No one said a word.
“Richard says they’ll send out more folks to see what happened. We gotta get out of here right now. Omar, you drive.” She tossed Omar the keys. “Hunter, you sit in back with me while I sew him up. Richard and Violet will both sit up front and help Omar get us the hell out of here.”
When Hunter and Butcher lifted Luke into the Hummer, Richard removed the five rabbits from the back and tossed them onto the floorboards of the vehicle.
Once everyone was in, Omar put the pedal to the metal and took off while Butcher carefully sewed Luke’s stump, a difficult task with all of the bumps and jarring.
When Richard said they were passing the part of the reservation the cannibals had taken over, Omar pulled up behind some trees and cut the engine.
“What are you doing?” Butcher asked, not looking up from her suturing. “Get us out of here.”
“Doing what needs to be done.” Grabbing his bow, he started from the Hummer.
“Omar––”
“No, Butcher. Those fuckers don’t deserve to live. I’m taking out as many as I can, and you aren’t stopping me.”
Butcher held a finger up. “Wasn’t gonna.”
Omar blinked.
“Kill as many as you can. Then get your ass back here. Take Richard. Be quick about it.”
“Butcher? Seriously?” Hunter asked. “We need to just get gone. Killing them doesn’t mean a thing. To anybody.”
“It does to me,” she replied coldly. “I want those fuckers dead. Besides…it’s too hard to sew with him driving so fast. I need a moment to patch him up and they need to die. It’s simple math.”
Hunter stared at Luke. “Think he has a chance?”
Butcher paused a moment before locking eyes with Hunter. “If I have anything to say about it, he does.”
Dallas
Eleven Days Ago
Sitting around the campfire half a day’s trek to the military base at Barstow, Roper leaned against Dallas’s legs and poked the ground with a long stick.
“You’re still worrying.”
Dallas sighed. “We’ve been plodding along, baby. They should have caught up to us by now.”
“Should have doesn’t mean anything bad has happened. They’re traveling with a baby. That means stopping to change diapers, to feed her. It’s got to be…complicated.”
Dallas stared into the fireless fire pit as if it held the answers. “We’ll wait for them in Barstow as planned, but you have to know, I am not leaving Barstow without them.” Playing with Roper’s hair, she leaned down and kissed her bare neck.
“I’m glad Ike’s people have joined us. That guy they call the Professor seems to have given Einstein more zip in his step.”
“He’s seen a lot of death, love. A lot. We expect to lose people to man eaters, but not to other human beings. I keep an eye out on him. It’s just going to take a whole lot to get over the loss of his first love. To be honest, I’d be more worried about him if all this death didn’t bother him. He’ll be fine. He just needs time.”
“I wish I could know that for sure.”
Dallas stroked her head. “We can’t know anything for sure…except maybe that I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone on my life.”
Roper closed her eyes and sighed heavily.
“Anything else?” Dallas asked.
“I miss her.”
“Butcher?”
Roper opened her eyes. They held a sadness that was soul deep. “Yeah. She’s family, you know? It’s like she has always been with us, and not having her here seems…wrong.”
The sound of someone approaching made them both reach for their sidearms.
“It’s just me,” Einstein said in a voice more man than boy. “Sorry to bug you guys, but I think we have a new enemy on our playing field.”
Roper sat up. “Oh? What is it this time? Witches? Vampires? Ghouls? What else could want to take our shit and eat us?”
Einstein didn’t crack a grin. “Did either of you see those four Jeeps?”
Dallas shook her head. “I didn’t. Baby?”
“I thought I saw one military Jeep, but I was too busy getting my ass back to the Fuchs. Why?”
Einstein told them what he’d seen. “I saw someone in a red and white leather hazmat suit.”
“Wait. You saw someone dressed in a hazmat suit? What the hell?”
Einstein nodded. “Well, I don’t know if they’re hazmat suits, but that’s kinda what it looked like. Anyway, that wasn’t the weirdest part. At first, I had no idea who they were or what they wanted. That’s when I saw it. It was pretty subtle, so it was easy to miss, but I saw it. I’m sure of it.”
