The Collapse Trilogy (Book 3): Through the Ruins

by Rod Carstens

  “And what do you recommend?”

  Blondie hesitated with a pained look on her face. “I don’t know if she’s got it. I’ve never met anybody from the City before except Dr. Rule and Julia, and they aren’t like her. I don’t know if she can cut it. As much as I hate to say it, maybe we should leave her.”

  Tanner sighed. It was the same conclusion he had come to. As much as he hated to do it, he didn’t need the distraction she would be on the road. He had too many other problems.

  A young runner came by, and Tanner said, “Do you know where the new girl Chris is?”

  “Yes, sir. She’s in the kitchen.”

  “What’s she doing there?”

  “Cleaning.”

  Blondie and Tanner exchanged a glance and strode off toward the kitchen. When they entered, the usual kitchen staff was working and preparing for a quick breakfast with Nikki directing them. Chris was nowhere in sight.

  “Nikki, one of the runners said Chris was in here.”

  “Yeah, she came in a couple of hours ago and asked for a job. So I gave her the dirtiest job in the kitchen. Washing the pots. She’s out back.”

  Blondie and Tanner walked out to find Chris up to her waist in one of the huge pots from the kitchen, scrubbing the grime off.

  “Chris,” Tanner said.

  She stood up. She was covered in grease and grime. There was a line of pots she had been working on, and they appeared clean. “Yes, Mr. Tanner?”

  “You know I have to decide if you’re going to stay with these people or go with us…”

  “I’ve decided to stay,” Chris said.

  “It’s not up to you. It’s up to me.”

  “I know, I know. But that’s why I came here. I wanted to show you I’m willing to do my part. I couldn’t do anything else, so I thought at least I could work as a helper in the kitchen. Please.”

  Tanner hesitated. It wasn’t much. A few hours of scut work didn’t make a changed person. Then, from behind him, he heard, “I worked hard to make her quit, but she took everything I’ve thrown at her, and it’s been a lot.”

  He turned and found Nikki leaning against the doorjamb, wiping her hands on her apron. “You satisfied so far?”

  “Yeah, so far,” Nikki said.

  Tanner walked to the girl and stared down at her. Her blouse clung to her with sweat; grease was smeared on her face. She looked very young and frightened, but he remembered just how cunning she had been.

  “Okay. We leave in the morning and you…are going to come with us.”

  A huge smile spread across her face.

  “That’s not all I have to say. You will work for Nikki, and that means getting up early and going to bed late. You will do what she says when she says it, with no complaints or questions.”

  “Yes, yes, thank you so much. I’ll work hard, I promise—”

  “The knife always cuts both ways. If you come with us and don’t live up to your part of the bargain, I will leave you on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere without a second thought. If you don’t think you can keep this up, you better stay here, because you’ll stand a better chance with these people than you would alone beside the road. So coming with us is a test, not a guarantee. And if you fail that test the punishment is a harsh one.”

  Chris stood silently, staring up at Tanner. When she didn’t say a word, he said, “You find me in the morning if you change your mind. It’s a big test. Make sure you pass it.”

  With that, he and Blondie turned and walked away. Chris went back to her scrubbing.

  “I think you laid it out for her. It’s up to her, like it’s been up to all of us,” Blondie said.

  “Yeah, it’s a tough world out here. It’s not for weaklings.”

  Tanner did spend most of the night coordinating and checking all the vehicles and equipment to make sure everything was ready to leave. He had gotten at best two hours of sleep when Julia woke him. She and the others had insisted that he sleep in the bed the last night so what little sleep he got would be good.

  He swung his feet to the floor and sat there. His head ached, and it felt like he had sand under his eyelids—the usual lack-of-sleep symptoms. Then he smelled something. It smelled like coffee, but Nikki had said the last of the coffee was gone. He looked up to see Julia standing there with a steaming cup.

