He sprinted to the other side of the street and knelt down by a car. He put his hands on the hood, but then removed them quickly. The metal on the car was scorching.
Ulysses crept along the storefronts, checking inside each window before he passed. Each one he looked into was ransacked. He kept his eyes peeled for a pharmacy and then, halfway down Main Street he finally saw it.
The pharmacy windows were smashed, but its green painted letters glistened in the sun. Ulysses kept his hand close to the holster on his hip as he moved toward the pharmacy.
As he approached the motel he could hear voices in the distance. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but the murmuring grew louder. Ulysses stopped at the corner of the building right before the motel. Two bikers came into the parking lot.
“The dumb bitch is still here. I’m surprised she hasn’t taken off yet.”
“How the hell is she supposed to escape when she’s got another guy on her every twenty minutes?”
“You try her out?”
“Yeah, I’ve had better, but it wasn’t bad.”
The sound of their boots and voices started to fade. Ulysses grabbed the pistol from his holster. He clicked the safety off and glanced around the corner. He saw the backside of the two men he had overheard heading to the far end of the motel and then they disappeared through one of the doors.
Ulysses waited to see if someone else would come outside, but no one did. A car sat out front of the motel in the street, riddled with bullets. He made a dash for it, crouching behind the engine. His fingers gripped the gunshot holes in the passenger door.
Another car sat parked in front of the pharmacy. He glanced back through the window of the car, checking to see if anyone was watching. When he took off running his knees popped and when he reached the curb of the sidewalk he tripped. The pistol flew from his hand and skidded across the sidewalk.
He pushed himself off the pavement, wincing. He grabbed the pistol and leaned back against a building wall. He looked to see if anyone saw him. Nothing. He panted heavily trying to catch his breath. He looked down at his knee and his torn jeans. The skin peeled off revealing a bloody spot. He reached out to touch it, then recoiled.
“Dammit.”
He grabbed the side of the car for support and pushed himself up on his good leg. He limped over to the pharmacy door. The frame was busted and it swung open crooked when he pushed it. Glass crunched under his boots. He kept the pistol up, scanning the abandoned store.
Most of the shelves were smashed. The tip of his boot kicked an empty prescription bottle and it rolled across the floor. He grabbed the bag and pulled out the piece of paper with the name of the antibiotics that Anne told him to find.
His fingers fumbled through the bottles of pills. They rattled as he spun them around, holding each of them to the light from the window checking the labels. He scanned the first wall, found nothing, then moved on to the next.
He went through all of the shelves, scraping his hands reaching through the broken glass cabinets that had been locked. Finally, Ulysses brought one of the bottles to the window, checked the label, and gave a sigh.
Ulysses tossed the bottle into his bag and made a step toward the exit when he saw three bikers head out of their room in the motel and walk across the parking lot. Ulysses slid behind the wall next to the door. He inched to the edge of the broken window and peered out through the jagged edges of glass.
“Hold on, Frankie, I’m gonna go grab some more of that shit out of the pharmacy. I’ll meet you guys over there.”
“All right, Garrett.”
Two of them drifted off further down the road and Garret made a beeline for the pharmacy. Ulysses tried to move, but he his leg didn’t respond fast enough to hide. When Garrett walked through the door Ulysses hit him in the back of the head with his pistol.
Garret stumbled into the counter and pulled out his piece. Ulysses squeezed his trigger and shot Garrett in the leg and stomach. He squeezed the trigger again sending a bullet through Garret’s chest, dropping him to the floor.
Ulysses could hear the shouts and the sound of boots coming in his direction. He hobbled around Garrett’s body and made his way to the back of the store. Each step sent a knife digging into his knee and then ran all the way up to his hip. He pushed himself as fast as he could go. He swung the back door open and stepped outside, the sun shining bright in the blue sky. He glanced around for any place he could hide. He looked to his left. Nothing. He looked right. Nothing. The tall grass in front of him was the only place that offered any cover.
Ulysses limped through the grass for twenty feet, then dropped to the ground. He crawled, spreading the grass apart, trying to see in front of him when he found himself looking into the eyes of a young girl, frozen in shock, lying hidden in the grass.
“Spread out! I want the head of whatever prick did this on a steak before lunch!” Frankie said.
“Alright, Frankie.”
Ulysses brought his finger to his lips. The girl nodded. Ulysses saw some other movement behind her and then Nancy’s and Erin’s eyes stared back at him, through the grass.
The bikers swept through the tall grass, searching for them.
“Frankie, this shit is thick. It could take a while before we find them.”
“Then you can be the one to tell Jake why you let someone get away with killing one of our brothers.”
It was an hour before the bikers gave up their search. The bikers disappeared and Ulysses finally let his body relax. He let his head rest on the ground for a moment. He felt the cool earth, with its rocks and pebbles under his belly. He rolled onto his back, wincing from the pain in his knee.
“Are you girls okay?” Ulysses asked.
“We’re not hurt,” Mary said.
“If we can get to the edge of town we can follow the highway to my cabin. You three can come with me,” Ulysses said.
He saw her hesitation as she stared at the pistol in his hand. He holstered it.
