Somehow, she made it out of the city and across the interstate bridge leading to Slidell without getting carjacked. The number of stalled cars and people walking the roads prompted her to leave Interstate 59 at the first opportunity however, and once across Lake Pontchartrain, she turned off to take the older route north, a two-lane highway David had shown her on one of their leisurely Sunday trips to visit his parents.
April felt a lot better about traveling Highway 11. It was much less congested even though it was smaller and only a two lane. Soon she was out of the cities and suburbs, rolling along past mixed forests and farm fields. All was well until the Mustang sputtered and then died, rolling to a stop within sight of a single, isolated farmhouse. April knew the fuel gauge didn’t work, and David had run out of gas once before because of it. She had no way of knowing how much was in the tank when she left, so she was hardly surprised that it was empty now. People had said you couldn’t get gas from any of the gas stations anyway, without electricity to pump it, so refilling before she left had not been an option. As she stepped out in the middle of the highway among several other abandoned cars, April knew she had to find a way to get some fast.
The three men that emerged from that house at the sound of her approach had other plans that didn’t include helping her on her way, however. Cornered and alone on that deserted road, April was determined to fight to the death to deprive them of the one thing they wanted. The first to lay a hand on her paid with blood when the big folding knife she concealed in her back pocket found his throat. April used the moment of shock to try and run from the other two, but one was faster and she was thrown to the pavement and disarmed. She was certain she would have lost the fight if not for the surprise that came next in the form of deadly arrows from an unseen archer. Both men fell before they knew what hit them and April leapt to her feet to face the new threat. It was then that Mitch Henley showed himself, stepping out of the concealment of the roadside bushes and walking towards her with a reassuring wave, his bow arm relaxed at his side.
Thus began their brief but intense friendship, a bond strengthened by a long and difficult journey that involved more blood and death, but brought her at last to be reunited with her precious Kimberly. It had been a sad day when they parted outside the gates of a fortified church in Hattiesburg where David and his parents had taken Kimberly for refuge. But April had known all along Mitch wouldn’t stay there and that she couldn’t follow him—at least until all these months later, when life in that fortress became unbearable and too dangerous to remain.
Getting out of the city at last and finding her way back to Black Creek with Kimberly and David had been hard enough. And now, just when she’d thought the journey was almost over, April simply could not locate the obscure path to Mitch’s land. It was incredibly frustrating, but there was nothing else to do but to camp for the night and keep searching in the morning.
All of them were tired, and Kimberly’s needs had to be taken care of. David knew no more of camping and river travel than April did before the blackout, so she made the decision as to where they would land the canoe and where they would sleep for the night. She picked a high, narrow sandbar with a stand of tall hardwoods behind it, pulling the canoe well above the water’s edge in case an upstream rain caused it to rise overnight. They would sleep on the open sand at the edge of the woods, because Mitch had told her that the big diamondback rattlers that were common in these parts were nocturnal and on the prowl on the forest floor at night. April knew he said they sometimes ventured out on the sandbars too, but she felt better sleeping on the white sand that reflected the moonlight so well and at least made it possible to see a snake before stepping on it. She would have much preferred a tent with securely zippered doors, but they were lucky to even have blankets and those would have to suffice.
Four
“YOU AND STACY REALLY need to stay here, Lisa. Jason and I can handle this,” Mitch said. “It was probably just one guy, and he has probably moved on by now anyway. But in case he hasn’t or there are more of them, the two of us can move faster and quieter than four.
“But if there are more, you might wish you had our help, Mitch!” Lisa argued. “Why do we always get stuck staying here, guarding the house?”
“Because somebody has to, that’s why. I could do this alone, but Jason is getting a lot better at tracking and stalking and this will be a good drill for him. You know we’ve got to be ready when these trespassers and poachers come around. We’ve been through all this before.”
“Corey and Samantha can guard the house. It’s not like they’re doing anything else useful.”
“Don’t be so hard on them, Lisa. They’ve been through a lot. And you know as well as I do that we can’t leave them here in charge of watching the place with everyone gone. They have no experience with guns or any other skills they would need for the job. You and Stacy do, Lisa. That’s why I trust you with a responsibility that’s just as important as what Jason and I have to do. Besides, we won’t be gone long at all, and if we don’t find whoever shot that arrow, all we’re going to be doing is packing deer meat back home anyway.”
Mitch finished his breakfast of fresh eggs and venison steak and stepped out into the cold of the morning. The pale edge of dawn was just beginning to push back the darkness that enveloped the Henley farm and the forest beyond. Jason was already outside, anxious to get started, armed with the Smith & Wesson AR-15 that was Doug Henley’s state-issued patrol rifle. Mitch knew his dad would be glad they had the weapon, but he also knew that if he could, Doug Henley would much rather be here using it to watch over them himself.
