by Harley Tate
Chapter Twenty
DANI
Highway 58
Northwest California
3:00 a.m.
“Dani, wake up!”
“Go away.” Dani swatted at the hand shaking her shoulder. It couldn’t be morning already. A gust of cold air made her squirm.
“Wake up. We need to move. There’s someone coming.”
Dani’s eyes flew open. Larkin stood beside the open door to the Humvee, letting in cold air and panic. Reality stole her breath. The car crash. Gloria and Will and Harvey. The guns. She smacked her dry lips together. “Where?”
“Same road as the Camaro, opposite direction.”
“How far?”
“Minutes.” Larkin glanced behind him. “We need better cover.”
She sat up in the seat and rubbed the last bit of sleep from her eyes.
Larkin handed her a rifle. “Find a tree and hide behind it.” He pointed at the road. “They’re coming from the west. If they spot the Camaro, they’ll come at us from this direction.”
“When do we engage?”
“Not until we’ve been spotted. If we’re lucky, they’ll drive right by us.”
Dani didn’t feel lucky. She clambered out of the Humvee and hit the ground with both feet. “Where’s Colt?”
“Scouting. Doug and Melody are pulling Harvey into some brush. I need you as another shooter. Can you handle it?”
The faint hum of a motor pricked her ear. “Yeah.”
“Good.” Larkin clapped her on the back and set off toward the crossroad.
Dani loped into the trees. The night air clutched at her bare neck and she shivered. Leaves and branches smacked her face and clawed her jeans as she traipsed into a thicket of dense foliage. The forest smelled of damp earth and decaying logs and she fought the urge to sneeze.
With a full canopy of new leaves, the forest blocked most of the moon. Pale shafts of light filtered through the breaks in the forest, but Dani couldn’t make out more than a few feet in any direction. She wouldn’t be able to shoot anyone until they were almost on top of her.
Not good.
The low rumble of the car engine grew louder and Dani strained to see the road. There! A flash of car headlights through the trees. She eased closer, heading in the direction of the lights. They came in and out of focus like a strobe as the car drove down the crossroad.
The lights hugged the road, low and wide. Not a Humvee or even a truck. Maybe it was a friendly, innocent sedan. An unrelated driver, oblivious to the accident and the cache of guns in the Camaro. Maybe it wouldn’t even slow down when it reached the state highway.
Dani ducked behind a large tree trunk and waited twenty feet off the side of the crossroad. The glow from the headlights steadily increased. The twin lights bounced and weaved as they approached the intersection. Dani let herself hope.
Keep going. Keep going.
The headlights wavered and slowed.
She cursed beneath her breath. The car stopped, its lights illuminating the intersection and the scene of the accident. Colt and Larkin had pushed the Camaro into the ditch, but they couldn’t do anything to cover it up or hide the pickup. Colt had hoped it wouldn’t be seen from the road and any driver would cruise on by. Guess he was wrong.
A low, throaty grumble spread through the forest from the car’s idling engine as Dani waited.
The driver’s door opened with a squeal and slammed a moment later. A silhouette, stocky and solid, parted the beams of light. Dani shifted in her crouch. They could take on one man, even with Harvey injured and the light working against them.
Another door opened. Another figure cut in front of a headlight. Bigger. Wider. Dani swallowed. It will be okay.
She raised the rifle to her eye and took in the size and shape of the two men in the lights. Killing them now would be easy. Two shots a piece, and they would fall like leaves to cold asphalt. Her finger eased around the trigger, but she didn’t pull.
What if they were innocent? What if they were merely stopping to find a place to relieve themselves or checking the wreck for survivors? What if the two men standing in the light could help them? Food. Water. A place to sleep.
She frowned. Would her first instinct now always be to shoot first and not bother with questions? Was that her life?
Dani thought about her mother and her life before. When her mother was on a tear or a dealer was after her, Dani never stood up for herself. Instead of fighting back and taking charge, she ran and hid like a coward. She didn’t have the strength to fight.
Was shooting these men any different? It was still cowardice. Still fear. She eased her finger off the trigger. With Colt and Larkin in the woods, they could survive even if the men on the street were out for vengeance.
As she leaned back in her crouch, the driver stepped out of the headlights. Dani watched the beams of light until bam! They disappeared.
The forest plunged into darkness, inky thick and impossible to navigate. She stared at those stupid headlights for so long that without them, she was blind. Dani cursed herself again. Stupid girl. She’d been so consumed with doing the right thing and all the what-ifs, she didn’t stop to think about what would happen next.
The night closed in around her, every sound amplified a million times. A cricket in the leaves at her feet. An owl half a mile away. A crunch of a twig way too close to ignore.
Dani froze.
She couldn’t run. She couldn’t shoot. There was nothing to do but stay still and hope they couldn’t see her. They could still be friendly. They could still be good people.
Fear spiked her heart. It pounded loud enough to drown out the cricket and the owl and a million other sounds. But not the crunching leaves. Not the snapping twigs. Someone was out there and headed straight for her.
