by J. P. Castle
“BASTIAN, my brother said he’s coming to clear us a path out of here. He said get ready to blow through the checkpoint. Ledger, hurry, call the others and tell them to follow us no matter what we do.”
“Are you sure it was him?” said Bastian. “It could be a trick.” The faint rumble of a helicopter grew louder on approach.
“I’m 100 percent positive,” said Troian, peering out the window. “It was definitely, Tony, though I’m not sure what his plan is or who’s in that chopper heading our way.”
“Well, something’s definitely happening. Here comes a military truck flying up the emergency lane right now,” said Bastian.
The chopper came into their field of view, an advanced Apache Longbow armed with Hellfire missiles. The impressive bird stirred up dust all around during its descent.
Everyone, even the soldiers directing the search, squinted upward to watch the assault chopper land one hundred feet away from the barricades.
Troian’s brother, Tony, leaped from the cockpit, along with his buddy. The rest of his crew—four total—sprung from the military truck, sliding to a stop right beside the Apache.
Tony and his men were all decked out in hardhats and blue military fatigues—combat-ready. He and his men hauled it hard ‘n fast toward the barricade.
Bastian swallowed hard.
Soldiers from the checkpoint argued with Tony and his men. Tony drew his weapon upward and stuck it in the man’s chest standing in front of him. The men he brought with him followed suit. They rapidly disarmed the soldiers guarding the roadway.
“You, you, ‘n you,” ordered Tony, “clear these barricades from here at once.”
“You’ll be court-martialed for this,” said the Lieutenant in charge.
Tony glared back through his dark sunglasses. A tall, confident, well-built man with dark hair—the same as his sister—and a strong jawbone. “Maybe so, but if you don’t move real, real fast, I’ll make sure you’re not around to worry about it.”
The soldiers cleared the large orange barricades from the roadway. Tony motioned traffic to pass while his men held the other soldiers at gunpoint. People wasted no time driving past the obviously tense situation.
Bastian approached and rolled down his window, barely able to see through the dust.
“Come with us,” yelled Bastian, hearing another inbound chopper. “Friends of yours?”
Tony turned, not one but two Super Cobras charged hard in their direction.
“NOT FRIENDS, GO, GO!” said Tony, waving them on with his gun. “I’LL FIND YOU, TROIAN!”
“TONY!” cried Troian with her hands pressed up against the window.
Bastian floored the SUV and sped onward. Mr. McCrady and Joaquin did precisely the same. Troian turned to the rear window. Sparks flew from Tony’s weapon, along with his crew.
Smoke rose from the gun as the shells flew out the side. Tony and his crew tried to hold off the two beasts sent by Major General Given to subdue them. The attack helicopter launched an air assault in the direction of the gunfire coming from Tony’s men. A three-barreled Gatling gun cleared two cars off the road in short order and caused another to burst into flames.
Two of Tony’s men fell, taken down by the massive gun. Tony continued to fight bravely until he spun around, staggered a few feet, and dropped. Troian didn’t see where he’d been struck.
“Let me out! I have to help him!” she cried.
Bastian put distance between them and the fiery shootout. The last thing Troian caught site of, her brother being dragged by two of his buddies back toward the chopper they’d shown up in. Tony’s men secured him into the big bird with his partner, Rich.
The assault chopper could only hold two people, Tony’s other two buddies jumped into the back of a civilian truck. Tony managed to raise the Apache before the Super Cobras could get a missile lock on him. He led the attack choppers in the opposite direction, away from his sister.
Ledger grasped ahold of Troian and held her close; she sobbed into his shoulder. Bastian had no words. Ledger turned to see if they’d cleared the danger. “WHOA!” He said, releasing his grip.
He glimpsed Tony’s Apache heading straight toward the first Super Cobra. A Hellfire missile left Tony’s helicopter; the enemy pilot turned a hard left, attempting to gain altitude. A gigantic explosion filled the sky.
“Tony hit one! It’s going down hard!” said Ledger. “NO, NO, NO, FASTER, BASTIAN! THE OTHER ONE’S HEADING STRAIGHT AT US!”
