by Jordan Ervin
Help them….
Adam pushed the voice aside, unwilling to let it sway him. He couldn’t help everyone and he was sick of people thinking otherwise.
“Whatever is left of my kids is rotting back in North Carolina,” Adam replied, a low grumble on the brink of becoming a roar. “And I wish we could do something to save them from that god-awful situation, but I just don’t see how the few of us could stand a chance.”
“But we—”
“He’s right,” Jack said, stepping forward. “I’ll hate myself forever for saying it, but we can’t help them.”
“Jack!” Leila shouted, turning to her husband with tears in her eyes. “We have to do something. They’ve got children down there and—”
“And so do we,” Jack replied, looking over at the four vehicles that housed the surviving toddlers. “What are we going to do? We’ve got a couple dozen men armed with hunting gear and a handful of militarized rifles. Are we going to snipe each guard? Are they going to line up nicely for us to do the deed? I doubt we even have enough ammo if they stood still.”
Leila shook her head and brushed away the tears in her eyes before turning back toward the vehicles. Lillian stared at Adam, her hurt eyes searching him with a beseeching hope. He gazed back quietly, a man wounded by his own decision and yet unwilling to budge.
“You want me to lead you to safety but you don’t want to listen when I make the tough choices,” Adam said. “We can either all die fighting a battle we won’t win or we can move on and hope that we find a place where we can prevent travesties like this from happening again.”
Lillian paused, staring at him silently as tears pooled in her eyes. As two drops of defeat finally broke free, she wiped them away with the sleeves of her shirt. “What good will it be to find peace but lose what makes us good in the process?” She turned and walked away toward the vehicles. Adam watched her go, her words digging into him as he struggled to cope with his own decision.
“We can’t…we can’t help everyone.”
“I hate it as much as you do, but you’re right,” Gene said. “Besides, we’ve got bigger problems.”
“Like what?” Adam asked.
“Like crossing that river.”
“Why?” Adam asked, turning to Gene. “What’s wrong with the bridges?”
“Oh, there’s nothing wrong with the bridges. I’m just not overly keen on the guardhouses who are preventing anyone from crossing to the west side without searching your vehicles and confiscating anything they might want. I wouldn’t be too surprised if they saw the nurses and the doctor and decided…well, let’s just say I don’t reckon we should be crossing those bridges unless we’re in a damn hurry. There is an old rail road bridge, but it looks like someone tried to drop it.”
“Can we use it?” Adam asked.
“Not unless we want to risk sending our convoy to the bottom of the Mississippi,” Gene replied. “That, or we abandon our cars and cross it on foot, which leaves us worse off once we’re on the other side. And none of this takes into consideration the blockade we saw through our binoculars on the other side of the bridges.”
“Why would they set up blockades on both sides of the river?” Adam asked.
“I doubt they set them both up,” Lev replied. “Whoever’s on the other side is likely trying to keep Memphis from crossing the river.”
“Or vice-versa,” Jack said.
“Well, whoever is trying to block out whoever,” Gene began, “that’s not our concern. We’re not crossing those bridges unless the devil’s at our heels and we have no other choice.”
“Are there any other bridges we can drive across?” Adam asked.
“Those two are the only two that are drivable here in Memphis.” Lev pulled up a satellite image on his tablet. “There was a crossing seventy miles south at Helena, but the latest imagery shows it blown to shit.”
“Anything farther down the Mississippi?”
“We go much farther and we risk running into whoever invaded the Gulf,” Lev replied. “I can’t get a picture of the Gulf Coast. Something is blocking the satellite feed.”
“You think it’s another Graystone?” Adam asked.
“More like twenty or thirty Graystones,” Lev replied. “I can see as far south as Jackson and it appears they’re set up nicely there. They have been branching out eastward. My guess is they brought the bridge at Helena down because they don’t want anyone else controlling the region’s most natural barrier.”
“What about ferries?” Adam asked. “Are there any ships we could use?”
“We looked into that and even asked around as much as we could without sounding too shady,” Gene said. “I don’t know why, but the river seems to be all but shut down and devoid of ships.”
“Any chance we can build something out of—”
“Tell me you’re not that ignorant,” Gene interrupted quickly. “What, we carve enough canoes to transport forty people, the medical equipment we stuffed into the back of vans, and all our gear and food? Not a chance in hell.”
“So we go back east and loop around the city before heading north,” Adam finally said. “It’ll add days or weeks to the overall trip, but if we can cross somewhere up north, we’ll have an endless number of routes we could take to Texas by using the backroads.”
“It’ll eat up too much of our fuel to circle around,” Jack said.
“Speaking of circling around,” Lev said. “I’m not so sure we should be heading back east.”
“And why the hell not?” Adam asked, angry that every option seemed to be their doom.
“Cause we learned about an outpost of men at the International Airport five miles east of here. By the grace of God we somehow missed them coming into the city.”
“What are they doing?” Alan asked.
“Most likely moving women and kids into the city. All that to say, we need to be careful if we go east. I don’t think a moving convoy our size will go unnoticed twice and we’ll likely end up with a firefight.”
