by Jake Bible
Her mind, spent and pushed to its limits, decides this is the moment it has had enough and Dr. Probst’s eyes roll back into her head as sweet, merciful unconsciousness takes her away from the nightmare she is falling towards.
Four
“Lu. Lu, get up.”
Lu’s eyes pop open and she reaches for her pistol, but a strong hand grips her wrist and stops her.
“It’s me,” Bolton says, his face close to hers. “Stay calm. You don’t need to draw your weapon. You just need to get up.”
Lu looks about and realizes the bus doesn’t look right. She can see the seats across from her, but gravity tells her she’s on her back. Bolton’s face is scratched and bleeding and a drop of blood falls from the tip of his nose and lands on her cheek. He casually wipes it away with his thumb, and then he pulls her to her feet.
“What the fuck happened?” Lu asks, seeing the bus is on its side. And most of the rear is submerged in water. “Where are we?”
“In a river,” Bolton says. “Come on.”
“Wait,” she says and pulls her arm from his grip. “The transfers.”
“Dead,” Bolton says. “So’s your man Muldoon and the other guards. I already pulled the driver out, but I don’t think he’s going to make it.”
Lu looks around and sees the corpses shackled to their seats. There’s barely any light coming in the windows and Lu wonders how long she was out.
“Ash,” Bolton says. “Way up there. The air down here is surprisingly clear now, but we have to find you a mask soon. When that shit comes down, breathing is not going to be fun.”
“The volcano?” she asks. “It erupted?”
“That’s my guess,” Bolton nods. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
He hoists himself up out of the door and reaches down for Lu. She grips his wrists and is about to clamber up, when a noise catches her attention.
“Hold on,” she says and let go of his hands.
“Lu, we don’t have time,” Bolton says.
“Hold on!” she snaps and moves back towards the prisoners.
The steel mesh cage is completely warped and she easily squeezes through without having to unlock it. She moves carefully back towards the sound, crawling along the edges of the seats. Dead men lay broken and wet below her, their heads at odd angles, faces smashed in, and eyes bulged out. Most died on impact, it looks like, but some drowned as the water rose and they couldn’t get free of their restraints.
“Who’s alive?” Lu shouts. “Tell me where you are.”
“Here,” a voice rasps and Lu moves quickly to the source. Anson Lowell. “You.”
“Hey, Marshal,” Lowell grunts. “Think I’m a little stuck.”
The man’s seat is twisted and turned so he is wedged against the bloody corpse of the prisoner that was seated next to him. Not seated so much anymore as crumpled.
Lu grabs at the keys on her belt and reaches down, her face close to Lowell’s. She knows this is inviting trouble, but she doesn’t have a choice. Not if she wants to get the man out of the bus alive.
“No need to worry, Marshal,” Lowell says. “I’ll be good. Promise.”
“Not sure good is a word you understand, Mr. Lowell,” Lu says. “But I’m sure self-preservation will win out. You hurt or kill me, and my friend will make sure you die slowly and in agony.”
“I bet he will,” Lowell says, then sighs as the shackles around his wrists are finally free.
“Here,” Lu says, handing him the keys. “I can’t get to your ankles.”
Lowell bends forward and unlocks the shackles from his ankles. Luckily, he is on the seat closest to the aisle; his crumpled buddy is next to the window and half submerged in water.
“Thanks,” Lowell says and hands the keys back. “Lead the way.”
“You first,” Lu says and crawls out of the man’s way, her hand on the butt of her pistol. “I don’t feel the need to have you at my back.”
Lowell shrugs and works his way past her and up to the front of the bus. He looks up and sees the frowning face of Bolton right above him.
“Can I get a little help?” Lowell asks. “Muscles are kinda woogidy after being chained to my seat all day.”
“One twitch and I snap your neck,” Bolton says as he reaches down to Lowell. “I am not joking.”
“Yet you seem like such a kidder to me,” Lowell says as he grabs onto Bolton and climbs out of the bus.
