The Path of Ashes [Omnibus Edition]

by Parker, Brian

  First off, she’d already demonstrated the inability to be quiet when ordered to and she’d be taking up more than half of their room in one of the carts. The diapers alone took up so much space that he wondered how the hell the settlers had done it in the old days. Of course, they had horses and entire covered wagons to haul their gear and his group just had the power in his and Tyler’s leg muscles.

  It had taken him and Tyler a month to go the route by themselves, now that they’d added the women and baby Kayla, he could easily see it stretching to six weeks or more. That would put them firmly into winter in the mountains and he decided that it wouldn’t work to be exposed like that. Their presence alone would make predators and scavengers curious. Add in wintery conditions on the mountain roads and it was a recipe for disaster, in his mind.

  Aeric finished rearranging the pull-behind carts and repacking everyone’s backpacks for the third time. He had to talk to Tyler about their plans. He walked into the living room where Julie and Tyler played with the baby on the floor. “Hey, Tyler. We need to talk about our route.”

  The big man looked up and shrugged his shoulders slightly, “Alright.”

  “I don’t think the way we came is going to be the best for the group. Those mountains were tough on the two of us, and now that winter is starting to set in, I think it would be dangerous on those roads, what with the instability of the carts and the potential for snow and ice added to the ash.”

  Tyler stood up and walked over to his bike where he had the map stashed away after the first rearrangement of supplies and pulled it out. He examined the map for a few seconds and then replied, “Okay. We can swing west into Oklahoma and then south into Texas.”

  “That has us avoiding the mountains?”

  He brought the map closer to the single candle that burned in the living room and reexamined it. “Yeah, I think that will have us bypass most of the bigger mountains. There may be some foothills and stuff, but it shouldn’t be any of the big mountains like it was in Arkansas.”

  Aeric nodded his head. “Okay, let’s take that route, then. I really wanted to go back to Eureka Springs and spend some time there. I think it’s just too much of a risk in those mountains now, though.”

  “Honestly, I think the best thing that we could do for them is to allow them to remain isolated. Could you imagine how they’d handle men like the two who’d killed Kayla’s mom and dad?”

  Aeric chuckled. “I don’t know. Up until all of this went down, I didn’t think you had it in you to be ruthless. You’ve proven to me time and again that you’re a badass motherfucker.”

  “Aeric!” his mom scolded him.

  “Sorry, mom. Sorry, Ketchup.” The child looked over at him and smiled. Maybe the kid would be alright.

  “Okay, we should try to get some sleep before we take off tomorrow,” Aeric announced.

  “Good idea,” Tyler agreed. “The carts are packed and ready to go. All we need to do in the morning is to pack up the bedding and then we can take off.”

  “Alright, good night everyone,” Aeric said as he walked over to blow out the candle.

  Beth and Julie snuggled together on one of the mattresses while Tyler lay beside Kayla. He blew out the light and jumped when Kate grabbed his hand and led him over to the third mattress. The girl was insufferable.

  “It’s dark enough, they won’t be able to see anything if you want to do it,” she whispered into his ear, running her hands across his chest and cupping the muscles underneath his shirt.

  He sighed. Her nonstop quest to get him in bed was already getting old and it hadn’t even been an entire day yet. Part of him said, why not? What good was denying himself a little bit of pleasure? He had no clue how long he’d be alive, why not allow himself a little bit of enjoyment in the time that he had left?

  “Kate, I don’t feel like it tonight. I just killed a man and inadvertently got Kayla’s mother killed.”

  She molded her body to him. “Oh, baby. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking about your feelings. You’re right. I’ll hold you and keep you safe.”

  He laughed at her choice of words. The girl had gone full-on crazy because of her own need to be safe and here she was telling him that she’d keep him safe. “Thanks, ba—uh, Katie.”

  He lay there in the darkness listening to the cacophony of gunshots, screams and shattered lives that drifted around the furniture blocking the windows. Springfield was a dead town. It just didn’t realize it yet.

