The Radius | Book 2 | Living In The Radius

by Muga, D. M.

  Squinting in the mid-afternoon sun, Ben can see a vehicle start to form on the horizon.

  As they get closer, Ben starts to make out their shapes a little more closely.

  No… it couldn’t be. Are those motorcycles and a…? Ben thinks to himself.

  “Sure as shit is… that’s a couple of motorcycles and black truck with a box trailer…” Ben says aloud.

  “And that truck and trailer look very similar to ours, Ben.” Alexander adds.

  “Those have to be those creeps that Daniel and the others were talking about.” Joseph replies.

  “My thoughts exactly!” Ben exclaims.

  “Any objections to following those scumbags and seeing where they’re going?” Ben adds.

  “None, here.” Joseph replies.

  “No, but we should likely trail them from a distance, Benjamin.” Alexander replies.

  “Right… I’ll let them get a little ways past us and then turn around and follow those POS’s.” Ben explains.

  The three men wait for the motorcycles and the truck with a box trailer to go past them. Ben eagerly watches as the two front bikes pass them, followed by the truck and then the bike in the rear.

  “Looks like they were right. There can’t be more than six of them. If we find out where they are going, we can get Daniel and the others to help take them out.” Ben explains.

  “Take them out? I thought we were just going to follow them?” Alexander questions.

  “Alexander, these POS’s are taking women and children. We cannot just sit by and do nothing.” Ben explains.

  “No, you are right, Ben. It just seems like a rather large risk… considering our numbers and theirs.” Alexander replies.

  “Maybe so, but that’s the world that we live in now. We cannot just let people keep on doing these horrible things to good people.” Ben answers. “Joseph, what do you think?”

  “You had me at scumbags... I’m in.” Joseph replies.

  Ben smiles, as he watches the vehicles pass his truck and start to go over the overpass. “Alexander, you good?”

  “Yes, Ben. I’m good.” Alexander replies.

  Ben looks over to Alexander. “It’ll be alright, Alexander. We got this. And it’s the right thing to do.”

  Before Alexander can reply, Ben hears crashing sounds and screeching of tires. He turns back to see the vehicles to his left. He can’t see them, so he checks his side view mirror. He sees one bike down, crashed, and the second one crashing, with the driver being launched from the bike into the air. The screeching tires sound was coming from the truck as it was trying to break before hitting the bikes, or so Ben thinks.

  The truck takes flight, with the box trailer in tow, and lands on its side skidding a good distance before it comes to a stop. The only vehicle that didn’t crash was the last bike, who had stopped in time before hitting whatever the other vehicles had, and had also avoided running into the back of the trailer.

  Without thinking, Ben shuts off his engines and jumps out of his truck. He opens up his back-cab door, grabbing his 5.56 SAINT AR.

  He looks over at Joseph and Alexander, “What are you guys waiting for?! If it’s them, we have them by surprise! If it’s not, they need help! Let's go!”

  Before they can answer, Ben bolts for the accident site and straight toward the man standing next to his motorcycle with his hands on top of his head yelling obscenities.

  Once Ben reaches within ten feet of the man, he stops and brings up his AR, clicking off the safety.

  If these are those scumbags and he’s the only one left alive, we need him...

  “Keep your hands up and don’t move! Or I will shoot you!” Ben shouts at the man.

  The man flinches and then freezes, not moving as Ben instructed.

  “Now slowly turn around… Slowly! If I even think you are going for your gun, I will drop you!” Ben shouts at him.

  The man slowly turns around. He has long black hair tied up into a ponytail. He looks to have a few inches on Ben, but also looks on the slow and pudgy side of the spectrum. His clothes tell Ben that he looks the part of a scumbag... but looks aren’t everything. When he’s facing Ben, he can tell that the man is sizing him up, just as Ben was doing to him.

  Thinking quickly, Ben asks. “How many women and children do you have in the back of that trailer?!”

  The man grins at him and starts to put his hands down. “What the fuck is it to you?! If you are going to do something, fucking do it! If not, you’d best start running, bitch…” The man starts to chuckle.

