Lori answered in a thankful voice, “You don’t have to tell me twice.”
He took a couple of quick breaths and swung the rifle back up and fired. Lori took off running and as Chuck chambered another round the man hidden in the hedge began firing. The bullets pelted the opposite side of the car and all across the hood. The right front tire blew and a round skipped off the asphalt under the car and grazed Chuck’s calf. The entire exchange, which pumped over fifty holes in the car, lasted perhaps two seconds. It ended when Chuck heard another shot from Andy’s hunting rifle.
He glanced at the blood trickling down his shin before popping back up on the hood with his rifle. There was enough smoke slowly drifting in front of the hedge that in a more peaceful time it could have been mistaken for a fog bank. Chuck kept his rifle aimed and his finger on the trigger as he watched the movement of a dark figure behind the smoke. As the sweat ran down his forehead and started to sting his eyes, the figure broke through the cloud and into the clear. It was the lean, tanned figure of Andy strutting victoriously toward the Impala while pumping his rifle in the air. As Chuck slowly stood from the cover of the car, Andy beat the rifle against his chest and then hoisted it high above his head and gave a savage scream of victory.
Chuck was about to yell his thanks when Cindy screamed behind him. It wasn’t a scream of fear, but the kind of scream that you hope you never hear. It was a death scream. The hairs on his neck stood as he spun around and saw her. She was slouched over a body not more than ten feet from the truck. Chuck didn’t think—he just ran as the nightmare started to play out in his mind. Before he saw the body he knew it was Teresa. He knew exactly what had happened as if he had seen the whole thing. She had screamed at him not to leave. When he did, she jumped out of the truck and started after him. He remembered the bullet shooting past him. He remembered Jamie trying to get his attention. He knew it all and yet he knew nothing.
He flung his rifle to the side and took off running. At the end of a full sprint, he went down on his knees and slid right into her. He pulled Cindy back and gasped as he saw Teresa in a semi-conscious state. She was alive, but blood was spilling from a bullet wound in her small, swollen thigh. He scooped her upper body off the asphalt in one arm while he applied pressure to the wound with his free hand. “You’re going to be okay! We’re going to take care of you.” As he looked around for help, he saw Jim and Sara holding Robby back to where he couldn’t see his sister. He looked at Jim and said, “Get the first-aid kit out of my truck. And then find some cloth to tear up—I’ll need several strips.”
Andy ran up on the other side and stood panting. Chuck looked at him and said, “Go check Kyle’s truck—see if they’re still alive!”
Jim dropped down to the asphalt next to Chuck with the first-aid kit and a sheet. Cindy snatched the sheet out of his hands and began to rip it into strips while he opened up the first-aid kit. He folded a wad of gauze and pressed it to the wound. “We’ve got to stop the bleeding!”
“Help me lift her leg—gently!” Chuck demanded, as they raised her leg to look for an exit wound. “Here! Bullet went clean through. I can’t tell if it hit any bone or not, but all we can do right now is try to stop the bleeding.” He grabbed another wad of gauze out of the kit and pressed it against the exit wound as he looked at Jim and Cindy. “These were scouts…I doubt Jason is too far behind. And I have a feeling he brought his entire tribe.”
Cindy quickly handed them several strips of torn sheet and they began to bandage the wounds with as much pressure as they could without fear of cutting off the flow to the rest of her leg.
“Kyle is alive!” Andy huffed as he ran back up, “Cathy is dead.”
“Both vehicles shot?” Chuck asked.
“To shit…they’re not going anywhere,” Andy replied with a shake of his head.
Chuck pushed Jim’s hands away and took over the bandaging. “I’ve got Teresa. You go on and take care of Kyle.” Jim grabbed the first-aid kit and took off running. While wrapping Teresa’s leg, he spoke to Andy without looking at him. “We need to lay out Teresa…and probably Kyle too as we travel. We don’t have room to do that in only three vehicles. I want you to run back there and find out what those scouts drove down in. Check their pockets for keys first. Find whatever they had and drive it back here as quickly as you can.”