“Would quench the ladies’ thirst for revenge,” Gene said. “If they’re low in numbers, we might have a better shot.”
Adam hesitated, his eyes searching each man as he weighed their options. He thought about hitting the men at the airport so they could seize more supplies, but he couldn’t bring himself to believe they wouldn’t lose men in the processes. He hated leading, knowing any given decision could cost the life of someone he knew.
“How many men are you talking about at the airport?” Adam asked.
“Unsure,” Lev replied, “Could be a couple dozen and it could be a hundred.”
Adam looked from Lev to Jack to Gene before shaking his head.
He had no idea what to do.
“Are we safe here for now?” Adam finally asked.
“So long as we don’t hear gunfire coming our way,” Gene replied. “This portion of town was already run down before the collapse. I doubt there is anyone left who cares what’s going on this far out. Civilization shrunk up tighter than pantyhose in the dryer when things got bad. If we keep a good eye out then we should be fine for the time being. Worst case scenario, shit starts flying and we can make a break for the I-Fifty-Five Bridge three miles north of here. It was the less guarded of the two and we might be able to get the jump on them.”
“Then that’s the plan if we get attacked,” Adam said. “I want everyone packed up and ready to move in case something happens. Make sure even the nurses are armed. We’ll need everyone ready to fight if push comes to shove. For now, get me a map and let’s figure out the best way to get us out of here alive in the next couple of hours.”
“Fine by me,” Gene said, shifting his bag around to his front and digging for a map.
“And Jack, get on the radio with the guys up top,” Adam said. “Tell Edward he’s going to have a couple more hours to get over his fears.”
“Copy that,” William said.
“What did they say?” Edward asked.
&nb
sp; “The bridges are a no-go and they’re working to figure out another route to cross the river,” William replied, glancing over at Edward with a dangerous grin. “Looks like you and me get to keep an eye out up here for a little while longer. Plenty of time to have ourselves a little chat.”
Edward Christoff stared back at William cautiously, wondering just how in the world he’d get away with murdering him. He didn’t know how he’d pull it off, with William being a highly skilled soldier. Edward had nothing but a lengthy Ka-Bar at his waist and a suppressed pistol on his thigh—nothing compared to William’s massive rifle and years of training. Still, he knew William was his greatest threat and the hour of doing something about that fact was rapidly approaching. Edward might have been afraid of heights, but that fear was a trivial sensation compared to the pure horror he felt when he thought about his lies being uncovered.
After killing his boss and co-worker months ago while the nation descended into chaos, Edward had left the high-rise in downtown Indianapolis with nothing but a few thousand dollars, a revolver with a couple dozen rounds, and his memories to haunt him. It hadn’t been long before he found three other terrified men willing to band together. They had overtaken a firehouse that first day, killing the two firefighters who had remained behind. Despite exhaustion, Edward hadn’t slept that first night in the firehouse. He envisioned Bob tumbling through the air toward the concrete world below. He saw the firefighters he had murdered holding up their hands in surrender as he and the others did what they felt they had to do. He saw Shannon’s horrified eyes staring back at him, pleading for her life as he pulled the trigger. Killing her had been the most soul-crushing thing Edward had ever done, and her wide eyes haunted him as though she were his own personal Jacob Marley.
I couldn’t have just left her there, he had silently whispered to himself as he lay awake that first night. I couldn’t just leave her paralyzed as she slowly bled to death. I had to do it. I had no other choice!
As he lay there that first night in the firehouse, gazing into the darkness as thought and sorrow raced through his veins, he watched two unknown shapes moved to the cot three men over. He remembered wondering what two of the men were doing sneaking around at that time of night while the others slept. Edward had then watched in horror as one of the men seized the sleeping victim by the mouth as the other slit his throat. The man’s body had twitched in shock, but they held him down and kept him from shouting. When the twitching stopped, the two men had slowly made their way to the cot two spots away from Edward, ready to dispatch another unsuspecting victim.
Fear unlike anything Edward had ever known held him spellbound as he realized he was about to have two armed men try to take his life. He had wanted to shout and alert the others, but he couldn’t move. He had barely been able to breathe. He had only been able to look on in horror as the two men repeated their heinous act a second time. As the dying man ceased to struggle, the two murderers slowly rose and approached the cot next to Edward.
What followed had been but a few seconds of Edward’s life—a brief flicker in time that marked the moment he had first broken through the crippling barriers of dread. He had quietly pulled the revolver from underneath his pillow and pointed it at the man who was lowering himself. He had summoned what courage he could and pulled the trigger. Within five seconds, Edward had emptied his revolver, killing the two unknown assailants. The man lying in the cot had awakened with a start, unaware that he had been so close to death. Edward explained everything to that man, a man named Ben Hampton. In the end, Ben had been grateful for Edward’s intervention and the two gathered the supplies from the four dead men before setting out from the firehouse.
