“No,” she said, “Not anymore.” His disapproving words didn’t hurt as they once had; they barely touched her. Something had changed with Call’s return. And thanks to Sunny. She didn’t need Father Speer anymore. “All I wanted to do was thank you for teaching me to survive. I would have died back at the farm if you hadn’t. I think we all would have.”
“It is beneficial to the whole family if each member is able to defend themselves and the person next to them,” he said, “It was logic and good strategy, it wasn’t a favor.”
“Well. That’s all I wanted to say.”
She turned to leave, but he’d called out to her, “Don’t lose count.” He mumbled, then, as if speaking to himself but loud enough for her to hear, “Some of you girls just fire away and don’t bother counting. Then you’re empty and then…”
“I know. I’ll count.”
She rubbed her eyes as she left the building. Part of him did care. Part of him was still human.
The boys who watched over the parking garage were nowhere to be seen, though she heard whispers and snickers echoing down the alley near the door. Moving quickly, she passed without being spotted and let herself in.
She chose a jeep, figuring the lack of a door would give her freer range to aim and shoot. It would also leave her more open to getting shot herself but she didn’t plan on getting very close to the action. She didn’t need to. Once her bullets were counted for the fourth time, she closed her eyes and waited for sunrise.
The motorcycle engines were her alarm to wake up. She started the car as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, alert within moments. It’s time to get Call. Maybe she was being foolish; maybe she was going to just get herself killed, and what good would that do anybody? She had no idea what sort of situation she was driving into, where they were going, how many enemies, and these enemies weren’t like the dead, these would shoot back. Dizziness made her pause with her hand on the key. What the hell am I doing?
“Lia!” And then there was Sunny, running across the parking garage in a jacket with more pockets than she could count, a tiny pair of shorts, little white sneakers, and a shotgun in each hand. “I kept both somehow,” she said breathlessly, settling into the passenger seat.
“Sunny, I can’t take you with me!” The horror of imagining the girl getting hurt was more than Lia could handle. “Get out of here!”
“Oh, I’m coming,” she said, “The only thing more dangerous than you is you plus me!” She was way too chipper for such a morning. But that was Sunny.
“Sunny, please-”
“Nuh uh. Preacher didn’t tell you what to do, so you aren’t telling me what to do. If you seriously kick me out then I’ll just get in another car, and it’s better if one of us can fire while we’re driving.” She observed the jeep and nodded appreciatively. “Good choice. Nice and open.”
There was no time left to argue. She could hear the roar of the engines revving. Leaving. Lia closed her eyes tight for a moment before turning the key. “Are you sure?” she asked. “If you get killed, I’ll never forgive myself.”
“If Preacher gets killed then I’ll never get to have his baby,” she said, determination drawing hard lines on her face that Lia had never seen.
“Okay,” Lia sighed. She steered the car down the exit ramp. “I didn’t realize you liked him that much.”
“That red beard grew on me,” she said, smiling. It quickly transformed into a frown. “Shame the radio doesn’t work.”
Lia couldn’t help but laugh.
They could see the last bike drive through the gate as they exited the garage. She stepped on the gas, giving them no time to shut it on her before she could barrel through and join the line of a dozen men roaring away from the compound. Hand signals passed amongst them, and before the gate had even disappeared in her rearview mirror, a bike was forcing her to pull over.
Sheedy the VP himself climbed down and approached her side of the car. “Dare I speculate just what the fuck you two are up to? Who told you that you could take this vehicle?”
Sunny spoke up first, shouting past Lia, “I have more guns than you!”
“I do, too,” Lia said, “I have four. I can take thirty-one shots before I need to reload.”
He cursed and looked ahead up the road.
“Let us help, Sheedy. We’re good shots. We’ll hang back, I swear it.”
He gave them one last look, his lip curled with anger. “I ought to just slash the fucking tires.”
“She’ll have thirty shots left after shooting you for trying, Sheedy!” Sunny declared. She sounded downright gleeful.
