The Harvest (Book 2): Eve of Man

by Anne Ferretti

Kyle and McKenna crossed the Colorado state line a week after Madison’s coffin was lowered into the ground at the Pueblo cemetery. For the pair, the three thousand mile trip had been tense, but uneventful. As the road sign welcoming them to Colorado came into view, Kyle breathed a huge sigh of relief, whooping out loud when they entered the state. His exclamation of joy, however, held little vim or vigor. The sights they’d seen along the way gave him little hope of finding anyone alive, let alone finding his family.

  McKenna, though relieved, was even more skeptical than her companion on what they might find. Her near kidnapping at the Best Western kept her on edge for hundreds of miles and haunted her more than Kyle’s standoff with the aliens. In her mind the aliens didn’t want them and she worried little about a return visit. Kyle had other thoughts about the aliens, most of which centered on hoping to never see them again. He’d gone over and over in his mind what had happened, what he’d seen and marveled at the fact he was still breathing.

  The place had a clean look about it. Too clean, Kyle thought to himself, and was certain his sharp as a tack travel companion had already picked up on this incongruity. They passed a sign which read Colorado Springs 52 Miles, Exit 142A. The roads along the way were clear of vehicles and they hadn’t seen a frozen corpsicle for several miles. Kyle had coined the term corpsicle back in Alaska, which had evoked a reproachful raised eyebrow from McKenna.

  “It’s really clean here,” McKenna noted as if speaking to Kyle’s silent thoughts. Her breath fogged the window as she pressed her nose to the cold glass.

  “I was thinking the same thing.”

  She gave Kyle a nervous look and turned back to watching the tedious landscape.

  “Doesn’t mean they’re bad people.”

  “I know,” she replied, “but don’t leave me alone.”

  “I won’t. Promise.” Kyle reached over and squeezed her leg. A sorry excuse for reassurance, but the best he could offer. What did he know about talking to kids, especially the female kind? He hoped they found more people, and more so he hoped one would be a parent.

  “Are we going to Cheyenne Mountain?”

  “I guess that would be the best place to start.”

  “Do you remember how to get there?”

  “What? Are you kidding me? Agent Kyle Bosch knows how to get there.” He nodded his head in exaggerated fashion, pretending to be insulted.

  McKenna almost cracked the tiniest of smiles, but then pursed her lips and frowned at Kyle. “Do you really?”

  “Yes really, but I’m about out of gas,” he noted, “so first things first.”

  Apprehension returned to McKenna’s expression. Gas stations were held in low regard in her mind, almost superstitiously so. Bad things happened at gas stations. Her brother Tommy had been robbed at a gas station. Someone had beat him over the head, knocking him out cold next to an overflowing dumpster in the back of Kwiki Pete’s. If not for a hungry dog nosing around for a scrap to eat, Tommy might have died in that squalor. No, McKenna did not like gas stations and with the very real prospect of running into people, she liked them even less.

  Kyle pulled up to the tanks and shifted into park. The truck was a diesel, so he left motor running. “You can stay in the truck. It’s warm and you can lock the doors.”

  McKenna thought this over and finally nodded ok. She agreed, she would be safer inside the truck.

  “You remember what I told you if anything happens to me?” Kyle asked and lifted the top of the console dividing the seats.

  “Yes,” she replied.

  “Say it.” He pulled out a small handgun.

  “I should drive away.” She took the gun from Kyle, checked the safety and laid it in her lap.

  “And?” He pulled out a second larger handgun and stuffed it inside his jacket.

  “And not come back.” She stroked the barrel of the gun with the tip of her finger.

  “Because?”

  “Because you’ll probably be dead.” Her finger stopped and she clenched her hand into a fist.

  “Good girl.” Kyle jumped out of the truck, and waited until she climbed into the driver’s seat and clicked the locks before heading for the rear of the vehicle. He had two gas cans to fill, plus the dual tanks. He caught sight of the price sign. Five dollars and fifty-nine cents would forever be the price per gallon or at least until the sign gave way and fell over. Good thing he didn’t have to pay for it.

