Fifty Falling Stars

by Wesley Higginbotham

  “What do you mean it’s not the first time?” Joey asked. He looked puzzled for a second then he asked. “Iraq?” Will nodded. “You never told us that before.”

  “It’s not something I really like to think about.”

  “So, how do you know I’ll be ok, because for all the shit I talk, I sure as hell don’t feel ok.” Joey said.

  “Because you didn’t hesitate. You didn’t freeze up. You came up with a plan, as crazy as it was, and pulled it off. I’ve seen other men that have frozen in that kind of a situation. In the next few days, you’ll go through some doubt and regrets and think about all sorts of shit that could have been different. You just need to trust yourself and what you did. No matter what else happens or could have happened, at that point in time, it was them or us. You did the right thing.”

  “Thank you.” Joey said.

  Will looked up at the other men. “This speech goes for all of you too. With things like that going on down in town, who knows what will happen. Any one of us could be in that situation.” No one spoke for a few minutes. “Uncle Barry, do you have anything to drink?”

  “I have a bottle of Maker’s Mark and maybe some Jim Beam. That work?”

  “Sounds good. I think we could use a little drink. Jenny might want some as well.”

  “I didn’t know she liked the hard stuff.” Barry said.

  “For that girl’s cough.” Chuck said. “Whiskey makes for one hell of an improvised cough syrup.”

  The women set out an early dinner a little after five that evening. Jenny and the other ladies wanted to make sure Sarah got a good meal before they sent her back home. From talking to the girl, they learned that Old Jeff was pretty tight on food. They still had a good bit left, but Jeff was determined to stretch it out as long as possible. Barry had reached Jeff Jr. over the CB and let him know they were going to feed the girl an early dinner and bring her back. Jeff Jr. thanked them and told them that would be fine.

  The family sat around after the meal, talking about their dreams for building up the cabin and their land. Sarah seemed to perk up at the mention of all the rabbits they planned to raise. Like most healthy ten-year old girls, she loved all cute, fuzzy animals, including puppies, kittens, and rabbits. Bear had taken a liking to Sarah. He hadn’t left her side since she arrived at the cabin.

  Will looked down at his watch. It was just past six thirty. “It’ll be getting dark in a couple of hours.” He looked over at Sarah. “I need to have you back before the evening starts to get chilly.” He got up to exit the cabin and go out back to get the ATV when the CB crackled.

  “Barry? Will? Joey?” Old Jeff’s voice broke over the CB. Chuck sat closest to it, so he picked up the mouthpiece.

  “Jeff, this is Chuck. Over.”

  “Chuck, we got us a problem here. Two truckloads of men just pulled up to the house. They’s got trailers behind the trucks with men in ‘em. There must be fifty of’em.”

  Will walked back into the room and took the mouthpiece. “Jeff, this is Will, we’ll be down there to help as soon as we can. Over.”

  “Nah, you boys stay where you are. If they starting trouble, there ain’t nothin you could do noways. I’ll head out to see what they want and let ya know.”

  “Wait. Jeff!” Will said. No response came.

  “We need to get down there!” George said.

  “Not so fast.” Will said. He looked torn. “We don’t know if they’re armed. We don’t know what they want. Let’s assume even half of Jeff’s count was right. We can’t take on twenty-five armed men, especially from the open. Hell, we couldn’t hold off against that many here.”

  “We couldn’t?” Pam asked. “I thought that was why you boys dug the ditch.”

  “It was.” Barry said. “But that’ll only stop the trucks. If that many folks want to come up here, they’ll probably take the house. Sure, they’ll be on foot for a hundred yards or so, and that’ll give us some advantage, but I don’t think we could hold off that many. Who do you think they are?”

  “Will, do you think it could be the folks from town?” Joey asked.

  “Given that we hadn’t heard anything from the town in two weeks and nothing from the county in three days, I don’t think it’s coincidence that we get visitors on the same day we go to town and almost get killed. I think we have to assume that it’s the same folks. They must have seen which way we drove off. There’s nothing else out here after Jeff’s place besides us. If they keep coming down this road, they’ll find us.”