She could see the defeat on his face before he said it and internally rejoiced. “Only because we might need the guns. But you better fucking hang back. I’ll shoot your gas tank if that’s what it takes, understand?”
Lia nodded. “Got it, VP. We’ll follow orders.”
He walked away muttering under his breath.
They drove without stopping straight through the morning and well into the afternoon. Some of the landscape looked familiar while some places she was sure she’d never seen before. All she knew was they were heading northeast. She kept track of their route, and she was sure Sunny did as well. There was always a chance the group could be split up and she’d need to get back to the compound on her own.
The sun was high and bright in the sky when the long line of bikers slowed and pulled to a stop on the side of the road. “What do you think’s happening?” Sunny asked, leaning out the side of the jeep and peering up the row.
“Lunch break?”
One of the younger bikers finally approached the car. Lark, if she remembered correctly. His smile was friendly enough as he came up on Sunny’s side. “Ladies,” he greeted them, “They’re clearing some dead corpses off the road ahead. Might be a bit if you want to stretch your legs.”
“Does that mean they were here?” Lia asked as she climbed out. “Satan’s Remains, I mean. Do you think we’re catching up?”
“It’s possible.”
“What do you think they want with him?” Lia asked. She was a little afraid of the answer. There were lots of reasons she could think of for them to take the president of their rivals hostage - but there were also plenty of reasons to just kill him outright.
“They want to know where we’re hiding our tanker.” Lia’s eyebrows went up, and Lark chuckled. “These bikes ain’t running on wishes, lady. That’s how we know we can give chase, too - they’re running out of gas. We just have to catch them before-” He stopped and coughed. “Before Call tells them where to steal it. They’re running out and getting desperate.”
An image of Call bound and beaten intruded her thoughts, and she tasted bile. No. Don’t think about that. We’re going to rescue him. We are! Engines roared up ahead of them. “Ahh. Didn’t take so long.” He gave them a little salute before returning to his bike.
“Let me drive for a bit,” Sunny said, shifting herself behind the steering wheel. “You’re a better shot anyway.”
Lia silently obliged her. She needed to focus on the task ahead. Not on what might happen. Not on what could be happening. Only on what she had to do. Focus like you were taught, she told herself. Focus!
◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙
Lia was just beginning to worry that they’d be out on the road at night when she spotted smoke rising ahead of them. “What the heck…” The area around them wasn’t nearly as empty and quiet as their early trip had been. Corpses shambled alone or in small groups around gutted storefronts as they roared passed. She could see them lurching behind the jeep, attracted by the smell and the noise - they’d have to be dealt with at some point. The dead wouldn’t give up their trail unless stopped or distracted by something else to chase down and eat.
“Can you see anything?” Sunny asked
Lia stood and looked out over the heads of the bikers. “Smoke’s coming from something on the road. Looks like we’re heading for a hospital but I can’t really tell.”
/>
“Maybe we caught up?”
“Hope so. I’ll bet the dead slowed them down,” Lia said as she sat, casting her eyes around. She wondered if these corpses were part of the herd. They seemed too sparse for that - but maybe they were stragglers. Or scouts. Maybe they were going to converge and form their own.
The bikers grouped up on the road ahead, driving three and four abreast instead of one long straight row. She finally spotted the source of the smoke - a crashed motorcycle on the side of the road. Call’s? Or the other man’s - Dray’s? They were heading for the hospital - they wheeled together as one into the parking lot. There was no sign of anyone else parked there, but then Lia hadn’t known the Devil’s Ashes to ever park their bikes out in plain sight. She didn’t imagine Satan’s Remains would, either. So how did they know if Call was inside or not?
There. Footprints and tire tracks in the dirt and debris through the parking lot. It had been very recently disturbed - Lia didn’t have much of an observant eye for such things and even she could tell. And there. Another wrecked bike, poorly hidden right inside the broken double-glass doors of the emergency room entrance. They must have run in here in a big hurry.
