The Mayflower Project: Deconstruction Book Two (A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller) Read online

  I stared at him for a moment. Deep down I knew Brent had talked him into apologizing and he probably didn’t mean a word he said. But for now it was probably best we got along. There was no telling what was waiting down the road for us.

  “Don’t worry about man,” I replied with a grin.

  “One big happy family,” Brent laughed.

  “Guess so.”

  We sat around in silence for a few more minutes then I got up and started throwing things away. I looked around the break room one last time and took a deep breath. I couldn’t believe all of this was happening. It had been more theoretical to me than anything for so long. A countdown clock to something that would never really occur. But here I was and the world outside dying.

  “Let’s get moving,” I said.

  CHAPTER 13

  THE BATTLE BEGINS

  I hummed a tune my grandma used to sing as I zipped down the road. The cabin was quiet, too quiet for me and I’d come to fear silence. Everyone else was asleep and as the sun reached its highest point I was starting to feel optimistic.

  “You want me to drive?” Cindy whispered.

  “What? I thought you were sleeping.”

  “I was, then that awful humming woke me up.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  She laughed. “I was joking. Where are we?”

  “Just inside of Tennessee.”

  Cindy sat up and stared out of the window. “What’s that?”

  “What?”

  “That…that black thing across the road.”

  I squinted and focused my eyes up ahead. There was something dark stretched out on the road, taking up both lanes.

  “I don’t know,” I replied and started to slow down.

  Suddenly there was a thud against the roof and I jumped. Another one followed then something dark splattered and rolled off of the windshield.

  “What the hell?” Cindy shrieked.

  Something else banged into the hood and a staccato of thuds sounded off of the car’s metal roof. I swerved out of panic, but quickly corrected then slammed on the brakes, sending the car swinging across the road like a happy dog’s tail. In a cloud of eviscerated rubber, we finally came to a stop on the shoulder.

  “Birds,” Cindy mumbled. “Those are birds.”

  Sure enough, there were birds scattered all over the road. Mounds of black and red, clumps of feathers, dripping with thick, sappy goo. They were falling from the sky, raining down on us like hail, like kamikaze pilots.

  “What’s going on?” Brent asked in a groggy voice as he rubbed his eyes and sat up.

  A triplet of clunks rattled the car and Brent shuttered. He jumped to the side and landed on Jake then started to shake him.

  “Wake up man!” he shouted.

  Swallowing, I grabbed the handle and pulled it toward me. I cracked the door and Cindy suddenly grabbed my arm.

  “Don’t go out there,” she said with a shaky voice.

  “It’s just birds,” I replied.

  I stepped out onto the road and the first thing I noticed was the foul smell in the air. I could taste it in my mouth, like spoiled eggs and battery acid. Coughing, I covered my face and grimaced.

  The next thing that hit me was the heat. It’d been around sixty-five when we left Calhoun, but it had to be closer to eighty now. I pulled off my jacket and laid it on the hood.

  “Dude what are you doing?” Brent poked his head out and asked.

  “It’s a pile of dead birds.”

  “So what. I can see the damn things falling from the sky.”

  “It was a flock…they’re gone now.”

  Brent opened the door and walked out. He stared up at the sky then looked down on at the scattered ravens that littered the road like dead leaves.

  “Gas maybe?” he said. “Smells like it right?”

  “Maybe…normally wouldn’t make it up that far though. I mean these things were flying when they dropped dead.”

  I turned and looked back where we had come from. The empty road spiraled into the horizon and vanished. The sun was starting its descent and the bleak sky looked like a depressing painting.

  “They’re stiff,” Brent said in shock.

  I turned to find him holding one of the dead birds, poking it with his finger.

  “Don’t touch the damn thing!” I shouted.

  “Why?”

  “We don’t know why the hell they died. Could be anything, some kind of weird disease, maybe even bird flu.”

  He nodded and dropped the bird. With a disgusted face, he brushed his hands against his jeans. I didn’t think that was gonna do much.

