The Desolate

It took some time as the smell of the salt and the moisture from the lake seemed to occupy my mind with distractions, but I soon fell into a deep sleep and dreamt about an obscure memory from my childhood. A group of people that I spent some time with many years earlier. They didn’t speak at all, certainly not in words, and they followed me, wanting me to join them. I was older than most, maybe seven or eight years old, while most of them couldn’t be more than five or six, or younger in one or two cases. I was probably far too old to fully adapt to their lifestyle, most of them were toddlers or babies when the collapse hit, and many were left to fend for themselves as the hordes of zombies spread out over the landscape. They were orphans of the apocalypse that had somehow clung onto life through the worst of the collapse. It seemed most either never learned to speak, or they just saw making noise as a dangerous habit. I remember them chiding me whenever I spoke or made a noise.

But my dreams were suddenly interrupted, “Jack!” Ashe said with urgency and fear in her voice as she shook me awake. Startled, I brought up the hunting knife instinctively to a defensive position causing her to jump back in fright. Flinching instinctively at the threat of violence.

The second I saw her reaction, I put the knife back in its pouch and said in a softer tone, “I’m sorry!” It took her a second to gather her thoughts and regain her composure, taking in a few deep breaths. The image of her frozen in fear sent a shiver of guilt down my spine as I climbed to my feet, and placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to reassure her. “What’s wrong?”

She said nothing at first, just pointing to the horizon to the west just north of where the sun was setting. My eyes moved quickly in the direction she was pointing scanning the horizon for rising dust or movement. I heard them before I saw them, the distant sound of engines spurred me into action as I gathered my rifle, searching for the source of the sound. It took just a few seconds for me to narrow down the direction more precisely. And there it was, two dim sets of headlights were approaching from the west barely visible through the dying sunlight. There were few people driving cars now which generally meant only one thing around here. I quickly threw the backpack over my shoulders and kicked sand over the small firepit. Whispering urgently to Ashe, “Can you walk?” She looked down at her feet, stretching them out a little and testing her weight.

“I think I’ll be okay. My feet itch a little but they should be fine.” She said as she picked up her rifle as well, moving closer.

I could sense her fear, spotting the slight tremble in her hands as she gripped the rifle a little too tightly. “Hold your fire, gunshots are a last resort always. You never know who, or what might hear it. Understood?” I gently placed a hand shoulder once again, trying to calm her nerves and reassure her that I wasn’t going to leave her behind. She nodded back in acknowledgment, her breathing slowing down just enough to stop her shaking. “We will be okay,” I whispered, as she glanced at me for a long moment, her green eyes firming as her resolve hardened. She pulled her rifle up to her shoulder with a determined look, offering a small nod. “Alright, let’s go,” I said in a serious tone leading us along the shoreline between rocky mounds, trying to stay hidden from view. “The last thing we want in a place like this is to give away our position,” I whispered, guiding her down to the shoreline, and ducking down behind a small pile of rocks as the sound of two engines neared. And there they were just a few hundred meters away and moving closer. Two pickup trucks moved quickly across the flat rocky terrain approaching the shore. Though it looked like they would miss us by about a hundred meters or so if we stayed still.

“They have to be from New Alice,” Ashe explained. “No one else has vehicles these days!” She knelt close by her eyes skittish, moving between the trucks and our surroundings constantly.

I gently put a hand on her forearm to calm her down again, whispering, “Always focus your eyes on the target of concern,” I said, explaining basic combat discipline to her. Adding, “Use your peripheral vision and other senses to monitor your surroundings. But your focus should always be your primary target.” She nodded and took in several deeper breaths, taking my words on board as her eyes were directed towards the two trucks with more focus, “Good!” I whispered reassuringly.

“What do we do now?” She asked as they approached the shore less than a hundred meters away from us, coming to a stop between us and the Lake Eyre settlement.

“Stay close to me, okay. We’ll be fine,” I said calmly, adding “Don’t try to run or they will come after us. At least here we have cover.” The two trucks drove up to a small sand dune, coming to a stop just a few meters from the shore, where I was finally able to catch sight of the driver of one of the trucks. I checked my rifle, already knowing how this was going to go if we were seen.

“What is it?” Ashe asked, her voice trembling slightly.

“It’s the same guys I ran into a few days ago.” I pulled my rifle up to my shoulder, holding it at the ready before turning to Ashe and whispering urgently, “Stay low and stay out of sight, they haven’t seen us yet. We might be able to get the jump on them and lose our tail permanently.”

