by J. R. Tate
“No. I just want you to know that I’ve done everything I can with the supplies we have.”
“You’re a nurse. Do you just give up on every patient that you see?”
“Of course not, Ed. I work in a hospital where we have equipment that helps us do our jobs. I have doctors that give me advice. I don’t usually work on people in the middle of gas stations.”
Ed cocked his head to the side and waved the gun around. His hair was plastered to his forehead from his sweat and he was unable to keep eye contact with her. “You don’t have to be so damn rude, nurse. I told you I’d kill you if Crystal doesn’t make it.”
“I wasn’t meaning to be rude.” Alice lifted her arms, holding her hands at shoulder level. Keeping him calm was key but no matter what she said, he found a way to twist her words around, making the circumstances even more dangerous. “Crystal is still alive. She’s breathing and I did feel a pulse.”
“But you’re acting like she’s gonna die.”
“She might.” Alice cringed, certain a gunshot would ring out but Ed didn’t pull the trigger. Instead, his eyes widened and he lowered his arm.
“I’m a man of my word. If she dies, I have to kill you too.”
“Why? What good would that do?” Alice asked, hoping if she continued to talk through it, he’d eventually drop the gun completely.
“I just can’t deal with this shit. I just can’t do it.” Ed began to cry, covering his eyes with his free hand. The gun was still in his possession and Alice couldn’t take her eyes off of it.
“There’s more to this, isn’t there, Ed? What really happened with you and Crystal?”
“That’s none of your business, bitch!” He lifted the gun again, the look on his face pure evil.
It was enough warning for Alice to dive toward the corner, shielding herself from a bookshelf. Gunshots rang out, echoing in the small office. They were flying close enough to her that she could feel the heat off of each one. Ducking on the floor, she crawled and kept the desk between her and Ed. She lost count of how many shots Ed had fired and wasn’t even sure how many the gun could hold.
The shots subsided and her ears rang from being in close proximity of the gun. Hunkering in a fetal position, she listened to his footsteps, moving throughout the room, kicking items aside, paper sliding on the floor. Had Crystal been hit in the crossfire? It might’ve been a favor for the child - it would put her out of the misery and spare her a continuous, painful death.
“Oh, nurse? I know you’re in here. I’m standing between you and the exit!”
Alice didn’t say anything. She tried to hold her breath, fearing that it would give her position away. A dusty haze was at eye level, confirming that most of his shots hit the wall above her, spreading out the drywall underneath the horrible paint job.
“This gun is all out of ammo but who’s to say I don’t have more?” His tone was condescending, taunting her to try and evoke even more fear. It was working. Her heart raced so hard she could see it against her scrub top. “Guess I’ll need to reload.”
She heard the click of the magazine. She had about thirty seconds to make a move before he got reloaded. Standing, she ran toward him. The door was right there and if she could fight her way past him, she could make a run for it. He didn’t notice her coming at him for about three steps and when he looked up, she lunged at him, swinging and grabbing for anything that would hurt him.
Her nails dug into his arm and she had underestimated his strength. Flinging her to the side, Alice hit the wall and the edges of her vision went black. Ed didn’t try and reload. Instead, he pocketed the gun and swung at her but she ducked, anticipating his first moves toward her. Scooting on her knees, she dodged a kick, the distance between her and the exit just a few feet away.
Ed’s arms wrapped around her midsection, lifting her off of the floor. He outweighed her by a good seventy-five pounds and held her up with almost no effort.
“I got you now, nurse. I should take advantage of you before I kill you.”
Laying her across the desk, he reached for the elastic on her scrub pants, pulling at them. He got them as far down as her hips before she kneed him in the groin, sending him to the floor, doubling over in pain.
“You bitch!”
Sliding off the table, Alice grabbed the scissors from the first aid kit and jabbed them in his back, as close to the spine as she could get. Blood squirted out and he cried out in more pain, closing his eyes as he squirmed to try and get away from her. The scissors were still stuck in his back, covered in red.
