by Urban, Tony
They were. Barb, Pete, and Allie were grouped together a few yards back. Wyatt pushed his brother and the two, plus the dog, brought up the rear.
Satisfied that all were accounted for, Trooper turned his attention forward and he saw River half a football field away, resting against a tree. A break seemed like a good idea as his own lungs were burning from the sudden exercise, made even worse as he hadn’t been granted a minute of sleep.
After another thirty seconds, Trooper arrived at the tree and found River holding his dick in his hand as a weak stream of urine trickled out.
“Good, you made it. Let’s go.” River tucked himself back into his pants, not minding the fact that he was still leaking.
He moved to resume his run but Trooper grabbed a handful of his filthy shirt and held tight. “Hold on. We’re not going a step further until you explain some shit.”
River bounced on his feet, head snapping side to side, up and down. He was spooked, and he probably had good reason to be.
“Not safe here,” River said.
Trooper stared him down as the others caught up.
“What’s going on, Trooper?” Wyatt asked.
“It’s not a good place. Those monsters--”
Trooper pulled him closer, their faces only a few inches apart. River’s noxious body odor was like soft cheese gone rancid mixed with chicken manure. Trooper regretted getting so close but he wasn’t about to show weakness.
“If you don’t start talking sense, it’s not them you have to worry about. I’ll kill you myself.”
The man stopped bouncing, stopped his furtive glances. His eyes were locked onto Trooper’s, understanding that he meant it.
“Alright, what do you want to know?”
“Who the hell are you?”
“My friends call me River.”
“River?” Seth asked.
River smiled. It wasn’t a pretty sight. “Cause I’m always runnin’.”
“So, River. What the fuck was all that?”
“Cannibals, man. You guys are takin’ a tour straight through cannibal country.”
Pete ran his hand over his bald head. “I fucking knew it. We never should have gone with these idiots.”
“You shut the hell up.” Trooper was ready to smack the guy if he didn’t close his yap. Pete obeyed.
“They caught me a few days ago. Me and those other fellers. But see, I got away. We all did. Well, until now.” River locked eyes with Seth and pointed to him. “This one, he’s no good. He’ll get us all killed. You should leave him behind.”
“You keep comments like that to yourself.” Trooper shoved River against a tree, sending out another puff of toxic b.o. “We were doing just fine before you showed up with a gang of maneaters on your heels. We don’t need that kind of trouble you stupid piss ant.”
He let the man go and River dropped to the ground giggling. Trooper waved his hand to the others. It was time to go.
“You can’t just leave. You need me,” River said as he rocked back and forth.
“We need you just about as much as we need those killers to circle back around for you.”
River shook his head violently from side to side. “Not just me now. They’ll want you too. It’s personal.”
Trooper left him there. The others followed close behind. River alternated between laughing and sobbing, but Trooper cared not at all. This man had brought hell to them and he deserved whatever fate was coming.
They were fifty feet away when River composed himself enough to speak again. “I know where they hunt. I can keep you safe.”
Trooper’s pace slowed but didn’t stop. He had a low opinion of River, but he had a low opinion of most people. If there was a chance what the man said was true, it would be stupid to leave him behind. Still, he wasn’t ready to give in just yet.
“Maybe we should bring him,” Barbara said.
Trooper turned back to her. “Have you smelled him?”
“He has a certain… musk.”
“Musk my ass. Dumb bastard smells like he went skinny dipping in raw sewage..”
She looked to the man rocking back and forth on the ground. Trooper thought he seemed like a two-year-old throwing a temper tantrum.
“Still though, it seems cruel to leave him alone. With those savages around. And he did hide me from them,” Barbara said.
Although he wouldn’t have admitted it to her, the idea of River getting caught and eaten wouldn’t have cost him the slightest amount of duress. But, as he surveyed the rest of the group, he could tell from their faces they fell more on her side than his. The only other hard case looked to be Pete and that was enough to sway Trooper’s gut.
“Alright. But he isn’t sleeping within twenty feet of me. Hell, maybe fifty.”
Barb’s face warmed and that made him feel a bit better about giving in.
“Go back and tell him to come along,” Trooper told Wyatt who did just that. They watched as River bounced to his feet like he had springs in his shoes and raced toward them, quickly outpacing the younger and fitter Wyatt.
“You won’t regret bringing River along,” he said when he caught up with the rest of them. “I’m a good man to have around in a pinch. You’ll see.”
Wyatt rejoined them and they continued walking.
“Hey,” Seth said to River. “If they’re cannibals, then why are you still alive? Why didn’t they just eat you?”
River shrugged. “Maybe they were full.”
“What about the other guy?”
“West?”
“I guess. The one they killed back there. How come they didn’t eat him?”
River laughed again. “When a hunter shoots a deer, does he grab his fork and dig in straight off? Not where I come from. The cannibals man, they aren’t mutants. They like their meat cooked just like everyone else.”
Trooper heard the disgusted groans from the rest of the group.
“I like steak rare,” Seth added.
It was time to change the subject. “Alright, River, so you say you know things.”
