Hell's Children: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller

by John L. Monk

  Jack smiled politely, but he was nervous. If people became grasping, that’d make it harder for everyone.

  “This one’s way too big,” Jack said. “We’d be forever chopping wood … if we actually had something to chop it with. I’m thinking the Skyline makes the most sense. Just like at the Welcome Center—only each of the adults gets a room of their own.”

  No slouch at math, Lisa said, “There are seven adults, Jack, and only five bedrooms. Someone has to room up.”

  He leered at her. “Well, if you insist …”

  She punched his arm just shy of painfully.

  “Violation!” Greg said in a robotic voice. “Do not talk to my sister that way. Beep! Brotherly expression of outrage executed. Beep! Duty completed.”

  Lisa punched his arm, too.

  “Beep!”

  Jack peeked outside to make sure none of the others were around, then motioned his friends deeper into the cabin. The little kids were exploring the upper floor and not paying attention.

  He lowered his voice. “What I’m about to say will sound self-serving as hell.”

  “Nothing new there,” Greg said.

  Jack didn’t smile. “I know I’ve sort of jumped in and started acting like I’m the boss or something. How do you guys feel about that?”

  Lisa said, “You’re doing great. We’re not dumb, we get it. Someone has to lead, and I honestly need a break. Keeping everyone fed without getting murdered in our sleep …” She shook her head. “I’m worn out.”

  “And I’m too busy with more important things,” Greg said, still trying to tease a smile from his suddenly serious friend.

  Jack nodded. “All right. I think Brad and Olivia are on board, but Tony will need to see you two defer to me on things. He’ll see that and stay in line. Pete’s the biggest problem. That stunt of his, leaving us like that …”

  “Maybe he wasn’t thinking,” Lisa said, frowning. “Or just assumed we were fine.”

  “Maybe. If anything like that happens again, we deal with it right away. Agreed?”

  As one, the twins nodded.

  “Great,” Jack said. “Now, for the cabins. I want everyone in the Skyline, with you and Olivia sharing the master bedroom. It sucks, I know, but Olivia’s sort of delicate right now, and I’d really appreciate it. Everyone old enough to carry a gun gets a room.”

  He paused, waiting for Lisa’s input, then decided her stony silence meant he could continue.

  Swallowing, he said, “The little ones will share the living room. We’ll bring in mattresses from the other cabins so it’ll be comfortable and warm, and relocate the couches and tables. We’ll take the stove from the Abe Lincoln and set it up in the fireplace.”

  Lisa—who was still good at math—cleared her throat. “With Olivia and me sharing a room, and all the boys getting their own, that leaves us a room short.”

  “Um, yeah,” Jack said. “Okay, so here’s the self-serving part.”

  Greg laughed. “There’s actually more?”

  “If I’m playing as leader, it makes sense for me to sleep in the Paul Bunyan.” He paused, gauging their expressions. Then he added, “Alone.”

  Lisa shook her head, perplexed. “Why would you do that?”

  Greg coughed, “Chosen one,” and covered his mouth with a hastily raised fist.

  “Shackleton,” Jack said, glancing at him. “You’ve read about him, right?”

  “We watched the documentary,” Greg said. “It was cool. You’re right, you should totally do that.”

  Lisa stared from one to the other. “Right about what?”

  Greg said, “He’s the captain. Shackleton had his own room because he was the captain. Captains need to be mysterious. They can’t mingle too freely with the enlisted men. Ol’ Jack here has to stay aloof. It’s a leadership thing. Psychology. Man stuff.”

  Lisa stared at him like his hair was on fire, her whole manner incredulous. “Well would we be allowed to come over sometimes, oh captain, my captain?”

  Jack nodded. “Whenever you want. As leaders, we have to maintain our distance a little. That way, when we give an order, the children will be more likely to obey. They won’t be little forever. You’ll also have your own rooms, for the same reason. We’ll take planning meetings in the Bunyan. When I’m alone, I’ll be sleeping. Not that big a deal. My biggest concern is wasted wood. Once we get some axes, I’ll pull double duty on chopping.”

  Lisa didn’t seem convinced.

