Reluctantly, Tyler stepped into the house, followed close behind by Marcy. As instructed, they made their way to an old antique couch and sat on its plush cushions. The old man with the gun turned a recliner around to face them and took a seat, but kept the gun aimed at the pair while watching their every move.
“Who is that, Al?” a woman’s voice shouted from the hallway. “Are they friendly?”
“Oh, they’re friendly all right. Caught them going through the Winston’s house before ours.”
“You’re kidding.” The woman stepped into the hallway and walked toward the living room. She stopped in the threshold to take a look at the two people who Al had at gunpoint. “You two don’t look like the robbing type,” she said, offering a faint smile that wiped away as Al jerked his head to glare at her words.
“Have you ever seen a criminal, Judy? Other than on that shit show you always watch.”
Judy’s cheeks reddened with embarrassment at her husband’s words. “Maybe they had a good reason for breaking in.” She glared at the two on the couch and waited for a response that didn’t come. “Well, do you?”
Tyler cleared his throat and thought about his response. It was clear Al didn’t approve of what little they’d taken, regardless of the reasons. While he feared what would happen when he answered, he hoped Judy was more approving.
“We were looking for food and water. Most the stores we’ve passed were closed or already cleared out,” he said, hoping it was enough.
“Makes sense.” Judy grabbed a chair from the dining room table and set it up in front of the darkened TV screen. “Just the other day Al was telling me how the stores were all boarded up.”
“It’s probably the same everywhere,” Marcy added. “Robbers hit my store the first day.” She told the older couple about the thugs that attacked her for access to the drugs. Without giving the gory details, she told about how they’d barely escaped with their lives.
“Lower your gun, Al. They seem like good people,” Judy said, believing their story.
“Good people don’t rob people, Judy. How many times do I have to tell you?”
The front door barged open and a group of four people stepped inside. The group was all men, ranging from young adult to damn near elderly. Tyler wasn’t sure who the men were, but suspected they were friends of Al’s with his lack of response.
“What do we have here?” one of the younger men said, licking his lips. He removed his cap and rubbed his knobby fingers through his short, buzzed haircut.
“Looters,” Al barked. “Caught them leaving your house.”
“My house, huh?” the kid smiled. “Not much left in there, I’m afraid. Nothing worth getting shot over anyway.”
“We saw.” Tyler said. While the group murmured amongst one another he worried about his long term safety. Three houses in and it was clear scavenging amongst the neighborhoods was a horrible idea. One he didn’t plan to repeat. He vowed to stick to getting what he needed out of stores if he got out of here in one piece.
“I reckon that’s their truck,” another man said. He was about Tyler’s age, with short black hair and a full beard on his chin. His lower lip bulged with a wad of tobacco. “Want me to check it out?”
“Sounds like a good idea, Matt.” Al looked at the young kid who was staring down the pair on the couch like he was eying his next meal. “Go with him, Ronnie. Make sure there isn’t anyone else out there.”
“Got it.”
“We’re by ourselves,” Tyler insisted.
Al lowered the weapon and leaned in. “Say I believe you. What all you have in your truck?”
“Food, water, a few cases of soda and beer. Some I had already. The stuff in a laundry basket was from your neighbors two houses over.”
“Got the Alton’s too, eh?” he said, grinning. “Never liked that man.” He leaned back in his chair as if the news was enough to tide him over until he barked another question. “What else you got in that truck of yours?”
“That’s it. Just the stuff we’ve picked up over the last few days.”
“Tell you what. If Matt and Ronnie come back in and tell me that’s all you have, I’ll let you both go. The food and supplies will be taken, of course, since you didn’t buy them right and proper.”
“You don’t have a right,” Marcy barked as she sat up at the edge of the couch. Her face flushed with rage and hatred for the man across the room. Tyler half expected her to dart across the room and rip his head off if she could. If he thought for a second he could wrest the gun away from the old man before the others pinned him down, he would’ve done it himself. But the odds were well against any attempt at escape.
At least, not like that.
Their hopes now rested in the hands of the two neighbors who went outside to search the truck. Two men who would find the food and drinks in the back of the truck since they were essentially out in the open. But it wasn’t the supplies he was worried about. It was the guns they had behind the seat. He had no way to know how Al would react if they walked in with the guns in their arms.
After a few minutes the door opened and the two men walked back through the door, both carrying armfuls of canned goods Tyler knew was from the truck. They placed the items on the living room floor, motioned for another of the men to go outside then returned to grab the rest. Three trips later they had every last scrap of food from the back of the truck piled neatly in front of the Television.
“Looks like a little much for two people, don’t you say.” Al said, inspecting the stash.
“We’re heading across the country,” Tyler said. “Need it to make the trip.”
“Still…” Al said, not buying the story.
Tyler considered telling the man about the trade he made for gas earlier, but didn’t believe the man would believe him if he did. While he was overly protective to a fault, he didn’t seem to be the believing type. Tyler doubted the man would know the truth if it slapped him upside the head.
