They invited Nick and Jason to set up their tent and share their campsite. It turned out that Jason was a veterinarian. Ben brought up the subject of the strange animal behavior. Jason felt that it would return to normal.
“My guess is that it’s a temporary affliction. Besides,” he added, “you’ll have a whole new batch of young ones who weren’t around to experience the event. They should be perfectly normal.”
Nick and Jason were tired and headed for their tent. Ben and Lila sat up a while longer, enjoying the peace and watching the flames of the fire.
“I’ve been thinking about Florida," said Lila. "We’ve changed a lot in the weeks since we left home. It was a good idea at first, and it got us moving, but is that still where you want to end up? Because I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I do.”
“Me neither,” replied Ben. “I’ve kind of had this fantasy that we are like the pioneers in the old west trying to find a homestead, looking out over thousands of miles of untouched land. But the reality is that we don’t have all that land to choose from. Being on the trail like this is deceiving. We’re traveling through hills and forests, but we’re often only a few miles—or less—away from towns and shopping malls. Sometimes it depresses me knowing how close we are to all of that.”
“And Florida would be that to the extreme,” said Lila. “Whew! I’m glad you’re feeling the same way. I have to say though, that the idea of the ocean is really appealing to me too.”
“We’re young,” said Ben. “What’s stopping us from finding a place to settle down, then moving on whenever we want? I think right now, we’re both loving the forest, so let’s look at a map tomorrow and talk to Nick—as a meteorologist, he might have some ideas—then go from there.”
That settled, they moved to their tent, where they made quiet, passionate love amidst the sounds of the night birds and animals. While they were still awake, Ben whispered to Lila that it was too bad everyone couldn’t have the love they had.
“I feel sorry for Nick and Jason,” he said very softly. “Two guys without women to keep them company.”
“You’re joking, right?” whispered Lila. “Ben, I don’t think they want any women with them. I think they’re very happy just the way they are.”
It took Ben a minute, but he finally caught on. “Oh. Well then, I guess I don’t have to feel sorry for them.”
The next morning over breakfast, they got into a discussion about the population that was left.
“The way I see it,” said Nick. “There are three groups of people left in the world. The largest group is made up mostly of those we’ve all run into. They are struggling to get by. They might have some skills, but not a lot. They are doing their best, but I’m afraid a lot of them will die before they ever acclimate themselves to this new world. Many already have. Then there are those like us; we’ve adapted to the changes and are constantly learning new ways to survive. We are most definitely the smallest group.”
He went on: “The other is one made up of those who need to have power, or need to follow someone with power. They feel that the only way to survive is by amassing a group under or around them. Sadly, that kind of group, even if started with the best of intentions, usually becomes a mirror of the worst part of our former society. I would have thought that to be the smallest group, but I think it was only wishful thinking. It’s getting bigger. They start poaching from the first group, who slowly come over to their way of thinking because they have no choice. They know they won’t survive otherwise. That’s what your Major Wells was trying to do. He just didn’t do it very well. He tried to imprison people, rather than absorbing them into his group. If the change is gradual, people won’t notice. He tried to change them with force.”
“What are you saying?” asked Lila.
“I’m saying be careful. People are desperate. They want to live, and if that means doing things they never would have thought of doing before all of this happened, then so be it. It’s the mob mentality after a disaster. They don’t allow themselves to think about it.”
“We want to avoid people,” said Ben, “and we want as much nature around us as possible. Forgetting about the potential for an earthquake, where do you suggest we go that will keep us far away from towns?”
“The Great Smoky Mountains,” said Nick. “And the trail leads right to them. From this point on, you’re going to see some beautiful country. The Blue Ridge is gorgeous, but you’ll often be looking down at towns and farms. But you can really get lost in the Great Smoky Mountains. Great Smoky National Park or any of the national forests around it. A lot of that is pretty much untouched. If that’s what you’re looking for, there’s your answer.”
Leaving Nick and Jason was hard. They had developed a strong connection in less than twenty-four hours. But they were heading in different directions, with different journeys ahead of them.
“I hope we meet up again sometime,” said Ben, after they had hugged.
“Call me on my cell,” replied Nick.
They all broke into laughter.
Nick and Jason started on their way and Ben looked at Lila. “I guess we have a new destination.”
“And we don’t even have to leave the trail to get there,” added Lila.
They began the next leg of their trip with light hearts, and the next three days were peaceful ones. The weather was good and there were no tremors. They saw no other people. Ben would often hunt with his crossbow, or fish if they ran across some water. The evening of the third day, they tried pheasant for the first time. It tasted delicious, but the next morning, Lila woke up feeling sick, and threw up.
“Okay,” she said. “No more pheasant.”
Later that day, they came across a sign pointing the way to a lake with a public beach. They took the trail, and, as they approached the beach, heard the sound of people. They quickly got off the trail and made their way through the trees to scope out the scene.
