by Mark Goodwin
From the safety of the ground, he watched Mackenzie repeat the same process, ready to catch her if she slipped. He reached out to assist her with the last few feet.
She pulled away from him. “I told you, I’m fine.”
He felt terrible for the animosity he’d caused by his rudeness earlier that morning, but he had no alternative. This is just how things have got to be, he said to himself.
The tracks led them to a road that was only a short distance back to the interstate. Neither of them said anything for the next three miles.
CHAPTER 11
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Genesis 6:11-13
Suddenly, Emilio heard something he hadn’t heard in a long time, vehicle engines. He paused to see two pickup trucks charging down the highway. Both trucks had extreme lift kits installed and humongous tires. “Come on, let’s head over to the tree line before these clowns get here.”
Emilio led the way. They sprinted off the pavement, but they were too late. The first was a two-tone red and white 80s model Ford. The second was a white 90s GMC. The Ford cut off Emilio and Mackenzie from their intended route. A man in his thirties with a long beard and longer hair held a beer can as he leaned out the driver’s side window. “Hey, darlin’. We’re having a little shindig. Do you want to come along?”
“No thanks.” Mackenzie followed Emilio as he tried to get around the truck.
“We’ve got all the party favors.” A young man wearing a shirt with the sleeves ripped out leaned out the passenger’s side of the GMC.
More people, mostly guys, were in the beds of the trucks. Country music was blaring from the radios. A man with a red bandana for a headband called out to Mackenzie. “We got food too. I bet you’d be hot if we got you cleaned up.”
“I said no thanks!” Mackenzie drew her gun but kept it at her side.
Emilio pulled out his pistol also. “You guys need to cool it before someone gets hurt.”
The guy with the headband held up an AK-47. “If anybody gets hurt, it’s gonna be you!”
“Run!” Emilio led the sprint around the truck and into the woods.
“We got us a wild one, boys!” yelled the driver of the Ford. “Let’s get her. If her boyfriend gets in the way, kill him!”
Emilio turned to see all the occupants of both trucks exiting the vehicles in pursuit of them. “This is a game to them.”
“Can we ambush them, like you said with the people on the other side of the tracks?”
“Too many of them. I counted at least 10, most have weapons.”
“Then what are we going to do?”
Emilio turned, took aim, and fired two shots. “We’ve got to get some distance between us and them.” He watched as the group all ducked for cover, then began chasing them again. “See that dead tree over there?”
“Yeah.” She huffed to catch her breath.
“Give me your magazine and split off. Hide behind the tree. Wait for me to lead them past you. Then, head back and take one of the trucks. Head down the road one mile and pick me up.”
“What if…”
He cut her off. “There’s no time for what if. You just have to do it!”
She removed her magazine and handed it to him. “I’ve still got one in the pipe. I’m going to keep it… in case—for me.”
Emilio recalled the time he’d tried to frighten her into learning to shoot by making her imagine the unthinkable. At this moment, he regretted it. Nevertheless, it was her choice, and she should have the option if it came down to that. If he failed and she was captured, her life would become a living hell. He took the magazine and handed her the knife. “Whichever truck you leave behind, slash the tires.”
She held the knife. “I will.”
Emilio pointed the pistol toward his pursuers. He fired three more rounds. “Slash them deep—all four. Now go!”
She sprinted off in the direction of the fallen tree to hide. Emilio fired off five additional rounds to keep the marauders from seeing where Mackenzie was running. He resumed his sprint into the forest, making sure the ruffians were still following. He gradually turned his course to the south, hoping the gang would be too inebriated to realize they were being led away from their vehicles.
One of the men behind him began shooting with a rifle. Emilio guessed it was an AK-47. He heard the bullets whizzing by, missing his head by mere inches. He picked up his pace, zigzagging behind the cover of heavy trees at every opportunity. He heard a shotgun blast, and then another. The fear of being shot in the back injected a fresh dose of adrenaline into his system. He’d have no trouble maintaining his current pace for the full mile.
Minutes into the chase, he heard one of them call out, “Where’s the girl?”
“She’s in front of him,” yelled another.
“No, she’s not,” refuted the first.
“Split up,” said the driver of the Ford.
Emilio’s plan had failed. Half of the group would return to go after Mackenzie and she had only one bullet to defend herself. Emilio increased his speed. He needed to get far enough ahead to set up an ambush. He spotted the tree he needed to reach in order to hide. Upon reaching it, he slid to the forest floor and rolled behind the great oak. He listened.
“Where did he go?” The group hunting down Emilio slowed their pace while trying to pick up his trail.
Emilio tried to remember how many shots he’d fired. He waited for the sound of their footsteps to get closer.
“He couldn’t have just disappeared,” said one.
“He could have,” said a female voice. “Memaw did.”
“Memaw will turn up,” said another. “And so will this fella.”
“I don’t know,” said the girl. “She was always talkin’ about how Jesus was gonna come get her one day; ferry her off in a chariot of fire.”
