by K. M. Fawkes
Brad glanced at him. “Yes. How did you know?”
“The soldiers mentioned them,” Joe said with a frown. “They seemed pretty damn scared of them.”
“They were right to be,” Brad replied. “They…they’re insane.” He shook his head. “They worship God and Satan, they think that the key to all of this is getting the two of them back together and then they’ll inherit the earth…” He gave a helpless shrug. “I don’t really get the whole philosophy.”
“How’d you hear it and get out alive?” Joe demanded. “The soldiers mentioned that they’d had men taken by them before. They never came back.”
“I found a girl who’d escaped from them,” Brad said. “They were watching me because they wanted her back.”
“Did you give her back?” Lee demanded.
“No,” Brad said flatly. “I didn’t give her back. They brand people. They brainwash them. I wasn’t gonna hand a ten-year-old kid right back to them.”
“Of course not,” Vanessa said. “But what happened to them?”
Brad sighed. “Anna took the kids and left. I thought that we had a good, defensible position but she didn’t agree.”
Lee snorted and ran his hand over the short fuzz of hair on his scalp. “You were right. Leaving would have been idiotic. Especially in this cold.”
Brad shrugged. He was getting to the part of the story that he really didn’t know how his father would deal with.
“Maybe she was right,” he said. “The Family…they burned the cabin out from under me. I barely got out alive.”
Lee’s jaw clenched, but all he said was, “Julian and Joe told me about the Family. I’d heard about them too, but I didn’t realize that it was the same group. They control something like ten miles of prime land up there. Bastards. I’d heard about some nutjob extremists living in the woods, but I figured they’d die off when shit really hit the fan. Sounds like the end of the world has been good for business.”
Brad ducked his head, petting Remington so his father wouldn’t see his smile. It was partly relief that Lee hadn’t begun to scream at him, partly genuine amusement. Nutjob extremists in the woods. If that wasn’t the pot calling the kettle black, he didn’t know what was.
“I’m surprised that they’d burn the place down,” Lee said, rubbing his chin. “They should have just taken it; it’s a good place. And then I could have taken it back when they were gone. But I guess it can’t be helped. What happened to you next? After you had to leave?”
“I started walking,” Brad said. “I was found by some men who had built a community in a retirement home. That’s where I met Jamie.”
“That where this guy came from?” Lee asked, nudging Remington with the toe of his boot.
Brad nodded. “Yeah, he was pretty persistent about leaving with me.” Not that he would have left the dog to die in the flames anyway. He would have carried Remington out no matter how the dog felt about him.
“Can’t hurt to have something at your back if you’re gonna be wandering the roads alone,” Lee agreed. “He’s a pretty good-sized dog.”
“It is nice,” Brad agreed, remembering how the dog had snuggled against him the past few nights. That probably wasn’t what his father had meant, but Remington would never be a killing machine. The best he could hope for was companionship and warmth and that was more than enough for Brad.
“Well, everything looks like it’s working out okay,” Joe said. “I think we’ll head back to our place if that’s good with you.” Julian was looking even paler and more drawn the longer he sat up. “Vanessa?”
She nodded and gave Joe a smile. “Thank you for coming over, boys.”
“You have a place of your own?” Brad asked in surprise. He had assumed everyone stayed here.
“Yeah,” Julian said. “About half a mile down the road. You would have passed it coming in if you’d taken the road, but it looks pretty abandoned, so I doubt that you would have stopped.”
“Well, that’s kind of the point,” Joe said with a grin as he stood up and put out his hand, pulling Julian to his feet. “See you later.”
The two men left to a chorus of goodbyes. Vanessa gathered up the bowls and wine glasses from the dinner they had evidently eaten while watching over Brad. When she scooped a bowl off of the floor, he realized that she had remembered to feed Remington and he gave her a smile of thanks.
“Do you want something to eat?” she asked him.
