“I just hope they take us in.”
Hayden went quiet. They had been nice people two decades ago—to paying customers. God only knew how they’d react when seven strangers showed up at their front door expecting accommodations for months instead of days. He pulled a road map of northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba out of the glove box. He spread it out across his lap and traced along their twisting highway with a finger. “I miss having a phone that can tell you routes and distances. If I had to guess, I’d say it’ll take another ten or twelve hours before we arrive—and that’s only if we can find another town or farm to re-fill the cars.”
“We’ll find gas, I’m not worried about that.”
Hayden folded the map back up. They travelled in silence for another twenty minutes along the twisting highway surrounded by forests. The farther they went, the more rugged and wild the terrain became. They slipped by silent lakes enclosed within ancient mountain ranges so old they were now only considered rolling hills. We can live off this land, Hayden thought. So long as the poison in the air doesn’t destroy it first.
Nicholas stirred in the back seat. He’d been sleeping for the last four hours, and two hundred miles. Hayden turned and reached back to adjust the blanket over his legs. The boy woke up and smiled. “We there yet?”
Hayden returned the smile. “Not yet, pal. We’ll make a few stops along the way, get out and stretch our legs, and before you know it, we’ll be there.”
“Are we really going to camp on an island?”
“You bet. We’ll have to park the cars and row a couple of canoes just to get there.”
“No motor boats at Odin Lake?” Fred asked.
“None that I can recall.”
“Don’t go putting a damn paddle in my hands when we get there.”
Nicholas scolded him. “Don’t swear, Mr. Gill. I hear enough bad words from Caitlan.”
“Sorry, son.” Fred looked back into the rear view mirror and grinned at the boy. The smile faded quickly from his face when he saw the Audi was no longer following.
Chapter 41
They had arrived at a potash mine—one of the biggest in the world—sitting half a dozen miles north of the Canada-US border. The industrialized mill topside was the size of a small town all on its own. It was a metal conglomeration of refining buildings, processing plants, storage bins, and heavy machinery garages.
“Welcome to Odessa, boys.” Fiona jumped off of the ATV and pointed her rifle straight into Roy’s face. “No more stupid shit, okay, Piggy?” Roy remained silent and still. She glanced at Louie, but kept the weapon on the other man. “What about you, skinny? You’ve behaved up to this point… you going to try something heroic while I unlock the gate?”
“No, ma’am.”
Grace turned and levelled a hand gun in their direction anyway as Fiona went to the ten-foot high chain-link fence barring their way. She produced a key from inside one of her heavy gloves and slipped it inside a padlock the size of Roy’s fist. Fiona swung the gate open and Grace drove the ATV through.
“What is that?” Louie asked as they proceeded down a service road towards the mill’s main building. He was pointing to the gigantic mountain of dull orange directly behind the facility.
“That’s the leftovers you get after fifty years of drilling like worms a mile underground,” Fiona said.
It had to be over a two miles wide and more than five-hundred feet high. Louie could see dozens of diagonal trails winding up the sides of the man-made mountain where more recent dumps had been deposited. He had always thought the earth removed from the ground to plant Winnipeg’s Disease Study Center was a staggering amount, but it paled in comparison to this monstrosity. “My God, I bet they can see this thing from space.” Nobody answered him.
They went past an empty security booth, drove across an almost empty staff parking lot the size of a football field, and finally came to a stop in front of a large storage building. Fiona cut the rope behind Roy’s back. “Make yourself useful. Grab an armload of supplies and head on in.”
Grace slid a giant door open and stood off to one side as Fiona made the men carry everything from the back of the ATV into the dark building. When they had finished she pulled an empty pallet on a hand-jack out from the shadows and instructed them to reload everything neatly onto it.
Roy grumbled. “You could’ve had us put this shit directly onto the pallet without making us lift everything twice.”
“You can use the exercise.”
They did as they were told as the women removed their cumbersome protective suits. Fiona locked the big door from the inside and flipped a switch up on a panel set into the wall. A dozen red emergency lights flickered on thirty feet above their heads. She instructed Roy to pull the jack after them towards the far end of the cavernous room. Louie had to help Roy push the jack up a slight incline the last ten feet. They parked their load in front of a large rectangular iron grate built into the wall.
Louie stuck his fingers through the holes and leaned forward. A rush of cool air from below washed over his face.
“Careful,” one of the women warned as the iron door started to slide open. Fiona jammed the gun barrel into Roy’s back, forcing him to push the jack onto a metal platform. Louie followed him into a cage.
Louie felt a familiar dread begin to gnaw at his guts. “Where… where are we going?”
Fiona and Grace stepped into the cage and the iron door rattled back into place with an echoing clang. Fiona opened a control box welded onto one of the interior bars and pressed a big red button. A klaxon blared out, and Louie felt the metal plate under his feet drop away momentarily. The cage started moving down.
“We’re going into the heart of Odessa Shaft 168. A mile underground where there’s no radioactive fallout and blood-thirsty cattle.”
“That’s great.” Louie sat on the pile of stacked toilet paper and hung his head. “Just wonderful.”
Chapter 42
They found the Audi half a mile back in the ditch, lying on its roof in a cloud of dust. Smoke was pouring out from the completely crumpled-in front end. Hayden yelled at Nicholas to stay in the back seat of the Buick while he rushed out.
Fred, a few seconds slower than the younger man, called out behind him. “Be careful! They hit something on the road. The doctor crept towards the twitching creature. A big hoofed foot struck against the bloody pavement repeatedly. Fred kept his distance and walked slowly in front of it. A massive antler scraped along the highway, dragging the remains of the Audi’s windshield wrapped within it. Black liquid oozed out of the moose’s nostrils and mouth.
“My God… it has the disease.” He felt his chest start to tighten as he ran for the destroyed vehicle. A scream tore through the heavy, stinking air. Fred stopped. “Hayden?” He pictured the reanimated Fulger twins crawling out from the back—their bodies burned, their arms and legs bloated grey, their fingernails black, scratching in the dirt.
Another scream. It was Caitlan. “Goddamn it! Quit pulling so hard! My leg’s stuck in the console!”
Michael and Amanda appeared out of the smoke. They headed towards Fred, shaken and scared, but definitely not bloated and grey. The doctor ignored the pain in his chest and went to them, checking for broken bones and any sign of head injury. “Are you two okay?”
“My ears are ringing,” Amanda said.
Michael coughed and spit on the ground. “Uuck… that smoke tastes like ass.”
Fred steered them away from the thrashing moose. “Looks like you two are going to be alright. Go wait by the other car and I’ll check you over more thoroughly in a minute.”