Dorian drives the cart slowly beside our caravan of walkers. Tobias leads the front of the line and Kaleb pulls up the back. There are four more young and brawn guys spread throughout who are carrying guns—guess they went over to the dark side. Unfortunately, Finch stayed back but at least that’s better for Ben.
The good news is that we have been able to walk—not swim the entire way. Of course, Dorian wouldn’t have taken his precious cart if our path was still swamped. I have to rethink my good news.
Nothing has survived. We’ve been following the interstate but have seen no signs of life. Dead animals litter our path, drowned with nowhere to escape. The snow has melted away in most places after days of sunshine and unusually warm weather.
I assume we’ll stop once we find some livestock to start a food chain over with…and hopefully some other survivors. A whole army of them would be nice.
***
This morning I wake up earlier than anyone else and feel snowflakes falling on my face. Looks like our luck with the sunshine is over—the air is frigid.
Edgar and Masaru are still sleeping. I see that Dorian is on his way over, so I wake them up before he can. He likes to play drill sergeant and scream in your ear like a blaring alarm.
We gather up our stuff and continue on alongside the highway. After several hours, we see them in the far distance. Cows. Sheep. People.
Dorian pulls up alongside us. “Okay, people, it looks like we’ve found our destination.”
I think every soul in the group let out a sigh of relief. I’m pretty sure we were close to losing a few people who could barely keep up—and we weren’t moving fast.
“I want to check things out before we let them know we’re here,” Dorian begins to lay out his plan. “We’ll survey the premises and make sure it’s safe.”
I roll my eyes. Based on the signage along the highway, we’re in an area called Palmer Lake. The mountain edge pushes out a little farther east which is why we crossed its path in the first place.
I’ve pretty much tuned Dorian out when I catch a glimpse of a man hiding behind a boulder. As we make eye contact, he puts his finger to his lips, motioning for me to keep his presence a secret.
I quickly turn my attention back to Dorian.
Oops. Guess he already finished his plan. “Okay, are we ready?” he asks.
I have no idea what we’re supposed to be ready for.
***
Come to find out what Dorian said was that we are going to ascend the lower reservoir up ahead and take a position where we can spy and see how many of them there are. I laugh because I know their secret spy has already spotted us. After quietly telling Masaru and Edgar this, we all do our best to contain our laughter. Dorian casts me a cold glare, but he has no idea what we’re talking about.
We stake out our place amongst a wall of boulders and Dorian has us scatter up the next quarter-mile or so. My hopes of discovering a ton of people, enough to overpower our group are squashed. It looks like they only have about thirty and of those, probably a third or more are children.
Dorian wants to make sure there are no others, so we watch them for hours until the sun is about to set over the mountains. I’m about to fall asleep when I feel a poke on my back.
As I turn around, I see it’s the guy I originally saw spying and four other men. None of them is as big as Dorian.
“Hi,” the guy says with a smile. “Looking for someone?”
Edgar is at the next post down from me and sees them approach. He immediately heads toward us.
“I guess that depends,” is all I manage to get out before I see Dorian approaching in the cart.
“Well, hello there,” he calls out from ten feet away. He’s ass-kissing. I can tell by his tone.
Dorian pulls the cart up, putting the break on before hopping out. “Hi. My name is Dorian, and this is Claudia.” His fake sincerity is going to make me sick.
“Shane,” the spy says. “This is Brody, Jay, Skipper and Pug.”
Brody bobs his head to say hello—his jaw is packed with tobacco. Skipper and Jay look like they could be twins—both with blond hair, blue eyes and about the same average height. Pug is the biggest of all of them. I wonder how he got that nickname?
Dorian offers his hand, “Nice to meet you all. You’re the first survivors we’ve come across.” By now Masaru and a couple others from our group have made their way over.
“Yeah, not too many left. If the flood didn’t wipe them out, then a volcano or earthquake most likely did,” Shane says shaking his head sadly.
“Volcano?” I ask.
“Oh yeah,” Jay jumps in. “After the Death Asteroid hit, it shook the Earth so hard it set off all kinds of catastrophes – earthquakes, volcanoes. That’s what destroyed almost everything west of Utah.”
“Did you see that on the news?” Masaru asks.
I quickly interject, “Do you have power?” Please say yes.
“No. I don’t think there’s electricity anywhere. We have a pilot in our group,” Jay goes on to explain.
Brody cuts him off, “Had.” He spits out a big stream of tobacco juice.
“We had a pilot. We haven’t seen him since he took off for the last search. Anyway, he flew west after he saw there was nothing east and saw the devastation with his own eyes,” Shane explains.
The world keeps getting smaller and smaller.
Shane looks to Pug. He doesn’t say anything, but he’s clearly waiting for a response.
