by Dalton Wolf
The captain blushed, but seemed taken aback when the colonel saluted and she quickly returned the gesture.
“Cool, cool,” Tripper mumbled. “So…how do we get there?”
“Sir, you can take the tracks or—”
“—sorry, dude.” Trip raised a hand to stall the man. “Just tell us where we need to end up, Colonel. Directions never seem to work out these days. We’ll find a way there.”
“So very true,” the colonel laughed heartily. “Just west of Ogden, Kansas on 11th street the rail tracks start to expand. The wall runs right behind there with the switch yards on the outside. You have a dedicated track for your vehicle. All you have to do is make it to the inner wall of the compound and you’ll be under protection of the big guns on the walls.”
“What do you mean all we have to do is make it there?” Calvin asked sharply.
“The people of Ogden are building their own wall. They think you’re a bunch of rich people and politicians who are buying their way out of the Zone.”
“Shit.” Tripper hissed, spitting on the ground. “Fucking Kansans.”
“Sorry, it’s a border war that’s been going on for a long time,” Calvin explained.
“I get that,” the colonel replied. “I’m from Topeka myself.”
“Sorry to hear it,” Tripper mumbled.
“But I went to Mizzou,” the man finished.
“Nice, me too!” Tripper would have high-fived the man but he was holding a particularly dangerous looking rifle.
“M. I. Z.” Tripper said.
“Z. O. U.” the colonel finished energetically.
“I hope there isn’t anything too big on the tracks,” Calvin blurted out to stop their little school reunion.
“So what if there is? We’ll just drive off, find a way to bypass the tracks and come in another way,” Tripper muttered out of the side of his mouth.
“Not going to be that easy,” Calvin corrected him. “We’ll have to stay on the tracks from here on out.”
“What? Why?”
“I’ll explain later,” Calvin insisted, shooting his friend facial expressions that said in no uncertain terms shut up, man.
“Right. That thing with the other thing. I remember now,” Trip covered lamely.
“Thank you for the information, Colonel. Please tell your superiors we will be there within the hour...or plan to be, at least.”
“Thank you, sir. And good luck to you. I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes.”
“You will be if they ever decide to unite and charge this place, Colonel,” Calvin pointed out to the gathered students along the fence, watching, waiting, only waving signs and singing for now, but on college campuses that could turn nasty in a hurry.
“I know,” a dark shadow brushed over his features, but passed quickly. “But I’ll deal with that when the time comes.”
“Better days, Colonel,” Tripper called out as they climbed into the vehicle.
The man turned and marched purposefully back into the stolid looking building, returning salutes from the two soldiers standing guard outside the main entrance.
Flight to the Wall
“I have a better plan,” Hef raised a finger.
“No,” Calvin said. “If anyone does it, it will be me,” he ordered before the bigger man could speak again.
“It is my vehicle,” Hef argued.
“Prove it.” Calvin said. “Show me a title.”
Hef pulled a green slip from a custom cabinet he’d installed into one wall.
“Damn it,” Calvin spat, but argued on. “No. I’m the leader. It should be me.”
“But it is my equipment. Only I have the codes to allow me to get out and still ensure that we can reenter later.”
“Ok.”
“Great! Now that’s been decided. Can one of you tell the rest of us what the hell you’re talking about?” Athena asked in an annoyed snarl.
The group was back on the train, sitting near the tracks just east of Ogden Kansas at an intersection between dense, barren copses of trees for cover. The two had been arguing for ten minutes about a plan they had apparently discussed and not told anyone else about.
“Hef is going to take the Dragon ahead on the tracks, but we’re all going to be in the other vehicles taking a back road.”
“So he’s going to be a decoy?” the captain asked.
“Yes.” Calvin nodded.
“He’s going to make all kinds of noise to get their attention.”
“Wow, the townsfolk out here are the same as zombies,” Trip noted.
“If he can’t get through, he’s going to drive around the obstruction or park the Dragon where it is and booby-trap it to keep people off it.”
“But won’t we then lose it as a viable vehicle?” Joel asked.
