“Ha! Not funny!” I hissed. “Did any of you check to see whether all this noise stirred up someone? Something? We can’t remain here. It’s way too open. We can be seen from far! Let’s move”
With this I started across the road.
But Nin’s voice stopped me. “Wait, Lia, we have to think of how to get home. We can’t just walk up to the tunnel. That way the remaining dogs could easily follow our scent. This might cause problems any time we’d try to leave it. Also, it could give our secret entrance away.”
He was right!
“And what do you suggest we do instead?” I asked.
“We wait over there by that first house. See. From the garden of that house we have a good view onto the path. And we can shoot any dog that will try to get up here. If they don’t follow us up here we’ll know that we’re safe.”
This seemed a sound suggestion. After the fright of the last twenty minutes, my nerves started to show, I was trembling all over. In order for the others not to see, I walked briskly forward and lead the way to the house Nin had mentioned. Alice stayed very close to me, Yuki came next and Nin brought up the rear this time.
There was a little terrace in front of the house, with a bench along its wall. Yuki and Alice sat down on the bench. I silently handed Yuki my binoculars and she immediately started scanning the area while I went to crouch beside Nin at the edge of the terrace.
We remained there for about two hours. But nothing ever happened. No dogs coming up the path. No suspicious movements anywhere. Because of the noise of the nearby river we couldn’t hear what was going on down where I had shot the dogs.
But when birds began to sing in the trees just below from where we sat and two squirrels chased each other up and down the branches, we heaved a collective sigh of relief and began to relax.
“That was a close shave!” Nin grinned.
“Way too close for comfort.” I replied, somehow angry that he thought it was fun. “We’ll have to devise some kind of contingency plan for such situations, you know. That was far too dangerous. And, I think I’d prefer if all of us except Alice always carried a gun when outside. And, we’ll definitely have to organise more binoculars, and soon.”
“Can’t you ever just enjoy the moment?” Nin exclaimed. “Do you always have to be planning and scheming? This is really getting on my nerves!”
“Don’t you scold Lia, Nin! She’s just stating the obvious.” Yuki defended me. “We really have to be more careful in future.”
And when Nin didn’t show any sign of conceding, she stabbed a finger at his chest. “Don’t you look at me like this, Ninian, I mean it. This could easily have ended in a disaster. And well you know. Had we been any further away from that bridge. Just imagine how things would have played out had the dogs been in front of us rather than behind! It was scary and I don’t want to experience something like this ever again!”
She didn’t mention her pregnancy and the fact that in just a few weeks’ time she wouldn’t be able to run as we’d done today. Nin got the message anyway and his silly grin collapsed as he realized how stressed out Yuki was. He didn’t say anything, just stepped forward and embraced her. Which was all she’d needed all along. Her relief was palpable.
After a last careful scanning of our surroundings we decided to call it a day and slowly made our way back to the tunnel entrance.
“I don’t want to pass that house with the dead bodies. It’s too scary.” Alice whispered.
Neither did any of us and so we decided to take the long way and walked along the tarmac road up toward our house. By doing this, we could inspect the area to the West of our house and get an idea how much damage had been done to that road as well as the one which lead to our house.
I just hoped that we wouldn’t pass any further evidence of death. But we were lucky.
We moved slowly and carefully along the road, stopping every now and then to listen for unusual sounds and checking things out.
At one house Nin insisted on inspecting the garage, because its owner had had a big four-wheel car and the house, the garage as well as the road leading up to it were totally undamaged. Sure enough, the car stood in there, not a scratch on its blue body.
“Perfect, just perfect!” Nin exclaimed and stepped around the car to try the door. It was locked, of course. But a quick search of the garage revealed an unlocked key-holder box with the car’s keys, two sets of it, inside. Nin retrieved them both and suggested that we drive from here, but Yuki and I disagreed. We didn’t know whether the road was passable further up where the bombs had fallen. To drive by car was silly and dangerous. Nin finally agreed but took the keys along with him anyway.
