by James Harden
Kim moves over and has a look to make sure Jack isn’t mistaken. “He’s right. They use these for back burning and for controlled fires, to clear out the dead and dry growth in the winter. It reduces the risk of really big fires come summer time.”
“So it’s not a flame thrower?” I ask.
“Not really,” she says. “Well, kind of. It basically squirts a small stream of fire on the ground. Like I said, they use them to set fire to the shrubs, the undergrowth. They use it to clear out sections of dead and dried bush, forest, grassland, whatever. And then they extinguish the fire before it gets out of control.”
“See?” Jack says. “Told ya.”
“We can use this,” Kenji says, thinking out loud and thinking fast. “We can soak bed sheets or whatever’s handy in gasoline. Use the sheets as a wick, as a trail. And then we can use this drip torch to start the fire. If we use this equipment, it’ll speed up the whole thing.”
“Or we can just shoot the fuel tanker,” Maria says. “Like we did at Sydney airport. Won’t that make it explode?”
“We had a much larger gun,” Kenji explains. “These rifles might not be powerful enough to pierce the tank. And they might not make it explode if they do.”
“Wait,” Clark says, struggling to keep up with everything that we were saying. “You guys were in Sydney?”
“Yeah.”
“What the hell are you doing out here? And how did you get out of the city alive? Wasn’t Sydney ground zero for the outbreak?”
“No,” Kenji answers. “It wasn’t ground zero. And it’s a long story. But basically we came out here because we figured it would be safer than the cities.”
“And we thought we had a way out,” Jack adds. “But it all fell through.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Clark says. “And I’m sorry that no, this place is not safe at all.”
I nod my head. “Yeah, we found that out the hard way.”
“Come on,” Kim says, grabbing a hold of the drip torch. “We need to do this. We need to get moving. We’re running out of time.”
Chapter 27
We sneak back into town on foot, under the cover of darkness. From what we can tell, there appears to be about four blocks in the middle of town that the locals tried to barricade off. These four blocks are crammed with parked cars. Hopefully one of these could be used as a getaway vehicle.
The seven of us crouch down behind a dust covered family station wagon. This particular street is quiet. There are no scavengers. No marauders. No infected. No Marko. No Ivan.
I tap Kenji on the shoulder. “Let’s move up.
He nods his head in agreement and we’re about to make a move when a noise catches our attention and breaks the silence of the night. I immediately flatten myself against the ground.
We are not alone.
The noise… I’m pretty sure it was a boot stepping on broken glass. More footsteps confirm my suspicion. Directly across the street is a group of maybe ten people. They appear to be going from shop to shop, checking each one, leaving a spray painted mark on the window or the wall. A circle to indicate that the shop is worth coming back for. Or a large X to indicate that the shop has already been looted. I notice there are a lot of circles.
I look at the shop behind us. It’s a restaurant. A pizza joint by the looks of it. Next to the front door is a large circle.
“They’ve already checked this shop,” I whisper. “Which means they won’t be back for a while.”
“Probably not until tomorrow,” Clark says.
We move inside the pizza joint and then make our way up the stairs to the offices on the second floor. We do this to give ourselves a better view of the street and the surrounding area. And it’s good to be off the street. Now we can talk about what we needed to do next.
“Where would the fuel tanker be?” Kim asks Clark.
“It’ll be close by. Xavier doesn’t let it out of his sight on these raids. It’s too valuable.”
“OK, so how are we going to do this?”
Kenji moves over to the window. It’s a sort of bay window, allowing us a pretty good view of the street.
“There it is,” Kenji says, pointing up the street. “At least, I think that’s it.”
I move over to have a look at what Kenji is pointing at. “Where’s what?”
“The fuel tanker. It’s parked in the middle of the road, in the middle of that intersection. About two blocks away.”
Clark moves over to the window. “Yeah, that’s it. And just as I expected, it’s heavily guarded.”
I take a closer look. It’s almost impossible to see at first, but they’re there. Dark shapes, patrolling the streets, guarding the tanker, guarding the fuel and their means of escape, their means of spreading their terror across this part of the country.
This fuel tanker was the key to their success. If we destroy it, we will cripple them.
“We’ll need to draw them away from the tanker,” Kenji says.
“How?” I ask. “There’s so many of them.”
“The sun will rise in a couple of hours,” Clark reminds us. “Whatever we do, we need to do it right now.”
“I don’t know,” Maria says, “I think we need more time to study their movements.”
“We’re out of time,” Kim says.
“Well, I’m open to ideas.”
“Fire,” Jack says. “We set fire to these cars along this road. All of them.”
“All of them?” I ask.
“OK, maybe not all of them. But every second one, or every third one. Enough so the fire can catch and spread along this road. We need to make a big enough fire to cut them off, to completely overwhelm them and distract them. A fire that’s big enough to make them panic.”
“And then what? And how are we going to set all these cars on fire? I’m pretty sure this drip torch thing is only half full. I don’t know if it has enough gasoline to set all those cars on fire.”
