by J D Stone
“See anything?” Danna asked.
Cameron glanced at Ben. “Nope,” he said. “Not a thing.”
The Stranger stood up and handed Cameron the stick, which was actually a thick, two-foot long branch that he had sharpened into a lethal spear.
“Heard you talk about setting a boar trap; thought I’d help.”
“Except we ain’t trapping boar,” Cameron said as admired the spear. “This’ll work perfectly. Now all I need are a couple of green tree limbs.”
“You mean these?” Danna asked, holding out two thin, new growth branches. Seeing the surprised look on Cameron’s face, she added: “What? You think we’ve just been standing around the whole time?”
Cameron snatched the branches out of Danna’s hands, but not before tousling her hair. She smacked his arm in protest.
“C’mon, grab your guns,” Cameron said, smiling smugly. “You guys need to see where I set this up — unless you wanna get pinned to a tree during an ill-advised midnight stroll.”
He led them to where they had passed between two giant, moss-covered fallen trees on their way to the campsite. He stood for a moment, examining the paths, then picked a spot.
Pulling out some thin rope, he tied the green limb to one of the fallen branches closest to the path. Next, he took one of two thick sticks that he had found earlier in the woods and drove it into the ground. He then tied the spear to the green limb.
“Step back, guys,” Cameron said. “This is where things get tricky.” He unwound more rope and tied it from the thick stick across the path and onto a branch on the other side.
“The trip rope,” the Stranger observed.
Cameron nodded and took out of his pack a small wooden dowel and fastened it at the other end of the line. Then he took a small slip ring out of his trapping kit; and pulling the spear back, he asked the Stranger to attach the ring to the trip wire on the far side to hold the spear back in tension. After that, the Stranger drove the second stick into the ring. The trap was set.
Cameron stepped back and examined his contraption. “So, bad guy or hungry animal will trip the line, which’ll cause the ring to slip, the stick springs out of the way, and that spear plunges into a warm bloody heart—” He suddenly frowned.
“What?” Danna asked.
“Should’ve attached metal or some other kind of noisemaker to the trip line.”
“No need,” the Stranger said, patting him on the shoulder. “I think we’d hear the screaming.”
Setting up camp took over an hour, and they finished just as the last light of day gave way to a starry night. Fortunately, there was no need to sleep in the open air: they had plentiful options for shelter.
Their campsite was next to a large fallen tree trunk, and the ground in front of it was dry and free of fungus and insects. That being so, they dug a hollow along the length of the trunk, which turned out to be roomy enough to fit at least four people with several feet of space in between.
Next, they gathered several armfuls each of long straight branches and laid them across the hollow and against the tree trunk. They then covered the sticks with moss and pine boughs, and the result was a fine lean-to.
Ben and Danna crawled in hastily and laid down their sleeping bags, five feet from each other, and commented on how airy and palatial their accommodations were for the evening.
Cameron preferred his own sleeping arrangement: he took to a large pine tree that had snapped in half; and after weaving in other boughs for denser cover, he made for himself a crawl-in shelter.
Once camp was set up, they gathered together for dinner. Ben sat on the leaf-covered ground, and the first chill of the night blew on his face. He rubbed his hands together and looked over at Danna, who was sitting a few feet away from him on a small log, tapping her knees with her fingers as if to the beat of her own tune.
“How about I get a fire started,” she said.
Ben noticed a hint of timidity in her voice. He knew her well enough to guess that she wanted to show off her fire-starting skills.
“I’m not that cold, actually,” he said with a smirk.
Danna pursed her lips and stopped tapping her fingers.
“Yeah, not tonight,” the Stranger said. “We can’t risk getting seen.”
“Not if we build a Dakota fire pit,” Cameron said. “Danna, get my trench shovel from my pack and I’ll show you.”
“I know what a Dakota fire pit is,” Danna said hotly. She grabbed Cameron’s shovel, unfolded it, and strode over to the base of the pine tree. After scraping away the surface soil, she began to dig.
