The Day After Never (Book 2): Purgatory Road

by Russell Blake

  It wasn’t his problem. He had to stay focused on his objective, which was to make it to the staff housing, find a way past any guards, and identify whether Jacob was still alive. Lubbock would take care of itself, for better or for worse. Still, the part of him that had carried a badge rankled at the injustice of the situation.

  He cut east of the medical center campus and made his way to the boulevard, which was dark as pitch, only a few lights on at the hospital guard stations. After confirming that there was nobody nearby, he lowered himself from the saddle and freed his M4 to look through the night vision scope. A quick scan of the street revealed two gunmen at the front of the apartments near the hospital, exactly where Sierra had said they’d be, blocking the entryway into the horseshoe-shaped complex.

  Lucas had thought for three days how to best get into the apartments undetected, and had come up with creating a diversion as the safest way. To do that, he’d need a bottle of his grandfather’s white lightning and a shirt that had seen better days. He bundled the jar of moonshine inside the shirt and stuck it under his arm and, after tying Tango beneath a tree at the back of a vacant lot two blocks away, set off for the apartments on foot, M4 at the ready.

  He eased himself past an overflowing dumpster that hadn’t been emptied for years and crept up an alley that ran between Jacob’s complex and the next in the line, which Sierra had said was abandoned. When he arrived at the midpoint of the span, he stopped at a window and peered into the darkness. The room appeared empty, and he tried the window, which was locked. He studied the aluminum frame and spotted screws connecting the vertical piece to the top and bottom.

  Three minutes later he’d removed them with his bowie knife and pried the vertical bar loose until it slid with a soft scrape to the side. Inching the glass free was easy from there, and he placed it carefully on the ground, listening for any indication that the guards were taking a lap around the building. Confident they were still at their post, he pulled himself into the apartment and stood motionless for a few moments in case the sound of his entry had given him away.

  Nothing but the smell of mildew and rat droppings.

  A sweep of the room with his NV scope revealed a vacant dining room and kitchen, the cabinets and baseboards chewed away, explaining the vermin infestation. According to Sierra’s map, he was six apartments from Jacob’s, which was on the second floor. He’d decided he couldn’t go to Jacob, so he needed a way to force the scientist to him.

  The moonshine was the key.

  He dowsed the kitchen with alcohol and then stuffed his rolled-up shirt sleeve into the half-full jar until it had absorbed much of the fluid. He removed a disposable lighter from his flak jacket, lit the garment, and threw it against the cabinets, breaking the glass and spraying the area with flaming liquid.

  Lucas was back through the window in a flash. He watched as the flames licked at the wood and the sheetrock and then crawled up the partially exposed struts. Within moments the apartment was blazing, smoke and tongues of fire flitting from the window, and he ran to the dumpster and waited behind it, ignoring the nauseating odors wafting from it.

  A voice called from the front of the apartment complex. “Fire! Shit. It’s going up. Hey, wake up! Fire! Get out of your rooms!”

  The guards reacted predictably and were rousing the residents as the flames spread along the wood-framed structure. Lucas heard doors being thrown open and confused cries of alarm as the guards raced the fire. There was a fifty-fifty chance that they’d come down the alley to investigate, but once the residents of the apartments emptied onto the street, it wouldn’t matter.

  Smoke billowed from the ground floor as another unit caught, and then the first footfalls sounded on the pavement – probably one of the guards by the sound of it, given that the residents had been sleeping and wouldn’t have had time to don heavy boots. A burly gunman jogged past him toward the area he’d lit, and Lucas sprang from his hiding place and drove his Bowie knife into the back of his neck before the man had a chance to register his presence.

  The razor-sharp blade severed the gunman’s spinal cord at the C3 vertebra, and the man dropped like a sack of wet manure, limbs limp and torso twitching. His AK-47 struck the ground, but the sound was lost in the growing cries from the complex. Lucas wiped the knife on the man’s leather vest and sheathed it, and then dragged his body to the inferno and hoisted it through the window, wincing from the effort and the withering heat.

