Victoria looked over her shoulder with a scowl. “Just come with me. We've got to get back to the truck and talk to Dave.”
“I'm ready to go,” he added. “I'm never going to forget the smell, though. That bakery smell needs to be bottled and sold for less than fifty lousy bucks.”
“From sex to food. You sound like a typical teen boy when you aren't in mortal danger.” Victoria let herself laugh but he could tell she was strained.
“What is it? Why are we leaving so fast?”
They walked out the front doors and the crowd thinned out considerably as drivers headed off in different directions on the huge parking lot. Trucks continued to come in and go out the front entrance like an organized parade. They came in from the highway to the left, circled the restaurant reverse clockwise, went through the gas pumps, and then exited and got back on the roadway to the right. The interstate was two hundred yards in that direction.
When they were away from most of the drivers, she stopped him.
“The trucks are carrying something dangerous. I overheard a couple of drivers explain how the locks have trackers in them and cannot be opened until each truck gets to their destination.”
“So, what is it?” he answered. “Has anyone been able to look?”
“Rumor has it they're carrying gold from Fort Knox. The women, uh, tried to get one of the inspectors to tell her for sure, but all she learned was that the locks double as trackers.”
“Gold? Maybe, but that sounds far-fetched. Fort Knox is in Kentucky, isn't it?”
She shrugged. “Yes?” Her geography was passable, but most of it was based in Colorado where she lived most of her life.
“That would be nice, I guess, but gold wouldn't do anyone much good right now. Plus, why would they move it all over the country instead of guarding it in a fortress? Did they give you any other clues?”
“No, at least the women didn't say while I listened. It felt like they'd just gotten this information when they ran in there.”
“How'd she get him to tell her all that?” he asked.
Victoria bit her lip in a very girlish fashion, as if thinking of the proper answer in math class.
“She used her body,” she said simply.
It took him half a minute to think it through. “I see. Well, um, if she didn't hear it for sure, I'd say gold is out. I think it more likely to be related to what happened in Cairo, like maybe explosives, vials of the virus, or my personal favorite, guns.”
Victoria got excited. “I saw tons of bottles in that little outbuilding back at the farm. Russ's mom said the CDC gave them to her. It would make sense that she had them because she lived so close to the loading area.”
He snapped his fingers and met her eyes.
“They figured it out,” he said with excitement. “They had someone making the vaccine out here in the middle of nowhere so that the plague couldn't ruin the production before they could make enough of it. What better place would there be?”
Victoria spoke slowly. “And it would make sense they wouldn't want these drivers to crack into the back of the trucks. Dave said some drivers were stealing their payloads. One of these trucks could be worth ... whatever people are willing to pay for them.”
Liam scanned the gas station. The soldiers still huddled around their trucks on the edge of the action. None of them even fired their guns because there were no zombies nearby. That was amazing in itself because he'd not been anywhere that wasn't crawling with zombies or under their threat since he left the library all those weeks ago.
He caught sight of Dave's big black truck. Sabella and her girls stood by the driver next to the rig. When they saw him and Victoria they waved to come over.
“We better get back,” he said as he pointed to the truck and all those around it.
“Yeah,” she agreed before pointing to the interstate, “we need to find out where Dave is driving his trailer. Don't forget we can't get too far from your grandma.”
He laughed. “I won't forget about that, but I should tell you I still feel like she is close. Don't you?”
Victoria's deep green eyes studied him for a moment and he felt a wave of shyness pass over him as he held that wonderful gaze.
“I feel her, too,” she said. “It's weird, you know? It's like I know she's around, but not where she is. I even hear her voice from time to time.”
He focused on his girlfriend, put his fingers on his temples, and tried to speak to her using mental telepathy or whatever it was that they used before.
I love you.
He grinned from ear to ear.
“I love you, Liam, you big dope.” She winked at him in a way that made his legs wobble, but then she spun on her heels and walked away. For a few seconds he was unable to look at anything but her fancy blue jeans, but then he realized her reply wasn't exactly what he expected.
“Wait, did you hear me say that in your head?”
“I didn't have to,” she replied without looking back.
2
There were so many trucks it was almost impossible to see the soldiers out in the grass surrounding the truck stop. A few were stopped at the pumps, but others moved in and out like clockwork.
Many of the box trailers had huge words painted by hand onto their sides. Liam wasn't sure if they did that as a way of describing what they carried, but he didn't think Dave's truck was carrying “Pool Supplies.” A truck next to his said it had “Foot socks.” A third truck wrote theirs in huge red block letters which said “Toasters.”
Just what we need in the apocalypse!
A large white RV was parked beyond the last pump and it was also stamped with giant letters, but it wasn't describing its load. It said US Postal Service on the side.
Several drivers ran over to the postal truck and dropped off white and brown envelopes as if it was the day before Christmas.
“Victoria, I'll catch up to you. I want to see what's happening at the post office.”
She slowed down for him.
“Really? You think that's safe?” Her demeanor suggested he was already committed to going. “Okay, I'll make sure they wait for you.”
