Pursuit of the Apocalypse (21 page)

The man passed by the weapons and made for the top of the fence. Barbed wire slowed him down, but it was the crowd on the other side that stopped him. As soon as it was clear he was trying to escape, they released a barrage of glass bottles, bricks, and other debris toward him until he was forced to let go and drop back to the floor.

Applause erupted on the opposite side of the arena. It rolled from the back toward the court as something in the opposite tunnel stole the crowd’s attention.

“What is that?” Mr. Christopher asked.

“We don’t have much time,” Jerry said as he tugged at the cuff. “C’mon.” He started to move to the right.

Mr. Christopher pulled to the left. “I think we should go this way.”

The Librarian punched him in the face.

“Fine. Your way.”

The pair ran down the sideline as a much larger gate opened on the other side of the court. Even with the barriers scattered through the arena, Jerry could see the massive brown-furred hunch of the bear as it lumbered into the arena.

The crowd, though arguably already crazy long before entering the stadium, lost its collective mind as the bear rose up on its hind legs and roared. It towered above the obstacles and its voice stopped the bikers in their tracks. The sound filled the poor acoustics and shook the rafters for thirty seconds before the beast finally closed its mouth and dropped back to the ground.

The audience exploded.

“Did you see the size of that thing?” Mr. Christopher asked.

The Librarian nodded and watched the brown hump lumber onto the court as the bikers scrambled to take shelter behind the wooden structures, squatting behind the sturdiest ones they could find and peeking constantly around corners to keep track of the beast.

The monster roared again and the two men moved as one to find their own shelter. They ducked behind a wooden box and Jerry scanned the walls of the cage, looking for a weapon.

“What do we do?” Mr. Christopher fidgeted in place as he struggled somewhere between fight and flight.

“First of all,” the Librarian said. “It’s important to remember that he’s more afraid of us than we are of him.”

Another roar was followed by a startled yelp, some footsteps, a crashing, and then dying screams of intense agony.

Mr. Christopher ducked farther behind the barrier. “I really don’t think that’s true.”

“No. Probably not.” Jerry had spent the beginning of the apocalypse reading book after book to kill the time. There had been a book on bears in there somewhere. “The other thing we’re supposed to do is make noise so it knows we’re here. We don’t want to startle it.”

Cracking wood sounded like a gunshot as the beast destroyed one of the wooden structures somewhere in the arena.

“I’d feel better if it didn’t know we were here.”

“I’m going to agree with you on that one,” Jerry said.

“What else is there?”

“If it does see you, try to appear as big as you can so it doesn’t want to pick a fight with you.”

“That one actually makes sense,” Mr. Christopher said.

There was another roar and another scream as the beast located another biker. The trampling and crashing took longer this time, but it ended with the same terrifying screaming.

The final Iron Eagle used the distraction to make a break for the fence. The crowd reacted with bottles and boos and drove the man back to the floor again. Doomed to face the bear, the biker grabbed a spiked baseball bat from the cage wall and ran back into the middle of the court to hide once more.

Mr. Christopher closed his eyes against the weakening screams of the bear’s last victim. “What else is there?”

“That’s pretty much it,” Jerry said.

“Well,” he held up his right wrist and rattled the cuff. “At least this will help us look bigger, right?”

“Yeah. It’s a blessing.” He finally found what he was looking for on the cage wall. He stood up and pulled Christopher to his feet. “Come on. We need that axe.”

“You’re going to fight it with an axe?”

Jerry raced to the bottom of the fence and began to climb. He quickly reached the limits of the cuffs. “Get up here, you moron.”

Christopher climbed up just far enough for Jerry to grab the axe and drop back to the floor.

The pair turned to find another hiding spot when several gunshots rang out in the stands and quieted the audience. Within moments there was only the fading ring of the blasts and the growling of the bear.

Jerry looked into the stands as several armed warriors in animal war paint made their way through the crowd shoving or beating anyone that got in their way.

Mr. Christopher saw them as well. “Oh shit. Not them.”

“Who are they?”

“They’re out of Alasis. They’re with the Skinners.”

“You don’t seem happy to see them.”

“No one is happy to see them.”

