Cyber Apocalypse (Book 2): As Our World Falls

by Hunt, Jack

  Leo chuckled. “Mayor? And there was me thinking you were a pillar of the community.”

  “Everyone has their vices and in this town, you need a little something to keep yourself from losing it.”

  Leo gestured for him to go up with a nudge of the gun.

  Ken frowned. “I just told you where it is.”

  “And leave you alone down here? If I turn my back for a second you’ll be gone.”

  Ken grumbled as he trudged upstairs. He came out of the room a moment later dangling a pair of keys and a clear bag of weed. “Satisfied?”

  After getting in the truck, they veered out of the garage, leaving it open, and made their way out of Petaluma heading northwest on Highway 101. With the city behind them, Leo breathed a sigh of relief, though he was still scanning his mirrors every few seconds to check that they weren’t being followed. The journey would take them through the heart of Santa Rosa, a city known to belong to the Norteños, rivals to 18th Street. If he got caught crossing through their territory, the repercussions would be far greater than if he ran into Ramiro.

  However, they never made it that far.

  Somewhere along that stretch of lone road, minutes outside of Petaluma, he saw them. Leo eased off the gas pedal as the four black vehicles with dark-tinted windows came into view at the edge of the road. The men were outside their vehicles, some smoking cigarettes, others leaning against their rides. They hadn’t blocked the road. Still. Driving past them would only lead to a chase. He applied the brake. Had they seen them? No, they were too far away. Ramiro wouldn’t know they were heading this way unless… he turned to find Ken pointing a gun at him.

  “Sorry, I have to.”

  Leo shook his head. “When?”

  Ken kept staring at him. “In the same drawer with the keys to the gun cabinet. My friend always kept a piece beside his bed just in case anyone broke in.”

  Leo clenched his fist.

  “Kill the engine, hand me the keys and get out.”

  “You are killing yourself,” Leo replied.

  “No, I’m saving myself and my wife. And if Ramiro comes back to Petaluma, I’ve earned a favor.”

  Leo smiled as he slowed the vehicle.

  “Does he know?”

  “He will.”

  “You stupid man. He’ll kill you.”

  “I’ll take my chances,” Ken said.

  “Were you planning on doing this all along?”

  “No. But I figured if the worst happened, and it has, I would be ready.”

  Leo brought the vehicle to a standstill. Up ahead, they’d attracted their attention. If they turned now, it would be a clear giveaway. Ken was directing him to get out. If he did that, they were as good as dead. That weasel of a man. “Turn off the engine,” Ken said firmly. “Hurry up.”

  “If I do that, you are dead.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  Leo slowly moved his hand back toward his waistband where his handgun was.

  Ken made a tutting noise. “Nope. You don’t want to do that.”

  “Okay. Just be cool.” Leo nodded as he reached for the keys and switched off the engine.

  “Now hand them over.”

  Leo pulled them out, and went to hand them to him but at the last second, he dropped the keys on the floor. A small distraction but that’s all he needed.

  As Ken’s eyes diverted down, Leo sprang into action, wrestling for control of the gun. A moment of struggle and then the gun went off. Both of them sat there, eyes wide open, mouths agape.

  As they arrived in Willits that morning, Andre drove, veering the cruiser up off the main road into the parking lot around the back of Forest City Surplus. There were a few from the community on the streets but not many. The brave ones were checking stores to see if anyone was open. No sooner had they rounded the corner than Liam saw it.

  The back door to the store was wide open.

  There was no way Harry would have allowed that.

  “Whoa, whoa, stop the vehicle,” he said. He opened his door and jogged over, handgun at the ready.

  “Liam. Wait,” Garcia said. It didn’t take long to catch up even as Liam reached the door and called out. “Harry? Travis!”

  There was no response.

  “Let me go in first,” Garcia said.

