The Collapse Omnibus

by V. A. Brandon

  “Good thinking,” Amy said, approval in her voice. “They should be done in a couple of minutes, then.”

  Moments later, they sat there and devoured their meal, blowing on the potatoes and carrots as they bit into the hot chunks fresh from the pot. Dinner was bland, but luckily, Justin found several old sachets of ketchup inside one of the pockets of his backpack. They dipped their vegetables into the sauce to give them more flavor. It wasn’t the tastiest meal, but at least it filled their bellies with warm food.

  Marie reserved a handful of cooled vegetables for Walter, who sniffed at them before eating them delicately from her outstretched palm. When he finished, he licked her hand to show his gratitude.

  “All right, let’s talk about our sleeping arrangements,” Justin said once everyone was done eating. He seemed in a hurry to put dinner behind them. As he tossed dirt over the small fire, instant darkness fell over the group. Amy blinked, trying to adjust her vision to the sudden blackness around her.

  “Here’s what we’ll do. Amy and Marie will sleep inside the jeep. Daniel, Patrick, and I will sleep outside. Daniel cleared the place earlier, so the ground should be fairly comfortable. Wish we had a few blankets, though.” Amy heard him shift toward her direction. “I guess you were right, after all. We probably should have searched through those abandoned cars for extra clothing, blankets, and food.” He sighed. “Oh, well. Live and learn, right?”

  “I suppose,” Amy said tartly. “Although listening to sound advice in the first place would have saved you a lot of headache now.”

  “Can’t argue with that,” he answered, chuckling. He rubbed his hands together. “So, is everyone fine with these arrangements?”

  Everyone murmured their assent.

  “Good. Then try to get a good night’s sleep. We’re going to leave as soon as day breaks.”

  With a mighty yawn, Amy settled in the jeep and reclined the front passenger seat. What a crazy day it had been. She propped her legs up on the dashboard and stared at the night sky. As often happened when she was alone with her thoughts, she pictured her mom’s smiling face, gleaning some comfort from the memory. It was wishful thinking to hope that she was still alive, but Amy couldn’t help it. She missed her mom so much that her heart sometimes constricted from the pain. But she highly doubted that her stepfather was resourceful enough to keep her mom safe.

  That bastard better not have abandoned Mom to save his own miserable hide.

  From behind, Marie opened the door and slid noisily across the seat, puffing with exertion as Walter barked happily. “Quiet,” she commanded. “It is bedtime, Walter.”

  Amy sat up and smiled sheepishly at Marie. “Sorry about not helping with the cleanup. I’ll do it next time.”

  Marie laughed. “Oh, do not worry. I made my husband clean the pot. I went for a short walking exercise with Walter.” She paused. “Also, he needed to pee.”

  “Is there enough room in the back for you and Walter?”

  “Oh, yes. There is plenty of room. I will stretch my legs across the seat, and he can sleep on my stomach. It is perfect.”

  Amy settled into her seat again. “Good night, sleep tight; don’t let the bed bugs bite,” she muttered, recalling what her mom used to say to her at bedtime when she was a child. Back then, it had just been the two of them. No asshole posing as a stepfather in her life. It had been great.

  “There are no bed bugs here, Amy,” Marie said, her tone serious, and Amy smiled sadly to herself before closing her eyes.

  ***

  “Look, we don’t have much food. That’s all we have.”

  “Well, I don’t know about that. Say, that’s a nice-looking vehicle you’ve got there.”

  “Please, you can take the food and the medical kit, but we need that car.”

  Silence, then the sound of snapping twigs sounded next to Amy’s side of the jeep. She groaned and sat up, rubbing her eyes. The sky was still dark. What time was it? It wasn’t even dawn yet.

  A burly man with a goatee brought his face close to the window. He was holding a gun. His smile widened when Amy gasped in surprise and leaned away from him. From the corner of her eye, she saw Marie sitting against the door, her hand around Walter’s snout to suppress his barks. Amy understood. The man had a gun, and though he might think twice about shooting a person, an annoying, loud animal might be another matter altogether. Walter struggled against Marie, his body shaking with his muffled barks.