Yuki and I had been right all along, just thirty metres further up the road was damaged. And no car would be able to pass here.
“We’ll have to drive the car the other direction and up the little path by the meadow.” Nin suggested.
“But not now!” Yuki hissed.
“No, not now, but soon. We can park it by the farm house. In a barn. There’s plenty of space there to hide it.”
Nin was obviously very enthusiastic about that car.
Before they could start a real quarrel, Alice and I intervened. She by taking Yuki’s hand and I by pointing out to Nin that the best time for moving the car would be either at dawn or dusk so that the moving car could not be seen from far. I suggested that we might do it tomorrow morning early. This seemed like an acceptable solution to both of them and we were able to proceed on our way home without further ado.
All the houses we passed now along the way had been damaged by bombs. And the road was a total mess, too. No way any car could pass along here. But on foot it was easy to reach our house. Some of the bombs had fallen into the nearby forest and lots of trees had fallen over, thankfully none over the little path we followed. The plus side of this all was that the rubble from the bombed out houses, the destroyed road and the fallen trees made for an effective barrier westward of our house. Nobody could approach our house from this side with a vehicle. And, unless they were familiar with our area, they would find it quite difficult to reach it even on foot.
This came as a distinct relief to me. After all, we couldn’t yet be sure that Steve or anyone else from the Nemesis didn’t contemplate coming back here and checking where we were.
We reached the tunnel entrance without any further problems.
By now I was a bit worried about Alice. She’d been too quiet since we’d been chased by the dogs.
As we walked the last metres toward our home she’d clung to my hand like a maniac and she only released her grip once we entered the fitness room and locked the door behind us.
I knelt down in front of her.
“Alice, are you okay? I know you got a nasty scare today. We all have.”
It was as if I had pressed a button or so. She hurled herself into my arms and started to sob, uttering words that we were unable to understand. I lifted her up and carried her to the sofa. There I sat down with her, enfolding her within my arms and letting her cry herself out. It took quite some time, before she’d calmed down a bit and could tell us all how she felt.
“I don’t want to go out there anymore, never again! At least not tomorrow. And I want Mum! And Nate!” She wailed. “Where are they? Why can’t they be here? Why did Mum go away? I want Mum!!”
Yuki sat down on the other side of Alice and started rubbing her feet, but Alice kicked her. Nin was about to intervene, but Yuki gestured him to remain silent.
I didn’t really know what to say, but I tried. “Alice, darling, I know you are very, very upset now. And that’s perfectly okay. We all are. We all got a very big scare today. Maybe Nin doesn’t want to show, but even he was scared when we ran from the dogs.”
I paused, uncertain of how to proceed. “But we have to be brave now, all of us, Alice. I don’t mean that you are not allowed to be afraid and to cry like you do now. That’s perfectly okay. And all of us feel a bit worried and reluctant at the
thought of tomorrow and another outing. But we have to do it. We have to go out and be brave. Conquer what is out there. Dad, Mum, Nate and Uncle Phil and also aunt Kamene would not want us to remain indoors. They expect us to be brave. Don’t you think?”
Nin clearly didn’t think highly of my attempt to calm Alice down, for he was rolling his eyes. But Alice had by now accepted Yuki’s rubbing of her feet and settled into a more comfortable position on the sofa. I silently handed her Piglet and Malinda and she clutched them tight.
I tried some more.
“You know, Alice, when I was alone out there, the thought of you, of Nin and Yuki, too, but mostly of you, kept me going. I knew that I had to make it back to you. And that I would then bring you safely to Mum and Nate. That made me tolerate the cold and the loneliness, the danger and the ugly things I saw. And yesterday, when we left the sub-basement for the first time together, I was scared. I felt like I didn’t want to leave this nice warm and cosy place we have down here ever again. But I conquered my fear, we left the shelter and everything was alright. Today we ran into trouble and I was scared, just like you, but I will not let my fear deter me from going out there again. And you can do the same, Alice! It would be stupid, not to be afraid of the unknown out there. But we would be cowards were we not trying to conquer our fears. And, don’t you agree, we want to reach Mum and Nate; we want to get to Kenya. In order to achieve that, we must go out. What do you think? Will you come with us tomorrow?”
