by Lukens, Mark
I know, Ray wanted to shout back, but he didn’t have time.
Gunshots exploded from Gil’s truck right behind them. Luke must be shooting at the rippers with the rifle he had, lying down in the bed of the truck. He would only be able to get one or two at a time with the rifle, but maybe the gunshots would slow the rippers down just a little. Other gunshots came from the roof.
The man who had been waving frantically at them backed out of the way so Ray had a clear shot through the open gate. He sped past the man and slammed on the brakes as soon as he was through the gate, trying to slow the van down without skidding, but the tires screeched as they slid to the side, smoke drifting up from the back of the van.
Gil came in right behind them, slamming on his brakes, sliding right at them.
He’s going to hit us. He’s going to flip over and roll right into us.
But he didn’t. Gil’s truck got close, but the vehicle didn’t collide with the van.
The man got back inside the gate as another man slid the gate shut, locking it with a padlock. A woman stood by the corner of the building, gesturing at them to keep driving down the back of the building. Ray stared at the woman. Even from this far away he was sure that he recognized her, but he couldn’t figure out from where.
“Oh my God,” Josh whispered. “I’ve seen that woman before. I’ve seen her in my dreams.”
Ray drove past the woman at the corner, slower this time but still driving fast. Gil followed right behind their van.
Josh was right; that’s where Ray had seen the woman, from his dreams. She’d been with a little girl in the dreams. And the man waving his arms at them, the one guiding them to the gate and through it, he’d been in those dreams too. A strange feeling washed over Ray, the feeling of déjà vu again, replacing the sick, sinking feeling he’d had only seconds ago. All of this felt like it was meant to be. If the airplane hadn’t been attacking the store at precisely this time, if it had come earlier or later, Ray would have driven right past this store, this town, and they would never have met these people. He felt a chill dance across his skin.
Ray had never been a very religious man, but a sudden feeling came to him that stronger forces were at play; if not God, then something powerful and perhaps incomprehensible. And he felt certain that if they hadn’t been here at this moment, then things would have shifted in the near future to bring all of them together, just like they had found Josh, and then Luke.
A concrete loading ramp sloped down from the other end of the building where the large fenced-in area ended. A set of concrete steps with a metal railing led up to a door next to another large rollup garage door where semi-trucks could back up to be unloaded. Three big green dumpsters were grouped together at the far end. A woman waited by the smaller door of the building, gesturing at a place to park their vehicles, pointing at the ramp.
Ray pulled up next to the ramp. Gil parked right behind him. Ray’s head felt light as he turned off the van, holding the key for just a moment. None of this felt real, but at the same time it did. He was still jittery from the adrenaline rushing through him, still amazed that they had made it through the parking lot without being overcome by the horde of rippers out there. They could have died out there. Mike and Emma could have died. He began to tremble, and he couldn’t stop for a moment. He felt tears forming in his eyes, and he fought them back.
Screeches and calls from rippers filled the air. Ray turned around in his seat and looked out the shattered rear windows of the van. Rippers were coming from the woods, rushing toward the fence.
Josh jumped out of the van with his shotgun in his hands.
“It’s okay,” the woman said as she came running up to them, out of breath. The other two men were twenty yards behind her. “The fence is electrified.”
Electrified? They have electricity here?
“But we should still get inside,” the woman said. Then she froze suddenly like she’d finally gotten a good look at all of them as they got out of the van. The man who had waved them in through the gate and the other one came running up behind her, stopping in their tracks.
Ray and Mike were out of the van, and Josh helped Emma out from the side door. Luke crawled out of the back of Gil’s pickup with Gil’s rifle in his hands.
The woman stared. Ray knew exactly what she was thinking: I’ve seen you before.
CHAPTER 54
Ray
It took less than a minute for all of them to get in through the door into the loading bay of the store. Ray grabbed one of the packs on his way in. Josh and Mike grabbed the other packs. Luke had his M-16, the ammo box, and Gil’s rifle he’d used to shoot the small plane down earlier. Gil had a small duffel bag of his own.
