Innocence Lost

by T A Williams

  Now Ally had Tiger and Tiger had her. She wondered if, when she got older, she would look back and think of this as her fourth life. And if so what would she be doing then? She hoped by then she would have more people to talk to outside of Tiger and the lady at the trading booth.

  Ally came up upon a large drop off and ten or so feet down was an old creek bed. She looked around and couldn’t see a way to safely climb down, and for a moment considered just turning around and going home until she saw a light in the distance coming closer. Ally dropped down to her belly and pulled Tiger down next to her.

  “Tiger, stay and be quiet.” The dogs ears went back and he dropped his head again but didn’t make a sound.

  She used the high brush to conceal herself and watched as the light spilt into two as it got closer until finally she could make out two people walking down the creek bed with torches. The men stopped a distance from her and just stood there. Ally kept her hand on Tiger’s neck so she could grab him if he tried to move or started growling, but the dog remained quiet.

  The snap of a twig came from the other side of the creek bed, causing both Tiger and Ally to jump slightly. A small slender man walked below her using only the moon light to guide him and approached the men with torches. As he approached the men with torches stopped walking and waited for him.

  “This the guy?” the man on left asked.

  “Yep, this is him.” The voice sounded familiar to Ally. “I forgot his name though.”

  The slender man stopped a few yards from them. “You can call me Hicks. So you all interested?”

  The man on the left took a few steps forward and Hicks took one back.

  “Ethan says you have a large stash of smokes you’re willing to part with.”

  The slender man nodded. “For the right price. My people found a van full of them when the shit hit the fan. You can smoke a pack a day and have enough for close to a year.”

  The name Ethan sounded familiar as well. The men were still too far away for her to make them out and the flames from the torches caused the shadows to dance over the creek bed.

  “So what are you looking for?”

  Hicks glanced towards the man on the right and then back to the man on the left. “Ethan said you had a bunch of guns from the military guys that used to be around here. He said you all would be willing to part with a dozen of them with enough ammo to go around.”

  “Is that so Ethan?” The man on the left lifted his torch towards Ethan, casting away the darkness and revealing the man she had run into in the alleyway. Ethan gave a goofy grin and shrugged his shoulders.

  Hicks took a step back, his head swinging back and forth from Ethan to the man on the left. “I don’t have anything with me and I don’t know where they put the smokes so don’t-“

  Suddenly, the man on the left swung his torch at Hicks’ head, knocking him off his feet and causing the flames to explode all around the man’s head.

  Tiger started to growl and Ally quickly grabbed ahold of him, stopping him for the moment. “Quiet Tiger, don’t move.” she whispered.

  In the creek bed Hicks rolled on the ground, covering his face. The man on the left stood over him.

  “You know where the smokes are. Or at the very least you know somebody who knows. You really want to die for some goddamn cigarettes?”

  Hicks stopped rolling and looked up at the man. “You really going to kill someone for them?”

  The man on the left let out a quick bellow and looked to Ethan. “I like this guy,” he turned his attention back to Hicks. “Of course I’m ready to kill for that many smokes. You know what I could get for that many cancer-sticks? I wouldn’t die for them, but I would kill for them.”

  Hicks looked to Ethan and the man once again shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t really know or care what was going on.

  “Alright, you let me go and-“

  “Wrong answer.”

  The man on the left pulled out a large knife and before Ally could close her eyes he buried it into the side of Hicks. Ally let out a yelp that was covered up by the man’s screams. She held on tighter to Tiger who shuffled about but didn’t move.

  The man on the left pulled out the knife which was now red with blood. “I’ll give you another chance Hicks. You tell me the truth now and I’ll let you go and there is a chance you’ll recover.”

  Hicks rolled to the far side of the creek and after a few moments stopped screaming. “If I tell you,” his voice came out in large sobbing gasps. “If I tell you then I’m a dead man.”

  “You tell me and I promise to let you go, you don’t then I can guarantee you’re going to bleed out here in the middle of nowhere. It’s your choice.”

  Ethan finally stepped forward. “Roy, you gut him then we’re shit out of luck.”

  The man on the left, Roy, waved him off. “We’ll find them eventually.” He bent down and put the knife up to the wounded man’s face. “But if we have to search I’ll make sure that I kill anyone and everyone that is connected to this little shit stain.”

  Hicks threw out his elbow, scoring a glancing blow on the side of Roy’s face but the man barely budged. Instead he smiled and plunged the knife back into the wounded man. Then he did it again, and again.

  Ally felt her food rising from her stomach and couldn’t handle it. She didn’t want to be there. She didn’t want to see this. She wanted to go home. Tiger jumped up as the man’s screams climbed and began to bark. At first the screams drowned out the barks but as the life began to leave the man his screams became softer and Tiger’s barks remained the same.

  “The fuck is that?” Ethan asked as he looked back and his eyes fell on the dog.