Lu hurries after and climbs out without Bolton’s help. Her first instinct is to grab her cuffs from her belt and secure Lowell, but that thought quickly leaves her mind as she sees the destruction before her.
“Holy shit,” she whispers.
“Yeah,” Lowell nods. “I’ll agree with the holy part. I think God is mad and just threw a tantrum.”
The world around them is destroyed. The highway, the hills, the trees, everything. It’s all been ripped apart. Lu turns in a slow circle and takes in everything she sees, unsure of even how to process it all. Cars and vehicles lie this way and that, warped and twisted. The ground is nothing but fissures and holes, jagged hunks of rock and spears of asphalt. Half the trees have fallen as if a giant blew on them.
There are quiet moans and weak cries as people call for help from their destroyed vehicles. Maybe twenty cars and trucks are visible and Lu wonders how many more were swallowed up by the earth.
“That’s the only other bus I could get to,” Bolton says, pointing to the tail end of a bus a few yards away sticking up out of a wide crevice. Sulfuric smoke curls around the bus and slowly drifts away. “No one is alive in there.”
“You sure, soldier boy?” Lowell asks. “You thought everyone in this bus was dead. Yet here I am.”
“I’m sure,” Bolton nods. “But you are welcome to see for yourself.”
“You’re staying with me,” Lu says to Lowell.
“No place I’d rather be,” Lowell says.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Lu laughs.
“No, seriously,” Lowell replies. “Look at this shit. You think I take off in this, I’ll stay alive for long?” He shakes his head. “No way. Best place to be is with a US Marshal and Mr. Black Ops. If anyone can get out of this hell, it’s you two. Feel free to call Uncle Sam for a ride anytime.”
“I’d love to,” Bolton says. “Only problem is we have no way to call. Not a single damn piece of electronic equipment works. What hit us first was a massive EMP. Then shit got torn apart.”
Lu searches the area for signs of the other buses, but all she sees is the one they stand on and the other one lost in the crevice.
“Back there,” Bolton says, watching her scan the area. “In the river.”
The bus they are standing on is lying perpendicular with the river, three quarters of it in the water. But a hundred yards upstream Lu can just make out the outline of one of the other buses as the river rushes around it.
“This river isn’t that deep,” Lu says. “I know this area like the back of my hand and the deepest point is five feet tops.”
“Nothing around here is what it used to be,” Bolton says. “In a matter of minutes, this entire landscape has changed.”
A far off screeching grabs their attention and they all turn towards the east.
“What is that?” Bolton asks. “Hurt cattle? Sheep?”
“I don’t know,” Lu replies. “Sounds like some kind of animal in distress.”
The screeching is abruptly cut off and replaced by new sounds. Sounds that make all three of them shiver.
“That’s a predator,” Lowell says. “Doesn’t matter if those other things were cows or sheep, because they’re dead now. Whatever the fuck made those noises took care of that.”
“Bear?” Bolton asks, looking over at Lu. “Not a wolf or coyote.”
“Didn’t sound like a bear,” Lu says. “I don’t know what it was, but it sounded…”
“Bigger?” Lowell suggests. “My nuts are telling me that whatever it is it’s not petite.”
“It
’s a bear, but it doesn’t matter because we need to move,” Bolton says. “Find shelter before that ash comes down.”
They all look up at the dark sky above. All they can see for miles is a massive ash cloud and one thing everyone has learned over the past few months is that ash falls eventually.
“Welcome to the new ice age,” Lowell says. “That volcano keeps erupting and this world is long gone.”
“We’ll see,” Bolton says. “I’ll let the climatologists debate that. Right now, we need to worry about getting somewhere we can breathe when that comes down.”
Bolton lowers himself over the edge of the bus and reaches up to help Lu down, then Lowell. Lu stops and looks at the body of the bus driver.
“How’d you get him down?” Lu asks.
“Windshield,” Bolton says, pointing to the front of the bus. “Couldn’t get you out that way because of the security cage around the driver’s seat.”
“Hey!” Lu snaps and shoves Lowell away from the man. “Back off!”
