Sparks flew high into the sky. The truck bounced twice more, Adam saw Don's head bounce off the side window, and then the truck veered sharply to the left and roared off into the parking lot covered in flames. A second later, the sound of the crash came to them as the truck slammed into several cars in the lot and came to a fast halt. Adam forced himself to turn away. He couldn't afford the luxury of watching something he could do nothing about.
As he turned, the gunfire inside the store picked up again. Those trapped on the roof seemed to be dropping from the blackness of the ceiling in a flood. Thick, black smoke was lifting up to the ceiling and billowing out into the store. Orange and yellow-blue flames danced everywhere. The ceiling was lit from the fires, and as Adam looked up, he could see more than two dozen men and women crouching on the steel beams that made up the underpinnings of the roof and the ceiling above them, looking for a way to get down. A few were following the beams to high aisle shelving and beginning to climb down into the store from there.
Adam swore under his breath and then yelled aloud. “Take them out up at the ceiling. Just open up on 'em!”
A second after that, those still clinging to the beams and the shelving began coming down faster, shot, some dead, others full of holes but still moving. The four of them managed to get close to each other and then backed into the inside store wall, putting the concrete block at their back and mowing down them down as they dropped and tried to get to their feet. It seemed like only seconds later when they stopped dropping from the darkness and the gunfire ended abruptly.
There were two still moving, and Beth took care of both of them with her long knife. She slammed one boot clad foot against their heads, one by one, held it tight to the ground and drew her long knife straight across their throats. It was over in seconds and quiet came flooding back in.
In the silence, Adam could hear someone screaming in the parking lot, and he remembered the truck. He turned and ran toward the door when Beth screamed his name.
“Adam!” Her shout was loud in the store. Adam stopped dead and turned back, sure more had begun to drop from the ceiling once more. As he turned, his rifle began to lift toward the ceiling.
“Where in fuck do you think you're going?”
He stared stupidly at her for a moment. “The truck, Beth. The goddamn truck...”
“I know... I saw the same fucking thing you did. But where are you going, because it looked to me like you were going to run right to that truck... Right out there in the dark!”
“She's screaming, Beth... she's...”
“Yeah, and that's bad. I don't want to hear it either, but if you run out there, and there are others still out there in all that darkness, you'll be dead too, sure as shit. Dead, and not a goddamn thing to show for it.”
The silence fell again, and the screaming from the parking lot bled back in. Adam stood, torn, knowing Beth was right, but the screaming pulled at him like a physical thing. A second later, something out there blew up, and the screaming stopped. A second after that, the silence was hard and heavy. Adam heard a scratching, scrabbling noise from the other side of Billy's truck and walked over quickly.
In the aisle, behind the trucks, Mac and Billy were spraying down the fire with chemical fire extinguishers, clouds of white rising now instead of the thick black, acrid smoke.
Adam came up the side of Billy's truck. One of the men, a skinny, black-clad man had managed to get himself crawling once more, a hole in the middle of his chest, but he was moving in jerks, erratic, but moving. “Look at this shit,” Adam called out.
The four of them stood and watched the jerky movements of the man as he tried to gain his feet. He turned to them his mouth working, his words not much more than whispers. “They'll get you... They'll get you... Didn't... Couldn't kill me... Couldn't,” he coughed the last words, and blood seemed to rush from his mouth all at once. He coughed hard, choking, but then seemed to catch his breath and worked his hands trying to crawl further along the concrete of the store aisle.
“Very fuckin' bad mojo,” Mac said. He tossed his fire extinguisher, and it clattered to the floor and rolled away.
Billy's face was hard. He walked to where the man was crawling along.
The man looked up, a sick smile on his face and tried to speak.
Billy stepped forward, levered one single bullet into the chamber of his rifle and fired point blank into the man's head. It blew apart, and he finally quit moving.
“I did not like that at all,” Beth said. She turned and walked back toward the front of the store.
“Gimme a hand,” Adam said after a second or two of silence. He and Billy began dragging the dead out into the parking lot, staying close to the fires as they did. They both glanced over at Don's truck where it burned along with four or five other vehicles. They both turned quickly away, walked back inside and dragged another body out.
The Nation
Conner sat quietly on the rail that closed off the stalls from the main open floor of the huge barn. James and Jake were finishing up spreading fresh hay across the floor in the huge open area where the horses bedded down. He and Arron had offered to help but had been told to take a seat on the rail and wait.
“He can spread that hay,” Arron remarked.
Jake looked up and smiled. There was a time, not too long before, when any remark from Conner or Arron would cause an entirely different reaction in him. Whatever remnants of his feelings, left over from their time together in Watertown, still existed, were becoming less and less important. Something new was replacing them. Some sort of friendship, but something that went beyond mere friendship too. Camaraderie: mutual dependence and respect. Something like that, he told himself. Something like that, only more complex.
“We should have put them to work, James,” Jake said now.
“Couple smart asses, that's for sure,” James agreed. All four men laughed.
