Last Woman 2 Read online

  "Hundreds, I think." Len replied. "They got scientists. Which you know, scares me."

  "Why's that?"

  "You have scientists involved somewhere, at least in my opinion, the human factor is gonna get lost."

  "So why join them?"

  "They sound like they have the resources, or at least the makings for long term survival. Gotta think of my survivors here. Because most of them need to go on. We have seventy three survivors. Twelve adults."

  All around were children. Everywhere you looked in the camp you saw a kid running about, some still toddlers, diapers sagging and swaying in the wind.

  But none, not a single one was female.

  "Although, this may be the end of the line," Len said.

  I looked at him with curiosity.

  "You can't continue the human race without women," Len said.

  Even with my knowledge of Faye, I didn't say anything. Not a word about her to Len. "Surely there are women."

  "I hope there are," Len replied. "But this CDC doctor, Lewis, I think his name is, he said the virus was pretty gender specific. Almost as if it was designed to be a doomsday virus. End the female population, end the race."

  "Wait. So there's not a single female in the Panhandle."

  "Not one. Not that has been found. Dr. Lewis said they are aggressively pursuing the matter. What the hell does that mean? I don't know. Scares me though. But for the sake of the kids, we head down there. If there is a future, it's with them."

  I looked over at Darie and George who sat with Bud by the RV, Fastball. I heard George's statement about 'no girls' in my head' and immediately feared for Faye.

  Something made me happy that she didn't come.

  I started instantly praying she didn't take her life. That somehow she had a change of heart. Because as soon as I heard from her, once I got Bud and the boys settled in Florida, I was gonna find Faye. Then I would make a plan with her.

  She was a commodity in a dead world. One I felt the need to protect. Instantaneously I wanted to hightail it north and find her.

  She was, by all accounts, to the best of my knowledge, the last woman.

  I kept my mouth shut about her, even told the boys to not say a word. Bud and I discussed it.

  Bud was wise, of course he had been living on the earth decades longer than me, so he had that reliable gut instinct. "If she isn't dead." Bud told me that night after the boys went to sleep. "Then you need to find her and hide her."

  "You think she's dead?" I asked.

  "She had a really tough tragedy, Dodge. I don't know how she survived it. She tried to kill herself a few times. Nothing is holding her here. For her sake, I kind of hope she took the route out. Because if she didn't, it's gonna be an even tougher life."

  "Is it responsible though?" I asked. "If she is the last woman, it has to be known."

  "Does it?" Bud asked. "What kind of life does that give her? Either one protected or one in danger. Either way she may be nothing but a closed in experiment, kept away from all. That's not living, Dodge. It's existing. Faye needs to live. She's been doing nothing but existing for months."

  I recalled Len's concern over the Scientists saying, 'Aggressive measures'. Len was worried and even relieved he didn't have a woman at camp. Because if he did, as he said, he wasn't sure what he'd do.

  It could be a dangerous world for the one and only woman.

  I knew this. I listened to Len. I listened to Bud. I heard what they said and heard my own heart on the matter. I was a smart man, not dumb. So why ... why did I do it?

  Excitement perhaps. Relief?

  I should never have done it, I wasn't thinking. But thirty miles into the caravan, when my radio crackled and hissed and I heard Faye calling out, I didn't think. I grabbed that radio. In gratefulness and stupidity, I replied. "Oh my God, Faye," I gushed out. It was so good to hear her, to know she was alive.

  "Dodge, I'm on base," she said. "Where are you guys?"

  She was on base. She changed her mind. Darie and George squealed with delight and Bud gave an approving nod. "About thirty miles away," I said. "We just left there. Faye, I'll pull over." In fact I did. Right there and then, I jerked the wheel and moved to the side of the highway. "I'm pulling over. Get on 181 South, it's clear. You can't miss me. I'm waiting. We're waiting. And Faye, wait until you see. Wait until you see how many kids there are. It's amazing."

  "I'm on my way. And Dodge ..."

  "Yeah."

