“You want to drive, fine. You drive and we’ll ride in the back… how’s that sound?”
I needed no time to thank about his answer. “No. Find your own damn car!”
“I knew that was your SUV the moment I saw you,” Man Two said. “I tell you what I’ll do since I’m still in a good mood and I kind of like you. How about you just give us the keys and let us be on our way. That way no one gets hurt and you can use one of those cars out there on the interstate.”
“No one gets hurt?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Man Two said and smiled. “But know that I won’t ask nicely again. I’ll take them from you if I have too.”
Up until then, Man Two’s hands had been visible to me and that had kept me from showing any real signs of fear. His left hand slowly moved from the shelf and disappeared from sight, which to me was a blatant threat and without thinking I thrust my hand behind me and dropped my voice several levels. “Put your hand back on the shelf where I can see them!”
“And if I don’t?” Man Two asked.
“If I lied about the SUV, then wouldn’t it be safe to assume that I lied about being armed as well?” I asked, feeling a sense of accomplishment in creating doubt in their minds. Doubt was usually a bad thing to have to deal with, yet in certain situations, this one to be exact, doubt could be a powerful weapon.
Man One felt the situation quickly decaying and knew a gunfight was emanating, to which he wanted no part of. The noise would be deafening in the narrow confines of the store, not to mention that fact that it would bring that thing running toward them, and maybe more that they could not see.
“I’m losing my patients, man.”
“Put your fucking hand back where I can see it!” I demanded, still holding the belt loop on the rear of my pants. It was a fake move to throw them off guard, however, the consequences that ran with such an action could easily turn against me if either of them had lied and were armed as well. A hand contorted into a fake gun was no match for a real one.
“Okay, just calm down,” Man Two said and put his hand back where it could be seen. “There, it’s back on the shelf. Are you happy now?”
“Both of you get up slowly and head toward the coolers.”
“Why?” Man Two asked.
“Do it!” I demanded. My bluff had worked and they feared I was armed and had the advantage over them. I moved the opposite direction toward the register as they moved slowly toward the coolers. Moving around the corner I slid behind the counter, keeping an eye on both of them, placed my four bags on the counter and grabbed several packs of smokes to shove into as many pockets as I could.
“I say we rush him. He can’t get both of us,” Man Two whispered to his accomplice.
“And what if he can?”
With the store being as quiet as it was I had heard the comment and quickly wanted out of the store, even if it meant running out the front door. The thing surely couldn’t get me before I got to the SUV and the two assholes would not be stupid enough to give chase.
“Listen to your buddy, asshole. You rush me and I’ll pop both of you.”
I was about to grab my bags when something just under the counter on a small shelf caught my attention. It was a sign that I took as a guarantee that I would at least live through the encounter and when I looked up I saw both of them moving slowly toward him. “Stop where you are!”
“Or what?” Man Two asked. “I don’t even think you have a gun… in fact, I’d be sure of that.” He began to move forward and balled his fists.
“You willing to bet your life on that?” I asked.
Man One suddenly butted in. “Man, just give us the keys and let us go. It doesn’t have to go down like this… we don’t want to kill you unless you make us.”
“Unless I make you, really?
Since I was old enough to understand the logic of life and death, I had heard stories of the trash that travelled the interstates of America from one coast to the other, preying on innocent people. They were vile creatures that had no remorse for the things they did or for the lives they destroyed. It was all about personal gain to them and if it meant they had to kill an entire family coming back from vacation to get what they wanted, then they would do it without thought and laugh afterward. The anger I felt turned to hate and I couldn’t even stand to look at them anymore. I wanted them to die. I wanted them to suffer for the unknown things they had done in their criminal lives. I wanted them to pay… and they were about to.
“You rush me and I’ll get one of you for sure.”
“Then the last one of us will get you,” Man Two stated.
“You can try.” I said and grabbed the large revolver from the shelf and thrust it up in front of him, the sights coming to rest on the chest of Man Two and I cocked the hammer. Both Men stopped, seeing that I had not been bluffing them after all.
“Oh shit.” Man One said.
“How does it feel to have the tables turned on you for once?”
“You shoot and that thing comes this way,” Man Two offered.
“And I’ll be out the back door and moving around to my SUV before it can get through those thin windows.” I shot back and my words were more lethal. “But you two won’t be so lucky. Now how does it feel?”
“Fuck you!” Man Two spit.
I moved from behind the counter and backed toward the kitchen area where I had seen an exit sign. The back door had to be located somewhere back there and I’d find it. If not, then I’d be able to defend myself with the revolver and put both of them down. There was a part of me that wanted them to rush me, as I would have my justification to kill them. The anger would eventually fade and the regret and remorse of killing them would haunt me for the rest of my life.
Both Men moved toward the kitchen as I disappeared from sight, keeping a safe distance in case I emerged and began shooting at them. Man Two pulled the small derringer type pistol from his front pocket and motioned for his buddy to peek around the wall. He took several quick steps, shoved himself against the wall and slowly peeked around the corner. The back door was wide open and he looked back at his partner.
