by Brad Knight
Chapter 8: Rockies
Mack awoke to someone knocking on the windows of the SUV he and Stephanie spent the night in, together. The windows were steamed up so he couldn’t see outside. All he saw was a small fist.
“Get up. Get up. Get up.” Amber used the tried and true tactic employed by kids everywhere: being annoying.
Sleeping in the backseat of a SUV with another person wasn’t conducive to a comfortable night. Mack woke with aches and stiffness all over his body. All the running and fighting he did over the previous month plus, caught up with him. Worse, the burns on his arm weren’t numbed by narcotics. They really hurt.
“What is that noise?” asked Stephanie in a groggy voice. She was just waking up.
Mack didn’t answer. He looked over at her for a moment, then opened the door nearest to him. It was an ill-advised move. Hangovers and bright sunlight didn’t make for the most pleasant combination.
“Jesus, Amber,” said Mack as he got out of the SUV.
“What? I’m hungry. Simon’s cooking some rice for breakfast. So get Stephanie up so we can eat.” Amber walked back to the cabin. There didn’t seem to be any sign of her being upset or distressed like the night before. Did telling Mack her secret help? Or did she simply not remember divulging the secret?
“You know what time it is?” asked Stephanie after opening the door on her side.
“Not a clue.” Mack walked over to the edge of the clearing around the cabin. Once there he relieved himself on the side of a tree.
“My head is killing me.” Stephanie got out and stretched.
Your head is killing you? My arms feel like they’re on fire. And the rest of my body feels like I’ve been in a car crash. So excuse me if I don’t feel bad about your head.
“Amber said your brother cooked breakfast,” informed Mack as Stephanie met him near the front steps of the cabin.
“Let me guess, rice?”
Mack and Stephanie entered the cabin. Although they tried to ignore it, both of them couldn’t help but feel the uncomfortable atmosphere inside. After all, Mack was basically a stranger and he slept with Simon’s twin sister.
“Fun night?” asked Amber with a mischievous smile. She was already sitting at the kitchen table. Simon sat across from her and refused to look at either Mack or Stephanie.
Well isn’t this awkward. What did you expect? Is he pissed? You slept with his sister just feet away from where he was sleeping. Of course he’s pissed. You’d be angry too. That is if you had a sister.
Tread lightly. “Thank you for cooking, Simon,” said Mack as he sat down at the table.
“Mmhmm,” Simon didn’t look at Mack. He spooned rice into his mouth.
“So we were talking last night…” Stephanie tried to change the subject but was interrupted by Amber.
“Is that all you guys did last night? Talk?”
“We’re heading west.” Mack dug into his bowl of rice with his hands. That was until Amber gave him look of disgust and slid him a spoon.
“That so? You decide that all on your own?” asked Simon.
“No, we decided, the both of us,” informed Stephanie.
“Really? So what’s out west?”
“Don’t know,” answered Mack.
“You don’t know? Than why should we go west? Hell, we can stay here and become one happy family. You and my sister can get hitched and…”
“Simon, you can stay here if you want. But we’re leaving and going west. Hopefully we’ll find some place that is untouched.” Mack forced eye contact.
Simon dropped his spoon. It clanged as it hit the side of his bowl. “That’s fucking stupid Mack, and you know it. We don’t know what’s out there. Whereas here, we’re safe. Why risk it?”
“For how long?”
“Huh?”
“For how long will we be safe? We’re not that far from the rodeo arena. And that place is crawling with meat puppets. What’s to stop them from coming here, sneaking up on us in the middle of the night? What’s to stop more of those camouflaged assholes coming and taking us again?”
“I see. You’d rather walk towards danger.”
Enough of this guy. Mack got up from the table. “If that’s the way you feel, then fine. You can stay here. We’re leaving. Amber, get your things.”
“But I’m still eating,” complained Amber.
“Just do it. Please?”
Amber begrudgingly got up then proceeded to do as she was told.
