The China Pandemic (7 page)

As he slowly pedaled, navigating through the stranded cars, Graham felt the hairs on his neck start to rise. He spoke quietly to Bang, telling him to stay quiet and move over to his left side. Underneath the overpass, they could hear what must be a distant dogfight. Graham worried that Bang might become alarmed and yell out, exposing them.

Now that they were picking their way through the cars, Graham remembered the clump of bushes and evergreen trees on the left side of the shoulder. He thought that would be the best place to stash the boy with their gear. That way, he could get a better visual of the situation at the gas station. They descended the short decline and walked through the brush and trees to find the best cover.

Graham got out his binoculars and belly crawled on the damp grass up the adjacent incline. He peered down the road to the gas station across the intersection. With so many cars parked at every conceivable direction, it made it nearly impossible to get a clear line of view. Judging from the odor emanating from them, some of the original owners were still contained within. So reluctantly, Graham crawled back to where Bang sat guarding their belongings.

“You need to stay right here. I’ll only be gone a second so I can see which way we’ll go. Watch our stuff,” he told Bang.

Graham put the bikes in front and around the boy. Bang leaned against a tree that provided him some shelter and Graham assured him again that he would return soon. The boy didn’t look happy with the arrangement, but he nodded and crouched down with his bow and arrow out before him.

After leaving the boy, Graham stopped directly across the street from the gas station. He crossed the off-ramp along the way and he ducked behind a black truck using it to conceal his position. He spied no madman, or any other, in the general vicinity. He resolved that since the dumpster fire burned brightly in a parking lot down the road, the madman couldn’t be far off.

Pulling up his binoculars, he watched the entrance, but heard the man before he saw him. Hyun-Ok had described him well. This guy was short a few marbles. As he followed the voice—or voices—because there seemed to be more than one, he saw a man emerge. He pushed a shopping cart, often stopping along the way, shouting as he made his way to a blazing fire.

Graham tried to make out the conversation the man was having with himself. The guy usually talked mildly under his breath then abruptly turned his head, completely changing his persona and the timbre of his voice, and roared, “I knew you were a fucking wasted sperm. I was right, you little bastard. Admit it.”

Then another, in feminine tone, shrilled, “Stop picking on him, you ass! He’s working, can’t you see that?”

Watching the scene sent chills up Graham’s spine. Seeing it for himself, he started scouting around with the binoculars for an alternate route to safety. He needed to get him and Bang through this place and far away from Campos’s ranting.

He thought himself a fool now, for thinking he could talk reasonably with this guy. What the hell was he thinking? This guy was dangerous as hell. His dad had told him he’d have to make new rules for himself and this one came easy. Stay away from the crazies. No doubt, the man presented a physical risk since he was heavily armed. He also carried a gnarly looking hatchet dangling from his back belt loop. Clearly, this guy wasn’t to be reasoned with.

Unfortunately, the road ran straight past the store where he currently worked, before the first left turn off that led around back to the main road. If they went that way, he would still have a clear line of vision if he heard the man coming. If they crossed the street towards the gas station, they could take the first right and then go several blocks around the grocery store. Then they could meet up with the main road farther down the way. In both instances, they would have to take the chance of being seen, but the second path posed less risk than the first.

He thought it would be best to observe Campos a few more minutes to see how long it took the man to go inside the store before he ventured out to unload his cargo again. Of course, his mental state made him unpredictable in any normal sense. Dusk had come and gone, leaving them with the light of a full moon. He had hoped the man would just give up and head in for the night so that he and the kid could slip through undetected. A fleeting thought crossed his mind, making the hair stand up on his arms. He imagined what might happen to the boy if Campos got his hands on him. Then Graham remembered his promise to Hyun-Ok. Whatever it took, he would get the boy through this unscathed, he thought.

As Campos once again entered the store, presumably to reload, Graham lowered his binoculars and fell back. Then he sucked in his breath as he noticed a figure standing right beside him. Having never heard Bang’s approach, he wondered how long he’d been standing there. With adrenaline racing through his veins, Graham covered his chest to calm his pounding heart. “Jesus, Bang! Don’t do that,” he whispered.

Bang ignored the admonishment and pointed with his little finger down the up ramp behind them. Then Graham heard the noise, too, and it was getting closer to their position. He pulled Bang behind him, lifted his rifle and peered around the bumper to see the culprit.

