After Days (The After Days Trilogy) (25 page)

“We're at a rest stop,” I called. “Anybody that has to use the facilities or just wants to stretch is welcome to do so.”

I unlatched the handle and pushed the rolling door part way up before a hand grabbed it from inside and helped pull. The filtered moonlight revealed Ben’s smiling face. “I thought you’d never ask!”

22

A groggy Luke and I searched the men’s  bathroom. We kept the crossbow and pistol at the ready, and searched every stall with our flashlights, making sure that nobody or nothing was lurking there to endanger those that needed to go. While we were doing that, Allie and Indigo did the same thing in the ladies block, Indigo armed with the revolver I'd given her and Allie with one of the Chinese assault rifles we had. Sonny was waiting in the truck, not game to risk turning off the engine and would go when we were done.

“You know I only have to pee because you woke my ass up right?” Luke said, shining his flashlight into the final stall.

“Sonny wanted to stop, and I thought it would be a welcome relief to you lot too.” I replied. “I know there is no heater back there...”

“There are no
gigantic wind tunnels caused by missing windows either,” Luke said. “Heat or not, so far my ride back there has been toasty compared to the time I spent in the passenger seat of the truck.” We entered a stall each and started our business.

I had put my pistol on the square toilet roll dispenser and was nearly through a long awaited wiz
when Sonny’s yell caused me to jump and pee over the rim of the toilet..

“Don’t move!”

Almost immediately a girl’s scream rang out and was immediately drowned out by a deep roar. Indigo! Adrenalin shot through my system as I desperately finished and pulled up my zipper. I snatched up my gun and ran out of my stall. Luke was well ahead of me, already disappearing outside through the door.

The sight that greeted me was surreal.
Allie, not Indigo, was frozen to the spot just outside the door to the other cinderblock building, holding the assault rifle in quivering hands as she tried to aim it at a Black Bear.

Now I know black bears are supposed to be smaller than Grizzly’s or Brown Bears, but this one was raised up on its hind legs and looked massive in the small clearing. It was roaring at
Allie and I have to admit, I was glad I had recently relieved myself because that hungry looking bear was terrifying. I immediately aimed my pistol at it and saw Luke do the same with his crossbow.

“Don’t
shoot!” a desperate voice called from our left. Indigo had crept up behind Allie and now had a calming hand on her upper arm. “Don’t shoot him.”

I had no idea if
the bear was a him or a her, and I’m not sure if Indigo did either, but the bear stopped its display of aggression and seemed to be weighing up its options now that it was faced with so many of us. Ben and Brooke had come out a short way from the back of the truck, Brooke staring in fascinated horror at the wild creature.

“What do you suggest we do if we’re not going to shoot it, Indigo?” I asked, genuinely hoping for a non-violent solution to our big furry problem.

“I think we should make a lot of noise all at the same time, scare him away. And you should fire your gun in the air. That should do it.” It was almost comical, but the bear seemed to be listening to her. It was looking at her with its big brown eyes. I definitely didn’t want to kill it…him.

“Okay, after three make all the noise you can. If it goes bad, run away as fast as you can and Luke and I will take him down. Okay?” Everyone agreed in apprehensive whispers and I could see Sonny regarding me, from where he sat in the truck with the door half open. He nodded in approval.

“One…two…three…now!” 

Everyone roared, sang and yelled at the bear. Next to me Luke was doing some crazy American Indian dance and hopping from one foot to the other as he waved his crossbow wildly over his head. In another time and place I may have burst out laughing, but as if to emphasize the gravity of the situation the bear again roared, took a step back and fell to all four paws before swinging his head from t
he girls, back to us and then to Ben and Brooke.

I believe he may have found Luke’s overenthusiastic dance particularly threatening because he turned back to us and bared his teeth. I knew instantly he was going to charge and I fired my gun over his head at the exact moment Sonny punched the horn of the truck. The next two seconds were the longest of my life. The bear froze where he was, his big eyes now on me.

I lowered my gun until it was pointing at his forehead. I could hear my pulse beating in my ear and my finger began to squeeze the trigger as the horn continued to blare in the cold night...then it was over. The bear turned and dawdled off into the trees that lined the rest stop as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Gone. As simple as that. I exhaled slowly, my breath pluming in the frigid night air, and slowly lowered my weapon.

