ALL IS SILENCE

by Robert L. Slater

  “Last batch?” Her heart stopped. “You mean my dad?”

  “Yeah,” Carter said over his shoulder as he headed outside. Lizzie ran after him. He climbed into the Tank again; someone had chained the tires. He started the engine. The familiar sound was a small comfort. She could have turned and run, but where would she go? And Carter was her best chance to find her dad. She got in and closed the door. He drove like a demon, tossing snow away before she even buckled her seat belt.

  Her cellphone had full bars now. Lizzie sent a text to Zach and pinged him her location, not even trying to conceal it from Carter. He had other things to worry about.

  ”I thought I heard gunfire.”

  “That was gunfire. The Independents are getting gutsier as winter comes on.”

  The wind whipped the snow sideways.

  “But why are they fighting you?”

  “They think The City is cutting into their territory. Which it is. And The City saves people from the Independents.

  Carter stopped talking and drove. The full moon shone through the clouds. The volume of snowfall increased the higher they climbed—smaller flakes, but lots more of them.

  He took the winding curves at an insane speed but the chained tires bit into the icy snow and kept them on the road.

  The road leveled out in front of them and there was a big passenger van with people huddled around it. Lizzie’s eyes searched. Young men with guns, a dark haired woman, and... Her heart leaped. Jess! Then fell.

  Where was her father? Carter pulled the Tank around the side of the van. Someone in khaki pants bent over the engine compartment. She had the door open and was running even before the Tank stopped.

  “Dad?” Lizzie called. His head jerked upward, clunked against the hood. She heard a growl of anger. He turned, giving her a crooked smile, a reverse of the one she’d seen in the mirror for years. His arms opened as he limped toward her.

  “Elizabeth.” His voice, soft and warm, was even more comforting in person.

  Lizzie dove into his arms. They fell into the snow. “Oh, Daddy.” She buried her face in his warm chest. She heard his heartbeat, fast and strong. “I found you. You’re alive.”

  “And so are you, my Elizabeth.” His arms squeezed her tight.

  For the first time in forever maybe, Lizzie realized she felt safe. Her brain said she wasn’t, but her heart disagreed.

  “Aww,” Jess said above her. “Can I have a hug, too? When you stop blubbering?”

  Lizzie smiled, holding her dad tight. “Yeah. Jess. Come get yours.” Lizzie opened an arm, making room for Jess.

  “Group hug,” Jess hollered and fell toward them, knocking a fresh puff of icy powder in Lizzie’s face.

  Her father let out a muffled grunt.

  Lizzie held them both with all her strength. Nothing else mattered. She had her dad and Jess for a bonus. Lizzie pulled back to look at him. Tears ran down his weather worn face. He reached a hand to cup her chin. She marveled in his smile.

  Someone cleared their throat behind them. Carter’s gruff, voice, softer than usual, said. “All right, this reunion’s about the sweetest thing I’ve seen since before the goddamned plague hit, but if we don’t get out of here, the Independents are likely to break things up. We need the van running.”

  His words brought Lizzie back into the moment. Carter jerked his head at a man holding a shotgun. “You keep watch.” Then his head disappeared under the hood.

  Lizzie, Jess and her father climbed into the van, all of them grinning and glowing.

  Zach slipped into his brown jacket and pulled the gray hood of his sweatshirt out of the neck. “Would’ve been smart to get some white clothes.”

  “Oh, well.” Duke zipped his black jacket. “Let’s do this.” He gestured toward a ditch on the side of the road.

  Zach followed. They hunched low and jogged along the shallow indent. The snow was light and about a foot deep, piled up on each side of the ditch, offering a bit more cover.

  They stopped a hundred yards away from the vehicles. Once they left the ditch, there was no cover but the vehicles themselves. Damn. Zach saw the Tank. Assholes stole my truck! His hands were cold, but he couldn’t wear gloves and pull a trigger. Though he wondered if he would be able to do any better with frozen fingers.

  Duke nudged his arm and motioned with his hands. I’ll go left. You go right.

  Zach nodded. He hustled around the van as quiet as he could. Two men with guns guarded the third under the hood. There were shadows huddled inside the van: Lizzie, Mannie and Jess. Seemed a little crowded for three people, so there were probably more guards inside.

