by Geo Dell
“That could be,” Candace said. “After all, we did.”
Mike nodded. The little town, village, had been destroyed. What was left of it had looked deserted. Maybe they had left, he decided. Tim came around with a large aluminum container of coffee. Nearly everyone had acquired a sturdy plastic or Aluminum cup during their stay at the large truck stop, strip mall complex and had kept it. It wasn't always easy to find a cup, even disposable foam or paper cups were hard to find.
The coffee was hot, steam rising up into the rain chilled air. The children were quiet and kept to themselves looking out at the falling rain. Even The Dog and Angel, we're subdued by the weather, lying on the asphalt, heads on paws, looking out at the rain and the darkness.
If there was anything or anyone out there that shouldn't be, they would let them know, Mike told himself, and so far they seemed as bored by the rain as everyone else was. But it wasn't really bored, Mike thought.
“What are you thinking about?” Candace asked.
“I was thinking this rain makes you feel kind of lethargic, dragged out. Even the dogs.”
“Kind of,” she agreed, snuggling closer to him, “But I like the way it sounds on the tin roof. And we should all sleep like babies tonight,” she said.
Mike listened for a second to the light drumming on the steel roof panels, then nodded. “Lethargy,” he said smiling.
In no time at all, a small pile of cans magically appeared, and one of Janet's large steel pots was heating up dinner.
The children were playing with a small pile of toys, overlooked by Lilly and Jessica.
“So, where are we?” Bob asked.
They dug out the map and began to go over it, but they had seen no signs, and even the small village had no sign that they had seen. The cars and trucks scattered around the truck stop still, predominantly, bore New York State license plates.
They had been angling across the state, so most likely they would pass through part of Pennsylvania or Ohio within the next day or so, unless they had dropped lower into the state. It would take more than a map to tell them that though, a roadside sign, something like that.
“Put over... Just over, three hundred and fifty miles on the odometer today,” Mike said. “Of course some of that was doubling back, the long way around, stuff like that, but we have to be close to out of the state by now.”
“We should have hit the thruway,” Bob said.
“I'll agree with that,” Jeff said, “Unless it's gone. Seems to be a lot that is gone.”
“We should have,” Mike agreed. “The problem is, there's so much destruction it's hard to tell where we really are. That lake for instance, that threw me for a loop. I just wasn't expecting it. That means there could be other changes. Well, actually that's a major change, so more major changes like that, or even more so.”
“Like?” Patty asked.
“I don't know. But have you noticed we haven't seen a lot of torn up, jumbled mounds of earth?” he asked.
Several heads nodded.
“At first there was, in Watertown. Then all that rain flattened things out. Then before we left, we were seeing grass sprout up. Might be like that here. If so, it won't be long before we can't tell what's new and what isn't. This rain just keeps leveling things out. The warmth has the grass seed sprouting,” Mike said.
“You can still tell, or you could before the rain. The grass was thin, but you're right, as we go it'll get harder and harder to tell anything old from new,” Bob said.
“So how will we know when we get to where we're going?” Candace asked.
“Good question,” Patty said.
“Well, yeah, that is,” Bob agreed. “But we'll know when we get to the mountains that we're close. Really it's all enclosed by ranges if you think about it. The first one has a few wide open gaps in it. We'll pass right through one of those gaps, and we'll be in. There's another range that cuts across to the east, and then the tail end of the other range picks up there and closes off what amounts to several million acres. I guess it's like one very big valley nestled between those mountain ranges,” Bob elaborated.
“It would be kind of hard to miss the mountains,” Mike agreed.
“Other roads, anything like that going in?” Ronnie asked.
“Old logging trails, and I mean very old. There's been no logging there in well over a century. But those roads were sometimes still used and maintained by the park service. They don't go in all the way though,” Bob said. “There are no roads that go all the way in. There have been no people in there. Some of that area has never even been explored, at least not since this has been America,” Bob said.
“Roosevelt, right?” Arlene asked.
“Yes, ma'am,” Bob said, “He set it up. Some land reclaimed and reforested, some never touched. Since then the Federal government has been quietly buying land and adding to it. We have the same thing here in New York, a pretty large area that cuts across more than two thirds of the state. People just don't know about it. But this, this cuts into portions of six states. Taking all that land from six states doesn't make it seem like that much land: a corner of Alabama here, a tract of Tennessee, part of Kentucky there, a short run up into Ohio and down into Georgia. But it all adds up; it's huge, big enough to have been a state in its own right when you look at it,” Bob said.
The area was clearly marked with Bob's black grease pencil on the map, and the area it covered was enormous.
“I never even knew about it,” Patty said.
“Me either,” Lilly agreed.
“I heard about it in school,” Candace said. “They teach about the Forever Wild lands. Some of it was given to the government to use for that, some of it was set aside for just that reason,” she said. “There are several other areas in the United States, some small, some big that you do know about and you just didn't realize that you knew... like Yellowstone, or the Grand Canyon. Those are well known; others aren't.”
Nell and Lilly began calling people to come and eat. That at least seemed to perk up The Dog and Angel.
Mike got a bowl of stew and then went over to relieve David who was on watch so he could go eat. "Take your time," he told him.
