The Long Fall of Night: The Long Fall of Night Book 1 (35 page)

Aaron was immediately by her side. “What’s wrong? What happened?” He grabbed her wrist to take her pulse, but she yanked away so she could spread both hands on her baby bump.

She laughed. “Oh my god!”

“What, what?” Aaron demanded, confused by her contradictory startled and happy reactions. Then she grabbed his hand and pressed it along the left side of her stomach.

“Baby moving?” Charlotte asked with a wide smile.

Jennifer nodded.

“Oh my god!” Aaron exclaimed, touching her stomach reverently. “I can feel it! It’s like tiny shivers.”

“Feels like I’m hungry, and my stomach is rumbling, but not quite the same way,” she said, beaming at Aaron. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him for all he was worth, oblivious to the others.

“Uh oh. Someone’s getting lucky tonight,” Tim said with a smile.

“Lucky bastard,” Jason said as he crawled into his tent. “I miss girls.”

No one acknowledged him, and when Jennifer let Aaron go, she waved them all over so they could feel. Ash indulged her, the tiny hiccup beneath his palm only remarkable when he considered that was a human being in there.

“Congratulations,” he murmured, then resumed his place on his tree. It was his turn for first watch again, and when the excitement wound down, everyone but Elliot turned in.

Elliot hunkered down beside Ghost and gave him a good long belly rub. “Glad you’re a boy, dude,” he said, making Ash chuckle. “Wouldn’t want to deal with you having puppies. Hopefully Jennifer will have an actual hospital to go to when her time comes.”

It was cold comfort that their planned timeline
should
have the woman in proximity to normal medical care, but Ash knew as well as any of them, plans derailed. After the last month, he was flying by the seat of his pants, like the rest of them.

“Why don’t you get some sleep? Aaron will spell me in a couple hours.”

“Okay,” Elliot said. He stood, wiped his palms on his jeans, and looked around to make sure everyone else was inside their tent. Then he came over to give Ash a lingering kiss. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For everything,” Elliot said simply, kissed him one more time, and disappeared into their tent. The dog tried to follow him in, but Elliot was stern. “No, Ghost. Lie down out here.” Ghost whined but did as he was told, putting himself at the tent door with his face pointed outward as if he intended to keep a watch of his own.

“I like him a lot, too,” Ash agreed in a whisper. “But hands off. He’s mine.”

Great. Getting territorial with a dog. I’m losing my edge.

The night sounds were quiet, though Ash thought perhaps there was a rumble of thunder in the distance.

T
hat’s not thunder
,
Ash thought with an upright jolt. His abrupt awakening jostled Elliot, who mumbled and rolled over while Ash listened intently.

The dog loosed a low growl outside their tent, and before long, Aaron spoke through the zipped opening.

“Ash. Wake up. I hear something.”

“I’m up,” he said, grabbing his pants as Elliot sat up and rubbed his eyes.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Stay here,” Ash ordered as he put his shoes on bare feet and left.

The night was warm and a little windy, and he tilted his head to listen over the rustling leaves. Maybe the dog’s growl was what had woke—

The thought broke off as a low rumble carried by on the breeze. Trucks.
Diesel
trucks.

“Military,” he hissed at Aaron. “Pack up. We have to move.”

They scrambled everyone and tore down the campsite in record time, all of them wide-eyed with fear and urgency. They didn’t waste minutes stowing everything neatly in their backpacks, and as Ash grabbed his pack, he also grabbed the bag that held their tent, walking off with both in his hands.

“To the trees,” he said softly, and as one, the group melted into the shadows, not stopping to see who drove down the frontage road as the rumbling noise got louder. Once in the shadows, they briefly slowed long enough to stow the things they carried, but moving was an absolute must. Even the dog seemed to sense the need for quiet expedience, sticking close to Elliot’s heels, his ears perked and listening, but otherwise silent.

The stand of trees they stumbled through wasn’t wide, and they broke out onto the front lawn of a large house. Scrambling for cover in a small cluster of trees to the north of the house, they spotted a road, and just as they began to move in that direction, more trucks drove by.

