Borders: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller (Aftershock Series Book 3)

by Michael R. Watson

  “I see it,” acknowledged Charles. “I’ll land at my usual spot in the clearing southwest of the compound.”

  As they came in for a landing, Blake noticed the glow of a campfire below them at the edge of a tree row. “Someone’s got a fire going down there.”

  Daniel and John strained to look down through the side windows. Daniel opened his side door for a better view.

  “Should I land?” asked Charles, wondering if they had spotted trouble.

  “Go ahead,” instructed Daniel, “but do it a little further out, just to be safe.”

  ***

  A noise brought Ryder awake from a deep sleep. At first he wasn’t sure what it was. But, as he regained his senses and the sound became louder, he realized it was a helicopter landing near him. A spotlight lit up the area, forcing him to shield his eyes. The helicopter drifted west toward the center of a clearing, and then began to descend to the ground.

  Ryder retrieved his rifle and moved to the cover of a tree, watching to see who got off. As far as he knew, Grayson had the only helicopter in these parts, but it was best to be cautious. Where it landed, it was too far away and too dark to see clearly. Two figures jumped out and walked directly toward him. He raised his rifle and aimed. “Stay where you are! You’re surrounded and we’re armed! Identify yourselves!”

  The two figures stopped. His bluff was working. A third figure stepped out of the helicopter, approaching the other two.

  “Identify yourselves!” Ryder repeated. He fired a shot at their feet.

  John could swear he knew that voice. “Ryder?” he called out.

  “Who is it?”

  “It’s John with Daniel, Blake, and Charles. Don’t shoot!” He edged closer.

  Ryder squinted to see the man’s features better. The voice did sound like John’s. “Come closer. Slowly.”

  The three men walked toward his camp, hands in the air while Ryder kept his rifle aimed at them. He let out a sigh and lowered his rifle when John, leading the way, entered the light of the campfire. Daniel and Blake were right behind him.

  “What are you doing here?” Ryder asked.

  “I could ask you the same question,” said John.

  “I’m getting ready to go after Davis,” said Ryder. “I thought that’s what you were doing.”

  “It was,” said John, “but we ran into a clan of lunatics. Thankfully, Blake and Charles came to our rescue.”

  ***

  The group of former Tent City residents ran toward where the helicopter had come down. After hearing a shot fired, they were rushing to check on the welfare of the chief governor. “Be careful, someone has a gun,” one of them yelled out as a reminder. As they approached the spot, they could see four men standing around a campfire.

  Ryder saw the group rushing toward them from out of the darkness. Not knowing who they were or their intentions he raised his rifle again.

  Joe saw the rifle and held out his arms to stop their group from rushing in and getting shot. “Whoa! Don’t shoot!” he yelled.

  “Stay right there!” shouted Ryder.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Charles, who was late joining the group after checking out the helicopter for damage. “I heard a shot.”

  “Just a warning,” replied John. “Nothing to worry about.”

  Joe and the others were relieved to see the governor was safe. Grayson had been good to them since his arrival, trying to make amends for his past mistakes. With Ryder’s rifle still aimed at them, they remained at a distance. “We heard you’re helicopter and followed the gunshot. We were afraid you were in trouble.”

  Grayson smiled. “And you came to help?”

  “Of course, Governor,” replied Jenny.

  “Come on over,” invited Grayson, motioning them closer.

  Satisfied there was no danger, Ryder lowered his rifle.

  “Just a little mistaken identity,” said Grayson. “Everything is fine. Thank you for your concern though.”

  “I guess you didn’t have any luck finding Davis or Damon?” asked Joe.

  “Afraid not.” There was an awkward moment of silence. “I really appreciate your concern, but please go back to whatever you were doing. Perhaps I’ll see you again in the morning.”

  Hesitantly, the group turned to leave, taking the hint. “Glad you’re okay, Governor,” replied Jenny, showing special interest, smiling and waving goodbye.

