Miracles

by Thomas A. Watson

  Heading to the dorm complex on the other side of the platform, “She’s a slut!” Skannish shouted out before walking into the dorm complex.

  “Get your laptop and get what we need. I’m going to get him to try and rescue the princess before we move the MRAPs,” Sarah laughed. “I want to build up some laughs before we leave and see the nasty that’s outside.”

  Grabbing Sarah’s hand, Sutton pulled her across the platform toward the dorm complex. “That’s a great idea. He can never play more than two hours. I’ll download what we need, then we can drive to the door.”

  “I’ll make some popcorn,” Sarah laughed.

  Chapter Eight

  Bad Guys Don’t Wear Masks

  They left after the monitors showed it was dark outside and Skannish was still calling the princess a slut. Riding with Sarah who was in the lead, Skannish was looking at the screen in front of him. “I want to try out the remote gun, but I’m scared,” he admitted. “If those little bullets make that much noise, I really don’t want to know how much those big bullets make.”

  Reaching up and adjusting the knob on the goggles until she was satisfied with the image, Sarah grinned. “As thick as the armor on this thing is, it shouldn’t hurt our ears,” she told him.

  Lifting his gaze to look out the front window at the dark world, “That’s not what I meant,” he corrected. “I’m afraid how far off others can hear it.”

  Never thinking of that, “Oh, then let’s hope we don’t have to shoot it,” Sarah said, glancing in the rearview mirror and saw Sutton driving behind her. Like her truck, he was driving without lights. It was now she was thankful she had listened to Skannish a month ago when they’d started getting ready to leave. He’d told them they needed to get used to the NVGs to see in the dark before they drove with them. At the time Sarah thought it was stupid, but now she knew she was very wrong.

  “I just don’t think it’s wise to wait to try it out when we need it,” Skannish admitted, pulling up the atlas.

  Having already missed one turn, Sarah bit her tongue while waiting for Skannish to tell her when the next one was. After ten minutes and passing two roads, “Next turn should be soon,” she reminded him.

  “Sarah, I’m looking,” Skannish said, leaning close to the map and adjusting his glasses. Lifting his head, Skannish saw a sign and looked back down at the map.

  Fighting the urge to just grab the map, “Do I need to slow down?” she asked.

  “I think we passed it three miles back,” Skannish replied.

  Getting angry but knowing she couldn’t navigate and drive at night with the big truck, Sarah started thinking of how to tactfully address this. She was about to speak when she saw a small gas station and diner on the right side of the road. Taking her foot off the gas, Sarah glanced around and saw they were surrounded by fields and it was the only structure she could see. But what Sarah was looking at were the dozen or so cars in the parking lot. “Scan around with the robot gun and see if you spot anything,” Sarah barked.

  Lowering the atlas, Skannish was about to protest but then noticed Sarah was slowing down. Grabbing the joystick he swung it back and forth. “I see some deer and I think some horses,” Skannish told her, then felt Sarah braking. “We don’t have room for anything!”

  Ignoring Skannish, Sarah grabbed her radio. “Stopping,” she called out, and stopped on the road in front of the station. Grabbing her P90, Sarah glanced in her mirror and saw Sutton stop right behind her. “Keep watch,” Sarah told Skannish as she got out and closed the door hearing him about to speak, but she knew it was only to rant.

  Looping the sling over her head, “Oh, I love him, but I’m going to strangle him,” Sarah moaned, and heard Sutton trotting up. “I won’t be long, so just wait,” she said and strolled for the parking lot.

  Thinking Sarah was taking a pee break, Sutton was about to head back to his truck when he saw Sarah moving around the parked cars and trucks looking inside. His mouth fell open when Sarah raised her gun and shot in the side window of a car. Using her gun to clear the glass, she reached in and opened the door.

  Reaching in, he saw her take something stuck on the windshield off and climb out. Sarah looked at it and tucked it under her arm before she continued to look in cars. When she shot out the window of a truck, Sutton started looking around in panic, gripping his gun tight. Turning back to Sarah, he saw her walking back holding something in her left hand.