  TEN

  The days and weeks flew by quickly as the group traveled back towards Texas. They ended up following roughly the same route that Aeric had taken to Austin in his car the previous summer. They had to alter course after McAlester because the road led to Dallas after passing by the ruins of the ammunition plant.

  They explored the remains of the ammunition storage buildings to see if they could find any food to replace their dwindling supplies, without any luck. Whoever had cleaned up the area after the disaster had cleared everything of use so they continued south.

  They were near Antlers, Oklahoma when it began to rain. It was the first time that any of them could remember it raining since the war. At first, they raised their hands to the sky to soak up the rain, but it quickly became apparent that the shit falling from the sky was poison. Everywhere the gray sludge touched their skin it burned, so they decided to leave the highway to seek cover during the storm. It didn’t take them long to find a house set off the road that looked abandoned.

  After knocking for several minutes, they decided that it was empty, so they went inside. They found the former residents in the living room. An obese woman sat in a recliner, two empty bottles of pills were beside her on the side table. Next to her, the remains of a man occupied a second recliner. He’d taken the shotgun in the mouth route, painting the walls behind him with his brain matter.

  Aeric and Tyler dragged the bodies outside and then searched the house for useful items. In the kitchen, they found plenty of canned goods and giant balls of mold growing on something in the sink. The canned goods went into their carts and the shotgun was added to their growing arsenal of weapons.

  They also found a few replica swords and a battle axe. The wheels in Aeric’s mind began to turn. Over time, they’d probably run out of ammunition, maybe they should learn to use the medieval weapons for that eventuality. The swords that the couple had would likely not hold up to any type of pressure since they were cheap replicas, but they could still help him get the motions down.

  He told Tyler about his thoughts and the big man reached back to pat the handle of his baseball bat. “I’ve got this, I’m good. Besides, there’s plenty of ammo in the world, we’ll be fine.”

  “Yeah, you’re right, I guess. I’d probably end up cutting off my own leg.”

  “Hey, man. If you want to learn, then go for it. I’m not gonna tell you that you can’t do it.”

  “Maybe when we’re not on the road,” Aeric answered. He gestured towards the back room. “I think we’re gonna take advantage of the guest bedroom while we’ve got the opportunity.”

  Tyler frowned and said, “Go get ‘em, tiger.”

  Aeric had stopped denying himself the pleasure of Kate’s affection after their first night in Springfield. Katie had been more than willing and had shown him that over the short time that they’d been apart she’d learned a lot about pleasing others. At his core, he knew it was stupid and reckless, that she was using him simply because he offered her the protection to stay alive, but in reality he was using her too. The thought that they’d be dead any day overrode his common sense and drove his need to satisfy the desires of his body.

  Of course, Tyler didn’t approve and let him know on multiple occasions. At first it was the base argument that the girl was a poison, then when that didn’t work he switched it to saying that Kayla didn’t need to hear them humping into the night. Finally, he’d admitted that he didn’t want to hear their moans of intimacy.

  Before everyone went to bed for the
night, they gathered in the kitchen to discuss their options and treat the chemical burns on the skin that had been exposed to the weather. Even though they’d moved the couple’s bodies outside, it was an unconscious agreement to avoid the living room.

  They debated whether to post a guard for the night as they had every night, ultimately deciding that since the home had remained unmolested for as long as it had, it was highly unlikely that anyone would brave the acid rain and come to the house. They all needed a good night’s rest. Aeric and Tyler had been traveling for almost two months straight on a limited diet, and the girls had gone from the outright terror of daily life in Springfield to living on the road. The group was weary in both the body and the soul, so the break would do them good. As a precaution, they piled furniture up around the doors before they turned in and went to their separate rooms for the night.

