9 Tales Told in the Dark 6

by 9 Tales Told in the Dark

  Kyla’s answer was muffled.

  “Come pray with us Jerol,” Nan said. Kyla pulled her head from Nan’s neck and looked at me. The hope was still there, but changed, more directed at me. I leaned in and hugged.

  I didn’t listen to Nan’s prayer. I smelled my sister’s hair. It still smelled the same as always. I’d always thought it was from the shampoo she used. I smelled Nan’s hair too, so different, one young, one old. I loved them both more than I could ever hope to say.

  Hunting was easy now. Tracking made all the difference, tracking and patience and timing. It was like learning to read in slow motion. I’d slink out in the woods and just find a spot to hunker down, usually around water. Animals always came to water sooner or later. Their trails were as clear as roads. From there, trapping or tracking was easy.

  I took to carrying a couple of machetes with me all the time. Some of the other adults took gutting knives along with their guns, but I didn’t see the point in such a limited tool. Our supply of bullets was getting lower every day. Guns were noisy anyway. There’d come a time when guns wouldn’t work anymore. A machete though, it’d last a long while, like a sword.

  And, really, guns made things entirely too easy.

  I took along one other weapon, an old fireplace poker. It had a big broad hook on its end used to drag a log from the back of the fire to the front. I sharpened the end and the broad back of the hook to make it a good stabbing weapon. The machete could slice. The poker could poke. There’d be a time for both I figured.

  The morning after praying with Nan and Kyla I loaded up the few essentials I needed to live out in the wild and tracked down Uncle Merro. He was harder to find than the animals.

  He was gutting a deer by the creek that ran between the first two foothills. He was farther west than I’d been before. There wasn’t any reason for him to kill a deer way over here when there were perfectly good deer closer to home, but Uncle Merro was a different dude so I let the issue be.

  “Hi Uncle Merro,” I said, stepping out from behind a tree ten steps away.

  He jumped and made to throw his knife at me, but checked himself before releasing it. He went back to cleaning the deer.

  “Don’t do that,” he said.

  My voice shook when I talked. “Didn’t mean to scare you. I need to tell you something.” If he’d let go of that knife I’d have been in a world of hurt. Merro didn’t miss.

  “Don’t track me. Show some respect to the one who trained you.” His hands were shaking. He was probably thinking how close he’d come to killing me. I knew I was.

  “I understand, but it’s important. Mom and Dad are still gone. I’m going to go to Grandpa Swardin’s house to look for them.”

  “I’ll cover for you. Just don’t track me again. If I’m not around it’s because I don’t want to be.”

  That was about all I could take of Merro. I left him there by the creek.

  Everybody knew that if trouble were to come it’d come from the city and here I was walking right to it. I’d not seen an unknown soul since all this had started and didn’t know what I’d do if I did. I tread the woods as quiet as a mouse and kept the roads in sight so I wouldn’t get lost.

  It took a week to get to grandpa Swardin’s place and when I got there all I found was a pile of ash. All the houses in the suburbs had been burnt down. I waited till dark then did some exploring. There was no sign of my parents or anybody else.

  I’d come all this way to find nothing. Mom and Dad had probably found this place just as I had and had decided to try some other relative on Mom’s side. That’d make sense. Problem was I had no clue where to go looking next. The possibility that something bad could have happened to them came and went like a gust of wind. I didn’t give it much of a thought. Nothing I could do either way.

  So I turned around and headed straight back home, though I knew Kyla wouldn’t be happy that’d I’d come home empty handed. Prayers were all fine and dandy. I didn’t discount the power of faith to move mountains. But, my little sister needed Mom and Dad. And, if that was unavailable then she needed her older brother. I ran as much as I could all the way home.

  I made it home in four days. The sun was setting as I came at the farm. I approached like I was supposed to so I wouldn’t get shot with a compound bow by one of the uncles.

  As soon as somebody saw me they took off at a run toward the main house instead of coming out to say hello. I’d have cared if I’d had the energy. But, near two weeks on pretty much solid rabbit meat had left me groggy. I wanted to see Kyla then get some real food then go to bed, in that order.