Pug shrugs his shoulders.
“You all are welcome to stay here tonight,” Shane offers. We can give you a hot meal and a good night’s sleep before you head out again tomorrow.”
Shane’s smart—planting his stake early. He overheard Dorian before and knows all this nice stuff is nothing but hot air. Just wait until I get him alone and give him the real scoop.
***
Shane and Brody lead us to the village which is a little farther up the lower reservoir. Pug, Jay and Skipper disappear down another path. This makes Dorian nervous because he’s doing this twitchy thing with his eyes.
Shane points to a cluster of houses behind him. “If it’s not already occupied, you can have it for the night,” he offers. Just try to leave it as you found it. Oh and, the best water in nature is running right through here.”
There are enough houses that we can each have our own. I wonder why there aren’t more survivors. I’d think anyone that lived in the mountains would have survived.
“That’s very kind of you, Shane. Thanks.” I head toward the houses when I hear him call out my name.
“Claudia?” The sound of my name rolling off his lips makes me recoil.
“Yeah, Dorian?” I don’t turn to look at him.
“I need you to stay with me. I need your help,” he says quickly.
“I’ll pick a house, and then I’ll meet up with you to plan. How about that?” I am not staying with him.
“Claudia!” his tone is angry and a warning look from Shane makes him change it. “Claudia—just for a minute, then,” he says with a softer tone and a quick flash of a smile to Shane. “I need to show you this before it gets dark.”
Does he think I’m stupid? Before I can respond, Tobias walks up with his gun over his shoulder. He can’t mess with me now in front of everyone, but he can kill me in my sleep later, regardless of where I’m staying. Edgar and Masaru step forward but I nod them off. This isn’t the time for a big blow up. I can handle Dorian for now.
Tobias follows Dorian and me to an empty house on the eastern edge of the village. Interesting. I was sure he would have picked one that was as front and center as possible.
We enter the house and Dorian closes the door behind us. He turns and stares me dead in the eyes. “Hope you aren’t planning on causing any trouble. I’d hate to have to punish Ben for it.”
Despise isn’t even strong enough. Loathe or abominate—those are words more appropriate for a monster like Dorian.
I remain silent
and return his dark stare.
“I didn’t think so,” he says, and Tobias flashes a shit-eating grin. “Now get out of my sight.”
I walk out of his house and slam the door. I probably shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t help myself. When I look up, several people are staring at me.
“Everything okay, Miss?” an older man with a cane and a small billy goat asks. The goat is wearing a red studded collar, so I guess it’s his pet.
A ghost of a smile crosses my lips. “Yes, sir.”
Wandering through the houses, I stumble upon a tiny, stone cottage that looks like it’s been here for hundreds of years. It’s perfect, on the western edge of the cluster—as far away from Dorian as I can get.
The inside is a little musty and it doesn’t look like anyone has been in here for a long time. I make my way back to the only bedroom. The bed is small but draped with a beautiful hand-sewn quilt. I lie down and the mattress is cushy, allowing me to sink in as if it’s a cloud. After closing my eyes for only a couple seconds, I almost doze off, so I force myself out of the bed. No time for sleep now, I have to do a little observing before it gets dark—mostly to figure out where Shane’s house is.
I move an old, painted rocking chair from the main room in the cottage out onto the small porch to sit and take a break. My feet are exhausted from walking for days, and it feels good to get off of them. Rocking slowly in the chair, I watch Pug and Brody add logs to the fire pit. Skipper is basting some kind of meat on a table nearby.
“Coming to the bonfire tonight?” Jay nearly scares me to death when he asks. He must have stepped out of thin air.
“Oh, my!” I almost scream the words. “You just scared the living daylights out of me.” I place my hand over my chest and my heart is pounding.
“I’m mighty sorry,” Jay says with a chuckle. He sounds kind of like Sam from the Brown Palace.
“Oh,” I exhale the word. “I think I’m having a heart attack.” I laugh. “Yeah, I’ll join.”
“Great. Things’ll start in ‘bout an hour from now, so relax,” he says heading toward his friends.
I gaze over the whole village. No sign of Shane anywhere. I could talk to one of the other guys, but my gut tells me to wait for Shane. I have to tell him about Dorian’s Plan X—make sure these people will be able to stay.
Then, with perfect timing, I hear a noise to my left, and Shane walks out of the house about six or seven away from mine. I was hoping he would be closer, but at least I know where he is.
***
The gathering at the bonfire is fun and the food is fantastic, but Dorian manages to make sure I don’t get one second without one of his goons standing over me the entire night. This doesn’t surprise me—it’s exactly what I anticipated. I think Shane can tell something is going on, but he keeps his distance, though he does throw me several glances that might have been asking for a signal.
