by Kip Nelson
“I think that is a wonderful idea, and my people would be glad to help. It has been a long time since we have felt any kind of hope. So, thank you, Mack, for bringing us some today.”
“You're very welcome,” he said, and they made arrangements for how it would work.
At first, he suggested only the parents would come with them, but Tash said she didn't want to miss out on the reunion. She said the children were a part of the community and everyone would want to see them, and the more familiar faces, the better the chance the children would come back to them. Mack couldn't argue with that logic. Tash then revealed that she had a good relationship with another community that had been hit hard by the Lost Children. So, Mack made that his next destination.
The journey moved at a slower pace because there wasn't enough room on the horses for everyone. Mack, Grace, Maggie, and the others from the settlement descended from their horses and allowed the other people to ride, as they were weaker and were not able to move quickly on foot. Tash, however, walked beside Mack and convinced him to tell her the story of how his face had been wounded. She listened intently and sighed at the end of it, lamenting that there had to be so much violence in the world.
Many of the others looked at Tristan, and he shied away from them, hiding behind his mother. None of them approached him, but Mack knew Tristan had to be careful with these people because many of them would blame him for what happened to their children. He remembered the isolated man they had come across shortly after escaping from the Lost Children, and didn't want a repeat of the incident.
Tash led them through the winding streets. “We'd better be careful here, there are wild animals about,” she said.
“The zoo?” Mack asked, and Tash gave him a confirming nod.
They were wary as they walked. Occasionally, they heard the scurrying of feet that came with small animals, but they didn't see anything big or scary, much to Mack's relief. He didn't much like the idea of getting into another wrestling match with something like a bear.
Soon enough they came to the community. This one was much like Mack's own, although smaller. The barrier was low enough that they could look over it, and there was only one guard on duty. He called for them to stop, but Tash walked up and announced her presence, and they all were allowed in.
“These people have been kind to us and shared their supplies when we have been in need, and we have done what we can for them,” Tash said.
Mack was relieved there were some people left in the world who saw the benefit of cooperation, and this kind of thinking was exactly what Mack wanted. The idea of a network of communities all linked together, sharing supplies, was what Mack saw as he envisioned the future, but present matters pressed him.
This group looked to be in better shape than Tash's, and everyone looked with curiosity at the large force of people entering their camp. It was a rare sight to see this many people at one time. Unlike most of the communities Mack had encountered, this one was run by a council, so he was taken to them. The council was made up of five people, three women and two men. Introductions were made by Tash, while Mack held his tongue and waited for his moment to speak.
Alison was a large woman with curly hair, and her eyes never wavered from Mack. Deborah was around Tash's age and her thin lips were pressed closely together. Hugo had his hands placed on his large belly and looked as though he had a permanent smile underneath his mustache. Gary was a lean man with swept back hair, and clearly the youngest member of the council. The last member was Daisy, who stood with her arms folded across her chest. Once Tash had introduced Mack she let him tell them his plan, and he laid out exactly what he had told Tash. As he spoke there were mixed reactions from the council, but most of them were positive. Tears of relief especially were apparent in Deborah's eyes.
“Is it really true?” she asked.
Mack nodded.
“We have to tell the others,” Deborah said.
“We shouldn't get their hopes up. They've already been through too much,” Daisy replied.
“That's exactly why!” Hugo said boisterously. “Good news is all too rare nowadays. We shouldn't be trying to hold it back!” and with that he took it upon himself to announce the news to everyone.
Daisy held her face in her palm as he marched out into the open air and, in a booming voice, told everyone the news. Hope seized them and their faces lit up at the thought of their children coming home. The rest of the council filtered out and saw how happy the people were. But they also saw Mack's group, too.
“That's him!” Gary said. He marched up to Tristan, who backed away. Gary's fists were clenched and he snarled toward Tristan.
“It's a trap. They must be working with the Lost Children. They have one of them with them!” he cried out.
Instantly, panic seized the members of this new community, and they rushed to defend themselves. Mack tried calming them down, but to no avail. Gary continued walking toward Tristan and tried pushing past Maggie to get to him, but Maggie grabbed his arm and punched him across the jaw, sending him to the ground.
“Stay away from my son,” she said. Seeing this gave everyone pause, and Mack seized upon the hesitation.
“Stop! Please! We're not working with the Lost Children,” and then he proceeded to tell them how he and Maggie, in an effort to find her son, had been captured by them, but ultimately saved by Tristan.
“This is what I want for all of you, to see you back with your children. All we need to do is work together,” he said.
They all turned their faces toward each other and talked among themselves. Gary pushed himself up and looked at Maggie and Tristan with great indignation. He wiped the spittle from his mouth and turned back to the council.