  Jack said, “Look, if it was just us, it’d be different. But the stakes are too high. We don’t want people having to guess who’s leader or where their place is in the pecking order. There’s a lot of work ahead.”

  She raised her hands in surrender. “Okay, fine. I think it’s stupid, but whatever.”

  Greg threw an arm around her. “Look on the bright side, sis. You get to bunk with Olivia. You can put in a good word for me.”

  “How’s that the bright side?”

  He smiled and patted her gently. “It just is.”

  When Lisa broke the housing arrangements to the others, she didn’t give a reason for Jack getting his own cabin. Only Tony seemed to notice the difference, but he stayed silent. The others just nodded.

  Olivia was still too frail to do very much, so Jack asked if she wouldn’t mind watching the children.

  “Only until you get your strength back,” he said.

  “Sure,” she said, smiling shyly and tugging a lock of her green hair. “I’ll keep them out of the way.”

  Ever since she’d decided to throw in with them, Olivia seemed to have perked up a little, and she’d dropped the bad attitude. Both good signs, though Jack wasn’t so naive as to think she was suddenly all better.

  For the next few hours, Jack and the others moved mattresses, bedding, and chairs from the other cabins. Box springs and frames were deemed unnecessary and left behind. All the beds had been furnished with sheets, covers, and pillows, so those were kept too. In total, they got twelve mattresses of varying sizes, because some bedrooms had been furnished with two doubles. Most of the beds were king-sized, offering plenty of room for the twenty-one children to bunk together.

  It was early afternoon when they finished. After that, they all went to Jack’s cabin and sat in the comfortable chairs in front of a new fire.

  “We’re not done yet,” Jack said around a mouthful of protein bar. He’d doled out the last of them to each of the leaders. The little ones had eaten rice and beans, prepared by Olivia after Lisa got the Skyline stove working.

  Tony muttered under his breath.

  Lisa said, “You got a problem? Spit it out.”

  He pointed at Jack. “Why we gotta do what he says?”

  Jack said, “You don’t have to. But this is my place. I found it, I brought us here, and I’m in charge. If you don’t like it, we can drop you off somewhere cold.”

  “And what if I don’t want to go?”

  As tense as the room had gotten, Jack smiled easily. “Do you really want to take it there, Tony?”

  The younger boy glanced from Jack to Lisa, her face hard as a stone, then to Greg, no less yielding, and then back again. “Nah, man. Just seeing what’s what. It’s cool.”

  Jack nodded and looked at each of them. “We have a number of pressing issues and not a whole lot of time. Chief of which is the bathroom situation. The cabins have toilets, but they were never hooked up to working plumbing. We definitely don’t want the children using them, so we need to somehow keep them shut.”

  “How about that superglue Lisa fixed the safe with?” Greg said.

  “Great idea,” Jack said. “We’re also going to need shovels. That pond gets fed from the hills behind us. In my opinion, it looked clean. A stream runs from the pond down through the valley. Fish swim upstream just as often as down, so we can’t go dumping our waste there.”

  Brad smiled. “Fish? Really?”

  “I saw some trout last time I was here,” Jack said. “It’ll be fun to go fish
ing, but only after we deal with the sanitation problem.”

  Olivia cleared her throat. “We should dig a ditch away from the water, down where the woods begin. At night, we can leave buckets outside the cabin. That way nobody has to walk in the dark and maybe get hurt or eaten by something.”

  Pete snorted, and Greg glared him into silence.

  “That’s a great idea,” Jack said, trying not to smile. “But there’s nothing up here that can hurt us.” He thought it over. “Well, not anytime soon. A black bear, maybe, if you startle it. In time, I imagine the mountain lions will work their way back, but it won’t be this season. Oh, Lisa, what time is it?”

  She looked at her watch. “One thirty. You know, we should probably all get watches.”

  “Good idea. We also need more tools. Shovels for ditches, axes for chopping wood. Tony, Pete: if you continue past the turnoff, you’ll come out of these hills into farmland. Around here, every house will have tools. Get them and Brad and I will do the work.”

  “Don’t forget toilet paper,” Olivia added.