“You shouldn’t make a fire under a tree,” Ben said teasingly. He shook his head in mock disappointment. “Amateur.”
“It helps to disperse the smoke,” Danna replied with a grunt. “Ask your brother.”
Cameron nodded, visibly impressed.
“How does this work?” the Stranger asked, crouching next to Danna.
“If you don’t want your fire to be seen (like us, right?), you wanna have green or damp wood. You dig two holes, twelve inches round and about a foot deep, about two feet apart from each other. Then, you connect them by digging a thin tunnel.”
“Make sure to put the wood in the hole away from—”
“The downwind,” Danna said, cutting him off. “Obviously. Maximizes airflow.”
Two minutes later a healthy fire crackled in the pit. Cameron whittled some green saplings to use as grill plates and laid them across the fire hole. Reaching into his supply pack, he pulled out three “meals, ready to eat” — or MREs — and tossed one to each of them.
“Tonight’s menu will be,” he said, reading the package label, “vegetarian taco pasta with — quote, unquote — flavored fruit drink.’”
“And a piece of candy,” Danna added, holding up something like a Tootsie Roll.
“Don’t eat those,” the Stranger said quickly. “Bad luck.”
Ben shot the Stranger a quizzical look and shook his head in amusement. As the best cook in the group, it apparently fell upon him to make the food. He set the pot on the fire and added a couple of tablespoons of water. Next, he added the packaged food and began to stir.
Cameron leaned back and stretched. “My friends,” he began ceremoniously, “tonight, we feast.”
After dinner, they discussed the procedures for the night.
“Two people will be awake at all times while the other two sleep,” the Stranger said. “We’ll rotate every two hours.” He glanced at Cameron. “We’ll take the first shift.”
Cameron nodded in agreement and looked at Ben and Danna. “Sound good?”
“Sure, but I don’t think I’ll be able to fall asleep,” Danna said, getting up and stretching.
“You will,” the Stranger replied, getting up. “You probably don’t realize how tired you are yet.”
“Oh, I realize it,” Danna yawned. “I’m just nervous something will happen if I fall asleep.”
“Don’t be,” Ben said lightly. “These guys got it taken care of. Besides, we need to be fresh for our shift.”
Danna took two steps then stopped and turned around. “Oh! I forgot to mention. Every time my family went camping, we always named our campsite. For example, when we went up to the Redwoods National Forest, we called our campsite Ewok Village, because they filmed Return of the Jedi up there.”
“Hmm,” the Stranger said. “Interesting. Any suggestions, guys?”
“How about Lothlorien?” Cameron ventured. “The hidden forest in Middle-earth.”
Ben perked up and gaped at his older brother. “You’ve read The Lord of the Rings? I thought you didn’t even know how to read!”
“Shut up,” Cameron replied, throwing a twig at his brother. “Yeah, my roommate at school gave me a bunch of his books before he was kicked out. Didn’t have any more boxes to take them. Thought the book looked pretty cool, so I checked it out. Ended up reading all of them.”
The Stranger nodded approvingly. “Lothlorien. I li
ke it.”
“Me too,” Danna said.
Ben looked at his brother strangely and offered a bemused smile. “Lothlorien, it is!”
Ben sat near the fire, wide awake. Danna had already climbed into the shelter. He glanced at the Stranger; his bright eyes glittering in the light of the flickering flames. His brother was leaning his back against the tree and watching the campsite entrance, rifle in hand.
“What’s her story?” the Stranger asked, nodding at the shelter.
“Pretty sad,” Cameron said, shaking his head. He glanced at his brother. “You wanna tell him?”
Ben shrugged. “Our dads knew each other from their Navy days. Her parents were ‘preppers.’ They bought an old farmhouse ten miles from the retreat; right off the old highway.”
“Why not somewhere more secluded?”
“The farm used to have vineyards,” Cameron said, “and the house had this massive wine cellar.”
The Stranger understood. “They converted it into a bunker. Got it.”
“Right.”
