“I say we head west if it comes to it,” Austin said. “Stick to the mountains as much as we can. Without a map, I can’t say exactly where we are, but I think if we head towards southern Oregon, we can have the best of both worlds. The weather’s fairly mild, and there’s plenty of farmland and mountains.”
“Works for me,” Harlen said, putting his hands in the air.
Amanda nodded. “It’s decided then. We give Sarah some time to find those locations, keeping camp here. If she does, we re-evaluate and figure out what makes sense and what we can do. If that doesn’t happen, though, we have a plan.” While she loved the idea of saving the world, she was more inclined to believe it was a fool’s errand. She wanted a back-up plan, a place they could call home and learn to start living once again.
There were more murmurs among the group before it was officially decided they were headed west; all but Austin seemed to assume that the information on the laptop wouldn’t bear any fruit, and that this plan would be their next play. Amanda couldn’t help feeling the same, but wondered if they’d ever really make it… or, rather, how many of them would survive such a trip, the way the world was now.
She looked at Austin and could see the stress on his face in the way his jaw was set. She reached over and put a hand on his knee. “Take a walk with me?” she whispered, not wanting to attract the attention of the others.
He stood up without more prodding, helping her up and out of the shelter. They walked into the trees, passing by the horses.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“You okay with all of this?”
“I don’t think I have a choice.”
“Something’s bothering you,” she prodded. “But having a back-up plan is a good thing. We’re not giving up, Austin.”
He let out a long sigh. “Part of me thinks I should just go to ground with Savannah. Find a place, build a cabin if I need to, and give her somewhere to live. I’ve dragged that girl all over the place for more than a year. She’s been on the move since long before the EMP. That’s no life for a kid. She needs stability. I can see her pulling away, Amanda, and it isn’t just from me. She hardly talks to anyone. She’s scared. I need to give her security and help her find her way back to the living.”
Amanda nodded, appreciating his need to take care of his daughter. “You’re right. She does need something solid in her life, but, Austin, how much security can you really offer her with the NWO in control? It’s always going to be dangerous. None of us will ever going to be safe and comfortable.”
“But staying put somewhere and giving her a chance to recover from all she’s been through would help,” he argued.
“Yes, it would, but you and I both know it isn’t that easy. I’ll admit, I initially thought your plan to save the world was a fool’s errand and, in a way, I still do, but I know you well enough to know you will not be able to let this go. You will not be able to sit back and accept the world for what it is unless you know you did everything you could to change it. I feel the same way. I want to relax. I want to kick up my feet and have a drink after a long night of working in the fields or hunting for game. We all want that. It’s human nature.”
“How do we get that again?” he muttered.
She chuckled. “We do our best. We try our best to do our part. If we fail, we know we tried. We move on—find our little corner of Oregon and settle down. It will be like the pioneers all those years ago. We plant, we grow food, and we get back to living instead of surviving,” she said, not fully believing what she was saying, but doing her best to sell the dream.
He pulled her to him, giving her a quick hug before stepping back. “You’re right. Thank you. Now, let’s get back there so you can get some sleep. You’re about to fall over.”
She laughed softly. “You are so right.”
They walked back to the camp, finding that the others were either settling in to rest or making plans for hunting and fishing. Mike was planning to lead another group up to those berries that evening. Amanda made her makeshift bed, lying down and ignoring the bumpy, hard ground. Austin sat down a few feet away to work on some sort of rabbit snare Ennis was building. She stared at his profile for several long minutes, comforted by the idea of him watching over her while she slept.
9
Ennis settled down by the side of the firepit and glanced around the mostly empty clearing
“Where is everyone?” he asked Wendell, who was dozing a few feet away, lazily watching the clouds.
“Wandering around. Fishing for fish that aren’t there or picking those berry bushes clean, maybe,” he said, not looking over.
“I think you mean they’re out looking for something to eat,” Ennis replied.
Wendell looked over finally, but didn’t take the jibe. “Yes, that, and Amanda said she had to do something with the horses. Those horses seem to be more of a pain than a help. We can’t ride them. There’s only two of them. They take water away from us, and they’re loud and they stink.”
Ennis chuckled, not letting Wendell’s attitude bother him. “They’re helpful. Once we start collecting some supplies or need to send folks out on scouting missions, those horses will come in handy.”
“I suppose,” he said, sitting up and moving in to sit closer by. “Ennis, can we talk for a minute, just you and me?”
Ennis looked around the empty clearing; even Sarah was taking a break from the laptop while it charged on its solar battery—he guessed she was washing up by the stream, which was about the only place outside the clearing she ventured to. “It’s just you and me.”
“I mean, I want to talk to you, but only you. I don’t want it going any farther,” he said in a hushed voice.
“What’s on your mind, Wendy?” he asked with a smile, wishing the guy would relax.
Wendell bristled a bit at the use of the nickname, but seemed to shake it off. “What are we doing?” he asked.
“We’re sitting here talking,” Ennis replied dryly.
“I mean, what are we doing trying to chase down the NWO? Shouldn’t we be trying to get away from them?”