  There were several cases of bottled water in the home’s pantry, so everyone took the luxury of using the water in the toilet reservoirs to bathe. To Aeric, it felt luxurious to scrub away the dirt and grime of the road. As he scrubbed with a washcloth, he laughed about how his perception of luxury had changed. He was using toilet water to clean himself for Pete’s sake.

  When they went to bed, Aeric and Kate took the guest bedroom while the other four stayed in the master. The pattering of the rain outside combined with their newfound cleanliness added to the intensity of the sex between them. For the first time since getting back together with Kate, Aeric truly enjoyed himself, turning off his mind and getting lost in the moment.

  The rain continued for three days, so the group stayed in the house in Antlers that long. By the time the weather cleared, they were well rested and ready to get on the road once more. Their carts and packs were full of the supplies that they’d pilfered from the home’s pantry and they even had several books that they’d been reading, which would have been a luxury that they couldn’t have afforded themselves before the break.

  They made their way back to the Indian Nation Turnpike and turned the front wheels of their bicycles south. The dawn of the new day was still dreary and overcast with a mixture of ash and rain clouds. To the travelers, though, it seemed to beckon them onwards with the promise of renewed beginnings, and they allowed themselves the opportunity to hope for a future free from suffering and weariness.

  They also allowed themselves to become complacent. Their decision not to post guards at the suicide house had opened the floodgate to their own demise.

  *****

  The group stayed far to the east of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex as they continued southward. They knew that Tyler was going to be an issue, so they avoided it altogether and traveled between Tyler and Corsicana, where they knew chaos had already set in more than a month prior, hoping that the insanity had smothered itself out in the region.

  They stuck primarily to the back roads and smaller highways, finally making it to Austin a little more than two months after they left Veronica’s apartment. They knew right away that things were different in the town. The immediate transformation that they noticed from far away was the Tower at the University of Austin was gone. Just…gone. And several of the high rises in the downtown area looked to be pockmarked with massive holes. The Frost Bank Tower, the large, easily recognizable 33-floor, all-glass building, was nothing more than jagged remnants of the structure that had been there before.

  The military force that had ringed the city the last time they were there was also gone. The missing vehicles made Aeric wonder if they’d gotten word of the nuclear strikes before they occurred and left, or if the military vehicles—which are shielded against EMPs— drove back to their base.

  One thing that was not missing from Austin were the bodies. When they’d left, corpses were relatively uncommon, even though they’d seen their fair share of them on their walk from the hospital that first day. Now, as they stood near the 45 toll road to the northeast of Austin, they saw piles of bodies and skeletons several feet tall. They appeared to have inadvertently come upon the city’s dumping grounds for its dead. That likely meant that somebody was in charge and trying to keep the city free from disease.

  After discussing it amongst themselves, they decided it was best to continue with their original plan to find out about Veronica and then continue to San Angelo. The broken skyline told them that Austin obviously had problems that they were unwilling to get involved with, so the sooner they could leave, the better.

  They traveled a few blocks from the dumping grounds and made camp in the burned-out shell of a small gas station. The four concrete walls allowed them a small bit of protection against creatures of the night. Cities naturally made them uneasy nowadays and seeing the damage brought upon their former city made them even more uneasy.

  The entire group was restless that night and sleep came hard to everyone, even young Kayla. There were still several hours until dawn when they decided to break camp and move towards the center of town where Veronica had lived. They couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched as they left the night’s sanctuary.

  They made their way through the sleeping city and the feeling that they were being watched increased, making them believe that they were being followed as well. Aeric chalked it up to paranoia and pressed onward. It was four or five in the morning, bad people are asleep at this time of day, he told himself as the pavement passed quickly under their bicycle tires. While he tried to convince himself otherwise, he was thankful for the darkness that helped to hide them from the city’s watchers.

  Signs of a major battle were evident along their route. Entire sides of buildings were collapsed in on themselves or the bricks had sloughed off like mud sliding down a hillside. Glass littered the sidewalks and blackened char marks painted the sides of structures where fires had kissed them. The city looked like a proverbial war zone, even if it had been spared from the actual nuclear war. What could have happened?

