by TW Gallier
I felt the stress lifting. Whether it was the light or the warmth, I didn't care. Everyone seemed to feel better. Kate returned, and we only had to put up one more blanket to block the light.
"We should check for clothes," Sonya said. "Any dry clothes we find can replace the wet clothes. Maybe we won't have to dry as much."
That seemed sound advice, so we divided up and started checking closets and chests of drawers. A lot of dry underwear was found right off. Clean, dry underwear was a godsend after a month of that ordeal. And since we'd already eaten some of our food, we had room to take more of it. I stuffed my pack with ten pairs of tidy whities and white cotton socks.
"We need to keep some for the others, too," Kate said. "Don't Bogart all of the undies, guys."
A helicopter flew over at that moment. We all froze. I held my breath, waiting for it to slow down and hover over us. If it did so, then we were discovered. The helicopter did sound like it even slowed down. Everyone continued to listen, waiting for it to turn around. It did not. After a moment it was gone.
"Wow," Kate said. "Now I have to pee again."
I laughed with the others. Kate did go to the master bathroom. We rolled our eyes when the sound of her peeing filled the house again. I wondered if she'd be embarrassed if I told her we could hear her. Probably not a good idea to bring it up.
"Should we drag some mattresses in here to sleep on?" Kate asked upon her return.
"I don't think we're going to be here that long," I said.
She accepted that with a shrug. So with everyone looking quite pleased with themselves, I realized I had to be the bad guy. There was no way around it.
"Okay, now for the bad news. We need to post a guard out front. In the cold," I said. They all gawked at me. No one, least of all me, wanted to leave that nice warm room. "I'll go first, but I think one hour shifts will be good. We have a lot of people."
"I'll take second shift," Kate replied.
"Third," Terrel said.
All of the adults committed to a shift, though I doubted many of us would actually have to pull guard. Come daylight we'd be on the move again, and that wasn't too far off.
"Get some sleep," I said. "I'll wake you in an hour, Kate."
They left the lanterns turned on bright, despite the room starting to feel kind of stuffy. As the others settled down to sleep, I headed out front. First thing, I made a circuit around the house, checking a little ways into the trees. I stood in the front window, out of the rain, for most of my shift. The worse part of the storm passed before my hour was up.
Going into the living room, I shook Kate's feet. She jumped up with a cry of alarm, waking up everyone else. But the others went right back to sleep.
"Give me a moment," she said, starting to pull on her boots.
Returning to the front window, I paused to listen to a strange sound. At first I thought it was a car, but decided it was the wind. We were still getting some fierce gusts. I went out to the road to look up and down, but saw nothing. But I couldn't see far in the darkness and cold drizzle. Kate was waiting for me at the door.
"I got the watch, sir," she said, amusement in her eyes. "You are relieved."
"More so than you know," I said. "You might want to go out and look around every so often."
"I will," she said. "Sleep tight."
Kate headed out into the night as I returned to the living room. Finding a spot along the wall, I sat down. It was too hot in there for a blanket, so I just pulled off my boots. I sat back against the wall and relaxed. I needed to wind down a little before going to sleep.
After about fifty minutes, I stood to go wake Terrel. I'd go to sleep after that. I only made it halfway across the room before five men charged in, two from the front and three from the back.
"Halt! No one move!"
I froze, jaw dropping. They were in hunter's camo, armed with military weapons. They didn't look like Canadian Army. At least not the few I'd seen. For one thing, they all had beards and looked dirty. And the Canadian soldiers all wore gas masks.
My first thought, Where's Kate?
She was forced in a moment later, looking pretty bad. They'd roughed her up, giving her a bloody nose. The men had tied her arms behind her back, and a man controlled her with a hand twisted up in her hair.
"I'm sorry," Kate gasped out. "They ambushed me."
I heard vehicles pulling up outside. More men flooded in and started tying everyone up. I was forced to my knees, before my wrists were tied behind my back. Women and children were crying. They even tied up the kids.
"Hot damn, boys, we hit pay dirt," the man holding Kate said, a look of vicious glee on his face. "There's a bunch of them." He pushed Kate to the floor, and pulled a satellite phone out of his back pocket. I watched him dial a number. "We got 'em, Captain. Just where you said they'd be, so come and get 'em. And don't forget our payment."
"Who the hell are you?" Terrel asked.
"Me? I'm Walt Taylor," he said. "And we work for the Canadian Army rounding up scumbags like you trying to sneak into Canada."
"You're bounty hunters?" I asked.
Walt paused to consider it. He was one bug ugly man. I guess he was early forty's, burly and mean looking. He had a big belly, but looked strong as an ox. It didn't look like he'd shaven or bathed since well before the apocalypse started. And I doubted he bathed much before the end of our world.
"I suppose we are," he said. Walt grinned. "We get paid by the head, dead or alive. So don't cause no trouble, hear?" He pointed at an even bigger, meaner looking bastard. "Dave really likes killing people."
Chapter 37
Roger
Charlie and I went back a good mile, but failed to find any evidence of Jenny's boat. I couldn't image they came ashore any further back, so we turned around and headed west.