Ennis stared off into the trees, wishing he could just have one day without thinking about the NWO. It wasn’t to be, obviously. “Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘the best way out is through?’” he asked.
Wendell rolled his eyes. “Probably, but what does that have to do with anything?”
“It means that the only way we get to have our lives back is to get through this tough part. If we can take down the NWO, even a little, it’s going to get us that much closer to living a normal life again,” he explained.
“Do you really think all the other survivors are following that very poor advice?” he muttered.
Ennis shrugged. “They don’t know there’s a way out. We do. That’s the difference.”
“No, we don’t know that. It could be a wild goose chase. We could be sacrificing our lives to do the impossible. What good is it going to do us, specifically?” he questioned.
“It’s going to help us return to normal before we’re old and die,” Ennis replied. “It’s going to give us a chance to actually live a life instead of fighting to survive every single day.”
Wendell studied his face. “You don’t want to do it,” he said, his eyes lighting up.
“That is not what I said.”
“You didn’t have to. I can see it in your eyes. You don’t want to chase down missile silos. You’re ready for normal!”
Ennis sighed. “We’re all ready for normal, Wendell.”
Wendell climbed to his feet, staring at Ennis. “You’re ready for it now. So am I. So are a lot of them. We don’t have to do this. Let’s get out of here; we’ll head for Oregon like we talked about. Forget the NWO. People will follow you. You know how to fish, hunt, live off the land and all that. They’ll follow you!” he said excitedly.
“Follow me to what, Wendell? Don’t you see that’s the problem? There’s nowhere to go. Oregon doesn’t solve the problem. We
can’t have ‘normal’ with the NWO still out there!”
“Okay, so we go to Oregon and we don’t stop. We head to the west coast and we get a boat. We sail away to an island. There are islands everywhere! We can set up far away from everyone else. We can grow and plant and do all that stuff we’ve been talking about,” he gushed, grinning like a fool.
Ennis found himself listening, though, letting himself believe it was an option. However temporarily. Then… “I can’t,” he muttered.
“You can’t or you won’t because you don’t want to upset your brother?” Wendell shot back.
“It isn’t that. We’ve come a long way together. He’s my brother.”
“Your brother is going to get us all killed for nothing! You’re the older brother. You should be the one making the decisions,” he insisted, crouching down beside the firepit as if to convince him.
“Yeah, Ennis, you’re the older one, you should be the boss,” Austin said, stomping towards them with Amanda right on his heels.
“Stop, it isn’t like that,” Ennis said, holding up his hand to stave off another confrontation between himself and his brother.
“Sounds to me like Wendell here wants to separate you from the rest of the group,” Austin said, glaring at the much shorter man.
“No, I want to save the group from your reckless decision making,” Wendell spat.
Ennis saw his brother’s clenched jaw and knew he was on the verge of knocking Wendell into the next state. “Stop, Austin. He’s just worried, and he has a right to his opinion.”
“Ennis, I thought we all agreed this was the right thing to do,” Amanda said. “We wait to see if we can do something, and we have a back-up if not.”
“But we have to do something if we can,” Austin pressed. “That’s the right thing to do for all of us. For everyone.”
Ennis felt himself shrugging, looking off into the trees. “I don’t know if it is right. What chance do we have, really, even if Sarah finds the information we need? And if she doesn’t, we’ve only lost time. Wendell brings up a good idea. We could get to the west coast, find a boat, and sail to an island.”
Austin rolled his eyes. “Oh, shoot, that sounds like a much more solid plan.”
“Austin, we all deserve to decide our own fate. We’ve been in this position before,” Ennis said, meeting his brother’s eyes finally. “Everyone needs to make their own choice for their future. They need to hear the options, and not be pressed into a course that’s going to decide their lives.”
“Ennis, have you seen a lot of islands in your lifetime?” Austin asked.
“No, but that doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter. What are you going to hunt?” he shot back.
“Fish. You can fish all day,” Wendell chimed in.
Austin shook his head again, but kept his eyes on his brother. “Really? What about water? Do you two have a desalinator handy?”
The plan did have some hiccups, Ennis knew, but so did any plan for going after the NWO. “It’s worth a conversation,” he said quietly.
“You’re dividing the group again, just after we finally all came together,” Amanda insisted.
“I’m giving the people a chance to make a choice. They aren’t warriors, Austin,” Ennis said. “You can’t drag them into another fight that’s absolutely going to end up with people dying. You’re talking about going into a war zone with no real guns, no gear, no nothing. You’ve seen the NWO fight, more than once, and they aren’t going to leave a computer center unguarded. Think about that!”
Because it was true, and they all knew it. What Austin wanted to do wasn’t just dangerous—it was reckless, maybe suicidal. So what if they were the only ones who could do it? What did that matter if it was impossible? Wendell might be a fool, but at least he wanted to live.
Austin had gone silent, but Ennis faced him head-on, willing himself to stay calm. “You’re family. We’re all family now.” He couldn’t bring himself to say that he was terrified of losing his brother, his niece, or his own life. Austin would just have to understand that, and it seemed he did—his eyes softened, and he took a step back.