“We can use the table cloths from the restaurant. Soak them in gasoline. Stick them in the fuel tank of each car, or every second car or whatever. Set them all on fire. Once Xavier’s men go to investigate the fire, the explosions…”
“Explosions?” Maria asks.
“Yeah, the fuel tank of the car should explode,” Kenji says.
“Once this happens, we move up to the fuel tanker,” Jack continues. “And while everyone is distracted, we set it on fire. We blow it up and make our escape in the confusion and the chaos. Trust me, they’ll be so busy fighting the fire that they won’t want to chase us, they won’t be able to chase us.”
“What makes you think they’ll fight the fire?” I ask.
“I’m pretty sure they’ve got access to the other fire truck,” he says. “It was being used as part of the main section of the barricade, remember?”
“Was it?”
“Yes,” Clark confirms. “It was.”
“So I’m guessing they’ll use the fire truck to put the fire out,” Jack explains. “And they’ll definitely want the fire out because this town hasn’t been looted yet. It’s too valuable for them to just let it burn. They’ll fight to save it.”
Everything Jack said made perfect sense. And he made it all sound so easy. We just set fire to the entire town basically, and then we blow up the fuel tanker.
We destroy their supplies.
We distract them.
We cripple them.
And then we make our escape.
Easy.
“Wait,” I say. “We don’t have an escape vehicle yet.”
“We can look for one of these cars down in the street,” Kim says. “Or failing that, someone will need to go back and get the fire truck. It’s the most reliable vehicle we’re ever going to find right now. And we know it works. Plus, it can take a pounding and it just keeps on going.”
“OK,” Kenji says, ready for action. “Rebecca and I will get the fire truck and bring it back. We’ll park it a few blocks away.”
“Whereabouts?” Kim asks. “
We need a pick up point. A meeting point. A place where they won’t see us.”
“How about right in front of the walls?” Sarah suggests quietly. “Right near those spiked heads. They’re scared of the walls, scared of the Desert King. They won’t stick around there for very long. They’re probably moving away already. Especially now that the sun is beginning to rise. There’s only a couple more hours of dark left.
“She’s right,” Clark says. “Xavier’s people will want to move as far away from those walls as possible. I know I would. So if we park it right out front, it should be fine. It’s not like the people from behind the walls will risk stealing it.”
“That’s as good as place as any,” Kenji says. “Provided we’re also long gone by the time the sun rises.”
“We will be,” I say. “We have no choice.”
Kenji volunteers to go and get the fire truck. I volunteer to go with him. “So we park the fire truck back at the wall,” I say out loud, just to make sure we’re all on the same page. “And then we meet you guys here.”
“We’ll set the cars up on this road,” Kim says. “We’ll put the wicks, the gasoline soaked table cloths in the tanks and get them ready to blow.”
“Should we set fire to the storage warehouse as well,” Maria suggests. “As another distraction? You know, to really confuse them.”
“That’s a good idea,” Clark says. “It will draw most of Xavier’s best soldiers away from the tanker.”
“Plus, if Marko is using the warehouse as a kind of hide out, a meeting place, it couldn’t hurt to burn it down,” I say. “One less place for that monster to hide.”
“Only problem is the warehouse is basically on the other side of town from here,” Kenji says. “That’s a long way. There’s no telling how many of Xavier’s people are walking the streets right now. Plus, we’ll be venturing into Marko’s territory. I don’t want to risk another encounter with him.”
“This whole town, this whole section of the desert is Marko’s territory,” I remind.
“Fair point.”
“And if we stick close to the walls, we should be fine, right?” Maria adds. “As long as these people really are afraid of the Desert King.”
“We are,” Clark says. “Xavier won’t risk being anywhere near those walls at this time of night.”
“OK, so we set fire to the warehouse as a distraction,” Jack says. “And then we set fire to the cars on this road. And then we hit the tanker.”
“We’re going to burn this entire town to the ground,” Kim says. “Reduce it to ash.”
“Good. This town gives me the creeps,” Maria says.
Kenji begins walking towards the stairs. He is wasting no time. “Remember, once we actually set fire to these cars, they’re all gonna blow, so we need to move, we need to be quick. Speed is the key here. We need to hit them before they can figure out what’s going on. Before they can organize a counter attack, before they can even raise their guns and take aim.”
Chapter 28
Kenji and I sprinted all the way back to our hiding spot, the cul-de-sac, where we had hidden the fire truck, stopping only briefly when one of us had imagined a noise, or something in the dark.
Or someone in the dark.
It actually wasn’t as far away as I thought it was. We had taken the long and scenic route to get here the first time in an effort to lose our pursuers. And when we had walked back into town we had taken our time, moving slowly and carefully. This time we’re running as fast as we dare. This time we head straight for the nice houses in the nice part of this not so nice town.
The fire truck is exactly where we left it.
“Still there,” I whisper to Kenji.
I’m about to walk down the large driveway but Kenji holds me back, dragging me into the garden.
We hide behind a row of hedges, sinking into the branches and the foliage.
