“Great.” Samuel clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s what counts. The stuff on the inside.” He hadn’t meant it to come out as a jab, but it sounded like one. “Everybody to the bathroom.”
“I don’t have to go,” Noah whined.
“Try anyway,” Samuel commanded. “James and Maria, can you help me load stuff into your truck or the Suburban?”
“Sure.”
“I’ll get our bags,” Anna said.
“I’ll take a hug, too,” Samuel said, his arms open.
Maria slipped inside his embrace.
Her slim body hardly seemed ready to have a child. His head rested on her bleached hair. “Love you, kiddo.”
~
Samuel kept to the back roads, heading out of Portland—up through Milwaukee and out the truck route toward Astoria before cutting more directly north. Leaving in the middle of the night would only be a problem if they got noticed. Hopefully, they wouldn’t.
The streets were still too quiet. Samuel flexed his hands, tightening and loosening them to get the tension out. It was going to be a long ride. Ahead, movement caught his eye. “You see something?”
“Huh?” Anna started, her eyes wide.
“Thought I saw,” his voice trailed off. “Somethi— someone.” He slowed the truck and trailer; behind him, Ria matched his speed and pulled alongside. Yes. A lumbering shape, drunken or sick? Didn’t matter. Samuel motioned a circle and pulled into the next street, keeping their pace to a crawl.
At the I-5 on-ramp heading across the Columbia River toward Washington State, he breathed a deep lungful of air and let it slip out. He accelerated. Soon they’d be over the river and through the woods to Grandfather’s house they’d go. Not necessarily where Samuel wanted to be, but at least Anna might be happy. It had once been home for her.
As they merged onto I-5, red lights on the warning signs overhead flashed. BRIDGE CLOSED. “Damn.” Samuel kept driving. But as he hit the on-ramp to the bridge, he saw the superstructure raised high and the barriers in place. The bridge ended abruptly, leaving only the mighty Columbia rolling on. They weren’t crossing into Washington here. “Shit,” he muttered.
“Sam!”
“Dammit, Anna.” He shoved on the brakes. “The kids are asleep. Nobody’s gonna hear me swear, and I didn’t take the Lord’s name in vain.” The vehicle slowed to a stop and Ria pulled up. He lowered the window by Anna.
“We’ll go back, cut over and cross at Longview.” He motioned her to turn around in front of him. He didn’t have a whole lot of experience hauling a trailer, but knew he needed the turn radius.
As the window rolled up, Anna watched him, tight-lipped.
Shit. Wherever they slept tonight, there was going to be a cold space between them. He headed back up the highway and Maria slowed to let him take the lead. They were now driving the wrong way on the interstate. His instincts screamed at him that any moment a semi-truck was going to come at them head on.
He gripped tight on the steering wheel, until he got back to MLK Boulevard, the main drag of old Highway 99, and switched over to the proper lane.
The kids had always been good travelers because he and Anna had never given them a choice. There was family to see and worlds to explore and that meant going places. Every time Anna had lost a child, he’d taken her away somewhere, and those habits carried over into the present. He sighed. That was part of the reason Maria resented Anna so much. Anna had taken him away.
As they approached Longview, Anna reached over and took the hand he rested on his thigh. She squeezed it. He glanced over. As close to an apology as she gave, but it was enough. She kissed the back of his hand. God, he loved her. But she didn’t make it easy. I guess I’m not quite Prince Charming. He pulled her hand to his lips and kissed it, then continued to hold it as he drove.
James’ truck’s lights bounced in the rear view mirror. Probably needed new shocks.
The trucks ate up the miles, and the kids continued to sleep. Samuel was starting to feel the monotony when his phone buzzed. He slipped it from his pocket. “Yeah?”
“Mr. Herman?” James asked. “Ria needs to pee.”
“Okay. I think there’s a gas station not too far ahead.”
“You need to go yet, Anna?” They rolled into the rest stop crossways and he left the motor running. Not like he had to worry about wasting gas. With most of the population dead, the planet’s fossil fuels were no longer endangered.
