Dead Highways (Book 2): Passage

by Richard Brown

  Robinson stepped forward, knelt down next to Cathy. “There is something we can offer you Cathy.”

  Cathy slowly raised her head, brushed her hair out of her face. “What?”

  “You can come with us. I know we just met, but we’re all good people. And we’ll try to protect you, best we can.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “New Orleans. To look for my son.”

  Cathy sniffed back snot. “But why should I leave here and go with you all to New Orleans?”

  “What reason do you have to stay here?”

  “There’s still a chance Brian could come back.”

  “That’s true. He might,” Robinson said. “But what if he doesn’t? Are you gonna be okay here all by yourself? You know how dangerous it is out there.”

  “We have a boat,” Cathy said, seemingly out of nowhere. She looked at each of us trying to gauge our reaction. “We have a boat. Well … it’s Brian’s boat.”

  “Okay,” Robinson replied.

  That was my reaction as well.

  Okay. You have a boat. Who cares?

  “You said you’re going to New Orleans. We have a boat. We could take you there. It would be a lot safer than going by road.”

  “I don’t know much about boats,” Robinson said. He turned to the rest of us. “Anyone have experience with boats?”

  Ted was the only one who answered.

  “A little,” he said. “Mostly small boats.”

  “You don’t have to worry about any of that,” Cathy said. “Brian can drive the boat. I’m sure he’ll have no problem agreeing to take you if you just help me.”

  “I can tell you love Brian a lot.”

  “So much,” Cathy sobbed.

  “But he’s gone, Cathy. I wish he wasn’t. I really do.” Robinson stood up. “I’m sorry. Think about my offer. You’re welcome to come with us.”

  After a moment, Cathy got up and headed for the front door. “I need some fresh air.”

  Robinson, Ted, and I converged at the sliding glass door. It looked out on to the covered dock, where the boat Cathy had mentioned sat suspended out of the water.

  “So Ted, you think you can drive that thing … or one like it?” Robinson asked.

  Ted shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “It’s not a bad idea, right? Taking a boat. It would be a lot safer than staying on land.”

  “Probably even get us there faster,” Ted added. “Thing is, I don’t know how many gallons the boat has or how long it’ll last even if the tank is full. Don’t wanna get out there and run out of gas.”

  “I say we ride up the coastline anyway. That way we’ll never be too far from land. Case something does happen.”

  “You think she’s gonna come with us?” I asked.

  “I hope so,” Robinson replied.

  Ted smirked. “Yeah, we need her boat.”

  “I’m sure we could find another boat,” Robinson said. “This neighborhood is on a canal. Most of these houses probably have docks. We don’t need her boat.”

  “She just won’t last long out here by herself,” I said.

  Robinson nodded. “That’s why I hope she comes with us.”

  Cathy came back inside five minutes later with an answer, or more like, a proposition.

  “I can’t leave right now,” she said. “I’m sorry I just can’t. I feel like he could still be out there. I need to keep looking for him.”

  “If that’s your decision,” Robinson said. “I have to respect it.”

  “I wasn’t done,” Cathy said. “I have an offer for you.”

  “Go on.”

  “I know it’s dangerous out there, and you’d be risking your lives for someone you don’t even know … but if you help me look for him, at least until it gets dark, I’ll let you take the boat. You can spend the night here, and in the morning you can leave. In fact, if we don’t find him tonight, and he doesn’t return by morning, I’ll go with you.”

  Robinson glanced around the room. We all sat still, in silence, offering him nothing in the way of a yes or no reaction. Except for Aamod, naturally. He turned his back to us and walked into the kitchen.

  Guess that’s one vote no.

  “What time is it?” Robinson asked.

  I checked my watch. “Quarter to five,” I said.

  “That would only give us two and a half to three more hours of light,” Robinson said. “I don’t know how big the area is, but that’s not a lot of time.”