She lifted her head a little, just enough to whisper. “Maybe!”
Then she sank back onto the sofa, covering her face with Piglet and Malinda.
About ten minutes later Yuki looked over to me and whispered. “I think she’s fallen asleep.”
Sure enough, she was sound asleep. It would do her good. We covered her with a blanket and Yuki made me remain with her while she and Nin went to prepare dinner.
This was fine by me; there was a lot to think about.
I needed to come to terms with what had happened today. And preferably alone, without listening to what Yuki and Nin had to say about it.
As I had run across that bridge, I had been convinced that my life was about to end. Raw fear, but even more so the urge to protect Alice, and Yuki and Nin, had given me the strength to sprint over the bridge, kneel down and calmly take aim and kill those dogs.
But boy had I been scared!
Now, I felt good, exhilarated even.
What had amazed me most, down there, was the almost clinical detachment I had felt as I had pulled the trigger again and again! I would never have thought me capable of that much cool level-headedness.
After all, I really wasn’t an experienced shot. I had only ever pursued shooting to oblige Uncle Phil without enjoying it much. Because I lacked the competitive spirit, as Uncle Phil claimed.
But he had insisted that we got a thorough training in handling guns. How right he’d been! Dear, suspicious, scheming Uncle Phil! Had it not been for him, we might all be dead by now. Much as I hated it, had it not been for his insistence all those many years ago, we might have been killed today. I had acted without thinking today. To run, turn around, take aim and fire had all happened like in a haze. I whispered a silent “Thank you!” and vowed to follow Uncle Phil’s advice more closely now. Just let us reach him, them, Kenya. Safely and soon!
We woke Alice for dinner and she was clearly feeling a lot better and perkier. In her usual way of transferring her fears to Piglet, she lectured him a bit about being such a coward.
“You know, Piglet,” she informed him. “You have to be brave, like me and Malinda. We were all very scared today when the dogs chased us. Sure. But Malinda and I will go out with Lia tomorrow. Coz we are brave. You have to do the same; can you?”
“I think he will, little tiger.” I replied in his stead, holding her close for a moment. “If we all help him, he will manage; don’t you think?”
She simply nodded her agreement, looking a bit dubious. We would have to be careful not to put too much pressure on her.
But she must conquer this fear.
We had to adjust to this situation; we had to learn, each of us, to not be afraid when going outside. In fact, and to be honest, this outing today had done me good. Of course I had been shit-scared when the dogs had charged after us. But I had managed! I had overcome my fear, my trembling inside and had managed to stop them. I, for one, no longer felt afraid!
Strange! But now I knew that I would manage. That cold fear that had haunted me for days, was gone. It felt exhilarating. It truly did.
We would have to find a way to help Alice conquer her fears. Slowly and gently. She would manage. That I was certain of. She was one of a kind. She would cope. She just needed a bit of time. And if blaming Piglet that he was the family’s top coward was her solution to that problem, so much the better.
Soon after dinner we put Alice, Piglet and Malinda to bed. Alice wanted me to come to bed with her too, but we explained her that we needed to discuss something and that I would follow soon. She accepted this under the condition that we remained with her until Malinda and Piglet had fallen asleep. Which we did of course. We left them all, Alice snoring gently by now, ten minutes later.
We settled down on the sofas and Nin informed me about his plans.
“Lia, I already discussed this with Yuki and she agrees. Tomorrow morning early, before dawn, I want us, you and me, to go and fetch that car. What do you think? And then, after breakfast, we can take a trip to that optician shop in the neighbouring village, you know the one where Nate got his glasses. I am sure I saw binoculars in their window last time I passed there. We need binoculars, all of us! That’s really a priority for me! Of course we’ll go armed. From now onwards, nobody is to leave the shelter without being armed! Okay?”
