Dallas motioned for the group to join her at the camp. After assigning guard duty, she pulled everyone in around her. “Okay, first off, I want to welcome Butcher, Luke, Omar, and Hunter back to us. You’ve been sorely missed.” She turned her attention to Richard and Violet. “And who might you two be?”
“I’m Richard and this is my sister, Violet, ma’am,” Richard said, saluting.
Dallas grinned. “No need to either ma’am or salute me, kid. We’re not that formal here. Welcome.” She turned and crushed Butcher in another hug. “It is so damn good to see you.”
“Damn good to be here. How’s Zoe? Omar said you left her with the bus.”
“Yeah. She’s still recovering, and we couldn’t risk bringing her on the road with us. Mad as hell she couldn’t come with, but she needed bed rest.”
Butcher hooked her thumb at Hunter, who was cooing over the baby still in Einstein’s arms. “That one pushed us like a motherfucker. All he could talk about was Z. He was scared to death we would lose her.”
“We didn’t. Zoe is on the mend.” Dallas stepped back and looked Butcher over. “You’re still losing weight. You okay?”
Butcher audibly swallowed. “Chopping off your husband’s arm will––”
“Wait. Did you say…husband?”
Butcher nodded. “I know you guys are gonna be pissed and all, and I don’t blame you, but we did it official and all just before we left. It was…important to him.”
Dallas took Butcher’s hand and looked at the band she was wearing. “You got married without us? Someone here, not sure who, but I’m pretty sure her name is Roper, is gonna kick your ass.” Dallas slowly turned to Roper. “Speaking of asses getting kicked, someone want to tell me just what the hell you were thinking going after those prisoners with just three people?”
Roper shrugged. “I disagreed with your position, love, so I lead a rescue party to get those Americans out of there. If we aren’t going to help each other, then we are no different from everyone else. You, of all people, should know that.”
Dallas shifted her gaze to Fletcher, who nodded.
“When we set out from Angola, we wanted to help save our country. Our country. We can’t do that by turning our backs on people who need us. They needed us. We responded. End of story.”
“End of story? Really?” Dallas crossed her arms over her chest. “Just like that? This could have turned sideways on you so fast. If Omar and Hunter hadn’t arrived when they did––”
“But they did. We all made it. We saved––”
Suddenly, there were multiple explosions and more gunshots going off. Many more.
“What the fuck?” Omar said as everyone turned toward the base. It was lighting up like a firework display.
Einstein held Egypt in one arm as he grabbed the pair of night vision goggles from his bag and peered through them. “Looks like at least two dozen military vehicles entering the base. My guess is American military are coming to clean up.”
“Our military is cleaning them up,” Dallas said.
Einstein continued peering through the goggles. “There’s a fire fight. It looks like our guys, or someone like our guys, are taking it to them. Shit’s blowing up all over the place.”
“Everyone get in a vehicle!” Roper yelled.
“Stop!” Dallas ordered. “Stay here. We can’t afford to go off helter skelter in the desert in the darkness. Not when we just got back together. They may not even know we are here. Let’s hunker down and hope they get what they came for.”
“And if they come after us?” Roper asked.
“Why would they? Whoever it is is after the base. I think running would only alert them to the fact that there are vehicles out here, and we are not going to try to navigate the desert without headlights.”
“Then everyone grab a weapon and be prepared to defend yourselves,” Roper said, shouldering her rifle. She shot a steel cold look to Dallas. “Or would you rather we just sit here and wait to be captured by someone else?”
Dallas ignored her. “Violet, would you and your brother please take Egypt behind those rocks over there?”
“Give me a gun. I can fight,” Richard said.
Dallas looked down at him and smiled. “I’d rather you protect your sister and the baby from anything living or undead right now.” She handed him her rifle. “You know how to use one of these?”
“I’m still alive, aren’t I?” Taking the rifle, Richard waited for Violet to take Egypt from Einstein before heading off to an outcropping of rocks.