  "I have a surprise for you."

  "You're a surprise, Faye."

  "No, this is better. See you soon. Over."

  "Out." I placed down the radio but kept looking at it. I was overwhelmed, Faye was not only alive but close. My heart raced, my mind jumbled with excitement. I didn't even noticed the caravan had stopped. I had every intention of staying on the side of that road.

  Then I saw Len. He barreled our way with a look of determination.

  "Shit," Bud stated. "Bet he heard the radio."

  I don't know what exactly I was expecting Len to say, but it wasn't anything near what he did say.

  Opening the RV driver door, I had barely stepped out when Len raged at me.

  "Are you insane?" he growled. "Not only did you know of a woman, but you brought her here?" his voice squealed at the end. "Hashman asked if you had a woman."

  "I was protecting her. I said no." I honestly believed he was mad because I had lied.

  "Yeah, well, hell of a job you're doing now." Len barked. "If you would have said yes then, we would have told you not to come. To hide her. God knows what the south wants with them or what they'll do. She's the only one and she's that close?"

  My heart raced.

  Len said. "She called out. Anyone listening heard her voice and then you saying her name. Anyone searching for a woman is gonna know where to find her. We have no clue what kind of technology remains down south. Hell they may track her signal."

  My eyes closed tightly. "I'll turn around. I'll go. I'll find her."

  "Whatever you want to do, that's fine. But get her turned around some way, somehow. And do it now. For her safety ... do it now."

  It was a huge mistake for Faye in all her feminine glory to call out over the radio and an even bigger mistake for me to reply.

  Faye was so excited about finding us, about heading our way. I was so excited about her wanting to live that I simply forgot that she announced her presence and was going to be a prize those scientists down south were gonna pursue with vigor.

  Hating to do it, I took a moment to think, grabbed our map and looked at the route. I lifted the radio. "Faye. Faye come in."

  "Dodge, I'm driving as fast as I can."

  "Stop."

  "What? Over?"

  "Stop." I lowered my head to the radio and took a second to think. "You're the last woman Faye. To be with us is dangerous. I'll find you. Stop. Turn around. Turn off the radio. Take the route back home. If you have to stop, then stop. But stay hidden. I'll find you. Somehow. Just go."

  It broke my heart to tell her that.

  Even more so, her simple reply of, "Got it" sent an ache through my chest.

  Faye was a smart woman. I felt that she knew what I was saying and would adhere to radio silence.

  It was the last I heard from her.

  When the caravan continued to move on, I waited until I saw no one was lagging back, no one was waiting to follow me, then I turned around.

  Me, Bud and the boys would start our journey to find Faye.

  But I had a feeling, we weren't going to be the only ones searching for her.

  FIVE - FAYE

  My foot hit the brake at the same time Dodge gave the order for me to 'stop'. Almost as if his voice was connected to my reactions. I set down the radio as if it were acid and with wide eyes, turned to Tyler.

  The car idled. For a moment we were frozen there.

  Neither of us said a word, but I could tell by the look on his face, he was thinking the same thing as me. I looked around, in the
rear view mirror, then left to right. Suddenly, the world no longer felt vacant. I was consciously aware of my surroundings. I had not given a thought to the whole Kentucky trip, whether or not I was safe or being followed.

  Now I did.

  "You're the last woman?" Tyler asked. "Is that possible?"

  "I don't know."

  "Oh my God. You can't ... you can't be seen."

  A part of me felt as if three weeks post plague was a little too soon to worry about rapists and marauders. "Soon, but not yet," I said. "Maybe in a few months it will be less dangerous."

  "From normal people."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean. Right now. From a scientific point of view, if you're the last woman, you're vital and they're going to want you. That place down south ... they are science based. They'll treat you like an experiment."

  "No," I scoffed. "They wouldn't do that."

  "Faye, if you were a scientist and there was one man left in the world. What would you do?"

  "Try to figure out why he survived."

  "Through experimentation."

