Anchored, page 7
“We got into a little fight.” Nick wiped his hands on his dirty jacket.
“Are you guys okay?” I asked.
Nick wiggled the ladder to make sure it was secure. “I guess. Angelina wants me to promise to come to Loreto after I find my family. She’s sure her grandfather would welcome my family and all our livestock onto his ranch. He’s the mayor of Loreto.”
“I didn’t know her grandfather was the mayor. What did you tell Angelina?”
“Toni!” Takumi said in a disapproving voice.
“It’s okay,” Nick told Takumi. “I told her I couldn’t make any promises. My first responsibility is to my family. I’m the oldest. If my dad or uncles need me, I’ll have to stay with them. And with all the distrust between the United States and Mexico, I’m not sure I want to live in Loreto. That made her angry.”
I leapt the last four feet to the ground. The guys followed.
“I can see why she’s disappointed, but you were just being honest,” Takumi said.
“Yeah. I really want to stay with her. You guys know that, right?”
“Who knows? It might work out that you can do both. Help your family and then be with her. All of this is a terrible, unknown adventure. The truth is, I’m worried about taking the boat to Mexico. I love Angelina and Makala, but I wished I hadn’t promised we’d take them home.”
“Yeah! It sucks.” Nick scrambled over a broken kiosk that still had part of a sign attached. The sign read, “Crystal Rings and…”
I thought for a second about searching for some fun jewelry for the girls. Then I noticed a still figure in the front seat of a nearby rusty truck, and hurried past. “Let’s just concentrate on surviving one day at a time.”
An hour later, we were out of the downtown area of San Diego. Nick whooped when he spotted the freeway. There were abandoned cars and trucks everywhere. On the road, on the sides of the freeway, and hundreds of feet away. Wherever the wave left them. “This must be the freeway that takes you to the border,” he said. “Try to find a marker of some kind.”
We continued walking near the edge of the road. There were no freeway signs in sight.
“In the movies, the zombies always attack people on roads. We should always be aware of the nearest place we can hide if we have to get away.” Takumi lowered his spear.
“From zombies?” I wrinkled my nose.
“You know what I mean. Actually, I’d rather deal with a hoard of brainless zombies than desperate, starving people.” Takumi scanned the area around us.
When we came to an open patch of land with dead grass and dying trees, we found our first settlement. People had rolled abandoned cars close together in a circle and created rooms out of scraps of wood siding and plastic sheeting. Small fires burned in the center of the circle of cars, and metal and wooden chairs had been placed around the fires. Nobody was sitting in the chairs. Except for the fire, there was no sign of people at all.
From behind a large bush, a filthy little girl around six years old ran toward us. “Do you have food? Do you?” She stared at our bulging backpacks and then back at the settlement.
Takumi and Nick moved beside me. Takumi faced the rear, and Nick the front.
Something about her was off. The guys sensed it too.
I kneeled in front of her, my spear up and ready. “Sorry. We’re looking for food too. And water. We heard there’s a river by the border. There might be fish in it.”
“Liar!” she screamed. “You have food. Walter told me so.”
An elderly man I assumed was Walter stepped out from behind one of the car-shelters and began to walk slowly toward us.
“Make them, Walter. Make them give us all their food,” the little girl screamed.
Takumi, Nick, and I were so close our shoulders touched. Our spears were pointed out in different directions.
“Don’t mind our little Clarisse. She hasn’t been the same since her brother was eaten by a pack of dogs.” Walter grinned.
Takumi grabbed my hand. I wished we’d brought one of the guns.
Clarisse screamed, “Make them, Walter, make…!”
“That’s enough, Clarisse. Go to your car,” Walter demanded.
“No. I want to see the food. I’m hungry,” she whined.
Walter made a beckoning hand gesture and one by one, men, women, and children stepped out from behind each of the shelters and headed toward us. Soon we were surrounded by at least twenty people. All carrying handmade weapons.
“Susan, please take Clarisse to her car,” Walter told an elderly woman.