She didn’t have much time to get away. His anger would overcome the pain and he’d be even more pissed. Unwilling to chance her luck further, Alice grabbed the first aid kit and checked on Crystal for safe measure. She couldn’t find a pulse and the child had stopped breathing. She immediately felt guilty for being relieved - no health care professional in their right mind would ever wish death on such an innocent person - but she couldn’t leave the girl with Ed. Her passing away was probably for the best. There was no way Alice could take her with her and leaving her behind didn’t sit well. She didn’t know their story or if Ed really was her father. His behavior said otherwise - possibly a kidnapper, child molester, or even both. It was all assumption but Alice had been in nursing enough to be able to tell when something wasn’t right. It didn’t matter now - Crystal was gone and away from whatever Ed was doing to her.
Walking back to Ed, Alice looked him straight in the eye. He cringed and gritted his teeth, still rolling around from the scissors jabbed in his back.
“Rot in hell you bastard.”
“You better hope I don’t find you. I will rape you and make sure you die slow, you whore!” Ed pursed his lips and spit at her. A wad of blood fell on his lips.
“Judging by the way you look, you’re not making it out of this gas station. I know you hurt Crystal. Car wreck my ass, you pervert!” Making sure to stay out of arm’s reach from Ed, Alice circled behind him and jabbed the scissors even deeper, feeling the crunch of bone against the blade. Ed’s body flailed from the trauma and he screamed.
It took almost a city block for Alice not to be able to hear his yells of agony.
***
Jake wanted to take his time going through the campsites but running across the suspicious person in the woods made his need to hurry that much more important. There were key items they could use and even some that were more novelty than necessity. The scotch sloshing around in his bag was a reminder that they had something they might possibly enjoy when they made it back to the crash site.
“What do you think that guy meant? Saying they’re gonna come for us? Who is gonna come for us?” Larry asked as he lifted a sleeping bag up. Jake expected there might be a dead body or something each time they did that but so far they had come up short on finding anyone except the creeper.
“I wish I knew,” Jake replied.
“So what do you think about all of this? It’s like the end of the world or something.”
“And we’re the chosen ones?” Jake arched his eyebrow and shook his head, looking off toward the lake. “You must’ve read Revelations in the Bible at some point in your life.”
“Yeah. You don’t think that’s what’s happening?”
Jake kicked a dirt clod and it rolled to the edge of the water. So many things had crossed his mind about possibilities and reasons why the plane had fallen out of the air. He also pondered why cell phones and electronics had crashed. Electronic warfare was something he read about. Not once did he ever think it’d actually happen.
“I gotta be honest, Larry. I really don’t know. My focus now is getting home to my family. At first, I figured we needed to find someone and get another viewpoint but just the little we’ve come across has told me enough. I want my family. If this does happen to be the end of the world, I wanna spend it with the ones I love.”
“How do you plan on getting back to Dallas?”
“Any way possible,” Jake said. “Let�
��s get back to the crash site. We know this is here if we need any supplies but we need to check on everyone. They’re probably wondering about us too.”
Both men walked in silence on the way back. It was uphill and harder on the body, and Jake was trying to preserve oxygen. Being so high in the mountains made the air thin and he wasn’t used to the altitude. When he was high in the sky, the cabin was pressurized to help with those issues. He meant what he said about getting home. He feared his family was dead but instead of speculating about their well-being, at least he could get there and know for sure. Alice was a fighter - he’d put money on her still being alive through this.
The air was cool but the humidity made Jake sweat. Wiping his brow, he took a swig of water, noting it was almost empty. The lake was nearby but contamination was possibly an issue. Maybe Becky was able to comb through more of the items from on board - the plane was fully stocked with snacks and drinks and as long as they hadn’t been damaged, their food supply should have been in good shape.
“It feels like the walk back is longer.” Larry struggled to talk, panting between each word.
