Chapter 4: The Long Highway?

It was the next day for Rex and Estrella as they reached Rex’s former home. It was decided to place the truck in the garage sacrificing the space for the motorcycle where in turn, he kept it hidden in the backyard of the home.

Rex was able to shake off the moments of the following day. To him, it was merely the matter of the trade of what life was reduced too. If anything, in turn, he was used to taking things from others anyway.

Estrella came out of the door, still dressed in her makeshift survival gear. She carried a can of corn beef with her that she opened for him.

“You haven’t had breakfast yet,” she told him. “If we are going to go scouting on the highway again, you need to keep your strength.”

He looked up at the morning sky. He sat on a blanket with various tools as he checked the bolts of the engine block of the motorcycle. He looked up to Estrella with her can of food that they just got the day before.

“I am still debating if we take the truck now,” he told her. “The motorcycle is fine, but that truck is well armored and can take a beating in a fight. It can hold way more goods than the motorcycle ever could.”

“The only catch is that it is a walking advertisement to the gang we just attacked. If their friends come searching for us and find the truck...”

“Then we are dead either way,” he told her. “Hollow Angels, Red Tempest, the Yuki Family, Salvadores Oscuros ... either way somebody would want a piece of our hide if they encountered us.”

“You think we should join a group just to save the trouble?” Estrella asked him with some hesitation.

“I am ... Red Tempest we know the least about since we encountered their caravan. It sounded like from one of the traders that they would be welcome to have us a part of their gang, the catch is that women...” he looked at her with hesitation. “Women have to trade sex to gain entry regardless if they are married to the leader, mother, or whatnot. It is considered the first act of loyalty to the group.”

Estrella shook her head. She was used to hearing this before. “If it comes down to it, if it means trying to survive a little bit longer and our lives, then I will do it.”

He waved his tools at her as he looked at his bike. “You say that so easily right now. You don’t know how much you would be doing it with or whom. For all we know, the leader is some disgusting prick of human scum that would have you for days. I can’t risk it.”

“Salvadores Oscuros, what about them?” she asked.

“You know more about them than I do. What do you know of them?”

“I have a far distant cousin that works with them that might help us get in. The catch is that Hollow’s Angels have been overrunning their territory. I don’t even know if they are still around or been wiped out by the other gangs and groups.”

He stopped working on his bike as he looked at her. “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner? We could have gone to them for help, especially if you have a family with them.”

“I don’t know,” she shook her head. “He was not good family to start out with. It was only rumored to begin with. This was before I started to really work with you.”

“I know you were wandering around a lot before we started working together. That wondering around paid off, though. It gave us another two weeks because of it. The whereabouts of those meds that are keeping us alive are because of you.”

She sat down on the grass as she kept her can held out to him. He had completely lost track of the food that she had for him as he put the tools down and politely took the can of food.

“How is our food supply?” he asked her.

“We have enough cans to last us for a couple more days. The water I am more worried about. We don’t know what is safe for us to drink anymore.”

He put his hand to his face as he looked at his body. He sighed. “It is true we don’t know how bad our water is right now ... hmm, the only thing I can think of is hitting the deepwater wells. There would be farms possibly that we can check up to see if we can siphon from water wells deep in the ground. We can’t drink from any of the lakes around here.”

“Is it anyway possible we could filter out the water to get rid of the radiation?”

“Possibly ... damn, I wish I had that book on nuclear survival. Wait ... do you know of any book stores around here?”

“Book stores?” her eyes darted around as she thought about it. “Yes, I do. There is one that is five miles from here. It will be like it is here, but it would be the least likely place to be ransacked since food and water is high on the menu.”

“There is a possibility we can find reading material on survival in nuclear fallouts like this. If we can obtain more knowledge, it will increase our survival abilities to the point we will never need to hunt from others again.”

“It is too bad we didn’t think of it sooner,” she reacted. “I wish I had more reading material available before the bombs fell.”

He took the can and began to shovel the food into his mouth. The sweet and meaty flavor of the corn and meat-filled his tongue and mouth as he sighed with happiness.