The woman grabbed the little girl and hauled her to a small grimy yellow Volkswagen.
Clarisse screamed the whole way.
Walter waited until she was gone. “Now, where were we? As you probably guessed, my name is Walter.” He gestured at the people surrounding us. “And, these are my neighbors. We live together, search for food and supplies, and share what we find. Now, your turn. Who are you and why are you trespassing in our neighborhood?”
Takumi and Nick glanced at me.
I took a deep breath. “I’m Toni. This is Takumi and Nick. We came from Santa Barbara.”
“Santa Barbara!” Walter nodded. “How is Santa Barbara?”
“Just like San Diego. A total mess. After the tsunamis, we lived on the beach in a settlement camp. But people started getting sick, so we left,” I lied.
“I see. Are you sick?”
“No, but we would have gotten sick if we stayed. We heard about the Tijuana River basin, and decided to hike to it. At least we’d have fresh water.”
“Did you travel north or east at all? Check out the hills?” He squinted at me.
“No, all we’ve seen are the coastal areas.” At least that was true.
“Why are you in our neighborhood?” Walter seemed more curious than angry.
“We’re headed to the border crossing. We didn’t know we were trespassing.”
Walter glanced over at a middle-aged man in the group. “What do you think, Tim?”
Tim stepped forward and whispered in Walter’s ear.
“Tim told me you’re lying. Before the world turned upside down, he was a psychologist. He can tell these things. What are you really doing here?” Walter scowled.
Takumi stepped forward and aimed his spear at Walter’s head. “We’re just passing by. What she didn’t say was that she is also searching for her parents. They might be at the border. Isn’t everyone searching for someone?”
Tim whispered in Walter’s ear again.
“He says you are telling the truth. Are you really heading for the Tijuana River, too?”
Takumi glanced at me. I squeezed my lips together and shook my head.
Takumi faced Walter. “A place with fresh water and fish sounds nice, doesn’t it?”
The corners of my mouth quivered. I wondered how Tim could call that a lie?
Walter’s smile made my skin crawl. “We have been living well here. We have an extra empty car shelter. You are welcome to join us. We could use some young people. We’ve had to travel farther and farther every day in search of food and water. But one of these days we’ll find a Costco or Walmart that no one has discovered, and live even better.”
Takumi’s shoulders relaxed. “Thanks, but we truly need to get to the border. Toni’s parent might be waiting.”
“That’s too bad.” Walter gestured to the people he motioned to his neighbors. They closed in on us. “Leave your backpacks and spears on the ground. Then you may go.”
Chapter Eleven
I clutched my backpack tight to my chest. Takumi tried to shield me, but the armed crowd was closing in on us from all sides.
Nick bolted. He raced straight at Walter with his spear aimed at Walter’s face. Walter’s eyes went huge. He scrambled back, tripped, and fell. Nick straddled him, holding his knife on Walter’s neck. Blood trickled onto his collarbone.
Walter let loose an ear-piercing screech.
“Stay where you are, or Walter dies,” Nick yelled.
Walter’s people froze.
What are we going to do? I tried not to panic as I glanced at Nick and Walter, then swung around to help Takumi guard us.
“Don’t hurt him,” a woman cried.
“We don’t want to hurt anyone. We were just passing by.” I watched for a movement
from the crowd. Clarisse pushed her way forward and yelled, “They have food. They aren’t sharing. Rules! They broke the rules. Punish them.”
An older woman tried to pull her back, but Clarisse broke loose and flew at me. Takumi blocked her path. She plowed into him and fought like a wild animal, punching, kicking, and trying to bite him.
Takumi dropped his sword and pinned Clarisse’s arms behind her back. “Calm down,” he growled. With his swollen nose and blackened eyes, he looked fierce.
Clarisse started to wail that she was hurt. I knew she wasn’t.
Takumi and Nick looked at me pleadingly. “What now?” Nick mouthed.