Stephanie gently grabbed Mack’s hand. “Please don’t do this.”
Be strong. No attachments. “I think its best that we leave. Like I said, you two can come with us.”
Mack freed his hand from Stephanie’s loose grip. He met Amber who was leaving the bedroom with her backpack on and his in her hand. Once he put on his pack, Mack grabbed his ax and headed towards the door.
Amber took one last look at Stephanie and Simon. The former watched her and Mack leave. The later kept eating his rice.
Once they left, Mack and Amber followed the long dirt driveway out. Neither one of them said a word. Amber was annoyed that they had to go. Mack was already regretting losing his patience. But he was far too stubborn to admit it. And there was no way he’d go back for the twins. The decision was made. There was no turning back. Not in his mind.
They reached a road. It wasn’t surprising that there was no one on it. After getting his bearings, Mack led them westward.
***
Since leaving the cabin, one question kept replaying in Mack’s head. Why go west? Why not just stay here? At first the query was asked in Simon’s voice. Within a day or two it was in his own voice. And he had no answer. Something was drawing him westward. Or maybe he was just too stubborn to admit that he may have made a mistake. Either way…
Almost a month had passed since Mack and Amber left the cabin. In that time they traveled out of Oklahoma northwest into Colorado. They kept near but off the roads. Towns were approached cautiously, and explored only for supplies. During those last five days they only ran into one group of meat puppets.
The further west they got, the less meat puppets they ran into. As the density of the population dwindled, the safer the road got. Then they ran into a formidable hurdle in early February, the Rocky Mountains.
It quickly became clear that the trek through the Rockies was going to be tough. Neither Mack nor Amber were used to both the weather and terrain. Texas was a relatively flat state. Colorado on the other hand was anything but. For the first time since the outbreak, the environment was their biggest enemy.
“We need a car. And somewhere safe and warm to sleep,” said Amber. She was sitting on the remains of what once was a large pine tree. She and Mack were up high looking down into a valley. Below they could see a small town.
“Yes we do,” agreed Mack. He pulled up the collar of his wool lined brown leather coat. With the coat, long hair and a beard, he resembled Grizzly Adams.
Having lived in Dallas so long, Mack wasn’t used to the cold weather. Sure he was raised in the Midwest but that was almost four decades earlier. Luckily he and Amber were able to score some winter gear from an outdoor recreation store that wasn’t pillaged yet.
Coats, hats, boots and gloves weren’t the only things that Mack and Amber found at the outdoor recreation store. They acquired survival gear like prepackaged meals and water purification tablets. More importantly they got weapons.
Mack was armed with a hunting rifle with plenty of ammunition. Amber was able to get a high tech crossbow with as many bolts as she needed. They chose those weapons even though neither of them ever used them before.
The learning curve for Mack was a little steeper than for Amber. For the young, learning new things is easier. But he was over the hill. Though you can teach an old dog new tricks, it was hard.
“Do you think it’s safe down there?” asked Amber.
“We’re going to find out. Let’s go. We don’t want to be out here when it gets dark.” Mack adjusted
the strap on the hunting rifle slung around his shoulder, then started slowly walking down the slope they were perched on.
He knew they needed to find a car because traveling through the Rocky Mountains on foot would be too dangerous. They had to abandon their tactic of staying off the roads. It was a risk that wasn’t optional but mandatory if they wanted to make it through Colorado.
Mack led the way down. He did so for Amber’s benefit. If she were to stumble, he’d be there to catch her. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anywhere so beautiful in my life. Mack took in his surroundings. Everywhere he looked was picturesque mountainous landscapes dotted with rock, pine and snow. The air was fresh, crisp and cold. Hawks squawked and effortlessly glided through the air. If I don’t make it out of here, that would be okay with me.
Amber didn’t have the same reverence for the Rockies or nature in general. She was a city kid. The most time she spent in nature before the outbreak was summer camp, once. It was such a miserable experience that she refused to go back.
