“Let’s get out of here,” I said solemnly.
“Yes, sir,” California said returning my tone.
We backed out of the hangar and closed the doors again. Judging by the empty containers, they had starved to death inside their shelter. I was wondering why they hadn’t gone out to look for food until we shut the doors and I noticed something along the width of the door. They looked like marks of some kind.
“Look at this,” I said to California.
California bent down and examined the marks closer, dragging his fingers along them.
He looked up at me and asked, “Scratches?”
I nodded. “Infected.”
I whistled across the alley to Declan and Charlie to get their attention. They came running out of the hangar.
“What is it, Captain?” asked Declan.
“Infected,” I told them. “Be on high alert.” But it was already too late. They had appeared at the end of the alley way and were heading toward the Jeep and Johnny.
The infected horde had snuck up on us while we were searching the hangars and they were approaching fast. Johnny still hadn’t noticed the horde of decaying dead people approaching him or the one that was about to snatch him out of the car.
“John,” I shouted at him. He looked up and saw the woman that was already reaching her rotting hand into the cab of the Jeep.
She wasn’t as old as the first one. She hadn’t been infected long and still resembled her old self. That meant there were still survivors in the area. Or at least there were.
Johnny fumbled for his side arm. He was kicking the girl trying to buy some time, but the woman was relentless. My mind immediately went to that day in the tunnel at the hospital.
“John,” Charlie yelled as well, raising his rifle to fire. But before Charlie could look down his sight there was a crack of rifle fire and the woman’s neck exploded and her head fell to the ground. Charlie looked over at California who racked the bolt sending the empty shell flying. “Thanks,” Charlie said to California.
“No problem.”
“John, get the fuck out of there,” Charlie yelled at his brother.
Johnny shut the door and fired up the diesel engine and raced toward us.
All of these infected had recently been turned. Their flesh was still attached to their bones. Hair still attached to their heads. Their eyes were still glazed over like all the rest, but that happens whether you’ve been infected for one day or one year.
The Jeep skidded to a stop in front of us.
“Charlie, get on that fifty,” I ordered. Charlie got in and went straight for the roof. He stood in the back seat and racked the first shot into the chamber, but he didn’t fire. He knew it was a waste of time to fire at them. There were too many. We all entered the Jeep after him.
“Get us back on the highway,” I told Johnny.
“Yes, sir,” Johnny said and slammed his foot down on the gas.
We turned left at the end of the alley of hangars and were met by a group of infected people coming from the opposite side of the terminal.
“Look out,” Declan shouted.
Johnny tried to swerve to avoid hitting one, but the front bumper clipped it and the infected person was sucked underneath the front driver’s side tire, bouncing the Jeep up and down.
Hundreds of infected people were approaching from the terminal. The terminal must have been full of them.
“Get us out of here man,” said California.
“I can’t. They’re all blocking the road,” Johnny said back to California.
“Then don’t use the road,” I said.
Johnny jerked the wheel right and the Jeep bounced over a curb into a field that separated the terminal from the highway. Johnny was right, the infected horde was blocking the road and they had started to fill the field too.
Loud explosions erupted from the roof of the Jeep. Charlie had started firing at the horde that were directly in front of us. An arm flew off of one as the massive bullets ripped through the field. A leg was blown off another and it stumbled to regain its balance before the Jeep plowed into it. What infected people weren’t being mowed down by Charlie were being run over by Johnny. Just two brothers having fun.
Johnny was too caught up in trying to hit the infected people roaming about that he didn’t notice we were heading right for a berm that led down to the highway. I almost didn’t notice it myself.
“Look out,” I yelled, but it was too late. “Everyone hang on!” I managed to get out before the Jeep left the ground.
Charlie dropped down into his seat and we all tried our best to hang on as the Jeep flew over the berm.
Sailing through the air, the weightlessness made me feel like I was on roller coaster during a free fall. I hadn’t been on one of those in years, but this was no amusement park ride. We were being chased by the infected horde and now we were plummeting toward the highway below.
The Jeep landed hard on the asphalt. It was equipped with upgraded shock absorbers, thanks to Johnny, but that didn’t matter when you were traveling that far and that fast. It made strange popping and grinding noises as we bounced back up. I would be surprised if we didn’t have to fix anything after that.
I looked up and noticed we were heading straight for the concrete divider. Johnny had not yet recovered the wheel yet, so I reached over and grabbed it, jerking it to the right. The Jeep swerved and skidded out of the way.
“Stop this,” I yelled over the chaos.
Johnny slammed on the brakes and the Jeep slid to a stop.
“Everyone all right?” I asked. They all answered in their own ways of yes.
It was a hard fall, but the Jeep was still running and surprisingly everything sounded normal. Hopefully there wasn’t some hidden problem that had yet to show its face.
“We’ve got company,” Declan said from the back.
I turned and stuck my head out of the window. The horde was still coming, and they were beginning to crest the berm.