“Al,” Matt said, then leaned into the old man to whisper something in his ear. Al’s expression turned from disbelief to one of joy, all while staring Tyler in the eye.
“Well, well,” Al said, standing. “Looks like we’ll be needing your truck keys.”
“You got the supplies,” Tyler barked. “You said you’d let us go.”
“I said I’d let you go if that’s all you had in the truck. Seems you had a few goodies stashed behind the seat.” Al brought the twin barrels of the shotgun to bear. “Now we can do this the clean way, or we can piss off my wife good and proper and do this the hard way. Your call.”
Tyler glanced at Marcy who returned his look of shock. While he couldn’t believe they’d found the guns, it didn’t surprise him. If the situation was reversed he could see himself doing a full sweep to play it safe. But then again, he wasn’t sure he’d hold a man at gunpoint to verify a story.
By all rights he was lucky to still be alive. Al could’ve shot him once he answered the door, or perhaps popped a few slugs in them as they left Ronnie’s house. But instead he let the pair live. He wasn’t sure what, but he wasn’t about to argue. One way or another he needed to get back home. Losing the food and water would make the trip more difficult, but he’d survive. There had to be someplace open between Mobile and Flagstaff.
Reluctantly, Tyler stood and pulled the keys from his pocket, careful not to expose the gun he still held behind his back. With them taking their other weapons, they couldn’t afford to lose the ones they still had. He tossed the keys to Ronnie, who caught them with one hand.
Ronnie and Matt went out to the truck and grabbed everything they could from inside the cab. On top of the two M-16s and the third handgun they also grabbed the GPS unit and Tyler’s phone. For a moment he thought about snatching his phone from the pile, but left it alone. Without a way to charge it, it was practically worthless. With no working electricity it was near junk as it was. The only reason he wanted to keep it was the contact list contained inside it’s d
igital files. Specifically the numbers to his house and to his wife. As valuable as they were, given his present situation, he didn’t feel they were worth his life.
“You got the guns, food, water, and everything else I own,” Tyler said. “Now let us go.”
“As much as I want to let you two free, I can’t do so in good conscious. Not when it’s so close to night.”
“I’m a big boy, Al. I can handle myself in the dark.”
“I don’t doubt you can, but it’s still not going to happen. Can’t take a risk on you playing hero while we’re trying to sleep. So you are going to be our honored guests for the evening. First thing in the morning you and your misses will be free to leave.” Al looked over at Judy, who shook her head in disbelief. “Get the upstairs bedroom ready. We’ll put them there.”
Before Tyler could argue the group of four men moved in and ordered them up and led them to one of the back rooms where they would stay for the night.
Chapter Five
Tyler wiggled his wrists, desperately trying to break them out of the duct tape handcuffs Ronnie had hastily applied. The kid was reckless and foolhardy, and more than willing to waste perfectly good duct tape for nothing. As much as Tyler wanted to get away, he wasn’t about to risk his life on it. The way he saw it, if Al wanted him to stay overnight, he was going to do it to keep his life.
But it seemed Al had different motives in mind when he put them in the room. Not only were their hands and legs wrapped tight with tape, they were also strapped to two of the wooden chairs from the dining room. Sitting up in the wooden chair made it impossible get comfortable while a blaring alarm clock made it difficult to rest.
He knew what Al and his friends were up to. He was making sure when daylight hit he and Marcy would be exhausted from a lack of sleep the long night. That way, they wouldn’t be in physical condition to fight back.
To make it worse, in the process of tying him up they found his gun and added it to their pile. In one fell swoop they’d lost near everything. The supplies, guns, and probably his truck. All so they could search a few houses to pad for the trip.
He regretted his decision to scavenge from the houses. Part of him wanted to believe they would’ve had better luck at a store. He knew going in there was a better shop at one being occupied, but it was better than searching the houses door to door for a chance at a few odds and ends. At least there would be a chance they could fill his truck.
“You doing OK over there?” He asked Marcy who was tied across the room. They’d put them apart on purpose, afraid they’d be able to untie the other if left too close. As far as he could tell, she was taking it rough. She’d spent most the night crying. He’d tried off and on to get her to talk, but so far she hadn’t said a thing.
“Yeah,” she said at little above a whisper.
“I’m…” Tyler cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. For everything.”
Marcy glanced over her shoulder. “It’s not your fault. We had to do something. You just picked the wrong house.”
“We didn’t need to stop yet,” he said. “There was more than enough to get us halfway.”
“The only thing that would’ve changed is where we were tied up. If it wasn’t in Alabama it could’ve easily been Mississippi, or Louisiana, or…”
“Still,” Tyler interrupted. “I should’ve known better.”
Marcy let Tyler sulk for a minute before speaking again. “What are we going to do tomorrow?”
“That depends,” Tyler said. “If they give me back the truck we get as far as we can before worrying about gas and supplies.”
“And if they don’t?”
If they don’t, he told himself. We have to find another ride. This time he’d settle on something more fuel efficient. Something he could make most of the trip home with one tank of gas. He still had the issue of needing a tank of gas to begin with, but that was a bridge they could cross later.
