Tomorrow's Dawn (Book 3): Escape and Evade Read online

  He was extraordinarily fast with a pistol. It had only taken a fraction of a second for his gun to clear its holster and fire three rounds into Nate as he held the microphone of the citizens band radio in his hand. Rob looked down at his Glock, as if searching it for answers. He could have let Nate go. They could have been far away before he was able to make contact with the rest of Vampirgruppe.

  No, there was no such thing as far enough away. If the group knew they were still alive, they would be hunted down and destroyed. His reaction had been the only sure way to keep them safe. They had to be dead, or Snead’s men would stop at nothing to find them and kill them.

  Rob reached down and took Nate’s pistol. He ejected the magazine and removed three 9mm rounds before slamming the magazine back home. Then he carefully loaded those three into his own magazine before he put it back in its holster.

  It shouldn’t have taken three rounds. He’d already fired twice before he thought about the vest Nate was wearing. He’d had to take another shot into Nate’s head. That should have been the first shot. He had wasted rounds, and they didn’t have many. All of their extra ammo was back in the Canid. Or had been before the explosion. Now they were probably just atoms floating around in the mountains.

  Thirty-two men had driven up from Americus toward the northern mountains the night before. One vehicle had gone to the college to investigate. He continued on through Clayton and into the mountains. Of the 16 men in his vehicle, he was the only one remaining.

  He’d seen the flash of the first nuclear explosion. Rob was pretty sure he was the only one remaining from either group. He hadn’t heard any radio traffic directing them to pull out before the strike. It had all happened so fast. The Peregrine must have been in the air before the disastrous strike on the cabin. Snead hadn’t taken any chances.

  Rob ripped the patch with the red eyes and fangs from his shoulder and dropped it on Nate’s body, then he turned back into the work bay to look for tools. The engines were gone. They had probably gone out on some sort of call and never returned. It wasn’t unlikely. There had been a lot of emergencies over the past six months.

  The bay looked clean and empty, but there had to be something around here. Firepersons, not necessarily firemen, used a lot of hand tools for fires. Firefighting wasn’t all spraying things with a hose. There should be shovels and axes, hoes, rakes, something. He looked again at the equipment lockers. Most of them hung open and had various bits of protective gear inside. That probably wasn’t where he was going to find tools.

  His eyes fell on a door in the back of the bay. It could be some sort of break room or kitchen, or it could be a storage room. As he headed toward the door, he really hoped it was a storage room. He hated turning away from the body, as if it would revive or Nate’s spirit would return for vengeance.

  This always happened. After Rob killed someone, which was usually up close and personal, he developed a sort of fear their spirits would hang around or follow him. He slept like crap for a couple weeks, waking up at every noise as though the dead were coming for him. Each time the fear gradually faded.

  For some reason, he hadn’t gotten over it yet. The same thing had happened a dozen times. Death. Fear. Then laughing at himself for being silly. He knew it, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling. He wasn’t superstitious or spiritual, but it was just so hard to believe that death was the end.

  An entire life of moments passes by, each one impacting the next. This continues until the penultimate instant, when that entire lifetime of moments comes to a crashing end. By his hand. And then nothing. There was no after. Just the end. All of those moments disappeared forever.

  Rob opened the door to a dark room, which he lit up with a small LED flashlight. He played it across a room full of boxes of paperwork and maps. His beam lit up filing cabinets and a long table tucked against the wall. Next to it was a weird-looking axe, with a cutting face on one side and what appeared to be a pick on the other.

  It didn’t quite look like the fireman’s axes he’d seen in movies. The pick portion was too wide. In his memory, those picks were sharp. This had to be either a variation or something different. Either way, it was a tool and looked as though it could cut through the tree branch or help them dig through the hard-packed dirt.

  He picked it up in his left hand, with the flashlight in his right, and turned back to the door. As he neared it, he saw a shadow cross the office door and a voice asked, “Rob, what happened?” Rob’s fears had come true. Nate’s spirit was demanding to know why he’d done what he’d done. As the fear rushed in, his hands loosed their grip on his flashlight and the axe as his knees buckled and he fell to the floor.