River nodded, grinning like a hyena. A mangy, old hyena. “I do.”
“Then I want you to show us the safest way to the border.”
“The border? Like, south? Like Mexico?” He said it with a bad accent - Meh-he-co.
“That’s right. All the way down.”
River shook his head. “That’s a bad idea my dark friend. Real bad.” He laughed, sounding more maniacal than ever. “You guys are crazier than me.”
“Why’s that?” Wyatt asked.
“Only way to get there is to go through their territory. Even River ain’t that crazy!”
The way River said it made Trooper believe him. The man was insane, but he was convincing. Despite that, they had a plan to stick to and they’d come much too far to turn back.
Chapter Forty
They walked through the night, not breaking until the sky made its half-hearted transition from black to gray.
They’d made the decision to sleep during the day and travel at night primarily because they could avoid building a fire in the dark. A fire that could again give away their location. During the day two of them would stay awake while the others slept, trading off every few hours. It would be easier to see coming danger - cannibals - during the day. In theory.
But before any of them went to sleep, it was time to eat. They scrabbled together a small fire and boiled cans of potatoes and stewed tomatoes which they combined into a poor excuse for a soup.
As he ate his gruel, Wyatt watched Supper scarf down dry dog food and thought it didn’t look much worse. Then his mind drifted and he wondered what people tasted like. The punchline to an old joke came to mind. Chicken. But somehow he doubted that. He couldn’t imagine people tasted like any normal animal. I hope I never find out, he thought with a shiver.
At least he could stop worrying about being cooked and eaten alive. Despite his faults, River had managed to dispel that worry. Cannibals treated humans like li
vestock. Somehow, that wasn’t a comforting thought.
“So, what’s the kid’s story?” River flopped down next to Wyatt.
Wyatt lifted an eyebrow. “My brother?”
“Brother, sure. The crippled boy who’s gonna get you all killed.”
“I’m right here, asshole,” Seth said from less than ten feet away. Supper laid across his legs and basked in being petted.
“Never said you wasn’t,” River gave a wide, ugly smile.
Wyatt silently thanked his mother for always being on top of him about brushing his teeth when he was a kid. Even now, in the apocalypse, he brushed daily and made sure to floss as often as he remembered. He’d never end up like River in the dental hygiene department.
“Aren’t you tired of talking?” Wyatt asked.
“Oh, come on, we’re pretty safe for right now. Talking’s good for the soul.” River drank the remnants of his soup. “You know, my friends, they gave me shit for talking too much. But I was always right. I know when it’s safe and when it’s not.”
“Good for you,” Wyatt said.
“You didn’t believe it was true, did ya?”
“That you know what you’re talking about?”
“No, about the cannibals. You thought it was a story people told, like the boogeyman.”
Wyatt shrugged. He really didn’t want to speak to anyone, especially River whose lips never stopped.
“Eh, can’t say that I blame ya. I didn’t believe it either when we left Oregon. I was probably the same as you.”
“I really doubt that.”
“Oh yeah? I had a family, friends. We was trying to get somewhere safe, too. And people warned us,. Don’t go south because there’s maneaters down there. We didn’t listen though. But we found out. The hard way. Like a fairy tale come true. Except whatever the opposite of a fairy tale is called.”
“A nightmare,” Pete said from across the fire. Then he yawned and his tired, bloodshot eyes drooped.
“No, well, yes,” River said, ever specific. “That’s not the word I wanted though. I meant like a story that’s a warning. What do they call those?”
“An Urban legend?” Allie offered.
River shook his head. “No, not that neither.”
Make it stop, Wyatt thought. I just need some quiet.
“A cautionary tale,” Barbara said.
“That’s it!” River clapped his hands three times. “That’s it. The one-eyed lady got it.”
Wyatt watched his mother, afraid her feelings might have been hurt, but she only shook her head and laid down to rest.
River cleared his throat and spit out a large wad of phlegm. “But the other story. The one about safety. The free land, or whatever people wanna call it. That’s the real fairy tale. Ain’t no such thing exists.”
“How would you know?” Seth asked.
“Cause I been everywhere. Ain’t no place safe. Just some places less dangerous than others. Lots of places are crazy, while others downright insane.”
“That part I believe. You definitely seem like an expert on crazy,” Seth said.
“Fine, don’t believe me. What do I care? I’m just travelin’ with ya. Helpin’ ya find the border. Believe what you want.”
River looked around, trying to find someone else to annoy for a while. He walked up to Pete and Wyatt watched Pete’s face contort in disgust. That made him happy, for a moment.
As he surveyed their surroundings for anything that could signal danger, he realized there was nothing to see. It was mile after mile of flat, tan emptiness void of life, void of humanity. They were in a dead land.
Maybe cannibal country was a good description of where they were. A place that chewed up and spat out everything that had once been alive.
Wyatt volunteered to take first watch, mostly because he was still too wired from the previous night’s events to even consider sleeping. He’d expected Trooper or his mother to join him, but was shocked, in a good way, when Allie raised her hand like a fourth-grader needing permission to speak. She asked if she could be the second on duty, ignoring a half-confused, half-pissed off stare from Pete. Wyatt saw no reason to turn her down.
