by Brant, Jason
Cass exchanged a glance with Adam as they dragged him toward the street.
“What?” Lance asked.
“We’ve abandoned the compound.” Cass grunted under his weight.
“What?”
“Between Colt and the Vladdies, we knew we couldn’t stay there. Brown and Eifort are leading everyone to the shore. We’re going to get a couple of boats and stay off the coast.”
They crossed the lawn, moving toward the Jeep.
“Go to the Suburban,” Lance said. “We threw away all the keys to the other vehicles except that one. And stop by those bodies over there. Colt thought I was one of them and asked if the detonator was ready. I’m assuming you threw explosives down there.”
“We threw away all the keys?” Adam huffed as they changed direction. “Who is we?”
“In a minute.” Lance nodded at the tallest of the dead men. “Check him first, he seemed to be in charge.”
Cass dug through his pockets and pulled a small trigger out of one. “Bingo.”
They started toward the Suburban. Their movement was much faster than Lance could have done on his own, though the exertion and pain made it difficult for him to talk. Two minutes later, he was sitting in the backseat, enjoying the cool leather. He held the detonator in his hands.
Cass climbed in behind the wheel. Adam sat beside her.
“How are you catching up with Brown and Eifort?” Lance asked.
“Driving.” Cass took the keys from Lance and jammed them into the ignition. “We’re way behind though. It’s going to be tough closing the gap before nightfall.”
“How far ahead are they?”
“They left at sunup.”
“Shit.” Lance manipulated the detonator in his hands as he thought. “I know how we can beat them there, but we have to hurry.”
Cass turned in her seat. “What do you mean? You still haven’t said who has been helping you.”
Lance grinned. “Do you know how to get to the Arnold Palmer airport?”
As they drove down the block, he pulled the trigger on the detonator.
Chapter 31
Eifort slowed the truck down to thirty miles an hour before crashing through the barricade.
The truck bucked as it slammed into the front ends of two cars butted together.
Brown put his hands on the dash to keep himself from flying forward. The map resting on his legs fell to the floor.
“Sorry,” Eifort mumbled. “We don’t have time to drive around the small ones.”
“How many more of those can the truck take?” Brown picked the map up and retraced their route.
“Let’s hope we don’t have to find out.”
The sun rested directly above them. Brown tried to ignore it, knowing that his anxiety was already high enough. They’d wasted too much time getting on the road. He didn’t even want to think about the truck breaking down.
He checked the small motorcade behind them in the mirror. Everyone stayed within thirty or forty yards. No one had radioed up with any mechanical issues yet, so they had that going for them.
They passed a sign for Exit 146 to Bedford, PA.
Megan glanced at him. “We’re going to make it.”
“Yeah.”
“Emmett.”
“What?”
“We’re going to make it.”
Chapter 32
Cass swerved onto Route 30 and mashed the accelerator down.
The big engine of the Suburban responded and pushed them up to fifty in a hurry.
“You were saved by the Wildman of Monroeville and your ex-wife?” Adam stared at Lance as if he’d said that he’d been rescued by Bigfoot and the Lochness Monster.
“That’s right. I passed out in the tunnel and woke up in his safe room. He said he’d been staying in Greensburg for a while.”
“What’s a safe room?”
Cass slowed and veered around an overturned dump truck in the road. “It’s a secure room people used to put in their homes in case of a home invasion. I think they’re called panic rooms though, not safe rooms.”
“Whatever,” Lance said. “And my ex, Liz, was with him.”
Cass shook her head. The remnants of her mohawk swung around. “How the hell did that happen?”
Lance explained everything that Liz and Paul had told him over the past day or so. He talked about the radio broadcasts and the drones. The Vladdies breaking in and the master escape plan.
“Wait, what?” Cass watched him in the rearview mirror. “Are you saying that you want us to jump out of a plane flown by the Wildman of Monroeville?”
“Yup. He goes by Paul.”
“Are you sure Colt didn’t shoot you in the head too? I think I’d rather take my chances on the road.”
Adam said, “But what if we don’t make it? Doc Brown said he wasn’t certain they would make it, let alone us, and they had a big head start. That’s not even counting the time it will take for us to find a boat. If we fly, we should have time left over.”
“Wait,” Cass said. “You’re advocating this nonsense too? You want to jump from a fucking plane?”
“Sounds better than driving and hoping.”
Lance stayed quiet in the back, letting them hash it out. He knew that flying was their only bet, but he didn’t want to talk about it too much. He feared letting it slip that he probably wouldn’t survive the jump.
Cass eyed him in the mirror. “Are you OK?”
“I’m tired. I was shot in the chest, you know?”
“Just stay awake. We’ll be at the airport in a few minutes.”
“So we’re doing this?” Adam asked. “Holy shit. I’ve never gone parachuting before.”
“Not sure what else to do.” Cass turned them onto a side street. “This is dumb as hell though. None of us know how to use a parachute, and we’re getting on a plane with a man who might not even be able to fly the damn thing.”
Lance’s eyes drooped as they maneuvered through back roads and cluttered intersections. Cass called out to him constantly, bringing him back, but he kept fading every few seconds.
