It was another hour before he keeled over against a tree, totally spent.
There seemed to be no one behind him.
He’d ascended an exposed rocky ridge, so he had a nice view of the surrounding area. The landscape to the south and west was filled with volcanoes and jagged smoking peaks. One in the middle was more active than the others. It spat waves of fiery magma that splashed down into cooling trails of orange. They’d already scoured the peak and were flowing into the valley below. The ground under his feet trembled for a few seconds as he watched.
“You’re going to make it hard for me, aren’t you, Buck?”
There was a bare-topped summit to the south that formed the eastern end of the other peaks and smoking volcanoes. It looked familiar, like a landmark from the old world, and he would need a prominent feature to guide him across the rugged terrain.
“Please be Pike’s Peak,” he said to the mountain. “Cuz that’s where Buck said he’s setting up shop.”
His mother would be there, too.
It looked like it was thirty miles at the most.
“How hard could it be?”
Alpha Site
“Are we sure there are no survivors from your group?” Connie asked. “You went off with fifty people.”
“I don’t think so. They shoved them into the blue light to test whatever they were testing, and I saw those bodies down in the crater when I arrived. The last four ran into the light too, to get away from the shooting.”
He was sorry he hadn’t been able to grab them when he and Lydia fell out of the teleporter, but everything had happened so fast. He’d arrived in Connie’s arms. She’d pulled him and Lydia backward. Then the shooting had started.
During the action, the last four people had thrown themselves into the light, probably thinking it was safer than being in a shooting gallery.
“So, they died?” Buck questioned.
“No, they lived,” Lydia answered.
“How so?” Buck asked from behind the wheel.
Big Mac sat on the floor between him and the frontier girl, and he had one arm around her to make sure she didn’t go anywhere on the bumpy ride. He also had one hand on Mac’s head to scratch behind his ears.
“I had no idea what he was doing,” Lydia explained, “but Garth strung up a lot of rope on the edge of the cliff so when people fell out of the light like we did, they will get caught up in the tangle instead of falling to their death.”
“It was electrical wires,” he corrected. “but yeah. I suspected Strauss would try to send us right back. You know, to confirm we were telling the truth. I wanted to be sure no one, myself included, would risk toppling over the side ever again.”
“Damn smart thinking, son,” his dad lauded.
“That’s amazing, Garth,” Connie said quickly, “but you need to know we only have about a minute before we get to the last roadblock. Once we get through, we’ll be on our way to our new home, and you can tell us all about what you saw.”
Buck went into Marine mode.
“If there’s any shooting up ahead, I want all of you to drop to the floor and stay there until I say. Keep Mac down, too.”
“I will,” Garth assured him.
“With any luck, we’ll whiz right through. I think I’d even chance running the roadblock. They wouldn’t shoot us for real, would they?”
“Shit!” Connie yelped. “They might.”
Garth took a look ahead. A single tank sat in the middle of the road with its turret facing in their direction.
“Crap,” he growled.
He and Lydia dropped to the floor, hugging Mac as promised. Buck slowed the truck, which was a silent acknowledgment that they weren’t going to crash through as originally planned.
“If we get through this, Garth, do you think there will be a reverend where we’re going? If I die in your world, I would really like to do it as your wife.”
He choked up at the surprise statement. They’d been close for the last twenty-four hours, and she’d barely left his side, but he’d begun to think it was for survival instead of actual love. He’d tried to die for her a couple of times, so he had no doubt how much he loved her, but no matter how she acted toward him, he had a bit of self-doubt.
Now that doubt was gone.
Buck stopped the truck. Instead of getting out or rolling down his windows, he crouched between the seats to face him.
“Son, I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next sixty seconds, but I’m the captain of this boat and your father. With the power vested in me by the Federal Department of Transportation, I hereby authorize you to ask for my consent to be legally married in the great state of…Second Earth. Do you request to be married?”
“I do,” he said.
“And do you, Lydia, take my son to be your husband?”
She beamed. “I most certainly do!”
“Then you two are married. You may now kiss the bride.”
He leaned over and kissed the girl he’d fallen in love with. It was brief and to the point because he heard his dad open his door to talk to the soldiers. Mac gave them quick licks as if to share their happiness.
“Yuck.” Lydia laughed.
Garth felt the knot in his stomach relax. Whatever happened next, he’d saved a few lives. He’d protected Lydia through the madness. He’d made his dad proud. He’d found a little happiness.
For the first time in his life, he understood what it was like to protect someone you loved more than your original family, more even than yourself. He trusted that Buck would do whatever was necessary to get them through the roadblock.
Even one filled with tanks and guns.
“Go get ‘em, Dad.”
Alpha Site
“Hey again!” Buck said to Sergeant Maple, the soldier who’d stopped them at the roadblock when they were coming in.
“Stay in your vehicle,” Maple ordered.
“I’m just heading down the road for more stuff.” He pointed ahead. “So I need you to skootch that tank to the side.”
“No can do. We have orders to stop anyone from leaving this base.”
“What? Did General Strauss say that? I think she has her wires crossed.”
