The Systemic Series - Box Set

by K. W. Callahan

  “Shit!” I hissed. “If these guys had this then who knows…”

  “…who else they might have told and who might be coming.” Ray finished my thought, reaching to take the dead man’s assault rifle.

  “We’d better get back to camp,” I said.

  Almost as I finished the words, we heard engines approaching on the entry road.

  “Everyone to the woods!” I yelled.

  Ray grabbed Pam. Meanwhile, Dad and Paul pulled Will up and out of the backseat. Will let out a cry of pain and I rushed to assist them.

  Getting hold of him, we hustled – half dragging, half shoving – him into the cover of the thick brush near the road’s edge.

  We’d just got everyone into the woods and out of sight as four vehicles came tearing up the road from the clearing heading back toward the main road. They blasted passed the Hummer, the lead vehicle swerving at the last minute, barely avoiding a collision with the large SUV.

  The vehicles kept going, and I crept to the roadside to watch their taillights disappear as they cleared the creek bridge and rounded the bend.

  I saw Ray emerge beside me.

  “Looks like they’re gone for now,” he said.

  “Yeah…for now,” I agreed. “But who knows for how long.”

  He nodded. “Better get Will back and patched up and then start packing.”

  “Welcome to southern Illinois,” I stuck out my hand to him in greeting. “Thanks for the help. Doesn’t look like you’ll have much time to catch your breath.”

  “Yeah,” he nodded, “sure glad we left the dangers of Chicago so we could come be safe down here with you,” he offered sarcastically.

  * * *

  “SLOW DOWN, YOU FUCK!” Ava screamed in the passenger seat as Jake swerved at the last second to avoid hitting the Hummer that sat in the middle of the narrow access road.

  Her anger surprised him. She’d rarely raised her voice to him, and never called him names. She’d always been submissive, but it seemed that something had suddenly and dramatically changed in her demeanor.

  Jake knew what it was.

  This was the first time he had ever lost a fight in front of Ava. And while it was difficult for him to accept the defeat, it appeared that it was even harder for Ava.

  Jake didn’t say a word. He just gritted his teeth and kept the gas pedal shoved to the floor. He still had part of his army left. He still had guns and ammo. He still had Ava…at least for the moment.

  He shrugged out of his flak jacket as he drove and threw it into the backseat behind him, rubbing his chest where bullets had impacted with the body armor. He could tell by the distaste with which Ava was looking at him as she did the same that this wasn’t something she was taking lightly. He knew he’d have a lot of work to do to make this right and once again prove himself to her.

  CHAPTER 5

  MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16th

  SOUTHERN ILLINOIS

  The rest of the day felt almost as though I was floating through some sort of bizarre dream. The whole shootout had been surreal, and if it hadn’t been for the dead and injured family members, I’d almost think it hadn’t happened. As soon as we got back to camp, I had Pam and Sharron look after Will, tending to his leg. The wound appeared to be largely superficial, having come from a bit of shrapnel that had struck the meaty part of my brother’s upper thigh.

  “Lucky it wasn’t a few inches higher,” I said with eyebrows raised.

  “No shit,” he snorted, and then gritted his teeth in pain as Sharron dabbed the injured area with a warm wet cloth to clean the blood away.

  I put Dad and Paul, who were in a sort of shell-shocked daze, inside a tent with Sarah and Jason so they could get some rest, telling Sarah that she needed to be a big girl now and help take care of the boys. I found Mom, and asked her to help out with watching them as well.

  Claire and her mother Emily came to find me as I stood with discussing our next move with Ray, already knowing something was wrong when we returned without Steve and Brian. I didn’t have to say much. They could tell by the look on my face, and they’d heard the intense amount of shooting that had occurred in our firefight with the intruders.

  When Claire stepped close and mouthed softly, “Dad…and Brian?” I just shook my head.

  “They didn’t make it,” was all I could muster.

  She put a hand over her mouth and turned away, placing an arm around her mother who stood close behind her. Claire led her over to the camp’s picnic table where they could console one another.

