Salazar

by Chariss K. Walker

  "I'm Freddy, Freddy Knowles. I want to hear what you have to say too. I mean, we did follow you in here and I'm grateful for the shelter, however, I need to know if we stand a chance of surviving or not."

  Salazar shook Freddy's hand and got another pleasant surprise. Freddy would also become a key player while establishing their new community. Freddy was well-read. He had knowledge and wisdom in many essential areas and he would use that to help everyone.

  Freddy, in his mid-twenties, was agile and youthful. In fact, he seemed more boyish than he was. He could have easily passed for someone in their teens. His intelligent blue eyes revealed that he knew their present situation was ominous although he also had the good sense not to cause a panic by stating that fact.

  "I'm Joshua West and my wife is still out there. I want to know what you think too," Joshua encouraged as he stuck out his hand in greeting.

  Joshua was close to fifty years old. His dark brown hair was peppered with gray and came to a V-shaped point on his forehead. It somehow emphasized his deep hazel eyes. Joshua's appearance was what some might call ruggedly handsome even though he was both fit and fatherly at the same time. As Salazar took Joshua's offered hand in his, he saw that all those present would soon look to Joshua as either a priest or a father figure. He was the kind of man who was always helpful whatever the task. He was also sad about his wife who was in danger out there.

  "Please, entertain us," Jon Smith encouraged as he delicately held out his left hand in greeting. Jon was almost as petite as Miki with short, sandy hair and brown eyes. He lightly chuckled and then batted his eyes at the others in the crowd which caused a few to giggle in response as he added, "I'm openly gay and I really, really want to hear what you have to say about everything."

  "Proud of that fact, aren't you, faggot," Phillip Beardsley sneered.

  Phillip was tall and lanky with a long face and a shaved head. His jaw jutted out defiantly each time he spoke whether his words were insulting or mere comments. However, when his mouth was closed, nothing in particular stood out about him except the huge, five-inch silver cross that dangled around his neck. The pendant swung like a pendulum from a braided hemp rope each time Phillip adjusted his seating position. As if sitting on hot coals, he twisted around quite a bit causing Salazar to wonder if the man was overly anxious or nervous. Unlike the other men, Phillip never extended his hand to Salazar either.

  "Comfortable with who I am. What about you?" Jon replied with an even stare. He wasn't intimidated in the least even though Phillip was a bully and quite a bit larger than he was. Jon was confident in his rights. Being gay didn't violate any laws. The government had long abandoned their persecution of anyone with gender identity or sexual preference differences and had instead focused on anyone with special abilities. "The better question is what are you hiding behind that huge symbol around your neck?"

  Phillip was surprised that his slur had not intimidated Jon. He had bashed a lot of gays in his past and all of them had cringed before him… eventually. Now, he only glared at Jon in response. Without the usual cowering he had expected, Phillip was thrown off his game and didn't have a smart aleck comeback for Jon.

  Salazar shook Jon's hand and saw an image of him as a positive force that would be instrumental in helping his mother organize the future residents.

  "It's good to meet you, Jon. It's good to meet all of you," Salazar greeted.

  The last of the men, William Kamkwamba leaned forward and held out his hand in introduction. His deep, melodious voice was pleasant to the ear as he gave his name and then he urged, "Please, tell us what you believe has happened to our world. I need to know if there is any chance that I might see my parents again."

  William was black and in his mid-teens. In the dim light, it was hard to make out his features and Salazar had almost missed him completely. As the lamplight caught his reflection, his eyes were like deep pools of pure liquid harmony. His brown hair was soft, tight curls that fell gently across his forehead. His full lips twitched slightly from the tension and worry he felt about his parents. The vision Salazar received when he clasped William's hand in his was more detailed than any of the others so far.

  Salazar immediately understood that William had lived his entire life in Winterhaven with his Asian mother and black father. They had been forced to live in Winterhaven because his father was injured during combat and was on disability. It hadn't helped their situation that they were a mixed-race couple.

  Without any educational opportunities at all, the youth was brilliantly self-taught. He had been able to make something out of what others would consider nothing.

  Salazar realized that he could see so much in William's life because the young man was an open book with nothing to hide. William saw everything as beautifully blessed. Salazar could hear William's silent chant, "Everything is as it should be; nothing is a mistake." The words were William's mantra.

  As Salazar took that long peek into William's mind, he saw William form useful objects from plastic waste, sculpting and shaping them into beneficial tools that his parents used to make their lives easier. He realized that William was a gifted inventor.

  Salazar didn't stop to wonder why he had seen William's past rather than a glimpse into his future. Still, he concluded that surely this was an example of living in the heart as Henry had mentioned. He was convinced that William would be a valuable asset to their group as well.

  "It is a pleasure to meet you as well, William," Salazar sincerely greeted.

  "Well aren't you just too good to be true," Phillip acidly churned. "You just love 'em all, don't you, Salazar? You love the faggots and the injuns and…,"

  "Enough!" Salazar commanded, halting Phillip in midsentence.

