Ragnarok Rising: Desolation: Book Five of the Ragnarok Rising Saga

by D. A. Roberts

  There were two fast food places behind the drugstore. One was the regular kind while the second one was the old fashioned ones with the speakers that you parked beside to order your food. I used to bring my kids there for burgers and ice cream. That’s the real trouble with the apocalypse hitting in your hometown. All the destroyed places had some sort of connection for you. You felt the loss of every place, through the memories of what you had left behind.

  Instead of moving around to the front of the restaurant, we headed around behind it. Not only would that keep us from moving into the line of sight of the Eldjötnar, it would also keep the buildings between us and cut down on the chance that they might see us moving. I spent a lot years hunting different animals in the woods of Missouri and other places. It would be the same with us. What always gives away your prey is movement. Your eyes can track movement far better than when your prey stands still.

  As we rounded the corner of the second restaurant, we could see the back of the church that was our destination. The perimeter fence was still intact and the building seemed to be the same as the last time I had seen it. We were almost there. The only thing we had left to do was to sneak across the road and slip inside the fence.

  I knew that we desperately needed the equipment that we had left inside that perimeter. That gear was either going to be our salvation or our downfall. If we couldn’t find a vehicle that could withstand the Stalkers and get us through the night, then we might not make it at all. There was nowhere left to run.

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Nightfall

  “Fortune favours the bold.”

  - Virgil

  We reached the edge of the road after cutting through an open field next to a community center. There was a taco joint directly in our path, but still no sign of movement. Crouching down beside an overturned SUV, I turned and looked back up the road towards the intersection. There was just enough of a hill in the road that you couldn't see the Eldjötnar. That was good since if we couldn't see them, they couldn't see us.

  "Let's get across the road before they start heading this way," I said, keeping my voice in hushed tones.

  Spec-4 just nodded and kept her weapon tight against her shoulder.

  The road was four lanes for traffic plus one turn lane. It was littered with abandoned cars, but not bad enough that you couldn't navigate a vehicle through it. There was plenty of room for horses, too. Even the massive horses that they Eldjötnar rode. That also meant that there were big enough gaps that someone could easily see us crossing the road, if they were looking.

  I walked in a crouch and headed through the first lane, using the SUV to hide my movements. Spec-4 stayed right on my heels. We were both walking carefully to avoid making too much noise. It was tricky moving through the vehicles. It would have been easier if we had just gone for speed instead of trying to remain concealed. I knew that we could sprint across the road in less than thirty seconds, but if the Eldjötnar came over the hill there would be no place for us to hide and no chance that they wouldn't see us.

  I paused at the edge of the SUV, scouting out my next move. I would have to dart across one lane and stop behind a little blue sedan that was sitting in the turn lane. Although it wasn't far, I was afraid that they would be coming this way soon. I also hoped that we didn't run into anyone else out here. A group of Hrimthurssar on Vargr would be a problem. Especially if they were using the dead to help them hunt us down.

  "Cover me," I whispered.

  "Got it," replied Spec-4.

  With a sudden burst of speed, I ran for the sedan. Although I was only in the open a few seconds, I felt completely exposed and expected an arrow to slam into me at any moment. Once I was safely behind cover, I brought up my M-4 and started scanning both directions with the ACOG. It was clear, as far as I could see. No one and nothing moving.

  I gave Spec-4 the thumbs up and she instantly ran for my position. She slid the last couple of feet and came to rest right next to me. We were now halfway across the road. If someone were to come now, we would be stuck. We couldn't get to either side of the road without them seeing us.

  "Now we're committed," said Spec-4.

  "Yeah," I agreed. "Let's finish it."

  I began scanning my next leap. It wasn't going to be as far since we had two vehicles that had struck each other. They were arranged at enough of an angle that I wouldn't be exposed for more than about ten feet. One of the vehicles had been an expensive sports car, but it had ran right into the front end of a large pick-up truck with a camper shell on the back.

  I picked my course. I'd move around behind the truck and get set for the last leap to the gate at the church. If we could reach the gate, we'd just have to either scale the fence or find a way to unlatch it without making too much noise.

  "Follow me as soon as I'm behind the truck," I said, nodding.

  "Gotcha, Sar-Major," she replied, chuckling.

  With a wink at her, I ducked around the end of the sedan and sprinted to the back of the truck. No sooner had I slid to the ground, I could hear Spec-4 already coming towards me. I started to turn to smile at her when I heard the sound that I had been dreading. I instantly recognized it as massive hoof-beats.

  "Get down!" I hissed. "They're coming!"

  As Spec-4 hit the deck beside me, I began studying the area for an escape route. My heart sank in my chest when I realized that there wasn't one. Instantly, my mind began whirling over possibilities, searching for the one that would give us a decent shot at survival. The only thing that presented itself was the camper shell of the truck that we were hiding behind.

  Reaching up, I opened the hatch and pulled it open. Inside I could see where whoever had owned this had packed camping gear and outdoor supplies. Clearly they had the idea of getting out of town when they ran into the little sports car. The big four-wheel drive truck would have had little trouble getting far away from any road or town had the wedge shaped sports car not taken out one of its front wheels. This truck wasn't going anywhere, anytime soon.

