Last Fight of the Valkyries (19 page)

“We're having fun, right?” She smiled big, her missing
top tooth a reminder of their prior adventures.

“Oh yeah, flying drones, muddy escapes, and boat crashes are
my idea of a good time. I think all our dates should be this fun.”
He laughed, felt her tighten her grip, and then lay her head on his
shoulder.

“You two make a cute couple.” Blue smiled, then turned
serious. “Thank you for helping my sister, really. But I'm
sorry for whatever comes next. I didn't know St. Louis would be this
messed up.”

That was the story of his life. Never knowing what was out the
door, around the corner, or down the river. Well, that was mostly
true. The one constant was death.

“I'm glad you found your sister. Is she OK?” Blue's
twin had hardly said a word the last several hours, and slept most of
the ride in. Liam guessed she was exhausted from her tough crawl
through the mud, though he figured she'd be recovering by now. That
made him concerned.

Pink wore dirty gray capris and a top that may have been white at
one time, but was muddy brown today. He didn't see any bite marks.
Just lots and lots of scratches.

“Hold on everybody!” the captain yelled from inside.

The front of the boat ran into the mud and several feet up onto
the shore. The captain had found a tiny inlet of a creek that
afforded a gentle approach and landing, which was good because much
of the shore here was otherwise steep and rocky.

When he'd gotten it solidly on the bank, he shut off the motors
and trimmed them up as far as they would go.

Everyone was deathly quiet. By some agreement, no one talked or
otherwise made a sound. Liam could hear the birds chirping and the
leaves rustling in the trees. Water gently splashed up against the
hull.

It was idyllic until a new, mechanical sound drifted on the wind.

A drone.

2

The captain had opened the door to the front section of the boat.
Liam went through to grab his stuff.

“OK, who here knows how to shoot a gun?” He looked at
Liam first, then at the girls. Victoria was fast to raise her hand,
but Pink and Blue just shook their heads. After sizing everyone up,
he pulled a pistol out of a cubby hole near the passenger seat and
tried to hand it to Liam.

“Sir, you'd be better off giving it to Victoria. She's got a
steadier aim than me. I'll carry a spear.”

The captain seemed to think about it, then relented and handed the
Glock to Victoria. “All right. We need everyone armed once we
get off the boat.” He rooted around in some boxes stuffed under
the consoles and came out with a large wrench and some kind of metal
rod. He handed those to Pink and Blue.

“The first thing we have to do is run. We have to get up
onto the bluff and into the woods so we can lose our tail.”

“Why don't you just shoot it?”

He looked at Liam with a serious face. “We can't waste the
ammo.”

The captain grabbed his shotgun and slung it over his shoulder. He
also grabbed a long metal pole with a hook on the end. When he saw
Liam eying it, he seemed to sense the need to defend his choice.
“It's aluminum, so it won't last, but I should be able to get a
few good hits in with it.”

Liam had to give it to the captain, he seemed to understand the
zombie threat. All except the part about them being possessed
spirits. That was nuts.

As they all made landfall, the drone hovered high above them,
unmoving.

“Just run, guys, they know we're here already.” Liam
watched as the captain's big work boots carried him up the rocky bank
into a tight row of trees next to the river. The two girls followed.

Victoria waved him forward while patting the Glock tucked into her
pants on her hip. “I've got your six.” She smiled, as did
he.

In less than a minute, they were all under the relative safety of
the first line of trees along the riverbank, but the drone had dipped
a little lower so it had a direct line of sight to them under the
canopy. There was no way to hide from it. On the landward side of the
trees, there was a large field of small shoots of corn. Beyond that,
a steep cliff with large houses on top. He realized he knew exactly
where he was.

“Hey, this is Cliff Cave Park. We have to get to that gap
over there,” he pointed to a dip in the cliffs to their right,
about a mile away, “because that's where the road comes in.”
He knew that for a fact, because on his earlier trip on the train
escape from St. Louis, the engineer stopped at that road to pick up
her husband. Somehow he felt much better knowing where he was.

