by Tom Larcombe
“I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were up. Yes I ate something. Well, a little anyhow. My stomach didn't want to take any more than that. I think I can drive some more, but I haven't driven at night before so I'll probably go slower, if that's okay.”
“That's fine. We just need to get moving. The longer we're moving around, the longer we're vulnerable. My dad told me that back during WWII it was always the refugees who ended up with the most problems. We need to get to Michael's so we aren't refugees any more.”
“Okay, if you say so. I'm ready whenever,” Andi said.
“Alright everyone, we're heading out. Is everyone ready to go?” Rynn called.
They all bustled around for a few minutes, replacing things they'd removed from the car and taking care of necessities before packing themselves back into their seats.
Andi pulled out onto the highway again and Rynn opened the the map.
“Okay, we're on 71 right now. Pretty soon we'll take a left onto 96. From there, we'll take some back roads to Las Animas. That way we can avoid La Junta. It's a bigger city and probably a madhouse by now. Las Animas is smaller, but we'll still want to get through it as quickly as we can, or maybe try to detour around it on back roads without going into the town proper. We'll see what options we have when we get there.”
Andi nodded and continued driving. A few minutes later they saw the first sign for the intersection with 96.
“Are you sure we want to take 96?” Andi asked, “I looked at the map earlier and staying on 71 is shorter.”
“Staying on 71 will take us through a city with a population of seven thousand people. What do you think it's like there right now? Turning on 96 leaves us going through a couple of small towns, but nothing even close to the size of La Junta. It adds a few miles to the trip, I'm guessing it only makes the rest of the drive eighty miles instead of sixty though. It's a lot safer this way too,” Rynn answered.
Andi didn't say anything, but as they approached the intersection, she put the blinker on. It was almost entirely dark now so she turned the car's headlights on. They drove down the ribbon of highway that was illuminated by the headlights, which were the only lights to be seen.
Rynn almost missed the first small town they passed through. She saw the signs for it at the last moment. The houses closest to the highway were all dark, but there were a few windows farther away from the road that showed the warm orange glow of a candle or lantern somewhere inside the house.
The second town they passed through was even smaller than the first, there and gone in the blink of an eye.
“Keep an eye out for signs for a road called 19,” Rynn said. “That's the road we'll take a right onto, it isn't a highway so it might be easy to miss.”
Several minutes later they passed a tiny reflective green sign proclaiming '19' with an arrow pointing to the right. Andi slowed down and took the turn.
It was a two lane country road, rife with potholes. The car wasn't in the best of shape so any time she hit one of the potholes, the passengers were driven down into their seats. She slowed down from the forty miles per hour she'd been doing on the highway and ended up driving about twenty-five.
“Rynn, this is driving me crazy,” Andi said. “I'm staring at the road so hard my eyes are tearing up.”
Rynn sighed heavily.
“Well, if it gets too bad, pull over and we'll give your eyes a chance to rest. We really need to get there as soon as we can though. I don't want to run into another situation like yesterday and the longer we take to get there, the better the chance that we will. I don't think an hour or two would make that much of a difference, but I'd like to get there by dawn.”
Andi continued to drive until she hit a deeper than normal pothole. Rynn was shifting around, trying to move herself off a particularly irritating seat spring when Andi pulled off the road.
“That's it, I need to stop for a little bit. I'm sorry Rynn.”
“That's okay. You're the only one who can do this, so if you need a break, take a break.”
Andi got out of the car and walked back and forth for a while, breathing deeply. The night air was clear and slightly cool, it was about fifteen minutes before she got back in.
“Alright, I'm ready for the next stretch,” she said.
They continued down the road with Andi driving even slower now. She rarely broke twenty miles per hour, but at least she missed most of the potholes. After several more breaks for Andi to steady her nerves and switching from country road 19 over to 14 when 19 ended, they saw a sign for highway 50.
“When we get to the highway, let's stop for a bit,” Rynn said. “It's only four or five miles from that intersection to Las Animas. People are normally the least alert in the early hours of the morning, around three or four AM. So, we'll stop and wait until then. That should still get us to Crystal Beach by dawn, it's only twenty miles from Las Animas.”
Andi nodded again. She looked as though she were getting tired and Rynn saw her yawn twice before they reached the highway. Finally Andi pulled the car over and shut it off.
“We're under a quarter tank again,” she said. “If you're right about the distance we'll have enough gas to make it there, but not a lot more than that.”
“I'm right,” Rynn said. “You look tired, you should nap if you can. I'll wake you up a half hour before we need to get on the road again. That should give you two or three hours of sleep to work with.
Andi's reply was a yawn followed by an embarrassed nod.
“Do you want to sleep sitting up or should we lay out some gear outside?” Rynn asked.
“Outside would be good. The air is fresh and clean out there, it's nice.”
“Anyone who wants to get a few hours sleep, now's your chance,” Rynn announced.
She took the keys and opened the trunk. The ground sheets and blankets came out of the trunk and were laid out where the car would provide partial shelter for them. Sean and Randall were already sleeping in the car. Eugene extricated himself and laid down beside Andi. Cindy came over to Rynn.
