Hit or Miss
Lara awoke to the gentle pressure of a hand over her mouth. Her eyes flew open, but it was only Nathan.
"Shhh," he indicated with a finger to his lips.
She removed his hand with a frown. "Is something wrong?" she beseeched quietly.
"No," he returned casually, "I just want to sneak out of here before daylight." He sat down on the bed and brushed the dark sable layers of her hair from her face.
His closeness was intoxicating, and she sat up and threw off the coverlet. "What are you doing!" she spat knocking his hand away. "Have you completely lost your mind?"
"I was only checking the bump on your forehead, Halburg," he chastened her. "You slept in your clothes?" He changed the subject deftly.
"I forgot to bring in my duffle." Her answer was monotone.
"Want me to get it for you?"
"That would be great," she replied immediately.
Anything to get his body some distance from hers. He got up and left and she jumped up and ran down the hall to the bathroom they had passed last night. When she returned to the room her duffle was on the bed and Nathan, thankfully, was not.
It wasn't that she disliked him. Quite the contrary was true, but these emerging feelings left her disoriented and unfocused. Perhaps he was just being maternal. Lara had no idea, but after the heated exchange the night before she wasn't sure about anything. She got dressed silently, made the bed, grabbed the suitcase of paperwork and went to find him.
She entered the great room to find him having coffee with Hollis, Verbena and Donelle. The dogs, Biggie and Yolo trotted over to greet her, their tails wagging. The dogs were almost twins except that one of them had white sock paws. She scratched their heads and received copious licks for her effort. Nathan smiled, and called them to go lay down, which they promptly did, at his feet.
"Which one is yours?" Lara asked offhandedly.
"Watch," Nathan quipped spiritedly, "Yolo, sit."
Instantly, the dog with the white paws sat right up.
"Good boy!" Nate rewarded him boisterously. "And the other one is Biggie. He belongs to Len."
Donelle brought Lara a travel cup filled with coffee and Lara noticed that someone had set up a butane camp stove in the kitchen which Donelle was using to percolate coffee in a metal coffee pot. Lara couldn't help but smile at the dogs, and the hot coffee improved her mood.
Hollis and Verbena, as she now knew, were part of Len's family said good morning and asked how her head was feeling, noting that the bump had already gone down.
Lara shot a fleeting glance at Nathan but thanked them replying that yes, she felt much better today and was anxious to get on the road.
Nathan agreed and stood up.
Donelle came over and hugged her son and hugged Lara too. "Please you two be careful. I want you back here as soon as possible. We will hold things together here, but don't take any chances, please, I can't take any more loss." She admonished huskily.
"We won't take any chances Mother," Nate reassured her with another hug and looked at Lara, "You have everything you need?"
"Yes. I'm only taking the part of the file with Lottridge's research because it contains the most vital information someone would need to discovery of an antidote. I only hope we are able to find this woman."
"Okay, Nathan nodded. "Let's get armed and dangerous."
He walked toward the radio room Len had set up and inside there Nate opened a door that led downstairs to the basement.
Lara was impressed when she got down there. It seemed these O'Connor's had thought of everything. They had a wall of guns and ammo, and non-perishable foods stacked to the low ceiling. She saw fifty-gallon water barrels and three metal shelving units with first aid, bags of beans and rice and toiletries. And further back, another small living area with a bed.
Nathan acknowledged her unasked questions. "This surprise you?"
"Slightly," she admitted slowly.
"Well, I like to be ready for any emergency. When I first read that file of my dad's, I upped the urgency of stocking up. Not to sound commercial but, it seemed like a smart thing to do." He grabbed two AR's off the gun rack and lay them on the ground and pulled two metal ammo cases out from under a shelf filling them with 5.56 NATO rounds. "Grab yourself some 9mm rounds and an extra Glock." He filled one more ammo case with the Glock rounds she handed him, and she helped him get them upstairs.
Len walked in and asked her if they needed help. Nathan answered him, asking him to bring up the AR's which he did and helped them load the Tahoe. Hollis came outside bringing an ice chest and some medical masks which Nate loaded into the back seat. Hollis whistled low when he saw the biohazard masks already back there. "Hell yeah," he commented. "Government issue."
