Monster of the Apocalypse

by C. Henry Martens

  The knife was useless now. Before Lecti’s instructions to Deo, Hal had every intention of using it. He had a hidden stash of restraints and a gag to minimize noise in every bedroom, along with a loaded pistol. His plan was to enjoy Lecti and stroll out of the bedroom as though she was bringing up the rear. His weapon would take care of Deo before he knew what was happening. Now he would have a shotgun waiting for him.

  Considering, he decided he might not get everything he wanted, but at least he would get something.

  Deo pondered the situation. He really had no clue that Hal had ulterior motives, but his sister was asking him to do something strange. Deo at least understood that she must not trust Hal. Placing a chair at the hall entry, shotgun at the ready, he waited as he was told.

  Hal was good to his word strangely enough. He did have information of value in regard to moving fast and far. He quickly gave Lecti instructions in a simple concise way, a way that she would remember easily. Then he threw the camcorder in the corner and they got down to his payment.

  §

  The door opened just as Deo started to wonder if he should be concerned.

  “Coming out.” Hearing Lecti’s voice relieved Deo.

  Lecti, her expression dark, emerged at a fast, purposeful pace. She was all business. Deo mistook it for either embarrassment or a resolve to get after the bikers now that they had what they needed. She marched to the packs, slung hers to her shoulder and picking up the rifle, strode out the door without waiting for Deo.

  Deo hurried to catch up. He grabbed his pack and spinning to see if Hal had emerged behind him, he pushed his way through the doors. Hal had not shown his face.

  It was a beautiful, sunny day, but there was a dark cloud over Lecti.

  Deo usually had no trouble keeping up with her. Today he had to lengthen his stride, and even so, she managed to keep ahead of him. Lecti didn’t want him to see her tears.

  Chapter 12

  Arrowhead Drive leads through Carson City along the north foothills. It once carried a large volume of traffic as a shortcut between the highway from Reno to Highway 50 east. After the freeway bypass through Carson was built, it lost much of that traffic. Used heavily by pre-plague residents, it led past an older, upscale residential section, an industrial area and the old airport.

  Ancient aircraft, huge hulking cargo planes and obsolete seaplanes moldered into the tarmac as Lecti and Deo passed. Years of abuse fighting high Sierra Mountain forest fires had been reversed by timely maintenance, baling wire, and chewing gum. Dedicated and, some would even say, obsessed men used skill and duct tape to keep these monsters in the air. Though the planes had survived hard use, time and neglect had now left them ravaged. They sat tilted on flat tires, some with wings partially or completely separated from their hulls. One looked as though it had been smashed by a heavy object, its hull collapsed unevenly on one side, its wing flattened to the ground. Weeds grew high around all of them.

  Normally they would have stopped and investigated a place like this. Deo in particular was always interested in pre-plague technology, especially older technology. The size of these unusual aircraft piqued his curiosity as well. He didn’t have a chance to suggest it because Lecti was too far ahead of him, and he was too out of breath to shout.

  At this point Deo wondered why Lecti was in such a snit. He didn’t feel overly comfortable with Lecti posing for Hal, but it was her idea. Maybe she was more embarrassed than she thought she would be. Deo would lay low and let her work it out.

  Lecti was in a dark place. She was trying her best to concentrate on the task ahead. It was the only way to keep from thinking about the ugliness of the past hour. She knew her mind had been injured even more than her body and that only time would give her any comfort and peace. Memories would dim. Sensations would diminish. She was anxious to start the process.

  In order to start that healing, Lecti refused to be a victim. She had bought Deo’s life with her body. It was her choice, and she accepted it as such, regardless of Hal’s threat. But that didn’t mean she had to quell her anger. She seethed, her tears, rage driven. She promised herself that there would be a reckoning.

  The road twisted south and met Highway 50 at an intersection that was originally far outside the city. Now large buildings surrounded it on all sides, a convenience store on one corner.

  Turning right, back toward the city center, Lecti marched on. Deo didn’t have a clue about what she knew because she wouldn’t confide in him, wouldn’t say a word to him in fact. He followed behind. He noticed that she started to focus on the right side of the road.

  It was not far. A large cement parking area with an L-shaped, brick building fronted by large, roll-up doors adjoined the highway. Compared with most of the buildings they experienced, this one almost appeared new. Even the cement was fairly free of the usual windblown debris. A man door sat nestled in with the larger roll-ups, and Lecti approached it directly.

  She hesitated as she got close. Searching the ground, she veered off to bend down and pick up a rock nestled in the corner of a doorframe. Turning it over produced a hidden slider, which, when opened, exposed a key. She dug it out. Deo caught up just in time to see her turn and throw the rock across the road and into the weeds.

  The dim light inside exposed a long, open space crowded with vehicles. Dust lay heavy on gleaming paint and chrome.

  Brother and sister moved slowly together, looking at each vehicle in turn. They knew this was a special place filled with someone’s heart, their blood and their sweat, and even their tears. Their father had told them stories about before, and one of his favorites was about the classic cars and the shows where hundreds would congregate. They remembered seeing several individual vehicles in garages as they explored with their dad after settling in Roseburg. He would look, always without touching, explaining that these were works of art. Sometimes they found vehicles in the process of being restored and modified. From the cars and the stories, they learned how much work went into the final result.

