Dark Days (Book 1): The Collapse

by Davis, James

  “If the other one moves kill the boy, don't hurt the lady. We have a date later,” he said shooting a wink at Karen. Clay didn't waste the opportunity, swinging his right fist wide and connecting with the man's jaw as hard he as he could before coming back with an equally powerful left, then dropping low and placing a flurry of blows to the man's gut. Roy stumbled backwards and shook off the blow as he drew back and slammed his fist into the side of Clay's head. He had taken many blows in his life but he couldn't remember ever being hit that hard. Stumbling from the incredible strike, Clay barely had time to avoid the second. Ducking underneath the second wild haymaker, Clay took a step forward and kicked his foot bringing it up between the man's legs. Roy let out a grunt and stumbled as Clay grabbed a handful of his unkempt brown beard, and brought his head forward, smashing into Roy's nose who fell backward and laid motionless in the grass. Clay approached the man intent on finishing the job. Roy shot out his leg, connecting with the back of Clay's leg, effectively sweeping him off of his feet. Moving faster than anyone his size has a right to, Roy quickly mounted Clay and began to rain down blow after blow into his face.

  Unable to watch any longer, Hank had to do something. Jumping to his feet, he jammed his elbow into the stomach of the thug on his right and then spinning and planting the back of his fist into the remaining thug’s head, slamming it into the side of his mutilated car. The thug's eyes snapped shut as he fell unconscious. Hank grabbed his pistol from the falling man's waistband and brought up his hand. He aimed at the first man who had recovered and was drawing his own weapon. He pulled the trigger, the bullet striking the man in the head. Blood trickled down from the hole as his lifeless body fell to the ground. Distracted by the commotion the brute ceased his assault on Clay and began charging toward Hank. Clay saw this and let out a quick whistle. Hearing his master's summons, Sarge was there in a flash.

  The black dog, who resembled a panther more than a dog as it hit Roy in the back like a rocket, knocking him down and latching his powerful jaws onto his forearm. He grabbed the dog by the scruff of its neck and effortlessly tossed him aside. Sarge landed with a yelp about ten feet away and Roy got up to his knees as he tried to stand. The next thing he saw was Clay's boot. A disgusting mixture of slobber, blood, and teeth flew from his mouth as Clay's foot plowed into his chin knocking him back once again. Clay was on him in an instant, cursing as he wrapped both hands around the man's throat. His face began to turn purple as Clay choked the life out of him. Roy’s arms were flailing toward Clay’s face in a desperate attempt to save his own life.

  Clay tightened his grip, as the flailing arms grew weaker and weaker, before finally falling limp to the ground. Clay, satisfied the man was good and dead rolled to the side and laid in the grass next to the deceased man, attempting to catch his breath.

  “Hank, put a bullet in that prick’s head. He's still breathing.” Clay said pointing at the unconscious man by Hank's destroyed car. Hank pulled his sidearm, stepped over to the man and kicked his boot a few times till he woke up.

  “What happened?” the man said in a garbled voice.

  “I'll tell you what happened you son of a bitch, you and your little prick buddies thought you could just run up on us with those big ass trucks and take whatever you want! Do you realize how much damn time and money I spent on that car? Huh? Do you?” Hank screamed. The man was clearly afraid for his life.

  “No mister you got it all wrong, Roy was going to kill me if I didn’t get on board with them. I had no choice.”

  “Well guess what, now I'm gonna kill you for being a piece of shit!” Hank raised his pistol and fired a single round into the man's heart, silencing any further protest the man had.

  “Shhh it's ok baby, everything is alright,” Karen said lifting Toby into her arms. Seeing this, Clay thought of his own family and hoped they were ok. Hank saw that his brother was visually upset and sat down next to him tossing an arm around his shoulder.

  “They are just fine bro, I just know they are. We'll be there before you know it. You stocked plenty of guns and ammo there for this very reason, plus Ashley is a crack shot with her AK.”

  “Yeah I know Hank, but damn I can't help but worry. I'm supposed to be there, protecting them. God knows what they've been through since the lights went out, if our experience is any indication.” Clay shuddered at the thought.

