There was no obvious path to take once they’d left the lake behind and climbed into the hills, so they tried to choose turns that kept them heading as close to south as possible. Sooner or later, they would come back into an inhabited area and they’d find signs to Santa Clarita. And, as Bobby limped on, he knew it had better be sooner or he wouldn’t make it.
They rested after a couple of hours and ate the last scraps of the food the criminals had stolen from Eve’s cabin and drank reservoir water.
“There’s people down there!” Josh said, running back from the low bush he’d used to take a toilet break. They’d come to a halt at what they hoped was the highest point of a long climb and, when they followed Josh, they could see a small town nestled in a fold of the landscape.
“Well done, Josh,” Bobby said, ruffling the kid’s head. He sighed with relief. With gravity on his side, he reckoned he might be able to stagger on a while longer.
As they descended, Bobby caught sight of people moving and the unfamiliar motion of cars along suburban roads. Probably not as much as on a normal day, but after a week of seeing no more than the occasional human being, let alone vehicle, it seemed incongruous. Almost as if, for this little town, nothing had happened.
“Hey! Who are you?”
They’d made their way down from the dusty hillside into the valley and had barely set foot on asphalt when a voice barked out from the second-story balcony of the first house.
Tanta swung around, bringing the shotgun to bear, but couldn’t fix on the target.
“You folks go on your way. We got the firepower to blow you to pieces, but we don’t wanna have to clean up the mess.”
“Where are we?” Bobby called, searching for any sign of the caller. Then he saw something moving in the shadows beyond an open window.
“This is Tesoro, and wherever you’re headed, it ain’t here. We ain’t a refugee camp. You’d best go south to Santa Clarita. There’s nothin’ here for you.”
Tanta called over his shoulder, “Probably only one of them with a weapon.”
“Yeah, but that’s enough. And we need to get to the camp, not bother frightened locals.”
Eve nodded and kept herself between Josh and the threat until they’d passed out of sight.
Other than threats of violence, the place was disturbingly normal. It had obviously been expanding in recent years, as the houses and road conditions became noticeably older as they headed south toward the center of the little town. No one approached them and, apart from the occasional revving of a car engine, they heard nothing more than the wind in their ears and condors far above.
“That looks like a school,” Eve said, pointing to the end of the road.
“And that looks like an Army vehicle,” Bobby added.
A Humvee waited at the end of the road, one door open and two men in Army caps and fatigues stood on the other side, each holding weapons at their chest and gazing to the left, away from the road Bobby and the others were walking along. As they got closer, they could see that the vehicle was at a crossroads with the school building beyond it.
Gunfire from the left. Reflexively, Bobby crouched and froze, then signaled to Eve. “Get under cover!” he hissed, pointing to one of the trees lining the sidewalk.
The soldiers had taken cover behind the Humvee’s doors and were pointing their weapons along the road. One was shouting orders Bobby couldn’t hear while the other was gesturing, beckoning.
More shots, then Bobby saw two more figures emerging from the right, from behind the soldiers, guns drawn.
“Come on!” Bobby said, as he began limping along the road, keeping to the edge of the sidewalk and out of sight of the ambushers.
“No way!” Tanta hissed as Bobby grunted past him. “I got no love for the military!”
“Dammit,” Bobby cursed under his breath as he ran as fast as he could, biting back the septic pain in his foot at every step. His only chance was to surprise the bandits before they could get close enough to hit the soldiers who were exchanging pot shots with someone off to the left.
The soldier who’d been beckoning, moved from cover, ducking down, and disappeared from view for a moment, returning with a child in his arms. A woman followed him.
Crack! Crack! The soldier fell, clutching the tiny figure to his chest.
His companion spun around to face the new vector of attack as the first bandit stooped over the fallen soldier. What was Bobby’s plan? He’d had no idea as he’d started running like Quasimodo on a bad day toward the Humvee. He just knew that these soldiers were being ambushed and now the remaining fighter was trying to return fire in two directions at once. But he was on the other side of the Humvee. Bobby couldn’t help him.
With a flash of metal, the first bandit raised his knife.
With a whoosh, Bobby swung his stick through the air.
With a sickening crack, the bandit crumpled.
Bobby collapsed to the ground and grabbed the bandit’s assault rifle. He tore the baby from the soldier’s arms and handed it to the woman. “Get under!” he roared, encouraging her beneath the vehicle as he took a quick look along the road. He didn’t have time to help the fallen soldier—perhaps he was beyond help—and now movement from his right. The second bandit had come around his side of the Humvee and had leveled his weapon at Bobby, his finger flicking toward the trigger.
Something orange flew through Bobby’s peripheral vision.
Bang!
The bandit fell to the ground.
Crack! Thud!
A dent appeared in the Humvee’s fender above Bobby’s head, and he turned, his finger slipping, and sprayed bullets up the road.
“Better give me that, Bob,” Tanta said. “You take the shotgun.”
“Thanks,” Bobby said. “You go check the other soldier.”
As Tanta scurried away, Bobby turned the fallen soldier over. Red mixed with the greens of his camouflage jacket, but his eyes opened.
