Jaxon
Jaxon woke up to the smell of eggs and some kind of meat cooking. He opened his eyes and looked around. Oh yeah, he was in a cabin with a couple of hippies.
“Rise and shine,” Crystal called from the stove with a grin on her face. As Jaxon sat up, he realized it wasn’t a real stove. It was a camping stove set on the kitchen counter.
Olivia waved to Jaxon. She was sitting at the kitchen table with Zoe on her lap, chatting away with Crystal.
“So why did you move out here?” She asked. “There’s nothing out here.”
Crystal nodded. “Exactly. There was too much going on in civilization. We were living in our car. We couldn’t even afford a motel. And one day we got tired of it, so we sold everything we owned to buy some wood and a few chickens. We built a cabin and we’d have the chickens lay eggs. Every day we’d walk to the closest store and sell the eggs there. We eventually saved enough money to buy furniture and horses to get around. We learned how to trap animals and we sell the furs and meat. We’ve made a nice life for ourselves.”
Jaxon walked over to the table. “I didn’t see any chickens last night.”
“They’re in the back,” Crystal said, handing him a plate.
Jaxon bit into the meat. It didn’t taste like anything he had ever had before. “What kind of animals do you trap?” He asked curiously.
“Mostly rabbit. That right there is coyote.”
When Crystal turned back to the stove, Jaxon spit the coyote meat into his napkin and dug into the eggs. You couldn’t go wrong with eggs.
“So what brings you guys out here?”
Olivia and Jaxon looked at each other.
Olivia bit on her pinky nail before saying, “We’re traveling to California.”
“What’s in California?” Crystal asked.
“Family,” Olivia said quietly.
Jaxon paused when he realized that it technically wasn’t a lie. Olivia’s parents were buried somewhere in California. In their hometown. Olivia had never been to their graves.
“Well, I hope you find who you’re looking for,” Crystal said.
Before Jaxon or Olivia could say anything, William came through the door.
“Did you sell everything?” Crystal asked him.
He nodded and walked over to the table, where there was a plate already waiting for him.
“What’d we sell today?”
“Twelve eggs, a rabbit pelt, and some rabbit meat.”
“How much did we make?”
“One fifty.”
“A hundred and fifty dollars?” Olivia cried.
William stared at her.
“Let me guess, you’re used to what, five bucks, for a carton of eggs?” Crystal laughed.
Olivia nodded.
“Well, welcome to the rest of America. Everything’s expensive because it’s all so rare. A dozen eggs can fetch around twenty-five dollars, a pound of rabbit meat goes for seventeen dollars, and animal pelts can get over fifty. Animal pelts used to be more, a long time ago, but no one has much use for them anymore.”
“I’ve gotta talk to you,” William told Crystal.
They went back into the bedroom, and Jaxon took the chance to tell Olivia that they should leave.
“Why? I like it here,” Olivia said.
“Liv, we have to keep moving,” Jaxon reminded her.
She sighed. “Yeah, I know. We’ll leave when they come back out.”
Jaxon nodded in agreement.
When Crystal and William came back out of the bedroom, Jaxon and Olivia stood up.
“Alright, we should get going,” Olivia said.
“Oh, no,” Crystal said. “You can’t go. We’re having rabbit stew tonight. It’s my best dish. Please say you’ll stay. I’m sure your family can wait one more day.”
Olivia looked at Jaxon eagerly. Jaxon could tell that she really liked Crystal. It was rare for her to warm up to someone so quickly, so against his better judgment, Jaxon said, “You know what? We can stay.”
Olivia and Crystal stayed inside, talking at the stove all day. Jaxon took Zoe outside and let her sit on the horses. Zoe had never seen an animal so big before. Actually, she hadn’t seen many animals before at all. When the third world war hit, people couldn’t afford to take care of their pets. So pets were outlawed all over America. Any animals found were killed. So aside from the occasional pigeon or rat, Zoe hadn’t seen that many animals.
