900 Miles (Book 2): 900 Minutes Read online

  “Take a right, John!”Jarvis pointed to what looked like a fork in the path.“That’ll take us back to the peak!”

  As I twisted the wheel, the rear of the truck slid sideways in the dirt before straightening out. Glancing back in my rearview mirror, I saw the truck behind us nearly tipping over as they tried to follow the tight turn. The Stripe hanging out the passenger side door flung around from the force like an old doll, before pulling himself back into the truck.

  “Up ahead!”Kyle said, pointing to the top of the hill.

  “We’re not going to be able to drive up that, boys,”Jarvis added on.

  He was right. The truck wouldn’t make it to the top. We’d have to jump out and make a short climb, leaving us completely exposed.

  “They’re not firing at us,”Kyle said, looking back at the Stripes’truck.“Maybe they’re out of ammo.”

  Ducking down as quickly as he’d said it, he neatly avoided another series of bullets as they rained across the armor siding.

  “Up there!”Jarvis pointed.

  Looking up to the top of the peak, we could see the beautiful twirling blades from the chopper. We were close now, just one final test.

  I slammed on the brakes, and the truck slid sideways to a stop at the base of the hill. All three of us were out and heading up before the thing came to a full stop. Over the roar of the engine behind us, I heard the rifle firing.

  Dirt and small fragments of rock spit up all around as bullets tore into the hillside. Driving over the rough terrain kept the bastard’s gun off target, but the second they stopped, I knew he’d have nothing but a straight shot.

  Digging my hammer into the ground, I pulled forward with sweat dripping from my face. Looking over my shoulder, I saw the truck slamming on its brakes. The edge of the hill was just yards away. The three of us pushed with everything we had left to get to the top. It wouldn’t be enough! They were stopped and getting out of the truck.

  I could practically feel the sight from the gun leveling off on my back as I frantically climbed, trying to race to the chopper. It was only a matter of time.

  Cha cha cha chang rang out from above us. Looking up, nearly breathless, I saw Mia perched like a goddess at the top of the hill. With the sun shining around her entire body, she glowed as her machine gun rocked up and down in what seemed like slow motion.

  Not taking the time to look back, I kept moving.

  Another burst of fire echoed through the hills. Bullet casings were raining from above, rolling down the hill all around us. Taking one step forward, my foot slid backwards across one of the casings, causing me to slide back a number of feet. In that moment, a bullet hit the stone just above my head. Crying out in pain, I felt a small fragment of rock slice open the flesh across my cheek.

  “Shit!”I yelled as another barrage of gunfire rang out above. An inch higher and the stone would have taken out my eye.

  “Come on! Keep moving! You’re not dying on this hill!”Mia’s voice rang out before she pulled the trigger once more.

  Gripping a root dangling over the edge, I pulled myself up and across the top, rolling sideways to escape the Stripes’line of sight. I nearly somersaulted into Kyle and Jarvis, who were both on all fours panting like beaten dogs. We stayed crouched and started to slide backwards toward the chopper. Mia was still filling the air with lead as she stepped back, then turned to meet us, pulling on Kyle’s arm to help lift him up.

  The side door to the smaller green military chopper was open, allowing the four of us to dive in just as the pilot, who I didn’t recognize at first, yanked on the yoke. With my face hanging slightly over the edge, the wind erupted all around as I pulled the sliding door shut. A few bullets managed to slam into the bottom of the chopper, but we were out of reach in a matter of moments.

  Looking out the window, I watched the destroyed airplane and our campfire shrink in size. That little spot had saved our asses. Maybe someone out there was making up for all the poor souls who died before we ever showed up.

  Chapter 27

  I may be a bastard. But I'm not the kind of bastard that would kill a kid.

  “I’ll be back by sunset,”Mia said with a hint of sarcasm before pulling Kyle up next to her. Not saying anything, he turned, looking her up and down as if to make sure she was real.

  “You forgot to mention you’d be burning down Kentucky on the way back,”she continued with a smile, as a shiny bead of water rolled down around her nose and onto her lips.