“I'll stay up with you. I'd feel like a third wheel lying down there with those two.”
Rynn smiled for a moment.
“Or you could sleep on the front seat if you like,” she said.
“No, I napped earlier when I thought you were and I think I might have fallen asleep for a while on the drive too. I'm good.”
Cindy started asking Rynn questions about Michael. She mainly wanted to know about his healing magic and whether Rynn thought he'd be willing to teach Cindy more about it. The conversation moved away from that and Cindy asked Rynn what was going to happen now. Rynn admitted that she hadn't planned for anything except trying to get them all someplace safe.
“Once I manage that, we'll see where we can go from there,” she said.
There was a comfortable silence for a few minutes. Rynn tensed up again when she heard gunshots in the distance. There were at least thirty shots over the course of a couple of minutes.
“I can't take this shit,” Rynn said. “I need to get us all someplace where that isn't happening.”
“You can't take it? At least you can defend yourself. With my skills, what I'm best at is picking up the pieces,” Cindy said. “No offense, but I think you're dreaming about finding a place where it isn't happening. I think the best we can hope for is to find a place where someone else is willing to do most of the shooting to defend us.”
Rynn gathered Cindy into a hug. Cindy resisted for a moment until she realized that Rynn might want to comfort herself as much she did Cindy. Then she sank into the hug and squeezed Rynn fiercely.
An hour later, Rynn woke Andi and Eugene.
* * *
“Here's the plan,” Rynn said. “We'll head towards Las Animas. If it looks like there's no-one on the streets we'll just go straight through on the main roads. Look for signs for highway 101. It's technically a highway, but I'm not expecting much out of it. If there are people out and about, then we'll try to find a way a
round the busier section of town. I don't know if there is one, but I do know that I'd rather be seen as little as possible.”
“Just tell me what roads to take. I'm nervous enough already without having to pick and choose streets at random,” Andi said.
“I'll do that. For now, let's load up and head west on 50. It'll take us right through Las Animas and to the intersection with 101 if we're lucky.”
Everything went back in the car before they took their places again. Sean and Randall barely stirred when Eugene slid in next to them.
Andi started the car and put it in gear. The first few miles went well, but as they approached the bridge over the Arkansas river, Rynn told Andi to stop.
“There's something on the bridge. I can't make it out from here though. It's a natural choke point so if someone is trying to block the city off, that would be the spot to do it,” Rynn said. “Just keep the car still for a few minutes and I'll check it out.”
Rynn sent a small portion of her consciousness towards the bridge. The burnt, and still smoking, cars that were used in the road block had the bridge impassable to anything larger than a bicycle. Technically, there were two separate bridges, one for traffic in each direction, but both of them were blocked in a similar fashion. She pulled her consciousness back to her body.
“It's blocked. Cindy, that looks like it might have been where the gunfire we heard came from. The cars blocking the bridge are still smoking. I didn't actually see any people there though. Does anyone have an idea as to how to clear the bridge without attracting attention?”
The best idea anyone came up with was for Andi to cause the asphalt to melt back and let the cars drop into the river.
“Sorry, that won't work,” Rynn said. “Bridges have metal and concrete framework under the asphalt so they'd just drop down to that instead of falling through. There is something I can do, but I was hoping to avoid it since it will cause me problems later on. Stay in the car, I'll be back in a few minutes.”
Rynn got out and walked towards the bridge. She stayed as quiet as she could and listened for anyone else out there. When she reached it, she still hadn't heard anything. She walked out to the two cars in the center of the bridge that led into Las Animas and looked at them closely.
Of course the tires are destroyed. They were probably flat even before the cars were burned if someone was trying to block the bridge. That's going to make this harder.
She touched one of the cars. It was hot, but not hot enough to burn her hands.
I'll pay for this later, I'm going to be scaly for a while until I can change. But if I don't do it, we're stuck here and someone is obviously paying attention and trying to control the area. I don't know who that is or what exactly they're trying to do and I'm not willing to stay here and find out.
Rynn turned the car's steering wheel until the front tires, or what remained of them, were angled to take the car onto the opposite side of the bridge, freeing one lane. She put her arms on the rear end of the car and started to push. Her unique heritage afforded her a number of abilities, which she normally tried to avoid using since they came with a cost. One of those abilities was exceptional strength. She was fit enough as a human, but when she chose to use those abilities, her strength and endurance were more than anyone would believe.
She grunted as she found a good position where her feet wouldn't slip, then started to push. The hardest part was getting the car moving at all. The tires were mangled and provided additional resistance to her efforts. When the car finally broke away from the tires, it moved easier. A few minutes, and several readjustments of the steering wheel, later she'd managed to get the car across the bridge and open up a lane for them to drive through.
She made her way back to their car significantly faster than she'd left it.
We're almost at the point where some people will be waking up. We need to get through town as quickly as we can.
She slid into the front seat.
“Alright Andi, stay all the way to the right as we're going across the bridge. There'll be some bumpy parts, but I opened a lane for us.”
