by W. J. Lundy
“You okay?” he asked her.
She looked up at him. She had dirt on her face that left a brown streak as she blinked away a tear. Her hair was matted and filled with leaves and bits of grass. She clenched her eyes again then opened them slowly. “Did they want to hurt us, Shane?”
Shane coughed, trying to hide his emotions. “Yeah, Ella, they wanted to hurt us.”
“Were they bad men? Like on the boat?”
The man in the trunk screamed again and banged against the backseat from inside the trunk.
“Yeah, they were bad men, but this one is going to show us someplace safe to stay tonight.”
Shane ignored the screaming and put his hand on Ella’s head. She grabbed his wrist and held it to her face.
CHAPTER 18
Brad sat at an end of the sofa with Doctor Howard next to him. Meyers and Gunner leaned across the desk, obsessing over a map of the local rivers. The doctor fidgeted and ran his fingers through his pockets nervously. The unrelenting motion agitated Brad. A knock at the office door finally caused Howard to stop moving and sit upright as the knob turned and the door crept open. Cordell peeked in, announced he’d returned with the captain, and then motioned an older man dressed in canvas pants and a yellow jacket through the door ahead of him.
Cordell made introductions and showed the man a seat on a wobbly wooden chair. Gunner offered the captain a drink which he readily accepted. The captain pushed the tin cup through a heavy white beard and drank thirstily.
“Ahh, it’s good,” he bellowed.
Gunner laughed. “It’s an acquired taste, I suppose.”
The captain finished then held the cup up. Gunner walked around the desk with the bottle, sat on the desktop, and refilled the captain’s glass. The captain grinned and sipped this time. “So, what is it you’ve brought me here for? What is it you be wanting? Booze? Bullets? Women, maybe?”
Gunner looked at him. “Really, you can get all of those things?”
“Sure, and if I don’t have it, I know where to find it.”
Meyers chuckled from the corner of the room and rounded the desk, finding a place to sit next to Gunner. “I don’t think we will be requiring such fine things from you. What we require is transportation.”
The captain shot Meyers a puzzled looked. “Transportation? I assume that’s your Coast Guard vessel anchored in the harbor. Why would you need me with that sort of horse power?”
Gunner answered, “Cap’n, we need to get up the river.”
The captain took another long sip then shook his head. “Please, call me David.” He took another sip, then took a deep breath. “No, nobody goes up the river except the salvagers. I bring folks back here on my return trip. I’ll salvage supplies, get you what you want, but I don’t take passengers up the river; too dangerous.”
Gunner offered the bottle and refilled his cup. “Well, that’s where we need to go, so we are asking you politely to take us.”
David shook his head again and squinted. “Why would you want to go up river? Nothing up there but death.”
“We’re looking for a girl,” Howard shouted, causing Meyers to scowl.
“Ahh, so it is women you’re after?” David said, grinning,
“No. She’s injured or maybe…” Howard paused, looking down at the leather satchel in his lap. “We have to find her, she has been missing since Fort Collins—“
“Collins?!” David exclaimed, interrupting Howard.
Meyers lifted the map and pushed it to the captain. “Yes, it’s a distance up the—.”
“I know where in the hell it’s at. Tell me about this girl, why do you want her?” David asked, now looking agitated.
Howard swallowed hard. “She’s a patient—”
Brad held up his hand, stopping Howard from continuing. He looked at David and could see the look of recognition in his face.
Brad leaned forward on the sofa and looked the captain in the eye. “What is it about Fort Collins?”
“Huh… It’s nothing.”
Brad stared him down. “Cut the bullshit. I saw the look you gave when you heard it mentioned.”
David exhaled deeply. “I picked up a soldier on the river; he claimed to have come from there. He was traveling with a girl.”
Cordell grunted. “Some coincidence. How do we know you’re not lying?”
Brad held up his hand again. “No, he’s telling the truth. Where are they now?”