Tony’s chopper pulled a 360-degree turn, dropping back down to fall in line behind the second Super Cobra. The Cobra launched before Tony could catch up.
“A missile headed our direction!” screamed Rani.
Bastian buried the gas pedal. The missile struck the road in front of them, leaving an enormous hole. He jammed his foot down on the brakes, then back on the gas. Rock debris flew up and cracked the windshield of the SUV. Bastian swerved around the crater just in time to meet the Super Cobra barreling toward them head-on, again. He glanced into the rearview mirror.
Mr. McCrady hunkered over the steering wheel of the R.V. with both hands and blazed down the road at top speed. The box-shaped rig rocked back ‘n forth from the wind blasting across the open plains.
Tony’s crew closed in from behind, a lion about to take down its prey by the throat.
“This is it right here, guys . . . come on, come on,” said Bastian, glancing back in time to watch another Hellfire missile leave Tony’s chopper. Turning back to the road ahead, Bastian saw another rocket headed straight at his SUV from the enemy Super Cobra.
Tony’s missile made impact first, ripping the Super Cobra into complete shreds. The bird split in half from the brutal explosion and fell from the sky. Bastian swerved right to avoid the final rocket. Mr. McCrady and Joaquin followed Bastian’s lead.
Everyone held their breath watching the missile fly past, feet from the SUV, and collide with the pavement behind them. Debris pummeled and bounced off the rooftops of the vehicles again.
“HE DID IT!” said Rani.
Ledger snatched off Troian’s wrist-unit and crushed it on the floor. He threw the remains out the window. “Sorry, Troian, we’ll have to get you a new one.”
Bastian looked up, Tony saluted from above and waved them on. Bastian held his fist out the window in the air and continued to haul it on down the road toward Vedauwoo.
Tony headed westbound, lowering his altitude to an undetectable level.
“I can’t believe we survived that. Troian, your brother is forever in my debt,” said Bastian.
“He’s in all of our debts. I just hope he’s okay, and the worst thing is . . . I have absolutely no way to find out. NONE OF THIS IS FAIR! None of it,” she said, turning her head to the window.
“Did you mention where we’re headed to him?” said Bastian.
“I did so in a way that only he would recognize the location. Our family has camped there several times over the years.”
“If he doesn’t find us there. I will do everything in my power to try to find him,” said Bastian. “I promise.”
Troian remained silent, all hope faded with no way to contact her last living family member.
Ledger put his arm around her. “He saved us all. I never imagined at any time in my life, an assault helicopter would blast a missile toward me with full intentions of killing me. After this past week, seeing myself on the news, this, let’s just say . . . it would be hard to surprise me at this point,” said Ledger. “And same as Bastian, if there is anything I can do to help find him, Troian, I will, I promise.”
“Yeah, me too,” said Rani.
MOMENTARY SOLITUDE
THE EXHAUSTED GROUP wheeled into Vedauwoo, Wyoming, around 10:00 p.m. that night. Everyone wearily exited the vehicles. Bastian explained what happened at the roadblock to the group, who was eager to understand how they’d escaped death once again.
“So, you can all thank Troian, whom I hope someday gets to forward those gestures o
n to her brother, Tony. If it weren’t for him, we’d all have needles in our arms right now,” said Bastian.
“Oh my gosh, I wasn’t sure what was happening, I nearly clawed a hole through the seat on that one,” said Ginger Halliday.
“That makes two of us,” said Bryce.
“I thought the R.V. was going to flip over for sure,” said Youlie. “I bruised Amir’s leg with my grasp.”
Everyone humbly thanked Troian. She gave a half-grin to each person, fighting back the tears.
“You’ll see him again just like I’m gonna see my twin brother, Brock,” said Bryce, giving Troian a hug. “I truly believe that.”
Troian didn’t say anything back to Bryce. She gathered herself and maintained a neutral expression as her mother had taught her to do in trying times. I’ve always wondered why people try to give other people false words of comfort. Especially when it’s blatantly clear, the likelihood of those words ever coming true is near zero—99 percent of the time.