Mack heard a lot of murmuring around him as he waited for the council to make their decision, but he could see the hope on their faces. Something inside him told him they wouldn't be able to resist the chance to be reunited with their children. But as he watched them, he saw how close they were. He realized he shouldn't be looking to form a network of communities just yet. He should be working toward getting as many like-minded people together as he could. So, when the council turned and said they gladly would join Mack and help bring about the safe return of the Lost Children (although Gary still was glowering in the background), Mack made another announcement, one that took Grace and Maggie by surprise.
“After visiting with Tash, and now you, I realize something. We shouldn't be separated. It's hard to make it in this world, so we should be working together. We have plenty of supplies in our settlement, and secure barriers, and there are people there who already are working hard to ensure a better tomorrow. I'd like for you all to join us when this is over. We have plenty of room and we could see that you're all fed well. It's my goal to survive, and to survive well, but to do that I'm going to need people who are willing to work with me. I can see in your eyes that you are peaceful people who want to make it in this world, and I think we can help each other out. I'll understand if you don't want to leave your homes, but I'd like for you at least to consider it. Maybe as well as being reunited with your children, you'll be able to find a new family as well.”
A moment of stark silence fell upon them after Mack's drastic proposal but, soon enough, conversation flowed among them, excited conversation at that. The council was deep in discussion and Daisy was the one who finally spoke to the group.
“I don't see any reason why not, as long as we feel comfortable in your community. In truth, this place has been rather dangerous. The animals from the zoo have been getting closer and closer to us. But you'll have to give us time to relocate our stuff, and there are some people out on patrol who wouldn't like coming back to find us having deserted them.”
“That's if they're still out there,” Gary muttered.
“She'll come back,” Daisy said, snapping her head around to glare at Gary.
“If anyone can survive out there, it's Anna,” Alison said.
Mack's ears prick
ed up at the sound of the name, and his heart skipped a beat, only wishing that it was his wife they meant. But there was no way she could have been in the same city as him...no way at all.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
THERE WAS one final camp nearby that Tristan had told them about. So they continued toward it. A few people stayed behind in case the patrols came back. They were told they would be sent for when things had been settled with the Lost Children. While the latest community did not have horses, they did have plenty of bicycles and they shared these, so the journey went much more quickly. As Mack looked around, he realized he now had so many people following him that he could make a real difference in the world, as long as the community still was standing by the time he got back. He thought about the havoc that Peter could wreak in his absence, but hoped he would hold off. Peter wanted to prove he was better than Mack and the other adults, and the only way to do that was actually to be better. He wouldn't gain anything by massacring people or destroying the place, or so Mack hoped.
They made their way to the last camp, but what greeted them there sank all their hearts. They came to a barrier and there didn't seem to be anyone around. It was all so quiet, too quiet. When they had approached, Tash and the council said there hadn't been much word from them lately, and when they came upon the community they could see why. Littered all around were dead bodies. The stench of death rose in the air and gasps of horror rippled through the crowd. Although all of them were acquainted with death, but not everyone was as familiar with it on this scale. Mack went with a few others to examine the bodies.
They called out, in case there were any survivors, but they were met only with a grim silence. Flies buzzed about the decaying bodies, which had been dead for a good while. Some of them clearly had been killed with gunshots, and at first Mack assumed the barbaric group had been responsible. It seemed to make sense, but then he started to see bodies that had been slashed, and not by knives or machetes. It was the work of animals and, indeed, as they looked further, they could see huge paw prints on the ground. It seemed someone had tamed the animals of the zoo and had used them as weapons in battle.
Mack hung his head and mourned the loss of life. Someone suggested they should bury the bodies, but they already had spent too much time there. There was nothing for them, and they had to move on, back to the settlement. The hope they had been feeling almost instantly had been replaced by a reminder of the darkness of the world, and that it was a foolhardy thing to see anything other than a bleak future.
With a heavy collective sigh, they made their way back to the settlement and hoped the plan would work. During the journey, Mack was able to talk with members of the other communities about their stories. Tash always was eager to talk, as were most of the council, aside from Daisy and Gary, but Mack assumed that was for different reasons. Daisy seemed to be taking stock of everyone, much like what Mack would have done in the same circumstances. However, Gary continued glaring at Tristan and Maggie, and kept nursing his aching jaw. Mack sensed he could prove to be trouble in the future, and made a note to keep an eye on him. But in the meantime, he listened to their story.
Tash told of how she and the other people looked at the violence around them and made a promise that they would not descend into such chaos, and they took it upon themselves to be the last bastion of peace. It hadn't been easy, especially when scavengers had sought to take what they had. Since they offered no resistance, it meant they managed to avoid fighting, and thus death from combat, although people had died from other causes. They hadn't made any great strides, but they still were alive. They only had managed to forage for food, rather than grow their own, for there weren't many of them who knew the art of growing vegetables successfully.