David looked worried. He emptied the cup again and held it to Gunner, who shook his head and pointed to Brad, as if telling him to answer the question. David took a deep breath and sighed.
“There was a problem on the boat—a disagreement among the passengers—the soldier asked to be put ashore.”
“Put ashore? Where?” Howard asked nearly shouting.
The captain shook his head avoiding eye contact. “It doesn’t matter. The girl was infected.”
“What makes you say that?” Howard asked.
“She was bitten; I saw it myself, on her arm,” David explained.
Howard quickly opened the leather satchel and searched through the stack of papers until finding the photograph he was searching for, and then he held it up to the captain.
“The wound, did it look like this?” Howard asked.
David stared at the picture, then looked away and held the cup up to Gunner. “Please.”
Gunner stared back at him. “The wound didn’t look like that, did it?”
“No, it was healing,” David gasped.
Howard jumped to his feet. “I knew it. She is here; we need to leave right away!”
Meyers looked at David. “You said they went ashore. Can you take us there?”
David became restless in his seat and looked as if he wanted to end the conversation. “I… I could take you to the general area. It’s not far from here; less than a day under power. But I’m not sure that you would find anything. It’s been some time and—“
“Wait,” Brad interrupted. “Just why, exactly, would put a small girl ashore when you were a day out from the fort?”
David held his hands in his lap. Using his right hand to squeeze the fingers of his left, he avoided eye contact. “I’ll take you, but we will need to leave soon. And my men won’t be leaving the boat, and we won’t be waiting for you.”
“Aye, mate, why don’t you answer the question; why did they leave your boat?” Meyers asked again.
“I said I would take you, do you want to travel up river or not?” David said, losing his temper. He got to his feet and looked to Cordell. “I’ll ready my crew; we leave as soon as it gets dark.”
“At night? Why at night?” Brad asked.
David looked at him sternly. “We know what to expect from them at night. During the day they are unpredictable. I find it safer to have my entire crew up and alert while the infected are most active. We sleep when they sleep and we travel when they travel.” David turned toward the door, then stopped and looked back. “My boat travels at dusk; if you’re not aboard, we won’t be waiting.”
David left the room and closed the door hard behind him. Brad got to his feet and walked across the room, stopping near the door. “Cordell, can we trust him?”
Cordell laughed. “Hell no—don’t trust anyone here.”
Meyers got up from the desk and stretched. “Fair enough, can you arrange transport for us to the barge?”
“Of course, consider it done.”
Gunner pointed to the door. “Okay then, the boat will stay in the harbor. We will leave a radio and some comms gear so we can keep in touch as long as we are within range. There’s an officer on board and several men that will be staying behind. I’d recommend you bring her ashore and place her in charge of the camp.”
Cordell smiled and stood. “We will make things right here. But first, let’s get you moving.”
CHAPTER 19
The road widened. Tall grass on both sides led up to hilly terrain and un-harvested fields before entering dark tree
lines. They passed a cluster of small homes with broken windows and broken doors. Shane drove until they were in his rear view, then slowed the car and put it in park. He left the sedan in the middle of the road with the engine running. The man in the back had stopped his protests, but he could hear him moving around once the car had stopped.
Shane looked at Ella and told her to get into the back seat. He opened the door and reached down to press the trunk release button. He heard the click and pop of the trunk. Then the wounded man in the back began thrashing again. Shane stepped out of the car and grabbed the pistol from his belt, walked to the back of the car, and saw the man look up at him. The man opened his mouth to speak but before he could, Shane reached down and pulled the man from the trunk by his arm and let him fall hard to the ground.
He grabbed the man’s shirt and dragged him to the passenger’s side door, then stood him up on his one good leg. “I’m going to sit you in the car and you’re going to lead me to the camp. You understand?”
The injured man clenched his teeth and nodded his head.
