“Were we just out in the open?” John asked.
“No. Not at all. Wouldn’t have looked had I not seen a dead Wrecker. Usually they take their dead, they must have missed him.” Rusty pulled the buggy to a stop and climbed out. “Do you recall where your own mobile is?”
John stepped out and looked around. “Back there.” He pointed.
“So you hid it?” Rusty asked. “Think the Wreckers got to it?”
“Yeah, but we have a secret compartment and Grant, the man that was with us, he was so paranoid about someone attacking us he hid the battery cell.”
Meredith asked. “John, if they didn’t get the battery cell, how are we gonna charge it enough to start the buggy. It’s been a few days.”
“Chances are it’s charged. It wasn’t buried,” John replied.
“Wreckers could have got it,” Rusty said.
“Doubtful,” John replied. “They wouldn’t know what to do with it.” Tromping over what foliage there was, John uncovered the buggy.
The stuff that was hidden under the back seat remained. He then scoured the area for the mark on the stump. Grant had marked a broken tree stump to show where he hid the battery cell.
Sure enough, it was there. John grinned and held it up.
“So is this goodbye?” Rusty asked. “I mean you got your vehicle and energy contraptions. What happens now?”
Meredith stepped to Rusty. “We tell you how grateful we are for you and even though we are leaving, I’d like to ask if we can come back and see you after we meet up with our friends. We’re gonna need to settle somewhere and I think this area is perfect.’
“I’d like that. You have the map. Don’t lose it.” He shook his finger at them in a lighthearted way.
“We won’t.” John then embraced Rusty. “I wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for you. I will never forget what you have done for me.”
“Come back and visit, let me know if you ever found Salvation.”
That was all Rusty requested. He gave them his version of a care package and brought Meredith and John to the solar buggy then he stayed and helped bury Grant, then watched as they pulled away.
John kept peering back in the mirror until Rusty faded. “Ready?” John asked Meredith.
“As ready as I can be.”
“Where to first?”
Meredith looked down at the map. “At least twenty miles from here. Then we’re safely out of Wrecker land.” She glanced back down to the map and the section marked with a ‘W’. “I hope.”
It was a good day. The weather was clear and Rusty wanted to enjoy the ride back to his home. At the pace he set it would take a good hour or so, but that was fine. He had a bit of a headache and hoped the fresh air would do him some good. He had been stagnant in his home since the arrival of his guests. Or rather the two people he found and helped. There was something strange about them, they claimed to not know anything. Hinted that they were in some sort of experiment that had them sleep for decades. To Rusty, they were either very clever and creative, or they were telling the truth.
The fact that they went into Wrecker territory told him a lot.
No one knowingly goes into Wrecker World.
He liked John and Meredith. Although John seemed stuffy, he was a nice guy. Rusty hoped they wouldn’t leave. If indeed they just woke up from some sort of refrigerator cooling system, they weren’t prepared for the world. The fact that they had been attacked and violently sexually violated told Rusty that. Had it not been for them needing to meet their friends, Rusty would have encouraged them to stay. Learn a little of the new world.
As they went their separate ways, in complete opposite directions, Rusty kept looking over his shoulder to the odd sun mobile they rode. In his mind, he wished them luck just one more time.
About twenty minutes into his journey, maybe about ten miles, he spotted it. The sun beat squarely down at Rusty casting a haze over his vision. He tipped his hat to shade his sight and pulled on the reins to lower the speed.
“Well, look at that,” Rusty said as he neared the figure on the road.
The person walked slowly, nearly staggering, but by the size of him, Rusty knew, even from a distance it was a Wrecker.
Wreckers had eye problems and didn’t see well at all in the sun. Hence, Rusty believed, why he staggered.
He was a huge son of a bitch, Rusty thought, bigger than most he had seen.
What was he doing out not only in the day, but in an area not quite dirty, dusty and dead, like Wrecker Land? Maybe he was in the shade, trying to make his way. Lost.
Whatever the case, Wreckers were dangerous. Rusty didn’t worry about being hurt. Even with a bad knee and hip, he could dart out of the way. Especially on the open road under a bright clear sky.
Another pull of the reins, the horse ‘neighed’ and the Wrecker stopped, then looked around. His hand was on his stomach and the other reached out.
The Wrecker made some sort of noise. As if he were calling out.
It carried to Rusty, louder and stronger as the Wrecker stood in one place waving out his extended hand.
Was he thinking he was gonna attack? If Rusty didn’t know any better, he would have sworn the Wrecker was trying to get help.
But Rusty knew better.
He reached behind him for his cross bow and made sure it was loaded and ready to go. Rusty needed one shot, one shot only, but even as good of a shot as he was, he had to get closer. The sun distorted his vision.
“Easy boy,” Rusty said to the horse and stepped from the cart.
The Wrecker didn’t move.
“What are you doing in these parts?” Rusty asked.
The Wrecker reached out.
“Can’t see me to attack. Can you now?”
Another groan and again, the Wrecker swung out.
Rusty was about fifteen feet away, but in order to make it a clean shot, one that would kill, he had to get closer. Just as he hit a distance of eight feet, he raised the weapon, prepared to fire, when the Wrecker, just dropped to the ground.
Was it some sort of ploy? Rusty still planned on killing him and lowered his aim. He would have killed him had the Wrecker not started to shake. His body convulsed slightly and the Wrecker coughed. He coughed in a choking manner.
“What the hell?” Rusty lowered his aim, still keeping his distance.
Once more the Wrecker reached out, then his arm dropped and he went still.
Rusty gave it a moment in case it was a trick. When he realized the Wrecker was dead he stepped closer.
Had the Wrecker been injured days before by John and had been wandering the whole time? Maybe he got lost and starved.
Rusty stood closer and the second his own shadow cast over the Wrecker, he realized what happened.
The Wrecker, like all his kind, had smooth skin, no hair and a slightly elongated head, like a Neanderthal. His nose was wide and flat, a thick substance formed at the base of his small nostrils. His lips were big with a clef that exposed his larger teeth and gums. His mouth was open and from it was more of the thick greenish substance.
However, more than his mouth and nose, it was the eyes of the Wrecker that said a lot. Eyes that always bulged were so red they looked black. His eyelids were encrusted with what looked like scabs and around his thick neck were glands so swollen and purple, they had grown so big, they were splitting the skin.
The Wrecker wasn’t lost or injured, the Wrecker was sick. He died from what ailed him. If Rusty didn’t know any better, he would sworn it was the virus. But that was impossible. It had been dormant for nearly ten years.
Nonetheless, whatever it was that killed the Wrecker, scared Rusty.
FOUR – LOOKING BACK
It was going to be a long trek, time wise to get back to the buggy, but at the speed Jason walked, Nora wondered if they’d make it out of the city before dark.