“Who are you?” the skinny trucker asked.
Terry thumped his forefinger on the paper forcefully. “Is that the girl?”
“Look, pal. I don’t know you. So why don’t you back off,” the skinny trucker said.
Terry twisted the skinny trucker’s arm behind his back and slammed his face into the diner’s bar. The fat trucker reached for a pistol on his belt, but Terry pulled the blade from the sheath on his leg and placed the edge right along the man’s throat. The waitress stood frozen, holding a pot of coffee.
“Is. That. The. Girl,” Terry repeated, applying more pressure to the skinny trucker’s arm.
“Yeah. Yeah, that’s the girl,” he said.
“Where was she headed?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where did you take her?”
“I dropped her off just outside the city by I-20. Then I left. That’s all I know. I swear.”
Terry released the skinny trucker’s arm and lowered his blade from the fat one’s throat. Both truckers were drenched in sweat. Terry sheathed his blade. He picked up Brooke’s picture and went back to his seat. The waitress was still frozen with the coffee pot in her hand. Terry finished the rest of his sweet tea, threw a five-dollar bill on the table, and left the diner.
The Mississippi air was thick with bugs and heat. Red maples and dogwood trees stuck into the air, bare of their colorful leaves. The cruiser’s tires crunched over sticks, dead grass, and mud. Brooke had followed the signs for the small motel, which lay just up ahead.
The motel was nestled in the depths of a drying swamp. A single light illuminated the front window next to the door. The shutters around the windows sagged. Chips of paint revealed the rotting wood underneath. Brooke brought the nose of the cruiser to a wooden log, which acted as a perimeter for a makeshift parking lot. The cruiser was the only car there.
“Wait here,” Brooke said.
She unbuckled her seat belt and headed inside. The door squeaked, and an old, wrinkly woman sat behind a small counter. A tiny fan blew her thin white strands of hair backward, and an old sitcom rerun played on a twelve-inch black-and-white television. Brooke had to hit the small bell on the counter to get the old woman’s attention.
“I was hoping to get a room?” Brooke asked.
The old woman led Brooke, Eric, John, and Emily around back, each of them carrying their packs. The old woman didn’t say anything when they passed the bullet-riddled cruiser on their way around. Brooke wasn’t sure if that was because the she just couldn’t see it or if she was too eager to get back to her show.
The room she gave them was small, damp, dirty, and hot. But all of that fell to the wayside at the sight of the two double beds against the walls.
“Awesome,” John said.
The sun set, and after a quick dinner of MREs, John and Emily passed out. Eric agreed to take the floor and give Brooke the remaining bed, but neither of them could fall asleep as quickly as the kids. They whispered to one another, trying not to wake either John or Emily.
“You know, I’ve always hated MREs,” Eric said. “But for some reason today they were incredibly delicious.”
“I’m just glad I was able to get Emily to wolf some down. She’s always been a picky eater.”
Brooke kept adjusting herself on the bed, looking for the cool part of the sheets. The heat was different here than in San Diego. It felt heavier, more humid. She had never sweated so much in her entire life.
“I can’t believe this heat,” Brooke said.
“Must be all of that sexual tension,” Eric said.
Brooke had to cover her mouth to stop the burst of laughter that erupted.
“It wasn’t that funny,” Eric said, sheepishly. “Besides. I don’t think Jason would approve.”
It was the first time Brooke had heard Eric mention her late husband. She knew the two of them had served together. She knew that Jason had saved his life, but she never understood how the two of them got along. They were polar opposites.
“Why didn’t you guys stay in touch?” Brooke asked.
“He had you guys, and I had my military career. There wasn’t much else I wanted to do besides fly. The tours in the Middle East were just a pit stop.”
“How did you know you wanted to be a pilot?”
“Top Gun.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“What? It was a great movie.”
“It’s got to be more than just that.”