“Did you see that?” Luke asked incredulously as the others walked over to us. “Why the hell isn’t he hibernating?”

“He is winter walking,” said Indigo, “they do that sometimes.”

“Thank goodness,” said Ben. “Well I don’t know if it was the gunshot or your silly dancing that got the better of him, but I think we dodged a bullet there.”

“Yeah, I don’t think it was the dancing though, that just seemed to make him madder,” said Brooke and we all laughed as Luke gave an encore.

We spent another ten minutes at the stop while everyone else had their toilet breaks. Sonny was the last and I stood by the driver’s door. I had snuck a look at the fuel gauge. It was under three quarters full now and I hoped it would be enough to get us close to our destination. Ben approached, looking at the sky as he walked.

“Well with all this snow and the cloud cover, at least we know that they won't be tra
cking us by satellite, hey?” he said, coming over to stand next to me while his twin sister was in the bathroom. “Might make it easier to track us on the ground though, you think?”

“If it keeps snowing like this, there is a decent chance that it'll cover our tracks by morning,” I replied.

“God willing,” Ben said.
Yeah, as if God cares
. “Are you planning on staying up front?”

“Unless somebody else really has a burning desire to replace me up there,” I said. “It's cold and miserable but does have the advantage of having windows to look out of.”

“I plan to keep my place in the back of the truck,” Ben said. “Brooke mentioned the same, the supplies are secured better this time, and hopefully there will be no careening off military vehicles and barricades in this next portion of the trip.”

“Well, Sonny actually has a driver's license, so there’s a better chance of avoiding such things. Better than with me behind the wheel at least.”

“Don't beat yourself up about it, mate, you were doing the best you could, yeah? And you managed to get most of us out of there alive and in one piece.”

“Thanks, Ben.
That means a lot to me, knowing how you all feel... people keep telling me I am being too hard on myself.”

“You are, but that is a part of who you are and what makes you a good leader,”
he said, clapping me on the shoulder. Brooke emerged from the female toilets and began limping towards us. Ben glanced over his shoulder.

“I'm going to go help Brooke back to the truck. Talk to you later, mate,” Ben said, as he walked over and offered her his arm to lean on.

I could tell that she was still troubled by her twisted ankle and I worried that it might cause some complications later in the night or the next morning when we finally abandoned the truck. It made me conscious of my own injuries. Apart from my stinging cheek, which Indigo had put Band-Aids over, and some general stiffness and sore ribs, I felt surprisingly okay.  

Sonny returned from his toilet break after a few minutes and I made sure that everybody was back where they belonged and ready to roll. I pulled the rolling door down and latched it. Sonny and Indigo were already back in the cab, so I clambered up into the passenger side seat and closed my door. 

As the truck started and the headlights came on, I thought about the falling snow, and how it seemed to bring bad luck to me ever since I had left the Foster residence. Where would I be if I had stayed there? Captured by looters…or the Chinese…dead? Perhaps. Who could say?

“Did you get any encouraging words from Luke?” Indigo asked as we pulled back out onto the freeway.

“Not really,” I said, chuckling. “Not with all the excitement. I’m pretty sure he thinks that I’m not without hope, just a cynical butt-hole.”

“I can see that,” she replied, smiling as she put her arm back around me and leaned in close for warmth.

“You think I am hopeless and a cynical butt-hole?”

“I wouldn't like you so
much if you were truly hopeless,” she replied, snuggling closer to my shoulder.

“Someone once said 'there is nothing more pitiful than a young cynic, because they have gone from doing nothing to believing in nothing,' I wonder if she was looking to the future and thinking about you?” Sonny said, from the driver's seat.

I knew he was teasing, but his comment stung me a little. That saying was from a world much different to the one we now lived in.

“Well there is one good thing about my outlook,” I said, deciding not to take it to heart. “When good things do unexpectedly happen, I get a pleasant surprise.”

“Like the bear?” asked Indigo.

“Yeah, that was good, and definitely unexpected.”

“All jokes aside,” said Sonny. “You both did really well back there, you two make a good team.”

After a few more miles, the two sides of the freeway merged together, and with no median between them they became more like a four lane highway. Soon we saw roads and even drive ways coming directly off of it. We continued traveling north at a speed of about thirty miles per hour. It was all the speed that Sonny dared given the swirling snow and limited visibility.