Shane pulled the wounded man away from the car and opened the door. He pushed him onto the seat, allowing the man to hit his head on the roof as he entered. He grabbed the man’s shirt, pulled him upright, and then wrapped the seatbelt tightly around his waist. Shane pulled a length of cord from a cargo pocket, bound the man’s hands to the lap belt, and used another length to tie the man’s neck to the headrest support. “You all comfy?” he asked, not expecting an answer.
Shane closed the door and walked around, dropping into the driver’s seat.
“Where to?”
The man grunted and turned his head to look at Shane. “Water.”
Shane grinned. “You’ll drink when we get there.”
The man put his head down. Shane reached over, grabbed the back of his neck and forced him to look ahead. He demanded, “Now where to, or I’ll dump you here.”
“Just drive, you’re going the right way.”
Shane put the car in gear and accelerated, staying to the center of the blacktop road. The man mumbled and, again, asked for something to drink. Shane saw Ella looking at him in the rearview mirror, so he nodded to her. “Ella, there is a bottle in the bag. Would you get it for me please?”
After a moment of rustling, Ella stood on the backseat and handed Shane the bottle. He twisted off the cap and held it to the wounded man’s lips, allowing him to drink. Shane pulled the bottle away and placed it in a cup holder. “So, where are we going?”
“It’s not far,” the man mumbled.
“Who were they? The others at the roadblock, they family?” Shane asked.
The man shook his head. “No, they were friends of my brother Earl. He was out huntin' with Gary. We was waiting for him to come back when we saw you driving his truck.”
“Oh yeah, I remember Earl; short guy, fat, built like 250 pounds of chewed bubble gum? Yeah… good ol’ Earl. So tell me, you always setup roadblocks and shoot at children when you go out huntin’?”
“He’s dead, isn’t he?”
“Very,” Shane said, not taking his eyes of the road. “So what was the plan? Rob and murder; little bit of kiddie rape? I’d heard there were folks like you out here, but never ran into any.”
“Honest, mister, it’s nothing like that; they was just out hunting for deer and such.”
“It’s a good story, I’ll give you that. So, how many times have you done this sort of thing? Send the inbred trash out ahead on the road to spook up unsuspecting travelers and you all hang back, jerking each other off, waiting to ambush anyone that makes it past them?”
The wounded man looked away, ignoring Shane’s comments.
“Don’t worry kid, I won’t kill ya today. But if I catch you in a lie, or if I find more of your inbred cousins at this camp, I will make the last moments of your life very painful,” Shane said in a calm voice.
“Why are you doing this?”
Shane feigned laughter and ignored the question. “What’s your name kid?”
“Kyle,” he answered.
“Kyle, everything I do, I do for her.”
“You kill for her?”
“No, I protect her and I destroy anything that tries to harm her—”
“It’s right up here, follow the white fence,” Kyle interrupted using his neck to point out a quickly approaching high fence skinned in white sheet metal.
The fence was tall and set back off the road. Mounds of stacked cars and other junk could be seen piled high at points. Shane slowed the car and carefully eased over to the shoulder of the road. He put the car in park and killed the engine. Shane sat silently for a minute, hushing Kyle when he tried to speak. He opened the door and slowly walked to the front of the car while listening for sounds. He climbed onto the hood and moved to the roof of the sedan.
He could just barely see inside the compound. As it appeared from the outside, it was definitely a scrap yard. Piles of sorted metal were scattered around a central building while rows of smashed and stacked cars made up the far sides of the lot. From what Shane could tell, the high fence surrounded the entire compound. He stood waiting and listening; finally satisfied he was alone, he walked back down from the roof and reentered the car.
“How do we get in?”
“The gate’s just ahead. There’s a combo lock on the fence post.”
Shane put the car in gear and continued up the road to where a small gravel drive veered off from the blacktop. He pulled the car off the road and wheeled up to the front gate. Kyle explained there was a small metallic box with a cipher lock welded to one of the gate’s arms. Shane stopped just in front of it.
“No surprises, right, Kyle?”
“No, it’s good. There used to be dogs, but we had to shoot 'em because they wouldn’t stop barking at night,” Kyle said.
