TRIAL: A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Thriller

by Murray Mcdonald

  Ava’s eyes snapped to her mother’s. “What do you mean better than the future? Things will get fixed!”

  Kate wished she hadn’t opened her mouth, as much as she harbored concerns that they were facing a new normal, she hadn’t shared them with the kids, they needed hope.

  “I’m sure they will. I just mean over the next few days.”

  For all of her kids to slip up with, Ava wasn’t having any of her backpedaling.

  “No, you didn’t. You think this is it!” Ava shouted. Hearing her mother’s voice, her thoughts had only added to Ava’s own worries. Worries that were similar to her mother’s, but without hearing anyone else voice them, she’d managed to keep believing that things may still go back to the old normal.

  “What’s it?” asked Sophie, joining the discussion that Ava had opened up to the house with her emotional outburst.

  “Mom thinks this,” she dramatized, waving her arms around in a circle. “Is not going to get better!”

  Sophie looked at her mom for a few seconds before breaking into a smile and turning to Ava. “Don’t be silly, things will start getting better soon. The power will be back on any time now, you’ll see. Won’t it, Zach?”

  Zach stayed at the entrance of the lounge, not wanting to embroil himself too closely with a family argument, but with Sophie’s beckoning, he moved slowly forward.

  “Well, it is a bit strange that nothing is happening. You do begin to wonder...” he mused, not able to deny what was staring them all in the face.

  “See? We’re all thinking it, we’re just not saying it,” said Ava, tears streaming down her face. Kate moved forward to console her, but Ava brushed her aside and stomped off. Kate heard her in the garage. Ava was accepting the worst and moving on.

  Sophie watched her sister stomp off, shaking her head. “What the hell? Can somebody tell me what I’m missing?”

  Kate and Zach exchanged a look, a brief look, but one that said more than a hundred words could. He had it, he’d break the news to her gently. They didn’t think her hairdryer or the shower would be working any time soon, if ever again. It wouldn’t be taken well, but he obviously felt an enormous amount for her and was keen to protect her from as much of the hardship as he could. Whatever he was doing for Kate and the family was primarily for Sophie, and not just because he was a good Samaritan. Sophie had her Tim. Kate just hoped Zach had his Kate. Sophie could be slow to catch on, but it was no indication of the intelligence that lurked beneath her dottiness, and her heart was in the right place.

  Through it all, Danny had sat oblivious, lost in his favorite comic book. His encounter earlier already a distant memory. A knock at the door was followed by a “Anyone home?” The voice was Harry’s.

  Perfect, she thought. She’d pick his brains about the toilet situation. She had some ideas, but he was old enough to have some historical perspective, or at least she hoped he did.

  ***

  “What will we do with the bodies?” asked Nick, looking down at the two teenagers he had taken down.

  “Leave them where they are,” said Alex. “Come on, we need to get out of here.”

  “They were just two kids. We need to bury them, or something,” argued Nick. He couldn’t take his eyes off of the two. He guessed no more than sixteen. One boy, one girl. He’d had no choice, if they had repeated what they’d heard. He didn’t even want to think about what could have happened.

  “Come on, we had no choice!”

  “We could have taken them with us.”

  “You know we couldn’t. We have orders, and taking prisoners is definitely not among them. Staying covert and keeping our mission a secret is critical. Deadly force has been authorized to keep our mission details secret. You were following orders.”

  “Yes, but if you had swept the café pro…”

  “Yeah, it’s my fault, the kids are on me. Now, can we get the hell out of here before we have to kill anyone else?!”

  Nick closed his eyes and whispered a prayer for the two. He knew he should have felt worse, he had just killed two innocent teenagers for overhearing Alex’s report. But in all honesty, with the future that lay ahead for them, a small part of him felt he had done them a favor, a quick and painful release versus what, for the vast majority, was going to be a slow and painful path to an inevitable and very early death.

  Chapter 25

  “Duke?”