Andi started the car. She drove across the bridge slowly. Once they were past the burnt cars Eugene piped up.
“How did you move that? There aren't even any tires on that thing!”
“Don't distract me right now, ask me again later,” Rynn said.
She was trying to stay alert and see if there was anyone awake and moving. Her eyes scanned back and forth across the upcoming street and the buildings that lined it.
“Can you drive faster Andi? I don't know what the streets will be like, but at least it's pretty straight and we've got a long line of sight.”
Andi sighed and gave the car more gas.
They drove through the middle of Las Animas doing about forty miles per hour. Rynn saw several side streets with burned cars and property damage, but nothing blocked the main route.
As they progressed further into the downtown area she saw storefronts that were entirely boarded over as well as some whose windows had been smashed, the interior of the store left open to the elements and looters.
She pointed out the sign for highway 101 and several minutes later, they were on it and heading back out of the city.
Rynn breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed. A minute later Andi slammed on the brakes and Rynn tensed up again. They'd just come around a corner and the road was blocked. It looked like there'd been an accident, but no tow truck had responded to remove the vehicles involved. A pickup truck had driven right over the hood of the small compact car that now rested beneath it.
“Go across the road and drive through the breakdown lane on that side,” Rynn said. “I think we can fit through.”
Andi gritted her teeth, backed up, and pulled the car across the road. She squeezed past the accident, scraping the side of the car on some debris in the process.
“Okay, so maybe we don't want to just fly through here. It's less than twenty miles to go, can you do that? Knowing that you get to stop driving once we're there?” Rynn asked.
Andi's voice trembled.
“If you don't mind us crawling along I can do that. I'm too scared to go very fast. If I'd been going five miles an hour faster coming around that corner, we'd be part of that accident now.”
“However you need to do it Andi. Let's just keep going.”
Rynn watched as the car moved slowly down the highway. The sky was brightening to the east already and she gave up hope of making it before dawn.
But we're almost there. As long as Andi holds out, we'll be there in an hour or less.
Andi slowly began to speed up again. From twenty, she moved up to twenty-five. By the time Rynn could see the actual sun, Andi was up to thirty mph. When she saw the sign that told them Crystal Beach was two miles ahead, Rynn felt like cheering. Andi, on the other hand, slowed down again.
“Why are you slowing down?” Rynn asked.
“We're coming up on a town, the last one had things blocking the road on both sides. I don't want to find out the hard way that this one does too.”
Rynn clamped her jaw shut, she hadn't thought of that herself, she was too happy to be this close to their destination.
“Good plan,” she said. “See the cliff over that way? There's a hill just in front of it. We want to go to the top of the hill.”
Andi found her way through the small town by trial and error. There wasn't much error involved though since the hill was prominently visible from most sections of Crystal Beach. When she reached the top of the hill, she pulled into the driveway of the house there and parked just outside a closed garage. Then she shut the car off and slumped in the seat.
“Well done, Andi. You did it,” Rynn said.
Rynn opened the car door and slid out. She noticed someone just getting into a sheriff's car that was parked in front of the house. Her hand went to her lower back and she'd just started stretching when a man ran around the side of the house. He looked to be in his late twenties, maybe his
early thirties. His brown hair was longer than was currently fashionable and his tan and muscular build suggested he spent a lot of time working outdoors. His hands held an old WWII rifle, and his face was distorted by a scowl.
“Michael?” Rynn said tentatively.
The scowl turned to a smile.
“Rynn! You made it!” Michael said.
He came running over to her and she thought he was about to scoop her up and spin her around in a circle, but when he got close, he stopped. His smile faltered.
She looked at him and the newly recovered memory of how he reacted when she ran scared from their relationship was all the explanation she needed for his hesitancy. She opened her arms to him. His smile returned and he stepped towards her, wrapping her in an embrace. For the first time in days, Rynn felt safe.
* * *
Chapter 16
Michael gripped the Garand and ran around the side of the house. He saw the sheriff walking towards his car, which was parked in the street. There was another car in the driveway. An auburn haired woman was stretching beside it, her hands planted firmly in the small of her back.
She finished her stretch and looked at him.
“Michael?” she said.
“Rynn! You made it!” he replied.
He raced towards her, ready to throw himself into her arms. His steps slowed as he remembered the last time he'd actually seen her. It was the end of the semester and they'd been making out when he tried to go further. She was receptive at first, but moments before he made it to third base, she'd panicked. He hadn't heard exactly what she said, but he knew it was along the lines of.
“I can't, you'll think I'm a freak so I can't.”
The reason he hadn't heard her exact words was due to the fact that they'd been spoken with her back facing him, just moments before she ran off.
It had been the beginning of the worse summer of his life.
When Rynn opened her arms to him, his smile returned. He slung the Garand onto his back and stepped into her hug. She clung to him as though she were drowning and he was a lifeline.
He felt her tension ease as he held her. When she finally let go, he noticed the other people in the car. As they got out, Rynn introduced each of them. When they were all out she introduced him to them.
