by T A Williams
The smell of burning wood brought him to, for just a second he was back in front of the wood stove in their adopted home. For a brief moment his father and youngest brother were still alive, for a brief moment his sister was no longer lost and his family was whole. The brief moment faded and the events all came crashing down into him.
Opening his eyes revealed a small camp fire in front of him with a girl of around 10 wrapped up in a blanket sitting a few feet from him.
She saw him squirm and noticed he was awake. The young girl smiled and her entire face lit up. There wasn’t any weariness in those eyes, pure trust, whomever she was with had done a good job protecting her.
“Hi, my name is Jamie.”
For the first time Alec found his voice. “H…..Hi, my name is Alec.” It sounded raspy.
The man who saved him walked up behind the girl. He had a worn plaid shirt and a faded baseball cap on top of his head which couldn’t completely contain his dark curly hair which was escaping from the sides.
“Nice to officially meet you Alec, my name is Trevor. Jamie is my daughter. How are you feeling?”
He took a second to take stock of his own body. His head still felt like it was buried in the clouds, his skin felt damp and warm, but he no longer felt like he was freezing to death.
“Better.”
“Good to hear.” Trevor sat down beside Jamie and began to stoke the fire causing embers to fly in the air and disappear into the darkness. “You look like you’ve seen better days, if you don’t mind me asking what happened to you.”
He ran a hand slowly over his face. It felt like most of the swelling had subsided, at least compared to how it felt the last time he was brave enough to check, but he was certain he still probably looked scary.
“I was attacked. A group…. a group of guys where already at that barn when I got there. They attacked me and took everything.”
The man let out a sigh and glanced at his daughter. The story didn’t seem to bother her but it just reminded the man of the world his daughter now inhabited.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Nothing else needed to be said about the matter. “You think you can keep some food down?”
The idea caused his stomach to rumble with anticipation. Trevor must have heard it because he smiled and pulled out a small granola bar.
He handed it to Alec and he immediately ripped over the top but Trevor’s hand stopped it short of his mouth.
“I know it’s going to be hard but take a small bite and let it settle for a few minutes before taking another. You’ve been without food for quite a while and you stomach is going to need some time to get used to it.”
Alec took a small bite, chewed slowly and swallowed. When the food hit his stomach it twisted, just like when he first took a sip of water. He grimaced in pain and sat there praying for it to stay down.
“I’m sorry, soup would be easier to digest but we don’t have a lot of options on the menu right now.”
Alec waived him off, “Trust me I’ll keep this down.” He wished he felt as certain as he sounded.
The cool night air hit the back of his neck causing a small shiver to run down his back. Alec pulled his blanket up a little higher.
“How old are you Alec?” asked Jamie.
“I, uh,” for a second he couldn’t remember. Before the world went dark he was 16 and they had been together as a family for a year before everything went to hell. “17, I’m 17 years old.”
Trevor nodded, not so much in acknowledging his age but in acknowledging how easy it is too lose track of something like age when the world turns into what it currently is.
“You look older.” She said innocently enough.
Alec felt older.
He glanced over at Trevor who was staring peacefully into the fire. He turned his attention to the fire as well and watched as the flames licked the large tree branches that Trevor has used to start the fire. After a few moments he realized he didn’t know a whole lot about Trevor.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what is your story?”
“We’re looking for a new home.” Jamie answered for Trevor. Her voice carried a sense of wonder as if this was a grand adventure.
Trevor ran a hand down her hair and gave her a kiss on the cheek and then turned back to Alec.
“We’re looking for a safe place.”
“Where are you from, originally?”
“Indiana. Bloomington more specifically.”
For the first time a dark shadow passed over Jamie’s face and she turned to the fire with a far off look in her eyes. Trevor pulled her closer to him and she laid her head on his shoulder. Trevor continued to talk but kept his attention on the flames.
“Things broke down there pretty quickly. We found a farmhouse in the country with a group of people and lived there during winter.” Trevor answered the unasked question. “An older couple got sick and didn’t get any better. We, we didn’t agree with the viewpoints of the others so we left.” He stoked the fire again. “So now we’re just trying to find a safe place.”
Trevor turned to Alec and his eyes asked the question.
“I’m searching for someone.” he answered.
“Who?” Jamie asked.
“My sister.” Alec kept his eyes on the ground. He didn’t want to talk about it but they had saved his life. Without them he would still be laying in a pile of hay waiting for his time to run out. “My family was attacked, my sister escaped with someone that was being held captive. The person she left with….I don’t think she realized we were alive. At least I hope that is why she left with my sister.” He felt tears running down his cheek but was too tired to wipe them away. “I’m been trying to find her for weeks but…she’s gone.”
“No reason to give up just yet. I need to keep a close eye on you until you get better. While I’m doing that you’ll be with us and we’ll be searching for a safe place. Maybe we’ll get lucky and she’ll be there.”
