Born and Raised

by R A Doty

  “Where do you think he’s going, Luke?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m surprised his daddy isn’t watching him like a hawk. See him in the bedroom window?”

  Dan raised a pair of binoculars toward the house. “The boss man usually watches everyone like a hawk, especially his wife. He doesn’t let her out of his sight.” He noticed his employer’s wife moving around the bedroom. “Speaking of which.” The woman was wearing a white, see-through nightgown. Dan was partial to long-haired women, but even with short hair she got his heart pounding. “How do you suppose a jerk like Steinberg ends up with a beautiful woman like Monica?”

  “Power my boy. In the old days it was money, now it’s power. If you’ve got something the world needs, you can pretty much have anything you want.”

  “And where would he be without us guarding everything he owns?”

  “I suppose you’ve got to ask yourself, where would we be without him?”

  Dan lowered the binoculars. “Please... if you think about it, what the heck do we need him for? The estate is fenced in, stocked with wildlife that we maintain, has enough crops to last a lifetime, and is powered with solar electricity. It isn’t like he pays us for taking care of everything while he plays scientist in the lab. For Christ’s sake, what’s he really do, bring back a few extinct species just so we can have something else to take care of? If you ask me, he needs us more than we need him.”

  “Maybe so, Danny boy, but right now he’s calling the shots and if it wasn’t for him taking us in, we’d probably have starved to death. And besides, bringing back those extinct species might just save the human race.”

  “Yeah well, he took us in five years ago. How long do we have to repay him? I don’t know, it just irks me sometimes. He gets to live in a mansion with a beautiful wife, half his age no less, and a son, and we have to protect him like he’s some kind of god. It just doesn’t seem fair, Luke.”

  “Is anything fair anymore?” Luke points to the cloud of black smoke rising over the city. “Is it fair that somewhere over there somebody’s trying to survive when you know damned well the chances are nil? I don’t know about you, but I’m staying right here.”

  “Well for one thing, the odds of anyone still being alive in the city are probably slim-to-none, so I doubt very much if anybody is struggling to survive. And for another thing, if we did go back to the city, at least we’d have more of a chance of meeting some women.”

  Luke raised his binoculars. “If it’s a woman you want to meet, looks like you might get your chance.”

  A CADAVEROUS WOMAN, stumbling through overgrown weeds and thickets, made her way toward the fence. She raised her hand when she saw the boy, with the other hidden behind her back. She smiled when she noticed he was gnawing on a link of sausage.

  “Excuse me, son. Could you spare something to eat?” She reached for the fence with one of her hands, but decided against touching it when she heard what sounded like the humming of electricity. Her other hand was hidden behind her back. “I hate to ask, but I haven’t eaten in days, and I’m not sure how much longer I can survive.”

  The boy looked down at his sausage link.

  “You must be Mr. Steinberg’s son,” the woman said, eyeballing the boy’s food. “I used to work with your father, years ago. He’s a wonderful man, and I’d love to meet him again, just to say hello.”

  Thomas Steinberg did employ the woman and promised to accommodate her, and many of his other staff members, at his estate when the city got to the point where it became too dangerous to live. One afternoon when their office building was broken into, he fled to the rear door and left everyone behind. Most of his employees were murdered and raped, and he had assumed none of them survived. But the woman outside his fence, now talking to his son, did survive. The boy walked over to the gate and the woman’s eyes widened. She hadn’t expected to actually be let inside the Steinberg compound, but she figured she would give it a try just the same. Maybe Steinberg would remember her and show some compassion. Bullshit, she thought. Compassion my ass. What she really wanted was revenge.

  “What’s your name, son? Mine’s Margaret.”

  “My name’s Joshua, but everyone calls me Josh.”