  Charles got the impression she may have been flirting with him, making him confused and uneasy. Had he done or said something to give her the wrong idea?

  When the group returned to their campfire, Jenny looked around, searching, puzzled. “Where’s the stranger? Did he follow us to the helicopter?”

  They asked each other. No one had noticed.

  ***

  Charles and the others watched as his would-be rescuers headed back into the dark. “Ryder? What are you doing here? How’s your arm?” he asked.

  “It’s fine.” He flexed it to show them. “I couldn’t get Davis and Damon out of my head. So, I decided to come back and do my part. What about you and Blake?” asked Ryder. “I didn’t think you were coming back this soon.”

  “Davis and Damon are responsible for our friends being killed. We owed it to them to at least try to find their murderers. We did our best but didn’t see any sign of them.”

  “Are you going back out?” asked Ryder.

  “No, we had our chance. We’re going home in the morning. There are other sectors that need our attention. But if you should find them, please let me know. There should be a short-wave radio set somewhere near Davis’ office.

  “John and I are going back out,” said Daniel. “We’re not as interested in payback as we are in preventing them from doing this to someone else, like the people of Paradise. If we go together, Ryder, we can cover more ground.”

  Ryder was silent for a moment. “I don’t want this to sound harsh, but I’d rather go alone. I know the territory and the people and they know me. I’ve dealt with most of them before, I know where their borders are, and the areas to avoid.”

  John and Daniel were caught off guard. “Can you handle Davis, Damon, and Peck by yourself?” asked John.

  “That won’t be a problem. Why don’t you go home to your families? I’m sure they miss you and wonder what’s happened. I want you both to know how much Levi and I appreciate you coming to our aid when we needed you. And thank your wives and kids for letting you come.”

  John and Daniel were still trying to get their heads around the idea of not being needed. It seemed the three of them together would be better than one man alone. Granted, Ryder was probably better suited for this. Like he said, he was already familiar with the area and the people. “I feel like we’d be deserting you,” admitted John. “We’d like to help.”

  “I can probably travel faster alone too. Please, let me do this,” Ryder pleaded.

  John and Daniel exchanged looks, nodding to each other. “Okay, we’ll go,” agreed John. “But we don’t like it.”

  “On your way back, could you stop by Paradise and let mom and dad know what’s going on?” Ryder asked. “I hate for them to be in the dark and worry.”

  “Of course. But I imagine they’ll continue to worry about you until they see you again.”

  Charles stepped forward. “Do you know if there’s any extra fuel stored at the compound for my helicopter?” he asked Ryder. Since he once worked at the compound, there was the outside chance he would know.

  “Not that I’m aware of, but I don’t think so.” He glanced at Daniel, who would also know, but shook his head.

  Blake turned to Charles. “We can stop and check at the Oklahoma City airport on our way. Or, we could try to make it all the way home without stopping. It’ll be close though.”

  “Why don’t you share my camp tonight,” offered Ryder, “and then we can go our separate ways in the morning. Now I’d like to hear about the trouble you ran into and where.”

  ***

  CHAP
TER TEN

  Jake witnessed it all, following the concerned group from their campfire to where the helicopter had landed and five men stood around a small campfire. He assumed one of them, perhaps the one with a touch of gray, was Governor Grayson. Having never seen him before, he couldn’t be sure. Whichever one he was, he was there and Morgan would be pleased. They would be able to collect the bounty directly without having to reach out to him.

  Damon, however, would be furious. The agreement he had with Morgan didn’t include being turned over, but only to help with obtaining supplies. If the opportunity came up, Jake knew Morgan intended for his people to help themselves to the rest of the supplies too. That was the downside of Grayson being there, potentially making things slightly more difficult.

  When Jake looked for Peck, he wasn’t with the group anymore. Struck by a wave of panic, he quickly searched the surrounding area with no luck. He had lost Peck. Morgan would not be happy with him. Since the chief governor had landed, he wondered if Peck had returned to where Morgan and the others waited. Jake ran back to find out.