  “Coffee. Real coffee. Nikki knew we would all be pushing ourselves to get out and hid the coffee she found until she thought we needed it the most. So here you go, cowboy. It’s time to rise and shine.”

  Julia sat down on the bed next to Tanner as he savored the coffee. “You think we’re ready to move?”

  “Yeah, and with all the repairs and additions to the vehicles that Peter and his crew did, I believe that we’re in much better shape than when we stopped. What time is it?”

  “Five.”

  “Then we need to get moving if we’re going to leave as soon as there’s enough light to see the road clearly.”

  Tanner sat finishing his coffee next to Julia, enjoying the alone time. These moments were rare, and he enjoyed just sitting there in her presence. Their relationship had become much stronger in the last days as they had faced crisis after crisis. He had come to rely on her advise and support even if it was just a glance or a touch on the arm in support as he made decision after decision. Now looking at her on the bed all in the world he wanted to do was spend the day with her alone in this room with the beautiful view.

  Julia sighed and patted the bed, then said, “I wish we had a little more time for one last roll in a real bed.” She gave him a mischievous smirk.

  “You are an evil woman. Now that’s all I’ll be thinking about.”

  Julia lay back on the bed. “We do have a few minutes.”

  This time it was Tanner who smirked and said, “I’m going to need more than a few minutes. You’re going to have to wait.” he stood and began to dress.

  “Bastard,” Julia said with a smile.

  “Bitch. Now get your ass moving.”

  As the sun rose, Tanner and Mike walked over to the prisoners’ shed. It was time to let them loose. The guard opened the door and let the prisoners out. They had been given breakfast and told the convoy leaving this morning. They stood in a line in front of Tanner and Mike.

  Tanner said, “I’m doing you a favor, letting you live. Your friends killed one of us, and the rest of you tried to do the same. You’ve still got power and water, but that won’t last much longer. You’ll need to learn how to grow your food and hunt if you’re going to survive.”

  “You can’t do that! You’ve got to take us with you! We can’t survive out here.”

  “You started this when you attacked us instead of simply asking for help. If you had done that, then we would have helped you. Instead you tried to take from us. There is a price to be paid for that. So you’d better learn fast,” Tanner said.

  Then, walking away, he told the guard, “Keep an eye on them until we leave. If they do anything that you don’t like, shoot them.”

  Tanner walked back to the main house, where the others were assembling the convoy. If the trip up to now was any indication they were about to run into more trouble and he wanted to make sure they were ready not matter what they would face.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Tanner sat in the front seat of the SUV as they sped down the interstate for the second straight day. All the work that had been done on the vehicles was paying off; they were all purring like new. Peter and his guys had performed a miracle once they had tools and time.

  He glanced down at the GPS screen and could see that they only had thirty or so more miles to the new mall. With any luck, they could be there tonight.

  Peter had scavenged the GPS out of the tilt-rotors and mounted it in the first vehicle. They now knew exactly where they were and how far they had to go. The plows on the front of the four gun trucks had been a huge time saver when they ran into debris or trees across the road. Instead of organizing a working party to cl
ear the way, they just brought one or two of the gun trucks up and moved the obstruction. It had saved hours of backbreaking work, plus the time it took to clear the road and the loading and unloading of all the people. Even the drones were working without a hitch. The flyer was on the command bus, and they would pilot a drone in front of the convoy looking for roadblocks or suspicious activity. The drones were fast enough to keep ahead of the convoy easily and Peter had installed a laptop so Tanner could monitor the drone feed. It had reduced the stress Tanner felt, because for once they weren’t driving down the highway blind. He knew when a bridge was coming, and he would see a roadblock long before they came upon it.

  There had been no attacks or evidence of gang activity for the past two days. It had been the best two days since they left their old settlement.

  Things were going great, and it gave Tanner a knot of concern in his stomach. He didn’t like it when things went this well. Something was waiting in the wings—he could feel its breath on his neck and he didn’t like the feeling. He glanced again at the feed from the drone and saw just empty interstate with nothing suspicious on either side of the highway. He reached forward to turn down the music blasting out of the pod that Peter had scavenged from the compound. It was a pounding old-style rock song that Peter loved and played over and over again.

