With his mouth hanging open, Shawn watched Arthur walk off and then turned back to the open safe. “I think you were more than a little misguided in your youth to be able to do that, Poppa,” Shawn mumbled, snapping his mouth shut and walking out.
When the group left, there were two bodies hanging over the exit doors with a sign tied to their necks that read, ‘Don’t fuck with my kids or me’. It was signed, ‘The Caravan Man’.
Chapter Thirty Three
A mind can only take so much before breaking
Lifting the full gas can back into the trailer, Wendy wanted to kick herself for leaving that wagon. Hearing small grunts, Wendy turned to see the twins carrying over another gas can between them. Running over, Wendy grabbed it. “I was coming back,” she grinned as the twins let the can go.
“We still have two more,” Jo Ann panted, throwing her hands up. She turned around, looking at the soft gray clouds overhead. “Is it going to storm again?”
“No, these clouds aren’t dark enough,” Wendy answered, putting the gas can in the trailer and turned around to see Noah and Ryan still sleeping on the blanket spread out beside the Tahoe. “It’s going to rain, but not like last night.”
When she turned back around, Wendy saw the twins looking up at the sky and memorizing the details. “I can’t wait to tell Arthur that I’m not the only one terrified by storms,” Wendy mumbled. Walking past the twins and heading back to the carport beside the house, Wendy did feel bad about using so much gas because she had hauled serious ass.
She had planned on keeping forty-five miles an hour and traveling eight hours a day, like they’d done the first day. That way, they could average around three hundred and fifty miles a day. Last night, they made it all the way into Georgia and were now only ten miles from Alabama. Wendy had made four hundred and sixty miles in six hours.
Now outside the moment, Wendy knew that had been stupid as shit. But at the time, it’d seemed very rational. There were abandoned cars and wrecks scattered all along the back roads she was taking. They had passed interstates and those were ten times worse and on interstate highways, they had seen a few cars moving.
It was after almost plowing into two wrecked cars last night, that had made Wendy finally pull over. The only saving grace was she’d been doing forty-five like she had planned.
Reaching the carport, Wendy looked at the two gas cans and gave a sigh. Not even entertaining the idea of grabbing both, Wendy picked up one and headed back to the barn, almost running over the twins who were behind her. “Thank you, girls,” Wendy said, passing them.
After putting her gas can in the trailer, Wendy trotted back out and grabbed the last gas can from the twins who were halfway back. Even now, Wendy could tell she was still nowhere near her former strength and wouldn’t be for some time.
Putting the gas can in, Wendy stepped back panting as the twins came over and strapped the cans down. “Can you hide under a bridge if a tornado comes?” Sally asked, ratcheting the strap down.
Catching her breath, “You can, but it’s still dangerous because the debris can still get you and that’s what’s so deadly about tornados,” Wendy explained, trying to slow her breathing down.
“So, you need a storm cellar?” Jo Ann asked, ratcheting the other strap down.
“I like my concrete house with metal shutters,” Wendy huffed. “I sleep like a baby, no matter how bad a storm gets.”
The twins turned to Wendy, “We love your house,” they said in unison.
“Wait till you see it,” Wendy said, finally getting her breathing under control.
Looking at her watch, “You sure you want to leave this early? It’s not even three,” Jo Ann said slowly, cutting her eyes up at the clouds.
“Guys, we can’t cut the lights on tonight unless it rains hard,” Wendy said, pushing off the trailer. “I’ll probably have to use the night vision scope and will still have trouble staying at forty-five.”
Walking around the trailer, Sally reached out to hold Wendy’s hand. “But if it storms, we will turn on the lights and go really fast, right?” Sally asked.
Nodding hard, “Oh, yeah,” Wendy sang out.
Loading up the boys and putting them in the backseat, Wendy was tempted to pull off the damn wetsuit and drive in the t-shirt that fit her. The only thing that had fit had been one pair of the boots and it’d been the six and half, not the worn-in sevens. The twins were in the same boat, only wearing the tennis shoes they had grabbed and t-shirts. At least their wetsuits didn’t have arms like Wendy’s did.
