It was actually a little chilly on the ridge, despite the bright sunlight pouring down from cloudless sky. Lucy slowed her motorcycle to a halt along the center line and parked it. She pulled a pair of warm gloves on. Then she took a moment to really look around.
The mountains were breathtaking, that was easy to admit. Lucy had never been through the Rockies, though she had flown over them a few times. That didn't lessen their impact on her. The way the trees ended and the stark bare rock rose up fascinated her. She could see that at the lower level, the trees were just starting to turn colors. It's fall, she realized with a start. She knew intellectually that it was September first, but the passage of time hadn't really been registering to her. It had seemed like the summer had just begun. She had been finishing up her third year of medical school. In theory, she should be walking through the doors of a hospital, getting stressed out from being run ragged by cruel residents. Instead, she was sitting on a motorcycle, dressed like a biker chick in a black leather jacket and shades, looking for Doug Ross. It's been one hell of a summer, she decided.
She was going along the main highway. According to the map, the most direct route was through the Eisenhower Tunnel. It wasn't likely to be passable, even with a cycle. Already the road was looking pretty crowded with cars. She wasn't entirely positive that the visible cycle tracks were from Doug, but it seemed pretty likely. There just weren't that many people left in the world and the odds that anyone else had picked up a new bike from the Harley dealership in the little town near the Carter family lodge weren't exactly high. With all the rain, the cycle had left fairly clear tracks.
It wasn't so much that she felt obligated to go after Doug, though she did feel some sense of obligation. He had put himself into harm's way for her, for no reason at all. It wasn't Kerry Weaver's guilt trip that had her packing a bag at four that morning, though she did give the older woman credit for pressing all of her buttons very effectively.
She did owe Doug a favor, but it was more than that. He was a good man, a better man than he gave himself credit for being. He didn't belong out west, with the dark man's soulless minions, and even though she felt more and more nervous the farther west she went, she wasn't going to let it happen if she could help it. What exactly she could do, she wasn't sure, but she wasn't going to let him destroy himself. She suspected that Kerry's motivations were similar, if not exactly the same.
And Kerry had been right on one major point, Lucy thought. Travel was a lot easier and quicker without having a truck to screw around with. There were a number of major wrecks that Kerry would have had to detour around. Several times, as Lucy found herself dragging her motorcycle around twenty car pileups, she wondered if Doug had intentionally picked a route that was a mess. No doubt he was trying to shake off pursuit.
She turned the bike back on and started to weave through the stalled cars. It was slow going and it gave her time to think. She understood, at least she thought she understood, why Kerry had gotten her up, and not one of the men. Carter was a little too wrapped up in being "home" and his burgeoning relationship with Randi. Luka was just as likely to beat the crap out of Doug as he was to bring him back. Dave certainly would try, but Lucy sensed he was the sort to make a good show of it, and then scurry back to hang around Kerry. It was almost cute, especially the way Dave viewed Doug as his competition. Still, it also meant that Dave wasn't likely to look very hard. Kerry wasn't likely to send Jeanie, considering all of the potential health issues, and Randi hadn't seemed very sympathetic to Doug's plight. Randi generally took a hard line towards Doug's drinking, and her standard opinion was that Doug was a grown up and if he wanted to drink himself to death, that was his choice.
And, she thought darkly, if Kerry had gone off, they all would have gone running after her and caught her at the first car wreck. She, on the other hand, was having no trouble traveling and yet would still inspire enough fear and pity that they would all come running. We can't leave the rape victim alone after all, she thought. It was a brutal manipulation on Kerry's part. Lucy had absolutely no doubt that there was a rescue party out searching for her. Her and Doug, which was Kerry's primary motivation. Oh sure, Lucy suspected that the older woman was concerned about her and saw the trip as some sort of quest for her to regain her equilibrium, but it didn't change the fact that Kerry had chosen her partly because she knew Lucy would go, and mostly because she knew everyone would go after Lucy.