  Tony nodded. “If we find something else, can we bring it back?”

  “Sure,” he said. “Food, those watches she mentioned, ammo, guns, whatever. But don’t take too long. In the hills like this, it gets dark earlier. And hey—if you see smoke from any houses, stay away from them.”

  Pete spoke up suddenly. “Is it okay if we bring Mandy?”

  “Is she needed? She’s kind of small.”

  “That’s because she’s nine,” he said, snorting. “Take it from me: she’s a good scavenger. She’ll be fine, trust me.”

  The request hung in the air uncomfortably. Though Jack was inclined to say no, he didn’t want to be a tyrant who made all the decisions for everyone. That and he was glad Pete was at least trying to help out now. He hoped to encourage the trend.

  Slowly, he nodded. “All right. But you’re responsible. Anything else?”

  Both boys shook their heads—Pete impatiently, Tony as if he couldn’t believe they were taking a nine-year-old girl with them.

  After they left, Jack said to Olivia, “You were great with the children today. You don’t have to be stuck with them if you don’t want to, but right now …”

  She nodded. “Yeah, I know. I’m a toothpick.”

  “Your words, not mine,” Jack said, embarrassed. “I’m just saying we need you stronger. Your main job is to eat. If you could keep watching the little ones for now, it’d help out a lot.”

  “I like children. It’ll be fun.”

  “They’re the future, as they say … or used to say.” He shook his head. “We need to teach them. And ourselves, too.” He turned to Lisa and Greg, gathering his words. “I’ve been thinking—we need to loot a library, or a bookstore. Find stuff on raising animals, farming, medicine, math, that kind of thing. Whatever we can grab before some cabbage comes along and uses it for kindling.”

  Brad said, “Cabbage?”

  “Don’t ask,” Greg said, rolling his eyes.

  “What about history?” Lisa said. “Fiction?”

  Jack frowned in thought. “History for sure, but maybe a later trip. Fiction, too. All work and no play and I’d be pretty dull, right?”

  Olivia laughed and Greg joined her, grinning foolishly when she glanced at him.

  “I guess that’s it for now,” Jack said, getting up. “Any questions?”

  When nobody said anything, they filed out and got to work making the place livable.

  15

  While Tony, Pete, and Mandy were out scavenging, Greg discovered something amazing: a portable generator tucked inside a rain-protective hood, hooked up to a plug in the wall of the Saskatchewan. Jack had missed it because he hadn’t been looking for one. None of the cabins had power lines connected to them, and Big Timber was too far off the beaten path for an underground connection to the grid.

  In hindsight, when he’d come here with his parents, there were working lights and an instructional video on how to build log cabins. There had even been cold drinks and air-conditioning.

  “Awesome job,” Jack said and gave his smiling friend a high five.

  “Too bad the tank’s empty or we could try it now.” He frowned in thought. “You know, we could always snag some gas from the bus. Just need a hose.”

  Jack shook his head. “First, I think the bus uses diesel, and it looks like this uses gas. Second, just because we have a generator, I’m not sure we should get too comfortable using it.”

  “Why not?”

  “We shouldn’t rely on our parents’ technology.” Seeing his friend’s crestfallen expression he added, “Maybe for movies or something, once a week, or recharging batteries.”

  Greg snorted. “And that’s not relying on technology?”

  “You know what I mean: houselights, electric stoves, that kind of thing. We can’t be constantly scrounging to feed it gas.” Jack inspected the engine, not understanding any of it. “How big’s that tank, anyway? Five gallons?”

  “Looks like,” Greg said dejectedly. “We could always stockpile some.”

  Jack nodded. “And we will. I’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Come on, let’s go see if the Skyline has the same hookup.”

  There wasn’t a generator connected to the Skyline, but it did have the special plug on the wall. Jack called in Lisa, who was helping Olivia rearrange the mattresses.

  “Wow,” Lisa said, admiring the generator. “Great job, brother mine.”

  It turned out the Skyline’s hookup would work. The generator had wheels to assist moving it around, but it was heavy and clunky. Brad helped them wheel it over the uneven ground. The protective housing was detachable and fit easily over the unit once they had it and the tank in place.

