Critical Measures

by Kip Nelson

  “You can be sure we'll carry out our mission, but if you ask me, you all should be on trial, not just her,” the brute said. One of his allies came up and removed him from the situation while Tara bent down and tended to Adam.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  In the background he could hear Diana describing Lisa to the others. Adam nodded, spitting out another mouthful of blood. Tara held some water to his lips and he drank eagerly, then returned to his feet, not even bothering to look at the man who had attacked him. He was glad Tara was there. He didn't know what he had done to deserve her in his life, but he was happy she was a part of it. He knew he wanted to be a better man, the best man he could be. He didn't want to be consumed with anger or hate, not for her. She deserved better than that. Maybe the best way he could move on from this was to devote himself to Tara and being the good man she deserved. Maybe that was the only way toward happiness.

  “We've all done things we're not proud of, and there's no way the whole human race can be put on trial,” Adam muttered under his breath, out of earshot of the man who had spoken to Tara. The rest of the force was moving away. Tara stayed with Adam, smiling at him, and supporting him as he walked. He took a few moments to recover from the blows, but soon enough he was standing up straight again, although there still was an ache in his gut.

  “Before we get there, I wanted to say--” he began. Tara pressed a finger over his lips.

  “Let's talk about it when we get back,” she said.

  Adam was worried that either one or both of them would not return, but the concern went unmentioned. It was easy to believe in a good world when he was standing beside Tara. It was easy to believe that everything would work out for the best. But deep inside him there still was the dreadful worry that their plan would fail, and they would lose everything they had worked so hard to achieve, and that everything they had gone through was for nothing. It would have been easy to run away into the bleak winter and hope to find a new beginning, leaving Lisa far in the past and letting her rule her kingdom. However, it was too late for that now. Things had been set in motion, and they had responsibilities to the people they had harmed. It was all or nothing, but Adam remembered the greedy look in Lisa's eye. He knew if she had the chance, she would see to it that they all suffered terribly.

  The camp walls loomed in the darkness. Everything was quiet, and everyone’s nerves were jangling. Adam checked his gun and took a deep breath, then looked at everyone else. They all were ready for this battle, and in harsh whispers they went through the plan again. The map had been studied so everyone knew exactly where to go. Speed was of the utmost importance. Diana led them around the side of the camp to where she had weakened the gate and sneaked in to rescue the others. Thankfully, it had not been repaired yet. Once inside the camp they moved as one, snaking through the shadows, avoiding the patrols. Evidently, Lisa hadn't thought to change the guards’ routine. Perhaps in her arrogance she had decided there was nothing to worry about. They were about to prove her wrong.

  Lisa was their primary target and if they could get out without causing a firefight, they had to try. With that in mind they kept their guns silent and did not go toward the armory or other targets. They kept to the sides of the buildings, making their way to the community center, where they burst in and subdued Lisa's guards. All it took was the threat of a bullet to have them down on their knees. Lisa smiled thinly as Adam approached her.

  “I thought I'd seen the last of you,” she said.

  “Not yet,” Adam replied. The others got to work, quickly tying her hands behind her back with thick rope, and securing the people with her, binding and gagging them so they could not raise the alarm.

  “How are you going to do it then, kill me now? Or are you going to wait to make a spectacle of it?”

  “No,” he said, “we're not like you. We're going to take you back and you're going to answer for your crimes.”

  Lisa was about to say something else when Tara gagged her, silencing her for once. Adam gave her a satisfied smile. They made sure the others there could not escape or raise the alarm, and then left as silently as they came in. It was almost too easy. Adam was afraid it was a trap, but they walked out of the community center with no difficulties. It seemed as though their plan had worked. They reached the secret entrance they had used. Lisa made no effort to struggle. For all her wits she still was an old woman and knew she could not hope to overcome this army in a test of strength. Diana and Tara made sure to watch her closely, though. Others were saying how it would be so easy to kill her and bring an end to it. He hoped that Matthew was right and that his plan would work. Otherwise, it could be a grave mistake to keep her alive.

  “I have something I need to do,” Adam said to Peter. “I'll catch up with you. Don't wait for me.” Peter called after him, but Adam already was gone. Tara spun around, distracted, and Peter only could offer her a shrug.

  Adam needed to see Lee. He needed to make Lee know that Adam could kill him if he wanted to do so. Adam skulked through the camp to Lee's place and opened the door. The house was quiet and dark. Adam's feet creaked on the floorboards, so he stepped carefully. He tentatively walked up the stairs and pushed open the door to Lee's room. Lee's face was half-lit by moonlight. He looked so peaceful. It was almost easy to forget he was a cold-blooded killer, responsible for so many deaths.

  Adam stepped toward the bed and lowered his gun to Lee's head, the barrel resting against Lee's temple. It took a few moments, but Lee stirred. His eyes opened, and his hands rose, and then a grin ran across his face when he saw it was Adam.

  “So, you finally made a move,” Lee said, a hint of pride in his voice.

