Bastille

They had been on the road for days leaving countless miles of dense forest behind them. Gas was becoming harder to find as rural Georgia started sprawling out before them. It was then that David decided to let Wesley hot wire a car. David Olson had brought his son up to respect other’s property, and he had no idea where he had acquired such a skill, but he allowed it nonetheless. Wesley made quick work in finding the car he wanted, a sleek and brand new Mazda car that he swore had great gas mileage. He drove the car with the grace of a Nascar driver, but the speed of an eighty-year-old man.

“He drives so slowly.” Cassie was grumbling from beside Valeria who had sketched roses in her barren journal. The younger girl had not been too happy since the death of her beloved iPod two days before. Valeria had begun to drone out her complaints by focusing on her writing. She had started to make accounts for all the earlier days in her journal, making short passages about the events that had happened. The stay with Barb and Tim had taken over three pages before her hand started cramping. Valeria hummed under her breath as she doodled on the thick paper gliding the gel pen over to make a bold line for a stem on the rose. She checked the back cover of her bound book to make sure she had marked a tally for today. It was something she had started back in the High School. Every day that passed she put a new sliver of a line, marking how many days and nights had passed since the outbreak had occurred. She had sixty-six tallies now in a row on the hardback.

“Slow is safe, Cass.” David piped up from the front of the Tahoe. He had given up the driver’s seat in return for the passenger when Lisa had offered to drive. David was much obliged due to the fact that for the past two days they had driven he had been behind the wheel. Valeria felt badly for her tired father who didn’t find rest easily in a moving vehicle much like herself. His dark head rested back against the headrest watching the red car next to them speed up ever so slightly. Wesley was a very careful driver much to David’s surprise. Even with no other cars on the highway he drove the speed limit and stayed in his assigned lane. Lisa wasn’t caring much, choosing to just stay bumper to bumper with her son in the lane designated for passing traffic.

They stayed a constant seventy miles per hour as they made their way down the paved black top. Valeria was growing increasingly tired of Cassie’s chattering so they decided a game of iSpy was appropriate. The younger girl picked the object of searching, delighted when David and Lisa spoke from the front seats trying to guess the thing they were supposed to spy. Most of David’s answers were funny, making his daughters giggle from the backseat. He smiled with his eyes closed as he slowly drifted away to sleep. It was about time.

“I spy with my little eye a place with stores and a gas station!” Cassie chirped moments later, delighted by the sight approaching outside of the window. The town was small and quaint, called Senoia judging by the sign they had passed. Valeria looked out the window with her sister taking in the shops that lined the street.

“Is it a town?” Valeria teased, elbowing her little sister who poked her tongue out with a grin. She shuffled in her seat to sit on her knees and lean forward to her mother, “Are we stopping, Mommy? We can get supplies!”

“Yes, Lisa. Food and maybe a place to camp out for the night.” David stretched his arms over his head hitting the roof of the car. He scratched at his chin with a hand disgusted by the growth that littered his usually impeccably shaven face. “And maybe we can find some damn razors for this animal on my face.” He paused just long enough to make a face at Cassie who laughed uncontrollably.

The larger of the two cars stopped abruptly, Wesley inching to a stop just a few legs before them. He reversed to line up with the Tahoe window, his arm hanging from the window of the red Mazda.

“Are we stopping?” he asked, tapping his long fingers on the door by the handle. He waited for his father to nod a yes before putting the car in park and turning the keys. Lisa did the same, which sent Valeria and Cassie tumbling out, talking among them. David smiled at the chatter for it reminded him of before the outbreak. They used to take family trips all the time to the store and movie theater. It was nice to feel the sun on his face and enjoy the presence of his family. He looked around as he exited the car, pleased to note the lack of walking dead in the area. He tucked a gun from the glove compartment in his waistband and shut the door.

The Olson family made a tiny circle with David as he discussed their goal, which was to find food, shelter, and water. Cassie saluted the elder man and held Valeria’s hand childishly as they looked into store windows. Wesley shook his head at how useless his sisters were but followed along to enter the store with them. To keep them safe from harm, he decided to himself. Mostly he wanted to just relax and raid the store for batteries and any food it may have left.

It was obvious that someone had taken items from the stores for a long while which had David mildly concerned. He did not wish for a group of gangsters to come in claiming the riches as their own. He decided to move the cars into the alley for the time being until they left. David scoped out the overhead apartments that lined the street. He debated on breaking into them, scared to happen upon barricaded zombies or other survivors. He held a hand to his gun and watched his children as they searched through a store directly across. He could see Wesley stuffing candy into his pockets from the window front access. He chuckled under his breath and smiled into the breeze that ruffled his hair. Lisa looked up at her grinning husband with a smile of her own.

