by JT Sawyer
It was the border to the south of Flagstaff, where a pocket of ranchers and fighters resided in rocky retreats near Sedona, that occupied Enrique’s days and nights. He had spent the past two days having his men gather information on the group below and their counterparts in Jerome, while dreading another visit from Nikki, la diabla, who came every few days to check on his progress. It had only been a few weeks but he was tired of living in the mountains. There were too many trees, too many cold nights, and an inability to enjoy exquisite vistas like he could from the desert porch of his once illustrious three-story hacienda in Mexico. Even his villa in Scottsdale was better than this stifling compound. Now, he was cursed by that ghastly woman and her mysterious agenda. What did it matter if they crushed the ranchers in the coming month or waited until the spring, when the weather was more conducive to success and he had taken care of his men’s needs in preparing for the cold winter ahead?
Nikki had come up from the underground corridors that connected the buildings. These had been put in during the prohibition days in the 1930s and kept intact as novelties from another time. They allowed easy access to the immediate core of buildings surrounding a two-block radius of downtown, and enabled her to come and go without raising suspicion from Enrique’s men.
She was walking up the creaky velvet-covered steps that led to Enrique’s makeshift living room. “Ay chingada,” he whispered to himself, turning to face her as she strode through the antique double doors that opened up into what was once a historic Western bar.
“I like your sense of décor, Rick,” she said in a thick North Carolina accent. “It would look a whole lot better with the heads of those cowpunchers to the south taxidermied on the wall.” She tossed her tactical shoulder bag and MP-5 rifle on the round table in the middle of the room.
Enrique thought back to the last meeting, when two of his men had questioned her recommendations with laughter and scorn. Before he could reprimand them, both were bleeding out with finely sliced carotids, while Nikki resheathed her blade before the first man had even dropped to his knees. Enrique had grown up around machete men in the jungle and was no stranger to dispatching untold enemies with a blade, but he had never seen anyone move with such ferocity and speed, let alone a woman. La diabla.
He edged forward, his hands oscillating between resting on his hips and hanging by his sides. “There was an attack on some of our forces near Chino Valley that may interest you,” he said. “More than a dozen of my men were killed by a group of four people in a valley not far from the highway.
“Go ahead, darlin’. I came for the talk, not your divine company,” she said, lifting her leather boot onto a chair.
“The only survivor there said the group had been poisoned by some kind of plant root put in the water tanker. The rest of the men were dispatched in a swift attack that rivaled anything we’ve seen in other encounters. Before mi hombre died, he said that the group consisted of three women and one man, who moved like someone with exceptional training.”
“That is an instructive little tale, amigo,” Nikki said, walking past Enrique over to the balcony. He moved aside, his tan face growing small and eyes widening as she passed him. “Lots of folks out there with exceptional training backgrounds.” She paused, looking over the downtown. “But combined with the use of natural biotoxins—now that intrigues me. There are only a handful of wild plants that can be used for such ends and use of such a thing isn’t common knowledge.” She stared hard for a few minutes at the San Francisco Peaks in the distance, her chest rising and falling with tempered breaths.
Nikki turned and looked into Enrique’s face, glancing at his ear and the comma-shaped scar on his cheek. “Recall the men you have searching Peach Springs and Kingman, and bring them back here. No need to patrol those areas any further. That should take two days,” she said, walking back inside. “Once they’ve returned, contact me. Then we will begin staging efforts for destroying the group in Sedona and making the push to Jerome.”
“But wouldn’t it be better to wait until April, when we’ve had the winter to prepare for such a large scale assault and gather more firepower?”
“My reports indicate the weather won’t be a major factor for another month. As for firepower, you’ll have whatever it takes to get the job done, sugar.” She grabbed the bag off the table and walked towards the double doors. “Oh, and don’t worry—I’ll be sure to tell your two men on the way out that we’re just old pals. I wouldn’t want them losing respect for you, thinking you’re taking orders from a chica.” She laughed, then sauntered down the steps, waving goodbye as her head disappeared below the wood railing.
Enrique cursed as he unclenched his fists and let out a deep sigh, “Ay, la diabla…la bruja. I want this city to be mine and to have that bitch’s head on my mantle! Then there will be no one left to challenge me again in this world.”
Chapter 28
The sun was cresting over the redrock mesas to the east as Travis sat up on the edge of the cot. It was the second time in two months that he had slept off the ground, and he looked down at the cot as if it were an alien contraption. A purple finch was singing on a tree branch that crept past the second-story balcony of the Grand Hotel, where he, Katy, Nora, and Rachel had collapsed last night, after the helos deposited them in the parking lot below. His ears still rang from the intense gunfire of the battle. Looking at the three women sprawled out around the room helped serve as a reminder that he hadn’t come off another mission in some godforsaken hellhole in a distant part of the world. Here I am in the demilitarized zone of Jerome, Arizona. How did it come to this?
