by S A Ison
“What do you think everyone is doing right now?” she asked quietly.
“If they’ve not killed each other, then they may have split into small groups, dividing. I think maybe if they are smart, they’ll stick with Leo. I’m sorry, I never asked if you wanted to stay there. It just got ugly quick and I know from experience that it can go from ugly to deadly in a heartbeat.”
“No, I’m glad to be away from that. No one really wanted to listen to you. Especially Connor.”
“The thing is this Sarah, you and I have worked hard to gather, hunt and take care of ourselves. Those people have no clue and they are used to using up resources fast without thought or care. They think they are entitled to other’s foods, because there is food. If we stuck around, they’d feel entitled to our food, even though we were the ones who busted our asses for it. They’d expect us to feed them. It is going to be hard for us to survive with just the two of us. But if we are smart and careful Sarah, I think we can.”
“Do you think we can help them at some point? Maybe show them how to hunt? What plants to eat?”
“Maybe, but it won’t be anytime soon, they are in panic mode right now. When we go back in four days, we’ll see how everyone is acting. We can bring some sample plants, but we’ll tell them to go in a different direction and to spread out, otherwise, they will chew through their resources and there will be nothing left.”
For the rest of the evening, they ate their meal in silence, each in their own thoughts. He was right she knew. It had taken them hours to find food just for the two of them. There was no way they could feed twenty-one people. That thought was so overwhelming, it was inconceivable.
She was sure that Connor and Matt would want it that way, for them to do the work, while they kicked back and ate the fruit of their labor. To be their slaves. That wasn’t how she wanted to spend the rest of her life. Trying to feed people who had no desire to learn how to feed themselves.
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His mind was spinning in circles. Shit had erupted so quickly. He knew he shouldn’t have been surprised, but he had been. He’d been right about Connor. What an asshat. The man was going to be trouble, he had no doubt about that. He’d have to watch over Sarah, she was his main priority. That and finding a safe place and secure place. Far the hell away from all that drama.
He’d not been exaggerating about the hell that was going to break loose. People went crazy without food. These people were supposed to be survivalist. Most weren’t. He felt sure Leo would be, and Diana. The rest, he was dubious. Christ, a fucking EMP. What were the odds?
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Marla sat in her camp chair and watched the mayhem. Diana had cleaned her hand; Marla had cut it on a rock when Matt had shoved her down. It had shaken her to her very core, the rush of ferocity within a split second. William, Henry, Gabe, Leo and Hunter stood around her as well as Christian and the cameramen.
They were silent as they watched the rest of the group lose their minds and were now plundering all the boxes. Marla knew without a doubt that if any of them stepped in now, they’d be killed. She shook her head as she watched many running off with an armload of whatever they could get their hands on, their eyes were wild and rolling around, like animals.
There had been fist fights between Matt and Connor, then Connor and Joey, and Abby even got into the fighting. Carol was bloody, and her eyes were wild, but she was clutching three MREs and Vana was clutching two, her arm around Carol.
Marla shook her head in amazement and also fear. Her whole body was still trembling and she could feel the quivering in Diana, as the woman worked on her hand. If someone would have told her this would happen, she’d have called them a liar, no one would go crazy like this in a matter of minutes. And yet, within seconds of them learning what had happen, these people had reverted to animals, primitive beings.
She’d never in her life seen anything like it, except perhaps on Black Friday. Those fools were completely nuts, and she looked at these people in front of her with distain and fear. Her dark eyes went from face to face and slowly they began to disappear into the woods with their prizes, like craven animals, feral and mindless.
“I’ve never seen anything so horrible.” She said softly to no one in particular, her voice shaking badly.
“It’s only going to get worse, if we can’t get out of here in four days, we are screwed. Every one of them will be a serious threat.” Leo said softly, his dark eyes watching Marla’s face.
“You truly think what Aiden said is true? You think there was an EMP?” Christian asked Leo, his face a sickly white.
