After Days (The After Days Trilogy) (11 page)

Arthur, John,
Allie, and Karen were what remained of his students, along with Mark and Samara who had been left back at their base of operations. I didn’t let on about my own Kung Fu experience just then, I didn’t feel it was necessary. Besides, I still wasn’t sure of the group yet and felt it might be better to keep my cards close to my chest, especially given what had happened when we had trusted Will and his lot.

             
After a quick stop at a department store to load some supplies into the back of the truck, we were soon on our way to the martial arts academy where Sonny and his students had been staying.

11

Sonny parked the truck in the underground parking garage next to the academy, and we helped them unload the supplies they had picked up. The academy took up the whole ground floor of a low rise building. It was carpeted and neat and tidy with equipment and such stowed neatly on shelving against the wall. There was also a rack of assorted hand weapons that took my interest.

When we were done, I asked how safe he felt driving the truck. Sonny responded that the Chinese marked their trucks with a special paint on the top to identify them to their satellites, so until the truck was reported as overdue, Chinese monitoring would not identify the truck as a threat.

              “We can't keep it very long though, tonight after dark we'll drive it to a different parking garage and burn it,” Sonny said. “This will make the third truck we've commandeered from those bastards… the first one that had prisoners in it though.”

             
“Third?” I said. “And they haven't changed their routines, or sent an armed response?”

             
“They probably think it's just a group of kids, not worth their time to send in the cavalry. There is a lot of helicopter activity the day after the truck goes overdue, but it dies down again pretty quick,” he said. “We have a radio from the soldier in the first truck, so we listen in on their chatter now and then, although I'm the only one here that even partially understands it.”

             
“They're probably speaking Mandarin, while what little Chinese you know is likely Cantonese,” Brooke said.

             
“That’s right, how did you know?” He looked impressed.

             
“They call you Sifu,” Brooke said, “that is a Cantonese term, in Mandarin the term is Shifu, subtle but tell-tale difference.”

             
“You speak Chinese?” Sonny asked.

             
“Just a little,” she replied, blushing faintly. “I've had a year of Mandarin, and Mr. Wong, the teacher, often likes…liked to point out the differences between Mandarin and Cantonese.”

             
“Do you of any of your blokes know Morse code by any chance?” Ben asked, stepping up beside his sister and placing a hand on her shoulder.

             
“I think Arthur and John have a handle on it,” Sonny said. “They were both Boy Scouts.”

             
“Do you have a normal radio with AM reception?” I asked. “It would be great to get the message written down so that we have more to go on.”

             
“Of course, although we haven't turned the radio on in over a week now,” Sonny replied. “I didn't even think of trying the AM channels.”

Sonny took some time to check over our injuries. My head still smarted from the rifle butt to the forehead, and my arm and shoulder had come out in a massive purple bruise where the rubber bullet had hit me. At least the new injuries meant that I barely even felt the muscle I ha
d strained in my thigh anymore.

Luke’s ribcage was in a similar state, and he was lucky that none of the hits he had taken had broken ribs or done more damage. He didn’t show any signs of concussion when Sonny looked into his eyes and neither did I. Apparently the Chinese soldiers had been quite skillful in disabling us without doing too much damage. When he was done, he looked us over. 

“You guys look beat and after what you went through, who can blame you. Go ahead and take a load off, the practice mats make excellent beds. I'll wake you if we learn anything new.”

             
That is exactly what we did, and you know something? He was right, the practice mats for the academy made quite excellent mattresses to sleep on. Luke and Ben were asleep almost as soon as they lay down; Brooke followed soon after.

It took a while for me to get to sleep. I was thinking about how lucky we were to be here. Lucky that our captors had chosen to stop there, lucky that Sonny and his group had been out that particular night on one of their ‘missions’ to harass the enemy. M
aybe our fortunes were turning.

I also thought about Sonny. He had been born in China, but raised as an American, and he had a rage inside of him that scared me a little when I heard him talk about the Chinese that were invading his 'homeland.'

He seemed competent at leading his group of students, and if the trophies in the case by the front doors of the academy were any indication, he was probably capable of kicking a tremendous amount of butt. I worried though, what would happen to him and his wards if the Chinese military decided to launch a strike on Worcester to stop the truck disappearances. I did not want to be here when that went down.

A few isolated patrols without support were one thing, but I somehow doubted that Sonny's 'ninjas' would be up to taking on a larger group of Chinese soldiers dedicated to hunting them down. I decided I would do my best to talk them into coming with us to the safe haven. They would cer
tainly be an asset to our little group. Lying back, I closed my eyes and fell asleep before I knew it. Since the Infection, I rarely remember my dreams, but that day I dreamed of Sarah and our group playing monopoly by the fire.

              It was late afternoon before Sonny woke us up. He said that both Arthur and John had listened to the coded message, and confirmed that it was the same message repeated over and over, switching frequencies every other time. He worried that it might simply be automated, with no living person behind it. Excited, Luke and I rushed to the kitchen where Arthur and John sat by the radio.

Arthur slid the writing pad to me.

Safe haven NH. Look for the dragon on the White Mount.

             
“So there is no proper location? This is not much more than we already knew,” I said.

             
“No,” Luke replied. “They can’t be too detailed; it has to be cryptic in case the Chinese come across it. I don’t even know if they use Morse code, but if they do, the message is backwards
and
only contains clues. It’s pretty clever really. Let me get my atlas, now that we have light and my fingers aren’t numb from the cold.” He rushed out of the room.

