The Glooming (Wrath of the Old Gods Book 1) (18 page)

Larry glanced at her. “You know we couldn’t take them with us.”

Tara bit her lip. “I know. It’s just that I feel sad at not being able to help people.”

“This is a new world we live in, Sweetpea. I’m not happy about it either, but we have to think of ourselves for the time being if we want to survive.”

Tara didn’t answer as she just kept looking out of the passenger side window. Half an hour later a loud beep began to sound on the dashboard. Larry took a look at it and cursed.

“What’s wrong?” Tara said.

“We’re starting to run low on gas,” Larry said. “We need to find a gas station soon.”

By this time, they had mostly passed by Flagstaff as they took the mountain roads near Humphreys Peak and were now close to the historic Route-66. Another hour passed and Larry was getting agitated as he kept looking at the fuel gauge.

Tara kept peering forward as she noticed something out in the distance of the road. As they got closer, it looked like a gas station alright. “There’s a pump station,” she said as she pointed ahead to the right.

Larry grinned at first because of their newfound luck, but then he began to frown a bit just as they got closer. “It looks like there’s people there, lots of them.”

Tara shrugged. “We ain’t got no choice. Maybe they’re friendly.”

As the van slowed they could see that the gas station billboard had been torn down and that there were half a dozen men standing near the fuel pumps. They were all armed with rifles and shotguns. They quickly signaled the van to stop in front of the station. Larry did and then turned off the engine. Two men approached the vehicle, one on either side.

Larry looked at her as he put his hand on the door knob. “Whatever happens, stay in the van, okay?”

Tara just nodded as the two men faced them by the side windows. Tara noticed the older man had a white beard, flannel shirt, and a baseball cap with the confederate flag stitched on it. The old man stood by Larry’s side while a younger, bare-chested man in blue jeans and a shaved head walked over to the right side of the van and looked closely at her with a bucktoothed grin. The older man had a scoped hunting rifle slung over his shoulder while the younger one had a semi-auto pistol tucked in his waistband.

Larry grinned at the older man who was near to him. “Howdy, do you have any gas to spare?”

“Where you from?” the old man said.

Larry kept smiling. “From Phoenix, sir. We’re just looking for some gas and we’ll be off.”

The younger man just kept looking at Tara and kept on grinning. Tara smiled back before looking away, keeping eyes peeled forward.

“Where you going to?” the old man said. He had a droning voice that betrayed no emotion.

“We’re going to Kansas, sir,” Larry said.

The old man’s face was like chiseled rock. “What are you gonna do in Kansas, boy?”

Larry giggled for bit to take the tension off. “Well isn’t that our business, sir?”

The old man began to squint at him. “I’m gonna ask you again, boy. What’re you gonna do in Kansas?”

“Look, sir, we don’t want no trouble,” Larry said. “We’re on our way to Kansas to meet our friends there, they are with Pastor Burnley’s congregation, and they asked us to join them there, that’s all.”

Another man, sitting on a folding chair by the store got up and walked over. He was heavyset and his long white hair was tied up in a ponytail underneath his cowboy hat. He wore a leather vest and jeans and carried a pump-action shotgun. “They just want fuel, Abe,” he said to the old man standing beside Larry.

Abe looked at the other man before turning his gaze back to Larry again. “There ain’t no government anymore so we’re here guarding this station against looters. Are you a looter, boy?”

Larry straightened up in his seat. “No, sir.”

Abe glanced in the inside of the van from the driver side window. “What’s all that stuff you got in the back of your vehicle there? Did you steal all that crap?”

Larry shook his head in rapid succession. “No sir, that’s stuff I bought and other stuff is from my house just before I boarded it up. If you want money for the gas, I got some.”

The long haired man walked over and stood beside Abe. “Money is useless now, son. You got anything to barter with? Like food or medicine?”

Larry smiled as his tension was relieved. “Yeah, I got some food, hold on,” he said as he got out of the driver’s side and walked over to the back of the van and opened it. The two older men followed him as Tara turned her head backwards to observe.

Larry took a few cans of beef stew and handed it to both men.

Abe looked at the can. “How much gas you need?”