The trucks had stopped near the shore of the lake as six men climbed out, each carrying assault rifles and covered in heavy leather armor. But I only recognized the man who had led the group a few days earlier whom the others called 'Sam' and one of the other men who had been with him that day. The others looked like new recruits.

“It almost looks like they are geared up for a raid,” Ashe whispered as she moved behind me. “What do we do?”

“Firstly,” I whispered, “don’t panic. Just follow my lead, okay.”

She smiled a little and nodded, waiting patiently beside me.

Had they truly come all this way and with all this equipment for some traveler and a slave over some dead fucking kid? Even if it was Bishop’s son. It seemed unlikely that old man Malcolm would spend those resources on a needle in a haystack, certainly not without some other underlying plan. The idea of burning hundreds of kilometers of fuel just because they lost one of their own made little sense given their track record. But that was a question to consider some other time if we survived.

Then Sam’s now familiar voice echoed off the surrounding desert, easily audible over the sound of the rustling shore, “Let’s make camp here for the night! Bring the trucks in to give us some cover. There’s every chance that son-of-a-bitch is out here somewhere. Let’s not get caught out again.”

Surely, Bishop knew this was a fool’s errand? I thought. I had no doubt that a bounty may have been placed on my head, but I began to wonder if Rick had shared some of my stories of the coast and the possibilities it presented. No doubt the thought of more settlements and communities not under New Alice's control has been something of interest to the old man, but still, the use of precious resources did not make sense with no certainty. Not unless they were desperate for something.

Ashe just looked at me, her voice hushed but panicked still. “What do we do? We can’t camp this close to them overnight; they’ll spot us by accident eventually.” She made a valid point.

I nodded to her once more, trying to work out some elaborate plan that would keep us both alive, but in the end, I came up empty. The desert was flat, offering few places to hide except for a few rocks jutting up from the ground. But they were mostly scattered along the shoreline. Realistically, we had two options, fight or lay low and hope they didn’t find us. I pulled off the backpack and handed it to Ashe, along with my Glock, fully expecting to lose against six of them, but it didn’t mean she had to die as well. “Just find one of the rocky mounds further along and lay low for a few hours, stay quiet, and once they leave, follow the shore east to the settlement.” I indicated to the south-east. “If you get there, ask for Jason, tell him Jack set you. He’ll help.”

“Wait, what are you doing?” Her hand reached out to grab my arm to stop me. “I don’t want to be alone out here, Jack!” She whispered, handing me back the Glock. Staring at me for a moment before adding, “I’ll cover you if shooting starts—if we die, we die together. I won’t be captured again, and I’m not taking that risk without you with me.”

Instinctively, I gently rested my palm on her cheek, her courage and loyalty were things I had never expected, even if it was a little foolish. But she checked her rifle competently and moved up to the edge of the rock. “Okay!” I whispered and before I could stop myself, I pressed my lips to the top of her head softly, surprised by my growing attachment to the girl. And her eyes darted up to meet mine with a hint of… care or concern maybe? It was hard to read. I offered only a momentary smile before turning my focus back to the task at hand.

Moving passed her and approaching the trucks along the edge of the shore using the shadows and darkness as cover, I reattached the holstered Glock to my belt. And getting into a better position behind another rock formation less than fifty meters away from the trucks. If it did come to a fight, I wanted Ashe and I in separate places, and I wanted to be in range to take at least a few of them out quickly to give us a chance.

“Dude fuck this!” one of the men said loudly, “We should just go and fuck up that settlement, take a few locals as slaves back to New Alice. Hell, we’ll probably find those fuckers there if we just lay low for a few days.”

Sam replied to the man in his familiar deep voice, “You heard Bishop, we can claim the bounty, or we can track the son-of-a-bitch to the coast and the prize will be so much more!”

“Fuck it,” The other man shrugged, “there is no way of knowing what Bishop wants out there, I say we just kill the son-of-a-bitch and take his head back. Take the money and get the fuck out of New Alice before the old man dies, I heard his son is a fuckin’ maniac.”

Sam turned and glared for a long moment before he said something under his breath, causing the younger man to cringe. He then walked away shaking his head and clearly seething with anger. A moment later he found a small bush maybe twenty meters away from the trucks taking a piss. I really did not like the idea of being tracked, and this was a good opportunity to deal with the problem. Then my mind turned to Ashe and what would happen if I failed. It took a moment before I was able to clear my mind of those possibilities, pushing any thought of affection to the side. Then as if on cue, one of the other men started taking shots at the sea birds that had gathered just a few metres from shore. The poor things were completely unafraid of humans, and most had likely never seen one before.

