Badlands Trilogy (Book 3): Out of the Badlands (27 page)

Alice walked to the bed of the truck and pulled herself up and into the bed. The dead black man and white woman lay in pools of dark, red blood. She didn’t recognize them from Kansas City. Must have been a picked up along the way, she figured. Either way, it didn’t matter who they were. She eyed the contents of the truck, spying the gas cans. A few had been punctured by stray bullets, but at least three dozen remained intact. She smiled at the find.

Time to get started
, she thought, tucking the pistol into her back pocket.

“What now?” Jasper asked. “That asshole left us with nothing.”

Ed paused, considering their options. He glanced at Trish and she gave him a slight smile. Despite the bleakness of their situation, it encouraged him. “We keep going,” he said to the group. “Not much else to do.”

“But they took the truck,” Jasper said. “They’re long gone by now.”

Ed looked around. A few cars sat parked inside the grounds of Tex’s compound. “What about one of these?” he said, gesturing.

“We don’t even know if they run,” Terry said.

“Then we need to find out.”

“What’s the plan after that?” Jasper asked. “Let’s say we get one of these heaps running. What next? We don’t have any treated fuel left. Or any supplies. We don’t even have any guns.”

Ed shrugged. “I don’t have an answer. We’ve traveled with less before. We’ll have to scavenge for supplies.”

“There’s stuff here,” Emily said, breaking her usual silence. The group focused its attention on her. “Some food, medical supplies. Tex had guns, too. That guy who stole the truck, he didn’t take that stuff. He didn’t know about it.”

“You know where this stuff is?” Trish asked.

Emily nodded. “I do.”

“Then let’s go get it,” Ed said.

* * *

They spent the next four hours gathering as much as they could. Emily’s medical supplies came with them, along with a large portion of dried and canned food. Ed didn’t allow Zach and Jeremy into the building, not with the carnage left behind from the massacre. He also didn’t allow the two teens into the building, instead relegating them to packing and stacking duties outside.

Terry accompanied Ed back into the building, along with Emily. At the door, they paused. Ed glanced at Emily. “Can you do this? You can tell us where things are and we’ll collect everything if you need us to.”

Emily shook her head. “No, I’ll go. It’ll be faster that way. I don’t want to drag this out any longer than we have to.”

Ed nodded. He opened the door and they stepped inside. Immediately the smell of blood and gunpowder filled their noses. Ed fought to keep from throwing up.

“This is bad,” Terry said.

Ed turned to Emily. “Where do we go from here?”

“This way,” she said, stepping past the men.

She didn’t look at the bodies as she passed them.

* * *

An hour later they’d amassed a collection of things to take with them on their journey. Emily’s medical kit, along with assorted supplies: antibiotics, bandages, syringes, pain killers and more. They filled up five boxes that they deposited outside the main doorway. Terry gathered up foodstuffs from Tex’s supplies; canned and dried foods.

Ed collected what weapons he could find in Tex’s small armory. He found several pistols with a hundred rounds of ammunition that could be shared between them, along with two shotguns and a couple of .222 rifles. He also collected weapons from Tex and Tony’s bodies. Picking over the bodies of men who’d helped them felt like a violation, but there was nothing to be done about it. He couldn’t undo what had happened and he couldn’t afford to leave behind anything valuable. He said a silent apology to the two men as he left, the best he could do under the circumstances.

With the weapons and supplies collected, the group selected two vehicles from Tex’s lot. They found a small pickup truck that ran when they started it, along with a compact sedan. Another search turned up a few cans of gasoline. They didn’t know if it had been treated or had turned to sludge, but with little other options open to them they collected it regardless.

With two running vehicles and a collection of supplies now ready, evening rolled in, bringing with it the promise of darkness—and carriers. The group—now nine strong—sat around the two packed cars. Jasper sat alongside Emily, up and out of bed, his hand resting on her leg. His battered face looked only slightly better. Trish and the boys sat a few feet away, their packs beside them. The two teens, Sam and Chloe, sat on the hood of the sedan, hands clasped.

