“Are you Earl?” she asked.
The man stopped and regarded her with a look of surprise. “How’d you get in here?” he asked, as though she’d stumbled into Fort Knox.
“There was no one at the front desk. I was told to find Earl.”
The man appeared doubtful. “Earl’s in his office. Go down the hall and hang a right. But he doesn’t want visitors.”
“Oh, did he say that?”
“Earl never wants visitors. You’re looking for a family member, aren’t you?”
“Kinda.”
“Yeah, most folks came knocking the first couple days. Soon they stopped coming altogether. With the roads blocked and the power out, we haven’t been getting any supplies either. Not sure how much longer we can keep this up.”
She was about to leave but asked on a whim, “Seems a little late for a meal, doesn’t it? I thought old folks ate dinner in the early afternoon?”
The man’s gaze fell to the giant can in his hands. “This isn’t for them. It’s for the staff.”
“Oh, they’ve already eaten, I see.”
“Nope, Earl’s got them on a strict water-only diet. Got us scooping up snow from outside in great big buckets and letting it slowly melt here in the kitchen.” He pointed to one such bucket sitting on the floor at the end of the food prep table.
Holly wondered if she’d heard him right. “Water only?”
“Uh-huh, don’t ask me why though. Residents don’t like it one bit, but anyone on the staff who disobeys is either banished out into the cold or threatened with cut rations.”
“You’re all prisoners,” she said, mortified.
He wiped his nose on his sleeve and nodded. “Sure feels like it. Earl catches any of us feeding a resident, we face the same penalty. Fact, you speak to him in a tone he doesn’t like and things suddenly go real bad for you, if you know what I mean.”
“Why don’t you just leave?”
He set both hands on the table. “Leave and go where? You’ve seen what it’s like outside. Everyone who’s left to go get help hasn’t come back. I’d rather take my chances in here than face what’s waiting out there.”
Holly put her hands on her hips. “Please tell me you’re pulling my leg. That this is all some sorta joke.”
“No joke, ma’am. But I strongly suggest you keep all this to yourself. Earl finds out, it’s bound to be bad for everyone.”
Somehow, she’d managed to step from one nightmare into another. How was this possible? With Dillon by her side, she left the kitchen, proceeding down the hallway, looking for this Earl fella. If what the cook said was true, the man was one cold-hearted son of a bitch. To deny proper meals to those you’d been charged with caring for, only so you could save enough for yourself? Holly felt her face grow hot with anger at the cruelty and injustice of it all.
Up ahead, she saw a figure darting from one room to another. When she got closer, she saw that it was Manny.
“You’re still looking for your gramma, aren’t you?” she asked.
“I went to her room and she wasn’t there. But her bed was messy, like she’d gotten up to get something.”
She took Manny by the shoulders. “Listen, there’s something very sick and twisted going on here.”
“What do you mean?” A look of fear filled his young face.
“I just spoke to someone who said they stopped feeding the old folks here.”
“Stopped feeding them?”
“They’re only giving them melted snow,” she said. “Sounds like they’ve convinced themselves there are too many mouths to feed. They’re letting them die.”
Manny pressed his palms to the sides of his head, his eyes filling with tears.
“I’m not saying your grandmother’s gone,” she said, trying to reassure him. “Just that if the cops were still around, all these people would be serving life sentences.”
“I need to find her and we need to alert the authorities,” he said, breathing hard now.
Even Holly knew at least one of those two things was no longer possible.
“You keep looking for her and I’ll find this Earl guy everyone says is running this death camp.” She took Dillon by the shoulders. “I need you to do something very important for me. I need you to help Manny here search for his grandmother. Can you do that?”
He nodded.
With that she left them, pushing down the long corridor. This was where the cook had told her she would find Earl. Her hand fell to the pistol in her jacket pocket, her fingers closing around its grip, cold and reassuring. When she finally found the man, she would have a lot to say to him.
