Or why he hadn’t told me about it.
I wiped it off to find it was in excellent condition. And it would be perfect. It saved me from having to build anything—which gave me more time to make sure Angie was ready and that we’d have everything we needed.
When I got back to the house and started toward the door, I found another sled leaning against the house. A red one this time. It was in rougher shape, with a couple of cracks in the bottom, but when I laid it over the blue one, they fit together perfectly.
And that worked just fine for me. The blue one would be on the bottom, the red one on top, and Angie on top of that. It would give her more protection, keep her up off the cold of the snow. I couldn’t figure out what Marlon was doing with them—did he have kids or something?—but that didn’t matter. No matter why they were here, I thought he would have welcomed us to them.
After all, he wanted to get out of here just as much as we did. And he certainly understood why we needed to do it in a hurry.
I undid the knots on the red sled’s steering rope and one end of the blue’s, then knotted the two free ends together to make one long rope for pulling. I threaded the end through the blue sled’s rope hole, counting on that sled to be the stronger of the two, then stood back and admired the construction. We’d put sleeping bags and quilts down under her, and more quilts over her, and she’d be just fine. She’d even be able to sit up and watch where we were going.
Keep an eye out for anything that seemed out of place. She could be our lookout—who also happened to travel with us.
I’d only been back in the house for ten minutes when there was a banging on the front door. I rushed toward it, already assuming the worst—that Randall had found us and was there at the door, insisting on being let in. When I arrived and looked out the window, though, I saw Marlon there, his eyes wide and his mouth tight with concern.
I made quick work of the locks on the door and threw it open.
“Marlon, what is it?”
I looked at Angie, who had managed to hobble out of our bedroom at the banging and was looking at us with eyes as big as saucers.
Marlon shook his head, pulling his arms from his coat and already moving toward his own bedroom. “I was hoping it would take longer. John, you were right; Randall must have been wearing a vest when you shot him. I was out gathering game from the traps and saw him and his cousins. They were on a trail that winds onto the far corner of the property. I don’t think they saw me, but they’re here for a reason.” He stopped and turned to me, his face grim. “He must have figured you would come to the first place you could find, looking for help. And that first place was me—though you wouldn’t have known it, given the state of the storm. Still, he was most likely only looking for a reason to attack me. Now that he’s here, our timeline has grown shorter.”
“Time to go,” I agreed.
At that, to my surprise, Marlon almost smiled.
“Nearly. I bought us some time.” He reached under his sweatshirt and pulled out a sturdy slingshot. “They were near a fairly rough outcropping of rock. Rock that was capped off by quite a bit of snow. Over the years I’ve gotten pretty good with this little pea shooter, and for a while, I made a hobby out of figuring out where to hit a snow bank to cause an avalanche. Just a small one, mind you. But enough of a disaster that it will take them some time to get out of it. I estimate that I’ve given us several hours of head start. Maybe more, if any of them was actually wounded.”
His eyes shot to Angie, and then returned to me. “Are you ready to go? Do you have a sled set up?”
“Yeah, and all our things are ready to pack,” I told him quickly.
Marlon nodded. “Then we can get a head start. Assuming bear-man was at least put off by that avalanche I caused, we have several hours while he finds a way around it. More if the snow actually came down on him or one of his cousins. You two get ready to go. The sooner we’re on the trail, the sooner we’ll find our way to Ellis Woods—and safety.”
I nodded and headed for the upstairs room where I’d been gathering our supplies. I had food, medical supplies, and some clothing for both myself and Angie already laid out on the floor. The food and medical supplies had been in the kitchen. The clothing had been in the closets—and though I hadn’t yet asked why or how Marlon had clothing in our sizes conveniently stored in his closets, that didn’t mean I was going to let it just go by. It was on the same level of “convenient” as so many other things about the man. The size of the house. All the extra rooms. The surgical theater—and all the tools.
The fact that he’d just happened to find us in the woods.
It all meant something. And the moment I had a spare second to think about it and ask some pointed questions, I was going to do just that.
But for now, I was taking what we could get and keeping my mouth shut. Because if we were going to be out on the trail, we were going to need the protection that additional clothing gave us. Especially if we had the bad luck to still be out there when night fell.
I began dividing the goods into three equal piles, assuming that we’d be able to manage three packs. Marlon and I would carry our own, of course, and Angie’s could ride with her in the sled. Yes, it would give the sled-puller additional weight. But it would also give her quick and easy access to the bag if she needed something from it. And it would give her something to rest her leg on. Or lean against.
Whatever worked.
When Marlon appeared, he was carrying a large box with him.
“You don’t think we’re going to be able to take that, do you?” I asked, surprised. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would want to take extras on the road.
But he shook his head and smiled. “It occurred to me that we might run into a situation where we need Angie on her feet rather than in the sled. And then it occurred to me that I had something that would fit the bill.”
He opened the box and pulled out a piece of equipment that I recognized—but had only ever seen in videos.