Ed surveyed the group. They all wore the expression of dazed shock. They’d been through so much, so quickly. He glanced at Zach and Jeremy and his heart ached at how old they looked. They didn’t look like children anymore. They’d seen more than most adults would ever have seen in their lifetime before the virus. So much pain and suffering, so much dying.

“It’ll be dark soon,” Terry said, looking toward the western horizon. “We don’t want to be caught out once it hits.”

“I don’t want to stay here,” Emily said. “I don’t think I can go back in there again.”

The thought of spending the night inside a building rank with death filled Ed with revulsion. “No, we shouldn’t. We have what we could take from there. We can find another place to stay tonight.”

“We should find a house along the way,” Trish said. “Maybe one with a garage where we can park the cars. We can hole up there and get some rest.”

“I like that idea,” Sam said, looking around. Chloe nodded in agreement.

“Then let’s get moving,” Ed said. “Before night catches us.”

They drove for a half an hour before finding a suitable house: a ranch style home in a subdivision just off the highway with an attached two car garage sitting beside it. Ed and Terry approached the house carefully after parking the vehicles a block away. They found the house unlocked and ransacked, but otherwise intact. No broken windows and no carriers or unfriendly survivors waited for them inside.

After manually opening the garage door they pulled both the truck and the car into the garage, closing and locking the door behind them. They shored up the front and back doors by dragging heavy furniture from the bedrooms in front of them. A search of the garage turned up a couple of hammers and some nails, so Ed nailed the doors shut for good measure. They closed up the curtains as the sun began to set behind the hillside.

Trish, Emily and Jasper prepared a meager dinner of tepid canned food, served alongside reconstituted rations of dried steak dinner and mashed potatoes. Ed insisted Jasper rest, but the younger man refused.

“I have to do something,” Jasper said as he hobbled across the room. “Otherwise I’ll go stir crazy.”

The group ate in silence as darkness overtook the land outside the house. A half hour after sundown they heard the first scream of the carriers outside. They looked around nervously at each other as a single candle burned dimly in the living room. No one mentioned the sound.

After the food had been consumed, Ed and the boys cleaned up the empty cans and the utensils. Ed then put the boys to bed in one of the house’s three bedrooms, allowing both boys to sleep in a queen sized bed. He found extra sheets in the hall closet and outside of a slight mildew smell and some dust, the sheets were clean and soft. He covered both boys and placed a hand on their cheeks before telling them goodnight.

“That man,” Zach began, “he killed a lot of people back there, didn’t he?”

Ed paused, considering his answer. He’d made a habit of telling his kids the truth about all things and he saw no reason to stop that now. “Yeah, he did.”

“Kids too?” Jeremy asked.

Ed nodded.

The boys went silent for a moment.

“Why would he do something like that?” Zach asked.

Ed took a deep breath. “I don’t know, buddy. Some people are just messed up, you know? Something’s wrong with their conscience. They just don’t care who they hurt.”

Zach nodded.

Ed returned a weak smile. “Try not to think about it and get some sleep. We’re going to have a long day tomorrow.” He kissed both boys on the forehead before exiting the room and closing the door behind him.

* * *

The rest of the group sat in the living room in silence. No one seemed to be in the mood to talk and Ed couldn’t blame them. After what had happened in the last twenty-four hours he was surprised any of them were still sane. The vision of bodies strewn across the floor, riddled with bullet holes as blood pooled around them…he could barely stand to think about it.

“Let’s talk about what’s next,” Terry said, breaking the silence.

Ed silently thanked Terry for taking his mind off the horrific events he’d witnessed. He took a deep breath, considering his response. He glanced at Chloe sitting across the room beside Sam. She stared at the floor in an almost catatonic state. He wondered what might be going on inside her head and decided to face it right there.

“Chloe,” he said. She raised her head slowly. “What happened wasn’t your fault, you know.”

She nodded slightly, but didn’t reply.

“Beating yourself up over it won’t help,” Trish said.

“But I knew something was wrong with him,” Chloe replied. “I knew he was bad.”

“You didn’t know he was a murderer,” Trish continued. “A gut feeling is only a feeling. You do what you can with it, but it’s not perfect.”

