“Did you hear that, Mom?” Star whispered to Erika.
“Hear what?” Erika was so tired and so content she didn’t want to hear anything right now. She was guessing Star was just overreacting. “It’s probably just Dad and Dex,” Erika replied, dismissing her.
“You’re probably right,” Star replied. She wanted it to be true. She was so exhausted. Slowly she continued her pacing, keeping her ears perked to any sound.
As she turned to walk back to her mother she felt the cold steel of a gun in the back of her neck.
“Well, y’all look what we got here, two girls with one small boy. It must be our lucky day,” the man behind her said with a thick southern accent.
“Told you I could smell a female a mile away,” said another young man, stepping out from the bushes.
“I heard those sweet voices on the wind way before y’all smelt them,” the man with the gun argued with his comrade.
Two more teenage-looking boys appeared with machetes. Erika was frozen, hugging Daniel as he shook with fear for his sister.
“Let’s not get crazy here, boys,” Erika said, finding her voice behind a lump in her throat.
“Oh we’re gonna get crazy here, ma’am,” the man with the gun said as he hopped with joy. “You two are a couple of lookers for sure. Sweet as a Georgia peach, I bet.”
Star looked at her mom. Erika slowly reached for her pistol but did not find it. She cursed herself, realizing she had left it in her pack. Star and Erika were surrounded now, and even though it appeared that the attackers only had one gun, it was wedged into the back of Star’s neck.
“Bucket, come over here and hold this gun, boy. I need to get a look at this one.” The man was itching to enjoy the spoils of his ambush.
One of the other teenage boys went and took the gun from the man behind Star. Feeling powerful, he pushed it hard into the back of her neck and caused her to lurch forward.
“I’m not scared to use it, trust me,” he whispered to Star.
Erika watched Star roll her eyes and knew that Star would take him in a second, but with the gun at the back of her neck and Erika seated, unarmed, on the ground they couldn’t make a move, yet.
“Oh yeah...she’s a real Georgia peach,” said the southern man as he stepped around Star to take a look at her.
Erika jumped as Daniel yelled, “Don’t you touch my sister!” The boy tried to get to his feet, but Erika jerked him down and glared at him.
“That’s right, boy, you best listen to yo’ momma,” the man hissed.
As Star and Erika stared at one another in disbelief a shot rang out. A surge of adrenaline rushed over Erika’s body as concern for her daughter flooded her mind, but to her surprise the boy behind Star and one of the others fell dead as their brains exploded out the side of their skulls. Erika scrambled for her side arm concealed in her pack, but before anyone could think, bang, the other boy fell dead. The southern man who had originally had the gun looked at the gun lying on the ground but didn’t approach. Star followed his line of vision and snatched the pistol up as soon as she saw it. She wheeled around and pointed the gun at the man. Without hesitation, she pulled the trigger. Click, click, click. It was empty.
Vince’s and Dexter’s boots stomped heavily into the camp. Vince had three squirrels and a rabbit slung on a rope over his shoulder. They carefully entered, never letting their rifles drift off the stranger. Fury burned in Vince’s eyes. He was just about to squeeze the trigger, but Erika jumped up.
“Wait, wait, Vince...” she yelled hurriedly. “Information...we need information.”
“That’s right...y’all need information.” The man saw a chance for survival and jumped on it. “I can help y’all. Obviously y’all ain’t from around here.”
“And obviously you aren’t either,” Dexter spat out hatefully as he approached the man and knocked out three of his teeth with the barrel of his gun.
“Guess I deserved that,” the stranger said quietly as he spat out a mouthful of blood and teeth.
“No, you deserve a whole lot more,” Vince seethed as he approached.
“Look, mister, you got every reason to hate me. I knows that...but I can help you. Just give me a chance. I’ll tell ya’ whatever y’all want to know,” he desperately pleaded with Vince.
“What’s your name?” Vince questioned.
“My name? The name’s Clint, sir. I’m awful sorry for upsetting your womenfolk,” the stranger stammered.
