by Rod Carstens
People nodded and told the kids to stay close, but it was like herding kittens. The kids had been cooped up all day in those cramped buses, and they had more energy than good sense. The long days on the road were hardest on the kids, and Tanner could hardly blame them. It felt great to be out of the SUV and moving around. He could only imagine what it felt like to a ten-year-old.
Mike came up to him and said, “Cat told me to tell you the perimeter is set up and she’s got a couple of roving patrols moving up and down the convoy.”
“Good. Have you seen Johnny?”
“Yeah, he was pulling his bike off the bus when I walked by.”
“That kid is turning into a good soldier.”
Tanner walked to the first bus, where Johnny was preparing to leave. “Were you going to ask me first?” Tanner said.
“Of course, boss. I just wanted to get my bike ready.”
“Good. I want to know what’s up ahead of us. Do a quick scout then come back. I may need you to do another job.”
“Got it.”
Johnny threw a leg over his bike and roared off down the road. Nikki came walking up to Tanner. She had her big foraging bag slung over her shoulder, with Kathy Fallon, one of the girls she was teaching how to forage, alongside her.
“Vin, we’re low on vegetables, and I want to do a quick forage with Kathy since we’re stuck here anyway.”
Tanner looked around, still not comfortable with the spot. But he also knew that the vegetables Nikki foraged were vital to everyone. “Okay, but be careful and don’t go too far.”
Nikki laughed and said, “You are a real worrier. We’ll be fine.”
Nikki and Kathy disappeared into the forest. One of Cat’s roving patrols came walking up. “Guys, keep an eye out on this side of the interstate. Nikki and Kathy Fallon just went foraging.”
“Got it, boss.”
Tanner walked back to the bus to find Peter in up to his waist working on the motor. Tim Allen, one of his other mechanics, was standing beside him.
“What’s it looking like?”
“Not too bad. We should be back on the road in an hour or so.”
“Great. I’m going to the first bus and let them know.”
Tanner walked to the first bus, where he found Rule, Julia, Danielle, and Morgan hunched over the laptop.
“Any news?”
Rule straightened up and turned to him. “No, nothing new. It’s just getting worse, and no one seems to know what to do. It’s hitting the healthiest the hardest.”
“Why would it do that?” Vin asked.
Danielle turned and said, “When a young, healthy person is exposed to an entirely new virus, their immune system goes crazy trying to fight this new threat off. It can make the illness much worse. I know it doesn’t sound logical, but it’s the only thing the body can do, so it shifts into an emergency gear and that makes things worse. In the pandemic of 1918, there were reports of young, healthy people getting sick in the morning and being dead by nightfall. It is a real insult to someone’s system.”
“Insult seems like a pretty tame description of what’s going on.”
“Yeah, medical terms can be very dry at times. It helps give physicians a distance from what is happening. Otherwise, we’d go running around screaming about the awful thing we just saw.”
Just then Johnny came roaring up to the bus, hopped off his bike, and stuck his head in the door. “Hey, boss, there is a nice big bridge about ten miles down the road. A good place to stop for the night.”
Tanner glanced at his watch. It was almost four, and by the time Peter and the mechanics were finished, they would have to start looking for a stopping place. “Good. That sounds like what we will do then.”
“Do you need anything else, boss?”
“No, go ahead and stow your bike.” He turned to Danielle and said, “Looks like we’ve got a good stopping spot and we’ve made real time today. Only one breakdown. Not a bad day.”
Just then Mike came running up to the bus. “Vin, Kathy Fallon just ran out of the woods. Something happened to Nikki. Kathy is so hysterical we can’t get a clear story out of her.”
“Shit,” Vin said, jumping out of the bus. I should never have let her go, he thought as he ran toward the knot of people around Kathy.
CHAPTER SIX
As Tanner ran, his mind was racing with scenarios of what could have happened. None of them were good. He got to the crowd and shouldered his way into the center, where Kathy was crying hysterically in her mother’s arms.
He knelt down, so he was at eye level with Vivian, Kathy’s mom. “Have you been able to get the story?”
“No, no. She won’t calm down.”
Tanner’s stomach tightened. He knew he should round up a search party now, but he had to know what had happened. Vivian was rocking Kathy as she continued to cry. Vin reached out and touched her arm. She jerked it away and wailed louder.
“Kathy, sweetie, you have to tell us what happened so we can help Nikki. Please, can you tell us?”
Kathy only turned away and clutched her mother harder.
“Kathy, honey, you need to tell Vin what happened. Please, honey, just talk.”
Kathy only shook her head. This was going nowhere, Tanner thought, and he was losing time with each minute he waited for her to calm down. Then he remembered that Blondie had been teaching some of the kids how to defend themselves and had developed a rapport with them. Kathy had been in that group.
He looked around and saw Mike. “Go find Blondie, and get her here fast.”
“Right, boss.”
Mike turned and ran off to get Blondie. Tanner felt helpless as he squatted there while Vivian tried to calm Kathy down. Her gentle voice and soothing words only seemed to make her more emotional. Kathy’s father stood over them, his face racked with the pain of seeing his daughter so upset.
