Hidden (Final Dawn) (21 page)

     Lenny eased the trailer into the barn as Mason Bennett and his entire family came outside. The girls were jumping for joy. Mason couldn’t wait to crawl into the trailer to see what was in it. It was an atmosphere not unlike Christmas morning.

     Lenny showed Mason how to operate the reefer unit to keep the food frozen on thaw days, and told him anytime the reefer’s diesel tank ran low to get more from the compound’s tankers.

     “Now, then,” Lenny cautioned them. “Don’t you think just because you have your own food, that you can’t come to visit any more.”

     They promised they’d continue to come around, and Mason’s wife Connie gave Lenny a hug.

     “Lenny, what are your plans, and the plans of the others, when the world thaws out enough to move around again?”

     Lenny said, “I don’t know for sure. Marty and them were talking about a big fenced in compound they saw before the freeze. Marty said it was big enough to grow crops, and settle down. Maybe become farmers like you. But I don’t know. I haven’t committed to anything. This truck stop was my home and my life before the freeze. Maybe I’ll try to get it up and running again. I just don’t know.”

     “Well, whether you go with them or stay behind, you know you’ll always have a home with us. Any time you’re hungry or just need someone to talk to or a friendly face, you come on by here. You all have been very good to us, and you’re likely the only family we’ve got left. Just remember that, okay?”

     “I will. And thank you.”

     “And you can tell Marty and Joe and Tina the same thing if you want.”

     “Nope. I have a better idea. Why don’t y’all all come over tonight? I’ll dig a case of ribs and steaks out of our meat trailer and we’ll have a good old fashioned barbeque. Maybe we can talk about the future and what’s going to happen in the years ahead.”

     Mason grew melancholy. With a tear in his eye he said, “The future. That’s a thing I haven’t even considered for a long while. I guess I gave up hope that we even had one. But yes. We’ll be there. It sounds like a good plan.”

Chapter 35

     In the mine, too, they were watching the world outside thaw. One month to the day after Lenny buried Scott Burley under a trailer load of rocks, a group was gathered around the control console.

     Hannah and Sarah happened past on their way to the kitchen for coffee.

     “Hey, what are y’all looking at?”

     “There’s a car that broke down on Highway 83. We’re hoping they don’t come here looking for help.”

     Hannah and Sarah looked up at Monitor 7, where the others were focusing their eyes. Camera 7 was attached to the ham radio tower atop Salt Mountain, some 320 feet over their heads. It focused at the end of the narrow road that connected the mine and the compound with Highway 83. From the highway, the mine and compound were completely hidden by two hundred yards of trees and scrub brush. The height of the tower, however, gave the long distance camera a very clear view of the motorists’ plight.

     The group watched in fascination as two men worked on the engine of the white sedan, trying to get it started again.

     Hannah asked John, the head of security, “Are there very many cars out and about now, since the roads are finally clear of snow?”

     “We’ve been logging in counts, just to keep track of how many survivors are getting out and about now. It’s not many. Maybe ten to twelve cars a day on average. We don’t know if that means there are just a few brave souls willing to venture out, or if there just aren’t many people left alive.”

     Mark interrupted him.

     “Well, it looks like it’s a lucky day for these guys. Somebody came by and is stopping to help.”

     They watched as a brown pickup truck stopped behind the disabled car. A man got out of the pickup and went to help.

     What happened next would sicken all of them, and cement the group’s suspicion that there was still a lot of evil and pain in the world outside the mine.

     They watched helplessly as one of the men in the white sedan went to his trunk, removed an assault rifle, and shot the good Samaritan several times in the chest.

     The man went down instantly and didn’t move. He was obviously dead before he hit the ground.

     Two other figures, who appeared to be young adults or teens, rushed out of the pickup and ran to where the dead man laid. They knelt down beside him as the killer and his partner got into the pickup and drove away.

     “Oh, my God! They’ve killed him! In front of his family!”

     Mark ran toward the mine’s entrance, threw on his Parka and gloves, and headed for the mine’s door. Brad was right behind him.

     Before anyone could stop them, they burst through the four bays that separated the main part of the mine from the front door. Hannah could see them outside the mine on camera 2, which was focused on the mine’s door. Then she was able to follow their progress on the other cameras as they ran the two hundred yards down the narrow road toward the highway.

     John took charge within the mine.

     “You girls gather up as many of the adults as you can. Bring them here and tell them we’re calling an emergency meeting. We have to take a vote on whether or not to bring these people in with us. Go now. Go quickly.

     “David, go find the elders. Tell them what we’re doing. Go quickly.”

     Outside the mine, Mark and Brad made it to the scene of the shooting, to find two teenaged girls in hysterics. They almost bolted at the sight of two strange men appearing out of nowhere. After what they’d just witnessed, it was certainly understandable.

     When the girls saw Mark and Brad kneel over their dead father and feel for his pulse, they became aware that the men were there to help and not to hurt them more.

     The girls backed away, and were crying hysterically. Brad tried his best to calm them, but he was failing miserably.

     Mark could see the man was dead. Covered with blood and with three bullet holes in his chest, Mark knew his heart had been torn to shreds. Still, he felt that somehow he owed it to these girls to try.

     So for twenty minutes, even though he knew it was hopeless, Mark performed CPR on the man’s body. The girls watched in horror and prayed for a miracle.

