Ferryman

by Jonathon Wise

  Chapter 43

  Cindy guided them east along State Road 42 until they reached London, a small town southwest of Columbus, Ohio, that Chuck had circled on the map. That’s where they would wait for the others.

  Jim pulled off at the first gas station they came to and parked under the canopy next to the pumps closest to the road. While Cindy slowly eased herself out of the truck, he grabbed the tool pouch out of the back and headed over to pop the caps off the buried tanks.

  Cindy tried to keep a stiff upper lip as the face in the rear window of the Avalon pulled even with her and stopped. It was Teresa, or at least what was left of her. There didn’t seem to be any life behind those young eyes staring out the window. Cindy felt her throat start to swell up as she reached over to open the door. She never got the chance as Teresa suddenly came to life and got out. Without saying a word, she hurried across the lot with her head lowered and disappeared around the side of the building. Cindy didn’t follow her or try to stop her. Teresa wanted some time to be alone. The only thing they could do was be there for her if and when, she needed them.

  Sara glanced over to the side of the building. “It’ll take a while.”

  Cindy sighed, “I just can’t believe it.”

  Sara looked over her shoulder and watched Jim snap the cap off one of the buried gas tanks as she walked on over to Cindy. “Do you think we did the right thing?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know…leave without looking for them.”

  Cindy fired back, “They are looking.”

  “But Chuck—”

  “But Chuck nothing,” Cindy interrupted, as she started to get mad. “He did what he thought was best. Don’t get me started. I’ve watched that man suffer with decisions that no one else had the balls to make.” She pinched her lips together and shook her head. “No…don’t get me started. You don’t have the right to criticize my man until you’ve walked in his shoes.”

  “I’m sorry…I didn’t mean—”

  Cindy raised a hand and turned her attention back to the stretch of State Road 42 from which they came. In truth, she knew her staunch defense of Chuck’s position was at least in part motivated by her own fear that he had made the wrong initial decision. As Jim worked from one cap to the next, she and Sara leaned against the truck and waited.

  ~~~

  Chuck was drained. Even the sight of the Chevy and Avalon parked under the canopy did little to spark his energy. The deaths of three friends were weighing heavily on his conscience. It didn’t help that Brandt kept asking about the ground tremor for a good ten minutes after they took off. When the boy finally accepted that no answer was coming, he quit trying and adopted Chuck’s absent stare out the windshield.

  Chuck pulled off and parked the Cadillac along the left side of the Chevy, while Andy pulled in behind him. Chuck opened the door but had to wait a few seconds before he had the strength to pull himself out. When he finally got out and raised his face to Cindy and Sara, it was clear he needn’t say a word. Sara covered her mouth and looked away while Cindy dropped her head and ran over to him. They wrapped their arms around each other, and as he felt the beat of her heart against his chest he saw Lori shaking her head in the Avalon. A moment later he spotted Teresa peering around the corner of the building. He saw the initial hope in her eyes fade right before she ducked back behind the cinder block wall.

  Andy walked over and asked with the most energy of anyone there, “What do you want me to do with Jeff?”

  Chuck didn’t respond immediately. He felt like he had to gather his strength before he could. He put his hand on Andy's shoulder and said, “We need to untie him. The poor man has been through enough.”

  Chuck didn’t really know what to expect from Jeff. But any concerns of hostility were quickly laid to rest when he looked in the bed and saw Jeff’s state. Like all of them, Jeff was simply trying to deal with the loss. Chuck reached in and untied his hands and feet while barely making eye contact. Jeff was in no hurry to get up. He waited for Chuck to lean back out of the way before slowly climbing out and walking off to be alone.

  As the journey got back underway and they continued through Ohio, Chuck started thinking about the joy and celebration they originally shared back in Madison when it was decided they were leaving. It all seemed so incredibly long ago. The more he lingered on the memory, the more it left him longing for the peaceful times along the river. Maybe they would have been better off if they had stayed—but he knew that was no longer an option.

  He and Cindy talked very little as they drove. It was an uncomfortable time, compounded by the fact that he could feel them falling into the same trap of non-communication that he and Becky had spiraled down. But this isolation bothered him even more because deep down he needed to talk to her. He needed the comfort of sharing his thoughts. He needed to unburden himself of the dread filling his mind. He needed to share the awful feeling that the light at the end of the tunnel was slowly being snuffed out as Jason closed in around them. His fear was that they were being played with, teased the way a cat does with a mouse right before eating it. He wanted to tell her these things, but he didn’t. He would shoulder their weight alone as long as he could. That was his job. Everyone was down already and they didn’t need any unfounded concerns adding to their anxiety.

  Teresa was in the worst shape. She looked at him differently, looked at everyone differently. She was going through the motions of living, but her heart wasn’t in it. She had undoubtedly watched the painful death of her parents, been shot in the leg, and now had lost the last member of her family—the younger brother that she felt responsible to keep alive and safe.

  He looked for the sparkle in her eyes, the look that always made him smile. But it was no longer there. Perhaps not seeing it was best. It prepared him for what happened when they stopped for gasoline outside Franklin, Pennsylvania.

