The Way Back (Book 2): The Way Back, Part II

by Giancioppo, Danny

  “No, that’s breakfast and lunch shit. Dinner is the time for meat-stew shit, you know that,” he said, walking back over to his area.

  Without another word, they all ate their dinner. They would talk, but not much happened that they weren’t already all aware of, and they didn’t really know what else to say. Sometimes they’d bring up old memories, which was always hit or miss, so it didn’t happen all that often.

  Adam remembered what happened outside, that he initially brushed off as being a pile of snow, or maybe an animal, and he figured he might as well bring it up. If nothing else, for the sake of conversation.

  “Did any of you toss something outside a couple minutes ago?” he asked.

  “No, why?” Cody said, glancing up, as did the others.

  “Well, I don’t know… I heard something, like something fell, maybe from the wall. I couldn’t see anything though, so I figured it was either snow, nothing, or you guys,” Adam told them.

  “Probably just snow coming off the trees,” Derrick said. “It tends to fall off when it gets too heavy, especially with a strong wind.”

  “Wow, thanks Mr. Derrick!” Jeremy said, making his eyes as wide as possible, and putting on his best baby face– which, with the scruff he had accumulated, just looked creepy.

  “Shut up!” Derrick spat back, tossing a spoon at Jeremy. It hit him in the back, and they both just laughed.

  “So, honestly Der, when do you think the weather will start to warm up again?” Luke asked, gazing up from his bowl to his friend.

  “Uh… not really sure,” Derrick admitted. “I’d guess maybe like two months, maybe more.” The others all made sounds of disappointment. “I mean, what do you expect? It’s clearly winter time; I’m guessing it’s only mid-December at best.”

  “It is,” Jeremy said. The others looked at him skeptically. “Notebook.” They nodded. Adam rolled his eyes.

  “All I’m saying is, we could’ve been a lot warmer had we stayed in Illinois,” he said.

  “It still got cold there too, dude!” Chris countered.

  “Yeah I mean we saw snow there, we did stay for at least one full winter,” Nolan added.

  “Sure, but still, winter in Maine is a hell of a lot worse than back there,” Adam said. “I think we’re still a couple weeks out from winter anyways.”

  “Did you not just here me?” Jeremy said, baffled.

  “You think he’d ever let us back in again?” Cody asked curiously, looking around at the others.

  “Why, you planning on leaving, Codes?” Derrick scoffed.

  “No, of course not; you know, Adam just brought it up, and it just got me thinking,” he explained. “That’s all.”

  “I mean, we left on good terms, and it’s not like we didn’t pull our fair share of work while we were there– or, you guys did, anyway…” Luke said. “I’m sure we could.”

  “We were there like not even a full two years, we didn’t really do all that much,” Jeremy countered. The others looked at him dejectedly. “Just saying.”

  “Well, Cyrus was pretty cool about it, right?” Nolan said.

  “Yeah but when isn’t he cool about anything?” Adam said. “I’m sure he’d be all: ‘Hey, so long as you fellas do yer’ fair share, I couldn’t care less! In fact, I’d be happy to have ya here!’” The others all looked at him with strange looks on their faces. Adam noticed. “What?”

  “Are we talking about the same Cyrus?” Chris asked.

  “Yeah…” Adam said.

  “Black, tall, friendly?” Cody continued.

  “Not a farmboy idiot?” Jeremy added.

  “Yes!” Adam insisted.

  “Have you ever heard him speak?” Luke said. “He sounds nothing like that.”

  “Yes he does! What are you talking about!?” Adam burst, looking at all the others. They were… baffled, to say the least.

  Everyone argued with Adam over the voice of their longtime friend, when Nolan heard something. It sounded like something fell over in the supply room– which was odd, because how could anything ever fall? There were no windows, and they kept it in a fairly neat and orderly fashion.

  He got up–- none of the others even noticed, aside from Luke, who just brushed it off with a head nod– and made his way over to the hallway. It only took him a moment to get down, but in that journey to the intersection of that room and Adam’s, Nolan’s heart began to race. His mind was going a mile a minute over every possible outcome. It was ridiculous, after all like he said there was never anything happening anymore, but nevertheless, he had a bad feeling.

