Prepper Mountain

by Chris Bostic

  Austin finally got to his feet, cursing the slippery surface.

  “Jeez, some joker spilled oil all over the place.” He stepped over the giant sack, which turned out to be flour, and pulled it off Spotted Fawn. Tossing it aside with a thump, he hurried to the side of the building for a peek at the street. Meanwhile, I helped Katelyn search for a pulse.

  “I think I’ve got something,” I said, hoping the thrumming through my fingertips was her mom’s pulse and not mine. I took a breath and focused, realizing my heart raced while the beats I felt were slow and weak. “Yeah, she’s alive.” Barely.

  Katelyn examined her mom quickly for any other obvious injuries besides the bleeding. I left her to that and snuck over to Austin.

  “We need to move,” he said. “I doubt they’re only searching the buildings along the strip.”

  “How about a distraction?” I pointed next door to the barn. “Any clue if there’s anything left in there?”

  “Moonshine, yeah.” Austin laughed. “How else did ya think we made those fireballs? There’s a lot left.”

  With the adults gone, a sudden doubt appeared. “You have a way to light it?”

  Austin fished a lighter out of his pocket and sparked it. “Yeah, little bro.”

  I didn’t follow up on where that came from. We were just lucky he had it.

  Katelyn called for me. I turned to Austin first with a suggestion. “Go get some shine?”

  He nodded and disappeared into the alley. His footsteps were quickly concealed by the sound of trucks rumbling down the street on the other side of the pancake house.

  I hurried to Katelyn. “What’d you find? Anything obvious?”

  “Nothing really, just a little cut and a knot on the back of her head.”

  “That’s good, I think. She must’ve slipped on these steps.” I glanced at the flour sack. “That thing looks like it weighs a ton.”

  “Probably,” she agreed. “Either way, we need to move her.”

  “Yeah, of course.”

  I reached for Spotted Fawn’s arms and, in lifting them up, tried to envision a way to carry her. Cradling her in my arms like a baby seemed unrealistic. Though she was an average-sized woman, I knew I couldn’t hold her that way for long. With her lying down, I didn’t see how I could get her over my shoulder for a fireman’s carry.

  “Can you take a shoulder?” I asked Katelyn. “I’m thinking one arm over each of our shoulders.”

  “I’ll try.” She scooted to her mom’s right side, and leaned in. Before we lifted, she hesitated. “Can we switch sides? This leg’s still not so good.”

  “Sure. Good call.”

  We switched around to where Katelyn’s stronger right leg would be holding up her mom’s left side. Holding Spotted Fawn’s arm with my right hand, I slipped my left under her back to lift her up.

  Her mom’s eyelids flickered as we sat her up. Katelyn drew in a deep breath and squeaked when her mom cracked, “Where am I?”

  Her voice was weak, much like her eyelids which flickered like a kid playing with a light switch. On, off. On, off. And then off for an extended period.

  “Ma!” Katelyn rubbed her mother’s grimy cheeks. “Stay with us.”

  “What?” she mumbled.

  “We’re gonna move you, okay?”

  “Who’s we?”

  “Me and Zach.”

  “Who’s-”

  Katelyn threw her mother’s arm over her shoulder, cutting off any further conversation. “Just grab her and let’s go.”

  “Not too fast. Don’t fall,” I warned, but otherwise did as I was told, though not without shooting a glance toward the moonshine store. Austin still hadn’t returned. “Head that way,” I told Katelyn, nodding my head toward the back of the Smoky Shine store.

  Spotted Fawn was out cold again as we stumbled across the alley with her weight distributed between us. It reminded me a lot of dragging a dead deer out of the woods, but certainly not a fawn. I couldn’t imagine how we were going to get all the way back to camp.

  I couldn’t dwell on that for long. We met Austin outside at the back of the store. He had an entire cardboard case of mason jars.

  “Ah, good, she’s moving…sort of.” He held up the case and wisecracked, “Ready to party?”

