by Key, Thomas
Another wave of chuckles came from the group of men. She heard the crunching of footfalls in the sand just outside of the hawk. Their view was obscured as a man stood in the sunlight. It only took a moment for her to realize that he was holding a pistol in his right hand. Out of instinct, she fired her rifle, hitting the man in the jugular. He fell back, firing his pistol as he fell. The rounds ricocheted and exited the cockpit glass windows. The man lay gurgling in the sand, and the group of men opened up, firing more rounds into the helicopter. Burns and Rachel took cover, trying to find anything to shield them from the rounds. After a couple of minutes of this, the firing began to taper off. Another man approached the door, and the two survivors prepared to shoot another one. This time, they heard the distinct sound of a pin being pulled from a grenade. "Oh, Fuck Me!" Burns shouted as a small cylindrical object was tossed into the chopper. They both tried to dive for the open door, but a bright intense light flashed and they fell to the ground. They were temporarily deaf as the flash bang exploded in the confined space. Rachel's hands were clutching her ears, and she barely took note of the shadows around her. A punch came out of left field and landed squarely in her mid-section, causing her to gasp for breath. She was finally able to see and saw Burns take a rifle stock to the head. He crashed back to the ground as men grabbed both of them and pulled them out.
In the hot sand, they both lay there. She was still gasping for breath, and noted that she had two men with guns trained securely on her. Burns began to awaken again, and was struggling to get up. One of the men kicked him in his side, causing a loud groan as he went back to the dirt. "You two caused a lot of trouble today," a man said, the same voice from before. "I don't like trouble," he said as he approached. She lifted her head in time to feel a slap rock her face as she spun to the ground. "So, since you took one of my men, what's fair is fair," he said as he pulled the hammer back on his pistol and began to litter Burns with bullet holes. His body jerked back and forth with every impact. When the boy’s body lay unmoving, she couldn't help but notice that his eyes were looking right into hers as he left this plain of existence. "And you little lady," he said, approaching her, "You are coming back with us," he said as she saw a fist heading straight to her head as blackness, once again, enveloped her.
Chapter 36
We entered the town of Santa Rosa. With Route 66 running directly through the small town, historical buildings sat alongside the newer interstate with inviting signs for their array of restaurants and hotels. As we began to drive through the town though, it was more lifeless than it ever had been before. The friendly inviting signs were replaced with destroyed shells of boards, many with bullet holes through the names of the host of pit stops. Several of the buildings were burned down, and spray paint adorned many of the former businesses. I had to pull off the interstate and onto route 66 to avoid a significant traffic jam. Rodriguez had once again fallen fast asleep once we had left the dark deeds of the burials behind us. An hour of uneventful driving had taken its toll on me as well, as I was near asleep at the wheel. It wasn’t until I began having a weird feeling that things took a turn for the worst. What would have been a right turn to US-84 was blocked by vehicles. It was not the kind of blockage that we came to expect from people trying desperately to leave an area. The cars were fairly nice and neat, in a straight line, with two turned sideways at the ends to make a perfect I shape. The dark feeling in my gut began to radiate out as in the headlights, I saw two heads pop up over the hood of an old white ford bronco. I nudged Rodriguez who instantly woke up. "What’s up?" he asked me as he looked around, gauging our situation. I pointed at the vehicle cluster before us. He sat up straight, "What in the 13 circles of hell is this?" "Are you sure you want to go with that one?" I asked him quietly. "Yeah, good as time as ever." Another head popped out, staring at us a moment before ducking back down as well, but this one had been further down the line. "I think maybe we should go around," I told him as I put the Hummer into reverse. As I did so, a volley of bullets rained around us, shattering the windshield, and spraying us with glass shards. "Shiiiiiiitt!" I yelled as we both ducked down and I hit the gas, pulling us away from the ambush. One of the vehicles, a Prius of all things, started up and pulled out of the line and began following us. I slammed on the breaks and revved my engine. "Look!" I pointed back toward the oncoming car. It had left a hole in the line of blocked cars. "If we can get past these assholes, we can get back to our route," I told him. His rifle was up on the dash, and he began firing rounds at our aggressors. We could see bullets ping off the front end of the Prius, shattering their windshield in revenge for ours. They returned fire as I put it in drive and barreled back towards them. As my first and hopefully ever game of chicken commenced, and rounds whizzed by me, all I could focus on was the ever-approaching driver of the other vehicle. I could still swear to this day that our eyes were locked on each other, even with the gunfight raging all around us. At the very last possible minute, I saw the passenger reach over and jerk the wheel to the right, sending the car into a divider, and sending sparks across the roadway. We passed by, with Rodriguez still laying down fire at whatever moved. We cheered as we drove right through their road block and what we hoped onto greener pastures.
