Riders of the Apocalypse (Book 1): Ride For Tomorrow

by Westmore, Alex

  Keeping the binoculars to her eyes, she scanned the grounds below her for fifteen, twenty, thirty minutes. Nothing. Then she saw Zeus. Lowering the binoculars, Dallas rode quickly to the dog, which raised his hackles and growled when she rode up.

  “Peanut?”

  Dallas jumped off the saddle and knelt down, five feet from the dog. “Easy, Zeus. It’s me.”

  The dog sat down and stopped growling but the hackles remained up.

  “Peanut!” Dallas called out. She slowly rose when she saw the dirt and cut grass move a foot behind the huge beast.

  Uncovering herself, Peanut brushed off her camouflage and ran to Dallas, who hugged her tightly. “You okay?”

  Peanut nodded. “My daddy taught me that trick when we would play hide and seek.”

  “That’s a good trick. Where’s Einstein?” she asked the little girl.

  “He made me get off and told me to hide.”

  “What happened to him?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. I got off the horse and ran like he told me to. Is he okay? Where’s Roper?”

  “I don’t know, honey, but we’re going to find out.”

  Roper answered all of the doctor’s medical questions without giving him any information he could use against her. Whenever she tried asking questions, he shut her down, explaining the same pat line he’d repeated to Stephanie, her roommate. It was the same tired line over and over: Only the select few would be allowed to transfer to the compound. If Roper cooperated and showed no ill effects from the vaccine, she could be transferred in the next day or two, blah, blah, blah.

  Roper tuned him out. Instead, she spent her time sizing him up. She knew she could take him, but getting out alive would be a bit trickier.

  Stephanie had told her all she could about the security and size of the facility. She estimated about three hundred beds, a dozen or so doctors, and closer to fifty armed soldiers, all through the perpetually closed linen screen.

  Roper had her work cut out for her if she was going to get out of here before they sent her to the “compound.”

  What a crock. This whole place was reminiscent of Mengele’s torture camps. She was nothing more than a lab rat...only she had no intention of eating their cheese or drinking their Kool-Aid.

  “They said I’ll be able to leave here around noon tomorrow when a new transport truck leaves.” Stephanie had perked up a great deal over the last few hours and had talked nonstop whenever they were alone, which was most of the time.

  “Did they tell you how far away it is?” Roper asked.

  “Yes. The truck ride is about ten minutes, to what they call the bus station. From there, it’s another eight hours or so to the compound.”

  “Which is where, exactly?”

  “They won’t say. I guess its top secret or something. If everyone knew where it was, it would get over-crowded.”

  The prolonged fabrication made Roper’s mouth taste sour. They would be taking her to her death only after subjecting her to...to what? She couldn’t imagine the military housing any of the man eaters to actually bite people. That would be far too dangerous and gross. More than likely, they had managed to create or recreate the same virus the terrorists had dropped. The other alternative was simply too frightening to consider.

  “If you have a hard time sleeping tonight, they’ll give you a sedative.”

  Roper nodded. She had no intention of sleeping. What she had to do was figure out a way to get out of there, and sleep would not do it.

  “Will the doctors come around often tonight?”

  “Oh no. Once lights are out, it gets pitch dark in here. They won’t be back until breakfast, unless you start screaming and making noise. Then they’ll sedate you. A security guard comes around once every hour, but he doesn’t peek behind the curtains. He just walks to the back of the room and out again.”

  A germ of an escape plan started in Roper’s mind. The only real issue was whether or not she should attempt it during the night. It might actually be safer to get out during the daylight when she could see where she was going and who was after her.

  It was a coin toss.

  “You’re awfully quiet,” Stephanie said softly. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Are you worried you won’t make it to the compound? You sound pretty healthy to me.”

  Healthy was a relative term that had no bearing on this situation. This was a disgustingly desperate move by a government that had already lost the first few battles in an all-or-nothing war.

  “Just tired, that’s all. I’m not fond of being tied to a bed.”

