“My daddy taught me the only sure safety is to keep your finger off the trigger,” she quipped back but I heard a sharp click anyway.
“Yep” Stan agreed with a laugh. “But it’s the thought that counts. These are good folks, the Kellers, but I’m sure some will be watchful.”
“Well, they sure should be. But I’m probably not the right person to point that out,” I replied with my own chuckle as the two of us got out of the truck. When I glanced back, Amy had set her rifle aside and was carefully extracting Sophia from her car seat. The little girl seemed disturbed by the commotion and Amy had Sophia cradled in her arms, rocking ever so slightly. The sight made my heart melt a bit.
After all the hugging and backslapping wound down, Ruth reclaimed Sophia and I was briefly introduced to Darwin and Hazel Keller. The older couple turned out to indeed be Ruth’s parents and she was their youngest, the baby according to Hazel, a happy grin plastered on her face. I understood her happiness, since both of Ruth’s older brothers and apparently their families were already here. I’d met Mark at the gate and now the oldest of the Keller boys, Nicholas, was introduced to me as well.
Nick was in his mid thirties and had his father’s long face and prominent chin. He was stocky and stood a little shorter than me at maybe six feet even. I noticed a scar on his left cheek, a thin white track slightly curved at the end like a fish hook, and he caught me looking as we all made our way onto the wide front porch of the farm house.
“Sorry,” I murmured before continuing, “Shrapnel?”
“Yeah. How’d you know? You look awful young to be prior service,” Nick replied, and I saw a kernel of suspicion form in his eyes. I’ll bet he thought maybe deserter, so I decided to nip that concern in the bud by telling the truth.
“No military for me sir. Still too young to even enlist yet. No, my dad has a scar just like that on his shoulder from when he was in the Marines. “
“Gotcha. Picked this up back in ’08. Your family around here? Is that why you hitched a ride?”
Stan’s laugh interrupted the interrogation, and he patted his brother-in-law on the shoulder as he limped along beside us.
“Let’s get inside and you can get’s Luke’s story then. He’s only had time to tell a little of it, but man, is it wild.”
“What do you mean?” Nick’s caution was evident and I didn’t blame him one bit. In this new world, I was an unknown, a potential threat here in the middle of his family. That was the main reason I left my rifle in the truck and indicated for Amy to do the same. Side arms were one thing, since everybody seemed to be wearing them, but long arms might look too much like a threat. Provocative, I thought as I unpacked that word from my vocabulary.
Stan picked up on Nick’s caution and hastened to reassure his wife’s brother.
“Nick, these are good people, good kids. Like Ruth told Mark before, they saved our lives. Literally. Didn’t have to, didn’t even know us, but risked their lives because it was the right thing to do.”
Stan held up his hands in a pushing motion, meant to move us all along, which was funny since he was the one with the bum ankle.
“What I meant about Luke is that he’s come a long ways on foot and seen a lot of the country. He might be able to shed some light on the real conditions out there. He sure did for me.”
Nick’s face went neutral and I figured this guy would be an easy mark if we ever had a chance to play poker. Yes, I knew how to play, learned it from my grandfather, and that old man was a serious card shark. Cleaned out my allowance twice before I started paying closer attention to not just the cards but also the player.
“That right? Where you coming from?”
I nodded. I expected an interrogation but hoped to get fed first.
“Chicago. Started out a week after the lights went out and I’ve still got a ways to go.”
With that, our little group stepped up on the porch and into the front room of the farmhouse. Amy, who had not said a word since exiting the truck, moved forward and linked her arm through mine. I could tell she was a little overwhelmed by the press of new people but she didn’t complain or shy away. This girl, or young woman, continued to impress me every day and I was forced to wonder what our future held.
Did we have a future? Or would our existence continue to be day by day, a constant struggle to survive? All I knew was nobody was shooting at us at the moment. Some days, that was all you could hope for in this starving world.
CHAPTER THREE
Once our group gathered inside, any further interrogation was tabled as Hazel announced dinner would be served shortly. We four newcomers found ourselves ushered onto the back porch to wash up as Sophia was plucked from Ruth’s hands by one of her brothers’ wives, I think. We had not yet been introduced to the horde of folks yet and I figured I didn’t need to know the names anyway. This was just a layover for me.
The cool water felt good on my hands and forearms, but the damp wash cloth I used to scrub my face felt heavenly. Try as I might to keep clean on the road, the combination of sweat and humidity made maintaining proper hygiene difficult. In short, I stank and I knew it. This chance to wash up was nice but I needed a bath and a chance to wash some of my clothes.
If anything, I knew Amy felt even more self conscious about our ragged and filthy state, being a girl, but she stayed glued to my left hip and gave a polite refusal to offers from some of the women to join them in the house for their wash up.
Our host made a point of coming over once Amy and I finished drying our hands and introducing himself once again. I shook his hand and thanked him for his hospitality and Amy followed my lead, copying my words almost exactly.
“I should be thanking the two of you, for helping bring home my little girl and her family. So, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.”
Amy seemed overwhelmed a bit by the kind words as she sputtered out a reply.