As we congratulated each other on a job well done, three pickup trucks and two motorcycles came into view heading our way in the direction that we were heading. "Fuck me!" I yelled as I immediately pulled the SUV to the right and onto a dirt road. I knew without a shadow of a doubt they had seen us. We bounced in our fancy seats as we hit potholes and bumps in the obviously no longer taken care of road. Two of the bikes, dirt bikes no less had cut across the parking lots of the nearby TA with ease, and were right on our tail. Rodriguez was starring behind us as I held the hammer down, in a desperate attempt to outrun them. "Hey bro, do you mind maybe shooting at them for me. That would just be lovely," I said as I had a death grip on the steering wheel, trying to keep the truck on the flattest part of the road. "Yeah," was all he said as he put his entire top half of his body out and starting taking shots at the bikers. In my rear-view mirror, I could see the rest of the enemy convoy following close behind the bikes. More bikes were directly in front of us, less than a half a mile away. "They’re everywhere!" I shouted over the sound of my partners rifle firing lead downrange. I took a left turn, back towards US-84, and pulled a once in a lifetime drift in the Hummer that any need for speed fan would be jealous of, as I made a left turn heading back towards Santa Rosa. "Where the fuck are you going?" he yelled with his head turned towards me. "Trust me! Stop yelling at me!" I shouted in frustration. He just stared as if I was a petulant child throwing a temper tantrum. Which I guess I could have been as I just wanted to pull over and get out if he was going to give me shit about my driving. That, however, would not have been a good idea as they were still way too damn close for comfort.
I made for the barricade, knowing it was the perfect choke point for our guests. Some muscle car was passing the bikes and trying hard to make up the distance. "Can you shoot the tires," I asked, as I saw our opportunity coming quickly. In response, he stuck his body back out and began to fire back at the car. I heard a loud pop then a thud thud thud as the driver’s front tire exploded with rubber flying across the road. The driver nearly lost it but was able to regain it. "Take out the driver in ten seconds or less!" I told Rodriguez. My companion was many things, a national guardsman, a stand-up guy, and apparently, a marksman sent from heaven to defend me. He took steady aim, and as we passed the roadblock through the previous hole, he fired, hitting the driver in the throat. The driver lost control and slammed into a corner of another vehicle, causing an explosion of fire and filling our entry hole rather nicely. We could see the other vehicles behind come to screeching stops as I made an immediate right and back onto the interstate eastbound lane. "I guess we’re not going that way," my partner said as he sat back down in his seat heavily. "Yeah, no kidding," I said as we sped away from the now raging fire behind us.
; Interlude
Ace slammed his hand down onto the table of the RV, a glass falling over and shattering on the floor below. "What do you mean they got away?" he shouted into a radio of some kind. He listened attentively to the staticky reply of the man on the other end of the radio. "They got past our roadblock. They killed several of our men and evaded us. Whoever is driving is one lucky son of a bitch," the man on the other end replied back to Ace. The leader’s grip on the radio tightened, almost to the point of no return of shattering the device in his hands. "Then you’d better go after them!" he shouted into the receiver, with all the control that he could muster. After a moment of silence on the other end, to which he was going to berate the man on the other end, and maybe even have him shot just for the hell of it, he replied, "Yes Boss." Those two words had done more to calm him than any shot of alcohol ever could. The feeling of power over others was a sickness, or a drug depending on who you asked. The feeling when you held it inside of you was absolutely irresistible. Who better than to lead these men than he? he thought to himself as he placed the radio back down on its cradle. It was dark already and Ace was ready to grab one of the whores in the trailer next door and have a bit of fun before bed. After all, isn't that the least they could do in exchange for the safety of his dynasty.
