In the Aftermath: Burning of the Dawn

by Coleman Thompson

  The memory Clarissa dreamt back to this time was more recent, a few months prior. It was mid-May and she and her daughters were near the city of Lock Haven following along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. Clarissa had planned on searching the city for anything useful, but her plans were derailed when she and her daughters came across two men just outside the city limits.

  V–Day + 455. The two men were in their early fifties, wearing thick, tattered clothing and reeking of filth. The taller of the two men had matted gray hair. The shorter was mostly bald. Clarissa would’ve bypassed them altogether, but they emerged from behind a dirty-gray pickup truck and blocked the road ahead of her. She stopped well ahead of their position, but she could still see them clearly. They did not appear to be armed. Clarissa left her vehicle running as she opened her door and stepped outside with her shotgun. She commanded Vita and Maria to wait in the car; she then walked to the front of her vehicle while the two men slowly approached. Vita and Maria looked on anxiously from the backseat. The two men flashed tooth-less smiles as they closed the distance. This was close enough for Clarissa, who then spoke.

  “Move, please.” She appealed, though her tone was more of a demand.

  “Hold on a minute, lady.” The shorter of the men spoke. “We don’t mean no harm… we’re just havin’ a bit of car trouble is all.”

  “Yep, we’re friendly.” The other, taller, man added. “We were just hopin’ maybe you could give us a quick lift into town.”

  Clarissa looked beyond the two men and their truck. She could see the city of Lock Haven; the outskirts of the city were less than a mile away – easily within walking distance. “No, I don’t think I’m going to do that,” she replied with a grim kind of glare. “And you don’t look that friendly to me.”

  The two men’s smiles faded a bit, but they weren’t deterred and still made their way towards Clarissa. The taller man responded, “No, no, young lady, you’re just nervous is all. We’re very friendly.”

  “Well I’m not.” Clarissa snapped back at him as she raised her weapon. This stopped both men in their tracks and also did away with their hideous smiles. Clarissa continued, “Get the fuck off the road and stay off until I’m gone, got it?”

  “Now, c’mon, this ain’t necessary…” the taller man tried to plead, but Clarissa would have none of it.

  “Don’t think for a moment that I’m going to repeat myself.” Clarissa asserted. The two men believed her and began backing away towards their truck. “Stay away from the truck.” Clarissa snapped.

  The two men did as they were ordered and slowly meandered off into the tall grass on the roadside. Clarissa returned to her vehicle and continued on. Her daughters watched as they passed by the two men, who now looked less disingenuously friendly and much more maliciously menacing.

  “Yell at me if you see them move.” Clarissa directed her daughters as she stopped the car once again.

  The truck the men were claiming was theirs was currently blocking half the roadway. Clarissa left her vehicle and walked over to the truck. She opened the front door. The inside of the truck was very disgusting: garbage and debris of various kinds layered the floors and the seats. Clarissa pulled the heavy seat forward as best she could in order to get a better look behind it. Among the greasy rages, moldy clothing, and pornographic reading materials, she found exactly what she was looking for.

  Clarissa emerged from the truck with a 30-06 Remington rifle. It was a bolt-action, single shot with a bullet already in the chamber. This rifle’s primary purpose was for hunting animals; these two men might well have been using it for that intended purpose, but Clarissa did not want to take any chances. In order to further prove their guilt as vile human beings, Clarissa returned to the truck. She reached around the steering wheel and found that the keys were still in the ignition. With a simple twist of her hand the truck started up instantly. She switched the vehicle off again and took the keys with her for good measure.

  Clarissa went around towards the back of the truck and spoke to the men, “Car trouble – that’s what you told me, right?” The men made no reply; they only glared at her malignantly. “Yeah, that’s what I thought, you pathetic fucks.” Clarissa propped her shotgun against the truck and lifted the rifle instead, taking aim at the two men. They both dove for cover in the tall grass. Clarissa readjusted her aim to one of the back tires of the truck and fired the single rifle round. The tire was killed.

