Knights of the Apocalypse (A Duck & Cover Adventure Post-Apocalyptic Series Book 2)

by Benjamin Wallace

  It took both of them to lift the massive animal, but the girls helped Chewy into the tunnel first. The dog worked her way up the slope with Brae and Erica right behind her. Several times the mastiff began to slip but Erica was there to catch her. Erica grunted a few times as Chewy’s excited tail caught her in the face. There would be bruises.

  It was farther to the top than it looked, but the women persisted in their climb and reached a cave on the side of Galena Mountain. There had been no sign of their pursuers. Even if the guards had emerged victorious in the battle with the knights, the path they had taken was so dizzying that Erica doubted they could follow.

  Brae must have felt the same confidence. “I think we can rest for a bit.”

  Erica pushed her way past the girl. “Fine, but I get the seat near the door.”

  Brae smiled and let her through.

  Chewy followed and set her head in Erica’s lap once she had settled in. The dog, winded from the climb, panted. It looked like she was smiling.

  Erica smiled back and looked outside the cave. The outdoors had never looked so good. She took deep breaths of cool air free from mining dust and held them in as long as she wanted. The fresh open air revitalized her more than any amount of rest could. She realized she had been quiet for some time. “Thank you, Brae. Thank you for coming after me.”

  “We girls have to stick together now, don’t we.” The woman smiled. “Besides, it was Hannah’s idea. She followed you right out of town and didn’t stop until she found a way to save you.”

  Erica looked at the dog in her lap. Her big brown eyes always looked sad. It was the nature of the wrinkles on her coat. Now they looked up at her as she scratched Chewy’s head. “Thank you, girl.”

  The mastiff let out a small woof and pushed her head farther into Erica’s lap.

  “Besides, I couldn’t leave you there,” Brae continued. “You mean too much to Jerry. Did he ever tell you how we knew each other?”

  Erica shook her head and Brae smiled sheepishly.

  “I don’t blame him for that. It must have been awkward. Meeting the ex always is.”

  “The ex?”

  Brae nodded and then put her hands up in defense. “Don’t worry. It was a long time ago. We were over way before the end of the world.” She laughed at this. “But you know how it is. Girl meets boy. Girl loses boy. World blows up. Girl finds boy in a post-apocalyptic kingdom of dorks … it’s the classic tale.”

  They both laughed at this.

  “What I’m saying is that Jerry and I were a lifetime ago. But when you have a history with someone, you just never lose it, right?” This drew a thick silence. “When he showed up with you, he just looked so happy—like me and Shane. I lost everybody, Jen. Everybody. Jerry is the first person I’ve seen since the Crappening that I knew before. And I want him to be happy just because I can make a friend happy. I miss that feeling.”

  Erica smiled. She felt the sting of a tear at the corner of her eye and wiped it away.

  “Don’t you start crying! Then I’ll start crying and we’ll be here all night like a couple of old girlfriends. We’ve still got a walk ahead of us before we’re really free.”

  “Where to next?”

  “There’s a place in the forest—Shane and I agreed that if there was ever trouble, and we were separated, we’d meet there.” Brae moved to the front of the cave. She pet Chewy on the head and looked out onto the mountain. “I’d say this counts as trouble. The boys will meet us there.”

  “Brae? I have to ask about Shane.” The king’s words about the prisoners had stuck with her and she had to know. “You told me he was working in the mines to earn his citizenship.”

  “That’s right.”

  “The king told me there were no innocent men in the mines. No volunteers. Nothing but criminals.”

  Brae looked sad and sat on a rock across from her. “He killed a man. He killed a man protecting me.” She hung her head. “He’s in there because of me.”

  Erica reached out and put a hand on Brae’s arm. “Don’t …”

  “No. I … I was being selfish and silly. Like I always was, and … he saved my life. But they found him guilty. I couldn’t leave him, so I did what I had to so I could stay here and find a way to save him right back.

