Thus began their brief but intense friendship, a bond strengthened by a long and difficult journey that involved more blood and death, but brought her at last to be reunited with her precious Kimberly. It had been a sad day when they parted outside the gates of a fortified church in Hattiesburg where David and his parents had taken Kimberly for refuge. But April had known all along Mitch wouldn’t stay there and that she couldn’t follow him—at least until all these months later, when life in that fortress became unbearable and too dangerous to remain.
Getting out of the city at last and finding her way back to Black Creek with Kimberly and David had been hard enough. And now, just when she’d thought the journey was almost over, April simply could not locate the obscure path to Mitch’s land. It was incredibly frustrating, but there was nothing else to do but to camp for the night and keep searching in the morning.
All of them were tired, and Kimberly’s needs had to be taken care of. David knew no more of camping and river travel than April did before the blackout, so she made the decision as to where they would land the canoe and where they would sleep for the night. She picked a high, narrow sandbar with a stand of tall hardwoods behind it, pulling the canoe well above the water’s edge in case an upstream rain caused it to rise overnight. They would sleep on the open sand at the edge of the woods, because Mitch had told her that the big diamondback rattlers that were common in these parts were nocturnal and on the prowl on the forest floor at night. April knew he said they sometimes ventured out on the sandbars too, but she felt better sleeping on the white sand that reflected the moonlight so well and at least made it possible to see a snake before stepping on it. She would have much preferred a tent with securely zippered doors, but they were lucky to even have blankets and those would have to suffice.
Chapter Four
“You and Stacy really need to stay here, Lisa. Jason and I can handle this,” Mitch said. “It was probably just one guy, and he has probably moved on by now anyway. But in case he hasn’t or there are more of them, the two of us can move faster and quieter than four.
“But if there are more, you might wish you had our help, Mitch!” Lisa argued. “Why do we always get stuck staying here, guarding the house?”
“Because somebody has to, that’s why. I could do this alone, but Jason is getting a lot better at tracking and stalking and this will be a good drill for him. You know we’ve got to be ready when these trespassers and poachers come around. We’ve been through all this before.”
“Corey and Samantha can guard the house. It’s not like they’re doing anything else useful.”
“Don’t be so hard on them, Lisa. They’ve been through a lot. And you know as well as I do that we can’t leave them here in charge of watching the place with everyone gone. They have no experience with guns or any other skills they would need for the job. You and Stacy do, Lisa. That’s why I trust you with a responsibility that’s just as important as what Jason and I have to do. Besides, we won’t be gone long at all, and if we don’t find whoever shot that arrow, all we’re going to be doing is packing deer meat back home anyway.”
Mitch finished his breakfast of fresh eggs and venison steak and stepped out into the cold of the morning. The pale edge of dawn was just beginning to push back the darkness that enveloped the Henley farm and the forest beyond. Jason was already outside, anxious to get started, armed with the Smith & Wesson AR-15 that was Doug Henley’s state-issued patrol rifle. Mitch knew his dad would be glad they had the weapon, but he also knew that if he could, Doug Henley would much rather be here using it to watch over them himself.
Seven months had passed and every day Mitch had maintained hope that his mom and dad would arrive at the gate to the property, somehow making their way back to south Mississippi from Houston, Texas. But though he wouldn’t let the hope die, Mitch couldn’t deny the probability that his parents were no longer alive. For all he knew, they had died that first day of the blackout, victims of a plane crash caused by solar flare’s powerful pulse. No one could have imagined the devastation wrought by this unseen force; planes falling from the sky…cars and trucks stalling on the highways and city streets…cell phones and lights shutting down for keeps…. The EMP destroyed practically everything electronic, and consequently, all systems dependent upon and controlled by computer and electrical circuitry.
Mitch didn’t know if his parents’ connecting flight from New Orleans had landed before it happened or not. If it didn’t, his parents wouldn’t have had a chance. Though he tried not to think about it too often, this seemed the most likely explanation as time went on. Doug Henley was as good a woodsman and as dedicated a lawman as any man could be. Mitch knew that if he were alive, his dad would do everything in his power to stay that way and keep his mom safe too. And Mitch knew that aside from that, he would make it his mission to get back home to him and his little sister. Nothing would stop him from doing so, but seven months was a long time, even without transportation and even with all the obstacles anyone on the move would surely encounter. If they were okay, Mitch was sure they would have arrived long before now.