  “It’s for your safety, that’s all.”

  When Stephanie finally quieted down, darkness crept into the medical facility on the inside while enormous lights run by generators shone all around the exterior of the camp. Roper knew there weren’t too many nights left for generator use. This was probably the government’s last-ditch effort at a vaccine.

  Roper counted the seconds in between rounds of the searchlight. It only varied by twenty seconds, at the most, but as much as she wanted to get out there, running around blindly in the night didn’t seem like the best-laid plan. Besides, she reckoned the soldiers had more people to report back to than doctors, so if she was going to get out of here alive, she’d have to do so during the day.

  And that was the beginning of her plan.

  It took Dallas less than fifteen minutes to track down Einstein. She’d spent enough time with him that she knew he would go back to the last safe place they’d been and, sure enough, there he was, pacing back and forth. When he saw them riding up, he ran toward them, but stopped when he saw Zeus.

  Peanut jumped off the horse and ran to him. Dallas threw her leg off the saddle and nearly collapsed when she landed. Her ass hurt so much she could barely stand.

  After picking up Peanut and hugging her, Einstein threw his arms around Dallas. “Thank God you’re okay, but...” He looked into her eyes. “Where is she?”

  Dallas shook her head. “They got her.”

  Einstein’s face fell. “You don’t...she’s not—”

  “No, no, I don’t think so. They wouldn’t have taken her otherwise. They’d have just left her body there.”

  “They took her? You mean, to that med facility?”

  Dallas nodded. “We need to get Merlin and go after her.”

  “After her? Dallas, we have no idea where they’ve taken her.”

  “We don’t, but we know who does. Saddle up, kids. We’re going after Luke.”

  As they rode toward the frontage road, Einstein said, “This is awfully dangerous, Dallas.”

  “I don’t care. We’re in this together, and if those mother fu...if those asswipes are taking her to that medical facility—” She turned to Einstein, tears in her eyes. “I made a promise to her. I plan on keeping that.”

  Thirty minutes later, they rode up on him walking along the freeway.

  When Luke heard the horse’s hooves, he raised his hands in the air. “I figured it was too good to be true. You decided to kill me after all.”

  Dallas shook her head. “It’s not that. It’s Roper. They got her.”

  “They? The zombies?”

  “Your people.”

  He blinked. “Oh.”

  “It’ll be the same thing unless we can get her out of there,” Einstein said.

  “You’re thinking of breaking her out of a medical facility manned by armed military?”

  Both Dallas and Einstein nodded.

  He shook his head. “Do you have any idea how impossible that is?”

  “Look, I’m not asking for your help,” Dallas said. “I’m asking for you to take us there. That’s it.”

  “Take you there, and then what? Stand by while you bust her out?”

  “I’ll go after her. Einstein and Peanut can stay with you, gun trained at you should you decide—”

  He held up his hands. “No need for all that, Dallas. I won’t get in your way.
I just think it’s a suicide mission is all.”

  “Maybe so, but I’m not going to stand by while they turn Roper into a man eater. I made a promise, and I’m going to keep it. Now hop on.” She held her hand out, and Luke grabbed her wrist and jumped on the back of the horse.

  “This is crazy, Dallas. You know that, right?”

  Urging Morgana on, Dallas replied, “I’m getting pretty used to crazy.”

  Roper fell asleep somewhere around four o’clock. When she woke up, she was being wheeled to another room. She barely had time to glance over her shoulder to see Stephanie’s bed empty.

  “Where you taking me?” Her heart was pounding, and she considered using her Buck knife she’d spent half the night getting from her boot to beneath her thigh. It had been a tedious, laborious process, but eventually she got it to a place where, if she raised her hips from the bed and came down hard on the flat of the blade, the handle would lift just enough that she could grab it.

  “We’re just going to draw some blood and run a few tests. You’ll be back in no time.”

  “What about Stephanie? Where is she?”

  “She’s on her way to the compound. Isn’t that exciting?” The voice was flat and devoid of emotion.

