Endless Flames (Surviving Ashes, Book Four) (10 page)

Berke brought the truck to a stop, letting the other vehicles behind him pass. Some of the cars and trucks had initially followed his lead, but now they didn’t have the patience to stop. Maxie turned and climbed back into the back seat once more so she could force a smile and soothe Jacob. He wasn’t having any part of it and she could sense an emergency switch wanting to flip within her, urging her to join him.

“If there’s nothing there that we can use, we’ve wasted all the precious time that we had going for us,” Berke warned, his concerned gaze capturing hers in the rearview mirror. Maxie had never seen him second-guess himself and maybe he wasn’t, but she’d come to rely on him over the last three days and vice versa. She needed his strength to fuel hers. Relief poured through her when the corner of his eyes crinkled with a small smile. “Worse comes to worse, we can always return here and steal ourselves a tractor. Jacob could always turn out to be a farm boy.”

A bubble rose up in Maxie’s throat and she couldn’t decipher if it was a laugh or a cry, so she swallowed it down as she reached for Jacob’s blanket he’d thrown on the sack of black nylon bags covering the floor of the truck. His cries diminished slightly at the sight of his favorite ragged old light brown blankie. She wasn’t sure where the headphones had gone, but his tiny fingers were already grabbing at the worn, soft material.

“Jacob, would you like that?” Maxie asked softly, a sense of calm washing over her as his beautiful blue eyes remained focused on her face. She wiped his tears away and continued talk to him as Berke managed a three-point turn with the truck in spite of the oncoming traffic. Panic was starting to set in among the population and what they’d just experienced was nothing compared to what they were about to face. “You could grow up to be a farmer. We’re going to need men and women in those professions more now than ever. Now that I think about it, I bought you a pair of denim overalls. Maybe there’s a cowboy hat you can have wherever we’re going.”

“What made you want to be a mother?”

“You’re asking me that right now?” Maxie shot a disbelieving glance Berke’s way, knowing he most likely caught sight of it in the rearview mirror.

“Why not?” Berke inquired, somewhat distractedly. It was then she realized he was just trying to keep her and Jacob occupied by having something to think about other than the oncoming cloud. “It’s most likely a ten to fifteen minute trip back into town. We’ve got time to kill.”

And so did those men they’d just chased off. What if they had gone back to town? They still had their weapons. Maxie could guarantee they would use them without thought if they saw this truck headed toward them. She couldn’t help but rest her palm on the handle of her firearm.

“It’s hard to explain,” Maxie replied honestly, tearing her eyes away from Jacob to look out the front windshield. “Why? Don’t I seem maternal to you?”

“That’s a loaded question and I’m smart enough not to walk into that kind of trap.” Berke was traveling at quite a clip, going at least fifteen miles over the speed limit so that they reached their destination in good time. It wasn’t hard considering everyone was going the opposite direction on the other side of the road. Did they think they would get very far with what was bearing down on them? It wouldn’t do to get caught up in the cloud, disabling their mode of transportation, but that’s what seemed to be on their mind. “Remind me to talk to Jacob about your devious interrogation techniques.”

Maxie couldn’t help but smile and realized that’s what Berke had wanted all along—to prevent her from spiraling down that miserable path that would lead to nowhere. She could at least give him the truth.

“You know that my mother died when I was young, but not young enough not to remember.” Maxie started to rub Jacob’s forehead slowly, the way he liked when he’d take a nap at his foster house. His long lashes started to drift shut now that the only thing he heard was the hum of the engine and the soft sound of her voice. She didn’t want to think about what the next hour held for them, so she actually appreciated talking about the past. “The night we found Lou Ann’s body was the moment my life changed forever. It’s harder to explain than I thought. This tiny, innocent ten-month-old boy who was too young to know what had happened and yet sensing that he was all alone…held up his hands to me as if I could save him. I recall doing that very same thing to my father when I was young. All I wanted was security—a guarantee that someone else was watching out for me and I wasn’t all alone. I hadn’t planned on things getting to the point where I hired a lawyer to submit adoption papers, but each day became harder and harder to pull myself away from him.”

“He’s lucky to have you,” Berke said, falling silent in a manner that had her understanding quickly the reason why.

“Berke, I’m sorry. I forgot about your situation,” Maxie apologized, not having thought out her explanation quite so thoroughly. She could have kicked herself for not thinking of what he’d gone through. It was well known that an alcoholic uncle who’d wanted nothing to do with Berke had raised him, dying months shy of his nephew entering the service. He hadn’t been given the security she’d spoke of, but instead had learned early on just how unfair life could be. “I shouldn’t have—”

“I found what you’ve given Jacob, just not as early as I’d have liked,” Berke shared with her as he turned the wheel of the truck to guide them onto the main drag that would take them to their immediate destination. Maxie couldn’t say she wasn’t surprised by his admission given his lack of communication in the past. He wasn’t what she would have called a loner, but he somehow had always managed to keep his distance from most people. That wasn’t so with his old unit, though. What had made those men so special instead of the townsfolk he’d grown up with? “There’s the car lot. Keep your eyes open for anything or anyone who could pose a threat.”

Maxie grimaced at leaving their conversation the way it had ended, but there were more important things they had to concentrate on…such as their safety. She quickly glanced down to find that Jacob had fallen into a light sleep, although she wasn’t so sure he would stay that way. It still gave her the opportunity to survey their surroundings. The town was still quite busy considering what was coming their way, but the vehicles seemed more distracted by the couple of gas stations around the area than anything else.

