by Doug Kelly
Dylan shrugged his shoulders and continued to stare at the advancing men, his eyes unblinking. The armed gang members were now less than twenty yards away and they heard their sinister voices. They were making fun of the people they had shot. One of the men placed his weapon on the ground and began to imitate one of his victims. He went to the ground on his knees begging for mercy, holding imaginary wounds. The other man laughed hysterically. When the bad actor stood up, leaving his weapon on the ground, he unzipped his pants to relieve himself and the other man did the same, after placing his weapon on the ground, too. Dylan saw this and turned toward Kevin. Kevin was already staring at Dylan with wide eyes. Dylan nodded his head and held up five fingers for a silent countdown. At Dylan’s closed fist, both men sprung from behind the pile with their weapons drawn.
“You move and you die!” yelled Dylan. “Step this way, we need to have a talk with you.” Dylan motioned with his rifle for the two men to walk to the other side of the stack of railroad ties.
Kevin found some twine and plastic rope on the ground and tied their hands behind their backs, then tied their feet together. He sat the men up to face them for questioning.
Dylan looked at the injured woman and asked, “Lady, did either of these men hurt you?”
“You can call me Dorothy. I don’t know, my back was turned and I was running. It could have been any of their gang. People see the red armbands and they run. Their pathetic gang has a reputation of murder.”
“Dorothy, please move around to the far end of this pile. Take your son with you. I don’t want him to see this,” said Dylan.
“Kevin, take their armbands and hide them in the backpack. We’ll use them later.”
The two captives were sitting on the ground with their backs to the pile of debris. Dylan and Kevin stood directly in front of them. Dylan withdrew his large knife and Kevin did the same. When Dylan began to speak, Kevin slowly paced back and forth behind Dylan, tapping the blade of his knife on the palm of his hand in rhythm with his paces. He stared directly at the two men and nodded his head in agreement when Dylan spoke.
Dylan knelt to the ground and leaned forward toward the captive men. “This is what’s going to happen. I’m going to ask questions and you are going to answer. If I suspect you are lying, we’ll kill you. If I think you are telling me the truth, we won’t kill you. Do you understand?”
The men were obviously terrified and simultaneously agreed to tell them anything. They begged for their lives and explained they did not want to join the gang, but only did so to get food and protection. A man named Cyrus led the gang. He was getting an armed force together to move through the city and confiscate anything of value, and he wanted to get control of the stalled coal cars. People would need to boil water and cook food. In the winter, the people who had not starved to death would also need it for heat. He wanted to trade the coal to get food for his gang, so they had moved into the railroad hub today to take it over. They had also found an Amtrak train and that was where they planned to stay. Cyrus and a few others were planning to take up residence in the sleeper cars.
“How do we avoid your gang? We want to get into the city,” asked Dylan, as he prodded the closer man on the head with the blade of his knife.
“Put on the red armbands and stay clear of the railcars. Walk around them. Go straight west. They’re focused on looting the freight cars right now and will be for several days. Just walk around like you’re on a patrol looking for something. People will avoid you if they see the red armbands.”
“Why would people be so quick to avoid you?” asked Kevin.
“We have a reputation.”
The other captive smirked at his accomplice’s reply. Dylan immediately drove his tightly clenched fist into the smirking man’s face. The man’s head snapped back and struck the pile of tar-black railroad ties. The humor disappeared from the man’s face as his unconscious body slumped over. A streak of red blood contrasted with the black creosote-stained wood.
“What should I do with you?” Dylan asked the other man.
“Let me go! You said you weren’t going to kill us if we told you everything, but you killed him.”
“Him? I didn’t kill him,” Dylan replied sarcastically as he rose to his feet. “He’s just taking a little nap.”
“Untie me!”
“No, that wasn’t part of the agreement. I said that I wouldn’t kill you, nothing more. Maybe my new friend Dorothy has other plans for you. That’s up to her. Have a good nap.” Dylan drove his fist into the second man’s face, knocking him unconscious.
