Wanted

by Jason Halstead

  “I care about her,” Dusty said, his eyes narrowing.

  “That ain’t what I meant,” Carl said, mentally sighing. He glanced at Tanya then shrugged; he and her little brother needed to have a talk. “Kid, she’s the hottest piece of ass I’ve ever seen,” he said bluntly, making Dustin’s and Tanya’s eyes widen in surprise. “And she might be turning over a new life – or maybe not. Either way, she ain’t the one people are after. You two are. The more people we go around, the better the chance of word reaching them. I can’t figure out why your old man’s hired guns are trying to kill you, but that ain’t none of my business. I learned a long time ago when to ask question and when to stop.”

  Carl paused, letting that sink in. Dustin and Tanya looked at one another, Dustin’s face showing the concern he felt about the Maelstrom men repeatedly coming after them. Tanya, on the other hand, seemed almost regretful or reluctant, Carl was not sure.

  “So,” he said, drawing their attention back, “whether you want a piece of her or not don’t change that nobody’s hiring armed men to come out into this shithole and find her.”

  “I think we should head into the park,” Tanya said, her voice a little bit quieter than usual.

  “What?” Dustin asked, forgetting about Jessie for a moment. “That’s further from home! Are you crazy? Sure, maybe there are people the other way, but maybe they can find a way to get us back home quicker too. It’s gotta be some kind of miscommunication or something! There’s no way dad would tell his people to have us killed, that’s crazy!”

  Tanya shrugged. “I know it’s crazy but they keep coming,” she said. “He’s got to know we’re alive by now. I mean, from what you told me about Edland, that guy had to know we survived.”

  “Yeah, and we haven’t seen anybody since we left,” he said, jumping onto a string of hope. “I bet if we’d have stuck around he’d have come back to get us and take us home.”

  “I don’t know Dusty…”

  “Dustin,” Carl said, interrupting them. “You head on up and go drool on Jessie some, I want to have a talk with your sister.”

  He looked at Tanya pleadingly, then nodded and headed off, giving Carl a cold shoulder in typical teenage defiance. Carl waited until he’d gone a ways before he put a foot on a good sized rock and leaned against it. “What’s going on?”

  Tanya looked at him then looked away, sighing bitterly. “I don’t understand it, Carl. I mean, why do they keep coming? Am I paranoid? Why would my dad want me dead? He’s invested millions and millions of dollars into me.”

  Carl perked up. “That’s a lot of money, you talking about the doctors and all that?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, the experimental chips and stuff. My dad owns the company. He’s got a lot of businesses, but that was always the important one to him. He built the other ones up to help pay for the research. He said he knew one day it would be a huge payoff or, at least, it would be a first for humanity. He’s always been worried about not leaving something behind.”

  “Thought that’s why people had kids?”

  Tanya smiled. “Some do. His child is his work. Dusty and I are here because of my mom, she wanted us and he gave her whatever she wanted-even children.”

  Carl stayed silent. He had a few comments he could make, but he knew they wouldn’t help. Had it been Jessie he might not have been so kind, but he liked Tanya. “Well, you got a lot of things to learn about sniping,” he said after a minute, “but I ain’t never seen anybody that can handle a gun like you can. Smooth and calm, it never moves until you tell it to.”

  Tanya blushed. “It’s the implants. There used to be a lot of feedback on them and even surges that would make me spasm, but they worked the bugs out a few months ago. I don’t even get many headaches anymore from them.”

  Carl nodded. “There’s a lot of money to be made in something like that then,” he said carefully. “A lot of uses, humanitarian and otherwise.”

  Tanya nodded, eyes narrowing as she tried to understand where Carl was going. “My dad has all the data and designs,” she pointed out.

  “Who else knows what you got in you?”

  “The doctors, my brother and mom- well, she did,” Tanya trailed off softly, remembering suddenly that her mother had died in the plane crash. She took a breath to clear her head and tried again. “I’ve been guarded by the Maelstrom guys every time I’m out in public, they might know too.”