  When the guard’s body was found, the fire would have obliterated the evidence of the cause of death. But he was running out of time. It was just a matter of minutes before reinforcements arrived from the nearby medical center, and they’d easily spot a stranger, even in the dark.

  Lucas ran to the mouth of the service alley and looked around the corner. There were maybe a dozen people, men and women alike, standing in the street and watching their home burn. Lucas removed his hat and propped it on the barrel of his M4, and then shrugged out of his plate carrier and stashed it along with his weapon behind the dumpster. His hope was that in the confusion he wouldn’t look alarming enough to be registered – and in a pinch, he still had his Kimber.

  He took a deep breath and rounded the corner. The other guard was in the courtyard, screaming a warning at the remaining staff, leaving Lucas the opening he’d been hoping for. He looked over the spectators and spoke in an urgent voice. “Oh, my God. It’s going to burn to the ground. Jacob! Has anyone seen Jacob?”

  One of the women, who looked half asleep, motioned to a man a few yards away on her left. “Don’t worry, he made it out.”

  “Thank goodness,” Lucas said, and moved away as she turned back toward the blaze. He sidled toward the man, who matched Sierra’s description, albeit in sweat shorts and a collegiate T-shirt that looked decades old. When Lucas was beside him, he leaned in. “Jacob?”

  The man tore his eyes from the burning spectacle before him and gave Lucas a blank look. “Yes?”

  Lucas tapped a finger against the medallion hanging from his neck. “A friend sent me to make sure you’re okay.”

  His eyes widened and his mouth formed an O, and Lucas shook his head. Jacob quickly regained his composure and nodded understanding. He looked around, his attention fixed on several Crew members jogging from the medical center campus. He nudged Lucas and whispered to him, “How is she?”

  Lucas followed his stare and frowned. “Not here. We need to talk.”

  Jacob matched his expression and nodded. “There’s a brick house a block north. Empty. White chimney. Wait for me there.”

  “When?”

  “Later. Get out of here.”

  Lucas didn’t need to be told twice. He moved back toward the alley and ducked out of sight as the guards arrived. He leaned down to retrieve his weapon and hat and then took off at a dead run for the opposite end of the walkway, the roar of the fire now covering any sound from the clomping of his boots on the pavement, his shadow long and wavering along the far building’s wall, backlit by the flames.

  Chapter 35

  Lucas waited across the street from the brick house, Tango tied a safe distance away. He had his M4 trained on the structure, watching it through the NV scope. A part of him was troubled by how easily he’d knifed the Crew guard; it worried him that he could kill so easily now. Then he remembered the stories he’d heard about the Crew – the pedophilia, the rapes, the atrocities – and his doubts melted away.

  His rumination was cut short by Jacob cutting from shadow to shadow as he made his way toward the house. When he was at the entry, Lucas shifted his focus from the building to the street to see if he was being followed. After verifying they were alone, Lucas rose from his position and darted to the house, little more than a wraith in the dim moonlight.

  Jacob was obviously startled when Lucas materialized in the doorway. Lucas stepped inside and immediately sized up the fields of fire he would have if they were attacked and positioned himself accordingly. Jacob watched him in silence, and when Lucas was
crouched in the shadows with the M4 clutched in both hands, he finally spoke.

  “You have Sierra’s medallion.”

  “That’s right. She sent me. There’s been a problem.”

  “I heard. Nobody showed up at the rendezvous. You have no idea how worried I was. And Eve?”

  “She’s fine. They both are.”

  Jacob gave a slow sigh. “That’s a relief. But why did you come?”

  “They told me about Shangri-La. They don’t know how to get there.”

  “Of course they don’t. Almost nobody does.”

  Lucas nodded. “You mentioned a rendezvous?”

  “That’s right.”

  “We need to set up another one.”

  Jacob studied Lucas in the gloom. “Who are you? What’s your connection to them?”