He gave her a little wave and then trotted in front of five or six big rigs taking on fuel. As he neared the RV, he avoided the line in front of a window where a woman took money and the packages. When he got a little further, he saw what he was looking for: information.
A huge bulletin board had been placed on the ground and leaned up against the back part of the truck's frame. At first, he thought it had pictures of people who were lost in the disaster and were being sought by their families, but the closer he got the less certain he was.
The word fugitives stood out like a lightning bolt at midnight.
He dropped to his knee to pretend to tie his shoe while he tried to scan the board. After all his run-ins with Elsa, Hayes, and the military he was pretty confident this board in some random gas station would have his picture on it. If anyone was a fugitive from the corrupt people inside the government, it was him.
By the time he finished tying his shoe a couple times he still hadn't found his picture, so he stood up and tried to be as nonchalant as possible while looking at the photographs on the board.
He read the words under one official-looking mugshot of a man that said he was wanted for single-handedly blowing up a M1 Abrams tank. Another photo showed a wild-haired woman in a grainy action shot and described her as a gold thief. Others were busted for impersonating FEMA representatives, so they could collect supplies from duped citizens. Some were responsible for breaking into bunkers of their neighbors and killing those inside. One picture described a particularly ugly man as having guided zombies to people in his small town as part of settling a grudge.
Finally, near the far-right side, he saw someone he recognized.
It was a picture of him and Victoria snapped as they stood on the deck of the barge in front of Elsa. It was obviously taken by a drone the day before, but it caught him off guard how f
ast they printed and shipped the picture, so it could be displayed in the truck stop. Based on his wide eyes and pained expression, the Liam in the picture was probably watching his mom and dad fall to their deaths.
He tried to calm his anger and focus on Victoria. The big, high-resolution photo showed her in remarkable detail and he found her image to be quite striking. In fact, standing there looking at it gave him an idea.
There was a lot of traffic in front of the window to the post office, so he leaned close to the board and tried to yank the picture right off. He only had a second, but he tore the paper in half and tossed the scrap side onto the ground behind the board.
“Hey, you.” A man called out from nearby.
Liam fought the urge to run or show any recognition he heard him. He started walking away from the board, hoping he could blend into the line at the window.
“Oh no you don't.” The man's voice was super close.
He walked at a fast pace but still didn't run. There was nowhere to go even if he could sprint like hell. His only hope was to blend in.
As he entered the line he stopped and tried to tie his shoe again to make himself as small as possible, but he felt the hand on his neck before he bent over completely.
“No. Over here, son.” A strong hand lifted his shirt and easily shoved him away from the line. He stumbled and nearly fell over as the whole thing surprised him.
“I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I got confused.” His mind rattled off a series of excuses and prayed one of them would stick.
“I saw what you did. You took one of the pictures. Is there some reason you'd do that?” He acted like he already knew the answer.
The man was dressed in a crisp uniform and had a bunch of stripes on his sleeve. He was someone important. And he had a pistol in his free hand.
“Let me see what you've got,” the man demanded.
“Please, I don't want any trouble. I just--” He drew a blank on what to say to talk his way out of the encounter.
The man held out his empty palm.
Slowly, Liam held out the torn picture. Behind the soldier, somewhere across the parking lot, Victoria was standing around waiting for him to return. How crappy would it be if he led the soldiers right to her?
But he still couldn't think of anything that would help, so he handed over the paper and decided to beg for mercy. “I'm so sorry. I just thought she looked like someone back home.”
The man was probably in his thirties or forties. His blonde hair wasn't yet gray, but his eyes had strong lines around them like he'd seen a lot. Those eyes peered hard at the paper, then glared at Liam. Then he looked at the paper again.
“Someone back home looks like this girl?” he asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“And you took this because the image reminded you of her?” he spoke as if he'd just solved a big mystery.
Yes, she and I are two of the most wanted criminals. Cuff us and stuff us.
The soldier looked around before speaking. “I think you are lying. Come with me.”
3
Liam once again thought about running, but only for a few seconds. Yes, they had the guns in the truck, but there was still no way to fight out of the mess.
He glanced over his shoulder as he rounded the corner, hopeful someone would see him and come to help. Victoria stood with her back to him over by the gas pumps as she chatted with Sabella and Dave. They didn't see him, either.
The soldier led him around to the backside of the post office RV. It was mostly out of sight of the other drivers, including his friends, but it was in full view of the soldiers guarding their vehicles out in the fields. Perhaps feeling confident he was under observation by his fellow army guys, he holstered his handgun.
“Okay, stop right here.” The man held up the picture of Victoria and displayed it for Liam again. He looked around as if to check if he would be heard by anyone else and then spoke quietly. “This girl is a highly-sought criminal working against the United States government. Sedition. Treason. You name it. Probably killed a bunch of pandas along the way. If you add all that stuff up, you know what you get?”
The man hesitated while expecting an answer from Liam.