What if they caught her? She couldn’t let that happen. Dani closed her eyes and breathed in the forest. Dank decay, fresh new leaves. Grease and dirt. A person. She opened her eyes and focused on the smell and the sound. She wouldn’t let them catch her. She would take them out even if she couldn’t see.
Her finger twitched around the trigger as she pulled the butt of the rifle tight against her shoulder. Tree bark scraped her back through her clothes as she pressed herself against it. I won’t die out here. Not now. Not like this.
Chapter Twenty-One
COLT
Highway 58
Northwest California
3:00 a.m.
The forest posed no obstacle to Colt in the darkness. His feet rolled over the leaves without a sound. His gun-toting arm tucked close and tight to his chest to avoid a surprise attack. The men standing around the Mustang idling on the road would never hear him above the engine noise.
He eased close enough to assess the threat. Two men. One a beefy two hundred-plus pounds, round from beer and inactivity. The other taller and better conditioned.
From the way both men held shotguns draped across their non-shooting arms, they were skilled in firearm use. They stood in the beam of the headlights, staring at the wrecked Camaro. Colt knew if someone came looking, they would find it.
Dragging the driver’s body into the brush had been the right call. Without his body, the men standing in the road didn’t know if he’d crashed and run off with the guns himself, been kidnapped, or what. There could be a million different scenarios.
They wouldn’t know where to go or what to do. If they headed for the Humvee, Colt would take them out. Otherwise, he planned to leave them alone. Men stockpiling weapons could be useful in a lawless America. Colt didn’t want to kill them unless he had a damn good reason.
He stood behind a thick pine, waiting and listening. The passenger loped ahead to the wrecked Camaro and disappeared out of the headlight beam. A few minutes later he clawed back out, shaking his head. If he said anything, Colt couldn’t hear it.
The driver stalked back to the car and reached inside the open window. The engine faded into silence. Thirty seconds later, the headlights
flicked off. Colt couldn’t see, but neither could the two men. They were as blind as he was, maybe worse.
Colt squeezed his eyes shut and used the palms of his hands to put pressure on his eyes. After a count to ten, he released his eyes and blinked back the startling white blindness. Not perfect, but the quick trick improved his vision substantially.
The men had moved away from the car. Colt crept closer. Without the steady hum of the engine, he teased their whispers from the darkness.
“You think Butch took off?”
“With all those guns? That boy couldn’t carry a sack of potatoes ten feet. How’s he gonna lug fifty rifles?”
“Maybe he buried them.”
“Where?”
“He could have put them in the bushes. It’s darker than the inside of a cow in that damn forest. He could have stashed them under a log or something.”
“We should go back and tell Cunningham. Let him decide what to do.”
“And get our asses chewed for not searching the area? You wanna do that, go right ahead, but I’m checking it out.”
“With what?”
“There’s a flashlight in the glove box. We can poke around at least.”
Colt frowned. So far the men hadn’t come across the smashed-up truck or the Humvee. But if they started traipsing around in the forest, they would find it.
A car door opened and the sounds of rummaging filtered back to Colt. He eased deeper into the forest, hoping to still catch the conversation but not be seen. A weak flashlight clicked on.
“Man this thing’s a piece of crap. We’ll never find anything with it.”
“We can’t go back until we try. You know Cunningham. The minute he finds out the guns are gone, he’ll flip.”
“What do we need them for, anyway? Haven’t we got enough?”
“He says there’s never enough.”
Whoever this Cunningham fellow was, Colt agreed with him. Guns, ammo, food, and water. The four things you could never have too much of. As the two men headed back toward the Camaro, Colt kept pace, slinking behind trees and bushes.
The flashlight beam roved over the smashed-up car and the tree line beyond. The taller man broke the silence. “You think Cunningham’s right?”
“’Bout what?”
“All that talk about America being over. That this is the new world.”
“The whole, ‘we’re explorers and can conquer any land we see fit?’”
“Yeah. That.”
The shorter man shuffled in and out of the light. “I don’t know. Seems a bit kooky to me, but he’s done all right, ain’t he? We’ve got food and water and so far no one’s come to take it.”
“But what’s he need all these weapons for? It don’t make sense.”
“Defense. It must be.”
“I don’t know. Hey…what’s that?” The flashlight caught the dirty chrome of the pickup’s smashed bumper. Both men readied their weapons and approached. The beam of light dipped into the ditch off the side of the road.
Colt knew it was only a matter of time, now. The odds of getting out of there without being spotted were rapidly deceasing. He could take the two men out, but he didn’t want to unless he had no choice. Their conversation sparked more than interest.
They had food and shelter and tons of weapons. This Cunningham fellow had managed to assemble what sounded like a pretty good setup. Joining a place like that could be the best option. Assuming it was taking any more members.
But he couldn’t just walk out of the woods and ask. The two men were liable to shoot on sight. No, Colt needed to find out more about Cunningham and where he set up camp before he brought it up to the rest of the group. If this trek out of Eugene taught him anything, it was the need for more supplies, training, and people.
With only five of them functional and Harvey on his last breath, they would never be able to start over with nothing. Even if he didn’t stay in whatever makeshift town these men came from, Doug and Melody might be able to start over. They might find a little piece of what they lost.
