by Phil Maxey
“Maybe the dog’s dead or gone, but be ready in case,” said Zach in a hushed voice, “I say we take the blue pickup, looks the newest here anyway.” He gestured towards a nineties looking pickup, with white writing on the windshield.
“1 PREVIOUS OWNER $3500”.
Fiona stared at the vehicle. “I used to drive my husband’s.”
“You were married?”
“You don’t have to sound so shocked, it was a long time ago.”
“You okay getting the keys? I’ll check its gas and see if any of these other rust buckets have any we can siphon.”
Fiona nodded and moved off swiftly towards the office. Zach picked up a piece of wire he had spotted laying on the ground, pulled the gas cap off, then fed the wire into the hole until he hit resistance then pulled it back out. Quarter of a tank, not too bad. He looked over towards Fiona and just caught her going inside the office. He then moved onto the next vehicle and did the wire dip again, this time half a tank. He just needed some tubing, but looking around the car lot couldn’t see any. The office seemed the best bet so he went inside. Fiona wasn’t to be seen, but he was immediately hit by the smell of death. The front office was small, and completely covered in wood veneer paneling. Hanging on the wall was a photo of a middle-aged man with a dog. If that was the aforementioned dog then there was never going to be anything to be scared of anyway.
“You in here?” Zach questioned to the open door behind the counter.
“Back here,” said Fiona. Behind the counter was a small back office, and another door which opened to what looked like a garage. A middle-aged man lay dead in a black leather chair, head blown backwards by a gun blast, and a piece of red speckled paper clenched in his hand. Fiona was just standing there.
“I found the keys.” She gestured to the rack of keys on the wall, which sat next to two adult themed calendars. Zach moved forward and grabbed the pickup’s keys, while looking at one of the calendars.
“We have more important things to do with our time,” said Fiona.
“Look at what’s written.”
They both leaned in for a closer look at the blue handwriting in the calendar’s boxes.
“August third, Date of evacuation.”, “August tenth, second attempt at evac.”, “August twenty-fourth, Communications stop.”.
They both stood there, trying to absorb what must have unfolded over the previous few months.
“I’m going to look in the garage, I need some tubing to siphon more gas, you okay?” said Zach.
“Yup.”
Zach moved off into the garage. Walls lined with various oil-covered tools sat on both sides of two car lifts, one which had a car raised a few feet in the air. The garage was surprisingly well stocked considering how remote they were and it didn’t take long for Zach to spot some tubing in a wooden box under a worktop. The car on the lift was a yellow 1970s sports coupe which had seen better days. They must have been working on it when they had to stop, leaving it doorless, and tireless.
Zach walked up to it and felt the paintwork, in a different life he had one similar and used to take his family on rides in it.
“Ready?” Fiona appeared in the garage doorway. Zach half smiled and looked around the garage again. He was sure there were many things here that might come in handy in the days ahead but most were heavy, and he didn’t have time to think about it. He did see a hand torch on the wall, which seemed to be fully working and a small pack of tools in a pouch, so he grabbed all of that along with the tubing and walked back out with Fiona. When passing the dead man in the chair he noticed the note he was holding was laying on the floor, letting Fiona walk on ahead he put some things down and picked up the note. Written across the middle of it in hardly legible writing was a message that chilled Zach to his bones.
“I WON’T BE EATEN—DALE.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Cal opened his eyes, after the first night for a long time of no dreams. His arm had gone dead a few times during the night, which woke him but each time he had no trouble returning to sleep. The sun shone through small gaps in the curtains like laser beams full of pixie dust. He lay there watching the particles dance, when he realized Michael was tugging on his foot. Cal looked up and saw him gesturing to the bathroom. He got to his feet and it was this moment he realized Zach and Jacob were not in the room and Ray and Abbey were still asleep. He looked into the bathroom and Fiona was gone too. Cal and Michael moved slowly into the bathroom, and closed the door.
“You onboard with this Boston thing? I got family in San Francisco,” said Michael, keeping his voice low. “They disowned me when I was convicted but still it’s family. Maybe I need go west instead.”
“We survived this long because we stuck together. We don’t even know if San Fran is still there, we don’t know anything, yet. Let’s go along for the ride we can always do our own thing when the time’s right,” said Cal.
“What do you think of our merry band of fellow inmates? That Zach guy seems to like to be in control.”
“I’m almost certain he’s an MP, or was. As long as he keeps making the right choices I’ll back his plays.”
The front door opened and someone was heard entering. Cal opened the bathroom door. Abbey yawned. Ray lifted his head and blinked a few times.
“Zach and the other lady have gone to get the truck,” said Jacob, wincing as he sat on the bed. “We went to check that the thing out back was properly dead. It is.”
“Any idea what it was?” said Cal.
“No good ideas. There are legends in these parts of giant birds, but I don’t think it’s that,” said Jacob.
“There’s more than just giant birds out here now, we have seen…” said Abbey.
“Harmadillo’s,” said Michael, appearing from behind Cal. Abbey stopped, and everyone apart from Jacob smiled and gave a stifled laugh.
“That’s what I’m calling that thing in the desert,” said Michael.
