The Long Road - A Post Apocalyptic Novel (The New World)

by G. Michael Hopf

  Derek reacted with revulsion.

  “Take it, goddamn it!” Gordon ordered.

  Derek jumped. He took the knife and held it in his shaking hands. The warm blood ran between his fingers and dripped onto his shoes. At first he cringed and tried to wipe off the blood. Then he convinced himself that this bloody knife was the key to his escape. His grip tightened, and he took his first step toward what he hoped was his freedom.

  Outside unknown military installation

  The woman had made the lower part of the mountain and began to climb.

  One of Rahab’s guards was still attempting to shoot her. He had been successful in killing the other two who had attempted the escape over the berm, but the woman was proving to be difficult.

  The bullets continued to rain down on her position, but she kept her head down. Each time there was a pause, she assumed he was reloading and climbed higher. Her only trouble was that she couldn’t see any large rock outcroppings for another two hundred feet. She knew she couldn’t stay there, and soon the guard might get help; she would have to make a run for it. Closing her weary eyes she prayed to herself—you can do this girl, now, one, two . . . When she opened her eyes to look at the path she would take, she saw a shimmer in the rocks above. She squinted and saw a woman waving to her. A nervous and unsure feeling crept through her.

  “Who the fuck are you?” she said out loud.

  “She saw me, she saw me!” Samantha said excitedly.

  “Now what? She has to clear two hundred–plus feet to get to the nearest cover, then another fifty to get to us,” Nelson said.

  “We shoot the man shooting at her!” Samantha said confidently.

  “That will draw their attention to us. No, no, no!” Nelson insisted.

  “We have to help her. We don’t know if Gordon or Hunter are even in there. This woman might be able to help us answer that. Now shoot the man!” she snapped at him.

  Nelson raised his eyebrows in astonishment at Samantha’s bravado. He grinned, popped up over the rock, took aim with his rifle, and squeezed the trigger. When the shot cracked, he almost instantly saw the man’s head snap back.

  “Good shot!” Samantha squealed in excitement.

  “I have to thank Gordon for that,” he said, winking at her.

  Seeing the rifle appear, Lexi became nervous. Her back was pressed so hard against the rock she swore she was a part of it.

  When the shot rang out, she took a breath and peered around the side of the rock.

  The man who had been shooting at her fell to the ground.

  She looked back toward where she had seen Samantha waving. No one was there. She peeked again around the rock to make sure it was clear. Seeing it was, she was about to move when she saw Samantha again waving.

  “Up here, you’re safe with us, I promise!”

  Lexi’s instincts were crying out that this woman looked safe, but her experiences over the past seven and half weeks yelled, Don’t trust anyone. She didn’t know them. She thought that she could be going from the boiling pot into the fire. But the woman looked sweet, she looked safe. Where else am I going to go? Lexi thought. She looked around. Nothing. She was surrounded by nothing. Wide open desert everywhere. She then thought, Should I have run toward the soldiers?

  “Fuck!” she yelled out.

  Behind her the sound of gunfire was still fierce, but it had diminished.

  She looked back up.

  Samantha was still there waving for her to come.

  Peeking one last time around the rock to see if all was clear, Lexi finally took that step toward Samantha.

  “Fuck it!” she said.

  Inside unknown military installation

  Gordon’s deliberate and ruthless nature was in full force. He had shot two of Rahab’s men outside the main building.

  Derek jumped over the two bodies and opened the door for Gordon.

  Gordon came right up behind him. He popped his head in and looked in either direction. No one was there, so he entered the building with the rifle at the ready. The main entrance opened into a small lobby. To either side were long hallways that wrapped around the entire building. On the insides of the hallways were numerous rooms and offices.

  “Now where do we go?” Derek asked with a labored voice. The run from across the base had exhausted him.

  “Sshh! Listen! Upstairs!” Gordon said, looking for the closest stairwell.

  “There!” Derek shouted out and pointed to a sign on a wall down the main hall.

  Gordon, with the rifle firmly in the pocket of his shoulder, tactically walked down the hall.

