by Jack Hunt
The sterile steel bench inside the jail cell was cold and hard. They hadn’t used them since the Commander had been operating. He’d been staring up at the ceiling for what seemed like hours before the door opened. Murphy stepped inside and looked back at the guard.
“It’s fine, you can leave it open.”
The guard tossed him a look and left both of them alone. Murphy came over to the seat and perched on the edge.
“Hitting one of the men. Really?”
Sam didn’t reply.
“What am I going to do with you? You can’t just go around hitting security. What were you thinking?”
“You want to wait to go, be my guest but you didn’t hear that call, Murphy, or see the kind of people we were up against in Faulkton.”
“And so you thought you could do this alone?”
“It’s better than staying here and doing nothing.”
“We aren’t doing anything, Sam Our lives. Your life is as important as anyone else’s. Don’t you think that we want to help? Of course we do but going in there by yourself is absurd. Use some common sense.”
“I wouldn’t be going alone if others came with me.”
Murphy sighed and ran a hand around the back of his own neck.
“When we were in Mount Pleasant and needed to fight to get out, that made sense. We had no other choice. When we were taken captive by the Commander, again, we had no other choice. But now, we don’t need to risk our lives.”
“So all that stuff you told us when we were in Camp Zero means nothing? The whole, standing by each other?”
“It’s different, Sam.”
Sam shook his head. “No, it’s not. If that was Ally in Mount Pleasant, you would be there in a heartbeat. There would be no voting or waiting around, would there? Huh?”
Murphy braced himself against the bench and tilted his head up as if contemplating what to say.
“No. There wouldn’t be. But if what was happening in Faulkton is happening in Mount Pleasant, there are going to be many other towns that are going to be infected. You can’t save them all. We have to start thinking about our own survival. What is important to people here. Our lives matter as much those in Mount Pleasant and right now the best thing you could do is stay, help out with the fence project.”
“And what about Tom and the others?”
“I’m not saying we aren’t going to do anything but we have to go about this the right way. Understand.”
Sam stared down for a second before nodding.
“We good?”
“Yeah,” Sam replied.
Murphy offered him a hand up and they walked out.
“You know you are going to have to apologize to Nick. You gave him quite a welt. The guy is pissed.”
Later that morning Sam made amends and returned to the other three. They couldn’t contain their amusement.
“Seriously, Frost, you continue to amaze me,” Luke said. “Did you really think they were going to let you ride out of here with a vehicle?”
“Like you would have done any different,” Corey remarked while smoking a cigarette.
“I would have been able to breeze out of here with weapons and a vehicle.”
Corey snorted. “How so?”
“Simple,” Luke tapped his head. “By thinking ahead.”
“How?” Sam asked.
Luke put his feet on the table and leaned back in a chair as though he was some businessman about to give a speech. “Well, while you pinheads were wasting your time clearing up this shithole after the Commander was taken out, I grabbed a bag of weapons, food and a vehicle and I stashed them outside of the community.”
“You stole?”
“Stole, uh, such a harsh word. I like to think of it as borrowing. I may never use them but in the event that someone in this community gets a chip on their shoulder and a god complex, I have what is required to get the hell out of here and survive. Call it my bug-out bag, except it’s more of a bug-out truck.”
“You old dog,” Corey said before scootching forward in his chair.
Sam observed Luke intently. “So where did you put this truck?”
He chuckled. “Oh yeah, I bet you would like to know that, Frost.” He paused. “But here’s the thing. It’s no good to you if you don’t know how to get out of here without being seen.”
He had a point. The community wasn’t a prison. People could come and go but they had to have a good reason. It wasn’t a heavy rule but everyone had to check in and check out. That way they could keep track of everyone and make sure no one went missing. It was one of the first rules agreed upon by the community.
“Come on.”
He laughed. “You’re still thinking of leaving, aren’t you? Even after what Murphy said.”
“He doesn’t understand.”
“Oh he does. He’s thinking of his own ass and quite frankly that’s smart.”
Luke stared back at Sam and wagged his finger. “How much is it worth to you?”
“What?”
“Well, I’m not going to let you use it for free. I’m taking a big risk. A full tank of gas, weapons and food, what do you think it’s worth, Corey?” he asked without taking his eyes off Sam.
“Um, hard to say. Depends what you want.”
“Just tell me, I don’t have time to piss around,” Sam said.
Luke got up and took out a pack of cigarettes. He tapped one out. “You know what. I’ll think about it. In the meantime, you can use it. I’ll take you to it this evening. But I’m telling you if it gets out that you have escaped, I won’t say anything and neither will Corey or Billy.”
Corey did a zipping motion with his fingers near his lips.
Nothing specific had been set up in the community as a means of punishment for breaking rules, at least no one had tried to break what rules had been agreed upon, mainly because they worked in favor of everyone’s best interests.
“Agreed?” Luke asked. He had this devilish look in his eye.
Sam sighed and nodded, knowing he would regret it later.
