Empty World

by Zach Bohannon

  “No, it’s not okay.”

  The two men stared at each other. Shell breathed slowly, looking back and forth between their faces. Thick tension filled the room. Everyone waited to see who would snap first.

  Dylan then looked down at Brooke. She had a hand resting on her bump, and she stared up into his blue eyes.

  “I’m sorry about earlier, ma’am,” Dylan said. “I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, and you didn’t deserve to be treated like that.”

  “You’re damn right she didn’t.”

  “Paul, shut up,” Brooke said.

  She groaned as she pushed herself up out of the chair. Paul put his hands on her and asked her to sit back down, but she pushed him away. She stood all the way up, both hands on her stomach now. She then removed one of them and extended it to Dylan.

  The drifter glanced down at the woman’s hand, then back up into her eyes. Finally, he brought up his hand and shook hers.

  Brooke smiled and nodded at Dylan. The two said nothing to each other as their hands separated.

  Brooke returned her hand to her stomach and looked around the room. Everyone was still silent and staring at them.

  She shrugged and asked, “Are we going to eat, or what?”

  24

  While the boy ate at the kids’ table with the three other children, Shell and Dylan broke bread with Paul, Brooke, Keon, Katrina, and Caleb at the end of the larger table. She hadn’t spent any time getting to know anyone else in the group, but she was still adjusting to being around other people again.

  Shell could still feel some tension between Dylan and Paul, but most of it seemed to have disappeared after Dylan’s apology to Brooke. Luckily, Shell had the deer to distract her, but she still wondered who would break the awkward silence first.

  She looked around, watching the people at the table eye her and Dylan. She lowered her eyes to her plate, then raised them again when she heard some throat clearing and an under-breath laugh.

  “Can you guys believe that Shell here thinks that we wouldn’t be eating this if I had been the one to take the shot?” Keon asked.

  Brooke put her hand over her mouth, holding her food in as she laughed and looked at Shell. “Wait, you shot this?”

  “Yeah, but I don’t understand why that’s funny.”

  “No, no, sweetie. It’s not funny that you took the deer down.”

  “We’re just a little amazed that you were able to shut down Keon’s ego,” Caleb clarified.

  “Pssh,” Keon said. “I don’t have no ego.”

  Now Paul joined in on the laughing, taking a drink of water as the grin spread across his face.

  Keon lowered his head and shook it. Katrina patted him on the shoulder.

  “We’re just fuckin’ with you, bro. It’s all good.”

  “You’ve provided us with plenty of meals,” Brooke said.

  “I gotta say, though,” Paul said, nodding at Shell, “that was one hell of a shot.”

  “I’ve had a lot of practice.” Shell thought of the first time Lewis let her shoot his bow. They’d used the target on Shell’s favorite tree, and she’d been a terrible shot the first time. She lowered her head to her plate, trying to block out the memory for now and focus on getting to know the people here at the table.

  “What’s the plan for you all here?” Dylan asked.

  “The plan for all of us here is to live,” Paul said. He leaned back in his chair, staring at Dylan as if he were waiting for him to snap. It was like he wanted him to.

  “And how do you plan on doing that?” Dylan asked.

  “We’re going to keep moving until we find somewhere sustainable,” Keon said, answering before Paul could give another short, smartass answer.

  “Why head west?” Shell asked.

  “Why not?” Keon asked. “It was no good where we were. And the climate gets too frigid up north—we’d never survive.” He looked at Dylan. “You were headed east when we found y’all out on the highway.”

  “That’s right.”

  Paul scoffed. “Good luck with that.”

  Dylan leaned forward. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean there ain’t shit out east. The whole damn coast is a wasteland, and there’s a whole hell of a lot of Demons out that way.”

  “How do you know that if you haven’t been there?” Shell asked. “You said you were in Georgia the entire time before coming here.”

  Paul gestured to the others in his group around the table.

  “We were. But we had others pass through our camp, and even a few join us, who had been out that way.”

  “They all told us the same thing,” Keon said. “Not to go east.”

  “We even had folks migrate up from Florida,” Paul said. “They’d come up from the Tampa area and told us not to bother heading that way.”

  “I don’t know what it is you’re looking for by going east, but you’re not going to find it,” Keon said.

  “And what exactly do you hope to find by heading west?” Dylan asked.

  “Hope,” Brooke said, breaking her silence.

  Dylan scoffed. “Hope is bullshit.”

  “It is if you have no faith.”

  Dylan stared at the pregnant woman for a moment more with mocking eyes before looking away, clearly not wanting to insult her.

  “The weather is a whole hell of a lot better out west,” Keon said. “We’re not sure if we can survive another summer down here, and it’s too dangerous to migrate back and forth between north and south, depending on the season. We want to find somewhere we can sustain in a fair climate.”

  “It’s a lost cause,” Dylan said.

  “But we’re all after something,” Brooke said. “Aren’t we?”

  She was talking to Dylan, staring right at him. His lip quivered a little, and then he stood.

  “Thank you for dinner, but if you’ll please excuse me.”

