by Bruno Miller
Based on the day they had so far, Ben was now a little concerned about their supplies. At their current rate of travel, they would conserve the food. He was hoping to have some of the dehydrated goods left when they got to Maryland, but now he’d be happy if they had enough to last them the whole trip there.
Water shouldn’t be a problem. With the filters they had, it wouldn’t be a big deal to make all the potable water they needed. They could pump from almost any source as long as it wasn’t tainted with petroleum products. Ben’s thoughts flashed back to the airplane crash in the mountains they had seen on their hike home the other day. More specifically, he thought about the hydraulic fluid he had seen running down from the wreck and into the water and the pinkish white foam it had made in the ripples of the river. It made him sick, at the time, to think about the fish it was going to kill and other wildlife that would be adversely affected, but now, realizing that it had other implications in their lives as well, the sick feeling in his stomach returned.
How many other planes had come down in or near rivers and streams across the country? Water sources everywhere could be potentially compromised. Could they even eat the fish from the Rio Grande or any other river for that matter? That complication was something else they would have to evaluate as they made their way across the country.
Chapter Sixteen
They passed through the smaller towns of South Fork, Del Norte, and Monte Vista and were greeted with the same scene over and over again: burned-out husks of what once were thriving little communities. What hadn’t been burned or wrecked was vandalized or destroyed by looters. It was hard to believe that people would turn on each other so quickly.
Then again, maybe it wasn’t.
When they had stopped to deal with the camper blocking their path, Ben had pulled the radios out from the back and put them in the center console. He’d planned to wait until they were out of the mountains but decided to give them another try now out of sheer boredom. Ben guessed they were only 10 miles from Alamosa at this point now that the taller peaks of the Rockies were in the rearview mirror.
He tried the radio, running through the channels in vain.
“Nothing,” Ben mumbled under his breath. He turned the radio off and tossed it back into the console with the other one. He wasn’t sure if there were no transmissions being sent or if there was something wrong with the radio. Someone out there had to be trying to communicate, didn’t they? At least he and the kids could use them to stay in touch next time they had to separate.
Even more disheartening was the lack of other cars on the road or people out and about in the towns. No doubt the looters had driven them all indoors, turning the places they passed through into ghost towns. Ben knew if it wasn’t for the kids in Maryland, they would probably be holed up, too, most likely in the relative safety of their home.
Almost all of the people they had come into contact with so far were trouble and had nefarious intentions. And if those were the only types of people that were out, he was glad they hadn’t seen anyone else. But not everyone was like that. Dale, the man who had graciously stopped to pick them up and given them a much-needed ride, was a decent person. Where were all the Dales?
Surely there were still a few good people out there?
* * *
“Huh, what?” Joel arched his back and stretched his arms out as far as the confines of the truck would allow. He was pretty sure a nudge from his dad had woken him up.
“You had a pretty good nap there, bud.” Ben grinned at him.
“Yeah, I guess I was pretty worn out.” Joel looked out the window to get his bearings. They were coming down out of the mountains. Just in that moment, it dawned on Joel that his dad must be getting tired, and suddenly he felt guilty that he and Allie had been sleeping while his dad was still at the wheel.
“Hey, do you want me to help drive?” Joel offered.
“Maybe tomorrow, but I think we’re going to call it quits pretty soon. I want to stop before it gets dark.”
Allie yawned as she woke up, too. “Where are we?”
Joel looked back to see Allie still half asleep, one hand lazily scratching Gunner’s head. She was still sprawled out across the rear seat with Gunner filling in the gaps.
“A few miles outside Alamosa,” Ben answered. “I was just getting ready to tell Joel that I know a good spot to spend the night on the other side of town. It’s off the main road a little and down by the river. It’s fairly secluded, so we should be able to get a peaceful night’s rest there.”
“Sounds good to me,” Joel said. It would feel good to stretch his legs a little.
“If you’re feeling up to it, maybe you can catch us some dinner after we get the gear set up.” Ben glanced at Joel, clearly waiting for an answer.
“Sure, I’ll try,” Joel said. He was always up for a little fishing.
“So you guys fly fish?” Allie adjusted herself in the seat, sitting upright and disturbing Gunner, who was sprawled across her legs. “That always looks so peaceful when I see them doing it in town along the river.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty addicting.” Joel grinned.
“I think it would be fun to learn how to do it.” Allie looked at Joel as she pulled her hair out of her face and secured it with a hair tie. Gunner now sat up in the seat, panting and looking miserably hot.
“I could teach you.” Joel shrugged as he rolled his window down a few inches. Ben did the same, letting some much-needed air into the cabin of the truck.
“That’s better. It was getting a little doggy in here,” Joel joked and reached back and scratched Gunner’s head.
“Awe, poor Gunner.” Allie smiled.
Joel got re-situated in his seat and enjoyed the breeze as it washed over his face. He closed his eyes for a second and inhaled deeply. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the fresh air. Even Gunner relaxed and stopped panting after a few minutes.
