by Godsby Jim
“What’s going on in the city?” said Ellie.
“You name it, sister. Fires breaking out. A group of idiots torched a school. The roof caved in and everything turned to ash. Some teenagers set fire to a pet shop and watched the animals burn. The EMP was a blessing for arsonists.”
“What about the police?” said Ash.
This time the Bear spoke.
“A few of them kept their uniforms, for the first few days at least. But after the John Richmond Library riot, the rest of them went back to their families and focussed on themselves.”
Ash had been to the John Richmond library plenty of times. He’d spent nights in there during college, usually to finish all his last minute cramming before a big test. Sometimes, he used to wake up to find the place deserted and pitch black, and he’d realise that he’d fallen asleep with his head in a copy of Modern Business Leadership.
“I can’t imagine a riot in a library,” said Chad.
“A guy broke in to steal a copy of a book,” said the woman. “Apparently he was a collector, and this book was hundreds of years old and they kept it behind a locked cabinet. A security guard saw him and tried to subdue him, but the guy freaked out and got violent. They struggled some, and the security guard died.”
“It was pretty scary,” said the smaller man. “Things escalated from there. People were tearing the library to shreds. And when they were finished there, they started on other buildings in the area. Before long the police were running for cover.”
Ash had already decided that they were going to have to avoid the city. It wasn’t safe to walk through such a busy area, especially not if it was full of violent, frustrated survivors who were taking out their anger at the loss of power on the city around them.
“Okay guys,” he said. “We’re going to go. Thanks for the update, and we’re sorry to have bothered you.”
“I’m not sorry,” said Chad. “This was my uncle and aunts house.”
“So where are they now? Seems to me, they left. And it’s finders keepers,” said the Bear.
“Fuck you,” said Chad.
The Bear swung his rifle and pointed it at Chad now. His facial features were screwed up, and a vein on his temple twitched. Ash could tell that this was a man who got angry easily, and it was plain to see how this was going to go down.
While the Bear and the smaller man pointed their guns at Chad, and the woman directed hers at Ellie, Ash realised he wasn’t being watched. Too quickly for anyone to react, he reached across and grabbed Ellie’s pistol from the table.
The Bear turned to look at him, and Ash saw his finger sliding along the trigger. He realised that the time for threats was gone, and that the Bear was really going to shoot him now. Ash didn’t want to do it, but he knew that he had to act first. He raised the gun, aimed at the Bear’s large head and pulled the trigger.
The smell of gunpowder filled the room, and Ash’s ears rang from the blast. The Bear slumped to the floor, his pierced head smashing against the bottom of the sink cupboard. A piece of his skull was missing, and blood dripped down his face.
The woman turned toward Ash now, but before she could aim at him, Ellie grabbed her. The woman pushed Ellie away. The sheriff tried to balance, but she put too much weight on her injured ankle and screamed out in pain. Just as the woman fired her rifle at Ellie, the sheriff fell to the floor and the bullet just missed her.
Chad sprang away from the wall now. He gave a cry that sounded almost savage, and he threw a punch at the smaller man. The small guy was no fighter, and certainly wasn’t a match for a physically fit, well-trained army recruit. With two well-placed punches, Chad had knocked him to the floor.
Ash swung his gun and aimed it at the woman’s head now. He saw that she was moving her weapon to fire at Ellie. Ash didn’t think he could face killing someone else.
“Hold it,” he said.
The woman looked at him, but kept her rifle pointed at Ellie. The aroma of gunpowder was so strong that it was the only thing Ash could smell, and a screeching sound rang through Ash’s ears from the gunshots. Across the room, the Bear’s blood leaked from his skull and formed a thick puddle on the kitchen floor.
“Now just think about this,” said Ash to the woman. “You’re outnumbered. The big guy is dead, and the other one doesn’t look like much of a fighter. Now, you seem pretty mean to me, but you also look clever. Work out your odds, and think about what you wanna do next. Do you want to walk away from this?”
The woman paused and thought about it. She started to lower the rifle, and Ash felt relief flow through him. He was glad to be able to walk away without any more blood being shed. He felt worn away, empty, and the only thing keeping him upright was the adrenaline shooting through his veins.
Then the woman lifted her rifle up and pointed at Ellie. She turned her head to face Ash.
“Screw you,” she said.
Before the woman could fire, Ash pulled the trigger of his pistol and blew a hole through her back. The woman’s mouth opened and she let out a raspy sound, before falling face first into the floor. There was a sickening crack as her nose smashed on the laminate flooring.
