by JT Sawyer
“Viral Armageddon, bro. That’s what the newspaper called it a few weeks back,” said the man with the nose ring. “It’s like a thousand Katrinas going off around the country. Everybody’s fucked, except us. We’re the righteous ones,” he said with a heavy accent while tugging his pants up above his protruding belly.
“You mean all the cities have collapsed in the U.S?” said Travis.
“Not just here, man—Russia, China, Brazil, and those fucking limeys, too. Everyone’s got the bug…millions dead. The big cities are wastelands. But me and my boys, we seen it comin’ and got out. Kinda like pioneers of the new world order.”
Hmm, even a pockmarked troglodyte like this guy can provide some worthy intel, Travis thought. “And what about those ladies there. I suppose you’re just providing some roadside assistance to them, eh?”
The thickset man glanced back at the women on the bikes and smiled. “Them bitches was riding their pretty ponies all alone in the desert. That just didn’t seem safe. We thought they’d be better off living with us.”
Travis slowly took a few steps to the right, within the confines of the bridge, trying to get the bikers to shift slightly and clear the two women. “By your looks, you dudes could drop a small army of guys, so I’m sure glad we’re headed the other way.”
The older woman on the bike raised her head up with tears in her eyes. “Please don’t leave us with these animals. Help us. Please!”
The burly man looked at Katy. “Mmm, I likes the look of your girlfriend. How about you hand over that fine chica to me, old man, so I can add her to our collection. And then you can go on your way.”
“Old man, huh?” replied Travis. “You know, I am getting up there, as you may have noticed from the gray in my beard,” he said, slowly moving to the right, getting the men to follow him so they were away from the two women. “As I see it, you’re half my age but I’ve got twice your fighting experience, pendejo, so why don’t we just skip ahead to the part where the backsides of your heads are painted all over the bridge,” said Travis, slowly placing a hand on his pistol.
The skinny biker let out a half-chuckle, then looked up towards the leader. The dark-skinned man looked Travis over, studying his hands, and then rolled his eyes in a half-circle. “Can you believe this Josey Wales motherfucker. He’s one of them shit-hot soldier boys you always see in the movies who drops a bunch of guys and walks away with the woman. Well, grandpa, today’s going to be a little different you see, because….”
Before he could finish, Travis drew his pistol and put a round in the man’s head and one in the throat. The large hulk staggered backwards and fell on his bike, causing it to topple over. The other two men were white-faced, and then the pear-shaped biker lunged forward, bellowing while raising his machete. Katy stepped back as Travis moved off in a diagonal and fired two rounds in the man’s face and one in his chest, sending him reeling backwards over the guardrail of the bridge, into the stream.
The skinny man was shaking uncontrollably and looking to his right and left, as if his dead friends were going to return. He kept walking backwards in half-steps, with his spindly fingers twitching, glancing over his shoulder at the dirt road behind him.
“Before I kill you, tell me how many more there are in your gang and where they’re all located. If you’re upfront with me, I’ll make your death quick. If not, then you’re going to wish you had gotten more jacked up on your buddy’s snuff this morning.”
The man stood still, his eyes fluttering. “There’s just us, mister. We was just out joyridin’ and all. We weren’t gonna hurt these purty girls, honest.”
Keeping one hand on his pistol while advancing towards the man, Travis reached over by the younger woman on the bike and withdrew a machete that was tucked beside the gas tank, flinging the sheath onto the ground.
“I’d rather not waste any more of my precious bullets. In my experience, you’ll bleed out in less than one minute once this blade reaches its mark. Either way, you’ll tell me.”
“Wait, wait, mister. Alright, man, I...I...uhm, I’m pretty sure there’s around fifty of us, uhm, at the Ashfork den,” the man said, flapping his fingers around on his thumb, as if counting. “And then probably, uhm, uhm, another hundred, uhm, down the road, you know, by the town of Williams, and more in Flagstaff.”
“Are they all as savvy as you?” Travis said, leveling the gun at his head.