Brad’s stomach growled, but Lee waved her off. “I’ll get him something later on,” he said. “You go on up to bed, Vanessa. I know you didn’t get much sleep last night.”
After a second, she nodded. “Okay, that sounds good,” she said. “You know where everything is for supper. I’ll see you two in the morning.”
Once she had deposited the dishes in the sink and he could hear her footsteps on the stairs, Brad glanced at his father. “Do you…stay here with her?” he asked.
“No,” Lee said, shaking his head. “I have a place on the other side, but I’m not exactly in the mood for the walk right now. It’s freezing cold out there.” He stretched out in the chair, angling himself toward the fire. “What are your plans, Bradley?”
“I’ve got to find Anna and the kids,” Brad said.
“And just how are you planning to do that?”
“I know where they were headed,” he said. He didn’t want to give his father all of the details of the note that they’d left for him back in Island Falls, so he hurried on. “My best bet is to go back to the cabin…what’s left of it…and try to track them from there.”
“You know that’s a death trap.”
“Yeah,” Brad agreed. “But I don’t have a choice. They…they’re my family.”
“You’re not too far from the place. It won’t take you more than a day to get there,” Lee said. Then, after a long pause, that both of them filled by watching the fire with much more interest than they really felt, he went on. “I’d like to come with you when you go.”
“What?” Brad asked, his voice a bit louder than he had meant for it to be. He bit his lower lip, hoping that Vanessa hadn’t heard him. He didn’t want her to come back down the stairs and into the living room again. Not while he was still trying to process his father’s completely unexpected request.
Lee leaned forward, clasping his hands between his knees. The firelight played over the crag’s and planes of his face once more. He looked serious, but the disapproval that Brad was used to seeing on his father’s face wasn’t there now.
“I’d like to come with you,” he repeated. “Brad, I…I know that I wasn’t the best father to you when you were growing up.”
Brad felt his jaw drop. He had no idea what to say. Part of him, the part that had hurt for so long after his father had abandoned him, wanted to say that Lee hadn’t been a particularly good father an hour ago, either. When he had accused Brad of murdering Jamie and made him feel like shit for not doing his level best to kill the soldiers who’d come to take him to the safe house. He bit his tongue, though. It wouldn’t do either of them any good to take that walk down memory lane. He waited silently to see what his father would say.
“I never thought we’d see each other again,” Lee said once it became clear to him that Brad wasn’t going to say anything. “This…you…showing up on my doorstep… You have to understand what it’s like for me. It feels like God is giving me a second chance.”
Brad blinked, completely taken aback. His father had never been religious when Brad was a kid. Lee hadn’t spoken much of matters of faith one way or the other, except to say that it was a crutch that the weak leaned on when things got bad. He had always focused on what he could do on his own and had done his best to make sure that Brad did the same.
Then again, the end of the world as one knew it could definitely inspire a little faith. Surely there had been others who had come to a deep belief in God since all of this began. It probably wasn’t that strange. Brad shook off the worry, dismissing it as the s
hock of the unfamiliar. He had never ever expected to hear his father say anything like that, that was all.
“I’d love to have you along,” he said, realizing that his father had remained silent. For once, he had waited. He hadn’t tried to push his idea off onto Brad. He had let him be the one to make the decision. A surge of warmth that had nothing to do with the fire flooded through Brad. “It’ll be good to have someone to talk to again,” he admitted. Then he paused, thinking of Vanessa. “If you’re sure that you don’t need to stay here, that is.”
Lee shook his head. “Joe and Julian will look out for Vanessa,” he said, correctly anticipating Brad’s sudden hesitation. “I know that they like it here and Julian can’t travel anyway. I also know that Vanessa will never leave this cabin, but I never planned to stay here forever. I was planning to head back to the cabin sooner or later, but it sounds like that won’t be happening now. Be good to get one over on the bastards who put paid to that.”
There was a brief silence, but Brad decided to focus on the positives in his father’s words.