I made a quick decision. “Walter is coming with us.” I spun in a slow circle, pointing my spear at each person in the crowd. “When we’re sure no one is following us, we’ll turn him loose. But if you come after him, we’ll kill him. Do you understand?”
No one answered.
“Get them. They’re just kids,” Walter cried.
The crowd roared and surged forward.
“Just kids?” Nick pricked Walter’s neck again. Deeper. Walter screamed.
“Back off. We will kill him. Understand?” I yelled.
The group came to a halt and a couple of people responded with a weak, “Yes.”
Takumi looked shocked at my behavior. For the first time since we’d gotten together, I didn’t know what he was thinking. Was he worried I would really order Nick to kill Walter? Would I?
Nick yanked Walter to his feet and held his hands behind his back. I pulled the
drawstring out of my hoodie and handed it to Nick.
Clarisse’s cries became whimpers. I didn’t know what we could do with her. I was certain she would attack us again if we let her go. I waited for one of Walter’s people to offer to take charge of the crazy little girl, but none did.
Takumi yelled, “Toni, get the duct tape out of my pack. We’ll tape her up. By the time they free her, we’ll be gone.”
I swung my pack on my back, and searched his, one-handed. I had to keep my eyes and spear on the crowd. But, without their leader, they didn’t seem to know what to do.
Takumi wrapped Clarisse’s ankles, then her wrists, behind her back. He sat her up against a rusty, downed, refrigerator.
“You need to use more tape. They’ll get her free in seconds,” I said.
Takumi’s eyebrows creased, but he wrapped the tape around her legs, then through the handle of the fridge. He thought for a moment, then put a small piece over her mouth.
“Walter too.” Nick raised Walter’s already tied hands up and shoved him toward Takumi.
Takumi added tape to Walter’s wrists, put a strip on top of his mouth, and then tiny pieces over where the blood still oozed. The knife pricks were small, but if they got dirty and infected, Walter would die.
When he was done, Takumi looked over at me.
“Good job,” I told him, and then turned my attention to Walter’s people. “We’re leaving. If any of you follow us, we’ll kill Walter, or at least make him wish we’d killed him. In an hour, we’ll release him. We have no desire to hurt anyone, but we won’t let you hurt us or take what’s ours.”
I led us out of the camp. Nick yanked Walter’s wrists up until he yelped and followed me. Takumi guarded our back.
I held my breath, hoping the crowd wouldn’t chase us. But, except for Walter’s constant muffled groans, it was quiet.
We’d traveled across the destroyed high-rise area, but there were still lots of collapsed three and four-story buildings ahead. And cars and trucks that had been swept away and randomly dropped by the tsunamis were still scattered on top of everything. We tried to follow the freeway that was headed for the border, but the road was often covered by steel girders and building frames. We had to find other paths, or do a lot of climbing.
Walter couldn’t get over the rubble without the use of his hands. Takumi ended up helping Nick haul him across the wreckage. I guarded the rear. Twice I hid and waited. But there was no sign of Walter’s people.
At the one-hour mark, we hadn’t gone far enough to be comfortable leaving Walter, and kept going. Forty-five minutes later, we came to an elevated freeway system that had somehow mostly survived. We needed to find a way up and on it.
“Let’s leave him here,” I said. We stood amongst the remains of an apartment. A moldy upholstered couch and a matching chair were visible under a collapsed ceiling.
“Why don’t we tie him up on the chair?” I suggested.
Takumi shook his head. “If he doesn’t get loose, he’ll die.”
“But if we let him go, he’ll tell the others where we’re headed, and they’ll come after us,” I whispered.
Walter franticly shook his head and loudly mumbled. I think he was saying, no, no. He
looked terrified. I was almost sorry for him.
To the left of us, three cars formed a pyramid of sorts. “How about we leave him in
one of the cars?” Nick pointed.
I scowled. “Yes, but what’s to stop him…”
Before I could finish, Nick punched Walter hard in the face. Walter’s head flew back, and he slumped in Takumi’s arms.
“What the hell!” Takumi screamed. “You didn’t have to do that.”
