The man’s eyes fluttered closed in apparent relief before he met Derrick’s gaze. “Thank you.”
Derrick pulled his knife out of its sheath. It was a hunting knife with a wicked-looking blade. The man’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.
“To cut the rope,” Derrick said in a calm voice.
The man exhaled, then nodded.
“Don’t give me a reason to kill you.”
The man’s head bobbed up and down. “‘Course not.”
Derrick slid the blade under the knot he’d tied, cutting through the rope. The rope loosened but didn’t fall off. It circled the trunk several times and would have to be unwound.
Derrick cut the knot holding Ball Cap to the tree. “I’ll leave it to you guys to get yourselves loose.” Derrick looked at Chris and Jessica before jerking his head toward the truck. The three of them jogged over to the truck, climbed in, and drove off.
Chapter 8
Derrick
Next stop, a neighborhood they hadn’t scavenged yet. The place looked as abandoned as every other neighborhood they’d been to. Yards had become overgrown, trash was scattered throughout the street, no people were around, some houses had red X’s on the door and some did not, and dusty cars sat in driveways and at the curb.
“Okay,” Derrick said as he hopped out of his truck and walked around the hood to face his team. “Jessica, you’re with me. Chris, you know what to do.”
With a nod, Chris trotted off. Derrick turned to Jessica. “Which house should we start with?” The goal was for her to eventually lead a scavenge with a team of her own. They all needed to develop that skill.
She studied the nearby houses, finally pointing to one without a red X on the door. “That one.”
Derrick nodded. Though houses marked with a red X were less likely to have already been scavenged, Derrick preferred to go into houses that had a lower possibility of being occupied by a diseased and reeking corpse. “Good.”
Jessica smiled, then turned and led the way to the house. Once they reached the door, she stepped to the side and let Derrick take over. The door was locked, which was never the best sign—it could mean the house was occupied. Still, he didn’t let that stop him.
To make sure the house was empty, he knocked loud and strong. When no one answered, he peered into the front window. No people were visible. Rather than attempt to kick the door in, he went around to the side of the house where the door into the garage was located. That door was locked as well, but in his experience, the locks on those doors were nowhere near as strong as the locks on front doors, and after two swift kicks, the door burst inward.
It was dark inside, so he flicked on his flashlight and scanned the space. Nothing moved. Jessica was right behind him. After clearing the garage, Derrick went directly to the door that led into the house. It was unlocked—something else he’d found was common. Before the pandemic, most people had evidently come and gone through their garages and not bothered to lock that door. That had certainly been his habit.
He and Jessica went inside. Sunlight poured in through the kitchen windows. No stink of corpses filled the air. The space told the story of people trying to leave in a hurry. Two boxes half-filled with canned goods sat on the dining room table along with several small bottles of water. Towels and sheets were stacked on the other end of the table.
“Hello?” Derrick called out. “Anyone home?”
No response.
Wearing a grim expression, Derrick nodded at Jessica. She got to work going through the cabinets, loading what she found into the boxes while Derrick went through the rest of the house.
When they were done, they carried their haul out the front door and placed everything into the bed of the truck. Chris arrived a short time later with his own boxes, including a large bag of dog food.
“Let me see Sarah’s list,” Chris said.
Derrick handed it over. Chris skimmed it, pointing to the things he’d gotten, then he asked, “Is there anything neither of us have gotten?”
Derrick reviewed the list, then shook his head. “Nope. We got lucky this time.” Tucking the list in his pocket, he grinned. “Let’s head home.”
They all climbed into the truck, but when Derrick turned his key, nothing happened. Not even a click. “What the heck?” he muttered. He hadn’t had trouble with his truck in ages—he’d always made a point of keeping it in perfect working order and it hadn’t been that long since it was last serviced.
He pulled the lever to release the hood, then got out and lifted it before securing it in place. Chris and Jessica joined him. Though he could do basic car maintenance, Derrick was no mechanic, and as he stared at the engine, he had no clue what the problem could be.
He turned to Chris and Jessica. “Any guesses?”
They both shook their heads.
Sighing audibly, Derrick scanned the neighborhood. There were a number of vehicles within view. If they could find a set of keys, they could move their haul from his truck to another vehicle and be on their way. He left the hood open. “Okay, we’ll split up and look for car keys.” He didn’t want to send Jessica into a house they hadn’t cleared yet, so he told her to search the house they’d just scavenged. He didn’t remember seeing any keys in it, but keys hadn’t been on their list, so he hadn’t been looking for any. With any luck, she’d find a set.
She nodded and jogged away. He and Chris went to separate houses—ones they hadn’t been in before. Before he could search, he had to take a few minutes to clear it, then he dug through kitchen drawers as well as bedroom dressers. Nothing.
Shaking his head in annoyance, he just hoped Chris or Jessica had had better luck.
He went out the front door to meet up with them, but what he saw made him gape in disbelief.
His truck was no longer parked where he’d left it. Instead, it was rapidly leaving the neighborhood with all of their supplies in it. He could see what looked like a pair of men in the cab.
