Where’s the fun in that?
His eyes closed to blink, but they wouldn’t open back up for about five seconds. The words hit him in the feels in a way he did not expect. It wasn’t from a respect for clean living or this new way promoted by his strange, new friend. It wasn’t because he’d been told he might be shot if he did it again. It was because he couldn’t imagine a world anything like what the man had suggested.
Suddenly, the cool uniform seemed too tight.
CHAPTER 7
Montauk Lighthouse, NY
Ted pulled down the branches of a small bush to get a clearer view of the figure standing by the lighthouse. He had the small pair of binos he’d been carrying in his pack, which was the perfect amount of magnification for the job. The woman was dressed in Marine fatigues but didn’t carry a weapon, which was unnatural Marine behavior. The only logical explanation was that it was Kyla, still dressed as she was the day before. “It’s my niece. She made it.”
“We saw more of them,” Emily remarked as she too looked through the leaves. “So, where are they?”
Kyla walked onto the walkway close to the lighthouse, but based on her direction, she’d come up through the woods about fifty yards to their right. He suddenly imagined a whole Army battalion could come charging at him from the greenery, and he wanted to move. However, no matter who was in there waiting for him to meet Kyla, he wasn’t going to leave her.
His heart raced as he thought through all the combinations of responses he could take, but it all came down to what he could do on his own. Under no circumstances could he endanger the vice president. “I’ve got to step away for a minute. Don’t go anywhere.”
“Now, Ted, you brought me here. Where the heck am I going to go?” She chuckled quietly. “I’m kidding. I’ll stay put.”
He crouched low as he backed away from the front edge of the trees, but he stopped for a second to observe his friend. She absently flicked a bug from her knee, then seemed to notice his pause. “What?”
It seemed like good-bye for some reason, but he didn’t want to dwell on the point. “If you get into trouble, fire the rifle up in the air.”
“Or put two in the chest, one in the head,” she replied dryly.
His look was probably one of bafflement.
“I watch a lot of cop shows,” she explained.
“Right. Do that.” He smiled, then trotted into the thick underbrush of the summer foliage. Luckily, he wore long pants to keep the poison ivy at bay, though the mosquitos and chiggers had already chewed through his socks.
The lighthouse walkway came in a straight line down to the parking area, but the lot was mostly in the woods, which gave him plenty of concealment as he skirted around it. His intention was to scout the woods on Kyla’s side of the walkway to see if it was indeed full of soldiers. However, he’d only gone about a quarter of the way when he realized exhaustion had gotten the better of him.
They’ll post lookouts.
If he went over there, he’d be spotted. As he thought about it, he figured there might already be someone watching him. The lot was about a hundred yards long, and nearly as wide, with empty lanes that provided long lines of sight.
He had to change tactics. His first assumption was the people with Kyla were friends, or, at a minimum, weren’t going to shoot him on sight. He then thought perhaps he was being overly dramatic about the whole thing. Kyla had given him the coordinates and wanted to meet him. She’d been on a US Navy aircraft carrier. They wouldn’t send her out alone. Her escorts were there for her benefit, which should have made him happy. His final estimation was they would assume he’d come in on foot.
Ted searched the parking area for what he wanted. Of the approximately thirty cars in the lot, only one had what he needed. It was a white minivan with its sliding side door all the way open. Clothes were spread out around it, suggesting the owners had been in the process of loading or unloading at the time America disappeared.
It was in the middle of the lot, but he was able to use other cars to hide his approach to it. The minutes kept ticking away, leading him to worry if Emily was going to come looking for him. He’d told her to stay put, but that didn’t mean she’d do it forever.
He scrambled on the pavement until he crouched next to the van. A pair of man’s jeans were nearby, so he searched the pockets for some keys. When he didn’t find any, he lifted the blouse of a woman who’d stood immediately outside the van door. The key fob was with her. Ted also noticed the onesie of a baby a bit under the van, as well as an empty car seat in the rear. He tried not to put too much thought into what the young family had been doing in those final moments.
