I stopped pedaling abruptly, squeezing my brakes so hard, my tires slid on the pavement. Not expecting me to stop, Winky crashed into the back of me, sending both of us to the blacktop in a pile of bike parts and limbs.
“Dammit, Winky!” I yelled, sitting up and trying to untangle my legs from my bike. I had a skinned elbow now and at least a bruise on my knee.
I stood and moved my leg around a little, checking to see if it would affect my fighting abilities. I was relieved to find it was okay.
“Dammit, Winky? What about dammit, Bryn? You’re the one who stopped without any warning.” Winky had gotten up and was brushing herself off. “I have a tear in my boot now, thanks to you.”
“Thanks to you riding too close,” I mumbled.
“Shush. Do you guys hear that?” asked Rob.
“Dat’s a truck,” said Bodo, straddling his bike and walking it over to us.
“That’s a big truck,” said Paci. “Really big.”
“Can you tell what kind?” I asked Rob.
“Big.” He looked at me, all serious now. “Does it matter what kind? It’s friggin’ big. That’s all I need to know.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, it matters. Is it a big pickup or a semi? With a trailer or without?”
“What are you thinking?” asked Winky, leaving her bike to stand by me.
Now I was excited and not as afraid. “I’m thinking if it’s a semi with a trailer, we can use it to haul stuff! We wouldn’t need much gas to get to Haven.” The images were building in my mind - me at the wheel of a giant truck with everything we’d need to support our community riding behind me in a big fat trailer.
This engine sound we were hearing felt like good news. I could totally envision us off-loading a loom from a tractor trailer and Peter jumping up and down while squealing like a girl. I so wanted to make my little buddy happy. He was working so hard to make all of us comfortable, he deserved it.
“Do you know how to drive one of those?” asked Winky. She sounded impressed.
“No, but how hard can it be? I can drive a stick.”
Bodo laughed. “Dat’s funny.”
I frowned at him. Now he was finally kind of talking, but it was only to mock me. “What’s so funny?”
“Dat you think drivingk a big truck will be easy. Do you know dey have ten gears or more? Maybe twenty.”
“What? That’s nuts. Why not just five like a car?” I asked.
Bodo just rolled his eyes.
It made me want to slap him.
“It’s bigger than a car. More weight. It needs more gears for that,” said Paci, frowning at Bodo. He apparently didn’t approve of Bodo’s attitude any more than I did. I was glad to see I wasn’t the only one thinking my boyfriend was acting out of line.
“Whatever. Five gears or fifty, I’m sure it works the same way,” said Winky. “We could figure it out. We’re women.” She winked at me.
“Yeah. Girl power.” I got back on my seat, pushing Bodo’s idiocy to the back of my mind. “Let’s go see what’s going on.”
“Shouldn’t we be a little stealth about it?” asked Winky.
“Yeah. Let’s ride over on the shoulder until we catch a glimpse of it and then decide what to do.”
Everyone started pedaling again, and we made it another hundred yards before the hulking figure of a semi with a big trailer at the back of it came into view. It was sitting in the middle of the highway, a trail of pushed cars to either side of its former path, its engine purring away.
We got off our bikes and laid them down.
“Now what?” asked Rob, staring at the truck.
“Now we sneak up on the driver and see what he’s all about.” I grabbed my weapon and moved down into the ditch on the side of the road. It wasn’t very deep, and if the guy driving bothered to look in our direction he’d probably be able to see us without any problem. It was for that reason that we all carried a gun in the backs of our pants.
When we were about fifty yards back, we shifted our course so that we’d be behind a bunch of high, scruffy bushes when we got even with the truck.
“Can you see anything yet?” asked Winky, coming up behind me.
I had stopped and was looking through the bushes, wishing I had eagle eyes. “I need some binoculars or something. I can’t see crap from here.” There was no movement coming from the cab and no people were visible.
“Your wish is my command,” said Rob, handing me a pair of mini field glasses.
“What the hell?” I took them from him, waiting for an explanation.
Rob shrugged. “Peter. He put them in my bag. He said I’m the tallest, so the most likely to get the best use out of them.”
I shook my head. “That boy scares me sometimes with his efficiency.”
“For serious,” said Winky. “But I’m glad for it. Especially on this trip.”
I turned to the truck again, raising the glasses to my eyes.
At first I saw nothing. But then a movement near the front of the truck caught my attention.
“I see someone,” I whispered, excitedly.
“Who? Is it anyone we know?” asked Winky.“No. No one I know at least. And he’s wearing regular clothes, so I don’t think he’s from a tribe.”
I watched as the guy, about my age from the look of him but much bigger, climbed up into the cab of the truck.
“What’s he doing?” asked Rob.
“He just got into the truck.”
The engine revved a few times and the truck jerked forward.
“He’s driving it again!” I pulled the binoculars away from my face. “Should we stop him?”
“Hell yeah, we should stop him!” said Rob, already moving to leave the cover of the bushes.
“Wait!” Bodo said. “We needt a plan. Don’t go out dare and get shot.”