  “At this point, I’ll take whatever I can get,” Cathy said. “If our search turns up nothing … then I’ll have to deal with that. But I can’t move on knowing I didn’t try everything I could.”

  “I understand.”

  “So you’ll help me then?”

  Again Robinson looked around for objections. “Anyone got any problems with the deal?” Everyone shook their head. “I guess it’s a deal then.”

  “Thank you so much,” Cathy said. “Really … thank you.”

  Not to waste one more minute of daylight, we headed off in a hurry. We took one vehicle, what had become Robinson’s white SUV. He drove, while Cathy sat in the passenger seat to be our guide around the area. I sat in the backseat, squished between Ted and Bowser. The others—Aamod, Naima, Peaches, Olivia, and Jax—all stayed back at the house.

  For the next two hours, Cathy led us around town, here and there and back again. We got out of the car more times than I cared to count. Checked a ton of stores, most grocery, but also a few independent pharmacies. The infected heading north were easy to avoid when we were in the car. Outside, however, we ran into a few problem people that had us sprinting back for the relative safety of the four spinning wheels. To keep from drawing any attention, we agreed not to fire a gun unless we got cornered with no way out. Luckily, that didn’t happen, and two hours later, as the last inch of the sun dropped below the blue watery horizon to the west, our search was almost over. We’d seen no sign of Brian or his pal Theo. But there was still one final place to check before heading back to the house.

  The Walmart.

  This time we drove around to different points of the building, as close as the makeshift fence of cars would allow. We saw no sign of the rough looking guys Cathy had mentioned earlier, but the blond haired guard was still on patrol. Even upon closer inspection, I still couldn’t make a determination of gender. They walked slowly, staring at their feet half the time, swinging the rifle over their head like it was a baton. Must have been a long shift. They looked tired and bored.

  It was around back, as we walked on foot a good distance from the car to keep a low profile, that Cathy made a surprising discovery. Surprising for her, at least.

  “I think this is…” she began, inspecting a dark green car parked on the outer perimeter. “This is Theo’s car.”

  “Are you sure?” Robinson asked.

  “I’m almost positive. Even has the handicapped permit hanging from the mirror.” She went around to the back of the car, checked the back bumper. “And a POW sticker. It’s gotta be Theo’s car.”

  “Theo was a prisoner of war?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe. I know he was in Vietnam.”

  “Hold on,” Ted said. “Who is this Theo guy?”

  “Theo lives in my neighborhood,” Cathy replied. “He left with Brian this morning. Actually, he was the reason Brian went off in the first place. He came by our house, said he needed medication, and asked if Brian would go with him to the store. He had some kind of heart condition. He’s older. Sixties or seventies. I’m positive this is his car.”

  Robinson sighed. “Then that means—”

  “They did come here,” Cathy said. “And they might still be inside.”

  “We don’t know that though,” Robinson said. “And if they are, why haven’t they come out?”

  “I knew those guys I saw had something to do with it.”

  “Like that one,” Bowser said, pointing to the blond haired guard rounding the back corner and start
ing our direction.

  “Get down,” Robinson said.

  We all ducked behind the fence line of cars, sat our butts in dirt.

  “What you worried about?” Bowser said. “He can’t see us. It’s too dark out now.”

  He was right. Light was all but gone, and was especially absent around the back of the building.

  Still, I smirked, and whispered, “That’s probably true for the three of you, but not for me and Cathy.”

  “What do you mean?” Robinson asked.

  “Look at us. Our skin isn’t exactly as dark as yours.”

  Robinson smiled. “Pays to be black, I guess. But what about Ted?”

  “Have you ever seen a white guy with a darker tan?”

  “Hey now,” Ted whispered.

  “I’m just saying.”

  Without explanation, Bowser wandered off down the fence line, keeping his head ducked down below the cars.

  “Where the fuck is he going?” Robinson asked.

  “Was it something I said?”

  Robinson started waddling after Bowser, but Bowser waved for him to stay back. “He’s up to something.”

  “That can’t be good,” I said.