Taking the AR off, Wendy laid it on the dash and climbed in to see Jo Ann sitting up front. “We ready?” Wendy asked, looking around.
“Since we are leaving now, can we drive until morning?” Jo Ann asked with a pleading face.
“We are going to go as far as I can drive,” Wendy said, cranking the Tahoe. What really pissed her off was that she knew how long it took to get from her house to Miami before the Rudolph flu. Her family had rented a beach house for the week and Arthur had driven her and Joseph down. He’d made it in eighteen hours and change. The only stops were pee breaks and to refuel.
A fight had almost broken out in Mississippi when Arthur had told Wendy that she had to hold her pee until he stopped for gas again. When Wendy had rolled down the passenger window and pulled down her pants to hang her ass out the window to piss, Arthur had sped off the interstate and stopped at the first store he’d seen.
“If both of you can stay up with me, I should be able to do it,” Wendy offered, backing out.
Opening the center console, Jo Ann pulled out the small energy drink. “I know you had coffee, but I think these work better,” Jo Ann told her.
“They make my head itch,” Sally said, reaching from the backseat and taking the one in Jo Ann’s hand.
“Only one every six hours,” Wendy told them as she pulled around the house guiding the Tahoe back onto the road. They both nodded, turning up the small bottles.
Taking the top off one, Wendy turned it up. “I like coffee better,” Wendy gagged out.
“I have the pot on my floorboard,” Jo Ann said, tossing the bottles out. “I feel bad about littering.”
“Baby, I’ve never littered either, but we aren’t in normal times and I don’t want Ryan or Noah getting ahold of the bottle caps,” Wendy told her setting the cruise control.
Jo Ann opened the glove box and pulled out the binoculars she had found there when they’d stopped last night. Wendy had never checked the glove box, but remembered two pairs of binoculars that had been sitting on top of the gun safe. “I’m doing the best I can,” Wendy breathed out.
“You’re doing great,” Sally said from the back seat.
“Yeah! You’ve fought bad guys, drove us through sharks, made sure there was food and water, saved Noah, outran a tornado…” Jo Ann stopped, throwing her hands up. “I can’t even name all the stuff you’ve done, you’re like Wonder Woman!”
Glancing over, Wendy sighed feeling rather bashful at the praise. “Thank you, guys.”
They both smiled back and then Jo Ann lifted the binoculars up and looked ahead. It wasn’t much longer before the boys woke up. Sally made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for Noah as Jo Ann made up a bottle for Ryan.
“That’s the last of the bread,” Sally announced, wadding the plastic bag up. When Ryan reached to grab the bag, Sally rolled down the window and tossed it out. “We still have crackers, soup, and like a million of those trail bars.”
“If we get a chance, we’ll stop and look around,” Wendy said, looking ahead. “We’re in Alabama.”
“I want another state that starts with ‘A’,” Jo Ann said, looking through the binoculars.
Reaching over, Wendy patted Jo Ann’s leg. “Me too, baby.”
Seeing a semitrailer blocking over half the road, Wendy moved over to the other lane and slowed because she couldn’t see around it. Getting closer, Wendy slowed more at seeing the semi was jackknifed and had plowed into
four other cars.
Glancing down at the ditch, Wendy slowed and drove into the ditch. “Why do those cars have holes in them?” Jo Ann asked.
“What?” Wendy gasped, steering the Tahoe back to the road and looking over at the wreck. A black sports car had bullet holes along the passenger side and Wendy could see two people up front. The next car she saw had a man hanging out the passenger side, holding a pistol in his dead hand.
“Those are bullet holes, girls,” Wendy groaned, pulling away from the wreck. “That’s why I stopped in Miami and shot those guys before they could get close.”
“We can shoot out the windows and you can drive,” Sally offered.
Laughing, “Girls, you just started learning guns and have only held the guns,” Wendy said. “Tell you what though, tomorrow before we pull out, I’m going to let each of you shoot but we will have to load up and do it fast so we can leave after.”
“Can you make the gun shoot quieter?” Jo Ann asked hopefully.
“When we get home, I can,” Wendy winked at her.