  Morgan was anxiously awaiting the return of both Jake and Peck. “We heard a helicopter. Was it the governor?”

  Damon thought to himself, ‘What a stupid question. Who else would it be?’ No one else, as far as he knew, had a helicopter in this sector. Their luck had just gone from bad to worse. They had hoped for a chance to escape along the way, but the chance never came up. And now, they were going to come face to face with the man who held their lives in his hands.

  Several days earlier, when they’d initially been taken into custody and led to Grayson’s helicopter under guard, they had no idea what punishment awaited them in Springfield. Without knowing, they had assumed the worst. But, before they could find out, two of Davis’ Guard had rescued them. This time, Damon was sure they wouldn’t be getting away.

  “I think it was him,” answered Jake. “I’ve never seen him before, but I thought I heard someone refer to him as the governor. He looked to be the oldest. There were four men with him. One was in a uniform, but not like Peck’s. And one of them was a big man standing six inches taller than the others.”

  “Where’s Peck?” asked Damon, looking around, slightly concerned.

  Jake sheepishly looked at Morgan. “I don’t know. I lost him.”

  Davis whispered to Damon, “He’s deserted us.”

  “Perhaps.”

  Morgan hesitated a response. “I guess we’ll have to get by with only the bounty for these two. I doubt if he was worth much anyway. Forget him.”

  Jake let out a sigh of relief. Morgan took the news better than he’d thought. It looked like he was off the hook for the moment.

  Davis and Damon exchanged looks of concern. “That’s not what we agreed to,” reminded Damon. He didn’t want to come face to face with Grayson. “You said you didn’t want to deal directly with the chief governor. We were going to help you get in to take supplies instead.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t know he was going to be here either,” said Morgan, smiling. “And you’re right, I didn’t want to meet him face to face, but this is just too good of an opportunity to pass up. And now we can get the supplies directly from him.”

  Damon felt helpless. “So, are you going to just march us up to him?”

  “Not yet. First, I need to verify whether he intends to make good on the bounty.” He turned to Jake. “Go to the governor and tell him we have them, and tell him what we want in return.”

  “Alone?” he asked. He didn’t like the idea of dealing with the governor any more than Morgan did. Neither had much use for authority even before the quakes.

  “Don’t worry,” urged Morgan, trying to put him at ease. “He’s not going to do anything to you. He’ll be grateful. From what I understand, the governor isn’t interested in anything other than getting his hands on them. We each have something the other wants.”

  “But I …”

  “Just do it!” snapped Morgan. “I’ll be here with them when you get back.”

  ***

  This was the chance Peck had been waiting for. When the others ran to check on Governor Grayson, he’d slipped away after seeing Jake mistakenly follow the movement of the group. Jake had been the only obstacle between him and freedom.

  Peck ran past several small camps, only receiving sideways glances. He was almost free. What he needed now was a horse. There were none to be seen. Then it occurred to him, the people of Tent City wouldn’t have horses and the Guard would have taken theirs with them when they left to begin their new lives elsewhere.

  He didn’t like it, but he would have to make his escape on foot. But where would he go? Which direction? He only knew he didn’t want to go west or southwest into what he believed was the worst of the wasteland. No matter which way he chose, he’d need to take food and water, and he knew exactly where there was a stockpile.

  Peck carefully made his way toward the compound gates, careful to avoid making eye contact with anyone he met. There was no way to know who might recognize him and raise an alarm. He stepped behind a tree and watched the gate. There didn’t seem to be anyone on guard duty and the gate was wide open. Things had changed considerably in the relatively short time he’d been gone.

