by Ellis, Tara
Raising his eyebrows, John lifted his chin in Russell’s direction. “You the law?”
Russell was tempted to ask where in the world they were from, but refrained from poking the bear. “Yes, sir. As I was trying to tell you, I only wanted to make an even trade.”
John grunted again and jammed the clothing back into his backpack before throwing it at him. Russell caught it, still straddling his bike, and looked expectantly at the three men. “Now what?” he asked, nonplussed. They had yet to pull his tent and sleeping bag from where they were tied onto his bike, but perhaps they didn’t care about them. They seemed to have enough tents.
“Go back the way you came,” John ordered, waving a meaty hand back up the road.
Russell hung his head, feigning relief. Without another word, he adjusted his backpack and then turned around. Looking back once over his shoulder, he did as ordered and pedaled back up the road. What they couldn’t see was the smile on his face.
While losing the last of his food and some of his equipment was clearly a hindrance he’d rather have avoided, he had to admit that the whole encounter was entertaining. It was also encouraging. They were the first group of people he’d met who had the potential to demonstrate what it took to survive. To deserve to survive.
Russell stopped when he reached the parking lot, and, checking once to make sure he wasn’t being followed, got off his bike. He removed a small pocket knife from his pants pocket, and then used it to cut one of his socks into strips before approaching the first car and opening its gas cover. Smiling, he took a lighter from his other pocket and snapped a flame to life. Two minutes later, he was back on the bike, whistling a familiar tune.
Russell made it a quarter mile up US Route 20 before the whooshing sound of the first car exploding reached him. It must not have had much gasoline in the tank, so the fumes combusted more easily.
Perfect.
Whistling louder, his mood greatly enhanced, Russell didn’t look back to see if any smoke was visible. The fire wouldn’t necessarily kill them, but it would certainly burn their camp out. He didn’t feel bad for the thieving scamps, except that they had come so close to being what was needed. However, they’d made two critical mistakes. One, they hadn’t taken all of Russell’s stuff. Second, and most importantly…they’d let him live.
Chapter 8
ETHAN
Near Monida, Montana
Ethan watched with growing concern as his dad helped Sam down off his horse again so he could rest. They had only made it another twenty minutes since the last time he had to stop. Sam was getting worse and there wasn’t anything they could do about it.
“He needs an inhaler,” Danny said to his dad, as she looked up from where she’d laid her head against Sam’s back to listen to him breathe. “That, and maybe some steroids.”
“I’m fine,” Sam coughed while attempting to push Danny away. “We should keep going.”
“You’re not fine!” Danny snapped. “You’ve inhaled too much smoke, Sam. If we don’t find you some help, you’ll end up with pneumonia. It already sounds like you’ve got some fluid building up.”
“How’s that possible?” Tom asked.
Danny pulled her hair up into a ponytail with jerking movements and then looked back and forth between the two men with obvious irritation. “The smoke he inhaled is causing the bronchial tubes…his airway, to become inflamed. The inflammation makes it hard for him to breathe and causes fluid to build up in his lower lungs. That can easily become infected and lead to pneumonia, or even collapsed lungs.”
Ethan watched silently as his dad scratched at his head while absorbing the information. Tom looked out at the vast countryside and a nearby road sign. “We’re only five miles from this place called Monida.” He gestured at the sign, their first confirmation that they’d made it across the state line and into Montana. “I doubt they’re big enough to have a hospital or pharmacy, but maybe we’ll get lucky and at least find someone with an inhaler.”
Ethan shook his head in frustration and pulled at Tango’s reins to bring him about. His dad knew they weren’t going to just happen to find someone in that tiny town who would be willing to give them their inhaler. It made Ethan angry that they didn’t have any other options.
It should have never happened in the first place. Not the fire, there wasn’t any way to have known about that, but they should have gone back for Sam and Grace right at the beginning, like he’d wanted to. If his dad had listened to him, just let him go—Ethan swallowed hard, refusing to allow himself to tear up. He couldn’t get on his dad for treating him like a kid yet then act like one.