  CHAPTER 41

  “Party, huh?” I looked at him through my eyelashes, exhaustion and an extra passenger dragging me down. “You better do something. We’re not getting anywhere fast.”

  “I see that.” Austin popped open the case and pulled out a bottle. In a quick motion, he jammed a knife through the metal lid and then used the blade to stuff a piece of ripped up washcloth into it.

  “You found all that in there?” I asked.

  The lighter flicked and the flame displayed a crazed jack-o-lantern look on Austin’s face. “If you had a free hand we’d bring all kinds of good stuff back with us. The shelves are cleaned off, but the storeroom’s still packed.”

  That was an unexpected bit of news. I imagined the fireball we could make with those kinds of supplies, and hoped Austin wasn’t planning on burning the place down to make a distraction. Before I could ask, Austin tipped the moonshine jar upside down to wet the wick.

  “Just go and I’ll catch up,” Austin said with a wild grin. He lit the wick, left the case on the ground, and sprinted between the buildings toward the street.

  “You heard the man,” I told Katelyn. With her mother suspended between us, we headed the other way down the alley.

  Back on the strip, the sound of broken glass reached our ears. A burst of flame like Dad had squirted lighter fluid on charcoal followed; however, there were more hairs singed that time. The moonshine cocktail lit up the street behind us, showering us in an orange glow.

  We ducked behind a dumpster and disappeared in the shadows— as much to get in the dark as it was to avoid the gunshots that surprisingly didn’t follow.

  We kept going, slowly, dragging Katelyn’s mom’s toes on the ground. It wasn’t long before I heard the sound of pounding boots running up behind us.

  “Zach?” Austin called, but the boots kept coming.

  I took the risk and answered, “Over here.”

  “Where? My eyeballs are burned.”

  I stopped in my tracks, unintentionally shifting the extra weight onto Katelyn. She almost buckled but held on.

  I helped them up against the wall of a multi-story brick building and let go to head back toward Austin. The boot pounding was over, but I picked up on the gentle swish of fabric. More so, it was the occasional clink of glass that gave him away.

  “Psst, over here.”

  “Whoa, where?” Austin ground to a halt, his head whipping around.

  I stepped forward to take the case of moonshine from him, but he jerked it out of reach.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  “Oh, yeah. That was awesome!”

  “Shh, keep it down.” I looked over his shoulder toward the street. On the opposite side of the strip, a raging fire was growing on the canopy over one of the souvenir shops. If there was any saltwater taffy in there, it wasn’t going to be fit to eat. “How’s your eyes?”

  “Better. That glare was brutal. I about walked into a building.”

  “That’s all?” I grabbed him by the wrist, making the bottles in the case clink, and pulled him toward the others. “I thought you’d actually burned them.”

  “No worries, little bro. But we’d better get going.”

  “We’re trying. Can you take a shoulder?”

  “Sure.” Austin held out the case to Katelyn but pulled it away at the last second. “Hold on,” he said with a chuckle. “You’re not old enough to carry this.”

  “What?” She reached out to take it while I held up her mother.

  “You’re not twenty-one, are you? The law says you can’t have this.”

  “Neither are you,” she replied.

  “Shut up, Austin,” I grumbled. “I thought we were in a hurry.”

  H
e handed the case over to a deeply frowning Katelyn, and told me, “We are, but that fire might keep them occupied.”

  “You better hope. Now get over here.”

  Between the two of us, we got Spotted Fawn all the way off the ground. It was killing my back, but we were able to make it up to the front of an abandoned hotel about a block behind the pancake house before the soldiers started spotlighting the alleys along the strip.

  I rested against the side of the building, my heart racing. Each beat sent a stab of pain through my chest to my back to my knees, and I wondered if we could go any farther.

  “How about stealing that car?” Katelyn asked. She didn’t look quite as winded, but I knew the moonshine was heavy for someone with a bad leg.

  Austin jumped at the chance. He tossed Spotted Fawn off his shoulder fully onto mine, and leaped out in front of us. “Great idea! Meet me around back and I’ll pick you up.”

