“That kid hasn’t been wrong yet and is as valuable to us as Dallas is.”
They sat in silence a minute before Butcher said she would take the first watch, leaving Roper and Cue sitting in the moonlight touched darkness.
“I’m just not used to it. That’s all I’m saying. My wife…well…she’s the kinda lady who never had a job in her life. I always took good care of her and my boys.”
“So, you have a family.”
He nodded. “Wife and two boys back in Atlanta. I haven’t heard from them.”
“Is that your plan, then? To return to Atlanta?”
He looked down and nodded his head. “I know they were hit, too, but I have to see if they’re alive. I’ll go as far east as ya’ll take me, but then I need to part ways and find my family.”
“We’re going to the desert. How are you planning to get further east?”
“Once I find a car, I’ll just take that and car-hop until I can get to Georgia.”
Roper leaned her back against the tree. He would never make it. The military would get him first, but she saw no need to disillusion him.
“What about you?” Cue asked.
“I’m gonna stay with Dallas and the kid indefinitely.”
“No family?”
“I do. In Houston, but I think it’s best to just stay alive and, so far, those two have done a remarkable job at it.”
“You don’t care about your family?”
She shrugged. “More like the other way around. No, I’m staying with those two.”
“So they’re your family now?”
Roper stared down at her hands and nodded. “I guess they are, yes.”
Butcher came back from her rounds. “You guys, I don’t think that sound I’m hearing is coming from the horses.”
Roper grabbed her rifle and leapt to her feet to join Butcher. “What are you hearing?”
Butcher listened again. “I’m not sure. Something walking, breaking twigs. It’s probably just a deer, but—”
“You two go on. I’ll watch the horses,” Cue said.
The two women looked at each other through the darkness. “Stay with the horses then.”
Roper grabbed her flashlight and handed it to Butcher, who cautiously walked across a small, dried up creek bed. “It’s coming from behind those rocks,” she whispered to Roper.
“I’ll go around that side,” Roper whispered, moving to the right side of an outcropping of rocks.
A low, guttural growl came from behind the rocks, stopping Roper cold. Rifle at the ready, she slowly started around the rock when the growling resumed. Roper saw Butcher come around to the other side. The growling stopped.
“Easy boy,” Butcher said, shining the light on a Rottweiler.
“Don’t shoot him! He’s a good dog!”
Roper lowered her rifle at the sound of a little girl’s voice. She waited until Butcher shined the light on the child.
A little blonde haired girl stood half hidden by a tree trunk. She could have been no more than eight or nine and was wearing filthy clothes and torn Ugg boots turned over on the top.
“Hi there,” Roper said softly, keeping her hand on the hilt of her Buck knife in case the dog attacked. “What’s your name?”
“Annie, but my family calls me Peanut.”
“And your dog?”
“Zeus.” She laid her little hand on the dog’s enormous head. “He’s my best friend.”
“Well, that’s quite a nice name.”
“Are you hurt or injured?” Butcher asked, also kneeling down.
Peanut shook her head. “Not really. My daddy sent me up here when those people started coming to the house.”
Zeus did not move, but stood with his big barrel chest protectively next to Peanut.
“How long have you been here?”
“Three days. Daddy said if no one came to get me after four days, I was supposed to find one of those big black cars and ask for help. Are you guys from those big black cars?”
“No, we’re—”
“Yes,” Roper interrupted Butcher. “But we’re on horses for now until we can get back to the...big black car.”
“Horses? We had horses. Daddy let them go.”
“Is your house nearby?”
She pointed. “It’s that way. Daddy told me to come to the Three Stooges. That’s what he calls these rocks.”
“Are you hungry? Thirsty?”
“I’m a little thirsty. I finished my water yesterday.” She pointed to an enormous military backpack. “Daddy packed my bag for me. He told me to make it last.”
“And you did, didn’t you?” Roper forced a smile she did not feel.