  The only time I’d ever seen even a hint of a tear hit Kyle’s face was on that chopper as he pulled Mia in close and embraced her tightly. With her head dug deep into his shoulder as he rested his chin on her brow, they both sat there, with their eyes closed, holding one another as if they were on borrowed time.

  Twisting my wedding ring, I looked away and dropped my head down to my chest as my thoughts fell to being reunited with Jenn seven months earlier. Before she passed away giving birth to Tyler.

  Pain always seems to follow the good moments.

  Twisting around to the front of the chopper, I peered into the cockpit. To my surprise, I found that an old friend was busy keeping us in the air and pointed toward Avalon.

  Reaching over to grab a headset hanging on a metal hook near my shoulder, I slid it over my ears and blew twice into the microphone to make sure it was connected.

  “I should have known you’d be part of this suicide mission.”

  Turning around, the pilot smiled and simply replied,“Just like old times, huh, John?”

  “Yeah, I guess so, buddy. Thanks for coming after us. We probably owe our lives to you,”I replied, reaching over and patting him on the shoulder.

  “Not me. You have Mia to thank for that. She wouldn’t stop harassing me until we were in the air.”

  He was a former resident of Fort Gordon, the Augusta Army base we’d found shelter at before heading back to Avalon. His name was Cooper, and we had been through a hell of a time together trying to get from Augusta to Avalon in those first weeks of the apocalypse. The bond forged during that trip left me realizing that I shouldn’t have been surprised that Mia was able to recruit him to come out after us.

  “How long until we’re back?”I asked.

  “Shouldn’t be more than a few hours. You should get some rest. The whole of Avalon is racing around preparing for the attack.”

  He went on to explain that less than a mile from the front gate of Avalon’s outside wall, there was a small army amassing. Filled with trucks, men, and a number of choppers that had airlifted in some sort of huge wooden boxes, the war zone was quickly getting ready to heat up.

  “Wooden boxes?” I questioned.

  “I haven't seen it myself, but the radio operator is telling me that there are a number of them. They’re covered up by tarps, so nobody can see them well enough to know what they are…or what they’re for.

  I gulped hard, feeling my Adam’s apple move up and down, then thanked Cooper once again and sat back down in the cabin. He was right. We wouldn’t have any time to prep, and I only hoped that Richard, who was still running things back at Avalon, was able to pull all the right moving pieces together. Between the Dead Shed filled with Zs, Kyle’s all-or-nothing last resort—Project BOHICA—and a few other tricks up our sleeves, we’d be able to put up a fight. However, after seeing that hovering gunship tear down the Stripes’tree fortress, I knew in my heart of hearts that the odds of us pulling a win out of this one were very thin.

  Noticing that Mia was looking out the window, I waved at her and pointed to my headset. After she slipped one over her head, I asked,“How are Tyler and Deanna with everything happening?”

  “Deanna is her old self, trying to get more information from people than she really needs. Old busybody.”

  “And Tyler?”

  Her face grew serious, dropping my heart into my stomach. My palms went clammy as an icy shiver went up my spine.

  “We need to get back with the meds, John. He’s doing OK, but as of
about thirty minutes ago, we got word that he’s starting to have a little trouble breathing.”

  Seeing the look on my face, she continued with a forced smile.“Don’t worry, John. Doc says that if we get back soon, he should be just fine.”

  Cracking a half-smile, I gripped the backpack straps and pulled them tight.

  “Your boy misses you, John. When he heard your voice over the radio speakers yesterday, he sat up and started to crawl toward the radio table,”she said, while imitating a crawl by using her arms.

  The little bugger knew my voice and had started to crawl. I shook my head, knowing that missing the first time he crawled was a small price to pay for trying to keep him safe; however, deep down, it still stung.

  Looking over at Kyle, who now also had a headset on, and then back toward me, Mia’s eyes narrowed as she let a sly smile grow across her face.

