by Mark Mathews
Sarah ran forward to help, but the man pulled a gun, halting her in her tracks. No one else moved, except Emily, who shook with the power of her sobs. He put the key in the ignition, fired up the engine, and then gunned it. He backed away from them, the gun still hanging out the window. He slammed on the brakes to test them, then grinned at them all. Waving the gun in a kind of salute, he drove away.
“If I see you guys again, I’ll kill you.” His words floated back on the gentle breeze, and Sarah let loose a string of curse words that would have made a sailor blush.
She dove to the ground, picking up Emily into her lap and wrapping her arms around her. Now it was Sarah’s turn to hold her in a vice grip. A cursory check showed her that Emily wasn’t physically hurt, and she rocked the little girl back and forth, softly singing to her. She didn’t have to worry about anyone taking her out of her arms this time, because Wade was right there with them.
With the anger that showed plainly on his face, Sarah felt bad for anyone who messed with him right about now. Tom looked like a spoiled child who’d just had a toy taken away from him. She decided it would be much better for the both of them if she just ignored him right now. Getting into a fight with him wasn’t going to solve anything. The main thing that she had to remember was that she had Emily back…for the second time. They would have to go on foot now, but it wasn’t something that Sarah and Emily weren’t used to doing. She was sure Wade would be just fine, but Tom was going to be the problem. He was just too soft for the world in its present state. If the world didn’t put him out of his misery, Sarah might consider doing it herself, just to make sure they didn’t run into any undue problems that could be avoided with him out of the picture. Emily finally was starting to calm down, and Sarah tightened her arms around the girl. There was nothing that would get between them again, she was going to make sure of that.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
AS THEY PLODDED ALONG, Wade was lost in thought. The more people they were meeting, the more dangerous the situation was starting to get. If he could have it his way, he would have taken Emily and Sarah and gone south, looking for whatever supplies they could get along the way. He didn’t think either of them would go along with it, and so he was trying to come up with a convincing argument to change their minds. It didn’t occur to him until a little while into his monologue with himself that he didn’t even consider Tom a factor in the decision making, or a weight when it came to a choice. Part of him felt a little guilty about that, but it couldn’t be helped. After everything they’d been through, Tom just wasn’t a power player, or even an asset. He was a liability. Wade could feel his cheeks redden in embarrassment at that thought. Sarah was an asset. She had training, she knew what people could be like, and she knew how to handle those situations. Emily was a child, and she could be taught, but Tom…
“Alright everyone, let’s pull off the road here and have a little break. I can see that Emily’s struggling a little, and we still have a ways to go.” Wade had seen Emily falter and stumble a few times, and he couldn’t imagine what this was like for a young child who never had had any hardships in her life. He wanted to cater to her a little. If they prevented injuries and kept a steady pace with small breaks, they ultimately would make it much farther than if they pushed themselves to the point of injury or exhaustion and had come to a dead stop to recover. He led the way through some trees at the side of the road, making for a little clearing that he could see. They followed him silently, all of them too exhausted to talk much. They sat together in a circle, well in from the tree line. Sarah argued it was a bad idea because it was too exposed, but Wade thought it was a good idea since they had a 360-degree view. Emily almost collapsed, but was able to make it look somewhat graceful anyway. Wade handed her the canteen full of water first. She gave him a small smile in thanks and tried not to gulp down the whole thing.
“Thank you.” The words were soft as she passed the canteen on to Sarah. Wade was mindful of Emily’s horrible experience of being kidnapped, not once, but twice, and held for ransom. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how terrified she’d been during all of that. He didn’t want to make her think about it more than she had to, but he needed to know if she had overheard anything of what the men had said regarding their plans. He sighed heavily and looked down at his boots.
“Emily?” His voice was gentle, and he was doing his best to keep her calm. She looked up at him with wide eyes. It was clear she expected something unpleasant, just by the tone of his voice, and he hated that he had to do this to her.
“Did they say anything important while they had you?” Emily flinched, and closed her eyes in an effort to stop herself from crying.
Wade immediately felt like the world’s biggest ass for making her relive all this. He gave her as long as she needed, not wanting to push her when she wasn’t ready and have her clam up. Emily took a deep breath. Swallowing hard, she glanced over at Sarah, who gave her an encouraging nod, then took the plunge.
“They said they were going toward the lakes. The same ones Sarah and I were trying to get to. I think there are more than just the guys that you took care of, but I’m not sure if that’s true or if they just were saying it to scare me.” Emily was trembling visibly, but her voice was strong.
Wade wanted to reach out and put a hand on her shoulder for reassurance, but she was too far away. All he could do was look at her and try to let her know with his eyes that he was there for her if she needed him. Granted, he hadn’t wanted to be there for anyone before, not after he’d lost his family, but Emily did something to his heart that he couldn’t explain. It was almost as though his heart had been a dried-up prune, and Emily had been the water that hydrated it back to a healthy plum. He’d be damned if he ever told Emily or Sarah that, though, because he didn’t want them to leave. He felt as though they were his family right now, and it was something he was proud of. He’d protect them with everything he had. Wade sighed now, and to him, this information just cemented his idea that they should go south instead.