Carrie stood up and began swearing at the men and women in the painted body armor. She rushed up the stairs to yell at one man and soon found herself sliding back down the stairs with a black eye.

“We are from Alasis!” the man that punched her boomed. He pointed to the cage. “These men are now our prisoners. Anyone who says different will be killed.”

There were no arguments from the crowd. The Freedom Enforcement Officers made no move toward their weapons.

The man in the painted mask pointed to another of his group. “Get them out of there.”

Mr. Christopher dragged Jerry back behind a box. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

“Oh, okay. Good plan.”

“The bear is nothing compared to these people,” Mr. Christopher said. “You’ve got to get me out of here. Get me out of here and I swear I will do everything I can to help you find the girl.”

Jerry felt his grip tighten on the axe handle.

The bear roared once more, but this time it was a scream of pain as the biker with the bat had taken the offensive.

His offense didn’t last long as a wet smack and painful screams followed.

The men from Alasis were making their way to the gate.

Mr. Christopher was panicking. “Get me out of here, Jerry. I can help you find her, and then you’ll never see me again. I promise. Like I said, I’ll forget all about you.”

“I’m not sure I want that.” Jerry stood and dragged the man to his feet. The Librarian slapped his left hand on top of the wooden box. Christopher’s right went with it. He pulled the chain between the cuffs taut and set the axe head on the links.

The bounty hunter squealed. “What are you doing?”

Jerry raised the axe above his head. “Don’t move.”

Mr. Christopher took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Waiting for the blow. A second later he opened them and yelled, “Wait! Don’t!”

The Librarian brought the axe down through the bounty hunter’s wrist.

Mr. Christopher screamed and clenched his brand new stump against his chest as blood poured down the man’s stupid white suit and turned it red.

The Librarian pulled his hands back. The severed limb dangled from the handcuffs. He pulled it free and dropped the severed limb at the bounty hunter’s feet. “I’ll bet you remember me now.”

Mr. Christopher swore through his cries of anguish but was in too much shock to make any move toward his former prey.

The men from Alasis reached the gate and shot the lock from the door.

Jerry stood and waved his arms. “Hey, bear!”

The call and gunshots drew the bear’s attention. It stood. Reaching nearly ten feet in the air it could clearly see over the obstacles in the arena. It spotted the man and roared before dropping back to its paws to charge.

Jerry ran towards the tunnel on the opposite side of the court keeping the wood and fabric structures between himself and the animal. If everything worked out it would be reaching the one-handed man about the same time the men from Alasis did.

He reached the other gate quickly and bashed the latch open with the axe.

The crowd above him screamed at this infraction of the rules but made no move to stop him.

He swung the gate open and rushed into the tunnel.

It smelled horrible.

TWENTY-SEVEN

The inside of Henry and Lynn’s minivan was everything Erica hoped it would be. It had ugly tan cloth-covered seats. There was well-worn luggage peeking over the backseat. There was a cooler full of cold drinks and a bag of snacks so they wouldn’t have to stop. There was even a compass on the dash held in place by a suction cup.

“I love your van,” Erica said.

“This old thing?” Henry asked with both hands safely on the wheel. “I think it’s a little dated, if you ask me.”

Erica smiled, “I think it’s perfect.”

“We were looking to get a newer model,” Henry said. “But then the world blew up.”

Erica laughed at the first dad joke she’d heard since the apocalypse.

“It’s just as well,” Henry said. “I hate dealing with car salesmen.”

“Don’t get started, Henry,” Lynn said.

“I’m not starting anything, woman.”

“You don’t want to get your blood pressure up.”

“I’m just saying I don’t care for their attitude, is all. They think they know everything and that you know nothing. But, I know. I know all their tricks. There’s the making you wait trick. And the talking to the manager trick.”

“Henry,” Lynn chided.

“And their coffee. Ugh. Their coffee is the worst.”

“Well, it’s just as well then, isn’t it? We don’t need a new car.”

“I don’t know.” Henry pulled off his Navy cap and scratched his bald head. “I’ve been thinking about trading it in for one of those newer models. I saw one on the showroom floor the other day that had a jet engine on the back and a metal plow on the front. And big old spikes on the hood. That sure would get those lousy pedestrians out of the way.”

