In addition to the man with the beanie hat who had stopped them, there were exactly six other armed people surrounding them, three men and three women. Each of them were dirty and gritty with determined yet sorrowful looks on their faces.
“Guns on the ground,” said the man with the beanie hat. “All of them.”
Randall and Robert each dropped their sidearms while Jane carefully lowered her .30-30.
But Randall still had a Beretta 92FS concealed in a shoulder holster under his jacket, and there was his M1A and Robert’s AR-15 in the Hi-Lux. They could grab them quickly if they needed to, but they were still completely surrounded and Randall knew going for those guns would be suicidal.
“This truck is ours now,” the man with the beanie hat said. “And so are those guns. If you would be so kind as to turn and walk back down the road where you came, we’ll leave you alone.”
“We need this truck,” said Randall.
The man with the beanie hat laughed.
“Dude, I just gave you a very generous offer by letting you walk away!” he said. “Normally, you don’t turn down an offer like that without it being offered again. But since I’m in a good mood today, I’m going to give you another shot. Turn around with your two friends here, and walk away. No one gets hurt.”
“You’re desperate aren’t you?” said Randall. “You guys are thin, dirty, torn clothes. You’ve all seen better days.”
This remark took the man with the beanie hat by complete surprise.
“Hey man, we’ve all seen better days,” he said, trying to keep his smile. “I said I’m giving you another shot. Turn around and walk away.”
“Not until we talk,” said Randall. “What’s your name?”
“Joe,” said the man in the beanie hat, the smile finally disappearing from his face.
“Joe who?”
“Just Joe.”
“Alright Joe, you can call me Rand, and can I explain what we were doing here exactly?” he asked Joe.
Joe looked at Randall a moment before responding:
“You have one minute.”
“We were on our way to Coeur d’Alene to pick up supplies from our homes,” Randall began. “Food, guns, ammo, medicine, warm clothes, and information too on what the hell is going on if we could find out any.”
“So what does all that have to do with us?” Joe interrupted impatiently.
“We’ll split it with you fifty fifty…if you let us go,” said Randall.
“Bullshit!” Alexandra, one of the women surrounding them, shouted. “You let them go Joe, and they’ll never be back!”
Joe thought for a moment. Randall, Robert, and Jane all stood there tensely, waiting for him to speak.
“You’ll split it with us evenly?” he asked Randall. “The food, the ammo, the warm clothes, the medicine, all of it?”
“You have my word,” replied Randall.
Joe thought for another moment, longer this time. Randall could tell that the thought of those supplies were very enticing to him.
“All right, here’s what’s gonna happen,” said Joe to Randall. “We let you go and keep your truck, you gotta come back with the supplies in twenty four hours and we split it fifty-fifty. I send two of my people with you, and you leave the little girl with us as collateral. Either you agree to that right now, or we’re taking this truck and your guns and leaving you here.”
“I’m fifteen!” Jane said defiantly. “I’m not a little girl!”
Joe grinned.
“My apologies,” he said sarcastically. “You leave the ‘fifteen year old’ girl with us then as collateral.”
Randall and Robert looked at one another.
“Leaving her with you is not necessary,” said Robert. “You have our word we’ll be back.”
“Sorry, not good enough,” Joe said, not wasting a mini-second to reply. “I send two of my people with you and you leave the girl with us. It’s that simple. Either that, or my original offer stands and the three of you walk away right now and leave us the truck and guns.”
Robert turned to his younger sister.
“Jane, that’s up to you,” said Robert.
“I’ll stay,” said Jane. “But on one condition: I get to keep my rifle and everyone else stays twenty one feet away from me at all times.”
Joe put up his hands.
“Hey, we’re not threatening you,” he said. “Deal.”
With that, Jane quickly scooped up her Winchester .30-30. She had an affection for the rifle and she wasn’t about to let it escape into someone else’s hands.
Robert walked right up to Joe and looked him directly in the eyes.
“I’m telling you right now, if I see a single scratch on her when we get back…” he began to say before Joe cut him off.
“Relax, bro. You get us those supplies, and we’ll all be happy. Just be back in twenty four hours or less.”
Joe turned to two of his people, a man and a woman, and barked:
“Duncan, Alexandra, you go with them!”
* * *
Randall and Robert were squished into the Hi-Lux with Duncan and Alexandra, both of whom were in their 20s but looked much older.
The trip down the dirt road was awkward to say the least and felt much longer than it was. Duncan and Alexandra clearly didn’t want to be there and Randall and Robert definitely didn’t want them there.
