by David Peters
Niccole had stopped walking toward them and had sat down on a small bench about ten yards away.
“I’ll be back in a bit to help you finish up the loading.”
Caperson smiled, “Good luck.”
Dylan smiled at Niccole as he approached the bench. She smiled back weakly.
“How are you doing, Coco?”
“Been better,” she said around a slight sniffle.
They walked toward the river in silence.
“You know I have to do this.”
“I know that but it doesn’t make it any easier. I know you couldn’t possibly ask anyone else to do it but that still doesn’t make it any easier. I know that if anyone can pull this off it is you and Cap-Cap but that doesn’t make it okay with me.”
“What can I do to make it easier?”
“Promise me you will come back.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
“Then lie to me, damn it! Tell me you will not leave Daniel and me alone! Promise me that you will bring Caperson back to Jen! Promise me you won’t leave Erica with a broken heart! Promise me that you will come back in one piece!” she leaned into his shoulder and started to cry again.
“I will do everything I can to get back here. You know that.”
“That’s not good enough, damn it!”
“I won’t let you down. That’s the best I can do. I haven’t told you a single lie the entire time I’ve known you and I’m not going to change that now just to make you feel good. I might not return but you can damn well bet that those Hunters won’t be showing up here. Put yourself in my shoes, what would you trade to know that Daniel can grow up in a slightly safer world? That he won’t have his house burned down around him by Sappers or have to flee into the night from Hunters. What is that worth to you?”
“You know I would give anything in my power for that.”
“You’re giving me.”
Niccole looked him in the eyes and nodded, “I’m not happy with it but what you say makes sense.”
“Let me wrap things up here and we can have an early dinner.”
“It better not be our last.”
“I’ll do my best to make sure it isn’t. One way or another I’ll make sure it isn’t.”
~5~
Dylan pulled the line taut as Caperson tied off the rope. The last few boxes were tossed up and Caperson found places in the back of the wagon to store them. With the last of the food stored under the bench, he jumped down to admire their handy work.
“Travis has this thing set up like some sort of old west spy car.” Dylan slid his hand along the length of copper tubing Travis had mounted all around the wooden cart. It ended in a bicycle tire pump and a small pressure chamber crudely attached under the driver’s seat. On a heavy iron pole bolted squarely in front of the passenger side of the bench seat was one of the T-Cannons used on the bus several years ago. Quite a few other devices that Dylan was afraid to ask about were mounted on each of the four corners of the wagon and covered with tightly bound pieces of canvas. They looked like fireworks but he had a feeling they did much more than just spark.
“Did Travis say how exactly he expected us to use all of this stuff?”
Dylan smiled, “His words were something along the lines of, would you rather have it and not need it, or need it and not have it? It made perfect sense to me.”
Caperson nodded and smiled back. He pushed the small tailgate closed and slid the small rope locks into place, “I think we are ready to move out.”
“Are you as scared as I am?”
“Scared isn’t the right word. Insanely terrified gets pretty close.”
“Is there another way to do this that I’m not seeing?” Dylan asked.
“I’ve tried the other ways. They didn’t work.”
Chapter 7
With the squeak of wagon wheels, Caperson coaxed the two horses slowly forward. The sun was still behind the mountains to the east but dawn would be breaking over the forested peaks soon. Ahead of the old Conestoga, two riders were already watching tree lines and hillsides as they rode out through the front gate of town. Dylan rode Buck while Travis was on a horse named Sampson. Jokester sat next to Caperson with his arms crossed and resting on the T-Cannon mount. There was no fan fair, no lines of people waiting to see them off. Just a sleeping town and the night shift guards.
Dylan was still heartbroken as he thought about Daniel and Niccole but he felt stuck between a rock and a hard place. He couldn’t possibly ask, or order for that matter, anyone else to do this mission. It was something he had to do.
Caperson was just as distant as he thought of little Annie waving goodbye, not understanding the possibilities of what was happening.
Dylan waved and the large barricade door began to slide closed behind them. One of the guards waved back in reply but no words were spoken. Dylan wasn’t sure but he thought he could see tears in the man’s eyes. No one expected them to return and more than a few thought it was a fool’s errand. Many others wanted to try to move north where the climate was colder. In the end, everyone understood that running was no longer an option. They had too many people to move and far too few horses to move them. Dylan had pointed out that a colder climate meant a shorter growing season with less food. That had ended the debate for the time being.
Communications being what it was, the only way anyone in the town would ever know if the team was successful was by the lack of a large scale attack. Work crews were working double shifts in order to get the second wall built out and the other defenses in place.
They picked up speed to slightly more than eight miles an hour. The cart rattled and shook as they bounced over the ruts and brush, but it would mean a four day trip instead of the week or more it could take at a much slower pace.
About a quarter mile down the road they passed the first work crew gearing up by the side of the road. Even this early they were already putting the secondary barricade wall and gate in place. The watch stander was on top of one section of completed wall keeping an eye out for any approaching Hunters. He waved silently to the passing assault team but said nothing.
