by Flacco, Jack
Several feet from where the deer drank downstream, the water ran clear until blood flowed through it. The sound of wolves growling and hacking scared the birds from the bushes into flight. The smell of fresh meat floated in the air where crows cawed in the trees waiting for the wolves to finish their meal.
The ship’s display flipped to another part of town where the traffic lights functioned as normal, as if vehicles had been in motion without there ever having been an incident. In the midst of it all, nature continued to do what nature did best, create and carry on its journey regardless if humans were in the picture or not.
* * *
Early in the evening, an army transport truck rolled into Logan Airbase and stopped outside the barracks that once housed hundreds of civilians waiting for their final fate. The driver jumped from the cab and ran to the back, meeting the camp’s Military Police who stood ready to receive their latest batch of prisoners. He pressed the latch and tugged at the door to reveal two dozen men that Sergeant Baskins had sent from Temple City for conversion. The MPs aimed their guns at them, but the prisoners stayed put until someone barked an order at them. They dragged their feet from the truck, not because of exhaustion, but because of their unwillingness to take orders in a timely manner. As one of the prisoners hopped from the back, a soldier smacked him in the head to speed the process along. The prisoner didn’t appreciate the gesture, turned and decked the soldier. In turn, the MPs that had surrounded the truck swarmed the prisoner and pummeled him with punches and kicks.
By the time it ended, the prisoner lay in the dirt, bleeding and shaking, having lost all motor functions to his limbs. The soldier who had smacked the prisoner in the head pulled his gun and shot him. Without further incidents, the others filed from the back to form a line. Two MPs grabbed the dead body, threw it on the truck and closed the door. The truck vanished behind a set of barracks.
The line consisted of young men, former military and all part of the Resistance. The soldiers marched them to their barracks. On their way, they passed General Grayson who watched the line pass his window of his office. He opened the door and walked on the deck to which the soldiers gave the line the order to stop. Examining the prisoners, the general gave the go ahead to carry on. He saluted his men and disappeared into his office.
Of the prisoners following the formation, Hendricks, a former colonel in the army, scoped the entire layout of the base in an attempt to commit as much of the building locations to memory. So far, he knew where the infirmary, the brig and the general’s quarters rested. Next on his list, he didn’t even have to try; the armory appeared to his right. Two soldiers guarded the area with assault rifles. No one could get in or out without their okay.
The soldiers led Hendricks and his buddies to their barracks, the former barracks where Harold, David and Billy stayed before the general threw them in the brig with broken bones. Once inside, the soldiers locked the door to ensure the prisoners’ stay would be permanent. Who was kidding who? The soldiers didn’t want Hendricks and his men roaming the base, but Hendricks had the area memorized and knew where he would find everything, should he decide he wanted to leave and take the others with him.
* * *
That same evening, Ranger’s SUV pressed forward through the desert on Weis Highway. After having lost the opportunity to gather food from Willowbank, and having passed farms overrun by military vehicles, they searched for another town before heading to Logan Airbase. Jon and Randy sat in the back sleeping while Matty, who rode in the front passenger seat, kept her hand on her belly, soothing her pangs.
“If we don’t find food soon,” she said, “I will eat my hand.”
Ranger chuckled and kept his focus on the road. “Tell me when you’re about to do that. I’ll grab my camera from the glove compartment, snap a photo and post it online.”
“You have a camera?”
“No, and the internet is also long gone.”
“I know, can’t you tell when I’m being sarcastic?”
“I thought you were hungry.”
“I am. I can be sarcastic and hungry at the same time.”
“That would make you sarcastically hungry.”
“Or a hungry sarcast.”
“There’s no such word as sarcast.”
“Says the man who kills things that people once believed never existed.”
A smile washed over Ranger’s face. It’s the first time Matty was friendly with him in a long while since being together. It felt good to have her back.
“Are you going to tell me?” She asked.
“Tell you what?”
“Tell me what the alien said to you while we were in the hall.”
“How did you know it said anything to me?”
“C’mon, Ranger, I know you better than for you not to tell me.”
He nodded, then leaned over Matty to get into the glove compartment while his eyes remained fully invested on the road. His hand search and tugged and he eventually found what he was looking for. He gave her the pad of paper with a pen. “Draw.”
“Okay. Odd suggestion, but fine. What do you want me to draw? I can’t draw cartoons. I’m not good at that. I can draw you a house, with a tree on the side, clouds in the sky with the sun beaming its rays on the stick people in front. Is that what you had in mind?”
“Be serious, now. Do you want to know what the alien told me or not?”
She chortled.
“Draw a box.”
“A box?”
“Listen. Draw a box. Inside the box, draw a smaller box attached to the right side. Add four small circles inside each corner of the first box—”
“Hold on, you’re going too fast.” Matty furiously jotted everything Ranger had described on paper.
“Tell me when you’re done.”
“I’m done.”