Ash took sharp, panting breaths. He wanted to let go of the gun, but it felt like it was glued to his hand. The smaller man was on the floor now. He looked up at Chad, and then at Ash, and there was fear in his eyes. He was like an animal cornered by three predators and it flooded Ash with so much pity that he wanted to be sick. How had it come to this?
“Get up,” he said.
The man blinked, but didn’t move.
“Go ahead. You can get out of here,” said Ash.
The man slowly got to his feet, throwing little glances around the room as though he expected it to be a trap. He backed slowly towards the table, his footsteps so unsure that it seemed like it was going to take him hours just to get out of there.
“Jesus Christ,” said Chad. “Hurry the hell up and get out of my aunt’s house.”
The man reached behind him, picked up the crossbow from the table and pointed it at Chad. Ash shot his pistol once again, but he was too late. The man had already fired the bow, and just as the arrow hit Chad, Ash’s bullet tore through the man’s neck.
Chapter 8
Ash had never treated an arrow wound before. Sheriff Ellie had seen plenty of gunshot injuries in her time as a police officer and she’d even seen a couple of snake bites, but nobody had ever complained of getting shot by a crossbow. Luckily, the arrow had hit Chad in his upper arm, which meant that he could still walk. From the way he moaned about it though, Ash would have thought it was life-threatening.
“So do we just pull it out?” said Ellie.
Chad had his arm stretched across the kitchen table. Blood trickled out of the wound, and the veins in his arm stuck out prominently.
“No way,” said Ash. “I’m no doctor, but I think the worst thing we can do is to pull out the arrow head.”
“I’m not walking around with this sticking out of my arm,” said Chad.
“Well guess what?” Ellie said. “The hospital’s closed, and the doctors are cowering in their own homes somewhere. So it seems like Doctor Ash is the best thing you’ve got right now.”
Ash stood up.
“Find me some scissors,” he said. “We can cut the end away from the arrow, but the head needs to stay in. For all we know it’s torn through a blood vessel, and right now it’s acting as a plug.”
After finding a pair of scissors and cutting away the end of the arrow, the three of them raided the kitchen cupboards for canned food. They found a few rucksacks in the wardrobe of the master bedroom and filled them with as much as they could carry. Thirty minutes later they stood in the hallway. Ellie balanced carefully, making sure not to put too much weight on her injured ankle. Chad held his hand around his arrow wound.
“So what now?” said Ellie.
Ash felt himself fill up with nervous energy.
“Now,” he said, “We go and find Georgia.�
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***
As they walked over the crest of the hill, the city came into view. It was too far away to make out in a great deal of detail, but it was still possible to see how screwed up things had gotten. Black smoke rose from smouldering shops and houses, and it seemed like on every single road there were at least one or two cars abandoned. Despite the signs of chaos, there seemed to be few people out on the streets. He guessed that after the riots and the violence, most people were too scared to leave their homes now. Maybe that would change once their cupboards started to become bare.
They followed a road that stayed far enough away from the city that they felt relatively safe. Ash knew that if they followed it for ten miles, eventually they would come to a cross roads. From there, his house was only a fifteen minute walk away.
Ellie and Chad tried to chat as they walked, but Ash couldn’t concentrate. With every step he took, the image of Georgia grew larger in his mind until soon she completely dominated his thoughts. He’d tried to put it to one side when they were travelling over the mountain range because he knew it would impair his judgement if he worried, but now that they were so close, he couldn’t help it.
Ash was so engrossed in his own thoughts that he didn’t see the group of people until they were right in front of him. Chad put his good arm across Ash’s chest to stop him walking. Ash looked up and saw seven men and women, and two children ahead of them on the path.
The men carried rucksacks that looked filled to bursting, and they held weapons in their hands ranging from knives to crowbars. The three women also gripped weapons of their own, but two of them also held the hands of their children. The men stopped and began to size up Ash, Ellie and Chad. For a brief second Ash’s pulse fired and he worried he was going to have to reach for his gun again, but he soon saw that this group of travellers didn’t look aggressive. More than anything, they just looked scared.
Ash raised his hand in the air.
“We don’t mean any trouble,” he said.
One of the men leaned in towards the man next to him and said something. Neither of them took their eyes off Ash.
“Seriously, fellas. We’re not gonna cause you any trouble,” said Chad.
The two men nodded at each other, and the group slowly approached Ash. When they were a few feet away the group stopped, and one of them stepped forward. He was a tall man with blue eyes and a rough beard, and dirt lined his face. There was a depth to his eyes that made it seem like he’d seen things that he didn’t want to talk about.