Once he had the keys, he climbed in through the back and hit the button to auto-slide the door to close it. He let out the big breath he’d been holding while he studied the far edge of the lot. There had to be other men out there, but he didn’t see them in his brief search.
Ted moved at sloth-speed into the driver’s seat. He figured if he moved faster, he’d be obvious out to a lookout. If he moved slow and didn’t draw attention, he might be able to start the van unhindered.
As soon as he was in the seat, he held his finger over the start button.
“Well, this might be stupid, but it will definitely get me noticed,” he whispered.
Of all the options he could have chosen, he assumed stealing a car was the least risky to him. If Kyla’s backup wanted to shoot him, he wasn’t going to make it easy by walking up the path. If he did get shot at, Emily and Kyla would know to run. They could get away, he hoped.
After about thirty seconds of what-if scenarios running through his mind, he realized he was delaying the inevitable. If he was going to draw fire, he had to start the van.
He pushed the start button, then, strangely, looked at the horn.
Chicago, IL
“What’s wrong?” Tabby fretted. She looked past Audrey to Peter down in the hole. He’d yelled, and she assumed the threat was bad, like a robot, or maybe a snake.
Peter gazed up at her with the look of a boy who’d done something stupid. He straddled one of the ladder bars and his face was scrunched in pain. “My foot slid off the ladder and I, uh, shattered my marbles.”
It looked like a painful situation, and she tried to be supportive and encouraging as he untangled himself and climbed the ladder. His wet shoes seemed to want to go anywhere but the rungs, and he almost slid off a couple more times. She helped him out of the drainpipe and watched him slither into the grass before she chuckled. “Are you going to be all right?”
“I need a minute to collect my thoughts,” he croaked.
“We can’t stay,” she replied quickly. “The people sending those drones around probably know we were in the sewers. We have to at least get away from this park in case they check this lid.” She looked at Peter, then Audrey, then at the lid. “Audrey, will you help me slide this back over?”
The two of them were able to move it back with no problems. If the drones did come, they would see a closed lid. That might throw them off the scent, if the robots had the ability to track by smell. She wondered about the possibility as she and Audrey helped Peter to his feet. The teen girl wore a pleasant perfume, but she’d loaded up on it back at her house. After all their sweating and walking through water, it was only now getting to be tolerable.
“Do either of you know anything about computers? Is there a way to get an advantage over those robots? Can we block their signal or something?” She figured Peter was a know-it-all guy who might be plugged into technology.
They’d gone about twenty feet before Peter shook them off. “I can make it. And, to answer your question, I know about computers and tablets and stuff, but I have no idea what makes those things tick. I’ve never seen anything close. Like if they are remote control or working on their own. That would be important to know.”
“Which one is more dangerous?” Tabby asked as she picked up one of the bikes she intended to borrow.
“I don�
��t know for sure. A robot on its own might see things no human would notice. However, I might be more afraid of the human eyes behind the robot because a person’s brain is a lot smarter than any software code. But if you’re going to ask me which one these are, I have no idea how to tell.”
There were more than a dozen bikes on the ground, as if children had been playing in the park when the robot people zapped America. It made her sad to steal the bicycles from the fallen clothing, but it had to be done. She was sure the kids would understand.
Before they got started, a dog came out of the small block building that served as the restrooms for the park. It was a big, burly brown dog, and it didn’t appear anywhere as nice as Sister Rose’s. It had a big, ugly black collar with oversized lugs sticking from it, as if the owner wanted everyone to know how mean the dog could be.
“Good pup,” she cooed. Then, to her friends, she added, “Let’s get out of here.”
She didn’t look back as she pedaled away. Tabby led the teens down the bike path, along the edge of the park, and then into what would have been a busy urban street. Cars were everywhere on one side, so she went to the other where it was mostly clear. Only a few of the out-of-control cars had veered into the wrong lanes, probably because traffic had been stopped in that part of Chicago.