“Uphill climb. We’re almost there.” Jake had noticed a grove in the forest near where they plane was located. He could see it a quarter mile down the road, indicating that was where they had to go off road and climb up the trail. “You okay to go farther or do we need to take a break?” Jake hoped he would agree to rest for a few minutes. Larry was a bigger man, slightly overweight, and Jake wanted to make sure he wouldn’t fall out and need some kind of medical treatment. With Colin’s leg, they were already in for a treacherous trip when they decided to head back toward Texas.
“Yeah, I could use a break,” Larry confirmed as he leaned against a boulder on the edge of the road.
Jake handed him a handkerchief and he saturated it with sweat. “Drink the rest of this bottle.” Tossing Larry the water, he pulled another from his bag and sipped on it. “This is my last one but I think we’ll make it back before I run out.”
Larry took a second to catch is breath and Jake took the time to catch his as well. His legs burned and his lungs were tight. He was also worried about the injured left behind. How would they get Colin to travel? Leaving him behind definitely wasn’t an option but there was no way he could walk on the broken leg, especially with the distance they’d have to put in on foot. They could build a travois but that would mean taking turns pulling it. If they could run across a farm with horses on it, it’d be like winning the lottery.
Jake glanced up at the sky, attempting to get some idea of what time of day it was. The trees hindered seeing it but he guessed it was getting to be late afternoon.
“I guess we better start moving again. We need to get back to camp before it gets dark. I really don’t feel like running across any wild animals out here.” Having the gun he found at the camper helped but he wanted to preserve the ammunition for all of the possibilities they may run across when they finally began to travel.
“Let’s do this,” Larry said, though his body language spoke something different. The man was exhausted. His shoulders slumped and his clothes were soaked, appearing like he had just jumped in a pool of water.
“Once we get back, we can take a load off. I figure we can spend one more night at the crash site, gather up everything we can, and tomorrow morning we’ll move on.”
Getting the others in the group to agree might not be so simple but Jake’s mind was on his family and survival. Staying there was no longer the best option. They had to go against everything they were taught. Staying close to where they went off the radar wasn’t feasible. A rescue team wasn’t coming.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“You wanna move away from the crash site?” Becky placed her hands on her hips, her eyes wide as if Jake had just suggested something horrible. He couldn’t blame her - it went against every bit of training that had been drilled in their heads. Always stay close to where you went off the radar. That’s where the search team would look. This was a totally different circumstance.
“Yeah. Hear me out before you look at me like I ran over your dog.” Jake glanced down at Colin. He was pale and though his leg wound looked okay, he was probably in a lot of pain. He needed to call Alice. She’d know what to do. Not having easy access to cell phones was proving to be a bigger challenge than he could ever imagine.
“I found a lot of stuff we could use. It’ll hold over until someone comes.” Becky motioned toward the pile of snacks and items dug out from suitcases and the galley of the plane.
“That’s just it, Becky. No one is coming.” Jake kept his voice low. Larry was chatting with a couple of other survivors, hopefully telling them their plans. Maybe they’d agree to it. Lying around hoping for something to happen was frustrating and getting old.
“How do you know that?”
“There was no one in town. We passed a campsite. Ran into some psychopath claiming that something is going around killing everyone.”
“You’re gonna let a psycho sway you to leave the plane?” Becky shook her head.
“No. But seeing how abandoned the area is makes me wonder.” Jake knelt down beside Colin and looked over the wound. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine. But how do you suggest I travel with everyone?”
Jake looked up, the question already something he had considered during his hike back from town. “We can build you a cot out of tree branches. Sort of like a travois like the Native Americans used to use to haul supplies behind horses.”
“We don’t have horses. Who’s gonna pull me?”