  “Their entourage was cut down. I saved their lives.”

  “How do I know this isn’t a trick?”

  “I have the medallion. She wouldn’t have given it to me if she didn’t trust me.”

  “You could have taken it against her will.”

  Lucas shrugged. “Sure. Anything’s possible. But take a hard look at me. I’ve been riding for a week. Why would I do that? Just to trick you? To what end?”

  “You could be working for…for them.”

  “The Crew? Don’t you think if I was, you’d be in a hole somewhere, begging for your life?” Lucas sighed. “Look. They’re safe, but the Crew has people hunting them. You know why as well as I do. They’re not going to give up. So everything you’ve done, all the risks you’ve taken, will have been in vain if they catch them – which they will, eventually, because they’ll throw as many men at it as they need to.” Lucas let that sink in. “Unless I can get them to safety. To Shangri-La.”

  Jacob mulled over Lucas’s words, and Lucas gave him time to process. He could understand the hesitation. The scientist had thought he was out of the woods, and now he was being asked to put it all on the line again.

  “Where are they?” Jacob asked.

  “New Mexico.”

  “Ah. So they made it that far, at least.”

  “Yes. Where was the rendezvous supposed to happen?”

  “Roswell.”

  Lucas nodded again. “We could make it, no problem.”

  “You say her escorts were cut down. Can you be more specific?”

  “Sure. A bunch of scum that call themselves the Raiders attacked them. Ambushed them in a gulch. They were after their guns and animals. They do it all the time.”

  “Damn.”

  “Yup. They manage to escape only to be taken out by scavengers. Bad luck, no doubt.” Lucas glanced at his watch. “No offense, but won’t the guards notice you’re gone?”

  “Probably. I mean, eventually.” Jacob regarded him skeptically. “The fire. Was that you?”

  “I had to find a way to get you where I could talk to you.”

  “You burned down the entire building just for that?”

  Lucas shrugged. “Didn’t see a lot of alternatives.”

  “Good Lord…”

  “Look, Jacob, I’ve ridden a long way, and I’m playing for keeps. I’ll do whatever’s necessary to get the job done. That was necessary. End of story.”

  Jacob eyed him. “You have blood on your sleeve.”

  “You’re short one guard.” Lucas exhaled impatiently. “I need you to radio your people and set up another meet. Either that, or tell me how to decode the note.”

  “You have that too?”

  “And the USB drive.”

  “Thank God. That’s almost as big a piece of the puzzle as Eve is.”

  “So same game plan, just a different inning. Where’s your radio?”

  “I’m afraid you’ve misunderstood. I don’t know where Shangri-La is or who they were supposed to meet. I just know it was in Roswell. I don’t have any contact with the sanctuary. I go through a cutout who speaks with them.”

  “So you can’t call them?”

  “No. I also don’t know how to decode your note or what it contains. Probably just directions to the rendezvous, which will do you no good – the contact is long gone by now.”

  Lucas’s shoulders sagged. “Then this was all for nothing. They’re never going to make it, you know. I’ll do my best to keep them safe, but the odds are lousy.”

  Jacob was silent for several moments.

  “I can get in touch with my cutout,” he said softly. “It’s worth the risk of another broadcast.” Jacob trembled slightly at the prospect. “The Crew monitors the airwaves. They’re not stupid, and they’re sophisticated enough to be able to locate a transmitter. Every time he broadcasts, he’s jeopardizing all of us.”

  “Stakes are pretty high, I’d say.”

  Jacob began pacing. “We were fairly close to developing a vaccine, but we can’t without Eve.” His eyes met Lucas’s, and Lucas saw a haunted soul in them. “Magnus can’t be allowed to get the vaccine. It would be…it would be worse than the collapse.”

  “I know. Sierra told me.”

  Jacob stopped and squared his shoulders. “Okay. I’ll do it. Where are you staying?”

  “I’m not.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means I rode here to find you. I did. Once you set up the rendezvous, I ride back.”