  As he disappeared into the night, Katelyn looked at me seriously. “Does he even know how to hotwire a car?”

  “Beats me, but I reckon we’ll find out.” An ominous thought hit me when the image of a car-thieving Austin faded away. “What about John?”

  “He can probably take care of himself,” Katelyn said, her voice a whisper. “We’ve gotta get her outta here.”

  “I suppose you’re right.” My voice dropped softer than hers. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” she replied, but I didn’t quite believe it.

  I found myself leaning farther over trying to support Spotted Fawn. Katelyn set the moonshine down to come help me, but it wasn’t going to be enough to get us around to the back of the building. We needed to keep moving farther away from the strip, which continued throwing the occasional shout or beam of a searchlight our way.

  “Wait here with her for a second?”

  “Why?”

  I was too tired to answer. As soon as we’d lowered Katelyn’s mom to a rusty bench in front of the motel, I took off for the front door.

  The glass was shattering, revealing little more than a darkened hallway leading past the registration desk. But I wasn’t going in that far.

  I turned sideways and slipped into the lobby. Glass crunched under my boots, and I heard Katelyn say, “Zach, hurry up.”

  “I’m trying.”

  It was taking too long for my eyes to adjust, so I just ran my hand along the inside wall of the motel and started working my way to the right. Then I hit it. My fingers wrapped around a metal pole and thankfully it rolled when I jerked.

  A moment later, I pulled the luggage cart through the open front door frame, probably making way too much noise.

  “Oh heck no,” Katelyn said, looking at my ridiculous idea. “Are you serious?”

  “Why not? We need to get her around back. The quicker the better.”

  “Fine, but you’re telling her if she remembers.”

  I bent over, gritting my teeth as I pulled Spotted Fawn off the bench. I spun her around to lower her, and she landed clumsily on the cart. Katelyn grimaced and helped me get her feet tucked up off the ground.

  “I think she’d approve,” I said with a grin, happy to be ready to move again. Katelyn harrumphed and grabbed a pole on the cart protectively. “You can take her. I’ll carry the moonshine.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t throw that on her too.”

  “I wouldn’t-”

  “Relax, Zach. I’m just kidding.” Katelyn turned the corner of the building, and the night grew even darker the farther we got away from the strip. “This is actually working out.”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “Don’t get too cocky.”

  The cart rumbled as the tiny wheels carried our load through the broken up, empty parking lot toward the back of the building.

  “It’s either that or worry about Austin coming to pick us up.” I paused abruptly. “Did I say that out loud?”

  “Yeah, thanks. I wasn’t worrying at all until then.”

  “Very funny.”

  “I know.”

  She helped me push the cart up against the back of the building, and we leaned on the wall. I looked up and saw nothing but dark sky and the outlines of air conditioning units poking out from the side of the three story building. Some were missing, which was mildly unnerving.

  Austin didn’t show up right away. Looking across the parking lot, there was nothing around of significance. Grass grew in deep cracks across the asphalt. A car probably hadn’t parked there in a couple years or more. I had no idea how far he had to walk to find us a ride.

  With the growing racket of more vehicles coming from the street, I sure hoped he’d hurry. I ventured farther into the parking lot, straining my eyes to catch sight of a stolen vehicle coming our way. But the arrival came from well above the pavement. I ended up running back for cover when I heard the whop-whop-whop sound of a helicopter echoing off the buildings.

  CHAPTER 42

  I flattened my back against the wall, expecting a searchlight to pop on from above. But it never did. Dust swirled in the parking lot. The downdraft was stronger than a tornado. I shielded my eyes and listened to the engine whine, certain it was about to set down in the middle of the parking lot.

  Katelyn hunched over her mom, keeping the unconscious woman from being beaten with pebbles stirred by the helicopter blades. We couldn’t run anymore. I turned my back on the parking lot too, and leaned in next to Katelyn.

  It was too loud to talk, not that we needed to. I wrapped an arm around Katelyn as we stretched out to protect Spotted Fawn from the dust cloud. She looked peaceful despite being twisted on the luggage cart.

