LZR-1143 (Book 4): Desolation (47 page)

What an odd, wonderful thing that was. After everything they had been through, they could still reference something that brought them joy. Something that stood out from the terror and horror that lived in the world around them. I allowed a small smile as Rhi turned to me and spoke in a low voice.

“You think your friends are still with this group?” she asked, tone indicating that she already knew the answer.

“I think they were with this group, physically. As for whether they’re still with them…I suppose there’s no way to tell. But for now, this group is heading in our same direction. I think it’s time for us to veer off, take the smaller roads and head north on a lower profile. I don’t want to put anyone here at any more risk than is necessary, and I have a feeling that I know where Kate is heading.”
 

My hand rustled in the large cargo pocket of my right leg briefly before pulling out a map I had borrowed from the office of the administrative building. I pulled it tight over my thigh as Rhi watched, and I pointed at a spot roughly twenty miles from a rural border crossing that was, in turn, only fifteen miles away from us.
 

“All told, I figure it’s twenty miles to the border and another twenty to this rest stop. Can’t miss it. It’s got a big moose holding a donut outside. That’s where they’ll be waiting.”
 

Rhi glanced up at me once and smiled patiently.
 

“There’s a lot of shit up in that frozen wasteland that’s got a moose on it, you know?” she joked, then straightened.

“Okay then, cowboy, sounds like a plan.”
 

As she finished speaking, Ethan rounded the corner behind the nearest building with a huge smile uncharacteristically plastered on his grizzled face.

“You look like you screwed the minister’s daughter, you old bastard. What’s your story?”

He laughed at his wife as he limped closer.
 

“Well unless the minister’s daughter is a nickname for my right hand, that ain’t what happened. But what I did do, you ungrateful she-devil, is find us a couple more vehicles. Must have been left by those crazy wenches this morning. I reckon it’ll be a little more comfortable to spread out than cramming into that pickup.”
 

Well now, things were looking up indeed, I thought.
 

“I guess a blind, retarded pig finds a half-way decent truffle every once and a while,” Rhi said, not entirely unaffectionately, as Ethan proudly dangled the keys from his hand.
 

“Okay, folks,” she said to the group as I stood up behind her. “Time to mount up.” Turning to me she asked me again.

“North on the back roads, right son?”

The group watched me as I nodded once and looked north.
 

“They won’t have stayed with this group long, I know it. We move north, staying away from these lunatics, and meet them on the highway into the city.” My eyes went to Rhi, voice serious and loud so all could hear it.

“And that’s where you all go your own way. Whether I find them or not, I can’t ask you to go further—certainly not into a destroyed city that could be full of zombies. Once we’re at the rest stop, you are all done. You can move north, find somewhere the zombies can’t follow. Okay?”

The general mumbling behind Rhi was hushed when she waved it away and cocked her head at me curiously.

“We’ll see, boy. We’ll see. For now, let’s get while the gettin’ is good—I got zero impulse to drive after dark round here, what with the feminazi militia roaming the earth between zombie herds. I’m too old for this shit.” She stumped off immediately, grabbing a set of keys from Ethan and slapping his wizened ass as she walked past.
 

Grinning, I followed.

It was time to see a moose about a girl.

“Do you even know how to find this place with the moose and the donut? It’s been a while since you were there.”
 

Ky stared out the window, watching the farmland pass by underneath the shadow of the looming mountains, feeling the vehicle slow and shudder as it passed onto the shoulder frequently to avoid cracks in the pavement.
 

Kate focused on the driving, watching for obstructions, and she periodically checked her rearview mirror for pursuit. Every ten miles, they pulled over and hid, hoping to reveal any pursuit before they could be overwhelmed suddenly. The thought of Starr catching them again wasn't one that they welcomed. Luckily, they had seen or heard nothing so far.

“It’s hard to miss,” she replied. “Big corny moose standing out front with a donut in his hand. And it’s not hard to find—it’s on the Trans-Canada highway just east of the city.”

“Well, according to that sign, the promised land of moose and snow is only a couple miles ahead. I see the funny customs and border control signs now.”
 

Kate followed her finger and took a deep breath. She took in the scattered buildings and the surrounding area. It was almost entirely rural, with small clusters of residential buildings throughout, mostly set back far from the road. In better times, they would have tried to scavenge from them, but in their haste, they skipped it, hoping to outdistance the convoy that they were sure was looking for them.
 

Kate hoped that Starr’s vengeance—or her lust for power—wouldn’t keep her moving after them for long. She also hoped that the vague direction of their travel—north—would be too little to go on. Starr had no idea they were moving toward Vancouver, and had little reason to suspect it. People of moderate to low intelligence were avoiding major metropolitan areas like—well, like the plague—recently, and she hoped that Starr would assume she wasn’t that stupid.
 

Ky grunted as the SUV pulled onto the median, again trying to avoid a thick crack in the pavement and two stopped cars on the right. To their left, an entire semi-truck had been subsumed into a massive crevasse that had split the southbound lanes down the white lines. All that was visible was the red top of the cab, and the long gray panels of the trailer behind the truck.
 

Ky laughed suddenly, pointing out the window.

“What are you laughing at? See another sign with a funny Canadian word on it?”
 

Ky chuckled but shook her head.

“No, over there, on the right. It’s a lumber mill. But their billboard is awesome.”

Kate spared a glance as she slowed, taking in the large metal gates with the thick lock, as well as the fencing that speared off into the distance on either side. A long driveway disappeared into a sparse tree line, and she could vaguely make out a large industrial-looking building in the distance, perched on the top of a rise.
 

The billboard was, however, pretty funny. It depicted a man with a weak sapling frowning as it drooped sadly away. Another man, wearing the logo of this particular lumber distributor, held a huge plank in his hand while standing proudly and smiling.
 