  “Good morning, sweetheart.” The man’s smile faded. “Get out of the vehicle. Now.”

  Chapter 5

  When Amy stepped out of the jeep, the first thing she noticed was that the man had not come alone. Standing behind Justin, Daniel, and Patrick were three other men with trimmed goatees, holding rifles and guns. She glanced at Justin, who stood there staring at the stranger with a wary expression. What was going on? Who were these men, and how had they found their group?

  “Move along. Go stand next to your friends over there.”

  Amy and Marie complied, not wishing to anger the man. He had a gun, after all. Still, despite their fierce countenance, Amy remained hopeful that their visitors wouldn’t resort to violence. They were all survivors in this crazy place overrun by Runners. They were now the minority. In a sense, she understood their need for caution.

  Their small group stood in a line, side by side. Meanwhile, one of the men began rummaging through the backpacks, pulling out items and tossing them onto the ground. Seconds later, a toilet paper roll came flying out of Daniel’s bag and landed in front of them. Patrick shot an accusing glance at Daniel, who ignored him and stared straight ahead.

  The leader ran his fingers and thumb down his goatee and grunted. “Hmph. Disappointing. Still, I guess it’s better than nothing.” His stern gaze fell on Marie, who hugged Walter tighter to her chest. “I see you have a live animal there. When do you plan on eating him?”

  “We will never do that!” she burst out angrily.

  “Then we will,” one of the men shot out. He stared hungrily at Walter. “We haven’t had real meat in a while.”

  Justin raised his palms and stepped forward. “Look, the dog doesn’t belong to us. It belongs to a boy who’s waiting for us to return his dog to him. He’s already lost his father; he doesn’t need to lose his beloved pet, too.”

  “The dog stays with us,” Daniel piped up, narrowing his eyes at the leader. “This is not open for debate.”

  The leader grinned, as though amused by Daniel’s audacity. “Brave words. But remember – I’m the one with the gun.” He paced before them. “Lucky for you, I’m feeling quite generous today, so I’ll let you choose. The dog or the jeep?” His grin widened. “It’s up to you, folks.”

  What kind of insanity was this? Wasn’t it enough that they were taking their food?

  “Why are you doing this?” Amy asked, her voice rising in anger. “You already have our food. Are you seriously going to leave us out here with no vehicle? Have you seen the hordes of Runners on the highway?”

  The leader raised his bushy eyebrows. “Runners?” he repeated. “Is that what you’re calling the infected? Because they ‘run’?”

  The other men laughed, as though it was the funniest thing they’d heard. Amy pressed her lips together, trying to suppress her fury. She had been so naïve. These men weren’t survivors; they were thugs. Plain and simple.

  Before she could say anything else, Patrick roughly yanked Walter out of Marie’s arms and thrust him toward the leader’s direction. Walter snarled and writhed in his hands, trying to bite him. “Here. Take the damn dog. You can roast him on a spit for all I care. But you’re not taking the jeep.”

  “Give him back to me!” Marie shouted, reaching for Walter. She clawed at Patrick’s face, who yelped and threw his arms up to shield himself, dropping Walter in the process. The dog yipped as it landed on the ground, rolled twice, and then shot forward to sink his canines into the leader’s exposed ankle.

  The burly man bellowed lik
e a wounded beast and kicked his leg up, flinging Walter into a nearby bush. Pandemonium ensued. Daniel elbowed the man standing behind him in the face and then did some kind of powerful reverse kick that knocked the man down. Beside him, Justin headbutted the second man standing behind them. Judging by the ungodly howls, Justin had broken the man’s nose.

  That left guard number three. He aimed his gun at Amy, but she didn’t hesitate, surprising even herself. She rammed the tip of her shoe into his groin with all the strength she could muster. The man released a breathless scream and fell on his knees, cupping his injured groin with both hands. His gun lay on the ground beside him.

  All of this happened in a matter of seconds. Amy picked up the gun and steadied herself. She was surprised by how light the gun was, but put aside that thought to focus on finding the leader. Where was he?