“Shit,” Ash muttered, and they crouched and watched. Ever since Aaron had mentioned “recruit” trucks, Ash was worried they’d get caught up in some kind of attempt to flush people out of hiding. So far, they’d managed to avoid that almost entirely, ever since the hospital incident when they’d sought help. That had just proven to Ash they’d have to help themselves. But against the military, they were a woeful underdog. He didn’t know how far he’d go to keep from being split from Charlotte, and he didn’t want to think about it. So they just had to not get caught.

When the rumble faded around a curve in the road, Ash motioned for everyone to keep up with him as he dashed onto someone else’s property. Lack of lights made it impossible to tell if the dwellings were occupied, so they avoided windows and ran in the shadows. A few minutes later, when they reached open farmland, they stopped to catch their breath, and Ash pulled out his GPS.

“Shield me, please.” He waited until Elliot, Brian, and Aaron blocked him from view of anyone who might look their direction at the wrong moment while the GPS was on. “This has us going up on the outskirts of Omaha until we pass it and then following the Platte River, but there look to be more people along that route.”
Why would Marvin put us among more people when his directions had clearly avoided them before?

If they hadn’t been surprised out of their tents, he’d have called Marvin to clarify, but they didn’t have time. He made an executive decision.

“We’re deviating from Marvin’s coordinates. We’ll try to squeeze between Lincoln and Omaha like we did Akron and Canton. Those were a lot closer together, and we made it okay, so this should be fine. When we get past the Platte River, we’ll swing back north where there are fewer towns. Should be able to cross into Wyoming where there’s a break in the Rockies. There’s literally nothing there. We’ll skirt I-80, and then we should be home free. In an area with power, we can rent a car. Anyone have money?”

“If we can get to an ATM, I’ll get you whatever amount you need,” Elliot promised.

“Good, then we can drive the rest of the way. We’re not fugitives, so there’s no reason plastic won’t work. I don’t think,” he qualified.

“We can try,” Elliot said skeptically. “But with a gas shortage in the east, there’s bound to be rationing in the west.”

“I didn’t think of that, but there has to be a way,” Ash said in a clipped tone. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“Let’s just get out of here and worry about the promised land later, shall we?” Charlotte whispered.

Ash didn’t like referring to the GPS often, the screen a beacon in the dark, but he didn’t see many options. To conserve battery, he turned it off and tucked it in the hoodie he’d thrown on in haste rather than trying to shove it in his backpack, which he’d filled so quickly, there wasn’t the usual amount of room. They struck a path through the field, watchful for movement. Every few hundred yards, Ash took another peek at the GPS.

As they carried on, he wondered if maybe they were doing it wrong, walking during the day and sleeping at night. It wasn’t easy to see where they were going, but their chances of detection were minimal once they got away from the Missouri River. After a couple hours of walking, they stopped for a rest and something to eat.

The sun had risen about half an hour before, and they felt safe enough to build a fire for boiling water, so while the food wasn’t exactly the best thing he’d eaten, it was hot. Jennifer made the group coffee from her meager stash of instant granules, and Jason and Tim had praised her by getting bowing down on their knees, swearing allegiance to her under pain of death. She’d giggled, but the strain of the night was showing on everyone’s faces. They all had bags under their eyes and looked particularly haggard. Even Riley was a lifeless heap, sitting on the ground with his legs crossed lotus style. The coffee, even instant, was a bonus.

“Okay, so we have a choice,” Ash said when he’d scarfed down his tasteless freeze-dried scrambled egg omelet. “We can keep going and try to hit fifty miles today, putting some distance between ourselves and the troops we saw last night, or we can walk a little more and bed down for the day, take some time to relax and regroup in a more secluded area, and hit it hard tomorrow.”

“Keep going,” Jason said. Tim echoed his assent.

“I don’t mind either way,” Aaron said. “Babe?” he turned to Jennifer with his brows raised.

“I can walk more,” she said agreeably. “I’m tired all the time anyway, so a few more hours won’t be too much trouble.”

