Crawlerz: Book 3: The Mountains Are Calling

by R. S. Merritt

  Mikey eased the truck into its lowest gear and said a silent prayer. It’d started snowing yet again. Global warming must’ve been wiped out right along with most of the human race. Feeling the chains bite into the concrete he was relieved when they began moving forward. Driving at this speed it was going to take them the rest of the day to get a hundred miles down the road. Mikey reminded himself that going any faster in these condition risked putting another truck in the ditch. On top of reminding himself he had Drew get on the radio and remind Gus of the same thing.

  There was no sign of the infected in the pristine whiteness of the snow-covered scenery they were cruising through. The crawlerz who’d made it out to attack them the night before must’ve been close. If they hadn’t been close, then they’d been running all out to reach them before the snow slowed them down too much.

  “I wonder how many crawlerz are sleeping in the snow we’re passing?” Drew asked. He was focused on the scenery around them looking for threats. Mikey was focused on keeping the truck on the road. It was a solid division of labor for hopefully making it to the end of this god forsaken road alive.

  “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” Mikey answered enigmatically. There was no way to know how many of the infected had dug in to build themselves some cozy little crawler caves to spend the day in.

  “How’s it feel to be a traitor?” Drew asked conversationally. He was working on coming to grips with it himself. He’d been raised to be patriotic. It was a core part of who he was. He’d always thought of himself as an American.

  “I don’t feel like a traitor really. We haven’t actually done anything besides talk about it yet. I don’t plan on drawing my weapon on anybody wearing the same uniform I wear. I’m thinking this whole thing is more like an impeachment really. That cowardly prick has got to go. He’s the traitor.” Mikey said thoughtfully. There was a lot of vitriol in the undertone of his little speech. He didn’t think much of a man who took an oath to defend the country then decided the country should be used to defend himself instead.

  Drew took some time to consider what Mikey had just said. It made a lot of sense. It gave him an angle where he could be proud of what he was doing. He wasn’t rebelling against his country he was rebelling against a self-obsessed egomaniac who happened to have been in the line of succession. The line of succession based on the votes of a people who spent more time deciding which reality show singing contestant they wanted to vote for than they did who their national leader should be.

  “Makes sense. Maybe we can get matching anarchy tattoos or something.” Drew said.

  “No way. You can get hepatitis from getting tattoos. Plus, I heard it hurts pretty bad.” Mikey was navigating a steep decline in the deep snow. The heavy trailer kept trying to get away from him even though he was moving at a snail’s pace. Drew was impressed the Marine was able to keep up the back and forth through all that. Even though he wasn’t sure if it was scarier to be the passenger or the driver in this situation.

  Drew shut up and let Mikey drive. He could tell by the white knuckled grip and intense look in his eyes that Mikey needed to focus. Drew stared out into the woods around them. He was looking for any sort of movement that may indicate a surger was about to come screaming out of the trees to jump on the cage. Given the difficulty of navigating the current decline a screaming surger coming out of nowhere would not be welcome. They’d more than likely end up pulling a Gus and wind up with another wrecked truck.

  Somehow, they made it to the bottom of the steep hill alive. Drew’s new obsession had become staring in the rearview mirror to see if Gus was going to lose control and crash into them. He was also wracking his brain trying to figure out where all these hills had come from. On the way in they’d pretty much flown down these roads without too much concern. He only vaguely remembered Mikey having to switch gears to get up the taller ones. Now it was like they were in a dingy at sea during a hurricane. They’d make it down one wave only to be confronted with cresting yet another.

  Even the times the road was flat were nerve wracking. There was one wide open area where the trees marking the sides of the road completely disappeared. They had to stop so that Drew could climb out and verify where the road was. A task made even more fun by the fact that his clothes were soaked from the snow constantly melting on them. On the miserable scale it was up there with the time he’d sat down in a fire ant mound with just his soccer shorts on. It was the last time he ever left the house without wearing underwear.

  To everyone’s surprise they made it to the highway without dying or losing another truck. The highway was buried under the slippery white crud as well but at least there were guardrails on the side of it. That should slow them down long enough to enjoy the view before plummeting to their deaths if they hit an ice patch. They’d used up most of the daylight getting to the highway. They opted to stop for the night once they were parked. Hopping into the trailer on the lead truck to spend the night they all hoped it’d be a nice, boring evening.

  “Cold must be slowing down the crawlerz.” Jeff commented when darkness arrived with nothing immediately attacking them. He was leaning against the wall with his long lanky legs spread out before him. Yue was snuggled into a sleeping bag between his legs with her head up on his chest. If she fell asleep before he got into his own bag, he was going to either have to be a jerk and wake her up or spend the night cold and uncomfortable. He’d already lost a halfhearted effort to get her to spend the night alone with him in the back of the other truck. They both knew it was a horrible idea no matter how much they were dying to get some couple time.

  “I could get used to a night without waking up every ten minutes wondering if I was about to die. We should just start driving north. Stop when we see igloos and polar bears.” Drew offered up. He was only half kidding. If the cold weather slowed those things down, then going north was a solid idea.