“Just checking his pulse,” Lowell says. “Want to know what I found?”
Lu kneels down and checks for herself. She doesn’t find one.
“He’s dead,” Lu says.
“Yep,” Lowell nods. “That’s what I was gonna say.”
“What’s that?” Bolton asks, pointing towards a shattered and broken road a good quarter mile away. “You know that road?”
“Could be 135,” Lu says. “Might even be 200. Everything is so messed up I can’t really say.
“Well, we follow the interstate until we get to somewhere we can hole up in,” Bolton says.
“What we do is help these people first,” Lu says, pointing at a crushed Toyota Corolla. A bloody hand waves weakly from the shattered driver’s side window. “We can’t leave them to die.”
“They’re already dead,” Bolton says. “There’s only three of us and we’re all suffering trauma. We’re functioning now because of adrenaline. It’s only a matter of time before one of you two crash hard and I’m stuck with helping you walk.”
“And they locked me up for being a monster,” Lowell laughs. “I like your style, soldier boy.”
“Bolton,” Bolton says. “Just call me Bolton.”
“We can try,” Lu says and hurries over to the Corolla.
Lowell looks at Bolton and raises his eyebrows. “She always been this way?”
“What? Thinking she can save the world by herself? Yeah,” Bolton says. He looks at Lu then at Lowell. “Are you going to be a problem?”
“I’m way past being a problem,” Lowell smiles.
“You know what I mean,” Bolton says. “Shoot me straight, psycho. Am I going to have to kill you when you try to kill me or Lu?”
“There are so many loopholes in your question that I could answer no truthfully and still rip your eyes out at some point,” Lowell says, his smile growing wider. “But, in the spirit of apocalyptic camaraderie, I’ll be 100% honest with you and say that if you do your best to keep me alive, I’ll make sure to try keeping you and the Girl Scout alive. Deal?”
“Deal,” Bolton says and offers his hand.
Lowell takes the hand and the two men stare at each other for a second.
“Your dad military?” Bolton asks.
“Maybe,” Lowell nods.
“I know a military handshake anywhere,” Bolton says and lets go of Lowell’s hand.
“Fuck!” Lu shouts and kicks the Corolla’s door.
“I’m guessing that one didn’t make it,” Lowell says.
“Let’s check the other vehicles,” Bolton says. “If there aren’t survivors, there may at least be supplies we can salvage.”
“I’d go for some jeans and a coat,” Lowell says, pulling at his wet and torn prison jumpsuit. “Boots would be good to.”
“I’ll keep an eye out,” Bolton says.
The two men freeze as the mystery animal calls out again, this time a little closer. Then far off, other calls answer it.
“I think your bear has friends,” Lowell says. “How’s about we hurry with finding supplies and checking on the soon to be dead people?”
“Yeah. Good idea,” Bolton says. “Bears are territorial. They are going to want to protect their food sources. They’ll see us as competition. Our timetable has just been moved up.”
“That’s why I said we should hurry,” Lowell replies.
***
The rock under Kyle’s fingers is slick with mud and he tries to get a better grip, but no matter how he moves, he just keeps slipping. His toes scramble for purchase, but there’s only a lip of about an inch before the ledge drops off to hundreds of feet of open air below.
“Help!” Kyle shouts, knowing it’s useless since he’s in the middle of nowhere. “Please! Help!”
He glances over his shoulder at the pit around him, but just that small movement causes his left hand to fall free and Kyle lets loose with a scream that hasn’t escaped his throat since before puberty. His body twists away from the ledge and he only has a split second to decide what to do. He shoves his hands against the cliff face and pushes off with his legs, sending his body flying out into the air.
His arms pin wheeling, and throat still screaming, Kyle rushes towards another ledge lost in the gloom of the pit. He slams into the wall of the pit and nearly bounces off the ledge, but he’s able to jam his left hand into a crack in the rock and keep himself from tumbling over the side.
