Crawlerz: Book 3: The Mountains Are Calling

by R. S. Merritt

  “You guys already looked for frag pieces and said you didn’t see anything.” LeBron reminded them with a slightly panicked look on his face. Yue wasn’t going to give up on the doublecheck she felt like he needed though. She was worried they hadn’t poked around deep enough the last time they’d checked. The idea of them ‘poking around deeper’ was freaking LeBron out.

  “Hey Harley, can you lend us one of those Oxy out of your secret stash? The one that you’re so slick we couldn’t possibly know about.” Yue asked.

  A totally busted Harley rooted around in his pockets until he found a Ziploc with the requested medication. A few dozen white pills of assorted size were in the bag. Harley shook it a few times then pulled out two and handed them back. He told her to give him one now then one after they were done playing doctor on his arm. The Ziploc bag quickly disappearing back into his voluminous black over coat that’d become his signature look.

  Yue and Lisa cornered LeBron in the small sleeper section and proceeded to shine lights and poke around trying to feel anything jagged. They must have found something. Drew and Harley both winced as LeBron yelped in pain. Harley thinking to himself he probably should’ve reminded them to wait until the drugs kicked in before they started digging around in the kid’s shoulder. Not that he was positive what all of the pills in the Ziploc were anyway. He might’ve handed them a couple of baby aspirin for all he knew. His normal dosing regimen was to take two and if he didn’t get a buzz in thirty minutes or less to swallow another random one.

  He’d given them two of the pills he thought most resembled the ones that normally worked for him. Hopefully those were right. Otherwise, LeBron was going to need to become one tough hombre with all the extra pain he was dealing with. The screaming eventually subsided. Drew and Harley both dutifully ignored the blubbery sobs coming from the sleeper section. Yue opened the curtain wider to see what they were doing up front. Harley immediately put all his focus on the road. Drew pretended to be asleep before remembering he was supposed to be on lookout. He bobbed his whole body around trying to appear casual.

  “What’s going on up here? We there yet” A bemused Yue asked.

  “We’re officially out of the city. We just need to make sure we turn north before we hit Raleigh. It’s about a hundred times bigger than Asheville.” Harley answered.

  “Yeah, screw that. We barely survived Asheville. I’ve got zero desire to go somewhere worse.” Drew chimed in.

  Yue nodded in absent minded agreement while looking out the windows. The snowflakes were being swept off the windshield by the hypnotically swinging wipers. They were only going about thirty to forty miles per hour. Any faster than that and it was too hard to figure out where the road was. The slower speed also helped when they periodically hit ice patches. Harley was worried about having the chains on for this long. He’d never had them on a truck for longer than it took to drive through whatever area he was in that said he needed chains. Leaving them on for this long was new for him.

  A distracted Yue continued nodding. She watched the world race by through the windows. It was like they were riding in a reverse snow globe. Sitting high and dry in their heated space while everything outside was being shaken around like crazy. The illusion only partially ruined by the random array of holes in the windows that they’d repaired with copious amounts of duct tape. Up ahead there appeared several large vehicles off to the side of the road. Judging by the thick layer of snow resting on top of them they’d been there for a while. Harley slowed down as they approached to see what the deal was.

  “They’re military.” Drew said straining his eyes to make out any additional details. As soon as he said it out loud, they all recognized the shapes and muted colors of a military style convoy.

  “Should we stop? There may be stuff we can use.” Yue said. Lisa had also poked her head out of the curtained space in the back to see what was going on. LeBron had slammed his other pill and was impatiently waiting for the drugs to kick in. He kept talking about the ‘Calgon take me away’ commercial. That was clear evidence to Yue and Lisa that the drugs had in fact already kicked in. Lisa could use a magical little pill or two herself. It hadn’t been fun using a pair of tweezers to pluck out the tiny pieces of metal they’d located under LeBron’s skin.

  Harley slowed the truck down beside the convoy so they could check it out from a safe distance. The snow-covered vehicles looked like they’d been pulled over and parked in an orderly fashion. The only real sign something horrible had happened were the broken windows and blood smeared interiors. Even that was pretty well covered up with a fine film of snow though.

  “Looks like it might’ve been a supply convoy.” Drew guessed. The big trucks could’ve either been transporting troops or supplies.

  “We could use some food. Bullets would be nice too. We‘ve burned through most of what we brought with us. I have no clue how we were able to shoot that many bullets.” LeBron said.

  “Yeah, like Gus always said. You can never have too many bullets or use too much body spray.” Drew said fondly recalling the back and forth he used to have with Gus and Mikey. They were both his kind of people. If the end of the world hadn’t come along and ruined his plans, he probably would’ve been getting ready for boot camp right about now. Plan ‘A’ had been to get a sports scholarship then ROTC his way in as an officer. Plan ‘B’ had been a different course to the same result. Go in enlisted then use the Marines to pay for him to go to college. Either way would’ve worked for Drew.

  “You guys want to check out these trucks? There’s probably some crawlerz underneath them that’ll come shooting out at lightspeed as soon as you get close.” Harley said. He’d come to a complete stop which everyone took to mean it was on.