  Kyle walked towards the entrance of the station. The gun was now in his pocket. He gripped it with his bare hand; the cold weighty steel gave him comfort and courage. At the door he leaned into the glass bracing his weight with his gloved hand. The place appeared empty. After one more scan of the parking lot, and up and down the highway to be certain they were alone, he pushed open the door.

  Once inside the station, Kyle didn’t waste time, but went straight to the pump switches. The setup was a bit different than the last station, but the concept was the same and it wasn’t difficult to figure out how the pumps worked. With that out of the way, he went in search of any type of fuel additives. The gas, after sitting for so long, sometimes needed a boost.

  ***

  While Kyle perused the shelves of the Kwiki-Mart for additives and maybe a candy bar or two, forty miles up the road, outside Pueblo, a black Hummer sat idle on the side of the highway with a flat tire. At the back of the vehicle Luke pulled out the spare tire and necessary tools. He handed the tools over to Ed. Colin and German stood near the utility pole and watched from the side of the road.

  “Have you ever done this before?” Ed asked.

  “Many times,” Luke assured him. Ed’s expression blatantly said he doubted this assertion. To which Luke gave a watch and learn look. Luke’s dad had made sure his son knew how to take care of things that mattered. Like fixing a leaky faucet, trimming tree limbs and most importantly changing a flat tire. He’d always say, “You never wanted to get stranded parking somewhere with your girl and not know how to fix a flat tire.”

  Luke never had the heart to tell his dad parking was a thing of the past. Besides, Emma would never go for a thing like that. Luke paused in his task. He hadn’t thought about Emma in long time. He couldn’t remember when he’d stopped or what his last thought had been, but he guessed it was that she was dead. Once he’d gone down that road, he’d stopped thinking about her at all. Burying Madison brought back a lot of things from the past he’d rather not think about.

  A familiar emotion stepped out of the wings where it waited with anxious anticipation for another opportunity to take front and center. Luke swallowed back the bitter anger. Being pissed off was pointless. Being pissed off at Austin was a waste of energy. The captain hadn’t invited Eve into his life; she’d always been there. She’d used him and tricked him into believing she cared about him, but Luke didn’t buy into her game. She was only looking out for herself. At times he wondered if she cared about anyone, even her own people. His suspicions kept him from giving Eve any credit at all. None for bringing Jenny back or for saving Madison’s baby. If she’d wanted to save Madison, Luke thought she could have done so.

  Luke knelt next to the tire and focused on cranking off the lug nuts, but his mind wouldn’t let go. He didn’t trust Eve or her intentions in regards to Austin or them. Something about her, that he couldn’t put his finger on, bothered him and he knew couldn’t be ignore. Madison would have called this instincts or his sixth sense. Eve, who existed on instincts, would have been inclined to agree with that conclusion.

  The last lug nut popped off and rolled across the road. Luke lurched after it on hands and knees. He grabbed the nut and looked up. A pick-up truck was heading in his direction. He jumped up and returned to the Hummer. German heard the truck before the others saw it and tugged on his leash, letting out an anxious bark.

  “Who’s that?” Ed peered down the road at the truck which had slowed to a stop.

  “Don’t know. Don’t recognize it,” Colin replied.

  Luke pulled three sh
otguns from the back of the Hummer and handed them out. Standing at the back of the vehicle, they peered through the windows, watching and waiting for the truck to make a move. It eased forward a foot or two.

  “Where are the binoculars?” Luke asked Ed.

  Ed pulled a small set from his pocket and handed them over. Luke peered through the lenses adjusting the focus. “It’s a girl. A young girl and guy, maybe my age.”

  “What should we do?” Ed took a turn looking through the set.

  “The kid could be a decoy,” Colin warned.

  “I don’t think so. She looks scared. I think she wants the driver to turn around.”

  “Do we have anything white?” Luke asked.

  “I have a hanky.” Ed pulled a white hanky out from inside his coat. “It’s clean,” he replied to Luke’s grimace.

  Luke grabbed the hanky and walked out into the middle of the road waving it over his head. He removed his ski mask and continued waving. The truck sat idle, not moving in one direction or the other. “Colin, bring German out here.”

  “No way man. What if they shoot him?”