Several more explosions sounded as more gunfire erupted inside the base.
No one said a word as Einstein continued looking through the binoculars. “Wait. There’s something wrong. I’ve lost track of two of the Jeeps.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, they drove in, spread out, and then I lost some of them. I––”
“Don’t make me shoot you,” warned Richard to someone from behind the rocks.
Everyone turned, weapons raised.
“What the fuck?” Butcher said, lowering her rifle when two dozen men surrounded them and pointed SCAR MK17’s at them.
Military issue.
“Not what, ma’am. Who. We’re the United States military and we’d like to have a word with you.”
The soldiers let Dallas lock all of their weapons in the Fuchs before packing her group into two Hummers and driving right through the front gates of the camp. Dead hazmatter bodies littered the entire area. Luke and the kids went in a different vehicle that sped off ahead of them. Butcher went with them, refusing to give up Egypt.
When they arrived back in camp, huge spotlights lit up the entire area to reveal smoldering vehicles, dead bodies, and military men picking through the rubble for weapons and helmets.
“Everybody out,” the soldier ordered. He was wearing a camouflage flack jacket, a helmet, and the uniform of the Coast Guard.
“Coast Guard?” Roper said quizzically. “You’re a long way from home.”
“You have no idea, ma’am. We may be a rag tag group, but we’re still the United States military, and the Captain would like to have a word with you.”
“What happened here?” Einstein asked, surveying the damage.
“Well, you folks gave us the opening we needed and we ran with it.”
“You took the base back?” Roper asked.
“Yes, ma’am. Those we didn’t kill are now in the brig. We’ve got a lot of questions for them as well.”
“Do you know who they are?” Dallas asked.
“I do, ma’am, but it is not my place to discuss it. The Captain will be over shortly.”
Roper reached over to hold Dallas’s hand. “Whatever happens, we are not letting them separate us, understand?”
“That’s always been the deal, babe.”
“I’m so, so sorry for getting us into this, Dallas. I just don’t want to become someone who only cares about herself and the people she’s with.”
Dallas squeezed her hand. “No, I’m the one who should be sorry. I should have known what you were going to do. A small part of me agreed with your position. I just…I just lost sight of giving a shit about anyone else but my family.”
“Your folks on the bus have been escorted back to base as well, ma’am. There’s a butt load of marauders out there and your people could have been easy pickin’s. Nobody is hurt.”
Dallas looked helplessly at Roper. “We’ll get out of this, love, no matter what we have to do.”
As they looked around at the bustling soldiers, Dallas noticed no one had their weapons up or pointed at them. That was a good sign, she supposed.
A commander of some sort approached them wearing black pants, a khaki shirt, and a black baseball cap embroidered with U.S. Marine Corps. Everything about him screamed military, from his square jaw to his piercing eyes. “You the leader here?” he asked Dallas.
She tightened her grip on Roper’s hand. “I am. Where’s my injured man?”
“Being tended to. One of my medics here was doing her residency. He’s in good hands.” The Captain extended his hand. “Captain Paul Love, United States Marine Corps.”
Dallas shook his hand. “Thank you for making sure my guy is cared for.”
“The way we see it, ma’am, we’re all in this together.”
“Good to know. What about the rest of us?”
The commander cocked his head to one side. “Ma’am?”
“Why have you brought us here? If we’d have wanted to be here, we would have stayed and fought for it, but we don’t. We’d rather not have to fight our way out of here, but we will if you intend of keeping us here against our will.”
His head went back in place. “Oh. I get it. You think you’re prisoners here. That is just not the case, ma’am. You see, you did for us what we hadn’t been able to do, and that was catch them off guard. Your little escapade gave us the opening we needed to come in with barrels blazing. We owe you. I’d like to offer you sanctuary here.”
Dallas released her sweaty grip of Roper’s hand. “Sanctuary?”
“Ya’ll made it easy for us to take the base back. We’d been planning on hitting it in two or three days but...like I said...you gave us an opening and we drove a Mac truck through it.”