  “Get the one under my arm,” she told him and Sutton grabbed it, seeing it was a GPS unit. “I get this one because I can program in roads,” she said, holding the one up in her hand.

  “He missed another turn, huh?” Sutton grinned.

  Nodding her head as she reached for the door, “For the last hour, all Skannish has talked about was how the princess is a slut,” Sarah said, but couldn’t help but grin. “I’ll call on the radio when I have it programed.”

  Watching her climb in, Sutton chuckled to hear Skannish. “I have the map, you don’t need a computer guide!”

  “Well, watch the map and make sure she gets the route right!” Sarah snapped as she shut the door.

  Jogging back to his truck, Sutton stopped and answered nature’s call then climbed in. He plugged his GPS and turned it on. Typing in their first rest stop, he gave a startle when Sarah called over the radio, “Moving out.”

  He just stuck his unit to the window and dropped the shifter in drive. Settling in the seat, Sutton pulled off while keeping twenty yards behind Sarah and saw his speedometer staying at forty-five. “I didn’t drive this fast in a forty-five zone,” he sighed, but they had talked about it and all agreed, any faster would be too dangerous. They had already dodged several wrecks and since they were staying on county roads, a small wreck blocked most of the two lanes.

  They had traveled two hundred miles and were heading south through West Virginia when they saw their first group of people as they passed through a small town. “People to the right,” Sarah called out on the radio.

  Grabbing the radio, “I see them,” Sutton replied, studying the group in a parking lot of a small store. As he passed, Sutton could see them very clearly with his night vision goggles and gave a shiver. There were three adults and a bunch of teens, but all of them looked at the two trucks with unbiased hate. “What the hell did we do to you?” Sutton wondered.

  Glancing in his side mirror as he drove on, Sutton was thankful none pulled out. Never slowing, they passed through the small town and were soon back in farm country.

  Stretching out in his seat, Sutton gave a startle several hours later when his radio went off. “How’s your fuel?” Sarah asked.

  “Just over half a tank,” Sutton answered.

  “Stopping,” Sarah called out and Sutton grinned to hear Skannish in the background complaining. “I said we’re stopping!” Sarah shouted before releasing the microphone.

  “Maybe I should let her ride with me,” Sutton thought.

  When they stopped, he saw the semi-truck parked on the shoulder of the road. “Smart girl,” he grinned.

  Using a fuel transfer pump they’d scavenged in the bunker, they fueled up and stretched their legs. When fuel overflowed from Sutton’s ride, Sarah turned the pump off. “Wish we could take the rest,” she said, tapping the tank on the semi.

  “We have a hundred gallons in the trailer,” Skannish reminded her.

  “Yeah, and I would be happy to not use any of it,” Sarah sighed as Sutton gathered up the pump.

  Glancing at his watch, “You think we can make that State Park in Indiana?” Sutton asked.

  “We’re only a hundred and fifty miles away,” Sarah scoffed. “We’ll make it well before the sun comes up.”

  “Oh, so you trust that little computer more than my navigating?” Skannish huffed.

  “At least she tells me when a turn is coming before I get to it and not after I passed it!” Sarah snapped, and Skannish slumped his shoulders. With his head cast down, he shuffled back to the MRAP and climbed i
n. Giving a long sigh, “That’s why I hate getting gruff with him,” Sarah admitted, feeling like she had kicked a puppy.

  “It doesn’t bother me when he does that sulking to me,” Sutton confessed. “A decade ago when he started that, it did for a year or so, but I got over it fast.” Giving a laugh as Sutton stored the pump, Sarah waited until he was done before they loaded up and continued on.

  When they crossed into Indiana, Sutton gave a startle when Sarah called on the radio to stop. Stopping on the road in front of a hardware store, Sutton glanced around as Sarah climbed out of her MRAP. He could see houses, but they were half a mile away across a field. “Wait, I won’t be long,” Sarah told him on the radio as she walked around her ride and headed for the hardware store. Seeing the gun mount on Sarah’s MRAP slowly turning, Sutton put his ride in park.

  Flipping his goggles up, Sutton turned on the thermal for his remote gun station. Using the joystick, he turned it behind them and scanned around. Way off in the distance he could see hot spots on the left side of the road, but they were too far away to even guess what they were.