The storm pushed a lot of debris up on shore. There were small boats and kayaks, and even a cabin cruiser. And lots of just plain trash.
I heard a helicopter to the north by the time we returned to the trail back up to the house. We rushed up into the forest and hunkered down under cover. The helicopter sounded like it as flying up the highway, east to west. Probably looking for any sign of us. Since it didn't slow down or turn around, I was confident they didn't spot us or anyone at the house. We waited a few minutes more before returning to the beach and heading up the coast.
There weren't many homes or signs of civilization from the beach. We did check out the few houses we found, but all were empty and ransacked. No sign of Jenny and the others. Dread was building, but I didn't want to believe she was dead.
A few miles up the shore we came to a spot where the highway was visible. And there were Sean and Mike staring off into the blue-grayness of Lake Michigan.
"Find anything?" I asked.
"Not a damn thing," Sean said. "You?"
"We're here, so no." I looked around. "Where did the helicopter go?"
My concern was it would spot Jenny and her small group. We were headed away from the border, so I'd hoped the Canadians would leave us alone. What would they do with us if they captured us? Take us to Canada? I didn't think so. Maybe they'd take us for a helicopter ride as far south of the border as possible, but that didn't necessarily mean they'd keep us all together.
"The whole world has gone crazy," Charlie said. "Canada used to be like brothers to us. Now they don't want to touch us with a ten foot pole."
"Ten mile pole," Mike said. "I'm more worried about them just shooting us now. Dead men don't cross borders."
"Best thing we can do now is go to Brevort," I said. "If the others don't show within a couple of days, then hit the next rally point, and then the next."
"And if they don't show up?" Mike asked.
My jaw, neck, and back tensed up. My stomach churned. "Don't even say it. Knock on wood."
Sean nodded, and turned eastward. "It'll be close to sunrise by the time we get back. We'll head out as soon as everyone's ready. I think we can make Brevort before dark.
"
"You know where we are?" I asked.
He was better at maps than I was if that was true. Those damned commercial road maps were all but worthless. Sean pulled out his map and pointed to indicate how the shoreline turned dramatically to the south just up the way.
"I think we're right here. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. Either way, Brevort is just a day's hard march from the bridge anyway."
"For us," Charlie said. "Not for the kids."
I don't know why it surprised me, but he thought we were just outside of Gros Cap. Maybe ten to fifteen miles from Mackinac Bridge. It was probably another twenty miles or more to Brevort, which was halfway to our furtherest rally point of Naubinway. And all of it would be done on foot through the woods.
"He's right. It might take us two days to reach Brevort." I signed gustily. "I thought it would get easier as we moved north, but it's been the opposite."
"We'll do our damnedest to find running vehicles as we go," Sean said. "But we have to be prepared to walk the rest of the way to… Wherever we're headed."
"Let's be honest. Mike and Charlie can back me up here, but there's no way for us to cross over the Rockies. The government was just beginning to move troops up to guard the border, and they've had a month to dig in and set up the best defenses imaginable. Canada's border is mostly wilderness, and there's no way for them to defend it. We can get into Canada."
"And then what?" Sean asked. "Don't you think every single Canadian is on the lookout for strangers coming to town? Or passing by? They're probably scared shitless of being turned into zombies, so will report us ASAP. We can only run so long before they catch us."
I felt that like punch. Everything he said was true, and Jenny's voiced similar concerns. I'd been trying not to think too much about it. Worse, I didn't have an answer. Where else could we go? Not south. Winter was coming, and I didn't think we had enough time to forage enough food to survive a northern winter. Hell, not a single one of us was used to such brutal winters. Mike and Charlie were West Coast, and the rest of us were from the Deep South.
"Let's just get to Wisconsin, and then figure this out," I said. "We have enough problems as it is."
Sean nodded, turned, and headed back up the highway. "Agreed."
The drizzle stopped about halfway back to the house. Mike increased his stride as we weaved out way through the forest, just a dozen yards south of the road.
"Here comes the helicopter," Charlie said.
I paused to listen. I could hear it way off in the distance. We found some heavy brush to hide under before it reached our location. My body tensed as it approached. All I could think about was how good night vision was at spotting hot spots. But the helicopter was moving fast and zipped past us. We waited a few minutes to ensure it didn't circle back.
"I hate helicopters," Charlie said. "And all high tech weapons."
"This place is too hot," I said. "Follow me. I want to get everyone to Brevort as fast as possible."
I took the point from Mike, moving us a lot faster through the woods. So it wasn't long before we reached the house. And a surprise.
"Shhh. Trucks," I whispered, bringing everyone to a stop. "We have a problem."
The house was barely visible through the foliage, but I could just make out at least two pickups parked in front of the house. I didn't know if our family and friends were captives, or if they heard the trucks coming and snuck out in time. If the former, we had to figure out a way to rescue them. If the latter, we had to find them quickly.
"I hate the savages that everyone has become," I muttered.
"We ain't exactly charmed by you either," a male voice said to my right.
As we turned to face the threat, more men charged us from behind. Within seconds we were surrounded by a dozen armed men.