“Get us out of here, Johnny,” I said.
“Yes, sir,” he answered and with that the Jeep drove away from the infected horde and away from the city.
Chapter 5
Not much was said to each other since we had left the airport. We followed State Route 101 south away from the city. We kept an eye on the city behind us. The black cloud of birds had disappeared. If the birds disappeared that meant the horde of infected had as well. That didn’t sit well with any of us.
The highway was pretty clear all the way to San Jose. We made a quick stop at the interchange by the San Jose Airport.
California was standing by the front of the Jeep, binoculars in hand. The last time we had seen the smokestack from the scavengers it was headed south. We hadn’t seen it since so we were taking a pretty big chance.
“This is bullshit, Captain,” Charlie blurted from the back seat.
“What is?” I asked.
“What the hell are we doing out here? Following our hopes and dreams?”
“You have a better idea?”
Charlie didn’t answer. I knew he didn’t have a better solution. I also knew he was just venting at the situation. We were all frustrated. It was already hard enough out here and now our home was gone, and we were chasing a ghost. A ghost that we may or may not find.
“Look at these cars,” Declan said, looking up from the radio. He was talking to Charlie but addressing everyone. I looked around us and made note of the cars on the freeway. They were all lined up along either shoulder with a clear path down the center.
“You think everyone abandoned them like that?”
“Who knows?” I said. I still get surprised these days.
“I hope California knows what he’s doing,” Declan finished.
A moment later California was back in the Jeep. “Let’s keep moving,” he said.
We actually got the Jeep up to 50 miles per hour on the highway. I didn’t know it could go that fast. Most times we were dodging abandoned cars
and debris that littered the highways and streets, which makes it hard to actually open it up.
Traveling at that speed we were able to get two days travel in in about half the time. Our map showed a small town, Gilroy, just south of us and it was late afternoon when we reached the town and we set up camp just inside the city limits.
Declan set up the campfire. It was a small one. We had felt we deserved a hot meal. California supplied the meal, a lone deer that was wandering through the city. I know we shouldn’t be picky, but I was getting tired of deer. Even if it was a hot meal, something we didn’t get too much of these days.
As the night passed, we all settled around the fire, relaxing. California was on watch now and he was patrolling the perimeter, intermittently disappearing among the foliage. He was the only one that I never truly doubted, he was fully capable of handling whatever would present itself out there.
Charlie and I were the only ones awake in the camp. We weren’t speaking to each other. He wasn’t angry with me; we just didn’t have anything to say to each other. A series of pops came from beyond the darkness. It was something that I didn’t care to concern myself with as I watched the fire.
I wasn’t sure how long I was asleep or when I had fallen asleep. It was California running into the campsite that woke me up. With a few handfuls of dirt, he snuffed the fire out.
“What is it?” I whispered.
Even with the fire out I could still make out California’s face in the night. An orange glow had been cast over everything. Charlie awoke with a concerned look on his face. He slowly raised a finger and pointed behind me. I turned to see what was creating the glow.
Someone had lit a large fire a few hundred yards away from us. Their shadows were dancing back and forth in the glow like ghosts. You could feel the heat, even at this distance, and I knew then that that was the pops I heard earlier.
“Wake the others,” I said.
One hundred forty-two miles outside of San Francisco and we had caught up to the Scavengers. California had noticed their camp last night and brought it to our attention.
We let the night pass without incident. As much as we all wanted to take these guys down, we were not at a tactical advantage at the moment.
Unfortunately, however, we were in another predicament ourselves. It seems the fall at the airport had damaged our transmission and it had taken all it could at the top of this hill we were now stranded on, overlooking highway 152, east of Gilroy.
Johnny was underneath the Jeep at the moment trying to make it drivable.
Charlie was currently ribbing his younger brother for taking too long. “Come on man. Pick up the pace.”
“Shut up,” Johnny said from under the Jeep.
Johnny seemed to be doing his best and I knew that Charlie was only playing with him, so I left them to it. I just sat at the edge of the cliff with the 152 below me, watching the Scavengers with my binoculars. I felt a presence at my side and lowered the binoculars.
“What do you see, Cap?” California said.
“They’ve stopped for now,” I said.
California raised his sniper rifle to his shoulder and peered through the scope.
“How long are we going to follow them?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” I said and turned and walked back to the Jeep to check on the progress.
Johnny was still under the Jeep.
“How’s it going?” I asked Johnny.
“Almost done,” he said.
“We would’ve been done a lot quicker if actually knew what he was doing.” Charlie said.
“Fuck you,” Johnny snapped.
“Hey, come on,” I started to say to the two of them before I was cut off by California.
“Captain, you need to see this.”
I ran back over to California’s position. I raised the binoculars to my face. The situation seemed the same as before. Two armored personnel carriers stopped in the middle of a once busy highway with Scavengers milling about and patrolling the area.
