Breakdown: Season One (15 page)

Chapter 5 – Escape

Herbie saw the Klan members gathered around and knew that if they got out of the car he wouldn’t live to see sunrise. This was a lynch mob. He’d seen one before, outside of his house as a child. His father was a good man and went outside to talk with them. They beat him nearly to death for his outspokenness.

The Westfalia’s engine didn’t pack a lot of power, but the little 4-cylinder couldn’t help but respond when Herbie’s foot floored the pedal.

“Hit the floor, Thom!” Herbie yelled as he ducked down below the dashboard. He felt the impact of the vehicle smashing through the burning cross and heard the gunshots as they thundered through the early morning air. There was a thump as the front and back tires rolled over something large, and he secretly hoped one of the spooks was now having a very bad day.

More gunshots sounded, and bullets tore through the interior of the van. After a few more moments of blind acceleration, Herbie dared to peek his head up, just in time to realize they were about to slam into one of several dead cars that hadn’t been rolled off of the road yet.

A sharp jerk of the steering wheel, and Thom rolled off of the sofa, his body landing on the floorboard with a resounding thud.

“What the hell, Herbie! I thought you had first watch!”

“Save it, Thom! Busy keeping us alive, here! Do me a favor and shoot back!”

Thom scrambled for one of the guns they’d acquired and shouldered the rifle. The glass of the rear windshield had been blown out, so he didn’t need to lean out of a window to shoot; he just crouched, leveled the rifle in the direction of the bad guys, and sent lead downrange.

The results were immediate, and satisfying. The ghosts hit the dirt and scattered, unprepared for their victims to fight back.

After a few more seconds of heart-pounding adrenaline, Thom and Herbie were in the clear, until they rounded the next bend. A large black pickup pulled out from a dirt road and started aggressively tailing them.

The truck had far more power, and it easily outpaced the little Volkswagen. Thom and Herbie realized they were in trouble.

“Shoot, Thom!”

Once again, Thom crouched and fired a shot. The first sent a shower of sparks off the hood of the truck, but their pursuers didn’t slow. Thom moved to eject the cartridge and it jammed, prompting a litany of four-letter words to flow from his mouth.

Herbie reached back and handed Thom his revolver with his right hand, steering with the left.

“Aim for the driver! You keep shooting to miss and you’re going to get us killed. These guys are going to kill us if they catch us. You have to be ready to kill them first. Now shoot them!”

Thom shook his head.

“I can’t do it. Herbie, I can’t!”

“Take the wheel!”

Thom complied, and Herbie took his revolver and held it steady, using the back of the sofa as a bench rest.

Herbie gently squeezed the trigger just as Thom hit a pothole, and the bullet tore through the windshield left of the driver.

“Hold it steady, Thom, drive straight!

Herbie aimed the revolver once again, squeezed gently, and fired.

The truck veered left, suddenly, smashing into one of the cars on the shoulder of the road, bringing the vehicle to a sudden stop. Steam poured from under the hood, and the horn blared endlessly.

The men shouted in joyful celebration as the truck disappeared into the distance of their rearview mirror.

Thom was the first to speak. “Herbie, can you drive please?”

Herbie noted that the color had drained from his friend’s face.

“Yeah, man. No problem. I’ve got this.”

The older man took the wheel, and Thom collapsed in the back. His hands shook, and he found himself breathing erratically.

“It’s the adrenaline dump. You’ll figure out how to ride it down the more it happens.”

Thom nodded. It wasn’t the fact that he’d been shot at, or that he’d shot back that had gotten him so riled up. It was the driving.

“You know, Thom…you’re going to have to start shooting to hit if we’re going to stay alive.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. You were shooting in their direction, but you weren’t aiming to hit anyone. Those guys were ready to kill us, but they were cowards, so your tactic worked at first. If you keep doing that, you’re going to get one or both of us killed. If you shoulder a weapon, you need to be ready to use it to take a life. If you’re not, don’t even pick one up. Do you understand me?”

