Charit Creek

by D A Carey

  * * *

  After a shower, a dinner of fresh fish, and a good night’s rest, the group headed out of the park. They needed to go back out the way they’d come in and pass through the city of Helena, which worried Vince. They’d shot through during darkness coming in. Going out, they would be in daylight because Vince didn’t want to hit the bridge at night and they were so close. When they drove through the town, Vince relaxed a bit at seeing people going on about their business. Some even waved. It all seemed bizarre to see violence and shooting in some areas and people working and waving in others.

  A few miles outside of Helena, before they took the turn to the Helena Bridge, their luck took a turn for the worst. They were driving between a car wash on one side of the road and an auto repair place on the other when shots rang out and the windows shattered.

  The first shot took Vince in the right shoulder, just above his collarbone. He barely controlled the skid of the truck to the edge of the road. He didn’t have time to be thankful for the safety glass that allowed the windshield to shatter and not obstruct his view. The pain was too great and the blood flowing too fast. He needed to get pressure applied to the wound.

  “Arrgh,” he cried out in agony before losing consciousness.

  Liz reacted fast, pressing a towel to the wound and applying pressure while the Bronco came to rest in a ditch.

  Vince drifted back into consciousness during Liz’s ministrations and saw Christy and Mary in the backseat reacting well. After initially screaming in terror, they got their guns out and returned fire.

  Gary’s truck, in which Carol and Junior were riding, was lying on its side, a body that looked like Carol’s laying half in and half out of the windshield, her head cocked at an unnatural angle. Junior was standing behind the bed of the truck firing at the auto repair shop, and Gary was in the cab, firing out of the window in the same direction.

  Vince rasped through gritted teeth, “We’ve got to help Junior.”

  “You’re in no shape to help anyone,” Liz argued.

  “I can throw bullets that way with my left hand. Help me get my gun out and this door open.”

  “Vince—”

  “Liz, we don’t have time for this shit. They need help. If they fall, we’re next.”

  Christy and Mary heard the exchange and got out of the Bronco and into the ditch. There were cautious yet kept up a steady rate of fire toward the auto repair shop. Liz handed Vince his Glock and reached across his body to open the driver’s side door, tears in her eyes. Just then, a truck came tearing out of the auto repair shop, headed straight for them. The fire from Gary, Junior, and the girls intensified, yet it wasn’t enough. The oncoming truck’s bumper clipped the front of Gary’s truck, spinning it on its side like a top. Gary was pinned inside, Junior was thrown into the ditch, Carol’s body flung to the side like some grotesque ragdoll.

  Three men jumped out of the truck. The first man went to the cab of Gary’s truck and emptied a full clip into it. There was no way Gary could have survived. The second man focused on Junior, who lay stunned in the ditch, his weapon lost. The stranger stood over Junior like an executioner and began to fire. After two shots, the executioner’s body was flung aside by a fusillade from the ditch. Christy and Mary had moved down the ditch and taken out the second man.

  The third man advanced on Vince as his body sagged against the side of the Bronco, the gun hanging limp in his left hand and the entire front of his shirt and pants covered in blood.

  “You’re not so bad now, are you?” he taunted as he advanced.

  “Clyde? What the hell?” Vince croaked in disbelief.

  “You think you’re better than us. I’m going to kill you and keep that woman for myself for a few days before I head back.” Clyde took three more steps, firing into Vince as he spoke.

  From someplace deep inside, Vince found the strength to raise his weapon and fire back at Clyde at the same time. The distance was so close he couldn’t miss, even using his off hand. Vince took three hits in the chest, side, and leg. As he slid to the ground beside the Bronco, he could see even though he’d hit Clyde, it wasn’t enough. Clyde was on one knee, raising his weapon to put more rounds into Vince in a killing rage.

  The last thing Vince saw before things went dark was a terrifying visage of wrath on Liz’s face that he would have never expected. She’d come at Clyde from the side as she rounded the Bronco and emptied her revolver into him. Vince’s body settled to the ground with a smile.