  ~~~

  Andy popped the cap off the premium unleaded tank while Jim grabbed the transfer pump out of the Chevy. Chuck picked a spot along the shoulder of the road and kept watch on the line of trees across the street. He could sense Jason’s men all around them. He could feel them hiding in wait. With that feeling came the dreadful knowledge that the game wasn’t going to last much longer—the cat was finally getting hungry.

  The sound of a car door shutting spun him around in time to see Teresa walking toward the side of the building. “Teresa!” She didn’t acknowledge his yell. He looked over at the corner of the building and saw the words ‘Women’s Bathroom’ painted six feet up on the white-washed cinder block. Since he figured she was going to the bathroom, he continued his watch of the trees.

  Twenty minutes later the cars and the two portable generators in the back of the Chevy were full of gasoline. Andy walked over and kicked open the door to the station, went inside and returned a few seconds later cradling as much octane booster and stabilizer as he could carry in his arms. Even the premium gasoline had degraded to the point that it was almost useless. Their only hope was that their engines wouldn’t foul up before they made it to Boston.

  Everyone filed back into the cars as Chuck slid behind the wheel of the Chevy. Just as he was about to turn the key, he stopped and jumped out. He hurried back to the Cadillac as Jeff opened the driver’s door. “Have you seen Teresa?”

  Jeff looked at him with a blank face. “She’s not in the Avalon with Jim and Sara?”

  Chuck ran up to the rear window and scanned the backseat of the Avalon. She wasn’t there. The bathroom. He sprinted around to the side of the building. Jeff caught up to him as he slammed the metal door shut in disgust. Teresa wasn’t in it.

  They looked at each other for a second as the others came running. Then everyone split up and started searching the derelict cars and overgrowth surrounding the station. Within minutes they were fanning out from the building.

  That was when a shiver hit Chuck that stopped him dead in his tracks. He looked at the others. Andy was out a few hundred feet by h
imself. Jim and Sara kept disappearing behind cars and trees. Brandt had hopped a barbwire fence and was plowing through the high growth of an old field. Chuck slowly turned around and looked at the woods across the street. As he stared at the shadows lurking behind the trees, a fear started to grow in him that none of them were going to make it. In a moment of desperation he tried to picture his dream of Cindy and their son watching the sunset from the high cliffs of Scotland. But he couldn’t! He couldn’t get himself to visualize what had become his driving force. He flinched and yelled, “Stop!”

  The rustling sounds of the search came to stop as everyone stood and turned to see what he wanted.

  “Back in the cars—NOW!” he demanded with urgency. All but Andy and Jim started back toward the cars. Those two lingered where they were, trying to catch one last glimpse before giving up the search. Chuck yelled, “Get back here now goddamn it!”

  That got their attention. As they ran back, Cindy grabbed Chuck’s arm. “What is it?”

