“What’s this?” Vince thought Clint was playing them.
Clint reached down through a hole that was concealed in the dirt. The ground began to slide slowly off of a board as the door was revealed.
“And what’s this, mister?” Clint replied cockily. “Okay, why don’t the girls and the kid wait down there and we’ll go and throw them trackers off our trail for good. I can’t let this place get found out about.”
Clint’s concern for the safety of the tunnel network suited Vince just fine. He wanted to make sure that right now was not the time that the location of these tunnels was revealed to the government. Erika gave Vince a worried look.
“It’s okay, baby. Take Star and Daniel and wait for us. We got this,” Vince urged them.
Erika stared at him in protest with her arms crossed in front of her.
“You know he’s right, if we don’t do something those trackers will come right to us,” Vince attested, encouraging her to descend into the darkness.
“All right, but you guys be careful,” Erika wasn’t too sure about this. What if Clint killed Vince, what would she do? She had no choice but to trust him right now.
Erika felt the cold bite of earth as they climbed down into the dankness of the underground cavern. They found a musty corner and sat down in the light of the flashlight to wait for the boys.
Chapter 5
Dexter ran with his father through the town to ensure that no tracking dog would ever pin down the site. He followed his father’s lead entering various homes and peeing in the corners. Like little jackrabbits they hopped back and forth over fences throughout the neighborhood. Dexter even headed east out of town. He made heavy footprints and used a pair of extra shoes that he hadn’t grown into yet to make more. He left a trail that would be easy to follow but still hidden enough to challenge their tracking skills. After a while he found a small stream, circled back and left no prints as he returned to the shed. Vince and Clint were waiting for him inside.
“Finally you’re back, where the heck have you been?” Vince stated, irritated with the boy’s delay.
“I threw them off good, Dad,” Dexter replied innocently.
“I heard the birds going crazy in the forest over there. It’s warning calls. They’re close. Let’s go,” Clint said, nervously. He was already reaching for the latch.
They greeted the ladies as they climbed down into the earth.
Watching Clint pull the door closed, Erika wondered, “What about the dirt covering the door?”
“Check this out,” Clint declared.
There was a handle that came through the floor. It was attached to a stick above them but under the floor of the shed. When Clint moved it back and forth the stick slid across the hatch above them perfectly, coating the dirt evenly over the hatch.
“Smart...very smart,” Vince admitted.
“Did you see the trackers?” Star wondered.
“No, but they’re definitely close,” Vince confessed.
“Come on. We gotta keep going. Nothing says they won’t find our tunnel,” Clint said shakily.
While waiting for the boys Erika had found her headlamp in her pack. She strapped the elastic around her head and began to move steadily along the tunnel with the others. Erika’s heart pumped loudly in her chest as memories of being trapped in the bunker after the Great Quake flooded her mind. It almost sent her into a wild frenzy with the panic overwhelming her, but logic overruled her desire to run wildly out of the tunnel. Traveling through this tunnel was the best way to cover ground quickly and undetected.
“Are these tunnels deep enough to keep us concealed from their thermal imaging tech?” Erika asked Clint, trying to take her mind off the oppressive confinement.
“Sure is,” Clint replied.
“How did all these tunnels get built?” Erika prodded.
“I was told they always been here. They had to do a bunch o’ clearing after the quakes, though. I guess they’re old mines that the marijuana growers used to avoid getting caught by the feds,” Clint explained quietly.
“Ironic, isn’t it? We’re still using them to evade the government,” Erika chuckled.
“Yeah, never really thought of it that way,” Clint replied with a chuckle of his own.
“Who’s they?” Erika questioned after a moment.
“What’s that now?” Clint asked, confused.
“You said ‘they had to do a lot of clearing,’ who’s they?” Erika wondered whom they could run into down here.
“Oh....the refugees, ma’am. The refugees, the few who survived after California got pummeled. If folks didn’t have any money, importance or land they got rounded up to the camps. The government said they would eat and be safe but some knew better. They hid in the tunnels, and there was nothing to do but connect them back together while they waited for sweep after sweep of soldiers to clear the land above.” It was obviously a story that Clint had been told many times since he made his way here.
It seemed like forever as they walked endlessly down the hall in the tunnel. They never saw or heard anything behind them. At one point they decided to rest and eat. The tarps protected them from the damp ground and they choked down cold stew from the thermos. Clint was even allowed to have some. His energy levels were depleting after days without food but Vince insisted that they retied him every time they slept so he couldn’t creep off.
It was impossible to tell how long they were in the tunnel or how far they had traveled in the dark. Erika longed for the light of day. When they finally emerged, they were in the wine cellar of a mountain winery from the past.
“Oh, how very ironic,” Erika said to Vince, laughing.
It had been a bottle of wine in an old bomb shelter that had saved her during the quake. If she hadn’t gone down in that shelter to fetch it, she would have been washed away with the rest of Sacramento.
“Isn’t it?” Vince caught her reference immediately.
They climbed out of the cellar into a dilapidated wine tasting facility and quickly made their way outside.
“Oh, thank God,” Star declared.
