Man Eaters (17 page)

“Shut up, Tate.”

“Maybe you could try listening to one of us once in a while instead of—”

“I said, Shut. The. Fuck. Up.”

The five strangers moved in closer now, and when the large bearded face lowered to her window, it immediately appeared surprised.

“It’s two women and a god darned kid,” the beard said.

“What? You sure? This is one ‘na them military vehicles.” He pronounced it vee-hicles.

The bearded face appeared in the window once more. “I’m gonna need you to come out slowly, ma’am, with your hands behind your head. Same thing with the boy.”

Dallas turned to Einstein. “It’s going to be all right. Trust me.”

“You got any infected with you? Anyone bitten? Scratched?”

She shook her head. “You?”

He cocked his head at her. “You’re either plum stupid or bat shit crazy, lady. No, we don’t have none of them with us.”

“Be cool,” she said through unmoving lips. “I think they were expecting military and are a little surprised. Just let me do the talking.” Turning to the window she said in a loud voice, “No one here is infected.”

Beard motioned with his rifle. “Come on out then.”

Dallas slowly opened the door with one hand while keeping the other in the air. When all four were out, the tall bearded one lowered his rifle and approached her. He stood about six feet six, wore OshKosh overalls and had teeth that looked more like yellow corn than teeth. She could both see and smell the mint chew tucked between his cheek and gum.

“Never expected four civilians, ma’am. I apologize if we scared you, but things being as they are, I’m sure you can understand. Nobody’s safe out here no more.”

Feeling slightly less nervous about these people, Dallas made the introductions.

“I’m Pete, and that’s Randy, Frank, Isabella, and Crosby.” He looked around. “Come on in before any of those things get a whiff of us.”

“A whiff?” Dallas shot a quick look to Einstein, who shook his head.

“Yeah. They smell you and come runnin’. We’ve managed to stay safe by living down here.”

Dallas and the others looked through double basement doors into a stairwell leading to a full basement that was lit with candles and Coleman lanterns, which cast eerie shadows on the walls.

The basement consisted of a spacious guest room with a red leather circular sofa and several animal print chairs. There was a small dining table with four chairs around it. Adjacent to the kitchen area was where they kept all their clothes, shoes, and jackets. The air smelled slightly of mildew and wax.

“Nice,” Einstein said, plopping down on the couch. There were crossword puzzles, Sudoku, and half completed word jumble books on the coffee table.

“We have our own food,” Dallas said to Isabella.

She deferred to Pete.

“Good to know, but we don’t mind sharing. Please, have a seat. Take a load off. We ain’t seen other living folks for a coupla days now.”

All four sat down on the red sofa. Pete and Isabella sat across from them while Crosby poured crackers in a bowl and sliced some cheese.

“Cheese?”

“It’s the last of the good stuff. Our generator gave out this morning. Go ahead, have some. Lord knows we can’t eat it all before tomarra.”

Einstein and Tate dove in, while Coco showed slightly more self-restraint. As they ate, Dallas caught Pete staring at her.

“You want to know how we came by the Hummer, huh?”

Pete and Isabella exchanged looks. “Actually, yeah. We’ve seen ‘em race past here and we’ve heard the tales, but—”

“What tales are those?”

“Word on the street has it the military is collectin’ people. Scoopin’ them up and takin’ them to makeshift facilities. Those taken never return.”

“The street?”

Isabella leaned forward, her silver crucifix dangling from her neck. With her bun and cat-eye glasses, she looked like a librarian from the 1950’s. “We are not without means to obtain information,” she said softly. “Our son, Jeff, is in the military, and he got word to us shortly after it all started. He doesn’t know what they’re looking for, but he says these roundups are happening all over the state.”

Pete shook his head sadly. “Last we heard, they’re only keepin’ the collection facilities open a little while longer because they gotta shut the state down. Their think tanks can’t figure out how to stop it, and the folks they collectin’ don’t seem to be helpin’ none.”

Dallas felt Einstein scoot a little closer to her.

“They can’t stop it,” Einstein said softly. “It’s too late for that.”

Pete and Isabella reached for each other’s hands. “That’s what our boy says. He says pretty soon, they’ll outnumber us and we all need to find a safe place to ride it out until someone else can figure out what to do.”

