by Skylar Finn
At the end of day three of their trip, Ailani began to worry. They had not yet run out of food, but their water supply was getting low and Uncle Xavier’s compound was nowhere in sight. Walt checked his map, walked ten feet, then checked it again.
“It should be around here somewhere,” he murmured, flipping the map around to make sure he got the location right. “I can’t quite remember—”
“We should go back to that town we found two days ago,” Keiko said. She sat on a boulder big enough to hew a stone chair out of and smacked a mosquito off her arm. “They invited us to stay. Why didn’t we take them up on that?”
Ailani dropped her hiking pack and rolled out her shoulders with a long groan. “The same reason as always. Eventually, they’re going to run out of supplies, and when they do, it isn’t going to be pretty.”
“It’s different though,” Keiko protested. “They’re working together.”
“It’s here somewhere,” Walt insisted. “I’m not an idiot.”
They had hiked into a woody gorge. The hills were so steep that Ailani couldn’t see unless she looked straight up. This part of the forest was particularly thick. It was hard to believe anyone lived among the towering mossy trunks and flowering shrubs. The leaves and moss dampened all the sounds including the animals. Nothing scuttled here or there. No birds chirped or flew overhead. Ailani didn’t even see any bugs crawling around. A hush like white noise fell over the forest. Somehow, it seemed louder than if they were to hear the sounds of a nearby community.
Ailani looked over Walt’s shoulder to squint at the map. “Are you sure we’re in the right place? Do you remember the commune being in this giant gorge?”
“Yes,” Walt answered firmly. He pointed to the ridges on the map that indicated the elevated land around them. “I remember hiking over these peaks the first time my uncle took me here.” He looked up from the map and studied the landscape again. “That split tree! I recognize it. We’re close. I know it.”
He rolled up the map with confidence and continued on his route without waiting to see if Ailani and Keiko were going to follow. Keiko got up from her boulder and bumped Ailani’s shoulder. Together, they regarded Walt’s tree. It was an old elm that had once been hit by lightning, causing the trunk to fracture down the middle. The tree had persevered, growing anew from its broken base and reaching skyward.
“What if he’s batshit?” Keiko murmured into Ailani’s ear. “What if this commune doesn’t exist anymore?”
Ailani elbowed her little sister. “We have to trust him.”
“Hm.”
Ailani grabbed Keiko before she walked off. “But if we don’t find this place, we’re going with your plan and heading back to the white tents. At least those people were nice to us.”
“Guys!” Walt called unseen through the trees. “Are you coming or what?”
The sisters exchanged a lifted eyebrow, shrugged, and followed Walt’s voice deeper into the woods. He wasn’t far, but as the sound of rushing water filled their ears, it became harder to keep track of him.
“Walt, wait up!” Ailani called, stumbling over the uneven ground. The dirt morphed into mud. The water source must be close by. “We can’t see you!”
The sisters emerged from the trees and almost fell into a fast river. Ailani flung her arm out to stop Keiko from stepping right over the edge. The water rushed past like the turbulent air beneath an unsuspecting airplane. Whitewash splashed up the sides of the gorge, misting across Ailani’s face.
“That was close,” Keiko said. “Thanks for the save.”
“No problem.”
“Hey!” Walt’s voice echoed from the water, and for one panicked moment, Ailani searched for him in the rapids. Then she realized he had somehow already made his way across the other side of the river. He pointed downstream. “There’s a fallen tree you can use as a bridge right there. I think the commune’s this way!”
Once more, he disappeared into the thick of the forest. Normally, Ailani would admonish him for leaving them behind, but he was so excited about the prospect of seeing his Uncle Xavier that she couldn’t bring herself to scold him. She and Keiko picked their way toward the fallen tree. They avoided the messy root system that had been upended when the tree fell. The thing was massive and difficult to navigate, but it seemed firmly glued to either side of the river. If Walt had made it across, Ailani was sure they would be fine too. Then Keiko shivered.
“I don’t do heights,” she said, eyeing the drop between the tree and the river below. “Or river rapids. I don’t suppose there’s another way around? We could meet up with Walt further downstream.”
