by A. R. Shaw
“How long do we wait?” Macy asked Mark and McCann as she placed a bucket of water in front of the horse.
“I don’t know. We’ll have to make camp here tonight if no one shows up,” Mark said.
“Someone will show. This has been the evacuation plan that we’ve all studied, over and over. I just hope they were able to get the food supply or it’s going to be rough for a while. We have enough to last us only tonight and tomorrow, and lots of little mouths to feed,” McCann said.
“Did Graham say anything else when he called in?” Mark asked.
“No, he just said, Code evac. Now go! I didn’t ask questions. I just said okay. He sounded scared.” Macy tried to keep the worry out of her voice. “I hope everyone else is okay.”
McCann put an arm around her. “Graham’s fine. He’ll be here soon. Look, if no one shows up in the next two days, I’ll go back and see what happened.”
“No. You can’t do that!” Mark said. “I can’t take care of all these kids by myself. What if she’s right? What if you don’t come back? They told us never to split up like that. They said to stay together, and we’re staying together.” He stomped off to gather firewood.
McCann raised his eyebrows.
Macy said, “He never acts out like that.”
“He’s got a point,” McCann said. “Let’s just give it some time. Someone will show up.”
~ ~ ~
By late afternoon they heard a truck on the roadway. Marcy jumped up. “Someone’s coming!”
“Get everyone into hiding,” advised McCann. “We don’t know who it is.”
Lucy and Marcy gathered the children and took them farther into the woods for cover, while Mark, McCann, and Macy split up and moved toward the roadway to spy on the vehicle.
Soon they could see that it was one of their own trucks, but waited further until the driver slowed down. A dark figure peered out the window for signs of people, and a baby cried in the backseat. The door of the pickup opened and Graham stepped out when a second truck pulled up behind them. The driver turned out to be Olivia.
McCann came out of hiding and approached Graham.
“Oh, man, it’s good to see you!” Graham said.
“What’s happening?” McCann asked as Mark and Macy also showed up.
“I almost couldn’t tell you guys were here,” Graham said.
“We pulled down into the trees and covered our tracks,” Mark said.
Macy reached for the crying baby before Graham could soothe her and Bang climbed out, clearly relieved to have the crying baby in someone else’s arms.
McCann wasn’t sure if Graham was avoiding his question or if he was just rattled. “Graham, what happened?”
“Harding found out about our plans. He tried to stop us. He may have, in fact; I don’t even know. Dalton had Olivia and I pack up everything and get out.”
Olivia looked shaken. Bethany ran up and into her arms. “Oh, thank God.” Olivia tried to hold back tears as the children gathered around her. She quickly went into mothering mode, counting the little ones.
Graham patted her on the back. “They’re coming. I’m sure they’ll make it, Olivia.” But he wasn’t sure himself, and he wasn’t sure that lying to her was the right thing to do.
McCann asked, “Should we stay here and wait or go farther in?”
“I say we wait here. We have most of the supplies. We can set up a few tents. We should be fine here for the night. We’ll wait and see. If they aren’t here by morning we’ll make different plans.”
A half hour later, Sam arrived with a truckload of prisoners.
Chapter 50 Duct Tape
After driving through the gate, Sam continued to fly down the abandoned roadway. He was not only fleeing crazy town but closing the distance between him and his daughter. Though he knew she was probably fine, she was all he had left in the world, and he didn’t want to have her out of his sight for any longer than was necessary. It bothered him that morning when she wanted to go fishing with the others. He’d reluctantly let her go, chiding himself for being overprotective. He knew she needed to hang out with other kids. McCann will keep them all safe, he had reassured himself.
His mind was jogged from his thoughts when he heard the woman in the back grunting. When he turned around, the man was doing his best to prevent her from smashing herself into Sam from behind. Even though her hands and legs were tied together she had somehow managed to wriggle free, and he guessed her intent was to cause an accident by throwing herself into him. The man in the back’s face was beet red from the force she was exerting on him
Sam reluctantly pulled over, shaking his head. This crazy bitch is relentless. No, we just had to stop and grab one of the lumps in front of the fire. Dammit! He brought the truck to a stop, took out the keys, and got out. He made his way to the back, and the only thing he could think of to do was to use a roll of duct tape to restrain any part of her that moved. He didn’t want to hurt her because of her value to their plan, but he couldn’t allow her to hurt anyone else, either.
He got in the back and pushed her to bottom of the truck bed while kneeling on her back. He taped her hands completely together so that she couldn’t even move her fingers. He ran tape around her ankles and secured them—bending her knees—to her thighs. He taped her mouth shut, but left enough space so she could breathe through her nose. That would keep her menacing efforts down to focusing on her breathing. And as he would do to any spooked mare, he taped her eyes shut.
Sam sat her up and taped her arms to her back and her torso to a bar that ran the length of the truck. He looked at the boy, who cowered in the corner, thinking he was next, and the third man, who only smiled back at him. “Maybe that will keep her still for a while,” Sam said. The man nodded, looking relieved to have the woman restrained properly and out of his hair for a while.
And then Sam looked back again at the young man. He was sweating and Sam thought he was probably starting to run a fever. Hell, we’ve already killed them.
