“Well, I guess so. I can’t say for sure. Haven’t been up there myself, none of us have. We’re just followin’ orders. Only authorized vehicles beyond this point.”
“We’re authorized,” Ellie said.
“I suppose. But everyone else with a permit has been military.”
Jodi leaned across and smiled again. “Don’t worry, Archie. We’ll be okay. I’ll make sure to tell my father that you were very helpful.”
The older man’s face lit up and Ellie choked down the laugh that threatened to sabotage their progress. She envied Jodi’s ability to charm people effortlessly—inherited from her father, no doubt.
Archie disappeared for a moment and Ellie could hear him talking quietly with his fellow guard. From the tone of their voices, the other guard was resisting, but wasn’t prepared to take responsibility for defying the presidential pass.
Ellie wasn’t surprised that, in the end, they’d settled into the military default of, when orders conflict with common sense, obey the orders.
“You be careful, now. The road’s been cleared, but it’s slippery and most of the vehicles who’ve gone up here have been big trucks. If you get stuck, you’ll have to walk back and fetch one of us.”
“Thanks, Archie,” Jodi beamed. “We’ll be sure to tell my father that both of you have been really helpful. Bye!”
With that, Ellie rolled up the window and took the car onto the narrow, mud-stained road that led toward the distant mountains.
They finally reached clean asphalt as they crossed a bridge over what had once been a river. The little gorge it had carved out was totally filled with mud and rubble that looked as though it had been washed from the coast. Ellie could see bricks, girders and the occasional flash from the sun bouncing off embedded glass. She kept her eyes fixed on the mountains and the slowly rising road ahead. She’d seen so much in the months since the flood, but this was among the worst. When she was sailing Kujira, her mind could shelter from facing the brutal truth by pretending she was at sea in normal times. Even when they’d arrived at Buzz’s island, it had felt like exactly that—an island—even though they’d tied up to a road sign next to a flooded highway.
But this was a whole other level of devastation. She and Jodi were looking at the remains of a flooded civilization revealed as the waters receded a little. Soon enough, all this would be covered under a layer of snow, signaling yet another devastating blow against humanity. But all that ruin would still be down there, beneath the ice. She’d seen it with her own eyes, and she could never forget.
They were just passing a plain of mud that had regularly spaced little humps where, Ellie imagined, there had once been fruit trees when they rounded a spur of white rock jutting out from the mountains rising to their right.
As they came around the corner, they climbed quickly and left the worst of the devastation below them and on one side of the road. A row of abandoned ranch houses sheltered beneath the rock face and, as they rose gently, they passed houses that had never been beneath the flood. Green, overgrown lawns and fir trees lined driveways that led up to what looked like habitable homes.
“Why don’t we stop here?” Jodi said, gesturing at one of them.
Ellie shook her head. “We haven’t got time.” She’d been getting more and more stressed about the prospect of passing back along the ruined highway to return to Joel’s place. “We’re going to have to turn around soon.”
“Look, I don’t want to drive back along that road without finding out where this leads to.”
“Neither do I, but we can’t keep going until nightfall.”
Jodi pointed. “Then let’s stop here. Look, there’s a path up those rocks. I bet we can see for miles from there. Come on.”
Ellie swung the car off the road and along the driveway of the next house they passed. The grass looked as though it was hip high, and the white-painted ranch house had several broken windows and a layer of grime that proved it had long been abandoned.
“We’ve got to be quick,” Ellie said as she jumped out of the car and climbed the porch steps before walking around the veranda until they were facing the back yard. It was even more of a jungle than the front, but they could make out a path running along the center to a gate in the back fence. From there, they found a dirt track that combined with several others until it made its way onto a steep cliff face, winding left and right as it climbed.
“This is insane!” Ellie said. She’d unfastened her coat, despite the cold, as she puffed her way up.
Jodi grabbed her hand and hauled on it. “Nearly there. It’ll be worth it, honest! There’s a reason why this path is here, I know it.”
