by Steven Bird
Except for the ringing in his ears from the gunshots, all Daryl heard was silence. He pulled the signaling mirror that he always carried from his pack and used it to get a look around the tree without exposing himself. Where the hell is Griff? He thought to himself, wishing his backup would arrive.
Not seeing anything in the mirror, he took a peek around the tree. Afraid the man had changed positions during the exchange of gunfire between him and the second assailant, Daryl began to scan the area adjacent to the downed tree, looking for any signs of movement. Feeling as if his situation had been compromised by possibly losing track of the first assailant, Daryl fell back, one tree at a time, getting some distance between himself and his adversary.
Once in a safe position, Daryl topped off the tube magazine of his rifle, replacing the two cartridges that he had fired, giving him a total of eight rounds in the tube and one in the chamber. He may not have the magazine capacity of a modern tactical rifle, but Daryl appreciated the knock-down power that the heavy projectile the old .45-70 Government cartridge provided. One hit was all he needed to knock someone down, body armor or not.
After a few more moments of silence, Daryl decided to circle around to the left to try and either flank, or get a better view of his adversary. He knew that he just could not break off the pursuit, as the other homesteads in the area would be in danger as long as this murderer was on the loose. Daryl crept through the woods, as he had done countless times, ground-stalking deer the old-fashioned way, and got to a position where he could see behind the man’s cover; he was indeed gone.
Daryl crouched down behind some vegetation surrounding a mature walnut tree, visually scanning all around, trying to figure out where the man might have gone. As he peered through the weeds with his rifle clutched tightly and pointed out in front of him, he heard a twig snap behind him and immediately rolled to the ground, releasing his rifle, and drew his model 1875 Remington revolver, aiming it underneath his arm as he turned to see the man creeping up behind him.
He fired an un-aimed shot, striking the man in the shoulder causing him to drop his rifle. Daryl then continued turning towards the man, who was now unarmed, except for the knife in his belt that he clutched with his left hand. Daryl slowly cocked the hammer of his revolver and said, “I told you that you were gonna die today.”
Just as the man began to pull the knife, Daryl fired a shot directly into the man’s abdomen, dropping him to the ground. He then walked over and looked into the eyes of the dying man, who had dropped the knife as he fell in order to grasp his devastating stomach wound. Without breaking his stare, Daryl walked over, picked up the knife, put it to the dying man’s throat, and said, “You have ten seconds to make your peace with God.” After counting to ten, Daryl slit the man’s throat, ending his suffering without wasting another bullet.
He then stood up, scanned the area, and listened, hoping that there were no other intruders in the area. He walked over to the other dying man and ended his life in the same manner. He took the two rifles from the attackers and leaned them up against a tree so that they could return for them later when they came back to dispose of the bodies. Daryl then hiked back through the woods towards the Lewis home, finding his horse near the body of poor Beth Lewis.
“Where the hell are you, Griff?” he said, mumbling to himself while looking around.
Chapter 14: Pressing On
As Evan drove the tractor and trailer up Route 107 towards U.S. Highway 70, their first obstacle was the bridge that crossed the French Broad River. As they approached the bend in the road just before the bridge, Evan brought the tractor to a stop and shut off the engine to contemplate the situation.
“Choke point,” said Jason as he picked up his binoculars to look from a distance. He then continued and said, “There is an old, burned up car on the bridge. It could be a trap, or it could have been a trap. Either way, we need to check it out before we get any closer.”
“Yep, I agree completely,” replied Evan. Jason climbed down from the tractor and walked back to the trailer to talk to the men in the back. He wanted to avoid using their handheld radios, just in case someone was listening to learn their intentions with the bridge. He walked up to one of the open windows and said, “Two of you guys come with me to check out the bridge up ahead, the other two cover us from here and guard our ride.”
“I’ll come,” replied Ed enthusiastically.
“Me too,” Nate also replied.