  “I’m sorry I lied about it. It’s hard to tell people your husband is a criminal.”

  “Don’t apologize. Besides, it sounds like he’s a hero to me.”

  This made Brae smile. “He is. He really is. He’s my hero. He’s my stupid knight in shining armor.”

  Erica stood and Chewy jumped back onto her feet. “Then let’s go see our knights and get the hell out of this screwed up town.”

  TWENTY-FOUR

  Her name was Kára. She had died once before. Her name was Sirún then, and she had died of sadness after losing a true love. Her name now meant the wild, stormy one, and nowhere was this more evident than in her eyes. They burned blue like the tail of a comet screaming across the heavens. They raged as she fought back the beasts of legend and myth with a mighty sword and lethal whip. She had stood for many years, but she was about to die again. This time it would not be from the sadness of a cursed and lost love. This time a desperate man was going to ram a train into her tits.

  Five hundred yards of open field separated the forest and the gaudy gates of the kingdom. Jerry had stopped the train a mile before and let the army off. They moved silently into the woods and made their way to the edge of the forest where they would wait for the most obvious signal ever devised.

  Only Jerry, Kyle and JJ stayed on board the train as it built its speed back up. At full throttle the smokestack blew soot, ash and steam three hundred feet into the air and the whistle blew louder than they had ever heard it. And ahead of it all, the steel blades of the rotary plow spun at a blinding rate and led the charge toward the castle.

  The plow itself looked like a train with the mouth of a caterpillar. Designed to eat snow too deep for a blade, the locomotive was given teeth by a power driven ten foot steel disk. With this monster, followed by the weight of a locomotive and an entire train, Jerry was sure they could get Kára’s bra open.

  The plan was that simple. Steal a train and run it through a castle wall. The three men in the cab would jump clear of the inevitable carnage as the army charged across the open field in the resulting confusion. They would then all pass through the Valkyrie’s cleavage and take the castle back from the evil prince, and he still couldn’t believe he had to make a plan like that.

  The train burst from the edge of the forest at a speed the engine had never seen, and Jerry pulled on the whistle for several long blasts. He smiled at Kyle who was not amused. “You’re acting like a child.”

  “Fine,” Jerry said and stepped aside. “You can have your turn.”

  Kyle chuckled, “Thanks,” and pulled on the whistle. A smile grew across his face.

  “My turn next, Kyle,” said JJ who rang the bell while he waited for his turn.

  “It’s important to enjoy your work,” Jerry said as he leaned out the door and looked at the castle wall through a pair of binoculars he had retrieved from the truck when he went for the weapons. He smiled. The confusion was beginning to take hold.

  Knights lined the walls, shouting and pointing. There was no patterned movement. None ran for the mounted crossbows that lined the wall. A few unslung their rifles but looked to another knight to see if they should fire. Jerry smiled. It was Sir Erik.

  They were two hundred yards out when the shooting started. It was hurried and didn’t last long before the men started scrambling from the wall. The shots never even touched the steel plate of the engine.

  Jerry tapped Kyle on the shoulder and yelled over JJ’s turn at the whistle. “Time to go!”

  Kyle tapped JJ on the shoulder to pass the message on.

  JJ yelled at him. “It’s still my turn, jerk!”

  “It’s time to jump, idiot.”

  “Oh.” JJ gave the whistle one m
ore blast and stepped to the door.

  Jerry handed each a rifle as they stepped outside. He followed out into the cold.

  When he looked at the ground, it was clear that the train was going faster than he had thought. It hadn’t seemed so fast on the High Line, and he had figured a little more speed wouldn’t be too bad, but now he really, really didn’t want to jump.

  “You sure this won’t kill us?” Kyle screamed over the wind.

  “No,” was all Jerry could answer. He pointed to the gate, “But I’m sure that will.” He took a long step and aimed for the softest piece of snow he could see in the blurring landscape.