  “We could go north. I want to survive as much as the rest of you. If we stay down here though we’ll have access to the supply depots I setup to help people like us. We’ll be able to help a lot of people that the President’s planning to abandon. At least I hope we can figure out a way to help some of them.” Jeff said. Yue knew Jeff was still reeling from the deaths of the crew of the Ford. The thousands of men and women who’d looked to him to save them.

  “I think it may be time to let go of the mission. Those plans are all falling apart anyway. Especially if the man in charge isn’t trying to support them. We need to figure out what’s best for us.” LeBron said.

  “What do you two think?” Yue asked looking over at Mikey and Gus. They’d spread out their sleeping bags on the floor and were already halfway asleep. As the drivers they’d been spared having to stand watch. After a day of white knuckled extremely focused driving down those slippery slopes, they both needed the rest. No one in the trailer begrudged them that.

  “I’m good. Let’s save ourselves and save some other people too if we can. Preferably hot single ones.” Gus mumbled from the depths of his sleeping bag. Mikey held up a hand with his thumb extended. LeBron thinking what a millennial he was when his first thought was that Mikey had just liked Gus’s comment. Neither Gus nor Mikey were up to engaging in a long-winded debate about apocalyptic morality after the day they’d had. Nothing short of the Swedish bikini team dragging a keg of beer into the trailer was going to pry them out of their sleeping beds before dawn.

  Yue started to say something else when the sound of a fist slamming into the outside of the trailer silenced her. Everyone in the truck went into silent mode. Not that it mattered anymore. Whatever the infection did to the crawlerz made it so they could sense when normal human beings were hiding near them. Everyone in the back of the trailer felt that psychic sizzling in the back of their heads. Like when you start to answer a question and you know the answer but for some reason it slips your mind right as you’re about to say it.

  It was a frustrating tickle in the back of their heads. It was as if th
ey were trying to remember how their pets had died when they were kids. Trying to summon up the image of the broken face of the family cat after it’d been lying on the side of the road for a day and a half. It was an unrelenting sense of psychedelic rage that left them feeling dirty. A feeling of being hunted out of hatred. It wasn’t the same sort of fear you’d have if you were trapped in a cage with a lion. It wasn’t just that ferocious hunger that slithered into their brains like tentacles from a deathly cold alien.

  “They’re getting stronger.” Yue whispered into Jeff’s ear. He didn’t bother replying. They could both feel it. He held her tighter and attempted to close his eyes. It’d be his turn to stand watch before he knew it. He wasn’t looking forward to sitting in the darkness alone while those things slowly pried his brain apart from outside the trailer.

  Chapter 11: Fresh Powder

  Drew woke up on the floor of the trailer in a pile of sleeping bags he’d spread out to try and get comfortable. He’d been assigned the ‘balls to four’ watch which meant his sleep time had sucked. He’d fallen asleep around ten only to be woken up what seemed like seconds later. LeBron had non-apologetically poked him with his finger until he woke up then happily headed off to snooze land himself. Mikey was the recipient of a very pissed off stare when he nudged Drew awake at dawn with a big grin.

  “Rise and shine clementine. Time to commit some murder and drive a massive truck down an invisible road. Maybe grab some breakfast out of a can.” Mikey said cheerfully. He was amused by the irritated glare Drew was casting his way. As one of the two men who’d been driving the previous, highly stressful day before he’d been granted a full night’s beauty rest. No wonder he was so freakin’ chipper.

  “How about you open yourself up a nice big can of ‘shut the hell up’ and leave me alone.” Drew said before rolling over and attempting to go back to sleep. Nothing was currently trying to eat them, so he didn’t really see a reason to get up. It wasn’t like he had somewhere to be. An image of the refugee kids playing in the crypt popped unbidden into his mind. Those kids and their families were waiting for them to return to transport them to some mythical safe haven.

  “Get up. The boss man says it’s time to get rolling.” Mikey said. The extremely annoying Marine was continuing to risk losing his foot by lightly kicking Drew over and over again.

  Not being able to fall asleep now that he’d pictured those kids waiting for them Drew sat up. He smacked Mikey’s foot away when it was swung in his direction again. To stay awake the night before he’d slammed a prodigious number of caffeinated beverages. One thing the trucks hadn’t been outfitted with was a toilet. Instead, they’d hung a couple of shower curtains and gathered together an array of plastic bottles and tubs.

  Drew had no problem taking a whiz in one of the bottles. He drew the line at slapping on a plastic trash liner and dropping a load in a reusable tub though. Shy bowel syndrome could be a fatal condition in this new world. Some people were willing to risk going outside rather than noisily pooping it up inside the trailer. On the other end of the spectrum some people had zero problems doing it. The resulting noises lending to plenty of disgusted looks throughout the trailers and a few chuckles. There wasn’t much to do for entertainment in the trailer of a truck.

  Cussing as the bottle he was taking a leak in began to overflow Drew hastily reached down to grab another bottle. He was desperately trying not to spill the contents of the original one all over himself. He ended up peeing in a tub. In order to avoid being called out for peeing in a tub he poured the contents of the tub into one of the spare bottles. While doing so he accidentally poured some more of the still warm liquid on his hands. Liberally applying hand sanitizer, he walked out of the shower curtain in an even worse mood than before. Albeit without the pressing need to relieve himself that’d contributed to forcing him out of bed in the first place.

