Rise of the Phoenix (The Phoenix Trilogy Book 1) (6 page)

She nodded as he hopped over the tree and was to the down man in two bounding strides. Adam pulled his 9mm out of the holster at his hip and walked up to the man on the ground and kicked him hard in the ribs with his boot to make sure he was indeed dead. The body rolled slightly to the side and back to its original position. Making his way back to Phoenix he insisted she stay put as he gathered up the backpacks and chucked them into the motorized boat.

One more trip back to her and he hoisted Phoenix up and carried her to the motorboat. “I wasn’t shot in the leg,” She protested. He ignored her and checked that the bandana was tight around her shoulder. Without another word, he turned and pulled on the cord to bring the motor to life. Phoenix looked back at George as they pulled away from the cabin. She brushed her tears away. Yes, he was only an alligator and would have killed and eaten her if he had the chance, but he was the only company she’d had for many months. She painfully slipped her jacket from her wounded arm. As she started to remove the jacket from her other arm Adam leaned forward and said, “Keep that on. It may help keep infection away.” He stroked her face and empathy filled his eyes.

She slid toward the back of the boat as Adam drove. He placed his free hand on her healthy shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

Adam pushed the engine to its limits until they ended up in the Gulf of Mexico. Just as they broke out of the swamp he steered toward a floating milk jug.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“That’s probably a crawdad trap. We could at least eat tonight.”

Phoenix cringed as he stuck his hand down into the water to grab at the rope that was attached to the jug. She watched out of one eye until he brought the object up safely. The trap was made of chicken wire and indeed there was a load of crawdads in it. “See I’m good for something,” he said smiling. He cut the engine for a moment and let the boat drift. “Let me see that arm.”

She slid her jacket off.

Phoenix flinched as he pulled off the bandana. “This is going to need stiches.”

“I have a kit in one of the bags,” she offered.

“See, and you’re good for something too,” he chuckled a little bit as he dug in the bags. When he found it, he held it up. “Are you sure you can handle this?”

“It’s not like I have a choice.”

“Here, you may need this,” he handed her a bottle of whiskey from the box he had stolen. When she removed the cap, he took it from her and poured some into her wound.

“I have no idea what I’m doing,” he admitted.

“Well first you need to see if you can find the pellets and dig them out.”

His face went a little pale. “I’m kidding. He shot me with a slug and it just grazed me.” She took her fingers and held her slit skin together. “Pour some more whiskey on it then get sewing.” Adam stood there with the curved needle looking unsure, so Phoenix took it from him and punctured her own skin and pulled the thread tight, wincing the entire time. When she did it again he took it from her and added five more stitches. Cutting the thread, he reached down and got out some of the bandages she had managed to collect and very tenderly wrapped the bandage around and around her arm. Every so often he would look up into her emerald green eyes to make sure that he wasn’t unduly hurting her.

As he finished with her arm he cleared his throat. He had been staring at her for a few seconds. As if knocking himself out of a trance, he repacked the medical supplies and started the engine again. “That will keep it from scarring and healing funny.” “I’m sure it’s already closing in on itself.”

“By the way this is awesome,” she said pointing to the trap of crawfish.

“Now we just need a big ass pot to cook them in.”

He drove the boat to a marina and asked her to stay and keep an eye on their things. “I’ll be back in a jiffy.”

Phoenix had no idea what he was up to, but she kept her rifle ready and stayed low. Ten minutes later he came back with a large pot and a tent.

“I think we’re going to have to camp out tonight.” He began to gather all the items from the boat and Phoenix loaded herself up as well.

They hiked carefully, staying on the grassy patches. They found a pretty large spot that was dry. Adam set up the tent he had stolen and Phoenix gathered firewood. It was still light, which was good. Having a fire at night was a beacon for anyone to find you. She used a jug of water to fill the pot and got the fire going. Once the water was boiling they poured the critters in.

“How long do you need to cook them?” she asked looking down into the bubbling water.

“They’ll float to the top. We aren’t exactly doing this right. We have no basket to put them in the boiling water and we didn’t wash them, but we need to save our water.”