“What has you smiling, sir?” she teased, steeping close to lean into his burly body. She had always felt safe in his presence and now was no exception. His warmth warmed her cold arms, bare from lack of a sweater. David noted the need for winter clothing before replying with, “Your son and his sweet tooth.”

Lisa scoffed and hit her husband with a hand lightly, barely a smack, “My son? More like yours.”
David grinned in response and started checking out the nearby doors of a bar. The chains still held them tightly together. He pulled at the chains before letting go. He’d need bolt cutters to get into the building. He walked down the narrow sidewalk to the corner store where Wesley and the girls were. Lisa followed and entered the door, scolding Wesley for his bulging pockets full of nothing but sweets.

Valeria exited the store holding her black cloth backpack. She showed her father the emergency flashlights she had found. He ran a hand over her curly locks in appreciation before kissing her forehead, “Good job, and Valeria, go check out that little shop by the pet store. Looked that there were a few books.”

He watched his oldest child head in the direction of the broken window he had spied coming into the town, a faded mural of fish taking over the entire storefront. He could see tanks lining the aisles but didn’t get close enough to look directly inside. Nothing in a pet store would interest any of his family. They hadn’t had a pet in many years, and now was not the time to tread upon a starving cat or worse, a fish. David chuckled imagining his children carrying along a fishbowl with them from place to place.

His chuckle was slowly dissolved when he heard the first roar of the diesel engine. It was close enough to town to be a worry to him. David looked out to the entrance of the town, spying the large black truck drifting slowly down the streets. Men lined the back of the truck bed wearing scruffy shirts and various forms of pants ranging from Army camouflage to khaki shorts. He frowned and raised a hand to his wife who herself had seen the truck, ushering her children farther into the store where they wouldn’t be easily seen. David cursed himself as he stared over to the pet store window. The truck got closer to the store so David decided then and there to take it into his own hands, slipping his shirttail over the gun in his waistband and approaching the street side.

“Stop right there, man,” One of the men in the truck bed called out to David. The truck was rumbling in place right in front of the store he had sent Valeria to. He stopped in his spot and looked over the entrance where he had seen the swivel book rack. His daughter was not there in sight. He sighed and raised his hands and put on a smile for show.

“Good afternoon, fellas. How are y’all doin’ this fine day?” David called out in a friendly tone. The speaker from the truck bed jumped from the high perch down to the asphalt. Dirty and scuffed tennis shoes covered his feet. The green shirt and jeans he wore had also seen better days, but his hair was shorn short and his beard was close to neatly trimmed. Obviously these people were from a camp. How else would they have such a nice truck and clean-shaven faces? David raised a hand for the stranger to shake, which made the others draw guns. The man who had come down to meet David shook his head and raised his own hand to shake the man’s opposite him.

“I’m doing great, sir. And yourself?”

David was pleased with the friendly tone in his own voice, relaxing as the other’s dropped their guns down to their sides. He wasn’t entirely thrilled as he spied the heavy artillery they sported. Each man had an automatic weapon, which made the little pistol he had concealed seem like nothing. The group of five men didn’t pose too much of a threat. David had shot down more than his share of armed men when he was involved with the Texas Rangers.

“I’m great, son. Just trying to get some supplies before passing through.” He left out his family in the statement, wanting to avoid attention to the children and his wife. The man before him smiled at the words.

“Us as well. I’m Dave, and you?”

David offered a laugh at the man’s name replying with his own which made the younger man laugh himself, “Well, ain’t that something. Dave and David. Traveling alone are you? I don’t see a car?”

David shrugged his shoulders and didn’t let his face fall from the smile he sported, “Looking for something reliable, you know? Don’t want it breaking down twenty miles in.” Once more he ignored the question about his companions. Dave looked at him for a long moment before ushering to the door of the store, “Find anything decent in there?”

David made a face of exaggerated disgust, “Nah, man. Looks like it was picked clean. Not even a pot to piss in,” he pointed to the bar with the chained doors on the front and the sign that read Patton’s,” That place looks prime to me, though. I didn’t have any bolt cutters to get inside, but you know.”
“Hell yeah, that’s my kind of man!” Dave said, putting a hand to David’s back.

He started for the bar while the rest of the men got out of the truck. They stayed close to Dave revealing that he was the boss of the small group. David smirked, he had made good with the boss. They looked at the chains for a long moment before Dave turned to a bigger guy with a page-boy hat balanced on his shaved head, “Big man, go check for some cutters in the hardware store.”

The bigger man headed in the opposite direction of Valeria, towards the other side of the pet shop.
“Where are you from, my man? Atlanta?” Dave asked, leaning back against the door. He sounded genuinely curious. David responded with, “Haven.”

