Marks leaned back in his chair and looked around the room. “Well… to be honest with you, sir, we were doing all right on our own. Making good time on the trail, trying to get to our next way—”
The woman interrupted. “They were on the trail to Denton.”
The old man let out a hacking laugh. “Hell, you’re lucky she came along then. Denton Shore is overrun—hell, worse than that—it’s a hot bed. These things are coming in from all over to get to Denton. You’d a never made it out of there.”
“What do you mean?” Marks asked suspiciously.
Eve pushed off from the counter and moved back to the table. “They’ve been migrating to there by the thousands. Don’t know why, but it started a little over a month ago. They go down to the water and wade out in it, just standing out there before moving on.”
“You got close enough to verify it?” Marks asked.
Eve rolled her eyes. “You were close enough to verify it, if you’d bothered to look around. Didn’t you notice anything unusual on the road? All the traffic moving to the lake?” She shook her head, waiting for his response. “The East Bay, where you all came in”—she slammed a fist on the counter, raising her voice—“is full of them and you idiots damn near drove right down their throats. Then you turned and left, and led the entire pack this way. Hell, didn’t you notice the water is black? I’ve spotted columns of movement every day coming from all directions.” She turned and looked at the old man. “Daddy, we need to leave. They’re getting closer to this place by the hour, and they only made it worse.”
The old man put a hand up; he looked up as the red door opened again. This time, an older woman with blue hair pulled tightly back, wearing oversized clothing and a button-up, dark-blue sweater ushered out, smiling. She held a large pot and was followed by a boy carrying plastic bowls.
“Really, it’s okay, ma’am,” Marks said, putting up a hand, feeling uncomfortable by Eve’s sudden outburst.
The old woman shook off the comment. “Oh no, we feed our guests, young man,” she said, moving forward, placing the large pot on a counter. “The kids already ate and there’s plenty.” She took a ladle from a drawer and filled the bowls. “Remember when we’d have all the guys over for dinner, Henry? It sure has been a while since we had a house full of soldiers,” she said with a smile.
Henry Stone laughed and slid his chair back, reaching for a pot. He added more hot water to his cup. “Been twenty years at least.”
“We take care of our own though, don’t we, Henry?” she said.
The old man grinned. “Yeah, guess we do. Boys, this is my wife, Gloria, and my grandson Billy.”
The men around the table nodded as the boy handed out bowls of potato soup. Marks took a bowl and after a heaping spoonful, he looked back at Stone. “Sir, do you have a radio? We really need to get north and contact our command. Maybe there's something we can do to help.”
The man coughed into a napkin and shook his head, pointing at a black box near a small table in a corner. “Had one, but lost it. Thing cooked itself; probably dirty power from the generator. Still have the receiver if you think you can get it working.”
Marks nodded to Rogers, who wiped his face with a napkin and stepped off toward the radio, taking the bowl with him. Marks looked back to the front. “You seem well armed. How many people you got here?”
The man nodded and, looking at the shelves lining the walls, said, “The guns? Just part of my collection. I have more in the field. Don’t worry about any of that; it’s just the three of us and the five grandkids.
"So tell me, son, where exactly are you headed?” he asked before Marks could follow up with another question.
Marks hesitated, looking back to Stephens, who shrugged. “What harm’s it gonna do now?”
“We need to get to Grayling,” Marks said.
The man licked at his teeth and stroked his gray beard. “Well, you’re on the right track. Take the highway up the west side of the lake and you’ll run right into it. That is, if it weren’t for all the black eyes in the way. Son, I’m not sure you’ll ever get past that lot. To be honest, I’m not sure how you made it this close to the lake without them getting you.”
Marks shook his head in disagreement. “You seem to be doing okay.”
Stone dipped his head slowly. “Might seem that way. I’ve lost my sons and their wives out there. Eve and the kids are all we got left.” The man looked away. Gloria moved to his side and put a hand on his shoulder. He shook off the feelings and drank the rest of the tea. “If you could cause a big enough distraction—and I mean it would have to be big—you might be able to break away to the north.”
“What exactly do you have in mind?”
Chapter Forty-Three
“So what is it you have to show me?” Marks asked.
They were riding in the passenger compartment of a large crew cab truck. Stone was at the wheel and Stephens was riding shotgun while Jacob was in the backseat with Duke panting away in the space between him and James. Not as nice as the new one they’d left buried in the mud, but this truck was better equipped for the back country where they now weaved in and out of trees and large boulders. The truck was fitted with oversized tires, a raised suspension, and a large tubular steel brush guard that helped Stone force his way through the back trails and dirt tracks. The truck showed the dents and scars of being used in the rough wooded terrain, and Stone showed