Nick and I stared at one another. He massaged his wounded knuckles.
“Yes, he did, Takumi. Now we can untie him. When he wakes up, we’ll be long gone.”
“But he could have a concussion, or worse.” Takumi glared at me.
Nick felt his pulse. “He’ll be okay. I aimed at his cheek. Cheekbones are hard. It was either punch him or kill him. Would you prefer I stabbed him?”
Takumi glared as he adjusted his grip on the unconscious Walter he still cradled in his arms.
“Let’s get him into a car. He’ll be safe there until he wakes up,” Nick said.
I tried to open the doors. The top car was the only one unlocked. It surprised me that people would lock their vehicles as they fled. But most of the cars we found were locked tight. I guessed people automatically locked their doors when they left, or maybe they thought they’d be back.
We soon had Walter untied and laying across the backseat of a black Mercedes. We made good time getting to the freeway overpass. It was too high to climb. We decided to follow alongside it until the freeway was lower. I worried we’d run into more camps of people under the freeway, but we didn’t. Before the tsunamis, homeless people camped under freeways, but with all the downed buildings, there were better places to stay, I guessed.
We made good time. I spotted some kids off a ways, and both the guys thought they saw movement a couple of times. But nobody harassed us. Takumi walked ahead of us. He was angry, but it wasn’t a place for a heart-to-heart conversation.
When we finally got on the freeway, I was amazed at how massive it was. At least eight lanes headed both to and from the Mexican Border. There were cars along the side, but not as many on top as I’d expected. I wondered if the openness of the freeway allowed the tsunamis to just wipe the cars away.
Takumi stopped and held up his fist. Nick and I crouched down.
“Hide!” Takumi whispered.
Military vehicles were approaching at full speed. We hid behind the nearest van as twelve jeeps and six Humvees passed by.
I hopped up, ran to the side of the freeway, and waved my arms. A jeep with four guys in it slowed down.
“Toni…” Takumi tried to pull me back down.
I broke away and continued signaling.
“We don’t have any food,” a young man wearing a red baseball cap with his green camouflage uniform told me.
“We don’t need food. We want a ride to the border. Give us a lift?”
The jeep came to a stop. The two guys in the front seats talked for a moment, then red cap asked: “You got a permit?”
Another jeep came up behind them and honked.
“Permit? Why do we need a permit?” I asked.
The two men spoke softly, then sped away. I plopped down on a cement freeway divider and watched the rest of the convoy pass. I quit counting vehicles. If we needed a pass just to go to the border, what would we need to cross the border? I held my head in my hands.
Takumi and Nick gave up hiding and joined me.
“At least we know we’re going the right way.” Nick watched the convoy finally fade in the distance.
Takumi scowled. “Waving those guys down was stupid and dangerous.”
I fought my anger. “Everything we do is dangerous. The world is dangerous. But we’re no threat to them. And if they’d given us a ride, we’d have gotten to the border quicker. We could have learned what’s going on. They might have even helped us.”
“You should have discussed what you were going to do before you ran into danger.” Takumi shoved his hands into his pockets.
Nick stared at his feet.
I sighed and stared at Takumi. “It is not your job to protect me. I didn’t know I was going to flag down that jeep until I was doing it. Sometimes an idea comes and we have to act on it. There’s not always time to talk things over.”
“Like when you and Nick decided to punch Walter, and didn’t tell me?”
“Yes, just like that, because he and I didn’t decide about Walter. Nick made a decision. He knew it would have been risky to let Walter go. By knocking him out, Nick saved Walter and protected us. It was a good decision.”
Takumi shook his head and took off down the freeway.
Nick started after him.
I put a hand on Nick’s arm. “Let him go.”
Chapter Twelve
Nick and I walked together for over an hour. Takumi remained ahead, but never out of sight. We didn’t see any moving vehicles. There were pockets of people below the freeway, but they ignored us, and we them. Nick kept checking his watch … it was almost time to radio the Whistler. Takumi finally slowed to a stop, and leaned against a white paneled van to wait for us.
