Feral Nation Series Box Set 2 [Books 4-6]

by Williams, Scott B.

  “You said Megan always had lots of friends,” Jonathan said, when Shauna voiced these thoughts as they sat there together on the ride. “I’ll bet she made plenty of new ones from around the area since she’s been out there so long. The locals would probably know where to go and what to do to avoid problems. I’ll bet she’s staying somewhere nearby with some friends. Maybe she’s up in the mountains in some cool little cabin.”

  “I hope so, but I don’t know how we’ll ever find her if she is unless she left something at her apartment that’ll give us a clue.”

  “There’ll be something, I bet. And if not, we’ll ask anybody that might have known her if they know anything. Somebody’s bound to know where she is.”

  “I’ve already thought about all of that, believe me, but my biggest worry is that we won’t find anybody to ask. I mean, look around you! What happened to all these people who left their cars on the side of the road?”

  “Maybe they made it home some other way, or maybe they’re in a refugee camp.”

  Shauna knew Jonathan didn’t know what to say and she didn’t want to keep on endlessly expressing her worries, as there was little point. They rode in silence the rest of the way until they reached the checkpoint where they were to join the convoy. The trucks weren’t ready to roll yet, but the sergeant in charge of her escort reassured Shauna that he and his men would remain until she and Jonathan were cleared to join it, as per Lieutenant Holton’s orders. Shauna saw that most of the trucks were pulling tanker trailers that she assumed would be carrying either diesel fuel or gasoline offloaded from the river barges docked nearby. There were also some enclosed trailers with unknown contents, as well as armed Humvees and a troop transport vehicle in which she and Jonathan were eventually seated after their bikes and gear were stored elsewhere. The convoy commander seemed accommodating enough and was expecting them after receiving word by radio earlier. He offered his condolences to Shauna after reading the letter from Lieutenant Holton and assured her that she and Jonathan would safely reach their destination. When they were finally moving again, the ride was noisy and slow, with numerous stops at other checkpoints, some of which involved considerable delays for reasons that she and Jonathan could only guess.

  “It looks like they’ve got this entire interstate pretty much under control,” Jonathan said. “I doubt any of those terrorist groups would be dumb enough to try anything here.”

  “I hope not, but you never know. A convoy carrying fuel is a tempting target, just like the barges on the river.”

  “They’re stupid for not putting soldiers on those too, instead of private security guards like those three that tried to hijack the C.J. Vaughn. I’ll bet they’ll rethink that decision now.”

  “Maybe. It just depends on whether they have enough troops to go around for all that. It looks to me like they’re concentrating their efforts more up here for some reason. There sure wasn’t any sign of military presence down on Interstate 10.”

  “Probably because the hurricane wiped out so much down there nobody cares about it right now. That’s what Keith said, but maybe eventually they’ll get around to securing it too.”

  Shauna knew no one here would tell them if they asked, so she said little to anyone other than Jonathan. She knew the less she did to get noticed the better and playing the part of the grieving widow protected her from any unwanted attention from the men in the convoy. She and Jonathan were sitting alone together on a small bench seat of the truck where they could keep their conversation hushed for now. They had been told this ride would only take them as far as Fort Riley, a major base near Interstate 70 and west of Kansas City. There would be an overnight wait at that base before they switched to different transport for the next leg. The wait turned out to be a full day as well as a night though, and they were assigned shared quarters while there. The idea of waiting again even for that short amount of time was frustrating, but Shauna kept telling herself that they were already much closer to Colorado and that it would all be worth it. Shauna was feeling good thinking about that the next morning when two soldiers came to inform them it was time to go. Jonathan had just stepped out to go to the bathroom, and she told them he would be back in a few minutes and that they would be ready.

  “No problem. We need a minute anyway. We have to inspect your bags.”

  “What for?” Shauna asked, her optimism about getting on the road again turning to dread. “We were cleared when we joined the first convoy the day before yesterday.”

