“Mommy!” Jonathan cried.
“Are they going to kill us, daddy?” Cassidy cried.
“Not if I have anything to do with it, honey.”
“What happens when we make it to the road?” Jake asked.
Cliff thought for a second or two; he played scenarios in his head. He looked over his right shoulder, seeing Jennifer comforting Jonathan. His eyes met Cassidy’s. She was scared and crouched between the seats on the floorboard.
“We make it there; we’ll need to rush to the ditch across the road and lay low. We’ll jump in the back of the truck,” Cliff replied.
“Let’s hope that’s all we have to do,” Jake said.
The Defender slowed to a complete stop in the middle of the county road. Steam bellowed from the vehicle’s hood.
“Go! Go!” Cliff yelled.
He sprang from his seat and sprinted around the front of the Defender, ducking when a bullet whizzed overhead. Cliff reached the rear passenger door and swung it open. He reached in and grabbed Cassidy by the waist.
“Let’s go, honey!”
He looked over his shoulder to see a white van, screeching to a stop next to him.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
Cliff turned to see Galvin opening the sliding door of his white van.
“Hurry! Get in!” Galvin commanded.
Cliff carried Cassidy into the van. Three gunshots rang out, followed by shattering glass. He had to act fast. He couldn’t believe the monsters in the field were shooting at the children.
“We have got to move now!”
Jennifer slid across the rear seat with Jonathan as the door window shattered, sending shards of glass raining over her. Cliff grabbed Jonathan and held him close, trying to shield him from any bullets as he slid him into the van. He returned to help Jennifer when he saw her grabbing a suitcase and two duffel bags.
“Leave them!”
“No!” Jennifer protested. “This one has the medicine. These two bags have ammo and canned food. We’ll need them!”
“Leave them! They’re no good to us if we’re dead!”
Jennifer ignored him. She threw the suitcase at him.
“Jennifer? We got to go…now!” Jake pleaded.
She threw him the duffel bag then climbed into Galvin’s van after pausing to give him a look. She reached for her back pocket and felt the Colt handgun.
“Let’s go, mommy!” Jonathan cried.
She smiled then slid herself next to Cassidy and Jonathan. She held both in her arms, trying to give comfort. “It’s going to be ok. We’re going to be safe.”
Jake and Cliff climbed into the van, with Jake in the front seat. Cliff slid himself next to Jonathan and put his arm around his back.
“Follow the truck, Galvin,” Cliff instructed. Just as he finished giving instructions, another bullet struck the rear door of Galvin’s van.
“Geez! Those guys are relentless!” Galvin said as he pressed on the gas pedal.
Cliff looked through the rear door windows, “We might be clear? It’s too early to say. Flash your lights at the truck, pull up behind him when he pulls over.” Cliff instructed. “We might have to leave in a hurry if we see headlights coming at us.”
Galvin smiled at Cliff. “I doubt that.”
Cliff cocked his head at him, “Huh?”
“I threw their keys in the field. I doubt they’ll find ‘em,” Galvin grinned.
“What? How? Cliff asked.
Galvin smiled. He slowed the van and parked behind the truck.
“What did you do now?” Cliff asked as he stepped from the van.
Cliff met Doug and Galvin in front of the van. He introduced Galvin to Doug.
“That’s a heck of a grip you got there.” Galvin grinned.
“I can’t thank you enough for showing up when you did. We would’ve been sitting ducks. Thank you,” Cliff smiled.
“That was brave of you,” Doug chimed in.
“It was nothing. I’m glad I could help.”
Cliff turned to Doug. His smile turned serious. “I left the map in the Defender. I have part of the route memorized but not all of it. Can you lead?”
“No problem.”
“We lost almost everything in the Defender,” Cliff stated. “Some of the guns, ammo, some medicine, and all the water.”
“We should be ok,” Doug replied. “We have some in the truck, it should be enough for a day.”
“I hope so,” Cliff said, then turned to Galvin. “Galvin, I can’t ask you just to drop everything and come with us. I know you have to take care of your mother.”
