The Complete Lee West Post-Apocalyptic Box Set, page 41
part #1 of The Complete Lee West Post-Apocalyptic Box Set Series
“I also need to get ready for the meeting. Sam? You want to tag along?” said Jane, hoping to get away from them before she exploded.
“Sure thing. We’ll see the two of you later,” said Sam.
Chapter Six
Tank threw the few things he owned into the back of the car and got in the driver’s seat. He didn’t want to leave, but knew Bower was right. The New Order would kill them. Looking for Lea resulted in one dead end after another. It was time he faced reality. Lea was gone. One final look around, and he would feel satisfied.
The roar of his Trans Am’s quick response under his hand reassured Tank that maybe today would be the day he finally found her. They drove out of Evansville, heading toward Lake Sparrow. The morning sun hung low in the sky—blinding Tank as he drove.
“Damn it! Fucking sun, man. I can’t see a damn thing,” he grumbled.
“Yeah, pouring rain is so much better than sunshine,” joked Bower.
“You want to walk? I could do without the sarcasm.”
“Just busting your balls, man. Trying to keep it real.”
Bower’s attempt at levity only served to darken Tank’s mood. Leaving Lea behind felt like failure to him. Almost as though he was allowing her to win. None of it sat well with Tank.
Looking at the map, Bower said, “I think we should head up past the marina and then this way. Then we can skirt the lake and head down the other side into Grant.”
“You know I’m driving and not watching the map, right? Just point. And we’d better not be rushing past Lake Sparrow. I intend to make this last run a good one.”
“You got it. We’ll check under every bush and tree limb.”
“Asshole.”
The two friends drove in companionable silence, neither needing to express their excitement and nervousness at leaving. They both knew the stakes. If they were caught fleeing, the Boss would kill them. Worse, the Boss would first torture and then kill them.
“We’ve got company,” said Bower, looking over his shoulder.
“I noticed them a little while back. The Boss must have had our house under surveillance. How else would they be on our tail now? Damn it. What if they saw us packing?”
“No way. They didn’t see us packing. If they did, one of them would have come over to steal our stash. Everyone with half a brain has hidden supplies and knows full well others are doing the same. No. My guess is that they started watching this morning and saw us pull out. Or heard your car start.”
“Let’s hope you’re right. They’re so lame. Trying to pretend they’re not following us by being all stealthy. It’s such bullshit.”
“I know. They’re keeping their distance, that’s for sure. Maybe we can give them the slip in the mountains?” said Bower.
“You’ve got the map. From what I can recall, there aren’t a lot of places to pull off to hide.”
“I know. There may not be a way to slip out without them seeing.”
“We can always outrun them. Look at that heap they’re driving. No way it could keep up with this baby,” said Tank proudly, slapping the dashboard of his car.
They approached the marina and the only four-way stop on their route. Tank picked up speed and went through the intersection. “I’ve got an idea.”
He quickly pulled into the marina and drove around the back of the building, hiding the car from the road. They got out, grabbed their weapons, and watched for the New Order truck.
They heard the low rumbling of an engine in the distance. The sound traveled over the water, echoing off the trees.
“Here they come. Let’s see if they’ll go past,” said Tank.
Tank could feel his heart racing. He leaned against a large mobile storage unit, waiting. Anxiety caused bile to rise in his throat, adding to the already stale, dead taste in his mouth.
The car pulled up to the four-way intersection and stopped. The driver seemed unsure of what to do next.
“What an idiot. Stopping when there’s no one on the road,” said Bower with a smirk.
“If he comes this way, I say we level them and keep going. The Boss will never know what happened to either of us,” said Tank.
He checked to be sure his gun was ready. Bower tensed and did the same. The truck sat at the intersection for what seemed to be an extraordinary amount of time.
“What the hell are they doing? Come on already,” said Bower.
After what felt like an eternity, the truck pulled away from the intersection, heading into the mountains.
“Let’s go. They’re gone,” said Tank.
“They headed into the mountains. Maybe we should go another way? What if we run into them? Then what?”
“I’m not leaving before looking for Lea one more time. If we run into them, we smoke them. Easy as that. Same plan.”
“Let’s at least give them a head start. I don’t want to be on their heels.”
“Fine.”
After waiting for about thirty minutes, the two friends restarted their trek into the mountains. Mile after boring mile whizzed past, causing Tank to nearly fall asleep from boredom. Everything was the same as it had been on previous runs through. She wasn’t here. Frustration clawed at him, causing his mood to further sour.
“I need to take a piss,” said Tank out of the blue.
He swerved off the road, parking on the shoulder. Getting out, he slammed the door shut. Why bother being quiet and sneaking around when the New Order guys were nowhere to be seen?
Standing in the brush just off the shoulder of the road, Tank relieved himself. Glancing into the forest, something caught his eye. A sliver of chain-link fence was barely visible through the dense foliage. He quickly zipped his pants and darted into the woods. A sturdy chain-link fence ran parallel to the road. Farther down, he read a small sign: “Private Property. Property of Camp Hemlock. Keep Out.”