He walked over to a varnished wood counter and poured himself a glass of water from a pitcher that Clara had left out for them. Sitting next to it was a bowl of apples. He couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten fresh fruit, and sank his teeth in with gusto, licking up the rivulets of juice that ran past his lips. Katy was starting to stir, her face buried beneath golden hair, still clad in her clothes and dusty boots.
Travis walked out to the balcony and surveyed the surroundings. Beneath him was a winding, narrow street that snaked its way past dozens of homes carved into the hillside. Some had stilts that suspended them off the mountainside, while others looked like they melted into the bedrock they were built upon. Beyond the spread was the lush Verde Valley below, and sixty miles north was the backdrop of the San Francisco Peaks by Flagstaff, the highest point in the state. In the streets below the hotel, people were milling around the downtown area of former tourist stores. Gone were the laid-back art galleries and trinket shops. Each of the stores had been converted into practical facilities to fill the needs of medical, gunsmithing, dental, tailoring, or food distribution. At the west end of town, by an old firestation, was a corral with a few dozen horses. Every man, woman, and youth had a rifle slung over their shoulder, along with a machete or Bowie-type knife on their belt. It looked like the town had reverted back to its Wild West days from a century earlier, only now it was semi-autos instead of lever-actions.
Large wooden doors opened behind Travis as Crawford walked into the room. “Quite a view, isn’t it? Even if the town looks like a fortress.”
“You’ve managed to assemble quite a nice retreat here in such a short time.”
“It wasn’t too much of a stretch. Most people in these parts were already pretty self-reliant and knew one another. In a land with too little water and rugged wilderness in every direction, a person living here would be a fool not to be prepared,” Crawford said, leaning out on the railing next to Travis. “The divide of canyons and sparsely populated towns spared us the carnage that Phoenix and the larger cities experienced. Of course, who’d want to live in Phoenix anyway.”
“So what’s your plan? Hunker down here in this mountainside oasis until the world re-establishes itself?”
“My only plan is to keep my family and the people under me alive at any cost. That’s nothing new here—it’s a part of the fabric of this region. This isn’t too far of
f from the self-reliant lifestyle most of us had prior to this in these small towns,” he said, tapping his fingers on the railing. “We’ll keep fortifying our position so we’re ready for anything else coming our way, along with putting to bed, with pick and shovel, any more sons-a-bitches that pose a threat. Until I can get more intel on what’s happening inside Flagstaff, we’ll stay put, stock up on beef for the winter, and lay out tactical plans for the springtime.”
Crawford looked at the women inside and then back at Travis. “You and your people are welcome to join us. I can always use men of your experience.”
“Well, I appreciate that. And these digs sure beat sleeping in a cave,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t think there will be any disagreement from the ladies, but I’ll talk it over with ’em when they get up.”
“Good. In the meantime, I have to meet with some of my men. Why don’t you all plan on coming down for breakfast in an hour, and I can show you around the town,” he said as both men shook hands.
“Your hospitality is most welcome. We’ll be there.”
***
It was around nine o’clock when they ventured downstairs and had breakfast with Crawford, Clara, and six of his senior command, who were dressed like cowboys and had weathered faces. Afterwards, they walked around the two main streets below the hotel headquarters, while Crawford and his wife took turns interpreting the layout and discussing their adaptive strategies.
They stopped along a dilapidated staircase beside a two-story building that had once been a brothel during the mining era in the 1930s. “So, how many capable fighters do you have here?” asked Travis.
“We number around three hundred thirty men and women, with around forty kids. The Sedona and Winslow groups have a little less. There’s a lot of interchange between all of us, as patrols constantly switch out. Information is shared via ham radios and, as with any war, by having boots on the ground. Most folks are versed in firearms use, of course, growing up around here, but we only have about forty people with any former combat experience.”
“And what about those RAMs?” asked Nora. “Are there any more of those lurking around?”
“We finished cleaning out the two small towns below within the past month. There are only two steep roads leading up to our location and those are well contained. There are still quite a number of mutants we snipe below each day, but they have been reduced in the immediate area,” said Clara.
“How long can those things live?” Katy asked. “I mean, shouldn’t they have rotted by now? Those creatures we fought last night were running about as fast as a normal human. How’s that possible?”
“Do you see that areal antenna on top of the hotel where you slept?” Crawford said, pointing to the ham-radio tower looming behind them. “We get daily reports from around the world, and everyone is saying the same thing—that these things have a pain tolerance that is off the charts. They’ll stop at nothing to bite you and ingest your blood.”
“Blood?” said Rachel. “Why blood?”
“The reports we’ve gotten say they obtain nourishment from the hemoglobin. I’ve seen RAMs drain a person in twenty minutes, leaving ’em looking like a piece of driftwood,” said Crawford. “And some can move faster than a pissed-off rodeo bull. Why, one time, I saw a creature leap across the hoods of stranded cars on the highway and crash through the window of a cargo truck coming from the other direction, clawing at the driver inside.”
“But the ones we saw on the beach after our river trip were slow moving, almost like they were drunk, while most of the creatures at the airport last night were moving at different paces, some staggering…some running. I don’t understand,” said Katy.