  "Get in!" I snapped.

  Spec-4 didn't hesitate, diving over the tailgate and into the bed of the truck. I scrambled in behind her and pulled the door shut. Spec-4 was busily shoving camping gear aside and making us a place to crouch down. Once we were below the edge of the windows, I pulled camping gear down on top of us and made sure that very little of us was showing. If the Eldjötnar looked through the windows, they would see the camping gear instead of us.

  "Oh crap," whispered Spec-4. "Did they see us?"

  "I don't think so," I replied, placing my lips right against her ear so that no sound would be heard outside the truck. "If they had seen us, they would have raised the alarm. I didn't even hear them pick up their pace."

  "They're getting closer," she whispered.

  We sat in silence as the sound of the hooves grew steadily closer. I didn't realize that I was holding my breath until I heard them pass us and continue on their way. They didn't even slow down. I could tell that they weren't in a big hurry, but they weren't going slowly either.

  I waited until the sound had faded away before I risked moving any of the camping gear away from us and peeking out through the windows. There was no sign of them in the area, so I sat up and glanced out through the windshield back towards the drug store. I still couldn't see over the hill but I also couldn't see any of the Eldjötnar.

  "Let's move before they come back," I said, shoving more gear out of the way and climbing towards the door.

  "There is a lot of good gear in here," said Spec-4 as I opened the door. "If we can get a Humvee or another vehicle running, we should come take some of this with us. Especially if we're going to be out here for any length of time."

  "Good call," I replied.

  We'd tossed most of our camping gear to lighten our load so we could move faster. We'd dropped even more gear when I had been wounded and they had to carry me. Now we were down to the bare essentials of food and basic hygiene items. If we hadn't been stayin
g at my house, we would have undoubtedly been sleeping on the cold, hard ground.

  Once I was back on the ground, Spec-4 climbed out and we closed the door to the camper. I glanced around and didn't see any sign of movement, so I headed on across the road. Spec-4 fell into step beside me. I had considered arguing with her, but thought better of it. We needed to get inside that compound before they came back and that could be at any minute.

  Once we reached the gate, Spec-4 shrugged out of her pack and sat it on the ground beside me. Then I boosted her up so she could take a peek inside. She glanced around for a few moments before scrambling up and over the gate, disappearing over the top with the grace of a cat. I put my back against the fence and waited with my weapon at the read. I didn't have to wait for long.

  I heard Spec-4 working the latch on the inside of the gate, then it began to swing open. I remembered that they were heavy steel-reinforced gates and could easily withstand the dead. The Stalkers might not be able to climb over the steel fencing, but I knew for a fact that they could easily jump that high. Unfortunately, the fence alone would not be enough to keep us safe. We needed another place to hide.

  I slipped inside the gate, grabbing Spec-4's pack as I did. Then I turned around and helped her shut the gate. Although it didn't offer a great deal of protection, I still felt a little better once it was shut. If nothing else, it did provide concealment and some protection. I was willing to take anything that we could get, at this point.

  Once we were inside, I began checking the area for any signs of recent activity. From the look of the place, I would guess that the last people to set foot inside this place was us. There were still two Humvees parked at the front of the church. One of them was set up as an ambulance. There were also three deuce-and-a-half trucks, parked right where we had left them.

  I remembered that we had taken quite a bit of equipment and loaded it into a trailer the last time we were here, but I also remembered that we couldn't load everything. We had left quite a bit of gear behind. I just hoped that none of our people had come back for more. If there was still gear to be grabbed here, we might have a shot at getting through this alive.

  The first thing I did was check out the Humvee. I was glad to see that the tires weren't completely flat. They were just low. Taking out several cans of the fix-a-flat, I began inflating the tires from the cans. It was a slow process, but well worth it. In just a few minutes, I had all of the tires inflated well enough that it would be safe to drive.

  The next thing I did was to open the door and check the interior. There was nothing left inside of the vehicle. Chuck Southard had emptied it out when we were here last, taking even the extra ammo that had been stored in the back. He'd been thorough, too. Not that I was expecting to find a treasure trove inside. I was just hoping that I wouldn't find someone inside waiting for me.

  Once I was certain that it was clear, I slipped into the driver's seat and flipped the starter switch. It groaned once and for just a second I thought it was going to start. Punching the steering wheel, I muttered foul curses under my breath. I was really hoping that it would just start and make things easy on us.

  Stepping back out of the Humvee, I headed over to the deuce-and-a-half trucks. I popped the battery box on the first one and hooked up the jumper cables to the batteries. Once I was sure that the cables were connected well, I tapped the other ends together to check the spark. I was thrilled to see that the massive batteries on the big truck still had charge on them. While it likely wasn't enough to start the big engine on the deuce-and-a-half, it should be more than enough to start the Humvee.

  "Help me push the Humvee over closer to the Deuce," I said, nodding at Spec-4.

