by Alex Gunwick
“Have you ever fought any wildfires?”
“Yep. This area is extremely dry, especially in the summer and fall. When the Santa Ana winds are blowing, it’s basically a pile of tinder ready to go up in flames. I’ve been on several calls out here. Anytime a fire starts to look like it might get out of control, they send out every available firefighter to battle the blaze. No one wants a repeat of the Santiago fire in 2007.”
“I remember having to evacuate,” she said. “I was nine years old and thought the whole world was coming to an end.”
“And now it is,” he said.
“Do you really think the world’s ending?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. It’s hard to know what’s going on without a radio.”
“My dad has one at the cabin. It’s in a box in our storage shed out back. They’re probably listening to it right now.”
“At least we’ll know more once we get there,” he said.
“I thought we were splitting up when we got to Santiago Canyon.”
“I want to make sure you get there safely. I’d hate to get you almost all the way there and find out you were hurt, captured, or killed.”
“There’s no one out here but us,” she said.
“Right now there isn’t, but we haven’t hit the road yet. There’s no telling what we’ll find when we get there.”
“I’m sure I can make it the rest of the way. It’s only a mile or two.”
In truth it was probably closer to four, but if she showed up with a stranger in tow, her dad would be pissed. He’d told her over and over again never to tell anyone about the cabin. She should have kept her mouth shut, but he’d rescued her, so he couldn’t be a bad person, right? But what if he’d only rescued her so that he could get to the cabin, kill her whole family, and take it for himself?
She stared at his backpack as she wrestled with the decision. He hadn’t known about the cabin until after he’d rescued her, so that wasn’t his motivation. He hadn’t tried anything since they’d been together, even though he’d had ample opportunity to take advantage of her if that was his intention. Maybe she was just overthinking everything, as usual.
Still, her dad wasn’t going to be happy if she showed up with Derek. Maybe she could ditch him on the road that led to the cabin. She could lie and tell him one of the other cabins was theirs so at least he wouldn’t know their exact location. Yeah, that could work.
Relieved, she picked up the pace. As they turned the bend, a stream appeared. They walked off the trail and stopped at the edge of the water. It wasn’t much, not a raging river or anything, but it was better than nothing.
“Make sure you use a filter,” he said.
She dug through her pack and found her blue Lifestraw water bottle with a built-in filter. According to her dad, she could fill it with the nastiest pond water around and not have to worry about getting a disgusting amoeba in her mouth, or her stomach, or her brain. She shuddered.
After removing the integrated filter, she skimmed the bottle along the stream, scooping up water as she went. Because the stream was so shallow, she couldn’t get more than a quarter of the bottle filled at a time.
She screwed the filter back on. Inside the bottle, silt-riddled water churned. As it settled, large particles landed at the bottom of the bottle. She brought the straw to her lips but couldn’t do it. Was it really safe? What if the filter was too old? What if she hadn’t screwed it on tight enough?
Derek took an overly noisy swig from his bottle. The corners of his eyes crinkled as he smiled.
“Not thirsty?
“It’s so gross.”
“It’s fine. These bottles are great at purifying 99.9999 percent of bacteria and protozoa out.”
“What about the .00001 percent? You know, the part that will kill me?”
He laughed and shook his head.
“What?” she asked.
“It’s not going to kill you.”
“So you say.”
“Either drink, or don’t drink, but we’re not stopping again until we hit Santiago Canyon Road.”
“Fine.” She scrunched her nose up as she took a tentative sip.
“Well?”
“It tastes like water.”
“See, nothing to worry about,” he said.
“For now. Ask me again in three days when I have microorganisms gnawing at my guts.”
He shook his head again and sucked down the rest of his water. She finished the quarter bottle and refilled it twice more. Although the temperature was only about eighty degrees, all the walking had turned her body into a mini oven. She couldn’t wait to get out of the blazing sun.
An hour later they crossed Santiago Canyon Road without any problems. They didn’t see a single car on the road. Not too unusual, but she would have expected at least one car to pass while they were in hearing range of the road. The absolute silence was unnerving.
The closer they came to the cabin, the more she worried about showing him the location. She tried to shut off the endless barrage of “what if” questions, but her brain wouldn’t stop coming up with new and terrifying scenarios.
As they passed other cabins, she felt unseen people watching them from the windows. The glare of the late afternoon sun reflected off the glass, making them opaque. But she could sense them anyway.
“Do you know your neighbors?” Derek asked.
“No. I hardly ever come up here. Dad and Kyle spend the weekends here sometimes, especially in the summer.”
“Kyle?”
“My little brother.”
“How old is he?”
“Thirteen.”
“That’s always a tough age for boys.”
“Why?”
“They’re on the cusp of adulthood, trying to figure out how to be men.”
“Was it hard for you?” she asked.
“No,” he said with a chuckle. “I was a man’s man even from a very young age. I knew I wanted to join the military at seven. I started physical fitness training at ten. I’ve always been all man. It just took me a few years to grow into it.”
