A Lucky Find

by Sage du Toit

  She tried to reign in the thoughts and tried to think positive. Maybe they would see the kittens and take good care of them. That didn’t mean she wasn’t going to make them pay…she wanted revenge. There was no need for them to take their belongings. There was plenty of stuff all around, all you had to do was look for it! The kittens however… they were irreplaceable! There were so few live animals left. Occasionally they would see a live bird, or squirrel. Or other animals that burrowed and hid their young. She was fairly certain that no large animals survived.

  Lucky’s survival was complete chance, and if Sam hadn’t found her, she probably wouldn’t have survived. Her kittens most certainly wouldn’t have. The probability of wild animals avoiding the Nerve gas that covered everything was unlikely. Sam’s brain was wandering everywhere. She was so upset and worried she didn’t know how she was possibly going to sleep.

  Tom got up and turned on his light and was looking through his bag. He turned toward her and handed her a pill, telling her it would help her sleep. She didn’t question him on what it was or even consider saying she didn’t need it. She knew she needed to sleep, it had been a long tiring day and she was still getting over her cold. She wanted to be rested the next day so they could go look for the kittens. She swallowed the pill with a small bit of water and they laid back down.

  16 February 2021- Kittens 9 weeks old

  Brent, AL

  They woke up bright and early the next morning. They quickly gathered everything they had found and checked their map. Luckily, that was one of the things Sam kept in her bugout bag. Sam also found her calendar and saw that the kittens were 9 weeks old today. She was so worried about them that it made her feel sick. They looked at the route they had taken to get to where they currently were and Sam pointed to the small town where they saw the woman and the little boy, “Do you think they could have been the ones?”

  “They could be…or maybe they told someone about seeing us.” Tom answered thoughtfully.

  They each ate a Pop-tart from the supplies they found and Sam was happy there was some instant coffee, even if she had to drink it cold with no cream, at least there was sugar. She gave Lucky the other half of the tuna can and hoped they could find more food. There was only one can of tuna and she had a small bag of dry cat food in her bugout bag. They discussed what they would do with Lucky and Sam rearranged her bugout bag and made room in the top of the bag. Lucky was small and liked to hide in the bag when she wasn’t wearing it, Sam hoped she would ride in it. She found Lucky’s harness and leash stuffed in one of the small outside pockets of her bag and put it on her.

  They made one last check over the house and found a few tools that could be useful and then went out the front door, with Lucky riding contently in the bag. The zipper on the bag was only partially closed so there was room for Lucky to stick her grey head out if she wished, but not enough room for her to jump out.

  The sun still wasn’t up all the way and Sam suggested they check out the barn and the truck before they left. Sam searched the truck and found an old rifle behind the single bench seat of the old truck. There was even a box of shells in the glove box. She discovered the keys to the truck were tucked up in the sun-visor. She stuck the key in the ignition and gave it a single turn and the truck started to turn over. She pulled the keys out and put them in her pocket. They could use the truck if Tom thought it wouldn’t be too loud.

  Tom came out of the barn with a large machete in one hand and a long rope draped over his shoulder. He came up to the truck and said, “Did I hear this thing start?” Sam told him it started to turn over but she didn’t crank it all the way. She didn’t want to start it unless he thought it was a good idea.

  Tom threw the bag and rope inside of the truck and told her to get in and start it up. He stuck the machete through his belt and then lifted the hood on the truck. Sam put the key in and tried cranking the truck, it started turning over but wasn’t starting. Tom told her to hold on and then try it again. On the second try the truck started and the engine revved up high and loud. It had been awhile since she heard a vehicle running but she thought this one was exceptionally loud.

  Tom closed the hood and came around to the passenger side and pulled a big roll of duct tape out of his bag. He had her turn on the lights and step on the brakes. He taped over the lights of the truck on front and back and then had her turn the lights back off. He said, “You drive and I’ll track. I might have to get out a few times, but something tells me this truck might be useful…if anything maybe we can use it to trade to get our stuff back.”

  Sam was worried how Lucky would do riding in a vehicle. She sat her bugout bag on the seat between Tom and herself. Lucky stuck her head out of the small opening and rested it on the side of the bag, content to just look around.

  Sam nodded and put the truck into gear. She backed it up and headed out toward the road. Tom told her to take a right, going east, but to take it slow for now. They went a short distance and he verified they had definitely gone this way, he told her to pick up speed but to slow down if she saw any roads or driveways they could have turned off, so he could check. This area was thick in trees. Mostly timberlands they had gone through to avoid the towns and cities.

  There were only a few roads and driveways and so far, the thieves’ tracks hadn’t turned off. Sam was watching the odometer as they went and they had gone two and a half miles when they came to a road intersection. Tom got out and looked and then got back in the truck and told her to take a right. Sam thought the road looked familiar and Tom confirmed that it was the direction they had come from on their bikes. At each intersection they turned back on the route they followed coming through. Tom said there were only three sets of tracks, their bike tracks, then the thief’s tracks following them and then going back the same way.

