by Greg Dragon
“Son of a bitch!” Connor yelled and reached to his hip, grabbing the pistol holstered there. He had the gun out and pointed at the man.
“Dude, stop right there. I ain’t telling you twice.”
But the man kept coming, shambling a little faster now. Janet could hear the click as Connor jacked the slide back. The shot was anticlimactic; a rolling echo in the large parking lot that went on long after the infected man had dropped like a lead weight.
Connor stood looking down at him for a while before he shoved the pistol back into the holster. He turned with a shrug and headed back to the truck, only pausing beside the window for a brief moment.
“You might have warned me the dude was sick. I’d have shot him from the dock and been done with it.”
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t see that,” Janet whispered.
Connor gave her a hard stare, and then muttered something she couldn’t catch. “I’ve only got a couple of pallets left, and we can go. Try to do a better job out here, or I might just leave you to keep company with our friend there.”
Janet nodded without saying anything. She’d have to wait, or risk walking out on her own, and she wasn’t willing to do that just yet. Connor walked off without another word, and she leaned forward so she could see more of the area around the warehouse.
* * *
Now that the shadows had reached the van, Dara could see that they were people. All shapes, sizes, ages and colors of people, dressed in vastly different styles from work clothes to sleepwear. Dara could see the ones in the glare of the headlights, and the look on their faces made her even more frightened.
She knew they couldn’t stay there, or the van would be surrounded. Dara stared at the faces she could see, looking for any sign of humanity. She couldn’t see anything that said these were people any more. She knew she had to push forward, get past this blockage and make it to the hunting camp.
Ted was depending on her getting them there, getting them both to safety. But the thought of running down these—people, for she couldn’t make herself think of them as anything else—made her sick to her stomach.
“Dara, why are the people hitting the truck?”
Ted’s plaintive voice broke the spell, and Dara slammed her foot on the gas pedal. The van was slow to get moving, but it was going forward, pushing the people in front of the hood backwards. A couple dropped down out of sight, and Dara was pushing harder on the pedal when a glare blanked out everything in front of her.
Her foot eased up and the van stopped moving. Dara couldn’t see past the bright headlights, only able to tell it was a larger vehicle than her own. The truck stopped a short distance in front of her, taking up the center of the road.
Some of the people who had been pushing up against the moving van turned to stare towards the brighter lights, and a couple even began a slow stumble in that direction. Dara though she might could get through the people now, but she wouldn’t be able to get around the other truck.
“Damned fool,” Dara said, forgetting Ted was beside her.
“What fool, Dara? Like on a deck of cards? Those are fun. Can I see it?”
“I’m sorry, Sweetie, I meant the person driving the other truck. The road is blocked and we can’t get moving until whoever it is moves out of the way.”
“Oh,” Ted muttered. He turned his head away, staring out the window.
Dara sighed. Things still upset Ted, things that shouldn’t even matter. Like thinking she was keeping a deck of cards from him. At any other time, she’d try to jolly him out of his pout, but right now she had bigger things to worry about.
Like getting the hell off this road and getting some sleep.
Dara was squinting along the side of the road, trying to see if she could maneuver the van along the edge and get by the big truck. She didn’t want to get into any kind of confrontation, but she reached down beside the door and pulled out the small automatic pistol she’d tucked down there.
If she had to, she’d use it. She wouldn’t like it, but she’d do whatever she had to do to get Ted out of this mess.
Dara watched the driver climb down out of the truck and head towards her. He was carrying a gun himself, she realized just before he began shooting the people between his vehicle and hers.
She clicked the safety off and waited to see what he’d do next.
Chapter Six
“Janet, there’s something blocking the road up ahead. I’m going to stop and check it out. Stay far enough behind me to get around on the shoulder, in case you have to go.”
Conner’s voice on the radio crackled and sputtered, but she could hear him clearly enough.
“Okay, Connor. Keep me advised.”
Janet was kind of proud of that response. It sounded so official. Like she knew what she was doing with the radios and keeping safe as they traveled towards the mountains.
Connor had given her some quick directions before they’d left the warehouse, mainly about not following too close behind him and watching the side roads and other areas where an ambush could come at them.
She didn’t think she’d needed the lecture, but she’d sat in silence and nodded at the right times, repeating everything he’d told her when ordered to. Other than the one man at the warehouse, they hadn’t seen any sign of others being out and about, so she thought it was a waste of time and effort. They’d be better off just driving and making better time towards the mountains, in her opinion.
Not that Connor cared about what she thought. He’d made that clear enough over the years they’d been together. She had only one purpose, so far as Connor was concerned: to take care of his needs. Cook, clean and screw on command. That was her job.
Janet sat and fidgeted while she waited in the pickup, watching as the door on the delivery truck opened. She could see Connor only as a dark shape as he climbed down. She lost sight of him as he went to the front of the truck, towards whatever he’d seen blocking the road.
