by Schow, Ryan
“I’m thinking we can find someplace to squat, snooze this night through, then get cracking when we can see again. But only after we gas up. Because if we don’t do that—”
“I know,” Quan interrupted.
Dead cars were everywhere, making their progress cumbersome. Even worse, with the headlights on, they were a target, extremely vulnerable. Steve was sweating again, even though the outside layer of Quan’s skin was cool to the touch.
Ahead, there was a dying fire in the middle of the highway, sleeping bags circled around it. Farther back, there was a smattering of tents. As they passed by, a few heads rose off bundled up shirts or pillows. Some guy was peeing in the middle of the street, but he posed less of a threat than anyone else they saw.
When they finally reached downtown, Steve said, “I feel like if I don’t get us off this street, it’s gonna be our coffin.”
“Turn there,” Quan said, pointing to a side street with what looked like lofts and more cars. “Let’s tuck this beast in for the night.”
Steve checked the gas gauge again, squinting at the extra dim lights. He hit the console a few times, then relaxed as the lights brightened and he was able to get a proper reading.
“How are we doing?” Quan asked.
“Near empty,” Steve said, shaking his head in dismay. “Eighth of a tank it looks like.”
From the back of the transport, a head popped into the cabin. Gang’s head. He said, “Are you guys feeling this? Because this is pretty creepy.”
“We are,” Quan said.
“The guys are getting restless,” he said.
“I’m officially calling it,” Quan said. “We’re looking for a place to squat now.”
“About time,” Gang muttered, sitting back down.
Ahead, as they made their way through downtown Portland, they searched for shelter, desperately needing a place to lay down, close their eyes and recharge their batteries. But Quan knew the night was a patient thief. One misstep and they could lose everything.
Block after block, the streets remained eerily silent, as if monsters in the shadows and corners stood anxious to pounce. The nervous energy infected them all. Finally Steve pulled over and said, “These look like lofts.”
Quan looked around, his eyes falling on an impenetrable clot of vehicles ahead. Pointing to them, he said, “Let’s get hoses in those gas tanks, see what we can scrounge up before we go for some shut-eye.”
“How much do we need?” Lok asked from deeper inside the truck.
“Nearly a full tank,” Steve replied.
Even though Tong warned him to switch vehicles, the task seemed impossible given the EMP and the pitch black night. Quan just wanted to push through and pray for the best. In back of the transport, the team pulled on their gear then kicked open the door and set out onto the streets looking for gas and shelter.
The shooting started almost immediately.
Chapter Four
Logan lifted Noah’s body over his shoulder and carried him up the street. Ryker picked up Connor and kept an even pace. Behind them, Orbey and Harper walked with Ryker. Stephani kept pace as well, her eyes wet and red. Orbey slowed down, took Stephani’s hand. Within moments, Logan heard them crying together. Logan looked down and saw Cooper trotting beside Ryker, his spirits low, a soft whimpering coming from the German Shepherd’s throat.
Harper caught up with Logan and said, “Are you okay?”
He nodded, his own eyes shimmering.
Skylar joined them for a moment, saw Connor and looked away. She said, “I’ll grab Otto,” in the saddest voice Logan had ever heard. Logan and Ryker managed to carry the bodies of their friends to the Jeep. Orbey didn’t want them taken to the cemetery with the others.
“A mass burial, or burning, just seems so impersonal,” she said. “Besides, Connor would want to be buried at home. He loved it there.”
Boone met up with them and said, “Where’s Skylar?” He had superficial wounds all over his face and body, his skin smudged with smoke and a bit of dirt. Like the rest of them, he paid his wounds no mind. After what they attempted with the SAA, they were lucky to even be alive.
“She went for Otto,” Harper said. She turned and pointed to the west side of the highway and said, “She’s probably a quarter mile back, I think.”
