The Big Ten: The First Ten Books of the Beginnings Series Read online

  “No, thanks.” Robbie had to get his energy going if he was going to move on.

  “Don’t mind if I do.” Paul lit up, inhaled deeply, held in the smoke, then slowly blew it out.

  Robbie’s eyes widened to the smell. He sniffed once, thought he was imagining things, then sniffed again. He sat up. “You’re gonna think I’m nuts, but, that smells like a joint.”

  Paul laughed as he coughed on the smoke. “It is. I grow it outside my cabin back home.” He took another hit. “Are you sure you don’t want any?”

  “No, never touched it. Me, I always was a drinker.”

  “I can oblige.” Paul dug into his bag again and tossed Robbie a bottle of whisky. “The booze is the easy thing to pick up on my travels. It gets better with age.”

  Robbie unscrewed the cap and took a swig. He gasped as it burned his esophagus all the way down until it knotted in his stomach. “It’s really been a long time.” He handed the bottle back to Paul and looked up to the sky. “Day’s moving on. There’s still miles to be got.”

  “Yep.” Paul looked up as well, enjoying his smoke. “A little bit longer and I’ll gain momentum to get moving again.”

  “Good luck to you.” Robbie stood up. “I want to thank you for your kindness. It was really nice.”

  Paul was surprised. “You’re not hanging with me?”

  “No. I have to keep moving.”

  “I move, I will for a few more days at least. I don’t understand, you said you were heading north, so am I. Why don’t we just travel together until I stop?”

  “You trust me enough?” Robbie asked.

  “Man, anyone that I encountered that tried to hurt me, needed what I had because they couldn’t hack it on their own. You don’t need anything I have. And you certainly can hack it without my stuff.” Paul held out the bottle. “The choice is yours. I don’t fear you. I think you don’t fear me. All I’m saying is it might be good for both of us to travel together for a little while.”

  He did want to stay awhile with Paul. Knowing how long it had been since he actually had a civilized conversation was reason enough for Robbie to want to travel for a few days with him. Sanity was something Robbie often feared he was losing. And it was the first day in a long while Robbie felt sane. “You know what? I will take you up on your offer.”

  “Good. Let’s just sit for a little more and then get moving.”

  Robbie smiled and dropped back down to sit. He grabbed the bottle back and took another drink. He vowed he’d never travel again with anyone, but Paul was different. Paul was still human.

  Beginnings, Montana

  “Mommy?” Alexandra, Ellen’s four year old daughter, stood on a chair at the sink with Ellen as she did her dishes.

  “Yes, Sweetie.” Ellen tried to hurry, she was ten minutes late for her class at containment.

  “Are you going with Pap-Pap tonight?”

  “Yes, if your father would hurry up . . . Billy!” she called to her son. “Tell Daddy to hurry.” Ellen washed another dish.

  “He’s coming.” Billy ran into the kitchen dragging his words as he ran. “Are you going with Pap-Pap tonight?”

  “Yes,” Ellen told him, as well. “Why are you guys asking me so much?” She turned off the water.

  Alexandra smiled. “Daddy said he’s gonna show us something fun tonight when you’re gone.”

  “Really? What?”

  “Cells,” her daughter answered.

  Ellen put down the towel. “Cells, as in blood?”

  Both of her children nodded.

  “Wow,” Ellen spoke sarcastically. “Sounds like a blast.”

  Alexandra jumped from the chair. “I’ll tell daddy to hurry so you can get drunk with Pap tonight.”

  “What?!” Ellen turned around in surprise from her daughter’s comment and Dean was standing in the kitchen door. “Dean? Did you tell these kids I get drunk with Joe?”

  “No.” Dean walked into the kitchen, kissed Ellen on the back of her neck, then opened the fridge. “I told them you drink whiskey with Joe. They’re smart El, they know alcohol makes you drunk.”

  “They don’t even know what drunk is. One drink and I come home. That is not drunk.” Ellen grabbed the towel that lay on the counter and hit Dean on the head with it. “Why would you tell these kids this shit?”

  Dean shut the refrigerator. “It’s fun. You should hear the stuff I tell them when you’re not around. El, why are you still here? Joe’s gonna be pissed that you’re late.”

