The Ugly Beginning - 01 (30 page)

Ruth ducked into the vehicle Mike and Darrin had chosen. Even on the fly, her rational mind reasoned that it would be best to tell the guys with the guns first. She relayed the information and took off to warn her mom and sisters as the two men were scooping up weapons of all sorts.

The reaction of the Bergman women would have been embarrassing if anybody other than she witnessed it. That sudden fear and panic—like three old-fashioned damsels in distress—was painful to watch. It only furthered her conviction that, in this new world, her liberated mother needed the comfort of a man to rely on. As for Erin and Shari, they were almost completely useless.

Ruth had learned a great deal about her family when they were trapped in grandpa’s office complex. Certainly she expected more from her mother, Senator Angela Bergman. She’d been known as a bit of a bully in the Senate. If you gained her support, you could almost consider your bill or project a done deal.

Only…now…Angela was all bark and no bite. The main reason she’d gone to Kevin was to give her mother a way out of all the bold talk she’d spouted in front of the other two. She’d been a bit hesitant, but, considering the circumstances, her choices had been limited to one: a boorish loner with an awk-wardness around women similar to a male in his early teens. The best thing about Kevin was that she could utilize his obvious infatuation with her as a tool.

She would run this group through him, and he’d be none the wiser. She’d known she had him when she let him get a glimpse of a box of condoms that she had no intentions of ever giving him the actual opportunity to use. Not with her anyways.

***

Kevin peered from behind the gatehouse at the dark road that ran past. Coming from the same direction they’d arrived, a single headlight crested the gentle slope. Then another. And then what had to be a four-by-four truck sitting high with fog lights above the cab. The truck seemed to be trailing a fair distance behind the two motorcycles. He heard footsteps coming fast from behind him. A hand touched his shoulder.

“Whadda we got?” Mike whispered.

“It ain’t Tom Savini,” Kevin answered, pointing up the road to the approaching headlights. “But it looks like two bikes and a truck prowling slow.”

“What’s the situation?” Darrin scurried up in a crouch.

Kevin filled him in, then the trio clustered in tight and watched. As the lead bike came abreast of the turnoff that would bring them into the park, all three unconciously held their breath.

The motorcycle stopped!

The rider was clearly silhouetted by the fog lights of the still approaching truck. Darrin brought his .30-30 up to his shoulder. Mike nudged him, shaking his head.

“We got no idea about these people. They could be like us,” Mike whispered, barely audible above the idling engines only yards away.

“Yeah, and they could be bad-ass raiders out to take whatever they want without giving a damn if we’re living or dead,” Darrin snapped.

“You really need to get over the fact that this ain’t a Romero flick,” Mike said, lowering the barrel of the rifle with his hand.

“They’re moving,” Kevin tried to keep the relief out of his voice as the trio of vehicles resumed their slow advance down the road.

As the taillights vanished over a distant rise, Kevin, Mike, and Darrin rose to their feet. Each of them secretly grateful that the darkness hid the sheen of sweat on his face.

“I take it whomever it was is gone,” Ruth’s voice made all three jump.

“Jesus!” Darrin snapped. “That’s a good way to get shot!”

Ruth was standing halfway between where the three RVs were parked and the gatehouse. She held a rifle cradled in her arms. Angela, Shari, and Erin were huddled together beside their rig…weaponless.

“Sweetheart,” Mike walked across the park, barely visible until he reached the soft glow coming from the curtained windows of his and Darrin’s RV, “it ain’t never gonna be safe again.” He pulled open the screen door and went inside, ignoring Erin’s gasping sob.

“Nice.” Ruth spun on her heel and went to her sister.

“We need to settle down and get back on the same page,” Kevin said to nobody in particular. “We are going to have to rely on each other out here.”

Darrin stopped at the door, one foot up on the first step. “Show of hands. Whose bitch-fit got one of his friends killed recently?” He stared at Kevin, anger clear on his face. “Preach peace, love, and understanding someplace else, Dreon.”