  Liam backed up and followed. Inside it was dark but beyond the open door the only sign of trouble was empty boxes left in the hallway. They had to step over some and kick others out of the way. When they finally made into the main store it was empty, completely stripped bare. Not one item remained on a shelf, rack or behind the counter. Steel shelves that had once been upright were on the ground, a rack had been used to smash the glass counter. Shards were everywhere.

  His eyes shifted to the bunker, the one place Harry would have retreated to if he felt under threat. The hatch looked closed and for a second he thought that was where they’d gone.

  That all ended when he found it unlocked. Liam pulled it back and climbed down into the guts of the bunker.

  His stomach sank.

  There before him was the lifeless, cold body of Harry, a bullet through his head.

  He’d expected to find Travis, Tate or Joe nearby but it was just Harry.

  “Oh God,” Liam said. He ran a hand over his face as he crouched down beside the old-timer and placed a hand on his back. Garcia took a look.

  “This was him. This was Travis.”

  “You don’t know that,” Garcia said.

  “C’mon, man. Of course it was. A gun to the back of the head? He didn’t want to face him.”

  He stepped over Harry and pulled up some of the flooring. It was all empty.

  “Bastard. He took everything. Damn it!” Liam swiped at a bowl on the table and it flew across the room. It shattered against a steel wall. He slumped into a chair, placing his head in his hands. “I could have stopped this. I should have told Harry. I should have.”

  “Liam,” Garcia said placing a hand on his shoulder.

  He lifted his eyes.

  “Blaming yourself won’t change this.”

  It was at that moment the realization hit him.

  If Travis had taken what was at the cabin before, would he do it again? Liam’s eyes widened as he burst back up the steps into the store, eager to get back to the cabin.

  19

  The bullet grazed his upper arm.

  In an instant, Leo grappled and twisted the handgun out of Ken’s hand. Enraged, he smashed the butt end into his nose, bursting it like a fire hydrant. Not wasting a second, Leo scooped up the keys and started the vehicle just as one of Ramiro’s vehicles did a U-turn to head their way.

  “You idiot!” Leo bellowed.

  “You… you… you broke my nose.” Ken cupped hands over his face as blood gushed over his mouth and chin.

  “You’re lucky I didn’t kill you,” he said. He jammed the gearstick in reverse, then yanked hard on the steering wheel to spin the truck around. As soon as they were facing the other way he crushed the gas pedal and fishtailed out of there with Ramiro’s crew in pursuit. “Thanks to you we now have these assholes after us. I’m starting to think you didn’t escape and you and Ramiro arranged this.”

  “No. No, it was all me.”

  “Yeah? Then how do you explain them stopped at the edge of the road back there?” The truck growled as it reached a speed of over a hundred. He held the pedal to the floor.

  “He was probably heading for Willits.”

  “Yeah, and he stopped to read the map? Please. You aren’t convincing anyone.”

  “I thought I could...”

  “Could what? Huh? These aren’t men that can be reasoned with, don’t you understand that? They are born killers.”

  “All right. All right. I didn’t know. I just wanted to protect myself.”

  “Protect yourself? More like you wanted to benefit. You are all the same. It’s all about money. All about prestige. You don’t care who you throw under the bus to get where you need t
o go. Who cares about anyone else. All that talk about leaving the city, fraud and then you have the nerve to look down on someone like Garcia because of his previous gang association?”

  Ken didn’t respond. He was too busy nursing his face. He coughed blood over the dashboard. Leo reached over and slapped him around the back of the head. “Fuck. Put a hand over your mouth.”

  Leo scanned his mirrors. A frown formed. For some reason they’d stopped following. Did they know it was them? They were a fair distance away. He eased off the gas and brought the truck over to the shoulder of the road, squinting at his mirror. “You know another way around?” Leo winced as he gripped his bleeding arm.

  Ken spat red into a tissue and balled it up, then kept his head tipped back holding a hand over his face. “Yeah. But what about gas?”

  There was half a tank. “Which way?” Leo demanded.