  About halfway to the house my befuddled brain started trying to work. Something wasn’t right. If supper was on, and it was about that time, and the guard had went inside to tell of my return, which I figured he had, then Kyla should have already come running out to meet me.

  I ran the rest of the way to the house and almost rammed into a bunch of the uncles that were blocking the door to the inside. Pa was there, as was Nan.

  “Something happened while you were away,” Pa said.

  I shook my head. “Kyla!”

  “You need to calm down, Jerol.”

  I looked at Nan. She looked at the ground. Her whole bearing was the same as it had been on the day she’d found out the world had ended.

  I eyed my older cousins. Five of them blocked the door. They were each big, each strong, each one a bull of a farmer. I lowered my shoulder and ran at them as hard as I could.

  And bounced off like they were made of cinderblocks.

  “Kyla!”

  The sun was about gone. The door cracked open behind the big, silent men and lamplight spilled out onto the porch.

  “She heard him,” someone said from inside. “Let him in. There isn’t much time.”

  The cousins parted before me, but didn’t say a word. I couldn’t seem to catch my breath. It smelled like blood in there. One of my older cousins, Liz, grabbed my elbow and led me to one of the side rooms. My muscles jerked around like they wanted to spasm. My feet hurt.

  Little Ellie was lying on a bed with one of the family quilts up to her chin. Her face was pale. She smiled and there was blood on her teeth. Family crowded around the room let me pass so I could get close.

  “You found me,” she said. I got on my knees and took one of her tiny cold hands.

  “Kyla said you’d find me. She said to just run and you’d find me. She said you’d be there. Said not to be afraid. And, here you are.” She looked around the room at all the quiet faces watching her.

  “It’s okay now,” she said to them. “I’m safe, see.”

  She closed her eyes and hummed the beginning of Sesame Street. I sang along.

  “Sunny Day”

  “Sweepin’ the clouds away”

  She squeezed my hand. “I miss TV.”

  Then she coughed. Blood came out of her nose and she turned her head away. Everybody in the room cried all at once. I stood and fought my way out. I may have hurt a cousin or two, but I made it outside.

  “She’s dead,” I said. Nan broke down and ran past me and inside. The cousins guarding the door scattered out in the night, going I cared not where. Pa was left.

  “Jo, Kyla, and Little Ellie,” He choked on Ellie’s name, “went out hunting dinner greens yesterday. Merro himself went with them as a guard. They never came back. We set out to find them an hour before supper. Looked all night. Found Ellie this morning, hiding under some deadfall. Somebody tripped over her. She’d been stabbed by something, or shot. There was a hole straight through her middle.”

  My whole insides wanted to come out. My legs shook so bad, so bad. My mouth watered and watered …

  And I was in a bed, just like Ellie had been. I must have blacked out. I thrashed and got to my feet. Somebody had undressed me. My clothes were next to the bed. I put them on, found my machetes and poker nearby and strapped them on too.

  It was still night. By the headache I had and the grainy feeling behi
nd my eyes, I assumed it was the same night.

  Kyla.

  I grabbed a leftover biscuit on my way out the door and munched it as I jogged out of the compound. A cousin saw me at the gate, but didn’t try to stop me.

  The general area where the ladies mostly hunted wild greens and herbs was a little south and east of the farm. There were a few meadows there where I could start my tracking, such as I’d be able in the dark of night.

  Once in the general area, which wasn’t that far away, I slowed and just started looking and listening. A lot of people had been traipsing through the area. Nothing was here. The only thing close was an old overgrown gas well road that led over the hills to a few cheap natural gas pumps and collectors. It’d be the path to take for anybody unfamiliar with the area.

  Little Ellie’s bloody smile, so happy to see me, so sure that I could make it all better, stayed with me as I made my slow way down the moonlit roadway. She’d been stabbed. I was almost sure. Nobody had bullets left to fire. She’d been stabbed by a person and had somehow gotten away. An animal wouldn’t have been fooled by a bunch of dead leaves covering her up.

  The others had to know what that meant. They hadn’t found any bodies. Merro, Jo, and Kyla were wherever those people … those people who’d killed a six year old girl … were. It was only a matter of tracking them down and finding them. Easy as that.