“He’s gone.”
Abruptly I stepped into the opening, Man One saw me and scurried out of the way, calling to his partner who took cover behind a small chip rack. I raised the revolver toward the front door and fired a single round. The concussion from the revolver blew a calendar off the nearby wall, startled Man One who dropped to the floor, as he was sprinting away. Man Two stayed where he was as the glass from the front door exploded. The screams from the thing in the parking lot cut through the cool night and grew. Both Men looked in its direction and saw it racing toward them.
“C’mon, we gotta go!” Man Two yelled to his partner.
The thing crashed through the front door, got caught by the handle and flipped to the ground. It recovered and was quickly on its feet as both Men flew out the back door in time to hear the SUV pull out of the parking lot with tires squealing.
Man Two pointed his pocket pistol at the fleeing SUV, although he didn’t fire. “I’m gonna get you, you fucker!”
I pulled the SUV onto the interstate and punched the gas, the engine responded and the vehicle flew down the onramp as I glanced to my right to see the two Men behind the gas station flipping me off. I felt a rush like nothing I had ever felt before. I was fully alive and was in perfect harmony with all of my senses. I was alive. I smiled and felt the weight fade from my shoulders.
The two Men, confronted by the screaming thing, fled into the woods behind the gas station with it hot on their trail. Survival depended upon them either being able to outrun it or lose it within the darkness and heavy undergrowth. Each of them hated the stranger even more for his actions, what he had caused them to face and for leaving them stranded. They both wanted revenge and if they ever had the opportunity, they would exact it upon him and whoever else had been with him.
I rushed down the interstate, unclear of where the National Guard had set up thei
r containment area. I imagined it being right off the onramp close to the gas stations and the empowering lights, yet I had already traveled several miles with no signs of life in front or behind me. The world appeared to have been evacuated to some unknown planet elsewhere, leaving me, Kember and the two Thugs behind. That was not a comforting feeling by any means.
“Where the hell is this damn place?” I asked aloud. “Did I go the wrong way or was it all bullshit to begin with?” That last question stuck in my mind more than anything. If this wasn’t an isolated case, like I was beginning to think, there was a good chance they could have been over run, or maybe they just packed up and moved when things got out of hand...
My so called luck was dripping away like a spilled cup of milk.
The yellow line quietly slipped beneath the SUV as we drove down the interstate in search of some allusive containment center that I was sure would never be found, nor had it ever been there probably. The Officer had just told me that to simply save my life and nothing more. So if that had been the case, which I was positive of now, where would we go? If the problem wasn’t local, then going to a large city would be a disastrous idea.
I let off the accelerator and the SUV began to slow from seventy down to sixty, then on toward fifty miles an hour. My mind was racing faster than we were traveling and I had to catch up to it. In the middle of nowhere on a desolate interstate I suddenly came upon a group of cars stalled in the middle of the road. Fear registered upon my face as death stared blankly back at me. I slammed on the brakes and swerved, yet none of that worked, I braced for impact. The fear of sustaining a serious injury in the crash coursed through my mind like electricity and grew as I thought about Kember being injured, as well.
A metal pole smashed through the windshield, missing my head by mere inches. The crash was sudden, instant, and, absolute… then silence.
Chapter Three.
I awoke to hear a muffled noise behind me. My vision was blurry and my head felt like a metal pole had gone all the way through it, instead of missing me and I had lived. I strained my neck forward, feeling the bones crunch as I moved. My neck is broken I thought. I’m going to be paralyzed from the neck down and I’ll sit here for days until I die. More than that, I will get to watch, as well as hear, my daughter dying also. I wanted to move my hand but was scared to try, knowing that if it didn’t move we were screwed. It was the fear that kept me from moving it. The fear of the unknown and my rampant thoughts, along with the anticipation of it all were too much.
Without warning, I shifted my attention to the backseat to see Kember awake and looking at me with an odd expression painted on her face. She had been crying as I could see the tears on her cheeks as well as the redness around her eyes. But for how long? “It’s okay, baby. We’re still alive and kicking… I think.”
Kember, didn’t see it that way as she had been strapped into her car seat and awoke to find her daddy slumped over in the front seat and after several attempts at trying to get his attention with no success, her childhood fear pushed her to do what any child of her age would do in such a situation. She started crying.
I crawled into the backseat with her and quickly took one of the small bottles of juice and poured it into a sippy cup and handed it to her. Kember quickly took it and began drinking as though she hadn’t had anything in weeks. With that taken care of and her crying ceased, I unwittingly realized that I wasn’t paralyzed from the neck down, I wasn’t even injured at all and that made me happy for the moment. I changed tactics quickly and scanned the darkness around the SUV, saw nothing and no one and got out, shutting the door behind me quietly. I wasn’t sure how far we had driven before the crash, which meant if it wasn’t that far, those two assholes could catch up with us if that thing hadn’t finished them off. So every move I made was calculated and quiet.