  “You’re the smartest dummy I know,” I told him.

  “I think it’s the other way around.”

  “Nah, I meant it the way it came out.”

  We both laughed. It was good to laugh, good to feel normal, even if for only a fleeting second. And that’s all it was because our grim reality was everywhere.

  “We’re gonna hit the city pretty soon,” Brent said lowly.

  “Yeah…I know. That’ll be good since we need gas.”

  “What do you think it’ll be like?”

  “Hopefully it’ll be okay. We haven’t seen anything out here yet. Just be prepared for panicked people everywhere.”

  Brent sighed. “Yeah…yeah that’s what I’m worried about.”

  I shrugged then started to head back to the car. As I closed the door I turned the AC down and leaned my head into the cool air.

  “What’s up with you guys?” Brent asked.

  Cindy was staring forward with an angry snarl on her face and Jake was glaring out of the window like a homesick puppy. I looked at each of them then to Brent. He threw his hands up on confusion.

  “Everything okay?” I turned to Cindy and asked.

  “I’m fine…just tired.”

  “You sure? Did I miss something?”

  “I said I’m fine.”

  “So, it’ll be dark in a few hours. What’s the plan for sleeping?” Brent said, changing the subject.

  “We’ll figure it out when we get to the city.”

  “Shooting from the hip…I like it. Don’t get us all killed Max.”

  I looked back at him and flipped up my middle finger then cranked up the car. “Put on your seatbelt asshole.”

  It took another two hours before the landscape changed again. The wide sweeping grasslands started to give way to traces of civilization. Up ahead I could see a city in the distance, but as the sun started to fade the glow from the fires twinkled like a warning sign to stay away.

  “What is that? What’s going on up there?” Jake asked.

  “We just need to find a gas station and get to the highway,” I replied. “We keep going through the night.”

  “So, no sleep then? Great.”

  “You’ve been asleep the whole-time Jake. Shut up!”

  Cindy sat up in her seat and glared out of the window. She didn’t say anything, but I could feel the sense of terror, radiating from her like a hot oven. Or maybe it was my own fear I felt. I stared ahead to the burning city and I knew right then the rest of the world was no better.

  “There’s a gas station,” Brent snapped. “Over there.”

  Up ahead to our left were two small, white buildings connected by a carport. Underneath that was a total of three gas pumps. It was barely noticeable, but it would work.

  It was on the outskirts of the city and looked to still be running. I slowed down and pulled up to one of the pumps. I could see an elderly man standing inside with a nervous look on his face. As I stepped out of the car, he moved toward the front door and the shotgun he was holding came into view.

  “Max,” Cindy warned.

  “I see him. It’ll be okay.”

  I slowly stepped out and held my hands up slightly. I moved from around the door and pointed to the gas pump.

  “Hey…we don’t want any trouble. We just need gas,” I said loudly.

  The man pushed the glass doo
r open and leaned his head out. He had to be in his seventies. His head was completely bald and his thick, white eyebrows flared out from under his black, horn-rimmed glasses.

  “Go away!” he shouted back at me and took a few steps out of the door.

  His bloodshot, eyes scanned the lot from side to side. He looked frazzled, and jumped at the sound of his own footsteps. With his free hand, he took a handkerchief from his jean pocket and wiped his forehead.

  “Please…we’re almost out of gas. I have money. We just need to get back on the road. We don’t mean any trouble.”

  “Ain’t got no more damn gas. Whole city is dry. Now get the hell out of here before you bring them back.”

  I scratched my head and groaned. There was no way the whole city was out of gas and we couldn’t afford to leave a working gas station with an empty tank.

  “Sir…” I started. “We, we just need a little gas. Please, we’ll be quick.”

  The man cocked the shotgun and pointed it across the lot. I felt my balls shrivel and I took a step back.

  “I said get the hell out of here! Don’t make me tell you again,” he growled in a raspy tone.

