The Right Path

by Debra L Martin

  We headed back downtown where we had seen him last. The usual complement of hawkers, system cops and beggars filled the streets. We spent most of the day searching for him without any success. I was beyond tired. My leg throbbed something fierce and I needed to lie down before I fell down.

  “Zia, I can’t do this anymore. I’m beat.”

  “Let’s go back to my room,” she replied.

  “No, its too far. I ain’t gonna make it that far. Let’s go to my place. It’s real close.”

  I hobbled along the street casting a wary eye in every direction. I hoped no one had taken over my spot. In this city, if you were gone for too long from a place then someone else claimed it.

  “How much further,” Zia asked.

  “Over one more street. Ain’t that far at all.”

  Zia scouted ahead and I lost sight of her when she turned the corner. I tried to hurry up and catch her, but I was too tired. Couple minutes passed before she came back. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw her surprising myself that I cared that much about the little twerp. I hadn’t even known her for that long, but it was good knowing I finally had someone I could trust and watch my back.

  “All clear, Ham. Bunch of losers down there, but I didn’t see anything that looked dangerous.”

  “Good, cause I don’t want to fight no one right now,” I said grinning at her, “may be tomorrow I’ll kick some ass.”

  Zia laughed at my lame joke.

  “Come on, I’ll show you where I live.”

  “Lead on, Hambone.”

  My spot in the back of the building was exactly as I had left it. It wasn’t a palace, but it was good enough for me. I had a small room with three of the original walls still standing. I had managed to fill in the last wall with some twisted sheets of corrugated metal. It looked like a bombed out husk, exactly the look I was going for. We squeezed through the narrow opening and I plopped down on my bed.

  “Home sweet home,” I said.

  Zia looked around the small space and let out a squeal of delight when she saw my rainwater catcher.

  “You have water?”

  “Yeah, I rigged that up when I first got this place. Don’t have any food, but I got water. There are some empty cups over there too. Can you pour us some?”

  “Sure.”

  Zia carefully poured the water into the beat up cups and brought them over to the bed.

  “Thanks,” I said and gratefully drank mine in a single gulp.

  “Now what do we do?” Zia asked.

  “I’m gonna sleep. I’m exhausted.”

  I was totally exhausted. My energy was gone. Tomorrow would be soon enough to find the old man and get some answers.

  “Well, then move over, Ham. Don’t hog the whole bed,” she said.

  I chuckled and scooted over. Zia lay down beside me and before long I could hear the soft rhythmic sounds of her sleeping. It didn’t take long for me to join her.

  BANG, BANG, BANG

  The jarring noise startled me awake and I scrambled to sit up. Zia was already on her feet with her knife in hand, staring at the metal wall that someone was banging on.

  “Abe, you in there,” came a voice from the other side of the wall.

  BANG, BANG, BANG

  “Wake the hell up. I got some food. I’ll share it for some water. Abe? I’m coming in. Hope you’re decent,” the disembodied voice chuckled.

  Skeater, one of my more illustrious neighbors, popped his head in through the opening. He waved a bag of food in front of him as he came in.

  “I know you’re in here. I heard you come in last night. Don’t be hitting me with that crutch of yours.”

  I grabbed Zia’s leg before she had a chance to attack him.

  “He’s my neighbor, a kinda friend of mine.”

  Skeater finished crawling through the opening and stood up. That’s when he noticed Zia.

  “Whoa, who’s this?” Skeater asked, looking at Zia trying to size her up.

  “This is my new friend, Zia.”

  “Abe, you’re the man, but I barely got enough food for two. You two are gonna have to share.”

  “Thanks, Skeater,” I replied. “Sit down and make yourself at home.”

  Zia edged closer to me on the pallet and watched Skeater’s every move. Skeater was my age and a little taller, but he was a kick ass beggar. He was the reason why I was still alive. Without Skeater, I would have starved to death. He taught me how to find food and he looked out for me in his own way. He quickly divided up the food he brought and handed Zia half. She returned the favor by giving him one of the cups of water she had poured. She never took her eyes off him.