  << Liz >>

  Something inside Liz galvanized after killing Clyde. She knelt over Vince and sobbed. These tears were different. A year or even a month ago, she might have cried in fear or helplessness. Now she cried in anger and frustration over not acting sooner, over losing a man she cared deeply about. A quote from the movie The Outlaw Josie Wales that Vince had told her was among his favorites came to mind: “Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you’re not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. Cause if you lose your head and you give up, then you neither live nor win. That's just the way it is.”

  Liz choked down a sob. It felt as if Vince was talking directly to her through that quote. She decided to get mad-dog mean.

  She only indulged in the self-pity of her loss for a few seconds more before facing the others. Carol was a broken mess beside the road. She would deal with her later. Gary was shot to rags inside the cab of the truck that lay on its side, blood seeping from the cab onto the pavement. Christy and Mary were kneeling over Junior in the ditch.

  “He may live,” Christy said. “By the way, I was a corpsman in the Navy.”

  “Okay, what do we do?” Liz asked.

  “We need to apply pressure dressings to the wounds first.”

  “I’ll go see what we have in the Bronco.”

  “No!” Mary said firmly. “Vince told us to get hidden before we do anything like this. How do we know those three were alone? How do we know more aren’t rushing here right now?”

  “You’re right,” Liz said. “Let’s move him to the Bronco.”

  “What about the others?” Christy asked.

  Liz shook her head, her tears flowing anew. “They’re all gone.”

  The three women got the semi-conscious Junior to his feet. As they were getting Junior into the Bronco, Christy asked, “What should we do about Vince, Carol, and Gary?”

  “Let’s load them in the truck so we can bury them properly later.”

  They opened the back hatch of the Bronco. It took all three women to get Vince’s body loaded.

  As they turned to go for Carol, Mary said loudly with a tinge of panic in her voice, “I hear engines!”

  Liz took charge. “Get in the Bronco. We’ll come back if we can.”

  Liz drove as hard and fast as she could. Their lives depended on it, and Vince would have wanted her to. She sped across the Highway 49 bridge and kept driving until it eventually turned into a smaller road, then through another state park. She was afraid, and the terror threatened to overwhelm her. Vince probably would have found a good place to stop in the park. All she knew was the faster she drove and the more miles she put behind them, the safer she felt. Soon after the state park, Liz saw Highway 278 and remembered it from Vince’s planned route, so she turned west on it.

  Fearing pursuit from additional attackers, Liz drove on for what seemed like hours but in reality could have only been thirty to forty minutes. All the while, Mary was keeping watch out the back of the vehicle while Christy treated Junior. Two of his wounds were “through and through,” and Christy was able to bandage them up in a first aid manner. The third wound did not have an exit hole and concerned Christy most. All she could do was apply pressure and bandage it to the best of her ability.

  As her her adrenaline began to ebb and her racing mind slowed, Liz realized they were not being pursued, and she began searching for a place to rest and allow Christy to give Junior a more thorough examination and treatment for his wounds.
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br />   Finally seeing a large warehouse, she pulled in and hid the Bronco behind it. The sign above the building proclaimed it “Pirate Adventure Family Fun Park.” Since no one would be taking their kids to amusement parks right now, and probably not for a long time, she decided it should a relatively safe option.

  “I’ll go clear the building. Vince taught me how,” Liz said to Christy and Mary while Junior was drifting in and out of consciousness. Before Christy could offer to go with her, Liz held up her hand to stave off comments. “I’ve got it.”

  She needed to do this alone.

  Immediately upon entering the building, Liz’s senses went on high alert. She could smell cooking and hear the faint sound of movement. Standing in the shadows, she could even detect the pungent aroma of curry. Liz quietly backed out of the building and went back to the Bronco, determined to find another place. Christy insisted they couldn’t leave if they wanted to save Junior. They needed to get him stabilized and stop the bleeding while someone else went for help to get the bullets out.

