by R. J. Spears
“I think they like staying under the radar and out of view,” I said.
Brother Ed started to speak, but Jason held up his notebook and the writing on it said, “God wants us to go!” The exclamation point was emphatic.
Naveen’s shoulders sagged and she said, “I feel safe here. I don’t understand why we can’t just stay.”
“Well, number one, we have been told through these shared visions what we have to do and, number two, I think it’s the only way we can help our people back at the Manor,” Kara replied. “What do you think, Joel?”
I, for one, wanted nothing more than to stay with these people who had taken us in. They were taking care of us and providing all our needs. Also, it was an almost overwhelming relief not to have to be in charge. It would be so easy to surrender to the safety and comfort of it. Letting Donovan take the lead would suit me fine. I was always a better number two, or three, or seventeen, for that matter.
But I knew better. “There’s no escaping what we have to do, guys.”
Jason put a reassuring hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. So much for the respite from being in charge.
“I’ll go tell Donovan and Billie Sue that we need to leave today,” I said.
They took it better than I expected. Billie Sue even seemed cheerful.
“It’s what God wants,” she said.
This was getting to be ridiculous. Maybe I should get a tattoo - ‘What God Wants,’ plastered on my forehead.
“Oh yeah,” I said. “He likes getting his way.”
“He always does,” she said.
Donovan looked like he was about to say something and I could tell he had trouble meeting my eyes. “We’d love to send some of our people with you, but we don’t have a men to spare.” There was more there, I could tell.
“What aren’t you saying?” I asked.
Donovan remained silent, staring off in a direction.
Billie Sue cleared her throat, and a dark cloud crossed her normally sunny face. “We have a different path. I’ve seen things. They aren’t clear, but we see trouble coming for us.”
“When are ‘things’ clear?” I asked putting air quotes in the air when I said things.
Billie Sue ignored me, which was probably good.
“What can we do?” Kara asked.
“We can stay and help protect you,” Brother Ed said.
Billie Sue turned and faced Brother Ed, then put her hand on his forearm, giving it a gentle squeeze. “We all have our sacrifices to make.” She held him in a long stare and the darkness left her expression. It was if there was a glow behind her eyes. “We all know what we have to do, don’t we Brother Ed?”
Brother Ed’s normal dour expression took a nosedive I didn’t think there was a level below his stern countenance, but he found it. For a moment it looked as if he was about to cry. I was about to inquire as to what the hell just transpired, but Donovan beat me to the punch.
“We can get you ready for the road,” Donovan said. “Unfortunately, we don’t have any cars or trucks we can spare, but we might have something.”
This piqued my curiosity, but since he didn’t come out and say what he meant, I decided it was best to wait and see.
They only took an hour to gather supplies for us. While I waited in my room, I retrieved the satellite phone from the secret compartment inside my boot and powered it up. It took nearly ten seconds to come to life.
There was something dangerous about this phone and I knew it. I was almost positive that we could be tracked if we used it or kept it on too long. Up until then, I had only turned it on to see if there was any news from Jo or Aaron.
The screen was blank with no announcements of messages from the people back at the Manor. I didn’t know if that was good or bad news, but being a world-class pessimist I felt that it didn’t bode well.
I considered what to send for several seconds, knowing that each second the phone was on, it could be tracked. After just a few more seconds, I put my fingers into motion and banged out a quick text.
“Lost the truck but we are safe. Found friends. Are heading north today. Will check back later.”
I hit send and quickly powered the phone down still wondering what the silence from our friends back at the Manor meant.
Donovan, Billie Sue, Lou, and a couple of others led us out a different passage than we had come in. It was wide and sloped up at a slight grade. ATV’s lined the right side of the corridor, and I had to guess that this was their vehicle exit ramp out of the underground complex.
Donovan led the way, and we came to a double-wide set of metal doors at the top of the sloped passageway. He fiddled with some keys for a moment, pushed a single key into a lock, and then pushed both of the doors open. They swung wide, revealing a corrugated metal garage large enough to hold three full-sized double cab pick-up trucks plus some. The place was only illuminated with several small LED bulbs, so it was very dim. Large steel drums lined the wall, and the aroma of gasoline was thick in the air.
I wondered if they had changed their mind about giving us a truck?
Donovan broke the silence and spoke as he continued to walk, leading us past the trucks toward the front of the garage, “Like I said, we can’t spare a truck, but we can give you these.” He swung his arm in a small arc, revealing five bicycles. They were of the mountain bike variety with big knobby tires and built ruggedly. One was even small enough for Naveen.
It wasn’t what I expected. I thought they might have some more ATVs or maybe motorcycles.
“Wow,” I said in a quiet voice. “Well, gee.” I was sure I was about to add ‘swell’ to my inane clamoring’s but settled for silence instead.
Donovan said, “I know they’re not all that fancy or anything, but they don’t require gasoline which could be an issue depending on where you go.”
Kara broke in, trying to cover my underwhelming appreciation, “They look great and will sure beat walking.” She walked up to one of the bikes and grabbed the handlebars, swiveling them back and forth, while smiling broadly.
