by Anna Oney
“What is it? Fawny, come on now. You’re scaring me.”
“Please don’t call me that,” she grumbled, turning away from him. “My name’s childish enough as it is.”
“What’s—”
“We just turned our backs on someone who needed our help.”
Hunter glided the blanket over her chest and propped the pillow up behind her.
“Who?”
“A man. I didn’t get his name. He showed up at our gate yesterday.” She leaned over the side of the bed and snatched her top from the floor.
“He was in no condition to be thrown back out there.” She fastened the loop around her neck, but struggled to reach behind her back to tie the string. “Ugh!”
“Here, let me do that,” he said. “You don’t want to go around flashing people.”
“I should’ve fought harder.”
Finished with her top, he brushed his lips across the back of her neck.
“I’m sure you did everything you could.”
With a low growl, she stood to her feet, and stormed toward her tan leggings and breechcloth lying in front of the door.
“Not even close,” she said.
His eyes were glued to the plumpness of her perfect backside as she began donning her bottoms.
“You’re leaving already?”
Fully clothed, she turned around and strode toward their bed. As she crawled across, he sensed she was about to leave him with a goodbye kiss. Just as she reached him, Fawn leaned forward and puckered her lips, and he pulled her closer, throwing himself on top of her.
“Hey,” she exclaimed, smacking his arm. “It’s time for me to get going.” She laughed and struggled beneath him. “I promised Reesa I’d take her hunting.”
Stroking her jaw, he peered into her sapphire eyes, and engulfed her full lips with his. A simple kiss was often turned into something more intimate, but that wasn’t his intention. Not this time.
He gave her one last peck and propped his head up on his elbow.
“Don’t let it consume you,” he said. “Forgive yourself.”
“I’ll try.”
CHAPTER THREE
July 16, 2086
The high-pitched song of the cicadas buzzed in Fawn’s ears as she, Reesa, and Juniper walked side-by-side through the back barrier, toting their kills for the day.
To keep herself from obsessing over the scarred blind man’s fate, Fawn had made good on her promise to Reesa. Every day, they woke before dawn. By the fourth morning, instead of being roused by her aunt, Reesa did the waking. Reesa had proven to be a fast learner. One month into her training, Reesa was skilled at setting snares and staging scenes that gave the illusion that all was well. By the third month, Reesa had learned how to shoot a bow and had killed her first buck.
Sweat drizzled from the crown of Fawn’s head, soaking into her arched brows.
“I sure am proud of you,” she said, swiping the back of her hand across her forehead.
“Thanks,” Reesa replied, and smiled up at her aunt. “I think this is the most I’ve brought home.”
Two rabbits had been caught by the snares Reesa had rigged, and five squirrels by the nooses she’d secured to three separate branches.
Juniper slowed, and Fawn pulled on the reins. The horse groaned behind them, quickening her pace to match her mistress’s.
Nearing the cook’s house, they turned a corner and noticed Jacob’s bald head glistening in the sunlight. He sulked upon the steps of his home, but his eyes were sparked by the sight of them striding up his walkway. In an instant, he was on his feet, disappearing inside his cabin. He reemerged clutching at a cutting board, and a butcher knife.
“Hey Jacob,” Fawn said, as they arrived at his porch steps. “We’ve got some grub for you to prepare tonight.”
“Harland,” Jacob yelled over his shoulder. “Son, come on, the meat’s here.” The cook turned his attention back to Fawn and Reesa and smiled. “So far this year, you two ladies are Back Wood’s top providers.”
“Who is it?” Harland’s shrill voice called from inside.
“Fawn and Reesa.”
Harland didn’t waste any time after that. He had just finished pulling up his britches when he stumbled through the doorway. Standing before them, the twenty-year-old messily tucked in his shirt and slicked back his hair with unsteady hands.
“Howdy,” he said, and waved in a rapid motion.
Jackass is here, Fawn thought.
