Saga of the Scout

by Cliff Hamrick

  “Ok…so what do I do now?”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  With guidance from Madison, Ethan learned how to put the SUV in gear and back out of a parking spot. Then he slowly drove out of the shopping plaza and back onto the street.

  He was afraid to even touch the accelerator as going faster than 20mph seemed like too fast, and he was still getting used to steering the large vehicle through the debris on the road and weaving between parked cars. At least he didn’t have to worry about getting a ticket for driving without a license.

  Once they were on their way, Madison looked over at Ethan. She was still holding his shirt against the knife wound at the base of her neck. The blood was slowing, but her whole left shoulder throbbed from the pain.

  She studied him for a moment, looking over his slim frame. He didn’t seem like the skinny kid she met at the fire station. He had changed since then, and not in the same way as everyone else had changed. Everyone was trying to survive in this new world. He was thriving in it.

  “How did you do that?” she asked while still studying him.

  “What do you mean?” His eyes were focused on the road as he tried to avoid hitting a blue garbage can that was lying in the middle of the road for no reason.

  “How did you do all that back there? I’ve never seen you move like that before.”

  He shrugged slightly. “I don’t know. I just did it. You were pretty awesome throwing that pistol at that guy’s face.”

  “Thanks, but that was just a reflex. I’ve been throwing a ball since I was seven. But when did you learn how to fight like that?”

  The road was clear ahead, and his mind replayed the events at the pharmacy. “I just…did it. I don’t know how to explain it. I saw the guy drop the ax and I dove for it. That’s all.”

  “Axe? It was a meat cleaver.”

  “Yeah, meat cleaver. That’s right.”

  “You moved so fast. I mean, you moved like he did. You dodged and blocked. Then you hit him before he could hit you.”

  He thought back at the fight and realized that he didn’t remember any of that. He remembered seeing the ax—meat cleaver, he reminded himself—fall to the ground. It clicked within him that there was an opening and he went for it.

  He barely recalled killing the woman and all he remembered of the fight with the raider was when he told the raider to get away from Madison.

  “I don’t know. It just seemed…natural.”

  Cars jammed up an intersection and drew his focus back on the road. There were no wrecked cars. It just seemed that everyone parked their car, killed someone, or was killed, and then walked away. He drove on the grass and hoped they didn’t get stuck.

  Once they were on their way again, Madison continued, “OK, maybe all of that was just adrenaline, but how did you know how to speak his language?”

  Ethan laughed at that. “I don’t speak his language. I can barely speak Spanish.” But then he remembered that he understood the raider, though he had never been able to understand them before. Maybe some of them spoke English?

  He glanced at her and saw her leaning back against the passenger door, studying him. Though she was sweaty and bloody, her face was still quite beautiful. Her long black hair fell around her face from the ponytail. Her bright green eyes shone from her olive skin. But he became worried about the concern he saw in her eyes. He looked back at the road.

  She continued, “Yes, you did. When he was about to stab me again, you said something to him. He understood you. I could tell.”

  He was wondering if she was making a bad joke. “I just said get away from her, or something like that.”

  “Maybe that’s what you said, but you said it in his language.”

  “I don’t speak their language! I’m not even sure if they have a language. It’s just a bunch of grunts and weird noises.”

  “Yes, that’s what it sounds like. You sounded like this when you talked.” She made strange noises that sounded like she was imitating a bear growling and a snake hissing.

  He laughed again. “That doesn’t even sound like words. Are you fucking with me?”

  She continued to look at him as if she were trying to remember something. Then she said quietly, “I don’t know if I’ve ever heard you cuss before.”

  “Well, I guess I’ve been hanging out with you and Andrew too much.”

  She didn’t speak further. Instead, she rested back on the seat with her hand holding his T-shirt in place over her wound. Ethan kept his eyes forward, but he was thinking about what she said. For him, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The raider spoke English, and he just got lucky in the fight. It's not like she didn’t help.