  “Think about this, maybe they have already made it to the camp and are safe and sound just waiting for us to get there. I mean she knew the plan if anything like this were ever to happen right?”

  “Yeah we went over the bug out plan plenty of times, and even figured out the best and safest way to get there.” Hank stood and helped his brother to his feet. Dusting him off, Hank said, “well see there ya go, after she picked up all the extra supplies you sent her after she most likely headed straight to the camp to ride this thing out and wait on us.” Clay let out a loud sigh.

  “They were just eating dinner last I heard from them, she would be heading there now, we just need to get moving." he said as he knelt down to pet Sarge.

  “You alright boy”? Clay said. Sarge chuffed, dusting himself off with an overdramatic shake of his body. Clay laughed,

  “Crazy-ass dog.”

  “Alright guys, let's see what we can salvage from the car and load it up in the back of those old ass trucks.” Hank said.

  “How the hell are we going to put fuel in those things? I bet they only get 3 or 4 miles per gallon.” Clay replied.

  “Looks like they run on methanol, which I'm pretty sure isn't on anyone's radar given the current situation. We can probably find a tanker full of the stuff abandoned on the road somewhere, or we can just set up a shine still and make our own.”

  “I didn't know you could make moonshine,” Clay said somewhat surprised.

  “There's a lot you don't know about me dear brother,” Hank replied.

  “Well let's see if we can even start these monstrosities so we can get the hell out of here.” The men climbed up into either truck and pushed in their respective ignition buttons, seconds later the trucks roared to life. The sound of both trucks firing up at the same time was deafening causing Karen to jump, which also woke Toby. Surprisingly the boy looked more interested in the trucks than he was scared. They shut the trucks off and climbed down to start loading them each with their remaining supplies. When they finished loading, Hank helped Karen and Toby climb up before getting in himself. Hank took one last look at his destroyed car, he couldn't believe it was gone. They put the metal behemoths in gear and took off down the road.

  *****

  Ashley stood on the front porch, peering into the darkness. Almost an entire day had passed and she still hadn't heard from Clay, or anyone for that matter. She was sure he was on his way, he had to be, but what was taking him so long? She knew Clay would want her to take Emma and get to the camp but she didn't want to be gone when he got home. A loud cry sounded from inside the house, pulling her from her thoughts.

  “Well shit, that nap didn't last long” she said as she turned and went inside. When she got to Emma's room, the little girl was already halfway out of her crib, legs hanging down ready to drop to the floor.

  “Emma what are you doing?” Ashley screeched as Emma released her grip and started sliding off the top rail. She was just about to hit the floor when Ashley snatched her up into her arms.

  “Let's get you some dinner, how's that sound?” Ashley asked the toddler.

  “Dinner!” Emma exclaimed letting loose a high pitch squeal.

  “Alright.” Ashley replied with a chuckle, as she entered the kitchen with Emma in her arms.

  “Daddy?” the girl said looking around the kitchen.

  “Daddy's not here, he'll be here in a minute.” she said holding back a tear.

  “In a minute,” Emma repeated sadly throwing Ashley into a full-blown meltdown. Seeing she was scaring the child, Ashley quickly got herself under control. She wiped away her tears and started looking for something
to cook on the small camp stove she had set up outback.

  “Hotdogs or nuggets?” She said holding the two items up for Emma to see.

  “Hotdog?” The girl asked reaching up for the nuggets. Ashley laughed, “babygirl, you don't know what you want do you?”

  Ashley placed a plate of chopped hot dogs on the table in front of Emma. The only light coming from a single candle in the center of the table. As Emma shoveled hot dog pieces into her mouth, Ashley sat in silence, she wasn't in any mood to eat right now.

  “We can't wait forever.” she said, more to herself than anyone else.

  “Maybe Clay's already at the camp, waiting for us. If he got here and we were gone he would go there anyway.” she reasoned out loud. Emma continued to focus on the food in front of her, oblivious to the conversation taking place.