“She was talking about dyin’, you hayseed.”
“No, she weren’t. She was talkin’ about the rapture.”
“That’s the most foolish thing I’ve ever heard. You’re lucky that you’re good-lookin’, ‘cause you sure ain’t got no sense.”
The girl retaliated, “Yeah, it’d be a shame to be an ugly fool, like you.”
Emilio sprung from around the tree. He fired at the man holding the pump-action shotgun who was closest to him, hitting the man twice in the chest. Next, he targeted the one with the cut-off sleeves who was leveling his AK-47. He pulled the trigger two times, and the man fell backward into the leaves on the forest floor. He turned to see the girl in jeans shorts and cowboy boots aiming a lever-action deer rifle at him. He dropped behind the tree just as the large round from her gun pierced the side of the large oak, raining down bark and splintered wood upon his head. He reached around and blindly fired three more shots using them as cover to get out of the area.
The girl screamed at the top of her lungs. “Caden! Y’all best get over here! He’s done killed Doug and Scotty!”
Emilio heard her chamber another round with the lever of her rifle. He ejected the spent magazine and tucked it in his pocket. He slapped Mackenzie’s magazine into the well and hit the slide release while still running. He reached a large maple and turned to look behind him. The girl and the two other survivors from her team were moving slowly while waiting for Caden’s team to provide back up.
Emilio breathed a sigh of relief. He’d successfully got the others to leave Mackenzie alone. He kept moving but wanted to stay close enough to hear what was going on.
The driver of the GMC scolded the girl. “There was five of y’all, and you couldn’t get rid of one guy with a pistol? I don’t want to lose that pretty little girl because y’all can’t do nothin’ right. Billy, come on with me.
We’ll go find her. They can take care of killin’ the boyfriend.”
Emilio frowned. He peeked from around the tree to see the driver of the GMC, whom he assumed was Caden, walking away from the group with the man wearing the red bandana as a headband. Emilio slowly raised his gun. He aimed carefully. Then, he fired. POW, POW, POW, POW, POW!
He hit Billy in the neck and the back between the shoulder blades but managed to miss Caden altogether. Caden dropped to one knee, raised his AK, and began firing erratically in Emilio’s general direction. Emilio kept his head down and crawled away from the danger. Once the gunfire subsided, he stood up and resumed running toward the proposed rendezvous point.
“See what I mean!” yelled the girl.
“Shut up, Mary Beth,” Caden replied. “Well, what are y’all waiting for? Go get him!”
Emilio had no time to turn and look, but he felt sure that Caden would abandon his search for Mackenzie. Even if he didn’t, Emilio hoped he’d bought her enough time to get back to the trucks and get away.
“There he is, yonder!” screeched another girl. More gunshots followed her sighting of Emilio.
Emilio angled his body sideways and returned fire while he ran. He let off a volley of six shells, which kept the gang scrambling for cover. It provided Emilio a chance to get more distance between himself and his pursuers.
It must be close to a mile by now. He headed back in the direction of the road. When he emerged from the forest, he saw the red Ford speed by. “Hey!” he yelled. It was no use, Mackenzie couldn’t hear him if it was, in fact, her driving the lifted 4x4. He glanced behind him to see the group gaining ground on him. He dashed toward the truck which had come to a stop about a hundred yards up the road. His side was cramping, but he couldn’t stop now. He turned to fire, hoping it would serve to hold them off a little longer.
Just when he thought he couldn’t take another step, the truck began backing up. It came to a screeching halt right next to Emilio. Without being able to see who was in the driver’s seat, he took a leap of faith and jumped up on the sidestep. He hoisted himself up and opened the door. Relief washed over him at seeing Mackenzie sitting behind the wheel.
He got inside and yelled, “Go, go, go!” He pulled the door closed as Mackenzie sped away and rifle fire peppered the truck. Three rounds hit the back window and continued through to the windshield. The spider-web cracks made it almost impossible for Mackenzie to navigate the cracked pavement of the interstate.
“Why did you come out there? I thought you said a mile?”
Emilio peeked up from sitting low in the seat to avoid being shot. “I did. But it seemed like a longer distance in the woods.”
“It’s all good. We’re home free now.”
He sat up and looked at the gang disappearing in the distance through the rearview. “The keys were in the truck?”
“Yeah, both of them.”
“You slashed the tires of the other one?”
“Yep.” She dangled a second set of keys as she drove. “Took these also.”
“That’s my girl.”
“Your girl?” She scowled at him.
He immediately realized his mistake.
She lit into him. “This morning I was basically told to shut up and follow at a distance. I don’t know what I did to deserve it, but whatever. I tried to give you your space. Now, all of a sudden, I’m back in your good graces? I’m your girl? That’s not how it works. Not even in the apocalypse. If you want us to be road dogs—battle buddies, I’m down with that. If you want it to be business-only, that’s fine too. But pick a chair and stay in your seat. And if I did something wrong, at least have the courtesy to let me know. This whole end-of-the-world thing is hard enough without you giving me a bunch of excess flak.”