  They didn’t speak during the rest of the drive back to the stadium, except when Madison gave him directions. Once they arrived, he helped her walk to the medical tent in front of the stadium. Andrew and the nurse were inside doing an inventory of their supplies.

  Andrew looked up and smiled when he saw them, but his smile faded when he saw the blood staining the front of Madison’s sweatshirt. He immediately slipped into a professional mode as he helped her sit on the examination table.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “I got stabbed. One of those barbarian guys were there.”

  The nurse cut away Madison’s sweatshirt to expose her shoulder while Andrew slowly lifted the T-shirt to examine the wound.

  “It looks like the bleeding has slowed down. Can you lift your arm at all?”

  She nodded and lifted her elbow but didn’t get far before she winced and put it down. Andrew moved out of the way so the nurse could get a better look.

  She said, “This doesn’t look too bad. We’ll need to stitch it up, and you’re going to have to keep this arm immobile for a while until it heals.” She looked to Ethan. “I hope you got some antibiotics out there. She’s going to need them, or this thing will get infected.”

  “Oh yeah,” Ethan exclaimed, and he ran out of the tent to the SUV and pushed the cart back to the tent.

  Andrew smiled when he saw the cartload of medicine and first aid supplies. He picked through the bottles and boxes and pulled one out and held it up to show Ethan. “Clindamycin! You remembered.”

  “Actually, we just grabbed everything around amoxi…something.”

  “Doesn’t matter. This is going to be good. We’ll need this.”

  The nurse looked over at Ethan while she prepared an injection, “You should go back to your tent. This will take a little while.”

  Ethan looked over at Madison to check with her. She smiled and nodded. “I’ll be fine. I’ll catch up with you later.”

  Ethan stepped out of the tent and glanced over at the soldiers. Like the day before, the same black sergeant with a shaved head sat at a plastic table with a laptop. Surrounding him were two soldiers armed with assault rifles and geared for war. But without anyone to interrogate, the sergeant just sat at the table and stared down at his hands. He looked bored.

  Ethan walked over to the table. “You know, those guns you gave us didn’t work.”

  The sergeant looked up at Ethan, annoyed at the implication. “It's not my fault you don’t know how to operate your weapon properly.”

  “I know how to shoot a gun. My dad gave me a .22 rifle when I was eleven, and I’ve been shooting pistols for years.”

  The sergeant shrugged. “Misfires happen.”

  “Both guns? At the same time?”

  The sergeant leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. “You think I tampered with your guns? Do you think I intentionally sent you out there with guns that didn’t work? And why would I do that?”

  Ethan didn’t know how to answer. He was angry but didn’t want to start a fight, at least not with two heavily armed soldiers nearby. But he also didn’t have an answer. The soldier was right. It didn’t make sense. Why would they send him on a suicide mission?

  “I…I don’t know.”

  The sergeant flicked his chin at the raider’s curved kn
ife tucked in Ethan’s belt. “Looks like you handled yourself pretty good out there anyway.”

  Ethan’s eyes followed down to the knife. His fingers lightly touched the handle. It felt like a prized trophy taken from an old enemy.

  “I got lucky,” he said quietly.

  “Lucky? See a lot of lucky people around here?” The sergeant leaned back in his chair and looked up at Ethan to let him know that the conversation was over unless he wanted to start trouble.

  Ethan didn’t bother to answer. Instead, he turned back into the stadium. He went to the mess area, but Angel wasn’t making lunch yet. Ethan wasn’t sure if there would be a lunch.

  He remembered that he was supposed to bring back food as well. Instead, he grabbed a bottle of water and drank it all down in one go. He tossed the bottle onto a pile of dirty paper plates, disturbing the flies that were crawling over the remnants of pork and beans from hours ago.