  Not “what?” or “who are you?” or “why the hell would I have women and children in a box-enclosed trailer?” ... Nope, this POS said, “what the fuck is it to me?”

  ::Crack::

  The man screams out in pain.

  ::Crack::

  The man screams out in pain again and is now lying on the road ten feet away from Ben, trying to hold both of his legs at once. Ben had shot him first in his left leg, and then quickly again in his right leg.

  We may need him alive, but we don’t necessarily need him being able to walk or run. Ben thinks to himself.

  “Where’s your gun!?” Ben shouts at the man.

  The man doesn’t grin or chuckle this time and is obviously in pain and angry. “It’s on my hip and I have another on my bike!” The man says through his teeth.

  “Slowly take your gun and throw it away from you! If I even think you are raising it toward me and my friends, next round goes in your chest!” Ben shouts at the man.

  The man doesn't reply but slowly reaches to his right hip with his hand that’s now covered in blood. He grabs his sidearm with two fingers and tosses it away from him.

  With his bike a good six feet away from him, Ben’s confident that he can’t reach it faster than he can pull the trigger.

  “Now let’s try this again, scumbag! How many women and children do you have in that trailer that just crashed?” Ben asks the bleeding man on the ground.

  “I don’t fucking know. Maybe twenty… if they’re still alive.” The man replies, now gripping his legs where he was shot. “I hope they’re all fucking dead.” The man says as he grits the words through his teeth.

  “You better hope they aren’t! They're the only reason you’re still alive... Now! How many of you are there?!” Ben shouts at the man.

  “Why don’t you go and find out, hero?” The man replies, staring daggers at Ben.

  Ben sights in at the man’s right foot.

  “No! Wait! Don’t!” The man shouts.

  ::Crack::

  The man screams out in pain once again.

  “Holy Hell, Ben! Just what the hell are you doing?!” Joseph says as he catches up to him, along with Alexander.

  Ben turns to Joseph. “These are the guys. He said as much. There’s about 20 girls in that trailer and I'm trying to figure how many bad guys there are...”

  “Holy shit! 20 of them?!” Joseph shouts. He then raises his rifle to the man on the ground who’s screaming in pain.

  “No!” Ben shouts at Joseph.

  Joseph pauses and looks over at Ben. “What?! You said it yourself! He’s one of them!”

  “Yes! But… We may still need him. There may be more women stashed away somewhere nearby” Ben replies.

  “Oh shit! I didn’t think about that.” Joseph answers.

  “Hey! Big tough badass that kidnaps women!” Ben shouts at the man on the ground.

  The man looks up at him, with pain and anger still in his eyes.

  “Tell me how many there are of your kind or say goodbye to your other foot!” Ben shouts at the man.

  “There’s fucking six of us! At least there fucking was!” The man blurts out as tears are running down his face and stares at Ben with an intense mixture of pain and rage.

  “See. That wasn’t so hard. Way to make it harder for yourself, you dipshit.” Ben says to the man.

  He then turns to Alexander. “Alexander, stay here with this POS. Joseph and I will mo
ve forward. If you hear us yell for you, put a round in this shitbag and come help us up front.”

  Alexander pauses and doesn’t answer.

  “Alexander, you can't leave him by himself and we need to go check for survivors. He has a gun on his bike and another one tossed over there. He’s part of a group of men that kidnap women and young girls. I don’t think I have to explain to you what their intentions were.” Ben explains.

  Alexander nods. “Right. You are absolutely right, Ben. Go ahead, and I’ll stay here… with him.”

  Ben pats him on the shoulder. “It’ll be alright, buddy. Just don’t overthink it.”

  Before Alexander can respond, Ben looks to Joseph. “Come on Joseph, let's go.”

  “Alright! But let me lead. You two are still new to this whole tactical thing.” Joseph replies.

  “Lead the way, Joe.” Ben replies.

  Joseph starts jogging toward the trailer. Once they reach it, Ben stops but Joseph keeps going.