“That was Luke, Mr. Keller. He killed those first three bandits all by himself and Stan got the last one while he was trying to shoot Luke. Then, that second time, I just guarded the truck when Luke and Stan killed those other men trying to hijack us.”
Amy’s words seemed to bleach the color right out of Mr. Keller’s face, but I only noticed that in passing as I hurried to reassure Amy.
“Amy, you did everything just like I asked. You provided the distraction I needed to get those first three guys, and Stan sure did save my tail but I know you would have done the same if you could. You did a great job, honey.”
Amy seemed pleased by my praise, but Mr. Keller still looked a bit pale in the face.
“I think I need to hear the whole story, after dinner. My daughter seems to have left out a few details.” With that, Mr. Keller took his leave and I just shrugged at Amy’s questioning look.
Dinner was a hearty, filling beef stew with lots of vegetable side dishes fresh from the garden, or so I was told. Amy and I had to resist the urge to gorge ourselves at the abundance, and I still felt somewhat queasy after just the one plate of small portions. When you survive on short rations long enough, your stomach not only shrinks but your metabolism seems to reset as well.
After the meal, Amy and I volunteered to help with the dishes but our offers were politely turned down as the job was already assigned. Apparently the kitchen had a rotating cast of helpers who assisted with cooking and cleanup. The system was only slightly sexist, we discovered, as the ladies insisted on doing the cooking and the clean up teams wound up being co-ed, mainly a mixture of the younger teens and tweens with nothing else to do.
When Ruth managed to lure Amy away with the offer of some of her old clothes still stored in her bedroom, Mark Keller came by to let me know his father requested my presence in the study. Now the interrogation would begin in earnest, I figured, and I nailed it.
In addition to Mr. Keller and his two sons, I found Hazel and several other senior family members I’d yet to formally meet. I deduced these were siblings to Darwin and Hazel and I turned out to
be partially correct. Quick introductions were made and I made myself comfortable in an old overstuffed armchair before the questions started.
First, no I didn’t know why the power went out. I explained my money was on either EMP or CME, but I also added it could have been something else entirely, like the blastwave from a supernova hundreds of light years away.
That most of these folks knew what an Electromagnetic Pulse or a Coronal Mass Ejection was confirmed my belief that these folks belonged to the Prepper subculture. My third suggestion got me some confused looks but I saw Nick at least nod his understanding.
“Can you tell us how you came to meet up with Ruth and Stan, Luke?”
This was from Darwin, but the others in the room seemed to sit forward in rapt attention as I related the bare bones of the story, from Amy’s insistence that we do something right down to Stan taking out the last of the raiders with a well timed shot. As I was finishing up my description, I saw Stan slipping in the door and gave him a nod of appreciation once again. The guy really had saved my life, after all.
“From the reaction I’m seeing, things haven’t gotten that bad around here, I take it?”
Mrs. Keller shook her head, but I caught a hint of something else on Nick Keller’s face. If the world was splitting at the seams in the neighborhood, chances were her boys wanted to shield her as much as possible. This made perfect sense to me, but maybe she needed to know some of the ugly out there.
“We’ve had some folks trying to steal food, but nothing really organized. This community has a lot of farms and ranches and we’ve tried to share and trade with people we know,” Mrs. Keller said. “Nick and Mark made a run into town last week but they said most of the stores had been looted and the streets looked deserted.”
“Was that in Gentry? We didn’t come that way but that’s about the same as we saw in Lowell. What folks left in town seem to be hunkered down.”
“Is it true you walked all this way from Chicago?” Mrs. Keller asked.
I figured word had already gotten out so I nodded, then added, “except for the use of the truck these last two days, and a ride I got from the Illinois National Guard early on.”
That got some discussions going and everyone wanted to know what the National Guard was up to and if they had some kind of plan. Mrs. Keller asked about FEMA and behind her back, Mr. Keller just shook his head.
“We have a HAM radio,” Mrs. Keller continued, “and we try to listen every night but all we get is the same message from FEMA and Homeland Security that has been playing for weeks.”
“That’s something I hadn’t heard. I’ve seen isolated pockets here and there where aid camps were set up and places the National Guard was trying to patrol, but these were just isolated deals. They tried to put me in a camp one time. I didn’t stick around. If you’ve got a map I can try to point out what I saw where, but really I tried to steer clear of cities and towns. Interstates, too. ”
“So, just what all have you seen out there, boy?”
This came from one of the older men, one of Darwin’s brothers I thought, and he seemed to be intentionally trying to provoke a response. I gave him my best dead eyed stare before replying.
“I’ve seen the looting and burning. Fighting and killing. Lots of hungry, angry confused people out there.”
That brought the conversation to halt and I wondered if I’d gone too far.
“So how are you still alive?” Mark asked. “Stan told me you’re only sixteen years old.”
From Mrs. Keller’s sharp intake of breath, this was news to her.
“And where did you get those weapons, boy? You one of them looters?” This was from Mr. Personality. Great.
I turned to Mark and I saw his brother Nick wince. I guess he saw something in my face, a cast to my features that made him wish his brother had kept his mouth shut.
