She was mad about one thing. They had Scooby and the other two horses tied to the back of the truck. They weren’t going very fast—an easy speed for the horses—but it wasn’t fair to them. They didn’t get to rest and they had to smell the stinky smoke that was coming out the back of the truck. She wasn’t happy about that at all. She was happy though, that she had left Ralph at home. The men might have hurt him.
The picnic had been fun. Katie and Sophie were best friends, and Sophie’s mom was nice. They were having fun—until the men in the trucks came. The men told them they were taking them to a wonderful place that had electricity. Katie had heard of electricity before—her mom and dad had explained it, but she didn’t really understand it. Anyway, she didn’t want to go to another town, especially without her mom and dad. She told them that, but they didn’t care. They just kept saying how much she’d like it there. How would they know?
She had liked Monett, but it was better here. She had more friends here—especially Sophie. She also got to see Scooby everyday—he lived in a barn next to the house and she rode him all the time. Monett had that ugly town next to it, the one nobody lived in. They called it the “old town.” Katie hadn’t been allowed to ride Scooby into the old town. But that was okay. She didn’t want to go there anyway. She always rode the other way. But it was so flat there. She could ride fast, but she never felt like she really went anywhere. It was so much prettier here. So much to see and to explore.
There were also no ugly towns in Yellowstone. It was just hills and grass and forest and lots of places to ride. There were a lot of animals too, which she liked. She stayed away from the bears and bison—the bison could be mean—and she heard that there were mountain lions, but she hadn’t seen any. She couldn’t wait to see one though.
Her mom and dad let her ride alone. They trusted her. After all, she would be eight next summer. She always kept her crossbow with her—she could even load it herself now!—and hung it on Scooby or over her back like a backpack when she rode. She hadn’t had to use it yet on her own—only when she went hunting with her dad. She was good! Almost as good as him with his big crossbow. Now, her crossbow was in a bag on Scooby. The men hadn’t seen it. That was good, because these men were bad. That much was clear. Suddenly Katie felt that it was her responsibility to protect Sophie and her mom, because they were so scared. She held Sophie’s hand. Sophie’s mom had a rifle with her at the picnic, but the men took it, and Sophie didn’t have any weapons—Katie wasn’t sure why. It was up to Katie. But how would she get the crossbow off Scooby without the men seeing? And then what would she do? She saw her mom shoot that man by the ravine. Could she shoot someone? She shot animals for food all the time, and she had shot the dog that attacked Ralph. She imagined her dad’s voice: Don’t panic. Stay calm.
After a few hours they stopped the trucks for a rest. That was good. Katie really had to pee. Afterward, she wiped down Scooby with a rag she found in the truck, quietly singing the song her dad had taught her: “Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you, we’ve got some work to do now.” There was grass, and the horses were eating. The men were sitting in the grass smoking. She reached around Scooby and took the bag with her crossbow off. She was going to try to sneak it into the truck, but one of the men saw her.
“Whatcha got there?” he asked, standing up.
“My toys,” replied Katie. “They were bouncing on Scooby. I think it hurts him. I was putting them in the truck.”
“Scooby?”
“My horse. I named him after a big dog named Scoo…”
“Scooby Doo. Yeah, I know. I used to watch it. In Paradise we have a Scooby Doo tape. You can watch it on the VCR.”
None of that made any sense to Katie.
“Yeah, go ahead and put it in the truck.”
Katie quickly lifted it into the truck, then looked at the man. He looked familiar. He caught her looking at him.
“Whatcha looking at?”
“I’ve seen you before.” And then it came to her. “A long time ago. You were with some other men. You came to our camp and my mom and dad gave you some food. You were hungry.”
He stared blankly at her.
“I don’t think my dad trusted you. He made you put your guns in a pile and gave them back to you the next morning. My mom knew one of the other men, I think.”
He remembered. He remembered all too clearly. He also remembered the names of her parents and the stories about them.
“Ben and Lila? They’re your parents?”
She nodded her head.
“Shit!” He turned to the one in charge. “Cap’n. We’ve gotta go.”
“I was about to. But what’s the hurry?”
“Remember the stories about that couple back in the early days? Ben and Lila?” The captain nodded. “Remember I said I’d met them about a year-and-a-half ago or so?”
“And?”
“We just took their daughter. They are going to be fucking pissed.”
“Wait, these girls don’t belong to that woman?”
“Not this one.”
“Shit. Well, I’m not too worried. We’ve got a big head start. We can go over the ravines, they have to find a way around. We’ll be back in Paradise long before they can catch up. And I don’t care what the stories are about them. They can’t take on a whole town.”
They were herded back into the truck and were on their way within minutes. Katie could tell that the second man, the one called Cap’n, was scared too. Good, she thought.
The going was slow. Sometimes they could drive almost an hour without stopping to skirt torn up ground, or to put their bridge over a ravine. Other times it seemed they wandered for hours trying to find level ground again. They passed small towns and a couple of cities, all dark and foreboding. Katie shivered as they passed a particularly ugly town.
“Why did people live there?” she asked in amazement.