“Never heard of it. Where’s the wife?” Dave asked suddenly, taking in the wedding band on David’s hand. David paused to frown at the hunk of metal.

“She would have just slowed me down. Had to leave the bitch.” Dave laughed at the words and scratched at his neck. He seemed satisfied with the answer as the large man approached with the bolt cutters. The group was satisfied with the opening of the dusty bar. David watched as the group fought over bottles of half full whiskey and gin. When offered a shot he just declined with a grin, wishing the group would head on their way and let him and his family regroup to escape. The sound of screaming alerted him that something was wrong. The hairs stood up on the back of his neck as the group of men, including himself and Dave, stepped from the bar to the street where one man from the group was clutching Valeria by the arm. The girl was clawing at his face and clutching a pile of books under her other arm. David closed his eyes and started towards the man only to be held back by a frowning Dave.

“David, man. This belong to you, friend? Thought you were alone?” Dave was laughing.

He pushed the man back to his pack that held him in tightly as he approached Valeria who had stilled to look at her father with scared eyes. “A little young to be your wife buddy.”

“That’s because she is my daughter.” He hissed, trying to escape the clutches of the men. One held their gun to his side drunkenly. David shook his head debating on whether or not to fire his own gun.

“Well, little mouse,” Dave laughed drunkenly, pulling Valeria closer. Her nose wrinkled at the smell of liquor on his breath. She closed her eyes as his face loomed over hers, dark brown eyes meeting hers of hazel, “Those are some eyes you got there, little mouse. Cat got your pretty little tongue?”

“Dave, man.” David said sharply distracting Dave momentarily.

The man looked over to David and walked over; he quickly kicked him in the gut sending David to his knees gasping for breath.

“I am not your man. But, I will take your little girl and make a woman out of her. How about that, David? See what your lies have done.”

Dave spit in David’s face before taking a handful of Valeria’s curls and pulling her face to his kissing her roughly and sloppily making her cry out for her father. David slunk back to his feet and tears spilled down his cheeks as he watched Dave maul his child in front of him, his hands pulling her large shirt from where it had been tucked into her jean shorts.

Lisa had come running from the building but was held back by another man, Dave had once more turned to look at the strange addition to his group as she beat on his back with fists trying to keep him away from Valeria. He reached a hand back and knocked her to her back making her head slam against the pavement. She didn’t stir after that making Valeria cry even harder as Dave continued his assault on his breasts with his hands.

“Look what I found, Boss!”

David’s stomach dropped when Cassie and Wesley were brought forth, both fighting to be let go. The large man who had found the bolt cutters held Wesley back easily his arms around Wesley’s neck tightening with every move the boy made. Finally he had no choice but to stay still for fear of being depraved oxygen. Cassie had been forced to the center of the circle with her sister where they clutched each other. Dave was angry now. He turned to David and kicked him repeatedly.

“Now you’ve lied to me another time, David. What have I said about lying?” Dave stopped his kicks suddenly and worked the buckle on his belt, “Hold him down. Hoyt, take the taller one. Happy birthday, brother.”

The man let out a hoot at the notion and turned to Cassie, pulling the girl in by her hair as she screeched. He laughed at her before yanking her up and pressing a kiss to her open mouth. He shoved the girl down on the ground before roughly pulling her pants down, as was Dave to Valeria.
David watched in horror as his daughters were violated before his very eyes that were swimming with tears the more he heard their cries for their father. He bawled into the asphalt under him as hands pushed him down more and more.

Finally Dave was pulling him up to yell in his face, the words not registering to David as he watched the crumpled figures on the ground shake with silent cries. Wesley was on the ground helping Cassie pull back up her short yoga shorts. Blood smeared on her inner thighs which made David snap, Dave’s back being turned to him as he pulled his gun. One of the men must have alerted Dave because he drew just as quickly and rushed behind a wall for cover just as David shot.

The first shot hit a target, but not the originally intended. Hoyt went down in a crumpled pile as David hid behind a dumpster making sure his children had taken their own cover before spraying the group of shooters with bullets. He was down to one bullet when Dave rounded the corner and shot, making contact with David’s chest sending the older man down on his stomach. The Olson children huddled with their mother in the bar behind the oak counter listening to the sound of bullets hitting glass and brick. All of a sudden it was quiet and the roar of a diesel engine had alerted them to the group’s departure. Wesley was the first to his feet, screaming his father’s name as he exited the bar. The trio of women was the ones who found him face down where he had fallen after Dave’s shot. It was all Valeria could do to bite back a sob as she held her crying sister. Wesley fell back against the brick wall cradling his head in his hands.

She watched with held breath and Lisa got to her knees by his head, flipping over his heavy body and sobbing.

David Olson was dead.