by Leela Ash
There was nothing he hated more than leaving Layne alone at home, especially now that she wasn’t feeling well. What if she needed him while he was gone? He laughed to himself. She would die before she admitted that she needed him. It was her independence that he found so attractive, and she was very capable in ways he had never known any person could be capable.
When he was younger, he never would have imagined that he would find himself living with a brilliant, gorgeous scientist in an off the grid settlement. Then again, he never would have imagined that the apocalypse would strike and kill everybody that he knew and loved. Except for his brother.
He thought back to his brother, who he had visited a few weeks prior. He had been convinced that Jonathan was dead, and when they finally found each other again, he had slipped right through his fingers and headed off to fight some kind of war against people who were threatening the safety of the community up north.
Everybody was looking for some kind of safety and comfort that resembled what they had lost after the virus had struck. Since then, everything went to hell. The people in the encampment up north had taken their cue from communal living and done their best to round up as many people as possible. They had settled into teepees, where the coldness couldn’t touch them and they were able to enjoy a warm meal no matter what time of the year it was. They seemed happy enough there, working together, but there was an oppressive atmosphere over the camp that made Jax uncomfortable.
He couldn’t quite put his finger on why he had felt that way. Maybe it had been the gray sky, or maybe he had just been driven to the edge with the anxiety he was feeling about finding Jonathan and getting back home to Layne, who was alone defending the garden. Either way, something out there had felt a little bit off, and he couldn’t tell what it was. It was best not to think about it, especially not if he was going to keep his wits about him.
Medics were a rare commodity, and had been highly revered once the population had been wiped out. The tribes would give the doctors shit for not knowing how to stop the virus, but they also depended heavily upon them to survive. Who had the best medics?
He knew that he wouldn’t be able to find any help from the Jackals, especially if Jinx was still around. He had seen Jax kill his two best friends before running away, and it was likely that they would all be able to recognize his face. He couldn’t count on their help, but maybe there was a tribe a little closer that would offer him some assistance. Most of them would do anything for a price. He had planned to promise them all the beer they could drink. Many of the people who had survived the virus had turned into addicts of whatever they could get their hands on. Everybody was anxious to numb the pain of losing everything that they had known and loved. If he could offer them some kind of poison for them to drown in, then maybe he would be able to get Layne some help.
By the time the afternoon came, his stomach was rumbling. He had gotten used to having regular meals. Food security was a new luxury that was easy for his body to get used to, especially with the way Layne always kept herself busy in the garden. If she wasn’t out there she was in the little kitchen canning food, ever wary of the future. If they had to go in a hurry, they would be able to take as much as they might need to last a while. She had even secluded a corner of the cabin for indoor plants like tomatoes, and had a couple of barrels full of dirt in the corner where she grew potatoes. They would have potatoes all year round, if nothing else. It might not be the most nutritious, but it would keep them alive.
He had made it a great distance away from their homestead, and sat back against a tree, digging through his bag to bring out his lunch. As he ate, a modest meal made up of a salad and a boiled potato, he thought about how lucky it was that the two of them had found each other. And not only that, but they had managed to stumble upon the perfect place for them to make Layne’s dream come true. They were far enough away from the tribes down south that it was finally possible to settle down and garden.
Food security was everything, which was why there were so many tribes. They wanted everything at a little cost, and were happy to steal from others and protect themselves as mercilessly as possible. A lot of people had gone off the deep end after the virus had killed their loved ones. They had become hardened to the rest of the world, making them extremely dangerous and prompting them to act without mercy any time they encountered another human being who didn’t show signs of alliance or submission.
He and Layne had been heading north, holding on to the faint hope that there weren’t as many tribes where it was cold. Most people believed that it would be easier to survive in the warmer climates, and had immediately headed down south, where they wouldn’t have to face the harshness of the elements without the modern luxuries of electricity to help them survive.
At the beginning of the end, he remembered a group of scientists who had been hell-bent on reconstructing the world to its natural and former glory. They wanted to understand electricity and figure out how to redistribute it throughout the world. There were still a couple of engineers left, but after many grand proclamations of their intention, they seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth. He hadn’t heard anything about them in years.
It was too bad he couldn’t find them. They seemed to have solid heads on their shoulders and hefty priorities. Maybe they would be able to help him with Layne. He was terrified of losing her. She was the first good thing that had happened to him since the virus had struck. He felt grateful every day that he had been able to find somebody to just click so well with, especially after the majority of the population had vanished. What were the odds of finding a soul mate now?
When he finished eating, he set out on his way again, happy to be doing something productive instead of just sitting around the house and worrying. He knew that Layne would be able to fend for herself while he was gone, but it still made him nervous to leave her there alone.
Suddenly, he heard the snapping of a twig and whipped around. He found himself staring face-to-face at a dirty young woman with wild blonde hair and angry eyes. She was pointing a sharpened spear at him, and crouching close to the ground like a wild animal. He sighed, hopping off his bike and taking a step back before she could launch the spear at his tires. He held his hands up so that she would know he didn’t plan to hurt her.