“Charlotte? Riley?” Ash asked his sister.

“Can we play it by ear?” she asked. “Riley has a lot of energy, but we’re all pooped out. If we can keep going, fine, but if we can’t, maybe we can just holler when we’re at our limit.”

“I can carry Riles, if he gets too tired to go on,” Ash offered. “Someone would have to take my pack, but it’s pretty light now that I only have a couple cans of veggies left. We can distribute my supplies among the other packs, too, and spread the weight.”

Brian nodded. “That’ll work. The rest of us I think are good to go.”

“Elliot?” Ash said, knowing he was asking a lot of his… what did he call Elliot now? Lover sounded too romance-novelish and boyfriend was presumptuous. Partner had worked when they were students, but in its current connotation it was way too permanent, and friend wasn’t enough. Date made it seem like they’d be hitting up a sushi place and going for a walk along a romantic beach, which… blech. Ash had never been one for that kind of date anyway. Not that he needed a word to say out loud. Charlotte and Brian knew what was up, but they weren’t advertising.

Why are you thinking about that at a time like this? Get your shit together.
He must be tired.

“I can make it farther, I think,” Elliot said with a dip of his chin. “I’m not too bad.”

“Stressed?”

“Less than I was last week,” he admitted. Last week being when his music disappeared.

“Okay, we might be able to take a midday break, too, if we come across a good stopping place. Longer than the usual hour, anyway,” Ash offered. There was a collection of nods, and they cleaned up. Since they’d eaten straight from the food pouches, all they had to do was wipe out the water and coffeepots, and their cups, and squirt a little water on their utensils. Elliot had given Ghost half his biscuits and gravy pouch, claiming they were too heavy for a lot of walking anyway. Ash saw him discreetly take his seizure medicine and was satisfied they were on track for getting the most mileage out of their early departure.

A few more hours passed, and they neared a tract of land that looked good for walking off the road just past where they’d crossed I-80 south of Ashland, Nebraska. One of the trees sported a sign:
No Tresspassers! Violaters will be shot on site.

Beside Ash, Elliot snorted. “Needs spelling lessons,” he muttered.

“Will they really try to shoot us?” Riley asked tiredly, hanging on Ash’s back like a monkey.

“We’ll stay off this guy’s land so we don’t find out, ’kay?” Ash assured. “Next field, we get off the road,” he called to the others. “Maybe find some shade and rest.”

Beside them, Ghost panted. The dog had stuck to Elliot like glue, and while the day was warm, it wasn’t overly so, and they’d stopped for a few minutes every hour or so to give Ghost water. Aaron had checked the dog’s paws for signs of injury, such as blisters or rocks between the pads, but had declared Ghost ready for more. He didn’t seem overly fatigued by the mileage they’d put in already.

“He’s okay, right?” Elliot asked Ash on their last stop. “Not too tired? I’d hate to push him too much, but we obviously don’t know his limits.”

Ash had studied the dog, who looked back at him with what could only be described as a grin. “He seems good to me, but I’m not a pet person, really. Couldn’t afford the vet visits.”

“Dad wouldn’t let me get a dog since we traveled so much, and my building doesn’t… didn’t allow it. Always wanted one, though.”

“We’ll take a break once we get past the suspicious guy’s trespassing signs. It’ll do us all good.”

“He’s good off-leash, that’s for sure,” Elliot mused, still talking about the dog. “Must have been really well trained. It’s a shame his owner lost him.”

“Dog like that, as loyal as he seems, wouldn’t just leave his people,” Aaron said. “He was probably left behind or dumped. I bet it killed his people to do it, too.”

“Or they’re dead,” Jason muttered.

Jennifer smacked him on the arm halfheartedly. “Be nice.”

“What, like the dog is going to get offended,” Jason scoffed. “Sorry pooch. I hope your owners were just assholes who didn’t think you worth it when they saved their own skins, rather than someone who died unexpectedly and set you free before they went to the great Doggy Heaven to wait for you.” Ghost panted at him. “See?” Jason said to Jennifer. “He ain’t bothered.”