Over the weeks that followed, they had bartered their way into town after town as they made their way south to avoid the winter. Edward, terrified with the concept of having his fears immobilize him once more, had begun to identify everything that induced terror before attempting to conquer those fears. At first it had been simple things, such as stealing vehicles or sneaking into an occupied home to take food. But Edward quickly began to press himself further, killing and robbing his way into the good graces of sinister men. Eventually, he and Ben found themselves in Princeton, West Virginia, by early December. By the time Lukas had dissolved the United States and raised his own empire, Edward had become a man willing to do whatever it took to live another day. It would be another month before he truly felt fear again as the vehicle he had been sitting in was launched into the air by an RPG, crashing down onto its roof just before the men he and his friends had meant to capture burst from the tunnel, wielding lighting and death.
In the moments that followed, as he began to climb out the back window, Edward had believed that death had finally caught him in its web. Panic had gripped him as Gene Smith approached, ready to execute him. Edward’s mind had raced, trying and failing to summon every method of deceit his years as a lawyer and weeks as a dangerous wanderer had taught him.
Still, it had been Adam Reinhart’s pleas with Gene and not Edward’s own smooth tongue that had ultimately saved him. At first, after Adam had convinced Gene to spare his life and bring him with them, Edward had thought he would flee at the first opportunity. However, as the days passed by, he realized his safety could be found in those men so long as he could convince them he was one of the good guys. They had more food than him, strength in numbers, and survival instincts that dwarfed his own. All it would take was a careful matrix of lies to mask his murderous past. Now, nearly two months later, Edward found himself atop a water tower with the one man who was determined to uncover the truth about Edward’s carefully concealed past.
“So what are you hiding?” William asked, glancing over at Edward.
“I’m not hiding anything,” Edward replied, snapping back to the present as he looked back at William.
“Bullshit.” William spit to the side. “I’ve been waiting for a moment alone with you since Princeton. You know, I’ve done a little research into your story and I’d love to hear you fill in some of the gaps. Just know that this time, Adam’s not here to defend your ass. So first off, which lie do you want to go with moving forward? Were you a lawyer or a realtor?”
“I wasn’t lying,” Edward replied. “I was a commercial real-estate lawyer.” Edward was surprised how confident he was in his own words. It wasn’t far from the truth. He had worked as a divorce lawyer in Indianapolis and spent endless hours dividing the assets and properties of angry spouses. He knew revealing the truth was unlikely to be too damaging, but he wanted to avoid admitting to any falsehoods he had spread as he faced off with William.
“Okay, have it your way,” William said, shifting his gun to his shoulder. “We’re going to play a little game. I want you to answer the following questions as fast as you can.”
“Oh, come on,” Edward said. “We’re not really going to—”
“You can bet your ass we are,” William replied. “I’m getting to the bottom of this tonight.”
“Fine,” Edward said, firming his jaw.
You were trained to lie and twist the truth. He might wield a rifle with unshakable hands, but words are your weapons.
“Alright. You said you were a commercial real-estate lawyer,” William began, smiling as he set the rifle down. “Name your largest client.”
“Bold Mine Gaming.” It had been the first name to pop into his head. He could have used any of the real clients he had helped over his eight year career, but they had all been couples looking for him to help legally rip their marriages apart. Bold Mine Gaming had been a college friend’s startup ten years ago. If William was somehow able to research it, he’d read all about their scandal and bankruptcy.
“What did you do for them?” William asked.
“Helped divide their real-estate assets once they went bankrupt,” Edward replied.
“What did they do when they were in business?”
“They specialized in virtual reality gaming solutions,” he replied.
&
nbsp; “How long were you in Richmond?” William asked.
“Eight years,” Edward replied confidently.
“And how long did you live in downtown Indianapolis?”
“Six—” Edward choked, his eyes going wide as he stared back at William.
“That’s what I thought,” William replied, shaking his head. “You know, Lev wanted nothing to do with snooping around through your background. He said he trusted Adam and didn’t want to get into the business of spying on everyone we meet. But me…well, I’m not under Mr. Reinhart’s spell just yet. See, I too know how to navigate the back channels with that tablet Lev’s always carrying around. I can’t touch his skills hacking through encrypted military reports, but I can run a few queries about names and such when need be. As it turns out, Edward Christoff lived up in the good ol’ Circle City, working at Elbridge Associates as a divorce lawyer. There ain’t nothing about him living out in Virginia.”
“It’s not what you think,” Edward began, “I—”
“And while we’re at it,” William cut in. “It’s amazing what someone can uncover with limited skills and time. For example, did you know someone can remotely access archived security footage so long as you have the right equipment, such as Lev’s tablet? Now, I’m assuming that man that fell through the window was your boss or someone along those lines, being as he was clearing out his office and all. What I really want to know is who was that pretty little girl you executed and why did you feel you had to lie about it all? Perhaps everything else you told us was all bullshit, including that little tale about you not being one of the men there to capture us at the tunnel?”
Edward gazed back at William wordlessly, fear gripping him like it once had as he lay on a cot, watching those who intended to take his life. He tried to speak; he tried to think of a new lie that would save him, but he couldn’t. He could only gaze silently at the man who had uncovered Edward’s dark truth.