Seven months had passed and every day Mitch had maintained hope that his mom and dad would arrive at the gate to the property, somehow making their way back to south Mississippi from Houston, Texas. But though he wouldn’t let the hope die, Mitch couldn’t deny the probability that his parents were no longer alive. For all he knew, they had died that first day of the blackout, victims of a plane crash caused by solar flare’s powerful pulse. No one could have imagined the devastation wrought by this unseen force; planes falling from the sky…cars and trucks stalling on the highways and city streets…cell phones and lights shutting down for keeps…. The EMP destroyed practically everything electronic, and consequently, all systems dependent upon and controlled by computer and electrical circuitry.
Mitch didn’t know if his parents’ connecting flight from New Orleans had landed before it happened or not. If it didn’t, his parents wouldn’t have had a chance. Though he tried not to think about it too often, this seemed the most likely explanation as time went on. Doug Henley was as good a woodsman and as dedicated a lawman as any man could be. Mitch knew that if he were alive, his dad would do everything in his power to stay that way and keep his mom safe too. And Mitch knew that aside from that, he would make it his mission to get back home to him and his little sister. Nothing would stop him from doing so, but seven months was a long time, even without transportation and even with all the obstacles anyone on the move would surely encounter. If they were okay, Mitch was sure they would have arrived long before now.
But until they got here, if they ever did, keeping his sister safe and protecting the house and livestock from marauding looters was Mitch’s responsibility. He was managing so far, but each new unknown, each new variable like this mysterious hunter who had wounded a deer so close to the house, was a potential threat to their safety that had to be investigated without delay.
With Jason carrying the AR-15, Mitch felt okay with his decision to stick to just his hunting bow as his main weapon. As he had proven more than once since law and order fell apart, the silence of his deadly arrows could offer great advantage in certain situations. But in case he got in a bind and needed a backup, he was also wearing his Ruger .357 Magnum revolver in a holster on his belt.
“I’m sure we’ll be back in time for lunch,” Mitch reassured his little sister as he kissed her on the cheek. Lisa was clearly unhappy that she couldn�
��t participate in this patrol to find the trespasser. No doubt she saw it as an exciting break in the day-to-day monotony of living on the isolated farm with no outside contact, no communication and little entertainment besides what they created for themselves. Mitch knew it had to be incredibly boring for his fourteen-year-old sister, but he figured Lisa and her best friend Stacy were coping with it better than most.
For Mitch, there was nothing boring about it. Even before the blackout, there was nothing he would rather do than roam the woods alone with his bow and arrows. Now he was doing that everyday, and not for recreation or diversion but as a way of life. He had turned seventeen in the intervening months since everything changed, and he’d taken to this new life with great enthusiasm. If not for his worry and sadness over his parents’ absence, Mitch could not have imagined a life he would enjoy more. For one thing, he no longer had to attend that hated school with its idiotic and petty rules and regulations. He didn’t have to worry about fitting into a teenage social stratum that he neither cared about nor understood. He didn’t have to live by clocks and bells, spend hours sitting on his butt at a stupid desk, or racking his brain trying to solve insanely complex algebra problems that he could see no use for in real life.
Mitch knew the electromagnetic pulse caused untold suffering and death, and undoubtedly affected millions of lives if not all the lives on the planet, but if nothing else good came of it, at least it had freed him from a way of life he never felt was right for him. Now he was living the fantasy he’d often entertained of going back in time—back to a time when all men lived by the weapons and the skills they carried with them when they set out each day into the forest to find what sustenance it provided. As always before a hunt, Mitch felt the tinge of excitement and anticipation as he strung his longbow and slung the deerskin quiver of cane-shafted arrows over his shoulder. As he strode across the yard with Jason close behind, he was eager to melt into the shadows of the trees where once again he would become that primal hunter he knew he was born to be.
Five
WHEN DARKNESS CLOSED IN on the small sandbar, the surrounding forest felt like solid walls cutting them off completely from the rest of the world. April knew it was an illusion though, and that even though it seemed impossible to leave their camp now even if they had to, Mitch had shown her otherwise. She had followed him through these same trackless woods on another night equally dark, amazed at how unerringly he found his way. And she’d seen how he used the darkness to his advantage to stalk and kill those who had taken his sister captive. Thinking of this, April couldn’t help but feel vulnerable now, sitting there in the light of their campfire, just as those unsuspecting men had been doing before falling to Mitch’s arrows. Was someone out there watching even now? She tried not to think about it, but found she couldn’t help it. There were no human footprints or any other sign anyone had visited the sandbar recently; she had checked carefully for that as soon as they stopped. But she still couldn’t get the idea she was being watched out of her mind. These deep woods were a scary place to be at night, even if it wasn’t her first time. All she could do was hope the night passed quickly, knowing she would feel better at dawn. She had to find Mitch tomorrow, and she was determined to do so.
It was a mistake not to just get Kimberly and come back here with him in the first place after he helped her reach Hattiesburg. April knew this now. Mitch had, of course, invited all of them, including David’s parents to come back with him, but though April saw the advantages of getting away from the city, the others did not. They were determined to remain in the big church sanctuary on Hardy Street, living off the provisions stored there that had been collected for a Central American relief mission before all this happened. The supplies would not last indefinitely, but it was enough to see the congregation through for several weeks, and few then could foresee the situation lasting longer than that. But it had lasted longer—much longer indeed—and there was still no end in sight.
