Alan stepped forward, all trace of laughter gone from him, replaced by anger. “You need to stop right now. I’m not going to have you scaring my wife.”
“She should be scared,” Janet insisted. “Something bad is going to happen here. You need to leave, for the sake of wife and your child.”
“Are you threatening them?” Alan demanded, his eyes flashing with anger.
“Of course not. I’m trying to help you.” She made a frustrated noise in the back of her throat. Why wouldn’t they listen to her? “The base…it’s not safe there. We need to get away from here before things go bad.”
“You want to leave, fucking go,” Alan said with a wave of his hand, “But I won’t have you drag my family into your delusions.”
She knew then that Alan was a lost cause. She looked to Jenny, hoping maybe the young woman would say something but her eyes were downcast.
“Janet, are you sure about this?” Jose asked and she nodded. He pursed his lips tightly, his thick gray moustache bobbing on his upper lip as he considered it. “Ana, let’s go get our things.”
“You can’t possibly be buying this bullshit,” Alan said with a snort of disgust. Jose and Ana didn’t spare him a glance as they made their way to their car. “All of you are idiots. Following some dumb chick and her crazy brother.”
“I’m not crazy.”
Janet hadn’t noticed Malcolm come up behind her, the boys on his heels with their backpacks. “And my sister isn’t stupid. Now, because there are children here, you get a free pass but I ever hear you insult her again, I’ll beat the shit out of you. Understand?”
“Whatever,” Alan scoffed. “You can try and pull that gang banger bullshit on me but I’m telling you, it’s not going to work. I’m not scared of you.”
Janet bristled at the implication, ready to go to town on the racist asshole but Malcolm shook his head. “We don’t have time for this.” He turned to Kim. “Are you in or out?”
Kim appeared torn, glancing between the two sides; Alan on one, Malcolm on the other.
“You can’t possibly be considering listening to them,” Alan said to Kim. “They are insane. They’ll get you and your kid hurt or killed.”
“Staying here will get them killed. The government has lost control. Soon enough what’s left of the military is gonna figure that out too. They are going to turn on everyone here. We have to get out of here before that happens.”
“Go then and take your conspiracy bullshit with you,” Alan said. “You can go find a bunker somewhere to jerk off to Lee Harvey Oswald and Jimmy Hoffa. At least you don’t have to worry about the CIA tapping your phones there.”
Malcolm laughed. “I’ve never had to worry about that.”
Malcolm reached into his pocket and pulled out his badge, flashing it at Alan, along with the middle finger.
“Special Agent Evans, CIA. Asshole.”
“Bullshit. You probably got that off the internet.”
“No, it’s true,” Janet said but her attention wasn’t on Alan, it was on Kim. “Everything he’s saying is true. Right now, he’s the one we need to listen to. It’s the only way to stay safe.”
Kim nodded, tightening her grip on Trey’s shoulder. “We’ll get our things.”
Alan snorted in disgust, throwing up his hands. “You’re all idiots,” he called out before stomping back to his car, Jenny following silently behind him. Travis remained for a moment, looking at the others, the silent countenance he had maintained during the entire conversation staying in place. He was looking at Malcolm, studying him, but Malcolm paid him no attention.
“We can head down the road up there, there’s bound to be some abandoned cars further out, people moving up to the highway on foot. We can take one of them and head to a nature preserve a few miles away. It’s high ground, low population. We can spend the night there, plan out our next move.”
Up ahead headlights cut through the growing darkness and several military trucks pulled up along the shoulder. They stopped about a hundred yards ahead of the overpass and soldiers climbed out. Murmurs went up from the people gathered, some calling out to the soldiers, others talking amongst themselves, wondering what was happening.
“Come on,” Malcolm said, his voice tight. “We have to get moving
now
!”
He hefted the duffel bag onto his shoulder and Janet picked up Ruthie, holding her tight in her arms as she led the boys up the embankment.
“Fucking idiot. They’re here to bring us to the base.”
She heard Alan’s voice behind her but she ignored it, focusing on balancing Ruthie in her arms while climbing the steep incline.
When she reached the guard rail at the top of the overpass she put Ruthie down on the other side before helping the boys over. She ushered them to stand next to one of the cars abandoned on the road before going back to the guardrail. Ana and Jose were carefully picking their way up, the climb a bit more treacherous for their old joints. Jose kept his hands up behind Ana, ready to catch her if she slipped. Kim and Trey followed behind them, carrying their own belongings along with the Garcias.
Malcolm still stood at the bottom of the embankment, his gaze moving from the group’s ascent to the soldiers down the road. The sound of angry voices split the air and she saw Malcolm drop the bags as he reached behind his back, a gun appearing in his hand a second later. Her attention was pulled away when Ana neared the guardrail and held out a hand for help. Janet leaned over and clasped her hand to help her.
A sudden explosion ripped through the air and Janet faltered, losing her grip on Ana. The woman’s arms pinwheeled as she fell backwards into Jose but Kim and Trey were there to keep them from falling down the rest of the embankment.
“What the hell was that?”
The words had barely left Janet’s mouth when it seemed that the entire world erupted in chaos. The sharp staccato of automatic gunfire filled the air followed quickly by terrified screams of the people on the highway. Janet scrambled over to her children who were cowering beside the car, eyes wide and fearful as they clung to one another.
“Mom, what’s happening?” Matthew asked, his bottom lip trembling. She knelt down and put her arms around them.
“It’s okay, babies. There’s just a problem down on the highway. That’s why we climbed up here. When Uncle Malcolm gets up here, we’re going to take a walk down that road, away from the problem. Now cover your ears so it isn’t so loud, okay?”