Peter stood while he pedaled—a position Tabby only figured out after remembering his painful climb up the ladder. “Where are we going to go?” he asked.
Besides leaving Chicago, she had no idea where they should go next. The cordon around the disaster had turned out to be a false hope, so there was nowhere else worth going, as best she could tell. However, as the leader of her small troupe, she didn’t want to give the impression she had no ideas at all. “I was thinking of going back to my home in Bonne Terre. It’s the one place on earth where I think I can survive if we have to wait out these bastards.”
They rode in silence for a few minutes before Audrey spoke up. “Can we come with?”
Tabby stopped her bike, as did the others. “Of course you can. We’re in this together, you know? I’m not going to ditch you or anything like that. It’s important to me you know that, because Donovan would never forgive me if I ruined his memory by ditching his two friends.”
“What, did you think she was going to leave us?” Peter asked Audrey in a tone of voice Tabby thought sounded like he wasn’t sure, either.
Audrey huffed. “I don’t know. I’m scared shitless, I know that much. If Tabby left us, I don’t know what I’d do. Probably shoot myself.”
“No!” Tabby blurted. “Never say such a horrible thing. No matter how bad it gets, you have to keep fighting. Keep running. Keep doing whatever it takes to stay alive. Donovan and all these people you see along the streets and in the cars, they’d do anything to be in your place. We honor them by staying alive.”
Audrey gently tapped a little bicycle bell on her handlebars. “So, we’re going back toward home. I can handle that.” All three of them were from the same region, so it was going to be close to home no matter which house they ended up in. Perhaps they could rotate, to keep the memory of family fresh for all three of them.
“Back to Missouri,” Tabby said with conviction.
“To Missouri,” Audrey and Peter echoed.
CHAPTER 8
Montauk Lighthouse, NY
Kyla had been standing in front of the lighthouse long enough that she began to doubt Uncle Ted would ever show up. Though she’d discussed it all in code, maybe they’d misinterpreted each other. If so, he could be waiting for her somewhere else at that moment. It would be one more mistake in a couple of days stuffed full of them.
She looked back the way she’d come. Meechum and the captain were in the trees about twenty yards behind her, but the growth was so dense, she didn’t see either one. Were they going to come out and tell her to forget about the meetup?
Kyla used her idle time to remember the last place she’d seen her uncle, besides seeing him from the helicopter. It hadn’t been too long ago—maybe a month. He had some time off from his flight duties and had come up to New York City to hang out with Mom for a while. They took a Saturday to drive up to Boston and visited the USS Constitution, an old sailing ship. She immediately saw the irony—in the span of a month, she’d been on the US Navy’s oldest commissioned ship and its newest. There was also a darker comparison to be made. A month ago, she was bored to tears on the tour, a little anxious for the trip to be over and looking forward to when Uncle Ted hit the road. Today, she couldn’t wait to see him.
Uncle Ted won’t let me down.
Mom always loved having her brother around and made a point of inviting him any chance she could. Kyla always attributed those visits to her being lonely, since Dad was long gone, but as she stood there waiting to see him, she found a new emotional state tied to her uncle. He always seemed to know what he was doing. He was put together and competent. For Kyla, that represented having a solid mentor and family member in a world gone mad, but for Mom, maybe he represented a calm center to her otherwise messed-up life.
Uncle Ted was the military man with pressed uniforms who always made his bed. Mom was the woman who didn’t even own an iron, much less keep an orderly house. He was—
An engine starting caught her attention. Was it Uncle Ted? One of the captain’s men? They’d gone into the woods to who knows where. Another survivor? The enemy?
Kyla looked back to the captain, expecting him to pop his head out of the woods and give her some advice, but when that didn’t happen, she took a step off the walkway away from Meechum and Van Nuys. If there was any chance it was a bad guy, she didn’t want to give them away. Ever since Meechum had put it in her head to think more like a Marine, she tried to do justice to the suggestion.
