by Jeff Olah
“Quite a while, kid; you had us all pretty worried.”
Ben’s smile began to fade, and as it slowly transitioned into a look of confusion, he asked, “What happened?”
“We left the city. We had to. There was nothing left for us there.”
“My arm?”
“You don’t remember?”
“Not really, just that we were in the driveway across the street from your parents’ house and we heard gunfire. Not a whole lot after that makes sense.”
Nodding, Ethan again looked around the interior of the SUV. “You were shot… the bullet was meant for me, but went wide and hit you.”
“Who did it… who shot me?”
“Maddox, but he’s gone now.”
Wincing as he repositioned himself, Ben met Ethan’s eyes. “Thank you.”
“Save that, Carly’s the reason your still here with us. You can thank her when she wakes up.”
“Your dad?”
Ethan shook his head.
Ben lowered his eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Now desperate to change the conversation, Ben motioned out through the passenger’s window. “Where are we going?”
Trying to pull himself from the mental images of the previous night, Ethan followed Ben’s gaze through the window and pointed into the distance.
“Green Valley, just up the road a bit.”
“Okay,” Ben said. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go, I’m absolutely starving.”
Giving his young friend a thumbs-up, Ethan again lowered his voice. “Let’s wait until we get there to wake the others.”
22
“BRACE FOR IMPACT!”
The voice came directly from the cockpit, and without the aid of the overhead speakers, its owner wasn’t completely clear. Gripping tight to the armrests and with his head between his legs, Dalton silently prayed. He prayed that whatever was going to happen to him would just happen quickly. He had already resigned himself to the fact that death was watching over him, and he assumed that now it was simply waiting for its moment to strike.
The cabin shook violently as the jet slammed—belly first—onto the dirt covered asphalt. Craning his neck to the right, he glimpsed Goodwin. Three feet away, the man with the tight set jaw stared blankly out the window and bounced in his seat as the hurtling Gulfstream G280 slid violently toward the power lines at the end of the distressed runway.
Back to center, Dalton clamped his eyes shut and held tight to his seat. The sounds of metal being twisted and finally breaking away filled his ears as he attempted to avoid the images filling his mind. Debris from the unkempt runway splashed against the side of the jet, calling for Dalton’s attention.
Snapping his head to the right, a hailstorm of bright red sparks and a plume of trailing smoke battered the side of the onetime luxury jet. Instinctively flinching, Dalton felt his heart racing in his chest, his stomach constricting, and his vision beginning to narrow. He had less than ten seconds to pull himself together before he’d flop to the floor and be tossed around the interior like a ragdoll.
Fight or die—that was what he was now left with. Stay conscious for another thirty seconds and possibly walk away from the battered plane in one piece, or simply give up. He didn’t like option two, but also had no idea how to control what he was experiencing. He’d lost the battle with his mind more times than he cared to count, so this time he decided to take the opposite approach.
Clamping down on the plush leather armrests, Dalton’s rolled his bottom lip into his mouth and bit down. The shockwave of pain that followed the warm trickle of blood down his throat forced Dalton upright in his seat. He’d bitten through the skin below his bottom lip and peering back at his reflection in the jet’s window, marveled at how similar he looked to the beasts they were running from.
An explosion below where he sat rocked the G280 and pushed it onto its left side, as what he could only assume was the remaining landing gear being ripped from the bottom of the plane. With the force of the forward movement continuing to push him back against his seat, Dalton licked his lips and wiped away the blood dripping from his chin.
As the jet continued to slow, Dalton could feel his pulse dropping just as fast. He blinked away the grey and black spots clouding his vision and took a deep breath. Distracting himself with the excruciating pain of his lower lip had worked. However, now every time he looked in the mirror, he’d have a glaring reminder of the day he stood up to himself. Although at the moment, he couldn’t decide whether or not that was a good thing.
With the grinding sound of metal on asphalt beginning to dim, Dalton again looked to his right. He hadn’t noticed that Goodwin had moved from his seat, but now the man who’d brought him here was standing. With his right hand pushed into the overhead cabin and his left braced against the ceiling, the fifty-five-year-old self-professed sociopath shouted toward the front of the plane.
“OPEN THE DAMN DOORS… LET’S GO!”
Guiding himself toward the front of the jet as it continued forward, Goodwin wanted off. He didn’t care that the forward movement hadn’t yet stopped. He was satisfied that this plane had served its purpose and was now well past its useful life.
Leaning to his right, Dalton had his first clear shot of the cockpit and the world beyond. The power lines described to Goodwin earlier that day now came into view and looked as though they may in fact cause a problem.
Quickly calculating the probability of slamming into the downed power lines, Dalton reluctantly pushed away from his seat and stood. He watched as Walter and then Nicholas exited the cockpit and moved quickly to the door alongside Goodwin. Stepping aside, Goodwin again shouted at the pilots.
“OPEN THIS THING ALREADY!”
As Dalton rushed in behind the others, he crouched down, again checking their chances of escaping unscathed. It didn’t look good. Bracing himself with his left arm, he reached for the bag of weapons set against the cabinet outside the cockpit and pushed in next to Nicholas.