  Call it a premonition, or paranoia, or maybe both. Either way, something made something fall, and Nolan had a gut feeling whatever it was could only lead to bad news.

  He turned to the supply room, and made his way in. It felt colder than it usually did in there. He flicked on a light– thanks to a generator powered by gas that they found about a year back, and an ever-dwindling box of bulbs, they were now able to have lights here and there– and looked around the room.

  There was almost nothing different about the room; all the weapons, as well as the major supplies, were all in order, and nothing appeared to be out of place at a general glance. But still, why was it so cold?

  Nolan moved closer to the back-right corner of the room, and knelt down. There was a hole in the wall. The area around it was wet; the snow must’ve been heavy enough to start sogging through their “masterful” craftsmanship of a room. It wasn’t terribly big, but it was big enough for something kind of small to fit in; maybe like a dog or something. Or a pack, but those never travelled alone, and they never entered like this. This was something different.

  Nolan looked left, at the weapons rack. There weren’t very many firearms on it, a small handful at best. But that only made it all the more noticeable when something was off. He felt like an idiot for not seeing it before, but then again it was right in the bottom corner of the rack.

  Luke’s old pistol was missing. The pistol Zack killed himself with. The pistol that followed them their whole journey to and from Foxtale. The pistol Nolan almost… The pistol.

  Just then, he heard the unmistakable sound of said pistol cocking, and Nolan slowly turned his head to the side. He had not expected to see what he did.

  Standing there, soaking wet, trembling like crazy, was a child. A little girl. She had ginger hair– sort of like Chris’s hair, though maybe a little darker– and it was sloppily cut; somewhat long, but short in random sections, like she cut it herself on a whim without a mirror. She wore a drenched jacket of some kind, with worn-out boots and ripped jeans. She looked like she was going to die of frostbite; unfortunately, it also looked like that wouldn’t happen before she took Nolan with her.

  She also held Jeremy’s notebook in her other hand. Guess she found it before they could. That’s on them really– they must have hardly even looked.

  “H…Hey there,” Nolan said, turning fully to get a better look at her. She looked young, maybe even young enough that she hadn’t seen the world before… the real world.

  Was that even possible? Could she really only know this? What kind of a life would that be to live? Nolan grew lost in his own thoughts just staring at her, until she adjusted her aim on him.

  “Alright, alright, calm down; it’s alright,” Nolan said, cautiously putting his hands up. She didn’t say a word, but she didn’t look terribly confident, either. “Can you understand me?” he asked.

  She nodded her head, only once.

  “Okay. Can you talk?”

  Again, she nodded only once, still staying silent.

  “But you won’t.”

  She nodded again. No point in asking why, then.

  “Are you going to try and hurt me and my friends?”

  She paused, and then slowly nodded. Nolan took a deep breath.

  “Is it because you want to hurt us?”

  She did nothing. Nolan looked into her eyes. They were brown, and soft. Innocent. Unknowing, or rath
er uncertain.

  “Or is it because you’re afraid?”

  She paused once more, and slowly nodded.

  “Are you in danger right now?”

  She nodded, this time repeatedly. Her eyes seemed to open ever so slightly, as if she had just fully realized her current situation– whatever it was. Nolan put his hands down, and moved closer to her. Each step like a carefully aimed procedure; a tactical decision.

  “Okay well look, my name is Nolan, and a bunch of my friends are in the other room just over there. I don’t know what’s going on, but trust me, we’re the good guys; we can help you. If you just put the gun down, and come with me, we can fix you up, and maybe help you out… Okay?”

  The girl didn’t say anything, and for a long time, she didn’t move. Nolan just kept staring at her, trying to look as calm and comforting as possible. The truth was he was shitting-his-pants scared, but if he wanted to get the upper hand, he had to play it cool. Plus, she was just a kid, and like a wild animal, she seemed more afraid of him then he needed to be of her.

