by Jeremy Lock
“What the fuck are you doing?!” Jason exclaimed.
Sean walked up to Jason and punched him in the side of the head knocking him to the ground. Sean the pulled out his pistol and pointed it at Jason. He grabbed Jason be the shirt and pulled him up forcing him to walk towards his pickup. Everyone looked on in shock, not knowing what to do. Sean pushed Jason up to the passenger window of the pick-up. Jason almost vomited seeing the mangled corpse of what had been Mark.
“This is your fucking fault!” Sean screamed as he turned Jason around and pushed him against the truck and yelling in his face.
“You are supposed to be a leader! You knew this was a fucking stupid and dangerous idea but you were too fucking lazy to make the right decision! This is not a fucking democracy! There are no judges there are no more jails, you’re not a COP anymore! You are the leader of this group, start acting like it! You have to make hard and unpopular decisions that you know are the best!” Sean screamed his face almost purple with rage.
“Come here!” Sean screamed pulling Jason towards the guard rail.
“This is what those “prisoners” were doing!” Sean yelled pointing at least a dozen bodies of men, women and children thrown over the edge of the cliff like garbage.
“So don’t ask me what the fuck I’m doing. What the fuck are you doing? Are you going to go build a jail for these animals or are you going to set these monsters lose to kill me innocent people!?” Sean asked.
Jason just stood there in shock.
“Fucking answer me!” Sean screamed looking like he was ready to punch Jason again.
“I…I don’t know…” Jason muttered completely shaken.
“What?!” Sean screamed in his face.
“I don’t know!” Jason screamed in frustration.
“Wrong answer! You are the leader! You always have the answer even when you don’t! You will make the right decision, the hard decision! I think you have learned a lesson today on leadership; sadly it didn’t need to come at such a price. Now buck the fuck up and become the leader, make the decisions.” Sean said as he walked away up into the woods and out of sight.
Jason sat down next to the shot up pick-up and put his face in his hands. Jessica ran up to check on him while the rest of the group just stared off dumbfounded.
“Are you ok?” Jessica asked with concern as she embarrassed.
Jason only nodded his head as he tried to gather himself.
“I can’t believe he did that, he’s lost it.” Jessica said.
“No, he’s right. I fucked this up and this is my fault. So now Mark is dead because I refused to make a call I knew I should have. I could have gotten us all killed.” Jason replied.
“We all decided to do this. It’s all of our faults, not yours. You didn’t even vote.” Jessica said trying to comfort him.
“No. It is my fault. Everyone looks to me to lead and I haven’t done a very good job. But that’s going to change.” Jason stood up and brushed himself off. His head was pounding but it was a good reminder of his absolute failure.
“Jeff, keep watch out front. Jessica, keep watch in back. I’m going to get us ready to leave again.” Jason said as he moved to the pick-up truck. He had a very upsetting job to handle.
Chapter 66
James was walking through the woods keeping in the wood line around the edge of the farms. The last thing he wanted was human contact right now. He wished he could be in the big forest already. He allowed his mind to wander as he thought about how he wanted to live. He had studied primitive survival in the past but it was something he’d never practiced. The idea of living completely off the land seemed ideal, almost perfect, but he knew it would be a lot of hard work. But the work would keep his mind off of his demons. He was also shocked at the thought that he really had no personal property that he was missing. He had sold his house 3 years before and spent all of his time on the road, staying in hotels as he taught around the country. He had been able to bank a fair amount of money but he had no reason to settle down. So he flew or drove from area to area teaching an art that had saved his life twice, survival. He mainly taught wilderness survival to search and rescue teams across the country as well as to military and private military contractors. An ear piercing scream brought him back to reality. He immediately took cover behind a tree and brought his bow up. He was passing through the woods about 20 yds from the field of a small farm. The farm house was about 60 yds away. James was sure the scream had come from the house. He froze. He was in no position to go play superhero and really had little interest. His heart wanted him to run in and save the “damsel in distress” but his brain told him that it didn’t matter. He had to worry about himself now. As he hid in the woods behind the tree watching the house the situation changed. Another scream and a slamming door preceded the scene. A woman, breasts exposed, clothing torn, her face swollen and bleeding ran through the back field with a large man in pursuit. The sound of the shot made him jump even though he expected it and he watched the woman go down. James turned his head away in disgust. The man laughed out loud when the woman fell and James felt rage building inside him.
