And I am going to hell for what I did next.
I am so going to hell.
I sliced the tires on the two Cougar light tanks before we left. I’d have dropped explosives in their gun barrels but I didn’t have any with me, so immobilizing both was the best solution I could come up with. We picked up Sid Toomey and crossed the bridge. He helped Cruze out of the turret and took his place manning the main guns as we pulled off on the west bank of the river. We took a short detour while I accompanied Mel back to her firing position and gathered the mortar and ammunition – we were back inside the Coyote within 15 minutes, and I crew-commanded the eight-wheeled monster up the serpentine highway until we were well out of the coulee.
Doug and Mel had been able to scrounge another 5 Jerry cans of diesel, and they sloshed about in the rear of the carrier as we ploughed through drifts of snow. It was shortly past midnight and the flurries had stopped, but the temperature outside the vehicle was enough to freeze your eyelids together if you faced into the wind. I hid behind the crew commander’s hatch and scanned the horizon for signs of the enemy APC. I saw nothing.
Where it disappeared to? They hadn’t come after us with their guns blazing, as I’d expected. Were they another one of Sunray’s roving patrols? I signaled for Sid to turn on the infra-red in the turret and scan the area. If we could cut off the patrol, we’d maybe gather some intelligence about Sunray, his strength and possible whereabouts.
As we cruised down the highway, the slight resistance our patrol had met still tugged at me. I’d have liked to say it was dumb luck we’d only taken one casualty, rained death down on Sunray’s troops, gathered valuable intelligence about why the abattoir existed and learned that a resistance movement was taking shape at a place called Carlsbad Farms.
But it was almost as if … Sunray
wanted
us to find out the truth about the abattoir.
I crawled back down into the Coyote and gestured for Mel Dixon. She scurried across the jump seat until she was within earshot.
“Take us back to the hide. You’re in charge – I’m going to check on Cruze.”
“Roger that,” said Mel. I pressed myself against the engine panel to make room.
The inside of the Coyote was similar to our carriers, which made sense. They were effectively the same vehicles, save for the fact that the Coyote was newer and had eight wheels, whereas Ark One and Ark Two had six wheels each. There were modern radio sets, as well as more comfortable seating in the rear. Cruze was seated on the far jump seat, her wounded leg stretched out in front of her.
“We’re going to have to do some painful medicine on that leg, Cruze,” I said, peeking underneath the gauze field dressing. “It’s still bleeding and we need to cauterize the bullet hole. There aren’t any doctors out here.”
“No kidding,” she said, grimacing. “Just do it.”
“When we get back to the hide. I’ll need one of the mountain stoves to heat something metal.”
It was going to hurt like hell, and there was still the very real possibility that the wound might get infected. If that happened, Cruze’s leg would swell up like a balloon and eventually turn gangrenous. We’d seen gangrene happen with another survivor back at Mewata. He didn’t live through the trauma of having his leg amputated.
“We’ve got antibiotics in the medical kits – we grabbed a bunch from the armory before we left. When we get back, you’ll start taking them.”
Cruze nodded. “Fine … whatever. In the meantime, what happened back there with those civilians … you didn’t have a choice, Dave.”
I clenched my jaw. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
She gave me a slight shove. “Well, maybe you should. Maybe you need to actually say that you shot all those people. They were infected, David. You were doing them a favor.”
I grated my teeth as I changed the field dressings on Cruze’s leg, binding both fresh dressings tightly. “There’s a resistance,” I said, changing the subject. “Some place called Carlsbad Farms – across the border. They’ve got running water and power – maybe they have a doc, and we can get your leg properly tended to.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Resistance, huh? Sounds like occupied France during World War Two. Well … the border is a couple of hundred kilometers away, if we stay on the main highway heading east. We could probably make it there by midday if we’re extra stealthy. We’d need to ditch one of the carriers, though. We need every drop of fuel we can spare.”
Suddenly, the carrier lurched sharply to the right, and then started bouncing cross-country. Cruze braced herself against the rear door and howled in pain. “Slow the fuck down!” she shrieked.
Doug Manybears must have heard her, because the Coyote slowed to a crawl.
“We’ve got slight advantage,” I said, pointing to the radios. “We can listen in on Sunray – we’ve got two day’s worth of his frequencies.”