Juniper pulled at Fawn’s braid of hair so hard that her neck craned backward. It was as if Juniper could hear her mistress’s hateful inner dialogue.
“Easy,” Fawn said, swatting around the back of her head. “What’s gotten into you?”
Despite the age difference, Harland had the biggest crush on Fawn. But his lack of motivation toward his daily chores was a turnoff. Lazy people had a tendency to make her eye twitch. Besides, she already had Hunter to fulfill her needs.
Reesa waved back and received a wide-eyed look from Fawn. The young girl dropped her hand so fast she nearly slapped her thigh.
When Fawn dealt with Harland, she had to be careful. The young man was known by his peers to get the wrong idea. Six weeks ago, she had passed him on the road, and smiled at him. All she had said was, “Good morning,” but he’d followed her around like a drooling puppy all day. From then on, the only emotion behind her words was utter annoyance.
Fawn traded Reesa Juniper’s reins for her kills and climbed the porch steps.
“Where do you want them?”
“Here,” Jacob replied, rolling up his sleeves. “Just set them on the counter.”
Before Fawn took another step, Harland planted himself between her and the counter.
“I’ll take them,” he said, offering a trembling hand.
Fawn handed them over.
Harland stared at her. As their fingers grazed against each other’s, Fawn swore she heard him sigh.
Dear Lord.
Leaving the meat with them, Fawn and Reesa mounted Juniper and made a quick escape. Before dropping Reesa off at home for her studies with Audrey, Fawn decided they should pay Amos a visit. He was known to enjoy catching dragonflies near the dance hall. No intentional harm ever came to the insects, but every now and then, one would be found squished near the dance hall’s entryway.
Upon their arrival, Gooner, Amos’s black lab, came striding toward them with an open mouth, and flapping tongue. Gooner was fifteen-years-old, and he coughed constantly. One year ago, Fawn and Cooper had discovered the dog had heartworms. They’d considered putting him down, but had decided against that when they thought of the heartache it would cause Amos.
Four strides behind Gooner, Amos came limping with his cane, waving a clenched fist.
“I got one,” he exclaimed. “I got one!”
Fawn and Reesa took turns dismounting from Juniper and met Amos in the middle of the flat stones that led to the dance hall.
“You do?” Fawn asked, in a higher pitch than normal. “Go on, let us see.”
Unbeknownst to Amos, he set the dragonfly he’d caught loose when he stretched out his arm, and shouted, “Hug first!”
Every member of Back Wood had a smell about them due to the community’s low supply of lye soap. But Amos’s was by far the worst. His water phobia was so severe, he rarely bathed, but that never stopped Fawn from hugging him. The smile on his face reminded Fawn of a little boy’s. A little boy who, through no fault of his own, could never grow up because of the brain damage he’d suffered.
Gooner licked Reesa’s hands while Fawn took a deep breath and embraced Amos.
“All right, then,” she said, and tightened her arms around him. “But your little friend has flown away.”
He rested his cheek upon Fawn’s shoulder.
“I’ll catch another.”
Amos’s entire body jolted at the three sharp clangs of the intrusion bell, but Fawn wasn’t at all alarmed, or too keen on being in a hurry. Tucker and Manny’s c
redibility was shot due to their previous definition of danger.
“Should we get to the bunker?” Reesa asked, wiping her moistened palm against her thigh.
“Yeah, go ahead.” Fawn took her arm from Amos’s side, and placed his hand in her niece’s. “Reesa, you help him. Y’all stay together.”
Reesa nodded and smiled up at him.
“Come on, Mr. Amos, I got you.”
Fawn whistled twice for Juniper to lean forward and swung her leg over Juniper’s back. She made sure Reesa, Amos, and Gooner had cleared the hill before departing up the road.
“Come on, girl,” she whispered, pressing her legs to Juniper’s sides. “Let’s go.”
The rest of the neighbors seemed to share Fawn’s sentiment as she passed them leisurely making their way to the bunker.
