When his parents divorced four years ago, Rose was five, and the courts split custody... Luke had stayed with his father, while Rose had gone with their mother to Chicago. Luke even mentioned going to Chicago to find Rose, talking about it like some sort of grand quest in his future. I personally had my doubts about the feasibility of such an undertaking but could totally understand his urge to try. Talking about her made me think of my family again, and I quickly buried the painful emotions that came with that memory.
It was lucky I had decided to take the way out of the city at a crawl. Three separate times in the first six or eight blocks of travel along Park Avenue, we had to weave around vehicles in the road. If we had tried to leave at high speed in the thick fog, we would almost certainly have collided with one of them.
I thought about the highway-turned-parking lot back at Fort Carter and I wondered if we would encounter a similar mess when we finally found the freeway entrance from Worcester. I didn’t think so; the Chinese appeared to be much more active in this state and would almost certainly have begun clearing the freeways for their own purposes... just as we heard they had been clearing the bodies from Warwick using American children as slave labor.
The silence and the emptiness of the drive through the city was surreal. I was finally beginning to feel a little bit better about the prospects of getting out of there safely when we heard the muffled roar of motorcycles echoing over the sound of the truck.
“Crap!” said Luke.
“I think the Tigers are on our tail again,” Indigo said.
“A street gang who rides motorcycles?” Luke said, his voice incredulous. “Come on!”
“If it is, we could be in trouble,” I said, looking into my side mirror to see if I could make out any shapes in the thick fog behind us. I knew it was useless, they’d be almost on top of us before we saw them. “I’m worried about the guys in the back if they come up behind us.”
While the supplies packed along the outer walls would provide some protection for gunfire hitting the sides of the truck, for obvious reasons, there was nothing against the back door of the truck. All that stood between the passengers and potential bullets coming from behind was a rolling door that had not been designed to stop them.
“You could pull off at the next intersection and we could wait for them to pass,” Luke said. “There’s no guarantee it’s the Tigers anyway... how could they realistically be tracking us down in this fog? Maybe it’s someone else?”
“It’s them,” I said. He didn’t argue. “I don’t want to be a sitting duck on the side of the road when they find us. The least we can do is give them a moving target.”
“I think Luke is right,” Indigo interjected. “Not about it being someone else – it’s the Tigers for sure. But I think we should take a side street and let them pass. We shouldn’t wait too long, though, the fog will hide us for a while, but I think it would be a good idea if we were well out of the city by the time it burns off.”
I looked at both of them.
“You sure?”
They both nodded, and I slowed the truck and turned right at the next intersection. We drove a block before pulling the truck to the side of the street.
“Did anyone notice the name of the street we’re on?” asked Indigo. “I lost my bearings a little in the fog.”
We hadn’t.
“Should I shut the truck off?” I asked. I was worried the rumbling of the engine would carry in the fog just as the roar of the motorcycles did.
“Yeah, why don’t you go ahead and shut it down for a few minutes, Isaac? I’m going to jump out and find out what road we’re on.”
“Okay but be careful.”
Luke hopped out of the truck and jogged into the fog. A couple of minutes later, he was back at the passenger side door and we heard the motorcycles passing the intersection where we had turned. They had only been about a minute and a half behind us and I was glad I’d gone with the majority and stopped. Luke climbed back into the cab.
“We’re on Foster Street.”
“Okay, good. I thought we were here, but the fog makes it look so different,” Indigo said. “If we go another block and then turn left, we should be on a street that leads back onto Park.”
“I like the sound of that,” Luke said. “We don’t have to sit here and wait, I’d rather get moving again right away.”
“That’s the sort of enthusiasm I like to hear,” I said, switching the truck back on as the sound of our pursuers faded into the distance.
“Enthusiasm nothing,” Indigo giggled. “I think Luke realized the heater doesn’t work when the truck’s not running.”
“Well, there is that, too,” Luke said with a grin.
“This road curls around, so in about another mile and a half it will merge onto Park Avenue,” said Indigo.
“Okay, sounds good.”
And it did, until we factored in the fog and the slow driving speed. At least we didn’t have to try and outrun motorcycles.
“This kind of reminds me of the set up for an old PC game,” Luke said, his eyes peering intently ahead through the thick fog blanketing us. “By old, I mean real old... I found it in a box of my dad’s old games and had to run this emulator thing to get it to work on our computer. It started out with a group of people getting lost in a thick fog like this and getting transported to a magical world.”
“We should be so lucky,” I said, as I steered around a minivan sitting directly in the middle of the street.
“I don’t know, man,” Luke replied. “That magical world was full of dragons and vampires and other nasty shit. I don’t know how long we’d last there.”
“That’s a tough choice,” Indigo said. “Dragons and vampires or Tigers and enemy soldiers. They sound just as bad as each other, if you ask me.”
“Yeah, I’d probably take a vampire over Chen. He kind of looks like he wants to rip my throat out anyway,” I said.
“Hmmm,” said Luke. “Maybe he’s in the fog waiting to jump on the truck and pull you out through the window.”