River was first out. He scraped a small divot into the dirt and bedded down in it like an animal. Even Supper had better manners. The others didn’t last long and soon it was Wyatt and Allie surrounded by a handful of sleeping, snoring companions.
“What made you want to take first watch,” Wyatt asked.
“No particular reason.” She hunched over and petted Supper who laid at their feet.
“Pete didn’t look too happy.”
She sighed. “He’ll have to get over it. Besides, he’s probably just worried he’ll have to pair up with River.”
That made Wyatt laugh, a little too hard. He glanced around to make sure he hadn’t woken anyone, but they were all dead to the world.
“Pete can be an asshole, but he means well.”
Wyatt shrugged. “I’ll take your word for it.”
Allie looked up from the dog, brushing away the dreadlocks that had fallen in her face. “You’re thinking about something. Lost inside your own head. Have been all morning. I can see it in your eyes.”
“What do you mean?”
“Something’s wrong. And I mean, not just in the, we could be killed by cannibals any minute, wrong. It’s something else.”
Wyatt shrugged. He didn’t realize he was so easy to read. “I guess, some days, I just struggle to find the point.”
“Point of what?”
“Going on.” He stared into the wasteland. “Back in Maine, in my home, I could sit in my bedroom and pretend that things were going to get better, eventually. That the sun would shine again and the people would return and things would go back to normal. Now I see how stupid I was.”
He paused, not sure whether to go on but saying out loud what he’d been thinking for so long felt good. Felt cathartic. “Out here though, it’s like every day something new and terrible comes along to show me that nothing’s ever going to be good again. That I’m just putting in time. I should have never left home.” His voice trailed off.
Wyatt could feel Allie’s eyes on him but wouldn’t meet them.
“About two years after it all went down, I was living in Virginia, the southwestern part of the state, with four friends I’d met along the way. I’d guess it was a lot like your set up in Maine. Peaceful. Isolated. Safe. Until it wasn’t.”
He risked a glance her way but now it was Allie who wouldn’t look at him.
“One night a guy broke into our place. He said he was out scavenging and didn’t know anyone was living there and that sounded believable enough. That’s how we got by too, after all. We told him he could crash there for the night and have breakfast with us in the morning. Because, you know, we hadn’t been shown how cruel people had become yet. We thought everyone was chill and harmonious like we were.”
“I woke up to my friend Janey screaming. Not just screaming, it was that ear-piercing shriek that, as soon as you hear it, you know someone’s dying. And she was. That bastard had gutted her with a bread knife, the kind with the scalloped edges. And he just stood over her and watched as she tried to push her guts back inside herself. And he was smiling.”
She wiped wetness from her eyes but didn’t break down. “He’d already killed the others. I don’t know why he was saving me for last. If he even had a reason. Or maybe it was just the luck of the draw. He saw me watching him and I froze. He could’ve killed me. I was in too much shock to put up much of a fight. But he didn’t. He just turned his back to me, walked to the door, and walked right on out of the house.”
“I wanted to bury them, but it was winter and the ground was hard, so I ended up just leaving them there. I still feel bad about that.”
“Shit,” Wyatt said. Her story made him feel like an ass, like he had no reason for his own personal pity party.
“So I get it, Wyatt. Life’s hard. Always has been, even before this mess.
But you have to look forward, not back.”
He thought that sounded like something out of a self-help book, or like something one of the motivational speakers that came into his school for assemblies would say, but didn’t tell her that. She was just trying to be supportive, after all.
“I’m glad you left Maine,” Allie said.
“Why?”
“If you never left home, you would have never met me. I’d still be stuck in that Godforsaken trading post, doing who knows what just to get by. But, because of you, we’re here. You saved me, Wyatt.”
He gave a wan smile. “I took you out of a shitty situation and put you into a shittier one. You’re welcome.”
She grabbed his chin and locked eyes with him. “I’m not joking around. I’d rather die out here being a decent person, than muddle through life where maybe I’m safe, but I can’t look at my own reflection in the mirror because I hate myself so damned much. You understand?”
Wyatt nodded. Her hand drifted down the side of his face and he could feel the warmth it left in its wake.
The two of them spent the next few hours sitting side by side, chatting about the people they used to be, and taking turns petting Supper. Maybe things weren’t so bad after all.
Chapter Forty-One
In northern Texas, they came across a small town that would have fit in perfectly in New England. Aside from the store which once sold cowboy hats and saddles. The other businesses were a mix of specialty shops and antique stores which, to Wyatt’s surprise, hadn’t been vandalized and pillaged over the last half-decade.
But, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that fancy clothes and old furniture weren’t of much use in the apocalypse.
“Oh my God.” Allie stared through the plate-glass window of a vintage clothing store, eyes as wide as a kid in front of a candy shop.
Wyatt laughed, but Pete grabbed her hand and pulled her away.
“We don’t have time for that shit,” Pete said.
“Why not?” she asked.
Wyatt thought it a fair question. Dawn had just broken and it was almost time to hunker down for the day and get some rest.