“The CDC said it was connected with the effect of the virus upon the nervous system. It’s believed that the virus destroys the front lobe of the brain, which kills off the person they once were, leaving behind this primal beast bent on devouring anything alive in its path. The longer they have been reanimated, the more amped up the nervous system becomes as the disease spreads further. That’s why it’s called the blood virus. Not only do folks bleed internally before dying, but those who reanimate return with an insatiable bloodlust. The higher elevations might hamper the effect on those who die, but no one can say with a hundred percent certainty at this stage.”
Jesus, if it’s this bad, what are the second and third waves Jim spoke of going to look like? Travis thought, fingering the metallic tube with the coordinates in his pocket. “So blood virus, vampire zombies, cartel gangs, social collapse….I liked it better when it was just radical extremists that I could dispatch on the other side of the globe.”
“Yeah, the world is not the one you left when you stepped onto your rafts long ago,” Crawford smirked.
“We all talked about your offer to stay and would like to take you up on it,” said Travis.
“I was hoping you would. Let’s head back up to the hotel and we can get you settled into one of the rooms on the lower floor, then we’ll discuss what skills you all might be able to contribute to the community. Everyone has a role to fill these days.”
“Four of our friends are still at a line shack in the backcountry, northwest of Chino. We’d like to get them first,” said Travis.
“Why don’t Nora and Rachel accompany a horseback patrol of my men, while you and I catch up on some things we discussed yesterday,” said Crawford.
Travis looked over at the two sisters. “Sounds good. Don’t worry about us,” Rachel said. “We know a shortcut through Hell Canyon off the Verde River that’ll put us there and back in about a week.”
“I’d send the helos, but we just can’t spare the fuel, not after last night,” Crawford said as they walked up the switchbacks to the hotel. “Gather any food and ammo you need and meet my men on the front porch in an hour,” he said, looking at the two sisters. “They’ll be waiting for you along with some fresh horses.”
Chapter 29
“Where the hell are my Blackhawks? How am I supposed to run this shit-show operation with an army of boot-lickers and no tech support,” said Nikki to the image on her laptop. “I want to launch the assault on the ranchers in two weeks, before the heavy snows come, and now you’re telling me to make do!”
The clean-cut man replied, “What I said was to improvise. You always do, and you’ve worked under far more primitive conditions and with less than willing fighters.” He paused, rustling through some charts on his desk. “My intel says that Professor James Pearson has the coordinates for the secondary lab. Two of the other scientists have been caught and are being detained by us. That leaves Pearson, who was on the river trip, and three others that are unaccounted for. My other teams are searching for those men but we need Pearson. He has the location for the potential vaccine for the next wave.”
“We’ve been through this before, babe,” Nikki scoffed. “What I need are the Blackhawks and some satellite imagery of the enemy positions. I feel like I’m working with stone knives and bearskins up here. I want to finish my end of the deal and get out of this one-cow town. As for Pearson and his little army bodyguard, I’ll take care of them myself.”
“Satellite tasking is a challenge right now. We don’t want any attention drawn to our efforts, so Logan’s unit doesn’t pick up our trail. He is still by the president’s side, in an undisclosed location, assisting with keeping the remnant government intact. Logan’s covert unit already got into a firefight with one of our teams trying to nab the first scientist. We don’t need any more entanglements like that or our employer will be...” he paused, taking in a deep breath, “…very put out, shall we say. The Blackhawks and the weapons you requested will be on the way by week’s end. That will push your tactical abilities up considerably without making it seem like there’s a full-scale paramilitary operation unfolding.”
“I know the drill about low-pro operations—or did you forget that we used to work side by side at one time, before you decided to crawl up the skirt of the sec-def?”
“That’s enough, Nik. I gotta—” He was interrupted by her. “I know, I know, you gotta go blow some private,” she laughed, while the man’s fists tightened. “Boy, I miss these chats,” Nikki said. “Let’s do this again real soon. Until then, why don’t you work on trying out some different brands of decaf coffee. It might soothe those jangled nerves you try so hard to keep in check when you’re talking to me.”
“You snide bitch, do you know…” he said, while she slammed the laptop closed on his red, ruffled face.
If I had been in charge from the start instead of that anemic fuck, this whole thing would have gone much smoother and the vaccine would already be in our clutches.
Chapter 30
Three days had passed since Rachel and Nora left for the line shack with a group of six fighters. Katy and Travis had to share a small room on the ground floor of the hotel. He made sure to give his roommate plenty of space, coming in late at night, only when she was asleep, and avoiding encounters with her in the room during the day. He needed to stay focused on the task ahead in Durango, not on the sultry beauty that he kept averting his eyes from. The last few weeks of fighting and evading had given him little time to act on his feelings and now, with other plans in mind, he couldn’t afford the luxury. Crawford was flying to the town of Winslow in a few days to meet with one of his leaders, and Travis wanted to be on that flight.
He was sitting in a wooden chair against the wall of the small hotel room, poring over the topo map, when Katy entered and sat down on her bed a few feet from his. The vintage furniture and rustic charm of the room cast a warm glow upon the setting.