Murphy's Law (Roads Less Traveled Book 2) (28 page)

Too far for anyone to jump
across
.

“Hell…we’ll be ready,” Michael answered. I let out a sigh of relief and asked John if he was ready.

“We’re set, Kasey. Ready when you are.”

“Sounds good. Let me know when you’re inside.”

“Will do. Be careful,” he said. I clipped the radio to my belt and turned to Sam.

“Buckle up, and make sure they stay calm. We’re leaving soon, and it’s going to be scary for a little bit. Can you do that?” I figured I might as well be straight with the little man, sugarcoating the situation would do more harm than good.

“No problem. Let’s hit it,” he said and snapped his seatbelt over his tiny chest. I shut the door and turned to Nancy, who was
not
amused.

“What the hell are you doing, Kasey? I mean, we’re just going to bust our way out of here?” Her voice became louder and higher in pitch with each word. So loud in fact that Jake turned to see what the problem was. I motioned for him to come over, and he tapped Mia’s shoulder, bringing her around to join us as well.

“What’s the plan, Boss?” Jake asked.

Mia’s arms were crossed, her pistol poking out from under one arm. All their faces were set with grim determination, and a trace of fear. But a trace was healthy, under these circumstances. A trace kept you alive.

“I know this plan sucks, I hate it myself. But it’s the only thing I could think of, considering we’ve got a handful of people stuck on a roof with no way off. If you guys have a better idea, please, I’m all ears.” I waited a reasonable amount of time, in which no other ideas were presented, before laying out our side. “The pickup is still loaded with supplies, so we should probably take it. The kids are loaded in the SUV, so we’re obviously taking it.”

“And there’s room for more passengers,” Mia added.

I nodded. “Yeah, that too. But right now we need to buy John some time. Let’s barricade the door back there, in case the runners outside catch on and want to join the party.”

Mia and Jake quickly headed off towards the back of the garage. I waited until I heard them pushing and pulling things across the concrete floor, positioning whatever junk they could find in front of the door, before filling Nancy in on her part of the plan.

“Nancy, you’re going to be the ram. Once we get this rolling, you’re going to head out of here as fast as you can, and hit that gate.” I pointed down the road to the south gate.

She listened with a frown as I pulled the rest of my bright idea out of my ass, and when the other two came back, I waved them off, telling them to sit tight until John radioed, and to keep their guns on that back door.

“We’ll just stay put until we get the word from John, and hope like hell those runners don’t figure out what we’re up to in the meantime.”

Just as the words left my mouth, the radio crackled on my side.

“Jesus Christ, John! Be careful!” Michael shouted.

I stared down at the radio, then looked back up at Mia and Jake, who were both giving me the Mr. Spock look. I simply shrugged and hoped that John hadn’t just fallen off the roof.

* * *

“I’m sorry, Michael, John is indisposed at the moment. May I take a message?” Abby said into John’s radio, chuckling as she watched the big man try to get his underwear loose from the gutter.

They had made it across to the barn roof without incident, and had been carefully sliding their way across the tin towards the back end of the barn. John had reached the edge first and had handed his radio to Abby, thinking it would get hooked on the gutter when he swung off and into the loft window, which was basically just a large square cut-out on each end of the upper floor of the barn. The only thing usually stored in the loft was hay.

Turns out, the radio isn’t what John should have been worried about.

“Man, that’s gotta be the world’s all time worst wedgie,” Abby said to John, who had indeed swung his legs off the roof, planted his feet inside the loft window, and was frantically trying to unfasten his now very stretched underwear from the gutter with one hand while holding onto the roof with the other. He was hung up, in other words. The only thing standing between him and the safety of a solid wooden floor was a very tough band of elastic.

“Stop laughing and cut me loose goddamnit!” John squealed.

This only served to further Abby’s amusement. She shimmied closer and took the hunting knife from her pocket. Her hand was shaking, she was laughing so hard.

“Don’t you cut me!”

“Aw man, this is priceless.” Abby flipped the blade out and cut through the elastic of John’s tidy-whities. With a
snap-thud
the tension was released and he hit the floor inside the loft. He stuck his hand out the window and held it up towards Abby.

“Radio.”

Still laughing, she handed it down and swung herself into the window with the grace of a cat.

“See, Johnny, how hard was that?” she asked and watched him tug and pull on his pants. He stopped just long enough to flip her the bird, then brought the radio to his lips.

“We’re inside. Heading downstairs now.”

Abby followed him to the ladder and climbed down behind him. Once downstairs, they scanned the area quickly, checking for any deadheads who might have gotten inside, Abby’s previous amusement and John’s previous embarrassment instantly forgotten. After clearing the area, they picked out Kasey, Jake, and Mia’s horses and began saddling them, which sounds a great deal easier than it actually was. All three horses were agitated and full of fear, so it ended up taking longer to settle them down than it did to actually get their gear on.

“I hope they don’t expect me to ride one of these damn things,” John said, fighting Daisy’s saddle.

Abby had to help him once she finished saddling the other two. Lucky for them at least one had some experience with horses.

“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that, John.” She led two of the irritated mares to the back of the stable and tied them off by the back door, then helped John do the same with his. “Better let her know we’re ready.”

“Uh, yeah…” John said and took a few steps away to radio Kasey.

* * *

“I don’t like this,” Michael said to Jonah, both men hovering over the walkie, listening to the conversation between Kasey and John.

He’d watched the big guy slide around on the barn roof like hot grease in a skillet, then nearly had a stroke when John hung himself up by his underwear. Which Michael was
still
trying to figure out. How the hell does a guy get his underwear stuck on a gutter?

