by Brown, TW
“Maybe I should stab you,” Catie snapped.
“No thanks.” Rose stepped back with her hands up. “Jeez…some people…” The rest of her comment died on her lips as Catie shot a hard glare and brushed the hilt of her remaining belt knife with her good hand.
“Now, you guys stay down. If they have patrols, and from what you guys have told me, I would guess that they do, the last thing we need is for you to be discovered.” Catie switched her travel pack to her good shoulder and gave Aleah and Rose one final wave before heading towards the compound.
She only got about ten steps before Aleah ran to catch her and give her one more big hug. “Just be careful,” she whispered before letting go.
Catie gave a non-committal grunt and resumed her trek, making sure that she turned away before the hint of tears that were building in her eyes could be spotted.
She made her way to the automotive barricade and started up and over. It was actually more difficult than she had originally imagined; and with only one good arm, things were even more difficult. At last she was rewarded with the words she had been hoping for.
“Stop where you are and place your hands in the air.”
***
“…bunch of Road Warrior wanna-bes,” Catie said, doing her best to sound as unimpressive as possible. For some reason, she did not want these people to have any idea of her military background.
“And you say they killed the rest of your group?” the woman who had identified herself as Latricia Jones asked.
Catie knew this game. You kept on making a person repeat their story in bits and pieces, and you mixed up the order and jumbled the facts from time to time. If the person did not catch your intentional mistakes, it would raise flags of doubt.
“No…I said I am pretty sure they killed most of them, but they totally took a couple. They tried to take me…pretty sure they were trying to get the women alive.” Catie did her best to not sound exasperated. She wanted to sound flighty, which was why she had made the last second decision to affect what she considered a bit of a ‘Valley Girl’ voice. If she came across as just a little vapid, then she would not be seen as much of a threat.
“And you just bailed on them?”
Catie had known the moment that she laid eyes on this guy that he was Jordan Cranston; the baseball cap just helped seal it. She knew the type—big and bulky with a solid gut that made you initially think he was fat. The thing was, there was no jiggle to that solid mass in the middle.
“We have always had the rule…when we come under attack from outsiders, the women are supposed to fall back right away. You have no idea what sorts of freaks are out there,” Catie said flatly. “But I don’t imagine you folks know much about that. This place looks like it has been here a while. Y’all probably don’t get out much.”
“We were out when we found you,” Jordan huffed.
“Yeah, but get a few miles away from the safety of that car barricade you got goin’ on…then you’d see.” Catie struggled not to sound like she was challenging the man. She had already decided that this guy topped her list of people to kill if and when it came to that.
“That should do it,” Latricia said, shooting a glare in Jordan’s direction. “Stitched up nicely. Maybe you should accompany us in to the compound. We actually have a few real doctors inside that could make sure there is no further damage.”
“I don’t want to be any trouble…besides,” Catie made a show of looking off in a direction that was not towards where Aleah and Rose were hiding out, “I should try to go see if I can find any of my friends…see if they made it.”
“Tell ya what,” Latricia took Catie’s hands in hers and gave them a gentle pat, “we have patrols out doing a check on the area…that tornado came pretty close and there are some other groups nearby that we like to keep tabs on. I will have them keep a look out for your people. Just give us some names. If our patrols come across any stragglers or new faces, we can bring them in as well.”
“I don’t want to be any trouble.” Catie hated how she had to pretend to be timid and afraid. She knew just by looking that she could take pretty much anybody in this little ten person patrol in a straight up fight; even the puffed up Jordan Cranston.
“It’s no trouble.” Latricia gave Catie a hand up, making sure to help her from the side that she had not just stitched.
“Well…I guess it couldn’t hurt to get checked out.”
“We can even throw in a hot meal.”
“Seriously?” At least Catie didn’t have to feign delight in that part of the offer. She could not recall the last time her meal had not come out of a foil pouch.
“In fact,” Latricia was in full blown salesman mode now, “I think today was bread day. We bake bread once a week. There is nothing like tearing off a chunk from a loaf fresh out of the brick ovens.”
“Sounds wonderful.”
Catie fell in to the midst of the group and followed them back to the compound. She noticed immediately the positions that the rest of the patrol took. They were not trying to look like she was under guard, but she noted the hands near the holsters and wondered just how this might have played out if she had shown even more reluctance to accompany them.
Of course Aleah and Rose had both stated that, in their initial meeting, these people had not shown any sort of hostility or tried to coerce them into coming along. Had something changed in the dynamic of the compound? Did it have anything to do with that assembling of what looked like the entire population she and Rose had observed?
As they arrived at the compound and entered through a gate, she noticed that the tower watches had their attention split both inside and out. If she didn’t know any better, she would think that the residents were as much prisoner as anything else.
The grounds were mostly deserted with the exception of what were obviously armed sentries. She was losing hope that any chance of even locating Kevin was going to be minimal. The possibility of getting him out of here was fast becoming an impossibility.
They veered towards a collection of buildings that, if her memory served her correctly, were in three rows running basically north-south. They entered one, and Catie had to give her eyes a second to adjust to the dimness. She recalled Aleah saying that these people had electricity in some capacity. If that was the case, why was this hall so dark?
She tensed a little, considering the possibility that this might be a trap of some sort. However, once they rounded the first corner, she relaxed just a little. The corridor had doors all down the length. Each room they passed showed beds—some occupied. People were moving around inside, apparently going about their business.
“You guys suffer a big attack?” Catie asked innocently as they continued along. However, she was noticing the trend and feared what her mind was trying to get her to see.