“Well, maybe there are more of them and maybe there aren’t, but I think we should go south. Grab supplies in the towns we come to, then just lay low in the woods for a while. Every time we meet people, it seems like we just get more and more problems thrown at us.” Tom heard what he said, and he shrank into himself. He was fully aware that the word “people” meant him, and that most of the “trouble” they’d run into had been because of him, too. Not for the first time did he wonder if maybe they would be better off if he just slipped away in the night and didn’t come back. They might be better off without him, but he knew he needed them to survive. He was selfish, and that meant he couldn’t make himself walk away from them, thereby sealing his fate.
“I still think we should head to the lakes. We just have to make it there before the rest of the gang, if there are any more. The lakes are still our best bet.” Sarah’s voice was adamant. Emily looked over at her pseudo-mother, analyzing what was going on in her head. Emily nodded.
“I still would like to see the lakes.” It was a request, but Tom could tell how much she really was hoping they still would go. So he decided to throw in his two cents…if it was worth even two cents. He wasn’t any use when it came to shooting or getting supplies, so maybe he could help the little girl get to the lakes.
“They’re right. The lakes have to be the best place to go. If this gang was heading there, then they had to know something we don’t. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have chosen the lakes as their destination.” Wade raised an eyebrow at Tom, wondering why he was even weighing in. He’d been nothing but trouble since they added him to their group, and Wade didn’t really much care for anything he had to say.
“The women we had met up with told us there were a lot of problems at the lakes. Maybe we shouldn’t go there.” It was a weak argument, and Wade knew it. Besides, he really didn’t know if what the women had said was the truth. Either it was, or they had made up the story to keep them away from the lakes becaus
e that was the best place to be. Then why had they headed away from the lakes when they’d stolen the car? Because it really was the truth? Or to lay a false trail? He still was going back and forth in his head when he caught Sarah watching him. He blushed. She probably was doing the same thing right now, running through all the back and forth information they’d obtained and trying to make sense of it all.
“What are we going to do? We need to vote on this, then. There’s been information both for and against the lakes, and we’re not sure that any of it is true, but we have to take it at face value, I guess.” Sarah was standing now, pacing back and forth.
Wade didn’t know if she actually was trying to get their advice, or if she just was thinking out loud. Either way, he didn’t want to be the first to speak, because he still was going back and forth on everything, trying to find a way to test the validity of everything they’d been told. Unfortunately, he had no tools to test the stories, and he couldn’t find anything in his mental recall of the women’s body language when they’d passed on the information that they had.
“Okay, then all in favor of the lakes.” She paused, and Emily raised her hand. Tom did as well, but he didn’t really look like he cared one way or the other, and Sarah didn’t really put much stock in his choice anyway. Sarah knew her hand wasn’t up, but her vote was obvious. Reluctantly, Wade put his hand up, too. He didn’t know if it was the best choice, but it wouldn’t do to go against the majority, which would do what it wanted anyway.
“Well, I guess that settles it. I’m still not one hundred percent sure, but I guess there’s nothing I can say to change your minds. We can go and see what it has to offer.” Emily smiled.
She got to her feet and ran over to Wade. He barely had the time to get his arms up before she fell into them. A surge of fire went through his heart, and he felt like someone had set a blaze in his chest. He didn’t think he could feel like that about anyone after he had lost his family, and he quietly had balled up all the hurt and grief in a tiny corner of his heart, hoping it would be forgotten. But how could it when he had a darling little girl like this looking up to him? He hugged her tightly, and he felt some of that ball unwind and float away. He disentangled himself and got down to business.
“Okay, let’s think. If the group we took care of was going to meet up with anyone else, , they’ll have to go all the way around the mountain to get to the lakes with their motorcycles. We can go straight over it on foot, as long as we can find paths to follow.”
“I’m not so sure Emily will be able to make it if it gets too steep. She’s smaller than the rest of us and her stride is shorter. Shouldn’t we go around, too?” Sarah was worried, and it was obvious she was back in mommy mode.
“We all can help Emily, and I really do think it would be better to go over the mountain.” Sarah shrugged.
“I can do it.” Emily’s little face showed nothing but defiance, and Wade had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself from laughing. He looked at Sarah and saw that she was suffering from the same urge.
“Well, alright then.” Wade got to his feet, and Emily went back to her log to sit down. She picked up the canteen that she’d left on the log, took a swig, and then stood up to stand with Sarah.
“Okay, let’s go.” The party set out, making their way through the trees in a steady line, ever climbing.
The paths that Wade found were barely even game trails, and the ground was rocky. Dozens of pebbles covered every square inch, and the party slipped and slid so much, any casual observer would have thought that they all were drunk. Ironically, Emily was the most sure-footed of the group. Whether it was because her smaller feet covered fewer pebbles, or because her youth let her regain her balance more quickly, she was doing better than all the rest.
“Think you can give us a hand, Emily?” Wade chuckled, and when he looked over at Sarah, he saw she had a grin, too.
