They powered it on. The radio buzzed for a minute, then static crackled. Patrick turned the dial until they heard a voice, and silence fell.
“If you’re listening, the Axis army is rumored to be numbered in the tens of thousands. They are threatening the entire world with large amounts of fire power, promising that America is only their trial run and that this war is only just beginning.”
“I can’t even process this,” Adam said, dropping his head into his hands.
“If you can, arm yourself. The United States Government is quiet and has issued no statement. There have been no reports of troops being rallied to fight back. We here are urging you, as fellow citizens, to do whatever you can to stay safe, to keep your families safe. Stay away from large cities, from areas that are heavily populated.”
“How can the government be doing nothing?” Carl demanded and was shushed so they could hear.
“Be careful of the water you drink. We do not have confirmation of this, but the army is claiming they have poisoned our water supply. We do not know how to help anyone except to tell you what we know and suggest that if you know of anywhere safe, to go there.”
The reporter continued. “If you are listening, the United States of America is at war. An army calling themselves Axis has bombed what we are estimating to be hundreds of major cities and is now attacking more. The following cities have been confirmed as targets.” An alphabetical list began.
“Turn it off,” Ashar asked softly when the reporter began repeating the same message, in an obvious attempt to try and reach as many survivors as possible.
He had questions that he had no answers for. How had the army managed to get control of so many bombs, so many guns, so many people without any of the government entities knowing such a threat existed?
America was suffering at the hands of a group that was obviously organized, meticulous, and dangerous.
Birds sang from the branches above them, their song out of place in the despair that had settled like a tangible fog. A squirrel darted over a fallen limb. Ashar watched it run up the trunk of a tree and into the branches.
“Let’s set up camp for the night,” he suggested wearily. His brain felt too full.
The family had the only tent. Two of the others had thought to bring a sleeping bag with them, but most of the group was not prepared for a lengthy stay anywhere.
It was a concern. At least it was spring, so the weather was mild. Small things would have to be handled. Many of the shoes they wore were not sufficient for life in the wilderness. There wasn’t enough food, and none of the group knew a thing about survival. Except perhaps Mariah if what she had brought was any indication. Ashar had to remind himself that he had started in the same situation as them, and if it hadn’t been for Irv, he might not be as sufficient as he was.
He spent most of that night worrying, before finally he remembered that there was One more capable than he of handling it all. In the dark, he ran his fingers over the spine of the book in his pocket. He had a strong feeling he was going to have to learn a whole lot more about the God who promised to provide. He would find out soon enough if they were more than just words on a page.
Chapter Ten
Ashar learned very quickly that leading a group was not easy. They were wholly unprepared for the rustic lifestyle of dirt and trees versus temperature controlled homes with soft beds and windows that kept out bugs.
He found himself attempting to pray a lot, but wasn’t sure if his fumbling words were effective or not. They brought him a modicum of peace so Ashar kept at it.
They had traveled for days into the forest until a small lake welcomed them, an oasis of sparkling water set amidst a thick wide circle of trees. It was perfect.
Ashar found a long area where the trees were spread out enough that he could see in his mind temporary shelters built into them with enough space between for a communal area where they could build a fire pit and a place to eat.
The elevation was high enough that he was positive they didn’t need to worry about poisonous water leaking into the lake. More likely, it was fed by underground springs.
Grateful, and happy to be done picking through narrow tracks and brambles, he hoped the rest of the group would be content. He was tired of hearing about sore feet, aching muscles and scratches.
“We’re going to need thick sturdy limbs for shelters,” he directed. “Set your stuff down and let’s spread out and gather as much as we can. Try not to pick any that are rotted.”
“Can’t we fish or something instead?” Adam asked. “I’m sick of granola bars and berries.”
“The granola bars have been gone for days,” Chloe retorted.
“I don’t like fish,” Kate complained.
“Shelter first,” Ashar answered firmly. “The more we all work together, the quicker we get this done.”
“I’d kill for a cup of coffee,” Patrick muttered as he led his son into the woods.
Shaking his head, Ashar set about clearing away brush for the first shelter. The trees had enough space between them that a man could stretch out to sleep. The trees themselves would be the support for walls. Getting walls around the family first seemed like the best idea.
Carl came back with an armful first. “Where do you want these?” he asked and set them carefully where Ashar directed. “They big enough for what you need?”
Ashar nodded. “I’ll make it work.”
Carl set off for more and was back again before anyone else had brought any in. Mariah came back with a load, awkward as she tried to balance the multiple long limbs. Ashar moved to help her.
“I think I should have made more trips with less,” she commented wryly as they added them to the pile.
“They’re great,” Ashar acknowledged. “You spend a lot of time in the woods?”
“Not really. I do… did a lot of hiking, stayed an occasional night under the stars, but no. My level of expertise is low for this type of situation.”
Ashar nodded. He had been hoping for more.
“I’m willing to learn, though. Without complaining.”
Ash grinned. “Thanks.” Mariah nodded and headed back into the trees for more logs.