“Maybe you should have shot your brother and his friends instead. What’s the code?”
“Junior and senior’s numbers,” Kyle answered.
“What?”
“Eighty-eight, zero-three... ain’t you into NASCAR?”
Shane ignored him and cautiously walked to the gate with his rifle at the ready. He moved as close to the vertical arm that held the cipher lock as he could, and carefully peered inside. No movement; a number of plastic drums and some boxes scattered around a gravel drive. Farther back, stood the structure. The windows were all shuttered and a steel door marked the end of the dirt walkway leading up to it. Shane stepped back and entered the numbers into the lock and turned the knob; he felt the lock click and the gate slid freely in his hand.
He pushed the gate open just enough so that he could get the sedan through. He quickly closed it afterwards, then drove the car up and past the single building before he backed the car in and cut the engine. He opened his door and stepped out, looked around briefly, then opened the back door and held Ella’s hand as she jumped out and onto the gravel drive. Shane closed the door and walked to the metal door of the structure. As he walked toward the door, he could hear Kyle yelling to let him out of the car. Shane ignored him. There was a small chair next to the door. He told Ella to sit there and wait for him; if she needed anything, she should call for him.
Shane took a look back at the car and saw Kyle still securely strapped into the seat. He walked along the porch of the building and checked the knob. It turned freely in his hand. He let his M4 rifle hang from its sling while he drew the smaller Walther pistol. Shane turned the knob and pushed the door in. It swung open silently on well-oiled hinges. Light shone into the room from the open door, but when Shane leaned and peeked inside, he was surprised to see a low wattage light glowing dimly from the ceiling.
The room looked like a business space; a long counter was scattered with rusted car parts and bolts. Along a wall was a wooden bench, and on a table sat a mold-covered coffee pot. Shane stepped completely into the room, then shuffled to the right so that his back was against the wall. A green ledger book and cash register were on the far
end of the counter, numerous automotive posters and calendars decorated a wall. A large steel sign on the counter read Douglas Used Auto Parts. There was a break at the right end of the counter that led to a doorway.
Shane followed it to hall. Its floor was made of smoothed concrete. Immediately to the right he found a small office furnished with a wooden desk covered with old Playboy magazines and crumpled food wrappers. The room was small, musty, and dimly lit by the same type of low-watt bulb hanging from the ceiling. Shane reached in and pulled the door shut before he continued down the hallway. He passed a filthy restroom with a propped open door and some type of cleaning closet with stiff mops and rusted buckets. The hallway ended at a heavy steel door with another dim light hanging above it. Again the knob turned freely, so Shane turned it and pushed the door open. A large automotive garage, smelling of oil and gasoline and at least sixty feet in length with five large overhead doors on the right wall, greeted him. The two nearest doors were closed and a sort of living arrangement was formed in front of them. As Shane walked past, he saw old couches and box spring mattresses. In a corner was a large pile of women’s clothing articles as well as numerous pieces of luggage and duffle bags.
This was where they lived, he thought. Shane could see an old camp stove used for cooking, a large truck tire rim filled with wood embers from a recent campfire, stacked cardboard containers that held canned goods, and empty food boxes and wrappers. Shane patrolled through the space to the end where the last three doors were left open. There were oil drips on the floor inside where cars had been parked. This must be where Earl kept his truck, Shane thought to himself, looking at the muddy tire tracks and using the toe of his boot to scuff the fresh oil drips. Shane exited the building and followed it back around to the front where he found Ella still sitting in the chair.
She followed him back to the car and Shane drove it around the building, into the garage, and killed the engine. He got out and pulled a number of chains that quickly closed all of the open bay doors. He walked around to the backseat and opened Ella’s door, then pointed to one of the old sofas in the living area. She quickly obeyed and exited the car. Shane moved to the passenger side and opened Kyle’s door. He removed the cord from his neck and wrists but kept his hands and ankles bound.