  Not wanting to dig around that disgusting truck for more ammo, Clarissa picked up her shotgun and returned to her vehicle with both weapons. She handed the rifle back to her daughters and impassively continued on her way. Not knowing whether or not those two men had friends waiting in the town, Clarissa decided not to scavenge Lock Haven. She stayed near the river and made her way through the city as hastily as she could. The Hannigans encountered no problems as they left Lock Haven behind.

  They followed the river to the northwest for a little while more before pulling off of the road a few miles into the Bucktail State Park Natural Area. A rare sign remained announcing the beginning of this scenic route. Clarissa parked as near to the river as she could; she wanted to be as far off the road as was possible to lessen her chances of being spotted by anyone. The girls set up the solar panel to recharge their car while they had the chance. Clarissa would’ve preferred to have gone on further, but she didn’t know this area well enough. She didn’t know what was ahead of her, or how long it would be before she could stop again. For now, this place by the river would have to do. The river gave her some comfort, though she would have favored a slightly more secluded area. Houses and other urban structures were rare, but so were roads. The highway they’d just left was more or less the only option available to anyone.

  The hills and mountains were covered in lush green as the forests thrived in the ambient springtime. It appeared to be peaceful, yet Clarissa did not feel like resting today. Her anxieties were still high due to the impromptu meeting earlier with the two ugly men. She sat silently by the river’s edge dutifully watching her surroundings, both perceptively and sentimentally.

  Vita and Maria sat on the ground against the front of their car overlooking their mother and the river. They ate semi-stale, peanut butter sandwiches and shared a small box of raisins. They, too, admired the scenery by the river.

  “This place would look awesome in the fall,” Vita spoke. “Wonder if we’ll get the chance to see it.”

  “Doubtful,” Maria replied. “By then we’ll probably be on the west coast… which is okay by me.”

  “That could be nice, too. It might be a little cold during the fall though.”

  “Maybe so, but I’ve definitely had enough of this place. A change of scenery could do us good.” Maria spoke as she placed what remained of her peanut butter sandwich on the ground next to her. “Watch my thing here would you, so ants don’t get it? I’m going to get a water.”

  Vita agreed to the task and Maria stood from her spot and walked around to the backdoor on the passenger side of the car. A Styrofoam cooler set on the floor behind the driver’s seat; in it were water bottles: some full, some partially consumed, and some empty. Maria climbed into the car and took one of the full bottles for her and her sister to share. She exited the vehicle and closed the door. She then noticed movement to her left. As she looked to see what the movement was, Maria found herself looking into the hideous smiles of the two men she and her mother and sister had seemingly left behind. The water bottle fell from her hand as the taller of the two men reached forth and grabbed her.

  In an instant the air seemed thicker around Clarissa and her anxiety peeked into a painless stabbing sensation in her gut. She didn’t know why, but something seemed wrong. She grabbed her shotgun and swiftly turned to her daughters’ position by the car. Vita was startled by her mother’s quick movements; she was completely oblivious to her sister’s current plight. This soon changed, however, as her mother shouted out to the man holding her daughter.

  �
��Let her go!” Clarissa screamed violently. Vita scampered away from her spot as the man holding Maria came around the front of the car. He held Maria around the throat with his left arm; in his right hand he held a hunting knife which he had slipped under Maria’s shirt and held it against her stomach.

  “Now, now, now… you calm down, woman, or this little whore of yours is gonna get gutted right here in front of you,” spoke the man holding Maria.

  “If you hurt her you cocksucking pig, I’ll blow your fuckin’ head off!” Clarissa roared with brutal indignation. How these men had found her and her daughters and how they had found them so quickly was not Clarissa’s main concern at that moment, though the thought was still present somewhere within her enraged psyche.

  “You picked the wrong weapon for the job, bitch,” said the smaller man as he stepped out from behind his partner and Maria. “If you try and shoot him, or me, you’ll hit your little girl, too.”

