Forsaken World (Book 1): Innocence Lost (19 page)

This close to Lance, Jennifer could smell the sweat pouring off him. Glancing over, she saw the A/C at max. “Lance, you need a break. You’re almost swimming in sweat.”

“No shit,” he popped off. “This driving shit his hard, and I have to do it when the whole enchilada goes crazy. I’m sorry this is stressing me, but I’m doing the best I can!”

Scurrying back from the wrath, Jennifer sat back down on the center console between the back seats. “I know, Lance, and we don’t want you to drop because you’re doing such a good job.”

Letting out a long sigh, he slumped his shoulders slightly. “Sorry, Jen,” he mumbled.

“Left turn ahead,” the GPS announced.

Getting comfortable, Jennifer smiled. “I wish we had Data instead of GPS.”

“Shit, I want La Forge,” Ian laughed. “I could call for warp speed and be at the cabin.”

“Nah,” Lance said. “We’re in transporter range.”

Feeling his own sweat drying from the excitement, Ian pulled out the map. “I was expecting trouble further ahead. We just came out of the sticks.”

“Why were those people leaving the woods if you think it’s safer there?” Jennifer asked.

“I tried to ask one, but they didn’t tell me,” Ian answered, studying the map.

Jennifer let out a groan. “Yeah, that was a stupid question,” she said, reaching over and patting the girls, who were just holding each other, waiting for the next off-world experience.

“Programmed break area one point six miles ahead,” the GPS announced, making Jennifer jump.

“Aren’t we close to that group?” she asked, wanting to look back, but the back of the Hummer was piled to the roof with stuff, and there was a trailer behind them.

“They’re twenty miles back,” Ian said, looking hard at the map then looking up. “Looks like Uncle Doug picked another area with fields on both sides.”

Lance took his foot off the accelerator. “If we can, we’re stopping,” he said as they eased to the top of a small, gently sloping hill. Coming to a stop, they looked over a small valley. Only a few dots of light were sprinkled over the valley.

“There are more houses in this valley than those lights,” Ian said, looking from the map to the valley.

Putting the Hummer in park, Lance felt the stress leave his shoulders for just a little while. “They don’t want to attract attention.”

Stuffing the map beside his seat, Ian pulled up his AR as Lance pulled his down from the dashboard. Cracking his window, Ian sniffed and didn’t smell stinkers, so he opened the door and got out. He could see a mile behind them. Feeling it was safe, he tapped the back passenger window.

Jennifer opened the door, and Ian helped the girls out. When Jennifer climbed out, Ian saw Lance in the back seat, digging around. “What are you doing?”

“Getting duct tape out of my pack,” Lance grunted, reaching with his arm into the pile of stuff. “Ah ha,” he grinned and extracted his arm, holding a roll of duct tape.

“I’m scared to ask, but what are you going to do with it?”

“Cover those damn taillights,” Lance said, climbing out.

Feeling very stupid, Ian walked to the back of the trailer. “I would’ve just broken them.”

Pulling a piece off, Lance said, “I would on the trailer, but I will not break anything on the Hummer on purpose.”

Moving over as Lance placed a piece of tape of one of the taillights, Ian took the roll. “I’ll do it. You rest, get something to drink and eat.”

“Not hungry, but I could use something to drink.” Lance grinned and looked at the back of the trailer. “They didn’t have very big guns,” he said, touching an indentation on it.

“One of them did,” Ian said, pointing at a bullet hole at the bottom of the door on the back of the trailer.

Raising his arms and stretching out his cramped body, Lance groaned with the exertion. “Not to sound like a pussy, but I hope that’s it for bitches shooting at us.”

“I’ll sound like a pussy then,” Ian said, ripping another piece of tape off and putting it on the taillight. “I don’t want anyone to shoot at us.”

Lance turned to see Dino sniffing around the road. “Dino, stay close, or I’ll leave your ass.” Dino lifted his head, glancing at Lance, then went back to sniffing the area. Walking around the Hummer, Lance opened the back passenger door and dug out two water bottles.