Thom nodded, feeling ashamed.

“I’m sorry, Herbie. I didn’t mean to put us in danger. I thought I could just scare them off.”

Herbie kept his eyes on the road, but nodded.

“I understand, Thom. It’s no easy thing, taking a life. It changes a man. Even a good one like yourself. It’s something you live with every day.”

“I’ve seen enough death, Herbie.”

The old man nodded again.

“I have too, Thom. But we’re going to see more of it before we’re done. Let’s just do our best to make sure it’s not our own.”

The men drove on in silence for the next couple of hours, until the engine of the van started to knock. They pulled to a stop just as they passed a sign welcoming them to Columbia.

“What’s going on, Herbie?”

“Not sure. Guessing one of those rounds did a little more damage than we thought. We’ll have to hoof it from here.”

Thom sighed.

So close to Anna. He’d see her this afternoon.

Chapter 6 – Battleground

Linus watched as John fell. He’d managed to bury Juliana’s face into his chest before the shots rang out, so she hadn’t seen. He raised the pistol John had handed him, aimed, and fired at the shadow behind the curtain. He heard the scream and knew his shot had found its mark. That felt good.

Picking up the girl, Linus whisked her inside and placed her in a closet.

“Stay here, Juliana. I’ll be right back. Don’t come out until I tell you to, okay?”

The little girl nodded, tears streaming down her face.

Linus reached out and wiped them away with his sleeve. “We’ll get through this, little one. Your momma and little brother are waiting at home for you.”

She nodded and closed the closet door.

Linus stood and headed downstairs.

Greg’s voice shouted out from across the street. “Rick! No need for all of this. You did your part. You brought John here. You lower your weapon, and you’re free to go. Take the girl with you if you want, I don’t care.”

One good thing about being a liar and a cheat; it gave you a pretty good idea of when someone was trying to pull one over on you. Greg’s voice dripped with it.

“It’s Linus now, Greg, and that’s all right. We both know I crossed a line that can’t be uncrossed. I chose my side, and it’s not yours.”

Greg was walking out of the house now, a gun in his hand. He walked over to where John lay. He’d been trying to crawl toward the house, to his daughter. Linus watched as John’s hand twitched. He was still alive. Linus’ heart felt hope.

“You’re right, of course, Rick. I should have known you’d see through that line. You always were good at cutting through the crap. So here’s the new deal.” Greg raised his pistol, aiming at John point-blank. “You come out and go back to whatever hole you slithered out of, let John and I settle this.”

“What if I’d rather kill you?”

Greg smirked.

“My, you’ve grown a pair since the world ended. Good for you. If that’s the case, I’ll shoot you in the stomach and disarm you so that you’ll live long enough to see the girl and her daddy die.”

Linus nodded. This was how it would end.

“I’m coming out to give myself up. Don’t shoot.”

He stepped outside, hands in the air. Once he reached the curb, he set the pistol down and kicked it over to the enemy. It skittered a little to his left, but that didn’t matter to Greg.

Linus stepped forward, one slow step at a time.

“Greg, you don’t have to do this, you know. I’ll get out of your hair and whatever business you have with this guy, you can settle and we’re good. Right?”

Another step closer.

Greg raised his rifle and took aim at Linus, and gunshots barked out.

Greg wore a confused look on his face as he dropped the rifle. He reached down, placing his hand on his chest, staring at the red stains blossoming on his white shirt. Looking down, he stared into the eyes of the man he’d gunned down, a man who held a pistol in his hand.

“Not dead yet, you son of a bitch.”

Another shot, and Greg hit the ground, lifeless.

Linus ran to him them, examining John’s wounds. He had no medical knowledge beyond basic CPR, but he had a feeling that this was bad. The shots had hit John high in the side, in an area where his vest had limited coverage. Blood was starting to trickle from the corner of his mouth, and his breathing was labored and erratic.

“I’m going to go get Talia, John. We’re going to get you put back together.”

John shook his head. “No, Linus.”