One of the work crew lowered his axe and waved as Dylan passed, “Turn ‘em into puddles, guys.”
“We’ll do our best. See you in a couple of weeks.”
From his horse Dylan could see the end of the gravel road when he heard something running through the low underbrush far to his left. He shouldered his rifle into the darkness but lowered it when Beau sprinted up to his horse. Buck lowered his head and the two bumped noses. Beau sat down and wagged his tail as he looked up at Dylan.
“Figured you were going to sleep in but I guess not. You up for a road trip with the guys? It could be a lot of fun, tons of ‘Rupts to chew on.”
Beau panted and continued to stare at Dylan
“Load up!”
Beau easily jumped into the back of the wagon and stood with his front paws on the driving bench between Caperson and Jokester. Caperson scratched the happy dog behind his ears and coaxed the horses forward again.
With a bump, the wooden wheels left the gravel and the ride smoothed out as they got onto the pavement of the main highway. Weeds had broken through cracks in the pavement and the dividing lines between the lanes had been nearly erased by the weather and lack of maintenance. Trees laid across the road in many places while other parts of the road had been eroded by the intense rainfall over the past few years. They may have been on a highway but their path was anything but straight.
Dylan found himself lost in thought. He couldn’t help thinking that slowly but surely, the existence of man was being washed from the planet. He rode several hundred yards ahead of the wagon. Beau would run this way and that as he explored the world around them but he would always return and look up at Dylan for his approval. He looked over his shoulder from time to time to make sure he wasn’t getting too far ahead of Caperson. Travis was riding a short distance behind Caperson and Jokester, sometimes falling behind to no
te one thing or another along the road in a small notebook. He assumed it was notes for future scouting or scrounging missions. He smiled to himself at the confidence the young man had in their ability to come out of this alive.
He rode past yet another abandoned car. This one had sunk to the rear axle as it had pulled onto the side of the road. Thankfully they had been out in the weather for long enough that the windows had grown green with moss and mildew. He really didn’t want to see if anyone had been left inside.
Dylan thought to himself that they should have the highway scouted better than they do currently. The possibility of finding something useful was worth the risk of finding a potential pile of bones. One abandoned semi-trailer could mean a major treasure haul for the town. Cars could easily have trunks full of usable clothing or equipment. It might also be worthwhile to put some signs up. Give people an idea of which direction to go for safety. He caught himself before he went any further, “Maybe I’ll try and survive the next week or two before I start saving the planet,” he told himself.
They had been moving nonstop for nearly eight hours when Dylan turned and waited for the wagon to catch up. As Caperson passed he nudged Buck alongside his still moving friend, “I think we should keep our eyes out for somewhere to camp. Be nice if we could get the wagon off the road and away from any prying eyes, Corrupted or otherwise.”
“We have a tarp. That will keep the Corrupted away but it would be a magnet for any people out here trying to survive. Give a yell when you want to stop,” Caperson added, “keep in mind my butt has maybe an hour left before it decides to depart altogether and go to a beach in Mexico.”
Dylan laughed and trotted back to the point he was riding several hundred yards in front.
Jokester looked at Caperson, “Another hour? My ass is so numb I don’t think I will be able to feel a chair for a month. Reminds me of the old one-thirteens we rode around in basic. Whoever designed the seats in that personnel carrier either passionately hated people or had never once taken the time to look at a human’s butt.”
Caperson smiled at the memory, “Sure you wouldn’t trade this for a tank?”
“Not on your life. I always get stuck in the back. At best I have a gun port to look out of. Look at this scenery around us. Now imagine looking at it through the lens of a cheap hotel front door peep hole. You had all that gold and silver bling on your collar. Front row seat, rode up there like a rock star while you stuck your head out if the air got too bad. Wind blowing through your,” Jokester looked briefly at Caperson’s close cropped hair. “Forget it, you don’t have anything for the wind to blow through but you get the idea.”
“I don’t quite recall my military career in the same way you do, Jokester.”
“Well careers always look different when you are looking down as apposed to looking up,” Jokester said with a smile.
“Do you really think I was that pompous as a leader?” Caperson asked.
“Not at all. You were easily the best commander I ever had but if getting a rise out of you shortens this trip even ten seconds, I’ll take it.”
An hour of steady moving had them in the middle of nowhere on a long stretch of overgrown highway. At the end of the long straightaway there was a small exit ramp and a dilapidated gas station. The rolling garage doors were wide open but the inside of the building was still usable. The garage was big enough to pull the cart in and unhook the horses. After a quick brush down, Dylan led them out behind the station where there was a large field of overgrown grass. With the doors rolled shut, they would be invisible to all but the most curious eyes.
Dylan pulled a sandwich and canteen of water out of his pack and sat back in the small office chair. The four of them ate in silence as the world grew darker around them. When the sun finally set, the moon and stars would be their only light.
Speaking around a mouthful of sandwich, Jokester broke the silence, “I’ll take first watch, my ass is going to keep me awake all night anyway. It’s moving from the numb stage back to the pokey needle stage.”