Leo nodded, “yeah, it makes sense, you said you lost the power to your tablets at the same time and you guys lost the power to your cameras?”
The three cameramen nodded. Leo shrugged and turned away.
“Where are you going Leo?” Marla asked, fear lacing her voice, causing it to go higher.
“I’m going to go get my shit and disappear into the woods. I really don’t want to be around for what’s coming next. When they eat all their food, and they will tonight, there will be nothing left. They will come looking for you and Christian and they’re going to blame you two.” Leo explained.
“Why on earth would they blame us? We’re stuck here too.” Marla said, now very frightened.
“They have no clue how to survive, and they are going to be afraid. Fearful people are stupid, and they do stupid things as you just saw. Stupid people are very dangerous. When they come back down here looking for more food, they aren’t going to find it, but they will find you guys, even your cameramen. I suggest you go and find a place to chill for the next few days.”
“Leo, we don’t know how to survive on our own, and I hate to ask it, but can we come with you? We’ll try to be as helpful as we can, but honestly, I have no idea what to do.” Marla said, her voice breaking and she looked around her, her eyes filling with tears. Her trembling hand went up to her mouth, trying to hold back the sobs. She was trying desperately not to panic, not to let the fear overtake her.
“Maybe we should stick together, just us, I think Aiden had it right, getting out of here quick. We are a big enough group, we can repel them if they try anything. Why not just stay here Leo? We can watch each other’s backs.” Diana suggested, her hand comfortingly resting on Marla’s shoulder, holding that fear at bay.
Everyone’s eyes were on Leo, and he looked around him. Marla held her breath, she prayed that he would stay. Then he nodded his head and she let out a heavy breath.
“Thank you, Leo, thank you so much.” She wanted to throw herself into his arms, but she didn’t. She looked at everyone, then she looked back at Leo.
“Leo, I’d say you are now our leader, tell us what you want us to do and we’ll do it. I hate to put the burden of our lives in your capable hands, but until some of us learn how to survive this, we’ll have to lean on you. Maybe when Aiden and Sarah come back, we can figure something out.” She said, looking up at the tall man.
If she’d not been sitting in the camp chair, she was sure she would have fallen at his feet and curled around them. Her mind was even now trying to understand the vast ramifications of what had happened. It was beyond her and that scared the hell out of her.
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“Well hell, this isn’t what I signed up for, but okay, let’s get the camp together, and also, look for anything that can be used as a weapon.”
“A weapon?” Christian asked, surprised.
“Christian, when they come back down, they’ll be like locusts. If we have any food what so ever, are you willing to give it over to them? If you are, then you can leave this group. I fight for what is mine, and now that our very lives are at stake, I will kill for what is ours.” Leo said, his voice low and deadly. He watched as the color drained from Christian’s face. He didn’t think Christian was used to dealing with many black people, he seemed intimidated by them and a small smile curved his lips, he found a perverse pleasure in it.
“Buddy, if the shit
really has hit the fan, you can damn well be certain they will be coming to get what ever they can. Most of them hadn’t even eaten in three days. Me and Gabe found some of our gathered food stolen, just like Sarah. So that means we have to guard our shit.” Henry said, his eyes going from person to person in the group, his Massachusetts’s accent very heavy now. Everyone was nodding.
“I don’t know if I can kill someone.” Christian said, his eyes looking around.
“Then you’ll be dead soon enough Christian if you don’t man up.” Marla said cruelly.
“Fuck you Marla.” Christian started to say and then Leo laid a large hand on the man’s shoulder and squeezed gently, a small threat.
“We don’t need to fight amongst ourselves. We have enough to worry about. Let’s get this camp together. See what we have to work with. Maybe they left some food. It is getting dark, why don’t you guys get more firewood, let’s keep this fire going. Save everything, we can see if we can repurpose it. We don’t want anything to go to waste, this will be all we have, perhaps for the rest of our lives.” Leo ordered and watched as everyone got busy, straightening up the camp and the discarded containers and boxes.