“Did Katie know you were coming down here?” James asked.
Conner looked quizzical. “As a matter of fact, yes.”
“Yeah... Talked to me about it too,” James agreed.
Conner nodded. “Crossing T’s and dotting I’s.”
“Well, what do you think, James?” Arron asked. “You too, Jake... Does it make sense?”
James finished spreading the last bundle of hay he and Jake had thrown down from the loft, dusted his hands and came over to the rail. Jake came behind him.
Behind them, the double barn doors yawned open, the last remaining light spilling in, the skies dark blue, bruised purple at the horizon. A horse looked in through the doors and whinnied at James.
James turned back to the door. “Well, come on, Buddy,” James said quietly. He patted both hands against his thighs. The horse tossed its head and pranced into the barn, a half dozen others right behind him. More would be on the way as night closed in. Before they left, Conner knew, the horses would all be in the barn for the night, and the huge doors would be swung shut on the darkness.
The horse trotted over to James, seeming to Conner to run sideways as he came. James caught his huge head, patted his nose and rubbed between his eyes and then behind his ears. The horse closed its eyes and dropped its head lower, clearly enjoying the rubbing.
“Big baby,” James told the horse. He rested his own head against the horse's as he spoke to him.
“God, that is a big horse,” Arron said. It was no secret that Arron had a fear of horses.
Jake leaned against the rail. He and Conner both nodded.
James finished scratching the big geldings head. The horse wandered a few feet away and began to eat the fresh hay that was scattered across the floor. James turned back to the others. “I instigated it. I have no doubt. But, yes, I stand behind it. I told Katie,” he looked at Arron, “And Amy too,” he laughed.
“A package deal,” Arron agreed.
James nodded. “I told them both the same thing.” He moved to a nearby flat bed wagon and levered himself up onto the platform. He sighed.
“We definitely get our daily exercise met here,” he said. He looked back over at the others.
“We need to go. No doubt. I did not know how fast we would grow, and even my low ball estimates now are liable to be way off too. I think by fall we could easily be over a thousand. I know it seems as though we brought in enough for an army, and some things we did. I think ten generations from now they will be thanking us for the supply of needles or forks. Christ, we must have a million of those plastic lighters too. So some things great, some not so great.”
He looked down at the ground and then back up. “Do you realize we have about fifteen coats, jackets I mean, between us. Socks? Sounds petty, but we need socks. And this is us, not the others I expect here sooner or later. Seed. Lumber. Do you realize we forgot entirely about furniture or a sawmill? And I saw two or three of those portable sawmills there at that farm store where we spent so much time. I didn't think to get one on the truck though.” He shook his head.
“I made a bed frame... and a mattress,” Conner agreed. “I wished I had thought of it too, but those are not absolutely-gotta-have-them items, are they? I don't mean to make them sound unimportant either,” Conner colored.
“No. No, I see your point. I'm a little all over the place. Maybe I should have listed the important stuff first. Medicines. We have three folks here with heart problems that could die without simple medication. Even an Aspirin, Sandy tells me, could help. Antibiotics. Books on herbal medicines. We've got Dustin. He can read something and figure out what we need to do to make it for ourselves, so if we can find books on medical compounds, he could teach us, or show us how to make them. Did you know that before everything became chemicals there were natural compounds that were used to cure almost anything? And they worked too.”
“And if we do have a thousand people here by winter and no jackets, warm clothes, how in hell are we going to get any work done? Gloves. That sawmill. Dustin’s electrical parts he needs to get us power up to the cave... wire, boxes... hell, I don't pretend I know what he needs. Thank God he does.” They all laughed. James leveled his eyes on Conner. “It's not a frivolous trip. I told Katie and Amy that too,” he raised his eyes to include Arron. “We have to go. No choice to it. We have to go, or not everyone will make it through the winter.”
“Give us another year when we are able to get the supply up to the demand and we'll be fine... maybe...” He laughed a little. “No... I suspect, to be honest, that we would be fine. But I also suspect we will always have a need for those things that are lying around out there. I'm not saying we will absolutely have to have them, but we will find reasons to need them. But this trip we have to have some of these things. Yes, a lot of stuff is going to get added on. You're gonna have to shut down the requests, believe me. I told them we need to make it formal, have a council meeting, everyone there. Let everyone have a say.”
“And soon too, I bet,” Conner said.
“Gonna have to be,” Jake said. “We have harvesting coming up. A lot of harvesting... grain, corn... those two bridges we need to put in before winter.”
Arron nodded. “We decided that neither you nor James can go. I mean, you can make a case to go if you really want to. It's not selfish. Well, it is. You two do almost everything... all the important mechanical stuff that the rest of us can only lend a hand with. If you, either of you, go, the Nation is in trouble.”
“Sounds like you are being forced to stay,” Conner said.
Jake and James both held up hands and then laughed. “I don't want to go,” James said.
“Yeah, I'm good here too. I like my place in things. It's,” Jake shrugged.
“Good?” James supplied.
“Good,” Jake agreed.