Travis spoke up before anyone else could say anything, “I’ll take second watch. I don’t sleep more than four hours at night anyway.”
Dylan watched Caperson in the fading light, “How are you so cool?”
“Excuse me?” Caperson said as if he had been caught off guard.
“Four of us are about to assault the biggest hive we have ever heard of and you are completely calm.”
“I think the Santa Fe hive may have been bigger, at least area wise.”
“Fine, the second biggest hive any of us have seen. This is the biggest anyone has attempted to assault on horseback with a civil war era wagon. How do you do it?”
“It isn’t the first time I have ridden into battle. I lost count of how many countries I was in where I got shot at before I went reserve. I remember sitting in a small ditch in some damn country as bullets were sailing all around me. It was raining these big fat tadpole sized rain drops, the mud smelled like dog crap and I couldn’t find half my guys, we were scattered across nearly a kilometer of hillside. It isn’t like the movies you know, a bullet hitting a rock doesn’t make a nifty little ricochet sound and tumble off into the distance. It splats against the rock and shoots little bits of shit all over the place. You feel it bouncing off your flak vest, stinging your face. Sometimes you don’t even realize you’ve been hit until the battle is long over. After a while, it kind of dawns on you. There really isn’t anything you can do to stop it. If your number is up, it’s up. You just do your damn best to make sure those guys around you, your brothers, well, you make sure you don’t let them down. But if someone has your number, well, that’s just how it is. You can’t wish your way out of it.”
Dylan nodded as he began to see his friend in a different light.
“I’ve fought along side some of the best damn soldiers ever to set foot on this earth. I’ve seen them die so those around them would live. If you are so terrified that you can’t do anything, you won’t. I forget who said it, think it was actually Shakespeare, but courage isn’t the lack of fear, it is action in spite of fear. Right now, I’m scared shitless. I start to shake a little when I think about the total lunacy of what we are doing. Four men taking on tens of thousands of Corrupted. But we have families, we have sons and daughters, wives, hell, our whole world is behind that wall in Paradise Falls. Everything we know and love, everything we have left in this world is tucked away behind a few meters of dirt and wood and they are counting on us. My survival doesn’t mean a hill of beans right now, but success? Success means everything. Once we get those cans up to speed, I don’t really care. They can come at me all they want. Even if they tear me into little bits, we win this round and it was worth it.”
Dylan continued to eat his sandwich as he let Caperson’s words sink in. The more he thought about it the more it became clear. He was terrified, but not of getting killed, he knew the odds were slim of surviving and in all likelihood they were already dead. He was scared they would fail. Scared that they would get killed before they could deploy the drums, scared that the only word Niccole would ever get would come from thousands of Hunters storming the walls of Paradise Falls. There was no room for failure and there was no room for fear.
Beau finished up his bowl of food and after several laps from his water bowl he looked up at Dylan as if to say, “Back to work.” He walked over to the only entrance not blocked off by furniture and lay down, his head facing the dirty glass door.
Dylan pulled a blanket out and used his pack as a pillow. Caperson did the same in silence. Jokester moved a chair over by the front window but chose to stand as he looked out into the field of blackness.
Dylan’s last thought as he faded off to sleep was Niccole sleeping with Daniel. He couldn’t let them down. He may never see them again, but they would survive.
~1~
They mounted up and got back on the highway as the first ray of sunlight cleared the distant mountains. They left a large message on the
back of the wall for any people that may be making their way through the area. A simple note telling them where to go in order to make their way to Paradise Falls along with the date they wrote the message.
“How many people coming through here are even aware of the date?” Dylan asked no one in particular.
Caperson held up his arm to show his watch, “Not everything ran on batteries.”
Travis had scoured the station for anything usable but found it fairly well looted. He managed to find an unopened box of candy bars but they had melted out of their wrappers and no one was willing to scrape off the gray fuzz to get to any chocolate underneath.
They agreed before heading out that they needed to rotate the positions more in order to make sure they could still feel their lower halves when it came time to actually fight the Corrupted. Dylan drove the wagon and Travis manned the T-Cannon. Caperson and Buck were far in front of the wagon while Jokester rode a few yards to their right. Beau stood with his paws on the bench next to Dylan, panting as he took in the scenery, occasionally smelling the air or moving to the back of the wagon to get a better view of something as they passed by.
“Have to love the sights out here. Some of these views are spectacular,” Dylan said as they made their way down the mountain pass.
“The trees sure like the climate change. Long wet growing seasons and short mild winters. Look at that hillside! The things are growing like crazy. These highways have a few more years before they will be completely overgrown or covered over in places.”
Ahead of them, Caperson had stopped near the side of the road and waited for them to close the distance. Beside him, a large green sign was lying in the weeds and brush. Caperson kicked off the weeds and read the sign, “Welcome to Idaho.”
Dylan set the brake and stepped down, “Moving forward, we should expect to see patrols from the Folkesburg hive. It’s a ways off yet but let’s be overly cautious. You guys ready to switch out?”
“Hell yes! My ass will take a pine plank to that leather monster you call a saddle any day of the week.”
