Morgan and Charlie moved behind her. Though not as affected by the sight, they were nonetheless disheartened by what they saw. The damage represented a lack of civility and respect. After traveling a thousand miles by land and sea to flee violence and chaos, they seemed to have stepped right back into it.
Morgan placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go.”
But Andy didn’t move. She could only stare back at the monument. “I thought if anywhere could…” she began hoarsely but didn’t finish.
A moment later, her thoughts were interrupted by the harsh crack of gunshots in the distance. All three of them frantically looked around, but Charlie was the first to see it. “There!”
Midway along the National Mall toward the Capitol Building, a small cluster of people scurried about shooting off guns, either at one another or others hiding out of sight. Andy remained rooted to the ground and watched in disbelief. Only when the far-off figures began to grow larger did she make a move and shout, “Get back in the truck…now!”
They raced back to the vehicle. Andy started the engine and steered north onto Fifteenth Street and across Constitution Avenue. In the back seat, Morgan glanced anxiously through the window to her right. The figures appeared to be getting closer.
“I think they’re following us. Move faster!” she urged.
“I’m trying!” Andy yelled as she weaved through more cars blocking the road and cursed herself for picking the wrong direction. But no direction was clear.
“How many are there?” Charlie asked fearfully.
“I don’t know…eight?” Morgan answered.
Another series of gunshots rang out. When a bullet struck the rear windshield of a car next to them, Andy drove over the curb in a desperate attempt to move faster. The maneuver caused the truck’s front left tire to blow. Losing control, Andy ran into the side of an SUV. She tried backing up, but it was futile. They weren’t going anywhere.
“No!” Andy shouted and punched the steering wheel. Thinking quickly, she called back to Morgan, “Hand me the rifle and bullets.”
“What are you going to do?”
“What does it look like?”
Morgan did as instructed. Meanwhile, Charlie grabbed the pistol resting beside the parking brake as Andy loaded the magazine of the rifle. Her fingers were trembling.
“God, I hope this thing works!” She looked back at Morgan. “Get down on the seat.”
Morgan flattened herself in the backseat as Andy and Charlie crouched down.
“If they shoot again, fire back,” she whispered to Charlie. They held their breath as the figures approached. Andy counted six of them. Two raised their own guns simultaneously and let off another round of shots. Several hit the back of the truck and the rear windshield. Morgan screamed and covered her ears.
Acting solely on instinct, Andy kicked open her door and sprayed a long round of bullets toward the pursuers. She tried to aim but everything became a blur. Meanwhile, fear paralyzed Charlie, and he remained tucked into his seat.
It wouldn’t have mattered had he fired back; most of Andy’s bullets struck the small crowd, some fatally. The few remaining sprinted away from the scene. It all had happened so quickly. She turned away from the carnage and fell back into her seat. After regaining her senses, she reached into the backseat and touched Morgan’s arm.
“You okay?”
Shaken, Morgan opened her eyes and released her fingers pressed tightly into her ears.
“You’re not hurt?”
Morgan shook her head. “No.”
Charlie peered over the back of his seat and stared across the street at the bodies lying on the ground. He released the pistol from his grip and murmured to Andy, “sorry.”
“For what?” She hadn’t seen his paralysis.
“For—never mind.”
“Are they gone?” Morgan asked as she slowly sat up.
Andy nodded. “For now.” Once her pounding heart settled, she stepped back outside and examined the damage to their truck. Charlie opened his door to join her, and together they stared at the busted front tire.
“Now what? We don’t have a spare.”
Andy glanced up at the other cars in the street. “No, but we can take a tire off of one of those. But let’s do it quickly before anyone else comes.”
After finding the right-sized tire from another truck, they removed it and replaced the one on their own.
“It’s rather flat,” Charlie noted while turning the crank on the jack.
“We’ll pump some air into later.”
Once back in the truck and moving again, Morgan asked where they were going. But Andy didn’t answer right away. Her attention was fixed on the three people in the street that she had just turned into corpses. She sucked in a sharp breath and pressed down on the gas to escape the scene.
I’ve killed someone…more than one. I am a killer…
Morgan repeated her question. “Where are we going?”
“Jesus, Morgan! Let me get us out of here first, okay?”
Morgan fell back into her seat and looked away, tears in her eyes.
The truck fell silent as Andy backtracked across the Potomac. Horrible decision, going north. And now they were running low on gas. And food.
Chapter IV
B
en Kelly tapped his fingers impatiently against the doorframe of his old pickup truck as he waited for his cousin, Jim, to exit the convenience store—the fifth one they’d stopped at that day. An ancient minivan already sat parked outside the store. If the previous four stores had not been vacant, they would have passed this one entirely, especially with another vehicle parked out front. But they were getting desperate.
Ben checked his watch. Nearly seven o’clock. The sun was beginning to set behind him, and he cursed under his breath. They should’ve been in Tennessee by now.
The day hadn’t gone as planned. After a quick start that morning, the engine of their truck overheated after a rodent found its way under the hood. It took hours to find the pest; hours of precious time they couldn’t afford to waste. Worse still, Ben was starving, and not a scrap to eat anywhere.
While stewing in frustration, he heard the front door of the convenience store burst open, followed by the sound of people shouting. Jim was the first to appear, his right hand grasping for the pistol in his holster. Ben stood up, startled by what he saw.
A girl was arguing with Jim. Secured across her torso by a strap over her right shoulder was a military combat rifle. And by the way she handled the weapon, he could tell that she knew how to use it.