“Saw what?”
“A patch. One of them was wearing a patch of the sign of the rising sun.”
Dallas leaned closer. “Those people in the hazmat suits were Japanese. I’m not surprised, but I don’t quite know what to make of it. Do you think the virus escaped our border and they’re here to find a cure?”
Einstein shook his head before tossing a stone at the fireless pit. “I don’t think so, Dallas. I’m afraid our other worst fear has come to pass. I think we’ve been invaded.”
Dallas got up and paced. “Invaded? I don’t think four Jeeps full of crazies in biking attire is evidence enough for that, kid. Are you sure you saw the rising sun?”
Einstein nodded. “Dallas, have I ever been wrong? Do you really think they appeared out of nowhere by coincidence? What are the odds that they were there, right there in that town as if following us, watching us? I’ve been feeling like someone was watching us for days. I haven’t been able to shake it.”
Roper rose as well. “He has a point, love. The kid has never been wrong.”
“I always have a point. It’s why we’re all still alive. At first, I just passed it off like you did. But that suit, from what I could see, was seriously high tech, and their arrival was not coincidental. Haven’t either of you heard that weird whining sound? I’ve heard it off and on since we left the bayou. I initially thought it was just me, but then…then I think I saw one.”
Dallas exchanged a look with Roper. “Saw one what?”
“Like a…like a drone or something. I thought at first it was just my imagination. Then I thought I saw one, but it turned out to just be a big crow. But mark my words, there’s something or someone keeping tabs on us. We’re in the desert here, guys, and these people in suits show up in the same shitty ass town we’re in? That’s not a coincidence, and you’re fools if you think it was.”
“Careful, kid.”
He shrugged. “I’m just sayin’…they didn’t just show up. They’ve either been following us or there are a shitload more of them out here than what we saw. Four military Jeeps, Dallas. They weren’t just roaming around. They were there for a reason. I think we are that reason.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah. Look, given those suits and that technology of the helmet alone, we have to assume they’ve probably been tracking our movement for days…if not longer.”
“To what end?”
Einstein took his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose. “We have no idea what’s been going on outside of the U.S. since the virus. Who knows what’s happened? Maybe the whole world is infected. Maybe countries are going to invade us to see how bad it really is. Maybe someone has created a vaccine. I don’t know. I just know that those bozos didn’t show up on accident, and I wouldn’t count anyone as allies who doesn’t stop to chat with us.”
Dallas and Roper looked at each other once more. “I think he may be right,” Dallas said. “Though I’ve not heard any whining, and the drone thing seems far-fetched, but I suppose anything is possible.”
Roper rubbed her chin. “You know, when we were in Angola, I thought I saw something strange in the sky, but I chalked it up to not having had enough sleep.”
Dallas stopped pacing and turned to Einstein. “What do you suggest?”
He shrugged again and pushed h
is hair from his face. Where once he’d looked like Archie, or Richie Cunningham, now his hair resembled Carrottop or Shawn White. “I know we were planning on checking out the base at Barstow and maybe seeing if we could clear it and wait inside for Butcher and the others…but riding up to the base at this point is a fool’s mission. Those vehicles were military. Our military. We have to assume they’ve taken some bases over or, at the very least they have infiltrated them for our goodies. We can’t just drive up and knock on the door. We need stealth. We need to be quiet. We need intel. This is where Roper’s skills are needed most.”
Roper nodded. “Horses.”
“Yes. Horses. We need to quietly get to the base over hills where there are no roads. Horses are the best way to do that. We can’t assume they’re running on the same powerless grid we are. They could have satellites up and running…generators…what have you. Those suits? Something out of a Ray Bradbury story. I’m certain they have internal communication as well. They’d have to with those helmets. Who knows? I’d sure like to get my hands on one of them.”
Dallas kicked a rock. “I guess it was only a matter of time someone wanted what we’ve lost.”