“My family is there. It’s safe. I promise.”
“Mary, I don’t know if we should go. What about Mom?” Nancy asked.
“We can come back for your mom, but we’ll need help,” Ulysses said.
“You promise we can come back for her?” Mary asked.
“Promise.”
Ulysses noticed the dirt smeared on their faces, the scratches and cuts from the rocks and grass around them, the dark circles under their eyes, their sunburnt faces. These girls had been here for a while.
“Okay,” Mary said.
“Stay low and follow me,” Ulysses said.
Each time Ulysses’ knee hit the ground while he crawled, a shot of pain shot through his entire leg. After thirty yards he collapsed on his side. It felt like a pad of spikes was sticking into knee.
“Are you all right?” Mary asked.
Ulysses nodded. He led the girls through the grass, Ulysses having to stop every now and then to rest.
“How much longer?” Mary asked.
“Shouldn’t be much further,” Ulysses answered. He poked his head over the grass and saw they were even with the end of the stores on Main Street.
“The highway is just another twenty yards. We’ll want to stay in the grass for a little ways before we start walking on the road in case they have people keeping watch,” he said.
They traveled up the side of the highway a little further, crawling along the grass, avoiding rocks, and on the watch for snakes. Ulysses checked behind them one more time to see how far they were from the town. It was over a hundred yards behind them, so Ulysses motioned for them to get on the road and the three of them moved as fast as they could. Ulysses hobbled trying to keep up and Mary went back and she put his arm around her shoulder to help steady him.
Jake slammed the knife onto the table. The men around him had their heads down, not daring to look him in the face.
“You’re telling me three girls did this?” Jake asked.
“Maybe they thought they
could get their mom back,” Frankie answered.
Jake stared Frankie down. He motioned for the other two bikers to leave the room and they shut the door behind them. Jake walked over to Frankie, looking behind him at the closed door. The room was hot and stuffy. Jake put his hand on Frankie’s shoulder.
“You’re getting sloppy, Frankie,” Jake said.
“Jake, I’m sorry.”
Jake patted Frankie’s cheeks softly and then turned his back to him.
“I know you are,” Jake said.
Jake sent his fist to the side of Frankie’s jaw, sending him to the ground with a thud. Jake picked him up by his cut and threw him into the mirror above the dresser, shattering it to pieces. Jake picked Frankie up by his hair and yanked his head back.
“You’re letting a group of girls get the better of you? I want you to find them and bring them to me, do you understand?”
Frankie nodded. Jake let go of his hair and pushed him backwards.
“Tell the boys we’ll have Garrett’s wake tonight,” Jake said.
Kalen sat on the end of her bed, staring out the cabin window. The sun was breaking through the trees, sending beams of light into her room. Her fingers rubbed the bruises around her neck. The flesh was still tender. Whenever she moved she could feel the strain of her muscles and tendons. Her lip was still slightly swollen on the bottom corner.
She fell back on the bed, a faint memory of the day before, of the woods and being dragged into them by a strange man. She didn’t feel like moving. She hadn’t felt like talking. Every time her mom came in the room to speak with her she shut down. She knew her mom was trying to help, but there wasn’t anything that she could tell her that would make her feel better.
She hadn’t slept for more than a few hours a night since they arrived at the cabin, and the hours she did rest were distressing. When she closed her eyes all she could see was him on top of her. She could feel his hands gripping her neck, the weight of his body forcing himself on her, the feel of his unwanted hands.
Then, she would wake. Her heart would be pounding, her hands trying to free a grip that wasn’t there. The attack replayed in her mind over and over. She tried to remember everything, but pieces were missing. Her last visible thought was of the man on top of her, his hands around her neck and the screams of her mother in the distance. After that she could only remember waking up in the Jeep with the blanket over her.
Kalen reached into the drawer of the nightstand next to her and pulled out a bottle of pills. Her hands were shaky as she opened the top of the bottle. The label on the side read “Oxycodone.” The once full bottle was already half empty.
She popped three of the pills in her mouth letting her body go numb. Her heart rate started to come back down; the rolling weight of dullness fell upon her. Her thoughts started to scramble. She couldn’t remember what she was thinking about anymore. She could only feel herself sinking into the bed beneath her and the warm sun beating on her legs through the window.
The crash of the front door swinging open snapped her out of her daze. She could hear the shuffling of feet and the sliding of furniture. There were voices she couldn’t recognize.
Her legs felt heavy when she moved them. Her whole body was heavy. She moved toward the door of her room, slightly swaying back and forth. When she reached for the doorknob everything seemed to move in slow motion.
Kalen’s hands padded along the walls of the hallway, as she tried to steady herself. She could see people moving in the living room. She saw two young girls staring back at her, their faces smudged in dirt and their nightgowns covered in grass and mud.
The two girls were holding each other’s hands. That’s all Kalen could focus on. Then there was a slight buzzing in her ears. Her eyes shifted from the two small hands laced together to her mother mouthing words at her, until finally the sound broke through the humming in her mind.
“Kalen!” Anne said.
“What?” Kalen asked.
“Grab the antibiotics out of Grandpa’s bag and a bottle of water out of the kitchen and give them to Ray.”