  Greg’s find was a great moment for everyone, and Jack felt upbeat about their chances. There was still plenty to do, as well as the ever-present fear of someone getting hurt or seriously ill. Not to mention starvation. They still hadn’t successfully acquired food that didn’t come in a wrapper or can. But at least they didn’t have to worry about maniacs like Blaze, or whichever gang attacked them at the Welcome Center, or freezing to death.

  Jack laughed softly. Or TV.

  The three scavengers returned later than Jack would have liked. Just as he wondered whether there’d be time to dig the sanitation ditch before dusk, Pete got out of the car and stormed toward him sporting a puffy eye.

  “That jerk hit me!” he shouted, pointing back at Tony, who got out slowly with a wide smile on his still-chubby face.

  Mandy jumped out too, frowning in anger. “Tony’s a bully, that’s what he is!”

  “What the hell, Tony?” Jack said, checking Pete’s eye to make sure it wasn’t serious. They couldn’t afford serious.

  “He didn’t wanna go in the house,” Tony said, “so I made him.”

  “It had dead people in it!” Pete yelled.

  Tony’s smile fell away, replaced with an angry frown. “So? I went in. Everyone goes in. You gotta go in.”

  As much as Jack agreed with the sentiment, he couldn’t condone the brutality.

  “You two, in my cabin, now,” he said, then turned around and entered the Paul Bunyan without looking back.

  Wondering if they’d follow, he grew angry at the prospect of being ignored. He drew on that anger—he’d need it.

  Pete came in first, followed by Tony, who shut the door behind him.

  Like the other cabins, the Paul Bunyan had a vaulted ceiling with big windows to let in as much light as possible, so he could see them both clearly. Tony stood with that lazy smile still on his face. Pete settled for glowering, his hurt eye demanding justice.

  Jack moved his hand casually to the butt of his gun. “Take out your pistol.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m in charge. You want to sleep here tonight, not walk out of here in the cold with nothing, you’ll do it. And you’ll listen when I give an order. You’re useless to anyone if you
can’t follow orders.”

  Tony opened his mouth to speak.

  “Quiet!” Jack shouted. “Give me the damned gun!”

  Both boys jerked like they’d been smacked. Tony took out his pistol and handed it barrel-first to Jack, who shook his head at the dangerousness of it. He should have put it down for Jack to pick up, but he’d deal with that later. It was about to get more dangerous.

  “Is it loaded?”

  “I think it—”

  “All guns are loaded,” Jack said. “That’s your first lesson. Here’s another: in a world with no police, filled with people who don’t have anything, you don’t bully.”

  “But I was doing all the work! It’s not fair!”

  Ignoring that, Jack checked to see if the gun really was loaded—it was. He racked the slide, flicked the safety, then put it down.

  To Pete, he said, “Now pick it up.”

  Tony breathed in sharply.

  Pete swallowed, reached down, and picked it up. He stood stock-still, holding the weapon like it was slithery and poisonous.

  “That button on the side is the safety,” Jack said. “Just flick it forward so it shows red and it’ll fire if you pull the trigger.”

  Pete stared at the switch, hands shaking in fear. His gaze moved from it to Tony, and then his expression edged back to angry. He flicked the safety off.

  Tony reared back and sort of shrank in on himself.

  “Finger off the trigger,” Jack said quietly, then relaxed when Pete did so.

  “Don’t you touch me again!” Pete shouted, causing the other boy to flinch.

  “Easy, Pete,” Jack said, then turned to Tony. “Everyone carries guns except Pete and Olivia. So far. But there’s guns everywhere. My rifle’s upstairs, and I’m not watching it every minute. There’s going to be more guns and more people, which means way more chances for tempers to flare. In the Old West, they called the gun the great equalizer. It didn’t matter how strong you were. If you had one, you could take out the biggest bully in the world.” He shifted his gaze to Pete. “Go ahead and put it on the table.”

  Pete held onto the pistol for perhaps five more seconds, still glaring at Tony, then put it down. When he did, the tension eased out of him like a spring uncoiled.