  “I have my orders, ma’am. That is all.”

  Shauna watched as the two of them opened the packs and other small bags she and Jonathan had been carrying. She wondered what was taking the kid so long and wished he was here to help her explain, because just as she was afraid it would, the surprising weight of the large padded envelope in her daypack invited extra scrutiny. The soldier that found it handed it to his companion, who likewise surprised at its heft, shook it and squeezed it in several places until his fingers felt enough of the outline of the object inside to prompt him to tear it open without further hesitation.

  “Where did you get this? You can’t have this on the base!” the soldier glared at her, as he examined the Glock and the six loaded magazines in the envelope with it.

  “It was my husband’s personal weapon. His commanding officer secured it for me after he was killed in action recently. He knew my husband would want me to have it, and that my nephew and I might need it for protection once we arrive at our destination in Colorado. It was sealed in there for the trip because I had no intention of even looking at it while we were here. I know it’s not permitted, but my bag hasn’t been out of my sight since we joined the convoy at St. Louis.”

  “I’m sorry for your loss, ma’am, but I have orders to confiscate any unauthorized firearms regardless of the circumstances. You’re not allowed to have this on the convoy to Fort Carson or here on the base.”

  “Please!” Shauna said, “You’ve got to understand how much that pistol means to me! It’s the only thing of his I have left! I promise it’ll never come out of that envelope until we are off of the convoy and away from all military operations. I have to look for my daughter when we arrive in Boulder, and I have no idea what dangers we’ll face out there.”

  The soldier was unmoved by her pleading as his companion finished the inspection of the other bags. Jonathan still hadn’t returned, and Shauna knew she would lose their only weapon if she didn’t act fast. There was possibly a way to make these men change their mind, but if she was wrong, she could end up in more serious trouble and never join that convoy at all. Shauna decided it was worth the risk. These soldiers were human after all, and as such, they were susceptible to the right kind of temptation.

  “Wait! I have something else you may be even more interested in! Maybe we can work this out….” With her good hand, Shauna opened the top two buttons of her long-sleeved shirt, reaching inside to her bra. The soldier that had her gun raised his eyebrows and glanced at his companion. “A trade!” Shauna said quickly, realizing the men may have misunderstood her intent. “Something worth a lot more than a well-used old Glock 19. Look!” She produced one of the gold coins Eric had given her for safekeeping, a half-ounce Krugerrand. There were more of them hidden on her person, including the one-ounce versions wrapped up in the bandage on her hand. “The two of you can split this. It’s worth a lot more than it would have been before the crash. The trade value of gold is way more than the cash it would have brought then. Take it!”

  “How do we know it’s real?” The other soldier asked as Shauna handed it to the one with her gun so he could examine it.

  “It’s real,” the first man said. “I’ve seen one of these before. She’s right, it’s worth a lot more than that Glock.” He turned back to Shauna. “I won’t even ask where you got it, but you’ve got a deal if you keep it between us.” He put the Glock in the envelope and handed it back to her. “Now put this away and don’t make me regret this!”

  Sha
una knew when he agreed to take the gold that these two had no intention of turning in the confiscated weapon. No one would ever know about it but the two of them, because they knew she couldn’t go above their heads to complain. They would have kept the Glock to sell or trade, as there was surely a booming black market everywhere, likely even here on the base among the enlisted men. She’d made the right call to offer the coin in trade. The two of them left just as Jonathan returned to the room.

  “What was that all about?” Jonathan asked, as Shauna fumbled to rebutton her shirt with one hand.

  “They searched our bags. They found the pistol, of course, and they were going to confiscate it, but then I remembered that Eric had given me one of those foreign gold coins of his to hang onto for him; you know, like the ones he used to pay off those guys at the blockade in Florida. It was probably worth more than the Glock, but I knew Eric would want me to have the gun even more, it might be hard to find another one where we’re going. I offered the coin to them and they took it! I guess they can hide and get rid of a coin a lot easier than an illegal firearm. I knew we could also get booted off the convoy if it went wrong, but I took a chance.”

