Baxter’s War

by A. L. Roberts

  58

  Gladys fought to keep her composure. She dug in her purse, discovering a package of cucumber scented baby wipes. She removed five sheets and conducted a frantic cleaning session over her face and braids.

  Gladys inhaled, White’s strong pee odor clung to the insides of her nostrils, imbedding in her mind with the resolve of a tapeworm. The dog humping spooked her and the memory made her cry again.

  She maintained a steady stride behind the baggage train. The oddness of seeing a convoy of Bucky Browns packed with gear and children amazed her.

  White, she knew, enjoyed his play on dominance. White resembled a kid with a new yellow ball, eager to show the toy off to his friends with no shame. Akiko delighted in the violent display, failing to contain the grin perched at her lips.

  While on her knees Gladys emotions raced through her with rapid speed. She performed the first kneel as a joke of sorts, a placating theatric to get the dog and teenage bitch off her back. She wanted them to drop their guard, allowing her a chance to save the children.

  Her subservience passed. Akiko didn’t find her act a ruse, but an opening for White to step in and humiliate her. White saw through Gladys’s so-called bow and scrape.

  Gladys tossed the used baby wipes aside and continued on with her slow pace. None rushed except for the leading dogs. The youngsters remained protected by newer dogs not yet indoctrinated to fight alongside the battle hardened vets.

  The woman observed the child slaves. A girl stopped walking and refused to go any further. A Great Dane galloped up and stood before the child who burst into a fit of crying. The huge dog nudged her with his large nose until she walked again, but with a staggering gait.

  Schnauzers, Pekinese, and rat terriers ambled beside the kids, doing their best at distracting them from the walk. And, a poor job at helping the tykes from missing their parents.

  Gladys eyes searched for Casey. She found Casey not too far ahead sitting in a Bucky Brown with an older child pulling the cumbersome wagon. Casey rode with her hair a tangle of blond ladened in dirt and twigs.

  Next, Gladys scanned for Akiko. The girl stayed up front, working the newcomers, prodding them on with threats of being eaten alive if they didn't follow her orders.

  Akiko paused, looked to her rear, and noticed Gladys starring at her. Gladys snapped her gaze to the ground, fearing a worse punishment than White dominating her.

  Gladys waited a moment, counting a trail of ants marching in the dust. She glanced up, Akiko went on another task. The lap dog with the sparkling pink collar bounced at Akiko's feet, the little M dangling at her throat.

  Gladys studied her surroundings. Her belongings sat in a Bucky Brown pulled by a ten-year-old boy. Erik’s bags sat with hers and also Casey’s diaper bag. She caught up with the wagon, grabbed Erik’s bag, and rummaged her fingers amongst the pockets and folds.

  Inside the bag she discovered a few items. One, bottles of sleeping and pain pills with Moraine Baxter stamped along the prescription label, and two, Ziploc bags loaded with more pills. She wondered why someone needed so many strengths of medicine.

  She picked up the bags with several pills in shades of pinks, greens, blues, and yellows. Close to a thousand in each.

  A thought popped into her brain, a small whisper suggesting she escape using the pills piled within Erik’s bag.

  The second item she encountered sent her pulse racing, a cellphone with a dark screen. She kept her hand in the big bag, thumbing the on button and watching the cell glow an electric blue. The battery displayed a full green bar. Gladys turned off the phone, tucking the device deep inside the bag. She returned the diaper bag to the wagon and refocused on the various pills.

  Gladys nodded at the air, affirming the idea as good and prepared to say so out loud before clamping her mouth shut. She feared her sanity slipped after witnessing the doggy madness around her. Going crazy guaranteed her meaty ass a place on the menu. She assumed the dogs loved black folks meat, for they chowed on poor Jamal Oliver like a smoked Thanksgiving turkey.

  59

  Moraine occupied the shotgun seat as Jenny drove the Unimog south. The Ram and Ford pickups trailed them on Highway 101 heading to Paso Robles and Route 41 East.

  Jenny sucked in a breath. She brought the Unimog to a rolling stop. Fallen eucalyptus trees in the hundreds choked their path.