Galvin shook his head. “Mom passed,” he stated. His voice was trailing off.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Galvin. I’m sad to hear that.”
Galvin looked past Cliff, off into the distance, trying to gather his thoughts. He knew, but didn’t know how to put it in words. “She passed in her sleep,” he replied, knowing she had killed herself by overdosing on pain pills and alcohol. He hated her for being selfish, but knew it was a tough choice since the outbreak. The future didn’t look promising for anyone, much less someone with a chronic illness. He fought back a tear.
“There’s nothing here for me now. I’d like to come, if it isn’t too much to ask?”
“Ok. Follow Doug as long as you can. If you get tired, wake Jake or one of us in the back. Our plan is to drive along the back roads. There’s no telling what we’ll encounter, so be prepared for anything,” Cliff explained.
“No problem.”
Cliff turned to Doug, “How are you holding up? Can you make it?”
“Yeah, I think so. If I get tired, I’ll have Cassandra or Chris drive. Maybe at first light, we can swap drivers?” Doug suggested.
Cliff patted Doug on the shoulder and returned to the van. He slid across the open floor of the van and nestled against Jennifer and the kids. He fell asleep before they completed a mile.
“You let them leave!” Dane yelled at Bruce.
“The hell I did!”
“Did you hit anything you aimed at?”
“Kiss my ass, Dane.” Bruce grew irritated. He stared at Dane. The light from the burning house lit the side of the their faces. He did try to hit the fleeing truck; there was no doubt in his mind.
“Fine! Let’s get back and regroup.”
Bruce nodded and followed Dane back to the road where the F750 was parked. The two men didn’t speak to each other. Bruce thought the plan was foolproof. He was surprised they had managed to get away. He was in disbelief, but decided not to waste energy on thinking about it further; he wanted to sleep.
“You guys come with me!” Patricia exclaimed as Bruce and Dane approached the road.
“What’s wrong?” Dane asked.
“It’s David. Someone attacked him. Hurry!”
Dane exchanged looks with Bruce, then rushed to David’s truck. The tailgate was down. David was laid across it. He had been beaten; his right eye was swollen shut, the left eye was nearly as swollen, and blood drained from his nose.
“Who did this to you?” Dane asked over David’s moans.
“I … I … don’t … know,” David replied, his voice barely audible.
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“He … came … out … of nowhere.”
“Geez!”
“Can you travel? We need to get back to the hanger,” Dane asked.
Patricia nodded and leaned over David. She whispered in his ear.
Dane watched David’s lips move, but couldn’t hear his words.
“He said yes,” Patricia said.
“Bruce, ride with her in case she needs help with David. I’ll follow you in the big truck,” Dane instructed.
Patricia and Bruce grabbed David under each arm and slid him further into the bed of the truck. He moaned and grimaced when they moved him. Patricia entered the truck and reached for the keys in the ignition. She searched the cab, “Do you have the keys?”
“No. Maybe David does?”<
br />
Patricia walked around to the side of the truck and asked David if he had the keys.
“… should be in the ignition,” David moaned.
“They’re not there. I’ve looked around the cab. I can’t find them!”
Patricia searched the cab, under the seat, in the ash tray, and inside the glove box without any luck. She grew frustrated. “I don’t want to be out here after we just let loose forty or so of those zombies!” she stated, her voice full of anxiety.
Dane jogged up to her door window, breathing heavy. “Where’s the keys?”
“What? Our keys are gone, too!”
“What the hell happened when we were in the field?”
Patricia shrugged her shoulders. “I was out there, too. I don’t know who did this to him or stole our keys!”
Dane balled his fist. He looked around sucking air between his teeth. “We’ll have to hot wire them.”
“Better hurry. I think those walking corpses are coming this way,” she pleaded.
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
Jennifer woke to see Jonathan and Cassidy sleeping next to her in the van. She opened the sliding door of the van and stepped out into the sunlight. She couldn’t believe they survived. On many occasions, she thought their lives were coming to an end, but somehow Cliff pulled them through the worst of it. She saw they were parked on the side of a two-lane road, surrounded by open land. A creek ran perpendicular to the road. Below the embankment, she found Cliff and everyone else filling containers with water from the creek. They placed water filtration pills in each container and shook the bottle.
