The Well 2: Route 66
By R. E. Rice
Copyright 2014 by R. E. Rice
Millennium Books
Smashwords Edition
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. No reproduction of this book part or whole is permitted. This book should not be scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without the author’s permission.
1
“The well was dry beside the door, and so we went with pail and can across the fields behind the house to seek the brook if still it ran”
--Robert Frost
I didn’t have time to think about my father. It was the living who captured my attention. My eyes locked on my mother, who was obviously hysterical. She went from speechless to screaming uncontrollably. She rushed to my father’s lifeless body cradling him in her arms rocking back and forth, screaming his name.
“John, can you hear me? You’re not dead. I know you’re not dead.”
I reached for my mother’s arm and she jerked it away from me. She refused to budge from that spot and she refused to leave him. When I tried to pick her up, she was dead weight. She slumped over him like a shield and tighten her grip on his body.
Shaun held Sarah with his arm and covering her eyes with his hand. Sarah put her hands over her ears because she couldn’t stand to hear the shrill pathetic cry coming from Mother.
I glanced behind them and saw a wall of dust moving fast in our direction. Raising the bandana over my mouth, I gave out a muffled cry. “Mother,” I shouted. “You can’t stay here. We have to seek shelter.” She didn’t listen. It was as if her life had drained from her, and she was somewhere else. Perhaps with my father.
She managed to glance up still holding my father in a death grip. I couldn’t pry her arms from him. Her eyes appeared dead because she looked through me talking into the air. “I’m not leaving you. I’ll never leave you,” she whispered into my father’s ear. Then I understood. She was telling me that when father died her life was over. Her eyes met mine. “Can’t you see David? I can’t go any further, and I won’t go.” Her head lowered.
I gave my mother a tug and still she wouldn’t budge. “You have to,” I pleaded, “otherwise we will die. I need you, Sarah needs you,” and still she said nothing. I thought knowing that we depended on her would somehow give her the strength to stand. I waved to Shaun and pointed at the wall of dust headed our way. “Get in the truck Shaun.” He scooped up Sarah who was trying to escape his grasp and get to mother.
My hopeless gaze fell on my mother and father one last time. I knew what my mother was doing. She was sacrificing her life and her unborn baby for us. She wasn’t strong and she knew it. She knew she could never make it to New York with a newborn and no milk. We didn’t have enough water and food for all of us to make it that far, and she didn’t want to see another day without my father.
All the feelings of lost welled up inside me and I wanted to lay down and die beside my parents. I touched her face and hair and then kissed my mother’s dry lifeless hair, which was no longer full, but only a few strands that prevented her from being bald. When I raised my hand from her head, the last bit of hair on her head fell into my hands.
I looked at it in horror and within a minute the angry wind and dust crept up on me with fury and rage. I knew what I had to do. I reached for the rear of the truck and jumped into its bed. I tucked my head between my legs and pulled blankets over me.
I watched through an opening as the swirling red dust carried my mother and then my father away. One minute I had a whole family and the next I was alone trying to find my way in this forsaken land. Now I had to be the mother and father to my nine year old sister. In the blink of an eye all was gone. My father’s wisdom and my mother’s optimism disappeared in a second, and I was left not yet a man trying to figure out a hostile world.
I had no time for goodbyes. I had no time to grieve. I had no time for tears.
The second wave of dust was on us and I had to run to reach the truck’s cab. I ran with the wind whipping and tearing my already torn shirt and pants to shreds. I grabbed the handle of the door and pulled. The door finally opened with Shaun’s help and in the front seat was Sarah crying for her mother. I put my arms around her and she pushed me away and said, “Why didn’t you do something? You just let them die.” And she put her hand to her head and sobbed. Her wail was deafening.
“Help her into the back,” I said to Shaun. “I need to think.” I looked at him and then focused on Sarah. “We have to leave this truck. If we remain here we will run out of food and water.”
Shaun opened his mouth. I knew what he wanted to say and I stopped him. “We will die if we stay here. No one will save us but ourselves.”
“What if the well is not there then what?” Shaun said. I peered at him and shook my head.
“I don’t need you to give out these negative ideas. My father said to solve a problem we have to think and survive.”
He must have understood the predicament we faced and knew that cooperation was our only chance. But first we had to do something with Sarah. “What are we to do with her?” Shaun said. He gestured at a weeping Sarah.
I knew what he meant. She could kill us by refusing to go because I wasn’t prepared mentally to leave her behind, and Shaun couldn’t make it alone. I didn’t know what to do. “Let me talk to her. When the wind stops, take a walk and I’ll make a decision,” I said to him.
My gaze wavered back and forth from Sarah to Shaun. I needed Shaun but I didn’t need Sarah. She would slow us down and that would be the end. My mother knew that and she made her choice. I saw it in her eyes. It wasn’t that my father’s death had affected her as much as she wanted me and Sarah to survive.
