Hell Happened (Book 1)

by Terry Stenzelbarton

  ~ ~ ~

  Tia and her men got on the road later than expected. The trailer they were taking with them had a tire that needed repairing and it took Randy and Nick 25 minutes to get the tire off, repair it, inflate it and put back on.

  Randy waved to them as they pulled out of the driveway then called Kellie, who’d remained in the shelter to feed the kids and begin her work, to let her know they were off safely and that he was starting his morning chores. She told him Danny was awake and that he’d be down in about a half hour for the tractor.

  “Roger, Kellie. I’ll look for him,” Randy said to the walkie-talkie, then “damn” to himself. That gave him almost no time with Cheryl. He had to get the chores started and the tractor out and fueled for Danny, then show him where he wanted the new motor home to be put.

  He hurried to the barn to unlock the doors and tell Cheryl about the beer he’d stashed just for her. The barn was about 150 yards away from the driveway and he could see the grated window which was Cheryl’s room. He couldn’t tell from here if she had her light on because the sun had risen. He hoped she was still asleep so he could wake her up.

  He hoped she would be very grateful he hadn’t made her wear the collar last night.

  ~ ~ ~

  Cheryl saw Tia and three men leave in the big SUV and Randy turn toward the barn. She knew he was coming to do the morning chores by himself.

  Two truck loads of other people had left earlier that morning, so he would be unlocking her door to the outside before he started chores. He believed she liked helping him do the chores when he had to do them by himself, mostly because she told him she did, when in reality she hated it.

  If he was by himself this morning, he’d unlock the door, allow her to put on clean clothes, put the leg cuffs on her and then start his chores. She’d “help” where she could, but mostly stood around while he did everything. She’d tell him the leg cuffs kept her from working.

  Seeing him heading her way, she jumped back into bed and pulled the covers over her. She was still working on a plan when she heard his key in the door. It startled her, but she settled herself before Randy knocked. He waited and knocked again, just a little louder.

  She didn’t move.

  She heard the door open.

  “Good morning, Cheryl. You awake?” he called softly. “Wake up, sleepy head,” he called again playfully and came all the way inside her room.

  Cheryl faked a grunt, like she was just coming out of a deep sleep.

  Randy reached over and touched her shoulder.

  Then the acting began. Cheryl pretended to be startled by the touch and she squealed, not too loudly, but convincingly. She rolled over and pulled the covers up to her neck and pulled away from Randy. “Don’t hurt me!” she cried.

  “Cheryl, it’s me, Randy,’ he said as soothingly as he could. “No one is going to hurt you.” Cheryl acted like she was just waking from a frightening dream. She added a little bit of fake confusion on her face and her eyes darted around the room. “Where’s Billy? Where’s Jack?” she asked, picking the names of the two men Kellie shot when they were trying to take over the shelter.

  “No, no, no, it’s okay,” Randy said softly, placing his hand gently on her shoulder. “They’re not here. It’s just me.”

  She acted like realization was coming to her and she reached out and hugged Randy. She squeezed him hard, pulling him close to her and allowed the bed sheet to drop into her lap. She had on the same tee shirt he’d seen her put on the previous night, but her lack of a bra meant he could feel her breasts against his chest.

  “Oh thank God,” she said, not letting him go. “The dream was so real.”

  “It’s okay, Cheryl. It was just a dream. No one’s going to hurt you here.” She whimpered in his arms for a few moments, allowing him to “hold” and “comfort” her.

  “I have some good news for you,” he told her, removing the collar. She pulled back from him, smile brightening. “My dad’s gone for the day with Monica and I’m working alone. No need for you to have to hide in here or go away whenever Monica comes around.”

  He said it like it would be a joyous day for her, a day where she didn’t have to think about someone coming around and hating her on sight. He thought he was telling her great news about him and her being able to work together without interruption and the associated stress. He really thought he was giving her good news.

  She continued to smile the smile she didn’t feel. “That’s great, Ran!”