“Daddy,” Zoe said.
“Yes?” Jaxon replied.
“Why are we hiding?”
Jaxon froze. Of all the questions Zoe had asked since they began running, this was not one she had asked. “Well, hunny, there are some bad people in this country. We’re just trying to get somewhere better.”
Zoe nodded. Jaxon wasn’t sure if she really understood, though. Although she could hold a full conversation, there was a lot she didn’t seem to comprehend.
“Jaxon!” Olivia called as she walked around to the back of the cabin.
Before Jaxon could reply, Zoe said, “Hi, Mommy!” She pointed to the horse. “This is a horsey.”
Olivia grinned. “Yeah, it’s a horsey. You don’t get to see a lot of animals, huh?” Zoe shook her head, and Olivia said, “Well, maybe that will change in Hawaii.”
“Did you need me?” Jaxon asked.
“Well, Crystal wanted to know if you’d go check the traps with William. She says that she thinks he’s too stubborn to admit that he needs help out there.”
Jaxon rolled his eyes. William hadn’t exactly welcomed him with open arms, and he was sure that neither of them wanted to go hunting together.
“Come on,” Olivia said. “I’ll watch Zoe. I think it would be good for you to spend some time with a man who isn’t all prissy like my friends’ husbands.”
Jaxon laughed. He hadn’t heard Olivia ever talk about her friends like that. Maybe getting away from New York would be good for her. “Fine. I will go check the traps with William.”
Olivia clapped. “Great. I’ll go tell Crystal.”
A few minutes later, William came outside with a gun strapped to his back.
“Woah, what’s that for?” Jaxon asked.
“We’re hunting, boy!” William told him gruffly.
“I know, but I thought that the animals were in traps.”
“Traps don’t always kill them.” And with that, William got on his horse and rode off.
Jaxon quickly got on the other horse and hurried to catch up to him. They rode next to each other in silence for awhile, although Jaxon noticed that William would sometimes look at him when William thought that Jaxon wouldn’t notice.
They stopped after a couple of miles at the first trap. There was a rabbit with its hind leg stuck in the trap, but it was still alive. Jaxon didn’t look when William shot it. It took about an hour to check all the traps. Most had something in them. Usually a coyote or a rabbit. Some had been set off, but nothing was inside. But some hadn’t been visited by any animals at all.
On the way back, trying to make conversation, Jaxon asked, “So would you say you got a good amount of kill?”
William nodded but didn’t say anything.
“So what are you going to do with them?”
“Skin them and eat them. Sell some of the meat, though.”
Jaxon stopped trying to make conversation after that.
That night they ate rabbit stew, which Jaxon had to admit didn’t taste as horrible as he thought it would, and then they went to bed.
In the middle of the night, they heard cars outside.
Jaxon sat up. Who would have a car out here?
“I’m going outside,” William told Crystal, who had come out of their room.
Once William was outside, Crystal said, “Those are federal agents out there. William saw a poster with your faces on it this morning and turned you in. He made me promise to keep you here, but I can’t do that. You’re good people. So go climb out the bedroom window and get on those horses. I do
n’t care where you go, but get away from here before you’re caught.”
Wordlessly, Jaxon and Olivia picked up Zoe, got onto the horses, and rode off into the night like the fugitives they were.
Albert
Albert stormed into Crystal and William’s tiny cabin. “Where are they?” He demanded.
Crystal and William were on their knees, with men holding guns to the back of their heads.
“We don’t know,” Crystal said. “They were gone when I came out of the bedroom.”
“Lying will cost you your life,” Albert reminded her.
“I’m not lying!” She cried.
“Please, we were only trying to help you,” William begged. “We don’t know how they found out you were coming.”
Albert stared at Crystal and William for a few moments. At last, he looked up at his men. “Kill them,” He said with a wave of his hand.
He turned around and walked away, not even bothering to watch these people die.
On Air Force One, Albert leaned back in his seat and sighed to himself.