As Ed and Nate joined Jason and began to walk towards the bridge, staying along the edge of the road for cover, Charlie took up a position at the rear of the trailer, while Jimmy joined Evan on the tractor. Once they reached the bridge, Jason dropped down over the side of the hill for a moment to clear the area and the underside of the bridge for any potential hostiles. After just a few moments, he climbed back up to the road and said, “No trolls that I can see.”
“How do you want to approach the car?” asked Ed.
Jason replied, “I’m the only one with a scope, which means I can provide the best long-range cover, but I don’t want to volunteer you guys to get out on the bridge to check the car out up close.”
“That’s no problem,” Nate answered. “I’ll take point. You got my back, Ed?” he asked.
“Sure thing,” Ed replied.
The two men then approached the bridge, hugging the left side’s concrete railing, while Jason covered them from the right in order to get a clear firing line onto the bridge without them being directly in front of his muzzle. Nate and Ed worked their way across the bridge to the center, where the disabled car was located, occasionally looking back to Jason for hand signals in the event he had spotted something through his scope.
When they reached the car, Nate remained low to the ground and left the cover of the railing to get a look inside. To his horror, he found the partially burned remains of what appeared to be three adults. He also noticed four bullet holes in the driver’s side door and one in the rear passenger’s door just behind it. He could only assume the unlucky travelers were ambushed while crossing the bridge. He scurried back to the railing where Ed was covering him and informed him of what he saw. Ed then relayed to Jason that there were no visible threats via hand signals.
Once they rejoined Jason at the beginning of the bridge, Nate explained the scene in detail. After a moment of deliberation, Jason said, “I’ll cover the crossing from here. Ed, you’ve got the next level of reach with that M1A. You drop down the hill and cover the riverbanks, and Nate, you head back and update the others. Tell Evan to go ahead and proceed towards the bridge. Once he gets here, take up a point position, walking along with the tractor at least until he gets to the car. Tell him to use the loader bucket on the tractor to push the car out of the way. Have Jimmy and Charlie each take a side during the crossing. Once you’re all across, Ed and I will form up and meet you on the other side when you’re clear.”
With a nod to the affirmative, everyone took up their positions in accordance with the plan. As the tractor neared the bridge, Jason gave Evan the thumbs up and the tractor proceeded across. When Evan reached the car, he lowered the loader to just about a foot off the ground and easily pushed the car off to the side as they passed. From his vantage point on the tractor, he could see down to the grizzly scene inside the car and shook his head in disgust that the world had come to this.
As Ed watched Evan cross the bridge from underneath, he noticed an abundance of spent shell casings. They were mostly 7.62x39 Russian and 5.56mm NATO, and appeared to have been from various different occasions, as they had different levels of weathering and contamination. This must be a popular hunting stand, he thought to himself in a morbid sort of way.
As the tractor reached the other side of the bridge, Ed rallied on Jason, and the two joined up with the group on the north side of the river as planned.
Once they all met back up and took their respective positions on the tractor and trailer, Jason looked at Evan and said, “Getting around sure is a lot of wor
k these days.”
Evan replied, “It is if you want to stay alive.” He eased out the clutch and they got underway.
Looking at their map, Jason said, “Looks like we just go straight for a bit and then hang a right on U.S. Highway 70.”
“What are you thinking for the night?” Evan asked. “We’ve not got a lot of daylight left before we need to consider hunkering down somewhere.”
As Jason looked at the map and pondered Evan’s question, he ran his finger across their proposed route and said, “Once on U.S. 70, after the fourth road that shoots off to the left, there is a stretch of the road that may have a few agricultural fields, with mountains to the left and the river to the right. I would sure rather be backed up to the mountains with lots of escape routes than the river. Once we get to that point, let’s start looking hard for a place to shut down for the night.”
“That sounds good,” Evan replied. “What about watches?”
“On it,” Jason replied as he picked up the handheld and said, “Nate, you up?”
“Yep,” replied Nate over the radio from inside the trailer.