She averted her gaze from the muscles in his shoulders. It felt somehow wrong to ogle him from behind. No wonder he was so ripped. He’d probably been lifting weights for years before most boys ever stepped into a gym. He wasn’t a meat-head, but he seemed totally comfortable in his body. She envied his quiet confidence.
When they reached the small, unmarked road which led to the cabin, she stopped.
“Well, here we are. I can go the rest of the way,” she said.
“I’ll come with you.”
“I can make it from here.”
“I know, but I was hoping I could meet your dad. Tell him how brave you’ve been the last two days.”
She chewed the edge of her lip before replying.
“He might be pissed that I brought you with me. It’s supposed to be a secret location.”
“I won’t tell a soul. You have my word.”
“Well… I guess it wouldn’t hurt.”
“If he gets mad, you can blame me.”
“You’ve never seen him get mad. He might totally freak out.”
“I can handle him if he does.”
Which is exactly what she was afraid of. Handle him how?
As she reluctantly headed up the path toward the cabin, she prayed she wasn’t making a huge mistake.
19
Luke kicked through every piece of furniture and tore the last bits of shelving from the walls. He couldn’t find anything that would help get him out of the handcuffs. After knocking over the same desk for the second time, Grady cleared his throat. Luke glanced at him.
“I’m not sitting down until I find something I can use to get these off.”
“There’s not a damn thing in here,” Grady said. “Trust me, I would have found it if there were.”
“Dammit!” Luke plopped down on the floor next to him. “Okay, I have a new plan.”
“What?”
“How many guys come when they bring dinner?”
“Usually just one.”
“Have you tried fighting your way out?” Luke asked.
“Hell no! They’ve got me outmanned and outgunned. And until you got here, I was trapped in a zip tie.”
“There’s two of us now versus one of them. We’ve got the upper hand.”
“How do you figure?” Grady’s brow furrowed. “There are three guys out there.”
“All we need to do is knock one guy out. We take his gun and the key to the cuffs.”
“What if he doesn’t have a key?”
“Well, then we run like hell and hope they’re dumb enough to leave the keys in the car,” Luke said.
“This isn’t a TV show,” Grady said. “The keys won’t be in the visor. We won’t be able to go Rambo on them, and we’re going to get killed.”
“We’re dead either way. I don’t know why we’re still alive. They took our stuff, so keeping us around doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe they don’t have a way of getting rid of the bodies?”
“Maybe,” Luke said. “But it doesn’t matter. We’re not staying long enough to let them kill us. Here’s the plan. We break off a shelf and use it to hit the guy over the head. He’ll be knocked out, we’ll get the keys.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“It is easy.”
“I admire your confidence. Stupid, but confident,” Grady said.
“I’m a Navy SEAL. Retired from the military a few years ago. But I can still kick some ass.”
“No shit? You’re a SEAL?”
“Was.”
“Was…is…it doesn’t matter. You’ve been trained in hand-to-hand combat, right?” Grady asked, a renewed hope shining in his eyes.
“Of course.”
“Good. Then you get to be the one to knock the guy out.”
“My hands are cuffed behind my back,” Luke said wryly.
“Ugh!”
“Man up. If you want to get home to your family, you’re going to have to bust out of here. No one’s coming to rescue us. We need to rescue ourselves.”
“Fine. You’re right. Fuck!”
“Go get a shelf and get behind the door. As soon as the guy walks through, hit him as hard as you can.”
“Okay,” Grady said, but his pale complexion worried Luke.
“You can’t fuck this up. We’re only going to get one chance.”
“I know.” Grady grabbed a metal shelf off the wall and stood behind the door. “This better work.”
They waited in silence for the better part of an hour before footsteps sounded outside the door. It swung open. A man holding two fast-food sacks stepped into the darkness. He squinted and took another step forward.
Grady heaved the shelf back and swung forward with all of his body weight behind the swing. He slammed the other man into the wall with the force of his hit. The man’s head snapped back, striking the wall with a sickening thud. As he slid down the wall, a dark streak of blood marked his path.
“Shut the door,” Luke whispered.
Grady closed the door. He grabbed a lanyard off of the dead man’s neck and used the key to lock the door. He rolled the man over and felt around in his pockets.
“Found it!”
He ran over and unlocked the handcuffs.
With his hands free, Luke returned to the man and unbuckled his belt. He wouldn’t be needing that anymore. He secured it around his waist. It was heavy as hell, but packed with equipment. He couldn’t wait to look through it later.
“You know how to shoot?” Luke asked.
“Not very well.”
“Then you get the Glock 22.” He tossed it toward Grady who caught it. “I’ll take the M4.”
“Works for me.”
“We need to find my truck. Let’s keep a low profile until we find it. Stay behind me. And don’t shoot me.”
“Okay.”
Grady ejected the magazine and locked the slide back. He checked the chamber and found it empty. He slammed the magazine back in and pulled back the slide to chamber a round. Luke nodded. At least the man had some experience.