“What am I looking at?” I asked California.
“Just wait,” he said.
I stared for a tense moment and I was about to give up when out of the bushes came two Scavengers and a third person, a girl. But this girl wasn’t like the rest of them. Her clothes weren’t tattered. She wasn’t dirty. And the most important fact, she was handcuffed. They dragged her out of the bushes to the back of one of their trucks. One of them opened the door and together they threw her into the back of the truck. They had a hostage.
“I would say the situation has changed,” I said.
California and I ran back to the Jeep.
“What is it, Captain?” Declan asked.
“We need to be ready to move in ten,” I said.
“What’s going on?” Charlie asked.
“They have a girl with them,” California answered.
Charlie and Declan looked to me for confirmation.
“A hostage?” Charlie asked.
I nodded.
Johnny finished rigging the transmission.
“What’s the damage?” I asked.
“It’s not good,” Johnny said, wiping his hands of gear oil. “It’s drivable, but it won’t come out of four-wheel drive low. Which means this bad boy isn’t getting above thirty.”
“Dammit,” I said. “In any case, we need to move now. Our timetable has just moved up.”
We were on our way at about the same time the scavengers started moving again. They seemed to be following the freeway much like we had suspected, and with Declan’s observation, they had been doing it for some time and were no doubt settled somewhere close.
California had identified their trucks as Titan IAG armored personnel carriers. Where they acquired these is beyond me. Normally they use beat up pick-up trucks and other tattered vehicles. The Titans were heavily armored and were used to transport troops through less than hospitable areas. Each truck stood about eight feet tall with massive ground clearance. Twenty feet long from bumper to bumper, and they were about eight feet wide. A four hundred horsepower turbo diesel engine powered four steel reinforced radial tires. These things were slow, slower than the Jeep in its current state, but they could go pretty much anywhere. This group was armed to the teeth, a little too much for your average Scavenger.
The forward truck had a steel cow catcher welded to the front. The powerful engine had no trouble pushing through the abandoned cars on the freeway, just like Declan had pointed out.
Following them on the ridge wasn’t going to work for long. We needed to be down there with them. If the highway curved away from the hillside or the scavengers left the highway, we might miss our shot at these guys.
“We need to get down there,” I told Declan.
“How?” he asked.
“The next opportunity you get bring us down there,” I said. “Like right there.” I pointed to the next valley in front of us. The landscape dipped twice then left us with a small opening onto the freeway.
“I see it,” Declan said.
We descended the first valley as I pulled out our map. I wanted a complete understanding of our surroundings when we engaged them.
“Um, Captain?” Declan said.
I lowered the map and saw that we had ascended the last hill and were now peering down at the highway. We had our entrance, but something was missing.
“We lost sight of them, Cap.” Declan said.
“Where did they go?” I asked.
“I don’t know. They were there and, and then they weren’t.”
They left nothing behind. No tire marks. No trash. No toppled trees. Nothing. We couldn’t even see their ominous smoke clouds that were produced from the exhausts. And the trucks themselves weren’t exactly quiet.
My first instinct as a soldier was ambush. So far, they had shown no signs of knowing about us following them, but that didn’t mean that they hadn’t just been playing along.
“Charlie, get on that fifty,” I said.
“Sir,” he acknowledged and stood up into it. He slid the bolt of the rifle loading the first shot ready for the attack that may or may not come.
“Everyone get ready,” I commanded. Simultaneously we all opened our doors and exited the Jeep, battle ready. Each of us scanned the surrounding area for possible threats. So far there was nothing out of the ordinary. Just silence.
After I was satisfied there was no immediate danger, I sent Johnny and Declan to scout the perimeter.
California wandered over to the edge of the ridge overlooking the highway. He had his rifle cradled in his arms. This position made him no less deadly, but he wasn’t expecting to rush into action. I approached him, less relaxed than he was.
“What is it?” I asked.
He looked at me then returned his gaze back to the distance. “Something’s not right,” he said.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, Cap. Those trucks are too high tech for Scavengers. And we lost them too suddenly. Too convenient.”
“Do you think they know we’re following them?”
“I don’t know yet. What I do know is that that girl won’t last much longer.”
“We’ll find them.” I would have said more, but behind us Johnny and Declan had returned from their patrol.
Johnny took a swig from his canteen.
“What did you find?” I asked.
“Zilch,” Declan said. “They didn’t circle back around on us, that’s for sure.”
“It’s like they vanished into thin air,” Johnny added.
“Thanks for clarifying that,” Charlie said. I glared at Charlie. This was no time for jokes, even if he was right. He looked down almost embarrassed.
California walked over to the back of the Jeep and popped open the hatch. He pulled out a hydration backpack and slammed the hatch shut again.
“Where are you going?” Declan asked.
California put the drinking tube into his mouth, took a test sip, then spit the water out. “I’m going to find them,” he said.
Wanderer (Book 2): Hunters Page 4