“It’s been over a year. Our infrastructure gets worse every day, every week, every month it goes unused, so it makes sense someone would send troops. They’re probably just collecting information for now, but let’s face it. We are ripe for the picking.”
Dallas knelt down and drew in the sand. “You said hazmat suits. Why?”
“They looked like leather but had some sort of wiring through it like chain mail.”
“To prevent bites.”
Einstein nodded. “That’s my guess. They were seriously cool, though. They came prepared. They know what they’re facing, and I believe they have been following us from a safe distance.”
Roper stretched. “So...ally or enemy? Have they come to help us or to finish us off?”
Einstein waited a long time before answering. “Honestly? I wouldn’t trust anyone at this point.”
“Even when they saved us?”
Einstein barely shook his head. “Especially not then.”
Butcher
10 Days Ago
“How’s he looking?” Butcher asked, pushing the Hummer as fast as she dared. They’d been on the road since sun up and stopped only to restock their ever-shortening supply of gas.
“Pasty white skin. Fever. He doesn’t look great, but he hasn’t turned.” Omar had tied a handkerchief around Luke’s face so that if Luke did wake up a dead man, he couldn’t bite anyone.
Butcher had told Omar to press hard on his thumbnail. If the color did not immediately return, he’d turned. Omar had been pinching that thumbnail all night long.
Butcher had sat up with Luke all night wondering if he was going to die, willing him to live so he could see their daughter grow up. She’d known it was a long shot when she instinctively, and somewhat impulsively, chopped his forearm off, but the alternative was more like cutting his head off, and she just didn’t think she could have lived through that.
Was it an act of desperation? Yes. And it would save him or it wouldn’t, but at least she had tried.
Hunter had driven most of the night, and when Butcher took over, even her eyes had started closing slowly. They were all exhausted, hungry, and scared of what might happen to Luke.
As she fought to keep her eyelids open, Hunter gently touched her arm. “Pull over,” he said softly.
“What?
“I have to pee. Pull over.”
Butcher nodded and slowly pulled over to the side of the back road they’d been on. They hadn’t seen anyone all night and all towns they passed were dark. “Anyone else need to go?”
Violet, who’d not stopped holding Egypt, nodded and placed the baby in the carrier on the floor before she and Richard hopped out with Hunter.
“I need a leg stretch, Butcher,” Omar said, easing out from under Luke’s sweaty body.
“I’ve got him.”
“Not without tying up his good arm.”
“No way.”
“Butcher…please. Think of your daughter.” Omar tied Luke’s wrist to the door handle before exiting the Hummer.
Butcher then climbed in the back and laid Luke’s head in her legs. His hair stuck to his clammy forehead and his pallor was an unearthly pale.
“Don’t you dare leave me, Lucas Scott,” she whispered, slowly unsheathing her Buck knife and placing it against his throat. “We’ve come too far and loved too hard for you to bail on me now. I need you. We need you. Fight for us, God damn it. Fight.”
Gazing into his face, Butcher felt her eyelids fall so hard and so heavy, she could not open them.
Not until several hours later, as the Hummer bumped along in the desert, did she hear his voice. Her eyelids snapped open from a sleep not even potholes could waken.
“You...cut...off...my...arm,” Luke said through the bandana.
“Oh love...” Wiping his plastered bangs from his face, Butcher leaned over and kissed his forehead. It was burning up.
“He’s alive!” Richard announced.
Luke blinked away tears that ran down his temples. “Egypt?”
“Safe and sound, like the rest of us. We’re fine. We all made it.”
Luke looked around and then held up his stump. “And my missing arm?”
“You were scratched saving our daughter. I did what I had to do to keep you with us. I am so, so sorry.” She gently ran her fingertips lovingly across his brow. “So, so sorry.” Butcher tugged at the handkerchief around his face.
Luke closed his eyes. “Did what...you had to. The...cannibals?”
Butcher sighed. “Omar took care of the rest. Silently, quietly, he took out every son of a bitch he could.”
