by David Peters
They continued on without any more comments. There was nothing to be gained by investigating. Either they were home and not acknowledging the situation, or they were home and part of the situation. Dylan wasn’t about to play hero to every house they passed. It was tough but the roadblock incident taught him how quickly things can turn for the worse and his primary role now was husband and partner to Niccole.
“That looks like the Owens’ Hereford in the road,” Dylan said as he slowed the truck. He smiled to himself as he absently wondered if their shorthorns were wandering on the road now.
“Looks like their fence is down, their RV is gone too. I bet they headed south, Martha’s parents live in Texas.” said Niccole.
“If I remember right, his parents retired in Colorado, could be wrong though. Either way, they are on the move like us.”
They drove on in silence, passing the occasional house, looking for signs of life or hints of the choices made by the resident family. The late day was slowly turning to dusk “We will need to find a place to stay, or power it through the night. I think the horses are going to need a break though and I’m not sure I would want to deal with something similar to Pullman in the dark.”
“Ya, I am all for finding a place to stop for the night. I am anxious to get them out of the trailer, let them stretch their legs a bit” said Niccole.
“We need someplace open though. I want a nice field of view so we have some warning of something coming. We should probably sleep in shifts too, be able to cover each other better that way.”
“What about the abandoned airstrip down by the dam? No one has used it since they built the dam, nice and wide open, can see forever in just about any direction,” thought Niccole out loud.
“Perfect! We can walk the horses down to the river too, save our own water for the time being. There’s plenty of grass on the bank for them too, fished there enough times to know how nice that place really is” Dylan said. “Only take another thirty minutes. So why does it feel like we have been driving all day?”
“I’m with you on that one. I still feel like I am dreaming, don’t know how much more I can take before I collapse” said Niccole as she closed her eyes and rolled her head, massaging her own shoulders as she did so.
As they continued on Niccole’s thoughts began to wander to her parents. They had left a note on the door explaining where they went. It was an open letter, in case any friends or neighbors were trying to find them or looking for a place to join up with others. Even so, it still left an empty feeling in her, like she had abandoned them. They were old, but they still got around marginally well.
They finished the last few turns into the river valley. The road to the abandoned field was both open and paved, although the only air traffic it had seen in two decades was the occasional model plane pilot from the public campground about a mile away up river. The dam itself was around a bend, another mile or so beyond the camp ground. The site they chose for the camp had a panoramic view of the river heading off to the east, and they could see all the way to the top of the valley wall they had just traversed in the truck. Unless something came out of the river, it wasn’t going to sneak up easily. Dylan shuddered as he thought about Corrupted swimming.
Dylan set the tent up right in the middle of the gravel strip. With no runway lights, he had little to fear from an aircraft landing here. The truck was parked on the edge of the runway and using ropes from a light post on the dock below to a tie down at the top of the bank, he gave the horses a run between the trailer and the river for both food and water.
While he was working on all this Niccole had the camp stove set up just inside the canopy of the truck and was working on dinner, “I’ll miss this place, a lot.”
“I know what you mean, that sunset is unbeatable,” Dylan said between breaths into the air mattress.
They ate in relative silence. The only sound heard was the occasional bird and the horses doing what horses do. The sunset was one of their top ten sunsets of all time.
“Reminds me of the burn season, the added smoke does incredible things to the sunsets” said Dylan. They realized the reason for the smoke and the beauty was suddenly gone. Just like that the romance of it all faded and they were snapped back unwillingly to the real world.
They looked at each other and frowned. With a sigh Dylan said “I’ll take first watch. Two hour stretches sound good?”
“That schedule works for me. I think I could fall asleep standing up” Niccole said tiredly.
“Go ahead and hit the hay, I will wash the plates by myself,” said Dylan as he collected Niccole’s dishes.
They embraced for longer than normal and Dylan could feel how drained she was. He was pretty sure that he was in the same state. So much had changed in the last forty eight hours. He knew more was going to change still. He wondered to himself what kind of world they were living in now and what the future held for them. Either way, they could still count themselves among the living.
--2--
He was an hour and a half into his second watch when headlights crested the top of the river valley. Using the binoculars from their camp kit all he could tell was that it was an older model car judging by its wide headlights and it had the sound that carried down to them was that of a seventies model sedan. It would take it another fifteen minutes to actually negotiate the length of road to the bottom, so he took his time fixing Niccole a cup of coffee from the stove and got the few items still out ready to pack up.