  “Maybe they’ve got another bidder,” Carl suggested. “Somebody that wants to reverse engineer it – save themselves the cost of years of research.”

  Tanya’s eyes widened as she thought about what he was saying. Her mouth dropped to and she nodded. “And it’s not reaching the top… holy shit Carl, that must be it!”

  Carl smiled but kept his mouth shut. It didn’t add up to him, not yet. It made sense, sure, but it seemed awful convenient.

  “Okay, let’s get going,” she said, heading up the trail towards the others. “Let’s try Dusty’s idea and head east.”

  Carl nodded, then followed after her. More people meant more potential trouble, sure, but it also meant supplies. They could use more than water and food, a change of clothes and some more ammo would make him feel a lot better. Then again, getting some clothes on Jessie would help as well, she was too damned distracting without them!

  Chapter 16

  In spite of Dustin’s desire to do otherwise, they had stayed south of I-40 and hiked through the far rougher terrain throughout the morning. Twice they had heard cars on the road, once Carl even had them lay low since they could see the highway through a field of Joshua trees and other cacti. It was a large truck, the back end filled with crates and a couple of men.

  Aside from that bit of excitement, they ended up miserable, hot, and too tired even to sweat by that evening. “How much further?” Jessie asked after trying to moisten her mouth and lips some.

  “A dozen miles or so,” Carl said. “Maybe a couple more till US-95.”

  Aside from a single wooden shack that they had found nothing of use in, they had seen no other signs of civilization. The terrain they hiked across was uneven and forced them to constantly negotiate climbs and drops, but overall Carl knew they were actually heading to a lower elevation. He kept to himself the fact that hiking downhill was harder than hiking uphill.

  “Jesus,” Jessie muttered, looking at her feet. They looked to fit so tightly in her shoes that taking them off might mean she would not get them back on. “What’s on US-95, anything?”

  “Dirt,” Carl said. “Runs along an old railroad track. I don’t remember nothing being up there, but it’s been a few years since I been that way.”

  Jessie lurched to her feet, grimacing as she did so. “A dozen miles? You talked me into it, let’s go!”

  Carl looked at her and then shook his head. “I ain’t carrying you, sit your ass down.”

  “Come on Carl!” Jessie said. “Three miles an hour, that’s 4 hours. It’ll barely be dark and we can have shelter and maybe some water. Clothes too, right?”

  “Then we show up there in the dark and too damn tired to care about what we find,” Carl finished, shaking his head again. “Might be nobody, might be somebody friendly, or maybe it’ll be some bandits like the ones that pistol whipped you and repainted your boyfriend’s car the color of brains.”

  Jessie grimaced a little at the harsh reminder. Dustin did a double take, surprised to hear that. Tanya, who was keeping an eye out toward the road, glanced back briefly at them but said nothing. “Fine,” Jessie said, sitting back down. “But you just lost your chance to wash my back when we find some running water.”

  Carl rolled his eyes and began setting up camp for them. They were high on the side of a ridge overlooking the interstate so it would be another fireless night. They were without food as well, further dampening spirits and conversation. It suited Carl fine, but Jessie and Dustin were both fighting off the misery of it. Tanya bore up well enough, though she kept shifting and rubbing her stoma
ch throughout the night.

  The next morning Jessie’s limp was worse than ever. She ground her teeth through the pain and after a few dozen steps she knew she couldn’t make it. Tears ran down her cheeks, leaving twin trails that were the only clean spots on her body. She was surprised she had enough water left in her to cry. After a few dozen more steps the agony of broken blisters and swollen feet had faded into the general malaise she felt just being alive.

  “I think I know why I used to get fucked up,” she muttered. She glanced quickly at those around her, afraid they might have heard. Carl had glanced at her, eyes narrowed knowingly.

  “I didn’t say I wanted to get fucked up,” she protested quickly. “Just that this would be a good reason to do it.”

  He looked away, saying nothing, but could not help but wonder if this was a sign of strength or weakness in her. Mentally shrugging it away, he led the way to the east, slowly angling them closer to the expressway. After half an hour they were only a few hundred yards from the eastbound road when he heard the distinct sound of a large truck.

