Apocalypse Empire (Book 1): Apocalypse Origins (16 page)

"That's true," Laura said. "I'd rather sleep
in a bed but I don't want to wake up to someone trying to steal our
stuff."

"I didn't think of it like that," Carol said.

"Yeah, I kinda like the idea of a roof over my
head," James said. "But you're right, we don't want to go looking for
trouble. People are gonna be desperate, especially people that didn't take
those first few days to stock up."

"Alright, it's settled then," Greg said. "I'm
thinking we'll drive until around five or so then look for someplace to spend
the night. We should probably sleep in shifts or something. Don't want to be
surprised by anything."

Everyone nodded and they set about packing up lunch. Greg
and James took a few minutes to show Carol the basics of how to use her handgun
but there wasn't much to go over since Laura had done a pretty good job. Once
she seemed comfortable, the got back on the road and drove for a few more
hours. It was uneventful until Greg noticed something ahead.

"What is that?" he asked out loud.

"Looks like someone's blocking the road," Carol
said.

Greg nodded. She was right. It looked like two cars were
blocking both lanes of the road. There were also some wrecked cars on both sides
of the road so they simply couldn't drive around the obstacle. Greg pulled the
car to a stop as several figures exited the vehicles blocking the road.

"Get James on the cell," Greg said, "and put
him speaker."

"Okay," Carol said as she took his phone and
dialed. She turned on the speaker and held the phone so Greg could talk.

"What's going on?"  
James asked.

"Looks like a road block up ahead," Greg replied.
"Looks like four, maybe five guys up there. I'm assuming they're
armed."

James sighed. 
"How do we play it? I don't want
to get in a shootout with the kids."

"You're right. Let me think for a second." How can
we go about this? Greg thought. Going in guns blazing would put the girls and
the kids at risk. Switch vehicles maybe? James could ride in the suv with him
and they could keep everyone else in the van. If a fight broke out, he and
James would be in a position to deal with it.

"James, come up here with me. Carol will ride with
Laura and the kids."

"Alright, on my way."

"What are you doing?" Carol asked.

"I don't see a way around them," he replied.
"We're on a long stretch of road here. The only way out is to head back
towards the city. That's no good cause of the fire. Only way out is
forward."

Carol pulled Greg into a fierce hug. "Be careful."

"I will," he said as he gave her a quick kiss.
Carol left the car and James replaced her a few moments later.

"Check your ammo," James said as he ejected the
magazine from his pistol.

Greg nodded and did just that. He replaced the magazine with
a fresh one, having to reload in the middle of a fight was a bad idea. Once he
saw James was ready, he put the car in gear and slowly drove forward. As they
got closer he could see that it was five guys holding the road. Three of them
held pistols while the other two had bats slung across their shoulders.
 He stopped the car around twenty yards away.

"Stay behind the door when we get out," James
said. "It'll provide some cover and if the shooting starts.

Greg nodded. "Wish we had some vests or
something."

James smiled. "We'll be fine. Shooting isn't as easy as
it looks. You're only as good as you are because I drag you to the range every
month."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you've pointed that out
already."

"Oh I'm gonna point it out every chance I get."

Greg chuckled. "Alright, you ready?" At his nod
they both opened their doors and kept them between them and figures ahead.

"Hello there!" one called out. "No need to be
shy, we're not out to hurt you."

"You're blocking the road," Greg called back.

"We're protecting the road,' the man corrected. “We're
keeping this stretch of road clear of infected."

"I don't see any infected," Greg said as he looked
around.

"That's because we're keeping this area safe."

"Where are the bodies?" 

"We dragged those away."

Greg glanced at James. "Can you believe this?"

James chuckled. "They probably haven't even seen
infected."

"What do you want to let us pass?" Greg asked.

"Oh, just whatever food and water you're carrying.
Don't worry though. There's a town a few more miles down the road. You can
restock there and continue on your way.

"Yeah, we're not doing that," James said quietly.

