by J. Thorn
“Cache?”
“Bows, knives, clubs. The chapters haven’t used hardware in a long time. If they had any left, they’d be using it. Guaranteed.”
The sergeant nodded, preparing for the question he knew was looming.
“So what do we do, Sarge? Are they close enough to take out? I’m not disputing my share of the bounty with the assholes on top of Gate Seven.”
The sergeant motioned for his communications man and powered up the phone. He nodded twice, remaining silent before snapping the phone shut again.
“We’ve got the green light. They want the son alive. Command thinks he's got intel we can use. Shoot to kill the rest. The president, his vice, all of them.”
“Paid in full?” a solider asked.
“Yes. One hundred percent of the bounty to our company. We’re also getting close to the stronghold of an old friend of mine. I might be able to get us a bit of hardware to tip things our way,” the sergeant said. “You have any old-timers who remember how to load a clip? I can’t afford to waste shells.”
Two men standing around the barrel raised their heads, smiles spreading beneath gray beards.
“Yeah, Sarge. I think we have some snipers still hanging around.”
***
John sat silently as Connor removed a filthy blanket from beneath a stack of broken tables. He placed it on the floor and unwrapped whatever was inside as though it swaddled a newborn. Matthew gasped as Connor picked up the shotgun and held it over his head.
“Remington. Single barrel, twelve-gauge.”
Connor handed it to John. He felt the smooth, wood grain of the stock and caught a whiff of oil from the barrel, which must have been cleaned recently.
“She’s a beaut,” John said. “Used to have one like this for buck. Single-shot pumpkin balls good from about fifty yards.” He pushed the lever on top which clicked and tilted the barrel downward.
“We ain’t fired that in years. Got about five shells for it and those could be really old. I’ve got no way of knowing if the powder will even fire.” Connor took the shotgun from John and handed it to Quinn. He wrapped it back up in the blanket and slid it beneath the tables.
“Chagrin Chapter lost communication with the Keepers a long time ago. What’s left here is more like a family than a chapter. Why did you come here? We can barely keep ourselves alive.”
The founders from the Chapter of the Phoenix stood against the wall, along with Matthew and Leena. Alex sat to John’s right on the floor, huddled around the waning coals burning inside an old grease fryer.
“I used to live here before all of this,” John said while waving a hand at the destruction and all of its implications. “Republic had us on their radar in Pittsburgh and I thought it was time to move the chapter and consolidate them if we have any chance of making it.”
“This ain’t the good ol’ days of Harleys and gunfights on the road. Shit’s been winding down for years. Some of our crew even joined the Republic, tired of running and fighting their entire lives.”
John understood what Connor meant. He looked at three patches nailed to the wall and thought again of Jana. Apparently she was not the only one to wrestle with that moral dilemma. “Are you saying you won’t fight with us?”
Connor laughed, the bellowing shaking the room. He rubbed a hand over gray stubble and flipped a long, silvery ponytail over one shoulder. John could see long years on the road in the man’s face.
“Fight? Listen, man. You’re welcome here, but we ain’t fighting nobody. The perimeter is a few miles up and they got men at Gate Seven. If they leave us alone, I see no point in provoking the Republic.”
John stood and looked to the members of his chapter. “Thanks for letting us get warm by your fire.”
Connor stood and looked at John. “You are one crazy fucker.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” he said. “I want to leave my son and my chapter better off than I am. If I can get us incorporated into another chapter instead of eating scraps of shit and hiding from the Republic, that’s what I’m going to do.”
“Word has it there’s a camp near the perimeter that’s recruiting, maybe for a spring strike on Gate Seven.”
John raised his eyebrows and let Connor finish.
“But you’d have to skirt past the guards unseen. And you can’t pass that portion of 271 without them seeing you.”
“Sounds almost impossible,” Alex said. “We could all end up dead.”
“We could, Vice. We all end up dead someday,” John said.
Connor motioned to Quinn. The man handed the bundled blanket to Connor.
“Here. Shells probably don't work anyways.”
John took the shotgun from the blanket and handed it to Alex. “Thanks, brother,” he said.
John turned and walked from the shelter with the remnants of the Chapter of the Phoenix behind him.
***
“What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Let’s see if we can find that camp near Gate Seven.”
Matthew put his hand on John’s shoulder and spun his upper torso. John flexed and stopped the motion, his eyes wide. “We have to save this chapter,” he said.
“Listen,” Matthew said. “It’s time to relax, hide out and come up with a plan when the winter breaks. This is suicide.”
“I’m the president and this is my call.”
Matthew sighed and stared into his father’s eyes. “I don’t know if I can do this. I mean, if something happened to Leena, I don’t know—”
“Nothing is going to happen to her,” John said, interrupting.
Alex and Leena came up behind them as did the musketeers, breathing heavily and hunched over at the waist.
“Let’s see how close we can get to Gate Seven. Might be able to find a breach in the perimeter or stumble upon that crew Connor was talking about.”