“God, what could have happened to her?” he said quietly.
He looked around for help, but those adults with children were working at keeping their own kids calm. They had their own problems.
Blondie came running up. Tanner stood and said, “We can’t get a story out of her. She won’t calm down. Can you do something? You’ve been working with her and the others.”
Blondie stared at the girl in her mother’s arms for a long moment. Tanner thought he saw a flash of pain, as if she was seeing something again that she had already experienced.
“Yeah, but I have to do it my way.”
“Okay,” Tanner said, puzzled by what she had said.
Blondie knelt down next to the mother and child. She looked at Vivian and said, “I’m sorry, but it’s the only way. Okay?”
Vivian just nodded. Blondie reached over and jerked Kathy out of her mother’s arms and dragged her to her feet. She shook her and said, “Stop it. Stop it now.”
Kathy continued to cry, and Blondie slapped her across the face hard enough that Kathy stopped crying. “Remember what I told you about the bad things that happened to me and the others. Do you remember?”
Kathy nodded.
“Then you remember that I said the only way we survived was to help each other. Right?”
Again Kathy nodded.
“Then I want you to reach down inside yourself and find that strength I told you to have and tell us what happened.”
Kathy stared at Blondie for a long moment, her eyes big, and then Tanner saw a change slowly come over her. She wiped her eyes, pushed her hair out of her face, and looked at Blondie.
“That’s right. Find what you need. Tell us,” Blondie said.
She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Then she tried again and slowly began to speak. “Nikki was showing me curled dock when all of a sudden four men showed up. They grabbed Nikki. One tried to catch me, but I ran just like you told us, Blondie. A man started after me but Nikki tripped him and he fell.”
“That’s my girl. Now can you tell us where you were? Remember I said to always know how to fin
d your way home. Now did you do that?”
Kathy nodded. “If you follow that path it leads to a meadow. That’s where it happened, in that field.”
“Can you tell us what these men looked like?”
Kathy hesitated before she said, “They dressed like you Vin. You know blue jeans and those plaid shirts you wear.”
“The don’t sound like gang members,” Blondie said.
“Did you see which way they took Nikki?”
“No, no, I can’t…I was afraid to look back,” Kathy said. Then a horrified look came over her face, and she said, “I left Nikki, I should have stayed and helped her. Oh…”
“Stop it now. You did exactly the right thing. If you had stayed and tried to help her then you both would be missing. Instead, you came to get help. That was smart. Do you understand? You did the smart thing just like I told you.” Blondie took the girl into her arms and gave her a gentle hug, then turned her over to her mother.
Blondie stood and looked at Tanner. “I’m going.”
“You bet your ass you are. Mike, round up Matos. You guys are coming with Blondie and me. Where’s Cat?”
“Right here.”
He turned around. She had been standing behind him all along. “You’ve got command. If we’re not back before the bus is fixed, go ahead and take off. We will meet you at the bridge as soon as we can get there.”
Johnny Johnson walked up and said, “I want to go.”
“Not yet, Johnny. Besides, Cat is going to need a good scout, so you stay and do the job you’re good at.”
Johnny looked disappointed but said, “Right, boss.”
Mike came running up with Matos. They both had their rifles and extra ammunition. Matos tossed Tanner a couple of extra magazines for his rifle. He shoved them into his vest and looked at Blondie. “You got everything you need?”
Blondie nodded.
“Okay, you’re on point. Mike, tail-end Charlie. Let’s move out.”
Blondie led the other three into the woods.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Just as Kathy had told them, they followed the little trail, and it led them through a small stretch of woods before it opened up into a large meadow. Blondie halted then and knelt just inside the tree line. Tanner and Mike came up and knelt beside her while Matos climbed the nearest tree to get a sniper’s view of the field. Tanner could see where Nikki and Kathy had trampled the knee-high grass that covered the meadow down. Their trail led toward the center of the field, but he couldn’t see much beyond that.
“You see anything?” Tanner said to Blondie.
“No, but I don’t think they would stay here. They had to take her to their camp or settlement to have their fun.”
Tanner looked up and saw that Matos had reached a safe perch in a tree and was looking through his scope at the meadow. He slowly scanned back and forth across the field. When he finished his scanning, he dropped down out of the tree next to Vin and the others.
“Nothing in the meadow, but I could see where they drug her off into the tree line on the other side of the field. They left a big trail.”
Tanner looked at the meadow. There was no cover between where they were and the other tree line. There were only two ways to cross, and they were to follow the woods around the meadow, staying in cover the whole time, or to take a chance and cross the meadow. The meadow was a large one, and if they took the long way it would take at least an hour. Tanner glanced at his watch. They had been gone for half an hour already. He looked at the others and said, “We can go around the edge of the meadow and stay in the trees, or we can chance it and go directly, following their trail.”
“The longer they have her, the worse it will be for her,” Blondie said.
“Yeah, she’s right,” Mike said.
“Did you see any sign of lookouts over there?” Tanner asked Matos.
“No, nothing. If we stay low, the grass is tall enough we won’t be that easy to spot,” Matos said.
Tanner looked at the other three and said, “Okay, meadow it is. Blondie, lead on.”
