I watch in horror as a woman stabs another over and over. It is obvious her opponent is dead, but she doesn’t stop until a man sneaks up on her and hits her over the head with a tire iron. I turn away. I’ve seen enough, and now we know where all the people went, although it opens more questions than it answers.
For example, why did they all pile up down there? Why are they attacking each other and ignore us? What is going on in their sick minds that makes them this violent?
The bus moves. I was so engrossed looking out; I didn’t realize Blake and Ace got into the abandoned car and drove off. Cory follows them slowly.
“What are we going to do if we hit a pile-up we can’t move?” I whisper quietly.
Ryan hears me and comes over, putting his arm around me in a gesture of comfort. “It’ll be okay.”
Somehow his attempt to comfort irritates me. Does he really think I need pretty phrases and false reassurances? “You don’t know that,” I say and squeeze by him to get out of the bench seat before I say something else I’ll regret.
Ignoring the look of hurt on his face, I walk over to Jose and Angie. The little girl is asleep, and I sit down on the bench ahead of them before turning so that I’m facing him. “Want me to take her for a while?”
“Nah, I’m good. Thank you, though.” After a moment of silence, he asks, “How are we gonna find her parents?”
I shrug my shoulders. “We’re bound to find people eventually, right? There’ll be police officers or soldiers or whatever. They’ll take her and locate her parents.”
“You really think so?”
“Yeah, I do. We talked to our parents, right?” I wait for his nod before I continue. “So, you see, once we are away from this, life will be normal again. It was just that stupid rain that did something to these people.”
He doesn’t seem convinced but nods, nevertheless. Just then, somebody's phone rings. I recognize Jason’s voice as he answers the call. He walks to the back of the bus for some privacy.
“See.” I smile at Jose. “The people outside are okay.”
“Yeah, but we still need to get out of here first.”
Chapter 5
Further down the road, Blake and Ace ditch the car and climb back onto the bus. Time and miles fly by. Until we hit another obstacle. Most of the time, the cars we come upon were left running when their owners ditched them, and two boys drive it out of the way.
Twice, though, all of us have to disembark the bus and help push broken down, undrivable vehicles into another lane until there is enough room for the bus to fit through.
I barely drift off to sleep when we slow down again. An annoyed groan escapes me, and I almost can’t summon the will to get up. Assuming it’s just another pile-up or abandoned car, I’m tempted to stay in my seat. Obligation gets the better of me. I want to help if I can. Grudgingly, I get up and walk to the front. Jose, who won’t put Angie down for a second, is the only one who stays in his seat.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Soldiers,” Cory says with a bright grin on his face and points at a roadblock ahead.
Soldiers with guns keep wary eyes at our approaching bus. We all start to cheer. The cavalry has arrived! We are finally safe. As we get closer, the soldiers raise their guns. Alarm bells go off in my head, but I push them aside.
Cory brings the bus to a complete stop, and Jason opens the doors. He is the first out when several soldiers simultaneously point their ARs straight at him and yell. “Hold it right there.”
Jason stops dead in his tracks and raises his arms. “We are not infected, or sick… or whatever it is. We just want to get out of here.”
Two more soldiers point their machine guns and move guardedly towards the bus. “Sorry, I can’t let you through.”
“We need to go home,” Ryan says from inside the bus.
“I need you to get back into your vehicle.” The other soldier orders Jason. “And then I need you to turn this thing around and return to wherever you came from.”
I step forward. I’ve gained a little experience in resolving testosterone-filled standoffs in the last few hours. Plus, I’m a girl, and I know how to play the little girl card.
“Please, we just want to go home. You don’t know what’s going on over there. “I point back towards Anaheim; it has gotten darker, and for the first time, I notice several fires burning all over the city. “We are from Bandon, Oregon. We just want to go home.”
“Sorry, Miss, we have our orders, nobody in and nobody out.”
I stare at him, dumbfounded. Is he fucking serious? “But we aren’t sick. We have a little girl who needs to find her parents.”
