THE COLLAPSE: Seeking Refuge (26 page)

*****

Meanwhile at site 199, Stephen stuffed all of Fish’s belongings that were in his small tent into a garbage bag.  Once the tent was cleared out, he broke the it down and packaged it up as well. 

There was nothing left to do, other than wait for Carrie to return with Fish.  Tarra had already retrieved Carrie’s RV trailer with Fish’s truck. 

Stephen and Tarra were proud of themselves for being able to pack up everything so quickly, and they shared what was left of the coffee they had made earlier. 

“Damn, my wrist really hurts!” Stephen admitted, rubbing the bandages.

“I bet it does!  I heard that cracking sound from halfway down the road,” Tarra laughed.

Kyla walked up to Stephen and asked, “Daddy, why don’t you get some of Nurse Carrie’s medicine if it hurts so badly?”

Stephen and Tarra looked at each other.  It was a good idea!  After all, they already had Carrie’s RV on site, and Tarra knew where everything was located inside of it.

“I’ll be right back!” Tarra smiled as she went to the door and disappeared inside.

As Tarra fingered through Carrie’s painkiller stash, Stephen heard a series of gunshots outside.  They were somewhat distant, but not outside The Park.  The shots were not coming from the main gate or the bridge either, they were definitely closer than that.

“Uh, oh,” Stephen said loud enough for Tarra to hear him, “the shit is starting to hit the fan…I think.”

Tarra popped her head out of the trailer and said, “I hope that’s not Fish and Carrie.”

Kyla asked her daddy, “Where
is
Uncle Fish?  Why was he gone for so long?”

Stephen lied to his daughter, “Uncle Fish was just making sure it was safe for us to leave, honey.”

As Tarra emerged from Carrie’s trailer with some pills, they heard more and more gunshots.  Tarra dubiously shook her head at Stephen as she handed him the medicine and said, “So much for a quiet getaway.”

“I know, right?  We need to get going, we should have been out of here already,” Stephen agreed as he popped the pills into his mouth and downed them with a gulp of cold coffee.

Tarra stated, “Yeah, we were supposed to have met Ox over twenty minutes ago.”

Stephen pointed at his bicycle attached to the end of Carrie’s trailer and said, “Maybe I should bike out there quick and let him know we are still coming.”

Tarra laughed and said, “The hell you are!  Not with all those gunshots I keep hearing.  Plus, it wouldn’t be good for your wrist, anyway.”

The two adults suddenly turned toward the road, a truck was approaching at a decent speed.  Tarra was still carrying Stephen’s M-4, and unshouldered the weapon as the truck slowed down near site 199.  Three men in the bed of the truck armed with rifles and a shotgun were studying the Alexanders.

Stephen withdrew his .38 special and pointed it at the men in the truck, and Tarra followed suit with the M-4.  Stephen yelled at the men, “Get the fuck out of here!”

The men laughed at Stephen as the driver of the truck almost slowed to a stop.  One of them tapped the roof of the cab and said to the driver, “Keep going to the next one.”

When the truck passed, Tarra looked at Stephen and said, “There are only old people at the next site, Stephen.  I don’t think they have any guns, either.”

“So what are we supposed to do about it?  Save them?  What about the Kays?”

Tarra didn’t know what to say.  The men would likely take whatever they could from the people at sites 203 and 204.  What if the old people resisted?  Would the men in the truck kill them?  She had a really hard time allowing that to happen, but Stephen was right.  They didn’t have enough time or manpower to intercept the men in the truck, and they certainly couldn’t leave their twins alone.  And besides…who
were
those men, anyway?  Tarra had never seen them before, which didn’t necessarily mean they weren’t from The Park.  But, what if the main gate was breached?

Tarra asked Stephen, “Did you recognize any of those men?”

“Yup,” Stephen replied with revulsion.  “Two of the men in the back of that truck had worked for me.  They were my fishermen.  I didn’t recognize the other one or the driver.  What’s sad…is that I don’t remember the names of either of the two men that I recognized.”