Boone took off at a trot. First his wife, then his best friend. Logan couldn’t begin to imagine what he was feeling in that moment. Then again, they were all feeling it. The losses this tight-knit community sustained had indeed left Logan shaken, and even though these were not his people, in a way, they were. They’d welcomed him into their town, fought side-by-side with him, bled with him. It was a ludicrous plan they’d fashioned, trying to take down the SAA, for it was a plan that left much of the townspeople dead. Then again, there was not one contemptuous look in their eyes. Not for him, not for Skylar, not for any of them who said they’d rather die fighting than eat a bullet on their knees.
Speaking of bleeding, Logan had been shot. Ryker, too. At first, when he bunked down at the bug out location, he thought it would be a problem, but the injury wasn’t as bad as he feared. The bullet had gone clean through. Now walking with yet another body on his shoulder, he knew he would need medical attention. And if Dr. Quinn was still alive, he was reasonably sure Ryker would need her, too.
He glanced over at Ryker, saw blood and damage all over the man. Ryker stared straight ahead, showing little signs of wear, even though they were all exhausted. He swallowed his pain, forced himself to dig in for his friend, for Noah.
When they got to the Jeep, he and Ryker set the bodies inside the vehicle, then plopped down in the dirt and tried to slow their breathing, and the rapid beating of their overburdened hearts. There was no joy in this. Only sorrow.
Logan looked up, saw Longwei working with the others and wondered if he’d just arrived, or if he’d fought in the battle with them. It was so hard to know when all hell broke loose. They were still tallying the dead. Looking away, back down the interstate, he tried to stomach the fact that so many of the deceased were familiar to him.
As he stood and trudged back down the interstate to collect more bodies, Logan wondered what was next. Would Orbey want to stay and rebuild, or would she opt to abandon the ruined property and dedicate her life to the war? He knew how he’d answer that question, but he wasn’t sure how she would feel. Or how everyone else would feel for that matter. If he had to hazard a guess, he figured the good people of Five Falls had just about had enough. But not him. Never. When he expressed his desire to lay waste to the Chicom and SAA plague, he wasn’t joking. Even now, sifting through the battlefield remains and smelling the ghostly traces of blood and smoke in the air, he knew the only satisfaction he’d ever glean from this life would come from stomping on the necks of the vermin who caused this.
Circling his arm slowly, trying not to wince, he beat back the stiffness and the pain. It wasn’t easy, but he couldn’t rest just yet. Pulling back his bloody shirt, he appraised the small, seeping hole. He touched it, blanched, then covered it again. Last night, when Harper asked if he was hit, he lied and told her it wasn’t his blood. He had no intention of worrying her. The battle was over, but the war would carry on. He knew this, which was why he wasn’t up for pampering.
“What a nightmare,” Harper said, joining him as he hoisted another dead body over his shoulder.
“Tell me about it,” he grumbled.
The weightlessness of the woman he was carrying hit him harder than he thought. He didn’t know who she was, only that she was light, so light. Why had she given her life for this? Why didn’t she stay at home and let the others fight? Because that’s who she was, Logan thought. Looking around, he realized this was how all of them were.
“I feel so bad for Orbey and Stephani,” she said, her words leaden.
He gazed longingly at her bottle of water. She gave him a sip before moving out of the way. He drank as best as he could while balancing the body, then handed the
bottle back.
“It’s heartbreaking watching them try to process all this,” she said.
“What about you?” he asked, moving past her.
“What about me?” she asked.
“You know.”
“Are you asking how I’m feeling, or what do I want to do next.”
“I want to know what you want to do next,” he said.
“I’m doing whatever you’re doing,” she said, keeping up. “I’m assuming you’re still hungry for payback, yes?”
“You’re damn right I am.”
Ryker fell in with a body of his own. This one was SAA. Ryker would dump him in the trench, along with the other dead invaders. Before leaving, the townspeople would douse the SAA in gasoline and light them on fire. Once the SAA bodies burned down, they’d toss more of them on the fire, doing so until the trench was but a nameless, faceless ash heap. There would be no words spoken and no prayers for the dead, and no one would ever visit this mass grave again but to spit on them and perhaps curse them for all the lives they’d ruined. To Logan, it felt like a fitting end.