Eric hesitated. He drummed his fingers on his chest. “Actually, it was my dad. He was a pilot. Commercial. Not military. He would take me up when I was little. When we were up that high, I didn’t feel so small. Everything else looked tiny except me for once. He smoked like a chimney, though. Lung cancer got him while I was in high school, and the flights stopped. I couldn’t think of anything else but getting back in a plane. A recruiter came to my school one day, and that was that. I enlisted the day after my high school graduation.”
“I’m sorry about your dad.”
“Thanks.
“Do you regret it?”
“Joining? No.”
“I never asked Jason why he joined.”
Brooke felt a stab of guilt over that. Of all the things she had learned about her husband, she’d never asked about what was probably the biggest decision of his life. She knew that he’d loved his job, that he found purpose and meaning in it.
One night after he came back from his second tour, he broke down while they were lying together in bed. She wasn’t sure if she should pry, but he ended up telling her about a house raid they had gone on. The father pulled a gun on them, and Jason had to take him down. It was his first kill.
His superiors told him not to dwell on it. He was on a mission with an objective, nothing else. If someone decided to try and stop that mission, it was his duty to eliminate the threat.
Eliminate the threat. Her mind went back to Phoenix and the two Mexicans she had gunned down. They were threatening her children. She eliminated them.
“It’s not something you can prepare for,” Brooke said.
“What isn’t?”
“Killing someone.”
Eric propped himself up on his elbow. Brooke wasn’t looking at him. She kept staring at the ceiling, her arms folded on her stomach and her hair spread out on the pillow underneath her head.
“What happened?” Eric asked.
“It doesn’t matter now. It’s over.”
Exhaustion started setting in. Brooke could fee her eyelids sagging. Her body felt heavy, and her mind was foggy. She rolled to her side and closed her eyes.
“Good night,” Brooke said.
“Night,” Eric replied.
The stars peppered the night sky, and the moon’s light struggled to break through the thick clouds hovering below it, making it hard to see the van hidden on the edge of the road forty yards from the cabin’s entrance.
Terry held a pair of binoculars and watched the light from the front window go out. His view shifted from the room to the Toyota Land Cruiser parked in the dirt lot. He looked down at his map. This was the only road for five miles. He knew they were heading east, and he would bet his last dollar that they’d be heading out in the morning. Terry pulled back a tarp, and the outline of an axe lay flat against the van’s floor. He picked it up, along with a small rectangular black box, slid the van door open, and closed it behind him.
His boots squished against the thick Mississippi mud, and to his surprise, he struggled a bit in the terrain. The head of the axe rested on his right shoulder, while the small black box was gripped in his left hand. He stepped into the ruts from the cruiser’s tire tracks, where the ground was more compact and easier to wade through.
Large swarms of bugs engulfed his face, and he smacked the pests away harshly with his free hand. Even with the sun gone, the humid heat was still prevalent in the night. Terry could feel the layer of sweat covering his body. He refused to take his jacket off even in the stifling heat. The
fabric of the jacket used his body’s moisture to help cool him.
Terry flipped a switch on the black box, and a small red dot blinked silently. He reached under the back of the cruiser, and the magnetic side of the box smacked against the cruiser’s chassis.
The incessant buzz of the cicadas masked Terry’s steps as he walked right past the front office where Brooke’s cruiser was parked. The outline of his body and the extension of the axe disappeared down the winding road.
It was Emily who woke Brooke. When she opened her eyes she saw her daughter’s toothless grin staring back at her, she rubbed her eyes, attempting to wake up.
“Morning, Mom,” Emily said.
“Hey, baby.”
Brooke checked the clock. It read 9 a.m. She looked around for John and Eric, but it was only her and Emily in the room.
“Where’d your brother go?” Brooke asked.
“He went with Uncle Eric to get breakfast.”
“Uncle Eric. I didn’t realize you guys started calling him that.”
“Yup.”
Emily bounced up and down on the bed. The room’s door creaked open, and Eric and John stepped inside holding trays of eggs and fruit.
