by Lee Beard
"What?" Zach glanced around.
They stood in silence a moment, listening intently. A faint scream of “help” echoed over the hill. Zach immediately dropped to his knees, rifling through his bag as Millie grabbed her mace and lowered to a crouch. Zach pulled out the emptied revolver.
"You don't have any bullets," she said quietly.
"Yeah, but don't tell them that." He stood, leaving the bag on the ground. Another shriek sounded loudly from over the hill. "Stay behind me." Millie gripped the mace canister as followed as he slunk carefully up the hill. Zach hunkered behind a tree at the top, heart pounding. “Memo to file, get some more bullets.” He tensed up as he slowly leaned out to see what was beyond the hill. He turned his head back to Millie, putting one finger to his lips, and beckoned her closer. Still gripping the mace, she tiptoed up to where he was. There, at the bottom of the ridge, surrounded by trees, was a small playground, complete with slide, swings, and rope bridge. Running around on the equipment was a tiny blonde girl, looking to be no more than four.
Millie gasped, whispering to Zach. "She's too little to be all by herself."
"She's not," Zach nodded toward the slide. A matching cotton-top head poked out from behind it before jumping out and clawing at the air.
"Rrrawr! I'm a dinosaur!" The boy roared, stomping around in a circle.
The girl screamed, and ran to the other side of the playground. "Help! Don't eat me! Don't eat me!" She squealed again, prompting a pursuit by the 'dinosaur.'
"We can't leave them here." Millie's brows furrowed in pity.
Zach shook his head. "Wasn’t ever an option." He started to stand, but Millie put a hand on his shoulder.
"Let me. They might get scared and bolt otherwise."
"What? Why?"
"You’re holding a gun, haven’t shaved in a week, and currently look like the definition of stranger danger." He shrugged as she handed him the mace. Stepping carefully down the ridge, she slipped on a branch and landed on her rear with an audible thud. Zach stifled a laugh. The kids stopped playing and looked to the noise, their eyes wide. The girl ran to and stood in front of the boy and he clung to her arm. Millie smiled, carefully easing the rest of the way down the slope. "Hi, there." She waved slowly at the children. "My name's Millie. What's yours?" She crouched down to their level, about 10 feet away. Neither answered, still staring at her like alarmed baby deer. "Are you here by yourselves?" They nodded slowly. Close up, Millie could get a better look at the pair. Both had dirty clothes and faces, unbrushed hair, and the boy wore mismatched shoes. "Is there anyone who's taking care of you right now?" She asked gently. Both shook their heads. "I see..."
"Mama and Daddy went to sleep," the girl said.
"They did?"
"Uh-huh. Daddy was sleepy, so he took a nap. Mama already went to sleep, but before that." The girl scratched her face.
"When did your daddy go to sleep?"
The two looked at each other, and the boy whispered something in the girl’s ear before hiding behind her again. "I dunno," the girl shrugged with both hands. "Probably... probably a years ago." Millie smiled at the child's perception of time.
"So nobody takes care of you now?" Millie wanted to make sure before proceeding.
"I take care of him and he takes care of me," the girl pointed to the boy. "But sometimes it's scary." The boy nodded.
"Do you mind telling me your names? I like to know friends’ names when I talk to them." Millie smiled at the boy as he peeked shyly from behind the girl's shoulder.
"I’m Ella and he’s Joey," The girl pointed again. “We’re five, almost.”
"Are you twins?"
"Uh-huh. But I'm bigger, a little." The girl pinched her fingers together to show how much older she was.
"It's nice to meet you, Joey and Ella. Do you want to shake hands?" Millie held out her hand. Ella slowly moved forward, took Millie’s hand, and shook it heartily. Joey waved, offering a small smile.
Millie stood up. "Are you two hungry?" Both nodded vigorously. "Well, my friend Zach is over that hill, and he's got my backpack which has all our food in it. We can sit and eat and talk about some things if you’d like."
The pair exchanged another look, and Joey whispered something into Ella’s ear again. "Ok," she said finally, "That can work." Joey continued to hold onto Ella and she slipped her other hand into Millie's.