“An exoskeleton?” I asked softly, running my hand over it. The thing was a marvel of engineering, developed by the military for high-danger situations in the field when soldiers needed to patch their own up in a hurry and didn’t have time to take any extra precautions.
I’d never seen one, even in Afghanistan.
Looking at it, I thought I could see why. The thing was incredibly heavy, with straps for both the upper and lower legs and a metal composite framework that would support the entire leg. It also had a belt that would strap around the waist, and support straps at the groin to minimize shock.
My first instinct was that we didn’t need it, and that it would actually bog us down. But then I thought a bit further and realized that if something happened—if we, for some reason, needed Angie on her feet or stabilized—then we needed something like this. The fact that it would keep her leg straight and steady, and maybe keep her out of pain, was an additional motivating factor.
“How did you get this?” I asked, looking up at him in wonder.
Marlon shrugged. “It was payment from a customer. He was a research and development analyst for one of the big military industrial companies. And it turned out to be too small for most people. Which, I assume, will make it perfect for our little lady here.”
I almost jumped for joy. This would not only help to stabilize Angie’s leg, but also make her more mobile. Mobile to the point that if we needed her to run, she might actually be able to.
This thing might actually save our lives, when it came right down to it.
Across the room, Angie was smiling like a kid. “I’ll be able to walk with you.”
“Not so fast, young lady,” said the former doctor. “This is for when we have to make fast progress. Until then, you rest and let us pull you.”
“So you are coming with us,” she said quietly. “I’d wondered.”
He nodded. “I am. It’s simple, really. Randall is coming here to do damage—and he’ll do it to me even if yo
u two have left. Beyond that, things out there…well, they’ve changed. I can’t stay here unless I know what we’re dealing with. There are things I have to see to. People I have to talk to. And I can only do that in town. Or… Well, I have a better chance of doing it there than here.” He saw the questions on my face and gave me a simple nod. “And it gives me the only excuse I need to help you two on your journey. So I’d appreciate if we don’t discuss it any further.”
I chuckled, recognizing a military or intelligence man’s reasoning for what it was, but Angie shook her head. “Randall will come after us. If you’re with us, you’ll be in danger.”
Marlon met her gaze. “I’m already in danger.” He looked calm and determined. “You see, the big bad bear is after you today, but he’ll be after me too, soon enough. Especially now that law enforcement will be stretched far beyond its capacity to handle the chaos.”
“What would he want with you?”
Marlon’s expression went blank. “His wife might have died from toxins that were introduced somewhere else. But she died on my table. He’s been wanting to kill me ever since. Now it seems he has his chance.”
15
We got out into the ice and snow as quickly as possible, and within moments I had Angie on her new sled, on top of two sleeping bags, inside another, and with several quilts laid over her. I put her pack under her leg and my own pack behind her back.
Hey, as long as I was pulling her, I might as well put my pack to good use, right?
“How’s that?” I asked her breathlessly, the cold already invading my lungs. Yes, it was still early morning, and the sun was shining brightly above. But it was that sort of winter sun that brought bright light and very little warmth. This was going to be a very long, very cold ten miles.
And we were in a hurry. Which was only going to make it seem even longer. Even if Marlon was right and Randall had been trapped in an avalanche—even if he or one of his cousins had been hurt in it—it might not have given us enough of a head start. I didn’t know exactly how far Marlon’s house was from Randall’s, but it couldn’t be more than ten miles for Marlon to have casually found us wandering through the woods.
I hadn’t been stronger to go more than one or two miles myself, at that time.
And that put Randall’s house far too close to our current position. It didn’t give us the padding that I wanted. That we needed. We were going to have to move as quickly as possible.
“It’s good,” Angie said, shifting around a bit and then giving me the ghost of a smile. She pulled one arm out of the sleeping bag and reached up with it to cup my cheek. “It’s going to be okay, John. I’m going to be okay. You focus on what you need to do. I promise I’ll let you know if I need anything.”
I nodded and kissed her softly on the forehead, then turned away. I had nearly moved on to the next thing on my mental list when I heard her next line.
“And I’ll let you know when I’m ready to walk on my own.”
I pressed my lips together, but chose to pretend like I hadn’t heard her. There was no way in hell I was letting her walk on her own—not while I had strength to pull her—but I was also smart enough to know that now wasn’t the time to pick that particular fight.
When I got to the end of the rope, I bent down and picked it up, then wrapped the length over my arms, across my chest, around my back, and to my stomach. It wasn’t the most sophisticated getup, and it was going to chafe like hell, but it would also give me the best leverage—and it would allow me to expend less effort when I was pulling. This way I could use my entire body to brace against her weight, rather than just my arms. Lean forward and really dig into the snow with my steps. And hopefully find some momentum.
“We’ll take turns,” Marlon said from beside me. “I’m giving you two hours, and then I’m taking over.”
I wanted to argue. I did. This was my wife, and she was my responsibility, not his. But then I realized how stupid that would be. I might have started this journey off as a lone wolf with a wounded wife, but that wasn’t true anymore. I had backup now. And only a fool would refuse it.
