by Connor Mccoy
Domino’s latest report made things worse. If the sun did come up with those men out there, their options were few. Jacob could gamble that they were friendly and meant no harm, but if they were not, then their best option was to flee the truck before they were noticed.
“They have to take a break after a while,” Jacob said out of frustration, “Doms, did it ever look like they stopped doing whatever the hell it is that they’re up to?”
“I don’t know. I just keep seeing people move around out there, but I’ll be damned if I can tell if they’ve stopped to take a leak or what,” she replied.
Jacob never had wished in his life for the sun to stay down. Yet, as the light continued to intensify beyond the window, he cursed at it.
“I haven’t heard anything for the past maybe, oh, twenty minutes,” Domino said, “Maybe they finally left. If they’ve been working all night, I mean, geez. They probably need to catch forty winks by now.”
“Maybe.” Domino was right. The chatter and clatter beyond the truck finally had subsided, plus Domino had not spotted any further movement. Jacob looked carefully from his end in case they had circled around his truck. Nothing. They appeared to be in the clear.
I don’t trust it for one minute. Jacob itched to find out, even if it put him in danger.
“I’m going out there.” He shifted back to Domino. “There’s no way we can tell if we’re really alone. They could be camping out on the other side of the road and we wouldn’t be able to tell. It’s better if I do some recon, check it out by myself.”
Domino’s lower jaw tightened. She didn’t like the idea, but she understood the wisdom of Jacob’s move. One person out there would have less of a chance of getting spotted than two.
“I’ll keep an eye out for you,” she said.
Jacob smiled weakly. “With you watching my back, I feel more confident.” He leaned over and gave her a kiss. “I won’t be long.” He glanced at his two children. They had dropped off to sleep, their cards strewn on the floor or in their hands. He wouldn’t wake them up. Better to get this over with as quickly as possible. Besides, if they slept through his little scouting mission, all the better. One less thing for them to worry about.
With the door inched open enough for him to slip through, Jacob slid off the seat and onto the grass. He plopped down so hard and fast that it shocked him. He expected to catch himself. Of course, he had been sitting on that seat almost all night. His glutes and legs were stiff from the extended inactivity.
Great. I have to move like a ninja, but I’m stuck with a sore ass.
He looked up, catching Domino, who had scooted across her seat and was reaching for the door handle. He gave her a thumbs-up. She smiled back before gently closing the door.
He ascended into a crouching position, keeping his body pressed against the truck. He crept to the hood. Slowly, he looked out to the road.
So far, the coast was clear. The scene was just like yesterday, a bunch of stalled vehicles off the side of State Road 215. A soft, almost comforting wind blew through Jacob’s hair. The sun had risen to what Jacob figured to be civil dawn. There was plenty of light to see what was going on, but also for anybody nearby to spot him if he wasn’t careful.
A dark red car was within easy running distance. Perhaps four seconds. Jacob stretched his legs before he gave it a try.
Now!
Jacob dashed across the gap and dove for the ground once he made it around the vehicle. Now he was closer to the road and could view the surrounding vehicles more closely.
Some of the car and truck doors lay open. Whoever had come around here last night had broken in and searched them, so Domino’s suspicions were confirmed.
Jacob panned the area as much as he could, still detecting no movement. He was beginning to feel comfortable that the scavengers had indeed left, but he refused to take chances. He checked the nearby vehicles, but carefully and without sudden movements.
Jacob found similar patterns—the floor mats were yanked out and tossed away, trunks and glove compartments opened, and seats pulled up or pushed back. Nothing was spared.
How the hell did they miss my truck?
As Jacob approached the edge of the road, he found his answer. There were many more vehicles littered on the other side. The group of scavengers must have concentrated their efforts over there.
He checked both sides of the road. Again, not a soul to be found. Jacob finally relaxed, confident that the scavengers had left. He ran across the road and checked around.
