He glanced in his rearview mirror automatically noting everyone in the caravan. At least he never had to worry about losing anyone in traffic.
Over the ten day trip, they’d witnessed firsthand the miles and miles of highways devoid of human life and the ghost towns that were frozen in time. Sales signs in store windows still touted Memorial Day sales from last year and upcoming Father’s Day promotions. In the middle of Nebraska, they had come across a town that had been nearly leveled by a tornado. A clear path of destruction and denuded trees told the story. The lack of any sort of cleanup efforts or rebuilding indicated that the tornado had occurred sometime after the virus had wiped out the population.
More numerous than the huge pile-ups when they had to clear a path, were the cars parked on the road, some neatly along the edge, but others appeared as if the driver had simply lost interest in driving and decided to halt. It was eerie—like vehicular ghost towns.
When they stopped for breaks, Cole sent or joined a detail to check the vehicles in search of supplies. Of special importance were tools since theirs had gone down with Steve back at the Mississippi River.
More often than not, they found human remains in the cars—sometimes what must have been whole families, but occasionally, vehicles were empty. Where the occupants had gone was anyone’s guess. Perhaps they were the origin of the remains that dotted the shoulders of the roads.
Cole figured those people had abandoned their cars due to the obstructions, or out of confusion wrought by the victims of the virus. Either they succumbed to the Sympatico Syndrome, injuries from accidents, or died of thirst. Out here, it wouldn’t be unheard of.
The sun hit him square in the eyes and Cole squinted as he flipped the visor down. Travis dozed in the passenger seat and Cole smiled at how he still clutched a book in one hand. The kid had devoured books almost as fast as the food set before him. The book currently in his lap dealt with raising chickens. It was part of the mini library they had brought with them.
The eggs hatched and the chicks needed frequent attention and Travis had taken to caring for them like a mother hen.
He made sure they had clean water at every break, and kept the pen clean. One of the little chicks had died, but the others seemed healthy. Cole had rigged up a heater by using a couple of jump starters and inverters to power a small heat lamp and red light for the chicks. They rotated the jump starters to keep one charging at all times so they could swap it with the depleted battery at regular intervals.
Then he’d hung a thick blanket between the backseat and the storage area in the back of the SUV, more to keep the heat out of the rest of the vehicle so they didn’t roast to death. He still tried to keep the air conditioning low though, but he was pretty damn proud of rigging a mobile chick nursery if he did say so himself. Now, if only he could do something about the smell but the blanket helped keep it confined somewhat.
Travis made sure the chicks stayed warm, but not too warm. If they survived, they would more than double their flock. Cole had worried Lucas would be upset that Travis had taken over the care of first the eggs, and then the chicks, but Lucas was happy to concentrate on the goats, making sure they got time to graze during every stop, and with Buddy’s help, kept them from running off while they grazed. As a result of the careful attention, the two who gave milk still had an abundant supply. Cole had been certain the stress of the trip would be too much for them.
All in all, the animals had come through the trip with flying colors. If only all of the people had too.
He swallowed hard as he thought of Steve but did his best to put it out of his mind for now. He couldn’t dwell on the loss—not when they still had so much to deal with in the coming days. If they were successful in establishing a new home here, there would be plenty of time for guilt and anguish later.
Yawning, he reached over and gave Travis’s shoulder a shake. “Hey, we’re almost there.” The words sounded good to his ears.
Travis blinked, then straightened and leaned forward to see the hills they were traveling through. “It sure looks different from where I grew up.”
Cole had been to Vegas before, but he had never lived there and he agreed with the kid. “I might miss the green of Wisconsin, but I won’t miss the snow, that’s for sure.”
Travis grinned at him. “We probably didn’t get as much snow as you all, but we got some. And lots of storms. You ever seen a tornado?”
“I did, but just a small one that didn’t do much damage. And a few water spouts over Lake Michigan too.”
“Wow! That sounds so cool!”
Cole chuckled. “Yes, it was.” For all Travis had been through, he still held a note of wonder in his voice and a determination to learn as much as he could—hence, all the reading.
“So, did you learn anything new about raising chicks?” Travis had been proud of knowing a little bit about the chickens from helping his grandma, but like the rest of them, didn’t know a lot about taking care of chicks.
Travis turned over the book in his hand, noted where he was and folded the corner over before wedging it between the seat and center console. “You really think there’s gonna be electricity in Las Vegas?”
Cole used his thumb and fingers to reach under his sunglasses and rub his eyes. Resettling the glasses, he sighed. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”
Hunter switched songs on the MP3 player, singing under his breath as he followed Elly. It was in moments like this when he could almost pretend the virus had never happened. A hundred miles back, the highway had been nearly devoid of stalled cars. The few he’d seen, at a distance, looked like normal traffic and he’d found himself lulled into daydreaming about the past. He daydreamed of going through his favorite burger drive-thru, jamming to his stereo, and hearing the ping of his notifications on his cellphone.