Of course, she had been an avid rider before the apocalypse. She had even done the annual ride between Portsmouth and Columbus with the grueling tall hills in the middle. In fact, she had done it several times and loved it. And I hated her for it.
While she had excelled in physical activities, I had majored in being a couch potato. Biking wasn’t my thing. If time hadn’t been an issue, I would have considered walking.
Naveen seemed delighted with the choice of bicycles, walked over to the smaller one, and grabbed the handlebars and swiveled them, mimicking Kara’s motions. It brought back the memories of the first time I saw her, pedaling for her life away from a small horde of zombies. She was heading for the church and safety. Things went south for her for a moment, but we rescued her from certain death. It seemed like a lifetime ago, but I felt something swell within me, glad that she was now a part of my life.
Jason extended a hand to Donovan and pumped it vigorously up and down in gratitude. Brother Ed wasn’t as openly disappointed as I was, but he didn’t look enthused, either. That was his standard operating procedure, so that was nothing new.
“We can outfit you for the road, too,” Donovan said, thankfully not noticing my lack of a smile.
I jumped in, maybe a little too effusively to make up for my attitude and said, “I can’t wait to get one of those babies on the road.”
Donovan and Billie Sue beamed back at me.
“Yours is a trip of destiny,” she said.
Oh, boy.
Chapter 20
Cheaters Never Win
Jo and Russell were buffeted by the panicked crowd surging past them, as everyone was trying to get out of the line of fire from the sniper. The soldiers made a half-hearted attempt to stop the stampeding crowd but quickly conceded as they knew they would have to shoot people to stop them and that didn’t seem to be a prudent course of action. The soldiers decided that the more immediate concern was the snip
er.
Russell tried to dodge the swarm of people, but someone slammed into his side spinning him into another person, where he lost his balance and fell face first onto the grass. He started to get up when he felt a pair of hands grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him up.
He turned around and saw Maggie looking at him, wide-eyed with fear. She yelled at him, “We have to get the hell out of here!”
“I need to help Aaron,” he shouted.
“We’re being shot at!” she screamed back at him.
“I’ve got to go,” he said and shook her off, but was still blocked by a scrum of people coming at him.
“Suit yourself,” Maggie said but stood to watch him go. Just as she turned to run, a hand grabbed her arm and whipped her around.
She expected it to be a soldier but saw Henry standing in front of her.
“What the hell do you want, kid?” she said, her mind whirling.
“Come with me,” Henry said, tugging at her arm.
“What!?” she asked as a person bounced off her shoulder, heading for the safety of the inside, which is where she wanted to be.
“We need to get inside,” he shouted over the yells and screams of the panicked crowd.
“No shit, Sherlock,” she said back, and she pushed her way into the crowd with him in tow. They disappeared into the dark safety of the inside.
While the crowd was trying to make it to the building and safety, Jo was doing what she could to make it to Aaron to see if they could help him. It was like swimming upstream in a tsunami. Elbows pounded off their arms and shoulders as people fought to get away from the flying bullets, unaware that the sniper was safely targeting only the soldiers on the periphery.
The sniper had grabbed the headlines, and almost all the soldier’s attention was on the edge of the woods a hundred yards away. They took up defensive postures, either laid out on the ground, flat out, or up on one knee, facing the woods. Most of them fired away, filling the trees with bullets. Kilgore stood tall, almost in defiance of the bullets from the sniper, his pistol aimed towards the woods. Any fool knew he had no chance with a pistol of shooting anything, but still, he stood there as if the angels or the devil were on his side. Jo was sure which one she would have picked for him.
Jo caught glimpses of Aaron as she moved through the storm of people running by her. Blood and brain from the zombie that had wanted to chow down on him coated his face. She watched he kicked his legs as he pressed his back onto the downed zombie beneath him, trying to keep it at bay. It was only a matter of time before the zombie was able to free itself from the chain and flip the equation.
The soldiers shot unrestrained, burning through their clips. Kilgore fired, too, his face held in a tight grimace. This went on for several seconds before Kilgore yelled for a cease-fire. He then ordered a set of soldiers to head off into the woods in search of the sniper. Those soldiers didn’t look all that happy about going off into the direct path of a sniper, but they followed orders and started a cautious advance toward the tree line.
Jo had no idea who had fired on them, but she sent up a prayer of thanks anyway. The final few people pushed by her and then, with total disregard for her safety, she ran for Aaron. She covered the thirty feet quickly. Without any weapons of any kind, she resorted to kicking at the head of the zombie beneath Aaron as he contorted and shifted his body to stay out of range of the thing’s teeth. It tried desperately to get at him, but the chain was still wrapped around its neck, holding it back, but only slightly.
She wore heavy boots, and each kick rocked the zombie’s head. With a normal, living breathing person, they would have been knocked senseless quickly, but the zombie seemed unfazed. She continued kicking, though, and finally felt something crack under the force of a particularly vicious kick and the zombie’s motion’s stilled.
Aaron relaxed and slumped onto the zombie, arching his back over it, panting from the effort. Jo breathed heavily and put her hands on her knees.
“Thanks,” Aaron said, looking up at her with a puffed up eye.
“No problem,” she said between breaths.