Dylan and Kevin gave Dorothy and her son the .22 caliber rifle and the shotgun taken from the gang members. Kevin let her know that the men were tied and out cold. He did not care what she did to them, but it would not be a good idea to shoot them. The noise might attract attention. Dylan explained that they would like to help her back to the city, but they needed to hurry and find Kevin’s wife. It was going to get dark soon and it looked like a storm was approaching. Dorothy and her young son would slow them down, but the new weapons should provide them some protection. She thanked them for what they had done and used the rifle as a support to help her stand before she spoke to Dylan and Kevin again.
“Why are you putting on those awful red armbands?” Dorothy asked, with an expression of disgust and curiosity.
Kevin tied a red bandana on Dylan’s upper right arm and replied, “It’s camouflage so people will avoid us.”
Dorothy shook her head. “I’m not so sure about that, but good luck,” she said, as the two men turned to leave.
Dylan and Kevin made it past the railroad hub. The wind was blowing harder and it was going to storm for sure. There was not much daylight left, but they were on the right road to take them to Kevin’s apartment building, and hopefully to Kevin’s wife.
Both men decided that it was best to walk in the middle of the road. They wanted to keep some distance from the corners of alleys because that would be an easy place to set up an ambush. The few people they saw appeared to be starving and weak, and as predicted, the people on the sidewalk saw the two men and turned aside. The men did not know if it was Dylan’s rifle or the red armbands, but they were pleased to have no confrontations, so far, on the road.
“How much farther?” asked Dylan.
“Not much, we’re going to beat the rain and—” suddenly, Kevin stopped walking and quickly turned to look around.
“What is it?”
“I think we’re being followed.”
Dylan gripped the rifle tightly. “Are you sure? I don’t see anyone.”
“Maybe I’m being paranoid. Do you want to jog the rest of the way? It’s about a mile. If we are being followed, that would make it harder for them to keep up.”
“Good idea. Let’s get out of here.”
The men soon arrived at the apartment building. It was a tall brick building. The double glass doors on the front of the building were shattered and the front lobby was dark inside. The men stopped at the entrance and looked back down the road to see if they had been followed.
“See anything?” asked Dylan.
“No, but I still have the feeling that I’m being watched. Let’s get inside. The apartment is on the second floor, number 210, at the end of the hallway. We can see this road from up there.”
The men stepped across the broken glass and into the dark lobby. The stainless steel doors to an elevator were directly in front of them and the stairwell was next to the elevator. As they stepped into the building, there was a horrible stench in the air.
“Shall we take the elevator?” Dylan asked, with an invisible smile in the darkness.
“That’s funny, old man. Let’s take the stairs. You need the exercise,” Kevin replied, facetiously. Kevin opened the door to the dark stairway and tripped, falling completely to the ground, as he stepped inside. The stench of death was overwhelming in the enclosed space.
“What happened!” exclaimed Dylan.
As Kevin
got up, he realized that it had been a dead body that he had fallen over.
“Hold it. There’s a body here. Prop the door open to let the odor out,” said Kevin.
Dylan propped the door open and carefully stepped over the body. It was very dark in the stairwell and they were lucky to only have to go to the next level up. Exiting the stairwell onto the second floor provided no relief from the smell. It was on that floor, too.
“What is that smell? Is it everywhere in this building?” asked Dylan, as he held his nose. After he spoke, Dylan immediately noticed a small single hung window at the end of the hall. He immediately went to the window and opened it, hoping the wind could blow in some fresh air.
Kevin followed him down the hall and stared at the door to the apartment they were next to. It was apartment 210.
“You made it.”
“I’ve thought about this moment every day since we left Montana. It has kept me going. I wondered what I’d do when I got here. Maybe I would run to the door and pound on it, or scream at the window from the street.” With a quick laugh he said, “I guess I kept it simple. Here we go.”
Kevin knocked on the door.
“Why don’t you just open the door? It’s your apartment.”
