EMP: Dangerous Decisions

by Mark Mathews

  April was standing at the first-class seats, over at Tom’s bed. Her eyes were open wide, her hands were at her mouth, and she was screaming intermittently. Sarah ran over and put her hand over April’s mouth. She didn’t want to draw undue attention. She took a second to calm down the poor girl, then sent her over to Wade who just had woken up. He was staring around wildly for the sound that had woken him. When he saw April’s face, he hurried over, too.

  “What’s going on?” Wade was trying to get the frightened girl to talk, but Sarah already had gone over to Tom. His skin was ice cold and had a blue tinge to it. Sarah’s heart sank. Tom had been right. He wasn’t going to make it off the mountain. He was dead.

  “Tom’s dead.” She clarified it for Wade, who now had a hysterical girl in his arms.

  “I didn’t mean to shoot him! I didn’t want to hurt anybody! Now I’m a murderer!” April was crying harder and louder with each passing minute, and it brought Emily out of the trees, carrying an armful of sticks. Fear was etched in every line of her face, but she started relaxing when she saw that everyone was in the plane.

  “What’s going on?” Sarah opened her mouth to answer Emily, but April beat her to it.

  “I killed him!” April burst out in a fresh wave of tears, and Emily didn’t understand at first what was going on.

  She still was staring at Sarah, trying to make sense of it all. Sarah gestured to Tom. Understanding blossomed in her mind as she saw the way Tom was lying. Tears ran down her cheeks, too. She took April’s hand and led her back to the plane. Sarah was grateful that Emily was taking it upon herself to calm down April. It meant that she and Wade could find something to dig with and bury Tom before the girls came back.

  “This is a mixed bag. On the one hand, I didn’t wish him dead. Not in the least. On the other hand, at least now we’ll be able to protect the girls because we won’t have our hands full with carrying him.” Sarah knew that Wade was right, but she still felt a loss.

  They hadn’t known him for very long, but when you had no one to rely on in the world, every friend grew dearer in less time. Sarah had a flat piece of wood that she was digging with, and Wade was getting his hands dirty using a big rock. It was hard work, and the two of them were covered in sweat when they were done. Wade put his rock aside and used Sarah’s board to measure.

  “It should be deep enough by now. I’ll carry him.” Sarah was secretly glad that Wade was offering to carry Tom, because she got a crawling sensation over her skin when she was around dead people. Unless they were people she had killed to survive.

  Wade lay him down gently, and he and Sarah began covering him up with dirt. Sarah was pointedly not looking at him until his face was not visible anymore. She thought about calling the girls over when they were finished burying him, but she didn’t want them to be more frightened. As she and Wade put the last handfuls of dirt back on the mound, the girls came over, April with her face still tear-streaked.

  “I wanted to make him a headstone, but I can’t carry one or carve it. So, I did this instead.”

  April’s eyes were so swollen from crying that she barely could open them. Her cheeks were blotchy and red, and her hair was stringy. Emily was silent, lost in her own little world. Wade and Sarah both felt as though this was a mixed bag. Neither one of them knew if they thought this was for the best or if they wished they could take it back. Both of them knew that they couldn’t have done more for him, but they felt guilty for leaving him alone so much when he couldn’t even get up to be part of the group.

  The girls were standing at the wooden cross that April had fashioned, crying silently, while Sarah did her best to comfort both of them. She looked up at Wade, a pained look on her face. She was stuck in a situation where she couldn’t do anything to fix the problem, and it was grating more on her nerves than she wanted to admit. She was the one who fixed the problems, not sat there quietly wringing her hands without being able to solve the situation. Wade stood in the background, silently watching over his girls.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  THE GROUP WAS somber as they continued on their way. April was in a sort of bleak depression where she didn’t want to talk to anyone; she sat alone when they made camp, and refused to sleep. No matter what Sarah or Wade said to her, she would sit up all night until her body slumped over in a troubled doze. As soon as she realized it, however, she would snap awake, glaring around her as though she expected Tom’s ghost to appear and berate her for killing him. Sarah’s heart went out to her. She’d had a shooting a while back that still haunted her to this day, too. She’d pulled up in a sting operation, as backup for the local police. The target had been a drug dealer who had gathered a following, and he’d moved up to pimping out prostitutes. Thinking back to that night made Sarah cringe. It had been ruled a good shooting, and she hadn’t been punished for it, but it still ate away at her. The man had been young, good looking, and a smooth talker. He’d convinced young girls to run away from home, making them think he was in love with them,, then used them to turn tricks for him. One of the girls had been in the room when the sting had gone down. Sarah saw it in the back of her mind like it was yesterday…

  Sarah had her vest on, gun out, and was tiptoeing up to the building. She could hear voices inside, and intelligence had confirmed the target was, indeed, inside. He was throwing a party to bring some new drug distributors into his inner circle. That, of course, required some girls and some drugs, so it was the perfect operation. The local authorities were to go in first, then Sarah and her team as an unnecessary backup group. Or so they thought. They had gone in, mainly for cleanup. The drug dealers already were disarmed, with their hands on their heads.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Sarah saw movement. It was almost as though everything was happening in slow motion. She saw the girl hiding under the couch reach out an arm, like a cat batting at a toy, and grab a pistol that had been thrown down in the confusion. She aimed it at the closest officer and was trying to pull the trigger. Sarah’s arms followed her gaze and she swung her pistol around until the crosshairs were on the girl. She double-tapped the trigger, and watched the girl shudder as the two bullets impacted her body. Sarah knew right away the girl was dead. When she had gone over to check, and make sure the gun was no longer a threat, she saw just how young the girl was. She couldn’t have been more than fifteen. And that was giving her a year or two, in Sarah’s opinion. She went outside to throw up.