  “You were napping, Dean, what do you want me to do. Leave them?” Ellen with a slight smile darted by him. “Foods on the stove. See ya later.”

  Dean followed her as she made a mad dash to the door. “Will you? Should I wait up?”

  Ellen stopped before leaving. She turned back around to see Dean picking up Alexandra, holding her like such a father. She stared for a moment. “You know what? Yeah. Yeah, please wait up.” Surprising Dean, she hurried to him, gave him a quick kiss and left.

  ***

  The evening chill started to hang over Beginnings as it fast approached six pm. Frank, tired, feet dragging, continued on his security rounds. Rounds he began at six in the morning and ended at nine. It was the same routine. Rounds, then his office for those stupid reports Joe wanted, then inter-community rounds. He could break them up, but Frank always preferred to do the far away perimeters first, so he could be available should there be any trouble. John Matoose was also in security, however unlike Frank’s long day, John put in eight in security, then helped in electronics. It was Frank’s responsibility to keep things secure. It was Frank who would pull men from the field whenever they had trouble with a new survivor. Frank ran security.

  He sipped his coffee as he checked the structures which lay just on the edge of the fields closer to town. The last of his coffee tasted bitter. He tossed the remainder of the still hot beverage on the ground. Frank sniffled, and rubbed his nose with the back of his hand. He looked oddly ahead when he noticed the double doors to the hanger were wide open. He walked to the building and went inside, calling out as he did. “Hello?”

  “Dad.” Johnny came from behind the helicopter. “What’s up?” He wiped his hands with a cloth.

  “Johnny, what are you doing in here?”

  “Pap has us doing runs again. I just wanted to give the second chopper a look over. But I’m finished. You can check with George. He cleared it.”

  “I’ll do that.” Frank walked further into the building, and closer to his son. “You know, I’m glad you’re here. I want to talk to you.”

  “About what?” Johnny tossed the greasy cloth onto a box.

  “Pap was talking to me. It seems you’ve been messing around with a few of the women in the community.”

  “What? I’m allowed to smoke cigarettes. I’m allowed to drink alcohol. But I can’t have sex?”

  “That’s not the point.” Frank was trying to be reasonable with his son. He always took the man-to-man approach with Johnny since Johnny showed signs that he was much more mature than his sixteen years. “The point is . . . there aren’t that many women, John. You’re gonna cause resentment. You have to kind of be . . . responsible.”

  Johnny laughed and shook his head. “I love you Dad. I do. And you can get pissed at me. But you’ve got room to talk about being responsible. I’m not hurting anyone. I’m having fun and messing around. You . . . you’re screwing with people’s lives.” And after saying what he did, he just walked out.

  Frank swallowed hard as his son left. Johnny didn’t just deliver the final word, he delivered the final straw to Frank.

  ***

  His hair was pretty tamed for being a mannequin. The residents of Beginnings kept him clean and tidy. After all, he was the stock bartender at a converted warehouse they deemed their social hall or neighborhood bar. Joe’s arm bumped into ‘Sam’ the mannequin in his reach over the bar for a bottle of moonshine. He poured a drink for himself then for Ellen. “Rough class.”

&n
bsp; “I hate them.” Ellen took the drink and sipped it.

  “Oh, you do not. It gives you a sick sense of pleasure trying to make the survivors normal again.”

  Ellen tilted her head with a smile. “Yeah, I guess it does.”

  “How late are you staying? Wanna throw darts?”

  “No.” Ellen answered. “I’m going home. Dean’s waiting up.”

  Joe choked in the middle of his drink. “For you?”

  “Joe.” Ellen softened her voice. “Despite what you think, I heard you last night. I’ve been hearing you since I was a kid. And I thought about it, I really did.” Her hand played with her glass. “Dean, he isn’t Pete. He’s not a shit. He doesn’t deserve what I do. Frank . . .” Ellen lowered her head. “He has this hold on me. He controls me, and I let him. I love him I do, but I . . .”

  Joe waited. He thought Ellen was searching for the right words. “But you what?”

  Ellen shook her head and gave a shift of her eyes.