“Are you guys okay?” I asked.
Nick wiggled the ladder to make sure it was secure. “I guess. Angelina wants me to promise to come to Loreto after I find my family. She’s sure her grandfather would welcome my family and all our livestock onto his ranch. He’s the mayor of Loreto.”
“I didn’t know her grandfather was the mayor. What did you tell Angelina?”
“Toni!” Takumi said in a disapproving voice.
“It’s okay,” Nick told Takumi. “I told her I couldn’t make any promises. My first responsibility is to my family. I’m the oldest. If my dad or uncles need me, I’ll have to stay with them. And with all the distrust between the United States and Mexico, I’m not sure I want to live in Loreto. That made her angry.”
I leapt the last four feet to the ground. The guys followed.
“I can see why she’s disappointed, but you were just being honest,” Takumi said.
“Yeah. I really want to stay with her. You guys know that, right?”
“Who knows? It might work out that you can do both. Help your family and then be with her. All of this is a terrible, unknown adventure. The truth is, I’m worried about taking the boat to Mexico. I love Angelina and Makala, but I wished I hadn’t promised we’d take them home.”
“Yeah! It sucks.” Nick scrambled over a broken kiosk that still had part of a sign attached. The sign read, “Crystal Rings and…”
I thought for a second about searching for some fun jewelry for the girls. Then I noticed a still figure in the front seat of a nearby rusty truck, and hurried past. “Let’s just concentrate on surviving one day at a time.”
An hour later, we were out of the downtown area of San Diego. Nick whooped when he spotted the freeway. There were abandoned cars and trucks everywhere. On the road, on the sides of the freeway, and hundreds of feet away. Wherever the wave left them. “This must be the freeway that takes you to the border,” he said. “Try to find a marker of some kind.”
We continued walking near the edge of the road. There were no freeway signs in sight.
“In the movies, the zombies always attack people on roads. We should always be aware of the nearest place we can hide if we have to get away.” Takumi lowered his spear.
“From zombies?” I wrinkled my nose.
“You know what I mean. Actually, I’d rather deal with a hoard of brainless zombies than desperate, starving people.” Takumi scanned the area around us.
When we came to an open patch of land with dead grass and dying trees, we found our first settlement. People had rolled abandoned cars close together in a circle and created rooms out of scraps of wood siding and plastic sheeting. Small fires burned in the center of the circle of cars, and metal and wooden chairs had been placed around the fires. Nobody was sitting in the chairs. Except for the fire, there was no sign of people at all.
From behind a large bush, a filthy little girl around six years old ran toward us. “Do you have food? Do you?” She stared at our bulging backpacks and then back at the settlement.
Takumi and Nick moved beside me. Takumi faced the rear, and Nick the front.
Something about her was off. The guys sensed it too.
I kneeled in front of her, my spear up and ready. “Sorry. We’re looking for food too. And water. We heard there’s a river by the border. There might be fish in it.”
“Liar!” she screamed. “You have food. Walter told me so.”
An elderly man I assumed was Walter stepped out from behind one of the car-shelters and began to walk slowly toward us.
“Make them, Walter. Make them give us all their food,” the little girl screamed.
Takumi, Nick, and I were so close our shoulders touched. Our spears were pointed out in different directions.
“Don’t mind our little Clarisse. She hasn’t been the same since her brother was eaten by a pack of dogs.” Walter grinned.
Takumi grabbed my hand. I wished we’d brought one of the guns.
Clarisse screamed, “Make them, Walter, make…!”
“That’s enough, Clarisse. Go to your car,” Walter demanded.
“No. I want to see the food. I’m hungry,” she whined.
Walter made a beckoning hand gesture and one by one, men, women, and children stepped out from behind each of the shelters and headed toward us. Soon we were surrounded by at least twenty people. All carrying handmade weapons.
“Susan, please take Clarisse to her car,” Walter told an elderly woman.
The woman grabbed the little girl and hauled her to a small grimy yellow Volkswagen.
