by A. American
“What’d you talk about? I mean, it’s a night-and-day difference,” Mel said.
Thad rubbed the stubble on his head. “You know, she thought life was over. I just showed her what she had to live for.” Thad stared off toward the river. “I told her what it’s like to lose someone, what it’s like to lose more than just the Internet and cell phones.”
As Thad stared at the river, we sat quietly for a few seconds. “Thanks for sharing that with her, Thad. I know it was hard for you, but you may have saved her life,” I said.
“Yes, thanks, Thad,” Mel said.
Thad smiled. “Wasn’t nothing. Like I told her, we’re all family now. We got to look out for one another.”
“This is one fucked-up family,” Jeff said, causing everyone to break out laughing.
After we settled down, Danny asked about cooking the snails. “Since the fire’s out, we need to get out a stove or something to cook them on. You got any ideas, Thad?”
“That’s what I was thinking, use one of the camp stoves. We still have some lard from the hog and some seasonings. I’ll sauté them up and make some grits.”
“Snails and grits: doesn’t have quite the same ring as shrimp and grits,” I said, laughing.
“I’ll go get a stove,” Danny said, getting up. Mel and Bobbie got up too and headed toward the cabin. Unlike the girls, they tried to avoid the puddles.
“Man, this rain sucks,” I said.
“Imagine how bad it’d be if we didn’t have this little shelter,” Thad said.
I looked up at the plastic over our heads. “You’re right. Guess it could be worse.”
Danny came trotting back with the stove, now wearing his rain jacket. As Thad was setting up the Coleman, he held the fuel tank up and shook it. He gave Danny a devilish grin. “Ain’t no gas in it.”
Danny looked up. “What?”
Jeff held his hand out, letting rain drops land in his palm. “Looks like you’re going to get wet again.”
Danny shook his head, muttering under his breath, and headed out for the fuel, though he wasn’t running this time. When he finally got back and the stove was fueled, Thad set out a skillet and a pot of water to boil. We sat around the table chatting, waiting for the proverbial pot to boil.
After pulling the snail meat from the shells we cut off their hard little doors and their guts, leaving a small piece of meat. Fortunately, the girls had collected a little over three dozen. Thad made the grits and added the sautéed meats afterward. We called the girls out when it was ready, and they paused their game to have dinner. After cleaning up the dishes, everyone headed for their cabins, Thad taking the first watch. With no fire to sit around there wasn’t any reason to hang out.
The cabin felt damp and musty, the rain was making it uncomfortable, but we couldn’t do anything but make the best of it. The Monopoly championship was a great method of distraction.
Lee Ann laughed. “You landed on Boardwalk! You owe me rent big-time!”
“Why do you have two hotels there? That’s ridiculous,” Mel said as she started counting money.
“Well, you own all the utilities,” Taylor chimed in.
“I wanna buy something!” Little Bit shouted.
I smiled at them. Even though they were in this miserable little cabin they were still having fun, seemingly oblivious to their surroundings. I fell asleep with a smile on my face.
Thad woke me up about ten, the rain still pounding. I collected my gear, threw a poncho on, and headed outside. This was going to be a long watch shift.
“See anything?” I asked as we walked back toward the canopy.
“No, even with the NVGs you can’t really see anything. And with the rain, you can hear even less.”
“Go on and get some sleep,” I said, slapping Thad on the back.
He smiled and headed off into the downpour. I climbed up onto the table and sat with my feet on the bench, then pulled off the poncho and laid it aside on the table. I looked through the goggles, and like Thad said, they were useless. With vision completely impossible, I tried to focus on sound.
At about two a.m., I heard a pig squeal, and quickly, all of them started to make a racket. Slipping the poncho over my head, I headed for the pen. I was about to pass Thad’s cabin, the closest to the pen, when the door flew open. Thad was standing there in a T-shirt and drawers. He was as surprised to see me as I was startled by the door opening.
“What’re the pigs fussin’ about?”
“Damn, you scared the shit out of me,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t know, was about to go find out.”
“Hang on, I’ll go with you. Let me put on my pants.” Thad ducked back into the cabin and reemerged quickly, with Jeff in tow.
Thad was carrying the old coach gun and Jeff had his AK. We walked toward the pen in silence.
“I can’t see anything,” Jeff said.
“Me neither,” Thad agreed.
We could hear splashing, like the pigs were running around.
“All right, keep your eyes open. I’m going to hit the light on my rifle,” I said as I raised the carbine. As the light came on a voice in the dark said, “Oh shit!” We immediately moved toward the pen with weapons raised, I was sweeping the light from side to side trying to find whoever was out there.
We heard the zap from the electric fence, followed by someone screaming. Jeff started shouting, “Hey! Hey, stop!” We all ran for the fence and jumped it. For that brief moment when we were in the air, I saw Jeff disappear into the darkness. Thad scrambled up from the ground and kept running, while I shined my light, looking for Jeff. After a moment, I saw that he had landed facedown on the ground. If it wasn’t such a serious situation, I would’ve started laughing, but in this moment, I just yanked him up and took off.