  “Give me a minute, would you Ray?” I ask him.

  “Sure,” he nodded.”

  But I wasn’t going to console Claire and her mother. I knew there was nothing I could say or do right now to help. They needed time. There would be opportunity for talking later, and I’d have to break the news to them about Kevin and his family as well, which I wasn’t looking forward. But right now, we had to focus upon the immediacy of the situation at hand.

  Instead, I found Pam and Sharron who were inside a tent, putting the finishing touches on Will’s now cleansed and bandaged leg wound. Will was lying on his back, his eyes closed.

  “When you guys are finished up here, I need you to start breaking down camp,” I said.

  “We’re leaving?” Sharron looked at me.

  I nodded. “I don’t know who else might be coming here or if those guys are coming back. There could be more of them. I don’t have any idea. We need to get out of here fast. Pack up anything of use – food, the tents, bedding, clothing, cooking utensils, whatever – as quickly as possible. I want to be ready to go by tonight at latest.”

  Sharron and Pam nodded.

  “I’ll help you,” Will said, struggling to sit up.

  “You rest,” I said sternly. “I might need you ready for later.”

  He nodded his agreement and lay back down.

  Next, I went back to the tent where Mom and Dad were in with the kids. “You okay?” I asked Dad.

  “Yeah…I guess,” he shrugged.

  I knew he wasn’t. Who would be after what we’d just gone through? But at least he was putting on a brave face.

  Poor little Paul was curled up in the fetal position, his head buried in a mound of blankets, crying. Mom was rubbing his back in an attempt to comfort him.

  “Think you can keep watch here at camp for a little while?” I asked Dad. “Ray and I need to head back and see what we can salvage from the fire-fight.”

  “Okay,” Dad said. He turned to Sarah, putting a meaty paw on her tiny shoulder. She stared at him wide-eyed but full of youthful confidence and eager to help. “Can you help your grandmother watch you’re brother and Jason while I go outside?” he asked her.

  She nodded her head, “Yes,” she said proudly.

  “Good girl,” he smiled at her.

  “Mom, can you start helping pack some stuff up while keeping an eye on the kids?” I asked. “We’re leaving tonight.”

  “Yes,” she said. “Whatever I can do to help.”

  “Thanks,” I tried to smile at her. “Come on Dad,” I said, helping him to his feet from where he sat beside the kids.

  Outside the tent I stopped. In a whispered tone I asked, “Dad, what should we do about Brain and Steve?”

  He thought for a moment. “We have to bury them…if nothing else but for Claire and Emily’s sake.”

  “But we don’t have time. Those guys could be back any minute,” I argued. “I mean, Brian and Steve are dead. It’s too late to do anything about it now. We have to focus on protecting the rest of the camp.”

  “I understand what you’re saying,” he agreed. “But you have to think about Claire and Emily.”

  “I am thinking about them, and everyone else for that matter, that’s why I want to get the hell out of here.”

  “I don’t think those guys will be back soon, if they’re back at all,” Dad replied. “They took some pretty substantial losses and now we’re ready for them. But you have to bury our peop
le. You owe it to the wives, the kids, the grandkids. It’s not just about who was lost today. It’s about who could be lost tomorrow. You just leave those bodies out there to rot and you’re sending a message to everyone. I know it’s hard now that society appears to have crumbled, but that doesn’t mean that we as civilized people have to crumble with it. People still need closure. People still need to mourn. And if you leave Brian and Steve out there, while Claire and Emily might forgive you for it now, they could grow to resent you and how you handled the death of their loved ones later. We need, if not a funeral, at least a burial. And it needs to be done right.”

  I bit my lower lip, thinking about what he said, torn between the safety of the group and doing what was right. “I guess you have a point, Dad. I hadn’t thought about it that way. Ray and I will go down and clean up the bodies as best we can while we’re out. Where do you think we should bury them?”