It was said lightly, but I felt the hair on the back of my neck rise. The empty, fog shrouded streets were creepy, and my unease was compounded by Luke’s very descriptive remark. I think he sensed my discomfort.
“Sorry, all this fog just reminded me of the game, that’s all.”
“No worries. Was it a good game?” I asked.
“It was pretty good, considering it was ancient and the graphics were pretty crap.”
It seemed my pensive mood was contagious and all of us were silent as we crawled two more blocks.
There was a question in my mind, but I wasn’t going to raise it in our current situation. The question of why we hadn’t seen any dead bodies in the streets, except for a handful in snow-covered cars.
Probably because the virus, the Pyongyang Flu, was pretty slow-acting on an individual basis. If Alan and Eleanor were any guide, the infected adults had gotten ill up to twenty-four hours or so before they died. If so, it figured most of them would have died indoors, tucked up in bed as their children tried to care for them.
And the children? One had to assume that the younger ones were probably still locked inside with their dead parents, and the older ones, like us, were holed up waiting for help, or wandering around trying to make their way in this new world.
That, or they were already slaves to the Chinese.
A fresh wave of hatred for the Chinese government washed over me. Hatred for what they had done to the people of America. All so that they could have room for their ever-increasing population. It wasn’t about race. China might have operated like a capitalist society over the last 20 years, but it was, without a doubt, a ruthless totalitarian regime, and as Huian had intimated, no one had a choice once the leaders had decided to attack America.
I made a silent promise to make them pay whenever and wherever I could.
I noticed a bright spot overhead. The sun was wrestling the weather for dominance of the day and i
t appeared it would be just a matter of time before the thick, cloying mist began to dissipate.
Will we make it out of Worcester before that? I wondered.
“There were some good things about it, I guess,” Luke said, breaking the silence. It took me a moment to realize he was talking about the game again. “If you could get past the antiquated graphics, some of the quests and dialogue options were pretty fun.”
“Tell us about it.”
I thought Luke’s prattling might be a good way to relieve some of the increasing tension in the cab of the truck. Indigo was sitting stiffly in her seat, her hand gripping the dash, obviously on edge.
“As best I can recall, you created some people to be your adventurers and when the game started you were guardsmen of a kingdom sent to investigate a mysterious fog.”
“Guardsman in a kingdom? I thought you said the fog transported you to a magical land in the game,” I said.
“I did. But you sort of started in one as well; the mist moved you to a different magical land, because when the fog lifts you are in a desert city with Egyptian-style monuments, rather than the European-style medieval setting the game started out with.”
“Ah, I see,” I said. In truth I wasn't really paying much attention. I was focused on driving through the fog, but the sound of his voice was comforting.
“Well, you start out by a hut where this old gypsy woman gives you some clues about where to start your quest to defeat the evil ruler of the desert land,” he said. “As you go, you fight monsters and gain levels, making your characters more powerful until you finally throw down the ruler, who is the ancient undead mummy of the last pharaoh or something. Along the way have to answer a sphinx’s riddle, rescue some people and explore the catacombs beneath a temple.”
“Sounds exciting,” I replied. “What was the name of the game?”
“Damned if I remember.”
“So it was more of an RPG-style game?” Indigo asked. “Most of the games you talk about are fighting games or shooters. I didn't know you liked role-playing games.”
“I'm an equal opportunity gamer,” Luke responded with a smile. “About the only games I actively avoid are dancing games.”
“Why? You’d be great at ‘Dance Off Evolution,’” Indigo said with a smile of her own.
I couldn't tell if she was teasing him or not, but their playful banter suddenly made me even tenser than I was. Was I actually jealous of Luke because Indigo was teasing him and not me?
“You’ve obviously never seen me try to dance,” Luke said. “Anyway, that’s about all there was to the game. It wasn’t very layered, so it didn't take me long to beat it, just a couple of days of playing over spring break a couple of years ago.”
“I think this is Park Avenue coming up,” Indigo said, thankfully changing the topic. “The one crossing this street at an angle. Get ready to make a sharp right turn.”
“I see it,” I replied, peering through the soupy mist, seeing the vague outline of an intersection.
I stepped harder on the gas and the truck lurched forward as we rounded the corner. It was then Indigo sucked in a sharp breath. I slammed on the brakes, and the truck screeched to a halt.
Blocking the way ahead was an abandoned truck, and in the remaining lane, two deliberately placed motorcycles.
“Shit,” said Luke under his breath.
An instant later, the staccato stutter of a submachine gun erupted to our left.
4
We instinctively ducked down as my window shattered and bullets began peppering my door with loud pings. While a few stray bullets made their way into the cab, the paper reinforcement in the door seemed to hold up and we rode out the storm of bullets until they slowed and then finally ceased.
I risked a quick peek and saw two Tigers I didn’t recognize walking towards us as they reloaded what looked to my untrained eye like machine pistols. We only had seconds before they began firing again.
“Light me one of those bombs, quick,” I said to Luke.