  “Two miles up, hang a left. It will take us longer but you’ll avoid the main vein.” He groaned. “Look, Leo, I’m sorry, man.”

  “I don’t want to hear it. You’re not sorry. You’re sorry I wrestled that gun out of your hands. For now, don’t talk to me unless it’s to give directions.”

  Back in Willits, they’d returned to the cabin to find it exactly the way they’d left it. The tripwires were undisturbed. No one had broken in. Nothing had been taken. While Liam was relieved he was still concerned that Travis might double back, so they left Andre there to watch over the place while they headed for Travis’ family home on the south side.

  Grove Street was a new subdivision behind Howard Memorial Hospital. Originally, Travis lived only five minutes from where his grandfather was, but as Forest City Surplus became a hit, not just in the county but online, his mother who had worked for his grandfather had ended up buying a place in a more desirable neighborhood.

  “You sure it’s around here?” Garcia asked as they slowed and scanned doors numbers.

  The cruiser veered around another bend in the road and then Liam pointed. “There. That one.”

  It was a one-story abode, red brick foundation, sandy brown siding, and black shingles. It had an attached garage in matching brown. In the driveway was Travis’ red truck, the same one he’d seen outside Harry’s. They parked five houses down, taking in the sight of neighbors who were out talking.

  Hurrying toward the house, they drew the attention of neighbors. One glance at Garcia’s uniform and weapons at the ready and curious onlookers were quick to get inside. Upon reaching the house, Liam glanced in the back of the red truck. He lifted a blue tarp. Beneath it was a shovel, and some paracord.

  Garcia sidled up to a window and peered through. He shook his head. No movement. Elisha stayed with Garcia at the front, while Liam went around back and tried the rear door. It opened. He cocked his head and listened before entering.

  No sound.

  Inside the kitchen nothing was out of the ordinary.

  Boxes of cereal on the table, unwashed dishes, but no garbage. That was just like Travis’ mother.

  In many ways they’d bonded not just because of their grandfathers but because Travis came from a divorced family much like him.

  Where was his mother?

  He kept moving down the hallway, rifle at the ready, clearing each of the lower rooms before opening the front door and letting Garcia inside. Liam pressed his back to the wall and ventured up the stairs while Garcia did another sweep of the main floor.

  It was a two-bedroom, one room for him, the other for his mother.

  As Liam stepped into his bedroom he noticed something odd.

  It looked identical to when they were kids. “What the heck?”

  Posters on the wall from bands they used to like, a bass guitar in one corner of the room, magazines from years gone by in a pile on the side table.

  “Liam!” Garcia yelled.

  He hurried out of the room to the top of the stairs.

  “What is it?” Garcia’s head dipped. “Garcia, what is it?” he asked again in a firmer tone as he came down the stairs. Garcia put a hand to his chest as he looked to where Elisha was standing. The doorway to the attached garage was open. Liam shrugged Garcia off and made a beeline for the door. As he stepped inside the darkened room, he expected to see Travis’ mother but instead he stumbled back, hand gripping a wooden railing.

  Hanging from the rafters was Travis.

  Below his dangling feet, a suicide note.

  20

  Four black sedans with dark-tinted windows prowled the streets of Willits that morning. While Ramiro was searching for any sign of Garcia, he knew the odds of finding him were slim. His thoughts returned to that interaction on the highway. Was that Leo? They were too far away to tell who the occupants were and he was in no mood to go on a high-speed pursuit all over the county only to come up empty-handed, so he’d called it off.

  If only that worm of a mayor hadn’t escaped.

  They pulled into a large parking lot outside a grocery store and waited.

  Unlike Petaluma, Willits looked as if it had breezed through the heart of the bombings. The stores weren’t open and shutters were down on most.

  “So what’s the plan?” Diego, one of his men asked while gazing out.

  “We separate, search every street. If we see anyone, and I mean anyone. Grab them. Ask them what they’ve seen, who they’ve seen. He has to be around here somewhere.”

