by Mark Lingane
“Isn’t that a coincidence? Our communications to LA have been cut, and here you are turning up with wild stories of doom. How do we know you’re telling the truth?”
“I’m not making it up.”
“We’re not afraid of another doomsday ‘flu’ virus, or of the freaks being sent in from the west.”
The spokesman nodded, and each man in the barricade brought up heavy firepower. There were various clicks and buzzes as they armed their weapons.
“You’re not passing through our town,” the man said. “You can go back the way you came, or go around.”
The armed Delta force circled the travelers. They were precise and disciplined in their movements. Although the sun was warming, they all wore heavy coats that reached high on their necks down to their ankles. The men surrounded them. This was not the place for confrontation, Sebastian decided.
Grit flew into his face, stinging his skin and eyes, and he pulled his goggles back down. He made his way over to the nearest truck; Chet was cocooned in the cab. He saw Sebastian approach and lowered the window.
“Where can we go if we keep going?” Sebastian shouted. The wind was really picking up. He took out a rag and tied it around his mouth.
“Only to the north, the south is pretty bad. Plenty of outlaws and … things.”
“Only north? How many days to Salt Lake City?”
“Depending on the winds, two or three days.”
Sebastian sighed. “Then we might as well come with you at least part of the way. Maybe the Peacemaker can talk some sense into these people.”
“The men won’t be overly happy to camp.”
“Me neither. I was looking forward to a motel bed.”
As they pushed north into the heavy gales, the terrain started to mount up on both sides, making more of a channel for the winds. As the terrain rose higher, a whistling noise started.
“Chet, you know how your guy in charge back in Fallon said the path from Delta to Salt Lake was safe?” Sebastian shouted. “Did he say that because no living thing could possibly survive here?”
“What? I can’t hear you.”
“Is it like this all the way?” he shouted one word at a time.
“There’s a break at Lynndyl, not far from here, but nothing else.”
The whistling continued to increase in volume, and the piercing pain soon had everyone clasping their hands over their ears. Some of the younger men had tears making tracks down their dusty faces as they crunched up their eyes.
Sebastian had wrapped a piece of material around his head, covering everything except his eyes, but the material failed to stay fastened. He dug through his pack and was relieved to find his gas mask from before the void jump. They all battled on in painful silence. The headwinds slowed them to a crawl.
The buffeting numbed Sebastian’s body, and he almost missed the tall dark figures standing on top of the ridges running alongside the road. They must be columns of rock, he thought. If they were people, they would be giants, like sullivans.
As the day came to an end, the tall ridges dissolved away on either side of the road and were replaced by thick forests. They rolled into a large clearing surrounded by dense foliage.
Sebastian stepped off the bike and peeled off his gas mask. Sweat rolled down his face. He closed his eyes and sighed as the wind cooled him. He coughed as he breathed in a mouthful of dust. He glanced around the area as the trucks rolled into position.
“So, this is Lynndyl? It just looks like a big circle of dead grass.”
“At least the whistling noise has gone,” Memphis said. “I felt like my brain’s been drilled.”
He pointed to a small lake on the right. “Want to get cleaned up while I make camp?”
She staggered off toward the water, oblivious to the vehicles and men moving haphazardly around her. She didn’t notice any of them glancing at her. She sat by the lake and dipped her hands into the cool water. Several of the men were doing the same, washing the dust and dirt from their faces, and the grit from their mouths. She cupped the water and splashed it on her face. The ripples in the water cleared and the scarred face of one of the recent arrivals appeared.
She turned around and the man stepped back. She stood up and tried to go around him, but he moved to block her way. He gave her a leering smile and moved closer. She could smell the beer on his breath. She rolled her eyes.
“You don’t want to be on the wrong side of me.”
“You’re not exactly terrifying.”
“What about him?” She indicated Sebastian, who was lifting up the front of the bike and inspecting the steering.
The man glanced over his shoulder, and she pushed him back. He stumbled and she ran to safety.
“He won’t always be around,” the man called out.
“He will,” she called back. The thought made her smile.
The sun had set and the temperature had dropped fiercely. A large fire was built, and the men drifted into their town groups. Sebastian sat down at a distance from the others and stared out into the foliage. The sounds of jovial men filtered through the bushes.
Chet wandered over, sipping from a beer bottle. “This wind sure gets you thirsty.”
“Chet?” Sebastian said, as he stared straight ahead.
“Yeah?”
“What did the Delta guy mean by ‘freaks being sent in from the west’?”
“Probably big talk trying to scare us.” Chet sipped from his bottle.
“You haven’t noticed anything unusual?”
“Not that’s come into our town. Why you asking?”
“Something’s staring at us from these bushes. It’s been there since the sun went down.” Sebastian nodded in the direction of the dense shrubbery.
Chet froze. “Looks like coyote eyes, but bigger.”
A low growl rolled out from the bushes, menacing and hungry. The sounds of merriment were hurriedly cut off, and the men shifted uneasily as they turned toward the sound. One man got up and made his way cautiously over to the bush.