Fifty or so gallops later, Fawn and Juniper arrived at the rusted red fence. A loud roaring, she had never heard before had her on edge. The noise was distracting. Like a howling wind, but deeper. A menacing growl. It became clear to her that whatever conjured the sound, wasn’t something God had created.
The strain in Juniper’s stride was cautious and stiff, and her ears were pricked forward. Fawn leaned over, scratching behind her friend’s ear.
“Easy girl,” she whispered, noticing a cardinal darting past them.
The cardinal perched on the platform where five men had already joined Tucker and Manny at the top of the barrier. Each man looked over the other side. Three neighbors were stationed at the bottom, trying to peek through the fence.
Fawn gave Juniper a light kick to start moving again.
This isn’t good, she thought.
They inched their way closer until Pete noticed their presence. There was an urgency in the way in which he waved his hand. She imagined his bone popping with every sharp flick of his wrist.
At the barrier, Fawn dismounted, and peered up at Pete.
“Brother, what is it?” she asked, walking toward the ladder. “What’s happened?”
The roar on the other side came to a halt. Pete cut his eyes over the fence again, and then back to his sister.
“Come see.”
Fawn reached the top of the ladder, and stepped onto the platform between Pete and Fenton. Taking a breath, she took the bow from her shoulder and stood on her tiptoes, peeking over the wall. Six men, clothed in matching uniforms, carried automatic rifles. They surrounded a massive tan vessel, with equally robust tires. Tires that were much larger than those on the abandoned rusted vehicles Fawn had passed many times on the road outside of Back Wood’s walls.
Everything about these clean-cut, shaven men told Fawn they weren’t the approachable type. Most of the men in her life were ill-equipped and shaggy looking, but in a way that suited them. Nothing of what these men possessed seemed to fit Back Wood’s natural way of living.
One of their comrades poured liquid from a red container into a compartment on the vessel’s side. A scent she had no memory of ensnared her nostrils. It was a harsh, egg-rotting smell that was enough to make her gag.
Fawn nudged Pete’s shoulder.
“Have they said anything?”
“Nothing,” he said. “It’s almost like they’re sizing us up.”
Fawn drew an arrow from its quiver.
“Then, what are we waiting for?”
A deafening ring rattled Fawn’s eardrum, forcing her to drop the bow and cover her ears. Pete and the rest of her kinsmen did the same. The noise quieted, and she cut her eyes back over the wall. The uniformed men were unaffected. These strangers had already been introduced to this obnoxious clamor.
Hearing restored, Fawn squatted, and picked up her bow and arrow from the platform. She re-nocked the arrow and aimed it in their direction.
A static erupted, and the surly voice of a man echoed from the heap of metal.
“There’s no need for that.”
“Then start talking,” Pete shouted, his voice unsteady. “Why’re you here?”
Fawn’s aim didn’t waver. Her ability to read the situation had set off sirens in her brain. One much louder than anything these strangers could produce.
“We only want to talk,” the voice said. “You want your electricity back on, don’t you?”
The only thought that crossed Fawn’s mind was, Why now? After all this time?
Fawn had heard tales of what life was like before the solar flare. After hearing them, though, she saw the flare as a blessing. She’d learned that people would rather play with their phones (a certain form of communication device she’d never seen) than converse with other human beings. The elders longed for things called, “air-conditioning” and “fast-food.” Air-conditioning didn’t sound so bad to her. The elders spoke of how half of the population was morbidly obese, while the other half starved. Back then, it seemed the most significant thing people excelled at was finding ways to kill themselves and others.
What frightened her the most was what she’d been told about expectant mothers. Some women would have their babies murdered while still in the womb. Having been raped thirteen years ago, she understood there were some circumstances that would make a woman feel as though she had no choice. Five weeks after the offense, she’d realized she was pregnant. She was scared and angry, at first, at the hand she’d been dealt. But about four months after the shock had worn off, she saw the baby as a divine gift. That in giving life to this baby, she’d be gaining a new life of her own. That something good had come out of a wicked thing that had befallen her. But she had miscarried. Fawn had come to the realization that no baby, no matter how they were conceived, should have to pay the price for man’s evilness.