  Dylan left his chair shifted away from the table as he left the room.

  Shell wiped her mouth and then pushed her chair back.

  “You’re leaving?” Keon asked. “Please, stay and eat with us. We don’t have to talk about this anymore.”

  “No, it’s quite all right,” Shell said. “I’m pretty tired after today anyway. It’s probably best if I get some rest. Thank you so much for cooking this, though.”

  “Thanks for shooting it,” Brooke said.

  “A hell of a lot more than Keon could have done,” Caleb said, smiling.

  “Fuck you, Caleb.”

  Shell grabbed Keon’s shoulder. “I’ll let you get the next one.”

  He smiled and nodded as she took her hand away.

  She went over to the table where the kids were eating to see if the boy was ready to go back upstairs. She saw the boy smiling and laughing with the other children and decided not to pull him away from that. It was the happiest she had seen him, so she didn’t want to disturb that moment. She turned to the rest of the room.

  “Goodnight, everyone,” she said, and she left the dining hall and headed up to her room.

  25

  Shell shot upright in the bed, gasping. Sweat trickled down all over her body, feeling like spiders crawling on her skin. She threw the covers off her and swung her legs off the side of the bed.

  She looked around the room, noticing the boy in the bed next to her, still fast asleep. She rubbed her forehead, then covered her eyes.

  “Jesus Christ.”

  She’d had the dream again. The one where she’d seen her parents in the front yard of her house. It took her glancing around the room to see she was still inside of the King Edward to realize it had been only that—a dream.

  She slid on her pants and sneaked out of the room without waking the boy, moving through the crack in the door.

  She walked down the hallway, still being quiet so she didn’t wake anyone, and moved down the stairs to peek around the corner. She saw a man on watch in the lobby. She couldn’t remember for sure, but she thought his name
was Trent. He sat in a chair with a clear view out the front door. Shell wanted to be alone, so she didn’t want to get his attention. She walked in the opposite direction and headed to the room they’d had dinner in earlier. The door was cracked, and she opened it and went inside.

  It was dark in the room, but Shell had a solution for that. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a matchbook. She grabbed one and pulled it out of the package. Using her hand, she found the rough edge, then struck the match on it. The small flame came to life and she cupped her hand around it to keep it going. She guided it to the wick of a candle that had been left behind, and the candle lit. She lit one other candle, then decided that was enough.

  The table they’d had dinner at still sat in the middle of the room, mostly cleaned off. She decided she didn’t want to sit at the table. Across the room, she saw a bar. Most of the stools were still in place, as they were screwed into the ground. Cabinets on the wall behind it were mostly in tact, but long vacant of bottles of liquor. She made her way over to the bar and sat down.

  “Can’t sleep, either?”

  Shell jumped at the sound of the familiar voice. She looked at the door and watched Keon come into the light.

  “Jesus, Keon. You scared the mess out of me.”

  “Sorry about that.”

  “How did you know I was in here?”

  “You might be a good shot with a bow, but your stealth could use some work. Trent and I both saw you. And apparently, you didn’t see me.”

  Shell grinned, snorting a small laugh. “And here I was thinking I was being sneaky.”

  “Not quite.”

  The two shared a laugh.

  Keon approached the stool next to her. “Mind if I have a seat?”

  “You’re here, so I suppose that’s all right.”

  “I can go if you’d prefer.” He gestured towards the door.

  “No, no. Don’t be silly. Sit.”

  Keon sat down, leaning back in the chair and letting his body hang loose.

  “So, you couldn’t sleep, either?” Shell asked.

  “Nah. I honestly don’t sleep a ton these days. I try to get on watch as much as I can, but Paul insists that I at least try to get some rest. Most nights, I end up sneaking down and hanging with whoever is scheduled on guard. It’s better to have more than one person doing that job anyway, especially with Trent. I always feel like that dude could fall asleep at any time. What about you? Why are you up?”

  “Bad dream.”

  “Ah, gotcha. I have those now and then. Hard not to, I guess. You know, with the way we’re living.”

  “How long have you been with this group?”

  “That’s a damn good question. Been a hell of a long time. Seems like forever.”

  “It’s cool if you don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Nah, I don’t mind. My sister and I joined up with Paul about ten years ago. For a long time, it was just the four of us—me, Katrina, Paul, and Brooke. But then our community slowly started to grow. We’ve seen a lot of people come and go for different reasons, but the four of us have always been there from the beginning. A lot like you and Dylan, I’d assume.”

  Shell lowered her head, closing her eyes. “No, you know, the truth is that I’ve only known Dylan for a few days now.”

  “Seriously? It doesn’t seem that way. How did you two get hooked up?”

  Shell went on to tell Keon everything that had happened in the last few days. How the boy had shown up at her house first, stealing from her vegetable garden. Then about how the bandits had come and taken over her home, and then Dylan coming in and wiping them out.

  “Damn,” Keon said after a pause to digest it all. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  Shell bowed her head again. “So am I.”

  Keon then turned to face her. “I just have one question. How long were you living in that town by yourself?”

  The question took Shell aback. She’d thought Keon might ask something more specifically about the bandit attack or Dylan.