Blondie stood and bent over at the waist, then quickly moved out, following the bent grass that Nikki and Kathy had left. They ran quickly to the center of the meadow, where the struggle had taken place. The grass was smashed down, and you could see where Nikki had fought them. Her big foraging bag was on the ground, and its contents were spilled out. Tanner had them stop for a minute. He looked around for any clues that might give him an idea of who Nikki were, but there was nothing, only Nikki’s bag.
Blondie scooped up the foraged vegetables and slung the bag over her shoulder. Then she moved out, with the others close behind. Following the trail was easy; four men dragging a woman left a significant imprint on the grass. They reached the tree line and slipped into the woods. Blondie halted them and crouched down carefully, looking around before she moved ahead.
Tanner had no idea what they were going to find, but he felt confident in the three others. Matos had been on his team, so he had known him for years, and Blondie and Mike had proven themselves time and again over the last months. He felt they could handle anything they were going to face.
They had moved through the woods for almost half an hour when Blondie halted them, then pointed to her eyes and to the right. When Tanner looked he couldn’t believe what he saw. There was a modern cabin sitting in a small clearing. It had a tilt-rotor landing pad behind it and four all-terrain vehicles lined up outside in the yard. Through large windows, he could see two men moving around in what looked to be a living room. It had solar power on the roof and a large water tank outside. It was off-the-grid cabin with all the comforts that you found in the City.
Mike and Matos came up to join Blondie and Vin. “What in the fuck!” Mike said.
Blondie pointed to the trail left by those who had been dragging Nikki. “It’s them. They’re the ones who took Nikki.”
“Who the fuck are they?” Matos said.
“Doesn’t matter. They took Nikki,” Blondie snapped.
Assaulting a house was in Tanner’s comfort zone. It was like the hundreds of operations he had experienced on the teams. But he worried that the people had to be from the City. This was some weekend getaway for a wealthy family. So when had they left, and were they infected with the virus?
If they rescued Nikki and brought the virus back to the group, it would be disastrous, but they couldn’t just walk away and leave Nikki on the off chance these people were infected. He stared at the cabin, trying to weigh the risks. Why was it when he had to make this kind of decision he never had enough information?
If they had been exposed or had been sick they wouldn’t have the energy or the interest in going after Nikki. At least that is what made the most sense and he couldn’t walk away from her without more direct proof. No, he knew he had to rescue Nikki, but Tanner would need to question the people inside and see if he could determine when they had left the City. Tanner scanned the cabin for sentries or signs of a perimeter guard; there were none that he could see. It was nearing dusk, and the people inside were turning on lights. Two men in the living room were fixing drinks and laughing together. These guys thought they were safe and weren’t worried about security. They were from the City and must still feel as if they were invulnerable, even if they’d just kidnapped a woman.
“I don’t see any security anywhere. Does anybody else?” Vin murmured.
Everyone muttered no.
“What about the other side of the house? He might be walking on the other side.”
“We’ll wait five minutes and if we don’t see anyone, we’ll go. Standard stack for clearing a room. Blondie in first with her shotgun. I’ll take second in. We go in that front door you see on the right. Do not kill them unless you have to. We need to question them. These are people from the City. We have to know if they have been infected.”
“How will we know?”
“It just started a few days ago. We know that from the comms that Morgan intercepted. So if
they’ve been out here for any length of time, then they should be okay. So let’s make sure at least one is alive. Don’t go in shooting, only shoot if someone has a weapon. Understood?” Tanner said.
Everyone murmured yes. Tanner got behind Blondie with Mike behind Tanner and Matos as tail-end Charlie. Tanner glanced at his watch and waited the five minutes; no guard showed up. The men in the living room had their feet up and were laughing and talking as if they didn’t have a care in the world.
Tanner tapped Blondie on the shoulder at the end of five minutes. She moved slowly out of the tree line, careful to put the all-terrain vehicles between them and the windows in the living room. They reached the vehicles and then ducked down under the large windows. Once they were stacked up at the door, Blondie turned with a questioning look and pointed to the lock. Tanner pointed to her shotgun. Blondie nodded and raised it to her shoulder. Tanner tapped her on the shoulder, and she fired the shotgun into the lock and door flew open. Blondie entered and went left, and Tanner followed and went right, hugging the wall with his weapon on the men.
“On the floor or you’re dead!” Tanner screamed.
Both men stood openmouthed with surprise. Neither was armed. They had the well-groomed look of people from the City. Their clothes were expensive, and everything about them screamed one-percenter. Mike and Matos grabbed them, threw them to the floor, and stood over them as Tanner and Blondie moved along opposite walls toward a door that led to another room. The door suddenly flew open, and a shirtless man rushed out with a pistol in his hand.
“Gun!” Tanner yelled and shot him in the head.
Tanner stepped over his body and moved through the door. He entered with his rifle up and ready. The room was a bedroom, a naked man was desperately trying to untangle himself from the sheets on the bed. Before he could move, Vin grabbed him by the hair, jerked him off the bed, and dragged him into the living room.
Mike put a big boot on his neck and said, “Move, and you’ll join your friend.”