More and more houses flashed past Joel’s window. They must be getting close to town now. Would Alamosa look the same as all the other towns they had been through? Would they ever see a normal place again? Did normal even exist anymore? Everything they had seen so far looked like a scene out of a bad sci-fi movie, and he was beginning to think that was the new norm. He had lost count of the wrecks and mangled bodies they’d seen, and if by chance he momentarily drifted off to better thoughts, it only took a glance out the window to jolt him back to reality.
But Allie? She was like a ray of sunshine in this dark, depressing world they were now living in. From her easy smile to her helpful attitude, she was a bright spot he’d begun to count on. Joel was so thankful that things had worked out the way they did. Of course, he felt awful about her mom, but it was all the more reason he was glad he and his dad could be there for her. The thought of her being alone, stuck in that house, made his stomach ache. Outside of his family, she was all he had now, too.
He snuck a peek at her as he poured some water from his Nalgene bottle out into Gunner’s collapsible bowl. He thought she looked pretty with her face exposed and hair pulled back. Certainly, a welcome distraction from the scenery out the window.
Gunner gave the bowl a sniff and then a few half-hearted licks before sitting back up into the seat. He leaned into Allie, drooling excess water from the bowl onto her shirt sleeve.
“Really, dog?” Joel uttered. “Sorry about that, Allie.”
“It’s okay.” She brushed the water away with her hand and then wiped it right back onto Gunner. “Back at you, big boy.” She giggled and turned to Joel, shrugging her shoulders.
Joel nodded at Allie with a grin. “Put your hand up and say high five.”
She did what he suggested and held her hand up.
“High five,” she parroted. Gunner responded on cue. He clumsily threw out a big brown paw to meet her hand. His paw was almost the size of Allie’s hand as he pushed against her palm. Then he pulled his paw down and leaned into Allie, shoving his head down against her shoulder with a grunt.
Joel was trying to think of something clever to say to keep the mood going when his dad interrupted their fun.
“We might have a problem, guys.”
Chapter Seventeen
Joel spun around in his seat and saw something they hadn’t seen since they’d started the trip. There were people ahead, and there were quite a few of them at that. It looked like they were gathered in the parking lot of a convenience store. There were at least 20–30 people assembled outside in a rough semicircle that seemed to focus on the front of the store.
“That’s quite a crowd.” Ben leaned in over the steering wheel to get a better look as he slowed the truck to a roll. No one had noticed them yet, at least as far as he could tell. But they were only a couple hundred yards away and it was just a matter of time before they were spotted.
“What are they doing?” Joel asked.
“Looks like they’re trying to loot the place.” Some of them were holding tools and pry bars and a few had baseball bats.
“They don’t look too friendly,” Allie said nervously.
“No, they don’t, but there’s something else going on here. Something or someone is stopping them from tearing that place apart.” Ben strained his eyes to make out what was going on.
Suddenly a gunshot rang out, the muzzle flash on the rooftop of the surrounded store giving away the shooter’s location. Now three figures were visible up on the flat roof of the store. They were crouched behind the false front that extended up above the actual roof. Ben got the sense this was their store, and they were making a stand against the mob. It might be a foolish move considering how outnumbered they were, but Ben respected that kind of courage.
“See them on the roof?” Ben pointed so the kids could see the three men.
One of the people on the roof shouted down at the crowd. “Get back or we’ll shoot!”
“Dad, look!” Joel gestured to a small group of people farther out on the fringe of the semicircle. The smaller group was looking at the Blazer.
“They’re coming this way!” Allie blurted out.
A small group of seven or eight guys started slowly making their way to a point in the road that would intersect with the Blazer’s path of travel. Ben hadn’t noticed any of them carrying firearms, but that didn’t mean anything. They did have a few baseball bats, a shovel, and an ax, though, and they certainly weren’t coming over to welcome them to the neighborhood.
Ben stepped on the gas pedal and launched the Blazer forward. The approaching people started running toward them, swinging their various instruments of destruction wildly about and screaming and cursing as they came.
“This is going to be close.” Ben gritted his teeth as he maneuvered the truck around a few wrecked cars and tried to get past the rioters before they could run into the road. He wasn’t sure what they would do, but they might be stupid enough to try to block them, thinking he wouldn’t run them over. They were wrong, though. To protect Joel and Allie, he absolutely would run them down if it came to that. His second-biggest concern next to the kids’ safety was doing damage to the truck.
Ben glanced at the store parking lot to see if they had attracted any more interest from the crowd, but no one else seemed to be paying attention to them. The crowd was content to terrorize the poor folks defending their property. But Ben had no time to think about that right now.
The rioters were going to get to the road before Ben could get clear of them. There were too many obstacles between them and the choke point the small group was creating. They were clustered together by a truck that blocked all but a small section of the road. The opening was 10 feet across at most. Plenty big enough to get the Blazer through without any trouble, but not with seven or eight people blocking it.
“You know,” Ben said sharply before pausing a second. “I’ve had just about had enough of this crap today.”