“Parents never made it, though,” Ben continued. “Her dad worked at the naval base downtown; and when the Surge hit, he was supposed to meet Danna, Izzy, and their mom at their rendezvous point outside of the city. They waited till midnight, but then tons of people started coming. Things got crazy. People tried to steal their car. I guess their mom ran over an old lady trying to escape.”
“Did they make it out?”
“Car accident twenty minutes later; some thugs had set a trap. Their mom started shooting and told Danna and Izzy to run for it. The two of them basically jumped down into a ravine.”
“Two nights out there,” Cameron said, shaking his head. “Danna and her seven-year-old sister. No guns. Nothing.”
“They did have their bug-out bags,” Ben said. “The food lasted till they got to the farmhouse. They hoped their dad was there . . . .”
“But it was just them,” the Stranger said, shaking his head. “How did you come across them?”
“They stayed there for a week, holed up in the wine cellar. I guess Izzy was taking it pretty rough.”
“I can imagine.”
“Danna said one night she jolted awake and decided to head for our retreat. Packed everything they could carry and hiked over.”
“I remember it plain as day,” Cameron said. “She looked like she was gonna have a break down. Wouldn’t blame her if she did. But she didn’t say anything, just asked where their room was.”
“Yeah, it took her a couple of days,” Ben said somberly. “But she pulled herself together and started to pitch in.” He chuckled. “As you probably can tell, she’s bossy, so pretty soon she was telling everybody what to do. It was pretty funny.”
“Tough kid,” Cameron added.
“Don’t have to tell me,” the Stranger said. “Saw that right away.”
“Anyway, we figured she wasn’t going back to the farmhouse, so Cam got together a bunch of us, and we hauled back most of their supplies.”
“Left a little bit there to keep it as an outpost.”
“And your getaway house,” Ben said sarcastically.
“What do you mean?” the Stranger asked.
“Cam gets sick of everyone pretty quickly, so he spends a lot of nights at the farmhouse.”
“Too many whiny teenagers,” Cameron said. “Drama.”
Ben rolled his eyes. “Dude, you’re still a teen — in case you forgot how to count.”
“Yeah, but I don’t act like one.”
The Stranger took a swig from his canteen, trying not to smile. “And what about Izzy? Something didn’t seem right with her.”
“She’s messed up,” Cameron said, shaking his head.
“Dude, why do you keep saying that?” Ben asked, bristling. “She’s doing a lot better.” He turned to the Stranger. “I mean, you can just imagine . . . her seeing all that, you know?”
“She’s pretty much sat in that room for the past year,” Cameron said. “Holding on to that stinking penguin.”
“Ah yes,” the Stranger said. “Penny.”
“How did you know that?” Cameron asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Long story.”
“We’ve all seen so much,” Ben said. “But, man, six, seven-years-old. In kindergarten.” He looked up. “Once, Izzy told Danna that she slept all the time because she tried to escape the nightmares, but then her dreams were even worse.”
“But she seemed happy in the garden room,” the Stranger said.
“I gotta admit, she’s got a green thumb,” Cameron added. “You should’ve seen the vegetable plants before she started working on them. Pretty sorry looking, thanks to my little brother.”
“Hey, I tried my best,” Ben shot back. “Mom was supposed to do the gardening, not me.”
“Danna said Izzy talked to you?” Cameron asked the Stranger.
“Yeah.”
“Man, I’ve never seen her talk to anyone except her sister before. And usually, it’s just in whispers.”
“Perhaps I just have a way with people,” the Stranger said with a small grin.
“Yeah, perhaps.”
They were silent for a moment, lost in their private thoughts.
Ben cleared his throat and glanced at Cameron. “Back at the retreat, you said the first EMP was a solar flare. How did you know that?”
“Dad told me,” Cameron replied slowly; “on the day of the Surge. He had just found out. The government had known about it, and they had kept it a secret.”
“From the entire world?”
“They didn’t want people panicking.”
“Did Mom know?” Ben asked. His heart skipped a beat. “I mean, do you think Dad told her too?”