"I know," Greg responded.

"What if I don't want to pay your toll?"

"That's fine," the man responded. "You're
free to turn around and head back to Emerald Falls. Maybe you can get through
before the fire burns everything down."

Greg glanced behind him and sure enough, he could see a
trail of smoke in the sky. How widespread was the fire? He wondered how it had
even started for that matter. Greg turned back. He didn't see this ending well.

"Come on, now," the man said, “We don't have all
day."

Greg figured he would try one more time to resolve this
peacefully.  He wasn't sure if would work but he felt he needed to
try. "Look, this is ridiculous. Are you really gonna sit here and
stop people from passing through?"

"You're free to go through," the man said,
"so long as you pay the toll. Protection doesn't come free."

"We're at a good spot," James said quietly.
"Unless they practice their workmanship, we've got the advantage
here."

"You're right," Greg replied in kind, "guess
there's really no way around this."

"Yeah, we can't give them our food."

"Let's do what we need to do then," Greg
said. 

"Whoa, whoa," the man said as Greg and James
positioned themselves to fire. "There's no need for all that. Just pay the
toll and no one has to get hurt."

"Step aside and no one has to get hurt," Greg
replied. "You're not getting our food. That just isn't gonna happen."

"You're outnumbered," the man said worriedly.
"You sure you wanna die over a few boxes of food?"

"Do you wanna die over a few boxes of food?" Greg
responded.

One of the man's companions grabbed him by the arm and
whispered in his ear. Greg hoped he was convincing him that this was foolish.
The nerve of these guys. Were they really going to block the road and stop
being from escaping the city? This is ridiculous. 

"Alright," the man said. "My associate has
convinced me to be generous today. You can go through."

Greg sighed as another thought struck him. "We couldn't
do anything for that woman earlier today."

"Yeah?" James responded.

"We can do something about this though."

"We're not heroes, Greg. We can't save the world. We
have to take care of our family."

"Yeah, I agree. But could you have passed that woman by
without stopping?" Greg took James lack of response as his answer.
"Look, I want to survive this as much as you. But, I also want to be able
to look myself in the mirror. Can we pass these guys knowing they're gonna do
the same thing to the next group that passes by?"

James sighed. "You know we can't save everyone we pass.
Sometimes we're gonna have to keep moving, like this morning."

Greg nodded. "When that's necessary then that's what
we'll do. But right here? We can do something. Make it safe for whoever comes
after, even if only for a little while."

"Alright, man. I'm with you."

"Are you listening? I said you could-" Greg fired
and the bullet took the man in his shoulder, spinning him around to face his
fellows. A second shot hit him in the back and he sank to his knees. James
fired and took down another as they stood there in shock. That snapped them out
of their stupor. One quickly scrambled over the roof of a car while the other
abandoned all thought of fighting and fled off the side of the road.

James lined up the shot and squeezed off a few rounds and
the man fell to the ground a moment later. They saw a pair of hands go up on
the other side of the car and held their fire.

"Please, I give up! Don't shoot." Greg glanced at
James and nodded. It looked like they were done here.

"Alright," Greg said, "you can come
out."

The man stood up and hesitantly came to stand on
their side of the vehicle. "Please don't kill me."

Greg gestured towards the vehicles blocking the road.
"Get those out of the way and you can go."

"Really?"

Greg nodded. "Your friend there was the ringleader so
I'm done here. Clear the road and you're free to go."

The man nodded his thanks and jumped into one of the
vehicles. He moved it to the side of the road and then got into the other
vehicle. James chuckled as the tires screeched from the man speeding away.

"You sure it was a good idea letting him go?"

Greg shrugged. "We took care of the one in charge. He
won't be bothering people anytime soon."

"Alright, good enough for me. Ready to get back on the
road then?"

"Yeah, let's go."

Greg returned to his vehicle and chuckled as Carol pulled
him into a fierce hug. "I'm okay. I didn't get hurt."