  Bowser continued ten yards further down and then stopped behind a white utility van. I could barely see an outline of him in the dark. His black tank top helped further hide him.

  Robinson peeked back over the car toward the store.

  “Still there?” Ted asked.

  He was referring to the lackadaisical night security guard.

  “He just passed by.”

  “Once he’s gone back around to the front, we should sneak up to the store,” Cathy said. “We need to get in there somehow. See if we can find Brian.”

  “Hold on now,” Robinson said. “We can’t just rush in there. We don’t know how many armed guys they’ve got. Plus we don’t even know for sure if they’re even in there. I believe you when you say this is Theo’s car. They came here. I’ll accept that fact. But there are a lot of questions we still don’t have answers for.”

  Little did we know, Bowser had a plan to get them answered. He banged his fist against the white van, just once.

  “Shit … what is he doing?” Ted whispered.

  Robinson peeked over the car again. “The guard stopped walking.”

  Again, Bowser banged his fist on the door of the van, even louder this time. I moved behind Robinson so I could see what blond hair was up to now. He stood perfectly still, peering out at the line of cars surrounding the building. Finally, he stepped off the curb and slowly walked across the pavement toward the direction of the white van. He had the rifle up, ready.

  “If Bowser’s plan was to get his attention,” Robinson said. “It worked.”

  I looked forty yards down but Bowser was no longer behind the van. A split second later, I heard a scuffle, the sound of something—a body, presumably—slamming against a car hood. From our position, we could no longer see anything, so we all got up and ran toward the white van.

  Bowser tossed the rifle over first, and then slid the guard over the hood of a small sedan parked in front of the white van, and then jumped back over to make sure the person didn’t escape.

  The rest of us ran up, surrounded them. Robinson shined a flashlight down on them as they hit the ground. Bowser put his knee to the chest of the guard, hands against his scrawny shoulders, easily pinning him down.

  Him.

  With the help of the flashlight, I could tell it was a boy now. A young kid, short, skinny, with (I believe I’ve mentioned this) messy blond hair. Looked a lot like Ellen DeGeneres.

  But could he dance like Ellen?

  Bowser wanted to find out. “If you scream for help, I’m gonna smash you. We clear?”

  The kid, scared beyond belief, nodded frantically.

  “We should get him out of here anyway,” Robinson said. “We’re making too much noise.”

  I kept peering back at the Walmart, expecting someone else to pop out and investigate.

  Bowser grabbed the kid by the shirt and had him stand up. Then he led him, with us following behind, all the way back to the white SUV. And to think I thought the backseat was crowded before. Good thing Cathy’s house wasn’t far. It was a sausage fest back there, and I was squeezed in the middle rubbing shoulders with our new friend.

  “What’s your name?” I asked.

  “Kyle,” the kid said.

  “Have you ever been gang raped before, Kyle?”

  Kyle drew back in horror. “What? No…”

  “Well then tonight’s your lucky night.”

  His scream was so loud Robinson nearly drove us off the road.

  And I couldn’t stop laughing.

  Turns out, we weren’t going to Cathy’s house after all. Robinson didn’t even go in the right direction. He circled around to Commercial Way and then pulled the SUV back into the Winn-Dixie parking lot.

  “I think we’re good on diapers,” I said.

  Nobody responded. I sensed there was a tension in the air that no amount of jokes would clear.

  Robinson looked determined.

  Cathy looked worried.

  Bowser looked intense.

  Ted looked tan.

  And Kyle … well, Kyle still looked like a young kid who’d gotten in way over his head. I knew the feeling. Oh yes I did. It wasn’t long ago that Moses had me shaking in my New Balance. I hoped he was having fun going west in his small cell back at the police station.

  Robinson stopped the car by the front of the store and we all got out. “Ted, can you keep watch?” he said.

  “I can try,” Ted replied. With the sun long gone, darkness fell upon everything. “Wish I had my night vision.”