It took us nearly half an hour to get to the town of Hillsboro, New Hampshire. Here, the highway we were following merged with another one and turned east toward Concord. We were mostly quiet during that leg of the trip. Sonny was concentrating on the road ahead and Indigo snuggled against me with her eyes closed. At one point she began to snore, surprisingly loud for such a sweet girl, so I nudged her a little bit and she squirmed around and continued sleeping, but at least the snoring stopped.

“About five or seven miles further up the road we are going to be coming to another freeway, do you think we should stay on the highway or take the freeway in and through Concord?” Sonny asked, as we were leaving Hillsboro behind.

“I think there is good and bad about taking the freeway,” I replied. “The fact that they have limited access means that we have fewer directions that danger can approach from.”

“True enough.”

“But on the other hand, that advantage can turn into a disadvantage, because if we do meet trouble on the freeway there are fewer opportunities for escape.”

“Also true.”

“We are taking a freeway out of Concord, no matter what road we take in aren't we?”

“That's the plan.”

“Then maybe it would be easier to get on here, assuming this freeway connects to one leading north. That way we won't have to hunt for freeway entrances while we’re navigating through the city
, we just skirt around it.”

“Sounds like a decent plan, but what if the Chinese
have
occupied Concord, it seems likely to me that they'd be watching the Freeways more closely than the side roads,” Sonny said.

“Risk verses reward,
I guess. Every decision we make has to take those aspects into account. By not taking the freeway we risk running right into a Chinese patrol on one of the streets of the city with nowhere to run. We’ll take the freeway.”

“You're really starting to sound like one sometimes,” he replied, glancing at me with a small smile.

“Starting to sound like what?”

“A leader.”

Less than ten minutes later we were approaching the onramp to the freeway and Sonny pulled the truck to a stop. At first I didn't realize why, but looking at him I saw him staring at the freeway with an incredulous look on his face. Following his gaze I suddenly understood. The row of streetlights that ran along
it was blazing, the light amplified by the snow so that the freeway glowed like it was the middle of the day. On this section of road at least, the Chinese had turned the power back on.

“Maybe sticking to the side highways
and going through the city would be for the best after all,” I said after a moment.

23

We continued on highway 202 – it followed the freeway close enough that we could see its lights blazing though the trees. This went on for maybe four miles before the freeway veered off to the south-east and we continued straight on toward the heart of Concord.

Reaching the outskirts of the city, we could see that the freeway was not the only place where streetlights were working, although none of the houses or buildings we passed seemed to have any lights on. The snow was still falling, even thicker now, with the large flakes clumping together in the air. Concord was eerie, the streetlights illuminating what now seemed to be a ghost town.

“If the electricity is on, I'd bet a hundred dollars that the Chinese have troops here,” Indigo said.

She had woken up when we first started passing streetlights and had been as enthralled by them as us, looking at each one as it passed by as if it were something magical.

“I'd say so too, but there’s not much we can do about it, if we want to get to Drake Mountain.” Sonny said.

“Maybe you should turn the headlights off,” I said. “The snow is reflecting enough light from the streetlights that we don't really need it.”

“Okay,” Sonny reached forward and switched them off. The road was plenty visible and we would now be less noticeable.

“Should we stop and ask the others their opinions about this new development or do we just keep pushing on?”

“I think push on,” said Indigo, with a frown creasing her face. “Like Sonny said, there isn’t much we can do about it, short of scrapping the trip altogether, and do we really have anywhere else we can go?”

“Can we turn back and loop around, avoiding this city?” I asked Sonny.

“Possibly,” he said. “But I doubt if we have enough gas to do that, the roundabout way is long, all the way through Vermont and back.”

I looked at the gas gauge on the dashboard, it
now read a little under half a tank. “Darn it, this thing gets horrible mileage.”

“What do you expect? It’s a rental truck.” Sonny said lightly.

“Maybe we could get some gas,” Indigo said. “If the lights are working the pumps might be too, we just need to find a gas station.”

“There is also the fact that we don't know if any other way we go is actually going to be safer than this way or not,” Sonny said, pausing at a traffic light that was blinking red.

“That's why we push on,” I said, shaking my head. “We made a plan and now we need to stick to it, unless we see a real and credible threat. At least we have a plan and know what we need to do, as opposed to just winging it and making up some new plan as we go along.”

“Okay. We push ahead,” Sonny agreed, pulling through the intersection and continuing his drive deeper into the city.