  When they made it to Guadalupe Street and turned south, it became more apparent that Veronica was probably not going to be in the city. Smoke drifted from multiple places downtown and Aeric called a halt to the group. He indicated another burned-out building and hastened everyone inside. They searched the first floor quickly to make sure that it was vacant and then gathered back in the front room.

  “I don’t want to take everyone down to Veronica’s apartment,” Aeric stated, letting the group know the thoughts that had built in his mind on their journey through the city. “It’s better that we split up, you guys stay here and I’ll go down to check it out.”

  “Absolutely not,” Tyler replied.

  “Look, pal. You have Kayla to look out for. You need to keep her safe and following me blindly everywhere I go is not in her best interests.”

  “That’s a pretty low blow, Aeric,” he responded. “I can watch after both of you.”

  “Not this time, man. Do me a favor and keep the girls safe until I get back.”

  “I’m not staying here,” Kate interjected.

  He threw up his hands in dismay. “What?”

  “I go where you go,” she replied.

  Aeric placed his hand on her shoulder. “Katie, I’m positive that something isn’t right in Austin. It’ll be dangerous. The best thing is for you to stay with Tyler and my mom until I get back.”

  He was surprised when she grabbed his wrist and jerked him towards the corner of the room away from the group. When they got there, she whirled on him and whispered, “Look, I’m not stupid. I know you and Tyler say shit about me and that I’m only out for myself. It’s true that I let my sense of self-interest get in the way last year when I broke up with you and then you went away to college. Look what happened when you weren’t around.”

  She took a deep breath and held up her palm towards him, indicating that she wasn’t done. “I did what I had to so that Julie and I could survive. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t changed. Aeric, this is going to sound crazy when I say it, but this past month, being with you out on the open road
and spending our nights together has been the best time of my miserable life. I’m not about to let you walk away and get yourself killed. If you’re going to meet up with this woman who knows the way to a safe place, then I’m going with you.”

  Aeric opened his mouth and then closed it. He didn’t know what he’d expected Kate to say, but it certainly wasn’t what she’d said. “I, uh—”

  “Shut up. It’s not up for debate. I’m going with you or else you’re not going. You need someone to watch your back and Tyler needs to stay with baby Kayla to protect her.”

  “Katie, that’s not necessary, I’ll be fine.”

  “No, you won’t. I’m not going to put up with any shit from you, Aeric. I mean it, we’re not debating this. I’m going with you.”

  What the hell could he do? The girl seemed intent to stay by his side, even when it meant that he’d be leading her into danger. Maybe she had changed for the better. Maybe she did care for him enough to risk her own life to keep him safe. “Fine,” he said. “I appreciate the help.”

  She squealed like a girl getting asked to the prom and pulled his mask up over his face so she could kiss him on the lips. Then she settled it back loosely over his chin and pulled him back towards the other four members of their group.

  He was still trying to adjust the respirator when she announced to Tyler that she was going to be his backup and that Tyler would stay with Kayla and Julie.

  “Are you sure about this?” Tyler asked.

  “Yeah, I think so,” he replied. Then, with more confidence he said, “She can shoot. We made sure of that, so I’m comfortable with her watching my back.”

  “I don’t like it. You need me there.”

  “Kayla needs you here. We’re only about two miles from Veronica’s place. We’ll go in, see if she’s still there or if she left the note like she said she would if her family came to get her. We’ll be back before nightfall.”

  Tyler agreed grudgingly and bid Aeric and Kate farewell. Aeric hugged his mom and borrowed her bicycle so he’d be more maneuverable while Kate kissed her little sister. The whole thing felt much more fatalistic than Aeric had intended it to be when he’d decided to go alone. He believed that taking everyone to Veronica’s was an unnecessary risk that could be avoided. But at the same time, he hoped that splitting up their forces wasn’t a mistake.