“Who are you?” She demanded, shaking her spear at him. The spear didn’t scare him, and neither did the girl. What scared him was that he didn’t know what kind of tribe she was from, or whether or not she was alone.
“My name is Jax,” he said to her slowly and calmly. “Could you take me to your tribe? I have a proposition for them.”
“My tribe. Ha. My tribe doesn’t see strangers! Do you think I’m stupid?” She growled at him.
“You’re not stupid,” he said with a grin, trying to lighten the mood. “It’s just that I have some beer, home-brewed and really strong, if someone from your tribe can help me. You guys have a medic?”
“What kind of a tribe doesn’t have a medic?” She asked him, her eyes narrowing.
The whole interaction was making Jax uneasy. He wasn’t sure that he wanted to deal with a tribe that allowed, and maybe even encouraged, the people in it to act more like animals than like civilized people. He wouldn’t want anybody like her to go near Layne, and he was sure that he wouldn’t be very likely to trust any of their medical advice either.
“You know what? Never mind. I think I’ll just be on my way,” he said, backing up slowly. “Thanks anyway.”
Jax had said the magic word. He cringed as he realized that “thanks” had escaped his mouth, and she looked at him with wide eyes, a sickening smile curling against her lips. Because he said it, she would assume that he was vulnerable. That he was submitting to her. She would think that she could attack him.
“Not so fast,” she said, creeping toward him. “I think I remember you saying something about beer. I don’t know about you but I think it’s silly to believe that you could just tease us like that.”
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“Us?” Jax asked, wondering if maybe she was crazier than she appeared to be.
Suddenly, another person appeared, walking toward him with a sneer on his face. He was tall, lean, and lanky, and looked as if he hadn’t had a decent meal in months. Jax immediately felt sorry for him, but not sorry enough to surrender his own safety. Or his rations, for that matter. If he was going to take care of Layne, he would have to take care of himself first and foremost. He couldn’t let these kids take him down.
“I don’t think you realize what you’re doing,” Jax said, backing up toward the trees. He really didn’t want to hurt them, but they were going to leave him no choice.
“I do!” The boy said, offering him a twisted grin and raising his spear up into the air. “We’re getting ourselves a chance to get fucked up and take whatever the hell else you have with you. Must be our lucky day.”
“I know you guys are probably really hungry,” Jax said, realizing that they might not belong to any of the tribes and had possibly been bluffing to protect themselves. “Maybe I can take you to a place where you can be fed. There’s a settlement up north, people don’t want any violence. They’ll accept you there and feed you as long as you do your part.”
“That’s a fairytale,” the girl spat, coming closer to Jax.
“It’s not, I’ve been there.”
“Well then we’ll go there with your beer,” the boy laughed, readying himself to throw the spear at Jax.
Jax sighed heavily and rolled his eyes. They weren’t getting the hint. They were too young and arrogant to realize that they wouldn’t be able to take down a well fed and well rested man like him, even if there were four people in the same condition they were in. His heart really went out to them but they had left him no choice. They wanted to take what he needed and he would have to defend himself now.
Before the spear was released from the boy’s feeble grip, Jax lunged at him and tackled him down onto the ground. The woman unleashed a cry of fury and ran toward him, hoping to impale him with the spearhead. He kicked her away, causing her to fall flat on the ground with an oomph that told him he had knocked the wind out of her.
She was struggling to get back on her feet and Jax grabbed the boy’s spear, debating whether or not he should kill them both or let them go. He suddenly felt a sharp pain in his calf and turned around, peering into the face of the sneering woman. She had pierced him with her spearhead, and that made up his mind for him.
With a growl, he quickly snapped the young boys neck and turned rabidly on the woman, using the boy’s spear to pierce her through the chest. She looked at him in disbelief and anguish, and Jax found himself apologizing as she sank down to the ground. He hadn’t killed anybody in so long that he cursed Layne for making him weak. That wasn’t something that he could afford to be in a world like this. Being isolated for so long had softened him, made the dangers of the real world seem impossibly difficult. He had been able to get over it before, but now that she had softened him up, how could he handle living like this anymore?
He turned away from the gruesome scene and walked away shuddering, unable to believe how difficult it had been to slay them. The year before, he would have thought nothing of it, and cursed their souls for daring to think that they could steal from him. He remembered what it was like to need, and now that he was in a position of privilege, entering into the world where he had come from, he couldn’t help but feel anything but an acute sense of grief.
CHAPTER THREE
Jax had been gone for about five hours, and Layne was beginning to feel restless. She had no idea how long it would take for him to return, but she knew that he wouldn’t dare to come back without having exactly what she needed. She felt unworthy of a devotion so powerful, but at the same time, it made her feel safe in such an uncertain world.