Alec just nodded his head. The lie, the false hope that he had clung to all this time was gone. Once his sister was taken she could have gone a thousand different places. After the first day all hope had been lost but he had refused to admit it because doing so meant that he would have to stop looking for his sister.
He carefully took another small bite from his granola bar. He gazed into the fire and prayed that his sister was safe.
Jess
She knew what was about to happen and she knew there was little she could do to stop it, but she still fought. His hands held her down and her nose was filled with his stench. She kicked out, she twisted¸ she screamed but he didn’t budge. The weight of his body pressed down on her and she could feel the man’s free hand tearing away her clothing.
She managed to get one arm free and struck out at him, but it was like hitting a brick wall. The man let out a grunt and stopped moving, for a single fleeting moment she thought it would stop. In one quick motion he brought his fist down on her face and the world went white. For a short while she felt like she was floating outside her body and she enjoyed this break in reality. For this brief moment there wasn’t pain or worry or struggle, she was just free. Just as quickly as this moment came it passed, and she suddenly felt herself slammed back into her damaged body fighting a fight she could not win.
When the moment came when the man was on the verge of completing his goal she let out a scream that filled her very being. She lashed out again and felt the weight of the man disappear. She kicked out with her feet and swung her arms to prevent him from getting back on top of her but then Jess realized the man was nowhere to be seen. Frantically she pushed off with her feet until her back hit the wall behind her.
Silence.
“Are you ok Jess?”
Ally’s voice brought her back to reality. She wasn’t there anymore, she had escaped, and she was safe. She was in an abandoned house in a small deserted row of houses in the middle of nowhere.
Her clothing was soaked in sweat and clung to her body, the only
thing she could hear was the pounding of her heart.
When Jess had originally fallen asleep the girl was in the same bed as her but during her dream Ally had fled the comfort of the bed. She now stood at the end with a look of concern on her face.
“Are you ok?”
She nodded her head. “Yeah Ally, I just had a bad dream.”
Ally didn’t say anything for a long while. “What was your dream about?”
“The past.” Was all she offered.
The little girl waited for her to say more until a yawn broke the silence. The little girl opened her mouth wide and let the yawn take over then she rubbed her eyes.
“Come in bed honey, I’m sorry I woke you.”
Ally jumped in bed beside her and tucked the blanket all around her. Jess still wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do in this situation. In their first few nights together she had awoken with the little girl nestled up next to her and she nearly freaked out. She had never had a little sister, or much of a mom for that matter, so she wasn’t sure of the rules. She had finally decided to let the little girl do what made her comfortable and that seemed to be using Jess as a second bed.
A small rumble filled the room and it took Jess a second to realize it was Ally’s stomach. They had managed to make the MRE’s last for a couple of days but they had finished off the last one over a day ago. She had resorted to breaking into several abandoned houses but had only managed to find stale crackers, which they had forced down. She was going to have to figure something out soon or they were going to starve to death.
“I have bad dreams sometimes too.” Ally said, her head still lying on Jess’s chest.
“Do you remember them?” she asked.
“No.”
They listened to a tree branch rubbing against the window for a few moments.
“If you ever have a bad dream you can wake me up and talk about it.” That sounded like something a parent would say.
“Ok.” Ally lifted her head up and met Jess’s gaze. “That man shot my father didn’t he?”
Her chest tightened. Ally couldn’t have seen through the window, she had been turned the other way around.
“I heard the gun shot come from inside and then you started getting really scared.”
She cursed herself for not being able to control her emotions. Then she cursed herself for not leaving immediately and exposing Ally to that horror. The little girl waited for her answer, Jess had no choice but to nod yes.
“Did he shoot my brother too?”
She honestly didn’t know the answer to that question but she did know they had crossed several bodies during their escape, some of which she didn’t recognize. She wanted to lie and tell her he was still alive but she knew how unlikely that was. Those men had attacked the group she had been with and they killed every single person outside of herself and the woman who had been in the cage next to her. They were well armed and they were relentless, but she didn’t know how to relay this to Ally.
“They shot my little brother,” Ally paused and became teary eyed, “well he was older than me but not by a lot.”
“Jesus.” She let out before she could catch herself. She grabbed the girl’s shoulder and squeezed it. “I’m so sorry.”
Ally fought back the tears. “It was when they took me. They hurt my oldest brother and my dad. When they were going to take me Joseph tried to stop them and the big man shot him.”
Jess tried to pull the girl to her but she resisted.
“I don’t know what he was trying to do he wasn’t very tough. I’m two years younger than him and I used to beat him up all the time.” The tears began to roll down her cheeks. “He should have just hid that’s what he always did when I was trying to beat him up, but he didn’t hide, I don’t know why he didn’t just hide.”
Jess didn’t give the girl a choice and pulled her into her chest.
“I am so sorry Ally. I’m so sorry that happened to you and I’m so sorry you had to see it.”
She held her there for several minutes until the little girl finally stopped crying.
