Out Of The Fire Page 6

  “But can you hang on?” she asked as Mitch straddled his own ATV and fired it up.

  “I guess I better, or Billy Badass there is going to use me as crazy-bait,” Dwayne said. “As much as I enjoy wrassling with big-tittied, naked women, that one will kick my ass and eat me for a midnight snack.” He shook his head groggily and stared at Candy a moment in shock. “Sorry. I blame the drugs you gave me. Normally, I wouldn’t…I mean. I blame you.”

  Candy rolled her eyes and jumped on the ATV. She fired the engine and gunned the accelerator, pulling out ahead of Mitch, with Dwayne hanging on for dear life.

  Bill and Jason hadn’t driven far before encountering a car on the side of the road. Jason sat up straighter in the seat of Bill’s Jeep and stared out the window. “That’s the car of the man Gram helped.”

  The man you shot, Bill thought. He knew Jake didn’t have to say it. It was one of those things that could go unsaid, but they both knew it to be true.

  “I wonder where his wife is?”

  Bill slowed the Jeep at his words and stole a glance at the boy. “Wife?” Bill stared at the abandoned car. “The man had a wife?”

  Jason nodded and sat back down in his seat as they passed the car and slowly rolled farther down the road. “Y’all didn’t say anything about him having a wife,” Bill said. “Was there anybody else in the car? Kids?”

  Jason shook his head. “No, just him and his wife.” He didn’t elaborate any further, and Bill didn’t know if it was because the boy chose not to, or simply didn’t know.

  Bill sighed as he tried to decide what to do. The infected shouldn’t have made it this far out. For one to have made it? A fluke. Two…well, they were travelling together, so, it’s understandable. But one is now gone, the other unaccounted for.

  Bill slowly rolled the Jeep to a stop. “Why are we stopping, Bill?” Jason asked. Bill didn’t even notice that he didn’t call him ‘uncle’ Bill. The boy may be young, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew there was no relation between himself and the large Texan.

  “We need to stop this, Jake.”

  “Keep them from getting out of the park, you mean?”

  Bill’s hand trembled as he thought of Richard sitting alone in the house, intent on becoming infected with his wife. If what the boy said about them being in pain was true, there was no way he could leave the man like that. And there was no way that any authorities could know that it had gotten all the way out here.

  “I don’t know what I mean anymore,” Bill replied softly.

  “You want to help my grandpa, don’t you?”

  Bill nodded, his mind drifting back to the gentle man he’d met at the park. He hadn’t known him for very long, but he had grown to really like him. He respected him. And now here he was, running away with the man’s grandson. He was a peace officer. His job was to help people, not turn and run.

  “Yeah, son. I guess I do.”

  “I’m glad,” Jake said as he slipped his hand over to pat Bill’s. “It will be all right. I promise.” Bill turned and gazed at the little boy, his eyes still bright with innocence and somehow, he felt that it would be. He didn’t know how, but he did.

  “Well, okay, then. Let’s turn around and see about that, shall we?” Bill turned the Jeep on the narrow road and flipped a quick U-turn.

  The trip back didn’t take near as long as Bill drove faster than he had during their departure. He pulled into the driveway and slid to a stop. As he unbuckled his seatbelt, he turned to Jason. “No matter what you hear, you stay here. If I’m not back in ten minutes…” he considered the kid’s options, “well, just lock the doors and stay low. Hopefully somebody will come for you sooner or later.”

  “You’ll be back,” Jason said.

  Bill stepped out of the Jeep and released the safety on his 9mm. “I hope you’re right, kid,” he replied softly under his breath.

  Bill entered the house through the rear entrance. He stepped into the living room and scanned the empty room. The lights were still on, but turned low. He went down the hall and the bedroom door was slightly ajar. He could hear a noise inside, but wasn’t sure what it was. Stepping closer, he heard sobbing.

  Bill stepped closer and pushed the door open.

  Richard sat on the floor next to the bed, holding the body of Harriet in his lap, tears running freely down his face. Bill lowered his weapon and stepped inside the room. “I’m sorry.”