Nathan and Lara got in and Nate, who was going to drive, looked over Lara to Hollis and Len. "You know the system. Keep it tight."
Len nodded. "Will do. Just you get back in one piece."
"I'm hoping this government issue vehicle will move us past any difficulties," Nate added as he put the Tahoe in drive.
"Hey," Hollis exclaimed, "Stop around back of the diner and fill up with gas," he suggested, waving as Nate nodded and drove off.
He and Len went inside after watching them leave finding that everyone was gathered at the table. Donelle was feeding the children and everyone was talking about last nights discussion.
Len went down to the basement to take a nap. He had been up all-night listening to radio updates, attempting to contact other survivors and distracted by military helicopters, gun shots and other random havoc echoing throughout the night.
Nathan and Lara reached the diner without difficulty as the desert highways between Cortez and Monticello were desolate, found the 285-gallon fuel storage tank in the back and filled up the Tahoe. The diner had been broken into, more than likely the result of looters. Lara used the satellite phone to contact the NBC branch in Colorado Springs, hoping to apprise the laboratory of her findings and let them know it was possible she had found Claira Lottridge, a key player in the Heron Siege operation, but to her great angst she could never get an answer.
As the sun rose the skies were azure blue but, in stark contrast, a smoggy haze had settled over the horizon and columns of black smoke marked the places where devastation had resulted in explosions of natural gas lines or fires had erupted from sparking power lines. A fleet of Blackhawk Helicopters loomed overhead, pounding their way to points unknown and higher, a C-12 Huron Marine Aircraft likely performing surveillance buzzed the sky in unison with large cargo aircraft.
It was surreal, to Lara. She had always been pragmatic. Sensible, like her father. It often drove her mother nuts, she thought with a smile that did not go unnoticed by Nathan.
"Is there actually a good memory hiding somewhere in that heart of yours Lara?"
"I was just thinking about my mother," she replied bemusedly.
"Tell me about your parents," Nathan intimated.
"Well, my mother was born and raised in Kansas. She died five years ago, in a car accident and after that my father moved to Hawaii. He is a retired Navy E-9, and he wanted he and Mom to retire on the big Island. He fell in love with the culture and lifestyle when he was stationed there as a young man."
"How did they happen to meet?"
"They met, according to Mom, while dad was stationed at Olathe Reserves and Training Base in Gardner. She was a bank teller where most of the men did their financial business because it was close by. They had a sweet romance, but Mom ended up pregnant, with my brother. She married Daddy, but he always felt like she resented having to. Two years later I was born. They never divorced though," Lara reflected. "But Mom eventually became an alcoholic. It caused the wreck that killed her."
"I am so sorry Lara, it must have been hard on him."
"It was, because he felt like moving her to Hawaii could help her. I don't know, people have these strange ideas when they love someone, but he was convinced if he could get her there her life would improve," she absent-mindedly replied.
"And your brother?" Nathan enquired further.
"He also lives in Hawaii. He is a bank manager," she said with a grin.
Nathan laughed warmly, and it sent chills of sentiment up her spine. He was so enthralling and pleasant it was unthinkable that he had no one in his life.
"When did you have contact with them last?"
"Actually, the day I approached you in the parking lot," she admitted tentatively, not wanting to chill the rapport between them.
He was chivalrous as ever though, saying that he was glad to know that. "Perhaps we can contact them through Lens radio system when we get back."
"Yes, I believe I can. Dad said he was going over to the base and stay there. My brother would probably have gone too. I hope they made it." Her voice trailed off as she sat forward fixing her eyes on something in the distance. "Look Nathan it's a military convoy!"
Nathan slowed down. Sure enough, up ahead was a convoy of about six vehicles. Lara urged him to pull over, so they could talk to them. Nathan pulled off the road and the two of them got out and walked across the highway. They were the Black Diamond Squadron of the Army National Guard.
They were escorting a team of nuclear contractors from the Blue Castle Project to Kansas, they explained. They were going to help evacuate people near the nuclear power plant, and hopefully keep the plant from going into full on meltdown. They inquired of Lara the nature of her mission and she explained what she and Nathan were doing.