  The landing hurt like hell. The snow didn’t help as much as he hoped it would. He dropped the rifle as his feet hit and did his best to roll off the momentum. He found several rocks hidden by the snow. They bruised his arms and back and legs. The snow eventually stopped him and he sat up to look for the other two men.

  JJ and Kyle were limping towards the holes in the snow that hid their guns. Relieved that everyone had lived up until this point, Jerry high-stepped back through the snow to his own rifle. In the distance he could see his army making their way up the tracks.

  He turned back to the castle just in time to see the train plow into the Valkyrie’s chest.

  Sparks flew fifty feet in the air and the steel of the plow scraped against the shipping containers. The flying white tigers bearing the Valkyrie were erased in that flash.

  The engine steamed on and the containers buckled. Physics took over from there and the entire wall shifted as forty cars worth of force plowed through. The lower containers buckled. The wall collapsed towards the train, covering the wreckage and preventing any kind of entrance.

  The knights climbed back on to the wrecked wall and began to seek defensive positions. Jerry could see Sir Erik issuing commands. Carter and the unnamed knight from the bus were a part of the loyal guard.

  “What the hell, man?” JJ yelled. “It didn’t work.”

  “It should have worked,” Jerry said. Sure, he didn’t know the math, but he figured one train would be able to take out one measly wall. But now that train sat beneath the wreckage.

  “You told us you’d get us in!” Kyle screamed. “We believed you!”

  “It should have worked!” Jerry screamed back as the bullets began to fly their way. How had a damn train running at full speed not open the gates? How would he get to Erica now? The snow jumped around their feet in tiny bursts just before the boiler exploded with the force of more than a ton of dynamite.

  The blast knocked the three men off their feet and back into the snow. Wall and knights scattered away from the explosion and the bullets stopped.

  Parts of the kingdom’s unbreakable defense began dropping in the snow between them and the town.

  “He was right,” JJ said. “It worked.”

  “May have been a little overkill,” said Kyle.

  There was a cheer from behind them as the army rushed forward into the breach. They met no resistance and moved into the town. Jerry and the two mountain men who were supposed to be the first inside ran to catch up.

  They hadn’t looked like much on the train. They hadn’t looked like much in the woods. But given the right motivation, a half-starved band of refugees made for a pretty impressive sight.

  Jerry crossed through the wreckage of the train and the castle gates to see the army of mountain men earning the reputation the king had created for them. They fought like crazed woodsmen. They fought like cannibals.

  The citizens ran. They had never been forced to fight for themselves before and they weren’t about to ruin a perfect record. Men and women fled from the streets. They ran into their homes and hid behind locked doors and drawn curtains leaving nothing but the knights to protect them.

  Jerry was relieved to see the cowardice of the citizenry. Fewer people in the streets meant fewer casualties. Only the knights were left to face the rage of the woodsmen.

  The king’s men met the invaders willingly. The knights fired from defensive positions designed to protect food stores, armories and the noblemen of the town. They found themselves frustrated in this as the army of woodsmen refused to play along.

  Whenever the mountain men ran into guarded opposition, they simply moved on and found something else to shoot at. These invaders had no objective. They were storming the keep as expected. They weren’t targeting the warehouses. Their goals were chaos and confusion and they found it everywhere.

  There was one target. If they could take the king, whoever he happened to be at the moment, the men beneath him would collapse. Jerry was sure of this. The king was all that mattered. But if he saw the Dog or Sir Dominic, he was going to shoot them, too.

  The three men had stayed on the outskirts of town and worked their way north through the kingdom’s neighborhoods until they reached the edge of Cement Creek and were forced closer into town. Gunshots rang out two blocks over as the battle raged, but all was quiet for them. He’d been relieved that they made it this far into town without having fired a shot, but he could tell JJ was disappointed.

  Jerry dropped behind a fence and peered around the corner. There was a tap on his shoulder and he turned to see JJ with a furled brow. “What is it, JJ?”

  “You told me I could shoot things.”

  “You will.”

  “I’d better.”

