by Harley Tate
Her finger twitched around the trigger as she pulled the butt of the rifle tight against her shoulder. Tree bark scraped her back through her clothes as she pressed herself against it. I won’t die out here. Not now. Not like this.
Chapter Twenty-One
COLT
Highway 58
Northwest California
3:00 a.m.
The forest posed no obstacle to Colt in the darkness. His feet rolled over the leaves without a sound. His gun-toting arm tucked close and tight to his chest to avoid a surprise attack. The men standing around the Mustang idling on the road would never hear him above the engine noise.
He eased close enough to assess the threat. Two men. One a beefy two hundred-plus pounds, round from beer and inactivity. The other taller and better conditioned.
From the way both men held shotguns draped across their non-shooting arms, they were skilled in firearm use. They stood in the beam of the headlights, staring at the wrecked Camaro. Colt knew if someone came looking, they would find it.
Dragging the driver’s body into the brush had been the right call. Without his body, the men standing in the road didn’t know if he’d crashed and run off with the guns himself, been kidnapped, or what. There could be a million different scenarios.
They wouldn’t know where to go or what to do. If they headed for the Humvee, Colt would take them out. Otherwise, he planned to leave them alone. Men stockpiling weapons could be useful in a lawless America. Colt didn’t want to kill them unless he had a damn good reason.
He stood behind a thick pine, waiting and listening. The passenger loped ahead to the wrecked Camaro and disappeared out of the headlight beam. A few minutes later he clawed back out, shaking his head. If he said anything, Colt couldn’t hear it.
The driver stalked back to the car and reached inside the open window. The engine faded into silence. Thirty seconds later, the headlights flicked off. Colt couldn’t see, but neither could the two men. They were as blind as he was, maybe worse.
Colt squeezed his eyes shut and used the palms of his hands to put pressure on his eyes. After a count to ten, he released his eyes and blinked back the startling white blindness. Not perfect, but the quick trick improved his vision substantially.
The men had moved away from the car. Colt crept closer. Without the steady hum of the engine, he teased their whispers from the darkness.
“You think Butch took off?”
“With all those guns? That boy couldn’t carry a sack of potatoes ten feet. How’s he gonna lug fifty rifles?”
“Maybe he buried them.”
“Where?”
“He could have put them in the bushes. It’s darker than the inside of a cow in that damn forest. He could have stashed them under a log or something.”
“We should go back and tell Cunningham. Let him decide what to do.”
“And get our asses chewed for not searching the area? You wanna do that, go right ahead, but I’m checking it out.”
“With what?”
“There’s a flashlight in the glove box. We can poke around at least.”
Colt frowned. So far the men hadn’t come across the smashed-up truck or the Humvee. But if they started traipsing around in the forest, they would find it.
A car door opened and the sounds of rummaging filtered back to Colt. He eased deeper into the forest, hoping to still catch the conversation but not be seen. A weak flashlight clicked on.
“Man this thing’s a piece of crap. We’ll never find anything with it.”
“We can’t go back until we try. You know Cunningham. The minute he finds out the guns are gone, he’ll flip.”
“What do we need them for, anyway? Haven’t we got enough?”
“He says there’s never enough.”
Whoever this Cunningham fellow was, Colt agreed with him. Guns, ammo, food, and water. The four things you could never have too much of. As the two men headed back toward the Camaro, Colt kept pace, slinking behind trees and bushes.
The flashlight beam roved over the smashed-up car and the tree line beyond. The taller man broke the silence. “You think Cunningham’s right?”
“’Bout what?”
“All that talk about America being over. That this is the new world.”
“The whole, ‘we’re explorers and can conquer any land we see fit?’”
“Yeah. That.”
The shorter man shuffled in and out of the light. “I don’t know. Seems a bit kooky to me, but he’s done all right, ain’t he? We’ve got food and water and so far no one’s come to take it.”
“But what’s he need all these weapons for? It don’t make sense.”
“Defense. It must be.”
“I don’t know. Hey…what’s that?” The flashlight caught the dirty chrome of the pickup’s smashed bumper. Both men readied their weapons and approached. The beam of light dipped into the ditch off the side of the road.
Colt knew it was only a matter of time, now. The odds of getting out of there without being spotted were rapidly deceasing. He could take the two men out, but he didn’t want to unless he had no choice. Their conversation sparked more than interest.
They had food and shelter and tons of weapons. This Cunningham fellow had managed to assemble what sounded like a pretty good setup. Joining a place like that could be the best option. Assuming it was taking any more members.
But he couldn’t just walk out of the woods and ask. The two men were liable to shoot on sight. No, Colt needed to find out more about Cunningham and where he set up camp before he brought it up to the rest of the group. If this trek out of Eugene taught him anything, it was the need for more supplies, training, and people.
With only five of them functional and Harvey on his last breath, they would never be able to start over with nothing. Even if he didn’t stay in whatever makeshift town these men came from, Doug and Melody might be able to start over. They might find a little piece of what they lost.
Colt closed the distance between him and the two men. The flashlight beam bounced around the cab of the truck and Colt picked up their conversation.