  It was at that point I realized we were still sitting in the middle of the road. While I still wasn't convinced that my life was in any danger, the urgency in Dodge's voice was enough to heighten my awareness and turn the car around.

  The one thing I didn't want to do was get off course. I needed Dodge to find us and he was a half hour or so behind.

  My plan was to make some distance. Dodge didn't want me using the radio because I sounded 'female', but he didn't know I wasn't alone. Tyler could call out, and while I wanted with all my heart for Dodge to hear his son's voice, I didn't want for anyone else listening to put two and two together and hear how young Tyler sounded.

  Another radio call to a man named 'Dodge', this one by a youngster, would be too much of a coincidence. Even I thought he was younger than nineteen when I spoke to him over the radio.

  We'd figure out a coded message for Dodge, and hopefully, he'd understand it.

  In the meantime on the drive, not only did Tyler practice his deepest voice, he gave me a deeper insight into who he was.

  Tyler Cash was a nineteen year old bright, artistic, young man. Thin and lanky, but not real tall. His hair was a bit longer, which was so unlike his father. In fact, he was a complete contrast to the triple B Dodge. Triple B meaning, Bulky, Big and Bald.

  Where Dodge looked like he should be a professional wrestler or a Mad Max biker, Tyler looked like he should be playing guitar somewhere in a cafe.

  "Where did you go to school?" I asked him. "I mean that you were so far away?"

  "New York."

  "That's impressive. City?"

  "Yeah."

  "How did you make it out? I mean, we barely made it out of our city after it all."

  Tyler explained. "When things started getting bad, my roommate suggested we head out. We went to his parent's house. I had plans to get to my dad."

  "He said you talked to him."

  Tyler nodded. "I did. I wasn't sick. I told him I was leaving the city and after traffic died down, I'd make my way home. Then ... I started getting sick and I called him again."

  This made me curious. Because Dodge didn't make mention that Tyler was sick. In fact, he was pretty certain his son wasn't.

  Tyler continued. "But he didn't answer his phone. I called my stepmother. She sounded so sick and she said the kids were sick too. My brother and sister." His head lowered some. "My dad wasn't around. He went to get medical supplies."

  "He was in jail. Arrested at the aid station," I said. "I found him in jail. The only survivor."

  "Was he ever sick?"

  I shook my head.

  "I was. I thought I was going to die. Josh, my friend died, then his mom. I was too sick to do anything about his dad. I just crawled into bed. When I woke up I guess days later, everyone was already dead. I was out of it, kinda weak for a few days and then I talked to you."

  "It's a scary situation to wake up to a dead world. I know. I lived that too."

  Tyler exhaled. "I thought I was the last man on earth."

  "And I thought I was the last woman."

  "Hey, Faye ..." Tyler said. "You are."

  "That we know of."

  We talked against the miles traveled. I tried my hardest not to convey any worries to the young man. The last thing I wanted him to be concerned about was having to watch out for me.

  Dodge would find us soon. I was confident of that. Dodge would think of something. He always did. He planned things out and took things into account.

  Except turning around and heading back from Kentucky.

  Dodge didn't think ahead on that one, therefore, we didn't have the gas or the means to get gas from reserves.

  We sputtered on our last bit of gas in West Virginia, and pulled over just by a sign that indicated a town called Rooster was one mile away. Hoping that Dodge was really only thirty miles or less behind us, we placed a riddled radio call we hoped he'd decipher.

  SIX - DODGE

  The last thing I wanted to do was pull over again. We used our last can of gas and had to not only take out the small generator, but had to open the reserve of the Zoom Gas Station. We lost valuable time and miles.

  I picked up the pace as best as I could in the RV, while Bud looked on the map. His square reading glasses perched on the bridge of his nose.

  "Gotta be on the route," Bud said. "Has to be."

  "So you don't see it?"

  "Well hell, I'm pushing eighty, the eyes aren't the best. Give me a second."

  I replayed in my mind what the stranger said on the radio. His voice was deep and he sounded like he was a big guy. He called out for Bud.