“What about you?” Tyler asked.
“Me?”
“Yeah. What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to go with you.” She said with sadness. “There’s nothing left for me here. Hasn’t been for a very long time.”
Tyler frowned. He wanted to ask her why she didn’t want to stay, but didn’t want to intrude. They’d spent every day together since the world went to hell and he knew little about her other than her name.
As far as he could tell she wasn’t from the south. His rationalization based on the fact she didn’t have a discernible accent. It didn’t matter that half the women didn’t speak like the southern girls from the movies, only that she didn’t.
Something about her made him believe she was from somewhere north; Northern Illinois or Michigan if he had to guess, but he wouldn’t have been surprised to hear she was from a state in that area.
They sat in as much silence as the alarm clock would allow, each struggling with their duct tape restraints with little luck. Nearly a half hour passed before each gave up and they resigned themselves to their chairs for the night.
“You still think your family is alive?” Marcy asked.
The question hit Tyler like a tractor-trailer hitting an oncoming car head-on at ninety miles an hour. The last few days had been some of the roughest of Tyler’s life, easily competing with a few rough patches he’d dealt with in Iraq. But not once had he even stopped to consider the possibility his family might be gone. He’d spent the last few days trying to get home as if he expected them to be there when he arrived.
But now she’d posed the question his mind was racing.
What if they disappeared with the others?
Is the world just as bad back home as it is here?
Has anyone tried to loot my house?
Those and a hundred other questions rushed him in an onslaught of emotion that threatened to bring tears to his eyes. He blinked the beginnings of them away, even though he could’ve let loose in the darkness without anyone the wiser.
They sat in the darkness for what felt like hours, unable to get comfortable or to sleep with the noise. Tyler knew tomorrow was going to be rough. Once they got out of the neighborhood they’d have to find another place to hole up to get some sleep. He wasn’t used to spending long hours awake and doubted Marcy was either.
The door to the room burst open and Al burst through the threshold holding one of Tyler’s M-16s. He didn’t flip on the light when he entered which made it impossible for Tyler to see the man’s punch.
Al’s fist caught the side of Tyler’s cheek. The blow hard enough to teeter the chair onto two legs, but Tyler kept the chair upright. When the next blow struck he wished he hadn’t.
“Who are those people?” Al asked.
Tyler sat in silence, waiting for feeling to return to his jaw before spitting out his answer. “What people?”
“The people outside burning the houses. I know they’re with you.” Al held the gun to Tyler’s head, finger twitching near the trigger.
Tyler strained against the darkness to look outside. From his vantage point in the corner he couldn’t see a thing other than the star filled sky through the window. With the door to the hallway now open he heard the sounds of slow, deliberate movements through the house. It sounded like the people inside were expecting something to happen.
Before long the house bustled with activity. He watched through the hallway as people he’d never seen before walked past the open door. For the first time since he’d been there he wondered just how many people lived in the house.
Yet it didn’t matter. Something was happening outside and Al believed he was in the middle of it. With the way Al had gone out of his way to prove everything Tyler said was a lie, he didn’t think there was anything he could tell the man to prove otherwise.
Matt entered the room holding what looked to be a rifle of some type. In the darkness he couldn’t make out the type, yet seeing it triggered something in his mind.
“There’s ten of them as far as we can tell. Searching all th
e other houses like this one.”
Al walked across the room and turned the alarm clock off. “Get guns on all the doors and as many windows as we can muster, definitely Ronnie’s room. I’ll stay here and shoot any of the bastards dumb enough to get out in the open.”
“You sound like you’re expecting a war,” Tyler said through the pain.
“We are. You people think you can roll in here taking anything you want.” Al balled his fist for another punch. “I’m going to teach your friends a lesson, then we’ll deal with you.”
“I don’t know who you’re talking about, old man, but we’re alone. It’s been me and her since the start.”
“I reckon you expect me to believe that too? All you’ve done since I caught ya was spit out lie after lie.” Al leaned in close enough for Tyler to feel the heat from his breath. “I have half a mind to shoot you right here. Would if the sound wouldn’t attract your friends.”
“He’s telling the truth,” Marcy screamed. “We’re by ourselves.”
“Al.” Matt coughed and pointed to the window.
Al stood up and walked to the window. Out front he saw the group of men fanning out across the front yard. From the looks they’d been through the houses across the street and his was next. He turned around to tell Matt to get the men ready to fight back when a ball of flame erupted above the window. Fragments of flame and debris rained down from above as the remnants of a Molotov cocktail showered the bushes below.
“Sons of bitches are trying to burn down my house.” Al opened the window, put the M-16 to his shoulder and took aim at a man across the street. He had his targets set on a man in all black standing in the doorway of the Anderson’s house across the street. Before he could pull the trigger, sending a spray of metal into the man, something plowed into his shoulder. He dropped to the ground with a thud, releasing the gun and allowing it to skitter across the room.
Echoes of Tomorrow Season One: Episode Six (Echoes of Tomorrow: Season One Book 6) Page 3