He propped his arm on the edge of the door, resting it against the cool window. There really wasn’t much he missed now that he thought about it. He’d lost the craving for fast food months ago, and the notifications had only been a lure to draw him to his phone; a dangerous lure and one that he had fallen for more than he should have. It was pure luck that he’d never had an accident while texting and driving, but he’d come close a few times. Ironically, he could probably text without compromising safety now—if only phones still worked and there was anyone to text outside of his family.
He yawned, scrubbing his hand down his face. Driving in the caravan seemed like it should be easy. With no other traffic, he only had to watch out for Elly driving the car ahead of him. She followed his dad, and he’d learned to leave enough room to stop suddenly if his dad had to swerve around an obstacle—which caused a chain-reaction.
The problem was driving now was beyond boring. When there had been other cars on the road, simple cruising on a highway required him to be semi-alert. Even Now, he found himself scanning the highway and checking his mirrors, but for what? There were only a few vehicles behind him and he knew them. They weren’t going to drive erratically or speed past him. He chuckled at the thought of Jake or Piper getting road rage and passing him while flipping him the bird.
While keeping one eye on the cars ahead, he had more time to look around while he drove. What he saw was both depressing and beautiful. The mountains and desert were just as stunning as he remembered them from a trip he’d taken a few years ago with a friend’s family, but, as always now, signs of death were everywhere. It niggled at his conscience that he was pretty much numb to it now. Heaps of bleached bones and clothing on the side of the road garnered no more notice than a dead skunk would have a few years ago.
He glanced at Sophia, and she lifted her head from the word search booklet they’d found at a gas station, her eyes questioning. “Something wrong, Hun?”
He loved when she abbreviated his name like it was an endearment. “Nope. Just bored. How’s the game going?”
She shrugged and shifted in her seat. “Okay but I’ll be glad when we stop. Do you think there’s really g
oing to be electricity in Las Vegas? I’d kill for a hot shower.”
“It’s kind of freaking me out that we made this whole trip because I happened to have seen that show about the Earth without people. I mean, I think everyone was speculating. How could they know for certain?”
Sophie reached out and rubbed his shoulder. “No matter what, we needed to leave Wisconsin. Remember how hungry we were some nights in the winter? Before your dad went hunting and got that deer?”
It was true. They had gone hungry a few times. Getting the deer had probably stopped them from having to kill and eat one of their animals. Once there was a break in the weather, they had been able to find more deer and the day after the helicopter, Jake had found a cow. The poor cow had been skinny and probably would have died soon anyway, but she had been pregnant, and between her and her unborn calf, had provided enough meat to keep them from having to take the more drastic measures.
“But what if we’re trading cold weather for drought?”
“I guess we can head someplace that’s warmer in the winter and gets plenty of rain, like Seattle. This is just the first place we’re going. It may not be the last.”
“Seattle could be nice. They don’t get very cold, do they?” He’d never been there before.
“Nope. Not compared to Wisconsin, anyway. And plenty of rain. Jenna’s garden would thrive.” She circled a word, then crossed it off the list. Apparently it was the last one for that puzzle because she turned the page in the book.
“Hey, it seems like you and Jenna are getting along better now.”
“Yeah. We are. I don’t know what I’d have done without her these last few months—just giving me advice and stuff.” Sophie flipped through her word search book then tossed it aside. Her profile as she looked out her window was softer, less angular than it had been when he met her last summer, but she was still too thin. It made her belly seem bigger than it was. He followed the movement of her hand as she absently rubbed it.
“Is he kicking?”
“He? What if it’s a she?”
“He, she…I don’t care.”
She smiled and nodded. “Yeah, she’s kicking.”
He laughed, and making sure he had enough space between him and Elly’s car ahead, reached over to see if he could feel the baby’s movement. It amazed him how firm Sophie’s stomach felt. It wasn’t squishy like fat. It was taut. Suddenly, he felt a tiny thump against his palm. He grinned. “I felt a kick.”
“Isn’t it awesome?”
He didn’t answer as another series of thumps came in quick succession, then stopped. He waited a few more seconds before reluctantly withdrawing his hand. “I guess she decided to take a nap.”
Sophie smiled and rubbed the spot where his hand had been. “I’m going to have to stop to go pee sometime soon.”
Hunter nodded. “Okay. I’ll call and let everyone know. It’s been a few hours since our last stop.”
As he turned to get the radio from her, a movement in her side mirror caught his eye. He squinted, certain his eyes were playing tricks on him. A cloud of dust billowed a mile or so behind them. Was it a large dust devil? For an instant, the dust curtain parted, and Hunter started. Were those vehicles moving?
He ground the heel of one hand against first one eye and then the other. That couldn’t be it. They hadn’t seen another car moving since they left the island.
Hunter glanced in his own side mirror, confirming that his eyes hadn’t played tricks on him. Three vehicles raced up behind them, weaving around wrecks with speed their own group hadn’t dared to take, not knowing what was on the other side of the piles of wreckage.