While the group drifted back and forth, Ashar worked on digging holes for the posts that would hold the walls in place. Using a piece of oak that he quickly pared into a point at the end, he stabbed it into the ground again and again, using his hands to scoop out the dirt and rocks until it was deep enough to sink a log into and keep it sturdy and straight.
“Carl.” Ashar paused when he came back with yet another load, wiping at sweat on his forehead after he added them to the pile. Carl had by far collected twice as much wood as anyone else. “You know how to fish?”
Carl grinned and came over to stand beside Ashar, pushing with the toe of his shoe at one of the long logs nestled horizontally between the vertical logs he had buried one end of in the ground. “Nope,” he said cheerily. Carl was the cheeriest of the group and the most laid back attitude. Ashar appreciated his peer.
Mariah set down another load. “I do when I have a pole.” She propped her fists on her hips and squinted at them. The sun was high.
Ashar went to his pack, swinging it so he crouched facing them and unzipping it to remove a roll of fishing line and a box of hooks. He’d purchased them during his prep trip to the camping supply store with Irv. Running his thumb over the smooth plastic cover of the hook box, Ash wondered where Irv was. If he was safe.
Things would be easier with Irv. One of them could have taught half how to build shelters while the other taught the rest to fish. Frowning, he held out the line. “Don’t use more than you need. Find a couple of long thin sticks and try not to get the hook caught on anything.”
He wanted to go with them to oversee, but the walls of the shelter needed his attention. There was plenty of wood to keep him busy, so as the others came back, he gave each of them a task.
The family was perfect for clearing brush since the k
ids could do it and he sent Adam and Monty out to look for berries and nuts.
“Wouldn’t it be nice to just sit in a chair and watch TV?” Patrick tossed a thick branch away from the clearing.
“I’d just like a book,” Chloe was brushing at small pieces of wood clinging to her clothing. He wasn’t sure he had seen her pull away any of the fallen branches.
Ashar wondered how long it would be before they stopped wishing they had things they didn’t. Comfort. Most Americans were not used to going without, he supposed.
He considered that wanting things they didn’t have might be a deflection of grief. He hadn’t come to terms with his own, and not knowing whether he should be grieving or not bothered him. He’d determined that mourning for his parents, whether they lived or not, was something he would have to go through. With the state America was currently in, it was possible he would never see them again, even if they were alive.
Carl and Mariah came back as the light was fading without any fish. The first shelter wasn’t close to being finished. They ate the meager findings Adam and Monty had brought back and all climbed exhausted and hungry into sleeping bags, or settling on the ground under extra clothing.
“We’re doing this again?” Chloe asked the next morning when Ashar started giving out tasks.
Ashar wasn’t sure how to respond. Did she need a break? He thumbed at the hem of his jacket, trying to determine how to answer. Carl interjected around a yawn. “Show me what to do, boss. You can teach someone how to fish, eh?”
“I’m bored,” Luke said.
“Come on, kid, come help me build the fort,” Carl suggested, waving at Luke to join him.
Luke didn’t move, scowling. “I want my data screen.”
“I’ll help!” Kate announced, skipping to Carl’s side.
“He asked me first,” Luke growled, running over.
“Well, you can both help me!” Carl pointed to the pile of wood. “Luke, you find the long ones in that pile. Kate, uh…” A flash of panic crossed Carl’s face.
Ashar picked up a piece of brush he had set aside. “Kate, see how big this pine bough is?” Kate nodded. “I need you to find more like this and put them with this one, okay? These are going to be the roof.”
“Cool,” Kate grinned and scrambled over to a heap where a lot of the ground cover had been tossed. She looked enthusiastic about her task. Luke ran over and told her he would find one first.
With the kids distracted, Ashar gave Carl a crash course on how he was overlapping the side walls where they met the back wall and directed him on how high to go. Because the shelter was meant for long-term, it was important to be sure the stacked wood was tight and secure. That would mean less chance of weather or small critters getting in.
He told Chloe, Patrick and Monty to find rocks so they could build a fire pit and showed them where to set them, then motioned for Mariah and Adam to follow him to the lake.
The last thing Ashar had expected was to have to fight to get the group to contribute to their survival. He wasn’t about to build all of their shelters for them, or find all the food or do the many other things it was going to take to provide for a camp for a group their size.
Seeing Mariah smile when she pulled her first fish out of the water with her self-made line gave him hope.
It turned out Adam liked building things with his hands, and eagerly took direction on how to build snares and traps, freeing up Ashar’s time to show the family how to identify edible plants.
They gathered all of the containers between them to keep full of water. The fire pit slowly took shape as they found more rocks they could use. Ashar focused his time as best he could on what needed to be prioritized and what could wait.
The art of hunting for and preparing food was the hardest to teach. When a snare trapped a squirrel, everyone wrinkled their noses and refused to watch while Ashar prepared it.
Even Adam, who had made a bow and spent a couple of hours teaching himself to carefully hone the tip of a thick twig, looked disgusted.
“It’s meat,” Ashar reminded them.
