by Harley Tate
Dust plumed around it.
The car sat in the middle of the intersection, hood crumpled, but otherwise intact. Dani couldn’t breathe. Could anyone survive a crash like that?
Larkin threw the Humvee in park and jumped out, rifle in his hands. “Check the truck. I’m searching the road.”
Dani ran after him, her heart hammering like a death toll in her head.
Chapter Sixteen
COLT
Highway 58
Northwest California
5:00 p.m.
“How much longer?” Will leaned over his grandfather’s lap to look out the window. “We’ve been driving in trees for hours.”
Harvey smiled. “We’re in California, so probably another three or four.”
Gloria twisted around in the seat next to Colt. “Will the Humvee make it? They keep falling behind.”
Colt glanced up in the rearview mirror. “I hope so.” The last time Larkin pulled over, Colt almost hadn’t heard the horn. If they drifted too far apart, he might not know when the Humvee stalled. He eased his foot off the gas and let Larkin catch up.
“There’s got to be a place near here for gas. We’re coming up on some towns, aren’t we?”
Harvey nodded. “Should be soon. We’re on the downward slope toward Lake Almanor now. There’s a small town there. Tourist-type place.”
“We haven’t been there in twenty years. Who knows what it’s like now.”
Colt glanced at Gloria. If that was true, they might as well be heading into the area blind. Twenty years was a long time in Northern California. Whole towns could transform from sleepy little hideouts to destination spots. Colt had lived in Sacramento long enough to see it happen to nearby places like Solvang and Auburn. There was no telling what Lake Almanor and the towns around it were like now.
They needed to be cautious. He glanced at the fuel gauge. It had been stuck on a quarter tank for way too long. Pretty soon it wouldn’t matter what kind of town they came across. He would need to siphon some gas.
Colt puffed up his chest and stretched. Riding four across a bench seat didn’t give much room for comfort. Gloria almost sat in his lap and poor Will perched on the front of the seat like a bird on a wire. It didn’t even have seatbelts.
“As soon as we see some signs of life, we’ll need to keep an eye out for gas. Think abandoned cars, farm equipment, motorcycles. Anything with a gas tank that we can siphon.”
“What about the Humvee?”
“If it’s still running, then diesel or vegetable oil.” Colt rubbed at his face and fought off the exhaustion. After his run-in with the punks the night before, he’d barely slept.
“If you need me to drive, I can take a shift.”
Colt turned to thank Harvey when the horn from the Humvee made him pause. The horn sounded again and a burst of chrome and speed flew from the tree line like a silver bullet. Shit! Colt cranked the wheel as he slammed on the brakes and Will slid off the seat. The kid’s shoulder slammed into the dash as the truck fishtailed.
“Everyone hold on!” Colt screamed and braced for impact. Gloria scrambled for Will. Harvey tried to shield them both.
The pickup didn’t stand a chance.
Four thousand pounds slammed into the side of the truck. The bed crushed and crunched and a roll of linens and water jugs flew over the windshield.
The car didn’t stop. It kept coming like a beast dredged up from the depths of hell, chewing up asphalt and truck parts as it forced the pickup off the side of the road. The tires hit the dirt, the rubber dug into the weeds, and the world turned on its ear.
Colt fell against the driver’s-side door and Gloria landed on top of him. Glass shattered and flew in all directions. Metal buckled all around them but the truck didn’t slow down.
It flipped again and Colt slammed into the roof. Pain lanced his shoulder. Glass pelted his face and arms. As the truck rolled down the slope of weeds and dirt, it picked up speed, tossing them about like balls in a bingo machine. Someone’s hand smacked him in the face. A foot kicked him in the groin.
They wouldn’t survive the crash.
He was going to die right there on some no-name road in the woods of California. Not because someone put a bullet in his head or he’d fought to the end and lost. No. A damn car accident. He survived the apocalypse only to be taken out like it was any other day of the week.
