Wipeout | Book 3 | Empty Vault

by Richards, E. S.

  “Not really,” Dennis retorted immediately. “There aren’t any laws or rules that say I can’t leave. People have free will, Jamie, and I am exercising mine. If I – or anyone else for that matter – doesn’t want to live here any longer, then you can’t stop them from moving away.”

  “I’m not trying to stop you, Dennis. I’m just trying to make you see the bigger picture. There are people here who’s lives depend on the work that you’re doing. We need the power to run our hospital and heat our food. We need the work your team does to keep our society running as normally as possible. Things have changed. I’m not going to argue with that. But don’t we owe it to ourselves to try and keep as much of a sense of normality about our lives as we can? Just because we don’t have to live by the same laws as before, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t. Not that much has changed, surely?”

  Dennis looked at his brother and then to each of the two people sitting on either side of him. He recognized Park from the numerous leadership council meetings they’d held since the collapse. The thirteen of them often went around in circles over a decision, never quite reaching a conclusion that everyone was happy with. But they had thirteen of them for a reason, there was always a majority – a side that Dennis had rarely found himself on. The other man he wasn’t familiar with and he wondered why his brother had chosen to bring him along to this discussion. Not that it mattered too much to him. His mind was made up. There was nothing Jamie could say to get Dennis to change his mind.

  “I see your point, brother,” Dennis nodded, taking a sip from his glass of water to make sure everyone was paying attention. He had always had a flair for the dramatic and loved to be the center of attention. “But that doesn’t change things for me.

  “I’ll give everyone a choice, but for me and my people, our time slaving away for very little reward is over.”

  “Dennis, come on,” Jamie started, his voice threatening to plead with his brother, no matter how much Jamie didn’t want to. Before he had the chance to continue however, Park interrupted him.

  “What do you mean you’re going to give everyone a choice?” Park asked. Dennis looked over at him and smiled, cocking his head to one side and pausing for a couple of seconds before he answered the question.

  “I was wondering whether you would let Jamie miss out on that,” Dennis smiled, the sort of smile that meant some more bad news was coming their way. “You’ve got such an attention for detail, haven’t you? I always noticed that at our special council meetings.”

  Park stared at Dennis, refusing to be baited by his words and lose his cool. Instead he simply waited for the man to continue, sitting back in his chair and giving off a relaxed impression that he could tell irritated Dennis a great deal. Park fed off of that feeling, doing everything he could to upset the man opposite him without breaking his character or blurting something out without thinking first.

  “Yes, I’m going to give everyone a choice,” Dennis eventually continued. “I want to leave and set up my own community elsewhere on the island, and I’m not opposed to people joining me. I plan to hold a meeting, let people know of my intentions and give them the opportunity to join me, if they so wish. Unlike you however,” Dennis turned his attention back to his brother, drawing him in like a viper waiting to strike. “I’m not just going to let anyone come along and be a part of this group. If people want to come, they need to show their worth. There will be no place for those that can’t pull their own weight.”

  “That’s ridiculous!” Jamie couldn’t help himself, his hands clenched into fists on the table in front of him and his voice rose.

  Dennis only looked at Jamie and smiled, pleased with the reaction he had gotten. He sat back in his chair and shrugged, waiting for what more his younger brother had to say.

  “The people will never go for that,” Jamie argued. “There’s no way they’ll let you just select who you deem to be the best of them.”

  “They will if they get selected,” Dennis smiled back. “And if they don’t, well, that won’t really be my problem, will it brother?”

  “I won’t allow it,” Jamie declared after a moment’s thought. “I won’t allow you to hold such a meeting.”

  “I’m afraid you don’t really have a choice there either,” Dennis shook his head. “The wheels are already in motion.”

  Jamie struggled to stop himself from lurching forward and slamming his fists into his brother’s face as Dennis and his companions rose from their seats and started walking toward the door. The cliffhanger Dennis had left their conversation on riling him up. It was only when Dennis paused by the door and looked back that Jamie put the pieces together. In shock he stood up, just as Dennis opened his mouth to speak again.

  “Come on then,” Dennis smiled his horrible sly smile once more. “We’ve all got a meeting to attend.”

  That’s when they all heard it, not just Jamie, but Art and Park as well. They had all been so tuned into the conversation happening in front of them, that they hadn’t heard the sounds of hundreds of people gathering outside. While their backs had been turned and their attention held elsewhere, Dennis had used his network of people to gather up those that remained on Kauai and bring them together for a meeting. Dennis was going to lead and he was going to attempt to pick apart their island, selecting only those who he felt would benefit him to take to his new camp further up the island. There was nothing Jamie could do to stop him now. All he could do was hope that he knew the people of the island better than his brother did and hope that each of them made the right decision.

  “We better get out there,” Park said. “I don’t think this is going to be pretty.”

  With no other option, Park and Arthur both stood up, the last to leave the table. Art was utterly dumbfounded by the exchange he had just been privy to. He had known Dennis for many years and worked with him for plenty of them, but he had never experienced the cutthroat attitude the man had just displayed for his home and his neighbors, and to his own brother as well.

