“I don’t mean to do it,” I told them all, making sure I was ready to go.
Everyone was on their bikes now, and Mel was doing last-minute adjustments to the straps on her pack. I waited and then started rolling slowly, watching Luis to see if the charley horse had worked itself out. We rode for about five minutes when Jamie broke the silence.
“What’s notable about Aurora?” she asked.
“There’s a big park that runs on the south side of the highway. Then we have to make a decision.”
“Here we go,” Courtney said, but in the dark gloom, I could see she was smiling.
The road was pretty clear, with cars pushed off to the side and the bulk of the highway open, letting us ride side by side.
“Well, we have to stop for water somewhere. I have enough containers for about two days’ worth of water, tops. I figure you guys are in the same boat, so we can stop there and drink up, refill our canteens, and decide if that’s where we want to stop or not, or what highway we take where it splits.”
Everyone was silent.
“Don’t get mad at me, Dick,” Luis said without looking over at me, “but what’s the differences between the two routes?”
I wasn’t mad. Both had pros and cons, and I was having a hard time deciding. Though I was leaning one direction more than the other…
“Well, we’re going to go a little past Aurora actually, to where 88 splits. It kind of loops north a ways, and it has more toll stops. Or we could take the south route, which is 30 West. It’s not a big highway like 88 is, so it might take us through some smaller towns. One of those 55-miles-per-hour roads, if I read the map right. Either way, we’d be on 88 West once 30 peters out in the end. We’re just saving some miles.”
I could see Luis wanting to ask the question, so I let them think about it.
“Which one is faster?” Mel ended up asking, surprising us all.
“I think either would be about the same. The route going 30 West is probably going to be slower for us, but it’s not riding as many miles, so it’ll work out. There might be more danger, though, riding through small towns. Then again, we’re not wearing our bodies out by pedaling as many miles.”
“What do you think?” Courtney asked.
“I’m kind of torn on the issue,” I admitted. “I just don’t have a lot of intel on the area. I was thinking about getting one of the radios out at the park and running up an antenna and listening in while we were refilling water and deciding which way to go.”
“If anybody is going to be awake,” Jamie grumbled.
“There should be,” Luis told her. “I used some of the radio gear the group had when we were keeping an eye on that container ship. One of the guys who was showing it to me told me that it worked better. Something to do with less solar radiation or some shit like that.”
“For real?” I asked.
A long time ago, I might have known more about signal ops, but most of my stuff I’d used was piped into my earwig on a tactical net. Shit, those Russians had some of that gear, and I hadn’t thought to bring it. That would have come in handy. I was pissed. I had coms, but not the coms that would have been more immediately helpful. I had to get my head together and start looking at the long picture. I’d been thinking and treating everyone like a stone around my neck, when in reality, I should have been working on making them part of my team. I felt like an ass.
“Yeah, I don’t understand it, but he had a base unit that was powered off a car battery. He knew about this kind of stuff from before.”
I grunted in acknowledgment. From before, when the lights went out, gone dark; they were all euphemisms for the day the EMP hit. At least, that’s what we heard on the radio, and it was the only thing that made sense.
“Well ok, that sounds good then,” I said with a shrug.
“Mom, does Daddy still have his radio?” Mel asked.
It took me a second to remember who Mel was talking about, and then there was an almost audible click as my mind snapped back into reality. She meant her real father, not me when I was having a psychotic break.
“Yes, but he might be too far,” she murmured.
“Do you know the frequencies he likes to use?” Luis asked.
“I know two of them. Just numbers and stuff,” Jamie said.
“Two meter?” Luis pressed.
“What’s it matter how tall he is?” Courtney asked.
“No, that’s the band, two meter is one of them. Radio heads have their own geek-speak,” Luis said, turning back to kiss Courtney’s hand on his shoulder, her way of holding on while she stood on the bike pegs.
“Yeah, whatever the operators for hams get a general license for.”
