The Apocalypse Fugitives

by Peter Meredith

  "You would've let me blow up the bridge?" Grey asked in disbelief.

  "Of course. I gave you my reasons and I wasn't lying. Now please, hand over the detonator if you don't mind." The River King held out his left hand while in his right he held a small pistol pointed at Grey.

  "You're certifiably crazy," the soldier said as he slipped the batteries out of the detonator. Instead of handing it over he tossed it into the water far below.

  "Maybe," the River King said. "But I'm also the man who just took down the great Captain Grey. I can't wait to see you in the arena, my friend."

  Chapter 34

  Sadie Walcott

  Cape Girardeau, Missouri

  At eleven, when the buildings were beginning to grow quiet as the candles began to fall in on themselves Sadie was laying in bed thinking, praying, and hoping.

  First she'd found out that Captain Grey was alive and there was a bomb being built. Then only a minute before Jillybean had whispered across the radio waves: "He hasn't come back. We don't know what's happening."

  The little girl hadn't replied to Sadie's urgent questions other than to whisper, "Monsters are right here."

  Sadie lay there for another ten minutes staring at the little black radio. It had been far easier to get a hold of than she would have guessed. That morning she had gone in search of one, going through every room that wasn't occupied, however the university campus hadn't been a place for two-way radios before the apocalypse, and if the River King's men had any they kept a close watch on them.

  Luckily, Sadie had persevered, carting around Eve who had grown heavy and was now quite a chunk. In her desire to be thorough she had even gone out to the trash truck and there, sitting on the top of the pile had been Jillybean's I'm A Belieber backpack. Inside, among all the odds and ends the little girl had hoarded was the radio.

  Now it sat on Sadie's mattress, silent. Every few seconds Sadie would glance at it and wonder if now it was safe to use. She had just decided to give it ten more minutes, the limit of her patience, when the sound of soft footsteps came to her from the hall. Quick as a wink she clicked off the radio and shoved it beneath her mattress just as her father came in without knocking. He never knocked and he always thrust himself into her room as if he wanted to catch her doing something wrong.

  This time he almost did. She only just straitened up and she was sure the look of innocence on her face was as fake appearing as it felt. "Yes?"

  "You in the middle of something," he asked, his dark eyes roving over Sadie's crooked smile.

  "No, uh-uh."

  For some reason he was slow to relax and his look of suspicion didn't leave. "Ok, I've got good news and bad news. Your old friend Captain Grey is alive."

  "And the bad news?"

  "Let's not skip over the good news so fast," her father said. "You don't seem so surprised."

  For some reason her eyes started blinking and they wouldn't stop. "I—I think be—because he's so tough. I never count him out."

  "Maybe you should. We caught him trying to blow up the bridge. He's in the prison with the others, and no you can't see him."

  She was already up. "Yes I am."

  The River King shook his head, sadly. "What good did it do visiting Neil? You came away like a sad little puppy and you took it out on me. Look honey, there's certain things that are out of my hands. I just can't release Neil without starting a war with Gunner. The same is true with those prostitutes. I'm in a weak position here, otherwise I would."

  "And Grey?"

  "He tried to blow up the bridge! What would everyone think if I let him off the hook with a warning? They'd string me up and sell you to New York. Don't you see that most of what I do is to keep you safe? This included. If it gets out that you're visiting the prisoners all the time, especially the ones who tried to sabotage our greatest asset, people will talk and when they start talking they won't stop. It'll undermine us."

  Sadie wanted to reply, to tell him he was full of shit, but she was obedient to the person she looked upon as her real father and took Neil's advice; she hid her anger behind a cold mask. Not exploding in fiery self-righteousness as she usually would have, allowed her to think clearly, something she wasn't normally good at.

  If she visited Captain Grey, what could he tell her that Jillybean couldn't? The only thing she could think of was how he screwed up, which likely wasn't going to be helpful. "Tomorrow then," she said. "Everyone knows I'm their friend. I don't think people will talk all that much. And I won't over do it. I'll wait to see Neil the next day."