As the truck rolled, it caught air, sailing up off the ground. Colt hit what used to be the windshield and kept going. He was free. Flying or falling he couldn’t tell which. Air hit him in the face with an accusatory slap. Trees and sky and the promise of the future blurred past him, saying goodbye.
This was the end. He knew it.
Gravity wrenched his body back to earth and he hit the ground so hard, he bounced. When he slammed into the dirt a second time, the world snapped to black.
Chapter Seventeen
DANI
Highway 58
Northwest California
5:15 p.m.
The truck came to rest on one side in a thicket of young saplings no more than five feet tall. Tree branches stuck through the gaping holes in the frame and the windshield. Smoke billowed from the engine.
Broken bottles and sacks of smashed food littered the scene. Hunks of metal and scraps of plastic dotted the ground. A wet stain coated a shopping bag. Is that blood?
Dani scrabbled down the embankment, slipping and sliding on loose rocks and shale as she rushed to the truck. Be alive. Please, be alive. She stumbled to a stop a foot from what remained of the truck bed. The tires were shredded. The tailgate had been sheered clean off. A dribble of gasoline leaked from the punctured tank.
She swallowed and stepped closer.
“Let me go first, Dani. It looks like the truck might catch fire.” Doug’s voice stopped Dani still. In her rush to reach the accident, she’d forgotten he dealt with scenes like this every day.
“What happens if a fire starts?”
Doug glanced up as he picked his way through the wreckage. “Without a fireman’s jacket or any gear? We hope to hell we can get everyone out and we run.” He disappeared around the front of the truck and Dani held her breath.
A muffled curse carried on the wind.
“Doug?” Melody called out from the road. “Are they alive? Can I help?” She picked her way around the wreckage and stopped within view of her brother before stumbling back. She landed on her butt on the asphalt as the color drained from her face.
Oh, no. Dani couldn’t believe it. They weren’t all dead. They couldn’t be. She rushed forward, heedless of the debris or the risk or Doug’s harsh reproach.
“Is Colt—” The sight of a bloody arm, severed at the elbow joint and lying a few feet from the cab, choked off her words. Dani covered her mouth. She recognized Gloria’s wedding ring.
From her vantage point, all she could see inside the truck’s cab was blood. It splattered against the tan roof and dashboard and dripped over the branches tangled in the windshield. So much freakin’ blood. Was Colt in there somewhere? Was his life mixing with that of the Wilkinses as it congealed in the cracked vinyl?
She swallowed down a wave of nausea and regret. What would she do without Colt?
Melody picked her way down the slope and pushed past Dani. “We can’t leave them in there. Doug, you have to get them out. You have to try to save…Oh my God.”
Doug reached out and grabbed his sister as she sagged to the ground. That afternoon’s lunch of oranges and canned beans tumbled from Melody’s lips as she heaved into the weeds.
She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Have you checked for a pulse?”
He shook his head. “There’s no point, Mel. They’re gone.”
“Please, Doug. Just do it.” Melody gripped her thighs as she heaved again and Doug let her go.
He eased around the side of the truck, bending the stunted trees to make a path. The truck groaned as he climbed aboard the mangled front fender and balanced on
one leg as he straddled a hunk of hood. Smoke wafted around him from the engine area, but Doug pressed on, scaling the wreckage until he could grab ahold of the roof.
With one hand gripping where the windshield used to be and one holding fast to a bent side mirror, Doug slipped down into the cab.
Dani waited, holding her breath while Doug maneuvered in the tight space. In the time between watching the crash and now, hope dwindled. The odds of anyone surviving were slim. Nonexistent, maybe. There was nothing left of the truck bed. The cab had been crushed on all sides. The four of them would have to find a way to carry on. They would have to for—
“I’ve got a pulse!” Doug’s shout carried from inside the cab. “Harvey’s alive!”
Dani rushed up to the truck and found a foothold on the exposed underside. She hoisted herself up until her fingers found purchase on the door frame. She cleared the side as Doug’s head came into view. “What can I do?”
