The Curious Sojourner

by Thomas J. Wolfenden

  He looked down and smiled. Robyn had retrieved his 1911 .45 pistol from his nightstand, and winking at him, lifted up her hoodie, showing him that she too had armed herself with a S&W .38 revolver with a 2” barrel. He smiled and patted her head, quickly placing the pistol under his t-shirt in the waistband of his jeans.

  “Dad, what are we going to do?” she whispered.

  “What we’re going to do is be hospitable,” he informed her, handing her the plates and flatware, “Now go and set the table. Supper is almost ready.”

  “Alrighty then,” she said, taking the plates and heading out of the room.

  Tim got everything ready, and brought the feast to the table. The smell was incredible, and John’s eyes grew wide with the sheer volume of food. Tim then felt somewhat guilty, because he knew that there must be hundreds, if not thousands of other people just like John all over the country, and here he and Robyn were, feasting like kings.

  He had to warn John several times to slow down and not to eat too much. He was severely malnourished, and if he ate too much, too soon, he’d get violently ill. Tim didn’t ask any more questions that night, and after supper showed him a room midway between his and Robyn’s, gave him a fresh towel, some toiletries and left him to shower and rest.

  Tim made his way back down to the kitchen, where he found Robyn cleaning up from the feast. When the last dish was in the dishwasher, and the last container of leftovers were in the fridge, Tim pulled out a beer, popped the top and took a long pull.

  Robyn sipped on a cup of tea, and over the brim, looked at Tim questioningly.

  “What?” he asked.

  “You know what,” she said, “What are we going to do?”

  “The man obviously has been through a lot. We’ve fed him, and now we’re giving him shelter. Tomorrow, we’ll help him get some better clothes.”

  “Is he one of the good guys?”

  “The jury is still out one that one, Pumpkin. So just to be sure, lock your bedroom door tonight.”

  “I’ve already thought of it.”

  “Good. Now let’s finish here and get to bed.”

  The made rapid progress cleaning up, and Tim accompanied Robyn up to her room, making sure she securely locked her door from the inside. He was doubly pleased when he heard her drag a chair over and prop it up under the doorknob.

  Making his way down the hallway, Tim stopped at their guest’s bedroom door and listened closely. He could hear John’s snoring, and satisfied, he went to his own bedroom, locking the door also. He took a quick shower, tuned out the lights and crawled under the sheets, but sleep eluded him for some time.

  As he stared up at the darkened ceiling, from time to time he heard John’s cries in his sleep. He was shouting for someone to stop, and then crying.

  Whatever he went through, it must have been horrible.

  Tim finally fell asleep, but his own dreams were filled with past horrors, so when he finally awoke the next morning, he hardly felt rested at all. He trudged downstairs and started a pot of coffee to start the day. After tripping over Fred for the third time, he let the kangaroo out onto the porch.

  A new cover of six or seven inches of new snow blanketed everything, and there was a definite permanence to the crispness in the morning air. Tim closed the door and made his way back to the kitchen, pouring himself a steaming cup of brew. Lighting a cigarette, he sat down at the table and gazed out at the wintery scene in deep contemplation.

  “Good morning,” an unfamiliar voice spoke. Tim wheeled to face the voice, and saw that it was John, who even though freshly showered, still looked worse for wear.

  “Good morning. Coffee is on, help yourself. The mugs are in the cabinet over the coffee maker.”

  “Thanks,” John replied. After fetching a cup, he poured himself a cup and made his way to the table. After he sat down, he looked into his coffee for a few moments before speaking, “I want to thank you again for letting me stay here last night, and for the wonderful dinner.”

  “It’s the least I could do.”

  Tim looked John over again now that he could see better in the daylight. At first he thought John must be a junkie… He noticed needle tracks up and down both skinny arms, but then also noticed places over the bruised and purple wounds where surgical tape had been, leaving dark, rectangular lines on the skin. Tim knew from experience that it would take days of scrubbing to wash the adhesive off. So that meant IVs…

  So, he was in a hospital or… Someplace. That would mean medical staff and doctors…

  “So what’s your story, John,” Tim asked pointedly, not bothering to beat around the bush.

  “I’m from California. I’m on my way home.”

  “Last night you said you were from back east.”

  “No, I said I was coming from back east. Before… everyone died, I was in Nashville on business. After everyone… I started to make my way westward.”

  “Alright. Then what?”

  “Do we really have too?” John asked with pain in his voice.

  “Yes John, we do. I welcomed you into our home last night, and if you would like to continue to experience our hospitality, a few answers are in order.”

  “You mean I can stay here?”