  Yes, Sarah knew that feeling going through April. Granted, it hadn’t been a child that April shot, but it was her first time, and it was going to haunt her for the rest of her life. April started to get dark circles under her eyes from the lack of sleep, and was getting thinner and thinner. Sarah was starting to get worried about her. Emily did her best to try befriending April, but it was almost as though she was hitting a brick wall. Sarah looked from one girl to the other. Both of them were hurting in different ways, and she had no idea what to do about it. They were approaching the peak, soon to start their way down the other side of the mountain, and Sarah wondered what kind of trials and tribulations awaited them on the other side. If it was worse than what they’d experienced on this side of the mountain, then she wasn’t sure if they would make it through unscathed. The sun beat down on them, and it warmed the chilly air. Emily was shivering a little, but they knew it would be temporary. Sarah and Wade had been talking, and they had hoped to be holed up in a nice place with the girls before real winter set in. The chill that came with altitude was only temporary. All of them had searched through whatever suitcases they could find in the plane to put on some extra layers.

  “Girls! Come look at this!” Wade’s voice reverberated through their campsite. Sarah’s heart started pounding, thinking there was danger. Emily came bounding up to Wade, a smile on her face, but April stayed where she was. They were now on the mountain’s peak, and Wade was calling them to come look at the view.

  “Wow! It’s so pretty!” Emily was jumping up and down, clapping her hands
with delight.

  It made Sarah smile to see her so happy. She put a hand up to her eyes to shade them, looking into the bright sunlight. It looked as though she could see a glimpse of one of the Great Lakes. So they were close. If they just could get there without any more added problems would be a miracle.

  “Let’s camp here for tonight. It’s a nice view to fall asleep to, don’t you think?” Wade was smiling down at Emily as he spoke, and her excited face was all the answer he needed. Sarah and Wade both watched Emily skip away to give April the news. It was like they were the proud parents, in awe of their child’s happiness.

  “It really is a beautiful view.” That was a small consolation about the place they were calling a campsite. When night fell, Wade and Sarah put the girls to bed, trying to keep as much of a semblance of family as they could. They looked back toward the lake, and Sarah’s heart leapt. Down below, they could see hundreds of fires.

  “Look at all those people! We aren’t the only ones out here! Maybe those women just didn’t want us to come here and be part of this community? There are so many fires! There’s got to be a place for us to fit in down there somewhere, right?” There was so much hope in Sarah’s voice and face that Wade looked at her gently. He put an arm around her, reassuringly.

  “We’ll find a place. We will, I promise. I don’t know when, or with who, but we will. We’ll take care of these girls, and make sure they grow into fine young women.”

  A warmth spread through Sarah that had nothing to do with the fire at their backs. It was coming from Wade’s arm. Maybe her ex had been lost to her in this disaster, but maybe Wade could fill that place. She didn’t know if she was completely open to a relationship in this troubled time, but she did feel safe with him, and that they could do right by these girls. That had to count for something, right? When Wade took his arm from around her, the cold air rushed in to where seconds earlier she’d been warm. It made her shiver, and she blushed, thinking she was acting like the hopeless romantic that no one could afford to be anymore. Wade pulled out his map from his vest pocket, along with a pencil he’d been keeping with it. He glanced up about a dozen times, each time making little marks on the map. What they meant, she didn’t know, but she trusted Wade to navigate, so she just watched him as he gathered his intel.

  “Wow. There sure are a lot of people down there.” Unbeknownst to either Wade or Sarah, April couldn’t sleep.

  She’d gotten up as quietly as she could, so she wouldn’t wake Emily, then made her way over to where Sarah and Wade were standing. She saw the hundreds of fires, and it gave her hope. Maybe she could find a place to fit in. Somewhere where they didn’t know what she had done, and she could start over.

  “April! I thought you were sleeping, honey. What’s wrong?” April shrugged.

  “Just couldn’t sleep, I guess. I think we need to go toward that big settlement over there. It looks like it has the most people.” Both of the adults followed her finger to see where she was pointing.

  Wade sighed heavily. “Just because it’s the biggest settlement doesn’t mean it’s the safest.”

  Wade didn’t want to tell her too much of the details, because he didn’t want to frighten her, but he knew he had to tell her enough to warn her against making bad decisions. He told her about how he and Tom had landed in some trouble in the last town, and that it had taken Sarah to save them. He felt bad talking about Tom, because it was such a touchy subject with April, but he had to do it. Then he went on to explain what had happened to Emily as a consequence of going to that town. He talked about how she had been kidnapped, twice, just because they had a vehicle, and someone had wanted it. April’s eyes grew wide and round, like a bug’s, but she stuck to her guns.