  “And even better,” he added, holding her at arm’s length. “I have stashed away a case of beer that Eddie got yesterday. I think after all the chores are done today, I’ll bring it down with a TV and DVD and we can watch a movie together.”

  Cheryl’s fake smile widened. This 22-year-old child was making it easy on her. “Won’t your dad object? He said I could only have books.”

  “He won’t be back until tomorrow at the earliest. I’ll bring the stuff down tonight and when he gets back, I’ll tell him you were bored at night and they helped you make it through the night.”

  “Oh Randy, you’re so thoughtful. Oh, and thanks for not putting that collar on me last night. I slept so good.” This she meant. He was getting so comfortable with her, he was beginning to disobey his dad.

  He looked at his watch. “Hey, we have to hurry. Danny’s going to be here in a few minutes and I need to get started on chores.”

  She released him and threw off the covers. The shorts she was wearing showed an enormous amount of immodesty which included the powder blue panties, which she knew he’d seen again. “Go start your chores and take care of Danny. I’ll change into some work clothes and stay here until you get back,” she promised, and really meant it. When she was ready to run, she wanted to have as much lead time as she could and take as many weapons with her to defend herself.

  Randy couldn’t help himself and looked at her long legs. She hugged him quickly and kissed his cheek. In his ear she whispered “Maybe tonight I’ll show you how strong these legs are.” She then pushed him away. He was smiling like he’d never smiled before and went to through the door leading to the parlor. Half-way through the door he turned to tell her he’d be back shortly, but she’d already begun to take her tee shirt off. He saw her bare breasts and quickly turned back and left the room before she got it over her head and saw him staring.

  Cheryl wondered if he’d try to peek at her body again. She just suspected and timed her tee shirt removal to give him a look. Not only had she hooked the young man like a rainbow trout, she was now reeling him in like a master angler.

  Randy went back and unlocked the parlor and started morning chores. He was as happy as he’d been in a long time. He had a “date” tonight. Even if it was with a prisoner and even if it was just a movie in her “cell.” He knew that all day he’d be a happy man.

  ~ ~ ~

  Jerry and his two-truck convoy had made great time by his reckoning. They’d followed the same route they’d taken to find the motor home for Tia and her girls. Having been that way before, Jerry remembered most of the obstacles and how they worked their way around them.

  They made it to I-65 south, passing the exits for Pelham and Alabaster without encountering any real troubles. They’d stopped taking bridges over the local roads when one they were driving on shook uncomfortably when both vehicles were crossing. Now when they came to a bridge, they took the on/off ramp, just like they did when an overpass had fallen onto the highway.

  The highway was still littered with debris, wrecked cars, busses and semi-tractor trailer rigs, but not so much that the convoy couldn’t keep up an average speed of 40-50 miles per hour. After two hours on the road, Jerry could see the distant capital of Montgomery.

  His CB cracked to life. “Are you there, Jerry?”

  Jerry took the microphone from Rusty who was riding in the front seat with him. “I’m here. What’s up?”

  “Just heard from the ISS. Colonel Rustov, the commander, said the rescue cap
sule will begin it’s de-orbit burn at 17:04 our time. There is a 90-second window for the capsule to de-orbit to land within 50 miles east or west of Gulf Shores. How close to shore is an educated guess based on weather conditions and experience.”

  “Are you still in touch with him?”

  “Negative. We were lucky to get him when we did. He said he’d been trying every time he gets near overhead. He said the rescue capsule has already released from the station and is maneuvering away preparing for de-orbit burn. Scheduled splashdown time is 18:47 local time.

  “Okay, Tony. Thanks.”

  Juan, who was in the back seat of the Ford had been sleeping, must have awakened at the call. “They are trusting we’ll be there to pick them up, Jerry. I trust we’ll be able to be there?”

  Jerry looked at the clock and the distance to Montgomery. “We’re making very good time. As long as we don’t run into any trouble, we’ll have three or four hours to get a boat ready and into the Gulf.”

