The Gathering of the Clans

Book 1 Chapter 14

The Gathering of the Clans

Book 1 Chapter 14

Highway I headed to Pepepski

Owen was bored. Driving 55 Mph facing the same back end of the same van, unable to pass Mallory or the trucks in front of him was boring. The scenery was even more so. Their fall sunny morning had become overcast with a light mist of rain. Halloween was six days away, and it was all wrong. It should be beautiful, the fall-colored leaves falling and raked into piles for children to play in.

Pumpkins and gourds decorating steps and porches in anticipation of trick-or-treaters. People rushing about looking for that last-minute need for the perfect costume or that extra bag of candy. Cars, vans, and busses shuffling kids to school, pumpkin farms, apple orchards, and parties.

There wasn't a single decoration in sight. What few homes they passed, appeared empty of life as if somehow forsaken and forlorn. There was no traffic of any kind on the road heading to Black Wolf. There wasn't a person to be seen at any of the houses they passed.

It was like they were all alone on the face of the earth, or maybe it was just his own dreary thinking, but either way, it added an eerie quality, that was hard to shake, to their traveling. Even the chatter on the radio between the men in the trucks had stopped. 'Maybe that's it? It's quiet.' Owen thought to himself.

The children had all dozed off in their seats. The time they had spent stopped, to help the car with the blown tire and getting the other travelers in line with the trucks, had allowed them to feed the kids a good snack and get everybody a pit stop. The only other people awake in the van besides himself were Philip and Alarick.

Owen glanced to his right and into the rearview mirror, scratch that he was the only one awake, the other two were sleeping as well. The chatter on the radio picked up and the brake lights on the van in front of him came on. Owen came to a stop. Off to the right of the vehicles, there was what looked to be a white mini-school bus pulled off the road into a grassy field. There seemed to be someone walking around it in an agitated fashion.

"I hate it when we can't see what's going on." Owen jumped and banged his head on the visor. Alarick was awake behind him. Phillip sat up and stretched. "Well, we could always use the binoculars Russel left behind to encourage us to stay in the vehicles. and see what's up."

Phillip pulled them out of the side door pocket and focused them in the direction of the white minibus. "Well, the side of the bus has  Little Lambs Day Care on it. " Alarick leaned forward between the seats. "That's good and all but what is it doing out in the field?" "I don't know. I can't see any skid marks anywhere. It looks like the driver just suddenly went off the road." Collins came over the radio "Everybody stays in your vehicles we are checking it out!"

They watched the four soldiers advance on the minibus. Phillip leaned forward with the binoculars "I think the person walking by it is a woman she keeps smacking herself in the head though." Paul and Jimmy had drawn the short straw to check this one out. Anton and Conrad had their backs.

The woman was talking to herself and banging a gun into her head. "I have to get there! but I can't find there. What are you going to do Elizabeth? What are you going to do!" "Mame, do you need help?" The woman did not react. "Come on Elizabeth think, you can do it." She bent over and clutched her head. " "Pain! I could think If the God damn pain would stop!"

Paul keyed his microphone. "She's unresponsive to us. She's pounding her head with her hands and has a gun in one hand. She keeps talking about getting somewhere and not being able to find it." The woman raised her head and looked right through Paul. "Russel, she seems to be bleeding from her eyes, nose, and ears. I don't know if it's from the repeated blows to the head or the Sickness."