by T A Williams
“Kinda strange, thinking you need sunglasses when you can’t even see the sun.” Trent said as he came up behind him.
Grant nodded his head slightly and allowed the man to slowly trudge through the snow past him. He watched the man pass and continue down towards a grove of trees where they had set a few snares. In the afternoon Grant, Jack, or Trent would bundle up and attempt to hunt. Hunting was becoming increasingly difficult, and there were days when they got by on scraps. Grant was hesitant to admit it but Trent was a godsend. The man knew how to set snares around their property and many days it was because of him that they had a meal. A squirrel wasn’t much spilt up between 7 people but it was better than nothing. Because of this Grant had allowed Trent to move in with them, much to the chagrin of Alec.
Trent squatted down and began rummaging through some nearby brush. “Shit.”
Grant walked up behind Trent and didn’t need to ask what was wrong. The last snare they had set was also empty. It was going to be a night without food, and it wasn’t the first time they had faced that situation.
Trent stood up and saw the look on Grant’s face. “I can swing by Jack’s, cut a hole in the lake, and see if I can catch a couple of fish.”
Grant had spent several hours sitting on top of the lake huddled over a small hole in the ice with no luck. He didn’t believe Trent would have much more luck then he had. He shook his head, “It will be dark in an hour or two, by the time you get there you won’t have much time to catch something.”
“I don’t mind trying.”
“I appreciate that.” Grant began taking inventory in his head. Yesterday one of the snares had caught a raccoon and they had torn through it pretty quickly. He could check but he was pretty sure there was nothing left but fur. He could sit out near the north tree line until dark and see if any deer happened to wander through. Grant knew he could probably sit out there for days and might not see anything but he couldn’t just go back empty handed.
“Grant I can head back over to my place.” Grant gave Trent a questioning look. “I have a couple of old military rations over there. I’m not sure if they are any good but it should be enough for the little ones to have something in their stomach tonight.”
Grant stood there for a moment in the biting wind looking at Trent. He knew why he still struggled to trust the man; by Trent’s own admittance he was using Ben to gather information on him, but Grant also had to admit if he had wanted to cause them harm he could have done that well before he was caught. Since then Trent had proven himself over and over again.
“I was saving them in case of an emergency and it feels kinda like an emergency now.” Grant didn’t say anything he just shook Trent’s hand. “Speaking of which, is she feeling any better?”
“You go grab your rations and I’ll head back to the house to find out.” He knew Trent wasn’t asking about her immediate well-being but the longer they stood out in the empty field the longer she was laying there sick with nothing in her stomach.
Trent headed off in one direction while Grant headed towards the house. The walk back to the house seemed to take an eternity, with the cold winds stinging his face and the deep snow catching his feet every time he attempted to take a step. By the time he finally got back to the house his legs ached and his face felt numb.
When he opened the door it felt like a wave of warmth washed over him. Despite this he knew once his body adjusted the inside of the house wouldn’t feel as warm as it needed to be. He shook off his snowy clothes and walked into the sitting room where the wood stove was located. Huddled around it were his children. This was how they survived now. They wore as many clothes as possible, sat around the wood stove with a blanket or two, and kept the fire going.
All of this would be difficult enough but for the last week Alya had become very sick. It started with a cough, turned into a fever, and was becoming worse by the day. What little food they were able to give her hardly ever stayed down.
Alec never left her side. As she lay asleep bundled in blankets Grant could see her shivering uncontrollably, but he knew from experience that she was probably radiating more heat than the stove itself.
Jack walked out of the room and motioned for Grant to follow. Grant followed him into the kitchen which at the moment felt more like a freezer. The man’s face reflected exactly how Grant felt at the moment.
“Nothing?”
“No, but Trent said he has some old rations that might be able to put a little bit of food in the kid’s stomachs.”
“Better than nothing I guess.”
Alec
Alec watched as the fire danced gently over the wood. He found it was easy to sit here for hours at a time just watching. Of course it was either that or step away from the wood stove only to be met by the bone-chilling cold.
Joseph nuzzled up beside him while Alya was sound asleep in his lap. The warmth coming from the wood stove was matched only by the warmth radiating from his little sister. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Most of the time she was asleep and even when she was awake she seemed to be far away. Alec would spend hours trying to get her to eat something and the few times he was successful the food wouldn’t stay down. It was too similar to his mother. He had watched her slowly wither away and he wasn’t about to watch the same thing happen to his sister. Just as he decided he needed to talk to his father Joseph said something. It came out as a quiet little mumble.
“What did you say Joseph?”
The boy didn’t move and just continued staring blankly into the fire. “Do you think Ally hates me?”
The question took Alec by surprise and for a second he just sat there dumbfounded. When he finally came to he pulled Joseph up so they were eye-to-eye.
“Ally doesn’t hate you she loves you. Why in the world do you think she hates you?”
