Fending Them Off

by Max Lockwood

  “I know,” Cooper said. “But maybe one day we can rebuild a new life together.”

  Her eyes widened at the casual words, and she wondered if he knew just how much they meant to her. It had been her dream once, but she’d pretty much written herself off. Even when she had relationships, they didn’t last. Ironically, her longest lasting relationship had been her affair with her neighbor, and Cooper had known about it and vehemently been against it. But it wasn’t until it was over that she even thought of Cooper as a love interest.

  He pulled her close and they swayed together.

  Clara began to dream of marrying Cooper, having kids, and living out in the countryside. She buried her head in his shoulder, smiling.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Clara arranged a night watch to look after the farm and patrolled the cornfield herself.

  They’d been on Jack’s farm only a few days, and a few of the day patrollers had come back with reports of tampering and theft in the fields.

  She’d had to talk Jack into it, even though she’d initially agreed with him that it was too dangerous. But she’d learned it was better to squelch something like this before it grew to be a bigger problem. She hadn’t expected this kind of problem this soon, and she was prepared to deal with it, having most of everyone else stick near the house. Since the reports came from around the cornfield, she took it alone.

  Cooper had disapproved, even though he didn’t outright argue, but she overruled his concerns. She had the same concerns, which was why she wasn’t willing to send someone else off if she wouldn’t do it herself.

  It was the hardest part about being a “leader,” after all. It was dangerous out there, and she couldn’t just send someone out into it.

  Cooper caught her as she walked out, grabbing onto her arm and stopping her on the porch. She just sighed and rolled her eyes, then turned around and arched an eyebrow at him, waiting for the protest he hadn’t voiced before, but which was very visible on his face.

  “Let me go with you,” he said.

  Clara wanted to be surprised, but, after a second of being taken aback, she realized this was just like Cooper. If he couldn’t stop her, he would try to go with her. He hadn't done it when they were home, when she was going out to volunteer at the police station to help with the town, but she supposed this was different.

  They were on a farm in the middle of seemingly nowhere, with food growing all over. Like it attracted them, it would attract others, possibly dangerous people. During the day, they went out patrolling in pairs for every field, but this time she was going out on her own, and it was dark. She didn’t tell him she usually patrolled alone even during the day. She just figured she worked better alone, so she did.

  “Cooper, please just stay here.”

  “But you can't go out on your own—” he argued.

  She cut him off. “I’m perfectly capable of going out on my own, Cooper, I promise to be careful. I’m more worried about the guys I’ll be leaving here than myself.”

  “What happens if you get into trouble? The others will be too far away if you need them.”

  Clara could have told him she didn’t need them, but that would sound conceited, wouldn’t it? But the truth was, if they were too many in the fields and they all started shooting, the chances of injury by friendly fire were higher.

  It wasn’t like she was doing this because she just wanted time to herself. And Cooper was someone she would trust at her back, but she just didn’t want him out there if there was trouble.

  “I promise I’ll be careful,” she said instead, pulling away from his hold. “I’m not so stupid I’ll jump into something I don’t think I can handle on my own. If anything happens, I’ll shoot a bullet in the air so you guys know there’s something wrong, and I will come back. If I had someone else go out there, it’s exactly what I would tell them to do.”

  But he didn’t look appeased. “If something happens and you do that, we won’t be the only one to hear it, you know.”

  She rolled her eyes again. “Would you relax? If there’s someone out there stealing the crops, with how little they’re taking, they probably won’t be much of a threat.”

  “But what if they are,” he countered.

  She shrugged. “I don’t intend to find any problem tonight, but if they are, then I will deal with them. Don’t you trust me?” she said when he went to argue some more. His mouth snapped closed, his jaw clenched. “Time’s wasting away, I need to go now. Get inside the house, and let the other guys that will be patrolling outside the house keep their ears open for any sound from me. I will be back.”

  He still didn’t look happy, but Clara went on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his cheek. He stiffened, before relaxing with a sigh. He wrapped her in his arms for a quick, fierce hug, then let her go.

  She waved back at him as she walked out into the cornfield. There was a little light from the moon, though it was useless when she disappeared into the field. She moved her feet carefully, pushing corn stalks out of the way as she moved.

  It was harder moving through them at night when she couldn’t see.

  For a while, there was no other sound besides the ones she made. It was a large field, and going through it all alone was a bit of a tall order, but there was some advantage to doing this at night. The culprit would be covered by darkness, but so would she. Going alone was actually helpful this way; she could focus completely, and she would know, if she heard anything, that it was a foe. Well, unless someone—Cooper, for one—disregarded her order and followed her into the cornfield.

  They all trusted her, though, and she was hoping to use that to get them to behave.

  Though, that still surprised her, that they all trusted her without question. When she made the decision to do the night patrol, and set up a few guys around the house, the only ones to speak up were Cooper and Jack. Some of her friends spoke up, but it was more to mention their worries, but that they were sure everything would be fine, because it was Clara. She thought back to the surprise they’d made up for her, and she found herself grinning.

