“Are you two finished?” Jake asked calmly, looking between them as Jon knelt to solemnly pick up and stare at the dog tags. Mick snapped his head around to look at Jake.
“Why?” Mick asked. “You got something you want to add?”
“Not much,” Jake said. “Just that I don’t want your little pent up stress dump to attract the attention of anything that may want to wander up here and have a bite, considering our dicks are swinging in the wind these days.”
Everyone was looking at Jake.
“Our dicks are swinging in the wind,” Jon said. “No doubt about that.”
“This is like a weenie roast, at camp, then,” Ash’s small voice chimed in, which drew the attention of all the others. After a pause, it was Jake who was the first to laugh at her comment, and then Mick and Jon joined him. She felt better that it seemed to break the tension, and that it was her comment that had done it. Mick sat back down by the fire, taking up his rifle again to keep working on it. Jon had remained standing.
“Still, we can’t just keep running,” Jon said. “There has to be some place we can go.”
“Hell, we may never find any place we can go,” Mick countered.
“Hey,” Jake leaned in, tossing another few sticks on the fire. “How about a little optimism? There’s got to be somebody out there.”
“Maybe,” Mick said, setting his cleaned and oiled rifle to the side. “But how do we find ‘em?”
Jake lifted a hand, and then gave a shrug as Jon took a knee near the fire, between Mick and Ash.
“How are we for supplies?” he asked.
“Not good,” Jake admitted. “A little lighter than I’d like on food and water.”
They reflected on that, but Ash had looked them over, and decided that it was time to let them in on her own problems.
“Can I say something?” she asked quietly, which drew their attention to her.
“Sure, why not?” Jake said.
“I have to get to a town called Harper’s Grove,” she said. “My dad and his friends are there, and they have my sister. I’ve been waiting to hear from them here on this phone.”
Jon and Mick exchanged a glance.
“Hey, I don’t know how to tell you this, but-” Mick had started, but her eyes hardened.
“I know what you’re all thinking,” she said. “But you’re wrong. She’s not dead, and I have to get to her.”
There was silence for a moment, but Jake’s face reflected that he didn’t find the idea of heading to Harper’s Grove necessarily a bad thing. He looked over Mick and Jon.
“Either of you know where the hell Harper’s Grove is?” he asked.
“I think it’s about forty or fifty miles west of here,” Mick recalled. “Not much of a town.”
“That’s a hell of a walk,” Jake noted, but then to Ash’s delight, added, “but we’re not doing anything else, huh?”
“I’m sure we can find a car or a truck to steal,” Jon suggested. “There’s got to be something around here we can use.”
“Yeah,” Jake agreed. “Issue there is going to be fuel.”
“Hey, how about a little optimism here?” Mick chided, which only brought a wry look from Jake. Ash was pleased that they seemed interested in helping her, and a slight smile played on her lips for a moment. They had all grown quiet for a while, just watching the fire burn, and listening to the snapping and crackling from the wood burning. Jon smiled, and shook his head.
“Weird, huh?” he asked, which made everyone look up at him. “Just a few weeks ago, we were half way around the damn world, and thousands of feet in the sky…”
Ash’s brow wrinkled as she looked at Jon, which was something Jake noted, and he smiled too.
“Oh,” he said. “You mean Mick didn’t brag all about it? The three of us are, or really were, fighter pilots during the war.”
Now, she looked them over and gave a nod of acknowledgement, before it was Mick’s turn to grin, somewhat knowingly.
“How about you?” he asked.
She opened her mouth, but closed it again, and then shook her head as she looked down from them.
“Doesn’t matter,” she uttered so quietly, they barely heard her.
“Come on,” Jon said. “Can’t be that bad. Waitress?”
She paused, and looked up, and drew in a breath, which she released a moment later as a sigh.
“Stripper, actually,” she said, and immediately noted the amused glance Jon and Jake exchanged, while Mick simply kept quiet.
