Chapter 5 #2
“Buddy, you got bigger problems than us. Just go. Stay low, steal a vehicle, and get the fuck out of the city. Don’t walk, don’t fight, run.”
“What about—”
Blake shoved him. The man was so injured he couldn’t hold himself up, and he fell back onto the pavement.
“The fuck you think this is? Hero time? This is get your ass out of here time. Now, go!”
He didn’t wait for their response, rounding the truck to get in. Tommy didn’t say anything when he climbed in, pulling it into gear and edging along the ruined road. They couldn’t afford to blow out a tire.
“Are they robots?”
Blake shook his head, leaning to look over the dash. His vision was still blurry, and he could feel his muscles stiffening up.
Sunshine was beginning to peek through the clouds. In the distance, he could see a particularly dark cloud. It was weirdly shaped and stagnant. Almost like it was hovering rather than flowing with the rest of the clouds. Was it a storm cloud? Rain might help with the fires.
Tommy’s teeth were chattering, but he was looking straight ahead. His hair was singed on one side, and he looked paler than normal.
“I don’t know,” Blake forced himself to say. “But I’m sure the cavalry will be here any minute.”
Tommy glanced over at him. “You think they can beat them?”
“Hell, Tofu, you took one on with a taser.”
His lips quirked in a humorless smile. Tightening his grip on the wheel, he continued easing their way through the city.
Most of the ugly smoke from fires seemed to be coming from the north. They were going east. He could only hope they were avoiding most of the fighting that way.
Blake had been born and raised in DC. He knew these streets, but right now he didn’t recognize them. It was like looking at the world through a mirror; everything was similar but wrong.
He tried not to, but he couldn’t help but think about his parents.
They’d retired last year and moved to Florida.
Said they were tired of shoveling snow. They bought a little condo in a 55+ community where everyone drove golf carts, and the HOA was up your ass about every little blade of grass.
It was hard to picture his type A mother as happy there, but she seemed content enough with their infrequent phone calls.
They didn’t talk often, not that it was much different from when she lived in the same city.
It wasn’t that they didn’t love each other; it was just that their love was quiet.
No news is good news, kind of thing. As far as his mother was concerned, she’d birthed him, and that meant she cared about him. She’d let him know if that changed.
His father tried to breach the gap, but the man spent most of his energy on his model train collection, just trying to survive retirement.
He was a good man with a good heart, but he was forgetful.
He had a good heart, but most of his energy was spent on his model train collection and just trying to survive himself.
Were they alive?
He didn’t know. How would he know? If he died today, how long would it take before they knew? Were they just sitting around the phone, desperate for a call?
Blake clenched his jaw and tried the radio again.
“Do you think it’s just here?” Tommy asked, clearly as deep in his thoughts as Blake was. “Or is it…everywhere?”
“I’ve been next to you the whole time,” Blake snapped as he got no response from the radio. “I know just as much as you.”
Tommy acted like he’d punched him, and he felt bad. He opened his mouth to say some kind of platitude neither one of them would believe, but then they heard popping.
Blake lowered the window just as they turned the corner to an intersection. Several cars were tossed around, including a police cruiser and a motorcycle. Their drivers, nowhere to be seen.
The popping returned in bursts.
“Gunshots,” they said at the same time.
Tommy stopped the truck and Blake climbed out, using the open window to scramble onto the roof of the ambulance, ignoring the throbbing in his ribs and back. Shading his eyes with his hand, he looked over the courtyard of a surprisingly intact motel.
A group of soldiers were pinned down. One of those ugly four-legged monsters was approaching them, but behind it was something bigger. Blake didn’t think anything could be scarier than the thing that attacked him, but he was wrong.
He couldn’t see how many soldiers there were, but it didn’t sound like a lot.
There was some yelling and a lot of gunfire.
One of them was dragging another, popping off rounds one-handedly.
A third was calling, darting to the left to try and get the thing’s attention off his fallen comrade. He was firing as he ran, head down.
Blake didn’t know much about soldiers—but these didn’t look like the ones he’d seen in movies. Where the hell were their tanks and shit? And these soldiers were dressed all in black.
Still, they were going to die. They were taking cover where they could, but the two creatures were pushing them toward a blazing fire. Slowly, almost like they were toying with them.
“Oh no,” Tommy muttered from below Blake.
Blake watched the lone soldier narrowly miss a shot.
He dove forward, rolling until he struck a hydrant with his shoulder.
Dragging himself up, his legs wobbled as he tried to put distance between the things and his fellow soldiers.
Blake thought he could almost see the flash of teeth as he grimaced.
“We have to help them,” he said, surprising himself.
Tommy looked up at him with big eyes. “How?”
Blake glanced around, his gaze landing on something in the intersection. “I’ve got an idea.”
“Is it a good one?” Tommy asked as Blake climbed down, landing lightly. He followed Blake with his eyes.
“We’ll find out.”
Tommy groaned.