Almost ripping the top off one, Lance sucked it down without pause. “You’ve drunk like six liters of water and haven’t even peed. You’re sweating out your water,” Jennifer said, herding the girls close to the Hummer.

“It’s hot as hell in there,” Lance said, tossing the empty bottle and opening the other one.

She shook her head. “No, it’s freezing, but you’re making your window fog up you’re putting off so much heat,” she said, reaching out and touching his chest. “And you’re soaking wet. I bet you could actually wring your clothes out.”

Draining half the bottle, Lance nodded. “Not going to argue that,” he said, unbuckling his helmet to take it off. “I feel like I went swimming with my clothes on.” Handing his helmet to Jennifer, Lance poured the rest of the water over his head. “Oh man, that felt good.”

“Will you eat a sandwich?” Jennifer pleaded.

Taking his helmet back, he buckled it on and said, “I’m not really hungry, Jen. Since we’re stopped, let’s change out batteries for the night vision.”

Putting her hands on her hips and letting her AR hang off her side, Jennifer snapped. “Enough!” Lance jumped back as she stormed over to the passenger door and yanked it open. “Sit!” she commanded, pointing at the seat.

Not liking the attitude, Lance moved over and climbed in the seat, letting his legs hang out. “Okay, I’m sitting.”

“Stay,” Jennifer snapped and dove in her floorboard. She pulled out a bottle of Gatorade and a sandwich. Opening the bottle, she handed it over. “Drink,” she ordered and unwrapped the sandwich, handing it over. “Eat this, and don’t say a word, or you and I fight here and now. I have a tampon in my pack, and I know how to use it, and you’re right; you won’t like it.”

Feeling goose bumps spring up on his arms, Lance shoved the sandwich in his mouth and chewed. “I fucking knew it was bad,” he mumbled, taking a drink. “That’s why no one talks about the damn things.”

Lifting her goggles up, she growled, “Lance, don’t make me pull it out. I like you and really care for you. It would hurt me to use it on you, but if you don’t eat, drink, and relax for a second, as God is my witness, I’ll ream your ass with that tampon.”

He held up his full hands. “Okay, look, I’m eating and drinking,” he muffed with a full mouth. As Jennifer walked away, Lance shook his head. “I wonder if you defend yourself like a gun or knife attack from a tampon?”

Jennifer came around the back of the trailer as Ian finished taping the last light. “That’s smart,” she said as he moved to the back of the Hummer.

“Thank Captain Picard,” Ian huffed, ripping a piece of tape off. “We should’ve thought of this before we left.”

“Ian, we are doing this on the fly, and are doing the best we can.”

Finished with one light, he stepped over the trailer’s tongue and went to work on the other. “Jennifer, if we make a mistake, it could cost some of our lives.”

“I know, but we never make the same mistake twice.”

Ripping tape off, Ian nodded. “Yeah, that is a valid point.”

“I wish you two would include me more so I could help,” she huffed, pulling her AR across her chest and lowering her goggles.

Looking up at her, Ian grinned. “Just how do you use a tampon?” he whispered.

“Piss me off and find out, number one,” she grinned.

Finished with the tape, Ian stood up. “Go press the brake, and let me see if we need more.” Jennifer took off and climbed in, pressing it. “Okay,” Ian said, and he and Jennifer had to add two more layers to all the lights before no light would come out.

When they finished, Lance was back in the driver’s seat, and the girls were buckled up in their chairs. They had their arms wrapped around each other and were sound asleep. Jennifer looked up to see Dino already in the other seat, sprawled out with his head between the front seats.

“How am I supposed to get in now?” Jennifer said, looking at Dino. Dino just looked at her, panting. “Fine,” she said, closing the door, and went to the other side and climbed over Dino to sit on the divider with him.

Lance glanced over his shoulder and waited until Jennifer got situated. “Ready?”

Jennifer grinned. “Let’s light fires and kick the tires.”