  “Yep,” the taller man added as he pulled his knife out from beneath Maria’s shirt. “Best just lay that weapon there on the ground and be a good girl.”

  “All we want’s your vehicle.” The smaller man added. “I think that’s the least you can do after actin’ like such a fuckin’ cunt earlier… shootin’ out our tire and threatenin’ us and whatnot. How rude!”

  “Fuck you, you piece of shit!” responded Clarissa.

  “No, I think I want a little more.” The taller man spoke to his partner while placing the knife into his left hand and holding it against Maria’s neck. “I think you and I could use us a little company… how ‘bout it?” Both men flashed their gruesome smiles to one another. The man holding Maria then used his free hand to reach around in front of her and squeeze her breast. “Sweet Jesus, little whore, you are ripe!”

  The tall, disgusting man peered over Maria’s shoulder to better admire himself molesting her body. Clarissa methodically lined up the sight of her weapon to the top of the man’s matted head which was now very much exposed. Without hesitation she squeezed the trigger. The top of the man’s head blew apart, throwing pieces of skull and other assortments of gore all over his partner. The knife dropped from the dead man’s hand as he fell backwards from the blast, taking Maria down to the ground with him.

  “How the… what the fuck?” The shorter man spoke as he looked to his dead partner and then back to Clarissa, who now had the shotgun sighted on him.

  Clarissa aimed a little lower on this man. She fired the weapon once again and this time the slug tore through the right side of the smaller man’s throat. He hit the ground instantly, but was still very much alive. He reached to his neck and put both of his hands to the gaping hole in his throat as the blood poured out of him.

  Maria was undeniably shaken, but she remained physically unharmed. Vita was soon at her side prying the dead man’s arm from around her sister’s neck. Vita cried as she did so, yet Maria showed little emotion as she slowly processed the sequence of events which had just transpired. The events were still transpiring actually, as Clarissa approached the dying man she had just shot in the neck. He would bleed out and die soon enough. Soon enough, however, was not soon enough for Clarissa. She stood above him and watched him in his suffering for a moment longer before finally finishing him off with a series of brutal stomps to the throat, which ultimately severed his head from the rest of his body.

  Clarissa awoke from her dream. She remembered that day vividly, both awake and asleep. The two men had left their truck parked up on the highway far enough away to not be heard. Clarissa had not concealed her position as well as she had wanted, obviously. As it turned out, the two men had an extra tire stashed under the bed of their truck, which they used to replace the one Clarissa had destroyed. They also had an extra key. They then tracked her down on what was likely the fastest and most probable road out of the city.

  Maria recovered quickly from the incident. Vita, however, had nightmares for weeks after. Clarissa did not have any nightmares, but the sight of that repulsive man fondling her daughter would haunt her forever. Clarissa looked over to her daughters. She could not see them in the stale darkness, but she could hear them and feel Maria breathing next to her. It was comforting.

  Clarissa rested well, but slept no more that night. The thick door to the storeroom blocked the light from the outside world, so it would be difficult to tell when the morning came. Clarissa, however, had become accustomed to the intricacies of the quiet night and the passing of time in the lonely darkness. She could sense that morning was at hand, and soon the chirping of the birds confirmed it. The door to Daniel’s pantry was not so thick. The pale, blue light of dawn surreptitiously crept its way underneath the door. He lay inertly, watching it for some time. He had not slept any; not from the discomfort of his accommodations, but more due to habit. Like Clarissa, Daniel did not often sleep at night. Unlike Clarissa, Daniel did not often sleep during the day either. He preferred to avoid his dreams.

  After enough time had passed to determine that it was safe enough, Clarissa rose from her pallet and felt her way towards the storeroom door. She opened the heavy door with little effort; in doing so she woke both of her daughters. They were quick to see the light of dawn, so no concerns of danger perturbed them. Their mother assured them that they could sleep a little longer if they wanted; which they did. Clarissa changed out of her sleeping attire and into her normal day clothes. She then went to packing up her and her daughters’ belongings. She had every intention of leaving within the next few hours.

