“What does it matter?” she clearly didn’t want to tell him.
“I think we should all use first names,” Alec told everyone in the car. “First names are more personal, and we’re going to be hanging out with each other for what will probably be a long ass time.”
“Well, you all already know me as Danny,” the kid spoke up.
“Right,” Alec nodded. “And you can call me Alec. It makes me feel more buddy-like with you. Less impersonal.”
“I guess I’ll start thinking of you as Alec too then, as opposed to McGregor,” Mathias agreed.
Alec looked at Bishop, waiting for her to say something.
She sighed heavily. “Fine. I’ll call you boys by your first names, and you can use mine. It’s Riley.”
“I would have taken you for a Samantha,” Alec told her.
This actually caused Riley to laugh. It was a surprisingly harsh sound.
* * *
They reached the highway and came to a screeching halt. Riley quickly slammed the old car into reverse and began backing up the way they had come. The highway was full of zombies. The mob from the city must have trooped by, trailing a secondary mob of undead behind it. Some of them spotted the vehicle and lurched after them. The groans and shrieks they made alerted several others. Soon a swarm was peeling off the highway after them, many running full speed.
“Hold on!” Riley shouted and spun the wheel hard.
Alec had just enough time to grab his armrest and the handle above the door before the car spun. His hip was slammed painfully into the side of the door.
Riley seemed to be an expert driver as well as a doctor and a survivalist. She slammed the stick back into drive, and they took off, flying away from the hoard.
Alec checked the mirrors, watching the crowd recede. Soon enough, they were cruising past the gas station and mechanic’s shop again.
“I hope you know another way to get to your brother’s,” Mathias said, as he too, turned in his seat to watch behind them.
“I do, but it’s going to be a lot bumpier,” Bishop sighed. “Alec, this car isn’t prone to overheating is it?”
“No idea,” Alec shrugged.
“Well, let’s hope it isn’t, I may have to push it pretty hard at times.” Riley turned the car down a smaller road. “What I wouldn’t give for four wheel drive right about now.”
The new roads were winding and in various states of upkeep. Some were hard packed dirt, others gravel. Some were two lanes wide, and another was so narrow the trees on either side brushed against the doors and roof of the car.
“I take it you wouldn’t find most of these roads on a map,” Alec commented as another branch scraped his side of the car.
“Nope,” Riley seemed rather calm as she drove.
“We’re not going to get lost are we?” Danny asked worriedly.
“We won’t get lost,” Riley assured him. “I know these roads almost as well as the highway.”
“Why?” Alec realized that was a very encompassing question with this woman. There were a lot of ‘whys’ he had about her life. He remembered what her house had looked liked.
“In case of an event where the highways were closed off and guarded,” Riley said it like it was nothing.
“Seriously, Riley is prepared for anything,” Mathias said.
Riley looked a little irked by the first name use, but didn’t say anything about it.
“Again, why?” Alec thought it kind of insane. Any other time it would be completely insane, but under the current circumstances, it was extremely useful.
Riley shrugged. “People in my family have apparently always thought this day would come. Maybe not zombies, specifically, but something. Every situation you could think of has probably been thought up and planned for by my family.”
“Even aliens?” Danny asked.
“Yup,” Riley nodded, looking at him in the rear-view mirror. “And not just aliens in general, but all kinds of aliens. Locust-like types here to take our resources, enslavement types, body snatcher types. Again, you name it, we Bishops have a plan.”
“What about sudden nuclear war?” Alec asked.
“Well, in my case, the plan is to kiss my ass good-bye,” Riley laughed again. “My family was rather against me moving into the big city of Leighton. Most world-ending stuff starts with cities.”
“So they would have thrown a shit fit if you moved to, say, Toronto,” Mathias said. Alec could already picture his grin without having to see it.
“I wouldn’t be invited to Thanksgiving if I did that. Leighton was as large as I could go,” Riley was also grinning.
“What if you went to New York?” Danny wondered, enjoying the conversation.
“Excommunicated. They would deny my existence,” Riley sounded light hearted about this, but Alec also got the impression that she wasn’t lying.
“I don’t know, I think I’d opt out of your family’s Thanksgivings,” Mathias commented.
“Ah, but why?” Riley mocked sadness. “Wouldn’t you want to be grilled on what to do if a tsunami was coming? Or the Norwegians started invading from the north?”
“Not the normal dinner topics with your family then I take it?” Alec chuckled slightly.
“Not even close,” Riley shook her head. “Don’t even think about telling someone how your day went unless it included news about the possible end of the world or some sweet bow hunting kill you made.”
“You know how to bow hunt?” Danny was amazed.
“You know, we’ll probably have to learn, right?” Mathias turned to his brother.
“Cool. Bet I’m better than you at it,” Danny challenged him.
“Ha, I doubt it.” They really were brothers.
“I’ll probably kick both your butts.” Alec looked over his shoulder.
“FUCK!” Riley suddenly screamed, startling everyone.
Alec didn’t have enough time to face forward again to find out what the screaming was for. The car was suddenly skidding sideways. It went off the road and down a steep drop. Alec could feel the car threatening to tip over, to roll, but it slammed into a tree, rock, or something instead. They came to a stop on an angle, Riley sitting considerably lower than him. The window next to her was smashed from the impact. They had hit a tree.