  “Should have taken your car, I guess,” Robinson said. “We’ll make this fast anyway.”

  Ted grabbed Kyle’s rifle from the back, checked to make sure there was a round in the chamber. “Not a bad gun you got here, kid. You mind if I use it?”

  “It’s my dad’s … or it was,” Kyle said. “And no, as long as you don’t shoot me with it.”

  Ted shrugged. “Don’t give me a reason to.”

  I tapped Robinson on the shoulder. “Why did we come back here? Why didn’t we just go to Cathy’s?”

  “We could have,” Robinson said. “But then this creep would know where she lives. And we don’t want that.”

  “Hey, I heard that,” Kyle shouted out. “I’m not a creep.”

  “Shut up,” Bowser barked. “You can talk when we say you can.”

  “Keep it down,” Robinson said, shushing them both. “In fact, Bowser, why don’t you keep watch for infected with Ted.”

  “Why?”

  “You need to cool off. You’re a little hot right now.”

  “Oh, fuck off with that.”

  “See what I mean?” Robinson stared his old friend down.

  Bowser finally conceded, started to walk away. “Who made you the boss?”

  “Gee, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I’ve done stuff like this before,” Robinson fired back. “When we need to rob somebody, we’ll let you be in charge.”

  “So we’re back to that again?”

  “Did we ever leave?”

  “We wouldn’t even have his punk ass if it weren’t for me. Remember that. And while you’re at it, remember that you’re not a cop anymore, no matter how long you wanna wear that stupid uniform.”

  “Can you please argue later?” Cathy said. “We’re wasting time.”

  Bowser turned his back to us and met up with Ted hanging out by the car.

  Robinson shook his head. “Sorry about that,” he said to Cathy. Then he motioned for Kyle to go sit by the building. “Up against the wall.”

  Kyle did as he was instructed. “Who are you guys? What are you gonna do with me?”

  “We just want to ask you some questions. Okay?”

  Kyle nodded. “It’s just … I need to get back. They’re gonna know I’m gone.”

&nbs
p; “Who?”

  “Brett will definitely know. Maybe Charlie.”

  “These are members of your crew?”

  “Sort of the other way around,” Kyle replied. “I’m a member of their crew, and they don’t like me much already.”

  “How long have you known them?”

  “I just met them a day or so ago. You know, after everyone woke up and everything went to hell. I was out by myself, looking for help, and I got attacked. At the time, Charlie and Brett were working on moving all those cars around the building, and they ended up saving my life. I asked what they were doing, and they said they were gonna hold up inside the store. I volunteered to help, if they’d let me stay with them. It was only the two of them at the time.”

  “How many are there now?”

  “Two others joined yesterday,” Kyle replied. “So five, if you include me.”

  “And you’re in charge of patrolling the parking lot?”

  “Well, we take turns. Me and the other two. One is a woman. Her name is Brenda. She’s a lot older. Maybe fifties. The other guy is around forty or so, real quiet. His name is Mike.”

  “So these other two, what do they do?”

  “Charlie and Brett rarely ever come outside. They spend most of their time in the back hall drinking and shootin’ the shit. I don’t really like them. They treat me like a slave, but I had nowhere else to go. Brett picks on me a lot. Always trying to scare me, sayin’ he’s gonna hurt me if I step out of line. That’s why I said he’ll be the first to notice that I’m gone.”

  “I understand,” Robinson said. “And we don’t mean to keep you. We’re just looking for somebody, two people actually, and we thought maybe you’d seen them. They went missing this morning.”

  “It’s my husband, Brian, and our neighbor, Theo,” Cathy added. “They left to go to your Walmart and never returned.”

  “Were you out patrolling this morning?” Robinson asked.

  Kyle brought his knees up to his chest and looked away for a second. “No.”

  Robinson stepped forward. “Why are you lying?”

  “I’m not.”

  “Yes, you are,” Robinson said. “It’s obvious. Should I call my big friend back over here to rough you up some more?”