ALLUSIVE AFTERSHOCK

by Susan Griscom

  “What?” Court gave me a puzzled look and I could imagine he must have thought I’d lost my mind.

  “Earthcracks. That’s what Ambie and Aaron had called the earthquakes. “Stupid earthcracks. In a way, that’s what they are, I suppose. After the quaking, that is.” I glanced up at Court and his stunning green eyes flicked down at mine.

  “I think that about sums up the whole experience.” He smirked. “Not.”

  His grin transformed to a scowl as we passed several demolished homes. Almost every single house was either totally destroyed or partially caved in and abandoned, but every now and again, we would see someone sitting outside. I glanced to my left as a man crying in front of a steel barrel with flames flickering out the top wiped the back of his hand across his cheek. Neither one of us recognized him and he shouted at us about how the world was coming to an end and everybody needed to repent. I’d seen people in disaster movies do that and a shiver crawled up my spine, because however much I wished this was only a sick horror movie, it was real. I squeezed Court’s hand tighter for support. We were close to the preschool and I looked in the direction of where it should be. Hope sprang as I saw the school still there, at least part of it. I let go of Court’s hand and ran toward the broken-down building. He limped behind me, still unable to put his full weight on his ankle. But I couldn’t wait. I had to go find out if anybody was alive.

  “Ambie? Aaron?” I called out at the top of my lungs.

  Court came up behind me and yelled out too. “Ambrosia, Aaron. Is anybody here?”

  “Cory’s gone too.” A soft voice from behind us startled me and I twirled around to find a woman wearing a dirty, brown wool coat buttoned completely wrong. As I studied her, I realized she seemed a bit off, sorta wacked, if you asked me, but still a person who might know what happened to the kids. I said, “Hello. Do you know what happened to the kids?”

  She shook her head. “Gone. All gone. My Cory. Gone. There’s no trace of him.”

  I glanced at Court as my heart sank deep in my chest.

  “Has anybody else been by here?” Court asked. “Have you seen anybody?”

  “No. No one’s been here. Where did they take my Cory? Have you seen him?” She grabbed the front of my jacket and clung to me as her eyes suddenly flamed with anger. “Tell me where you’ve taken my Cory.”

  I shook my head, trying to free myself from the woman’s grip. Court yanked her away, holding her at arm’s length before she could latch on to him.

  “She doesn’t know where Cory is. We don’t know where Cory is. We are looking for Ambrosia and Aaron Castielle.”

  The lady calmed and stepped back, shaking her head. “I can’t help you. I have to find Cory.” She turned and walked in the opposite direction calling out in a cracked and hoarse voice. “Cory, Cory, come to Mama.”

  “She’s delirious,” Court said. “Maybe we should help her.” Court went to her and placed his hand on her shoulder. “You should come with us.”

  “No, I have to wait for Cory. He’ll come back here. I have to wait.” She tugged away and kept walking around the dilapidated building.

  Court turned slowly, scouring the area. Something in my gut told me things were about to get ugly.

  “Come on, Adela. Let’s keep moving.”

  “But where? She’s right. What if they come back here?”

  Court took my shoulders in his hands, staring directly into my eyes. “Adela, they won’t bring them back here. If they are alive, they’re in a shelter somewhere. Trust me. We need to keep moving. This place isn’t safe.”

  I glanced around and my eyes focused upon a couple of creepy looking guys across the street, leaning against a pole, looking right at me. I stared at the men, unable to take my eyes off their scuzzy faces and Court shook my shoulders. “Adela, look at me.”

  When I didn’t respond he took my chin in his hand and pulled my face toward his. “Look at me. Do you understand?” He briefly glanced to the right and then back at me and repeated, “This place isn’t safe.”