Dallas knew what was coming. “I see. You want the Hummer.”

They both nodded. “I’m afraid we do.” Pete held his hand out for the keys. “We’ve got a pickup you can have, but we all know it’s hard to get anywhere these days unless you’re on foot. A Hummer? Not so hard. Blends in with the other movin’ cars.” Pete kept his hand out and Dallas dropped the keys into his large palm.

Isabella leaned forward. “Our son tells us we need to find a way out of the country. He says this is a wild fire out of control and no one is safe.”

“You seem like reasonable people, Pete. Would it be too much to ask for you to leave our weapons and gear?”

Pete started to shake his head when Isabella laid her hand on his knee and said, “Of course not. Crosby, go with the boy and help them retrieve their things.”

Einstein rose and looked at Dallas.

“It’s okay. Get the gear you think is most important. I trust you.”

“And that’s the problem!” Tate said loudly. “She keeps listening to the wild imagination of a teenager! Our lives are always in danger because—”

“Because terrorists dropped this contagion on us, son,” Pete said. “You don’t need a wild imagination to know we’re screwed and I apologize for taking it out from under you, but I have to take care of my family. I’m sure you understand.”

Dallas nodded and watched as Crosby and Einstein went up the stairs.

“Pete, can we speak to you for a moment?” Tate and Coco rose, shooting Dallas a look she disregarded. “Privately?”

Pete glanced at Dallas, then answered, “Come on back to the bedroom.”

When the three of them were gone Isabella sighed loudly. “If it’s any consolation, we’ve only had to shoot five of those things. Our son says they’ll move toward cities, or anywhere where there’s living human meat.”

“Oh really? Has he seen this for himself?” Dallas thought about Einstein’s hunting comment.

“He said they seem to gather together and move as a unit. No one knows why. They just do. That’s why we’ve not had to deal with them very much. People cleared out and the things left as well, as if following them.”

Tate and Coco came out of the bedroom with somber faces.

“So, I take it Pete doesn’t have room for you.” Dallas said this without the venom she felt.

“That’s not what we talked about. Anyway, we’re gonna lay down here and try to get some shut eye,” Tate said, lying down on one of the sofas.

Isabella rose and addressed Dallas. “You should, too, hon. You’ll be safe down here tonight.” She opened a closet and pulled out several blankets of varying colors.

Taking one, Dallas held it to her. “Thank you.”

When Einstein came back downstairs with his hands full of weapons, Pete locked them in a trunk in the second bedroom. “I’ll leave the key under the mat, so after we leave you can get to them.”

Dallas thanked them for the food and watched the family disappear into the bedrooms. The resulting silence was deafening and Dallas let Tate stew in his own disloyal juices.

“Meet me in the kitchenette area,” Dallas whispered softly to Einstein, who immediately made his move to the small kitchen area.

Once there, she whispered, “You get everything?”

He nodded. “Grabbed everything I could get my hands on. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, why?”

He made a face like the answer was obvious. “They’re taking our Hummer.”

Dallas shrugged. “Nothing we can do about it except get the first good night’s sleep in a week.”

“We’re not gonna fight for it?”

She looked at him and the slight panic in his eyes, and realized she sometimes forgot he was just a kid. “That’s not a fight we can win, Einstein. Those people could have just as easily shot us all. Instead, they fed us, let us sleep here, and have been kind enough to share information. So no, we’re not going to fight them for it. In the morning, we’ll make our way to the sign and wait for Roper, unless you have a better idea. At this point, I’m all ears.”

Einstein cast a glance over his shoulder. “Do we have to take them?”

She didn’t need to follow his gaze. “They, like everyone else, are in survival mode. Don’t take it personally. I don’t.”

“Exactly. And looking out for number one and two means to hell with the best interests of the group. They’re dangerous. I say we leave them”

“I just can’t kick a pregnant woman to the curb.”

He looked into her eyes. “Then could you just kick her?”

Dallas chuckled. “What’s the number one rule in those games you play?”

“Don’t panic.”

She smiled. “Will you let me know when it’s time to panic?”

He laughed. “Never?”

“Exactly.”