4
At around nine that evening, Luke led Sam to a section of the fence that he had cut into with wire cutters. He had chosen a spot where a large cluster of bushes were and he’d only cut away a small amount of the wire, just enough to slip out.
Both of them waited in the darkness for two security guards to go past before they sprinted over to the bushes and Luke forced his way through the fence. Once he was on the other side he held back the wire to let Sam through. Within a matter of minutes, they were in the forest and on their way to Luke’s hidden location.
“Seriously, how did you get this truck out?”
Luke was a few feet ahead of him. “I knew that it was only going to be a matter of time before they came up with their own set of rules. It was chaos in those first few days after the battle. There were several crews going out to collect supplies. I took the truck out, and then hitched a ride back with someone else. They weren’t logging what went in and out at that point. You got to think ahead, my friend. Don’t think for one minute that this is the end of the road. Everyone starts out with good intentions but the power eventually goes to their heads. Mark my words. A few months from now, Hank will be acting like the Commander.”
“You’re paranoid. There has to be someone in charge otherwise there would be anarchy.”
Luke laughed as he pushed through some branches. It was super dark in the forest. A canopy of leaves and branches blocked out what little light came from the moon and stars.
“You really are sucking down the Kool-Aid they are giving you.”
“No, it’s just common sense, Luke.”
“Like what you are doing now?” He chuckled.
“That’s different.”
“Yeah, I bet it is.”
Right then there was a noise behind them. Sam grabbed a hold of Luke and pulled him to the ground. In the darkness of the forest they watched and waited to see who it was. When the silhouettes of four p
eople came into view, Sam jumped up ready to swing a baseball bat.
“Whoa!” Billy cried out.
“Billy! What the hell are you doing here?”
With him were Ally, Kiera and Corey.
“Okay, this is not a convention,” Luke said. “Turn around and go back.”
“Corey told us what you were planning. We’re coming with you,” Ally said.
“No you’re not,” Sam said.
“Don’t even attempt to give a reason why,” Ally said pushing past him.
“Ally. Ally!”
She turned around. “Going in there by yourself is madness, if you want my father’s help, you have to give him a reason.”
She continued walking and Sam stared at her. “No, no, no. Hold on a minute.” He rushed up to her. “He will kill me if he thinks I convinced you to go along with me.”
“He won’t know. Now we can either stand here debating this or get moving. We have a lot of ground to cover. Now where is this truck of yours, Luke?”
“You know she’s right,” Kiera said as she passed by. As Corey attempted to follow her Luke grabbed a hold of him.
“This is your fault. Why the hell did you tell her?’
“Get the hell off me, man,” he pulled himself away. “They saw both of you leave. What was I supposed to say?” He pressed on and Billy passed by them with a big grin on his face. Like usual he thought it was all one big joke.
“Well, I couldn’t let you guys have all the fun, now could I?”
Sam shook his head. Luke sighed and both of them caught up with Ally who was leading the way.
It took around twenty minutes to reach the location. Luke had parked the truck deep inside the forest and covered it with two layers of military netting, branches and leaves. In the dark it just looked like a dense part of the forest. Once they had managed to reverse it out of its concealment, everyone jumped in. It was an old truck from the early eighties, it was hard to tell what model in the dark. Luke, Sam, Ally and Kiera sat up front while the other two sat in the back.
“You got enough fuel?”
Luke nudged with his head to the back where there were two canisters of gas along with several boxes that he’d filled with food and supplies.
“There might not be enough weapons for everyone. I was only thinking about myself.”
“That’s right you were only thinking of yourself,” Kiera shot back.
Over the past few months she had really come out of her shell and worked through some of the trauma she had experienced seven months before that. No one thought that it had all been dealt with, there would always be some underlying emotional scars but at least she was talking again. She didn’t do a lot of laughing and when she did, it was with her mother or Ally.
“Give it a rest,” Luke said, gripping the wheel with one hand while trying to light a cigarette with the other. “No one told you to come.”
“Hey!” Ally reprimanded him. Luke was an oddball, he didn’t take a lot of shit from people but the ladies, well, he seemed to have a soft spot for them. Had it been anyone else he would have told them where to go shove it. He wound his window down and tapped his cigarette outside.
Within ten minutes the group was on the road heading south. Not much had changed in a year. The roads were still clogged with vehicles no longer in use. Most of the time they had to drive on the shoulder, or work their way around vehicles. Luke took U.S. Route 2 down to 95. Along the way they saw homes that had been set on fire. They just assumed it was another attack by survivors. The United States had become a dangerous place to be in more ways than one. Desperate times brought out things in people that they didn’t think they were capable of doing.
They had been on the road for several hours and burned their way through the bulk of gasoline when they came over a rise and noticed something odd. Up ahead there were flames going from one side of the road to the other. The fire stretched down into the ditch and into the woodland. Luke applied the brakes and let the truck idle.
“What do you think?”
“Back up.”