“No? What do you mean? We’re just a few blocks away, we can get help. You’re not done here. We need you. The community needs you.

“No, Linus. I was an EMT a lifetime ago. I know I’m hit bad. Talia won’t be able to do anything for me.”

He coughed, and blood speckled Linus’ shirt.

“Don’t want her last memory of me to be dying on her table. She’d never forgive herself.”

Something dripped onto John’s shirt, and Linus realized he was crying.

“John, there’s something I have to tell you. My name isn’t Linus, it’s—”

“Rick. I know. But that’s not true anymore, Linus. You are who you choose to be every day. You can go back to the way you lived before and be Rick, or you can keep moving forward with your life as a good man and be Linus. I don’t care what it was that you did to get to this point, but know that this is a new world, Linus. You make the choice every day.”

The light had started to fade from John’s eyes.

“Linus, do me a favor? Let me see my daughter.”

Linus nodded. Taking off his shirt, he covered the wounds so that the little girl wouldn’t see. He even took a moment to dab the blood from John’s mouth and face.

A minute later Juliana was hugging her daddy. She leaned over, and he kissed her forehead just before the light left his eyes.

Linus said a quick prayer, something he hadn’t done since he was a boy, and covered John’s face with his button-up.

Juliana was a mess of tears and snot and her father’s blood, but he picked her up and held her closely, rocking her gently.

Eventually the unlikely pair stood and walked back to the neighborhood, which had turned into a warzone in their absence.

Someone had driven a bulldozer through the makeshift barricades. Houses burned, and bodies of men, women, and children littered the streets. Linus held Juliana close and ran to her house. Her mother was in the kitchen with three bags ready to go; two large packs and a small one, sized for a child.

She looked up as Linus entered the house, smiled and ran to embrace her daughter. She looked back over Linus’ shoulder, looking for her husband. She wore her son in a front carrier, leaving her hands free.

“Linus, where’s John? Did he get held up at the gate? Whoever it was hit us fast and hard. They knew where they were going. They raided our supplies and left in a big dump truck. Where’s John, Linus?”

She kept talking so that he wouldn’t have time to answer. She already knew.

“I’m sorry, Talia.”

She beat him with fists, clawed him with nails, but still he held her.

“I’m so sorry,” were the only words of comfort he could muster. “He wanted me to tell you that we need to go to the farm near Columbia. Does that make sense to you?”

She nodded and moved back to shoulder one of the heavy packs.

“Grab a bag, Linus. Take yours, Juliana.”

They obeyed, and soon the surviving members of the Willis family, and Linus, were on their way.

Chapter 7 – Capture

Thom and Herbie spent the rest of the morning walking carefully through town to reach the campus where Anna lived. Downtown was in shambles, but most of the people they ran into kept to themselves and gave the duo a wide berth. It helped that they were obviously armed. After a couple of hours they’d worked their way through town, and were approaching the campus.

The burned-out husk of his daughter’s dorm building sent Thom to his knees.

“Anna…my God, Anna...”

Herbie stepped up behind Thom.

“It’s okay, man. Don’t jump the gun. That burned-up building? It doesn’t mean anything. She could be safe somewhere else, maybe staying with a friend somewhere. We won’t know until we ask.”

Thom nodded. He struggled back to his feet.

“Thank you, Herbie. It’s just...”

“I know, man. It’s shocking.”

Herbie pointed to the neighboring dorm. Several students seemed to be shambling around aimlessly outside, a couple of them tossing a Frisbee back and forth.

“I’m going to sit and rest a bit, doctor up my feet. You go ahead and ask around. I’ll be here,” Herbie said, planting himself on a nearby bus stop bench.

Thom nodded and approached the kids throwing the Frisbee.

“Hey, guys. My daughter goes to school here…she, uh…lives in the dorm,” Thom said, pointing to the charred rubble across the street. “Her name is Anna Monroe. Do you guys know her?”

The pair continued throwing the Frisbee back and forth, but one of them, a clean-cut looking guy with frosted tips, smiled.