“Forgot the great taste of meat,” he said. “That is something we need to focus on. Lack of protein will start to eat us up. We will need to look into going further and further into the wilderness to hunt again. I think the biggest thing we need to look at is going to the book store and grab anything for survival material. There we will go pack things up and head into the forests of California to live out as long as possible.”

Estrella began to nod her head. “I think I like that idea too. Be as far away from survivors that might prey on us and allow us to sustain ourselves at the same time.”

“No groups we have to worry about joining either. It will be just us.”

She sighed, “The more we talk like this, the more like we are turning into Adam and Eve.”

He laughed, “I hadn’t thought of it that way or Adam and Lilith?”

“What do you mean?” she asked him.

“Lilith was the first wife of Adam, at least from what I heard.”

“I wouldn’t...” she stopped at her words as she genuinely thought about it. “I wouldn’t leave you.”

“What if another woman came along?”

She tilted her head as he made a point. “Well ... I did say the sex between us is very good, right?”

“What?” he asked.

“Ugh ... it’s just this environment. This is all crazy talk, you know between us. I wonder what is going to take us first, the radiation or insanity.”

“Being in groups is what saves us in the end. If we go crazy, we go crazy together. I would prefer it that way.”

She stayed quiet as she listened to him. He went and continued eating down the can of corn beef eagerly as she enjoyed the sun and being outside.

“I am thankful you are my neighbor. I would be dead in the end.”

“Same here, good friend. Did you get something to eat?”

“Yes, where are we heading for today?”

He finished up his can of corn beef as he threw the empty can into the distant trees. He had no regrets about leaving a trashed environment since the human race was severely reduced in number anyway.

“I wish I had a cigarette right now,” he commented. “Nuclear Armageddon has a way of making you quit smoking. Ummm ... let’s go to the bookstore and see what other items we can scavenge from. We were in a bit of rush getting food from that dead man’s house yesterday. I am sure there is more food there. We should take the truck. Fuck it if we have other clans and groups out there. It is better than getting sniped from a motorcycle. Anyone we encounter could be a threat as it is, bigger is better right now.”

She sighed, “Fine... , we take the truck.”

“How much gas do we have for it?”

“There was two-thirds of a tank. We have siphoned must of the gas around here, so I wouldn’t count on making casual trips with it.”

“Yeah, I agree. We can make our trip to the bookstore and grab whatever we can take that we find today. It will be one trip, and then we rest and eat here for the day. Tomorrow we go to the forests and not look back. We would have enough gas for a one way trip to the forests. The deeper, the better, away from all lost civilization.”

There was much thinking on Estrella’s face. She finally nodded in agreement. “Sounds like a plan, assuming the bookstore still has anything there.”

“Trust me, if it is one thing that society likes to do in apocalyptic settings, the last place they want to go to is the book store.”

“Unless they have our same thoughts besides, how would you know about what people would want in an apocalypse?”

Rex was about to answer her question when he pointed to her and said, “good point.”

“How is the motorcycle?” she asked him.

He looked at the motorcycle. “Surprisingly good. I don’t want to abandon it. If we go into the deep woods, I want this in the truck to take with us. That way, we will have something to travel around in emergencies. Any gas left over in the truck, we can put it into the bike, and we will have something until we can ultimately find horses.”

She shook her head, “Definitely going backward in technology to be thinking of having horses at a time when...”

“When people decided that killing one another with the most destructive weapons was the best plan,” he interjected. “We will manage. Our families in the past were able to do it. Don’t try to deny it because you come from Mexico, we all came from that stock in the end.”

“No, we just got spoiled living in the United States,” she joked.

He chuckled a little bit. “Do you think they will still call it the United States anymore? What about Mexico? Are they going to rename everything?”

“How about we go to the deep forests together like you planned? It will be our Eden.”

There was sincerity in her eyes as he looked at her. Even though he only looked at her as a friend, it almost felt a romantic gesture to him. He shook it off quickly as he stood up, tossing the tools to the ground, looking down at her.