“Only for now,” Hef explained. “We can come back if we need to and take it again. No one will be able to get inside without some serious equipment and they could never get it started anyway. But that is only if I cannot find another way.”
“Then let’s all go together,” Athena suggested.
“We can’t. They’ll all be waiting there for us,” Calvin informed her.
“Then let’s just go south,” Athena begged.
“The roads are out…maybe.”
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Absolutely positive. That’s why I said maybe,” he responded with a sarcastic snort.
“Maybe they’re just tricking us because they need something from us.”
“They absolutely need things from us. Of that there is no doubt. But I believe the colonel. Just in case, I’ve got Quinn on the radio checking right now to see if it’s true.”
“Then let’s not make a decision until he finds out.”
“We can’t just sit in the middle of an intersection outside Ogden, Kansas at night, Athena,” Calvin told her with hands raised to the ceiling.
They spent the next ten minutes aligning the train on the tracks while they waited for Quinn, but when the big blacksmith moped into the meeting room they learned that most of the bridges were reportedly blocked, but not necessarily blown up.
“Shit,” Tripper hissed. “And that means wheeling and dealing with everyone on our trip down and maybe having to shoot our way through some places. Ok, so we take the military up on their offer?”
“And we load everyone up in the three vehicles and make a run for the wall on the back roads,” Calvin suggested.
“But that still leaves Hephaestus out there on his own!” Lucy exclaimed.
“I will be alright.”
“I don’t understand why we can’t just shoot our way through like we always do, together,” she asked, her dark eyes pleading for support from the others.
“We talked about this already,” Calvin explained. “We don’t want to start a war next to the wall. This could spiral out of control. Plus, the plan puts us at the wall before Hephaestus is close, so we’ll give ourselves away and pull them to us so fewer of them will concentrate on him.”
“This is a stupid plan,” Lucy insisted.
“Have you got a better one?” Calvin asked.
“No, but that doesn’t make yours any less idiotic. Hef could die!” she cried.
“Maybe we should leave your van, Hef,” Calvin turned to his friend.
“No, you will need all three so that everyone can ride comfortably. Also, there will not be time to unload a vehicle when I am being chased.”
The third vehicle was Hephaestus’ jet black 4 x 4 Ford conversion van. It wasn’t armed or armored other than being painted with a sprayed-on plating and having bulletproof windows. But it did have a big metal bolted-on grill, a twelve-inch lift kit, huge over-sized tires and snorkels for the intake and exhaust and a few other surprises. An impressive vehicle on its own, it could carry nine of the escapees. Sitting in the only copse of trees large enough to hide a train near Ogden, Kansas, the group continued to plan out the final leg of their escape. Another ten minutes and the vehicles were l
oaded and ready to roll out.
Quinn would likely never again give up control of his ambulance, so he was going to drive the Paddy Wagon, the seven parents in the back with Boomer in the passenger seat. Sarah sat behind the wheel of Hef’s van with Tripper in the passenger seat. The soldiers were stuffed in the back with Morena from the car dealership, the two children and the still mute Megan. As always, Felicia drove the Hedgehog with Calvin riding shotgun. Lucy refused to relinquish her spot on the turret, but Gus finally got his turn, replacing Boomer. That left Athena in the jump seat behind Calvin, with Joel and Scaggs sitting across from her, all three clearly mopey-faced at having been stuck in the back of the car like grunts.
Noticing their displeasure, Calvin attempted to cheer them up a bit.
“Relax guys. Hef’s van is cramped full of people. You’ve got leg room. I wanted us to be able to jump out in a hurry. They’re kissing their own knees back there.”
While this did cheer them some, you can never make everyone happy, and they were stuck in the back seat like luggage.
“Hey, we’re almost home,” Calvin added quietly. “You ready, Hephaestus?” he asked over the mic. He had to repeat himself because a massive peal of thunder drowned everything out for a few seconds and nearly stopped a few dozen hearts.
“That’s getting really close,” Athena breathed.