  Moraine beheld the dismal landscape. Dread poked her solar plexus as she exited into the balmy atmosphere perfumed with eucalyptus and brine.

  Then the wind shifted and a thousand caws rattled them. With a flurry of beating wings the sky filled with crows. Their black shapes rose from the nooks and crannies they huddled in before the intruders arrived.

  Jenny cut the rumbling diesel. “What now, Moraine?”

  Moraine raised a hand to silence Jenny. She strained her eyes against the jumble of splintered tree trunks. Crows in the thousands hurtled up into the blue, shifting east and beyond her sight. A glimmer flashed a brilliant emerald in the distance.

  Another breeze showed up, throwing the mean odor of gasoline and decaying corpses their way.

  Moraine's eyebrows knitted as she fought the disquiet in her belly. She jumped out the truck. “I need to take a peek, Jenny.”

  Jenny grabbed her and Moraine’s rifles. She secured the Unimog door and marched to Moraine. “Here.”

  Moraine took her weapon and headed towards the mystery. The distant gleam bothered her. The dapple of light introduced a new worry she shoved aside earlier.

  Moraine strapped on her rifle, seized an upturned branch for purchase. Bark chips flaked against her touch, sticky sap clung to her fingers and palms and she hauled herself onto the stacked logs.

  “I hope you can balance yourself, Jenny.”

  Jenny grunted and climbed. Soon she stood beside Moraine. Both women surveyed the logjam. To their front an array of vehicles remained crumpled beneath tons of lumber.

  “I enter endurance races each year. The ones with the obstacles,” Jenny announced while resting her fists on slender hips.

  Moraine scrunched her lips. “Try doing that shit while taking fire.”

  Jenny opened her hands. “Spoiler.”

  Moraine winked at Jenny. Her boots became a blur over the split wood. Below her churning legs, she glanced putrified remains trapped in crushed cars. Families lay smashed, tangled in twisted steel. She continued dashing along, praying for their long gone souls.

  Moraine wanted to pass the open graves. She considered the dangerous obstacles a log run of death. How many screamed in pain and terror before dying, their entreaties acknowledged by those unable to help and suffering the same fate.

  Moraine reached the end, stopping, her lungs burning. She glimpsed back at Jenny, pausing, gagging, and pushing onward.

  Moraine forced her mind to settle. The Pacific Ocean rippled twenty feet before her. Positioned too far from Monterey Bay. She stared at the glistening water loaded with colliding detritus riding the waves. She counted several boats, cars, and the bloated deceased. The stiff fin of a whale carcass towered above her, adding to the flotsam. Millions of desiccated sea life carpeted the quagmire.

  Moraine squatted. A weighty stillness punctuated the place.

  A few seagulls screamed at her while pecking at unknown items. No human voices yelled in torment, nothing besides the feasting birds calling as they gorged themselves sick on dark delicacies.

  Jenny eased to Moraine’s side. “I guess we should avoid this mess?”

  Moraine lost herself in the shattered horizon as Jenny cried.

  Moraine wrapped Jenny in her arms, placing kisses on her forehead. Jenny curled inside Moraine’s embrace, sniffling and trembling.

  The sights sickened her. A bell from a baby carriage jingled an eerie tinkle. Water slapped against objects seen and unseen.

  For a moment she saw an Afghan boy prancing amongst the flotsam while cradling a white and tan cat. She blinked, realizing the boy mutated into a burlap bag snagged on a car anten
na. The roof of a red barn peeked above the slow tide of a destroyed county.

  “Let’s go, Jenny.”

  Moraine brushed tears from Jenny’s face with her thumbs. She helped the scientist negotiate the precarious trek to the Unimog and passenger chair. Moraine's hands shook, eager to rid herself of the frightful scene.

  Moraine slid behind the wheel and slammed her door shut. “The ocean should be miles from here.”

  “Should be.”

  Moraine threw the Unimog in reverse and pulled off. A delicate chirp graced her ears. She lifted the center counsel cover and dug out her plugged cellphone. An item she deemed useless since no one called her.