The same story greeted him, just a bunch of ransacked vehicles. However, the scent of gasoline gripped Jacob’s nostrils. He would smell the fumes in close proximity to the vehicles.
He checked the gas tanks. Although every one of them was shut, they all had gas trickling down the side of the vehicle.
Jacob returned to the road, where he spotted faded drops on the asphalt. He leaned down and inhaled. Definitely gasoline.
“These guys were draining the cars,” he whispered. What did that mean? Wouldn’t scavengers be more interested in finding food or medicine, anything to sustain their immediate needs? These men went through a lot of trouble to drain these vehicles. This smelled like a sophisticated operation, not something borne of desperation.
Gas was definitely more valuable now that it no longer could be widely distributed across the country. Anyone who had a working vehicle or a generator would be almost like a king. Perhaps these men knew someone like that. Someone might have rounded up these guys to take on the task of finding gas wherever they could.
Jacob diverted his attention to the ground. Between the crunched grass and prints in the mud patches, he could discern a trail. It led back to the road, headed west. Jacob felt unnerved a bit, as it happened to be going in the direction of his home.
He didn’t get a chance to check any further. A familiar sound pricked his ears, one that he did not imagine he would hear again.
It was the sound of an approaching vehicle.
Jacob turned his head back to the state road. A truck was approaching in the distance. With each second it grew larger and larger. It appeared to be a commercial truck.
Jacob’s heart quickened. Who could this be? Was it the government?
He tried to squelch the hope that their country had rallied from the EMP so quickly. The odds were greater that this was a lone wolf, somebody who had managed to shield their vehicle from the electromagnetic pulse, rebuild it, or perhaps the vehicle did not have electronic components to fry in the first place.
Whoever it was, Jacob didn’t want the driver to spot him. Better to hide and observe the vehicle as it passed.
Jacob fled back down the slope toward his truck, flinging himself onto the grass behind a stalled car. From there, he could watch through the car windows as the truck passed.
He did not have to wait long. The truck zipped by, not stopping or slowing down as it passed the stalled vehicles. Jacob took in the truck’s details. Its design was pretty basic, a multi-seat cab with a modestly-sized cargo body in the back.
However, the truck’s logo immediately seized Jacob’s attention. It included the company name: Corbin Transportation Lines.
“Hey,” Jacob whispered as the sound of the truck faded in the distance. “Doms said the truck that bailed out Cowell had that name on it.” Was that the same truck? It almost had to be. The EMP would have left few vehicles operational.
Suddenly, the mystery of the scavenging operation seemed much less mysterious. Jacob had an idea of who these men might be working for.
Once he no longer heard the truck, he scrambled back to his vehicle. He approached the passenger side where his wife sat. Spotting the small gap in the concealing cloth where Domino was looking out, he gave her a thumbs-up.
She opened up the door and jumped out. “Thank God. I was on pins and needles for a while,” she said, a little breathlessly. “And that truck! I heard it, but I didn’t get a good look at it.”
Jacob nodded. “Yeah.
The men who raided this area are gone for the moment, but we’d better move. God knows if those men are coming back. And the truck…” Jacob stopped to catch his breath. “I saw it. But I don’t think you’re going to like what I have to tell you.”
Chapter Four
Jacob waited to see how Domino would react. Would she spit out a string of angry swear words? Or would she show apprehension, perhaps display nervousness that the same truck that ferried Cowell away from Doc Sam’s house had returned to their neck of the woods?
Jacob banked on perhaps a mild show of anger. Instead, she nodded, her brow deepened a little, but otherwise she remained calm and said, “Okay.”
Jubilee’s mouth hung open a little while Brandon stared at his mom, perhaps wondering if she would explode at hearing his father’s news. Finally, Jacob’s patience broke, and he said, “You’re taking this a little better than I thought.”
Domino started walking toward the bed of the truck. “Why should we be worried? It’s not like Cowell was in that truck. He was going to the town of Fall Crossing when he fled Sam’s. He’s probably found a new life there with his sister. So, why would we ever see him again?”
