by Olah, Jeff
In the shadows of the hillside, Travis leaned into the concrete divider, and pushed his hair out of his face. He stared back toward the field they’d just exited and watched for anything that moved.
“Looks like we’re clear for now, but we should probably think about moving on soon. Don’t want them picking up our trail. Dragging that horde out here onto the highway would get nasty real fast.”
Savannah motioned toward Lucas. “How are you doing?”
Lucas didn’t look any worse than he had a few hours before, although he didn’t look any better. His face was still pale and although his wound was no longer bleeding, he had stopped sweating and he was breathing twice as hard as anyone else.
Dr. Gentry strode over and placed the back of his wrist against Lucas’s forehead. He paused a moment taking Lucas’s left arm and placing his index and middle finger over his younger friend’s radial artery and then counting to himself.
After a few seconds, Gentry patted Lucas on the back and turned to the others. “He’ll be okay. His temp is slightly elevated, but that could be due to our little excursion through the field. And his pulse is strong, but not falling as quickly as I would like. He’s good for now, but he’ll need to rest soon, and I’m going to have to tend to that wound as soon as possible.”
Ethan looked from Lucas, to Gentry, and then finally to Travis. “How much further?”
Travis was already turned, his hand shielding his eyes from the afternoon sun. “Not far, maybe another twenty minutes. But if the kid’s okay, we should get moving.”
“Uh guys …” Lucas looked like he had been given a shot of adrenaline. His eyes were wide, and his mouth hung slightly open. “Isn’t that Randy and Mayor Gil?”
A hundred yards away, three men walked away from the overpass at Sixth Street. The men on the left and right were easily recognizable. Although the one in the center, the one with his head down and who looked like he’d just been spit out of a wood chipper, didn’t look like the man they knew from only a few hours before.
Savannah turned to the others. “That’s Owen, he’s hurt.”
Travis turned to Ethan, already beginning to run. “Let’s go.”
They reached their friends as Randy held up his hand and ever so slightly shook his head. “He’s okay, nothing serious, just a little worse for wear.”
Travis looked from Owen, who had yet to acknowledge him, to Gil, and then finally back to Randy, his eyes narrowed. “How did you, I mean weren’t you heading back to the farm, we hadn’t got word from anyone, we didn’t know.”
“Went back for Gil, then took the long way around. That horde, there were just too many. We found Owen near the highway, he’s been out here all night alone looking for Ava.”
Randy paused as Savannah, Gentry, and Lucas walked over. He hugged his cousin, shook Dr. Gentry’s hand, and tilted his head at Lucas. “You okay kid?”
Lucas nodded. “Yeah, pretty much the same.”
Gentry stepped forward, starting toward Owen. “You need anything?”
Owen finally looked up, his eyes swollen and bloodshot, his face streaked with dirt and speckled with blood. He stared into the distance. “No.”
Savannah came around behind him and put her arm over his shoulder. “Let’s go, we really need to go.”
Travis stayed near the front and Randy and Ethan watched the rear. They allowed Lucas and Owen to set the pace. The streets running parallel to the highway were mostly free of the dead and those who remained were much too slow and dismembered to pose any real threat.
After another twenty minutes, they crossed over Seventeenth Avenue and hurried in behind a dark-colored delivery truck that appeared to have been burned at some point in the past.
Travis had the others wait near the driver’s door as he made his way toward the rear, leaning out and checking the last few blocks before the bridge at Highway One. As a wave of relief began to wash over him, he went through a mental checklist of those who had run from Harbor Crest in the middle of the night.
There were the handful he had expected, those he had sent on ahead. He checked off Natalie and Noah, Randy’s bride Megan and their son little Mason, also Ethan’s sister Emma. He saw Lincoln standing away from the others, his head down and his hands folded into one another. And finally, Travis smiled when he saw Zach and Sean as they appeared from behind a large black SUV.
There was also the welcome surprise of Devin and Harper, and Griffin and Bryce. If he wasn’t forgetting anyone, which he hoped he wasn’t, they were only missing two. It was going to cripple the man who’d already felt the overwhelming loss once today and devastate the woman who was stronger than anyone he knew.
Before turning back, he noticed another. A man he didn’t know, someone that before today he didn’t ever recall seeing. The man was tall and thin, and looked out of place. He had a rifle hanging from his left shoulder, a pistol in his right hand, and gazed back toward the highway through a pair of high-powered binoculars.
Travis breathed out slowly and tried to think. They were so close, so unbelievably close. The man didn’t necessarily look like trouble, but looks weren’t always the most accurate indicator of trouble. And there was also the question of the man holding the two weapons. Travis wasn’t so sure he liked the odds of simply walking out from behind the truck and taking his chances, but at the moment he didn’t see any other way.
36
They had been walking for too long and for too many miles. The sun was now threatening to drop behind the western landscape and the temperature had fallen a good twenty degrees.