  Drew grabbed his weapons and opened the door. A chill blast of winter air stripped the warmth from the formerly toasty cab. He wormed his way down to the snow-covered concrete. Once there he crunched his way through the frozen snow to the side of the truck facing the troop carriers. He stood there scanning the surroundings through his rifle sights waiting on the others to join him. Lisa and Yue showed up a few moments later. Yue was still looking a little pale but seemed to be dealing with it. It’d been hours since she’d had to lie down to keep herself from puking.

  “I told LeBron to stay in the truck. That gimpy arm of his could be a dangerous thing out here. Especially if we have to move fast to get back into the truck.” Lisa said quietly. Drew hoped LeBron’s arm healed quickly. There was no one he trusted more to have his back. Although he supposed it was actually a toss-up if he trusted Yue or LeBron more. LeBron might be securing the first-place trophy as most trusted if Yue kept running headfirst into every object she could find.

  “Harley’s not coming?” Drew asked looking up into the cab. The big man was casually reclining in his seat. He smiled down and waved at them.

  “He’s there in case we need to make a quick getaway. He reminded me if he got killed no one else knows how to drive the truck.” Drew nodded at that bit of additional trivia from Lisa. He made a mental note to get Harley to give them lessons on driving the truck. They could pretend like it was for when Harley was sleeping. It was really because they needed a backup in case Harley ended up moaning a lot and craving fresh brains.

  “So, he didn’t want to leave the warm cab to come carry stuff and possibly be mauled?” Drew responded. He gave Harley a middle finger salute which seemed to amuse the big man greatly. They all knew Harley didn’t actually expect anything to happen and was just letting them handle this one. Somebody needed to sit up in the truck with LeBron anyway. The biggest concern they all shared was that Harley might use all the alone time to self-medicate until driving became an issue.

  “I honestly think he just doesn’t like trying to squeeze through the cage to get in and out of the cab. You guys feel anything?” Yue asked. The three of them were standing in a line staring at the vehicles. Now that they were on the ground the troop carriers towered over them. There was way too muc
h dark space underneath the big military machines. The way the snow piled up around the perimeter of the trucks you couldn’t see anything underneath them.

  “My Spidey senses aren’t lighting up or anything.” Drew answered.

  “Me either. How about you?” Lisa directed the question back at Yue. She’d turned out to be the most sensitive of all of them. Yue stood there quietly concentrating for another few seconds then shook her head.

  “I think we’re good. I don’t feel anything either. Not that I trust all that weirdness.” Yue took a tentative step towards the trucks then stopped. None of them wanted to get too close to the shadowy underside. They’d all witnessed how fast a crawler could come out, grab someone by the feet and disappear back into the darkness. None of them wanted to get munched on because they were stupid enough to hang out by such an obvious hidey hole.

  “You guys gonna just stand here until it gets dark?” Harley asked from directly behind them. How he’d climbed out of the truck and walked across the crunchy snow without them hearing was anyone’s guess. Drew could only excuse it by telling himself they’d been intensely focused on the trucks. Harley was supposed to have been watching their backs. The big grin spread across Harley’s face told them all he thought this was hilarious.

  “Yeah. Sneaking up and surprising paranoid people with guns is super smart. Especially when they’re in a place where monsters might be about to leap out at any second. You might want to chill on the self-medication. It’s melting your brain.” Yue hissed fiercely. She was most definitely not amused.

  Drew and LeBron both thought it was pretty cool that Harley had been able to sneak up on them like that. It’d been stupid but that was totally forgivable. No blood no foul was the rule of the day as far as they were concerned. Besides they were way more interested in what may be in the back of the trucks than they were in being pissed off at Harley.

  Drew began moving and the others followed. All of their squabbles forgotten as they did their best to merge into a single fighting force approaching the truck. Gus and Mikey had done their best to beat the concept of firing lanes into their heads. They’d kind of gotten the concept. When Yue wasn’t a little out of it from the constant buzzing in her head, thought crushing headaches and bouts of severe nausea she was an excellent person to have on your fire team. Right now, she was doing her best to keep it together so that she wouldn’t be a liability if they got into trouble.

  Drew approached the rear of the first truck in a way that kept him in the sunlight most of the time. His eyes were glued to the ridge of snow that partially obscured the underside of the olive-green beast. When nothing came roaring out to rip his head off, he switched his focus to the back of the truck. It was the kind of troop-carrying vehicle that had a metal skeleton covered by a thick camouflage tarp. There was a large tailgate on the back of the truck. A tattered green tarp hung down covering up the opening above the tailgate.

  They gathered a good ten feet back from the tailgate. None of them wanting to get too close to that shadowy space. The space where a crawler could easily be lurking. None of them were feeling anything but that psychic stuff was pretty hit or miss. Not exactly something any of them wanted to bet their lives on.

  “Screw it.” Drew muttered. He ducked down and looked under the truck. He couldn’t see anything but snow and the bottom of the truck. Rushing forward he reached up and grabbed the tailgate to pull himself up on the back of the truck. His feet slipped out from under him and he fell flat on his back.