  She climbed inside the Humvee and took it out of gear. Then I began pushing it back out of the parking space that it was in. She turned the wheels and angled it so that I could get a straight run at the truck.

  Moving around to the back of the Humvee, I began pushing. It was heavy and slow going, but I made steady progress. After a few difficult moments, she put it back in gear and stopped right next to the deuce.

  "Nicely done," I said, smiling.

  "Thanks," she said, "but you did all the work."

  I headed around to the front of the Humvee and lifted the hood. Once I had the jumper cables connected, I started to head for the driver's side.

  "Think we should load up everything we're planning on taking before we start it?" she asked.

  She was absolutely right. Once we started that big diesel engine, the noise was going to carry for quite some distance. If any of the Eldjötnar were in the area, they would have no trouble figuring out where the engine sound was coming from. There wasn't another running engine for miles. That was one thing about the silence after everything fell apart. Any engine noise stood out like a beacon now.

  "You're probably right," I said, smiling. "Let's see what we can find and get it loaded up. I want to be moving as soon as possible."

  "Sounds good to me," she replied. "Where are we heading?"

  "I want to find Thrym," I replied. "Once I take him out, we're heading for Pensmore Castle. Loki will be there and will no doubt be expecting us."

  "Do you think he'll be ready for us?"

  "I'd assume that he will have every warrior he can muster there," I said. "He won't go quietly."

  With that, we began searching the area for gear that we could use. In the back of one of the trucks, I found cases of ammo for the M-4 and the belted 7.62mm that would go with an M-60 or an M-240B. I could only hope that we would find one of those, too. We had a turret in the Humvee but it didn't have a weapon mounted.

  We loaded up all the ammo we could find and two cases of grenades that were in the back of a trailer. We also found an M-240B with several crates of M-4's. They all went into the back of the Humvee. We might not have a lot of food or supplies, but we had weapons and ammo to spare. I had the distinct feeling that we were going to need it before this was all said and done.

  Once it was all loaded, I slipped out of my pack and tossed it into the back of the Humvee. Then I checked the area for fuel cans. Between the cans that were in the back of the Humvee and the trucks, we had plenty of fuel to get us through for a while. It wasn't optimal, but it would keep the Humvee running and us mobile for a bit longer than I had really expected. It was something that we would have to keep an eye on, though. We'd have to scrounge for fuel to keep us going for any length of time.

  It was a good thing that both the deuce and the Humvee were designed as multi-fuel vehicles. That meant that we could run almost anything in them and still drive. They might not run well, but they would still run. That might be the one thing that kept us going when the diesel was finally gone. There were plenty of combustible liquids out there to find. It was just a matter of finding them.

  "I think we're in decent shape," I said, smiling. "Now we just have to figure out our next move."

  Spec-4 turned to me smiling, but I may never know exactly what she had planned to say. At that precise moment, the Gods chose to answer for her. The ground began rumbling hard enough that I had to grab onto the steering wheel to avoid bouncing my head off of the window. Spec-4 fell onto the center console and looked at me with a wild-eyed expression of shock and horror.

  "What the heck is that?" she screamed.

  Behind us, I could see a massive cloud of black smoke billowing into the sky. From where it was rising, I know that it had to be the magma tap finally breaking loose. Springfield was about to become ground zero for a full-scale volcanic eruption and we were entirely too close to the action.

  "Get us out of here!" yelled Spec-4.

  In lieu of an answer, I hit the starter switch and held my breath. The engine sputtered and coughed, but refused to catch. I knew it had been months since it had been started and even longer since it had last had any kind of routine maintenance. I had my doubts that it was going to start, at all. Flicking the switch back to the off position, I waited a few seconds so I wouldn't kill what li
ttle battery charge was left in the Deuce and a Half.

  The ground began to shake beneath us and the front part of the church cracked, collapsing into the parking lot. It missed us by less than a dozen meters. I could see cracks appearing in the asphalt of the parking lot and knew that this was going to be the big show that all the previous rumblings had been leading up to.

  "Come on, baby," I muttered and hit the starter switch again.

  This time it groaned as the engine began to turn over, but I could tell from the sound that the batteries were going fast. It was now or never. If it didn't start this time, we were on foot. We needed to cover as much distance as quickly as we could before the volcano decided to turn this entire area into a magma covered inferno.

  I held onto the lever, but lowered my forehead onto the steering wheel. I was about to give up and let go of the lever when a shudder ran through the entire vehicle and the engine groaned to life in a cloud of oily black smoke.

  "Alright!" I yelled jubilantly.

  I feathered the gas pedal, feeding more fuel into the engine and felt the shakes begin to smooth out as the carbon began to burn out of the cylinders. It took another thirty seconds before the smoke stopped billowing from the exhaust and the idle smoothed to something closer to normal.

  The cracks in the asphalt were getting bigger and I knew that the rumblings in the ground were just the opening act of the show that was about to start. As much as I enjoyed a good show, I wanted to be miles away before I stopped to admire the pyrotechnics. Above us, I could see clouds of birds fleeing the area. I knew that was a fairly good indicator that it was time for us to do the same.