“Dad?” Joel’s brows lifted in concern.
Ben answered with action. He took his foot of the gas and started to slow down. “Hang on tight!”
He then reached back to hold Gunner in place with his right hand and hung onto the wheel with his left as he drove his foot down on the brake pedal. The Blazer slid to a stop, making the tires sing in protest on the dry pavement. The back end of the truck slightly kicked out to the driver’s side as a result of the slide. This put the driver’s seat of the Blazer closest to the roadblock at a 45-degree angle.
Just the vantage point Ben wanted.
He reached down to where he had wedged the holstered Desert Eagle between the seat and console and pulled it out with him as he exited the truck in one fluid motion.
He left the door open and stayed behind it. He might be fed up, but that was no reason to be stupid.
“Get the AR ready.” Ben gave the order without looking away from the group of people blocking their path.
“Dad, more people are coming over.” Joel’s voice held the thin edge of fear.
Ben looked over to see a few stragglers break off from the mob at the store and start to wander in their direction. The situation was deteriorating quickly, and with each second that went by, their odds of getting out of there unscathed dropped significantly.
“You keep an eye on those guys and be ready with the gun.” Ben motioned at the newcomers. There was no time to waste and Ben needed to act now.
He turned his attention to the group blocking the road.
“Clear the road now!” Ben commanded.
“We just want to talk is all,” one of the strangers offered.
“Clear the road now,” Ben repeated a little slower but unwavering in his demand.
But the stranger and his crew didn’t move.
“Looks like you have a lot of supplies in there, maybe enough to share with us less fortunate folks,” the man said with a creepy undertone to his voice. He was the one in the group that Ben had his eye on to begin with, the only one that wasn’t holding any type of weapon. Didn’t mean the man wasn’t carrying.
Ben’s suspicions proved to be correct when the man reached around to the small of his back and produced a pistol. He didn’t point it at Ben or the truck, but he waved it around in a threatening manner.
“Why don’t we just do this the easy way? No need to make things difficult.” The man with the gun sneered at them.
Ben glanced at the others getting closer by the second. They were coming straight toward the truck, unlike the first group that had formed the roadblock. He decided it was time to end this.
Bringing the Desert Eagle out into view from behind the door, he raised it up and aimed through the still open window on the doorframe. A couple of the roadblock crew stepped back a bit, but their leader with the gun stood firm.
Ben wasn’t sure if the guy was mental or just acting tough in front of the others, but whatever the reason, he attempted to draw on Ben and fired the small-caliber pistol as he brought it up. The bullet hit the ground to the left of Ben and by the time he got set to take another shot, Ben was already halfway through his trigger squeeze.
A split-second later, the nearly one-foot-long, five-pound behemoth of a handgun erupted with a deafening bark, launching the 300-grain lead hollow-point round out of the barrel at over 1,500 feet per second.
With the leader of the group blocking the road in front of them only 20 yards away, the result was immediate and gruesome. The bullet hit him square in the chest. Because of the high velocity, it blew straight through and hit one of the others that had the misfortune of standing directly behind him.
The second man went down fast in a lifeless pile on the ground, but the intended target remained standing with a blank look on his face. Still in shock, he looked down in disbelief at the half-dollar-sized hole that went clear through his chest. He managed a step back before dropping to his knees a few seconds later, followed by a face plant into the blacktop.
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br /> The others that had helped form the road block slowly backed away at first and then started running in different directions. Ben slipped around the door and swung the gun in the air over the hood of the truck to discourage the approaching group from advancing, but they were already backing up, too. A few had their hands in the air.
Ben capitalized on the moment. He jumped back in the truck and threw it into drive. He glanced over and saw that Joel had the AR pointed out the window at the retreating crowd.
“Keep it on them,” Ben stated as he gave the truck gas and quickly accelerated through the now-open gap in the road.
He did his best to miss the bodies as they navigated through the narrow opening, but it was unavoidable and with the windows down they could hear the sounds of crunching bones and squishing organs under the tires as they drove over the bodies. Ben could see Allie cringe in the rearview mirror as they traversed the human speed bumps.
“Do you see anyone trying to follow us, Allie?” Ben asked, trying to distract her.
She twisted around in her seat, straining to see behind them. “No, I don’t think so.”
“Good. We still have to go a few miles before we get to the road that leads to the river. If they don’t try to follow us, maybe we can still stay there.” He glanced at his son. “Good job backing me up back there, Joel.”
“Yep, no problem.” Joel slid the AR back into the soft case and settled himself in his seat before buckling the seatbelt again.
Ben reached over and grabbed Joel’s shoulder, giving him a slight squeeze. They’d made it through.
“Keep checking, Allie, and let me know if you see anyone following us, okay?” Ben asked.
“Okay, I will,” Allie answered.
Ben knew the mob would likely go back to terrorizing the store owners. He felt bad for them and wished there was something they could have done to help, but it was every man for himself now, and he couldn’t afford to be anything but selfish when it came to putting their needs and safety first.