April had asked Mitch and his sister to stay there with them too, but the city was no place for a guy like Mitch and she knew it. So they’d said their goodbyes and he and Lisa set out to return to the land he knew so well, where they would hold out and wait in hopes their parents were somehow still alive.
As April poked at the coals of the fire with a long stick, she thought about how glad she was to be away from those people in Hattiesburg, even though they were temporarily lost and alone in the woods. It had been tolerable there at first, but as time went by, she began to hate it in the confines of the church. A group of men including the pastor had taken charge with absolute authority, regimenting their days and restricting the activities of the members and other refugees to the tasks they assigned. And April and David, as unwed parents, were forced to go through the motions and exchange the vows of man and wife if they wanted to remain. She went along with it because she had no choice, but April considered the ceremony meaningless as there was no marriage license or legal recording of it a courthouse and she did not consider herself subject to the authority of a church she did not belong to. She’d once planned to marry David when she first found out she was pregnant, but that was before they started fighting and before she realized just how immature he really was. They were on the verge of splitting up most of the time they were living together in their New Orleans apartment and she had not been intimate with him since. During their time in Hattiesburg she poured all of her love and devotion onto Kimberly, only tolerating him because their daughter needed her father too.
What bothered April more than the forced marriage imposed upon them was the way the leaders turned away everyone who came to their doors begging for sanctuary or a meal to sustain them one more day. Any who approached were met by armed men, just as she and Mitch and Lisa had been challenged on that day they first arrived there. If not for David’s parents and her baby already inside, she would have been denied as well. April knew that the supplies they had were limited, but there were some cases in which she felt an exception should be made. But all were turned away with equal disregard, and arguments among the members led to yet more rules and more power struggles within. April knew it was just human nature that the breakdown of one control structure would lead to the establishment of another. Most people seemed to thrive on it, but as non-members and outsiders accepted only because of David’s parents, she and David had no say in anything. The two of them were given the most menial chores and expected to work long hours for their meals and protection within the church walls.
But even the protection was questionable. At first there were a few shootouts at the gate and incidents of unsuccessful nighttime raids by small, disorganized gangs. Then, towards the end of summer, there was a focused and coordinated attack by a gang of outlaws who rode into town on old Harley Davidson motorcycles, their machines unfazed by the pulse. The fighting had been intense, and more than a dozen of the defenders had died behind the barricade of trucks and SUVs encircling the grounds beyond the front door. Only the advantage of numbers, their fortified positions and sufficient firepower had enabled them to prevail against such a determined horde. April knew from what she’d seen outside with Mitch that more would come. This was just the beginning, and one day a stronger, even more dangerous group would arrive at the gates. Like Mitch said, there was no place in any city that was defensible indefinitely without outside help, of which they had still seen no sign. This most recent battle was a breaking point for April. She was determined to leave and get her baby to someplace that would not draw the attention of such organized attacks. And the only place she knew like that was far from cities and towns, deep in the woods in the river lands she had traveled with Mitch. There, his family property contained the shelter, tools, weapons, natural resources and most importantly, the isolation to ride out the aftermath of this crisis.
The act of leaving the barricaded church in Hattiesburg more resembled a prison escape than a decision they made with the blessing of the congregation. Once David had agreed to go with her, they b
egan hoarding a small amount of their daily rations and secreting away other things they would need when the opportunity to get out presented itself. Though it had involved considerable risk, that opportunity came when the building was once again under attack. They were able to slip away in the confusion and noise after dark, carrying their weapons, a small amount of food, and their precious Kimberly hidden away in the blankets they were now using as bedding.
What little food they had brought was nearly gone, but April knew that once they were at Mitch’s place starvation would be unlikely. And if necessary in the meantime, the Ruger carbine he’d given her before would provide a means of taking game. She didn’t expect to have to resort to that yet, though. She was still confident that tomorrow they would find the path they sought. David, however, was far less certain, but to her relief, he sat sulking in silence and said no more about it.
They were both too tired from a long day of paddling to sit up half the night arguing. With Kimberly snuggled up next to her in the blankets, April fell fast asleep and didn’t wake until the morning sunlight reached her face on the open sandbar. Sunny or not, the morning chill forced her to get up and stir the coals to rekindle last night’s fire. A film of frost on the upturned hull of the canoe told her the low must have dropped to near freezing. It was the coldest night of the fall so far, and certainly the coldest since the blackout.
She was grateful that Kimberly was still asleep, and even more so that David had not yet stirred. She wanted to collect her thoughts as she built up the fire, and as she sat there poking at the coals with a stick and feeding more fuel into it, she tried harder to visualize exactly what the surroundings looked like that day she had followed Mitch on the obscure path from the creek to his family’s home. With the flames blazing warm once again, she closed her eyes and tried to retrace her steps that day in her mind, looking for details that might make it more obvious later that morning as they resumed their search for the path. She knew it was close. It simply had to be.
Into the River Lands (Darkness After Series Book 2) Page 2