  “One other thing. That woman whose child you saved from the cafeteria…Claire? She’s been helping Deanna out with Tyler. Seems like you’ve made quite an impression on that one.”

  That shit-eating grin, which I knew all too well, grew across Kyle’s face, but he refrained from saying anything. Thinking back to the drug-induced dream I’d had the day before, I began to twist my wedding ring around my swollen finger.

  Trying to be as nonchalant as possible, I looked up from my hand with a slight shrug and said,“I’m sure she’s just returning the favor for saving little Olivia.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure that’s what it is,”Kyle chimed in with a bit of a laugh.

  Rolling my eyes, I looked the window and thought about little Olivia and all the other people that were back at Avalon. Sure, it was an underground bunker that sometimes felt like a catacomb, but it was also our home, and the people living there were good. We’d built something at Avalon that needed to be preserved amongst the nightmare that lived outside its walls.

  We’d fought so hard to do what was right in a world of shit, a world where everything seemed wrong. Thinking back over the last twenty-something hours, I realized that I’d done whatever it took to get back to them. For the first time, I’d taken a man’s life. Not just a Z. Hell, killing Zs was easy. Killing a living person was something that I’d managed to avoid. Something that I had always hoped I wouldn’t have to do, but feared I may need to.

  The look on the Hulk’s face as he took his last breath flashed before my eyes. Then I thought of Rodgers and the terror in his eyes as I pulled the trigger to cripple him in that underwater grave. I’d known what I was doing. I was killing people so that I’d be able to keep going. So I’d be able to save my son.

  Running a hand over the backpack filled with the meds, I wasn’t sure what, if anything, made me better or different from anybody else out there who was willing to do murder. At some point, in order to survive, we’d all lost a little humanity, and mine was clearly gone. Was I really doing what was right in a world of shit? I’m not sure I have the answer to that. However, I can only hope that what I’ve done to keep going…to keep my friends and family safe will be worth the trade for my soul.

  Feeling my eyelids weighing down as if they’d been carrying boulders, I finally slipped off to sleep. Images of death filled my mind, but it had been a while since they really felt like nightmares. Now they were just dreams. The same ones I had every time I closed my eyes.

  Some time later, I was shaken awake as the rotor of the helicopter hit some turbulence while we shifted to the side, making a wide turn. Sitting up, I wiped the sleep from my eyes and leaned forward to brace my arm against the cold metal side of the vehicle.

  In the distance, I could see the familiar walls in the open field that surrounded Avalon. Sitting up straight, realizing we were so close, I had a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach as I thought about what I’d find there.

  “Why are we circling around?”I asked into the mic on the headset.

  “Gordon’s army is sitting out front. Looks like they started pulling into the field. We need to fly around them. Don’t want to get shot at, or worse,”Cooper replied while keeping his eyes fixed on the ground below.

  Nodding my head, I shifted my body to look out the window as we continued to make a wide half-circle around the field. From the air, I could see multiple grounded helicopters, cars, and men running around and setting up all their equipment.

  “It’s a rear operating base,”Kyle said.

  I noticed both he and Mia had their faces plastered to the windows as well. Kyle appeared to be counting, trying to get a lock on how many men we’d be up against.

  Nobody took as much as a shot at the chopper. Closing my eyes, I tried to calm my nerves as I realized I was more frightened at the fact that they let us pass unscathed. We were simply flying into Gordon’s web, and he was happy to let us do it.

  Cooper lowered the chopper onto a landing pad that sat atop the Greenbriar Hotel, or what was left of it. A few months back a group of marauders had tried to enter our Avalon bunker through the hotel, which looked and felt like the size of the White House. After unsuccessfully attempting to break through the blast door, they decided they’d set the former immaculate hotel on fire. With nothing and no one to put it out, nearly half of the structure burned to the ground before a lucky rainstorm passed overhead.

  Fortunately, the landing pad on the less burnt side of the building was still mostly structurally sound, and we knew we couldn’t exactly land out in the field at the moment.