  Noticing movement from the corner of his eye he saw Sarah pushing a shopping cart out with boxes. “What the hell did she need so bad from a hardware store?” Sutton wondered.

  Walking around Sutton’s ride, Sarah opened the passenger door and started tossing the boxes in the passenger side. Glancing in the first box, Sutton saw it was packed with cans of spray paint. Watching the boxes getting tossed in, Sutton saw they all held cans of spray paint. Before he could ask, “Let’s go,” Sarah said, closing the door.

  Watching Sarah just push the shopping cart off the road into the ditch, Sutton racked his brain trying to figure it out and then gave up as Sarah pulled off. Turning off his remote station and shifting back into drive, he followed on.

  ***

  Laying on the gear in the back of his MRAP and hearing a metal rattling, Sutton cracked his eyes open and lifted his head. Looking in the front, he saw Sarah shaking cans of spray paint in each hand. “Good, you’re up,” Sarah smiled at him.

  Dropping his head down with a grunt, Sutton pulled his wrist to his face while blinking his eyes and saw he had slept six hours. “I am now,” he mumbled and crawled to the front, sliding into the driver’s seat. “Just why the spray paint?”

  “To paint the rides,” Sarah answered. “Did you see the way those people we passed looked at us?”

  Giving a yawn, “Yeah, we weren’t their friends,” Sutton got out in a groan.

  “Sutton, they didn’t get the hostile looks until they saw the side of my MRAP had a Homeland seal and Homeland written on the bottom,” she told him.

  Turning to her, “You’re sure?” he asked.

  “Sutton, one was waving at me till they saw the side of my truck and dropped his hand,” Sarah said. “I want you to cover me, so I can do some painting.”

  Looking out the window, “Have you seen or heard anything?” he asked.

  “No, and Skannish is still asleep,” Sarah said. “And I’m not staying in the truck with him snoring,” she said flatly.

  “Wise choice, he can wake the dead,” Sutton finally said. “Want me to help?”

  “Yeah, keep an eye out while I paint,” Sarah repeated. “All those books we read said to always have someone cover you.”

  “Sarah, you went into a store alone to get spray paint,” Sutton sighed.

  “Yeah, and you and Skannish were in the trucks on the remote guns covering me,” she pointed out. “You can’t do that when you’re asleep.”

  When it was put like that, Sutton felt stupid. “I can do it and you guard.”

  “Hey, I’m still your boss,” she chuckled, climbing out.

  They’d reached the state park south of Bloomington, Indiana just before the sun rose. Looking around the park, Sutton didn’t see anything except trees and picnic tables. On the left side was a rental cabin between them and Lake Monroe. Studying the cabin, Sutton saw it looked untouched compared to the thousands of houses they had passed last night.

  Turning on the remote station from standby, Sutton glanced out the window thinking this was a nice area. When he heard the hiss of spray paint Sutton gave a startle, not believing he’d heard it in the armored truck. Leaning over and looking down at the passenger window, he saw Sarah painting the emblem on the passenger door. Lifting his eyes to look back at the cabin trying to estimate the distance, Sutton put it forty yards and a line of hedges about three feet tall that ran in front of the cabin, he put at fifteen to twenty. There was a break in the hedges where a sidewalk led from the road up to the cabin.

  Running the idea of just staying at the cabin, “Not big enough,” Sutton concluded after studying the cabin harder. Thinking he saw movement at the bottom of one of the windows, Sutton stared at the same spot for five minutes. “Need coffee,” he concluded, shifting one of the boxes of spray paint cans. He saw, brown, a lot of brown in many different shades. Then he noticed every color was in different shades, black, green, brown, and gray.

  Turning to the screen that showed the camera on the remote firing station, he grabbed the joystick to swing the mount around slowly from the right. He stopped when he saw some dogs trot across the road behind them. “Yeah, I feel sorry for the pets,” he sighed.

  Leaning over and looking down at Sarah again, he saw she was painting the top half of the door that’d been white. “Now I know why she got a hundred plus cans. She’s going to paint both vehicles,” he chuckled. Lifting his eyes off of Sarah, Sutton caught movement behind the hedge where it met the sidewalk.

