Several hours later, he woke up to find Victoria sleeping next to him, still with her back up against the tree.
The sun was low and the shadows of the forest were long.
He stood up, unsteady as he rose.
Victoria was jostled awake. “How long was I out?”
“No idea. I'm just waking up, too. I guess we really needed a nap.”
Mr. Lee was still in the tower, as were Phil, Melissa, and Bo. They were sitting and standing on the first floor.
He pulled Victoria off the ground and together they made their way back to the structure.
“Ah, you're awake! I have good news for you. Melissa has agreed to drive for you, and Phil and Bo are joining you too.” He paused and looked at Melissa before continuing, “We discussed how useful the truck could be in defense of the camp, but I understand why you want to find your grandma and stop Hayes from doing whatever he's going to do to her, and to us. I think that mission is more important than killing any random zombie. Just promise me you'll bring the truck back?”
Liam didn't know what to say.
“We promise.” Victoria responded for him.
“I do have one request. Can you tell my parents I went out looking for my grandma? I don't want them to think I fell off the planet.”
Mr. Lee assured him he would send a runner immediately.
They descended the back side of the hill to the wooded hollow where they hid the MRAP. They clambered in, sealed the doors, and Mel fired up the diesel.
“We got word from our runners the Marines spent a little time looking for you, but bugged out about an hour ago. There was some ugliness as they left, but nobody got hurt, thank the Lord. They haven't gone far however; the convoy is parked not far from the entrance to the valley, though we don't know why they haven't moved from there.” She turned in her seat to face everyone in the back of the vehicle. “So we have to decide how we're going to track these guys.”
No one was quick to offer suggestions. Liam literally had no ideas.
She continued after a suitable pause for feedback, “OK, I vote we head north out of the woods and find a position overlooking the highway so we can observe the convoy as it passes. There's an old water slide on a bluff I know. We can probably follow them using the path they have to cut through all the detritus on the highway. We can't get close, but we should have no problem tracking them wherever they go. Right to your grandma, Liam.”
It was a plan. Better than anything he would have thought up.
Nice to have friends.
3
The little dirt track through the woods was not much wider than the military truck. The dwindling light of the day made it seem narrower than it was as he looked out the front window. He heard the branches drag across the side plates as they passed clumps of trees. Sometimes branches would make a loud snap as they got caught on the apparatus of the chain gun up on top. They'd been through here before, so had confidence they'd come out where they needed.
It was only a fifteen minute trek to the edge of the property, even at such slow speeds. They emerged from the woods on the back side of a dusty open space adjoining a small neighborhood. Melissa stopped the MRAP as they were in the last of the trees.
“You guys want to look at this.”
They gathered as best they could near the cramped space of the driver's compartment. Liam looked out on a whole subdivision of smoldering homes. It was hard to tell how many houses were once there. Maybe thirty or forty. He shuddered as it reminded him of his own ruined neighborhood.
Victoria asked, “Did Hayes do this?”
“No, this is something different. Not a bombing anyway. Each house was torched. There are no craters and—” Melissa hesitated as she looked out, “there's one house still standing smack in the middle.”
Liam noticed it, too.
Phil, in the navigator's seat, asked the question they were all thinking. “Do we proceed?”
Liam sensed they were asking him. “The gamer's dilemma?” He smiled, trying to make light of the situation, but he felt they had no idea what he was talking about. “I guess we have to go on,” he finished more seriously.
Melissa cautiously rolled the MRAP across the field and toward the remaining house. It looked lonely among the dozens of ruined frame houses on the empty streets. Liam didn't know why she would head for it. After all, they could just as easily skirt the whole subdivision by driving through the backyards of a few houses to reach the access road.
“Wait,” he shouted.
The truck slammed to a stop. Liam almost fell over.
“Uh, sorry. How do we know that house isn't some kind of trap?” After he said it, he felt guilty for thinking himself important enough to warrant a trap, but in his defense he did have his home bombed.
Melissa and Phil studied the house carefully.
“They really made sure you'd see this, Liam.”
Liam looked at Bo. “Well I see it. I vote we just get out of here.”
Melissa offered her suggestion. “Let's at least drive around to the front of the house and evaluate from there. The road looks intact and unless they have a rocket propelled grenade there's nothing that can harm us.” She looked back at them with a wry smile.
They all agreed to at least get close and check it out.
Melissa sped up as they approached. She turned the last corner so they could all see the front facade of the last house still standing.
Liam heard a few gasps. He merely put his hand on his forehead.
I told them we should have just left.
A word had been spray-painted in big block letters on the white double garage door.
“LIAM.”
4
For the second time in the last several minutes, Victoria asked if this was Hayes' handiwork. This time no one offered an answer. He felt the eyes of his friends on him.
“I don't know anymore. Before I met those Marines I thought only Hayes knew my relationship to Grandma. Certainly he was the only one who could possibly know Grandma had my cell phone. But I told Jax about it before we left camp, so I guess the Marines could have written this, too, if they were fast about it. Maybe they announced it on an open frequency so all levels of government know who I am. I just can't say.”
