An arrow struck Salt in the head and the huskie tipped over dead as blood splattered the dog’s white hair. A wave of virals rushed toward them, and Tye, Tester, and Milly opened fire, the air filling with dust, gun smoke, bullets, and blood. Milly screamed with fury, her Glock 19 jerking in her hand as she emptied the clip. Tye was picking his targets carefully. He shot the closest virals as he ran, carving out a path across the yard one patient shot at a time.
“Make for the main gate,” Tye yelled.
Helga and Pepper stood over Salt, and it was Turnip who forced the dogs forward with a snarl. The virals tore Salt apart and ate the warm flesh. The scent of blood distracted them, and Tye and crew ran across the hardpan to the main entrance where steel gates stretched across a brick archway built into the outer wall. Four virals stood guard armed with swords and clubs, but four strategically placed bullets left the gates unmanned.
Tye screamed as he arrived at the exit. “Shiiiitttttt. The gate’s locked with a combination lock.”
Salt was bones, and the lost were gathering around the company. The virals hooted and hollered, jumping up and down and pounding their chests. Dirt, blood and fat was caked on their hands, faces and teeth. Red eyes burned like cinders, and Tye felt cold in their presence.
“Milly, you were around him. Any ideas what the combo might be?”
Milly couldn’t take her eyes off the diseased. They inched closer, chomping and biting the air, their sickly skin cracking. “We didn’t exactly get deep with each other.”
Thirty plus virals wedged them under the archway. They were losing space by the second as the diseased in the back rows pushed forward to see what was going on and driving the growing hoard. Tye raised his gun and fired into the air. It had no effect, and the Uruks crept forward.
“The combo will have something to do with Adaline,” Milly said. “Knowing him it’s… wait. Try 6, 12, 36.”
Tye spun the lock and then turned to her and shook his head.
“Wait. I’m wrong. Try 4, 12, 36. Adaline’s birthday was April 12th, 2036,” Milly said. Turnip stared at her. “He always baked me a cake.”
“Got it,” Tye yelled. He swung open the steel gate, and they all rushed through. Tester helped Tye close the doorway, and he reached through bars and locked the virals within the armory complex walls.
Larry circled above and cried out, spiraling lower each time. Daybreak was a few hours off and Tye decided they should wait until daylight to set out. So they huddled against the wall, all of them together in a ball, the dogs and cat on the outer edge. Tester took the first watch. In the distance, wolves howled and the night symphony made Tye’s ears ring.
They were free, and back on the road chasing the turtle. His old bones were less enthusiastic than they had been when they’d left Respite nine years ago. If the turtle ended up being a trap, or a road to nowhere he hoped he had the strength to lie down the quest and go home, where nobody cared about the old world or the new.
Tye closed his eyes and was asleep in moments.
Chapter Twenty-four
Year 2075 – Respite
Randy was surprised Hazel agreed to join him. It was his night to tend the Fire Wood and feed the livestock, and nobody liked doing that. He figured she wanted something. Tim was sick, and he’d been ready to spend the night alone when Hazel strolled down the center row of the Fire Wood.
“I hate this place, but I still can’t deny how smart it was to create it. We were lucky it survived the storm,” Hazel said.
Making conversation, she must really want something bad, Randy thought.
Hazel was dressed in a palm frond skirt, with an old blue t-shirt that said Bob Dylan on it with a list of cities on the back. As she came within the fire’s glow, he saw her hair was loose and not tied back as it usually was. She was beautiful.
“Our storm was nothing compared to the tsunami. Can you imagine what it must’ve been like seeing everything end,” Randy said. “I don’t know if I’d be able to accept it and carry on.”
“They didn’t have a choice back then. The Day changed everything.”
Randy smiled. He appreciated the reference to the sacred text Alas, Babylon. He was named after Randel Bragg. “Kind of like our fire guard test. Can you believe it’s only six months away?”
“Reminds me of the way the tale of the ring starts and ends in the Shire. Everything seems to come full circle,” Hazel said. “You seem nostalgic and talkative as your life’s goal approaches.”
“I’ve always been talkative, I just never…” He’d gone and stepped in it again.
“You just never talked about this stuff with me,” Hazel said.
Randy went to a pile of wood he’d been splitting, grabbed several logs, and stacked them on the cart. He threw two pieces of noni wood atop his small work fire and it blazed and shot sparks into the blackness. The scent of moisture, earth, and smoke filled the Fire Wood. “They should be good on wood up at the Womb for a while. Will you walk with me?”
She laughed. “My grandpa says leaving the fire unattended to make out is what caused all the trouble with our parents in the first place,” she said.
“I wasn’t suggesting that, though if you want…”
“I don’t,” Hazel said. All humor had fled.
“I was…”
“Trying to put me at ease with humor. I know you, remember? Better than you know yourself.”