“I am pulling out now,” his friend replied confidently, setting off all horns at once and revving up the two giant diesels as he pulled out, keeping the horns blaring well past the point where he rounded the apex of the hill before them.
Waiting only a few more minutes, Athena tapped Calvin on the shoulder. “Ok, let’s go. If my math is right, we’ll be arriving about the same time as long as we don’t run into any problems. We need to move fast.”
“He’s moving faster than I expected,” Tripper mentioned.
“I imagine he wants to make them think he’s going to try and break through,” Sarah suggested.
“And can someone tell me again why that isn’t the plan?” he asked.
“Because, according to the reports, there are people on that wall. If he busts through, he’ll kill them.”
“Oh…and he’s a pacifist,” Tripper finished. “So why isn’t Calvin driving it?”
“Because Hephaestus is,” Sarah snapped waspishly. “Just get over it, Tripper. This is how it’s happening. You know Hephaestus isn’t going to let Calvin take a chance like that.” Clearly she wasn’t happy with how things had turned out either. Everyone knew Calvin was the lucky one of the group.
“It’s his choice,” Calvin informed his friends firmly. “He wasn’t wrong. He built the machine. It’s his right to do this.” But they could all hear his insincerity, stemming from the worry lurking beneath. “Let’s go,” he ordered, the Hedgehog once again leading a caravan through city streets. These streets weren’t lined with skyscrapers or being stalked by zombies out to eat their flesh, but there was a potential enemy stalking them, seeking to block them for different reasons, reasons of fear, anger and survival. Calvin didn’t have the time or inclination to find out just what each group had in mind for them. They would break one more barricade and let the government take care of them from then on…at least until the politicians on the outside decided they were a bunch of freeloaders and kicked them out or something.
“It’s working,” Lucy reported, eying the drone feed. “Several of the streets to the north are emptying. They’re sending people to reinforce the barricade to stop the train.”
“Awesome.” Calvin muttered.
“It’s worse than that, though,” Lucy added. “Their wall isn’t just over the tracks. They’re extending it parallel to the Quarantine Wall. They’re making a neutral zone between the Quarantine Zone and the Wall.”
“Can we still get through?”
“Yes. I found a mostly clear path. Do what I say when I say it and we’ll be ok.”
“You heard her,” Calvin informed the drivers. “Joel, take Lucy’s spot on the turret so she can focus on the drone.”
“Ok, We’re on Skyway drive.” Lucy mumbled. “Up here in a quarter mile, we need to take West 68th Avenue north. Ugh, it’s hard see; the cameras keep digitizing from the lightning.”
The storm intensified, rain battering the windshield in torrential levels and lightning, thunder and wind blowing limbs from trees into the path of the fleeing vehicles.
“Good timing,” Calvin murmured. “Hopefully they won’t see us under the cover of this storm.” The three vehicles turned right on the street she pointed to with no sign of pursuit or discovery.
“Ok, follow this on around and it will turn into Vinton School Road…ok, we’re on Vinton now. Keep going…keep going…keep going. Ok, this one. Engineer road on the left. Stay to the right. No, your other right.” She razzed Felicia.
“I was going to the right; I just had to dodge that dead opossum.”
“Ok, stop.” Lucy shouted. “Everyone stop. Oh shit,” she said.
“You wanna let the rest of us in on the problem, Lucy?” Tripper asked before Calvin had to.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t see them.”
“See what?” Calvin asked calmly.
“There are vehicles coming down the road towards us.”
“Maybe we can backtrack…” Calvin suggested.
“No! Oh my god. They’re coming fast. Off here. Off here now. Over there into those woods. It’s just two trees thick. Just a line. There won’t be dust because it’s raining. Go!”
Felicia tried to ask a question but was interrupted.
“But what about—”
“—no time. Go now!”
“Go!” Calvin shouted, and Felicia yanked the wheel and gunned the vehicle up a little hill and into the woods with the other two heavier vehicles close behind. They punched through the high weeds and brush around the trees and found that it was indeed a very thin line of trees bordering the road. There was nothing but mud and grass beyond the trees. But mud was an enemy they did not need. The Paddy Wagon and van both sank immediately into the muck and began throwing out huge sprays of thick terra firma as both drivers gunned their engines, gorging a path through the fields.