“Huh, whatdayamean, mister?”
Travis pulled the trigger one time, taking out the back of the man’s head. Hardly any dust on the road was displaced as the man’s twig-like body fell back onto the sandy soil. He looked down at the dead man’s gaunt face and then turned his wild eyes towards Katy, who was moving across the bridge. A vein in his temple was pulsing and his grip on the machete tightened. He scanned the road ahead in both directions. Picking the leather sheath off the ground, he inserted the machete and shoved it into his beltline. Then he changed out the pistol mags. He leaned over the boney corpse and went through the man’s belt, removing a Glock and a serrated knife.
Katy walked over the cement flooring of the bridge and looked down at the fat man below, whose upright body was sending rivulets of blood into the stream. She was choking on her own breath trying to get in gulps of air past her trembling lips. She had dealt with the aftermath of gunshot wounds many times before in the hospital, but had never witnessed an actual shooting.
Travis walked over to the women on the bikes. “Where are the keys to those cuffs?”
The older woman nodded to the dead man below the bridge. “That one had ’em.”
Katy came over to the women while Travis went down below and retrieved the keys from the soiled front pants pocket of the gourd-shaped biker. More oxygen for the rest of us now, you piece of shit, he thought. He tossed the keys up to Katy and went through the man’s pockets. He removed four pistol mags from the leather vest, a machete, and a large folding knife that was tucked inside the waistband. Then he went back up to the bridge.
The two ladies were hugging each other, the younger one sobbing hard as she gripped the back of the other woman’s shirt in a tight bear hug. When the women eased up on their embraces, Katy stepped forward with a bottle of water. “Here, have some of this. It’s over.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” said the older woman. Her defined cheekbones sat below the faint mark of squint lines around her eyes. Her blonde hair was wavy and hung down on broad shoulders. She gave the water to her sister and drank what remained. “Thank you, sir, dear God, thank you!” she said, looking over Katy’s shoulders.
“I’m Katy and that’s Travis.”
“Nora Daniels, and this is my sister, Rachel.” The young woman gave a faint nod. She was shorter, with sinewy arms and a lean, beautiful face hidden beneath a shading of fresh bruises around her nose and eyes.
“Ladies, can you tell me if there are any more of these surly intellects lurking about?”
“I don’t think so, sir,” said Nora in between swigs of water. “We’re about a half mile from Highway 89, and we were the only ones on that road for hours. They said they were taking us to the town of Williams where the others were,” she said in a trademark western accent.
“Just in case, we better stow the bikes and bodies in the event anyone happens this way,” said Travis. “You can join the rest of us at our camp afterwards, if you want.”
As they dragged the bodies a few hundred yards down-canyon behind some boulders, he heard bits of Nora’s words as she recounted what had happened. “They appeared out of nowhere; we were riding our horses back from a nearby ranch we had gone to check on, when they came driving right up alongside us; couldn’t get away. The fat one shot my sister’s horse out from under her and then came for me; we’d heard rumor that there were some gangs way up north. I guess we shoulda stayed off the main road.”
“Are there any more folks down your way still alive, holding out?” said Travis.
“A bunch down in the Verde Valley in some of the mor
e isolated areas. I’m not sure, to be honest. After the internet and news went out, we pretty much just kept to our ranch,” replied Nora.
“Why were you out by yourselves?” asked Katy.
“Well, ma’am, we both grew up near Chino Valley and have worked our family ranch since we were kids. It’s the only place we knew where we could take care of ourselves, and we thought we’d be safe, or so it seemed. Those guys must have been watchin’ us for some time.”
“What about your family?” said Travis.
“It’s just me and Rachel, sir. Our parents knew they were getting sick. They called us from Phoenix, where they had been visiting friends. They told us to both stay at the ranch and wait there. The rest of our friends and ranch hands…had to be killed…” she paused, trying to maintain her composure. “We waited there and now we’re alive and everyone we loved is gone.”