When I caught up to Thad, he was struggling with someone on the ground. I knelt down to help him as Jeff slogged up. Then from back at the cabins, Danny shouted, “They’re in the chicken coop!”
“I’ll go,” Jeff said as he trotted back off for another attempt at jumping the fence.
I checked my pockets for my flashlight, not wanting to point my weapon at Thad. It seemed to take forever to find it. I turned it on just in time to see Thad land a crushing closed fisted blow to a young man’s face. He went limp, all the fight leaving him. Thad patted the kid down, pulled a knife from its sheath and handed it to me, then rolled him over and checked him again.
A shot and shouts came from the other side of the camp. I looked back at Thad, “You got him?”
Thad nodded, and I started running toward the rising sounds of chaos. As I got closer I could hear a girl screaming and immediately thought it was one of my girls, which pushed me to run faster. The damn poncho was really getting in the way, so I worked at getting it off as I ran, which is much more difficult than one would think.
I found Jeff, Danny, Mel, and Bobbie at the coop with a young woman and man who were sitting in the mud, looking pitiful.
“They were trying to steal the chickens,” Danny said.
“What was the shooting about?” I asked.
“I fired a warning shot,” Jeff said.
“This one was fighting with me when he got here,” Danny said, kicking the feet of the young man.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked the kid.
Before he could answer Thad walked up and deposited the other one on the ground beside his friends.
“Well, what were you doing?” I asked again.
“We’re hungry. We were just trying to get some food,” the girl cried.
“And you never thought to ask?” Danny said.
“Ask? Like you would’ve given us anything. No one gives anything away,” one of the young guys snarled.
“How many more of you are there?” I asked.
“You’ll find out soon enough,�
� the other said.
I shined my light into his face. “I hope for your sake we don’t. I have no problem putting a bullet in your head. Are there others at your camp?” I took a good look at him. Even through the steady rainfall, I could see he was dirty. He had a patchy growth of beard and was wearing a faux-leather jacket with TRANS-AM on the sleeves.
The two men looked at one another, then dropped their faces to the ground.
The girl started to cry again. “Please don’t kill us.”
“What are we going to do with them?” Mel asked.
I looked at Danny, then at Thad. Both just shrugged. Jeff gave me the same response when I looked at him. Finally I said, “I don’t know.”
“We can’t just let them go,” Thad said.
“Yes, you can. We’ll leave. You’ll never see us again,” the kid with the Trans-Am jacket said.
“Forgive me if I don’t believe the words of a thief,” I said.
“Let’s tie them up for now,” Jeff said.
We led them over to the canopy and sat them down on the bench. Once they were tied up, Thad and I sat down on the bench opposite them.
“You guys planned this pretty well. Good night for it. I guess you figured with all the rain no one would be out keeping an eye on things,” I said.
None of them replied. Danny jumped in. “Were you the ones who shot at us the other night?”
The girl looked at the other two before answering, “We don’t have any guns.”
“Don’t have any guns!” Jeff shouted.
“What’re your names?” Thad asked.
They hesitated for a minute, seeming unsure. “I’m Julie, that’s Brian,” she said, pointing to the one with the Trans-Am jacket, “and that’s Franco.” She gestured to the kid Thad had captured.
“Where are you guys camped?” I asked.
The three glanced at each other.
“No sense in hiding. We’ve got you now.”
Water and mud dripped from their faces onto the aluminum top of the table. Julie started to shake from the cold.
I looked at Jeff and pointed at my eyes, then to them. He nodded and I motioned for Thad and Danny to follow me. As soon as I came through the door of the cabin, Taylor was there with her H&K.
“What’s going on?”
“Raiders. We’ve got them, though,” I said, then looked at the group. “I say we load them into the Suburban and haul them out in the middle of nowhere and leave ’em.”
“They could die out there,” Bobbie said.
“That’s their problem. They shouldn’t have stolen,” Danny said.
“All they wanted was some food. Why don’t we just give them some and let them go? They’re just kids,” Mel said.
“If we give them food, they’ll just come back. Or worse, they’ll come back with others, now that they have an idea of what we have here. We aren’t giving them a damn thing,” Thad said with a tone of finality.
“I agree,” Danny said.
“So do I,” I said.
Mel and Bobbie didn’t look too thrilled but didn’t argue any further.
“You want to take them in the morning?” Danny asked.
“Yeah, I guess. We’ll load them in the truck and have someone in Sarge’s buggy, just in case,” I said.
“Where are we going to take them?” Thad asked.
“Let’s see if we can figure out where they came from. Then we’ll take them in the opposite direction and dump them.”
“We should blindfold them so they can’t find their way back,” Danny added.
“Good idea. Let’s go see if we can find out where they came from in the meantime,” Thad said.
The three of us men slogged through the rain back to the canopy.
“All right, you guys needed food. You tell us where your camp is and we’ll give you some, plus we’ll take you there. But I’m warning you, if you try and come back again”—I paused and looked them each in the eye—“we will kill you.”