  “Not every settlement is like that, though. If they have so many people, then they must be able to get along. It’s logical. For them to get along, they have to be decent people. If they weren’t, they would kill each other off and become smaller and smaller until there was no settlement. I still think the biggest settlement is the way to go. Not everyone is bad. People are inherently good, with bad tendencies.”

  That was part of the age-old debate in the Bible, but Wade wasn’t going to start that argument. Whether people were good with bad tendencies, or bad with good tendencies didn’t matter to him. It was the people who were doing bad to him and those he was protecting that bothered him.

  “Why don’t you go back and get some sleep, April? We’ll figure it all out in the morning, okay?” April looked put out that she was being dismissed so easily, but she was exhausted, and for once, wasn’t putting up a fight when someone was telling her to sleep. Sarah smiled to herself. Maybe her mothering instinct was starting to come out and get results. Wade and Sarah watched her go, then turned back to the fire-dotted landscape beneath them.

  “What do you think? Should we try it? Could she be right?” Wade sounded tired. Sarah wanted to put an arm around him to comfort him, but she wasn’t sure it would be received in quite the way she would be offering it. Maybe she should just let him prompt her from now on.

  “I don’t know. It’s hard to trust people after the things we’ve been through, but I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. I guess I’ll never shake that.”

  “I know what you mean. I took a chance on you and Emily, and it worked out, but I don’t know. My record is usually against me when it comes to things like that. It’s the main reason why I never gambled with anything other than my life.” He tried to chuckle here to make it sound funny, but he couldn’t quite pull it off. She could understand what was making him hesitate. It was hard to open up to someone you didn’t know, and if you did, and they hurt you, it could destroy a person. Wade stumbled a little, and Sarah caught him.

  “What’s wrong?” Wade bit his lip and didn’t meet her eyes.

  Something was wrong. She put on her most stern expression, and Wade looked up. Flinching a little, he looked away again. Sarah remained silent, glaring at him, waiting for him to break. This technique had worked before, and she was intent on it working now.

  “I haven’t been feeling so great. My wounds aren’t healing the way they should, and I don’t know if it’s just because of the stress of the journey, or if there’s something medically wrong. I ran out of medical supplies because I used what I had on Tom, trying to save him. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep going.” Fear struck Sarah down to her very core. No. There was no way she could lose Wade. He was the backbone of their group, and now she was starting to see him in ways that she never had before. She couldn’t lose him.

  “Then we need to get to the first village we can to get you some medicine. We can’t let our group get any smaller, and that means you can’t check out on me yet.” There was a fierceness in her voice that she hadn’t heard before, and she was a little astounded by it. He gave her a halfhearted salute, like he was giving his superior respect.

  “I’ll go down to the first village while you guys stay up here. If I don’t come back, you’ll be in charge of the girls and you’ll have to get them to safety.” Sarah opened her mouth to protest, but Wade held up a hand to keep her silent.

  “If you come with me and get hurt, or God forbid, neither one of us gets out of there, Emily and April will have no one. You can’t leave them unprotected. They’re counting on you.”

  “They’re counting on you, too, you know. And so am I.” That last part was more under her breath than to him, but he heard it nonetheless.

  “I’ll do my damnedest to get back to you. I promise.” Having him say that meant more to her than anything else, and she nodded.

  “I better set out now. I don’t want April to try following me, in case it turns out badly. She’s fast asleep now, so just watch over her.” Sarah nodded. Her throat got raw, and she realized she really wanted to cry. It felt as though this was the last time she was going to see him. Some innate fear in her kept telling her that this was true, even though she did her best to push it aside.

&nbs
p; Wade gave her a quick hug, then started down the mountain. It took him a few hours to get to the first village, but when he did, he found it was the remnants of a town. Granted, it would make sense for the citizens who were left to try banding together to survive. He found the first house, which looked entirely abandoned. The front door looked dark and unused, so he crept along the side of the house until he was in front of it. He tried the door handle and found it was unlocked. Perfect. Maybe he could go in and raid the medicine cabinet then get the hell out of there and back to his girls.

  He made his way to the first bathroom, then dug around in all of the cupboards and closets in it. No luck. Swearing under his breath, he checked the rest of the first floor only to find that was the only bathroom on this floor. He grimaced as he made his way up the ornate flight of stairs. He still hadn’t recovered fully, and it took a lot out of him just to go up the stairs. He found the next bathroom and started pawing through the things in the cabinet behind the mirror. He was so intent on looking for medicine that he didn’t hear the footsteps of someone coming in behind him.

  “Excuse me, but what are you doing?” Wade spun around, his hands in the air. He’d thought the house was abandoned, but apparently it wasn’t. On the plus side, the people looking at him now didn’t have the killer instinct to murder someone in cold blood…at least he hoped.

  “I didn’t know anyone lived here. I was just looking for some medicine. I have a wound that isn’t healing right, and I was hoping to find something to fight the infection.” That much was the truth.