Chapter 14
Day 8
Nate, Dakota and Jay spent the night at an empty house across the road from the Marengo police station. After the nurse had assessed their health, most of those held prisoner in the mechanic’s basement had been released and headed home. It was hard not to imagine the reunion that awaited them. Nate pictured it with no small amount of envy. But of course, there was no telling what any of the folks who had survived the abduction would find when they got there. It would be months before anyone had any real sense of the final death toll.
On a brighter note, after a quick breakfast of wieners and beans, Jay had found the strength to have a look at Nate’s snowmobile.
“So, what’s the prognosis?” Nate asked following the initial inspection.
Jay shook his head, the cords of his thin neck clearly visible, another consequence of being starved for more than a week. “Not good, I’m afraid,” he said, wiping his greasy hands on a white towel. “You’re gonna need a new fuel line and a carburetor. The belt’s also wearing out. If you make it another five miles on that thing, I’ll be surprised.”
The corner of Nate’s mouth turned down.
Dakota shuffled down the stairs and entered the kitchen, yawning. She was wearing sweatpants and a hoodie. “I have an idea how to find my uncle,” she said, wiping at the inside corners of her eyes. Her crow-black hair was slightly askew.
“I’m afraid we have bigger problems at the moment,” Nate said, his hands planted on his hips, his brow furrowed in thought.
“We’re getting back on that horse, aren’t we?” she asked, sounding less than enthusiastic.
“Looks that way.”
She crossed over to the cans of tuna stacked on the counter, opened one, scooped it into a bowl and opened a side door, setting it on a small patch of snow.
Jay watched her do all that with a funny look on his face. “What’s that for?”
“Shadow,” she said. “Although I’m sure he can get his own food. This just makes things easier on him.”
“And keeps him coming back for more,” Nate said. That puzzled look on Jay’s face made Nate smile. He explained they’d found the animal caged at the middle school and Shadow had followed them ever since.
“You don’t know anything else about him?” Jay asked, incredulous. “You cross paths with a wild animal and claim him as your own?”
Dakota laughed. “Heck, no. He chose us.”
“Did he have a collar on? I mean, who knows if he belonged to someone?”
Nate considered this. “He might be someone else’s, but there was no collar. We know that much.”
On a whim, Jay opened the side door and burst into raucous laughter. “The bowl’s empty.”
Dakota smiled, tiny lines forming under her eyes. “I told you.”
“You two are heading to Chicago, right?” Jay said, leaning against the kitchen counter. “What if the wolf follows you there? I can’t imagine that’ll be good for him.”
“Believe me, I’ve thought of that,” Nate said, recalling the two drunken men in Rockford who had tried using him for target practice. “First off, I’m not sure we could get rid of him even if we wanted to. If this whole insane situation has taught me anything, it’s that there’s a lot in life that defies our ability to control. Seems the more we spin our wheels planning for every possibility, the more w
e lose track of what’s staring us straight in the face.”
Jay smirked. “Funny hearing that from a guy who always considered himself a prepper.”
“I did,” Nate said, nodding. “Until things truly went south. It was only then”—he paused—“and when I met Dakota that I began to realize how little I actually knew.”
“What are you saying, then?” Jay asked, leaning back on the counter, his ribs pushing against the fabric of his shirt. “Prepping’s a waste of time?”
Nate’s head rolled back with laughter. “Not at all. I’m simply saying planning for every possible scenario is impossible and maybe even counterproductive. Look at me. Everything I had in place was geared toward bugging out and camping in the woods until things began to settle. I might have been able to do that too if the hackers had been kind enough to attack us in summer like they were supposed to.”
Now it was Dakota who was laughing. “Don’t you just hate when they don’t follow the script?”
“Prepping is important,” Nate went on. “But so too is adaptability. You gotta deal the hand you’re dealt the best way you know how. If the god of snowmobiles decides it’s time to get back on the horse again, then so be it. Wayne’s had some rest. I’m sure he’ll be up to it.”
