Will to Survive (30 page)

“I wasn't asleep. I was watching out the front window. This must be important,” Herb said.

“It is. We have to talk. We have everything wrong.”

 

30

I brought my Omega to a stop at the gate, and the procession behind me came to a stop as well. I was leading a convoy of three other vehicles—another car, an old van, and a stake truck loaded with boxes. All four vehicles had a driver and a person in the passenger seat. Anybody watching would, we hoped, assume that the boxes on the truck were the extorted supplies. Instead they were filled with rocks and formed around a hollowed-out middle that contained ten of our people, heavily armed with rifles, shotguns, and RPGs.

Like a good scorpion, we had our sting in the tail.

“So are we doing this or what?” Todd asked.

I looked at my watch—11:28. “You got someplace you're hoping to go after this?” I asked.

“I have hundreds and hundreds of places I'm hoping to go. I'm a busy man, and in a lifetime of bad decisions this one stands out as perhaps one of my worst.”

“It's not too late. You don't have to come along.”

“Are you kidding? And let you have all the fun?” Todd asked.

I tapped my horn a couple of times to get the attention of the guards on the gate. The two of them struggled to swing it open. It was big and heavy, and they were used to having a lot of people to help them. Now, with the advance parties already sent out, we were seriously undermanned along this whole part of the wall—so undermanned that we couldn't possibly withstand an attack of any significance. And it was this way because of my suggestion.

“Do up your body armor and put on your helmet,” I said to Todd.

“Yes, Mother.” Todd pulled up the zipper and tightened the belts. “There really isn't enough headroom for me to wear the helmet,” he complained. “Besides, it messes up my hair.”

“Would you like your hair parted with a bullet? Isn't part of the deal that I'm supposed to keep you pretty? Put it on.”

He grumbled, then slipped down in the seat and put on his helmet.

“Being low is good,” I said. “Those doors will protect you from most gunfire.”

The doors of the Omega had been reinforced with metal, and sand had been poured into the frame to offer further resistance to bullets. It was reassuring, but I also knew it couldn't stop a large-caliber weapon or a close-up shot. And all the extra weight cost us some speed. My car—which never was very fast—was slower than ever.

We eased out through the gate and were immediately onto the bridge.

Todd slumped down even farther. “Didn't you say we weren't going to be fired at?”

“We won't be. At least if I'm right about all of this,” I said.

“And if you're wrong?”

“Then the helmet isn't much protection from an RPG and your hair getting messed will be the least of your problems,” I said.

The cement railings on both sides of the bridge blocked our view of the water and valley below. In my rearview mirror I watched as the other three vehicles came out after me and then the gate swung shut, locking us out. Now it really did feel like it was too late.

“Do you think we're being watched?” Todd asked.

“I'd be shocked if we weren't.”

“So an attack could come at any time,” he said.

“Not if I'm right.”

“I wish you'd stop with the ‘
if
I'm right' part. It's not particularly comforting,” Todd said.

“So you'd like me to pretend that I'm certain, that there's no way I could be wrong?”

“That is correct. I want complete certainty, a vote of confidence—a big, beautiful, wonderful lie if necessary,” Todd said.

“Okay, in that case, I am one-hundred-percent certain that I am correct, and you therefore have nothing to worry about whatsoever. Take off the helmet, undo the vest, ride on the roof of the car if you want.”

“You know, that would have been much more convincing if you hadn't added in that part about the roof. But really, you are right … right?” Todd asked.

“I hope so.”

“And if you're not?”

“At least it will be over quickly,” I said. “You won't even see it coming. If he's gunning for me, then he'll be aiming at my car.”

“Great, just great. If you were really my friend, you would have insisted that I didn't come with you because you couldn't bear to risk my life.”

“I guess I'm not as good a friend to you as you are to me for offering to come along,” I said.

“Apparently. Why didn't we have this discussion five minutes ago on the other side of the wall?”

As we moved away from our neighborhood, the roadway became more littered with abandoned vehicles. All had had their gas tanks emptied, most had been stripped down, and many had been torched, nothing left but charred metal skeletons. On both sides we were boxed in by the high cement and metal walls. At one time they were innocent noise barriers designed to protect neighboring homes from the drone and roar of the highway. Now they were perfect cover. Anybody pinned in between the walls, like we were at the moment, could be fired on from both sides. We were in what Herb called a perfect kill zone. It was better to be on the outside of a zone like that firing in, instead of inside firing out.

I took a glance in my rearview and saw that, even with the Omega moving slowly, I was leaving the other vehicles behind. That wasn't smart. I eased off the gas pedal to let them gain. We needed to stay tight.

“Are the other teams in place?” Todd asked.

“They're under radio silence, but I have to assume they're out there where they're supposed to be.”

“I guess that's reassuring.”

“Only if I'm right. If I'm wrong it's really, really not reassuring at all,” I said.

“Comforting lies only, remember? I'd hate to get out and walk back, but I will if I have to.”

I started laughing, which was something I hadn't expected to do today. Having Todd along was a good idea. Or a really bad one.

“Brett and his men would have seen the support teams go out as well, right?” Todd asked.

“They were so large that even in the dark they would have been hard to miss.”

I continued to drive around the vehicles abandoned on the highway. There were lots of them, but between the three lanes and shoulders on both sides there was always a path. I figured they'd been cleared wherever they had formed a complete block.

“Do you see them?” Todd exclaimed.

“See what, where?” I demanded.

“People. There are people up ahead!”

I scanned the horizon and caught sight of movement. It was three or four people, and they had obviously seen us as well. They were running away.

“It looks like a family,” I said. “They're probably afraid of us and just looking to get away.”