The boy looked away and shrugged his shoulders. “She…..she’s always mean to me.”
Alec tried to think back to a time when Alya was mean to Joseph and he couldn’t come up with anything. He couldn’t even come up with a time they got into a fight. Alec and Ben loved each other but when they were younger there was hardly a time when they weren’t at each other’s throats.
“When has she been mean to you?”
“She’s always picking on me.”
Alec smiled. This time when he thought back he couldn’t remember a time where Alya wasn’t picking on Joseph. “Joe, just because she picks on you doesn’t mean she hates you. It doesn’t even mean she is trying to be mean to you.”
Joseph looked confused.
“You know that I love you right?” Joseph nodded. “How do you know that I love you?”
“Because you’re nice to me.”
“And how am I nice to you?”
Joseph sat in silence for a moment and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, you play pretend with me, and watch after me.”
“Exactly. That is how I show you that I love you, by playing pretend and watching over you. Not everyone shows their love in the same way. Sometimes people show their love through ways we might think are weird.”
Once again Joseph was in deep thought then suddenly he met Alec’s eyes and there was a look of surprise on his face. “You mean Alya picks on me because she loves me?”
The smile on Alec’s face was the strongest since everything went dark. “Every time Alya picks on you she is telling you that she loves you.”
“That’s weird.”
Alec ran his hand through Joseph’s hair and the boy nuzzled back into his side. After a few minutes of silence Joseph laid his hand gently on Alya’s head.
“Alec?”
“Yeah little man?”
“Is Ally going to get better?”
“Yeah Joe, I’ll make sure she gets better.”
After a few minutes Alec could hear soft snores coming from Joseph. Alec stared back into the fire and watched as the flames slowly broke down the piece of wood into nothing more than ash.
It was
time he talked to his father.
Grant
“She can’t keep going like this.” Jack whispered.
Anger flared for just a second in Grant. He knew this, everyone knew this, but he didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Jack recognized the anger and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“What I’m saying is we have to get her something to help her fight.”
“Suggestions?”
“She’s burning up right now, we’ve got to get her fever down. We need Tylenol and I’ve already checked my place and Trent has checked his, we’ve got shit.”
Tylenol. A small little pill that anyone could get at a store for a couple of bucks is what they needed and they had no way to get it. “How do we not have any Tylenol?”
Jack shrugged. “Grant there is a lot of stuff we should have but don’t. When you get used to being able to drive 15 minutes and pick up whatever you need you don’t have a reason to stock up.”
Alec walked in the room. If Jack mirrored the feeling of despair that Grant was feeling then Alec mirrored the anger.
“We have to do something.”
Grant nodded, “That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”
“We don’t have time to figure it out we have to do something now.”
The anger returned and Grant fought to keep it back. “Alec, that is what I’m trying to figure out.”
Jack stepped up and tried to place a hand on Alec but he shrugged it off. “Don’t give me that shit. You don’t know what you’re doing. You never know what you’re doing, because this is when you run away. When things get bad you take off.”
The anger took over and Grant grabbed the boy and pushed him against the wall. “Don’t you dare try to put this on me because you’re scared. You think I’m not scared? You don’t think I want to do something?”
Tears filled the boy’s eyes. “You don’t know what you’re doing. I’m the one that always has to pick us up. I’m the one that is supposed to protect us because you’re not there.”
The anger fled Grant’s body all at once. He took a step back and took a deep breath. “Alec you don’t have to do this alone anymore. I’m here.”
The boy broke down. “I can’t sit around and watch her die. I can’t go through that again.”
Grant hugged the boy to his body. Alec fought him for a second then gave in.
“You have every right to be mad at me Alec. You have every right to hate me, but don’t let your anger towards me hurt your sister.”
After a few minutes Alec pushed himself away and walked to the door. “So what are we going to do?”
Grant glanced at Jack. “I’m going to go in town and see if anyone has some medicine we can trade for.”
Alec still had his back to Grant. “I’m coming with you.”
Grant didn’t argue.
Alec
Trent’s truck fought against the snow and ice and won, this time. They had decided to take the back roads to get into town and at the moment it didn’t seem like such a good idea. The road, which had once been gravel, had more in common now with a frozen-over lake. To make things even worse the ice was covered by snow, in some spots only a foot, in others several, as the blustery wind created snow drifts. The truck would fight to get through the snow drifts only to hit the ice at the bottom and then careen off to the side. If they managed to get into town the only way they were going to get back was by taking the main road.
Alec sat in the back barely aware of the struggle that Trent was fighting. Next to the man was his father, they all sat in silence. Alec was a bundle of rage and despair. Once again an unseen enemy attacked his family and once again he had no way to fight against it. The back of the truck was filled with blankets, extra clothing, and kitchen supplies, things they hoped they would be able to trade for medicine.