“Got a problem with that?” she asked them. Jon put up his hands, while Jake shook his head. It was Mick who looked her directly in the eye and grinned.
“I, uh…” he said, and checked his gear. “I didn’t bring any ones with me.”
She cocked her head to the side with a dirty look as Jake laughed and lay back on the ground. Jon shook his head, glancing over at Mick.
“Smooth, my friend,” he said. “Very smooth.”
But Ash quickly realized from his gaze, he’d made the joke because she was now one of them. Her expression softened as Jon wandered away to keep watch, and she herself smiled at Mick as he laughed quietly, and then looked up at Jon.
“I’ll take over on watch in a bit, Jon,” he said.
“Good, I can use some beauty sleep,” Jon said.
Jake, not even opening his eyes, regarded Jon’s statement.
“Not gonna help with the time we got left,” he said, sounding tired himself, which only brought another laugh from Mick. Jon himself grinned and headed off to keep watch, and gather his thoughts. Mick took one more look at Ash, who was checking the cell phone before turning it off, and then he lay back himself to look at the stars.
Sometime later, Ash sat up with a start, having seen in her head a dreadful scene that included the dead, the farm, Uncle Mike, and Dana. She felt frustration, and looked around to note that Jon was now asleep near the dying fire, as well as Jake, and so she knew Mick was somewhere about, keeping watch. She quietly got to her feet, and set out from their camp, noting that he was not up on the ridge looking down over the highway.
Walking into the woods a short distance, she heard a stream, and as she gingerly picked her way through the woods toward the sound of it, she sniffled. Her eyes were down, and she had been starting to think about Dana, and hoped that the fears of her new companions weren’t founded. Worse, even if she was alive, she was still with a dangerous and terrible crew, led by her father. A murderer.
“You lost?” Came Mick’s soft voice from behind her. She spun quickly, startled by the sound of any voice, and her eyes came to rest on Mick, who was leaning against a tree, holding the dog tags of his lost friends. She shrugged.
“Not really,” she admitted. “Just… can’t sleep.”
“You’re worried about your sister,” Mick guessed, which brought a nod from her.
“She’s awesome,” Ash said. “She’s my little angel, and she’s actually going to make something of herself. Not like me.”
Mick approached her, looking at her with curiosity.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Look at me,” she said. “Drugs, drinking, taking my clothes off for a bunch of losers every night.”
Mick shrugged.
“You know,” he said. “The good news is, most or all of those losers are probably dead, now.”
“Maybe,” she said. “At least Marco.”
“Marco?” Mick asked.
“Doesn’t matter,” she said with a shake of her head. “What about you?”
“What about me?” Mick asked.
“Do you miss your friends?” she pressed him, which made him look down at the tags, before he put them away.
“Yeah,” he answered her. “They were great guys, both of them.”
“I wish they were here too,” she said quietly. “And Uncle Mike.”
There was a moment of silence, but before either of them could spend too much time lamenting the losses, Mick eyed her, a
nd stretched his neck.
“So what about Harper’s Grove?” Mick asked. “If she’s with your dad, she’s probably safe, right?”
Ash looked amused.
“Hardly,” she said.
“What are we heading into, then?” Mick asked.
“They’re a few thugs,” Ash answered. “See… the other night, my dad, he… killed my mom.”
“Damn,” Mick said, genuinely stunned. “You think they’d hurt your sister?”
“I want us to get to her before we have to find out,” Ash said, sounding tearful again.
“Well, you’ve got help,” Mick said. “We’ll get her.”
She looked at him admiringly, but he took to looking around the forest a bit.
“You know, you really should get some sleep,” he said.
“I don’t think I need any more sleep,” she said very quietly.
“Sorry, still haven’t found anything stronger than booze,” he told her. “But I do have a bottle of that terrible shit in my pack.”