“Everyone okay?” Mathias asked from behind him.
“I’m okay,” Danny’s voiced trembled. “Shoes seems okay too.”
“Riley, Alec?” Mathias grabbed the back of Alec’s seat. He needed the leverage to pull the bags off Danny, which had fallen on him.
“I’m okay.” Riley checked herself over.
“What happened?” Alec turned his head to look back at the road.
He quickly saw his answer.
Apparently, they had rounded a fairly sharp bend and almost smacked right into a large white truck. Guys dressed up in gear very similar to Mathias’s and LeBlanc’s stood on the road with rifles pointed at them. Keystone mercenaries, their personal soldiers. Their faces were stone cold.
“Get out of the vehicle!” one of them ordered.
“Yeah, ’cause I planned to stay in this shit box,” Alec muttered and rolled his eyes. “Mathias, you’ll probably have to be our liaison. That tree seems to be blocking Riley and Danny from getting out, and I won’t be able to stand for very long on my own.”
Mathias nodded. He was eyeing the soldiers suspiciously. It was possible he even knew one or two of them. He opened up his door and scrambled out onto the hill, arms raised high.
“Hey, guys,” Mathias said cheerfully. “Lovely weather we’ve been having isn’t it?”
Alec watched the soldiers give each other strange glances. They were probably confused by Mathias’s outfit. One of them said something into a microphone attached to the side of his head, but he spoke too quietly for Alec to hear. He attempted to read his lips, but he had never been very good at it. His spotter, Nick, had always been the one to do it, if it needed doing. That guy had a knack for it.
“How many in the car?” the man asked, glancing past Mathias. He made brief eye contact with Alec.
“Three. Four, if you’re including me, but I’m currently out of the car.” Mathias was trying to keep the air light and friendly.
“Any infected?”
“I sure as hell hope not.” Mathias was also being honest. That was probably a good thing. Alec really hoped he knew what he was doing.
“Get them out of the car,” the soldier ordered.
“That may take awhile,” Mathias told him. “The man in the passenger seat uses a wheelchair. Currently the driver is trapped between him and that lovely mature tree, and a kid, my brother, kind of had some heavy bags fall on him. I was helping to free him when you ordered me out.” Mathias had emphasized the words ‘kid’ and ‘my brother.’
“Just get them out,” the man ordered again, “we’ll wait. You can also take out any supplies you’re carrying. Don’t worry, we aren’t going to steal them from you.”
Clearly these guys had dealt with other travelling survivors. Promising not to separate them from their things was important in gaining trust. Hopefully, they kept that promise. Alec would see to it that at least one of them stopped breathing if they tried anything fishy. He still had the combat knife he had used to kill the zombie trapped under his garage door. There was sure to be some infected blood still on the blade.
“All right.” Mathias looked at Alec, who nodded.
Alec opened his door and pushed. It was hard to open uphill without being able to use his legs as leverage. Mathias helped pull it open all the way. He also helped Alec climb out, and set him down on the hill, sitting with his back against the front tire.
“You all right there?” Mathias whispered as he set him down.
Alec nodded and whispered back, “I’ll keep an eye on them while you help the others.”
The way Alec was sitting gave him a perfect view of the soldiers on the rim of the hill. They had slackened their holds on their rifles somewhat, but Alec made sure they could see the pistol in his hand.
Mathias disappeared into the backseat, but it was only a short time later that Riley popped out of the front. She had bits of safety glass in her hair but otherwise looked unhurt. She and Alec exchanged a brief and subtle nod before she went to the trunk. He listened, as she had to pry a bit to get it to open. It had probably warped a little from the impact. She then lifted the bags out and placed them against the rear tire where they wouldn’t slide off down the hill.
Alec’s bag came out through the back door then and was put in the same spot. Danny’s backpack followed shortly after. Then Shoes.
“You didn’t say anything about a dog,” the soldier who was doing all the communicating called down as Shoes made his way over to Alec.
“You don’t have something against dogs do you?” Mathias called back as he climbed out of the car, Danny following him.
The soldier made a show of irritated posturing, but said nothing about it.
All the packs were taken out of the back, and then finally, Alec’s wheelchair. They didn’t bother to unfold it though, as there was no way it could be used on the steep slope. Even those with working legs were having difficulty with it. Alec had put Shoes on his lap to make sure the squat dog didn’t end up sliding away underneath the car.
He watched as the soldier with the microphone went up to the one who did all the talking. They exchanged a few hushed words before microphone man walked off. Orders coming through from higher up. The one communicating with them didn’t look happy.
“We’re sending down a rope to help you up,” the soldier informed them.
It took a few moments, but sure enough, a rope came snaking down the hillside. Handy knots were already in place.
“Do you need any help getting up?” Mathias asked Alec.
“I’ll be fine on my own.” Alec put his pistol in his pocket. He lifted Shoes off his lap and handed him to Danny. Danny had managed to fish a small rope out of somewhere, probably Alec’s bag, and tied it to the dog’s collar. It made a better leash than the string they had been using yesterday. Alec realized he had no idea why Shoes had a string for a leash instead of a real one, and there was no one to ask.