Sarah wasn’t an option to consider. My mother’s sacrifice would be useless if Sarah didn’t make it. My mother sacrificed her unborn baby for Sarah. How could I think of leaving Sarah?
I remember mother saying that there are animals in every community that will sacrifice themselves for the good of the whole community. Insects will do that. Bees came to mind. Mammals are no exception. There are rats that will commit suicide so others in their community could live. Because of this instinct of sacrifice built into creatures, somehow, I knew that all species of animals hadn’t disappeared from this earth as reported, and somewhere there would be food. And where there are animals there will be water.
I wondered if I would have the courage to sacrifice myself for others if it came to that.
My father said when there were wars soldiers sacrificed themselves all the time. Somehow things changed and society and culture changed. It became every country, every family, and every man for himself. Communities were torn apart. Hunger and thirst made for irrational selfish thinking.
“We can’t stay in the comfort of this truck,” I said locking eyes with Shaun.
“There is plenty of food and water,” he said clutching on to some dried meat.
“We have to go on. We have to get out of here,” I said pointing. “We have to make progress. We’re making none sitting here.” I saw the fear in Shaun’s face. I knew that fear. I felt it but I couldn’t show it to anyone. I had to assume the role of the leader. I had to keep my fears to myself.
I knew that when the food and water gave out and if we hadn’t re
ached the well, then there would be nothing waiting for us around the corner. Certainly not a grocery store where we could get fruit, vegetables, meat, and bottled water.
That was a time lost to my father and mother. For us now, it was just pictures in magazines. And you can’t eat and drink a picture.
2
Sarah managed to get hold of herself. She was smart and she understood our predicament. She was born into hard times and she knew that without mother and father things will get worse. I asked Shaun to help me collect the provisions and organize the food according to nutrition and energy. Then he estimated how far we had to travel and how much water we needed for the journey if the map was correct. Shaun was good at that. He got that from his father.
Uncle Robert was able to predict when birds would disappear according to how many different types of insects were showing up each year. He knew when the flowering plants would disappear according to when the bees and certain insects were thought to be extinct.
He knew to the day when his well and my father’s well would go dry. So Shaun was a valuable asset. And because of the death of mother and father we now would be able to travel further than we would with five people and maybe six if the baby had lived.
“Shaun, with the supplies we have now, what do you think?” He looked at me and made a sigh. I watched as he bit his fist and closed his eyes for a second.
“I inventoried everything. There isn’t as much food and water as I thought.”
“I don’t need you to evade the question. I need to know the facts,” I said to him.
“If we cut back…”
“We can’t cut back on anything.” I looked him in the eyes. His eyes lowered.
“Well for Christ sake Shaun what are you holding back?” He evaded my stare. His eyes wandered to the left and right of me. I stepped in front of him and met his gaze. Then I knew.
“I didn’t tell the truth. I was afraid that I would be left behind,” he said with a low voice and dry sad swollen eyes. If he had water in his body tears would fall.
“What is it?” I stood looking up at Shaun. My eyes piercing his stare.
“What I showed uncle was a lie. The containers didn’t have food and the water was salt water.” Shaun fell to my knees with a loud moan. I raised him by his shoulders. And before I could gather my strength, my hand fashioned into a fist to strike him, but I pulled back. A storm was brewing inside of me. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and calmed.
I hit him on his back. “Let’s go Shaun. No more lies.” He shook his head in agreement. But I knew he would do anything to survive and a lie at this moment was nothing. We needed each other to get to the other side of this hell.
We carried everything we could to survive, to live one day at a time. It was the middle of the day and the sky was a hot orange mess. My father could tell what the sky would do just from looking at it. I on the other hand had my head in books dreaming about what use to be and having never experienced the things I read about and dreamed of.
Dragging blankets filled with food and water and carrying backpacks slowed us down. We had to do something better. Sarah couldn’t carry anything because of the trauma she suffered from losing mom and dad. We could barely get her to walk. The pace was so slow, we could have made more time crawling.
I trotted back where Sarah was dragging one foot in front of the other but still not making progress. My father said when soldiers could no longer go on, they had to will themselves on. His theory was that the mind and body worked together. Once one part stopped, then the other would as well. She knew that lesson and she tried to do her best but I needed more out of her.
When I caught up with her, I turned to see Shaun stop and I waved him to go on. I couldn’t lose sight of him because the paved road was straight, and without the sand and dust to blur my vision, I could see for miles.
I stood in front of Sarah. Her lazy eyes opened and she stopped walking. Her head rising slowly. Her breathing shallow. Her legs weak.
“You have to help. You can’t be a burden. You can’t go on like this. I can’t worry about you every minute. You’re younger than me. If for some reason I can’t survive you have to.”
“What’s the use?” She said crouching, ready to sit. I knew if she sat she would never get up. I took her hand to steady her and tried to reason with her. I held her next to me to rest on my overtaxed body.