  Clara had never had anything like that before. Her own students didn’t look up to her, she’d barely had any friends from the time she was fifteen. She’d had few before that, but after her parents died, she didn’t make room for even those few, and, eventually, they stopped talking to her. Her life had been close to pathetic before the EMP attack, and, though it was more dangerous now, she realized there were still good things to be had in life.

  While it was too soon to include as family, something she considered sacred, she thought that she would in the near future, seeing as they were going to be living together on the farm for a while. If she had her way, it would be their home from now on. And… if ever things changed, and the lights came back on… or even when she thought it wasn’t as dangerous, she, Cooper, and Tessa could go and visit their old town, and her grandmother’s grave.

  She went through the field and made it to the other side. From there she could see the trees, and remembered passing through them not all that long ago. Had it really been less than a week?

  We were lucky, she thought to herself.

  It had been a total coincidence that Jack just happened to be there when they arrived, though a wonderful one. If they had just taken some corn and moved on somewhere else, they might still be living out in the elements. Fed, but with no way to protect themselves. If Jack had come across them stealing, he might not have thought twice before taking shots at them. So many things could have gone wrong…

  But they didn’t. We got lucky, and, for as long as I can help it, we won’t be going hungry again.

  She firmed her lips as she made the resolve. Because Clara had realized, even after the crash, she and her family had been living in some form of luxury. The gas lines cut off, so cooking meals got harder, and, fearing the water getting cut off, they filled up every container that could hold it. Washing clothes and bathing was something they did less often.

 
; But they had something that other people struggled to find. They had food, and a lot of it, and they took it for granted. While wandering around with even those little luxuries removed, she had known what it felt like to be at the end of her rope. If it weren’t for the people she was looking after, she might have sat down and given up herself, only she wasn’t fighting only for herself, so that wasn’t an option for her.

  But now… now she could say they had true luxuries, and she wasn’t going to repeat the same mistake.

  She glanced around the open space between the edge of the cornfield and the edge of the forest. Someone out there was stealing food from the field, from the reports she’d gotten before. She moved along the edge of the field and she could see where some of the cornstalks had been broken down. She retreated a little for some cover, and faced the forest, opening her senses to the disturbances around her. A breeze passed, rustling the corn stalks, but then everything was quiet again. If someone came, she was sure she would hear them.

  She made some room to sit down, to wait.

  After some hours had passed, something finally happened.

  She was moving slowly, carefully, hiding her movements as much as she could and hoping the darkness would cover for the rest of it. She must have been better than she thought, because she heard a rustling in the trees and saw a figure lurking in the trees. They must not have noticed her if they were being so careless.

  She pointed her gun at them, holding her finger over the trigger, and ordered, “Show yourself!”

  Her voice carried, and the noise instantly stilled. For what felt like a long while, there was no movement. Her heart beat wildly in her chest, though her arms were steady, her eyes staring intently forward, waiting for an enemy to show up.

  “I know you’re out there!” she shouted again. It couldn’t have been just the wind, and she already knew no animals lived in there, not even small ones. They hadn't found any, and she and Felicia had gone through those woods at least three times before the whole group passed through it. “Come out and show yourself!”

  There was a length of silence, and she thought she might have to lose her cover and pursue them, when there was movement. She was cautious, and thought she was ready for everything, but what happened next caught her off guard.

  A small child came out of the clearing, alone and crying.

  Clara was surprised and lowered her weapon. What was a kid doing out here in the dead of night? Just looking at him, she could tell he’d been out for a while. Was he the one responsible for the food theft?

  “Hey, what’s wrong?” she asked, crouching down so she wouldn’t seem so big, even though the boy was being cautious and not getting too close.

  She didn’t put the gun away, either, just made sure the kid couldn’t see it clearly, just in case there were people out there other than the boy.

  He sniffled, keeping his silence for a few seconds, before saying, “My parents are dead.”

  It was expected, but Clara still felt her heart clench in her chest in sympathy. His parents must have been killed by raiders, and she wondered how he was alive, and how he’d been living since.

  This was a kid that hadn't gotten lucky, and Clara was suddenly so glad she had been the one to come out here. She wouldn’t have trusted just anybody to not shoot first the second they heard the disturbance in the woods, if they were careful enough to avoid detection in the first place. Had she been careless, she was pretty sure the kid wouldn’t have shown himself.

  Now that he had, she knew she had to help him somehow. There was no way she would leave a kid living out here alone. He didn’t have more than a pair of pants and a T-shirt on, he was probably cold, too. He stood trembling in front of her, but that could have just been because he was frightened, and she suddenly felt ashamed. She’d pointed a gun at the poor kid! Granted, before she knew it was a child, but still.

  “Calm down,” she murmured. He hiccupped and wiped at his face, curling one hand into a fist and rubbing his eye as he sniffled and hiccupped some more, and it just broke her heart more. “No one is going to hurt you, all right? I promise.”