The other community had a much different story. Disparate groups of people had found their way together and, after a period of hostility, decided it was much better to work together. They put aside their differences and formed a council so any major decision would be discussed thoroughly, rather than leaving it to one person, who may have their own agenda or not be suited to the role of leader. From what they had told Mack, it had worked out well for them. Of course, there had been tragedies; losing the children was just one example, but it was the council's decision not to go after them because they couldn't face the possibility of shooting and killing children. Sometimes decisions weren't easy to come by, and the council became locked in arguments, but so far it seemed to be working. Mack asked them how they had decided who was going to be on the council, and they told him it was on a rotating basis. So, every couple of months some of the members would be replaced, and that way everyone had a chance to know what it was like. It was based on an old Roman system, Deborah explained, for she used to be a history teacher and came up with the idea when they were talking about it.
“The whole idea was to not let any one person be in power for too long, as they would start getting ideas about their station. So, they had a system of three people, and after a certain period of time, one would be replaced, and thus it cycled out. This way you had a consistent presence, because I think one of the problems with our system of government is that by the time policies get put into place by one regime, the new regime wants to change things completely. So, there's no consistency. Whereas, in this example, there are people on the council for a good length of time and they can carry things over. Plus, it also means everyone gets a chance to know what it's like to be in that position of power, and they won't be so quick to judge when decisions are made that they don't agree with.” As she said this she shot a quick look at Gary. It sounded fascinating to Mack, and he replied that he had had something similar with his closest advisers, although he tended to take the lead in most matters.
“But what about when people don't want to be on the council?” he asked.
“We don't make it a requirement. I mean, we're not going to force anyone to do something they don't want to do, but we encourage it. Some people I've seen, though, they're just not made for living in groups.”
When Mack asked what she meant, Deborah sighed and raised her eyebrows. “There just are some people who are meant to be out there, in the wild. You see them and you think they were born for this, and you wonder how they ever managed to make it in the world that came before. We usually send those ones out on patrols, as they're the ones best suited to staying safe and looking after themselves. I sometimes wonder why they stayed with us in the first place, when they were so intent on keeping themselves distant from us, but we're not going to turn anyone away from shelter, especially when they can offer us a valuable skill.”
“It sounds as though you're talking about someone in particular,” Mack said.
“I am. Nobody knows where she came from, she just said “far away”. She came to us one day, close to death, and we nursed her back to health. She barely would say anything, and heaven knows the kin d of things she had been through. We told her about the community and offered her a place to stay. She would eat with us and live with us, and she would go hunt for us. Yet, it never really felt as though she was a part of our community, almost like her life was somewhere else. I tried talking to her, we all did, but she never told us anything about who she was or where she came from, only her name. Anna. So, we let her do her own thing. Sometimes she'd be gone for days, and then turn up. Other times, she'd hang around the camp and listen to us talking about things. I always wanted to get her to talk to me, you know? Just once, I wanted to get through to her, and whatever pain she had been through, but who knows? I guess in this world you never know if you're even going to see anyone again.”
That name again. The name that haunted him, that plagued him. Mack tried hiding his heartache from Deborah as she continued talking, but he stopped listening to her. His mind dragged him back to his past and his loving, beautiful wife. In some ways, he felt guilty about being here and helping these people. He should have moved on a long time ago and continued his quest for her, but there was always some new danger, some ne
w threat that he had to deal with to protect innocent people, because that's who he was.
That's why Anna had fallen in love with him in the first place. So, he couldn't turn his back on that, because when he found her again he would feel great shame at having sacrificed so many people in the name of their love. But it had been so long now. The chances she still was alive were small. He had started planning for a future at this community, but could he really live knowing he hadn't done all he could to find her again? He wished in some way that this “Anna” was his Anna, but even if it was, he wouldn't have any idea what to say to her or what to do if they met again. It was funny. For so long it had been the only thing he dreamed of, yet now the prospect of seeing her again filled him with fear. They had changed so much. Had their love for each other changed, too?
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
“YOU? Why are you just standing there? I told you to watch these people closely! You can't give them an inch because they'll take a mile. We can't trust them and you need to be on your guard. You don't want to be the reason this whole plan fails, do you?” Peter asked one of the other children with a sneer. He was doing his rounds throughout the camp and finding fault with almost everything the other Lost Children were doing. Nothing was good enough for him, and they had all done something wrong.
“You know,” he said after he had checked in with a few people, “I really thought things would be different. I thought I could trust you with these assignments, but maybe my faith was misplaced. I had a big dream for this world. I assumed you all shared that dream with me but, apparently, you're all content to be lazy and not bother doing your jobs properly!”