“And that might help us avoid him while we head east,” Cruze said, finishing my sentence. “We should all load into this rig and disable the other carriers.”
I nodded. “Yeah – that sounds about right. It’ll take us a couple of hours to siphon the fuel from both APC’s. Not to mention transferring all of our kit and stuff.”
I slid back on the jump seat and listened to the rumble of the engine. The interior heating system of the Coyote was much more effective than the ones in our own carriers, and the warm air circulating inside wasn’t tainted with the stench of diesel and motor oil. I exhaled heavily as I gazed at Pam Cruze. We’d made it through our fighting patrol relatively unscathed, Sid Toomey and I had made peace with each other, and we’d learned that other survivors out there were ready to band together to fight Sunray. Maybe there was a light at the end of the tunnel after all. Maybe we could take back Eden and somehow start over. It wasn’t Sanctuary Base, but it was
something
. We were still fighting for our lives, but at least there was the prospect of fighting alongside people who wanted to rebuild this world and not rule it. The creeps would still linger, but if we were careful, if we took steps to defend ourselves in an organized way, maybe we’d somehow scrape by. Maybe Jo would get to grow up after all.
I allowed myself the luxury of a smile. My lips arched up into a grin, and I started to giggle. Naturally Cruze looked at me like I’d just lost my freaking mind, and made a point of telling me so.
“What the hell are you laughing about, you moron?”
I raised a hand. “Nothing and everything, Pam.”
She rolled her eyes. “You need to have some forced rest – you’re getting all bat shit crazy.”
Our bodies pitched to the left as the Coyote made a sharp turn, and then the vehicle abruptly stopped, sending us sliding forward and pushing Cruze off her jump seat. She landed on the floor with an almighty yelp.
I crawled forward and tapped Mel’s leg. She didn’t respond, so I tapped her again and she dropped down from the hatch to stare at me wide-eyed, her face a ghastly shade of grey.
“What is it?” I asked. “Why are we stopping?”
“Holy shit,” shouted Sid from the turret, cocking one of the guns.
I scrambled to the rear of the carrier and grabbed my carbine. I was just about to open the rear door when Mel made her way to the rear and threw her arms around me. She pulled me close and squeezed me, starting to sob.
“I am so sorry, Dave,” Mel sniffled. “Just stay in the carrier … okay?”
I placed both hands on Mel’s chest and gave her a shove. “What the hell are you talking about? Why are you freaking apologizing? You didn’t do anything!”
She opened her mouth to say something, but Sid beat her to it. He dropped down out of the turret.
“The hide. Sunray found the hide!”
I stared at Sid in disbelief as a tidal wave of nausea hit me with the force of sledgehammer.
“Jo …”
I flung open the rear door and jumped out of the carrier. Dozens of tire tracks meandered off in all directions. I raced around to the front of the APC, carbine in hand.
“Get back inside!”
Mel shouted.
“The area isn’t secure!”
Ignoring her, I sprinted ahead of the Coyote, my feet plowing through the snow. Thick black smoke billowed up from inside the tree line – the air smelled of cordite and burning rubber. Empty shell casings lay scattered in the snow alongside dozens of footprints, leading over a small ridge and into the wooded area where we’d camouflaged both our carriers. I stopped dead in my tracks as I saw what was left of Arks One and Two.
Ark Two was nothing more than a charred husk of blackened, smoldering metal. There was a basketball-sized hole just underneath the turret, from which oily smoke was wafting out, high into the air. It had been hit with an anti-tank weapon and brewed up. Ark One was nowhere to be seen. I followed its tire tracks deep into the woods until I spotted the carrier lying on its side in the bottom of a gulley. The hatches were wide open, and the bodies of three enemy soldiers lay face down in the snow – they’d been mown down from behind. I placed my weapon firmly in my shoulder as the Coyote caught up with me. Sid hopped out of the turret, carbine in hand and raced up to me.
He pointed to an obvious firing position, about 50m to my right: a thick stand of deadwood overlooking the gulley where the carrier had flipped over.
“Kenny wasn’t stupid,” he said. “Sunray must have sent in his armored recce, but Kenny got his carrier the hell out of there once the shooting started – I think he rolled it in that gulley as a diversion.”