Luke checked to make sure the M4 was hot. He set it to semi-auto. Either way he was sure to draw fire once he shot it, but at least he wouldn’t draw a whole fleet of military down from the other gas station up the road. He unlocked the door, cracked it open, and peeked out. No movement.
“What were you driving?” Luke whispered.
“A maroon minivan.”
Luke raised a brow.
“What? I’ve got three kids,” Grady said.
“I think I saw it behind the building. There were some other cars back there too. I’m guessing that’s where they’re keeping everything they steal. Stay low.”
“Got it.”
They crouched low as they hurried around the front corner of the building. No one was in sight. As they circled behind the building, one of their captors jumped off the front of Luke’s pickup and spun to confront them. Luke put two in his chest and two in his head.
Footsteps pounded on the concrete between the building and the snack mart. He turned and put four bullets in the camo-covered man.
Although he’d only seen three men when they’d captured him, there could be more. He backed up toward the minivan.
“Shit!” Grady said.
“What?”
“They shot out the tires.”
Luke headed toward his truck. All of the tires were flat.
“Dammit.”
“Look! They’ve got a cop car over there. The tires still look good,” Grady said.
Luke jogged over to check the patrol car. He cracked open the door and felt around. He found the keys in the ignition. Apparently they’d been keeping this ready in case they needed to get away fast. Lucky him.
“We’re taking the cop car,” Luke said. “Get any supplies you have out of the minivan. We need to leave in sixty seconds.”
As Grady raced toward his van, Luke hurried back to the truck. He grabbed his Bug Out Bag and sacks filled with water and snacks. He popped open the cop car’s trunk and when he saw what was inside, he went weak in the knees.
A duffel bag full of guns and ammo took up most of the space. Extra camo pants and shirts were stuffed in a clear plastic bag. Luke shoved the bag of guns forward for easy access in case he needed them. He crammed the rest of his supplies behind them.
Grady returned with a suitcase and some water bottles.
“What’s in the suitcase?” Luke asked.
“Mostly clothes. Toothbrush. Toothpaste.”
“Leave it.”
“But—”
“We don’t have enough room.”
“But we have enough room for your stuff?” Grady asked in an angry tone.
“My stuff will keep us alive. A change of clothes and toothpaste isn’t going to help us right now.”
“Fine.” Grady took his suitcase back to the minivan and locked it inside. “Now what?”
“The five is blocked, but we might be able to pose as cops.”
“We don’t have uniforms.”
“Right, but check this out.” Luke pulled the bag of camo clothes out. “We can dress in these and pretend we’re on patrol.”
“There’s no way it’s going to work.”
“It’ll work. Just follow my lead.”
After they’d changed into the camo, they got into the car. Luke drove while Grady sat in the passenger seat. They’d briefly contemplated pretending one of them was a criminal under arrest, but decided they’d have to field too many questions. Better to keep it simple.
As they passed the gas station near the main road, several camo-garbed military nodded their heads at them. Luke nodded back. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Grady slink down slightly.
“Sit up straight. Remember, we’re officers dispatched to LA for rescue operations. Let me do all the talking.”
“This is so stupid.”
“
Have some faith. I did get you out of there.”
“True.”
When they reached the line of police cars at the onramp to the 5 south, Luke rolled down the window.
“Been pretty quiet?” he asked casually.
“Yeah. A couple of drunks tried to ram the barricade earlier, but we’ve got it under control. Where are you headed?” the officer asked.
“LA. We got orders to join the search and rescue effort,” Luke said.
“The road’s closed. You have to take 99 down.”
“We’d have to backtrack too far. We were supposed to report to our assignment an hour ago. We got caught up in an accident near Bakersfield. If we don’t get there as soon as possible, they’re going to hand us our asses.”
When the officer folded his arms over his chest, Luke’s sphincter clenched. This didn’t look good.
“I know,” Luke said quickly. “We should have come straight here, but it was a minivan full of kids. We had to stop.”
“Everyone make it? Any fatalities?”
“No. We were able to clear the scene without any further incidents,” Grady said.
Luke held his breath as the officer continued to eye them. After ten seconds of silence, he thought for sure they’d end up in jail for impersonating an officer. Sweat beaded on his brow.
“All right,” the cop finally said. “We’ll let you through. There’s another roadblock in the middle of the highway down near the 138 cutoff. If you’re on the list, they’ll let you right through. I wish they’d give us a list, because then I wouldn’t have to stand here making judgment calls all day. Lucky bastards.”
“Thank you,” Luke said.
He quickly rolled up the window and waited for the cops to move one of the patrol cars out of the way. As he drove through the barricade, he nodded at the other officers. So far, so good.
Pulling onto a completely empty highway, it looked like every apocalypse movie he’d ever seen. Broken down cars and trucks with their hoods up littered the side of the road. Some looked as if they’d been pushed aside by tanks. And maybe they had been.
As they rolled south, the sun set. Twilight reclaimed the land. Up ahead, an enormous series of mountains separated the central valley from the LA basin. They were about one hundred miles from downtown LA.