  “Let's give Daddy until morning. If he's not here by then we'll leave,” she said, as she stood up to begin clearing the table.

  After dinner was taken care of, Ashley collected water from the hot water heater to fill an old galvanized washtub. She heated the water on the camp stove so they could clean up a little before bedtime. Emma sat, splashing water all over the kitchen floor. Ashley watched as small rubber ducks went flying in all directions but she didn't say a word about the mess. The girl was obviously having a blast and she was not about to take that from her. Fifteen minutes later Ashley stood and stretched out the kinks in her back.

  “Come on monkey, it's time to get out and get ready for bed.” Sleep came quick for the two girls that night.

  Ashley tossed and turned until a nightmare invaded her dreams of Clay, causing her to sit up straight in her bed and start sobbing. She looked down at her watch through the flow of tears seeing that it was almost 3 am. The soft sound of splintering wood echoed through the house putting Ashley on full alert. She reached over to her nightstand and grabbed her pistol, intent on protecting her daughter. She could hear the light footsteps coming down the hallway toward her room as she tightened the grip of her pistol. She tried to control her breathing as the footsteps drew near and then stopped altogether. She didn't make a sound and hoped Emma wouldn't wake up.

  A familiar sound could be heard from the hallway as the strong smell of sulfur hit her nose and light filled the doorway. Ashley raised her pistol and took aim at the large figure stepping into her room. She hadn't even had time to move her finger to the trigger when an arm shot in from behind the man, wrapping itself around his neck and pulling him back into the hallway. Ashley crept from her hiding spot, slowly peering out into the hallway. She could just make out two bodies struggling on the floor as she raised her pistol once more, not sure which man she should be pointing it toward. Ashley watched as the first man's arms went limp and fell to the ground, finally ending the struggle. She tightened the grip on her pistol as the smaller man crawled out from beneath the now lifeless man.

  “I have a gun!” Ashley said aloud from the darkness, her pistol still aimed at the shadowy figure in the doorway.

  “Good for you.” A man's voice shot back.

  CHAPTER 5

  Clay watched Sarge and Bella in the back of Hank's giant truck. Ears were flying and lips were flapping as slobber flew off in long stringy wads from the two dogs’ muzzles. Clay laughed seeing them enjoying the ride more than anyone else was. The miles passed by slowly as they made their way down the road, going around most of the abandoned cars. Clay thought about plowing over the cars but if there were people taking refuge in them he could accidentally kill someone, he didn’t want something like that weighing on his conscious. It was slow going but at least they didn't have to stop for fuel. The trucks’ previous owners had stored several 50-gallon drums of methanol in the truck Clay was currently driving. They were a good distance away from the last roadblock when they spotted a farmhouse that had a couple of old barns with faded red paint.

  Clay signaled for Hank to stop, then followed him to the side of the road. Clay and Hank climbed down from the trucks and looked around.

  “Let's stop here and rest awhile. We can eat and let the dogs run around.” Clay said as he tried to stretch the kinks out of his back.

  “Yeah that's a good idea, Karen, we're taking a break, hand Toby down to me.” Hank said turning to look up at his wife. “It's about damn time, I haven't been able to feel my ass for the past hour.” She groused as she lowered Toby down to his dad.

  “Come on down and I’ll feel it for ya, you know to make sure it's not injured or anything.” Hank replied, grinning from ear to ear. All of the sudden a shoe came flying straight toward Hank’s face, close enough he could feel the wind from it.

  “Hey! What the hell was that for?” Clay cried out, rubbing his shoulder where the shoe had just hit him. Hank started laughing hysterically.

  “Seriously, what did I do?” Clay asked, looking from Hank then at Karen.

  “I was aiming for your jackass brother,” she said as she forced down a smile and started climbing down from the truck.

  Clay climbed back up into the truck to lower Sarge and Bella down, as soon as their paws touched the ground the hair on their backs raised, and they let out a low menacing growl, alerting Hank and Clay to the two men approaching on horseback.