"Okay," Carol said as she released him. "I
was so worried when the shooting started. What happened?"

Greg put the car and gear and started driving. "They
were gonna let us go but I thought I'd do anyone following us a favor. They
would've robbed anyone they could have gotten away with. Didn't feel right just
leaving them there to prey on people."

Carol nodded. "That makes sense. You know we can't save
everyone though, right?"

Greg chuckled. "That's the same thing James said. But
yeah, I get that. I'm not trying to save everyone. Just didn't feel right leaving
them there."

"What if there had been more of them?"

Greg shrugged. "I probably would have chosen
differently. I felt we had the advantage there but I'm not gonna do anything to
risk you or the others unless it's absolutely necessary."

"Alright," Carol said with a nod, "that's
good enough for me."

"So I'm thinking we might need to change our
plans."

"What's wrong?" Carol asked.

"Earlier, we agreed that heading into a town was a bad
idea."

"Yeah. You said it was too risky. I definitely agree after
what just happened."

"Well, now I'm thinking that maybe it isn't such a bad
idea." He nodded towards their surroundings. "We're surrounded by
fields right now. No place to hide our vehicles if we were gonna camp on the
side of the road. If we do head into a town, maybe we can put the vehicles in a
garage and just keep the lights off or something. It's still a risk but I think
I might feel a little better with a wall in front me now."

"Alright, I can see your point. Want me to call
James?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

Carol nodded and dialed James's cell. She took a few minutes
to explain Greg's current line of thinking and James and Laura quickly agreed.
"They're on board. Do we stop at the town coming up or keep going?"

"We'll stop," Greg said. "We'll have to make
sure the place is safe and it'll be easier to see how things look if we've
still got some daylight."

Carol nodded. "Alright." She glanced out the
window then back with a shy smile on her face. "I have a random
question."

"Okay."

"What's your favorite color?"

"My favorite color?"

"Yes. I know it's silly but it's important."

"How's that?"

Carol shrugged. "I like to think we eventually would've
gone out if all this didn't happen. Probably dinner and a movie and makes lots
of small talk."

"True. Guess we kinda skipped that stage. But I mean
we've worked together for what, two years?"

"Yeah but we never really had deep conversations. It
was always about the job or just, 'how was your weekend?'."

"Alright," Greg replied, "I see your
point."

Carol nodded. "If this goes on, maybe small talk will
be what your favorite gun is but I don't know enough about that yet."

Greg chuckled. "Blue. My favorite color is blue."

"Okay," Carol replied. "Purple for me.
Favorite movie?"

"I don't really have a favorite. More like a list of
ones that I really like maybe."

"Okay, name one on your list."

"Lord of the Rings."

"Really? You're such a nerd!"

"What? Come on, it's got everything. Action, drama,
romance."

Carol shrugged. "I tried watching it once, couldn't
stay awake."

Greg laughed. They continued in this vein for some time
until they saw a sign on the side of the road. "Welcome to Cedar
Forest," Carol read aloud. "Population ten thousand."

"Alright. Let's hope we can find a good spot. We've
still got a bit of daylight left. What time is it?"

Carol glanced at the cell. "Five."

Greg nodded. "Alright." He put his signal on early
to make sure James wouldn't miss it. Greg turned into the first subdivision he
saw and looked for likely spot. There were signs of the infection here. Cars
were parked haphazardly and they were bodies in the streets.

"It's gotten here, too," Carol said as she looked
around.

"Yeah, probably have to assume it's everywhere by now I
guess."

"How could it spread so quickly?"

Greg shrugged. "We stayed holed up for nearly a week.
Plenty of time for people to travel and get infected."

"I was hoping we could outrun it or something."

"Yeah, that would've been nice." Greg pulled into
the driveway of a home whose windows were mostly intact. After James pulled up
beside him, everyone got out and stretched their legs.

"Alright," Greg said, "James and I will check
the house out. You guys keep watch here. Keep your guns ready."