Growing impatient, Goodwin released the door lock himself and opened the door. He moved Walter aside and climbed down the steps, holding tight to the makeshift rails before jumping the short distance and rolling to the ground as the jet continued sliding forward.
Without turning to check on his crew, Goodwin stood and began walking away from the slowing jet as Walter and Nicholas also made the short descent and then jumped free.
With the bag of weapons hanging from his shoulder, and the plane nearly stopped, Dalton started down the steps. He looked back in the opposite direction and noticed Walter doing his best to keep pace, running behind the slowing jet, and urging Dalton down the steps.
“Let’s go kid! Now’s the time to move. You’re gonna have to jump.”
Holding tight to the rail with one hand and keeping the bag of weapons pressed to his hip, Dalton watched as the power lines raced toward him. He made short work of the final three steps and then leapt the short distance to the broken asphalt. Dropping the bag, he fell forward, rolled onto his side, and came to a stop as Walter quickly moved to his side.
Offering his hand, the older man motioned toward the plane as it slowly drifted into the power lines and finally came to a stop. “Hey kid, we gotta go.”
Extending his right arm, Dalton winced as his sock-covered feet touched the gravely asphalt. And turning back, he shook his head as he eyed Goodwin already walking away.
“I guess we’re leaving?”
Walter slapped Dalton on the back, reached for the bag of weapons, and pointed out a dilapidated hangar in the distance. “We’re going there. We need to get out of the open and see what we see.”
Dalton brushed off the knees of his pants, knowing that it wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference. “Hey Walter…”
“Yeah?”
“You guys able to reach Anton? It sure would make getting out of this city a whole hell of a lot easier.”
Walter began to jog. “Yep, the plan is to mee
t him and the others at the corner of Sunset, across from McCarran.”
Dalton matched his pace as they started toward Goodwin and Nicholas. “Then what?”
“Well, Anton says we’ve got a problem in the city, so getting back home may end up taking a bit more time.” Walter turned to Dalton as they continued to jog. “I just hope he’s wrong.”
23
Like two school children being walked to the principal’s office, Emma and Tom made their way back to suite three-twenty-six in silence. Escorted by Cedric, they only stared straight ahead and quickly moved inside, taking a seat at the table in the center of the room. The awkwardness of the moment hung in the air as their host paced in front of the window.
Staring at one another, they waited as Cedric slowly turned back and offered a half smile.
“Okay, so… just let me get this out of the way first. Anytime you go anywhere in this building—at least for now—you go with either myself or Veronica. No exceptions, is that fair?”
Emma spoke first. “I’m really sorry, Cedric. This is my fault. I ran out and Tom was just trying to get me to come back.”
“Either way,” Cedric said, “I need you both to make sure that one of us is with you at all times. It’s not that we don’t trust you, it’s just that—”
Folding her arms and resting them on the table, Emma interrupted, “It’s those people you went to meet with. This has something to do with them.”
“Well, now that you mention it, I figure that I may as well fill you in on exactly what’s happening in this city. But first I have some questions.”
Tom gave a thumbs-up. “Fine by me, I’m an open book.”
Cedric turned as his wife and son came through the door and then quickly locked it behind them. Back to the table, he leaned to his left and placed his hand on Tom’s shoulder. “The questions aren’t for you buddy. I believe you gave us enough of your background last night that I could write your biography purely from memory.”
Emma’s eye’s widened. Although she hadn’t been guarded before, the new direction this conversation was taking had her doubting her new friends.
“What exactly are you asking?”
Veronica joined them at the table as Patrick moved to the fold-away sofa. She reached for Emma’s arm and gave it a squeeze. “Sweetheart, it’s no big deal. What my less than tactful husband is trying to get at is that we’d just like to get to know you better. Find out more about our new friend.”
“Okay?” Emma wasn’t fully convinced.
“Emma, we wouldn’t have brought you here and let you spend the night in the same room as us, if we had any doubts. We really do just want to get to know you better, I promise.”
Unfolding her arms, Emma nodded. “I’m sorry, you all have been very gracious. I think my brain may still be adjusting to all the new information from last night… what do you want to know?”
Veronica looked to Cedric and smiled. She waited a moment and then turned back to Emma. “Do you remember everything?”
“I think so…”
Before his wife could respond, Cedric interjected, “Emma, I apologize.” Stepping away from the table, he moved back to the window. “You’ve been through hell out there and the last thing we want to do is make you feel uncomfortable or unwelcome. You have every right to tell us to go to hell.”
“No,” Emma said, “it’s fine. I shouldn’t have snapped like that. I know you and your family are good people. You’re just looking out for your own safety.”
Cedric turned to his wife. She nodded and then looked away. “It’s not for us,” he said. “It’s the others, they have a thing about new people coming into the city, and they want details.”
“Who?”
“There are a group of men who live in an abandoned building near the old police station. We told you about them last night, but not quite everything. They have weapons… a lot of weapons, and they said they’d leave us alone in this building as long as we kept to ourselves and didn’t fill the building with a ton of outsiders. They want control of who comes and goes.”