“Great,” he said. “So we’ll pack up and head out tomorrow morning—”
But Lee was shaking his head again. “I’ve got a different idea,” he said.
Brad paused, confused. “What is it?”
“I know a guy. Man named Garcia. He always knew that something like this was going to happen,” Lee said. “He made his own firearms; one that could stand up to an EMP. The ones that couldn’t were stored in Faraday cages, so everything should be working just fine. He’s been stockpiling ammo for forty years or so, and had a whole damn fleet of vehicles. Some of them are armored. Some don’t even run on gasoline.”
“And you think he’s just going to hand some of it over to you and me?” Brad asked, raising an eyebrow. His father’s friends had always been generous with the doomsday predictions. Supplies were another story, however. Some of them wouldn’t have passed a starving child a piece of beef jerky.
Lee shrugged. “He owes me a favor or two,” he said, his expression indicating that he fully intended to collect. “And you don’t want to walk back into that cult with no firepower and no getaway vehicle.”
Brad chewed his thumbnail absentmindedly. His father was right about that. The small gun he had brought along was not going to be enough, especially if the Family had been recruiting this whole time.
Having a car again sounded pretty damn good too. They’d be in out of the cold and possible rain and snow for one thing. For another, they’d be able to leave the Family behind much more quickly. Brad knew a lot of the back roads in Maine. Surely he would be able to get them away if they had a vehicle. The decision seemed pretty clear.
“Okay,” he said with a sigh. “Where does Garcia live?”
“Ashland,” Lee said.
“Ashland?” Brad repeated in surprise, his eyes widening as he looked at his father. “Lee, that’s got to be forty miles from here!”
“It’s probably a little closer to fifty,” Lee said placidly.
“Then there’s no way that we can—”
“Do you have a car that I don’t know about? Were you just walking around in this weather because you felt like having a stroll?”
“No,” Brad began. “I had a truck, but it—”
“Do you have massive amounts of firepower hiding under that jacket?”
“No,” Brad said through clenched teeth. “But I do have a tight timeline and you’re asking me to go fifty miles in the opposite direction. And that’s just one way.”
It would add days to his journey, especially if the implied vehicle didn’t pan out. Could he afford to take the time, knowing that Anna, Sammy, and Martha would be struggling along in the frigid temperatures? Or worse, that they were in the hands of a cult?
Lee sighed and rubbed his hand over his head again. “Yeah,” he said. “I am asking you to go a few days out of the way. I know that you want to get back to your family as soon as you can, but what good are you gonna do them if that cult kills you?”
Brad was silent for a long moment, wrestling with the decision. There were negatives on both sides. But which ones were more damaging?
Finally, feeling cornered, he nodded begrudgingly. “Okay, fine. We’ll go to Ashland.”
Lee grinned at him. “Perfect. I hoped you’d make the right choice.”
Brad gritted his teeth. Ashland was one thing, but maybe this hadn’t been the right decision, letting his father travel with him. On the other hand, the thought of some weapons and a vehicle was too good to pass up. He really didn’t want to walk all the way out to the cabin and then all of the way back. Especially since he fully planned to have two kids with him on the return trip.
“We’ll have to make sure that we hurry,” was all he said in response.
Lee nodded. “Of course. Make sure that you get some good rest tonight. We’ll leave at sunrise.”
Chapter 7
“Are you really sure that you want to do this?” Vanessa asked for the fourth time in as many minutes.
Honestly, the answer was no, but Brad saw how deeply her fingers were buried in the golden’s fur as she asked. She clearly wanted him to be very sure.
Alone in the lower floor of the cabin last night after Lee had left him to go pack, Brad had wandered around, looking at the things that Vanessa still displayed. There were several old pictures on the mantelpiece above the fireplace. Lars stood with his arm around Vanessa in most of them.