  Zach recognized the clothes of the man under the hood: Carter, the Bossman. He pressed the muzzle of his rifle to the man’s neck. “Turn around really slow. We’ve got you covered.”

  The van door opened.

  “Call off your dogs, Carter,” Zach ordered, pointing the rifle at Carter’s chest.

  “Shit!” Carter turned to face him. “Stupid kid. This is all I need! Stand down, men.”

  Two men walked toward them with hands over their heads. Duke followed fanning his gun back and forth.

  “Zach!” It was Lizzie’s voice.

  “Saving your ass again, sweetheart.”

  “Kid,” Carter said, “put down the gun and let me get this van fixed. We’re worried about bigger fish. You should be, too.”

  “Independents,” Lizzie said.

  Zach nodded, keeping his rifle pointed straight at the older man’s gut. “We don’t need your van. I’ll be taking the Tank back. Besides, you can fix your van once we’re gone.”

  “You’d leave me here to die from the cold or the Independents?”

  “Not my problem.” Zach shrugged.

  Lizzie hopped out of the van. “Zach, he came back for me when he could have left…”

  “Fucking enough, Lizzie,” Zach growled. “Listen to me for once. This guy isn’t some dog trapped inside a house. He has been doing his best to put us in cages. We’ll go our way and let him go his.”

  A strong-looking, dark-skinned man in a uniform hopped down into the snow, quirking an eyebrow in amusement at Zach. The expression was one Lizzie had shot him any number of times. This could only be Mannie. “Kid knows what he’s talking about, Elizabeth.”

  “Dad, this is Zach.”

  Zach nodded at Mannie. “Sir.”

  “Mannie, please.” He patted down Carter and told him, “Get inside the van.”

  Carter glared, but got in.

  Jess and a woman Lizzie called BeeGee joined them out in the snow along with two more Collectors from inside the van. Once they were disarmed, Mannie picked out his own gun and helped herd them all back inside the van.

  Lizzie jingled keys she had lifted from Carter’s pocket. “The Tank is back in service.” She handed them to Zach.

  Zach glanced around; the wind had gotten biting cold. “We have a hybrid parked a ways back. Who’s going to drive what?” Zach glanced around at the new crew.

  “You take Jess and BeeGee in the Tank; bet you miss it.” Lizzie smiled. “Dad, Duke, and I will take the Hybrid.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay.” Mannie motioned with the rifle in his hands. “You folks stay in the van. I’m going to walk backwards down the hill. If I see a door open before we’re gone, and I shoot.” With that he slammed the van door shut.

  Zach climbed into the Tank. Jess and BeeGee climbed in the back. He pulled forward and turned it around. Then he rolled the window down, driving slowly. Lizzie and Duke walked alongside as he rolled, the snow crunching under the tires. Mannie did as he promised, keeping an eye on the van.

  It felt good to be behind the wheel of the Tank again. He rapped his fingers on the cracked dashboard. He had Lizzie, Mannie, and Jess. In minutes he’d be back with Nev and everything would be fine. He was riding a high.

  Lizzie’s arm shot out, pointing. “What’s that?”

  Lights moving further down the highway caught Zach�
��s eyes.

  “Shit,” Duke snarled, “That’s my truck.”

  Zach leaned out the window. “God dammit. They’ve got Nev. And Saj and Charley!”

  Lizzie spun around. “What do we do?”

  Another truck spit snow behind Duke’s truck. Zach sighed. “Surrender. Again. Shit.”

  When the trucks got close Zach could see the blond surfer dude, one hand on the steering wheel, one hand aiming a gun at Nev beside him in the passenger seat. Rachael cowered with Saj in the back seat. The trucks pulled to a stop and a window unrolled in the rear truck. Charley’s head poked out, and Zach could see a couple other men bristling with guns behind him.

  “I’m sorry, Lizzie,” Charley called. “I was just keeping lookout.”

  “It’s all right, Charley,” Lizzie called. “Odds were long anyway. You okay?”

  “Yeah. Just scared.”

  Blondie rolled down his window. “Everybody back to the van.”

  Zach could tell Lizzie was pissed.