  “We’ll see. Now tell me your story. And I’ll let you in on a little something. I used to be a cop before The Event, and can see right through bullshit. So I’ll know when you’re dicking me around.”

  John looked Tim dead in the eye and nodded his head. He took a deep breath, held it for a moment, let it out in a whoosh and began to speak, “Like I said. I was in Nashville on business. When everything turned to shit, I started to make my way westward. I couldn’t find a car that would start, so I travelled on foot, scrounging what I could find to eat here and there. I made it as far as New Mexico, and that’s when they found me…”

  “Who’s they?”

  “I’m still not sure who they were, but it was pretty clear they were from the government.”

  “How so?”

  “A group of soldiers took me. Well, not just me, a group of other people I’d met along the way. They had guns, and they came in the night, blindfolded us and took us to some underground lab.”

  “A lab? What do you mean?” Tim asked, “and how do you know it was underground?”

  “Because a month or so ago I escaped. At least it seemed that long ago. Maybe it was longer. I know it was still summer.”

  “And if this place was guarded my armed soldiers, how did you escape?”

  “There really wasn’t that many of them. But they had us drugged most of the time… during their experiments…”

  “What kind of experiments?”

  “Please, don’t make me bring that up… They killed Kim, and Steven. I saw them take the bodies to an incinerator…”

  “Okay, we’ll leave that question go for now. Tell me how you escaped,” Tim asked, taking a good look at this skinny, 5’ 5” 150 pound guy and wondering how he escaped from a secured underground facility with armed security.

  “After Kim and Steve died, I knew I would probably be next. So I stopped taking the pills the nurse would give me. I’d let them go under my tongue, and when she wasn’t looking, I’d spit them out. I started to get more and more clear-headed, until finally one night I made my move.”

  “How?”

  “There weren’t many of them, and even though it was underground, I could make a pretty good assumption when it was day and night. At night, most of the lights would be dimmed, and all the medical staff would be gone. Only a guard would come every hour to check on me. So I timed it to where I knew he’d be coming, and hid behind the door. When he came into the room to check on me, I clocked him with a fire extinguisher and ran. It was like a maze down there…” he shuddered, taking a pause.

  “So you beaned one of the guards in the grape. Then what did you do?”

  “Like I said, it was like a goddamned maze in the place. It was huge! Anyway, I finally found an emergency escape hatch,
and climbed up this long ladder that led to the surface. When I came out, it was the middle of the night. All I had was a thin hospital gown. It was so cold in the desert, but I ran as fast and as far as I could. After a while I hid under a rock crevice. I thought I’d wait there until daylight and try to find a town or something where I could get some clothes, food and some water.”

  “That’s a pretty fucked up story, John.”

  “I know. What’s more fucked up is there are more people there. People like me, guinea pigs. I feel horrible because I didn’t do anything to help them… I only saved myself.”

  “You did what you had to do to survive. How did you know there were other folks still there?”

  “We were all kept in separate rooms, but they weren’t soundproof. I could hear their screams… Please don’t let me talk about that! Please?” john begged, starting to cry again.

  “Alright, that part is over. So you made it from New Mexico to here. How the hell did you find our house? We’re damn near five miles from I-40,” Tim asked.

  “I followed my nose,” he said, a slight, wry grin crossing his face for the first time that morning.

  Robyn came down at that moment, sleepy-eyed, and breezed past the two men without a word, heading into the kitchen. She came out a few moments later with her own cup of coffee and sat down.

  “Morning. What did I miss?” she asked.

  “Nothing much, Pumpkin. John here was just about to tell me how he found our humble abode,” Tim replied, leaving out the rest of the yarn John had just spun.

  “I was wondering that last night myself. We are pretty far from the highway.”

  “That we are, Robyn,” Tim said, facing John, “So you were saying?”

  “Yes. I’d come into town the night before. What town is it, by the way?”

  “Williams, Arizona,” Robyn told him.

  “Okay. So I come into town off the highway. I found the Safeway and got some food… Or at least something to eat, and camped there for the night. Yesterday, when I got up, I went outside and I couldn’t believe what I smelled… I swore I smelled a turkey roasting, pies being baked. I just followed my nose all the way here. It took me hours to find this place.”

  “Amazing!” Robyn said.

  “Yeah, fucking amazing,” Tim replied disgustedly.

  “What wrong, Dad?” Robyn queried, perplexed at Tim’s response.

  “What’s wrong is this,” he said, facing John, “No offence, but we like this place because it’s hard to find. It’s miles off the highway, and we thought we could stay here hidden.”

  “Oh,” Robyn sighed.

