Cass lowered the binoculars and shook her head. “I think it means we’re screwed. That government scientist I spoke to—he warned me not to try to leave town.”
“That story was true? I thought you made it up.”
“No, it was true. But this guy I talked to didn’t have my better interests at heart. When he heard about what was happening in Madison, he obviously started thinking the place needed to be quarantined.”
“It does need to be quarantined,” Fred said.
“You don’t get it, do you? The government will quarantine everyone inside this area. We won’t be able to get out just because we say we’re not infected.”
Fred’s face fell. “But we can prove we’re not infected. We don’t have black blood.”
Cass shook her head. “They won’t take any chances with us. They’ll make us turn back—or worse.
“Are you sure you’re not being paranoid? I’m willing to take my chances with these guys.”
She gestured out the front window and raised the binoculars.
“Let’s see what they do with that car in front of us.”
Cass watched as the car in question was stopped at the roadblock. The soldiers were taking their duties seriously. They gestured to whoever was in the vehicle to get out. They gestured with pointed guns.
Cass moaned. “Oh no.”
“What is it?” Fred demanded.
Cass sought to keep the binoculars steady. Mary wasn’t talking, but she was fidgeting something awful. Cass described the scene as it unfolded.
“Not what, who. It’s Mr. Felix from the drugstore. I guess he avoided the assembly after all. It looks like the soldiers are questioning him. But they’re being careful to keep their distance. It’s easy to see he’s upset and that they’re afraid of catching something from him.” Cass paused. “Oh God.”
“What is it?” Fred asked tensely.
“He’s arguing with them and they’re pushing him back with the tips of their guns. He’s gesturing violently—he looks real mad. He’s so excited that I’m worried they’ll …”
Cass dropped the binoculars in her lap.
The short popping sound echoed across the desert.
“What happened?” Fred gasped.
Cass swallowed. Mary was sitting up straight and anxious.
“They shot him,” Cass whispered.
Fred was in pain. “No. They’re soldiers. They wouldn’t shoot an innocent man.”
Cass slowly raised the binoculars. It wasn’t a pretty sight.
“They shot him in the head and now they seem to be poking around in his brain with a long stick and a bright light.” She added in a bitter voice, “Maybe they’re checking to see how hollow his skull is.”
“Give me those,” Fred demanded as he grabbed the binoculars. It took him a moment to focus, but after he did he quickly lowered them and stared off into the distance. Cass had never seen him so white. “This can’t be happening.”
“We can’t go this way.”
Fred was furious and breathing hard. “We’re not going back. Maybe we can talk to these men. Mr. Felix was always a fool, and he obviously pushed them when they were not in a mood to be pushed. These soldiers will have to listen to us. I mean, God, we just got out of high school, we’re no threat to them.”
Cass touched his arm and spoke firmly. “They’ll shoot us just like they shot Mr. Felix. They must have orders to shoot and kill.” She sat back and rubbed Mary’s arms. It disturbed her that her sister was not speaking with all that was going on. Cass added, “We need a plan.”
Fred started to turn the car on to back up. “We can take Highway Twenty around Rough Plain and try for Tenn. They can’t have roadblocks all over the whole desert.”
Cass stopped him. “We don’t have enough gas to make it to Rough Plain. Besides, I bet there’ll be a roadblock there. We were unconscious for too long—Professor Fiese called my bluff. He has an efficient organization behind him. There’ll be roadblocks set up in every direction out of town by now.”
Fred started to snap but then considered the situation more seriously. He was sometimes impulsive but he wasn’t stupid. He took up the binoculars and scanned the surrounding hills. After pointing he handed the binoculars back to her.
“There is a winding dirt road up there,” he said. “See it? I remember it now. Tim and I once hot dogged on it on dirt bikes. It goes up and down like a roller coaster and it even slants at dangerous angles, but we might be able to take it.”
Cass studied the dirt road in the moonlight—it was actually more of a rough path. Yet she would have jumped on it if she wasn’t certain that the soldiers would spot them trying to use it. The reality was that the path was only a quarter mile from the highway. Why just sitting in the dark was spooking Cass even though the roadblock was still a couple of miles away. She expressed her fears to Fred and he didn’t argue as she would have expected.
“Maybe we should just go hide up in the hills,” he suggested. “Till things cool down.”
Cass shook her head. “Things are not going to cool down. This quarantine is only the beginning.”
“What do you mean?“He waited for an answer and she let him think about the possibilities instead. Finally he said it. “You don’t think they’re going to destroy the entire town?”
She was grave. “I think they think they must. The government started an experiment that has gotten out of hand. They could use a nuclear bomb for all we know, we have to get away from here.” She contemplated the dirt path once more that snaked along the side of the hill on the right. “We need a diversion,” she muttered.
“Too bad we don’t have a case of dynamite,” he said.
Mary continued to sit silently.
Cass had an idea. “Hey, how far are we from the propane plant?”
“What are you suggesting?”
“How far? Do we have enough gas to get there?”
Fred considered. “Maybe twelve miles-one way. We could probably get there. I’m not sure we could get back.” He paused. “You’re not thinking of stealing a propane truck?”