Some of them also showed a big golden dog who looked like a shaggier version of Remington. Both of them had clearly doted on the creature. The feeling had been mutual, if the dog’s lolling tongue in every photo was any indication. He had accompanied them on every trip they took for what looked like well over a decade.
Brad had glanced down at the sleeping retriever. He really had thought about taking Remington to Sammy and he knew that the boy would be thrilled if he did. However, he was facing a fifty-mile hike one way. The snow wouldn’t do the dog any good, even with his paws wrapped to protect against the weather.
And if he did run into the Family again…who knew what they would do to the animal. He hadn’t seen any pets at the compound when he’d been there before, and it wasn’t as though they could be made to worship the gods the cultists had cobbled together. He didn’t want to see Remington hurt if the fanatics decided that he wasn’t useful.
When Vanessa had come down the stairs to wait with Brad for Lee to arrive, he had asked her how she felt about keeping Remington. Her face had lit up so suddenly and thoroughly that he knew that he had made the right choice.
It didn’t make it any easier to lose the first animal companion he’d had in a long time though. Before Anna, Sammy, and later Martha had come into his life, he had always been closer with animals than people. He had a lump in his throat even now as he nodded in assent to Vanessa’s question.
“Yeah, I’m still sure. We’ve got a pretty long walk ahead.” He forced a smile so that she would stop looking so concerned about him. “Anyway, a cult is no place for a dog.”
“It’s no place for you either,” Vanessa said, ignoring his nervous joking and getting right to the heart of the matter. “I hope that you find your family, Brad, I really do.” She paused and then went on before he could thank her. “If you need a place to stay once you have then please feel free to stop back by here. I won’t point a shotgun at any of you this time, I promise.”
“Thank you,” Brad said honestly. It was good to know that there were still people in the world who didn’t want him dead. “We’re probably going to head further south and see what’s down there, but I’ll keep that in mind in case we need a layover with the kids.” He gave her a smile. “I’ll try to bring some supplies to repay what you’ve fed me too.”
She returned the smile. “You don’t have to do that,” she said. “I’m pretty well set. It was just me for a long time.” Vanessa glanced out of the window. “It looks like it’s time for you to head out.”
; Brad held his hand out and she put hers into it and they shook hands.
“Thanks for the stew,” he said. “And for the muscle relaxers. They really did help my back.”
She laughed. “All’s well that ends well then, I guess. Be safe out there.”
When Brad glanced out of the window, he could see that Lee was coming up the walk. He was dressed in enough layers to pad out his lean form and with the cap pulled down over his ears, Brad could almost imagine him looking twenty years younger. This would be like one of their treks into the woods when Brad had been a child. They’d walked for miles while Lee taught him how to read a compass and a map. How to tell time by the position of the sun and the stars, and his direction from how the moss grew on the trees.
Brad had tried so hard to remember the facts Lee had drilled into him. It wasn’t so much that he wanted to make his father proud—he’d given up on that hope when he was fairly young. It was more so because he couldn’t stand the way Lee’s disappointment felt in the pit of his stomach.
He shook the feeling away when it cropped up again. He was a grown man now, for God’s sake. He knew plenty. He’d survived just like his father had. It wasn’t a matter of one of them being an authority over the other. He wouldn’t let it be. Not anymore.
It was an even playing field between them now and Brad was determined to make sure that Lee knew it. He wasn’t going to be degraded and talked down to for the duration of this journey. Not after everything he’d been through to get here.
He pulled his jacket on and then tugged his pack up onto his shoulders, tightening the straps so that they wouldn’t slide and cause him more pain in the long run. Remington started over, but Brad ordered him to stay. Then he knelt and wrapped his arms around the big, warm dog. Remington snuffled at his jacket curiously, checking for any foreign smells that Brad might have encountered since the last time he had sniffed at his jacket.
Brad pushed the door open and gave Vanessa a quick, final wave. Then he went out onto the porch before he could second-guess himself and call for Remington to follow him.