“I wouldn’t worry much about it,” Jonah said.

He had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and one scuffed boot propped up on the ledge. His thumbs were hooked in his pockets, and if Michael hadn’t known better, he’d say the cowboy looked more relaxed now than he had ever since rolling into town.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it…” Michael muttered and walked back to the outer ledge.

Damn, that’s a long drop
.

His eyes strayed to the cables they had ripped from the AC unit, copying John’s earlier idea when he had helped Abby onto the roof, except these cables were tied together with what Jonah guaranteed were “slip-resistant” knots. It reminded Michael of how his sister would tie sheets together to sneak out of her room when they were kids.

Oh, Kelly,
he thought, staring down at the ground below.

* * *

As John and Abby made their way towards the garage, I stood just inside the door and kept the deadheads at bay. While I reloaded, I quickly explained the last few details of the plan, the details I had kept to myself until the very last second, knowing it wouldn’t go over so well with the others.

“I’m thinking, instead of us all piling in, a few of us saddle up and run interference.”

“Crap—I
hate
doin’ that.” Jake tilted his face towards the ceiling.

We had used this distraction before while traveling west across the state. A couple of people would ride out, lead a pack of deadheads away, while the others would ride on in another direction. Except then it was simpler, and in hindsight, a hell of a lot safer. We hadn’t had runners to contend with then.

“I know, Jake, I know. But it’s just a precaution. If the runners stay inside the prison, at least long enough to give us all a head start, then we won’t have anything to worry about. No way the slow ones will catch up to us on horseback. We just need to decide on a rendezvous point, and I’ll leave that to Michael and John. They know this area better than we do.”

“Yeah, and we also need to figure out who’s gonna be the bait,” Jake said before thinking. A second later he realized who the bait would be, and this produced another growl and a skyward glance.

“Come on, Jake. You know
we
can ride, you don’t know how well
they
can ride,” Mia said and hitched her thumb behind her, referring to the people on the rooftops.

Jake grumbled some more, but finally put his hands on his hips and gave up. Nancy, who had been quiet this whole time, finally turned and started back towards the pickup, Gus still in her arms.

“Hey, where are you going?” I asked.

She stopped, her chin stuck out and her head held high. “I’m gettin’ ready for a jail break, and I’ll be damned if I’m trustin’ anyone else to drive me outta here besides myself.” Then she promptly showed us her back and strode on towards the truck.

Both my eyebrows arched at the sudden reappearance of her accent, and I opened my mouth to stop her, but Jake grabbed my arm before the words could come out.

“Let her go. She’s a wicked good driver.”

“Alright. Jake, you and Mia are with me. We’ll have Abby ride with John in the SUV,” I said. “Nancy already knows that once she’s out of the gate, she’ll swing right and drive towards the west building. Michael and his guys will be waiting.”

The more I talked and the more I thought about this plan, the more I hated it. I also wasn’t too thrilled about doing all this with a bruised kidney; it was already throbbing with each beat of my heart.

“And in the meantime, we’re gonna be ridin’ around out there with our dicks in the wind, hopin’ we don’t get our asses ripped off, right?” Jake asked.

Mia snorted but didn’t bother correcting him. He knew the drill, he was just relieving some tension.

I tugged on the rifle strap that cut across my chest and was very glad we had detoured past the infirmary on our way to the garage. The only thing worse than leaving my horse would have been leaving my gun. Well, that’s not exactly true. Leaving Gus would have been worse than either of those, but I digress. There was ammo in the bed of the pickup, enough to outfit all the rifles we were carrying. How much exactly, I didn’t know. There was also food and water for several days, which I was sorely tempted to raid at the moment.

Just as I was about to open fire again on the handful of deadheads who had come within pistol range, John swung around the corner and nearly tripped over me.

“Holy shit!” I said.

“Jesus!” he said at the same time. John threw one hand across his heart and the other onto my shoulder. “Girl, let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Yeah, I’m right with ya, but first we need to know where to meet up with you guys.” I poked Jake in the arm with my pistol and motioned for him to take care of the zombies I had been about to dispatch. As he opened up on them, John explained the “fallback scenario.”

“So…you people already had this planned? I mean, not this exact thing, but you already had a backup plan?” Mia asked once John finished.

He nodded and started walking towards the SUV. The rest of us followed and Abby hopped into the passenger side.

“Old Route 18?” I asked, making sure I had heard him right the first time.

“Yes, old Route 18. About fifteen miles up 18, take a right onto a gravel road. Another twenty miles or so, and you’re there.” John unslung his rifle and laid it across the bench seat. “It’s already been fortified and stocked with supplies. Last time anyone was up there to check on the place was something like…three or four days before you people got here.” He took the radio from his belt and tossed it next to his rifle. I rubbed my chin, did some mental calculating, then stepped back and shut his door once he was inside.

Sam leaned up from his seat behind John and spoke up after the window had been rolled down. “Hey, can this dude drive? Maybe you should drive us outta here, Miss Kasey.”

What a funny little kid. “Yeah Sam, he can drive. You’re in good hands. Just do as John and Abby tell you, and I’ll see you soon. Understood?”

“Understood, ma’am,” he said and leaned back in his seat. John was shaking his head and smiling, then jabbed a finger towards the open garage door.

“You guys get going. Just give Nancy the cue when you’re ready.”

I patted the windowsill. “Stay safe.”

We turned and walked up to Nancy’s window, spoke a few words to her, made sure she understood the plan, and said our goodbyes.