She could hear more moaning like the man at the warehouse had done. The sound of Connor’s gun, a quiet pop-pop-pop, came through her partially open window. Whatever the road block was, infected people were part of it.
The next time she saw him, he was walking along the right hand side of the road, going towards another set of lights she could faintly see past his truck’s brighter lights. There must be another vehicle out there, maybe broken down.
Connor disappeared into the glare, and Janet got a little worried. If the people in the other truck were also armed, there could be trouble. Though if they were armed, she wondered why they hadn’t already shot the infected people and moved on.
When there was nothing more than the vaguest hint of conversation, Janet got restless and opened the truck door. Since Connor couldn’t be bothered to let her know what was going on, she’d see for herself. Besides, she reasoned, he might need backup.
Janet giggled a little at the thought. Imagine her backing Connor up. He was an excellent shot, and she could hit big targets if they weren’t moving. He’d probably end up saving her ass, and he’d never let her forget it.
She stepped quietly around several bodies lying between the warehouse delivery truck and what she could make out through the lights as something like one of those big moving vans. Janet could hear someone talking that wasn’t Connor, but she wasn’t close enough to make out what they were saying.
When she finally got near Connor, she could see he was standing with his gun aimed at a dark figure behind the van’s open driver’s door. Even in the glare, she could tell the person was holding a gun pointed at Connor, leaving them both in a stand off.
That could only end badly, Janet knew. Both of them would probably be dead, leaving her alone and facing who knew how many others in the van. She didn’t like the odds.
So, Janet did the only thing she could think of, and stepped around until she was in front of the van. She put both hands up, leaving her own small gun in the holster behind her left hip.
“Hey there. What’s
going on?”
Not the sort of greeting she was used to giving when coming upon strangers, but under the circumstances it would have to do.
“Go back to the truck, Janet. Let me handle this.”
“Handle what? I think we can both get going, now that the infected have been taken care of.”
“It seems the lady isn’t too happy with me taking care of her problem. She got a little upset about me shooting them all.”
“That’s right. You didn’t need to do that. I was going to push through them. They were falling back.”
The voice was a light one, educated from the tone, Janet thought. Maybe she could be reasoned with, if Connor would keep out of it.
“Connor, let’s just go. Ma’am,” Janet pitched her voice to carry to the van. “We’ll be leaving now, if you’ll kindly make room for us. I’m sorry you’re upset, but we’ve had to deal with one of these infected already tonight, and I think Connor was still dealing with that.”
“I’m not dealing with anything, except this crazy woman who won’t get the hell out of my way,” Connor snarled.
Did the man have a death wish? He was itching to cause some kind of trouble, and Janet had no idea why. There was enough facing them as it was, with a long trip to the mountains and then setting up decent living arrangements with whatever they found at the camp.
She’d have to diffuse this situation herself somehow, and soon, before they attracted more infected from the surrounding area.
Janet began walking slowly towards the van, keeping her hands up and in plain sight as she went.
“Ma’am? Can we talk about this? We don’t want any trouble, no matter what it seems like. We’re just trying to get out of town, make it up to the mountains. We think it will be safer there.”
There were no threatening sounds or movements, so Janet kept walking. She ignored Connor as she went around him, and for once he stayed silent.
When Janet was at the side of the van, she could see the driver was a woman a little older than herself, maybe late thirties, with dark skin and hair in a tight cut close to a well-shaped head. It explained a lot about Connor’s attitude. He didn’t care for black people, or anyone who was not white. One of his many issues that Janet hadn’t known about until it was too late.
“Ma’am, my name is Janet, and this is Connor. Like I said, we’re trying to get out of town, and we need to get moving. Things are getting worse, and it’s dangerous to be sitting around, as you’ve probably guessed.”
The woman stared down at Janet for a long time, keeping her gun aimed firmly at Connor. She seemed to be taking stock of the other woman, thin, blond and pale.
Finally, she came to a decision and lowered the gun, though it was still pointed in Connor’s direction.
“I’m Dara. My husband, Ted, and I are trying to get to the mountains ourselves. We have a place up there we’ve been working on for a while, and we want to get there as soon as we can.
“We’d just turned on to this road, looking for a hotel to stop for the night, when these—people—came out of the woods and got in front of the truck.”
Janet nodded. The warehouse was just down the road, and she knew from going there with Connor a couple of times that there were some housing developments all around. It made sense there would be infected people roaming around the area.
“We had one guy come up on us,” Janet said. She didn’t want to say it was while they were ripping off Connor’s former employer. “Connor had to, um, take care of him.”
Dara nodded, looking towards Connor and the delivery truck.
“Well, thank you for the help. I guess I can get around the, what you called infected, so you two can get going. Ted and I need to get settled for the night, so we can get a fresh start in the morning.”
“It’s not a problem. I should tell you that if you were planning to stay at the hotel that’s just a mile or so up the road, it’s closed. It went out of business a couple of months ago.”
Dara’s heart dropped. Now what would they do?
