Chapter 3 #2
Les didn’t know why he’d stopped and opened the damn door except the woman pounding on it was the one who’d grabbed him and sent him to the bus a few minutes ago.
He owed her. But she didn’t board herself, merely pushed her friend and a child onto the bus and then fled.
He had no time to ponder these things because in the vidscreens he could see the infected swarming into the yard and engulfing the third bus.
A few were running toward the second bus with their awkward, lurching motion.
If he didn’t get out of there right now, no one would escape.
The school bus was balky under his hands, certainly not the high performance finely tuned tour bus he’d arrived in but he managed to navigate the sharp turn with the second bus hot on his tail as he accelerated.
The woman who’d saved him had told him which way to go on the main road to escape the town and he flicked the indicator so Ethan, who he’d grabbed to drive the second bus, would be ready.
Once he hit the main highway, he pushed the engine to the limit and roared down whichever lane was open.
There certainly wasn’t going to be any oncoming traffic, not anymore, and there were a fair number of abandoned groundcars and trucks to avoid as he went.
Not gridlock like it had been in the city but bad enough.
He eyed the passengers on his bus in the driver’s vid panel.
They were a motley group, no one he knew except for one roadie who must have been smart enough to follow him when he bolted from the dining room after the woman had given him the heads up to flee.
The only child was with her friend who the mystery woman had personally escorted to his bus.
She was standing in the crowded aisle, balancing the toddler on her hip, doing her best to calm the child down.
Les eyed the road ahead, which was clear as far as he could see and then engaged the AI, which he frankly didn’t trust to maneuver around the kinds of obstacles out there nowadays.
He stood and faced the bus. Pointing at the beefy man sitting in the bench seat right behind his, Les said, “Move and let the lady sit.”
Staring at him in disbelief, the armed man at first seemed disinclined to obey but then Les whipped out his personal projectile gun and put it to the man’s forehead. “It’ll take me all of a minute to shoot you and throw your worthless ass out there on the road,” he informed the man. “I said move.”
Raising his hands as if to placate Les, the man did as ordered, rising and stepping aside. “Seat’s all yours, lady,” he said to the woman. “Chivalry and all that shit.”
Murmuring a thank you, she sank into the seat gratefully.
Satisfied, Les got back into the driver’s seat, activating the personal shielding to keep the disgruntled man or anyone else from attacking him from behind.
This was one school bus amenity of which he heartily approved.
He activated the on-bus com. “Settle down, folks. We’ve outrun the infected for now.
As soon as I find a likely spot we’ll pull over and get ourselves sorted out.
For now count yourself lucky we made it out in one piece. ”
He heard murmurs behind him but didn’t give a damn.
How in the seven hells did he manage to get himself into these situations?
The last thing he wanted was to be responsible for all these people.
Checking his driver controls he found the com link to other Rosewater school buses and called Ethan in the bus behind. “How’s it going? You doing okay?”
Ethan sounded shaken. “The last bus didn’t make it.”
“Yeah, I saw.” What was there to say, really? They were living through an apocalypse and had to be grateful for each escape they made. “Passengers behaving?”
“Pretty much in shock. Like me. Lotta crying going on.”
Les couldn’t do anything about the mental state of the group, other than keep himself on an even keel.
“Map shows a rest area about an hour from here. I’m going to pull over there and we’ll get ourselves organized.
See if there’s anything to scrounge at the stores.
We should be able to get a few more solid hours of driving in before nightfall afterward. ”
“Going to this Glastine place?” Ethan asked.
“Those were my orders.” Les regarded what the woman who saved him had told him as orders he’d do his damnedest to follow.
“Roger.”
Ethan was a good man, as far as the roadies on Lally’s crew.
Les wished the third bus had made it to safety but once the infected swarmed you, you were done for.
Even if he’d had men and weapons at his disposal, they wouldn’t have been enough to stem the tide of what had flowed into the Fafield’s receiving yard.
As the miles ticked away, he thought about Lally.
And especially the way she’d forced the bitten dancer and the other guy to leave the bus, all the while knowing she herself was going to turn.
He had no idea if all her bracelets had been hiding a bite or a bad scratch but either way she’d been as much of a liability as those poor suckers.
From here on out he was going to be a lot more cautious and suspicious of everyone as a matter of survival.
That’s what the dumb ‘warlord’ of Rosewater should have done.
He should have had Lally and the others on the damn bus checked thoroughly for bites or scratches but he’d been dazzled by the show Lally was putting on just for him and in the end his laxness had cost him everything. And screwed all these poor people too.
Les took another glance at his passengers.
The toddler was sleeping now, cuddled up to the woman in the seat behind him.
He didn’t think she was the child’s mother but it was pretty selfless of her to rescue a kid.
He hoped there hadn’t been other children at the compound and the idea saddened him so he gave his full attention to the road, disengaging the AI and taking the controls.