“Now draw a large oval at the top, center it between the two small circles, not large and not small. Just right.”
“I’m done.”
“Good. Draw two lines runnin’ parallel with each other protrudin’ from the oval that runs through the larger square comin’ out from the other side. Tell me when you’re done.”
“Done.”
“What do you see?”
Matty turned the diagram to one side, then to the other. She looked at it upside down and flipped it back to its side. Ranger reached over and flipped the diagram to have the oval shape resting at the top as he had described it. She twisted her head to her side, made a funny face, then gazed at Ranger in confusion. “It looks like a lollipop trapped in a display at a candy store.”
“That’s the best you can come up with? An alien described it to me and all you’re thinkin’ about is food?”
“Sorry, Ranger, but I’m really hungry, our supplies are next to nothing and I can’t remember the last time I ate. So, yeah, food is all I’m thinking about.”
Ranger found what Matty said funny and smiled. He rubbed his belly as well and agreed with her that they all needed food fast.
“Well, are you going to sit there and look at me like I’d just said the silliest thing in the world or are you going to tell me what it is?”
“It’s General Grayson’s base. The box is the fence, the circles are the watchtowers and the box to the right is the conversion cage. An oil pipeline runs through the camp with a well tappin’ into it at the top. You see that as the oval in the drawing. If we set the well alight, fire and brimstone will rain on the base. That’s the diversion we need to get inside, and get rid of the general.”
“Stop the truck.”
“What?”
“Stop the truck.”
Ranger pulled over by the side of the deserted highway squealing his brakes. She jumped from the passenger side and opened the door to the backseat. Randy and Jon awoke from their naps and fell from their seats to join Matty outside. With a surprised look on his face, Ranger ambled from the driver side and leaned against the hood of the truck, looking at her.
“Tell them
what you just told me.” Matty said.
Ranger explained the whole plan again, but this time to all three. As they listened, blank stares filled their faces until Matty couldn’t hold on any longer. She burst into laughter and the others followed as they held their bellies. Jon fell to the ground, tears flowing while Matty bent over bracing herself on Randy’s shoulder. Randy tried to hold on as much as he could but he, too, screamed a roar of laughter that caused him to hold his side with pain. They couldn’t stop. They let the laughs, the tears and the hysterics flow.
Ranger placed his elbow on the hood of the truck and held his chin with his right hand. He wanted to show interest but gazed at the hood in front of him instead, wiping the dirt that had accumulated with his left hand. His interest waned.
Propping to an upright position again, Matty coughed through the laughter, and said, “I thought I heard it all, but this time, Ranger, you’ve outdone yourself.”
“Are you done?” Ranger asked.
“Listen to yourself. You’re actually convinced this will work. You really believe the four of us will be able to walk in there, avoid the watchtowers, get through the front gate, slip by the guards, who incidentally might also be carrying assault rifles, stroll to the oil well, set it on fire long enough for us to have a shot at General Grayson, who, by the way, also might have his own personal contingency of guards surrounding him twenty-four/seven?”
“Yeah.” Ranger said. “I’ve got a plan.”
Chapter 22
Having torn the meat from the skin, Ranger swallowed another succulent chunk. Sitting next to him, Jon chewed his dinner as if he hadn’t had food in months. He wiped his mouth with his shirtsleeve, then dove in for another bite. As for Matty, she licked her fingers of all the oils from her delicious serving, sniffing occasionally, trying to keep the hot pepper from stinging her palate. Randy couldn’t keep pace with his friends’ hunger. He placed more meat on the fire, seasoning it with salt and pepper, adding hot pepper to the dish and turning it over the open fire. The smoke from the pit filled the air with a delicious aroma. He enjoyed knowing they all liked his cooking, considering he didn’t know he knew how to cook. Things came to him as time went by and apparently, he knew how to hunt, which surprised everyone including Ranger who sat there sucking on the skin of his meal.
“If I had known what snake tasted like, I would have hunted it myself.” Ranger said in between bites. “Randy, you’ve outdone yourself. You’ve proven you’re worth more to me than any alien would pay for in gold.”
Randy’s hands laced another stick of the snake meat and placed it on the fire. Whatever he thought of Ranger’s compliment, he shrugged it off by feeding them more of his specialty. To him, the biggest compliment anyone could have shown him was to eat his food. He didn’t need anything else.
Matty’s eyes rolled back in her head as she took in more of the delicacy prepared by Randy’s hand. “I can’t believe you know how to cook.”
“I didn’t know either until I saw a need.”
“I noticed that, too.” Jon said as he picked the bones from the meat. “You remember things when you see you can fill a need.”
“You make me sound like a car salesman.”
“I didn’t even think you knew what that was.” Ranger said.
A chuckle bubbled from Randy’s throat. “Just because I don’t remember about my family, town or my life before the change doesn’t mean I don’t know what a car salesman is. You forget I’m the one who convinced Matty to take the Camaro from the showroom. Hadn’t I done that—”
“Wait,” Ranger said, smacking his lips together from swallowing another piece of the scrumptious meat, “I thought it was Matty’s idea to grab the Camaro, not yours.”
