Only then did they dismount and begin the hunt for more gasoline. Sadie’s shins were doing a little better and she was able to hobble along with a drill of her own. She went on one side of the street while Jillybean went on the other, keeping pace with each other, just in case they ran up against any zombies, of which there were very few.
Most of the zombies were led away from the odd drilling sound by Jillybean and her laser pointer, however one wouldn’t take the hint and had to be put down by Sadie. The gunshot seemed to roll from one end of the valley to the other. They quickly went back to the Suburban with their collected gas, filled the tank and zipped out of there at a heady twelve miles an hour.
They didn’t stop again for a few hours and when they did, they were only six miles from the college town of Missoula. It sat on the junction of four river valleys and, after one look at the map, both of them wanted no part of the place.
They hunted for more gas in a wide spot in the road called Florence and after, as the sun was just thinking about making an appearance, they took a rutted dirt road that went on and on. “Don’t they build roads for a reason?” Jillybean asked. “Aren’t they supposed to go somewhere?”
She was cranky from the endless drive, which was understandable. “I’ll be able to drive tonight,” Sadie assured her. “We just need to find a side road that…whoa.” Ahead of them the road suddenly ended at a river. “Where’s the bridge? There’s supposed to be a bridge.”
On the map the road looked larger and the river they came to looked far smaller and there was definitely a bridge. The only sign that there had ever been a bridge were two strange pylons of concrete sticking up out of the water, that and the road that rose up like a ramp as if it was used only by daredevils or teenagers looking for a challenge.
“Is there any way around?” Jillybean asked. There was, but unfortunately it meant going through Missoula or back to Butte and wasting two days. Neither idea was palatable to the tired girl. “What about a ford? A ford is what means a shallow part of a river for like horses.”
Sadie knew the term, only the map didn’t show anything like that on this river. “No,” she said with a sinking feeling as Jillybean climbed up on her knees and tried to peer down at the water. In the dark it was hard to judge anything but the speed of the current and the wetness of the water: both fell in the “very” category and Sadie didn’t want to experience either.
Jillybean was clearly of a different mindset. “How deep do you think that is?” With the dark it could have been three inches or three yards. Sadie could only shrug. Jillybean made a noise n her throat and said, “You know what? This is the ford I bet. Think about it, this road had to have been built by those pioneer guys and they would have used, what’s it called? A road of least resistance, like in ‘lectricity.”
“The path of least resistance,” Sadie said, sitting up higher, hoping to take the measure of the water. The half-light made it seem that it would be feasible for the Suburban to make it across.
“Right,” Jillybean said, her eyes focused, but not focused on anything in particular; she was thinking, taking in the facts at her disposal. Without another word, she slid out of the SUV and dropped onto the road.
Sadie followed right after, limping, catching her right at the water’s edge where the girl was saying: “Hmmm,” to herself. Sadie knew enough not to interrupt. “The water is high,” Jillybean said, kneeling and picking up a rock. “Higher than normal. Maybe even higher than it’s ever been.”
She threw the rock. It splooshed as it parted the water and this was followed up by a thunk as rock struck rock beneath the surface. “But it’s still not that deep, so that’s good.”
“Are you going to try to cross it?” So far Sadie’s experience with western rivers had been the same as Jillybean’s: they were generally shallow but fast…and cold. And this unknown river was no exception. She touched the water as it lapped at the rocks; immediately she pulled her hand back.
Jillybean shrugged at the question. “I don’t want to go all the way back. What do you think? Do you think it’ll make it across?”
“You’re the genius, not me,” Sadie said. She didn’t want to go back, either. It would turn a nine-hour drive into a twelve hour one and she was just too tired. The pair went back to the SUV and Jillybean decided to risk some light, shooting her high-beams across the water, but it didn’t make their decision any easier.
“We have four wheel drive,” Jillybean said, putting the vehicle in gear. Getting stuck and having to slosh out of the freezing water was Sadie’s biggest fears and so she was wholly unprepared for what happened next.