  A figure stepped out of the amusement park building. Liz turned with her gun trained on them, a savage expression on her face. She’d lost so many people she cared about and feared losing Junior, too. While she didn’t want to kill anyone, she didn’t want to be in charge and darn sure didn’t want to be a victim.

  The figure in front of Liz was an Indian woman with her hands in the air.

  << Levi >>

  Despite Dave’s request that he remain close to SOP-Town, Levi continually found reasons he needed to be outside roaming the mountains. Levi was a warrior by heart, and his nation was at war. His best friend was lost somewhere in the chaos of the West Coast, he hadn’t heard anything from Utah or Texas, and it all worried him for different reasons. Patrolling, prowling, and maintaining his skills to a fine edge were how he coped with stress.

  Because all but one of the major access roads to the valley had been rendered impassable by Levi’s people and the Valley council, he had less to worry about on that front. After Dave made his presentation about some of the examples of outsiders coming in and doing bad things, all Dave had to do to get the council to agree to close the valley access points was commit to them that he would personally pay to make the roads better than new when things got back to normal.

  Before descending to the valley, Levi made a goal to hike the high reaches of the valley rim, ostensibly to check the hidden hiking trails to the valley. Both he and Dave knew why he really did it.

  There was one major location that had been left passable and was set up to be manned for the long term. Levi had suggested they use semi-trucks and trailers to serve both as an office and bunk for the men who did six-hour shifts at the blockade. At this point, there were practically no travelers approaching the blockade, the only exception being a few cases in which family members of people who lived in the valley who only needed to be vetted before they were allowed to pass.

  Dave did ask that the newcomers meet with the council to tell what they’d experienced outside the valley in order to add to their intelligence and the overall picture of what was going on at a grassroots level. Normally, Louis or one of his people sat in on those debriefings and took detailed notes.

  As Levi worked his way down to the blockaded access road, he saw a man and a girl approaching the roadblock and stayed in hiding to observe his people’s work. After a few moments, he silently approached the roadblock from among the boulders. Levi was less than ten yards away when three people immediately turned and raised their weapons.

  Levi raised his hands. While it was dangerous to sneak up on them, Levi liked testing his people.

  “Dang, boss. Would you quit doing that? You’re gonna get shot one day.”

  “If you would catch me sooner, I couldn’t sneak up on you,” Levi teased, lowering his hands and turning all business. “What do we have here?”

  “They just got here, as I’m sure you know. This is Tim Bolton and his daughter Amy. Tim is from Aurora down near Denver. He doesn’t have any family or close friends in the valley. He says he has a small cabin that he built himself on a few acres here. From what I can tell, he’s had a hard time of it. I was going to dispatch someone to take them to the council for debriefing.”

  “Okay, make the call to the valley and SOP-Town so Louis can send someone down. I want to talk to this man while you do that.”

  Levi approached a thin, middle-aged man and his teenage daughter sitting on the steps to the semi-trailer on the side of the road. He couldn’t help but notice the haunted shadows in the man’s eyes and the tremor in his hands. Before speaking to the man, Levi turned to the guard sergeant beside him and said, “Tell Louis that Dave might want to be there for this debrief if he has nothing else pressing.”

  Turning back to the man, Levi stuck out his hand. “It appears as if you’ve had a rough go of it. Do you mind telling me some about it?”

  “Why?” Tim’s voice quavered. “I don’t want any trouble or to get anyone else in trouble. I only want to get my daughter to my cabin safely. I’m a landowner in the valley. I should be allowed in.”

  “We aren’t keeping you out,” Levi said with a gentleness that belied his size and grim expression. “We want to keep this valley safe and make sure you’re not being followed or coerced. It’s important to us to know what’s going on down there and what we might run into if we had to go down there.”