  The wind whipped our hair, and I noticed a gash on Spotted Fawn’s scalp. Without touching it directly, I parted her hair and pointed at the knot on her head to Katelyn. She looked at me and nodded.

  I shouted my diagnosis over the roar of the blades. “You were right! Hit in the head! Knocked out cold!”

  “I know!” Katelyn brushed my hand aside to touch her mom’s scalp. She pressed on her skull close to the knot. Spotted Fawn’s eyes leaped open with alarm. She went to sit up and nearly tumbled off the cart.

  “Sorry, Mom!” Katelyn yelled. “Careful!”

  Her mother blinked several times before pinching her eyes shut as if the darkness burned them like staring at the sun. She pressed her hands over her ears and seemed to moan, though it was impossible to hear.

  I looked behind us toward the parking lot. Austin, of course, wasn’t there yet. So I squinted through the dust cloud, shielding my eyes with my hands and chanced a look at the sky.

  The helicopter wasn’t exactly overhead. It was centered above the hotel, but plenty close enough that I could make out the tips of the blades. If he’d found a car, I knew Austin wasn’t going to pick us up until it was gone.

  No sooner after I thought that, the helicopter seemed to inch away. I straightened up and stepped away from the wall of the hotel, and watched as the helicopter slowly hovered off toward the strip. I breathed a sigh of relief only to tighten right back up again.

  Tires squealed in the parking lot as a dark vehicle barreled toward me. I stood in the lot dressed in dark colors while the driver came right for me, without headlights. I dove to the side, narrowly avoiding a hit. The brakes locked up, and the vehicle cut sharply to the side to slide up against the sidewalk ringing the motel.

  “Fancy driving, huh?” Austin said through the open window.

  As soon as I caught my breath, I muttered, “You nearly ran me over,” and hurried over to help Katelyn.

  “Get in!” Austin hollered without bothering to get out of the pick-up truck to help.

  It was a full size truck, but just a two door model.

  “We’ll have to ride in the back,” I told Katelyn as we bounced the luggage cart off the curb and pulled it to the passenger side. I couldn’t help but notice Austin looking at us curiously as we opened the door to place our human luggage into the front seat. At least he leaned across to pull Sp
otted Fawn up. She slumped over, curled up in a ball, and I closed the door quickly but carefully.

  Through the open window, Austin said, “Hang on tight.” He flashed his trademark maniacal grin. I ran to the back and helped Katelyn hop into the bed of the truck. Once she was in, I handed her the case of moonshine before climbing in myself.

  Fortunately, the bed was relatively clean other than a few empty beer cans. That was to be expected. I brushed them aside to find a seat next to Katelyn, but Austin completed the job for me. He mashed on the gas, and I slipped to the bed with a tailbone-bruising thunk.

  We held onto the sides with white knuckles and frozen voices as the truck accelerated across the parking lot. Like a crazed Black Friday shopper, Austin cut through rows diagonally, tires squealing as if he was trying to tell the whole army where we were at.

  Without warning there was a giant clunk. I thought the motor had fallen out, but we went airborne instead. My stomach rose into my throat, bringing bile with it. A second later we banged hard on the ground, scraping metal and throwing up a shower of sparks.

  “What was that?” Katelyn said as I sat rubbing my scalp. My head rang from banging against the frame, and my butt throbbed again from another jolt. This was going to be a long drive, but better than ending too soon.

  “I don’t know. Must’ve run over a curb or something.”

  “He’s a freakin’ nutjob.”

  “You’re telling me. Now you know why I walk to school.”

  We turned sharply again; this time down a narrow street between a couple of condo complexes. We were heading away from the strip. I could only hope Austin knew of another way out of town. I was sure only the main highway led into the park.

  I turned around to look through the back glass, trying to get some kind of better idea where we were going. Austin had his head stuck out the window, as if that would somehow help him see in the dark. He looked ridiculous. I nudged Katelyn to look at him.

  She spoke up to be heard over the sound of screeching tires and foot mashing acceleration. “I don’t know how he can see anything.”