"What I can't understand," Al said, speaking for the first time since sitting down, "is what was so important for you to drive clear across the country. You were never much of a traveler, son."
And there it was. Back to reality.
Solly drew in a deep breath and looked over at his former father-in-law. "We don't have time for the full story, and I'd be happier listening to your news, but I was carrying a device I was told held the key to stopping the second dying."
"The second what?"
"The Lee Corporation—they're the ones behind all this—wants to finish what they started."
Al sat forward, suddenly alert. "You mean they're gonna kill all the survivors?"
"That's a hard question to answer," Solly said, arranging his thoughts. "I think they want to make slaves of the survivors, not kill them. But, as far as I can tell, that's what they wanted to do on the Long Night, and that went badly wrong."
"They didn't mean to kill everyone? So why did all those folks die?"
Solly sighed. "Because they were outmaneuvered by Annabel Lee."
"But she was the Lee Corporation. It was her company!"
"Not by then. And I don't think they were doing it alone—I think the Chinese government was involved. They wanted control of the Western world, but she wanted to take the rest of humanity with her to the grave."
Al whistled through his teeth. "My God. And this is all going to happen again? But I don't have an implant."
"They have hunting machines. I've seen them. Me and a group of others destroyed their production facility in New York, but that'll only delay them, it won't stop them. The device I carried was supposed to be the answer somehow. It contained an AI and I think its creator's intention was to use it to take over the Lee Corporation somehow. I don't know, and I'm not sure he had the details down pat either. But it sacrificed itself in saving us when we attacked the factory. It's dead. All I have is its container."
"You talk about it as if it was a person," Maddie said.
"I guess I thought of Alison like that. She grew on me."
Maddie looked up at him. "Alison? It had a name?"
"Can I see the doohickey?" Al asked.
Solly fished the cylinder out of his pack and handed it to Al, who pulled it from the sheath before holding it in front of the gas lamp and turning it over in his gnarled, clever hands.
"Amazing. And this is the activation switch?"
"Yeah. But nothing happens when you press it."
Al confirmed this before looking up at Solly. "What powers it?"
Solly shrugged. "I'm not sure. Something to do with kinetic energy."
"Clever. So, it charges itself as it's moved. And you've covered a lot of miles, so the battery should be full. Do you mind if I take a look inside?"
"Knock yourself out, Al. But I'm heading to bed, I'm exhausted."
Al nodded without looking up. "You do that, Solly my boy. And tomorrow, you go get my daughter and I'll see what I can do about your robot friend here."
Solly got up, kissed his daughter and roused Ross, who'd fallen asleep on the dinette table. He waved goodbye to Maddie as he helped the boy down, and to the old man as he bent over the cylinder. Let the silly fool fiddle with the most advanced piece of 21st century he'd ever seen. What harm could he do?
Solly was in a black mood as the Humvee pulled out of its camping site to head back to the main road. He'd cried again as he'd hugged Maddie. He wanted nothing more than to keep her close, but he had to find out what had happened to Bella. Al and Maddie had already waited for longer than they'd been told to, and Solly was certain something bad had happened to prevent Bella from sending a message or joining them.
Al had advised him where he could park on the edge of the town of Elizabeth. He'd thought Maddie was joking when she'd said Bella was the mayor having taken over from a bloodthirsty maniac. It seemed his ex-wife had also changed a lot since he'd last seen her.
Solly's blood had chilled when he'd learned that the Lee Corporation had gotten involved and that had only confirmed his fears for Bella. Al had talked of protests outside the town hall and Solly knew that Lee Corp was fomenting trouble in Elizabeth. He only hoped he could do something about it.
Vivian sat next to him, but Solly had insisted that Ross stay with Maddie and Al. They would have to park outside town and walk in, and despite the improvement in his condition, Ross wasn't up to that. As he'd talked to the boy, he'd sensed the shutters coming down and distance forming between them. Solly understood how conflicted Ross would be about Maddie, especially, and suspected that, despite his kind nature, the boy was deeply jealous of the natural bond between Solly and his daughter.
