SNAFU: Resurrection Page 14

  “Why do you have a gun?” Hailey asked, leaning out to peer around her father’s leg.

  “Hello, little miss,” the stranger said, giving her a smile. “Well, the gun is for protection. Make sure I can defend myself if anyone tries to hurt me.”

  “Look,” Danny interrupted impatiently. “We can’t help you and we don’t want you here. You need to leave. If you need a car, that Tesla outside is mine. Take it!”

  The man looked at him for a long stretch, eyes boring into Danny’s as if he were trying to read his soul. After an uncomfortable silence he nodded to himself.

  “You take care of your family,” he said softly to Danny, then leaned to the side to see Theresa. “Ma’am, sorry to have frightened you and your young ladies.”

  Turning, he released the deadbolt and grasped the knob to open the door into the garage.

  “Wait!” Theresa said, pushing the girls behind her and stepping forward to stand next to Danny.

  “What are you doing?” he snapped, looking sideways at her.

  The stranger paused and looked over his shoulder.

  “Please wait,” she said to the man.

  When he nodded, she grabbed Danny’s arm and ushered her family into the living room.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Danny hissed once they were around the corner.

  “Daddy said a bad word!” Hailey said, sounding happy about it.

  “Hailey,” Theresa said in warning, silencing the little girl. “Danny, you just saw what happened in our front yard. You were attacked, you said. And Jerry took our Jeep because he had a gun. And things are probably going to get worse before they get better. Maybe we should ask him to come with us.”

  “Are you crazy?” Danny’s eyes were wide in shock. “We don’t know anything about him! Nerve gas? Sound like bull… BS, to me. If it’s nerve gas, how come everyone isn’t affected?”

  “I don’t know, but I do know we need to get out of the city and we need to go now. But if we run into someone with a gun who wants to take what we have, we won’t have a choice. Maybe if he’s with us, they’ll think twice and leave us alone.”

  “And he’s black,” Hailey piped up. “Didn’t you say that a black man with a gun was the scariest thing you ever saw, Daddy?”

  “Hailey…” Theresa said sternly, delivering another warning.

  “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard!” Danny said, ignoring his daughter’s comment. “He won’t protect us, he’ll just get us caught in the middle of a gunfight! Look, you want to let him stay here and us leave, that’s fine, but he’s not coming with us!”

  “Excuse me, folks.”

  They turned to see the stranger standing in the doorway. Apparently, he’d been listening to their conversation.

  “Perhaps this will ease your mind.”

  The rifle was held pointed at the floor in his right hand, his left deftly flipping open a badge case.

  “Special Agent Tony Busey, FBI.”

  They all stared at him in surprise, unsure what to say.

  “Is that real?” Hailey asked suspiciously, starting to step forward for a better look at the ID.

  “Hailey!” Theresa snapped, grabbing her shoulder and pulling her back.

  “Yes, little miss. It’s the genuine article!” Busey smiled.

  Danny tentatively stepped forward, reaching out. Busey hesitated for a beat before handing over the case.

  “What’s that? Genuine article?” Hailey asked as her father examined the credentials.

  “Means it’s legit, dummy,” Lisa said derisively, earning a dirty look from her little sister.

  “This says you’re retired,” Danny said, returning the case. Busey took it and slipped it into a back pocket.

  “True. I am. Two weeks ago.”

  “Where’s your family?” Theresa asked. “They didn’t come with you?”

  “FBI life is hard on a marriage,” he said, shrugging and offering no further explanation. “Now, this is all nice, but if you folks were serious about leaving and you don’t mind some company, it would probably be best if we got on the road. As I said, it’s getting worse out there by the minute.”

  “Yes,” Theresa said without bothering to consult Danny. “We’d be happy to have you come with us. We’ve already had one car stolen by a neighbor with a gun.”

  “Yes, ma’am. People tend to go off the rails a bit when bad things happen.”

  “Theresa,” she said, stepping forward and extending her hand.