  Juan didn’t want Jerry to have any illusions about the possibilities of the capsule landing within easy reach. “The space station is moving at more than 17,000 miles per hour 230 miles above our heads. A little piece of it is going to pull away and slow down enough so gravity will bring it down unpowered.

  “Now the astronauts usually have a building full of computers on earth and thousands of men and women helping them land in the target area. The Russians usually land in the desert and I’ve heard they can sometimes wait up to three or four hours for rescue.

  “The rescue capsule will float for a while, but it’s not like the Mercury and Apollo capsules that had flotation bags. We’re going to have to get really lucky and so are they,” Juan said solemnly. “I think the Russian commander was being generous with 10 percent chances.”

  “Yeah, I thought he might be exaggerating a little. I don’t know if he was giving us hope or giving the other astronauts hope,” Jerry admitted.

  Jerry picked up the microphone. “Come in Tony.”

  “Goat head, boss.” Tony was enjoying this trip and getting more excited.

  “If you reach the commander again, tell him we’ll be there and we’ll do our best.”

  “Will do, Jerry.”

  Jerry gave the microphone back to Rusty.

  “Let’s do our best guys,” he said to his passengers.

  ~ ~ ~

  Tia and crew made it almost to the Oxford exit before they ran into major obstacles. They had made good time once they got on I-20. There was a lot of debris Tia navigated around. They also encountered the same bridge and overpass issues Jerry and his team were encountering and came up with the same solution. The major issue they ran into had nothing to do with vigilantes or zombies, rather the lack of there being an interstate anymore. They drove past the County Road 109 exit, thinking they had a straight shot to Anniston when they came upon a gully. The gully was 40 feet wide and had taken all of the interstate with it. There was no way the Escalade could navigate through or around the area with the trailer it was hauling.

  Tia turned the truck around and headed back to the last exit. She got on County Road 78 and headed east to Anniston again, hoping 78 hadn’t been wiped out as well. They saw the same wreckages as they saw on the interstate and the washed out area which had grown to take out the interstate.

  They had to drive off the four lane highway to avoid damaged vehicles that had been piled up against a bridge abutment. Tia tried to find the best way around the wreckage but she must have run over something. Just as she was pulling back onto 78 east, she felt the change in the way the trailer was pulling. Looking in her side mirror and saw the trailer had a flat tire.

  Tia had Nick remove the flat tire on the two-axel trailer. The tire they’d leave here, but kept the lug nuts. When he was finished, he threw the jack into the back of the SUV and they were back on the road.

  She started off slowly, but after a quarter mile the trailer was tracking fine, even with the missing tire. They would have to get a replacement before loading the trailer, but for now, everything was copacetic.

  They knew they were entering the outskirts of the city of Oxford from the GPS, but looking out the windows of the Cadillac SUV, they could have been in any town hit by a Class 5 tornado. Modular homes had been thrown around this area of the city. There were entire walls scattered along the sides and middle of the road. Fire places, furniture, bathtubs and other interior fixtures had been scattered as far as the crew could see.

  Tia was avoiding most of the garbage when a large piece of debris caught their eye as they drove by what used to be the sign for shopping mall. It was the picture of a RV painted on a large piece of metal that was embedded into the steel post. They were able to just make out a partial address ….way 78, Anni….

  “That must be it,” Nick said. “Must be ahead somewhere.”

  Tia agreed but she wasn’t pleased with what she’d seen and wasn’t too hopeful. The amount of devastation was unreal even though it was right in front of her.

  Entire blocks had been wiped away clean to the foundation. What had been a bustling city was dead and destroyed. No light poles remained upright; very few buildings were still standing and none that were not heavily damaged. Fire had ripped through others.

  It was looking like the storm had hit this city as hard as anywhere and exacted revenge for some unknown offense.

  Even if the world hadn’t fallen apart, this city would have been declared a disaster and probably rebuilt from scratch. She passed the street which she would have been on if she could have stayed on the interstate. The interchange was destroyed and the Escalade would have been hard pressed to make it into town. “This reminds me of one of the cities I saw as a child in my homeland,” Sade said. “It had been attacked by artillery for days. The only difference is there are no bodies.”