“It’s girls,” Bang whispered into Graham’s ear from behind.

“How many are there?” he whispered back.

“Just two, but they’re the same kind,” Bang said.

Graham made a quizzical face at that comment, though Bang couldn’t see it. He looked through his binoculars at the pair now walking openly up the off-ramp into their direction with a dog following close behind them. They didn’t seem to be afraid of the dog though, so that didn’t appear to be a problem for them. They looked to be two skinny teenagers, both wearing jeans and t-shirts. They carried backpacks. With light shoulder-length wavy hair bobbing, the girls traversed the vehicle covered road. In fact, they looked to be twins. So Bang’s comment made sense to him now, but the fact that they were singing, did not.

Graham knew that in another minute, the girls would have to pass right by his current hideout. Knowing they might possibly walk right into a death trap if the madman spotted them, he didn’t know what to do. He did know he didn’t want to get involved with them. However, he had to warn them off this path, all the same. He reasoned they might turn right at the intersection and go over the highway. They would be fine then, but if they went left, they were in for some trouble. No telling what would happen to them with this guy around.

What do I do?
Graham thought.
I can’t let them just walk right to their own deaths, but I also don’t want the responsibility of those two as well
. “Shit,” he said under his breath from the building frustration, then hoped Bang hadn’t heard the expletive.

Gauging their advance, he lifted the binoculars once again to the madman’s position. He hoped the guy would be too preoccupied to hear the singsong voices of the girls coming that way.

Macy enjoyed driving. Maybe because she got the hang of it before Marcy had. In any event, she thought she would like to do it more often in the future, but from the looks of the traffic jam up ahead, her short experience behind the wheel would soon end. “There’s no way through that mess.” Macy nodded towards the tangle ahead. “You know what that means. We’re almost there, but we walk from here.”

“Well, just get as close as you can. Go up the off-ramp there,” Marcy said, pointing.

Macy noticed Sheriff sit up in the back as she slowed the vehicle. The dog looked out the window at the unfamiliar surroundings.

They could see smoke and flames flicker through the evergreen barrier up ahead, but it didn’t seem like the big spreading fires they could see out west, far in the distance. This one looked more like a wood burn pile like their grandpa did when he burned brush out on his property. With that thought, Macy hoped her grandparents were all right.

As Macy came to a complete stop up the inclining road, she kept her foot on the brake and turned off the engine. Except when she lifted her foot off the brake pedal, the car started sliding backwards so she depressed the brake again, a little too hard this time. It caused all three of them to dive sharply forward. Hearing a scramble behind her, she said, “Sorry, Sheriff, I guess I don’t quite have the hang of this yet.” Macy was sure the dog had seen better drivers in his day.

“Not so easy, is it?” Marcy said.

Macy sat there wondering which lever she needed to push or pull. There were other cars parked like this in the same position uphill, so it was possible to do, but so far, she couldn’t figure it out.

“I think you have to move it off of D, to start with,” Marcy offered.

Macy moved the stick to P for park, and then tried to lift her foot off the brake, but it still slid a little, and then stopped. After brief concern, they were relieved it remained motionless. “Okay, I guess that’s it,” Macy said.

Sheriff poked his head forward between them, as they looked around at their new surroundings, each searching for danger in the discernable darkness. “I really don’t want to go out there,” Marcy said.

“It’s okay, Marce. We’re only a few blocks from Dad’s now. It’s just up to the intersection, two blocks up and two blocks over. We have a guard dog with us now, so don’t worry,” Macy said.

She tried to make light of the situation. Truth be told, Macy knew the dog packs were likely out there and it scared her too. Knowing it was her sister’s favorite song, Macy started to hum Breakfast at Tiffany’s to calm her anxiety.

They exited the car as quietly as any two teens with a German Shepherd could. At first, Sheriff just sat in the back seat when Macy opened his door. He didn’t seem to want to leave. Macy patted her thigh and whispered, “Come on, boy.”

Seeing the invitation, he jumped down and immediately started sniffing the burning smell in the air beyond. With his ears twitching, he tried to take in the sounds. Keeping pace slightly ahead of the girls, the dog ventured forward cautiously. The girls quietly picked up their tune again, bobbing along behind him.