Swearing under his breath, Derrick shook his head. Obviously someone had sabotaged their truck only to take it with the solar panels and other supplies neatly loaded. And he’d foolishly left the keys in the ignition.
Supremely annoyed, Derrick reminded himself that they could find more of what they needed. Even if it had taken them all morning to get it.
Chris came trotting out of the house he’d been searching. Derrick could tell the moment Chris realized the truck was gone. Chris’s mouth fell open as his eyebrows jerked together. “Where’s your truck?”
“Gone.”
“What?”
Derrick explained what he’d seen.
Chris slowly shook his head. “Perfect.”
Derrick wondered what was taking Jessica so long. He looked toward the house she’d been assigned to check, but all was quiet. A sense of foreboding washed over him, and without another word he ran to the house she’d gone in.
“Jessica! Jessica, where are you?”
When there was no answering reply, the annoyance he’d felt at having his truck stolen turned to panic. Whoever had taken his truck had taken more than their scavenged supplies. They’d taken Jessica.
Chapter 9
Jessica
Jessica was terrified. Hands and feet bound and mouth covered with duct tape, she lay in the back seat of Derrick’s truck, her back against the cushion and her eyes frantically searching for a way to escape. Two men sat in the front, one driving and the other in the passenger seat. She had no idea who they were or why they’d taken her. Well, she had an idea why they’d taken her, but she didn’t want to think about that. It only made her terror skyrocket into absolute panic.
Trying to keep from hyperventilating, she focused on slowly breathing—in and out, in and out. The men stunk—probably hadn’t bathed since before the apocalypse. Jessica nearly gagged at the stench. In the past when she smelled something nasty, she would breath through her mouth to avoid smelling it. Now though, she had no choice but to breathe through her nose.
Her hands were bound in front of her, but the tape covered not only her wrists, but part of her hands too. Otherwise she would easily be able to rip the duct tape from her mouth. The tips of her fingers weren’t covered though, so she picked at the edges of the tape on her mouth, eager to get it off.
As she worked, her imagination took over, spinning tales of what was going to happen to her. The more she thought of possible scenarios, the more desperate she became to escape. She had to get away from these guys, had to save herself. Had to get back to her family before these guys killed her…or worse.
Desperate to think of something else, she replayed the moment the men had taken her.
She’d been digging through a drawer in the kitchen, looking for car keys, when she’d felt more than heard, someone approach. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, and all the training she’d done over the last few weeks flew completely out of her head as she stood frozen.
Hot breath hit the back of her neck. Goosebumps rose on her arms. The blood drained from her face.
Someone was behind her. Someone she didn’t know. She felt her gun being removed from the back of her jeans.
Crap! Now what?
She could call for Derrick. He would protect her. She opened her mouth to scream, but before any sound could come out, a large hand clamped over her lips. Eyes going wide as her heart nearly galloped out of her chest, her mind went blank with panic.
Then it occurred to her that she could bite the hand covering her mouth, but try as she might, she couldn’t sink her teeth into her attacker’s flesh. His hand was too big.
A moment later she was lifted off of her feet. The man held her in such a way that her arms were pinned to her sides. But her legs were still free. She flailed and kicked and threw her head back. Until a gun was pressed to her head and a menacing voice murmured, “Stop fighting or I shoot.”
Terrified of being murdered, she reluctantly obeyed, then tried not to sob as a pair of men bound her hands and feet with duct tape before stretching a wide piece of the tape across her mouth.
Completely helpless, as she was carried out of the house, all Jessica could do was hope that Derrick or Chris would see what was happening and come to her rescue. But they didn’t. The men tossed her into the back seat of the truck and softly closed the door.
It was Derrick’s truck.
Then Jessica remembered. The truck wouldn’t start. Hope surged through her chest.
She heard the men talking in low voices, but they were outside. They hadn’t even tried to start the truck.
Hurry, Derrick! Come outside, Chris!, her mind screamed.
She heard the sound of the truck’s hood being gently closed. The men got back in the truck. They turned the key that Derrick must have left in the ignition. The truck started right up.
That’s when Jessica knew. These men had done something to the truck to make it not start. They must have been watching her and Derrick and Chris the whole time they’d been in this neighborhood.
They’d planned this.
To take her.
Jessica’s blood ran cold.
Now, as they drove, Jessica struggled to turn her mind away from that horrifying moment and to focus instead on what she could do to get away. Because she had to escape.
She had no idea where they were or where they were going. Since she and her group had arrived in California, she’d barely left the farm. She knew nothing about the area. If—no, when—she escaped, how would she know where to go to find the farm?
Her feeling of vulnerability and helplessness grew a thousandfold. She began to hyperventilate.
Get it together, Jess. You’ll figure it out. You’ve already been through a lot. And you’ve been training. Use it. Otherwise you’ll never see your family again.
That last though almost made her lose it, but she turned her eyes to the men who had taken her, hatred for them redirecting her focus. Who did they think they were? What made them think they could just take her like she was a piece of meat on a shelf? She had a family, damnit. A husband who adored her.
Thoughts of Matt brought a sharp pain to her heart. When he found out she’d been kidnapped, he was going to freak.