“We can’t risk being separated,” Ailani said. “Come on. I’ll go first—”
“No, I’ll go,” Keiko insisted. “I want you behind me. Is that okay?”
“Sure. Whatever makes you more comfortable.”
She gave Keiko a leg up to the massive trunk and climbed up after her. It felt like the old days, when their mother used to take them on hikes through the wilds of Kauai. The landscape was different, but the feeling was the same. Back then, Keiko had been too young to hike on her own, so she was always strapped on their mother’s back. Ailani was always looking up at Keiko’s tiny bare baby feet as she followed behind her mother.
Keiko flung her hands out to either side for balance as she took tiny steps across the wide tree trunk. She kept her feet in one line, placing one exactly in front of the other to keep herself centered. Ailani stayed close enough to catch Keiko if she slipped, but not so close to step on her sister’s heels. Keiko stopped short at the edge of the river, where the ground dropped off beneath her.
“It’s okay,” Ailani assured her. “Don’t look down. Look straight across. Pretend you’re walking on a crappy footbridge.”
“Like that helped,” Keiko said, trying to keep her voice light. Her shoulders lifted as she took a deep breath. “Here goes nothing.”
She tiptoed out over the water, but she didn’t take Ailani’s advice. She kept her focus on her feet, making sure she placed them in the perfect spot before putting her weight forward. Behind her, Ailani tried not to rush. The river coursing below felt like the adrenaline in her veins. Part of her wanted to jump in and ride the rapids to wherever they led.
“Call of the void,” she said out loud.
“What?” Keiko called over her shoulder. “Did you say something?”
“Call of the void,” Ailani repeated, louder this time. “It’s that feeling when you think about doing something dangerous—something that might or definitely would kill you—just for the thrill of it.”
“Can we not think about voids or death right now?” Keiko asked. “I’d like to get across to the other side in one piece.”
“You’re halfway there.”
A second later, Ailani wished she hadn’t announced it. Keiko jerked her head up to check their progress. Without watching her feet, she set her boot on a patchy of slick moss rooted to the tree trunk. Her boot slipped, and she lost her balance.
Ailani lunged for her sister as she fell. Keiko flailed wildly, trying to regain her balance, but it was no use. Ailani managed to grab her sister’s hand. It was slick with sweat and slipped out of Ailani’s grasp before she could pull Keiko to safety. Keiko yelped as she tumbled off the tree, but her voice was cut off as she plunged into the rough water below.
Ailani made a split second decision. She could run the rest of the way across the tree and follow Keiko along the river’s edge, but she risked losing sight of her sister in the rapids. The only other option was to take the ride with her. Keiko’s head bobbed out of the water; she was already twenty feet downstream and picking up the pace with every second. Ailani braced herself and jumped in.
The water was freezing, despite the balmy day. Right away, the rapids pummeled Ailani’s head. She swam with all of her strength, fighting to break through to the surface. When she did, she took a huge gasp of air, only for another wave of white wash to cover her head. Th
e harder she fought against the current, the worse it got. She couldn’t see the world around her, let alone a glimpse of her little sister. She slammed into a rock, her body jolting to a quick stop before the river swept her along again. The force of it made Ailani’s bones shake, but it gave her enough time to figure out which way was up. She lifted her body and forced herself to float along the top of the river. If she gave in and let the water carry her, she could see relatively well. Water still came at her from all directions, but now she had a fighting chance.
Around a bend in the river, Ailani finally spotted Keiko. She kicked her feet to angle herself toward her sister, and the water carried her right up to Keiko’s path. Keiko had a huge, bloody gash on her forehead, and she wasn’t conscious. Ailani grabbed ahold of Keiko’s shirt and pulled her close.
“Stay with me, kiddo!” she hollered in Keiko’s ear. Water gushed into her mouth and made her cough. “You can’t leave me now.”
Keiko’s cheek pressed momentarily against Ailani’s. The sisters rushed downstream together, Ailani controlling their movement as much as possible. What felt like hours later—though it was less than a minute—the river began to slow down. The rapids died off, and they floated to an easy stop in shallow water. Ailani set her feet on the river bed and pulled her sister to shore.