  “She’s kind of skittish, ain’t she?” Skeater said.

  “We had a nasty run in last night.”

  “Oh, with who?”

  “That gang over on 2nd street. The one that always taking our food.”

  “Man, did they beat you up again?”

  “And then some.”

  “You look okay, but where’s your crutch?”

  “I lost it, but I got this cane I’m using now.”

  “Wow, that’s pretty nice. You could hawk that for a pretty penny.”

  “Ham ain’t gonna do no such thing,” Zia said.

  Skeater held up his hands in surrender, but I saw him eye the cane again.

  “Hey, relax girl. It was just a suggestion. Ham can do what ever he wants with it. Ain’t none of my business.”

  I knew I had to say something so the two of them would quit sniping at each other.

  “Hey Skeater, you seen an old man pushin’ an old grocery cart anywhere ‘round here?”

  “Yeah, I saw him yesterday. Crazy old coot is walkin’ ‘round like he owns the place. I’m surprised nobody has robbed his ass yet. That shoppin’ cart got a lot of stuff in it.”

  “You talked with him?” Zia asked, sitting forward on the bed.

  “Yeah. He asked me if he could help me. I said sure, give me something worth a shit from that cart of yours. Crazy bastard just smiled and said he didn’t have nuttin’ for me. Then he walked on, left me standing there. Weird old man.”

  “Where was he?” I asked.

  “Last I saw him, he was walkin’ down 7th Ave. right into the burnt zone. I was gonna warn him to stay outta there, but I figured if he was crazy enough to go in there, then good riddance to him. Probably wouldn’t have listened to me anyhow.”

  “What’s the burnt zone?” Zia asked.

  “Man, where did you pick this girl up from anyway?” Skeater asked. “She don’t even know what the burnt zone is.”

  I looked at Zia.

  “It’s where most of the heavy fightin’ took place during the war. People get sick that go down there.”

  “Yeah, real sick, skin turns red and gets blisters, and some even die,” Skeater added. “Makes you sick in the head too. I figured that’s what must’ve happened to the old guy.”

  It didn’t take long for us to eat the meager rations that Skeater had brought over. Once we finished, Skeater got up to leave.

  “Goin’ so soon?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I gotta hit the road. I’m gonna go down to the shopping district and see what I can find. Besides, I don’t want to interrupt you two,” Skeater said, leering at Zia.

  Zia turned beat red and looked at me.

  “Get the hell outta here,” I said. “You don’t know what you’re talkin’ bout.”

  “Yeah, I’m goin’.”

  After Skeater left, Zia wouldn’t look at me for a few minutes. I figured she was embarrassed by Skeater’s remarks so I let her be. Finally, she looked at me.

  “I guess we have to go to the burnt zone.”

  “Yep, I guess so, but I want to go to your place tonight. I don’t like the way Skeater was looking at my cane.”

  “OK.”

  I climbed to my feet and we headed out to look for the old man.

  ***

  The burnt zone was an area of about ten square city bloc
ks. It used to be the center of the bustling financial district before the war. Now it was lots of burnt out skyscrapers and there were rumors that strange things lived there. I didn’t tell Zia about the rumors cause I’ve never been there myself. No sense scaring her anymore than she already was. Only the most desperate people went there and I figured we fell into that category now. We had to find the old man and get some answers about the weapons. If that’s where he went, then that’s where we were going too.

  It was still early morning when we took off. I thought about activating the cane so we could move faster, but then I didn’t know what we might meet so I thought better of it. No sense tiring myself out early when there was a chance of real danger ahead. So off I hobbled with Zia always slightly ahead scouting and making sure we met with no surprises.

