The Path of Ashes [Omnibus Edition]

by Parker, Brian

  Finally, he admitted it to himself that he missed his parents. When he lived with them—and to a lesser extent when he was in Austin—he’d despised how they constantly looked after him and took care of him. Now he realized that he was a fool and wished that he was with them. They’d always had his best interests in mind and had never said or done anything negative to him. Why had he thought that they were suffocating him? All they wanted was for him to succeed in life and he’d acted like a spoiled brat. He vowed that he’d make it up to them. He would make sure that they were safe and that they knew how much that he appreciated them.

  But what did being safe actually mean? Did that mean staying with them in Springfield or did he plan on making good on his promise to Veronica, a girl he really didn’t even know? His father’s words snuck into his mind that Gaines’s always kept their promises. Did that saying have any real meaning in the new world that they faced?

  Of course it did. Men of honor kept their word. He could convince his parents of the safety that Veronica had promised him in San Angelo and they’d come with him. What did Springfield have to offer them now that the world was ending? The weather was already noticeably colder after only a few days of the ash clouds, what would happen when the earth rotated farther around the sun and the northern hemisphere was in its natural winter cycle? It would become bitter cold, that’s what. Texas was a much better option than Missouri for the coming winter.

  His thoughts made him question if his parents would even be willing to leave their home. He’d convinced himself that Texas was a better option for surviving the future; could he convince them? They’d lived in that house for over twenty years and their entire adult lives had been spent there. Would they be willing to leave based on what their eighteen year old son said? He’d been out in this world and had already done terrible things to survive. They’d probably been sheltered behind their home’s walls and hadn’t seen the evil in the world. Why would they listen to him?

  Because they had to. He’d make them listen. They didn’t know the dangers of this new world like he did. It would be up to him to impress upon them the dangers of living in the bigger city, and it would only be a matter of time before their home became the target of some type of marauding band looking for food. He’d seen science fiction movies about the dismal future before and knew what was in store for people if they didn’t properly prepare for disaster.

  The real problem was that the dismal future in those movies was now.

  SEVEN

  Ash. It drifted from the skies, blanketing the world in a thick layer like freshly fallen snow. Each tree bough along the road had its own pillow of ash, slowly choking the life from the plant. In places, the wind had whipped the layers of ash away from the road and it lay in piles along the sides, filling the drainage ditches. There wasn’t a surface as far as the men could see that wasn’t covered in the remains of their civilization.

  They’d camped outside of Tyler after Tim and his partner had left them on the north side of town and then started the morning as fresh as could be expected. It took Aeric several miles of riding to get the stiffness out of his aching body and every push down on the pedals had been agony as his muscles protested their overuse.

  That was two days ago. Yesterday, they’d turned up Interstate 30 expecting another confrontation with the military. Except for the abandoned vehicles that had lost power when the EMP hit, the interchange was empty. Several wrecked cars forever entombed the remains of their drivers. Thankfully, they didn’t find anyone alive. What would they have done if they had?

  They took advantage of the wide, relatively flat interstate and made great time, despite their soreness. By the end of the second day, they’d traveled more than a hundred miles from Tyler, Texas and were nearing their turn north into Arkansas west of the town Texarkana.

  Last night, they made camp in eerie silence along the interstate. In fact, they hadn’t seen anyone alive since they turned onto the interstate earlier the day before. Aeric was worried that they were drifting into a radiation zone—which they likely were—but Tyler assured him that they would find massive devastation before they entered an area that had been hit with a nuke. He’d seen all the television programs about nuclear war, so Aeric had to trust him, for now. He planned to go into the first intact bookstore that they found so they could pick up books on nuclear war and survival. That would allow him to become familiar with the topic himself.

  After a couple miles of riding today, they were going to take the exit for New Boston, which according to their map was the town right outside the Red River Army Depot. Aeric remembered the last army depot that he’d seen in McAlester, Oklahoma and it wasn’t a pleasant memory. The plant had been burned to the ground by terrorists last summer while he was driving through on his way from Missouri to Austin. The dark, smoke-filled sky immediately surrounding the plant had looked a lot like the entire sky did now.

  At Exit 201, they turned their bicycles onto the ramp from the interstate down to the intersection with Texas State Highway 8. They passed more cars filled with the dead and had to weave in and out of traffic that had been stopped at the light when everyone died. “What the hell happened here, man?” Aeric muttered as he looked at the long line of vehicles.

  The cars all held the bodies of their drivers and many had passengers as well. It looked like they’d died suddenly, no doors were opened, no accidents after the vehicles lost power while driving at highway speeds, nothing. The people were simply sitting in their useless vehicles, dead.

  “I think they’re all dead,” Tyler answered with a shrug. “Look at them. They’re in their cars, like everyone died at the same time.”

  “I’ve got a bad feeling about this place,” Aeric said as he looked around at the buildings and mostly unharmed vehicles. There was very little damage to the surrounding area except for where the cars had continued rolling after their drivers died and they’d ran into something. The buildings were intact. Most of their windows weren’t even broken out. Even the little flower cart on the corner was still upright with its previous owner laid out on the grass like he’d simply died of a heart attack and fallen over.