“Breakfast was complimentary,” Eric said.
Brooke and John pushed the beds together, and the four of them sat around the trays in the center. They dug in. Eric had even managed to get orange juice. After they were done, Emily fell backward onto the bed, holding her stomach.
“That was the best meal I’ve ever had,” Emily said.
“We should see if they can give us a to-go bag,” Eric replied.
“That has my vote,” John said. “I don’t know if I can go back to those MREs again.”
“We’re only another day or two from Aunty Amy’s place,” Brooke said.
“I’d rather eat the MREs,” John said.
Brooke smacked John’s arm, and Emily giggled. They grabbed their gear and loaded the cruiser. Brooke returned the room key to the old woman at the front desk. Eric, John, and Emily were already in the cruiser as Brooked walked down the few steps from the motel’s front porch. As she pulled open the door, she noticed a van, about a half mile away, sitting off the side of the road. She paused for a moment, taking the sight in. She found it odd that someone would have left it in the middle of nowhere, but this was a rural area, so it could’ve been from anyone.
She shrugged it off and climbed inside her cruiser. Eric had the map out, and they plotted a course that would continue their journey east along the Gulf Coast until they made it to the Atlantic. From there, they’d head north into Charlotte, where her sister was.
The cruiser pulled out of the parking lot and continued down the back road. Brooke kept it slow and steady, making sure to keep an eye on the terrain around her. Everything was different here, and the last thing she wanted to do was break down. Dragging the cruiser to a mechanic shop would raise too many questions given its current condition.
The muddy back road was surrounded by dead trees. The leafless branches jutted into the clouded gray sky. Brooke’s eyes found the rearview mirror, and a flash of rust through the trees behind her caught her eye. The cruiser hit a divot in the road, sending the reflection out of view.
Once the cruiser leveled out, Brooke frantically checked the mirror again. She turned around and looked out the back window, but there was nothing but the swamp behind her. She pressed the accelerator, pushing the cruiser farther down the road.
“Eric,” Brooke said. “Check the map for any other routes.”
“What? Why?” he asked.
“Just do it. John,” Brooke said, finding her son’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “Grab a case of ammo out of the back.”
John didn’t ask any questions. Eric smoothed the creases of the map, running his finger along roads around the area. John pushed the ammo through the space between the two front seats.
“Open it up for me,” Brooke said, balancing the steering wheel with one hand and pulling the revolver from her waistband. “Start loading.”
The bullets clinked into the holes of the revolver’s chamber until all five slots were filled. John flicked the chamber shut and handed the gun back to Brooke, whose eyes continued to maneuver between the muddy road in front of her and the rearview mirror.
“Em, you have your seat belt on?” Brooke asked.
“Yeah,” she answered.
“John?”
John pulled the belt over his body, and the buckle clicked into place. “Got it,” he said.
“If you keep heading east, there’s another path that cuts north,” Eric said, studying the map.
“How far is it?” Brooke asked.
“Five miles.”
The dead trees behind her were still thick, blocking her view. Maybe she was being paranoid. There was no proof that the van she had seen outside the motel was the source of the flash she had noticed. It could have been anything. Wasting energy on what-ifs was too costly right now.
Still, Brooke kept her foot on the accelerator. The increased speed splashed mud across the cruiser’s side, wetting the dried sand already there. The streaks of speckled black highlighted the bottom panels underneath. The rusty van flashed in the rearview mirror again.
They were being followed. The van was closer now but having a harder time pushing through the mud. She pressed the accelerator down farther. Even though this wasn’t the cruiser’s terrain, Brooke knew she’d be able to outrun the van.
“Brooke!” Eric said, bracing his arms against the dashboard.
A massive tree rested on the mud, blocking their path. Brooke slammed on the brakes, and the cruiser skidded through the muck. The front bumper stopped inches from the log, and the four bodies in the cruiser strained against their seat belts from the forward motion then slammed backward into their seats.
