The minutes went by and John felt confident that they were not going to be discovered. He tried to rest Fatima on her back to continue sleeping but she awoke. John placed his finger at his lips and pointed to the bridge. She heard the steps and a look of worry came to her face. He shook his head. He tried to find a way to say it wasn’t the Lord’s Army and eventually she figured it out. Regardless of who was moving they stayed silent and went around packing as quietly as they could. After a few minutes the steps slowed down then stopped. Occasionally there were stragglers and small groups that traveled over. John and Fatima remained quiet and let the people move without drawing any attention under the bridge.
John pulled out the map of their state and looked around for a spot that would be secluded and have areas prone to hunting and fishing. There was plenty of space between them and Flint. He wanted to ask her if she still wanted to go there after what she said about her people the day before. At the moment it was the plan and he was simply adding to it. He decided to change directions to north east and find some farm land in the middle of the state. He noticed some state hunting land to the north but wondered how many people thought about running up there. He looked on the map for rivers and areas between large populated areas. It wasn’t hard. In Michigan the farther north you went the population became less dense, that was before the Day. He was sure that with less people on the planet it would be easier to disappear.
John folded the map up and placed it in his pocket. They were a few miles outside of the city and he wanted more distance between them. Fatima followed John’s lead and put her back pack on and grabbed her rifle. Her arms were sore from carrying the nine pound weapon the day before. John pulled a bag of jerky from his pants pocket and handed it to her to snack on for breakfast.
Peeking over the edge of the bridge John looked to see if the tracks were clear. He didn’t see anyone in the immediate area. Roughly a half mile was visible in both directions. He looked at the river running below them and decided to follow it to have a more secluded route. The river didn’t have a well- traveled trail on it. Eventually they came to some deer trails that worked to their advantage. John hoped to come across a deer to shoot and cook it up for dinner but pondered if it would be a waste. He hated killing something and not being able to use all of it. He looked at the river and wondered how hard it would be to catch lunch in it.
Fatima followed behind and was feeling more relaxed as they went on. The man that was taking care of her appeared to know what he was doing and she felt safe with him. Even with the two men that attacked her the day before she was happy that he had come back for her. There was a time she thought he had left her there. When he came back she knew that he was trust worthy and reliable. She wondered if Amir would have tried to save her. She had to admit that Amir would have run. He was more interested in taking care of himself and she had the impression she was only there for the company and not much more. Sometimes she caught his glances when she felt less then worthy. She knew he didn’t like how western she had become. She never joined in prayer and didn’t care for talking in Farsi. She was tired of the religious war that she was caught in and wanted nothing to do with. Now she felt like she was on the same side as someone. John wasn’t religious in any way that she could see. He left the Lord’s Army and was now helping her get away from the city that would have been her end. She wondered why Amir never wanted to leave. He always had some excuse. She figured that he hoped he would be able to fight back one day. Now without her there with him he had the chance to fight as much as he wanted.
“John,” Fatima broke the silence.
“Yes,” John didn’t look back. He continued to eye the trail and their surroundings as they walked.
“Are you religious?” she asked.
“That’s a hard question.” John said. “I was raised catholic, never went to church after high school. Joined the army. They say in a foxhole there are no atheist. I didn’t see God deciding on who to take by their religion. People died either way regardless of prayer or not. Didn’t matter what side you were on or what god you prayed to. I didn’t feel right about religion when I was growing up and felt less need for it as my time went on in the army. I think there is something out there. I don’t think that whatever it is wants us killing each other over stupid shit. Right now I just want to get away from all of this and get some peace without someone trying to tell me to kill people for their cause.”
“John, you are a very smart man.” Fatima found a smile on her face.
“What about you?” John returned the question.
“I came to America to be a doctor. Send money back to my family. I wanted to love who I wanted to and thought I had found them, twice. In my country I would have had an arranged marriage but having money sent back changed my parents mind about that. So I was here, I fell in love, had my first son. That didn’t work. Fell in love again. Then I had my second son. Back home I would have been stoned to death, literally. I was happy with my boys and being able to have them. It was a great chance to live here the way I wanted to and not be tied down to a religion that I didn’t agree with. Islam can be a peaceful religion, but people won’t let it be that way. They put their own agenda into it and ruin it for their own desires. I would rather live without someone telling me if I will go to paradise or not. When my boys died I gave up on the god that would let that happen. They were pure. They were not guilty of anything. They deserved to be protected by a god that is good. So either god is not good or he does not exist at all. I haven’t figured out which is true yet. My boys aren’t here, I am. I don’t know what to make of that.”
“I’m glad you’re here.” John said trying to make her feel better. “I’m sorry about your sons. I’m sure they were great. I’m sure you were a great mother.”
“I was never home enough,” she replied.
“I haven’t met a mother yet that thought they were ever home enough or tried hard enough or did enough for their children.”
