by David Peters
Niccole looked at him in amazement, this wasn’t the mechanic she knew from a few days ago. Something had woken up in him. She liked it.
“I can’t argue with that, but I can ask that you at least keep me in the loop.”
They continued on in silence while Niccole tracked their progress on the map. This part of the state was not well documented and some roads existed that weren’t on paper and some roads on the paper were nothing but fields of various crops. Nothing they had seen that was listed as a paved road off the highway was actually paved.
“Ok, coming up there should be a right off the highway. Actually it looks like it might have been made prior to the Civil War,” said Niccole. “There it is, slow down.”
Dylan turned right off the main road and onto Road Number 4. Certainly didn’t fill him with much hope of it going straight to Oregon. From the looks of it, Road Number 4 was named in the order of roads built in this part of the country.
After heading south for about an hour, the road slowly deteriorated into gravel and pot holes. Dylan thought about that for a second and realized it had been gravel and ruts at the start. These were just deeper ruts. Traveling on this for another hour, they started paralleling a dry creek bed. Another thirty minutes of this brought them to a crossroad. Another gravel road turned south and continued, at least as far as they could see in the general direction of Oregon.
Their map was fairly useless for anything but terrain at this point. The road they should be on turned on their map some miles back but continued straight in reality. Dylan looked at Niccole, “South, or straight?”
Niccole looked briefly back to the map then at the various directions presented to them, “I’m currently a fan of south.”
“South it is.”
Dylan took the turn and followed what now amounted to a trail. At this point Dylan was really wishing he would have invested in a GPS like the rest of the planet. His map and guide book were not up to this task. At this rate they would have to turn to their hiking maps before too much longer. On the plus side they hadn’t seen anything resembling a person since crossing the main highway at Viceroy.
“We need to start thinking about camp,” Niccole thought out loud.
“Agreed, it looks like this road eventually comes back around the high hill to our left. We could get a fix on our location with the trail guide maps at that point. Let’s shoot for that, give us a good view for the evening too,” Dylan said while nodding.
“Sounds like a plan.”
Dylan continued to negotiate the washboard turns and potholes. After coming around one particularly rough turn he couldn’t help but hit the deep pothole in their path.
“Hold on, this is going to hurt” Dylan said as he tensed for the low speed impact.
The truck bounced over the hole in the road without trouble. Once the horse trailer hit it there was a screech of shearing metal and the truck was pulled hard to the right by the sudden immense drag.
“That didn’t sound good” he said and he jumped out of the truck to check on the horses and inspect the damage.
The two of them stared at the destroyed trailer. The front axle of the double-axel trailer had completely failed dropping the right side of the trailer onto the gravel and digging a small trench as they came to a stop. It had also bent the tow ball and nearly sheared it clean off of the back of the truck. It was hard to see under the trailer itself but it looked like the remaining intact axle had bent enough to allow the trailer to rest flat on the trail.
“Guess this sort of alters our trip plans, doesn’t it?” said Dylan.
Niccole was fitting a bridal over one of the horses and giving them a closer examination. Although they appeared anxious and none too happy for the trip overall, neither had fallen during the stop.
“Horses are fine. So it’s horseback from here on isn’t it?” she asked.
Dylan thought about that for a while. They would have to leave a lot of supplies behind. They could skimp on water; they would be hitting the foot hills of the Blue Mountains soon and there were streams they could use. It wouldn’t be too terribly far by horseback, and the odds of them running into anyone were slim to none. Not like they had any other option, leaving the horses to fend for themselves just wasn’t something they could or would do.
“Not a bad idea I think. Buck and Jonas will like the scenery I think” Dylan said with a smile. Buck was Dylan’s horse, standing at nearly seventeen hands and colored a dark tan. He was just over ten years old, and was always up for new trail. Jonas was Niccole’s horse, he was smaller at just over fifteen hands and was a brown and white Paint that was sassy as hell on a good day. Jonas was eleven. Niccole had bought him from a couple in Yakima shortly after he had been broke, forming an early and unbreakable bond. These two horses were the closest to children they were ever going to have.
“So let’s call it a day and set up camp up there” said Dylan as he pointed to a small clearing just off the road and slightly up the hill.
They had been in the clearing for a little over an hour and had a pretty good view of the valley below them. To the west, the sun was setting behind the tall hills. To the south of them there was nothing but mountains of green.
With the tent up, the grill going, and two mugs of Tucks best, they settled down to a vigorous game of ‘Where-in-the-hell-are-we’. Using his compass and various landmarks they deduced that they were in the middle of nowhere and the road they were just on was listed as an abandoned access road for the head of the dry creek they left many miles back.