Highway One was within sight, but for the last hour Mason was beginning to see things that weren’t there, and Ava had told him that she could no longer feel her right foot. They would reach the bridge, but anything beyond that might finally break them.
Mason slowed, looked over at Ava. “You need to stop?”
Ava turned to him like she was considering it, but then shook her head. “No, it won’t help, it’s actually probably better that I can’t feel it.”
“We’ll get there,” He now felt the need to reassure her. “It’s gonna be alright.”
Ava nodded, but turned away. “Um hum.”
Another three blocks and Mason pointed to a city bus that looked like it used to be white or a light shade of grey. He had driven through this area many times before the world fell apart, but for the life of him he couldn’t remember the color scheme of the public transportation. “Let’s come at it from over there, just to be safe.”
Around the front of the bus, Mason had Ava stay behind him. He checked the sidewalk and then the street beyond. “Hold on a minute.”
When he stepped out from behind the bus and took a quick glance toward the overpass at Highway One, he was hoping it was just his eyes continuing to malfunction. He came to a stop in the middle of the street as his pulse began to quicken. It had taken them longer than anticipated to get here, but something was wrong.
He wasn’t expecting a parade or even a welcoming committee. He was actually picturing something much more disappointing, something that would take months or even years to get over, something that would remind him of the hell that they were living through.
But not this, this was the last thing he was expecting.
Not a single one of his friends had made it to the bridge. That didn’t seem possible. Had they arrived and decided not to wait? Had he and Ava come to the wrong location? Were his friends still out there somewhere, still running from the dead? Or had the unthinkable happened?
He found it unlikely and didn’t want to let his mind wander down that path.
Ava now stood at his side. “Mason?” Her face told him that she had the same questions.
“Maybe they found somewhere else to wait.” He stared into the shadows under the overpass. “We’re just going to have to keep looking.”
Ava brushed her hair away from her forehead and began to blink. “But what if …”
As Ava’s voice trailed off, h
e turned to face her, but thought he saw something beyond the overpass, something he hadn’t before. “Get back to the bus.”
A set of headlights streamed from the shadows below the overpass. The sound was familiar but one that he hadn’t heard in more than a year. A moment later a large black SUV drove away from Highway One, crossed the intersection, and stopped thirty feet from the end of the bus.
Behind him, Ava was trembling. He reached back and handed her the nine-millimeter. “Stay here, but if I tell you to, I want you to walk out and shoot whoever this is. Don’t think about it, don’t hesitate, just do it. You’ve only got one, so make it count.”
The driver’s door promptly shot open and then closed. There was a man who strode quickly to the front of the SUV, turned toward the bus, and stopped. He was tall and good looking, probably late forties or early fifties. His hair was thick and combed to the side, the color of salt and pepper. He wore a black fitted hoodie, charcoal colored jeans, and dusty leather boots. His face was familiar, although Mason knew this was the first time he’d laid eyes on the man.
The man also held a black pistol in his right hand. “Mason Thomas …”
Or maybe it wasn’t the first time.
Tucked behind the bus, Mason responded. “Who are you?”
The man placed his weapon in a holster on his hip and rounded the front of the SUV. “I’ll be honest with you. If I came right out of the gate and told you my name, this probably wouldn’t go the right way. You may do something that you end up regretting, and for now I have your best interests in mind. I really am just looking out for you, well mostly.”
Mason slowly emerged from behind the bus. He now stood facing the man. “You know my name, so I’m guessing you know my friends, and I’m also guessing you know where they are?”
The man nodded and then smiled. “Yes, I’m sorry, I probably should have led with that. Your friends are perfectly safe and tucked away. I made sure of it myself.”
“Where are they?”
“We’ll get to that, but for now I’ll show you that my intentions aren’t misplaced.” The man turned and looked into the vehicle, again smiled and waved.
The rear doors on both sides of the large black SUV burst open. There were rushed footfalls against the asphalt a second before a squeal came from behind him and Ava shot forward. She was crying, as were her mother and her father and her brother as they crossed the street.
Natalie was first as she came from the rear passenger door and threw her arms around Ava. They both wept, their shoulders bounding, and their faces buried in each other’s necks. Owen and Noah had come from the driver’s side. They rushed around the front of the SUV and the mystery man, also pulling Ava and Natalie into a tight embrace. They cried as a family, their words buried beneath their uncontrolled sobs.
Ava looked to her father. “Is Lucas …”
“He’s okay, he’s going to be fine.”
Mason continued to watch the man near the black SUV as Owen broke free and turned to him. His friend looked like he’d walked through hell and had hit every single speed bump along the way.
Owen wiped his face and was trying to control his lower lip that had begun to quiver. He sucked in through his nose, held out his hand, and nodded. “Thank you.”
It was only two words, but it was everything. Mason knew that his friend couldn’t begin to verbalize everything he was feeling in that moment, and Mason didn’t need him to. That wasn’t what had brought him here, and it wasn’t why he did what he did. These people were his family and there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for them.
The man near the SUV looked up at the sky and then back at Mason. “We should probably get moving, the city’s an even darker place at night.”