“Yeah, man, I know her. Let’s go inside and we can show you where she is.”

“Oh, that’d be great! Thanks so much. My name’s Thom, by the way.”

“Dan. Nice to meet you, Thom. You have a very spirited daughter.”

Thom thought that was a strange way to compliment someone but shrugged it off and headed up the stairs to the dorm entrance with the two boys.

Herbie rubbed his bunions and watched the exchange between the boys and Thom. He thought he saw something, but his eyes were old, and he couldn’t be sure, so he put his socks and boots back on and started lacing them up.

His eyes were bad, but his ears were still good enough to hear Thom’s grunt as one of the boys pistol-whipped him in the back of the head.

Herbie stood and started to draw his revolver when he noticed something peculiar. Sentries on the street corner, the roof of an adjacent parking garage, and the second floor of the burnt dormitory across the street. All armed with nice-looking long rifles.

“What in the heck did we just land in?” Herbie wondered silently. It was time to find some answers.

…

Thom awoke to a throbbing headache. Thankfully, they were in a dark room; he wasn’t sure he could stand the sunlight at this point. How did he get here? One second he was walking up the stairs, the next…

Darn kids. He didn’t even see it coming.

Thom tried lifting his arm to check the extent of the bump on his head but realized that he’d been zip-tied to a radiator. This day just kept getting better.

He took a moment to look around. He was in the basement, that much was clear. Candles lit the space with an uneven, flickering glow, casting odd shadows that danced with the slightest movement of air. There was one small window, too small and high up to fit himself through, that looked like it had been painted over to keep the light out.

Thom realized he wasn’t alone. Chained to the pipes opposite of him were girls, roughly Anna’s age. They appeared to be sleeping but had obviously been mistreated, their clothes and bodies in various states of disrepair.

Three days. Three days and these kids had already lost their grip. It made him sick.

The thought of pretending he was still unconscious so he could listen to his captors came a fraction of a second too late.

“Hey, Dan! Geezer’s awake.”

Someone had seen him struggle briefly at his bonds.

The noise sent tendrils of pain through Thom’s head, and he winced involuntarily.

Dan smiled as he entered, something completely and totally insincere. It could have been a younger version of his boss—former boss—Rick, standing there.

“Ah, good. Sorry we had to rough you up to get you inside. Well, not too sorry.”

Thom sat there, stunned and confused. “Why are you boys doing this?”

“Boys? We’re clearly adults here in this new world, Thom. Why did we do this? Well, for sport, primarily. It’s fun. Second, no one is here to stop us. So that’s a no-brainer. The world has gone to crap, so we might as well party. Am I right, ladies?”

The girls cringed at the sound of his voice.

“Ahh, don’t mind them. They’re still getting used to their new roles in the new world,” Dan said smugly. “But really, the reason you’re here, Thom, is because your daughter is special. She’s embarrassed me—undermined me—twice. This isn’t something that a leader can allow to happen, especially when they’re working hard to establish their turf. It’s one of the laws of nature that when a beta challenges an alpha, there’s going to be a fight. You’re here to help me ensure that I have a hand in when and where that fight takes place.”

“You’re using me to get my daughter to make a move against you?”

Dan shrugged. “Yeah, I guess you could put it that way.”

“I won’t let you do that, kid,” Thom said, his eyes glaring daggers. “I’ll kill myself before that.”

Dan just shrugged again. “Go for it. The end of your life won’t stop me from using you to get to your daughter. Who’s going to tell her you’re dead? Me? No way.”

“Then why not just kill me now, little man?”

Dan struck Thom in the face.

“You call me Dan. Better yet, you call me Your Excellency. I like that.” Dan rolled his shoulders and rubbed the knuckles on his fist. “To answer your question, I’m keeping you around so that you can watch your daughter die. It’ll be a long, glorious process.”

Thom started laughing.

“What is it, old man?”

“Just wondering what your parents did to make you such a megalomaniac. Not something you typically find here in the Midwest, such delusions of grandeur.”