Nodding, Jo Ann looked ahead with the binoculars. “Wendy, there’s black clouds coming up from the ground. Does that mean a storm is forming?” Jo Ann asked.
Squinting her eyes, Wendy looked at the horizon. “Are you sure?”
Handing the binoculars over, “Yeah, and if it’s a storm, we are going another way,” Jo Ann informed everyone.
Slowing down again, Wendy lifted the binoculars up and zoomed in. “That’s smoke,” Wendy told them. “A lot of smoke from something burning.”
Handing the binoculars back, “Grab the atlas and see what’s ahead of us,” Wendy told Jo Ann.
Opening the Atlas up, Jo Ann turned it in her lap. “We are on the road you have marked with a pink highlighter?” she asked.
“Yes, highway 84,” Wendy said, glancing over.
“Dothan,” Jo Ann said, pointing and gave a grin. “We don’t go there, you have us on a road that circles it.”
Getting closer, Wendy didn’t need the binoculars to see the thick smoke billowing up in the air. “Girls, keep a sharp eye out,” Wendy said, gripping the steering wheel tight with her left hand as her right pulled the Glock off the center console.
The closer they got to Dothan, the wider the billowing black smoke got. “The road can’t be on fire,” Wendy thought out loud.
“The road’s still wet from the rain,” Jo Ann cried out. “There’s mud puddles everywhere.”
Not having an answer, Wendy tried to come up with one and the smell of the fire hit them. “That’s houses, not trees,” Wendy said, wiggling her nose. When the GPS announced their turn two miles ahead, they passed a subdivision on their left and dozens of houses were on fire.
Turning ahead, they saw larger buildings on fire and the smoke started making it hazy around them. Making the right turn, they saw a big hospital across the street fully engulfed in flames. Afraid to speed up because the smoke got thick in places on the road, Wendy saw a huge factory burning but on the right side of the road, a small group of houses were smoldering.
When the smoke cleared off the road, they all turned to look in the loop they were driving around the city. They could see fires raging across subdivisions near them. Turning back to the road, Wendy saw a man running across the lanes in front of them and angling toward them.
“I see a man coming!” Jo Ann yelled out, pointing ahead.
“I see him,” Wendy said. It was easy to tell he was a man because he was stark naked.
Wendy steered the Tahoe wider and saw the man adjust his run to intercept them. “Fuck this,” Wendy said and punched the accelerator. The Tahoe lurched forward as Wendy dodged a stalled car. Now much closer, Wendy could tell the man was screaming with wild eyes, running to intercept them.
Still speeding up, Wendy couldn’t move over anymore and just held the steering wheel. The man ran right into the back passenger door, on the driver’s side. With the Tahoe doing sixty, the man was thrown back violently. Looking back, Wendy saw his head hit the pavement and literally bust open as the body skidded to a halt.
Jerking her eyes forward seeing the body never move after hitting the pavement, Wendy slowed down seeing businesses ahead. Most were already burned down, but some looked like they had just caught fire. Wendy jerked at seeing another naked person running at them, screaming. “Bullshit,” Wendy growled, stomping the accelerator.
This time, they saw it was a woman angling to intercept them, but they had picked up too much speed. After they had passed the woman, Wendy slowed down and looked back in the mirror. The woman just ran across the highway and right into a burning building.
“That crazy woman just ran into the fire,” Sally mumbled in disbelief.
Driving on, they saw several more people, but none charged at them. Off to their right, they saw a huge parking lot with a massive pile spread over it. When they were next to the parking lot, Wendy turned away. “Girls, look ahead,” she snapped at them.
“Those were bodies,” Jo Ann gasped, turning to look ahead.
“We’ve seen bodies,” Sally pointed out.
Hearing the GPS telling her the turn was ahead, Wendy sighed with relief. “I know,” Wendy said, not telling them even from that far away, she could see thousands of brass casings carpeting the parking lot.
Making the turn back onto eighty-four, Wendy groaned to see houses on both sides burning. They were two miles outside the city when a car shot onto the road in front of them and literally, took off like a bat out of hell. In seconds, it was gone.
“I want a car like that,” Jo Ann mumbled as Wendy glanced in the mirror at the billowing black smoke.