“Name’s Jack,” he said.
Ash held out his hand and introduced himself, as did Ellie and Chad.
“Where are you folks headed?” said Jack.
Chad looked at Ash as if waiting for him to answer on their behalf.
“Lexington Drive,” said Ash. “It’s not far from here.”
Jack nodded. “I know the place.”
“Seen it lately?”
“We didn’t pass through there.”
“So where are you going?” said Ellie.
Jack sighed, as though the question put a weight on him.
“Rather not say.”
“Fair’s fair,” said Chad. “We told you where we’re going. We just want to know which places people think are safe.”
Jack stroked his chin. He turned and looked at his group behind him, and one of the men in the group nodded. Jack turned back around, and cleared his throat.
“We’re going to a town nearby. Killop Hills.”
At hearing this, Ellie jerked her head back.
“You’re kidding. You’re going to Killop?”
Jack folded his arms. The sleeves of his coat were torn.
“We heard they’ve got diesel generators linked up there. Thought we’d see how things are. Some of the guys would murder someone for a warm bath right now.”
He seemed to catch the way Ash, Chad and Ellie looked at him, because he then added: “Not literally, of course.”
Ellie stepped forward and gulped. She gave a small glance at Ash, and then spoke to Jack.
“Listen,” she said. “I was going to head to Killop myself. My boy’s dad lives there. Think I could tag along with you?”
“Let me go check with the group,” said Jack.
He walked away to join the rest of his group. Ellie ran their hands through her hair, and Ash saw how greasy it was. It reminded him of how long it had been since any of them had taken an interest in their hygiene.
“You don’t mind, do you?” said Ellie.
“I was kind of hoping you’d help me find Georgia,” said Ash. “But your boy’s important, and you need to find his father. Don’t worry about it.”
Ellie looked at the floor.
“Thanks. And I meant what I said back there. You’re not such a bad guy, Ash. You just need to show it every once in a while.”
Ash thought about stepping forward to hug her, but when the sheriff didn’t make a move of her own, he stayed put. Maybe she had changed her opinion of him, but that didn’t mean that they were best friends.
“So this is good bye,” he said.
“Take it easy on that ankle,” said Chad.
“Next time I see you,” said Ellie, “Hopefully you won’t have an arrow sticking out of your arm.”
***
Not much later, Ash and Chad passed the cross roads and found themselves on the start of Lexington Drive. As they walked down the street, Ash saw the familiar suburban houses that he used to walk by every day. Just two weeks earlier it had been a clean, friendly neighbourhood, but now the once-pristine lawns were starting to look overgrown, and every single house had its curtains drawn.
“It didn’t always look like this,” said Ash.
“It’s nicer than anywhere that I ever lived,” said Chad.
With each step they took toward his house, Ash felt his chest flutter. He got a sinking feeling in his stomach, and he felt jittery as if his body was being flooded with adrenaline. It was all he could do to hold himself back from sprinting home.
Finally they stood at the top of his drive. Georgia would be in there, he knew. He prayed, for the fourth time, that she was okay. A big part of him didn’t want to walk down the drive way and open his front door, because he was scared that he’d find her hurt, or that she’d be angry with him for leaving her alone.
I came as fast as I could, he thought. I walked across a damn mountain to come back to you.
“We going in?” said Chad.
Ash nodded. “We better do this.”
He walked down the driveway and opened his front door. For a second he was annoyed that Georgia hadn’t locked it, but his annoyance was quickly flooded by worry. The living room of his house was trashed. Ash stood in the doorway and saw chairs shredded and tables overturned. Light bulbs were smashed on the carpet, and books littered the floor.
“Georgia?” he called out.
There was no answer.
She wasn’t in the living room or the kitchen. Ash’s heart began to beat furiously against his chest. He near enough jogged through his hall way and reached the stairs. As he ran up them he called out for his wife.
“Come on Georgia. It’s me.”
There was still no answer.
When he got to the top of the stairs he knew something was wrong. He checked through all the bedrooms and found the same story; they had all been ransacked, as if someone had torn through them looking for something. It didn’t look like anything had actually been taken, though. The only thing that was missing from the house was his wife.
Ash knew that he had gotten here too late. He had tried his best, but his best hadn’t been good enough. He felt like sinking to the floor in desperation, but he knew that he was better than that. He’d survived so much up to now, and he was starting to believe in himself again. He was going to find Georgia, and not even an apocalyptic disaster would stop him.
Thanks for reading Preppers of the Apocalypse Part 2. I hope you enjoyed it.
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