Peanut blushed slightly. “I tried, but I had to share it with Zeus. He’s always hungry.”
“Well, you want to come with us now?”
She thought about it for a second. “I better not. He told me to wait here.”
Roper looked at Butcher for help.
“Maybe we should take you someplace nicer where your dad might find you. Would you like that?”
She blinked. “Zeus is very hungry. I’ve shared my food, but I think he wants his dog food.”
Roper rose and dusted off her pants. “Peanut, do you...do you know what is happening?”
“Well…those people are monsters. Daddy said something was making people into monsters. But you’re not, right? You don’t act like those other monsters.”
“No, hon, we’re not, but I...we think you might want to come with us.”
“Home?”
Roper glanced over at Butcher and could see her shaking her head.
“If we leave a note here for your daddy to find you, you could come with us. Is Zeus friendly with horses?”
“He loves them! So do I!”
“What do you say then? Come with us?”
Peanut reached for her backpack. “Yes, please. I...” Then the false bravado evaporated and she erupted into tears.
Roper hugged her as she cried with Zeus right at her side. “Come with us, hon. You’re okay now. You don’t have to be alone anymore.”
After leaving a note scribbled on the back of one of Peanut’s coloring pages, telling her father they were heading to Nevada, they returned to the horses to find Cue fast asleep.
“Gee, glad we didn’t worry him,” Butcher said, shining the light in his face before kicking him with her boot. “Wake up.”
Roper set her sleeping bag down and patted it. Zeus plopped down right in the middle of it. “You can ride with us tomorrow, Peanut, but for now, why don’t you crawl into this sleeping bag and get some rest?”
She and Zeus were quietly snoring two minutes later.
When Roper went to check on the horses, Butcher was right behind her.
“We made the right choice, you know? We can’t become so hard-hearted we’d leave a child behind.”
“Poor thing. She must have been scared to death up here all alone.”
“That beast of a dog would protect her.”
Roper pulled a brush out of the saddlebag and began brushing Merlin. “I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for her up here…waiting.”
“Well, the good news is we found her. She’s safe.”
Petting Merlin’s soft muzzle, Roper looked up at the moon. “Still...the kid’s right about numbers. It’s just going to be harder to move this many people. We need more horses, more bedding...”
“We can get some along the way.” Butcher moved closer and pet Merlin’s flank.
“And food?”
Butcher leaned closer and whispered, “What’s really bothering you? It can’t be that we just saved a little girl and her dog. That should make you feel way better. So, what’s going on?”
Roper hesitated a moment before whispering, “I don’t trust him. I don’t trust Tate or Coco. They’re all out for themselves and that could be problematic down the road. I’d lay my life down for you three, and I trust you’d do the same. But those others? I don
’t trust. Without trust, we’re in trouble.”
Butcher put an arm around Roper and, pulling her into a hug, whispered, “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, honey, but we’re already in trouble.”
There was only one exit for Las Positas, so when Dallas saw it, she stopped, spray painted a big “D” on it, and drove into town...or what may have once passed for a town. It had a gas station, a country store, a diner, three bars, and several churches all in need of repairs and a new paint job. It was one of those little towns where people either spent the majority of their time in church or at the bar, sometimes both.
The main street, all one hundred yards of it, looked like a battle zone. Dead, half-eaten bodies littered the bloody pavement. Windows of most of the bar fronts were broken or shot out, and several farm animals freely roamed the sidewalks in search of food.
“Jesus Christ, what happened here?” Tate asked no one in particular.
“I imagine the same thing that’s happening all across the country,” Einstein replied caustically.
“Where are we staying?” Tate asked, a slight panic to his question. “We can’t stay here. You know them things are everywhere.”
“Not here,” Dallas said. “I just want to see if we can gas up here.”
“Gas? Again? We haven’t gone that far. I vote we skip it and move on.”