“So...we’re really not prisoners?”
He frowned. “No ma’am. This country needs more people like ya’ll. You’re welcome to stay if you wish. We know how they do things back east, but out here, we aren’t in the habit of taking fellow Americans prisoners.” He grinned. “This being the Wild West and all.”
The bus pulled in and Roper and Hunter excused themselves to greet the rest of their group.
“I’ll certainly let everyone make their own decision, Captain, but the majority of us really need to push on toward the west.”
“I see. Mind telling me why? I mean, San Francisco is completely overrun. L.A. is a nightmare. San Die––”
“We are aware of what the state looks like, sir, but we know what we’re doing. We are, for all intents and purposes, going home.”
“Home? Those...Japs are streaming in from all over, but mostly from the West Coast. You’ll be fighting not only the undead, but those fuckers as well.”
Dallas watched as Roper loped back up. “They’re all good,” Roper said. “Zoe is up and swearing like a rabid dog, but the moment she saw Hunter, she purred like a kitten.”
Dallas nodded and returned her attention to the Captain. “If you really think you owe us, commander, I have a proposition. I’d like to trade our bus for a Fuchs.”
He laughed.
She didn’t.
“Seriously?”
“Or a Hummer. That bus has slowed us way down and is a red flag to all of the crazy bulls out there. We could really use a better set of wheels if you haven’t blown them all to smithereens.”
As the commander considered it, a soldier jogged up and whispered something to him. He nodded. “Your man’s arm has been tended to, but the woman with him...the one with the baby? She broke the nose of one of my guys. Are ya’ll Special Forces or something?”
Dallas and Roper looked at each other.
“Or something.”
To everyone’s surprise, the Captain was a man of his word, and no one was held against his or her wishes. They were fed, shared as much intel as either side felt comfortable sharing, and were given the Fuchs they asked for.
Apparently, there were a number of soldiers held prisoner when Roper set them free. The Captain looked kindly on that and paid them back with the Fuchs of her choice. They left the base the in mid-morning sun and eventually drove west with the new Fuchs and two more of the Hummers.
Things were looking up.
Zoe looked better, too. Her coloring was healthier and she appeared much stronger as she sat in the passenger seat of The Beast.
“How are you feeling?” Dallas asked, her eyes scanning Zoe’s face and body.
“Ready to get back into the game. I can’t believe you guys stuck me in the bus. I belong in here with you all.”
Dallas smiled. “Of course you do. You will take it easy, you hear me? I’m going to need you at the end of the trail, so let everyone else do the heavy lifting for now. You can’t afford to tear open any stitches on the road. Understand?”
Zoe nodded. “Fine.”
“Zoe?” she warned.
“I understand. I am sidelined and have to watch you guys have all the fun.”
“Fun. Right.” Dallas lightly touched Zoe’s hair. Her Mohawk had grown in awkwardly and she’d recently cut it into a short bob. All traces of pink were gone. “It’s no fun without you, kiddo.”
“Thanks, but you’re worrying about the wrong person.” She lowered her voice. “Did Butcher really cut his fucking arm off?”
“That she did.”
Zoe stared out the window at the passing desert. “Let’s hope it worked.”
“It worked,” Butcher growled.
Luke looked better and was actually sitting up, but his skin was ashen and his dry mouth made it hard for him to talk. Butcher held bottled water to his lips.
“He’s not looking so hot,” Roper whispered to Dallas as they drove. “I’m worried.”
“If he was going to turn, wouldn’t he have already?” Zoe asked.
“I’m not as worried about him turning as I am him dying from infection.”
Dallas nodded. She’d thought the same thing earlier. She was also worried about Butcher. How much more could she carry on her back now with a baby and a wounded husband?
“Heads up!” Hunter yelled from the turret above the Fuchs. “Looks like a roadblock.”
Dallas stopped the vehicle and squinted to see whatever it was he’d seen through the binoculars.