Chapter 37
Nearing the end of the night, or early morning for you early birds, Rodriguez and I saw the lights on the horizon. Just off of the interstate, inside of the town of Tucumcari, New Mexico sat an assortment of tents and vehicles. The Exiles setting up camp right inside of the town was good and bad for us. It was good as we knew exactly where they were. No hunting through a forest and a need to find a ring to rule all others or any of that crap. The downsides were plenty, however. The enemy could access the interstate in either direction in almost no time flat and short of taking our ride off road, there was no way to bypass them. It could go off road, absolutely, although there's a great chance that this civilian version would not live up to its hype as a military style vehicle. Considering its color, we'd also probably stand out like an incredibly sore thumb just waiting to be targeted. We decided on a cautious approach, choosing to investigate and see if we could gather any good intel. We were looking for numbers, weapons, and anything else that may give us an edge over these bastards.
We hid the hummer between a set of wrecked cars on the interstate. The whole point was to hide it from anyone looking directly down the road. My companion decided that he would recon the far side of their base camp. This was totally cool with me, as he would have to make that trek to the other side and I could stay here, hidden like the ninja that I knew that I was. It took him a couple of hours of slow crawling to finally reach the other side of the camp. With his flashlight, he signaled me to let me know that he was in position. The sun was still down, and in New Mexico, that was generally a very good thing. The desert heat could drive any person insane. The nights were generally cold but usually down right enjoyable. At least, they were before the threat of being eaten alive by undead or strung up onto a cross by these douchebags.
Overlooking the little camp of the gang below, I could see RV trailers and tents scattered haphazardly around a large bonfire. A dozen or so armed men, all of them apparently drinking beer and having a rowdy good time were huddled around the blaze below. Using a cheap set of binoculars, I zoomed out to the parameter of the camp. Lights dotted a path in a circle around the camp, with spotlights mounted in the bed of four pickup trucks in each corner of their parameter. The lights were slowly moving back and forth along an obviously hastily built fence line. Six roving guards armed with long barreled rifles walked along the parameter, with very relaxed postures. Apparently, they hadn’t had many intruders lately. The security seemed lax, especially considering it was the end of the known world.
From behind me, a noise caught my attention and I damn near lost my shit. A road runner had crept up to me, apparently, very curious about me lying prone on the ground. For those that have not actually seen one in person, they’re actually quite small and kind of adorable. I, not wanting to move and give away my position, laid perfectly still as the little guy (or girl) inched closer. The bird seemed to stare into my eyes for a moment, before striding calmly away back the direction it had come. The road runner accomplished something that many had not lately. It brought a smile to my face. Even with the state of the world, life could be beautiful. Life would, hopefully, always find a way. Even if humans were eventually extinct, the remaining flora and fauna would survive and probably flourish. Mother nature would retake the planet and in fifty years from now, most of the traces of humankind would be gone. The world would be truly a marvel to behold. Of course, I’d rather that I was still here in 50 years so I could bask in its beauty. I sure as shit didn’t know the future. However, if that wasn’t a dream worth fighting for, what was?
As I turned to continue watching the camp, a convoy of pickups and motorcycles arrived from the east. As the vehicles came to an abrupt stop, the party goers that had been at the fire all made their way to see what was happening. A large black SUV, maybe a Ford Excursion was the center of the attention. I watched as the group grasped the door handles and grabbed several women from inside of the vehicle. They forcefully dragged the women out, in one case by their hair. One woman with brown hair kicked a man right in the balls. I literally felt it from my lookout position. Another man came up and sucker punched her in the back of the head, immediately knocking her out. As they lifted her up, I saw her face. It was Rachel.
What the actual fuck? I thought to myself. The last time I had seen her was when she was still sick, being loaded onto the helicopters back what felt like thirty-seven years ago at Lucaya. What was she doing here? The five women that they had pulled from the truck were being brought to an older trailer. It looked like it had been previously used for livestock. Horses or cows or something like that. They roughly threw them inside and padlocked the door. The former bonfire group stood around, yelling something that I could not hear. They seemed to tease and taunt the people within the trailer. One heavy man gave a vulgar hip thrust forward, with his stomach jiggling from under his shirt. Well, I had already made up my mind, but that was just damn gross. I have nothing at all against larger individuals. I just have a problem with the apparent morality issues of the individuals in the camp. No matter what it took, I was going to go in and get Rachel. She was my responsibility and more than that, I think that I might kind of sort of love the girl. Yes, I know that sounds cheesy as shit, but let me take a moment and explain. That woman had been with me since the beginning of the apocalypse. I saw her do things that no other woman, and let’s face it, no other man would do. She was always shoulder to shoulder with me, and she pulled my ass out of a half dozen bad situations. When I saw her that first night at Lucaya, I felt something. And damn it, I was not going to let her go.