The others stood while Alex shook his head. John looked around.
“Vice?”
Alex shook his head but remained silent.
Leena stepped forward and just opened her mouth to speak when the first bark of gunfire bit the cold air sending the Keepers running for cover.
***
The sergeant put the crosshair on the man in the middle. He watched as the slug from his Winchester 308 exploded in the middle of the man’s back, dropping him to the icy earth where a red bloom tainted his Keepers’ patch. The sergeant ripped the bolt action backward, ejecting the shell and filling the chamber with another. He pulled the trigger again, this time with the girl in his sights.
They’ll stop for her, forget they’re vulnerable, he thought.
The antique rifle responded with a dull click. He cursed, ejecting the misfire and loading the chamber again. By then she was out of sight. The sergeant turned right and fired at another one of the patches running for the guardrail. The bullet hit him in the left shoulder and spun the man one hundred and eighty degrees before dropping him in the snow. The sergeant pushed his rifle aside and looked through the binoculars at the scene. Two were down while the others scattered. He checked his pocket where two more shells clinked together in tarnished brass. Including the one in the chamber, he had three bullets remaining.
“Now,” he said to the soldiers. “Let’s go. Remember the conditions of the deal. Fire the rifles carefully.”
He ran through the trees until his feet slapped the asphalt of the old highway where the wind blew the light snow into drifts against the guardrail. The younger soldiers started to pull ahead, running toward the place where the two bodies lay on the frozen concrete.
***
“James and Billy are dead.”
Alex shook his head and looked at John as Dino spoke, hoping the carnage would bring an end to the madness. He laughed with a nervous twitch thinking how useless their bows would be against real firearms.
“Matthew, Leena?”
“Here,” they said in unison, running between the trees and down the hill away from the highway.
“Alex. Dino. Go with Matthew and Leena up the hill and I’ll hold them off.”
“Not leaving you,” Alex said.
John walked up to his vice and put an arm around him. “I love you, man. I really mean that. Your loyalty is unquestionable.”
“Me too, John,” Alex said, unable to meet the other man’s eyes. “Thank you.”
John wiped a tear from one eye and pushed Alex in the arm. “Go on. They’re coming.”
Alex turned and waved at John while Dino ran alongside them, saluting John as he ran past.
“I can’t leave you, Dad.”
“Shut up and listen to me, Matthew. Don’t let the chapter die. Do whatever you need to do to preserve our freedom.”
“I will,” Matthew said with a breaking voice.
John shrugged his vest to the ground and handed it to Matthew. “President of the Chapter of the Phoenix, Keepers of the Wormwood.”
Matthew slid it over top of his own, feeling his father’s warmth inside it.
“Now go,” John said.
Leena stepped in front of Matthew and placed a gentle kiss on John’s face. She wiped away tears and bit her bottom lip.
“Go. No sadness.” John’s face betrayed his own words.
Leena nodded and ran to catch up with Alex and Dino as Matthew hesitated.
“I always knew you were my blood. Live proud.”
Matthew hugged his father and ran. He looked back twice to see John squatting behind the guardrail, the shotgun balanced there and aimed in the direction of the highway.
***
Another rifle cracked, the slug hitting Dino in the small of the back. His arms flew outward as if he were taking flight. Alex hesitated, reaching down to grab his fallen brother by the arm but he realized Dino was already dead. Leena and Matthew stepped around the body and ran toward the top of the hill. They heard two concussive booms that shook the earth.
John brought down two of the advancing figures as they crossed the highway but Alex could see dozens more spilling from the woods like a human flood. They poured over the asphalt and surrounded John.
Alex, Leena and Matthew crested the hill and stood at the top looking over a shallow valley. The other side of the hill sloped upward until it reached a wall of debris comprising old cars, tractor trailers and scraps of building materials. Two figures stood at the highest point on each side of an opening in the artificial wall. They held torches and Alex could see lights twinkling in the structures behind the wall as night descended on the Republic.
“Gate Seven,” Alex said.
Matthew and Leena could do nothing but stare.
***
“You’re done, President. Drop the weapon.”
John grimaced as the soldier on his right moved closer. “Or what?” he said.
“Or you die slow,” the sergeant said.
John felt a throbbing in his leg and a growing numbness near the gunshot wound in his thigh. He was going to die and he took comfort knowing he chose the time. “Republic ain’t got no future for none of you,” he shouted at the men filing in around him at the edge of the guardrail.
“Where are they going?” the sergeant asked, raising the rifle to John’s face.
“Fuck you.”
“That’s too bad. Me and you are a lot alike. We could’ve trained these young men, taught them a thing or two.”
John smiled and closed his eyes. He made peace with himself and was awaiting the inevitable.
“I’m going to count to three. If you don’t drop your weapon on three, I’m putting a bullet in your head. Gotcha close enough to the Gate to claim my money whether you’re alive or dead.”
