Here is a sneak peek into book four:
Eight Years Post-War
Chapter One
Gibs
Gibs looked at her companions and smiled. She believed that she really did have the best group of friends, who followed her into these situations with blind faith. She appreciated that she could rely on them, to help her carry out this plan. It was late at night, (or was this considered early morning?). She was driving along a country road, which had only a few streetlights to reveal what lay just past the dark road’s edge. Every so often the distance would show a bubble of light which represented another giant warehouse location, the sideroads leading to them were always gated and guarded.
The other three in the car stayed quiet as she continued to their destination. Dax was the oldest in the group, he had just turned twenty and felt he was the leader of their small team, although it was usually Gibs who had the ideas and the plans. Middy was a year younger than Gibs, at seventeen. Then there was Carter, he was the youngest at only sixteen, and he was also the only one in the group that had kept his given name. Though his friends abbreviated it to Cart, for simplification. Most of the orphans had either forgotten or purposely left behind their given names. The names didn’t mean anything to them anymore, they had been given to them by parents that had died or abandoned them years ago. They had no need to preserve anything from that time. Those who were old enough to remember what had happened during the war never spoke of it, but most were too young to remember much of anything. Gibs was eight years old when the war had started and she couldn’t remember anything from that time. All she knew was her whole family had been killed or were lost to her.
Gibs stopped their small jeep across the road and blocked both lanes as best she could. She checked the time, it was almost two AM, the truck would be approaching soon.
“Get out of the car,” Gibs ordered.
“In the ditch,” Dax clarified to the others, trying to sound in control. “Are you sure you don’t want to trade spots?” Dax asked Gibs as he got out of the car.
“I got this,” Gibs confirmed. “They are more likely to stop for a girl anyway.”
“Ok,” he said reluctantly. “Just stay in sight, OK?”
“Yeah, I got this, now go hide,” Gibs sighed. Dax was great, but definitely a little overprotective. He seemed to have more muscle than brains sometimes, but he had his heart in the right place.
Gibs watched as Cart, Middy and Dax crouched in the ditch. Gibs didn’t have to wait long, she heard the truck coming and then saw the headlights approaching quickly. The truck was moving fast, and she hoped that the driver was paying attention. She stood in front of the jeep and started to wave her arms. The truck did not slow, she waved her arms harder and started to yell. She noticed, just before it was too late, that the driver was distracted. He had his head down and was looking at something on his dash, not watching the road.
“Gibs, get the hell out of the way,” Dax yelled. Gibs didn’t need to be told twice, she quickly dove off the road, just as the truck crashed into their jeep. Her knees and elbows smashed onto the asphalt, and she felt a burning sensation as she scraped them on the road.
“Oh shit!” Gibs muttered as she watched their small jeep being tossed down the road.
The truck slammed on his brakes and left deep skid marks on the road. When the truck finally stopped Gibs quickly ran to the driver’s door and pulled it open. The driver was slumped over the steering wheel groaning. He had hit his head and was bleeding significantly from a gash across his forehead.
“You dumbass!” Gibs yelled at him. “Weren’t you watching where you were going?”
The driver just groaned again, he was barely conscious.
“What the hell Gibs!” Dax yelled at her as he approached the truck, Middy and Cart were right behind him.
“What? It’s not my fault this dumbass wasn’t watching the road,” Gibs argued.
“Get him out of the truck and let’s go!” Cart shouted.
“We can’t just leave him here he’s hurt,” Gibs protested.
“We have to,” Dax replied. “We can’t take him with us, and we aren’t going to leave this haul behind we need it.”
“Fine! Help me get him in the jeep,” Gibs demanded. Middy and Cart quickly complied and between the three of them, they dragged the barely conscious driver out of the truck and placed him into the very damaged jeep.
“You think the truck will drive?” Middy asked Gibs.
“God I hope so, that jeep ain’t going nowhere,” Gibs replied as they jogged back to the truck. Dax turned the key and the engine chugged, then kicked in, and Gibs felt some relief.
“Come on get in,” Dax yelled at them.
They all crammed into the cab of the truck which was only meant for two people. Middy quickly found a spot on the floor between the driver and passenger seats, which left Gibs and Cart to share the remaining seat. Gibs let Cart sit down, then she climbed onto his lap and slammed the door.
“Let’s go!” She said. She looked in the side mirror, behind them were lights coming along the road. “We need to go now!” She said with more urgency.
“I know Gibs!” Dax yelled back as he put the truck in drive and slammed his foot onto the gas. The truck jerked, chugged and then jerked again before it started to accelerate, Middy cheered, and Gibs sighed in relief as they put distance between them and the jeep with the injured driver.
“I really liked that jeep,” Gibs said as she watched the jeep disappear from sight in the sideview mirror.
“Maybe you shouldn’t have trashed it then,” Dax said. “Kind of sucks we don’t have wheels now.”
“I’ll get us new ones,” Cart offered.
“It’s getting too risky,” Dax criticized. “That was the third car this month we had to steal. And tonight was sloppy, if we keep on this trend, we are going to get caught.” Dax gave Gibs a sideways glance that showed his disappointment.
“Hey, it’s not my fault the driver was a dumbass,” Gibs defended herself. “We need this haul, and now that we have it we can lay low for a while. This will last for at least a month if we are smart about it.”