“That was the place. Guess my guidebook was out of date. You wouldn’t happen to know of any place else we can stay?”
Janet cast a glance at Connor. He was still standing just past the edge of the van’s headlights, his gun gripped in both hands. He had it aimed more at the ground now, and Janet heaved a sigh of relief. She turned back to Dara, sure now that Connor had himself under control.
“Nothing on this road. The only thing is in town, and I wouldn’t recommend staying anywhere near that many people.”
She could see the other woman’s face droop, tired and discouraged.
“I now a place back on the highway, about five miles. It’s a good hotel, clean and a good price. You could follow us until we get there, or I can point it out to you on a map.”
“That would be great,” Dara said. “Let me get the map. I think the sooner we’re all on our way, the better. We’ve still got a ways to go before we reach the camp.”
Janet’s heart jumped.
“The camp? You mean the old hunting camp?”
Dara nodded. “That’s right. My husband and I bought it a few months ago. Do you know about it?”
“Well, not me, but Connor does. His family used to go up there, he’s been there a few times since he was a kid. That’s where we were going to hold up until this mess got sorted out.”
“Oh. I’m sorry. The place had been abandoned for so long, we just assumed no one remembered it.”
Janet heard someone in the van’s cab saying something, and Dara ducked down to listen. There were a few moments of conversation that Janet couldn’t make out before Dara straightened up.
“Ted says you two should come with us, and stay at the camp anyway. I admit, having a couple of extra hands to help out would be nice.”
Janet hesitated. “I don’t know how Connor would take that. He was pretty sure we’d be alone up there. He might not like the idea of there being other people.”
“Well, talk to him, tell him about us owning the land and everything, and that he’s welcome.”
Janet looked up at the other woman, searching her face. She seemed like a nice, friendly person, but she was black, and Connor might balk at the invitation. Still, she had to make him agree, or they had nowhere to go.
“I’ll talk to him,” she finally said, giving Dara a smile. “Give me a few minutes, okay?”
“Sure. But let’s not take too long. I want to get out of here.” Dara gestured at the dead bodies on the road, and shuddered.
* * *
“I ain’t going nowhere with no niggers,” Connor muttered after hearing Janet out. “I say we shoot them now and just go.”
“Connor, you know we can’t do that. It’s bad enough you’ve killed all these people. They were sick and I can understand that. But you can’t just shoot anybody who gets in the way. That’s not going to work.”
Connor spit back towards the moving van. “They got no right, buying up that property. It was for white folks, a place to get away from the darkies.”
Janet had to fight to keep from smacking him down. It was self-preservation, because he’d probably beat her unconscious if she did, or kill her and then Dara and Ted. That wasn’t any sort of solution for their problem.
“That might have been true back then, Connor, but Dara says they bought it, so they decide who gets to stay there. You think we’ll be safe at the camp, so we’re going to have to accept their offer and deal with it.”
It took a few minutes of quiet persuasion, laying out the hard facts without getting him totally pissed at her, but finally Connor agreed to the proposal.
He didn’t like it at all, she could tell, but what other choice did they have? She wasn’t going to sit back and watch him murder the couple, even if it meant she’d have to confront him and take the consequences.
“I’ll go talk to Dara, then. She wants to get a hotel for the night. Seems her husband isn’t well, and they’ve been on the road for hours. They nee
d to sleep and get some good food in them.”
“Fine,” Connor grumbled. “You deal with them. I don’t want anything to do with either one of them. We’ll stay wherever they end up, but I’m not eating with them, and we better get rooms far away from theirs.”
Janet could only shake her head as she left him fuming beside the truck. Maybe he’d settle down after they got to the camp. She doubted it, but she didn’t see any other way to deal with the situation. They needed a safe place, and Dara and Ted owned the only one they knew of. It was too late to go back home and look for something else, even if Connor would agree to that.
When she told Dara they would come along and help the couple out at the camp, she could see Dara knew something about what had happened between her and Connor. Janet figured she was used to that reaction when dealing with some white people.
After some turning and backing, with Janet spotting her, Dara got her van turned around, leaving room for Connor and Janet to get by. She followed the other couple out onto the highway once again, heading to the hotel and what she hoped would be a decent night’s rest for them both.
Chapter Seven
The roar of a dozen motorcycles was a familiar sound to George “Big Bear” Andropolous and the rest of the club as they sped down the road out of town. The smell of exhaust and the vibration of the big Harley between his legs were as natural as salt air and the motion of a ship at sea was to a sailor.
If he tried hard enough, he could almost forget that they weren’t on a normal club ride. Almost. But every time he looked into the bike’s side mirrors, he saw the train of truck campers, old RVs and pickups loaded to the gills following along behind.
After packing up two days before, the group had set out for the mountains. It had been a long ride for everyone, with people packed into vehicles already loaded up with everything they could bring with them.
The first night, the exhausted travelers had barely been able to make camp and get a hot meal inside them before they fell out, only to be wakened to stand watch after too short a time.