Kyle’s breath comes in harsh rasps as he struggles not to panic. All around him is nothing but slick rock and it’s a hundred feet to the edge of the pit above. He stares up at the near black sky and the thick, rolling clouds of ash that stream by. He watches as the clouds expand and contract, then wonders how long he has before that ash settles down on him and ends his life.
Because that’s all he can think of right now, how his life is going to end.
Then a sound above causes a sliver of hope to cut through the gloom.
“Biscuit?” he wonders aloud. “Biscuit!”
The barking gets louder and Kyle tries to stand up on the ledge, but the ground is so slick that he rejects that idea and stays planted on his ass.
“Biscuit! Here boy!”
Far above, a white and grey head appears. Biscuit gives a couple of loud barks and starts to pace back and forth, looking for a way down to his boy.
“Stay, Biscuit!” Kyle orders, fearing the hybrid will jump down to him. It’s not outside the realm of possibility with the half-dog, half-wolf. Biscuit has proven time and again, he has no fear when it comes to protecting Kyle. “Find help, Biscuit! Go get help!”
Biscuit barks three more times, then stops as his hackles raise and he growls low. The hybrid spins around and is lost from Kyle’s sight.
“Biscuit!” Kyle yells. “Find Grandma!”
Then a gunshot echoes down to Kyle and he hears the distinct yelp of Biscuit in pain. There are two more gunshots, then silence. No barks, nor growls, no more yelps.
Kyle waits on the ledge, his eyes struggling to see above as the light slowly starts to fade. He looks about to see if he can find a large rock or something to use as a weapon, but the ledge is clear of debris except for mud and small, useless bits of granite.
“Hello, Kyle,” a voice calls from above.
The light of day is pretty much gone and all Kyle can see is the outline of a man’s head and shoulders. But he knows the voice.
“You,” Kyle snarls. “Did you just shoot my dog? I’ll kill you if you hurt Biscuit!”
“I shot the thing,” Linder replies. “But I don’t think I killed it. The big coward took off running. I guess it would rather stay alive than stay here to protect you. Not that you need protecting from me.”
“Get away from me!” Kyle shouts. “This is all your fault!”
“Oh, I think once I find a way to get you out of that hole, you’ll see there is no way any of this is my fault,” Linder responds. “You stay put and I’ll see if I can find something to lower
down to you.”
“Fuck you!” Kyle screams. “You killed my grandma and shot my fucking dog! I’d rather die down here!”
“I doubt that,” Linder says. “No one would rather die. I’ll be right back.”
Kyle presses up against the side of the pit and tucks his knees up to his chest. He wants to be tough, to show the man he means what he says, but he knows in his heart that he doesn’t want to die down in the dark all alone.
Several minutes go by before something heavy smacks into Kyle’s head, causing him to cry out.
“What the hell?” Kyle shouts as he grabs onto a thick, black cable. “What is this?”
“Underground power line,” Linder yells down. “They put them in a few years ago so the views wouldn’t be ruined by power poles.”
Kyle lets go of the cable and scrambles away.
“Are you trying to electrocute me?” Kyle snaps. “Jesus!”
“Don’t worry,” Linder says. “It isn’t live. Pretty sure the eruption sent out some kind of EMP. I doubt there’s power for miles.”
“Eruption?” Kyle says. “The volcano erupted?”
“Huh,” Linder says. “I thought you’d be smarter.”
“Fuck you.”
“And more polite,” Linder sighs. “Grab on and I’ll pull you up.”
“I’m not coming up there,” Kyle says, trying one last time to be brave in the face of certain death.
Then a cry rings out and Kyle’s blood goes cold.
Linder gives the cable a shake.
“I don’t know what that is, but it doesn’t sound good, kid,” Linder says. “Been hearing them since the eruption. Grab the cable so I can pull you up. I don’t think you want to be stuck in a hole when whatever that is gets here.”
Kyle thinks about it for a split second, but a second and a third cry makes his mind up for him and he grabs onto the cable. His feet slip and slide as he tries to walk up the side of the pit and in the end, he lets Linder pull him up and out.