“They didn’t always look like that,” answered Brenda. Katie noticed that Sophie’s mom didn’t seem scared anymore. “They used to be busy and light. People would shop and go to restaurants and go to the movies…” she stopped. Katie and Sophie were staring at her blankly.
“Well, you’ll just have to trust me. They were lively places.”
“Where did they keep their horses?” asked Katie.
Brenda chuckled. “Most people didn’t have horses.”
The conversation deteriorated from there.
They arrived in Paradise about a week after they were picked up. The rear of the truck had become very uncomfortable and they were anxious to move around. They drove into the town in the early evening, and Katie finally saw the “electricity” that she had heard so much about. Houses had lights in the windows and on the porches, and there were big lights that overhung the street. The lights were interesting, but what fascinated her even more was the sound. It was music, but it wasn’t coming from live instruments. At first she liked it, but as they approached the center of town it became louder and from many places—and it was all different. It was so loud and so different, it almost blended into one noisy mess. She put her hands over her ears.
“I don’t like this,” she said to Brenda. Katie noticed that Sophie had her hands over her ears as well, and had her eyes scrunched shut.
“It is loud,” agreed Brenda, although she realized that to Katie and Sophie it must have sounded like a cacophony of noise. To Brenda, who grew up in an age of loud and diversified music, it wasn’t nearly as annoying.
The truck stopped in front of a wooden building with a sign out front that read Paradise School.
“Here’s where you can spend the night,” said the Captain, opening the tail gate. They climbed out, Katie clutching her bag of “toys.” “We have a few beds set aside for newcomers. The school’s teacher will get you settled, then tomorrow we’ll find a permanent place for you. Welcome to Paradise. You’ll like it here. It’s almost like the old days. Here she is now.”
A pretty black woman approached them. She tried
to smile at them, but Katie didn’t think she looked very happy.
“All yours,” said the Captain, who then headed off to a large official-looking building.
“Hi, I’m Emily. Let me get you settled.”
When they were inside the building and the door was shut, Emily flicked a switch and an overhead light went on. Katie and Sophie both gasped.
A hint of a smile came over Emily’s face. “First time?” she asked, looking at Brenda.
“First time.”
Emily turned serious and her voice lowered. “You’ve come at a bad time,” she said to Brenda. While Sophie looked around, Katie listened intently to every word.
“We didn’t want to come at all,” replied Brenda. “We were kidnapped. We live in Yellowstone.”
“My partner and I were going to leave today, but they took him away yesterday and I haven’t heard anything. That’s the whole reason we were leaving. They are now forcing people to come here—I’m not sure why. My partner says he heard it’s to increase the population to prevent others from attacking us, but that’s just paranoid thinking, as far as I’m concerned.” She stopped, then looked at Brenda. “Did you say Yellowstone? Do you know a couple by the names of Sean and Brittany?”
“You mean Uncle Sean and Aunt Brittany?” asked Katie.
“I guess so. Sean is your uncle?”
“They just call them that,” answered Brenda. “They do have some connection though, but I’m not sure what it is.” She looked at Katie.
“Uncle Sean’s friend is my daddy’s brother. But I haven’t met him yet. His name is Aaron.”
“Oh my God! Is your daddy’s name Ben?”
Katie nodded her head.
“And Ben and my husband Frank will be on their way here to get us,” said Brenda. “I’m sure they’ll bring others, including Sean.”
Emily moved closer to Brenda and her voice dropped to a whisper, but Katie could hear her anyway.
“The people controlling this town have a lot of men and a lot of guns. And even those who aren’t part of that group, if they think they are being attacked, they’ll fight too. If Sean and Ben and your husband come into this town on a rescue mission, it’s going to be a bloodbath.”
Katie saw Brenda’s eyes tear up.
“A lot of people are going to die,” said Emily.
Chapter 29
Less than a hundred miles west of Paradise, Ben and Lila and the rest of their group were allowing themselves an hour respite. They had made good time, thanks to a few lucky breaks—including some ravines that didn’t extend as far as they had thought, allowing them to circumvent them more quickly—and the combined knowledge of the searchers. Many, like Nick, Jason, and Sean, had been that way before, and remembered some of the less damaged areas.
In all, there were seventeen riders. It was the best they could do in a short amount of time. Ben, Lila, and Frank were anxious to get going, but all had the foresight to know that there was strength in numbers. The sheer size of Yellowstone prevented word from spreading too quickly, but even so, in twelve hours they had their group of seventeen. They could have had more, given another day, but they had waited long enough. They knew that Katie, Brenda, and Sophie wouldn’t be harmed, but that brought them little comfort. Time was of the essence.
They were well-armed. Over the years, most survivors had managed to accumulate an over-abundance of weapons. Ironically, given their history, Ben and Lila, with their one rifle and one pistol each, along with Ben’s crossbow, were among the least armed of the group.
“Will they be ready for us?” asked Ben, as they sat by a stream soaking their feet while the horses drank from the crystal clear water. Ralph sat beside him, obviously missing Katie’s presence.