  As he walked out of the Surf Shack behind Jamie and Park, Art just wanted to find his family and hold onto them during what was about to happen. But the beach outside the shack and the seating area they’d set up for these sorts of events was already filled to the brim with people. There was no room for him to meander through the crowd and search for Jessie and the boys. Instead, Art was forced to stand to the side of the stage next to Park and Jamie and watch as Dennis tapped two fingers against the microphone, silencing the crowd in front of him.

  “Hello,” Dennis greeted everyone with a smile, waiting until the last whisperings of conversation had died down. “I know it’s normally my brother standing here and giving the announcements, but today we thought we’d try things a little differently.”

  Murmurs rippled throughout the islanders, a number of them noticed that Jamie stood at the bottom of the steps and craned their necks to see if there was any evidence why. As a general rule, people didn’t like change and those on Kauai had already experienced more than they were comfortable with. Even such a minor upset like the other brother standing on stage rattled them, but Dennis was flawless in his performance. He waited as long as it took for everyone to be quiet once more and for their attention to be focused entirely on him and him alone.

  “Things have been different here for the last week or so and they haven’t been easy,” Dennis spoke, his voice booming through the speakers set up around the crowd. Even with the electrical grid struggling, it came as no surprise to Jamie that his brother had managed to ensure his speech would be heard by all.

  “A lot of us have been working very hard to keep things running as smoothly as possible, toiling long hours and earning restless nights and aching bodies in return.”

  Hums of approval moved through the crowd, the people relaxing somewhat as Dennis lulled them into a false sense of security.

  “But a lot of people haven’t.” Dennis didn’t dwell on the pretense, dropping his bomb and getting to his point as quickly as po
ssible. The nods of support and admiration stopped within the crowd, heads turning as they questioned whether they had heard the man on stage correctly.

  “Quite frankly,” Dennis continued, taking a deep breath and preparing for the brunt of his speech. “There are a lot of us on this island who have been doing the majority of the work for a large number of people who seem perfectly happy to just sit back and put their feet up. And to be honest, I’m fed up with it. I don’t want to work day in, day out, breaking my back for people who do nothing and then still reap all of the same rewards. It’s not fair and it shouldn’t be that way.

  “So, I’ve decided I’m doing something about it. Myself and a number of other skilled individuals are leaving. We’re going to take what is ours and move to the northern coastline of the island, where we intend to set up a new community, where everyone pulls their weight and freeloaders aren’t welcome. You can come with us, if you want, but if you’re not willing to put in the work, then you’re in for a bit of a surprise.

  “This meeting has been called so that if there are people among you who think, yeah, actually that’s me – I’ve been doing all the work recently and I am fed up with other people sponging off of me, then great. Let me know. Come and see me afterwards by the jetty and we’ll discuss whether you can earn a place in a more,” Dennis paused and smiled again, “elite society.

  “That’s it,” Dennis started to wrap things up. “That’s all I’ve got to say. I’ll leave it with you. You know where to find me.”

  Chapter 10

  “Okay,” Samuel exhaled slowly, finally feeling like he could relax a little as the four of them found themselves back in the familiar territory of the donut store. “Now what?”

  Austin didn’t know what to say. He still wasn’t over what had just happened to them, blaming himself entirely for the danger he had walked them into. It wasn’t just him and Samuel anymore, he had to think about things differently now that Mason and Noah were around. It didn’t matter that the people on the other side seemed to be shooting around them, if one of the bullets had somehow hit either of the boys, Austin would’ve never been able to forgive himself.

  Thankfully the two children seemed much less fazed by the incident than the adults were. They had both returned to the corner of the store where boxes upon boxes of donut toppings sat, providing the children with enough sugar to last them an eternity. If the two boys hadn’t eaten through the full supply in their time alone in the store, there was little chance they’d ever finish it off completely.

  Austin watched them and smiled, remembering how easy it was for kids of their age to simply turn a blind eye to something and leave it behind in the past. If he was ever going to bounce back from what had just happened and figure out a way to get them all back into Poughkeepsie, he needed to follow suit and try to do the same. Shifting his gaze to Samuel, it was reassuring to Austin to see that his friend wasn’t blaming him. There was no look of anger or frustration on Samuel’s face, simply one of concern and question, the man plagued by the very same dilemma Austin was.

  “I guess we’re back to square one,” Austin replied slowly, keeping his voice low so they could converse without disrupting Mason and Noah’s feast. “We need to pick a different way into the city.”

  “Have you tried contacting Dante at all?” Samuel asked. He wondered if everyone inside was as firmly invested in the protection of their city as whoever had just been shooting at them. According to Mason, there were some differing views and Samuel was hoping that if they could reach Dante and enough people with similar views, perhaps it would be easier to get people out rather than in.

  “I haven’t spoken to him since we left New York,” Austin replied. “Cell reception is completely gone, there’s no way to reach anyone anymore.”