There were about two dozen people, including about eight children of various ages. Some of the kids were playing in the sand—at this point, the water was too cold for them to swim. Most of the adults were sitting. Some were by the water with crude fishing poles made from branches. Two of the men were arguing.
“What do you think?” asked Ben.
“Look at the people,” answered Lila. “Look how skinny they are. They’re starving. These people seem to have no skills at all. Ben, remember when we were talking about killing people and helping people? These people need our help. Can we see what we can do for them? Who cares if we get to the Smokies a bit later than we thought. Besides, that pheasant really did a number on me. I’ve felt sick all day. This might be a good place to spend the night.”
“I’m good with that,” said Ben. “Let’s go introduce ourselves.”
They got back on the small trail, so as not to scare them by emerging from the woods. As they reached the beach, Ben called out, “Hello the camp.”
Folks stopped and stared. Ben suddenly knew what Lila was saying. The people looked like pictures he'd seen of the holocaust. They were emaciated and obviously hadn’t had a decent meal in weeks.
“Looks like you could use some help,” said Lila.
“Oh, thank God someone came,” cried a woman. “God heard our prayers.”
One of the two men who had been arguing came over and shook their hands. “You’re a sight for sore eyes. I’m Reverend Tom Wilson, and these are my people. Welcome to our camp.”
Ben and Lila introduced themselves, and Lila said, “You all look like you’re starving. When was the last time you ate?”
“We have met with some misfortune,” said the reverend. “We ran out of food some time ago. We’ve been trying to fish, but haven’t had much luck.”
“I’ve been trying to get us to leave and find a town,” said the other man. “My name is Jack Brennan. Reverend Wilson here didn’t want to leave. Now it’s too late. The nearest town is too far away. No one has the strength to make the journey.”
�
��I will admit that I misjudged the situation,” remarked the reverend. “But look who God sent us.”
Oh boy, thought Ben. Aren’t there any normal people left in the world?
“We’ll do what we can to help,” offered Lila. “Have you been boiling water for drinking?”
“We did think of that,” said Jack. “I feel embarrassed though, that we have so few skills among us. We’re city people. I’m an accountant. We have two salesmen, a bunch of store clerks. I guess we never got out much … obviously not like you two.”
“Believe it or not,” said Ben, “we didn’t get out much ourselves. We just knew we had to learn quickly or we’d die.”
“Some of us don’t learn so fast, I guess,” replied Jack.
“I don’t mean to sound blunt,” said Ben, “but you’ve got to learn or you will all die. We’ve seen a lot of people survive the initial disaster, but not make it after. Do you have any guns?”
Jack looked down at the ground. “We have a couple of rifles, but we didn’t pick up the right ammunition, so they’re useless.”
“I don’t understand why you didn’t try to make it to a town,” said Lila.
“You want to answer that, Reverend?” asked Jack.
“I must say that I don’t like your accusing tone,” answered Reverend Wilson, looking at Jack. He turned to Lila. “I had a divine message that we should avoid the cities.”
“Nothing wrong with the message,” said Ben. “Avoiding the cities is a good idea, but that’s after you get supplies. With no skills, how did you expect to live?”
“God sent you, didn’t he?”
Lila was already frustrated with the reverend. “We will help you get some food in your bodies and give you some hints for staying alive, but it’ll be up to you to take it from there. Then we’re moving on. We weren’t sent from God, trust me.”
Later, they talked to Jack alone. He was troubled.
“I used to believe all the things Reverend Wilson told us,” he said. “Now I’m not sure I believe anything. I mean, look where he led us, all because he said God guided him here.”
Lila softened. “I believe in some sort of God, or a spiritual force. But I don’t believe that you just sit back and wait for God to deliver. And you can’t just blindly follow what someone else says. You have to take care of yourself. We’ve found that the opportunities present themselves if you’re willing to do the work.”
By the look on Jack’s face, Ben knew the advice was too little, too late.
That night, they set up their tent in the woods near the trail, and far from the group.
“How’re you feeling?” Ben asked Lila.
“It comes and goes,” Lila answered. “I’m sure I’ll feel better tomorrow.”
They were almost asleep when they heard whispered voices from the trail leading to the beach. They grabbed their weapons, quietly opened the flap, and stepped out of the tent. Three figures were carefully moving down the trail.
“It’ll be like shooting fish in a barrel, “ whispered one of them. “We can get them all together and take what we need. They’re so helpless, they’ll let us do whatever we want.”
Ben and Lila loudly cocked their weapons. The three stopped dead in their tracks.
“Hi there,” said Lila. “My name is Lila. My friend here is Ben. You don’t want to go any further.”
“Oh shit,” said one of them.
Ben and Lila approached the three, shining their flashlights on them. They weren’t any older than Ben or Lila, just a lot scruffier. They had obviously had a hard go of it, but Ben surmised that they probably didn’t look too much different now than from before the world changed, except for the weapons. Even though they each carried a full arsenal; a rifle each, a couple of pistols each, and assorted knives, Ben sensed that they weren’t particularly dangerous. Probably more scared than anything else, he thought. They also carried backpacks.