  Adam's hand shook. It would be so easy to pull the trigger, so easy to let a bullet fly and watch Lee's head fall to the pillow, blood seeping through the sheets. Then all the sadness that Lee had wrought would be avenged. Adam could be the one to get justice for Clark and everyone else Lee had wronged. The gunshot would wake up everyone and alert the camp, though, jeopardizing the mission. But maybe it would be worth it. Maybe just to see the look on Lee's face as he took his last breath...

  “I've been doing some thinking,” Adam said, trying to keep his trembling voice even, but his whole body was wired with adrenaline and emotion.

  “I've come to the conclusion I'm not a killer. I'm not like you, and I don't ever want to be like you. I see the way you kill. It's like human lives don't mean a thing to you. You don't have any attachments. You don't have anything good in this world. I thought I had to punish you, but I don't. All I can do is pity you because you won't know anything but hatred. I just wanted you to know that I could have killed you, and that I could blow your brains out right now, but I'm choosing not to do it. You're a horrible man, and I'm choosing to be better than you.”

  With that Adam pulled his gun away and ran down the stairs, leaving Lee shocked and puzzled. Adam sprinted outdoors, and threw caution to the wind as he made his way through the camp. He was worried he had done something terrible, but he had had to see Lee, he just had to. He was not going to be a killer, though. No, he was going to be better, for Tara. He was going to be the man he always wanted to be.

  Puffing and panting, he joined back up with Peter, who had been waiting for him.

  “What happened to the others?” Adam asked.

  “I tried to get them to wait, but they wouldn't. The best I could get out of them was to march slowly. Diana and Tara didn't want to leave Lisa alone with them. Did you do what you needed to do?” Peter asked.

  “I think so,” Adam said.

  He looked back at the camp as he and Peter walked away, hoping he could stay true to what he had promised himself. Walking with Peter brought back simpler times, and he enjoyed that feeling for a little while until they joined up with the rest. Tara and Diana gave him an inquisitive look, but he told them he'd tell them later. He kept looking over his shoulder, worried they would be pursued. However, everything had gone according to plan. Eventua
lly, his eyes were focused on the journey ahead, not on what they had left behind.

  Chapter Six

  Once again, they were walking through the city at night. The wind howled and their breathed curled into a fine mist. Adam's teeth chattered as he walked along, and he couldn't stop his body from shaking. His thoughts lingered on Lee. He wondered how long it would be before Lee raised the alarm and they discovered that Lisa had been taken. Although there was always the possibility that Lee saw Adam as so non-threatening that he wouldn't think anything of it. Adam knew he had put the entire mission in jeopardy, but there was something about Lee that Adam was obsessed with. It was as though Lee encapsulated all the chaos and all the unfairness of the new world order, and while Lee lived there could be no happiness for anyone who deserved it. But Adam hoped his little show of mercy would not prove fatal. He didn't want to be swallowed up by vengeance. Tara's affection had shown him a better path, one that he was determined to follow.

  Everyone in this small group had emerged unscathed, and not a bullet had been fired. It seemed as though Lisa had grown arrogant and hadn't expected another foray into her camp. Matthew would be pleased, but Adam knew there still was a lot of uncertainty regarding the future. It was all well and good to want to be better people, to put Lisa on trial in the name of justice, yet it was another thing actually to see it through. Eventually, Lisa's people would discover she had been taken, and there was only one place where she could be. Her presence might slow their attack, for fear of wounding her, but the attack would come nonetheless. The fight still wasn't over. Adam wondered if it ever was going to be.

  “Did you do what you had to do?” Peter asked.

  “Yeah, and it's over now,” Adam said. Peter seemed satisfied with that answer, although there still was a troubled look on his face. “What's wrong?” Adam asked.

  “I just have a bad feeling about this. I always hated escort missions.”

  “Me too,” Adam said, and then apologized, for he had spoken without thinking. The only escort missions he had been on had been in games, and they were most certainly not like the real thing.

  “I don't trust her,” Peter said, ignoring the comment.

  “I don't think she's going anywhere. Diana and Tara have it under control.

  “Still...” Peter said.

  Adam knew where he was coming from. Lisa was a wily woman, and despite her lack of fight, she was not going to go with them willingly. He looked at the small woman. It was difficult to believe she had been the cause of all this anguish. She had shaped the world in the image she wanted, but she had made it something ugly and malicious. Adam didn't know what had happened in her life to make her heart burn so fiercely with hatred, but he knew she wouldn't be satisfied until all her enemies had been destroyed, and everyone else bowed down to her. The would-be conqueror was not the person one conjured up when they thought about power, but perhaps that was why she was so successful. She knew who she needed to accomplish her tasks. People like Lee. She knew how to take advantage of people's fears. She had taken advantage of Adam's own fear.

  When all this first had happened, he was so desperate to escape the pits of the apartments that he would have done anything. He wanted to prove he was worthy of living in that camp. He practically had begged to be taken in, along with his friends. But all that time Lisa had played him, had used him. She'd played on his desperation and made him think it was something he wanted when, really, he should have thought about it more.

  He wondered if he was making the same mistake again with this new camp, but despite the fact everyone hated him, he wanted to stay. He wanted a home. He wanted to feel as though he belonged.

