by Harley Tate
Colt kept his eyes on the road. “We don’t have a choice. We need another car and fuel. A city is the best place to find both.”
The Humvee slowed and Dani shifted her gaze. A massive dumpster blocked three quarters of the street. Larkin straightened up in the driver’s seat. “I’ll need to jump the curb. Hold on.”
He eased the Humvee up onto the sidewalk and eased toward the dumpster.
Melody shouted, “Watch out!”
A woman jumped in front of the vehicle and Larkin slammed on the brakes. Everyone flew forward in their seats. Dani hit the dash and Melody fell on top of her. The Humvee swayed with the aftershocks.
“Help me! You’ve got to help me!” The woman rushed forward, arms thrust up in the air as she came around to Larkin’s window. Her palms landed smack on the glass. “Please! I need to get out of here!”
Larkin eased the Humvee forward a foot and the woman scrabbled at the door.
“Stop! You’ll run her over!” Melody twisted around and Dani almost lost purchase on the seat. “She needs help!”
“Not ours.” Larkin eased the vehicle forward another foot, but the woman kept hanging on.
“I’ve got a daughter. She’s sick and needs medicine. Please!”
Melody spun around to the back. “We can’t ignore her.”
“Yes we can. And we will.” Colt kept his voice even, but Dani could hear the tension in it. He was worried.
She glanced out the window and her stomach hit the floor. “More are coming from the right. I count four from the storefront on the corner.” Dani squinted to get a better view. “Two men and two women. No weapons that I can see.”
Colt leaned forward. “Speed it up, Larkin. We don’t need a mob.”
Larkin hit the gas and the woman still scrabbling against the door shrieked as she lost her grip.
“What are you doing? She needs us.” Melody turned to Dani. “Open the door, I want to get out.”
Dani’s eyes went wide. “Are you crazy? You’re going to get us all killed.”
“No, I’m not. That woman needs help. We can do something.”
“It’s called driving.” Dani pointed out the window. “Look around you, Melody. These people aren’t coming out of the ashes because they want to invite us home for a glass of iced tea and a piece of pie. They want to take advantage.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do.”
Colt chimed in. “Dani’s right. We’re a giant moving target in this thing. People see it and they think we’re military come to save them. When they find out we’re not, they’ll be furious. It won’t end well for anyone.”
Melody shook her head. “I don’t believe you. It’s only been a month. Good people wouldn’t turn bad in a month.” She reached past Dani for the door, but Dani grabbed her by the shoulders.
She pinned her to the seat back. “You’re not listening. We stop this car and it’s over. A mob will be on us before you can get five words out. You think Jarvis was bad? He’ll seem like a piece of cake compared to a horde of angry, starving people.”
Melody scrunched up her face. “How would you know?”
“Have you ever been so hungry you stole? Have you ever been consumed by the need for food so bad, you’d do anything, say anything, to get it?”
Melody stilled.
Dani almost spat. “I have. And it’s a real bitch. So don’t you sit there on your high horse and tell me to open the door. I know what those people are going through. Only they have it worse.”
Harvey spoke up from the back. “As much as it hurts, Melody, Danielle is right. We can’t stop here. It’s too dangerous. We have to think about our own survival. We have to put the needs of the people inside this vehicle first.”
Doug added his own voice to the mix. “I don’t like it either, Mel, but Harvey’s right. We have to think about all of us right now.”
Melody’s brows dipped low as she focused on her brother. “It’s not right.”
“Nothing is going to be right in this town again.” Larkin accelerated down a clear section of the street and left the gaggle of people behind. He turned south and headed toward state road 58 and Lake Tahoe. “If we don’t find a place to hole up for the night and some damn fuel for this beast of a vehicle, we won’t be any better off. Hell, we’ll be worse.”
Dani let Melody go and she sagged against the seat. It had to be hard for a woman like her, who had taken food and shelter and basic necessities for granted, to transition to this new way of life. For once Dani was thankful she’d had a terrible time of it. At least she didn’t mind the hunger pains and the dirty hair.
