THE SON OF ELI

CHAPTER 21: PASSIONS ON THE ROAD

The gates of the sports complex swung open, and the huge truck that the Utility Team had nicknamed The Bulldog moved out of the gates unto the stretch of rutted road.

It was a DAF truck with a trailer. However, the Metal Works Team had fortified it by welding plates over the tyres for protection. They had also provided a roof to prevent searots, tombers or any beast from attacking from above. Slats had been cut into the sides to serve as eye-views. they were also used as openings for the barrels of guns to be pushed through in times of attack.

The driver was John Aidoo, and in the cabin with him were Ebo and Mike.

In the trailer were ten members of the team in their protective rigs and helmets, although most of them had removed their helmets. They were eight men and two young ladies and Eli.

There were empty sacks and cartons packed near the back of the truck, and would be used for any supplies they came across. There were also seven motorbikes.

Eli was standing near the end of the trailer and peeking out of one of the slats. His handsome face looked shattered and sad as he stared out at the destruction outside. It was the first time he was seeing the effects of the Meltdown.

He saw mangled cars, torn ground, fallen trees!

The road itself was uneven, with most places ripped apart. Over the years, the survivors had managed to construct a way through the debris for the truck to pass through.

He saw stores and buildings pulled apart, electrical poles ripped off, cars slammed into gullies and holes.

And, worst of all, were the bones!

Everywhere he looked, bones and skulls littered the terrain!

An awful lot of people had died!

It made him so sad! He wondered what could have caused such destruction, such an absolute loss of innocent lives! This could not be natural, he thought. There was more to it than this!

One of the ladies called Rhoda came to stand beside him.

She was short and thin but had an amazingly beautiful face. She looked at his horror-struck expression and touched his arm.

"First time seeing this s**t?"

Eli looked down at her, dazed, and nodded.

"It is such a waste!" he whispered in a trembling voice. "What evil is responsible for this?"

Rhoda shrugged.

"God, if there is a God," she said.

Eli shook his head several times.

"No, it is not God, at least not the One I read about," he said. "This is evil. Pure evil!"

Rhoda pulled out two thin chewing-gum sticks from her pocket.

"Well, s**t happens, and we learn to survive. Want one?"

Eli looked at the gum sticks and took one.

"What is it?" he asked curiously.

"Gum," she said with a chuckle. "Oh, dude! I still can't believe you crawled out of some glass! Chew it. It relieves my stress."

Eli put the gum in his mouth, and Rhoda laughed and dug him in the ribs with an elbow.

"No, silly, take off the wrapper first, like this… see?"

She unwrapped the gum, balled the wrapper and threw it through a slat, then she stuck the gum into her mouth.

Slowly, Eli peeled off the wrapper and popped the gum into his mouth, and then his face widened with disbelief and pleasure when he began to chew.

"That's pretty sweet," he said, and Rhoda giggled.

"Taste wears off in about a minute," she said. "It is probably expired, but who gives a s**t? Don't swallow it, though. When you're fed up with it, just spit it out."

Eli nodded and was chewing busily as he looked at Rhoda. She blew a little bubble, popped it, and it made Eli break into uncontrollable giggles as the others looked at him with wonder, marvelling at his sudden child-like behaviour.

Rhoda repeated it, and as Eli was trying to do likewise, his enthusiasm blew the gum right of his mouth! The gum would have flown out through one of the slats, but Eli's hand snaked out, as fast as light, snatched the gum, and popped it back into his mouth.

Rhoda's eyes opened with a sudden shock.

"Hey, dude! That was some damn awesome reflexes, s**t!"

Eli began to laugh, then he gasped with horror when he saw a tomber on the side of the road! It was a rotten woman with tattered clothes on her. Her skin was smeared with the mud of her grave, and her skin was almost completely off her face, causing her to look so scary that Eli took a step back from the slat. It growled, its face turning towards the slow-moving truck. Eli saw the red concentric circles on her forehead and the purple glare of her eyes.

She snarled, and then lunged towards the truck, slammed into it, and poked its face into the slat!

Eli screamed and jumped backwards, missed his step, and crashed on the floor of the truck. The others laughed at him. The tomber snarled with fury as a disgusting gooey substance drooled from her mouth.

Rhoda drew her knife from the top of her boot, stepped forward, and rammed it into the centre of the three circles. The tomber's growls petered off into little screeches as she fell off.

Eli's face was filled with terror as Rhoda cleaned her knife on one of the sacks and knelt beside him.

"Don't ever let one of them bite you," she said gravely. "When they bite you, your body puffs up, you explode, and you're reduced to bones. One of them attacks you, just stick them in the middle of the forehead with this."

She held up the knife, then she lifted his hand and put it into his palm.

"I don't think I can," Eli said in an unsteady voice.

"Yes, you can, and you must," she said calmly." Put it in your pocket or waistband."

"Rhoda, the dude is too terrified!" one of the men said with a sneer. "He'll probably cut off his own head with it."

As laughter rang out, Eli took the knife and shook it at the laughing men.

"That's not nice!" he said calmly, his face cold, and slowly they stopped laughing.

The truck came to a sudden halt, and Rhoda looked at Eli.

"I guess your call is up," she said. "We're at the crossroads. Chapel Hill is to the right, we're continuing to the Princess Road area to search for food."

She held out her hand and helped Eli to his feet.

He still looked terrified, but she saw the determination on his handsome face.