Logan glanced over at Ryker once more. The man was staring straight ahead, seemingly untouched by the violence, the wholesale destruction. Ryker dropped the body at the trench. This was once a human being, but for all rights and purposes, these SAA pigs might as well be bags of garbage being tossed into a landfill. Logan moved on to the flatbed where he gently laid the woman he’d carried down with the other townspeople.
“I want to take them home now,” Orbey said, catching him off guard.
“Don’t you want to watch the SAA burn?” Logan asked. She shook her head, no. “But there are still more bodies to collect.”
“Perhaps you could drop me off, then come down and finish.”
“Let us take care of this,” Longwei said, dropping off a body of his own. “My guys can carry your load. Just go home, be with your friends and family.”
Logan thanked the man, then collected the others. Ryker, Harper and Skylar piled into one Jeep with Otto while Orbey, Stephani and Cooper got into the Jeep with Connor and Noah. Cooper sat beside Connor’s body, guarding it. He looked at the body and whined again, nudging the man but getting no response.
“I know, Baby,” Orbey said with tears in her eyes.
Stephani started to cry again.
Logan got in the Jeep and fired it up, but not before Boone caught up with him. To Logan, he said, “Where are you taking Otto?”
He hadn’t thought about how Boone would feel until that moment. How did he miss this? They were best friends! Now the man just stared at him, waiting for an answer.
“I was heading up to the Madigan’s property,” Logan replied. “That’s where we’re going to bury the others.”
Boone seemed oblivious to the dried blood spatter on his face or the long rust colored streaks on his hands and arms. Was that his blood, or someone else’s blood? Looking down at himself, Logan wondered the same thing. The answer came quick: some of it was other people’s blood, but most of it was his.
“What about Noah?” Boone asked.
“Him, too.”
Boone nodded, thinking it over.
“Are you okay with that?” Logan asked.
After a moment’s consideration, Boone said, “Can you take him to his house? I can bury him there.”
“Would he really want to be alone?” Harper asked.
Boone’s eyes fogged out for a spell. Finally he shook his head and his eyes cleared. “Just don’t bury him next to Noah.” He tried to fix his hair, then wiped his mouth and said, “But I want to be there when you bury him. Actually, I’d like to help.”
“Do you need a ride?” Skylar asked.
He shook his head and said, “I’ll grab the quad and meet you up there a little later.”
Satisfied, Logan put the Jeep in gear and said, “We’re going to start digging soon, so don’t wait too long.”
Nodding, he slapped the side of the Jeep and stepped back. The two Jeeps took off, Stephani giving Boone a half-wave as she drove past.
When they reached the Madigan property, Logan drove around the skeletal remains of the Chicoms and the vehicles left over from their first attack, heading straight for the hillside entrance. Normally they’d park on the street and walk in, but with the bodies in back, Logan opted to drive them all the way in.
“Hold him, please,” Logan said.
Ryker secured Otto, then Logan put the Jeep in first gear and crawled up the tire-tracked dirt driveway, careful not to rock everyone too badly. Stephani did the same thing behind them, following Logan up the hillside and on to the property.
When he crested the hill and saw the destruction leveled upon the property, Logan’s chest grew tight, his lungs compressed. Heat gathered in his cheeks as he looked around, breathless. Harper gasped at the sight of it. Glancing into the rearview mirror, he saw Skylar absorbing it all in utter silence. Her narrowed eyes and flicking jaw betrayed her. Ryker was looking at her, worried.
The house was destroyed, only the front quarter of it and the porch was still standing. The back end was charred, collapsed and still smoking.
“Those animals,” Skylar hissed.
The night before, at the bug out location, Orbey said the helicopter hit it in a rocket attack, but he didn’t know what to expect.
“What about the barn?” Ryker asked.
They traversed the hillside, drove past Stephani’s hives, then parked in front of the barn. There was a hole in the roof, and half the back corner of the barn looked like it had collapsed, or was caving in.
