by K. M. Fawkes
She for damn sure would have had him out looking for a turkey well before the day of the holiday, too. She’d always been the type that wanted to mark occasions. He thought back to what she’d said about her birthday party, the words flashing through his mind with painful accuracy. He missed her voice so much.
“We hid under the table. They never even noticed we were gone.”
In the moment, he’d been so happy that Anna was opening up to him that he hadn’t really realized how weird that statement was. Why were she and her sister, who were supposed to be the guests of honor, being ignored that way? Why wouldn’t they have been the center of attention?
Brad’s birthdays might have been a little meager by modern standards, but he’d been the most important person in the house during them, no matter what. Maybe that was why Anna had spent so much on Sammy’s birthdays. She hadn’t ever wanted him to feel as forgotten as she had.
Lost in painful thoughts, Brad had walked a lot further off of the trail than he’d meant to. He stopped to get his bearings and get himself back closer to the trail. Then, he heard something off to his left. He held his breath and listened for another moment and then he eased forward, being as careful as he could not to make any noise. He knew that sound.
When he carefully leaned out from behind a tree, he had to bite his lip to keep from exclaiming in excitement. It was a huge, beautiful, wild goddam turkey. It looked like it had walked right out of the pages of a hunting magazine.
Silently, Brad raised the gun to his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. A perfect shot.
He walked over to the fallen animal and picked it up.
“Sorry buddy,” he said. “But you’re about to make a whole lot of people really happy.”
Like he’d expected, as he was carrying the bird back, the soldiers were making their way to him. They stopped and stared. Brad took a second to relish the moment. Usually, the soldiers he encountered looked at him with either disdain or annoyance.
“God, it has to weigh twenty pounds,” one of them said.
“I’d say about twenty-five,” Brad corrected, handing his gun over. He was never allowed to keep it for long. “It should be no problem to feed everyone with it.”
“Damn straight,” Mason said with a grin that didn’t even try to conceal his excitement. “Good job, man.”
Brad considered the soldier’s praise a Thanksgiving miracle. “No problem,” he said, taking his prize into the back of the truck with him and bundling up in a blanket for the long ride back.
Chapter 16
Brad had been granted the rest of the day off as thanks for his hunting prowess, further confirming his theory that days off were rewarded for things that benefited the soldiers more so than the citizens. At a loose end, he went next door to Jack and Charlie’s place. Jack was out, in the vehicle store, and Charlie was working on lesson plans, so Brad offered to take Remington out for some exercise.
Out in the yard, he tossed one of the tennis balls he’d found in the closet of his apartment and Remy was after it like a shot, diving for it and grabbing it before it had a chance to bounce. He came running back at Brad with the ball in his mouth, grinning from ear to floppy ear.
They played until he heard the dinner bell ring. Remy looked toward the sound, his tail wagging; the only thing the dog loved more than fetch was food. Brad scratched him between the ears and snagged the ball while he was distracted. Charlie came out of her apartment a moment later, her coat hanging open.
“It’s so nice out here,” she said with a smile. “It’s great not to have to put on so many layers just to be able to go outside!” She patted Remy’s head and looked up at Brad. “Did you boys have a good time?” she asked, her voice light and teasing.
“We sure did,” Brad confirmed. “I don’t think he ever gets tired, though.”
“I don’t think he does either,” Charlie said with a laugh. “But thanks for trying to wear him out, at least.”
“No problem. Want to walk down to dinner with me? Jack will probably already be there.”
“Sounds lovely,” she said, looping her arm through his after she threaded a bit of rope through Remy’s collar. “Let’s go get some of that turkey!”
Remington’s ears perked up. Turkey was apparently one of the words in his vocabulary. Brad smiled and they headed for the dining hall.
Knives and forks clanked against plates as people milled around, talking and laughing while they waited in line. Brad and Charlie had run into Jack at the door and they’d already received their plates, having been some of the first people to be served. Brad’s mouth watered just looking at the canned cranberry sauce on his plate, but he held back from diving in. They had all been told that Major Walker had planned a few remarks. Brad hoped that he made them before the food got cold.
When all of the residents were finally in their seats, Major Walker stood up. The room fell into that deep silence again. Brad looked at the man, waiting to see what he would say.
“Isn’t it amazing that we’ve gotten this far?” the Major asked with a smile.
The crowd all either nodded or called out some type of affirmative.
“I never thought that I’d celebrate another Thanksgiving again,” he went on.
Brad forced himself not to roll his eyes. Sloppy sentiment. That’s all this was. He understood the crowd psychology too well for it to work on him, but everyone else seemed to be hanging onto the Major’s every word.
“It’s thanks to you and all of your hard work that we are where we are today,” Walker said. “We never would have been able to eat as well if it wasn’t for our hunting crew.”
Lie number one, Brad counted to himself. With those stores of food, they didn’t need to hunt at all through the winter.
“We wouldn’t survive if it wasn’t for the soldiers who put their lives on the line every single day to keep us safe,” Walker continued.
Lie number two, Brad thought even as the dining hall erupted into cheers.
