From Within (16 page)

Lewis’s truck lights fell onto Will. He slammed the brakes and Will jumped into the passenger seat. Will didn’t ask a single question yet. He knew the other group showed up and started shooting. There was no time for questions. They needed to get Alejandro and make their escape further up the mountain. They heard more shots fired. Will stuck his pistol out the window and fired a few wild shots up the hill. He hoped that would cause them to back off and stop shooting long enough for them to get out of sight.

They came upon Alejandro only a few moments later. He had already made it to the bottom of the driveway and was starting to rush back up. Will threw the passenger door open and scooted towards the middle of the bench seat. Alejandro hadn’t completely shut the door before Lewis slammed the accelerator to the floor again. He turned left out of the driveway onto the main road. The truck’s rear end skidded a few feet before catching again. A few more bullets whizzed down the hill. Some slammed into the side of the truck. Others ricocheted off the road. The side-view mirror exploded only a foot away from Lewis. A few bits of the glass from the mirror flew into Lewis’s forearm. He gasped and clenched his teeth. He shook his arm trying to calm the sudden sting.

Lewis’s property was basically at the end of the main road before reaching the 4x4 trail. He was forced to slow down to begin navigating the rough and steepening trail. Will and Alejandro glanced back as the truck slowed. They saw no lights. They saw no figures in the dark. Finally, someone spoke.

“You okay, Lewis?” Juana asked.

“I’ll be fine,” Lewis said. “Just a couple of small pieces of the mirror sticking out of my arm. It’s not bleeding much. I’ve had worse.”

“We’ll still want to get it cleaned up soon,” Juana said. “Maybe someone else should take over driving and we get you cleaned up.”

“Looks like it’d be alright,” Alejandro said. “I don’t see anyone or anything back there. Anyone see anything?”

“No,” Will said. “It looks clear”

No one else saw anyone or anything so Lewis stopped the truck. He quickly got out and shuffled to the back seat to have Beth help take care of his arm. Juana got out and moved forward next to Alejandro. Will scooted into the driver’s seat and took over driving.

“Everyone else okay?” Will asked.

Everyone answered in the affirmative.

Will continued on for over an hour. Someone would look back about every minute it seemed. Eventually, everyone except Alejandro had fallen asleep. He was still looking back every once in a while. It was a slow-going crawl up the technical trail. Luckily, Will had done it many times in his Jeep to find some new camping spots. Although, he was still being quite a bit more careful with Lewis’s truck.

“We’ve gone at least ten miles by now,” Will said quietly to Alejandro. “I think there’s no reason for that group to pursue us up here. There’s nothing up here for them. I really don’t think they’d go through the trouble for revenge.”

“I hope not,” Alejandro said. “What are you thinking? We should stop now?”

“Yeah. There is another trail that should be coming up in about a mile or so. It’s a loop that cuts around and reconnects to this trail. If we go up there aways I think we’ll be well hidden for the night. We can figure out more tomorrow.”

“Sounds fine to me,” Alejandro said.”

About ten minutes later, Will turned off the main trail.

“I didn’t even see the trail,” Alejandro said. “I’ve been keeping my eyes trained on the roadside hoping to spot it.”

Will chuckled. “Yeah, it’s hard to see. Even harder at night. I’ve been four-wheeling up here ever since I bought my Jeep. That was in high school. Anyway, if that group comes up here looking for us I think they’d pass by unaware.”

Will spent another ten minutes maneuvering the even rougher looping trail. He finally pulled over in a small clearing. He turned off the truck.

The immediate stunning silence and the overwhelming exhaustion hit him all at once. He looked back to see that everyone in the back seat was still asleep. Alejandro shifted slightly to get more comfortable. Will leaned the seat back a few inches. As sleep was quickly overtaking him, he wondered if someone should stay awake to keep watch. He could already hear Alejandro’s slight snoring. He was the only one awake still. He couldn’t fight the exhaustion anymore. He thought he might already be dreaming. Was he awake keeping watch? He didn’t know. His mind would tell him whatever he wanted to hear in his deep dream state.

Marcus sat back in the seat. How could the memory stick be missing? He searched both seats and the floor. Still nothing. Did Kenneth or Anthony see him? Anthony was already on his way out of the cafe when Marcus had entered the memory stick into the port so it couldn’t have been him. Kenneth? When would he have taken it? He was baffled. What if there was a message for him? Can’t act like anything is wrong. Have to roll with the punches.

His best hope was for the staff at the cafe to find it. They were in on the whole clandestine activity since it was their business that was being used. He walked at a quickened pace out of the cafe. No more time to waste now. If he spent too much time then Kenneth might become suspicious. He joined Kenneth and Blake in the Humvee.