“Okay, fine, what’s the plan?” Rob was practically jumping up and down, raring to go after the guy.
“Two of us on the right side, three on the left,” I said, trying to remember what George’s journal said about attacking a moving enemy from behind. “Expect gunfire. Stay behind the truck or as close to it as you can. I don’t think his side mirrors will catch you if you stay low or directly behind the back of the trailer.”
“Let’s hope not,” said Paci. “Who’s on the right and who’s on the left?”
“I’m on the left with Bodo and Rob. You and Winky on the right.”
“What’s the goal?” asked Winky. “You want to take him out?”
“No. No one takes anyone out. He could be a really good guy. Assume he’s bad until we know otherwise, but don’t shoot unless he shoots first, okay?”
I looked around and made sure I had everyone’s assent. There was no time for any more discussion. The truck was moving forward again and though it was slowed by its car bashing, it wasn’t stopping. My friends nodded, and we all put our hands up for a team high-five. The sound of our hands smacking together was drowned out by the revving of the diesel engine nearby.
“Let’s go,” I said, a little louder than I’d meant to. But I didn’t worry because there was no way the driver could hear us. His engine was whining out really high, and the banging noises coming from the jerking cab section were probably too distracting. Whoever this guy was, he definitely wasn’t a trained truck driver.
We ran as fast as we could down the side of the road until we were nearly parallel with the truck. Then we angled in sharply to get behind the trailer.
Bodo and Rob came with me and hung out at the back left corner of the trailer. Winky and Paci went to the right tail light. We jogged slowly, easily keeping pace with the jerking truck, but I knew it was only a matter of time before it picked up speed and left us behind.
I was staring at the back of the trailer doors, trying to see a way to jump up and hold onto it in case we weren’t able to get to the cab in time, when a terrifying scream came from inside.
***
“Holy crap, did you hear that?” asked Rob in a high-pitched and breathless voice.
The truck was picking up speed, which made running up to the cab area no longer an option. Cars were being knocked away, and some of them scraped the side of the truck as it went by. We risked getting smooshed if we tried to run alongside.
“We need to get up on there!” I yelled, looking left and right at my friends running next to me.
All of us surged forward, grabbing onto different parts of the truck’s back end. I was able to get a grip first on a metal step affixed to the back of the bumper and then on a vertical bar that ran down the length of the doors. Once I pulled myself up on the step, I could hold onto the big latch that held the doors shut.
When I had a good hold on it and my feet were firmly planted, I dropped my free hand down, reaching out for Winky. We grabbed each other’s wrists, and I hauled her towards me.
For one terrifying moment, Winky was hanging free with only me holding her aloft. I grunted with the effort, worried I’d drop her to the pavement and at the very least give her a serious road rash.
But just when I thought I would lose her, she found the ledge my feet were resting on and steadied herself, grabbing hold of another metal bar running down from the top of the door.
I let go of her wrist when I knew she no longer needed me. Now it was just the two of us on the back, the guys still trying to grab onto something.
Paci got up next, using a tail light and a door hinge, but Bodo and Rob weren’t able to find an available spot.
“What should we do?!” shouted Rob, dropping back a little.
“Try to follow us!” I yelled. I couldn’t worry about them now. We had to get into that cab and stop this truck.
Another scream rent the air. Whoever was in the back of this trailer was either in pain or very afraid - maybe both. It gave me goosebumps as it trailed off into a weird keening.
I turned to face Winky. “I’m going to climb up over the top and get into the cab.”
“What?! Are you nuts?! You’ll die! You’ll fall and die! You’re not a stuntwoman, Bryn!” She sounded angry.
“He’s not going fast enough for me to fall,” I said, not waiting for her approval. Stuntwoman or not, I had to do this. I was fixated not only on stopping that terrible moaning coming from inside, but also using this bad boy to transport goods for Haven. I was betting I could even put cows in it. We were so going to be on easy street, if only I could pull a Bruce Willis and kick the driver’s head in.
I stretched my foot up and rested it on the latch where my hand had been. Now I was holding another vertical bar, similar to the one Winky had, but on the other door.
“I’m coming too,” she said.
I looked down and saw her measuring her options. “No!” I yelled, sounding angrier than I was. I was panicking, thinking of her falling off. “Just wait. I’ll get up there and stop him and then you can open these doors.”
“There’s a kid in there,” she said, obviously as sick about it as I was.
“Yeah, I know. I don’t even want to know why. I don’t think it can be any good.” I was huffing my breaths out with the effort of holding on. The bar I had a grip on was thin, and my knuckles were getting bruised being jammed in between it and the big door.
“Me neither. It’s going to be awful.” She raised her voice. “Don’t worry, whoever’s in there! We’re going to get you out!”
The moaning stopped.
“What are we doing?” asked Paci. He was holding onto the corner of the back of the trailer for dear life, his knuckles white he was gripping the metal hinge so tightly.
“I’m going up. Get ready to jump off this thing and punch the driver’s face off.”