Somehow John’s words gave her comfort. She knew what he said was true. She tried to not feel guilty about losing them but that was almost impossible to get rid of. She had to accept that she would have guilt the rest of her life, no matter how long or short that would be.
John looked up and saw the sun at high noon.
“Do you want to take a break?” he asked.
“Yes.”
They sat their bags down and rested their rifles on a tree. John pulled the map out to see where he thought they were. It wasn’t far from where they were that morning. Fatima ate more jerky and John filled their canteens at the river sterilizing it with the iodine tablets.
“Where are we going?” Fatima asked.
“Do you want to go to Flint?” John asked. He saw the look on her face. Realizing it was a legitimate question he waited for an answer.
“No, I don’t know where I want to go.” She looked down at the ground. She worried he would feel like she had wasted his time. “I just want to be free from this world, worry that someone will try to kill me.”
“I thought so.” John said. He saw worry in Fatima’s eyes. “I have an idea. I don’t know how you will feel about it.”
Fatima looked up giving him her full attention.
“We can head North, find a cabin or farm that gives us a nice chance of having what we need. There are less people there. We won’t have to worry about anybody looking for us. It would be quiet.”
He waited to hear her answer. He wondered how she would take it. Just the two of them made it almost sound like a proposal. He didn’t care though. He did like her, he found her very attractive. If she took it that way then he would take her anywhere she wanted and move on. He simply wanted to get away, be done with killing and he liked her company.
“Yes,” she said. The one word answer puzzled him yet it was refreshing.
“Really?” he said.
“I feel safe with you,” she said watching a smile grow on his face .
She smiled back and they bot
h laughed.
“Ok then, north it is.”
Chapter 19: Three years after the Day
Chris drove the truck through the city where ever Collins told him to. In every case they never saw the person they were looking for. The search was futile. Coming back empty handed wasn’t the option Collins wanted to take. After seeing how the Reverend treated the Arab man Collins was not in a place to take chances with failure. His head hurt as he thought about a search plan. He was trying to figure out where John would have run to. The obvious answer was out of town. Far, far away from the Lord’s Army and from Isabel. He knew John was being set up. He didn’t know what John had done to Isabel to make her have sex with him, he was glad for it. It had been a while since he had been with any woman and to be with her even for one night was a treat. He played the night over in his mind at times to keep it fresh. The moment she said “Do what you like and make it rough,” was something he thought he would never hear from a woman. He was sad he would never be able to talk about it. To brag about being with her would be the icing on the cake. If the price for her company was killing John, then so be it.
Collins rode in the back of the pick up looking over the roof. He slapped the roof and Chris stopped.
“Head downtown,” Collins said.
“We’re wasting gas. You sure you want to change directions?” Chris asked looking at the gas gauge.
‘Yeah I’m sure. Don’t fucking question me, alright?” Collins said looking down the road.
“Fine,” Chris said. He touched the gas making Collins grab the chrome rail that sat before him. “Fucker. Drive here. Drive there. We have all the fucking gas in the world. don’t question me. Dumb motherfuckers are always in charge. Even in the end of the world nothing fucking changes.” Chris rambled to himself driving towards downtown.
Reaching the park Chris cruised around not knowing where to go and simply drove in circles until told otherwise. Collins and the other men looked around trying to spot John. One of the men pointed to the library where two men were dragging a body out and a second already sitting on the sidewalk. Collins slapped the roof and pointed to the library. Chris pulled up and the men hopped out of the bed. The two men dropped the body and put their hands up. They looked like any homeless men you would have seen before the fall. Now they looked like everybody else.
One of the men was short with a long unkempt beard and the second, taller but with a bald head and a white thinner beard. Their clothes were tattered and their boots were worn through.
“What do we have here?” Collins asked the men holding his rifle in front of him.
The short man spoke first.
“Funeral, what do you care?” The short man said.
“What happened?” Collins pushed further.
“I ain’t answering nothing. What do I get?” The short man replied.
Collins looked at the body and saw the throat slit. He couldn’t tell how the second man died. He turned to the men behind him and nodded to the truck. One of the men ran to the bed and grabbed a can of beans and handed it to Collins. The two men’s eyes lit up.
“Now you want to talk? If your story is something I’m looking for than you can have this.”
Both men nodded.
“Our buddies saw a man and woman walk into the library. They followed them in. Later the man and woman came back out but our buddies didn’t. We found them like this. Fucking murdered.” The short man said.
“What did the man look like?” Collins asked.
“Military type, nice pack. Had an M16 or something like that.” The short man said.
“And the girl was Mexican or Arab maybe, a looker. She had an old bolt action on her.” The taller man said eyeing the can of beans.
“Where did you see them run off to?” Collins said tossing the can in his hand.
“East, that way,” the short man pointed while answering.