Stop it. Focus, focus, focus.
“How you doin’ back there, honey?” the man in the passenger seat asked as he grinned at her.
She yanked her hands away from the duct tape at her mouth, desperately wishing she had her gun and that her hands were free. She would happily shoot both of the men dead. No regrets.
Instead, she glared at him and let her fury chase away her fear.
“Don’t worry now,” he said, his eyes shining. Was he stoned? “We’ll be there soon.”
Where was “there”? And who else would be there?
Jessica pictured the moment they would open the door of the truck to take her out. She would kick them in the groin before making a run for it. Except that would be impossible with her ankles bound.
Had Derrick and Chris noticed yet that she was missing? Were they even at that moment searching for her? How would they know where to look? They would have zero idea which way these men had gone.
Jessica couldn’t expect to be rescued by anyone. It was all on her.
Chapter 10
Derrick
“She’s gone,” Derrick said to Chris, who had joined him inside the house. “They took her.”
Chris’s face blanched. “Oh no.”
Maybe they could catch up. “Did you find any keys?”
Chris shook his head. “No. You?”
Grimacing, Derrick shook his head. “No.” Had those men taken all the car keys from this neighborhood to prevent being followed? Didn’t matter. He and Chris would find a way to get Jessica back. They had to.
Matt’s face filled Derrick’s mind. Matt would be devastated. And furious. He’d wanted to come on this run but Derrick had shut him down. Matt would blame Derrick for this. And Derrick deserved all the blame. He should never have sent Jessica into that house alone. Just because they’d cleared it before didn’t mean those men couldn’t sneak in and grab her, which they’d obviously done.
Time to stop his recriminations and create a plan.
Pulling his mind into sharp focus, he scanned the neighborhood. “Okay. Here’s what we’re going to do. They couldn’t have taken every key from every house.” He sighed heavily. “I don’t want to waste time looking for a damn pair of car keys, but we can’t cover much ground on foot. Not when they’re in a truck.” He clenched his jaw. “My truck.” He shook his head. He didn’t give a damn about losing his truck. Not in comparison to Jessica being taken. It was simply the audacity of these guys—doing something to his truck to put him and Chris in a position of weakness while they took Jessica.
“Let’s go one street over,” Chris said, his voice calm, which helped to calm Derrick. “I’m sure we can find a car with keys nearby.”
“Good idea.”
They took off at a run, going through the backyard of the nearest house and climbing over the fence. Once in the backyard neighbor’s property, they headed directly to the house, smashing a window to get in when they found the sliding glass door locked.
Derrick didn’t even care if someone was home. He had a mission and he wouldn’t let anyone slow him down.
No one reacted to their brazen action, so he and Chris quickly ransacked the house, and after a few minutes Chris shouted, “Got it!”
Derrick looked over to see Chris holding up a set of shiny keys.
Relief, powerful and swift, burned through him. Now they would at least have a way to try to find Jessica.
He and Chris tore through the house and to the garage. Chris manually opened the garage door. Sunlight streamed in. A blacked-out Dodge Charger sat right in the middle of the tidy garage. Derrick had always admired the beefy looking vehicles, and if the situation weren’t so dire, he would have taken a moment to enjoy this opportunity. Instead, he jumped into the driver’s seat while Chris hopped into
the passenger side. A moment later they were driving down the street in the same direction he’d seen Jessica’s captor’s go.
When they reached the end of the street, he turned left, as the men they were trying to find had done, but when they reached the next corner, he had no idea which way to go. He hadn’t been able to see that far.
“Crap!” He looked one way and then the other, wishing mightily for some way to know which direction to take.
“The farm is that way,” Chris said, pointing to the right, “so, maybe go the opposite?”
The logic was as good as anything he could come up with, so Derrick turned left. He drove slow enough for them to take a long look down all the streets they passed, but fast enough to keep things moving.
Half a mile down the road, a man was slowly walking along the sidewalk. Derrick pulled up alongside him. The man looked their way, quickly backing up, his eyes wide with fear.
He was on Chris’s side of the car, so Chris called out to him through his open window. “Did you see a truck go by here in the last ten minutes?”
The man stared at them like he was afraid of what they really wanted.
“We’re just looking for our friend,” Chris said, his tone reassuring.
After another moment of hesitation—one in which Derrick wanted to get out and throttle the man for taking so long to answer—the man finally nodded. “Yeah, I seen a truck drive by a little while ago.”
Stark relief that they were on the right track swept over Derrick. He leaned across the console and called out, “Did you see them turn anywhere?”
The man’s eyes shifted to Derrick. After a moment, he shook his head. “They went straight.” He pointed down the road in the direction they were already headed.
“Thanks,” Chris shouted to the man as Derrick hit the gas.
They drove forward, their eyes scanning, scanning. No truck. No Jessica.
They’d driven nearly two miles when they came to a crossroads. They had to turn either left or right. They couldn’t go straight. They hadn’t passed any other people they could ask. Derrick looked at Chris, who shook his head and said, “No idea, bro.”
Pandemic (Book 4): Insurrection Page 4
