by James Harden
“Maybe we should barricade and fortify this place,” I suggest. “Marko will come back eventually. And the infected.”
“And the people from behind the walls will come for us,” Kenji adds. “If we haven’t moved on.”
“Maybe we should go before Marko gets here?” Kim says. “Before the infected come back. Before those people come back.”
“Go where?” Maria asks again.
“Anywhere.”
Maria points at Jack and Sarah. “We’re in no position to run. And we’re in no position to outrun Marko.”
“Who said anything about running?”
“What do you mean?”
“We heard the dirt bike,” Kim explains. “He’s herding the infected away…”
“Yeah, so?”
“That means he left his car here. He probably left it back on the main road.”
“Yeah,” I say, my eyes lighting up. “It was a work truck. From the Boneyard.”
“It will be in the street,” Kim continues. “Right where he left it.”
Maria shakes her head. “There won’t be any keys. He would’ve taken them with him.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. But if he’s taken the keys, I say we sabotage the car. Drain the fuel. Slash the tires. Wreck the engine.”
“And then what?” Maria asks. “He’s still got the dirt bike.”
“But he won’t be expecting it. The dirt bike can’t have much fuel left. Which means he won’t be able to chase us very far, if at all. And then we can look for another car to make our escape with. There has to be a working car somewhere in this town.”
“What if there isn’t?”
“Then we go back into hiding. We barricade this place. Fortify it. We keep watch. If Marko wants to kill us, if those people want to kill us, then they’ll need to come inside, on our turf. We’ll have the upper hand.”
“This is hardly our turf,” I say.
“Then we make it our turf. We need to familiarize ourselves with this place, so if or when Marko finds it, or when those people come back, we’re ready. We’ll know the entry points. The exits. The bottle necks.”
The choke points
The kill boxes.
“We’ll lure him inside,” Kim continues. “Lure him to his death. Give him a taste of his own medicine. We need to do this. We need to go on the attack. We need to take control. We can’t just sit here and wait for him to come back, and wait for those people to execute us. If we can’t leave, if we can’t steal the work truck from him, then we need to act.”
Kenji says if the car is old enough he might be able to hot-wire it.
“Really?” Maria asks. “You know how to do that?”
“I watched Daniel do it a couple of times. Just after we got out of Sydney. I watched Ben do it once. I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure I can do it.”
We all agreed on the plan. Well, everyone except Sarah. But she has completely passed out. Who argues on her behalf?
“If we leave,” I say. “We leave Sarah’s sister behind. We abandon her and any hope Sarah has of being reunited with her.”
“I know this isn’t ideal,” Kim says. “But we don’t have a choice. If we even think about trying to climb those walls, which to be honest, I don’t think is even possible, but let’s say that we do, let’s say that we try and have a look see… they’ll gun us down before we even get a rope or ladder in place. Not that there’s any ladder tall enough, or length of rope long enough to climb those walls.”
“She’s right,” Kenji says. “If we even look like we’re considering trying to break in, they’ll kill us. They’ll pick us off one by one. They have the perfect vantage point, the perfect position to kill.”
“What would we do?” I ask, pointing at Jack. “What would you do, if Maria was being kept behind those walls. Or Kim?”
Jack doesn’t answer because he doesn’t need to. We all know what he would do. We all know what he did. He would find a way. He would acknowledge the high possibility of death, the low chance of survival, and he would risk his own life for the lives of the people he loves.
“This is different,” he whispers.
“Is it? How is it so different?”
“Sarah is hurt,” Kim answers for Jack. “She’s not even conscious. She’s probably dying. She can’t do… anything. She can’t help her sister.”
“I went by myself,” Jack says quietly, sheepishly. “I didn’t want to put anyone else at risk. I wasn’t prepared to put anyone else’s life at risk. That’s why I went by myself.”
“And how well did that work out?”
Again, Jack lowers his head. He is ashamed of how it all turned out, even though we all knew he was going to do what he did. There was no way in hell he was going to leave Kim behind… alone… suffering. He was never going to leave Kim behind. He told all of us he was going to do it, that he was going to risk his own life to save his sister. He warned us. He talked the talk and then he walked the walk. He did the same thing in Sydney when he thought Maria had been captured. He left Kim and I, left us alone in the speed boat heading for open waters because he couldn’t bring himself to leave Maria behind, couldn’t allow himself to escape while Maria might still be in danger.
“Sarah… if she wants to go,” Jack says, “We should let her go. We shouldn’t force her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. If she doesn’t want to come with us, she should stay. She should fight for her sister.”
“By herself?” I ask. “And we do nothing? We don’t help her at all?”
No answer from anyone.
“She saved our lives,” I remind them. “She saved all of our lives. She got us out of the Fortress.”
“After she tried to kill us,” Kim says. “After she lured us into their stronghold, into that goddamn trap.”
I open my mouth to defend Sarah, but it is hard to defend this action of betrayal.
“She betrayed us, Rebecca,” Kim adds, echoing my thoughts. “Plain and simple. It was cold blooded and pre-meditated.”
