Cannibal Country (Book 1): The Land Darkened

by Urban, Tony

  “That’s fucked up”

  “No, it’s science.”

  Wyatt was trying to figure out how Seth came up with those numbers when he saw the lake in the distance. He was so shocked that they’d actually made it that he needed to verify it wasn’t all in his head.

  “Do you see that?” Wyatt asked. He turned sideways to give Seth a better view.

  “A lake.”

  “Thank God,” Wyatt said. “I thought it might be a mirage.”

  “Not unless we’re experiencing group hysteria.”

  He continued on. It was just a little further. One step at a time. That’s what he kept telling himself.

  “Hey, brother,” Seth said.

  “Yeah?”

  “Thank you.”

  “Anytime,” Wyatt said. “Anytime.”

  They fell silent after that, not sharing another word as they circled the lake or pushed through the grass, or even when the farmhouse came into view. And that was okay because everything that needed to be said had been said.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  The reunion went the way reunions go. Smiles, tears, hugs. Wyatt even got an open-mouthed kiss - from Supper. But as happy as he was to see everyone, what he needed was sleep and that’s what he did for the next 30 or so hours.

  While he was out Barbara had cauterized Seth’s amputation site. Seth later told him it smelled like barbecue and Wyatt realized that eating from cans wasn’t so bad after all. Fresh meat might be ruined for him forever.

  Before hitting the road again they converted one of the shopping carts into a new ride for Seth. He wasn’t pleased because it meant he’d need to be pushed all the time now, but Wyatt thought he accepted the inconvenience with more maturity than he’d displayed in the past. He supposed being kidnapped and partially eaten by cannibals was bound to turn a boy into a man.

  As they walked, there was occasional small talk and everyone got along fine. Even Pete wasn’t being his usual prickish self.

  Once in a while, Wyatt held hands with Allie, but it went no further. He was in too much pain of the emotional kind.

  They all were. The absence of Trooper weighed heavy.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  “You guys! Fuck me! You guys!” Pete shouted.

  As had become standard he was in the lead. He said he liked the peace and quiet of being up front, not that any of them were chatterboxes, and Wyatt didn’t mind. It seemed like he was always tired these days and having someone else set the pace kept them going.

  Pete ran back to them and his expression was so foreign that Wyatt almost didn’t recognize him. Pete was smiling.

  “What is it, Pete?” Allie asked.

  He pointed back the way he’d come. “There’s a sign. Del Rio - Five miles.”

  None of them reacted in the way he’d apparently hoped so he stated the obvious. “That’s a border town. We’re almost there!”

  Wyatt could barely believe his ears. This was what they’d been waiting on for months. And even though they still needed to go through Mexico and Central America to reach the equator, making it this far felt like they’d won the lottery, or landed on the moon, or some other grand achievement. It - almost - made the pain worthwhile.

  They drifted off the main road, not wanting to venture into Del Rio itself on the chance that outlaws or cannibals had taken over the city. Going south through the desert added a few miles onto the trip and a few hours, but it seemed a small price for the added safety.

  “How will we know when we cross over,” Allie asked.

  “What do you mean?” Pete said.

  “Well, if we’re not on a road, how will we know when we actually go over the border? It’s not like it’s going to look any different.”

  Wyatt thought that a fair question. One for which he had no answer. It turned out he didn’t need one because, after another twenty minutes of walking, the answer appeared to them in the form of a wall.

  Steel beams standing thirty feet tall and spaced at six-inch intervals stretched as far as they could see in any given direction. The metal had rusted to a deep orange and was topped with cascading loops of razor wire.

  “I thought it would be big and beautiful,” Seth said.

  “Well, it is big.” Wyatt stuck his arm through one of the gaps. There was, of course, no chance of slipping through and unless his brother managed to smuggle an acetylene torch in his shopping cart, there was no going through it.

  “I bet I could climb that,” Seth said

  “The shit you could.” Pete rapped the metal with his knuckles.

  “I could get further than you, baldy.”

  Wyatt thought the man might lose his newfound good cheer, but instead, he smirked. “Oh, you got me. I’m gonna need some salve for that burn.”

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  With no going through or over the wall, they needed to find an actual border crossing point so Barbara, Seth, and Wyatt walked east while Allie and Pete went west. Whoever found a pass through first was to fire off a shot.

  Only it wasn’t only one shot Wyatt heard. There was another. And another. And another.

  “Oh shit,” Seth muttered. Wyatt didn’t say it aloud, but he felt the same way. Something was wrong.

  He didn’t realize how wrong until they saw the cannibals. It seemed like every man and woman who’d been at their camp had made the trek to the border. Wyatt would have been flattered if he wasn’t scared shitless.

  As he scanned the mass of people for Allie and Pete, he felt Barbara tug on his arm. He looked back at her and saw her holding one of the guns.