Kevin dropped his head and took a deep breath. He raised it as the doors shut, first on Mike and Darrin’s, then on the Bergman’s RV. A moment later, lights blinked out in both vehicles. Suddenly Kevin felt very tired.

For a moment, he stood there alone in the darkness and listened to the breeze. He had no desire to go into any of the three vehicles. There was something soothing about being under the stars. Every creak of a branch or rustle of leaves in the warm evening air added to summer’s nocturnal symphony.

Kevin fetched his sleeping bag and climbed up onto the combination men’s and women’s shower-bathroom. Staring up at the cloudless, star-filled sky, he dozed off…thinking of Ruth.

***

A loud noise brought Kevin from deep sleep to fully awake much quicker than was pleasant. His eyes darted everywhere at once. It was still dark. The stars glittered above with their brightness intensified by the utter darkness that the world had plunged into.

Another loud bang, the sound of a metallic door being slammed. Cripes! Who was fighting now? Kevin rolled over to see who was in a tizzy. Either Mike and Darrin had gotten into it…or maybe Ruth tried to do what she’d asked him to do…talk Angela and the others out of leaving. What he saw made his heart flutter and his blood freeze in his veins.

The two motorcycles, the truck, and a van were parked about ten feet away from the trio of RVs! Men with guns—Kevin counted six men—were in an arc, covering the open door to Mike and Darrin’s Landcruiser. Four more men had the Bergman’s Winnebago covered as well. Its door was also open.

There was commotion coming from both vehicles now, a lot of it screaming from the girls. Kevin went through his options and realized quickly that he didn’t really have any. He had a nine millimeter, a bat, and a sword. He’d left his other guns in the U-Haul when he went and snagged his sleeping bag. He hadn’t really seen much reason to load out too heavily just to go to sleep. In fact, he’d considered just bringing the bat, but there still seemed to be something cool about sleeping with a pistol at his side.

Bodies tumbled out from Mike and Darrin’s rig. Three men came out behind them. Darrin was struggling to his hands and knees and received a kick to the gut that lifted him and flipped him onto his back.

“I said stay the fuck down!” a voice snarled.

“Easy, TJ,” another much calmer voice spoke.

“That fucker pulled a gun on me in there!” TJ stood over Darrin, but lowered the booted foot that had been cocked back to deliver another blow.

“Well, we did sorta bust into their…home,” the calm man raised an arm gesturing to the three RVs.

Just then, Angela and her daughters stumbled from their vehicle. She, Shari, and Erin scurried over to where Mike and Darrin lay sprawled, clustering around them. Ruth simply walked over and stood defiantly in the midst of her family and companions.

“Shari.” Paris stepped into the soft glow of the parking lights and reached down, jerking Shari’s head up, eliciting a new series of screams and shrieks.

“My sister listened to her,” somebody piped up.

“Whatever.” Shaw seemed unimpressed. “Load ‘em into the van.”

“What do you think your doing?” Ruth demanded as she, her mom, and sisters were shoved or dragged towards the open sliding-door of the waiting van.

“You seem too smart to ask such a stupid question.” Shaw slung his rifle over his shoulder. “Men, clean this place out. One of you get that moving van, Milo said the keys were in the ignition.” He walked over to where Mike and Darrin lay, both on their backs with a half dozen guns trained on them.

The struggles and protests of the Bergman women were suddenly muffled as the sliding-door of the van slammed shut. Kevin felt sick to his stomach as he considered their fate. But at the moment, he was actually more concerned about Mike and Darrin.

“Hope you boys understand,” Shaw knelt between the two, “this ain’t personal.”

“Easy to say from where you are,” Mike said with a tremor in his voice.

“Look, if I thought you two could help us in some way…I’d ask ya to join. We got a really sweet set up. Only…I’m guessing we won’t be needing computer programmers any time soon.”

“First,” Mike struggled to keep his voice from cracking, “I’m not a computer programmer. And second, I wouldn’t join you if you begged.”