“Dick, what kind of radio you got?” Luis asked.
“Something like what you were talking about. I just don’t have as big of a battery,” I told them.
“Hot damn, then little lady,” Luis said, taking his left hand off the handlebars and pointing to Jamie and Mel, “if Dick doesn’t mind, we can start trying to contact him.”
“Are you for real? Oh my God, Mom, maybe we can talk to Dad!” Mel squealed in a way only teenage girls do and totally shattered noise discipline.
“That would be great,” Jamie said after a second, her voice sounding off.
I looked over at her. “What’s the matter?” I asked.
She turned her head slightly, and I could see tears glistening down her cheeks. “It’s just that… we’ve come so far, and now we’re heading home. I don’t know why I didn’t think about his radio. It’s a little bit… much?”
I nodded. It was.
We passed Aurora and went on a little further until we started seeing long swathes of what we knew to be green areas. It’d taken us three hours to get through the congested roads, and several times we’d had to stop and push our bikes past wrecks, something we hadn’t seen before. It had me on edge at first, and I was expecting an ambush as it created one hell of a bottleneck, but other than frayed nerves and slow going, we had no problems. In fact, Aurora was silent as we rode through. It was eerie, almost like the entire city was dead. In fact, it could very well have been because there was no one left living. When the starving times hit, and they were still going, I didn’t see as many people as I had been used to seeing at the impromptu market. It was probably much of the same here. Everyone who was left was keeping their head down and quiet.
“Now, keep your eyes on the right. There’s a river close by, and I think it’d be our best bet for water. It’s free flowing and not stagnant.”
“Yeah, that pond water was filtered, but it didn’t taste mountain fresh,” Mel piped up. I shot her a look and shook my head.
“Hey, there’s the split to the tollway,” Courtney said softly.
Ahead of us were the ramps to go either or. I knew from my maps, straight west of there was the river or big creek. We went towards the ramp to 56/30W, and after a minute, I pointed to the side, and we all stopped next to the guardrail.
“Let’s dismount and then stash our bikes till we get some water.”
“The whole camo thing too?” Mel asked.
“It’s still dark for an hour or two. I don’t know what’s around here, so let's try to be quick.”
I took my pack off and put it over the guardrail, then lifted my bike over before climbing it myself. I almost squashed my nuts, and by the time I’d gotten over, everyone else was already there and waiting. Mel was just grinning ear to ear.
“What took you so long?” she said.
In the dark, I could tell she was getting ready to start up her shenanigans again. Amusing as it was, we were in a spot where I didn’t know much about what was going on.
“Shhhh, we’re going silent for now till we got some water and the lay of the land,” I told her.
The smile sort of melted off her face, but she didn’t look pissed, just chastised. I pulled the Katadyn and my canteens. The others were holding theirs as well once they saw me dig my stuff out. I left my
shotgun on the drop sling, but Luis handed bottles to Courtney and took her AK to handle anything. I nodded; they were thinking about things. Jamie saw and handed her large sports bottle to Mel before she drew the .45. I had to almost smile at this.
“Dick, you pump, and we’ll watch your back,” she said.
I nodded and, without a word, I went on. I’d slung one of the canteens straps around my left shoulder and had the other in my left hand with the water filter. I kept my right hand free in case I needed to grab the KSG. Even with coverage, I had no clue who knew how to shoot and how well. Luis was more of the muscle at the event, and Courtney had killed one man that I knew of, but I suspected Jamie would be a fair hand with a weapon.
We moved through the tall grass, being careful not to step in a hole and break an ankle. After a small rise, I saw the telltale signs of where the water came through. Cattails and grass so dark from not drying out were near. A couple more steps and I could smell the water. It was weird, but things like that weren’t all that uncommon now, and I made sure everyone was paying attention. Luis nodded at me and pointed his head towards the cattails, and I kept going.
“Can I help?” Mel asked me as I got to the edge of the stream.