  “We should be fine. Since everyone’s dead, we should get some supplies from that Walmart over there,” Tyler said, gesturing towards the large store on the opposite corner.

  “Aren’t you worried about the radiation? This looks like everybody died from radiation to me.”

  “Look, man. Yeah, I’m worried about it, but there’s nothing we can do about it since we’re already here.” He looked around and stated, “Besides, I think I know what happened.”

  Aeric regarded him skeptically. “You do? What do you think happened here, then?”

  “Remember that first airburst that we saw to the northeast, the one that temporarily blinded me?”

  “Of course. You think this was where it happened?”

  Tyler looked around and nodded. “It makes sense. If the nukes were preprogrammed and they were fired at targets that were in the computer, they may have hit this ammunition depot with a high-altitude burst. They’re used when the enemy wants to kill everyone, while leaving the infrastructure in place—minus the electricity of course. The military targeted cities or ports that they want to use later with high altitude bursts.”

  “Okay, man. You’re freaking me out with how much you know about this shit. How many Discovery Channel shows did you watch?”

  Tyler ignored his question and continued, “The burst way up in the sky does a few things. First, it sends out a massive EMP burst over a wide area—the higher the burst, the larger the area that’s affected. Which is why everything lost power over a hundred and fifty miles away.”

  “It could have been from the nuke that wiped out Dallas, only fifty miles away from us.”

  Tyler nodded, “Sure, you’re right. It all happened so close together that they probably both caused it. Anyways, a high altitude burst also sends out the same massive amount of radiation that other warheads do, w
hich kills everyone nearby almost instantly and then most of the radiation dissipates quickly—some types of radiation have a half-life of only a few seconds. That’s how an army is able to travel through a city that they’ve hit with a high altitude bomb.”

  “And you think they hit this place that way so they could re-use the ammunition stored here?” Aeric asked.

  “Yup. It makes sense. We’re a few hundred miles from the coast, so if an invading army had been using their ammo all along the way, they’d need a resupply.”

  “Don’t they use different caliber weapons than us?”

  “Maybe they’d make it work. Shit, I don’t know. But I do know that there’s an empty Walmart right there and we’re almost out of food.”

  “Are you sure? We should probably get out of here.”

  “Aeric, I normally defer to your decisions, but we need canned food and better clothing. We should be fine as long as we make sure to wipe the cans down really well once we leave. They’re more insulated inside that concrete building than we are out here, that’s for sure.”

  Aeric pulled at the bandana covering his mouth. It would be the perfect opportunity to get supplies where no one would bother them. How long had it been since the blast, five days? Six? He couldn’t remember. Was that enough time for the really harmful radiation to have dissipated like Tyler said it did? He needed that book.

  “If we go into the store, we can be selective about what food we take, instead of the ravioli shit that we got from that gas station,” Tyler continued. “We could get better camping gear, ammunition and guns that haven’t been touched. We could change our clothes. Hell, we may even be able to find painter’s masks with filters to help with the ash and particles in the air.”

  The painter’s masks sealed the deal for Aeric, whose mouth had already begun salivating at the thought of food other than the cheap, greasy pasta that they’d been eating for more than a week. He nodded silently and pushed the bike forward to get going before pedaling towards the store.

  They passed the bodies of shoppers in the parking lot as they zeroed in on the front doors. It wasn’t a far stretch to imagine everyone alive and carrying their groceries when they were killed instantly, with no idea what had happened to them. Some lay with bags in their hands, while others slumped beside overturned shopping carts. They were each different, once vibrant and full of life. Now they were dead and their colorful clothing was muted by the ash that covered their bodies.

  Even here, where the town hadn’t burned, the ash was prevalent upon every surface. Aeric wondered how much of America had been caught up in the fires and he hoped that his parents were alright. Springfield wasn’t a large city, so surely it had escaped targeting by our enemies, he tried to convince himself. The only way they’d be able to determine the truth was to complete the trip and they desperately needed supplies to be able to do that.

  The Walmart’s doors were closed when they got there and it took considerable effort on both of their parts to pry them open without any power. When they finally opened them, several bodies fell out onto the sidewalk and they were hit immediately by the smell of decaying flesh and drying feces. Out in the open, the smells had thinned and they no longer noticed them, but the stench of gasses escaping the human body, soured dairy products, rotting vegetables and spoiled meat had been trapped inside the sealed store for over a week.

  Aeric gagged while Tyler tightened his bandana around his nose. “Breathe through your mouth, it’s easier,” the big man instructed.

  “I don’t want that shit in my mouth.”

  “Suit yourself. Let’s go to the hardware section and see about those masks first.”

  The inside of the store held bodies, like outside. However, it appeared that these people hadn’t died immediately like those in the surrounding town. As they made their way from the grocery side of the store to the hardware section, Aeric noticed that some of the people had dragged themselves along, knocking over clothing racks as they went. Mothers clutched the still forms of their children. It was terrifying. The customers must have been slightly shielded inside the store, but still gotten a lethal dose of the radiation and died slowly.