  He overheard the other soldiers joking and talking and he was a little jealous. They had bonded over shared sorrow, but he still was on the outside. He still had Tara, Diana, Peter, and Annabelle, but it wasn't the same. He wanted to be accepted by these new people, to feel as though he could make a home with them. Gazing around, peering into the dark shadows of the night, the city looked bleak and uninspiring. It was as though he was gazing into oblivion, into a deep abyss from which there was no return. He feared falling through it again, for who knew what horrors the city held? The ruins of the planes that had fallen from the sky still littered the area, dead bodies still were throughout the streets, reminders of the world that had come before this one.

  How had they arrived at this point? Sometimes it was hard to imagine things could have fallen apart so quickly. He wondered what the rest of the world was like. Had sanity prevailed in every part of the world? Was there any group of people who actually were thriving? The sobering thing was that he likely never would get an answer. Even if he lived through this it could be years before people became organized enough to search for others, and probably longer until they heard from anyone in another country. It had been so easy to be connected with the entire world through the Internet, but in some ways, it also had led to a deep loneliness as well. Perhaps, Adam thought, the world before had not actually been as perfect as he thought it had been. Perhaps it had just been the world he was used to. He thought about Annabelle and other children, ones who weren't even born yet. This was going to be the only world they knew. Would they hate it as much as he did?

  It was a question only the future could answer, and with everything balanced so precariously Adam was unsure about how much of the future he actually would get to see. It was grimly amusing in a way. Adam always had dreamed about the future, had thought about seeing humanity reach for the stars and explore new worlds. Much of his own personal anguish came with the feeling that he had been born in the wrong time. He wanted to see other planets and interact with aliens, but now that never would happen. Even if what remained of humanity managed to rebuild some form of society, it never would be the same again. It would be hundreds of years at least before they could leave this rock. That's even if the effects of the EMP faded over time. For all anyone knew it could be permanent, and humans would be trapped forever on their planet, never destined to leave for greener pastures.

  While he was lost in thought Lisa was wriggling and writhing, never making it easy for Diana and Tara to lead her back. Despite her age and her height, she had an impressive strength and was not going to be led away easily. She was gagged at least, which meant she could not speak or cry out for help. This was a relief because Adam was tired of hearing her voice, the way it dripped with superiority, as though she knew how everything was going to turn out. That was how she had managed to wrap everyone around her finger, but it wouldn't fly now. Adam just hoped Matthew would keep his promise and make sure Lisa answered for her crimes. In the old world he always had turned away from the news. It had saddened him that so many guilty people gotten away with crimes because they were able to convince the jury they were innocent, even though so much evidence pointed in their direction.

  They walked quickly, knowing that at any point a rescue party could come for Lisa, and if they lost her, they never would get another chance. They had been lucky that Lisa hadn't been under heavy guard. She would not make the same mistake again, if she was given the opportunity. There were so many things Adam wanted to say to her, but in the end, he did not have the energy. He knew it wouldn't make any difference. Lisa was rigid in her appraisal of the world and nobody ever would get her to admit she was wrong, or that she had treated people unfairly. She always would say she just was doing what she needed to do to survive, and that she protected the people in her community. There was no getting through to her, though. She saw the world in a completely different way from Adam and the others.

  The night was dark, and people were tired. It had been a long few days. Even now Adam felt his eyelids beginning to drop, and he didn't know how the others were doing. He longed to be back in a comfortable bed with a blanket pulled tightly around him, so he could forget the horrors of the world for a few hours and just drift off to sleep. He wanted to be alone with Tara and feel her warm flesh pressing against his. Instead he was shambling through
the city, framed in moonlight, with still a good distance to go until they reached safety. He had to be on his guard as well because he still didn't trust the people he was with. They'd made no secret of their feelings toward him, and part of him was afraid they would leave him and the others out in the city, claiming they had been injured in the attack.

  But he was tired, and that was just his paranoia talking. However, he did have a right to be worried. Lisa was a wry woman, and she was not going to be so easily led away. Her eyes darted about, probing, looking for weaknesses, for opportunities. They all had underestimated her before when they assumed she was just a harmless old woman. The people from Matthew's camp were doing the same. They walked ahead, quickly, getting farther and farther away from those at the rear. Diana and Tara called out to them, trying to tell them to slow down, but they did not listen. As far as they were concerned Lisa was Diana's problem, and if they took a little longer getting back to camp then so be it.

  Then Adam faltered. He had been so lost in his own thoughts, and so tired, that his foot had found a divot. He stumbled forward and planted his hands on the ground. His palms stung, and he gasped as he pushed himself up. Tara, who heard this, whipped around and knelt to help him. She already was worried about his state of mind, and Diana was distracted, too. At this moment Lisa saw an opportunity. She planted her heel down onto Diana's boot. Diana yelped in pain and her grip momentarily loosened, but this fleeting chance was all Lisa needed. The old woman wrested herself away from Diana and scuttled into the darkness. She was spry for an old woman, and in the confusion, they lost track of her. Diana called out for help. The others turned around.

  “Where the fuck did she go?”