  Moraine swept her thumb over the Gorilla glass, discovering Erik’s active line. Horror and anger danced through her body. She assumed the girl found the cell and decided on playing a terrible game.

  Furious, Moraine parked the Unimog on the shoulder. She thumbed out a short text. “I’ll find you you little bitch,” she said aloud.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Somebody stole Erik’s cell.” Moraine held up her phone and focused on the blank screen, waiting for a response. She noticed her own choking voice and struggled to maintain her composure as she faced a blinking cursor.

  A minute later letters appeared in a lucid string. “Hi. My name is Gladys. Who is this?”

  Moraine sensed heat flare through her cheeks. “You’re on my husband’s phone.”

  “Moraine? Moraine, I’m with the children. I’m with Casey.” This displayed seconds after Moraine hit the send key.

  Moraine stopped her ranting and gazed at the green scenery gracing her vision.

  “She’s with Casey.”

  “Who?”

  “This Gladys person.”

  “Where are they, Moraine? Check your tracking app?”

  Moraine activated an application named Nozee Azz, something Erik downloaded on both their cells. Moraine hoped the thing worked. She pressed a few keys and waited for the tiny orange blip to appear on screen. She concentrated on the hills to the southeast, straining her hearing to pick up Casey's cry.

  “A few miles east,” Moraine answered, her throat clogging with emotion.

  “We have to wait, Moraine.”

  “Wait for what? They are there, Jenny.”

  “Follow me, Moraine.” Jenny jumped out the Unimog.

  Moraine killed the Unimog’s engine and followed. “What?”

  Jenny looked upwards. “Listen.”

  Moraine cocked her head at the crystal expanse above. A low whirring buzz floated down, difficult to hear until she filtered out the world around her.

  “A drone,” Moraine said.

  “Yea,” Jenny responded. “I caught them before we discovered the bay, or whatever is over there. I thought the sound came from bees. But no. Someone is watching us and them.”

  Moraine frowned as she searched for the drone somewhere above their heads. “Grisby. He wants to keep the dogs safe.”

  “They might kill us, Moraine.”

  The others stepped out the trucks, gawking and hoping to spot the drone skimming the air.

  Moraine absorbed Jenny’s words. Grisby didn’t kill them the second time for a reason. He figured Erik suffered enough to dampen her eagerness to destroy the dogs. With Erik dead, and Casey enslaved by the dog army, her desire for revenge grew stronger. She salved her thoughts as the UAV faded off within the thin clouds. Her cell chirped.

  Moraine read the message and typed. “Do you have a plan, Gladys?”

  “Got one.” The quick reply startled Moraine.

  “What if that’s a trap?”

  Moraine nodded. “What was Erik’s last name?”

  “Baxter. And, you were in Delta Force.”

  Moraine, comfortable with the answer, turned to Jenny.

  “Ok. I’m satisfied.”

  “What’s the plan, Gladys?”

  “Here’s the plan, so brace yourself.” Gladys sent Moraine the scheme for escape over the cellphone, and unbeknownst to them, General Grisby received every word.

  60

  Black and White led the Canine army south. Over a thousand souls marched behind them underneath a warm sun. Molly’s scouts worked the empty road they traveled, relaying information with other scouts and Canine command staff.

  Black refused to involve himself with the minor details of the Canine army. Each Officer Canine knew their job. Besides, micromanaging distracted him from exploring the powers of the Damascus Chips.

  His decision to abandon the adults proved to be a responsible idea. The young soldier and the others carried the risk of him being killed without warning. As for the children, they remained easier to control through fear.

  He noticed White keeping pace next to him. Intermittent pain showed in the Canine’s crinkling eyes, but he never protested. The Cadre trailed him with heads high as they pushed on at a comfortable gait.

  Molly rushed up to the line, barking with urgency. “A mob of humans approaches.”

  White’s head swayed left and right. “Secure the flanks, guards up front.”

  Romulus and Draco barked out orders. The army stopped as German shepherds formed a shield around Black and White. Rottweilers pranced ahead, forming a dark wall of muscle and fangs.

  Black sneezed from the kicked up dust. He grumbled low in his throat at the security's fussiness, and forced his way through the German shepherds and Rottweilers.