“So this doesn’t look so good for the home team,” Dylan said with a smile, “We managed to miss pretty much every population center, but are running out of road. The only road leading into Paradise is from the west. We can back track about thirty miles and turn left where we turned right, but that would mean heading another two or three hundred miles south of Paradise before we could safely come back west.”
“How far is Paradise Falls from where we are now, as the crow flies?” asked Niccole.
“Looks like about a hundred and thirty maybe? Give or take,” said Dylan, measuring with his fingers. “That would be do-able.”
A short while later they were sitting down with dinner and working out the details of how far they should push per day, where they should try to camp, and places they should try to avoid.
“You know, we haven’t taken a long ride since before you started with the Pullman PD. Not sure why either, I recall us both having had a nice relaxing trip,” said Niccole.
“We saw some pretty country on that one too, Northern Montana, no human life for days,” said Dylan.
After dinner was done and the few dishes they had wiped clean, they settled down in their single sleeping bag. The sky was completely clear and the light from the stars was more than enough to see by.
“You know Coco, life may have handed us a big old shit sandwich, but I can’t imagine wanting to share that with anyone else in the world,” Dylan said as he pulled her closer.
“And to think they say the romance dies after you get married. I guess it just changes from flowers to shit sandwiches,” said Niccole as they laughed together.
They continued to talk and laugh until both were asleep under the night sky.
--1--
Dylan tossed and turned as he slept. His thoughts were a torrent of sounds and images. He dreamt about work and getting that old Challenger running. He had flashes of working the thresher come hay season. One series of images swirled into another in a river of unconscious thought. Sounds melded into other sounds as the mental movie played on. Images slowed and combined until he was finally sitting peacefully on his old porch. It felt real to Dylan. He could feel the heat of the day and the slight breeze from the north carrying with it the smell of hay and dirt. Off a short ways he could hear the horses making their way to the barn as their dinner time approached. High in the sky a lone hawk made its high pitched call. He had a cold beer in his hand and nowhere to be. He thought to himse
lf how nice this life was. As he relaxed and watched the country day makes its journey to dusk. A lone Hunter came stalking across the field. There was no attempt to hide its presence as it slowly crawled towards Dylan.
Dylan reached down and grabbed his rifle. It seemed heavier than he remembered. Without hesitation he worked the action and brought the gun to his shoulder sending a single round into the Hunter. The shot was on target and dropped the Hunter where it stood. As the body crashed to the ground, a new Hunter pulled itself out of the ground next to his fallen brother. Dylan shot faster and faster as Corrupted bodies piled up leaving a trail of bodies that came ever closer to the porch. The odor of death and decay was on the verge of overwhelming him. As the bodies started springing up at the bottom of the small staircase he felt Niccole’s hand on his shoulder.
“Get your gun! I can’t stop them all!”
A raspy voice answered back, “You didn’t.”
Dylan turned and saw Niccole was no longer, her face replaced by the rotting outline of a blackened Hunter.
As Niccole sunk her savage teeth into Dylan’s shoulder he awoke with a jump.
Sleep would not be coming back to Dylan this night.
--2--
The next morning they prepared a much larger breakfast than usual. “Are we supposed to get fat after the apocalypse because we sure have been eating well,” Dylan said with a smile.
Niccole smiled and placed some full gallon containers of orange juice into one of the bins in the back of the truck. They would be limited as to how much they could bring and gallon containers of milk and orange juice just weren’t going to make the cut.
“I don’t think we should cut any of the ammunition out,” Dylan thought out loud.
“Reminds me of when you used to give Randy such grief for having that root cellar of canned goods. He would ask what you and I would do for food if things got really bad. Your only reply was, ‘you have food, I have a gun, problem solved’,” said Niccole smiling.
“Ok, the stuff in the right pile has to go with us, the stuff in the left pile we load back into the truck for someone to find a decade from now. That right pile is still too big,” observed Dylan.
“We can skimp on clothing, if you don’t mind the stink until we find a river,” observed Niccole, “we can also just cut the food in half.”
“Ok, we are really banking on finding water at this point, but it’s a safe bet I think,” said Dylan.
They loaded their packs onto the horses, did a final once over of the truck, and as a final act, left a note tapped to the inside of the truck window facing out.
To whom it may concern,
We have left our truck here and headed south on horseback towards Paradise Falls, Oregon. If you need any food or water, depending on how long it has been you are welcome to what is in the truck. We wish you luck in the new world, hope you are helped by what we leave behind.
