TRIAL: A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Thriller

by Murray Mcdonald

  Bob knew it was his men. The rapid fire of the automatic weapons was unmistakable, even amongst its own echoes. The silence after the violence felt quieter than before, although he knew it wasn’t. He listened for more but none came. His men had either taken out the shooter or fallen to him. Whatever the case, there was little he could do before sun up. He wasn’t going to fall foul of a man with a massive advantage.

  “What d’you think?” asked Trey, breaking the silence the shooting had created.

  More gunfire, even further away than previously, but yet again, automatic fire reverberated, causing Bob to pause.

  “I think we need some daylight to get out there and sort things out,” said Bob angrily.

  “You think the shooter got our guys?”

  Bob nodded.

  “And the woman?” asked Trey, looking across to Warm Springs Mesa. He had not wanted to leave, but Bob insisted he stayed by his side.

  “You’ll get to taste that fruit later today!” he promised wryly. “Now sleep, we have a busy day ahead!”

  Bob passed the reins of his horse to Neil who had waited for them as they entered the corral back at the base. The faint light of a dozen lanterns lit the entrance to what had become the home to every able-bodied horse within the Boise area.

  Neil took Trey’s horse reins as Bob walked away. Trey eyed Neil warily, he had not forgiven him for his betrayal.

  “I’ll see to them, have them ready for you in the morning,” said Neil, turning to leave.

  Trey grabbed Neil’s arm in a vice-like grip. “We have unfinished business. Rest assured, I will repay you for your betrayal,” promised Trey, winking.

  Neil had kept a deliberately low profile, keeping out of Trey’s way in the hopes that the situation from the previous week would just blow over. Neil walked away, knowing without a doubt that Trey would never let it go. Trey was going to kill Neil the first chance he got, whether the next day, week, or year. The man was certifiable and grudges, rather than fade, festered, growing into something far bigger than they were. All he had done was say he had followed Trey’s orders. What Trey had read into that he didn’t know, but he obviously wasn’t going to let it go.

  As much as Bob was like a father to Neil, he had no illusion that with Bob, blood was most definitely going to win the day. Neil’s days were numbered, at least while Trey lived. Neil walked the horses back to the corral and pulled off their saddles. He contemplated his options. Kill Trey or leave? Killing Trey was a risk. There was every chance Bob would kill him, no matter how good he was with the horses. Trey was Bob’s most trusted protector and not somebody he would likely fail to avenge. Leaving was the easy option. He had the transport, but to where? The militia was his family, the first place he could call home, all until Trey and his craziness had spoiled it. Trey’s obsession with Kate was driving him mad, and driving Neil out of his home.

  There was one other solution. Kate. Deliver Kate to Trey. He’d definitely forgive him, if he did that for Trey. He could still have his home, his horses, and his family. He just needed to get Kate.

  Neil saddled up a fresh horse and grabbed a lantern and weapons.

  ***

  They had picked up their pace after dispatching their trackers. Even with all their kit, they could easily cover the three miles in less than half an hour. With just over two hours of darkness left, they slipped into the militia base’s corral, past a number of guard stations, and selected two horses from the back paddock which homed the freshest-looking bunch of horses. They saddled them up in silence and quietly walked them out into the darkness between the extremities of the guard positions which, thanks to their night vision, they could see, where others couldn’t.

  They paused as movement at the other end of the corral caught their attention. They weren’t the only people mounting up in darkness. A lone figure appeared atop a horse, clearly visible above the hundreds of horses that filled the area. Whoever he was, he had access to an area that was as secure as any they had seen on the base. Whoever he was, he was leaving alone and obviously had some authority.

  “What do you think?” asked Alex.

  “I think taking one of the militia’s bosses with us, just might minimize any fallout of our earlier than expected extraction.”

  “Funny, I was thinking the same.” Alex clapped Nick on the back and once out of line of sight of the guards, mounted their horses and followed after the militia man at a distance.

  Chapter 54

  “Has anyone got any idea how we are going to do this?” asked Kate, looking at the pile of equipment, food and clothes they had assembled in the garage. The candles were offering their final wisps of light, adding to the urgency for decisions to be made.

  “We have six horses,” said Zach. “One each and then one for supplies.”

  “Ava can’t ride on her own, that means two for supplies,” corrected Kate.

  “What about Hank?” asked Danny.

  “He can run alongside,” said Zach, looking at Hank and re-considering. “Or you’ll have to have him up with you.”

  “Where are we going?” everyone turned to Ava. Her eyes were struggling to open, but she was still thinking beyond them.

  “Our old home, the Air Force base, it has a small hospital,” replied Kate, going to Ava’s side. She could feel the heat radiating from her, the fever was worsening.

  “Start loading with the most important things first and stop when you can’t take any more,” she suggested, wincing.

  Kate dabbed Ava’s brow. She had started complaining of stomach pains, and the pain seemed to be increasing. Kate had no idea what it meant, other than she had to get her meds as soon as possible. Time was running out. If it hadn’t already.

  “Zach, open the garage door,” instructed Kate urgently. They were wasting too much time and Ava, as ever, was right. Carry what they could with the important items loaded first.