“But why would…” Jubilee scratched her head. “Who was that guy who owned those trucks?”
“Jimmy Sykes,” Jacob replied.
“Yeah, do you think he’s coming back?” Jubilee asked.
As Domino pulled down the tailgate and undid the covering over the truck bed, Jacob replied, “Sykes was doing business in Trapp. So, I’m guessing he might be going back there.”
Now Domino swore. “Shit,” she whispered as she pulled the gas can out of the truck bed and put it on the grass.
Jacob sympathized with her. Neither of them liked the idea of Sykes returning to Trapp. The man was a thief. He had facilitated the Cowell’s getaway with the stolen gas, which made him no less guilty. And, of course, Sykes’s men had shot at Domino as she tried to stop Cowell. One well-aimed bullet could have put Domino in her grave.
There was no doubt that Sykes was dangerous. Hopefully, they wouldn’t cross paths with him again.
“Mom?” Jubilee asked, “Are we going to bring all of that with us? Doesn’t Dad want us to travel light so we can get home as fast as we can?”
The truck bed contained all the supplies they had unpacked the day before. They quickly had stocked it all in the bed and then covered it with a tarp so it could not be seen by interlopers. But Domino had been unpacking it for the past few minutes.
“Actually, your mom read my mind,” Jacob said as he helped her tug a sack off the open tailgate.
“We might not be in too much trouble if we take a more scenic route. We’ll stay away from the road this time and plot a course that should take us home by late tonight, or early tomorrow if we rest. Besides, this stuff might actually save our lives. If we run into a group of survivors, we could use this to barter.” He faced his children as he set the sack down. “I can’t say we won’t run into those men who were searching around here last night, so it’s good to have some bargaining chips.”
Brandon and Jubilee seemed to understand the logic. Still, Jacob wanted a little time alone with his wife. So, he asked of his children, “Hey, think you two could take over the unloading for a bit? I need some adult time with the missus.”
Brandon broke out in a wolfish smile. Jubilee, climbing up the tailgate, scowled. “He’s talking about emotional time, not…ugh!”
Jacob tried not to laugh as he walked away, holding Domino by her shoulder. His wife did not walk very fast, seeming to resist him.
“I’m okay, Jay,” she said.
“You sure?” Jacob asked quietly, not wanting his voice to travel too far. “If there’s anything you want to talk about, anything at all…”
“It is what it is, Jay!” Domino broke from his hold. “Yeah, I’m pissed at Cowell and Sykes. Thinking about those two makes my blood boil.” She lowered her head. “And I’m a little worried about what those two might be up to. Cowell never exactly thought much of us and how we raised our family. What if he’s turned back into what he was?”
“What do you mean?” Jacob asked.” Turned back into what?”
“He was…” Domino shook her right fist. “You know, cooperative, a little understanding of what was going on. He knew he couldn’t go back to his old life. But that’s partly why he bailed on us. But what if Sykes has given him power, you know, like Doctor Nguyen’s brother? Maybe guns or people to control? Jay, this world is bringing out the worst in a lot of people. You don’t think it could have happened to Cowell too?”
“You’re worried that Cowell, if he ran into us, might be a threat?” Jacob checked over Domino’s shoulder to make sure their children still were working and did not appear to be listening in.
“I know it’s over the top. Cowell wasn’t prepared for all this, and odds are he’s hunkering down in Fall Crossing.” Domino massaged her shoulders. “But it’s hard not to think of the worst.”
“It’s okay. It’s actually a good idea to keep those parades of horribles in mind.” Jacob smiled a little to ease his wife’s concerns. “I don’t think we’ll be butting heads with Cowell again, but you never know. I think the best thing to do is to get home in one piece and plan for the future. If Cowell returns, we’ll deal with him. Same with Sykes.”
Domino smiled along with him. “You’re right.”