“No, this is not my problem. She’s already dead and there is nothing I can do. I need to worry about me now.” He told himself.
He looked back at the field again and he was no longer fighting himself. The man was now on top of the fallen woman, violently raping her, her moving arm and the gurgling scream of the woman had made his decision. He dropped his pack and moved to get out of the man’s line of sight. As he reached the edge of the wood line he took a knee, making himself as stable as possible. He drew the bow back, forcing his way through the peak weight and settled in. He viewed through the peep sight in the string and quickly found the glowing fiber optic pin from the bow sight. He settled the pin and released half his breath as he carefully squeezed the trigger mechanism on the release. The arrow flew at over 300 feet per second and struck its target with incredible force. Cutting through skin, bone, blood vessels, more bone and skin, it exited through the body continuing its path before landing in the overgrown field. James pulled another arrow out of his quiver and nocked it to his string. Then he was up and moving, watching his target and his periphery for movement as he approached. The man was lying on his back holding his chest and gasping for breath. James moved quickly and searched the man, pulling the revolver from his holster as well as a large sheath knife. Satisfied the man was unarmed he approached the woman. She was also lying on her back gasping for breath, her tattered clothes barely covering any of her body. She lay almost naked except for the blood which poured out of her chest freely covering her torso. James held her hand, knowing there was nothing more he could do, and awaited her last breath. He didn’t have to wait long. After her final breath James closed her eyes and covered up her body the best he could with her tattered clothes. Then he went to the man. He pled for help with his eyes as he could not catch enough breath to speak as the arrow had passed though both of the man’s lungs. James just stared down at the man as his lungs filled with blood and his chest cavity with air and almost enjoyed the man’s suffering as he watched his last few minutes of life. Soon it was over and James had a decision to make. It was getting late in the afternoon and although he would make the wilderness by dark he would have little daylight left to set up a shelter. His other choice would be to check out the house. He would be risking running into other assholes but he was armed with a .357 revolver and about 15 rounds of ammunition after searching the dead man’s pocket. The gun could use a good cleaning but appeared fully operable. He decided he would clear the house, see what if any supplies he could find, and then get some sleep and head out in the morning. He went through the house and found nothing except for another body, a middle age man, probably the husband of the woman dead in the field. James was just thankful that they didn’t have any kids. James dragged the man’s body outside next to his wife and then retrieved his pack and headed inside as the sun was beginning to set. James noticed the H
arley Davidson motorcycle outside the house and decided he would check that out before he lost all light. In the saddle bags he found a full box of .357 ammunition, a large wad of cash, and several gold necklaces, rings and other jewelry. He took the bullets and left the rest. He didn’t plan to live with guns in his fantasy but they would be extremely useful for self-defense. He headed back inside to see what else he could find. He knew that scavengers would be through the house soon and decided that anything useful he found would either be brought with him or hidden in the woods outback so that he could come back for it. The idea of primitive survival was sexy but some of the more modern comforts would be nice. He found several canned goods, some pasta, rice and other shelf stable foods and put them all in a plastic crate he had found. It wasn’t a ton and they wouldn’t last forever, except maybe the canned goods, but until he got settled he wouldn’t starve. He also found some good rugged blankets and an army style cot and set those aside. In the master bedroom closet he really scored big. He had almost missed it but after finding the sealed ammunition case he looked harder and found the rifle. It was a Mosin Nagont Model M38 rifle. It was by far the least expensive battle rifle available on the market. Millions had been made by the Russians, Chinese and other countries and the rifle saw service from the late 1800’s through WWII. The gun was accurate and easy to maintain and designed to be used by the average citizen, so easy to handle. In addition to the rifle were several boxes of 7.62x54 ammunition in 5 round stripper clips and a sealed case of ammunition for the gun. James checked the action on the gun and worked the bolt several times as well as testing the trigger. The gun was in excellent shape for its age. He loaded the weapon to its 5 round capacity and headed back down to the living room. He felt weird sleeping in a dead person’s bed and decided to sleep on the couch, which also had the advantage of being next to the fire place.