“What’s wrong?” Aurora asked.
Albert glared at her. “You know damn well what’s wrong.” He expected Aurora to apologize and mind her own business like she usually did. But that’s not what she did this time.
Aurora stood up. “You don’t talk to me like that. I’ve listened to you and I’ve watched you go on this crazy tirade for over a week. I’ve tried to help you, but you won’t listen to me. It’s not my fault you can’t do your job right!”
Albert rose to his feet. “Excuse me?”
“I’m tired of the way you’ve been treating me.”
“Fine, then. When we get back home, you can go to The Dunegon.”
“Albert, that’s ridiculous.”
“I know. My wife should behave better than that. It’s a real shame.” He snapped his fingers twice. “Get her out of my sight.”
Instantly, two men grabbed Aurora by the arms and lead her away.
“Albert! You can’t do this!” Aurora cried as she was led away.
Albert grinned to himself. “Oh, but I can.”
Chapter 7
Jaxon
Jaxon, Olivia, and Zoe rode the horses until the sun rose. They rode until they came to a cave.
“I don’t want to go in the cave with Zoe,” Olivia said. “You don’t know what’s in there.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll go in and check it out,” Jaxon assured her.
He got off his horse and walked to the mouth of the cave.
“Jaxon,” Olivia hissed.
He turned around to look at her.
“Don’t go in there. We’ll figure something else out.”
“What other options do we have, Liv? We have nowhere to go.”
Olivia sighed before saying, “Just be careful.”
Jaxon smiled. “I always am.”
Jaxon explored the cave for a good while before coming back out. “It’s all clear,” He said. “It doesn’t look like anything has been in there for a long time.”
That was good enough for Olivia, so she handed Zoe to Jaxon before getting off the horse.
Jaxon carried Zoe as Olivia walked into the cave. Olivia looked at the cave.
“It looks like there’s glitter in here,” She said.
The walls of the cave did have rocks that sparkled.
“It is beautiful,” Jaxon agreed. “It’s going to look like there’s glitter even more when we light a fire.”
“Do you have stuff to light a fire?” Oliva asked, turning to him.
“I grabbed some matches off the dresser when we left Crystal and William’s house. I’m sure we can find something out there to use for kindling.”
“I don’t know if we should go back out there.”
“If we want to survive, we have to. At least I do. You and Zoe should probably stay here.”
“What are we going to do for water?”
Jaxon thought for a moment. He hadn’t thought about that. Not that he’d had time to. “Cacti have water. I’ll figure out how we get the water from it.”
Olivia didn’t look so sure, but she didn’t say anything.
Jaxon put Zoe down and tied the horses to a tree just outside the cave, in the shade. “Don’t worry, Liv. We’ll figure this out.”
That night, Jaxon was cooking a rabbit over the fire he had managed to make with tumbleweeds. He had killed the rabbit with a rock. He hadn’t been able to figure out how to get water out of a cactus, so he was going to look for a water source tomorrow.
Olivia had commented earlier that the cave walls did look even more beautiful once the fire was lit, but after that, she fell silent. Jaxon knew she was thinking about everything that had happened, as well as everything that might happen in the future.
Once Olivia had gotten Zoe to fall asleep, she walked over to Jaxon and sat down next to him. “What do you think happened to Crystal?”
Jaxon looked up. “Is that what you’re worried about?”
“She was a good woman. And don’t forget, she helped us. I really liked her. She listened to me. I hope she’s alright.”
Jaxon didn’t say anything. He had the feeling that he knew what happened to Crystal, but he didn’t want to upset Olivia.
“I didn’t like William, though. I didn’t like him even before he turned us in.”
Jaxon laughed. “Then why did you make me go hunting with him?”
Olivia shrugged. “I thought it’d be good for you. Like a learning experience.”
He grinned. “It was something, alright.”
She grinned back. “Do you remember when we first met and I tried to run away because I didn’t want to be married to you?”