Solly looked over his shoulder, but there was no sign of Ross as they pulled out of the RV park and back onto the main road to Elizabeth.
The St. Lawrence National Forest bordered the outskirts of Elizabeth to the north and east and Al had suggested they approach the town from that direction. So, they headed down the highway until they reached a left turning that took them along a small road into the southernmost skirt of the forest.
It was a narrow lane bounded on both sides by trees whose leafless branches were coated in a suggestion of green, hinting at the approaching spring. They passed the town cemetery on the right and then followed the twisting road through the forest until they approached their first target.
"That stinks, Solly!" Vivian said, squeezing her nostrils together.
Soon enough, he found the turning into the regional landfill and took the Humvee along the trash-laden track, past a huge scar on the landscape filled with the detritus of their former civilization. Al had told him that if he followed the dirt road that ran alongside the great pit, he'd eventually end up at a small pond, beside which there was a parking lot for hunters and fishers, and the road that led from that lot would take them into the outskirts of Elizabeth. Al was a sly old fox—he'd plainly worked out an escape route that, in the end, he hadn't needed himself.
Solly left the Humvee beside a rusting wreck in the parking lot. They locked it and checked that they were both armed with spare magazines.
"We've got to stay out of sight, Viv," he said. "If we're discovered then even if we do get away, any chance of surprise goes out the window."
She rolled her eyes at him. "I know, Sol. You told me like a hundred times. Ghost mode, that's what we gotta use. I've come along to help get your ex-wife outta here, so that's what I'm gonna do. Don't you worry about me."
"Sorry," he said. Truth to tell, he was worried about her. She was a young woman with a hidden vein of anger that was a sight to behold when it was exposed. Though she'd proven more than capable of handling herself, he'd have been a whole lot happier if Kuchinsky was here. But Kuchinsky wasn't, so he patted her on the arm and said, "Come on, then."
The track into town was barely visible beneath a thick layer of leaves, but they picked their way through to a metal barrier that had been left open. As they came out from under the cover of the trees, they emerged onto a road lined with ranch houses on either side. A basketball hoop stood outside one, a ride-on toy car beside it, both looking as though they were waiting for children to run out of the house and play with them again.
Solly and Vivian kept to the sides of the road, using the trees which had been planted at regular intervals for cover. It would be a mile or so until they'd reach the town proper, so they took a break halfway along, enjoying the shelter of a veranda and trying not to think about whether anyone had been left inside all those months ago. None of the houses they'd passed had been occupied by the living in months; probably since the Long Night. Presumably, those who'd survived had moved into town in the hopes of finding others.
An hour later, they were near the end of the tree-lined road when Solly noticed a woman emerging from the woods. She immediately stiffened and went to run, but stopped at Solly's urgent call.
"We don't mean you any harm," he hissed. "Please, help us."
She turned to face them bot
h. "This ain't the way into town. If you're newcomers, you gotta take the main road from the west."
"Do you know what happened to the mayor?" Solly asked.
The woman looked from one to the other. "So, you are from around here? Been away? Well, the old mayor is back."
"What do you mean?"
She was examining them closely as she spoke. "Tell me first what you thought of Mayor Kennedy."
In for a penny. "She was a psycho," Solly responded, watching as the old woman's features relaxed. "Now, what happened? Where's Bella Masters?"
"Who wants to know?"
"I'm her husband, Solly Masters."
The woman looked puzzled. "No, that can't be right. She's hangin' out with that fella. The one with the skull tattoo."
"Okay. I'm her ex-husband," Solly sighed.
A smile broke the woman's face and twenty years seemed to drop from her. "Now that's kinda sweet. And who's this? Your new girl?"
"No!" Vivian erupted. "We're mates. He's old enough to be my father!"