  Margaret stepped closer to the gate, where Josh was fumbling with the latch. “That’s a fine name, Joshua. I had a son about your age. How old are you anyway?” Margaret thought of the last time she saw her son. She remembered the deafening pounds on their apartment door, and how she grabbed him and ran to the bedroom while her husband waited for the intruders with a baseball bat gripped tight in his hands. While hiding in the closet, she heard the entrance door to the apartment break open. After hearing an obvious struggle that her husband had made to protect his family, everything went silent. Anger raced through her body, remembering what happened next, as the boy on the other side of the gate tried to open the lock.

  “I’m nine,” Josh said, trying to recall the combination. He never had to open the lock, so it wasn’t fresh in his mind. His parents only told him the combination in case he needed to escape in a hurry.

  “My boy was nine, too,” Margaret said, her pleasant voice changing to a tone filled with hate. She remembered trying to hold the closet door shut and begging for her and her son to be left alone, but the intruders pulled them out and threw them on the bed. They circled her and her son like wild jackals going in for the kill. They grabbed the boy first and pushed him to the floor. Three men and one woman pounced on him. Clothes were torn away and then flesh. Margaret screamed until a fourth man jumped on the bed with her. Her life was spared because she had more to offer, so they kept her until she recently escaped. Not a day went by that she didn’t think about the promise that her employer had broken. With nothing else to live for, she had been waiting patiently for this moment to arrive. “Take your time, Joshua, I’m in no hurry.”

  “Got it,” Josh said, opening the lock. The woman slowly removed her hand from behind her back. Sunlight reflected from the knife’s large blade.

  “NOW WHO DO YOU SUPPOSE she is?” Dan said, eyeballing the woman. “She ain’t bad looking, but she does look kinda sickly.”

  Luke focused the binoculars on the woman’s face. “Well I doubt very much if old Steinberg is expecting any company.”

  “Then why’s Josh letting her in?”

  “Shit!” Luke shouted, noticing the woman holding the knife over her head.

  Josh opened the gate and turned to hand the woman his sausage. He never noticed the knife in her hand, because his attention was drawn to the red dot on the center of her forehead.

  AFTER GETTING DRESSED and slipping her nightgown into the dresser drawer, Monica glanced at the window before leaving the bedroom. She noticed Josh approaching the gate, and then she saw the woman he was walking toward. She stepped closer to the window to get a better look and instinctively started shaking her head, as if she could somehow project her thoughts to her son, warning him not to open the gate. She started to call for her husband, but stopped when she heard the gunshot.

  Josh stood petrified when the woman’s head exploded in front of him. Brain matter, skull fragments, and more blood than he had ever seen, covered the entire length of his body. The smell was horrible, and when he looked at his blood-covered hands, he emptied the contents of his stomach. Within minutes, his parents were rushing toward him from the house.

  Thomas Steinberg surveyed the scene, wondering what the hell had happened, while his wife tried her best to comfort their son. In the distance, Luke came running toward the gate with his brother not far behind. Both men slowed their pace when they noticed Steinberg’s glare, and stopped just before reaching him. Luke glanced at the woman’s headless body on the outside of the fence and couldn’t help but smirk with pride at the precision of his shot.

  Steinberg stepped toward the two brothers as his wife ushered their son to the house. “Where the hell were you idiots? Isn’t it your responsibility to prevent things like this from happening? If you�
��re not going to do your job then trust me, I’m sure there’s plenty of volunteers out there that would love to trade places with you.”

  “Who do you think–” Dan started to say, beginning to defend himself and his brother, but Luke stopped him with a hand on the shoulder and a shake of his head.

  Steinberg began to walk away but turned to Luke and Dan one last time. “Do you think you can at least clean this mess up? And please make sure the goddamned gate is locked. Can you handle that?”

  With raised eyebrows, Dan smiled at his older brother, whose face was red with anger. “Nice shot, bro. But now what am I gonna do for a wife?”

  “And don’t forget to water the damned garden today,” Steinberg yelled, without looking back.

  Luke raised his weapon and focused the scope so the red dot was in the center of the back of his employer’s head. “Pow,” he whispered.

