For Which We Stand: Ian's road (A Five Roads To Texas Novel Book 3)

by Joseph Hansen

  Ian stumbled as he spoke to Jose again. “Looks like our closest safe house is in Scottsdale, which is northeast of Phoenix. Over.”

  “Roger. Will meet at H2O plant for next steps. Fred Wilson is packed with infected, cutting over to Pierce Avenue. Over.”

  “Copy. Turning south on Alabama to pick up Pierce. Over.”

  “Copy. I have eyes on you now and will slow to cover your six. Over.”

  “Roger, out.”

  Ian was happy to have an experienced crew working for him but at the same time wondered about the other consequences. To be able to remain calm in such situations, one must have a supreme strength of character with a will to defeat all odds. For it to come as second nature could mean something else entirely. Personally, Ian felt all right. His pulse rate was good, and he was surprisingly relaxed when less than one hour ago, he had held one of the most important men in the world hostage until he gave him what he wanted. Ian didn’t get to kill him though—something else Toby deprived him of.

  Sanjay poisoned the world; Ian was sure of it, and he vowed to spend the rest of his life fixing it and finding the doctor’s accomplices. Revenge for the death of someone you love is a vicious, self-serving act. Retribution for the heinous crime committed against humankind would be catastrophic. Rage simmered within, gaining a sharper edge with every breath. They would all pay dearly in flesh and blood before Ian was done with them, of that he was certain. He was manipulated and used to facilitate killing millions of people, possibly a billion. He couldn’t live without making them pay the piper. And the piper don’t play for cash anymore.

  The railroad all-wheel drive Mack they had procured at the first safe house in Talladega had a debris guard in front for clearing tracks after storms and such, so Kinsey drove through masses of humanity as if they weren’t there. Fast or slow, it didn’t matter; it was more like pushing snow to the sides than it was running people down.

  Ian looked back and saw what seemed to be two young boys not knowing how they should react. He gave them a nod and a smile, and one of them returned a lazy single wave that was more like the flap of his hand as the other looked down, fidgeting. Ian opened the glove box and pulled out a couple candy bars. The truck had gotten a little warm but not enough to melt them, as they ran the AC constantly.

  “Here ya go,” Ian said and tossed one in each of the boys’ laps as Toby handed them some bottled water.

  “Damn, they’re thick down here. I gotta keep up enough speed to keep the swath behind me wide enough for Jose’s group,” Kinsey said, which Ian knew to be her way of planning their route. She usually mumbled about twenty-five percent of whatever was running through her head all of the time.

  “Just do your best, Kins, and we’ll be fine.” Ian noticed the sun was low in the sky. “Jose, take Stan Roberts west a ways until you get to the concrete company. Looks like they have an aggregate mine to camp in. Over.”

  “Roger. Shut-eye sounds good all around. Over.”

  They pulled into the mine following the wide truck-sized lanes, into a maze of manmade mountains of varieties of aggregates, from fine sands in multiple colors, to slabs of shale and chunks of granite waiting to be crushed. They hadn’t seen anyone for the last mile and possibly might have slipped behind the line of infected heading into El Paso.

  If Ian thought of it, he could feel guilty for abandoning the city, but he couldn’t sacrifice his people on a no-win situation. They were good, and they had spent a lot of time training to be good, but they weren’t that good. Nobody is that good. They had come into the city with no ill intent and caused all kinds of trouble, then they departed without so much as breaking a sweat. Four people rescued and none wounded, as well as doubled their assets with what was in the HEMTT. Not a bad day, all in all.

  Ian was beginning to think that this all went to shit a lot quicker than the originators planned. He kept quiet through dinner as he studied the lists and how well-stocked all the safe houses up to this point had been, apart from the first. That one was a ratty little pole barn with a minimum of supplies, as was prescribed in the original contract. That was all good and fine; a deal is a deal. Then they sold the second half of the contract to Doctor Sanjay, which broke the original agreement, sending them on a wild goose chase to get to the murderous bastard. For that portion of the journey, they were supplied better than Ian could have ever hoped, which led him to believe there was a more grandiose intent for such large stores of product.