Saying things like, it’ll be alright. Those medical tests will come out okay. You’ll find your lost dog, he’ll turn up. That wound will heal; they can do amazing things these days. Don’t worry, you’ll get accepted into your favorite college.
Oh, and my most favorite of all, try not to worry, everything will be fine. Sometimes you want them all to shut up and realize that a situation is NOT gonna work out the way you hope it will. And everything is NOT always gonna be fine.
Stop this. Don’t do this to yourself. Negativity isn’t you. I am Troian Sinclair, and I refuse to give up hope. You’re out there somewhere, Tony. I need to find you, that’s all. Troian redirected her attention back toward the group when Bastian spoke.
“Well . . . we almost had the new SUV for a full day completely intact, haha, but at least it’s only a cracked window,” he said. “Let’s all get some sleep and hope for a quiet day tomorrow. Two mini-wars in one day have flat done me in, as I’m sure it has all of you, too.”
“HE DID WHAT!” General Given raked his hand angrily across his desk, clearing half of the items to the floor. He rose, bashing his chair into the wall behind him. “YOU MEAN TO TELL ME HE STOLE A MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR CHOPPER . . . FROM THE BASE . . . OUR OWN MILITARY BASE . . . AND NO ONE, NOT A SINGLE PERSON TRIED TO STOP HIM!”
“His methods were indeed very clever, sir. By the time we knew what was going on, it was too late. Everyone assumed he was training the personnel he had with him. The other bad news is . . . we also lost the tracking signal, sir.”
“I sent two, not one, but two Super Cobra’s after that boy, and you’re telling me that neither unit could get a lock on him to blow him out of the air!”
“Tony is the best Apache pilot we’ve ever seen, sir. He’s magic in the clouds with that machine. He trains everyone how to use it, he’s a master at the most effective combat air-maneuvers. There isn’t anyone here that could rival his skill in the air—not even come close.”
“Exhaust all resources to find him. Get out before I kill you, too. I can’t believe it’s been this difficult to find one group of ignorant, stupid little teenagers and now this. Millions of dollars I must answer for, millions . . . lost today under my command.”
Oh, man, kid. This is all your fault. You’re mine if it’s the last thing I do. I’m gonna get you, Bastian. I’m gonna kill you, your friends, your family, AND ANYBODY ELSE who speaks fondly of you, helps you, associates with you, OR EVEN SAYS YOUR NAME IN MY PRESENCE. Your day is coming soon.
MUCH NEEDED CALMNESS surrounded the camp the following morning. Bastian and Ledger spoke behind the SUV with the rear hatch raised, taking stock of the guns and ammo.
“It’s quiet here,” said Ledger. “I never really noticed or appreciated simple things in life . . . like how warm the sun feels right now.”
“Normal teenagers are too busy to consider those things, or too young, maybe. We went from high school jocks worried about homecoming dates to survivalists overnight,” said Bastian.
“Yeah, we sure did. I’ve seen more horror this past week than I ever expected in my whole entire life.”
“You and me both, man. Girard’s gonna keep coming harder.”
“Well, he can’t track Troian’s phone now, maybe we can rest a day or two. How long will we be here?” said Ledger.
“No idea,” said Bastian, “but we’ll stay put until I hear something from my uncle, or at least that’s my immediate thought. Whatever was out there last week, is about to get a thousand times worse. The way things have gone so far . . . I half expect alien robots to pop up out of those mountains over there and head straight for us.”
They laughed.
“I’m gonna go make a sandwich,” said Ledger. “Want one?”
“Naw, I’m good right now, thanks,” said Bastian.
Ledger meandered away as Ginger Halliday walked up. She sat on the edge of the SUV facing the sun while Bastian packed up the ammunition.
“What’s up?” said Bastian. He didn’t make eye contact.
“The man that stepped in front of Joaquin yesterday, he’s awake. He’s sitting over by the fire with his dog. Joaquin’s going to talk to him.”
“Yeah, I’m not sure what to do with him yet. Our group keeps growing, and we can only support so many.”
“I totally get that . . . I’m an add-on, too,” said Ginger.