  Richard looked up at him through tear-swollen eyes and shook his head. “She begged me to end the pain,” he cried.

  “I know,” Bill said softly. “I know.” He knelt down beside his friend and took his hand. “But right now, there’s a little boy out in my Jeep that really wants his grandpa.”

  Richard looked up at him and shook his head. “I can’t, Bill. I can’t look him in the eye after killing her,” he sobbed. “She was everything to him. He was the apple of her…” he trailed off, his words catching in his throat.

  “Believe me, that kid knows more than you give him credit for.” Bill patted his arm. “And he needs you.” He pulled at Rich and helped him up from the floor. They sat Harriet gently on the bed and Bill spread the comforter over her body.

  “What am I going to do? She was my everything.”

  Bill shook his head. “I can’t answer that one, buddy.” He eased him out of the room. “But she’s at peace now, and you ended the pain. You came through for her in the end.”

  Richard sobbed again, and his legs started to go out from under him. “Easy there,” Bill soothed. “Come on.” He directed him out of the room and sat him on the couch. “Do you need clothes or anything?”

  Richard shook his head. “I can’t think right now.”

  Bill nodded. “Right.” He sighed heavily and glanced out the window to the Jeep where Jake sat. “Well, I still have your bag of money, so anything you need we can get on the road. But your grandson is sitting in your driveway. Anything creeps up on the house, and he’s a sitting duck. We really need to get gone.”

  Richard seemed to snap out of it then. He stood up and Bill gave him a helping hand as he walked out the door. “Just get in the back and try to rest. I’ll get us to a hotel or something for the night.”

  Richard nodded as Bill led him to the Jeep and opened the back door. He slipped into the back and neither he nor Jason said anything as Bill got in the front and began turning the little SUV around. “How about we point this thing towards Portland and work our way to your house, eh, Jake?” Bill said, trying to lighten the mood.

  Jake nodded as Bill started to move them back down the drive. “Okay. But the army mans will probably try to stop us.”

  “There are roadblocks on all the highways, byways, entrances, and exits. We have a unit combing the woods now, and choppers doing flyovers looking for heat signatures, and radioing their locations back to the ground teams. Trust me, sir, we will have this outbreak contained and cleaned up before nightfall tomorrow,” Vickers said into the satellite phone.

  Major Chappell stood to the side and made notes while the colonel paced and nodded. “Yes, sir. As soon as we can,” he responded. The major glanced at him and wished that she could hear both sides of the conversation. “We’ve commandeered the local ranger station and a few police assets that were left on the scene. They aren’t much, but they’ll work for an operation of such short duration.”

  Major Chappell wished that just once, the higher brass would leave the safety of the Pentagon and drag their tight asses into the woods for an operation like this one. She’d seen some of the first bodies that were brought back. They were close, and upon seeing the activity at the scene, began screaming and attacked. They were made quick work of, but the damage to the bodies before they were shot made her wonder how they continued to live, much less be so lethal.

  “The CDC has just arrived and is setting up their own shop, sir,” Vickers explained. “From Fort Collins. The New Vector-Borne Infectious Disease Laboratory, or some such. I’m not exactly sure, but this is right
up their alley, and they were the closest branch,” Vickers continued to explain as he kissed their collective asses. It made Chappell sick.

  “Yes, sir, I’ll keep you updated,” he said again before hanging up. Vickers sighed and placed the satellite phone back into the secure briefcase. “What a bunch of morons,” he muttered.

  She turned to the colonel. “And they’re the source of our black operations orders, sir?”

  Vickers raised a brow at her. “Negative, Major,” he replied softly. “As far as the Pentagon is concerned, this operation is simply a contain and cleanup.” He stared out the window at the light beginning to form on the horizon. “Those orders come from a much higher source.”

  “Higher than the Pentagon, sir?”

  “Better not to know. Plausible deniability ring a bell? We’re going to have a long day ahead of us. And we’ll be needing that Mobile Command trailer cleaned out.”

  “On it, sir,” she said as she turned to leave.

  “Major, one more thing.” Vickers continued to stare out the window.