He glanced up in surprise. “We have to get him out, but I don’t have any gear. He could have a broken back or neck.”
“If we leave him he could bleed out.”
Doug frowned. “Even if we get him free of the truck, we can’t carry him all the way back to the Humvee.”
“We can use the hood of the Camaro.” Larkin’s voice made Dani jump and she almost lost her footing.
He traipsed out of the trees and stopped on the other side of the truck. “It flew off in the crash and is mostly one piece on the road.”
Doug nodded. “That might work. Dani, can you and Melody get it?”
She nodded and climbed down from her perch before grabbing Melody and heading for the road. Dani spotted the silver metal a hundred feet down the pavement. She jogged to it with Melody on her heels. If Harvey was still alive, maybe Colt was, too.
Together the two women dragged the hood down the embankment. It slipped and skidded and almost cut Dani’s finger off, but they managed. As Doug and Larkin pulled an unconscious Harvey from the cab, Melody held the makeshift litter steady.
Blood coated the side of Harvey’s head, but he didn’t appear to have any other injuries. The second Doug set Harvey down, she asked the question burning a hole in her heart. “Is Colt dead?”
Doug shook his head. “I don’t know. He’s not in the truck.”
Her eyes widened. “Are you sure?”
Larkin stood up and wiped his bloody hands on his pants. “He’s not on the road. He must have been thrown from the truck when it flipped. Driver’s dead in the car or about to be.”
Dani didn’t wait another second. She climbed back up the embankment and began a search, scanning this way and that every step, searching for any sign of Colt. If he was out there, she would find him.
Bits of metal and shards of glass glinted in the afternoon sun and Dani sidestepped the biggest pieces. Debris covered the asphalt, but nothing showed signs of life. Every step brought her closer to the muscle car. It sat upright, crumpled in on itself, but not destroyed.
Dani approached with caution. Could Colt have been thrown back toward it? She didn’t understand force or velocity or any of those physics terms she glossed over in class. As far as she knew, he could be anywhere, bleeding out while she searched in the wrong places.
She eased up to the car. Broken valves and tubes hissed as the car cooled. The driver’s-side door hung open forty-five degrees. A boot was perched on the road.
Dani froze. Was the driver still alive? She eased the rifle off her shoulder and checked the safety. They were running so low on ammo. A bullet was now worth more than food or water. Only fire if desperate.
Stepping slowly enough not to make a sound, Dani cleared the driver’s door. A man was slumped in the driver’s seat like Larkin said. Blood pooled on the asphalt by the door and dripped off a jagged wound in his arm. Plop. Plop. Plop.
A beard coated his jaw and his neck, hiding pale skin and a sagging wattle. Dani stepped closer. She poked his shoulder with the barrel of her rifle.
He groaned.
Crap. All the time she’d stared at his body, she wished for a corpse. From the amount of blood spreading across the ground, she wouldn’t have that long to wait. She eased closer. Empty passenger seat. Dani bent to see past the driver.
What is that?
She leaned closer. Luggage. Piles of duffels sat in the back seat, one on top of the other. Anything could be inside. Drugs. Money. Guns.
Dani glanced at the driver. After the first groan, he hadn’t made a sound. His chest barely moved. She examined the passenger side. That side of the car took the worst beating, crumpling in on itself from the impact with the truck.
She couldn’t get in any other way but past the driver. Stepping back, Dani glanced around. Where was Colt? Melody and Doug and Larkin still worked on Harvey on the side of the road, each one bending over the car’s hood as they tried to keep him alive.
She needed to get on with her search, but she couldn’t leave this man here. What if he had something they could use? What if he woke up and got away? She turned back to face him. Melody would hate her for the thoughts running circles inside her brain, but she couldn’t turn them off.
He killed their friends. Whether it was an accident or intentional, Dani might never know, but the truth remained. Gloria and Will and maybe Colt were dead because of this man. She didn’t need to agonize over the decision. Dani brought the rifle up and aimed at the man’s head.