She was nervous, and she looked from Mick, to the ground, and back to Mick again as she tried to find what she wanted to say. He could tell she had hesitated, but she then shook her head as their eyes finally stayed in each other’s gaze.
“I think what I could really use right now,” she said shakily, “is a hug.”
Mick said nothing, but as she stepped closer to him, he hadn’t kept her from putting her arms around him. A moment later, he brought his arms up, and wrapped them around her, and at once, she felt comfortable. Safe. She tightened her arms, and nestled closer, and Mick realized as they stood in the darkness, it felt good. Very good, and he tightened his own arms around her, then lowered his head to let it rest atop hers.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN- THE ENCOUNTER
The morning found that their fire had burned all the way down, and they rose early, discussing that they should get down to the highway and make finding a working vehicle their priority. Quickly, they had a bit of food, and then set out for the highway. Ash was tired, but just the physical contact of her hug from Mick had been so comforting to her, she felt much better as the sun was coming up.
Mick was the first to the highway, and he looked in either direction, noting that there were no cars immediately in sight. Checking a map behind him were Jon and Jake, while Ash was in the rear. She passed Jon and Jake as they discussed options on the map, and she approached Mick with a sheepish smile.
“Good morning,” he said, trying to sound pleasant. “Sleep good?”
“Like shit,” she admitted.
“Well then, you’re really one of us,” Mick joked with her. “Hey Ash, listen, sorry about that joke about ones.”
“Why, you got some now?” she kidded him with a smile.
“Nah, it’s just…” he started. “I shouldn’t have said it.”
“I’ve heard worse,” she informed him.
“Not from me,” he told her. “Won’t happen again.”
She smiled at him, but then looked in horror as he brought around a big, black gun, and held it toward her. It wasn’t even a little pistol, it was old Anderson’s UZI, and she simply stared at it nervously as his gloved hands held it toward her. Then, even worse, he extended it further, and she found that it was in her hands. Still unable, or unwilling to take it fully, he pushed it even further until it was against her chest, and her fingers closed on it.
“Here,” he said. “You can carry that one.”
“For me?” she said nervously, and looked up at him. “You shouldn’t have.”
“Yeah, well, you may need it if you’re gonna go snooping around anymore farmhouse bathrooms,” Mick teased her.
“Just the same,” she said nervously, and tried to extend it toward him. “No thanks.”
“Take it,” he said more seriously, pushing it back toward her.
“I don’t even know what the hell to do with this thing,” she said, the barrel of it drifting to point at Mick. He was quick to grasp the weapon, pushing it so it was not aimed at him.
“Point that end at the bad guy’s head,” he said, pointing to the barrel, “and squeeze the trigger. I’ll show you the rest later.”
She looked at the weapon a bit longer, and then shrugged, smirking.
“So if you’re giving me a gun,” she said. “Does that mean you won’t try to take advantage of me?”
Not to be outdone, Mick grinned, and raised an eyebrow.
“Maybe.”
There had been keys in it, but the car- a white four door- was not going to start, and Jake pulled himself back out of it to look back at the others, who were standing on the road and keeping an eye out for unwanted company. They had been traveling west on foot for a little less than two hours before they’d found the group of three vehicles, abandoned at a crossroads. Jake shook his head.
“This one would have been great,” he said. “But, no luck.”
“No car?” Ash whined, but Jake shook his head.
“Ah, quit complaining,” Mick kidded her. “At least it’s a nice day.”
“There’s a small town about twenty miles up the road,” Jake informed them. “Not much more than a gas station and four houses. Maybe we can score something there.”
“Twenty miles…” Ash groaned.
“Look at the bright side,” Mick said to her, as Jon listened in.
“What bright side?” she asked.
“It’s not twenty one miles,” he answered her, the tip of his finger lightly touching the tip of her nose before he’d moved off. Jon gave a short laugh, and then set out himself, and Ash gave an exasperated sigh before following them.