  “Yes, colonel?”

  “This is from the Pentagon.” He turned to face her. “There were no survivors.”

  Her face never wavered as she nodded. “Yes, sir.” She turned and headed out the door to relay the colonel’s orders. As soon as she stepped out into the brisk mountain air, she felt her knees begin to buckle.

  “What the hell have I gotten myself into?”

  Chapter 4

  Buck overcompensated on a turn and felt the pickup begin to fishtail. As he steered to correct it, the vehicle slid sideways on the dirt road and he watched in horror as the front fender collided with a parked car. The rear of the truck spun around sharply and hit another car on the opposite side of the road. The momentum carried the truck over on to its side, rolling it to its top and partially over to the other side.

  Neither he nor Skeeter had bothered with a seat belt, and subsequently they bounced around the inside of the cab, smashing into each other, never feeling the cuts from a thousand pieces of safety glass as it rained down upon them. Buck found himself wedged under the steering wheel on the floorboard, his arm pressing the gas pedal to the floor, the rear wheels spinning uselessly as the engine revved faster. Skeeter lay across him at an angle, her arm wedged behind him and stuck against the side of the truck’s interior.

  “That wasn’t fun,” Buck muttered as he pried his arm up and off the accelerator. “Can you move off me?” he asked as he tried to squeeze between the steering wheel and the seat.

  “Oh, my God. Is it going to blow up?” Skeeter panicked as she thought of all of the movies she had seen where cars exploded as soon as they collided with another vehicle. “We have to get out before it blows up!”

  “The back window.” Buck pointed to the rear of the cab. The rear window had been popped completely out of the cab and—at some point—had shattered in the rear of the bed. “Crawl out there.”

  Skeeter unceremoniously stepped on Buck as she pushed herself up and out of the hole. Buck slid across the floorboard and slipped out from under the steering wheel. He saw his dad’s pistol laying against the door panel and reached down to grab it. He didn’t know if they’d be able to make it far, but he knew that any weapon they could save from this mishap might mean life or death for them both. He tucked it into his pants again and grabbed for the backpacks, tossing them out the window.

  “Take these,” he said as he tried to wedge himself out the window.

  Skeeter had already crawled to the ground and was feeling every stiff muscle that her body had produced in the wreck. She ignored the bags as they fell out the rear window and walked in circles as Buck fell out onto the ground as well.

  “We are so screwed,” she muttered as she continued to walk in circles, staring out at the woods.

  “Grab your bag and let’s get the hell out of here,” Buck said as he tried to stand up straight. “They’re not far behind us.”

  “We’re screwed.” Skeeter turned and stared at him wide-eyed.

  Buck grabbed her by the shoulders. “Grab your bag!” he hissed through gritted teeth. “We gotta move!”

  Almost on cue, a scream broke the night air and they both turned to stare back down the way they had come. Without headlights to light up the area, they couldn’t make out any figures racing down the hillside, but Buck knew they were close.

  “Now!”

  Skeeter picked up her bag and the two took off again, hugging the vehicles along the side of the road, yet trying to stay concealed.

  “Should we try to find another car?” she asked.

  “They’re too close.”

  As they crested a slight rise, the road came to a ‘T’ with cars parked along both sides and going both directions. Skeeter gave him a panicked look and grabbed his shirt, balling it in her hands.

  “Which way do we go?” she asked, the screaming behind them getting louder.

  Buck stared at the line of cars going both directions and shook his head. He tried to sound like he knew where he was when he spoke.

  “Left.” It continued downhill and the only thing he remembered during the drive coming in was that it was nearly continuously uphill. “Yeah, we go left!” He grabbed her by the pack strap and the two took off at a dead run.

  This time they ran down the middle of the road, not trying to conceal themselves. The screamers were getting too close, and although Buck was exhausted, the sudden rush of adrenaline had his feet moving just fine. He reached his hand out and grabbed Skeeter’s hand while he ran. “Stay with me!”