I seized the moment and fired a single shot in time with theirs, and the man with his dick out fell instantly, the bullet piercing the back of his head as the sound was concealed by the idiot firing at the birds, and the direction would no doubt be difficult to track in these conditions. I signaled to Ashe to hold her fire and hoped she would understand the hand signal, as I waited for another volley of shots from the idiot as he shot at the fleeing birds. I held my aim and as they fired again, so did I, taking another shot at one of the men who appeared to be standing guard beside the trucks. Another direct hit as his head snapped back his body collapsed under a puff of red mist, barely visible in the evening twilight.

The leader rushed over to the idiot shooting at the birds and growled angrily, not noticing the second driver’s head pop back from my third shot. His lifeless corpse slouched over the steering wheel, causing the horn to sound from one of the trucks. My third shot blasted a hole through the side of his skull—but the sound of the horn alerted the others that something was very wrong. It was then that I noticed a panicked man run from the far side of the second truck yelling towards the leader and the idiot who had only just stopped shooting at the sound of the car horn. “Jessie’s dead, he’s shot!” There were seven, not six, and four more remaining in our way.

“What the fuck!” The leader growled as he pulled his rifle up, rushing back to the trucks and taking cover. I could still see him clearly but didn’t want to give away my position to the others just yet, they clearly had no idea where the shots had come from as the four remaining men haphazardly took cover behind the front of their vehicles.

“Hey,” Ashe whispered as she crawled up beside me. “Sorry, I couldn’t hang back.” She added, leaning up to kiss me on the lips as she took cover beside me, it seemed to have been a decision made at that moment. One that spoke volumes about her intentions. An act of loyalty that won me over immediately, though it did not necessarily fit my plan. Still, her affection gave me pause as I stared back at her. Realizing that I was beginning to have doubts about my final plans.

I had to admit the feelings that had been growing, but it still scared me to death. I was terrified by the emotions her touch and her kiss stirred in me, but the idea of her death disturbed me far more than I thought it would have more than a week earlier. I steadied my nerves, and smiled back at her in acknowledgment, still unsure what to do about it. But that was a decision that could wait. We had more urgent matters to deal with.

Not knowing what her shooting was like, I didn’t want to risk a direct firefight. Whispering, “Okay. But I need you to lay low and follow my lead, the only way we survive this is if we are not seen.”

She nodded, understanding as I peered over the rock to check their position. They had moved over to the second truck and pulled the driver out, while the other two men continued to scan the area for movement. The second truck rolled closer to the shore, providing more cover to the group. I just hoped that the noise of the engine was not adequate to cover for another shot, the moment of distraction for the others was ample opportunity for me to put another shot through the driver. Before dropping down immediately behind the rocks, followed by an agonizing scream. I had been less accurate this time, and when Ashe peered around the rock to see, she hissed, “It went through his arm!” I nodded and looked again, watching the man crawl out of the truck back to the other three, now on high alert and aware they had been ambushed.

The leader seemed to at least get an idea of the direction of the shot as he rushed to the far side of the vehicle, “Over there!” he roared to his group, as they aimed their rifles in our general direction and opened fire seemingly at random. Bullets fizzed overhead, most not anywhere near our position. As soon as there was a break in the shooting, Ashe and I nodded to each other and jumped up, firing back. She laid down cover fire, her bullets cannoning into the truck as I searched for an open shot, catching sight of the top of one man’s head, and firing a single shot. It bounced off the rear of the truck, causing them to panic. We had them pinned as several more shots from Ashe’s rifle bounced off the rear of the truck. I counted her shots, and as soon as she ran low, I opened fire again, trying to keep them pinned while she reloaded the rifle competently. She most certainly had handled a weapon before and this one she wielded very competently. “Keep them pinned,” I said as I ducked down again, reloading my rifle as well.

When she was low on ammunition a second time, we both took cover. Checking our weapons while the deep voice of the slaver called out angrily, “Jack, you’re only making it worse on yourself, Bishop won’t just want your fuckin’ head now!” Sam roared as he impatiently jumped up and squeezed off a few rounds in short bursts from his assault rifle. His shots cannoning into the rocks. Ashe squeaked, ducking down lower as the rounds bounced off the dirt and sand nearby, with a few shots buzzing just overhead. Then the shooting paused momentarily, giving me a chance to poke my head up and open fire again while Sam was reloading his rifle, still in partial sight as I squeezed off another round quickly before dropping back down.