The day was just as tiring as it had sounded to Ash, with the group making their way to the west to a spot on the map called Thayer. Every so often, they would encounter dead vehicles or some sort of empty, decaying structure along the road, checking for anything of use, or to see if the vehicles worked. Most of the cars and trucks they encountered were out of fuel, or had no battery life left.
They had stopped a few times to rest, and at one point, because Jon had thought he heard a distant engine sound, perhaps a car or truck. Not hearing it again, they set out, and found themselves drawing nearer and nearer to Thayer as the sun was getting ready to go down. Just after it had, they were at the top of a hill, looking down at the town, which was just as they had expected.
There was a gas station, which was fairly large, and a small patch of homes to the north of it. The station had a clog of cars in and around it, probably just fewer than a hundred, and Jake regarded it with some scrutiny. The four of them were all looking down at the dark, silent place, but Jake was the first of them to speak in a long time.
“Well, it ain’t ideal,” he said.
“You want to skip it?” Mick asked from behind him, standing next to Ash.
“Can’t,” Jake said. “We’ve gotta find some supplies somewhere, and this is as good as any place we’ve seen.”
“Super,” Mick said, somewhat sarcastically.
“Let’s go,” Jake told them, and then he started down the hill with Jon.
Mick put a hand on Ash, which drew her eyes, and he could tell she was a bit frightened at the prospect of wandering around a dark gas station.
“Hey, when we get down there, you stay close to me, all right?” he said. She gave a very nervous smile.
“What do I need you for?” she asked, and raised the UZI. “I’ve got this.”
Her inexperience with guns showing, Mick found himself once again at the end of the UZI’s barrel, and he was quick to grasp the thing, pushing it away from his face. She looked embarrassed, realizing she’d been pointing the weapon directly at him, but he didn’t seem angry. He had a somewhat stiff smile as he let go of the weapon.
“Yeah, just… stay close to me, all right?” he said. She nodded, and they started down the hill after the other pair.
It was quiet except for the sound of the crickets, and the four of them reached the vehicles, spreading out to
begin looking around for anything useful, or edible. Jake walked toward the gas pumps, while Mick and Ash began peering into the cars and trucks, and Jon went his own way to look through some of the vehicles. Trash, and even some bones were scattered about the ground as Jake approached a gas pump and squeezed the handle. Nothing came out, and he dropped it in disgust.
Mick halted Ash as they came to the rear of an old cube van, and he looked directly into her eyes. She could tell at once he was on edge, and he raised a hand.
“I’m going to go and check out a couple of these cars,” he informed her, and then very pointedly said, “you… stay here.”
She nodded, chewing on her bottom lip. He then set out to investigate a few of the cars closer to the gas station’s structure. He had only been out of sight a moment when she spied something not far from where she was, and set out to see what it was. A bit of light from Jon’s flashlight had bounced off of it, and it was shiny.
Jon, meanwhile, had approached Jake, just in time to see Jake slam a fist against the side of the building, cursing. Jake turned to Jon, and shook his head in disgust.
“So what now?” Jon asked, sounding more nervous than Jake wanted to hear.
“We can’t stay here,” Jake answered. “Those houses and all these cars can only mean one thing, and that’s-”
“I know what it means,” Jon cut him off.
Mick had pulled open the door of a rusty old truck, having seen with his flashlight that there were a number of loose 9mm bullets on the front seat. Also in the front seat was a rather decayed, very picked over skeleton, still strapped into a seatbelt. Mick worked quickly to gather the dozen or so bullets, and also found an unopened package of beef jerky on the passenger floorboard. He then reached for a pair of lighters between the two front seats.
It was then that the head on the skeleton moved with a crunching sound, and Mick, his heart suddenly pounding, leapt backward. But as he struck the ground with his backside, he could see the skull had fallen from the skeleton when he’d nudged it, and the skull tumbled to the ground, landing near him with its toothy smile. He smiled at his own jumpiness, and heaved a sigh.
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