The woman shrugged. "Wouldn't be the first time. Won't be the last," she said, before turning back to Solly. "To answer your question, the old mayor is bein' held in the supplies warehouse with the others she was caught with, or at least those who haven't turned against her and gone to work for the old witch. I said at the time, I said she should've hanged Kennedy as soon as she caught her. Soft-hearted, that's your wife's trouble."
Solly smiled.
"Ex-wife, I should say."
The smile disappeared. "What's going to happen to them?"
And now the years returned to the old woman's face. "They're building the scaffold now, my boy. If you want to help your Bella, you'd best do it quick for they're to hang soon."
Chapter 16
"That's insane!"
Vivian paced around the little parking lot next to the fishing pond, as Solly leaned against the Humvee watching her let off steam.
"I don't like it any more than you do, but if you've got a better idea, I'm all ears."
She stopped in front of him, hands on hips, strands of curly hair that had escaped from her military cap framing her round, chestnut face, wearing an expression of indignant frustration.
"How about I go instead of you?"
Solly shook his head. "You don't know what Bella looks like, and you can hardly ask for directions to the former mayor." It was a weak excuse, but Solly wasn't about to have his plans changed now that he'd decided on his course. Bella had often accused him of inflexibility, never understanding why he reacted so badly when anything unexpected happened, however trivial. Well, the Long Night had gone a long way to curing that particular foible, but he retained a stubborn streak and wasn't backing down in face of Vivian's anger.
"So, you're just gonna walk into the town, find that warehouse and then I'm suppose' to find you. Am I right?"
"Sure, that's about it. I'm taking a smoke grenade. As soon as you get my call, you need to get to me fast." He sighed as she glared at him. "Look, we can't just drive into town in a Humvee and cruise around looking for this warehouse, can we? We know the Lee Corporation's here, and, in any case, we'd attract too much attention. I'll get myself in position, then you come rescue me, rescue us. I'm relying on you, Viv."
He watched her face soften as she realized she couldn't come up with a better plan. If they'd known exactly where the warehouse was, they could have gone in all guns blazing in the hope of being in and out before the Lee Corporation, or local law enforcement, could stop them. But though the woman they'd met the previous day had told them roughly where it was, they were strangers in a strange town. He would have to go in alone.
Solly walked at a steady pace along a narrow country lane, eyes scanning the trees and bushes for any sign of people. Tiny houses in big fields lined the road, giving way to larger ranch houses with long driveways covered in deep piles of rotting leaves. No one had been here for a long time, that much was obvious, and Solly relaxed his guard so much that he had to force himself to keep moving forward as quickly as possible. It was a bright sunny day in early spring and he could have been the only human alive.
The burned-out gas station erased this brief, superficial contentment. The pumps were blackened shells surrounded by blobs of plastic that had solidified in multicolored pools. Beyond, the remains of the shop, all broken glass and twisted metal, sat open to the sky, a monument to the impotence of civilization in the after days.
Solly took the next right after the gas station, as the woman had directed. There was still no sign of recent human activity, but he could sense that he was getting closer to the inhabited part of the town as the houses were getting closer together, though no less disheveled. Rusting bikes and toppled basketball hoops, collapsed swing sets and broken windows. Somehow, Solly found this even more depressing than the dead streets of New York because it reminded him much more keenly of his house in Texas. He thought of Maddie, waiting nervously for him to return, and he thought of Bella. What was she thinking?
One thing was certain—the Bella he'd last seen on his last visit home was no more the woman he'd known than he was the Solly she'd divorced. It was impossible to bend his mind to accept a reality in which she was the mayor of a town, and even less that she'd headed a coup against the previous incumbent. He half-expected to break into the warehouse to find that he was rescuing another person called Bella Masters, and yet he knew this was ridiculous. The apocalypse had changed her as much as it had changed him, it seemed, and he wondered what that would mean for the two of them.
Movement. Solly put his hand on the gun hidden inside his coat, but breathed out again as an elderly dog emerged from a hedge and walked arthritically in his direction. Solly reached into his pack and pulled out a stick of jerky.
