time to go find our boys.”
“I’d wait another week to go anywhere.” Robbins said.
“A week my ass, I’m not sitting here another week. Let’s go Cody.” Denise said.
“Yeah, we need to find our kids.” Cody returned.
After the car was packed, the group gathered at the door, “We wish you both all the luck in the world.” Robbins said as they each shook their hand. “If it starts raining again, the water will probably be safe, just don’t drink from wells.”
Cody got in the drivers seat and started the car, he hoped the rain had washed the radiation particles from the metal top. They did not slow down until they entered the town of Big Bear. As they passed through the town they saw a man leaning against a car vomiting into the street, “Radiation poisoning, that’s probably what we have to look forward too.”
“Aren’t you the positive one?” Denise smirked at him.
He didn’t want an argument, so he sat, and said nothing as he drove. He came to the turnoff that would lead them to the end of the road up the mountain. He pulled into the parking lot where hikers were usually thick as fleas on a dogs back this time of year, but there was only Dales van. The back door was open which meant someone had raided the van for anything that might be of use. He pulled up beside the empty van, and stopped the car.
“Looks like they are still up there. We should have back packs to carry the food, I’ll have to carry the sack up. You will have to carry the one with the water bottles.” He handed her the burlap sack.
He stuck the pistol in his back pocket, began walking up the trail, and she followed along behind. It wasn’t long before she was lagging behind by twenty feet. They had climbed about an hour up the steep trail before he called a halt, and sat down. She huffed up behind him, and sat on a large rock beside the trail.
“You know Holly was having an affair.” She blurted.
“Well cripes Denise, you sure know how to make a man feel good!”
“I just thought you would like to know. You were gone so much though, so it would be hard to blame her.”
“Well hell Denise, I didn’t want to know, but then, you couldn’t possibly keep a tidbit like that to yourself could you?”
“Don’t shoot the messenger Cojack!”
“Oh, I wouldn’t think of it, lets go!”
He began to walk up the steep mountain trail as fast as he could, and after a while he heard her calling from down the trail behind him, “Cody…please don’t go so fast!”
He sat down on a rock, and waited for her to come up to him, “I’m sorry Cody. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” She blubbered as she plopped down beside the trail.
“No, I don’t suppose you did.” He said in a soft voice. She brushed tears away with the back of her hand.
“We’re getting close to the top, it won’t be much further.” Cody said.
“How can you tell with all these trees?”
“I’ve been up here a couple times.”
“Not me, I’ll climb no mountains where there’s shopping malls to be conquered!”
He laughed, “I just might agree with you there, but there’s no more malls to conquer I’m afraid.”
“Do you think this is the end of the world Cody?”
“It probably pretty much the end for us, it may go to the cock roaches. They’ll have little cock roach malls to scurry in, and out of…you ready to climb a little more?”
“My feet hurt.” She said as she got up to follow him. When they had climbed another four hundred feel, a bullet zinged off a rock, and bits of rock stung his face.
“Get down Denise!”
“I’m down.”
“Hey up there! Is that you Dale?”
“Go back down Cody!” He pin pointed Dales voice in a group of rocks about a hundred yards ahead.
“What do you mean, go back down Dale, I’ve got Denise with me down here!”
“Things have changed Cody, you’re going back, and we’re staying here!”
“What about Denise Dale, have you lost your mind?”
“Keep her!”
“What do you mean keep me you son of bitch! I’ll pummel you within an inch of your sorry life!” Denise screamed from behind him so loud it hurt his ears.
“Take it easy Denise; the man has obviously gone bonkers.”
“Dale, we’re coming up, so don’t shoot at us!”
Another bullet whined of into the air as it glanced off a rock close to his head, and he knew the man had him in a scope sight.
‘What about Trevor Dale? I came for him, not you, you shmuck!”
“Trevor is a free man; he can go with you if he wants!” He heard him call the boy.
“I’m not going with you Dad!” Trevor called down.
“You have to go with me Trevor, I can’t protect you up here!”
“No I don’t, and I don’t need you, its best if you and Mrs. Banks go back so we don’t have to kill you!”
“You heard the boy, the next one won’t miss!”
Cody sat, and thought, They obviously mean it, and they have the high ground. He turned to look down at Denise, “Ok Denise, lets head back then.”
“Are we just going back, and let that ass have his way?”
“I don’t see as we have any other choice, I believe he would kill us like rats. Something has changed here, and it’s changed badly. Have you noticed anything before this?”
“Well, he’s been acting moody for a while. Do you think he’s a danger to the boys?”
“I don’t really think so Denise, and they’ll survive just as well up here as we will down there.”
When they got back to the parking lot, the Vette was still there, and they drove the two miles back to the town of Big Bear. They stopped at a service station to see if they could get some gas, and as soon as they got out of the car three men came from behind the station.
Two of the men pulled guns, as they walked up, “We want the car! Just give us the keys.”
Denise kicked the nearest one with a gun right smack in the gonads, and the man dropped the gun, and doubled over holding his crotch with both hands. The other man pulled that hammer back on his gun, “Don’t shoot her! You can have the car, but just don’t shoot her! Here’s the keys!” Cody tossed the keys to the man.
“Shoot the bitch!” The man said, still holding his crotch with both hands.
“Aw shut up, and get in the car Wilbur!” The man with the gun said.
The man with the bad gonads, and the man with the gun sped off, leaving their partner in crime, “Hey! Come back here!” The man yelled.
“I don’t think they are coming back. I do have a gun, so it might be advisable to beat feet mister.” Cody said.
The man took off down the street, and Denise scowled at Cody, “Why’d you let them take my Vette?”
“Because we need Dales van, we can sleep in it, and the Vette ain’t worth two bucks to us. Let’s go get it.” He turned around, and started walking toward the trail head.
Denise looked after him a minute, and then followed. She caught up to him, “We don’t have a key to start the van.”
“Yes we do, I took the extra van key off the ring, unless you had some other car I didn’t know about.”
“No, those are the only ones we had.”
“You have a mean kick, that guy will never have kids. You are a dangerous woman Denise.”
“I am when somebody tries to take my Vette.”
“Well, wait until the right time to kick; you could have gotten us both killed back there.”
They walked in silence for thirty minutes before Denise spoke, “You could have left me, and took off by yourself, why didn’t you? Dale doesn’t want me.”
“No, I don’t reckon he does Denise, what happened between you two?”
“I don’t know, I still can’t figure it out.”
“Think maybe it was your sweet disposition?”
She glared at him, but kept walking as they came up to the short road tha
t led to the trail head then she spoke, “I wasn’t raised up in money. I was raised by a single mom in south L.A., and we had to scrape just to keep food on the table. When I got a chance for an out, I took it. I was real pretty back then.”
Cody looked over at her, the hardness gone from her face, “You still are pretty Denise.”
“Do you really mean that Cody?”
“Yeah, I really mean it, the problem is; you’re always driven with such bitter determination.”
“Am I attractive to you Cody?”
“I admit I’ve had some thoughts. From what you’ve just told me, I think Dale was a fool who didn’t bother trying to understand you.”
She stopped, “Kiss me Cody.”
“Here in the damn middle of the road Denise?”
Long time gone
She kissed him passionately, and he almost forgot they were trying to survive. He walked on toward the van sitting ahead in the parking lot, saying nothing. He pulled the key out of his pocket; got into the driver seat of the van, and twisted the ignition. The motor turned slowly and then caught; he pumped the gas to it, and the engine smoothed out.
He looked down at the gas gauge, and it was on full. Good old Dale, never leaving out details, except one…his wife. What a chump! Then his thoughts turned to other things. They had no food or