“Well, I read an article a few years ago that said it had turned into a family vacation destination,” Erin replied.
“Not somewhere I would take kids, back then, but okay.”
“God, you are such a prude sometimes.”
Stryker frowned. “Why do you say that?”
“For God’s sake, it took you two years to even try to get into my pants.”
“I never tried that. It was your idea.” Stryker grinned. “You have a convenient memory.”
“Well, there you go. You just proved my point. If I waited around for you, I would have been menopausal by the time you got around to doing anything.”
Stryker’s mouth opened and closed several times. “We don’t need to talk about this in front of Haley.”
“You think she hasn’t figured out we’re sleeping together?”
“Of course she has, but we don’t need to talk about it in front of her.”
“Why not?” Haley asked. “I might join you guys someday and we can all have fun.”
Stryker looked into the rear view mirror and felt an overwhelming sense of relief when he saw her stifling a laugh with her hand.
After a moment, tired of being the butt of the joke, Stryker said, “Why don’t we stop and get her a vibrator?”
“No need,” Erin replied.
“Why’s that?”
“She borrows mine.”
“You have a vibrator?” He stared at her with slack jawed surprise.
“Sure, doesn’t everyone?”
“Where is it?”
“In my vest.” She plucked a small silver device out of the vest and held it up. She beamed at Stryker with an impish smile.
“That’s a vibrator?”
“Yes.”
“It looks like a toothpick.”
“It does the job.” She again smiled broadly.
“You have a vibrator in your tactical vest?”
“Sure.”
“That’s just screwed up.”
“It’s called ‘the bullet’, so it fits right in. Listen to this.” She turned it on, and Stryker thought it sounded like an outboard engine on a boat.
“Jesus.” Stryker sighed and looked away.
“It’s pretty strong.” She touched a finger to the end of the device.
Stryker decided to just shut up after staring at her for a long moment and wondering when she would have had the privacy to use it, and drove on in silence. He really didn’t want to know any more about it. After a moment, he again glanced in the mirror and saw Haley break out laughing.
After passing through what seemed to be a hundred miles of nothing but untilled agricultural land, Barstow began to appear on the horizon. It was a flat city built on a large pancake of land that surrounded it. They again passed through industrial zones, car dealerships, and fast food joints, and then spotted a squat hotel that sat on the intersection of the freeway and their turn-off.
Stryker pulled up in front of the hotel lobby, entered the building, and emerged a few minutes later. He motioned the ladies toward the structure and went back into the lobby.
An hour later, they finished their MREs and sat in the glow of a camping lantern. Earlier, they checked out three rooms, found skeletons in two of them, and opted for adjoining rooms at the back of the hotel.
“We need to find something to do at night,” Erin said. “Board games or something. We just go to bed because there is nothing else to do, and then we lay awake half the night, and get up the next day and do everything the same way.”
“I used to do crosswords,” Stryker said.
“That’s a solitary pastime. I’m talking about something we can do together.”
“Yeah, like having hot sex,” Haley said.
Stryker raised an eyebrow at Erin. “Tell me she’s kidding.”
“I’m not sure any longer. She is in her twenties and has had no sex for over two years. So, she might be serious. Would it bother you?”
“Yes, it would.”
“Good, it would bother me too,” Erin said.
“Good to know.”
Haley giggled. “I can’t think of anything more fun than screwing around with him. He’s so serious. It’s a hoot.”
“You guys are seriously underutilized if you have time to come up with this stuff.” Stryker said in a gruff tone.
“Well, let’s face it, things are not like they used to be. We’re not going out to clubs or restaurants, and the travel we do is pretty Spartan. Plus, the park was a real oasis and I wouldn’t have minded staying there longer if things had been a bit different.” Erin looked away.
“Yeah, and Frank was really nice,” Haley added.
“Why didn’t you hit on him?” Erin asked. “I thought he was perfect for you.”
“Well, I thought I did.”
“When?”
“When we first got there, he and I were alone in the kitchen for a while. I was helping him get dinner ready and rubbed my boobs against his arm.
“And what did he do?” Erin asked.
“Well, he sort of moved away from me.”
“Guy’s gay,” Stryker said. “If that was me and Erin wasn’t around, you would have been star watching in about two seconds.”
Both women laughed, and then Haley said, “Thanks, I guess.”
“Big talk.” Erin snorted. “You waited way too long with me and now the big talk?”
“Okay, I’m sorry if I’m a dumb ass, but I have to ask a question here and it’s going to sound stupid, but please just give me the truth,” Stryker said.
“Go on,” Erin replied.
“Why are you guys so fixated on sex?”
Both women fell silent, thinking about the question, and finally Erin replied.
“Well, we have the same needs as men. We like having orgasms and feeling connected to someone. But, we also like the idea that affirms that we’re attractive and that men want us. Women think about sex a lot.”