“We know who you are. Everyone does. Look, we were just kidding. We just wanted a place to sleep tonight. You don’t have to kill us.”
“We’re not going to kill you,” said Ben. “However, I want you to take off your backpacks and your weapons, and lay them on the ground.”
They quickly complied.
“Now I want you to turn around, go up the trail, and keep going. If we see you again, we will kill you.”
“But you’ve left us defenseless,” protested one of them.
“Just as defenseless as that group you were going to rob,” said Lila. “I’m sure you’ll find food and weapons somewhere. Just not here. Now move. And remember, we don’t want to see you again.”
Without another sound, they moved up the trail and out of sight.
They looked in the backpacks and found a good amount of food, and, as Ben suspected, ammunition. No one in the camp had noticed the encounter.
“I guess sometimes that reputation of ours can be put to good use,” remarked Ben. “Nobody got hurt and all we had to do was say our names.”
“You realize that when we bring all this stuff into the camp, Reverend Wilson is going to say it’s a gift from God, don’t you?” said Lila.
“Hey, maybe it is,” answered Ben, with a smile.
The next morning, Ben woke to the sound of Lila throwing up outside the tent.
“Are you okay?” he asked, when he stuck his head out.
“No,” answered Lila. She looked at him with fear in her eyes. “Ben, I think I’m pregnant.”
Chapter 17
I had been thrown for a loop before, but nothing came close to the feelings of total surprise, followed by sheer panic, I felt at that moment. How did it happen? I mean, I knew how it usually happened, but we had been very careful, and I had always used a condom. I will admit to a brief thought that maybe something happened in that camp that Lila hadn’t told me. But I quickly realized two things: it hadn’t been long enough in the past for her to already be feeling this way; and our communication was too good. If she had had to do something against her will, she would have told me. Nothing much embarrassed Lila anymore. No, it had to have happened early in our trip—maybe even our first time.
But I knew there was no sense in asking those questions. The fact was, we had to deal with it, just like we had to deal with everything else. And yet, this was bigger. It was going to affect us in ways that nothing else could. Nothing much scared us anymore. This terrified us!
Ben just stared, his mouth hanging open. What could he say? Congratulations? Neither had any illusions. This was the worst news possible.
“You’re sure?” he asked feebly.
“I can’t tell you definitely,” she answered, “but I’m pretty sure.”
“What do we do?”
“What else can we do? We don’t have the options available to us that we had a couple of months ago. We’ve just got to see it through.”
Although it was said calmly, Ben knew that she was feeling anything but.
How could we raise a child in this world? Assuming it even lived into childhood, what kind of life would it have? I thought about my own childhood, and all the fun I had. What fun would this kid have? Everything was based on survival. On the other hand, with us as parents, he or she would learn to be self-sufficient at an early age. I had to get the thoughts of my own childhood out of my head. It would do no good. This was a far, far different world. Then I thought of the ridiculousness of the situation. A couple of months earlier I was hoping to have a first date. Two months later I was thinking of my first child. What a strange path my life had taken.
There was nothing much they could do about it now, so they picked up the prizes from the night before and walked into the camp. Normally, campers by a lake would be up and buzzing about. Ben looked around him at the lethargy. These were people in their final days, accepting of their impending deaths. He shook his head in disgust and called to Reverend Wilson.
“Reverend, could you call your people out here?”
Seeing that Ben and Lila were loaded down wit
h weapons and the backpacks, he quickly called his to flock. “Come quick, God has bestowed gifts upon us.”
“What did I tell you,” Lila said to Ben.
When they had all assembled, Ben launched into a speech.
“We came upon these things last night, and thought you might be able to use them. In the backpacks are various food items. These will help you for now, but they won’t last long. You need to learn to fend for yourselves. Luckily, we have some weapons here. We can teach you how to shoot and clean your prey, but you have to want to learn.”
I felt like I was speaking to children, children who had already decided that they didn’t want to do any of the work. I didn’t hold out much hope.
They spent the next week at the camp. Ben would take some of the men out hunting—the women had no interest—and Lila would teach those left at the camp survival techniques and how to find edible plants. At night, they would lie in their tent shaking their heads at the futility of it all. It would have been funny if it wasn’t so life-threatening. The group was hopeless. Some of the men refused to shoot animals, while those who were willing couldn’t get the hang of the rifles.
Lila had as much trouble with her students. No one seemed willing to learn. Some stared at her with blank looks, while others just parroted Reverend Wilson’s stock phrases. The reverend was their biggest obstacle. He had evening services where he would go on and on about God’s greatness. Ben noticed that Jack—the one person who was determined to succeed at hunting—no longer attended the services.
One night, at the end of the week, Ben confronted the reverend after one of his sermons.
“You’re not doing these people any good,” he said. “You spout all these words, but you’re not teaching them anything useful.”
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