“Got Wood?” the advert read.
 

Kate chuckled briefly then shook her head and accelerated forward, excited now to see the border in the distance.

They were approaching one of the smaller checkpoints along the northern edge of Washington. Much less popular than the Interstate 5 corridor, but still frequented by farming trucks and agricultural vehicles. This one was a simple awning with two office buildings on either side. Two lanes northbound and two lanes southbound, with a cluster of hastily erected sandbag fortifications on both sides.
 

Ky lowered her window and looked into the surrounding forest—which had grown thick as they moved more northerly. She shivered briefly. The air was definitely growing colder as the ash continued to enter the upper atmosphere.

They slowed as they approached the lines of backed up cars on either side of the checkpoint, scanning the scene before Kate pulled up to the southbound gate and threw the SUV into park. Cars in an orderly line were stacked up in the northbound gate, apparently waiting to flee into Canada. Nearly all the doors were open, some bearing the signs of struggle—broken glass, blood and the like. Some held corpses. Some were simply empty and abandoned.
 

But on the southbound side, there were only a few cars waiting on the Canadian side to pass through into the U.S. A single pickup blocked the gate, and for a good reason. It had run into the concrete divider between the northbound and southbound lanes, and the wedge of the large structure was jammed halfway to the cab. It must have hit at speed.
 

Kate got out and Ky followed, both warily watching for contact as they inspected the obstruction. The front window was dirty and obscured by a cloud of blood on the inside.
 

Kate signaled to the left and she walked to the right, closer to the driver’s side door. As she snaked around the edge of the hood, she jumped as a hand flailed against the interior of the window, smearing blood and spiderwebbing a new array of cracks in the glass.
 

“This side, driver is a zed,” she said softly and Ky nodded. “Can you take him from that side with an arrow?”
 

Ky nodded again and brought her crossbow around, leaving her carbine on the single-point sling strapped to her chest. As she turned the corner and moved to the window, she stepped back and frowned, and Kate watched another hand fly out of the passenger side.
 

Two in the cab, huh? Must have been what started the backup on that side.

The heavy twang of the two bolts ended the suspense and Kate moved to the door, examining the damage. An elderly couple, the corpse of a small dog laying in the back of the crew cab, were the only occupants. She reached past the man, noting the World’s Greatest Grandpa mug in the cup holder, and pushed the gear shift into neutral before turning to the back of the truck.

“Watch here. I’m going to do a quick recon on this side before we start moving it.”

Ky’s eyes immediately started scanning the tree line and the surrounding cars with intent. These areas, with multiple urban and rural obstructions, were some of the most dangerous. These things were slow and they were dumb, but they could be damn quiet sometimes.
 

Behind the truck was a line of six cars—a few sedans and trucks, and a large semi-trailer. Kate did a quick circuit of the area but it was apparently clear. At least clear enough to start pushing that truck off the barrier and through the checkpoint so they could weave their SUV through the gap. Chain link fencing stretched off to either side of the road border, at least as far as the trees, thus assuring that no one could easily veer past the checkpoint by dashing through the fence.
 

The two women made short work of the obstruction, aided by the very convenient fact that the truck’s wheels and axles hadn’t been damaged in the impact. Once they dislodged it from the barrier, it rolled moderately easy back and then forward through the checkpoint.

“Welcome to America,” Ky said quietly, as they sent the truck coasting on a slight downhill incline on the opposite side. It came to a rest and Kate took a breath and nodded.

“Mount up and grab your passport. Time to visit Canada.”
 

***

“My grandfather used to tell me that if I didn’t have bad luck, I’d have no luck at all,” Kate said quietly, leaning forward against the railing of the overpass and staring west. Beside her, Ky leaned her arms against the wall, sighed and allowed her head to droop down, looking at her feet in frustration.
 

And not a little bit of fear.

The sun was beginning to fall behind the landscape they were facing, sharp rays of light making it through the cheap dime-store sun glasses they had picked up at a convenience store a few miles after the border.
 

The chill wind whipped at their exposed arms and faces as Kate tapped her fingers against the railing, thinking and cursing her fate.
 

The overpass upon which they stood crossed over the Trans-Canada highway, perpendicular to the wide freeway. Below them, a crowded field of vehicles sat jammed together on the eastbound route, nearly bumper to bumper.
 

All of the cars bore evidence of the multiple earthquakes: shattered glass, flattened tires and some were even half-buried in large crevasses in the pavement. The westbound route, blessedly clear since it ran toward a major city—something not many people were inclined to do during a zombie apocalypse—was home to weeds and tumbling trash.
 

But it wasn’t the freeway they were concerned with.
 

Nor was it the volcanoes behind them spewing ash and noxious chemicals into the air.

It wasn’t even their lack of food or other supplies as they continued their perilous journey.

No. Right now, their concern was more basic.
 

How to avoid the massive herd of zombies that blackened the horizon to the west, and which was approaching their position—and completely blocking their route.
 

“Whadya reckon? Maybe thirty minutes away?” Kate said, trying to keep her movements confined. She knew they didn’t see well enough to make them out at that distance, but it wouldn’t be long.

“Seems that way.” Ky nodded her head to the northwest. “You see any way to flank them to the north? I see some roads, but we’re not high enough for a good view. Maybe if we explored a little bit ahead, but …”
 

“Not a good idea,” Kate interrupted, slamming a hand down on the metal in frustration. “Looks like this damn thing stretches out to either side of the road, too. They’re not following each other like a column—they’re spread out, like they’re running away from something.” She let her voice fade off, suspecting that she knew what they were fleeing.

Vancouver was likely submerged—whatever was left of it.

And they were like rats fleeing a sinking ship—their flight didn’t require intelligence, only instinct. That instinct was driving them this way, cutting Kate off from the last part of her journey.