Cassandra and Chris were across the creek, watching the water experiment inside their bottle while Owen and Tyler played. The tranquil setting before her was in total contrast to the devastation they went through the night before.
She saw Galvin kneeling by the water; her jaws tightened. She’d never met him, but the stories disgusted her. The sight of him with his shaggy brown hair made her stomach ache. Everything about him made her feel uneasy. She couldn’t believe he was with them, much less that he had saved them. She took a deep breath, hoping to relax her anger.
Cliff rose to his feet when he saw Jennifer. He smiled and waved. She walked down the embankment to where Cliff and Jake were conversing.
“You slept well?” Jake asked.
“I’m surprised I did,” Jennifer smiled, running her hand through her hair.
“Kids all right?” Cliff asked.
Jennifer nodded. “Where are we?”
“It’s nine in the morning and Doug thinks we have another day of driving before we get there. We’re not far from New Holland,” Cliff explained. “We stopped here to relax and stock up on water since we lost half our supply.”
She looked around the open land, took a deep breath, and stretched. “What’s the plan? Do we have anything for the kids to eat?”
“There’s food in the truck. MRE’s, canned food, and some dry cereal are left. I’m sure the kids are starving after last night,” Cliff pointed to the truck parked in front of the van. “We think there’s a National Guard armory few miles up the road. We’ll see if the codes Chris has actually work.”
“And me,” Jennifer quipped as she walked away. She glanced back at Cliff to see him watching her.
“How ya’ doing, Jennifer?” Doug asked as he exited the cab of the truck.
“Well, and you?”
“Good as good can be,” he replied. “Here’s a box of granola bars Owen and Tyler had this morning,” he offered.
“Thanks,” she smiled, taking the box from him.
“Hey! While you’re up here,” Doug began, “is that the feller you argued not to have come with us at dinner the other night?”
“Yes, it is.”
“In that case, I’ll keep an eye on him for you. He’ll have hell to pay if he gets out of line,” Doug smiled. “There’s no law out here anymore. The law is what we say it is.”
“Thank you, Doug. Please do. I don’t feel safe. And, thank you for the granola bars,” she smiled.
“Anytime,” Doug replied as she walked to the van.
It was an hour’s drive from the watering hole to the National Guard armory. Galvin slowed the van to a stop in front of the sliding gate in front of the armory. A seven-foot tall chain link fence surrounded the armory. Cliff smiled when he spotted a row of Humvees parked behind the building. Please let there be keys.
“Looks quiet,” Galvin quipped.
Cliff agreed, “Sure is.”
He grabbed his Ruger Mini-14 rifle and exited the van. He walked to the sliding gate and pushed on it. The gate was held closed by a motorized gate operator. He whistled at Doug and motioned for him to drive the truck to the gate. Cliff retrieved a ten-foot chain he kept in the tool box and tied it to the leading edge of the gate. He tied the loose end to the front bumper. Doug shifted the trucks gear into reverse and slowly drove backward, bending the gate. The truck’s motor quickly bent the gate wide enough to drive through the opening.
“That’s good!” Cliff yelled. Cliff unwrapped the chain returned it to the tool box. “Go slow. There’s no telling what we’ll find inside,” Cliff instructed Doug. He climbed into the van and told Galvin to follow.
Cliff turned around, “You guys stay in the van. We’ll come get you when it’s safe to enter,” he said to Jennifer and the children.
Jennifer agreed and hoped she wouldn’t be left in the van with Galvin.
“Galvin, you got a gun?” Cliff asked.
“No.”
Cliff reached in his back waistband and handed him the Colt Single-Action pistol. “Know how to use it?”
Galvin nodded his head and half-cocked the revolver, then rotated the cylinder checking the weapon. “Yep.”
Cliff smiled. “Let’s go.”