“Sure boss,” Andy said, as he sprinted toward the fallen snipers.
Chuck tied the strips in a knot over one wound and then crossed the strip around to the back of Teresa’s thigh and tied a knot over the exit wound. After he finished, Cindy slid over next to him and he put his arm around her. “She’s going to make it. She didn’t lose that much blood.”
While Cindy buried her face against his shoulder and started crying again, Chuck addressed the others. “Jeff, I want you and Brandt to find a working car. I don’t care what it is or what it looks like. I want you to drive it or push it or whatever you have to do to get it at least two or three blocks north of the intersection of US50.” He lowered his eyes and tried to detach his feelings from what he was about to say. “Then I want you to take Cathy and Mike—” his emotions started to boil up and close off his throat. He took several quick breaths and said with as much control as he could muster, “I want you to put them in the car and then set it on fire.”
“You want us to do what!” Jeff exclaimed in disbelief.
Chuck’s eyes started to burn. “Jason has to think that we continued on north.”
Jeff just stood there and stared at him.
Chuck ignored the pain he felt inside and forced out with as much authority as he could, “It can’t be empty or Jason will never buy it. Now do it!”
Jeff grabbed Brandt by the shoulder and with a growing look of contempt, headed off to find a car.
“Jeff!” Chuck yelled. Jeff stopped and turned around. “Then position Jason’s men like they came out into the open to shoot as we drove by. Gather up some empty casings to scatter on the road around them. Make it look like they were firing north.”
“I got it!” Jeff snapped back, without any concern for how it sounded.
Chuck turned to Cindy for understanding. “You know I wouldn’t do this if I thought there was any other way.”
Cindy had no emotions left. She had cried herself out. Her face was flushed except for a pale, clamminess around her eyes. “I know…we have to do it this way.”
“Hopefully it will buy us enough time to dress Teresa’s wound properly. We’ll disinfect it and stitch her up. Other than that…I don’t know what else to do…except pray.”
Cindy rubbed his back. “I know.” A moment later she asked, “Do you really think Jason is out there…that these guys were scouts of his?”
“No doubt in my mind. And the fact that they were sitting and waiting for us makes me think that he probably had scouts set up on every road out of Madison. I bet their job was to keep us pinned down until Jason and the rest of the tribe could get here.” He leaned over to where he could whisper without being heard by the others. “There were three men posted here…I’m sure of it.”
Cindy scanned the houses along the road. “Where is he?”
“I bet he took off to get Jason as soon as they saw us coming.”
“But how? Why would you think that?”
“I don’t know how. But I’m sure that’s what happened. But don’t worry. We’ll be gone before they get here.”
Chapter 40
The convoy was traveling northeast on State Road 42 in Ohio when Chuck heard the horn of the Avalon behind them. It was Jim and Sara. Teresa was laid out across the back seat of the car and Jim was signaling that she couldn’t go much farther. Chuck pulled the road atlas off the dash and handed it to Cindy. “See if you can find a small town up ahead where we could spend a day or two.”
Cindy flipped it open to the dog-eared page and traced their route with her finger. “We’re coming up on Spring Valley. It looks pretty small, and it’s close to Dayton.”
H
e glanced at the odometer. Versailles was a hundred miles behind them. After a second of thought he nodded. “That should be far enough. We’ll stop up ahead and take care of Teresa and Kyle.” He stuck his hand out the window and signaled to Jim that he understood.
The Cadillac they took from the two dead scouts was directly behind the Avalon. Jeff drove while Julie rode in the back seat with Kyle and did what little she could for him. He had taken two rounds—one to the face and one to the chest.
Andy was still bringing up the rear in his Toyota four-wheel drive. Lori rode in the cab with him while Brandt rode in the bed with the supplies.
Plenty of daylight remained as they pulled into the small town of Spring Valley. From all appearances it looked like an older farming community that never grew to more than a few dozen houses along the state road. It was exactly what they were looking for. They were less than 30 minutes from Dayton. Close enough to run for medical supplies, but far enough away that they didn’t have to worry about the violence of the city. Another nice benefit was that Spring Valley didn’t have the telltale signs of rioting and destruction that came with the fall of civilization.
