by Mark Mathews
At first, she was afraid someone had killed him, but when she pulled back, she saw little feathers sticking out of a dart. It looked like a tranquilizer of some sort. Wade hit the ground hard, and it was all she could do to keep him from hitting his head on a rock.
As soon as he was safely on the ground, she pulled her gun, swinging around to look for a target. Two men stepped out of the tree line. One was thin and wiry. She could take him if she had to. The other was tall and lean. He looked like he spent every free moment he had working out. He might pose a problem for her. She raised the pistol, using her best cop voice to tell them to freeze. Neither one of them paid her any attention. They moved around her like water around a rock. They went over to Wade, who now was laying still with his eyes closed.
“I know he’ll need some antibiotics at the very least, and we might have to go in and clean it with some peroxide. Bandages should keep the majority of the dirt and dust out of it. After that, it should be pretty easy to keep him from getting sick.” As much as she loved the way this conversation was going, she still had no clue what was going on. Even though it seemed like these men were concerned with Wade’s wellbeing, she didn’t know them, and that meant she didn’t trust them. They were talking about what it would take for Wade to heal up and what kind of medical attention he might need. Did that mean they had more than what Sarah and her group did? Was there medicine squirreled away somewhere that they could get to? If there was, then she needed to do whatever necessary to get it for Wade. She was still pretty sure that he wasn’t going to make it if they stayed out in the elements like this with nothing.
“Who are you?” The authority in her voice made them look around and notice her for the first time. The smaller guy offered her a friendly smile, whereas the larger of the two just stared down his large nose at her. She stood as tall as she could, staring them both right in the eye, and letting them know nonverbally that she wasn’t backing down. The smaller one seemed to be the friendlier of the two, so she focused her attention on him.
“Well, I’m Brad. This is Josh. We’re locals, and we’re pretty good at living in this world without technology.” The two of them seemed like good guys, but with the way things had been going for them lately, Sarah had adopted Wade’s sense of mistrust. She didn’t know if she trusted them as far as she could throw them. In the case of Brad, she probably could throw him pretty far.
“And why exactly did you shoot him with a tranquilizer gun?” Sarah stood there, unconsciously mirroring the interrogation pose of a mother. He blushed and smiled at her.
“Um, well, it seemed like you needed some help there. I didn’t know if you all were one group, or if maybe there was a problem between two groups. It’s better to shoot first and ask questions later, but that only works with tranquilizers, otherwise they can’t answer the questions afterward.” There was a point to what he was saying, but as far as Sarah was concerned, she would stick to real bullets.
“If you’d like to come with us, we can show you where we’ve been holed up. We have some medications there that really would help him out.” Sarah was torn. On the one hand, Wade needed medical attention, there was no doubt about that. On the other hand, she still didn’t trust them. Wade started shivering, and it caught everyone’s attention. Sarah bit her lip. She didn’t have a choice anymore, but that didn’t mean she would throw caution to the wind.
“Alright. Show us your camp.” She nodded at Tom, who went over to help Emily gather up all the rest of the supplies they had spread across the campsite. Sarah made sure Emily and Tom stayed behind her, and she kept both men in her sights. Josh picked up Wade like he didn’t weigh anything at all, and Brad led the way to wherever they were going. Sarah had her hand resting on the butt of her gun, with the safety off, the whole way.
It didn’t take long before they arrived at the mouth of a large cave. Brad led the way in. Josh followed, carrying Wade, who now was tossing and turning, moaning pitifully. Sarah’s heart went out to him. If these men had medicine, then she had to be nice to them. She had to make sure they gave Wade whatever he needed. Josh laid him down on a bed of what looked like pine needles, covered with a sheet to make a nest. It had a fresh scent to it that Sarah appreciated. Brad was busy digging through some glass jars and vials. He brought one over that had little yellow pills in the bottom. He sat Wade up against his body, then gave him the pills, opening his mouth and dribbling some water in from a chipped clay mug. On impulse, Wade swallowed, then his eyes rolled again, and he slumped over. Brad laid him down again, covered him up with a blanket, and walked away.
“What’s going on? What did you give him?” Sarah was a little worried. If they wanted Wade dead, though, then they just could have shot him instead of bringing him back here to their cave.
“I gave him some antibiotics. He should be just fine. Now that he’s got something to help him fight the infection, the rest is up to him.” Hearing those words worried Sarah, because she didn’t know if Wade was going to have the will to fight or if he was going to give up on them.
Three days had passed since Brad and Josh let them temporarily move in, and Wade steadily was improving. His pale face was gone, and his eyes were a little clearer. His strength was coming back, and his wound looked a lot better, too. They fed Sarah’s whole group, and she found that she trusted them now. It was thanks to them that she rested a little easier, and that Wade was on the mend.
“Thank you for taking care of him and supplying the rest of us with everything we could have asked for these past few days. I was wondering if maybe I could bother you for one more thing?”
“Sure. What’s up?” Josh had been working at a pharmacy when the electricity stopped working, and being a survivalist prepper, he decided to stash a few things that he might need if the world really was going to end. She’d thanked them for everything, now they really needed to get going.