John remained silent, clutching the shotgun with both hands.
“One.”
“Two.”
“Three.”
John fell backward. The swirl of fresh winter snow on an empty sky was the last thing he saw.
***
A horn blew from within Gate 7 and Alex realized the hunt was on. He would not be able to keep up with Matthew and Leena. He tried not to think about the significance of the last gunshot to ripple through the valley.
“Break for the woods and I’ll draw them toward the highway. It’s getting dark and from this distance they’d have a hard time figuring out how many of us there are. If the snow keeps falling it won’t take long to cover your tracks.”
Matthew nodded. He shook Alex’s hand. “Thanks, vice,” he said.
“Anytime, pres,” Alex said.
Alex winked at Leena and trotted away. Matthew grabbed Leena’s arm and they sprinted for the tree line a hundred yards from the ravine separating the forest from the perimeter. They ran with the sound of the howling wind and the distant shouts of men cascading across the land.
Chapter 11
They ran in silence most of the night as the thickening snow helped to coat the wounds of the chapter’s demise. Matthew tried not to think about his father or Alex as he pulled Leena through the lonely, empty fields of northeast Ohio. They paused whenever a copse of trees presented itself, hiding there long enough for the snow to cover their tracks and then they would move on. Several times, shortly after leaving Alex, Matthew thought he heard the reverberation of gunshots. He knew the vice gave his life for theirs and Matthew promised himself the sacrifice would never be forgotten.
“Which way are we headed?” Leena asked.
“North and west. I want to come around the city and approach it from the other side.”
Leena nodded, looking at the strands of orange reaching into the sky ahead of the sunrise.
“Why?” she asked. “Doesn’t that bring us to the lakefront?”
“I think so,” Matthew said. “Alex gave me the lay of the land in camp a few nights ago, just in case. . .”
“I don’t think the Republic has that kind of reach. My understanding is they’ve only walled off segments of the old city.”
“They’re as broken as we are. I think they stopped chasing us hours ago.”
Leena nodded, hoping he was right. “I need to rest for a little,” she said.
Matthew wanted to keep moving, but his aching muscles sided with Leena even though his head told him otherwise. He sat beneath a massive oak, brushing snow from the base of the trunk and clearing a place to sit. The flakes lessened as the sun rose. Leena sat next to Matthew and put her head on his chest. He raised an arm and drew her closer, closing his eyes and relishing the silence.
***
Six weeks passed before the vernal equinox broke winter’s back, the sunlight melting what remained of the snow. The migratory birds returned to fight the seagulls for the scant food available on the beaches. The morning sun broke over the trees and turned the surface of Lake Erie into a calm field of sparkling gems.
Leena pulled a tarnished pot off the stove and tilted it toward Matthew’s cup. He held up a hand when the brown liquid reached the halfway point and she smiled and tucked a strand of dark hair behind one ear. Leena placed three more logs into the stove and felt the heat emanating from it.
“We have to leave,” he said.
Leena heard the statement but did not want to believe it. The cottage perched above the lake gave them a respite from the harsh reality of their plight. The old coffee was dry, tasteless, and the canned food in the cellar was almost inedible. Almost. The decision to ride out the death throes of winter allowed them both to recuperate from the march and the skirmish with the Republic that all but eliminated the chapter.
“One more week?”
“Okay.”
Matthew had the itch to move on, but did not see the harm in a few more days on the lake.
“Which direction?” Leena asked.
“I don’t know. I feel an obligation to the patch, but we have no way of knowing how the rest of the ch
apter fared.”
“You haven’t mentioned going back to Pennsylvania since we found this place,” she said.
“I don’t think the Republic cares about us. Not like we pose much of a threat anymore.”
Matthew smiled at her and tilted his cup, changing the subject. “Coax another half-cup out of the kettle?” he asked.
Leena stood and grabbed the pot from the top of the wood burning stove now roaring with fire. She poured the rest of the coffee into his cup.
“Let’s pack up the essentials over the next few days. Leave the rest. Staying light is our best chance of not getting caught,” Matthew said.
Leena placed her hand over his before scanning the kitchen for the essentials they would need to pack.
***
They stood on the shore of Lake Erie, both of them knowing it would most likely be for the final time. A thin line of smoke slithered from an industrial smokestack, more likely the result of a simple fire than activity within the old factory. Most of the buildings of Cleveland appeared unaffected by the events of the past. The sun glinted off the steel facades that witnessed the First Cleansing, the coming of the Republic and whatever might come next.
“I wonder how this must have looked in the old times.”
Matthew raised his eyebrows and squinted. He saw birds floating by the tops of the buildings like pesky gnats above a campfire. “They won’t last. The wind, snow and ice will eventually creep through the broken windows and bring them down from the inside out.”
Leena stood next to Matthew, savoring the view with him. He placed his right hand on her abdomen where the slightest bulge begun to appear beneath her ragged shirt.
###
Acknowledgements
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