Colt spoke up from the back. “Everyone keep your eyes out for other people on the streets and a place that could work to make camp. It needs to be secure and unobtrusive.”
They drove around Springfield for what seemed like hours, finding nothing but more strangers desperate for hope they couldn’t deliver. No diesel. No shelter. No food.
Larkin kept glancing down at the dash every minute or so. They were going to run out of fuel. Dani chewed on her lip and stared out at the town. After driving through most of downtown, they transitioned into a residential area where the houses were more or less intact.
“Maybe we could find an empty house and use it.”
“No fuel in a house.” Larkin shifted up front. “Pretty soon no fuel in this Humvee, either.”
Colt leaned forward. “Let’s find a restaurant. Fast food or quick service.”
“I hate to break it to you, but the drive-thru won’t be open.”
Colt cracked a smile. “That’s what I’m hoping for.” He made eye contact with Dani and something in the way he looked at her made her pause. He was optimistic.
It didn’t make sense. She turned to look out the window and watch. A few miles down the road she tapped on the glass. “There’s a Chili’s there on the corner.” She couldn’t keep the excitement out of her voice. “The windows are boarded up. I don’t see a car.”
Larkin turned the corner and eased the Humvee over toward the restaurant. “I always liked their southwestern egg rolls. Weird, but good.” He drove around to the service entrance and parked in between a dumpster and the back door. “I hope you’ve got more than just a craving for comfort food.”
Colt handed up a rifle and Larkin took it. “If I’m right, we’ll find everything we need. Doug, you stay here as guard. Larkin, Dani, and I will clear the building.”
Dani nodded and climbed out into the damp Oregon air.
Chapter Eleven
DANI
Chili’s
Springfield, Oregon
2:00 p.m.
While Larkin picked the back door, Colt pulled Dani aside. “We don’t know what’s on the other side of that door. Those boarded up windows mean either the manager took some precautions or someone’s inside and doesn’t want to be found.”
Dani hoped for option number one. Larkin stood up and Colt stepped back, gun aimed and ready. Dani sucked in a breath. It wasn’t any different than the neighborhood searches she’d been doing all week, but she couldn’t stop the tremor in her hands.
Larkin turned the handle and pulled the door open. The misty light from outside lit a wedge of linoleum and Colt took the lead. Dani eased in behind him and Larkin followed. The door shut and sealed them inside.
Dani’s heart pounded so loud she missed Colt’s instruction. Larkin prodded her in the back and she side-stepped down the hall, following blindly as her eyes sucked up the inky dark.
She couldn’t see more than a foot in any direction. The end of the rifle blended into the shadows and Colt was more a feeling than a person two steps away.
Colt tapped her on the arm and she jumped. He motioned toward the kitchen, two fingers up and to the right. He wanted her to follow. She nodded and fell in step behind him. Her back grazed the wall as they ducked inside the commercial space.
What she wouldn’t give for some fancy military gear. Back at the Universi
ty, Larkin probably had access to all sorts of crazy stuff like night vision goggles and scopes. Colt stopped a few yards into the kitchen and leaned back against the wall, handgun up and ready. Dani followed suit.
They stood in the darkness, waiting while the frustration built and their eyes adjusted.
After a few minutes, the kitchen work surfaces separated from the dark beyond and Dani could make out enough to navigate. Colt motioned for her to clear the south corner and she took off, ducking behind a long prep surface to investigate the metal shelving beyond.
Everything appeared more or less intact. No turned-over shelves, no empty cans of food thrown about. Vandals hadn’t turned it into a trashcan. She worked her way slowly through the gloom, relying on what little light filtered through the gaps in the plywood out front to see. It wasn’t much.
A person could be hiding practically anywhere and Dani wouldn’t see him until almost too late. But she came up empty. No people in her little corner of the kitchen.
Colt found her waiting where they first separated. “Anything?” His whisper cut the silence like a shout.
“No.”