“Thank you gentlemen.” Collins tossed the can to the short man and the group climbed back onto the pickup truck.
Collins slapped the roof of the truck. “East!” he hollered.
Chris looked at the compass and tried to figure out where east was. After a few direction changes and backups on the road he eventually ended up in the direction he originally started in and they moved on in search of John and his female companion.
Chapter 20: Three years after the Day
Traveling on foot John and Fatima made their way north into the woodlands of Michigan. John found the hunting easier and wild edibles were abundant. They made a good routine of working together and setting up camp two hours before sunset. They rarely heard other people in the distance but never came across anyone who was hostile. After walking for two weeks John spent an hour trying to find their place on the map and figured they were somewhere north of Grand Rapids.
“Winter is coming. We should find a place to stay long term.” John said circling the map with his finger in the general area he thought they were in.
“Your homestead?” Fatima said.
“It doesn’t have to be. We can look for that in the spring.”
“I don’t want to look anymore. It’s time to settle down.” Fatima said.
John thought about what she had said. One thing he learned on this journey was to let things play out how they will. Hunting and fishing are things you can’t force to happen. You go with the flow and what happens is what you end up with. You can increase your chances but still it’s up to the circumstance as to what happens. Plus whenever he pursued women before the Day it never worked. He was often shot down and rejected. The only girlfriends he had were women that just happened because of the circumstances and there was no chasing on his part. They would meet through friends, at parties, or at work. He wasn’t the guy that could go to a bar and leave that night with a woman. Fatima appeared to be a woman of circumstance. He wasn’t going to complain. She was very attractive to him. They both wanted the same peaceful life after what they had been through. All he wanted at this point was their own private Eden they could call home.
“From here we should find a trail and start following it. We are not going to find a house on backwoods deer trails.” John said looking one last time at the map. He pulled his compass out and looked around for an object in the distance to give them a focus point. Instead he decided to follow the sun west and hoped to come across a road or two track dirt road that would lead them to their new home.
John stoked the fire they had started for dinner and started cleaning the blue gill and perch Fatima had caught that afternoon while he was hunting. The three squirrels he shot were smoking under a tarp and would be preserved for their meal tomorrow. He found that smoking anything with oak made it taste better and the more he did these types of things the better he became. He was doing things the hard way, figuring it out as he goes along but he was learning fast.
That night they ate dinner and cuddled together by the fire. For the first time she told him about the hospital and what had happened the first days of the collapse. He learned of the man that saved her in the parking ramp, the exodus from the hospital and her search for her sons.
“I went straight to the daycare center. I knew the owner personally. Her daughter had been in the ER a few years before and it turned out her daughter was having an allergic reaction to peanuts. One of those things that never happened before so nobody thought to check. We got things under control. Later did an allergy test that confirmed it. After that my boys were old enough to go to her daycare center. I thought they would be safe there.”
“When I reached the house I could tell things weren’t right. Most of the other kids were gone as I expected. I pounded on the door for a few minutes when she finally answered. I couldn’t tell if she was sick or injured. She didn’t look right. Her eyes were shallow and dead. She didn’t say anything and let me in. I looked around and called for them. The house was a mess, all the kids were gone. I ran out into the backyard and that’s where I found them. In a pile toward the back. A group ca
lling themselves the Lord’s Army came to the school to purge the country of any children not pure, any who were not white. One of the daycare workers were shot for trying to get the kids away. After that people complied in fear they all would be shot.”
“I left there without any hope. It didn’t matter my boys were half white. Once the bomb went off in D.C. it was open season on anybody not considered a true American.”
John held her and they lay quietly for the rest of the night. He was remorseful that he ever worked for that group. He didn’t have any hand in anything like what happened to her sons. By that time things must have died down. But to be living with the same people who could do something like that made him sick. He had seen children blown up in Iraq by rockets and bombs, but to out- right shoot children is another type of evil that shouldn’t exist.
The cool morning air and dew hovered over the tent. The light of day pushed through the fabric waking John and forced him out into the day. The fire still smoldered and he placed some sticks in the coals to get it hot for breakfast. They would be on the march soon enough. They could pull up stakes and be on foot in ten minutes these days. Every morning was another practice session. Taking some ramen noodles out of his pack he added water to a steel pot, closed the lid, and let it cook in the coals for a few minutes so it would be ready for Fatima when she woke. John looked around and had a feeling this would be a good day.
For weeks the Lord’s Army had been on a crusade to find John and his female companion. After the information they received at the library everything dried up. There was no sign of John anywhere around the city. The Reverend even sent expedition groups out into the suburbs to see if anybody had seen them. John had disappeared without a trace. This didn’t favor well for the Reverend. This was the first time that someone was able to undermine his authority and get away with it. Not only that but defile his daughter at the same time.
After the Day Page 13