Stephen’s reply gave Tarra a bit of consolation.  Even though The Park was turning against itself, at least it wasn’t outsiders (yet) or an all-out invasion from the Bowmen or the AWOL compound in Oak Harbor.  Even so, insiders could be worse.  They knew too much.

Ahead up the road, Stephen and Tarra watched as the truck stopped and the men hopped out.  Tarra cringed as she heard them shout at the elderly residents of site 203.  All of the foliage between the sites prevented the Alexanders from viewing the activities occurring, but they heard shout after shout.  Then, the senior citizens started yelling back.  Maybe the men had tried to take something a little too special to the old folks?  Something of sentimental value?

Tarra anxiously looked at her husband, but said nothing.  He already knew that she wanted to run over there to quell the campsite invasion, but it was too dangerous.

“Compassion can get you killed,”
Stephen said quietly, almost to himself.

“What?” Tarra asked.

“Nothing.  Something Hal told me once,” Stephen answered.

The Alexanders would just have to helplessly sit and wait as it all the drama unfolded at site 203….or would they?

A new voice suddenly boomed near the others, “HEY!  What the fuck is wrong with you guys?  Leave them alone!”

It sounded like Fish!

And it definitely was, because upon hearing the voice, Pharaoh’s ears perked up and he left the Kays, darting directly towards site 203.

“Do we follow?” Tarra hopefully asked, pointing at the fast-moving dog.

“We do not,” Stephen answered.  “Give it a second, let’s see how this plays out.”

“Ughh,” Tarra complained and rolled her eyes.  She really, really wanted to get over there to help Fish.  But Stephen would never allow it.  She even thought about just running behind Pharaoh and suffering through the lecture from Stephen later.  But she wouldn’t need to.

A quick burst of automatic fire and then a couple semi-automatic shots that sounded like they were from a handgun thundered over the shouting and loudly-barking dog at site 203.

After the shots rang out, Stephen and Tarra had scooped up the Kays and hid behind Fish’s truck.  They listened as horrified screams from an elderly woman ended the shouting.  A few more seconds later the truck on the road at site 203 squealed away.

Tarra peeked around the truck near the tail-light and spotted Fish, Carrie and Pharaoh hustling towards them.  Fish was grinning as he ran, of course.  Whatever had happened at site 203 was over, and their team had won.

Tarra met the three runners on the road and asked, “What did you do over there?”

Carrie looked at Fish as if he should answer the question.  He shrugged his shoulders and said, “We only shot the ones with guns.”

Carrie added, nearly out of breath, “And we let the people at site 203 have those guns.”

Stephen couldn’t help it, he immediately thought to himself,
“Should have took those guns for ourselves, we are about to embark on an incredible journey with the possibility of many random encounters along the way.”

Tarra pointed at the 9mm pistol in Carrie’s hand and said, “Wow…you got her gun, too?”

“I sure did!” Carrie said proudly, remembering the recent battle with Alexis.

Stephen was glad to see that his best friend was okay.  Carrie’s rescue mission was a success.  Since the gang was all there, Stephen rallied everyone by shouting, “Alright people, let’s get this show on the road!”

*****

Tarra drove; Stephen rode shotgun (without a shotgun); the Kays and Pharaoh were in the back seat of the King cab; and Fish and Carrie rode in the bed of the truck to provide security.  Tarra had passed Stephen’s M-4 to Carrie, so she would be equally as armed as her counterpart.  Stephen wanted to take an ammunition inventory, but there was no time.  They had arrived at The Park with enough rounds to take on a small army, but Fish had gone through some of those rounds since then.  How many? Stephen had no clue.  He should have been keeping track.  Hopefully, Fish had been using semi-automatic mode or at least short, controlled bursts when spraying automatic fire.

With Carrie’s trailer in tow, the two security riders in the bed of the truck would be unable to see anything beyond it.  Ox would be following them, and that was a good thing, but he would be towing a trailer as well.  Although…Ox’s trailer wasn’t quite as large as Carrie’s.  He would have better visibility to the rear than they would.