Chloe paused, thinking. “He was nice on the surface. He acted like he was our friend, but something about his eyes told me different. Before we met up with you guys we stayed with someone, a woman who lived in an old farmhouse. That night she disappeared and Lester said he didn’t know what happened to her. Two days later we found her, what was left of her anyway. Lester said the carriers got her, but I wasn’t convinced.”

“Do you think he killed Rita?” Sam asked.

“What do you think?” Chloe replied.

Sam nodded. “You’re probably right. He had me fooled. I feel like an idiot.”

“Look, you’re both kids,” Emily said. “You’re not old enough to know how to read people like that.”

“That’s no excuse,” Chloe said.

“Yes, it is,” Emily said.

“If we’re going to make it through this then we’re going to have to make sure we’re all on the same page,” Ed said. “This whole thing turned into a mess because the wrong people were in charge and we weren’t working together. I see this now, more clearly than before. If we’re going to stay alive, we’re all in. All of us.” He paused, looking around the room. “There’ll be time to process it all later. Time to grieve for the dead. Right here and now though, we can’t afford that luxury. I’m going to ask now…is everybody in? Are we all in this together? Can you put this mess behind us and focus on what we have to do to survive? If not, I need to know now.”

The room remained silent for a moment.

Jasper spoke. “I’m in.”

Emily nodded. “Me too.”

“You know I am,” Trish said, a slight smile on her lips. Ed returned it.

“Yep,” Terry said. “All the way.”

“Chloe…Sam?” Ed said, looking their way. “What do you say? Are you guys in?”

Chloe nodded. “Yeah.”

Sam echoed her response.

“Okay then. We leave tomorrow morning at dawn. We can’t travel at night anymore, so we have to make the most of the daytime. Let’s get some sleep. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”

They slept in shifts overnight, each person taking a turn at keeping watch throughout the night. Piercing shrieks periodically broke the heavy silence, the sound of their new and improved enemy out stalking its hunting grounds. The world had slowly given way to a new night breed, a hunter that ruled its domain completely. But the daytime belonged still to the survivors, the remaining human beings struggling to survive despite the odds.

They ate a meager breakfast before packing up and moving on, exiting through the garage and leaving the house doors nailed shut. They wouldn’t be back this way again. The cars started easily and Ed wondered just how long that would continue. They had no mechanic in their group and treated gasoline remained a precious resource. Eventually the time would come when the vehicles would fail and he wasn’t sure what he’d do then. For now, however, luck appeared to be in their corner and Ed planned to squeeze as much mileage out of it as possible.

The group headed back to the highway, merging onto the littered landscape. Ed drove the truck while Terry piloted the car traveling behind them. Trish and the boys rode in the truck’s cab while Sam and Chloe rode in the bed with the fuel and supplies. The others piled into the car, alongside more boxes of supplies.

A half hour later they encountered the aftermath of the firefight that took the lives of their former traveling companions.

Ed slowed the truck, allowing Terry to pull up alongside.

“Jesus Christ,” Terry said, looking at the carnage. “What the hell happened here?”

“I don’t know,” Ed said, inspecting the scene. “We should see what’s left though.”

“Agreed,” Terry replied. “Be careful.”

Ed nodded. He killed the truck engine, turning to Trish and boys. “Stay here, we’ll check it out. Be ready.”

“Always,” Trish said, touching Ed’s hand.

He smiled before exiting the truck.

He stepped onto the crumbling roadway and took in the scene around him. The truck sat idle, tires flattened. Flies buzzed two bodies lying on the truck’s bed. Ed recognized them, despite their bloated appearances and the damage done by scavenging carriers. Reggie and Tina. He could still see them in his mind standing behind Dario, rifles pointed at them as they stole the truck and attempted to make a run for the coast. Ed couldn’t help but feel that maybe they’d gotten what they deserved.

He glanced at Terry who returned a knowing look. They walked together, pistols drawn, toward the front of the truck. There they found Dario’s body lying on the ground outside the cab door, flies buzzing around his open mouth and eyes. Ed felt his gorge rise as he covered his nose. The bodies had already begun to smell.

“Look here,” Terry said, gesturing to more bodies lying on the roadway. “One hell of a firefight went down here.” He counted the bodies. “I count sixteen.”