The three shared looks and Brian nodded at Julie. “We’re staying at the campground up the river.”
“How’d you get down here?” Thad asked.
“We came down in a canoe,” Brian said.
“How’d you guys find us?” I asked.
“We saw your camp one night when we were out on the river. We saw you had those pigs and the chickens running around.”
“Why didn’t you just come in during the day and ask, maybe try and trade or something?” Danny asked.
“Why? No one helps anyone today. It’s every man for himself,” Franco said.
“We’re working together. We’re not all family here,” I said.
“Maybe you guys do, but it’s not the way for most. Everyone wants to take advantage of you,” Julie said in a small voice.
“Where are you guys from?” I asked.
“We’re all students from Stetson. We stayed there as long as we could, but the good people of DeLand weren’t too concerned about a bunch of out-of-town students,” Julie said.
“You guys are law students?” I asked.
“We were,” Brian said.
“You guys must be from good families. I mean, Stetson isn’t a cheap school,” Jeff said.
Franco looked up, a quizzical expression on his face. “What does that have to do with anything? Your net worth doesn’t mean shit now. It’s about survival.”
“Well, the way you’re going about it isn’t going to work long,” I said.
“It’s worked so far,” Brian said with a sneer.
“Till now,” Thad said.
“You said you’d give us some food . . .” Julie said, her voice trailing off.
I looked at Danny. “Let’s go check the campground and see if they really are staying there.”
“Where’s your camp?” Danny asked.
“It’s on the first loop down the river,” Franco said.
I motioned to Thad. “Make ’em a pot of plain grits. If they’re hungry, they’ll eat it.”
Thad smiled. “Yeah, they better be real hungry.”
Danny and I took one of the buggies and headed for the campground. As we bounced down the road Danny asked, “Think there’s anyone else there?”
“I don’t know, we’ll see.”
Pulling into the campground, I turned on every light on the buggy scanning the trails as we drove through. Finding their camp wasn’t hard—it was a collection of a couple of tents and some other shelters constructed on site, with a fire burning in a pit.
“There’s got to be someone else here. In this rain, the fire would’ve been out by now,” Danny said.
“Yeah, someone’s out there,” I replied.
We scanned the area with the lights, looking for sign of anyone. “Hello!” Danny called out.
I looked at him like he was nuts. “What? Maybe they’ll answer,” he said.
“Let’s pull up a little closer,” I said as I eased the buggy forward.
At the edge of the camp we stepped out of the buggy, using our weapon lights to scan the area. “See anything?” Danny asked.
“No,” Danny said, peering off into the gloom.
“I don’t think anyone’s here,” I said as I reached down and pulled the rainfly up on one of the tents, looking in.
“Shit!” I yelled as I jumped back.
Danny swung around. “What?”
I had my weapon trained on the tent. “Come out! Hands first!”
“Someone in there?” Danny asked, raising his weapon.
I nodded. “Come out now!”
The zipper slowly opened. I stepped back a little, keeping the muzzle on the growing opening. After a moment a set of hands came out. “Don’t shoot,” someone said nonchalantly. A head followed the hands as a figure crawled out into the mud. As h
e finally stood up I was surprised to see it was Andy, Chase’s son.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Gotta be somewhere.”
“Why’d you leave your dad’s?”
“Just wasn’t big enough for both of us.” He looked over his shoulder. “Come on out, Walt.”
Another figure crawled out of the tent.
“What are you two doing with this group?” Danny asked.
Andy smiled, looking at Walt. “They got their uses.”
“Like what?” Danny asked.
Andy nodded at him. “Jus’ like you guys, it’s easier to survive in a group.”
“You guys got any guns?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, I got my shotgun.”
“Them three said they didn’t have any guns,” Danny said.
Andy smiled again. “They don’t.”
“Which is why they’re tied up over at our place right now. You sent them over there, didn’t you?” I asked, my temper flaring.
“They go to do their part, we do ours,” Andy said.
“And just what is your part?” Danny asked.
Andy spit into the mud. “Them yuppie kids don’t know how to survive out here. They’d be dead if it wasn’t for us. We keep them alive, show what they can eat and how to get it.”
“Like stealing?” Danny asked.
Andy shrugged. “Ain’t nuthin’ personal. We gotta eat too. You got more of them hogs than you need, and more chickens than you can use too.”
“So you showed them where our place was and sent them over to try and steal them,” Danny said.
Andy crossed his arms. “We went with them the first time, but that little booby trap you set up got us.”
“Not to mention you guys shootin’ at us,” Walt said.
“Was it you who shot us out on the creek?” Danny asked.
Andy smiled broadly, showing the plaque caked to his teeth. “Someone shot at you?” He looked at his buddy Walt. “Ain’t that a shame.”
Danny stared intently at the boy, and Andy returned his stare with empty eyes.
“Let’s get your stuff loaded up,” I said.
“Why? We ain’t going anywhere.”