  "That may not be possible," her father said. "I'm afraid they are scheduled to go. When the convoy comes back we're going to load up the prisoners and send them right out again. We're simply not equipped to handle so many people in our cells. It's not fair to them."

  "Not fair to them!" Sadie screamed, waking Eve. The baby's plaintive little noises brought Sadie back to her senses. Yelling wouldn't get her father to change his mind. She tried begging. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lose my temper, just tell me what I can do to save them, or just Neil. How can I help you around here to make that happen?"

  "There's nothing you can do, but you knew that. So don't press me on this," the River King warned. "I don't have much patience for people who try to undermine me."

  There it was exactly as Neil had told her. Just because she was the River King's daughter didn't mean she was entirely safe. Still she wouldn't give up so easily. "What about turning them into slaves? There's probably tons of stuff they could do around here."

  The River King took a deep breath. "Men make terrible slaves, they revolt, they take every chance to run away, and guys like Grey always try something heroic and stupid. That's why we have the arena; it provides entertainment and gets rid of the unwanted without having to resort to executions. It sort of is a win-win."

  She gave him a grimacy smile and said, "Maybe you're right. I-I want to be alone. Eve needs her sleep and so do I. Goodnight."

  "This will all work itself out," he replied, trying to put a smile in his voice. "Don't worry. You'll see."

  It'll work itself out when all my friends are dead? That's what he meant. She guessed it was his hope that she would forget about them after a few weeks or months, but she knew she never would. Just as she knew she would never forgive him.

  He left her as Eve started to demand attention. Sadie soothed the baby as quietly as possible so she could hear if her father had really left or not. His steps retreated down the hall and she resisted the urge to break out the radio right away. Only when Eve fell back to sleep and the building was quiet, did she decide to risk pulling it out.

  "Pink? Pink? Hello Pink this is Green."

  "Gr-Green this is Pink," Jillybean said, her words choking with emotion. "We lost Grey. He got captured, I think."

  "He did, my father has him," Sadie said. "I don't know how. All I know is that he was caught trying to blow up the bridge."

  "No, he was supposed to be, like holding it hostage. You know, only threatening to blow it up if we didn't get all our people back. But…but he never came back and we…I mean me…I was left all by myself."

  "Are you in danger?"

  "No. We're ok right now I guess. How's Eve? Is she happy?"

  Sadie glanced at the baby and as always marveled at the smoothness of her skin, the roundness of her cheeks, her over all perfection. "Yeah, she's happy. Jilly…" Sadie paused, not because she had broken protocol, but because she wanted to ask a question, one that was horrible to ask. After a second with her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth she asked a different question, "What are you going to do?"

  Jillybean's little girl voice came back sounding sad and scared. "We're supposed to leave and go to Colorado. That's what he said to do."

  "You should go. That's the right thing to do…but…I'm sorry to say this, but if you do leave, Neil and Grey will die. I shouldn't be asking you this, but can you do anything to help them? Anything at all." It was a shot in the dark, but Jillybean wa
s Jillybean

  "I don't know. They'll be watching for me, at least at first. Maybe in a few days I could try…"

  Sadie cut across her, "No. It has to be sooner. They're going to be shipped out the day after tomorrow. Those prostitutes will be going back to The Island and the rest are either being sent back to Gunner or to New York. So if you're going to think of something it has to be soon."

  Jillybean was silent for a long time. Minutes passed before she said, "I don't know. I don't think I can get them all out so quickly."

  Sadie's heart sank. "That's ok. You don't have to answer right now. Sleep on it. Maybe something will come to you. I'll call you in the morning, ok?"

  "Ok, bye."

  "Sweet dreams," Sadie said and clicked off the radio. To herself she whispered, "Sweet dreams? She's out there alone surrounded by zombies. How the hell is she going to have sweet dreams?" Sadie had forgotten how earlier Jillybean had mentioned someone named Deanna and assumed that when she kept slipping up using the pronoun we she had meant her and Ipes.