Clarisse screamed the whole way.
Walter waited until she was gone. “Now, where were we? As you probably guessed, my name is Walter.” He gestured at the people surrounding us. “And, these are my neighbors. We live together, search for food and supplies, and share what we find. Now, your turn. Who are you and why are you trespassing in our neighborhood?”
Takumi and Nick glanced at me.
I took a deep breath. “I’m Toni. This is Takumi and Nick. We came from Santa Barbara.”
“Santa Barbara!” Walter nodded. “How is Santa Barbara?”
“Just like San Diego. A total mess. After the tsunamis, we lived on the beach in a settlement camp. But people started getting sick, so we left,” I lied.
“I see. Are you sick?”
“No, but we would have gotten sick if we stayed. We heard about the Tijuana River basin, and decided to hike to it. At least we’d have fresh water.”
“Did you travel north or east at all? Check out the hills?” He squinted at me.
“No, all we’ve seen are the coastal areas.” At least that was true.
“Why are you in our neighborhood?” Walter seemed more curious than angry.
“We’re headed to the border crossing. We didn’t know we were trespassing.”
Walter glanced over at a middle-aged man in the group. “What do you think, Tim?”
Tim stepped forward and whispered in Walter’s ear.
“Tim told me you’re lying. Before the world turned upside down, he was a psychologist. He can tell these things. What are you really doing here?” Walter scowled.
Takumi stepped forward and aimed his spear at Walter’s head. “We’re just passing by. What she didn’t say was that she is also searching for her parents. They might be at the border. Isn’t everyone searching for someone?”
Tim whispered in Walter’s ear again.
“He says you are telling the truth. Are you really heading for the Tijuana River, too?”
Takumi glanced at me. I squeezed my lips together and shook my head.
Takumi faced Walter. “A place with fresh water and fish sounds nice, doesn’t it?”
The corners of my mouth quivered. I wondered how Tim could call that a lie?
Walter’s smile made my skin crawl. “We have been living well here. We have an extra empty car shelter. You are welcome to join us. We could use some young people. We’ve had to travel farther and farther every day in search of food and water. But one of these days we’ll find a Costco or Walmart that no one has discovered, and live even better.”
Takumi’s shoulders relaxed. “Thanks, but we truly need to get to the border. Toni’s parent might be waiting.”
“That’s too bad.” Walter gestured to the people he motioned to his neighbors. They closed in on us. “Leave your backpacks and spears on the ground. Then you may go.”
Chapter Eleven
I clutched my backpack tight to my chest. Takumi tried to shield me, but the armed crowd was closing in on us from all sides.
Nick bolted. He raced straight at Walter with his spear aimed at Walter’s face. Walter’s eyes went huge. He scrambled back, tripped, and fell. Nick straddled him, holding his knife on Walter’s neck. Blood trickled onto his collarbone.
Walter let loose an ear-piercing screech.
“Stay where you are, or Walter dies,” Nick yelled.
Walter’s people froze.
What are we going to do? I tried not to panic as I glanced at Nick and Walter, then swung around to help Takumi guard us.
“Don’t hurt him,” a woman cried.
“We don’t want to hurt anyone. We were just passing by.” I watched for a movement
from the crowd. Clarisse pushed her way forward and yelled, “They have food. They aren’t sharing. Rules! They broke the rules. Punish them.”
An older woman tried to pull her back, but Clarisse broke loose and flew at me. Takumi blocked her path. She plowed into him and fought like a wild animal, punching, kicking, and trying to bite him.
Takumi dropped his sword and pinned Clarisse’s arms behind her back. “Calm down,” he growled. With his swollen nose and blackened eyes, he looked fierce.
Clarisse started to wail that she was hurt. I knew she wasn’t.
Takumi and Nick looked at me pleadingly. “What now?” Nick mouthed.
I made a quick decision. “Walter is coming with us.” I spun in a slow circle, pointing my spear at each person in the crowd. “When we’re sure no one is following us, we’ll turn him loose. But if you come after him, we’ll kill him. Do you understand?”