The conversation seemed normal on the short drive back to the camp. It made Marcus think that Kenneth had nothing to do with the missing memory stick. Or, maybe he was waiting to talk to Marcus when Blake was no longer around. At least all the information on the stick looked like gibberish other than his old pictures.

Kenneth parted ways with Blake and Marcus as they walked into the WWNL tent. Blake and Marcus made their way back to the editing station. They spent the next hour editing the footage. Marcus had to re-record a few of his voiceover parts. As they had just finished up the project and were about to send the stories over to Kenneth for review, Blake stopped Marcus.

“Marcus, by the way,” Blake said quietly, “you should be more careful.”

Blake held out his hand as if he wanted to shake Marcus’s hand. Marcus was confused but went to shake his hand anyway. When their palms pressed together, Marcus felt something solid in Blake’s hand. Blake passed the item to him. Marcus looked at his hand and saw that Blake had just passed him the memory stick. He quickly snapped his hand shut around the stick. His eyes widened at Blake.

“What?” Blake asked. “You thought you were the only one passing information to Thomas?” Blake winked an eye at Marcus.

“I...I didn’t know,” Marcus said.

“I hope you got something good to them. That was pretty risky to do that with Kenneth and Anthony sitting there.”

“You saw me do it?” Marcus asked.

“Maybe it was only because I knew where to look,” Blake said. He casually looked around to make sure no one was near enough to hear their conversation. “I’ll keep an eye on things while you are gone. Although, you have always been in a better position to get some decent info for the cause.”

The cause
. Marcus had never thought of it in that way. He was slightly suspicious of Blake. He didn’t want to say too much in case Blake was really working for the CMA. Well, working for the CMA in a different capacity other than through WWNL. He made a mental note to send a message about Blake to Thomas to verify if he was working for the ARF.

“Be more careful,” Blake said. “Let’s get these made up stories to Kenneth.”

“I will,” Marcus said. He chuckled. “Made up...I guess I was being a bit suspicious.”

*****

Marcus sat on his bed in his container. He went through the process to decode the message. A loading bar appeared telling him the computer was working. He looked over next to him on the bed. He quickly packed everything he wanted while he was gone. The last thing he wanted to bring was the computer. He didn’t want anyone coming into his container snooping around while he was gone and start looking through it. Even with not being able to read any of the information on it, someone could conclude a lot by seeing the Pretty Good Privacy software loaded on it.

The program chimed. He looked down as the message appeared.

We will pass this information on to military command. Other sources tell us something is happening soon. This appears to be it. Call on secure line from other locations if you receive any new info.

He had hoped for something more. He wasn’t sure what. Maybe he hoped they already knew and had plans in place to stop it. It looked as if it were a surprise to them. He frowned at the thought.

Will stood in the thick trees. Nothing could be seen through them except more pine and oak all around. It was dark but much brighter than he remembered. The moonlight pierced through the canopy of leaves as if it were the sunlight. He heard a noise and turned around abruptly. Two men knelt before him. He could see their ankles were tied. Their hands were bound behind them. Old socks were stuffed in their mouths, only visible because they protruded out further into the beams of moonlight. That was about all he could see of their faces. The rest was hidden in shadows. They were kneeling shoulder to shoulder.

Where is everyone else
?
he thought.

He looked down to see a pistol in his hand. He heard a voice in his head.

Execute them
, it said in an almost imperceptive whisper.

The voice made so much sense. It was as if he had no more control over himself. What that inner voice said is what had to be done. His arm lifted and straightened out before him. He was focusing on the gun. He readjusted his focus beyond the gun and saw the pistol was aimed directly at one of the men kneeling in from of him. He pulled the trigger. His arm quickly shifted to the next man and he pulled the trigger again.

He walked forward and looked down. The moonlight now illuminated their faces. Tanner lay in a growing pool of blood. His eyes were wide open, almost as if they were staring at Will. There was a bullet hole centered on his forehead, blood seeping out. He looked over and the other man was...
himself
?

Will gasped and jolted forward. His head hit the steering wheel. He felt sweat on his forehead as he rubbed the sore spot. It was daytime and he was still in Lewis’s truck. He had been dreaming. He looked around and everyone was still asleep except for Lewis. He was outside of the truck and it appeared he was assessing the damage done to it from the shooting. Will opened the driver’s door as quietly as he could and joined Lewis outside.

“How’s the arm?” Will asked as he walked up to Lewis.