Dan sighed. “What am I paying you guys for? Someone hit this guy!”

One of the larger young men reached back and punched Thom once again in the face. This time, he saw stars, and then nothing at all.

Dan grumbled.

“Next time, hit him in the stomach. It’s no fun if he’s unconscious. Now, you said you had some news about where to find Anna and those other fools who stole from me?”

The large man nodded. “We found a note pinned to a refrigerator door inside of an elementary school across town. Had their address on it.”

“Can I see the note?”

“Must have left it in my bag outside. We can grab it on our way up. It’s okay, though, I know the address. It’s Bruce’s place.”

Dan nodded. “And what were you doing snooping in elementary schools?”

“Lucas thought they might have Snack Packs.”

Dan laughed. “Pudding cups. We found her because of pudding cups. Delicious. Send a team of four. Bring her to me alive.”

“Dan, I’m not sure four will be enough. They’ve got guns.”

“Oh, wow. Why didn’t I think of that?” Dan said, slapping a palm against his forehead. “Of course they have guns, you idiot. We do too. They’ll be caught off guard. Four will be enough.” Dan fished a set of keys from his pockets and tossed them to Goon #1. “Take the El Camino on the second floor of the garage. I’ve taken the liberty of commandeering the keys from Tony Del Ray.”

Goon #1 nodded. “You got it, Dan. I’ll get the team together. You want this done now?”

“Wait for dark. We’ll hit them then.”

The large man nodded again and walked upstairs, leaving an unconscious Thom and two scared teenage girls downstairs to contemplate their fates.

When he got upstairs, the bag with the note was gone, and so was Herbie.

…

Bruce had first watch tonight, and he was so ready for bed. This neighborhood was dead quiet. Nothing was going to happen. There was absolutely no need for him to be awake right now other than Matt’s extreme paranoia. The guy spends one semester in ROTC training in high school and thinks he’s a tactician.

A hand grabbed him from the darkness, wrapping itself around his mouth. Another twisted his wrist at an odd angle behind his back.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, young fella. My name’s Herbie. Is Anna staying here?”

Bruce mumbled something through the old man’s hand, and Herbie chuckled.

“Sorry about that. Don’t scream. I’m a good guy. Promise.”

Once the hand was released from his mouth, Bruce started cursing up a storm. This sent Herbie into fits of laughter, which caused him to accidentally tweak Bruce’s wrist a bit further.

“Ow ow ow ow! I take it back, I take it back…ow, man!”

Herbie laughed harder, eventually letting go of the hand entirely.

Bruce spun around, holding his tender wrist. “Who the hell are you, old man? What do you want with Anna?”

“Language, son. Believe it or not, I’m a friend of her father’s, though she won’t know that. You kids are in danger. Some guy named Dan is about to drive a car full of kids over here to shoot the place up. He’s pretty mad at you guys for whatever stunt you pulled.”

Bruce nodded. It made sense.

“How do I know that Dan didn’t send you and this isn’t some sort of trap?”

“Well, young man, I reckon if that were the case, you’d be dead.”

Bruce turned five shades lighter as the blood drained from his face. “I suppose that makes sense. So what do we do?”

“Well, the first thing we do is talk with your group. The second thing we do is not to be where they expect us to be.”

Bruce nodded. “Let’s get you inside, and we’ll get started on number one.”

“Sounds like a plan, young man. Sounds like a plan.”

…

It was around midnight when the El Camino pulled up in front of the Lee residence. The headlights were out, and the radio was cut off. They had intended to take the place by surprise. There were two men inside the cab, and another two in the back; two were armed with rifles, the others with pistols. One carried an aluminum baseball bat. They’d left room in the back, whether for supplies they intended on stealing from the group or for prisoners, Herbie couldn’t say.

When all four boys had exited the car, Herbie called out to them using his best authoritative voice.

“That’s far enough, gentlemen. Lower your weapons. We have you surrounded.”

The response wasn’t what he hoped. All four raised their weapons and turned toward the sound of his voice.