Diana and William looked at Leo and his brow went up. “I think we are at least safe with the medical supplies. We’ll need to guard those. They were after the food, but if one of them gets hurt, they’ll be back for the medical supplies.” Diana thought aloud.
Leo nodded, “Good thinking. Okay, let’s get ourselves organized and let’s get some weapons. See what we can cannibalize out of what is left of the crates, I’m sure some of those nails are sharp as hell.” He grinned.
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“I left my family for this?” Gabe said brokenly, as he picked up the pieces of wreckage around the camp. He and Henry were working together to gather up anything they could find. His mind was frozen in grief, he would not see his young wife, Donna, nor their nine-year-old son, Jackson.
He tried to swallow down the grief, but it was choking him. He felt Henry’s hand on his back patting him. He’d come to this place for a chance to put their family in a better situation. They lived in Colorado and he’d wanted to move them out and into a cabin, to live a simpler life, away from the city and into the woods. Their small apartment had been closing in on him and he saw this as a chance to get them out of there. Now, they would live without him, never knowing what had happened to him. He didn’t know if the EMP had hit them, and if their lives were going to turn into this madness, only on a bigger scale.
He dropped to his knees and began to weep, and he could feel Diana, Marla, Henry and Hunter around him, he could hear their words but his brain couldn’t comprehend them. He thought that he might go crazy with grief. He felt them all slip away to leave him to his pain. It was something he knew he must endure. He pictured their faces, and buried his face in his hands, he lost himself and gave into the anguish.
CHAPTER SIX
They had walked nearly three hours northeast, they’d passed the nut tree they’d found the previous day and had seen more of the Macaque. Aiden knew they would need to set a trap or practice, because they were going to become a mainstay. They came to a small clearing and Aiden pointed over to a low rise that held a rock formation. He pointed and smiled.
“I saw this just before we found the soapberries. Let’s go take a closer look. We can take all the stuff we’ve found and if it is a good cave, we can call it home.” He grinned at Sarah, whose cheeks were flushed pink.
“Good, I’m about tired of carrying all of this.” She laughed. He grinned at her, she’d picked up more plants and tubers. Her arms were full and her backpack bulged as did his. They climbed steadily, and finally made it to the rock formation. It was quiet here, there were stunted scrub bushes around the rock face, along with saplings and heavy long grasses. They walked around the rockface, moving around stands of low trees, saplings and pushing past the bushes. There was a tall thin crack in the rock, they could see it above the dense bushes. Aiden took off his backpack and looked at Sarah.
“Okay, I think there might be an opening here, see that crack up there, it looks like it goes all the way down, keep an eye out for snakes.” He grinned at her, he pushed some of the branches and split the leaves and looked through. He looked back and waggled his eyebrows and slid farther in. He started shaking his body wildly and screaming, he heard Sarah cry out and pulled his head back out grinning. “Just kidding.” He laughed.
“You god damn asshole, you scared the shit out of me.” But she was laughing at him and her face was bright red, matching her hair. She shook her head and gave him a hard shove. He sniggered once more then turned and put his hands on the branches to separate them. He pushed and shoved, and made his way into the crevasse. He felt a sharp poke on his ass and laughed. He backed out and looked at Sarah.
“Is that a stick you poked me with or are you just happy to see me?” He laughed and she again turned bright red. “Looks like a good-sized cave. Let me make a fire, and I’ll make up a couple of torches and we can go in and look around.”
“Oh good, hopefully it’s empty and no bats.” She grinned, dropping her load onto the ground. She sat down and watched him. She added small sticks as he got it going. He had made a fire starter with a stick and a length of cord he had filched from the main camp. He had invoked the age-old finders/keepers maxim and had grinned.