“A full tank,” Larry said as he gave the other can to the other man.

The other man shook his head. “You’ve gotta give us more than just two cans for a full tank of gas, son.”

Larry put his hands on his waist and looked down on the dusty concrete tarmac. This wasn’t going to be easy. “How many cans do I have to give you?”

“Looks like you got a few cases there so we’ll take two,” Abe said.

Larry shook his head. “I can’t give you two cases, we need the food or we’ll starve on our way to Kansas. I’ll give you a case, okay?”

“If you ain’t willing to part with two cases then you only get half a tank, boy,” Abe said.

The other man looked at Abe. “Just give ‘em the gas, Abe,” he said before turning to look at the dejected Larry. “You said you got money, let’s see how much you got.”

Larry took out a wad of bills from his sweater pocket and handed it to him. “That’s all I got left, I swear.”

The man with the cowboy hat looked at him closely as he pocketed the money. “I think you’re lying when you said you ain’t no looter, son. But we’re giving you the gas anyway. Abe, take one of the cases.”

Another man who wore a Diamondbacks baseball cap came out of the store and started working the pumps. As the fuel gauge began to rise, Larry saw that they were using a portable diesel generator to power the station. He also noticed a fat woman in shorts and two kids looking out at them from the inside of the store.

The bare-chested man who kept looking at Tara finally spoke. “Hey, guys, she don’t look like that driver at all.”

Abe walked over to Larry as he was beside the van watching it being filled up. “That your daughter, boy?”

Larry answered without looking at him. “Yes, she is.”

“You need to look at me when I talk to you, boy.”

Larry turned. Even though he was scared, he was starting to lose his temper. “Look, what do you want from us? We already gave you the food and the money! Can’t you just leave us alone?”

The bare-chested man pulled out his pistol but didn’t aim it as he walked over to them. Tara noticed that he was barefoot.

“You need to be taught some manners,” Abe said as he unslung his rifle.

“Abe, knock it off,” the man with the cowboy hat said. “We made a deal with them, fair and square. Let them take their gas and they can go.”

Tara leaned her head out of the window and looked at Larry. “Daddy, let’s go!”

Larry turned around and headed back to the driver’s side. He noticed that the tank was full as the guy with the Diamondbacks cap put back the fuel tank lid on his van. As he got back on his seat and closed the door, the bare-chested man tried to make a grab for the little dog as he put his spindly arms through the window.

“No!” Tara shrieked as she held on to the Chihuahua. “This is my dog!”

“You won’t be needing it anymore, miss,” the bare-chested man said as he kept pulling at the dog, but the Chihuahua immediately bit him so hard that he yelped and instinctively drew his hands back.

“Go!” Tara screamed.

Larry had already started the van and hit the gas as the vehicle drove out of the station tarmac while the bare-chested man kicked at its side while screaming that he had rabies. Larry maneuvered the van and got it back on the road with a screech of the tires.

“Goddamn it,” Larry said as he gripped the wheel tightly. “We lost over half the food we got.”

Tara looked at the dog. It seemed to be okay as it settled back in her lap. “Be glad that’s all we lost.”

They kept going on the highway until late afternoon when the sun began to set. The radio was able to catch a short EBS broadcast that said a number of oil refineries in the Southwest would be nationalized.

Tara turned to Larry. “What does ‘nationalized’ mean?”

Larry let out a big yawn as he kept driving. “It means the government is taking them over.”

“Why though?”

Larry snorted. “Look around you, a lot of dams broke and there’s no power and very little fuel. The government wants it all so they can control it.”

As he said that, the van nearly swerved off the road.

Tara instinctively grabbed the handle above the side window. “Whoa!”

Larry shook his head. “I’m sorry, haven’t had much sleep.”

She pointed to the left of the highway. “Look there’s a house with some trees.”

Larry squinted his tired eyes. The girl was right, there was a house up ahead and it seemed to be all by itself right up next to the highway. He didn’t see any cars parked around it so he slowed and brought the van over to the front and stopped. As they looked, it seemed that the house had been abandoned. Larry maneuvered the van until it was behind the house in between two pinion pines so that no one would see it while driving along the highway. They got out of the van as Tara carried the dog with her and slung her backpack over her shoulder.