“Ethan!” his dad shouted, right on cue.
“I’m going to scout ahead,” Ethan offered without looking back.
“Don’t go too far!”
Ethan didn’t answer, but looked down to make sure Grace was coming. Unlike Sam, the retriever made a quick and what appeared to be almost complete recovery. She was still hacking every once in a while, but was otherwise her same, normal, happy and energetic self.
“Good girl,” Ethan called to her when she ran up to within a few feet of Tango’s legs. Though the horse was high-spirited, he got along great with Grace. Probably because she rarely barked and provided a sense of protection from natural predators.
Not that they’d seen any. Aside from an occasional deer, the only other animals they’d encountered were fish. And Ethan was getting extremely sick of fish. There hadn’t been much in the way of scavenging to do in the past three days. Before the fires became an issue, the few farmhouses they passed looked occupied. After being met at the first one with a shotgun, they all decided to avoid any sort of contact, unless they became desperate.
Ethan wasn’t sure what qualified as desperate anymore. He thought he did, after his ordeal with Decker and Billy and what he’d seen in the city. As the days went by, though, they’d started to see signs of true starvation in addition to everything else. The last small town they passed through was a stark contrast to Pocatello. It consisted of only three blocks. The only two storefronts were broken out and the contents looted days before, and one whole block was burned down. Of the few buildings that remained, only one appeared to be occupied. A woman stood staring out the window, unmoving, while another sat on the front porch, staring blankly at the road. Her eyes were sunken and her lips parched. Danny tried to offer her some water, but she wouldn’t even look at her. It was like she was waiting to die.
Ethan couldn’t get out of there fast enough, and the idea of going through another small town wasn’t appealing. He was hoping to see if there was a way around it, except the terrain had just enough hills and valleys to make off-roading it not worth the possible time lost.
Ethan heard a sound and sat up straight in his saddle. Tango responded to the change in pressure and came to a stop, stomping once at the ground to show his displeasure. It sounded like men talking, and they had to be close for him to hear them. He crested a small hill that curved to the left, and a scattering of trees blocked his view of what was around the bend.
Grace whined from where she sat on the ground, haunches quivering. She heard them, too. Ethan hesitated, torn between wanting to prove to his dad that he could be trusted with more responsibility, and fear of living up to his father’s doubts.
Ever since he’d been reunited with his dad, Tom acted like Ethan was a burden to the rest of the adults, rather than a valuable part of the team. Ethan understood it was probably because his dad was just afraid of losing him again, but there was a part of him that couldn’t help but feel like it was because his dad blamed him for what happened.
Ethan was the one who had fallen for the trap and gone running up to Billy, lying in wait in the road. He’d just stood there and watched as Decker clubbed his dad, and then allowed himself to be taken. For five days, Ethan failed to find a way to escape, forcing his dad to chase after him, shot and with a serious head injury. Then, he’d almost gotten Danny and Sam killed…twice. First, when
Decker and Billy tried to rob them, and then when his dad attacked them.
Ethan’s hands gripped the leather reins so tightly his fingers turned white. Maybe it was because Danny and Sam had seen him attack Billy, so they knew what he was capable of, but they showed him more respect than his own dad. Ethan was going to have to prove he was stronger than his dad thought.
His mind made up, Ethan slid off Tango’s back and tied the horse off to the nearest tree. “Stay!” he whispered to Grace, pointing a finger at her. She tipped her head at him, but sat obediently and watched as he backed away from the two animals.
It didn’t take long for Ethan to scurry through the group of trees at the top of the hill. When he dropped to a knee and peeked out around a large boulder, he almost whooped out loud.
Soldiers! Four men in combat fatigues, with automatic rifles slung across their backs, were casually leaning up against a makeshift fence they’d erected across the interstate. Ethan couldn’t tell from where he was, but he guessed they were either Army or Marines. Nailed to an old fence pole that was crisscrossed over another was a sign with the bold letters: FEMA.
