by Kip Nelson
While he looked at her it was as though the world hadn't ended and he didn't have to think about survival or piles of dead bodies or being tied up in a chair for days on end. Luis bowed his head in shame, and his entire body began tremble due to his disappointment in himself for not kissing Margaret. In his mind he could see it happening, and he wanted to, but it was as though something had a hold of his body and was paralyzing him. Margaret's eyebrows creased in the middle. She reached out a hand and clasped his tightly.
“I'm sorry,” he choked.
He was about to push himself up and run away, just like he always had run away, when suddenly Margaret leaned forward and planted her soft lips upon him. She tasted of strawberries, and as she kissed him he felt her sweet breath rush over him. A small murmur escaped his lips as their adventurous tongues darted and danced with each other, and their arms began wrapping around each other, their two bodies getting closer and closer, drawn by a powerful attraction.
“Wow,” Luis remarked when they came up for air.
Margaret giggled and sighed with contentment as she nuzzled her head into the nape of Luis' neck. She ran a hand along the side of his face and Luis closed his eyes, letting himself slip into this rare moment of affection. He did not know how many more of these moments he would have to enjoy along the way.
“Luis, tell me about your family,” Margaret said softly, so softly that her words were almost lost in the still of the night.
“I... can't,” he said.
“Luis, you have to be able to talk about these things with people. I can tell it's weighing heavily on you. You can trust me, please. I just want to know you.”
Luis kissed her on the forehead and felt her warm body close to his. He realized this is what he had been craving for so long, and he shouldn't turn his back on intimacy now. There was more to affection than the mere physical aspect. It was also about sharing innermost thoughts and desires, and the things that haunted a mind.
“It's not really just my family, it's my whole town. I always felt like a freak there. I was into comics and movies and TV shows, but everyone else was into partying and sports. Especially my dad. He wanted me to become some sort of all-star athlete and I tried. I mean, I went to all the clubs he took me to when I was a kid. I tried out for basketball, football, soccer, baseball, cross country, you name it I tried it, but I'm just one of those people that isn't built for it.
“I much preferred to think about other worlds and get lost in them. And I accepted my place as the black sheep, for the most part. But my family thought it was going to be a phase that I would grow out of. They said all these things were a waste of time, and they weren't actually going to help me in the real world. I only ever had one real friend, and we just happened to share the same stuff. We hung out a lot and always had dreams of what our lives would have been like had we been in different company.
“The more the years went on, the more of a disappointment I became to my parents. They said I couldn't even be good at being a geek because I wasn't smart and didn't get great grades, and I just started hating myself. To make it worse, my friend was changing. Now he was smart, and he started charging the other kids for doing their homework. Soon he had money to splash around and the others took notice. He started getting invited to parties, and before I knew it, he had been absorbed into the other crowd. It was like being in the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers. And I was all alone.
“And later, when I graduated high school and I had no plans, my father kept saying I should have stuck with sports because at least I'd have something to fall back on. I worked at a few jobs, but none of them were going to lead to a career. Eventually, they said when I turned twenty-one they were going to throw me out of the house and send me on my way. I guess they figured if I had no other choice I'd find something to do with my life. So, just before I turned twenty-one I left on my own terms. I didn't even say goodbye, I just left a note. And now I know I'll probably never see them again and I should be sad. I should be determined to get back to them, but all my life they treated me like I was nothing and I just can't bring myself to care.”
Margaret listened intently and when Luis finished shaking she kissed him on the cheek and hugged him tightly. “I'm so sorry,” she said.
“This is nice,” Luis said after a while of the two of them holding each other, and of burying his face in her hair and drowning in her feminine scent.
“Your dad is going to hate me, though.”
Margaret laughed. “It's the end of the world. What's he going to do, ground me?” They kissed again, all warm and loving and deep.
“I'm more worried about what he's going to do to me rather than you. That shotgun didn't seem friendly.”
“Ah, Daddy is harmless, really. He just knows how to act scary.”
“I'll try to remember that. Listen, Margaret, I don’t want to ruin the mood or anything, but I just wanted to make it clear that I am with Mack and Grace, and we're not going to be staying here forever.”
“I know,” she said, and the smile faded from her lips.
“But it just means we have to make the most of the time when you are here,” she said, and kissed him again.
Their bodies pressed tightly together, long into the wee hours of the night. The stars watched over them, and even though the outlook for the world was bleak, the two of them managed to find some sliver of happiness and affection.
When they finally climbed down from the tree they walked back hand in hand, enjoying each other’s company. Luis couldn't believe his luck, and wondered if the apocalypse was such a bad thing, as he never would have met Margaret otherwise. But as they said goodbye for the night, and he slipped into his bed, he saw the shape of Grace in the darkness. From the first moment he'd seen her he had been attracted to her, even though he knew so little about her. She and Margaret were opposite in many ways; Grace was reticent and withdrawn while Margaret was outspoken and loud, but there was still something about Grace that made her linger in his mind. However, he had been through enough heartbreak to know it was a waste of energy to give himself to the wrong person. Margaret was wonderful, and he would have been a fool to turn her down.