Dylan and Niccole headed due south down and across the valley. They moved without concern for speed, taking their time, laughing about old times, wondering about what lay ahead. Although neither ever brought it up, it passed through both of their heads often enough; what if Paradise Falls is nothing but flaming ruins and roaming Corrupted?
Leaving their truck behind was the final departure from their old lives. They had the clothes on their backs, several days’ worth of food and water, a small portion of their camping gear, weapons and their horses. Everything in their old world was either far over the horizon or sitting at the top of a hill growing smaller behind them.
For the first time in over a month, they could see dark clouds to the west as a storm front was moving in. There would be rain soon.
Chapter 6
They made about twenty miles the first day. This put them three miles shy of the stopping point Dylan had hoped for but they did manage to find a nice open field where they could let the horses graze and have their camp site not too far away from them.
Niccole broke camp while Dylan gathered some wood and made a fire pit. The gray from the west had been working its way east all day and it was looking like the rain would be upon them in an hour or so.
Niccole stopped briefly to look at the slowly moving front, “Wonder how much rain we are in for?”
“I would ask a weather man but I have a feeling most of them are busy at the moment,” Dylan said smiling.
Niccole finished up the tent and came over to watch the fire kindle. They would be eating a small dinner of bread and peanut butter so it was taking little effort to get it ready. “Might be nice to see if some of the creeks we pass have any fish.”
Dylan smiled “Way ahead of you there Hon, I have a feeling PB minus the J is going to get a little old and I don’t see us finding a Bucky Burger out here anywhere.”
“You think Daniel knows what’s going on? We never really talked about how much he follows the rest of the world,” said Niccole.
“Daniel still follows the rest of the world. It was kind of funny actually, here in this hippy town, everyone wearing hemp, chickens walking around, rain barrels catching the rain water runoff, crops of all kinds, and they even had the requisite old blue school bus. Anyway, in the middle of all of this, there was a pole with a satellite dish on it, for internet and television,” Dylan recalled smiling.
He continued, “they were actually really good people there. They had a really eclectic mix of folks. Daniel had the farming knowledge from our Dad, but they had quite a few professional people that had just decided to leave the rat race. I remember meeting one guy, Eric I think? Anyway, he used to be a fairly well known doctor at the University of Washington Hospital.”
“Will they have room for us? Will they accept us? Will we fit in there?” asked Niccole.
“No doubt in my mind. Last time I was there they had this old late sixties school bus. Thing hadn’t ran in years and I took it as a challenge to try and get that old girl running. No one there had any experience working on diesel engines so it will be a natural nitch for me. They usually had to call into town for that. Now you on the other hand make working on radios and electronics look like child’s play. I have a pretty strong feeling that will come in handy.” Dylan noted.
The first large raindrops began to land at their campsite. Without a word they slid the blanket they were eating on into the small tent. Dylan leaned back as he finished the last bite of his sandwich. The air smelled of fresh rain as the shower began to pick up in intensity. They could see the occasional flash on the horizon but the lightning was too far away to hear the crashes of thunder.
Dylan took out his map case and examined the route they had talked about, “We have one highway and one major interstate to cross, other than that, I don’t see too many roads beyond some old logging roads that we will come across.” Dylan ran his finger along the map several times as he tried to get an idea of what was ahead of them. There were a few places where the terrain lines came together in a nearly solid grey line. Unless the horses grew wings they would need to detour several miles in some cases to work around the cliffs.
Niccole finished her sandwich then laid her head back on his chest and closed her eyes, “we can take our time. This isn’t bad at all. Food is the only issue I can see coming up, well, that and the fact that you are getting a little rough on the nose after only one day.”
“I’m just curious so don’t take this the wrong way.”
“Yes?”
“How exactly can you smell me over that wasteland of a stench rolling off of you?”
Niccole sat up and put on her best rejected spouse look while Dylan tried to keep a straight face. As their eyes met she threw in a pouty lower lip for added effect. Dylan laughed and tickled her until she was in tears. After a little more wrestling, they relaxed quietly, looking out the open tent.
They laid and watched the horses graze in the rain. Dusk was finally closing in and as the light faded they closed the tent and enjoyed the rhythmic sounds of the growing storm.
--1--
The early morning was still overcast but the clouds had looked less menacing than they did the previous day. The rain had finally let up just before dawn and was now just an occasional mist.
Dylan crawled out of the tent as silently as he could and broke out two protein bars for their breakfast, munching on his as he headed over to check on the horses.
“You’re up early. You aren’t trying to horde our massive food supplies are you?” Niccole said with a smile. She stepped out of the tent, stretched and headed over to the horses with Dylan. “Everything ok, you seem kind of dark this morning.”