Anna’s eyes followed Maria toward the toilets. She shook her head. “No, you go first. I’ll sit with the kids. Need to make sure Noah hasn’t messed his big boy underoos.”
Samuel nodded and climbed down from the big truck. With anyone other than Brad the big truck might seem like over-compensating, but Brad was a big man who did big things. He drove it into the woods to haul out rocks and trees; for him it made sense. Brad was not the shiny Escalade type.
James stepped out of his truck and lit a cigarette. He leaned on a propane tank. His eyes nervously scanned the surrounding area. Would he be of any use in the wilderness? The area around Warm Springs was a different kind of wilderness, desolate and dry.
When Samuel got back, Anna was fiddling with the car seat. Maria came out of the restrooms and Anna finished on the car seat and strode away. She exchanged a nod with Maria.
James stubbed his cigarette on the tank and sidled over as Maria came up to Samuel.
Maria spoke, “Are we going to even make it into Washington tonight?”
Samuel shrugged. “Don’t see why not. The bridge at Longview can’t be raised. I’d like to get as far as possible.”
James nodded. “I’ll take the next shift, Ria. You can take a break.”
Maria shook her head. “No, I…” Something shifted in her manner. “Okay. Probably a good plan.” She wrapped her arms around James, then said to Samuel, “Thanks, Dad. For waiting for us. For bringing us along.”
“I wouldn’t leave you behind.” Again. Though he hadn’t said it out loud, the word echoed in his head. Was she thinking it, too? “Everything’s going to be fine, Ria.”
Samuel watched as James lifted her off her feet. Her face glowed and Samuel felt a calmness she had not had since hitting puberty. Then the restroom door banged and James let Maria go. They walked to his truck hand in hand without acknowledging Anna’s approach.
“You need me to drive?” Anna asked.
“No. I’m fine. Let’s get across the river.” He opened the door and offered her a hand up.
She took it, her other hand tucked under her burgeoning belly. “When we get close, I can drive. I know the country better than you.”
“Sounds good. Rest now if you can.”
He pulled his door shut and shoved the gearshift into drive. The gas gauge was still on F. When the vehicle was rolling, he turned the stereo on. The speakers blasted momentarily as Samuel fumbled with the controls. “Sh…”
Anna glanced back at the children as she fastened her seat belt.
“Sorry.” He punched the search button until he found a country station he figured he and Anna could both ignore. It was better than all the silence.
CHAPTER FOUR
SAMUEL’S BRAIN FLITTED FROM THOUGHT to thought, but he kept coming back to Brad. Especially Pam and the kids; his imagination filled in the gaps of Brad’s missing family. He tried to put it out of his mind—tried not seeing his own family in the same circumstances.
Behind Samuel, James followed, closer than Maria had. He would have a talk with the boy about tailgating later when they were done outrunning the apocalypse. Anna leaned the seat back and twisted away toward her door. He’d seen no cars out tonight except the police car. Even with the curfew, it surprised him.
An emergency tone cut into the song on the radio and a woman’s voice came on with the familiar announcement. “Emergency restrictions are still in place in all areas.” Her slight southern accent sounded strained. “Do not leave your home unless necessary to get food or medicine. Hospitals are
operating with skeleton crews.”
Was that intentional gallows humor from the announcer?
Her voice continued. “Here is the latest from the newswire.”
There was a pause and a more official voice came on—this announcer sounded like a guy who already had his family evacuated to the safety of a cabin in the woods. “The President and Congress have recessed their electronic meetings and will continue to search for solutions. The United Nations reports that every nation on the planet has been infected. That is all for now. Good night.”
After another static-filled pause, the woman’s voice came on. “This station will continue to broadcast emergency bulletins on the hour.” He wondered if it was recorded—if she was still alive.
He envied Anna’s ability to sleep in the car; he couldn’t relax with anyone else driving.
The quarter moon sailed above the horizon. The Columbia River was a giant black snake following them in the darkness beside the road as they approached the bridge to cross into Washington state at Longview.