  Busey shook it then nodded and smiled at each of the girls as she introduced them.

  “What about you?” he asked, turning to Danny. “You okay with me coming along?”

  Danny held his eye for a beat before letting his drift to look at the floor.

  “Sure. Why not? You were FBI, after all.”

  “Then we best get going,” Busey said. “We’re not going to try and squeeze into that Tesla, are we?”

  “No, we’re taking Theresa’s Mercedes,” Danny said, picking up his bag. “S Class. Plenty of room.”

  The girls were quickly herded to the garage door, Theresa keeping a protective arm around each of them. Danny started to lead the way, pausing when Busey held up a big hand.

  “Okay, we’re going straight to the car,” he said, all business. “Ladies in the back, Danny driving and I’m riding shotgun. Seatbelts on the instant your butt hits the seat. Got it?”

  He looked at Hailey and Lisa and softened the instructions with a wiggle of his eyebrows. Hailey giggled and nodded, but the older Lisa only rolled her eyes dramatically. He glanced up at Theresa and she nodded acknowledgement of his instructions.

  “And you,” he said, moving to directly face Danny. “You stop for nothing unless I tell you.”

  “I made it home less than an hour ago,” Danny said petulantly. “I think I can handle this.”

  “That’s good. Very good. But there may be some people who are trying to take advantage of the circumstances. Your family is in the back seat. Movement is safety. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  His eyes bored into Danny’s who, after a beat, swallowed hard and nodded.

  “Then let’s go!”

  Busey unlocked the door and pushed it open, the rifle already to his shoulder and scanning for danger as he moved into the large garage. Danny, keys in hand, hobbled across the floor to the driver’s door as Theresa rushed the girls into the back seat. While they loaded into the car, Busey remained near the rear bumper, weapon ready to engage anyone or thing that threatened them.

  Behind the wheel, Danny pressed the starter and the powerful twelve-cylinder engine rumbled to life with a sound of subdued power. Hearing the seatbelts behind him click, he pressed a button on his door that clunked the locks into place.

  “What are you doing?” Theresa called in alarm.

  She was starting to lean over the seat to grab his arm when he shifted into reverse and hit the throttle. The heavy car rocketed backwards out of the garage, missing Busey only because he leapt to the side when the engine note changed.

  Steering around the Tesla, Danny ignored him as well as the shouts of protest from the back seat. Whipping through the circle driveway, he aimed for the street and took an instant to glance in the mirror. Theresa and the girls were all turned, looking through the rear glass. Busey stood at the entrance to their open garage, watching them leave without him.

  Before they lost sight of him, he opened fire on a group of females that had been attracted by the sound of the Mercedes driving away. After two shots, the rifle ran dry and he dropped it, turning and running for the door into the house. The females rounded the corner at speed, their screams audible even in the superbly insulated luxury car. There was a small cry from Hailey, then Danny turned onto the street and they lost sight of Busey and the attacking females.

  “He didn’t make it,” she said in a very quiet voice, turning and burying her face into her mother.

  Danny glanced in the mirror again as
he accelerated away. Theresa met his eyes, disappointment and anger shining brightly in hers.

  * * *

  The drive out of the Atlanta area was perilous, but they made it without any serious consequences. The freeways that led away from the city were hopelessly clogged. The people in the stranded vehicles were either unfortunate enough to become one of the infected from contact with residue from the dispersal of the agent, or they fell victim to those who had already turned.

  Using the Mercedes’ satellite navigation, Danny stuck to smaller roads. Crossed major arteries carefully and only at minor intersections. Several times he tried to engage Theresa or his daughters, but none of them would respond to his overtures. He understood their anger, but they had to understand that he was only trying to protect them. Bringing along Busey and his gun, FBI agent or not, was only asking for more trouble.

  Finally leaving the Atlanta suburbs behind, the countryside opened up and turned to gently rolling hills. It was a beautiful day, the sun shining brightly as he accelerated smoothly past a blue sign marking a large marina. His house was on the same lake, but still many miles ahead, then back through the forest for more than a mile. Isolated as isolated could be.

