by J. W. Vohs
David was surprised that nobody had any objections to the plan the next day, but he probably shouldn’t have been since he presented the idea after addressing all of the potential hazards he and Luke had discussed the night before. As usual, Christy had a good idea.
“When you start them up make sure you have a set of jumper cables ready in case one of them starts and the other doesn’t. We won’t want to stay around here any longer than necessary once we try to start those vehicles.”
David approved of her suggestion, and in twenty minutes everyone was standing ready in the garage to see if the batteries still worked. The SUVs had sat for several months, but they were summer months, and both vehicles started on the first try. Everyone climbed in and Lori opened the garage doors to late afternoon sunlight before taking shotgun in the Jeep with Christy driving. David drove the Lincoln with Luke in the passenger seat. Everyone else was packed in on top of each other.
Coldwater Road had a few stalled vehicles but nothing that couldn’t be passed by moving over to the shoulder. When they reached Highway 3, however, the four-lane thoroughfare that was a major route in and out of Fort Wayne was clogged with vehicles in both directions. David simply looked at Christy in the rearview and motioned for her to follow him; they were on his home turf now.
As they navigated the back roads toward Noble County and Jack’s Castle, some hunter packs chased them at times, but the vehicles easily outran them all and reached Baseline Road a little more than an hour after setting out. David turned west into a beautiful Indiana sunset, the fields and trees and rolling hills shimmering warm and golden in the fading summer light. Then, as they approached the next crossroads, they saw what could only be called a fortress.
Several shipping containers had been pulled together and a wooden scaffold was constructed on top of them. A massive front-loader sat astride the road, and the ditches on each side were far too deep for any vehicle to attempt to go around the obstacle. When a man came climbing down the ladder from the crow’s nest atop the scaffold David smiled: he wore motorcycle gear from head to toe and carried a sword and mace on his belt. In his hands, however, was an assault rifle that wasn’t pointed at them but was locked and loaded.
The guard opened his visor and firmly ordered, “First vehicle driver, come out with your hands up! Another man in the tower has you in his sights, and we have two more covering us from observation posts in the woods to the west.”
David climbed out with his hands up, smiling to himself as he saw the surprise in the guard’s eyes when he saw how he was dressed.
The young man lowered the weapon even further, “Is this a drill or something? I mean, I called for backup from The Castle when your vehicles came in sight. They’ll be here any minute, and Carter will be pissed if he came out here for no reason.”
David just smiled and asked, “Can I take my helmet off?”
“Sure,” the guard said.
When David removed the headgear the young soldier said, “Is that you, Jack?”
The guard in the tower shouted down in a young female voice, “I told you to wear your glasses, Zach! This guy could be Jack’s twin but it isn’t him, and this isn’t any drill unless Carter found some people I’ve never met.”
She shouted down at David, “Sir, I’m Maddy Johnson, and that blind idiot is Zach Kinstler. If you don’t mind waiting in your vehicle our squad leader will be here in just a minute or two.”
David shouted up, “Sure thing, and you’re right, I do look a lot like Jack Smith!”
He didn’t wait around to enjoy the expression of surprise on the young guard’s face, turning instead toward Christy in the jeep and giving her a huge grin along with an exuberant thumbs-up. When David sat back down in the Lincoln, he noticed that Luke was sitting quietly in the passenger seat, in stark contrast to the excited chatter coming from the back of the vehicle. He was looking at a picture with a furrowed brow. His expression made David consider everything the boy had been through to get to this place.
“Picture of your dad?” David solemnly asked.
“Dad and Mom,” Luke answered with a whisper. “I just wanted them to know that we made it here, and I’m going to live a life they would be proud of.”
Perhaps overcome by the emotions of the moment, David felt himself moved nearly to tears. “Can I see it?” he gently inquired.
Luke held the photo out for David, explaining, “This was one of my mom’s favorite pictures.”
David looked at the photo and saw Jerry, eyes twinkling, in the company of a very beautiful woman. David was reminded of old Charlie’s Angels reruns; he thought Luke’s mom could have been a stand-in for Jaclyn Smith. He smiled, recalling the summer he first noticed girls, cringing a little at the thought of his adolescent crush on that very same actress . . . A memory itched at the back of his brain, and it dawned on David that he’d met the woman in this picture somewhere at some point in his life. Before he could ask any questions though, a Hummer roared up on the other side of the roadblock and Carter Wilson, his brother’s war-buddy and best friend, stepped out of the passenger side without a helmet. The driver who followed him was none other than David’s oldest brother, Carey.
David slowly stepped out of the vehicle with his hands in the air, waiting for the two men to come closer in the fading light before calling out, “I came a long way to be treated like a common criminal!”
“Lord Jesus,” Carter quietly stammered as Carey ran to his little brother and grabbed him up in a hug immediately followed by incoherent blubbering.
“God, David, oh my God, we thought you were gone!”
Suddenly Carter was there too, happily slapping David on the back as Christy came trotting up and joined the reunion. Finally, after all the introductions were made, Carter pulled out the radio and called The Castle.
“Andi, get lover-boy on the horn. I don’t care what he’s doin’ he won’t mind bein’ disturbed for this . . . Okay, just go get him. I’ll wait.”
He handed the radio to David and chuckled, “Maybe you could let him know you’re here.”
David waited for a couple of minutes until Jack picked up on the other end, “Damn, Carter, couldn’t it wait until I finished dinner?”
“Hey, Jack,” David declared with a smile he thought would never leave his face, “Is this how you greet your long lost brother? I mean, dinner is important, but we did come all the way from Cleveland . . .”
There was no reply at the other end of the line because Jack was already out the door and sprinting towards a vehicle to speed him to his little brother. Jack could hardly believe it—David had come from so far away, and it was nothing short of a miracle that he’d made it. He saw three vehicles in the road ahead, and several individuals were milling about. He recognized David from a distance, standing next to Carey and Carter. A wide smile spread across Jack’s face, and he spoke out loud just to hear the words, “David’s home.”
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David’s Journey
J.W. Vohs is a former soldier, student, and teacher of history and English. He believes that nature or human error will eventually hit the reset button on mankind, but in the meantime he enjoys writing zombie novels and historical fiction. The author lives in Indiana with his wife and children, where he hunts, fishes, reads, writes, and continues to await the return of his sons from military service.
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