Walt burst from the nearby trees, panting with effort. He ran into the water to help Ailani with Keiko. “I saw the two of you rush by from the shore!” he said. “What happened? Did you fall in?”
“Keiko did. I jumped in after her.”
“You jumped—!” He laid Keiko flat on dry ground and bent over to listen to her chest. “She’s not breathing. I need you to move.”
Ailani gave the floor to Walt. He flattened his hands out on Ailani’s chest and started CPR. Ailani lost count of the compressions before Walt bent over and forced air into Keiko’s lungs. Thankfully, that was all it took. She woke with a start, flipped over, and hacked up a lungful of river water.
“Oh, thank goodness.” Ailani threw her arms around her little sister. “I knew you couldn’t be a goner. How do you feel?”
Keiko gasped for air, water still rattling in her throat. “Great, thanks. Tell me Walt found this stupid commune.”
Ailani glanced at Walt, who briefly shook his head. Ailani’s heart sank. “We’ll get to that in a second. Let me have a look at your head. What happened? Did you pass out when you hit it?”
Keiko touched the gash on her forehead. “No, it’s just a nasty scratch. A tree branch caught me by surprise. It looks worse than it feels.”
“Still.”
Walt handed Ailani the first aid kid. She cleaned the wound and put a bandage over it. It needed stitches and would probably leave Keiko with a jagged scar, but at least the head trauma hadn’t been concussion-worthy. Keiko smacked Walt’s leg.
“That’s a no on the commune then?” she asked. “Your uncle’s leaving us out to dry?”
Walt rinsed his hands in the river and shook them to dry. “I don’t understand. Uncle X would have told me if they’d moved. He always made sure to let me know how he was doing. I don’t see any sign of their camp at all, and I don’t remember this big ass hill being here either.”
The river pooled into a large lake. Beside the lake, the land sloped steeply upward.
“We’re in a gorge,” Ailani reminded Walt.
“It’s supposed to flatten out here,” he said. “Something weird is going on.”
Then the big ass hill moved.
19
The hill was not a hill. Well, it was but not of the nature-made variety. As the trio stared open-mouthed, a grassy piece of the hill swung forward like a door. It was a door, covered in vines and moss to keep anyone from finding it. Two men stepped from the land, like old gods that had decided to grace Earth with their presence again. Both of them carried bow and arrows on their backs with a quiver full of extra ammunition. Neither one had a gun. Wide-brimmed hats protected their heads and necks from the sun and hid their faces from the trio. They wore boots sewn from animal skins and clothes that had been woven from cotton they must have grown themselves. It was like they were from an entirely different era.
At first, the men did not notice the trio. They talked and laughed, their attention on each other as they descended a set of hidden steps carved into the side of the hill. It was only when they reached the edge of the lake that they saw Ailani, Keiko, and Walt on the shore, about fifty feet away from them.
“Whoa!” The first man, who was a bit tall than the other, stumbled backward in surprise. His partner caught him before he fell. “We’ve got visitors.”
“Please don’t hurt us,” Ailani said, eyeing the men’s bows. “We’re looking for someone.”
“Here?” said the first man. “Who could you possibly be looking for out in the middle of nowhere?”
“And why didn’t you just call them on the phone?” the other man grumbled. Unlike his partner, he wasn’t as keen on socializing with the trio. He scuffed his toe in the boot and refused to look at them. “Instead of coming all the way out here.”
“Don’t you know?” Keiko said. “An EMP blast hit the United States. There’s no power anywhere. The phones are fried.”
The first man looked taken aback. “You’re kidding. How’s everyone doing out there?”
“Terrible, for the most part,” Ailani answered. “That’s why we came here. Is this—do you guys live in some sort of prepper commune? You know, no electricity or running water or any modern technology?”
“Well—” the first guy said.
The second man hit his partner across the chest. “Shh. We already took in one stray this week, and I don’t feel like teaching three more about how we live.”
