Man Eaters (8 page)

“Agreed. Assume the worst from everyone and every situation.” She pointed to a cluster of large rocks. “See that rock formation over there? That looks like as good a place as any to stay until dark.”

Dallas shaded her eyes with her hand on the bill of her Harley cap. “Perfect.”

“Dallas...I’ve been thinking. I need you to promise me something.” Roper turned to Dallas and took her hand in both of hers. “Promise me that no matter what happens, if I get bit or scratched or whatever, that you’ll shoot me right away. I don’t ever want to become one of those things.”

Dallas squeezed her hand. “Only if you’ll do the same.”

Roper turned her palm and shook Dallas’s hand. “Deal.”

When they reached the outcropping of rocks, they took everything off the horses and tied them to a nearby tree. The rocks formed a shallow cave, so they stowed all of their supplies in there and told Einstein to take a nap if he needed one.

He was out in ten seconds.

Sitting on the grass with the horses, Roper and Dallas weighed their options and decided the desert was still their best shot for now. Getting out of California was tantamount, and even if they had to inch along at night, anything was better than staying in the red zone.

“You know, I just want you to understand that if we’d had to shoot our way out of the mini-mart, I would have.” Dallas said.

Roper tossed a rock at bug sitting on a leaf. “I know you would have. I’m glad we didn’t have to, though. Once we start killing people, we’ll never be the same.”

Dallas felt tears sting her dry eyes as she managed to whisper, “We already aren’t.”

****

While it was slower going at night, it was much cooler and easier on the horses. There were no helicopters and the two times they saw Hummer lights, they were too far off in the distance to be a threat.

As they clopped along, the smell of hay lingered in the air, along with the sound of creek water as they made their way along the aqueduct and its tributaries.

Every now and then they would hear distant shots firing, but that could have been for anything. The rest of the time there was an eerie silence hanging in the air like L.A. smog—only the clip-clop of the hooves and creaking of leather saddles could be heard.

“I’m starving,” Einstein groaned, looking at his watch. It was a little after one in the morning.

“Me, too,” Roper said. “My stomach’s been growling for two hours.”

“What are those lights down there?” Dallas pointed in the semi-darkness surrounding them.

“By my guesstimate, that’s Rio Nuevo. It’s another smallish farming community.”

No one said anything, until Einstein whispered, “I really need to eat. I feel lightheaded and weak, my ass hurts, and I’m about to fall asleep on my trusty steed.”

Dallas laid her hand on her flat stomach. Hers had been growling for miles, but she and Roper had already spoken about the need to ration what they’d taken from the mini mart. “Fair enough. I think we can scare up something to eat down there.” Dallas pulled Morgana to a stop. She and the horse had become a nice unit in the hours they’d been riding. She was a good horse who seemed to understand the necessity of a consistent gait with a newbie rider. “I say we watch from the hill for a bit and see if there is any movement. If it looks clear, we’ll take the horses as close as we can and then see if we can’t—”

“Look.”

Roper and Dallas looked in the direction of Einstein’s voice.

At first, Dallas had no idea what she was looking at, but then, ever so slowly, she could see the lights in the valley slowly being extinguished, like someone turned down the electricity so slowly that the light dimmed just before dying.

“My god...” Roper murmured.

“It doesn’t take much for the infrastructure to collapse when no one is watching the pot boil,” Einstein said softly. “This is the beginning of the swan song ladies and gentlemen.”

“Are you saying—”

“The electrical grid cannot continuously run on its own,” Dallas dovetailed on Einstein’s analogy. “And if everyone does what the military has ordered us to do by staying inside, then no one is left to run the shop. So, yeah. Now we’re all in the dark, with no cell phone use, no electrical, and—”

“Uh uh.” Einstein stepped up to them and continued pointing.

Roper untied her ponytail and retied it. “Lotta rural folks have generators, especially if they have any kind of livestock. We’ll see more pop up here in a moment.”

“The darkness is our best friend at this point.” Dallas opened her backpack and pulled out two four-cell flashlights they’d swiped. “We should be able to get in and out this time without getting busted.”