It seemed downright un-American not to cheer when someone complimented a member of the military, but Brad held back. Walker’s praise didn’t make a damn bit of sense. What were the soldiers protecting them from on a daily basis, anyway?
No one had attacked them. There were no real threats that he’d seen, other than the one random coyote attack. And the soldiers hadn’t even acted fast enough to deal with that. He and Ben had handled the whole thing perfectly well and it would have been over even faster if they’d been allowed the same firearm use that the soldiers had.
There had obviously been some kind of danger in Bangor, but nothing had happened here in the whole time Brad had been there. It had obviously been that way for a long time; the people here seemed to think that the bad times were all behind them.
“All of you, by performing your duties diligently and not questioning them, have helped keep this facility safe for us all.”
Brad tilted his head, replaying that phrasing in his mind. “Performing your duties and not questioning them.” Caleb had been right, then. “Nobody asks questions.”
“I just want to thank you for the things you’ve made possible,” Walker went on, lifting a glass. “I wish I had something better to toast you with,” he said with a self-deprecating smile. “But I’m afraid water is all we have.”
Lie number three, Brad counted as he held up his water glass to join in a toast that he didn’t believe a word of.
“To survival!” Walker said.
“To survival!” the group chorused back.
Brad didn’t bother to join in. Instead, he kept his eyes steady on the Major as he took a sip of his water.
“I won’t keep you from your food any longer,” the Major said. “Happy Thanksgiving!”
The noise level in the dining hall rose as everyone began to chat while they ate. Brad took a bite of his portion of turkey. It wasn’t great, but it was good. The cranberry sauce, however, tasted like cranberry sauce always had and always would. Apocalypse or not.<
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He hadn’t realized that he was frowning in the direction of the Major, who was sitting at a table in the corner with the soldiers. His back was to them.
“Hey,” Charlie said, poking him. “You okay?”
“Yeah, sure. Why?”
“I don’t know. You look awfully serious,” Charlie said with a smile. “What’s going on?”
“I haven’t been able to get in to see the Major,” he said after a pause. There was no point pussyfooting around it. There would never be a good time, since they might not all work together again soon and since Neal lived right next door to Brad. Right now, the Major’s right-hand man was at the table with him. This was Brad’s best shot.
“And I’m tired of waiting,” he continued bluntly. “I’m wondered if any of you would be interested in going out on a search mission with me on a day we all have time.”
Jack and Vance went still. Vance had stopped with his fork halfway to his mouth. Jack took a long sip of his water.
Charlie’s face had gone pale. “Without approval?” she asked.
“Yeah. I mean, what’s the big deal? We all have plenty of free time.” Brad did his best to make it seem like what he was asking was perfectly reasonable.
“There’s no way in hell I’d help you without a direct order from the Major,” Vance said bluntly, putting his fork down.
“Why the hell not?” Brad demanded.
“Look, it’s not like it’s personal,” Jack said, leaning in and speaking low. “It’s just…this stuff has to be approved.”
“It’s kind of hard for me to get an approval on anything when he won’t see me,” Brad argued. “Like I said, I’m not asking you to skip out on work. We’ve all got free time. Why can’t we—”
“Because it has to be approved,” Charlie repeated, using the same emphasis her husband had used. “You can’t do anything without the Major’s approval, Brad. It’s just safer that way.” She glanced around before she said, “For everyone, but especially for you.”
“Why?”
“We don’t want you to end up evicted,” Vance hissed. “And none of us want to get evicted for you. Sorry, man.”
“Evicted?” Brad repeated. This was new. “What does that mean?”
“Not here,” Jack said urgently. “Listen, just suffice to say that we’re safe here and we know better than to make demands.”
Jack took a breath, his eyes darting to the table filled with soldiers. When it didn’t look like they were paying the least bit of attention, he went on, speaking quickly and quietly. Brad had to really focus to untangle the words. “I know that it’s hard to wait, Brad, but you have to. It’ll happen when the time is right, okay? And then I’ll be happy to help. When it’s approved.”
They finished dinner and Charlie, Jack and Vance steered the conversation to more innocuous topics. Brad barely tasted his food after that. He knew that he couldn’t go to the Major tonight. And he couldn’t go looking for Anna and the kids on his own.
As he pushed his food around on his plate and listened to everyone else talking and laughing, his chest suddenly ached. He tried hard to push the memory of their faces away, but they rushed up anyway. Anna’s bright green eyes sparkling with laughter. Sammy’s look of intense concentration as he carved. The way Martha had slowly, shyly begun trusting him.
They were the ones he had a responsibility to, and Brad knew that he’d never forgive himself if he’d wasted too much time here. When he’d cleaned his plate, forcing most of it down his tight throat, he turned in his plate and trudged home, leaving the others to enjoy their dessert without him.
Back at his apartment, even though it wasn’t really late, Brad washed up and got in bed. As he lay there, he turned the others’ words over in his mind. Charlie had been genuinely terrified. Jack and Vance, too.
“Evicted,” he murmured, remembering the look on Jack’s face as he’d said it.