  “I promise, we’re not going to hurt you, okay? No matter what; you didn’t do anything wrong. We can help you…”

  After another few moments of silence, she lowered the gun. It turned out, however, she didn’t really do it by choice. She passed out– her eyes fluttered, her breathing became very heavy, and she lost what color she had left in her pale little face. Nolan ran over, grabbed her before she hit the floor, and picked the gun up with his free hand, holding her now with the other just above the hard, snow-soaked floor. The small lightbulb swung gently above him, illuminating their figures in the cold, wooden room.

  “Uh, guys!” Nolan shouted. The talking in the other room ceased. “I need to show you something!”

  “Luke!” Cody whispered from the door.

  Luke sat on the front steps, gazing out at the sky. Everyone else was too busy dealing with the girl to go out, but still, Luke couldn’t help himself.

  Not that it was a bad thing to do, but right now, they needed to focus on the kid, and none of them wanted their friend getting frostbite all the while. He still wasn’t listening, though.

  “Luke!” Cody said, louder this time. Luke jumped a little, and glanced back cautiously, coming down to earth.

  “Yeah, what’s up?” he asked, as though he had to reevaluate where he was entirely. Cody stifled a sigh.

  “The uh, the girl; we’re gonna talk about what to do about her. Come on, pal.”

  Cody outstretched his hand toward Luke, and helped pull him up. Luke quickly gazed back out at the mostly cloudy sky, waiting for just a moment longer.

  “Not a great night for it anyway,” Cody said, holding a firm smile. Luke meekly smiled back, and stepped into the house. Cody shut the door behind him.

  The others sat in the kitchen, but as he passed the living room, Luke saw her sleeping on the couch. He hadn’t gotten a good look at her before, Nolan just sprinted into the room and everybody started shouting; it became too much for Luke to handle all at once, truth be told, so he went outside. He must have been out there a good hour or so. Nevertheless, there she was now. She couldn’t have been more than eight or nine years old, at best.

  “What the hell are we gonna do about this…” Jeremy groaned into his hands, covering his face.

  “Well we can’t trust her, can we?” Derrick said. “She didn’t even speak! She just aimed a gun at him!”

  “She’s a kid!” Cody insisted. “We can’t just leave her out to die.”

  “We were kids too though Codes, and we got on just fine,” Adam said.

  “That’s totally different,” Nolan said. “We were borderline adults already, and we had each other. She’s just a little kid, with no one.”

  “Seemingly no one. We can’t be sure,” Adam argued.

  “You said she was in danger, right?” Chris asked. Nolan nodded his head.

  “I don’t know from who or what, but she seemed really scared,” he replied. Chris took a heavy breath, glancing back into the living room.

  “She might’ve run into a pack; don’t know how she could’ve outran it, though,” Jeremy thought aloud, flipping through his retrieved notebook.

  “Not to mention, who knows the last time we saw any of them around here.” Chris said. “This place got too abysmally grimy for even them.”

  “Could be another group of people, or even just one other person,” Adam said.

  “Is that really something to be afraid of, though?” Derrick asked.

  “That’s always something to be afraid of, especially now,” Chris said darkly. “We know that better than most.”

  “Well, we think so at least,” Adam said, looking over at the couch. The others followed suit, not knowing what else to say.

  Luke glanced over at Cody, and saw him inspecting the others; trying to see what the general idea was from the looks on their faces. It wasn’t great, he could tell that much. Cody seemed unhappy, which probably meant everyone was conflicted, unsure what the right move was. Well almost all of them anyway.

  Cody looked over at Luke, and in only a moment he knew that Cody knew exactly what he was thinking. And it certainly wasn’t good.

  Luke got a look on his face, one that all of them were at this point very familiar with. Whenever he got serious, and more specifically, seriously certain, his jaw locked, and his eyebrows furrowed. His nose flared a little, and his gaze would either be locked on something, or constantly bouncing around. Right now, his eyes were locked onto the couch.

  He walked over, and knelt down by it.