He grabbed hold of the rope that had been lowered for them and started to pull himself along. The hill was thankfully covered in dirt as opposed to rock, like some of the other hills in the area. Dragging himself up, hand over hand, was therefore slightly less painful. Dirtier though. When he reached the top, the soldiers there bent down to help him over the edge. They let go of him quickly and allowed him to watch the others climb up.
Riley came second, her bag on her back and dragging LeBlanc’s. Danny was behind her wearing his own backpack, Shoes’s new leash in hand. The dog climbed without the use of a rope, chuffing like a little train as he went. Mathias had the hardest task. Alec’s bag was slung across his back, while his own pack was hanging off his front. He climbed the rope with one hand and dragged the wheelchair with the other. His military training was shining through.
Alec also took a quick look around at the top of the hill, trying to get a feel for these guys. Their truck was a large, white monster, so out of place on the back roads. It was broken into two sections by a solid-looking yet flexible accordion-like piece. The front section resembled a Hummer, while the longer back end was more like a tank. It had no windows and only one pair of small doors in the rear. All the tires were rough, off-road types, four on the front section, six on the back. Alec figured the back section must be able to steer itself in some way, or else it would never have been able to navigate these roads. There were six soldiers in total, or at least there appeared to be. There could have been more that Alec couldn’t spot.
When Mathias finally reached the top, the soldiers quickly coiled up the rope and stashed it in a compartment on the side of the tank-like section.
* * *
“So what now?” Mathias asked, sitting to take a quick breather.
“Well, we’d like you to come with us.” The lead solider motioned with his head to the truck. They had all lowered their guns when the rope had been let down, but still held them in their hands.
“Oh yeah?” Mathias raised his eyebrows. “Last time I saw some of you guys, you tried to kill me with a flame-thrower.”
Danny suddenly looked worried. Neither he nor Alec had heard that before. In fact, Alec didn’t get much of a chance to ask exactly what had gone on with Keystone. Last night he had only been told the part of the story that occurred after he and LeBlanc had run into Riley.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” The soldier actually sounded like he meant it. “There has been a split within Keystone. Some of the higher ups are having some different ideas about what’s to be done.”
“And how do I know you’re not on the side that shot me? You know, my chest still hurts from that.” Mathias lightly patted his chest.
“You were shot?” Danny sounded really worried now.
“It’s okay, kiddo,” Mathias quickly reassured him, placing a hand on his helmet. “I had a vest on. Just left a nasty bruise is all.”
Riley gave a side glance that suggested there was a little more to it than that, but didn’t say a thing.
“We’re trying to help people, not kill them,” the soldier said. “We’re gathering as many people as we can, and we’re taking them to a safe place.”
“We’re already going to a safe place, thanks,” Riley told him.
“Places you may think are safe are not.” The soldier had no idea about the Bishop plans.
“Believe me, this one is.” Riley kept walking the line between being polite and being rude.
The soldier just looked at her.
“What will you do if we don’t go with you?” Mathias asked the important question.
The soldier thought for a moment, probably thinking of the best way to phrase his words. “In most cases, we would force you to come with us.” The truth was a surprise. It looked like
it was a surprise to the other soldiers as well. “I personally don’t think we’d be able to do that with you. If you don’t want to come, we can’t make you. At least, not without several casualties on both sides.”
Damn right, Alec thought.
“However, since your mode of transportation got destroyed, I don’t think you’ll make it out of these woods. They’re crawling with zombies. When that woman told everybody to go north, it meant the zombies were sent north as well. All throughout the night they’ve been spreading. Most of them are still congested on the highway, but they’ve been coming further and further into the woods in search of things to infect. I don’t think you’ll get far.”
“That woman was named Chant.” Mathias went cold. “She was trying to save people.”
“I know,” the soldier nodded. “She was very brave, I commend her. She did what she thought was best, and that message likely saved a lot of lives. You must have known her. I’m sorry for your loss. I do wish however, that she had left Marble Keystone’s name out of it as it is now making our job much tougher. As you can imagine, we’re not getting a lot of trust.”
“Let us talk it over,” Mathias finally said.
“Sure. Just don’t take too long. The zombies are coming.” The soldier stepped away and got the others to follow him so that they could talk in private.
“What do you guys think?” Mathias turned to the group.
“I don’t know.” Riley shook her head.
“Me neither,” Alec agreed.
Danny shrugged.
“What do you think, Shoes?” Mathias looked at the dog.
Shoes looked up, hearing his name. He wagged his tail once as Mathias looked down at him, probably hoping for a treat or a scratch behind the ears.
“I don’t know what that means, Shoes.” Mathias kept a serious tone as he spoke to the dog.
“Whether we trust them or not, he has a point,” Riley said. “Without a new ride we’re likely to become zombie lunch.”
“I say we go with them,” Alec decided. “It’s not like we really have a choice.”
“Danny, you cool with that?” Mathias looked at his brother.
“Did they really try to kill you with a flame-thrower?” Danny asked.
Survival Instinct: A Zombie Novel Paperback Page 67