The soldiers were gone, so he continued on his way. Two months in a prison cell had sapped some of his endurance. He took a break about halfway to his destination.
I still wasn’t happy about this assignment, but was quickly falling into hunter mode. I realized how much I missed the trail with Lila. The experiences were horrendous at times, but I think there was a part of me that really got into being a hunter of men. In some perverse way, it was a wonderful time of our life. And now I found myself getting back into the thrill of it. Had I always had a violent aspect of myself just waiting to come out, or was I just adapting to the world?
It was mid-evening. Ben still had no way to keep time, but it no longer mattered to him. If it was dark, it was evening. That’s all he had to know. He was standing outside the wall surrounding the White House, looking at a darkened East Wing of the building. He looked around and saw two guards walking along the inner part of the wall. He waited until they had passed, then he climbed the wall, took another look, and jumped down onto the White House grounds. He hugged the wall, making sure he was alone, then sprinted across the lawn to the building. He found an accessible window and tried to smash it with the butt of his knife. It bounced off. Of course! The window had bullet-proof glass. Ben felt so stupid for not thinking of that in advance.
Now he was stuck. Which way to go? He had never been to the White House before and had no idea where the entrances were. He felt his way along the side of the building. It was much larger than he thought and it took him forever to reach the end of the wall. He poked his head around the corner, saw no guards, and made the turn, again hugging the wall. Finally, he reached an area with more activity, and realized that he was near the main entrance. Two guards were starting their rounds along the perimeter of the wall to the left, and two others to the right. He could see two guards standing in the entrance.
Ben had an idea, not one he had a lot of faith in, but what he saw as his only choice. He crouched behind some bushes and waited until the two pairs of guards along the wall were out of sight, then aimed the Walther at one of the spotlights. He pulled the trigger. The gun emitted a sound not much louder than that of the hammer striking the firing pin. There was a loud pop and glass showered the ground as the light went out. The two guards shouted and ran out to investigate. Ben shot at the next light, with the same results, then quickly made his way through the entrance while the guards were still distracted. He was going to have to hurry now before the alarm was raised.
He held onto the Walther in his right hand and pulled the flashlight from his pocket with his left. The beam was tiny, but enough for him to see by. He ran through the building, getting lost a couple of times and needing to double back. Finally, he approached an area with lights. He put away the flashlight and took off the M-16, holding it in his left hand. He slowed down and peeked around a corner before proceeding. So far, he hadn’t encountered any opposition. He came across a large open area, looked around, and quickly crossed it to the other side.
“I think you can stop right there.” The voice came from his left. “I figured Jeffries would try something tonight. Turn around slowly and set your weapons down.”
Ben half turned, setting down the M-16. He was looking at Captain—now Colonel—Stokes.
Stokes had a surprised look on his face. “Oh, it’s you …” He died with that look as a bullet penetrated his chest.
Ben had been holding the Walther by his right leg, and Stokes had been concentrating on the M-16 in his left hand. Turning and shooting quickly, Ben took his prey completely by surprise. As Stokes was going down, Ben fired the silenced gun a second time, and Stokes’s lifeless body hit the floor.
They would be ready for him now. Ben had to be extra careful. He heard the sound of running feet and ducked into a closet, keeping the door open a crack. Six guards ran by. He opened the door and looked warily around. No one. He continued on his way. Suddenly, he was in front of the Oval Office. Taking a breath, he was about to open the door when he heard the distinctive “click” of rifles. Not one, but many. He set down his weapons and raised his hands, then turned to find five soldiers pointing rifles at him.
One of them yelled, “all clear,” and the door to the office opened. President Tillman came through, accompanied by the three Secret Service agents.
It was over. He had played the hero once too often. After all he’d been through, and after all of the times he had come face to face with death, only to miraculously survive, it had come down to this moment. There were no more miracles.
And then the ground moved. Violently. Ben recognized at once that it had come. This wasn’t a tremor. It was the big one.
Chapter 26
(Lila)
Peter stayed a week. His presence was a much needed remedy for Lila’s months of loneliness. He helped her prepare the garden for the winter, do repair work in the cabin, and provided conversation and comfort. By the end of the week, however, they both knew it was time for him to go. It had only been a temporary respite for them, but that was the way they wanted it. Peter was anxious to get back on the road, and Lila was needing her space. She knew that the only adult she wanted to share her life with was Ben, and if that was destined never to happen, then so be it.
Their goodbye was without tears. They hugged and expressed their appreciation for what the other had provided, and then Peter was on his way, and Lila was once again on her own.
She picked up Katie, walked onto the deck, and looked out at the lake. In the distance, she could see Peter’s kayak. Someday, maybe, she’d look out there and see Ben rounding the bend of the lake and coming back to her.
I had been preparing myself for a life without Ben. But it was hard to even think about, much less plan for. I think it was as I was watching Peter paddle away that I knew I had to put closure to Ben in some way. I had to learn what had happened to him.