Einstein looked over his shoulder. “This is an older model Hummer that probably has a twenty-five gallon tank. If we get ten miles to the gallon, we only go about two-thirty before we get into trouble.”
“And I don’t care to get into trouble,” Dallas added.
“How far have we gone tonight?”
Dallas looked down at her odometer. “Fifty-two. It took longer than I thought, but Roper and them will cut that in half since they will be riding in a straight line.” Turning around and heading back to the freeway, Dallas explained, “I don’t want to pump gas in the dark, if they even have any.”
Coco made a derisive puffing sound. “We’re sardines back here.”
“Then I ask again, where are we staying?” Tate held Coco’s hand.
“We’ll just have to sleep in the car tonight. It’s a helluva lot safer than trying to find a safe place at night.”
“Seriously?” Coco said. “Feels like we’ve been in this all damn day.”
Dallas cut her eyes over to Einstein, who rolled his. “Yeah. Seriously. Remember, every day there will be thousands more of those monsters. Avoiding towns at all cost is the best strategy.”
Dallas slowed down, looking closely at another ranch style house on the frontage road that had a horseshoe driveway and a carport in the middle. The house’s exterior had seen better days, and it looked as though it might have been abandoned before the outbreak, when the housing crisis rolled over the country. There was no sign of life…or death.
“Wouldn’t we be safer just parking on the freeway?” Tate asked.
“We would until a chopper saw the Hummer and tried to communicate with us.” Dallas looked around the car interior. “Einstein will take the first watch. We’ll go three hours each. You see or hear anything, wake me up and I’ll DD outta here, no questions asked. We do not want either the living or the dead all up on us, so please stay awake during your watch.”
After verbally handing out a watch schedule, Dallas closed her eyes. She hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep since this whole thing started. If only she could just sleep for a—
That’s when she heard it: The familiar sound of a shotgun being racked. “Don’t do anything,” Einstein whispered. “They’ve got five rifles aimed at us.”
Suddenly, a huge spotlight shined on the Hummer, illuminating the five figures standing with rifles raised and pointed directly at Dallas.
“Put your hands on the roof or you’re dead,” a man’s voice ordered.
Dallas looked at the keys, then at Einstein, and knew she could never take that risk. Einstein would be dead before she could mow them over.
Slowly, Dallas raised her hands to the roof. The others followed suit.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I told you this was a shitty place to park!” Tate cried. “Now what?”
“Shut up, Tate.”
“Maybe you could try listening to one of us once in a while instead of—”
“I said, Shut. The. Fuck. Up.”
The five strangers moved in closer now, and when a large bearded face lowered to her window, it immediately appeared surprised.
“It’s two women and a god darned kid,” the beard said.
“What? You sure? This is one a them military vee-hicles.”
The bearded face appeared in the window once more. “I’m gonna need you to come out slowly, ma’am, with your hands behind your head. Same thing with the boy.”
Dallas turned to Einstein. “It’s going to be all right. Trust me.”
“You got any infected with you? Anyone bitten? Scratched?”
She shook her head. “You?”
He cocked his head at her. “You’re either plum stupid or bat shit crazy, lady. No, we don’t have none of them with us.”
“Be cool,” she said through unmoving lips. “I think they were expecting military and are a little surprised. Just let me do the talking.” Turning to the window, she said in a loud voice, “No one here is infected.”
Beard motioned with his rifle. “Come on out then.”
Dallas slowly opened the door with one hand while keeping the other in the air. When all four were out, the tall bearded one lowered his rifle and approached her. He stood about six feet six, wore OshKosh overalls, and had teeth that looked like yellow corn. She could both see and smell the mint chew tucked between his cheek and gums.
“Never expected four civilians, ma’am. I apologize if we scared you, but things being as they are, I’m sure you can understand. Nobody’s safe out here no more.”
Feeling slightly less nervous about these people, Dallas made the introductions.