  His green eyes were intensely dark and something told me he was afraid, and that brilliant assessment was quickly confirmed when I stole a glance at the two men. One, completely bald, wore a huge silver belt buckle with an even bigger capital “F” on it under an oversized stomach hanging down slightly over the top of the buckle. A beer gut, no doubt, the way his pants sat below his watermelon-sized stomach. Under any other circumstances, I would have laughed to myself because I often wondered how men like that managed to keep their pants up, but there was nothing funny about this guy. The other one’s greasy brown hair stuck to his forehead and he reminded me of a stick figure used in playing hangman. The clumps of hair swirled above his bony face looked like they’d been drawn there with a big black crayon, making his skinny-as-a-broom-handle frame appear even scrawnier. Big belly creep smiled at me revealing yellow crooked teeth and puffed on a cigarette before throwing it to the ground.

  I looked at Court and nodded. He grabbed my hand and we walked out onto the street. We had no sooner taken a couple of steps down the hill than the two dubious looking mongrels approached us, fast. In the blink of an eye, they stood right in front of me.

  “Hey, sexy girlie,” skinny guy said and scooted close to me, reaching his hand behind me, grabbing my braid. “Nice hair.”

  I twirled around and tried to pull away from his hold on my hair when I heard a bone- crushing sound as the skinny guy landed on his butt in the middle of the road. Big belly guy put up his hands. “Whoa, man, take it easy. We’re not going to hurt the pretty girl. Just wanted a little kiss, that’s all. See that lady over there? She gives us a kiss.”

  “Ha, more than a kiss,” skinny guy chirped, pulling himself back up and rubbing his chin.

  “You lay one hand on this one and you’ll never use those lips again,” Court said.

  “You got in a good sucker punch on ol’ Len there, but what’s a boy like you gonna do against two strong men, huh?”

  “Try it and you’ll find out.”

  The creeps circled us, snickering. “You gotta share, boy. Hey, I know you. You’re that Miwok kid that talks to animals. Didn’t your Miwok mama teach you the ways of the white man?”

  They know Court? How did they know Court was part Miwok? Did he know them?

  I watched the vein in Court’s neck throb as his pulse thrummed along the side of his throat, and he stood focused on the two men, his eyes cold, dark, without emotion. His uninjured hand stayed by his side while his other one grabbed me and shoved me toward the men. I stumbled forward as he held on and kept me from falling. Why was he shoving me toward these two creeps, when he should be pulling me behind him?

  “Yeah, my mama taught me all the good manners I’d need to get along in your white man’s world. You want her? Take her. She’s all yours.”

  “What?” My head whipped around at him as I shouted, “Court, please don’t do this …”

  Chapter 24

  ~~ Adela ~~

  Court intended to hand me over to these two smelly scumbags? Just like that without even fighting for me? I thought he would at least try to defend me. I fought against Court’s hand as he shoved me forward but his grip on my arm was too strong and the squirming only made his fingers press into my arm deeper. How did he do that with his injured hand? I was sure I’d have a huge bruise there later, an imprint of Court’s fingers on my arm to remind me how he betrayed me, just when I thought he would do anything to protect me. I never expected this.

  “That’s a good girl, come here darlin’, let’s have a whiff of your pretty hair.” Big belly guy reached out for my braid as Court dug his elbow into the guy’s gut, making him double over and clutch his stomach. I stood in shock, not only at the fact that Court was taking action but also that big belly guy could even feel the jab through all that fat. Court did a one-eighty and slammed his fist into skinny guy’s jaw again, sending him falling to the ground. Court shoved me aside and swung his leg around, hitting the big belly
guy square across the face with the heel of his boot. Blood spurted from the guy’s nose as he stumbled backward.

  “You sonofabitch. You broke my nose, you sonofabitch fuckin’ half-breed.”

  Skinny guy stayed down and held up his hands at Court. “Don’t hurt me, man. It was all his idea. Don’t hurt me.”

  “Come on Adela.” Court grabbed my hand and we hurried down the hill. Court’s legs were much longer than mine, making him faster, even with his limp. I glanced back at the two creeps still sitting in the middle of the street. We continued walking at that impossible-to-keep-up pace and I ended up running beside Court’s huge stride until we were completely down at the bottom of the enormous hill. Court held onto my arm the entire way, pulling me along. He didn’t look back once. When we reached the bottom of the hill, I stopped and tugged him back. “Please, stop. I can’t keep up,” I huffed.