“They’ll be ready,” answered Sean. Another man, Simpson—Ben wasn’t sure if it was a first or last name—nodded in agreement. Like Sean, he had spent time in Paradise, leaving about a year after the former Marine.
“They’ll keep the townspeople in the dark—no pun intended—but the don’s goons will be ready. No doubt about that,” said Simpson.
“Any particular reason, or are they just always ready?” asked Ben.
“A little of both,” answered Simpson. “They always have people watching the roads just as a matter of course, but in this case he’ll have extra men on. They’ve never come this close to Yellowstone before, and the don is totally paranoid about Yellowstone. He’s forever expecting an attack from us—which is, of course, absurd—but this will just fuel the fire in his mind.”
“Here’s what I don’t get,” said Lila. “Okay, so we’re not the same society we once were, but we can’t be that far removed from who we used to be. I know that in some of the third-world countries it wasn’t unusual for one town to attack another. But this was … is … the United States. That kind of thing just didn’t happen. Why are they afraid of it now?”
“Because we are a third world country now,” answered Nick. “We’ve all encountered the violence that sprang up after the event—you and Ben probably even more than any of us. We always hope that in times of disaster people will come together and help each other. While there is certainly much evidence of that, I’ve been dismayed that there wasn’t more. We touched on this when we first met.”
“I remember,” said Lila.
“I think the country—or the world—is left with three distinct groups, a distinction that is more clear now than it was in that year after the event. First are those like us, who are determined to maintain a civilized society. Second are those who care only about their own survival—which includes people like the don and the misfits of society he has assembled under him. The third group is the least predictable. It’s the people who go whichever way the wind is blowing. They are still lost, even now. In essence, they died a long time ago, but just don’t know it.”
“Some of those in your third group ended up in Paradise,” said Sean. “Their thirst for electricity and for a sense of normalcy drew them there. Some had even learned to live in the new world reasonably well before they found Paradise. Frankly, I think many of them regressed once they found some of those comforts again.”
Nick nodded in agreement. “And if they feel that lifestyle threatened in any way, they’ll fight to keep it. Many of them probably tried to do the right thing at first, but finally just got sick of it all. Their moral compass went out of whack and they no longer cared about much of anything. Their own survival trumped everything else.”
Ben started to dry his feet in anticipation of the ride ahead. “So what you’re saying is that we really can’t trust anyone there.”
“There are some really good people in Paradise,” said Sean. “People like us who are trying. They’ll be smart enough to make themselves scarce in the event of violence. We won’t see them until it’s all over. So to answer your question: yes, I wouldn’t trust anyone.”
There was nothing to be said to that, so they all quietly saddled their horses.
They rode for three days, the stress increasing with every mile. Sean kept assuring Ben and Lila that Katie would be okay, but it did little to calm them. Ben wasn’t fearful, he was angry.
I don’t exactly know what I was expecting when we left our cabin by the lake. I was hoping that things had changed for the better, with people thinking about the future of the country. In so many ways I was disappointed. Was I hoping for too much? The Monett settlement existed, as did Yellowstone, and that brought me hope. I was sure that there had to be others, as well. And then there was Paradise. The most advanced town technologically was also the most corrupt. Just a coincidence? I was beginning to realize that this wasn’t nearly enough time to purge the world of the scum. It was really going to be up to Katie’s generation to turn the world around. In the meantime, I would do my part … starting with the don.
*****
They were on a bluff across the river from Paradise. The horses were tethered below, and all seventeen were watching the town through binoculars.
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br /> “What’s the city adjacent to Paradise?” asked Ben.
“Scottsbluff,” answered Sean. “It’s nothing more than a burned out shell now. I took a few trips into the city. It seemed to catch the brunt of the devastation more than some other cities I encountered. Nothing left there. The power plant and the surrounding section of town was somehow spared the worst of it.” He pointed down at Paradise. “So most of the town of Paradise is really just a trailer park, probably built for the workers at the plant. Mixed in are a few permanent buildings. It’s actually not bad looking and they fixed it up pretty well.”
“Where would they hold Katie, Sophie, and Brenda?”
“They wouldn’t be ‘holding’ them.” Sean made quotation marks with his fingers. “Believe it or not, it’s not a prison. Despite their methods, people aren’t prisoners. They are free to go. Problem is, once they get there, there’s no place for them to go. That’s why most of them settle in to life there. Then they get used to having electricity and don’t want to go. So to answer your question, I don’t know where they would be. Could be anywhere. Probably they are staying with someone for now.”
“What’s the newer building in the center,” asked Lila.
“The town hall. Home of the don. Used to be the offices for the power plant.”
“So that’s our destination.”
“Is our goal to get Brenda, Katie, and Sophie, or to seek revenge on the don?” asked Sean. “I just want to make sure our purpose is clear.”
“Our goal,” stated Ben, “is to get our families back and convince Aaron to leave. Once that has been accomplished, my goal is to take care of the don. He’s caused too much suffering already, and we will always be wondering if he’ll make a return trip to Yellowstone. He’s got to go. Then maybe the residents of Paradise can get their act together and make it a thriving town—without the paranoia.”
Eden Lost (Eden Rising Trilogy Book 2) Page 19