  That one word sent a chill of fear through Phillip; however, when the other members of their group turned to glare at him, he felt an icicle of terror run down his spine. It wasn't the results he had desired. Phillip had hoped to show that their leader was really a tree-hugging hippie who spread his allegiance to every cause rather than his own kind. He had wanted to prove that Salazar was not worthy of their loyalty. Instead of turning on Salazar, the others had turned on him. Not a single face showed any sign of acceptance towards Phillip – there was only rejection in their eyes.

  "Will I see my parents again?" William repeated.

  A hush fell over the group of survivors as they anxiously waited for their leader to continue. Salazar's expression was blank and unreadable as he looked around at the anxious, questioning faces.

  Still, he remained silent and Miki followed his lead.

  16| Honesty

  "Well, all right," Sam persisted, "then, at least share what you suspect. Tell us what you think is happening out there. I mean it looks like everyone in August City is dead or dying, and yet, you and your mother were somehow prepared. You knew to come here, that you would be safe in this place. You even brought some necessary supplies. How did you get the information?"

  "My son is very intuitive," Miki admitted as she dug into her bag and pulled out four energy bars, "but then that is something for which we can all be grateful." She paused briefly to break the bars into equal pieces before passing them around to the others. "I didn't want to leave our home in Fallhaven either. I wanted to wait for my husband to return. However, Salazar insisted… so here we are with all of you who followed him too."

  "Thank you," several acknowledged the gift of basic food aloud while others smiled and nodded their heads to show appreciation.

  A mixture of peanut butter, seeds, grains and a lot of other stuff, the protein bar was covered in chocolate or carob. It was a staple food product in the United Sectors and had been for a long time. According to the package label, the protein bar contained everything the body needed and included every essential nutrient, vitamin, and mineral necessary to maintain health.

  For many from the poorest areas such as Winterhaven and Fallhaven, it was their primary food source other than peanut butter sandwiches. It seemed the
re was always plenty of bread and the protein rich spread to go around. Although some families did cook simple meals on occasion and there were also restaurants for the wealthy, no one could guarantee that the ingredients in those prepared foods were actually good for the body. Most of those who depended on the bars as their major source of nourishment and protein were simply grateful that the energy bars went well with coffee. There was always plenty of coffee to be had.

  Light banter continued among the group, however, after repeated encouragement, Salazar and Miki finally relented. They related their story together, weaving it from their individual perspectives as they told how they had come to the entrance of the tunnels.

  They began with the loud booming noise that had brought them to the windows of their small home in Fallhaven. They told about the fires in the sky, the thundering roars, and the people in the streets. They explained how they had seen the spacecraft launches and the low-flying aircraft before they realized that everyone would soon die. Enthralled, the others held their questions until the stories were finished.

  "At that point, I remembered what my grandmother had said about the tunnels," Salazar admitted, "and here we are with all of you who listened to your own urgings."

  "Then, it is your belief that this is an extermination event," Sam concluded. His voice was soft and reverent as he considered what that meant for all of them.

  Not wanting to cause panic amongst the survivors, Salazar hesitated for a few brief moments. Then, he realized that in order to form a successful new family or tribe as his grandfather had suggested, they would have to be utterly honest with each other. After giving Sam's comment more thought and recalling what Henry had said about each of these people as instrumental in the new world, he realized that he would have to trust them and that his faith in them should begin now.

  Salazar finally nodded.

  "You know, the things you have said now make perfect sense," Joshua West said. "As you can tell, I'm probably the oldest one here. I lived on the south end of Fallhaven with my wife, Sue Ellen. As a manager, she was called into work today… I don't know where she is now. I hope I can find her after this is over."

  "You believe this will end?" Tereese Bianca gasped, making it obvious to the others that she did not agree.

  All the women in the group were small; however, Tereese was child-like in stature. She was barely four-and-a-half-feet tall. Her short black hair wildly stood up in tufts all over her head as if it had been haphazardly chopped off. Still, even with that as a detriment, her small features were symmetrical and appealing, making her appearance what Salazar termed as 'cute.'

  Cute as a June bug, he heard Henry chuckle.

  Joshua, at a loss for words, only shrugged in response to the young spitfire's question. He wasn't sure how to answer her and he honestly wanted to maintain hope that all was not lost.

  Tereese's dark eyes were accentuated by thick black eyeliner which emphasized her olive complexion. Those dark orbs blazed now as she added, "We might be safe right now, except how do we know that the entrance to this cave isn't buried under rubble? This might be our tomb rather than our salvation." A few of the others gasped in surprise as they considered what Tereese had suggested.

  "I refuse to believe that we were spared the terrors of an air raid to be buried alive in the one place where we are safe," Miki was quick to assert. "Come now; let's have a little faith that we will survive this. Besides, if there is an entrance, then it stands to reason that there is an exit. We won't be trapped or buried alive." Then, she gracefully steered the conversation in a different direction as she asked, "Joshua, what did Sue Ellen do for work?"

  "She's a registered nurse and works at one of the corner street clinics in Winterhaven. It was very near the edge of Fallhaven and not far from here at all," Joshua explained. He grew silent and dropped his head in sadness as he thought about his wife. "She's out there right now in all that terrible mess while I am here. It breaks my heart."