When they were all inside, the man who’d shut the gate outside closed the door and locked it. The loading bay was massive. It was murky but easy enough to see with the two dingy skylights in the ceiling high above them.
The two women and the two men grouped together, standing a few feet away, and even in the gloom Ray saw the shock and the confusion on the woman’s face—the one he’d seen in his dreams, and the tall man with the graying hair and beard.
“This might sound a little crazy,” the woman said, still out of breath from her run to the door from the gate. “I think I’ve seen you in my dreams before.” Her eyes roamed across the rest of them. “All of you.” Her eyes settled on Emma like she had finally witnessed a mythical creature, someone she never believed actually existed.
The tall man next to the woman nodded, his face numb with shock. The other man and woman (Ray heard the tall man with gray hair call the man Phil) looked more confused, like they didn’t understand what was going on.
Like Gil, Ray thought. Gil didn’t understand what this woman was saying any more than the young man and woman did. But Ray understood what the woman meant. So did Emma. So did Mike, Luke, and Josh.
Ray nodded at the woman. “Yes. It probably does sound crazy. But I’ve seen you in my dreams too. And you.” He looked at the man with the gray hair and beard. “My son’s seen the two of you, too.”
“Me too,” Josh said.
“And me,” Luke added.
“What are you guys talking about?” Gil said, suddenly wary, like he’d just come into the middle of a movie he couldn’t understand.
“It’s kind of tough to explain,” Josh said. He chuckled, trying to stifle his laughter. “You probably wouldn’t believe it.”
Gil didn’t say anything—but he seemed to be waiting for an explanation.
“Thank you for saving us out there,” Ray said to the woman he recognized from his dreams.
“No . . . thank you,” the woman said. “You shot that plane down, didn’t you?”
Josh nodded at Luke. “He’s our sharpshooter. He’s the one that did it.”
The woman looked at Luke. “Thank you. You saved someone on the roof, someone very dear to us. Jo.”
“Joe?” Ray asked.
“JoAnne,” the woman said. “Everyone calls her Jo. She’s the manager of this store. She saved this store, and we’ve helped her protect it. My name’s Kate.”
“I’m Ray Daniels. This is my son Mike. That’s Josh. Emma next to him. Our shooter is Luke. And that’s Gil. We just met him. He’s a veterinarian. He helped patch up Luke’s leg after he got stabbed by a ripper.”
Kate looked at Luke, her eyes shifting down to his leg, noticing the blood puddling up under his foot on the concrete floor. “Do you know you’re bleeding?”
Luke looked down at his foot, his pants legs soaked with blood, his black hiking boot shiny with it. “Yeah.”
“We have a doctor,” Kate said.
“She’s really a nurse,” the tall man said. “I’m Max.”
Ray nodded.
“Our doc is taking care of Jo—she was shot on the roof,” Kate said. “Maybe she can help Luke.”
“I’ll take him there,” the other woman offered. “My name’s Lisa.”
“I’ll go with yo
u,” Gil said, then he looked at Kate. “I already stitched his wound up once. If you’ve got some extra medical supplies, I can do it again.”
“We should have everything you need,” Max said.
“I’ll just leave these here,” Luke said, bending down to set the two weapons and the ammo box on the floor.
“That’s fine,” Max said.
Luke was about to walk away with Gil and Lisa, both waiting on him, but he looked at Kate. “In my dreams you were with a little girl.”
Kate nodded. “Yes. Her name is Brooke.”
“Is she okay? I saw the two of you in one of my dreams. You were in a motel lobby. You were both sleeping. Dark Angels pulled up in a van, they were sneaking inside, sneaking up to you, but you were still sleeping.”
Kate’s face clouded a bit—she remembered. “They tried to take us. But we got away. Brooke’s okay. She’s here with us.”