  Looking around the trailer he noticed the two lovebirds had finally separated. Jeff was standing by the back doors with Gus. Yue was digging through a pile of boxes looking for something or other. LeBron and Mikey were working on a fresh cup of coffee. Drew wondered what was going to happen when they eventually ran out of coffee grounds. They’d either have to set a course for South America or spend a month in some kind of coffee detox.

  Grabbing himself a cup of the hot brew Drew ripped open a couple of packets of sweetener and dumped them in. He didn’t like the fake powdered creamer so drank his coffee black now. He walked along with Mikey and LeBron to the back of the trailer. They sipped their coffee as Jeff squatted down next to each of the little open spaces to take a look outside.

  “See anything neat?” Mikey asked.

  “The snow’s still there. It looks pretty deep.” Jeff answered.

  “Deep enough to hide a bunch of sleeping crawlerz?” Drew asked. He wasn’t looking forward to wading through crawler laced snow again. Wondering if you were going to step on one of the sleeping monsters and have to fight for your life with every step.

  “They might be purposefully lurking there instead of sleeping. As long as they can’t see the sun, they seem to be good to go.” LeBron said sipping at his steaming hot cup of coffee.

  “Great. Thanks LeBron. Here I was thinking we might actually survive walking to the front of the truck.” Jeff said sarcastically. He levered out the first of the poles used to lock down the trailer. Gus and Mikey helped pull out the others so they could swing the doors open. Prior to doing that everyone got geared up and ready. It paid to be vigilant when there could be a crew of crawlerz sitting outside chomping at the bit to chomp on them.

  “We should drill some holes in the doors or something. Playing Russian roulette every morning with these trailer doors is getting old.” Gus said jacking a round into the chamber of his rifle in preparation for the opening ritual.

  Drew totally agreed. It wasn’t like they needed any added excitement in their lives. The argument against the peepholes and holes to dump their waste out of was the same. Any holes in the trailer would weaken it. Drew thought it probably went even deeper than that. Nobody wanted to spend the night in a trailer with crawler fingers popping through holes all over it. They didn’t want to hear the screams of the surgers amplified into their space. They definitely didn’t want the walls ripped away and the trailer filling up with those insane cannibals. It seemed like they could’ve welded on some peepholes with little sliding metal doors or something. When Drew had mentioned it to LeBron, LeBron had shaken his head sadly and told him the guys that could’ve done that were all dead now.

  At some point they’d have to break down and drill some holes in the walls. The benefits greatly outweighed the risks in Drew’s mind. It’d be nice to get some regular sized cars outfitted with the metal cages too. If they didn’t have to wake up every morning and make the trip to the cab that’d make their lives a lot safer. The he remembered that the crawlerz were pretty good at ripping the metal cages off. Lost in thought he was surprised by the sudden surge of blinding white light that hit him when the back doors were thrown open.

  Almost as shocking as the light was the wave of freezing cold air that struck him. It was pretty much a freezer in the back of the truck already. Feeling even colder air hitting him from outside was a major eye opener. Hoping nothing was jumping in the trailer to kill him he let his eyes slowly adjust to the elements outside. Once he had he was able to easily make out the other truck parked behind them. He was instantly jealous of the full complement of windows they had left. The one him and Mikey were driving had most of the windows shot out of it. They got to enjoy the elements up close and personal all day every day.

  He was also jealous of the relatively short distance Gus, Yue, LeBron and Jeff were going to have to traipse through the snow before they’d be nice and safe up in the cab of their truck. Him and Mikey were going to have to traverse the entire length of the trailer to reach the safety of their cab. There could be a crawler at any point along the route waiting for some idiot to come blundering by. Based on
his morning so far, this may be his day to be that idiot.

  Jeff and Gus hopped down off the trailer. They sank hip deep into the snowdrift that’d built up between the trucks thanks to the gusty weather. If there was going to be a crawler hanging out in the fresh powder that was a very likely spot. When frozen hands didn’t immediately shoot out to grab them everyone let out their breath. No one let down their guard though. Every weapon was trained on the snow around the two men. After a short pause to reset they proceeded with breaking a path through the snow for Yue and LeBron to follow.

  During his watch the night before Drew had heard the crawlerz beating on the outside of the truck. It hadn’t been the maddened pulse of a hundred hands slapping at a gigantic steel drum like some nights, but it hadn’t been a single crawler softly swatting at them either. If forced to guess he’d have said half a dozen of the infected had shown up to the overnight jam session. Luckily it didn’t seem like any of them had bedded down in the path made by Jeff and Gus. They all waited as Gus climbed up into the cab and started the big rig.

  “You ready?” Jeff called out softly to Yue.

  “I was going to give it a few minutes for you to get it nice and warm for us.” Yue tossed back. LeBron was too occupied with warily scanning the snow for any sign of motion underneath to join in the banter. Gus crawled back down and took a spot in the snow by one of the tires. He was ready to shoot if needed. Once he was in position Yue hopped down into the path that’d been made for her and LeBron.