“I’ll go down and check the carrier,” I said, trying like crazy not to call out Jo’s name in case the enemy was still within earshot.
Sid shook his head. “No, you won’t – just sit tight. I’ll check it out.”
I was about to protest, but Sid didn’t give me enough time. He sprinted down the forward slope into the gulley, and then slowly circled the carrier. He poked his head in the open rear hatch and reappeared seconds later, shaking his head. I walked down to the first dead soldier and dropped to one knee, eyeing the deadwood stand. Sid was right – the bullet holes in his back lined up perfectly with a firing position hidden inside the broken, rotting timber. I scanned the area for signs of movement as Sid made his way back to me.
“No sign of anyone,” he said. “There are no footprints in the snow around the carrier.”
“Maybe he’s still hiding,” I said, trying to sound optimistic. “Maybe Kenny and Jo and Dawn-Marie are waiting for us. They could be sticking to the shadows, waiting for us to get back.”
The woods were dead silent, save for the sound of the fire burning in Ark Two. If that patrol was still in the area, they’d have engaged us by now. I didn’t want to think about the possibility that my little sister might be dead. Surely someone had to have survived – Kenny, or Dawn-Marie, had killed three soldiers, using Ark One as a diversion. They had to be alive – they just
had
to be.
It was at this point I heard a faint moaning, about 50 m away. I raised my weapon and followed the sound with Sid alongside me. We slowly made our way through twisted poplar and thick diamond willow as we carefully climbed a slight incline. There were footprints in the snow, big ones and little ones, but only two sets. Where was the third set of footprints? Kenny had gotten Jo out of the carrier. They both had to be somewhere nearby, but where was Dawn-Marie?
Sid placed a hand on my chest and dropped to one knee. He picked up a handful of snow and held it out for me to see and flashed his light on it.
”Blood,” he whispered.
There were more drops of blood in the snow. They led to a deadwood thicket, where I saw him hidden under a pile of broken and dried-out branches. Kenny was still clutching his carbine, but he’d been shot to pieces. I ducked under the broken branches and loosened his parka to help him breathe.
“I’m so sorry, Dave,” he gurgled. “I tried to protect them … I tried to save Jo.”
“Where are they? Where’s my sister?”
I said, as my throat tightened.
He raised a weak hand and touched my cheek. It dropped to his side like a stone. “Dawn-Marie was getting rations out of Ark Two. We were packing up your carrier, because mine was running on fumes. They hit us without any warning. In the distance we could hear your mortars and that’s when they opened up.”
“Where’s Jo, Kenny? Where is she?”
He coughed up a mouthful of blood. “They took her, Dave. They took Dawn Marie and they’ve got Jo. I tried to stop them. I tried…”
Kenny’s voice trailed off and his head fell forward. Sid placed two fingers on his neck and shook his head.
Anger bubbled up in my chest. I scrambled out of the deadwood. Ahead were footprints leading out of the tree line – I sprinted forward, not caring if I was exposing myself to Sunray. They’d taken Jo. The bastards had found our hide. They shot Kenny and left him to die and now they had my sister and Dawn Marie.
I just ran – that was all I had left. I ran straight through the tree line, following the footprints of a small group of soldiers. I followed them to a maze of tire tracks that ran in circles around me, eventually trailing off into single file out across a farmer’s field, and back to the highway. Behind me the sound of our newly acquired APC rang out, along with Sid’s booming voice.
“Dave!” he bellowed. “Stay where you are, because we need to get the hell out of here now! I’m coming to get you!”
I slowed to a jog and then dropped to my knees, utterly defeated. They had my kid sister. The bastards had Jo.
I crawled back in the carrier and took a seat in the corner next to the engine panel. Sid climbed in after me and closed the combat lock on the rear door. He glanced at Cruze and said, “Kenny’s dead. They’ve got the chick and they fucking took Jo. That APC we thought we heard … the one that was missing from the coulee. It must have happened when we started our assault.”
“Oh, my God.”