  I thought about pressing my luck further, but he looked like he was about to accidentally shoot me. Getting gas wouldn’t do us any good if we were all dead and without my gun there was nothing else I could do.

  “Okay, okay. We’re leaving…we’re leaving,” I replied.

  I got in the car and quickly pulled back onto the road. The city was maybe ten minutes further and we either needed to find gas there or we’d be walking to Wyoming.

  “What was he talking about?” Brent asked. “Bring who back?”

  “I don’t know. He was crazy.”

  “Well that’s a given.”

  “Well, I try to avoid reasoning with crazy people.”

  The gas needle hovered dangerously over empty. We had to find gas and soon. I sped up and felt a sense of anxiety as the city came closer. It was worse than I imagined and I could see why the old man was so afraid.

  “Do you really think there’s no more gas,” Cindy asked me.

  “There has to be,” Brent jumped in before I could reply. “It’s only been two or three days. That guy probably hasn’t left his little shop in a week. Probably lives there with his sister. That’s how all these backwood assholes are.”

  “We’re gonna die,” Cindy suddenly mumbled.

  I didn’t even respond, my eyes were glued to the scene unfolding outside. We’d finally entered the downtown area and it was like driving into hell.

  Cars were ablaze on both sides of the road. Some of the buildings were falling apart, the concrete shedding like skin to show the iron framing underneath. Others had been broken into, looted and set on fire. The earthquake had been there, but it looked the residents had done worse damage.

  “Go back!” Jake said. “Back up!”

  “We can’t,” I replied grimly. “There’s nowhere to turn around.”

  People were everywhere, throwing rocks and flaming glass bottles at anything within range. Mobs of them cluttered the streets, fighting amongst each other like packs of wolves.

  “Oh, my God Max!” Cindy screeched. “They’re killing him, they’re fucking killing him.”

  I stared out of the right side of the car. There was a man on the ground and a group surrounding him. They were armed with bats and pipes and were beating the man like he was a piñata.

  “We can't help him we have to go,” I replied.

  "No… This is just wrong," Cindy groaned. "We have to do something."

  "If we stop this car, we are going to die with him.”

  As I looked back to the front, a group started to form ahead at the next intersection. Another group was closing in from behind us and I felt my last bit of hope fade away. We were about to be trapped.

  A flaming, hummer had crashed into the coffee shop across the street and several troops and police officers lay dead near the wreckage. They’d been nearly stripped naked, the mob leaving only their helmets and shirts behind.

  Everything was moving in slow motion and I felt a stab in my chest, fearing that shortly we would share the same fate as those men. It was like I was watching a movie, I couldn’t make sense of what was going on and my mind was trying to detach me from it all.

  “Watch out!” Brent suddenly shouted.

  From the right a man jutted out of the shadows and swung a metal pipe at the car, taking off the side view mirror. I swerved and mashed my foot on the gas as my heart skipped a beat and my bladder tried to empty itself.

  “Get us the hell out of here!” Jake screamed.

  “I’m trying!” I shouted back.

  People were darting out from everywhere. Some were fighting amongst themselves others were hell bent on getting inside of our car. My survival instinct took over and anyone unlucky enough to be in our path became pins in front of a raging, bowling ball.

  Thuds and wet smacks sounded against the windshield, but I didn’t slow. The crash of rocks and other projectiles hit the hood. Some glancing blows, some direct impacts that shattered the glass, but fuck it, I was unstoppable.

  Maybe I’d lost my mind. Maybe all of the stress had caused me to completely snap or the adrenaline from fight or flight turned me insane. Whatever the cause was, I drove that little SUV like a damn A1 Abrams tank.

  “Bring it you fuckers!” I yelled out in an uncharacteristic voice.

  I hopped the curb and turned down another street. The growing mob continued to follow, but I saw light up ahead. More thuds, more bodies bouncing off the impenetrable armor. Cindy was yelling and Jake may have been crying, but I couldn’t hear them. I was a mother fucking wrecking ball.