The dozen Devil’s Ashes men spread out around the parking lot. Sunny pulled to a stop behind them, far from the set of doors and the windows. They wouldn’t be out of range if these guys had any serious high-powered weapons, but otherwise they were fairly out of danger. And they won’t consider us a priority target anyway. At least not before we’re killing them. She slid out of the jeep and stood next to it, waiting for a sign or signal or anything at all from Sheedy. He stood and conferred with three of the men as their bikes idled into silence.
Sheedy finally stepped aside from the group and fired a gun into the air. It echoed through the parking lot and was answered by only silence.
“I hear you dumb motherfuckers are out of gas!” Sheedy called, “Anybody want to come out and negotiate?”
“This isn’t very subtle,” Lia whispered to Sunny, “Why aren’t some of us hiding or something?”
Sunny snorted. “Bikers don’t do subtle.”
Lia tried to make out any movement in the building’s windows as Sheedy kept shouting at the air. She spotted something shiny up on the second floor - just before the window broke. “Get down!” she yelled before grabbing Sunny’s hand and ducking behind the jeep. The parking lot exploded in gunfire. Men from the second floor windows, men from the roof, and then engines roared to life. Peering beneath the jeep, she watched three motorcycles shoot out from around the building and head for the road as their friends within the hospital covered them.
“Get them!” she and Sunny both shouted to each other as they stood.
Focus. The shotgun was still in the jeep. She pulled one of her revolvers - breath. They were driving fast but if she started firing wildly she was more likely to miss than if she gave herself a moment. Aim. Squeeze. The middle bike’s back tire blew out and sent the bike careening wildly, knocking down his partner on the right. She fired again and the bullet richoched off the bike on the left. A last squeeze and she hit the man in the back.
No! He was definitely not Call - too short - and was wearing the Satan’s Remains colors. But he was alive! The bike tipped as he slumped to the side, skidding to a halt before he even managed to get out of the parking lot and reach the road.
“None of them are Call,” Sunny said, passing Lia her shotgun.
“Decoy?” she asked. Focus! Shooting that man had shaken her but she pushed her nerves and her churning stomach away, banished the sensations to the back of her mind as she turned back towards the hospital.
A hail of gunfire rained from the windows, concentrated on the Devil’s Ashes men ducking behind their bikes. A few had made it to the double doors - Sheedy amongst them - and were charging into the building. They’re firing at random. They’re just keeping us distracted. Some of the men seemed to have the same thought - another group of three made a run for it, circling around the side of the building. One of them jerked as though he’d been hit but he didn’t stop moving.
“This is a nightmare,” Lia whispered. “How many can you see up there?”
“There’s only two on the second floor,” Sunny said, “One on the roof.”
“We know there’s more, where the hell are they?”
More engines roared - these behind the building where she couldn’t see them. She spotted Preacher amongst the three around the side of the building - he signaled to the men still ducking behind their bikes, four fingers, then pointed behind the hospital.
They moved like a well-oiled machine. No discussion, no choosing - just four of the bikers hopped back on their motorcycles and drove off, bullets bouncing from the chrome and metal. One went down - three made it around, their tires squealing as they went. Is it him back there? Or just more distractions?
Her heart pounding in her ears, she realized they’d have to be crazy to transport him on a bike. Perhaps she didn’t have the strength to throw herself from the back when she thought she was Call’s prisoner that awful night of the corpses’ attack, but he would. And he’d take as many out with him as he could.
Gunfire continued to blast through the parking lot. The sky was getting darker as the sun set. Engines roared in the distance. And her heart began to sink.
Inside the building or not?
How many more need to die?
Where’s the bus?
Lia said, “They would have moved him on the bus.”
“I didn’t see one,” Sunny replied, squinting back towards the road. The sun was peering over it, making it difficult to see as it sank beneath the horizon. “We can ask them.”