Emma looked at Tom, but was still addressing Cedric. “They want to make sure that we aren’t here to cause any trouble?”
Veronica suppressed a laugh. “Yeah, basically.”
“Well,” Tom said, “they’re in for quite a surprise then.”
Cedric began to laugh, but then stopped himself. He again peered out the window at the streets below. “You both are welcome to stay as long as you please. Blake and his men just want to be sure we aren’t setting up a sanctuary for just anyone who walks in off the street. He wants to make sure he’s in control of who stays and who goes. I’ll just tell him what he wants to hear.”
“And what’s that?” Emma asked.
“You’ve already guessed… they just want to be sure you aren’t here to cause them any trouble.”
“I’m five-foot-two and like a hundred pounds soaking wet, somehow I don’t think I’m going to cause trouble for too many people. But hey, I understand.”
“They just want—”
“It’s really no problem,” Emma said. “And now that I remember, I feel like I want to tell someone about who I was. Kind of makes it more real, like my old life mattered.”
Cedric turned from the window, but didn’t respond. He moved back over to the table and took a seat beside his wife.
“My name is Emma Runner. I grew up in a small town in Colorado with the craziest older brother and two of the most wonderful human beings as parents. I loved… uh, I mean I love them more than life itself and only hope that I get to see them again someday.”
Trying to avoid tearing up, Emma quickly moved on to another part of her story. “I left home to come out to California to work for a company called BXF Technologies. The man who started the company had made billions manufacturing microprocessors before turning to human technology. I was hired as his lead chemist a few years back and have been out on the West Coast ever since. On a more personal note, I also like puppies and really old movies.”
Tom smiled and covered his mouth to keep from laughing. “So, you think including items from your online dating profile will help your chances?”
Pulling the conversation back, Cedric leaned forward his chair. “You have medical training?”
“Not anything that would be of importance. I know how the elements of the human body work together as one unit, how they co-exist, each of their functions, but my knowledge is more theory based. I can tell you the how and the why, but anything more involved than dressing a laceration or handing out over-the-counter medication and I’d be moving into territory that’s way above my pay grade.”
“That’s good to know,” Cedric said. “But I have a feeling you’re being a bit humble. Either way, it’s really good to have you and Tom here.”
“Thank you,” Emma said, “I just hope one day we can find a way to repay you.”
Cedric and Veronica looked at one another and then back at Emma. “There is one other thing,” Cedric said.
“Yes?”
“The man that I met with this morning, his name is Mitchell Blake. He’s young and cocky, but he also has a small army and lots of weapons.”
“So?”
“He wants to meet you tomorrow… both of you.”
24
Stopped at the corner of East Main and Old Highway 6, Ethan and Ben stared out over the empty street. They made note of the fast food restaurant, six different short stay hotels, and the single grocery store all within the same long block. Quietly pointing out the odd absence of vehicles and people alike, Ethan shifted into drive and started through the center of town.
Ben ventured a half-hearted guess. “Maybe they’ve all gone into hiding.”
“Yeah,” Ethan said, “but from what? I haven’t seen a single Feeder since we left the city.”
Driving along East Main, Ethan kept their speed below five miles per hour. He scanned every empty parking lot and abandoned storefront as they made their w
ay from one end of the small rural town to the other.
Slightly over four miles end to end, they covered the distance twice in just over thirty minutes. When they’d finished with East Main, Ethan took the left side of the SUV as Ben watched the area out through the right. They drove up and down every immaculate street and long driveway they could find. Not one single vehicle or person remained anywhere within sight.
Pulling into the parking lot of the first hotel along Main, they rolled to a stop twenty feet from the front doors. Setting the parking brake and removing his seatbelt, Ethan turned in his seat. One by one, the others began to wake.
Griffin was the first. Slowly opening his eyes, he looked at Ben and then turned to Ethan. He paused a moment, ran his hand over his face, and quickly turned back to Ben once more. Noticing the others were also beginning to stir, he didn’t attempt to throttle his emotion.
“Damn it kid, you scared the hell out us.”
Ben smiled and then winced as he moved to the side to allow Carly room to pull off her seatbelt. “Yeah, sorry about that. I’ll try not to get shot again.”
Carly rolled her neck from left to right, yawned, and then reached for Ben’s right hand. She leaned out in front of him, lifted his upper arm away from his body, and then gently placed it back. “Looks good, let me know if it feels too wet. We’ll change the dressing when we…” She stopped, looked out through the windshield, and then back at Ethan as if she hadn’t realized they were stopped.
“Where are we?”
“Green Valley, Utah.”
The others stirred, and from the third row Helen said, “This place doesn’t look right, where are all the people or whatever?”
Ethan looked around the interior as the five confused individuals stared back. “Not sure, we drove end to end and have yet to see anyone. Also, no cars… not anywhere.”
Shannon looked out through the window over her shoulder. “Maybe everyone just left. Once everything went to hell, maybe this place wasn’t safe and they all just packed their things and drove away.”