Colt closed the distance between him and the two men. The flashlight beam bounced around the cab of the truck and Colt picked up their conversation.
“—too much blood. No way somebody survived this.”
“Then where are the bodies?”
“Probably with our guns.”
“We need to get back and assemble a team to search. We can’t do this on our own.”
Colt backtracked into the forest. He needed to find Dani and the rest of them and explain what he heard. They could put following the men to a vote.
A blob of light landed three feet from his boot and he froze.
“You hear that?”
“Probably a deer or something.”
“Naw, man. It sounded like a person.”
The light swooped over his left shoulder and Colt eased to the ground.
“I’m gonna check it out.”
The flashlight bobbed and weaved and Colt pressed closer to the damp forest floor. The light swooped over his back. If they spotted him, it was game over. He would have no choice but to engage.
“Hey! I got something!”
Shit. Colt readied himself for a fight, but the flashlight beam arced away from him.
“It’s a military truck! I told you someone was out here!”
Oh, no. As the light bounded toward the Humvee, Colt rose up. He turned and made his way toward the area Larkin had set up as a safety zone. They would need to hide until these idiots got sick of searching. A few feet ahead of him a pale shape floated against a tree.
Colt squinted. Dani? He eased closer. The teenager clutched a rifle tight to her body, swooping it back and forth. From the way it quivered, he knew she was terrified. And blind.
He whistled a faint high-pitched note. She swiveled toward him. He took another step. The rifle hung in the air, ready to fire.
“Dani!”
The gun jerked.
“Dani, it’s Colt.”
She lowered the weapon and he stepped close enough for her to see him in the dark.
“I almost shot you.”
“I’m glad you didn’t.” He motioned for her to crouch and he did the same. “The men found the Humvee. We need to distract them and get out of here.”
“How?”
The sound of the Mustang revving caught them both off guard and they spun toward the noise. The headlights flared and the car revved before lurching forward. It spun a one eighty as shouts erupted from the tree line.
The two men charged the car as it shot off in the direction they had come. The headlights lit up the night as the car sped away. Colt tugged on Dani’s arm. “Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“To the Humvee. Larkin’s given us a chance.”
“What about him?”
“Don’t worry. He’ll find us.”
Colt and Dani took off for the vehicle. They made it just as Melody and Doug emerged from the trees, dragging Harvey behind them.
“What’s going on?” Doug heaved the Camaro’s hood closer to the Humvee as Colt yanked open the back door.
“Larkin’s giving us a chance. Everyone in.”
“What about Harvey?”
Colt glanced down at the unconscious man. “Get him in the back.”
“But if we move him—”
“We don’t have a choice.”
Dani rushed to the passenger door while Colt clambered up into the driver’s seat. He flipped the switch on the dash and waited as Doug and Melody eased Harvey inside and shut the doors. Colt turned on the Humvee.
It sputtered and cranked and for a moment he wondered if it would turn over, but at last, a weak grumble managed to hold. He eased it into the forest, turned on the headlights, and punched the accelerator. They’d be off-roading it from now on.
Chapter Twenty-Two
MELODY
Northern California Forest
5:00 a.m.
The Humvee spluttered and lurched. Mel
ody fell against the door and Harvey’s limp body slid off the divider. His hand flopped into her lap.
She braced herself as the vehicle straddled a ditch. This couldn’t get any worse. The engine coughed and the Humvee seized up as it attempted to crest a hump in the forest. The tires slipped.
Colt cursed from the front seat and revved the engine, but instead of moving forward, the Humvee rolled back. It stopped on level ground, engine hissing. He flipped the switch and pumped the gas. Nothing.
Doug eased forward from the back. “Is that it?”
“Afraid so.” Colt twisted around. “The engine is fried. Even if it cools, I don’t think it will restart.”
Melody reached for Harvey. His head had slid off the divider and it lay at an unnatural angle, his eyes wide open and vacant. With two fingers, she searched for a pulse. Again and again she moved her hand around his neck, fear and denial rising in her throat the longer she searched. Her brother’s hand wrapped around her own.
“Mel.”
She glanced up. Doug’s eyes were full of knowledge and caring. “Is he gone?”
“I can’t find a pulse. If we start CPR, maybe—”
“It’s best to let him go.”
She tore her gaze away from Doug and stared down at Harvey. This couldn’t be happening. A month ago, they were all just living their lives. Friends and neighbors waving as they passed on the street, sipping coffee on the front porch on a lazy Saturday morning, chatting about the weather.
Now Harvey was another casualty of this war without an enemy. A man who had already sacrificed his home and everything he owned for strangers to whom he didn’t owe anything. It didn’t seem fair. The Wilkins family was dead. For what?
Tears pricked her eyes and Melody didn’t will them back. One tumbled from the middle of her lash line and splashed across Harvey’s lifeless cheek. Gloria had been her friend her entire life, from babysitting when she could barely walk to being a shoulder to cry on after her parents died. Now the woman’s body was left to rot in the middle of a forest hundreds of miles from home.