  He thought about it for a minute, and then said, “Right here, I guess. It’s a beautiful spot, and it’s a place where we all lived happily as a family…at least for a little while.” He looked at me. “How about I start on the holes?” He paused. “I’ll keep my gun close by, just in case.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  It turned out that Dad had an even better burial plot in mind for Brian and Steve. He picked the very top of the hill above where our camp was situated and where we had sat just weeks before listening to the final broadcasts from the world we once knew before the radio signal eventually faded into oblivion.

  As evening began to fall that rainy September day, we laid one young man – a son, brother, and uncle – and one gentleman – a father, husband, and grandfather – to rest overlooking what just hours earlier had been our happy home, untouched by the troubles of the outside world. Now that curtain of innocence had been ripped aside by the evils of man and his selfish desire to have and to take.

  At the funeral, the rain finally stopped and tiny droplets dripped slowly from tree branches, commingling with our tears as a cool breeze began to whip around us. I hugged Claire close to me as Dad read a passage from his bible. Then I said a few words. I don’t even remember exactly what I said. My thoughts were all a jumble of emotions – anger, frustration, sadness, confusion. It was something regarding the passing of loved ones too soon and how we’d all miss both Brian and Steve, each in our own ways, and how I’d always treasure the past week in which I’d grown to know and love each of these exceptional men in their own unique way.

  After the service, as we readied ourselves to depart, the camp went about their duties largely in silence. We moved zombie-like, finishing up collecting possessions from supply piles that used to be our tents, our camp, our home. We worked like a fire brigade making trips back and forth between vehicles parked down on the access road. Earlier, we’d siphoned fuel from the two vehicles that the armed band had left behind. There wasn’t much left in them, but every little bit counted. We found a few containers of food in the back of one abandoned truck, a few candy bars and an open pack of cigarettes in the other, but that was about it. We consumed most of these items before the day was out.

  We decided that to conserve fuel for our other vehicles, we’d take three of the five that had made the trip down. We decided that since Claire’s parents’ SUV had taken a pretty bad beating on the way down, we would siphon the fuel out of it to help fill the others, giving everyone else nearly full tanks. Claire’s mother Emily would ride with Will and his family, which would comprise the occupants in their mini-van. My parents would drive their SUV along with Ray and Pam since the Hummer had also been damaged pretty severely on the trip down and was almost out of fuel. Will decided to ride shotgun and nurse his wound while Sharron drove.

  I would lead the convoy in our SUV with Claire and Jason. My parents would follow, and Will’s mini-van would bring up the rear. We spread out guns and ammo before we left, ensuring that all the vehicles were armed.

  We agreed that we’d all use headlights on bright once it got dark. We felt that this might decrease the chance of collisions with wildlife in this heavily wooded part of Illinois and hoped that brighter headlights would make us appear a larger convoy, which in turn might deter any potential attackers. However, while the sun had set during our departure preparations, there was still a little daylight left, so we decided that until it became too dark to see, we’d keep them off to avoid attracting attention as we left. The last thing we wanted was to run into the same people we were trying to avoid by leaving.

  And since we had nowhere in particular to get to, we agreed to keep speeds to around 30 to 40 miles an hour to give us better reaction time during night driving and help conserve fuel. We had no idea what we were getting into or what sorts of obstacles we might encounter on the roads.

  I pulled Will – who was walking with a homemade crutch Sharron had cut for him from a small tree – Dad, Ray, and Sharron aside as the others finished making the last few trips back and forth between camp and our vehicles. I laid out a map on the hood of our SUV.

  “Here’s what I’m thinking,” I said. “We should probably head south to stay ahead of the winter weather that’s sure to come. I’m not sure what’s better though, sticking to the state roads or using the highways.”