“You’re saying that, but you don’t even know what’s in the back yet,” Dax replied.
“Can’t we just celebrate this one win?” Gibs said.
“Win!” Dax exclaimed. “I’m not sure this is a win. We just left some poor man unconscious at the side of the road.”
“He’ll be fine,” Gibs interrupted.
“Our jeep got totalled!” Dax continued. “And you almost got run over.”
“Mom, Dad stop arguing you’re making us feel uncomfortable,” Middy said sarcastically. Dax grunted but didn’t continue his rant.
“I’m fine,” Gibs mumbled under her breath determined to get the last word in.
“Actually, I think you’re bleeding on me,” Cart said shyly. She was leaning against him and he gently lifted her arm off his chest revealing a blood stain on his shirt.
“Oh shit sorry,” Gibs said as she tried to look at her elbow. “Is it bad?” She asked him.
“It’s not good,” Cart said as he wrinkled his nose.
“Shit,” Gibs repeated.
“You swear too much,” Cart complained.
“Seriously?” Gibs laughed.
“And back there when you said that the “jeep ain’t going nowhere,’” Cart continued. “You really needed to say, the jeep isn’t going anywhere.”
“Really?” Gibs looked him in the eyes. “Just ‘cause, you’re the one who reads bester than me, doesn’t mean I want the lectures Cart.”
Cart turned away from her stare, embarrassed. She knew he didn’t do it on purpose, he was just trying to preserve some civility among their group, which was a hard task. Gibs knew Carter was smart, he read every book he could find and also tried to educate himself on current affairs and international politics. Cart wasn’t arrogant, he was just too smart for his own good. In a different time, or even in a different community he would have been studying to be a doctor, scientist or lawyer and would have made big bucks. But instead, he was an orphan, left to fend for himself. He used his brilliance to hotwire cars and help his friends escape arrest for their petty criminal activities.
They continued to drive in silence, Gibs tried not to bleed further on Cart, and Dax continued to grumble under his breath. Their “home” was in a deserted industrial area of one of the abandoned communities. The community had been hit hard during the war. Almost all the homes had been burnt down and it had been evacuated and left uninhabited for years. Since this community was never rebuilt, it was also not intended to be inhabited. But those who hadn’t been fortunate enough to find a new home or even an old home that wasn’t completely burnt down took shelter in any other stable building they could find.
“Stop the truck!” Middy suddenly said to Dax.
“Why?” Dax replied. “We are almost home.” But he pulled over anyway.
“Look,” She said pulling a uniform jacket out from behind her, it had fallen behind the seat during the accident.
“This is a Harris Corp. truck,” Middy said quickly referring to the H.C. logo stitched in gold embroidery on the jacket.
“So? Everything is Harris Corp. these days,” Gibs replied.
“Didn’t you say they had trackers on their trucks?” Middy asked Cart.
“Oh crap, yeah!” Cart said. He practically threw Gibs to the floor of the cab as he stumbled out of the vehicle.
Gibs climbed out of the cab and followed Cart.
“What are we looking for?” she asked as Cart started to crawl under the truck.
“I’m not even sure,” he said as he lay on the road looking under the trailer. “Something that doesn’t look like it belongs to the truck.”
Gibs started to look as well, she bent low to see under the truck and behind the tires, but she had no idea what to look for.
“I think I found it,” Cart called from one of the back tires and Gibs quickly went to him.
“Pass me that big rock,” he requested as she approached. Gibs grabbed a nearby rock and handed it to him. She saw what he had found, there was a small black box tucked just over the back wheel. He hit it with the rock and after a few blows the box smashed and fell to the road. Cart rolled out from under the truck and tossed the rock to the side of the road. They headed back to the cab, Cart was about to climb back in when Gibs gently touched his arm.
“Do you want to be on top this time?” she asked in a flirty voice as he turned to look at her.
“Funny,” Cart said without laughing.
“OK, seriously, good work, thank you,” Gibs said. She wasn’t one to offer compliments often, but she felt bad about scolding him earlier for the grammar lesson. Hurting Cart’s feelings was like kicking a puppy. He was innocent, and naïve, in a devious, felonious, kind of way. Cart smiled in appreciation and climbed back into the truck. He offered his hand to her as she climbed back in.
“Found it, we are good to proceed,” Cart confirmed to Dax once they were settled back into their seat. Dax started to the truck and continued to drive.
Since, their home was a converted warehouse, there was a loading dock in the back. They pulled the stolen truck right up to the dock and quickly went to assess their inventory. As Gibs had predicted the truck was transporting stock for one of the grocery stores in the settled communities. It included a variety of cereals, canned fruits and vegetables, soups, and even some fresh meats and produce.
“Oh wow!” Middy exclaimed as they looked through their supply. “This is awesome!”
“It’s been a while since we’ve eaten this good,” Cart replied also in awe.
“We need to prioritize this,” Dax said getting down to business. “The fresh stuff will only last so long, so we should enjoy it while we can. We can ration the canned items and dried foods so it lasts longer. If we plan this right, this could last a couple of months.”
“So, are you willing to call it a win now?” Gibs teased him.
“Yes I’ll call it a win,” he replied as he hugged her.
Comments