The vehicles plowed heavily over a few steep hills and through the fields adjoining the road. “Slow it down now,” Calvin ordered. “We don’t want them to hear the engines.
Felicia tried to keep them on the other side of a dune-like hill so they didn’t draw the attention of the ‘enemy’ cars leisurely cruising on the other side of the trees. But in one valley between two hills, there was nothing but a broken tree line for cover.
“Very slow here, guys, maybe they’re only looking in the streets.”
“Crap.” They heard Gus curse. “They saw us. I was looking right at the guy.”
“Go!” Calvin shouted.
Just before she once again floored the versatile vehicle, Felicia heard the shouting and horns honking. A quick glance out her port window confirmed the worst, as shadowy figures in the headlights pointed through the trees.
“Go! Go! Go!” Calvin shouted. Felicia once again floored it.
“How many?” Calvin asked.
“Ten!” Lucy shouted back.
“Which way?” Felicia screamed.
The wind had begun to scream and howl and none of them had fully realized just how much until now. Even with the earbuds, everyone was having to yell to be heard over the roar.
“Follow the dirt,” Lucy shouted.
“What dirt?” Felicia yelled.
“The mud!” she screamed.
“West! Yes! Yes! Now south! Now over there onto that field there, now west through those two trees there!” she guided them using the cameras from the drone above, which was surprisingly easier to control through the high winds than anyone would have expected. But their luck couldn’t last and suddenly the feed shook and became the steady screen-saver-mode of a lone tree standing sideways on the monitor as the drone was blown forcibly into the muck.
“Jesus, are we in a fucking tornado?” Tripper asked, face white in alarm.
“There! There!” Lucy pointed between a pair of wind-whipped trees. “Now straight to the compound! We’re almost there! Look!” she pointed again. Just ahead, silhouetted by the random multi-colored flashes of lightning, rose the block and concrete walls of the compound. Watch windows sat at steady intervals along the top of the low wall. In the background beyond, glaring like the Grim Reaper sat a larger, dark grey wall, each interlaced steel and concrete section thirty-foot high by thirty feet long, the entire intimidating structure stretching as far into the distance as they could see.
“Holy shit!” Tripper shouted in awe. “They fucking built it! I thought it would be chairs and dressers and sandbags or some shit! It’s fucking concrete! It takes them two weeks to get water to New Orleans but they can put a 700 mile wall around Kansas City in a few stinking days?”
“Must have called in Raiders and Broncos fans to help build it!” Joel joked.
“I told you our people had been busy!” the Captain shouted proudly. “And not just military! The entire country turned out! This protocol overrides every other mission in the nation! All resources were allocated to this one task!”
In the deep darkness of the assaulting thunderheads, ten sets of headlights appeared behind them bouncing through the fields, brush and trees at a dangerously high rate of speed, but still not nearly fast enough to catch the friends. One set of headlights disappeared and they picked out the sound of a horn honking steadily over the blustering wind. And it wasn’t an air horn.
“One down!” Tripper crowed. “And we haven’t even fired a shot yet!”
“We won’t have to!” Lucy shouted with glee. “We’re here! Though the bushes between those trees there!”
The Hedgehog blasted out of the brush and brambles into a clear, muddy field a hundred yards across leading right up to the gate set within the modular base attached to the Quarantine Wall…just as the distinct sound of tornado sirens began to blare in the distance.
“Holy shit! It is a tornado!” Tripper screamed.
A guard held them up at the entrance, standing hunched over to protect his eyes from whipping dirt and minor debris. The guard reached for his sidearm when an internal alarm went off as those on the watchtowers realized the group was being followed. A few warning shots forced their pursuers to turn around and drive back to the distant treeline. When they reached the protection of that boundary, the cars were parked and several dozen people poured from the vehicles and scattered into the sparse cover to watch.