Bob wandered over with a bowl himself. They both sat on the back step bumper of one of the Suburbans, eating quietly, staring out at the rainy night.
“Think you'll have any trouble finding it?” Mike asked.
“No. It's so big it would be hard to miss it. If, or I should say when, we hit the next mountain chain, that will be the back door. The Appalachians. We'll follow them to the west, to Kentucky, Tennessee, and that will let us in. Somewhere in there we'll find a break in those mountains. There are two breaks really, the Great Smoky Mountains, and the Blue Ridge chain. I can't see how we could miss it. We should be able to stand on those foothills and look at empty for as far as we can see in any direction. No man made anything. There are just so many places in this world that you can do that,” Bob said thoughtfully.
“A long time to get there, you think?” Mike asked.
“That's a good question. Did you say three hundred and fifty miles? I'd say about twelve hundred total miles to get us there, so if we made this kind of distance each day, then somewhere around four days from now, give or take, we should be there,” Bob said.
Mike nodded, “For some reason I was thinking it would be this long trip.”
“It would be without these trucks. We would've already torn up a couple of regular trucks. A regular truck couldn't get over a foot drop in the road level, or sand instead of pavement, with the mud we've had to deal with either for that matter,” Bob said.
“Even so, I'm not so sure we'll be able to make that much mileage every day. We've been running roads, highway road, torn up, sure, but still good enough for us. This whole area is sparsely populated, and the closer we get, the sparser the population gets. Farm country, walking country, and that means bad roads, poorly maintained to start with, and now probably torn up so bad that they have become i
mpassable.” He paused, took a bite of his stew, chewed, and thought.
“I think our quick time is going to slow down. Even so, once we get there, once we find it, we'll have a great deal of work to do, a lot of trucks to find. We've got, what? Eighteen drivers? Can Jessica drive? Probably not, so eighteen drivers, and we need trucks for all of them and supplies also, and I'm thinking some trailers on the back of a few of those trucks, and, well, we'll just run those logging roads as deep in as we can, get as close as we can, and we'll have to walk the rest of the way in,” Bob finished.
“It's gonna be a big deal, but it will be worth it,” Lilly said as she walked up and listened for a second or two. “You guys want more? Janet sent me, and she sent these.” She held some biscuits with what looked like blueberries baked into them on a large platter. She took their bowls and left them with the platter.
They both thanked her, declined the offer of more stew, and she went on her way. They stared after her. “Everybody has changed so much,” Bob said.
“I was thinking the same thing,” Mike said. “But for the better. Everyone, me included. For the better,” he said.
“Yeah,” Bob agreed.
“Listen...” Mike began. He fell silent.
Bob turned and raised his eyebrows. “Ain't like you to be at a loss for words.”
Mike laughed, but it was short and didn't match the worried look on his face. “This is going to sound crazy...”
For the next few minutes Mike talked, relaying what Jeff had told them and filling Bob in about the cleared space in the woods. Bob chewed thoughtfully at his biscuit as Mike spoke, finishing it, dusting his hands on the legs of his jeans as he did.
“Should eat that,” Bob told him. “She did a good job on them. Be a waste. Go on.” He cleared his throat. “The dead walking ain't really a problem for me,” he said. “I heard the talk beforehand. Believed it. I guess that's where you're at right now. Not sure you believe it.” He looked over at Mike.
“Go ahead... Eat it. Won't do you any good to sit there with that worried look on your face. The thing is, I have an alternate point of view. On most things, I guess. I have no doubt there are dead that can walk. My religion says there can be, so there can be. It's pretty simple to me. I don't know about this other stuff though.”
“Can they, do they, follow us? Maybe. Maybe they do. Maybe they eat our dead, but how strong can they be? Strong enough to take on a grown man? I can't see that.” He cleared his throat once more, picked up his coffee and sipped at it.
“You said a nest. Well, that sounds like an animal, don't it? I guess that bothers me the most. A man can be predictable, but something in between...” He shrugged. “We believe in men that can live after death. Dreamers, those that can travel in the dream state where ever they wish to go. Spirits and more. What do you think to do?” Bob asked.
Mike shrugged. “I can't tell you I believe that easily. But there was something there, and Jeff doesn't seem like the sort of man that would exaggerate. If it's true, it bothers me. How can you fight something like that?”
“They won't come where we're going. There's nothing there for them, nothing to lead them there. I imagine they'll be in the cities. Like that.” Bob said.
“You think?”
“I think so. I mean, I can't see it. You think it's like the T.V. Said though?”
“I don't know,” Mike said. “What are you getting at?”
“Well, we'll be taking them with us, if that's the case. You see?”
“No. You just said they wouldn't want anything to do with us,” Mike said.
“Uh huh. But when you die you turn. That's the way they said it was on the T.V., Mike.” Bob finished.
Mike stared at him for what seemed like minutes. “Jesus,” He said at last. He turned away and looked out into the rain
“Exactly,” Bob said. “Exactly.”
~
About two hours after dark the rain really begin to come down, turning the surrounding fields into small lakes of their own.
Several people were sitting around talking by the fires, different subjects, all relating to the new life they hoped to be living soon.