  The farther they went the more Tom’s face took on a stony expression. Sam asked him what was wrong. He told her that from what he was seeing the thieves followed their bike tracks later in the day and must have just caught up to them right before they stopped. He said that most likely, they were watching them when they backtracked to the second house and saw them stash the bikes and go up to the house. Sam was amazed that he had worked all of that out from just a few tracks in the dirt and weeds.

  They were getting close to the town, as they suspected. They had gone a little over eighteen miles and it had been agonizingly slow. Tom got out of the truck and looked around and said he lost their trail, they were going to need to go back a bit and see if he could pick it back up. They went back a mile to a four-way intersection. Tom said that at this point there were a lot more tracks. They probably drove over this road on a regular basis. With that in mind they decided to stash the truck and walk so they could hide easier.

  They found a house close by that had a closed garage door. They checked the garage and found that it was empty but locked. Tom broke into the garage through a side door and unlocked the large garage door from inside. Sam moved the truck in and he shut the door behind her and reengaged the lock. Sam was thinking about the thieves that took their stuff as she looked around the garage. There were a lot of tools and other useful items in the garage, why was this stuff not looted, why did they have to come after them and take their items?

  Sam let Lucky out of the bag and gave her a little water. She had been training Lucky to follow her and to stay, so she decided she would let her follow for a bit as they searched. They went back to the four-way intersection, where they had taken a left turn, Tom decided that the tracks going off toward the right were fresher. They entered the trees and followed along the winding road under the thick cover. The road was mostly covered in dirt and sand, so it was easy to see the tracks, even Sam could see the tracks of a vehicle. The problem was there were several tracks where the vehicle or possibly vehicles had come and gone many times. But Tom assured her he was following the freshest ones. She had to believe him.

  The road branched off several times and each time it branched, Sam fe
lt like they were getting deeper and deeper in the woods. The trees were abundant and in some places the underbrush was impassable. The small road finally came out onto a small lake. Tom indicated to her to get down and to be quiet. Sam signaled Lucky and had her come to her and get in the bag. She looked around and could see there was a small boat tied up to a little pier on the lake.

  Sam squatted down in the bushes, the road ran parallel to the side of the small lake and then branched off with one track continuing around the lake and another going off into the woods. She looked through the trees and tapped Tom on the shoulder, he had been looking out over the lake, she pointed through the trees behind them, she could see the sun was glinting off something that was most likely windows.

  They turned and started to make their way through the woods toward the building. As they got closer Sam could see that it was a very large house, something that she would even describe as a mansion. The house was two stories with a three-car garage attached to the left side of the house with a single vehicle parked in front of the center open door. There was an elaborate pool on the other side of the house, the water in the pool was green. The back side of the house was covered with windows looking toward the small lake.

  They crouched down behind the bushes and Tom pulled a scope out of his pack and started to slowly go over the house. He handed the scope to Sam and pointed toward the garages. Sam put the scope up to her eye and looked toward the middle garage door that was open. There was a truck backed up to the door and she thought she saw both of their bikes in the back, but neither of their trailers were there. Sam had a sudden sinking feeling and turned to look at Tom.

  Tom asked for the scope back and took another look around. He spoke to her in sign language, “We will circle around the right side of the house, through the woods, to the other side so we can look at that side too.” Sam nodded and followed Tom through the thick woods, trying her hardest to be quiet. A single snap of a twig sounded like a tree falling in the total quietness. Without birds and insects to make sounds the only thing that was heard was the rustling of the wind in the trees.

  Sam had zipped her pack closed with Lucky in it and she felt Lucky struggling around in the pack, wanting to get back out. She got Tom’s attention and they stopped so she could let her out again. She unzipped the bag and as soon as Lucky got out, Sam noticed that she was moving her head around with her mouth open. She was smelling the air. There was something that interested her. Lucky looked at Sam and then started off through the woods in the same direction they had been heading.

  They were no longer wearing their gas masks, only ski masks to keep their face warm. So, when the scent of what Lucky had already smelled hit them, they knew just what it was, dead bodies. Lucky led them to a small clearing that was directly off the side of the house. There was a pile of six bodies. Seeing a pile of bodies these days, wasn’t a big deal. The nerve gas had hit suddenly and unexpectedly while most people were either at home or just heading to work.

  But this pile of dead bodies was different. Lucky was circling around and smelling the bodies, but she had a low growl in her throat. Sam thought at first, she was growling because she smelled Nerve gas on the bodies but when she looked closer at the bloated smelly corpses she realized they didn’t have the bloody eyes or traces of bloody foam on their faces. Even old bodies still showed traces of the nerve gas. Then Sam noticed that a body that appeared to be a woman, had what she would assume was a bullet hole in her face.

  Sam looked at Tom and got his attention. She asked him in sign language if he could tell what killed these people. He had already looked closely at the pile of bodies and he said it looked like four of the bodies had bullet holes and two of the bodies had their throats cut.