  He couldn’t hold it in any longer. “They’re all around us…I can feel it. We’ve got to get out of here right now.”

  Cindy’s concern was evident in her face as she put her hand on his shoulder and asked, “Are you okay, honey?”

  Chuck grimaced and squeezed her hand. “I’m not losing it. You may think I am, but I’m not—I promise.” He looked back over at the line of trees. “Jason is playing some sick game with us. I can feel it. He wants us to separate so that he can take us one at a time…make the rest sweat it out.”

  No matter what Chuck said or where he looked, Cindy never took her eyes off his face. “You think he’s still behind us?”

  Chuck wanted her to confirm that she felt Jason’s presence too, but when he looked in her eyes and saw her fear he recognized it immediately for what it was. Her fear wasn’t that Jason was lurking in the shadows, her concern was about him. He knew when to shut up and now was that time. “Never mind. Just get in the car. We need to go.”

  “What about Teresa? We can’t leave her.”

  His look gave her an answer that she couldn’t bear.

  “Like hell we are!” she huffed, as she pushed past him and tried to burst into an all-out sprint for the field behind the station. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back before she could. “No!” she cried out, as he dragged her kicking and screaming back to the truck. “Not her! You can’t leave her!”

  The others stood around the cars and watched as Chuck swore. “She’s gone, baby…I thought I saw her going to the bathroom…but she was really running away.”

  Cindy screamed and clawed his arms as he jerked her around the front of the truck. “I hate you!” she screamed once and then cried a second time as he forced her in the truck and shut the door. He ran around and jumped in before she could pull herself together and get back out.

  Half an hour later Chuck pulled to a stop in the middle of the road, took the keys out of the ignition, got out, and walked back to Andy’s Toyota.

  “What’s going on?” Andy asked.

  “I’ve got a big favor to ask.”

  “What you need boss?”

  Chuck reached in through the window and put his hand on Andy’s shoulder. “I think we’re being followed.” Andy turned and looked behind the cab. “You can’t see them. I think they’re staying back far enough to keep out of sight, but close enough to keep tabs on us.”

  Andy looked Chuck in the eyes and asked, “You want me to lay back with a rifle and some dynamite and provide a little deterrence for them?”

  That actually sounded like a really good idea, but Chuck wasn’t going to let Jason or his men take one more soul from his group. “No, but I would like you to fall back about a mile and see if I’m right. Can you do that for me?”

  “What about Brandt?” Andy asked, as he motioned toward Brandt listening from the passenger seat.

  Chuck dropped down to where he could see Brandt through the window. “Why don’t you go up and ride with Jeff in the Cadillac.”

  “Sure, Chuck,” Brandt said, as he opened the door and jumped out.

  “You want to stay in touch with a couple of the radios?” Andy asked, as he gestured to the two walkie-talkies sitting between the seats.

  “Those the ones we got for Jamie?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good idea. You keep them. I’ll grab the other one. Give me a click before you take off to make sure they’re working.”

  “Sure thing boss.”

  As Chuck walked past the others waiting in the Cadillac and Avalon, he felt their discerning looks falling on his back. It made him feel like they could be a group without a leader before too long. He grabbed the last radio out of the back of the truck, turned it on, and signaled to Andy. A second later he heard test clicks from both of Andy’s radios. He held up his hand, and then clicked the mike button on his. Andy signaled out the window that it was received. Chuck gave him a nod and turned around to climb in the truck, but then froze with the door half open.

  In the split second that it takes to blink, he saw her. Not Cindy—but Becky. She was sitting on the passenger side, waiting for him. She smiled and for that instant, all the stress and exhaustion simply melted from his body. For that same second he was filled with the kind of warmth that gives strength. As if none of it were real, he blinked and Becky was gone. Cindy was staring out the windshield, still stewing in her anger and refusing to look at him. The pull of gravity brought back the burden of his weight and forced an exhaustive effort for him just to climb in the truck.