  Bob turned to face his cousin, Trey. The use of his new name and title pleased him greatly. He smiled back at his cousin. He could not have envisioned a better transition from the old to the new world order. His order. His world. His base was secure and his men revered him. He had delivered his vision, as promised, only far quicker and more completely than his wildest imagination. The scale and speed of the collapse was, he had to admit, way beyond his most extreme predictions. The world had quite literally stopped at a precise moment in time, five days earlier.

  Their numbers had already swollen, more men had begun to arrive after the third day, having seen what the militia had achieved and built. They wanted the security the militia offered. Beyond their acceptance lay a brutal training regime, where failure resulted in a merciless death. Bob had made an example early in the process, walking up to the last recruit to have completed the initial three-mile run required to prove their fitness and without a word, shooting him in the head. Two had, at that point, decided the militia wasn’t for them. They met a similar fate at Bob’s hands. Once accepted into the militia, Bob had declared, whether recruit or fully-fledged member, death was the only way out.

  “Yes?” replied Bob.

  “We’ve got another batch asking to join up.”

  Bob turned from watching the recruits they were already putting through their paces. “Show me!”

  Trey led the way. The base was a flurry of activity as militia members went about their tasks feverishly, particularly at the sight of the Duke walking amongst them. The builders were already well ahead of schedule on the barns and outbuildings that would be used to house and secure the horses and supplies over the coming winter months. Security was tight, as lookouts and sentry points were manned, and their respective militia members diligently fulfilled their duties. The Duke smiled as he wondered at what he had created, what he commanded.

  Trey guided him towards the main security checkpoint at the front of their base and out towards the road and the bridge that separated them from Boise. Fifteen men awaited them in front of the two machine gun nests. A collection of weapons that the potential recruits had brought with them lay uselessly on the road. Bob and Trey walked beyond the security of the machine gun nests and their sentries, and stood before the weapons littering the bridge’s road.

  Bob looked at the collection of weapons, mainly handguns. The potential recruits had followed the instructions of the sentries, dropped their weapons and retreated back ten yards.

  “You!” Bob pointed to a man standing at the back of the group.

  The man pointed to himself to confirm that it was himself who Bob was indicating.

  “Yes, you. Step forward!”

  “Yes, sir,” said the man, stepping forward and standing to attention.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Charlie, sir.”

  Bob looked down at the pile of weapons. “Okay, Charlie, take your gun and shoot one of the men behind you.”

  “What?”

  “Shoot one of the men behind you!”

  “But why? We all want to join.”

  “Vince,” Bobby looked to one of his sentries. “Shoot one of those men.”

  Vince leveled his AR-15 and shot the man directly behind and to the right of the man Bob had chosen.

  The man fell to the ground, a bullet having passed clean through his forehead.

  Two men broke off and ran back across the bridge towards Boise. The rest were too stunned to move. Two shots rang out and the two runners fell to the ground, dead.

  “Charlie, do you know why Vince shot that man?”
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br />   Charlie shook his head, barely able to concentrate on what was being said. His mind was telling him to run, dive into the river and swim for his life.

  “Because I told him to. That’s the only reason. He doesn’t need to know why!”

  “So, Charlie, pick up your gun and shoot one of the men behind you. You’ve already cost me three recruits, don’t make it anymore!” he said with a smile.

  Charlie walked forward, his body forcing him, his mind screaming at him not to, but his survival instinct driving him on. He glanced at the bridge’s railing. It was six yards away, and with at least three AR-15s leveled at him, he’d never make it. Whatever he did, someone was going to die, just so long as it wasn’t him.

  Charlie picked up his gun and paused. The thought of shooting Bob ran through his mind, but his sense quickly resolved against that option. It was a suicidal move. He wanted to live.

  “Oh, and Charlie, you have to shoot them until they’re dead. We only shoot to kill!”

  Charlie turned and eleven men faced him. Three seemed relaxed. They knew Charlie and were correct in thinking he wouldn’t kill them. Of the eight remaining, three were white, two were Hispanic and two were black. The Hispanic and black recruits were by far the more nervous of the remaining eight.