The river in front of them had been a stream at one point however it had been ill-tended. Before the apocalypse, it had been fed off of by a hundred farms and twice that many ranches, each doing their part to keep the water level low. Without that constant drain, the stream had become an actual river.
Jillybean guided the Suburban into the water and was shocked at how quickly the river bed sank beneath them. The rear tires were barely in the water, while the front ones were completely submerged. She was quick to see that she had made a mistake and cursed, “Oh, for all darn it!” as she stuck the gear in reverse.
The engine revved and bubbles frothed all around the wheel wells, and yet they still slid forward, the tires unable to grip the slick, mossy river stones. The two girls shared a quick look of panic as the engine began to scream; Jillybean had her foot pressing down as far as it would go.
“Get the chain!” she ordered Sadie. The goth girl slid over the seats to the second row and then leaned over those seats to search the rear cargo section. The chain was buried and by the time she grabbed it, Jillybean was cursing again as she slid the gear selector to drive and hauled the wheel to the left.
With her rear precariously balanced in between the headrests, Sadie was not in a good position for such a daring move and was thrown into the cargo area. She scrambled to her knees and came up in time to see Jillybean almost get them out of the river. The SUV was running along the current with the little girl fighting the wheel to the left trying to balance the forces acting on the vehicle. Gravity wanted to pull her deeper into the river, while the current wanted to wash her down to the Pacific.
If she turned the wheels too far to the left they acted as rudders, which swung the Suburban’s tremendous hindquarters out into deeper waters. She had to be perfect to save the SUV, however nature was determined to soak the two sisters. A hidden log stopped the vehicle cold and an eddy caused by the obstruction acted as a lever and out swung the back end of the SUV into the river.
As the rear wheels were under her, Sadie was in a perfect position to feel the exact moment they lost contact with the river bed. They were floating!
But they wouldn’t be floating for very long; already water was trickling in around the doors. “Jillybean? Do you still want the chain?” The little girl was at the wheel still fighting to save them, this time, purposefully using the wheels as rudders. And she still had the engine going, using the four spinning tires as propellers.
She ignored Sadie’s question, “I just have to straighten us out and hope for a shallow spot.” It seemed like an impossibility and yet twice the wheels caught on something beneath them, giving them a moment of control. But then Sadie felt stinging cold water around her knees—they wouldn’t be floating for much longer.
The realization came just as the front headlights blinked twice before going dark. A second later, the engine made a gurgily noise and died.
Chapter 12
Jillybean
The floorboards were covered in water and as it flooded higher, there was a rush of hissing bubbles from the engine block and an unnerving thrunggg from somewhere beneath the hood. “Oh boy,” Jillybean said as the Suburban took on a nose-leaning tilt. “That’s not good.”
So far nothing good was coming from their little water adventure and yet she didn’t have an ounce of regret in her. The other choices presented to her at the time had all seemed f
ar more dangerous; in fact, even with the water rising, this path was still better than risking the city with the hanging dead.
“What do we do?” Sadie asked.
“Get the chain,” Jillybean answered. She unbuckled and paused, looking around, and for once in that early morning she was struck with indecision. They would have to swim and her rank of “tadpole” would not allow her to carry much with her. “What to take,” she whispered, her eyes flashing over her pipebombs and her smokers and her medbag and her tools and the food.
With everything to take, Sadie looked confused at the idea of the chain. “Are you going to make an anchor with it?”
This stopped Jillybean in mid-pause so that she just sort of sat there blinking, trying to figure out how an anchor would help in any way. “Uh, no. I want you to use it to bash out that back window.”
“I can open the hatch. There’s a little lev…”
“No,” Jillybean said, holding up a finger, hoping to focus her sister. “Bash it, but don’t cut yourself.” This little moment centered her mind and the thoughts came to her rapid fire: since the hatch swung open in an upwards motion, they would be unable to access the roof when the time came; the pipe bombs and the smokers would have to be left behind—they were not waterproof and the electronics would be destroyed, rendering them unwanted weight. The medbag was too heavy to take, but was too important to leave behind.