The moment passed in a blur. The huge wolf-like creatures came charging toward them, almost ripping each other apart to get at their prey. In a blur, Sebastian found himself up and racing toward them. In a blur, he looked into their red, mad eyes. In a blur, they were dead.
He looked back over his shoulder. The men were gathering behind him, clinking their bottles together and raising a drink to him.
“You were, like, totally awesome,” one said, and they all cheered.
Sebastian smiled. “I was, wasn’t I?” He used the excessive bravado to hide his worry.
He looked at the deformed creatures. He realized they were similar to the ones he’d come across on the way to Lafayette dam. They wore the same kind of collars. But these had been leaner, hungrier, verging on manic in their determination to feast on something. So many concerns flicked through his mind. Where was their owner? Why were they so big? Had they been tracking him?
And why did they look like dog versions of the infected?
Chet cautiously stepped closer and investigated the beasts. He kicked one with his foot and was relieved when it stayed still. “They’re new. They look a lot like those infected people. Skin going bad, bloodshot eyes, acting kinda coyote crazy.”
“I’m seriously hoping the infection hasn’t jumped species. That could be really bad.”
“Is that possible?”
“It’s a virus that mutates aggressively,” Sebastian said, “so anything’s possible.”
“What happens if they start attacking trees, or the air?”
“Let’s not even think about that.”
Sebastian turned to the gathered crowd. “Anyone here from northwest of Delta?”
“Yeah, I’m from Battle Mountain, Nevada,” a man replied.
“Have you seen these before?” he said, indicating the infected wolves.
“We’ve seen shadows of things like this creeping around. Not many, but scary.”
“I haven�
��t seen anything like this,” another man added.
“Who are you?” Sebastian asked.
“I’m Glenn. I joined back in Gabbs.”
“We didn’t go through anywhere called Gabbs.”
“No. Word travelled down from Austin, and some of us decided to join.”
Sebastian looked closely at the unfamiliar faces. He didn’t know these men. The flames of the fire, bouncing around in the strong winds, flickered in their eyes, which seemed full of keenness, concern … and possibly malicious intent. They were watching him … every movement he made. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck crawl.
He mumbled excuses and quickly made his escape from their scrutiny.
53
HE SAT DOWN next to Memphis in the shelter of the bike and tent.
“Hey, Memphis, I don’t feel comfortable with these guys.”
“Why not? You should be. They’re totally into you.” She smiled. “Like me. You’re their leader. You’re promising change.”
“I never promised that.”
“No, maybe not, but you represent change. Things have been bad for so long.”
“Things are bad everywhere. Here, back home. Things are just bad, full stop. Everyone’s suffering, from the top to the bottom.”
Memphis looked skeptical. “One thing I’ve learned, and seen, is that the top never suffers. Not unless the bottom does something about it. Do you remember the Master’s book, My Struggle, back in the Chargers’ base? No one’s ever questioned it. I bet some of the men here carry it with them. They do on the east side of the wall. We all believed it was the absolute truth, and now you’ve come along and shown that it’s full of lies. We were being manipulated.”
Alarm bells clanged and his head pounded. He felt faint. “But I’m not a leader. I don’t want to be followed.”
“Whether you like it or not, you can’t stop these people. They’re going to rebel. If they have no leader, they’ll rebel against each other. They need a leader or they’ll rip themselves apart.”
“Oh great, no pressure. How’s that meant to make things better?”
“But don’t you want to be a part of something, belong to a family?”
“My family is dead. I don’t want another one. If I did, I would want them back.”
“But we all need to belong to something.”
“No, we all don’t. I don’t. I want to be on my own. I need to be on my own.”
“Why? Why do you need to be alone?”
“Everyone who was close to me is dead. It’s better if everyone stays away.”
There was the sound of someone approaching, and a man stepped forward, looking apologetic.
Sebastian looked up. “It’s Glenn, isn’t it? From Gabbs.”
“Yes, sir.”
Sebastian sighed. “Don’t call me sir.”
“They don’t mean it like that,” Memphis said.
“What do you want?” Sebastian asked Glenn.
“We’ve travelled many miles. We’re hungry and tired, and we have no food,” Glenn said.
“Why did you come without food? That seems a bit shortsighted.”
“We thought you would provide.”
“Me?” Sebastian squeaked. “How on earth can I provide for ten, eleven …” He started to count then gave up. “However many of you there are.”
“But we heard you do amazing things.”
“Magic-ing food out of the air is not one of them. Look, Memphis and I are only going as far as Eureka. Then we part ways with you and head to Denver. We’re not going the same way.”
“You have a duty to provide for us.”
“What? Says who?”
Glenn closed his eyes and recited: “‘The Peacemaker decree number one-two-two. Every leader has due diligence to provide for associate troops when in active duty’.”
“Okay, so you know your laws well.”
“There’s an amendment that gets rid of any unpleasantness.” Without waiting for a response, he said, “‘Compensation as decreed by a fair trial’.”
“You want me to pay you?”