To Amber, nature always went along with being uncomfortable. She hated the creeping cold and moisture from the snow. She hated the frigid winds. She hated the sound of wildlife all around her, robbing any sense of security. She hated how dirty it was. She hated bugs. Her only relief was that they were too high above sea level for many insects.
Mack and Amber had to watch their step as they descended into the valley. Their footing wasn’t good. Both of them fell several times since entering the Rocky Mountains. Loose soil and rock combined with snow was hard terrain to trek, especially on inclines and declines.
It took four hours for them to make it down the two mile slope into the valley. They traded a really big unforgiving hill for thick pine forest. The trade-off for cover from the elements was the chance of running into meat puppets.
Not ten minutes passed before Amber and Mack ran into a small pack of walking dead. They were in noticeably worse shape than the puppets they’d previously ran into. As unkind as the mountains were to the living, they were even rougher on the undead.
“What do you want to do?” asked Amber.
“We could go around them.” That was a test from Mack. He wanted to see how Amber would react.
“Then we’d have to worry about them sneaking up on us from behind.”
Good girl. “So what should we do?”
“Take them out.”
Mack tried his best not to smile. Amber was learning how to survive in the fucked up world they found themselves in. And that made him happy.
“Quietly,” said Mack. He was referring to how they should take out the puppets. That meant Amber was up.
Firing a crossbow was different than firing a gun. Wind had more of an effect on the trajectory of a crossbow bolt than a bullet. And there was less speed which limited a bolt’s range. But it had advantages. Mainly the biggest upsides of the crossbow was the lack of noise and the re-usability of the projectiles.
Amber slowly inched towards the pack of meat puppets. She stayed low and was careful how much weight she put behind each step. There was no avoiding the crunch of the snow but she’d learned to minimize it.
Once she was satisfied that she was close enough, Amber aimed her crossbow. In the half loop sights she trained in on her first target. From what little was left of the thing, it was clear that it was at one time an older woman. To the teen behind the bow, she was practice.
Amber let loose a crossbow bolt. It missed. The wind of the Rockies carried it just inches to the left of the old woman meat puppet’s head. All three of the puppets in the pack converged on where the bolt hit a tree, but not on where it came from.
You can do this girlie girl. Take care of them before they screech. Even though Mack believed in Amber, he had his hunting rifle in his hands. Through his scope he had clear shots. But he didn’t fire. He wanted to give the girl a chance.
The truth of the matter was that Mack knew that eventually he’d be killed. His selfless dedication to protecting Amber meant that he’d put his life on the line on numerous occasions. He knew that on one of those times his luck would run out. When that happened, she needed to be able to take care of herself.
Amber cursed quietly as she loaded another bolt. Her second shot impaled the old woman’s head. It went down. The two other creatures finally saw her and let out loud screeches that echoed throughout the valley.
I'll give her five seconds before I step in. Mack put his finger on the hunting rifle’s trigger. And he watched and waited. He wouldn’t intervene unless Amber was in trouble.
The two remaining meat puppets came for her. She didn’t panic. Instead she controlled her breathing and loaded another bolt. All the while she would glance up to see how close the puppets were getting.
Another bolt was let loose from Amber’s crossbow. It skewered one of the meat puppet’s eyes. The pointed end exited out the back of the creature’s head. There were two down, one to go.
That’s it. Learn to conserve ammo. Mack watched as Amber took out the long hunting knife she got from the outdoor recreation store. She waited until the last puppet got close. Then she sprung up and buried the knife’s blade into it’s skull.
Mack slung his hunting rifle over his shoulder and walked over to her. The girl was a little high on adrenaline, but happy. That group of meat puppets was the first that she took down all by herself. It was an accomplishment, and they both were proud.
***
The sun fell as Mack and Amber reached the outskirts of Hidden Valley, Colorado. In front of them was a neighborhood filled with homes surrounded by the pine forest. Only brief clearings in the trees and roadside mail boxes gave any indication that there were houses.