“Baby, that was a Porsche. All of us couldn’t fit in a Porsche,” Wendy told her as she set the cruise control.
They rode in silence, trying to make sense of what they had witnessed as the afternoon sun started to set. Seeing a sign for another town coming up, everyone tensed up but they made the loop around Enterprise, seeing no fires and only a few people. None of which charged them butt-naked, screaming.
Spotting a wreck ahead, Wendy tapped the brakes and still no one had spoken forty miles later.
Getting closer to the wreck, Wendy saw the car had hit a light pole that had been in the road, but had been going so fast the light pole had shattered. Looking at the mangled car, Wendy gave a groan to see a mangled body ahead with a dog eating on it.
“That was the Porsche we saw,” Jo Ann said, pointing at the mangled car.
“Yes, baby, he was going too fast,” Wendy said as they passed the mangled and twisted body.
“That dog was eating the body,” Sally pointed out.
“Their owners are dead, so they will eat anything they can,” Wendy tried to explain, but just wanted this day to end already.
As darkness fell Wendy was thankful, just because it would cut down on the horrors they had to witness. Hearing Ryan cooing in the back brought a smile to Wendy’s face. Then, she heard Sally groan in disgust just as the smell filled the Tahoe. “We aren’t feeding him that crap anymore,” Sally declared, trying not to breathe.
Noah crawled between the front seats onto Jo Ann’s lap to get away from the stink. “Why don’t you do this when it’s Jo Ann’s turn to change you?” Sally complained, grabbing a handful of wipes. Ryan wasn’t helping as he kicked his legs and squealed.
“I really owe you, Sally,” Jo Ann said as she hugged Noah, who was holding his nose.
When Sally tossed the diaper out, Wendy rolled down all the windows for a second to air out the inside. Rolling the windows back up, Wendy heard a water bottle sloshing and turned around to see Sally washing her hands over a towel. “It’s like a booger you can’t get off,” she whined and Wendy fought not to laugh.
Jo Ann didn’t feel that need to hold it and busted out laughing.
Hearing the back window roll down, Wendy turned to see Sally tossing the towel out. “I’ll find another one,” Sally said, seeing Wendy looking back.
“Sal
ly, I would’ve thrown the towel out, so don’t worry about it,” Wendy chuckled.
“Those are car lights,” Jo Ann said and Sally leaned over, looking ahead and saw lights in the distance.
“What do we do?” Sally asked, feeling her gut knot up.
“We can pull over and act like one of the hundred abandoned cars or just go right on. We don’t have lights on, so he doesn’t know we are here yet,” Wendy offered.
“What do you think we should do?” Sally asked, poking her head between the seats.
Waving her hand at the road, “Just drive on,” Wendy said. “And if that fucker turns around, I’ll light his ass up.”
The twins nodded and held their breath as they closed with the car. The car had on its bright lights and Wendy lifted her hand up, shielding her eyes so she could keep her night vision. When the car was near, everyone noticed when the lights turned to low, but Wendy kept her hand up until the car passed a few seconds later.
The twins turned around and Wendy glanced in the mirror as the car turned its bright lights back on and continued down the road. “They are just going,” Sally called out, picking up Ryan and cuddling him to her chest.
With the sky overhead still cloudy, Wendy slowed until she felt safe that she wouldn’t run into anything and then saw she was doing twenty. Stopping in the middle of the road, Wendy pulled out the monocular and put the headband on. Ten minutes later, Wendy pulled off and had to admit her left eye could see pretty well, but she felt like she was looking through a soda straw.
Leaning over and holding a sleeping Noah, Jo Ann saw the speedometer back at forty-five. “If you do the pedals, I’ll drive,” Jo Ann offered.
“When we get home, you and Sally are learning how to drive and shoot guns,” Wendy chuckled.
“Can we listen to that dragon book you got?” Sally asked and saw Wendy nodding. The long black monocular sticking out from her face made Wendy look weird.
Jo Ann put the first of the nine disks in as a make-believe world was built in their minds with the story, taking them away from the hell around them.
Viral Misery (Book 1) Page 37