  Lecti and Deo were not brought up in an age of ready vehicular transportation. Older vehicles were some type of internal combustion powered system and the later electric vehicles built before the plagues needed recharging. After the plagues hit, most of the power grid was lost in a few months. Public transportation systems were the first to go. The combustible petroleum-based fuels had a short shelf life. By the time Lecti was old enough to remember seeing anything operational, everything except solar powered vehicles were extinct. Even the solar-powered cars became scarce. After the plagues, there were so few people that when the cars broke down, drivers would just find another and use it until that one broke. Without learning how to repair them, the technological skills became scarce and gradually fewer and fewer vehicles survived in operating condition. Still, as kids, they had both had a chance to learn how to operate what there was, thanks to their father’s insistence on learning anything worthwhile.

  The majority of the vehicles that Lecti and Deo were looking at were vintage. Deo wasn’t very good at identifying cars, but three were familiar due to his father’s particular interest in them. These were AC Cobras, or at least very good replicas. Another was a later model Shelby Cobra, a dark blue GT 500 fastback built on a Mustang chassis.

  The fastback drew Deo’s interest because it had an unusual fitting on the left front fender. Overcoming his aversion to touching the car, he opened the hood and found a beautifully fitted electric power plant. This car was rechargeable. Unfortunately they had no way to charge it. They would have also needed the capacity to charge it somewhere down the road in order to catch up with their prey.

  They kept looking.

  The last two bays were filled with what their father called “big-boy toys.” Most of them were state-of-the-art, built just before the plagues. Many of them were also solar-powered. Two full-dress road bikes, six bikes built for off-road use, five quads, and a four seat dune buggy on a trailer.

  The last vehicle was a new looking, th
ree-wheeled, off road motorcycle/dune buggy hybrid. It had solar panels mounted within the top of the roll cage, as well as on all other sun-facing surfaces. A rack of small, rechargeable vanadium batteries sat behind the two seats. Two rifle mounts graced the front cage supports. A pair of goggles lay on each seat. The two smaller front tires and the wider rear tire were made for off road use but had a solid center rib for smooth highway use. Although Deo and Lecti didn’t know it, the tires were also filled with foam. You couldn’t flatten them even if you stuck them with a knife.

  Hal had informed Lecti of two places that held possible transportation. Lecti knew they would not have to investigate the other.

  Deo opened the garage door. Light flooded the interior.

  The bikers were riding solar motorcycles so the dirt bikes were considered. They only had a range of a hundred miles or so on a full charge, and they couldn’t be ridden while they were charging. The fact that they could ride separately was the only upside.

  The three-wheeler looked like it could be driven as the batteries charged, but they would only have one vehicle to depend on.

  Speed and range won out. With very little discussion, they decided on the trike.

  Deo jumped in. A key was in the console, and when the ignition was engaged nothing happened. No charge. He put it in neutral and climbed out.

  “We need to push it out into the sun,” said Deo.

  Lecti was in no hurry. She hoped the batteries took a long time to charge. She really didn’t care if they ever saw the cyclists again. She would have liked to kill something, but her anger was more focused to their rear.

  Lecti judged by the sun that an hour went by before the dash lights came on when the key was turned. It was a bright, warm day. Waiting to let it charge was pleasant. She and Deo both stretched out on the hard cement and soaked up the sun.

  “What do you think, Deo? Should we try driving it now or wait ‘til it gets a bigger charge?”

  Deo was anxious to go. He wanted to get started now, although his mood had gone from blind rage to cold determination.

  “My biggest concern is that we might get down the road and something breaks, and we’re stranded without a vehicle. We’ll never catch them then.” Deo looked worried. “Of course there’s just no way of knowing, so we might as well give it a try. Yeah, let’s go. If we don’t like it right away, we can always come back and get the bikes.”

  The shotgun found a place on the driver’s side and the rifle on the passenger’s side. Built-in baskets on either side in the rear accommodated the packs.

  Lecti did not want to drive. As they slowly pulled out of the drive, she moved around, familiarizing herself with the space. Several times she pulled the rifle out of its sheath and sighted it through the cage at various angles before replacing it. Deo wondered at her sudden intensity.

  The three-wheeler moved slowly. Something was either wrong, or it just wasn’t built for going fast. That did not seem likely from the look of it. The looming hill as they moved east slowed them even more. Deo kept the accelerator pressed to the floor and they crawled up the hill. Maybe the charge was low, or maybe the vehicle was just not going to work. It wouldn’t be the first time they would have to abandon a vehicle that looked operational. At the top of the hill, he turned the trike around.

  “This is ridiculous,” he fumed at wasting their time. “We’ll use the bikes. As soon as we get back, we get them out and get them charging.”

  Lecti agreed. This fine piece of machinery was a disappointment.

  Deo picked up speed as they drifted down the long hill. It was fun, just as the skateboards coming down the hill from Tahoe were.

