The Long Road

A Chapter by edloud

"Damn, this is taking forever. So many fucked up cars." Dwight said as he and Caleb walked down Post Road. Four total vehicles sat in idle waiting for their return. They have been traveling all morning and haven't even made the highway yet. This would normally only take them ten to fifteen minutes tops, travel was slowed by the carnage on the road. First it was just the vehicles in the way, then the girls saw a rather gruesome body hanging out of one. After that Caleb and Dwight would scout ahead a few hundred feet, doing their best to hide anything nasty and make room for the group to make it through.

"Well, at least we can see 70 now." Caleb said. "Damn, look at the ramp."

"Let's go back and bring them up." Dwight sighed.

A few minutes later, next to the giant pile of cars on the ramp, a heated argument was going on.

"We can't wait any longer. We have been on the road for hours and have made it five miles tops. It's time to go back." Mae said

"Mom, if we go back we are as good as dead. They will come to find us once they realize what has happened there." Dwight piped back.

"Maybe we should head up to 56th st and see if we can get to 465 there ?" Lee said.

"This is so damn frustrating!" Caleb said as he looked at his girls. They were in deep s**t and he knew it. The longer they argued about what to do the more danger they were in. They had to move and move now. "If it wasn't for these damn cars!" Caleb fumed as he spun and punched a car on its side square on the roof.

A stunned silence fell over the group as the pile of cars exploded away from that point of impact. Car parts and whole cars flew into the air, when they hit the ground the sound was deafening and dust clouded their vision. Once everything settled, the ramp was clear.

Caleb turned back to the group, everyone was stunned, everyone but Lee. He just smiled and said, "Let's move."

A couple hours of Caleb leading the way in his Avalanche, weaving in and out of the wreckage, getting out when the road was blocked and moving vehicles, got them to the other side of town. The group crested the ramp from 70 to 465 on the west side and could see the airport.

"Wow," Danielle said, as she pointed it out to the girls. "Not much left." The sisters looked out the rear windows of the Trail Blazer their mom was driving at the smoldering pile of metal that was once the Indianapolis International Airport. They came to a stop as Caleb, right in front of her, got out to clear the way ahead.

Caleb walked up to the cars like he had a hundred times today, these two were both on their sides, which helped conceal the three armed men hiding behind them. When Caleb stuck his head in between them to see what lay behind the cars it was met by the barrel of a sawed off shot gun.

Dwight saw Caleb throw his arms in the air and knew something wasn't right. He jumped out of his Ram and ran up to the front, rifle in hand, Lee on his heals.

"That's far enough!" rang out an unknown voice. "One more step and he has a rattle for a head!"

Danielle tried to keep the girls from seeing what was happening, but it was no use. They saw and started to cry for their daddy.

"Shut up!" came the voice again. "I don't want to hear that shi..."

"What do you want?" hissed Caleb.

"Your cars, food, and...women." the last he said with a sadistic laugh, which the others thought was funny too.

"F**k you!" barked Caleb, hands still in the air.

"F**k me? No, F**k you!" said the man with the shotgun, then he pulled the trigger and the sawed off shot gun went off in Caleb's face, throwing his body back onto the hood of his truck.

Danielle screamed and her daughters cried out for their father as they watched his body slide off the hood of his truck and onto the ground. Dwight and Lee opened fire and the three men hid behind the cars laughing.

"It'll be dark soon," came another gruff voice behind the barrier, "then we will have you!"

"The hell you will!" barked Dwight.

"There's more of us out there, they will be back around dusk, why don't you just leave before you end up like your friend here." One of them said as the others laughed at the last line. This ended up eliciting more gunfire from Dwight and Lee.

Things simmered down as the family tried to come up with a plan that wouldn't get anyone else killed. Only thing they could do is wait them out and hope they were bluffing. As the sun set they learned they weren't. About a dozen more men showed up and things were about to get ugly.

"Dani, get the girls and get in the car with your mom." Lee said as he opened her door. "If it gets quiet leave, but don't go home, we left a trail anyone could follow."

Danielle nodded, her face streaked with tears and herded the girls back to mom's little Suzuki.

Long shadows were being thrown up from the Avalanches headlights, at first Dwight was popping of a shot at every movement until Lee told him to save his ammo. Then it happened, some one darted out between the cars and caught one in the chest from Lee. This didn't go over very well with the rest and they began to open fire on the father and son pair, pinning them down as the rest came out from behind the cars, a few of them tripped over Caleb's body, cursing him as they ran by.