“Ammo? You wasted…ammo?”
Butcher grinned. “Nah. We picked up two kids, Richard and his sister, Violet, who were on a reservation when the virus broke out.”
A smile played on his dry lips. “Indians. Arrows. Good.”
“Exactly. We’re loaded up and ready to go. All we need now is to put enough distance between them and us and we’re almost home, love.”
“Home. I want...I want to go home.”
“We’re haulin’ ass to make that happen, sweetheart. Once we meet up with our family, we’re almost home free.”
Luke opened his eyes and tried to lift his left hand to wipe the tears from her face. “What the––”
“Precautions, love. We didn’t know if you’d turn.” Butcher undid the restraints.
“Smart girl.”
“Yes, I am. Now, we need to see if we can catch up to Dallas.” Butcher helped Luke sit up. He immediately vomited out the side of the Hummer.
“Sorry. Nauseous.”
When Omar woke up in the passenger seat, he heard Luke’s voice and turned around.
“Luke’s alive. He made it,” Hunter said, slowing down slightly. “And he’s still human.”
Omar stared hard at him. “Are you sure?”
Hunter cocked his head. “Whattaya’ mean, am I sure? Look at him.”
“I’m alive, you douchebag.” Luke wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I’m pretty hard to kill.”
Omar pushed up the most authentic smile he could muster. “Glad to have you back. You look like shit.”
Luke’s eyes closed and opened slowly. “Good...to be back.” His eyes bored holes into Omar’s until he turned to Butcher and told her to go stretch her legs. “Hunter, can you pull over? Give Butcher a few minutes, please.”
“I’m fine, love. I can just––”
“Please, Butch. Go. Stretch your legs. Get some fresh air. I’ll be right here when you get back.”
“Fine, but you rest.”
Once Butcher was far enough from the vehicle, Omar leaned closer to Luke. “Okay, she’s gone. Why the fuck are you glaring at me?”
Licking his cracked lips, Luke took Omar’s hand in his. “I don’t...I don’t know if
I am okay, Omar. I feel…different, and I need you to promise me...promise...”
Omar squeezed his hand and let go. “I promise, big guy. You even hint of zombie stink, and I’ll put you down lickety fucking split.”
“Swear it.”
Omar smiled down at him. “I swear, man, but you’re going to be fine. You shoulda already bit the dust.”
Hunter gazed into the rearview mirror at Luke’s ashen face and sunken eyes, and suddenly, he wasn’t so sure.
Dallas
9 Days Ago
It took Roper, Dallas, Einstein, Ferdie, and Fletcher most of the day to ride to the camp at Barstow. It had only taken Roper a little under thirty minutes to round up stray horses...and a little longer to secure saddles. Once they were on the road, they made good time, even though everyone bitched and complained about their asses hurting.
They’d left the rest of the group near a small lake and had most of the younger people fishing. The towns were still unsafe, so the wide openness of the lake was preferable.
They’d left Zoe in charge, even though she was still healing from her encounter with the Bible thumpers back at the sick camp they’d escaped from earlier. She was spitting fire when Dallas and the others left for Barstow, convinced she was just fine to go with them, but Roper knew better.
“Hey, Einstein, why do you think those hazmatters saved us if you also think they are the bad guys?”
Einstein thought about it before answering. “You know, I really don’t know their end game, but I am convinced we are being watched. I mean, why wouldn’t they send in drones or other video devices to see what the hell is going on in the US? We would if this was happening somewhere else. We would have already sent in troops to assess the damage and to see what we could get from it.”
Dallas looked over at Roper. “What are your thoughts?”
She shook her head. “I think the kid has some valid ideas. I just wonder what their plan is. Are the Japanese planning on colonizing? Taking over? And why now? Why did they choose to enter the U.S. before the zombies were eradicated? Do they have a vaccine? A cure? A way to make them all truly dead? I don’t know––I have more questions than answers, and the more I think about it, the more questions I have.”
Pedal to the Metal (Riders of the Apocalypse Book 4) Page 6