     Inside the mine, most of the adults assembled at the security console. John briefed them on what had happened.

     “We just witnessed a murder. Two outlaws shot a man who had stopped to help them with a disabled car. Then they stole his truck and left. The man’s family is still out there. We have to decide whether to bring them in with us, or to let them stay out there and die. I am willing to give up part of my food ration for them if others will do the same.”

     Sarah said, “We just did the annual food inventory. We’ve got enough food for them without anybody giving up anything.”

     John went on. “We need seventeen votes to make a majority and bring these people in. Brad and Mark both voted yes before they went out to help. My vote makes three. Who else is with me?”

     Hannah, Sarah and David all knew he was lying about Mark and Brad casting votes. But none of them were going to call him on it.

     Hannah said “Four.”

     Sarah said “Five.”

     David said “Six.”

     By the time they were finished, it was unanimous. John told the girls to get some blankets and to greet the newcomers at the front door.

     “Wrap them up and take them immediately to the dining room. Helen, can you fix them some hot soup or cocoa to help warm them up?”

     “Certainly.”

     “
Bryan, they’re going to be a mess emotionally. You’re the closest thing to a preacher we have.”

     “No problem, John. I’ll do what I can.”

     They watched the monitors as Mark and Brad headed back toward the mine with the children.

     John reflected. Other than the despair all of them felt the day Phyllis died, he suspected this would be everyone’s worst day in the mine.

Chapter 36

     Hannah, Sarah and Sami met the girls at the door of the mine and covered them with blankets. They were wearing Brad’s and Mark’s coats and still shivering. They looked tiny and frail inside the oversized coats, which were covered with the blood of their father.

     The girls stared into nothingness. They responded slowly to prods, but didn’t quite comprehend what was going on around them.

     Sarah knew from the limited medical training she’d received in college that the girls were in shock. They must be put in a nonthreatening environment immediately and comforted, while being kept warm, until they began to come out of it.

     They were led slowly through the mine to the kitchen, where they sat together eating soup while the others fawned over them. The women washed most of the blood from their hands and arms, took away the bloody coats and blankets, and replaced them with soft and warm comforters. They held the girls and rocked them, and cried with them, as if sharing their misery would somehow make it go away faster.

     The men in the mine had their own mission.

     Mark changed into clean clothes so that his blood-stained garments wouldn’t upset the girls again.

     Then he went to the front of the dining room, caught Hannah’s eye, and motioned her to come over.

     “How are they?”

     “They’ve been through hell. Physically they’re okay. But emotionally, it’s going to take awhile.”

     “We’re going out to retrieve the body. We’ll bury him next to Mom. It’s important that you keep them here, so they don’t see us bringing him in.”

     She nodded.

     “Baby, be careful.”

     Hannah went back to the girls, and Mark went to the security console to coordinate retrieval of the body.

     “John, will the walkie talkies reach to the highway?”

     “I doubt it, Mark. The mountain is too thick for the signal to go through. But I know they’ll reach to the mine entrance. We can put a relay man there.”

     “Very well. Brad, will you come with me again?”

     “Of course. How will we get him back here?”

     “We’ll take the u-boat we use to gather food from the freezers. It’ll fit through the walk-through doors and will take his weight with no problem. It won’t be the most dignified way to be moved, but he’s beyond the point of complaining.”

     John chimed in.

     “David, would you take a walkie talkie and stand in the doorway?”

     “Sure, John.”

     “Mark, you guys each take one in case one craps out. Everybody go to channel five. I can see inbound traffic on Highway 83 at least thirty seconds before they’ll be able to see you. David, if I see a vehicle, I’ll yell “Take cover.” You repeat it as soon as you hear it. Mark and Brad won’t be able to hear me, but they’ll hear you.”

     “Got it.”

     “Mark and Brad, you guys need to arm up. Just in case.”

     Ten minutes later Mark and Brad stepped back out of the mine, rolling the high-railed u-boat dolly in front of them. They rolled it slowly down the narrow road toward the highway as David stood behind in the doorway, watching their progress. What a lousy day this was turning out to be.

     At the end of the road, where it connected with the highway, the pair unshouldered their AR-15s and put them aside. They struggled to put the dead man onto the u-boat, and to tuck in his hands for the bumpy ride back to the mine.

     They took a quick look around before heading back. There was no traffic, or anything else living within their sight. In the absence of a breeze, they were barely able to make out the very faint hissing sound still coming from the disabled car’s overheated radiator.

     In the mine, the traumatized girls were beginning to share their story.

     Their names were Rachel and Roxanne. They’d survived the freeze holed up in a Walmart Store with their parents. They ate whatever they could find, mostly beans and rice, and burned whatever they couldn’t eat to keep warm. Their mother was sickly and frail even before the freeze came, they said. She quickly caught pneumonia and withered away before their very eyes. She died, and they had wrapped her frozen body in blankets and covered it with artificial flowers.

     The oldest, Rachel, continued with their sad tale.

     “Before the sky got dark, we drove around these parts looking for a safe place to hide. We saw a field full of cattle not far from here.

     “When the snow melted off the roads and we could drive again, Dad said he was tired of feeding us beans and rice. He said the cows would still be frozen in the fields, and that the meat would still be good once it thawed out. We found a dead cow, and he used an axe to chop off a hindquarter and put it in the back of the truck. He was going to make us a steak dinner tonight.”