  Jacob adjusted his glasses and considered Lucas for a long minute. “What’s your background?”

  “Used to be a Texas Ranger.”

  Jacob nodded. “It makes sense. You guys had quite a reputation.”

  “Ancient history. We going to do this or not?”

  “What – now?”

  “Got any reason to wait?”

  “I…I suppose we could try.”

  “That would be good.” Lucas straightened. “Let’s go talk to your contact.”

  “Oh. Well. I mean, he…I’ll go, and meet you somewhere later.”

  “No. Too risky. Let’s do this right now, the two of us. No stalling or thinking things over. They’re following Sierra’s tracks as we speak. There’s no time to lose.”

  “I…I don’t know. It could compromise him.”

  “I risked my neck riding all the way here, Jacob. You want Eve to get to this sanctuary of yours, you need to get off the pot. Your apartment’s burned to sticks, there’s confusion – this is your chance.”

  Lucas could see the hesitation in the scientist’s eyes, and then he nodded again, the thick lenses of his glasses glinting from reflected moonlight as he moved to the door.

  “Okay. We’ll give it a try.” Jacob stopped. “What’s your name, anyway?”

  Lucas transferred his M4 from his right hand to his left and tipped his hat brim in the dark. “Lucas. Where are we headed?”

  “Back to the hospital.”

  “Are you kidding?”

  Jacob shook his head. “No. He lives there.”

  “How do we get in?”

  “Let me worry about that.”

  Jacob brushed by Lucas and stepped out of the doorway onto the deserted street. The sky glowed orange from the apartment’s flames. Lucas followed him out, wondering how the situation could get any worse than going into the most heavily guarded building in Lubbock, and then stopped himself.

  The creeping dread in the pit of his stomach warned him that he might soon find out.

  Chapter 36

  Bruce sat at his computer station, LED work lamp illuminating the living room. Eve and Ruby were asleep in the bedroom. Sierra was relaxing on the couch across from him, unable to sleep even long after dark. Bruce had been unable to find a power supply for his CPU and had griped on and off for the last three days about the far slower processing power of his laptop.

  They’d continued trying to decrypt the note, but with no success, making Lucas’s decision to ride to Lubbock appear more prescient with each passing hour. Bruce had been pestering Sierra and Ruby for more information on the cryptic note ever since Lucas had departed, and was becoming increasingly truculent at t
heir stonewalling.

  Sierra was reading one of Bruce’s prodigious collection of paperback sci-fi novels, the pages yellowing at the edges from age – this one about a planet far away where spice was the currency of the empire. She shifted and sighed as she flipped a brittle page, and Bruce swiveled around and faced her.

  “Sierra, I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I have a right to know what’s going on. You’re taking advantage of my hospitality, my resources, and you’re treating me like an adversary. It’s not fair, and I don’t like it, and frankly…it’s pretty shabby,” he said, the speech obviously one he’d been polishing in his mind for some time.

  Sierra set the book down beside her and looked him in the eye. “Bruce, I totally get what you’re saying, and I want you to know that I appreciate everything you’ve done for us. We’ll find a way to pay you back. I swear.”

  “You could start by being honest.”

  “That’s not my call to make.”

  He frowned. “Whose is it, then? Aren’t you an adult?”

  She shook her head. “Lucas made me promise.”

  “Lucas? Does he own you? What does he have to do with anything?”

  “We’re in this together.”

  Bruce looked around. “Funny. I don’t see him here, do you?” Bruce softened his tone and sat forward, an earnest expression on his face. “Look, Sierra, I can’t put myself at risk if I don’t know what’s at stake. I know that I’m doing so by the way you and Ruby are acting, and it’s a crummy way to repay me for letting you stay here.”

  “What do you mean, how we’re acting?”

  “Come on, Sierra. You hardly go outside at all, and when you do, you spend ten minutes checking through the windows to make sure nobody’s around to see you. Do you really think I’m that much of an idiot?”