  MONICA HAD ALREADY removed her son’s clothes by the time her husband entered the bathroom. “Are you sure he’s not hurt, Tom?”

  “He’s fine, Monica. Why don’t you make yourself useful and fill up the tub.”

  As his mother turned on the tub’s faucets and checked the temperature of the water, Josh stood naked in the center of the room, listening to the water splash into the tub. His light blond hair was matted with blood. He couldn’t get the image of the woman’s exploding face out of his mind. The taste of her blood was still on his tongue. He lunged to the toilet and threw up. His mother rushed to his side and rubbed his back.

  “It’s okay, honey. Let it all out.”

  Josh started to cry, so his mother helped him to his feet and gave him a hug.

  Thomas watched with folded arms across his chest. “It isn’t going to help matters any if you keep babying him. If he’s to learn how to survive, he’d better toughen up.”

  Monica glared at her husband. “He’s just a boy, Tom! Can you please throw his clothes in the trash while I give him a bath?”

  Thomas shook his head, grabbed the clothes, and left the bathroom.

  After bathing her son, Monica made a cup of tea for them both and sat with him in the breakfast nook. His silence alarmed her. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

  Josh stared down at the light brown tea, swirling in his cup. He remembered the exact sound of the woman’s voice as she begged him for food, the tattered clothes she wore, the stench surrounding her, and the dirt under her nails. He wanted to tell his mother everything about her, and how he just wanted to help, but he needed to forget about her more. He silently shook his head, staring at his untouched cup of tea.

  “I understand, sweetie.” Monica got up from the stool. Come on, why don’t you lie down for awhile.”

  WITH HER SON UPSTAIRS, napping comfortably, Monica charged to her husband’s office. She barged into the room and shut the door behind her. “I need to know how this happened, Tom. It traumatized our son, he’s covered in blood? She waited for her husband’s reply, both hands spread out on his desk.

  Thomas slowly pulled his gaze away from a laptop and stared up at his wife. “It’s apparent that our son almost let in a knife-wielding outsider. If it weren’t for Luke and his brother, as incompetent as they seem most of the time, he’d probably be dead right now.”

  “Why would he let anyone in? He knows better.”

  “I guess that’s the ultimate question, my dear. You talked to him, did he say why he was so openly willing to risk all of our lives for a stranger? And as far as the blood, like I said, Luke and Dan had to eradicate the woman by any means possible. If they weren’t such idiots I suppose they could have found a more acceptable way of resolving the problem, but they are what they are.”

  “Tom, I’m getting worried. What if Luke and Dan weren’t there? What if an intruder somehow managed to get inside? Is it really safe to be here anymore?”

  “It is for now, but I can’t guarantee for how long. I suppose if enough of the outsiders banned together they could probably manage to penetrate the fence.”

  “Oh my God. Are you serious? What are we gonna do?” Monica grabbed a chair and slid it up to the desk. She sat and focused on her husband’s face.

  Thomas noticed his wife’s hands trembling on top of the desk. He reached out and held them. “Don’t worry, we’ll be okay for a while. We’ve got plenty of weapons to ward off an attack for now.”

  “And what do we do when the weapons are gone? Isn’t there a better place than this, maybe something not so close to the city? Tom, I’m frightened.”

  Thomas stood and walked to the window. Two hundred acres of farmland and woods stretched out before him. Almost every species of wildlife that existed in what was once known as the state of Massachusetts roamed his estate, and with an extensive collection of DNA from almost every species of mammal that once inhabited North America, he alone possessed the knowledge to create new species at will. In a world where food had become a rarity, and the human race was on the verge of extinction, he considered himself a God. And why shouldn’t he? He may very well be one of the select few, if not the only one, who had the common sense to prepare for what was inevitably coming. He was proud of what he had created as he stared out across the green pastures, but in the distance loomed the city, a symbol of what the world had become. No amount of planning or knowledge could keep it out forever. Even he had to admit that. He turned back to his wife.