  “What about a landline?” Samuel asked, remembering the payphone they had passed on the street outside. It had been many years since he had used one himself, or even seen one in operation, but he imagined they would be more reliable than anything else at the moment. “Have you tried that?”

  Dante shook his head, “I don’t know the number, it was always just stored in my phone.”

  “Ah.” That was, he supposed, one of the many fatal flaws of their generation. Everyone was so reliant on technology that when even one element of it failed, they were helpless. Samuel didn’t even know where his cellphone was. Once the battery died it had become entirely useless. He couldn’t even remember if he’d packed it into his rucksack or simply left it behind somewhere. “Right.”

  “Why?” Austin urged him. “What were you thinking?”

  “I don’t know whether it might be easier for people to leave rather than us try and get inside,” Samuel explained. “If we could get in touch with Dante, we could’ve asked him to come to us.”

  “But then what? Where would we go?”

  “Good point,” Samuel sighed, admitting defeat to himself in a poorly thought out plan. “It’s no good, is it? We need to get into the city.”

  Austin nodded, unsurprised by Samuel’s attempt to find another option after what had just happened to them on the bridge. But there wasn’t another way. If the four of them were going to get into Poughkeepsie, they were going to have to do it via one of the main roads.

  “I figure we head south again,” Austin decided. “Let’s find a car and drive back down until we can cross over the river and head back up to Poughkeepsie that way. It will be the long way around but I think it will also be the safest.”

  “Yeah okay,” Samuel nodded, “I’m good with that.”

  Austin smiled, there were a number of cars parked, or rather abandoned, outside the donut store. He doubted whether any of them will be full of gas, but if they drained the tanks of enough of them then they should be able to complete their journey. Thinking about what they needed to do, Austin just kept his mind focused on his family and the thought of seeing his husband and son again soon. They were the most important thing in his life and the incident on the bridge had only reminded him of that.

  He was certain that Dante would be protecting their little boy with all his might, but for some reason Austin knew he would never be entirely comfortable again until he saw Bowie with his own eyes. Glancing over at Mason and Noah, Austin reminded himself that they had a mother and father in the city as well. He couldn’t afford to be so careless and blasé with the lives of two young boys. They were his responsibility now and he needed to look after them as if they were his own.

  “I don’t suppose you’ve ever siphoned gas before?” Austin asked Samuel with a smile.

  Samuel looked up at his friend and smiled back. “What do you think?” He couldn’t help but laugh at the proposition. Samuel had barely even been camping before he set out on this journey. He didn’t know the first thing about siphoning gas and he wasn’t going to pretend like it was a skill he carried.

  “Was worth an ask,” Austin grinned in reply. “You might as well sit tight in here and keep them company then.” He nodded to the boys who were slumped down against the wall, candy sprinkles stuck to their cheeks.

  “Are you sure?” Samuel asked. “I could learn.”

  “No, it’s okay,” Austin replied. “Probably better to have one of us keeping an eye on them anyway. I won’t be long. I’ll report back in an hour or so either way.”

  “Alright,” Samuel nodded. “Good luck.”

  “You bet.”

  With that, Austin got to his feet and walked out of the store. His exit drew the attention of Mason and Noah, the older one raising his eyebrows questioningly.

  “He’s going to find us a ride,” Samuel explained. “Shouldn’t be long.”

  His vague explanation seemed to be enough for the two boys, who were sufficiently exhausted from the days’ activities already. Having survived on very little food for a number of days now – and that food not exactly being the most nourishing – the boys’ energy supply was at a record low. The sugar kept them going to a point, but it was clear they
were going to have to find something a bit more nutritious if they were going to make it back home in one piece.

  Watching them, Samuel still found himself trying to come up with an easier way into Poughkeepsie. The thought of having to drive over half of the way back to New York simply to cross the river and repeat the journey on the other side seemed ludicrous to him. If only there was another way to cross the river that didn’t require such a detour. Focusing on that thought, Camp Placid suddenly shot back into Samuel’s head.

  The camp was equipped with a shed load of boating supplies. It was also where he and Austin had originally found the quads, which led Samuel to believe that there might be even more hidden away that they hadn’t uncovered. In truth they hadn’t spent a great deal of time looking through the camp. There was certainly a strong possibility that there was something they could use there to help them cross the river and reach Poughkeepsie. To Samuel, that seemed like the best option. If they crossed the river around where Camp Placid was, then they could simply walk the short distance to the city on the correct side of the water. Physically getting in to Poughkeepsie was a different matter, but he figured they could deal with that then.

  Making a move to stand up, Samuel looked over at Mason and Noah again and paused. He doubted whether Austin would be very far away outside, but he was still reluctant to leave the two boys alone, even for just a short amount of time. Noah was asleep again on Mason’s shoulder, but the older brother looked up at Samuel as he stood and cocked his head to one side in question. Seeing how fragile and small they both looked, Samuel knew he couldn’t leave them, so smiling at Mason he simply pointed to the bathroom and walked toward it, indicating that he wasn’t going far.

  It was another twenty minutes before Austin reappeared with a look of disgust on his face, unsurprising considering he’d spent the last hour siphoning gas.