  “Karen, take Toby over behind those cars and wait for us to tell you it's safe.” Hank said as he pulled the charging handle on his rifle, making sure he had a round chambered. Clay quickly climbed down, taking cover behind the truck’s giant front tire.

  “You think these big ass tires can stop a bullet?” Clay asked.

  “I don't know, but I suspect you're about to find out.” Hank replied with a chuckle. Clay gave a one-fingered response as he snuck a quick peek around the edge of the tire. He could see the pair was about 75 yards away now,

  “Hank get ready, they're almost on top of us!” Clay said scanning the field for more potential threats.

  The two riders approached with their guns drawn, aiming them at Clay and Hank.

  “Y’all put them damn guns down!” The first rider said, Clay laughed.

  “Hell no, you put down your guns and we won’t kill you.” It had turned into a stand off and both sides were starting to get angry. Especially Karen.

  “Who the hell are you and why are you on my property?” The second rider asked as he climbed down from his horse.

  “We’re not on your property. You don’t own the fucking road,” Karen said, putting Toby down and stepping from their hiding spot behind the old car. She approached the horsemen getting louder and jabbing her finger into the man's chest then she turned on the other rider and started towards him.

  “We've had a very long day, and we have somewhere we need to be,” Karen spat, reaching her breaking point as she continued, “and we just keep running into pussies like you over and over again! You think you can just stop and harass whoever you want, like you own the damn roads!” She screamed as she turned to look each one of the men in the eye.

  “Riding around on your horses like you're Jesse fucking James, robbing and killing each other! Un-fucking-believable!” Karen had been through enough; she would not let these bastards pull this shit on them again. The men's jaws were hanging open, eyes wide with shock, none of them speaking a word. Hank looked over at Clay, who appeared as dumbfounded as everyone else. Karen's unexpected outburst was a shock to everyone, even Toby was quiet for once. A long drawn out belly laugh broke the silence and everyone's heads snapped to the right seeing an old white haired man doubled over with laughter approaching them. Clay's eyes went even wider, and a smile crept on to his face as he joined in on the man's laughter.

  “What is so fucking funny?” Hank said, looking at his brother. Clay didn't answer. He stood ignoring the men's stammered protests and walked calmly toward the old man. The two men shook hands as Clay approached.

  “Dub, how the hell are ya?” Now everyone was confused, “Clay, you know these people?” Hank said.

  “Nope, I do know Dub though. He's the forklift driver at one
of my stops,” Clay said with a smile on his face.

  “Those two that just got their asses handed to them by your lady friend there are my boys, Jeff and Randy.” Dub said, still trying to get his laughter under control. Clay and Hank shook hands with the men as they all sized one another up.

  “Jeff, Randy cut that shit out! This ain't no damn pissing contest. Where y'all headed to?” Dub asked.

  “We're trying to get back home to my family.” Clay said running his fingers through his hair.

  “It wasn't long after I left the plant that the lights went out, I ended up having to walk about 50 miles to my brother’s place in Huntsville. It's been a pretty rough trip so far.”

  “Well y'all come on up to the house and get you a hot meal, we've got plenty of food and I'm not taking no for an answer! Jeff, Randy, show these fine folks where to park those monsters and then bring them inside for some breakfast. And bring them pups in as well.” Soon they were all sitting around a large rectangular table, talking about the past day’s events. Dub was covertly sneaking strips of bacon to Sarge and Bella under the table as he listened to Clay.

  “Well that certainly explains why your face looks like you got beat with a shovel” Dub said slipping one more strip of bacon to each dog.

  “That bastard hit like a damn mule!” Clay said finishing his recap of the last 24 hours.

  “So how's everything been going here?”

  “Well we had a little trouble out of this “Joe” character, and his little merry band of dipshits last night, but me and the boys lit those little pricks up while they were trying to steal our damn chickens. The ones that got away are probably still digging lead out of their asses.” Dub said with a chuckle.

  “Sounds like you have everything under control here. Guess I won't have to save your sorry ass anytime soon, you old coot.” Clay said as he choked down a laugh.