  Before Joe could see who she was trying to point to, Frank’s big arm separated them as he reached for a drink. Joe watched Frank grab the bottle. “Aren’t you on duty?”

  “Nope.” Frank poured. “Jonas is. El.” He put his back to his father. “I have to talk to you. Really talk to you.”

  Around Frank’s body, Joe poked his head. “Not here, Frank. People will talk.”

  “Dad, you think I care?” Ignoring his father, Frank looked down to Ellen. “I’ve been thinking about our situation.”

  “Christ,” Joe complained. “Not here!”

  “Dad!” Frank snapped. “Please.” He returned to Ellen. “Andrea said something today that made me think. I’ve been thinking.”

  “Me, too,” Ellen said.

  “El, us, we . . . it’s not the right way to go about it.”

  “I agree.” Ellen grabbed her glass.

  “Too long, El. We’ve been doing this for too long. We have to stop.”

  Ellen closed her eyes. “I agree.”

  “Good. I’m glad we’re thinking on the same lines.” Frank kissed her on the cheek. “Because it will be hard I know . . .” He watched Ellen nod in agreement. “But, with some work, and time, we can do this ‘you and me couple thing’ right, finally.”

  Ellen’s whole expression changed to a surprised one. She looked at Joe who was snickering at her dilemma, then she peered to Frank who looked as if waiting for an answer. She picked up her drink, gulped it, set down her glass, flashed a fast grin and flew out.

  Frank nodded slowly and looked at his father. “Went well.”

  Joe just rolled his eyes and lowered himself down into his drink.

  Stover, Missouri

  “My father? Let me tell you about my father.” Robbie laughed as he spoke, his head bounced side by side, flopping his long hair all over the place. He walked with Paul on the road going north. “He is a story all in himself.”

  “Then let me hear about him. What else to we have to do?” Paul held on to the reigns of the horse that paced along with them. The horse, boggled down with Robbie and Paul’s belongings, gave Robbie and Paul the freedom to move without baggage. They shared the horse for a while, then decided to walk.

  Robbie thought in his mind the best way to describe his father. Describing him was definitely not a one sentence job. “I guess to tell you about my father, I should first tell what made him like he is. My Dad married my mother right after high-school. He joined the police force when he was eighteen.”

  “Your father was a cop?”

  “For about a year and a half. Then he got tired of it, he said it was . . . let me think . . . pansy work. He quit and joined the military, forget that Frank was just born. He stayed in the military a long while. Military intelligence. When he left, he joined the CIA. My dad is the type of guy you want and need to have in any major crisis. He sees things clearly, always. He never lets his emotions get in the way of any decision. Did I tell you my father called me up to warn me about the plague before it all went down?”

  “No, you really haven’t said anything about your family, at all.”

  “Well, he did. He called and left this really weird message. He said to remember the contingency plan. Now the contingency plan was, in the event of any national emergency, an emergency where the world has met its end, we would go to the designated place. The reason was, so we could see who survived and who didn’t.” Robbie told the story as if he had been waiting to tell it to someone for a very long time.

  “You guys actually planned an end-of-the-world strategy?”

  “Oh yeah. We waited for it. You have to understand Paul, my mom died when I was four, my dad raised us. It was us four boys and him, we were close. Well, occasionally he got married, but the women never were able to take it. They always packed up and left.”

  Paul began to laugh. “You’re searching for this Frank, what about your other brothers? How do you know they aren’t alive?” Paul asked.

  “My one brother, Hal, I spoke to the day my father left his message. Hal was really sick, in fact he was on his way to the infirmary. But Jimmy, I never spoke to Jimmy. He was stationed in Norfolk. He’s the only one of us that wasn’t in the Army. He was a sailor boy. We really didn’t hold that against him, we liked to tease him that we did. Anyway, I went to his base. I learned the hard way he died. I found him.” Robbie didn’t want to get into details, it was pretty bad in Norfolk. He made it to the base, found Jimmy’s housing, Jimmy wasn’t there. Robbie then found the nearest med-station. He looked under ever single blanket. He searched every decaying mound of dead. He sifted through the odors. He checked every single body at the med-station, until he found him. Jimmy lay in a ditch with hundreds of other bodies, all of which were at one time set to flames. He wouldn’t have found him if Jimmy hadn’t been placed to the side. His body, Jimmy’s, was completely burned on the left side. His right, had sunk into the deep mud, giving it the protection from the flames. Robbie took his dog-tags and said good-bye to his brother. Thus, closing another chapter in his book.

