Chaos Evolves: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller (After the EMP Book 6) Read online

  Colt squinted. “Too many to count.”

  “You’ve got a concussion, that’s for sure.”

  “I’ve lost more brain cells than Mayweather last season.”

  Larkin chuckled. “At least your sense of humor’s still intact.”

  Colt grew somber. “I tried to avoid the Camaro. It came on so fast, I couldn’t—” He glanced at Melody’s hunched-over form behind him, wincing as his back twisted. “I should have seen it.”

  He thought about Gloria and Will and their last moments on earth. Fear and pain and agony. He didn’t wish it on anyone. And now Harvey clung to life. Even if he did survive, once he found out his wife and grandson were dead…

  “Stop beating yourself up. We watched the whole thing. It was unavoidable.”

  “I should have done more.”

  “Unless one of those bullets you’ve stopped lately infused you with super powers, you did all you could.”

  Colt rubbed his eyes. He knew Larkin spoke the truth, but it didn’t matter. Gloria and Will would stay with him. After surviving Jarvis and the house fire and an assault on the militia’s stronghold, to die in a car crash didn’t seem fair. “How’s Harvey?”

  “Barely breathing.” Larkin leaned back on his hands, his face grim. “Even if we had antibiotics and the best medical care—”

  “He wouldn’t make it.”

  “Not a chance.”

  Colt exhaled. “Does Melody know?”

  Larkin glanced at the makeshift litter where Harvey still lay unconscious. “If she does, she won’t admit it.”

  “Doug?”

  “He knows. He’s not an EMT, but he’s seen more car accidents than either of us.”

  “How long?”

  “A few days.” Larkin scraped a hand down his face. “But Harvey will be in agony. He’s got a broken leg, ribs are smashed all to hell, and there’s a nasty gash above his eye. Who knows about internal injuries. If he survives the night, the pain will only increase.”

  Colt nodded. He’d seen his share of injuries in conflicts as a SEAL. The first few days were cruel in their optimism. Hope bloomed in the inexperienced when sailors with catastrophic injuries regained consciousness and seemed to improve.

  When infection set in, everything flipped. Weak smiles turned to screams. Optimism turned to horror and pity. Without a hospital, Harvey would suffer right up until the end. “Do we have anything?”

  Larkin knew where Colt was going. He’d been in combat as gritty and violent as anything Colt had experienced. “Not even a bottle of whiskey.”

  “It’s not going to be easy.”

  “Nothing will.” Larkin stretched his feet out in front of him and let his shoulders sag. “If you haven’t noticed, we lost all the food.”

  Colt raised his head. He’d been so focused on the Wilkins family, he’d not stopped to think about the living. “All of it?”

  “We packed it all in the pickup. As soon as the Camaro hit it, the garbage bags went flying. Everything canned exploded on contact with the road, the potatoes splattered, the water jugs burst.” He shook his head. “We might be able to salvage a handful of oranges, but—”

  “They were almost rotten to begin with.”

  Larkin nodded.

  Colt glanced up at the darkening sky. “So we’re up shit creek.”

  “Without a paddle.”

  No food. No water. A handful of bullets and a man too injured to move. Not a recipe for success. Colt didn’t know what to do. Ordinarily he was a take-charge kind of guy. A problem was a challenge to solve, not an insurmountable obstacle. But he’d never been faced with something so grim.

  Missions ended. They failed or succeeded and he was either extracted or they’d recover his body. But there was always someone out there, somewhere, who had his back. Not this time. They were on their own.

  No stores. No aid. No government to help them. Colt, Larkin, Dani, and the Harpers would live or die on the backs of their wits and strength. Nothing more.

  He pushed himself off the ground, wincing with the effort. “How much farther can the Humvee go?”

  Larkin stood and focused on the tan beast of a vehicle. “No more than fifty miles, I’d say.”

  Great. Add no real transportation to their list of bad news. “Then I guess we’re making camp. We can all pile in the Humvee for the night to stay warm. Set out in the morning.”

  “Harvey won’t fit. One of us will have to stay with him and keep watch.”