  “What do you think they want?” Jim asked.

  “Supplies. Food. Gas. Guns…Us.” Joey said.

  “So, what do we do?” Kerry asked.

  “Well, I think we should wait and….” Will trailed off as the CB came back on.

  “Oh my God! The killed papa! My GOD!” the woman on the CB screamed.

  “Momma!” Sarah screamed and started to go to the CB. Chuck grabbed her and held her back with a hug.

  “Mr. Johnston! If you can hear me, they killed papa and Jeff Jr. and Bill! They’re….” The CB transmitted her incoherent screams as gunshots sounded off in the background.

  Will pressed the talk button and spoke, “Candace! Candace! We’re here! We hear you!” He waited a second as muffled voices, sobs, screams, and gunshots sounded through the CB. “Damn it! She’s holding down the transmit button. As long as she’s got it pressed, we can’t talk to her.”

  More screaming and a loud bang came through the CB. A muffled voice yelled out, barely understandable over the other screams. “Hey, bitch, where’s the food? Huh? You got food? There more people around here that have food? You better tell me o……” the CB transmission ended.

  Will looked over to Sarah. She shook in fear as Chuck tried to comfort her. He looked around at the rest of the family. “We need to get the fuck out of here right now.”

  “What about all of our stuff?” Pam asked.

  “We need some of it. If there are as many of them as Jeff said, we can’t fight them off. Jeff’s place was only four miles or so down the road. It won’t be long before Candace or Kelly tell them about us or they figure it out on their own and take the short drive down here. We need to out of here before that happens!”

  “I’m not leaving! They can’t just take our stuff!” Pam said. “I thought this place was defensible.”

  “Sweetheart, we can either fight them for it and probably get killed over it, in which case it becomes their stuff; or we can do what Will says and grab what we can and get out of here.” Barry said. Pam began to cry, tears more of anger than of pain or fear. Barry looked up at Will. “What are you thinking?”

  “Where are we going to go?” Jenny asked.

  “North, through the woods. We’ll just head north. We can’t get by them on the roads. If we head up into the hills, the ditch will stop their trucks and they won’t have an advantage in following us. Uncle Barry, you and Aunt Pam go get all of the gas in the cans and load them up onto the ATV’s. George, you and mom, get all of the guns and ammo that you can. Jenny, pack up and get all the medical stuff you can find and have it ready. Everything gets tied on to the ATV’s or put in one of the backpacks. We’re going to have to move most of this on our backs. Dad and I’ll grab the emergency food Joey brought out here with us. We’ll swing by and pick up the supply stash we set out in the woods on our way out.”

  “What about me?” Joey said.

  “Get your gun and watch for any trouble. If anyone drives up, you hold them off and buy us some time before you retreat and catch up with us.”

  “One more thing.” Jenny pointed out as she gestured to Sarah. “What do we…”

  Will cut her off. “She’s one of us now. Get her on one of the ATV’s. I want all of this done in the next five minutes. It’ll probably take them a little while to search Jeff’s house and make their way down the road. I want us gone before they get here. I’m hoping we can be gone before they get a chance to see where we went.”

  “Oh my Go
d!” Pam whispered as she looked out the window. Black smoke rose just above the tree line.

  Everyone threw stuff onto the ATV’s and tied it down as best they could. When they finished, Chuck and Sarah climbed aboard one of the ATV’s while Barry and Pam climbed onto the other. Will informed Joey that they were ready to leave and told him where he wanted him to take the family. He planned to stay back for a little while and observe the invaders. Joey and the family drove off into the trees covering the hill to the north of the cabin.

  Will walked a few hundred yards up the hill from the cabin and hid behind a thicket of pine trees. Some part of him hoped that the people who had attacked Jeff and his family wouldn’t find the cabin, and he could lead his family back to live there. Now that they knew the town was more dangerous and that Jeff and his family were gone, they could cut trees and place them across the road and set up listening post to detect threats. They should have done these things before, but he didn’t think things would get that bad. All those hopes and might-haves left him thirty minutes later as he watched forty-odd men unload from the trucks and trailers, and secure the cabin. They rummaged through the property and scavenged everything that was left. He was glad the family had gotten out of there. They could not have held off such a large group. He watched as the men found the ditch ramp and brought their trucks in to load all of the family’s belongings. A few armed men guarded the perimeter while the rest loaded up the freezers, the generator, the goats, and everything else they could find.