I know I have to wait until everyone goes to sleep before I approach Shane. It’s not fair for me to involve him without at least telling him what he’s getting into.
With full bellies, the majority of the people retire to their homes shortly after dinner. The earlier everyone goes to bed, the better it is for me and I follow soon behind. There’s not a chance Dorian will leave before me anyway.
I need something to kill the time while I wait for everyone else to settle in for the night. I can still hear a few people talking and laughing outside—including Tobias. I pull a book out of my backpack that Molly had given me at the Brown Palace. She said it was a great adventure about a young girl who sets out on a mysterious journey to find her mom who disappeared into a windmill.
After getting sucked into the book for nearly two hours, I feel like it’s time to make a move. I haven’t heard anyone for at least an hour. I peek out the window at the front of the cottage. It’s dark and empty.
Arming myself with the flashlight Ben gave me at the airport, I creep through the cottage. I want to look out the window in the back, too—just in case. Shining the light outside, I don’t see anyone. I wish I could sneak out this window instead of going out the door, but it was never made to open.
I hate Dorian for throwing Ben in my face. It’s one thing to cause myself danger, but if I get caught, he’s going to take it out on Ben. He’s evil—was probably Adolf Hitler in a past life—the way he has taken advantage of the weakness of people caused by the chaos of the disaster.
The door creaks as I pull it open slowly. I turn my flashlight off—better to wait until I’m closer to Shane’s. I step outside, turning back to close the door behind me.
I never saw him. “Going somewhere?” I can hear the smile on Dorian’s face.
The thought to scream occurs but so does the image of Ben being tortured.
“I just need some air,” I say as calmly as I can get the words out.
Dorian comes closer. “Perfect timing,” he says. “I was just coming to get you.”
“Get me for what?” His tone scares me.
“It’s time,” he says. Again, giving me no clue as to what he is truly up to.
When we get to Dorian’s house, all of the members of the young and brawn are already there. Not a single old or sick person. Not Masaru. Not Edgar.
I realize I have completely underestimated my opponent.
Chapter 7
Dorian leads us toward the pasture where I saw the cows earlier. He motions to Tobias and points off in the distance. He’s directing him toward a bull. Then, I realize Tobias isn’t carrying his gun like everyone else. He’s got a large rope instead.
Tobias sneaks up on the bull and throws a lasso around his neck. We’re stealing their animals!
“Dorian! These people have taken us in. You can’t steal from them!”
“Shut up, Claudia!” he warns.
Tobias walks the bull toward Dorian. Surprisingly, the animal doesn’t resist.
Then I see Kaleb out of the corner of my eye. He’s taken another bull.
“Is that all of them?” Dorian asks.
“Yes, the rest are cows,” CJ, one of the young and brawn responds.
“Good, CJ. Are we ready?”
“For what?” I ask.
I’m pretty sure Dorian would love to shoot me and leave me for dead about now. “We’re leaving.”
“Going somewhere?” I turn around and it’s Shane, Pug and Skipper—all armed with shotguns. They snuck up out of nowhere.
I laugh at Shane for the repetition of Dorian’s own words.
Tension fills the air. “As a matter of fact, we are.” Dorian gets in Shane’s face. Tobias and one of his other goons steps up with guns clenched in their hands.
“Not with our animals, you aren’t.” Shane moves closer to Dorian. He’s not as tall or as muscular, but he’s not afraid either.
Dorian softens his approach a bit. “Listen, Shane. If we all want to survive, we have to work together. I’m just trying to make sure that happens. You have the cows and we have the bulls—it’s a guarantee that our groups will share in this food source—and you can breed your cows any time you want. Surely, you understand.”
Shane stands his ground, “I understand that you better turn those bulls over before things get nasty.”
Shane nods Pug and Skipper toward the bulls. “Boys, take what’s ours.”
“I’m warning you. I will ensure the survival.”
“Ensure what you want,” Shane says heading toward the larger bull held by Tobias.
The gunshot echoes through the mountains. In slow motion, Shane falls to the ground with a bullet in his brain.
THANK YOU!
Thank you for choosingThe Others (The Dark Days series, Episode 3)If you enjoyed this series, please check out the Episode 4, Dark Beginnings. Stay tuned for Episode 5, coming Fall 2015!
Check out these other titles in The Dark Days Series by Ginger Gelsheimer!
End of the World – Episode 1
Dorian Lennox – Episode 2
Dark Beginnings –
Episode 4
And her highly popular Aurora Conspiracy Trilogy and Prequel Series:
Crash Landing – Prequel Series 1
Conflict Rising – Prequel Series 2
Calm Before the Storm – Prequel Series 3
Chaos Unleashed – Prequel Series 4
Quest of the Hybrid – Book 1
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The Dark Days: The Others - Episode 3 Page 5