by A. R. Shaw
“We are carriers of the virus and they are still susceptible to it,” Graham explained.
“They almost killed me. I could hear them arguing about doing it,” Mark said through chattering teeth.
“That is the million dollar question. Why didn’t they? You were a great threat to them,” Graham said, as he put the truck in gear and drove back to the cabin.
They pulled up and took the boy inside. Graham watched anger flare in Tala’s dark, expressive eyes as she treated the bloody marks on Mark’s wrists and ankles, and exclaimed over his poor condition. She gave him a glass of water, told him to sip it slowly, and when it stayed down, made him a cup of hot tea. A few minutes later, she broke a couple of leftover biscuits, moistened them and fed them to him bit by bit. They sat him by the woodstove and piled extra blankets around him
Bang went up to him shyly and showed him his bow and arrow. Mark held it, felt the smooth wood, and smiled at the boy. He told him it was good and asked him to show him how to use it sometime.
Ennis called Graham outside to discuss the situation.
“What the hell happened to the new stray?” Ennis asked.
Graham explained in detail about the boy’s delivery and showed Ennis the note with the territory map.
Both men were breathing hard and angry. The old man had his hands on his hips and scuffed the ground with his boot. “This ain’t right,” he said after a bit.
“They should’ve killed him and us too. Why didn’t they?” he asked Graham.
“I don’t know. They sure as hell have the equipment and reason enough to do it. Why’d they keep the boy and go to the trouble to seek us out to keep him alive? We carry the virus that with one contact could wipe them out completely,” Graham said.
“Do we know where their camp is?” Ennis asked.
“I can only assume it’s somewhere in their territory.” He ran a finger around the edge of the map, “They kept the boy blindfolded so he doesn’t know where their base is.”
“You think he’s the one that left the bloody handprints at the Camp Ground Office,” Ennis asked.
“Yeah, the kid told me the guy he was with shot at one of them, and then they returned fire and killed him. They took him and kept him in a shed all this time, with these low temperatures at night. It’s a wonder he survived without even a blanket,” Graham said.
“It just don’t make sense.” Ennis said.
“I know. For now, I say let’s just get that kid past the hypothermia and fatten him up a little. It’s going to snow soon and getting through the winter might prove to be a bigger enemy than the Preppers at this point,” Graham said.
Graham started to walk away towards the cabin when Ennis called out, “We only have room for one more, Graham, so no more strays.”
Graham nodded and remembered to asked, “Who’s on watch?”
“Me and Marcy,” he said.
Ennis shuffled off to his hideout at the entrance in the woods, while Graham pulled out the radios and connected the battery packs, testing them to see if they worked properly.
~ ~ ~
Tala kept pouring warm tea into Mark, worried about dehydration. A bit later, she gave him some of the dried venison, and told him to eat it slowly. He tried to pull a chunk off with his teeth, winced, then tore it with his fingers into small pieces and chewed it with an expression on his face that made it clear he savored every bit of its sweet taste.
“When you want to, Mark, the bathroom is this way,” Tala pointed. “I’ve set out some clothing on the counter in there for you. You can take a warm shower if you like.”
The young man looked at Tala and said, “Thank you,” in a way that she knew he truly meant it.
She could see the pain in his young eyes. Like the other survivors, he’d suffered deeply, been through and witnessed too many things for a person his age. For a person of any age, she amended the thought. She stroked his head and, at first reluctant to receive caring of any sort, he jerked away. She murmured softly to him until he relaxed leaned against her, allowing her to hug him. He was sixteen, still just a boy, like her brothers had been.
“You’re going to be fine here. We all get along pretty well. You haven’t met Marcy yet. She’s Macy’s twin sister. She’s on watch right now, but she’ll be back here soon,” Tala said.
Graham came in the front door and the boy started to get up on shaky legs. Graham helped him to the bathroom and, smiling, the boy told him that he could handle it from there.
“Well, that’s a darn good thing.” He grinned at Mark.
“He’s been through a lot,” Tala remarked after the door was closed.
“Yeah, haven’t we all,” Graham said, then called Macy. “Yes?” she answered from the bunkroom, zipping her jacket.
“We’re up, darling,” he said.
He gave her one of the radios and they first walked out to Ennis’s spot together to try them out. Macy used long strides to keep pace with Graham, crunching the autumn leaves and dry needles underfoot with her brown suede work boots.
He gave her one of the devices and left one in the kitchen with Tala, who listened to their conversation from there. Ennis walked up to them and talked about police radio codes. Ennis didn’t know, he remembered that 10-12 meant visitors present or that 10-34 meant trouble at this station, but terms came to him readily when Graham asked. He couldn’t remember the code for ‘all clear’ so they decided that the phrase worked in lieu of a code.
~ ~ ~
Marcy greeted her twin happily, admired the radio, quickly learned the codes and then raced back to the house, starving and impatient to return to the cabin for more of Tala’s cooking.
Inside, she warmed up her hands by the fire and removed the pistol from the holster Ennis had made for her and placed them on the table by the door. She then removed her coat and put it on the peg they’d nailed there to hold them and pulled off her boots and lined them up in their spot, biggest to smallest.