  The sound of a running engine froze her on the spot. Just as she’d feared, the leader was seated on the driver’s side of the jeep. Justin ran to the vehicle and tried to yank open the door, but it was locked. With a soundless laugh, the leader gave an obnoxious cheery wave and drove off.

  The car keys. But how . . . ? Amy felt around her pockets, then groaned aloud as she realized she had placed them on top of the dashboard the night before. In desperation, she raised the gun and squeezed the trigger, hoping to blow out one of the tires. Hoping to hit something. Nothing happened. She squeezed again.

  Still nothing.

  Confused, she raised the weapon and studied it closely, wondering if the safety switch was on. She had no experience with guns, but even she knew that something wasn’t right. This was confirmed several seconds later when Justin came up beside her, a wry smile on his lips.

  “It’s a toy gun,” he said. He barked out a humorless laugh. “They all are. These punks fooled us with replicas.”

  ***

  “What do we do? Should we go after him?”

  Justin paused, uncertain. “He’s probably long gone by now.”

  Marie walked over to them, brushing dirt off Walter’s fur as she carefully cradled him in her arms. The poor dog looked the worse for wear, judging by the way he kept lifting his right paw. He seemed reluctant to let it rest on Marie’s arm.

  Daniel hurried over to his wife. “Are you all right?” he asked, checking her for any injuries.

  She nodded. “I am fine. But I think Walter sprained his paw.” She hugged him closer, her pale face creased with worry. “I hope it is not serious.”

  A small groan rose up behind them.

  Amy stared at the incapacitated visitors. “What about these men? Do we tie them up or let them go?”

  “We’ve got nothing to tie them with,” Justin grunted. “Their leader took the jeep and our backpacks.”

  A few paces from them, Patrick was rushing here and there, picking up the strewn items on the ground – toilet paper roll, several food cans, a carrot, a clean t-shirt, Walter’s rolled-up bag of kibbles, a water bottle, and bottled aspirin. He bundled the items in the t-shirt and straightened, tossing a furious look at the men.

  “Just leave them here,” he spat out. “They can crawl back to their campsite, wherever that is.” His expression turned ugly. “Maybe the Runners will finish them off on the way.”

  That still didn’t solve the fact that they now had no vehicle. Amy said so as much. Where were they to procure another car?

  “We do not have a choice. We must return to the highway and find a working car,” Daniel said, looking resigned. He paused, then reached over to pluck the bundled items from Patrick’s arms. “And I will take these, thank you. After all, they are from my backpack.”

  The older man was displeased, but didn’t say anything. Was he, perhaps, afraid that he might also be knocked down with a swift kick to the head if he said otherwise? Amy stifled a giggle and turned to Daniel.

  “I didn’t know you had martial arts training,” she said, awed. “What you did just now was incredible.”

  He shrugged. “Many Korean children learn Taekwondo or Hapkido after school. I only learned for a few years. It is nothing, really.”

  Justin stared at the lightening sky. “We better get a move on. And grab the toy rifles and guns. They may be fake, but other survivors don’t know that. They’ll give the appearance that we’re armed.”

  “Good idea.” Amy jammed the gun into her back pocket. “But I don’t have the golf club anymore. It was in the jeep.”

  “We still have the baseball bat and the fire poker, so at least that’s something.” Justin pointed at Daniel. “Stay in the back. I’ll be in front in case something jumps out at us.”

  The group huddled together and shuffled out of the clearing. As the rest of them scanned the surroundings for signs of stray Runners, Patrick raised his hands and felt along his cheeks. He winced in pain.

  “You scratched the skin off my face. My cheeks feel like they’re burning.”

  Scowling, Marie snapped her head around. “You deserved it.” Her scowl faded to a disapproving glance. “Do not worry so much; the scratches are not deep. They will scab soon.”

  “They better. I don’t have a single scar on my face, and I don’t intend to start having them now.”

  Amy rolled her eyes and moved up to Justin. “Hey,” she whispered, walking beside him.

  He smiled. “Hey, yourself.”

  “So what exactly are our plans here?”

  “Like Daniel said, the first thing we need to do is find a working car.”