  Sophie was waiting as the garage door opened. The six horses were ready and waiting to be loaded. Ten minutes later, with Kate and Ava on the same horse, and the others trailing behind, they moved out of the estate. Each horse connected by rope to the one in front, forming a train of sorts with Kate leading the way. Kate wasn’t even tempted to look back. She had spent so little time with Tim in the home, the memories were far more negative than positive. For all the happiness they had shared, the sorrow weighed far heavier.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” asked Danny for the fifth time in as many minutes.

  Sophie sniggered as Zach replied. “Yes, fine!” he insisted, although clearly he wasn’t, with the amount of shuffling he was doing. Hank wasn’t the lightest or nimblest of Labradors and given Danny’s size, it was evident there was no way he could hope to have him on his horse with him. Zach had had to step in and save Hank from being left behind.

  Kate followed the darkness of the tarmac, as it cut down the hillside. She had two objectives, avoid the militia base and be clear of Boise before sunrise. Both sounded easy enough but unfortunately, the route past the militia base was by far the quickest, while avoiding it meant a long trek through the center of Boise which came with its own troubles, as she was well aware. A woman and four kids on horses were going to be a significant target, but not until sunrise. Riding past the militia made them a target every minute of the day or night.

  She turned right at the bottom of the hill and led her family in the opposite direction of the Air Base and towards the center of Boise. As counterintuitive as it felt, avoiding the militia had to be paramount. The noise of the horses’ hooves clattered against the tarmac. Each clip alerted whoever was in their path of their approach. It was high risk despite the hour, but she had to weigh it against the other option that took them within yards of the militia’s home base.

  ***

  Neil had been around horses most of his life and as a result, was an expert and confident rider. He wasted no time on leaving the base and clucked his horse up to a fast canter. It was five miles to Warm Springs Mesa and he wa
nted to get there and back if possible within the next two hours, before Trey and Bob woke. With luck, he’d have over an hour to try and find Kate before having to head back to beat the sunrise. He had no idea how he would find her where others had failed, but he had to try. Otherwise, he would have no option but to go on the run, and spend the rest of his forever looking over his shoulder. There was only one way to leave the militia and it did not come with a breathing option.

  ***

  Alex and Nick had both been on horses before, but neither were anywhere near as skilled as the man they were following. They tried in vain to keep him within range of their scopes, but it was not to be. However, it didn’t take long for either of them to work out where they were going, or at least hazard an educated guess, Warm Springs Mesa. With that revelation, they slowed slightly in an attempt to survive the ride. They just had to hope they didn’t arrive too far behind their target.

  ***

  Neil barely slowed as he reached the base of the hill below Warm Springs Mesa, egging his horse on up the road. Why the horse chose to stop there, Neil didn’t really know. Whether he’d sensed danger, something wrong, he didn’t know, but he brought his horse to a stop. The world silenced around him as the crashing hooves let up. Two sounds soon filled the void he had left. Horses ahead and behind him.

  Behind were fast-paced, somebody was following him. He had no clearance to leave the base, in theory he was AWOL, a deserter, although nothing could be further from the truth, at least until he failed to find Kate.

  The horses ahead of him were slower, more of them but a slow steady pace. The only horses out that night were the horses with the men watching Kate’s house and the riders in the hills. None he was aware of should have been heading downtown. Surely not, he thought, the shooting earlier that had stopped Bob in his tracks, it couldn’t have been Kate. There were six men.

  Perhaps they had found her trail, he thought more logically, they were doing what he was doing, being proactive in an attempt to impress Bob, or in his case, get Trey off his back.

  The riders behind were gaining fast, he had to make a choice. He turned to follow downtown, but stopped as his heels raised to kick his horse on. Kate had outwitted them before. Finding her as part of the posse would do him no favors, finding her after outwitting them, would. She would want what she could salvage from her house, leading the posse a merry dance to create a diversion was just her way of thinking. All or nothing, he thought. He kicked on and headed up the hill. It was a gamble, but one he had to take.

  ***

  Kate had hushed them all as she heard the horses cantering behind. They couldn’t have been more than a few hundred yards to their rear but in the darkness, it was as good as a mile such was the lack of visibility. Beyond the sharp edges of the buildings and the roads, there was little else to make out. The cantering stopped. She toyed with stopping, but that would just suggest they were trying to hide. There was no way they hadn’t been heard already. She just had to hope they wouldn’t assume it was her and her family on the horses, but just a regular patrol out doing checks. Of course, that was tenuous; nobody went out in the dark unless they really had to.

  Kate kicked on as the sound of the hooves fell away. She needed to speed things up. Clearing the city before sunrise was not their only concern. Whoever had ridden up to the estate was about to realize they had made a mistake. They had underestimated Kate.

  People had always underestimated Kate, whether her size or her friendly and pleasant manner. They had never seen her inner strength, until it was too late. Whether as a gymnast or as a mother fighting her kids’ corner at PTA. They had all come to appreciate Kate was a formidable force. Previously underestimating Kate didn’t mean much. In the new world, it was a life and death mistake.