Something like pity runs over the soldier’s features, but he shakes his head. “I’m sorry. I need you to turn around.”
“Is it true then, that they’ll bomb the area?” Blake asks from behind my shoulder, making eye contact with the soldier sporting three triangular stripes on his jacket.
“I can neither confirm nor deny this. But I would advise you, kids, to find a safe place and hunker down.”
“Are you serious?” I almost scream, losing all of the girl charms I tried to convey. “You’re sending us to certain death.”
“Turn back around now,” the man with the stripes says coolly. His voice is resolved. He moves the AR to aim straight at me. Center mass. I swallow hard, looking down the dark abyss of the barrel, and realize how serious he is. He will shoot us if we don’t turn around.
Jason is the first to climb back into the bus. I give the soldier a glaring, baleful stare before turning and climbing up the stairs. I sit back down in my seat.
To say we are disappointed is an understatement. Connor looks downright dejected. Dispirited, I slink back into a seat. Part of me is still reeling with anger at being denied passage into safety, but another part of me is just absolutely disheartened. The doors close, and Cory backs the bus slowly up before turning the huge monster back the way we came.
“Well, now what?” Jason asks with a sigh.
“At least we know the lane is clear,” Cory says with a grunt, turning the big steering wheel the other way.
I let out a huff of defeat; my eyes search for Blake, who retreats further into the back of the bus, his phone pressed to his ear.
“There was an exit a little while back.” Ace points down the freeway. “Maybe we could try our luck on the side streets or through the woods or something.”
Jason shakes his head. “I don’t think so.” His pointer finger moves up to the sky. “Did you guys not see the helicopters up there? I’m pretty sure there’re more, patrolling the areas where they don’t have roadblocks.”
My heart sinks. Our bus would not go unnoticed if we tried to sneak through. We are miles and miles away from being even anywhere close to escaping the contaminated area. Going on foot is not an option either; the soldiers all but admitted the entire area is going to be bombed soon. I want to cry; I feel so helpless.
“Okay, here is what my dad says we need to do.” Blake steps into the center of the aisle. Our attention is solely focused on him. Hopelessness and defeat run through each one of us.
“My dad called some of his buddies. He’s reasonably sure Santa Monica is one of the cities furthest west to be bombed. We need to get there.”
“Okay, but won’t they have roadblocks over there too? Especially if it’s one of the last cities to be bombed?” Ryan argues.
Blake nods. “Yes, they’ll have a heavy military presence there. Which is fine; we don’t want to drive through there, just to.”
“And then what? Walk?” Drew asks.
“We swim,” Blake states without a hint of emotion on his face. We look at him, speechless.
“We drive as close to the city limits of Santa Monica as we can. Somewhere around there, we should be able to pick up scuba diving gear. We make our way to a pier and swim to Will Rogers State Beach, where my dad will meet us.” He explains further.
A long moment of silence erupts i
nto an argument. I digest Blake’s suggestions and plan. Not paying any attention to the excited voices that become a sort of background noise.
I can swim like a fish, but I have not the slightest idea on how to scuba dive, and I’m reasonably sure none of the other boys do either. Another question makes its way to the forefront of my mind.
“When are they gonna start bombing the city?” I ask quietly.
I don’t think anybody heard me since they are all still arguing, but at the sound of my voice, they do fall silent.
“What?” Ryan asks.
I repeat my question, looking at Blake for answers.
“My dad says around midnight. We should be gone by then.”
I use my phone; it’s almost six. I run a quick query by Siri and am told it’ll take us approximately one hour to get to Santa Monica from where we are. One hour on a good day. Not a day riddled with car wrecks and crazies.
“It’ll take us about two hours to get there.” Ace states. “If we’re lucky and don’t run into anything…. crazy.” Mirroring my own concerns.
“Yeah, what would that be?” Drew snorts.