We thought we’d taken every precaution. We were well camouflaged inside our hide and Sunray had to know we were going to take out his people in the coulee. He fucking waited until the sound of our mortars exploding to launch his assault knowing that in the heat of battle, we wouldn’t have heard his guns. And even if we had, there was no way we could have gotten back to the hide in time to stop him.
Mel dropped back down in the crew commander’s hatch as a haze of static belched out of the radio. She was just about to fiddle with the squelch when a trio of loud beeps blared through the speaker followed by a man’s voice.
“Three-Two Charlie this is Sunray, over.
She stared at the radio, unsure whether to respond or not.
“Three-Two Charlie, this is Sunray, over.”
“Son of a bitch!”
Sid snarled as he climbed over the jump seat and snatched the handset.
“This isn’t Three-Two Charlie, you prick!” he spat.
The radio hissed again and then Sunray’s voice filled the interior of the carrier.
“Three-Two Charlie – is the call sign of the Coyote you stole from me. Consider it a gift – or better yet, a fair trade. I admit that tracking you has been a challenge since the day you crossed over into Eden. Clearly you reservists received exceptional training with your unit. I salute your effective use of strategy in finding what the locals refer to as the abattoir. I suspect you think me a monster, but I care little for how others see me. The world must be rebuilt, though there is no possible way to recover all that we have lost. Life in an unthinkable time must be met with unthinkable measures, hence the abattoir. It is just one of numerous methods I have implemented by which order is established as we begin to start over.”
I grabbed the handset from Sid and motioned for him to calm down. He ground his teeth and climbed back into the turret as I squeezed the PTT button.
“This is David Simmons,” I said, forcing back my rage. “We’re all that’s left of the King’s Own.”
“I know who you are,”
he answered.
“The child told us your name. The King’s Own was a fine unit before the end came, wasn’t it? Nevertheless, you are trespassers in Eden. Our intelligence informs us that a resistance movement has taken shape, and that it has elements throughout the disputed territory. I don’t need to remind you of the seriousness of your move into Eden and your unprovoked attack on the few survivors left in Dinsmore – it’s why two of your people are now dead. Three, if you count the defector once we’re done with her. Rest assured, however, that your sister is safe, and will remain so as long as you listen carefully to what I am about to tell you and do precisely as instructed.”
I could feel the bile rising in my throat. I squeezed the handset so hard that my knuckles turned white. “You think you’ve won a victory because you killed two of our people and blasted one of our carriers. Well, from where I’m sitting, your body count is worse than mine. We killed everyone in the coulee.”
“A necessary sacrifice, but that is the nature of battle, isn’t it?”
he replied.
“Still, I do applaud your efforts. Now, tell me what the infected knew about the resistance.”
I hadn’t had time to debrief everyone about what we found. Cruze mouthed the word
resistance
and threw me a worried look. I raised a hand and motioned for everyone to remain silent.
“They had nothing to say because they were dead when we got there,” I said, feigning innocence.
The radio spat out a haze of static followed by Sunray’s voice.
“Don’t play games with me, boy,”
he said angrily.
“You know there is a base somewhere not far from here. I aim to find out where it is. Remember that I have your sister. Perhaps you would like to talk with her.”
I ground my teeth together, and banged the handset against my head.
“What’s he talking about?” asked Mel. “What’s this stuff about a resistance?”
“Other survivors,” I said. “A few hundred clicks away. He doesn’t know where they are, and that’s why he took Jo. He wants me to lead him to them.”
“Well you’re not going to do that, are you?” asked Cruze. Her breathing was labored. She had elevated her leg by placing it on an ammunition box.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do!”
I said in frustration. “He’s got Jo. He’ll kill her if we don’t play his game.”
The static on the radio disappeared and a wispy, terrified voice filled the airwaves. It was Jo.
“David … are you there?”
An ache radiated out from the middle of my chest as my eyes began to fill with tears. “H-Hi Jo,” I answered.
“I don’t know where I am,”
she said.
“I’m not supposed to talk about that. Is Kenny … is he … dead?”
I squeezed the handset. “Yeah, Jo. He’s gone.”
What she said next broke my heart.
“I’m sorry they caught me, David. I just couldn’t find a good hiding place. I wanted so much to make you see that I was a good soldier too. Please don’t be mad at me, okay?”