  Ian would get to the bottom of this. He intended to look through the next safe house thoroughly and turn every stone.

  Chapter Two

  El Paso escape, April 25th

  “What are your names, boys?” Ian asked the two kids, who were strangely silent.

  The shorter of the two answered for both. “Tom. We’re both named Tom.”

  “Good enough, then, Tom, Tom.” Ian gave a head nod toward the MRE that each of them was polishing off. “Are you getting enough to eat?” They nodded. “Okay then…” He finished the conversation, not really knowing how to talk to kids.

  They ate the rest in silence before the same Tom who spoke before looked up at Toby. “What are you going to do with us?” His voice was more questioning than fearful. It was a resignation to the fact that they were under someone else’s control.

  Toby looked to Ian with a questioning eye.

  “You’re not our prisoners. You are free to do whatever you want.” Ian saw Ram, the man they rescued from the clinic, nod his head in approval. “We’re all just survivors working our way to a safe house, where we can resupply and plan our next moves from there. We don’t know anything beyond that point, but you are welcome to come along with us. We will feed you, and you can share in any spoils we come across.”

  The boys kept their heads down, looking at their food, and nodded as they digested what Ian had said. The more talkative Tom, a Hispanic-looking kid, pulled his head up and looked Ian square in the eyes.

  “Will you teach us to shoot?”

  “With everything imaginable, and while practicing on live targets. I know that’s a shitty thing to say, but it is the new reality. You see, I lead people for a living. In doing that, I have learned that you don’t bullshit. You lay it out like it is and let them decide what they want to believe. I won’t bullshit you either. It sucks out there, and there is more strength in numbers, so are you in?”

  “We’re in.” The other Tom spoke for the first time. He was taller and his voice lower, but he looked younger, less in command than the shorter one with the south-of-the-border appearance.

  “Ram, Jesse… how about you?”

  “We’re in until the safe house at least. Ram has to check on his family in Cali,” Jesse said.

  “Fair enough. Do you mind if Jose rides with you guys? We’re kinda tight as it is.”

  “Not at all, then we’ll have coms between us.” Ram paused before going on. “There is more going on here besides the obvious, you know. Something… I don’t know, but I don’t think this is the end of it. The shit storm, I mean.”

  “I know. You wouldn’t believe the safe houses they have set up.” Ian looked to Toby and Kinsey. “We even set one up for them without even knowing it.”

  Toby nodded as if he had assumed as much, while Kinsey’s jaw dropped.

  “Yup, this is more than just a bunch of sick people running around,” Ian said before changing the subject. “Keep the engines running for the AC. Everybody sleeps in the cabs, and nobody hits the head without a guard. You boys pick which ever adult you want as your bathroom escort, and we’ll see ya get things taken care of. Police the area, and we leave at first light. Good night.”

  Ian was beat to hell and needed to crash. They were as secluded as they could be in this part of Texas and virtually underground, being in the mines. The only thing they needed to worry about were flash floods. Ian glanced to the sky, relieved to see only stars and clear skies.

  “Ian!” It was Jose’s voice that brought him out of his slumbe
r. He was beating on the outside window and shouting behind a screen of pounding rain. Ian lowered the window enough to hear him.

  “This place is filling up with water. We gotta get out of here!”

  Ian gave Jose a thumbs up, and Kinsey put the already running truck into gear and locked in the four-wheel drive. No one was worried about the trail out, as it was gravel instead of mud, and they would be able to exfil before any large washouts occurred. The depth of the pit itself turning into a temporary lake was the real concern. Looking at the collected water at the bottom of the mine pit, Ian had valid reason to worry.

  Escape proved to be no challenge, and they were up and rolling west slowly in the driving rain. Flashes of lightning displayed masses of infected off in the distance like scarecrow silhouettes upon the flat horizon. There were thousands of them still making their way to El Paso; something had to be drawing them.