  “I’m thinking highways, and I’ll tell you why,” Will said. “These little towns could be infested with crazies like the kind we just encountered. Plus, smaller towns are more likely to have banded together to keep out intruders. Anyone still alive in these tighter-knit communities may have gotten organized by now and they probably won’t want anyone else coming into their territory. I can see issues with barricaded roads, militia-style units, and other traps and obstacles laid out for travelers. If we get on the highway, I think we’re more likely to bypass those types of situations. Plus, we have more room to spread out and maneuver around potential obstacles. A two-lane highway is easier to barricade, and it doesn’t give you much turning radius if you have to make a 180 and high-tail it out of there. On a highway, you’ve got more wiggle room.”

  “I agree,” said Dad. “And I also think that we should find places to camp during the day. Traveling in the daylight could expose us to even more dangers.”

  “Okay,” I nodded. “I tend to agree. So I’ll lead us back to the interstate and we’ll cut through the corner of Kentucky and keep heading south. I’m thinking somewhere like Georgia or South Carolina for the winter. That sound good to everyone else?”

  “As good as anywhere, I guess,” Dad shrugged.

  “As long as it’s warm and safe,” Will agreed. “Guess it doesn’t really matter at this point. I ain’t going for the scenery.”

  “Sounds like a plan then,” I said. “Remember, the signal to stop is a flash of the headlights if you’re behind, the hazard lights on if you’re ahead. Everybody okay to drive?”

  There were tired mumbles of confirmation.

  “I know it sucks to have to drive at night after the day we just had, but I think we need to put some miles between us and here. Hopefully we won’t run into our friends from earlier today.” I glanced around us and up through the treetops at the sky. “It looks like we barely have a little daylight left, so I suggest we keep the headlights off for as long as we can just in case. We’ll keep it slow and steady until we get out of the general vicinity, then we can put the headlights on and maybe pick up speed a little bit. We all have food, weapons, and ammo, so if by chance anyone gets separated they’ll be self-sufficient. We’ll make the meet up point, uh…” I scanned the map, “…exit 31, off I-24 in Kentucky near Grand Rivers. If we get split up, we do our best to meet up again there. It looks like a relatively out of the way spot.”

  “How long do we wait if we do get separated?” Will asked.

  I shrugged, looking around at the group. “Any suggestions?” I asked.

  Everyone was silent.

  “As long as we can, I guess. Let’s just hope it doesn’t happen and leave it at that.”

  * * *

&
nbsp; “Mommy, I’m tired,” Shane whined.

  Joanna, Janet, and Shane had been walking for several miles, slowly making their way out of Avers and down the empty road leading from town. After the events of the day, they were tired before they’d even begun their travels, and now they were near exhaustion. Still, Janet – her teenage energy kicking in – had enough gas left in her tank to pause and let Shane climb up onto her back.

  “Just for a little while,” she said. “Then you have to walk again,” she told him.

  “Okay,” he sighed softly as she felt his head rest heavily against her neck.

  “How much farther?” Janet asked quietly.

  “Until what?” Joanna replied, tired, hungry and aggravated.

  “What do you think?” Janet answered in a sarcasm-soaked response.

  Joanna stopped and whirled on her angrily.

  “Listen, I know we’ve all had a rough day, and I’m trying to keep it together here, but you giving me lip isn’t going to help things. We’ll find a place to camp soon.”

  “Well, I’ll tell you; I’m not carrying Shane all night,” Janet shot back. “It’s almost dark. What’s the plan here anyway? I mean, where are we going? Are we just wandering down the road? Do you even have a plan?” her voiced quivered.

  Joanna took a deep breath. “I don’t know,” she said, her anger fading and despair setting in.

  As dusk settled upon them, she understood that they needed to find a safe place to settle down. It was getting chilly and Joanna knew it was going to be a long night.

  It was then she noticed the sound of approaching vehicles. She frantically scanned the road in both directions, but she saw no approaching lights.

  “Where are…” Janet began, but Joanna silenced her, holding up a hand.

  “Shhh…listen.”

  The sound of engines was growing nearer, but she couldn’t tell exactly from which direction they were approaching. It sounded like they were coming from the woods, but everywhere she looked she saw no indication of vehicle headlights.