“Gotcha,” Tank said out loud.
Running back to the car, he could hardly contain his excitement. He found her. She had to be hiding out at the camp with her parents. He knew with absolute certainty that this was the place. Nothing could convince him otherwise.
“She’s here. Lea is here!” he said excitedly.
“What? Did you see her? What do you mean?”
“I saw the fence for Camp Hemlock. I know she’s here. I can feel it in my bones.”
“So now what?”
“Now what? What kind of question is that? She’s my old lady. ‘Now what’ is that we come back tonight to get her. I’m not leaving without her.”
“Why tonight? Why not now?”
Pulling into the road, Tank drove at a fever pitch. He glanced sideways to look for the fence, but couldn’t see it. Then he spotted the small dirt road, which cut into the trees.
“Look! That has to be the entrance! We’ll come back tonight and grab her. That way the New Order won’t see us. Besides, who knows what sort of reinforcements they have. Tonight or never.”
“Fine.”
Tank could tell Bower was steaming, but he couldn’t care less. He would get Lea back or die trying.
“We’ll hide out near the marina until nightfall, and then we’ll grab her.”
Chapter Seven
Sitting on his new home’s porch steps, overlooking the street, the Boss ate the last stale chip from a crumpled bag. He hated eating like this and was convinced that there was a store of food hidden in the hospital outside Porter. When he was a teen, he’d worked in a kitchen at a local hospital and remembered the vast shelves of food they kept in their large pantry. Porter Memorial Hospital, or “Memorial,” as everyone called it, was a huge facility that likely stored tons of food and really good drugs.
After fleeing from Porter, the Boss had set himself up in the largest Victorian in town. He’d kicked out that idiot Tank from the home in a brute show of strength. Seeing the anger and frustration in Tank’s eyes had satisfied him immensely. Tank had held Evansville for him long enough to be useful, but something had changed. The man had lost his focus, and he didn’t have the patience for it.
Now that he’d returned, there was no need for Tank or his flunky Bower. In fact, he knew that slippery asshole was up to something, and he intended to find out exactly what that was. He’d assigned several of his men to watch Tank and follow him wherever he went during the day. He’d get to the bottom of Tank’s escapades, and when he did, he’d turn Tank and Bower over to the guys for a little fun. The thought of seeing those two beaten to death made the Boss smile.
“Hey, Boss! Shift and Leer are back!” yelled Pico as he rounded the corner.
“Back already? They were supposed to follow Tank all day. Is he back too?”
“No. They lost him,” said Pico.
Leer and Shift ran into the yard excitedly.
“What happened out there?” demanded the Boss.
“Hey, Boss. We lost him. Swear that asshole knew we were following him, and he gave us the slip. He just vanished,” said Leer.
“We drove all around the mountains but never saw him again. We figured we’d stop using gas and just head back.”
“So he was going back into the mountains again? Near the marina?” asked the Boss.
“Yeah, man, just like before. Like he has some sort of obsession with the place. He just keeps going back there,” offered Shift.
Two SUVs turned the corner a block away and sped toward the house, putting the men on edge.
“Calm down,” said the Boss. “I recognize those cars.”
The mini-convoy pulled up and parked in the middle of the street, disgorging a small group of heavily armed gangbangers. The men were the remnants of the dominant black gang in PrisCorp. They didn’t challenge the Boss’s authority; however, they didn’t exactly fall into place under him, as he would have liked. He had the numbers advantage, pure and simple, but those weapons worried him. In the right hands, that kind of firepower could do a lot of damage.
“What’s up?” said the Boss casually.
He didn’t like that the men were better armed than his men. They’d managed to get into the armory in Grant, giving them access to an entire array of police- and SWAT-grade weapons and body armor.
“Our man Ralph says there’s a kids’ camp near Lake Sparrow. Some place where rich white people send their brats for the summer. We plan to hit it. See what they got. Maybe we’ll score some decent food,” said a man named Whitey.
The Boss glanced at Shift. A knowing glance passed between them. The camp had to be where Tank went every day. Tank probably had full access to a huge bounty of food up there. The Boss imagined Tank going to the camp every day, gorging on all the good stuff—chips, cookies and Slim Jims. No way he would stay out of this. No way.
“You know where the camp is?”
“Oh yeah, he showed us on the map. No problem.”
“Yeah, we’re in. Let’s meet here after dark.”
As the men walked away, a satisfied grin slid across the Boss’s lips. The camp could solve two problems: the lack of food and getting rid of Tank. If they found out that Tank had been gorging and not sharing, the men would rip him apart. Nothing would give the Boss greater satisfaction.
Chapter Eight
Chief Carlisle paced the command shed in anticipation of the meeting with his officers. The small fortlike structure also contained their communications rig. The officers at the headquarters were able to communicate with those at Doris’s house very easily, given the size of the antenna. No other chatter could be heard on the radio, making the chief believe they were alone. Nothing stirred in the world outside of them.
“Chief,” said Jane as she entered the building.