He needed rest. Weeks of it.
Adam pointed through the windshield. “There it is.”
As they approached a T in the road, Cass didn’t slow down.
“What are you doing?” Adam asked. “What are—?”
The Suburban hopped over a curb with a jarring thud and landed in grass high enough that it reached the doors. A fence stood before them with the airport looming on the other side.
“Hold on to your asses.” Cass set her jaw and lowered her forehead.
They were doing more than forty miles an hour when they smashed into the fence. It broke away from the poles holding it in place and slid up the hood in a shower of sparks. The fence slid along the car and flew clear, falling into the grass behind them.
Lance’s head bobbled on his shoulders as they jostled through the field like he was a dashboard ornament. “Smooth.”
“You said they were leaving soon. No point in dicking around.” Cass slowed as they approached the runway. She steered them onto it and accelerated again, heading toward the terminal.
Dozens of buildings, garages, and parking lots stood off to the right. Cars and planes lined huge expanses of concrete, sitting idly, never to be used again.
The summer heat baked off the pavement, wrapping their view in a hazy shimmer.
As they sped past the terminal, a lone plane came into view at the far end of the runway. When they got another hundred yards closer, Lance saw two black dots moving around the plane.
“There they are.” Adam undid his seatbelt. “I feel like I’m going to freak out. This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.”
“Nah,” Cass said. “You went into a Vladdie nest. Twice. Besides, I’m about to get on a small plane with the ex-wife of my baby daddy. Now, that’s crazy.”
As they slowed down, Cass angled them to the right side of the plane. The door was open. Liz stood in front of it,
ogling them in confusion. They didn’t see Paul anywhere.
Cass put the vehicle in park and killed the engine. “Last chance to back out.”
Lance answered by opening his door and easing himself out.
“Oh, for Christ’s sake!” Paul stood out of the tall grass to their left. He had a scoped rifle pointed at Lance. “You scared the hell outta me, Lance.” He moved closer, but he didn’t lower his weapon. “What are you doing here?”
“We need to hitch a ride with you.”
Paul shook his head with such fervor that Lance was surprised when it didn’t snap off his neck. “No chance in hell.”
“Our camp is empty,” Lance said. “You’re our only chance to catch up to our people. We just need to tag along to the coast.”
“Hell if I care. I don’t get involved, you know that.”
Liz walked around the back of the SUV and put her hand on the small of Lance’s back. “Oh, shut up, Paul. You helped me, you helped Lance, and now you’re going to help them. You keep saying that you’re neutral, but you keep sticking your nose in other people’s business.”
“And look what that got me? Now, yinz want me to be a taxi service n’at? No way.”
Cass looked at Lance. “This is the Wildman? I expected someone... bigger.”
“And now I got the hooker-lookin’ woman tellin’ me I’m small? I don’t need this shit, for Christ’s sake.”
“Enough, Paul.” Liz blew him off with a wave of her hand. “There’s more than enough room for all of us.”
Adam stood by the front bumper, his hands in the air, eyes locked on Paul’s rifle. “So, what are we doing here? Are you going to shoot us?”
The Wildman watched them in silence for a moment before lowering the rifle. “Gonna be the death of me, Liz. The goddamn death of me.” He stormed behind the vehicle and stomped over to the plane, grumbling to himself the entire way.
Liz walked over to Cass and held her hand out. “Nice to see you again.”
“Um, you too?” Cass shared a confused, apprehensive look with Lance. “I didn’t expect to see you again. Especially not alive.”
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you about it on the plane. Paul needs my help getting everything ready. I’ll see you onboard.” With that, she left, shouting at Paul as she went.
“I feel like I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole,” Cass said. “The Wildman of Monroeville is a small hillbilly and your ex-wife is not only alive, but being really nice to me.”
“Weird, isn’t it?” Lance asked. “When I woke up and saw her, I thought I’d died and gone to hell.”
Cass watched Liz arguing with Paul. “She looks good. Better than she did at the compound, anyway.”
“Being with him has kind of rejuvenated her, I guess.” Lance nodded at Paul. “They fight like crazy though.”
“I can see that.”
Adam stepped beside them. “Is that your ex-wife? Is she spoken for?”
Lance glared at him. “What?”
“I’m just kidding, dude. I’m not Greg. Besides, you told me how much of a bitch she was to you. Life’s too short for that crap.”
“Amen.”
Cass took Lance’s arm, taking on some of his weight. “This is going to be the most uncomfortable ride of all time.”
They limped to the plane, listening to Paul and Liz bicker the entire time. Lance took the seat directly behind the pilot’s chair with Cass sitting beside him. A bench seat was behind them. Adam sprawled out across it, holding his head in his hands, praying that they wouldn’t die in a fiery crash.
Cass poked her head through the door as Paul walked by, still mumbling curse words to himself. “I hate to ask a stupid question, but do you have enough parachutes for all of us?”
“Of course not.”
“Oh, OK. We’ll just go down with the plane then, I suppose.” Cass glanced over her shoulder at Adam. “This guy is a bigger pain in the ass than I could have imagined.”
“I heard that,” Paul said.
“Good.”