The cars were still well back, hazy in the waning sunlight. The gap between the approaching cars and their group was closing fast. Hunter grabbed his radio. “Uh, Dad… we have three vehicles moving up behind us. What should we do?”
22
Cole angled his mirrors so he could see past the other vehicles. The cars were coming up fast, weaving in and around the pile-ups at a breakneck speed. That signaled two possibilities to Cole—either they were daredevils, possibly infected with the virus—or they were very familiar with this road and the wreckage. He wouldn’t discount the first, but would put his money on the second. Or he would if money mattered anymore.
His first instinct was to form a circle with their cars like an old time circling of the wagons, but there was nowhere to do it. He felt Travis’s gaze on him and saw fear in the boy’s eyes. “We’re going to be fine, Travis. It’s okay. They’re probably just excited to see survivors.”
Travis shook his head. “The people I saw in my town weren’t happy. They didn’t like folks coming around.”
Cole didn’t have time to answer as he scanned the road ahead looking for a safe place to pull over and either let the other cars go by, or confront them. He feared the boy was right though. While it wasn’t quite Mad Max, it wasn’t a welcome party either.
“Dad…?”
Cole picked up the radio. “I heard you.” He spotted a gas station off the next exit. It was on a slight hill. It wasn’t much of an advantage, but if they could get there and turn, facing down, they’d have a good defensive position. There looked to be an exit on the far side of the gas station as well so they had an escape route if needed and the other group would have to pass their caravan. “Everyone, next exit on the right is a gas station. Get there fast, turn around facing out, get your weapons loaded and ready.”
He tucked the radio alongside his thigh and pressed his foot to the gas. “Travis, I need you to climb in the back there and get the rifles and shotgun ready. They’re already loaded, so be careful. I want you to stay back there and stay down.
Travis nodded and dove into the backseat. The guns were close at hand and Cole was glad for that. “You want the handgun, too?”
Cole almost said yes, but changed his mind. “No, you keep that one for yourself.” If something happened to him, the kid needed a way to defend himself.
After a brief pause, Travis replied, his tone somber but with a note of confidence. “Yes, sir.”
“Buckle up back there. This is going to get rough.” The click of the seatbelt came only a few seconds before Cole was forced to scrape past a car that was on the shoulder edge of a huge wreck that blocked the rest of the ramp. The car sat perpendicular to the road with only inches of clearance on either side. If he took it slowly, he could probably get by without touching the other car, but there wasn’t time for careful driving. The truck Sean was driving would need to fit through here too, and so with that in mind, Cole aimed for a location that would turn the car so it would almost be facing the wrong way.
“Hang on!”
The impact jarred the SUV, but he succeeded in moving the other car and not having his air bags go off. He’d worried about that and had slowed at the last second. Not far past that was another car, but this one was stopped still facing forward, as though it had stalled there. Maybe it ran out of gas just short of its goal, not that he cared why it was there. It just was and it was another obstacle. “Shit.” He glanced in the mirror to see if the cars were still coming towards them, but for the moment, the big truck blocked his view of the road behind him as he was on an incline.
He slowed until he was nearly stopped, hoping Elly wouldn’t slam into the bumper of his own car, but there wasn’t time to tell everyone his plan. His front fender made contact with the rear of the stalled vehicle and, pressing steadily on the gas, his SUV moved the other car forward. He pressed harder on the gas, praying the other vehicle wouldn’t turn towards the shoulder but would instead turn towards the center of the road.
His prayers were answered as the car angled ever so slightly to the left. Giving his car a little more gas, he disengaged when the car’s wheels hit something and turned at a sharper angle and rolled out of the way.
Gunning the SUV, Cole shot ahead, grateful there were no more cars between them and the gas station. He just wished he could block the road off from the pursue
rs. The next stopped police car he saw, or the next police station they passed, he vowed to check for the strips that he saw used in police chases. The strips that police officers would place on the road which would puncture tires of any pursuers.
He raced into the gas station, cranking the steering wheel hard to the right as he performed a U-turn. Stopping just inside the entrance from the top of the ramp, he angled the car so there was just enough room for the others to enter, but was ready to do his best to block access from the pursuers. It also gave him an angle to use the rifle.
Cole shoved the gearshift into park and snatched the rifle Travis handed him along with a pouch full of shells. “I need you to stay down. Slide the boxes over to my side of the car and hunker down behind them.” Cole grabbed Travis’s and his own insulated water bottles and tossed them in the back. “If things don’t go well, take the water, and run. Put your backpack on.”
“Yes, sir.”
There came rustling and clanking and Cole breathed easier, able to focus on the approaching cars as Sean entered the station. He was the last in their caravan, and the others had parked at angles just a little behind Cole, bringing their weapons to bear on the cars racing up the ramp.
Cole grabbed the radio. “Everybody hold your fire.”
“Until we see the whites of their eyes?”
While he appreciated Sean’s attempt at levity, Cole didn’t have time to comment on it. “Let’s just find out what they want first.”
Sympatico Syndrome Trilogy Box Set Page 72