Instinct (4 page)

They started walking towards the front of the line. Ron fell in behind her. He was carrying a bag over each shoulder. They swung and banged on his thighs as he walked.

Their group was clustered at the front of the line of vehicles. One of the bearded men, Chester, was on top of the trailer with the binoculars.

“He’s getting close to the first one,” Chester said. “It’s not moving.”

“Can we set this down?” Judy asked Brighton.
 

“Sure,” Brighton said. He lowered his end and Judy dropped hers. Ron was right behind her, so she moved to the side, like she was trying to get a better look down the hill. Frank jogged up out of the dark. All the lights and engines were off now, except the one vehicle that Frank had moved away from the others. It looked like a lonely island of light off in the distance. In the other direction, the fires burned like little candles.

“Get down from there, Chester,” Frank said.

He climbed up to replace the man, and then ended up doing the same thing Chester had been doing. He took the binoculars and and said, “I think he’s looking at the fire. He’s coming back.”

Frank didn’t give any more progress reports, but he stayed up there. After a second, they could all hear the sound of Cincinnati’s hooves beating their way up the hill. Luke arrived at a trot and came to a stop. He stayed up on his horse to issue his commands.

“Okay,” Luke said. “Let me get Viv, Bill, Daniel, and Judy. Can you guys come forward. Not you, Bill, I mean Bill Cody.”

Judy looked around and tried to gauge her odds of escape. If she dropped her bag, she might be able to sprint towards the woods and get away. It was hopeless and she knew it. There were two members of Luke’s militia just a few paces away. They had flashlights and guns. She couldn’t come up with a reason why they would shoot her, but she had no doubt that they would.

“Where’s Judy at?” Luke said.
 

Eyes turned towards her and she started to move forward.

“The rest of y’all are gonna disperse into these woods. Just stay low and stay put until I come back for you. It won’t be long,” Luke said.

Judy frowned. Everyone else was now being ordered to do the thing she had planned.

She arrived next to Viv and Daniel. Bill Cody was still fumbling with something from a bag that his girlfriend was holding. He hugged her tight before he came to join them.

Frank’s bearded militia organized the others into groups to go hide by the roadside. Luke circled back to his hand-picked four and looked down at them from atop Cincinnati.
 

“What are we doing?” Bill asked.

“I want you guys to act as representatives,” Luke said. “You’re going to introduce us to the locals.”

“Locals?” Viv asked. “There are locals?”

“So it seems,” Luke said.

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Daniel walked in front and Bill Cody brought up the rear. Viv and Judy walked side by side. They walked down the middle of the dark road, staying on the double yellow line. They passed by an abandoned car on the side of the road. Judy had seen plenty of these. She knew what would be inside. The keys would be in the ignition, the battery would be dead, and there would be no gas in the tank. They were beyond the eye-popper zone. Around here, the residents had simply disappeared. The world was a ghost town. Dinners were still set on tables, faucets still open in shower stalls, and keys still in the ignition.

Judy didn’t like the way their footsteps seemed to die around them. There was no echo in the night. She glanced back at the distant light of the Land Cruiser up on the hill. Right when she looked, someone shut the lights off. Their beacon was gone. Now they just had the seven flames they were approaching.

“Why us?” Viv asked.

“Hush,” Bill whispered. “Don’t give away our position.”

Judy had a pretty good idea of why they’d been chosen. With the exception of Bill Cody, they were singles. And Bill just had a girlfriend. He hadn’t really linked up into a whole family unit yet. The four of them looked normal, kept themselves clean, and weren’t entrenched in Luke’s little society. They were decent ambassadors, and they were completely expendable.

They were close enough to see the first flame. It wasn’t some mysterious column of fire, like Luke had described seeing down south. This was just a torch, stuck into the ground by the side of the road. Judy couldn’t even tell why it was there at first. There was a gentle bend in the road, but it didn’t seem significant enough to mark with a torch.

“Oh,” Daniel said.

“What?” Bill asked.

Daniel came to a stop. Judy walked up next to him. The torch was still a ways off, but she understood it significance. The torch marked a spot where the road was washed out. Because of the slope and the bend, you couldn’t really see it. If not for the torch, the washout might look like a shadow on the pavement until you crashed down into the gully.

Judy moved forward alone. She got closer and verified her assessment. The seven torches simply marked the spot where the road was impassable. On the other side of the pavement, she saw black skid marks. Apparently, someone else had seen the washout just in time.

Judy turned back to the other three.

“Look, we don’t have to do this,” Judy said.

“What do you mean?” Bill asked. He glanced back up the hill, where his girlfriend was hiding back there in the darkness.

“Whoever put these up might be friendly, or they might be dangerous. We don’t know. There’s no reason why we have to risk our necks.”

Bill didn’t hesitate to argue. “We all sacrifice for each other. It’s our turn.”

“We do things as a group,” Judy said. “Since when are people expected to stick their necks out alone. We’re being used as pawns here.”

“We’re here voluntarily,” Bill said.

“No, she’s right,” Daniel said. “The question is, what other choice do we have?”

“We could run,” Judy said.

“Leave the group?” Bill asked.

“Could we make it on our own?” Vivian asked.

“Or whatever,” Judy said. “All I’m say is that we don’t have to walk right into danger just because Luke told us to.”

“I’m going,” Bill said. “It might be dangerous, but everything is dangerous. Just waking up is dangerous. I’m going to do my part for the good of the group.”