Blake calculates. “That’s about eight then. That gives us an hour or so to find all the gear and get ready,”
“And three to swim like mad.” Ryan nods.
“Won’t they patrol the water?” Cory asks from behind the wheel, eyes still on the road, never wavering.
“Probably.” Blake nods. “That’s why we need the scuba gear. I don’t think they’ll be looking for divers. Boaters, yes, swimmers maybe, divers, I doubt it.”
“You don’t think so, Thornton?” Ryan sneers derisively. “And you’re willing to bet our lives on that?”
“Any better ideas, McCarthy?” Blake retorts. “By all means, I’m all ears.”
Ryan’s body tenses, and his hands ball into fists. There’s no doubt in my mind that Ryan would like nothing better right now than to deck Blake. But Ryan is also a quarterback. He knows how to lead a team. He understands when he needs to surge forward and when to bite his time as he does now. He gives Blake a curt nod, barely moving his chin.
“Blake’s idea is still our best bet,” Ace agrees, swiveling his head apprehensively from Blake to Ryan. Torn between his loyalties towards his QB and knowing Blake’s suggestion is truly is our best bet, just as he stated.
“You’re forgetting a couple of things.” Jose pipes up. “I may be speaking for myself here, but I don’t think any of us knows how to use scuba gear, for starters.”
Finally, somebody voices my concerns, I think grimly.
“I do,” Blake says to my surprise, but I’m probably not as surprised as the others. “It’s really not hard. I’ll tell you all about it during the ride. What else, Jose?”
Jose points at Angie in his arms. “You may be able to teach us, but what about her?”
We turn to the little girl. Even though we only met her a few hours ago, I’m willing to bet my own life that none of us are willing to leave the kid.
“We can tie her down and force the little mask on her head,” Ace ventures. “What?” he asks at our hostile glances. “What else can we do?”
Each one of us glares at Ace. We are all disgusted with what he said, but the silence that ensues is telling. Nobody is coming up with a better idea, which makes me shudder.
“Guys, we are not seriously considering this, are we?” I ask apprehensively.
Blake rubs his chin thoughtfully. “No, of course not, but we could tie her to like a raft or something and pull her.”
“Wouldn’t they see it?” Conner, who has remained quiet so far, questions.
“What about some kind of dark crate or tire or something?” Ty throws in.
Blake starts nodding, thinking out loud. “Something that looks like trash.”
“We’ll probably find something like that in one of the stores while we search for the scuba gear,” I suggest.
“I found two stores on the way to a pier,” Jason adds, waving his phone to make his point.
I’m so glad the phones still work; I don’t even want to imagine how hard this would be without them. I look at the screen and notice the battery is getting low. “Does anybody have a charger?”
They all stare at me like I just asked the most meaningless question ever, but the way we have depended on the phones since all this began, I don’t think it’s meaningless at all. “What?” I ask.
“There is one over here,” Cory says from the driver’s seat, and I join him. “It’s for an Android, anybody here using an Android?”
Jason steps forward, holding his phone up.
“Here, charge it; we need at least one working phone,” I state, looking longingly at my iPhone, which is down to thirty percent.
“Okay, can we get back to Angie, please?” Jose pleads. “We are not gonna tie her down, are we?”
I give him a brilliant smile. “Of course, we are.”
He looks at me as if he’s ready to kill me, and I smirk. “After we dope her with Benadryl.”
“That might not be a bad idea,” Blake agrees.
“It’s a horrible idea. Why not just drown her and get it over with?” Jose exaggerates.
“It’ll be fine. We will make sure Angie’s safe whatever she’ll be on. That way, she won’t know what’s happening and won’t get scared or fight us.” Blake explains.
“Hey, guys.” Cory slows the bus, and we all turn towards the big panorama window upfront.
My heart skips a beat; several cars have been moved across all lanes of the freeway. Including the emergency lane we are using, and all of them are on fire. Black smoke swirls into the air.
Unease makes its way through my stomach, and I think. ‘Now what?’
