Luke and I jumped out just as the first Hummer pulled into the alley. Luke began to bring the rocket launcher up into firing position.
“Wait! Help me move this dumpster first.”
We heaved it into the middle of the alley as the second Hummer turned in behind the first. The first squealed to a halt about 50 feet away as we ran back behind the dumpster and Chinese soldiers began to pile out. I turned to scream fire. I didn’t need to. The launcher was already nestled into Luke’s shoulder as he took aim through the sight.
One of the soldiers managed to squeeze off a burst from their weapon and I ducked as some bullets whizzed by and others thunked into the dumpster. Luke didn’t flinch, and as the panicked soldiers turned to run, he fired. The rocket launcher jerked in his arm and forced him back a foot as the grenade zeroed in on the front grill of the Hummer. There was an almighty whump and a burst of heat as the front of the Hummer exploded, the vehicle flying into the air a few feet before crashing back to the pavement.
Without exception, all the soldiers who had jumped from the vehicle were cut down by the blast. The twisted, smoking wreckage of the vehicle now blocked off the alley. I heard shots being fired from behind the smoking wreck. Luke looked a little dazed and I grabbed his arm.
“Quick! Back to the truck,” I yelled and we both ran for the cab.
As we passed, I could hear Ben shouting questions from inside the cargo bay and I called back. “Stay down flat on the floor until I give you the all clear!”
Luke and I piled back into the truck cabin and Sonny had it moving before I had even pulled the door shut. He took a sharp left at the end of the alley and once again the truck lurched treacherously.
I heard muffled screams in the back and was thankful I wasn’t in the cargo bay. If we managed to get out of this, they would again be a bruised and sorry group of people. It was then I realized that there was something wrong with Luke. I heard him gasp as the truck righted itself.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
Luke was a pale guy at the best of times, but his face now was the color of ash. He smiled ruefully at me and pulled his heavy jacket open.
“Honey, I forgot to duck ...” he said.
My heart sunk when I saw the bullet wound. The round had taken him in the abdomen and blood was seeping steadily from the wound. At least he was still joking, so maybe that meant it wasn’t too bad. Sonny took another left and Luke flinched. We were headed back to the main road.
“I don’t think it went through, man.”
He lifted his jacket at the back and turned so I could see. He was right, it hadn’t. I felt helpless. My best friend was shot and we had no way to care for him. I felt tears sting my eyes as I looked at him. His face was pale but his crooked smile was still in place.
“Don’t worry, Chief, it’s going to take more than a little lead to bring me down.”
“Get something on that to staunch the bleeding,” Sonny ordered. “The first aid kit is in the glove box.”
We turned right onto the main road and Sonny again floored the accelerator. There was no sign of the second Hummer, but I knew it was only a matter of time before they were tailing us again.
I pulled out the kit and sopped up the blood as best I could. His wound didn’t seem to be bleeding too badly, thankfully, but I knew an abdomen shot was supposed to be one of the worst. I bandaged Luke as best I could, thankful he didn’t try to crack jokes the whole time.
“We’re almost out of Lincoln. I think we need to dump the truck. It will be harder for them to trace us on foot.”
Sonny argued for a driving on, debating it would be too hard on the wounded, but, in the end, a pair of headlights in the distance behind us won me the argument.
Again luck was on our side. One of the last buildings on our side of the street was a three story office building. We took a left into its underground parking garage and I jumped out, along with Sonny, and ran to the back of the truck. I answered the rush of questions as best I could and ushered our shaken passengers together.
Luke was surprisingly mobile considering his wound. Both he and Sonny had been shot and were still trooping on. It made me ashamed of the groaning I had done over my bruised ribs.
I took the rocket launcher and last grenade from Luke. He didn’t argue and I knew he was hurting more than he was letting on. Brooke fussed over him and he allayed her fears, telling her it hadn’t hit bones or anything vital, but hurt like hell. Indigo looked concerned and put a hand on my arm, asking if I was all right. I nodded and asked her the same.
“Yeah, shaken but not stirred,” she said with a small smile, before going back to the others.
We gathered what we could carry from the truck and I led my people to the rear of the small parking garage. We took fire stairs up into the street behind the building and began walking. My people. I think I had finally come to terms with the fact I had a new place to belong. Well, not a place exactly, but a family.
It’s funny how adversity can bring strangers closer than blood. My musings were interrupted when we heard the engine of the second Hummer speeding down the main street. We all froze until it had passed and faded into the distance.
We continued to follow the lane as it ran parallel to the main road. We had been travelling for about 10 minutes when we heard the rumble of a motor, this time coming from the opposite direction. We ducked down behind a fence at the rear of the property nearest us as the headlights came over a rise. It was the same Hummer.
It was travelling much slower now, the occupants obviously scanning the area as they headed back into Lincoln. I waved everyone to their feet about two minutes after it passed. Another 10 minutes later and we passed the last of the houses lining the highway. The road continued into light forest and began to climb uphill almost immediately. We moved into the tree line for cover but still follow the road.
Even with our wounded people and loaded up with what we were carrying, the walk up the mountain was not as bad as I thought it would be. Despite the relative ease, I could see Luke’s strength beginning to fade.