  “So those assholes are just low-life thieves! I thought they were soldiers!”

  “They are soldiers, but I guess some soldiers are taking advantage of this situation like so many others are. I had no real options. It wasn’t like I could report them for trying to steal a gun. We could have been locked up or thrown off the base immediately for having it!”

  “No, you did the right thing. That pistol’s worth more than any amount of gold, and you’re right, we do need it.”

  Shauna smiled. Jonathan had no idea that she had a lot more gold on her than that one coin, and she had no intention of telling him otherwise unless it was necessary. Eric had never told him how much there was, and he’d suggested the same to her. It wasn’t that Eric didn’t trust the kid, it was just that the more people knew, the more potential there was for that knowledge to get them into trouble. Besides, the two of them would be traveling together for an indefinite period now. She figured some other negotiation would eventually arise and Jonathan would find out soon enough. Until then, there was nothing else to say about it.

  The two soldiers that had found the gun apparently kept the secret to themselves as promised, and soon Shauna and Jonathan were moving west again on Interstate 70 and finally across the state line into Colorado. Shauna knew Jonathan had never been out of the southeastern United States before this journey, and of course, that explained why his face was glued to the truck window as the landscape changed from cultivated farmlands with ever fewer trees to vast cattle ranches and finally, the expansive vistas of the high plains grasslands. But the scene that really blew him away was the one he stepped out to when the convoy rolled to a stop at a desolate checkpoint near Limon, where it would turn off I-70 to go southwest to Fort Carson.

  “Wow! Is that for real?” The kid was staring, open-mouthed at the distant blue outline of jagged peaks that dominated the western horizon.

  “Yes, it’s real all right. They call it the Front Range of the Rockies!” Shauna took a deep breath of the cool, clear air and stared at the rugged mountains with him. She’d seen this view just once before, on the road trip when she and Daniel had driven Megan out to Boulder to get her settled in for her first semester at the university. That seemed so long ago now that Shauna could hardly believe it had only been a little more than two years before. As she looked west to those snowy ramparts again, she knew she was close to her destination and she felt both anticipation and fear in equal measure, not knowing what she would find there. She would have a lot more confidence right now if Eric or even Daniel was here beside her too, but she was grateful she at least had Jonathan, and his enthusiasm for the adventure he perceived in that vista could not be contained.

  “That’s freaking awesome! I can’t wait to get there and see how big they are up close. Are we going to be close to them in Boulder?”

  “Oh yeah. A lot closer than we are here, Jonathan, don’t worry about that. You’re going to see plenty of mountains!”

  The last leg of their journey in the company of soldiers was a ride north to the Denver area, arranged the day after the convoy’s arrival at Fort Carson. This was a final favor in honor of Lieutenant Holton’s request, and Shauna knew they couldn’t expect more than that. The driver of the truck dropped them off in the parking lot of an abandoned gas station near the US 36 Bikeway in Westminster and waited while they assembled their bikes.

  “The bike path will take you right into the south end of Boulder without having to ride on the highway, although it probably wouldn’t make much difference if you did now,” he said, looking at the empty roadway.

  “Thank you, this is great. We’ll find our way from here. I’ve been to the campus before.”

  The wide path was like a road itself, well paved and smooth. It would be as easy to ride as any road. When she and Jonathan had checked that the bikes were ready to go, the soldiers drove away, leaving them to finish securing their bags and loading their gear onto the bikes.

  “I can’t believe how freaking cold it is here, and it’s not even winter,” Jonathan said, when they finally started riding.

  “Winter comes early when you’re a mile high, Jonathan. That’s why Eric was in a hurry to leave Louisiana. I hope we can find Megan and get out of here before it really gets cold, because you haven’t seen anything yet. At least it’s sunny today and there’s no snow and ice on the road to worry about. It could be a lot worse.”