Russell appeared beside Jo and stood there for a moment, assessing Aaron’s state. After a moment, he asked. “How the hell do we get that chain undone?”
A shadow loomed over Aaron, and a voice said, “You don’t.”
Jo watched an arm loop around her shoulder, a gun held conspicuously in its hand. The gun was pointed at Aaron. Before she could react, the person holding the gun pulled the trigger, and the gun bucked slightly in the hand. A millisecond later, a bullet pierced Aaron’s forehead, and his body jumped convulsively, then went slack.
Jo screamed. Russell stood, speechless, unable to move.
Kilgore gave Russell a hard push. Off balance from shock, Russell fell onto his butt, emitting an umphing noise.
Jo turned onto Kilgore, her face contorted in total rage, “You bastard!” She launched herself at him before he could react. Her hands latched onto his throat, and he fell back from the ferocity of her attack, dropping to one knee. She closed her hands around his throat and started applying pressure, but he quickly brought up the gun and placed it under her chin.
“Back off, woman,” he choked out.
It took her a second, but sanity returned, and she released him. He stumbled back, still holding his aim on her. He chuffed like a moose as he sucked air back into his lungs.
Anger coursed through her like a volcano and she wanted nothing more than to return to choking the life out of him, but she was abundantly confident that he would shoot her dead.
One of the soldiers had finally taken notice of the gunshot behind them and ran back to stand beside Kilgore. He trained his rifle on Jo and looked like he was about to shoot when Kilgore shot out a hand and pushed his rifle down.
“Why did you have to shoot him?” Jo said, the hot sting of tears in her eyes.
Kilgore took a couple more breaths and said, “Because you cheated.” He said this calmly like this was some kind of schoolyard game.
“What?!” she asked, astounded.
“You had someone outside kill that zombie,” he said.
“Are you crazy? I have no idea who that was,” she said.
Two more soldiers took notice and came back to Kilgore. One of them was Corporal Lodwick who had come from the inside.
“You want me to shut her up?” he asked Kilgore.
“No,” Kilgore replied, then turned his attention back to Jo. “I’ve always expected that you had people on the outside ready to come to your aid. Maybe even the one who took Jason Carter.”
Russell rose to his feet and said, “There’s no way that is them. They are long gone.”
Kilgore rose and eyebrow and said, “So, you know where Jason Carter is?”
“No, no, no,” Russell said. “We just know that they’re gone.”
“Then who just shot at us and killed one of my soldiers?” Kilgore asked, anger returning to his tone.
“Honestly, we don’t know,” she said. “It could have been anyone.”
“Anyone that would only save your friend and shoot one of my men?” Kilgore shot back. “Do you think I’m an idiot?”
Russell tried to move around Jo, but she put out an arm and held him back. She let out a deep breath and said, “I don’t know what to say. We didn’t communicate or arrange with anyone outside the complex. Your men have had us locked down at all times.”
Kilgore said, “This is getting us nowhere. Perhaps, I need to take this up a notch.” He started to say something more when a soldier rushed out of the building, catching his attention.
“Colonel Kilgore, Colonel Kilgore!” he shouted excitedly as he ran toward the Colonel.
Kilgore looked both annoyed and interested as he waited, taking two steps back from Jo and Russell, while the soldiers maintained their aim on them.
The soldier arrived breathing hard as if he had run a great distance. For a soldier, he was small, almost a foot smaller than Kilgore.
His cheeks were flushed, and his eyes were wide with excitement.
“What is it, Corporal Meinke?” Kilgore asked.
“Sir, you asked if we caught any activity on the sat-phone,” Meinke said, shaking a piece of paper he held in his hand.
Kilgore’s attention shifted completely away from Jo and Russell and locked onto Meinke. “What do you know?” He held up his hand for the soldier to delay his response and took a moment to usher them away from Jo and Russell. They moved five paces away and huddled there while the other remained to guard Jo and Russell.
Jo listened as intently as she could without trying to look like it. She knew this had to be Joel and it chilled her to know that Kilgore might be able to find Joel and the others. They knew the risk of using the satellite phones, but she hoped Joel was practicing caution.
“When did this happen?” Kilgore asked.
“Just a little while ago,” Meinke responded.
“Why did it take you so long for you to tell me?” Kilgore asked, raising his voice.
“The sniper…” Meinke said but trailed off.
“Never mind,” Kilgore said waving a dismissive hand in the air. “What do you know?”
“Well, sir, we caught a blip.”
“Were you able to track it?”
Meinke dropped his eyes down for a moment, but he dared to look back up. “We couldn’t isolate it, but it came from the north over thirty miles away..”
“Could you pinpoint it at all?”
Again, Meinke glanced away, but rallied and said, “Sorry sir, the signal was only momentary.”
Kilgore crossed his arms for a moment, lost in thought, then he bellowed, “Corporal Lodwick, we need to get those choppers in the air. Meinke, give Lodwick your best sense of where the signal came from and get them there ASAP.” He said the acronym like it was a word - A-sap.
Lodwick responded, “Yes, sir,” and rushed off toward the building.
The other soldier guarding Jo and Russell asked, “Sir, what about them?”