  Derek stayed close behind. He had retired the knife and taken a rifle from one of the guards Gordon had killed at the entrance.

  The gunfire was now faint behind the walls of the building.

  When Gordon reached the end of the hallway, he slowly reconnoitered the area. When the door to the stairwell entered his field of view, he saw another guard standing there at the ready. Gordon squeezed a shot off, hitting the man squarely in the chest. He then came fully around the corner and put two more rounds in the man. Stepping up to the guard, he grabbed a pistol from him, tucked it into his waistband, and took all the magazines from him and tucked them into his pocket.

  Upstairs both he and Derek could hear people running around and the children crying.

  A loud voice then bellowed out.

  Gordon couldn’t tell who it was, but he would soon find out. He entered the stairwell and looked up quickly. No one was in his field of view. He slung the rifle and pulled out the pistol, a Glock 9-mm. He dropped the magazine to inspect the rounds and checked it to see if a round was chambered. The magazine was full and a bullet was loaded. He slapped the magazine back in and proceeded up the stairs.

  Reaching the top, he stood with his back against the wall next to the door.

  He placed his finger to his mouth, signaling Derek to be quiet.

  Derek confirmed with a nod. Sweat was pouring off of him, and his eyes showed a deep-felt determination.

  Gordon turned the knob and slowly opened the door.

  The second the door opened, the sounds he had heard earlier became amplified.

  He let the door close quietly and said to Derek, “When I open the door, I’m going left; you need to come right behind me and go right. Be careful what you shoot.”

  “Okay,” Derek answered nervously.

  “On three. One, two, three,” Gordon ordered, then opened the door and entered the hallway.

  Derek followed right behind him.

  Three men stood only ten feet from Gordon.

  The men were stunned to see him and began to bring their guns up.

  Gordon started to shoot while slowly walking to the right; he wanted to make it harder for them to hit a moving target. He hit the first two before they could fire a single shot.

  The third man fired but missed.

  Gordon could see the fear on his face, and he squeezed a shot, hitting the guard in the face. The back of the man’s head exploded and he dropped to the ground.

  Just behind him, Gordon heard Derek fall.

  Not seeing anyone else in the hall, he looked over his shoulder to see Derek kneeling on the floor. Blood poured out of his right shoulder.

  “Damn!” Gordon barked. He took a few steps back to check on him. “How bad is it?”

  “Aah, if this was eight weeks ago and this happened to me on Fifth in Hillcrest, I’d say it’s a bad day. But because it’s not and I’m not dead, I’ll have to say I’ll be okay.”

  “Good man, just stay here and watch the door. I’m going to finish this and get my boy,” Gordon said.

  The crying of the children echoed off the walls and covered up the fact that the gunfire from outside had stopped.

  Gordon tucked the pistol away and brought the rifle back into action. He loaded a fresh magazine and proceeded down the hall. At the corner he scanned and saw some children standing in the hall, but no adults. He paused for a moment to see
if one of Rahab’s men would make an appearance. None did.

  He committed himself and walked fully into the hallway. With the rifle at the ready, he entered a large open room. About fourteen children were there, many crying. No Hunter. Gordon walked up to the oldest child and asked, “Where’s Hunter?”

  The child pointed to the door next to the room.

  “Is anyone in there with him?”

  “Brother Jeremy?” the boy answered in a trembling voice.

  “Anyone else, any other bad men?”

  The boy shook his head no.

  Gordon approached the door with ease. His next actions would determine a lot. Scenarios raced through his mind. He didn’t know how the room was laid out. Where was Hunter in there? He couldn’t just open up and blast, he had to be careful and diligent. Putting all the thoughts out of his mind, he grabbed the handle and opened the door.

  Outside unknown military installation

  “Who are you?” Samantha asked Lexi.

  “Who the fuck are you?” she shot back. Her piercing blue eyes darted from Samantha to Nelson. She was looking for anything that seemed out of place.

  “I’m Samantha, and this is Nelson. We’re not here to hurt you,” Samantha said softly.

  “How do I know that?”