“Ahh, fuck!” he cried out before several more gunshots rang out. The moment there was another break in the shooting I climbed up again and fired instinctively at one of the men hitting him in the shoulder just before he reached the truck nearest to us while the others ran to the other. Moments later, the engine roared to life as one of them took a few shots at me forcing us to take cover as they began driving away. But the moment the shooting stopped, I lined up one more and hit the driver’s side mirror as they fled in the direction of the nearby settlement.

“Holy shit,” Ashe said, disbelief and relief evident in her voice that we’d not only survived but had made them run. “You were amazing,” she declared, shuffling closer and wrapping me in a tight hug her smile and joy released in a moment of genuine affection. And without giving it a second thought I returned it, holding her close in a warm embrace. And while my fears still screamed in the back of my mind, I found myself relishing every moment.

“You were not so bad yourself!” I replied, feeling more than a little awkward.

Adrenaline was still coursing through me, but her unrestrained affection brought me back to the moment as my thoughts returned to me. My heart was still pounding though it wasn’t clear how much of it was from the fight, and how much from her touch. I sat down in the sand by the rock for several minutes regaining my composure before we moved back to where she had left the backpack, gathering the rest of our belongings before heading over to examine the bodies and truck they had abandoned. I checked the three corpses first for anything useful, before finding a fourth. The man I had hit in the arm had been shot in the head by his own group even though the bullet through his arm looked mostly superficial. And they had taken the time to gather the rifle and ammunition off his corpse. Still, it wasn’t a bad haul for us, as I gathered a few dozen rounds of ammunition we could use for trade since they were the wrong caliber for both our rifles. As I checked the corpses, Ashe checked the truck they had abandoned, searching for keys or some other way of starting it. I was not familiar enough with these things to go messing with the engine, but she seemed competent enough as she explored the vehicle. “Should we skip Lake Eyre?” Ashe asked.

“We don’t have a lot of water, so we’ll need to stop soon and resupply. But we probably have enough to get us well clear of these assholes. Maybe we can head south and find another farmhouse to hold up in for a few days. If we find some shelter, we could probably distill some of the Lake water. In any case, I think you’re right, it’d be a good idea if we change direction. It might give us a better chance of losing them.”

“Okay!” She agreed as I checked the truck for ammunition and other supplies and was ready to leave when Ashe peaked up above the visor on the driver’s side and a small screwdriver fell into her lap, “Fucking score!” She cheered.

I looked at her confused, waiting for an explanation as she held up the screwdriver. I stared, raising an eyebrow before she inserted it into the busted keyhole on the side of the steering wheel, bringing the engine to life immediately.

I laughed and nodded, impressed once again at her ingenuity, asking simply, “Can you drive?”

She laughed as well as she climbed into the driver’s seat, pulling the door shut. “Get in,” Before letting out another cheer, adding, “The tank is half full as well. Those guys are fucking idiots; this should get us nearly a day’s drive in any direction we want to go.” I was a little uneasy at the thought of traveling in a vehicle, and the idea of spending a whole day in one almost made me throw up. I hadn’t ridden in one of these things in a very long time, but Ashe seemed to know what she was doing, and perhaps for the first time in a long time, I decided to put my trust in someone other than myself. “What’s up?” she asked with a warm smile, noting my hesitation.

I tried to play it down but admitted, “It’s…my first time in…”

She just winked and then put the truck into gear. “Car virgin!” she teased, adding, “Don’t worry, you’re safe with me. Now, which way?”

“Not exactly a virgin, but it has been a very long time.” I laughed, enjoying our banter. Before taking a moment to gather my bearings and my thoughts, “Head south. We need to find the coast. We can head towards the ruins of Adelaide, then we go east from there. It’s about 700km south from here, but we will need to lose the car once we are clear of the desert.”

She reversed the drove the truck west then south, following the shoreline as I’d suggested. “Why get rid of the truck?” she asked, “This is way better than walking.”

I laughed, enjoying her enthusiasm. “While I do agree with the fact that this is significantly more convenient, it is also likely to attract the attention of both zombies and raiders,” I explained, gesturing to the engine, “it is very noisy!” There was a sudden realization in her eyes about where we were going, that zombies would soon become a real threat. Her eyes narrowed as she drove as if lost in thought. I needed to find a distraction for myself though, the bumps of the rocks under the vehicle’s tires were more than a little unsettling.