As they started up the hill, Millie remembered. "Hey, Zach?"
"Yeah?"
"Go put what you're holding back in your bag so we can talk." The last thing she needed was a gun to scare them off.
After Zach had introduced himself to the twins, Millie opened a can of soup for each.
“What happened to your hand?” Ella asked Zach.
“Well, me and Millie were walking through this town, and there was a tiger that must’ve gotten loose from the zoo.”
The twins gasped. “A TIGER?” Ella’s mouth dropped open in awe. Millie handed the twins their soup and spoons.
“Yeah, and it chased us into a store…” Zach spun the story bigger as the twins devoured the soup. “…and right when it jumped at me, fangs bared, ready to kill, I shot it dead.”
“Did it bite your hand?” Ella said, mouth full.
“No,” Millie interjected, “He cut it on some glass.”
“Big glass. Went straight through my hand almost.” Zach nodded solemnly, stretching his hands to show how big the glass was.
Millie laughed. “Whatever.”
“I think I would be a little more grateful to the one who saved your butt.” Zach folded his arms and raised an eyebrow, smirking.
Joey whispered something in his sister’s ear. “Butt’s a bad word,” Ella said matter-of-factly.
"Oh, right… You know, I heard everything that you and Millie were talking about," Zach said as the twins' ravenously ate, "And I got to thinking. Since you don't have anybody here to watch after you, why don't you two come with us?"
Ella paused, speaking with her mouth full. "Where’re you going?"
"A town in Oklahoma," Millie replied. "It’s far away, but there's people there that we would like to meet. We could be our own little group for now, though."
"Like a family?" Joey spoke for the first time; a wispy, hopeful sound.
Millie shot a glance at Zach. "Yeah, kinda like a family."
"We need our blankets, because they keep us safe, and Joey can't sleep without Roary," Ella told them as she led them down the residential street, pulling on Zach and Millie's hands. The houses were all red brick, with dead grass and built-in garages. They passed a car that had smashed into a mailbox, its mummified driver still leaned into the deflated airbag, but neither twin seemed to notice. "Our house is right over here!" Ella let go of their hands and skipped ahead, prompting Joey to run along behind. "It's this one!" They stopped in front of a small, single-story red brick house with a multitude of toys on the lawn. Zach and Millie followed the twins into the open door. A pungent musty odor washed over them as they hit the entrance, triggering their gag reflexes.
"Gah, what is that?" Zach whispered, bringing a hand to his nose as the twins disappeared down an adjacent hallway.
"Ella said that their parents went to sleep when everyone else did. They're probably still in the house." She glanced around the entry room and saw a cluster of half-empty perfume bottles on the floor by the door. "Looks like they try to mask it as best as they can. Poor things..."
Ella ran back into the room, grabbing the older travelers' hands and pulling them toward an open door. "Come sit down!"
The kitchen floor was littered with food wrappers. Candy, snack cakes, pull-tab cans, and empty chip bags lay on the floor in piles against the walls. Ella pointed to the table against the far wall. "That's where you can sit. We'll go get our stuff."
"Do you need any help?" Millie asked, taking off her backpack and sliding into an open chair.
"Nope!" As the twins set about collecting things they would need for the trip into a
pile by the front door, Zach and Millie surveyed the room.
"I'm shocked that they lasted so long on a diet like this," Zach remarked, nudging a ravioli can with his foot. He moseyed into the pantry to check out the cabinets.
"It's a wonder they lasted this long at all." Millie shook her head. "Four years old, coping with all this. I can't even imagine."
"Technically, they're ‘five, almost,’" Zach mused, "But I agree. If I were that age, I'd probably have snapped by now." He returned from the pantry carrying three cans of vegetables. "These were all I found. Looks like those two demolished anything that didn't require a can opener." He set the cans on the counter. “Beets and greens, I wouldn’t want those, either.”
"We can stop by a store on our way out.”
Suddenly, a loud rolling thud echoed down the hall. Ella ran in excitedly, pulling a red wagon. "This is our spaceship! It can carry us to the moon," She beamed up at them.
Millie grinned back, taking the handle from her. "Good thinking."