MACK WAS STILL AWAKE when he heard Luis slip into bed, and he allowed himself a secret smile as he thought of the young man sneaking off to spend time with the farmer's daughter. But he also knew he had to talk to Luis the following day about the etiquette of a gentleman before they landed themselves in a diplomatic situation. But Mack was pleased they had found this farm. It was an oasis compared to everything they had seen so far, and a powerful reminder that there were still decent people in the world and not everything had changed. Mack then allowed himself to sleep and prepared himself for the rigors of the following day.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
EARLIER THAT NIGHT…
Despite it being nighttime there was still much activity on the farm. Mack was lying in bed, not able to sleep until Grace and Luis had returned to bed. Elaine was reading in her bedroom. Grace still was staring out at the night that lay before her, at the infinite universe that held within it all number of possibilities and wonders. Yet her mind was on different things as she tried dealing with all the difficult feelings that resided within her soul. Luis and Margaret were in the tree, enjoying each other’s company. That left only Willie and Luke, who were walking toward the large barn.
“What do you make of them?” Luke asked. Willie grunted.
“I don't know. They seem okay, but you never know in this day and age. We'll just let them stay for a while and then they can move on. Don't say anything to them.”
“They're going to find out, they're not idiots.”
“We just need to keep quiet about it. They're not going to ask questions about what they don't know. You know the agreement we made. They'll move on their way and things will go back to normal.”
“Do you think the thing about the bunker was true?”
“I'd be surprised if it wasn't. That's all the more reason why we have to keep this
deal going. I don't want to end up like them.”
“That Mack guy seems pretty intelligent, though. If we told him, maybe he could help.”
Willie stopped walked and gripped his son's arm tightly. Even in the dim light of the night, Luke could see the panic on Willie's face. “Don't you dare say anything! You heard what Mack said. A military bunker was taken down. You think we'd stand a chance? I don't like this any more than you do, but I want to keep my farm, and if this is the price to pay, then so be it. We have to adapt to this new world. It's no different than paying taxes.”
“It is, and you know it. This isn't freedom,” Luke challenged. Willie stared at his son.
“I'm just trying to keep you all safe, and this is the only way I know how. You think I want to see the farm go up in flames? I've brought you in on this because you're going to be the man of the house if anything happens to me. I want to know I can count on you if anything happens.”
“Of course you can,” Luke said, but his eyes betrayed his words. Clearly, he was nervous and not convinced his father was doing the right thing, but there was little he could do about it. The two men walked to the barn and opened the huge doors.
“Help me get this stuff loaded,” Willie said.
The barn was positioned in such a way that the moonlight poured into the wide open doorway and illuminated what they were doing. They gathered up meat and vegetables they had gathered and put it all into a wheelbarrow. It was not an insubstantial amount of food, and represented a lot of labor for the small family.
“We could live off this for days,” Luke said, “it's not fair.”
“Life ain't fair, son. The sooner you realize that the better off you'll be. We've still got enough to keep us fed. Just work quickly. They'll be here soon.”
Luke remained quiet while they loaded the rest of the supplies, and Willie kept an eye out for anyone sneaking up on them. The last thing he wanted was for one of the strangers to begin poking their nose into their business.
“You know, I don't like the way Margaret was sniffing around Luis,” Luke said.
“She's nineteen, what do you expect? She's a smart girl, she won't do anything stupid.”
“I'm not worried about what she's going to do, I'm worried about him.”
“Yeah, well, if he knows what's good for him, he'll be smart about it, too. Anyway, I don't mind too much. It keeps them occupied, and they're not going to be coming around here. You need to relax son; you're always wound up so tight about everything that someday you're just going to pop. Only worry about things you can control, that's what you've gotta do.”
“Yes Pop,” Luke said, but he didn't seem convinced. Willie pulled out a pocket watch and angled it so the face caught the moonlight and he could see it.
“Come on, we don't have much time,” he said.
The two of them put some extra effort into loading the last few things into the large wheelbarrow then moved it out of the barn. Luke closed the doors behind him and the two men made their way to the boundary of the farm, cloaked in darkness. As they approached the rendezvous point Willie's temples glistened with sweat and Luke became more aware of his breathing.
“I thought you weren't worried?” he asked his father.
“I never said that. I just said you shouldn't worry about things you can't control. Make no mistake about it, these people are the kinds of people you should be afraid of, but as long as we give them what they want they'll leave us alone. They should be here soon. You just keep quiet and don't say anything unless they speak to you.”
Willie huffed as he set down the wheelbarrow, then he pulled a handkerchief out of his back pocket and ran it over his forehead. He peered out in the darkness, and there they waited for a few minutes in silence. The trees around them hung peacefully and, for a while, there was no trace of anything. Willie even started thinking that perhaps they weren't coming. Maybe they had attacked another group and had fallen to the sword by which they had lived. But then, in the distance, he heard the rolling sound of a wagon and the soft hum of hushed voices. Before too long they emerged from the forest, two men sitting on the wagon and one leading the horses that pulled it. It was a small wagon, one that could make it through the forest, and it already was loaded with supplies from other people with whom they had similar arrangements.