  Buck could feel his legs burning and knew that Skeeter had to be about worn out as well. He was slowing down and his lungs were burning, too. He could only hear the crunch of the gravel under his sneakers and the beating of his heart mixed with the huff of his breathing as he willed himself to keep going. He could feel himself slowing even more, with Skeeter pulling him back a little at a time as they rounded a bend. He saw one more long line of cars going down yet another steep slope and he cursed to himself. How many freaking people drove to this stupid concert, anyway?

  Buck felt his feet slow to a mindless walk, even though his brain was screaming at his legs to step it up, go faster. Skeeter had let go of his hand and stopped completely. Hands on her knees, she was bent over, gasping for air.

  “We…need…to keep…moving,” Buck wheezed out. Skeeter just waved at him with her hand as she turned around and attempted to throw up.

  Buck grabbed her hand and pulled her over behind the cars one more time. They both fell to the ground and tried to use a large SUV as cover, but if anything came down the hill, their wheezing and coughing would be a dead giveaway.

  Skeeter pulled her bag around and twisted the cap on a bottle before taking a long draw from the lukewarm water. She handed the bottle to Buck, and even though his mind told him to sip it, he swallowed three big gulps and felt his stomach churn. He sat leaning against a tire, sweat running down his back and into his underwear, when he heard the distinct sound of small engines running full out. He tapped Skeeter and pointed out into the woods.

  “You hear that?” he asked breathlessly.

  She tilted her head a moment, then rolled forward to look around. Buck came to his knees and peered over the fender of the SUV. Slowly, he chanced standing. He couldn’t hear footsteps approaching, nor had he heard a scream, but he didn’t want to let them know exactly where they were.

  Slowly, he stood and scanned the area. He thought he saw light coming through the trees ahead. It almost looked like a set of headlights were cutting through the woods and would intercept the road they were on.

  “Look,” he said, pointing. “There.”

  Skeeter saw the lights, too, and shoved the bottle back in her pack. “Can we catch them?”

  “I don’t know.” Buck shook his head. “But we can try.”

  He grabbed her hand again and the two took off down the road as fast as their weary bodies would take them.

  Hatcher wai
ted for a bullet to rip into his back as he drove the ATV out of the makeshift compound the military was erecting. When it didn’t come, he wasn’t sure if perhaps the colonel was bluffing with all of his grandstanding, or perhaps he assumed Hatcher would meet his doom out here in the wild with all of the crazy infected people. Either way, Hatcher felt pretty ridiculous as he slowed the ATV and assessed his situation. He had a flashlight, a custom .45 with one magazine, and no backup.

  Great freaking plan, pal.

  Daniel did his best to clear his mind. “Okay, where would they most likely come in from?”

  He stopped and looked at the crossroad ahead of him. If they came the shortest and most direct route, they’d arrive on the forest road at his left. If Mitch was aware of it. If Mitch wasn’t aware of it, they’d come through the secondary campgrounds and come through the road on his right. Hatcher debated waiting right where he was until a helicopter flew overhead at a diagonal to him. He remembered what he’d overheard about air support and seeing the soldiers with the night vision goggles.

  “If that crazy-assed colonel thinks I’m just going to sit back and let him write off people like Mitch, then he has another thing coming to him.” He kicked the ATV into gear and shot off down the fire road on his left. “Please be on this road, Mitch,” he muttered as he accelerated up the rocky hill.

  Hatcher road like the Devil himself was on his tail as he tried to close the distance between himself and Mitch. He tried to visualize the area from a bird’s eye view. Where did the roads lead to, where did they branch, where might they intersect again? If he could find a place where he could catch Mitch and Candy before they could possibly split off, he could keep them from driving into a trap.

  Hatcher pushed his ATV as hard as he dared. and when he was certain he was at the right spot, he cut the four-wheeler to the side and took it off the road and onto another game trail. He wasn’t positive he could catch Mitch and Candy before the winding road they were on would hit the Y, but he prayed that he could beat them there. He knew they had a long and winding journey ahead of them when they left from the tower. They definitely went the scenic route when they led the crazy cannibals off, but barring anything horrible happening, they should be coming in on this road any time.