“You turned out to be an asset so far. I mean, you’ve pulled your weight, and you handle yourself well with a gun.”
“I appreciate you saying that. I noticed you with Rani last night. She’s your girlfriend, right?”
“Yep.”
“I don’t mean to pry, and I didn’t mean to stare, but I watched how you held her last night, and the night before that. It didn’t seem the same as when I saw you with Troian the other night in the kitchen. You’re with the wrong girl, aren’t ya?”
“You’re mistaken about what you saw in the kitchen. Troian ‘n I, we’re just friends. She doesn’t even like me—that way. Besides, how could you rush to a snap judgment like that only being here a couple days . . .”
Ginger flipped her hair back. “Just friends, that’s a good one. You’re right, I’ve only been here a couple days, but I’m fast to pick up on details. The other night, at the fridge, that wasn’t a friend type of moment, that was intimate. I used to feel that way about someone . . . that’s over now, though,” said Ginger.
Bastian glared at her with his brow raised, eye squinted. He didn’t want to have this conversation. Least of all, with a complete stranger. Sure, Troian had been on his mind a time or two, between people trying to kill him.
He’d also had a challenging time trying to forget the recent moments they’d shared, especially the kiss in the park—both of them. He tried to reason in his own mind why he’d kept them secret from Rani.
“This subject is really none of your business,” he said.
“Point taken, didn’t mean to overstep my bounds,” said Ginger, deciding not to push the issue. She helped Bastian finish cleaning the rest of the weapons and mentioned no more of it.
JOAQUIN SAT DOWN beside the man he’d nearly killed the day before. The man rested in front of the fire with a blank expression on his face. His dog laid content at his feet.
“How you feel this morning?” said Joaquin, taking a seat beside him.
“Sore. I have a headache,” said the man.
“I didn’t mean to hit you yesterday. You stepped right out in front of me. We couldn’t take you to a hospital, so we brought you along. I’m Joaquin, by the way.”
“Name’s Thirsten, this is my dog, Martin. Where are we?”
“Wyoming, in a park. I can take you to the main road if you want to hitchhike back the way we came.”
“There’s nothing left for me back there. Nothing. Even my house is gone.”
“What do you mean?” said Joaquin.
“When my wife found out about the virus, she feared the worst. She believed staying on this earth would be worse than
dying. She gave our two kids a bunch of sleeping pills mixed into some brownies she baked. After they went to sleep, she set the house on fire and shot herself.
“I don’t understand how she could do that. I’m a preacher, she’s aware of the consequences of suicide, according to the Bible. I came home from the church to fire trucks and ambulances. A couple of days later, the coroner told me how they’d really died. I started walking with no direction in mind. When I got tired, I heard you coming. I’m sorry I put you in that situation. I’m not crazy.”
“You’re not crazy at all. I’m so sorry about your family, but killing yourself isn’t the answer. I know that much. You’re welcome to stay with us for now, but I’ll have to talk to the group before I can say anything is . . . permanent.”
“Did you all get the vaccine?” said Thirsten.
“No, it’s poison, designed to kill a portion of the population. Stay away from any vaccine centers. That’s why, for a clean conscience’s sake, we also didn’t take you to a hospital. That’s all I can tell you right now.”
“Thanks for picking me up ‘n not leaving me in the middle of the road. I certainly wasn’t in my right mind at the time. Not sure what to do at this point. How do you know the vaccine is poison?”
“It’s a long story. Rest, for now, get your strength back. We’ll figure the rest out later,” said Joaquin. He sat with Thirsten for about thirty minutes, then went over to update Bastian on the situation.
“GLAD YOU’RE UP ‘n about,” said Bryce, sneaking up behind Caleb, who stood alone beneath a shade tree. “Whatcha doin’ over here all by yourself?”
“Can’t stand being cooped up in the R.V. any longer, even if it does still hurt to get around.” He turned to make full eye contact.
Bryce fiddled with the bark on the tree. Caleb enjoyed watching her hair blow in the breeze.
“I wanted to say thank you for saving my brother. I didn’t find out until later, it was you who killed the soldier that first night, and double thanks for saving my life in the R.V.”