As the hours ticked by, I used my time, scanning over the camp foot by foot. The guards seemed to switch out every three hours. Every once in a while, one of the guards would go to the trailer that had the women in it. After speaking to another guard standing outside of the trailer, the door was opened. The man would point and the trailer guard would go in and pull a woman out and hand her off to the other man. The man and woman would then go to another trailer and disappear for a while. They’d emerge again, and he would throw her back into the cage. It was obvious to me what this was. The… men, for lack of a better term, were using the women in the vilest way. It was unfathomable for me to even consider what was going through these… people’s minds. My mother had always taught me to treat women with the utmost respect and generally to be chivalrous. Feminists may disagree with me here, if there were any left alive, but women are far better than men. I’m not knocking my man brethren, but women can handle us with one hand and handle the rest of the world with the other. They’re damn near magicians, or witch doctors if you get on their bad side. Yet, this group of people does whatever ungodly things they want to these women.
I counted a total of 32 of these bastards in the camp. Between the six roving guards, and the group at the fire, once in a while, one or two would come out of one RV or tent and move to another one. I made a mental list of the ones that I had seen. No day like today, I thought to myself as I checked my gear. I still had my trusty AR15, as well as one of my pistols. I felt my vest and found my boot knife still in its sheath on my chest. I nodded to myself and palmed it. I began to crawl down the embankment, slow and steady wins the race. As I neared the lit border of the encampment, I slowed. I waited until the closest guard walked past, and I brought myself up to a crouch, and made a slow move past the nearest light. This part of the chain link fence had a gap on the bottom of it, being as the two poles were placed on uneven ground. Crawling under the fence line, I got back down onto my stomach. I ended up coming to a small truck bed tent resting in the back of an old Chevy pickup truck. Freaking amateurs, I thought as I moved along. By the looks of it, they move this camp fairly often, and don’t want to lay down any permanent security measures. My personal belief was that this group was a bunch of morons though. I slowly made my way towards the cattle trailer. I hugged vehicles, ducked under them, and moved shadow to shadow until I came abreast of the women’s trailer. I kept thinking to myself, I'm a mother f'n ninja.
I heard muffled cries and whispered voices coming from inside. I crept towards the door, with the guard’s back turned towards me. I pulled my knife and buried its hilt deep into the man’s neck. I held my hand over his mouth to muffle the noise as he gurgled out his last gasps of life. I slowly pulled him back into the darkness, and slid him under the cattle trailer. I cleaned my knife off on the piece of shit’s shirt and stood up. I spotted a key chain hanging from his pant loop. I snatched it, grabbing the keys in my hands so they didn’t emit any noise. As I stood, in the corner of my eye, I saw a man working his way towards the trailer. "Shit," I whispered to myself. I walked to the door and stood rigid, hoping to God that this guy didn’t know everyone in camp. Luckily for me, this fool was drunk. Not tipsy mind you, but could barely walk drunk. Lady luck seemed to be on my side tonight. "I need one of the whores," he told me, steadying himself on the door. I couldn’t help but sneer at the man. "Sure," I said as I turned, unlocked the padlock and opened the door. With what little light was coming from the nearest trailer, I could see an assortment of bedraggled women laying or sitting in any available space. There must have been two dozen females in this trailer of horrors. As the man walked forward, the women inside recoiled, and tried to scoot farther inside. "Come on now ladies. If one of you doesn’t come with me now, I'll whip the lot of ya," the drunk man slurred out. A woman towards the middle of the pack stood up as if to come forward. "Fuck this," I told myself as I repeated my earlier accomplishment of sending a man to hell. I performed the same maneuver, whispering into his ear as he fell, "You are the epiphany of evil. I hope you burn." His eyes met mine before they closed. This guy was far heavier than the previous man. I let him drop, although he made quite a bit more noise when he hit the ground. I saw horrified looks on the women. I had literally killed a man right in front of the whole group.