  “Go on Colin,” Ed urged. “They won’t shoot him. I’m telling you, they’re good people. I have a feeling.”

  Colin pulled German’s collar tighter and walked out into the road. He commanded the dog to sit. “If they shoot my dog some serious shit is gonna go down. Kid or not.”

  “Chill man.” Luke continued to wave the hanky, getting more excited by the second. Other survivors! This was huge.

  Down the road Kyle and McKenna debated on what their next move should be. Kyle wanted to drive forward, to see who these people were. McKenna wanted nothing to do with them and argued they should turn around.

  “What are we going to do? Run the other direction every time we come across people?” Kyle tried reasoning with her.

  “Yes,” she replied, sticking her chin out and crossing her arms.

  “McKenna, come on. They look safe. And they have a dog.”

  “So what. Could be a vicious man eating attack dog.”

  Kyle nodded, but knew better; he’d noticed her sit up when the boy walked out with the dog.

  “I had a Husky,” she said. “Ok.” She was more curious than she let on, having assumed the aliens had killed all animals.

  “Ok?”

  “Yes.”

  Kyle threw the truck into drive and eased down the road towards the strangers, the survivors. Thinking of people as survivors was a foreign concept he hadn’t grown accustomed to using or hearing. As he pulled the truck up to where the men waited, he doubted they had much difficulty with the idea of being called survivors. With his nine mil tucked away on the side, Kyle lowered the window a couple of inches. That all three men carried shotguns made him more than a little apprehensive.

  “Hi ya’ll,” Luke greeted them in what he hoped was a friendly I’m not going to hurt you voice, Southern accent included for its extra down home comfort effect. “Luke Taylor,” he said to Kyle and nodded his head at McKenna.

  “Kyle Bosch and McKenna...” Kyle looked to McKenna

  “Markovo. My last name is Markovo. Is that your dog mister?” McKenna asked.

  “German. No miss. That’s Colin’s dog.” Luke pointed to Colin. “But we all kinda share him.”

  “Is he a man eater?” she demanded.

  “McKenna!” Kyle chastised.

  Luke smiled. “It’s ok. And no he’s not a man eater. But he’s a darn good guard dog.”

  McKenna nodded her head, agreeing with him, as if yes she could see that the dog was indeed a good guard dog. The thought occurred to her to ask what he guarded. It also occurred to her that no dog was going to protect them from the aliens, but maybe monster men who hung out in empty Best Western Hotels.

  “Where’d you all come from?” Luke asked Kyle.

  “Me? I came from Germany. Cologne, Germany.”

  Luke opened his mouth and then shut it, unsure if he’d heard right, unsure what to say or ask

  “On the Rhine River near Frankfort? Dusseldorf?”

  “Sorry. You did say Germany right?” Luke didn’t care that he sounded like a dimwit.

  “Yes. Germany.”

  It wasn’t that Luke had never heard of those places. He’d been to Germany a couple of times. Never to Cologne, but Frankfurt and Berlin sure, the former one with his dad, the latter with a friend before he went off to college to become a superstar quarterback. He’d almost not come home. But that was another time and meanwhile Kyle was staring at him.

  “Are there people in Germany? I mean still alive?”

  “Yeah. All over Europe. China, Russia, all still intact.”

  “All this time. Unbelievable,” Luke muttered. “Ed, Colin, come over here.”

  They joined Luke at the driver’s side, shotguns slung over their shoulders.

  “How do you do. Edward McGrath, but you can call me Ed.” He tilted his head at Kyle.

  “Kyle Bosch and McKenna...,” Luke faltered on her last name.

  “Markovo.”

  “Sorry and McKenna Markovo.”

  Colin stepped forward. “Colin Londergan and this here’s German, the last surviving canine.” German barked.

  “Nice to meet you,” Kyle replied.

  “He came from Germany,” Luke said. “Said there’re people. All over Europe and more. Alive.”

  Ed and Colin would have been less shocked had Luke sprouted horns from his head and spit fire at them. They turned astonished faces towards Kyle.

  “That true?” Colin demanded.

  “Yes. At least it was a few weeks ago. I haven’t had contact since I left.”