“My daddy was in the Marines, and he taught me a few things, plus I’ve been moving through the woods and hunting since I was a little kid. I picked up a few tips in the Boy Scouts, like I told Stan, and I know how to make snares for small game and what plants won’t kill you. Until I met up with Amy, I traveled alone and hardly talked to anybody.
“Mainly, I avoided people where I could and stayed in the woods, living off what I could find. Yes, I did take things that didn’t belong to me, but only things nobody else had claim to.”
“So you admit it! You are a thief and a looter.” The older man nearly cried out, and I noticed more people were looking at him than at me.
“Mister, I don’t know what you think you know, but unless you’ve been out there, you are freakin’ clueless. You want to know how I got these weapons? Ask Stan. He was there when I got most of them. But my first pistol, you want to know how I got that one? Really want to know?”
As I spoke, my voice grew harder even as my volume increased. I was staring hard at the loud mouthed man and I realized I was nearly shouting at his level. I answered my own question then, and let my words spew out.
“I cut a man’s throat for that first pistol. Just slipped into his camp, crawled up to his bedroll and slit his throat ear to ear. He moaned and thrashed around so much, he woke up the woman that was there with him.”
“Did you kill her too?” the angry man demanded, a look of triumph in his burning eyes. He nearly spit the words. I don’t know what was driving him on but I would not back down.
“No, I untied her hands and gave her back her clothes. The guy had been raping her all day, off and on, and I’d just run across the camp that evening. She was beat up pretty bad, put up quite a fight, but she said she’d heal. I left her the shotgun and she made me take the pistol.”
I stopped talking then, my head bowed, my thoughts scattered. I don’t know why I told that story. I could have just made something up, but for some reason my subconscious made me tell the truth. Maybe it was because I felt guilty for what had happened, for not acting sooner. Or maybe because these folks needed to hear something like this as a warning for what could happen.
Finally, I found my voice and spoke up, my ragged voice breaking the long silence.
“Darwin, if you’ve got a map, I’ll show you what I know.”
That was really all I could do at this point.
CHAPTER FOUR
After laying out my bedroll next to the old Ford pickup, I found myself unable to sleep. Mr. Keller had offered me a spot in their bunkhouse, but I admitted I didn’t know if I could sleep indoors again for awhile. Amy accepted the offer from Ruth and Stan to sleep on the blow up mattress in Ruth’s old room after I insisted. She could use the rest and really, I just wanted some time to myself.
I stared up at the stars and thought about what to do next. My goal remained the same, get home, but maybe I could rest up here a few days and get myself better outfitted. After we finished going over the map, Mr. Keller allowed that he would be willing to trade with me for my share of the extra weapons we brought. Seems the immediate family was well set on firearms, mainly PTR-91 rifles for the men and ARs for the ladies, but the cousins and such trickled in with little more than a few shotguns and hunting rifles.
“You got a minute?”
I’d heard the man approach, and when I recognized the voice I released my hold on the Glock under my pillow and sat up.
“Got nothing but time, Nick. Come on over and have a seat.”
The man shaped shadow moved slowly in the dark and I felt more than saw his body sink down into a seated position. I waited, patient in the way I had learned on the road.
“Sorry about Uncle Gary. He’s a pain in the ass, always has been. He’s just gotten worse since the lights went out. Worried about his son, Glen, I guess, and that’s gnawing at him.”
“Where’s his son?”
“Branson. I think that’s what has him all riled up about you. His boy is in his mid twenties and physically fit, so he’s got to wonder if something happened to him out there.”
That could definitely make you crazy, I reali
zed. I was constantly worrying about my own family, and I’m sure they were worried about me as well. Except for my sister, of course. At thirteen, she was a bit self-absorbed and probably only noticed my absence in the evenings when she had to do both our chores. Then I realized how childish that thought made me feel and released it. My childhood was gone, and everything in this new world required me to become a man and act that way.
“That could do it. I’m sorry I lost my cool, but after being out there…”
I made out a vague motion that might have been a nod.
“I think I might understand a little. The first time I came back from deployment, I was a bit lost in the world. Nobody shooting at me, for one thing. I had to remember how to walk across the street without running, and things like that.”
I thought about what Nick was trying to say. Once you lived in constant danger, then readjusting to the “real world” must have been a struggle.
“Then you get redeployed and have to learn it all over again, right? Except now, the whole country is like that, I think.” Nick’s words made me think he could hear my thoughts or something.
“Yeah. You have to understand something, Nick. I crossed a lot of ground to get this far, and I knew my chances of getting home were slim. But you have to ask yourself, why did I keep going?”
“The thought did cross my mind,” he allowed.
“I kept going because I couldn’t find any place safer to hunker down and try to wait this out. I know the country can’t go back to the way it used to be, but all I saw out there was fighting and death and mayhem.”
Nick cleared his throat.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t wrap my head around the idea that things are that bad. Yes, Gentry was looted and partially burned, and I understand the cities must be a nightmare, but out in the rural areas, like here, the situation must be better. I mean, we’ve not had much in the way of problems around here.”
I sighed. Not in displeasure, but because I would need to explain the facts of life to a man nearly old enough to be my father.
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