Erika was glad she wasn’t the only one that had been dreading one more second in that dark tunnel. The glorious moment didn’t last long as their eyes and noses met the horrifying sight and smell of the toxic ocean shoreline.
“Gross!” Daniel exclaimed, pointing at a bloated whale rotting on the rocky shoreline.
“That smells horrible!” Dex agreed.
“Well, folks, this is where we part ways,” Clint announced bluntly.
“What?” Vince and Erika questioned in unison. Erika heard Vince gag a little from the smell.
“Look, y’all are headed northeast from here, but I’m going south to Texas. Heard they might be seceding, there’s still land there that ain’t toxic no more and I fit in a little better, if y’all know what I’m sayin,” Clint tried to persuade them.
“How do we know you’re not going to follow us?” Vince queried suspiciously, gagging again.
“Or turn us in,” Erika added.
“Look, y’all been a lot of fun to hang out with. Well...not really and you’re just a little to hot to run around with. In more ways than one,” he said, winking at Star.
“That’s fine,” Vince resolved, extending his hand for Clint to shake it.
Erika was shocked by this sign of respect. Clint was taken aback as well but he puffed his chest out and returned Vince’s gesture.
“Thanks, Clint,” Vince said sincerely. “You saved my family.”
“No sir, you did that a few days ago. I’s just repaying you for not killing me too...” Clint paused in thought for a moment. “Like I deserved,” he added honestly.
“Next time, try saying hi to a lady instead of pointing a gun at her,” Vince advised, letting himself gag again.
“Yes sir, I will. Y’all take care now.” Clint was off, just like that. He was familiar with the shoreline and before long he was out of sight.
“Now what?”
Star asked.
“You heard the man. We want to go northeast to reach Reno. I think we should use the shoreline for a while. Doesn’t seem to be a very popular hangout spot,” Vince joked.
“That’s because it smells freaking horrible,” Dex interjected, gagging along with his father as he looked towards the whale.
Watching Dexter gagging was the last straw; Vince lost it and began puking. He pushed Erika away gently as she ran up to help him. He grabbed a rag from his bag and covered his nose and mouth with it.
“Lets get the hell out of here,” he declared, turning his head to puke again.
*****
Traversing the mountain shoreline, Erika remembered the great cities and farmlands that used to lie in the west. Daniel had loved hearing stories about San Francisco and how geographically and culturally unique it had been. He wondered why the people had stayed when Erika told him they knew the next big one was on the way. Erika had to explain that they had no idea how big it would be, or that a gigantic tsunami would follow close behind.
A patch of giant sequoias became their next temporary home. These massive trees had stood for over two thousand years, but now they appeared sickly. Erika figured it had to be the toxic contamination from the nearby ocean. Even without the contamination she wondered if they would have been able to survive in their new environment. One thing Erika knew for sure, the shade that they cast provided an excellent reprieve from the sun.
Their nerves never got a rest. Every moment they were on high alert. The only security they had is what they could provide for themselves. The government was hunting them and people on the edge of existence lurked in the shadows.
Dex started to prepare the fire pit. To conceal their fire, he dug two holes and connected them with a tunnel. Erika watched him, remembering the day Sergeant Bennet had taught her the technique at the refugee camp. He had called it a Dakota fire. Star emerged with a pot of stew she had made from the leftover scraps of food they could scrounge from their packs.
“Definitely not my finest,” Star teased, placing the pot over the hot side of the fire. Star had become quite the chef during her time at the refugee camp and took pride in the meals she cooked. She had even been asked to cook for the military brass on occasion.
“As long as it’s food and it’s hot, it will be just fine with me,” Dex commented.
“So, we are going to have to make a decision soon,” Erika interjected.
“Yeah, I know,” Vince agreed.
“About what, Mom?” Dex wondered.
“About which way to go, Dex.” Star knew what her parents were talking about. “When the last quake hit, it sheared the mountains right off further up. Dad and Greg almost fell in the ocean, trying to save Big John. You’ve heard the story, Dex,” Star reminded him.
“Oh yeah. We’re going back there?” Dexter was geographically lost, having been so little when they left.
“Yeah, bud,” Vince chimed in. “We keep going north and we are going to have to go by Lake Tahoe. That’s where we were when we lost California.”
“Cool,” Dexter exclaimed. He was excited to see it.
“It’s not ‘cool,’ Dex.” Erika was horrified by her son’s response.
“I know, Mom, I didn’t mean it like that. I meant it was cool that we get to see it again,” he acknowledged.
Star returned to the camp from a small foray into the surrounding landscape. In September in the Sierra Nevada Mountains there weren’t many wild edibles to be found, but she brought back some plants and added them to the stew pot. The smell of the freshly added produce wafted through the air. Their mouths watered in response to the smell, knowing there would not be enough to satisfy the hunger of the whole group.
“So, what are the options, Mom?” Star wanted to get her mind off the simmering stew.
“I see a few options. We can stay in the woods where we travel slowly, but we may come across more food and abandoned towns that we could re-pillage. Or, we could go further east and skirt the edge of the mountains so we would remain more in line with Reno.”
“No, we are not going to skirt those mountains!” Vince insisted. “That’s where they caught us before.”