“Here, hold this,” I said, pulling the KSG off my shoulder and handing it to her. “There’s the safety.” I pointed. “And then you can pull the trigger twice before you have to pump the handle,” I told her.
“This isn’t like my dad’s Mossberg,” she muttered but was nodding.
“I’ll do most of the pumping, but I’ll trade spots with you soon enough.”
“Sounds good,” she whispered back.
Without the shotgun hanging to my waist, I knelt down and stuck the inlet tube into the water. I stuck the outflow tube in the first open container I was handed and began pumping. It took a moment for the unit to prime, but water started flowing out the tube and soon I was filling jugs.
“Drink your fill, but not enough to cramp up in case we decide to keep going,” I whispered to them.
They all nodded, but I had a feeling we were going to be finding a place to camp soon. Getting through Aurora had taken a lot longer than they thought it would; maybe Luis would quit giving me shit about how many miles per hour. I could only wish.
The bottles were handed back and forth, and then I motioned for the kid to come over. I took the KSG back and let her start the last three bottles. I took the chance to take a drink myself and put my quarter-empty canteen back down for her to fill up again. That’s when the night was shattered by the sound of dogs, wolves, or something growling, barking, and howling. It startled me so bad I almost pulled the shotgun up, but I couldn’t tell which way the sound had come from, just somewhere over the river.
“How close?” Courtney asked, her AK now in her hands.
“I don’t know. Sounds like a dog fight,” I told them. “Let’s hurry and get back on the road, just in case.”
“But, you’ve both killed dogs before,” Luis said.
“Yeah, but I don’t know how many there are. A big pack is different than, say, four or five dogs. Which I’d still want to avoid for now.”
“Ok, let's do it then,” Courtney said.
“We’re good,” Mel said, standing. She handed water bottles back to everyone, and we headed back towards the bikes.
“I can still hear them,” Jamie said. “They almost sound like my brother-in-law’s hunting dogs.”
That sent chills down my spine. Now that she mentioned it, it did. They didn’t sound like beagles, though. They sounded like mutant zombie dinosaurs on a bad crank jive. I didn’t want to be around if they were, in fact, hunting.
“Let's just get back and get going. We can outrun them on the bikes easily.”
“What if we run into another choke point? Like we did in Aurora?” she asked me.
“We don’t even know what the dogs are after,” I said as they started barking and snarling. The sound was definitely closer.
Still, as much as it was worrying, we managed to get our gear and bikes over the guardrails and mount up.
“Oh God, which way do we go?” Jamie asked.
It was like Murphy of Murphy’s Law was along for this ride. In the distance, a motor fired up and revved its engines. Lights turned on. It was just past the toll booths on 88. I tried to get my NVGs down over my eyes before I had them turned on so I had a few seconds of darkness until the green world filled my vision. Beyond what I could see clearly, a truck or old car had turned on. It wasn’t moving, and the glare of the light was bright in the NVGs, even as far away as it was.
“Let’s head the other way,” I told them, keeping the glasses on.
A dog bayed, and this time, I could tell the direction it was in, and I looked down towards where we had just come. Several shapes darted through the tall grass, and they started barking and baying. They were at the spot where we’d just collected water.
“Come on,” I urged them. “The dogs are a quarter mile from us.”
Luis nodded. He put his NVGs down and turned them on as well. Jamie and Mel were silent, but I could see the fear written on their features. We started pedaling down 56/30W, taking the other direction away from the headlights. Was the man in the vehicle connected to the dogs? Were they a wild pack now? I didn’t want to find out the answer to any of those questions, so I started pedaling faster than we’d gone. Sticking to the middle lane, which was mostly clear, I was able to turn my head around and see if the dogs were following.
One bayed, sounding even closer than before, and when I looked again, running beside the guardrail was a mass of canine fury. With a quick glance I saw four dogs on one side. They all had the same coloring in the green world. I looked ahead and saw three or four cars all piled together in front of us in the left-hand lanes.