  “Down!” Carl hissed, dropping immediately amongst the scrub brushes and cacti. He heard grunts and hisses from the others as they followed suit, and one yelp from Tanya. A quick glance and he saw her removing a few spines from a barrel cactus she had rolled up against.

  The truck turned out to be a semi, of all things. It was rare to see one of those these days, and not surprising to see it accompanied by two hummers, one in front and one behind. They drove past, moving far above the posted speed limit that no longer applied.

  “What was that all about?” Dustin asked after Carl got to his feet and singled the others to rise as well.

  “Fuel tanker,” Carl guessed. “Not sure where it’s headed though, last I knew LA was a wasteland.”

  “Maybe they’re headed north to San Francisco or something?” Tanya said off-handedly while she removed the last of the needles from her arm.

  “Maybe,” Carl said, staring at the retreating cloud of dust. He shrugged after a moment and, with a quick glance to make sure they were all ready, he started off again.

  “What would have happened if they’d seen us?” Dustin asked from behind him.

  “See those guns on the jeeps?” Carl grunted. “..50 caliber. They’d either drop us for seeing them or ignore us if they didn’t think we were a threat. No way of knowing without knowing who they was.”

  “Maybe they’d have offered us a ride?”

  Carl snorted, feeling his dried sinuses twinge in pain at the action. “You want to ask them if they come back, you go ahead.”

  Dusty lapsed into silence and they continued their trek. They found the interchange to US-95 within another 15 minutes. Even Carl felt his spirits buoyed a little by the sight. Dustin had let out a whoop of delight when they caught sight of it, but the others contained their happiness.

  US-95 ended at I-40. Crossing south of it, they moved past the interchange without incident. Even Carl felt the loneliness of the empty concrete and asphalt.

  “We get through this and I’m going to make you crawl naked through some sand dunes,” Jessie complained to Carl.

  “You’re the one with the sexy ass Eddie wanted to see all the time,” Carl grumbled back to her, momentarily forgetting himself. He winced as soon as he said it, and was rewarded a moment later when Jessie figured out what he’d said and made a soft, albeit dry, chuckling sound.

  Carl glanced at her, eyes narrowed threateningly, but she just smiled at him and said, “Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.” Carl’s glare turned into a scowl. He turned back away from her and increased his pace, adding a few more steps of distance between them. He thought he heard her laugh softly again but could not be sure.

  Knowing some sort of end to their journey was soon to be had, Carl called rests fairly often. They pushed on, beyond exhaustion and desperate for relief. The dust in the air kept the full burning effect of the sun off of them, but the stuffiness caused by it managed to suck even more moisture from their skins as well as make breathing more difficult.

  Soon enough, even Carl had stopped thinking. He watched through squinted eyes at the terrain around them and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. Looking ahead and to his left he saw the first signs of civilization. He blinked and stared for a moment, making sure he was not crazy. In the distance, a few miles away, he could make out what might have been the specs of buildings. Great rectangular stretches of brown lay beyond them, showing what had once been irrigated farms.

  “Hold up,” he rasped, then repeated himself once he had cleared his throat. They circled around him, looking hopefully to the east. Carl saw the longing in their eyes but also saw the exhaustion of the long march and effects of dehydration upon them.

  “We’ll cross the road up there,” he said, pointing to a spot with several stunted Joshua trees growing alongside the expressway. “Once we cross it looks like a road up there, we’ll cut across before that, then head in to those houses.”

  They followed his outstretched arm, hardly caring so long as it meant relief from the sun. “Tanya, keep an eye out for a good hole to hide in. Remember, visibility and cover. Jessie, Dusty, you’ll head in with me. Dusty, switch rifles with Jessie, the M1 is a great rifle at medium range, and that’s the support I want you to give.”

  Dusty took the shortened rifle from the actress and handed her his M16. She checked the magazine, popping it out and cracking it against her thigh before reseating it, then worked the action to make sure it moved freely and was clean. A final check at the sights and the safety, all of these things done without thought, and she turned her attention back to Carl who had an amused expression on his otherwise wind burnt face.