  “Probably the vultures or zombies got them. Be glad they did,” Nick told him. “You don’t want to see a month-old dead body.”

  They continued driving east on 78 passing hotels and motels that had probably been abandoned even before the hurricane because of the virus that killed everyone. Hotels and motels had been closed, along with most common areas, by presidential decree. It was probably the final act of the president.

  The brick and steel buildings didn’t survive any better than anything else in town. They counted five of the motel-type buildings; all had been heavily damaged to the point of being unlivable. Tia’s hope of finding a motor home dropped a little more.

  The three men in her SUV were staring open-mouthed at the devastation. They passed what used to be a car dealership that was leveled. Every car still on the lot during the storm had been pushed up against a semi-tractor trailer rig that had been wrapped around concrete pillars in front of another collapsed building. It looked like one of those car recycling depots.

  The next parking lot was empty, but at the far end of the lot, a pile of campers were piled up against what appeared to be a long garage. “Campers! This must be it!” exclaimed Sade.

  “Settle down, Sade. Look at this damage. I bet not one of them are usable, but let’s take a look,” Tia said, slowing to pull into the parking lot.

  The four climbed out of the Escalade and stretched. They hadn’t realized how much their bodies had stiffened up in the tense two-hour drive and seeing the horrific damages to what must have been a beautiful city.

  After everyone had stretched and gotten a drink of water, Tia asked the group where they wanted to start. Sade spoke up as the others looked around. “Out back.”

  “Why out back?” she asked, tossing her sun glasses back into the SUV. Rain clouds had moved in and the bright sun they’d seen rise two hours earlier was now obscured.

  “Because everything out front is down there in a pile of scrap. Maybe the back was protected some from the storm,” he explained. She nodded, doubting his reasoning but willing to humor the man, and reached back into the SUV and pulled out her shot gun, a 20 gauge with six rounds and one in the chamber. Sad
e and Jamal had their AR-15s and Nick had opted for a pair of 9mm pistols.

  “Stay together, but keep your eyes open,” she said.

  They began walking along the side of the building. Fully half of the long L-shaped building had collapsed during the storm and been blown away. They saw bits of brand new motor homes the size of Tia’s that were wrecked and crushed. They walked around the fallen part of the building and the four of them stopped and stared.

  “Jackpot!” Nick hollered.

  “Holy Mother,” said Sade.

  “Sweet Jesus,” Josh added.

  Tia was speechless.

  At the far end of the building were motor homes. All were damaged, some appeared to just have windows knocked out, and others had minor body damaged. But there were at least a dozen of them that looked to be usable.

  If they could find keys. If they had fuel. If they could get them started. There were a lot of “ifs” but they were here to get one motor home. Tia was sure they could find at least one that could be drivable.

  “Let’s go,” she said to the men. “Let’s find the best one we can for the astronauts.”

  For the next hour, the four found three motor homes that were in good enough shape to probably be usable. None of them had keys. Sade said they were probably in the sales office. Despite the amount of damage to the building, finding the sales office was not going to be easy. Every door was locked. The garage doors were too large and the man doors were heavy duty. Even though the building was heavily damaged, there wasn’t an easy way to get in.

  Also, no one wanted to be the first in a dark building and they only had regular flashlights, not the spot lights or thermal imagers the SWAT truck had. The reality was, unless they could get some big garage doors open, no one wanted to go inside.

  After walking all the way around the building, Tia finally made a decision. “Let’s crash the place,”

  The men looked at her. “I’ll drive.” She smiled mischievously.

  They went back to the SUV and drove it around back of the building. Tia’s plan was to drive into one of the garage doors that didn’t have a vehicle on the inside. Sade stopped her. “Can’t we pull the door off?” he asked. They’d surveyed every door. The man doors all opened inward and were set in steel frames. The only thing to strap the tie downs to were door handles and they’d come off before the door did. There were no handles on the garage doors. They started looking for other ways into the building without crashing their only vehicle that they know worked.