  Charlie began to raise his pistol.

  “Oh, and Charlie, don’t take the easy route and shoot the minorities, or someone you don’t know,” cautioned Bob, his smile widening.

  As the color drained from his three friends’ faces and their expressions changed markedly, it was an easy spot as to who Charlie knew.

  “Okay, Charlie, one of your friends is about to meet his maker,” said Bob. “If in the space of the next five seconds you don’t make a choice, all three will die. And you too, of course, for failing to obey an order.”

  “Five…four…three…two…”

  A shot rang out and a body fell to the ground. Charlie’s friends looked at one another, all three still stood. They looked at their friend who had taken his own life rather than choose one of theirs. All breathed a sigh of relief and remorse for their friend.

  Bob nodded, and three shots rang out. The three friends joined Charlie, dead on the ground. His sentries having taken the shots to fulfill Bob’s order.

  “Alive or dead, if you fail your orders, I’ll follow through on my promises!” he cautioned to the eight men that stood before him.

  Fifteen had become eight. Bob turned and waved Trey back with him behind the safety of the machine gun nests. “I’ve got room for four. Grab your weapon and kill a man and you’re in!” he offered as he walked.

  The rush of feet was followed by the scraping of metal on concrete before finally a number of shots rang out. Bob turned and smiled at the four new recruits to his militia. Two Hispanics and two blacks. He was all about diversity.

  “Make sure they’re useful,” he whispered to Trey. “And get rid of those bodies. I don’t want pigs stinking up our bridge!”

  “Pigs?”

  “Charlie, he was wearing police-issue boots!”

  Trey looked back at the bodies on the bridge.

  “All the white guys?”

  Bob shrugged. “Who knows, but he was the only one stupid enough to wear his boots!”

  “We’ll be more careful!” advised Trey.

  “Make sure you are!” cautioned Bob ominously.

  Bob walked off, pausing, “The new recruits?”

  “Yeah?” asked Trey.

  The time for thought as Trey responded was enough for Bob to change his mind. “Get them into the training program, but no sentry duty for them anytime soon. Let’s face it, some of our guys aren’t going to be overly pleased with our new diversity hires!”

  “Got it!”

  “Oh and Trey, if anybody speaks out publicly about our new hires, you tell me!”

  “Will do, Duke.”

  Bob walked back to the main estate and the core of his base. He hoped the new recruits would be accepted without question, but if he were to rule over all of Boise, he needed to have a diverse group. Racial tensions would lead to unnecessary conflicts. He had seen more than enough of that crap in the prison system without having it in his Boise. It was far easier for your authority to be accepted when you represented all of those you ruled over. The blacks and Hispanics wouldn’t react well to an all-white militia dictating to them in the future. A Boise Militia had to represent Boise, and as much as he didn’t like it, he knew it was for the best. His authority had to remain without question. He just hoped that none of his most trusted or loyal men spoke out. He’d hate to have to publicly kill them, but leaders had to step up and do what was necessary whenever called upon, and looking around at what he had achieved in just five days, he had no doubt how powerful a leader he was.

  Chapter 26

  The darkness, like the previous few nights, when it came, descended with an unsettling finality. There was no escape, and the candles barely ate into the all-encompassing blackness that surrounded them. The city ceased to exist below. The candle power, if anything, failed to progress beyond the curtains and blinds that kept the homeowners as secure and warm as they could be, given the circumstances. As she had before, Kate watched the highway below, willing a vehicle, anything to move, but the darkness and sharp edge of the tarmac stretched off into the distance, a shade darker than its surroundings, highlighting its almost useless existence.