“I know, but we just have to hope that they have pulled back to the edge of the badlands. We have to cross that border to get to Reno at some time or another,” Erika countered.
“I would rather do that from the safety of a high hill where we can see. We didn’t know what was going on last time we crossed that line, and we walked right into them,” Vince added.
“I have an idea,” Daniel muttered. No one paid any attention to him.
“Mom, isn’t Yosemite north of here. You know, that area is not going to be easy to traverse. I read one of the books about it and it looked like some monster mountains. Plus, it had over a thousand lakes and sixteen hundred miles of streams. I bet the ocean filled all that when it surged. I don’t know how much wildlife will be left there for us to hunt,” Star rambled.
“Dang, Star, I’m impressed! I guess bringing home all those books for you guys wasn’t such a bad idea after all,” Erika remarked proudly.
“Then what are we going to do?” Dexter was a little upset he hadn’t paid as much attention to those books as Star had.
“Let’s eat, maybe that will help.” Vince couldn’t take the smell anymore.
They shared the stew in two containers that they passed around. There was a large slurping sound as the chunks in the stew were devoured first. They tasted more like dirt but nobody cared; it was nourishment. After the solid pieces were gone they drank down the broth. Erika noticed that Vince wasn’t taking his fair share and kept encouraging the kids to have more.
There was a hush over the camp as they watched the sun set over the ocean in a toxic light display of unnatural greens and rose colors. Erika heard the creaking of the abandoned and destroyed boats littering the shoreline. They filled the water with an oily residue that slopped and stuck on the sandy shore.
“I have an idea,” Daniel stated firmly, breaking the silence.
“What’s your big idea, baby,” Erika replied, humoring the boy as she wrapped him in a big hug.
“Why don’t we just take one of those boats and float up there?” Daniel was too young to think inside the box.
The four other family members looked curiously at one another.
“We can’t do that, Danny,” Dex countered gently. He was all too quick to correct his brother’s thoughts.
“Why not?” Vince questioned Dex.
“Because, Dad, the water is toxic.” Dex tried to defend his stance.
“Yeah, but if we’re floating on top of it, what would it matter?” Vince asked.
“I guess it wouldn’t,” Dex admitted.
“I’m not going out on the ocean. I never liked the ocean before and now it’s just as toxic as that sludge that gave me all these,” Erika barked, pulling her shirt down off her shoulder and displaying her scars.
The sun sank lower and lower. Suddenly, Star hushed them.
“What’s up, Star?” Erika whispered, assuming Star had heard something.
“Look,” she said, pointing up.
Erika looked up and saw the air buzzing with tiny silver-haired bats, swooping down to collect the little moths that the fire was attracting. Star grabbed the sleeve that she carried her backpack in. As a bat flew down she swooshed her pouch through the air and caught one. She immediately dispensed it by beating the end of her bag on a rock. She dumped out the dead, squished rodent on the ground and began to try and catch another.
The rest of the family followed suit and before long they had a pile of fifteen dead bats on the ground. Their silver hair shimmered in the last of the sunlight as the huge yellow ball sank into the oceanic skyline.
“Let’s eat!” Dexter cheered.
“Hold up, Dex,” Erika corrected.
“Bats can carry all kinds of nasty diseases, just like rats,” Vince added.
“Right, so we a
re going to put them on sticks and cook them each over the fire to get rid of their fur and skin.” Erika had remembered doing this when they had first arrived at the Las Vegas camp ten years ago. Food was nonexistent and they did what they had to for survival. The rat population had exploded as they gorged on the remnants of the humans. Luckily Dexter had wiped it out of his memory.
“Shouldn’t we gut them first?” Vince wondered.
“Absolutely,” Erika agreed.
The family jumped into action, happy to have the prospect of eating more food. Star and Erika removed the tiny organs from the bat bodies. Dexter and Daniel looked for good sticks and Vince skewered them and set them to roasting one by one on the fire. As one finished he put another in its place until the pile was gone and they were all cooked. Each family member ravenously crunched on a little body and the rest were carefully stored away to eat later. The added meat was a welcome treat for their bellies.
Covering ground quickly, they fell into their normal traveling patterns. During their time on the rescue squad at the refugee camp they had gone out on many “salvage” missions and knew their responsibilities well. Usually they had a much larger team, though, and now it was just the family. Vince and Erika went out to take the first watch while the children slept soundly. During the middle of the night, Erika and Vince awoke Star and Dexter to trade off.
Dexter glared over at Daniel sleeping soundly through the night. “I wish I was still little so I could sleep all night,” he mumbled. His brown hair was a mess and his eyes were baggy.
“Come on, sleepy head,” Star jested cheerfully to try and raise his spirits.
She was always chipper when she awoke, a quality that Erika wished she herself possessed. Climbing under the blankets with Vince, they tucked Daniel in between themselves. Sleep did not evade Erika on this night, and she fell asleep listening to the sounds of Dexter and Star walking away to their designated locations.
Chapter 6
“Good morning, Mom and Dad,” Star announced as she entered camp, illuminated by the rising sun behind her.
The Changing Earth Series (Book 3): The Walls of Freedom Page 4