  “Joseph, what about the women and children?!” Ben asks.

  “Ben, we need to deal with the threat first… then check for survivors. Now come on!” Joseph yells at him.

  Ben nods, and follows Joseph to the crashed truck on its side. Joseph stops at the hood of the car right before the windshield, and so does Ben.

  “Alright. Now don’t shoot blindly. There may be a hostage in there with them. I’ll run around the front to the underside of the truck to draw their attention. You come in seconds after to take out the threats. I’ll climb up on top to get a better vantage point.” Joseph says in a hushed tone.

  “Got it.” Ben replies.

  Joseph runs around the front of the crashed truck on its side, to the undercarriage of the vehicle.

  One, Two, Three…

  Ben steps out with his rifle aimed at the windshield and scanning for movement. He holds his breath with his finger on the trigger.

  I can’t see shit through that shattered windshield.

  He holds for a few more seconds, and then ducks back to the side of the truck with the hood, fearful that they can see him and he cannot see them.

  “They’re all dead in the truck, Ben. Three men, no movement.” Joseph says, from atop of the downed vehicle.

  ::Crack::Crack::Crack::

  “Oh shit!” Joseph yells. “It’s coming from the two bikes up front!”

  Ben then hears Joseph dive off of the truck with a loud audible thud.

  ::Crack::Crack::Crack::

  They’re still focused on him… Sounds like it's coming from up front to the right...

  Ben readies his rifle, aiming down his sights and steps out from the side of the truck to get a better view of their aggressors.

  Breathe, exhale, gently squeeze, repeat.

  He steps out and sees a man with a helmet on, firing off to Ben’s right, likely toward Joseph.

  ::Crack::Crack::Crack::

  The man drops to the ground and doesn’t move. Ben quickly shifts his attention to the other down motorcycle, stepping toward it with his rifle aimed at the rider that’s down on the ground. He gets close enough to touch the downed rider but thinks twice about turning him over since he’s face down on the road.

  I’ve seen too many damn movies where this sort of asshole is still alive and shoots the other guy. Screw that crap. Ben thinks of himself.

  ::Crack::Crack::Crack::

  Ben puts three rounds into the man’s back and watches as his lifeless body takes the impact of the rounds and then goes back to being deathly still.

  Oh well, better safe than sorry. Ben thinks and he shrugs.

  He turns to walk off toward the first rider that he shot, to find him face up, still with his helmet on, but with two bullet holes in his chest and a blood pool beneath his body.

  Eh, two out of three shots ain’t bad. Ben thinks.

  He then turns to try and find Joseph. “Joseph?! You alright over there?!”

  “Yeah!” Ben hears Joseph yell back.

  “That son of bitch had me pinned down by the front axle.” Joseph says as he stands up dusting himself off and walks over to Ben.

  He stands next to Ben. “Was the other guy alive too?”

  Ben shakes his head. “I don’t think so, but I figured better safe than sorry. You sure those guys in the truck are goners? I couldn’t see a damn thing through that shattered windshield.”

  Joseph nods. “They are most definitely goners. It’s pretty gross in there. If I had to take a guess it was a combination of their fingers on their triggers for some odd reason and not wearing seat belts, because someone shot someone, and it wasn’t us... Actually, that could have been the reason for the accident.”

  Ben points to the ground that’s just past the trailer behind them, which has chunks of concrete from the overpass upturned in the middle of the road.

  “I think that may have been the reason for the accident.” He replies.

  “Wow… yeah… that must have been one hell of an earthquake to do that. That’s some huge damage to this overpass.” Joseph.

  Ben nods. “Agreed and all the more reason we should check for survivors in the trailer and get the hell off this overpass.”

  “Good point.” Joseph replies.

  The two men make their way to the back of the box trailer, which is on its side as well, just like the truck. They have some trouble but are able to pull open the drop-down gate, which is working more as a barely swinging open door.

  When they open the door, Ben’s saddened to see the box trailer floor riddled with bodies.