  Pulling back into the driver’s seat, he turned the mount toward the cabin and could see the hedges clearly, but they were too thick to see through. Shifting his eyes on the screen he could make out all the details of the cabin very clearly. The windows were black on the screen, making him relax. “Nothing hot inside,” he mumbled as a small voice inside his head told him that he had read something about that.

  “That’s right!” he gasped. “Can’t see heat through glass, only temperature of the surface.” Swinging the mount from the cabin Sutton stopped, catching movement again at the corner of the hedge.

  “That was a kid! A little girl!” he cried out, staring at the spot with his eyes. Then he felt really guilty for aiming the gun at the cabin. “I probably scared the crap out of her.”

  Moving the boxes of paint from the seat and into the area he’d been sleeping on top of all the gear in back, Sutton crawled over to the passenger seat. He opened the small port in the window and saw Sarah was at the front wheel well. “Sarah,” he whispered loudly.

  Giving a groan, Sarah continued painting, feeling the can was nearly empty. “Yes?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.

  Cringing at how loud Sarah was, Sutton whispered again. “Sarah, not so loud and come here.”

  “The door has wet paint,” she informed him.

  “God damn it, Sarah, come here!” Sutton shouted, startling her and making her drop the can.

  Looking up at the window to see Sutton glaring at her, “I’ll come to the other side,” Sarah told him. “Shake me up two more cans.”

  Grumbling as he reached back to open the driver’s door, Sutton kept his eyes on the corner of the hedge. When Sarah opened the door, she saw Sutton’s boots as he leaned over to the passenger seat. “What, where’s the paint?” she asked climbing up.

  “There’s a little girl behind the hedge,” Sutton whispered.

  Climbing inside and moving beside Sutton, “Are you sure?” Sarah asked.

  “Yes, she has black hair,” Sutton answered, still staring at the spot.

  “How old?”

  Giving a grunt, “Sarah, I couldn’t even guess because I don’t have any experience with kids. She looked about waist high, though,” Sutton answered. “I think when I swung the gun over I scared her.”

  Giving a gasp, “Oh my God, so did I and Skannish,” Sarah moaned. “We probably terrified her.”

  “We didn’t kno
w,” Sutton said, but still felt guilty. “What do we do? If she’s out here, I’m betting she’s alone.”

  Feeling her heart breaking, “Poor thing, her family’s probably dead and we scared her,” Sarah suggested in a breaking voice. Both were still in the mindset of the old world and not the new world of viral misery. “We can’t leave her.”

  “I didn’t say that, you did,” Sutton barked, not taking his eyes from the window. “If we just go over there she could run off, and one thing I do know, kids are fast.”

  “Stay here, let me go and see if I can get her to come out,” Sarah offered. “I can offer her some food.”

  Finally taking his eyes from the window to stare at the side of Sarah’s face, “Sarah, it’s a kid, not a cat,” Sutton told her.

  “Well, what do we do then?” Sarah barked and Sutton turned back to the window.

  Not having a better solution, “Okay, go and see if you can get her to come out,” Sutton said.

  About to leave, Sarah stopped. “You come with me and stand at the front of the truck,” Sarah told him.

  Thinking that didn’t sound right, “Why?” he asked.

  “Sutton, if she’s behind those hedges that means she’s been there since we pulled in,” Sarah told him. “We can tell her nobody is inside the big truck to point the big machine gun at her.”

  Glancing back again, “Kids have that good of a concept?”

  “Hell, I don’t know, but it would make me feel better if I was a kid hiding behind the bushes and saw giant trucks with robot machine guns on top,” Sarah admitted.

  Pondering that, Sutton had to agree. “Okay, but we’ll keep our guns. I saw some dogs behind us and we’ve heard reports of them attacking people,” he said patting her P90. “We’ll just let them hang off us.”

  Looking at the P90, Sarah nodded. “That sounds good because I wouldn’t have known this was a gun as a kid.”

  “Okay, you go to the front of the truck to watch while I get out, so we can see if she leaves,” he told her.