“It’s a lot scarier than it sounds,” said Abbey.
“I’m sure it is. We need to pack,” replied Jacob.
“We?” said Cal.
“Zach asked if I wanted to come along, I agreed. There are a few boxes of bottled water around here somewhere, along with that we are going to need all the food, clothes and candles as much as we can get into that truck along with ourselves. It might be a good idea for those of you who are still in your bright orange clothes to find something else in these boxes, we might come across law enforcement who, well, still want to enforce the law. It’s a discussion I would rather not have to have.”
Abbey and Ray set about changing their clothes while Cal and Michael piled boxes up on the landing outside the room, according to Jacobs’s instructions. After fifty or so minutes the truck pulled into the parking lot followed by a blue pickup. Zach got out of the truck wearing jeans, and a dark t-shirt, Fiona got out of the pickup also wearing jeans and a light gray jacket.
“Any trouble?” Cal shouted down to Zach, who shook his head.
“Five in the truck, two in the pickup,” Zach shouted up, while pointing to each vehicle in turn. “We can get a lot of those boxes in the truck as well, the rest will go in the back of the pickup.”
Cal nodded. After a short amount of time, the motel room was now its original size with all the supplies being packed between both vehicles. They all stood in the motel room around a large map that was laid out on the bed.
“If we are heading towards Boston, then we need to head northeast along highway seventy,” said Jacob.
“No,” replied Fiona.
“Why not?” replied Jacob.
“It takes us past that air force base.” Fiona pointed at the clearly marked base on the map. The original members of the group looked at each other.
“And why would that be a problem?” said Jacob.
“We could cut across to the 54, then onto the 506 and head towards Roswell,” replied Zach.
“There are birdman creatures, giant armored horses and who kn
ows what we saw before that and you want to go through Roswell?” said Ray. Most of the group went to laugh, then smile then it didn’t seem such a crazy question.
“We can detour around Roswell if we have too. We should get to Roswell or in that vicinity about midday, we don’t stop unless we see an easy way to top up the gas for the vehicles or we see more food or water supplies, agreed?” said Zach looking around the group, everyone nodded. “I’ll take the truck, Abbey, Ray, Jacob and Michael can be with me, Cal and Fiona in the pickup, I’ll let you decide who drives,” he said, looking at Cal and Fiona.
“I’ve driven these pickups for many years,” said Fiona still looking at the map.
“Okay then,” replied Cal and with that they all filed out of the motel room and into the vehicles. As the small convoy was leaving the town of Baldo, Fiona slammed on the brakes of the pickup, got out grabbed a bicycle, threw it in the back and jumped back in. Cal looked at her.
“Might come in handy,” she said, pulling out to catch up with the truck.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Abbey had never been on a road trip before and as the distant blue mountains, small desert bushes, and sand rolled by, she tried closing her eyes to imagine that’s what this was, but she couldn’t. She had pretended to sleep most of the night before and now was no different. She wasn’t sure who she could trust or not in this group but Zach was the closest to someone she thought she could. But who knew? What had he had done to be thrown into a hole in New Mexico? What about the rest of them? She had never killed anyone, but these people? Most of them were probably killers of some sort or another. They all seemed relatively sane, but then from her studies she knew psychopaths’ and sociopaths could fake sanity without anyone realizing their true intentions. She needed to be on her guard all the time, but for now with the others just a few feet behind her head, pretending to be sleeping seemed a good course of action.
Zach said they were lucky to find a truck that still had a CB radio, but even though it was turned on nothing could be heard on the other end, Zach would talk into it and static was the only response.
The truck’s cabin was spacious, and would have allowed plenty of room for three people if it wasn’t for the boxes fighting for the same space. They were piled up against the back and along one side, which meant someone had to sit on top of them, while on the left was just enough room for two people to sit more or less comfortably on the leather padded seats. Above their heads were various cupboards, which Ray was searching through.
“What you hoping to find?” said Jacob who was in the far left corner.
“A good book. It’s the one thing you didn’t deem important with all your hoarding,” replied Ray, opening and closing small wooden doors. “Ah!” A moment of delight was quickly followed by disappointment. “Of Mice and Men, seriously?”
“That’s a fine book,” said Jacob.
“It is, but I’ve read it, guess I can read it again.” Something caught his eye at the back of the small cupboard he’d just pulled the novel from. It was a small notebook, with a few handwritten scribbles but mostly empty. Next to it was a pen Ray put both in his back pocket.
After an hour they were onto the 506, a lot of which was more dirt road than a highway. Their pace slowed as Zach didn’t want to risk the truck getting stuck at any point. Eventually buildings appeared on the sides of the road, but none with any sign of life and Zach wasn’t stopping to find out.
A few times Abbey thought she saw puffs of smoke in the distance of similar shape and form to their night in the desert, when they came across the horse like creature, but she thought better not to mention them. Eventually they joined the 24, then finally back onto the main highway. If possible the landscape became even more barren and devoid of green, just miles and miles of sand and rocks.
“You could be forgiven thinking we were on another planet out here. It’s been two hours since I’ve seen a tree,” said Cal.