  “Can anyone hear me?!” Joseph says

  Ben’s heart sinks as no one answers and several moments pass.

  After a few seconds, Ben shouts, “Is anyone alive in there?!”

  A few more seconds of silence pass, until Ben and Joseph see a small hand raise through the bodies, and then another larger hand raises, followed by another small hand. Ben then begins to hear weakened voices asking for help and sobbing.

  Oh, thank God, there are survivors… But the question is how many? That POS back there said there were nearly twenty women and children in here. Ben thinks to himself.

  “Where do we even start?” Joseph asks, looking into the trailer.

  “I don’t know… I suppose we start taking them out one by one, from the back of the trailer forward. I guess we lay them on the road and try to see which ones we can help.” Ben replies in a solemn voice.

  Joseph nods in silent agreement.

  “Alright, you grab this one’s legs and I’ll grab her shoulders.” Ben adds, stepping toward the closest person, which appears to be a teenager.

  “Yeah… alright.” Joseph says, with a sort of sadness in his voice.

  Ben could definitely relate. This was a real crap situation, and a real sad turn of events. He truly hoped that there were more survivors than then several hands he saw raised and the multiple voices and sobs he had heard. More importantly, he hoped that they were able to help those survivors.

  One foot in front of the other, Ben. Don’t think about it, just get the job done… think about it after it’s all said and done. Ben reminds himself as he and Joseph begin to pull bodies from the wreckage of the box trailer.

  13

  Eileen Rivera

  Eileen and Steven had reached the dried-up lakebed of Big Bear Lake just in time to see the massive spaceship with a platform that was elevated high above the Leviathan. By the time they had reached their destination, a very large screen appeared in thin air. The screen was circular and seemed almost holographic in nature.

  Upon the screen was one man’s face. He looked young, close to her own age. He had a stoic and stern look about him, and very military-like.

  As Eileen and Steven come to a stop, close to some large rocks and a small park area, they both exit the Blazer, with both of them reaching back into the Blazer to grab their rifles.

  “Greetings, humans on Earth One, survivors of the Blue Hole Radius! My name is Captain Abraham Jackson and myself a
nd my crew come from Earth Two. We come here to provide aid and support, to help usher your kind into this brave new world of ours!” The man known now as Captain Abraham Jackson says, with a booming voice over some sort of speaker system.

  Eileen looks around and sees that everyone is mesmerized by the massive spaceship in front of them and the person speaking above the ship.

  Not having to push forward, due to the massiveness of the projection or holographic screen, or whatever it was... the two of them stand in front of Steven’s Blazer and look back to the sky.

  Earth Two? That seems like an insane idea to entertain. But here’s the proof… People from Earth Two. Eileen thinks to herself.

  “My words will be short with you this midday of this wonderful day on Earth One. For we have many other settlements to visit and assist! We are indeed here to help our species survive and progress forward, together!” The very large image of Captain Abraham Jackson says.

  He must be the guy in the middle of those two other guys… up on that platform way up there? Is that thing just floating up there? Eileen thinks, as she strains to see the platform through the massive circular projection/hologram.

  She watches as Captain Abraham Jackson smiles.

  That’s not a sly smile at all… He appears to think very highly of himself. Eileen thinks as she watches Captain Abraham Jackson.

  Well, in his defense, he’s a Captain of a gigantic spaceship.

  Eileen pauses and takes a closer look at the Captain.

  But still... There’s something behind that smile. It’s like when politicians are about to make you promises that make you think twice. Eileen thinks as she watches the Captain’s mouth open again, preparing to continue on with his speech.

  “To begin to show you that we are here to help, we have the means to aid your sick and wounded. We have technology well past your current capabilities. Whereas, your generation led to the creation of the Harris Paradigm, we have made drastic improvements since your time. For example, I'm 74 years old and have a full life expectancy of close to 240 years of life. The gentlemen I’m standing next to are in their 70’s as well and have the same expectancy. In reference to your age, I'm a 74-year-old male human with the body of a mid-twenties human being from your timeframe.” Captain Abraham Jackson explains.