“Well, we’re in a bit of a hurry. There was a group of men on motorcycles that were giving us some trouble, and we wanted to get over the mountain before they got around it. Have you seen anyone else?” She was hoping the answer was no.
“Nope, can’t say that I have. But I can tell you about the best way to get down from this mountain.” For the next ten minutes, he outlined in detail the best way to get down off the mountain. He even took out a pencil and a piece of paper to draw them a map. Brad gave them a little bottle of the antibiotics to take with them, and Josh gave them instructions on how many pills and how often Wade should be taking them. Sarah thanked them both again, then took the map and helped Wade to his feet. He was still a little unsteady, but he was doing much better than he had been. The two men waved, and Sarah put Wade’s arm over her shoulder to help him walk. She led the way down the path that the men had marked. Tom now was watching over Emily, and even though Sarah didn’t trust him, neither Tom nor Emily would be able to help Wade right now.
The map was stashed with their supplies, and Sarah looked over her shoulder frequently. There were times when she left the rest of the group in good cover and concealment, just to scout ahead for any trace of the motorcycle gang. Each time, she found nothing, and it made her nervous. She didn’t know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that there was no trace, but right now, she was going to keep her family moving, no matter what. She only could hope that they made it off the mountain without encountering the motorcycle gang or any more wild animals.
“Sarah?” It was late, and she was on watch for the first night since they’d left the comfort of the cave. Wade was awake, looking at her from his sleeping bag. She made her way over to him, careful to stay out of arm’s reach, just in case he went crazy again.
“What is it? Are you in pain? Do you need a pill?” Brad also had given them a little plastic bag with some pain medication to help Wade on the trip. He shook his head, and even that motion made him wince.
“Thank you.” He didn’t know what else to say, and Sarah didn’t want to make it awkward, so she was going to ignore what he
was saying.
“Thank you for not giving up on me. I know that I said some crazy things, and that I might have acted in ways that I normally wouldn’t have, but I want to thank you for not putting a bullet in me.” Sarah was blushing furiously, and she was sure he could tell, even through the darkness.
“Well, um, you’re welcome. Now, let’s hope that we can get off this awful rock before the motorcycle gang catches up to us.” There was an unspoken understanding between them, and neither of them was going to bring up what had happened.
Tom only had known about the one incident he’d been involved in, and Emily knew nothing. That was the way they wanted to keep it. The biggest problem they had to face now was the motorcycle gang. Sarah took his hand and squeezed gently. She didn’t have to say it out loud, but he was thinking the same thing. What if the gang had been faster? What if they were, even now, on the main road that led them to the lakes? Sarah didn’t want to think about it, but she had no choice. It was still her job to protect the group, and she was going to make sure nothing and no one hurt her family. Whether it was an animal or a motorcycle group, she was going to make sure nothing else would get in the way of them finding a place to live and a way to survive. Even if it took a while for Wade to recover, she would handle it until he was ready to take back the reins.
Wade’s eyes fluttered, and Sarah tucked him back in with the blanket that he’d thrown off in his fitful sleep. She looked at Tom and Emily, wondering how they’d gotten to where they were. In the end, all three of them slept peacefully through the night, while Sarah sat up and wondered. Did the gang make it around the mountain? And if they did, when and where would their next meeting be? Scanning the darkness around her, she stayed on high alert, all through the night.
Chapter Nineteen
When the morning sun woke them, it gave Sarah a new perspective on life. They were still alive, they were still together, and it made her feel as though they could get through almost anything together. She went into the woods to have some privacy. There was still no one awake when she came back, so she went for a little stroll to get some firewood. Breakfast would be a sad affair as it was, but at least she could get the fire going to cook what they had. As she picked up a decent-sized log, she noticed there was a twisted hunk of metal on the ground. Shrugging it off, she went to get more wood. The more wood she gathered, the more chunks of metal she saw. It was a little strange, so she decided to talk to Wade about it when he woke up. She didn’t have long to wait, because he woke up soon after she lit the fire.
“Well, good morning, sunshine. How are you feeling?” Wade stretched. A grimace of pain flashed across his face. He was doing much better after his injuries, but he wasn’t completely recovered yet.
“Old.” They laughed together for a moment. It was an old joke in the police field, but right now she actually felt that way. Almost like she was more than one hundred years old, and still trying to function as if she were twenty. It wasn’t pretty.
“I found some pieces of metal around while I was looking for firewood. Is that something we should worry about?” Wade was silent for a moment.
“I don’t think we need to worry about it. I think it’s probably the plane crash that the family told us about. We’ll worry about it when we get to it. If we get to it. I don’t want to worry Emily about it.” Sarah silently agreed.