  “There isn’t any way to get him in there?”

  “Moving him is a bad idea. If his back is broken—”

  Colt held up a hand. He knew the drill. “Then we need shelter and we need it fast. There are enough trees around here. We can strip some branches and make a lean-to.”

  Larkin nodded. “I’ll ask Doug to help.”

  As he turned toward the woods, Dani caught his eye. She lurched toward them, half-carrying, half-dragging a duffel bag along behind her. She stopped in front of them both and dumped the bag on the ground.

  “What’s in the bag?”

  She wrapped a hand around her middle as she sucked in a few lungfuls of air. “Open… it.”

  Larkin crouched and unzipped the bag. “Whoa. You see this, Colt?”

  Colt bent to inspect the contents. “There have to be twenty guns in there.” He counted a dozen Glocks of various sizes, an armful of rifles beneath them. Even a few defensive shotguns for good measure. He stood up in a rush and the ground wobbled. “Where’d you find these?”

  Dani jerked her thumb toward the smashed-up car. “In the backseat of the bastard that hit you. There’s four more just like it still in there. A bunch of ammo boxes, too.”

  Colt met Larkin’s heavy stare. They were thinking the same thing. No one transported this much weaponry by themselves. A few dozen guns and hundreds of rounds of ammo? Not a chance. The dead man in the Camaro was now a much bigger problem.

  “Get Doug to help you unload the car. Take all the duffels and ammo boxes to the Humvee and load them in the back.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  Colt and Larkin stood up at the same time. “Figure out the best way to get rid of the evidence.”

  Dani scrunched her eyebrows. “I don’t understand.”

  Larkin filled her in. “Someone right now is wondering where the hell their guns are at. That man wasn’t driving an arsenal at a hundred miles an hour because he needed to get some fresh air.”

  “He was meeting someone.”

  Colt nodded. “And now he’s late.”

  The implication washed over Dani’s face and she paled. “They’ll be looking for him.”

  “Exactly. If we don’t hide the car, we’ll be sitting ducks.”

  “We should just pack up and go. We can cram everything in the Humvee and hit the road.”

  “Harvey can’t travel.”

  Dani’s eyes went wide. “We can’t stay here! If someone is coming to find this guy, we’ll be right in their path.”

  Colt rubbed the back of his neck. “We’ve got plenty of defenses, now. We’ll be all right.”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “About what?” Doug stopped next to Dani. He almost jumped when he spotted the duffel of guns at their feet. “What the hell is that?”

  Larkin motioned at the crashed car. “The asshole’s payload.”

  Doug glanced at the Camaro and back at Larkin. “He was a weapons smuggler?”

  “Transporter, at least.”

  Doug’s gaze bounced back and forth between the guns and Colt and Larkin. “We need to leave. Whoever wants those weapons will be coming.”

  “What about Harvey?”

  Doug whipped his head toward his sister and Harvey’s unconscious form. “If we move him, he’ll die.”

  It was as bad as Colt feared. If they stayed they would be sitting ducks. If they left, they would be condemning Harvey to death. He focused on Doug’s face as he asked the only important question. “Does
Harvey have any chance of pulling through?”

  Doug didn’t hesitate. “Yes. He does.”

  The answer surprised him. If there was a chance… Colt made up his mind. “I’ll stay here with Harvey. The rest of you pack up and move out.”

  “No way.” Dani crossed her arms. “I’m staying, too.”

  Larkin chimed in. “The kid’s right. I’m not leaving you here to get yourself killed.”

  “We can’t leave. If whoever wants those guns does show up, you’re a sitting duck. Instead of saving Harvey, you’ll be killing both of you.” Doug’s lips thinned. “We all stay until Harvey is safe enough to travel.”

  Colt exhaled. He didn’t like the idea one bit. “We’ll need shelter. A lean-to big enough for at least Harvey and one other person. There might be a tarp from the truck or branches we can use.”

  “We can move the Humvee into the trees. Add some branches to camouflage it.”

