The Wasteland: Book 6 of The After The Event Series

by Williams, T. A.

  They had killed Arlo.

  They had killed Jess.

  They had killed Tiger.

  She had lost her real family and they had taken her new family. They were the reason she didn’t have a home, the reason she had no one to go to. The soldier shook his head at her and pointed toward her side of the room. Tears ran down his cheeks and he pleaded with her in a language she didn’t understand. Ally’s hand tightened around the sharp rock. If he had found her out in the open he would have killed her. If she was the one trapped he would kill her without hesitating. It was who he was. He was a bad soldier.

  Ally raised the rock and for a second the world seemed to stop. The image of her brother Joseph came to her mind’s eye. He had died trying to protect her; he had died being a hero. He had been her best friend. She wasn’t the same person that she had been when he was around. She had to become stronger and tougher, otherwise she would have died those first few days she had been all alone. Joseph had never been the brave one or the tough one. She could always beat him up without working up much of a sweat, but despite all that when she had been in trouble he had fought for her. He had been brave, and he had been tough.

  Ally dropped the rock.

  She was mad. She was mad at the soldiers, she was mad at Dena and Adam, and she was mad at the world. It wasn’t fair. It didn’t make sense that everything kept being taken from her, but she didn’t want to be bad. Joseph had died trying to protect her, she owed it to him to be a good person. She owed it to him to become someone that would be worth protecting.

  Ally dropped down and began to help the soldier move away the debris. For a second the soldier seemed confused as to what she was doing but soon he began to pitch in. They would move the debris and occasionally more debris would fall to take its place, causing the soldier to scream out in pain, but Ally didn’t stop. Her hands were cut, her muscles screamed in agony, but she continued moving the debris. She wasn’t sure how long it took before the soldier was able to pull himself out from under the debris. He pulled himself out and quickly scrambled over to the far side of the wall, away from her. The soldier watched her but she couldn’t make out the expression on his face.

  Ally looked back to where he had been. The hole was gone. They were once again stuck in their cave of concrete. She walked back over to her side of the room and slid down the wall onto the cool concrete floor. After a few minutes the sound of the soldier crying bounced off the walls. He was scared. She was scared. Ally wanted to let go of her anger but wasn’t able to do that yet. She might not ever be able to do that. She would be a good person, though, for Joseph.

  Alec

  When he finally managed to open his eyes for more than a few seconds, he was all alone. The twisting and shaking of the world did everything it could to kick him back into unconsciousness but he hung on by his fingernails until it settled. It still seemed like he was watching a homemade video where the operator was filming something while stumbling down a gravel road, but it was better than it had been. He was in his cell and by the lack of any sound it was obviously the middle of the day. For those next few hours he worked on moving his hands and arms, confirming they still worked. He carefully moved his legs slightly but stopped as anything that caused his body to move too much brought back the tilt-a-whirl feeling. His wrists had been bandaged and Alec saw a pile of dirty bandages on the far side of the room.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” Miner stood at the door of the cage with two bowls of corn porridge and a giant smile on his face. “I wondered if you still had eyes.”

  Alec wasn’t sure if what he did was smile. His face still felt both tight and numb at the same time. Miner walked in and sat the bowls of porridge down without taking his eyes off him.

  “You able to talk yet?”

  That had been one thing that Alec hadn’t tried yet. He thought about shaking his head, then realized how much of a bad idea that was and instead focused on his voice. The first thing that came out was more of a croak, which led to his coughing and the world tilting slightly. He gathered himself and closed his eyes. “Yes,” was all he could manage and the voice didn’t sound like his own. It was raspy and weak.

  “You’re a strong son-of-a-bitch,” Miner said, still smiling. He sat down beside Alec and scooted a bowl of porridge toward him.

  Alec was hungry but with the world still shaky he didn’t trust his stomach. He shook his head no.

  “I remember you telling me over and over that I needed to eat. The same goes for you.”

  “Can’t...everything shaking.” It was a battle to get the words out.

  Miner’s face got serious and he leaned in closer. “Hopefully that will get better. You came back in here with some serious cuts and bruises on your head. Tell you what, lean back and close your eyes. That should help steady the world, and I’ll feed you some of this goop.”

  “Steffan?” Alec asked.

  “He...he didn’t pull through. Just sit back.”

  Alec was numb. He should have felt something--anger, fear, sadness--instead, he felt nothing, so he did what he was told. For several minutes Miner feed him the nearly tasteless porridge, and each bite was better than the last. When it was finally over the food felt like a rock in his stomach and he knew it was going to be hard to keep down.

  “I recognize that face,” Miner said. “Don’t think about your stomach. Think about something else.”

  “Like what?” Alec asked. His voice came out much easier than before.

  “Where you from?”

  “Missouri.”

  “Ok, what did you do there?” Miner asked.

  “It doesn’t work like that,” Alec said as his stomach grumbled but stayed settled. “It’s your turn.”

  Miner laughed and Alec heard him scoot over to the far side of the room. “Fair enough, what do you what to know?”

  “How did you get here?”

  “Damn,” Miner said, taking in a deep breath. “You don’t waste any time. Same as probably everyone else here: I was captured. My turn--what did you do before the power went out?”