  “A long time,” Shell said.

  “So why did you leave if Dylan killed all those guys?”

  “Because he said they were part of a much larger group. He’d seen them during his travels and been following that convoy that ended up at my house. He said they were too big a group for us to take down on our own, and he advised me to leave.”

  “I see.”

  “I really don’t know what I’m going to do now. That home was all that I knew. On top of that, I’ve got a responsibility to the boy now.”

  Keon reached over and put his hand on top of Shell’s. She looked at it, then up at him. There was a kindness in his eyes, but it was all too sudden for her.

  Shell jerked her hand away and stood.

  “I’m sorry,” Keon said.

  “It’s okay. Listen, I need to get some sleep.”

  Keon tried to stop her, but Shell left the room and headed up the stairs. He didn’t follow her.

  26

  As Paul sat in a chair across the room, putting on his shoes and getting ready for the day, he peeked over at his sleeping wife and smiled. He picked his bag up off the floor and set it in the chair, going through it to make sure he had everything he’d need for the trip that morning.

  As he zipped the bag closed, he heard the sheets stir behind him. Looking over his shoulder and seeing Brooke yawn as she stretched, Paul went to his wife’s side of the bed and sat down. He stroked her hair.

  “Good morning.”

  “Hey,” she said, almost too softly for him to hear.

  “How’d you sleep?”

  She only shook her head, letting out another yawn.

  “The little one giving you more trouble?” Paul ran his hand over her stomach.

  Brooke looked down at her pregnant belly. “It wasn’t that.”

  “What is it then? Did you have a bad dream or something?”

  Grabbing Paul’s hand, Brooke looked up at him. Her eyes sparkled like diamonds as she fought back tears.

  “Baby, what’s the matter?” Paul asked, running his hand down her cheek.

  She looked to the wall to avert his gaze.

  “You have to tell me,” Paul said.

  “Why? It’s not like you’re going to listen to me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I have one of those feelings running through me again.” Brooke looked past him at his bag, which still sat in the chair. “Like you shouldn’t be going out there. It feels like something bad is going to happen.”

  Paul exhaled and looked away from his wife.

  “See? You’re doing it again, the way you react.”

  “It’s not that, Brooke.”

  “What is it then?”

  “I can’t just bail out on going on these supply runs. As the leader of this group, it’s my duty.”

  “And what about your duty to me? To your unborn child?”

  Paul stood up and looked down at his wife. “Did you really just say that?”

  “What if something happens to you out there? Do you ever think about that?”

  “Everything I do and every decision I make is about you and our child. Every decision. When I go on these runs, all I think about is the two of you. It’s why I do it.”

  Brooke was crying full-on now. “I want you to be here for us.”

  Paul sat down on the bed again and took his wife’s hand. “Sweetie, I’m not going anywhere. I’ve told you that before. Keon and I trust each other with our lives. Nothing is going to happen while we’re out there.”

  “You can’t guarantee that.”

  “I can’t guarantee anything. But I can tell you that I’m going to be around to see my child grow old, so help me God. You better believe that’s the truth.”

  There was a knock on the door. It was cracked and opened slightly. Keon stood in the hallway.

  “Shit, I’m sorry,” Keon said.

  “It’s all good,” Paul said. “I’ll be out in just a minute.”
>
  “I was hoping I could talk to both of you, actually.”

  Paul looked at Brooke, then back at the door. “Now’s not really a good—”

  “Come on in,” Brooke said.

  Paul scratched his head. “Yeah, come in.”

  Keon walked into the room and stood against the wall across from the bed. “Sorry to interrupt you guys like this.”

  “It’s okay, really,” Brooke said. “What’s going on?”

  Keon took a deep breath. “I wanna talk a little bit about our visitors.”

  “What about ‘em?” Paul asked.

  “They didn’t tell us their whole story.”

  Paul raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, for starters, none of them hardly know each other.”

  “How do you know this?” Brooke asked.

  “Because I talked to Shell last night. Well, early this morning, really. Apparently, she has some of the same problems sleeping that I do.”

  “Okay, so, she and Dylan don’t know each other well. What else did she say?” Paul asked.

  “She was living about fifty miles north of here. Some small town called Yazoo City. Sounds like she had a pretty good set-up there. A whole town to herself.”

  “What happened?” Brooke asked.

  “Some bandits came through and took it over. That’s how she met Dylan. Apparently, he showed up and killed most of them. A couple got away, but he took down several men by himself.”

  “Jesus,” Brooke said.

  Paul could tell from Keon’s face and the tone in his voice that there was something more to his story.

  “Why are you telling us all this?”

  Keon licked his lips, then smiled. “Because I think I have an idea that might save us all.”

  27

  Shell approached Dylan’s room. She pushed the door open, remaining outside for a moment when she heard heavy breathing. She peeked inside.

  Dylan lay on the ground, performing a series of bicycle crunches. He only wore his pants and boots, exposing the scars on his chest and stomach. Sweat had already collected on his chest. Shell’s eyes went to the stub that had once been his arm.