Jason licks his lips nervously, while Conner’s face turns ashen. Ty and Ace curse up a storm, and Ryan and Blake surge forward to help Cory with whatever is going to be needed.
The only one somewhat unaffected is Jose. He tries to keep Angie occupied and distracted from the obstacle we are closing in on.
A couple of hundred yards ahead of us, several people, wielding weapons of various origins and sizes, watch our approach.
Nervously my hands curl around the headrest of the seat in front of me.
Cory keeps slowing the bus until Blake puts a hand on his shoulder.
Some of the men by the burning cars level their weapons, including ARs, into our direction, making it clear they want us to stop.
“Don’t slow down, floor it. Everybody brace yourselves. Jose, keep a tight hold on Angie; this is going to get rough.” Blake instructs Cory.
I swallow a huge rock down that wants to make itself at home in my throat. My heart rate accelerates at the thought of what we are about to do. We’re going to ram through the barricade while men point automatic weapons at us.
Feverishly my mind tries to come up with one good reason why the men would have assembled this barricade. Anything. But I draw a blank. Whatever their intentions, they can’t be good, I conclude. Something Blake already deduced a minute ago. Which is why he gave Cory the order to ram the bus through.
How the men can stand there and endure the heat that has to be coming off the burning cars is beyond me. And then there is the stench of burning rubber. A smell that even makes its way into the cabin of the bus. Making my eyes tear and burn because of the acidity in my nose.
“Are you sure about this?” Cory’s eyes are wide with fear and trepidation.
Blake nods grimly. “We’ll use the power of this bus against them. Just make sure you go fast, keep your foot pressed against the pedal, and keep a tight hold on that steering wheel.”
Cory is skeptical but steps his foot down on the gas, nevertheless. I hold on tight to the seat in front of me, bracing myself as best as I can, and watch Blake while he grips the pole by the driver’s side. He anchors his feet to the ground. His eyes never leave the road as we get closer to the burning cars and the men.
Blake corrects Cory slightly. “Aim fo
r the gap between the two cars over there, and don’t stop pressing the gas pedal.”
Cory’s expression turns into one of utter determination. My eyes widen the closer we get. The men, standing in front of the barricade, look alarmed, some level their guns at us, even getting a shot off or two. And I’m not sure why our windshield doesn’t shatter into a thousand pieces. It’s a humongous target, but somehow it gets missed. Panic sets in with the shooters as they realize we are not going to stop. They disburse in a hurry, but with the burning cars at their backs, they stumble over each other.
A few of the men make it out of the way in time, but two don’t. One is struck, the impact throws him up into the air, before he slams down with a thud –audible even inside the bus, against the roof of a pickup truck. The other is pinned between the bus and one of the burning cars.
“Come on, come one, come on.” Ace’s face is a mask of concentration as if he could make the bus free itself just by the power of his will.
The bus appears stuck, pinned between two burning cars, but only for a few seconds, then the big vehicle shoves the vehicles to the side, tires scream, and metal screeches. The impact throws me forward. I can’t see for a few seconds; my face is planted against the seat in front of me.
We swerve, and I lift my head; a car is stuck between the bus and the safety wall to our right. The screeching intensifies while flames, emanating from the burning vehicle, lick up the windows next to me.
Ace hoots loudly.
To my left, I notice Ty rightening himself back on his feet. Somehow, he ended up in the middle of the aisle. Conner is stretching his arm out to help him. He looks green around the gills.
Blake keeps calm and directs Cory to move the steering wheel to the left, pushing the other car further away and giving us the room to break free. More parked cars come into view, but they are in the other lanes and not on fire yet. Thankfully, our attackers were too lazy to block more of the emergency lane.
Ryan looks like he wants to say something but changes his mind and remains quiet. His lips are pressed together in a flat line. I’m not sure if his emotions run wild with what we just went through or if he is put out because once again, Blake has taken over the spotlight.
The Rain | Part 1 | The Beginning Page 6