  "We'll help you search for her after it is safe to go outside," Salazar promised. "We're going to need medical personnel and supplies."

  "If she worked nearby and you're so worried about her," Phillip jeered, "why didn't you go get her before you hid here like a big coward?"

  Joshua's face paled at the accusation. "I wanted to make sure this was safe first…," he fumbled. "I wanted to know what we would be getting into before I dragged her into this. I know it was a stupid decision now, but I didn't think it through and now she is probably dead and I am safe."

  "You can't know that," Miki soothed.

  "We'll find her," Salazar encouraged.

  "You'll find her dead," Phillip sniggered.

  "Did she mind working in Winterhaven?" Joanna Adele asked trying to steer the conversation away from Phillip's pessimism. "I mean no one wants to live or work there."

  Joanne was in her late thirties with light blonde hair and timid green eyes. She was intelligent in a studious way and from her mannerisms, extremely self-conscious. She constantly touched her face as if to reassure herself.

  "We must hold strong and believe that everything is as it is meant to be," Miki glared at Phillip. She'd had just about enough of his constant sarcastic disruptions and pessimism. Then, she turned to Joshua and held his gaze. Her eyes softened as she added, "Your wife is a smart woman or she wouldn't be running a clinic. She would have known what to do and how to protect herself."

  "So, did she mind working in Winterhaven?" Joanne repeated.

  "You know, it's not as bad as everyone thinks," Joshua, happy to think of anything else, readily defended. "From time to time, Sue Ellen worked in all the clinics there, even the ones on the far south end, supposedly the worst section of Winterhaven. She never had any trouble with any of the residents. I think that labeling the area as unsafe was more propaganda than anything else. Those who run things wanted us to believe that Winterhaven was full of junkies and criminals. Sue Ellen and I found that it wasn't the case at all. I walked her to and from work regularly. Most of the people we came across were homeless and poor. That shouldn't be a crime; nevertheless, it was considered one by those who run things.

  "Some of the people were disabled and on coupons. Many were minorities. In other words, the residents were just people that were considered undesirable, too miserable to live in the other parts of the city. The officials shoved them into that dark hole of society, AKA Winterhaven, to be forgotten. The street clinics were merely an effort to keep them there."

  "From what we now know, Joshua's account of things sounds likely," Miki admitted. "I feel chagrined that I bought into those misleading lies."

  "What makes perfect sense, Joshua?" Jesse directed the question back to an earlier statement.

  "Oh, well I remember a story my grandfather told me," Joshua continued. "He was a real character and the black sheep of our small family. He didn't like the idea of staying in one place too long even though the authorities liked to keep everyone in their place to keep tabs on them. My grandfather was a true rebel at heart. He restored a Harley and rode it all over the United Sectors. He even traveled through the dead-lands and lived to tell about it."

  "I thought the dead-lands were a nuclear wasteland from the last attack," Freddy commented. "We were told that it would be a long time, possibly hundreds of years before the area was safe again."

  "That's what we have always heard, however, at this point, how much of what we've been told can we actually believe?" Joshua asked as he looked around at the other curious faces.

  "Where exactly is the dead-lands or wastelands?" William asked.

  17| Estimates

  Salazar recalled a section of Henry's first account to Serena. His grandfather had talked about his boyhood and the points of history that he could remember. He had described the state of the world nearly a hundred years ago:

  Our once united country was called the United States but that changed during my lifetime. I traveled some before I met and married Marta. I saw the vast area, once cal
led the Breadbasket that ran through the Northwest, Midwest, and Southwest. It’s an area that consists of everywhere in-between the corner sectors. The area once supplied our entire country with beef, wheat, corn, and soybeans. These food products were the staples that kept our country going. We also exported a lot to other countries. The area also made heavy machinery used to farm those lands. Because that area was destroyed by nuclear weapons it is now called the dead-lands and no one is permitted to go there anymore. As a result our food production and supply has dwindled. People are hungry; a lot more are starving.”

  Salazar summarized Henry's account for William and the others who might not know the history of the United Sectors. Then, he turned the conversation back to Joshua, "Please continue, Joshua."

  "My point is that my grandfather went to a lot of places and he saw a lot of things. He knew they were building underground cities long before anyone else suspected such a thing. He kept traveling to keep tabs on what the government was really doing out there in the wastelands and in other sectors. He found no signs that there had ever been a nuclear attack in the heart of the country. He said it was all lies and propaganda. That the area was still farmed and that the filthy rich sold those goods to other countries rather than feed us, its citizens. He had a lot of crazy stories although, now that this has happened, I'm not so sure he was 'off his meds' as my mother used to say."

  "Yeah, they certainly don't like us to congregate and talk about these things," Freddy added.

  "Of course not!" Dinah exclaimed, finally joining the current discussion. "Peaceful assembly to debate the issues is considered treason. Comparing stories might help us figure out what the hell they're up to! Their whole deal is to keep us separate and fighting among ourselves. It's a distraction pure and simple, a distraction to keep us separate."