  Once she had everything in order, Clarissa retrieved her shotgun and headed into the kitchen. Daniel was no longer lying on the floor. Once he heard Clarissa moving around, he took a position sitting against the back wall. Part of him wanted to see and talk to her again, yet another part assumed it would be easier to see her and her daughters go quickly rather than linger around for much longer. Whichever course of action, or lack thereof, was best did not really matter anyway; the decision was not his to make. It was Clarissa’s decision, and she would make it soon enough. She unbolted the pantry door and released Daniel.

  “Good morning.” Daniel spoke in a low tone as he stayed sitting docilely upon the cold pantry floor.

  “Aren’t they always?” Clarissa retorted condescendingly and then headed back to the living room.

  Daniel responded with a quiet chortle. He reached over and took a hold of the disturbingly large knife that Vita had given him. He left the pantry behind and stood silently in the entryway to the living room. Clarissa was looking around to see if there was anything else she could pack up now without waking her daughters. Daniel didn’t want to get much closer, especially with Vita’s knife still in his hand. He knelt down and placed it against the wall. He looked up to see Clarissa now eyeing him.

  “You want any breakfast or anything?” He asked.

  “Not right now,” Clarissa replied. “Maybe when the girls are up.”

  “So you really are leaving?” Daniel asked disquietly.

  “Yes; I don’t believe I was ever vague in that decision.”

  “No, you weren’t. I understand your choice.”

  “Good,” stated Clarissa. “If you want to assist me you can take some of these things out to my car.”

  Daniel accepted. There was not much to take, just a few personal items for Clarissa and her daughters. It would’ve been easy for Clarissa to take it herself, but Daniel was aware of why she wanted him to do it. It was a show of kindness really: having him take the items for her was more cordial than her telling him to leave the house because she still didn’t trust him to be alone with her daughters.

  The glow of the dawning sun illuminated the early morning sky and cast its usual peculiar shadows across the land. The air was cool and still, but the sounds of random singing birds abated its haunting tone. Daniel left the house first with Clarissa behind him. She still carried her shotgun, but seemed to harbor less inclination to use it now. Daniel opened the rear door to the car and placed the small bag of items
into the vehicle. He looked the car over as he stood there.

  “Is there anything in here you can do without?” Daniel asked.

  “Why?” Clarissa responded.

  “So you have room to take some extra things with you.” He replied as he looked over to her. “I can understand why you’d want to leave, but you shouldn’t leave empty-handed.”

  “Yeah, sure. Most of it can go; it’s just empty boxes.”

  With Clarissa’s guidance, Daniel began removing some of the more useless items. It was mostly boxes and small baskets and crates that no longer served much purpose. As Daniel continued scrounging around in the back of the car he soon came across the Remington 30-06 rifle that Clarissa had acquired a few months back. He took a step back as soon as he saw it.

  “Don’t worry,” Clarissa assured him. “It isn’t loaded. Take it, in fact. It isn’t any use to me.”

  “Okay.” Daniel replied; he reached in and retrieved the rifle. “Where’d you get this? Or is that none of my business?”

  “Its former owners won’t miss it… trust me on that.”

  That comment roused Daniel’s interest, but Clarissa’s temperament was erratic and occasionally disturbing, so he sensibly decided not to press the issue any further.

  “We’ll call it a trade then,” Daniel stated. “You gave me this gun, now you take whatever weapons of mine you want. That rifle Vita’s been carrying around, I’ve put a lot of work into it. It’ll get the job done.”

  “I think I’d prefer something that wouldn’t put me at risk of brain-trauma every time I fired it.”

  “It does have some recoil, but I don’t mean for you to use it for recreational use. It’s just for emergencies. It’s the best weapon I have.”

  “No, I don’t want it. Something smaller; something my daughters can use.”

  “The smaller weapons won’t be any use against the Sayona.”