  They pulled under the awning of a truck stop that had been abandoned long before the infection took place. With the rain falling straight down, they took advantage of the dry area to take care of some needs.

  “Four hundred miles to Scottsdale,” Ram said as he looked at the map. “The problem is there appears to be only one main highway.”

  “Interstate?” Ian remembered the nightmare they had trying to get into Atlanta via the main thoroughfares.

  They could always opt for railroad since the rig was set up to run the tracks, but the HEMTT wasn’t. A lot of the ground was flat enough to go off road, but all it would take is one unpassable spot, and suddenly they’d be without a vehicle.

  “Yeah, it’s interstate for most of the way, surrounded by desert, so water may be an issue,” Ram continued.

  “You can have a couple cases from our stores of water.” Ian was referring to the six cases of twenty-four-count bottles they still had. “God damn it, this would be a seven-hour trip in the old world, now it might take more than a week.”

  “It’s going to be a different roll this time around, boss,” Kinsey said. “We were running with the herd and trying to get ahead of it, now we go against the flow, and I can’t help but think that might work in our favor.”

  “Why are they all still heading to El Paso, anyways?” Jesse introduced the white elephant in the room.

  “I don’t know.” Ian shook his head. “Maybe it was all the uninfected drawing them in that direction, you know… like following the trails of migration, or possibly those who started this are drawing them all there.”

  Jesse gave him a sardonic look. “I would believe that if there was a solid reason why.”

  “Annihilation.” Ram waited to see if anyone else picked up on his line of thought. “Draw all of the living and dead into one place and drop a nuke of some sort, and you just bought yourself an entire country.” His tone was speculative, but there was a confidence behind it that spoke of a conviction of personal beliefs.

  “I don’t like the way you think, mister, but I think you’re right.” Ian looked at the man who had been held captive and injected with the virus in multiple formats countless times. Ram was bound to be a bit cynical, but Ian couldn’t help but agree. “Somebody is using this virus to steal our country, and if you have to nuke something, it might as well be El Paso. I mean, who would miss it?” Ian nodded his head in Ram’s direction. “They took you captive and injected you with the virus for what? To try and find a stronger version, is all that I can think of. What they don’t know is that we have a list of their supply depots, so we can stop them… maybe.”

  “Not if we get blown up.” Tall Tom looked up toward the sky, where the faint rumble of a large engine hummed. Other than the planes running the sorties at the oncoming horde, this was the first plane Ian had heard or seen in the sky for over a week, and it sounded big.

  “I suggest we mount up and get as far away from El Paso as we can,” Ian said, and they all gave assent and rushed to the vehicle doors.

  It wasn’t until they were well on the road again that Toby spoke up. “They won’t use a nuke, you know.”

  Kinsey scrutinized him in the rearview to make sure he was serious.

  “Oh, why is that?” Ian asked, truly interested in other theories.

  “They need the workers, and that is possibly the last notable vestige of humanity left in the country. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are shackles locked away in some of those boxes on the HEMTT.” Toby finished with a glance out at the landscape darkened with thunderclouds and pounding rain.

  Kinsey looked at Toby through the rearview mirror again. “Slavery? The world wouldn’t stand for that anymore.”

  To Ian’s surprise, one of the Toms snorted then repressed a laugh.

  “I didn’t think the world was for spreading a disease across an entire nation, either. My guess is they took out all the nations that wouldn’t fall in line and were powerful enough to make a difference.” Toby was revealing how much he had been contemplating this.

  Ian was beginning to think Toby really was Harvard educated, or was it Yale? He could never remember and didn’t think it mattered. “So, in your scenario, Tobes, what would be their ultimate goal? To rule the world from the seat of what was once the world’s powerhouse?”