Ellie cursed under her breath at the unfairness of youthful energy.
“Oh my God.”
She felt Jodi’s hand release, then looked up to see her standing at a bend near the top of the cliff, looking beyond it. With a final effort, she moved alongside her.
They were standing on a ridge that cut across the landscape. Below them, the country fell away until, at an unguessable distance, they could make out the surface of the sea, glinting in the late afternoon sun.
Between the base of the peak they were standing on and the gray-white of the shimmering sea was a wide expanse of land cut across by creeks and small lakes. Except for where the water reflected the sky, it was all browns and rotten greens.
And then, running through it like a yellow spear, straight and true, Ellie saw a road. It crossed diagonally between the sea and land to the northeast of where they stood. Ellie could see vehicles moving along it, all coming inland, but she followed the road until it almost reached the sea. Squinting against the late afternoon brightness, she saw what looked like fjords where the mountain ranges now formed fingers that jutted into the water.
But at the water’s edge, on a broad area of the same yellow as the road, she saw a beach. On that beach, she saw what looked like tents, white against the sand and gravel. Tiny figures like ants milled around. Where the water met the beach, she saw the gray of a ship that sat like a crocodile with its huge mouth open as ants filed out of it and onto American soil.
She squinted at the sea and, finally, as the sky lightened for a moment, she saw what lay there in the bay.
It was a large, battleship-gray vessel. And, suspended as if by magic from the bridge to the deck, she saw, fluttering in the breeze, red flags.
Chapter 11
Harlon
Yuri pulled his coat around his shoulders and shivered, his breath caught by the wind and dispersing as he chattered.
Bobby gave him a silver coin. “Here, you check that side and I’ll look over there.”
Dropping the coin into the slot, Yuri bent down and looked through the telescope.
It had been Bobby’s idea to drive up to the vantage point at Lookout Mountain and get a look at Denver before they went any farther. Though Yuri knew it was a good plan, he’d been frozen since they’d gotten out of the truck to look over the edge.
Beneath them spread a frozen scene that looked more like Lapland than Colorado. Pine trees marched down the slope toward the sprawling city, almost blindingly white in its blanket of snow. To his right, radio masts pointed into a perfect blue sky, but snow blurred the grid pattern of the nearer part of the city.
“So, Denver is that way?” Yuri said, looking up from his telescope and pointing toward the horizon.
“Yeah.”
“Perhaps we should get closer before looking, I see nothing to worry.”
Bobby shook his head. “We’ve got to be careful now. They’ll have roadblocks up on the approach roads, and I don’t want to stumble into them.”
“And you have spotted roadblocks?”
Bobby pointed down the slope and to the southeast. “There’s the I-70. Look at the intersection.”
Yuri bent down and looked through the telescope. “Ah. Line of cars. Barricade. Military vehicles. We go that way, we get caught.” He stood up and rubbed his eyes. “Much snow here. Not li
ke SLC.”
“Yeah. I don’t understand it. But let’s focus on our mission. We need to get into Denver without being stopped, then we have to find the president—if she’s still here.”
“What? Maybe she has gone?”
“Good God, I hope not. I guess she’ll be in a hotel downtown if she’s here.”
“And where is that?”
Bobby stretched his arm out to the horizon. “Somewhere over there.”
Yuri groaned. “Is long way. We walk it?”
“We’ve got to get around the roadblocks.”
“Will be easier on foot.”
Bobby nodded. “Yeah. I think we’ll have to leave the truck somewhere on this side of the intersection. We’re going to need it to go home.”
“You will need it, my friend. I have no home.”
Looking into the Russian’s eyes, Bobby said, “Just finish your mission, then you can come home with me.”
Yuri smiled, though his eyes were moist. “Big happy family?”
“Sure. You can be Uncle Yuri.”
Laughing, Yuri slapped Bobby on the back and turned to head to the truck. “It’s deal. But come on, we must hurry. We start now? Not wait until tomorrow?”