Chapter 14

Pulling down into the valley, they saw several wrecked vehicles in the ditches. They passed the remains of a smoldering house, and everyone started feeling uneasy. “We’re in the sticks; how can this much destruction be here?” Jennifer asked, looking at the burnt down houses.

“Sticks, we are at the ass end of space,” Ian mumbled, seeing another car in the ditch. “Where are the bodies of the stinkers? Surely, they killed some.”

Seeing a truck crashed into a tree ahead, Lance slowed for a second and looked over at it then hit the accelerator hard, and everyone jerked as the Hummer jumped. “Unless stinkers know how to use guns all of a sudden, people shot that truck, making it crash.”

Grabbing his AR and pulling it up to his lap, Ian shouted, “I’m sick of this spazzed out, bullshit, tiny dick new world!”

“Personally, I think this new world has a big dick because it’s tried to fuck us repeatedly,” Lance said, settling the needle at fifty.

“That’s why it’s trying to fuck us; it has a little dick,” Ian shouted, grabbing the map, leaving the AR in his lap.

“You see any faster way around or a more back-road route?” Lance asked, even taking his eyes off the road directly in front of him to glance at the road behind them.

Throwing the map in disgust, Ian grunted, “Fuck no, Lake Cumberland has us blocked to the north and Dale Hollow Lake to the south. We either go between them like we are or go around.”

Slowing down, Lance looked around and didn’t see anything close. “Find us the fastest road through that puts us close to our route.”

“You serious?”

Lance looked over at Ian. “Dude, someone is hunting around here way off the beaten path area like we are going through. You already said we were going to have to cross a bunch of big roads; let’s just get it over with and use one to get through.”

“Uncle Doug said try to stay with the route,” Ian said, shaking his head.

“Did he see fucking zombies? Did he see butt monkeys killing people out in the middle of nowhere at the ass end of space?”

Ian looked down at the map. “Point taken.” He studied their route and what was close. “We can take ninety up ahead between the lakes and get off just after the town of Susie.”

“Any towns on the way?” Lance asked, adjusting his grip on the steering wheel.

“Just Susie, and it looks like it doesn’t even have a stoplight.”

Slowly pressing down the accelerator, Lance said, “Tell me how to get on ninety.”

“Instead of crossing the black top ahead, hang a left. That’s ninety,” Ian said.

Slowing enough for the turn, Lance grinned. “Let’s boogie.”

As the GPS started freaking out because they weren’t on the route, the Hummer picked up speed, rolling down the two-lane blacktop until the speedometer needle settled at fifty-five. “You know if they can add a lane every few miles for people to pass, they should be able to just make a four-lane highway,” Ian said, seeing the sign for “Slower traffic pull right.”

“I say just shoot the slow-driving candy asses,” Lance said, feeling better and able to see quite a ways down the road. “There still aren’t a lot of lights from the houses.”

“Stinkers are here,” Ian said, watching one trot toward the road. Lance weaved over and missed it. “Thank you.”

“I’m not hitting one that big going this fast.”

“Did you see his chest?” Ian asked, looking around.

“Yeah, had blood on it like he got bit,” Lance said, having trouble making the speedometer stay at fifty-five. His foot was used to forty-five.

Ian shook his head. “I don’t think it was a bite. I think it was a gunshot.”

“Okay,” Lance said, pushing the pedal until he hit sixty.

Seeing a wreck ahead, Lance moved over but didn’t slow down. “I could be wrong, but I didn’t see, like, a gaping hole,” Ian said as they blew past the wreck.

Speeding down the road, Lance had to weave around another wreck. “What are those lights out there on my left?”

He glanced at Ian to see his friend staring at the lights just off the road. “Lance, go faster.”

“I knew this was a bad idea,” Jennifer said, looking out the back side window. Seeing a ring of motorcycles with their lights pointed in the middle, she saw a man strapped to a cross, screaming. A man was approaching holding a torch. All through the circle of motorcycles, she saw images that burned in her mind.