  Brent heard the tools fall to the floor and rushed forward to Rob’s body on the floor. Nate was dead in the other room and Rob was out cold on the concrete. Concern for the slender man filled him. Was he bleeding out? Had he arrived too late?

  He picked up the fallen flashlight and shined it on the floor to look for blood. Something had caused Rob to collapse just as he’d entered. When he found nothing, he played the beam over Rob’s still body. He couldn’t see any injuries. He looked fine, just unconscious.

  Brent reached down under Rob’s arms to drag him out into the bay where there was more light. As he set him down, he reached into Rob’s holster to remove his pistol. It didn’t hurt to be cautious. Nate was dead, and he still didn’t know why.

  The former construction worker went back into the storeroom to pick up the axe. Rob had found a Pulaski axe, which was used in wildland firefighting. It was a combination of an axe on one side of the head, and an adze on the other, which was used to dig out roots or pull away debris. He’d seen some old ones in some of the antique shops around town.

  He turned back to attend to Rob and set the Pulaski down on the ground. He sat down near the smaller man’s feet and raised them into his lap. He wanted to get more blood flow back into his upper body. Brent watched carefully as his eyes began to flutter moments later, and then opened wide.

  Brent’s still joints didn’t allow him to move quickly enough to avoid the kick to his upper arm that followed moments later as Rob scrambled back away from him on the concrete floor like a crab. His hand went to his holster, only to find it empty. He looked down, then back at Brent, finally recognizing him.

  “Holy shit, Brent, you scared the fuck outta me!” He quickly looked to his right, where he could see Nate’s body. It hadn’t moved. “Fucking-a!” He didn’t know why the A was there, it just felt right. Rob looked again at Nate. Confirming his position a second time, he turned to Brent. “You were the one who asked me what happened?”

  Still massaging his arm as he got to his feet, Brent nodded. “Yeah, what the fuck happened in here? We heard gunshots and thought you guys might have gotten attacked, but I didn’t see anybody on the way over or inside here.” He indicated the office, “Just him.”

  Rob sighed heavily, “He was trying to radio out. I was worried someone would hear it and word would get back to the Senator we were still alive.” He looked back to the body and seemed ashamed. “I didn’t even think about the power being out. He couldn’t have made the call.”

  Realization dawned on Brent’s face. “The Senator’s men would have been back, or another drone.”

  Rob nodded in response. “If the Senator finds out we’re still alive, we’re all fucked. He can’t let us live.” Rob held out his hand toward Brent. “My pistol?”

  Brent shook his head. “Let’s get back to the others first. I’m not sure I’m comfortable with you having it back right this second.” The older man walked back into the office to retrieve Nate’s gun as well, but found it missing. He turned to find it trained on his right eye.

  Brent froze. There was no way he could bring his rifle up quickly enough to defend himself. Then Rob slowly turned the pistol to the side to show his finger alongside the magazine well instead of inside the trigger guard. Then he lowered the weapon to put it back in his pocket and held out his ha
nd again. “My pistol?”

  “You’re kind of an asshole, aren’t you? Point taken though.” Brent pulled Rob’s pistol from his pocket and handed it to the other man.

  “Yeah, sorry, I can be an asshole. I just like that gun better. You can have this one.” Rob slotted his pistol into his holster and handed Nate’s gun to the older man. Then he reached into another pocket for the magazine and handed that to him as well.

  “It wasn’t even loaded?”

  Rob shook his head. “You know that saying where you don’t point a gun at anything you don’t intend to kill?”

  Brent nodded, “Yeah, I know that one.”

  Rob continued, “Well, I modified it slightly. ‘Never point a loaded gun at anything you don’t intend to kill.’ I don’t intend to kill you.”

  Brent smiled. “I appreciate that. Now let’s stop fucking off and get this back to Jensen.”