“Jane, Sam, have a seat. We’re waiting for Price, Rolz, Katz and Megit before we get started. Everyone else is on watch.”
Price, Rolz and the other officers walked into the shed, settling onto their makeshift seats on milk crates.
“I called this meeting to get everyone up to date on a couple of disturbing pieces of information we learned. First, the New Order has gained access to the armory in Grant. Second, we have reason to believe that they know the location of the camp. We may not be as safe here as we originally thought.”
The strain on the officers’ faces was something that the chief had grown accustomed to. The news of the armory break-in seemed to break even those officers with the strongest spirit.
“How long do you think we have before the New Order shows up here?” asked Joyce Rolz.
“There’s no way for me to know. I assume not long. Supplies out there must be getting limited for everyone. They will no doubt be on the move, trying to acquire more food. We always planned to move headquarters to Doris’s house. I would like to send the first wave of our group down today with anything they can carry or haul. Depending on what’s left in the kitchen, we might need to make several trips. Doris, how are the food stores?”
“We’re getting down to the last of the canned goods and flour. I think we could manage to carry most of what we have. We could also harvest the few items that are ready in the garden,” said Doris.
“That sounds great. Please grab a few volunteers and head up the packing of the garden and kitchen. Plan to be ready to leave after dinner.”
“Will do. I know this isn’t the best of circumstances, but I’m thrilled to be going home,” said Doris, beaming.
“Your house isn’t exactly as you left it,” said Sam.
“I figured as much. But still, it’s home.”
“Jane, I’d like you to get the families mobilized and ready to leave,” said the chief.
“Yes, sir. It shouldn’t take very long to leave, given how few items each person has with them. We’ll be ready to leave this evening.”
“That’s what I guessed too,” said the chief. “Sam, I’d like you to grab all the outdoor gear you can find and pack it for transport.”
“Sure. The camp has a large storage area under the deck, full of tents, tarps, bikes and other camping goods. I’ll grab those and give a tent to each family.”
“They’ll need it. Doris’s house is very large, but we have too many people to house.”
“My son also has a lot of camping gear the families can use,” said Doris.
“Thank you, Doris. That’s very helpful. Let’s get everyone mobilized and ready to move when it gets dark. Any questions?”
“What happened during the morning check-in with Doris’s house?” asked Jane.
“Overlook One reported all clear and quiet. They passed along that Porter reports needing to make a hospital run. There are a few critically injured that need transport to the hospital. The officers in Porter are working on that. If there’s nothing else, let’s get moving. We need to keep everyone calm. There’s no reason for alarm; we’re just moving up our timeline. The families will need reassurance from us that everything is fine. Let’s try to give it.”
Chapter Nine
Whitey sat in the front seat of the pickup truck next to Jacob, his best friend since going “inside.” The dirty folded map was laid out on the dashboard, the location of the camp circled in red. He didn’t know what they would find at the camp, but figured a stale bag of chips was better than nothing.
“Don’t miss the turnoff, man!” he shouted at Jacob.
“I see it. Don’t get your panties in a knot,” joked Jacob.
They were close to the camp now. According to the map, it was just a few more miles. The dense forest made it difficult for the men to see anything beyond the road.
“Why’d you invite the Boss and his goons? I thought we were gonna keep the shit we found for ourselves.”
“Strategy.” Whitey smiled. “The Boss’s men are loyal to him. But they’re also hungry. If I can score a huge amount of food, guess who just became more important to them?”
“Smart. Here I thought we’d just blast the Boss off his throne with one of these babies,” said Jacob, patting the police-issue M4 rifle in his lap.
“Naw, there’s too many of them for that. We have the firepower but not the numbers. Can’t shoot them all. Not in one place. This is better. The Boss’s men will leave him; that’ll hurt that asshole more than losing a turf war.”
“Yep, pretty smart.”
“Slow up. It has to be here somewhere.”
Jacob slowed the truck as Whitey looked for the entrance. Checking the map again, he said, “This has to be it.”
“Get ready! We’re here!” yelled Jacob to the armed men in the back of the truck.
“Turn here! This is it! No doubt.”
“There’s no sign! It can’t be it,” said Jacob.
“Just turn, we’ve gone far enough on this road, and there’s nothing else here.”
“What kind of kids’ camp has a locked chain-link fence closing its entrance?”
“The paranoid white sort of camp. Ram the gate!”
“Hold on, we’re going in!” shouted Jacob to the others.
Jacob depressed the accelerator, causing the truck to lurch forward. He picked up as much speed as possible and rammed headfirst into the gate. The gate flew back from the force. Whitey, Jacob and the men in the back cheered loudly as the camp’s only defense flew open.
***
Officer Pace was guarding the front gate of the camp that evening. He could hear the sound of multiple engines roaring through the quiet forest. Upon hearing the noise, hope that it was the National Guard welled in him for a split second. Then he remembered the chief’s warning that the camp could be invaded because the New Order knew their location. Determined not to let paranoia overtake him, Pace stood still, waiting and listening as the rumble grew closer.