  Uncle Merro must have been taken unawares, as unlikely as that sounded. Sure, I’d snuck up on him, but Merro himself had trained me how to move through the woods. It was hard to believe that there was someone else out there who could have gotten close enough to stab at him.

  I saw a fire from the top of the first foothill. There was a little private lake down there that used to be owned by some rich people. I’d never been, but had always wanted to try my luck at fishing there. The little body of water always looked like a perfect fishing spot.

  Now, the rich people’s huge house was on fire. A bunch of tents were set up here and there. That was the place.

  I made my way slow. I didn’t want to be taken like Uncle Merro. In the valley, with the orange light of the house fire filtering through the trees and the washed-out moonlight pressing lightly on everything, the smell of barbecue wafted on the breeze. It was an odd smelling barbecue, once cloying and rich while underneath somehow repulsive, like a bad aftertaste on the roof of your mouth. The combined smoke from the house fire was probably to blame.

  One of the older cousins sat by a tree. He hadn’t seen me. I made my way over. At about twenty feet away he finally perked up.

  “Jerol,” he hissed. “You scared the piss out of me.”

  I’d thought I’d been walking kind of loud. I shrugged. “What’s the situation?”

  “We found the house fire early on. We’ve been working our way closer all day. There has to be over a hundred of them, mostly men, and a few boys your age, but not many. They all carry these wicked looking swords. Jack called then trench knives.”

  “What are you waiting for? My sister has to be in there, and Aunt Jo, and Uncle Merro.”

  “There are only four of us, Jerol. We were letting Jack get some sleep before we go sneaking around more. He’s been at it for hours. Jack is eighty four years old. He passed out of exhaustion a little while ago.”

  “They got any scouts?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. We’ve been holed up under some cedar trees mostly. Every now and then one of us comes out to check on things.”

  “Where are the rest of us?”

  He pointed to a little circle of trees.

  “I will be right back.” I turned to go.

  “Don’t do anything stupid, Jerol,” he hissed.

  I made a circle around their entire camp, twice. They really didn’t have any scouts out. Their tents were pitched every which way with no organization at all. I saw a larger tent closer to the house fire that I assumed was some sort of command center. That would be the place to check first.

  On my second circle I saw a kid get out of a tent and walk right toward me. He was dressed in cotton shorts and nothing else and was as skinny as a rail. He made it to the edge of the trees and took a piss. The opportunity was too good to pass up.

  I could hear Uncle Jack’s hoarse voice ten paces from the cedar trees. Good. He’d be good and awake for the present I brought him.

  They all jerked when I walked through the tightly knit tree branches and into the little circle of light beyond. The boy I'd caught keened through the gag I’d stuffed in his mouth. I’d be willing to bet his feet were bleeding after the little walk we’d had. He should have had the sense to wear shoes outside.

  After a gasp or two, Uncle Jack spoke. “What have you done, Jerol?”

  “I’ve brought one of them to answer a few questions.”

  It was silent but for the boy’s muffled wails and beseeching eyes.

  “Boy,” Uncle Jack’s voice was hesitant. It had an uncertain air that I found disturbing coming from an adult. He glanced to the others sitting cross-legged around him.

  “We are a God fearing family. I can’t abide..,”

  “Ellie died just a little while ago,” I said over his trembling indignation. I pushed my prisoner into their midst then kicked his legs out from under him. He fell hard on his back and screamed a time or two. He may have popped a shoulder out of place since his hands were tied behind his back. I got on my knees beside him.

  “Ellie?” Jack and another of the cousins said.

  “Yeah, Ellie.” Her bloody smile and love-filled eyes consumed me. Her trust that everything was going to be okay because of me … it radiated from her until that little cough that ended it all.

  “She was stabbed through,” I said. “Just like this.” I pulled out my poker and stabbed it into the boy’s belly, a couple of inches to the left of his belly button, all the way through and well into the ground.

  He didn’t scream, only jerked around. I held on to the poker’s rubber handle with one hand and held his head down on the ground with the other.