Austin sat on the ground, and waited for the others to do the same before he spoke, though Wendell remained off to the side, pacing. “I know it’s a huge risk,” Austin began. “I know it and I’m struggling to do the right thing. I want to run away and put my head in the sand, but I have to think about the future, Savannah’s future.”
“But Ennis has a point,” Amanda said, siding with him suddenly.
“What’s that?” Austin asked, looking at her with irritation.
“We can’t force these people into a battle they don’t want to be a part of,” she offered, her voice quiet. “If they go in there half-hearted, everyone dies. Assuming we do this, whoever wants to fight back has to be all in.”
“You want everyone to hear Wendell’s island idea?” Austin asked bitterly.
Amanda looked to Ennis, then Wendell. “I do. I think it’s better we find out who’s on board now rather than later when we really need them.”
Austin sighed. “Fine. No one’s really doing anything. Let’s get this hashed out now. I want to know who’s with me and who’s not.”
“It isn’t personal, Austin,” Ennis said.
“Feels like it.”
Ennis swallowed down a retort and forced himself to speak calmly. “You’re making this about you. It isn’t only you that has to decide what they are willing to die for.”
Austin looked at his brother before turning and walking out of the clearing. Amanda followed, leaving Ennis and Wendell alone once again.
“Sheesh, he acted like we tried to impeach him or something,” Wendell said.
“It’s a big deal, Wendy. Your idea sounds great in theory, but it amounts to avoiding the fight, and Austin brought up some good points. I suggest you think about how you’re going to answer those questions when they’re brought up by the others,” Ennis said before stalking away into the trees for some shade and some space.
It was hot and miserable—an ugly dry heat that made his throat feel dry.
Ennis watched as Austin and Amanda walked toward the stream together, heading off through the trees. There was a strange symbiosis to the way they moved, as if they were of one mind. Amanda was the only one Austin seemed to listen to. She was the only one who could tell him no without his brother blowing up at her.
It wasn’t long before everyone had been rounded up and brought back to the clearing to discuss Wendell’s plan. Ennis stood off to the side, torn between his sense of patriotism and his desire to survive and live in a peaceful world, separated from the horrors gripping the country.
“What’s going on?” Drew asked.
Ennis quickly told them about the idea of moving west immediately, and finding an island retreat, forgetting about the NWO entirely. The discussion got lively quickly, and Ennis only watched, no longer sure what he wanted. Off to the side, Sarah was the only other person who stayed out of it, intent on her own personal mission.
“We could fight the NWO with the information on that USB,” Austin interjected. “We could fight back and possibly have a real chance at a real future and not a temporary solution to a problem that’s only going to get worse.”
“We’re tired of fighting,” Gretchen said, her voice carrying over the group.
Ennis looked around, seeing the others slowly nodding in agreement.
“We want to live a peaceful life,” Tonya acknowledged.
“How peaceful will your life be when the NWO finds your island and kills all of you?” Austin snapped. “Or when you’re dehydrated and out of supplies because you’ve trapped yourself on an island?”
“We deal with that when that day comes. The constant fighting isn’t getting us anywhere,” Gretchen said.
“It’s keeping you alive. You can’t give up. You give up, you die,” Austin stated simply, staring at her until she looked down to the ground.
“
Who’s to say we can fight the NWO?” Jordan asked. “We can’t beat them. The plan you and Sarah are talking about, that’s pipe dream stuff, it sounds like. We’re just biding time here, waiting to know that for sure. All we can do is keep running from the NWO and hope they don’t send out their full army to kill us. It makes sense to stop running sooner than later and find somewhere to live.”
Austin was shaking his head. “You’re giving up. How can you give up? The island dream isn’t a long-term solution.”
“The only thing long-term in this world is death,” Wendell shot back. “You’ll surely lead us all to our deaths if we keep following you!”
Amanda held up her hands, effectively stopping the comeback from Austin and quieting the group. She had that kind of authority which everyone seemed to respect.
“Look, the point is that everybody needs to decide whether to prioritize fighting back against the NWO or not. If Sarah comes up with the information we need, we have to be ready to move if we want to, and those who don’t want to fight don’t have to. Let’s take a day to think about it. Pray or do whatever it is you do, but no matter what you choose, you have to be fully committed to the idea. This isn’t something you can change your mind on. Think about your life in a year, five years, twenty years. What do you want? No one can force you to do anything, except the NWO maybe,” she murmured. “But let’s decide by tomorrow where all of our priorities lie.”
Her calm, authoritative method worked. Everyone quieted down, though Ennis doubted any of them knew for sure what they wanted—except maybe his brother and Wendell.
“We’ll reconvene tomorrow and see where everyone’s at,” Ennis said, feeling like a day or two to mull over their options was definitely the right decision. He also needed some time to think it over. What made sense? Running to the battle, hoping they had a shot—if Sarah could even offer them a chance—or running for the hills and accepting this world for what it was, however dark a place that might be?
10
Small Town EMP (Book 3): Survive The Conflict Page 8