“Good point.”

Adam looked around for something relatively flat to place the critters on. There was a split log and he pulled one of his t-shirts out and laid it across it. When the feast was ready he dumped them out, leaving a bit of water in the pot so they could wash them if they were too nasty to eat.

“Where did you learn this stuff? I mean I know you’re not from the South,” Phoenix asked.

“Do I actually look like I know what I’m doing?” He laughed. “I don’t have a damn clue. I just wing it. It did help to have cable TV and shows like
Swamp People
.” He gave a small chuckle

“Okay, so tell me how to eat these damn things,” Phoenix said.

“All I know is some people suck the heads, but mostly you just eat the butt.”

“I’m not sucking the head of anything.” She paused realizing how her words sounded. “Okay, scratch that comment.”

Adam however grinned from ear to ear. “If you’re scratching that comment then I will keep my response to myself.”

Phoenix took a bite of crawfish and kept her head down. She was wondering how many women he had actually been with during his successful rock band era.
He probably has had at least two STD’s.
She also thought about how fun all his sexual experience must have been.

She was glad when he brought up another topic. “The boat is about out of gas. We have a bunch of supplies that others may need and we could use some canned food. I think we should hit some of the outposts around here and trade.”

“You’re probably right. I go and loot all the time, but stuff is getting harder and harder to find. We’ll spread what we have out in the tent and decide what can go and what we should keep.”

Sliding off her water-logged boots and socks, she turned them upside down on a couple of branches to dry out.

“You know your pants are soaked as well,” Adam said grinning.

“I’m well aware of that, but these happen to be the only clothes I have.”

“And that’s okay with me.”

She rolled her eyes. “There is no way I’m going to take my pants off and sit here with you in nothing but my underwear.”

“All right. Flirting aside.” He reached behind him and into his duffle bag. “Here put these on.” He tossed her a pair of sweats.

Adam turned his head slightly, but Phoenix saw him watching her from the corner of his eye. Just to torment his wandering mind she wiggled as she slid her wet jeans down and adjusted her underwear around her ass. He pursed his lips and let out a breath and ran his hand through his hair. When she had the sweatpants on, his head turned away from her.

The pants were huge, but she tied the waist string tight. ‘Thanks.”

“Not a problem.” He smiled nonchalantly.

“Now what do we have to barter?” she said sitting beside him.

“Well you have narcotics. Junkies will like that. I still have a few bottles of whiskey.”

“And what do we need?”

“More ammo for one, and canned food,” Adam answered.

“Do you really know where we can go?”

“Well, we’ll need a map too, but yes. We need to get out of the swamps. We’ll stay here for the night then head into Galveston.” Adam yawned as he spoke, which caused her to do the same.

They had no sleeping bags or blankets and the ground was bumpy. “One back ache coming up,” Phoenix said as she tried to get comfortable in the tent.

Adam looked around their canvas enclosure. “Yeah, it’s no Hilton.”

“This isn’t even a Motel 6,” she said laughing.

“We’re going to have to stay close for heat.”

“You just can’t resist bringing up some kind of sexual situation into every conversation can you?” She lay down and got comfortable. “And by the way this is Louisiana. No it’s not the dead heat of summer, but it’s not like we’re in a Minnesota blizzard.”

He shrugged. “It was worth a try.”

When the sun rose Phoenix slowly opened her eyes and stretched her sore muscles. Her back was in a tight knot from the lump she had slept on. Her shoulder was stiff from the gunshot so she moved it up and down and around for a few minutes. Adam was snoring so she snuck out and replaced his sweat pants with her jeans. They were stiff and dirty and felt like sand paper sliding up her legs.

Digging through the backpacks she found the small compact mirror and styled her hair. She had a little bit of toothpaste left in a tube so she used it and brushed her teeth. As she spit the foam on the ground and swished a tiny bit of water around in her mouth Adam slipped out of the tent. He must have had a back cramp too because his hands cupped his lower back and he leaned backward then forward.

His hair was matted down on one side, which made her smile. His eyes followed hers and he instantly tried to put his hair in place with his fingers. “It’s not fair when you have a bag of beauty supplies,” he said walking toward her.