“Yes. We could ram the blockade with a propane truck and we’d have a masterful distraction. The men would be so busy putting out the fire that they wouldn’t notice us creeping along the dirt path in our Sentra.” She stopped. “Of course there’s one small problem. One of us has to drive the truck.”
Fred hesitated. “I can do it.”
Cass felt frustrated. “No. Forget I even brought it up. You’d be killed.”
But Fred had warmed to the idea. “No. I can get the truck going in the right direction and rig the accelerator and the steering wheel with a belt. Then I can bail out and run partway up the side of the hill. You’ll have to be waiting for me.” He paused. “I can make it work.”
Cass played the devil’s advocate, even though she liked the idea. “The soldiers will see you bail out.”
Fred rubbed his hands together. “I don’t think so. They don’t appear to have night goggles. Plus, once the truck hits they’ll have their hands full.” Fred nodded to himself. “I think it’s our best hope, and I know there’s always an extra truck or two sitting around that stupid plant. Let’s do it—we’re not getting anywhere sitting here.”
“OK,” Cass said, as she hugged her sister closer.
She’d have to worry about Mary’s mental state later. With their headlights still out, they turned around and backtracked two miles to another dusty road. The propane plant was located on the backside of the boonies, right next to a gas and oil drilling rig. They had been out to it a couple of times over the years while looking for a way to kill time. The place was gated but not guarded. It was interesting that neither of them brought up exactly how they’d steal the truck. Without asking, Cass took out the pistol and removed the safety. They were desperate people willing to take desperate chances. They had both changed in the last three days.
“Let’s park a quarter of a mile out,” Cass advised as they neared the
place.
Fred nodded. “I was just going to say that.” He glanced at Mary, who appeared to be dozing in Cass’s arms. “I don’t want to leave Mary in the car.”
“It’ll be safer to leave her.”
He was uneasy. “No, I don’t think so. She should come with me. You and I can split up to enter the compound from different sides. It’ll give us the element of surprise. I don’t mind if you take the gun; I still have Tim’s knife.”
“But why do you want Mary with you?”
He fidgeted and then lied—it was so obvious. “I just don’t want to leave her alone for a minute in this place. Not all those creatures are back in town.”
She tried to catch his eye, but he wouldn’t look at her.
“OK” was all she said.
They parked and got out, and walked together until they got to the gate. Mary didn’t complain or say anything as they parted.
Cass had no idea if the plant personnel were infected, and she told herself that she wouldn’t shoot unless absolutely forced. As she left Fred and Mary behind, Cass reflected on how she had shot her father and how guilty she felt even though he clearly wasn’t her father anymore. There had been something about remembering the powerful recoil of the gun and then seeing his shoulder all bloody that would not leave her. She knew deep inside she must have loved him.
But now he was gone forever.
The gate on her side of the plant was a pitiful affair. Tucking the gun in her belt, she was over it in five seconds. Already she could see a couple of propane trucks waiting to be stolen. Yet she had taken only five steps toward the closer of the two when a rough male voice called out.
“Hey,” he said as he came around the corner of a building. He wore a company uniform and was a big fella, but otherwise she couldn’t make out his features. “What are you doing here?”
She wondered if Fred and Mary could hear the guy. The plant was a hundred yards across, composed of one large drilling rig, three small office buildings, a single huge storage facility, the processing plant, and the trucks. She decided that they couldn’t know she’d been spotted. Almost on instinct she pulled the pistol from her belt and pointed it at the man.
“I’m stealing one of your trucks,” she said coolly. “Put your hands in the air and give me the keys or I’ll shoot you where you stand.”
His hands shot up and shook. He sounded scared. “I don’t have the keys.”
She moved closer quickly. “Put your hands on top of your head, lay facedown on the ground. Do it!”
She was getting pretty good at this. He hurried to obey. He was a mass of nerves. “Please don’t shoot me,” he whimpered. “I have a wife and kids.”
“Do they live in Madison?”
“No. Las Vegas.”
“Lucky them.” She knelt and put the pistol to his head. “Where are the keys?”
“In the building on your right. They’re sitting on the desk.”
“Is anyone else working here tonight?”
“There’s Bill.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know. He’s around.”
“What’s your name?”
“Barney. What’s yours?”
She had to smile. “I’m not going to tell you. But I am going to whack you on the back of the head with this gun. I don’t want to kill you but I can’t have you coming after me.”
Barney was upset. “Please don’t hit me too hard. I have a wife and kids.”
“I know, Barney,” she said as she raised the gun over her head. The end justifies the means. It was the only reason to justify how hard she hit him. He went out with the one blow.
Cass crept in the building on the right. Fred was already there and going through the keys. He jerked around when she came up behind him. God, he looked like he had been crying.
“What’s the matter?” she snapped. “Where’s Mary?”
“She’s outside next to one of the worker’s cars.”
“You just left her out there? We’re not alone here, you know.”
He wouldn’t look at her. He was shaking. “We are now,” he muttered.
She noticed blood on his hands. “What happened?”
