by TW Gallier
"Sounds like a plan. We'll continue until dark, and then find a safe place to spend the night." I looked up and around. "Let's pray they don't send any more helicopters. I don't think we'll hear them in time at highway speed. And if we can see them, then they definitely see us."
Chapter 45
Walt
"Finally," I said as I put my CJ7 into gear and headed out.
Quinn sat next to me, with Paul and Hutch in back. Captain Everett's helicopter was lifting off behind us. As much as I disliked the snooty officer, he came through for us by delivering the weapons quickly by helicopter, instead of taking his sweet time and sending them over by truck like he originally said. That doubled our chance of catching up with them.
We now all carried Russian AK-47s, AKMs, and other versions of the AK. The Canooks even coughed up a pair of what Captain Everett called a C9 LMG Minimi. All of our weapons fired the same 7.62mm ammo, so that helped. Of course the stingy bastards only gave us half the ammo we wanted. And no pistols.
Garret quickly rigged something up to mount the light machine guns on the Jeeps' roll bars. The boys in the pickup just had personal weapons, but there were nine men in it. One of the pickups was having problems, so we left it behind.
"Talk to me, Quinn."
"Gimme a sec, Walt." He sounded agitated, probably because of how badly the Jeep was bouncing on that dirt road. Quinn fiddled with the iPad a moment longer, and then grinned. "We got 'em. Looks like they're are just north of Randville, Michigan."
"Where the hell is that?"
At least they were still in Michigan. I thought they'd be well into Wisconsin.
"They're due east of us and near the Wisconsin border. It says they're 170 miles away."
So that was about a three hour lead at highway speed. I planned to push our speed to the limit. Those bastards wouldn’t get away from us.
"Can I take Highway 2?"
"Yep. Just stay on 2 until we reach Rapid River. That should take about…" he tapped at the virtual keyboard a moment. "About two hours."
I got a tingle in my belly. Captain Everett had no idea where they were. Hell, he said they sent helicopters out of their base in Marquette and didn't find anything on US-2 or M-28 to the north.
Memories of how Sean and Roger murdered my brother came again. I couldn't stop thinking about how they gunned him down in cold blood like that. After we spared their lives and didn't beat them bloody like some of my boys wanted.
I wouldn’t make that mistake again. When we catch them, we were going to beat them all into a stupor. We were going to put the fear of God in their hearts. After we're through with them, they won't dare even look at us with anything but fear and dread. Except for Sean, Roger, and Jenny.
Those three were dead meat.
Chapter 46
Roger
Jenny's head whipped around when the truck hesitated. My hands tightened on the wheel as I scanned the dashboard for any indication of trouble. No warning lights. The gas gauge showed a quarter tank.
The engine died, but restarted a second later. And then died for good.
I shifted into Neutral and coasted to a stop on the side of the road. The other pickups pulled up behind me while I tried to restart it. The engine turned over once, but that was all I got. Everyone got out of the other trucks, while the drivers came up to us.
"What's wrong?" Terrel asked.
"I don't know. It's acting like it's out of gas, but I show a little over a quarter tank."
Sean and Brett popped my hood and checked it out while I attempted to crank it again. Jenny got out, and with Haley's help led the kids over into the woods to relieve themselves.
"This is bullshit," I growled, and got out to stare at the engine with the rest of them.
It was almost sunset. I doubted we had even one hour of daylight left. It was a bad time for engine trouble.
"Do we have any tools?" Brett asked.
"Nothing in my truck," I said.
Only Terrel's truck had a tool box in the bed. It was locked, so we had to pry it open. There were a lot of rusty tools, but mostly shovels, come-alongs, and picks. Farming tools. Very few of the tools could be used for engine repair. Wire-cutters weren't going to fix my problem.
"Let's put some gas in it and see what happens," I said, ready to try anything.
The bounty hunters kept siphoning hoses and gas cans in all four trucks. That was pretty much what everyone had to do nowadays. Sean's pickup had the most gas, so we took three gallons out and put it in my tank. It almost turned over, but the battery was too weak.
"Give me a jump."
Terrel pulled his pick up in front of mine, nose to nose, and we were able to start my truck. A cheer went up when it cranked and continued running.
"You're gas gauge is broken," Sean said. "We'll have to be careful."
Can we stop for the night?" Sonya asked. "The children are getting cranky. We need to feed them and let them run around and expend some of their energy."
Jenny, Fred, and several others nodded in agreement. I hesitated, looking around. We were in a heavily wooded area. I wasn't sure if we were in Wisconsin or Minnesota, but there was a large lake to our left with multiple homes dotting its shore. There was even a pretty good sized island off shore. If we could find boats, then we could camp out in relative safety.
"We could check out the island. That would be safer than staying inside one of those houses," I replied.
"Okay, I want the gunners to stand guard behind their weapons while the rest of us go down and check out those houses and look for boats," Sean said.
After Sean divided us into groups, I led Jenny and the kids toward our assigned house. It was a little further from the water than the others, but closer to the pickups. I really didn't want to get too far from the trucks in case there was trouble. At least we all had our personal weapons.
"Is that a garden?" Jenny asked.