  “God, this is awful,” Aeric muttered.

  Tyler nodded silently in agreement. Once again, Aeric marveled at the mental change that seemed to occur in his friend when they had a mission to conduct. The normally affable, jovial Tyler became more focused and taciturn. He saw to it that whatever they were doing would succeed and Aeric was extremely grateful for the big man’s presence.

  They turned off the main aisle by the registers down a second wide aisle that separated the hardware and housewares sections. It was the strange juxtaposition of soft pillows and linens next to the plumbing fixtures and tools that Walmart used as their standard layout. They’d only gone a few feet down the aisle when they noticed movement and Aeric’s heart was broken by the cruelty of man.

  A young employee lay on her back. Her legs moved slightly as she tried to gain traction, but her efforts were hindered by the slipperiness of her own urine and blood. A dried trail of the mixture ran towards the back of the store where she must have dragged herself from when the bomb went off, tearing her flesh open on the concrete floor.

  Aeric could tell that she’d been beautiful once, even with her features twisted in pain and dehydration. She noticed the two men and reached out for them with crooked fingers. They rushed to her side and Aeric knelt beside her.

  “He…help…me,” she croaked, her voice barely audible in the stillness of the empty store.

  Aeric grasped her hand in his gloved one and whispered, “Shh… You’re going to be alright,” he lied. They didn’t have any way to care for her. They could try to give her some pain medication, but how would they even give it to her? The girl’s body was so ravaged by the initial radiation burst, and now from the dehydration of five or six days without any food or water, he doubted they could force any pills down her throat.

  He pulled out the bottle of water that he had in the side pocket of his pack and unscrewed the lid. Her lips quivered in pain as he dribbled a tiny amount of water between them. Aeric watched as her throat constricted, trying to swallow the fluid. It wasn’t working. She couldn’t do it lying flat.

  “She’s a lost cause, man,” Tyler said over his shoulder.

  “She’s still alive, bro. Maybe we can save her.”

  “Look, I feel for her too. I really do, but what are we gonna do with her? We can’t stay here in this town. It’s fine for us to come in and get supplies, but long-term exposure to the radiation will kill us just as surely as it did to these people.”

  “We can’t leave her,” Aeric protested.

  “Well, we can’t take her either. We have bicycles, remember?”

  “I’m going to see what I can do for her.”

  “Suit yourself, bro. She’s a goner, we need to get our supplies and get out of here.” The big man turned away from Aeric and the girl. “I’ll be in the hardware section.”

  Aeric decided that maybe he didn’t like how mission-focused his friend had become. The girl was obviously in pain and the humanitarian thing to do would be to take care of her. She couldn’t swallow, so he slid his hand under her back to lift her up.

  Her body resisted his efforts to lift her because it was stuck to the floor, held fast with dried blood. Her back must have been a ragged mass of torn flesh from sliding along the floor. He looked around, behind them was the pharmacy section, she must have been trying to make it there when she couldn’t go any farther. He cradled her head in the crook of his arm and poured more water in her mouth.

  She swallowed and her yellowed eyes searched his face, but she wasn’t able to focus. “Help…” she mouthed, her voice didn’t work anymore. Aeric felt sorry for her and he hated the life that he was being forced to live. It wasn’t fair. He was supposed to go to school, play baseball and have a legitimate shot at playing professionally. His life was supposed to be filled with fun times, girls and hope
ful dreams for the future. Instead, he sat on the floor of a Walmart in the middle of nowhere trying to comfort a dying girl that he didn’t even know.

  He hated the thought of it; Tyler was right. What were they going to do with her? Maybe they had a pull-behind cart in the sporting goods section, one of those things that he’d seen parents pulling their children behind them. Could he pull her all the way to Missouri? What did he do with her if she died—which she likely would—leave her on the side of the road? Bury her? She was a lost cause and all he’d end up doing was depleting his energy.

  “I’m so sorry that this happened to you,” he told her.

  She squeezed her eyes shut, but she was so dehydrated that her body couldn’t spare the liquid for tears. It was heartbreaking for Aeric. He knew that she wouldn’t recover because the radiation had destroyed her body. It was a miracle that she was still alive as it was.

  “What can I do for you to help ease your pain?”

  “Ki…ki…mmm,” she stammered.

  Aeric realized what she was saying. The girl must have been in incredible pain over the last few days, wishing that her life would end, to stop the suffering with no way to do so. It wasn’t fair that he wanted to try and keep her alive when she wanted to die. It wouldn’t take much to put her out of her misery. Could he force enough pills into her to kill her or would he end up causing her more pain by pushing them down her throat? Maybe a quick gunshot to the head or one good knock from Tyler’s baseball bat would be enough.

  The pills would take too long and the baseball bat didn’t seem humane. The gunshot would be quick and to the point. His brain hitched on the thought that you shot an injured animal to put it down. She wasn’t an animal. She’d been a living, breathing human being, energetic and active a week ago. Now she’d been reduced to a frail, pathetic husk of what she must have once been.