“We can't just sit in here talking about it. This ain't just Liam's problem. We can see for a mile around us. No people. No Z's. Let's check it out.” Bo shuffled to the back doors. When no one made an effort to stop him, he opened them.
“I'll go with you.” Liam really wanted to stay in the truck, but he couldn't let Bo take all the risk while he was safe and snug.
When Liam jumped out, Victoria came out after him. He gave her a look.
“What? I'm not just going to sit back there by myself.”
They all had a little laugh and marched up the level driveway of the house. Liam's name loomed large, adding to his displeasure that things seemed to always be about him.
Bo kept things light by saying, “You're famous, dude,” as he walked up the few stairs to the front door. He jiggled the handle; it was locked.
“Maybe the back door is open.”
He walked away from the front door as Liam tried to open the garage door. At first he thought it was locked, but it rose a few inches. He called for help. With great effort, the three of them were able to get it nearly all the way up. With no electricity for a garage door opener, it took sweat power.
They froze in place. They held the garage door above them, hovering between getting it all the way up and letting it crash back down. In the almost-empty garage was a large 55-gallon drum with the unmistakable outline of a bomb on top, complete with blinking lights.
Thirty seconds passed. They were frozen.
The door of the MRAP opened and Phil yelled from the street, “What do you guys see in there?”
Liam blocked a straight view of the device from Phil's vantage point. He scooted over—still holding the door—so it became clear.
The only res
ponse Liam could hear was muffled cussing.
“Do we drop the door?” Bo asked. “Run for it?”
Liam had read enough and watched enough movies to know there were a million ways to make a bomb explode. Trip wires, lasers, sound waves, chemical mixtures, proximity sensors, or even the good old fashioned button. Maybe the door opens and knocks a bowling ball onto the bomb.
Or maybe the door closes and explodes.
Once again, Liam faced a life or death choice.
Melissa came running up the driveway at full speed. “Let me see it!”
“What, you're a bomb expert too?” Liam asked, while straining to hold the door.
“No, but I played one on TV. Just let me look in there.”
She approached the open door and took her time scanning the garage, including the door itself. With great care, she made her way over to the big drum, staying as low as possible. With exaggerated slowness, she stood up next to it.
“OK, I don't see any wires connected to it or the garage door. Someone put some heavy weights on the door, but they seem useless. I think you can push the door open and then back away.”
“No way,” Bo said. “We don't really know what's going to happen with this door. If we open it, maybe it explodes. If we close it, maybe it also explodes. Y'all should clear out and I'll close the door. At least we know it has already been closed and didn't explode. We don't know what happens if it goes all the way up.”
Liam couldn't argue with his logic, though he didn't like the idea of leaving him behind even with such a remote chance of the thing exploding.
Victoria was already on her tippy toes holding the door up. She probably couldn't hold that position for much longer.
Melissa accepted Bo's suggestion, telling the rest of them to clear out. She left the garage slowly, but then ran for the MRAP once she was out.
“I'll be ready to move once you two are in!”
It left the three of them holding the door. Victoria was visibly straining.
“You can let it go, Victoria. I got this. You too, Liam.”
They both let go and Bo took the burden. He didn't seem the least bit strained.
“Um, I'm sure this isn't goodbye, but thanks.” Victoria said it almost reverently.
“Yeah, thanks, man. See you in a few.”
Bo turned his head and smiled through his beard. “This is gravy. Beats the heck out of laying fence. Trust me on that.”
In moments, Liam and Victoria were back in the MRAP and it was backing up the block.
Melissa parked it so they were facing the house, about fifty yards away.
They all watched as Bo let down the door as far as he could, but he had to let it go to avoid hurting his fingers and it slammed noisily to the pavement. He appeared to pause after it was done, as if he expected an explosion and braced for it.
“Why didn't he run?” Liam asked.
“Whatever's in that drum would have blown up an area bigger than he could escape.”
“Then why are we so close? Shouldn't we be in the next county?” Liam mused.
“Relax. Nothing can hurt us in here.”
Bo finally stood, gave a thumbs up, and started walking toward the street to meet them. Mel had released the brake and applied the gas.
Seconds later, Bo dropped flat on the driveway. He looked back into the woods from which they'd originally emerged.
“What the—” was all Liam managed to say.
Bo's head lifted up and then ducked quickly back down.
Phil had his weapon in his hand in a flash, “Someone's shooting at him! We have to—” But before he could finish his sentence, and before Melissa could get to him, the world in front of them turned black.
5
The violence of the explosion hit them in a split second, and it rocked the huge truck. It was strong enough to toss debris into the front windshield, and cracked it in several places. Something heavy crushed the passenger-side windshield pillar and spidered the glass in front of Phil. A dark cloud of smoke and dust enveloped them while debris rained down for several minutes.
As the smoke cleared, the evening had almost moved from dusk to night. When it was just a gentle trickle of falling matter, Victoria asked, “What just happened? Where's Bo?” Liam could see nothing was left of the house. Even less than the charred hulks of the burned homes. There wasn't even much of a fire. Nothing was left to burn.