It was time. It had been over two months since Katie’s birth, and Lila had regained her strength. She decided to walk to Waynesville and investigate. She knew that it wasn’t the smartest of moves to make a journey like that with a two-month old. It could easily take her three days to cover the sixty miles. On the other hand, it would start to get cold and she would lose her chance until spring, at which time, she would be concentrating on her garden, and still wouldn’t be able to look for Ben. No, she had to do it now.
“Well, little girl,” she said to Katie, “there might be a lot of traveling in your future. You may as well get an early start.”
On one of their trips to Waynesville, they had picked up a nice, state-of-the-art baby carriage. Lila decided it would be perfect for the journey. Her trip had to be postponed a week though when a bout of violent weather overtook the area, and she had to hunker down and ride it out. The weather still demonstrated its fury on a regular basis, although Lila felt that the storms weren’t as consistent as they had been. The tremors, however, were rumbling much more frequently. Hardly a day went by without one.
She really had no idea what she was looking for with this trip. Maybe a clue from Ben? Hopefully not his body. Just something … anything. Anything was better than not knowing. It was approaching five months without him. A lifetime. She looked down at the ring on her finger and started to cry.
“Oh Ben, I miss you so much,” she said through her tears. And then the guilt of her rendezvous with Peter surfaced, and she cried even harder. She knew that it had been a therapeutic experience, but despite that, she also knew that the guilt would never leave her.
By the end of the week of rain, Lila was climbing the walls. Once she decided to go look for signs of Ben, she didn’t want anything to get in her way. A week was an eternity. Finally, the weather cleared. She loaded Katie into the carriage and picked up her backpack—long since packed—and started on her way. She left a note on the table inviting any visitor to spend the night if they liked, and letting Ben know that she would be back, should he show up.
The temperature was in the mid-60s as she started on her way
, at first by boat, with the carriage folded up in the stern, and then by foot.
It felt good to be back on the road. It somehow made me feel closer to Ben. All of the violence we had encountered was starting to fade, and the happy moments we had on the road took its place. I made that trip having no idea what I would find. I just knew I had to do it. I had to do something. If Ben was really gone, I had to know. I would spend the rest of my life with a gigantic hole in my heart, but how could that be any worse than what I was living through every day, not knowing?
She walked along in the middle of the road. It was such a different feeling from those early days walking along the Mass Pike. Granted, there were a lot fewer people here, so the walking would have been better even then. But when she did run across vehicles now, the people had pretty much disappeared. She thought back to the bloated bodies and the swarms of flies, just happy that Katie hadn’t been alive at that point.
The day wore on. Katie had been handling the trip well, and Lila made sure she stopped often enough to feed her. That night, she set up the tent and prepared a comfortable bed for Katie. They had passed a few houses along the way, but Lila still felt a little spooked by houses. They all seemed somehow haunted.
It was the early hours of the morning when Lila woke with a start. Something was moving along the side of the tent. She heard it breathing and felt the side of the tent move when it touched it. She quietly slipped her Sig out of its holster, then grabbed the flashlight. Katie was sound asleep. Carefully, she unzipped the tent flap. Whatever it was, was still on the side of the tent. Once it was unzipped, she jumped out of the tent, turning on the flashlight. She hit the ground rolling, pointed it at the animal, and cocked her weapon. The animal jumped back in fright.
It was a dog. Actually, a puppy. It looked terrified. Lila holstered her weapon and quietly called to the puppy, being aware the whole time to watch for signs of abnormal behavior. Then she remembered Jason’s comments about animals born after the disaster, and realized that the dog was probably okay. It slowly approached her. It was very thin. Lila figured it must have gotten separated from its mother and hadn’t had anything to eat. She pulled a small bowl from her backpack and poured water from her canteen into it. He drank it down, so she filled it again. She pulled out a can of beef stew and put it in the bowl. It lasted seconds, as he gulped it down. After he ate, she found a couple of pieces of Ben’s beef jerky and let him gnaw on it.
The next morning, the dog was still sitting outside the tent. Lila couldn’t tell what kind it was. Most likely a combination of breeds, but it seemed to be predominately a lab of some kind. Lila fed Katie, packed up the tent and started on her way, with the dog trailing. She knew she had made a new friend. She named him Ralph.
Around mid-day, she saw a lone figure off in the distance, approaching from the direction of Waynesville. She felt a momentary thrill at the thought that it might be Ben, but that quickly disappeared when she saw the gait. Even from that distance, she knew the walk was wrong. She took her rifle off of her backpack, cocked it, and laid it down crossways on the carriage. Then she loosened her Sig in its holster. It could be a perfectly harmless person. On the other hand, she had seen too many who weren’t harmless.
Lila thought it must’ve been strange for someone walking along to see her and her carriage—a surreal image of the past, when things were normal. The traveler was youngish, probably mid-twenties, and somewhat scruffy-looking. But who wasn’t scruffy these days, thought Lila. But there was something else, and it raised goosebumps all over Lila’s body as he approached. He had a strange look about him. He reminded her of one of the animals they had fought off. It was the eyes. Something about the eyes…
“Hey,” she said in greeting as they passed on the road.
He stopped and stared. He licked his lips as he looked Lila over.
Oh gross, she thought. And then she saw something that made her shudder. She stopped and looked back at him.