He started to walk around Judy. With that action, the debate was over. Viv and Daniel followed Bill. Judy stood there for a second and then followed as well.

By the light of the torches, they climbed through the washout and walked around the bend in the road. On their left, the trees thinned out and were replaced with a single line of tall trees, bordered with a three-rail fence. An open field swept up to a set of buildings outlined against the sky. The driveway was farther up the road, but there was a footpath trampled through the grass near the washout. Bill followed that.

Judy arrived at the fence as Bill was climbing over it.

“Watch out,” Bill said. “That wire is live.”

“What?” Viv asked. “Ouch!” she said.

“Hush,” Bill said.

Next to her, Daniel extended a finger towards the fence. On the inside of the rails, there was a bare wire strung. When his finger got close enough, a blue spark jumped out to his finger. Daniel jerked his hand back.

“It’s not bad,” he said.

Judy watched the way he climbed over and then reproduced his actions.
 

“They have electricity. That’s encouraging,” Daniel said.

Bill started up the hill. The grass was short and tidy in the field, but was dotted with the occasional weed. Bill veered around something and when Judy reached the spot she saw that it was manure. Farther up the hill, a cluster of big animals bolted off into the night. The four of them stopped. When the animals crested the hill and disappeared, they began walking towards the house again.
 

As they neared, Judy saw that the first building was a big white estate. Behind it, several barns or outbuildings stood. All the windows were dark in the house.
 

“What do we do?” Viv asked. “Go up and knock?”

“I suppose,” Daniel said.

Bill apparently had another idea. He climbed over the fence that separated the pasture from the lawn. When he landed on the other side, he broke into a trot. Judy was just climbing down the other side when Bill was already looking into one of the dark windows.
 

“What’s he doing?” Viv asked.

Nobody answered. Daniel, Viv, and Judy, stood there on the lawn. The grass was ankle high and damp with dew. Bill rounded the side of the house and they couldn’t see him anymore.

They turned when the animals in the pasture thundered by again. She couldn’t really see them, but Judy assumed they were horses. She couldn’t imagine what else would run that fast. As if to confirm her speculation, one of the animals let out a questioning whinny. After a few seconds, it was answered by an animal from much farther away. Judy wondered if maybe Cincinnati was on the other side of that call.

Finally, Bill came around the other side of the house. He ran back over to them.

“I don’t think there’s anyone inside,” Bill whispered.

“What about that person?” Viv asked. She was pointing towards the house. Judy looked up as the front door opened. In the darkness, they saw a candle appear.

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Viv approached first, She paused at the steps and waited for the others to catch up.

“Hello?” she asked.

The candle wavered and then the door opened wider. Judy saw the shape of the person holding the candle. She couldn’t see the face.

“Sorry to show up in the middle of the night,” Viv said. “Can we talk to you?”

“Please,” a woman’s voice said from the darkness. “Come in.”

CHAPTER 3: PENNSYLVANIA

“T
HERE
’
S
A
BIG
ONE
,” Tim said. “Do you see a spot to land?”

He glanced at his companion. The Golden Retriever probably couldn’t hear him. Tim wore his headphones out of habit and because the airplane was too loud without them. His voice was picked up by his microphone and echoed back into his own ears, so he didn’t talk all that loud. He circled the stretch of highway three times to make sure it looked okay for a landing. Everything looked clear, but he still felt nervous as he executed his landing checklist. He had one added item on the bottom of his list: check Cedric’s harness. He reached over and made sure the dog was strapped in. Cedric seemed to have a pretty good understanding of landing at this point, but safety was paramount.

They touched down on the dashed white line and rolled to a stop.
 

Tim looked out every window before he cut the engine. He kept his hand on the throttle, ready to run it back up. There was nothing out there—just a stretch of highway with suburbs on one side and a junky field on the other.

Tim spoke again as the engine wound down.
 

“Power lines, streetlights, overhead signs,” he said to the dog. Cedric looked over at him. “If a crosswind comes up, we have to get out of here fast. I should have picked a wider chunk of road.”

Cedric fidgeted in his seat. The dog knew from experience that he had to wait for Tim to release him from the harness, but he was itching to get out of the plane.

“Hold on,” Tim said. “Let me chock the wheels first.”

Cedric let out a tiny sound.

“Hold on,” Tim said again.

He opened his door and jumped out quick. The brake would hold the plane as long as the road wasn’t sloped too much. It was hard to tell. He kicked the wooden blocks under the wheel and climbed back in. When he unbuckled the harness, Cedric squeezed by Tim and bolted through the door.

Tim shoved his map into a bag and followed the dog out.

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“It seems pretty nice so far,” Tim said.
 

Cedric was peeing on the side of a concrete barrier. He finished and began sniffing at some trash by the side of the road.

“Come here, Cedric,” Tim said. He pulled a leash from his bag. Tim unbuckled his belt, threaded the end through the handle of the leash, and then buckled his belt again. He clipped the other end of the leash to Cedric’s harness.

Cedric stayed at his side as Tim walked the length of the retaining wall. The top of the wall sloped down towards the road, as did the hill it held back. On the other side of the bank was the entrance to the highway. Just beyond that, a tall concrete barrier rose at least twenty feet. This is what Tim came to see.

He kept his eyes pointed at the ground. Tim blocked out most of his vision with a hand. He saw the corner of red graffiti on the wall. It was about twenty yards away, but that was close enough.
 

“If I screw up, you know what to do,” Tim said to Cedric. He pulled his camera from his pocket and got it ready before he raised it.