“The gas can,” Jillybean murmured, seeing the empty jerry can. “That’ll work as a…” Sadie sent the heavy chain through the back window at that moment, cutting her off. “Make sure you get all the glass out of the way.”
“The doors still work, you know,” Sadie replied.
The Suburban was drifting in the current, slowly making its way to the center of the river. To Jillybean it was obvious that if they opened the doors the SUV would just sink that much quicker. As it was, the angle was getting precarious and she had to abandon the front seat. She climbed into the next row, grabbed her backpack and started tossing aside the bombs.
“You know we’re really low on ammo,” Sadie said. “We won’t have any way to protect ourselves.”
“I know. Here fill this with food,” said Jillybean. Sadie took the backpack and started stuffing it with cans. When it was half-full, she hefted it with an alarmed look. “Keep going,” the little girl assured. She was busy going through the med bag, chucking out everything that would be ruined by the water: gauze, bandages and tape for the most part. She then undid the strap and ran it through the gas can’s handle, looping it three times.
She was about to do a fourth when water lapped at her feet. The front seat was all but submerged. She jumped as if the water was scalding hot as opposed to dreadfully cold. A sudden panic gripped her. She could picture being trapped in the Suburban as it sank. In her fright, she had the unrealistic vision of the river being eighty feet deep with giant clams on the bottom that would clamp shut on your leg if you got too close.
“Grab my hand,” Sadie said. She was above Jillybean now sitting in the cargo area. The SUV was almost vertical, bobbing in the current and dipping lower with each bob. She grabbed Sadie’s hand and the teen, showing desperate strength, hauled her and the medbag up. Sadie tried to heave her through the broken back window, however the little girl still had tools to gather.
“Wait, I need my tools,” Jillybean said, scrabbling around in the cargo area trying to snatch up everything she could.
Sadie grabbed her hands and pinned them together. “No, leave all that, it’ll be too heavy,” she hissed, her own fear showing as the water level rose, creeping up over the seats. “We’ll find more, okay?”
Now water started seeping into the cargo area and Jillybean realized that her sister was right. They had all they could carry; the rest would have to be lost to the river. “Yeah,” she said, eagerly. “Let’s get out of here.”
The pair climbed through the opening in the back hatch just as the sun inched over the wall of mountains in the east. It was a strange moment. They had been terrified only moments before, but now they found the morning to be strangely serene. The surface of the water was wide and flat, the air was still and the forest quiet as the birds took time away from their usual routines to perch in the trees and watch the Suburban as it drifted along, disappearing an inch at a time.
“Well,” Sadie said, looking at the water with a twist to her face. “It’s gonna be cold.”
“Freezing,” Jillybean added. The two of them stared into the water for some time and then both sighed in unison. This had them laughing, however it was a nervous laugh. Now that they were out in the open, neither of them feared drowning, but they both knew the swim was going to be painful and once they got to the far bank, there wouldn’t be blankets and hot cocoa waiting for them.
Jillybean bent down and buckled her backpack to the empty gas can. It was ready to go and there was no use waiting any longer. “On the count of three?” she asked. Sadie nodded and the two counted down together before jumping in with a squeal.
“Holy crap!” Sadie yelled.
“Uh-huh,” Jillybean agreed. Her teeth were already chattering. She didn’t wait for Sadie. Climbing onto the gas can which was already floating low in the water, she began to kick for the far bank. It was fifty yards, but for a tadpole in jeans that clung like a second, and far more constricting skin, it was a monumental task.
Sadie quickly passed her, huffing out: “I’ll get a fire going.” She swam on her side in a way that Jillybean wished she could emulate. The half-dog-paddle was exhausting and she could barely stand when she finally got to shore, where Sadie was hobbling about grabbing little sticks for kindling.
Jillybean wanted to do nothing but lay on the cool earth and breathe, however she feared that her core body temperature was taking a dive, so she forced herself up. Together they gathered plenty of wood and started a good roaring fire. They stood as close as possible and rotated in neat little circles. It wasn’t long before they grinned at each other every time they turned.