             
“When we decide to go, are you going to come with us?” I asked.

             
“I don't know,” Sonny replied. “We have it pretty sweet here at the moment, but who knows how long that will last.”

             
“True. And think, even if we don't find any other survivors there, it’s going to take the Chinese longer to colonize the mountains of New Hampshire than it is here,” I said.

             
“That's likely true,” he replied. “I'll have to think on it, and run it by the others, see what they think.”

Luke hustled back in, slamming the atlas on the table and pouring over the map of New Hampshire. I looked over his shoulder as he ran his finger over and around the part of the map showing the White Mountains National Park. His hand froze after only a half a minute and he pressed his finger into the page hard enough for the tip to go white. He looked at me with
a triumphant smile. I looked down and saw the words ‘Drake Mountain’.

“What?” A few of the others had joined us and all crowded around, our heads bumping together as we leant in to get a closer look.

“Read it!” he said.

“Drake Mountain? What about it?”

“Drake! Drake is another word for dragon! Dragon on the white mount!”

“I’ve been there! My parents took me to the Drake Mountain Ski resort two years ago!”

I looked around; it was Allie who had spoken.

“Well done Luke!” said Sonny, clapping him on the shoulder. My friend looked chuffed and for the moment we were all happy, the woes of the world forgotten at this little beacon of hope.

After we had all calmed down a little, we talked through what we had found out. “So it’s close to Lincoln, on the southern edge of the White Mountain National Forest. That’s about a hundred and fifty miles from here to there. Not a fun trip and especially now that the weather looks like it's turning for the worse,” said Sonny.

              “He's right, about a hundred and fifty miles from here to Lincoln,” Luke said, after a quick flip back to the Massachusetts page. “That's a hell of a walk, man.”

             
“I'm hoping we don't have to.”

             
“To what?”

             
“Walk,” I said with a smile. “Sonny's shown us the way, we commandeer a Chinese patrol truck and drive it there, a hundred and fifty miles shouldn't take us longer than what, three or four hours? We can do that well before it's reported as overdue, if we have any luck at all.”

             
“I'm not sure I'd count on our luck, dude,” Luke said, shaking his head. “It seems to be running both ways lately, and no telling whether it’s good or bad at the moment.”

Later when we were alone, Luke and I ran through our options.

             
“We have a while to decide on the exact plan,” I said. “We’ll have to lay low for a few days at least, to allow the uproar over the missing truck to die down.”

             
“We gonna stay here in the meantime?”

             
“If Sonny will let us, he seems like a straight up guy,” I replied.

             
“I could deal with a few more nights sleeping on those mats,” Luke said, his face splitting into a smile. “After the beatings and rubber bullets, my body needs a recharge.”

             
“Yours and mine both,” I said.

              A couple of hours later, Sonny invited us along while he took the rental truck to a different parking garage about a mile away to get rid of it. Luke and Ben both decided to stay behind, so it was just me, Arthur, and Karen that went with Sonny.

Arthur and Karen were both about my age. Karen was a red-head with
a bit of a temper and Arthur was tall and muscular, with a shock of brown hair and a nose like a knife blade. It was obvious to my eyes that they were in love, despite their occasional bickering. We took two five gallon gas cans and a single 20 pound portable propane tank.

             
“Get the propane and gas out of the back,” Sonny said to Arthur when we pulled the truck into a stall in a different underground parking garage. Arthur jumped to it and we soon had the propane canister sitting on the floor of the cab beneath the dashboard. “Spread the gas in that can around the cargo area of the truck.” Sonny instructed and Arthur proceeded to dump the contents of the other gas can in the cab, making sure to get a nice puddle around the propane canister. Sonny handed me a road flare.

“Do you know how to use this?” he asked.

              “I've seen it done,” I replied.

             
“Light it up and toss it in the back, all the way to the far end so that Arthur has time to pull the door shut. I'll do the same up here – we'll make sure that the Chinese never use this truck again, even if they do find it.”

             
We did as instructed, and smoke had begun filling the parking garage as we walked up the stairs to street level. Karen pointed out a sprinkler system mounted on the rafters of each floor, but of course with no power there was nothing to trigger them. About the time that we got to the street there was an echoing boom behind us. The propane canister had blown.

It was a clear night, a welcome respite
from the snowy overcast weather of the previous couple of days. There was a full, silvery moon, and it caught all of our attention. It looked so big that I felt if I reached out I could almost touch it. With no cloud cover to help hold in the heat though, the night was extremely cold and I was shivering despite my heavy parka as we walked the mile back to the Academy.

Along the way, Sonny mentioned something about a local street gang that had been moving out of their normal ter
ritory since the Infection. I have to admit I wasn't really paying that much attention to him. I was more worried about a Chinese military patrol happening upon us at any moment. Should I have paid more attention to what he was saying about the gang? In hindsight, I certainly should have. Who knows how different the events of the next week might have turned out if I had.

              We stayed four days at the Academy, and would have stayed more if fate hadn't conspired to force our hand – well, fate, dumb luck, or whatever you happen to believe in.

Sonny had been correct. T
he day after we burned the truck there was a lot of radio activity from the Chinese, along with helicopters buzzing above the city. From the little that Sonny and Brooke could understand from the radio chatter, a sweep through on Worcester by the military seemed imminent. With all that going on, laying low seemed like the thing to do, besides, Sonny had still not decided whether he and his group wanted to come with us or not, so giving them more time to decide seemed like the right thing to do.