Chuck pulled onto the gravel lot of the only gas station in town and parked next to the pumps. As the other cars pulled off and parked behind him, he got out and hurried back to the Avalon to check on Teresa. Sara was stretched over the front seat and holding a wad of blood-soaked gauze against Teresa’s thigh. “Jesus Christ…she’s still bleeding.”
Sara pleaded, “I can’t get it to stop. The jarring of the road keeps opening it up. We had to stop.”
“I know,” Chuck replied, as he quickly pulled back out of the car to scan the area. Jim looked like a man who had already conceded the battle. He was leaning with his rear against the front fender and his face lowered. Chuck pointed at the houses along the street. “I want you to find a suitable place for us to use as a makeshift hospital. Make sure it’s one with a propane tank outside and that it has enough gas for us to use the stove. It also needs to be big enough for two beds on the first floor. Then take the generator out of the Toyota and tie it into the electrical system.”
Jim renewed his resilience with one deep breath and said, “Will do!” as he took off running for the houses.
Chuck called Andy and Jamie over. “I want you two to unload the Toyota. As soon as you’re done I need you to drive up to Dayton. Find a hospital and grab as much as you can carry back in the truck. Get things like dressings, antibiotics, supplies for transfusions, whatever they have for stitching up wounds, gloves, sheets—”
“I got the idea,” Andy interrupted, “we’ll fill the truck—”
“Get a stretcher too in case we have to move them.”
“We’re on it,” Andy said, as he grabbed Jamie by the arm.
Brandt ran up with Robby. “What can we do, Chuck?”
“I want you guys to search for a well. We’re going to need water. After you find one, grab buckets or whatever you can find in the houses and fill them up. Take them to whichever house Jim finds for us to use. After you’ve done that…” he walked the boys over to the exposed caps of the storage tanks buried under the gravel, “pop these caps off and test the gasoline. If it looks good, fill up all the vehicles and then start searching for any food that might still be good.”
Brandt pointed out toward the overgrown fields. “Do you want us to search out there in case there’s corn or anything still growing?”
Chuck squeezed his shoulder. “That’s some good thinking, son.” Then he gave Brandt a slap on the back and said, “Now go on.”
Cindy and Lori met him half way back to the car. “What do you want us to do?”
“You guys go with Jim and help him find a house. As soon as you do, start getting it ready for Teresa and Kyle. Have Jim move two beds into one room and find some lighting that we can move around.” He put his hand on Cindy’s shoulder. “I want you to supervise it all and make sure it’s done quickly and right.”
She met his eyes for a second and realized that he was focused solely on trying to save the lives of Teresa and Kyle. “We’ll be ready,” she said as they took off after Jim.
With a heavy weight on his chest, he walked back to the Cadillac where Jeff and Julie were tending to Kyle’s injuries. He kept his emotions in check as he looked in the back door and asked with controlled concern, “How’s he doing?”
Julie looked at him and her expression said it all. He was alive, but the prognosis wasn’t good. As nasty as the wound was to his face, it wasn’t their primary concern. It was the chest wound that scared them. The round hit just below the collarbone on the right side of his chest and they could tell by the rasping sound of each breath that it hit a lung. Chuck wouldn’t have hesitated to open him up if it were only a minor operation that Kyle needed. But something this severe, they would do more damage than good. The only thing they could do was dress it, keep the fluid pumped out of his lungs and hope.
Jeff turned toward the back seat and stared at Chuck for a moment before flinging the door open and getting out. There was no mistaking the tension as Jeff walked around behind him. Chuck could even see the change in Julie’s face. Her concern for Kyle quickly grew into a look of apprehension as she followed Jeff’s movements.
Jeff’s voice was full of hatred and sarcasm as he stood behind Chuck and said, “What do you want me to do.”