  It took a couple of hours to reach the outskirts of the burnt zone. I had to rest a lot because of my knee and hip, but we kept pushing forward. The one thing I didn’t want to do was spend a night in that place. It didn’t matter about the rumors, but I’d seen the results of people who had scoffed at the danger there. The red skin and blisters were very real and painful. I didn’t know what actually caused them, but I didn’t want to find out either.

  I think we should look around the edge of this area before we go in,” I said. “Maybe we’ll be able to spot the old man without actually having to go too far in.”

  Zia shimmied up one of the old broken streetlights and looked down the length of the street.

  “I don’t see nothin’ down there,” she said.

  “OK, let’s move to next corner.”

  “Wait, I see something crossing the street, couple blocks down.”

  “What is it? The old man?”

  She shaded her eyes and squinted. She let out a yell, jumped down off the streetlight and landed square on her ass.

  “Oh my god,” she cried as I helped her up.

  “What did you see down there?”

  “I think it’s a man, but he was huge.”

  “OK, so you saw a guy. What’s the big deal?”

  “He was draggin’ a body behind him.”

  I let that sink in for a few minutes before saying anything else.

  “Maybe he was just helping out,” I said.

  “That body he was draggin’ wasn’t movin’. The big guy was draggin’ it by one leg and the other leg and arms were just floppin’ and trailin’ behind them. Does that sound like he was helpin’ out?”

  “No,” I replied, looking down the street trying to catch a glimpse of the guy. “I’m glad you didn’t see the old man down there too. Leave that big guy to do whatever he was doing. We don’t need to check that out.”

  We moved to the next corner and Zia climbed another streetlight. This time she saw nothing. We did this at each corner streetlight for about six blocks.

  “Zia, let’s start working our way back. I don’t want to go too far inside the burnt zone.”

  “Sure.”

  Zia worked her way backward climbing the streetlights like before. She was climbing the post on the last street on the outer edge of the burnt zone when she yelled down.

  “I see it. I see it.”

  “The old man is down there?”

  “No, but I see his shopping cart.”

  “How do you know its his?”

  “Who else do you know that walks around with all the junk stickin’ out. It’s his, I know it.”

  “Yeah, ok you’re probably right.”

  It was getting to be late afternoon. I had a bad feeling about being down here, but we’d spent most of the day looking for this guy. Who knows where he’d be tomorrow. We had to act now.

  “Climb down and we’ll go check it out.”

  The cart was parked along the curb a couple of blocks down the street. We made our way carefully, looking at every shadow for danger. When we finally reached the cart, there was no sign of the old man. We looked up and down the street and in all the alleyways. He was nowhere to be found.

  “I guess we’ll have to look inside these,” Zia said, motioning at the buildings that ran the length of the street.

  “It’ll take all night to search through these,” I said. I was trying to find an excuse not to stay any longer in this part of town. Even with our weapons, this place looked too scary.

  What the hell was the old man doing down here anyway, I thought.

  “We can come back tomorrow and look some more,” I said.

  “Yeah, let’s go and find some food somewhere. I’m starving.” Zia replied.

  That’s when we heard the noise. Something was banging inside the building right beside where the cart was parked. Zia looked at me.

  “I think the old man is inside.”

  “How do you know it’s him?”

  “Who else is crazy enough to come down here?”

  Zia had a point. No one I knew ever came down here.

  “I don’t know. Let’s be careful until we know for sure. Let’s hide until we see who it is.”

  Zia looked at me and made a face. I knew she was thinking I was acting like a scaredy-cat, but I wasn’t taking any chances down here. We hid in the next alley from the cart and peaked around the corner waiting for whoever or whatever to come out of the building. It’s a good thing we did.

  “Shit,” Zia whispered as the big guy she saw earlier came out of the building.

  He was huge all right, but he shuffled like I did. He was bent over, like his back hurt or something. He went right to the cart and began to push it back into the building.

  “What’s he doin’?” Zia whispered.

  “Looks like he’s stealin’ the old man’s cart. I knew that old man would get into trouble down here.”