  “Nothing so grandiose. I feel we have just become the farm that Kim Jun Ung has always dreamed of owning. He and his allies will turn this whole country into a resource and rape it for oil, gold, steel, and the biggest commodity of all, food. He would own the grain belt, as well as fruits and produce from the South and the West Coast.” Toby waited for it all to sink in but was interrupted by Kinsey before he could continue.

  “So… the one who takes us over suddenly becomes the world’s richest super power, regardless of how they got that way.”

  Ian was beginning to think Toby might be right. “Yeah, kind of makes you wonder who else wouldn’t want that to happen.”

  “That’s getting ahead of ourselves. I say we get to Phoenix and figure shit out then,” Kinsey said, always the voice of reason.

  Everyone stayed silent in contemplation. Even the Toms seemed to grasp the situation; a fire burned behind their eyes. There was going to be more of a fight here than Kim could have imagined, especially if Ian had anything to say about it.

  It was much like Kinsey had speculated; the infected were down in number and heading the opposite direction, so they easily passed through the masses that blocked their way. The infected seemed hell-bent on getting to El Paso and not interested in giving much of a chase, unlike before.

  The blocked roads and abandoned vehicles gave them the biggest issues. It always seemed to happen about ten miles out from the larger cities, Tucson being closer to twenty miles out. The interstate would become packed with vehicles that could stretch for miles, and the city itself would be empty.

  At first, they used the debris blade on the Mack to push some of the cars and trucks out of the way, but that was starting to heat up the engine too much. So, they started feeling around ahead of time to find side and frontage roads to get around jams. This could lead several miles out of the way and into groups of infected, but there was nothing for it in this new world. This is when Ian appreciated the value of owning a big truck. Sure, the infected slammed into the sides and tried to jump over the hood or smash the windows, but Kinsey just kept it at a slow roll, trusting her debris plow to keep jagged bones away from the tires and rolled right through them. It was quieter than trying to clear a path using bullets.

  It felt odd to not to be shooting at something that was trying to attack them, but without weapons, there was nothing the things could do to as long as the vehicles kept rolling. It took several hours and one long potty break to get through Tucson.

  During said potty break, Ian realized that stopping at the zoo was a mistake. The smell of decaying animals overwhelmed and saddened them; after more than four weeks without handlers to provide the imprisoned animals with food and water, they doubted many animals would still be alive, if any. Still, after some discussion, the crew couldn�
��t leave without checking the small zoo and releasing any animals that may have survived by eating wild vegetation or weaker animals.

  Before Ian knew it, they were releasing half-starved animals and opening food storage areas, hoping the bigger cats would opt for that rather than them. The larger animals tended to look at the open gate for long periods before venturing out. Ian found himself wanting to visit more zoos and animal kennels to free trapped beasts. The thought of them rotting in their cages was sickening.

  There was no way they could hit every zoo, but before they got out of the city, the crew broke into a humane society facility and three dog breeder kennels, releasing the few survivors and dumping supplies of food.

  “I wish we would have been doing this all along. We could have saved a bunch of animals, at least.” The crew all nodded, sharing Ian’s regret.

  On impulse, Ian reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out his checkbook, which he still carried for reasons not even he understood. He dug into one of the back flaps and removed an advertisement that he had saved while searching for a new employee.

  Could he possibly have survived this carnage? Ian began to hope.

  He punched an address into the GPS. “We go to this address first, then we’ll head to the safe house.”

  “A long-lost friend? Don’t all of you old fuckers have that long-lost friend with all the answers?” Kinsey mocked.

  Toby laughed, and the Toms looked shocked at the curse word Kinsey had used. They would have to get used to it; Ian said “fuck” all the time, and he wasn’t about to change.

  “The world is officially fucked right now as we speak, and we’re going to have to fuck a lot of shit up in order to make it right. Hopefully my long-lost friend, whom I have never met, can help us with that. Truth is, I am fresh out of old friends. This was someone I was interested in hiring, even though he cost a fortune.” Ian hesitated hiring anyone who got twenty thousand dollars before they even showed up at his office, but he acquiesced and forked out a down payment. A very large down payment.