Jason said, “You guys work out who’s gonna stand the first watch tonight and take naps accordingly. One of you up and about should be good, for now.
“Roger Roger,” replied Nate.
Evan just chuckled at the reply. Jason gave him a dirty look and then asked Nate, “Are you making fun of me?”
Nate simply responded, “Yep.”
Evan busted out laughing and said, “You just make it too easy sometimes, Jason.”
Jason just shrugged it off and they continued pressing forward. Just as Jason had said from his reading of the map, they soon passed by several roads to the left of Highway 70 where a few homes remained. Some looked like they may possibly still be occupied, but others were clearly abandoned.
Jason sighed and said with dismay, “I just don’t get why so many homes around here are vacant. It’s not like this is the kind of place you would need to migrate from in these times. Where did they all go?”
Evan answered, “I’m sure some left to link up with family that may have been in a better position somewhere. Others probably fell victim to the crimes of humanity that we see all too often, like the family on the bridge. Others probably were just not in a position to make it. If you were being kept alive by prescription drugs, for example, unless you were well connected like the ruling class, you probably simply didn’t last that long. Throw in other formerly treatable illnesses and injuries, with suicides and crime, and the mortality rate is surely catching up with the local population.”
“Yeah… I guess,” replied Jason.
In just a few more miles, the stretch of Highway 70 they were on began to become more remote, as Jason had thought. Jason scanned the terrain up ahead and to the left, looking for a place to get off the main road for the night. He noticed a dirt road that ran between two overgrown fields and led off into the woods and the hills. “Stop here,” he directed Evan. “Let’s check this out.”
As Evan pulled to a stop, Jason climbed down and walked back to the trailer where he saw Jimmie awake, with Charlie and Nate trying to catch a nap on the floor. “What’s up?” asked Jimmy, enquiring as to why stopped.
“We’re looking for a place to bed down for the night,” replied Jason. “Can you guys hop on your ATVs and scout a dirt road out for us? It would be best if we cleared the way before putting the tractor and trailer at risk,” he explained.
“Sure thing,” Jimmy replied smartly as he kicked Charlie’s boot to wake him. “Rise and shine, Old Man,” he said.
Once Charlie cleared his head from his nap, Jimmy explained what they were being asked to do and the two men fired up their ATVs and rode them out of the back of the trailer, headed off on their scouting run. The two men rode down the road and turned left onto the dirt road that Jason had pointed out to them. Soon they were just sounds off in the distance, and then nothing.
After about five minutes, Charlie’s ATV came back down the dirt road, but Jimmy’s was nowhere to be seen. The men just looked at each other with the same look of concern, but waited for Charlie to get to them and give them a debrief before jumping to any conclusions. They were relieved to see that Charlie did not look at all distressed as he shut his engine off and said, “Looks good. If you go about a half mile up the road, you come to a clearing with a little stream that runs through. It looks like people have stopped to camp there more than once, but not too recently. I imagine we aren’t the only people that have been looking for a place to bed down while traveling this highway.”
“Where’s Jimmy?” asked Nate.
“Oh, he’s fixin’ dinner,” Charlie replied with a smile.
“Fixing dinner?” Ed queried.
As Charlie climbed off the ATV he said, “Yep, good thing that boy had his crossbow mounted on his ATV rack as usual. He’s always killing something for dinner back home with that thing. He nailed a good-sized rabbit from about twenty yards away. He’s skinning it now and washing it in the stream. He said he will be looking for some wood to build a fire with and to make a skewer while we’re setting everything else up.”
“Outstanding!” replied Jason.
Evan just smiled and said, “Tell me about it. I thought we were gonna be eating jerky and beans for dinner. Now it will be hasenpfeffer.”
As the men climbed back onto the tractor and trailer, Ed said, “Yep, or rabbit on a stick, rabbit and beans, rabbit stew, grilled rabbit, oh… or fried rabbit, we did bring a skillet right?”