It was. The garden was wildly overgrown with weeds, but I could clearly see corn, and what looked like tomatoes. We hurried over. Sookie squealed with delight when she plucked off a ruby red tomato and took a big bite out of it.
"It's the best mater I ever ate."
"Mater?"
"Shh. She's adorable."
The boys rushed over to get themselves something to eat. I even tried one, and Sookie was right. It tasted amazing. Vine ripened was the best. I noticed that the next row over was squash, with two rows of corn beyond that.
"Oh my god!" Jenny cried, and quickly pushed through past the corn. She pulled another plant up and held it up with a look of joy. "Potatoes!"
"Bunnies!" Timmy cried, taking off after a rabbit racing out of the garden.
Then two more took off in other directions. Sookie and Harlan tore out after them, squealing with pleasure. Other children came running, and soon they were all playing merrily.
"When was the last time we saw our children playing like that?" Jenny whispered, tears rolling down her face. I had to blink away tears. "Their laughter is the sweetest song."
"Yeah, well, they're making a lot of noise," I said.
Sean was looking at them with alarm, though Kate was tugging at his arm and trying to distract him. The gunners looked at the kids, too. A lot of men were worried, while the women all seemed to be smiling.
"Can you get them to play quieter?" I asked.
"If there was anyone within hearing do you think this garden would be so pristine?"
I didn't think the garden was anywhere close to being pristine, but she was right. Anyone in the area would've discovered it and harvested the vegetables. Truth was, the last sign of life was in Escanaba, where I saw smoke coming out of a chimney. I haven't seen a zombie since before crossing over into Upper Michigan.
We searched all of the houses in sight of the pickups, and even found four boats: one johnboat and three canoes. By that time it was almost dark. We gathered to discuss our options. I wanted to leave a solo guard anchored off the shore to watch the pickups, while
everyone else was on the island.
I was outvoted. Even Sean wanted to stay in one of the houses.
"Kate and I found the perfect house," he said, pointing at a cabin just a dozen feet from the water. "It has three bedrooms and a loft. Best of all, it has a wood-burning stove."
"It's not cold enough for that," I said.
"It's a stove," Kate said, as if I was stupid. "We can cook on it."
"Yes," Jenny said. "We can make a big stew with all the veggies we found."
Mike perked up. "Bet I can score a couple rabbits and squirrels for the stew."
"No guns," I said. "That might attract unwanted attention."
He grinned. "I'll be back. Come on, Brett, let's go get some meat."
While those two vanished in the deepening darkness, the rest of us went over to check out the house. Sean proposed putting the kids up in the loft, while the adults split the rooms and living room. There weren't enough beds, so some would sleep on the floor. Still, the house was clean and dry. Most of the windows were intact, but we'd have to open them all to cool the house down overnight. That many people would heat it up fast, especially if they cooked a stew on the wood stove.
"I guess we're staying the night," I said. For some reason the prospect left me full of dread. "But we need to leave as early as possible in the morning."
"Are you sure?" Fred said. "This is the best prospect for homesteading I've seen so far."
Shock didn't come close to how I felt. Sean gave him a sharp look as well. Unfortunately, I saw far more nods than negative reactions. Even Jenny looked contemplative.
"First of all, we're too close to the Canadians. I don't know the range of their aircraft, but I'm sure we're still close enough for helicopters to reach us," I said.
"They only care about people trying to sneak into their country," Terrel said. "I think Fred is right. I can't imagine finding a better place to settle down."
"You understand that you are thinking about sustenance farming and hunting?" Sean asked. "It's not an easy life. Whereas, if we make it across the border into Canada or the Western US, then we'll have all of the amenities of civilization."
"Ah, you said it. If we get across the border. There are a lot of ifs involved," Fred said. "I've already lost…"
I think everyone choked up with him. My throat tightened. Sean looked away.
"I don't want to expose my children to any more danger," he continued. "Even if we make it across one of the borders, we might be found out and sent to some kind of quarantine camp. Or just dragged back out here."
"If we're not killed trying to get across," Sonya said.
It was hard to counter their arguments. Yet, I wasn't ready to give up on civilization. My guess was just over half the adults were with me and Sean on that. So that brought up the possibility our little group could split up.
"We have all evening to discuss it," Jenny said. "We need to go gather the veggies we need for the stew. Roger, see if you can find some wood for that stove and get it started. I'm famished."
Sean and I shared a look. I shook my head, but turned to obey Jenny's orders. She was right. We had all evening to convince everyone it was best to stick together and continue on.
Chapter 47
Walt
"Oh man, Walt, they haven't moved in hours," Quinn said. "They're just up ahead and around that bend in the road."
It was past midnight. We lost a little time after dark when we got lost. Our GPS tracking system was good about showing us where those other guys were, but sucked at showing us how to get there. Quinn's map reading skills sucked.
We also had to turn off our headlights a ways back to keep them from spotting us coming. The cloud cover made it especially dark, so I drove off the road a few times.
Pulling over and killing the engine, I grabbed my rifle and got out. The others piled out after seeing me. One side of the road was thick woods, and the other scattered woods and small lake houses. It looked like a pretty good sized lake, too.