Chapter 67
Jason had carefully pulled Mark’s body from the front of the truck and placed him in a bed sheet. He carefully wrapped his body and gingerly placed him in the back of the travel trailer. Next he cleaned the glass and blood out of the front of the truck and then pulled out the M-60 machine gun. Using a set of ratchet straps he mounted it on the roof of the pick-up. It would make someone think twice before stopping them again. He checked out the front of the pick-up and noticed a bullet hole in the radiator. They had 25 miles to go and it would have to hold up, he had no way to repair it here on the side of the road. He topped off the radiators water as well as the reservoir and then moved onto the jeep. The Jeep had lost its passenger window as well as a tire. He put the spare on the jeep and cleaned up some glass. Sean had returned a short time before with the weapons and ammunition from the men in the woods and they were loaded in the back of the pickup. Jason used the winch on the Jeep in order to move one of the cars from the road block so they could get passed. They had come too far and lost too much to turn back now. They would drive balls to the wall through the town and God help anybody who tried to stop them. Sean would drive the pick-up with Jason on the M-60, Jeff and Teddy in the Jeep and Jessica, Cassidy and Allie in the Suburban. No words were exchanged, they had all changed, one of their own had been taken and they all felt responsible. They wouldn’t let it happen again.
They tore through the small town without an issue; no one was seen, no more barricades, no more bandits, not a live human seen although several bodies littered the sidewalks. Within minutes they were back on the rural roads with their destination only minutes away. After a few turns they were pulling onto an overgrown logging road and onto their new home. It took nearly 15 minutes to drive to the clearing where the old travel trailer sat near a small still running stream. They wasted no time. They had a ton of work to do and they had lost a lot of daylight at the ambush. There was about 4 inches of snow on the ground already and it was still November. Lake effect snow in the region would make for a very long and very cold winter. This close to Lake Ontario the night time temperatures would dip well below zero. They had to get their shelters up and woodstoves running soon or they would be spending another night in their vehicles, a prospect no one looked forward too. Sean walked into the woods a short way and after a few minutes found the rock he was looking for under the snow and moved it, locating the hidden key for the pad lock on the old trailer. He started up the woodstove in the trailer with wood that had been kept inside so they would have an escape from the cold. Teddy and Allie were tasked with maintaining the fire and cooking up some food while the rest of the group got the rest of the camp settled. Jason pulled the New Travel trailer perpendicular to Sean’s and parked it. They set the feet on the trailer and blocked the wheel and were able to get the trailer leveled within 15 minutes. Next they unpacked the Wall tent and started setting it up. After clearing an area between the two trailers they began assembling the frame. Jessica was familiar with the wall tent and was placed in charge of its assembly. Jason was going to set up the small wood stove that had once sat in his bedroom in his new home. The most physically demanding part was carrying the 200 lb cast iron stove from the utility trailer and into the camper. Sean ended up helping him get it up into the camper and into place. Now the difficult part was to retrofit the chimney from the piping he had taken from the house and get it set up in the camper without power tools. Jason decided to run the pipe out the sidewall of the camper and then up, it was a more complicated installation but making a perfect hole and sealing it watertight would be difficult. In the side of the camper would be less important than having a leaking roof around the chimney in the ceiling. Jason went back out to the utility trailer and pulled out his hand tools. He grabbed a hammer and chisel and a special hacksaw blade with a handle. The tool was usually used to cut PVC piping but he would be able to use it like a reciprocating saw. It would be a slow process but it would work. Three hours later, as the sun was setting Jason had finally set the last piece of chimney and lit the first fire in his new home. He was exhausted as he left the trailer to get something to eat. The wall tent was up with the artic woodstove already pumping out heat. He went to Sean’s trailer and grabbed himself some chicken and rice stew and grabbed himself a seat. The mood around camp was somber. The sleeping arrangements were something they still had to figure out. Both trailers had a single bedroom and an area that would be able to make into a second bed. For tonight at least they would all sleep in the trailers, they had yet to unpack the cots for the wall tent so Sean and Jeff would sleep in his trailer in the converted dining area while Teddy and Cassidy shared the bedroom. Jason and Jessica would sleep in their bedroom while Allie slept in the other bed. While there seemed to be relationships starting with Jeff and Teddy and Sean and Cassidy, they weren’t at that state yet. Cassidy still had trust issues and probably always would, and Sean himself didn’t think he could handle a relationship after what he had gone through in his last one. Teddy and Jeff didn’t have the baggage that the other two had but it seemed they were keeping their relationship plutonic so that Sean and Cassidy would feel comfortable.