As he drove up onto the lip of the bridge, bright spotlights stung in his eyes. He shaded his eyes as they adjusted. Halfway across the span, stacks of sandbags and orange cones left a gap only wide enough for one vehicle. Besides the blockade he noticed no signs of human activity. Then a metallic glint caught his eye.
Guns poked over the tops of the sand bags.
“Shit,” he muttered and his heart dropped into his stomach. “God—” He braked and changed what he was going to say to: “Help us. Please.”
Samuel shoved the truck into Park as he stopped. The crackle of a loudspeaker sounded as he opened the door and stepped down with his hands up.
“Get back in your vehicle and turn around,” a male voice echoed.
“We want to get home,” Samuel said, his voice sounding strange and soft compared to the amplified order.
“You’ve heard the news report. Stay put.” Static crackled across the bridge. “Where’s home?”
“Lake Quinault.” Lights flashed on top of a car, but was it a police car?
There was silence. “Sorry. You’ll have to go around.”
“Please.”
“No exceptions.”
“How are we going to get across?”
A sigh filtered through the static. “I don’t know. But you’re not crossing here.”
“Take a boat,” another voice called, laughing.
“Come on,” Samuel begged, “please, my family…”
“Step back.”
An explosion blasted the silence of the night and the asphalt at his feet spat up black gobs, stinging his legs through his pants. Samuel stood dumbfounded for a moment as the echo of the shot died away.
Anna yelled for him to get inside. Noah howled.
The loudspeaker barked. “Who the hell did that?”
“Those are Oregon plates,” a voice hollered back.
Finally, Samuel ducked for cover behind the open door.
James pulled something out of his back seat.
“No! Get back in the truck and go!” Samuel jabbed a finger back the way they’d come. Maria pulled James back inside as Samuel jumped back in the driver’s seat.
“God damn it,” Anna muttered under her breath.
“Stay down.” He slammed the shifter into gear and jockeyed the big vehicle back and forth on the bridge, sweating profusely. He drove forward until he hit the guardrail and backed up until the trailer tapped the bridge piling. Forward again. Bump. He spun the wheel until it clicked; back—forward. He cleared the guardrail. His tires spun, and he roared past James and Maria.
Samuel knew his hands would be shaking if he released his vise-grip from the steering wheel. He wanted to go back and stand up to the bastards. He felt like a coward and that made him even more pissed off.
He tried to remember the last time he’d heard Anna swear. Might have been when the doctor said, “These things happen.”
Once they had put some distance between them and the bridge, the headlights flashed on James’ pickup. Samuel pulled into a parking lot in front of a drugstore and laundromat. James rolled to a stop beside them. Maria scrambled out of the cab as Samuel opened his door. As he stepped to the ground, Maria’s arms wrapped around him and she buried her head in his chest.
“Daddy, they were gonna kill you. And James got all manly. I saw you both dead in puddles of blood on that bridge.”
Samuel patted her back and held her close. “Ria. It’s all right. We’re all okay. Some little son–S.O.B. went off half-cocked. They’re just scared.”
“They shot at you.”
He shook his head. “No. They shot at the ground. And they hit it. And they made their point.” He felt Anna’s eyes upon him as she pulled the sobbing Noah from his car seat.
“God has judged them,” Anna said in a low voice laced with vitriol.
“I’ll judge them,” Maria said. .
Anna and Ria had both gone from fear to fire in a moment. James stood helpless, staring at Samuel for guidance.
“Look.” Samuel kept his voice low and calm. “We have two questions. Do we still try to get across the river into Washington? And if so, how?” There was a grateful silence as they all thought about it.
Samuel looked in on Abi, still asleep. Damn, that kid could sleep through anything. He touched her forehead, sweaty, but not feverish. He hoped that meant that the coughs and sniffles were just a cold.
After a moment when the only sound was Anna patting Noah, she spoke, “What about Astoria?”
“It’s the only way over the Columbia River other than going halfway across the state.”
“Why didn’t we go out to I-205?” Anna asked. “We could have crossed the river there.”