“Let’s go,” he said.

“I will get the truck ready to go.”

Estrella and Rex got the truck ready for whatever they were going to encounter. It would require a short trip down the highway. Rex got his shotgun ready to go, but he also had the M14 placed behind the seat. Estrella had her rifle ready to go as she kept it at the middle seat. The truck bed was cleared up to ensure whatever they could load up. They could take everything of need.

Estrella took her keys and started up the engine. The truck rang to life as Rex pulled the door open on the garage to give the truck the necessary opening to leave. She backed the truck out as Rex closed it from the outside. He then ran up to the passenger side, opened the door, and hopped in. Dressed in their typical survival gear, they were ready for whatever threats they would encounter. Hopefully, it would not be of the rat variety.

He closed the door as he took his shotgun and hoisted it to his lap. The closed stock of the gun made it perfect for carrying in various ways for moving and carrying. Estrella, on the other hand, would be more focused on the driving part.

“Alright, same drill as before,” he told her. “We are going down the highway to reach our destination. You know more where this bookstore is at, so I will let you be. I will keep an eye for whatever threats we see. Be ready for biker gangs. Hollow Angels might have more patrols in the area.”

“They won’t be happy spotting their truck,” she warned again.

“That wouldn’t stop them from killing me and taking you for ... well like the Yuki did with me, but this time they will be raping you until your vagina falls out.”

“I didn’t think that was even possible,” she joked in response. She stopped as she looked at him. Her face got serious as she then looked down. “Do me a favor ... if it seems that somebody is going to do that to me and they are carrying me off. If you can’t stop them, put a bullet in me, will you?”

“Don’t talk like that. It will not come to that.”

“Promise me!” she said with such a stern voice that it even took Rex by surprise.

“Alright ... I promise.”

He sighed as he looked at her.

“Sorry...” She apologized. “After watching what the rats did to you, I don’t want to have that happen to me. Those rats they...”

She pulled the truck back out onto the pavement as she shifted to forward gear and pressed the accelerator pedal. The truck began its move driving down the road to take them to the highway.

“I know,” he commented. “I heard everything they said to you while they fucked my brains out.”

“You never tried to...”

“What?”

“You didn’t try to shut them up when they were verbally harassing me.”

He shook his head, “I was not fully aware of everything when Aiko had me pinned down. The sex was ... intense for me.”

“What do you mean?” she reacted calmly.

“Like the sex felt really, really good. I was doing everything in my power to resist. It was so powerful. Maybe it was the fact she was in heat that it affected me like she was giving off a chemical or something. It felt intoxicating. If you weren’t there ... I would have ... asked to be with them and join their group.”

She had a long pause as she contemplated his words. The truck got past the point where the Yuki rats assaulted rex. They were long gone or at least decided not to show themselves. Rex felt a sense of relief as they wondered if they would return.

“Thankful, they moved on,” he replied.

“Was it ... that good?” she calmly asked him.

“Wha ... come on that isn’t fair, I already told you,” he told her.

“I mean ... if it wasn’t for their racist and gender hating bias towards me, I might have considered joining them too. Who knows, maybe one of the women preferred to be with a woman. I would have helped them with their...” She stopped talking as Rex himself looked at her.

“Seriously?” he chuckled. “I mean, we got assaulted by them. Talk about shit getting weird.”

“I am just saying, they did look attractive ... the rat women. Their forms were ... very beautiful. They looked sculpted to perfection. I don’t fear rats, nor am I disgusted by their looks. I would have ... Aiko, I would have done her if the story was different, and she felt different towards her sex preferences.”

“Heh, that would have been funny. When they held me down to have their way with me, when that one rat woman was harassing you, you simply told them yes that you thought they were pretty. It would have taken them by surprise. We could have possibly really joined them if we wanted to.”

She shook her head as the truck made a serious of turns. Leaving the main avenue road that led up to the highway, she pressed the accelerator pedal down hard. The truck’s wheels dug into the pavement as it sped down the road hard and up to the ramp to go straight to the highway as they reached the abandoned highway heading west.