  “How’d you get here?” Luke asked.

  Kyle gave a small chuckle. “I walked and then swam across the Bering Strait, to Deadbear, Alaska. That’s where I found this one.” He jerked his thumb in McKenna’s direction.

  “Are you an Eskimo girl?” Colin asked.

  “Chukchi,” McKenna corrected him.

  “Chew what?”

  “Chukchi. Northeast Siberia,” she replied. “You know, Russia.”

  “Of course I know Russia.” Colin had no idea what a Chukchi was or if he’d ever heard of such a person in his geography class, but he wasn’t going to insult her by saying so, or worse, have this little girl make him look stupid.

  “Deadbear. That’s where Austin’s from or lived when he was a kid,” Luke remarked.

  “You didn’t find anyone else?” Ed asked.

  “No. It’s been pretty damn dead all the way here, pun intended. Except for a few unsavory gents we met in Anchorage.”

  “I’m hungry,” McKenna interrupted on purpose, stopping Kyle from telling the story of her kidnapping.

  Kyle glanced over at her and lowered his window, hiding his gun as he did so. “Look, we’ve been on the road for a long time and—”

  “And where the heck are our manners. You can come back to the bunker with us. We’ve got plenty of room and food,” Ed offered. “And we won’t take no for an answer,” he added on Kyle expression of doubt.

  “How far is it from Cheyenne Mountain?” Kyle asked.

  “About fifty miles that way,” Ed replied, pointing, “but you don’t want to go there.”

  “Why not?”

  Ed glanced at McKenna who sat at attention waiting to hear Ed’s answer. “You don’t want to is all.”

  “It’s ok. McKenna can handle it,” Kyle assured him, but wondered if he could handle the bad news that was about to be laid on him.

  Ed pursed his lips and grunted. “There’s nobody there. They killed them all.” He stopped at that. ‘They’ covered a lot of ground and wasn’t a conversation he would have in front of a child, no matter how accustomed to the bullshit of their new world she’d become.

  Kyle’s chin sank to his chest. He’d traveled all this way for nothing, risked everything for nothing. His mom, his sister. Gone. McKenna laid her hand on his and squeezed. Heartbreaking disappointment threatened to ta
keover, forcing Kyle to gather his strength, to focus on reason. Coming here wasn’t a total waste. He’d found McKenna. That in itself was worth the trip, worth risking his life for wasn’t it?

  “I’m sorry. Were you hoping to find someone? Family?” Ed asked.

  Kyle nodded. “So this bunker is where?” Talking about what he’d been hoping for didn’t matter, not if all hope was gone.

  Ed gave brief directions and as soon as Luke finished changing the tire, they were off. Conversations in the two vehicles landed on opposite ends of the spectrum. Colin and Ed talked fast and over one another, speculating, postulating, and debating the possibilities of civilization still existing in other parts of the planet. Luke wondered, but not out loud, if this would change Austin’s mind.

  While their conversation continued on and on, silence reigned in the truck following behind. Kyle stewed over the facts, chewing the inside of his mouth to keep obscenities from spewing forth. For her part, McKenna worried about meeting new people and what she would say to them. In school she’d been too smart for her grade, surpassing the standard curriculum and that of some college level studies. Her classmates, because children were often mean without knowing why, resented or ignored her. Her teacher, because he lacked grit and nobility, left her to her own devices.

  For McKenna this meant long solitary days spent filling time and the state’s attendance requirement. She hadn’t minded being alone. It allowed her to think about things that were important, topics that never came up amongst her babbling peers, who, in her opinion, yapped on and on, like little toy dogs, and did so in continuum. On a good day her mom would allow her to stay at home and study, but those days were rare. This time though, she wanted things to be different. She wanted to be outgoing, not shy. And she could be whoever she wanted. Having made this decision, she turned her restless mind onto worrying about Kyle the remainder of the trip.

  When Luke came to a stop in the middle of the once upon a time cow pasture, McKenna leaned forward anxious and eager for things to come. Curiosity turned to wonder when the ground rose up revealing a ramp leading underground. Kyle followed Luke down the ramp watching in his rear view as the ramp closed down blocking the outside and any chance of escape.