“Bullshit, that was the road we would’ve been on if we hadn’t taken the big road,” Ian snapped. “God damn it, Lance, make this tub of shit move!” The GPS told them to turn down the road Ian wanted away from really bad. “Fuck that, whore. Get us out of here!”

Pressing the pedal to the floor, Lance shouted, “What the fuck is it?” and glanced over to see a cop car pulling away from a group of lights. The cop car was paralleling them on a small dirt road as Lance pulled away. “You’re worried about cops?”

“Mother fucker, those aren’t cops,” Ian said, shoving the map between the seats. “They were burning a man alive.” He tapped the GPS screen to mute the bitch.

“How do you know it was a man and not a stinker?”

“Just trust me,” Ian said, glancing at the speedometer. “We can’t go faster than eighty?”

“This is a Hummer, Ian, not a Ferrari. We are pulling a big ass heavy trailer and have the Hummer loaded down with shit. Be fucking happy with eighty unless you want to get out and push.”

Spinning around, Ian looked in his side mirror. “Not fast enough.”

“Alpha is ahead; are we almost where we need to turn?”

“No,” Ian shouted, reaching up and pressing the button to open the sun roof. “Past Susie, you’ll see a field on your right one mile past town. The road is on the right.”

Wind roared as the window opened, and Ian crawled up in his seat and stood up through the sun roof. “What the fuck is he doing?” Jennifer shouted over the noise, trying to put Allie and Carrie at ease.

“Shit if I know,” Lance yelled, not taking his eyes off the road for anything as he weaved around a car that was pulled across the road. Hitting the shoulder at eighty, he felt the trailer fishtail as he eased back on the road.

Ian dropped down and closed the sun roof. Seeing the road curve ahead, he looked at his AR and said, “Susie is going to be ahead. When I tell you, I want you to stop on the road. You and I will get out and shoot whoever is driving that cop car. Most of the motorcycles peeled off the road back there near Alpha. I don’t think they knew where we went, but a few motorcycles came from a house just off the road from that car you blew around in the middle of the road.” 

“That was a roadblock?” Lance asked, fighting a shiver.

“Yeah, there were a few cars in the ditch that were shot to shit.”

“What do you want me to do?” Jennifer asked, getting her AR ready.

“Watch in front of us to see if any vehicles come from that way,” Ian said as they blew past Susie, and he grabbed the map. “You can’t get out because it’s too hard for you to get back in.”

“Field,” Lance said and took his foot off the accelerator. “That the road you’re talking about ahead past those buildings?”

“Yeah, stop on the road, and let’s get them off our ass.”

Jennifer leaned over Dino and opened the sun roof back up. “Shut it; I can see better from here, and I’m not out of the Hummer.”

Getting closer, Lance hit the brakes a little too hard, making everyone jerk forward. “Sorry,” he said, easing up on the brake.

“The building on the other side of the road is five hundred yards away, and that’s the extreme range for us,” Ian said, throwing the map on the dash and grabbing his door handle. He looked in his side mirror and saw the lights were just coming out of Susie.

“How about just leaving?” Lance said, stopping and putting the Hummer in park.

“No, and no time to explain,” Ian said as he got out and left his door open. He quickly scanned around and sniffed the air.

“I smell a stinky but can’t see one,” Jennifer said, standing up in the sun roof.

“Deal with the threat that can drive and shoot first,” Ian said, raising his rifle. “Use as many magazines as you need to because we can’t let them follow us.”

Checking his magazines across his chest, Lance lifted his rifle and hit the UV laser, aiming it down the road at the approaching lights. In his goggles, the laser looked massive and powerful, but without night vision, it couldn’t be seen.

Then, Lance saw two more lasers appear, aiming down the road. “Jennifer, you’re supposed to be watching ahead and around us,” Ian shouted.

“I am, and besides some goats down the road, nothing is close.”

“What the hell is taking them so long?” Lance asked and saw a light shine out of the car off the side of the road and illuminate a house.