  “All right.” Tim’s body slumped, and some of the tension he’d been holding onto left him. “It’s hell down there. A raging inferno of Hell. When the lights went out, we thought it was nothing more than a normal outage. We had food and supplies, and these blackouts never last more than a few days. After a day or so, we began to worry. Mostly it was for my parents, who are both retired. They only live about ten blocks from us, so I hiked over to check on them. Even though things weren’t that bad yet, it was weird. With most blackouts, you see emergency lights and cop cars and some semblance of the government. There was none of that this time. All I heard was some screams. I was torn as to whether I should go try to help whoever was screaming or just get to my parents. Then I heard laughter and decided it was some drunken blackout party. So I went ahead to check on my parents.”

  “When was this?” Levi asked.

  “About a week ago, maybe ten days. It all gets so confusing.”

  “Okay, before you go on further, I know some other people are going to want to hear your story. I want to take you and your daughter to the South Park valley council and get you some food and warm clothes. Is that okay?”

  Tim nodded.

  << Dave >>

  Louis had relayed Levi’s message, and Dave’s curiosity was piqued. He decided he had enough time to go down to the valley council at Fareplay by horseback, knowing full well that the people of the council would get the refugees clothed and fed before pressing for more details. He informed Louis’s runner of his decision, and they made sure Dave’s horse was saddled, along with one for Sally McKinney and another security person. They always kept at least two people close to Dave when Levi couldn’t be there.

  Seeing the copper-colored horse named Penny made Dave think of his nephew and experience a sense of anguish at not knowing what was going on with him and Liz Pendleton. In most cases, he knew he could count on Vince to fight his way through any obstacle. Now he was so weakened by the cancer surgery and the obstacles were so many that he didn’t know.

  All these thoughts swirled in Dave’s mind as he stepped close to offer Penny a treat before mounting the horse. She was one of many Rocky Mountain horses that Vince had recommended Dave buy from Greg’s friend in Kentucky. Dave had been surprised to learn the breed was not named for his beloved Rocky Mountains but instead for a place in Tennessee. In any event, these horses did indeed have the personality of a Labrador retriever as Greg said. Dave instantly fell in love with them. It was a great way to experience the valley when he wasn’t hiking, and it conserved fuel.

  About two hours later, Dave an
d his security team dismounted in front of the valley council building. With so many people riding horses again, someone had restored hitching rails and watering troughs along much of the main street. Dave smiled at the appearance of it all, inwardly grimacing at what he expected to hear when he entered the valley council conference room. They wouldn’t have called him if it wasn’t serious.

  Dave was seated and offered a cold drink of well water with an herb garnishment. Levi gave him a nod and asked a thin middle-aged man sitting next to a cute teenage girl to repeat for Dave what he told him at the roadblock and then continue. It was obvious the two were father and daughter, linked in a shared tragedy as well as appearance.

  After the man repeated what he’d told Levi at the roadblock, Levi turned to the group while focusing mostly on Dave. “It was at this point in my interview with Tim that I knew what he was telling me was more serious than what we’d heard before and was a graphic description of ground zero for the chaos in Denver. I appreciate him sharing the story and didn’t want him to have to do it twice, so I brought him straight here and called you all.”

  “I understand,” Dave said. “Mr. Bolton, I know this must be hard for you. It’s vitally important for us. Can you share with us all the rest of the details of what you went through and saw on the way here?”

  “Yes, sir. Mr. Goldman told me what you’re doing here and why you need the information. I’ll share all I know and answer any questions. Then I want to take my daughter and go to my cabin.”

  “I understand, and thank you. Levi tells me that your cabin is in the valley near our SOP-Town community. I promise to help get you supplied, and you and your daughter are welcome to visit our town if there is something you need.”

  “Thank you. Well, I suppose I’ll get right into it and get it over with. As I mentioned before, I went to check on my parents. I wasn’t worried at that time. I thought it was only a blackout. The walk to their house and not seeing any emergency power or law enforcement seeped into my bones in a weird way. Despite my fears, when I got there, they were fine. Their home is larger than ours, and my dad is somewhat of a stockpiler. His parents grew up in the depression era, and things like that carry over from generation to generation sometimes.”