Ever since the last ambush, Dallas had designated someone to stay up top looking ahead for unwanted company. The problem was that it was the end of August in the dry, parched desert of California, so each lookout was only assigned thirty minutes up top at a time. There wasn’t high enough level sunscreen to keep everyone from being burned, and the skin of each person sitting in the Fuchs beamed red from the sun on their faces.
“There’s an enormous barricade ahead,” Hunter added. “At least a hundred yards wide.”
Roper opened her dog-eared and torn map and set her finger on the intersecting road. She missed having a bona fide GPS system. “Highways fifty-eight, fifteen, and forty all converge here. I think they’ve set up a roadblock like a spider web.”
“But who?” Dallas leaned back and yelled up the ladder. “Can you tell who’s running it?”
There came a pause.
“Doesn’t look like military,” Hunter replied.
“Asian hazmatters?”
“Nope. Not unless they turned in their Power Ranger suits for overalls and baseball caps.”
Dallas cursed under her breath. “Marauders then.”
Roper refolded the map. “Are we going to engage them?”
Dallas shook her head and unbuckled her seat belt. “Nope. We’ve suffered too many casualties as it is. I say we head north through the Death Valley National Park until we can get to route three-ninety-five.”
Roper opened the map once more, sighing with relief. If she never spoke to another flannel-wearing Jethro, it would be too soon. “Death Valley National Park will probably have fewer eaters than anywhere else, but the terrain will be rough going, even in the Fuchs.”
Dallas tapped her chin with her fingertip. “We’re exhausted and need a break. Time to regroup. To bathe. To catch our collective breaths. We’re going north.” When she opened the door, heat entered the cab like she’d opened an oven. “I’ll let everyone know the plan. Be right back.”
When she was gone, Roper put the map away and turned to find Butcher kneeling next to her between the two front seats.
“Hey,” Butcher said. She looked and sounded exhausted.
Roper forced a grin. “Hey. How is he?”
Roper shook her head. “Uh-uh. We need a break. We’re going to regroup for the final push to the Bay Area. We’re going through the National Park.”
Butcher’s eyebrows rose. “Not a bad idea. Less eaters, less humans, less everything. I like it.”
Looking at Butcher’s gaunt face Roper realized, for the first time, how thin Butcher looked. “Are you okay? You’ve lost a lot of weight.”
“The trip took its toll on me, that’s for sure. Getting back to Angola was far simpler than catching up to you guys. I hadn’t anticipated how often we’d need to stop for Egypt.”
“How was Angola? Everything still in working order?”
“Running like clockwork. We did amazing things with that place. It has almost five thousand people now.”
“Seriously?”
“The American military finally stepped up. They have better vehicles for collecting survivors and they have really kept a low profile. We done good, as Henry would say.”
Roper smiled––this time, she meant it. “Everyone was okay?”
Butcher looked away.
“What?”
Blowing out a sigh, Butcher returned her gaze. “Wendell and Elliott begged me to bring them. They’ve done all they can do there and...well, quite frankly, they miss us.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Butcher blinked. “Not my call. In the end, Luke and I are soldiers at heart...Dallas okayed the four of us going after our daughter. No one else. Trust me. We talked about this for hours.” She shrugged. “Once a soldier, always a soldier, I guess. In the end, Luke wouldn’t let them come.”
“Then you made the right decision for yourself.”
“And for them. We fought a lot to get here, Rope. Truth is, I’m amazed we made it.”
The door opened and Dallas hopped in on a wave of heat. “Jesus, it’s hot out there.”
“We ready?”
Dallas nodded. “We’ll head north, parallel to three-ninety-five, until we can safely get back on it. Everyone looks beat. We need someplace to rest that has beds.”
“Hotel?”
“Or something. Let’s leave these creeps to their blockade and find someplace relatively safe for the night.” Dallas cast a gaze to Butcher. “We missed you, buddy. Glad as hell to have you back.”
Pedal to the Metal (Riders of the Apocalypse Book 4) Page 11