  Chapter 11

  Jessica was getting angry. How long does it take to walk half a mile and find a shovel? She had been worried at first, but the absence of more gunshots made her think they were still alive. Then she became angry. Jensen had stirred slightly inside the tub but hadn’t come to yet. They needed to get him out. He was trapped.

  It was even starting to get hot outside in the sun. She couldn’t imagine what the temperature was like inside the cockpit. She was about to start using another branch to dig at the bank when she saw Rob coming through the trees alone carrying some sort of axe.

  “Daniel! Rob’s coming back.” She didn’t know why she felt she had to tell someone. He’d see him soon enough, but it was some sort of activity and she felt like she was going to burst. What she wouldn’t give for a bulldozer right now, or even a big truck with a chain. That little axe was the only thing they had to get her man out of an armored vehicle trapped under a tree.

  Her man. That’s right. She had staked her claim, and damned if some fucking Senator with nuclear weapons was going to take that from her. She was going to save him if she had to stay there forever. Good men were in short supply before the world ended. Now, she didn’t even want to think about what it would be like.

  As Rob approached, she asked him, “Nate and Brent?”

  He inclined his head slightly and nodded to the rear. “Brent is coming. Nate isn’t.”

  She looked searchingly at him, “The gunshots?”

  Rob nodded, “He was trying to make a call out on the radio.”

  Jess continued to stare at him for a second longer and softly said, “Thank you. That must have been hard.”

  He seemed to slump slightly as the force of her words hit him, as quiet as they were. He turned slightly to avoid her eyes before tears could well up in his own. He’d killed the last of his group. Rob was the only one still standing. He managed to keep the tears inside, but he didn’t meet Jessica’s eyes again while his soul was so naked.

  Instead he looked hard at the large branch holding Jensen captive and let his eyes travel down the trunk and over to the bank. “I think we’re better off cutting the tree than trying to get him out through that side.” He pointed to the door on the side where Jensen usually sat. “We’ll have more room and get a better angle if we can get this one open.”

  Daniel, who had moved up beside him, agreed. “I like it.” He reached for the axe and pulled it out of Rob’s hands. “Hulk smash.” Moments later, slow, steady thunks sounded out through the still afternoon air as Daniel let the axe bite into the wood with blow after blow.

  It took him a few swings to find his rhythm and aim. The edge twisted slightly to the side or missed his mark as often as he hit it. He realized it was because he was trying to hit too hard, so he relaxed slightly and let the axe do the work. He just focused on hitting his marks.

  Jessica watched intently as Daniel worked. When the axe threw out large chunks, she cheered inside. When it got stuck and had to be wiggled free, or seemed to cut with no effect, she glared. She was so focused on the axe that she was startled when she heard a tapping on the glass beneath her. Jess looked down past her feet through the glass.

  Jensen was sitting up slightly in the passenger seat, smiling. He brought his hands forward and then made a squeezing motion under her backside. Through the slightly open hatch, she could hear his voice, though weak, say “Nice ass.” She wanted to punch him and hug him at the same time.

  When she saw him wince after flexing his hands, her desires turned more to hugging than to punching. She moved closer to the hatch and looked down at his haggard face. “We’re coming, baby. We’re going to get you out of there.”

  That made him smile again. Baby? He’d get blown up again for that.

  Daniel had made it almost halfway through the trunk by the time Brent arrived. “Jessica called out excitedly, “He’s awake!”

  Brent smiled, “Good!” He took in the view around him. Jess was on top of the canopy reaching through the hatch to hold Jensen’s fingers. Marcy leaned against the bank with the trunk of a tree shading her eyes from the sun. Rob was slowly scanning the surrounding terrain looking for danger.

  He looked off to the east, expecting to see a mushroom cloud, but only saw faint smoke rising into the air. Brent wasn’t sure what to make of that. The bomb had been powerful enough to kill their vehicles and drop trees miles away, but not big enough to send a giant mushroom cloud up into the sky. Maybe it was there, but low enough that it was blocked by the foothills around them.