  “I’m sorry if I scared you. I hope you know I would never let anybody lay a hand on you. We needed to get away from there and we can’t stop here either.”

  I had to catch my breath, but I managed a nod. I really thought Court was going to give me up to those two creeps. I should have known better, had more faith in him. He tugged me to start up again, pulling me along, but we walked a little slower.

  “It’s not safe anywhere now. Everybody thinks everything is a free-for-all. It’s total pandemonium out here.”

  “How do you know? Not everybody is like those people back there.”

  “Every single person we passed was crazy to some degree. That lady, those two guys, the yoyo by the trash can with the fire. Adela, I told you I don’t know what it is I have, but it’s some sort of ancient power passed down from my Miwok ancestors. It works with people, too. I just know things.”

  “But how?”

  “I don’t know how. Just freaking lucky, I guess.”

  I stopped walking again, jerked him against me and kissed him.

  “Did you see that coming?”

  “No.”

  “Well, see? There you go. You can’t know everybody’s thoughts.”

  “I didn’t say I knew their thoughts.” We started walking again. “I said I could sense things. Trouble, for one. I can see it in someone’s eyes if they’re disturbed or about to start trouble.”

  “Well, a lot of people have that ability. Doesn’t mean you’re a freak. Let’s just say you’re more intuitive than most people.”

  He sighed. “Okay.”

  “Yeah, it is okay. I like it. It’s handy.”

  “Thanks for that. Come on; let’s go find your sister and brother.”

  “I don’t know where to look. I have no clue where they could be. Ahhhhchoo.”

  “God bless you.”

  “They weren’t supposed to go anywhere. They were supposed to wait for someone from our family to pick them up.” That’s when it hit me and tears streamed down my cheeks. With all the commotion, the wacked-out lady, the two creeps, I hadn’t had a chance to comprehend the situation until just then and I couldn’t move. Not a muscle.

  “Adela, most of the school is still standing. I know they are safe somewhere. It’s been four days since the earthquake. Someone is taking care of them.”

  I coughed, sniffled, and wiped my nose with the back of my hand. “We really don’t know who has them or where they are, so there’s nothing we can do.”

  Court held my face in his hands and stared into my eyes, then pushed the stray strands of hair off my cheek and out of my mouth with his fingers. “Listen, I know this is hard, baby, but you have to be strong. As much as I’d like, we can’t just stop and sit down here and cry. Your sister and brother are not here. Chances are your mother already came for them and they’re all safe in some shelter and we’ll find them. But we need to go into the woods and get off the street or we’re dead and we will never see anybody again.”

  “Why the woods?”

  “Because we need to go north through the forest. Everything south of here has been destroyed. Any chance we have of finding other decent people would be that way. We need to find your family. Give me a couple of days, Adela. I can protect you. You can trust me on that. I will die before I let anything happen to you.”

  Court’s words silenced me. I wanted to find my family more than anything in the world. I had nothing to lose without them, except my life and Court just vowed his own to protect mine. I followed Courtland into the dense forest, looking over my shoulder every few steps, thinking I heard a noise and that someone would jump out from behind a tree or a rock and attack us.

  “Maybe we should have stayed with Cooper,” I said.

  “You’re probably right, but we didn’t know it was going to be like this and I guess he didn’t either. His place is out there, but not inaccessible and once people learn he has food they’ll come there. I don’t think he’ll be staying there too long. Cooper’s a smart guy. I bet he’s packing up now. People get really weird after catastrophes. Some become violent like those two jerk wads. Others lose their minds like the wacked-out lady looking for her son. She has such tunnel vision right now she probably doesn’t even realize those guys raped her.”

  “They raped her?”

  “I’d bet my life on it. You heard them, the way they talked about her.”

  That made sense, but I’d been so caught up in the situation, it hadn’t registered. I shuddered.