“We were headed west,” Samuel answered, gritting his teeth. He didn’t have a good answer. Truth was, he hadn’t thought about it. They could still go back and try, but they would have to deal with Portland all over again. Right now, he wanted to be as far away from the rest of humanity as possible. “We’re still heading west.”
“What about a boat?” James asked softly behind him.
Samuel spun, realizing he was excluding Ria and James. They were adults and soon-to-be parents. They deserved a voice. He stepped back to let them into the conversation.
“We’d lose the trucks,” Ria countered.
“Trucks we can replace.” Anna bounced Noah in the crook of her arm, running her fingers through his hair.
“There might still be people with guns on the other side—” Samuel said. “There’s plenty of wilderness around here. What if we stay on this side of the river and find somewhere other than Grandpa’s cabin to hole up?”
“We could go to the rez,” James offered.
“We’re going to Quinault,” Anna said in her one who will be obeyed voice.
Samuel held his frustration in. “Astoria first, but we come up on it slow.” No response. “If we have trouble there, we make another plan. We don’t have to go to Quinault.” He stared into Anna’s eyes. She said nothing out loud, but the set of her jaw told him exactly what she thought of his attempt at an ultimatum.
Noah’s eyes were active. He knew everyone was on edge. Abi still snored. Oblivious. It was starting to worry him. Samuel smoothed a stray curl on her warm forehead.
Back on the road, Anna refused to look at him; Samuel recognized the posture. He concentrated on driving once it became clear that she wasn’t talking. At least the adrenaline kept him wired. When the headlights behind him flashed again, Samuel realized he’d been zoning. Anna’s head lolled, her mouth open. Maybe she would wake up not pissed off at him.
A sign flashed by: Welcome to Astoria. Population: 9,529. “None-thousand,” Samuel muttered to himself. He slowed and rubbed his eyes as James pulled up beside him.
Ria rolled her window down. “Well?” she asked.
Samuel sighed. “Looks quiet. Maybe it’s best if we drive on through.”
“Okay.” Maria nodded with a gla
nce to James. He nodded, too. “Let’s do it.”
“Turn off the lights and drive slow.” He glanced down at the buildings, the city demarcated by the street lights. There were dark sections. “We don’t stop for anything. We can’t afford to.”
Samuel let the beast of a vehicle and its trailer roll forward, picking up speed as they descended into Astoria. Samuel let it cruise faster where lights were out. Astoria was pretty small. He didn’t see anyone but his nerves prickled the back of his neck. His family was being watched. There were people here; but they were not showing themselves.
Darkness swallowed them. Samuel flipped the lights back on. James’ headlights came on a second later. He wondered if Ria and James were freaking out as much as he was or just following his lead. Anna continued to sleep peacefully as they crossed the bridge.
A wave of dizziness hit as Samuel realized he had been holding his breath. The truck rolled down the incline as they passed the middle of the bridge. He wondered if Ria was holding her breath too. When Ria was little, before he met Anna, he and Ria would hold their breath over the water or through tunnels.
He rolled his window down. Up ahead, he saw headlights, but no sandbags, broken bridges or armed men. Cones blocked part of the lane. He drove past them. The headlights of a police car stared at him. A body, head slumped against the window, was the only thing guarding this Columbia River crossing. He let the air escape again and sucked in another grateful breath. If the headlights were still on, he must have died recently.
Samuel had gotten lucky. Which made him feel guilty because a man was dead. But he’d gotten his family across safe and sound—that was what mattered now.
Everyone in his car still slept. He chuckled, a strange euphoria bubbling up in his chest. He pumped his fist out the window for Maria and James. Their lights flashed in response.
They were across but this route promised twisting back roads. He had gone this way with Anna once, stopping at a little hick bar in the middle of nowhere. The people were friendly, but even back then you couldn’t help thinking that if they wanted to go Deliverance on your ass, they could and would, and no one would be the wiser. Maybe he should go the long way. Highway 101 North was also winding, but it seemed less likely to be blocked by folks like the ones who had shot at him earlier.
Deserted Lands (Novel): Toils and Snares Page 3