“Well, Clint! That’s my wife and my daughter and you’re not sorry for upsetting them, you’re just sorry you got caught and your friends are dead, so let’s not play any more games. Are we clear?” Vince was furious. He face glowed red in the moonlight.
“I hear ya’, mister. Wouldn’t want any men pressing on my family. If I still had any,” Clint replied, trying to play the sympathy card.
“Just shut up for now.” Vince was so tired he didn’t even want to think anymore. “Dex, Star, get some of our extra line and tie him to that tree, right there.”
“Right there, Dad? So close to camp?” Dex wasn’t sure that was such a good idea and wanted to assert his opinion.
“Just do it dammit!” Vince snapped back at the adolescent male. He wasn’t open to suggestions at this point. “Make sure it’s tight. You keep your friends close and your enemies closer, son. That way if he has any more friends out there we can kill him before they reach him.”
Dexter saw the sense in this, and he and his sister quickly snapped into action. Vince went over and hugged Erika and Daniel.
“You okay, baby?” he softly whispered.
“Yeah, we’re fine. No rest for the wicked,” Erika teased with him, kicking herself for having let her guard down.
He kissed her and handed her the animals he and Dex had shot. She had always been better at gutting and skinning than him, and he no longer had the strength or the patience for it now.
Clint winced in pain as Star and Dexter wrapped his hands back around the tree and pulled the rope into place. The rope burned into the tree and Erika was sure that man wasn’t going anywhere.
Star approached with the Colt 1911 pistol she had secured off of Bucket. “What should I do with this, Mom?” she asked Erika.
“Keep it, toss it, I don’t care. It’s a 45 MM pistol and our ammo is 9mm. It’s no better than a club to us,” Erika commented, looking it over. “It’s a shame because it’s a nice gun too.”
Handing the 1911 back to Star, Erika called Daniel to her side. She handed him her pistol and grabbed the limp, dead animals to go skin them. Daniel’s silence was awkward and Erika could feel a question burning in his mind.
“Mom?” he finally asked as they climbed over the boulders along the trail.
“Yeah,” she answered.
“Dex and Dad killed those men, Mom.” Daniel had tears in his eyes. “When we were out on mission those soldiers killed those people but dad and Dex aren’t soldiers.”
Erika had never tried to shield her children from this horrible nightmare of a world they were now living in. But Daniel had somehow been different; he was so innocent. Having been born in the refugee camp, Erika didn’t tell him all the details of the life they had to survive after the quake. There was no time for sheltering the boy now. They were back in survival mode, a kill or be killed reality. For better or worse, decisions had to be made and there could be no hesitation.
“No, Daniel, they aren’t soldiers, but out here we don’t have the soldiers to protect us. We have to protect ourselves. It’s all about the family and taking care of each other. Daddy and Dex had no choice. Those men would have done horrible things to your sister and me. Those men forced the decision Daddy and Dex had to make.”
Erika could see the wheels turning in his head as he carefully chose his steps to avoid the rocks. He too had felt the unbridled fear when the strange men surrounded them. Although he didn’t fully understand the men’s intentions; he instinctually knew it wasn’t good.
“I h
ope I won’t have to kill anyone,” he said, looking down at the pistol in his hand.
“I hope so too, buddy, but the reality is, you probably will have to. When that moment comes, you can’t think, you can’t hesitate, you just point the gun and pull the trigger,” Erika looked at him very seriously. “Do you understand me?”
“Okay, Mom, okay,” he replied with a fearful quiver in his voice.
“If you hesitate, we are all dead. Bad people could use you as a pawn and we would all be in trouble.” Erika tried to explain why this was so important.
“What’s a pawn, Mom?” he asked.
Erika chuckled to herself. He was so naive. She thought back to a life she had known before. A time when you would have been socially ridiculed for putting a gun in your nine-year-old’s hand. Now here she was, teaching him how to be a killer.