Emilio was sorry…about all of it. He was sorry for treating her so poorly earlier that morning and sorry for implying that they were somehow a team again. But he was too tired to explain.
The inside of the truck was filled with a stifling awkwardness for the next several miles. Mackenzie kept the speed at around 50 miles per hour. The ride was bumpy, but they made good time. She slowed occasionally to navigate around abandoned vehicles, or the occasional segment of asphalt stood up perpendicularly or at a steep angle like a ramp.
She was even able to get around the collapsed overpasses by driving down the rugged exit ramps, over the medians and right back up the on-ramps. In the instances when the overpass didn’t occur at an exit or where the exit was blocked by wrecked vehicles, she simply drove down the embankments, around the obstacles and rubble, and then back up the embankment on the other side. Even in the dimness, they could clearly make out when a fallen overpass was coming up. It would always be preceded by a long line of vehicles that had come to a dead end.
Emilio felt good about the trip. They’d traveled over 20 miles since the shootout in Shepherdsville. It seemed that they would soon be back to the cave.
Suddenly, Mackenzie slammed the brakes. Emilio grabbed the dashboard with eyes wide open. “What the heck is that?”
Mackenzie’s mouth hung open. “It looks like the rim of an impact crater.”
Emilio looked at the mounded up earth which ran like a wall of crumbled dirt at least a mile in either direction. He exited the truck and approached the staggering scene. The wall extended skyward over 100 feet.
“Do you think we could drive over it?” Mackenzie asked.
“No way.” Emilio began walking up the incline of the raised mound of dirt. “It gets far too steep up toward the top. The truck could come rolling back down like a toy.”
“It’s nothing but woods in both directions,” she said. “We can’t possibly drive around it.”
Emilio hated to lose out on the comfortable traveling conditions of the 4x4, but he could see no alternative. “Even if we could get to the top, it’s probably twice as steep and most certainly two times deeper on the inside of the crater.”
He turned to go back to the truck. “Let’s see if we can find anything useful before we go.”
Mackenzie returned to the driver’s seat. “I tossed my garbage bag when we were being chased.”
“So did I,” said Emilio. “You did the right thing.” He checked the glove compartment. He found a straw, a magazine about 4X4s, old cassette tapes, some rubber bands, and a Sharpie. He kept the marker and the rubber bands. Everything else he left. He found a half-pint of vodka on the floorboard. It was less than a third full. He stuck in his back pocket. He looked over at Mackenzie. “Find anything good?”
She held up a clear baggie with roughly half an ounce of pot. “Just some weed.”
“You’re not going to take it, right?”
“Why not?”
“Because,” he lowered his eyebrows. “We’re Christians now.”
“That didn’t seem to stop you from stashing that bottle of booze.”
He pressed his lips together. “It’s to clean that cut on your leg as soon as we find some sterile bandages. I noticed you’re limping again.”
“And if either of us gets a really bad injury, this might be the only pain reliever we have.”
He stared at her for a moment.
She continued to build her case. “It’s a lot more natural than the meds they give you at the hospital when you get hurt. I never saw Christians fretting over popping Vicodin or OxyContin when they were in pain.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You’re not going to be tempted to use it to just forget about everything that’s going on?”
She rolled up the baggie and stuck it in her pocket. “I might be tempted. But I meant what I said to God the other night. I’m going to do things His way, as long as he gives me the strength to do it. But either way, you’re not my priest or my father.”
“Fine.” Emilio pulled the magazine out of the pistol. He extracted the remaining rounds. “Six bullets.” He looked up at Mackenzie. “You still have one in the pipe, right?”
“Yeah.”
He placed two rou
nds in the other magazine and handed it to her. He put the four shells that were left in his own gun.
“So I get three and you get four,” she frowned.
“Should we have another debate about which one of us is more effective with a pistol?”
“No. Let’s just get going. We need to get around this giant crater, find some food, and a place to sleep before it gets dark.”
“I’m all for that.” Emilio led the way into the woods.
CHAPTER 12
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed. Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore. For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.
Psalm 37:23-28
Emilio and Mackenzie followed the rim of the impact crater for only a few hundred yards through the forest before stumbling upon the remains of a neighborhood. The wall of debris which ran skyward had roofing materials, SUVs, and garage doors sticking out of it. Around the base of the rim, cars and houses had the windows blown out as if by an atomic blast. They saw no signs of life.
“What was this place?” asked Mackenzie.
“Elizabethtown.” Emilio felt terrible for the small city which had been summarily destroyed. The line of absolute destruction led them through what had been the center of town. The old courthouse was left half-standing; bricks crumbled away revealing the dusty and dismantled interior of the remaining section of the structure. It reminded Emilio of pictures he’d seen of Europe after the massive bombing campaigns of World War II.