She turned around to warm her backside in front of the stove. Tala smiled at her from the kitchen, “Is it getting cold out there?” she asked.
“Yeah, especially when you’re sitting up in a tree for hours freezing your buns off,” Marcy said, then walked into the kitchen to wash her hands. “Do you want me to set the table?” she asked Tala.
“Sure. We’re seven now so add an extra,” Tala said.
“What? Why do we have an extra?” Marcy asked as she pulled the right number of plates out of the cupboard.
“Didn’t Macy tell you?” Tala asked.
“No, who is it?” Marcy asked.
Mark opened the bathroom door spilling the warm mist out. Dressed in gray sweatpants and a white t-shirt, he said, “Hi,” to Marcy, then asked Tala, “Where do I put these?” holding a bundle of dirty clothes in one arm and the doorjamb with the other as he swayed a bit unsteadily.
Marcy put down the dishes and hurried over to help him. He acted kind of embarrassed to have her support, but accepted it. She took the dirty clothes from under his arm, walked him over to a chair at the table, and shot Tala a questioning look.
“Marcy, meet Mark. Mark, this is Macy’s twin.”
He stared at her. “Wow! You and your sister…”
“Yeah. I know,” she said. “I’ll take these and put them with the others,” Marcy said.
“You might want to burn those,” Mark said.
“Dinner’s almost ready, Mark. Are you hungry?” Tala asked.
“Yes, thank you,” he said.
Marcy returned to the stack of plates and began laying them out. Mark reached for one to put on his side of the table, trying to help her. Marcy could smell his shampooed hair still wet from the shower. He looked pale against his bruised cheek with shades of deep purple spreading out to green.
As if her glances made him uncomfortable, he refused to meet Marcy’s eyes. “Tala,” he asked, “is there something I can do to help?”
“No, you need to rest and get better so that you can help
us in lots of other ways. There is certainly plenty to do,” she said.
Tonight, they were having pinto beans and rice like Graham’s mom always made. It was a nice break from the unfamiliar meat they’d been eating. Tala managed to make a peach cobbler out of canned peaches, as a surprise after dinner and though they now ate in shifts, there would be plenty for everyone. With two good meals a day, they were gaining back the weight they’d lost during the chaos, but also gaining muscle as their work schedule demanded a lot of physical labor none of them were used to.
Tala called Ennis and Bang to the old table and the five of them got to know one another over dinner. Marcy watched Mark’s eyelids drooping, glad when Tala did, too, and suggested Ennis help him into one of the bunks
“But…” Marcy whispered after peeking in. “Tala, Ennis is putting him in Graham’s bed.”
“Probably because Mark’s too weak to climb the ladder, just like you were at first.”
“Yeah. I guess.”
“I’ll check on him before I go to bed,” Tala went on, “and make sure he’s okay. He’ll probably need a couple of extra blankets tonight, at least.”
The next morning, Marcy smiled as she awoke, hearing Mark tell Tala he wasn’t really sure where he was or if he was dreaming and the nightmare might come back.
Marcy could relate to that.
32 The Preppers
When the carriers—at first just a woman and an old man—showed up and broke into a cabin near the lake, Dalton was about to initiate the original plan of action, which was suit up, go in and take them out. But while they were on their way through the forest, Graham arrived with the kids and a dog, leaving Dalton’s group with a hard decision to make. They aborted the mission and, though it took some planning and stealth, managed to infiltrate Graham’s camp that night and posted several hidden cameras among the trees to keep an eye on them.
Though some thought they should follow the guidelines originally set in place, and argued to take out the whole crew of carriers because they were too close to base camp. All it would take was one encounter to introduce the virus into their secure area, and the Preppers would die, yet the thought of killing anyone in cold blood just seemed wrong and Dalton said so. Rick asked if there was any benefit to keeping carriers so close, and the only thing Dalton could come up with was that they posed no hostile threat and might act as a warning system for intruders to the area.
They’d prepared for this scenario, and in theory the right thing to do was make every attempt to terminate the virus for the good of all, but Dalton couldn’t go through with it. For one thing, he recognized Graham, the guy who’d moved into the cabin. They’d gone to summer camp together when they were kids, even visited each other’s cabins, fishing and doing the things twelve year old boys do. They’d only run into each other a few times as adults when Graham visited in town. They exchanged numbers once and told each other they would get the wives together and visit, but neither one ever did call. Something always came up and now Dalton really regretted it because Graham was a great guy and apparently immune.
It was one thing to kill in the defense of your family, but a managed risk with the carriers, under constant observation, was another thing. They were not a threat to the Prepper camp unless they got near.
They knew Graham had weapons, but essentially, he was one man with one woman taking care of an old man and several children. Dalton had to respect him for taking them in.
Then he and Rick, while checking out the town, spotted a man and a boy. The man had shot at them and Dalton had taken him out before he recognized the boy as Mark, his own aunt’s youngest son, and shoved the barrel of Rick’s rifle aside so he wouldn’t kill the kid.
That night Rick argued, “Dalton, you know this goes against everything we’ve trained for. That kid could kill us all.”