“I’m surprised there are any cars left out on the lot,” Maxie stated, climbing back over the console to join Berke in the front seat. At this rate, she’d be a contortionist by the time they arrived in Washington. That brought to mind their ability to make it through the ash cloud with…what? “Do you think we can rig a filter of some sort for our truck? We’ll need to be enclosed inside the cab so that we—”

“There are gasmasks in the bed of the truck.” Berke tossed out that confession as if it was an everyday item to carry around, causing Maxie to look at him twice with astonishment. “The horse idea was sound if we didn’t have all of the reloading equipment to take with us. We need something with a motor and I just might have an idea of what we could use.”

Maxie followed Berke’s line of vision toward the Kawasaki dealership next door, multiple reasons instantly forming on her lips as to why those types of vehicles weren’t such a good idea.

Four wheelers? What was he thinking?

“No way in hell can we get from here to Washington on four wheelers with a one-year-old boy, Berke. Just…no.”

“Well, you’re not going to get your wish,” Berke said as he nodded toward the grey wall of ash still headed their way. She was still shaking her head and trying to get through to him what a bad idea this was. “We’ll be driving straight into the depths of hell on a recreational vehicle.”

B
erke worked at
outfitting the finest four-seat Mule Pro-FTX EPS LE All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) they had on the showroom floor which had the hard cab option installed with all the extras, including the additional battery kit and the heater. The dealership had already installed the cargo lift bed and the heavy tow package. Honestly, the ATV in Super Black was loaded with nearly every option available. Not that it mattered, but it was listed at just over thirty thousand dollars MSRP. Had they not been in such a dire situation where this vehicle could very well save their lives…he would have stopped and taken time to enjoy such a new toy.

Berke added a fording, which used canister-type air intake filters for adverse conditions, such as sand and mud…or ash, in their case. He also hooked on a matching black 5x9 enclosed trailer with heavier terrain tires to finish off the deal. He found five canister filters in the stockroom. He took them all, even though they were reusable after washing them out. He reasoned that they could use the vehicle up at the lodge once they arrived, since it had better fuel consumption than a truck. They couldn’t travel as fast as they had in his old F-150 truck, but at least they’d be able to carry the extra fuel with them to refill the tanks when needed, along with the reloading equipment, growing lamps, and the rest of their gear. He wasn’t leaving anything behind.

“Jacob isn’t going to wear this mask and not try to take it off, Berke. Hell, it wouldn’t even fit his face properly. We need to come up with another idea.” Maxie was at the end of her rope as she paced back and forth the hard tiled floor. Jacob was firmly on her hip, a contented smile on his lips as he played with the strap of the device she was currently speaking of in her other hand. Berke could hear the worry and fear rising up in her voice and he didn’t know how to alleviate her concerns just yet. He had to get them up and running first before dealing with the next obstacle. Hadn’t he already told her that was how they were going to get through this? “What about a plastic container like one of those round side seats? Maybe we can make some sort of dome out of something where he could sit securely.”

Berke didn’t reply right away. He looked out over the large showroom floor and out the large glass window, grateful it was tinted so that no one could see inside as they packed one vehicle out of another. The clicks and clanks of the tools he was using echoed through the large building, as if to hammer home that they were all alone in here. Out there? It was turning into anarchy as doom approached.

“Maxie, I need you to concentrate on making sure no one comes too close. You’re on security,” Berke advised, turning back to the job at hand. He tried to concentrate on making something akin to an oxygen tent with an overpressure atmosphere, but that was getting harder to do knowing they were on borrowed time. “The last thing we need is to get ambushed. We’ll figure something out for Jacob.”

“Like what?”

Maxie set the gasmask down on the hood of an ATV. She ran a hand through her black hair, the chin-length silky strands instantly going right back to framing her heart-shaped face. It wasn’t something he should be taking notice of at the moment, but his admiration for her was growing more and more. The way she’d handled herself back on the road was commendable, knowing full well a dead man lay no more than twenty feet away. She could think on her feet and come out the victor. In a situation like this…that was invaluable.

“I don’t know,” Berke said patiently, using the crank to lower the trailer hitch onto the ball, testing the tongue weight and adjusting the cargo bed lift. “The Israelis actually have a type of suit to place a child in, so maybe we can orchestrate something to that effect.”

Berke made a few more adjustments to the Mule’s air shocks, stowing the last of the items in the ATV’s cab that they would need while giving Maxie time to think about what he’d said. It wasn’t impossible to improvise, but he could only work on one thing at a time. She started to roam the large showroom floor, but he was grateful that she also kept checking outside of the building for anyone who might take notice of their affairs. Police were shooting past on the road outside in droves, but they would have a hard time controlling such a large, disruptive crowd who were trying to liberate everything they could use from the local mall.

It had taken Berke another thirty minutes before he was finished rigging the fuel transfer system he’d need for filling the tank on the fly from random, stranded vehicles. He reasoned that fuel wouldn’t be a problem on the roads headed into the cloud ahead of them. Those cars and trucks would have clogged intakes full of ash, but plenty of gas for the taking.

Berke just needed a way of quickly transferring the fuel. He rigged an electric fuel transfer pump with twenty feet of hose he’d obtained from the parts area and an old modified oil can spout clamped to the end. With a little effort, he could punch the sharpened end opposite of the nozzle through the underside of the vehicle’s self-sealing fuel tank and pump the contents into several five-gallon gas cans he had strapped into the cargo bed of the ATV.

Berke immediately started to sort through what all the gear they had to determine what would be essential during the trip and what wasn’t, loading everything into the various locations determined by their need and ease of access. He included several of the rifle boots that came as an optional accessory for the ATVs. They were ideal for the current situation in that they kept the weapons sealed inside a padded heavy-duty plastic carrier until they needed to be used. He took all fifteen they had in stock. By the time he was finished packing, Jacob had started crying and Maxie looked like she was close to joining him.