Neither party said a word to each other the entire way to Coeur d’Alene.
Finally, two and a half hours later, the dirt road returned to a paved road that later opened back up to the highway just outside of Coeur d’Alene.
“Park the truck here in the trees and brush,” Randall told Robert. “We don’t want anybody seeing it.”
Robert went off road and parked the Hi-Lux behind a brushy area. The four of them got out of the truck, each glad to be back on their feet.
“Let’s cover it up,” said Robert.
Randall and Robert pulled a green tarp out from the back of the Hi-Lux and covered it up with it, while Duncan and Alexandra gathered more brush to add to the disguise and keep the vehicle hidden.
When they were finally done hiding the Hi-Lux, Randall peered through some branches and brush at his home city that was just down the road.
“You know where to go, right Rand?” Robert asked.
“Yes,” said Randall. “Should take an hour or so to get to my condo on foot.”
Robert turned to Duncan and Alexandra.
“Duncan and Alexandra, right?” he said.
They both nodded. Alexandra was the one to speak.
“That’s right,” she said. “But don’t think we’re all friends here. We could have killed you back there if we wanted to. I almost regret we didn’t. So you best not get too friendly by calling us by our first names.”
“Your gang has my little sister back there in the woods,” said Robert. “And I didn’t want you with us either, but now we’re here and we need to work together. I’m an Army infantryman with multiple tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan and I have the most combat experience of any of us here, so I’m in command, is that understood?”
Alexandra stepped up to Robert. He didn’t intimidate her one bit.
“Let’s just get what we need,” she sneered.
With that, she stepped past him and began walking towards Coeur d’Alene.
“Wait,” said Randall.
He took off his gun belt with his .45 and KA-BAR knife and put it into the truck.
“Open carrying firearms will be a bad idea,” he said. “Let’s leave the long guns here and keep any pistols and knives you have on you concealed.”
“I don’t have a pistol, just my rifle,” said Alexandra, holding up her bolt action .270 Winchester.
“You walk around in town with a gun you’re asking for trouble,” said Randall. “Plus, if the town turns out to be under martial law, meaning it’s under complete government and military control, the right to bear arms no longer applies. Your rifle will b
e confiscated and you arrested. Trust me.”
“I ain’t going into town without a gun,” said Alexandra. “That’s not something you get to negotiate with me.”
“Then take mine,” Randall said, offering her his .45.
That Colt 1911 .45 was one of his most prized possessions, and handing it to someone else he didn’t trust was the last thing Randall wanted to do. But at the same time, he could see Alexandra was stubborn and not someone who could be reasoned with at the moment, and they needed to move quickly.
He could have just as easily given her his Beretta 92 that was hidden under his coat, a gun he had less affection for, but the fact that Alexandra and Duncan didn’t know he had it was an advantage he couldn’t give up.
After around ten seconds, Alexandra finally gave in. She snatched the .45 out of Randall’s hand, performed a brass check to confirm it was chambered, and tossed her .270 seemingly carelessly into the truck.
“There, Duncan, put your shotgun into the truck,” she ordered.
Duncan, who had been mute the whole time, simply did as he was told.
“Now without any further ado, let’s go,” said Randall.
Chapter Seven
Coeur d’Alene was not the thriving city it once was. In fact, it was no longer even recognizable.
Before the EMP, it had been the largest growing city in Idaho, which in turn had been the largest growing state. During Christmas time, the city had one of the largest Christmas trees in the entire world at the resort, and during the summer it was always jam packed with so many tourists that not even all the hotels and motels in the area could keep up with the demand.
Coeur d’Alene had just always been alive before. Alive and clean and filled with an unlimited number of different things to do, where it be motorcycle riding in the woods or visiting one of the many tourist shops downtown or going boating on the beautiful nearby lake (which had given Coeur d’Alene the nickname of “the Lake City”). It had been a little slice of heaven.
But now, trash and sewage littered the streets. Windows in almost all the grocery stores and restaurants were broken, and homes were boarded up. A few stray dogs and cats and homeless people in little more than torn rags were scavenging what they could from the trash.
There were also several rotting corpses on the ground, little more than skeletons actually. Their clothes were stripped off and most of the flesh torn away from the bones. Eaten by dogs or by other humans? Randall didn’t want to know.
“Damn,” uttered Robert, as the group of four walked down a sidewalk next to a Fred Meyer grocery store. “This isn’t the town I remember.”
“No, I still recognize it, vaguely,” Randall responded. “But I doubt it will ever be the same after this no matter how quickly things return to normal.”