"Thank you, Rhoda, for the knife… and your company.

She smiled sadly.

"Take care of yourself out there, kiddo."

The back of the truck slid open, and Eli saw Ebo and Mike standing on the ground.

"Alright, Eli, out you come," Mike said with a little smile playing around his lips. "To Chapel Hill, we go hunting."

"Soldiers, two bikes on the ground. Now!" Ebo ordered.

As Mike helped Eli off the truck, four soldiers rolled down two of the motorbikes down the lowered sliding incline.

Not quite long after, the truck started moving again, taking a turn to the left. Eli waved back at the soldiers.

"Is that a knife?" Ebo asked.

Eli looked at the knife in his hand with distaste.

"Yes, Rhoda killed one of those things with it, and gave it to me as a gift."

Ebo smiled.

"Well, good for you. Stow it away. We have to move."

Eli put the knife into his waistband.

They were only three now.

Mike checked his rifle and pushed it into a special saddle rigged on the flank of the motorbike. He checked the pistol at his hip, then he mounted one of the big bikes and kicked it in to start. He revved the engine and looked at Eli.

"Hop behind me, boy," he said curtly.

Eli began to move towards the bike with excitement on his face, but Ebo put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"He rides with me, Mikey," Ebo said softly.

Mike looked up slowly and fixed his deputy with a cold look.

"It's like that, huh?" he asked, and there was ice in his voice.

Eli looked from one to the other with dawning comprehension. Ebo moved towards Mike and looked him levelly in the eyes.

"Let it go, man," he said calmly. "Just let it go. You played Jo, took Anita, got her preggers. Jo took advantage of this innocent boy, man. Ain't no fault of Eli. You got a beef, pick it with Jo."

"f**k you, Ebo!" Mike said with mounting fury. "I brought you in, remember? Took care of you, gave you f*****g privileges! Now what, you turn judge over me?"

"Come on, man!" Ebo said with mounting anxiety. "Boy did nothing, man! Plus, I promised Jo I'm gonna keep him safe, and you know I keep my promises!"

"By choosing some damn freak i***t over me?"

"No, man, I ain't taking sides. But what's right is right, and what's wrong, wrong. You can't harm this boy. s**t, you think it would be right for Jo to kill Anita because you slept with her? It doesn't work that way. You want Jo, go for her, talk to her, solve it out!"

"She ain't gonna want me as long as that buffoon is alive!" Mike said explosively.

"No, you got that wrong, bro," Ebo said softly.

"Oh, yeah? I did, huh? So, why don't you enlighten me, Ebo?"

"It's not because of Eli, Mike. Jo's that kind of woman. You play her, you drift. And you know it. Whether Eli had been around or not, she would have cut you loose. You knew the turf and played it, so swim with the tide. I love and respect you, but killing Eli is wrong, man, very wrong. And I'm not gonna let that happen."

They stared at each other for a long time, then Mike sighed deeply and nodded.

"Okay, I hear you," he said with a ring of finality in his voice. "Our people first. Let's go find the damn CHS."

He revved the motorbike again and moved off in the right branch of the road. Ebo looked at him for a while, then he picked up a helmet and fixed it on Eli's head.

"Is it settled then?" Eli asked miserably.

Ebo shrugged.

"I guess," he said. "But be careful, Eli. And keep close to me. I promised to keep you alive, and that's exactly what I aim to do."

He started the motorbike and patted the space behind him.

"Hop on, boy."

Eli mounted, and as they moved off after Mike, he spoke calmly.

"Thank you, Ebo. I appreciate what you did."

Ebo smiled but said nothing.

***

They made good time.

The roads towards Chapel Hill had not been so severely hit by the destruction, and so riding side by side was even possible at some stretches.

Eli shocked Mike and impressed Ebo with his amazing mind, picking up the landforms they came to as they approached the CHS.

"The remains of the former GNTC building should be around here," he said, looking at the debris of buildings that had collapsed along the stretch of the road.

"There!" Ebo cried suddenly and pointed.

Sticking out of the debris was what would have been a neon-lit board with a fragment of wording on it:

…rading co…

"That could have been the Ghana National Trading Company, GNTC," he said.

"Yes, sure, so we take the north-western branch," Eli said and pointed to a road that looked fairly good on one side of them. "About forty kilometres from here."

"s**t, Eli," Ebo said and shook his head with wonder. "You're an incredible guy, do you know that?"

Eli beamed at the compliment; he was beginning to like Ebo a lot.

Mike's eyes narrowed, and he edged closer to Ebo's motorbike as they took the new road.

They travelled for about thirty kilometres and approached a sharp bend in the road. They took the curve, and then Ebo cursed with sudden frustration and slowed the motorbike.

"What's wrong?" Eli asked.

"Tombers in front."

Eli looked, and his heart suddenly raced with fear again.

Right there, not more than two hundred metres away, were about fifteen snarling, growling, and repugnant rotten people with tattered clothing, their bodies smeared with mud, their foreheads blazing red concentric circles, and their eyes blazing purple!

"Get down, Eli," Ebo said calmly. "Seems we got to take them out before we can reach the silo."

Eli got down and stood trembling as the tombers smelt them, and began to move ominously and savagely towards them.

Ebo kicked up the motorbike and drew his rifle.

"I'm scared!" Eli blurted out.

"Be calm, my friend," Ebo said with a reassuring smile. "This is what we do. You'll be fine."

With a dark smile on his face, Mike pulled out his rifle.