“Here,” she said handing him the mirror and hair spray. Under the circumstances, she had planned to share her toothbrush with him, but sighed happily when he pulled out his own.

“Have you been to Galveston? I mean we could be walking into a heavily populated gang land,” she spoke showing her uneasiness in her voice.

“Yeah, I thought about that last night. Maybe we should try for a smaller town first. See if we can get any information on the state of things. We can hit Port Arthur first. It’s smaller and closer. The boat should have enough gas to get us close if we stick to the coastline. After that we’ll have to walk in.

“Sounds like a plan.”

They packed up their gear and loaded everything into the small boat. As soon as they were out into the Gulf, the water became choppy and they were plunging up and down and swaying side-to-side all at the same time causing Phoenix to grab the sides of the boat like there was no tomorrow. She did manage to pull the bandage off her wound and wiped it down with some salt water. “Good as new.”

As they pulled up to the shore Adam hopped out and pulled the boat up onto the sand. They took a few minutes to consolidate all the items they wanted to barter into one backpack. It wasn’t safe to leave anything behind so once again all the packs were hooked together; Adam had three and Phoenix had two.

All around them were oil drills and large containment drums that stretched up toward the grey sky. They walked the perimeter of the oil fields and made it into town, or what was left of it.

“Um,” Adam said scratching his head. “I was here a few months back and the town was fine.”

Every single building, home, and tree was on fire.

“I thought the sky looked darker here,” Phoenix said looking up.

“Well, I guess we just keep going on foot then,” Adam said.

“To where?”

“We have to try Galveston.”

Phoenix sighed; she had a bad feeling about it.

Adam continued, “The city is like a hundred miles from here. It takes a couple hours by car, so we may have to camp out again.”

She nodded. “Let’s keep to the backcountry though.”

“It will take longer.”

“Adam, let’s get one thing straight. I haven’t survived this long to be sniped by some maniac waiting for people or vamps walking down the road.”

“You’re right. We get there when we get there.” He adjusted his load. “Besides we can stop and get more blood on the way.”

“What, do you have a stash hidden out in the middle of nowhere?”

“Yeah, as a matter of fact, I actually do. It’s between here and Galveston. I found a cave system. Runs pretty deep so it keeps the blood bags preserved.”

“Well by all means lead the way.” She motioned forward with her hand.

They walked side by side through various fields of dead crops. “How in the hell did you find a cave out here? This is nothing but farm land.”

“I stumbled on it by accident. I was walking through here and the ground gave way. I fell pretty deep and had some pretty bad cuts, but I was able to get up and walk. I looked up and figured I could climb out so I limped along and explored it. I had to give myself time to heal before I could climb out anyway. It’s not a bad place to crash.”

“I hear the sun still shines, have you heard that?”

“I know of a few places. They are heavily guarded though.”

“How do you know all this? I mean the government is still hunkered down in bunkers last I heard.”

“Government, yes; military, no. They protect the bunkers. The area has been fenced off and it is patrolled by air and ground troops. Picture Area 51 security.”

“You’ve seen this?”

“I’ve been looking for my father. One of the last messages my mother sent to me was some of the locations of bunkers. She hoped that they would be taken to one along with the rest of the stooges.”

“Why would she want that when they took her husband’s life, job, and family away?”

“Where else could they go? The launches were going to happen no matter what. Sometimes you need to sleep with the enemy.”

Phoenix raised her eyebrows and sighed. She knew what he had just said was absolutely right. His parents wouldn’t have had a choice. Adam got lucky and survived, and although he was now a vamp, at least he didn’t suffer for weeks before death or get incinerated by being too close to a blast.

As they continued to walk through a field of once golden wheat, Phoenix stretched out her hand and let the dry weeds tickle her palm. The sound of their boots made a crunching sound against the dry ground. Above their footsteps they heard a loud whistle; the kind made by someone putting their index finger and thumb against their tongue. Instantly they both hit the ground, guns at the ready. They lay in the tall, dead wheat and waited.