“I feel like a hot dog,” Jillybean said, giggling.
“I feel like one that’s about done, except…” She paused and looked around. “Except my clothes are wet and they’re gonna stay wet and I hate that. So…”
“No way,” Jillybean said, hunching in and holding herself as if the forest was just full of peeping toms.
Sadie laughed as she peeled off her wet clothes and set them hanging on branches. “Who’s going to see us? There’s not even any zombies hanging around here.”
Reluctantly, Jillybean followed suit. She didn’t like being naked around people. She felt vulnerable and ugly. The apocalypse had left her skinny, while their recent wearying travels had turned her from skinny to scrawny. And she had been raped. That particular horror was almost never thought about but was always there in the back of her mind. She had been used and made disgusting.
While they waited for their clothes to dry, she sat on her haunches, hugging her knees, looking like a little flesh colored ball with knobby knees.
“You’ll be warmer if you move around,” Sadie said. The teen kept herself busy, limping around, gathering more wood. She then opened the packs and laid everything out. “Beefaroni or…what is potato chowder? Sounds gross. Let’s try it.”
It turned out that potato chowder wasn’t gross, it was dreadfully bland and both girls glanced more than once at the river where the Suburban had sunk. They had left behind their small stockpile of pepper and salt. A few minutes later, Sadie realized they had left behind another item.
“I gotta use the bathroom and we don’t have any toilet paper, ugh! Oh, a fern. Maybe that will do.” The leaves weren’t broad enough. Thankfully there was a maple nearby with leaves as wide as serving plates. Sadie gathered what she needed and then squatted in the bushes, grumbling about the lost two-ply.
Soon their clothes were dry in a “good enough” sort of manner. This left them with the decision of where they wanted to spend the day sleeping. Neither of them re
ally liked making camp with the forest floor as a bed and so they hiked back up river to where the road lay.
With Sadie’s legs hurting her, it was slow going and yet, she humped the pack with the food in it, which was nearly as heavy as Jillybean. The little girl was only able to handle the weight of her backpack and even that was exhausting.
They came to the dirt road and without a word, they turned north west, the direction they had been traveling when they had been interrupted by the river. “Any idea where this goes?” Jillybean asked after about an hour of trudging along. Sadie only shrugged; all of their maps had been left behind as well.
“At least it’s nice out,” Sadie said. “And the view is awesome.” The mountains were green with trees and the valley they were coming to was inviting and flat and richly fertile. “And look, that’s an apple tree.” Among the many pine trees surrounding the road was indeed an apple tree, however the only fruit left on it was wormy and wizened.
“You just don’t see this sort of thing in New Jersey,” Sadie started to say. “It’s always…oh, shoot. Zombies.”
There were four of them, each over six foot in height and healthy looking, or rather as healthy as the undead could look. The sisters didn’t get undercover fast enough and the beasts charged. With no time to attempt a disguise of any sort, the two jumped up into the apple tree and climbed just out of reach.
Sadie had her pistol out. “I hate to waste the ammo, but I don’t think we have a choice.”
“There’s a choice, just not a good one,” Jillybean told her. She pointed at the untended and dead tree branches. “We can create a smoke screen and try to slip away.”
“That would take a lot of smoke,” Sadie said, looking uneasy at the idea. “That much smoke might just kill us. No, there’s only four of them. I’ll shoot them. We’ll find more ammo. Remember that one cabin? I bet these mountains are chock full of them.”
It sounded good in theory, however, it took all the remaining bullets in the pistol just to kill two of the beasts. Sadie’s aim wasn’t the best. Still Jillybean’s was even worse and so she handed over her police special and remaining shells rattling around in their box. There were only thirteen left altogether and this should have been enough to get them out of the tree, except that the previous shots had drawn every stray zombie within two miles.
The Apocalypse Sacrifice: The Undead World (The Undead World Series Book 10) Page 13