“Where were you before you ended up back there?” Fiona asked.
“I grew up in southern California, near San Diego.”
“When’d you sign up?” Cal thought about asking why all the questions, but this was the first chance to talk since they left and he needed it.
“Eighteen, straight outta college, it was either the Marines or football. My grandfather had taught me to fire a rifle and I always thought I was pretty good so Marines it was. You?”
“I got pregnant when I was seventeen, typical young trailer mom with the abusive husband, eventually I lost the kid and the husband.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“No, she’s still alive… I think. They just took her from me, husband blamed me for her ‘injuries’, no one believed it when I said he was the cause of it. After that I had nothing to live for so I joined the army. Turned out it was the right place for me.”
“Do you know what happened to her?”
“No idea.”
Cal went to say something else but thought better to change the subject. “So what do you think happened?”
“Out here in the world?”
“Yes.”
Fiona was silent for a few seconds. “Some scientist in some lab controlled by some government did something wrong, the usual.” She followed the truck onto the main road into Roswell.
To Zach’s right a shiny red looking semi-truck sat parked on the side of the road. Ahead of it a car was parked in the middle of the highway. Zach slowed then pushed it aside clearing the path for Fiona and Cal behind.
As they got closer to Roswell, green fields appeared on both sides. After so many miles of yellow and beige Abbey sighed with relief just to see some form of life even if it were of the plant variety. As they traveled on, trailer homes appeared along with junkyards and larger homes. After twenty minutes they arrived at a junction with a gas station on one of the corners. Zach pulled the truck onto the forecourt alongside the diesel pump. He looked around at Abbey then over his shoulder to the rest, they were all asleep. Zach jumped down from the truck, closing the door quietly. The pickup stopped along side.
“Can’t see there being any diesel in these pumps but I thought it was worth a try,” said Zach towards Fiona as she lowered her window.
“We’re going to look inside,” said Cal.
Zach was right, there was no diesel in the pump, but hoped there might be some canisters of fuel inside the station. He stood in front of the truck looking around, down the main street to the assortment of motel signs, and up to the sky. There was no sound, not even the wind to break the silence. The early afternoon sun meant you couldn’t be outside too long and Zach suddenly realized how thirsty he was. He entered the gas station shop, which was well lit by the sun. A few rows of shelves contained candy and other snacks, and some more useful items like batteries and rope. The interior looked pretty well ordered considering people must have left in a hurry. Along one of the walls was a rack of magazines and newspapers one of which Cal was reading.
“WORLDS ANIMAL LIFE CHANGING, SCIENTISTS BAFFLED, July 2nd.”
“I saw elsewhere that they tried an evacuation around the start of August, so whatever happened, happened quickly,” said Zach to Cal.
“Maybe everyone is holed up in camps somewhere,” replied Cal.
“Maybe, where’s Fiona?”
“In the john.”
“We should probably grab as much of this stuff as possible, along with shovels, put as much in the back of the pickup as we can,” said Zach.
The glass door behind him opened and Abbey came in. Zach looked over at the truck. Jacob and Ray stood outside of it, stretching their arms and backs. Abbey walked straight past Zach and in the direction of the bathroom.
As he was watching the truck, Michael leaned out of the window waving his arm. The others around leaped up on the running board. Zach’s first instinct was they were being attacked and looked up at the sky but nothing could be seen. Whatever they were doing it was getting them pretty excited. Zach ran outside and jumped up insid
e the truck’s driver seat.
“What’s the fuss?” he said, but instantly he saw the source of the commotion as Michael had the CB handset to his mouth.
“Say again, where are you?” said Michael.
“You have to say ‘Over’,” said Ray.
“Over,” said Michael.
“Michael was talking to himself on the CB radio when someone replied,” said Jacob to Zach. They all waited for a reply. Cal appeared from the gas station arms full of supplies and dumped them into the back of the pickup, then walked over to the truck.
“My names Michael, I’m in…”
“Don’t’ say where we are,” said Zach, interrupting Michael.
“Are you near Roswell? Over,” said Michael. Still only static.
“Are you sure you heard someone?” asked Ray.
“Yes, a guy’s voice said, ‘Stay off Main Street.’” They all stepped back from the truck and looked around, trying to ascertain what street they were on.
“Look.” Ray pointed to the west at a green street sign on the traffic light.
“MAIN ST”.
“Hello, can you say again, over.” Michael once again tried getting a response to whoever was on the other end of the airwaves, but no reply came.
“I’m going to take a leak,” said Ray, who set off for the gas station entrance, but was stopped in his tracks. A sound of what could only be described as a deep thundering howling noise bellowed out from nearby.
Zach looked at the glass windows of the gas station and quickly realized they were not going to provide any kind of protection. “Everyone back in the truck now,” he shouted, running into the station. Abbey and Fiona came running out of the back.
“Did you hear that?” said Abbey.
“Back in the truck and pickup now, we need to find cover.”
Abbey and Zach ran back to the truck, Fiona and Cal back to the pickup. Just as Zach turned the ignition something appeared on a roof about two hundred yards to their north, on the opposite side of the street. They all strained to see what it was.