Larry got to the front porch and knocked on the door. No answer. He looked through the front windows and past the slightly transparent lace curtains. There didn’t seem to be anyone home so he tried the front doorknob, but it wouldn’t budge. Tara just stood there as he walked around the back and tried the backdoor, but it wouldn’t budge either, so he went back to the front. The main door had a small glass window above the door knob so he smashed it with a small hammer that he took out from his pocket, then reached in and unlocked it.

As they went inside they noticed that the previous occupants must have left in a hurry. There were a few cardboard boxes sitting on the kitchen table with some dirty clothes. Larry went over to the fridge and opened it. All that was in it was an open carton of baking soda and a plastic squeeze bottle of yellow mustard. He then went to the cupboards and rummaged through them as well as the other cabinets.

“Damn,” he said. “They took all the food when they left.”

Tara half heard him as she went into one of the bedrooms. It looked kind of like a girl’s room since the wallpaper had flowery prints. There was a set of six cloth dolls arranged neatly on top of a high dresser in front of a mirror. She put the dog down and unslung her backpack as she looked at the half-made bed. Sitting in the car for almost a whole day made her back ache. Tara searched through some of the drawers and found some used red lipstick and clothes. It looked like the one who stayed in this room must have been a girl, whether it was a teen or an adult she couldn’t be sure since there weren’t any pictures around. She sat down beside the bed and stared at the lamp on the nightstand before opening the drawers underneath it. There were a bunch of handwritten letters, a half used bottle of some cheap perfume, a few pennies and a rainbow-colored pen. Tara got back up and moved to the front of the mirror and applied some lipstick. After puckering her lips and seeing her handiwork, she immediately felt guilty for using somebody else’s property and promptly put the lipstick back in the drawer. That was when she smelled something cooking.

As Tara went back out into the living room, she saw that Larry had taken out two bowls from the cupboard and placed them on the kitchen table. He was stirring a pot on the gas stove. Two empty cans of clam chowder sat on the counter beside him.

As he ladled some of the soup in her bowl, he noticed her red lips and smiled. “At least the stove is still working. Now we can have a hot meal before bedtime.”

Tara yawned as she picked up a spoon. “Thanks.”

Larry sat down beside her and started on his bowl. “You found some stuff?”

“Nothing, really.”

“Did you go through the master bedroom yet?”

“Nope.”

“Okay, I get first dibs on the big bed then, Sweetpea.”

“You can have it. I’ll be sleeping in the other room.”

Larry had a sense of dejection. “Okay.”

As night fell, there was still the occasional lightning and the accompanying thunder but still no rain. Tara took a look at the dark clouds outside of the bedroom window before getting up on the bed and curling into the comforter. It smelled faintly of mildew and spritzy hairspray, but she didn’t mind. If anything, it reminded her of home. The Chihuahua was curled up on top of the blanket as she closed her eyes and instantly fell into a deep sleep. Just half an hour ago, she was able to use the iron pump out back to bring a pail of cold water into the bathroom for an impromptu sponge bath. She saw a shadow outside of the frosted window while she was undressing, but when she looked out, she didn’t see anybody.

Strange dreams of black birds, worms, and lightning storms filled her sleep until she woke up in the middle of the night to a strange squeaking noise coming from nearby. Tara instantly sat up. She noticed that the dog was also alert as it stood beside her on top of the bed facing the door. The sound happened again, it was sort of like a rusty latch being turned. She didn’t have a flashlight, but the moon over the desert horizon did give her a bit of an illumination with a twilit view.

The sound came again for the third time though it was somewhat fainter. She sensed it might be coming from the door she locked just before she went to sleep.

“Who’s there?” Tara said aloud.

The sound stopped.

“Larry?” Tara said.

The house was still. A faint howl of the wind rattled parts of the hanging roof outside.

This time Tara shouted as hard as she could. “Larry!”

There was a noise just outside her door. “Yeah, what is it?” It was him alright.

Tara cupped her hands. “Did you hear a noise?”

“No. Go back to sleep.”