“We’ll have to take turns. Hell, I don’t know.” Jake shrugged. “I didn’t realize you two would be so against this. Don’t you wanna get out of here and back to your families? Believe me when I say that no one is coming. It’s like the end of the world out there. Abandoned cars, empty campers, and no one to be found. Since when has a rescue taken days? Think about it.”
Becky sat beside them, looking over the supplies. “Of course I believe you, Jake. You’re our captain. It’s just… It’s really hard to take it all in. We haven’t seen the world outside of this area and you have. There’s just a lot to think about. How far from Dallas are we? Can we actually get back there on foot? And what exactly is happening?”
“Sitting here worrying isn’t getting us anywhere. The time is gonna pass no matter what we do.” Jake patted Colin’s good leg and forced a smile. Moving him was scary but leaving him behind was never an option. “We’ll get you fixed right up. Between me, Larry, and a couple of the other guys, we can take turns and move you right along. Who knows? Maybe we’ll run across a car that’ll actually work.”
Colin scoffed and laughed. “Wishful thinking. I guess I’m at your mercy. I’m not exactly in a situation to make decisions. I guess if I become too much dead weight you can leave my ass. Just make sure it’s near water.” He laughed again, this time it was genuine.
“You’re my co-pilot. If you stay behind, so do I.”
Standing, Jake started working on gathering branches that would be strong enough to pull Colin long distances. With as far as they were having to go, the chances of them having to replace the travois were likely. There were several downed trees from the impact of the plane and he piled up what could be used.
The canvas emergency slide would be perfect to stretch across for Colin to lay on. From the friction of the ground, it would also need to be fixed so keeping a good amount of the slide with them was a necessity. It was thick enough that it wouldn’t hurt Colin and he’d be lifted far enough off the ground that just his feet would catch the brunt of the friction.
“You seem to know what you’re doing,” Colin said.
Jake cut thinner strips of canvas from the slide and braided the branches together, making a V shape large enough to hold Colin and supplies. It’d be a perfect way to carry what Becky had gathered without leaving much behind. Everything was a precious commodity. Being on foot meant days and days of travel and they’d need
plenty of things to eat to stay nourished.
“I am appearing like I know what I’m doing but really, I have no idea. I guess taking my kids camping is helping but I’ve never made something like this before.”
To make the canvas sturdier, Jake used smaller branches to go across the back of it. The more support he could make, the better and easier it’d be on Colin. Jostling him around would only hurt his health. Standing back, he looked over what he had created. Two branches crossing at the top in a V shape - whoever was dragging the cot would stand there. The canvas was spread between the branches where Colin would lay, appearing like a hammock. It wasn’t pretty but it’d hopefully get the job done. There was no other way for Colin to travel.
Jake put his weight down on it. Colin was about the same size as him and it seemed sturdy. The only issue was Colin slipping out of it due to traveling at an incline.
“Now, how do we secure you?” Jake asked out loud, looking around at what they had available.
Looking toward the plane, it dawned on him like a light bulb coming on. Seat belts! He could try and sew them into the canvas. Surely someone had a sewing kit in their luggage. He’d have to climb back up into the plane but it wasn’t as daunting as hiking up the side of the mountain like earlier. His energy was fading but a new burst came when he came up with the idea. The more they prepared, the sooner they could start their trek back toward Texas and the sooner he’d get to see Alice and the kids.
Striding to the plane, he went for the lowest part, which was right in the cockpit. That’s exactly where he needed to be - at least in the cockpit, they had shoulder harnesses. Those would prove most useful in keeping Colin from falling out of the travois.
“Where are you going?” Becky yelled from the ground. Jake was already halfway up, his shoes sliding on the slick metal.
“Getting some seat belts. I’ll be right down.” He’d grab more than one. The travois was turning out to be something they could use, and Jake planned to make more than one - with the items Becky had pulled from suitcases and the children traveling along, having a couple more would be helpful in hauling the supplies and aiding in carrying exhausted children for miles. It’d mean more work on the adults but leaving things behind didn’t sit well with Jake.