  Chapter 55

  Alex and Nick pulled their horses to a stop. A lone horse stood in the driveway of the woman’s house. Its rider was nowhere to be seen but from the noise inside the house, whoever they were, were less than happy about whatever they had found.

  “You two!” the man shouted as he exited the woman’s house.

  “Check the neighbors, find out where they went!”

  The man looked at them more closely, his eyes beginning to see the faintest of outlines in the darkness.

  Nick sped things up for the man. He flicked his goggles from thermal to night vision and a small green light shone above his goggles.

  The man stumbled back. It was the first sign of power he had seen in two weeks and was no doubt what helped him see the two rifles pointing at him.

  “Who the hell are you?” he stammered as Alex jumped down and took the man’s hands behind his back, tying them tightly. He removed the man’s weapons, making them safe before uttering a word.

  “What’s your name?” he asked, pushing him towards his horse.

  “Neil,” replied their captive.

  “And you’re a member of the militia?”

  “You’re not?” asked Neil, relief in his voice, surprising both Nick and Alex.

  “Are you?” repeated Alex.

  “I suppose,” replied Neil.

  Alex looked at Nick. He really wasn’t wanting to get into a long chat with the guy.

  “There are six militia men in that house over there,” whispered Neil out of the side of his mouth. Alex and Nick both turned, flicking their goggles back to thermal. One heat spot shone, not six. They scanned up and down the street. Other than a few heat spots in bedrooms, there were no heat spots consistent with the man’s claim.

  “Is that supposed to scare us?”

  “No, definitely not, warn you,” he replied defensively.

  “What position do you have in the militia?”

  “I’m a lieutenant, one of the Duke’s right-hand men.

  “The Duke?” asked Alex. They had never had the chance to speak to a militia man before.

  “That’s Bob’s preferred title. You know, like a ruler? He says Dukes run states and one day we’ll have a King, maybe him.”

  “Sounds like you like this guy, Bob, so why you warning us?” asked Alex.

  “Bob’s great, like a dad to me, it’s his crazy-as-shit cousin, Trey. He’s got it in his head that I betrayed him. He’s gonna kill me if I don’t haul ass out of here.”

  Nick leaned forward on his horse. “So how does that explain you being here?”

  “Last gasp effort. Trey’s got a thing for the woman who lives here…”

  “Not the only one,” smirked Alex under his breath.

  “…I figured if I could get her for him, I might save myself. But she’s gone and I guess the posse I heard going into the city are chasing after her.”

  Alex’s eyes flashed to Nick’s, unsurprisingly his head had swiveled on hearing Neil’s revelation, towards the city below.

  “So, you’re happy to come with us?” asked Alex.

  “If you keep me away from that crazy Trey, I’m all yours.”

  “One wrong move and we shoot you, understand? No warnings, no second chances, one wrong move!”

  Neil nodded in the darkness. Fortunately, their goggles helped them see it and saved asking for clarification. Alex helped the hand-tied Neil up onto his horse.

  “I can’t ride very well with my hands behind my back!” he moaned.

  “And that’s exactly why they’re behind you, you ride too damn well,” offered Alex, pulling himself up onto his horse.

  “So where was that posse?” asked Nick, itching to get moving but not wanting to sound too eager.

  Neil led the way, his speed significantly slower than previously as he tried to get used to riding without hands.

  Alex sidled up to Nick. “It’s not really part of the plan. We’re supposed to be hightailing it out of here. There’ll be a small army hunting us come sun up.”

  “You scared of a few cowboys?” chided Nick. He knew how to push Alex’s buttons.

  “Which way?” barked Alex to Neil.

  Chapter 56

  Kate r
ode as fast as she dared. Twice she’d had to speed up as people tried to catch them. Fortunately, the size and power of the horses buffeted them away each time. Zach was by far the worst off. Hank was not in the least happy about his confinement, but Danny had made it clear where Hank went, he went. Kate was in no position to fight with Danny, her focus had to be on Ava, her life hung by a thread. Kate could feel the strength ebbing from her. With every mile, Kate was having to offer her more and more support to sit upright in the saddle in front of her.

  At present, she was riding as fast as she felt comfortable to. If at any point Hank’s presence caused them to slow for any reason, she would deal with it swiftly and deal with the resulting consequences of Danny’s hatred. In the meantime, she focused on moving forward.

  “Sun’s coming up!” called Sophie, spotting the first hint of light on the horizon.

  The sunlight wasted no time in spreading its light across the vast plain that lay before them, stretching off into an endless distance. Kate looked back. They had cleared the southern side of the airport. Other than a few homes dotted along the road here and there, they were out of the city. They had made it. And with time to spare. Surely it was an omen, they were going to make it. Between them and the base there was nothing, particularly as she had cut south and picked up the back roads. Although neither offered any cover to speak of, she felt the interstate, if anyone was looking for them, would be their first port of call.

  “Mom?”

  “Yes,” she said with more bite than she wanted, she could sense it was going to be Hank related. She turned and threw him a warm smile of apology. He wasn’t looking at her, he too was looking back.