****

Roper

Roper, Butcher, Cue-Ball, and Peanut were back in the saddles at daybreak. Peanut had fallen in love with Gwen, so Cue-Ball got on Lance and, single file, they rode quietly through the crisp morning air with Zeus trailing along behind.

Roper wasn’t sure of the wisdom of bringing a dog with them, but seriously doubted they would have been able to talk Peanut into coming with them without her massive canine companion. And he was huge. He had the broadest chest of any Rottweiler she’d ever seen, with an enormous head like a Mastiff. She wondered if maybe he was part Mastiff, since his body type was so thick.

She also wondered what Dallas and Einstein would say. Yes, it was becoming harder to move as a single unit, but what kind of people would they be if they walked away from a child in need of help? Cultural mores no longer applied in this apocalyptic world. That much they had seen. Maybe a bigger group was a stronger one and they should start thinking like the Neanderthals who ran amok, raping, pillaging, and plundering in order to sate their own desires. Once humans turned on humans, survival became that much harder. You can’t bring a pocket knife to a gun fight, her granddaddy always said. At some point, they would have to fight back with the same type of force.

“How you doing back there?” Roper asked Peanut, who had proven to be a superior rider to poor Cue-Ball, who needed a break every half hour.

“I’m good. I love this horse! So does Zeus!”

Peanut had slept with Butcher the night before, with Zeus practically on top of them. The dog and girl were inseparable and even though they had a long way to go today, she knew that dog would run with them even on bloody stumps.

Butcher rode up alongside Roper. “You tired?” She asked Butcher.

“A little. It’s not every day a hundred and fifty pound dog sleeps on top of me.”

“I know. I’m a little worried about that.”

Butcher glanced back and knew they were far enough away from the others to talk. “We have no choice, do we? Besides, that thing’s a weapon. I’ll back you on this, but I don’t think Dallas will mind, and who gives a crap what those two yahoos think?”

Roper grinned. “Yeah. We’re carrying some dead weight here. I think when we all get together again we need to formulate some guidelines for survival as a group.”

“Ah yes, a ‘Come to Jesus’ meeting.”

This made Roper laugh. “Something like that.”

They rode for most of the day along the ridgeline, traveling up and over hills turned brown by the early California sun. They passed cattle Roper knew would soon die. When she could, she would open gates to give the domesticated ranch animals a chance at survival, much to the grumbling of Cue-Ball, who felt this was just wasting precious time. The dog showed no signs of tiring, and every time they stopped, Peanut would jump off her horse and love up the massive dog.

They’d heard chopper blades cutting through the air periodically, and would race to the nearest cover to prevent detection. So far, they hadn’t made any visual contact with the helicopters, which was just fine by Roper.

Other than releasing the gates, they rode five hours without stopping until they finally came to a small hill overlooking the frontage road.

Pulling out her binoculars, Roper scanned the freeway dotted with abandoned cars. There, on the sign, she saw the big D with the circle around it.

“They made it,” she said, handing the binoculars to Butcher, who surveyed their surroundings.

“Of course they made it. They’ve got a goddamned vehicle,” Cue-Ball groused under his breath as he hopped off his horse and rubbed his rear. He had been complaining for the last two hours about his ass being sore.

Roper checked her watch. They’d made great time. “Come on. We’ll wait for them under those eucalyptus trees.”

They’d heard those distant sounds of choppers earlier in the morning, so seeking cover was still vital to their safety. They had been waiting for almost an hour when they saw the Hummer driving down a frontage road and taking off, away from them.

“What the hell?” Roper muttered.

“They’re leaving us?” Cue-Ball asked incredulously. “I knew it was only a matter of time! They ditched us! They fucking ditched us!”

“Shut up,” Butcher commanded. “Dallas must have her reasons. Maybe she’s going for gas.”

Roper barely nodded, her heart in her throat. “She wouldn’t leave us. I know she wouldn’t. Something must—”

And before the Hummer was out of sight, a Blackhawk flew over the hills and hovered over the road in front of the black jeep.

“Oh no. Oh shit. No-no-no.”

“What’s happening?” Cue-Ball asked.

“It’s the chopper. It’s probably asking for confirmation...checking to see if there are—”