  “You don’t, but why else would we shoot that man down there? You needed our help so we helped,” Samantha flatly said.

  Lexi stared at Samantha. Her nerves were shot and she was terribly hungry.

  Samantha felt bad for this woman before her. She could see the signs of abuse. Bruises covered her face, neck, and arms. She could tell that before the lights went out, Lexi had been an attractive young woman. Samantha guessed that she wasn’t older than thirty. Her hair had been dyed blond, but she now had grown-out brown roots, similar to Samantha’s. It appeared as if her hair had been cut hastily due to it being extremely uneven.

  “Why help me?” Lexi asked, curious about why they would put themselves at risk.

  “I’ll be honest, because we think my husband and son might be in there.”

  “Those people down there are fucked up. They are fucking evil!” Lexi spewed in anger.

  “Do you know a Gordon or a Hunter?” Samantha asked urgently.

  “Aah, no. Doesn’t sound familiar.”

  “Are you sure? We need to know, I need to know,” Samantha pressed. She touched Lexi’s arm, causing her to flinch.

  “I told you, no!”

  “Please, did you see a man, tall, over six feet—”

  “Yeah, about half the men there. Listen, I told you I don’t know a fucking Gordon or Hunter. If they’re down there, they’re fucked. That Rahab is an evil son of bitch,” Lexi interrupted her.

  “We have a problem,” Nelson urgently said, looking at the base below.

  The Fort Irwin soldiers’ small attack on the base had been a failure. The Humvees that had been part of the attack now sat smoldering.

  “How do you think they got those running?” Nelson asked. “And why would they come with only a handful of Hummers? Doesn’t make sense.”

  Samantha jumped up and looked at the base below through her binoculars. The chaos and disruption had settled down. Random gunshots could be heard from inside the base.

  “Nice meeting you all, but I’m outta here,” Lexi said, attempting to get up.

  “Hey, just stay with us, we won’t hurt you. I promise. I need to talk to you more about this place. Please,” Samantha pleaded.

  Lexi looked at Samantha squarely. She could see the desperation in her eyes and could sense she was a good woman. “Okay.”

  Inside unknown military installation

  The scene before Gordon was taken right out of a nightmare.

  Jeremy had Hunter in front of him with a large knife under his throat.

  Hunter stood silent, but his eyes screamed with terror.

  With the typical words from any Hollywood movie, Jeremy shouted, “Stay right there or I’ll kill him.”

  Never having been in this situation but always having been a critic of those scenes from movies, Gordon did exactly what he’d always said he would do. He immediately shot Jeremy in the mouth with the rifle. No response to his inane and cliché command. Gordon placed one 5.56-mm round where he knew it would drop the man like a sack of potatoes.

  The round traveled the short distance to Jeremy’s spinal cord, and blew out the lower part of his skull. Bloody brain matter splattered the wall behind him. His eyes rolled up inside his head, and he went directly down. The knife fell from his lifeless hand and hit the floor with a clang.

  Frozen in fear, Hunter stood unsure what to do.

  Gordon slung the rifle and went to him. He knelt and embraced his trembling son. “I’m here, I’m here. Everything will be fine. Let’s go home. Let’s go see Mommy.”

  Hunter started to cry intensely. The warm tears fell from his eyes and ran down Gordon’s neck.

  “I’ve got you now, it’ll be okay. I promise. Now let’s go.”

  San Diego, California

  Bishop Sorenson’s funeral had been over for two hours, but Annaliese still sat staring at the pile of dirt that covered his body. Her gaze had been unfettered and focused. Sebastian attempted to talk with her, but she didn’t respond, she just sat staring.

  “She’s a fucking mess,” Brandon quipped.

  Sebastian shot him a look and barked, “Shut up! Her father is dead. Show some respect!”

  “Whatever, whose parents aren’t dead!” Brandon retorted.

  Sebastian just glared at him. He knew Brandon had a lot of pain and was unable to channel it in a constructive manner. Not wanting to get into a back-and-forth, he chose to ignore him.