Ray could tell something bad had happened at that motel, something Kate didn’t feel like going into, maybe something she would rather not remember ever again.
“I couldn’t warn you in the dream,” Luke said. He glanced at Emma. “Not sure why. It was like you couldn’t hear me, like I couldn’t move.” He looked back at Kate. “I’m just glad you and the girl are okay.”
“Thanks,” Kate said.
Luke walked away with Gil, following Lisa to the door in the distance, Luke limping a little now.
“You’ve got a store in there?” Ray asked, watching Luke, Gil, and Lisa go through the door. “A real store?” He looked over at the towering stacks of boxes and crates at the other side of the room, a forklift parked in front of the supplies.
“Yeah,” Kate said. “It’s kind of amazing. Jo really did all of this. We’ll let her tell you about it. But that stuff over there is stuff they didn’t think was important: electronics, furniture, some household stuff, movies, jewelry, stuff like that.”
Ray nodded.
“She had the workers who were here with her at that time reorganize the stuff that was essential in the store, making room in the middle for tents to be set up.”
“So there’s food in there?” Josh asked with amazement.
“Yes,” Max said. He couldn’t help smiling. “A lot of food.”
“That’s what they wanted,” Ray said. “The Dark Angels in the plane, the ones that were shooting at you when we drove up. They want the food in this store.”
“Yes,” Kate said. “The food and anything else we have.”
“They’ve been ransacking towns,” Josh said. “Hogging up any food, water, and supplies they can find.”
Kate stared at Emma. “I can’t believe you’re really here. I’ve seen you in my dreams. You talked to me.”
“She doesn’t really remember that,” Josh said, his arm around Emma protectively. “It’s like her subconscious does it. Otherwise the Dragon would know where she is. Where all of us are.”
“He still manages to find us sometimes,” Emma said.
“Yeah,” Josh agreed. “We’ve had plenty of run-ins with the Dark Angels so far.”
“I’m sure Jo is going to want to meet all of you when she gets patched up,” Max said. “But in the meantime, we have some restrooms where you can get cleaned up. We’ll get some food and drinks for you after you’re done.”
That sounded good to Ray.
CHAPTER 55
Petra
Audrey fought at first as the Dark Angels tried to handcuff her hands behind her back. She roared with fear and rage, her body bucking with panic like a terrified horse, eyes wild. But after she was cuffed she became strangely passive, her body suddenly still, eyes blank, like she had resigned herself to her fate. Scott hadn’t put up a fight at all, his body going into a limp shock. Perhaps Scott’s behavior had rubbed off on Audrey—his apathy, his total surrender. Why fight? Scott’s eyes said. What was there to fight for in this world anymore?
They were going to die—Petra had figured that much out from the bits of broken phrases she’d been able to understand from Audrey as she had spit and fought before they cuffed her hands. Whatever was in the field, it was meant to kill them.
After they were cuffed, the Dark Angels loaded Scott into the back of one of the pickups with one soldier. Petra and Audrey were loaded into the bed of the other pickup truck with two Dark Angels. The trucks started up, turned around in the gas station parking lot, drove through the intersection in a line down the long, winding road through the fields and woods.
Petra was in the last truck in line. She watched Audrey for a moment, but the woman just stared down at her lap. She’d lost the white kerchief that she’d had on her hair during her fight with her captors, and now her blond hair spilled down in front of her face. She was still breathing hard. Petra could try to offer words of comfort to her, but why bother? What did it matter now?
She watched the edge of the town disappear as they drove farther away from it. This town used to have a name before it became the hell town it was now, before the Dragon had walled part of it in and made it his kingdom. Petra was cold and being in the back of the pickup made it even colder.
Ten minutes later they pulled onto a dirt drive, driving through a vast field with woods lining the horizon. She didn’t bother turning to see where they were going. A moment later, the trucks drove into the field and turned around so they were facing the dirt road they’d driven on a moment ago. All three vehicles backed up to a large wooden structure: two thick poles with a beam across the top, pieces of wood bracing the poles to make them even stronger. Three metal cables with some kind of hooks dangling from the end of them hung down from the crossbeam, the cables running down to a smaller wood structure and wound around metal wheels with handles to wind the cables up and down over the crossbeam.
