Is that recent?
Are they getting closer?
He revved the tank and sent it down the road once more. Soon the hum of the engines lulled him to thinking, and at times almost sleep. The day was cold. He could feel the rain in the air. Knew the heat of the sun hadn’t driven away the cold of night completely. Winter was coming.
In the distance he could see Picacho Peak as the road began a long gentle curve to the west.
I am finally heading west.
He thought about the end of curses. What needed to be done once he returned to the village? How to organize them and get them back to the Fort?
The village is over.
How so?
When I return with this tank. Everything changes. My life in the village will be something that happened long ago. A dream. Just like my life before the bombs. A dream also.
It was noon when he spotted them coming down from the northern mountains across the plain like a vast dark herd. They were crossing the highway in groups, running for Picacho Peak just on the other side. He stopped the tank. The roar of the engines was still loud and he could hear nothing above it. He could feel the north wind on his face. He could feel the cold of the arctic and the high mountain passes it had come down through to reach the Sonoran Desert.
The Horde lay scattered in bands across the horizon. Now they formed into two groups.
So they still exist.
One group resolved itself into men and boys painted and various in weapons and dress. Savages of the new wasteland. The other group drew itself toward Picacho Peak, running like a startled herd of buffalo.
There is the main gun and then the machine gun.
If not today, when?
I don’t think I’ve ever killed a man.
Mirrored Sunglasses? The savage boy?
They killed themselves.
I don’t think it will be just a couple today.
The wild men came on in a ragged line, running with mouths open.
What you do today determines the future of the village. Civilization even.
I don’t know if I’m the man to make that choice.
There’s no other. Act now or die. Do this today or forget tomorrow!
The Old Man tapped the accelerator and listened to the engines spool up to a high-pitched whine.
Maybe this will give them something to stop for.
The ragged mobbed surged over the soft sand, closing the distance.
Do something now, Old Man!
They were twenty yards off when he gave the tank full power and pushed forward on the control sticks. The tank jumped forward with a roar, and the Old Man closed his eyes as he crashed into their line. They were hundreds turning into thousands and the air was suddenly thick with missiles of rock and broken pipe. He tucked into the hatch and kept forward on the sticks. He heard their wild screams above the thunder of the engines.
When the rain of debris ceased, he popped out of the hatch and checked the tank’s progress as it veered across the median. He overcorrected and the tank gave a sharp right turn. Before he could get it straightened out he’d gone out over the northbound lanes and into the desert off the road.
He surveyed the mob. There were thousands surging all around the tank. Thin gaunt men the color of dust chased his wake, waving and yelling. Potbellied, sun-browned women and feral children snarled as they ran from him. Stones began to fall, but they were too far off. The main mass of the mob seemed to be collecting around the base of the peak but the warriors were gathering again for another charge.
He moved the tank back onto the road and started toward the abandoned gas station. The desert scrub was thick on the far side of the road and at times, wild-eyed men and screaming women ran gibbering before the tank, darting off into the bushes like frightened animals.
He traversed the gun and toggled the gun sight onto the building where he’d found their laws. Behind him, their main force pounded down the road after him, their eyes wild with anger and fear. He depressed the red button atop the joystick and sent a round into the building.
At once, two things happened. The tank rocked back in a cloud of powdery dust, and the wall of the building exploded in a spray of cement. Beyond the building a moment later, the round exploded in dirt and sand, having passed straight through the decrepit wall without exploding.
The Old Man traversed the gun, hearing nothing but dull silence and feeling, more than hearing, the servos that swiveled the cupola. He landed the main gun on the advancing wall of savages.
“This must mean something to you!” he screamed and barely heard himself.
He felt a sharp blow on his shoulder as a club smashed down hard upon it. He turned to see a crazed naked man with cracked skin and open sores, his watermelon head drooling crazily amid a mouth full of misshapen teeth. The savage raised a club to strike once again. His attacker had climbed from the back of the tank onto the cupola. Three others were struggling up the same way, each as lunatic as the first.
The Old Man sank into the turret, grabbing at the hatch with his free hand as he stepped hard on the accelerator. The tank bolted forward across the road and onto broken ground. Sure that they had fallen off, he popped up from the turret once more to scan the terrain ahead. As he turned to look forward he saw that the tank was headed off the lip of a dry riverbed. He took his foot off the pedal hoping to stop in time.
The tank fell. He had just enough time to swing the hatch shut and throw himself to the floor of the tank.
HE AWOKE TO a cacophony of noise. Everywhere the sound of hammers and pipes could be heard across the interior of the tank. The Old Man was bathed in red light. He stood shakily and locked the hatch, marveling that they hadn’t pulled on it.
He reached into his ruck and got out some water. It was hot, though the sweat felt cold on his back. He wondered if they would try to set the tank on fire. He wondered if the tank would burn.
He found his way awkwardly into the control seat. The tank was in a facedown angle.
At least we are not on our side.
He stepped on the accelerator and the engines whined. He pushed forward on the sticks and felt the tank strain, but refuse to go forward. He reversed the sticks and felt the tank jump backward straining and digging. He took his foot off the pedal.
I might be stuck.
Anew, the ringing sounds of metal on metal began again.
Too much and I will dig a ditch I might not get out of. Then all they have to do is wait me out.
What other choice do you have? You only brought two cans of food and some water. They might damage something and stick you here whether you like it or not.
He pulled the restraint harness across his shoulders and snapped a belt around his waist.
I can’t go forward. But I can go back just a little.
He imagined what the tank might be stuck in. What position would cause that and how to get out without making things worse.
Outside the tank, someone had found a sledgehammer or something equally capable of making a tremendous ringing gong. Mixed with the other assaults, it was becoming unbearable.
I am not beaten. I am just stuck.
He thought of the old man in the book. What would he do?
Sometimes there is nothing to do but the only thing that you can do.
He gassed the accelerator hard and held back on the sticks with all of his might, as his fingers and wrist turned sweaty with heat and tension. At the top of the rise, he pushed forward on the tank, and then almost immediately, once it leapt forward, he pushed back again.
I have to pop the nose up. It’s the only thing I can imagine that must be done.
He felt his stomach float for a second and knew that the attitude of the tank had changed. He hoped it was