“I, uh, don't know. She's dangerous?” He forced himself not to smile at the picture. Even knowing the serious events taking place at the very moment the picture was taken, he was smitten by the pretty girl with the determined look on her face. She was his rock. His fortress. His reason for keeping on in a dying world.
“Of course she's dangerous,” he said sarcastically. “Everyone on that board is dangerous. But this one is special, you know how I know?”
Liam shook his head immediately.
“Because the intel pogs sent me a huge stack of these pictures.” He almost put the picture in Liam's face. “More than any of the others.”
He chuckled. “It's a good thing, too, because the image of this girl has resulted in dozens of them being ripped off the board and taken by lonely truck drivers.”
Liam stood there listening, not sure what to make of that.
The soldier took a step back. “You mean you didn't take this because it has a hot girl on it? Isn't that why you ripped the guy away?”
A light came on in Liam's head and he scrambled to agree with the man.
“Yeah. Uh, I mean, yes, sir. I didn't want to say anything because you know, it's embarrassing.”
The soldier squinted at him and Liam doubted he was in any way convincing with his explanation, so he tried to plow on.
“Will you let me keep it? I mean, it is already torn.” He spoke as if he really was shy and embarrassed as hell. “Just don't tell my dad.”
“He's a driver?”
Liam cast his eyes low and nodded.
Please. Please. Please.
“Well, there's no harm done. I don't blame you, kid. She is a looker.”
Liam laughed with the man as a way of agreeing with him and then held out his hand.
“Just don't do it again because I have to go back inside and grab another one. I'm kind of tired of replacing them, so that's why I guard the damned board when I'm not on patrol.” His face changed from happy to sad like a switch had been thrown. “When I sit down and tell my grandchildren about this war, I'm sure they'll be real impressed that I kept this bulletin board safe, huh?”
The man quickly handed the picture to Liam. Fearful the guy might still figure things out, he tried to think of something intelligent but plausible to say.
“Are we really at war? Is that why all these army trucks are here?”
The man looked in his eyes and Liam felt he was searching for something, but his response was disarming.
“You been on the road with your dad a long time?”
Liam nodded. “We spent a lot of time at a farm in the middle of nowhere.”
“You should have stayed there. America has broken into islands of calm on a sea of zombies, plague, and chaos. What's left of the army is guarding fuel depots like this one on the major interstates to keep the trucks flowing. Once they grind to a halt, America dies.”
Liam stared at the picture of his girlfriend and tried to think what an innocent nobody would say in response to that.
“I have to get back to my dad. Can I go?” He tried not to sound anxious, but he probably showed just enough to seem real. There was nothing he wanted more at that moment than getting back to Victoria and getting the hell out of the gas station.
A couple of big, black drones flew by twenty feet off the ground and landed somewhere out in the field. They distracted the soldier for a moment.
“You will let me go,” he mentally ordered as he tried to mimic the Jedi mind trick.
“It won't be long and the whole war will be fought with robots and computers,” the soldier said in a hollow voice. “There won't be any of us soldiers left out here.”
Liam was bristling to brag about how he'd seen dozens of drones operating in urban St. Louis, but it seemed like too much information f
or a dumb kid to have. Under different circumstances he would probably enjoy talking with the soldier about how the war was being fought. It would help him with background research for his book.
“Anything to keep you from getting too close to those zombie things, huh?” He judged that was something an average kid would say.
The soldier seemed to wake up and look back to Liam.
“Yeah. Hey, let's get you back to your dad, right?” He motioned for Liam to step in front of him and go to the other side of the RV. “Keep that in your pocket, alright? I don't want others to know I have more of these.”
They both laughed.
Liam walked ahead and figured he was in the clear. When he rounded the corner and could see Victoria again he felt a wave of relief, so he waved goodbye to the soldier.
But the army guy didn't back off.
“I'll make sure you get back to your father,” the soldier said as he sped up to walk alongside him.
Oh crap.
4
“No, that's alright. I'll be fine.” Liam walked slower as he spoke.
The soldier didn't even look at him. “Protocol involving any minor under 18. I have to follow up, so I can log that you found your guardian.”
“You really don't have to,” Liam said as he halted. “I, uh, am going to be really embarrassed, you know?”
The man laughed. “How dumb do you think I am, kid?”
“No. I didn't mean--”
“I know what you meant,” he said, still chuckling. “I'm not going to tell him I found you stealing a pretty girl's picture. No, I'll tell him you and I ran into each other at the post office, you asked a few questions about the army units guarding the gas station, and that I simply wanted to make sure you got back safe. Just doin' my job, right?”
The soldier appeared to have no ulterior motive other than what he said but taking him back to the truck was going to be a disaster. For starters, no one there could possibly be his dad. For closers, it would be hard to explain why the girl in the picture was standing at Dave's truck wearing the exact same clothes as the photo.
Liam glanced around the parking lot, careful to avoid looking at his friends for more than a microsecond. As long as he didn't give them away, he could pretend any of the trucks belonged to his dad.
Since The Sirens Box Set | Books 1-7 Page 197