He was still wondering where the mass exodus of people had been. He just couldn’t understand how whole cities were dominated before anyone could get out. There had to be pockets of survivors fighting for their lives out there somewhere. Whatever this had been, it had happened far too quickly for most to cope with effectively. It seemed to spread so amazingly fast he couldn’t imagine the initial mayhem in the major cities as waves of Hunters moved silently through the streets. He imagined downtown Seattle in the pitch black darkness. Sirens, the screams of the Hunters filling the canyons of buildings as their kind spread like a diseased wildfire. How long was it before the Corrupted gained control? All the more reason to be concerned about every vehicle or person they came across.
Dylan had waited long enough and leaned down to give Niccole a slight shake “Hon, company is coming down the hill” he whispered.
Niccole shot up with a fright “What? Where is it?”
Dylan calmed her “Not that kind of company, look.” Dylan pointed about a third of the way up the valley where the car was nearly finishing the first set of switch backs.
“What time is it?” Niccole said as she finally relaxed and let out a long yawn.
“Almost your watch, but I figured I would lose the two hours of sleep and start packing up. It will be dawn in another hour and a half or so. We can have a nice leisurely breakfast and head out then” Dylan said.
“Sounds good” said Niccole as she put her service belt on with a sigh. “I’m guessing this will be about as standard as shoes anymore.” She was sounding almost perturbed by the thought of always wearing a gun. It wasn’t that she disliked them. She had been around them her entire life. The only thing she really disliked about guns was the choices it forced on someone during a confrontation. She had enough training to realize that pulling a gun never gave you control of the situation. It forced the other person into a corner. She loved to shoot cans with Dylan and at close ranges was his equal with a rifle. Dylan was never a fan of pistols like Niccole so she had excelled at those.
Dylan took another draw of his cup of coffee as the car finally entered the valley, but continued passed the turn off from the main road that would bring the strangers to their impromptu camp ground.
“I would imagine they are going across the dam, you recognize the car?” Dylan said squinting into the darkness.
“No clue, too dark. Didn’t sound familiar, but that isn’t saying much” said Niccole.
They watched as the sedan continued up and around the bend, i
t was another mile beyond that before they would reach the dam.
Niccole and Dylan didn’t give it another thought as they leisurely packed up the camp and loaded up the horses.
Off in the distance, they heard a single gunshot. Both stopped what they were doing and looked in the direction of the dam.
“That doesn’t sound good” said Dylan flatly. Dylan found himself reaching down for his rifle and looking to the back of the trailer where Niccole was already verifying she had a round loaded in her rifle.
“Have gun, will travel,” she said with a wink and then slung the rifle over her shoulder.
“Stay here with the truck and keep an eye out for anything strange. I’m going to take a short run up the hill and see if I can tell what is going on,” Dylan said as he turned towards the hillside.
It was about a ten minute hike up the hillside to a point where he would be able to see over the camp ground and down onto the dam. In the back of his mind he had a passing thought about snakes. According to the stories these valleys were filled with king sized Rattlesnakes. He had seen some big ones on the roads at night but never run into one anywhere else. Besides, there were far worse predators roaming now.
Cresting one of the many outcroppings of basalt Dylan lay down prone and immediately regretted hitting the ground so hard. He could tell he had re-opened one of the many wounds on his chest. Shrugging off the pain, he caught the sound of a generator running on or near the damn. The entrances on both sides of the dam had large construction lights shining down brightly on the approaching roads. Anyone driving up to the dam would be unable to see onto the dam and anyone that may be standing there. He brought the binoculars up and scanned the area under the nearest light. He could see the car stopped under double circle of yellowish light on his side of the river. The driver was being held at gunpoint against one of the management shack walls. Two others were removing the contents of his car and going through them. All three were wearing military fatigues. Something was out of place about the three. They were dressed like military but something wasn’t fitting right.
“The hair,” said Dylan quietly. None of the three had close cropped hair. Of the group only one had a military style weapon that he could see. One actually appeared to have a long barreled bird hunting shotgun. As he watched them continue to search the car he saw the arm of the second occupant hanging limply out of the passenger door.
Dylan scanned the length of the dam. He could not see any movement under the far light, nor could he see any sign of others. The amount of equipment scattered around could hide a small army but he doubted anyone there wouldn’t have also responded to the gun shot.
The sound of a second gun shot came to him as he was scanning back along the dam. He quickly flattened himself and then realized how foolish that was. The bullet would have struck before the sound even reached him most likely.
He flashed back to the anger he had felt during a night out with Niccole back in Pullman oh so many years ago. Although distanced and tempered by time he remembered it like it was yesterday. A drunken college kid had tried to pick up his new bride using all of the common lines and tactics. He didn’t want to hear anything about her being married and upon failing to pick her up referred to her by various street walker names and assured the rest of the bar that if she wasn’t interested in such as fine specimen as himself than she probably didn’t like men anyway. Both Dylan and the drunk were escorted from the bar that night, Dylan by police, the drunk by paramedics.