  “Now we’re going to have to figure out some kind of filter or some such shit to keep the smells of our cooking from wafting very far.”

  “I’m sorry,” John said, hanging his head, “I really didn’t mean to cause you any grief.”

  Tim looked at John and felt sorry for him. He put a hand on his shoulder, squeezed gently and said, “It’s alright. You can stay here as long as you’d like, but it’s not a free ride. You’re going to have to help with the chores. But first, let’s get into town and get you some decent clothes.”

  “Thank you!”

  “And Robyn, you stay here.”

  “But Dad---.”

  Tim cut her off, “No but Dad, bullshit. John and I are going into town, and you are staying here, and staying out of trouble. Got that?”

  “Yes, Sar’ Major.” She said a little dejectedly.

  Tim got his coat and another for John. He donned it and it looked a little humorous. He was virtually swimming in the coat Tim had lent him, sleeves down past his hands and coming all the way down to his knees.

  The made there way outside and climbed into the Hum-Vee, Tim firing it over and letting it idle to warm up. Tim drove into town silently, and then John spoke.

  “Robyn called you Sergeant Major. I thought you were a cop?”

  “I’m a soldier too. Well, at least I was. Pennsylvania National Guard.”

  “Oh, okay. I’d just never heard of that rank on any police department.”

  “So what did you do before…”

  “Before everyone died? I was a songwriter.”

  “Would I know any of your work?”

  “Probably not. It’s why I was in Nashville. After years of writing, I’d finally sold one of my songs and Kenny Chesney was going to record it, but…”

  “But the world turned pear-shaped.”

  “Yeah, that’s a good analogy.”

  In spite of the snow, they made good time thanks to the Hum-Vee’s 4WD. Tim went to the feed and supply store, the same one where he’d found the 50 lb bags of dog food for Chuck the wayward kangaroo, and they made their way through the darkened and dusty interior until they found the clothing.

  Mostly work clothes, Carhart and Wrangler, work boots and the like. Tim got himself some new clothes also, and waited while John tried on jeans, boots and jackets. He grabbed several pairs of underwear and socks to go along with his new wardrobe, and an hour later when they came out of the store, John felt like a new man.

  John was loosening up, and Tim genuinely started to like the man. About halfway back to the house in the woods, Tim asked, “I know you probably don’t want to talk about it, but I’m still curious. You said earlier that they found you. Just how did they find you?”

  “The best way I can figure it is that goddamned radio station.”

  Tim shot a look at John, and asked, “What radio station?”

  “Steve had an old transistor radio from the early 1960s. At night, he’d forever tune up and down the dial on AM, and then FM and never really found anything.”

  “Go on.”

  “One night, the three of us were sitting around the fire, and there he went, tuning up and down the dial, hoping to find some kind of word that others were still alive. And that’s when we heard it…”

  “A radio station in Taos?” Tim asked.

  “Yeah! Have you heard it too?”

  “Yes. So you go to Taos, I’ll presume, to find the radio station?”

  John nodded and continued, “We found it a few miles outside of town. There was no one there, the place was completely automated.”

  “Let me guess. It was solar powered, and enclosed in a metal building?”

  “Yes!” John said excitedly, “It was playing a recorded loop, randomly adding songs from a digital music library in a desktop computer. Pretty slick setup if you ask me.”

  “So the announcers, they were all just a recording?”

  “Yep. It’d play a handful of songs and interject the recorded announcer along with commercials in between.”

  “So, in theory, it could keep on broadcasting forever?”

  “Yes, or at least until the solar panels gave up the ghost, or batteries took a shit.”

  “One last thing. Do you think the station was set up to lure people in, or did those mysterious doctors just take advantage of it?”

  “Oh, I’m fairly certain that they just took advantage of it. But I doubt many people had the older radios to actually pick it up.”

  Tim pulled up in front of the house and shut the engine off. He swiveled in his seat to face John and asked, “If you had to, could you find this place again?”

  “The lab? W, w, well… I guess I could… But Tim, I’m telling you! I never want to go back there again!

  Tim looked back out of the windshield and saw Robyn come out and wave, smiling. She was followed by Fred, who bounded out into the snow playfully as the wheels began turning in Tim’s mind.

  I know you don’t John… But like you said, there’s more people held captive there…

  He hopped out of the vehicle, bounded up the porch steps, stopping in front of Robyn.

  “Get some shit packed for at least a week, clothes, some MRE’s, also your rifle and extra ammo.”

  “Where are we going?” she asked, bewildered.

  “Taos, New Mexico!”

  ~To Be Continued

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