“I know. We just can’t leave him out there on his own. There’s no one left to help him. He’s my cousin, Rick,” Dalton argued back.
Rick said, “All right. It’s your call.”
Dalton sometimes regretted not taking the necessary action, but he also regretted not convincing the rest of his family to join the Prepper group he’d founded just five years ago. Too much had happened in the world, and he’d seen firsthand, with five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, what crazy crap those people were capable of. He’d had his money on trouble coming from terrorist groups, not the Chinese. That’s where it had come from though, and while not exactly a planned attack, it had worked just as well as if it had been and left most of the world dead—even in China.
His family chalked his Prepper activity up to PTSD and kept quiet about it. He practiced every other weekend and prepared for the worst. Now, he, his wife, and their two small sons were holed up in their hideout along with thirty other adults and their children.
Things had gone to plan after he initiated the alert to converge on the hidden location. They’d quarantined everyone who made it in and more than a few didn’t pass. It was too bad, but they’d incinerated the remains of those who died from the virus in quarantine. The name of the game was survival, and if they had to be ruthless and sometimes inhumane, they all knew it was necessary.
It shocked Dalton that the boy had made it. He’d assumed his entire extended family had all perished. Rick reluctantly agreed to risk capturing Mark, taking him back to camp and isolating him, but the kid’s residence there took a toll on Dalton’s conscience because the shelter they had to keep his young cousin in wasn’t sufficient for his survival through the winter. Not only that, the boy continued trying to escape. It was only a matter of time before he did and the possibility that he would expose one of them was just too much to risk.
Finally, Dalton made the decision to take Mark to Graham’s place. When the surveillance team radioed that Graham and just one girl were on the move toward town, he and Rick hauled Mark there, instead of the cabin, where the risk of exposure was greater to them.
Now that the transfer was complete, they burned the shack they’d kept the boy in and sterilized their suits as well as the jeep compartment they’d used to transport him.
All in all, Dalton felt good about the situation but still worried, so they doubled up on their surveillance to keep track of the group’s whereabouts at all times. As far as he knew, the kid didn’t know who had saved his ass, nor had Graham recognized him in the suit.
He thought about revealing himself but then if he did and had to exterminate the man it would be harder, so he thought he’d just keep it to himself for now.
It was a lucky thing they were monitoring them too, because as they watched the old man by the lake, the surveillance team spotted the strange men in the canoe and then they knew there were more across the lake, though they didn’t seem to be associated with one another nor did the old man wave back. That bothered Dalton.
If the canoe guys were hostiles, they would surely go after Graham’s people first and with that warning, they could better prepare.
Only after the men in the canoe had made themselves known had Graham’s little group begun to keep watch on their own camp. They really were vulnerable to anyone who came in, because they lacked a military mindset.
Dalton’s team accepted this, and besides surveillance, they decided as a group they’d only step in to help if there were no risk to themselves in doing so. Now he just hoped Graham and his team, including his own young cousin, would follow the rules and not cause them to regret their mercy.
33 A Surprise Encounter
The next morning, Mark was awakened by a rough tongue licking his face. He shouted when he realized it was a dog. Marcy came running around the corner, thinking Mark was having a bad dream, but then started laughing when she saw him cowering at the head of his bed. “It’s just Sheriff,” she said. “He won’t hurt you. He’s a police dog. He found Macy and me. He hasn’t turned wild like the others. He even brings us food sometimes,” she said and reached for the dog, scratching just under his ears.
Mark re
ached out his hand, shaking with fear and Sheriff smelled it, then took in his scent and walked out of the room to go about his own business for the day.
Later that day, because he was still too weak, Mark helped where he could and Bang took him outside to practice with the bow and arrow. Ennis worked on one for the young man and each time he practiced, he became better and better at it. Mark was a little embarrassed to have a five-year-old teach him how to shoot straight, but like Graham said, “Might as well learn from the master.” Mark was surprised to learn that the girls had also learned from the little boy.
“That’s funny that your name is Bang and the dog’s name is Sheriff,” Mark said later at the dinner table.
It seemed no one else thought it was funny. Macy said, “Yeah, we know. I guess it doesn’t really mean much anymore.”
The next day, Mark got bored and asked Graham if he could take his turn on look out. "
”I don’t know, son,” Graham said. “You’re still pretty badly bruised and look washed out, but I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you stack that wood over there and split five more blocks with the axe. If you do that for the rest of the week, it will help build up your strength. We can’t have you falling asleep on watch or not being able to react fast enough if there’s a problem.”
So Mark set to work, and the first day he did split five logs and stacked all the wood, but the second day, he split six and continued to ramp it up each day. Every night, his muscles ached from the unaccustomed exercise, but he felt good about contributing and got stronger every day.
By the end of the week, Ennis noticed the boy stretching before he got to work with the axe and said, “You gonna be Paul Bunyan before this is through.”
Confused, Mark said, “Who’s Paul Bunyan?”
Ennis shook his head, walking away, muttering something about the state of the school system, with his fishing pole over his shoulder and Sheriff trotting along beside him.
