“Oh, hell no. This thing barely carries me.”
“Fine. Then you take Fisher and I’ll take the kids.” She shot him an evil stare.
Mitch glanced at Fisher who was sleeping sitting up again. “Aww…fine. Give ’em to me.”
“Be nice,” Candy whispered. “They’re kids, and they’re obviously exhausted.”
She helped Buck onto the front rack. “Can you hold on to this?”
“Ma’am, if it means not having to run anymore, I’ll hold on to anything.” He gave her a tired smile.
“Great.” Candy winked at him. She got Skeeter on the back and placed her hands on the rear rack. “Just hold on here.” Skeeter nodded and gripped the rack with white knuckles.
“Can we go now?” Mitch asked sarcastically.
“Oh, I thought we’d wait ’til the zombies got here and introduce you to them,” she said as she straddled her ATV again and elbowed Fisher in the ribs, waking him again.
“Everyone’s a comedian,” Mitch fired back as they pulled forward.
He thought driving the ATV was a pain in the neck before, but the added weight over the front end made steering it almost as big a pain in the ass as driving his previous ATV with the bent rims. The steering was dead and non-responsive, and the added weight made taking corners quickly a thing of the past.
The two took off as quickly as they could, Buck informing them that turning right would be a big mistake.
Left it was then.
Mitch gunned the ATV during the straightaways and had to slow considerably for curves and corners, but it beat the hell out of walking. As they crested a small hill, Buck pointed off in the distance,
“More lights!” he shouted above the engine.
“How many?” Candy asked.
“Just one,” Mitch said. “Looks like another ATV.”
Candy slowed a bit and looked at Mitch. “You think it may be another ranger?”
Mitch shrugged. “Most likely if it’s out here.”
The pair accelerated again and tried to meet up with the oncoming light. Mitch wasn’t surprised to find Hatcher’s ugly mug show up in his headlight.
“Looks like you picked up a few strays,” Hatcher noted as he pulled alongside Mitch, his relief obvious that the pair were unharmed.
“More than a couple,” Mitch said. He poked Buck with his finger. “You. Off. Go ride with him.”
Buck shot him a dirty look, but slid off the front rack of the four-wheeler, a longing look cast over his shoulder at Skeeter before he slipped onto the back of the other ATV.
“I see you found Fish.” Hatcher nodded toward the man who was now leaning against Candy, a line of drool working its way down her shoulder. “Is he bit?”
“Are you kidding?” Mitch chuckled. “If he was, I’d have already put a bullet in him. No, this redheaded, freckle-faced freak just got his arm broke by Miss Big Ti…er…I mean, um.” He glanced at Candy, then back at Hatcher. “He got his arm broke by one of the crazy people,” Mitch said smiling. “Nasty woman with no clothes on.”
Buck spun his attention around when Mitch said that. “Hey, did she have blonde-colored hair? Green eyes?”
Mitch stared at the kid a moment like he was crazy. “Kid, she had red eyes, just like all the other crazy muthas out here tonight.”
Buck felt like slapping himself in the forehead for that one. Of course she did. “I mean, did she have blonde hair? Thong underwear on?”
“Kid, she was naked as the day she was born,” Mitch shot back. “And don’t you be getting no ideas, neither.”
Buck shot him a hateful look and pointed at him, “What color was her hair, dammit?”
Mitch leaned back at the outburst and gave Buck a surprised look. “I couldn’t really tell ya, kid. It was all dirty, leaves and twigs and shit in it.” He started to chew the kid out for the attitude until he saw the range of emotions crossing his features. “She mean something to you?”
Buck’s shoulders slumped as he stared off into nothingness. He gave a slight shake of his head, realizing that even if he could find her, there was little to nothing that could probably be done for her.
Skeeter watched the exchange from behind Mitch and leaned forward, whispering beside him, “That’s his mom.”
Mitch turned to her. “You sure about that? There’s a lot of women out in these woods tonight that are acting all crazy.”
Skeeter nodded in his shadow. “If she was nude and had large breasts and blonde hair, then yeah. That’s the description of the woman we’ve been searching for all night.”
Mitch nodded slightly. “If I’d had my way, I’d have put her down earlier. She killed at least one of my men,” he replied quietly. “I feel for the kid, but that crazy lady is bad news.”
Candy turned toward Hatcher. “Were you able to reach any of the other rangers? Maybe the sheriff’s office?”
Hatcher sighed and shook his head. “Yeah, uh, about that,” he said slowly.
“Oh, I do not like that sound of that,” Mitch groaned. “Please don’t tell me we’re on our own out here.”
“No, we are definitely not on our own out here,” Hatcher informed him. “Worse.”
Mitch gave Hatcher a dirty look. “What do you mean, ‘worse’? How can we be worse off than being on our own?”
Hatcher inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. Then he told them the tale of Yellowstone’s military invasion.
“What Army mans?” Bill asked as the trio hit the paved road and he turned toward the main highway. “Did you see something in the woods that looked like an Army man?”
Jake shook his head. “No,” came his simple reply.
“Then why would you say something like that?” Bill asked, at ease now, but trying to make conversation and get the boy’s mind off his catatonic grandfather in the backseat.
“Because they’re at the park now.” Jason stared out the window absently.
“Oh, they are?” Bill smiled and patted the kid’s shoulder. “And what are the Army mans doing at the park, son?”
Jason fiddled with something