  The sun was high, but large white clouds were moving in. The dim shadows they created prevented the sun from warming the ground, and the cool air was uncomfortable on his bare chest. He went to the pile of clothes but didn’t find anything that would fit him. Then he remembered that he left his hoodie in his tent and hoped that it was still there.

  When he entered the tent, he stopped short when he saw the redhead girl sitting on his sleeping bag waiting for him. She smiled up at him.

  “I did not expect to find one of you.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Her voice was musical. Even the short sentence gave Ethan a warm feeling that started in his ears and flowed down his spine. He felt her voice gently worm its way into his mind. It was the most beautiful and terrible thing he had ever heard.

  She sat on his sleeping bag and smiled up at him. Her face looked more like a predator ready to pounce on helpless prey than that of a teenage, freckle-faced redheaded girl that she pretended to be.

  He was surprised to see her sitting there where she should not be, looking at him and speaking, and her voice! It trapped him for a moment as he tried to understand what was happening.

  She continued to speak with her lilting voice, “I mean. I was waiting to be brought here. I thought those two oafs would bring me eventually. But they were content with their trinkets and their perversions. So, I waited for someone to find me until my voice had returned.”

  She stood up. Her movements were fluid like a silk scarf gently waving in a breeze. “Imagine my surprise when one of you arrived.”

  Ethan stood frozen. He didn’t move but didn’t want to move either. Was he scared? Was she controlling him? Every time she spoke, he felt that same warm feeling moving up and down his body. He felt himself getting erect with each note of her musical voice.

  He muttered, “What…what do you mean?”

  She smiled knowingly. “You don’t even know what you are, do you? How delicious. It will be wonderful to watch you torn apart.”

  He felt tears well up in his eyes. “Please. Tell me.”

  She stepped closer to him, her breasts almost grazing his bare chest. He was slightly taller than her, and she gazed up at him. Her eyes roamed over his face, down his chest and shoulders, and then back up to his eyes.

  “No.”

  Her hands flung up to grab his throat. She was strong, far stronger than she should have been. Ethan’s knees buckled under him, and they fell to the floor of the tent, her body on top of his. Her strong fingers wrapped tight around his throat until he couldn’t breathe.

  He felt his temples pound as his brain screamed out for oxygen. He could not call out for help. He only had seconds before he would black out.

  With all of the strength he could muster, he punched her head. The first blow struck the side of her head and hurt his hand as much as it hurt her skull, but it did cause her grip on his throat to loosen. His second blow struck her across the jaw.

  When his fist landed on her jaw, he saw her face crack. It was so quick that not even a camera would have caught it, but Ethan saw. His fist shattered an illusion over her freckled face, and behind it was the face of a monster. The memory of his dream flashed into his mind.

  The same hairless, black skin that shimmered in the dim sunlight in the tent. He saw the bright amber orbs of her eyes just before the illusion reasserted itself.

  She flung herself off him and huddled in the farthest corner of the tent. Ethan jumped to his feet and drew the dagger from his belt. His chest heaved as he tried to regain his breath.

  She tore her shirt at the collar and screamed as loud as she could. The terrified voice of a teenage girl replaced the beautiful, musical voice that held him in raptured just a moment ago. “Help! He’s going to kill me! Please somebody help!”

  He hesitated for a moment, not out of fear but out of confusion. Why did she stop the attack? She could have easily killed him. The answer came in the form of a soldier reaching into the tent and grabbing Ethan’s knife-hand.

  The soldier, the same black corporal who Ethan spoke to that morning, wrenched Ethan out of the tent and wrestled him to the ground. Ethan tried to fight back, but he was taken by surprise by the larger and stronger soldier. Ethan felt the cool grass of the football field press against his bare chest as he was pinned down.

  The soldier ordered Ethan, “Let go of the fucking knife!”

  A civilian, a white college-age man in cargo shorts and a T-shirt, ran forward and pulled the knife out of Ethan’s hand. The soldier jerked Ethan up to his feet and held both of his arms just as three other soldiers ran forward. Behind them, he could see the lieutenant approaching.