  “High school.”

  “Really? So you’re a youngster. Guess it shouldn’t surprise me that this place can put years on you in a short period of time. Ok, your turn.”

  Some of the pressure in Alec’s stomach disappeared and he felt himself relax a little. “Did you come here with anyone?”

  It was quiet for a few seconds. “Yes. Two others. I didn’t know them before we were captured but we were part of the same group. You?”

  “Yes. Any of them still alive?”

  “No. You?”

  “No,” Alec said. His memories flashed back to the man that was killed right in front of him mere minutes after they got out of the transport, and of the woman who was led away. It was possible she was still alive but Alec knew the fate that awaited her and hoped she wasn’t. “Why did they move you here?”

  “I just got sick. They didn’t feed us any better there than they do here, and you’re constantly on your feet in those dark tunnels...I just came down with something. I couldn’t keep anything down and the longer that went on the sicker I got until everything just kind of blended together.”

  Alec opened his eyes slowly and the world still shook but it was gentler than before. Miner was staring at the far wall, lost in the past. Alec looked over the burn scars on the man’s face. “What happened to your face?”

  Miner noticed Alec looking and gave him a half-hearted smile. “This happened before, in a fire.” He was quiet for a moment then he smiled. “You cheated; that was two questions.”

  Alec laughed and immediately closed his eyes as everything went wild.

  “So you owe me two. You got any family?”

  “Yes, two brothers and a sister.”

  “They...safe?”

  That was a question that Alec wanted the answer to. “My youngest brother was killed when things went bad-”

  “Sorry, bad questions.”

  “No, it’s okay.”
Alec wasn’t sure if it was or not but it had been so long since he had thought about his family it almost felt good. It reminded him of a time when every day wasn’t a struggle. “I hope the rest are ok.”

  “You need some rest. We can play this game some other time.”

  “You still haven’t told me your real name.”

  Again Miner laughed. “What if I like the name Miner--ever think of that?” Miner stopped smiling and just shook his head gently. “It just feels like the person I was before I ended up here is long gone. We didn’t really talk much in the mines so it was easy to just get lost and forget who you were. Easier to just think I’ve always been a miner and not have to focus on what I used to be and what I’ve lost.”

  “What did you used to be?”

  “A soldier, believe it or not.” Miner ran a hand down the burn scars on his face. “I actually got these fighting against these people.”

  “I’m sorry,” Alec said, fearing he had gone too far.

  “Don’t be. I think that is why I got sick and nearly died. I forgot who I was. I forgot that I used to have a purpose. But now is a new day, right?”

  Alec didn’t have any hope left. The last of that had been blown away while he was hanging on the cross in the middle of the prison yards. “I guess,” was all he could muster.

  “Trust me, it is,” Miner said, leaning forward and patting him on the leg. “I’m going to take care of you like you took care of me. Together we will get through this.”

  Fatigue washed over Alec and he let out a yawn. The pressure in his stomach was gone and now it simply felt full and all his mind wanted to do now was relax. Miner had been taken care of him and he didn’t have to. Yes, Alec had helped him before, but he had also tried to escape without the man. It would have been easy for Miner to take that personally and refuse to help him. “Thanks.”

  “Don’t get all sappy. I’m doing it because I owe you, not because I like you,” Miner said with a laugh.

  Alec lay down and closed his eyes. As sleep was rapidly approaching he heard Miner say one last thing to him.

  “My name isn’t Miner, by the way. It’s Mason. Nice to officially meet you.”

  Ally

  The sound came from just a few feet from her head. Ally shot up and looked at the soldier, who was staring at her but was still on his side of the room. Did he throw something at her? Ally looked to where she had heard the sound and saw a small candy bar-sized package laying there. She looked back to the soldier, who smiled and gave her a thumbs-up. He pointed at the package then pointed at his mouth, pretending to eat. Ally didn’t give it a second thought; she ripped into the candy bar and reduced it to crumbs in a matter of moments. The hunger pangs subsided for a moment and she felt herself relax for the first time in a while. When she looked back over the solder was still smiling at her.

  “Ally,” she said, pointing to herself. “My name is Ally.”

  A look of recognition appeared on the man’s face and he pointed at himself. “Zhang.”

  “Nice to meet you, Zhang,” she said.

  The man nodded his head and continued to munch on his candy bar.

  “How many more do you have?” Ally asked. She could tell he didn’t understand what she was saying so she picked up her wrapper and shrugged her shoulders.

  The soldier held up three fingers.

  That wouldn’t last much longer. Especially since she could eat all three right now and her stomach would still ache. They had to figure something out. She watched the man crumple up the wrapper and place it in his pocket instead of throwing it on the ground as she did. She felt a pang of guilt when she thought back to what she had almost done.

  “I’m sorry,” Ally said, knowing the man probably had little idea what she was saying. “I’m sorry it took me so long to help you. I’m sorry I thought about…hurting you.” She looked up at the man and he just sat there watching her. “I just lost my friend, my dog.” She put her hands up a few feet and stuck out her tongue like a dog panting.