  It had cost a small fortune to construct, but now more than ever he was grateful he’d spent the money. He and his family would be safe. The road in wasn’t marked and other than boaters on the lake who would have noticed the massive, two-story structure with its boat dock, no one knew it was there. In fact, the trail through the forest was so well hidden by the overgrown shoulder that he drove past and had to turn around.

  Nosing into the thick grass, he brought the big sedan to a stop. Ahead was a narrow tunnel through primeval forest that wound its way to the lake. He’d never driven it in anything other than a Jeep that belonged to the realtor or one of the construction crew’s trucks and wasn’t at all sure Theresa’s heavy, low slung car could make it. But, even if they couldn’t, it wasn’t that far of a walk. He’d just have to listen to his daughters complain the entire way.

  “Can’t make it in this.”

  The first words Theresa had spoken to him since he’d abandoned Busey.

  “Going to try,” he replied, no longer in the mood to hear anything she had to say.

  She mumbled something he didn’t catch as he gently accelerated onto the rough track. Within a hundred yards, they had bottomed out twice and scraped the passenger side on the bark of a massive oak. The overhead foliage was dense enough to activate the automatic headlights and wildly growing blackberry bushes made a screeing sound as they dragged along the sheet metal.

  “I don’t feel good.”

  Lisa’s voice from the back seat.

  “She’s gonna hurl,” Hailey chimed in, drawing a sharp look from her mother.

  Danny glanced in the mirror, unconcerned. One of the kids always had something wrong. More often than not it was simply to get attention or to get out of doing something. Besides, he knew Theresa would deal with it. He could see her turned to their oldest daughter, feeling her forehead and speaking to her in low tones.

  “She’s got a fever,” she said a minute later, worry clear in her voice.

  “There’s Tylenol at the house,” Danny said dismissively.

  “My head hurts,” Lisa said, commanding Theresa’s full attention again.

  “We need to turn around,” she said firmly after another mother’s examination of the girl.

  “And go where?” Danny asked, irritation clear in his voice.

  Theresa didn’t have an answer for that, glaring at him in the mirror before turning back to press her hand against Lisa’s flushed face.

  “I feel bad, too,” Hailey said a minute later.

  Danny sighed loud enough to be clearly heard in the backseat. He knew his youngest well enough to recognize a ploy to pull attention from her sister when he heard it.

  “Hailey,” he said, warningly.

  “She’s hot, too,” Theresa said a moment later after feeling the smaller girl’s face. “Danny, we’ve got to do something!”

  “Everyone relax,” he said as he carefully steered the heavy Mercedes around a massive tree stump. “We’ll be to the house in a few minutes and there’s medicine, then you can lay down and rest.”

  The girls fell silent, which was unusual. When either was sick, they complained incessantly. This reinforced for him that they were just reacting to the stress of the circumstances. Not that he blamed them. There’d been several times in the past few hours that he wanted to throw up then crawl into a corner and curl into a ball.

  “Why didn’t you have this path cleared into a real road?” Theresa asked.

  She knew the answer. They’d spent so much on the construction of the house and dock that there hadn’t been enough money left over to build a more than mile-long driveway. Danny’s solution had been to buy the Jeep which would have handled the terrain with no difficulties. Unlike the Mercedes, which bounced over a gnarled tree root, bottomed out then came to a stop. The engine revved as he pushed on the accelerator, but the only result was the high-pitched sound of a spinning tire. They were stuck.

  “Just great,” Theresa mumbled.

  Danny shot her a look in the mirror but didn’t respond. Popping the driver’s door open, he leaned out and looked back. Shifted into reverse and pressed on the gas while he watched the rear tire. More whining, but the car didn’t budge.

  “How much farther?” Theresa asked as he continued trying to get the heavy vehicle to move.

  “Maybe a quarter of a mile,” he said, slamming the steering wheel with the palm of his hand.