“We’ll talk about it later,” he said as he found the keys he wanted. He handed her a set. “Take Mary in this car. It has more gas in it than the Sentra. I’ll take the truck and rig it to keep going and crash, like we talked about. You follow on the side road and pick me up when the soldiers go nuts.”
He was talking as fast as a machine gun spits out bullets. Something had obviously happened that shook him to the core. He had blood on his hands and she did not need a lot of imagination to figure it out. She touched his arm.
“Did you kill the other man?” she asked gently.
He averted his head. “I didn’t, no.” He turned away. “Just do what we planned, I’ll explain later.”
“Fred?”
“Not now!” he snapped.
They went outside. Mary was standing quietly beside a Ford Taurus. She got in after Cass unlocked the door for her. Fred was already revving up the engine on one of the propane trucks. He jerked it out of its parking place. Barney was sound asleep off in left field. The scene was preposterous, of course, yet Cass felt there was something wrong besides the obvious. She got a bitter taste of what that might be when she jumped in her side of the car and notice the blood on Mary’s shirt.
“Where did that come from?” she demanded.
Mary was either in shock or an awfully cool customer.
She just stared at Cass and shook her head.
Cass started the car and chased after Fred’s propane bomb.
Their distraction worked better than Cass could have dreamed. From a place off to the right and in front of the blockade, elevated slightly by the rough terrain of the hills, Cass and Mary watched as the propane tanker roared straight toward the military boys. Fred knew how to program his runaway trucks, this baby hardly deviated on its planned course by an inch. Through the binoculars Cass had seen Fred jump clear, as much as a quarter of a mile before the blockade. His faith in the truck’s trajectory paid off. Only at the last second did the boys in uniform realize that the truck was not going to stop. They barely had a chance to scatter. Cass felt little sympathy for them after they had shot poor Mr. Felix.
The truck exploded in a huge fireball.
The orange light lit up the night.
Cass heard at least one man screaming.
“That’s our cue,” she said to Mary who was sitting impassively beside her. Cass threw the car in gear and ripped along the side of the hill on a path that was little more than a squirrel’s lap track. Fred ran like a maniac to intercept her. His job was tougher, he had to climb up the side of the hill and he was on foot. But somehow he made it and soon he was gasping in the backseat.
“Better to drive carefully than too fast,” he warned.
“Understood,” she said. Below, the fireball continued to do its work. All three trucks had caught fire. Half the boys in uniform were trying to put them out, the other half were searching the wrong way up the road for the culprit. Cass was able to slide past them with incredible ease. A half mile beyond the blockade she drove out of the hills and slipped back onto the road. For safety’s sake, she kept the headlights off. But she upped their speed tenfold, the moon lighting a path for them. For the first time in a long time she felt joyful.
“We made it!” she exclaimed.
“We’ll see,” Fred said ominously.
17
They reached Notch and its this-side-of-the-town gas station shortly afterward. Their Ford Taurus was not filled with gas either, and they thought it prudent to fill up while they had a chance. Apparently the second-level pattern units had not removed Fred’s wallet from his pants. For cosmic galactic beings they were not particularly good at detail work. Fred had enough money so that they could get what they wanted. As Mary went off to the bathroom, Cass cornered Fred as he pumped the gas. He was bruised and du
sty from his heroic leap from the propane truck but she knew it was the last thing on his mind.
The gas station was relatively deserted. “Give it to me straight,” she demanded.
He shook his head tightly. “Not now.”
She grabbed him. “What happened back there at the plant?”
Fred put the gas feed on automatic. He was having trouble breathing and still didn’t want to look at her.
“We found a break in our side of the fence and crept inside. I saw the trucks but I also saw a guy walking around. He wasn’t the same guy you ran into. I told Mary to stay put for a minute because I was thinking I could circle around the guy, take him by surprise, and knock him out. But to get around him I had to lose sight of him as I crept behind a building. For a couple of minutes I had no idea where he was.” He coughed. “Then I saw him.”
“Where?”
“Lying on the ground.” Fred closed his eyes. “He was covered with blood. He was dead.”
Cass swallowed thickly. “Where was Mary?”
He opened his eyes and contemplated the ground. “She was nearby. She was covered with blood.”
Cass tried to force a smile. What came out felt like a grimace.
”That’s not possible,” she whispered.
Fred raised his head and looked out at the black desert.
“Mary killed that man, Cass,” he said quietly.
She shook her head weakly. “No. She’s not one of them. You are not going to convince me she’s one of them.”
Fred finally looked at her and his face was cracked with pain. Yet he hardened his words and they cut her like daggers. “I’ve suspected for some time that there was something wrong with Mary. She won’t eat—you saw that repeatedly—and she was always going out for long walks. I know for a fact she was out that night half the town was out. I saw her come back in the trailer even though she denied it to our faces.”
Cass stuck out an arm. “Stop. Stop right there.”
Fred grabbed her elbow. “We have to face facts, Cass. Mary went to your father’s house and was there half the morning and we know he was one of them. Then when we were brutally attacked they never touched Mary. And since we left Madison she’s been acting like some kind of zombie. You know that she’s been acting like Tim did.”
The Hollow Skull Page 13
