Scout tucked his stocking mask into his collar. “What do you think?”
Hunter removed his goggles, snorted and spat with the wind. “A bulldozer would make this place look real nice.”
“Are you worried about an ambush?”
“No, this town is dead.”
Behind them the SUVs rolled closer and stopped. “What’s the discussion? We’re losing daylight!” Mark yelled.
Hunter responded. “Give us a break! We’re not sitting in front of a heater!”
Scout lowered his head.
The passenger door flew open and Mark leapt out. Hunter hopped off his bike and Scout did too, knowing he would have to buffer the situation.
Samuel followed quickly after Mark. Everyone else stayed in the SUVs.
Mark stalked over with his fists clenched, his jaw leading the way. “What did you say?”
“You heard me,” Hunter said. “I’m out here freezing my ass off, and I don’t need you yelling at me.”
“We need to pick up the pace. My sister’s out there and we’re never going to find her if we keep stopping.”
Scout silently prayed for Hunter to bite his tongue, even going so far as to look heavenward only to find black, unfriendly clouds.
“My brother has a concussion and broken ribs because of her! So screw your crazy-ass sister!” Hunter yelled.
Mark barreled into him, flailing erratic blows. Scout and Samuel pounced on the pile and dragged Mark off kicking, screaming and spitting.
“I’m going to kill you!”
Hunter wiped blood off his lip and returned to his motorbike. He rode off through the empty town alone.
“Mark, this isn’t helping anybody,” Scout said. “We can’t keep separating you from Hunter and we can’t concentrate on tracking the kids who took Molly and Catherine if you’re yelling at us every time we stop.”
“Scout’s right,” Samuel said. “You got to take it easy, man.”
“Let’s just go. I trust you guys to find her.”
“What about Hunter?” Scout asked.
“Him, too.” Mark walked away and settled in the SUV.
“This is messed up, isn’t it?” Samuel asked.
“Which part?”
Samuel turned back to the SUV. “Pretty much all of it.”
Scout rode through town. A couple of skeletons lay on the sidewalk like a museum display showing the affects of a simple life interrupted by an uncontrollable disease. He guided his bike down the broken road to where Hunter waited.
“Are you all right?” Scout asked.
Hunter smirked with a bandanna pressed to his split lip. He pulled his ski mask and goggles back down as the SUVs caught up and they all left the town as a group. Hunter led, picking up the trail again on the other side and ripping through the miles at a faster pace. This time Scout didn’t object to his recklessness.
They continued following US 36 West. Their winter gear kept Hunter and Scout warm on their motorbikes for the most part, and the feeling of urgency did the rest. They didn’t stop for conferences anymore because there wasn’t any time. The path lay clearly ahead and they needed to catch up.
They passed through two more ghost towns. The fourth town they arrived at classified as a city, expanding in all directions around the highway with a McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell that all the boys looked upon with unbridled hunger. Scout placed the Wal-Mart on his to-do list for the spring and wondered if this city had a Boy Scout troop six years ago.
They siphoned fuel out of some vehicles near an old warehouse that backed a set of railroad tracks. Hunter and Mark stayed in their respective corners during the pit stop. Samuel handed out Chef Brittany sandwiches that didn’t carry the same appeal as a Happy Meal, but squelched their rumbling stomachs all the same.
After the quick bite, everyone loaded up their vehicles just as big fat snowflakes spiraled out of the sky. Scout looked at Hunter and they both lowered their heads. It took two minutes and a white blanket covered the ground. In three minutes they couldn’t see the other buildings across the street from the intensity of the whiteout.
The boys piled out of the SUVs and hurried into the warehouse, followed by Scout and Hunter, pushing their motorbikes inside. Samuel came through the door with a snowcap sitting on his head.
“Where’s Mark?” Scout asked.
Samuel hooked a thumb at the SUV. “He wants to keep going.”
“He would,” Hunter said.
“Keep that talk quiet,” Scout growled at him. “We’re going to be stuck here for a while. I don’t want to pull you guys apart every five minutes.”
Hunter moved to the back of the building. Scout watched him clear a spot and lie down, using his backpack as a pillow.
“We can’t ride in this weather,” Scout told Samuel. “We’d get stuck in the middle of nowhere and freeze to death. We’re lucky we were here when this storm hit.”
“I know.” Samuel turned toward the SUV that was barely visible through the snowfall. “We just need to convince him.”
“You kept the keys, right?”
Samuel jingled them at Scout.
“Good news is Chase and company won’t be able to drive in this either,” Scout said.
“Any bad news?”
“Only if they didn’t find shelter. Or they might be out from under the storm and leaving us behind. It doesn’t really matter. We’re stuck.”
The snow piled up around the SUV where Mark sat alone. Finally, even he gave up and waded through the drifts into the building where the search party had found refuge.
Molly was freezing in the truck bed with the pack of five boys. They finally came to the realization that she wasn’t putting out and huddling with them was easier ever since. The ride was smoother once Kessie started following the old road that stretched behind them like a broken ribbon of black asphalt through the withered grass. Every time they passed an abandoned town, Molly hoped they would stop. But the towns quickly faded in the distance like unimportant memories and still the brutal trip wore on and on.
That’s when she started thinking she’d made a mistake. A vision of Hunter leading a column of Independents boys coming to her rescue kept popping into her head. She shook the thought in agitation.
“I don’t need rescuing.”