Patrick D'Orazio - Into the Dark

“You did what you had to do, George. You took care of him when there was no one else to do it.”

George waved Jeff’s excuses away. “No, I didn’t. I took care of myself, and Jason was just along for the ride.” His shoulders slumped. “But I can make up for that now. I can do right by Jason, even if he doesn’t want me to.”

Jeff felt helpless. He didn’t know what to say in the face of the guilt George piled onto himself.

“I will get to my family, Jeff.” George looked up, his jaw set with determination. “It might not be right away, but it will happen. No one-not Michael or a million plague victims-is going to stop me.” He stood up without another word and left.

Jeff was still watching George walk away when a hand gently touched his shoulder from behind. He turned to see Megan standing there, her face wet with tears.

When she saw the expression on Jeff’s face, Megan pulled him close and hugged him. He wrapped his arms around her and felt the warm wetness of her tears saturate his shirt.

“It’ll be okay. I promise it’ll be okay,” she whispered.

Jeff nuzzled the top of her head and nodded, squeezing her tight. She repeated the words, and he wondered whether Megan was trying to convince him or herself. As they stood holding one another, he realized it made no difference.

The plan was simple.

Ben would scout ahead on foot and use his walkie-talkie to stay in touch. Michael had the other and would be driving the minivan. Ben would report with a series of beeps on the talkie indicating whether it was safe to hit the road. Other than that, they would maintain radio silence.

From his seat in the van, Jeff saw nothing threatening wandering through the trees. He looked at the RVs, wondering how the group had managed to get the five bus-sized vehicles into the clearing without creating a stir. His eyes wandered over to the heavy machinery sitting dormant outside the protective circle of motor coaches. Teddy had mentioned that their gas tanks were bone dry, but they only knew that because they had tried to siphon off the fuel. Besides, starting them up would have notified every slug in a ten-mile radius of their location.

The trees creating a wall around the area were thicker to the south, where the new subdivision was supposed to have expanded, had construction gotten underway. Jeff guessed the trees probably stretched for a least half a mile back.

The inside of the van felt like a sauna as everyone waited for Ben’s signal. The keys were in the ignition, but the vehicle had not been started, so there was no air conditioning. Michael insisted on doing nothing to draw attention before absolutely necessary, so there was little for everyone to do but twiddle their thumbs and try not to sweat to death in the cramped quarters.

Jeff was jammed between George and Teddy, huge circles of wetness on his armpits and chest. He gripped his baseball bat in both fists, the tip resting on the floor. Michael had given him his bat back and had the audacity to act as if he were being magnanimous as he did. George, on the other hand, had been given nothing with which to defend himself. If they got into trouble, he would be forced to use his bare hands.

Jeff had argued that he and George should get their rifles back, and Michael had almost laughed at the request. “Prove your worth to me today and then maybe I’ll consider giving them back to you down the road” had been his response. The weapons were to remain in the camp, and Cindy would be in charge of them while they were gone.

The heat was potent, and though Michael had the front windows rolled down, there was no airflow. Just a bunch of sweaty men turning the van into an oven.

Jeff let his mind wander as they waited, and it drifted back to Megan. It had been hard for her to let him and George leave, especially with Jason still locked in their RV not speaking to anyone. Jeff was nervous about leaving her there with that crazy bitch Cindy in charge, but Lydia reassured him and George that she would watch out for both Megan and Jason and keep Cindy away from them. It didn’t make him feel much better, but he thanked her anyway.

Jeff glanced over at George. The look on his friend’s face made him nervous. The pain of what Michael had forced the family man to agree with was fresh in George’s eyes. Jeff patted him on the shoulder, and George looked at him. He was still bitter, but he managed a small smile.

After what seemed like forever, the walkie-talkie started chirping. Jeff wondered if it was Morse code Ben was sending over or some other code he and Michael had come up with. Whatever it was, it did not take long for Michael to translate.

“Okay, gents, the coast is clear up to the road. Let’s move.”

Michael turned the key in the ignition, and the van roared to life, shattering the quiet surrounding them. Jeff cringed when he realized how loud the minivan sounded in the dead silence of the world.

They turned away from the circle of RVs. Jeff glanced back as they moved down the rutted path. Soon the trees hid the camp, and it disappeared behind the canopy. He thought again about Megan and Jason and could only hope they remained safely tucked away while he and George went on the salvage run.

Before he knew it, they were at the cars lining the roadway. Jeff nearly laughed as he looked at how they were arranged in a perfect funnel to trap a victim. He rolled his eyes, wondering how he could have missed that the day before when they had been captured by Michael and the others so easily.

He looked back over at George, who was wistfully staring at the cars. He wondered what his friend was thinking, but it was Megan’s words that ran through Jeff’s head:

“Jeff, take care of George out there. Please, for me. I just don’t know how he’ll deal with it. Please… ”

The plea echoed over and over in Jeff’s brain, even more than Megan’s request that he take care of himself. Jeff tapped the bat against the floorboards, recalling his response to her.

“Nothing is going to happen out there. I promise I’ll take care of both of us,” He’d assured her.

He had made a promise to Megan, and it was a promise he intended to keep.

At Michael’s command, everyone climbed out of the van. They caught sight of Ben, who stood up from his hiding place between two of the cars. His bow was at the ready, an arrow already notched. Michael walked over to talk to him as everyone milled around the van, looking down the road toward Manchester.

The town was like most other small burgs in the rural Midwest. It had a modest downtown area with a stretch of fast food restaurants, commercial operations, a small amount of industry, and a ton of farmland. Jeff tried to recall anything about the town that he knew, like a significant landmark, but nothing came to mind.

“Okay, let’s huddle up.”

Michael snapped his fingers several times. Everyone moved around him in a semicircle. As he went to one knee, Ben backed away. Jeff stared at the broad-shouldered monster of a man in his workman’s coverall and wondered how many yards of the durable material it took to wrap his massive frame. He also wondered how the giant tolerated the heat in the heavy fabric. There was a thin veneer of sweat on Ben’s forehead, but otherwise he looked fine.

Jeff looked down at Michael, who was drawing a map on the pavement with his finger.

“This is base camp. Ben is going to recon off on his own in town.” Heads popped up to look at the big man, but he was too busy moving north to notice. “Several of you are going to hit the stores nearby.”

Michael was staring at Jeff and smiled. “Think you can handle that?”

“I can handle it. I don’t think we need to bother with the formalities here. We already know what’s out there. Let’s just do this and get back to camp safely.”