  Chuck’s fear was confirmed in less than two miles. He and Cindy heard Andy key the mike and say, “You’re right boss. I can see reflections off the glass and steel of several cars. I also see exhaust smoke every once in a while. By the looks of it, I think there’s quite a few of them.” Chuck saw a confused mix of regret and fear in Cindy’s eyes when she jerked around toward him. Andy said, “What do you want me to do boss?”

  Cindy scooted across the bench seat toward him as he keyed the mike. “Do you think they’ve seen you?”

  “I’m afraid so, boss.”

  Cindy grabbed his arm as he considered their situation. “Do they seem to be staying back or do you think they’re going to make a run at you?”

  “Strange as it sounds…they seem to be satisfied just hanging back. But they’re not making any effort to conceal themselves either.”

  Cindy squirmed as she dug her nails into Chuck’s arm. “Why? Why are they doing this? Why won’t they leave us alone?”

  Chuck kept his thumb off the mike button and said, “I can’t say for sure. You ran with them, what do you think?”

  She didn’t respond. Instead she slid both hands along the ripe shape of her belly as she fought back a slow, but steady stream of tears.

  Chuck hit the mike. “Can you stay back there so that we know what they’re doing?”

  “Sure can boss.”

  “If they do make a run at you…you get your ass up to us as fast as you can. You hear that—we need you too much for you to do something stupid.”

  “Got that boss. Keep you appraised. Out.”

  Cindy pressed in closer and put her arm around him. Then, as if his touch gave her strength, she stopped crying and asked again, “Why don’t they attack? They have so many and we have so few?”

  Chuck rubbed her leg and said, “I think that question will be answered soon enough.”

  After a moment of silence she said, “I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry about what?”

  “You know…back there…”

  Chuck shook his head. “There’s nothing to be sorry for. You had no reason to think that Jason was following us.”

  “But how did you know?”

  Chuck didn’t answer as he thought about the dream he had of Cindy and their son standing on the cliff. He knew about Jason in the same manner that he knew their baby would defy the odds and live when no other baby had. He thought about his dream of Becky waiting for him at the door t
o the Victorian in Madison, and then seeing her just moments ago in the truck. He thought about how peaceful he felt when he saw her. As he began to wonder about the meaning behind the things he saw and felt, he said, “I don’t know how I know…I just do.”

  “Do you think we should tell the others…about Jason I mean?”

  The words came out of his mouth before he even thought about it. “Tomorrow, wait till tomorrow.”

  Andy checked in periodically as Jason and his men followed the group across the state line into New York. It was getting too dark to drive on unfamiliar roads. They didn’t want to crash into a derelict car, or find out a second too late that a bridge had been blown up in the madness of the End.

  A few minutes later they pulled into Jamestown. Chuck slowed for a look as they drove through downtown. As the Cadillac and Avalon pulled alongside him, he had a second thought about stopping. Something didn’t feel right. He gave the Chevy some gas and veered on to a tiny two-lane road into the surrounding hills. A few miles out of town he came upon a gravel drive. An old farmhouse was waiting for them a hundred yards up the hill.

  Chuck and Cindy got out of the truck and stretched in the night air. As the others made their way up the gravel drive, he reminded her not to say anything about Jason following them.

  Jim and Sara got out of the Avalon and as they walked over, Jim asked, “What happened to Andy? Where’d he go to?”

  “I asked him to check on something. He’s been in radio contact and right behind us the entire time,” Chuck said, as he looked for any sign of the Toyota’s headlights through the dark of night. “Should be—” then he saw the high beams of the Toyota and pointed, “should be him right there.”

  Sara asked, “Why’d we come out here? That little town looked like a good spot.”

  Chuck glanced at Cindy to make sure that she wasn’t going to say anything, and said, “Just didn’t get a good feeling about that place.”

  Jim shot Chuck a quick look that questioned his choice of lodging for the night as Jeff trudged by with his head hung low. That was as far as Jim took it. He grabbed a lantern out of the back of the Chevy and then took Sara by the waist. “I guess we might as well go see what we got here.”