  “What’s the name of that song again?” Tanner asked.

  “‘Thunderstruck’ by something called AC/DC. I think it’s appropriate given our circumstances.”

  Tanner turned the music back up. Peter was right. The pounding drums and the grinding guitar over simple lyrics certainly got him going. As the song said, there was no turning back and no help, but they were driving on in spite of it all.

  Tanner smiled and turned to tell Peter how much he liked the song, and then his world was suddenly filled with sound, smoke, and debris. He was thrown up against the roof of the SUV and halfway out of the gunner’s hatch. The SUV turned on its side and went skidding down the interstate. Tanner couldn’t understand why he was halfway out of the vehicle. He couldn’t hear anything, and sparks were flying past his head off the side of the SUV as it ground into the road. The vehicle slowly came to a stop. Tanner lay on his back, too stunned to move. Then he saw men emerging from the left side of the road ahead of him. They were armed and moving toward Tanner at a run, with weapons up and firing. Rounds ricocheted off the highway, throwing spears of concrete into Tanner’s face and hands that cut and stung as they struck him.

  Tanner tried to move, but his limbs didn’t seem to work right. He put his hand down on the tarmac and tried to push himself back into the SUV. His only thought was to get to his weapon. He was going to need it. The men were getting closer. He saw one take aim at him. Almost idly, Tanner thought, He’s going to shoot me. He wasn’t afraid, just confused. This guy hadn’t been there a minute ago.

  As the man closed one eye to aim, he suddenly disappeared in a bloody mist that was the hallmark of a .48’s exploding rounds. More of the attackers began to fall. Tanner turned his head and could see the second SUV had angled up just behind him. The doors were open and all the fighters out and returning fire. Cat was standing in the pickup’s gunner’s hatch firing her .48 into the men. Matos was on the driver’s side, his scoped rifle resting on the door, taking one aimed shot after another at the attackers.

  I need to get my gun, Tanner thought. Slowly, he crawled back into the SUV. Its interior was a shambles of equipment, sandbags, and personal items. Everything was covered with blood; this seemed odd. He found his rifle, then slowly crawled back to the gunner’s hatch. The firing outside was increasing in volume.

  More people must be coming, Tanner thought. It was so hard to think. His ears were ringing loudly and he couldn’t seem to clear his mind. He was about to emerge from the hatch when he saw three men firing at the second SUV from the roadside. He brought the rifle up to aim and realized the world was still spinning, so he flipped the selector switch on his .48 to auto and fired a long burst at the three figures. They disappeared as the explosive rounds found them and blew them to pieces.

  It took Tanner several tries and a lot of pain to climb out of the gunners hatch and fall to the ground. He rolled over onto his stomach and assumed the prone rifle position. There were men down across the interstate. Some were moving, but most were not. They just lay still.

  He fired a burst wildly at nothing. His training was so deeply ingrained that even when he didn’t know what was happening, he knew enough to fire at the enemy. His only thought was fire superiority during an ambush as he fumbled with his rifle. His head would not clear. He couldn’t think. He had started to fire another burst when Cat suddenly appeared next to him and knelt down. Matos passed him and took up a position to his right behind the SUV taking up a firing position, scanning their front with his scope. Tanner tried to clear his head and felt a hand on his shoulder, shaking him. He looked up to see Cat peering down at him, real concern on her face. Her lips were moving, but he couldn’t hear what she was saying.

  “Uh…I…I can’t hear you,” all Tanner could hear was a louding ringing in his ears.

  Cat leaned down until her mouth was almost against his ear and shouted, “Can you get up? We need to get out of the kill zone!”

  “What happened?”

  “An IED! Now get your ass up if you can!”

  As Tanner struggled to his feet, he said, “The others. What about the others?”

