marcus gave him a look of confusion. “You said, ‘I know who I am. Maybe it’s time you accept who you are.’ I know who I am, Marcus. Who we are. But I’m not willing to accept that as my lot in life. Now I don’t know what act of God, nature or man that caused the blackout, or how many hours, days, weeks, even months we have before society returns to normal but until that time, I’m going to make the most of it and establish new ground rules. Rules that others must live by if they are to survive in my world.”
Marcus shook his head, with a look of disbelief or even amusement. “Your world? Your rules?”
Gabriel gave a nod. “You got it.”
Marcus laughed and placed a hand against the wall. “And what of your world? What does that look like, huh? Because right now I don’t see anything better. In fact, I wonder if we aren’t worse off for being free.”
Gabriel got close to him and wrapped his hand around his brother’s neck. “That’s because you’ve become accustomed to viewing life with blinders on. You have been institutionalized. Our family, society, prison, all of them have put blinders on us. They want us to see this world through a narrow lens of haves and have-nots, do’s and don’ts, and maybe they could enforce that when the power was up but not now. No.” He cupped his hands either side of his eyes in a narrow manner and then removed them. “There are no more blinders, brother. Call it fate. Call it a second chance. We decide how we live, who lives among us, where we go, and who lives and dies.” He wrapped his arm around his shoulder and squeezed tight. “Look at them out there,” he said turning his face towards the men dotted around the cabin and porch. “They are hanging on every word we say. And that’s just a few. There will be others. Our group will grow strong.”
“Yeah, and how do you propose to convince people?”
“If the power stays down, people will get desperate and when they do, the one holding the spo
on will be looked up to like God himself.”
“You’re not God, Gabriel,” Marcus said shrugging his arm off his shoulder. “You can’t control the outcome of this. What you speak of is nothing more than the product of an over imaginative mind. It’s ridiculous. And it’s liable to get us all captured or killed. So I will meet you in Whitefish but don’t count on me to stay. As much as you are evaluating your future, so am I.”
Marcus glared at him, then reached for the handle on the door and went outside. He was still pissed but that would change in time. Gabriel would prove him wrong and then he’d come around. They all would. Marcus called together his group and they were brought up to speed. A few grumbled at the decision but no one could deny that splitting into two small groups would be beneficial. They made their way down to the dock, and as evening fell upon them, Gabriel bid them a safe journey. He crouched on the rickety wooden dock and gripped his brother’s hand. “I’ll see you in Whitefish.”
A look of disbelief or concern flickered across his face before Marcus nodded, and Gabriel and his group watched as they rowed out across the silky still waters.
Corey was getting exceedingly irritated by Ferris’ incessant need to be in control. They weren’t getting anywhere using the same method of driving house to house and knocking. With only a few vehicles on the road, and the sun nearly gone on the horizon, the inmates must have spotted the truck’s headlights from miles away. Was it any wonder why they hadn’t come across them? All they’d found was a path of devastation left in their wake; a cabin on fire, residents beaten and tied, and now Noah wrapped up in a tarp in the back of the truck. Instead of traveling together down the same road, Corey had suggested using two-way radios and splitting up. Ferris wanted more specifics on what that involved but he couldn’t give it to him as his own idea simply went against what Ferris wanted, and anything that went against that was shot down. In his mind, the truck was the property of the county police and he would do whatever the hell he liked with it.