He worked it back and forth quickly and she blew gently. She then added some pine needles she’d brought with her. Soon smoke was rising up and then small flames licked up and consumed the pine needles. He could smell the resin released from them. Soon, a good fire was going. He retrieved one of the pine branches that was now aflame, and Sarah latched onto his beltloop and followed him in.
Aiden grinned to himself as he went forward, pulling Sarah along. The cave went in about five feet before it opened up, they both stood for a moment quiet and listening to the silence. Aiden lifted the torch high, he looked up and the ceiling of the cave only went up about ten feet and no bats. They went in farther, he could still feel Sarah’s hands on his jeans.
He waved the torch around and looked down at the ground. It was sandy. They moved around and there were no other openings or crevices. It wasn’t small, but it also wasn’t huge. It looked like the cave went back about thirty feet, and they moved slowly. It sloped downward near the back. It was about twenty feet across though it was hard to determine with the irregular shape of it and some areas came in low.
It didn’t smell like animals had been in there, he raised his torch to some of the lower walls and saw cracks in them, some several inches wide, some nearly a foot wide. He set the torch near one of the cracks and saw that the torch flickered wildly. This told him that air was coming in. That was good, they could easily set up a fire pit here and not have the cave fill with smoke.
The ground was fairly level but here and there, were rock formations jutting out of the cave floor. He was glad the cave wasn’t dank or wet, that could mean mold growth, and he’d not want to breathe that in. All in all, a very good cave for their purposes.
“I think we’ve found our new home.” He said grinning down at her.
It took about an hour to bring their things in and clear out enough of the heavy bush to make more light come into the crack at the front of the rockface. They also brought in more wood for fire and set several fires at each end of the cave to light it up. They used the cracks to set the fires under, it was spread out enough to ensure lighting within.
He watched the smoke filter out and was pleased he’d been right. It was a natural suction. They dumped their backpacks of their contents, and stacked the food to one side. They put their clothing on the raised rock formations. It wasn’t perfect, but it was close to it.
“I think we should make some kind of door or barricade while we aren’t here. I don’t want some animal getting in here and getting to what ever food we’ve managed to secure.” Aiden said, as he and Sarah were drinking ginger and berry tea. She had made a batch
of it as he was settling everything. His voice bounced off the walls, and he lowered his voice, shrugging with an apology.
“I can look for some vines and maybe tie stout straight branches together. I was thinking, when we go back to the main camp in three days, I want to dig through their garbage again and get the rest of those bottles. We can fill up at the waterfall on our way back.” Sarah suggested.
“Good idea, but I think we can find a small waterfall around this area, I saw some lush growth about a half mile from here, it is in a kind of valley, that usually means water and because of all these cliffs and rock faces, I’m hoping there is something there we can use. After we drink this, lets go and take the soapberries and wash our spare clothing at the small pond we passed. That way, they should be dry by tomorrow. Maybe we can find watercress as well. And aren’t cattails edible?”
“Yes, depending on what part you are wanting to use, you can eat the top, before it turns brown. You can use the pollen on the top stick part and the tender shoots inside are good fried. Some of the people where I use to live.” She paused and swallowed hard, looking at him, blinking rapidly to fight the tears. After a moment, she continued, “people would gather that in the early spring and also fiddleheads, off of new ferns. We can check for those as well, in the spring. We can pull up some of the cattails and strip away the outer leaves and get to the tender shoots. We can also use the interior fluff of the cat tail as well.”
“Did I ever tell you how glad I am that you’re my partner?” he laughed, shaking his head.
“I forgot all about that, with all this going on, I’d forgotten about all the uses and that we could eat it. Also, I can use the leaves to weave the door for the cave. What do you think everyone is doing?”
“I’d hate to even think about it. I’m sure the ones who took the MREs have eaten every single one of them and so now they have nothing and no one they can steal from.” Aiden said, the last part had a bit of sting to it. It still made him angry to think about their behavior, it wasn’t even minutes before Connor and Matt had dove into madness and violence.