Once he was back on the road it didn’t take him long before he neared the entrance to their chosen hideout location. He prayed his daughter was all right; He didn’t know what he’d do without her.
Once he pulled up, he leaped out of the truck. Mark and McCann were guarding the vehicles, and McCann shook his hand and, before Sam could ask, smiled and said, “She’s fine. She’s with the others.”
There was pounding on the back of the cab which caused Mark to look at Sam with raised eyebrows that indicated a question.
“I’ve got the prisoners,” Sam said.
“You do? Where are the others?”
Sam took a deep breath. “They should be on their way. Dalton said to go, so I did. Last I saw them, they were trying to get Clarisse out of questioning. The guards seemed to be on our side.”
“What do we do with the prisoners?” Mark asked.
“I don’t know. Leave them in there, I guess. It’s probably safest for all of us. The boy is running a fever already. We need to get them in place. The woman keeps trying to kill us, so we need to be careful with her. The oldest one, he seems to be on our side. Hell if I know what’s going on.” Sam made his way to the back of the truck to see what was going on inside.
Once he opened it, everything was as it was before, only the woman had worked one of her feet free and was pounding on the flooring of the truck. Sam pulled off another length of duct tape and plastered her foot to the floor. He opened a bottle of water and gave both the boy and the man as much as they wanted. When he got to the woman, he ripped off the tape, but before he could give her the water, she spit in his face. Both Mark and McCann jumped back. Sam didn’t react out of anger, he simply wiped it away and then squeezed her jaws open with one hand and poured the water into her mouth. Then he shut her mouth and pinched her nose. She struggled a bit, but she eventually swallowed the water. “You’re not dying on my watch, missy. We can do it this way if you want.”
“Man!” Mark said.
&nb
sp; “Yeah, I know. She bit Dalton. She tried to choke Clarisse. Don’t give me a hard time for restraining her. She’s dangerous as hell.”
“No, I meant the kid. He looks sick,” Mark said. “He’s not contagious to us, right?” He took a step back.
“No. Only if you’ve had their vaccine.”
“I wish we didn’t have to do it this way,” McCann said.
“You and me both son, but this is the truth. It’s brutal, it’s ugly, but you both need to know that we’re fighting back with the same evil that they put on us, and it’s a horrible thing.”
Chapter 51 Guarding
It was nearly dusk by the time the last of them arrived at the hideout. Again Mark and McCann guarded the entrance after they’d moved the vehicles down into the forest, keeping the prisoners secure in one of the trucks.
There were greetings and hugs, and then remorse followed because no one could forget Tala. It felt as if they were leaving her behind. Their plan was underway, but for now it remained a mystery as to how they would place the prisoners in the most populated areas to be as efficient as possible for their purposes.
After Dalton set up a tent for him and Clarisse, he found her gazing into the campfire while rubbing her sore neck.
“Let me take a look at that,” he said clicking on a flashlight.
“No, it’s fine. I’ll survive.”
He shone the light around the front of her neck and décolletage anyway, despite her protests. He flicked off the light and growled, got up and walked away.
He returned shortly after retrieving an instant ice pack and two ibuprofen with a bottle of water from their medical kit. By the time Clarisse had taken the ibuprofen and drank some water, the ice pack was getting chilly. Dalton had Clarisse hold it to her neck, and he wouldn’t take no for an answer. What he had seen with the flashlight made him want to go to the prisoner van and take it out on the aggressor.
“Did you pass out?”
She looked at him and smiled, trying to ease his worry. “Nearly, but not quite. The other prisoner, the older one, he stopped her. I thought it was Sam at first, but it wasn’t. If it hadn’t been for that man . . .” She shook her head, not knowing what might have happened.
Dalton growled again and pulled her toward him. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there. I sent you to do something far too dangerous. It’s my fault.”
“Dalton, all of this is too dangerous. We still have to get them into populated areas. We still have to place them. We may die doing it, but we know it must be done.”
He nodded. “You need some sleep. You’re going to be pretty sore tomorrow.”
He kissed Clarisse and helped her up. She went into their tent and he closed the flap so that she’d have some privacy. Then he went to find Rick and the others and warned himself to steer clear of the prisoner van. He didn’t trust what he might do the woman after seeing how she nearly killed Clarisse. They needed to make plans, and they needed to make them now.
When he approached the others, Rick had just shut the prisoners up for the night after giving them food and water and a blanket each.
“The boy’s definitely running a fever already. Could it be the virus so soon?” He washed and dried his hands while he talked. “The woman,” he shook his head. “I felt her head, but no such luck, she seems fine. Same as the man.”
“Do you think they know what they’ve been given?” Graham asked.
Rick shook his head, “I think the older guy does, but I’m not sure about the others.”
“Well it doesn’t matter,” Dalton said. “Tomorrow we head back to the cabins on Ross Lake, and after that we’ll need to designate the three best places to plant them.”
“There were two seaplanes in a hanger back on the south end of Ross Lake—remember? Who knows how to fly?” Graham asked. “I sure don’t.”