“Good evening, Willie, Luke,” one of the men said, tipping his hat to the two farmers.
He remained sitting on the wagon while the other man climbed down. Willie didn't know any of their names, nor did he care to, but they used his freely. Since he only had met them in darkness, Willie never had had a good look at their faces. Two of them were tall and one was leaner than the other. The man who did most of the talking had a thick beard, while the other two were clean-shaven. The one on the ground was the youngest and he didn't seem to take too much interest in what was happening.
“Evening, sir,” Willie said.
“How's life been treating you?” the man said.
“Not too bad, just getting by, day by day.”
“That's all we can do in this kind of world.”
“How about yourself?”
“Oh, fine, just fine. This world is full of new opportunities and each day brings with it some new surprises. Do you have our payment?”
“Of course, right on schedule,” Willie said, and pushed the wheelbarrow to the back of the cart.
As he got closer the other man sitting on the wagon jumped down and pushed Willie aside, taking control of the wheelbarrow. When Willie looked up he saw a mean gleam in the man's eyes, and knew better than to protest. He meekly stepped back beside Luke and waited for them to move on. The two men who now were on the ground loaded up the supplies onto the wagon, counting out everything as they did so. All the while the man sitting atop the wagon kept his eyes on Willie, and the farmer felt himself grow more tense with every passing moment. In a world where the mightiest had all the power he knew that anything could happen. If this man so chose he could have taken Willie's life and there was nothing Willie could do about it.
“We got a problem, boss,” the man with the meanness in his eyes called out. The man in charge ran his tongue around his mouth and spat out onto the ground as he turned his head and looked behind him, while Willie exchanged a nervous glance with Luke.
“What's that then?” the man in charge said.
Willie's breath became sharper and he felt his knees going weak. His mind flashed to everything he and Luke had done, trying to figure out if they had collected everything they had meant to. He was sure of it, he was sure they hadn't left anything behind.
“There's not enough here,” the man in the back said, shrugging and shaking his head. Upon hearing the words, the man in charge inhaled deeply and slowly turned back. He leaned forward slightly and looked down sternly upon Willie and Luke.
“Did you hear that? My boys say there's not enough,” he said.
“Tha-that can't be right. We counted it all and made sure you had what you always get. We double-checked, there's nothing left.”
“You calling these good men liars?”
“No-no, not at all, all I know is we've given you the same as last time.”
“Ah, I see where the mistake is,” the man said. He leaned back and scratched the side of his face, looking as though he was considering something. His eyes roved the night sky and then fell upon Willie and Luke again.
“What you've got to understand is that, given the nature of the world, we're going to be bringing in more and more people, and what was enough to feed us one week isn't going to be enough the next. And you're going to have to take that into account.”
“Really though, we've given you as much as we can. We don't have any more. We are just a small family and we need to eat as well.”
“I understand completely, but we've agreed to protect you and we'd like for you to keep your independence. This farm has a lot of land that's ripe for the taking, and if we needed to we could send some people over here to help you,
but we'd like to think you could take care of it yourself.”
Luke was about to say something but Willie shot out a hand and placed it on his chest to stop him.
“We're working as hard as we can and, you know, we d-do appreciate everything you o-offer us, but there are limits, and this is still America. I still have a right to my land and I'll defend it.”
As Willie said this the men started to laugh. The ones at the back walked to the front and flung down the wheelbarrow at Willie and Luke's feet. Then they all pushed their jackets aside to brandish their weapons. Willie gulped but the lump in his throat just wouldn't go away.
“I admire your attitude, but the last thing any of us wants is for this farm to be tarnished with a battle. That being said, we don't like to take no for an answer, and you know what will happen if you don't meet our demands. Next time we come I expect you to have enough for us. Otherwise, Mr. Smith might have to pay you a visit himself, and he is far less forgiving than I am.” With that the wagon turned slowly and moved away in the darkness, leaving Luke and Willie alone.
Willie never had met Mr. Smith but the name had been dropped a few times in the short conversations he had had with these people. All he knew for sure was Mr. Smith was not the type of person he wanted to meet. He sighed and picked up the wheelbarrow, then wheeled it back to the barn.
“What are we going to do? We can't give them any more than we already have. It was hard enough getting that lot for them,” Luke said.
“We'll figure out a way. It'll be fine. They're just trying to scare us. They need our expertise more than anything else, so they're not going to kill us. We'll give them a little extra next time, and it should be fine.”
“It's not fine, though, is it Pop? You know how this is going to go. They're going to take and take until we're giving them everything we've got. I'd rather put up a fight and take some of them out with us than just bend over--”
Willie cut him off immediately, letting go of the wheelbarrow and rounding on his son. “Don't let me hear you talk like that again. This ain't the time to be fools. We've got to know our place. I don't like it any more than you, but the most important thing we can do is go on living, to see another day. I'm not going to throw that away just for some stupid fight against people we can't hope to beat. This is the way things are, and they're not going to change any time soon. So keep your head down and do what I tell you.