“She had no choice,” I say. “She was just doing what she had to do. To protect herself. To stay alive.”
“And then she leads us here, to a dead end. She doesn’t care about us. She’s using us. Our lives don’t matter to her. And why should it? She doesn’t even know us. All that matters to her is her own life and getting back to her little sister. Which to be perfectly honest, is fair enough. But you have to acknowledge the fact that she is using us.”
It was true… all of it. But I’m not ready to do this. I’m not ready to abandon her.
“She wouldn’t want to leave with us,” Jack says. “There’s no way.”
I look over at Sarah. She is unconscious. Defenseless. She could be dying for all we know. “Shouldn’t we at least wait until she wakes up?”
“I’m not sure we can,” Kim says. “We need to go. We need to do this right now. Before it’s too late.”
“Marko could be back any second now,” Kenji adds. “The longer we wait, the riskier it will be. We need to do this while he is occupied. Maybe when we get back, Sarah will be awake. We can talk it over then. But Kim is right, we need to make a move.”
He’s right.
And Kim is right.
And everyone else is right, and maybe I’m wrong.
But there is no time to argue.
Because right now, it is go time.
I take a deep breath. “OK. What did you have in mind?”
Kenji smiles a half smile, some emotion, some warmth returning to him. “Let’s go steal a car.”
Chapter 8
Sure, let’s steal a car.
Let’s steal a car from a homicidal maniac.
I just hope the goddamn keys were in the ignition. Maybe they’ll be sitting on the front seat, or hidden on top of the sun visor. That’s where Jack thinks everyone in the world hides their keys. I mean, it’s not likely that the keys will be located in either of these positions, but technically it is possible, so I’m going to hope
for one of these scenarios to be the case.
I’m also going to hope the car has a full tank of fuel, even though I know this definitely won’t be the case. I know this won’t be the case because Marko has just driven a good nine or ten hours chasing us. Actually, I’m not sure how far we drove, but it was a long damn way. So I’m guessing it’ll be near empty. Still, I’m hoping for a miracle. I’m hoping the fuel tank is extra-large. Or maybe he brought a few jerry cans of fuel with him. Wow, that could actually be a definite possibility. This is something that Marko the Maniac would do. Because even though he is a maniac, he is a maniac that likes to be prepared.
OK, what else? New tires? Yeah sure, new tires would be awesome.
Maybe the car has just had a wheel alignment.
any tricks. Make sure we actually did have twelve hours to get the hell out of dodge like they said we did. That’s the way Jack described i
A full detail and service.
Maybe it’s still got that new car smell.
I take a deep breath and I count to three because day dreaming about all these nice things could get me killed.
I get my mind back on the task at hand. And I actually have to take a few quick steps to catch up with Kenji and Maria. Again, we decided that Jack and Sarah had to stay behind for obvious reason. And again, we decided that Kim would stay behind as well to keep an eye on them. I can tell Jack is getting frustrated. He wants to be where the action is. He wants to help. And he’s sick of people feeling sorry for him. Anyway, Kim said she’d watch the black walls as well. Make sure those people weren’t playing t. He said, “We’ve got twelve hours to get out of Dodge City.”
I asked him what the hell he meant by that, and apparently it’s a well-known saying from the wild west days. Apparently, Dodge City was a rough town. So I guess that’s an appropriate saying, because at the moment, this town is definitely a rough town.
Anyway, it’s up to Kenji, Maria and myself to go and steal a car from Marko the Maniac.
We told Kim and Jack to have the supplies ready for when we got back. If the car’s working, we’d come back and pick them up and then we could get to safety. Wherever that may be.
Out of town.
Away.
Ideally, we’d like to get behind the walls. But that doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen anytime soon. So our next best option was to get as far away from danger as possible. Which means getting as far away from Kingswood as possible.
Before we left our hiding place, Kenji gave the world’s largest handgun to Kim. At first she protested, saying that since we were the ones going out into harm’s way that Kenji should keep the gun.
“Don’t worry about it,” Kenji had said. “We’ve got these spears. You keep the gun. Only use it as a last resort.”
Kim took the gun and nearly fell over. “Never fired a magnum before. Hope I never have to. This thing is ridiculous. Where did you even get this from?”
“Found it.”
With this cryptic answer, Kenji and Maria and I had picked up our spears and prepared ourselves to go back outside.
And now I’m looking this way and that, looking over my shoulder, peering into every single shop front, imagining survivors hiding in there. Survivors who had gone insane, lost their humanity.
The sun has almost set, which means we’ve got about twelve hours to leave the town, or else our severed heads will be put on display as a warning to others to keep the hell away. I for one did not feel like losing my head. So really, the only thing to do at this point, the only thing that made sense, was stealing a car off a confessed serial killer. A serial killer who is hell bent on hunting us down. And the only way this plan works, is if we do it quickly. Because right now, Marko is somewhere out in the desert, herding the infected away from this town. But he won’t be gone forever and he won’t be gone for long.
The only thing we’ve got going for us at this point in time is there is absolutely no way that Marko will be expecting us to be this bold and this stupid.