Street signs said that if we continued down the highway we'd eventually reach Interstate 93, the freeway that would take us north to Lincoln, and that’s where we would join the road leading to Drake Mountain Resort.

According to Indigo, who was examining the atlas, it was about thirty miles or more to Campton, where we planned on ditching the truck, and another five from there to Lincoln. Sonny said that from Lincoln to the ski lodge, where we assumed the safe haven was, was another couple of miles. So it looked like we'd be walking at least seven miles in the snow. I desperately hoped that it would stop snowing by then.

The drive through Concord was eerie, the emptiness highlighted by the streetlights that were on. I couldn’t help looking at the rows of darkened houses, wondering how many dead Americans were entombed in the snow topped buildings. I shuddered.

Indigo saw it first.

“There's a building with lights on up there,” she said, pointing though the windshield. “We might want to take a side street and go around.”

Following her finger, I saw what looked to be a squat building about two blocks up on the right. There was a neon Budweiser sign lighting up the car park in front of it. Sonny slowed the speed of the truck and we inched closer.

I could see that there were four Humvees parked in the small lot. Clearly the soldiers were inside the bar, probably enjoying some leisure time. Something about Chinese troops sitting around drinking in an American bar, while its former owners rotted in their homes all around them, stung me badly.

“Take the next left,
” I said to Sonny. “Then a right, and pull over.”

“Why are we going to stop?” he asked.

“I want to take a closer look, maybe we can learn something.”

“Is that a smart thing to do? We could get caught.”

“Well if nothing else, we might be able to find a way to disable their hummers,” I said. “That could prevent at least this group from chasing us if we’re spotted.” He regarded me for a moment, perhaps taking in my determination.

“Alright, I guess I buy that,” he said.

He took the next left and then turned right immediately, pulling up in a dark alley that ran parallel with the main road. “Who are you taking with you?”

“Luke,” I said, without even thinking. “I'd take you, but we can't both go, we're the only drivers. Plus, you’re wounded”

“I'm going too,” Indigo said. “I can't just let you and Luke have all the fun all the time.”

“Are you sure?” I asked her. “
It could be dangerous.”

“No kidding,” she said, flipping her head. “Don't worry about me, I can pull my weight.”

“I'm not worried about you being incapable,” I said. “It's just that I like you, a lot actually, and I'd hate to see you get hurt...” My sentence was cut off by her lips closing over mine. Excitement shot through me like a bolt of electricity.

“I like you too Isaac,” she said, pulling away. “And I don’t want you to get hurt, but that's not going to stop you from going is it?”

“I guess not,” I said, looking at her in a new light.

I am ashamed to admit that deep down I felt a small amount of satisfaction remembering how Luke and I had both been trying to impress her. Well I got the first kiss Luke, what do you think of that? “Alright, just be careful and I'll try to do the same.”

“Deal, now let’s go get Luke and get started.”

We said our goodbyes to Sonny who told us he would keep the truck running, but he was getting out to stretch after the long drive. We also agreed that if we weren’t back in half an hour, he would assume the worst and leave without us.

Indigo and I climbed out of the truck and went around to the back; Luke was already crouching by the door holding his crossbow as I opened it.

“What’s up?” he asked, then I saw his eyes widen as he saw the streetlights. “The power is on? I take it this isn't just another piss stop then?” He jumped down. The others looked on with interest.

“We’re in Concord,” I said. “The Chinese seemed to have occupied it but we didn’t have a choice about going around. Anyway, there's a bunch of Humvees at a bar around the corner.

“
It seems some of the troops are letting their hair down, so we're going to go on foot and check it out. We'll see if we can scavenge anything they might have out there and maybe learn something about their number and positioning in the city. But our main goal is going to be to disable the Hummers so that they can't chase after us when we leave town.”

“Alright, who's going?”

“Me, you and Indigo.”

“Indigo? Don’t you think…?”

“Yes, Indigo.” I interrupted to forestall any argument and then immediately turned to Ben, “I need you to stay here and guard the truck, if we’re not back in thirty minutes you’re to continue without us.”

Luke didn’t push the point about Indigo; he must have sensed I wasn’t going to change my mind. We said our goodbyes and
had turned to go, when Brooke surprised me by calling out for us to wait. She jumped down and hugged each of us in turn. Luke was last and his hug seemed to linger He avoided eye contact with me as we walked to the corner, but his red face said it all. It looked like I didn’t have to worry about him liking Indigo after all.