About twenty feet away from us is a group of men. They are heavily armed.
One of them says, “He came down here.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
“What about the big one?”
“Didn’t see him. I think we lost him back in town.”
Are they talking about Marko and Ivan? They must be.
Suddenly a loud noise gets everyone’s attention. The noise sounded like it came from the back of the house, towards the fire truck. It sounded like a door slamming shut. But I can’t be certain. At this point, it’s hard to hear anything over my beating heart.
When the men hear the noise, they immediately spring into action. They spread out, taking cover. Most of them are lying flat on their bellies, rifles armed and ready, aimed at the house, aimed down the driveway.
They are taking no chances.
One of the men, gets to his knees and wave the other’s forward.
Is Marko back there? Have they got him cornered? I have no love for these men, but if they could take care of Marko, if they could shoot him dead I would be forever grateful. And maybe just a little bit jealous that I wouldn’t be the one putting a bullet through his brain.
The men move down the driveway slowly, moving right past us. They get so close; I can hear them breathing. And I am convinced they can hear my heart beat. The blood rushing around my head is deafening.
How can they not hear that?
They continue to sneak past. The man out in front gives a hand signal and all at once the others turn their flashlights on, lighting up the driveway and the backyard and the fire truck.
“At least we know where the others went,” one of them says.
“Keep your voice down. They could be hiding anywhere.”
He’s right. We could be hiding anywhere. And I’ve got a bad feeling that these men are about to start searching this whole place. Once again, we are outmanned and outgunned. Kenji is a crack shot, but we’re so close, there’s no way he could take them all out before we are shot to pieces. To make matters worse, we only have a handful of bullets between us.
I hold my breath. I hear Kenji thumb the safety of his rifle off. I do the same, even though I am completely not ready for this fight, even though every rational bone in my body is screaming at me to run in the opposite direction. Run as fast as you can, as far as you can.
Kenji moves right up next to me and leans into my ear. “I’ll cover us. You run for next door.”
He whispers this so quietly I barely hear him.
But I’m pretty sure he said he’ll cover us. By cover us, he means he’ll cover my escape.
But who covers Kenji?
Me?
I’m not good enough to do that.
“On the count of three,” Kenji whispers…
No.
I want to say this out loud.
No.
I’m not ready. I’m not good enough.
I want to say, “Let’s just hide. Let’s just wait this out.”
But I am terrified. I can’t move. I can’t speak. I am frozen.
I know I need to move. I know I need to run…
But I just can’t.
Kenji starts counting. “One…”
The men are inching forward down the driveway, towards the firetruck, towards the noise they heard.
Sounded like a door slamming shut…
I wonder if Marko is back there…
“Two…”
I’m still frozen.
Move, Rebecca. You need to move. You stay here, you die.
I’m preparing myself to run next door. I look over my shoulder to see if I can find a place to hide, a place to return fire from, to cover Kenji as he retreats. But I can’t see anything in the dark. I can’t even see past the branches and leaves of this hedge.
Suddenly a massive explosion breaks the silence of the night, more than breaks the silence, it destroys the silence. It sounded like it came from somewhere in town. Did the others start early? Did they start blowing up cars? Did they blow up the tanker without us?
This
is not good. We’re not in position. We’re not ready to make our escape.
“The hell was that?” one of the men says.
“Come on. We need to get back. We’ll deal with the truck later.”
The men turn immediately, running off…
And I continue holding my breath.
It’s only when they have completely disappeared from sight, only when they have left this street, do I relax.
I let out a huge sigh of relief. “That was too close,” I say. “Way too close.”
“No time to count our blessings,” Kenji says. “We need to move. We’re late to the party.”
Chapter 29
We drive the fire truck back into town. We do this unbelievably slowly. Stopping at every intersection, checking for any signs of danger. Checking for the men we nearly had a shoot-out with. If anyone was to start shooting at us now, our whole plan would fall through.
For the most part, Kenji doesn’t even use the accelerator. He doesn’t need to. There’s a gentle slope that leads back into the town center. It’s not much of a slope, but it’s enough for the truck to pick up momentum. Kenji rides the brakes and steers the truck, keeping to the middle of the road.
Eventually we make it back to the center of town, back to the danger zone as Kenji called it. He parks the truck out the front of the church, directly opposite the black wall. We are only a few hundred feet away from all those severed heads, and I’m trying my best to ignore them and their gruesome message.
I’m trying my best to ignore the graffiti on the walls.
Who is the Desert King? Who will wear the hollow crown?
And I am reminded for the hundredth time that this town, just like the rest of the country, just like the rest of the world, had descended into madness and chaos.
This is now a place where violence and savagery ruled.
The order of the day is kill or be killed.
Some people would call this ‘simple’ and ‘pure’.
“You sure the truck will be safe here?” I ask Kenji.
“Safer than anywhere else.”
We decided to park out the front of the church, right next to the black wall, because we figured that Xavier’s people will be too scared to come anywhere near here this close to sun up. And so far, it appears that our reasoning is correct.