“I wouldn’t have joined them,” she reasserted. “Their attitudes were obvious. I didn’t want to give them what they wanted either, and the feeling that they were doing to do you in their act to ridicule me...”

“Well, if our backs are put to the wall, we can try to find them again and ask leniency for you. It was obvious that they wanted to have children.”

“Why did they want kids so badly?” she asked.

“It is because they think we as the human race are doomed. They need us to make more of them, and they are grabbing whatever human men they could get.”

“Yeah, but do they know that the men would die from possible radioactive fallout? The children would not grow up with their fathers.”

“It sounds like they are trying to do what they can to preserve us,” he commented. “Since we never joined them, we will never know what they had to offer for the men in the end.”

“Plus, they still need human women to make human boys if they are going to procreate in the end.”

“Heh,” he chuckled. “Almost sounds like you would be volunteering in the end.”

“Well,” she stammered. “If it means surviving with a bunch of sex-hungry rat women...”

Rex watched the highway as they drove past a series of broken-down cars on the road. Debris still littered the street from the blast ranges and neglect from the lack of maintenance.

He looked at her. “You are serious you would stay with those rat women and be a breeding block for them, with me knocking you up in hopes of making boys?”

She shrugged her shoulders as she kept her hand on the wheel. “Nothing is normal anymore, Rex. We could be dead tomorrow for all we care. If it weren’t for their attitudes towards me, what the fuck would it matter anymore? If they offered food, safety, and shelter, isn’t that what we are after? Hell, even Aiko even thanked you for saving her life. It sounds like they would die without sex when they go into heat. I feel like I looked at Jeremy and felt the same way with him. He was denied the right to have a normal relationship once the bombs fell. His girlfriend was dead, and there was you, me, and him. We weren’t tied to a romantic relationship ... yet I didn’t give him the relief he wanted ... perhaps I was...”

She stopped her conversation as she kept her attention on the road. Rex could look out the window and see the countryside. Debris from destroyed homes littered the landscape. The more and more they went west towards San Diego, the closer they were getting to ground zero.

“We are not far from the book store. Another minute and we will be turning in.”

“You were saying?” he asked her.

“Perhaps ... the Yuki were right. I am dirt ... I wanted to tell them that I was as bad as they were.”

She wiped a tear from her eye as she put her hand on the steering wheel.

“That is not fair,” he told her. “You are right. I didn’t say more to protect you earlier. I understand that.”

“No... , “ she shook her head. “You did everything you could to ensure they would not carry out with their threats toward me. I owe you my life on that.”

He lost track of the road as he then saw a series of buildings and stores off the highway. She began to slow down as she made a right-hand turn getting off the non used road.

“I am going to become a father,” he said with relief. “No matter what happens to me, my children will live, depending on how many grow in Aiko and if I impregnated the other. It’s ... strange to hear myself say that.”

“I guess something other than human had to come to make that finally happen,” she commented. “You want to be a father.”

“Yeah... , “ he thought about it. He had to admit that she was right about it.

“We are here,” she told him as she slowed the truck and turned to the right. They pulled up to a series of half wrecked buildings. The vehicle began to slow down as they cleared the highway and got closer to one set of buildings.

“That is the building we are looking for,” she told him. “It is that building with the roof threatening to cave in.”

Rex looked around as the store got into closer view. It was a bookstore sandwiched between a vet building and a dental. Debris littered the parking lot as the truck came to a stop near the bookstore entrance.

“Here is the bookstore,” she commented.

“I don’t know what we will be able to salvage. The bomb blast did its job hitting even this far from the city.”

“We were soooo damn lucky we were far enough from the blast as it was. Center San Diego is a smoldering crater with the surrounding buildings blown to pieces.”

“All because of that naval base too. Soviets made sure that they went down first in their first wave of missiles. Only our distance from the city was what saved us.”