“—too much blood. No way somebody survived this.”
“Then where are the bodies?”
“Probably with our guns.”
“We need to get back and assemble a team to search. We can’t do this on our own.”
Colt backtracked into the forest. He needed to find Dani and the rest of them and explain what he heard. They could put following the men to a vote.
A blob of light landed three feet from his boot and he froze.
“You hear that?”
“Probably a deer or something.”
“Naw, man. It sounded like a person.”
The light swooped over his left shoulder and Colt eased to the ground.
“I’m gonna check it out.”
The flashlight bobbed and weaved and Colt pressed closer to the damp forest floor. The light swooped over his back. If they spotted him, it was game over. He would have no choice but to engage.
“Hey! I got something!”
Shit. Colt readied himself for a fight, but the flashlight beam arced away from him.
“It’s a military truck! I told you someone was out here!”
Oh, no. As the light bounded toward the Humvee, Colt rose up. He turned and made his way toward the area Larkin had set up as a safety zone. They would need to hide until these idiots got sick of searching. A few feet ahead of him a pale shape floated against a tree.
Colt squinted. Dani? He eased closer. The teenager clutched a rifle tight to her body, swooping it back and forth. From the way it quivered, he knew she was terrified. And blind.
He whistled a faint high-pitched note. She swiveled toward him. He took another step. The rifle hung in the air, ready to fire.
“Dani!”
The gun jerked.
“Dani, it’s Colt.”
She lowered the weapon and he stepped close enough for her to see him in the dark.
/> “I almost shot you.”
“I’m glad you didn’t.” He motioned for her to crouch and he did the same. “The men found the Humvee. We need to distract them and get out of here.”
“How?”
The sound of the Mustang revving caught them both off guard and they spun toward the noise. The headlights flared and the car revved before lurching forward. It spun a one eighty as shouts erupted from the tree line.
The two men charged the car as it shot off in the direction they had come. The headlights lit up the night as the car sped away. Colt tugged on Dani’s arm. “Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“To the Humvee. Larkin’s given us a chance.”
“What about him?”
“Don’t worry. He’ll find us.”
Colt and Dani took off for the vehicle. They made it just as Melody and Doug emerged from the trees, dragging Harvey behind them.
“What’s going on?” Doug heaved the Camaro’s hood closer to the Humvee as Colt yanked open the back door.
“Larkin’s giving us a chance. Everyone in.”
“What about Harvey?”
Colt glanced down at the unconscious man. “Get him in the back.”
“But if we move him—”
“We don’t have a choice.”
Dani rushed to the passenger door while Colt clambered up into the driver’s seat. He flipped the switch on the dash and waited as Doug and Melody eased Harvey inside and shut the doors. Colt turned on the Humvee.
It sputtered and cranked and for a moment he wondered if it would turn over, but at last, a weak grumble managed to hold. He eased it into the forest, turned on the headlights, and punched the accelerator. They’d be off-roading it from now on.
Chapter Twenty-Two
MELODY
Northern California Forest
5:00 a.m.
The Humvee spluttered and lurched. Melody fell against the door and Harvey’s limp body slid off the divider. His hand flopped into her lap.
She braced herself as the vehicle straddled a ditch. This couldn’t get any worse. The engine coughed and the Humvee seized up as it attempted to crest a hump in the forest. The tires slipped.
Colt cursed from the front seat and revved the engine, but instead of moving forward, the Humvee rolled back. It stopped on level ground, engine hissing. He flipped the switch and pumped the gas. Nothing.
Doug eased forward from the back. “Is that it?”
“Afraid so.” Colt twisted around. “The engine is fried. Even if it cools, I don’t think it will restart.”
Melody reached for Harvey. His head had slid off the divider and it lay at an unnatural angle, his eyes wide open and vacant. With two fingers, she searched for a pulse. Again and again she moved her hand around his neck, fear and denial rising in her throat the longer she searched. Her brother’s hand wrapped around her own.
“Mel.”
She glanced up. Doug’s eyes were full of knowledge and caring. “Is he gone?”
“I can’t find a pulse. If we start CPR, maybe—”
“It’s best to let him go.”
She tore her gaze away from Doug and stared down at Harvey. This couldn’t be happening. A month ago, they were all just living their lives. Friends and neighbors waving as they passed on the street, sipping coffee on the front porch on a lazy Saturday morning, chatting about the weather.
Now Harvey was another casualty of this war without an enemy. A man who had already sacrificed his home and everything he owned for strangers to whom he didn’t owe anything. It didn’t seem fair. The Wilkins family was dead. For what?
Tears pricked her eyes and Melody didn’t will them back. One tumbled from the middle of her lash line and splashed across Harvey’s lifeless cheek. Gloria had been her friend her entire life, from babysitting when she could barely walk to being a shoulder to cry on after her parents died. Now the woman’s body was left to rot in the middle of a forest hundreds of miles from home.
Harvey had been a friend to her father and to Doug. He deserved better than to die in the back of a Humvee bouncing through underbrush and dry creek beds. He should be sitting at the kitchen table right now, drinking coffee and watching the sunrise.