  Satisfied there was no threat, he ran to the gate. The darkness of the night helped to conceal his movements. However, from the gate to the front entrance, dim LED lights glowed at regular spaced intervals along both sides of the sidewalk. It would be difficult to reach the main door without being seen. So, instead, he needed to appear inconspicuous. Huddled down near the gate’s abandoned guard shack, he watched and waited for his opportunity. Everything remained quiet. It was late and it appeared most of the population had turned in for the evening. The time couldn’t have been much better. He stood and began to walk toward the entrance, attempting not to draw attention by maintaining a constant and casual pace. Reaching the door without incident, he reached for the door handle and pulled, surprised and glad to find it unlocked.

  He exhaled a sigh of relief and quickly slipped inside. The entrance foyer was empty, also lit by a dim string of lights along its perimeter. The steps to the lower level were to his left, the stairwell also dimly lit. At the bottom, light inside the supply room could be seen through the small windows in the double-doors. He looked through one of the windows. He had only been there a few times before, but the stacks of supplies appeared to be pretty much as he remembered. If anything, they were more organized. He stepped through the doors.

  Immediately, a man stepped out to greet him, smiling. “A little late for shopping, isn’t it?” he asked. He then took a double-take. “Peck? Is that you?” His smile disappeared and his hand quickly drew his sidearm, pointing it at Peck. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be miles from here with Davis and Damon?”

  Peck looked hard at the man. He looked vaguely familiar, but didn’t have any idea of his name. “Do I know you?”

  “Jeremy.”

  “Well, Jeremy, I was only with them because they were holding me hostage. But I escaped.”

  “Hostage? That’s a joke. You’re just as bad as they are.” He kept his pistol trained on him.

  “Will you help me or not? All I need are a few supplies so I can leave.”

  “You were already gone. Why did you come back?”

  “I had no choice. Why are you here? I thought all the Guard left?” He wanted to use the word deserter, but it wouldn’t serve his purpose under the circumstances.

  “Most of us are still here. There was nowhere else to go. So, some of us asked the Council if we could stay and help out. Fortunately, the people of Tent City graciously welcomed us. We didn’t expect it, especially after the things we’d been forced to do under orders from the likes of you.”

  Peck heard something interesting through his bitterness. Many, if not all, of the Guard were still there. That meant there were horses somewhere nearby. “Just give me the food and water I can carry. That should be eno
ugh to get me a long way from here.” He could tell the ex-Guard was thinking about it. “You’ll never see me again,” he persuaded. “And I’ll leave tonight.”

  Jeremy still seemed hesitant.

  “Don’t you think a person can change? You all helped Master Gant and his family get away. Didn’t he change?”

  “He didn’t need to change. He was never like you. Ambition didn’t drive him. You were different. We all saw it. You wanted to be like Davis and Damon. Gant, though, just needed to get away from Davis and Damon, like we did. He just wanted a better life for his family.”

  “I don’t have time to argue. I just want to get away and I can do that with your help. Otherwise, I’ll have to take what I need from the people out there, and use any method I have to.” Peck wondered if he was pushing too hard. He decided to remain silent for a moment, hoping his promise to leave and never return would be enough.

  Jeremy reached down to a stack of gunny sacks and peeled one off the top, handing it to Peck. “Take what you can carry and get out.” He holstered his pistol.

  Peck didn’t have to be told twice, grabbing the sack and hurriedly heading down the main aisle, looking down each aisle branching off to his left and right. In the enormous space, he only saw stacks of boxes, not knowing where to look for what he needed.

  Jeremy, impatient, and anxious to be rid of him, caught up and took the sack. “What do you want? Water is up front.”

  Not receiving an immediate response, Jeremy started opening boxes and grabbing cans of this and that, filling the bottom of the sack. He led Peck back to the front and set two six-packs of plastic water bottles in the sack. “There. Now get out of here and don’t come back. If I see you again, I won’t hesitate to turn you in.”

  Peck took the sack and slung it over his shoulder and without a thank you rushed out the double doors.

  “Good riddance,” muttered Jeremy. “Hope you choke on it.”