“Let’s go in,” she commented. “I sooner we do this, the sooner we go to the forest and away from society for good.”

“Agreed.”

She stopped the truck, pulled the keys from the ignition, and they both opened the doors as they stepped out. By then, one thing that Rex usually did was ignore the dead around him. He remarked, seeing mostly decayed corpses that lined the countryside. This place was no different. The scene looked like a dead landscape as they closed the doors of the truck as they readied their weapons and walked to the bookstore.

“I can’t believe we are raiding a bookstore,” she commented to him. “We go and rob people, shoot raiders, and now we are going to the bookstore.”

“Knowledge is power,” Rex replied.

They stepped up to the entrance leading in. The door was torn and lying down, leading to inside the bookstore.

“Make sure we keep an eye on the ceiling,” he pointed upward. “It looks like any disturbance, and the whole thing will crash down.”

She nodded as they pulled the broken door away from the entrance.

“That is a good sign, by the way,” he remarked.

“What is?” she asked.

“This door here, us having to pull it away, it means that other people have not really touched the place.”

“Yeah,” she replied with reluctance. “The catch is that this place is small for a bookstore. They might not have anything if anything is even salvageable.”

“We have to try.”

They stepped into the dark store. Only the filtering sunlight provided any illumination. As they stepped inside, they felt their boots touch stacks of paper. The bookstore had nothing but mangled shelves and piles of books everywhere.

“Ugh ... we might be here for a while,” Rex commented.

Estrella shouldered her rifle as she began to pick up various books. Some bookbindings were falling apart, causing the pages to litter all over the ground. Some books were salvageable as she looked at each book. Rex went to the other shelf and began to check the books.

“Hmmm... Joy of Cooking Part 6, History of South America from 1800 to 1980, You, Your Baby, and You, Nothing really much yet.”

“Everything You Want to Know About Dragons...”

“Oh!” she replied, hearing the book name. “Keep that. I like dragons!”

“Yeah ... and seeing them fly overhead of us, is all but a reminder of it.”

“Then it is best to keep all information of them,” she insisted as he tossed the book to her to keep.

“Might as well grab any extra books,” he commented. “This is what is left of civilization for us once we leave here and live in the woods.”

She carried the book with her as she began to look at the other books.

“Let’s see,” Rex commented to himself out loud. “History of Roads, Japanese Fairy Tales, Adam and Lilith, Bram Stoker’s Dracula,... I might take that book. Nothing like a good vampire book. Hmmm... War and Peace, Nah.”

She looked at the other books and pulled one out “Hunting, a Forest Guide Survival,”

“Grab that one!” he told her.

“You don’t have to tell me twice!” she said. She looked at another series of books. “Irrigation, Farming Tricks of the Trade, I will grab that one.”

Rex would continually grab a book, look at it, and then discarded them to the floor. “Let’s see here... The Four Divine Animals of China, Nah ... I don’t feel that one is important. Egyptian Gods and Goddesses...” he stopped as he thought about it for a moment as he looked at the book and held it in his hand. Estrella was busy looking at the other books.

For some reason looking at the book on Egyptian Gods made him look at the book as he flipped through the pages as he read out loud.

“The Egyptian’s had a large variety of animal-like gods and goddesses,” he read to himself. “Bastet the Feline Goddess, Anubis a dog-like deity, Ammit the Goddess that is Hippo, Alligator, and Lioness put together, Renenutet the Snake Goddess. All these gods existed at one time, according to Egyptian religion.”

He flipped a couple of pages as he read about Anubis.

“A theory that has been put together is that Anubis is a member of the Cynocephalus race. A race of dog people that existed in some numbers in Egypt and the Middle East. It is believed that Reprobus or Saint Christopher, is a member of this race ... huh ... interesting.”

“I didn’t picture you as a dog lover,” Estrella interjected. “Don’t you like lizards and reptiles more?”

“Yeah I do, but ... it is strange, I am inclined to take this book with me for some reason.”

“As you said, we are carrying what is left of civilization with us.”