  We hiked just until dusk, and came to a small clearing and stopped.

  “Are we going to camp here?”

  Court looked around. “No. I don’t like it. We need shelter. Coop said it might get down to thirty degrees tonight and that was back in town. It’ll get even colder up here. We can’t stay outside. Let’s keep walking.”

  My feet were already freezing and the boots Cooper gave me were a little snug. I could feel a blister forming on my heel. I looked up ahead and something caught my eye, a reflection of some sort. I squinted at the brilliant light. “Court, look.” I pointed through the opening I was facing. “What is that?”

  “I don’t know. Let’s check it out.”

  As we got closer, I heard a tingling noise that seemed to get louder as we approached the light.

  “Look, it’s a wind chime. Maybe there’s a house somewhere beyond it.”

  We ran toward it, excited at the possibility of finding shelter. We came upon what looked like the back wall of a house and circled around to the other side. There was no house, at least not anymore. The earthquake destroyed everything except for the one wall and the fireplace.

  “So much for shelter,” I said, coughing, my throat scratchy and sore.

  ~~ Courtland ~~

  “We’ll make do with this.” I shrugged off the backpack, setting it down on a pile of bricks. I walked to the wall and moved some of the debris aside with my feet.

  “We’ll set up the sleeping bag here in the corner in front of the fireplace. The wall will shield us from the wind and we’ll build a fire to keep us warm.” I stood in front of Adela, her face a blank stare. I knew she couldn’t get her family out of her mind and I didn’t think we would find them until we made it to some sort of shelter. God only knew where one was set up. I rubbed a smudge of dirt from her cheek.

  “We need to find something to eat. You’d better come with me; I don’t want to leave you alone. We’ll stay close to here so we won’t be walking too far.” I searched around the debris to find some basic wire and twine. I got lucky when I found a broken picture frame with a wire on the back for hanging. There was a roll of string in one of the broken drawers lying on the floor of what used to be the kitchen. The string didn’t have a real good non-slip coating on it but it would have to work.

  Adela nodded. “How long do you think it will take?”

  “I don’t know. Depends on the animals. If we don’t find anything within thirty minutes, we’ll come go back and eat some of that oatmeal.”

  We took off into the woods. I found a small area covered with bushes and made a couple of little seats with two roc
ks. I broke a small limb off a tree, tied the string around the middle using a slipknot and shoved the branch in the ground at an angle. I made a small circle with the wire, tying it to the limb and positioning it three or four inches from the ground.

  “Wow, you really know what you’re doing, don’t you?”

  “I hope so and with any luck these twigs will hold the snare open enough for a rabbit to try to go through. Once he gets his head in there he’ll be stuck.”

  I pulled out the knife Cooper gave me and we sat in silence and waited.

  I heard a rustle in the brush and looked up, tapped Adela on the knee and pointed to a deer. Her eyes grew wide and she smiled. I shook my head. It was too big to kill and there would have been too much meat to carry around without a lot of it spoiling. I was hungry, but didn’t like taking more than we needed. I held up my hand and made an inch space between my thumb and forefinger indicating something smaller and she nodded.

  We got lucky when a rabbit hopped out from the brush moments after the deer walked away. I didn’t want to take any chances—the snare might not work—so I held the knife in my hand and waited. As soon as the rabbit’s head went through the loop, I took aim. The slick blade landed right in the rabbit’s side.

  “My God, you got him!” Adela jumped up grinning. “Wow! What good aim.”

  I shrugged. “I used to practice knife-throwing a lot when I was a kid.”

  “Your dad let you play with knives?”

  I grimaced at Adela’s shocked tone. I forgot she grew up a little differently than me. Her parents actually cared what she did and whether or not she played with dangerous things, like knives. “Well, you know, my dad was always busy and didn’t pay much attention, but he did give me a really cool knife when I was around nine. That was back in the days when we’d go hunting together before my mom died.” Before the boozing.

  We took the rabbit back to the wall and fireplace; couldn’t really call it a house anymore but to us, for that night, it was home.