“We’re not sick,” Hayden answered. “And I’m not sure if we’ll be staying. We have friends east of here, waiting for us to get back with fuel. Do you have any to spare?”
The young man shook his head. “That’s difficult, buddy. There aren’t many vehicles left running, and what fuel there is available has been confiscated by the military… I mean us.” He grinned and patted his chest.
Caitlan studied the young soldier. She realized they started them out at an early age, but the skinny kid standing in front of them with the AK-47 strapped to his back was probably too young to drive. The uniform was too large on his narrow frame, and his hair was poking out from under his helmet. Soldier boys didn’t go around looking this unkempt, nuclear Armageddon or not.
She could see that Hayden was suspicious as well. “Come on… we have children waiting. What’s a few gallons going to hurt?”
“Talk to Sergeant Jeffrey in Supply.” He pointed to one of the many tents lining main street. “It’s the one with the flaps closed. I can’t guarantee he’ll say yes, but if you tell him you’re bringing those kids and that vehicle into town anyway…”
They went to the supply tent. Hayden walked backwards most of the way, staring at the soldier that had given them directions.
“The boy probably hasn’t had to shave a day in his life yet,” Caitlan said.
“He seems familiar.”
Jeffrey didn’t appear much older than the soldier outside. He was seated behind two picnic tables pushed together at the ends, covered with white banquet paper. There were stacks of files in plastic trays on either side of him, and every other square inch of table surface was cluttered with boxes containing essential survival supplies; first-aid kits, flashlights, batteries, and cases of drinking water. Almost everything people needed to live on that didn’t require being plugged in were on those tables or piled up behind him. “Sorry, guys. I can’t spare any fuel to civilians. What kind of vehicle did you say it was you’re driving?”
“I didn’t,” Caitlan replied. “It’s an Audi A8, bought it new less than five months ago.”
He whistled. “Wow, that’s one hell of a car. We’re used to seeing old clunkers still running. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to give you a litre or two, you know, just enough to get it here.” He started to laugh. “I can think of a couple higher ups that’ll fight over it.”
What kind of army is this? Hayden wondered. They offer food and cover, but expect people to willingly hand over everything they have left?”
Caitlan glowered at him. “We weren’t planning on staying.”
“Suit yourself. Feel free to walk back there and starve to death. No gas.”
Caitlan placed her fists on the table’s edge and leaned forward. It creaked under the added weight. “Are you fucking serious? You’d let kids die six miles out rather than give us a little bit of gasoline?”
“It’s a hard world out there, lady. It’s going to get a lot harder. Now please back your fat ass away from the table.”
Hayden pulled her away and spoke before she could release her temper any further. “Listen, you don’t have to be like that. We’ll bring the car to Brayburne… we’ll stay here and help out however we can.”
Caitlan turned to him and he squeezed her arm. It was a simple signal, one she caught onto immediately. Go along with it, I have an idea.
Jeffrey’s eyes narrowed, and he grinned. His teeth were too small for his mouth, and the effect made him look more rodent than human. “You think I was born yesterday? I’m just going to give you a few litres, and you’re going to walk out of here?” He pushed away from the table and stood. “We go together… and I’m driving that Audi back here.”
A replacement was found to take his station in the supply tent and he led them into a field behind Brayburne’s single grocery store. He waved an arm through the air in front of him, taking the wide expanse completely in. “I heard from some of the locals they’d planned on building a bigger grocery store. This whole area was bought up for the expansion. Over ten acres dedicated to the new building and parking lot.”
Almost all ten acres was covered with cars. Row after row after row of parked vehicles. Caitlan counted less than half of the first line directly in front of them and gave up at forty. The rows behind seemed to go on forever.
“We’ve confiscated thirty-one hundred and ten,” Jeffrey said. “Your car will make it thirty-one hundred and eleven.”
It looked like a used car salesman’s wet dream. Most of the vehicles were old, produced in the nineteen-seventies and earlier, but there were a few newer models. Caitlan walked up to the front end of a cream-colored Volkswagen Beetle and touched the hood. It was an ’09, maybe even a 2010. Caitlan loved cars, but she couldn’t be sure. There were two rusty Pontiacs sitting next to it, and a Mercedes-Benz CLS beyond those. She went to it and looked in through the driver’s window. A 2018, Caitlan was sure because she’d almost bought one. The fact her Audi had been available in black at the time was the main reason she hadn’t gone with CLS.
Sergeant Jeffrey was standing behind her. “A few of the newer German models weren’t affected by the EMPs. I’d say almost a quarter of them are still running, yours included.”
She turned to him. “Why have you confiscated them? What right do you have to take people’s cars away?”
“We can’t have the survivors roaming around wasting gas. It’s for their own safety as well. We treat everyone for radiation sickness, and keep them fed. They’re safe here… you’ll be safe here.”
“We’ll be controlled here.”
Jeffrey shrugged and pulled some keys out of a pocket. “Follow me.” He took them down the first row and met up with a hulking guard leaning against the hood of an ancient Buick. “You want to go for a ride, Fred? These two have an Audi on empty just a little ways east, got kids waiting to be picked up.”
Hayden wasn’t listening; his attention had been diverted by a by a big green tank sitting on the other side of a chain link fence next to the Buick. He had seen less than a handful of the military machines in his life, so he was no expert, but this one looked familiar. His fingers wrapped around the metal links and squeezed. “Where did this come from?”
“Why?” Sergeant Jeffrey asked. “You like tanks?”
“No. I just want to know.”
The big guard watching over the northwest corner of the compound answered. “Showed up yesterday, driven by a bunch of civvies. They said they came across it and a few other army vehicles in Ontario just a few miles from the Manitoba border.”
“But where did the tank come from originally… what about the soldiers in charge of it?”
Fred shrugged. “They said it had been abandoned. Found it in a ditch still running. Not a bad bunch of guys… young and stupid, but at least they turned the vehicles in when they reached Brayburne.”
Hayden pictured the soldier they’d spoken to in town—the one that had given them directions to the supply tent. Then he remembered the idiot that had urinated onto the burning debris of a blown up car. He saw his horse, riddled with bullet holes, lying in the muddy front yard of Elton MacDonald’s farm.
“These guys… most of them are still in Brayburne?”
“Well, yeah. Where the hell else would they go? Like I said, they’re not a bad bunch. They even offered to help out, so command put them uniforms and they got field commissions.”
“You ask a lot of stupid questions,” Jeffrey said. “Are we going for that car of yours or not?”
Caitlan climbed into the backseat with Hayden. She could see by the sunken look on his face that his plans had been drastically altered—or perhaps it was something else? She leaned close to him, pretending to search for a seatbelt, and whispered in his ear. “This is still on. You take the big one when we get the chance, I’ll handle rat-face.”