  Sadie laid down, feeling immense guilt. It had been wrong of her to lay the burden of rescuing Neil and Grey on a seven-year-old, and yet who else could do it? She knew she couldn't do it. After Jillybean's Houdini-like disappearance, the River King had doubled the guard, going so far as to station two men inside the prison wing in spite of all the complaining about the smell.

  The perimeter fence also saw an increase in patrols and now they were being equipped with night vision goggles. Only a genius could get through all that and Sadie would be the first to admit she wasn't one.

  She spent a mostly sleepless night racking her brain trying to figure out a way for them to escape or how she could use her position on the inside in order to help Jillybean. The best she could come up with was by causing a distraction: a fire of some sort, or an explosion, though how she would create one she didn't know. The fuel depot just outside in the main parking lot was fenced in and heavily guarded.

  "And I can't be seen as a suspect," Sadie whispered. They would send her off to New York for certain if she wasn't sitting in plain view when the fire started, something that seemed impossible. "I just don't know how to do this."

  The only other way she could help Jillybean was by slipping her information. Sadie figured she would be able to give her guard numbers and locations, shift change times, and maybe the best spot along the fence to slip through. It wasn't much, but it would help and with Jillybean's brains a little help could go a long way. The one thing she didn't figure on was her father.

  "I've got good news," the River King said at breakfast the next morning. Sadie was bleary from lack of sleep; her father, on the other hand was as chipper as always. "The convoy will be back tonight!" he grinned, raking a hand through his black hair. "We'll gas up the trucks and turn them right around."

  Sadie's stomach dropped. "How is that good news?"

  He eyed her close, saying, "We both know that little psycho is out there cooking up something. I didn't believe your stories at first about how smart she was but after her disappearance I had a change of heart and I instructed the convoy to drive non-stop. They'll be here by seven and until they pull away, I'll be tripling the guard."

  Chapter 35

  Deanna Russell

  Cape Girardeau, Missouri

  The two of them slept in the truck, Jillybean fitfully in the front, Deanna, partially folded and kinked in the back. They woke quietly to the sound of birds chirping and neither spoke for a long time. Their silence was not strained or uncomfortable; both of them were too much in shock for such mundane and useless feelings.

  Listlessly, Jillybean stared at the bridge of which only the tall spans could be seen; they were small and hazy with distance. "I don't know," she said and Deanna could have sworn she wasn't talking to herself, but to her toy zebra.

  "What don't you know?" Deanna asked. "How to rescue them? You don't know because you can't. No one can. If Captain Grey couldn't do it, no one can."

  "That's what Ipes says," Jillybean replied. "But he's been wrong a lot lately." She looked at her zebra strangely as if it was broken. "And he's been more ascared than normal."

  "I don't blame him. There's a lot to be scared about."

  Jillybean shook her head. "No, not really. I think this is how we're going to live from now on, so being ascared is…what's the word? Not pointed. I guess sometimes you should be ascared but not all the time like Ipes."

  Or me, thought Deanna. She was nervous simply being in the truck. A zombie had ambled by earlier, heading to a thick stand of forest a few feet off the dirt road they were parked on. How many more of them were down there hiding in the shadows? How many would it take to bash in the windows of the truck and drag her out? Not many, she guessed.

  "We should get going," Deanna said.

  "What do you mean?" Jillybean asked. "To where?"

  "To Fort Campbell. That's what Captain Grey told us to do. We can get lots of supplies there. Then we'll find that little boat thing he made. We might have to take a few trips back and forth, but…why are you looking at me like that?"

  "Because Sadie is going to call." Jillybean held up the two-way radio as her proof. "And because she asked me to help rescue Mister Neil and Captain Grey. That's why. We can't leave."

  Deanna looked at her tiredly. "You don't have any ideas. I don't have any ideas. With just the two of us there's not much we can do. You have to see that."

  Jillybean crossed her arms. "I don't have any ideas, yet," she stated, emphatically. "But I could get one at any time. Like just now I had the idea that we could blow up the bridge for reals. It would keep the prisoners from leaving."