I moved in beside him and ordered him to put his arm around my shoulder. He looked like he was going to protest, but did as I asked. We walked on and I prayed desperately the safe haven we had travelled so far for actually existed ... we had no backup plan. It had to be there.
24
It had been snowing lightly ever since we arrived in Lincoln and now, as we trudged through the trees, our shoes crunching through about six inches of snow, it began to fall harder. That was when I heard the unmistakable sound of a helicopter coming from the direction of the small city we had left behind. I shook my head in resignation as we all stopped and looked back down the mountain and over Lincoln. Brooke pointed out the searchlight which seemed to be sweeping from left to right as it followed the highway through the small city.
Luke reached over, wincing at the movement, and tapped the rocket launcher. “You might need this soon,” he whispered.
I nodded and we all set off again, a little more purpose in our steps. I tried not to look back as the noise of the chopper got closer and closer, but eventually the sound changed slightly and I realized it was now taking a more direct route. Straight up the mountain.
We were all puffing hard, both through exertion and fear, when we finally reached a sign which read Drake Mountain Ski Resort. We left the tree line of the highway and hurried across a long concrete bridge. The chopper sounded even closer now and, when I looked back, I could also see the splash of headlights illuminating the trees from road level. The second Hummer. Goddammit! We were so close!
Once we crossed the bridge, we rounded a bend and there it was. The ski lodge sat a couple hundred yards away in a natural depression. Its windows were dark; some of them broken. It was clearly abandoned. I heard Brooke begin to cry as Luke whispered a curse.
Feeling as hopeless as anyone, I urged them on with Sonny bringing up the rear, shouting words of reassurance. Even if the safe haven didn’t exist,
we still needed the protection the abandoned lodge would afford us.
We were through the open gates in the stone fence of the lodge when I heard the chopper’s engine whine as it picked up speed. They had spotted our tracks crossing the bridge. It roared toward us.
“Keep going!” I screamed at the others, as Luke and I turned to face the enemy. Sonny paused, but I told him to get the others to shelter.
“Be careful, Isaac!” Indigo called as she passed me. I looked at her, wondering if it was for the last time.
“Help me get this thing loaded, Luke.”
We squatted on the ground and I handed Luke the grenade. Even though clearly suffering, he deftly loaded the weapon and pulled out the sight before falling onto his backside, panting. He pointed at the trigger.
“Don’t pull it too soon, and aim a little above the chopper ... the trajectory ... will drop after the initial ... blast.”
The chopper was closing in and the circle of light from the spotlight trailed over the uneven ground, heading right toward us. I placed the rocket launcher against my shoulder. I heard Luke groan. The effort of the climb had been too much and he collapsed face down on the ground, a bloom of blood soaking the snow around him.
At the sight of my friend, a sob wrenched my throat and my eyes blurred with tears. I took aim at the chopper. I heard the distant screech of tires as the Hummer turned from the highway, but didn’t allow my concentration to waver, even as its headlights illuminated the bridge.
I squeezed the trigger and was knocked down by the concussion of the blast. As I fell to my butt with my ears ringing, the weapon fell from my hands and sizzled in the snow beside me. The grenade flew at the chopper ... and missed it completely. Frustration and anger burned through me as its fiery trail etched a line across the night sky before it arced back to earth and exploded harmlessly in the forest.
I was already climbing to my feet as the chopper pilot veered needlessly away from the wayward shot. The aircraft steadied and its spotlight found me. I had had enough. I was done. I pulled the revolver from my pocket and stalked toward the chopper, firing shot after shot at it until the firing mechanism clicked on empty chambers ... even then, I continued pulling the trigger. I screamed up at it.
“Come on!”
I waited for hot lead to tear me apart ... and then the world exploded. I stared dumbfounded. The helicopter was in flames and, as it plummeted to the ground, I noticed white clad figures running in from all directions, one of them carrying a rocket launcher.
I didn’t hang around to look closer. I dropped the revolver and ran back to Luke, falling on him as the chopper hit the ground a hundred yards from us, throwing up debris and snow.
When I felt it was safe, I started to climb off Luke and found myself staring into the muzzle of a machine gun. I looked up, expecting to see a Chinese face standing over me. It wasn’t. It was a middle-aged American man. The first non-Chinese person over the age of 16 I had seen in more than a month.
“Do not move!” he screamed down at me, as I looked up at him with wide eyes.
Behind him, the Chinese Hummer pulled to a stop as soldiers began to exit the vehicle. I was surprised the man in front of me didn’t turn his attention to them.
It became obvious why soon enough. The Chinese soldiers weren’t aware of the threat. They hadn’t spotted the interlopers. The firefight was over quickly. The invading soldiers were cut down mercilessly by the men in white camouflage, who immediately secured the area.
“Throw down your weapons and place your hands on your head!” yelled a gruff voice from the direction of the lodge.
I looked over. My people were placing their guns on the ground and putting their hands in the air as the men in white closed in on them. “Do it, now!”