  Roper felt her heart banging beneath her chest. If she died slashing and hacking her way out of here, it would be a far better death than whatever these living ghouls had in mind.

  When they reached the next room, Roper was surprised to see a large black man quadruple-tied to the bed, his massive legs tied at the ankles with dozens of cable ties. Sweat beaded across his forehead, and pit stains under his armpits looked days old.

  “The doctor will be in shortly.”

  When the nurse left, Roper cleared her throat, causing the man to open his eyes. “Another one? I thought I was the only one,” He said.

  “Only one what?”

  He held up his bandaged wrist. “To get bit and live to tell about it. They’re pretty fascinated with me. I’m practically a movie star.”

  “You...you were bitten?” Roper felt like she was jumping out of her skin. She wanted away from this man.

  He held his wrist up for her to see. “Coupla days ago. I reached in to help a friend get away from three of them and as it went for his neck, it accidentally bit me.”

  “And you lived? Wow. You’re like a man eater rock star.”

  He chuckled. “So are you.”

  Roper cocked her head. “I’ve never been bitten.”

  “No? What’s that?” He nodded with his head to the scar on her upper arm. “That? I was bitten by a horse a couple of weeks ago. This isn’t—”

  “Shh. Don’t let them know that. The only reason we’re still alive is because they think we’ve got something that will help them.”

  The light went on in Roper’s mind. “Oh. I get it now. They think we have the key to finding a vaccine.”

  “Maybe we do, but as long as they think we’re special, we might just make it through this alive. Name’s Jeff, but my buddies call me Safety. That was my position on the football team.”

  She smiled. “My friends call me Roper.”

  “Well, Roper, I’m glad I’m not going to die alone.”

  “If I have my druthers, we won’t die here at all.”

  Safety narrowed his eyes at her. “You got a gun?”

  She shook her head. “Not yet. A gun won’t get us out of here, but I think I know what will.”

  When they were finally alone, Roper cut herself free.

  “You gotta...a knife?” Safety said.

  “And a plan.” As soon as she was free, Roper cut Safety loose, all the while telling him to be silent.

  “I ain’t gonna argue with a lady who carries a Buck knife that size in her boot.”

  Roper shushed him more. “You start turning, and I’ll bury this hilt deep in your eyeball, understand?”

  He nodded as he slid his trunk-like legs around to the side of the bed.

  “Uh uh. I need you to stay up there. When the doctor comes in, I am going to call him to me. When I do, I need you to take him out.”

  “Kill him?”

  “Kill him, knock him out, it’s all the same to me. Just make sure he doesn’t cry out.”

  “Then what?”

  Roper heard footsteps. “You’re about to find out.” Grabbing her ponytail, she took the Buck knife and sawed it off, then stuffed it under her pillow. She jumped back on the bed, put her hands back up on the railing, and looked over at Safety before nodding once.

  When the doctor walked in, clipboard in hand, Roper moaned. “You have to get me some water. I need water.”

  The doctor walked over. “You don’t need any—”

  With speed that belied his enormous size, Safety leapt from his bed and, without breaking stride, took the doctor’s head in his hands and snapped his neck.

  Just like that.

  Roper grabbed the doctor before he slid to the ground. “Quick! Get him on the bed.”

  Safety lifted him up as if he were but a doll. Roper pulled off his scrub shirt, his glasses, his face mask, and his skull cap. When she had them on, she turned to Safety, who stared.

  “How does it look?”

  “You need the pants.”

  “He shit them, can’t you smell it?”

  Safety tugged them off. The doctor was wearing stained tighty whities. “Just pull them over your jeans. Then you’ll look perfect.”

  Roper did so, ignoring the stench. Then she adjusted her mask, palmed her knife, and turned to Safety, who was far more enormous standing upright than he’d appeared in the bed.

  “Jesus, you’re huge.”

  “That’s what she said. What now?”

  “We’re going to walk out of here, walk to the transport vehicle, and put you in the back.”