  The man nodded and let out a bark to let her know he understood her.

  Ally created a gun with her fingers and pretended to shoot at the ground.

  Zhang frowned and said something in Chinese. It sounded comforting.

  “That’s why I wanted to hurt you, because people like you killed my friend. I guess not all of you are bad, right?”

  Zhang just stared at her.

  Ally opened her mouth to say something when a familiar roar came from all around them. She looked to Zhang and before either of them could say anything the ground began to shake again. Ally threw her hands over her head and curled up into a ball. The sound of concrete churning against itself and falling debris echoed all around her and then she felt another body on top of hers. Through the shaking and the chaos she opened her eyes and saw Zhang on top of her trying to protect her. Then it stopped. The roaring subsided and the ground held still. After a few seconds Zhang got off her and let out a gasp. Ally followed his sight line and saw a two-foot wide hole had opened up on the far side of the room. Zhang ran over to the hole and cleared away some of the loose rubble, revealing a wooden pallet which he pulled up, opening the hole another two feet.

  Ally got up and winced as a small jolt of pain shot from her ankle up her leg. She ignored it and went up to the hole and peered through. It was dark but it the other side was a giant tunnel that wrapped around out of sight.

  “I can go through,” Ally said, pointing to the other side. “I’ll see where it leads.”

  Zhang looked through the hole and then turned back to her. He nodded his head hesitantly. Zhang interlaced his fingers and put them down by her foot. Ally stepped on them and pushed herself up and over the hole and onto the other side. The sound of her feet hitting the ground echoed throughout and it made her feel small. She turned to Zhang and gave him a thumbs-up and he gave her an uncertain smile.

  Her eyes struggled to adjust as she followed the dark tunnel to where it turned out of sight and into the light. A hundred yards away the tunnel led to the outside world and she saw the daylight streaming in. As she turned around to say something to Zhang she heard something else echoing through the tunnel.

  Click, click, click.

  Ally froze. The single clicking continued and was joined by more, lots more. The sound of a single growl helped her realize what it was. Ally turned and ran for the hole just as the dogs burst into pursuit from the opening in the tunnel.

  “Zhang, I need help,” she screamed as she stumbled over the rubble toward the hole in the wall.

  The barking and snarling of the dogs echoed throughout, making it impossible to know how close they were. Ally leapt up and grabbed the opening in the hole and tried to pull herself up. The sharp edges of the concrete cut her fingers but she refused to let go. The clicking of the dogs’ nails on the concrete rounded the corner and doubled in intensity. Ally managed to get her stomach up to the opening of the hole just as her strength began to wane and she felt herself slowly starting to slip back down, until Zhang grabbed her and pulled her through. Just as her back hit the concrete floor she heard an impact from the other side of the wall as the dogs slammed against the wall trying to get to her. Zhang grabbed the wooden pallet and pulled it down over the hole, closing it.

  Ally pushed herself back until she finally hit the far wall. Her breath came in ragged gasps and her entire body shook. Zhang came up next to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. He talked to her softly. She couldn’t understand the words but his tone was soothing. As the barking and snarling from the other side of the wall continued, Ally let go and began to sob.

  Ally

  The dogs were persistent. They had sat at the hole digging and howling for hours. The next day they had woken up early and continued to patrol the hole, hoping that someone would attempt to crawl back out. The following day was finally quiet.

  Their food was gone, their water supply was exhausted and they were both too scared to try and escape, so they just sat in silence
. Ally had trouble sleeping. The dark reminded her of the tunnel and the sound of the animals coming closer and closer. She hadn’t slept more than a few hours since it happened and the fatigue slowed her mind and made everything seem like a dream.

  A crack of thunder boomed into their hole and Ally let out a scream. Within seconds Zhang was there, patting her on the back and speaking softly to her. Ally felt stupid for getting scared but she didn’t pull away from Zhang. Another crack of thunder rumbled through and then the heavens opened up. It took several minutes but soon the water began to seep through the holes up above and fall onto them. Ally’s mind instantly cleared and she pulled out her canteen and ran to where the water was coming through the quickest. Zhang watched what she was doing then broke into a smile as he ran and got his canteen.

  The rain lasted for hours, long enough that the far side of the room had ankle-deep standing water. Long enough that Ally and Zhang were able to fill their bellies and canteens with water. When it finally ended they both sat on the wet ground with looks of satisfaction on their faces. Ally looked over at Zhang and the man nodded his head at her. She couldn’t help but laugh.

  Zhang pointed at Ally and pounded his chest like a gorilla. She looked at him, confused, and then he lifted his arms above his head and flexed, only to point at her again.

  “I’m strong?” Ally asked, confused.

  Zhang smiled and patted her on the shoulder again.

  “I am strong. Just not as strong as I’d like to be,” Ally said, more to herself. “I used to think I was stronger by myself. I used to think I didn’t need anyone else, but I guess everyone needs help sometimes, right?”

  Zhang began to speak and Ally just watched him. The young soldier’s hair fell in and out of his face as he spoke and he waved his lanky arms around as he attempted to make a point. When he stopped he looked at Ally as if she should have understood him, so Ally just smiled and nodded her head.