After hiding the three bodies, they walked back to the bridge. “So, what the chubby one said…about the rest of the world…is it true?” he asked Nora.
“That’s about the only thing that grasshopper-brain had right. It’s like the Armageddon mentioned in the bible. I was in town one day getting mail at the post office during the first week, when the virus hit here. That’s when I heard about a rash of people coming down with some bleeding sickness and the hordes of dead springin’ back to life. The big cities fell apart shortly after that, with some survivors scrambling to leave for the high country. About two thirds of our town was wiped out, last I heard. The rest have either fled, are hiding in their homes, or are up in fortified communities in the mountains.”
Or have been killed by the goon squads roaming the region looking for resources and prey, Travis thought. The world has become Somalia overnight.
They stowed the bikes in another location, under a tangle of shrubs that Travis cut with the machete. He removed the heavily laden saddlebags and passed AKs to the other women to carry, both of whom were no strangers to rifles. Before heading out, he gently dusted off the tracks on either side of the bridge with a swath of foliage.
“Do either of you know this area we are in?” said Travis.
“Yes, sir,” replied Nora, while Rachel followed behind her sister in silence. “This is Willow Canyon. It goes up for about eight miles and then walls out. I used to come out here with my grandpa’s cowboys when I was younger, roundin’ up stray cattle.”
“What about the surrounding areas above? You said the highway wasn’t too far away…anything else around?”
“Well, sir, it’s all pretty much high desert to the south for about twelve miles, and then you come into the small town of Paulden, where there are some scattered ranches, and the headwaters of the Verde River by Hell Canyon. That’s where our ranch is at. If it hasn’t been torched or taken over by more of those brutes. Chino Valley and Prescott are about twenty miles further south.”
They shouldered the weapons and saddlebags and began the return trip to the alcove. On their way back through the canyon, Travis made sure to buttonhook up top and then come back down so as not to leave a straight trail back to the group’s location.
Chapter 14
LB was up above, scanning the tree-lined canyon, and saw them coming as Travis waved to him. The rest of the group came down to greet them, led by Evelyn. “My goodness, what happened? Are you all OK? We heard shooting,” she said, putting her hand on Katy’s shoulder.
“We’re good, Ev. Just a run-in with some unsavory guys trying to pass themselves off as human beings,” said Travis. The other members from the alcove gathered around, while LB stayed up top, watching the canyon floor for a minute, and then strode down the trail to the group.
“This is Rachel and Nora,” Katy said. Nora nodded, while Rachel moved behind her sister and gazed down. The rest of the group introduced themselves.
“Let’s pack our gear up,” said Travis. “Not sure if those boys had any pals in the area, but I’d rather not stick around to find out. We’ll move up-canyon a few miles to a new camp where we can gain some distance from the bridge and set up a perimeter. We can discuss what to do from there.”
“Hey, Trav, let me talk to you a minute,” said Pete, motioning for his friend to move away from the group.
As Travis started to follow Pete, Evelyn chimed in, “Guys, hold on a minute, will you.” The two men stopped and turned around towards Evelyn, who continued, “I’m in debt to you both. We’re all in debt to you for what you’ve done, on and off the river, but I’d appreciate you keeping us in the loop on your plans and discussions. I know you feel a need to talk amongst yourselves about what’s best for us, but this is no longer a vacation where you have to manage our affairs.” She paused and looked them both in the eyes with an understanding gaze. “I love both you boys, but it’s time we huddled up and worked together on our plans.”
Travis looked at Pete and then gave off a slight smile tinged with relief. “OK, Ev, you’re right. This isn’t one of my old units, and I’d be more than happy to pass the reins on to someone else.”
“That’s not what I’m asking, Trav,” she said. “You’ve done just fine by me and kept us alive through it all. I’d follow you both down a thorn-choked trail any day. I just think we need to have more input on what’s going to happen from now on, and know what you’re thinking, instead of having it sprung on us. That’s all I’m saying,” she said, with one hand on her hip and the other brushing through her short gray hair.