  Will had almost lost interest and was ready to go when he heard barking coming from off to his left. No, Bear! The dog had gone with the rest of the family. What was he doing back there? The guard dog in Bear took over. Will watched through the binoculars as Bear rushed one of the guards, barking and growling. A single shot rang out and Bear’s barks turned into yelps. Another shot, and the yelps stopped too. One of the men loading up the supplies picked up the dead dog and put him in the truck with the goats. Will tried not to cry, but he couldn’t stop a tear from rolling down his cheek. Bear had been a good dog, a good friend. An internal battle raged within Will. Part of him wanted to go down there and kill every one of those sons-of-a-bitches. The more logical part of him knew that starting a gunfight would just lead to the thieves looking for them, probably finding them, and definitely killing them if they were found. He tried to tell himself that sometimes you had to let a friend go to save the rest.

  The daylight began to fade into late evening as his internal conflict continued. Finally, he compromised. One shot, out of the blue, wouldn’t put him or the family at much risk. The bandits wouldn’t even know where it came from. He looked through the scope and found the bastard that had shot Bear. The man watched as the last of the supplies were loaded up. Will put the crosshairs on the man’s chest. His finger touched the trigger. No, that would be too clean, too quick. He smiled as he lowered the crosshairs to right below the man’s naval. His finger squeezed. The man doubled over, holding his ruined gut, and fell to his knees. He tried to scream but found it hard to breathe through the pain and shock. Will hoped he enjoyed that feeling for however many hours it took the man to die. The rest of the bandits, being caught by surprise, screamed and fired randomly into the trees. They began running back to the trucks. All except for one man who ran up and threw a Molotov cocktail into one of the cabin windows before running back to the trucks. Will watched the bandits leave and the cabin burn for a few minutes. Nothing remained for them here. He didn’t know where to go, but he knew they couldn’t stay here. As he turned to go back and join the family, he noticed that in their rush to leave, the bandits had left their wounded comrade. He squirmed in the grass in a few yards away from the burning cabin. Somehow, on his way to join the family, Will wore a smile over his sadness.

  Will and Joey tried to warm themselves and a can of water for coffee with the little camp stove from Joey’s survival pack. Soft rain drizzled on the camp. All the natural materials around them were too wet to burn. After Will had caught up to the family last night, he led them north until they reached a creek. In all, they had traveled a little over two miles last night. They made camp by the creek since Will didn’t think crossing the creek in the dark would be a good idea. Everything had been going as well as it could have until the rain moved in late last night. When morning found them, no one had rested and everyone was soaked.

  Will looked up to see Jenny check on Sarah and feed her some of the instant oatmeal they had grabbed before abandoning the cabin. Sarah ate a little and then shook her head. Jenny walked over to the camp stove to sit by her husband and brother. “How’s our little girl?” Will asked.

  “Poor thing is burning up. It looks like she has bronchitis. She was so pitiful last night. I don’t think she slept at all. If she wasn’t crying for her family, she was coughing up a storm. Her fever is up and I don’t know anything we can do for her. We need to find her a nice dry place to rest for a few days.”

  “I hope we can.” Joey said. “Last night sucked.”

  Chuck walked up to the little stove and coughed a few times. “You can say that again.”

  “How long have you had that cough?” Jenny asked.

  “Just woke up with it this morning. Why?”

  “Sarah was hanging on to you pretty close yesterday. I hope she didn’t give you her bronchitis.” Jenny said.

  “That sweet little girl? Nah, I’m just old and wet. We’re going to need to do something about that.”

  “Good plan.” Betty said. “But seriously, what are we going to do?”