Jay waited until Nate was done. “I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” he said, after taking a sip of coffee. “While I may not have the parts to resurrect your dying snowmobile, I can offer you the next best thing.”
Nate regarded him inquisitively. “Next best thing?”
“Well, I was speaking with Ralph last night and he’s agreed to give you the Beast.”
Nate was genuinely stunned. “You’re kidding me. But I couldn’t. Marengo needs the Beast to help clear the streets.”
“Ralph’s already working on the Beast’s successor as we speak.”
Dakota was bobbing up and down, her hands clasped together as if in prayer. “Oh, please say yes. Please, please, please…”
“Doris told you yesterday to let me pay you back for saving my life and the life of everyone else trapped with me.”
“What about Wayne?” Nate asked. “We can’t very well drag him behind the truck.”
“I’ll see he’s taken care of,” Jay assured him. “The same way Doris is taking care of that baby you found.”
Nate sighed. “Okay,” he said finally, shaking Jay’s hand and yanking his friend into a hug. “When will it be ready?”
Jay stepped to the kitchen window and pushed aside the curtain. Across the street, parked in front of the police station, the Beast awaited them.
•••
An hour later, after saying their goodbyes to Chief McGinley, his wife Doris, Ralph, Jay and, not least of all, their horse Wayne, they got back on the road. The stop in Marengo had not been one Nate had anticipated when they’d set out, but it was definitely one he didn’t regret. Beneath the pickup’s bed cover was the bulk of their gear as well as several full three-gallon gas cans. The weapons, however, they kept with them up front. Ralph had even installed a rifle rack behind the back row where they hung the G36 and Dakota’s Remington 700.
Once they left, the wide grin that was plastered on the young girl’s face as the wedge-shaped plow tossed loosely packed snow to either side spoke volumes. The ability to move forward without being buffeted constantly by subzero winds was indescribable. In addition, the truck’s cab offered them a mobile shelter, removing, for now at least, the need to pull off the road every night to build a quinzhee.
Unlike Ralph “Crazy Horse” Sullivan, however, Nate kept his speed at a level where he could brake before ramming into any vehicles stuck in a snow drift.
“Stop the truck,” Dakota shouted, pointing out the back window.
Nate did so. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s Shadow, he can’t keep up.”
Glancing in his rearview, Nate saw the animal at least a hundred yards behind them. He sighed, got out of the truck and folded back part of the bed cover, lowering the tailgate. When Shadow arrived, he immediately bolted past Nate and hopped into the cab.
“Why doesn’t that surprise me,” Nate said under his breath as he closed up and headed back. He returned to find the wolf curled up on the back seat. The animal took up a large chunk of the seating area. The creature glanced up at him without moving his head, his snout nuzzled between his front paws.
“Comfortable?” Nate asked.
Shadow licked his lips as if to say yes.
“Maybe Jay was right,” Nate said. “Maybe this was somebody’s pet and when the power went off, he managed to get away.”
“I’m not so sure about that. When I first woke up in that cage next to him, the fur around his neck was all ruffled as though Marvin or one of his men had used a catch pole to grab him. He also had dried blood around his mouth and I just assumed they’d set some kind of trap to lure him in.”
They reached Interstate 90 and headed east. This was one of the major arteries that would bring them into the city center. But the subject of Shadow’s origins continued to occupy them.
“I’ll say this, he’s used to being around humans,” Nate observed.
“That’s right,” Dakota added. “Not only used to us, he doesn’t see humans as evil, least not all of us. That’s gotta mean something.”
“Another piece in an unsolvable mystery, I’m afraid,” Nate said, squinting at an ominous sight that suddenly appeared ahead of them.
Dakota saw it too at the same time. They were approaching a rest stop on the side of the highway replete with a gas station and the obligatory McDonald’s. But that didn’t explain the other thing. The one that had unnerved them both.