Maple ordered him back inside, then climbed up to the window so he could look in. There was no way to stop him from observing behind the seat, which revealed Garth, Lydia, and the Golden lying on the floor.
“Are you okay, kids?” Maple asked. “Did he kidnap you?”
“No!” Garth snapped. “He’s my dad.”
“Then why are you laying on the floor?” the sergeant pressed.
Garth didn’t say anything, just pointed at the tank.
Maple backed out of the window. “Look, I don’t know what this is all about. She said a group of terrorists was about to come through here. Is someone chasing you?”
That offered him an out. If he could convince them he was being chased, it might open the gate wide for him. More likely, the soldiers would clear the truck and wait for the bad guys to arrive so they could obey their orders and still sort out the problem.
“No. We’re the terrorists.” He said it tongue-in-cheek.
“Seriously? You don’t look so bad.”
Big Mac snuck under Buck’s legs and popped up by the door. He surprised Maple, but the Golden reached for the man with one paw as if he wanted the guy to play with him.
Maple rubbed his head, which was what the crazy pup wanted.
“My dog is the kingpin of our operation in case you haven’t figured us out.”
Maple squinted at the Golden Retriever while he rubbed behind his ears. “You don’t look so bad. Are you a bad dog? I say no way.”
The sergeant glanced at Buck. “I need to call this in.”
“Please do,” Buck allowed. He’d formed a rapport with the guy, and he hoped it would last. He also prayed the general was dead.
This time Strauss came on the radio almost immediately.
“Shit,” he said under h
is breath.
“General. We have a truck here with two civilians and their teen children. Can you clarify your orders? Are these the terrorists?”
“Yes. They’re responsible for the deaths of several of my men, they shot at me, and they escaped with the subject of an important piece of research. You are ordered to shoot the adults. Capture the two teens if possible.”
“And what about their dog?” the sergeant inexplicably asked.
Buck gripped the Storm pistol next to his seat. He liked Maple, but if the guy made a move to point his gun at anyone inside the cab, Mac included, he’d shoot him in the face.
“Do whatever you want with the dog,” Strauss answered in a robotic voice. “We can’t spare the food. Out.”
Maple looked him in the eyes, sizing up whether Buck could be such a big problem. Or maybe he was planning how to hop off the side step without getting shot. The guy had to know any trucker worth his beans would have a sidearm not far from his grip.
“I’m a dog person.” Maple chuckled. “I don’t particularly like COs who pretty much order me to kill an innocent puppy. That goes double for being ordered to kill the parents of two teens in front of their faces.”
“Are we being detained?” Buck asked in a voice full of anticipation.
Maple thought about it for a few seconds.
“Not at all,” the soldier replied. “I’m afraid we tried to stop you, but you avoided the roadblock, dodged our tank shells, and made it to safety before we could contain you.”
“Sounds like you’re dealing with one badass Marine.” Buck laughed.
“I guess that’s it,” Maple replied. He waved at his men. “Get that thing out of the way. Let these fine people pass one more time.”
“You’re the second Army dude I’ve misjudged recently. If you guys make it a habit, I might have to root for you at the Army-Navy game this year.”
They shared subdued laughter as if they’d simultaneously realized there would be no such game played.
“If the rumors are true, there are like ten humans left on this planet,” Maple confided. “We aren’t going to shoot up a truck full of them, you know?”
“Thank God for good men,” Buck said as he held out his hand. “I’m Buck Meadows. We’re taking all those civilians down to Colorado Springs because these assholes from the 130th are kicking us all to the curb.”
“Yeah, that general has a screw loose, I think.” Maple spoke in a whisper as he clasped Buck’s hand.
“We’re going to need all the good guys this Earth can provide. If you find yourself separated from the Army, you can join my team anytime.” He didn’t want to come out and ask the guy to mutiny, but he did want to make it clear that men like him were valuable.
“I’ll think about it.” He climbed down.
The tank’s turbine engine whined to life. A female commander popped out of a hatch on the turret, knowing there was no longer any threat. He waved at her, and she nodded in acknowledgment. The deadly vehicle shifted its treads and crawled into the weeds next to the gravel road.
“I’d love to see mega-rhino versus M1 Abrams,” he joked inside the cabin.
“What’s a mega-rhino?” Garth wondered.
“You’ll see.” He chuckled.
“Good luck out there,” Maple said as a final goodbye.
His fear of being shot in the back had disappeared.
“You, too!” he hollered out the window as he drove past the roadblock.
After they were out, everyone released a collective breath.
“Are we still married?” Garth asked.
Buck guffawed. The kid knew his priorities.
“You think I would trick you because I thought we might not make it?” he asked his son in a more serious way.
“Maybe,” Garth answered.
“Not anymore. You’re an adult. You’ve got yourself a good woman. You are really married to each other. No one can take that away from you now.”
“Awesome!” Garth gushed.
“Awesome,” Lydia echoed, testing the word.
