The Door had a quirk that bothered him, something he had brought up with Ben, but they couldn’t find a way around it. The gears needed to pry open and close not just the concrete slab, but also the much heavier titanium underneath it required the machinery to completely run its course in one direction before it could be reversed. That meant if the Door opened, it had to fully open. He didn’t know enough about mechanics to understand why that was the case. Maybe if they found an engineer still alive out there, they could work on changing it.
Having exited through the Door, they had to wait until it closed completely behind them before striking out. That took exactly thirty-six seconds. To open, and to close. Exactly thirty-six seconds each way. He had timed it to within the exact second months ago. You never knew when something like that might come in handy.
He counted down the seconds in his head until the loud grinding noise cut off, and the clearing was suddenly serene again.
Lara was looking back at the Door. “You okay?” he asked.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been back up here,” she said. “It feels weird to see it closing and not be on the other side. How long did it take you to get used to it?”
“Who says I’m used to it?” That was a lie, but he thought she needed to hear it.
Their vehicles were where they left them, parked in a row to the right of the Door. The familiar Ram and Tacoma rested alongside three other trucks, a van, and a big semi without a trailer that took most of the space. The ghouls never bothered with the vehicles, which nagged at him.
He and Lara climbed into the Tacoma while Danny and Davies took the Ram. Both engines hummed to life without a problem. He checked his gas gauge, saw that he only had a quarter left.
He clicked the radio. “Ten miles up the highway, Davies?”
“Yup,” Davies answered through the radio.
“My truck’s almost empty. You, Danny?”
“I could use some more gas,” Danny said. “Wouldn’t mind grabbing a Twinkie or two or a dozen, either.”
“Let’s stop for gas.”
He put the Tacoma in gear and backed up. Lara pulled at her seatbelt and he grinned.
She caught him. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Safety first,” she said and blushed a little. He found it oddly endearing.
He led the Ram through the clearing, crushing tall grass underneath the big tires, and aimed it for the now-familiar bumpy road.
He said, “How about some tunes on the radio?”
Lara instinctively reached for the radio dial, but stopped short and gave him a wry look. “Oh, nice.”
He looked innocently back at her. “What? Nothing on the radio?”
“Funny. You’re a real funny guy, Will.”
“Works every time with the noobs.”
“Pleased with yourself, huh?”
“Just a little bit,” he said, pinching his fingers.
She gave him a playful punch on the shoulder before settling into the seat as the Tacoma bounced its way up the road. She grabbed onto the handle above the door to keep from being thrashed around.
“This road sucks,” she said, her voice stuttering with every skip and hop.
“That’s the point.”
“Still, it sucks.”
Because the road was so treacherous, he had to keep the speedometer low so he didn’t damage the vehicle. Danny, who was also used to the road by now, followed at his own slow pace. Will kept one eye on the road in front of him and the other on the wall of trees beside him. He could almost feel them inside, watching from the safety of the dark woods. Or maybe it was just his imagination.
Lara, who had been quiet for the last few minutes, finally decided to break the silence. “Thank you for staying with me last night.”
“Anytime.”
“I mean it, Will,” she said, looking at him now.
He met her eyes. “And I meant what I said. Anytime.”
She leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder. He put his free arm around her. Like last night, this was a major development in their relationship. He didn’t want to ruin it or rush her. He still remembered the taste of her mouth…
“Close your eyes and try to imagine we’re driving through the park,” he said. “A really, really bumpy park.”
“Okay.” She closed her eyes. “I’m imagining now…”
“Now ignore those undead ghouls trying to eat you…”
She laughed, but didn’t open her eyes or pull away. Instead, she leaned in closer, and he tightened his arm around her shoulders.
They stopped for gas at McVickers, one of two gas stations in Starch. Davies told them a story about how McVickers had opened as direct competition to a Valero gas station across town. The proprietor was the hometown bred Jim McVickers, who plotted and schemed to put Valero out of business by offering everything the chain gas station did, but at just a penny lower. Exactly a penny lower. To accomplish this, McVickers sent spies into Valero on a daily basis to take inventory of their shelves, then duplicated the items in his own store. It worked with the townspeople, and by the time The Purge struck, McVickers had claimed nearly sixty percent of Starch’s gas-guzzling customers.
While Danny and Lara looted what remained of McVickers’s shelves, finding mostly nonperishable junk food and warm bottled drinks in the freezers, Will and Davies used a hand-crank pump to siphon gas directly out of the underground storage container. They filled up both trucks, then added four cans of gasoline for emergencies. It didn’t pay to get caught out here without a gas station nearby.
By the time Danny and Lara came outside with bags of junk food and warm drinks, Will and Davies were done.
Danny tossed Will a bag of peanuts. “Damn rats been dining out on most of the junk food, but I was able to salvage that.”
“Way to go.”
“I do my best.”
Lara pulled out a yellow bag of Funyuns and tossed them over to Will. “This was the only unopened-slash-un-rat-infected bag left in the entire store. I managed to get to it before Danny could. You owe me.”
Danny smirked. “I let her have it.”
“You wish.”
“I’m gentlemanly that way. Ask Carly.”
“I’d rather not.”
“It’s true,” he insisted.
They climbed back into the trucks and took off. It was 8:24 a.m., and according to Davies, it wouldn’t take them more than fifteen minutes to drive up the highway to Dansby. Will had calculated in an hour’s drive anyway, in case of unforeseen problems. If all went well, they would be back in Starch and safely tucked away inside the facility by noon. If things really went to shit, they would have a five-hour window to get back or find a defensible position for the night.
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst…
They reached Highway 59 and were on their way up to Dansby about twenty minutes later. Will glanced at his watch as he drove: 8:45 a.m.
“See if you can get in touch with her again,” Will said.
Lara unlatched her seatbelt and reached into the back of the truck. She pulled forward the ham radio from the Control Room and put it in her lap.
They had tried to contact Elise earlier this morning but didn’t have any luck. It was a bad sign, but there were a myriad of explanations for why they couldn’t get in touch with her, and the girl did promise Lara she would remain where she was. Will knew radios were undependable, oftentimes at the mercy of whatever was scattered in the sky at any given time.