“A pawn is a piece for an old game called chess. It means the bad people would threaten to kill you in order to take our things or kill your family.” She was talking dry and flat again, in disbelief she even needed to have this conversation with her baby boy. He would have to grow up so fast now, and it sickened her. She remembered his tiny hands wrapped around her finger and the feeling of gently rocking him while he was fussing. She wished life was simple again but that was not reality. They had made the choice to leave. They were free.
Daniel firmly understood. “I get it, Mom.”
“No hesitation, okay, Daniel?”
“Okay, Mom, no one will ever hurt you or Star or Daddy or Dexter. I promise,” he said with finality.
They found a nice spot, hidden in the rocks, with a flat piece of granite to work on. Erika showed Daniel how she cut the skin down the belly and down the legs. Then she cut a slit all the way around the neck and pulled off the squirrel’s fur. She let him do the next one. He strategically followed all the cuts she had made and when he finally pulled the skin off, he beamed with pride.
“I did it!” he yelled.
“Shhhhhh...” Erika corrected the boy. She wasn’t sure how many other stragglers might be around. “Good job, son,” she said quietly, delighting in his accomplishment.
She made quick work of the rabbit, as Daniel wrapped up the skinned squirrels in a cloth to carry back. Their footsteps swished through the leaf clutter as they made their way back down the trail. Erika paused when she saw some sage plants. Knowing that they would bring a nice flavor to the meat, she picked some leaves off the scraggly branches. A couple of paces more and she found the tops of some wild onions that were growing on the side of the trail in the leaf clutter.
“There’s a tiny onion down there, but we have to use our knife and dig way down so we don’t pull the greens off and leave the yummy onion behind. Then we have to make sure it smells like an onion,” she said, almost talking to herself to remember all the important details.
“Why, Mom?” he asked.
“What?” she responded as his question broke her train of thought.
“Why do you have to make sure it smells like an onion?” he clarified.
“Because there is something called a Death Camas that likes to grow right along with the onions, and it is not good to eat,” she replied.
“With a name like that, I wouldn’t think so,” Daniel joked.
Chapter 3
When they stepped back into camp, things were back in order. Star and Dex had pilfered the bodies for anything of use. Then they had disposed of them, in the ocean. Their faces dripped with sweat as they animatedly talked with Vince about what they had seen at the ocean side. Erika put down the animals and veggies by the soft glow of the fire so she could listen in.
Dexter was enthusiastically telling the horrors of the sea side. “In between all the ships and rusted old cars is a whole heap of dead, bloated animals. Tons of fish and those things you showed me in the book, Mom, what were they called? Oh, dolphins! One was so huge it had to be a whale, but, oh man, did it stink! Star even puked,” he said, chuckling at her.
“Yeah, I did,” Star said blushing. “It was the worst, most horrible smell. All that rotting meat. Yuck!” She began to heave a little just thinking about it. “You think the smell is bad up here? It’s nothing compared to down there.”
“Did you see anything we could use down there?” Vince questioned, trying to get them to focus.
“You told us not to go on the ships and the stink was so bad, I don’t know, Dad,” Dex answered, a little ashamed that they had not been more attentive to scavenging items.
“It’s okay, guys. I bet I would have been blowing chunks too,” Vince said honestly.
“Yeah, you would have,” Erika chimed in. Vince had never had a strong stomach and she had teased him about it for years. “Hey, check out what I found,” she said quickly, changing the subject. She held out the greens she had harvested for his inspection.
“Nice! Wild onions and sage? That’s gonna be gooooood,” Vince’s mouth watered with anticipation.
Erika listened to the legs of the squirrels sizzling on a rock over the fire with some veggies scattered on top of them. The squirrels would quench their hunger until the rabbit was done roasting on the spit. Vince had found her a good stick and tied the animal to it securely, ensuring that when she turned the stick the rabbit would not slide off.
Dex and Star had found a deep puddle of stagnant water on the way to the ocean. Their eyelids drooped as they left with a container to collect some of it. It was a special water jug they had pilfered from the attackers. The filter on the top allowed for the collection of any type of water and it would dispense clean, purified water.