“UFOs Encountered 1970 to 1980, nope not interested. The Joy of Peanut Butter, no...” as she tossed it to the side.

Rex went and pulled out another series of books. “Magic: It Exists, The Werewolves of Paris,” he decided to throw that to the developing pile of books he would keep. “Hmmm... Proper Motorcycle Care, god ... damn I wish I had this book sooner when I was ... ugh.”

“Oh my god!” Estrella yelled in excitement.

“What?”

“I found the sequel to My Lover the Woman...”

Rex, with some books in hand, was unimpressed but willing to entertain her excitement and joy. “Fine, you don’t need me to give you permission.”

“I am sorry. I just love this story!”

“Whatever ... let’s see here... 20^th Century Laws in America, no worthless, The Time Machine, you know I will keep this one.”

Estrella picked up a destroyed half book as she began to read it. Her eyes opened wide as she read the contents.

“Rex! I found it ... or at least half a book. Nuclear Apocalypse: A Survival Guide.”

“Take it,” he replied in excitement. “Look around for the other half of the book. The more, the better.”

Estrella looked at the torn book, either someone already had the same idea that they had and ripped some of the pages out, or the blast got to it, some of the information would at least provide valuable insight in how to survive these conditions. She began to scour the numerous pages and torn paper around her for any more information.

Rex began to look at the various books again, happy to hear that they at least had some information before they would go into the deep forests.

“Hmmm... How the Dogs Survive, Various Fairy Tale Characters of Europe and Russia, Brave New World... you know I heard Brave New World is good, I think I will keep you.”

When he thought of the Fairy Tale books, his eyes went back to the Japanese Fairy Tales book. He looked closely at the book cover and opened it. Something caught his eye near the front cover.

“Odd...” He pondered out loud. His eyes looked at a drawing of a rat on the second page bowing and praying to the sun. “Huh ... almost reminds me of the Yuki we just met. They kept talking about the sun ... what the hell?”

He began to read a little of the story called The Espousal of the Rat’s Daughter. The more he read, the more his brain began to put things together. His heart almost skipped a beat upon what he was reading.

“That isn’t ... possible,” he said. “It can’t be...”

“What?” she asked as she went through more of the papers. Going through the discarded and destroyed torn pages was proving to be a hassle for her.

“This story I am reading... , “ he remarked. “It almost seems to mimic the rat women we encountered.”

“What that they grab men and force them to make children for them?”

“No ... hear this,” as he looked at the pages again. “There was a beautiful rat princess that lived in a rat kingdom. All was well. The rat princess that went by the name O Yuki San according to the story...”

“O Yuki San...” she stopped as her brain put it together. “That isn’t possible. They referred to their leader as O Yuki San and that it was a she ... could it be?”

“Are you trying to imply that they are rats of this kingdom of some obscure fairy tale or folklore?”

“I don’t know what to believe, to be honest. The story is quite short. It states that the rat princess was in constant debate about who her suitor was going to be. She was turned down by the sun and the cloud. Ultimately, in the end, or it is implied that she married another rat from the kingdom. Hmm ... that is it.”

Estrella looked at Rex as their thoughts began to unwind at what he had just read.

“The name is the same, and they talked about the sun. They were rats, just like the story. What the fuck is going on?”

Estrella shook her head “The world comes to an end. The human race is on the verge of extinction yet ... we see things that begin to appear a week later. Survivors begin to tell stories of flying creatures that shouldn’t exist, things that are not human that roam the area. We ourselves encounter the Yuki ... a group of rats that somehow are referenced in random fairy tales.”

“We have one clue on may be why we never did encounter them in the first place,” he thought. He pointed to her. “They were all disguised as human when we first encountered them. What if? ... What if they all disguise themselves as human? Think about it. It would make sense, would it? They have all been hiding under our noses before the fall of humanity. With humanity basically gone now, why need to keep the disguises?”

“If that is the case,” she remarked. “Why not ever need to hide as a human in the first place? Why not just reveal to the world who you are and let us adapt to it?”