Chapter 15: Daryl’s Dilemma
Daryl shouted for Griff a few times but never heard a reply. He mounted his horse, went back, made a quick, cursory look around the property, and then headed back into the woods to search for Griff. A frontiersman at heart, it was easy for Daryl to put his skills that were once merely an obscure hobby into practice to track Griff and his horse. As he picked his way through the woods, slowly looking for signs of Griff’s trail, he came upon Griff lying face down in a very awkward position.
“Griff!” he yelled as he leapt from the saddle to get to him as fast as he could. At first, he thought he might be dead, as his skin had lost a lot of its color. Upon checking his pulse, he immediately noticed that Griff was alive, but badly injured and unconscious. His right arm was either broken or dislocated, as it was in a very unnatural position. He also appeared to have had some sort of impact to his face. He then turned and looked up to see a tree branch with scuffed up bark, and realized that he must have not only suffered injuries from hitting his head, but more than likely had multiple injuries from the unprotected fall as well, landing on several jagged rocks. Griff’s breathing was laborious and shallow, and his lips were beginning to turn purple.
“Damn it!” Daryl yelled aloud. Afraid to move him by himself in this condition, he climbed aboard his horse and rode like a madman back to Linda Cox’s home, as she was the closest neighbor. Daryl pushed his horse as hard as he could, thinking to himself, Just hold on, Griff, hold on. I’ve already lost one neighbor today, and I’ll be damned if I lose another.
Linda was outside working when she saw Daryl riding like a madman up her driveway. In his traditional frontiersman attire, it looked like a scene straight out of an old western movie. She dropped what she was doing and ran out to meet him, fearing for the worst.
As Daryl pulled back on the reigns and brought his horse to a stop, out of breath he could barely get the words out. “C’mon… get your horse… Beth’s dead and Griff’s hurt… bad,” he said, ashamed that he had let down his neighbors that he had vowed to protect.
Linda’s eyes immediately welled up with tears at the news of the death of Jimmy’s wife, Beth, but then she quickly wiped the tears away and realized Daryl clearly needed her to help with Griff. “I’ll be right back!” she shouted as she ran for her house.
In what almost seemed like an instant to Daryl, Linda was running back out of her front door, not even closing it behind, her with a bag over her s
houlder, and running for her barn. She came racing out of the barn on her horse and said, “Let’s go!”
Daryl spurred his tired horse back into action and rode hard alongside Linda as they raced back to the Lewis home. Arriving at the Lewis home, Linda came to a stop alongside Beth’s body, looking down at her in horror. Daryl rode alongside her and gently said, “Come on, Griff needs us. There is nothing we can do for her. We’ll tend to her later.”
Linda snapped out of it and said, “Of course,” and rode off with Daryl into the woods towards Griff.
When they arrived, his skin was pale and his lips were blue. His breathing was now rapid and shallow and he was still unconscious. After giving him a good look-over, Linda said, “We need Rachel. You stay with Griff, I’m gonna ride back to the Lewis home and try to find their CB radio and start relaying a call for help. Rachel is going to have to come our way. We can’t risk injuring him further by moving him by ourselves right now, without medical oversight.”
Daryl nodded as Linda raced back towards the Lewis house. “Hang in there, buddy,” Daryl said. “Hang in there. We’re gonna need you around this place a lot in the future so you can’t leave us now.”
When Linda reached the Lewis home, she quickly dismounted and hurried inside. She ran through the hallway, from room to room, opening doors, searching for their radio. She finally found Jimmy’s workshop, where he had his CB radio hooked to an old car battery. It was kept charged with a simple solar panel that was designed to trickle charge an unused battery and keep it topped off while in storage. She picked up the mic and said, “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday—who’s on here? Mayday, Mayday, Mayday! This is Linda; we need help at the Lewis home!”
She then heard Robert Brooks answer over the radio, “Linda? What’s wrong? This is Robert.”