I could see Sonny still held his semi-automatic and I held my breath, not exhaling until he finally bent over and placed it carefully on the concrete in front of him. I snuck a closer look at the man standing over me. He was armed with what looked to me like a U.S. military-issue M16 and also had the telltale haircut of a military man.
These guys were U.S. army. But how could they be? I tried to stop him when he bent over Luke and reached for his throat, but he brushed me away.
“Easy, son.”
He felt for Luke’s pulse and immediately called out. “We have a casualty over here! I need a medic and a stretcher!”
Two men materialized with a fold-up stretcher and I watched them carefully lift my friend onto it as the man guarding me led me over to the rest of my group. As I reached them, still with their hands in the air, the two men carried Luke past us and through the open door of the lodge.
“Where are they taking him?” Sonny asked.
“He’s in good hands. If he can be saved, the doc will save him,” said the gray haired man who appeared to be giving the orders.
“We came because we heard the Morse code message on the radio,” I called, as I was pushed into the huddle. “We’re looking for sanctuary, not trouble.”
Looking at the men, I reassessed my initial impression. These men were not all soldiers, not by any stretch.
“They’re spies, Randall!” a voice yelled.
I looked at the owner. He had a long, bushy beard and his gut strained against the material of his white camouflage.
“Hell, they led the fuckers right to us! They even brought a Chink with them. We should waste them now!”
“Shut up, Leroy,” the man called Randall snapped. The fat one held his stare for only a few seconds before looking down at his feet. “We’re going to take them to the Professor, just like we were ordered to if anybody answered the signal.”
Randall looked back at us with piercing blue eyes. He was by far the oldest man in the group, and clearly military or ex-military. He looked fit and hard and was obviously the leader.
“You all stay right where you are and a couple of my men are going to come and search you. If you make any move at all I consider threatening, you’ll be shot down like dogs. Do you understand me?”
We all nodded. I understood the words, of course, but was struggling to understand why this was happening ... had the message been a trap all along? Or where they just being overly cautious?
As the men stepped forward to search us, I realized they were a real mix. Some white, some black, at least one of them looked Hispanic. There were no Chinese men among them, not even a vaguely Asian looking person. There were also no women, for that matter.
My brain worked furiously, trying to figure this out. Had these people not been exposed to the Pyongyang Flu? Or were they somehow immune? Could there be some sort of vaccine against it? I hoped we might find safety and answers here at Drake Mountain but, so far, it was only danger and more questions.
The men efficiently patted us down and checked our bags, confiscating blades and anything else that might be used against them, before collecting our firearms from the floor. Sonny soon had a scattering of knives and shuriken on floor by his feet. Indigo’s revolver was taken away, as well.
While we were being searched, I noticed another group of men cleaning up the mess left by the firefight. I had to admit, they looked to be quick and efficient. Clearly they wanted no trace left of the firefight if the Chinese came looking for the missing soldiers and helicopter.
We were directed through the front entrance of the lodge and overhead lights were switched on. We shaded our eyes as the leader, Randall, came forward.
“Zip tie their hands and black bag them. We’re taking them through the mountain to the Facility.”
“Surely there is no need for that? We’re on your side ...!” Sonny protested and took a half step toward Randall. There was a sound. A sort of a click-fzzzz, and suddenly Sonny stood up straight, his arms locked at his sides, and he jerked spasmodically for a moment before the humming sound faded and he collapsed in a twitching heap on the floor.
The man standing behind him, Leroy, had a Taser in his hand, the wires running to small prongs in Sonny's
back. Brooke began to cry and, enraged, I took a step forward, only to feel the hand of one of my captors grip my shoulder firmly. The guns of the men around us kept the others at bay.
“I still say we waste ‘em ... or at least the Chink,” said Leroy. “We can’t take no enemy to the Facility.”
“We don’t know yet he is an enemy, Leroy,” Randall said tonelessly. “You have to look deeper than a person’s skin, man. Now get him up and bound. I want him reaching the Professor in one piece, you hear me?”
Randall’s words heartened me a little. At least we were being taken to see someone. Maybe this Professor guy would be more reasonable. It sounded like he was in charge of the whole deal, but my brain refused to let me fully believe we were safe. My hopes had been shattered too many times.
My hands were pulled behind my back and a plastic zip tie slipped around my wrists. It was tight enough to hold them, but not tight enough to cut off circulation.
All around me the rest of my group were being similarly treated. I caught Indigo’s eyes and nodded encouragingly before a black sack was pulled down over her head. I did the same for the others, trying to reassure them as they looked back at me with apprehension and fear. Then my own head was covered and the world went dark. With the bag over my head, sightless and surrounded by armed men, I was as scared as I ever remembered being in my life.
“Now, we’re going to lead you through a couple of tight places,” I heard Randall say from in front of us, “and it’s going to be a bit of a hike. You should be fine as long as you don't do anything stupid.”
A hand grabbed my shoulder and propelled me forward. “Let’s go, people! Leroy, cut the lights!”
Book Two
SANCTUARY
“Dark clouds are gathering”
PART 1 - SHELTER FROM THE STORM
The After Days Trilogy [Books 1-3] Page 26