Melody snuffed back a sob. Her brother squeezed her hand, but she shook him off, anger welling up inside her to replace the grief. “What are we doing out here?”
She looked up at Doug. He’d always been so confident before the power loss. Taking charge and protecting her. Now what could he do? Sit there and stare while Colt figured out what to do next?
Lottie yipped from Dani’s lap. The poor dog hadn’t eaten a decent meal in days and spent the last night with nowhere to sleep except beside a dying man. Melody reached for her and Lottie scrambled into her arms.
If things continued down this path, soon she would be saying goodbye to Lottie, too.
Colt spoke up from the front. “I’m sorry, Melody.”
She snorted and wiped at her face. “Are you really?”
“Mel!”
“What?” She snorted at her brother. “It’s a legitimate question.”
Colt answered. “Of course I am.”
Melody swallowed. Rage simmered below the surface of her body, writhing like a serpent kept too long in a cage.
Rage at Colt for forcing their decision to leave Eugene. Rage at Jarvis for taking over the only town she’d ever really known. Rage at the US government for their incompetence. If regular people had some warning… If they knew what space weather could do…
Maybe Melody would have prepared. Maybe they all would have.
She wiped at her face again, smearing tears and dirt across her cheeks. “How did we get here?”
Colt shrugged. “Drove through the forest, mostly. I’ve tried to head due south.”
Doug snorted a laugh, but Melody couldn’t shake her anger and hopelessness. Larkin wouldn’t even be able to cheer her up now. The thought of him sent another pang of heartache lancing through her body. He would never find them now.
“What are we going to do?”
Colt leaned forward and stared up at the still-dark sky. “Walk, I suppose. We can load up as many weapons as we can carry and bury the rest. Then we’ll head southeast. We should hit Lake Tahoe sooner or later. Maybe one of the small towns Harvey talked about in between.”
Melody glanced at her brother. “How far is it to Lake Tahoe?”
He scratched his head. “At least a hundred miles.”
“A hundred miles!” The matte-painted metal of the military vehicle closed in around her and Melody struggled to breathe. “We’re planning to walk a hundred miles to get to some lake we’ve never been to in the hopes there will be something there for us?”
Her brother turned sheepish. “When you put it like that…”
“What are we supposed to eat or drink on the way?”
No one said anything for a moment. At last, Dani broke the silence. “Do you have a better idea?”
Melody blinked. “Do you?”
“No. That’s why I’m asking. Since you’re so upset about the plan, is there something else you’d rather do?”
Melody sagged against the seat. She wished she could say yes, but every option she could think of wasn’t any better. “No.”
“Then stop complaining.” Dani waited until Melody met her heavy gaze. “The situation sucks, we all know it. But I’m not giving up.”
“Neither am I.” Colt flashed a tight smile in agreement.
Melody wished she could share in their optimism, but all she could think about were the negatives. No food, no water, no shelter. Her neighbors were dead. Larkin was gone. How could they hike a hundred miles and not die on the way?
She asked another question. “How will we know which way to go?”
“I can land nav. Between the sun and the stars, we can head in the general direction.” Colt scratched at his head. “From what I remember, Tahoe’s huge. We won’t miss it.”
“You reall
y think that’s the best option?”
He nodded. “For right now, yes.”
Melody thought about Larkin out there on his own, no idea how to find them in the miles of forest. She thought about all the what-ifs and the hope he’d given her.
“He’ll find us.”
She cut Colt a glance. “Easy for you to say.”
Lottie squirmed, sticking her nose out to sniff at Harvey’s body. Melody pulled her back. “We need to bury Harvey and say a few words.” Melody paused to maintain composure. “We might have left Gloria and Will out to the elements, but I won’t do that to Harvey, too. He deserves a burial. They all deserve a memorial. To be remembered.”
She didn’t wait for anyone to respond. Grabbing the door handle, Melody jerked with all her might. The door opened and the cold morning air whipped her face.
It took Doug and Colt an hour to dig a deep enough grave with the shovel and pick axe stored underneath of the Humvee. The pair of them dragged Harvey into the ditch and Melody straightened his clothes before Doug filled the hole.
Melody stood at the makeshift cross Colt had fashioned out of a branch and closed her eyes. She tried to think of the right words to say. Something full of meaning and purpose that would do justice to the Wilkins family.
She opened her eyes. “I’m sorry, Harvey. I’m sorry for all of the mistakes of the past month. All the missed opportunities and sacrifices. All the hesitation and doubt. I’m sorry we failed your wife and grandson. Most of all, I’m sorry you died like this, running from strangers after the whole world turned upside down.”
Doug reached out and squeezed her shoulder. There wasn’t anything else Melody could say. What was the point of sharing her memories of a family that would soon live on only inside the minds of a handful of people?
Colt cleared his throat. “I owe Harvey Wilkins my life. If it weren’t for his choice to pull me into his basement, I would be dead. Dani, too.” He glanced at her and nodded. “Harvey gave up his own safety for a stranger and I will never forget that generosity.”