“All right, ladies, run for them hills!”

Liam wondered if he intentionally lumped him in with the ladies.
Did he lose his man card when he refused the gun?

He thought about it the whole run over the bumpy field. Everyone
held together until they reached the railroad tracks that ran along
the base of the cliff. Liam looked left, hoping to see the train
engine called
Valkyrie
parked somewhere in that direction, but
the tracks bent out of sight around the base of the cliff. In the
other direction, he could see the railroad crossing for the road they
sought. The captain and the two girls were already walking in that
direction. He hung back as Victoria clambered up the rocky slope of
the railroad grade.

“What's wrong?”

“How did you know what I'm thinking?”

She laughed. “Because you're
always
thinking. But
sometimes you think more than others, like now.”

He was aware one half of their guns was getting away; he didn't
want them to get too far ahead. “I just want to get to the mine
and see what's there. Suddenly we're hitched to two strange girls and
a boat captain without a boat. I just have a bad feeling we're
heading into more trouble than we need right now.”

He started walking, indicating she should walk next to him.

“Well, where's the mine? Isn't it up these tracks? Maybe we
could just keep going. Leave them to go their own way.”

“Hmm.” He chewed on the idea, but was reminded they
had no weapons of their own beside the spear. If they kept going,
they'd have to surrender the pistol. Two people with one spear would
not do very well in a giant hole potentially filled with zombies. Of
course, the closer he got to the quarry, the more he admitted how
silly the whole plan had been. He just didn't know how to express his
feelings to Victoria without sounding scared.

You are scared, dummy.

They all regrouped at the intersection. A large parking lot and a
huge wooden pavilion were the only indicators of the park nearby. A
sad looking red pickup truck was the lone vehicle parked there. To
their left, the access road snaked up the wooded valley between the
two hills that backed up to the cliffs along the tracks. The captain
made as if he was getting his bearings, and then tore into the woods,
climbing the hill on the north side of the road.

To Victoria, Liam whispered, “He's already heading toward
the quarry. It's just on the other side of this hill. We can at least
see what's up there. Maybe get a good look into the pit before we go
any further.”

“Sounds like a plan. Maybe when we're in the woods you can
make me a new spear.”

Louder now, he spoke as he started up the hill after the others,
“Yeah, about dropping that spear. I'm going to need you to pay
for that. I put a lot of good time and effort into that one.”

“Seriously? Why don't you bill me.” She then made a
raspberry sound with her tongue.

He paused on the rocky slope, and looked back at her. “Oh,
that's how it's going to be? Maybe I
will
bill you. You told
Duchesne I blew up that railroad bridge. That's really going to cut
into my inheritance.”

As he started scrambling up the rocky hillside, he was still
laughing as he heard her pass along a sheepish, “Oops!”

3

The access to the cliffs overlooking the river became very steep
near the top, but the group made it with only minor delays. Pink
needed the most help because she still seemed exhausted from her
earlier escape. When they made it to the top, they had a majestic
view up and down the big river. To their left, north, they saw the
big arched red span of the Jefferson Barracks Bridge. If the
interstate was open, cars would be zipping over it from Missouri into
Illinois. Now, there was no movement. To their right, the river was
visible for several miles before it meandered around a bend, out of
sight. It was easy to see why they were spotted in their boat.

With that thought, Liam looked around, wondering if the drone
operators were nearby. He only saw trees.

“Is that Illinois?” Pink asked. “Up where we
live, Illinois is a dirty place with a bunch of factories chugging
pollution in the air. Down here, it looks beautiful.”

He looked again, seeing the land as a first-time observer rather
than a jaded local. Beyond the river was a line of woodland. A large
floodplain sprawled a couple miles further, until it met an
escarpment much like the one on which he now stood. It was pretty
amazing.

And dead.