“M-O-O-N, that spells moon! My teacher Mrs. Mabrey taught us how to spell moon and sun, S-U-N.”
The pile of things that the twins "had to have" was growing by the minute. For every tiny armful of stuffed animals Ella brought in, Joey would drag up another couple of Tonka trucks.
"How are we going to tell them that we can’t bring all this?" Zach raised an eyebrow.
Millie stepped in as a load of coloring books entered the kitchen. "Hey, you two. I forgot to tell you something about the trip," she squatted down to their level, "It's going to be like a camping trip! Have you ever been on a camping trip?" Both nodded. "So you know we can't take ALL these things, right?" Their faces fell a little.
"If we put all those toys and things in the wagon, there wouldn't be any room for you. So how about we only take one toy, blanket, and pillow each? Plus some spare clothes."
The twins deliberated a moment, whispering back and forth in each other’s ears, before coming to a decision. "Ok," Ella said, "But one stuffed animal, too, okay?”
Zach grinned. “You should be a lawyer one day.” The twins systematically placed their belongings in the red wagon, leaving plenty of room. "We'd better get on. Say goodbye to here and hello to the road." Zach took the wagon handle from Millie and stepped over a trash pile, heading toward the door.
Ella's eyebrows knitted. "Goodbye to here?" She looked over at Joey, cradling a beat-up stuffed dinosaur and wearing a similar expression. Ella turned to Millie. "Will you wait please? We have to do something real quick."
"Sure, take your time."
Zach and Millie waited in the driveway for fifteen minutes for the twins to come out, hand-in-hand. Joey was hugging the dinosaur with his free arm, and Ella wore a somber face.
"Ok, we can go now," she said softly. "We said goodbye.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Heflin, LA
“Just use the charcoal starter already.” Eric stabbed the syringe into his leg, pushing the plunger down. Wind rustled the trees on either side of the narrow road, and somewhere in the distance a dog barked.
Louis blew gently on the smoldering leaves, willing the sticks to catch flame. “If we use the lighter fluid we can’t cook anything over it, it’ll release too many toxic fumes.”
Eric remove the syringe and wiped the needle off with a disinfecting wipe, putting the cap back on. He dropped it into his bag, leaning on his knees with his forearms.
“It’s getting dark,” Eric stated, stretching his arms above his head. “If we don’t have a fire, we don’t have light. Use the charcoal starter and worry about the fumes later.”
Gina sat on a log nearby, zoned out of the boys’ conversation as she breathed slowly into her oxygen mask. The dial showed that she still had a fair amount left, though she wondered how much exactly she’d need. It had been trial and error up until this point, but she knew enough to take the mask off when she started feeling lightheaded or hyperventilating. She turned off the tank and removed the mask, careful to not touch her healing burns. She sighed and reached down to pat Hank on the head. The dog had barely left her side since the reunion at the carnival, but she wasn’t complaining.
“I can do it like this just fine.” Louis struck another match and held it to the tinder. “I was in the –”
“In the Scouts,” finished Eric as he stood up, “We know.” Eric leaned down to rummage in his bag.
“Then you’ll know I know how to start a fire,” retorted Louis. “It just takes a little time, sometimes, that’s all.” Louis concentrated carefully on the tiny flame that started to burn through the tinder. His eyes lit up hopefully as it began to spread, then went out with a tiny fphbt. His face fell.
“Back up,” Eric said, suddenly closer to the fire. He popped the top to the charcoal starter and squirted it all over the tinder and kindling.
“Hey!” Louis protested, jumping back from the makeshift fire pit as the fluid caught the smoldering tinder and went up with a WHOOMPH! “You could have burned me!” The boy stood and glared at Eric.
“But I didn’t.” Eric stretched, looking over at Gina.
“Yes,” Louis said through gritted teeth, “But you could have.”
Gina stood suddenly. “I’ll be back.” She picked up her backpack and started off down the road with Hank in tow.
“Where are you going?” Eric asked.
“Bathroom,” Gina answered briskly without turning around.
“…oh.” Eric’s cheeks reddened. Gina spun on her heel and continued walking, turning onto a small gravel road.