Pete spoke up, expelling Fawn from her train of thought.
“It’s been sixty-three years,” he said. “How is this possible?”
“Let us in and we’ll be glad to have a discussion.”
Clenching his jaw, Pete looked to his sister.
Fawn peered into her brother’s green eyes, shaking her head.
“We don’t know them,” she said. “Not at all.”
“What choice do I have?” Pete asked.
Like the rest of Back Wood’s inhabitants, Pete seemed to grieve for a loss he would never understand. He longed for a world that had been denied to him.
“You refused one blind man because you were afraid of what he might do,” Fawn said. “Now you want to open the gate for a bunch of men who are armed to the teeth? There hasn’t been a more civilized time than now. If you let them in, that’ll be the end of it.”
Static once again came from the vessel before the surly voice spoke again.
“That’s not true,” the man said. “We’re here to make things better. Not worse.”
“Come on,” she said, pulling Pete toward the ladder. “We need to get out of earshot.”
Fenton, who hadn’t spoken a word, followed his cousins down the ladder.
Arriving at the bottom, Fawn strode a couple of steps, and then turned to face her kin.
“Whoever they are, they mean to take control.”
“Fawn—”
“First,” she continued, despite her brother’s interruption, “they’ll want to ensure their safety. That means they’ll want us to surrender our weapons. If you’re dead set on meeting with them, don’t do it here. Tell them to make camp at Hickory Grove. We’ll meet them there three or four days from now.”
The dirt road of Hickory Grove was lined with tall hickory trees — hence, the name. It was where the four communities used to have their quarterly meetings.
“There, we can hear them out,” she said. “Four days should give Dean and Davlyn enough time to fetch Laken and Clancy. I’ll get word to Hunter myself.”
Lizzie’s eldest sister, Jane, and Jane’s husband, Ian, who had passed away two years back, had a daughter named Sara. Sara and her husband, Cashe, had blessed them with two grandchildren, Dean and Davlyn. They were in their early twenties and considered Back Wood’s best horseback riders. No matter the w
eather, Back Wood could count on Dean and Davlyn to deliver messages to the communities.
“Aren’t we wasting time by fetching them?” Pete asked.
“Whatever these men have to say is going to end up affecting everyone, not just us,” she replied.
Pete sighed and looked at Fenton, who stood beside him.
“Cousin, you okay with that?”
The simple nod of Fenton’s head told them he was in agreement.
***
No arguments ensued after Pete had voiced Fawn’s conditions to the newcomers. Directions were given to Hickory Grove. In regards to Clancy, Laken, and Hunter making an appearance, the voice had replied, “The more the merrier. See you all there.”
Fawn figured the question of whether they genuinely didn’t mind or were just playing nice would be answered later.
CHAPTER FOUR
Three days had passed since the newcomers’ arrival. Fawn and Pete had taken over Tucker and Manny’s shifts at the barrier. By dusk, Hunter rode up to the gate on his horse, Rodale. Fawn and Pete let Hunter through. Fawn climbed down the ladder to meet him while Pete stayed topside to keep watch.
Hunter dismounted and strode toward Fawn. He tried pulling her in for a kiss, but she pushed him away.
“Save that for later,” she whispered, with arched brows.
Hunter winked, flashing her a knee-weakening smile.
“Regular time and place?”
Her lover’s giddiness was something she only liked to see in the bedroom — not in front of her brother.
“Well, hell,” she said, smacking his arm. “That’ll depend on how this goes.”
“I hope this is quick, then,” he replied, waggling his brows.
Pete leaned over the railing of the platform, shooting Hunter a cold look.
“Could y’all knock that off?”
Fawn and Hunter smiled at each other and made their way to the ladder. Just as they climbed to the top, Dean and Davlyn trotted toward the gate, with Clancy and Laken following two strides behind them.