“I’m Pete, and that’s Randy, Frank, Isabella, and Crosby.” He looked around. “Come on in before any of those things get a whiff of us.”
“A whiff?” Dallas shot a quick look to Einstein, who shook his head.
“Yeah. They smell you and come runnin’. We’ve managed to stay safe by living down here.”
Dallas and the others looked through double basement doors into a stairwell leading to a full basement lit with candles and Coleman lanterns, which cast eerie shadows on the walls.
The basement consisted of a spacious guest room with a red leather circular sofa and several animal print chairs. There was a small dining table with four chairs around it. Adjacent to the kitchen area was where they kept all their clothes, shoes, and jackets. The air smelled slightly of mildew and wax.
“Nice,” Einstein said, plopping down on the couch. There were crossword puzzles, Sudoku, and half completed word jumble books on the coffee table.
“We have our own food,” Dallas said to Isabella. She deferred to Pete.
“Good to know, but we don’t mind sharing. Please, have a seat. Take a load off. We ain’t seen other living folks for a coupla days now.”
All four sat down on the red sofa. Pete and Isabella sat across from them while Crosby poured crackers in a bowl and sliced some cheese.
“Cheese?”
“It’s the last of the good stuff. Our generator gave out this morning. Go ahead, have some. Lord knows we can’t eat it all before tomarra.”
Einstein and Tate dove in while Coco showed slightly more self-restraint.
As they ate, Dallas caught Pete staring at her. “You want to know how we came by the Hummer, huh?”
Pete and Isabella exchanged looks. “Actually, yeah. We’ve seen ‘em race past here and we’ve heard the tales, but—”
“What tales are those?”
“Word on the street has it the military is collectin’ people. Scoopin’ them up and takin’ them to makeshift facilities. Those taken never return.”
“The street
?”
Isabella leaned forward, her silver crucifix dangling from her neck. With her bun and cat-eye glasses, she looked like a librarian from the 1950’s. “We are not without means to obtain information,” she said softly. “Our son, Jeff, is in the military, and he got word to us shortly after it all started. He doesn’t know what they’re looking for, but he says these roundups are happening all over the state.”
Pete shook his head sadly. “Last we heard, they’re only keepin’ the collection facilities open a little while longer because they gotta shut the state down. Their think tanks can’t figure out how to stop it, and the folks they collectin’ don’t seem to be helpin’ none.”
Dallas felt Einstein scoot a little closer to her. “They can’t stop it,” he said softly. “It’s too late for that.”
Pete and Isabella reached for each other’s hands. “That’s what our boy says. He says pretty soon they’ll outnumber us and we all need to find a safe place to ride it out until someone else can figure out what to do.”
Dallas knew what was coming. “I see. You want the Hummer.”
They both nodded. “I’m afraid we do.” Pete held his hand out for the keys. “We’ve got a pickup you can have, but we all know it’s hard to get anywhere these days unless you’re on foot. A Hummer? Not so hard. Blends in with the other movin’ cars.” Pete kept his hand out, and Dallas dropped the keys into his large palm.
Isabella leaned forward. “Our son tells us we need to find a way out of the country. He says this is a wild fire out of control and no one is safe.”
“You seem like reasonable people, Pete. Would it be too much to ask for you to leave our weapons and gear?”
Pete started to shake his head when Isabella laid her hand on his knee and said, “Of course not. Crosby, go with the boy and help them retrieve their things.”
Einstein rose and looked at Dallas.
“It’s okay. Get the gear you think is most important. I trust you.”
“And that’s the problem!” Tate said loudly. “She keeps listening to the wild imagination of a teenager! Our lives are always in danger because—”
“Because terrorists dropped this contagion on us, son,” Pete said. “You don’t need a wild imagination to know we’re screwed, and I apologize for taking it out from under you, but I have to take care of my family. I’m sure you understand.”
Riders of the Apocalypse (Book 1): Ride For Tomorrow Page 13
