The Indiana Apocalypse Series

by E A Lake

  The one thing I was sure of was that no one was behind us. The two times we had to stop for Charolette, I turned and listened closely to our rear. Aside from a few shouts back by the cabins on our first stop, the night was silent. Eerily silent.

  That was good; that meant Shaklin hadn’t sent men on horses after us. I could have heard them trampling through the corn from more than a mile away on such a still, dark night. It also meant that he probably hadn’t sent men with lanterns and torches after us either. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to see the light in such a blackened place, but I would have heard them as they crashed through the field.

  Every once in a while, I felt my jacket pocket to be sure the gun that Morgan had given me was still there. And each time, I found it still in place. I felt my face tighten recalling her lies.

  She’d promised me over and over that I knew the whole truth. Then three more lies came. I hadn’t had a one-night stand with Sara; I’d had a long-term affair with Morgan. She promised I hadn’t brought a gun with me to Shaklin’s place, then laid one in my hand as we prepared to make our escape.

  The doozy as far as I was concerned was the last lie that had been revealed to me. As far as I was concerned, Morgan had only told me the truth about Carla — Wife Three — to get me to move from our hiding spot behind Cabin Three.

  “You should know her,” she said dejectedly. “She was your wife, after all.”

  My memory wasn’t clear enough to recall being married to any woman, much less that woman. But her face and voice were familiar enough to me to jog something in my head. Maybe that would be the piece of the dam that, once removed, would cue the flood of the rest of my memories.

  That probably was going to be a problem for my alleged love. Once I could recall things clearly, another lie might be exposed. Morgan might turn out to be nowhere in my past. At that moment, dashing across row after row of tall, thin obstacles, I wondered if she even cared…or if I actually did.

  “Keep up,” Morgan chastised from in front, tugging at my hand. “Even Charolette is running faster than you.”

  “Once we hit the road,” I replied, nowhere as near out of breath as she’d sounded, “we need to talk. And you need to do a whole bunch of explaining.”

  “Whatever,” she muttered, pausing to let Charolette catch her breath. “Just don’t go getting too excited about anything. No one lied to you about anything that made a difference. So don’t go getting your undies in a bundle.”

  I heard her chuckle as we started up again. “Oh, that’s right. You’re not wearing any underwear, are you?” she taunted.

  Funny, real funny. Just another diversion while she dreamt up her next lie. Well, that was coming to an end.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE

  When we made it to the edge of the cornfield, Sara, Sasha and Liv were already in the ditch, kneeling. At least, that’s who I hoped the three silhouetted bodies were. If it was Shaklin’s people lying in wait for us, they seemed awfully tentative.

  I counted forms out loud, including myself. “…Four, five, six.” Good, everyone was together so far. When I stepped on to the road, the others followed. I pointed to my right. “That way, right?”

  “Yeah,” someone replied in a soft voice. When she spoke again, I could tell it was Morgan. “That road runs straight west that way and should lead us to the north road that will take us to Pimento. We’d better get going.”

  We huddled together for a moment and I did one last count. “…Three, four, five…” Shit, we were already missing someone. “Who isn’t here?”

  My answer came when Liv took my hand and walked me back to the ditch. She pointed at the rocking woman, sitting in a ball on the edge of the road. Oh yeah, the one with all the problems. Great.

  I knelt beside her and she jumped when I touched her shoulder. “You okay, Charolette?” I asked as nicely as I could, given the fact we needed to keep moving and didn’t have time to spare. “We need to get going.”

  Instead of replying, the young woman simply rocked back and forth with her head buried between her knees. That was not the response I was hoping for, not by a long shot.

  “Charolette,” I urged. “We have to get going. There’ll be people after—”

  “I was okay in the corn,” she said, her voice shaking badly. “I mean, we were on the move and all. So, I just kept going.” She peeked up and I wondered if she’d been crying. “But it’s really dark out here tonight. And it’s so open. I mean, just so open. I feel so vulnerable.”

  Well, those were two of her biggest fears wrapped into one large ball of shit.

  “There’s bats out here,” she continued. “I’m sure there’s bats out here. And all kinds of ticks and bugs that can eat a person alive. And someone needs to check me for spiders; I’m sure there were billions of them in that corn field.”

  I closed my eyes tightly and let out a deep breath. It was not the time to lose my cool. I needed to stay focused and on task. We had to get moving.

  “I’m sure Liv won’t mind brushing you off,” I said, pulling Charolette to her feet. Just as fast as she stood, Sara and Sasha were on each side of her, holding the waif upright. Liv moved in and started lightly going over Charolette’s clothing with her hand.

  “And I’m sure my boots are all dirty now,” Charolette continued, almost in hysterics. “We need to get them off and throw them away. There’s no way they’ll ever be clean enough again.”

  “We can’t throw them away,” Morgan groused from behind me. “You’re going to have to walk some, and you’re not doing it bare foot.”

  “Then we need to clean them. Now,” Charolette insisted. “Now!”