  It didn’t seem to help, though. If anything, his crying got worse, his body shaking harder with very sob. Clara grimaced, the urge to go to him and scoop him up building in her again, only she knew better, so she kept her place. But it was heartbreaking just staying there and watching him as he cried himself out.

  Where could he have come from? When was the last time he even saw another human being?

  It could have been some time. He reminded her of Jack that way. Though he wouldn’t have been alone for quite that long, she knew for kids, especially one as scared as this one was, days could seem like ages.

  She set the rifle down because she had a feeling there wouldn’t be anyone behind the boy. He wouldn’t be in the state he was in if he had someone with him, she didn’t think. She held a hand out to him, freezing when he stumbled back a step, then moving on with slow, exaggerated motions.

  “Come here, kid,” she urged in the most soothing voice she could muster. “I won’t hurt you, I promise. Just come here…”

  She crooned quiet words to him, and, with some hesitation, he got closer. She smiled, wanting to reach for his hand. Or better yet, drag him into her arms and carry him back to the house. But he was obviously still skittish and that move would likely have him running away.

  “Are you hungry?” she asked instead.

  When he nodded, she moved back, slowly so she wouldn’t spook him, then got up and picked a cob of corn from one of the stalks. She went back to him, keeping her shoulders hunched and trying to make herself look small, then crouched a foot away from him and held the corn out to him. He reached for it, slowly, before snatching it and backing off a step. But he didn’t run, and she let herself hope a little.

  She was thinking of ways to get him to go back with her. Just outright saying it might only scare him further. She needed to calm him down completely and talk him down, and she had to be careful or he would just take off.

  She couldn’t let that happen. It was bad enough that he’d been alone out there for however long. She couldn’t see that well with just the light from the moon, but she knew if she saw him in the sunlight, he would be a sorry sight.

  He nibbled on the corn, but when he heard someone tramping through the corn, he ran away before Clara could stop him. She looked in the direction the noise was coming from, reaching for her gun, but then she relaxed when she saw Jack approaching.

  “Who was in the shadows?” he asked, his eyes following the way the boy had gone.

  Clara was impressed with how strong his sight seemed to be, though she was a little disappointed. If it had been someone else, she could have given them an earful about listening to her orders, but Jack owned this field, and, technically, the kid had been stealing.

  She still wanted to go off and look for the boy, but they’d probably just spook him and he could run further away. At the moment, he might come back, because this farm was the closest source for meals she’d seen around. He was hungry and on his own, so he probably wouldn’t stray too far.

  “There was a little boy,” Clara said, answering Jack’s question as she got up. “He was alone, but he ran off. I want to go after him, but…”

  She let her voice trail off, but he seemed to get it.

  “If he’s alone out there, someone goes after him especially in the dark? He’s not going to stay put and wait for you. He’ll make a run for it.”

  Clara sighed. She already knew, but hearing it still had her disappointed. “I feel sorry for him,” she admitted. “He says his parents are dead. I lost my parents when I wasn’t fifteen, but the world was somewhat sane and I wasn’t by myself. I can’t imagine what he must be feeling…”

  “You’ll just have to wait. If he returns, you can welcome him into my home.”

  Clara smiled. “You’re very kind,” she told him honestly.

  “I enjoy the company of children in my home again,
since I miss my kids. I wouldn’t mind having one more. Though I’m sorry I got in the way. The boy was talking to you before I came here.”

  “Nah, it’s fine. I’m sure he’ll come back.” She shot him a curious look as they headed back. He’d talked about his children often, but there hadn’t been anything specific. “Have you heard from them, your kids?”

  “My daughter… hasn’t spoken to me in years, since she married a boy I disapproved of. I don’t even know where she went, she just got on the road one day… and there hasn’t been news of her since. Always wished I could meet her and apologize,” he said, his voice wistful, then he sighed. “But there probably isn’t much chance of that, now.”

  “I’m sorry,” she murmured.

  But Jack shrugged it off. “It can’t be helped.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “He was so small, Cooper,” Clara murmured. “I couldn’t see all that well in the dark, but I know he’s way too young to be out there on his own. And he probably saw his parents when they got killed…”

  It would explain why he was so afraid to be around people.

  Clara was telling Cooper about the boy in the field.

  She just couldn’t stop thinking about the boy, and had had to force herself to fall asleep last night so she could be up early. Would he come back if she went there that night to look for him? She didn’t know, but she did hope so.

  But then she sighed. He probably won’t… he was so scared.

  It was unfortunate that Jack had arrived at the time he did. She thought, if she’d had more time, she could have at least talked the kid into standing closer to her. Then, maybe, convince him to come back with her to the farm. He hadn't said anything after she gave him the ear of corn, but he must have been thankful for it. She knew that she could have used that… though the image of luring a little boy over to the farm with food didn’t sit well with her.