“Hey, baby,” he said to her picture. “I know I failed you. But they left a note. They’re on the—”
When his phone rang, it startled him to the point he nearly dropped it. He looked at the screen. Incoming calclass="underline" Mom.
“Holy shit!” Mick quickly answered the phone. “Mom!”
“Mick, oh, God, thank God. Where are you?”
“Mom, I don’t know if a man named Ethan arrived in town or not—”
“He did,” Rose said. “He told us. Did you find them? Did you find the boys?”
“No, not yet. I followed their trail. They left me a note on a wall in this small town, said they were on their way home and they were fine.”
“What do you think?”
“I think someone is bringing them home, not sure. I got a bike and I’m heading back to Lodi, hoping to get them on the way. We’re only a few hours out.”
“That’s a good idea.”
“Mom, did that little baby live?” Mick asked.
“Yes, he did. He is doing great. Is there anything you need me to do? Do you need help?”
“No,” Mick answered quickly, then changed his mind. “You know what? Yes. We’re really near 90 right now, and I’m gonna guess the boys took 90 and are coming in from Cleveland. Can you head out to meet them? You’ll wanna take that route north toward Cleveland and then toward Erie.”
“Absolutely, I’ll leave now.”
“Mom, there’s that rest area, just where 90 junctions with 70. Outside Erie, remember? Meet me there if you don’t find the boys. That’s a halfway point. If neither of us have any luck, we’ll go from there.”
“I’m leaving now, Mick. Be careful.”
“You too.” Mick readied to end the call, but stopped when he heard his name.
“Mick?”
“Yeah?”
“I love ya.”
“I love you too,” Mick said, and hung up the phone. He was renewed, invigorated with hope and his adrenaline pumped. He mounted the bike, started it, and pulled from the service station onto Main.
Even though there wasn’t any traffic, habit caused Mick to pause and look both ways. Had he not, he wouldn’t have seen that in the direction he was heading, five trucks had pulled into the large gas station at the onset of town.
He could see supplies in the trucks and not only did men get out from the cabs, but they hopped from the back. Lots of men. Some wore camouflage, some wore black. They joked, laughed, hooted and hollered. Mick looked longer to make sure he didn’t see the boys, and when he didn’t, Mick, not wanting to wait around to see what they were up to, took off in the other direction.
11. Different Turn
Briggs waited, and at eight a.m. he was ready to go searching for the missing men from unit 149. At the suggestion of his new right hand man, he’d waited two more hours, then headed toward Erie.
If they were coming they’d be coming up that way.
At ten on the nose, Briggs was out the door. He had one man in his jeep and four other highly trained men following in a Humvee, in case there was trouble.
They made it into Pennsylvania without incident, and Briggs didn’t think they would run into any trouble. Most of the towns had been cleared out and the residents had moved to Damon.
Like he had a hundred times in the journey, Briggs looked to his phone to check for a signal. Then suddenly, he smiled.
“You’re like a teenager, sir,” his driver said.
“We have life in the phones again. Now why isn’t he calling? He said he would call when the signal went back up.”
“Why don’t you call him?”
“What if we try to call at the same time?” Briggs asked. “Then that would be frustrating.” I’ll wait.”
The driver glanced over at him. “Staring won’t make it ring.”
“Keep your eyes on the road, son. We have a six thousand pound vehicle tagging our ass, I don’t want you to make a mistake and have them ram us.”
“Yes, sir.”
After a few moments, the phone rang. Excitedly, he answered it. “Briggs.”
“You’ve been waiting to do that, I see,” Jon said on the other end.
“I have. Feels good. Even though it hasn’t been that long, it feels good. I thought you would have called right away, you were watching for the signal too.”
“I would have but…listen, I got news,” Jon said. “We got in touch with 149.”
“Where are they?”
“You’re not gonna like it. Seems they told us to stop bothering them unless we want to negotiate.”
“Negotiate? What the hell does that mean?”
“It means they cornered off Pennsylvania near the lake across Erie. They said it’s their territory now.”
“Jon, how many men could that be? Ten? Fifteen tops? I mean, how much of a hold can they have on that corner?”
“From what I was told,” Jon said, “they have more. They joined up with several other units that haven’t checked in and I’m on that now figuring out who they are. They said they have survivors, and Jonah… I heard kids in the background. Crying kids.”
Briggs snapped his finger to the driver, and signaled for him to stop. The driver held his hand out the window and slowed down before halting the vehicle.
Once the jeep stopped, Briggs stepped outside to have more privacy. “Tell me all you know.”
“Aw man,” Chris whined. “I knew it. I knew it.” He hit the steering wheel as they passed a sign.
From the back seat, Tigger said. “I told you.”
“Shut up, Tig,” Chris barked. “We went East instead of West, didn’t we?”
Jake held the map. “New York is north sort of, I don’t know.”
“We went east. We have to turn around.” Chris said. “Let me see the map.”
“Watch the road!” Tigger shouted.
“Tig, I’m only glancing. I’m good.”
“You’re gonna hit them.”
“Hit what?” Chris asked, eyes shifting to the map and to the rearview mirror.
“Those cars.”
Chris looked up.
Jake and Tigger screamed, and Chris, as he too screamed, hit the brakes. He wasn’t going very fast, yet the car swerved some before coming to a screeching halt.
He breathed heavily. “Oh my God. Oh my God. Everyone alright?”
Jake nodded then his eyes grew wide.
“I’m fine, too!” Tigger yelled.
“Is Emmie…” When Chris turned around to check on Emmie, he saw Jake pointing.
Chris peered out the windshield. Walking toward the car was a very tall black man in uniform. In fact, he was the tallest man Chris had ever seen next to Mick.
“Holy shit.” Chris whispered. “What do we do?”
“He has a gun,” Jake said. “He looks mean. He’s gonna kill us.”
Tigger hollered. “Reverse! Reverse!. Get us out!”
“Good thinking, Tig.” Nervously, Chris reached for the gear, shifted it, hit the gas, but the car was in neutral and only revved. He looked up the man grew closer. Hurriedly, Chris shifted again and hit the gas.
The car jerked forward.
Thump.
Chris watched as the front end of the car sent the man sailing to the left. He hit the brakes again and put the car in park. “Oh my god.”
“You killed him!” Jake said. “You just killed a man.”
“I didn’t mean to. What do we do?”
“Go!” Tigger popped his body between the two front seats. “Go.”
“I can’t go, I can’t.” Chris shook his head and reached for the car door.
Jake grabbed his arm. “Chris, there are five other men. Just go.”
Chris shook. His voice quivered. “I just committed vehicular homicide. I can’t go anywhere. It just ain’t right.” He opened the door.