Chuck watched Julie eye the man standing behind him. After a second, he got her attention and said, “Stay here. Once we have a house ready you can help me move him and Teresa.” He pulled his head out of the back of the car and, trying to be as non-threatening as possible, slowly took Jeff by the arm and walked him over to the edge of the gravel lot. He looked south on State Road 42 for a few seconds and confided, “I know you don’t agree with what I did back in Versailles.”
“You’re damn right I don’t! They weren’t strangers. That was Cathy and Mike you had me set fire to.”
“Look…if there had been another way, I would have taken it. But as hard as that decision was, I’d make it again if I thought it would increase the chances of everyone else living. Don’t you think they would have felt the same way?”
“But you based it on the assumption that Jason was coming. And you really don’t have any fucking idea if he is or not.”
“You’re right. I don’t know for sure that Jason is coming. But would you have taken that chance? Putting respect aside for the moment…would you have let Julie die so that we could give the dead a proper burial?”
Jeff turned around and watched Julie tend to Kyle.
“Well?” Chuck prompted.
Jeff looked past him as he asked with a stiff jaw, “What do you want me to do?”
“After we move Teresa and Kyle…I’d like you to go back down the road a mile or so, and keep watch just in case Jason IS following.”
“Alright,” Jeff conceded with a nod. “You want me to fire off a round if I see him?”
Chuck grimaced at the implications. A shot would give away Jeff’s position, and it probably wouldn’t provide a long enough warning to make any real difference for the rest of them. Even so it was better than nothing. “Yeah, that’ll be good.”
After Andy and Jamie got back from Dayton, they stitched up Teresa, dressed her wounds, and immobilized her leg in an air splint.
Robby didn’t want to leave his older sister’s side, so Chuck pulled a chair between the two beds and hoisted Robby up onto his lap. “We’ll wait up together if that’s okay with you?”
Robby held Chuck’s arms around him so that he couldn’t let go and nodded as he stared at his unconscious sister.
Chuck wouldn’t let go, and he had no intention of sleeping that night. He felt too responsible to sleep. The very least he could do was make sure that Kyle wasn’t alone in his fight to live.
Flames shot from the windows and engulfed the car. The paint along the roof swelled into boils and then burst, forming small, charred craters spotted across the sheet metal.
He was close enough to feel the searing heat as his muscles tensed up. Still,he couldn’t turn away. Even as he began to hyperventilate, he continued to stare—waiting for something. A shiver of dread passed over his skin that stole his breath. Then the icy finger of death touched his back and he screamed. Except that it wasn’t his scream—it came from inside the burning car. It was Cathy and little Mike—
Chuck flinched in the chair and would have fallen over if not for the weight of Robby sleeping on his lap. The tension of the nightmare slowly drained from his body as he wiped the sweat off his face. He checked on Teresa and Kyle. No change—both were still unconscious. He took a moment to close his eyes and pray. When he finished, he got up and carried the small boy to the other bedroom and laid him down on the bed next to Cindy. A few seconds later he was back on the chair between the beds.
Chuck gathered everyone into the living room the following morning. He led off with the news that Teresa was still unconscious. Then as his lower lip started to quiver, he told them that Kyle passed away during the night. The room grew silent and he could feel everyone beginning to give up. He knew it because he was beginning to feel the same way. Just as he started to lower his head, he suddenly caught the smell of saltwater blowing in off the ocean. It was from his dream. He closed his eyes and saw Cindy and the boy standing on the cliff. For the flicker of an instant he was there with them, watching the sun set over the ocean. He filled his lungs with the fresh air of hope and opened his eyes. He wouldn’t let them give up. He looked around the room and settled on Brandt. “Where do we stand with gasoline, water and food?”
The question caught Brandt off guard. He stuttered for a second as he connected the question to his activity from the day before. “The gas still looks good. I don’t think anyone has opened the tank since before the End.” He paused for a second as he counted silently with his fingers. “We found…two…no three wells. They’re deep and full of water. We couldn’t find any food that wasn’t spoiled. Packaged food I mean. We did find some corn out in the fields growing on their own. There wasn’t a lot, but there was some at least.”
Ferryman Page 25