The forest was aflame on the far side of the creek. Many of the tallest trees reminded her of skyscrapers as they loomed high above, but the flaming bark and torch-top crowns made them nothing but majestic threats. Patches of the burning undergrowth met the waterway less than fifty feet away, and, as she expected, it wasn’t long before more of the trees on her side showed evidence of burning branches.
The fast pace of the song made it seem an appropriate soundtrack to the ongoing disaster, but she refused to be labeled as a suicidal blonde.
Fuck this.
She clicked off the tape deck.
“Let me out. I’ll run back if I have to. You two are the ones who are suicidal, not me and my blonde hair.”
Stephen seemed surprised. “Hey, I’ll turn on the air conditioner. We’ll be fine. I promise.” He rolled up his window and fiddled with buttons on the dash.
“Please, guys. I’m sorry I made a mistake about your Commodore, and I don’t really think you two are losers from Woop Woop, but please don’t drive me into this fire. I’ve seen it from up close already.”
The driver brightened. “There, that’s better. I may look the part of a footy player, but I’m more of a lover, you see? My wife would beat me black and blue if I ever did anything as dangerous as you say. We’re almost through to the main road.”
Destiny was convinced he didn’t know what he was talking about. He probably made up the whole thing about driving through fires as a macho attempt to show off, but it fell flat with her. Rolling up the windows and using the cool air was something a five-year-old would do, not a grown man.
“Stop. The. Car.” She used her most commanding voice.
I’ll start punching if I have to.
Stephen applied the brakes, which halted them immediately because they were never going that fast. He spoke with great importance. “We have to stop.”
She shifted in her seat as if Christian was going to let her out. “Thank you,” she said with relief.
“No, look.” The driver pointed ahead.
Several tall trees had already fallen across the creek, their flaming tops blocking the primitive road. The downed trees acted like drawbridges, and she could almost see the path the fire took onto her side. A small chunk of the forest on the hill to their left was already aflame, and it spread like a plague while she watched.
“Chuck a uwie,” she demanded.
“Yeah, yeah,” Stephen said with sudden acceptance. “That’s smart.”
“How close are we to the blacktop?” she asked while the driver did a twenty-point U-turn on the narrow road. The heat of the burning trees warmed the cab ten degrees before they drove away.
“I thought we’d be there already, to be honest with you. That’s why I didn’t think any of this was a big deal. I’m sure it’s right ahead.”
Destiny spoke rapidly. “And this road goes far into the forest, past where you found me, but it eventually dead ends, right?” She’d studied her maps before they went into the national park and had undoubtedly looked at the end of the road, but her present anxiety blotted out all memory of it.
“We drove away from the fire near the end,” the driver replied. “We can’t get out that way even if the road went through.”
The fire was huge and had spread to various parts of the park, but she already had a plan. “So, we have to get away from the fire on this end. That’s obvious. We’ll go back up the road to where it’s clear, then hike out in another direction. If we’re as close as you say, we should be able to go around the fire and find help. Should be a piece of cake.”
“Lady, no offense, but that’s a shit plan. Me and me mate are staying with the Commie, okay?”
“I, uh…” She didn’t know what to say to that mentality.
They drove a few minutes back the way they came, and for the first time that day, she wasn’t surprised to see more fire. The blaze had spread to their side of the creek, even in the short time since they’d been by.
“Now will you let me out?”
Near Yosemite National Park, California
Buck sat and watched the empty line of cars for several minutes. A white National Park Service SUV blocked both lanes of the road at the front, its lights flashing.
Tall pines crowded in toward both sides of the road, revealing nothing that might have coaxed people from their vehicles. Ten cars with engines running and doors open. Not a driver in sight. Not a tourist with their phone taking pictures. No one.
Freddy the GPS said he still had seventy miles to go, and there was no turning back. Buck was less than amused. “If the riot in Walmart was anything to go by, this could be more of the same. Men with guns exerting their authority. Wouldn’t that be something?” Buck tapped the nine-millimeter before moving it under his leg to make sure he could pull it in an instant if needed.
“All right, Mac-O, we’re not going to sit here with our thumbs up our tailpipes, are we? It’s time to do something.” Buck put the truck in reverse and slowly backed the big rig down the narrow road.
Despite the Jake brakes to stop and the slow reverse, no one showed up to stop him. When he had the truck a couple hundred yards down the road, he parked.
“I’m going to get out, okay?” he told the dog. “But I’m not going anywhere. I need to get one more tool so I can protect us from…whatever’s out there.”
He watched the pine forest, his mind running rampant with wild theories. Though the thought was completely irrational, his many dealings with ambushes while serving overseas made him consider whether the people in those cars had been jumped by the criminal element he’d been fearing. The police truck could be part of the setup.
The nine-millimeter pistol was fine for a close-in defensive situation, but he needed something that could reach much farther. Back home, he had ten rifles that would have been perfect to have over his shoulder while in the woods. They offered long-range protection against coyotes, feral dogs, and even bears.