Cliff, Jake, and Galvin met Doug and Chris at the armory’s entrance. The door was locked.
“You bring flashlights?” Cliff asked the men.
Doug and Jake nodded.
Cliff found a large stone in the landscaping bed in front of the building. He threw it through the glass of the door. Chris climbed through and unlocked it from the inside. Jake led the front with a flashlight, with Doug in the rear, watching over his shoulder. Halfway inside the building, they came to a second hallway. Jake shined his flashlight on the far wall and spotted a sign that read: ARMORY; it had an arrow pointing left.
“That way,” Jake stated.
They passed two offices and three conference rooms before they found a second sign extending from the wall.
“This must be it,” Jake stated, his flashlight aimed at the door.
Two windows bordered the door; black iron bars formed a lattice just inside the glass. Cliff was surprised to see the door was no different than the other doors lining the hallway. He tried the knob; it was locked. He positioned himself a few feet from the door and kicked right below the doorknob. On his third kick, the door broke free.
“Damn, that was easy,” Jake proclaimed.
Jake scanned his flashlight around the room. It was a small room with a single desk. A metal screen ran from floor to ceiling right behind the desk. To the right of the desk was a metal screen door. Cliff and Jake entered and aimed the flashlight through the screen. Ten feet back was a large metal door with a digital keypad below a solid metal wheel.
“Bingo!” Jake blurted.
“Yeah, but we first have to get through this metal screen,” Cliff stated while examining the mesh. He tried the door and smirked when the door rattled; it was locked. “We’re going to need a blow torch to get through this thing before we even know if those codes of Chris has actually work.”
“How about these?” Doug offered.
Cliff turned around to see Doug holding five keys. He rolled his eyes as he reached for them.
The fourth key Cliff tried opened the door. He felt he was an archeologist opening the door to a tomb.
Inside the smaller room, Cliff caught sight of six case
s of MRE’s. “Galvin, load those in the van; they’ll be handy later.”
“Bring that code over, Chris,” Cliff instructed.
Chris brought him the piece of paper with the code written on it. He fumbled the paper in his hands until the numbers were upright.
“Don’t you need the electricity on for this to work?” Jake asked.
“No. The keypad runs on a nine-volt battery, and has a backup key just in case. I’m sure the battalion commander has possession of it somewhere,” Cliff said.
Jake aimed the flashlight light on the keypad as Cliff entered the code. The keypad chirped with each digit punched. He entered the code.
Cliff smiled, “Moment of truth.”
He entered the last digit and tried the wheel on the safe door. The wheel moved a quarter of an inch and stopped. Cliff tried to force it, but the wheel didn’t budge.
“Crap.”
“Try it again,” Doug blurted.
Cliff re-entered the numbers slower and tried the wheel. “It doesn’t work,” Cliff said sounding defeated.
“We can’t give up,” Jake protested.
Cliff didn’t say a word as he handed Jake the piece of paper. Cliff stood from the door.
“Sorry, guys. I was hoping the code was true,” Chris apologized.”
Doug patted Cliff on the back.
Jake typed the code on the keypad.
“It’s no use, Jake,” Cliff stated.
Jake grinned when he turned the wheel. It opened.
“What did you do differently?” Cliff asked.
“I entered the digits in reverse order.”
“Son of a gun! Really? What made you think of that?”
Jake looked at Cliff and shrugged his shoulders. “It was worth a shot. Why not?”
Jake swung the heavy door open and shined his flashlight in the room. The men looked in and were astonished; Doug let out a whistle. Four rows of M4 carbines lined the far wall. Cliff guessed there were enough rifles to arm fifty men. In the middle of the room were three M240 machine guns. An assortment of gas masks, military boots, and two cases marked SW24 laid on the shelves.
Cliff felt like a kid in a candy store. Boots, wool blankets, and military uniforms folded neatly were stacked on the shelves. Three PRC-148 handheld radios laid on the top of one of the shelving units. He grabbed one and turned on the power. To his surprise, the screen came to life and received static. He found the batteries for the radios and laid them next to each other.
Infected Chaos Page 17