Lucy didn't think much of Kerry's psychiatric techniques, but it was good to get away from everyone's smothering concern. It was awkward with everyone. No one was acting badly, on the contrary everyone was very kind and concerned, and she knew she'd been lucky to walk away with nothing but cuts, bruises, and bad nerves. The problem was that no one wanted to talk to her. They all were concerned, that she knew, but none of them wanted to talk about it. It wasn't as though she wanted to get into the fun details of how Matt had put a gun to her head and told her she had a choice, that she could suck his cock or he could blow her head off. She didn't want to talk about that, or the fact that she had done as the man had asked, but she did wish she could talk to someone. It didn't even have to be one of the women. She had even considered approaching one of them but it was awkward. At first, and even second thought, Kerry was the ideal choice to talk with. Not only was she the only other rape victim, she had shown an almost desperate need to talk just weeks earlier. On the other hand, Kerry was rather odd and unapproachable and had been that way even before the plague. It was less an issue of wanting to talk as it was finding a moment where Kerry didn't have her guard up. It was worse approaching any of the others, in that their sympathy was going to overwhelm their otherwise good sense. Randi, for example, had made it a point of trying to talk to her. That had been incredibly awkward. Carter had tried too, and everyone, even the new fellow Dave had made it a point to let her know how free they were to talk.
Not really an issue now though, she thought as she slowly tooled around another large wreck. It was late afternoon, about the time that they normally stopped traveling, but she decided to press on. Doug had probably stopped moving, and she had a chance of catching him. The road quickly turned into a massive traffic jam as she got closer to the tunnel. There was no way anything other than a very small car had gotten through and she was beginning to have serious doubts that the Eisenhower Tunnel would even be passable. The road was nothing but piles of cars left willy nilly like toys that had been left by a neglectful child. She slowed to a halt again, and compared her map to the mile post. She was still a good ten miles away from the tunnel entrance and the road was essentially blocked. Here and there she could see signs that someone had tried to work a car through, but with vehicles parked even on the median, it was a fool's errand. She had no doubt that whoever had tried it had failed miserably. She wasn't a detective, and her only real experience with mysteries was a childhood infatuation with the Hardy Boys, but she thought she was reading the signs fairly well. The car tracks looked significantly fresher than two months. The motorcycle tracks were fresher still and in some places she could see where someone had driven through mud puddles earlier in the day. She didn't think that she was on the wrong track.
She slowed even more as she approached a bend in the road. There was no railing left along the edge and one bad spill would mean a very long fall onto jagged rocks far below. Plus, there was a strong possibility of running into another wreck. Despite everything, she had no wish to die and she certainly didn't want to die slowly from massive internal injuries as a result of ramming her motorcycle into another wreck at high speeds.
There were more fresh tracks, from both a motorcycle and the older tracks of a car. At one place along the turn, it was clear that a vehicle had been pushed over the side. She kept away from the edge though. Even though it made no sense, she had feel increasing less safe the farther west she traveled. It was as if she could sense something wrong with the land itself. It wasn't quite yet the dark man's territory, but she could feel his power much more strongly. She had a feeling that if she got too close to the edge, the earth might magically crumble away, taking her to her death.
There were even more cars thrown about, and she could see that the road was blocked for the next several miles. There was a fancy looking roadster parked in the only clear space and the fresh tracks led right to it. More importantly, there was a motorcycle lying on its side. A fairly new looking motorcycle with fresh footprints next to it in the muddy ground.
She stopped her bike and parked it. " Doug? Doug, are you here?" She knew he was. Some how, she knew he hadn't gone any farther. She shivered despite her leather jacket. It wasn't so much cold as it simply felt wrong. She hadn't liked the eerie feeling she had all day traveling west and now it seemed to be replaced by a cold, evil sensation. Suddenly, she heard the sound of glass breaking. She spun around, feeling so terrified, her breath was caught in her chest.
" Lucy! Jesus Christ!" Doug popped up from behind one of the abandoned cars, a bottle in his hand. Lucy didn't answer him, she was still shaking. She was startled, that was a fact. Doug's look of surprise was quickly replaced by one of concern. He stepped over towards her, and tentatively put his hand on her shoulder. He was obviously trying hard to not touch her, and despite herself, she felt a wave of appreciation. " Lucy, what the hell are you doing here?"
She regained her senses. " Doug, what are you doing here? You don't belong here." His features took on an angry caste. " Lucy, you don't belong here." He took a deep breath, and let it out. An air of defeat hung around him. " Kerry put you up to this. That manipulative bitch."
She felt a flash of anger. " No one forced me out here." That was the truth and she managed to glare at Doug, despite her fright.
Doug returned the glare, but after a moment he chuckled, and waved expansively around the vast line of cars. " Well, at least you weren't killed getting here." He held out his bottle of scotch to her. " Welcome to the dark side."
Author's note - For those who have read the Stand, yes, this is the place where the Kid met his end, I have no idea exactly where the Eisenhower tunnel actually is. Please forgive any and all geographical errors.