This was the best way to put her worries about Emily at ease. As the expression went, the proof was in the pudding. The foliage that grew around them became more and more stunted, but for each bush or tree that was shorter, more thick, snagging grass grew, reaching out long tendrils to trip them up or wrap around their legs. It forced them to cut their way out with the little pocket knives that Wade had grabbed from the souvenir section of the last town’s gas station. It was hard work, and all of them were covered in sweat. In Tom’s case, blood. He had a tough time getting a grip on the knife and the grass, and his hands tended to slip. So he had a small network of shallow cuts in his hands. It was a good thing the blades were mostly dull.
They rested frequently on the uneven terrain, but when they stopped, it was only to allow each one a few mouthfuls of water before they continued. Yes, they had the shorter, straighter course, but the motorcycles would have more speed. If they didn’t hustle their way along, they still would make it there after the bikers. That wasn’t something either one of them wanted to think of. They had blundered on, almost blindly, it seemed.
As the sun began to set, a dark shape loomed into view. Wade threw his arm out to halt their progress. Since it was dark, they were already quite close to the dark shape when they saw it. He squinted through the darkness, and got a nervous feeling when he recognized the shape. It was the outline of a cabin, much like the one he himself had built as a shelter after the world went nuts. That meant there was at least one person in there with the sense to prepare themselves for the worst, and that person probably had some kind of weapon. He wanted to get as far away from there as he possibly could, thinking that that would be the safest bet.
“I think we need to get out of here. That’s a cabin, and we don’t know who or what is living in there.” Sarah didn’t like the sound of that, especially the what part. Her mind went back to the pack of feral dogs that had been hot on her and Emily’s heels when they’d fallen into a trap that Wade had set. At first she’d been angry that someone had caught them in a trap that clearly was meant for animals, but once she realized it had saved their lives, she let it go easily enough. Maybe this cabin was full of people like Wade; resourceful…but maybe not as friendly.
“I don’t like the looks of it. It’s too quiet here and that’s always a bad sign in the horror movies.” Tom spoke up, and both Wade and Sarah turned to stare at him incredulously.
Sarah’s face clouded over. Could he really be comparing this to a made-up horror movie? Did he think this was all a joke? If she wasn’t so shocked that he was looking at this so flippantly, she would have throttled him to death right then and there. She had a low bullshit tolerance, and an even lower tolerance for stupidity. Right now, Tom wasn’t doing so well. Sarah did her best to ignore him, hoping he just would stop talking. If he didn’t, she might just lose it and take it out on him.
“I think we all can agree that we should get out of here.” Wade was trying to diffuse the situation, though he was personally with Sarah on giving Tom a good throttling for acting like a naïve teenager.
A metallic click perked up Wade’s ears, and he started looking around blindly in the dark. The idea to leave had been a good one, but they’d left too late. Now it seemed they were surrounded by shapes that had to be people, and from the sounds they heard, and the way the shapes were standing, it looked like some, if not all of them, had guns. Slowly, Wade put his hands up in the air. His motion caught the others’ attention, and they quickly followed suit. They didn’t bother to ask what was going on, they just trusted him to lead them out of a sticky situation, if he could.
“Well, well, well. What have we here?” The voice was smooth, but not in a friendly way. Whereas Wade’s voice was smooth like honey, this one was more greasy and slick than smooth.
It was a voice that didn’t care about anyone else, and it positively oozed disgust. This was the worst possible type of person to try negotiating with, and Wade silently cursed their luck. Tom, luckily, shut his mouth and decided to let Sarah and Wade handle the situation. Sarah said a silent thank you to the heavens for th
at. She didn’t want the situation to spiral out of control before they really knew what was going on.
The silence stretched on as Wade thought about what kinds of answers to give if they were questioned. Emily was shaking like a leaf, and Sarah could bet it wasn’t from the slight breeze that teased their hair and cooled their faces. She had an icy chill going down her own spine, but it was more a chill of fear and apprehension than one from the air around them. A slight whimper escaped someone, and Sarah thought it was Emily, but the little girl was standing there stoically, chin up and shoulders squared. The pitiful whimper had come from Tom. It took everything Sarah had in her not to groan. She only could hope that these people would look at her and Wade and see that they meant business. The poison of cowardice didn’t run in either of them, and she hoped their captors would do things the easy way. She’d had enough fighting in the last few days to last her a lifetime.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE MOON CAME out from behind a cloud, bathing the world in its silvery light. When Sarah’s eyes adjusted, she took a good look at the people around them. They all had common features, and it struck her that this was a family. They all were terrified, and that was a bad thing. People were little more than animals when they were afraid or backed into a corner. She shifted a little, trying to protect Emily from their line of sight, but that was impossible because they were completely surrounded. Her slight movement, however, brought all the attention on her.
“Did you do it? Is this all your fault?” The voice came from behind her, and she hesitated for a moment or two before slowly revolving in place to face the person who had spoken to her.
From what she could see, the woman who had addressed her was the mother of this troupe. Sarah did the math in her head. There was a mother and a father, with two grown sons and what looked like a girl in her late teens. Their clothes were tattered, and they had that mean, hungry look in their eyes that meant they were turning into scavengers. The mother of the group held her gun steady, and the barrel was leveled right at Sarah’s chest.