  “Fuck off, Travis,” Lizzie glared at him.

  Don’t go ballistic now. Not while he has a gun on Nev.

  Lizzie took a deep breath and turned to trudge back up the slope.

  Zach sighed, releasing the brake and driving backward uphill. They got us all but Spike. He watched the white RAV, half expecting Spike to come out and run after them.

  33

  LIZZIE STOOD IN THE biting wind. Her dad had his arms wrapped around her against the cold. The man with the shotgun stood close by.

  A few more feet away, Carter and Travis argued.

  Lizzie heard a low thrum sounded over the blasting snow and wind. Her father heard it, too. His eyes scanned the blinding white all around them. The rumble grew louder.

  “Independents,” the shotgun-toting guard growled. Men sprang into action.

  “Scatter!” Carter hollered. His men headed in various directions, their weapons ready.

  Lizzie’s dad dragged her away from the road. The motors got louder. Snowmobiles. She stumbled, pushing herself to keep up with her dad. The lights cut through the darkness over their heads. Mannie lifted her off her feet and dumped her into a snowbank.

  “Stay down,” her dad said, his voice low and forceful. “Get under the trees.”

  Then he ran away from her as fast as he could. Not again. Tears stung her eyes.

  One of the snowmobiles crested the rise, engine howling at an ear-piercing pitch. Shouts rang out, gunshots exploded and the sound died in the snowfall.

  He wasn’t deserting her, she reassured herself, but leading them away. The lights had him pinned, then he disappeared. The snowmobile dove down into the drifts, sliding, twisting, and pulled up short. Must be a cliff she couldn’t see down there. If he got himself killed now…

  The rider stood up, and swept a giant black flashlight across the snow. The flashlight swung toward her and she face-planted in the snow. She raised her head after a moment, icy trickles leaking down her cheeks. The rider holstered his light and spit snow in a broad curving turn.

  As the snowmobile climbed the hill Lizzie slipped away. Her legs sank in up to her knees in a snow-drift. She slogged forward, glad she wasn’t naked. Above her, loud angry voices echoed.

  Lizzie glanced back to make certain no one followed on foot. She kept moving, but took a misstep into a hole as she twisted. The snow came up to greet her in slow motion. At least it was soft to fall into.

  “Give me your hand.”

  Lizzie’s heart jumped and continued pounding. “Shit, Dad,” she muttered, “How the hell did you sneak up on me like that?”

  “‘Army training, sir,’” he whispered, smiling with his eyes, helping her regain her feet. “Let’s get around where we can do something.”

  “With what? Our bare hands?”

  “I don’t know yet. Maybe we can sneak around behind the other trucks.” He brushed some snow from her hair. “Sorry, I was a bit rough.”

  Lizzie nodded, biting her lip. “It’s okay.”

  “Come on, let’s get past the tree line,” he said. “Easier to move and to hide.”

  Lizzie followed her father’s footsteps through the deep snow. It was easier to move when someone else broke a path. Inside the trees the snow piled in places where it opened to the sky, but elsewhere the ground was bare.

  They crept alongside the road under cover of the trees. Lizzie spotted the white RAV4 Zach and Duke had come in. Just knowing Duke as well as she did, she suspected there might be weapons inside and mimed “guns” to her dad. He nodded and pointed both fingers to his eyes and then away.

  Even without army training, Lizzie understood: Let’s check it out.

  Another engine roared on the hillside above as Mannie led Lizzie to a spot they could make a run for the RAV. A big truck, diesel engine from the lup-a-lup sound of the engine, came into view. It pulled a long trailer behind it for the snowmobiles. A pack of barking dogs leaped from the bed of the truck.

  Nobody else had gotten away. Her friends were all up on the hillside with arms raised in surrender. She stumbled after her father.

  When they reached the place where the treeline curved closest to the RAV, he whispered, “This is as good as we’re going to get. They’ll be able to see us if they look. So, as fast as you can, get in, look for weapons, get out. Then we meet back here.”

  Lizzie nodded, catching her breath.

  He paused, searching her face. “Lizzie—”

  “I know, Dad.” She bear-hugged him.

  He said it anyway. “I love you, Elizabeth.”