"Quinn says they are just up ahead, so I'm gonna take Hutch and scout them out," I said. "I want the rest of you to get ready to attack, but stay real quiet."
Hutch and I stuffed our back pockets with more magazines. They were bigger magazines than we were used to, so couldn't carry many. Didn't matter much. I didn't plan on attacking with just Hutch.
I moved off the road and eased slowly into the dark woods. We were all country boys and hunters, so knew how to move quietly. The recent rain helped a lot. We still snapped a few twigs, but even that sound seemed lessened by the wetness. The winds rustling the canopy helped drown out any sounds we made.
"Stop," Hutch whispered, grabbing my arm. He pointed toward a house by the lake. "See the light?"
"Yes."
I could just make it out through the undergrowth. We dropped lower and slowed down, moving toward it. By the time I reached the treeline, I could see two of our stolen pickups. My heart pounded and I got all tingly inside. They didn't get away. I was going to have my vengeance.
My hands tightened on the AKM to keep from shaking. I took a few deep breaths to calm my ass down, and then we crawled up and out of the underbrush to look the site over better. I immediately spotted someone standing about a dozen feet from the house, and facing the road up the hill. One of the house's windows glowed faintly with flickering light.
Candles? Fireplace? I wondered. Didn't matter. We got 'em.
I glanced at my watch. It was ten after midnight. They'd probably been asleep since sundown. And they were about to have a very rude awakening.
"You wanna grab her?" Hutch asked.
"Her?"
"I think it's a girl on guard."
My breath caught. What if it was Jenny? We could have a little fun with her before we charged in and took down the rest. Even if it wasn't, most of their women were young and pretty.
The harder I looked, the more I was convinced Hutch was right and it was a woman. I could see long, dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. She looked tall and slim. I was almost positive it was either Jenny or Kate. She was holding her rifle in the crook of her arm, and when she turned I could see the long 30-round magazine.
The woman looked a little too alert, and I couldn't imagine we'd be able to take her down without her making a lot of noise. Better safe than sorry.
"No," I said. I was already regretting my words. "We got plenty of time after we recapture them. I don't wanna take any chances."
I crawled backwards, and Hutch followed after a hesitation. He was a lot like Dave, and didn't like waiting for anything.
"I got an idea, Walt," he said. We stopped. He looked eager. "I say you and me go back and grab the chick."
"Are you crazy? She'll kick up a storm, and then all the rest of them will come down on us hard," I said. "I want revenge, but I don't want die getting it."
"No, man, it won't go down like that." He glanced back toward the cabin with eager eyes. "One of us circles around behind the cabin, and the other goes in from this side. We catch her between us and grab her. There ain't no way for her to get away."
"What about the others? She'll scream and all of those other men and women will come out with guns a-blazing."
"No. We'll have a gun to the girl's head, so they can't shoot at us."
"Yes they can."
"They ain't like us. They're stupid and will do anything to save their friend," he said. "We make them drop their guns, and then we go to town on their fucking asses."
His plan sounded good. But there were problems. Hutch didn't really think things through. That was my job.
"It's pretty dark, right?" I asked.
"Yep."
"Them boys hear one of their women screaming, they'll coming out like angry hornets."
"I suppose so."
I waved my hand to indicate the darkness. "I'm one foot away from you and I can barely see you. What makes you think they'll see us holding that girl? They might just shoot us dead."
"The girl will die, too.
"
"I'm more worried about me being dead," I said. "But you got a good idea, and I think I'll let you do it, too. But with a slight change."
"Fucking A," he said. "What's the change?"
Turning, I headed toward our trucks. "I'll tell you along with everyone else."
A few minutes later I gathered my boys around. Dropping to a knee, with Garret shining a flashlight down on the ground, I sketched out the cabin and surroundings in the muddy ground.
"They're holed up in a cabin by the lake. So that means their backs are to the lake, with woods over here and open ground on the other side." I placed a rock next to the house. "There's a guard standing there, with our pickups parked to either side of the cabin."
"How far away are they?" Garret asked.
"About two hundred yards."
"That guard might hear us start the engines."
I regarded him a moment. That was something I hadn't considered.
"Good point. Okay, here's what we're going to do. Hutch and Quinn are going to go in on foot. I want you boys to get to the cabin without the girl on guard seeing you. Grab her when you hear us start the engines. She'll start screaming, so drag her behind a pickup or something. The rest of them will be coming out by the time the rest of us reach you, and when they see us coming they'll forget all about you."
"What are we going to do?" Garret asked.
"We’re going to drive right up to them, guns blazing."
"What if we kill them all?" Quinn asked. "You know the Canooks ain't going to pay for dead people."
I shrugged. "I think they'll surrender pretty fast to protect their children. Besides, Captain Everett said they had to be alive. He didn't say how alive."
Chapter 48
Jenny
How can it be so cold in the middle of summer?
I rubbed my hands together, before blowing hot breath between them. Intellectually, I knew it was only in the high 50s or low 60s, so technically not all that cold. Yet, that was still a twenty to thirty degree drop from the high of the day. The recent rains hadn't helped.