Sure, being evicted wasn’t the best thing in any situation. But when the alternative was freezing to death in a wasteland, that made it even more unappealing. What were the rules for eviction, though? Was it as simple as one infraction and you were gone? Was there a strike system or some kind of hierarchy of offenses? From the others’ reactions, he assumed that one unauthorized field trip was enough to put the unlucky adventurer out on their ass.
And that thought brought him to the next, more serious worry. When a person was evicted, how did they do it? Did the soldiers just remove them from the facility and shut the gates behind them? Did they give them any kind of rations or supplies to take along with them? Did they drive them away and drop them out? Or was there something more sinister at play?
Would Major Walker actually have someone killed? Brad felt like he already knew the answer to that question. Caleb had disappeared completely. Walker hadn’t said that he was evicted, though; he’d simply put out the story that the man was sick. Brad wondered what the difference was.
He groaned in frustration and rolled onto his side. He was thinking in circles and it wasn’t doing him a damn bit of good. He could wonder all night long and not get any closer to the truth. And it looked like no one was going to tell him, either. It was time to move on to things that he had the power and the know-how to change.
Like his own movements. Walker couldn’t control Brad. The weather could make his life out in the open a living hell, but if this warm front persisted, he’d be able to get far enough away to reach a highway in a few days. He could find shelter. And if he raided the supply room first, he could ward off starvation. His ankle, now fully healed, was no longer something that could slow him down or risk getting infected.
Or what if he wasn’t sneaky about it at all? What would happen if he simply walked into that office tomorrow morning and told them all that he’d decided to go? Would they just let him leave or would they refuse? Or would they track him down after pretending to allow him to leave? They had vehicles and he wouldn’t, so they’d be faster. At least on foot he’d be able to go places that the trucks wouldn’t be able to access.
He chewed his lower lip, debating. He could probably get away from them pretty easily. He’d been looking at the land around the facility every day, now. There was a section of woods very close. He could hide in there with pretty much no problem.
“And do what?” he muttered to himself, flopping back over to lie on his back.
He draped his arm over his eyes and ordered himself to think logically. He needed to imagine the worst-case scenarios along with the best-case ones. It was warm today, but that front wouldn’t last long. It was shaping up to be a long, cold winter, and hunting was scarce as it was, even with a team of guys.
Even if he’d been confident that he could hunt enough game to get by, there were other issues. Namely, he didn’t have the gear to survive. The tent wasn’t enough to protect him from cold like they’d had so far.
And, as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t keep counting on finding cars to sleep in. Even his plan of getting to a highway was pretty dumb on closer inspection. The closest highway ran straight into Bangor. And Bangor was…hell. It was basically gone.
In the best-case scenario, supply-wise, he still didn’t want to go back into that city. He didn’t know what kind of turf war was going on in those streets, but he knew for damn sure that he didn’t want to be in it. It had hurt him much more deeply than he’d imagined to see the city he’d grown up in turned to ruins like that.
Everything significant in his entire life had happened in Bangor. He’d gone to his first dance there. It had been painfully awkward, but still. He’d had his first kiss in the park. That too had been painfully awkward.
Brad sighed. The Venn diagram of significant and awkward events in his life might have been a circle, but the point was, he missed his hometown.
He could only hope that Anna didn’t go there. She’d wanted to go to a city and Bangor was the closest, biggest one to the cabin. But surely even determined Anna would have turned back when she saw what it ha
d become. Unless she’d gotten there before it all started and was now trapped in it.
He rolled onto his side again. Maybe he should go to Bangor. Or maybe he needed to check the woods. Or maybe he needed to admit the goddamn truth.
“I don’t know where to look,” he whispered into the darkness.
His throat went tight at the obvious answer. He didn’t have a choice. He had to stay where he was. And he clearly needed to stay quiet. Whatever being evicted truly meant, he couldn’t afford to find out.
Chapter 17
Despite his decision of the night before, it wasn’t easy for Brad to be quiet and just get along. Not when he could see more and more issues every minute.
Vance had been avoiding him all day. He hadn’t seen much of Jack either, but that was because one of the trucks had broken down. Apparently it wasn’t an easy fix and it was making a lot of extra work for him.
Or were they being kept apart? Neal had seen them all sitting together at Thanksgiving. There had been plenty of times when they were all huddled close together in conversation. Had he pointed those little talks out to the Major?
You’re getting paranoid, he chastised himself, even as he got bundled up for his plan. He hadn’t had much time to simply walk around the place by himself and he liked the quiet. At least, that was going to be his excuse if he was caught. In reality, he was going to do his best to work out a way to steal one of the trucks that Jack kept in such good working order.
The small amount of sleep he’d managed to get the night before had helped solidify Brad’s plan. If he wanted to survive in Bangor, he’d need the ability to make a quick getaway. Having a vehicle was the best way to accomplish that. It would also make searching for Anna, Sammy, and Martha much faster and hopefully much easier. He’d wasted far too much time already.
Ice crunched under his boots as he walked. The warm front hadn’t lasted long at all. He was glad that he hadn’t been counting on it.