Gus is leading them as I expected. I see his lady rising behind him and pointing her handgun at us.
She fires two shots, which hit the rear hood of the truck. This definitely proves that they didn’t come all the way back to tell us their best wishes.
I am confident about the ability of this truck to handle a close car chase and gunfight. This is an armored military Humvee that is designed to be tough against attackers.
Gus gets to the left side of the truck and speeds up as two bikers close in right behind us.
I do a brake check that panics the bikers behind. One of them steers to the outside of the road while the other one can’t slow down or steer away on time and hits our bumper. He loses his balance and gets dragged to the curbside bushes.
Gus gets in front of us after our break check. His wife turns to us and points the gun again. Kathleen moves quicker and fires her gun outside of the window. The bullet doesn’t catch the target, but it was a good enough shot to scare them. Gus goes far on the left side and slows down to get on the same line as us again.
Another biker goes to the right side of us while two more bikers follow behind from a distance.
The biker on the right pulls up a shotgun with one hand while holding on the handle with his other hand.
“Drive him out!” Kathleen yells. I turn the steering wheel sharply to the right. The biker can’t find time to slow down or run from us. The Humvee hits his left handle and front tire. He falls with his bike and rolls over himself in a dust cloud.
I can’t keep the truck on the road after that sharp steering. We get off the road and fly over the irrigation ditch. We find ourselves on the bumpy terrain. I reduce my speed, but the truck’s tires continue to lift from the ground as we keep hitting pits and bushes.
Gus and three other bikers go off the road as well. Their fancy motorcycles that were built for asphalt have difficulty maintaining stability and catching up with us. They reduce their pace as well.
I look at the mirror to see where they are, and there’s now a longer distance between us.
“Watch out!” Kathleen screams.
I move my eyes back to the road, but it’s too late to avoid a giant fallen log. I slam on the breaks right before the truck’s front tires hit the log and get lifted. The rear tires hit the log slower, but we still feel a huge jump in the truck. One of the bikers can’t stop on time either. He tumbles in the air twice before landing in the bushes.
Smoke starts coming out of our truck’s hood. I ignore it and hit the gas pedal again. I turn the truck back to the road. Bullets buzz around us. Some of them hit the doors.
The engine light goes off in the dashboard and smoke in front of the truck gets denser. I continue to ignore it and speed up as much as the engine can. There are still three bikers behind us. It looks like they are not going to leave us alone until they have the briefcase. Maybe we should throw the bag out before our engine fails and makes us vulnerable in the middle of nowhere.
“There! Almost there!” Crypto yells from the backseat. His finger is showing the road ahead of us.
As we get closer, I can see some vehicles behind a barrier of sandbags.
“Who are they?” I ask.
“The Republic… Looks like they expanded the border. It’s their checkpoint,” he says. This is a relief. Since Crypto works for them, they should be on our side in this ongoing car chase.
Our engine doesn’t sound like it will make it to the barrier. It loses torque, but I keep my foot pressing the gas pedal.
Bikers make another attempt to surround us, but they slow down immediately as they see the vehicles ahead. They stop before getting closer to the checkpoint. In the mirror, I see them turning around and going back.
Kathleen releases a deep breath. “That was close…”
Two heavily armed militias wave their hands to tell us to slow down and stop the truck. There are at least two more militias behind the barrier.
I stop the truck a few yards away from them. I roll down the window to talk to them, but Crypto doesn’t wait for it. He gets off the truck right away.
“Radio to Weck’s office. He’s been waiting for me,” he says. He shows some kind of ID paper in his hand. One militia goes to the truck behind the sandbags and extends the antenna on an electronic board.
Crypto walks to the other militia and points us a few times while talking to him.
Chapter 39
The militia tells me to park the truck off the road behind the barrier. Then he asks us to leave the vehicle and get in the Jeep. We do as he says. We look around the area while waiting in the backseat. The bikers disappeared after they had seen the militia. They may get around the checkpoint to cut our way off to San Francisco. The cargo we carried is a game-changer in this new world. I don’t think they will give up easily.
Crypto gets on the passenger seat and turns to us. “They will take us to the base in Reno. From there, we’ll use another vehicle to go to San Francisco.”
I am glad that he is still on our side. I was concerned about him leaving us on our own at the checkpoint.
A militia gets behind the wheel and turns the SUV