  Quickly, a crowd gathered around them in the rows of tents. This was the most interesting thing that had happened in the camp in days.

  The redheaded girl came out of the tent. Her shirt was torn, and her face was red and swollen. Her lip was broken open, and blood dribbled down her chin.

  Ethan knew he hadn’t hit that monster hard enough to do all of that damage. Part of the illusion. She cried, and a middle-aged woman with fading purple streaks in her hair put comforting arms on the girl’s shoulders.

  The officer stepped through the crowd and looked over the situation. “Alright, what’s going on here?”

  Before Ethan could answer, the soldier spoke to the officer, “I caught this kid trying to rape the girl.”

  The officer looked over at the redheaded girl, who was fully sobbing now. Her shoulders shook as the woman rubbed them.

  Ethan tried to protest, “No! I didn’t! I would never do that!”

  The guy in cargo shorts held out the wicked raider knife for the officer to see. “Oh yeah? What were you going to do with this?”

  The officer looked at the knife, and then at Ethan, waiting for an explanation.

  Ethan looked down at the knife, then at the faces of the officer and the crowd. He could see by their eyes that he was already guilty. All he could do was try to explain.

  “I…I was in my tent. She was there—”

  The middle-aged woman spoke up, “So you decided you could just take what you want? Is that it? You can just rape girls because they’re in your tent?”

  “No! I didn’t want her there. She’s not…she’s not what she looks like…”

  The girl muttered to the woman, “Please, please don’t leave me alone again.”

  The woman nodded and guided the girl back to her tent. The officer looked Ethan over. Exacerbation was evident on his face.

  “Alright, you’ve been nothing but trouble since you got here.”

  “What have I done?”

  The officer didn’t answer the question. “I was trying to give you a chance with a simple task, and you even fucked that up. Another woman got hurt because of you.”

  Ethan was too confused to defend himself. He saved Madison. She would tell them. The officer just waved a hand at the soldiers.

  “Take him out of the city and drop him off. If he resists, then shoot him. If he tries to come back, then shoot him. I don’t have time for rapists and looters.
”

  Ethan wasn’t afraid of being exiled. He had already traveled so far on his own. But he was afraid for Madison and Andrew and the other people in the camp. They didn’t know what they were dealing with.

  Ethan didn’t understand either, but he at least knew that the redheaded girl was nothing like what she seemed. Two of the soldiers dragged Ethan through the tents as the crowd hurled insults at him and applauded the soldiers for keeping them safe.

  As they exited the stadium and passed by the medical tent, Andrew, Madison, and the nurse stepped out. A bandage covered Madison’s right shoulder, and her arm was bound with long strips of cloth to prevent it from moving. They all looked confused.

  Madison followed the soldiers as they dragged Ethan. “What’s going on? What are you doing to him?”

  The corporal barked at her, “Stay out of this! We’re taking him out of here.”

  “Why? What did he do?”

  “Stay out of it!”

  Ethan looked over his shoulder at her as his feet dragged along the sidewalk. “Don’t trust her, Madison! Stay away from her! She’s some kind of monster!”

  Madison stopped following the soldiers, confusion in her eyes as she watched the rough treatment they were giving to Ethan. Andrew watched the scene for a moment, but then rushed into the stadium.

  No one helped Ethan as the two soldiers threw him into the back of a Humvee. The corporal slid in next to him and punched Ethan in the head. The force stunned Ethan, and he saw stars.

  He wasn’t fully aware of what was happening until they were already pulling out of the parking lot.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  The soldiers drove the Humvee up the access road on I-35. The army vehicle handled the road much better than any civilian vehicle. They easily drove over debris and wove into the grass without concerns and barely slowing down.

  The soldiers didn’t speak, and Ethan kept quiet, too. His face was throbbing from the blow he received from them corporal, who sat very close to him in the back seat.