Jacob slammed shut his truck’s driver side door for what he figured was the last time. The truck had been stripped of just about all the supplies, plus their insurance documents and anything else that could link back to their home. With the recent appearance of the Corbin Transportation Lines truck, Jacob felt increasingly glad that they had removed their personal information from the vehicle.
With his pack on his back, Jacob hiked toward his family. They began gathering their packs as soon as he approached. Each of them had been assigned a portion of the truck’s supplies.
“You know what would be great?” Brandon asked as he picked up a bag of supplies. “After we go, all these cars and trucks could turn into Transformers and fly away. They just used the EMP as cover so they could go back to their home planet of Cybertron.”
Looking at the field of scattered, motionless automobiles, Jacob thought Brandon’s reference to the Transformers franchise almost sounded plausible. It did seem a little absurd that their modern tech simply could be shut off at the drop of a hat. Who was to say their cars and trucks weren’t actually alien robots?
Jacob chuckled. Maybe life isn’t going to be that fantastic. His son had the luxury of fanciful daydreams. As the father, he had to keep his mind on the world as it was. He turned to lead his family back into the wilderness, away from the road and the vehicles.
Even so, Jacob indulged in a short daydream of his truck, now all alone in the grass, suddenly morphing from a four-wheel pickup into a tall, humanoid robot. The machine saluted the Averys as they marched off into the forest.
Jacob glanced at the sky again. That last bundle of clouds still was moving off. His fears of rain dwindled. They should have a full day’s journey, uninterrupted by nature.
Well, at least nature as far as the air was concerned. Jubilee had to use the bathroom, but out in this wilderness no toilets were available. Fortunately, they already were approaching a cluster of trees, so it was simple for Jubilee to disappear behind them to do her business.
Doms was able to teach her that. Jacob smiled at his wife, who was chatting with Jubilee as they left the trees. Domino imparted the sensitive lessons to Jubilee about the outdoors that only a woman could teach a young girl.
We’ve held it together so far. It’s truly amazing.
His thoughts, however, drifted to a member of his family who wasn’t there. His father had disappeared into the streets years ago, and his mother had passed away. He never knew of any cousins, aunts or uncles he might have had, as his father never mentioned any siblings and his mother was an only child. So, his family actually felt
complete, except for one person.
His older sister Sheryl lived in the city of Chantilly, which was in the orbit of Virginia’s D.C. metro area. After Jubilee was hit with that arrow, Jacob decided to take her to the hospital where his sister worked. It was the first place he could think of, and his truck would have made it there with no problem. He certainly didn’t anticipate being stranded between his home and his sister and the ensuing adventure to follow.
His throat tightened. Sheryl was caught up in whatever madness had erupted in her home area. There were hundreds of thousands of people just in her immediate vicinity who likely didn’t know what had happened. And when it became clear that help wasn’t coming—if it wasn’t obvious already—they would go mad, looking for food and supplies to sustain themselves.
I gave you that warning, Sheryl. If you see everything going to hell, get out of there.
“Jay!” Domino called, “Look!”
Domino’s voice pulled Jacob out of his thoughts. His wife was pointing to a deer off in the distance. The animal just now was raising his head from the grass and didn’t appear to notice them. She and the children had slowed to a near stop to observe the creature.
Jacob joined his family. The four of them took time out to watch the deer. It helped to calm Jacob’s anxiety and put him back in the here and now, though he noted, with some sadness, that he might not see his sister again.
Jacob could not be happier that the whole day had gone without incident. Their journey through the wilderness had yielded only a few opportunities to observe nature, gazing at small silvery fish in a stream, looking at a random deer, or finding a beaver’s dam on a small river. The only hazard thus far was avoiding random animal excrement.
However, the angle of the sun started to dip. Jacob knew they would not make it home before the sun set, though they were closing in. Jacob decided to make camp rather than trek through the night. Their spirits were high, but their bodies still were exhausted. They had been walking for hours since they had stopped for lunch.