Erica giggled as if her grandfather himself had told the joke.

“Stop it, Henry,” Lynn smiled. “You’re being terrible.”

“I am not. It would serve them right, too. They’re always trying to walk down my sidewalks.” Henry looked at Erica in the rearview mirror and winked.

Erica genuinely laughed knowing full well what he was saying wasn’t funny in the least. It was just good to see someone so relaxed that they could go on like he did.

“Don’t you encourage him,” Lynn scolded in a playful tone. “He has this terrible condition where he thinks he’s funny.”

“I was seeing a doctor about it, but the world blew up.”

Erica laughed again.

Lynn rolled her eyes. “Oh, he’s never going to stop now.”

“I’m sorry,” Erica said. “This is all just too perfect. You two are perfect. This van is just perfect. It reminds me of the one my family used to have. Captain’s chairs in the middle. No guns on the roof. No flamethrowers. No spikes.”

Lynn made a point to shudder. “I can’t stand guns. They’re horrible, wicked things. Nothing good ever came from a gun. But the whole country went gun crazy just before the end. It’s no wonder we’re in the position we are now.”

Erica nodded. Out of necessity, she had become very comfortable around guns. In fact, she had become quite proficient with one. But she would happily go back to a day when the world was a safer place and they weren’t needed to survive. “I know. It’s terrible how necessary they’ve become.”

“Oh, I don’t think they’re necessary at all,” Lynn said. “The only people that have a gun are criminals, plain and simple. There is no good reason that anyone should ever have a gun. Not now. Not ever.”

Erica understood the sentiment, but with the reality of the world as it was she found it difficult to believe the couple hadn’t found a need to have some form of weapon around. “How do you protect yourself if you don’t have a gun?”

“I’ve got a Henry.”

Henry tipped his Navy cap to the rearview mirror. “At your service.”

Lynn turned around in her seat and leaned closer to Erica. “He may not look like much, but he’s a mean son of a bitch.”

Henry laughed. It was infectious and the two women joined in. When the laughter faded, she said, “No really. Listen to this. Henry, do your tough voice.”

Henry went from jovial to stern with a twitch of his bushy eyebrows. He launched into a stern speech. The words of which didn’t matter. It was the tone. It was the voice of the humorless neighbor telling off the neighborhood children. It sounded as if John Wayne had kids on his lawn and he was explaining to them with no amount of patience the laws pertaining to private property and the requirements of basic lawn maintenance. It was a voice that made you listen. And it made you uncomfortable, because you knew that, whatever it was saying, it wouldn’t be over anytime soon. There’d be a moral to the lecture and a quiz afterward followed up by a conversation with your parents.

By the end of Henry’s example, Erica felt ashamed. She felt embarrassed and more than a little frightened. And it wasn’t until Henry smiled that the feelings abated.

Erica gasped. “Wow, Henry! Look at you go.”

He tipped his cap once again. “Thanks, I used to get a lot of practice. I’m worried I’m slipping.”

Lynn brushed away the comment with the flick of her hand. “It’s always been good enough. We’ve driven from one side of the country to the other in the last few years and we’ve never had a problem that Henry’s Old Bastard voice couldn’t solve.”

“You’ve traveled that much?” Erica asked.

“Oh, yes,” Lynn said.

“Were you looking for family?”

“No. Henry is all the family I have.” Lynn looked out the window and gestured to the scenery. “We just wanted to see the country. We figured it was finally time.”

“It was the off-off season,” Henry added. “Everywhere.”

“Henry doesn’t like crowds,” Lynn said.

“What about you, kiddo?” Henry spotted some debris in the road ahead and used his indicator before changing lanes to avoid it. “Are you looking for someone in Texas?”

He settled into the new lane and left his blinker on.

“No,” Erica answered. “But someone will be looking for me, and he’ll know to find me in Texas.”

“Henry,” Lynn said. “Your blinker’s on?”

“My what now?”

“Your blinker’s on,” she repeated.

“It is not.”

“It is so. It’s going clickity, clickity, clickity.”