  Ally jumped to her feet and ran, knowing that Tiger would follow. She heard the shouts coming from the creek bed but she knew it would take the men awhile to climb up to where they were. She was aware of Tiger running beside her so she didn’t bother looking back. She ran as fast as she could, hoping that somehow her legs could take her back to one of her old lives so she wouldn’t be alone anymore.

  Ben

  Ben watched the dust particles dance in the sunlight coming from the window. The room had a musty smell and the small breeze coming from the cracked windows wasn’t enough to totally rid them of the smell, but they were safe, for now.

  They had decided to hide in an old hotel building situated in the middle of the downtown area. They had settled on the top floor, four stories up, which gave them a good vintage point to watch what was going on in the town below. Just as Mason had predicted, the men hadn’t left the town. Instead, for the last couple of days they had been patrolling the streets in their trucks. The trucks always had several men in the back and each of them carried an assault rifle.

  Zima, who had been peering out the window for several minutes, finally sat back against the wall. “No set patterns, which I expected. They’re just roaming around hoping to run into us.”

  Mason walked into the room. “Ben, got a second?”

  “Yeah.”

  Ben followed Mason into one of the neighboring rooms. Once he entered Mason handed him the assault rifle, they confiscated from the man when they first got into town.

  “There is a chance we’ll need your help when the shit hits the fan.”

  Ben held the large gun in front of him and just stared at it. The thing wasn’t as heavy as he imagined it would be, but it definitely looked more complicated than he expected.

  Mason pointed at the safety. “Switch it off and it’s good to go.” He came around Ben and had him pull up the gun and aim it at the wall. He pulled the butt of the gun against Ben’s shoulder “You look down the sights and squeeze the trigger. It’s going to pull, so short bursts help you keep it accurate.”

  “How long is a short burst?” Ben asked.

  “Just for a second. It’ll take you a couple of times but you’ll figure it out.”

  Mason taught him how to change the magazine and then showed him how to carry the gun properly. Ben soaked
it all up. Mason talked to him like an equal, not like he was an inexperienced child. After a few minutes he stopped.

  “Those are the basics. Any questions?”

  Ben kept his attention on the gun. “No, I think I got it.”

  “The first time you shoot someone, you’re going to focus on the damage the gun has done; don’t. You make sure the person is dead and then you move onto your next target, understand? If in doubt, two shots to the chest and one in the head. They won’t be getting up from that.”

  “Am I going to need to use it?” Ben asked trying to keep the fear from his voice.

  Mason was quiet for a moment. “Sooner or later. Things aren’t going to be getting better any time soon. If not today, then tomorrow. Can you handle that?”

  “Yes sir.”

  Mason smiled.

  Zima came into the room. “Looks like they are harassing the locals.”

  They made their way to the far side of the hotel and looked out towards the diner. One of the trucks was pulled up there and the men were standing about with the rifles in the air. One of the men had one of the people Zima and Mason had talked to earlier pinned up against the building.

  “Where they hell did they go?” his voice floated up to them.

  “I…I dunno. I swear. They took off downtown, I’m not even sure they stuck around.”

  The man took his rifle and slammed the butt of it into the local’s stomach. The man doubled over and fell to the ground.

  “If you see them you better tell us. If we find out you’re hiding shit from us then we’re mowing your asses down.”

  The rest of the people nodded and kept their heads to the ground. Zima and Mason stepped away from the window.

  “We’re going to have to do something soon before that gets out of hand.” Mason said.

  Zima nodded. “Hope they’d lose interest and think we left, but it looks like they’re not that dumb. Rook is still out scouting. Once we get a better idea of the layout of this town we’ll be able to start knocking them down.”

  The truck pulled away from the diner and made its way slowly down the street. When the truck went out of view Ben stepped away from the window and caught Zima looking at him and the assault rifle in his hands.

  “If need be you going to be able to use that?”

  Ben looked to Mason, who smiled and nodded his head.

  “Yes, sir.”

  Zima glanced at Mason. “Well alright then.

  Alec

  “Move!”

  Alec had already taken off before Freddie shouted. His already tired legs burned as he pushed them past the fatigue towards the cover of a nearby tree. He sprung off his feet, rolled and slammed into the tree and into cover. Not pretty but effective.

  “Alec, cover me.”

  Alec held tight to the assault rifle and swung around the cover of the tree. If they were able to spare the ammo this would have been when he laid down covering fire, but since they couldn’t he just went through the motions. Freddie ran past him and took position behind a tree ten yards in front of him. Then Freddie peeked out and pretended to lay down covering fire so Trevor could move up.

  These were the games they played now. It was hard not to feel ridiculous as they were out in the woods pretending to fight imaginary attackers; the only thing that kept him going was the memory of what had happened. It wasn’t a matter of if it would happen again, it was when; there was no doubt in Alec’s mind.

  He watched as Trevor pretended to lay down covering fire and he wished there was another option. Trevor was one of the few people who had any medical knowledge, and his place should be with the others, not out in the thick of things, but they didn’t have much of a choice. Their settlement was filled with old men and women, people who had no place running around or fighting. So their defense force consisted of Alec, Freddie, Trevor, Margie, and Malcolm. None of them had any combat training and they barely had enough ammo to split amongst them.