“He means it, you morons. Put the guns down.” This time, from Matt, who crouched in cover directly behind them.

Now they were shaken. They spun again, trying to put eyes on the new voice, when Bruce chimed in from a third direction.

“Put the guns down. This is your last warning.”

“Now,” added Red from a fourth hiding spot.

A shot rang out, and Anna added, “We’ve asked nicely, boys.”

Four guns and a baseball bat clattered to the ground.

…

Herbie grinned as the last of the four attackers were bound together. They’d used two whole rolls of duct tape and handful of zip-ties. It might have been a little overkill, but it had been fun. They’d dropped them off in front of a gun shop that had a sign out front reading Looters will be shot!

Just for kicks, they made a sign out of cardboard and taped to the street lamp above the boys that said Looters with an arrow pointing down. Things might get interesting in the morning when they were discovered.

“Herbie, how in the world did you know that would work?” Matt asked.

“Just had to hope that a couple of days wasn’t enough to turn everyone into killing machines. It was a gamble, but if they’d have fired my direction you guys would have taken care of business.”

“I’m glad it did, don’t get me wrong, but now I owe Brian twenty bucks.”

“Just be glad paper money’s worthless now. Best pay him off before he realizes that as well.”

Matt thought about that for a moment and nodded. “So what’s next?” he asked, eying the El Camino.

“We get Thom back, and then we get the heck out of Dodge, young man. I hope Brian and the girls have that truck loaded up by the time we get back. We’ll need to leave right away. Might have some heat on us.”

“Those guys said this was the only working car Dan had confiscated. I think we’ll be all right if we can get Anna’s dad out in one piece.”

“We’ll see. You know how to work that thing?” Herbie asked, looking down at Matt’s newly acquired AR-15.

“Yeah. I’ve shot one like this a time or two.”

“Good deal. What about the others?”

“We’ve got a couple that have shot before, but I wouldn’t say they’re experts.”

“You an expert?”

“Going to school on a shooting scholarship.”

Herbie whistled appreciatively. “I guess my next question that bears asking is, you ready to use that thing if you need to?”

Matt thought for a long moment, a grim look on his face. He nodded yes, and Herbie patted a hand firmly on his shoulder.

“Might not need to just yet. I hope we don’t need to anyway, but it’s important that you make the decision before that time comes. Make sense?”

Matt nodded once more. “Yes, sir.”

“You can shoot and you have manners? I like you, son.” Herbie’s grin was matched by Matt’s. “Well then,” he said, “I think we’ve got a jailbreak to organize.”

…

Thom awoke to the smell of smoke and the sight of guttering candles, a handful of which had burned themselves out. His head pounded, and his vision swam. He tried thinking back to where he was and how he’d gotten here and remembered insulting that kid, Dan. Someone must have cold-cocked him as a result. He leaned over and vomited, and when he looked up, one of the girls in chains was looking at him.

“I’m going to get us out of here,” Thom tried to assure her, but by the look on her face he’d failed.

Thom took a moment to think, which was difficult after the blows to the head he’d taken. Thoughts came in slow, irregular bursts. It was like swimming laps in a pool filled with gelatin.

They were in the basement. To the left was a bank of washing machines and dryers. To the right, a simple kitchen set up with a couple of stoves for students who wanted to cook using more than a microwave. Straight ahead was a laundry cart that had seen better days. Nothing within reach for him or the girls.

Thom went back to testing his bonds, pulling at them against the pipe behind his back. He tried everything. The pipe was solidly fitted and secured, offering no chance at breaking it. Thom pulled at his bindings until he could feel hot, slick blood coat his wrists, and then, for the moment, he gave up.

…

It was close to 2am by Matt’s watch when the El Camino pulled into the parking garage nearest the dorm where Thom was being held. Matt rolled down the tinted windows and offered a wave to the lackadaisical sentry on the third floor who waved them in. Rolling up the window, Matt breathed a sigh of relief. Operation Enter the Parking Garage: full success.