  “Luke, what the hell are you doing!?” Jeremy asked, getting up from his seat. “Get away from her, dude.”

  “Relax, she doesn’t have the gun anymore,” Nolan said, though he too looked curious.

  “That doesn’t mean she isn’t dangerous!” Jeremy persisted. “We don’t know what she could do!”

  “He’s got a good point,” Adam said.

  Luke glazed his hand along her head, pushing her sloppy and wet hair across the side of her brow. He felt her forehead: it was getting warm, which meant she likely had a fever. And a fever meant a cold.

  “Luke, what are you doing man?” Chris asked. Luke didn’t look at them, and instead– after a small moment of contemplation– just grabbed the girl, and put her in his arms. He got up, and looked at them momentarily.

  “She’s not sleeping on the couch. I’m putting her in my bed, I’ll take the couch,” Luke said.

  He walked up the stairs, not waiting or hoping for any kind of response. The others all gazed back at each other, shocked, and ran up the stairs to follow him.

  “You can’t be serious,” Adam said.

  “You shouldn’t just be moving her like that, Luke; she’s not really stable,” Nolan said.

  “Yeah, or she could wake up and kill you!” Derrick said.

  Luke kept moving along silently until he got to his bedroom door. He stepped in, closed it, and a moment later, left, closing it behind him again. He walked back down the stairs, until Cody put his hand firmly on Luke’s chest.

  “Luke, stop,” Cody ordered. Luke stared at him, somewhat confused– though he did stop.

  “Why?”

  “Because man, I hate to bring up the elephant in the room, but you have night terrors, and bad ones too. The bed is a safe bet for you because it’s uh, what do you call it… safer,” Cody explained. The others shared looks of concern, though they were also equally uncomfortable, seeing as Luke’s hindrances weren’t something they often discussed, and certainly didn’t enjoy doing.

  “I don’t care,” Luke said, continuing down the staircase.

  “What!?” Jeremy said.

  “You don’t care?” Chris asked. “Dude, you were screaming this very morning! What if it happens again tonight?”

  “Then you or Jeremy can rush over and help me; you’re right across the hall anyway,” Luke said. The others quickly made their way down the stairs.

  “Luke, this
is a bad idea,” Adam said. “We don’t even know if she’s staying yet.” Luke stopped and turned around, glaring at them all. “Uh… what?” Adam asked, now suddenly nervous.

  “She’s staying,” Luke said. “I thought that was obvious.” The others somehow managed to look even more confused than before by Luke’s words.

  “We don’t even know her name, and you’re already making living arrangements for her!?” Derrick burst out. “Dude, hold on alright just… stop!”

  “Why Derrick? She’s a kid!” Luke yelled.”Why do we need to even talk about this!?”

  “Because dude, you’re…you’re not fit to be making the decisions here, not anymore!” Derrick said. The others all got quiet, as did Luke. They didn’t really like talking about any of this, and dropping a bomb like that took things to a whole other level.

  “I’m not what?” Luke asked, stepping closer.

  “Luke, listen, I get that you want to be, and you try to, but let’s be real man, you’re crippled. You sporadically and pretty severely either get distant or have intense night terrors. You can’t handle that much noise or stress without having to take a break and go outside. You… We need to take care of you,” Derrick tried to explain. The others looked back to Luke, who just stood there silently, taking it in.

  It was true. They all knew it was true. Luke knew it was true just as well, but even still, it meant nothing to him. Had they just talked it out a bit more, one of the others would probably have given up their bed for either Luke or the girl, but Luke knew that too. It’s why he didn’t bother waiting for that to come up.

  “You’re right,” Luke said at last. “You did have to take care of me– baby me, make sure I didn’t totally and utterly fall apart– and you know I’m grateful for that. But now there is a little girl scared out of her mind, completely alone, and almost dead, who needs our help. Now we– all of us– have to take care of her as best we can, for as long as we can. She is our priority now. I’m just going to have to manage.”

  Nobody said a word, and even if they knew what to say, they likely still wouldn’t have. Despite being as he was the past four years, Luke still held a commanding presence when he wanted.