  “What about the car?” Dani chewed on her lip as she waited for Colt’s answer. So young, but so capable.

  He ran a hand down his face. “Can you unload it?”

  She nodded.

  “Good. Get everything out and we’ll push it down the road. I’ve got an idea.” Colt didn’t like staying. It was setting them up for an ambush. He hoped his plan would put whoever came looking off their trail, but he didn’t have a lot of faith.

  If it didn’t work, they’d be forced to run or take a stand.

  Day Thirty-Three

  Chapter Nineteen

  MELODY

  Highway 58

  Northwest California

  2:00 a.m.

  Her teeth banged together in a relentless chatter and Melody hugged her sweater tighter against the chill. Harvey hadn’t so much as groaned despite the temperature dropping at least twenty degrees in the night. Melody didn’t know what to do.

  She checked Harvey’s pulse every five minutes and confirmed his lungs still filled with air, but that was it. Without any drugs, she couldn’t alleviate his discomfort or ward off infection or even reduce the swelling. His right ankle looked like a grapefruit and she couldn’t even ice it.

  A sob slipped out between her chattering teeth and Melody shoved her fist against her mouth. What a naive fool I’ve been.

  She brushed her fingertips across Harvey’s forehead. Still hot. At some point in the night, his body gave in to a fever and now he radiated more heat than an electric blanket. It wasn’t enough to keep her warm, but the cold air wasn’t hurting him.

  Melody wiped at her face. Gloria and Will were dead. Doug and Larkin moved their bodies to a restful spot among the trees, but they weren’t buried. Their lifeless forms just lay on the ground, open for birds and squirrels and mice to run all over.

  She closed her eyes and the accident replayed in her mind. So fast and deadly. And now they were trapped a hundred feet off the road in a makeshift camp while Harvey struggled to keep breathing.

  They would never make it somewhere safe. They would never be comfortable again. Hunger roiled her belly, but Melody shoved it down. She couldn’t think about food while Harvey died a slow and agonizing death before her eyes.

  The cut tree branches beside her rustled and Lottie rushed in. The little dog jumped into Melody’s arms as Larkin eased into the makeshift first aid tent. “Thought you could use some company.”

  Melody tried to smile. “Thanks.”

  He held out a cup full of steam. “Pine needle tea. It won’t fill you up, but it’ll curb your appetite.”

  She took it with a nod and wrapped her fingers around the mug. “Where’d you find this?”

  Larkin shrugged. “I’ve been scouring the forest for our gear. One box of dishes wasn’t a complete loss. And I found a jug of water still half full. The mud slowed the leak.” He squeezed into the space between Melody and the wall. “The potatoes weren’t so lucky.”

  Melody snorted. “You should get some sleep.”

  “Can’t. Colt snores like a beached walrus.”

  “You’re familiar with their sound?”

  “Tons of them on the beach when I was stationed in Alaska. Real pains in the ass, too. Always complaining and barking orders.” He smiled. “Not that different from the army, now that I think about it.”

  Melody scowled. “How can you make jokes? Gloria and Will are dead, Harvey’s barely hanging on. We’ve lost all our food, the Humvee is about to give up, and we’re lost in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Don’t forget, we’re hiding from a bunch of bad guys, too.”

  Melody punched Larkin in the arm. “I’m serious.”

  “I am, too. Whoever ordered those guns isn’t going to let a missing shipment go. They’ll be coming.”

  Melody forced the question out. “What do we do?”

  “As soon as Harvey can move, we leave.”

  “You mean as soon as he’s dead.”

  Larkin glanced at her, an unreadable expression on his face. “How long does he have?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Then we need to make the most of it.” He stretched his legs out in front of him and leaned back against a tree trunk. “Tell me your favorite memory of Harvey and Gloria.”

  Melody blinked. “Why?”

  Larkin reached out and gave her arm a squeeze. “Because Harvey’s not dead yet and maybe hearing about his life will help the man find his way home.”

  Melody glanced at Harvey. The man had been her neighbor for as long as she could remember. But a favorite memory? She thought in silence before it came to her. A small, sad smile tilted the corners of her mouth. “One year when I was a teenager, Harvey asked if we could help him pick out a Christmas tree.”