Kate shook her head, tears welled in the corners of her eyes. “It was furry.”
Leave it to a six year old to get hung up on the snuggly aspect. Ashar slid the meat onto a spit and set it over the partially built fire pit. No one had complained about the fish being skinned.
“Before grocery stores, people lived off the land exactly how we are now. Meat is food. It won’t always be easy to get, so I recommend you at least try it, and it’d be a good idea for a few more of you to learn how to clean an animal.”
No one volunteered.
“I’ll try some,” Carl said when the squirrel was ready.
Chloe shook her head.
Ashar went around the circle. Mariah accepted a portion.
He sat back down with his own helping, watching the others as they ate the edibles that had been found for the meal.
Chloe and Patrick were not getting along. They weren’t speaking to each other and hadn’t been for at least a couple of days. Ashar wasn’t sure what it was about but had noticed them avoiding each other as had had continued work on the shelters. Kate, despite her age, watched everything and he had seen a look of unhappiness on her face more than once as she observed her parents. Luke kept close to his father and didn’t say much. Most of the time when he was verbal, it was to pick on his sister.
Mariah didn’t speak much either, but she never complained and always did what he asked. She didn’t shy away from anything physically hard, and many times he had noticed her watching the others unapologetically.
Ashar was glad for her help. She’d asked him to show her what he was doing on the shelter and he had, explaining his reasons as he did so. She had requested his help on setting up parameters for the next one and then set about building the walls and commandeering Adam and Carl to help her.
Adam and Monty complained plenty and grumbled about doing anything. Ashar guessed that Adam’s griping came out of being indulged his entire life, but he wasn’t sure since Adam hadn’t shared anything. Still, Adam helped even if he did whine about it.
Monty was just angry and sullen, and nothing positive ever came out of his mouth. His mood was as dark as his features. He tended to wander off on his own whenever anything had to be done and Ashar hadn’t seen him pitch in unless he had to.
And then there was Carl. Smiling, Ashar finished off his portion of squirrel. Carl was older than he was by a few years, but he thought of him as a kid. Carl was eager to please and willing to help and learn. He’d jumped in to break up many an argument and woke every morning with a smile, ending every day with a cheery good-night. Still, he tended to fix his hair with his fingers and attempt to keep his fingernails clean. Ashar wasn’t sure if he just adapted quickly or if he was really good at acting.
“I’d eat it again,” Carl announced, standing up and stretching. “I’m off to bed in my star-gazing shelter. Night all!” Always a positive, Ashar thought, smiling again. Carl’s shelter walls were partially up.
“He drives me crazy,” Monty muttered, rolling his eyes.
“You drive me crazy,” Chloe admonished. “Be nice.”
Ashar rose. “I still have some light left. Monty, do you want to help me work on a shelter?” Ashar had staked out all of the shelters and each one was in various stages. That had been Mariah’s idea. Laying the walls wasn’t difficult, just time consuming, and she had made sure anyone with no idea what to do was working on shelter walls.
Ashar had been thinking that giving Monty somewhere he could have some privacy might improve his attitude.
“My hands really hurt.”
Shoving his tongue against his teeth so he wouldn’t say anything back, Ashar walked away. If Monty wasn’t wandering off, he was voicing an ailment of some sort when something needed to be done.
Luke got up and followed him. “I’ll help,” he offered. Ashar gave him an encouraging smile and asked if he wanted to tackle logs and drag th
em over. Luke nodded and dug into the wood pile.
One-by-one, Ashar settled logs between his horizontal guides until the last of the light was gone.
Chapter Eleven
Eitan waved Lazar Karp to a chair that he knew the man would not take. “Well?” he demanded in irritation as the man stood silent and rigid.
“The boy still has not been found.”
Lazar was not one for much speech. Eitan was well aware of the status of Ashar. It was highly unusual for Lazar not to do what his job entailed: producing what was needed. Granted, usually the subjects were not specific people, but if anyone had a high chance of success, it was Lazar.
Eitan nodded and waited. Lazar would not have sought him out simply to state something he already knew.
“There is another.”
“Another what?” Eitan drummed his fingers on his desk.
“With the bones.” Lazar marched forward, and set a clear square data screen down in front of Eitan. The devices had been provided to Xis informants strategically placed all over the world.
Easily concealed, they could record bits of data and photographs, or be used to send secure messages. Placing them over the top of any electronic device enabled the user to either scan, text, or write and then send information straight to the assigned Collector.
The Collectors were authority figures within Xis with high security clearance for various reasons, and they decided where the information needed to go.
Obviously, whatever the screen in front of him held was important enough to make it worth a trip to his office. Eitan doubted anyone but Lazar would have had the courage to bring it to him.
There was a photograph. The angle was odd, and the picture blurry, but it portrayed what it was meant to: a long stretch of bone, curving from beneath the left shoulder blade down to mid-spine and then curving back up to end beneath the right shoulder blade. One long, wide U-shaped bone that shouldn’t be there.
“Do we know who this is?” His eyes shot up to meet Lazar’s blank, expressionless gaze.
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