  Morgan pushed past me and got right into Charolette’s face. “No one is going to spit shine your stupid boots. We don’t have the time.” When Charolette began to cry, Morgan’s head lolled back. “Liv will wipe them off for you. Just be quick about everything, and try to pull yourself together, Charolette.”

  Within a few minutes, we were ready to leave. Of course, the young girl was getting a piggy-back ride from me to start, but that wouldn’t last all night.

  “I think I saw a bat!” Charolette shrieked. “I don’t like bats. We have to go back.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about bats too much right now, sweetie,” Morgan cooed. “I’d be on the lookout for men on horses. They’ll be the ones who’ll do you more damage than any stupid bat.”

  Charolette began to weep and buried her head in the crook of my neck. Pimento seemed a thousand miles away at that point, if not impossibly further.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX

  I discovered that the person on my back could only cry for a half hour at a time. That was a good thing, since my collar was already soaked. However, her nasty habit of digging her heels into my hip bones was getting a little old.

  Charolette didn’t weigh much and wasn’t a large burden for the first hour. She clung so tightly to my back that it almost felt like a growth and not an additional person. I would discover shortly thereafter she wasn’t my only problem.

  “Stop!” someone whisper-shouted. “There’s someone up ahead on the road. Get down; get in the ditch!”

  As we darted for the ditch, I knew who had cried out so softly in the darkness — Sasha, of course Sasha.

  I stared ahead at the road, trying to see whatever she’d seen. For a good three minutes, I scanned the blacktop and ditches but saw no movement.

  “Morgan,” I said. “Get up here.”

  I heard the little bit of gravel grind under her boots as she scurried to me. Once at my side, I pointed ahead to her.

  “What do you see?” I asked. “I don’t see a thing. Maybe your eyes are better than mine.”

  She leaned left, resting on her wrist and studied the scene. “Well,” she said quietly. “Given that it was Sasha, there probably isn’t anything there. Not anything dangerous at least. Might have been some kind of animal or something.” She leaned back against my left side. “Whatever it was is gone, so I’d say it
’s safe to keep going.”

  I rose and only remembered then that Charolette was still plastered to my back. The only change from before was that she had started shaking violently since we’d taken cover.

  “You need to walk for a little while,” I said trying to extricate her arms from around my neck. God, she had a strong grip for such a little shit. “Get down! You’ll be fine.”

  “But Sasha saw something,” she cried as I finally shook her off. “It’s probably Shaklin himself. Or maybe Tony Yelk. He’s awful; he likes to hurt people. I think we should—”

  “Sasha didn’t see shit,” Morgan chided. “She’s just as scared as you are so she’s making stuff up in her mind. She’s done it for years.”

  “I saw something,” Sasha insisted as we began walking again. The pace was a little on the slow side, but I’d work on that when the current altercation concluded. “I know it was a man on horseback. I know they’re out there.”

  I heard Morgan huff on my left side as Charolette wrapped her arms around my right arm.

  “Remember when we were freshmen in high school?” Morgan asked. “You remember the night after the homecoming game, Sasha?”

  “There was someone there that night, too,” Sasha retorted, trying to keep her voice low and failing horribly.

  “We were walking home from the football game,” Morgan continued. “Sasha heard a sound and the next thing I knew, we sprinted the entire mile. And that’s not the only time something like that has happened either.”

  We rounded a small corner and I peered ahead. There were no people on horses waiting for us, no people without horses waiting for us; there was nothing there but an empty road and nature for miles and miles… empty nature.

  “Okay,” I said, mainly for Sasha’s benefit. “The coast is clear. Whatever it was is gone. Let’s make time now.”

  “But there was something there,” Charolette replied. “I believe Sasha. There was something there.”

  Most likely not. Just a young woman’s imagination and fear getting the best of her. I appreciated her alertness; the hysterics… well, not so much. Little did I know they were just getting warmed up.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN

  The fourth time Sasha cried out “danger” — or maybe it was the fifth — there might have actually been something on the road. And that something might have actually been a person…or a stick.

  “We need to keep moving,” I whispered to Morgan. “This is getting ridiculous. We can’t be stopping every time a leaf blows across the road.”

  I saw Morgan rise, but before I could do the same, I had to shake Charolette off my back and Sasha from my right arm where she’d been clinging pretty much thus far. While it would have seemed, on paper at least, Charolette was going to be the biggest holdout, Sasha was giving her a run for her money.

  “You two need to get a spine,” Morgan barked softly. “We have a schedule to keep.”

  “Maybe this was a bad idea,” Charolette whined.

  That’s when Morgan got right up into her face. “It was a terrible idea! But it’s the only one we have, so live with it.”

  “Maybe we should just go back,” Sasha cried. “We can go back and tell everyone we got out of the fire and were wandering around in the corn because we were confused. Maybe Shaklin won’t be so hard on us that way. I’ll bet he’d even welcome us back.”

  Sara stepped forward. “With open arms and a bullwhip.” That made both whiners cower. “Now come on. We have to keep moving. Pimento is our new home now. There’s no going back, ever!”

  We assembled on the road and began again our trek away from bondage.