“It’s only fair. We’re only asking for what’s rightly ours.”
Sebastian stood up, towering above the men. He ripped out his sword. All the men jumped back. “I’ll give you what you rightly deserve,” he snapped.
The men cowered in front of him. He sighed and sheathed his sword. “I can’t look after you all. There must be dozens of you. All I can suggest is that we see what we can scrounge from the others. Maybe they were a bit less shortsighted than you guys.”
He shouted at people and pushed them around until they’d assembled a rudimentary meal from the food scraps.
“It’s a pity the wolves were infected. We could’ve eaten them,” Sebastian said.
“You eat dogs?” Glenn said, wide eyed.
“Well, not dogs, because they’re pets, but wild animals, sure. Anything’s free game—if it moves, we eat it. Snakes, cattle, sometimes even fruit. If you don’t kill them, they’ll kill you.”
The men gave him a blank look.
“After the war, the radiation killed most animals,” Glenn said.
“But you know what a dog is.”
Glenn nodded. “Owners kept them safe in shelters.”
“You let cows die, but kept dogs? That’s weird. You can still eat dogs. I read in a book that some cultures used to eat them.”
There was a murmur of discontent. “You can’t believe those books. Useless waste of paper,” one voice said.
“What? Books are the most important things in the world!” Sebastian cried. “I had a good friend who was a librarian. Books held all the knowledge we had. Books defined who we were.”
“Can you eat them?” the same voice said.
He sighed and strode back to the tent. Memphis had put her boots by the entrance, which always made him smile because they looked like they were on guard. She was lying down, staring at the low roof, with her hands behind her head.
He lay down next to her. “The sooner we leave these people behind, the better.”
“You shouldn’t think like that. You’re onto something good. They’re your people. If you can get them completely behind you, you’ll be unstoppable.”
The next day continued much like the previous one. Several of the men were unruly and Sebastian shouted at them until they calmed down. Towards evening, the convoy crested a hill and began the short descent into Eureka, the small town where they hoped to find their accommodation for the night.
“I’m looking forward to a bed,” Sebastian shouted over his shoulder.
Memphis gasped and pointed ahead. Where the town once had been was now nothing but piles of rubble and broken timber. Several bodies were strewn across the road. Eureka was devastated.
Sebastian pulled over, and they dismounted and searched the area.
“The infected couldn’t have got here before us, could they?” Memphis said.
Sebastian shook his head. “They wouldn’t do this. They only want food, not wholesale destruction. It’ll be outlaws who did this.” He examined the bodies lying in the center of the road. There wasn’t much left of them. Something brutal had been through here.
The men disembarked from the trucks and looked around at the decimation. There was a shout. They ran over. The men had lifted up a large beam to reveal a half-crushed body underneath. She didn’t have long to live. The blood was thick on the ground and her face had been badly battered.
“Who’s there?” she whispered.
“We’re soldiers. My name’s Sebastian.”
Memphis came closer. “And I’m Memphis.”
“Where’s Ollie?” The woman’s head rolled to one side.
“Who is Ollie?” Memphis said.
“My son. Is he all right?”
Sebastian looked at the broken body of a young boy lying nearby. It was out of the woman’s vision. He thought it was best if it stayed that way. “He’s with us and safe.”
“Than
k God for that. Can he hold my hand?”
“We’ll get him for you. The nurse is with him. What happened here?”
“Giant creatures came in and destroyed the place. The Peacemaker said he’d keep us safe, but he never came.”
“Giant creatures? Did they have scaly heads?”
She gasped and held a trembling hand to her lips. He took it as confirmation.
“Ollie, Ollie, where are you?” The woman’s voice rose in panic.
“He’s here,” Memphis said. “We’re looking after him.”
The woman groped around blindly, searching for her son’s hand. Memphis reached out and held it in her own, and the woman relaxed her grip.
“Be brave, Ollie,” she called weakly, “you need to look after yourself now. Be so brave for me.”
Memphis found she was crying.
“Will you take care of him?”
“We will,” Memphis said. “He’ll be safe now.”
The woman sighed and her grasp slipped free from Memphis’s hand.
Sebastian picked up the young boy’s body. He found a grand tree and silently dug a grave. When he had placed the boy’s body to rest, he stood back and bowed his head. “Good luck, Ollie, for wherever you’re going next. I’m sorry you never saw much of this life.”
Memphis was behind him. She hugged him.
“In some ways I’m glad he didn’t see much of this sick world.” He felt his chest tighten, and it was hard to breathe. His body was shaking. He was angry; promises of protection were sacred.
After a few moments, he strode over to the men, who were milling around unsure of what to do next.
“She said giant creatures,” Sebastian began. “What’s she talking about? When we were at Lafayette dam I sensed something nearby that was very big. I didn’t see it, but it felt like an enemy I had back home. One of you must’ve seen or heard something about these giant creatures. I need information, and I need it now.”
While the men talked among themselves, Memphis came up to him and took his hand.
“You said an enemy from home. How would something from your land get here?”