At the front of the SUV I could see that the damage wasn’t that bad, although the windshield would have to be replaced as soon as possible. I could use it if I got the vehicle running again, but it wouldn’t stop the rain or wind from getting in at us. A simple fix of shoving some papers or perhaps a small shirt into the hole would work temporarily. Luckily for me there were a shitload of other cars and trucks that I could barrow parts from to get back on the road, the only question was how long the repairs would take and was I capable of doing the work? I was no mechanic; in fact I had no real knack for mechanics or engineering at all. It all might as well have been Greek to me.
Under the falling rain, I could see cars and trucks of all makes and models stretched out before me in some never ending auto grave. There must have been miles of abandoned vehicles, but why? None of them appeared to be disabled in anyway, so why would the owner just get out and leave. I spun around a few times thinking that maybe more of those things had attacked the drivers as they stopped to help another motorist and with stacks of other vehicles in front of them they had nowhere to go. If that was the case, I wanted to be certain that it would not happen to us as well.
“Poor bastards… they never had a chance.”
The rain could have washed any signs of blood away. That didn’t explain why there were no bodies anywhere to be found though. No signs of attack on any of the windows on the cars and trucks. It was as if they all got out willingly and were carried away.
“Might as well stop procrastinating and get this over with.” I said and moved to the rear of the SUV, popped the gate and pulled a jacket with a hood on. The rain was still falling and had slacked up, regardless of that though the temperature was dropping. Kember looked over the seat at me and I smiled. “Drink your juice, baby. Daddy has some work to do and hopefully we’ll be out of here in a little while.”
With the thoughts still fresh in my mind, I doubted that we would be going anywhere for some time and with her not really able to understand, I said what I said to make both of us happy… more so for me.
“I love you.”
She giggled and went back to drinking her juice. I shut the gate and moved toward the multitude of cars and trucks. Unlike the last time I had stopped and gotten out, I brought the Beretta with me this time and shoved it down the front of my pants. That way if I were to run into more assholes, like back at the gas station, they wouldn’t get anything over on me and I’d frighten them away. In theory anyway. I lit a cigarette and cupped it from the light rain as I walked.
“Guess I should have checked and created a list of things I’ll need to get the Pathfinder up and running before coming out here and walking around like some idiot,” I said softly, walking past a few cars, stopping to look through the windows before moving on to the next. It wasn’t important to procure any type of supplies at the moment, as I had several bags of snacks and smokes at the gas station, which I figured would last for some time. The search was more for anything we could use to stay warm and remain undetected in the SUV until it was repaired or help arrived. In all honesty and fairness, the later was something I wasn’t so sure about anymore.
With each new car or truck that I stopped to look in, I always glanced back at the SUV keeping it in sight. The doors were locked and the keys stuffed in my pocket. Kember would more than likely finish her sippy cup and fall back to sleep with it being dark, so the only thing I really had to worry about was if she remained warm or not. With the engine off, the heater was off too. It wouldn’t take long for the interior to get cold and with her little body; she’d be far more likely to get cold before I did. Even with a small blanket I’d found in the back, which I had placed over her before leaving, she was hot natured and had a tendency to kick the covers and blankets off throughout the night. All I could do was hope my actions were right and true.
From the wood line to his right someone watched him move from car to truck, look in the window, and then move on to the next one. They moved silently through the darkened woods, careful with each step placement as not to break any twigs and give their position away as they moved parallel to him.
Under an open gate of a small SUV they
watched him pull and light a cigarette, scanning the darkness in a vigilant attempt to keep his surroundings in check. He cupped the ember end of the smoke as he took a drag, and then lowered it to his side, keeping it from being seen by anyone who might wander up near him. He took a further look into the rear of the vehicle he was using as cover and found nothing he could use. Several drags later he dropped the smoke and seemed to be chewing over the idea of going further or returning to his own SUV.
The unseen person brought a high powered scope up to see the target better and watched as the Young Man made his choice and headed back toward his SUV. They could see his lips moving, yet with the distance between the two of them, they could not hear what he was saying.
When he reached the SUV the unseen person switched the safety off and slid their finger onto the trigger. If his SUV was drivable they would no longer have to move on foot. It was considered to be a necessary evil to kill in order to stay alive, but the unseen person had done it a few times already and this time would be no different.
He slipped into the SUV and grabbed his cell phone from the cup holder and turned it on, looked at it for a few seconds giving the unseen person a perfect shot, so even if the first shot did not kill, they would have nowhere to go. They had unwittingly made themselves a sitting duck.
He spun around and shined the light toward the rear. The face of a young child came into view and the unseen person froze. This Young Man was not the usual trash and scum of the earth that had been encountered so far and they pulled their finger off the trigger and returned the rifle to safe. Their clothing was dark in color and blended well with the forest surroundings. They moved closer to the interstate and spotted a nice sized tree, to which they pulled something from a backpack and looked up into its dark confines.
Day One (Book 1): Alive Page 5