“Please,” Walt said, stepping forward. “I used to live here, before you hid the commune behind this massive wall. I used to live here with my uncle.”
The first man lifted his hat to get a better look at Walt, letting the trio see his face. He was a pale man with ginger features. His eyebrows, hair, and beard were all a fine shade of strawberry blonde.
“Come to think of it, you do look familiar,” he said. “What’s your name?”
“Walter Dailey.”
The ginger man chuckled out loud and elbowed his partner in the rib cage. “No shit. Walter Dailey, huh?”
The other man finally looked up from the ground. The sun angled under his hat, illuminating his face. Ailani saw the similarities between him and Walt right away. They had the same delicate cheekbones and beautiful eyes. Back at the Dailey mansion, she thought Walt was the spitting image of his father, but he took after this man even more.
“Uncle X?” Walt asked breathlessly. “Is that you?”
The man’s face broke into a wide smile. It completely flipped his surly appearance on its head. The grumpy man who’d initially approached them was gone. Uncle X scooped Walt up in a huge hug. He was strong enough to swing his nephew around in a circle before setting him down again, like Walt was twenty years younger.
“Walter!” Uncle X said, wiping happy tears from his eyes. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever see you again.”
Walt’s laugh rang like a chorus of bells. “Me either, especially with everything that’s been going on. These are my friends, Ailani and Keiko.”
“Xavier,” said Walt’s uncle, shaking hands with the sisters. He patted the ginger man’s muscular forearm. “And this is my friend, Nick.”
Nick grinned warmly. “Glad to meet any friends of Xavier’s.”
“I remember you now,” Walt told Nick. “You didn’t use to have a beard.”
“He’s got a baby face without it,” Xavier said, elbowing Nick playfully. “That’s why he grew it out.”
Nick battled back with his own elbow. “Excuse you? I grew it out because you like beards.”
Xavier flushed deep red and went quiet. Ailani and Keiko glanced at each other and grinned. It sounded like Xavier and Walt had more than one thing in common.
&n
bsp; “Not to rush the heartfelt reunions,” Keiko grumbled, “but is there any chance we can get inside? I’ve got a headache.”
“We were about to go hunting,” Xavier said, “but I know that’s not Walt’s thing.”
“It’s best if we go in with them anyway,” Nick told his partner. “Bill almost had a heart attack when that last kid came in.”
“Who’s Bill?” Walt asked.
The two older men both rolled their eyes.
“Bill Barry,” Xavier answered. “You remember him, Walt. He was the guy who threw a dead squirrel in your face.”
Walt’s lip curled up in a sneer as he recalled the memory. “Oh, yeah. I used to call him Phil just to piss him off. He’s still here, huh?”
“Stomping around like he owns the place.” Nick hoisted his bow and quiver higher on his back. “Bill keeps trying to rally the camp behind a presidential campaign.”
“I thought this place never had one leader,” Walt said. “Don’t you have a council? Isn’t the whole point to have a group of people who vote on things, not one person who decides what’s best?”
Xavier pulled his hat off and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “The council still makes all of our decisions, and most of the people in our commune like it that way, but Bill’s putting a pretty big argument up for having a president. He says we need someone to make the hard decisions for us when the council is unable.”
“What kind of hard decisions?”
“Like whether or not we should let newcomers in,” Nick replied.
Ailani’s shoulders slumped. “Are you kidding? We walked all the way here, and there’s a chance we might not get to stay?”
Xavier patted Ailani’s back. “Don’t worry. Any friends of Walt’s are friends of mine, and Bill isn’t the president of the commune yet. Come on. Let’s get you all inside.”
Nick and Xavier helped the trio gather their supplies then led them to the door in the hill. Ailani marveled at how well the entrance to the commune was hidden in the landscape. If she looked close enough, she could see the mud bricks that formed the sturdy wall around the commune, but they were so covered in dirt, moss, and plants that she never would have noticed them without Nick and Xavier’s help. The steps up to the door were made of the same hardened mud, once again camouflaged into the ground. The door itself swung on rough metal hinges that looked as though they had been forged by an old-school blacksmith.