“We’re humans we have to believe that there is a tomorrow. If our ancestors had sat down because one person thought the earth was flat, and believed they would fall off, and when the food and water supply gave out in their region of the world, then maybe we wouldn’t be here today,” I said reasoning with her.
“That’s just plain stupid,” she said to me. “The earth isn’t flat.”
“I know it and you know it but some people didn’t know that fact and that’s why some groups didn’t survive. Do you want the last of our family to die here?”
I glanced at her and I could see the movement in her eyes when she was thinking and reasoning. There was now light flowing in her beautiful soft eyes. It was like she had a purpose. It’s nothing like purpose and determination to get people going, and I depended on that to see us through.
Shaun was getting out of range and with the cover of dust swirling in the air it was becoming hard to see him. “Shaun wait up,” I shouted. “Slow down.” And the echo rang throughout the mountains.
I handed Sarah a backpack filled with water and she flung it through her arms and stood upright. I don’t know where the energy came from but she was moving quicker than before. Her face once weary and dry began to take on a glow.
We finally caught up to Shaun. We had been walking for five hours. He had stopped at the foot of a mountain in a valley where rivers once flowed, carving through rocks until they looked like the Grand Canyon.
“Look there’s a cave,” Shaun said pointing north. “Indians once lived there,” he said proud of his knowledge and his contribution.
We disappeared into a cave that had once been hidden by a water fall. The mouth of the cave was littered with human skulls and human bones wrapped in old ratty cloth and bones of animals were high in a separate pile. We stepped across them, found a place further in the cave out of sight of the skulls, reminders of how fragile life is, and we huddled together for comfort.
The darkness didn’t frightened me, it was the cave.
Shaun took out the blankets and laid them on the cave’s floor, and measured the water we could consume this day.
He determine that we could drink a tablespoon of water and still live. “If we don’t get more water we will die, our body system with the heat will…” Shaun said looking at me handing me my ration. I didn’t want to hear anything negative so I cut him off. Sarah didn’t need to hear that.
“We will get more water,” I said to him turning to smile at Sarah.
We had packed some dry sticks and disposable lighters my father had been keeping for times such as these. He would trade water from our well for them. My mother thought it was something for him to do so he wouldn’t become bored. She didn’t object to the many BIC lighters he hoarded in the house. She objected to the attention he paid to them. He would count them to make sure they were all there and no one used them unless it was necessary.
Now we needed them to build fires for light. We settled down and Sarah fell asleep without eating. “Wake up,” I said to her. She laid limp and I checked for breathing. She was fine. I shook her saying, “Here eat this.” It was a fig my mother canned. I saved it for her. I placed it on her lips. The sweet taste gave her energy and she opened her mouth but her eyes remained shut. I fed her another. She was only allowed two that day. I lay her back down on the blanket and covered her up as Shaun watched in anticipation of his ration of figs.
With the jar trembling in his hands, I had to wrap my hand around his to steady the jar. I didn’t want him spilling it. He looked at me and said, “It’s time to eat the dried meat. We need protein if we�
��re going to make it to the next valley. We have to travel high into the mountains tomorrow.”
“I know. Can’t we make it a little further without eating the meat? We may need it later and I want to make sure we save our energy for the last leg. You know New York.”
“Do you honestly expect to make it that far?” he said looking in my eyes hoping for the truth but would accept a lie instead.
“We will get there if you believe we can do it,” I said.
“I believe, David, but it’s more than just belief. We need luck and we need more food and water.”
“We will get more food, trust me, and we will have the water we need. I have a map of the next well,” I said pulling it out of my pocket. “And if there’s water you can bet there will be food. Now rest and let’s get an early start before the winds come,” I said to Shaun trying to keep up his spirits.
What was I doing, pretending I was my father, carrying around a heavy burden until it killed me? I wasn’t my father and it was no use pretending that I could ever be like him. I had to make my own way and try to live as long as possible. I had to take care of my little sister. I didn’t know how to do that yet.
I passed the map in front of Shaun’s face and let him get a glance of it. “See it’s real. I have the map to the well.” Then I shoved it back into the safety of my pants. I wasn’t ready to take Shaun into my confidence. My father said never let that map out of my hands and don’t tell anyone that I have it. I had already broken a promise to my father and disobeyed his rules and maybe more rules before we reach the east.
I walked to my sister and gazed down on her. She was curled up in a ball inside a sleeping bag. I laid down beside her, picking up her head placing it in my lap, and I propped myself against the wall and fell asleep.
3
I woke the next morning to a shallow light focusing on my eyes. Sarah’s arms thrashing and her legs kicking, caused by dreams, moving her body out of the sleeping bag. I checked her pulse to see if she was Ok but something black was attached to her leg. I tried swatting it but was unsuccessful. Rubbing my eyes then taking a closer look, my head snapped back, it was feeding on her leg.
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