  “Yes, and he mentioned the highway.”

  Justin shrugged. “That’s where all the cars are.”

  She placed a hand on his arm. “And what about the Runners that chased us down the interchange? What if they’re still there, just hanging around?” She shook her head slowly. “We need to find a car here. We’ll never make it to the highway on foot.”

  “You have a point,” he said with a heavy sigh.

  Minutes later, the group emerged out of the woods and stood nervously at the side of the empty road.

  “Well, we cannot go toward the highway, then,” Daniel said softly. He had overheard their conversation earlier. “Which means we must go the other way.”

  This didn’t sit well with Patrick. “And what then? You think there won’t be Runners there? This only takes us farther away from the farm!” He swore loudly. “If that’s the case, we should just return to our apartment building. We never should have left in the first place!”

  Amy frowned. “If memory serves, we left because we had no choice. Your noisy fight with Ms. Wentworth brought the Runners to Justin’s apartment, remember?” Before Patrick could think of a retort, she turned around to address the rest of the group. “I say we head down this road and see if we can find anything – vehicles, food, weapons . . . anything that can help us. It’s our only option.”

  “What if we meet other thieves on the way?” Marie asked, looking nervous. “What if that man comes back and brings more people?”

  It was an uncomfortable thought that had lingered in the back of Amy’s mind. What if he brought more reinforcements? They had hurt several of his men; would he merely return to his camp to lick his wounds? And what about his men whom they had wounded? As soon as they recovered, would they want revenge for the broken nose, the concussion, and the bruised genitals?

  But then, they had the jeep, didn’t they? Tit for tat, and all that. Still, it would be best to play it safe and find a hiding place. It wasn’t wise to stay out in the open for too long.

  “All right. We have two immediate goals right now. We find a proper place where we can hide. Once we do that, we can take turns looking for a working car in the area.”

  Justin nodded at Amy. “I like that plan. It’ll give us time to regroup and prepare for our journey.” With a hopeful smile, he faced the group. “Is everyone okay with this?”

  No one objected. Even Patrick seemed fine with the idea, judging by his relaxed posture.

  “Great. Then let’s go. Don’t fall behind, and sta
y away from the road.”

  They walked in a single file behind Justin, trying to keep as inconspicuous as possible. The morning heat rose sharply, and Amy squirmed in her crumpled clothes, trying to ignore the cloud of body odor floating around them. Up ahead, the winding road seemed endless. She swallowed her dismay and prayed that something good awaited them at the end, and not another horde of crazed Runners coming their way.

  Chapter 6

  They had walked for over three hours. For Amy, this should have been easy. She’d been a track athlete in high school, and she’d continued running for pleasure throughout her college years. So this should have been easy.

  Only she was dying inside.

  She wiped the sweat dripping into her eyes. “I need to stop,” she breathed out. “Let’s . . . let’s take a short break. Just for a few minutes.”

  Daniel took out his water bottle from his t-shirt bundle and handed it to her. “Take small sips and drink slowly.”

  “What about the rest of us?” Patrick panted. “We’re exhausted too, you know.”

  “We will take turns,” Marie replied. As an afterthought, she added, “We will drink first. Then you will drink last. I have a feeling you will not leave enough water if you drink before us.”

  Ignoring the older man’s protests, Marie accepted the bottle from Amy and took a small sip. She then poured some into her curved palm for Walter. The grateful dog whined softly and lapped at the warm water thirstily.

  Next up, Justin and Daniel took small sips. It was obvious from their expressions that they wanted to drink more, but Justin quickly capped the bottle and handed it to Patrick.

  “Here you go,” he said with a forced smile. He looked almost reluctant, which was so unlike him.

  Patrick snatched the bottle, tossed the cap away, and chugged the remaining water down his throat. Upon finishing it, he moaned in disgust and leaned against a tree trunk, his body limp.

  “I’m exhausted. There are blisters growing on my feet, I’m dizzy from the heat, and I’m weak with hunger.” He plopped down on the dirt ground. “I don’t know about you, but I have to eat something. Right now.”