Dex and Star were completely exhausted when they returned with the water. Star’s arm shook as she deposited the container by Erika. Looking up from the squirrels, Erika saw they both had deep rings around their eyes. She thanked them for their efforts and sent them away with a cooked squirrel limb in hand, to go lie down and rest. Daniel carefully attended to the roasting rabbit, enjoying the smell of the cooking meat and collecting fat as it dripped off of it into a small metal cup.
Erika quickly set some water to boil so they would have it to wash with. Hygiene was key if they were going to stay healthy, and they had neglected it for days in their hurry to escape the tracking teams. She also added some water to a metal container to make stew in. It had a good lid and could be carried away with the contents intact whenever they needed to. She put the bodies of the squirrels and the rest of the onions to boil in this container. Daniel would also empty his fat that he was collecting from the rabbit into the stew container when the rabbit was done.
By the time Erika had finished with the preparations, she looked over at the teens and they were passed out cold, the bones of the squirrel’s legs limply falling out of their hands.
“Daniel, go get those bones and we’ll throw them in the stew pot,” Erika requested.
“But, they already ate it all,” Daniel said, grimacing at the thought.
“There’s still good stuff there and marrow in the bones.” Erika knew they were lucky to have found the animals that they did, and she wasn’t about to let a single bit of protein go to waste.
Daniel got the bones from his siblings’ limp arms and plopped them into the stew pot as Erika stared up at Vince patrolling the hill. It wasn’t good for just one of them to be on watch, especially with the smell of roasting meat in the air. She heard Sergeant Bennet in her head, screaming at her to follow proper protocol.
“That’s some man you got there, lil’ lady,” Clint said, interrupting her thoughts. He had been watching her from the tree he was tied to.
“What do you know about it?” she snapped at him.
“Just sayin’, any man who can keep his whole family alive and together in all this gots to be great,” Clint said honestly, reflecting on his own past. “Wish my pappy could a’ been that strong.” He had tears in his eyes.
“How long have you been out here?” Erika’s anger quickly turned to curiosity.
“I’s born in Louisia
na before da quake,” Clint looked past Erika into the distance. “Ma and Pappy and four brothers and sisters. We was doing real good too. No money but Pappy hunted in the swamps and we always had full tummies. Then there was one day Momma and Pappy had gone to da store and the quakes hit. Took them days to get home. Then the water came and there was no saving them. Pappy put me in a raft and said to hang on and he’d be right back. But he never came back. None of them ever came back.” He spoke like it had happened yesterday, and Erika saw the lines from tears streaming through the dirt on his face.
“How old were you when the quakes hit?” Erika asked, in disbelief that he had been roaming the countryside this whole time and was never rounded up into a camp.
“I’s thirteen when the quake hit. ’Bout to have me a birthday party too.” He smiled as he remembered the simplicities of a past life.
“You’ve been out here this whole time?” Erika was still in disbelief.
“Yes, ma’am, I never trusted no strangers so when I finally got to shore I watched real careful like to see what was hapnin’. No way I was going to one of those camps. No, ma’am. I’m a free man, always been so and always will be.” Clint was proud and committed to this.
“How did you get past the thermal detectors?” Erika wondered.
“My raft had popped and that water stung something awful. So, soon as I gets to shore I rubbed mud all over my body to cool the sting of the water. Lil’ did I know it throws off the thermal thingies too.” Clint beamed with pride over his deception.
“Interesting.” Erika thought about that for a moment. She remembered a movie from her past life called Predator. The star had coated himself in mud to outwit the alien hunter who used thermal tracking. She couldn’t believe it would really work, but she would remember that for the future.
“One thing ‘bout living on the shoreline though, ma’am,” Clint continued on. “Radiation is real thick here. That nuclear plant down in So’ Cal wasn’t working, but the storage pipes still ruptured in the warm ocean water. I ate some fish still living in there and I got real sick.”
The Changing Earth Series (Book 3): The Walls of Freedom Page 2