He placed his hand on the hood. It was still warm. Hayden leaned against the front passenger window to see if the keys were still in the ignition. It triggered a blaring alarm, and Hayden jumped back. He fell into something and turned. A big black woman sneered at him and threw a punch into his nose that drove him back over the Audi’s hood.
“You can look all you want, pretty boy, but you can’t touch.”
Nicholas appeared out of nowhere and kicked behind one of the woman’s knees. She fell forward, face-first into Hayden’s crotch. Hayden went to push her off before she could take a bite out of him, but another woman with grey hair wearing a man’s dress shirt got in between them first.
“Enough! They weren’t doing anything wrong!” The second woman shouted.
“Pretty boy was looking inside, he was going to steal my fucking car!”
The grey-haired woman saw Nicholas for the first time. “He’s got a child with him. Can’t you quit swearing for one minute?”
“Child my ass.” She was massaging the flesh behind her knee. “Little bastard almost broke my leg.”
Hayden soaked blood up from his nose with the front of his shirt. “His name’s Nicholas… he’s my son.”
The smaller woman helped him down off the car’s hood. “I’m Angela. The car belongs to my friend, Caitlan. You might want to watch yourself around it.”
He held his hand out. “Hayden, and thanks for the advice. I’ll take it.”
Caitlan shrugged. “A girl’s got to watch out for her things. No offence?” Hayden shook his head as if getting punched in the face by women was an everyday occurrence. “Good. Now what’s this little Kung-Fu master’s name?”
“My name’s Nicholas, and my real Dad is dead.”
Caitlan looked back at Hayden. It was his turn to shrug. “Long story.”
Angela eyed Hayden even longer before kneeling in front of Nicholas. “A lot of people have died in the last little while, haven’t they, Nicholas.” Nicholas nodded. “Has this man taken care of you? Has he been good to you?”
Nicholas nodded again, more emphatically. “He’s Hayden, and I love him.”
That was good enough for Angela.
And Caitlan. “Well let’s just not stand out here in the cold. We’ve got hot coffee inside.”
They crowded into the small weigh station office, and Hayden and Nicholas were introduced to Amanda and Michael Fulger. “We found each other in a shopping mall,” Angela explained. “These two were holed up in the back of a toy store trying to outlast a homicidal security guard.”
Nicholas had already cozied up against Amanda. Michael and his sister were leering at Hayden suspiciously. He held his bloody palms up in front of them and tried wiping more from his face onto his forearm. “I know. I look like crap, but I’m not all that scary.”
“Can’t take a punch, either,” Caitlan mumbled. She smiled and presented him with a Styrofoam cup filled with steaming black coffee. “Here you are, sweetie. The hotplate has a battery backup, and there’s plenty of water in the cooler for the boy to drink.”
“There’s food here as well,” Angela said. “Mostly canned stuff, but it’ll fill you up.”
Caitlan reached down in front of the children and dug around inside the bottom desk drawer. She pulled a glass bottle out. “Don’t mind me. I’ve had enough of instant coffee and spaghetti in a tin.” She poured a generous amount of vodka into her own cup and tossed it back in one quick swallow. “Now that hits the spot.”
Hayden looked at the women incredulously. “How? Where did you find this stuff?”
Angela laughed. “Everyone’s been heading for the obvious choices… looting grocery stores, malls, restaurants and houses. No one’s even thought of checking inside places like this.”
“Trucking weigh stations,” Hayden said.
Caitlan poured another shot. “Dentist’s offices, tire shops, roofing supply outlets and police stations. There’s hundreds of other businesses and institutions out there to hit that most people haven’t even thought of exploring yet. Funny thing is—all those folks that used to work in these places had daily needs. They needed water and food, and weigh stations like this have more than enough to keep us going.”
“For now,” Hayden added. “They’ll empty out soon enough.”
Caitlan took the vodka bottle and leaned her big arms down onto the counter of the window. She slid it open and smelled the air. “It’s going to rain again soon. Them clouds south of the city look like shit.” She swigged from the bottle. “We should get moving, keep heading east.”
“You’re not driving,” Angela said.
“Yeah, yeah… I’ve been drinking. You gonna take the wheel instead?”
“Not me,” she answered. Angela looked to Hayden. “Will you come with us?”
“We were headed for the city… I was going to find a home for Nicholas.”
Angela shook her head grimly. Caitlan replied for all of them. “You won’t find a home there. The city’s still burning, and what’s left is being run by fucking lunatics.”
“Hayden,” Nicholas called out softly. “I don’t wanna go there no more.”
“Where?” Hayden looked at all of them in turn. “Where are you going?”
Caitlan screwed the cap back onto her bottle. She pointed the end of it towards the dull mustard glow off on the eastern horizon. “Away from that. Away from the worst of the fallout and the sick-minded fuckers.”
“We came from the northwest. One of the bombs fell not that far from my farm. You won’t find anything there, either.”
“Then we’ll continue headed west, maybe even swing down south into the States.”
“More people in the States,” Caitlin said. “More people, more lunatics, more guns.”
Amanda pushed Nicholas away gently. “We have to go somewhere. We barely have room to all stand in here. I want to find some place with a bed.”
“Amen to that, girl.” Caitlan handed the Audi key to Hayden. “Treat her good, pretty boy. Not one more scratch, or I’ll blacken both those eyes to match your fat nose.”
Chapter 26
Roy and Louie ate their late supper in silence. It consisted of eight pounds of stewing beef they’d found in a basement freezer that no longer worked. Roy had started a fire in the ditch next to the highway, and Louie had roasted the meat over the flames until it was black.
“It will make us sick,” Louie muttered between bites. He looked over his shoulder back towards the city. “We’ll probably be puking our guts out all night long.”
“It still felt cool. It won’t kill us. Better than not eating at all.”
Louie drank the rest of his warm beer down to wash the burned taste from his mouth. They had discovered two 15-packs of Rainier Mountain Fresh next to the freezer. It didn’t taste all that fresh, but it was doing a good enough job of dulling Louie’s senses. Roy had finished one of the boxes already. Louie cracked the tab open on another and sipped. “If we’re sleeping outdoors, I suggest you find some more wood to burn. We’re going to need a bigger fire.”
“I was cooped up in a shopping mall for days. I like it outside. If you want wood, go get it yourself.” He caught Louie glancing over his shoulder at the city east of them. “What the hell do you keep looking back that way for? You miss that shit-hole I found you climbing out of?”