“And then what, Dallas? We eat and get back on the horses? I don’t know about you, but my butt is numb, my back is sore, my balls hurt, and—” Then, as if realizing what he’d said, Einstein covered his mouth.

Roper and Dallas both laughed.

“We need to keep moving until dawn, kiddo, but maybe after you eat you’ll feel better.”

Twenty minutes later, after leaving the horses tied up, the three of them quietly and stealthily made their way into the small town of Rio Nuevo.

From about every eighth or ninth house, the hum of a generator could be heard—the low lights of the houses they were running became easier to see.

“Where to?”

“I say we—”

“Shh. Don’t move.”

Lights from a car slowly went by.

“It’s just a truck,” Roper whispered as they watched the vehicle slow down in front of every house. Three men in the back threw something out onto the porch of each house before slowly moving to the next one.

“Is that—”

“Food.” Roper said. “I’m thinking those people are taking care of each other. Keeping everyone fed and healthy. Or maybe they’re just communicating with each other.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

Einstein started backing away. “Suddenly, I’m not very hungry. Or tired. Right. I’m not hungry or tired. Let’s go.”

Just as they turned to leave, there came a scream from one of the houses. Ducking beneath a hedge on the outside of the main road, the three froze.

“They kilt ‘em!” A woman screamed over and over. “They done kilt ‘em!”

The truck backed up quickly, the three men now aiming rifles at the woman.

“What are you talking about, Celeste? Keep your voice down.”

“Or what? I’ll wake the dead? I’m telling you, they’re already dead!”

“Who is?”

“John and Miguel! They were fine until those military men showed up! Come look! They just be layin’ there, side-by-side, like they sleepin’, but they ain’t! They. Are. Dead!” The woman’s hysterical tone rose above the cacophony of shouts from the men as they jumped from the truck and shined a light on the X mark on the side of the house. “You sure?”

“Dead as a doornail.”

Dallas watched in amazement as two of the men ran into the house, only to return shortly after. “She’s right. They’re dead.”

The men conferred with each other before hopping back into the truck and jumping out at the next house.

“Yep,” the tallest one said. “Dead. They’re all dead. That was no vaccine. They...they killed all those people.”

A ruckus broke out now, with everyone talking and no one listening.

Roper looked at Dallas. “The kid hasn’t been wrong once,” she whispered. “There is no vaccine.”

“We gotta get outta here. Far away from here.”

By the time they got back to the horses, they were frightened enough to be able to ride quite a distance before Dallas called a rest stop.

“Okay,” she said, feeling her heart pounding in her chest. “That was fucked up.”

“It’s just like I said. Containment is a scary thing in the games, and it looks like our government isn’t taking any chances.”

“But killing healthy people?”

“We don’t know they are healthy. Maybe they know something we don’t.”

“Regardless of what they thought or what we think we know,” Dallas said, “we need to grab some shuteye and regroup in the morning. I can’t talk about what we heard and saw until I have some time to process it, if you don’t mind.”

Roper shook her head. “Not at all. I’ll take care of the horses, you guys drink some water and try to get some rest.”

Dallas sat with the rifle between her legs as Einstein scrunched down in his sleeping bag. “You were right, Einstein. You’ve been right all along.”

“Why doesn’t that make me feel better?”

“This is an apocalypse, isn’t it?”

“It will be if they can’t stop it. Right now, as in any apocalypse scenario, there are three groups of the living. The first are those who do what they are told and stay inside. The second are those like us, who are making a run for it. It’s the third we have to worry about. Those are the people who take advantage of situations like these and prey on everyone else. Those are the ones we need to look out for. Those are the ones who can hurt us the most.”

Dallas thought about Katrina and how people turned so savage and so barbaric in an instant, that they stole things they didn’t even need. “Get some rest. I promise we’ll get you some real food tomorrow.”

When Einstein was asleep, Roper came over from the horses. “I need to get a shoe off of Lance. It’s got something stuck in it.”

“Is that bad?”

“Riding at night isn’t easy. He’s probably picked up a stone. I’m gonna need some tools, though.”