  Trevor attempted to jump over a fallen tree and Alec watched as his foot caught the top, sending him tumbling end over end. Everyone stopped and waited, Trevor answered quickly.

  “Dammit, I’m ok.” He slowly got up and started to put pressure on his right foot and grimaced. “Or ok-ish.”

  Alec ran to him and gave the man a hand.

  “I think I just bruised my knee I’m alright, might need some help getting home but I’ll survive.”

  “Hey Trev, there was a tree there.” Freddie joked as he helped steady the man.

  “I saw the tree, I just didn’t realize I was getting old.”

  “What do you know about old?” Malcolm asked as he hobbled over, clearly out of breath.

  Margie kicked a branch towards her father and told him to shut up. Margie’s nose still had a slight curve to it from when it had been broken previously but the rest of her bruises had cleared up; the physical ones anyway. Alec still heard her wake up screaming in the night from time to time.

  “You’re lucky you don’t fall over your own feet Dad.”

  Malcolm smiled at her. “That might be, but I’m walking home on my own two right now aren’t I?”

  “Alright Margie, whenever you need something, come find me. Malcolm, fuck you. And Freddie, fuck you.” Trevor looked to Alec.

  Alec raised his hands up in the air. “I’m at least going to wait until you’re out of earshot before I start making fun of you.”

  “I guess that’s just common courtesy, but fuck you too.”

  Freddie came over and helped brace Trevor and they began their trek back home. After a few minutes Malcolm took over for Alec so he fell back next to Margie who was taking her time and looking for berries.

  “Find anything?” he asked.

  “Not here. But we did find a nice little batch of blackberries hidden towards the back of the meadow. The deer had torn through most of them but if we can block it off that will help fill a few bellies.”

  “Add it to the do-to-list.”

  They continued walking through the woods in silence until the distance between them and the others was great enough that Alec felt comfortable asking what he was about to ask.

  “How are you doing?”

  Margie looked up at him confused but the realization dawned quickly. A look of pain flashed across her face for a second but disappeared just as quickly.

  She looked away. “Good.”

  “Sorry. That’s probably a dumb question, or at the very least a question that I shouldn’t be asking.”

  Margie smiled. “No, it’s ok. I’m better. Good days and bad. But I’m here and I have my dad so, good.”

  Alec nodded and left it at that.

  “I…..I never thanked you,” She said softly. “I don’t remember much but they told me you save-“

  “We all helped, and don’t thank me.”

  “If I can’t thank someone for doing what you did than why in the hell does that word even exist?”

  “I was beaten nearly to death when Trevor found me. He gave me what little he had but honestly we probably wouldn’t have made it through the winter if you all had not let us stay. So just look at it as me returning the favor.”

  Margie nodded her head. “Fair enough.”

  The tired group made their way from the woods back to their settlement. What had once just been a lonely house in an empty field was buzzing with activity. The fields now contained cows, a few horses, and on the far side corn. The house was now accompanied by several trailers they had managed to find and transport onto the property to help with the overcrowding. At first Alec had scoffed at people calling it a “settlement,” but now, it was beginning to look that way.

  “It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.” Clive strolled up with a shit-eating grin plastered on his face. “See, I told ya’ll not to go out and play army men because someone was gonna get hurt, and look what you done did.”

  Clive for obvious reasons had not been asked to be a part of the defense force.

  “Trevor w
hat happened? I always heard blacks were quick on their feet, how come you’re the one hobbling back?”

  Trevor, always the most patient of the group, just shook his head. “Clive, will you just shut up for once?”

  “Now what did I say?” Clive wiped his dirty hands on his already crusty wife beater. “You acting all mad when I’m just asking a question.”

  “You of all people Clive should know what it looks like when someone is mad. I’m just tired and ready to get off my feet.”

  Clive walked along with them towards the house.

  “You all able to find any more horses?” Alec asked, hoping to steer the conversation towards something productive.

  “Oh we’ve found plenty, it’s just catching the sons-of-bitches that’s the hard part. Once you get better Trevor, maybe you can help. I always heard that black-“

  “Clive, enough!” Alec shouted. He was at the end of his rope. Clive was like a child trying desperately to get attention and the only way he knew how was to my poking everyone until they burst. “You either shut your mouth and help out or get the hell away from us.”

  Clive smiled and took a deep bow. “Yes, your majesty. I humbly beg your forgiveness, sire.”

  Freddie stepped forward and Clive pushed his chest out and raised his chin.

  “Let it go Clive.”

  “Let what go?”

  “Whatever you’re doing. Whatever this is. You push people until they’re pissed and then you get offended. You convince yourself that people don’t like you because of whatever flaw you created in your mind and that causes you resentment. You then use that resentment to help justify your future behavior.”

  For the first time that Alec could remember, Clive was speechless. The man merely opened and closed his mouth several times.

  “There are people who don’t like you, but the reason for that is because of how you’re acting right now, nothing more nothing less.”