  Brandon matched Sebastian’s stare but after a few moments chose to leave well enough alone. He walked away mumbling something unintelligible.

  “I’m worried about him,” Luke said.

  “Yeah, I would agree. That kid needs to stop being so fucking angry,” Sebastian responded, clearly irritated by Brandon’s disrespectful comments.

  “So are we leaving?”

  Sebastian didn’t hear Luke. His attention was completely on Annaliese. He found her incredibly beautiful. Her deep pain at the loss of her father made her so fragile and vulnerable. He had to resist the urge to go over and just hold her. He looked away and asked Luke, “What? What did you say?”

  “Ha, I asked if we’re leaving.”

  “Yes, we are. Ask me when, though.”

  “Okay, I’ll play along. When?”

  “When she’s ready to go. Not a moment before. Got that? I go where she goes,” Sebastian said, pointing at Annaliese.

  Luke looked at her, then back to Sebastian. He was a bit confused but started to see that Sebastian was making it his responsibility to protect her now that her father was dead.

  “Well, I go wherever you go, so I hope you don’t mind I tag along?”

  “Of course not. Now stop bugging me about when we’re leaving.”

  Willis walked up to the two of them. “Sebastian, Mrs. Sorenson wants to talk with you.”

  “Sure, where is she?”

  “She’s in the living room,” Willis answered, pointing toward the main house.

  Mrs. Sorenson was rocking back and forth in a rocker recliner next to the large bay window. In her hands she clenched a handkerchief, damp from her tears.

  Sebastian knocked on the wall just outside of the room. “Excuse me, Mrs. Sorenson. You wanted to see me?”

  “Yes, yes. Come in, please.” She motioned to a love seat across from her.

  Sebastian walked over and sat. “How can I help?”

  “I see how you look at my daughter.”

  “I, aaah, sorry, but . . . ” Sebastian stuttered.

  “Listen, my husband liked you and I like you. You seem like a good man. I also know that Annaliese has feelings for you.”

  “Aah, please don’t.” Sebastian continued to stutter. He was put on the spot by her direct comments.r />
  “Please be quiet and let me finish,” she softly but firmly commanded him. “Sebastian, you seem like a good man. You also seem like a very smart and capable man. The other men around here, while smart and nice, are not up to the task of protecting my Annaliese and her siblings. You, Sebastian, are that man. I see it and my husband saw it. I brought you in here to ask you to do something for me.”

  “Anything.”

  “I have a brother who lives in Sandy, Utah. He has a large piece of land, and like many other Mormons, he’s prepared. I know that he’s not going to Zion. You see, there’s always been a lot of debate about the holy land. He for one thinks it’s hogwash. I talked to him today.”

  “You talked to him?” Sebastian asked, interrupting her.

  Mrs. Sorenson stopped rocking and looked at Sebastian with a slightly irritated expression. “We have ham radios. We kept a lot of our equipment in Faraday boxes.”

  “Okay, sorry to interrupt.”

  “Our life here is over. Most of the group here wants to go to Zion. We’re not going. I have you here to ask if you’d escort me and my family to Sandy.”

  Sebastian didn’t have to think about it. He answered quickly, “I’m your man, but can I ask something too?”

  “Sure.”

  “The two boys I found. I want to bring them with us.”

  “That Luke seems like a fine boy, but please keep your eye on the other one. He worries me.”

  “I’ll do that. So when do you want to leave?”

  “Tomorrow, let’s leave tomorrow.”

  Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

  “Either we’re alive because we’re lucky or we’re alive because it was planned. I don’t know. In fact, I’m coming to realize we don’t know shit about anything!” Cruz yelled as he slammed his fist down on the table.

  Around the table sat his team. No one said a word. They all just looked at the table or the walls.

  There wasn’t much to say. Either they had somehow averted death or they weren’t on the list.

  “With the loss of these underground facilities, we have lost a considerable amount of food, water, and other precious resources,” Baxter informed the team.

  “So what do we do? We don’t have enough now to help those in the Midwest. I’m at a loss here, I need some good counsel. Somebody give me something?” Cruz asked.