Harper got out, her eyes first on the garden—which looked to be untouched—and then on the rainwater catch system. The roof system itself was damaged, but after Harper looked around, she said the tank was untouched.
“How much water do we have?” Skylar asked.
“Two hundred gallons, give or take,” Harper said. “Where’s Stephani and Orbey?”
Logan said, “If I know Stephani, she’s back with the bees.” Right then he saw Orbey and Cooper walking up the hillside. Cooper broke into a run, heading straight for Harper. She bent to her knees and caught him in a hug, the dog licking her face and causing her to laugh, which Logan found nearly impossible with everything they’d just suffered and were currently suffering.
Ryker walked into the partially collapsed barn and was in there for only a moment or two before walking out with a bundle of shovels in hand.
“You ready?” he asked.
“Good God, Ryker, can’t you just take a minute?” Logan snapped. Ryker just stared at him, holding the shovels as if to say, what now? “Let me at least take a look inside the barn.”
Ryker opened his arms, let the shovels fall to the ground and just looked at him some more.
“While you’re just standing there,” Logan said, “why don’t you think about the fact that this was our home, Stephani’s home, Orbey’s and Connor’s home.”
“That’s not lost on me,” Ryker said.
“Maybe you could try and act like it,” Logan growled, heading into the barn.
The smell of smoke was heavy, the back end of the structure blackened by a small fire that must have started but burned itself out. His eyes walked the roofline, saw the hole blown through the rafters, then followed the trajectory of the hit down to the heart of the destruction. Harper was suddenly there, her arm wrapped around his waist, her body pressed into his from behind. He warmed to her touch, her tenderness grounding him to a different reality. Turning into her, she hugged him tight and said, “What if we just rebuild this?”
“We can if you want,” he said, grumpy, his words hollow. His mind was not on rebuilding as much as it was on retribution.
“I can hear it in your voice,” she said, sad. He pulled back, then turned around and looked at her. “Do you really want to chase these idiots down?”
“And kill them?”
“Yes.”
“They will never stop,” he said.
&nbs
p; “I used to think like you and Skylar, that we need to burn their armies to the ground,” she said. “That was my whole life. My every dedication. But Logan, they ran through us like we were nothing!” Something passed through her eyes and she looked lost. When Logan didn’t respond, she said, “You realize the town is building a funeral pyre for the fallen heroes of Five Falls, right?”
“I’d heard as much.”
“All these people we’re going to have to burn tonight…what if that’s you we burn next, Logan? What if the bodies on the funeral pyre are ours next?”
“Then they are,” he said, gently but sincere.
She stood back from him, as if she thought she recognized him, but really didn’t. It was as if he were someone else, a new spirit in a familiar body. The frenzy building in her stopped and her eyes landed on his shirt where a large splotch of blood was mostly dried, but not all the way.
“That looks like your blood,” she said, pointing to his chest. “It is, isn’t it?”
He nodded his head, resolute.
Her eyes cleared once more, the weight of this thing taking a toll on her. She drew a breath, held his stare, then said, “I’m going to clean up, then help you guys dig the graves.”
“I’m going to help Ryker,” he said.
“We need to get you looked at,” she said, her voice faraway sounding.
“After,” he replied.
When they got down to the hillside where Orbey said she wanted the men buried, Logan picked up a shovel and started digging. The pain in his chest from where he’d been shot was murderous, but he refused to let it show. Looking over, watching Ryker at work, he knew the man had been shot as well. If he was injured, rather than hurt, Logan assumed he’d stop what he was doing and get himself looked at. But he didn’t stop, so neither would Logan.
A little while later, Orbey went and picked them some fresh vegetables. As she came down the hillside, they saw Cooper walking beside her, almost like he didn’t want to leave her side.
“Thank you, Orbey,” Logan said, taking the red bell pepper she handed him. She couldn’t look into his eyes and he didn’t blame her.