And the worst animal of all…
“I’ll do anything to protect my son,” he intoned as if it were a mantra. He detached another panel from the inside of his sleeper. He’d put the object at the bottom of the compartment, so he had to reach in up to his shoulder to grab it. He pulled out a rifle’s lower receiver group.
Buck set it on his bed.
“Now for the other piece,” he said to his friend. “I have to step outside for a sec. Be right back.”
Mac crouched under the steering wheel column like he was going to go outside, but the red wire caught and held him fast as Buck shut the door. The Golden Retriever jumped into the driver’s seat and looked down at Buck from the window like he’d been betrayed.
“It’s all right. I promise.” Buck signaled with a calming hand and a smile. For the past two weeks, the dog had been great about coming out with him and staying by his side, almost like he had been trained that way. “Soon, buddy. You and me, figuring this out.”
Buck strode to the side of his tractor and flicked open the hood tie-down, then he trotted around and opened the one on the passenger side. With both released, he pulled on the wing-like hood ornament to pivot open the black fiberglass hood. The casing swung on hinges toward the front until the hood was almost vertical, exposing the Peterbilt’s big diesel motor to the world.
“No one shoot at the dumbass checking his oil,” he said aloud.
Many what-if scenarios competed for Buck’s attention as he worked to retrieve the thing he’d hidden inside the hood. Buck pulled the long tube out of the secret panel he’d tack-welded to the underside of the stainless-steel grille.
“Got ya!”
It took thirty seconds to close the hood, secure the latches, and rejoin Mac inside the cabin. When back in his seat, he scanned the forest for any signs that something was about to happen.
But it was exactly the same as it had looked minutes earlier.
“Didn’t see anything, huh, buddy?” He imagined Mac was still pouting about being kept inside, but he hop
ped up on the passenger seat like they were going to drive again. His drooling, smiling face suggested the supposed infraction was already forgotten.
Buck slid one of the jerky treats from his stash and handed it to Mac.
“You really are a great dog,” he said while rubbing his heavy coat.
After both seemed satisfied to have their partner back, he made his way to the rear of his sleeper and plopped down on the bed. The dog followed him and hopped up, too.
It only took Buck a few seconds to finish his project.
He twisted the stainless barrel and mated it to the synthetic stock until it looked like a proper rifle. Because he traveled the lower 48 states, he had to contend with 48 different laws about whether he could carry a rifle in his truck. He hid the pieces separately as a hedge against those laws and because he didn’t want it to get stolen. He wanted it available when he needed it, though he’d never seriously believed he would.
“Mac, my friend, we have ourselves a 10/22 Takedown.”
He pulled the box of ammunition from the same compartment where he’d kept his pistol. It calmed his nerves while he slid cartridges into the 25-round banana mag.
“Now, let’s go check out that roadblock.”
Search for Nuclear, Astrophysical, and Kronometric Extremes (SNAKE). Red Mesa, Colorado
Faith found Bob talking to some of his team in an empty office.
“Dr. Stafford, come with me, please,” she said to be polite.
She didn’t wait for him to follow but strode down the hallway and waited at the door a few offices down. The rooms were reserved for additional staff, so no one would be along to interrupt her. She went inside when he saw her, then she went and stood by the large window overlooking the photogenic hogback.
Dr. Stafford stuck his head. “Did you change your mind about a news conference?”
“Come in, please. Shut the door.”
Bob closed the door but stayed near it. She looked at him from across an empty desk. “I’m in charge here. If you want to talk to a reporter, you come through me. If you want to schedule research time, you come through me. If you want to push for restarting the device, you do what?”
He pursed his lips like he’d eaten something unsavory.
“Say it,” she persisted. “Because if you don’t, I’m inclined to remove you from my team and send you to the offsite lab in Boulder.” It was one of the data nodes for the giant project, so technically, it was a lateral move, but being banished from the main campus of SNAKE was the equivalent of firing him; something even she couldn’t do inside the endless bureaucracy of the University of Colorado.
“I’ll go through you, but I don’t like the way you run things,” he said quietly.
“Then stop complaining. Help me, for god’s sake. That’s what we’re supposed to do for other scientists.”
The sour look didn’t disappear from his face.
“I’m holding a press conference tonight at seven o’clock in the main auditorium. Come if you want to, but I’m holding this because it’s necessary for our operation, not because you said I should. Let’s get that clear right here and now. This is my show.”
“But I suggested it—”
“Dammit, Bob. Of course, we’re going to have a press conference. I’ve been resisting the idea because you kept pushing it and it was annoying; that’s on me. There’s something big going on outside, and we’re just a part of it. We need to have a presser, get them off our back, and then get back to the science.”
“That’s all I ever wanted.” Bob sounded contrite, but she knew better. Still, it was better than being at loggerheads.
“And you’ve got your wish,” she said in a steely voice, before softening an ounce. “I want the same thing, Bob. I want to explore the universe and make discoveries like we always said when we were together. The power interruptions and press nonsense will pass. We’ve got to be able to work alongside each other or I really will send you to Boulder.”
“Fine.” He huffed.
