An Apocalypse Family (Book 1): Family Reunion (22 page)

“Okay, Josh, I am going to have Stacy untie you, but I’m keeping your gun for now.”

Olivia prompted Stacy to untie Josh. Once freed, Josh pulled off his shirt and used it to wipe his face clean.

“Got some in your hair there you missed,” Stacy pointed.

Josh smiled and poured some water over his head, wincing at the sting.

“Damn, girl, you pack a mean swing,” he said as he felt the spot where Stacy had knocked him on the head.

“Softball,” she said as an explanation.

“Ah,” Josh said. “Do you think I could eat something? I’m starving.”

Stacy pulled a can of franks and beans from the cart he’d filled, popped the top, and handed it to him. Josh tilted the can and gobbled down the room-temperature concoction. Seeing how quickly he finished it off, she did the same with a can of peaches. He made quick work of the peaches, and said “thanks.”

“Got any Oreos and milk?” he asked.

Olivia ignored his request. “Josh, there’s a locker room in the back if you want to clean up. I think there might even be some clothes you could wear.”

“Are you saying I stink?” Josh asked with a smile.

“I didn’t, but you do,” she replied.

They followed him to the back of the store and pointed out the locker room.

“You trust me to go in there alone?” Josh said.

“I have your gun and I have been through everything in there, so yes. And there’s only one door.”

Josh shook his head and went in.

“Hey, it’s dark in here.”

Olivia handed him an LED lantern. He spent about three minutes in the cold shower and dried off with paper towels. Stacy had left a brush and some Secret deodorant on the sink, so he used both. He found some clothes that fit and even a pair of Timberland boots in one of the lockers.

He came out.

“Tada!” he said, holding out his arms.

Stacy laughed and Olivia lowered the pistol she’d been pointing at him.

“Well, you clean up pretty good. So, what are your plans?”

“Well, that kind of depends on you,” Josh said.

She removed the mag from the pistol, racked the slide, and ejected the round in the chamber.

“Here.” She handed him the pistol, but stuck the magazine in her back pocket. “I’ll give you your bullets when you leave.”

He didn’t mention he had three other magazines, and shoved the pistol into his waistband at the small of his back. He spent the next hour going through the store, stocking up on everything he could think of. Stacy and “Liv,” as she preferred to be called, helped him load it all up.

“I’m heading to Whidbey Island to meet up with some family; you’re both welcome to come. It may be safer than staying on the mainland,” Josh offered. He didn’t want to appear forward, but he also could imagine them all hanging together. It would beat being alone.

Liv tilted her head to the side and looked him straight in the eyes.

“What strings are attached?”

He knew exactly what she meant.

“Look Liv, you are a beautiful woman, and even though we had a rough introduction, I really like you. There are absolutely no strings attached. I will never push myself on you, and there’s that safety in numbers thing, ya know?” Josh was actually blushing and had to restrain the urge to kick at the ground in an “aw shucks” kind of way.

Olivia had her hands shoved in her back pockets with her hip cocked to the side, making her look pretty damn sexy.

“Let me and Stacy talk about it. Stacy, come inside with me.” Liv tipped her head toward the store.

Stacy followed her mom into the store.

“So, what do you think, Stace? Do you think we can trust him? Should we go or stay?”

Stacy could tell her mom kind of liked Josh, but didn’t let on that she knew.

“I think we are going to want to find other good people before long, and I don’t know if staying here would accomplish that… I think Josh is okay. What do you think?”

“Well, he doesn’t make a good first impression, but he does have a cute butt.” Liv smiled.

“Ewwww, Mom, that’s gross!” Stacy swatted her on the shoulder.

They came back out of the store and approached Josh, who was just finishing packing up the ambulance.

“There is no way we’re going to make it all the way to the peninsula tonight. Why don’t we stay here tonight and get an early start in the morning?” Liv said.

“You’re coming with me? Uh… cool, um, I mean great! Where are we going to stay tonight? I broke the doors out, remember?”

“We can stay in the locker room. It’s secure. Lock up the ambulance and come in. Stacy and I will cook you dinner.”

Meg was having a hard time concentrating on the road. Max and Lisa had been talking on the radio. Max said they were making good time and should make it to Parker’s well before sundown. It was raining, and she tried to focus on Lisa’s taillights ahead.

All day, Meg had been getting flashes, the same kind of pictures in her head that had plagued her after her ordeal at the gym. At first, they only happened while she slept, and she wrote it off as the stress of the situation they were in; but for the last few days, they had started coming to her while she was awake. She wouldn’t lose consciousness or zone out. It was more like random thoughts passed in and out of her mind throughout the day. She hadn’t mentioned it to anyone because she thought it was just her mind’s way of coping.

There was also a weird feeling that had begun to accompany the pictures, the kind of feeling you get when you’re standing in the middle of a large crowd. It got worse whenever they passed through a town, and as they approached Hope, B.C., it was becoming very distracting.

“Mom, look out!” Sarah screamed.