Ethan knew what FEMA was, and it filled him with hope. A feeling of near-euphoria at the thought of essentially being rescued almost caused him to stand and shout a hello. However, his eagerness to live up to his dad’s expectations was stronger, and he slapped a hand over his mouth to muffle his gasp of disbelief at seeing them.
A little perplexed by the crudeness of the roadblock, Ethan studied the men more closely. Their uniforms were dirty, and there weren’t any vehicles nearby. However, now that he was concentrating, there was another, unusual sound coming from further down the road. Ethan strained to see in the distance, since shadows had already started to invade the small valley formed in between the low hills. He could see a couple of buildings to the right of the interstate, and Ethan assumed that must be part of Monida, the town they were looking for. On the opposite side of the freeway, a large field was partially obscured by more trees, but Ethan thought he saw what looked like the tops of tents. A light winked on in the developing twilight.
Ethan covered his mouth again. The sound must be a generator. It was the first time he’d seen any working electronics since the event, except for Danny and Sam’s flashlight. He thought he saw movement in between the buildings, but it was hard to make out how many people there were, and if they were in uniform or not. The whinny of a horse caught his attention and he saw there were four tied off beyond the fence.
So, the soldiers were using horses instead of cars. Well, at least they had working lights. Ethan scurried backwards on his hands and knees until he felt he was at a safe enough distance to stand without being seen.
He ran back to Tango, so excited to share his discovery that he barely felt the ground under his feet. “Good girl!” he whispered to Grace as she jumped up to greet him, still in the same spot as when he’d left.
Sam was already on his horse and getting ready to leave when Ethan came back into view, pushing Tango at a full gallop. Tom and Danny were tying down a bag on the pack horse and looked up in surprise at his approach.
“Ethan!” Tom shouted, clearly unhappy. “Where were you? And why are you running that horse so hard? You know better than to ride like that!”
Some of Ethan’s excitement deflated, but he was too amped up to let even his dad get to him. “Soldiers!” he shouted, while fighting to stay in the saddle as Tango sidestepped. Grace barked, picking up on his excitement, and causing Tango to sidestep again.
Tom moved up and took hold of Tango’s lead rope. “What do you mean, soldiers?”
Ethan huffed, exasperated. “Soldiers! You know, the kind that wear fatigues and carry guns? There’s a bunch of them right up the road. They’ve set up a roadblock. Oh! And there’s this sign that says FEMA, and I think there are tents with a generator running!”
Tom let go of the rope and stepped back, startled. Danny came rushing up to his side, her face hopeful. “Did you talk to them? What did they say?”
Ethan shook his head emphatically. “No, I figured Dad would want to talk to them first.” He felt a brief flash of pride when he saw his dad nod approvingly.
“Good, Ethan.” Tom looked up at Sam, who had maneuvered his horse over to them.
“What are you thinking, Tom?” Sam coughed and wiped weakly at his mouth.
“That we need to be cautious.” Tom turned to Danny when she balked at his comment. “We don’t know who they are, or what’s going on.”
“You can’t be serious,” Danny said, waving her hands in the air. “If it’s the US military, then yeah, we do know who they are and I’ll bet you they can tell us what’s going on.”
“Then why set up a roadblock?” Tom countered. “With armed guards? All I’m saying is that I think we should take some time to figure out what their objective is.”
Sam was nodding. “I agree. We’ve all seen what’s going on in the cities, and now even out in the countryside. The military has probably invoked martial law—” a coughing fit forced him to stop until he could catch his breath. “I think Tom’s just saying we don’t want to end up on the wrong side of a fence.”
“Well, I disagree.” Danny turned to Tom and looked up at him pleadingly. “Please, Tom. Sam needs medicine. Tonight.” She waved a hand in the direction Ethan had come from. “And your son has just informed us that a FEMA camp is up the road. The medication he needs is common and I’d expect them to have some.”