“Fair enough,” I answered. “You ready for this?”
“Readier than you know,” he answered, his tone indicating that the phrase meant more than it seemed.
I put it into the file marked Things to Find Out About Marlon Later, and leaned forward, digging my boots into the snow and starting us along the trail after our newly acquired ally.
The cold was bitter and made breathing hard, but my strapping system was working. We had already gone what I estimated to be half a mile, and I was barely winded. I glanced at the sky, though, and saw that the sun had gone farther across the blue than I’d expected.
We might have gone half a mile. But by my estimate, it had taken us two hours to do it. And that was going to make a ten-mile journey a twenty-hour long process. Which was definitely not good.
Marlon must have been reading my mind, because at that moment he turned around and met my eyes.
“Two hours, according to my watch,” he said. “That means it’s my turn.”
I stared at him for a moment, and then looked behind him at the forest. So far, we’d been crossing a large, flat area that led up to his house almost like an enormous lawn. We’d been making slow but steady progress due to the flatness of the land and the existence of the snow—deep enough to make pulling the sled easy, but not so deep that it made walking difficult.
Once we got into the forest, it was going to get a whole lot rougher. Starting with the fact that there wasn’t going to be a specific trail to use, and there was going to be a lot of underbrush and litter.
Also, wildlife. Wolves. Potentially bears.
“I can pull her for longer,” I told him quickly. “I’m not tired yet.”
“And you know as well as I do that you don’t work until you’re exhausted,” he snapped back, his voice tense. “You know you save at least twenty-five percent, and you recover your strength while someone else is doing the work. You do that, or you fail.”
My mouth snapped shut at the words, which were almost exactly what I’d heard in training for my first Special Ops mission, and I stared at the man.
“Who are you?” I whispered.
Yes, I’d told myself that I didn’t need to know. Not yet. I’d even been building a file of things that I would ask him later, when we had time. Once we were safe. Once we had shelter. But I couldn’t help it. The pieces were lining up too quickly now, and I had an idea growing in my mind—but I wanted confirmation of that idea before I went any further. I wanted at least a hint about who our new ally was.
Because I was starting to wonder how much we could actually trust him. And whether him finding us had been a mistake—or a plan.
I’d been in the military for long enough to know that very few things happened by chance. And being coincidentally found in the forest, nearly dead, by someone who happened to have a fully kitted-out house with medical supplies, food, and warmth was starting to feel a whole lot like something that didn’t happen unless someone had put a lot of planning into it. I’d retired from the military with full honors and an honorable discharge. And I hadn’t been anything that special while I was enlisted.
I mean, I had. But no more than anyone else who had run special ops. There was absolutely no reason for them to be keeping tabs on me. Absolutely no reason for them to send someone out into the forest to save me in case things went sideways.
Absolutely no reason to believe any of it had anything to do with the EMP or the solar storm.
I was officially going crazy. The snow had gotten right into my brain, or I’d experienced the first case of brain freeze so extensive that it had damaged my gray matter. Maybe I had frostbite of the brain. Or maybe I was just going crazy, experiencing some insanely delayed case of PTSD that made me paranoid rather than frightened.
Crazy. That was the only answer.
Besides, I could see already that Marlon wasn’t going to give me a res
ponse.
“Forget it,” I said. “I’m sorry I asked. If you are what I think you are, then you can’t answer me. And if you aren’t what I think you are, mark it down to me being temporarily insane. In fact, let’s mark it down to that, regardless of your answer. You’re right. I need to rest—even if I don’t want to. But I’m giving you one hour, and that’s it.”
He opened his mouth like he was going to argue with me, and I put a hand up to stop him.
“You’re older than I am, and the going in the forest is going to be rougher,” I said firmly. “Traveling on the flat terrain was easy. Unless we’re going to take the road…”—I pointed to the long, flat lane where the road passed through his property and headed for town—“…it’s the forest, and it’s going to be rough going. Take it or leave it.”
He gave me a slight smile and then nodded. “You’re right. An hour it is.”
I unstrapped myself from the ropes, pausing to stretch out the kinks as I did, and grimaced. “Chafing” didn’t even begin to cover what that rope had done to my skin, even through the five or so layers I was wearing, and I already dreaded what my skin was going to look like when I got out of these clothes.
But then I turned around and saw that Angie had fallen asleep, her cheek resting on her hand, and I realized that I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I would have dealt with chafing of my entire body for the sight of her laying there, comfortable and secure enough to sleep.
But then the world exploded.
I threw myself forward and crawled toward Angie, to cover her with my own body, but Marlon grabbed my foot and hauled me backward.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” he hissed. “We need cover, and we need it now. I don’t want anyone to catch us out in the open like this.”
It took me about three nanoseconds to realize that he was right. We were obviously still there, so that meant the entire world hadn’t exploded. Just something in the distance. And if something in the distance was exploding, then it made sense that we wanted to run away from it rather than sheltering in place and waiting for whatever it was to get to us.
Bitter Cold Apocalypse | Book 1 | Bitter Cold Apocalypse Page 10