Meg slammed on the brakes and the car slid sideways toward the edge of the road. Lisa had slowed for a curve, and this time, Meg had zoned out. The car skipped over the wet road, the brakes doing little to slow its momentum. They were heading for the guardrail at a speed Meg knew would send them plummeting to their deaths in the river below. As the car skidded toward the rail, Meg saw Max’s massive truck zooming toward them out of the corner of her eye.

Great, we’re all going to crash into the river,
she thought.

The next thing she knew, Max’s truck had blocked the car’s path to disaster, and the two vehicles crashed together. The sounds of metal collapsing, windows breaking, and kids screaming combined to give the moment a surreal soundtrack that would forever remain embedded with all involved in the crash. Max’s truck had stopped them mere feet from the guardrail.

“Is anyone hurt?” Meg asked, frantically looking at the kids. All three of them sat staring at Meg, eyes as big as saucers. Then they all burst into tears. Sarah tried to quiet them as Meg did a cursory examination, twisting around in her seat. Max pulled open the back passenger door only to see the exploded airbags hanging down from above the doorframe.

“Is everyone okay?” he asked, pulling at the now-deflated bags. He finally got past the airbags and saw that everyone was fine.

“Whew, that was fun, eh guys?” he said, trying to ease the intense vibe in the car.

They all looked at him like he was crazy, but it did distract the kids from the situation enough to stop their crying. The worst injuries were a cut to Sarah’s forehead from flying glass and a jammed knee for Meg from the crushed panel on her side of the car. Max’s truck had a few dents in the side and a bent Nerf bar, but the car was a total loss. Lisa didn’t even know there was a problem, and only stopped and turned around after Max had radioed her.

The crash and the ensuing activities of emptying the car of supplies and reassigning passengers took a couple of hours. It was evident that they wouldn’t make it to Parker’s before dark. Awake, but still half-loopy from the drugs, I heard the harrowing story of the crash from the kids in the backseat.

“I thought we were going to explode, Uncle Ryan!” Andy said in conclusion.

“That only happens in the movies,” Beth informed him.

Max had taken the lead and was looking for a secure place for us to spend the night in the town of Hope. He settled for an auto repair shop at the western edge of town with two separate concrete buildings, each housing a single car bay. After Lisa and Max cleared the buildings, we moved in.

With Jean under one arm and Meg under the other, I made it out of the truck. I almost passed out from the pain when I came off the tailgate. The eight-inch drop made my side explode like the car in the movie Beth had referenced earlier. After swearing a blue streak, which got me severely reprimanded by Meg, I sucked it up and didn’t even cry like a little girl. They placed my mattress against the back wall facing the entrance. I convinced them to lean the top up against some boxes so that I could recline, instead of lying flat on my back. They parked Max’s truck in the other building and then everyone took shelter with me. The kids would bed down in the truck and the adults would have to make do. The waiting room had a single glass door that Max and Lisa stacked 50-pound bags of rock salt in front of, outside and in, two rows wide, all the way to the top of the door. There was no couch in the shop, but Lynn found a couple of old chaise lounge beach chairs on the flat roof that could improvise as cots. Max claimed a bench seat that the mechanics must have removed from an old station wagon; he could lie on it with his upper body comfortable and his feet resting on the ground.

The kids were restless, feeling cooped up. Sarah cleared away a spot on the concrete floor and drew a hopscotch pad. Jean joined in with them and the sight of her playing hopscotch had all of us in stitches—me literally. The release was palpable, and everyone was in a much better mood. The night didn’t seem as foreboding somehow. The MREs were passed out and everyone sat around chatting and enjoying their meals.

Meg came over and sat next to me on the mattress.

“Jean is pretty tired; I told her I would watch you while she sleeps.”

I laughed, “I’m fine, but you can sack out on my bed.” I was feeling better; I wasn’t making that part up. “Besides, I slept all day. I’ll wake you if I need something.” She lay down. It was a little tight with both of us on the mattress, but it was doable. I put my arm around her and told her thanks for taking care of me.

She chuckled. “Watch it, little brother.” I laughed and patted her on the shoulder.

“How are you doing? I mean, you’re recovering too,” I said.

She was quiet for a moment.

“I’m okay. I’ve been having some really vivid dreams, and it’s messing with my brain some, but physically I’m great.

“Well, relax and try to get some rest,” I said.

Meg went quiet again and I thought she’d drifted off but before long, I realized her eyes were open and she was shaking.

“Meg, are you all right?” I looked at her. Her eyes were wide open.

“Run!” she screamed. “Everyone run!”

She rolled off the mattress and grabbed me by the arm.

“We have to get out of here now, Ryan, right now!”

By this time, Max and Lisa had run into the service area from the waiting room. Lynn and Jean were sitting up on the chaise lounges, everyone staring at Meg. Chris, who had been asleep on a pallet next to the rollup door, was the only one not looking at Meg. He turned toward the crack between the door and frame.

“They’re out there!” he said without raising his voice.

In that moment, there was perfect silence. It only lasted a fraction of a second, but it was the quiet before the storm. All at once, a chorus of shrieks sounded outside. I struggled through the pain and got to my feet. I had the .308 next to me and a bag full of magazines.

“Max, the roof!” Lisa and Max ran to the stairway.

“Meg, help me into the waiting room!” I yelled. She just stood there mumbling.