Kevin replied, embarrassed, “I lost the key.”
Dylan rolled his eyes and slapped his forehead. He then turned to the window for fresh air as Kevin continued to knock.
“Honey, it’s me, Kevin. I’m back. Open the door.”
“Where else could she be, Kevin?”
“I don’t know, but I’m not leaving without her. You don’t have to stick around. If you want to leave that’s fine, but she’s my wife and I am not leaving without her.”
“I’m not leaving, either. Let’s find your wife. What do we do now? Where would she go?”
“Let’s go out back and look around,” said Kevin.
“If you don’t mind, I’d prefer to avoid walking through that stench again. Go have a look and come back. I’ll wait here.”
Kevin scrambled down the hallway to the stairwell, and was gone. Dylan stepped out of the main hall, around the corner, and sat on the floor with his back to the wall, watching the rain come through the window. The raindrops were reflecting the small bit of golden light left from the setting sun. The hallway was dark and quiet. The sound of the raindrops was hypnotic. Dylan closed his eyes and listened. He began to fade away into sleep as he sat on the floor. In his dream, he heard gentle footsteps. They got gradually louder, and then he heard a metallic noise. It was the sound of a turning doorknob and squeaky hinges. The sounds were real and not from a dream, he realized. Dylan jumped up. He grabbed his rifle, turned around the corner, and was staring at a thin woman with long black hair standing in the open doorway to apartment 210. When she saw Dylan jump around the corner with the rifle, the woman began to scream hysterically in fear.
“Please don’t kill me! Please, please don’t kill me! I’m begging you!” pleaded the woman, as she collapsed to her knees and begged for mercy.
“No, no, this isn’t what you think!” said Dylan, as he dropped the rifle and held up his hands. Dylan took a step toward the woman and she screamed even louder.
Kevin heard the screams through the open window and ran back inside. He leaped through the stairwell doors, darted up the steps, and started down the hall toward the apartment. He stopped halfway down the hall when he saw his wife; she was wearing a loose fitting sundress. He immediately recognized his Mary.
Dylan looked down the hall where Kevin was and saw the dark figure that Mary was looking at. As Kevin began to slowly walk toward them, he realized her terror. She saw an unrecognizable man with long hair, a beard, and a pistol walking toward her, and both of the men were wearing red bandanas on their arms.
“Mary, it’s Kevin!” Dylan gently explained, as he pointed to the slowly advancing figure in the dark hallway. Dylan quickly removed his red armband, wadded it up, and threw it on the hallway floor. “We’re not a part of that. Those armbands aren’t ours.”
When Mary heard her name, she was shocked into silence. She stared at Dylan’s face in the dark of twilight, but did not recognize him.
“Who are you? How do you know my name?” As Mary demanded an answer from Dylan, her fear and panic was transitioning into anger.
“My name is Dylan; you don’t know me. I am your husband’s friend.” Dylan extended his arm and pointed to Kevin’s shadowy figure slowly moving toward them.
Mary was still on the floor and on her knees. She straightened her torso, and with clenched fists at her side, yelled at Dylan. “My husband is dead! Everyone I know is dead! Damn you to hell!”
At Mary’s exclamation, Kevin’s shocked silence disappeared. He took a step forward to stand next to his kneeling wife in the dark hallway. “Mary, it’s me. I made it back. I came back for you and the baby.” She recognized his voice. Kevin dropped to his knees to look directly into his wife’s face. Lightning from the storm flashed, shining through the little window and illuminating the hallway. In that brief instant, Mary could see him clearly. The sun had burnt Kevin’s face, and he had a beard now. His hair was long and as ragged as his clothes. She thought to herself that his eyes were the same. She had fallen in love with those same kind blue eyes. This was her husband, and he was alive! She grabbed him, holding tightly, and began to cry.
Dylan stepped softly around the embracing couple and went into the dark apartment to give them privacy. Inside the apartment, he stood next to a window overlooking the road outside and stared cautiously through it. He remembered Kevin’s earlier suspicion of being followed. He believed Kevin, and was worried.