It would be nice to find out what was going on with her body, and no matter what it was, she would have to brace herself for better or worse. That also meant that preparing herself for both the best and the worst if she turned out to be pregnant.
She was terrified of the idea of putting another being into the world, someone that she could love and hold and take care of, only to have them snatched away from her by the same virus that took everybody else that she loved in such a gruesome way. She didn’t think that she would be able to survive from that kind of tragedy. It would be like losing a piece of herself.
How would they be able to take care of another person? She almost hoped that she was just mortally ill so she wouldn’t have to worry about these terrible things. Either way, it was up to her, and now that Jax was out of the house it was the perfect opportunity for her to go out and scavenge for the material she would need.
Layne was suddenly stricken with a burst of motivation unlike anything she had felt in the past few months. She always felt more alive when she had a purpose, and lately her purpose had been to create a more sustainable home. Now that she didn’t have to worry about making Jax vulnerable to attack, as he surely would be if they went out together, she could go out and get what she needed. There was an abandoned neighborhood a few miles away. If she could look for supplies, maybe she could stop worrying and figure out exactly what she wanted to do. She knew she couldn’t handle the emotional difficulty of losing a child to the virus, and felt like it would be unfair to subject a baby to the world as it was.
But she also felt optimistic and hopeful. Maybe they would be able to have a normal family together. Two parents with immunities might mean that their child would be safe. It wasn’t a guarantee but it was possible. And they could have a normal family together, settling into the little cottage, living off their garden. Maybe everything would be all right.
She packed a bag as quickly as she could, making sure to bring extra water in one of the mason jars that they had found in the cellar. With the way she had been feeling, she thought it would be best to stay extra hydrated. She was sick, not stupid.
Layne closed and locked the door behind herself, glancing nervously back at her garden. It could do for a couple of days without tending, but any longer than that and she might as well have kissed all of her months of hard work good bye. Between the wildlife and the weather, she hardly trusted it to survive without her special touch. But that would be okay. She wouldn’t be gone long. It was only a couple of miles away. She had done less than that in just a couple of hours back before she and Jax had begun getting settled.
“I’ll be back soon,” she promised the little cabin, resisting the strange impulse she had to wave good bye to the little settlement. Everything was still though, and she told herself that it would be all right to leave, just for a little while. Either way, everything would be okay. She would just have to believe that.
***
Jax was shaken up by the time he reached the river where he had first spoken to Layne. He dropped to his knees and dug a small hole, letting the water filter through and drinking deeply from his cupped hands. He had missed the taste of the fresh water, and needed some to splash on his face after killing the two hopeless wanderers. He had done his best to help them. They had given him no choice. He had to keep believing that.
Suddenly, he got to his feet and threw up. Fuck, he thought fearfully. What if he was sick too? Did that mean that Layne wasn’t pregnant after all? Had they both become infected with something dangerous?
Or maybe he was just feeling really nauseated after killing those two kids and the stream water wasn’t agreeing with him. If they were both sick, a doctor would be even more important. The only person he knew was Tobi from Hex, who might have some knowledge about a doctor. Everybody else refused to talk to him and saw him as a traitor. Maybe Tobi could point him in the right direction.
It was as good a plan as any, and so he made his way down the familiar pathway, wondering when he would be able to get in touch with Tobi. Sometimes they expected each other, but he hadn’t seen her in months. She probably assumed that he was dead. He had been a pretty regular visitor, although it h
ad been dangerous at the time, especially because the leader of Hex, Shark Tooth (formerly known as Jimmy Fletcher Junior), had a huge grudge against him.
Jax had been the one man in the tribe who Shark Tooth had hoped to rely on, someone he could call a brother and a friend. He had wanted to take him in as his prodigy, because Jax was one of the most brutal fighters he had ever seen. He had taught him more about street fighting and even got him in touch with a master of martial arts so that he could channel all of his talents. He had learned a lot from Shark Tooth, who had been hurt deeply when Jax finally decided that life in Hex just wasn’t for him.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t just be hurt about it – he treated it as if Jax had wronged him more than anybody ever could have, making an enemy out of him. He made sure that nobody in the tribe would welcome him back. They were all ordered to report directly to Shark Tooth if they saw Jax anywhere near the headquarters, and Jax knew that although Shark Tooth wasn’t a match for him physically, strategically he would probably be able to get him sooner or later. But that wasn’t going to stop him from checking in with Tobi.
He would just have to trust his instincts and hope that everybody thought that he was long gone by now. He was pretty sure the Jackals would have it in for him too, so he decided to stay away from their tribe. Even if they offered to help, it would be more likely that they would double cross them.
Jax was getting tired but he mostly felt emotionally and mentally drained from having to deal with the two kids. He hadn’t even bothered to search them for something useful. He would let some other desperate looters deal with that. He had everything that he needed back at home with Layne. If they were going to have a baby, then there was a lot they would need to do in the meantime to prepare. They would need to gather more food and find more materials for clothes and blankets. It would be difficult but they could manage. They would have to.