Brooke looked for a way around, but the trees were too thick on either side. The only way through was the path the fallen tree had blocked. Brooke turned around. The rusty van was keeping its steady pace.
“John, Eric, see if we can push it out of the way,” Brooke said, opening her door.
Brooke’s foot sank into the mud, and each step felt like pulling suction cups off her feet. She kept the revolver gripped in her hand. The end of the tree was propped up by a cluster of trees on the other side of the road.
“We might be able to push it up and then roll it to the side,” Eric said.
“Hurry,” Brooke replied.
Eric and John shouldered the tree, and both of them pushed up. The lack of vegetation and thin trunk of the tree made it manageable to lift. Once they cleared the cluster of trees that it was propped up against, Eric and John tossed it to the side, and it crashed to the ground.
The van was only fifty yards away. Her finger found the trigger on the revolver. “Hurry!”
“What’s the ru—” Eric started, but then he saw the van heading for them. He double-timed it, and the log skidded over the mud. Eric and John’s hands rolled it all the way to the side, flipping up mud and dirt along with them that became caked in the tree trunk’s grooves.
“Clear,” Eric said.
Brooke waited for John and Eric to get back inside before she climbed into the cab herself. Despite the urgent need to floor it, Brooke pressed the accelerator softly.
The cruiser lurched forward, slowly gaining traction in the thick mud. The van was only twenty yards behind them and gaining. Brooke pushed the cruiser’s speed to twenty miles per hour, then thirty, but it was too slow. The van’s front bumper smacked into the cruiser’s backside, causing them to fishtail.
Brooke turned the steering wheel left, then right, then left to help compensate for the spin, but the mud was too slick. Just when she straightened it out, the van slammed them again. Everyone’s heads jolted forward like bobble-head dolls.
The van’s engine revved and then smacked the right back corner, spinning the cruiser ninety degrees. Brooke’s window was placed directly in front of the van’s wind
shield. The glare of the sun blocked her view of whoever was inside, but the moment the driver’s-side door opened, she raised the revolver, pressing the window down at the same time, and fired all five rounds. Each bullet pierced the windshield with holes and splintering cracks.
Brooke hit the gas and turned right hard, painting the van with a fishtail of Mississippi mud. Retaliatory shots were fired, shattering the cruiser’s rear windshield. Everyone ducked. The cruiser’s tires spun rapidly, trying to gain traction. For a moment, Brooke thought they were stuck, but the cruiser’s powerful four-wheel drive and sheer torque gave them enough traction to keep moving forward.
“You guys all right?” Brooke asked.
The ringing in Brooke’s ears from the gunshots was slowly replaced by Emily’s crying. Even though her daughter was upset, she appeared to be unharmed. John was also good.
“I hope you’re insured for bullet damage,” Eric said, clutching his left shoulder.
Before Brooke could laugh, she noticed the red stain spreading across Eric’s torn shirt. “Oh my god. John, grab the first aid kit!”
“Got it!” John said.
“Put some gauze on Eric’s shoulder. Press down hard.”
“Just not too hard,” Eric said, feigning a smile.
John hesitated. Eric’s blood poured through the hole in his shirt. John’s face went pale.
“Do it, John!” Brooke said.
John reached around and placed the wad of gauze against the wound. The blood slowly soaked the white gauze red and began to stain John’s fingers.
Brooke didn’t let up the gas. They flew down the back road. The cruiser’s shocks bounced violently with each dip and drop they passed over. Brooke could see Eric’s eyes fluttering open and closed. His face was slick with sweat. She could see his body start to shake.
“We need to go to a hospital,” John said.
“We can’t.”
“Mom, he’s shot!”
“No,” Eric said. “Your mom’s right. Hospitals mean questions. It’s too risky.”
“We have to do something!” John said.
“Mobile,” Eric muttered. “Alabama. I have a friend there who can help.”
Surviving The Collapse Super Boxset: EMP Post Apocalyptic Fiction Page 186