“That’s what I was talking about; they are making sure we didn’t pull off. They did that right after we passed that car in the road and are doing it now. I believe they have some in front of us and are talking to them. Since we haven’t passed the others, we must be hiding,” Ian said.

“You could’ve just said, ‘fuckers think we’re hiding,’” Lance mumbled as the car eased closer, and he could see lights behind it.

“I count four motorcycles behind the cop car,” Jennifer said.

“Wait till I shoot. I’m going to start when they are three hundred yards away,” Ian shouted.

Lance wanted to complain about that, knowing how fast he could cover three hundred yards in a vehicle. But as he watched the car coming down the road, he realized it wasn’t going faster than forty. As they passed the last building on the left-hand side of the road, Lance’s heart started beating faster, watching lights from both sides of the car sweep the fields.

“Now!” Ian yelled, and the cough of suppressed shots filled the air.

Lance saw sparks hit the car and the lights go out as the car swerved back and forth over the road, hitting one of the motorcycles that tried to pass. Pulling his trigger but not feeling it give, Lance dropped the empty magazine and rammed another one then hit the ping pong paddle release.

As the bolt slammed home, Lance moved his laser to a motorcycle charging toward them, pulling the trigger as fast as he could and making the driver crash. Lance dropped the empty magazine. “Don’t let them too close, or our goggles will turn off!”

Slamming in a new magazine, Lance looked up and didn’t see any moving vehicles but saw moving people. With the laser, Lance hit two, making them drop, and he chased another one behind the shot up cop car. He slammed in another magazine and dumped the entire thing in the cop car front to back and was rewarded with several screams.

“We need to go,” Ian shouted.

Lance bent down and tossed his empties into the Hummer and jumped in, throwing his AR on the dash. “Get it off the dash!” Jennifer screamed. Ian pulled it off and shook his hand as Lance shoved the shifter in drive, stomping the gas and pulling down the narrow blacktop road.

Ian held up his gloved hand, showing Lance the smoke pouring off. “Damn barrel is hot.”

“No shit,” Jennifer yelled. “It burned through my shirt when I dropped down.”

Ian turned around to see her holding her left shoulder. “You okay?”

“No, I have a burn on my shoulder, but can I shoot, hell yes.”

“How many magazines did you use, Lance?” Ian asked, turning back around.

“Four or five. You?”

“Six,” Ian said and looked around. “Jennifer, how many did you use?”

“Three,” she hissed, breathing through the pain.

Grabbing the magazines Lance threw inside, Ian pulled his small pack from the floorboard and dug out ammo. “Holy shit, that sign said Bethesda ahead,” Lance said, dropping his speed back to forty-five so the damn trailer would quit sliding across the road.

“Yeah, they made good games,” Ian chuckled, loading magazines. “Wait till you see what the next town is.”

“What?” Lance asked, grinning as he took a long curve.

“Number One,” Ian chuckled.

“No shit?”

“Yeah, wish we could get a picture,” Ian said, grabbing another magazine and loading it.

“Will you two get to the here and fucking now?! We aren’t talking about X-box or Star Trek!” Jennifer shouted. “We have fuckers after us!”

“You knew what Bethesda was?” Lance asked, impressed.

“They made the Fallout series! Will you get us out of here?!”

“Road ahead take a left,” Ian said.

Barely slowing since it was more a merge than turn, Lance pressed the pedal down when he was back on a two-lane blacktop. “Never believed she would know what Bethesda was,” Lance whispered.

Leaning over to Lance, Ian whispered, “Told ya she was awesome.” With tears in her eyes from the pain, Jennifer just gritted her teeth as she grinned. “When we come to a T, you want the road to the right.”

Lance nodded, slowing for a series of curves. “The road they were on is the one GPS wanted us to stay on, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Ian said, finishing his and Lance’s magazines. He reached over and shoved them in Lance’s chest rig. “You know using those lasers like that, it was a lot like Rainbow Six.”