  “I’m in the process of negotiating a deal to live in a place where we’ll never have to worry about our safety again.”

  A sense of relief became evident on Monica’s face. She always believed her husband was a genius and she had no reason now, nor in the past, to ever doubt him. Their lavish lifestyle was proof enough that she could blindly follow him wherever he went. “Oh thank God, Tom. Where is this place and when can we go?”

  “It’s a self-contained island named Ancada that’s just off the coast. I think we’ll be safe there. All I have to do in return for them allowing us to live there is teach them how to produce their own wild and domesticated livestock with the specimens I’ve collected.”

  Chapter Nine

  WITH THE THORPES NOW settled into their new home, Cole thought it might be a good time to teach them how to acquire food from the ocean—one could only survive on a diet of rats for just so long. With all the other animal species nearly extinct, except for some of the birds and a few predatory mammals like wild dogs, there weren’t too many other options. Even many of the oceanic species that were once a mainstay in the human diet, such as shrimp, haddock, and lobster were harvested to the point of near extinction. It was now more of a challenge and a necessity, rather than a sport, to catch anything from the ocean. Fortunately for the Thorpes, the best way to go about this was to do it exactly like our prehistoric ancestors did, which didn’t require a fancy pole or reel. This is where Cole excelled as a survivalist. He believed everything one needed to survive could be found in nature or crafted by hand. He emerged from the forest and walked up to Samuel and Stevie carrying three saplings, approximately two inches in diameter, and handed one to each of them.

  “What’s this for?” Samuel asked, eyeballing the stick. Stevie held his like a javelin.

  “I’m gonna show you fellas how to catch dinner from the ocean, and we’re gonna start by making a fishing spear.”

  Stevie looked at his father and shrugged his shoulders with a smile.

  Cole continued. “The first thing we need to do is cut the wide end of the stick into a blunt point.” All three of them pulled out a Bowie knife. Samuel and Stevie’s attention turned to Cole’s knife when he pulled it from the sheathe.

  “Jesus, Cole,” Stevie said, in awe of the size of Cole’s knife. That looks more like a sword.”

  Cole smiled.

  After they each shaved a point on the end of the stick, Cole continued.

  “Now carefully split the end of the point into four sections.” Cole demonstrated, and then watched Samuel and his son. “Now jam two twigs into the splits to spread them op
en and then lash the twigs in place with twine, like this.” After wrapping his twigs in place, Cole handed Samuel and Stevie a long piece of twine. He waited while they twisted the string around their twigs. “Now all you have to do is sharpen the four points and we’ve got ourselves some spears. Let’s go fishing.”

  Stevie smiled when he looked at his spear. He felt a sense of satisfaction, having created it with his own hands. He jerked it back and forth over his head, practicing his technique. When they got to the water, he was the first one in. He dived and surfaced, and then stood chest deep into the ocean, waiting for the next lesson from Cole.

  “You’re a little too deep,” Cole said. Come closer to the shoreline.”

  “There aren’t any fish up there, it’s too shallow.”

  “You’d be surprised how many fish are right under your feet. All you need is a keen eye and a little patience.” Cole submerged the tip of his spear into the water and studied the sandy bottom, just a few feet deep. “You have to stand perfectly still and let them come to you.” After about five minutes, he thrust the spear downward and pulled out a bluefish. “Like that,” he said, holding the wiggling fish high in the air.”

  “Hey,” Stevie said, “how’d you do that?”

  “Just like I told you. Be patient and let them come to you.”

  Little Jessie ran from the house with the screen door slamming behind her and raced toward the beach with her stuffed bear, Walter, tucked under her arm. The flagstone steps were warm under her bare feet. She walked up to the edge of the water and watched the men as they stood quietly staring down with their spears in their hands. “Watcha looking for, Daddy?”