Ally finally pulled back and her eyes were red and her cheeks were rosy red. “My family is gone.” It was a statement, not a question.
“You have me.” She said it without thinking and meant it. Ally looked up at her and gave a smile that lit up the room. The girl nestled her head back into Jess’s chest. “I’ll find a way to take care of us, I promise.”
Jess looked out the window towards a world that so far had gotten the best of her. She was going to find a way to survive, if not for herself, then for Ally.
Alec
The sign said the town had a population of 1500 before the world went dark, now Alec didn’t believe it even contained 100 souls.
A single road drove through the entirety of the small town with only a rundown gas station in the middle to break it up into two halves. Alec was used to sub divisions where each house looked exactly the same with the only difference being the amount, or lack, of care given to the lawn. Yet each house in this town was its own separate color and style. Most of them seemed to be a slightly different variation of an old country farm house but clumped together.
They had expected to drive through without seeing any sign of life, so they had been surprised when they saw people walking around as if nothing had happened. It wasn’t until they stopped and were met with suspicious looks that they remembered things were very different.
They didn’t have much of a choice about whether or not to stop. The gas cans in the back of Trevor’s pickup were bone dry and his truck was following their lead. The meager food supplies they had were all but spent and Alec still had not fully recovered.
He was still having problems keeping food down. And every time he failed to keep it down he couldn’t help but remember how little food they had left. He had managed to teach Trevor how to set snares but they rarely stayed in one place long enough to have much luck.
So when they had pulled into this still inhabited town it had seemed like a dream come true, the residents seemed to think it was a nightmare come to life.
“Come inside.” The man’s name was Malcolm. He looked to be no younger than sixty and he struggled to move around. The look on his face made it seem like he had just gotten a whiff of something decaying. “We don’t have much in the way of supplies so I don’t know what you want.”
“Just a place to rest for a night or two.” Trevor answered.
“A night isn’t a problem, it’s the or two that I’m concerned with.”
Alec walked inside the small house and sat down at the table, Jamie sat down next to him. Malcolm handed them both an apple and walked into the kitchen.
If the outside suggested it was an old country house the inside all but confirmed it. Old flowered wallpaper covered the walls interrupted occasionally by framed drawings of the countryside, and as a reminder of times past a wired phone was secured to the side of one wall, somehow managing to look too futuristic in comparison to its surroundings.
“This is Alec and my daughter Jamie,” he pointed them both out. “I found Alec near beaten to death and losing a battle against a nasty cold.”
Alec nodded his head at Malcolm who didn’t acknowledge him.
“He’s getting better but having a place to stay until he is back up to full strength would be a blessing.”
Malcolm looked them both up and down and began pulling apples and pears out of his cabinet and putting them in a small wicker basket. About that time a woman in her late thirties walked in. She had blond hair and the lines on her face suggested she had been through a lot, Alec wasn’t sure if it was pre or post end of the world but figured it was probably a little of both. She had on overalls that were caked with dirt and gloves that hadn’t fared much better. Despite her rough appearance when she saw them her face lit up and brought sunshine into the room.
“Hello, I’m Margie.” She shook Alec’s and Trevor’s hand, and gave Jamie an awkward hug. “I see you’ve met m
y father.”
Trevor smiled, “Yes he has been kind enough to give us something to eat.”
Margie smiled again and rolled her eyes. “I don’t think kind is something that has ever been used to describe my father.” The old man shook his head but kept his attention on loading up the food. “Just the three of you?”
Trevor nodded his head.
“Well, welcome to New Thompson, population of- how many we have here now dad?” she asked Malcolm.
The man paused for a second. “42 at last count, I think.” He walked over and handed the wicker basket to Trevor.
The basket was filled to the brim with apples and pears.
“Oh, I don’t think we could tak-“
“Don’t worry about it,” Margie interrupted. “We’ve got plenty to spare.”
Both Trevor and Alec gave her a look as if she said the moon was made of cheese.
“I’m serious, here I’ll show you.”
The walked out the back door and were greeted by five large trees. Alec stared at the trees wondering what the significance was when he saw what was below the trees. Covering the ground were apples and pears, most of which seemed to be in a state of decay.
“We’ve got five in our yard,” Margie said coming up behind them, “Mrs. Harrison has a couple of red delicious apple trees in her back yard and we all try to keep our own personal gardens up and going.” Margie pointed to a spot on the side of the house and Alec could make out the red color of tomato plants hanging on a trellis.
They stood there dumbfounded. The last time Alec could remember seeing this much food was in a supermarket and that was a long time ago.
Malcolm grumbled from just inside the house. “Don’t let Margie go spinning you lies, we’ve got just enough food to take care of us through the winter. And don’t go getting any ideas, once you go through what I gave you don’t think you can just walk over here and grab what you want.”
Margie waived him away.
“Don’t dismiss me, you know they can’t stay here.”
Margie paused for a second. Her back was to him and he couldn’t see her face but could tell she was thinking about something.