“Good the rest of the kitchen is clear. Bathrooms, too.”
Larkin approached a moment later. “Seating area is clear. The place is empty.”
Dani exhaled in relief. They found somewhere to hide at least for one night. She didn’t know what about the place made Colt want to stop, but she was damp, tired, and ready to relax for a few hours.
Colt flicked on a flashlight and handed it to Dani. “Start searching the kitchen for food and supplies. Start at one end and be systematic. Go through every cabinet, shelf, and cardboard box you can find.”
Dani nodded. “What if I find something?”
“If we can use it, put it on the prep table. We can sort it there.”
While Colt and Larkin went to gather everyone still inside the Humvee, Dani set to work following his instructions. She started with the prep area, opening doors and drawers one after the other. Nothing but pots and pans and every kind of baking dish ever made. The top racks held serving plates and bowls and saucers, but no food.
She spun around in frustration. Where was it all? Dani had never been inside a kitchen of this scale. Most of her food prep experience came from the nasty counter at her mother’s or Gran’s tidy little kitchen before she got sick.
They didn’t have more than five feet of counter between them. This place was enormous. She thought about what it must be like full with cooks and waiters running around. Where would they keep the food?
Panning the flashlight around the space, she paused on a giant metal door at one end of the kitchen. A fridge and freezer? Dani approached with caution. Everything in there was probably rotten and disgusting, but she had to know.
She wrapped her hand around the handle and brought her arm up to shield her nose from the smell. The door opened with a sucking sound and Dani gagged. Smell wasn’t the right word. Putrid, nasty stench from the depths of hell was more like it.
Coughing and hacking, Dani advanced into the room with her sweatshirt tight against her nose. It took all her self-control not to throw up. At one point it had been a fridge. Now black and moldy lumps of produce off-gassed on metal shelves and milk curdled in glass jars.
She grimaced as she stepped farther inside. There had to be something of value in there. Not everything rotted in a month. The room was still cooler than the rest of the place. It couldn’t be all bad.
Dani ran the flashlight beam over each shelf, pausing if anything showed promise. A wheel of cheese still encased in wax. She didn’t know if it was edible, but it was worth a shot. Three sacks of potatoes on the bottom shelf. A bag of onions. A handful of things that looked like fat, white carrots. A root vegetable? One of those things she’d heard about in books but never seen?
She grabbed the bundle and tossed them along with everything else remotely passable onto an empty cart. It wasn’t much, but they could get by for a few days on what she found. As she wheeled the cart out, the rest of the crew piled into the kitchen.
Doug stood in front of the prep counter, rubbing his shoulders and back. The poor guy was too big to cram down around Harvey’s feet, and thanks to the river crossing, most of his clothes were still wet.
Melody held Lottie tight to her chest as she looked around the space. Ever since the run-in with the people on the street, she’d been silent. Dani didn’t know if she’d been in some sort of denial about how bad things could be, but she hoped Melody would snap out of it.
Harvey and Gloria and Will stood off to one side, huddled in a sad little group.
Everyone looked beat down and out of sorts. Dani pushed the cart up to them all with a smile. “It’s not much, but I think we can make some of this work.”
Melody wrinkled up her nose. “What’s that smell?”
“Rotting vegetables, mostly. I found all this in the fridge. It’s as big as a house.”
Doug nodded as he rubbed a kink out of his neck. “Commercial kitchens are massive. Have you found the dry goods yet?”
“Not yet.”
“I’ll look for them.”
Dani smiled in thanks and watched as he sauntered off toward the metal shelves on the other side of the kitchen. She was tired and frustrated and rethinking leaving Eugene, but Dani knew it had been the right decision.
They might be cold and wet and hungry, but they were out from under Jarvis’s control. He couldn’t come after them across the river. It might be the hardest thing any of them had ever done, but hitting the road would turn out to be the best call, she knew it.
Everyone set to work as quickly as possible while they could rely on daylight to mask their flashlights from passersby outside. Gloria and Melody made makeshift sleeping areas in the restaurant using the cushions from the booths and tablecloths from the laundry.