Kevin grabbed his wife’s face and kissed her on the forehead. “Where were you? We were looking for you.”
“I was on the roof. When it rains, I put buckets out to collect water.” Mary stood up and used the loose clothing of her sundress to wipe away her tears. “Where have you been all these months? How did you get back here?”
“It’s a long story. I’ll explain later.”
She turned to go into the apartment. “Honey, come in quickly and lock the door. I’ll light a candle.” She looked at Dylan and invited him in too. Dylan accepted the invitation, and, in his haste to find a place to rest his weary body, was the first to enter.
Kevin stepped inside and saw Dylan’s figure in the darkness, looking alertly out the window. In the room was a large couch with a coffee table and a few chairs. Dylan moved to a chair in the corner of the room and, by moving away, allowed a little more moonlight to come through the window. Kevin sat in the middle of the couch and placed the backpack on the coffee table. There was a faint smell of sulfur from the match as Mary lit a candle. The orange glow grew brighter as the large candle that Mary brought into the room came closer. Mary was holding the candle directly in front of her when she crossed the room and stood next to Kevin. She sat the candle on the edge of the coffee table, and began to cry when she saw the expression on her husband’s face. She could see that he had just realized what she had not told him yet. She was not pregnant any longer. She had lost their baby.
Without a spoken word, Dylan realized the horror Kevin was now experiencing. Dylan subconsciously pushed back with his feet to move his chair further into the corner, but there was no escaping the tragedy filling the room.
A broken man slowly and weakly stood up from the couch. Kevin then went to the room that they had prepared for the child. Dylan heard him cry from the baby’s room, closed his eyes, and tried to keep his own demons from returning. They were telling him that his children were in trouble and that he could not help them. He understood that there was nothing he can do. All he could do was remind himself to survive one day at a time and not give up hope.
Mary turned away from the candlelight and entered the nursery to be with her husband.
“I’m sorry, Kevin. It’s been horrible here. Since the grid went down my life has been a nightmare. I’m so sorry—”
“I’
m not blaming you for anything.” Kevin had turned away from his wife and leaning over the crib. He gently pushed the mobile hanging at the head of the empty crib.
“Kevin, when I saw the red armbands that you and your friend were wearing, I panicked. Men with red armbands attacked me and my friend.” She began to cry again. “It wasn’t my fault.”
“What? Men with red armbands attacked you?”
She was shocked at the sound of his voice. He sounded like a killer. She knew her husband would never hurt her, but she unconsciously took a step backward. If the room was illuminated, she would have seen his narrowed eyes grow bloodshot and his hands begin to tremble with the adrenalin coursing through his veins. His breathing became deep and quick. His body was ready for combat.
“It was after the power was out for quite a while. I didn’t think you were coming home. A friend lives close by, so I walked to her house hoping we could help each other get through this. As we were walking back here, those men were looting the area. They surrounded us. I fought back as hard as I could. An ugly man with a cratered face told the men to hold me. They called him Cyrus; I think he was the leader. He had a red bandana on his head, not on his arm. He whispered into my ear, ‘Don’t fight back so hard. It’s bad for your health,’ and then he hit me in the stomach. I passed out. By the time I woke up, I had lost a lot of blood and realized I had lost the baby, too. My friend was gone and I haven’t seen her since.”
Kevin felt the rage beginning to erupt from his body. He ripped the red cloth off his arm and went back to the room Dylan was in. “Dylan! I’m leaving! You don’t have to come with me. I have something to do and I may not come back…I have to do it. I’m going to kill them all…every single one of those bastards…they’re all going to die.”
Dylan stood up from the chair. “Kevin, I heard what she said. I’m so sorry to hear that. You’re a good man and don’t deserve what’s happened. Calm down for a second, and let’s talk about this.” Dylan held his hands up at his chest level with his palms facing out. He motioned downward with his hands to try to reinforce his desire for Kevin to calm down.