“Ya got spirit,” Shaw laughed, “I’ll give ya that. And hey, we ain’t takin’ everything. Just the girls, and the moving van of stuff. We’ll leave
most
everything you two had in your trailer. Of course, we’ll be disabling your rigs. Can’t have you following us.”

“You’re a real humanitarian.” Mike managed to actually sound more sarcastic than scared.

Most of Shaw’s men had been scrambling about, gathering things or ripping wires out from every vehicle in the park. The U-Haul had been brought up beside the van where the screams suddenly intensified.

“TJ, go tell those assholes to leave the bitches alone until we get back to The Basket!” Shaw barked.

TJ stepped away from Darrin and went over to the van. He pounded on the side and then jerked the door open. What Kevin saw made him ache inside. All the Bergmans had had their clothes torn or cut away. Each was cuffed with their arms over their heads to a bar suspended from the roof.

“You guys know the rules.” TJ yanked out one man who had his pants already down to his knees and tossed him to the ground.

“C’mon, TJ,” another man protested. His pants were also down and he held Shari by the hair with one hand, the other held a knife against her cheek. “We gots a bonafide celebrity here. Hell, I’ve beat off to her videos before.”

“Thanks for sharing, Snell,” TJ said. “But Shaw says we wait.” A series of grumbles and curses came from the van, but the men were pulling their pants back up.

“So you’re a gang of rapists?” Darrin had gotten his air back.

“That is such an ugly and antiquated word.” Shaw clucked his tongue. “We’re conquerors. We are rebuilding our society through selective breeding. All my men are fighters...warriors. We will create a strong tribe that will survive and flourish. To that end...we require women.”

“Rapists.” Mike nodded.

“I’ll tell ya what,” Shaw knelt beside Mike, “why don’t you call it in. If you want, I’ll let you write down our license plate numbers.”

“The men are ready to roll.” TJ came over and patted Shaw on the arm.

“Well then,” the man rose to his feet, “I imagine I should tell you two how this works. You make any attempt to follow us—a monumentally stupid idea I’d have to say—we’ll just kill you. I’m sure a couple of smart guys like you can scavenge up some new stuff. You have made an honest mistake and ventured into our territory. We’ve collected our toll, and now you have twenty-four hours to be gone. If we find you again after that, well...”

Without warning, TJ brought a huge handgun from a shoulder holster and fired. Darrin’s body lurched. There was enough light from the surrounding vehicles for Mike to see the hole in the center of his forehead.

Mike screamed in frustration, and heedless of Shaw or the men still milling about him, scurried over to his friend. Darrin’s eyes were wide open, but there hadn’t even been enough time for him to register surprise.

On the roof where Kevin watched all this, he warred with the desire to take as many of Shaw and his men down as he could. However, it wasn’t fear that stayed his hand, he’d heard something in all the talking that was important. Getting into a shootout now would be a brief and fatal tactic.

Mike held Darrin’s head in his lap, sobbing unabashedly. Eventually, only Shaw remained standing over the two. “That was as much of a warning as I give. Get out of our territory or I assure you that you’ll wish you could trade places with your friend there.”

“Can I ask one question?” Mike looked up at Shaw with tears streaming down his checks.

“Two reasons,” Shaw didn’t wait for what he assumed to be the obvious question of why, “first,
you
showed spirit and I respect that, while your friend just laid there accepting things. Second, I want it clear that this is our territory, and uninvited trespassers will be dealt with accordingly.”

“Actually,” Mike wiped his nose on his sleeve and took a deep breath, “what led you to us? You drove past a few hours ago and didn’t show any indication of coming in.”

“The broken gate was a giveaway,” Shaw hiked a thumb over his shoulder, “but having the lights on in your RV was like a beacon. We decided to give you time to relax and go to sleep so as to minimize any losses we might take. Living people that fit our requirements are a very finite resource.”

“You know,” Mike was regaining his composure slowly, “Hitler tried the
Master Race
thing. It didn’t end well for him.”