Lia raised her shotgun. The men who’d fallen from their bikes when she shot out the tire were staggering to their feet as they spoke. She strode towards them, gun against her shoulder with Sunny just a step behind. “Whichever one of you tells me what I want to know is the one who gets to walk away!” she announced, cocking the gun. That didn’t sound like me. But it was her - the words hadn’t come from Sunny’s mouth.
Both men froze. Sunny backed her up, cocking her shotgun as well. “Where’s the president?” she asked. “Silence gets you shot. Snitch gets a kiss.”
Sunny. “Someone better start talking,” Lia said, aiming between the two.
“You girls. You won’t shoot us,” one of them said.
“Oh, yeah? Who do you think shot your buddy over there?” she asked, gesturing towards the fallen third man. He hadn’t moved. Oh God, I’ve killed him. She swallowed.
“Fuck this, man, I didn’t sign up for this shit,” the second one said.
Sunny smirked. “New recruit?”
The man made a face. “The bus kept on up the road here. They’re just in the next complex.” The older man glared daggers at him, and he shrugged. “I’m walking the fuck out of here. Fuck it.”
“That’s what happens when you set your standards too low,” Sunny said in a sing-song voice as she approached the young recruit. She delivered as she’d promised, kissing him right on the mouth with an exaggerated smack.
I shouldn’t have made the threat if I wasn’t going to follow through, Lia thought, lowering her shotgun as she transitioned to her pistol. Wait. Actually… She aimed and fired. The man dropped, clutching his calf and spitting curses. I only promised to shoot, not to kill.
“Disarm him,” she instructed Sunny. The young man was carrying only one small pistol and a knife. Sunny took the man’s boots as well and hurled them away into the woods. Lia frisked the older man and came away with the same - one gun and a knife. Not for the first time, she wondered how Father Speer had managed to arm all of his girls so well. Maybe he was a hoarder and a gun nut to begin with.
“Let’s go.”
She honked wildly as they hopped into the jeep and backed up onto the road, barely missing flattening the Satan’s Remains men in their rush. Preacher noticed and signaled to the Devil’s Ashes, but as to how quickly the res
t reacted, they couldn’t tell - they sped up the road spitting dirt behind them.
Sure enough the next parking lot was a separate wing of the hospital, and as they circled around looking for the main entrance, they spotted the bus parked around the back where it couldn’t be seen from the road. Almost. They almost got away with this.
“I’m going,” she told Sunny, leaping from the jeep before the girl had pulled to a complete stop. “You should wait here.”
Sunny scoffed. “I’m not letting you run in alone, crazy. We can do this if we watch each other’s backs.” She was right - an extra pair of eyes would be invaluable. Part of their training had been working in teams as it was - they’d be in and out, fast and clean like a surgery. If all goes well. The bus’s escorts’ bikes were nowhere to be seen - they didn’t know how many men to expect.
The lobby was dim - they were on limited time as the sun went down. Corpses that had been recently killed littered the floor inside, the rotten black blood dripping from their head wounds. Sunny walked at Lia’s back as she progressed, watching for anyone coming up behind them. Just as they stepped over the corpses, Sunny fired.
“Got one,” she whispered. Lia didn’t ask if it was the living or the dead - she didn’t even turn to look. She followed the signs for the stairway - no one with any sense would camp on the first floor.
She kicked the door to the stairs open. A living man raised his gun and hesitated. He looked surprised - and then she shot him. A mist of blood lingered in the air after he fell. “Got him in the head?” Sunny asked.
“Of course.” Focus. They climbed.
She saw them but she didn’t see them. Two more men in the hallway as they emerged, turning, raising their guns. She stepped forward, shot one, stepped again, shot again. Both dropped bursts and pool of bright red blood, so very different from killing men who were already dead. Sometimes the dead had no blood left at all. Sometimes the living screamed.
Sunny fired behind her, dropping another that she couldn’t see. “Which way?” the girl asked. All the light tone and gleeful inflection was gone. Sunny was just as focused, just as detached from what she had to do.
Dark Paths: Apocalypse Riders Page 12