The words had no sooner left my lips than they disappeared through a place where the fence had crumbled. Instinctively I changed lanes to get to the far side of the road away from where they'd escaped. Just because they were afraid of us didn't mean that we shouldn't be afraid of them.

“Train your rifle on the gap as we go by,” I said.

Todd aimed his rifle out the window, using the door frame to steady it. If somebody shot at us, Todd might be able to get off a shot or two as well. He probably wouldn't hit anyone, but it might make them duck or take cover. I gave the car some gas and we whizzed by the opening without anybody taking any shots. Todd let out a big sigh of relief.

“You know, in thinking this through, it probably would have been better if Herb was here with you,” Todd said.

“He's got a more important place to be. Just like my mother and father and Howie.”

“So I'm basically your fifth choice,” Todd said.

“Not really, but my parents wouldn't let Danny or Rachel come, and Lori had other things to do, and Ernie was busy at the store,” I joked.

“You really make a guy feel appreciated and—”

He was interrupted by a call over the radio. “Green, green, green!”

 

31

I cranked the wheel of the car and slammed on the brakes so that we skidded to a stop. The other vehicles behind me did the same. I spun around, pushed down on the gas, and pulled away from the others. They didn't need us, and we needed to get back as quickly as possible.

“What if they see us turning around now?” Todd demanded.

“They'll just think we got scared and are racing back to the safety of the neighborhood. It's too late even if they did figure it out.”

Without having to wait for the others, with no more need to stay in a tight convoy, I passed the abandoned vehicles like a skier going through a slalom course.

I had to work to control the adrenaline coursing through my veins. We were heading back to the neighborhood and running straight toward the danger.

We hit the stretch of the highway that we'd cleared when we had harvested vehicles. I pressed down harder and we picked up speed. The needle on my speedometer edged up to over sixty miles an hour—as fast as this car had traveled in a long time and definitely as fast as it could travel now! I hazarded a glance in the rearview mirror and saw the other vehicles well behind but still coming.

We hit the bridge and I realized that the guards hadn't opened the gates on the other side. I laid on the horn—my dinky little horn—and hoped the racket would alert them to action.

“Slow down!” Todd yelled.

I started to press the brakes when a little gap appeared and the gate started to open. It widened and we shot through, almost scraping against it.

Up ahead, the road was active with guards and vehicles that seemed to be everywhere. I slowed down but kept moving, weaving through the people. I wanted to get to the wall. As soon as we couldn't drive any closer we jumped out of the car. I reached back in and grabbed my rifle, and we raced to the wall.

The section was already lined with armed people, four or five of whom had RPGs. Many had on body armor and riot helmets like Todd and I were wearing—gear my mother had held in reserve from the police station. Others had put on motorcycle helmets. Not perfect, but better than a baseball cap.

The wall had been reinforced with dirt and chunks of concrete that had been hacked off of other walls and piled up behind it. It was like a series of little hills that had been constructed in the last few hours using shovels and wheelbarrows as well as Mr. Peterson and his tractor. They'd started working just at daybreak as soon as the committee made the call. Every available person, from old people to kids, had been part of it. The hills were made not only to give people perches to fire from but also to make the wall strong enough to withstand an RPG strike.

I scanned the crowd, looking for my mother or Herb or Howie, and then remembered that both my mother and Herb were already elsewhere. My mother was leading the group on the south wall, and Herb was in charge of the group on the north. Both groups had gone out early, heading east, where they could be seen leaving the neighborhood, and then had spent the last five hours sifting back through the trees, crossing the river, and getting into position.

I caught sight of Howie standing atop one of the piles and scampered up after him. He'd know what was happening. While he barked out orders, I waited and looked down the stretch of highway. It was open, empty, blocked by us at the end and bordered on both sides by the high concrete walls that hid my mother and her squad on one side and Herb and his squad on the other. Inside, ringed on three sides, was the kill zone.

“Aren't you going to say hello?” It was Lori.

“I d-didn't know you'd be here,” I stammered.

“I was assigned to this wall. Everybody is assigned somewhere.”

“I just wish you weren't here,” I said.

“Ha, nice to see you, too.”

She was wearing body armor but nothing on her head. “Take my helmet,” I offered as I went to remove it.

She placed her hand on mine. “Don't even think about it. How would I ever live with myself if something happened to you because you gave me your equipment?”

“And how would I live with myself if something happened to you because you didn't take it?”

“Don't worry, once the action starts my head is going to be pressed against the ground and hidden behind the wall,” she said. “Can you make that same promise?”

I knew I couldn't—but still it didn't seem right.

Howie and I locked eyes, and he came to my side. “Quinn reported there were approximately two hundred and fifty of them,” he said.

“I didn't expect that many.”

“We all thought there'd be fewer. They're mobile and closing quickly.”

“Is there any possibility that another group is unaccounted for and is going to hit us from another direction?” I asked.

“Our scouts report no activity except coming from this direction.”

“That's good.”

It was better than good. With all of the guards being deployed on this section, we couldn't withstand an attack on another part of the neighborhood.

“How long before they arrive?” I asked.

“We'll see them soon. They're coming straight along the highway at full speed,” Howie said. “I still don't know how you knew this was going to happen.”

“Lucky guess.”

“But why would you even think this could be their plan?” Howie asked.

“Herb told me about people not really changing who they are,” I said. “Brett isn't subtle: he goes big in whatever he does. When I went back through his letter I realized he even told us the time and place of the attack. Today at noon at our neighborhood.”

“How did you know he was going to come from this direction?”

“Once I knew the plan, then I figured out that this was the only place that made sense. He'd have to be coming from the opposite direction that we've always expected trouble to come from, the opposite direction from where we'd send out away teams, so not from the city but from the country.”