“How could I forget?”
“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry. You were the best person for me. I would have married you even if it wasn’t arranged.”
Jaxon smiled. “The food’s ready.”
Olivia grabbed the rabbit leg that Jaxon had handed to her. “Do you want to stay here?”
“I think it’s our safest bet right now.”
“I trust you,” Olivia said, kissing Jaxon.
Aurora
Aurora paced inside her tiny cell. She could get out if she really wanted to. Although Albert knew that Aurora had trained for the military for most of her young life, he didn’t know just how good she was. He didn’t know that she knew how to escape captivity or kill someone with her bare hands.
Aurora really wanted to get out of this cell and kill Albert. She wanted to overthrow the entire government, actually. Things weren’t right. She wanted to change things.
“Hey, sit the fuck down,” One of the guards said as he passed her cell.
Aurora marched up to the cell bars. “I am the wife of The President of the United States, and you will treat me as such.”
The guard laughed. “Not down here. Down here, you’re just a prisoner. Sit the fuck down.”
Aurora considered grabbing him. He was close enough for her to grab. Then all she’d have to do is grab the keys and get the hell out.
But instead, she sat down.
The guard laughed. “That’s what I thought.”
Aurora lunged for the cell door.
The guard jumped back.
“That’s what I thought,” Aurora sneered. “Now go get my husband.”
“I don’t take orders from you. You wouldn’t have any power even if you weren’t a prisoner.”
“Go get my husband, or when I get out of here, I’ll have you executed.”
The guard laughed and walked away.
Aurora sighed to herself and walked back to her bench.
There weren’t any beds in The Dungeon. Just hard, metal benches chained to the wall and cold, metal toilets.
She laid her head down. The Dungeon was quiet. Most of the prisoners had already been executed. Aurora fell asleep quickly.
Sometime later, someone roughly grabbed her arm and yanked her off the bench.
&nb
sp; Aurora barely had time to wake up before she was standing.
“Have you had enough time to think?” Albert asked.
“Albert,” Aurora began calmly. “What you’re doing is crazy. It has to stop.”
“It’s treason to talk that way, you know,” Albert warned.
“You wouldn’t believe the way the guards have treated me down here. Isn’t that treason?”
“No. Not while you’re a prisoner. When you’re a prisoner, your title of “First Lady” is stripped.”
Aurora was about to start yelling, but she stopped herself just in time. Yelling would get her nowhere.
She batted her eyes. “Albert, come on, hunny. We both know that I don’t belong down here.” She put her hand on his shoulder, even though touching him repulsed her.
Albert smiled. “I know you don’t, sweetheart. I don’t know what I was thinking. Let’s get you out of here.”
As Albert lead Aurora up the stairs and out to her freedom, she turned back toward the dungeon to smirk at the guards. She’d deal with them later.
Chapter 8
Jaxon
Jaxon’s watch started beeping at five in the morning. He got up and stretched. He walked to the mouth of the cave. It was still dark outside. Perfect.
He had told Olivia his plan the night before so she wouldn’t worry when she woke up and he was gone.
Jaxon walked out of the cave and along the mountain, looking for a good place to start. Once he found a spot with some ledges and bumps, he started climbing. This was harder than climbing the rock wall in the gym at home, but he still managed.
It took a long time, and it was very dangerous without equipment, but after a while, Jaxon got to the top of the wall.
He laughed as he pulled himself up over the edge of the cliff. Once he was on the cliff above, he rolled over away from the cliff and laid down for a moment. The sun was just barely coming up. He needed to find some source of water before it got too hot, and he knew that finding high ground was a good way to go.
He hiked for an hour or so before he found a little stream coming out of a crack in a wall of rock.
Jaxon started yelling happily.
The water was clear and running. It was perfect for drinking from. And there was a giant tree giving shade, not to mention the huge wall of rock. And Jaxon had seen a few animals wandering around while he had been looking for the stream.
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