He drove a short way down the gravel road, then a few hundred yards on the paved highway leading to the ruins of Sedalia. As he’d hoped, most of the people had gathered in cars at the edge of the road. There was also a familiar silver flattop Peterbilt idling on the shoulder. She’d hooked up Monsignor’s tanker of acetylene rather than her van full of television sets. It was satisfying to see her making such great choices.
He grabbed the CB. “Eve, you got your ears on?”
“Buck? You made it! So nice to hear your voice.” Haley, in the background, also expressed her happiness at hearing him.
It had been less than an hour, but walking the edge of death had made it seem a lot longer. “Glad to hear you guys, too. I take it you found a way around the flooding? We’ve got to get these people out of here. General Strauss has it in for us, for sure.”
He didn’t mention the men at the roadblock. OPSEC, or operational security, demanded he not reveal those details on an open channel. If the guards of the 130th were listening, they might go arrest Maple and his unit of regular US Army soldiers for letting them through.
“We have the way all picked out. It’s water-free and even has level gravel. You were right to send us over there to check it out.”
He breathed easier. They still had a giant rock to deal with, but it would only stop the trailers, not any of the refugees’ four-wheelers.
“Buck?” Haley came on the line. “I’m so sorry for freaking out back there. I’ve never been that scared in my whole life. Thanks for not giving up on me.”
He and Connie shared a knowing look.
“You did fine, Haley. You saw the elephant and survived. When we get home, we’ll train you on how to fire a gun, so you can handle all of life’s little problems out there.”
“So, were those things actually elephants?” she asked.
Buck chuckled. She’d taken him literally. “Seeing the elephant” was shorthand for getting thrown into combat for the first time.
“I’ll explain it to you later in person,” he said. “Good to hear your voice.”
“You too,” she replied. “Here’s Eve again.”
“So, how’s Varriss?” he asked Eve. “Is he still there?”
“No, he limped up the hill to his friends in Alpha,” Eve replied. “We didn’t know what to say to him. He thanked us for saving his life but told us he has family inside and had to report in. He didn’t think the military would ever need to return to Colorado Springs, and he certainly wasn’t anxious to go back.”
Buck was solemn for a moment. Maybe there were good guys in the 130th. Varriss didn’t seem like the typical mindless goon serving Strauss and her agenda. He’d been willing to go the extra mile to protect Buck and his civilians, a decision that cost two fellow soldiers. But he was a family man too, and going back to the Alpha Site was what any husband or father would do no matter what team they were on. Buck couldn’t hold it against the guy.
“Are you sure we should still go there?” Eve continued.
He glanced at Strauss’s soldiers sitting in their Humvees on the road where Strauss had given her speech the day before. How many Varrisses were up there? How many Strausses?
“Those soldiers up there could sweep this whole field and kill us all,” he replied. “Going to Colorado Springs will be safer for us, even if it is a prehistoric zoo. The difference is we’ll be expecting the super-sized animals, we’ll have lots of friends backing us up, and we know to search for homes that aren’t in the breeding grounds of those giants.”
The sun was low in the sky but it hadn’t set, so Strauss’s deadline still hadn’t passed.
Would Strauss at least follow through on one thing she promised?
He couldn’t take the risk.
“Let’s get this party rolling to the south. You can lead, Eve. I’ll stay until the end in case any stragglers need a ride in my trailer.”
“Roger that,” she replied
.
Cars filed out of the grassy area as they might at the end of a mountainside rock concert. They turned south on the same road he’d explored earlier. It gave him and Connie a few minutes of downtime, which she used to her advantage.
“Buck, it’s fantastic that you had the authority to marry Garth and Lydia, but did the Department of Transportation also give you the authority to marry yourself?”
“You mean, like, I’d be my own husband?” he mused. “Marry myself? Like that?”
She slapped him on the arm.
“Okay, I know what you mean.” He took a peek into the back, where Garth and Lydia still sat holding hands. They nodded anxiously, giving the two shit-eating grins to go with the motion.
He sucked in a deep breath as he faced forward.
“Look at this new world.” He pointed dramatically out the window.
“Uh-huh,” Connie replied, looking at him.
“Who am I to say what’s legal and not legal as far as my truck driver authority? It’s not like I can call base and ask for clarification. Therefore, as the only representative of my organization left alive and keeper of the sacred text in my DOT logbook, I’m going to make a judgment call on this issue and decree—”
“Oh, shut up and kiss me, husband.”
She was on-point, as always. It was one of the things he loved about her.
Buck met her soft lips in the middle of the cab.
They kissed long enough for Garth to scoff at them. “Get a room, guys.”
It got his boy a playful slap from Lydia.
The world had ended. He saw it with his own eyes. But new worlds were also being created. His son and new daughter. His new wife. A new city to settle.
They separated, which gave him a chance to look deep into her sea-blue eyes.
He had no idea what he was going to find around the next corner or in the days ahead, but he had most of his family back together. Waiting for the cars to stream by was a good excuse to celebrate. But after the intimacy of kissing her and sensing her deepest emotions, he wanted to address the most important thing on his wife’s mind.
End of Days | Book 5 | Beyond Alpha Page 25