He did as I asked with no questions and as soon as it was in my hand I hurled it out through the driver’s window. It clattered to a hissing and sputtering stop a few feet in front of the gunmen. They both stared down at it in surprise for a split second before the furthest away of the two turned and ran. His buddy was not so quick, perhaps still deciding what it was, when it went off.
The explosion was much louder than I expected and he dropped to his knees screaming and holding his face. I hit the gas and we sped off even as his buddy rushed over to him and began to help him to his feet. I drove straight at the bikes, the truck rolling over them with a lurching crunch of twisting metal and breaking glass.
I sped off down the street, driving way too fast considering the low visibility conditions, and just hoped there was nothing in our way. We heard the faint rattle of machine gunfire behind us but I don’t think they even hit us this time.
“Well done, dude!” Luke said. “Is everyone okay?”
“Yeah, I’m not hit,” said Indigo.
“I’m good,” I said, then almost on cue, we heard the dull roar of motorcycles over the rush of wind through my windows.
“Dammit!” yelled Indigo.
Adrenalin was still coursing through my veins from our recent encounter and, from the way Luke and Indigo gripped the dashboard as I sped up, I knew they felt it too. The next few minutes were crucial. There would be no negotiating with the Tigers if they managed to disable the truck.
“They’re behind us,” Luke said unnecessarily, looking into his side mirror, the only one we had left.
“How many of them?”
“Ah, crap,” Indigo said, leaning toward Luke’s side to see for herself, then back at me. “All of them.”
“Yeah, there are at least six,” Luke said, racking the slide of the crossbow, a weapon that in current circumstances seemed woefully inadequate. “And that's just the ones close enough to see through the fog.”
He swung around so that he was kneeling in the seat facing backwards and leaned out through his window. He tried to brace himself and aim the crossbow at our pursuers but gave up after a few seconds.
“I never realized how hard it was to shoot backwards from a moving vehicle. I’ll just waste arrows if I try and fire on them,” he said, pulling back inside.
“We could throw some more bombs behind us,” Indigo suggested.
“Worth a shot,” Luke said, grabbing one of the ink bombs from under the seat and pulling his lighter back out of his pocket. “How long do you think I should cook it?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But don’t let it go off in here or we’re screwed. It’s hard enough to see as it is.”
“I’ll do my best.” He lit the fuse and waited until it had half burned down and then tossed it through the window.
“Damn it,” he said, after a few seconds. “They were past it by the time it blew.”
“Try again,” Indigo encouraged. She already had another ink bomb out and ready for him. “I know you’ll get it right this time.”
It came again, that jealous twinge. She wasn’t teasing him, just encouraging him, but it still made me knot up a little.
Really, you’re doing this now, Isaac? I thought. Get over yourself.
“How close are they?” I yelled over the noise of the wind rushing through the cabin.
“About a truck length back,” Luke replied.
“Maybe let it burn down to a quarter of an inch this time?” I said, thinking about how much time it had taken to blow with a half-inch of fuse left when I’d thrown it at the gunmen.
“Yeah, drop it out your window,” said Indigo. “Let them come to it.”
“Okay,” he said, as he lit the second fuse.
He let it burn down almost all the way before dropping it and putting his head out to watch the results. This time, the bang was loud enough to hear in the truck and was accompanied by the sound of screeching tires and scraping metal.
“Oh, yeah!” he
roared, pulling back inside, positively beaming ear to ear. “One of the bikes went into a slide and two others hit it. The rest slowed down and fell back into the fog.”
I kept the gas pedal down as far as I dared, only having to swerve once to avoid a car in the middle of the road, barely missing it as it appeared unexpectedly out of the fog. We could still hear the motorcycles following us, but they remained hidden in the roiling white emptiness behind the truck.
“How far is it to the freeway?” I asked Indigo.
“About two miles… oh my… you’re bleeding, Isaac,” she said.
“What?”
“You’re bleeding, from your cheek,” she watched as I reached up to my cheek and felt nothing.
“Your other cheek.”
I reached over to my other cheek. I felt a cold crust under my fingers and I realized the wind whipping through my broken window must have frozen the blood on my face.
I felt a ragged line above the frozen blood and almost instantly my cheek started aching. The adrenalin had let me forge ahead without even realizing I was hurt but, now that I knew, I sure as hell felt it.
“I hope it’s not too bad,” I said.
“It looks like some flying glass cut you. Probably when the window was shot in,” Indigo said. “I’ll look it over for you when we get a chance to stop for a while.”
“You could end up with a bad ass scar there, Chief,” Luke said, looking across the cab at my wound. He almost sounded envious.
“I don’t really want a scar on my face, bad ass or otherwise,” I said.
“Man, I am kind of surprised to hear you say that. I thought you’d be into the scarred hero type look.”
“Don’t worry, Isaac. I think scars are sexy,” Indigo said, and I felt my cheeks burn hot enough to melt the frozen blood of my wound. Maybe having a scar on my face wouldn’t be so bad after all? “Now slow down, we’re almost to the freeway on-ramp.”
America Falls (Book 2): On The Run Page 3