"Damn. That's good news," the Brigade Commander commended. "I wish you both luck. I would love to escort you on into Moab, but we just can't afford the men. So be at the ready. I will tell you right now your going to run into anarchic conditions there. We took on gun fire and mobs. It was a hell hole."
"Thank you, Commander." Lara saluted him respectfully and she and Nathan went back to the Tahoe.
"Maybe we need to find a different route through Moab," Lara speculated.
"I don't think there is any other route except 191. Go ahead and get some arsenal ready. We're still about thirty minutes out."
"Yeah. Good idea."
Lara climbed into the back seat and began pulling the AR's over from the back and putting clips in them. The 9mm's were ready to go and she put two of them up front and climbed back to the front, stacking the AR's on the floor behind her seat.
The colorful rocky landscape dotted with sparsely vegetated brush and scrub flowers eventually became littered with the dead. Both those who had been killed and others that stumbled along through the sand as they neared the city of Moab.
Nathan slowed down as he and Lara stared at their bloodied, pale bodies and as if sensing a new feast they came, moving faster toward the slow moving vehicle.
Their mouths hung open and remnants of flesh dressed the front of their clothing. Their staring eyes were blank, misty blue but it was how they walked with their heads facing the sky that had Lara urge Nathan to drive on and quickly. She wanted no part of them.
The small southwestern city was rife with turmoil, as the commander had told them. To see it with her own eyes and to hear about it were two vastly different animals.
As highway 191 turned into N. Main St., they were immediately pelted with rocks by gangs of young teenagers who were positioned near a convenience store at the main ingress of Moab.
Looting was rampant everywhere, as panicked citizens darted from one place to the next with their arms full of whatever they could manage to find. Fights poured into the street and several times Nathan had to slam on the brakes to miss bodies entangled in violence.
Others ran from small hordes of the sick ravaged dead, their faces striken with fear. Screams of anguish filtered in to their ears. Huddles of the blood soaked eaters surrounded their victims, ripping flesh with bloodied teeth, digging entrails from stomachs torn asunder while others, their faces disfigured and battered lined the parking lots and sidewalks of strip malls.
Some of the creatures lay scattered, beaten down or shot, their threat ended. It had all deteriorated so fast. There was no time to consider it as yet others along Main St. begged for help covering their faces with what ever they had. Some had gas masks or medical face masks but the sick were everywhere, mingling among the throngs and others appeared to be dead or dying as they lay in storefront vestibules.
There were bodies, discreetly covered with sheets or trash bags on the sidewalks, and Lara was horrified to watch others walk around them and keep going without so much of a glance. Garbage and filth lined the street and sidewalks, broken glass littered the once quaint and idyllic community.
Trucks filled with armed vigilantes roamed slowly up and down the main corridor of Moab. Vile men with murderous intentions ransacked and wreaked havoc with other armed militias who were trying to keep peace, but the unrest out weighed their ability to gain control. A single armored security force vehicle sprayed water cannon streams, but it did little to quell the riotous crowds. Sudden gunfire rang out, a small group of people were riddled with bullets and screams of pain and death rent the humid waves of heat rising from the street. Nathan grabbed his 9 and picked up the pace of speed. His voice was primal as he thrust Lara to the floor with a shout to get down.
Water deluged the Tahoe as he drove past the armored detail and it hit them like a ton of brick.
Nathan momentarily lost control as it plummeted the side and top, but it cleared the way for him to shoot ahead of the growing melee. In the floor Lara cursed and tried to pop back up but she was thrown off balance with the violent jerk as Nathan tried to regain control. Shotgun fire erupted from a second story shop window hitting the side of the armored truck and ricocheting off.
Rifle fire glanced off the bullet proof glass installed in the Tahoe for the safety of the federal agents who drove these vehicles.
Nathan punched it, scattering a small crowd of men with bats and other implements turned weapon and swerved into the oncoming lane.
Lara pulled herself back up into the seat as Nathan swerved back to his own lane and when his tires hit dry concrete road he slammed his foot into the floor and they rounded the last curve through town going sixty and got the hell out.