“So the plan is, we get Marko’s Landcruiser, or work truck or whatever it is,” Maria says, making sure we’re all on the same page. “And then we can continue our search for a home, a sanctuary. We can re-group and rest and recover without the fear of being decapitated. And more importantly, we can get as far away from Marko the Maniac as possible. Correct?”
“Correct,” Kenji answers as he grabs me by the arm and pulls me along. “Come on. Need to stick together.”
I totally agree. I pick up the pace and make sure I don’t lag behind. The last thing I want to do is slow the group down.
We make our way into the next street over, pausing briefly inside the front window of an old cafe to check for signs of danger, for any tell-tale signs of survivors, for the sounds of the infected, for their screams, their moans of pain.
We listen for Marko’s dirt bike.
The town is quiet. The street is relatively empty.
Kenji moves out into the twilight. “Let’s go,” he says quietly. “We need to do this quickly. Before it gets completely dark.”
Maria and I follow closely behind. It only takes a few minutes before we make it back to the failed barricade. We slip through the destroyed section and move up to the Landcruiser we had made our getaway from the Boneyard in. I try and ignore the bullet holes in the car, try and ignore the broken glass.
The rear passenger door is wide open. A few bullet holes here and there. The window is completely shattered.
“What are you doing?” Kenji asks.
“Just checking to see if I left the hatchet here.”
I step forward, broken glass crunching under foot.
“Anything?” he asks.
“No. Nothing. It’s not here.”
“Come on. We need to keep moving.”
It actually doesn’t take as very long to find Marko’s truck.
“Looks nice,” Maria says. “It appears to be in good working condition. By which I mean, there are no bullet holes in it. This will definitely get us where we need to go. Wherever that may be.”
“Won’t be much good if we can’t find the keys,” I say.
“Or if I can’t hot wire it,” Kenji adds.
“Shame to wreck it,” Maria says, peering through the driver’s side window.
“We have to,” Kenji says. “If we don’t…”
“I know… I know… Marko will come after us.”
I lean in close to the car and peer through the back window, and I’m not sure what I’m expecting to see, but the inside of this car looks perfectly normal. A bit messy, but not too much. Maybe because this car is being used by a serial killer, a cannibal, I thought the car would be full of bones and human remains. I thought it would be an absolute mess. But it’s not a mess. It looks like a normal everyday work truck. Just like how Marko looks like a normal everyday human being.
Maria screams. “What the hell!? Get off me!”
She moves back and she nearly falls over. I look down and I see someone’s arm and hand. They’ve got a hold of Maria’s ankle. And for a second my heart stops. This is exactly how Maria was bitten back in Sydney. We weren’t paying attention. We were careless. And someone, an infected person, grabbed Maria’s ankle and bit her.
Kenji springs into action, kicking the hand away, stomping on the wrist, pinning whoever or whatever is under the car to the ground.
“Get back!” Kenji yells at us.
He keeps his weight on the arm and he raises his spear above his head.
“Please! Please! Please, god!” comes a fearful cry from under the car.
I grab Kenji’s arm. “Wait. They’re not infected. And it’s not Marko.”
Kenji keeps his spear pointed at the person’s arm. He takes his foot off their wrist and their hand disappears back under the car.
We take a few steps back.
“Get out from under there,” I say. “Show yourself.”
A man scurries out holding his hand close to his chest. His other hand i
s missing. His arm has been severed below the elbow.
“Who the hell are you?” I ask.
He holds his one good hand in the air. “Please, I’m just looking for food. Heard some noises. Thought maybe there was a rescue or something.”
“You alone?” Kenji asks.
“Yeah. Been alone since the beginning. Had a family. Had a life. Now…”
“What’s your name?” Kenji asks, cutting the man off.
“Gabe.”
“What happened to your arm, Gabe?”
“The Desert King…he… he punished me.”
“What for? What did you do?”
“He punished me because he is a tyrant. Because he has lost his goddamn mind.”
“There’s a lot of that going around,” I say.
“You’re telling me. A lot of people just lost their minds, they became savages the moment they realized society had fallen, the moment they realized there was no going back. The Desert King, the crazy son of a bitch who proclaimed himself undisputed ruler of this town, is a prime example. I was lucky he only took my hand, and not my life.”
“Where have you been living?” I ask.
“Wouldn’t call it living.”
“Hiding. Whatever.”
“Storage shed. On the edge of town. It’s safe. No food. No water. But it’s safe.”
“Does the Desert King…” I stop as I catch myself referring to someone, a madman as a King. “I mean, do the people behind the walls know you’re hiding there?”
“No. It’s probably one of the only good hiding spots left in this god forsaken town. It’s away from those people, away from the Desert King.”
I turn to the others. “What do you think? If we can’t get this car working, or if we can’t find any other working car, then maybe we could hide there for a few days while Sarah and Jack regain their strength.”
“Sure,” Gabe says. “The more the merrier. There’s plenty of room. Sort of.”
“I still think I should try and hot wire this car,” Kenji says. “Can’t hurt to try.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Gabe warns, lowering his voice and ducking behind the work truck.