  “But that could take forever?”

  Ramiro scowled at him. Diego gave a nod and got out and went to each of the three vehicles and told the others. The sedans rolled out and Diego returned, sighing as he got into the driver’s side.

  “Do you think he would come here?” Diego asked. “Leo, I mean.”

  “Would you?”

  “No, I would get as far away from California as possible.”

  He nodded. He had no way of knowing if Leo would return to L.A. but it was doubtful. It would be like signing his death sentence. “Alvaro will deal with him later. Right now, we handle Garcia then head back.”

  Diego nodded, took a blunt and lit it.

  Smoke filled the inside.

  Ramiro growled. “Open the damn window.”

  He brought it down and a gust of fresh warm air blew in.

  “You know, Ramiro. Don’t you find this a little strange? The nation is at its breaking point and we’re here risking our asses while Alvaro isn’t.”

  Ramiro cast him a glance. “You been listening to Leo?”

  He shrugged and blew smoke out the corner of his mouth. “I’m just asking.”

  “No, you’re repeating what he said like a damn parrot.”

  “I just think that…”

  “Don’t! I think, you listen. Okay, homie?”

  He frowned and looked away.

  Ramiro balled his fists. He had to keep them in check as Leo had already got into these guys’ heads.

  Call it mutiny, testing him, whatever, there wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t have one of them push their luck. Of course he didn’t fault them for it. He would have done the same in their shoes.

  There was silence for what felt like an hour as they waited. A few times Diego and the others got out and approached a few people on the street. There weren’t many. Anyone with a lick of sense had holed up in their home or left in search of safer communities. Two hours in, the group of sedans reappeared, swerving in front of Ramiro’s vehicle. Juan got out of one and opened the rear door, yanking out a shaggy-haired guy. He shoved him forward, the gun jammed into his back. The guy looked petrified; all the color drained from his skin.

  Ramiro brought his window down.

  “Says he knows.” Juan gave him a shove. “Tell him what you told me.”

  The kid hunched up his shoulders, his eyes darting between them, the same nervous look their victims got before they assaulted or shot them. “Garcia. He’s at a cabin north of here. It belongs to a friend of mine.”

  “Yeah? Describe him.”

  The kid went on to describe Garcia, and s
ome of the others. He told them there were four staying at a cabin, three guys and a female.

  “Good. Get in the back. You can take us there.”

  “But I…” He stopped talking when they gave him a hard stare. He squeezed in beside the other two guys. The door slammed shut and they rolled out.

  “What’s your name, kid?”

  The shaggy-haired guy leaned forward. “Tate.”

  Along the way, the kid filled him in on his association with some guy named Liam.

  “So why’s Garcia here?”

  “Something to do with the girl. Dating her mother or something like that.”

  Ramiro brought a hand up to his chin. “Huh. What’s her name?”

  “No idea.”

  “She live around here?”

  “Nope.”

  Ramiro looked out, his eyes washing over some of the buildings that were in ruins. Black smoke spiraled up drifting across the road. “Look, I have no problem with you guys. My friends and I are already in enough shit as it is.”

  Ramiro ignored him. He had every intention of killing him, especially once he led them to Garcia, but after losing the mayor, he wouldn’t let this guy out of his sight until then.

  “Just sit back and enjoy the ride.”

  The road wound around going deeper into a heavily wooded area. Through the trees, he could see a lake coming into view. It wasn’t the first time Alvaro had sent him to drag someone back and it wouldn’t be the last. He glanced at Diego out of the corner of his eye. What these young guys didn’t understand was that an event like this provided an unparalleled opportunity. There was no telling how many casualties there were. There had never been a time in history when they could take what they wanted without fear of repercussion. It would take years for America to bounce back.

  Andre was installing the last of the burglar bars on the windows when he heard gravel crunch beneath tires. He couldn’t have finished at a better time. At first he figured it was Garcia returning. Had he not turned at that exact moment he might not have made it inside.