“I’ll be alright,” Lewis said. “Just a little scratch.” He held up his arm which was now wrapped in some gauze. “You doin’ alright, son? Looked like you were having some tough dreams.”

Will rubbed his forehead again. “I think I was just dreaming about,” he paused for a moment, “...the shooting last night.”

“It was definitely a scary thing. Made my heart pound for sure,” Lewis said.

Will had been talking about the shooting in the woods by his house and not the shooting while they were driving away in the truck. He didn’t say anything. He wanted Lewis to keep assuming the wrong event.

“Doesn’t look like anything important got hit,” Lewis said as he motioned to the truck.

“Except for the mirror. That usually comes in handy,” Will joked.

“Not much other traffic up here,” Lewis said as a smile formed on his face.

The others must have been roused when Will had opened the truck door. They all piled out of the truck at the same time.

“G’morning,” Lewis said to the group. He received yawns in reply. “Sorry, I don’t think we packed any coffee for our camping trip.”

“Ugh,” Alejandro moaned. “I can’t remember the last time I stayed up that late. What time is it?”

Lewis looked at his watch. “Almost eleven.” He paused for a moment. “Listen, everyone, I think after we get something to eat, we need to discuss what we are going to do.”

“What do you mean?” Beth asked. “Aren’t we going to hide out up here?”

“Well, as I see it, we have a few options,” Lewis said. “Do you want to eat first and then talk it over? I know I like to wake up a bit and have a full stomach before discussing important things. We can start to talk about it over our meal too. If you can’t tell, I’m quite hungry.”

They all laughed. They went through the food in the back of the truck. They decided on cooking up some of the deer meat. A few of them gathered some kindling and larger pieces of wood for a fire. Will built the fire up and took a fire grate from the back of the truck. They all munched on some of the canned fruits and veggies that Lewis brought while they waited for the deer steaks to cook.

They all gathered in the shade of the trees along the edge of the clearing. As they began to tear into the meat, Lewis brought up the subject again.

“So, as I was saying,” Lewis began, “we have some different options. If we are going to hide out up here then we need to be by a water source. I know there are some smaller streams up here and a couple of lakes. There is always the chance we’ll run into other people if we head to one of those lakes. In addition to water, we need to consider food for the long term. It might not seem like it, but finding food for six people is going to be a lot of work. The next option would be to get to a small town, not necessarily Oakhurst, and borrow some living space for a while. There is still time to do some planting somewhere.” He paused for a moment. “The last option is to get to one of those camps.”

“Oh man,” Will said. “I bet there is sickness running rampant in those places. I’ve read about places like that in World War Two and other disaster situations. The number one killer in camps is sickness. I prefer to fend for ourselves up here.”

“Could we plant somewhere up here?” Juana asked.

“It’s possible,” Lewis said. “However, we don’t have any of the tools. That’s why I mention going to a small town. We could scrounge for what we need and there should be some open space to do some planting. To be honest, I’m tempted by the camps. It’s not normally like me to go depend on help like that, but I’m older now. What’s needed in the other two options is not going to be an easy road.”

“I don’t think there is any easy road anymore,” Lea said.

“How about this,” Alejandro said. “We wait it out up here somewhere. Near water, of course. In a week or two, we go check out the two places. Our homes. I honestly can’t imagine them deciding to stay there.”

“Why not?” Will asked.

“There’s the food you had stored and some at Lewis’s,” Alejandro said, excitedly. “After that, they’d have to continue the farming. They’ve been surviving by taking existing things only. Chances are they aren’t going to all of a sudden decide to do the work needed. I bet they are going to move to another town or they’ll go to the camps or after the camps.”

“After the camps?” Beth asked. “You mean raid the camps?”

“Yeah,” Alejandro said. “I think they’ll either go to live there or raid one of them for the food and supplies.”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Lewis said. “I definitely like and prefer the idea of going back to my home.”

“Is anyone opposed to staying up here for a while and then checking to see if we can get back home?” Will asked openly.

Everyone looked back and forth at one another. No one said anything in opposition to the plan.

“So, we set up camp near water,” Will said. “If we continue another hour or so on the main trail, it’ll put us pretty close to a lake. Other than that, the main trail parallels a small stream. My vote is to stay near the stream for now. If it looks like that group is going to stay on our land then we can decide to move to the lake or somewhere else.”

“Fine by me,” Lewis said.

“Fine with me too,” Beth said.

“It’s a plan then,” Alejandro said as he clapped his hands together.

Lea smiled as she watched Will take charge. He turned towards her and noticed and almost blushed. He smiled back at her. He still wished the world was different. He was coming to terms that he would have to express his feeling for her in this broken and chaotic world.