“It’s also power,” Haley added. “The power to have sex is also the power to deny it, and that gives us an edge. Men are stronger and sex gives us a way to get what we want. It might be a rich man or a strong man or a man who treats us well. Any way you cut it, it was the only power women had for centuries, and I guess we still have some little nugget of our brain that responds to that.”
“Well, I guess that makes sense,” Stryker replied. “To young men, there is a certain sense of conquest when you sleep with a woman. But, as we get older, we…” He stopped for a moment and thought it over. “I got less interested in that and more interested in making a family and having something enduring when I met women I liked. I’m not sure I’m typical of most men, but I’m guessing that I am.”
“No, you’re not at all typical of most men,” Erin replied. “Most of them are children who don’t know anything except the next thing they want and damn whatever wreckage they leave behind.” Her tone carried an honest anger.
“Anything you want to tell me about that?” Stryker asked.
Haley looked away, seemingly trying to distance herself from the conversation for once.
“Not right now,” Erin replied.
“You sure?”
“I’m sorry,” she said after a moment. “I need to be honest with you.”
Stryker shot her a sideways glance. “I’d like that.”
“My dad had an affair with another woman and it almost tore the family apart. It was when I was around sixteen years old and I knew about it because I saw them together at a coffee shop.”
“And?”
“Mom found out about it. I should have told her, but I didn’t, so she found out a year later.”
“But they stayed together?” Stryker asked.
“Yes, but nothing was the same after that. The house was not a pleasant place to live, Dad was gone all the time, and Mom spent days at a time having crying fits.”
“Are you worried that will happen to you?” Stryker asked.
“Who wouldn’t be?”
“Not going to happen with me. I would never do that to you.”
“I know.”
Stryker reached across the front seat and took her hand, squeezed it gently, and smiled at her with the expression of a child.
CHAPER TWENTY
Haley emerged from the hotel lobby and found Stryker sitting on the porch, steaming coffee mug in hand, and his feet on a patio table, talking on the sat phone. She sighed and went back to the lobby and made more coffee on the camp stove. The pot on it was empty when she tried to pour a cup.
That’s what happened when left Stryker alone with coffee.
“So, what are we going to do?” Edwards asked.
“I honestly don’t know.”
“If you go in there, you’re theirs. You were active duty and we both know that you’re in their chain of command.”
“I get that. I’m thinking on it and trying to figure out how to approach it,” Stryker answered.
As they got closer to San Diego, Stryker began worrying about how the captain of the Nimitz would view his status. He wasn’t sure he wanted to be in the military again and subject to the whims of officers who may or may not have his group’s best interests at heart. At the same time, he felt an obligation to honor his oath and to contribute to the defense and rebuilding of his country.
“I’m not sure I want to take a risk on a commanding officer I don’t know, and once we’re in, we’re in for good. Even though I wasn’t active duty, they might recall me or something and then we’re both beholding to the captain.” Edwards’s voice was filled with doubt.
Stryker sighed. “I know all that.”
“So?”
“Well, I guess I have to go in there and see what things look like. If I don’t like it, I can try to check out quietly.”
“Well, that may not work. They might not let you leave.”
“I think I’ll leave the ladies at my old place in Camp Pendleton, and go check it out.”
“That may not be the best idea.”
“You got a better one?” Stryker asked. A long pause followed.
“Not really. I want to be a part of rebuilding things, but I’m not sure I want to give up my freedom to do it, and how do we get out of it once we’re in?”
“The short answer is that we don’t,” Stryker replied.
“So, you still think we should try this?”
“No, I think I should try it. You’re still two days away. Why don’t you meet up with Erin and Haley at my old place, stay there until I can figure out what the deal is, and if it’s good, I’ll come get you?”
“We can do that.”
“We need to agree on something right now,” Stryker said.
“Go ahead.”
“If I don’t come get you, get everybody back to the ranch or some other place where you guys can live a good life, but get the hell out of San Diego. If I don’t come get you, things are really bad.”
“Okay, that sucks, but it does make sense.”
“You still on the same route?” Stryker asked.
“Yep, and we saw some people today.”
“Tell me about that.”
“We rode up on a family that was walking down the interstate and gave them a ride into some small town in Washington. They were from Canada, and thought things would be better here. They had two kids, both teenagers and surly as hell.”
“Why the hell would anyone think that things would be better here? That’s brain dead.”
“Got that, but who the hell knows. People must be reaching out to whatever false god they can find.”
“Elle tried to keep them with us, but I put my foot down on that one and we left them in town.”
“Good for you, I guess.”
“Stryker, you sure you want to go in there on a hope and a dream?”
“I don’t have a choice. We drove hours to get here, and the women really need to be with a larger group. It’s not just the social aspect. We’ve been lucky so far, but someday that’s going to run out, and we can’t leave the women to fend for themselves. We need more force protection.” Stryker paused a moment. “I did take an oath, and there was no ‘get out of jail card’ that came with it in case of an apocalypse. I have the obligation to at least check it out. And, the captain has no way of knowing if I was active duty or not. Remember, there are no computers anymore.”