"We get paid whether you are dead or alive," one of the men said. "Drop your weapons or die."
Chapter 38
Roger
Our weapons were taken, and then the men bound our arms behind our backs. It was humiliating. The four most experienced veterans captured so easily. How could we've let our guards down so thoroughly?
"Move." I was shoved toward the house. "Back door."
I led the way to the house. Our captors' kept their weapons on us the entire time. They weren't taking chances. The back door was wide open, with a man on guard to one side.
"Take 'em in," the guard said. "Walt's waiting."
"No funny stuff." The man behind me pressed his pistol to the back of my head.
"I am not feeling funny right now," I replied and stepped into the house.
I felt the heat immediately. Bright light was streaming through the open passage into the living room. Unknown men filled the living room, all heavily armed and tough looking. I doubted they were nice, friendly men before the shit hit the fan.
"All right. We caught the first group," Walt said.
That made me stop. Our wives and children were bound and sitting together on the floor. That was one group. So we should be the second group in their eyes.
"First group? I don't understand," I said. "Is there another group you are after?"
"Helicopter said there were two groups of men heading towards us," Walt said.
Was the other group Jenny? For a second I couldn't breathe. Then I realized we had an opportunity, so nodded.
"Okay. Yeah, we were off in separate patrols and linked up just before reaching the house," I said.
"Kind of wished we didn't now," Sean said. "Maybe you wouldn't have caught us all."
Sean must've figured it out, too. I noticed some confusion in the faces of some of the others on the floor. We certainly caused some concern among the dirty bastards that captured us.
Before they could discuss it, I asked, "Are you working with the Canadians?"
"Yeah. What of it?" the biggest, meanest look one said.
"Calm down, Dave," Walt said. "Yeah, we worked out a deal with them. You got a problem with that, boy?"
"They're bounty hunters," Terrel said. "They're traitors."
Our captors tensed, eyes narrowing. I counted eighteen in the room, with one out back and probably at least one out front guarding the trucks. They were armed with a hodgepodge of weapons. I spotted two AR15s, a M16A1, three M16A2s, Mac 10s, Uzis, and bolt action deer rifles. Most of their sidearms were revolvers, and my guess was .357 Magnums and .44 Magnums. All of the men were in various styles of hunting camo, with a few of the men walking around shirtless.
"You better hush your mouth," Dave growled.
Dave seemed too aggressive, so I took a moment to ensure no one previously captured was injured. Kate had a bloody nose and her hair was in disarray. My blood ran cold.
"Wait a minute," I said, regaining Walt's attention and helping to regain my focus. "Did you capture us just to turn over to the Canadians?"
"Yes."
"Why? They shot at us and told us to beat it, to stay away from their border, and that is exactly what we're doing," I said. "If they wanted us, then they could've captured us themselves at that time. Hell, we trusted them until they chased us off."
That seemed to confuse him a second. Walt shook off his doubts and grinned at me.
"I don't ask why, boy. I catch as many of you poor saps as I can and sell you to the Canadian."
"But money is worthless."
"Right now, but not always," he said. "Besides, they pay us in Canadian dollars. We got an account setup in Canada, and once we're finished here they'll let us in."
"And all that money will be waiting for us," Dave said. "We're gonna be rich."
"You trust them?" Mike asked. "Man, I think they are playing you. They think all Americans are infected."
"There's no way in hell they'll ever let you over the border," Charlie said. "I doubt they are even putting your bounty money in the bank for you." He shook his head woefully. "You should demand payment in cash."
We must've reopened an old wound. The men began talking in pairs and small gro
ups, and Walt got into an argument with three others. I glanced at Sean, who was staring angrily at Kate. He was all red and about to explode. Dammit.
"Shut the fuck up!" Walt shouted. "Everyone, shut up. Put them boys down with the others."
Walt pulled a phone out of his back pocket. That startled me. Surely there weren't any towers still operating. The Canadian border was too far away to pick up one of their towers. Then I recognized the antenna. Satellite phone. That thing was worth its weight in gold.
We were shoved toward the rest of our group. They forced us to sit on the floor. I noticed four of the bounty hunters kept their weapons on us at all times. They didn't take many chances.
"Hi, Captain. It's Walt." He gave us a satisfied look. "We got them all. Twenty-one men, women, and children. Come get them."
Their conversation didn't last long. Walt seemed way too pleased when he hung up.
"They're almost here," he told his men. "And then we'll go celebrate."
"Big mistake," Sean said. "They're using you."
"Shut your mouth," Walt said, voice low and dangerous. "You don't know shit. Some of the Canadian cities along the Great Lakes and border got hit, too. So they are working on a cure or vaccine or something. Whenever they figure it out, then we'll also get the shot and be allowed to cross over. First wave, too."
"They're probably gonna use you idiots as guinea pigs to test the drugs," Dave said with a smirk. "And then let zombies bite you or something and see what happens."
"That's right," Walt continued. "But you're about to find out real fast, because I think I can hear them now."
I seriously doubted the Canadians would use American prisoners as guinea pigs. That seemed awful outrageous even under current conditions. But what really surprised me was men who thought their employers capable of such atrocities still trusted them.