They entered the town in silence and were met with more silence. If the town looked deserted last time this time it appeared dead. The empty homes and cars were buried in snow and ice. The last trace of humanity had been frozen away.
“Jesus.” Trent looked around in horror giving voice to what they were already thinking.
Just as it seemed they weren’t going to find anything Alec noticed smoke coming from the large civic center. Trent noticed it as well as he pulled up in one of the few clear areas. Trent and Grant grabbed their rifles. Alec wasn’t happy about being unarmed but they decided the last rifle should stay with Jack and the kids just in case.
Grant looked back at him. His face seemed firm but he could see the cracks, the man was barely holding it together. “Let’s do this.”
They fought through the knee-high snow and Trent knocked several times on the door. After a few minutes a man answered the door, a shotgun at the ready. It was at that moment that Alec realized they weren’t doing as bad as he thought. The man’s cheeks were sunken in and his clothes were hanging off of him. Even with the gun pointed in their direction the man didn’t appear threatening. It looked like a mild gust of wind would have probably knocked the man off his feet.
“We don’t have any more room.”
Grant put himself in between the gun and the rest of them.
“We’re not looking for a place to stay, we’re looking to trade for medicine.”
The man let out a rough laugh. “Medicine? What do we look like a CVS?”
“All we need is some Tylenol. I have a sick daughter and she is burning up, we need to get her temperature down.”
There was movement from behind the man and the Police Officer they met previously, Whitford, emerged. The man looked more haggard then the last time they met but still considerably better than the man with the shotgun. Whitford gave Grant a weary smile when he saw him.
“Nice to see you’re still in the fight.”
Grant gave him a firm handshake. “Same to you.”
With pleasantries out of the way Whitford’s face took on a defeated look. “I heard what you need and I’m sorry. What little we have, we need.”
“I can understand that but all we need is a half a bottle, just enough to help keep my daughter’s fever down so she can get over the worst of it.”
The man with the shotgun spoke up. “Don’t go giving away our supplies.”
Whitford’s face hardened instantly and he gave the man a look that made him take a step back. “I have no intention of giving anything away Paul.” There was silence for a moment then he turned his attention back to them. “I’m sorry. We have our own sick. The small pharmacy we had in this town was looted pretty thoroughly before we could get it locked down.”
Trent stepped forward. “What do you need?”
“Everything, son. Food, guns, ammo, heat, you name it we need it. I take it you all don’t have a Mcdonald’s in the back of that truck do you?”
Trent shook his head no. “But we do have ammo.”
This time it was Grant who gave Trent a look. Alec had overheard enough talks between Jack and his father to know they were dangerously low on ammo. The snares that Trent set up along their property would catch a raccoon or rabbit every few days but that was barely enough for a meal. It was the big game like deer and coyotes that gave them the closest thing to a full meal, and that took ammo.”
Trent ignored his father’s look and held out his rifle. “This is a .22 semi-automatic. Only a couple years old, I give it a good cleaning every few months.”
Paul stepped forward and gave the gun a look. “Gun isn’t any good without something to spit out of it.”
Trent reached in his pocket and pulled out a small box of ammunition. “This gun and ammo are mine.” He gave Grant a look to assure him. “I’m willing to trade but we’re going to need a full bottle of Tylenol and some kind of stomach soother. A lowered temp isn’t going to do us any good if she isn’t able to keep anything down.”
Paul turned towards Whitford and they shared a quick look. Paul nodded and walked away.
Whitford shook Trent’s hand. “Paul will grab the supplies.”
<
br /> Grant placed a hand on Trent’s shoulder and began to say something before Trent cut him off. “I’m sure. This will help your little one get back on her feet and give us some much needed medicine. Plus, it’s the least I can do after everything.”
“I’m sorry it has to be this way,” said Whitford, “But we’re hanging by a thread here. This town used to have over three thousand strong, I don’t there are even three hundred of us left in a ten mile radius.”
Paul came back and handed Trent a bag with a bottle of Tylenol and a bottle of Pepto-Bismol. Trent handed over the rifle and ammunition.
Whitford again shook Grant’s hand. “Be careful out there. There is a group somewhere out there that is causing us a lot of problems. They haven’t hit us in a while, probably realize we don’t have anything, but they’ve taken more than their fair share of lives.”
Grant nodded. “I’m sorry we couldn’t do more.” And with that said they got back in their truck and headed home.
Alec
“You shouldn’t have done that.” Grant kept his eyes on the road. “We need every gun and piece of ammo we can get our hands on.”
“I have another rifle that I can probably get in working order, and I have plenty of ammo, let’s just get your little one the medicine.”
“Thank you.”
Trent smiled, “Don’t mention it.”
They hadn’t even made it a mile from town when they saw the truck blocking the road. Both Alec and Grant recognized it instantly. Trent started to slow down.
“What the hell do we have here?” Trent asked.
Grant picked up the rifle. “Trent I want you to gun it around them.”