“That’s true,” Edwards allowed.
“I don’t even have to tell him I was ever in the military.”
“True, but he’ll know that when he sees you.”
“How?”
“You don’t look like anything but a marine, and he’s been around lots of marines. He’ll figure it out. When I spoke to him to get the air strikes, he struck me as a pretty smooth customer who knows his business.”
“He might. I guess I just have to take the risk,” Stryker said. “I might just put eyes on the base for a day before I decide what to do.”
“You can always change your mind.”
“I change my mind when the facts change, and they haven’t changed yet. If they do, we can react to it just like we do when faced with any other threat or problem.”
“You hitting the road now?” Edwards asked.
“As soon as the women have their coffee.”
“We better get moving too.”
“I’ll leave the sat phone with Erin when I go to the base, so check in with her every morning.”
“Got it. Good luck.”
“Same to you.” Stryker put the phone back on its charger, and went to get more coffee.
An hour later, they drove south on Highway 347 and again passed through small towns that littered the side of the highway.
Erin drove and Stryker sat in the front passenger seat with his M-4 butt in his lap and the muzzle out the window. They started into a small town the highway ran through and noted the sign as they entered the town limits that announced “Lucerne Valley” and continued driving through the outskirts of town.
The area was filled with small homes on large lots. Tractors and Bobcat skid steer loaders were parked along the sides of the homes, and most were littered with old pickups and a few muscle cars from the ’80s. Most had body putty on them and looked as though they had been a reclamation project in progress.
They passed a transmission repair shop, and a Mormon temple that squatted down on the landscape, a single story structure that looked as though it were a converted house. Then they passed by a Mexican restaurant with a sign that hung suspended from one hook, and drove by a self-storage warehouse.
Stryker glanced around. The place reeked of mild poverty. It was the kind of poorness that he grew up with. Filled with hard-working people that lived on the fringe of the economic divide, but determined to work and get their children a better life.
He wondered at how his grandpa managed to fend for his wife and him, working twelve hours a day, every day. Running a ranch was like owning a restaurant; the work never ended, and the hours were brutal. He thought back on his own career as a marine. Poor pay, crappy living conditions, long deployments, and never knowing if you would make it to old age. He concluded it was a fair trade-off. His gramps lived the life he wanted to live, and so did he.
Nothing stirred as they passed through town, the diesel engine announcing their presence. So far as Stryker could tell, nobody had survived the plague.
He looked down at the map. “We’re going to head east for a bit and then south. It will seem kind of screwed up to you, but it is the best route so just go with it.”
Erin nodded. “Sure.”
They drove on over a flat, featureless desert landscape and passed more small towns, the occasional truck stop and Native-American-operated casino, all filled with dead cars in parking lots and on the roads. Erin deftly navigated around the vehicles and they continued east.
Stryker found himself beginning to nod off, and struggled upright in his seat. He stuck his head out the window, breathed in fresh air and felt a little refreshed. “Ho
w about a break for personal hygiene and water?”
“Sure.” She shrugged and pulled off the highway, after spotting a truck stop. They pulled into the lot and, as always, Stryker cleared the women’s room before they went in. He then walked to the men’s room and started to relieve himself in the urinal when he heard a stirring sound from the stalls in the room. Then he heard the sound of a toilet paper roll unfolding. He pulled his XD and tucked everything back in his pants with his other hand.
Stryker walked to the doorway and waited in silence.
A large man walked out of the stall, and stared at him in a stunned silence.
“Who the hell are you?” The man was as large as Stryker and his face was covered with a lattice of what seemed to be prison tattoos, crudely done and fading.
“I could ask you the same question,” Stryker replied.
The man glanced at the XD aimed at him without the hint of fear.
“Well, Ed’s my name and I was just taking a dump.”
“Where’s your vehicle?”
“Out back.”
“You with anybody?”
“No, I’m by myself.” The man glanced away and Stryker knew he was lying. He walked toward the man, raised the pistol to his forehead and glared at him.
“You want to try again.”
“No.”
Stryker heard Haley scream at the same time the man’s hand came down and tried to wrest the XD from his hand. He jerked the weapon away, raised it, and fired two rounds into his chest and one into his forehead. He fell forward, smearing Stryker’s shirt with blood, then fell to the floor.
Stryker ran to the door before the man hit the floor and came out of the bathroom like a fullback running a slam play. He ran toward the woman’s room in time to see a giant of a man dangling Haley by her neck as he emerged from the bathroom. Erin was on his back, beating the man on the back of his head with her fist, but to no effect.
“Let them go, and I won’t shoot you,” Stryker yelled.
“Hell, you ain’t got a shot.”
Stryker examined the man, and realized he was at least four inches taller and had fifty pounds on him. His arms were covered with prison tattoos and he had a tattoo under one eye of a false teardrop.
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