  Kate closed her curtain and retreated to bed. Danny was there already sound asleep, stretched out across Tim’s side of the bed, a child’s worriless sleep. What she would give for the ability to switch off her responsibilities and sleep as soundly as Danny, just for one night. What had weighed on her since Tim’s death had been nothing compared to the stress and burden she felt bearing down on her then. Ava would join them too. . Not any time soon, but she knew at some point, the door would crack open and Ava would squeeze in next to her brother. Waking before dawn, she would sneak back to her room. For whatever reason, she didn’t want to admit that she needed them and for the time being, Kate wasn’t going to question it. She loved having her babies nearby.

  “Mom?” a knock at her door was followed by the flickering of candlelight as it consumed the vacated darkness when the door pushed open.

  “You okay?” asked Kate, as Sophie, her eldest, entered the bedroom.

  “I just wanted to check and make sure Danny was okay.”

  It had been a traumatic day for everyone, except for Danny who remained blissfully unaware of the danger he had been in.

  Kate looked at him, her mini-Tim, sound asleep, with not a care or worry in the world.

  “Come on, jump in,” said Kate, pulling the covers back.

  “No, it’s fine,” she said sheepishly.

  “Get in here. I think tonight, we could do with being together.”

  Sophie shrugged, blew out her candle and hopped in. Kate could almost feel the sense of relief emanating from Sophie. “What about Ava?” asked Sophie.

  “Don’t worry, I’m sure she’ll join us soon enough.”

  Sophie’s breathing fell quickly into a deep sleep and, Kate stared into the darkness of the ceiling. It had been an eventful and traumatic day. The thought of losing Danny had hit her hard and had been a stark wake up call to their new reality. How long would the community hold together?, How long before the willingness to share resources and help one another waned? The reality was that the help so many still expected to come, wasn’t coming. Five days had passed, not one vehicle had moved, not one aircraft had been spotted overhead. Nothing worked and it obviously wasn’t just Boise. The nuclear plant had been taken out, whether by the Russians, Iranians, or whoever, and it obviously wasn’t the only one, as their country, their lives, as they’d known them were gone.

  The afternoon had been spent digging a hole and fashioning an old tent over the hole to form a new toilet. A pile of dirt lay ready to fill the hole, as and when a new hole would be dug and the tent moved to a fresh site in the garden.


  “What happens when it’s freezing outside?” asked Sophie.

  “You’ll learn to be quicker!” laughed Zach, much to Sophie’s embarrassment.

  Storming off, Zach chased after her. Kate couldn’t help but hope Sophie calmed down. Zach had been such a help, he’d be sorely missed if he and Sophie fell out. She needn’t have worried, for five minutes later, love’s young dream was in full flight. Sophie, without a doubt, had fallen hard and if Zach’s enthusiasm to help was any gauge, he had also.

  Kate was snapped out of her thoughts as her bedroom door brushed open. She closed her eyes, although why she bothered in the total darkness, she wasn’t sure. Ava was a proud girl, and for whatever reason, wanted her nighttime visits to remain private.

  “Mom?” Ava whispered urgently, reaching Kate’s side of the bed.

  Kate feigned sleepiness. She had a role to play.

  “Mom,” Ava whispered, shaking at her mom.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “There’s someone trying to get in!” replied Ava breathlessly.

  Chapter 27

  The sounds of laughter cut through the darkness almost as much as the screams. A new batch of entertainment had been brought in during the day. The Duke wanted his men fresh and ready for action when called upon, so ensuring their hormones were kept in check was just as important as ensuring they were physically capable for their duties. Trey looked around at the selection. There were a couple that he liked the look of, but to him, the fight was as important as the conquest and none of the women looked like they had much fight left in them. After two nights of disappointment, he wasn’t particularly bothered and walked back out into the chill of the night air. His mind wandered back to the feisty redhead at the supermarket. She’d be a woman he’d enjoy. She was a woman he knew he’d have to fight and fight hard to tame, if he even could, which for him was all the better, unbreakable, perfect.

  He looked across in the direction of Rogers’s estate, off in the distance. It blended like every other area of Boise into the darkness. A black mass of civilization indiscernible, invisible for half of its existence.