Ugh. He ruined it for himself as he looked again and saw only
miles and miles of farmland that would never be plowed again. If
there was no fuel for the tractors, and no one to drive them, and no
one to sell seed, and no one with money at all…

He turned away, continuing the last few feet to the long crest of
the hill. He heard the rest of the group gathering themselves to
follow. Even the captain lingered.

While lost in his thoughts, he walked by a group of people sitting
in the brush to his left. When he heard them, he turned around with
the spear pointed at them. A little boy, about ten, put up his hands.
Several of his compatriots did the same. Liam dipped the spear.

It wasn't one boy, or one group of people. All around him, deep
into the woods, people sat and stood in small groups. They were
amazingly quiet.

His own people came up slowly, and fell in line next to him.

“Who are you with?” the captain inquired of the
nearest men. They were dressed in dirty khaki shorts or jeans and
were either bare-chested or sported sweat-soaked dirty shirts, as if
they were at a backyard barbeque that had been going on for a week.

They said nothing, but they pointed further up the hill.

With a huff, the captain spun and walked on. Liam was quick to
follow, though Victoria passed a gentle “thank you” to
the pointer.

She caught up to him and whispered, “What are we getting
into here?”

They walked with the vista on their right and the sad-looking
people on their left until they reached a large flat area along the
edge. The cliffs continued for a hundred yards or more, but this
looked like the summit.

“Get out of the open, you kids,” a man commanded from
inside the canopy.

For the second time today he found himself making a juicy target
to an imaginary sniper. And he was seen as a kid...

When they were all into the trees, they approached a command
center of sorts. A dozen men and women dressed in camouflage lazily
watched as they came up the path. Many held binoculars as they looked
out of the trees, down toward the river. A couple sat near a small
wooden table with a radio. Weapons stood against the base of trees
all over the place.

“Did our guards let you through? We saw your boat come up
the river, and we saw you run across the fields, but we didn't know
where you were headed.” The blonde man was a hunter, not
military. Or at least dressed as a hunter. He had long pants
imprinted with a confusing woodland pattern. He wore a short-sleeved
t-shirt, but it was the same pattern. He was middle aged, but looked
younger because he had little facial hair growth. He had serious blue
eyes and a furrowed brow.

Liam opened his mouth, but the captain replied, “We didn't
see anyone. We just climbed up from the railroad tracks below.”

The man leaned hard against a large black oak. “My God,
anyone could have walked into our camp.” He remained there,
looking at Liam and the others in turn.

He stood up straight again. “My name's Jason.” He
wiped his forehead. Liam recognized the burden of command under which
the man suffered. He was responsible for all these people in the
woods. “We have guards watching the flats around this area. The
dead don't climb the steep rocks, like you did. But we should know
better.”

Liam knew there were zombies that could climb. He said nothing to
further spook the man. Surely he'd learned his lesson.

“We'll have to put someone over there.”

The men and women reminded him of the survivalist group that
attacked Camp Hope. It inspired him to be clever, and cautious.

“Hi, I'm Sam and this is Becky.” He pointed to
Victoria. She caught on immediately and introduced herself as such.
He was ready to high five her, and start talking about chickens and
guns as they had done back at Riverside, but—

“I thought you said your names were Liam and Victoria?”

Liam turned to the captain, ready to soak him with lava-hot anger,
but the man's face held no malice or sarcasm for once. He seemed
genuinely surprised.

With a slow turn back to Jason, he was ready to fall on his sword
and admit the truth. Jason didn't wait.

“I don't care who you are. If you have food you can call
yourself Santa Claus, for all I care.”

The captain, to Liam's surprise, pulled out a small bag and handed
it to the man.

“Some dried fish. It's all I got, right now.”

Liam looked again at the group of people spread in the woods
around them. The sallow looks and longing eyes were clues to their
status. But something else caught his eyes. Something more troubling.
The kids weren't lounging or playing. They were digging. Worse, there
were several white splotches on the sides of tree trunks throughout
the area. Someone had cut into the bark.