  "Hold that thought," Deanna said. She then looked all around the truck, searching for zombies. When she saw they were alone, she yanked open the back door and hopped out, then just as quickly hopped back in through the driver's door. "There might have been a zombie under the truck," she said in response to Jillybean's look.

  "Why didn't you just climb over the seat?"

  "I don't know," Deanna answered, honestly. "It just seemed like…it's not my truck and it's rude, and we're getting off topic. What good would it do any one to blow up the bridge? It would only piss off the River King and we would still have to find some way to sneak past a hundred guards, break all the prisoners out of their chains and then sneak out again. It's impossible with just the two of us."

  "We also have Sadie."

  "Is Sadie some sort of super-warrior?" Deanna demanded, raising her voice. "Because that's what we'll need. You saw the River King's guards. They were vicious looking and armed to the teeth. Someone will have to fight them because they're not going to run away, or be easily fooled into leaving their posts."

  "I'm still going to try."

  Deanna grimaced and then tried to smile and then pounded the steering wheel. "Damn it, Jillybean! We lost, don't you get it? You're not going to get your friends back and neither am I. The only thing we can do is find safety for ourselves."

  "You can go, but I'm still going to try."

  "Ok," Deanna said, throwing her hands up. "Fine. Try if that's what you want, but I'm not going to help. You have two days."

  Jillybean was angry over this and pouted, not realizing she had far less time than she knew. A few minutes later, Sadie broke the bad news. "Pink, it's me, Green. Are you there?" Her voice was so shaky that it almost didn't sound like Sadie.

  "Yes it's Pink. What's wrong?"

  "The convoy will be here tonight!" Sadie hissed. "They're going to refuel and head back out again as soon as they can."

  "When?" Jillybean asked. "What time?"

  Deanna reached out and pushed the radio down. "It doesn't matter what time. You can't rescue them no matter how much time you have."

  The little girl twisted her hands away. Glaring at Deanna she repeated, "What time?"

  "Around seven. Can you rescue them by then?"

  "Tell her no," Deanna said. "Don't let her get her hopes up." Jillybean hesitated,
looking tiny and lost in the big truck. She opened her mouth twice but couldn't bring herself to do it. "Here, let me." Deanna reached for the radio and Jillybean drew back quickly.

  "No. I haven't thought about everything yet."

  "Yes you have," Deanna insisted.

  Jillybean shook her head and then ran a pink sleeve across her eyes where tears had begun to form. "No I haven't. If I had I would have thought of the answer by now. It's up here somewhere," she said, touching her head gently. "Or it's in Ipes!"

  She stared at the zebra, excited at first, but with growing anger. "What do you mean you can't help?" she demanded of the toy. "Of course you can, and yes, you know I still need you."

  "What are you doing?" Deanna asked. "Are you ok?"

  "Doing?" Jillybean asked; she sounded dazed as if as she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "I'm talking to Ipes. He says I don't need his help now. He says I'm smart now, but I'm only halfway through the As and even when I'm done I know I'm going to need him still."

  Deanna tried to hide her worry behind a kind smile. Jillybean had mentioned her zebra a few times in conversation but this bizarre "dialogue" between them was a clear case of some sort of mental illness.

  "I'm sure it will be ok," she said to the child. "How about I tell Sadie that we'll get back to her."

  Jillybean handed the radio over and, after a quick glance around, Deanna slid out of the truck. She hit the send button and said, "Sadie? This is…" For a second her call sign escaped her, but then it came. "This is Black. I'm sorry but we won't be able to help you."

  "Who is this?" Sadie asked.

  "I'm not supposed to tell, except to tell you I'm a friend."

  When the radio crackled next, the suspicion in Sadie's voice wasn't hard to miss. "Let me talk to Pink."

  "She can't talk right at the moment. She's having an episode."

  "What's that mean?"

  Deanna was a little embarrassed to say, "It has to do with Ipes."