“Where’d you get that?” she asked, pointing.
He was wearing Ben’s Sig. Lila would know that holster anywhere.
“None business.”
Something was definitely wrong with him. His speech was halting, like all the words weren’t there in his brain.
“Please, it’s important. It’s my husband’s.”
“Mine.”
“No, not yours.” Lila was freaked out, but also angry now. How did he get it? “Did you take it from him? Did you see my husband?”
“Found. Can’t have.”
Normally, Lila would have felt sorry for him, but not now. She was consumed with the fact that he had Ben’s gun. She wanted it. It would have made sense to just let him keep it and move on, but she couldn’t. It was a link to her husband. She had to have it.
“I’ll give you some food for it,” she offered.
“Take food … baby.”
Katie was making noise in the carriage and the man was looking at her. He licked his lips again.
“Baby … eat.”
Omigod, thought Lila. He thinks of Katie as food! She picked up her rifle and pointed it at the deranged man.
“Take off the holster and let it drop. Then walk away and I won’t hurt you.” She had no idea if the man even understood her, but she had to say it. She had to give him a warning.
He lunged at her and she shot, catching him in the stomach. But he came on, like someone crazed on drugs. The bullet hadn’t even slowed him down. She got off one more shot, not knowing if it even connected, when he was on her.
Looking back, I have no idea what his intentions were. I don’t even know if he had any intentions. It was almost as if his only instinct was to attack. He reminded me of a zombie from the movies, acting only out of the most basic cravings or faint memories. Was that the kind of person he was before? If he had been a kind and gentle person, would this new version also have been kind and gentle? Or had it changed his personality, like with the animals? Lots of questions. No answers. All I knew was that his brain had been scrambled and that I was going to die. In a matter of speaking, it was Ben who saved me.
His mouth was moving, as if he was eating, and he was drooling. His body odor and breath were sickening. At that moment, Lila had her first vivid memory of the coyote attack. It was the drool that unlocked the experience she had kept repressed for so long. She cried out in anger. She was on her back, trying to fight him off, but he was heavier and stronger. His mouth was moving, and his fingers were tearing at her clothes. In the background, Lila could hear Katie crying and Ralph barking. She knew that if she died, Katie would die a horrible death right along with her.
Then she felt it. Ben’s Sig. She continued to barely hold him off with her right forearm, while unlatching his holster with her left. She yanked the gun out of the holster and put the barrel up to his chest and fired. The sound of the explosion was tremendous, and the shot was powerful enough to jolt him off her. He was still alive, though, so Lila sat up and shot him again, this time through the heart. He was dead.
She got up quickly and whipped off her clothes to rid herself of his smell, his various fluids, and his presence. She pulled new clothes from her pack and dressed, before seeing to Katie. She didn’t want any memory of him to be on her body when she touched her daughter. As she held Katie, she cried, the impact of the experience finally hitting her.
When she had calmed Katie—and herself—she put her daughter back in the carriage. She petted Ralph, who had been cowering near the carriage, to let him know it was alright, then she unfastened Ben’s holster from the man and pulled it out from under him. She put the gun back in, and put it in the basket under the carriage.
Finally, she was back on her way, her legs still shaking and her ears ringing.
As anxious as she was to find clues to Ben’s disappearance, she decided that rushing would do no good, so she took her time. She didn’t want any of her own stress to be felt by Katie. Ralph, meanwhile, had found a home. He trotted along happily at Lila’s side, enjoying h
is new family.
The smaller road through the hills eventually led to a highway, and on the fourth day, she entered Waynesville. Knowing that Ben would have gone first to the hardware store, she headed in that direction. The town was small and Lila found the truck almost immediately. It was a weird feeling looking at the old pickup. She hadn’t seen it in months, but it brought back familiar memories … happy memories of them setting up house. There was so much of Ben connected to that truck, she felt he was right there. And yet he wasn’t.
She looked in the cab and found the M-16 and the knife. That was her first clue. Maybe the Sig had been on the seat, as well. Why hadn’t the zombie taken those too? Ben wouldn’t have taken off his pistol and knife unless he was forced to. She spent the next several hours searching the area, but she knew she wouldn’t find Ben’s body, because it wasn’t there. No blood either. Someone had taken him. That gave her some momentary hope. He was alive when he was in Waynesville. Where was he now? Was he still alive?
Lila found the keys to the truck under the visor. Another sign that Ben had been alive at that point. Since she was there, Lila picked up a few items she needed, including dog food, and loaded them into the truck. She found a store that had a car seat and installed it next to her. Ralph, with some help from Lila, hopped onto the seat next to Katie, and stood looking out the window.
As she figured it would, the truck started immediately. There was no sense in going any further from Waynesville, since she would have no idea where “they” might have taken Ben, so she headed home. The truck had a clutch. Ben had tried to show her how to use it, but she had only partly mastered it. The truck jerked a lot in the beginning, but she eventually got the hang of it. What had taken her four days of walking took only two hours in the truck. At one point, she passed the zombie lying in the road, her pile of clothes nearby.
Eden Rising (Eden Rising Trilogy Book 1) Page 23