  Romulus prepared to speak, but bowed upon Black’s steady gaze. “Just protection, Black.”

  “Understood and appreciated Romulus. Lift your head, you’re a Canine.”

  Black waited as the first raggedy refugee appeared from the trees and bushes. A tall, balding man with hands raised knelt before the army. Another human stepped out carrying a big sack of dog food. She held the fifty pound item out as an offering to the dogs.

  Brutus approached the bag and sniffed. “No drugs, Black.”

  Black glanced Akiko standing near the Cadre. He admired her in knowing her place.

  “Molly, bring Akiko forward.”

  Molly did as ordered.

  Akiko arrived and spoke with the kneeling man. Within seconds hundreds emerged from the foliage, walking pass the dogs with terror packed in their eyes.

  Black composed himself as the large disheveled mass stumbled by the army. He counted off thirty bags of dog food placed before them, and couldn’t imagine the children hauling the added weight.

  The man, the clear leader, remained on his knees until the last person shuffled away. Akiko neared the stranger, giving him directions on how to display the proper respect for the Canine army.

  White trotted up, peed on the man’s shiny hairless head and humped him with vigorous hip thrusts. Satisfied, White walked off and Akiko faded back into the crowd. The man stayed low to the ground until the entire army passed. The baggage train took longer with loading the new provisions.

  Black sensed the relief he wanted. Before they changed their methods of handling humans, he guaranteed a violent encounter. Now, if he spread Canine superiority through compassionate dominance, the blood letting might lessen.

  White released a slight yowl. “Something is wrong.”

  Black felt his mind buzz, an electrical jolt flashed through his skull. “What is that, White?”

  White’s eyes rolled upwards. “A message coming through our Damascus Chips.”

  “From Grisby. Can that infernal human leave us be?”

  “The messages is not clear but there.”

  “What? I’m trying to see the words.”

  “Moraine Baxter is the only thing I'm seeing.”

  Black huffed and shifted towards the woods. “It's her daughter she wants. Or revenge drives her to us.”

  White barred his teeth. “Revenge, Black. We harmed her mate.”

  “And we have her child. But the child shall stay alive.”

  White nodded in agreement. “If we meet Moraine again, we’ll kill her.”

 
; 61

  Doctor Robert Carver glared at General Grisby. He pined to kill the man with his stare.

  “Do it, buddy.”

  Robert glanced at the gun barrel aimed at his liver. He opened the laptop provided by Grisby and hacked the UAV far above them.

  “Notify the dogs. No nerdy shit, or I’ll take you up eighty feet and dropkick your black ass out the door.”

  Robert danced his fingers along the keys, picked up the UAV overhead. Next he pinged for cellphones. He discovered Moraine and Erik’s cells once again and transferred their texts into the Damascus Chips.

  After leaving Moraine, Grisby returned to his home base at Monterey Bay. They hovered a good hour in the air watching the Pacific Ocean flow over the beaches and buildings. People ran beneath the hovering birds. No one escaped.

  Robert surmised an underground earthquake spiked a tsunami. Water four hundred feet high crashed over the coast, swallowing everything. He closed his eyes as Grisby cursed.

  The general complained several million dollars worth of equipment vanished under tons of water when thousands of lives rolled underneath the great wave.

  Grisby ordered his team to find a place to rest. They bivouacked by an artichoke field when Grisby dropped the laptop onto Robert’s thighs. He ordered him to search for anyone with a cell connection.

  Robert spent the night working the computer. He made attempts at picking up Grisby’s military UAV but never recovered the signal.

  At two in the morning he found a farming company UAV. Gaining control required a simple hack. Within minutes the UAV soared over the land under his command. Various cell pings burst across the computer-generated map of the county. Weak ones. Hours later he reached Moraine and Erik’s lines.

  Grisby wanted Moraine dead after Robert downloaded the text messages. Someone remained hidden amongst the dogs, using Erik’s cell. Robert doubted the teenage girl savvy enough to think up the scheme hashed out. He assumed a non-threatening adult weaseled their into the Canine camp with nasty intentions.