The group finished eating and then started to repack the items they had taken out of the truck. Lewis took a fuel can from the bed of the truck and emptied it into the tank. He had one other fuel can in the bed that was full and that would be the last of the diesel they had unless they could make it back to their properties. Lewis had a large tank that he had brought from his farm in the central valley.

Alejandro and Will walked back down the small trail towards the main four-wheel drive trail. They wanted to check and see if there was any sign that they were followed the night before. It took them about twenty minutes to reach the main trail. They saw no signs of any other tire tracks other than their own from their arrival in the night. They were relieved and headed back to the others. Once they arrived, they all packed themselves into the truck and began their search for a good camping hideout.

After about an hour of ultra-slow driving and stopping to walk into the woods to check on different clearings along the creek, they came across a creek-side location they all liked. Everyone but Lewis got out of the truck. Will and Alejandro helped guide Lewis into the trees so the truck would be near their spot and hopefully well hidden from the road. While they were getting the truck parked, the women were clearing rocks and sticks from a suitable flat area to set up the tents.

Once they set up the tents, they began chopping wood for a fire. Once a fire was going, Will decided to instruct everyone on how to use the different water purification methods he had brought with him.

He had a small straw-type filter. It could be attached to a bottle filled with stream water. Or, it could be attached to a pouch and be filtered into a bottle, which is how they would use it since there were several people. It would need to be backwashed using a small plunger for cleaning after every five gallons filtered through it. Will told them he wanted to boil water to do the cleaning. The other type of filter he had was a pump-style that would sit in the water. They could pump water from the stream through it directly into a bottle. The pump-style’s ceramic filter also needed to be removed and cleaned after every five gallons or so. He instructed them on the use of water purification tablets he had. He wanted those to be used as a last resort. He was adamant about everyone making sure they always drank filtered water. He didn’t want anyone to get sick. They had no idea if there was a doctor available to help them.

He went over some of the other survival equipment that he had as well. Most of it was backpacking gear, but he wanted to make sure everyone understood how to use all of it and knew what was available.

“Thanks for going over all this stuff, Will,” Juana said. “Just one other important thing I think we need to cover.”

“What’s that?” Will asked.

“Where are we going to go to the bathroom?” Juana replied.

“Oh right,” Will said. “We need to establish somewhere for the camp.” He thought for a moment. “Well, definitely not by the stream. We could designate somewhere over in those trees.” He pointed to a thick forest area. “What we could do is build a makeshift bridge out of logs and use a spot across the stream. That way we won’t have...that by the camp.”

Juana laughed. “Well, I can’t wait for a bridge to be built.”

Everyone now laughed.

“We’ll use that spot in those trees over there for now until we can build it,” Will said.

Juana grabbed a roll of toilet paper and headed into the trees.

“Be conservative with that paper,” Will called out to her. “Once we use up what we brought you won’t like what we’ll have to do.”

Juana waved without turning around to acknowledge that she had heard him. Alejandro and Lewis walked over to Will.

“We should probably make sure people are bringing some protection while doing their business,” Alejandro said as he approached.

“I think everyone is still carrying guns,” Will said. “We can remind everyone. Sometimes people can get complacent after being in one place for a while. That reminds me, I have some camping knives that people could carry too. A knife is always useful when out in the woods.”

“Good idea,” Lewis said. “What we came over to talk to you for is about home.”

“Home?” Will asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes,” Lewis said. “I know we just got up here, but we were thinking we should plan a trip back down the mountain to see if that group is still sticking around.”

“We should probably wait for at least a couple of days to go by,” Will said. “Give them some time to raid our houses and the other houses in the area.” He paused. “Again, I really hope they decide not to become farmers.”

Lewis and Alejandro laughed.

“I was thinking a few days as well,” Alejandro said. “The other thing about it that Lewis and I were talking about is that we think it should be a hike and not a drive.”

Will nodded his head. “That would make more sense. Less noise. We don’t waste the fuel. A whole lot more time.” He frowned at the thought. “I guess I would be up for it. I could do the whole thing in a full day.”

“I was thinking it would be better to go late,” Alejandro said. “Show up in the dark. Check things out. Double-time it out of there once we see what we need to see.”

“We?” Will asked. “I thought you were asking me to do it.”

“We were hoping you would go. But, I think two should go. None of the women, in my opinion. So, I’ll go too,” Alejandro said.

“Hmm,” Will said looking at Alejandro. “Are you sure you can keep up with me, old man?”

Will was visibly holding back a smile.

“Remember that I can take you down,” Alejandro said as a smile grew on his face.