Though she thought that she didn’t want to worry Tom, either. She almost considered their little group a family, with her and Wade being the parents and Emily and Tom being the kids. She didn’t put Tom in the adult category, for obvious reasons. Emily sat up and stretched, looking around her quickly until her eyes settled on Sarah. She smiled, disentangling herself from her sleeping bag and coming over to sit next to Sarah. Tom made his way over, too, and Wade dished out the warmed stew that he’d been cooking next over the fire. He’d used a can opener to vent the can, then set it next to the flames, turning it with his feet so it heated equally. It was one of those giant ones that was meant to feed a large family. Wade wrapped a T-shirt around it, and passed the can to Emily along with a spoon, and she dug in. Tom came around, walked mechanically into the woods, and then came back, still looking as though he wasn’t quite awake yet. Sarah had to admit Tom annoyed her more than anything, and she was starting to regret saving his ass when they were going through one of the ghost towns.
He sat next to Emily, and the group stayed silent. The can and spoon made its way around the group, and Sarah couldn’t help but notice that Wade was trying his best not to eat any. She handed the can back to him with a glare, and he recoiled. When it came to scary looks, she was the queen. He humbly took the can, and under her watchful eye ate a dozen bites. He tried to give it back to her, but she stared him down, until he went on eating. Though her stomach was rumbling so loudly she was sure the whole group could hear it, she wanted to make sure Wade got his strength back. In her mind’s eye, she saw him as being the glue that held the group together.
“You need to eat.” He forcibly pushed the can into her hands and she finally took it.
Sitting there, chewing what was left, she wondered if maybe the plane crash would have left anything behind that they could use. The group cleaned up their campsite while she finished the can, and they set out once again, heading back to the trail they’d been taking to get them over the mountain. The higher up the mountain they got, the more twisted bits of metal and other wreckage caught their attention.
“Do you think this is the plane crash they told us about?” Emily echoed Sarah’s thoughts, but before she could answer, the situation laid itself out for them.
It was indeed the plane crash, because they could see trees and bushes pulled up by the roots, as well as the burned out hollow of the fuselage. There was a clearing up ahead, and it looked like the pilot had done his best to land there, but he’d overshot. The plane had touched down in the clearing, but it hadn’t come to a complete stop, tearing up everything in its path as it went. Luggage, burned to varying degrees, was strewn all over the place, along with larger items, a row of seats here, a beverage cart there, and other items that were no longer recognizable.
“I wonder how many other planes crashed around the country?” It was Tom who spoke up, and for the first time in a while, Sarah actually put stock in something he said.
It was a legitimate thought. There must have been dozens, if not hundreds, of planes that had gone down. Tears came to Sarah’s eyes as she thought about the major loss of life that undoubtedly came with that. Being a police officer in the time before the disaster hit, it was heartbreaking to her to think of losing so many people, when her job had been to save them. She didn’t have much time to mourn, however, because the staccato sound of gunfire jerked her out of her reverie.
“Everyone fall back to the trees! Get behind some cover!” Wade’s voice cut through the clearing, sounding like a bull was bellowing.
Emily turned around and ran toward the trees. After what had happened to her the last few days, Sarah didn’t blame her for wanting to save herself however she could. Tom was a scared little rabbit, bounding through the wreckage for all he was worth. Once they all were concealed, the shots stopped. Sarah held her breath. Had anyone been hit? How large of a group was it that was starting to open fire on them? Wade circled around, moving from tree to tree, until he was up next to her.
“Did you see anyone? Do you know what’s going on?” Sarah shook her head. She hadn’t thought anyone still would be around the wreck. So she had no idea that she should have been using the time to take stock of their surroundings. Unfortunately, she was dead wrong about that, and was about to find out.
“We might have to get closer to figure out what’s going on, and I’d rather not risk everyone. You’ve already been shot once, and I don’t want Emily going out there. Tom…” She trailed off. She didn’t need to finish that sentence, Wade was on the same page she was.
“I’ll go. I’m not sure yet what path to take out there, but I’ll go investigate.�
�� A cry drew her attention, and she and Wade froze.
That was Tom’s voice. She looked around, her eyes searching for any sliver of movement. There! Tom was lying out in the open, right before they’d reached the tree line. He was flat on his back, and it looked like he couldn’t get up.
“Damn it! He’s hit! We have to go get him.” Wade started slinking from tree to tree. It was getting increasingly difficult to remain shielded the closer they got to the clearing.
The trees were thinning out, and there weren’t enough to cover them all the way up to where Tom was lying. Sarah was doing her best to keep up and move with Wade as one. They made it to Tom, who was groaning pitifully. Emily was nowhere in sight, and Sarah thanked her lucky stars that the girl had stayed hidden. She looped Tom’s arm around her shoulders and started to stand up. A shot rang out, pinging off the ground not far from her. Wade pulled his own pistol out and started to fire a few shots in the direction of the wrecked plane. Sarah got Tom under the trees, far enough back that he was out of harm’s way. He was sweating horribly, and his teeth were clenched so he wouldn’t scream out in pain and give away their position. She had to give him credit for trying to be stealthy for once. Wade joined them a few minutes later.
“Whoever’s out there shot back at me for a little while during your escape, but when I opened fire on them, it stopped. I didn’t see anyone, so I still don’t know how many of them are out there, but they don’t seem to be getting any closer. I think it’s safe to say they aren’t chasing after us.”