“Okay.”
Kalen tried to focus on the task. She made herself walk to the bag, search it until she heard the sound of pills rattling in a bottle, then put one foot in front of the other to grab a bottle of water from the cabinet.
On the walk back a third girl was staring at her. She was around Kalen’s age, a little bit taller than she was though, and had the same dirt smudged face as the younger girls. The three of them looked alike.
Kalen twisted the top of the bottle off. Ray’s face was dripping with sweat. She could feel the heat coming off of his body just standing next to him. She shut her eyes, hard. Her thoughts felt jumbled. She tried focusing on the task at hand.
Tilt his head up. Give him the pill. Have him drink the water.
She recited it a few more times in her head, making sure she had it correctly. She opened her eyes and tilted Ray’s head up. His mouth opened and she placed the pill on his tongue. She placed the bottle of the rim to his lips. She slowly tilted the water into his mouth. Most of it went down his chin and onto his shirt, but enough made it into his mouth for him to swallow the pill.
She fell onto the floor, her butt landing hard against the wooden planks. Her thoughts became jumbled again. She felt a hand pulling her up then pushing her down the hallway. She felt the hand guide her into bed where she collapsed into a dreamless sleep she desperately needed.
The room was dark when Kalen opened her eyes. The sunlight that had come through the window earlier in the day had been replaced by the silver glow of the moon. The pills had worn off. She started to remember again. She reached for the drawer of the nightstand.
The familiar rattle of pills was gone. She pulled the drawer open further, her hand running along the bare sides and bottom. Nothing.
A glow of light from under her door caught her attention. The glow faded, as if moving down the hall. When she opened the door she saw a girl, around her age, her face lit by candlelight. She looked familiar.
“Hi,” Mary said.
“Hi.”
“I didn’t mean to wake you up. I was just getting some water.”
“You came in with my grandfather earlier today didn’t you?”
“Yeah. He found us in town and brought us up here.”
“I’m Kalen.”
“Mary.”
The two girls shook hands. Kalen could feel the dryness in her mouth. She followed Mary to the kitchen for some water.
Kalen tipped the bottle back and downed half of it immediately. She didn’t realize how thirsty she was until the water hit her lips. Her stomach growled.
“I think there was still some meat left over from dinner,” Mary said.
Anne had cooked some of the canned chicken from the supplies downstairs. Mary had saved some for a snack later, but gave it to Kalen instead.
Kalen wolfed the food down. The fork scraped the sides of the bowl until there was nothing left, and placed it on the counter. She wiped her mouth with the corners of her sleeve.
“Are you okay?” Mary asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“It’s just I don’t’ see how someone who has an entire basement stock piled with food acts like they haven’t eaten in days.”
That’s because she hadn’t eaten in days. Her last meal had been in their old house. A house she watched go up in flames with her father inside.
“Who were the girls with you?” Kalen asked.
“My sisters.”
“What about your parents?”
Kalen recognized the look on Mary’s face. It was the same look she’d been wearing for the past three days. Kalen changed the subject.
“Where are you from?” Kalen asked.
“California.”
“What are you doing in Ohio?”
“We were on vacation. My dad wanted to have his daughters experience the world of the small town. We’ve been on a road trip all summer. We were planning on
heading back the day everything turned off.”
Kalen watched Mary’s eyes drift down when she mentioned her father. She had said “dad” very softly.
“What about you?” Mary asked.
“Pennsylvania.”
“Were you guys here when everything went out?”
“No, we were back home in Pittsburgh.”
“You walked all the way from Pittsburgh to here?”
“We drove.”
Mary laughed.
“I’m serious,” Kalen said. “The Jeep out front works. That’s what we came here in,” she said.
“You’re telling me that you have a working car?”
“Yeah.”
Mary’s smile faded. Her face turned serious. She rushed over seizing Kalen by her shoulders.
“We have to get out of here,” Mary said.
Kalen felt Mary’s fingers digging into her shoulders. She squeezed hard, pulling her closer.
“Why? We came here because it was safe. My grandfather brought you here because it’s safe,” Kalen said.
“You don’t understand. That town, Carrollton, that’s just a few miles from here, is overrun. There’s this gang there. You want to know what happened to my parents? They killed my dad and raped my mom in front of me.”
When the words hit Kalen’s ears she didn’t have the reaction she thought she would. She’d been scared of facing what had happened to her in the woods. She didn’t want to give it a name. She couldn’t force the words from her lips. It wasn’t until Mary had said the words that she finally felt something about what had happened.
She felt angry.
“They raped her?” Kalen asked.
Mary didn’t cry. She kept the same rushed tone as before. She spoke not out of remorse for what happened to her mother, but of the fact that she didn’t want it to happen to her sisters.
“One of them burst down the door of the room we were in. My dad tried to stop them, but the guy pulled a knife on him. After he stabbed my dad he pulled a gun on me, my mom, and my sisters.”
Kalen felt herself being drawn into Mary’s story, her anger rising with every word leaving Mary’s mouth.
Surviving The Collapse Super Boxset: EMP Post Apocalyptic Fiction Page 13