  “What do we do now?’

  “We should follow him. I’ll bet that body he was draggin’ earlier was the old man.”

  “Follow him?” Zia asked, amazed. “But he’s like five times bigger than both of us put together.”

  “If he’s hurt the old man, then we gotta help him. He helped us. Without those memory weapons, we’d be dead.”

  “Damn, I don’t like this Ham. We should leave.”

  “No, we have to try and help. We’re a team, right?” I asked. “Partners. You cover my back and I cover yours. He may be big, but I don’t think he’s any match for these weapons we got.”

  “Yeah, OK. Let’s go before we lose him.”

  “I don’t think we need to worry much about that.”

  It was true. The huge gnarled man wasn’t doing anything to hide his movements. We stayed back far enough to keep him in sight, but not to let him see us and we followed him inside the building.

  “This is where I first saw him draggin’ the body,” Zia said.

  I looked around as we entered the building. It was dark, but it seemed to be mostly intact, almost like the bombs missed it during the war. The huge guy was pushing the cart through a door at the far end of the lobby. Zia ran after him. The man never turned around and went through the door. Zia caught the door before it closed.

  I looked at her and nodded my head. With one foot holding the door open, she reached behind her and pulled out her knife. She activated it immediately and twisted it to separate it into two lethal weapons. I reached the door and activated my cane. I immediately felt the searing pain, but I stood up straight and the surge of memories hit me. We looked at each other and burst through the door.

  Inside the room, the huge man was pushing the cart over to where the old man was stretched out on the floor.

  “Oh no, he’s killed him,” Zia screamed. “He’s probably gonna eat him next.”

  The huge man’s head spun around and he looked at us in surprise.

  “Get away from him,” I yelled.

  He grunted at the two of us and then straightened up. He stood in front of the old man and spread his arms wide trying to block our view of the body.

  “Get ready, he’s gonna charge us,” I said.

  “Oh my god, look at
him,” Zia squealed. “He’s a giant.”

  We both went into defensive stances and waited for his charge. The next sound we heard shocked us both. It was laughter coming from behind the giant.

  “He may look like a giant to you, but to me, he’s simply my friend.”

  I tried to look around the big man. Zia stood up with her mouth open. We both recognized that voice. It was the old man. The giant stepped aside and we saw the old man sit up on the makeshift bed on the floor.

  “I’m glad you both came to rescue me, but as you can see, I don’t need it.”

  “What’s going on?” I asked. “Who are you and who is he?” I asked pointing to the giant of a man.

  “That’s a long story that we should have over tea,” the old man answered.

  “Tea?” Zia asked.

  “Yes, Markus makes a very good cup of tea,” the old man said, putting a friendly hand on the giant’s hand. “Markus, if you would be so kind.”

  The giant nodded and shuffled into an adjoining room.

  “While we wait, sit down and I’ll explain why I chose you two.”

  “What do you mean chose us? I don’t like being here. Are we gonna get sick being in this building?” I asked.

  “Please sit with me and I’ll explain. And no, you won’t get sick. This building is actually outside the burnt zone. No one comes down here anymore. Over time the burnt zone territory has expanded outward by several city blocks, but no one has ever bothered to check the radiation levels. They just assume the whole area is contaminated. We are perfectly safe here.”

  We both deactivated our weapons and sat down on the floor next to his bed. I grimaced as the pain in my leg returned. I was so tired, I literally fell down, but I soon forgot my tiredness when old man began his story.

  “I’ll give you a brief history lesson so you’ll understand what I gave you.”

  Zia and I nodded.

  “There was a small movement that started near the end of the war. The world had gone mad and civilization had crumbled to nothing more than isolated pockets of despotism. There was a small group of men and women who had had enough of fighting and decided to try something different. They worked hard trying to rebuild the life they remembered before the war. A life full of good people who cared and helped one another.”

  “There was a world like that once?” I asked.