  “We’ll take care of them! Come on!”

  Cat wrapped one of his arms around her shoulders and began walking him back to one of the pickups. When they were halfway there, Blondie ran up. She grabbed his other arm and put it around her shoulders.

  “I got him, Cat. Check on the others,” Blondie said.

  Tanner was aware there was sporadic gunfire still going on as Blondie led them to the second pickup. Then he remembered Peter and Mike. Where were Peter and Mike? They had been in the first truck together.

  “I gotta go back. Peter and Mike, I gotta get back to them.”

  “Vin, we got them. Now let me get you to the truck.”

  Blondie led him to the pickup and helped him into it’s bed. When he lay down, it felt very good. His head was beginning to clear, but every inch of his body hurt, especially his left arm. He saw a lot of blood on his sleeve and thought, Gee, it looks like I’ve been wounded. He tried to sit up but fell back and closed his eyes.

  Then a body was thrown on top of him. He groaned and pushed it off. It was Mike. He had so much blood on him. Tanner couldn’t tell where it was coming from. He turned his head and said, “You all right?”

  Mike grimaced and sat up. “Yeah, yeah. I’m good to go.”

  They were both trying to get up when Blondie said, “Stay down, you two. We’re going to make a run for it before any friends these guys have show up. Now just stay down until we stop again.”

  “We can’t leave!” Tanner said. “Where’s Peter? We can’t leave Peter!”

  Blondie looked down at Tanner and murmured, “He’s gone, Vin. Peter’s gone.”

  Peter gone. That couldn’t be true. He was just sitting beside him. How could he be gone? What was going on?

  The truck lurched forward, and Tanner heard Cat’s .48 firing as they moved. He tried to sit up but couldn’t and fell on his back.

  At that point, he passed out.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Tanner didn’t know how long he’d been out when he woke up. Danielle was bending over him, working on his arm. She had a serious look on her face. He was lying in the back of the pickup. He could see the buses around him arranged in the harbor-site configuration. He started to sit up, but Danielle pushed him back down. He looked past her and saw guards on top of the buses, scanning the area. It looked like they were on a bridge.

  Good, he thought. At least that was good. He turned his head and saw Mike lying next to him, his skull heavily bandaged. His eyes were open and looking at Tanner.

  “What happened?” Mike said.
>
  “It was an IED in the road,” Blondie said behind him. “It was command detonated to get you guys.”

  Tanner turned his head to see Blondie leaning on the truck, looking down at him. “Where are we?”

  “We found a good bridge to hole up on until we can get you two patched up.”

  Then Tanner remembered Peter was driving the truck. “Where’s Peter? Did you get his body?”

  “No. By the time we got you two loaded the SUV was on fire. It was too late to recover his body, and the ambushers were still sniping at us.”

  Tanner heard gunshots from the rear of the convoy.

  “What…”

  “They’ve got dirt bikes, and it’s been a running battle since the IED. We’re getting ready to move, but these guys don’t seem to want to leave us alone.”

  “Where’s Cat?”

  “She’s running the defense at the rear of the convoy.”

  Tanner tried to sit up. He needed to get back there to help.

  “Not yet, buddy,” Danielle said, pushing him back down. “Let me finish. Five more minutes and you can leave.”

  Danielle finished bandaging his arms and pulled the dressing tight, which hurt like hell. She grabbed a syringe from her medical bag and jammed it into his arm.

  “What’s that?”

  “Those tilt-rotors were required to carry a rather sophisticated medical kit since they were for hire. I found this painkiller and was saving it for the right time. Your arm is pretty messed up, but I was able to sew it back together. The shrapnel missed the bone but tore your muscle up pretty badly. This will let you function. If it gets bad again, let me know. I got some more but I want to be careful with it.”

  Tanner looked over at Mike. His eyes were closed and he appeared to be asleep.

  “He’s got a bad concussion, among other things. It will take longer to get him on his feet.”