No. She wouldn’t waste a bullet. She lowered the gun and reached into her pocket for a hunting knife. One of the few things she’d managed to save from Colt’s haul at the sporting goods store in Eugene. She’d kept it in her pocket ever since the run-in with Jarvis and Captain Ferguson.
It had always been a weapon of last resort. Now it would be her first choice. Dani flicked out the blade. Four inches long and sharpened to slice through a kill like hot butter. She eased up to the driver. Sucked in a breath.
This is the right call. I’m doing the right thing. She shut down her emotions and her nerves and forced her panic to subside. I can do this.
One quick jab and twist and even if the bastard woke up, he’d never make it. Dani exhaled and stepped closer.
“What the hell are you doing? Trying to get yourself killed?”
Dani spun around. Colt stood ten feet behind her, using a tree branch as a crutch.
“You’re alive!”
“Seems that way.” He winced instead of smiled. “But my knee is jacked up and my brain auditioned for a spot on a roller derby team.”
“Did your brain make it?”
He snorted and hobbled toward her. “Is he alive?”
She nodded. “For now.”
Colt pulled his Sig Sauer from his holster. “I’d step back.”
Dani did as she was told and watched as Colt pulled the trigger. The gunshot echoed down the street and the second he lowered the gun, she rushed him.
Her arms made it three-quarters of the way around his shoulders. “I thought you were dead.”
“Me, too.” Colt hugged her back with one hand as Larkin stopped beside them.
Dani pulled back and wiped at her face.
“Anything I should know?”
Colt tilted his head. “I’m alive and that guy’s dead.”
Larkin nodded. “So are Gloria and Will. Harvey’s hanging on, but I don’t think for that much longer.”
Colt sagged. “I saw it too damn late.”
Dani spoke up. “Did you see them tailing us?”
“What?”
Dani glanced at Larkin. “I don’t know if it was the same car, but I caught a glimpse of one on a frontage road. It stayed with us for a while, then disappeared.”
Colt shook his head. “We were too far ahead of you. I didn’t see it. Do you think the same one?”
“Maybe.”
Larkin clapped Colt on the back. “Either way, there was nothing you could do. It was barreling through the intersection. Had to be going a hundred, maybe more.”
; Colt nodded. “Still sucks.”
“You’re damn straight.” Larkin stepped up and eased his shoulder under Colt’s arm and took the tree branch. “Let’s get you checked out. Melody’s about done with Harvey.”
Dani stood beside the car, hesitating.
“Are you coming?”
She glanced at the dead man. “There’s one thing I want to check out.”
“Be careful, Dani.”
She watched Colt and Larkin shuffle away before turning back to the car. Holding her breath, she crawled over the man who now sported a bullet hole in the center of his forehead. He stank like beer and bodily fluid.
With one hand on the seat, she reached out for the closest duffel. It didn’t budge. She would have to crawl all the way into the back. Wedging herself between the dead man’s thigh and the passenger seat, she managed to crawl in far enough to reach a zipper.
Dani tugged, hoping for something they could use. The bag fell open and her mouth followed suit.
Chapter Eighteen
COLT
Highway 58
Northwest California
7:00 p.m.
Everything hurt. Colt tilted his head to the right and his brain sloshed like unset Jell-O. He waited for the world to stop spinning.
“You’re damn lucky to be alive. I scoured the pavement looking for body parts.” Larkin plopped down on the asphalt next to Colt. “Didn’t expect to find you in one piece.”
“I bounced around inside the cab like a pinball until the windshield shattered. One of the rollovers must have thrown me out.”
“I’m surprised you’re not impaled on a branch or head-first in the middle of a tree trunk.”
Colt rubbed at his sore shoulder. “Feels like I did both, but I came to facedown in a weedy ditch. If it had kept raining, I’d have drowned in the muck.”
Larkin held up his hand. “How many fingers?”