“We haven’t got any choice. There’s no time.”
#
Bobby swung the bag over his shoulder again, grumbling about the weight he had to carry. Time and again as they tramped along he ran through the things in his pack, checking off whether each was truly necessary, and each time he came up with the same answer.
The sheriff had packed the truck with just about anything they might need, but they would now have to rely on their legs to transport the essentials, and Yuri was nowhere near one hundred percent yet, so Bobby had taken the heaviest items.
So, he had the survival tent, the medical kit, most of the rations—though they’d trimmed those to the barest essentials—as well as his sleeping bag, weapons and one change of clothes. He also had the cooking stove—for drying their stuff out rather than for heating food—flashlight and water bottles. He felt like a thrift-shop polar explorer.
He turned to see that Yuri had dropped back, so he leaned against a streetlight while he waited for the Russian to catch up.
“I am sorry. My legs, they are still weak.”
“Don’t worry. I get wrapped up in my own thoughts and I end up going too fast.”
“How much farther before we stop?”
Bobby looked along the road. It ran parallel to I-70 and followed a railway track that was heading toward the center of Denver. Snow had piled up along the track and there was no sign of it being cleared, so he guessed that the only way in and out of Denver was by road since no airplanes had passed above them.
The sun had just gone down and they needed to find somewhere to shelter for the night, but all he could see on the opposite side of the road was a snow-covered field with lumps where, presumably, bales of straw had been left to rot. He needed to find somewhere under cover they could shelter, so they had to keep going.
“Come on, we need to get a bit farther before we stop. I don’t want to have to pitch the tent in a snowdrift.”
Yuri sighed and nodded, then began walking unsteadily along the road.
It was fully dark and they’d just walked under a deserted intersection, with lights that weren’t working, when Bobby spotted a compound to their left. It had a wide metal gate and inside he could make out a ranch house to the left and, in a wide parking lot, several RVs and trucks.
“Let’s try here,” he said, letting go of Yuri’s arm and pointing into the darkness.
“Someone is home,” Yuri mumbled.
“We can sneak into one of the RVs and be away before anyone wakes up.”
Yuri looked doubtful, but didn’t have the energy to argue, so he followed Bobby as he climbed over the gate, landing heavily on the other side.
They’d gotten halfway across the parking lot when the door of the ranch house flew open and a pair of dogs leaped into the dark, barking and snarling.
Bobby, after freezing, reared back automatically, but the dogs stopped quite suddenly, halted almost comically as they reached the ends of their hidden chains.
A voice rose above the barking dogs. “I got a weapon! Now, show yerselves.”
Bobby put his hands up and walked slowly into view of the open door. “We’re just looking for somewhere to shelter for the night.”
“We? How many of you are there?”
“Just two of us.” At this, Yuri moved into the light, hands held high.
Bobby could see a large man framed against the light, the two dogs straining at their leashes and the barrel of a rifle moving back and forth, watching them both.
A voice emerged from behind him. “Hey, Harlon! Who is it?”
“You get yerself back inside, woman!”
“Don’t you talk to me like that, you son of a…” She froze as she saw the two men with their hands up. Looking from one to the other, she said, “What are you doin’ here?”
“We’re traveling, and we just want somewhere to sleep.”
Again, her eyes moved back and forth as she seemed to consider this. Then she touched the man on his shoulder. “They don’t look like they’ll do no harm, Harlon. Let them come in. It’s bitter cold out there.”
The man turned his head slightly to look at the woman. “Well, if you think so.”
“I know so. It’s the Christian thing to do. And, anyway, Ronnie and Reggie’d tear them a new one if they give us any trouble.”
“You boys got any weapons?”
Bobby nodded.
“Then you drop them on the ground, and move slowly. You got lucky. You caught my sister in one of her good moods.”
Ten minutes later, Bobby and Yuri were sitting on a threadbare couch. The dog’s blanket had been pulled off it, causing Harlon to erupt in a coughing fit.