They did as she told them, hands clamped over their ears and she gave them a reassuring smile. She stood up and saw that the others had made it up onto the road and had gone to the edge of the overpass to look down on the highway. An explosion ripped through the air and a ball of fire rolled upwards a mile down the road, followed by two more loud booms as the night sky began to glow orange in the distance.
“What’s happening?” she yelled to the others as the gunfire continued down below. Ana came rushing over, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“The soldiers are killing all of them,” Ana told her before kneeling down beside the children and pulling them into her arms for comfort.
Panic rose up as Malcolm’s earlier words echoed through Janet’s mind. He was right. It was happening. But where the hell was he?
“Watch them please,” Janet said to Ana before dashing over to the guardrail.
She expected to see him already climbing up the embankment but the grassy knoll was empty. People were running between the maze of cars, fleeing the carnage that was raging down the highway towards them. She struggled to spot his familiar form among those lit up by the headlights.
“Alan!”
The high pitched scream got her attention and she spotted Jenny laying on the pavement in front of her car. The woman was trying to get up but kept getting knocked back by the people running past her. If she didn’t get to her feet soon, she was going to get trampled.
Suddenly Travis appeared from around the other side of the car, circling the front end and hip checking a man that came too close to Jenny. He hefted her up in his arms and ran with her across the pavement towards the embankment.
As he began his ascent, Janet saw a soldier emerge from underneath the overpass and watched as he saw Travis and Jenny, and aimed his rifle at them. Before she could yell at them to look out, the soldier’s head was flung back and blood sprayed into the air. She followed the trajectory and found Malcolm standing with his gun still raised, his other arm supporting Alan who was slumped against him. He only waited long enough to make sure there was no one else taking aim before he hustled Alan up the embankment behind Travis and Jenny.
Janet helped them over the guardrail, seeing that at some point Alan taken a hit to the head, blood covering his face and neck from the gash in his forehead.
“Everyone make it up okay?” Malcolm gasped, his shoulders and chest heaving from the exertion and Janet nodded. “Good. We gotta keep moving down the road. They’ll sweep up here soon enough.”
There was no one questioning him this time, not with the sound of gunshots and the screams of the dying echoing below their feet. They moved as quickly as possible past the cars that had been abandoned along the side of the road that exited onto the highway. If only those poor souls had remained with their cars instead of searching for a place closer to the base on foot.
The further out they got, the fainter the screams and gunfire became, but despite the distance, the group remained silent as they slowed from a run to a walk. Even if Malcolm had not told them to be quiet, Janet didn’t think anyone wanted to speak.
They had been forsaken by those that were supposed to protect them. They had been lambs led to the slaughter and if Malcolm had not found them when he did, they would have been gunned down like animals.
No
. She wouldn’t think about it. She
couldn’t
think about it. No what ifs. Never what ifs. They were okay. They had made it out. Malcolm would get them some place safe and that was that.
“We can stop here for a minute.” Malcolm broke the silence as he came to a stop beside an older model minivan. “We’re far enough out.”
The group came to a halt but a few still glanced over their shoulders in fear, not quite trusting that the soldiers would not suddenly appear. Malcolm dropped his duffel to the ground and began to root through it, pulling out a couple flashlights and a first aid kit.
He walked over to where Alan was leaning heavily against the side of a truck as Jenny pressed a wadded up shirt against his head wound. Travis stood on the other side, hand on his brother’s shoulder for support.
“Better get his head wrapped up,” Malcolm said as he passed the flashlight and first aid kit to Travis. Malcolm turned back to the others, surveying them one by one.
“There’s a preserve only a few miles from here. We’ll camp there tonight. I’m going to get a couple of these vehicles running. I want the rest of you to look at the other vehicles, see if there’s anything we can use. Food and water are top priority.”
“I’m not so sure how I feel about stealing someone’s car,” Jose said, rubbing a hand over the back his neck. “What if they come back for it? I’d hate to leave them stranded.”
“They’re not coming back,” Malcolm said. “The people who left these cars were down on the highway. There won’t be many survivors.”
“We made it out,” Jose said but Malcolm just shook his head.
“We got lucky, that’s all.” Malcolm pulled a slim jim out of his duffel and turned to the twins. “You boys want to watch your uncle hotwire this van?”
“Malcolm, I don’t think that’s appropriate,” Janet said. Then the events of tonight flashed through her mind and she realized this would probably be the most appropriate thing they would witness tonight. “Nevermind, go ahead.”
She shifted Ruthie to her other hip, the girl whimpering sleepily as she nestled back into her arms and drifted off again. Though her arms were aching with the weight of her daughter, she did not want to let her go, not while the thought of how easily she could have lost her was still fresh in her mind.
She noticed the others were of the same mind. Kim kept her arm around her son’s shoulders and he had his arm around her waist as they went to look inside a beat up Corolla. Jose and Ana clung to each other whispering in Spanish while exchanging soft kisses. Jenny sat next to Alan on the road, gently cleaning the blood from his face while Travis bandaged his head.
Everyone jumped when the van sputtered to life and the twins cheered. Janet managed a smile at the sound. At least there was something they could enjoy about this night, even if it was their uncle committing grand theft auto. They followed him to the pickup truck that was stopped behind the van and Malcolm set to work wiring that one up under their eager and admiring gaze.
It didn’t take long for Malcolm to get the truck running and the others quickly gathered around the vehicles, arms carrying what little they could find from the cars that weren’t locked. Malcolm gave out the orders to pack everything up, giving Trey an appreciative pat on the shoulder for the jerry can he had found in the back of another truck.
“Good find, son. That’ll come in handy,” Malcolm said and Trey seemed to grow a few inches taller with the praise.
Janet looked down when she felt a hand take hold of her own and found Kim standing beside her.