“Who…are you?”
“Name’s Bobby Rodriguez.”
“Why’d you…attack…”
“No! I saw them creep up on you and came to help.”
The woman had crawled out from under the vehicle, the baby clutched to her chest. “He’s right,” she said. “He came to help.”
She shrieked as Tanta returned.
“It’s okay, he’s with me,” Bobby said.
The soldier on the ground nodded to the other side of the Humvee. “Williamson?”
“Dead,” Tanta said. “Sorry.”
“Where’s the nearest military hospital…” He glanced at the ID patch on the man’s chest, “Schmidt?”
The man winced as pain shot through him. “Santa…Clarita.”
Eve scurried to where they kneeled, Josh in tow.
“Get everyone aboard,” Bobby said. “We’ve got to get him help.”
“Can you drive one of these?”
“We’re about to find out.”
While Eve got the frightened woman and child into the back of the Humvee, Bobby helped Tanta lift Schmidt. “Thanks for helping me out,” he said as they heaved him into a front seat.
“Sure. To be honest, I couldn’t stand to see you tryin’ to take down a shooter with a stick. It was kinda pathetic.”
Bobby smiled. “Maybe that was the plan all along. But anyway, we’ve got to move. There’s probably more of them out there, and Schmidt’s in trouble.”
“D’you want me to drive?”
“You think it’s a good idea for us to roll into a military camp with a criminal at the wheel?”
“I gotta jacket on.”
“Yeah, but your orange pants aren’t exactly the latest fashion.”
“Well, as long as you reckon you can handle it. You’re burning up.”
He was right, but Bobby wasn’t about to let Tanta drive. It was going to be hard enough to explain how he came to be driving a Humvee, let alone a criminal, and every second mattered.
Bobby climbed into the front
, turned the key in the ignition, and put the vehicle into drive.
They followed the sign posts to Santa Clarita, but were forced to divert off the highway almost as soon as they reached it, taking a left at the Best Western and heading east, following the water. They knew they were going in the right direction because the cars and trucks had been pushed to one side.
To their right, the roller coasters of Magic Mountain rose out of the rippling water. It was one of the saddest things Bobby had ever seen. A lone car sat on the top of the tallest coaster. What a view it must have, he thought. A view of humanity on its knees.
As they went east, then southeast, they saw more and more people and vehicles. First a trickle, then a stream, then a queue. But they all moved out of the way of the Humvee as it threaded its way through the throng.
Schmidt, who was leaning against Tanta’s shoulder, had remained conscious, though it was obvious he was approaching the point of no return. He held up an ID card, which Bobby took as they rolled up to a checkpoint.
A woman in camouflage approached the Humvee and put out her hand. Bobby handed her the ID and got ready to move on when she climbed up and looked through the window.
“What the… Who are you?” she said, her alarmed tone enough to bring two others, weapons ready, to stand behind her.
“He needs medical help. Urgently,” Bobby said.
“How the hell are you drivin’ a military vehicle?”
“He was under attack and we helped.” Bobby struggled to keep the anger out of his voice.
She leaned farther forward and saw Schmidt on the middle of the front seat. “Pete? What happened? Where’s Bern?”
Schmidt went to answer, but collapsed back onto Tanta’s shoulder. Then the guard noticed his orange pants.
“Okay, get yourselves out. I don’t know what you’re playing at, but we’ll take Schmitty.”
She pulled the door open and a burly private grabbed Bobby by the shoulder and pulled him out of the driver’s seat. Bobby collapsed sideways, put his bad foot down to break his fall and his mind exploded in scarlet agony.
He saw no more.
#
Heat. Burning up in the bright light. Then darkness and void.
Pain, bursting from the heat like a demonic seed, spreading like a spear through his leg and into his torso. Darkness. Sleep.
Awake. Hunger. Where was he? Fingers met softness. His hand wrapped around something smooth, something plastic that crinkled in the quiet.
He felt as though he was moving, as if someone was pushing him. Flashing lights and impressions of people, many people.
He was raised up.
He saw Ellie. She was scowling at him. “You only had one job. Look after our daughter. One job, and you messed it up!”
Then people milling past. He heard Maria’s voice: “Papa!” He caught a glimpse of movement. He thought he saw her face, and then she was gone.
His head rolled from side to side as he put out his arm, trying desperately to grab anything, to root himself in reality somehow. He knew he was delirious, but he had to act out his nightmare.
He ran his other hand over his forehead. Hot. Burning up. But the hottest part of him was his foot. It felt like his toes were inside a balloon full of lava, and that any second they’d burst.
Where were the others?
“You gotta take it.”
He heard and obeyed. He didn’t have the strength to resist. He barely had the strength to swallow.
“Where?”
He was in a bed. A real bed.
A hand clasped around his.
“Maria?”
It wasn’t her face.
“It’s me, Eve. You’re safe. Just rest.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry about anything. You’re okay. Rest, Bobby.”