  “I’m not complaining. It’s awesome here, it really is. I’m just not used to cold weather, that’s all.”

  Shauna well understood. She’d been living in south Florida for decades as well, and it was easy to get used to near perpetual summer after all that time. The air was indeed crisp and cold today, especially riding into a light northerly breeze sweeping down the valley. Now that they were on the bikes after hundreds of miles of riding in those Army convoys, she couldn’t imagine the hardships of riding all that way on their own power, exposed to the elements all the way. She would have done it, but she was sure glad she didn’t have to. Up until the last minute with the soldiers, she had kept hoping that Lieutenant Holton would somehow send word that Eric was back at the post, and that she and Jonathan should wait where they were until he arranged transportation for him to join them, but the finality that it wasn’t going to happen hit home when that last truck pulled away, leaving them alone with their bikes.

  She was glad it was still early, barely half an hour after noon, because she didn’t relish the idea of riding a deserted bike path or city streets in the dark. As it was, there was plenty of time to pedal to the university in the daylight. Seeing all the abandoned businesses here on the outskirts that were closed and shuttered, she fully expected the university and even Megan’s apartment complex to be the same, but whether they were or not, she had to go there first in order to start looking. If Megan wasn’t there, then perhaps Jonathan was right; and she was safe and warm somewhere in a mountain cabin with friends from the area. That thought was interrupted by a warning from Jonathan:

  “Don’t look back in an obvious way, but I think we’ve got company coming.”

  Shauna turned just enough to see in her peripheral vision what Jonathan meant when he said it was on the overpass road they’d just ridden under minutes ago. Four mountain bikes were descending the grassy embankment down to the bike path, and Jonathan whispered that they had turned off the road just seconds after they topped the crest of the overpass and noticed the two of them riding under. Maybe they’d planned to turn there all along, but it seemed odd that they would suddenly make that steep descent when they could have taken the exit earlier. Were they coming after them simply because they wanted to talk to fellow cyclists, or did they see her and Jonathan with their loaded bikes as an unexpected opportunity? She’d seen enough to know that all four riders appeared to be young adult males, and she did
n’t have a good feeling about being the object of their interest.

  Riding close to Jonathan so they could talk in low voices, she shifted gears to get all the speed she could out of the heavy bike. A gradual downhill grade in this stretch of the bikeway made it easier to accelerate, but if those four on their unburdened mountain bikes decided to give chase, they had the advantage of launching a fast pursuit from their steep descent. Shauna reached inside the small bag affixed to her handlebars and felt the reassuring grip of the Glock, running her index finger over the little loaded-chamber indicator button to double-check that she had indeed racked the slide to put a round in the pipe when she inserted a magazine earlier. She hoped she was just being paranoid, but then she heard Jonathan’s reaction as he turned and glanced back again.

  “Shit! They’re still coming; pedaling like hell to catch up!”

  Eleven

  SHAUNA RISKED ANOTHER QUICK over-the-shoulder glance of her own to confirm what Jonathan told her. The four mountain bikers were gaining on them, pedaling fast in a tight group down the middle of the bike path. Shauna shifted to an even higher gear and stood on her pedals to try and gain more power, thinking that once they were up to speed, the heavier touring bikes she and Jonathan rode might work to their advantage in maintaining momentum downhill. Her injured hand was limiting her ability to accelerate hard though, as she could only use one hand to counter the downward forces of pedaling by pulling up on the bars. Jonathan could probably do better, but he wasn’t going to run off and leave her and she knew it. She scanned the pathway ahead as she pedaled, looking for signs of other people who might help them or at least discourage an attack by simply being present to witness, but there was no one to be seen or to see what was about to take place when those four riders caught up with them. It didn’t matter that it was the middle of a bright sunny day in what must have once been a safe area for recreational riding, she and Jonathan had attracted the undivided attention of the four determined characters who were now zeroing in to overtake them.