Melissa and Phil both had identical looks of shock as they stared out the front.
Liam wondered why he wasn't in shock.
How would I know?
He answered the question. “Someone was shooting at him from the woods. Maybe they hit the drum behind him and set it off? Or...” Liam's mind was in conspiratorial overdrive these days, so his next statement came quite naturally. “Someone was aiming for the drum to get it to explode on purpose. That...should have been me.”
“Liam, no,” Victoria said softly.
Mel snapped out of her reverie. “Yes, he's right, someone set it off deliberately. That's why there were no wires or timers. They were waiting until we were all there before setting it off from a distance. Not quite as sophisticated as the improvised bombs we saw over in Iraq, but still effective. They had us all pretty much dead to rights when we were inside the garage, but maybe they thought we were all going to get out of the MRAP.”
She seemed to regain her composure the more she spoke. She stepped on the gas and drove with purpose toward the subdivision entrance. “I don't know what this is about, but if it was a trap, there may be other ambushers waiting for us.”
Sure enough, as they exited the subdivision they saw a disorganized gaggle of civilian vehicles to their left, parked off the county road. Several men and women ran around as if the explosion had set them in motion. Many of them were armed with big black battle rifles.
“Kill them,” Liam yelled. “They murdered him.”
Mel turned the rig to the right, but she stopped in a few moments. She left it idling in the middle of the road.
Liam had no idea how to fire the chain gun. “Someone shoot the Gatling.” He pointed up at the roof.
“I will, Liam.”
They were in full view of the men behind them, but no one was firing. He didn't know if they had begun chasing them, or if they were innocent bystanders. He didn't really care. Mel was operating the controls for the chaingun. Liam heard it rotate on top, and then rip out shells for a second or two. He was about to cheer when it stopped.
A few moments later, Mel returned to her driving position and continued up the road at an almost leisurely pace.
“Did you get them?”
“Those folks won't be bothering us anytime soon.”
“Did you kill them all?”
Mel turned to look at him with a very serious face. “Liam, things are very fluid here. We have no idea who those people are. We can barely see them. We can't just go around shooting men, women, and maybe children—even if I think they were guilty. I put some rounds across their bow.”
At that second, Liam felt it would have been a justified killing. But he knew he could never know for sure if those men were with the ones who shot at Bo, or if the ones who shot at Bo were actually trying to blow up the house and kill his friend. There were too many variables to have black and white anger.
“You're such a nice kid, Liam. You have to view everyone out there as a potential bad guy now, but you don't have to kill everyone.”
Liam and Victoria returned to the back seats while Mel and Phil drove and rode silently in the front. Bo's hat still sat on the bench. He'd taken if off because it was so hot in the back. It made Liam feel his absence immediately.
The truck rolled on. He was sure something didn't sound right with the engine, but his ears were still buzzing and ringing from the explosion. He was content to sit close to Victoria and simultaneously fume and grieve. It was several minutes before anyone spoke.
“Guys, we have problems up front. Again.”
Lia
m saw what appeared to be several families with small children walking in the same direction they were driving. It would be possible to drive through their loose formation, but he judged it would be very risky with so many children present.
“In Iraq, I heard of women and children being used as decoys and human shields for hardcore insurgents, but this looks innocent. Still, keep your eyes and ears open.”
An older, thin, gray-haired woman dropped back from the main detachment so as to speak with them. The main group wasn't waiting for her.
Phil cracked open his door so they could communicate. It groaned loudly as it fought the bent support of the windshield. Liam could only hear her from his vantage point, but she spoke loud and clear.
“Hello ma'am. Why are you all out on the road like this?”
“We come from a subdivision back yonder. Some a-holes dressed like deer hunters come through and killed everyone they could find, then started burning our homes. The menfolk did what they could to stop them while we got away. We're supposed to meet them at a school not far up the road.”
“How many men were attacking you? Were they professional soldiers?”
“Naw, they drove regular trucks and wore camo like they was hunters, not soldiers. Don't rightly know the difference, but soldiers don't kill civilians for no reason. My children are old and grown, but my husband stayed and fought with the other men.”
“Do you know why they might have left one house intact? Right in the middle?”
“Nope. I saw them torch my house. After that, I didn't care. That's when the men gathered us all up and sent us quick on our way. What was that big boom we heard?”
“Oh, that was a bomb in the last house.”
“I guess the men gave them a good fight and let us escape. Nothing worth dying for in those houses. I should keep moving.”
Phil tried to yell some more questions out the door, but the woman wasn't interested. “Well, that's that. An unknown group of bad guys took down a whole subdivision for no apparent reason. Then they set up a trap specifically designed to draw us in and kill Liam. Sounds like a lot of people died in that effort, too.”
Liam replied in a mechanical tone, “Do we get involved with these people? Isn't it my fault they're on this road? Lost their homes. Lost their...” He bit his tongue to prevent the tears waiting just behind his eyes.
Since The Sirens Box Set | Books 1-7 Page 68