His eyes flipped open like a vintage cigarette lighter. Where there had been darkness, there was now light. His head was lying to one side and he could see a bed a few feet away. He could hear the murmuring of voices and got the impression that there were beds on all sides, with people moving between them. It reminded him of images he’d seen from field hospitals in Syria. Sunlight leached in through a canvas roof and the air smelled of Clorox. “Where the hell am I?”
“Don’t you blaspheme in my presence!”
“Eve?”
She smiled. “I guess I can forgive you, just this once. How do you feel?”
“Hungry.”
“Good. I’ll go fetch you something.”
He grabbed her arm as she went to get up, startled as the IV tube rubbed against his skin. “Tell me, Eve. Where am I?”
She sat down again. “You’re in the field hospital in Santa Clarita.”
“How did I get here?”
“That’s a long story. I’ll tell you once you’ve eaten.”
“How long have I been here?”
Eve sighed. “Here? Since yesterday.”
“Maria.”
“I’m sorry, Bobby.”
Ice flooded his gut as he saw the grief in her face.
“What’s happened?”
She shook her head. “You have to eat something, get stronger. There’s nothing to be done.”
He pulled himself upright. “Eve, what’s happened? Tell me!”
Eve took in a deep breath and ran her hands down her face, rubbing at the dark rings around her eyes. “Okay. But you have to promise to eat something. You have to get your strength back.”
“For God’s sake, will you tell me what’s happened?”
“What’s the last thing you remember?”
He searched his memory. “They pulled me out of the Humvee.”
“Right. They took Tanta into custody, and held us under guard. They were going to throw us back through the gates, at best, I think. They thought we must be bandits.”
“Bandits who drove into a military camp?”
She shrugged. “Stupid bandits, then. But after an hour or two of me begging them to get you treatment, a gurney appeared and a couple of the guards took you in. Turns out Schmidt woke up long enough to tell them what had happened. They brought you here, and gave Josh and me a temporary room. Seems Schmidt was highly regarded, but they didn’t fully believe him until they sent a squad to retrieve his colleague’s body. They found an eyewitness who confirmed everything.”
He nodded and looked at her as she composed herself. “We got debriefed and then I found someone in charge and told them about Maria. I remembered you said she was just outside Ventura, so they diverted a patrol and went looking for her.”
“And?”
“Oh, Bobby, I’m so sorry. They found the place, just by a radio station mast. And they found bodies. Mainly old folks.”
Tears flooded his eyes, so he was looking through a blurry film of grief.
“Nobody was alive. And there was no sign of a girl. Maria’s gone, Bobby.”
He felt a second wave rear over him, more deadly than the first. A wave of grief and despair. A tsunami of guilt. It rose up, fell upon him and he was lost.
Chapter 21
Fight
“She held up ten fingers? And your entire plan depends on what she meant?” Ellie felt as though she’d rolled her eyes so many times since Tom had said he’d seen Jodi that they might pop out and roll around the floor.
“What else could she have meant?”
Ellie put on her most exaggerated “what the heck?” expression. “Are you serious? I mean, even if you’re right, what do you expect her to do? She’s a kid!”
Tom swung his legs over the side of the bed and shook his head. “There’s more to her than you know. She’s pretty smart. And I guess Patrick was with her.”
“Oh, that’s alright then. A movie star’s spoiled brat and his washed-up best friend.”
Tom went to open his mouth when they heard the key turn in the door and May came in with a tray that she put down on the bed.
“Room service?” Ellie asked. “I thought we were going to be
left to starve.”
May smiled weakly and began to back away. “I had to make yours before Mr. Fletcher and the others eat at seven.”
Through the open door, Ellie could see the gut of Linus, but as May went out, something flashed through the air and landed on the bed. The door clicked shut and footsteps moved away.
“It’s the spare key,” Ellie said, retrieving it from behind a pillow.
“Good grief, she must have stolen it from under Fletcher's nose.”
Ellie held it up. “I guess this means we have to make our move, otherwise she’s going to be in for it when he notices it’s gone.”
“It’s ten to seven now…”
“Are you suggesting we wait until the cavalry arrives?”
“That may be too late.”
Ellie nodded. “Yeah. I vote we go for it as soon as we’re ready. Maybe they’re watching and we’ll be able to signal to them. But anyway, this is our chance.”
“So, what’s the plan? There’s still three of them and two of us. And they’re all armed.”
“Are we escaping or taking the boat back?”
“What?”
“Well, the easiest way to get out of here would be on the dinghy.”
“They’d shoot it out of the water!”
“Not if we distract them. A fire, maybe?”
Tom took in a deep breath and then shook his head. “No, if they take the boat, then we’ve lost everything and we’ll be as stuck here as everyone else.”
“I agree. Douglasville seems under control at the moment, but wait until the food starts running out. There’s a lot of grieving folks in those camps who’ll probably figure they don’t have a lot to lose.”
“And there’ll be plenty of other places like there. On the boat, we’re safe.”
Ellie snorted. “Yeah, right. Until we get boarded by pirates. And we’ve got Lewis to think about. We’ve got to get him out of here, too.” She felt a stab of guilt because she’d forgotten the boy.
The Drowned: Deluge Book 1: (A Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Survival Story) Page 19