  As he watched, he listened to the almost melodic sound of the axe hitting the trunk of the tree, sending splinters falling onto the ground beneath. If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine someone chopping wood for a fireplace in a little cabin somewhere in the mountains.

  Instead, his large friend was trying to get Jensen out of the sunbaked cockpit of a dead military vehicle. The loss of the tub saddened him for a minute. It had saved their lives up on the mountain, and the others had told him stories of how they’d been saved by Jensen and the tub on their journey.

  He looked around him, if they had that thing running and a big chain, they could probably clear the road … in a few months. They were going to be on foot for a while. At least until they made it far enough away from the blast to find new cars which hadn’t been fried from the electromagnetic pulse.

  First they had to get Jensen out though. Brent called out to Daniel, “Why don’t you take a break. I’ll swing for a while.”

  Daniel called back over his shoulder, “I didn’t know you were a swinger.”

  It was too much for Brent to resist. “Your mom knew.”

  Daniel stopped swinging the axe and started laughing. “Okay, you got me on that one. I need a break anyway.” Daniel flexed his back and moved his shoulders in little circles to loosen them up, then he handed the axe to Brent and stepped away.

  The older man was much more precise with his cuts, and in no time, large chunks of wood were falling from the trunk. He started by cutting the top of the opening much wider than Daniel had done and alternated between sides of the cut. Where Daniel had been chopping in a mostly up and down pattern, Brent attacked the wood at angles.

  Within a few minutes, the top of the tree snapped off at the middle of the cut and crashed to the ground. Jessica scrambled down to swing the hatch open and watched as Jensen seemed to shiver in the suddenly cooler air. She reached in to aid him as he gingerly crawled out. When Daniel came over to help, he wrinkled his nose as the stench from inside the cockpit hit him right in the nostrils.

  “Whew! It smells like microwaved jock straps in here!” He supported most of Jensen’s weight as the former Cavalry officer climbed out of the tub, probably for the last time.

  Jensen sniffed the air, heavy with the scent of pine from the fallen timber around them and the branches covering the canopy. “You’re right, this is much better.” Jensen shivered again as his body tried to adjust to the slight breeze and lower temperatures. He grinned at Daniel. “But your rifle is in the footwell on the other side. Why don’t you just dive int
o that microwaved jock strap and get it?”

  Daniel looked shocked. “You brought my rifle!?” He swallowed the smaller man up in a huge hug and lifted him into the air. “I love you!” He set him back down and climbed into the cockpit. His legs stuck out behind him as he leaned over the center console and retrieved his rifle. He hugged his rifle and then cautiously sniffed it. “Okay, guess that smell doesn’t stick to metal.”

  The small group was together again. Jensen, Jessica, Daniel, Marcy, Brent, and now Rob.

  Jensen looked around, and then looked at Rob. “Nate?”

  Brent stepped forward to prevent Rob from having to explain it again. “He tried calling out to that vampire group to let them know where we were. Rob stopped him.”

  It was all that needed to be said.

  Chapter 12

  Doug Richards was pissed. Thirty-two of his men had taken two of his armored vehicles north into the mountains the day before. Those men were some of the best he’d had. Nathan, known as Nate to the rest of the guys, had been his son-in-law before the bombings. He still considered him to be part of the family.

  Well, he had. Now he was gone, too. Fucking Bobby Snead had decided to drop a nuke on him, as well as the other crew at the tech school. Doug hadn’t known about the backup plan. As far as he knew, they were going to bomb and burn the school and bring back one of the Russian agents, if possible.

  By the time he’d heard the news, both of his crews and over a million dollars of armored vehicles had been scrubbed off the surface of the planet by nuclear weapons. What was the big deal with the virus anyway? Everyone who was still alive had either gotten the vaccination or had built up an immunity to the virus.

  What did it matter if the Russians got samples? They had enough in their own country. Maybe it was something about the early cases which had the Senator freaked out. He’d been very adamant about cleansing that school and bringing back the virus. It seemed the Senator had even gone ahead and sent out a cleanup mission without consulting him.