Jason went out to the wall tent and joined the rest of the group. They were sitting down talking quietly amongst themselves. They all were quiet when Jason walked in which made Jason very uncomfortable.
“I guess we all need to have a talk.” Jason said as he sat on a plastic bin filled with some kind of supplies. Everyone focused on him and Jason had never felt such pressure.
“I just wanted to tell everyone that I am sorry. Like Sean said, I am the leader here, I guess. I don’t know if it’s a job I want, actually I'm pretty sure I don’t want it, but I have it so I need to do it properly. Mark’s death is on my hands and no one else’s. From here on out, until you all decide differently at least, I will make what I feel to be the best decisions for us. I will take in everyone’s opinions and then will make what decision that I feel is best. Clearly there are 7 of us here and we all have our own opinions. I cannot make everyone happy all of the time, I have to look out for what is best for the entire group, but I hope that my decis
ions are not held against me personally. Above all we are a family. Some of you I have been friends with for years and some of you are new but you are all my family now. We have gone from a position of strength and full preparation but now have been thrown to the wild. We still have supplies but life will be much harder up here. We all need to work hard and work together in order to survive up here but I know we can do it and do it well.” Jason got up without another word and headed back to his trailer. Mentally and physically he was exhausted and tomorrow would be even harder.
Chapter 68
James was up with the sun and quickly loaded up what supplies he had gathered. A number of items were taken out to the woods where he wrapped them in a tarp and hid them behind a fallen log. He strapped his bow to his pack and carried the rifle as he headed out. He kept the small river to his right within view as he entered the wilderness area. A good supply of water would be essential for his permanent shelter so keeping close to the river was important. It would also provide him with a source of food for much of the year. This river was a tributary of the Salmon River, which during Salmon spawning season would literally be filled with fish. A cold North Western wind blew in off Lake Ontario and the feel of snow was in the air as James slowly walked through the wilderness. He walked until he was hungry and then settled down using his pack to shield the wind. He pulled out a can of stew and opened it and then set it on his propane backpack stove. The stew heated quickly and within a few minutes he was eating. He ate quickly and then headed out again. He walked through the day and checked over several places where he could make camp. Several looked good but they didn’t feel right. He kept moving making good time. He had covered almost 15 miles during the day and the weight of his pack wasn’t bothering him as much. He noticed the sun getting low in the sky and the clouds moving in, snow was coming tonight and he had to hunker down. He walked for another 30 minutes looking for a good sheltered spot to settle when something caught his eye. He was on a small ridge looking down over the river when he saw a small clearing near a pond. In the wood line there appeared to be a structure. It was an old cabin that had seen better days. He moved quickly to the cabin to check it out. It had obviously had not been lived in for many many years. As he approached he noticed that half the roof had caved in and one corner of the wall had been struck by a fallen tree knocking several of the logs lose. James walked through the open/ fallen off door and into the cabin. The dirt floor was strewn with empty beer cans and empty liquor bottles that all seemed quite old. Clearly at some point after the government had bought the land some kids had found this place and used it to party but it appeared that it had been forgotten about many years before. The inside of the cabin was at least protected from the wind and the cabin appeared to be repairable. It would be a lot of work, particularly with only his hand tools, but he figured in a few weeks he would have a weatherproof shelter for the worst of the winter. The best news was the old woodstove. It had to be nearly 100 years old but while rusty still appeared to be solid. The old chimney pipe had long since rusted out and almost no trace of it was left. Everything about this cabin felt right. He had good access to water, the cabin was hidden in the woods, and the clearing out front could be used to grow his own food if he got himself some tools and seeds. James hadn't felt this good in quite a while. He set his pack down in the corner of the cabin and decided to throw up his tarp over the good section of the roof of the cabin to keep out most of the snow. The section that was broken down would let the smoke out so he could keep a fire going inside the cabin for now. James went to work gathering pine boughs to insulate him from the ground and then gathered enough firewood to spend the night; he was in for several very busy days and decided to get some rest his rifle lying beside him.