“Well, I do,” Dalton said. “I can take one. Rick does, and Reuben did. Clarisse also has a license, but there’s no way in hell she’s going. She’s needed with the group. Sam, I don’t suppose you fly?”
“Um . . . no.” Sam said.
“What about McCann?” Dalton asked Graham.
“He’s on watch. I don’t think so unless he flew crop dusters, but something tells me I don’t want him running this one just like you don’t want Clarisse to.”
Dalton agreed.
“I suppose one of us could take two of the prisoners. If we can find enough fuel, that is,” Rick said.
“In any event, I think the cabins on the lake are a defensible place to be, and we can plan from there.”
“What about the dam guy?” Graham said.
“Are we sure there is a dam guy?” Rick said.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure the dam guy’s there,” Sam put in. “That didn’t happen on its own.”
“All right, let’s get some sleep before sunup. We’ll deal with that dam guy tomorrow,” Dalton said, fully aware that even in these dark and tense moments the men were again having a bit of fun with wordplay.
Everyone retired to the tents as the last rays of sunlight had disappeared behind the mountains.
Graham went over to Olivia to retrieve the baby. Although she offered to keep Tehya for the night, he wanted her with him. He didn’t mind waking and feeding her and peering into her eyes, as dark brown as Tala’s were. He found it a comfort and, above all, he wanted the baby to know he was her father.
Bang followed him sleepily to his tent too and settled down with a pallet between them to keep the baby safe.
Dalton had watched as they retired to the tent. He wished more than anything that he could bring Tala back for Graham. He knew the pain: losing his own wife Kim had been excruciating, even though when she died he no longer loved her the way that Graham loved Tala. This reminded him that he’d nearly lost Clarisse today, and he found himself walking toward her before he’s intended to—if anything, just to hold her and pray that he could get them all through this safe and sound.
Chapter 52 Return to the Cabins
Early the next morning, they broke camp and eased back into the road leading to Ross Lake’s northern shore. The barge remained where they had left it, and again they spent hours transferring the vehicles down the lake to the cabins. They thought about how best to keep the prisoners, and though Rick entertained the idea of putting them up in cabin 7, where Rueben and his family had stayed the last time, Sam argued that the escape risk was just too great and he didn’t have enough duct tape left for the woman, so they would remain in the truck for now.
Graham opened the door to cabin 8, holding the baby in his arms, but without Tala by his side. It seemed lonely and quiet. Macy picked up on his melancholy and offered to take the baby for a while. He let her. As he unloaded their belongings, he found himself still in a daze. He put everything where it had once been—without Tala to tell him were it should go. God, how I miss her.
“Graham, Dalton’s called a meeting. They want you to come by the office,” Mark said.
Graham looked at Macy. “Don’t worry. I’ve got Tehya,” she said.
“She needs a bottle in a few minutes,” Graham reminded her.
“It’s all right—really, go ahead. I can take care of her. I’ll make us some lunch too,” she said.
Graham looked around at the kids, his kids: Macy holding the baby; Bang watching Graham, but leaning against Mark; Marcy in the kitchen, putting things away; and McCann holding the door open for him while keeping one eye on the lake for intruders.
“I’ll watch them. Don’t worry,” McCann said.
Graham nodded. This was indeed his family now. Each of them had come to him at some point over the past year, and in such a short time they had come to depend on one another as any family would. He still hadn’t figured out how he would go on without Tala, but having this family helped him, made it possible for him to draw each next breath into his ragged lungs.
“Okay, I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
~ ~ ~
“Do you think the ga
s in the planes is still good?” Sam asked as Graham walked through the office doorway.
“I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” Rick said.
Then Dalton and Clarisse walked into the office as well.
“This is it, guys,” Dalton began when everyone was settled. “This is where we plan to save the world after the greatest crime of all time.”
“I know there’s not that many of us, but we’re going to do what we can and hopefully when this is all over we can find others out there who not only managed to survive the pandemic but also hid from the barbarians.”
“Who’s flying the planes, and when are we leaving?” Rick asked, “I don’t think the boy is going to last too much longer.”
“I just gave him some ibuprofen to reduce his fever. That should help,” Clarisse interjected.
It seemed odd to care for the people they were using as weapons. It seemed even odder to be in the situation they now found themselves in, but that was life. The only way to win now was to fight fire with fire.
Dalton unfolded a map of the United States. “To answer your question, Rick, you will take one of them, and I’ll take the other two. You should be able get there and back with a full tank. I’ll have to land somewhere and find more fuel for the rest of the trip.”
“Wait! There has to be another way! You can’t deposit both of them on your own and make it back,” Clarisse complained. She was certain this plan meant death for Dalton. Graham realized this was the closest he’d ever seen her to hysterics.
Dalton put his arm around Clarisse. “There’s no other way. Rick and I are the only ones who can how to fly. We only have two planes. As it stands, that’s the plan,” he diverted his attention back to the map. “We’ll leave tonight, after dark. Rick, you’ll take yours over to Seattle. That’s our first, best option”—he drew his finger along the map—“from our current position at Ross Lake to Lake Union in Seattle. Use your best judgment to get him close to population. Then, get your ass back here.”