A snarl of vehicles blocked the part of the highway adjacent to the rest stop. The snow had been cleared from the cars and trucks. Standing on the roofs of the various vehicles were four men.
Nate slowed and then pulled to a complete stop about two hundred yards from the blockade.
“What do you suppose they want?” Dakota asked innocently. She might have a knack for winter survival, but she couldn’t escape her age.
“Nothing good, I’m afraid,” Nate replied.
From the back seat, Shadow whimpered.
“It’s okay, buddy,” Nate said, wondering how best to get around them. A three-foot-high median prevented them from bypassing the blockade. Although, in truth, none of that mattered since the westbound portion of the highway was nothing but a graveyard of abandoned vehicles.
Dakota climbed into the back, reaching over the wolf to retrieve her rifle.
“What are you doing?”
She came back and opened her door a crack, resting the weapon in the groove. She put her eye to the scope. “They don’t look like military,” Dakota said, squinting. “But they know we’re here, that’s for sure.”
Although they were quite some distance away, even Nate could see them pointing. “Are they armed?”
“Does a bear poop in the woods?”
Nate grinned, despite his growing nerves. “Yes, but let’s hope wolves do as well, rather than in the back seat of our ride. You see the on-ramp?”
She swung the weapon slightly to the right. “It’s about a hundred meters beyond their position.”
“So I’m thinking, if we backtrack, we might be able to scoot through the rest stop parking lot and sidestep these guys.”
She shut the door. “Maybe, but we still don’t know what they want.”
“I can sure as hell venture a guess or two,” Nate said. “How about our vehicle, our weapons and probably you?”
Dakota recoiled. “That’s all you men think about, isn’t it?”
“You can’t very well condemn half the world’s population because of a few bad apples,” Nate said, readying himself for an argument.
Dakota shook her head. “Yeah, watch me.”
Nate laughed as he swung the truck into reverse. Dakota braced herself while Shadow dug his paws into the upholstery, looking up, alarmed.
> When they drew even with the rest stop’s entrance ramp, Nate put it into drive and punched the accelerator. Snow sprayed in all directions, flying off the snow wedge as well as the rear tires. They were about to pass before the restaurant when a handful of men began spilling out, waving weapons around and shouting.
“Hold on,” Nate shouted as he pumped the brakes and spun the wheel. The slick road conditions did the rest, swinging out the Beast’s tail out and to the left. The shots rang out right about then, kicking up puffs of loose snow around the truck. A second later they circled around behind the restaurant, Nate working the wheel to avoid any hidden obstacles. They would be safe from fire for a brief moment or two, but as they raced back onto the interstate, they would once again be exposed.
Sure enough, as the Beast plowed through about a foot of freshly fallen snow, it became clear the snow here wasn’t as deep as it should be. Come to think of it, neither had the on-ramp into the rest station been. That meant they weren’t the first vehicle through what was obviously meant to be a trap. Nate hurried as shots continued to ring out. When one of them struck the vehicle, Nate pushed the gas down even further. Dakota was perched over her seat, looking out through the back window at the scene unfolding behind them. They were pulling even with the blockade on the interstate when shots rang out from the men gathered there. Rounds were now coming in from multiple directions.
Nate accelerated further, trying desperately to exit the danger zone without crashing into the many hidden obstacles lurking just out of view.
“They’re following us,” Dakota shouted.
A pickup with abnormally large tires tore out from the parking lot, charging after them, a blizzard of white flakes swirling in their wake.
Dakota climbed into the back seat with the hunting rifle, leaving Shadow to retreat into a corner. She opened the rear window and fed the barrel out.
“Steady,” she yelled, struggling to put her eye to the scope. The enemy vehicle was coming up fast, its engine snarling.
Dakota rattled off a shot and it sailed about five feet over the roof. With practiced ease, she worked the bolt and fed another round into the chamber. Her eye returned to the scope.
America Offline (Book 2): America Offline [System Failure] Page 10