  Feeling the skids touch down, I was out the side door before Cooper had taken his hand off the yoke. Shooting my gaze out at the field, I felt like I ran into a wall as I realized what we were up against. A field of men all pointing at us as they moved back and forth, preparing for the attack. For some reason, it looked a hell of a lot more real from that rooftop than it did flying above.

  With the rest of the group in tow, I bolted down a set of charred black stairs until we hit the ground floor and made our way through a series of hallways, some of which still had elegant paintings that had only been singed in the fire—a subtle reminder of how prestigious the Greenbriar Hotel had been long ago.

  With a bottle of the lifesaving medicine in hand, we reached what seemed like a large yellow wall with green horizontal stripes running down the side, circa 1970s. Kyle ran over to a small hidden seam and pulled the entire wall back to reveal a large rectangular iron door that led into our underground base. This back door had been used by the original builders of the Greenbriar to gain entrance to the trade show floor. When opened, it looked like a natural hall that led into a giant room where the Greenbriar staff would host enormous events. The unsuspecting guests would be inside the underground base and wouldn’t even know it. When closed, it created a seal that was as hard to get through as the rest of the cylindrical entrances to the bunker.

  We’d done battle in that trade show room, as it was the very same place that Gordon’s Arena had been set up in. Though it had since been dismantled, I still got the chills every time I stepped into the place. So many people had died there in that first week.

  Maybe they were the lucky ones.

  Standing back and looking up, Kyle waved his hands at a camera pointed directly down at him.“Hello,”he mouthed silently.

  A few moments later, a circular handle on the left-hand side of the door started to twist, popping open the seal as the door cracked, providing us safe passage into our home.

  Stepping into the room, I lifted my head to find Tyler’s baby blue eyes staring at his father. I don’t know how else to explain how I felt, other than to say that I was simply filled with joy…a feeling that I hadn’t had in far too long. The joy of getting home. The joy of being reunited with my son. The joy that he was all right. I felt no pain, no worry. Just Tyler and I there reunited. It was a moment that is hard to explain, but one that will be left in my mind as a bright spot until I’m gone from this earth.

  As Deanna slid him into my arms, I thanked her for watching after him, and pulled him to my chest before raising him above
my head“Lion King”style. He started to giggle as I wiggled my fingers under his armpits. I brought him back down and kissed him on the thin, light blond hair covering his head.

  With the nebulizer in hand, Deanna was busy sliding the canister of medicine into the small machine when I heard a small girl’s voice cry out.

  “John!”I looked down to see Olivia push past Deanna and run up to grab my leg, I nearly lost my balance as she exclaimed,“I’m so happy you’re back!”

  Reaching one arm down, I patted her on her back, simply saying,“Me too, Olivia. Me too.”

  Beyond Deanna and Richards, who had already pulled Jarvis to the side, I saw those beautiful blue eyes watching us through the crowd. When she saw I’d noticed her, she stepped forward slowly with both hands clutched in front of her body.

  “Olivia can’t stop talking about you,”she said with a slight grin, before looking to the ground.

  Fumbling to find words, I finally replied,“I heard the two of you have been helping Deanna out with this little monster.”I twisted my finger under Tyler’s armpit again, eliciting a sweet giggle that brought Claire’s head up from the floor, now with a full smile.

  “Well, it’s the least I could do after you saved my little girl’s life. Besides, I love kids, and that one’s a sweetheart.”She stepped closer to rub Tyler’s back.

  “Well, thank you. It truly means the world to me,”I said in a near whisper, while gazing down at my son.

  Breaking the moment, Richards called over to me.

  “John, I have something you gotta see. Think you can stop by the bunkroom?”

  "What is it?”

  "Better that you see, John. It’ll just take a minute.”

  Looking over to Kyle and Jarvis, they both shrugged their shoulders in near unison.

  Nodding toward Richards, I turned and thanked Deanna and Claire. I didn’t want to give Tyler up. Every bit of fatherly instinct told me to keep him within my sight. I’d been away too long, and I felt a physical pain at the thought of handing him over to anybody in that moment.