Ronnie and Reggie sat on either side of the fire eyeing up the two guests, as if daring them to make any kind of aggressive move.
Harlon sat in a rocking chair beside Ronnie as his sister shelled walnuts next to the other dog.
“I’m not entirely sure I’da taken you fellas in if I’da knowed one of you was a commie. We don’t want no socialists around here.”
Yuri faked a smile. “I assure you I am capitalist through and through.”
“And what’s one’a those when it’s at home?”
“He means Russia’s like America now,” Bobby explained. “They haven’t been communist for thirty years.”
“You don’t say,” she said. “Well, you sure learn somethin’ new every day.”
Harlon chuckled. “I don’t reckon so, Carlie-Sue. You never was much good at book learnin’.”
The woman, who was almost as large as her brother, reached out with her walking stick and rapped him across the knees. “That’s pretty darned rich, ain’t it, Harlon? Daddy always said you ain’t got the brains you was born with. He said you was proof that evolution weren’t true.”
Bobby’s mood was switching between relief at being in the warmth, amusement at the brother-sister double act and nervousness at their obvious volatility. Harlon had a shotgun across his lap and Carlie-Sue was nursing what looked like a Magnum in her unusually large hands.
“Now you boys enjoy your drinks. I’m sure you got pretty cold out there.”
Bobby sipped at his coffee while the two of them watched him closely. “Wow, that’s a powerful blend,” he said, anticipating the reaction they were looking for.
“Ha! Yes indeed. It’s our own. A little goes a long way. But now, why don’t you tell us what you’re doin’ out at night on the streets around here. There’s a reason we got two big dogs, you know.”
Bobby shrugged in an attempt to seem relaxed. “It’s simple enough. We were driving into the city when our truck broke down, so we’re walking the rest of the way. I hadn’t realized how far it was.”
“And where are you from, boy?” the woman asked, her eyes
narrowing. “Mexico?”
Bobby regarded her steadily. “California. I lived near LA until the wave came in.”
“Is that so? Why are you here, then?”
“We’ve got business downtown.”
The rocking chair creaked as Harlon leaned forward, stroking Ronnie’s ear. “Downtown, is it? Well, you sure don’t look like the kinda boys who’d have business downtown. Why not just admit it?”
“Admit what?”
Harlon shook his head as if disappointed. “You don’t need to worry about us, we won’t tell no one. We know about the call. You boys make for strange kinds of patriots, but it takes all sorts, don’t it?”
Bobby was all at sea now, but was rescued by Yuri. “Da, Mr. Harlon. It is good we can be honest with you. Perhaps you can help us find our way.”
“To the muster point? Well, that’s easy enough. Just find any patrol and ask ’em. They’ll probably take you there. Save you walkin’. And you got your own weapons. That’s good.”
“If Harlon was a few years younger, he’d be comin’ with you, wouldn’t you, Harl?”
Harlon chuckled. “A few decades, maybe. But no, my fightin’ days are over. I’ll be watchin’ though. And if any of those West Coasters come this way, I’ll be on my porch with my dogs and we’ll teach ’em to take up arms against other Americans. We’ll make ’em pay.
“Say, didn’t you say you’re from California?” he said, his eyes narrowing.
Bobby nodded. “Originally, but I’ve been in Vegas since this all happened.”
Harlon rubbed his chin, shedding flakes of skin that fizzed in the hearth. “Well, I guess that’s on the up and up.”
“Don’t be such a darned fool, Harlon,” Carlie-Sue said. “After the commotion they made, they ain’t exactly secret agents. No offense,” she added, winking at Bobby.
“Yeah. Sorry, boys. But we been told to keep an eye open for anythin’ unusual, and you got to admit…”
Yuri chuckled. “We are unusual, yes. But we are not enemies.”
“I believe you,” Carlie-Sue said, hauling herself upright. “Now, y’all will be wantin’ to settle down fer the night. You look all tuckered out.”
Lost: Deluge Book 5: (A Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Survival Story) Page 10