Luke stared ahead for a minute or two, then slammed the gear into reverse, twisted in his seat and groaned.
“What?” Sam spun around and saw that there was the same thing again. Now there was flame behind them. “Billy, did you see anyone?”
Billy poked his head in through the rear window. “No, I was looking at the flames ahead.”
“If it was set by someone, where are they?” Kiera asked.
“Where do you think?” Luke replied. She glared at him.
“There’s a road a few miles back.”
“Doesn’t matter. We won’t have enough gas. As it is I think we are going to have to siphon a vehicle or two.”
“Didn’t you bring enough?” Kiera asked
“I didn’t bank on taking a long ass road trip, princess.”
“So what do we do?” Billy asked.
“Just floor it,” Sam said pointing ahead. “Either way we are going to have to drive through it. Give it some gas. Chances are we’ll make it through.”
Luke gunned the engine and they jerked back in their seats. As they got closer they noticed the fire was beginning to move. From a distance it looked as if someone had taken a gasoline can and poured it out in a straight line and lit it, but the closer they got, the clearer it was to see that it was a thick rope that had been set on fire.
Before Sam could get the words out, the thick rope came up. Attached to it was what appeared to be metallic mesh netting. At the speed Luke was traveling there was no time to slow. If he had slammed the brakes, the truck would have veered off the road into the ditch. The netting went over the truck. Like a fish being caught inside a large net, the truck was engulfed. The flame-covered rope must have been released as it disappeared, and when the truck came to a halt it was smothered in wire that was attached to trees and vehicles either side. There was no way that anyone could get out even if they tried. The crimped wire-mesh netting jammed the doors. The sound of hoots and hollers and guns going off came next followed by twenty, maybe thirty people rushing the vehicle. They banged against the side while others aimed rifles at them.
All of them had their faces covered in paint. Their clothing looked to be handmade, a combination of leather, denim and mesh. Several of them banged on the side with bats full of nails. In the back Corey and Billy didn’t even have time to grab a weapon. Sam and the others did the only thing left, they raised their hands.
“Un-friggin’-believable. I knew this was a bad idea,” Billy said.
They were quickly dragged from their vehicle and tied up. Within five minutes they were being hauled in the back of a cart behind a horse through the woods. They had shoved them inside a wooden enclosure that was made out of thick tree branches. Any talking was met with a sharp jab to the face from a stick or a rifle.
When they finally made it into a clearing, they took in the sight of a campsite that must have had around forty people. Most of them looked as though they had lived in the woods all their life. The guys had long thick beards, and the women looked as if they hadn’t take a bath in weeks.
Immediately upon arrival they were left to wonder what was going to be done to them. Ten minutes or so passed before a man pushed through the crowd and approached the group.
“Where are you from?”
Sam reeled back at the smell of his breath.
“Hayden,” Luke muttered.
“Don’t know it.”
“It’s a small town. What do you want?”
“To want, implies we don’t have. We have your truck and supplies. We don’t want anything.”
“Then let us go,” Ally said. The man glanced at Ally and Kiera then directed his attention at Sam.
“Where were you heading?”
“Mount Pleasant.”
“There’s nothing down there. It’s a ghost town.”
Sam frowned and looked at Luke. “I spoke to them. There are people there.”
“I’
m telling you that there is no one there.”
Sam gazed around. “Why are you here and not in one of the towns?”
“Because towns will be the first to be hit.”
“Look, we don’t want any trouble. We’ll just take the truck and you can keep the rest,” Sam said.
“Fuck that. That’s my property,” Luke replied. “No, this is how this is going to go, let us out, we take the truck and everything we brought and you get to live another day.”
The man’s lips broke into a grin then into a chuckle, then into a full belly laugh. “I like you.”
Right then one of his men came running up and whispered into his ear.
He nodded and made a gesture with his hand. “Release them.”
The group untangled themselves from each other as the space inside the crate was barely big enough to hold four of them, let alone six. Several of the leader’s men kept their weapons fixed on Sam and the others.
“Come, sit with us and have a bite to eat. I’m interested to know how you’ve survived so far.”
Sam raised a quizzical eyebrow. He was confused by their change of heart.
“You know if you wanted us to have dinner, you could have just asked. The whole mesh netting was overkill,” Sam said.
He laughed. “Precautions. We never know who we are dealing with.”
As the group parted, near the fire that was sending burning embers up into the night sky was a familiar face.
“Hello Luke,” an older guy said.
Luke squinted. “Erik?”
All of them were surprised to see him. Erik was Luke’s older brother. He had left town long before the assault on the USA. He’d been in some punk band that was touring the country. It was absolute crap music but he thought he was the next Green Day.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I see you didn’t hang around long to find out.”
Erik got up and hugged his brother.
“How did you…?”
“When it hit we were playing at some dive in Oregon.”
“Who are all these people?” Luke asked.
“Other survivors we met along the way. We’ve been camped out here for the last two months. Haven’t seen anyone except a few stragglers until you folks showed up.”