  Larkin urged her to continue.

  “He had this tradition of traipsing up into the mountains around Eugene and cutting off the top of a Douglas fir.” Melody smiled. “He’d shimmy up that tree like a bear after honey. It was scary and funny and completely insane all at the same time.”

  “Where do you come in?”

  “One year Harvey hurt his back. Slipped a disc or something. So he asked Doug to help.” She sipped some tea and shook her head. “So there’s my city brother, eighteen years old, with a saw and some brand-new boots, traipsing through the December snow.”

  Larkin grinned. “Doug wasn’t much for roughing it back then?”

  “Still isn’t.” She smiled and continued. “Harvey picked some tree that had to be forty feet tall. Doug took one look at it and his eyes went all wide and he turned to me.”

  “Did you talk him out of it?”

  Melody stifled a quiet laugh. “I told him to get on with it. So he climbed the tree with the saw, got all the way up to ten feet from the top and hacked at it until the top came crashing down.”

  “What’s so funny about that?”

  “Doug couldn’t get down. He was like a treed cat up there, clinging to the trunk and howling. Harvey shook the tree and scared him so bad he shimmied down. Poor Doug pulled pine splinters out of his hands for a week.”

  By the time she finished the story, tears of laughter leaked from Melody’s eyes. She smiled at Harvey’s still body where he lay on the hood of the Camaro.

  “Did he ever ask Doug to help him again?”

  “Not a chance.” She reached forward and rested her hand on Harvey’s shoulder. After a minute, she found her voice. “Harvey’s a good man. He deserves better than this.”

  Larkin nodded. “None of us expected to be here, Melody. We’ve done the best we could.”

  “Have we?” She turned on him, tone more accusatory than she meant. “Is that really true?” She broke eye contact and focused again on Harvey. “When the power first went out, we did nothing. Just sat back and waited for help to arrive like it always did before. Then when Jarvis took over…”

  Larkin shifted beside her. “You could have kept your head down, stayed with the militia. Maybe that would have been better.”

  “And let them round me up to do God knows what dow
n the road?” She shook her head. “The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced we should have left first thing. I’ve got friends in Washington state. We could have driven up there and hiked into Canada.”

  “What makes you think it’s better there than it is here?”

  “The whole world can’t be powerless. Someone somewhere has electricity.”

  “Stop second-guessing yourself. What’s done is done. You can’t change the past.”

  Melody drained the rest of the tea. “I can still be bitter about it.”

  “Or you can think about the future.” Larkin took the empty mug and set it by the tree-branch wall. “The world before the power went out is gone. We need to stop hoping for it to come back and start living now. This right here is what we have.”

  She snorted. “A crappy lean-to, a dying man, and no food?”

  He smiled. “I was thinking more a beautiful woman who has more strength and courage than she gives herself credit for.”

  Melody stilled. Larkin stared at her with an intensity she’d forgotten existed, and Melody wished they were anywhere else. “You think I’m strong?”

  He nodded. “And brave. Stop beating yourself up over what might have been and focus on what you can do now.”

  “It’s not that easy.”

  “Yes, it is.” Larkin reached out and trailed his fingers over Melody’s cheek.

  She shuddered. He leaned forward.

  Melody’s breath caught in her lungs like a bird in a net, wings unfurled, going nowhere. “I don’t think—”

  “You’re right. Don’t think at all. Just act.” Larkin’s lips hovered an inch away and Melody’s eyes slid shut.

  She waited, frozen in place as he closed the distance between them.

  A low, guttural growl broke the spell and Melody jerked back. Lottie sat on her lap, ears pricked toward the road. Melody glanced up at Larkin in alarm.

  He held a finger in front of the lips she almost kissed.

  Lottie growled again and Larkin rose onto his feet. “Don’t move.” He checked the safety on the pistol he carried and ducked out from beneath the makeshift shelter.

  Melody stared at the empty space he left behind and shivered.