Seconds after she appeared, another young woman emerged from the doorway. “Andy! Wait!” she yelled.
Ben jumped out of his truck and grabbed his own gun before making his way to the scene. “What’s going on?”
His cousin turned to him, clearly aggravated. “They’re taking all the food!” he yelled and made a gesture toward the two women.
Without a word, Ben turned and gave each of them a long look. The unarmed one was tall and wiry. Rather pretty, she had delicate features and dark, wavy hair, but her face was pale and she had a bruised eye in the latter stages of healing. The first girl was shorter than her friend, trim and athletic, with sharper features. Her long, unruly blond hair hung over her muscular shoulders, but it was her eyes that were most remarkable; green like emeralds and filled with the intensity of a wild animal.
These eyes were now looking at Jim as though she were ready to attack, but instead, she opened her mouth. “We were here first. This food is ours,” she declared unapologetically and leaving little room for argument.
“Just because you got here first doesn’t mean you can take everything that’s in there,” Jim countered.
This only angered the girl more, but her friend stopped her before she could protest further. “We can share. There’s plenty in there for all of us.”
Moments later a boy came out of the store carrying four or five plastic bags full of food. He headed directly to the minivan.
“What, you taking everything?!” Jim scoffed as he watched the boy place the bags inside the van. Meanwhile, Ben drew a step closer to the group. The blond reacted by grabbing the brunette’s arm protectively.
Ben examined the three strangers carefully. “What are two girls doing out here alone?”
“They aren’t alone!” the boy called out as he slammed shut the rear door to the van.
Ben squinted at the boy’s face. The resemblance to the brunette was undeniable. “You two related?”
The boy gave a faint nod. “She’s my sister. Who are you?”
“Ben…this is my cousin, Jim.” He looked directly at the blond as he spoke. Her unflinching gaze stared back. He tilted his head and said to her, “You guys aren’t from around here, are you?”
“What does that mean?”
“Especially
you
two.” Ben gestured toward the brother and sister. “Your accent. It’s different.”
“Charlie and I are from England,” Morgan replied calmly in an attempt to ease the tension. “I’m Morgan. And this is Andy. She’s American.”
Ben laughed at the word. “American? There’s really no America anymore.”
“Yeah, we saw the Washington Monument,” Andy replied with biting sarcasm. “Now, we’ll share the food, but only if you can tell us where or how to find gas around here.”
“This is the third vehicle we’ve driven in today, and it’s almost out of petrol…again,” Charlie added.
Both Ben and Jim looked surprised. “You were lucky to find
any
car with gas,” Jim replied.
“We’ll help you find gas, but it won’t be anytime soon,” said Ben.
“Why’s that?” asked Andy.
“Because there aren’t any airports nearby.”
“Airports?”
“Best secret ever. You’ll see.”
Andy glanced at her friends with a look that said,
should we trust these guys
?
“We aren’t psycho killers or anything,” Jim assured. “We’re just heading west through Tennessee.”
“What’s in Tennessee?” asked Charlie.
“We’re just driving through. We’re not stopping there except to get gas,” Ben answered vaguely.
Andy looked again at Charlie and Morgan for their thoughts. Both indicated that they should accept the offer. They had no plan, and their efforts to get out of DC had taken them far off course and onto a lonely stretch of highway in western Virginia.
Andy turned back to the cousins. “Alright, we’ll follow you. But in case you’re lying, just know that we’re not just carrying these guns for the hell of it. We know how to use them.”
Ben smiled back. “I have no doubt that you do.”
***
“They’re pretty,” Jim said to his cousin once back in their truck.
“Who, those girls?”
“No, the trees on the side of road,” he retorted. “Yes, of course those girls. The tall one reminds me of Karen.”
Ben’s hand clenched tightly around the steering wheel at the sound of the name, and Jim quickly changed the subject. “I wonder what their story is. Where do you think they’re from?”
“England and America,” Ben said in a mocking tone.
“Yeah, but where have they been? Something happened to her…Morgan. That bruise around her eye definitely has a story to it.”
Ben nodded. “Somebody must’ve smacked her pretty hard.” After another moment, he said, “Hey, didn’t the other one say something about the Washington Monument? And now they’re headed south?”
A mixture of concern and bewilderment slowly appeared on Jim’s face. “What are you saying? That they could be working for
him
?” He shook his head. “No way.”
“But he knows we would never suspect two girls driving in that piece-of-crap minivan. It’s the perfect disguise if you think about it. He might be the Devil, but he’s also smart.”
Jim frowned as he glanced backward. He hoped that Ben was just being paranoid. “I think you’re wrong. And you’ll just piss them off.”
“Probably but better to find out now than later, right?” Ben said rhetorically as he applied pressure to the brakes.
Jim sighed. “I was hoping we might make some friends.”
“Okay, I’ll try not to piss off your future girlfriend…which one?”
“The brunette,” Jim answered without hesitating.
Ben smiled to himself. “Fine with me.”
Chapter V
C
harlie was asleep in the backseat of the minivan as Andy drove, her eyes staring dully at the taillights of the truck in front of them. She was exhausted. The day had been endless.
She looked over at Morgan sitting beside her and was surprised to find her still awake. “Aren’t you tired?” she asked quietly so as not to disturb Charlie.
Morgan rolled the back of her head against her seat. “My body’s tired, but I’m not sleepy.”
“Really? I’m exhausted.”
“Want me to—?”