  About another hour later, we’d made good enough progress to take a little rest break. Liv retrieved a biscuit for everyone and passed around the containers of water. Though the night air was cool and felt good on my sweaty face — carrying someone, even someone light, was more strenuous than I’d ever imagined — the cool water hit the spot. The dry biscuit was a little dull though; I’d grown used to them covered in butter and jam.

  “We might have covered three miles so far,” Morgan said, standing on my right side on the dark road. “I’m not sure how much time has passed, but I bet we aren’t making very good time.”

  We weren’t. If I were honest about it, Pimento might end up being two days away, or rather two nights.

  “We need to keep moving,” I insisted to the group. “We have to be as far away from Shaklin’s farm as possible when the sun starts coming up.”

  “What happens if we’re not?” Sara asked the group.

  “They’ll hunt us down in the daylight,” Morgan mused. “That’s what happens to most of the runaways. They make it through the night, but once the sun comes up, they get caught and taken back. I don’t know about any of you, but I’d rather not have that happen.”

  And just like that, everyone was on their feet and we were headed north. Maybe we would make Pimento by sunrise.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT

  At the next crossroad, perhaps 20 minutes further down the road, I paused. A strange sound came from the east, a sound I couldn’t put my finger on at first. Leave it to Morgan to jog my memory.

  “Shit!” she shouted. “Horses!”

  I looked around, panicked at her revelation. To our right was a low field consisting of either grass or short crops. The scene was the same to the left and on both sides ahead. If they had torches, we had nowhere to hide.

  “In the field,” I cried, pushing the group towards the right. “In the field. Get in about 20 steps and get flat on your bellies.”

  Without hesitation, Charolette and Sasha led the way, a good 10 feet in front of the rest of us. When we caught up to them, I almost tripped over Sasha, who was already plastered into her hiding spot.

  I listened as the hoofbeats came closer. After a few more seconds, two figures appeared on the road straight to our north. The horses slowed as they reached the intersection.

  Charolette let out tiny, soft squeaks as the clomps stopped. I wrapped an arm over her back and pulled her close. What we couldn’t have happen was for her cries to give us away.

  I couldn’t make out the men sitting high on the horses. Thus, dressed in dark clothing, hiding in a dark field on a dark night, I doubted they could see us either. And by what I considered the largest stroke of good fortune, neither had a torch or a lantern.

  “South,” one man said to the other. “We go south to the next crossroad. If we don’t see them by then, we turn around and go north.”

  They kicked their steads back into action and disappeared from sight and sound within 30 seconds. Only then did I sit up on my knees and study the intersection where they’d paused.

  “Shaklin’s men,” Morgan commented as she rose beside me. “Had to be Shaklin’s men.”

  I nodded and instantly felt silly, remembering she probably couldn’t see such a gesture in the dark. “Yeah, I don’t think they were out looking for a lost puppy.”

  “You notice they used the word them?” Sara asked as she joined our small group discussion. “They’re definitely looking for us.”

  Yes, they were. However, us didn’t want to be found. Even if it meant a change in plans.

  “This road doesn’t lead anywhere,” Morgan chided for the third time in five minutes. “We’re wasting our time. We’re just going to have to backtrack.”

  “Poppycock,” I replied, trudging onward. “All roads lead somewhere.” At least I hoped they did, and that one in particular.

  “But this isn’t our escape route,” she continued, pointing out the obvious. “We’re going to get lost. That’s how they’re going to find us. We’ll get lost and bam!”

  I looked back and waved Liv ahead. When it turned out to be Sara instead, I called for Liv to come even with me.

  “West then north and we should be fine, right?” I asked, praying she would agree with me.

  “We needed to stay on 375 so we could meet up with 900,” she replied. I felt my shoulders
slump slightly. “That road takes us to 200 and that goes straight north into Pimento. Well, almost. We’ll be on the east side of it at least.”

  “But we’re just taking a slight detour,” I insisted. “The next road should lead us straight north to 900. And then we’ll be back on the right path, right?”

  “I don’t think there’s a road that goes all the way north to 900,” she replied. “I think we have to go all the way west to 200 now. But I don’t remember which of these roads do that. I only studied the route Belinda gave us on that old map.”

  Morgan let out a sigh on my other side as Charolette called out she needed a ride again. We were on the only road the two horsemen hadn’t talked about searching. However, it got us to where we needed to be, which was fine with me. We just needed to keep moving.

  Oh, and if it was at all possible, we needed the Earth to stop rotating for four or five hours, because we weren’t going to be anywhere close to our destination by sunrise. That was a solid fact.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE

  We took a right, then a few miles later a left. Okay, maybe 30 minutes passed between roads. With my five travel mates barking in my ear, it was hard to keep track of time much less what direction we were headed.

  “You’re walking us in a circle,” Morgan whined as I considered our alternatives at the next intersection.

  “Go look at that sign, Liv,” I called back to the only one not on my case at that particular moment. “See if you can read what the roads are.”

  “Do you know what direction we’re headed right now?” Sasha asked nervously. “If it’s east or south, I think that’s trouble.”