Travis looked at the rest of the party and saw the look of agreement with Evelyn’s words. Sometimes life is a helluva lot easier when people just listen and do as they’re told, he thought, while pursing his lower lip and glancing over at Jim. One clusterfuck after another!
“I agree, guys, with what Ev is saying,” said Katy, stepping up alongside the older woman.
Rachel and Nora looked around, puzzled, but stood still beside each other. Travis walked over to the shade of the alcove and lowered the saddle bags and weapons against a boulder. The rest of the group followed and sat by the smooth stone walls. “I think I can speak for everyone here when I say that the first question is: does each person want to stick it out together or try to make it to a town and then go our own ways?” said Evelyn.
Travis crossed his legs. “Before we can even start to answer those questions, Ev, maybe Nora can tell you what she shared with us about what’s going on in the world and in the nearby towns.”
Nora knelt down in the sand and spent twenty minutes describing news reports, the death toll in the cities, collapse of the central government, and the criminal element sweeping through the region.
They sat silent for a minute, taking in the raw data, trying to process what they heard against the images of the former reality they once knew. “Well, it doesn’t sound like I’m going to be getting back home to Seattle any time soon,” said Evelyn. “I will have to wait this one out for a bit until things calm down and some type of order is established. So, it looks like you’re stuck with this ornery old lady.”
Katy shot a nervous glance at Travis, wondering if he was going to say anything about what Jim had told them. Then LB added in, “My home is in New York; I only pray that my children are OK,” he said, shuffling his right foot back and forth in the dirt, making a shallow groove and looking down to hide his tears. “What we’re dealing with is probably going on around the globe. Travis and Pete have gotten us this far, even before the world went to hell. I’m going to stick it out with them for now.”
Becka nodded at Travis. “My family’s gone and I’d probably be dead already if it weren’t for all of you.”
Pete spoke. “I’ve got family and friends in Tucson whose wellbeing keeps me awake at night, probably like the rest of you. This isn’t how I ever thought a trip would turn out, but I’m for sticking together and seeing this through so we can all get back to the ones we cherish. I know this landscape and what it can offer, but, uh, shooting and guerilla warfare ain’t exactly my specialty, so I’m fine with leaving that to Trav and bein
g his wingman. I think he’s the one who should call the shots.”
“Jim and Katy…any thoughts?” said Travis.
“Count me in,” was Jim’s sole response as he folded his arms across his chest.
Katy brushed a lock of hair aside. “As long as I don’t have to eat one of those packrats you caught, I plan on sticking around. Safety in numbers and all that.”
Travis was slumped against the wall. His eyes alternated between staring at the sand beneath his boots and the indigo sky above the canyon rim. He let out a muffled sigh and then sat up. “I am also for sticking together for the time being until we can get to a town that’s regained law and order. All I’ve known is the military model and it has served me well in many conflicts throughout the world. This is what we’ll work off of, but it’s only going to be possible if everyone is cross-trained in the basic skills and tactics. There’s a lot of life experience here and we can all benefit as a group from learning from each other,” he said, standing up and brushing the dust off his pants. “I am only going to take on a leadership role if people aren’t going to second guess me around every turn in the trail. I’ll do my best to only bark orders when the chips are down and I need you to follow my lead, otherwise, once we agree on this, I would ask that you stick by my decisions.”
He rubbed his arm and glanced over at the two sisters. “Rachel…Nora…you’re probably wondering what this group therapy session is about, but things have changed drastically for us in the past few days, having been isolated on the river for many weeks. We’re just now trying to piece it all together. However, you are welcome to stay with us,” said Travis.
“Well, sir, to be honest, me and my sister thought we’d be taking our last breaths back on that bridge,” Nora said, looking at everyone beside her. “We’re good with staying for now, if it’s no burden on all of you. We also grew up in these parts and know the springs and countryside pretty well. There’s a line shack of ours in a remote canyon about sixteen miles from here that we can use, too.”