  The entire family came together over the stove to listen to the new plan. Will found everyone looking at him. “Well, I didn’t really have a plan but to avoid getting killed last night. I guess we can just head north. If I remember correctly, there is a county highway that leads up to Crossville. I figure we find that road and follow it until we find a place to shelter for a few days. Then we can make a plan from there.”

  “That’s it, dude? Just find a place to shelter for a few days?” George asked.

  “You got a better idea?” Will asked.

  “Boys,” Barry interjected, “we’re all tired… and wet. I doubt any one of us got any sleep last night. If you haven’t got anything better, George, then I think that is the best idea we have so far. Just one thing, Will, what do you mean by a place to shelter?”

  “I figure that once we get on the road, we might come across a house or barn or something. Anyplace that keeps us warm and dry will do. We can take stock of what we have and figure something out from there. That sound like a plan?” No one voiced any objections.

  “How far can one of those ATV’s go?” Pam asked. “If I remember right, Crossville is about thirty miles away.”

  “Most ATV’s have somewhere around a five gallon tank. Both of them are pretty much full. They usually get somewhere between thirty to forty miles a gallon, depending on terrain. We’re going to be losing a lot in the woods and up these hills. How much gas do we have, dad?” Will asked.

  “Bout six or seven gallons in the gas cans. If what you’re saying is right, we should have enough to make it.” Jim answered.

  Behind the group, Sarah had a coughing fit. She coughed so hard that she began dry heaving. Kerry rushed over to comfort the little girl. She put her had to her forehead and looked back to the group. “We need to be quick about finding someplace.”

  Jim had always been a heavy-set man and had never been in what one would call great shape. He looked down at his watch. They had been travelling a couple of hours. The hike was hard. Even though the rain had stopped, the ground was still wet and slippery from the night before. It required more effort than normal to climb hills and maintain footing. Will had set a pretty hard pace out of concern for Sarah. They had to find somewhere to hunker down soon. The girl’s cough seemed to be getting worse by the hour.

  “Come one guys.” Will called back down the hill. “You can see the road from the top of the hill. It’s not far.”

  C
huck and Barry gave the ATV’s a little extra throttle and began climbing the hill. Jim and the rest of the family began their ascent to the top of the hill. Everyone breathed a little harder by the time they reached the top. Jim had fallen behind. He couldn’t seem to catch his breath. He struggled to cover the remaining thirty yards to the top when Will called down to him. “Come on, old man. You can make it.” Jim tried to smile and reply, but he couldn’t breathe. The pack on his back grew heavier and heavier. He pushed ahead with all the energy he had left. He slipped about ten feet shy of the crest. His left arm began to throb. Will saw him fall and came down to check on him. “Hey, dad, you ok?” His smile faded when Jim raised his head to look up at him. “Oh, shit. Jenny!”

  Jim’s vision blurred a little and the ache in his arm developed into a shooting pain. He tried to smile and tell Will that he was just a little winded but couldn’t form the words. He felt a heavy weight on his chest. Will’s face blurred by. He felt someone yanking on his backpack straps. Jenny’s face came into focus. Her face very close as she asked him something. Could he hear her? He nodded. He grabbed his arm. God that hurts. His breathing became more difficult.

  As if from another room, he heard Jenny, “Will, he’s having a heart attack!” Fear shot through him at her words. The rush of adrenaline and the demand for oxygen didn’t help his breathing situation. Someone grabbed him from behind and rolled him onto his back. “Should I do CPR?” Someone asked. He couldn’t make out the response. His wife’s face came into focus above him. That face that he found so beautiful in her youth and even more beautiful now, after all these years. Life had left its mark on that face, as it did all faces. But instead of marring her like it did some, time had left a beautiful patina. His son’s face settled beside his wife’s. They both cried and told him how much they loved him. As his vision faded into a long tunnel that framed those faces, a deep calm replaced the panic. Dying quickly and painlessly (relative to what he had seen in the last few weeks) from a heart attack, surrounded by those that you loved most, was not such a bad way to go. Men have died much worse deaths than this. He thought as the tunnel absorbed the faces of his wife and son.