Bringing the binoculars back to bear on the checkpoint, he could see the one guarding the driver was now going through his pockets; a large splattering of blood was on the shed where the man had stood. As he continued to watch in morbid fascination the three lifted the body over the side of the dam and watched it make its long decent into the black water below. One of the three appeared to make a joke as the other two laughed as ‘job well done’ pats to the back were passed around.
“Well this is crap” Dylan said to himself. “Bad enough we have to watch out for half dead people converted into monsters, now these ass-hats too. You think it would be pretty easy to pick the right damn team at this point.”
Dylan backed down and away from the lip of the hill and went as fast as he dared down the hillside back to Niccole. The closer he got to Niccole the angrier he became. Here was society falling apart, people needed each other now more than ever and these assholes were robbing and murdering, for what? His wallet and watch? Did that stuff even have meaning anymore? What good would that do them?
He finally reached Niccole who was sitting on the tailgate sipping her coffee. She stood up as Dylan approached.
“You ok? Sounded like you rolled down the entire hill. I could hear you from here.” Niccole said with a smile, “You see what the shot was?”
“Ya, this day is crap already” Dylan said with a frown and explained what he had seen.
“You have something in mind, I can already see that. The last time I saw this face I had to bail you out of jail an hour later” Niccole said guardedly.
“We have two options, face these three or face what’s in Lewiston. It is almost a hundred miles to the next point where we could hope to cross the river and not deal with a population center. Your parents could be coming this way soon too. There are just too many reasons to not leave these assholes here for someone else to deal with” Dylan said.
“Ok, I’m listening” Niccole put her arm around him as he explained his plan.
--3--
Niccole was behind the wheel of the truck driving slowly towards the checkpoint. It was still dark but that would be gone in another forty minutes as the early morning began to glow. Dylan cradled his lever action, ready to load a bullet the second he exited the truck. Niccole slowed when they were about two hundred and fifty yards from the checkpoint and Dylan silently stepped out of the truck.
She brought the old truck to a stop after another fifty yards, still way short of the checkpoint. She drove with the hi-beams on so there would be no way for the vermin to see who or what was in the truck. It also masked the fact that anyone had stepped out of it.
She could see the three standing under the light and they appeared to be unsure as to what to do at this point. One had a bullhorn and spoke.
“Bring your vehicle forward please, this is a US Government inspection point,” the tallest of the three identified himself as the leader. He said the word ‘government’ like he had just learned it earlier that morning.
Dylan was moving up the hillside off to Niccole’s left and was almost in position on a large flat rock outcropping overlooking the dam. Below him Niccole started slowly rolling forward towards the check point.
As she started to close the distance, Dylan was looking at the three through the scope on his rifle. He had a sudden feeling of remorse and asked himself “could he do this”? It was like he was hunting, He didn’t hate it he just had issues justifying it to himself. He was actually quite successful the few times he went. The issue was the feeling of helplessness he would apply to the animal. It didn’t stand a chance as he pulled the trigger from over a hundred yards away. He would have such a guilty feeling after the kill that he was surprised he didn’t try CPR to try and bring the animal back. But when it came to necessity, him or them, the debate got a little easier to decide.
Niccole continued to inch towards the light while they coaxed her on through the bull horn. She continued at just barely above idle speed and you could hear the irritation this was causing the man’s amplified voice. “Anytime, Dylan” she said quietly in the cab.
“Pick it up please. You are taking all damn day. You have nothing to fear, we are on your side” said the tall one again. If someone was unsure if they were really with the government, they just took care of that. Anyone that grew up in the same decades as Dylan and Niccole knew the first sign to not trust someone is when said person says ‘trust me’.
Dylan smiled to himself as he realized the level of individuals he was dealing
with. These three were no longer human; they were killers of their own kind. The world was falling down around them and these three were preying on their own team mates simply because they could.
With Niccole still about a hundred feet away the tall one brought the bull horn up to yell another random assuring comment. Just as he began to talk, the bullhorn exploded in a shower of plastic pieces, the bullet continuing on its path just under the cretin’s nose and out the back of his head. A split second later the deep boom of the gunshot rolled over the remaining the two.
Dylan worked the lever action and brought the rifle back onto the second target. There should have been two remaining but he could only see one in the scope and he was bringing his rifle up to fire at the truck. Dylan placed the crosshairs of his scope about three inches above the man’s forehead to allow for bullet drop and let the second round loose downrange. Both men fired at the same instant.
The second killer was spun onto the ground by the force of the large round. Dylan worked the action on his rifle a third time and began searching for the surviving member of the dirt-bag triplets.