  “Take it,” she said.

  He did, but couldn’t comprehend her plan. “And do what?”

  She handed another of the guns to Seth. “They’re never going to give up, Wyatt. That’s why we have to kill them. All of them.”

  Wyatt turned back to the cannibals. They were a hundred yards away and he couldn’t get an accurate count but thought there were at least three dozen.

  “We need to get closer,” he said.

  “Then let’s go.”

  They halved the distance and the cannibals still hadn’t caught on to their presence. Wyatt thought he might be able to shoot with some accuracy, but knew every yard, every foot, closer they could get would make a huge difference.

  At thirty yards he decided to stop pressing their luck.

  “Ready?”

  Both Barbara and Seth nodded. They aimed their pistols. Wyatt did the same. Then they started shooting.

  None of them stopped until their magazines were empty and the surrounding air was filled with acrid, blue smoke. Wyatt tried to peer through the fog, to see what damage they’d done, but all he saw were charging cannibals.

  They had back up magazines ready and reloaded. Even though they were in the same place, the cannibals were closer now which made the second volley more accurate, more deadly.

  Wyatt watched as blood sprayed, heads exploded, bodies fell. It was like something out of one of the video games he’d played growing up, but he took no satisfaction in doling out real death. Because even if these monsters wanted to kill and eat him and his family, they were human beings. They were people. And he was ending their lives.

  By the time they were shot out for the second time only four cannibals continued the forward rush.

  Why won’t they stop, Wyatt wondered. Why are they making us do this?

  They were closer now, too close to switch out magazines, so he grabbed one of the guns from the shopping cart and used it.

  As the smoke cleared, he saw the bodies stretched out on the ground ahead of them. And beyond them, at the starting point, he saw another ten figures. He recognized three of them.

  Allie.

  Pete.

  And Red.

  “Long time no see!” The big man waved at them with a hand clutching a machete.

  “I thought you killed that motherfucker,” Seth said.

  “So did I.”

  “Dude’s like a fucki
ng cockroach.”

  Red grabbed a handful of Allie’s dreadlocks, pulled them taught, and chopped them off with his blade. Wyatt could hear her sobbing echo across the flat land.

  “Send the older boy!” Red beckoned Wyatt with a wave. “No guns though or I’ll cut this one’s pretty throat while you watch.”

  Wyatt turned to his family. “Stay here.”

  Seth shook his head. Barbara grabbed his arm. “No, Wyatt,” she said. “Don’t you go and try to be a hero.”

  “It’s what Trooper would have done.”

  “And Trooper’s dead.” Her eyes welled up when she said that.

  “I know because I sat there and watched it happen. I’m not doing that again.”

  He took a step away from her, but his mother held on tight. He yanked his arm free and ignored her plaintive cries as he left them.

  He strode through the field of bodies sidestepping the few who clung to life. As he got closer, he saw that both Allie and Pete had their arms tied behind their backs. Two cannibals who weren’t Red held spears to their heads. Red had the upper hand and he was almost certainly walking to his own execution.

  Wyatt wondered how Barbara and Seth would survive if he died here. Would they find their way across the border and south or was he sealing their fates too?

  That was the question rolling through his head when he reached them. But he still hadn’t come up with an answer.

  “Brave boy,” Red said. “Stupid boy, as well.”

  “I’m here. No guns.” Wyatt held his arms to his side. “Now what?”

  “Get on your knees.”

  “Don’t do it, Wyatt!” Allie lunged toward him but the man guarding her held firm. He poked his spear against her cheek and a trickle of blood escaped.

  Wyatt knelt before Red.

  “Is she your woman or his?” Red tipped his head toward Pete.

  “Neither,” Wyatt said.

  “These are some of your last words. You want them to be lies? How will you explain that to God?”

  “You believe in God?”

  “I believe in many things. But first and foremost is honor.”

  Red turned away from him and faced Allie. “Since he won’t answer, how about you try? Which of these men do you see when you close your eyes at night? Tell me and I’ll spare him. For now.”

  Allie’s gaze fell to the ground and she stayed silent.

  “Answer me, girlie or I’ll take your hair and your scalp.” Red grabbed her dreads again, jerking her sideways.

  “I won’t!” Allie sobbed.

  Red lined the blade of the machete up with her hairline. He began to slice into her flesh, stretching her skin taut.

  “Stop it!” Pete yelled.

  Everyone looked to him.

  His face was crimson with rage. “She’s his girl now,” Pete said. “So do whatever the fuck you want to me.”

  Wyatt couldn’t believe the man had spoken up, that he’d been honest, because it was going to cost him his life. And it pissed him off that Pete had picked now of all times to be a decent human being.