As we made our way around the block, staying in the shadows as much as possible, I gave Luke a whispered account of our trip from the perspective of the cab. Of course, I left out the part where Indigo had kissed me.

The fresh snow was already nearly four inches deep here, and it was resting on a half inch of frozen crusty snow beneath it. Our boots made squelching noises as we walked. Reaching the corner of the highway we had been following, I could see that we were now a block away from the bar. We could hear music and laughter from the bar but there didn’t appear to be anyone guarding the vehicles in the parking lot. After all, what did they have to guard against? Hopefully we could take advantage of their complacency.

“We should cross the street and sneak up along the front of those buildings,” Luke said. “We don't want to be exposed in the street when we are close to that place.”

“Good idea.” I looked both ways before I ushered them across the street.

“There might be streetlights, but I doubt there's going to be much in the way of traffic,” Indigo said, a cheeky smile on her face as we ducked under the awning of a drugstore.

“Force of habit,” I said, distractedly.

The store window was intact and I could see that the shelves were still fairly well stocked.  If we’d had more time I probably would have raided it for supplies.

We crept slowly as we got closer to the bar, trying to prevent out boots from making too much noise. The snow was still falling just as hard as before, but now a cold wind had begun to pick up, blowing straight down Main Street. We were close enough to make out what the music was now. It was country-western.

Luke raised a hand bringing us to a stop. “Are they really listening to country music? Are we sure that these are Chinese soldiers?”

“Who else would they be?” I asked.

As silly as it was, even that one little question planted a seed of hope in my mind. Could it be Americans that had switched the power on?  Had the infection been stopped before it took everyone in authority?

“Well, there's only one way to find out,” Indigo said. “Let's get closer; we're still a block away.”

Luke started forward again and we followed single file, our backs against the front of the building that lined this side of the
street.

We stopped on the corner opposite the bar and watched it from the shadows. The Grand Slam Bar and Grill looked as lively as it had probably been before the infection. Now that we were closer, we could see that there were two more Humvees parked back where we couldn't see them from further down the highway. Humvees that clearly displayed the Chinese flag.

I swallowed my disappointment, even though deep down I had known it had to be the case. Six Humvees. If they were manned like the one at the gas station that afternoon, we were looking at upwards of thirty six soldiers in the bar.

             
“Maybe this isn't such a good idea,” Luke said quietly. He had obviously crunched the numbers too.

“They're all inside, and the windows of the bar are frosted and painted with baseball logos,” I replied, knowing we would never get as good a chance again to do some damage to the Chinese.

“We should be okay as long as one of them doesn't come outside for some reason. We have to at least cripple the Humvees. Look, they have machine guns in the ring mounts just like the one from the gas station, and those things would tear the back of our truck to shreds if they came up behind us on the freeway.”

Indigo and Luke both nodded, but from the looks on their faces, they weren’t keen on the idea. The moment was lightened when some atrociously off key singing began. Karaoke? Chinese singing karaoke? What a cliché. Whoever was singing was doing so in English but it was obviously not their first language.

“It sounds like their karaoke is keeping them entertained for the moment. Come on,” I said and started across the street in an awkward stooped jog, moving as fast as I dared in the snow. Indigo and Luke followed close behind.

We crouched down by the front fender of the nearest Hummer. Indigo kept watch on the bar door, while I scanned the streets and Luke reached up to try the driver’s side door. It wasn't locked.
He opened it slowly and looked around inside.

“We could hop in and just drive it away,” he whispered. “It doesn't even need keys, it has push button ignition.”

“Is there anything we can use in there?” I asked.

“Not really, it looks like there's an extra box of ammo for the machine gun in the back seat. I suppose we could climb in and hose down the other Humvees with the machine gun. That would cripple them for sure.”

“That would make a racket that even drunk, singing soldiers couldn't ignore…” Indigo said. “Get down!”

At her warning, w
e crouched lower and Luke silently closed the Hummer's door as a Chinese soldier came stumbling through the front door of the bar. My heart beat a staccato rhythm in my chest. The soldier was very obviously drunk. He wore the trench coat that marked him as a conscript and didn't seem to be paying attention to anything except trying to get his pants unbuttoned.