  Yue and Lisa both thought a crawlerz had grabbed him. The two of them rushed forward spraying bullets into the snow directly in front of Drew. A breathless Drew was kicking back from the truck as hard as he could. He was imagining a crawler lunging out to grab him while he was laying on his back like a helpless turtle. When nothing grabbed him, he became very aware of the bullets whizzing over his head. Once the shooting stopped Lisa stuck her hand down to help him up.

  Drew got himself out of the turtle position and tried to reclaim some of his dignity. Based on the amused looks he was receiving that wasn’t happening anytime soon. Choosing to pretend the last few minutes of his life hadn’t happened Drew approached the tail gate once more. This time he was careful about it and didn’t fall. He used his knife to cut through the tarp. Excitedly flicking on his flashlight, he was rewarded with the view of a completely empty truck.

  “Empty.” He said after rescanning it to make sure he wasn’t missing anything.

  “I was hoping there’d be a flare gun and a trombone just in case you guys wanted to attract a little more attention.” Harley said sarcastically. Even he looked a little disappointed though. You’d think a big truck with a canvas covering it in a convoy like this would’ve been full of supplies.

  “Maybe they were headed out to gather supplies?” Yue put the idea out there. It made sense to her.

  They checked the other trucks. They found some ammunition and a few cases of MREs but nothing substantial. There was a couple of twenty-gallon jugs of diesel inside of each vehicle. Those were appreciated. They hadn’t been looking forward to pulling over to suck diesel out of trucks at a truck stop again. They found a couple of dead soldiers in the lead truck. There was no sign of anyone else. The other members of the convoy must’ve either been turned, or their bodies were buried under the snow somewhere. They helped themselves to the weapons on the dead soldiers and climbed back in the truck after topping off the tank.

  They drove away wondering why the convoy of empty trucks had decided to pull over like that? They tossed around theories. Everything from rampant diarrhea forcing them to a pitstop to maybe the soldiers in the truck were all just noobs. Maybe they thought if they pulled over in the middle nowhere to take a nap in their cabs that they’d be safe. They were all dead now so there was no way to know.

  The conversation in the cab quickly turned to more urgent matters. Where they were going to sleep that night and how long until they made it to Purcellville being the two main ones. They wanted to make sure they got to the Virginia town with plenty of time to look around to find the base. They were evenly split in opinion on whether they’d have to find the base or if the base would just reach out and find them. The mileage markers peeked up through the snow as they got moving again. The convoy they’d pulled over to inspect was filed away in their minds with all the other random unexplained stuff they’d seen. The hardened group put the mystery behind them and focused on the path forward.

  Chapter 29: Shame on Me

  “I’m done with mountains.” Yue announced fervently. They’d finally left the rolling foothills of the Appalachians behind. The snow at this elevation was almost non-existent.

  “Should we take the chains off now?” LeBron asked anxiously. He’d been worried about them ever since Harley admitted he didn’t know what happened if you rode around with chains on the tires for too long. In response to that question Harley slowed the truck to a stop and got out.

  Assuming that meant the answer was a yes everyone climbed down to help him. The chains had been a pain to put on. Hopefully they were a lot easier to take off. They were. It was easy enough even the non-mechanically inclined could figure it out. Once they had the chains unhooked Harley drove forward until they were off. Removing the chains was a quick and easy task. It still felt pretty momentous. A lot had happened since they’d first squatted down in the middle of a blizzard to put those chains on.

  Standing there reflecting on the journey so far Drew remembered that he needed to get Harley to teach them how to drive the truck. The massive machine had proven itself way more useful than a regular car would have been. Now that they were down out of the snow, they could switch over to driving a regular car instead if they thought it’d be better. All they needed was an elite team of military welders to slap together a steel cage around the front of it. When they climbed back in the truck, Drew mentioned the drivers ed idea to Harley.

  “You think you could teach us how to drive this thing?” Drew asked. Everyone
in the back perked up at the question.

  “So, like if I die you can drive?” Harley responded straight faced.

  “Pretty much.” Drew said with a grimace. Saying it out loud like that seemed way too much like tempting fate.

  “Sure. Makes sense. I‘m getting bored with driving anyway. Let’s see if we have some daylight left after we find a place to spend the night.” Harley said and that was that.

  They continued to drive. With the road now clearly visible they were able to make up a lot of miles. It took a ton of stress off the driver as well. Harley didn’t have to worry about hitting a hidden ice patch and flying off the side of a mountain. The only thing keeping him from really putting the hammer down was that the cage was shaking around like crazy. It’d been fine at low speeds. Once he started going a little faster though it was obvious the cage had seen better days. Back before it’d been used like a jungle gym by adrenaline pumped freaks colliding with it at high rates of speed while being shot at with large caliber automatic weapons.

  By early afternoon they’d turned off the interstate onto a highway that wound north. It would eventually join another highway which they could follow on up to Weathertop. There were refugee centers that were closer to them according to the static recording on the radio. Yue insisted they just head for the source. She was worried if they turned themselves in at a base without Jeff there to defend them then the execute order might still stand. Yue was convinced Jeff had mentioned he was at Weathertop, so that they’d go there to meet him.