Dallas studied her profile in the darkness. Even in the darkness, it was easy to see how handsome Roper was. Handsome. Was that the right word? Dallas was too tired to find another. “You’re not thinking of going back there?”

“Not much choice. We need him. Besides, I can grab the kid something to eat. It’ll take a few days for food to go bad in this heat without refrigeration. I can grab some meat and eggs and be back before you know it.”

Dallas didn’t answer for a long time. She had become used to having Roper there, and the thought of her going into that town alone didn’t sit well with her. It made her anxious.

“When you going to go?”

“Just before dawn. It will be easier to get in and out more quickly if I can see what I’m doing. I’ll take Merlin and hitch him up where we left the horses last time. Should be easy getting in and out of a barn.”

“And the food?”

“Easy. I’m busting into that Burger King. Without electricity, there won’t be any alarms to sound. I’ll grab a stack of all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce—”

“That’s McDonald’s, you Goober.”

They both laughed.

When they stopped, Dallas leaned closer. “We’ve got a growing boy to take care of, and we’ve been pushing him pretty hard. I think we need to get some food in him, organize and plan our supplies, then just chill until dusk.”

Roper sat next to Dallas and gazed up at the stars. “Fine. I’ll grab us food and tools, get back and re-shoe Lance while you get a fire going. Can you cook outside?”

Dallas smiled. “I’m a firefighter, Roper. I can cook on the moon.”

****

Roper

Roper could only stare in disbelief as the townspeople carried out the dead and tossed them into an enormous pyre standing at least fifteen feet in diameter, with orange and blue flames nearly as high. The sickening smell of burning flesh and hair clung to her clothes and hung in the air—the last vestiges of lives once lived. The townspeople were somber about the horrific task, with hardly anyone speaking at all, except a grey-haired gentleman in Vietnam era fatigues, who quietly, but firmly, issued orders.

They were burning the dead for fear they might rise again. More importantly, they were casting a huge middle finger in the air at a government that had betrayed them.

The bright side was that people were busy focusing on the bonfire fueled by human bones, making it easier for her to get in and out of a barn with the exact tools she needed. All she had to do now was break into that Burger King and get the hell out of Dodge. Simple, really.

Having learned her lesson at the mini-mart, Roper made her way to the window farthest back. To her surprise, it was already broken, the glass cleared away. Someone had already been in here.

As she considered her options, she heard the engine of a vehicle, followed by what could only be described as a Gatlin gun. Round after round of machine gun fire blasted through the air followed by the screams of both the living and the dying. The ruckus that ensued sounded like homicidal mayhem, so Roper quickly crawled on her hands and knees through the window opening and then peeked out to see what was going on.

The soldiers in the Hummer had gunned down everyone at the bonfire and the vehicle was now perched in the center, leveling its anti-aircraft weapon at each and every building. Chunks of plaster blew up, glass shattered, two-by-fours splintered, and doors were cut in half by the relentless pounding of the powerful weapon.

“Jesus...” Roper muttered as the man behind the gun obliterated the tiny houses and businesses.

The noise was deafening, the dying cries extinguished beneath the roar of a gun made to kill our enemies. As the Hummer moved forward, bullets tore the plaster off the front of buildings and turned glass back into sand. The huge gun smoked as it pointed directly at the restaurant. Roper realized she was screwed. The weapon would tear the Burger King apart with her in it.

Just as the gun aimed in her direction, someone grabbed her by the back of her shirt and yanked her back into a walk-in freezer, still cold but no longer freezing.

“Stay down!”

Roper didn’t even have time to see who had barked orders at her; the freezer was pitch black inside. The sound of the freezer door being hit by bullets large enough to bring a plane down made Roper curl into a ball with her hands over her ears. How long she laid like that, she couldn’t tell. It could have been six minutes or sixty minutes, but she nearly fainted when a hand reached out and grabbed her again.

“You hit?” It was a woman’s voice.

“What?”

“Are. You. Hit? Injured? Are you sporting a bullet?”

Roper shook her head. “No. I’m fine. Thank you for—”

“Thank me later. We’re not out of the woods yet. Come on.”