No one answered.
“Get them. They’re just kids,” Walter cried.
The crowd roared and surged forward.
“Just kids?” Nick pricked Walter’s neck again. Deeper. Walter screamed.
“Back off. We will kill him. Understand?” I yelled.
The group came to a halt and a couple of people responded with a weak, “Yes.”
Takumi looked shocked at my behavior. For the first time since we’d gotten together, I didn’t know what he was thinking. Was he worried I would really order Nick to kill Walter? Would I?
Nick yanked Walter to his feet and held his hands behind his back. I pulled the
drawstring out of my hoodie and handed it to Nick.
Clarisse’s cries became whimpers. I didn’t know what we could do with her. I was certain she would attack us again if we let her go. I waited for one of Walter’s people to offer to take charge of the crazy little girl, but none did.
Takumi yelled, “Toni, get the duct tape out of my pack. We’ll tape her up. By the time they free her, we’ll be gone.”
I swung my pack on my back, and searched his, one-handed. I had to keep my eyes and spear on the crowd. But, without their leader, they didn’t seem to know what to do.
Takumi wrapped Clarisse’s ankles, then her wrists, behind her back. He sat her up against a rusty, downed, refrigerator.
“You need to use more tape. They’ll get her free in seconds,” I said.
Takumi’s eyebrows creased, but he wrapped the tape around her legs, then through the handle of the fridge. He thought for a moment, then put a small piece over her mouth.
“Walter too.” Nick raised Walter’s already tied hands up and shoved him toward Takumi.
Takumi added tape to Walter’s wrists, put a strip on top of his mouth, and then tiny pieces over where the blood still oozed. The knife pricks were small, but if they got dirty and infected, Walter would die.
When he was done, Takumi looked over at me.
“Good job,” I told him, and then turned my attention to Walter’s people. “We’re leaving. If any of you follow us, we’ll kill Walter, or at least make him wish we’d killed him. In an hour, we’ll release him. We have no desire to hurt anyone, but we won’t let you hurt us or take what’s ours.”
I led us out of the camp. Nick yanked Walter’s wrists up until he yelped and followed me. Takumi guarded our back.
I held my breath, hoping the crowd wouldn’t chase us. But, except for Walter’s constant muffled groans, it was quiet.
We’d traveled across the destroyed high-rise area, but there were still lots of collapsed three and four-story buildings ahead. And cars and trucks that had been swept away and randomly dropped by the tsunamis were still scattered on top of everything. We tried to follow the freeway that was headed for the border, but the road was often covered by steel girders and building frames. We had to find other paths, or do a lot of climbing.
Walter couldn’t get over the rubble without the use of his hands. Takumi ended up helping Nick haul him across the wreckage. I guarded the rear. Twice I hid and waited. But there was no sign of Walter’s people.
At the one-hour mark, we hadn’t gone far enough to be comfortable leaving Walter, and kept going. Forty-five minutes later, we came to an elevated freeway system that had somehow mostly survived. We needed to find a way up and on it.
“Let’s leave him here,” I said. We stood amongst the remains of an apartment. A moldy upholstered couch and a matching chair were visible under a collapsed ceiling.
“Why don’t we tie him up on the chair?” I suggested.
Takumi shook his head. “If he doesn’t get loose, he’ll die.”
“But if we let him go, he’ll tell the others where we’re headed, and they’ll come after us,” I whispered.
Walter franticly shook his head and loudly mumbled. I think he was saying, no, no. He
looked terrified. I was almost sorry for him.
To the left of us, three cars formed a pyramid of sorts. “How about we leave him in
one of the cars?” Nick pointed.
I scowled. “Yes, but what’s to stop him…”
Before I could finish, Nick punched Walter hard in the face. Walter’s head flew back, and he slumped in Takumi’s arms.
“What the hell!” Takumi screamed. “You didn’t have to do that.”
Nick and I stared at one another. He massaged his wounded knuckles.