“I have no idea; he didn’t say.” Cameron looked at the Stranger, who was watching them dolefully. “Our mom was at work when it hit,” he explained.
“She was a doctor, right?” the Stranger asked. “A surgeon, if I’m not mistaken.”
The brothers nodded.
“I’m very sorry,” the Stranger said emphatically. “From what I gathered, the hospitals were the first to get hit hard.”
“Why is that?” Ben asked uneasily. He immediately wished he didn’t ask.
“Because most of the hospital patients in the last five years were the AR addicts,” Cameron replied; “the ones that really got sucked in.”
The Stranger nodded. “When those types of patients were admitted, the hospitals couldn’t simply unplug them when they got there. Addiction. They were all addicted. When the EMP hit and all those people came to, the hospitals couldn’t ever have anticipated what was about to happen.”
“She was doing a big surgery that day,” Ben said bitterly. “Of all days.” He shook his head and snorted in disgust.
Cameron fidgeted uncomfortably. “Dad told me to go straight to the retreat,” he said, looking to the Stranger as if he were pleading his innocence before a judge. “He told me not to worry about her.” His voice trailed off.
Ben looked up and furrowed his brow. For a moment, Cameron’s eyes were filled with regret, then with anger. He’d never seen his brother look that before.
“You’ve probably been told this many times already, but you can’t beat yourself up about it,” the Stranger said, leaning forward.
“No,” Cameron replied sharply, locking eyes with the Stranger. “Nobody’s told me that once.”
Ben was silent for a moment, then said: “I’ve never blamed you for it. You did what Dad told you to do, and you saved all of us.”
“No, not all of us.” Cameron looked down and started drawing in the brown dirt with his finger. “You know, after we got to the retreat, I went back and searched for her. It was overrun. The whole city was overrun.”
“That was when you were gone that whole week?” Ben asked, his eyes narrowing. “Why didn’t you tell me? We all thought you were dead.”
Cameron looked away, then muttered: “I should’ve told you. I just tho
ught it was better if you didn’t know. Didn’t want you to be hurt.”
“Yeah, but you still had to find out for yourself, didn’t you? I could’ve gone with you.”
“I barely made it back,” Cameron replied, chuckling. “Like I said, it was overrun. And you would’ve slowed me down — no offense.”
Ben clenched his jaw and heat coursed through his tensing muscles; he wanted to punch his brother in the face. “You gotta stop trying to protect me,” he said crossly. “Am I slowing you down now?”
“You don’t know what’s out here yet, bro,” Cameron said. “What I’ve seen.” He nodded at the Stranger. “What we’ve both seen.”
“I’m finding out now aren’t I? I can imagine how it is in the city. The deadheads must be starved to death by now — it’s been over a year.”
The Stranger shook his head. “No, millions are still alive. Millions.
“And those vagabonds you’ve met?” Cameron added in a condescending tone. “Yeah, they’re the nice ones.”
“Well, I can’t wait to meet the nasty ones.”
“Bad idea,” Cameron said quietly. “They’re the masters of the world now. You’ll see.”
Ben rolled his eyes and tossed a twig into the fire and stood up. He was getting sick of his brother talking down to him. They’re equals now. There’s nothing Cameron could do that he couldn’t. In fact, he knows more about these robots than anyone else. And that’s an advantage these days. He hoped he could prove him wrong one day.
His face soured, and he stood up. “Bedtime. Sweet dreams, fellas.”
The Stranger looked up and furrowed his brow; Cameron just gazed into the darkness.
Cameron and the Stranger never woke up Ben and Danna, preferring to let them get their rest. The night passed without any disturbances, save for a distant crack of a twig that Cameron said was just an animal.
Ben woke up just before dawn, stirred by the gentle wind rustling the leaves of their shelter. He was surprisingly warm, and as he stretched he felt no tightness from sleeping on the hard ground.
He looked over where Danna slept to find her sleeping bag already rolled up and attached to her pack. He felt a pang of embarrassment for sleeping in past everyone, but he felt refreshed, and he knew that he was going to have a strong day.