  “Faster!” Brent screamed. “Get us out of here!”

  Swerving, I straightened the wheel then stomped the accelerator through the floor. I could feel the truck groan as it sucked up the last bit of gas and I hoped the engine still had some fight left in it. I was pushing it to the limit, but cars didn’t run on hope. Our flight from the city might be short-lived.

  “Turn, turn!” Brent yelped.

  The road up ahead was blocked by another gang of looters. I whipped the wheel hard to the left and bashed into a flaming parked car. Glass shattered into the cabin as the flames flickered right outside.

  “Dude watch out!” Brent annoyingly continued.

  “Shut the fuck up!” I roared. “The last thing I need right now is a backseat driver.”

  I slung the Ford back onto the road and sped up, causing the engine to shutter like a hypothermic infant. It made a loud clunk then rattled violently. The steering tightened and we began to powerlessly drift down the road.

  “Oh shit!” I grumbled.

  Straining, I turned the wheel and we veered into an alley. The SUV careened into the wall, the metal scraped along the side with an ear-piercing shriek. We bounced back onto the road then coasted for another twenty yards before coming to a complete stop.

  “Did they see us?” Brent asked.

  “Let’s hope not,” I replied and switched the key to off.

  The sun had gone down and the fires provided the only light now. If we were lucky, we’d lost them when we pulled into the alley. The dark was our only chance of making it out of the city alive.

  “I’m scared,” Cindy whispered.

  I reached out and grabbed her hand. I cupped it in mine and gave her a reassuring smile. “We’ll be okay. We just have to stick together.”

  Cindy tried to smile back, but it was painful. Instead she closed her eyes and tried to wish her way out of the city. We sat there for half an hour in the dark. No one made a sound except Jake’s heavy, mouth breathing.

  In the distance, we could hear the city tearing itself apart. The crackle of gunfire echoed in sporadic bursts. Every thundering, snap sent chills down my spine. The loud hoots and yells of the mob made the hair on my arms stand on end, if the looters didn’t kill me, my nerves would.

  The earthquakes, th
e destruction had torn the world apart, turned this city mad. I didn’t think it was possible, but in a few days civilization had destabilized to the point where barbarians loomed in every corner. What had made the world so insane? Why were humans so eager to run head first into their own savage death?

  As I sat there in the dark I contemplated my own existence. I’d spent so much time trying to figure out how to save humanity that I hadn’t thought about saving myself. I knew this was all going to happen, yet I was no more prepared than anyone else. Now hope was my best plan to survive the night.

  “I think they’re gone,” I finally said in a low whisper.

  I clicked the dome lights off and slowly opened my door. Swallowing, I stepped out of the car and felt my body soak into the darkness. I felt fear crawl up my back and the weight of every decision I made.

  “What do you see?” Jake asked.

  “I’m gonna check the road,” I replied. “Stay here.”

  In front of us was a dead end, a wall where the parallel buildings met. To the other side the alley opened onto the narrow street we’d come down earlier. It was dark and smoke filled the air, but that was good for us.

  One foot after the other, I moved through the narrow alley. No matter how slow I went the crunch of broken glass and gravel sounded like amplified symbols and a high school marching band. It took a lifetime to reach the wall at the end.

  With a deep breath, I leaned my head out and looked from side to side. I strained my eyes, peering through the dense smoke, scanning for any type of movement. But there was nothing and after a few minutes I was convinced we could at least make it to the next street over without being detected.

  “Grab the bags and let’s get moving,” I told them as I made it back to the car.

  “Moving to where?” Jake asked.

  “We have to find another car. We can’t stay in here for the rest of our lives.”

  Groaning Jake started to gather his things. Cindy shot me a look, but stepped out of the car and tightened the straps on her bag. Brent followed her and after five long minutes Jake was finally ready to go.

  “This way,” I called.

  We stepped into the street and headed up toward the next block. I could hear the rioters in the distance and what sounded like a police intercom. I smiled, the thought that some level of order still existed was comforting.