  “Jesus,” a couple of the cousins barked.

  “Sshhh, you want the whole lot on us,” I hissed.

  The boy’s eyes were rolling around like he was looking for a way out or for help that wasn’t coming.

  “Don’t worry,” I whispered to him. “My little six year old cousin lasted a day with the same wound. You’ve got time.”

  “Jerol-,” Now Great Uncle Jack, Pa’s only living brother, tried to use his grown up voice on me. I ignored him.

  “Listen kid. You are going to give us an answer or two,” I whispered down into the boy’s wild eyes, which finally rested on me. I pulled out his gag.

  “I knew it. I knew this would happen to me,” he raged in a heavy hoarse whisper. He smiled and blood leaked out around his mouth. His teeth still looked pearly white though.

  “I … I’ve not the faith. Father Gordan told us all we must have faith.”

  “What have you done with my sister, Kyla? You took her and my great Aunt and my Uncle Merro yesterday.”

  “We … ,” he shook his head back and forth as tears poured from his eyes. He looked away from me, toward Jack and the others, then back to me. “They’re gone.”

  I had a great big, huge, enormous black hole that suddenly filled me up from groin to chin. Only my arms and legs were spared. My heart was swallowed in the blackness. My head felt like it cracked from ear over to ear.

  “Where,” I heard myself ask.

  “Father Gordan himself killed them,” the boy’s voice trembled. “His deacons work with him in the purple tent to prepare … so we can eat.”

  The barbecue smell. Kyla.

  I punched him in the face as hard as I could. He made a sound like a sick cat… “Niah, Niah”

  “Why?” One of the cousins asked. “Why?”

  The boy continued to make his noise.

  “Because they are starving,” Uncle Jack said. “Ah, Jo … Jo, Jo,Jo …,” he stood and turned his back t
o us.

  “What tent does Gordan sleep in?” I asked. “Where is he?”

  The boy convulsed a few times then lay still. I checked his chest. His heart still beat. I slapped his face. He came to.

  “Where is Gordan?”

  “I don’t know. They usually go off at night, sleep in secret places.”

  “What does he look like?”

  “Purple … look for the color purple.”

  I stood and bent to rip my poker free.

  “Wait!” The boy choked. Of course he wanted me to wait. I waited.

  “You said something about an Uncle … We only had the two. An old woman and a little girl.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He chortled up some blood. “I can see all their faces … All of them. Every one. No man yesterday. Your sister was very pretty. She had on a pretty dress. I remember that too.”

  I put a foot on his chest and ripped the poker out. Its hook hung into his guts and pulled a bunch of them out a good foot before they ripped apart. He rolled to his side and kicked around some. I didn’t care.

  “Uncle Jack …,” I almost told him to join me in going tent to tent slitting the throats of every person over there, but I knew he wouldn’t do it. None of the older men here would. I didn’t know anybody that would.

  He turned back to face me. My cousins were all on their feet. They all made a very specific point to not look down where the boy lay.

  “Go home,” I said. “Warn the family. They are coming. You know they are.”

  “Where are you going?” He asked.

  “To find Merro.”

  I put my poker back where it went in the over the shoulder sleeve on my back and slipped through the trees before they could say anything. Then I circled around and hid, waiting for them to leave. They did so pretty quickly. A dead or dying kid lying at their feet probably didn’t sit too well.

  I did plan on finding out about Merro, but something else was more important. Kyla. I didn’t care what some stupid kid had to say on the matter. I needed to check for myself.

  After Jack and the cousins were well on their way and out of sight I stole into the camp. I made sure to keep the still burning house fire in mind so I wouldn’t cast a warble of a shadow against one of the tent sides. I came to the big tent nearest the fire from the side opposite the orange flames and, using the razor sharp machete, sliced open one of the panels wide enough for me to fit through. After that, I sat there and waited about ten paces from the slit, in line to see either end of the ten as well as the tear I’d made. If someone was inside the tent chances were they’d either come through the slit or out the exit to check. After ten minutes nothing happened. I had plenty of night left so I cut a slit on another side. I had to slither on my belly to keep my shadow in check, but I managed.