“As long as it doesn't feel forced,” Conner looked over at Arron. “It's a relief to me. I can say that.”
“Me too,” Arron agreed.
“So... a meeting,” James said. “I suggested tomorrow night, get it right out there. Set a date, and get together those that are going to go.”
“Well, James, I'm so glad I had this talk with you,” Conner said with a smile. They all laughed hard. James reddened.
The big gelding looked up and then wandered back over to James. James scratched behind his ears, and they all laughed again.
“Don't make me set my horse on you,” James said as he scratched the horse's long nose.
“That is a big frigging horse,” Arron said. “Uh, it was Conner that made the smart ass remark.”
Conner laughed and looked over at Arron.
“Just saying,” Arron threw back. They all laughed again.
“Come on. I'll buy you a drink,” Conner joked. He clapped James on the back.
“You better get me that saw mill,” James told him.
“That farm store? The last one, right?”
“Yup,” James agreed.
Conner pulled a small spiral notebook from his pocket and scribbled a note. He slipped the notebook back into his pocket, and the three men walked from the barn, closing the huge doors behind them as they went.
The Nation
September 2nd
“Got it... Little to the left... Okay,” Aaron leaned back on the ladder and drove a spike into first one side, and then the other side of the roof beam. He straightened up. “We should have thought of lumber. All we had to do was throw a bunch of it on one of those trucks. Next time,” he turned to Conner and started to speak, but the frown on Amy's face stopped him.
Conner looked over at Amy and Katie where they stood in the open doorway of the framed cottage. Katie looked up and met his eyes. She wrapped one arm around Amy and pulled her close.
“We've been here for just a few weeks, and you guys are already talking about going back out there,” Katie said.
“Not necessarily,” Conner said.
“And it probably wouldn't be us,” Aaron added.
Amy rolled her eyes. “Aaron Vincent, do not lie to me to try to make me feel better. Don't do that.”
“I,” Aaron started. Katie raised her eyes to him and arched her eyebrows. “I won't,” he finished. He came down off the ladder and walked over to Amy. Amy looked up from where her head lay on Katie's breast. “Baby,” Aaron began. “We have fifteen more people already than we came with. There are so many things we forgot to bring in. And things that have been added to the wish list. James thinks we could have hundreds before the snow flies. And that's James's conservative estimate. He thinks a thousand isn't out of line. If so, we don't have enough of anything.” He reached down and tilted her head up to his, continuing in a lower voice. “We're not even thinking of going right now. Fall at the soonest, but if someone has to go... I'm not voting for someone to do my dirty work for me. If you say no, then no it will be. But I don't see you saying no when the time comes,” Aaron finished carefully.
“If you make me feel guilty,” Amy said.
Aaron shook his head. “Not guilt. Responsibility. This is our life.”
James edged through the door with a second beam.
Conner groaned. “It's like a whole tree. Christ, it should hold up two roofs,” he complained, as he took one end from James.
Aaron looked over his shoulder at Conner and James. “Got to go, pregnant lady. I love you,” he bent forward and kissed her nose.
“You are so lucky,” Amy told him. Her eyes were wet, but she smiled. “I get sometimes scared, Aaron,” she said in a near whisper.
“I know how lucky. We all get sometimes scared.” He kissed her lips, pulled back, held her eyes until she nodded and then turned to Conner and James.
“Christ, this thing is heavy,” Conner complained.
“Coming right now,” Aaron told him. He climbed the ladder, turned, took the end of the beam and walked it forwards as James and Conner lifted it and shoved it forwards and up. The pitch from the fresh cut pine stuck to his hands, but it helped when he had to grip the beams and lead them up to the ridge beam. “Okay. Got it. Got it.” He turned back around, fished a na
il from his pouch, pulled his hammer free and began to nail the beam into place.
September 3rd
Adam
The sky was overcast and matched the mood Adam found himself in perfectly. They were on the road; it was very early morning, but no one had wanted to waste any time leaving. There was no reason to delay it. They had all been on guard through the night, only waiting for the sunrise. A quick check of the roof, and they had been on their way.
Don's truck had still been burning. Several more vehicles had become involved in it through the night. It looked like the entire parking lot would probably burn. It also looked like the fire would probably work its way to the buildings before it was through. Maybe the burning would be for the best, Adam had mentioned. No one had disagreed.
There had been two big explosions before dawn. The last one, a huge one that had lifted two cars into the sky and scattered debris all the way to the store front. There was no doubt that Don and the others were past saving. All that remained was for everyone to wonder why he had done what he did. There was no real answer for that at all. You could not know another person's mind, Adam knew, even if you thought you did.
The dead had been spirited away in the night. That had bothered Adam a great deal. They had come for their own and they had not even heard them or realized they had until morning. There had been fires burning all around the bodies, yet they had come and taken them, and Adam had seen nothing; and, he reminded himself now, no one else had seen anything either. The bodies had simply been gone this morning.
Earth's Survivors Box Set [Books 1-7] Page 72