  "Looking for Bud Doyle. Hey Bud, me and Wills aren't making it. Ran out of fuel in Westie. Sorry we missed the convoy. Hope we can meet up. Right now we're stuck in Westie. This is Rooster. Out."

  That was all that was said and they didn't respond to another radio call.

  "Wills is Faye's last name," Bud said. "They didn't want to give it away that it was Faye. Westie has got to be West Virginia or a town in West Virginia or Kentucky. Taking the same route back, they didn't make it that far and I'm not seeing anything that looks or sounds like Westie."

  "Who is this asshole with her? Where did he come from?" I asked.

  Bud lifted his head from the map. "You that concerned?"

  "Yes. Because if he was with her when I spoke on the radio, he knows she's the last woman. Probably misleading us somewhere."

  "I don't think so. She probably met up with him on base or maybe he's the reason she headed down there. And I think he would have noticed she was a woman way before the radio call."

  "You didn't know him or recognize the name?"

  "Nope."

  "But he called you."

  "Faye probably told him to so no one heard a call for you again," Bud said. "Now quiet so I can look at this map."

  "It's times like these I miss the Internet."

  "Yeah, well, it's times like these I'm glad I didn't use it all that much."

  I drove with one hand while the other rubbed my temple. I wanted to look at that map, but didn't want to stop again.

  Darie was asleep and battling motion sickness. He was such a good kid. His brother on the other hand, was a road trip nightmare. George wouldn't sit still. He was like an overbearing nagging mother in a nine year old body.

  "We gonna find her, Dodge?" George asked, poking his head between the two front seats of the RV.

  "Yes."

  "We have to find her."

  "Please sit down."

  "We have to find her," George repeated ignoring my request.

  "We will."

  "She can't be out there. It's got to be scary for her. She is the last woman."

  "I know," I said, staring as I drove on.

  "Who is the guy?"

  "Please sit down."

  "He sounded mean. Think he's bigger than you, Dodge?"

  "I don't
know."

  "You're a big guy. If he's bigger, I'd be scared. I hope she's safe with him. You called him a bad name so you might be scared too."

  "Please." I said stronger, "Sit down."

  "Why? 'Cause of seatbelt laws? Can't have seatbelt laws. There's no more police."

  "It's still very dangerous." Through my peripheral vision I saw him move, but he didn't step back, he moved more to peer over Bud's shoulder. "Why aren't you listening?"

  "I wanna help."

  "Bud is doing fine. He's looking for a town."

  "What town?" George asked.

  "We think the man left a clue in his radio call," I said. "Like a secret message giving their whereabouts. We're just trying to determine what town."

  "Like here?" George pointed to the map.

  "I'll be damned," Bud smiled. "I think the boy is right."

  "What?" I asked.

  "Rooster." Bud said. "Rooster West Virginia and it's about twenty miles from here on this route. That's where they're at. The guy said Rooster."

  "Well I hope you're right," I said. "And good job, George."

  "Thanks," he replied brightly. "Now can I stay here?"

  "No." I told him and then smiled when he whined and stepped back.

  I prayed that the mind of the nine year old boy and eighty year old man were right. Because my mind was clouded with worry about Faye and this gruff sounding stranger that was with her.

  I picked up the speed on the nearly empty road and sure enough, parked by a sign that read 'Rooster: One mile', was the car I left for Faye. It was positioned semi off the road, like most abandoned cars. My heart thumped once in my chest then sank to my gut. Immediately I was fearful that this stranger took Faye and was playing games with us.

  I pulled over, instructing Bud and the kids to stay back as I exited the RV.

  More than anything I wanted to call out her name, but again, I was too scared someone would hear. I stepped to the car, hearing the rustling of leaves. I pulled out the pistol from the back waist of my jeans and walked around the car.

  I listened and watched the leaves move on the thick brush next to the car.

  Then I quickly lowered my weapon, placed it behind me and exhaled hard in relief when I saw Faye step from the foliage.