Harvey helped Doug cart dry goods over from the shelving and stage them on the prep table. Larkin found a tarp in the supply closet and used it to cover the Humvee. It wasn’t perfect, but it would give them decent cover when night fell.
Colt stood in front of the deep fryer with an empty jug and a scowl. Dani walked up to him. “Don’t tell me you want to cook with that stuff. It’s got mold growing all over it.”
He shook his head. “Not cook. But we need to bottle it somehow.”
Dani raised an eyebrow. “What for?”
“You’ll see. Look around for some sort of funnel.”
Dani couldn’t find a funnel, but she came back with a roll of heavy duty aluminum foil. “I figure we can make one.”
Within five minutes, they had fashioned a funnel out of the foil and set it up inside an empty apple juice jug. Colt opened the drain valve on the bottom of the fryer and drained enough oil to fill that jug and five more besides. When they finished, he stood back and smiled. “It might just work.”
Dani waited, but he didn’t explain and she wasn’t going to press him. Whatever he needed nasty used cooking oil for, he could have it.
As the sun began to set outside, everyone collected around three tables Melody had pushed together. With Gloria’s help, the pair of women had assembled a veritable feast. Crackers and cheese and still-edible oranges. A massive can of beans and spiced apples. It might as well have been a Christmas goose and hot stuffing like Dani read about last year in school.
They were lucky today.
Gloria held up her glass of water and the table fell silent. “I want to thank Colt and Larkin for all they’ve done to get us this far. I didn’t appreciate how difficult leaving Eugene would be. Without the Humvee or Larkin’s driving skills, we would never have crossed the river. Without Colt’s quick thinking, we wouldn’t be sitting around a table eating and drinking and being merry. So thank you.”
Larkin held up his hand. “No thanks necessary.” After everyone took a drink, Larkin leaned back in his chair. He glanced around the table and a slow smile spread across his face. “How about we lighten it up a little, huh?�
� He pointed at Colt. “Favorite song. Go.”
Colt broke into a grin. “‘Friends in Low Places.’” He pointed to Melody. “Your turn.”
She stammered and her cheeks turned red. “You’ll laugh.”
Larkin drummed the table. “Out with it.”
“‘Total Eclipse of the Heart.’” She pointed to her brother. “Your turn.”
“Red Hot Chili Peppers. ‘Under the Bridge.’” Doug pointed at Harvey. “You’re up, Wilkins.”
“Anything by Bob Seger.”
Larkin waggled his finger. “Pick one.”
Harvey glanced up at the ceiling. “‘Travelin’ Man,’ I guess. Will, how about you?”
“Anything by Twenty One Pilots.” Will beamed, but most everyone around the table drew a blank.
“I don’t even know who they are.” Larkin shook his head. “Shows how old I’m getting.”
“Not as old as some of us.” Gloria smiled. “For me, it’s ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter.’”
Dani swallowed as Larkin pointed at her. She didn’t know what to say. “I don’t really have a favorite song.”
“Oh, come on, there has to be one.”
She thought about the music her grandmother used to listen to. “Gran always used to listen to musicals. She had an old record player we listened to on Sunday afternoons.” Dani smiled. “I always liked the one in Guys and Dolls…” She paused as she sang it in her head, trying to remember the title. “‘Luck Be A Lady,’ I think.”
Larkin nodded. “Impressive. One of Frank’s best.”
“How about you, Larkin? What’s your favorite?”
“Me? Oh, I’m a Kenny Rogers guy, through and through. ‘The Gambler.’ That’s my all-time favorite.”
Colt leaned back in his chair and looked around. “So we’ve got a few country fans, a rocker, a cheesy pop lover, and a surprising throwback to the standards.” He smiled at Dani and she tried not to blush. Larkin might not have meant to, but thinking of her grandmother made Dani grateful for everyone sitting around the table. She didn’t choose this ragtag family, but that’s what they had grown to be.