Mike and Candace were sitting, listening to the conversations, when the rain suddenly let up, and a sliver of moon broke through the clouded sky.
“Well,” Candace said, “now or never I guess.” Mike looked a question at her.
“Ladies room,” she said. “At least I won't drown now,” she laughed. She got up and walked away. Mike watched her go, thinking how much he loved her. As she turned the corner of the building, he turned back to the conversation he had been having with Ronnie about how easy the steel structures would be to set up.
Candace slipped between two abandoned trucks and made her way around to the back of the main building of the truck stop. The building cast long shadows among the scattered wood pallets, junked trucks and oil barrels. A long wooden fence ran around most of it, blocking the view from the highway. She hurried over next to the wrecked front end of a big tractor cab and squatted down close to the ground, balancing against one of the tractor's tires with one hand. She finished and had just stood back up, fastened the snap on her jeans, when she felt the cold barrel of a pistol touch her neck.
“Well look at this,” a low voice said, “Ain't you something.”
Candace's heart crashed hard against her ribs. Her fingers, in the act of tugging her zipper home, froze. She sucked in a breath and tried to quiet her racing heart. Her voice sounded shaky to her ears as she spoke.
“What... What do you want?” she managed.
“Wha... What do you want,” the voice mimicked. “What do you think that I want?” he asked. One hand stroked lightly against her face, leaving the feel of calloused fingers and the smell of unwashed flesh.
“I think you know, Missy. I think you know.” His hand dropped down to her thigh and caressed it roughly, then moved around to her hand still frozen on the zipper “What's this?” he whispered in her ear. His breath smelled of rotting teeth and rancid food as it blew across her face.
His hand batted her own away and fumbled with her zipper, jerking it roughly downward and plunging his fingers into the opening, pulling at her panties.
“Don't,” she whispered, “You don't have to do this.” Her voice sounded weak and panicked, and she hated it, but she couldn't get her heart to slow down or get her voice to sound normal or authoritative. She twisted to get away from him, but he had settled his weight on her, and she could not stand up or get a good footing so that she could turn and fight him. And the fear was loose in her. She couldn't think past it.
He ignored her, his rough hands forcing her jeans down and grasping at her panties once again.
“Please,” she said, “Don't. It doesn't have to be this way.”
~
Arlene turned into the corner of the building to find a private spot to use. The other ladies had been coming back here all night long. It was about as private as you could hope to get. She was just about to step into the fenced in area when she heard the voices of a man and woman.
Oh Damn, she thought, looks like I'm about to interrupt something. That made her smile, but her next thought was a little less charitable. So where am I supposed to go?
She turned to leave when the voices came again. And something about the woman's voice stopped her in her tracks. Something about the woman's voice sounded, well, wrong, she told herself, upset. She waited a second but heard nothing more. Maybe it was just a little argument between the two of them, she thought. Either way it's not my business.
She had made up her mind to turn around, was actually on the brink of walking away, when she caught movement over by the wreck of a big rig truck. The woman's voice came again, crying out in pain, but was quickly muffled as she fell to the ground. She was pushed, Arlene's mind told her. And then she saw the shadow of the man kick the shadowed form on the ground and then fall on to her.
Arlene unsnapped her 38 caliber pistol as she ra
n to where the couple struggled on the ground. The woman's jeans were around her ankles. A split second later she recognized Candace and realized the man was ripping at her panties dragging them down, a pistol pushed into her neck.
Arlene pushed the muzzle of her own gun against the base of the man's skull. “Let her go, Mother Fucker, let her go.” She was fighting to control her anger.
The man jerked in surprise but recovered quickly. He fumbled with his own pants zipper trying to get it back up. “I'll fucking kill her, you bitch. I will. Fuck off, I'll do it,” the man said. His gun hand twitched, pressing the barrel hard into Candace's neck.
“Don't,” Candace cried, “Don't.”
“Get that gun off my neck you fuckin' bitch, or she's done, I'll do it!” His gun hand twitched again and the barrel left Candace's neck. Arlene pulled the trigger. Both guns went off.
~
Candace screamed, scrambled backwards and away. Arlene went with her pulling her along, away from the man whose blood began to fountain up into the air. “It's okay, it's okay,” she told her.
Arlene managed to gather Candace into her arms ignoring the blood that was splattered across both of them. Seconds later the back area was full of people as everyone came running. They all came to a fast halt as they came upon the scene. Mike among them.
It took a few heartbeats for him to take it all in and then he ran to Candace, pulled her from the ground and gathered her in his arms. He was still holding her a minute or so later when Patty came with a blanket and covered her up. Mike gathered her up in the blanket, and she burrowed her face into his chest as he walked out and around to the front of the building, away from the body of the man.
The rain began to pick up in a faster patter again. As the Moon slid back behind the cloud cover, the rain began to pour down once again.
“It's okay,” Mike whispered to her as he walked. He had no idea if anything was okay. But it was what you said, he told himself. Candace sobbed against his chest as he carried her. There was no protection from the rain as they walked across the front and they were both soaked by the time he stepped beneath the metal roofing that covered the gas pump area.