There were many intermingling smells. The girls watched as the dog’s nose worked overtime. They, too, smelled a strange barbeque odor from the fire beyond the trees. The wild dogs, though, posed the biggest threat. As if sensing it, Sheriff quickened his pace then after a few minutes, as they rushed to keep up, he stopped all of a sudden in front of them. He growled in a low menacing tone, warning of something up ahead.

They stopped singing at once and then girls crouched down behind the German Shepherd. “I told you we should have stayed in the car,” Marcy hissed.

Macy grabbed hold of Sheriff’s collar and tugged him over to the side of the road that met the wood line. “What is it, boy?” she asked.

Sheriff kept his low growl up while Macy petted him. He whined a little, then repaid Macy for the attention with a lick to the face, but went right back to growling in the direction ahead. “There’s something up there. He’s warning us,” Macy said.

“I don’t care. I’m going up to Dad’s,” Marcy said loudly.

“Shut up,” Macy said.

After a few moments of panic, followed by resolution, Marcy said, “We’ve got to go up there. It’s the only way through.”

Graham hesitated. His intention was only to get Bang and himself through this stretch of town. He didn’t want to intervene where the girls were concerned. They would only slow him down. However, he didn’t want to see them fall into the hands of the madman up ahead, either.

After debating his options, he decided to wait and see where the girls were headed. He watched them as they stopped because of the dog.
Smart dog,
thought Graham. He knew the dog could probably smell them at their concealed position behind the vehicles.

At least, Graham and Bang were hidden by other vehicles on all sides from both parties where they hid behind the black truck. The girls could pass them by and never see them where they were. After much internal struggle, he fell onto his third option of just waiting to see if the girls veered left or right as they proceeded up the road. That would probably tell him, as they got closer, which way they intended to go and would buy him some time to decide how to intervene or not.

Just twenty feet away from them now, the girls started to veer left. “Damn,” Graham said, because now he knew they were headed for trouble.

As he observed them, they suddenly stopped singing when the dog halted their progress. The German Shepherd started growling and the girls bent down behind him. They seemed more cautious now and that was probably a good thing.

Wanting to make sure of the madman’s position, he turned his head to bring up his binoculars, but before he even leveled them to his eyes, he noticed an armed silhouette coming their way against the light of the burning fire beyond. The singing had probably alerted the man. Even though he and Bang were concealed, not much could be said for the unsuspecting girls.

Options passed before him in a flash. He couldn’t startle the girls into running, which would cause Campos to fire out into the darkness, killing at least one of them. If he fired his own weapon to warn them, he’d give away his own position and jeopardize the boy whom he’d sworn to protect.
What the hell do I do now?

He knew what his father would do. He’d take Campos out, here and now. He had a clear shot. The man posed a threat to the living and his father would do what he thought was best and for the greater good, he would get rid of him. He lifted his rifle but just couldn’t do it.
Maybe it’ll be all right
, he thought. As Campos came closer and closer, approaching the intersection, Graham ran out of options.

He made the universal sign for stay quiet to the boy and motioned for him to crawl under the black truck. He crawled in behind Bang, over the pavement gravel, and pulled his rifle in along with them. He would be of no help to Bang dead. He needed to see what would happen, hoping Campos would see that they were just teen girls and probably run them off. That’s all Graham had now, hope, as he had wasted all his options in those few precious moments of indecision. He felt ashamed as, from under the truck, he saw Campos’s boots approaching closer.

Situated as he was under the vehicle, he really could only see things down low and wanted to make sure Bang was out of sight. He slid the little body quietly against his side. He could hear Campos’s booted footsteps approaching faster and then quieter, obviously now positive of someone coming. He hoped the dog’s warning had sent the girls running off into the woods, but now he couldn’t see what they were doing, though he could still hear the dog, growling louder.

He then heard one of them say, “He really doesn’t like something up ahead. Something’s not right, so we should stop.”

The other one answered, “I don’t care what that dog thinks. We’re so close to Dad’s now. I’m going up.”

Then just as he feared, Campos’s footfalls stopped directly under the car parked in front of their truck hideout. Straining from his cramped spot, he could see in the firelight that the man wore black leather work boots, and what remained for a moment, the barrel end of a rifle. Now he feared and regretted.
Fuck! What the hell have I just done?
”