Like much of the country, Hidden Valley was quiet. Amber and Mack were sure there were meat puppets around them. But they didn’t see any. Nor did they want to stick around long enough that they would. They just kept walking at a brisk pace through the streets until night enveloped the small town. They’d hoped to reach downtown before the last gasps of daylight were gone, but that didn’t happen.
Shelter. We need to find shelter. In Mack’s mind they needed to get indoors and do so fast. Days in the Rocky Mountains were not hospitable. Nights were even more so.
“C’mon,” kindly ordered Mack as he started walking up one of the nearby driveways. Amber predictably followed close behind. She raised one eyebrow as she noticed the partly deflated balloons attached by ribbon to the mailbox at the entrance.
They made their up the driveway. Both of them had their weapons trained on the woods that flanked both sides of the path. Their eyes adjusted to the dark and were able to see as much as they needed to. It was their ears that were on alert. Any attempts at stealth by meat puppets were thwarted by their own need to screech.
When they got close, Mack and Amber could see the house at the end of the driveway. It was huge. At three stories high and bigger than most department stores, whoever lived there before the outbreak was doing very well for themselves. The home was wide and long and had a minimalist modern design.
“Remember, stay close,” said Mack. He opened the front door and quickly raised his hunting rifle. Amber was behind him and turned on her flashlight.
There was a banner hanging above a staircase that lit up in the beam of Amber’s torch. It said: “Congratulations, Marie”. They both speculated in their heads as to what Marie was being congratulated for.
“You take the ground floor. I’ll check upstairs.” Mack slowly and quietly started up the staircase. Without Amber’s flashlight, it was a little hard to see. But he would make do.
This is a bit creepy. Amber was reminded of the horror movies she used to love to watch. Before the outbreak she thought that being in a real life horror flick would be fun. That was before she found herself living in one.
Amber started with what she guessed was a dining room. It was very stylish in a pretentious kind of way. There were paintings on the walls that looked like nothing but simple shapes in primar
y colors. Whoever lived here was a bit of a douche.
Was it her birthday? That’s a pretty shitty gi…there’s the presents! On the table in the middle of the dining room were a dozen or so presents. They were all stacked up in a pile of colorful wrapping paper and pink bows.
Considering that there was no one coming for them, Amber decided to open up the gifts. The other rooms could wait. Plus there could’ve been something useful wrapped in the gaudy paper.
The first gift was a pair of tiny shoes, booties. They were so small that she could fit them in one hand. Was Marie a baby?
Amber moved on to the next present. Wrapped in ribbon and bow on the top of it was a card. Now that couldn’t possibly serve any survival purpose. Still, she was curious.
With her flashlight in her mouth, Amber opened the envelope. There was a cartoon character woman on the front. Her belly was swollen in a substantial baby bump. The woman looked happy. Above her was the word: “Congratulations”.
Amber opened the card. The light from the torch in her mouth shook. Inside was the same cartoon character woman. She looked aggravated and stressed. There was a kid running amok behind her. Written above was: “See you in 18 years.”
Unsatisfied, Amber threw it aside. She dug into the second present. It was a box. According to the pictures and writing on it, there was some contraption called a bouncer inside.
I’m wasting time. Amber dropped the bouncer and moved on to the next room. It was large and her footsteps echoed throughout its open design. She checked every inch of the large room and found nothing useful except purses. And there were quite a few of them. A woman would only leave her purse behind if she was in a hurry. Glasses of flat champagne and wine on the room’s coffee table added to her determination that the outbreak reached Hidden Valley mid-party.
The small handbags housed some useless things like makeup and wallets. There were some breath mints and gum that Amber decided to take. She also took some “feminine hygiene products”.
Next up was the kitchen. The smell emanating from it wasn’t inviting, but Amber wanted to be thorough. Out of all the things human beings needed to survive, none were more important than food and water.