The road turned out to be a driveway, at the end of which was a tiny red brick house. She marched onto the front porch and dropped her bag onto the ground. She reached into the front pocket and pulled out her flashlight, flipping it on. There was a long window next to the front door, so she picked up one of the faded red bricks lining the walkway and heaved it at the glass. It shattered, and she reached through to unlock the door. Once it was open she ushered Hank inside the entryway, covering the glass inside with the welcome mat. The house reeked of mothballs, and she picked up the brick as she took in the dimness of the house. Lying on the couch in the living room was a man’s corpse, raising the hair on her neck. The layout of the room and the way the corpse lay sprawled out reminded her far too much of…she turned away as a chill shot down her spine. In the kitchen, the smell of spoiled food permeated everything. Gina pulled her t-shirt up over her nose as she ventured deeper inside.
Down a hallway lay what looked to be a guest bedroom/home office. Gina set the brick on the desk against the wall and opened one of the wooden drawers, shining her flashlight into it. Inside were countless bills, as well as a stack of photos of, presumably, the old man on the couch and three small children. Gina shut the drawer and went to the closet, opening it to see stacks of board games in one corner and children’s toys in the other. The spare bed had a floral bedspread on it, and the pillows had some rogue feathers sticking out of them. Her eyes lit up as the shirt slipped off her nose. Gina tucked two pillows under her arms and grabbed the other two in either hand, heading back to the kitchen; she held her breath and opened drawers until she found a large butcher knife. She went out the back door off of the kitchen, leaving it open behind her.
Outside, she dropped one of the pillows to the ground, taking the case off of the other. She carefully held the pillow in her right hand and slammed the knife into it. She jerked the knife out, and a spray of white feathers flew from the slit. She stabbed the pillow again and again before she suddenly tossed the knife onto a red folding chair by the door and stuck her fingers into one of the slits. She pulled hard, ripping open the hole she’d made and showering the parched lawn with feathers. She re-seized the knife and repeated her actions with the other pillows, flinging the feathers around like snow. Only when the dead grass was coated in a fine layer of white did she stop and survey the feathery carnage.
Something bumped behind her and she wheeled around, knife raised. Hank smiled
up at her with that goofy dog grin of his, a tennis ball rolling slightly from where he dropped it. Gina put the knife back in the chair and picked the ball up, smiling as Hank’s entire backside began to wag.
As she moved further into the yard, Hank ran circles around Gina’s legs. She tossed it as hard as she could toward the trees that surrounded the property, and the dog took off after it. He disappeared into the underbrush and reemerged almost immediately, tearing back toward her to drop the ball at her feet. Gina’s smile widened as she picked up and threw the ball again. She wheezed slightly at the exertion, but did it repeatedly anyway, laughing to herself as Hank bounded out of the tree line like a rabbit. Finally, a coughing fit overtook her and she had to stop. She leaned over and patted Hank, scratching his side and making his foot thump. The sun began to disappear into the tree line, signaling to Gina that she should probably go back to the campsite, but she ignored it and turned to walk back through the door. She stopped suddenly as she spotted a small storage cabinet against the house. She crossed to it and pulled it open. Her eyes went immediately to a cardboard box full of old spray paint cans, so she pulled it out. Selecting a dirty can of blue and a newer can of red that matched the chair by the door, she walked around to the side of the house.
Hank lay in the grass a few feet away from Gina as she worked, gnawing on the ball and coating it in drool. Gina wheezed slightly as she reached up to dot the “i” in her name. She pulled back to inspect her masterpiece, squinting slightly in the rapidly dimming light. Gina and Hank were here. She paused for a moment and reached up again to draw a simple flower outline around the dot above the “i.” There, finished. She glanced down at Hank, still contentedly slobbering on the ball, and dropped the cans to the ground. She walked around to the front of the house and retrieved her things; she picked up another brick and hurled it through one of the living room windows just for the heck of it, grabbing another and tossing it through the other panes as well. She jumped slightly when Hank bumped the back of her knee with his wet nose, the drooly ball firmly wedged in his mouth.