“Stop at that wreck and get on the cars,” I shouted.
I chanced a glance backwards again, and the dogs were still gaining on us. They looked like big dogs with broad faces, almost like pit bulls. They were too tall to be pit bulls, but I didn’t care. Somehow they had caught sight of us, and had to be following us that way. They were now making all sorts of noise, baying and barking.
“Got it,” Luis said.
Just then I heard another motor fire up, but it was a high-pitched buzz, almost like a chainsaw. It came from the north side of the highway, just over the guardrail in the tall grass. We were all at the cars, and suddenly I hated my new idea. My thought was to get to high ground and shoot the dogs, but now that there was someone out there and on a vehicle of some sort close by, we’d be sitting ducks.
“Leave your packs,” Jamie said, dropping her bike to the ground.
Time seemed to stand still. I had to either fight or get them moving. The dogs would only need a few more seconds to catch up to us, so I spun to deal with the threat that I knew was coming. I dropped my bike as well, pulled the .45, and started trying to pick out targets.
“Rocky, git ‘em,” came a hoarse shout.
I should have taken off my heavy pack, but I didn’t have time. If I was lucky, everyone was getting ready to defend the position, and Luis should be smart enough to know not to get silhouetted.
I’d thought there were only a few dogs, but where the guardrail ended as we had started merging onto the new highway, more joined in. I started firing. Sparks licked the concrete as I either missed the first couple of shots or the round had gone through the dogs. Two dropped, yelping in pain. I fired more and then I heard the AK open up. The pavement was torn up in chunks in front of, behind, and in the middle of the pack. More dogs fell, snarling and snapping at their wounds if they didn’t die immediately.
I was going to take my time with the shots I had left when someone across the highway opened up on us. The boom almost overwhelmed my NVGs, and I pushed them up.
“They’re killing the pups,” another voice shouted, and more gunfire came across the north side of the highway.
Holes appeared in the side of the car, and a
side window shattered as I was holstering the pistol and pulling the KSG up.
“Give me suppressive fire,” I ordered as I started aiming at the four dogs that were still coming. I started firing, pumping the handle after every second shot.
Four shots rang out in quick succession, and two dogs fell immediately. Over the top of me, I heard the AK start back up again, probably after a mag change, and then the harsh booming bark of a .45. The last two dogs fell as I pumped another two rounds into the KSG, and I pulled the NVGs that were still turned on down over my eyes. More glass shattered and I ducked, knocking the goggles off my head.
“Get down and behind,” Luis thundered, and I saw the car’s body rock as weight and bodies left it in a hurry.
I was now in front of the car, probably dead to rights to whoever it was shooting at us. I heard a growl and looked up. There was one more dog, one I hadn’t seen. It was bigger than the others, and it’d stopped about eight feet away from me, growling and snarling.
“I’m going to kill you assholes.” A voice floated out over the darkness.
I could make out the dog ok, but I’d killed my night vision with the gunshots in the still dark sky. The dog started advancing on me again, slobber dripping off of its muzzle as it growled and snarled at me. I shot it from about four feet away and rolled. Shots from two different directions came in, their muzzle flashes bright with one round hitting the asphalt between my knees where I was trying to get to my feet. I felt a pain in my arm and shoulder and prayed I hadn’t been hit.
“Oh shit,” I muttered.
In truth, getting my dick shot off was never on any plan I’d ever dreamed up, and I felt like I was moving so slow. The AK opened up again, and I was able to get towards the front of the car. I was rounding the back when the other side started shooting at us again. I ducked behind the front of the car, putting the engine block and driver’s side tire in the way of the shots. I looked at the door behind me. Jamie and Mel were making themselves almost as one with the ground under a wrecked car behind it.
The Devil's Road: Devil Dog Book 2 (Out Of The Dark) Page 5