Having been walking through the city and among its starved and depressed residents for the last half hour, Randall and Robert were both utterly speechless at the absolutely terrible state of the town they had grown up.
“Oh shut up and quit crying,” Alexandra snapped. “Let’s just get those supplies and then get the hell out of here.”
“No military or police,” Robert pointed out, ignoring Alexandra. “That’s surprising. I would have expected the entire city to be under martial law.”
“Coeur d’Alene must not be that important of a town to the military, it’s not as big as Spokane or Seattle,” said Randall.
“They left a week ago,” an old, wheezy voice behind them spoke.
They turned to see an old man who was resting against the wall of Fred Meyer had overheard them. He was filthy and in bad shape, and had an equally filthy old mutt of some kind resting next to him.
“Who left?” Robert asked.
“The whole damn battalion,” the old man wheezed out. “The Idaho National Guard, they pulled out. Had the whole city under arrest, forced everyone to stay in their homes, then they confiscated everyone’s food and water and redistributed it so everyone would have to stand in long waiting lines. Governor’s orders. Classic example of a military dictatorship right here in America. Never thought I’d live to see the day.”
“The governor wouldn’t have ordered a takeover like that, he was a conservative Republican,” Robert argued.
The old man laughed, coughing up mucus and saliva in the process. The group could see he was missing most of his teeth.
“So, what’s that got to do with anything?!” he finally managed to say through his laughter. “The whole world’s gone to complete horseshit and we’re here talkin’ politics?! I admit, I sure didn’t expect ya to say that! That’s just funny! Oh man, I needed a good laugh!”
“What about the police?” asked Randall once the old man had gotten over his laughter.
“Police?” the old man said. “They’re like the rest of us, except ole me of course. They have families to take care of. They all stayed on duty for the first week, began dropping like flies after that, abandoning their posts. Chief sure wasn’t happy about it but eventually I think he just gave up too. Sad to see happen honestly.”
“So what’s happening?” Randall pressed him. “Are we at war? Is that why the National Guard came in and left?”
“Hey, I don’t have a crystal ball,” the old man said. “I don’t have all the answers. Spokane is still under lockdown though. I think the big generals decided this little resort town of ours in the middle of nowhere wasn’t worth keeping a whole damn battalion at anymore.”
“If Spokane is under martial law, then most of the other major cities across America must be too,” Robert pointed out. “And if the military has control of the major cities, then that means there’s still government. And if there’s still government, that means there’s still a chance for things to become like they were again.”
The old man laughed again, though not as hard as last time.
“Kid, we’re living in times where hopeless optimism like that is gonna get ya killed,” he said.
Those words pierced Robert’s heart. Perhaps it was only then that he truly realized the gravity of the situation they were in, and truly realized that there was a chance that things may never turn back to normal.
* * *
The four stood in the hallway of Randall’s apartment complex.
The door to Randall’s condo was beaten down and they could already tell that the inside had been ransacked based on the trash that littered the floor.
Randall cautiously led them in and they explored the inside of the condo. Randall’s worst fears had been realized.
All of the food had been taken out of the refrigerator and the pantry, both of which were left with the doors hanging open.
In the utility room, where Randall had kept his gun safe and his stockpile of food and water, everything was taken too. The fact that the food and water was gone was bad enough, but seeing his gun safe literally missing from where it was made Randall furious inside. He had a lot of money invested in the guns in that safe, and many more of the guns he had inherited and had strong sentimental value attached too.
Even his clothes and blankets were missing from the closet. Trash and everything else not of value littered the floor.
At least his MacBook Pro was still on his desk, largely untouched, but because of the EMP it was obviously useless.
After Randall had taken in what had happened, the four of them assembled together in the living room. It was Alexandra who broke the silence.
“So where’s the food and supplies?”
“I’m sorry,” Randall responded after a moment of silence.
“Sorry?! You promised us half of your stuff, and I’m not seeing shit! Are you saying we’ve come all this way for nothing?!”
“There’s a few more places we can check, my brother’s place and my parents house.”
“What makes you think they’ll be any different than this dump?”
Robert interjected.
“It’s not your fault, Rand,” he said. “You didn’t know everything was goin
g to be gone. There was no way you could have known.”
“I was the one who argued for this expedition, Robert,” said Randall. “This is my fault that we came here.”
Alexandra stepped up to Randall.
“We came with you because you promised us supplies,” she said. “And we are not leaving this damned city until we have what you promised. Fifty-fifty.”
The Will To Survive: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Survival Thriller (The EMP Brothers Series Book 2) Page 4