I bit into my lip, trying desperately to keep myself from falling to pieces. “I’m so not mad at you, Jo. I’m never going to be mad at you. Ever. We all love you and we’re going to get you back. Somehow we’ll get you back to us again.”
The radio went silent for a few moments inside our carrier. We’d failed her.
I’d
failed her, and now she’d been taken captive by a madman.
“Tears the heart apart, doesn’t it?”
said Sunray.
“I will allow her to live, so long as you find the location of the resistance. Do try and understand that I take no pleasure in using a child as a pawn, but I must neutralize them before they have a chance to mobilize more support.
“You have enough fuel inside that vehicle’s tanks to see you through a day or so. I suspect you can scrounge up the remainder from what’s left back in the coulee, but I’m going to give you a leg up. Prepare to copy the following information.”
I pulled my field message pad out of my pocket and flipped it open. Mel tossed me a pencil, which I caught with my free hand.
“Ready,” I said grimly.
“Grid nine seven four three eight six. There you will find a fully fuelled G-Wagon, along with a trailer and a dozen or so empty Jerry cans. I recommend that you fill them with what’s left inside the vehicles in the coulee. You’ll need every drop.”
I squeezed the handset. “And then what?”
“You’ll find the location of the resistance and report back to me on the radio. Once I have confirmation from my recce elements that the information you have provided is accurate, I’ll radio with a location for you to reunite with your sister. You have seventy-two hours – I suggest you begin your search immediately. Sunray out.”
The handset slipped out of my hand and bounced onto the floor as I stared at the grid reference on my pad. Mel had already opened her map and was looking for the G-wagon’s location. She held the map against an engine panel and pointed to a spot off the main highway, no more than 10 km to the east.
“Here,” she said, pointing at the map. “We’ll have to double back to the coulee and drain the tanks. Maybe we’ll find some more Intel on Sunray once daylight comes. At the very least, we know he won’t be attacking us this time. What do you think, Dave?”
I threw my field message pad across the back of the carrier.
“What do I think? He’s got my freaking sister, and he’s holding her hostage. He’s using her as a bargaining chip!”
Sid dropped down from the turret and slipped a hand onto my shoulder. “She ain’t a bargaining chip, buddy. And he’ll kill her along with the rest of us if you do what he asks you to do. To hell with finding this resistance – let’s find this prick and end him.”
I glanced at Cruze’s leg for a moment. We’d have to cauterize that bullet wound soon or she’d lose it. “Doug!” I shouted. “Get back here.”
Mel Dixon made way for Doug as he crawled over the driver’s seat and through the crew commander’s hatch. “What do you need?” he said.
I pointed to Cruze’s leg. “You once told me you and your uncle saved your cousin’s leg after a hunting accident. You helped him cauterize the wound to stop the bleeding. Cruze has a bullet wound that went straight through – is there anything you can do?”
Doug crawled into the back of the carrier, lifted the blood-soaked bandage and gave me a grim look as he shook his head.
“I could have, about half an hour ago, but her leg is saturated now. Cruze needs to get to a doc ASAP.”
I was out of options. Sunray had my sister and Cruze was slowly bleeding to death. I searched the team’s faces for a sign of hope and each one of them stared straight back at me. Each was looking to me to come up with a plan.
I couldn’t refuse to make contact with the resistance. I had a vague idea of where they were located, and part of me wanted to simply grab the radio and spill the beans, but then what? Sid was right – Sunray was going to kill Jo whether we cooperated with him or not. We represented a glitch in his plans. We’d created losses. We’d destroyed the abattoir and killed his personnel – there was no way in the world he’d let us live after that.
Our team of survivors had dealt Sunray a blow, albeit a tiny one, but maybe it was enough to give other survivors living under his rule a measure of hope. If we could fight him, maybe they could as well. That left me with only one option: Cruze would come with me to link up with the people at Carlsbad Farms. I’d get her the medical attention she needed and then my priority would be the rescue of my sister.
I exhaled heavily and said, “Some of our supplies and weapons are in the overturned carrier. There are probably some supplies that didn’t get destroyed down in the coulee and somewhere out there are others like us – people who aim to take down Sunray. We’ve got seventy two hours to save Jo, so team … put your thinking caps on.”