"I wouldn't give him none of that, if I were you." A man, who looked as old, in human years, as the dog, approached from a gate farther along the hedge. "He sits there and waits for someone to walk by, then he plays his 'I'm a poor little doggie' card in hopes of a treat. He ain't hungry, not really. But he does have a delicate gut. I'm Chester, by the way. Pleased to meet a fellow dog lover."
Solly got up, ignoring the disappointed expression on the mutt's long, gray-tinged face. "Solly," he said, extending his hand.
"Stranger here?"
Solly nodded. "Yeah, just passing through."
Chester looked behind himself before leaning in close. "You might just want to reconsider that, friend. All of a sudden, Elizabeth isn't so welcoming as it was, especially for folks coming from the north. How did you get here?"
"I came through the forest," Solly said. "Beautiful place, though not much to eat. But what's wrong here? I'd heard this was a good town to head for."
Chester lowered his voice even further. "It was, but we've had a change of administration and the new folks have closed off the town. And there's a curfew, so even those who was here before can't go about their business no more. But I didn't say any of that, d'you hear me?"
"I hear you," Solly said with a grim smile. "All the same, I think I'll take my chances. I can be pretty inconspicuous when I want to be."
Eyes narrowing, Chester regarded Solly with a mixture of suspicion and admiration. "Hmm. Seems to me there's more to this than just a stranger walkin' along a lane outside my house. But," he said, as Solly went to respond, "you don't need to tell me nothin' you haven't a mind to. I'm a pretty good judge of character and Finn seems to have taken to you. Maybe you're here to stir things up a little, but whether you are or not, I'll give you a little help. Follow me."
He lived in a ranch house made of white painted wood that had been kept spotlessly clean and inside it was like an oasis of calm, or a shrine to the 1970s, depending on the viewer's taste.
Chester went to a cabinet in the hallway and opened a drawer. "Here," he said, his hand emerging with a small sheaf of green bills. "I traded for these, but don't have much use for them."
They were dollar bills, but each had an ornate letter E stamped on
it. "What are they?"
"Elizabeth Dollars—Lizzies—our local currency. If you get into a sticky situation, show them these."
"Bribery?"
He shrugged. "Maybe, but it's also good evidence that you're from the town. These notes are pretty new, so only townsfolk have them. And a dollar goes a long way in Elizabeth, so you should be able to get whatever you need in the market with these."
"I can't accept them," Solly said, attempting to hand them back.
Chester shook his head and raised his hands. "Take it! I told you, I don't need much. Me and Finn see to each other and we got plenty of supplies laid down."
Solly thanked him. "Why do you live out here on your own?"
"Because it's my home, Solly. I lived here for fifty years before Judgement Day. Got married, raised a family. All gone now." The old man shook his head sadly. "No, I'll stay here. But you go find what you're lookin' for, son, and if you can cause a little mischief in the town, then I'll be all the happier."
Solly trudged along, Lizzies in his pocket, thinking about the old man and his dog. Judgement Day, he'd called it. Well, if that was true, the human race had committed some pretty serious crimes. But it was just short-hand for something most people couldn't explain. There had, after all, been no justice in Judgement Day. Too many good folks had died, too many bad people had survived.
As he walked, he began to encounter people going about their routine business. Most of them walked with eyes cast down, determined, it seemed, to get to their destination as quickly as possible without seeing anything.
And so, as he entered more urbanized areas, he was ignored, and yet felt more and more as though, if anyone did look up, he'd be known for a stranger instantly.
The old woman had told him to look for a Walmart and, just as he was beginning to wonder whether he'd taken a wrong turn, he saw it. He knew it was guarded, and, in his mind's eye, he saw Landon again standing in the booth at the barrier of that depot near the farmhouse. Another good person lost.
Betrayed: Book 5 in the Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Survival series: (The Long Night - Book 5) Page 13