“Sounds good to me, Nin. It will do us all some good to venture a bit further from our house. And, it will allow Alice to go outside while being within the relative safety of a car.” I paused and added solemnly. “Unless someone follows us in a car, we ought to be safe.”
Yuki looked alarmed at that and Nin annoyed.
“You have to agree, Nin, that it’s risky going about in just one car. To have two would be a lot better.”
“No.” This came from Yuki. “I don’t want us to be separate when we are out there. Maybe once Josh and the others come, it will be okay, but now that we are only the four of us I want us to remain together, at all times. If anything were to happen, let it happen to us all!”
Nin agreed with her, even though he obviously didn’t expect anything to happen to us at all.
And so I didn’t pursue the issue. I still thought that we would be far too much of a target in just one car. But maybe luck would be on our side, again. And besides, we hadn’t seen any trace of other human beings around here, so, maybe we really were alone here.
We would see.
“And I also agree with you that we should never again leave the shelter without being armed. I have said so all along. And, we’ll have to teach Alice how to handle a gun or pistol, won’t we?”
Yuki nodded and Nin congratulated me on my shooting skills again, which made me glance at him dubiously. Was he trying to make fun of me?
“It was sheer damn luck, and you know it!”
I said it maybe with a bit too much force, for he looked at me in surprise.
“Hey, I meant this as a compliment, honestly! No need to bark at me!”
“Sorry, it’s just, we all know that I am not a good shot. And, I was surprised myself when I managed to take down the first two dogs without taking much aim. But, I think it was the pressure and the anxiety for you which made me act without thinking much. It was kind of automatic. Maybe all these years of practising with Dad and Uncle Phil helped, after all.”
“Whatever the reason, I am truly grateful that you managed to stop that pack of wild dogs! And I am proud of you. Very proud of you, sis!”
“And I am very happy that we are all okay.” Yuki added pens
ively. “But you know what’s strange. I was so afraid, when we were running. So afraid! For us, for myself, for the baby! But then, up there by the house, on the terrace, I felt good! As if facing the danger helped me focus! Before, during all those long days here in the sub-basement I have been afraid and scared of going out, of seeing a different world. And, when you, Lia, came back and told us of the horrible things you had witnessed, part of me felt like never wanting to leave the shelter of the sub-basement. But today, despite the danger, it felt good! It was dangerous; sure, but we managed and I think we will also succeed in future!”
Nin enfolded her in his arms, kissing her fervently.
“I love you; so much!” He whispered.
Wonderful! Another one overexcited! Was I the only one here to see things in perspective?
I kind of had enough of my family member’s heroics. So I got up and said, “Just don’t overrate today’s experience, won’t you. These were dogs, hungry dogs in search of food. No humans bent on a murderous quest. Oh, and sleep well.”
Without waiting for their replies I went to bed.
But sleep eluded me for a long time. Instead I wondered about Josh. Where he might be by now? How I missed him!
Please, please, let him make it here! Please! I need him. I want him. I want to get to know him better. I want him to be a real part of my life. Please, give us this chance! Let me see him again!! Let him reach here safely!
Repeating these thoughts like a mantra over and over again, I finally fell asleep.
No bad dreams haunted my dreams, no nightmares of dogs chasing after me. Instead I dreamt of Kenya, of Uncle Phil’s farm. We were approaching it, running toward it. Alice was there and Nin and Yuki, and some other people that I didn’t recognize. Where was Josh? And Mum, Nate, Uncle Phil and Aunt Kamene stood there, awaiting us. But where was Josh? If felt certain that he was there with us, yet I couldn’t see him.
But before I had time to search for him, I was rudely awakened from my dreams by somebody shaking my shoulders.
Chapter 17 – Steve again
Lia's files 1_Presumed extinct Page 31