“Jean, help me to the waiting room!” Jean reacted and ran to my side. Lynn came along, each getting under my arms. They half-dragged me as I felt the fire in my side reignite. It felt like the devil himself was tearing me apart.

“Lynn, Chris, get Meg into the truck, be ready to go. Lock the doors and be ready!”

The kids were fully awake and crying. Sarah tried her best to calm them but was losing the battle. I saw Chris run by me toward the stairway with one of the shotguns.

“Chris, get back here!” I yelled, but he wasn’t listening and he disappeared up the stairway. Jean got me to the waiting area.

“Go get in the truck; if they get in here you’re going to have to drive through them and out of here. Get all the kids into the cab, leave the tailgate down, and be ready to go, do you understand?”

“Yes,” was all she said as she headed to the truck. Backing in when we arrived turned out to have been a smart move. I only hoped we would live through this so that we could congratulate ourselves on how smart we were.

*****

Max looked down from the roof at a sea of freaks, every one of them trying to breach their sanctuary. The rage inside him gave him the urge to flip the selector switch to full auto and start spraying them with bullets, but he realized immediately that would be a mistake. He left the selector on semi-auto and brought the rifle up to his shoulder, peered through the ACOG scope, and began to shoot methodically, one target at a time. Lisa, standing next to him, burned through a magazine on full auto. When she reloaded, she noticed that her dad was shooting one shot at a time. She didn’t know why, but figured he knew something that she didn’t. She switched to semi-auto and began following his lead. She had one of the M4s with the close-combat EOTech holographic sights. She lined up a freak and shot it through the chest. The round entered exactly where she aimed and the freak dropped out of sight under the mass of bodies clamoring to get at her family. Chris had somehow gotten his hands on a shotgun and was standing at the back of the building, shooting down on the freaks.

*****

I heard the gunfire from the roof continue unabated. The building shook from the assault of the freaks. I felt my side and realized that my wound was bleeding. I stood in the doorway between the garage and the waiting room, hoping that the door would hold. I hadn’t been wearing my throat mic since my injury, but I still carried my radio with me at all times. So did everyone else. We had long since dispensed with code names, and our radio transmissions were usually without any regard for military protocol.

“Max, can you hear me?” We would be screwed if he didn’t have his earbud in; he would never hear me over all that gunfire. He and Lisa wore their throat mics and earbuds pretty much 24/7, so my worry was for naught.

“Max here, how can I be of service?” he replied.

“How many freaks are out there?” There was no reply for several seconds. “Max, you copy my last?” I said into the radio.

“Roger that, too many to count,” came the reply.

“Jean, are you listening?” I asked.

“Yes, I’m on, over,” she replied.

“There’s an ammo bag with duct tape around it in the back of the truck. Can you bring it to me?”

“Yes, Lynn is going to look for it.”

I saw Lynn get out of the truck and disappear around the back. It must have taken her a minute to find it, but she hurried back toward me carrying the bag.

“Wait,” I told her, and retrieved two of the remaining grenades from the bag, sticking one in each of my front pockets.

“Take the rest of these to Max and Lisa, and then get back to the truck!”

She didn’t even reply, she just turned and ran for the stairs. People could say whatever they wanted about my family, but we were good under pressure. A couple minutes later, she reappeared at the front of the truck and gave me a thumbs up.

“Jean, be ready to haul ass if you hear me screaming,” I said into the radio.

“Yes sir,” she replied.

*****

Max’s ears rang like the bells of Notre Dame, but he smiled when he heard Ryan send Jean the message about the bag. Sure enough, a few minutes later, Lynn tapped him on the shoulder, handed him the bag, and ran back down stairs.

“Lisa, get over here.”

She stopped shooting freaks and looked over at him. He waved her over. There were still hundreds, if not a thousand of the freaks crowded around the building.

“Listen, there is no way we are going to take out all of these things, there are just too many of them. Take Chris and go downstairs and get Ryan into the back of the truck,” he yelled above the shrieking and constant ringing in his ears.

“What are you going to do, Dad?” Lisa eyed him suspiciously.

“I’m going to blow these bastards up and clear a path out of here!”

“No way, Dad, I’m not leaving you!”

“Don’t worry, I plan on throwing about half of these, then I’ll beat feet down stairs and we’ll ride out of here in style. Now go!”

She didn’t argue. She turned, ran over, and grabbed Chris.

“Come on!” They headed downstairs.

*****

“Ryan, this is Max. I’m going to use the grenades to try and clear a path. Lisa and Chris are coming to help you into the truck. There are too many of them, bro, we’ve got to jam!”

I heard him and understood his plan, but like Lisa, I didn’t trust him.

“Don’t try and be a damn hero, Max. We aren’t leaving without you!” I shouted into the radio.

“Why does everybody think I have a death wish? I’m Chicken Two, for Pete’s sake. Jean, I want you to wait until I jump in the back of the truck, then drive straight through the garage door and hang a left; head for the freeway and don’t stop for anything!”

“This is Jean, I got it!” Just then, Lisa and Chris came and hustled me to the back of the truck. I sat down on the tailgate; they got in and pulled me in with them.