“Get moving?”
“Yes,” the man said, “we don’t have time to go into everything right this minute, although if you’ll come with me, I’ll answer every single one of your questions.”
Mason looked to Natalie and then to Owen. They both nodded and started back toward the SUV with their children.
“Where?” Mason asked. “Where is it you think we’re going?”
The man in the black fitted hoodie waited for the family of four to climb into the rear of the SUV and close the doors. “I have a place in the city. The rest of your friends are there, and they are safe. We’ve had to use up considerable resources to make this happen, so I’m asking you to trust me, just for a few minutes. Just listen, and if you don’t like what you hear, you and your friends are free to take your chances out here on your own.”
Mason looked back at the SUV and then at the man. “I don’t know you.”
The man started back toward the driver’s door. “I know that I haven’t earned your trust yet, I get that. But just do me a favor. Allow me to take you to your friends before you make up your mind about who I am or what you think is happening here.”
37
The city at night was darker than he remembered. The streets were overrun with debris and long-forgotten vehicles. The concrete and glass monoliths were softer, now covered in a dense layer of plant life. However, there was one thing that struck him as odd, something he had expected to see, something that was strangely absent.
Mason turned toward the man in the driver’s seat. “Where are the dead?”
“Let’s just say I know how to get from Point A to Point B without much hassle. It doesn’t last more than a few days at a time, but for now it works.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“My men and I have found a few routes through the city where we can avoid the infected. It changes every three or four days, so we have to stay on top of it.”
“Your men, how many are you?”
“There are five, including myself. It’s made life simpler keeping the circle small.”
“And how is it that you still have fuel? Everything ran dry over a year ago.”
“Not true, you just have to keep your mind open, know where to look.”
Mason checked the mirrors and then through the windshield. “So, your name?”
The man nodded. “Yes, we’ll get to that. But first there are a few other things we need to discuss. Once we do, all of this will make sense. We must do this in a very specific order or it won’t work. You’ll understand.”
Mason turned in his seat. He looked to Owen. “He give you and the others the same run around, should I be okay with this?”
Owen looked around at his family and then back at Mason. “He helped us when we needed help, so for now I’m okay with it.”
The man slowed to a stop and waited as an entrance gate to an underground parking lot slowly raised. He drove through, waited as it closed behind them, and pulled into a spot near a row of elevators. “We’ll head upstairs and you can take as long as you’d like to reunite with your friends, grab something to eat, and get cleaned up. The showers are on the second floor, inside the gym. Once you’re finished you’ll want to come to the sixth-floor conference room. It’s just to the left of reception.”
Mason looked around the parking garage, his head pounding and his mind spinning. “You have power?”
The man laughed. “What, you and your friends are the only ones who know how to join a bank of solar panels to a power grid?”
In the lobby of the massive high-rise building, Mason nearly broke down as he reconnected with the woman he loved more than anything in this world. They held each other and spoke quietly as they traded kisses, Savannah gently brushing the hair away from the wound on the side of his head. “How ya doin’ old man?”
He kissed her once more. “I feel better than I look.”
She smiled through her tears. “You still look good to me.”
“Somehow I doubt that.”
“No really,” Savannah said, her voice now breaking. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine, nothing a good night’s sleep won’t fix.”
Savannah looked around the lobby, wiping at her eyes. “You know this plac
e?”
“Yeah, I think I do.”
“Are we gonna be okay here?”
“That’s what I’m going to find out.”
Mason took his time speaking to the others individually and then to everyone as a group. He pulled Randy, Travis, and Ethan aside, wanting to get their take on the man who had yet to reveal his identity.
“We’ve got our eye on him and his men,” Randy said. “But so far he checks out. Even if we don’t stay, it may do us a bit of good to stick around for a few days and recharge our batteries.”
Mason turned to Ethan. His friend could read people like no one else. “We got anything we need to worry about here?”
“He and his men seem okay. There isn’t anything that stands out just yet. I mean they took three trips to get us all here, then went back and searched the highway for you and Ava. Whatever this is must be pretty important.”
Lastly, he turned to Travis. “You get anything from him, a name, anything at all?”
“I pushed as much as I could. The guy’s intelligent, seems pretty calculated with the info he shares. He said he’ll reveal it to you, but only to you.”
An hour later, Mason stepped out of the elevator onto the sixth floor. He spotted the man with the salt and pepper hair standing in a partially lit conference room, just inside the door.
The man waved him in and motioned toward a seat at a large conference table. “Get comfortable, I know you have a lot of questions.”
38
The tall man in the charcoal jeans and black hoodie allowed the door to close and then moved around the table and took a seat opposite Mason. He leaned back in his chair, folded his hands behind his head, and began to grin. “Alright Mason Thomas, how would you like to do this?”
Mason looked around the room, back at the elevator he’d just exited, and then again at the man seated three feet away. “I know this place.”
The man’s eyes went wide. “I was not aware.”