  “Ah, see. Was that so hard? Thank you.” Red nodded and the man who was holding Pete rammed the spear under his jaw. It pushed up through his mouth and popped out his left eye which was skewered on the point like a cherry tomato on a shish kebab.

  Allie shrieked. One of the other cannibals cut Pete’s throat, then tossed his body to the ground.

  Wyatt almost jumped to his feet, but Red’s eyes were on him again and he stayed put.

  “You should have killed me when you had the chance,” Red said.

  Wyatt nodded. The man was right, after all. He’d had him on the ground and helpless and didn’t take the extra second to finish the job.

  “I was about to say the same thing,” Wyatt said. “Only the other way around.”

  Red’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not making any sense. Try again.”

  “You should have killed me when you had the chance.”

  Red grinned, revealing a set of oversized choppers that, although discolored, looked to be strong and healthy. The better to eat you with, Wyatt thought.

  “Is that so?” Red asked.

  “It is.”

  Wyatt dove to his left, hitting the dirt and reaching behind his back in one fluid motion. He grabbed the .38 from the small of his back, raised it, and shot. It was a chickenshit move, but he didn’t care. There was no room for honor in the world anymore. That was a hard-earned lesson but one he’d finally accepted.

  The bullet collided with Red’s chin, cleaving his jaw in two and sending bone and teeth out like shrapnel. His tongue fell through the now open chasm and lolled from side to side like the pendulum on a clock.

  Wyatt shot again and that one landed square in his chest and brought Red to his knees.

  He spun in the dirt, toward Allie and the cannibal holding her, ready to aim and fire when--

  “Hit to the ground if you want to live!”

  It was a booming, somehow mechanical voice, the omniscient sound of God as heard through a school’s PA system. Allie dropped immediately and Wyatt stayed where he was. They were close enough for their fingertips to touch and Wyatt rested his atop hers.

  An explosion of gunfire broke out. Not the repetitive bang, bang, bang of pistols or rifles. These came in fast-forward, incessant, unrelenting.

  The remaining cannibals were shredded by the incoming bullets and a moment later everything went silent.

  Finally, a speaker crackled with static and the voice rang out again. “It’s all clear. You’re safe to get up.”

  Wyatt grabbed Allie’s hand as they climbed to their feet. They turned in unison toward the voice.

  What he found surprised him more than anything he’d seen on their journey so far. A group of fifteen or so men and women were grouped beside Barb and Seth. All carried military-style firearms and two others were on the ground with machine guns propped in front of them.

  One of the men held a megaphone to his mouth. “Come on over. We don’t bite.”

  Wyatt and Allie ran to them and, as they got closer, Wyatt realized how different these people looked compared to anyone else they’d encountered. They looked healthy and clean and… happy.

  The man who’d been barking orders set the megaphone aside and pulled off the baseball cap he’d been wearing. He was tall and athletic with piercing blue eyes. He smashed his blond hair back into place with one hand and extended the other to Wyatt.

  “The name’s Alexander.”

  “Wyatt.” He shook but felt bad because this man was so clean and he was not. He even smelled the aroma of cologne.“Thanks for the help.”

  “Our pleasure. Those man-munchers don’t belong out here. They should know better.”

  One of the women in the group handed Allie a cloth to wipe the blood from her cheek and brow. Another was busy checking Seth’s bandaged leg. More of them passed out bottles of water to share. Wyatt sucked his down in seconds.

  He couldn’t believe how their luck had changed.

  “Can I ask you one question?” Wyatt said.

  The man nodded.

  “Who the hell are you people? It’s like you’re angels sent straight from Heaven to save our asses or something.”

  Alexander laughed, a hearty, friendly sound filled with good cheer. “Or something,” he said. “Why don’t you come home with us? Get cleaned up. Have a decent meal. Plus, it’s safe there and I’d imagine you folks haven’t had the luxury of relaxing in a good, long while.”

  “That’s the truth,” Barbara said.

  Wyatt looked from the new group to his family, to Allie. He saw the relief on their faces, but he realized they were waiting on him to make the decision. It seemed an easy choice.

  “We’d like that,” Wyatt said. “If you’re sure it’s not putting you out.”

  “Not at all,” Alexander said. “There’s plenty of room in the casino. And I know Papa would love to meet you. Everyone will, actually. It’s been a while si
nce we had newbies show up. It’ll be good for the community.”

  That word - community - made Wyatt smile. Maybe his mother wanted to go south for the sun and fresh food, but what he longed for was a place where life could go on. Where people took care of each other.

  He wondered if he’d finally found it.

  He’d find out soon enough.

  Afterword

  We hope you enjoyed “The Land Darkened” which is book 1 in the “Cannibal Country” series. Books 2 and 3 will be available in early 2020. And they’re going to be freaking insane!

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  More from Tony & Drew

  Hell on Earth

  Within the Woods

  Soulless Wanderer

  Patriarch