The motor didn’t sound like anything special. It wasn’t a motorcycle or a big truck. It sounded exactly like a normal car on a normal street. Her guess was confirmed when a white minivan came into view at the end of the walkway down by the lot. It paid no heed to the pedestrian-only signs but sped over the blowing clothes of dead tourists.
She took a few more steps away from the pavement, but also stayed close to the lighthouse building. If the person meant to ram her, she didn’t want to be out in the clearing, and she wasn’t sure she could run to the woods before the van arrived.
“Please be Uncle Ted,” she said quietly. If she’d been given the rifle, she would have it out and ready for action. Silently, she cursed Van Nuys. However, he’d failed to collect her pistol. She would yank it out if things got bad…
The van accelerated up the walkway, but at the halfway point, the driver honked twice and waved a hand through the open side window. Like clockwork, Uncle Ted always did the same two-honk signal when he left Mom’s. It had to be him.
The operator slammed on the brakes, causing the tires to grab onto the concrete, save for one front tire, which dragged a pair of jeans under it. She stutter-stepped back a few more paces and thought about reaching for her pistol, but the van turned sideways and stopped at the last second.
“Get in!” Uncle Ted yelled through the open passenger-side window.
She experienced a wave of confusion once she had confirmation it was him. She wanted to get in, desperately, but she didn’t want to leave Meechum. It was like both choices were wrong, and for a few seconds, she stood there processing a solution. Uncle Ted was right there, but the Marine was close by.
“I have to get my friend, Meechum,” she lamented as she walked up to the door.
“Just get in! I’ll explain when you’re inside.” He spoke forcefully, but also a bit on the quiet side, like someone might be listening.
She did as instructed. Whatever he had in mind, she trusted his judgement. “Okay.”
As soon as she shut the door, Uncle Ted put it in gear, spun the tires, and got the van pointed back down the walkway. He mashed the gas pedal, pushing her back into the seat, but then he slammed on the brakes a couple of seconds later. He also hung o
ut the window on his side.
“Becca, get in!” he shouted in a loud voice.
Kyla’s heart leapt into her throat from anticipation.
Mom’s alive?
For a brief instant, Kyla expected her mom to come out of the trees; it would be a reunion for the ages. However, a small brunette woman popped her head up over some weeds and tall grass, looking like she wasn’t sure if she should come out. Uncle Ted waved her in. When she stood up, Kyla knew it wasn’t her mom, though it was a recognizable woman.
“So, it was the vice president,” she said dryly.
Montauk Lighthouse, NY
“Why did you use Mom’s name?” Kyla asked in a depressed voice as Emily ran for the van’s sliding door.
“Sorry, Kyla, it was the first name that came to mind. I didn’t want to use Emily’s name, in case those people you’re with are after her.” It didn’t take long for the VP to climb in the back, and Ted had them rolling before the door slid shut. He checked the rearview mirror and thought he saw movement back by the lighthouse, but he had to turn the wheel to get around parked cars. His attention was focused forward.
“I guess it makes sense,” she replied. “Those aren’t bad guys. In fact, I have a good friend who helped me survive in the city. She was on the helicopter when you saw me yesterday.”
“That was awesome,” Emily interjected from the back seat. “Your uncle was so happy to see you get out of there and we worried about you all night, with all those planes fighting in the skies.”
He guided the van around the parking lot, chirping the tires with abandon, and finally sped onto the two-lane road. There were plenty of trees to give them cover, so he let out a bit of the tension in his spine, but he didn’t relax yet.
Kyla turned in her seat to face Emily. “It’s nice to meet you, Madame Vice President. Me and my mom are big fans…” She let her voice trail off, and Ted assumed she was still upset about how he’d used Rebecca’s name.
“It’s great to meet you, too. I’ve heard a lot of great things about you. This guy has been trying to get to you since all this started.” Emily reached from the back seat to shake hands with his niece.
Minus America Box Set | Books 1-5 Page 49