  Deo and Lecti did not know that the brakes generated a charge as well as the panels. As they picked up speed he tapped them occasionally, and at the bottom of the hill he slowed. The next time he stepped on the accelerator he expected nothing more than what he got before. The rear tire was on a small drift of sand and the rooster tail that was suddenly thrown behind them as he floored it surprised them both. The power generated by the brakes had released the survival mode, which automatically kicked in whenever the power was too low.

  The siblings looked at each other and Deo grinned. This was more like it. The road into Carson City was straight and broad and invited them to test their ride. Deo smiled as the acceleration pressed him back into his seat. Goggles that sat on top of their heads were pulled down and positioned for comfort. The wind blew through their hair, the suspension soaked up the drifts, and the double front wheel configuration made it corner better than anything else they could have found. Suddenly they were good. Dodging obstacles was fun at high speed.

  When the overpass of the freeway loomed, Deo braked hard, and as they slowed he cranked the wheel. Stepping on the accelerator he broke the rear wheel loose and spun the three-wheeler in a one hundred eighty degree arc.

  Now they had no decision to make. This was their choice of vehicle. The road led east again.

  Deo latched his seat belt. So did Lecti.

  Chapter 13

  Peering from a hidden alcove south of the intersection at Highway 50 and Arrowhead, Hey You watched sullenly.

  She very much wanted to leave with Deo and Lecti. As she followed them from the hospital she mulled the possibilities over and changed her mind as inclination swayed one way, then the other.

  She knew what Hal was really doing with Lecti just before they left. She knew Deo must not have realized what was really happening.

  Hey You was deathly afraid of Hal. She knew that it was likely that Hal would see through her disguise. It could happen at any moment. Why he hadn’t yet was amazing. Only by staying away from him, always hunched over, dirty and smelly, did she manage to survive.

  When this brother and sister team walked into the hospital and as events developed, Hey You hesitated several times. She never communicated her desire to leave with them. When they left town, heading east, she despaired that she didn’t have the courage to run out and flag them down. She collapsed in emotional pain and sobbed for some time. When they came back down the hill unexpectedly and passed back into town, she couldn’t believe it. They must have forgotten something, and that meant they would be back. With a second chance and finally desperate enough to make up her mind once and for all, she did.

  Positioning herself next to a tree at the edge of the road, she waited for them to return.

  The three-wheeler was running great. It picked up speed, and now Deo focused on the road ahead. Lecti was busy checking out the dash, the switches, and the gauges.

  They blew right past Hey You even as she broke from the weeds, waving her arms. The rag coat that Hey You was so used to wearing for protection had, in a cruel twist of fate, blended into the background of weeds and shrubs and the small tree she hid behind. Lecti and Deo simply didn’t see her. As the three-wheeler once again disappeared up the hill and out of sight, Hey You collapsed again. The final warped conclusion to this tragedy might have broken a weaker person. Instead, from her despair came clarity. She suddenly knew what she had to do. As she started to walk back down Arrowhead, she straightened her shoulders and back and started to walk as though a weight was lifted from her. This time there would be no vacillating. Her decision was made. She just needed to either create an opportunity or be patient and wait for one.

  §

  Moving at a moderately high rate of speed, Deo was having fun. It was good to be in a new situation that required his mind to focus. His dark thoughts were shoved to one side and he could smile. Lecti asked him to slow down. He understood. He knew that it would take some time to become comfortable with the machine and that they would be safer and more likely to be successful in their quest if he took the time to master its capabilities. It was just easy to become lost in the moment.

  The three-wheeler needed a name. Lecti was used to naming vehicles. Her father had also done it. When she mentioned it to Deo, he rolled his eyes and smirked. Outwardly, he acted like he thought it was silly, but inwa
rdly he really liked that Lecti would want to. It wasn’t just the name. It was an expression of Lecti and her personality. What he didn’t know was that it was an effort made by Lecti to move on from her terrifying experience. She was trying to distract herself.

  Lecti appreciated Deo’s differences, and he appreciated hers. Where some siblings would fight over little inconsequentials, they had learned to value each other during their journey.

  A railroad overpass with the north side damaged and starting to crumble crossed the road that led through Mound House, a strange little community east of Carson City. It was just over the county line from Carson and as a result had been a catch-all for businesses that were not deemed appropriate for the State Capital. At one time there were several industrial businesses including a large number of wrecking yards, machine shops, and auto repair shops. The businesses that made it infamous, however, were the brothels. In the course of time, and as the city of Carson expanded, Mound House became an embarrassment and an eyesore, and efforts were made to clean it up. The efforts failed.

  The population overflowed from Carson City. Questionable and unattractive businesses spread, and any remaining space filled with sprawling hordes of cardboard and tin shanties. By the time the trike made its way through, there was little evidence of the tiny hovels. Twenty years of abandonment and high winds piled their remains against more substantial structures.

  One business that might have been interesting to them was already looted. A large bulldozer parked through the front window had brought the roof down on top of it. The large, faded sign out front advertised a gun shop.

  A large, flat drift of sand occupied an intersection surrounded by strip malls and convenience stores. As they neared the drift, Lecti pointed. “Look, you can see the tracks of the bikes. One of them looks like it goes to the left.”