  “You know Robbie, I don’t want to sound like the pessimist, please, I’m not, but it’s been a long time, how do you know that your dad and brother are still alive

  “Because I feel it.” Robbie stopped walking. “I really feel it.”

  “And when you find them?” Paul questioned. “What then? Do you stay with them, continue on? What if they are so different you no longer fit in?”

  “No way. We’re a family. Always will be. Miles, days, years, and heartache can’t break the Slagel family bond. When I find them, I’m certain it will be like we never were apart. And I will find them.”

  Robbie continued walking with Paul. It was dark and they would stop before long. The safety in numbers theory kept them moving into the later hours, and needed conversation kept them continuing on their journey with ease.

  Beginnings, Montana

  “I’ll check it out.” Jonas chuckled as he drove the jeep. He set down his radio and shook his head. It was one of the little quirks about working nights in security. Animals hitting into the perimeter. Though odd, the front gate was not immune. The bigger animals tended to go toward the other perimeters that weren’t so secluded. But the odd signals, off and on, that monitoring received, made Jonas believe one of those large animals finally discovered the front gate.

  His suspicions seemed confirmed as he headed into the blackened tunnel. He could see the other end only because the blue sparks of the downed electric fence flew up and out in a steady rhythmic pulse. Stopping the jeep at a safe distance, Jonas grabbed his rifle, and radio. Strapping the weapon over his shoulder he stepped from the jeep. The headlights illuminated the fence which laid half off. He raised the radio to his mouth. “Security, I don’t see an animal. But I’m gonna need mechanics up here ASAP to . . .” Jonas heard the slightest of shuffling behind him. He turned around. The tunnel was so dark. Then he saw them. Moving inward from the walls their figures were caught by the circumference glow of the headli
ghts. Men. Eight of them. The smell of them hit Jonas before he could even see their faces. Lifting the radio again, he brought it to his lips. “Scratch my last request. Send Frank instead.”

  ***

  A quick turn of the wheel at the speed Frank drove would have sent the jeep flipping over and out of control. Frank didn’t care. Focused and fast he drove to the front tunnel gate. He could still hear the call for his help. He could still hear in his memory, gunshots as he tried to get in touch with Jonas. Two minutes. It had only been two minutes since he was summoned and Frank begged in his mind it wasn’t too long.

  He peeled left into the narrow front tunnel of Beginnings, and like Jonas, he saw the flickering of the downed perimeter. But Frank saw something else. Lit in the brightness of Jonas’ headlights were the figures of the men. Frank grabbed his radio and spoke coldly as his eye stared ahead in his driving. “Down the front perimeter beam. Secure the drop gate. Lock me in this tunnel.” Just as Frank dropped his radio, the shifting electric click echoed in the tunnel, and the sound of the metal gate lowered on the Beginnings end was heard. Blindly, Frank reached for his M-16 which lay on the seat next to him.

  His driving speed had picked up and he screeched the jeep to a sudden sideways stop just behind Jonas’ jeep. He expected the men he saw to charge him, Frank was ready. He pumped the chamber as he jumped from the jeep and aimed.

  “You see.” One of the men called out. “You die as easily as us. We’ll be back.”

  Frank fired, the bullet seared into the body of a man sending him flying back into the broken fence. The others took off running from the tunnel and so did Frank. He drove his body forward in a charging race after them and paused only a split second when he saw Jonas laying still by the gate. Jumping over Jonas’ body, Frank’s boots made a splash in the puddle of blood that formed wide. He flew unafraid outside of the tunnel, stopped, took a firm stance, raised his weapon and began to fire. The figures of the running men headed down the dirt road and to the wooded area. It was night, and hard to see, but Frank stayed focused. He had downed four more of the men before the remaining three ran too far from him. Wanting to go after them and knowing he couldn’t, Frank twitched his head in an emotional frustration and went back into the tunnel to see what he feared.