She wasn’t holding out for more. “I’ve got to go.” She showed him the bundle of papers she’d taken from Donald’s room. “My research includes some stuff Dr. Perkins dug up on the web. I think it may explain that blue light and how it shut us down.”
She walked by him and opened the door but stopped before stepping through. If anyone was going to bury the hatchet, it would be her.
“I want your team ready with computer time when we go live. Plan for it in the next twenty-four hours. The second we have this shutdown licked, I’m going to get us going again. I promise you, I’m trying.” It burned her to give him what he wanted, but she wasn’t just his ex, she was his boss, and the leader of an exotic group of physics researchers. She accepted that he was part of her team and needed to know she had his back.
That took some of the cringe from his face.
“We’ll be ready,” he replied.
She ran out the door, anxious to look at Donald’s findings.
Twenty-Six
Yosemite National Park, Big Oak Flat Entrance
Buck drove his truck back up the road at barely a walking pace. He drove into the oncoming traffic lane and eased past the parked cars. When he rolled to the front of the line and could see around the next bend in the road, a little more of the situation became clear.
“Looks like they’re keeping people out of the park. I wonder why.”
Three brown wooden booths stood in the road ahead. National Park Service attendants used them to take entrance fees and hand out maps to visitors who came into Yosemite from this direction. If the police wanted a roadblock, it made sense to do it on two lanes where he was, rather than the four lanes at the formal entrance.
As best he could tell, it was a simple roadblock by the police, as one might expect if an accident was up ahead. There were a few spent flares scattered around the pavement, too.
But where are the people?
A scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind played in his head. It was the one where an alien light shines from total darkness above the guy in the pickup truck as he waits at a railroad crossing. Powerful energy shakes the crossing lights, and the audience thinks he’s going to be abducted. If he’d been taken, his truck would sit there empty, a lot like the cars Buck was looking at.
Without realizing it, the hairs on his neck stood straight up.
“The people are somewhere,” he said sincerely to Mac. “Right, pup?”
The door on the park police SUV hung open the same as all the others. The buzzing sense of danger wouldn’t go away, but his choices were limited unless he wanted to ram his not-paid-for Peterbilt into the government vehicle.
Buck sucked in some air and exhaled slow and deliberately. Lose his commercial driver’s license. Not be able to make payments on his truck. Still a country away from his son.
“Let’s save that option for last and then do something different. I’ll be right back.” He was already tired of saying that to Mac. “No, you know what? You’re coming with me.”
He swapped the leashes so Big Mac wore the long, black one. Securing him during a huge wind storm was fine, but if there was something going on with the world, they would depend on each other for survival.
In this scenario, he wanted Mac’s ears to tell him if someone was sneaking around on the pine needle-covered ground. Unlike regular leaves, the needles would muffle footfalls, so he needed the heightened senses of his four-footed friend.
“Come on,” he said like they were going out to play. Buck considered lifting him down, like he’d done every time for the last two weeks, but decided they were past the coddling stage, especially since he’d seen the dog jump out and land without a scratch. He let Mac hop onto the sidestep, then onto the ground. “Good job, buddy.”
Once on the pavement, Mac pulled at the leash and went directly to the nearest tree. Buck had to let out about ten feet of the cord, but it was enough for the dog to reach the lodgepole pine.
“Go make!”
In the need for speed, he’d forgotten to stop so his little buddy could relieve himself. It was a wonder the dog didn’t let loose on the seat again. While providing overwatch of his teammate, Buck appreciated the clean, pine-scented air and listened as the wind blew through the branches. He watched for any movement using the heightened awareness of his peripheral vision.
Buck held the Ruger 10/22 at the low ready, as he had been trained. There had to be a simple explanation, but after so many weird things in the news and on his own adventure today, he wasn’t going to walk around without a weapon close by.
Mac showed no signs of stopping. “Wow. You really had to go.”
Buck flicked the safety off and then back on, as practice. There was already a round in the chamber. By keeping the rifle aimed at the ground, he could at least ensure it was convenient for him to wield it, but it wasn’t so threatening that he would accidentally shoot a kid on vacation. He was convinced the tourists were somewhere close by, as were the park service employees. His desire to protect vacationers was balanced by constant vigilance and drills, but he’d go hot the second he saw trouble.
When Mac was finally done, they walked around the police truck to see if he could discover what had happened. The service vehicle had been parked facing the right side of the road, so the driver’s door was on the opposite side from the cars.
No one was in the SUV’s front seat, so he stepped closer to look inside. The key was still in the ignition because all the instruments were on, as was the laptop affixed to the center console. The door chime wasn’t going off as it should have been.
“Let’s get this over with.”
Buck scanned the bases of the pine trees to make sure there wasn’t an officer wringing his hands like a villain, waiting for him to break the law. When satisfied with his sweep, he peered inside the truck to check for cameras or an officer lying in wait. He had the greatest respect for law enforcement, so he didn’t think they were out to get him, but nothing felt right.
He turned to Mac and dropped the leash to the pavement. “Stay.”
End Days Series Box Set [Books 1-4] Page 21