“They had lights,” Ethan offered, not knowing why that bit of information might help sway the argument any. “Electricity. I saw it.”
His dad looked from Ethan, to Sam, and then back down at Danny. He looked uncomfortable, but finally ran both of his hands through his hair before flashing a rare smile. “Let’s go get some help.”
Chapter 9
DANNY
FEMA Camp M3, Montana
“What took you so long?” Danny made no attempt to hide her irritation with Tom. He had insisted on traipsing through the woods that lined the far side of the town. He wanted to work his way around to the northern end of the FEMA camp and hide his .45 beyond the other entrance, near the interstate. Their only weapon with a bullet left in it.
Danny chalked some of his paranoia up to the last remnants of his concussion, but was regretting playing into it. He’d been gone for more than an hour and it was getting dark.
“It was farther than I thought it’d be,” Tom answered unapologetically.
Ethan was bouncing on the balls of his feet, excited to hear the details. “Well, what did you see?”
Tom rubbed at the back of his neck and then ran his hand down his right shoulder, where the gunshot wound was still healing. Danny noticed the back of his hand was scraped and there was fresh dirt on his shirt. He must have fallen at some point. “Not much. I didn’t want to get too close. Monida’s another two-street town, and it looked like the few buildings there are occupied by the military. At least a dozen soldiers that I could see, all of them armed.”
“Occupied?” Danny echoed. “It’s not an invasion, Tom. It’s FEMA. They’re there to help.”
“Maybe,” Sam said, his voice hoarse. “Sure is a lot of artillery though, for a rescue mission.”
“You guys were at the same town as me yesterday, right?” Danny asked, her voice rising. “Because from what I saw, those people would have welcomed an ‘invasion’. How else do you expect the military to intervene? We’ve seen and experienced dozens of reasons to justify them treating it like a warzone.” Danny didn’t understand Tom’s hesitation. He was a cowboy, for crying out loud. Of anyone, she expected him to show more patriotism.
“I don’t disagree with you,” Tom said, turning to face her. “That’s why I’d rather avoid them. Because you’re right. The majority of the people left out here right now are helpless and need to be rounded up and told what to do in order to keep them from killing each other. I’m afraid that’s exactly what they’re doing, and I don’t w
ant us to get caught up in the middle of it. We don’t need to be saved. We just need to get home and they’ve set up a literal roadblock that could prevent that.”
“Can the horses make it around?” Sam asked, and Danny looked at him incredulously.
“Sam! You need help. He needs help!” she shouted at Tom, taking a step toward him while pointing at the older man who was doing his best not to slump over where he sat.
Tom nodded and surprised Danny by reaching out to take her hand that was still outstretched. Holding it, he looked at her with an intensity that reminded her of the way he was the night they met, and she resisted the urge to pull away. “You’re right. We need to go. I just want you to be careful. The horses can’t make it the way I went,” he continued, dropping her hand and addressing Sam. “And according to the map, the river we’ve been playing hide-and-seek with for the past two days borders the far side of the opening where the camp is set up. There’s no way of knowing how deep it is or what the terrain is like around it. Danny’s right. Our only option is to stop here, rest up, and hope they let us through.”
“Why wouldn’t they?” Ethan asked. Danny had sensed a tension between the teen and his dad ever since the day after they’d been reunited. His tone was more challenging than questioning and she winced at the way Tom looked at him.
“Because they’re blocking the road for a reason, and it would be foolish to assume they’re going to treat us like we’re anything other than the other lunatics we’ve been trying to avoid.” Tom took an audible breath and pressed a hand to his head. Ethan took a step toward him, concerned, but his dad waved him away. “I’m fine. Let’s get moving.”
Danny wasn’t sure if she was experiencing apprehension or excitement as they approached the soldiers. The horses announced their arrival well in advance, so there was no chance of startling the armed men.