  When they ran, she knew he was with her every step of the way. She reached the vehicle and jerked open the front door as he pulled open the back. Spike piled out on top of her.

  Her father yanked Spike off her. Spike yelped.

  “Dad, it’s Spike. It’s okay.” His hot breath panted on her. In the distance dogs barked.

  “Lizzie.” Her father placed a shotgun in her hands, staring warily at Spike. “Here.”

  Her stomach flipped. The dogs had seen them and were running down the snow bank.

  “Run,” her father ordered.

  Spike turned this way and that, he was scared. But he saw the dogs and Lizzie’s reaction to them. There was understanding in his eyes. He lumbered uphill toward the dogs.

  Lizzie froze. “Spike. Don’t!”

  For a moment he stopped, staring back at her, his eyes fathomless. He made the signs Charley had taught him. “Run.” Spike gestured to himself then toward the dogs. “I run.” Then he signed to Lizzie, “You hide.” He turned and shuffled toward the dogs, hunkering down and growling at them. The dogs milled around, confused by the big man who did not act like a human.

  Lizzie glanced back up the hill. Duke and Zach waved at her to run. Independents with guns were moving down the slope.

  “Lizzie.” Her father’s urgent voice demanded her attention.

  She couldn’t tear her eyes away, even as he tugged her backward toward the tree line. Her eyes locked on Spike as the first dog lunged, then the pack followed, snarling and tearing. He had been the first person she had seen alive after everything went to hell. And now he was giving up that life for her.

  Lights flashed across the snow and the rumble grew. The Collector in the van opened the door and jumped out. Zach turned to Duke. "Snowmobiles."

  Duke nodded. "Independents?"

  Nev grasped Zach’s arm tight. "Shit. What do we do?"

  "Hell if I know." Fear washed over him. He fought it—for Nev. He had to stay strong.

  The Collectors scattered in a frenzy. Zach pulled Nev outside. Mannie and Lizzie had disappeared. They were on their own. Zach pushed Nev ahead and crept around the side of the van. Rachael and Jess followed, protecting the children between them. Duke brought up the rear.

  A wall of snow flew at him as a snowmobile swerved to a stop. A gunman behind the driver aimed an AK-47 at them. The other two snowmobiles spun around the van, heading off in either direction.

&nb
sp; The gunman with the Kalashnikov rifle pointed it in the air and squeezed off a quick burst. “Everybody freeze! NOW!”

  Zach stopped. He put his hands up and the rest followed suit. The chilly wind buffeted them; they really would freeze.

  The driver got off the snowmobile and took a shotgun out of a holster taped to the side of his snowmobile. “I want some answers and I’ll hurt people to get them.”

  Zach felt sweat trickle down his armpits; a second ago he was freezing.

  The driver continued. “I want to know how many Collectors were here before they scattered like a bunch of chicken shit pansies.”

  The gunman stayed mounted, covering them with an M-16, as the driver forced Zach to his knees with a kick.

  Zach’s knees burned in pain then the icy gravel bit into his jeans. If only we hadn’t been so stupid.

  The gunman pointed the shotgun at Zach’s head.

  “I’ll talk,” Nev yelled. She counted on her fingers slowly. “There were six I know for sure, and then a bunch more. Maybe ten.”

  The two other snowmobiles returned. The shotgun withdrew.

  They hadn’t caught Lizzie or Mannie. Zach breathed a sigh of relief.

  The driver pulled his helmet off his head and set it on the snowmobile. He had a pock-marked face under a well-trimmed beard and a handlebar mustache. “Tell me about the rest.”

  The driver put his shotgun back in Zach’s face. The chilly barrel caressed his cheek.

  “Two more of our people,” Nev blurted. “An old guy and a young girl.”

  “Let go.” Lizzie pushed her father’s arm away. “I’ll run.”

  They were inside the trees again. An ear splitting whistle rang out behind them, once and then again. The snarling died down. Somebody had called off the dogs. Her father stopped. She fell against a tree to catch her breath.

  He pulled her down into a crouch and then looked back they way they’d come. “I’m sorry about your friend,” he whispered gently.

  Lizzie’s eyes searched, hoping to see Spike limping after them. But she knew he was gone.