“I had tried to convince her not to bring it, but after the soldiers trapped us in the showroom with no way out, I thought you owed us, Ranger.”
“Is that the way it went, Matty?” Ranger asked.
Matty ripped a large portion of snake meat, filling her mouth until her cheeks bulged on either side. Then, with her mouth full, she mumbled words no one around the campfire could understand. Of course, Ranger thought she did it on purpose, why else had she stuffed her face full of food at a time he wanted answers?
“That is so the way it went.” Jon said, as he threw the empty snakeskin in the fire. “Matty wanted the car, and Randy covered for her ‘cause he likes her that much he’s willing to take the rap for something he didn’t do.”
“What are you doing, Jon?” Randy asked.
“What? Isn’t that the way it went?”
“You weren’t there.”
“I’ve seen how you look at my sister. Big ogling eyes, it is so obvious you like her. You want a million of her babies. You—”
“Jon!” Matty coughed through her bite of food.
Jon snickered.
Straight-faced, Ranger knew what would happen next. Matty would either storm from the group and stew in the truck for the rest of the night or Randy would walk away, red-faced. A tough decision for kids, but Ranger adjusted his seat on the rock and watched them as he would’ve watched an empty sky before it erupted in fireworks.
None of it happened, though. They all sat there on their respective rocks watching the glowing embers crackle, and sparks flying into the night. Matty’s head swam with the sound of babies in her ears, as if she’d never imagined it especially with Randy as the father. She thought how he never raised his voice at her, how he always had a kind word and how he proved his friendship by laughing at all her bad jokes, listening and being helpful when she needed someone the most.
As Randy rotated the snake on the spit, his thoughts wandered on Matty. The fire lit her face a bright orange. It reminded him of the sunset’s warm light falling on a valley in the crisp of the evening before turning in for the night. He didn’t allow the thought of babies influence his judgment about what he needed to do. He sat quietly not wanting to bother anyone with his weird notions.
“Listen.” Jon said. “Do you hear that?”
“Coyotes.” Ranger said. “They’re active in these parts. We better hide the food and sleep in the truck tonight.
“Ranger?” Matty finished the last of her meat. “I know I’ll probably regret asking you this, but I can’t help myself. What’s the plan?”
Randy’s ears propped open, listening carefully to what Ranger would say. He knew whatever Ranger had planned, always had to do with explosions, dead zombies and lots of fire. This time, he wanted to know from the beginning what Ranger had planned for the group.
“How about if we talk about it in the mornin’?” Ranger said, rising from the rock and stretching his arms into the sky as the stars shined their glory on the fire below. “I’d rather sleep on it. This will give you enough time to decide if you want to go through with it.”
Matty laughed. Ranger said something that made no sense to her. They followed him for a reason and it had nothing to do with the baseball cap or the boots he wore. He had a vision. Nothing could replace a man with a vision. Even if the vision had problems, she would still follow him regardless of the silly ideas he had in the past.
* * *
The next morning, Hendricks rose from his bed before the sun’s early light hit the camp, and he sneaked to the window of the barracks. He and his men kept a code of silence among them in case the barracks had bugs in them. Having himself once been part of the army, he knew how General Grayson would operate in order to extract information from his men. He also had the idea that no matter how safe it would be to trust others, he made it a rule not to trust anyone. The policy would aid in protecting everyone involved.
As he surveyed the camp, he noticed the guard towers shining their lights from one section of the camp to the other. Every so often, he would close the shutters to the windows so he wouldn’t get caught peering at the layout of the camp. He wanted to make sure he knew where everything was in case he needed it later. When the light passed the barrack shutters, he opened them aga
in. This went on several times until he committed his side of the world to memory.
It didn’t take long for Hendricks to notice the brig on the opposite side of the barracks. From the window of one of the cells, he spotted Billy looking at him through the bars. Billy’s vacant stare made him feel he needed to do something fast. At the same time, Hendricks couldn’t avoid seeing the contrast in situations. Even locked in a conversion camp, Hendricks thought he had the better end of the deal.
He closed the shutters and decided there that he would do something about Billy.
* * *
Later that morning while Ranger packed their belongings in the truck, Matty joined him, grabbing her knapsack and tossing it into the back. Jon slept in the rear while Randy slept in the passenger seat.
“Are you now going to tell me your plan?” Matty grabbed another pack and passed it to Ranger.
“What do you want me to tell you?” Ranger didn’t look at her, but focused his attention on the bags he loaded into the trunk.
“I would like for you to tell me we’re not going in there blind.” Matty grabbed the bag Ranger had in his hand and together they tossed it into the trunk. She wanted eye contact.
“You’ve known me for a while, Matty. You should know that when I have nothing to say, I’m thinkin’ about it.” He turned his head away.