Paul walked over to the door and crossed his arms. “Before Liz forced me to bring yinz along, I had three parachutes. One for me, one for Liz, and one for our gear. Now, I’ve got to share one with her, you two can share the second, and the guy in the back gets one all to himself. The extra weight of going tandem is probably going to make this even more dangerous n’at, so I hope yinz are happy.”
“Sounds good, thanks.” Cass leaned back in her seat, shooting a worried look at Lance. “Tandem? How the hell do we do that?”
Lance shrugged. He had no idea.
“Sounds good, my ass.” Paul closed the door, shouted something at Liz, and then stomped his way around to the front of the plane. He climbed in the pilot’s seat and peered through the windshield. “Let’s go, Liz! I ain’t got all goddamn day.”
“Yes, you do.” Liz jogged over from their car and hopped into her seat. “Will you calm down, already? You’re pissed. We all get it. Take a pill and fly the plane already.”
Paul reached for his door when he paused, his head cocked to the side.
“What is it?” Lance asked.
“You hear that?”
“No.” Lance tried to turn in his seat, but his chest protested with a stabbing pain. “What is it?”
Paul didn’t answer. He slid from his seat and looked down the runway, holding a hand over his eyes to cut down on the glare.
“What does he see?” Lance asked Liz.
Liz bent over, looking through the windshield. “I don’t know.”
“Damn!” Paul ran around the front of the plane and yanked the door beside Cass open. “Boy in the back, grab my rifle. Hurry!”
“What?” Adam leaned forward. “What’s the problem?”
“You remember that helicopter your military friend had? It’s back.”
The soft, distant thump of the chopper’s rotors flitted through the open doors.
Chapter 33
“What are you going to do with a rifle against that thing?” Cass asked. “They have mounted machine guns on each side. They’ll cut through us like a knife through butter.”
“I gotta try somethin’! Yinz have me neck deep in a pile of shit that don’t even concern me.”
“How could they even know where we are?” Lance asked.
“I was gonna ask that question. Who did you tell?” Paul stood at the door, looking down the runway. “I knew I shouldn’t have told anyone what I was doing.”
“No one knows but these two.” Lance leaned closer to his window and peered out. He couldn’t see the chopper yet, but the sound of its approach had grown louder. “Maybe they have no idea where we are, and they’re searching.”
Liz asked, “Can we outrun them in this?”
“Yeah, as long as we can get off the ground without them cutting us down. They might be able to push that bird to a hundred or so. We could double that, given enough time.”
“Get in the plane, Paul,” Liz said.
“But—”
“Get in the damn plane. Lance is right—they can’t possibly know where we are.”
Paul watched the sky for a moment, his brow furrowed. “Hell with it.” He closed the door again and ran around, climbing into the pilot’s seat.
As the Wildman prepped for takeoff, Lance spotted the helicopter through his window. It banked left, flying over the western edge of Latrobe. It moved in large circles, covering a lot of distance with each pass.
“Look at that.” Lance pointed at the helicopter. “They’re definitely doing a blind search. Can we take off and get past them?”
“Maybe,” Paul said. “Depends on how quickly they see us. If we can get in the air, we might be able to make it.” Paul watched the helicopter continue to circle ahead of them. “It doesn’t look like they’re coming any closer. Can’t believe I’m dealing with this right now. I should be halfway to the coast already.”
They sat for several minutes, watching the aircraft continue its search.
/>
Lance caught Cass watching him. “What?”
“I just can’t believe you’re here with me. I thought I’d lost you forever.”
Liz gave them a quick glance over her shoulder. Though she didn’t speak, Lance could feel the pangs of jealousy coming from her.
“We’re gonna have to make a break for it,” Paul said. “If we sit here too long, we won’t have enough time at the shore to find a boat.”
The engine chugged to life. The propeller on the front spun into a blur.
Lance watched the helicopter. He hated the idea of trying to fly past it. After everything he’d survived, he would have no control over their fate during the next few minutes. He could do nothing but hope and pray.
The Cessna hitched as it started rolling forward.
“Sorry,” Paul said. “This might be a rough ride.”
Cass grabbed Lance’s hand and gave him a wide-eyed look.
Bumps rattled the plane as they accelerated down the runway. They passed the terminal on their left. The glass leading inside was smashed out. A car had crashed through one of the walls.
As the tires left the concrete and they started the climb, the helicopter stopped its circling and banked toward them. It came from their left, closing the distance faster than Lance had expected.
“Here they come,” Paul yelled. The noise in the cabin made him difficult to hear. “This is gonna be close.”
“Go faster!” Liz cried.
“I can’t. It’s at full throttle.”
Lance’s breathing quickened as he watched the chopper approach. He forced himself to inhale through his nose. Getting overly excited would hurt his chest.
Cass squeezed his hand.
“This is full throttle?” Adam asked. “I could flap my arms and go faster than this!”
“The take-off speed of these planes isn’t that great.” Paul looked over at Liz. “It wouldn’t be a goddamn issue if we didn’t get involved!”
Lightheadedness struck Lance again. His eyes narrowed to little more than slits as he watched the helicopter. The voices of everyone arguing in the plane, already muffled by the outside noise, died down.