  Releasing his seatbelt, he shut off the engine and pushed the door fully open.

  “What are you doing?”

  “We’re stuck, Theresa. I have to find some rocks or branches to put under the tire,” he said, his voice dripping with condescension.

  Stepping out, he slammed the door and moved to the back of the car for a closer inspection. Both rear tires had dug ruts into the loose soil around the edge of a rotting tree branch that was thicker than his leg. That was the bad news. The good news was that it looked like he could drive it out if they could only gain a little traction. Hobbling as he moved, he began looking for anything he could use to help free the vehicle. He turned when the back door opened and Theresa stepped out.

  “I got this,” he said, thinking she was coming to help.

  “I’m not waiting,” she said, turning back to the interior and helping Hailey climb out. “They’re getting hotter. I’m taking them to the house.”

  “I’ll have us unstuck in a few minutes,” he said, upset that she was taking action without discussing it with him.

  “Then you can pick us up,” she said firmly, helping Lisa out and wrapping her arms around both girls. “But we’re going. Now.”

  Danny opened his mouth to argue with her, but the words died unspoken when he got his first good look at his daughters. Both were ghostly pale, clammy sweat beading their faces. Lisa looked like the only thing keeping her on her feet was her mother’s embrace.

  “Okay,” he said, concern for them finally overriding his irritation with his wife.

  “Hurry,” Theresa said, fear for her children clearly written on her face.

  Danny nodded and watched for a moment as they moved slowly down the path to the lake house. When they disappeared around a bend, he looked down at the car and cursed, then began gathering fallen branches.

  Jamming them under the front of each rear tire, he briefly surveyed his handiwork. Satisfied, he jumped behind the wheel and started the engine. Putting the car in gear, he gently pressed on the accelerator. Nothing happened, which encouraged him. If the tires weren’t spinning, that meant he had traction to get free.

  Pressing harder on the throttle, his heart leapt when the car moved an inch forward. A little more gas. Another inch, then another. The rear started to come up as the Mercedes climbed out of the ruts. A little more pressure. There was a sudden racket from the back
then the whine of spinning tires as the vehicle rolled back into the ruts.

  “Goddamn it!” Danny screamed at the windshield.

  He sat there for a few moments, panting in frustration. When he regained his composure, he stepped out and looked at the tires. They had grabbed the branches, spitting them out when he applied too much power.

  “Goddamn it,” he muttered, bending to collect a softball sized rock.

  Twenty minutes later, he had built an impromptu rock path that ran for several feet in front of each rear tire. Digging out some of the soil from in front of each, he jammed fallen tree branches and smaller rocks into the void, giving the front of the tires something to grab so they could climb up onto the paths he’d made.

  It was oppressively hot and humid in the forest and Danny’s clothes were soaked in sweat, clinging to his body. Slipping into the Mercedes, he started the engine and took a moment to relish the cold air coming from the air conditioning.

  “C’mon, bitch,” he said under his breath as he shifted into gear.

  Pressing on the accelerator as if there were an egg beneath his foot, he held his breath and willed the car to move. Slowly, an inch. Almost imperceptible, but it was there. Then a couple more, the back end rising slowly as it climbed out of the ruts again. A few more inches. A little more gas and with a whoop of victory from Danny it bounced free.

  The excitement of successfully freeing the car momentarily brightened his mood, but it didn’t last long. The weight of his circumstances crashed back down and he stepped on the brakes. For a long time, he just sat in the idling Mercedes, staring through the windshield.

  They’d been closer to the house than he’d realized. Close enough that when the breeze moved some tree branches in the right direction, he could catch a glimpse of blue water. His house was just around the next turn. An impressive two story painted a gleaming white with a dock that could accommodate the largest of cabin cruisers. Somewhere he’d planned on entertaining the senior partners from his law firm when he was ready to make his pitch to join them on the fifth floor. Once there, he was set for life. An astronomical salary and more perks than even he could imagine. But that dream was gone.