  “You act like you done that before. You play a soldier in a movie?” He asked her.

  She smiled sweetly at him, the kind of smile that promised a kick in the ass when he turned his back on her. “Didn’t think about it, guess it’s like riding a bike,” she offered.

  Not wanting to be outdone, Dustin quickly performed the same steps with his M1. Carl hid his amusement at the boy and waited patiently for him to finish, then reminded them to swap ammo as well. “Tanya, your spare ammo for your M16-you keep one spare. We’ll divvy the rest up between Jessie and I.”

  Tanya dug the ammo out of the sling she had made and handed it to Carl and Jessie, then checked her own guns like they had, just to make sure she was not missing out on anything.

  “All right, I been teaching you hand signals last couple of days, you remember them?”

  They nodded.

  “Let’s do this quick and safe – I’ll buy the first round,” Carl said, then turned and headed out.

  The approach of something resembling humanity had boosted their spirits and their energy levels. They crossed the interstate commando style without any incident. Carl led them with a five yard spread between them across the final field. It was much more sparsely covered, which worried him as they moved across it. The hard packed dirt helped, as well as having some trails to follow. They moved faster, but he still felt exposed.

  A few minutes later, they gathered on the far side of a sandy ridge west side of another paved road. Across it was a ranch style house, though from a couple of glances Carl had taken he expected it was abandoned. A few windows were broken and sand had blown up against the house.

  Carl began to make plans on where to deploy his squad, as he was now thinking of them, but stopped when he heard something out of the ordinary. He listened, looking around, and the others caught it too. To the north they could hear a vehicle. A plume of dust was visible and gave proof that there was indeed something headed their way, right past them on the road they were hiding only a few feet away from.

  “Find cover!” Carl snapped, slipping back down into the small ditch that ran beside the road. It was far from optimal, but his desert colored fatigues and brown t-shirt blended in well enough. The others crouched in the same ditch or, in Tanya’s case,
up on top of a mound of sand and dirt that was tall enough to hopefully keep her out of the line of sight of those in the vehicle. It also gave her an elevated sniping position, should the need arise.

  They waited tensely and silently while the seconds ticked past. A little bit over a minute later, a truck rumbled past. It was an old, blue Ford half ton extended cab with several barrels in the back of it, as well as a mounted M2 machine gun. The man who was operating the weapon had it swiveled towards town, as though he expected trouble. As it passed them and headed south, Carl noted the rear wall of the cab had been cut and modified to allow someone from the cab to quickly man the machine gun.

  “Everybody’s got a .50 cal but me,” Carl said, scowling.

  “Sounds to me like somebody’s get machinegun envy,” Jessie said as she picked her own head up out of the ditch.

  “Don’t worry,” he said with a smile that looked more like a sneer, “I’ll be sure to compensate.”

  “Can’t wait,” she retorted with her own overly sweet smile.

  “Okay, enough flirting,” Tanya said, sliding back down the hill to join them. “Can we please figure out what to do now?”

  “These places been picked over,” Carl assumed, based on how abandoned they looked. “Let’s follow that truck and see where it goes.”

  “You do know they have a truck and we have feet, right?” Dustin pointed out.

  “Then we’d best get a move on,” Carl said, standing up. He thought he heard Dustin grumbling about something, but he ignored it for now. If the boy wanted a pissing match they could do it later. Right now he had better things to worry about.

  Carl led the way, heading down the road and doing what he could to offer them some cover, but by and large they were taking a calculated risk. He glanced back a few times and saw Jessie struggling to keep up, her feet bothering her. He ground his teeth and pushed on-either Jessie would find it in her to keep up or she’d have to find them. If worse came to worse, he could always go back and find her.

  Carl slowed when he realized that the dust trail was settling or dispersing. The truck was gone and so was his means of tracking it. He swore and came to a stop along the side of the road. Tanya joined him shortly, looking around nervously. A glance back showed Dustin had fallen back to help Jessie, who’s limping was becoming more pronounced.