Dwight lifted his rifle over the hood of the car they were hiding behind and fired off a few blind shots to try and slow them down. The two looked each other in the eye with a knowing glance. "Love ya pop." Dwight said to his dad. Lee stuck out his hand, Dwight grasped it. "Love you too son."

A few bullets bounced off the hood of the car, causing the two to hit the concrete. "Let's make em bleed a little." Lee said as he fired at the feet and legs getting closer to them, from under the car. A few screams let out as a couple of men fell to the ground. Dwight shut them up with a few shots from his rifle. They were closer now, a bullet grazed Lee's leg, another shattered the stock on Dwight's rifle. They were done, and they knew it.

"Maybe we could rush one of them?" Dwight asked. Lee looked at him like he did the first time he laid eyes on him. He saw his baby boy and everything they had done together. From his first steps, to teaching him how to throw. His first date and driving. Lee knew this was it, he had to try and warn his wife and daughter to get away. He stood to yell at them to go, and as he did the sawed off shot gun aimed at his back and went off.

Lee fell to the ground, but not from the gun shot. The ground shook violently and knocked everyone to the ground. From nowhere the wind picked up and began to fling garbage into the air. Lightning flashed in the clouds, lighting up the night sky.

He was there, standing, like the gun hadn't blown his face off. The wind seemed to swirl around him, like he was the eye of a tornado. The enemy saw him, the leader, some what shaken, ordered them to open fire on him. The bullets didn't reach him, the wind sent them way off course. Suddenly the cars slid apart and fell off the ramp and onto the highway below.

Dwight scooped up his dad and climbed into the Avalanche to take cover. They both peered over the dash and watched Caleb wade into them. He grabbed the barrel of a gun that the closest attacker had and bent it at a ninety degree angle, yanked it out of his hands and clubbed him in the head with it. He fell to the ground like a rock. Caleb flung the gun at a group to his right, scattering all but one, he caught the stock of the gun with his neck, snapping it with a loud pop. The group had a burn barrel set up on the overpass behind the former car barrier. It had a nice warm fire going, the wind was feeding it plenty of oxygen and newspapers, building it up and then knocking it over. Flaming trash spread out onto the street catching more trash on fire. The sky filled with flames as the wind lifted the trash into the air, spinning it into a giant fire funnel that began to grow. It soon began to devour everything around it, it thirst for the attackers flesh. It snatched those up that were close to it. As they learned to avoid it, the flaming tornado began to spit flames at them, melting them down to nothing.

Soon there was only one left, the wind died down and the fire went out. It was quiet, the only noise was the running engines and the crackle of smoldering flesh. The man with the sawed off shot gun stood, looking around at the chaos, taking it all in. His friends lying there in heaps, or smoldering puddles.

"It didn't have to be like this you know." Caleb's voice boomed out in the night. "You could have come with us." With those words the man was taken to a scene of peace. There a small farming village, lit by golden sunshine. People were everywhere, happy and singing. A warmth filled his heart as he looked around at the simple beaut of it all. Everyone hard at work for the benefit of their fellow man. A woman called his name and he turned and saw his wife and kids. Tears filled his eyes, he thought they were dead. He ran to embrace them. Suddenly that was stripped from him and he was back on that street, with the smell of human flesh in his nose. "But you made your choice," Caleb said.

"It was the wrong choice," the man whispered as he fell to his knees and dropped the gun to the ground. "I have lost so much, dying seemed to easy." Caleb picked up the shot gun and knocked him unconscious. He then went to the Avalanche, "You okay?"

"Dad has a pretty deep wound on his leg." Dwight spit out after a few moments of awed silence.

Caleb touched the leg and the three watched the wound vanish. "I'll be right back, get ready to hall a*s." Caleb walked to the scene of destruction as Dwight headed to his truck and Lee to were the women where. Caleb began to resurrect the dead, one by one he touched their bodies or puddles of flesh and brought them back to life. They slept there, exhausted.

Lee walked back up with Danielle, Erika, and Eriana. "What did you do that for?" he asked as Caleb got a big hug and lots of kisses from his family. Danielle held his face in her hands, unable to believe what she saw. Caleb just smiled at her.

"Get in the truck girls, we have to go." Caleb said as he returned those hugs. "These are the first humans we have seen all day. They have suffered more than us." he replied to Lee. "Can you drive my truck? I'm pooped." Caleb said tossing his keys to Lee.

"Sure," Lee said "Sure." he climbed in the truck and gave Caleb a puzzled looked. Caleb didn't notice he was already fast asleep.

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