On the way out to meet Ox and his family, Fish pounded on the roof of the truck and exclaimed through the busted out window, “I totally forgot about Wolf!  We need to go back and get him!”

Stephen yelled back over his shoulder, “Too late now, in order to go back the other way, we would need to tour through the entire campground again and make a loop.  We’re not going to put ourselves in more danger than we need to.  I’m sorry.”

Fish was about to argue with Stephen, but Carrie put her hand on his shoulder and shook her head.  She silently told him that she was sorry, but also that Stephen was right and they needed to get out of the campground as soon as possible.  So, Fish just sighed sadly and accepted the fact that he’d probably never see his little buddy ever again.  It was his own fault, too.  He should have thought about the little guy earlier.

When the Alexander party arrived at the intersection near wood station #1, they noticed that Ox had his caravan pulled off to the side of the road.  Likely to allow other vehicles passage.  But, after further observation, Stephen thought differently.  Ox had pulled his truck and RV trailer snug up against the tree line, which indicated more of a defensive posture than a polite one to allow vehicles to easily pass.  The dense greenery along the side of the road would cover him from any sneak attacks.  Ox only had to cover the exposed avenue of approach from the road.  He and his son were standing between the truck and trailer, each of them armed and ready for whatever Ox had been afraid of when he had initially positioned the vehicles.

Ox identified Fish’s giant truck approaching and ran to it as Tarra stopped the Alexander party parallel to the Oxnard’s.  Ox yelled up to Tarra and Stephen through Tarra’s open driver-side window, “Cripes!  ‘Bout damn time you got here!  I was starting to wonder…”

“Sorry about that, we ran into some trouble,” Tarra explained.

Ox nodded as if he understood, then said, “Let’s get out of here.  Don’t forget, we need to stop at the main gate so I can talk to Hal before we leave.”

Tarra looked at Stephen, because she knew nothing about the stop.  Stephen just nodded at her and gave her a thumbs-up, so she passed the thumbs-up to Ox and then put Fish’s truck into gear.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Ox said, digging into his jacket pocket.  He withdrew a small transceiver radio and handed it up to Tarra and cheerfully said with a grin, “Don’t say I never gave you anything.  Stay on channel two.  Claudine has her people on channel one.”   

Tarra handed the walkie to Stephen as Ox ran back to his own truck and climbed inside.

The convoy was finally ready to roll.

*****

At the main gate, the Alexander party could see that Hal had his son with him.  He must not have been able to find anyone to watch him.  Either that, or he had anticipated trouble after the quake and didn’t trust anyone enough to protect the boy.  There was only one man standing with Hal, which was abnormal.  He usually had a team of at least five, six or even seven men guarding the gate with him at all times. 

“Loyal ol’ Hal, faithfully serving The Park all the way up to the very end,”
Stephen thought.  The poor guy had no clue that Claudine and her crew were about to abandon him and his boy.

Stephen began to open the door to Fish’s truck but Tarra clutched his shoulder and asked, “What are you doing?”

“I want to speak with Hal also,” Stephen replied as he carefully climbed out of the huge truck only using his right hand, which wasn’t easy.

Ox and Stephen met Hal between Carrie’s trailer and Ox’s truck.  Hal stared at them both, baffled.  He asked in a confused-sounding tone, “Are you guys leaving?”

“We are,” Ox reluctantly replied.  “But first, I have some things to tell you, brother.”

Ox told Hal about Claudine’s plan to form a “new survivors’ group” – which didn’t include Hal or his son.  Hal’s face morphed from confusion to severe disappointment as Jason Oxnard spoke.

To make Hal feel better, Stephen added, “I wasn’t invited either.  Apparently my daughters are too much of a ‘liability’ to be part of the cool kids’ club.”

Ox then explained the possibility of a super-quake in the near future.  After his explanation, he asked if Hal wanted to join the Alexander and Oxnard party.

Stephen thought to himself,
“Ahh, that’s the
real
reason that Ox wanted to stop out here to speak with Hal.  He didn’t tell me about it earlier, because now it would be too late for me to object.  Smart guy!”