“Yes, he did, Takumi. Now we can untie him. When he wakes up, we’ll be long gone.”
“But he could have a concussion, or worse.” Takumi glared at me.
Nick felt his pulse. “He’ll be okay. I aimed at his cheek. Cheekbones are hard. It was either punch him or kill him. Would you prefer I stabbed him?”
Takumi glared as he adjusted his grip on the unconscious Walter he still cradled in his arms.
“Let’s get him into a car. He’ll be safe there until he wakes up,” Nick said.
I tried to open the doors. The top car was the only one unlocked. It surprised me that people would lock their vehicles as they fled. But most of the cars we found were locked tight. I guessed people automatically locked their doors when they left, or maybe they thought they’d be back.
We soon had Walter untied and laying across the backseat of a black Mercedes. We made good time getting to the freeway overpass. It was too high to climb. We decided to follow alongside it until the freeway was lower. I worried we’d run into more camps of people under the freeway, but we didn’t. Before the tsunamis, homeless people camped under freeways, but with all the downed buildings, there were better places to stay, I guessed.
We made good time. I spotted some kids off a ways, and both the guys thought they saw movement a couple of times. But nobody harassed us. Takumi walked ahead of us. He was angry, but it wasn’t a place for a heart-to-heart conversation.
When we finally got on the freeway, I was amazed at how massive it was. At least eight lanes headed both to and from the Mexican Border. There were cars along the side, but not as many on top as I’d expected. I wondered if the openness of the freeway allowed the tsunamis to just wipe the cars away.
Takumi stopped and held up his fist. Nick and I crouched down.
“Hide!” Takumi whispered.
Military vehicles were approaching at full speed. We hid behind the nearest van as twelve jeeps and six Humvees passed by.
I hopped up, ran to the side of the freeway, and waved my arms. A jeep with four guys in it slowed down.
“Toni…” Takumi tried to pull me back down.
I broke away and continued signaling.
“We don’t have any food,” a young man wearing a red baseball cap with his green camouflage uniform told me.
“We don’t need food. We want a ride to the border. Give us a lift?”
The jeep came to a stop. The two guys in the front seats talked for a moment, then red cap asked: “You got a permit?”
Another jeep came up behind them and honked.
“Permit? Why do we need a permit?” I asked.
The two men spoke softly, then sped away. I plopped down on a cement freeway divider and watched the rest of the convoy pass. I quit counting vehicles. If we needed a pass just to go to the border, what would we need to cross the border? I held my head in my hands.
Takumi and Nick gave up hiding and joined me.
“At least we know we’re going the right way.” Nick watched the convoy finally fade in the distance.
Takumi scowled. “Waving those guys down was stupid and dangerous.”
I fought my anger. “Everything we do is dangerous. The world is dangerous. But we’re no threat to them. And if they’d given us a ride, we’d have gotten to the border quicker. We could have learned what’s going on. They might have even helped us.”
“You should have discussed what you were going to do before you ran into danger.” Takumi shoved his hands into his pockets.
Nick stared at his feet.
I sighed and stared at Takumi. “It is not your job to protect me. I didn’t know I was going to flag down that jeep until I was doing it. Sometimes an idea comes and we have to act on it. There’s not always time to talk things over.”
“Like when you and Nick decided to punch Walter, and didn’t tell me?”
“Yes, just like that, because he and I didn’t decide about Walter. Nick made a decision. He knew it would have been risky to let Walter go. By knocking him out, Nick saved Walter and protected us. It was a good decision.”
Takumi shook his head and took off down the freeway.
Nick started after him.
I put a hand on Nick’s arm. “Let him go.”
Chapter Twelve
Nick and I walked together for over an hour. Takumi remained ahead, but never out of sight. We didn’t see any moving vehicles. There were pockets of people below the freeway, but they ignored us, and we them. Nick kept checking his watch … it was almost time to radio the Whistler. Takumi finally slowed to a stop, and leaned against a white paneled van to wait for us.