But until they got here, if they ever did, keeping his sister safe and protecting the house and livestock from marauding looters was Mitch’s responsibility. He was managing so far, but each new unknown, each new variable like this mysterious hunter who had wounded a deer so close to the house, was a potential threat to their safety that had to be investigated without delay.
With Jason carrying the AR-15, Mitch felt okay with his decision to stick to just his hunting bow as his main weapon. As he had proven more than once since law and order fell apart, the silence of his deadly arrows could offer great advantage in certain situations. But in case he got in a bind and needed a backup, he was also wearing his Ruger .357 Magnum revolver in a holster on his belt.
“I’m sure we’ll be back in time for lunch,” Mitch reassured his little sister as he kissed her on the cheek. Lisa was clearly unhappy that she couldn’t participate in this patrol to find the trespasser. No doubt she saw it as an exciting break in the day-to-day monotony of living on the isolated farm with no outside contact, no communication and little entertainment besides what they created for themselves. Mitch knew it had to be incredibly boring for his fourteen-year-old sister, but he figured Lisa and her best friend Stacy were coping with it better than most.
For Mitch, there was nothing boring about it. Even before the blackout, there was nothing he would rather do than roam the woods alone with his bow and arrows. Now he was doing that everyday, and not for recreation or diversion but as a way of life. He had turned seventeen in the intervening months since everything changed, and he’d taken to this new life with great enthusiasm. If not for his worry and sadness over his parents’ absence, Mitch could not have imagined a life he would enjoy more. For one thing, he no longer had to attend that hated school with its idiotic and petty rules and regulations. He didn’t have to worry about fitting into a teenage social stratum that he neither cared about nor understood. He didn’t have to live by clocks and bells, spend hours sitting on his butt at a stupid desk, or racking his brain trying to solve insanely complex algebra problems that he could see no use for in real life.
Mitch knew the electromagnetic pulse caused untold suffering and death, and undoubtedly affected millions of lives if not all the lives on the planet, but if nothing else good came of it, at least it had freed him from a way of life he never felt was right for him. Now he was living the fantasy he’d often entertained of going back in time—back to a time when all men lived by the weapons and the skills they carried with them when they set out each day into the forest to find what sustenance it provided. As always before a hunt, Mitch felt the tinge of excitement and anticipation as he strung his longbow and slung the deerskin quiver of cane-shafted arrows over his shoulder. As he strode across the yard with Jason close behind, he was eager to melt into the shadows of the trees where once again he would become that primal hunter he knew he was born to be.
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More by Scott B. Williams
THE FOLLOWING LINKS WILL take you to the Amazon Kindle versions of my most popular books that are available now. New books are coming all the time so stay up to date by signing up for my book alerts via my newsletter.
The Pulse Series:
The Pulse: A Novel of Surviving the Collapse of the Grid
Refuge After the Collapse (Book II of The Pulse Series)
Voyage After the Collapse (Book III of The Pulse Series)
The Darkness After Series:
The Darkness After (Book I of The Darkness After Series)
Into the River Lands (Book II of The Darkness After Series)
The Forge of Darkness (Book III of The Darkness After Series)
Apocalypse Series:
Sailing the Apocalypse: A Misadventure at Sea
Nonfiction:
On Island Time: Kayaking the Caribbean
Getting Out Alive
Paddling the Pascagoula
Bug Out: The Complete Plan for Escaping a Catastrophic Disaster Before It’s Too Late
Bug Out Vehicles and Shelters
About the Author
SCOTT B. WILLIAMS HAS been writing about his adventures for more than twenty-five years. His published work includes dozens of magazine articles and twelve books, with more projects currently underway. His interest in backpacking, sea kayaking and sailing small boats to remote places led him to pursue the wilderness survival skills that he has written about in his popular survival nonfiction books such as Bug Out: The Complete Plan for Escaping a Catastrophic Disaster Before It’s Too Late. He has also authored travel narratives such as On Island Time: Kayaking the Caribbean, an account of his two-year solo kayaking journey through the islands. With the release of The Pulse in 2012, Scott moved into writing fiction and has written several more novels with many more in the works. To learn more about his upcoming books or to contact Scott, visit his website: www.scottbwilliams.com
Voyage After the Collapse (The Pulse Series Book 3) Page 24