  “You’ll get your chance in a few minutes. Look around this corner.”

  The large woodsman peered around the corner. “What am I looking at?”

  “Do you see the bell tower? That’s where the king is holding up. It will be well guarded. There’s going to be plenty to shoot at.”

  “Then let’s go kill us a king.” JJ stepped around the corner.

  Jerry grabbed him by a long scarf and pulled him back. “Not yet.”

  JJ turned and knocked the rifle from Jerry’s hand. He threw the man against the fence and put a shotgun barrel under his chin. “I’m getting a lot of mixed signals from you.”

  Kyle threw up his hands. “You see, JJ. This is why no one likes you.”

  Jerry looked at Kyle. “This happens a lot, does it?”

  “Well,” Kyle said, “stuff like this.”

  Jerry looked JJ in the eye. There was a focus in an intelligent person’s eyes—a degree of sharpness that was directly related to how well they saw and understood the world around them. It told him how much a person would be willing to believe. He was pretty sure he could promise JJ a puppy and it would be enough. But it would seem mean. “You’re going to have to trust me on this, JJ. I’m really good at this kind of thing.”

  “You just seem like a lot of talk so far.”

  Kyle tapped JJ on the shoulder. “Um, JJ, he’s got a gun pointed at your stomach.”

  “The hell he does,” JJ said. “He hasn’t moved.”

  “And one at your junk.”

  JJ looked down and saw the twin Colt .45s aimed just like Kyle said. He lowered the shotgun. “Please don’t shoot my junk.”

  “I don’t want to shoot anyone’s junk. It makes me uncomfortable to even talk about it.”

  JJ backed away and Kyle tried to change the subject back to overthrowing the kingdom. “So what do we do?”

  Jerry leaned back around the fence and surveyed the area. There was a garage across the street from the courthouse that housed old construction equipment. From there they would have to cross the street and the courthouse lawn, which meant spending a lot of time as a target.

  JJ whispered, “I think he was really going to shoot my junk.”

  Kyle shushed him. “I think you’re right.”

  JJ stayed shushed for only a second. “I like my junk.”

  “Don’t we all? Now shut up.”

  “You like my junk?”

  “No, I mean I like my … shut up, JJ!”

  Jerry ducked back behind the fence. “We’re too exposed here. There’s a building complex north of the courthouse. We should be able to get closer from the
re. If we get in the creek and stay low and close to the bank, we should be able to get there without being seen. From there we can storm the castle.” Jerry hung his head. This place was so dumb. He couldn’t wait to get Erica and get out of there.

  “Then shooting, right?” JJ asked.

  “Then shooting, JJ.”

  The three men worked their way back to the edge of Cement Creek and stepped down the shallow bank. It wasn’t much to hide behind, but they stayed as low as they could and made their way upstream.

  The creek passed under a bridge. From there they could see the courthouse and some of the fight being waged in the street. Several of the king’s men were firing down Elias Street from behind an overturned car.

  JJ smiled and climbed and readied his gun.

  Jerry shook his head.

  “But, they’re right there. And they’re not even looking.”

  “You’re going to shoot them in the back?” Kyle asked.

  “I’m not going to ask them to turn around.”

  “You can’t kill them,” Jerry said. “They’re too far away.”

  “No shit. That’s what the gun’s for.”

  “You’d want a rifle for that, JJ.”

  JJ looked at the gun in his hands. “What’s this?”

  Kyle rolled his eyes, “That’s a shotgun, moron.”

  JJ slapped the gun with the back of his hand. “Well, I don’t want this then.”

  “Then why’d you pick it?” Kyle asked.

  “It looked cool.”

  Jerry moved up on the creek bed until the group was behind the building complex neighboring the courthouse. He moved up behind one of the buildings, peered around the corner and waved to the other two men to follow.

  He ran to another building before they caught up and repeated the maneuver until he could see the entrance and the five guards in front of it. JJ and Kyle arrived next to him and put their backs against the wall.