  Sam blanched and had to swallow the bile that was rising in her throat. These people were murdered! She looked back toward the house and wondered if it had been theirs. Over half of the bodies were missing clothes and that’s when she realized they were all the woman’s bodies. Two of the bodies still had clothes and they appeared to be men.

  Lucky had dug a hole and defecated off to the side and was just covering it up. Now that she had investigated the bodies, she seemed to be fine. Sam called her to her and attached the harness and leash. They were going to move around to the other side of the house and she didn’t want Lucky running off again if she smelled something else interesting.

  Once they were around to the other side, Tom used the scope to look over the house. This was the front side. There was another driveway coming up from another road that lead to a circle drive in front of the houses large columned front. The whole front of the house was covered in overgrown ornamental bushes and statues that were barely visible through the thick weeds and overgrowth. There were four windows spread out on each side of the front door, plus decorative windows running parallel to the door on each side. The upper story windows all aligned with the first floor and there was a small balcony in the middle, directly above the front door. Tom signed to her and told her he didn’t see any movement or see any signs of past activity on this side of the house.

  They decided it would probably be safer to approach from this side. They didn’t have to low crawl, because the weeds and bushes were so high, they found plenty of cover moving forward at a crouch. They reached the front of the house and the first set of windows had the curtains closed, they moved on to the second set and peeked into the window. It looked like a library or office, with lots of books and a large desk. They didn’t see anyone in the room and the door to the rest of the house was closed. They moved to the next window and it looked into the same room. The windows running parallel to the front door were smoky and hard to see through, but Sam was more worried about someone inside of the house seeing them move in front of them, so they circled wide around the front door.

  Of the other four windows, only one at the far end, had a partially open curtain and it peered into a bedroom with a large bed and oversized furniture. The blankets on the bed were ruffled up and Sam thought she saw a body on the bed. She was about to assume it was a corpse but then a thin pale leg moved. They both ducked down and Sam moved off to the side of the window. She noticed a large wardrobe with mirrors off on the side of the room and by moving off to the side of the window she could see the room by looking in the mirror.

  Sam was shocked by what she saw. The mirror showed a thin view of the bed, there was a heavy chain wrapped around one of the large side posts of the bed and attached to the chain was a handcuff. The other end of the handcuff was attached to a thin arm of a naked young woman that had sat up on the side of the bed as Sam watched through the window. She looked oddly familiar to Sam, but suddenly she felt like a voyeur and ducked back down. She signed to Tom and told him what she had just seen. He traded places with her and peeked in the window to see for himself.

  Tom ducked back down and shook his head sadly. He indicated to go back to the first window that went into the office. They made their way back to the other end of the front of the house and checked the room with the open curtains again. The door was still closed and nothing had changed. Tom pushed up on each window to see if either was unlocked and they didn’t budge. Sam sat off to the side and kept a watch out for any movement. While she was waiting, she gave Lucky a small bit of dried food and then coaxed her into the bag and told her to stay. She left a small hole for her head again.

  Tom was doing something but she wasn’t sure what. Using a screwdriver, he had removed some screws and small pieces of hardware from one the windows. He then reached up and pushed the top of the window down. Sam didn’t even know windows could do that!

  They looked around and then he signed to her and told her what they were going to do. He was going to help her up and over the top of the window. She was then going to push it back up, unlock it and push the bottom part up. He would pass her their bags and the rifle they had brought and then he would climb in. After all of that was accomplished, Tom shut the window back but left it unlocked. He said the
people in the house would probably never notice. The furniture in the room was dusty and it looked like no one had been in it for a long time.

  Chapter 15

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  Tom took the lead and quietly walked across the carpeted floor to the door, that was on the side of the room. He took a small bottle out of his bag and squeezed a few drops of oil on the hinges of the door to make sure it didn’t squeak when he opened it. He had Sam stand behind him and then he listened with his ear to the door for a moment and then slowly turned the doorknob and opened it a small crack. Tom pulled the door open further and stuck his head out and quickly peered around and then indicated to Sam to follow him. They came out into the entry way, just a short distance from the front door. The entrance opened into a large great room with a huge fireplace at the far end. Directly across from them was an arched opening that framed a large table with ten fancy chairs around it. The table was covered with boxes and bags that appeared to hold all types of food. The fireplace in the great room had evidence of a recent fire, there were still coals burning, giving off a faint glow. There were hallways leading off to the left and right. Luckily there was no one in sight.

  Tom quietly shut the door behind them and then eased around the left corner going down a short hall. She could see there were three doors. He listened at the first door and then eased it open. Just as he was looking in the door, they heard one of the doors opening at the end of the short hall. Tom grabbed Sam and pulled her through the door he had just eased open and pulled the door closed, with just a small crack to look through.

  They were in a small closet with a single jacket hanging on a hanger. There was just enough room for the two of them with their gear. Sam peered around and looked at Lucky over her shoulder, the cat was sticking her head out of the bag and had her ears perked up, listening. They could hear faded voices down the hall, then the far door fully opened and they could clearly hear.