Gallows, Petra thought. They’re going to hang us.
Petra looked at her two guards in the back of the pickup. They didn’t look back at her; they glanced around nervously at the field all around them, the woods in the distance.
They’re looking for rippers.
The trucks were still, all three in a row, all backed up fifteen feet away from the wood structure, the top crossbeam at least twenty feet above the ground.
Petra knew she was going to die in a few minutes, but she’d been a dead woman anyway. The only use the Dragon had for her was to lure Jo and the others out of the store, or to lure the others from her dreams to Hell Town. She probably would have been allowed to live a little longer, but she’d done the one thing Jacob had warned her not to do—she had tried to escape. She was sure if she had tried to escape from Jacob on their way down here to this town from Jeff’s house he had the authority to kill her if he needed to, and she was sure that the same authority was at play here.
The drivers and passengers got out of the three trucks, the guards dressed mostly in black, the Dark Angel soldiers dressed in a mishmash of clothing, the brands etched into their foreheads—the stamp of their servitude.
The two Dark Angels escorted Petra and Audrey from the back of the pickup truck, helping them down onto the ground. Audrey seemed to be coming alive again, breathing heavier, looking around, then staring at the wooden structure in front of them.
“No, don’t do this,” she said. “It wasn’t me. They . . . they kidnapped me. Petra and Scott, they made me go with them.”
Jacob wasn’t listening.
Petra didn’t fear the death that was coming—she looked forward to the peace, to the sweet release from this horrible life. She’d been expecting death for so long now that it had just become a part of her life. First, it had been Diego. She had planned on killing him for what he’d done to her, what he’d done to her family, what he’d done to countless others. She’d been willing to die for a shot at killing Diego; she’d gotten used to the certainty of it.
Then the Collapse came, and the Ripper Plague. She was one of the few immune, untouched by the plague in this new hellish world, and again, she hadn’t expected to live long. She kept on
surviving because she was a fighter, but she wasn’t afraid of death. She’d led a meaningless life and she was sure her death would be just as meaningless.
But then she met Max on the road. She had another to protect, to fight for. And then they’d found Kate and Brooke. Then she had dreamed of the blind woman and the people she traveled with.
What was life now? It was hell. If there was a higher purpose, something to do with the people she saw in her dreams, she didn’t know what it was. And now she never would. Her only regrets were that she’d never gotten the chance to kill Diego, and now she’d lost the chance to kill the Dragon. Like Diego before, the Dragon would be free to continue his reign of terror.
The Dark Angels were still nervous, still looking around like they expected rippers to come running from the woods at any moment.
Two of the black-clad guards pushed Scott and Audrey forward to the wooden structure, positioning them under the wire cables. Two other guards approached, aiming their weapons at the two of them, all four guards working together like an experienced military unit.
One guard uncuffed Scott’s hands from behind him and cuffed them in front of him. He remained limp the whole time, a mannequin being manipulated. A Dark Angel was at the smaller wood structure, turning the metal wheel to lower the cable down to Scott. The guard who had cuffed Scott’s hands in front of him clipped the end of the cable to the chain between the two handcuffs.
The soldier cranked the wheel, slowly raising Scott’s arms up into the air, then his whole body. When the soldier stopped cranking the wheel, Scott’s feet hung at least five feet from the bloodstained ground. He groaned from the strain on his wrists, the metal cuffs biting into his flesh.
Audrey was next. She went wild when they uncuffed her and re-cuffed her hands in front of her. She collapsed to the ground, shrieking, kicking at the guards.
Jacob stepped forward and drew his gun with the silencer on it, aiming it at Audrey’s legs. He shot once and her left knee exploded in a bloody spray.