  “Oh hell no.”

  “Then I’ll walk to the driver, stick a knife in his throat, and commandeer the transport vehicle out of here, but that way is riskier.”

  “We’ll never make it that far together. The doctors hand off the patients to the soldiers at the transport.”

  Roper put her hands on his biceps. They were rock hard. “You’re going to have to trust me.”

  Safety looked into her eyes and nodded. “Don’t see as I have much a choice.” He put his hands behind him as if they were handcuffed. “Give it your best shot, girl.”

  Pulling the covers over the dead doctor so it looked as if he was asleep, Roper took hold of Safety’s wrist and pushed him along the makeshift hallway until they came to the soldiers at the main entry.

  Her heart was pounding so fast, she was afraid they would see it.

  The soldier didn’t even look at her. For his part, Safety looked over his shoulder at Roper, who averted her eyes from the second soldier, who was staring at her. She wasn’t going to let Safety get hauled away without at least attempting to save him. Besides, that transport vehicle was all she had to get them out of there.

  As she watched Safety being checked in by a soldier waiting at the back of the truck, Roper made her move and swept past the soldier at the door. As she strode toward the transport, she kept waiting to hear the soldier’s voice call her back.

  When he didn’t, she blew by Safety and walked up to the driver’s open window. “I need some air. Would you guys mind taking me a mile or so out?”

  The driver and passenger exchanged glances, and Roper had a split second to decide what to do. In a flash, she had the large Buck knife against the throat of the driver. “Either of you move or yell out and I’ll cut his fucking head off. We clear?”

  Both nodded.

  “Good. Passenger, your weapons...slowly...on the floor.” Roper pressed the knife deeper for emphasis. “Now you, hand me your sidearm. Be smart here, fellas. I’m a dead woman walking. Killing you makes no difference one way or the other.”

  Just as the soldier handed her his gun, Roper felt the barrel of a gun in her ribs. “Drop the knife.”

  She did. />
  “Move and I’ll kill you where you stand.”

  Both soldiers in the cab of the transport hurriedly picked up their weapons. “Son of a bitch, Hal, how’d you let her escape?”

  “Look at her! She looks like a fucking doctor.”

  The driver threw open the door, her Buck knife clattering to the ground. “Pull a knife on me? You fucking bitch!” He backhanded her so hard, she fell into the soldier behind her.

  “Put her in the fucking van, Hal. She’s going straight to the ghouls. And next time, do your fucking job.”

  When they opened the transport doors, Safety’s face fell. Once Hal cable-tied Roper’s hands in the front, he shoved her into the truck.

  “I’m so sorry,” Roper said after they pushed her in next to the other passengers and closed the doors.

  “Don’t be sorry,” a young boy said. “We are going to the compound.”

  Sitting on a bench next to Safety, Roper wiped the blood off her lip with her shoulder.

  “No need to apologize. I’da been in the truck sooner than later.” Safety reached over and held her hands in his huge mitt. “Wanna go out in a blaze of glory?”

  Roper nodded. Anything was better than being bitten and turned.

  Safety leaned over and spoke quietly to her. “The minute those doors open, I’ll knock them over like the little white bowling pins they are.”

  “Gotcha. I’ll go for a weapon and just start shooting. The drivers are armed. I imagine there are soldiers everywhere,” Roper said.

  Safety locked eyes with her. “Take out as many as you can. Blaze of glory means just that. Take the motherfuckers out.”

  “I think our best bet is to make another play for the transport driver. If we go last, there will be more confusion and chaos.”

  He rubbed his hands together. “Then I’ll take out those who open the door, make a U-turn and go straight for the driver. It’s gonna take a lot to stop me. I useta be pretty damn good.”

  The truck was stuffy and smelled slightly of urine and something unsuccessfully trying to cover it up. It wasn’t dark, but there was a grey pallor hanging in the air. There were at least ten other people crowded in the back, and the smell of fear permeated everything.