“Nothing too terrible,” Jordan said with a coldness that sounded almost reptilian to Catie who was now hyper-alert. There was something very wrong going on.
At last they came to a room that only she, Latricia, and Jordan entered. Jordan said something to the rest of the group and only he and Latricia had remained once he was done.
“I will sit with you while we wait for the doctor,” Latricia said with a syrupy sweetness that did not sound at all right coming from her mouth and came nowhere close to reaching her eyes.
Jordan slumped down in a chair by the door and tried to act like he was simply taking a nap with his hat pulled down low. It was only a handful of seconds before Latricia was trying to casually get Catie to recount elements of her story once again.
If you people have this big of a trust issue going on…there has to be a reason, Catie thought as she did her best to not sound annoyed while she answered and re-answered the same questions as before that were only slightly re-worded.
At last, the door opened and a man came in. He looked like any doctor Catie had ever seen, all the way down to the scrubs and the stethoscope around his neck.
“I understand we have
a new patient,” the man said with a smile that was even less convincing than Latricia’s.
“Just a little bit of a knife wound,” Catie said with a meek smile that she hoped did not look as fake as the smiles she was getting from these people.
“Catie was with a group that got attacked by raiders,” Latricia said to the doctor.
“Some nasty sorts wandering the wasteland,” the doctor commiserated. “And folks thought that the South Side of Chicago was a rough neighborhood before.”
Latricia and the doctor chuckled at the comment and Catie joined in despite not having a clue as to what these people found so funny.
The doctor set his little black case on the table and turned his full attention to Catie. “I need you to get out of your top so I can get a look.”
“Excuse me?” Catie said, taking a step back from the doctor.
“I can’t very well treat your wound with your shirt on…?” His sentence ended on a upwards lilt that indicated a question; it took Catie a few seconds to realize that he was asking her name.
“Catie.”
“Very well, Catie. If I am going to clean up and treat that injury, I need you to remove your shirt.”
Catie started to unbutton the first button and then froze. She cast a hard look over at Jordan who was now peeking out from under the brim of his ball cap.
“Jordan…wait outside,” Latricia said once she followed Catie’s gaze and realized the reason behind her reluctance.
The man gave an indignant groan and got to his feet. He opened the door, but turned and shot Catie a sly wink as he left. Yes, she thought as she resumed unbuttoning her shirt, he was tops on her list of people to kill.
The doctor swooped in with gauze and a bottle of iodine solution that he used to clean the area of the wound. He took a good look and whistled his appreciation.
“Lucky you…this baby looks pretty clean as far as wounds go, and good field stitching, Latricia.” The woman made an embarrassed sound and smiled for real at the praise. “Little bit more to the left and it might have nicked the collar bone,” he said as he bandaged the injury with clean gauze.
Catie sat quietly as the doctor did his job. Latricia had moved over to the seat by the door and was trying to act casual. That put Catie’s senses on high alert.
“Okay, just a little blood draw and we will be done,” the doctor said with a casual smoothness.
“Blood draw?” Catie asked, trying to sound curious rather than confrontational. Nobody required a blood draw after being stitched up…any idiot knew that.
“Just want to be sure there is no infection…nasty germs out there these days. If you test for anything, we can send you on your way with a few antibiotics…not much, because our supply is limited, but I can at least tell you what you may want to be on the lookout for if you do a little scavenging. You’d be surprised at how much antibiotic medication is sitting unused in people’s medicine cabinets.” The doctor pulled out a syringe and a pair of tubes for the blood.
Catie noticed the tension appear around the doctor’s eyes. She also caught a glimpse of another hypodermic rig that had something in it. Latricia had suddenly found something interesting to check out in a nearby cabinet, and Catie was certain that she spied a shadow move just outside the closed door where she had no doubt Jordan Cranston stood at the ready should she offer any resistance.
“Makes sense to me,” Catie said with a laugh; she was proud of in how genuine it sounded.
The doctor’s shoulders slumped noticeably as the tension left them, and Catie had to suppress a laugh at just how bad he was at trying to pretend this was all perfectly normal.
Catie watched as the doctor swabbed her arm just below where he had tied off the rubber band. She was not squeamish around needles; even as a child she had insisted on watching as the needle punctured her skin. For some inexplicable reason, it fascinated her.
She watched her blood squirt in small jets as it filled first the one tube and then the other. When it was done, she received another swab of alcohol and a Band-Aid slapped over a cotton ball. She mused at how oddly normal this all seemed; just like a normal trip to a normal doctor.
“Shouldn’t take long and we will have you on your way.” The doctor closed up his bag and exited.
He was barely out the door before Jordan entered to rejoin them as Catie finished buttoning the top few buttons of her shirt. Again, Catie saw something pass in the looks that Latricia and Jordan gave each other.
“Of course you are welcome to stay for the day and head out in the morning if you like,” Latricia finally broke the growing and tense silence.
“I really should get out and look for any of my group.”
“So…” Jordan hopped up on a counter and pulled out a knife, using the tip to carve out whatever he could from under his nails, “…you never really said where you and your group was headed.”
“South—” Catie stopped before another word came out of her mouth. If Kevin, Heather, or any one of the others had said where they were headed, it would seem odd if she gave the same locale. “Figure the warm climate might be easier come next winter,” she finished, hoping that her ruse was successful.
“Never much cared for the South,” Jordan said with a grimace. “Folks down there still a bit too hung up on the whole racial thing.” Latricia gave a sound of agreement.
“Yeah…well I don’t imagine that is the top concern these days,” Catie quipped.
“No?” Jordan said with a raised eyebrow. “You think that with the end of civilized society there might be any reason some of those racist bastards might not be out hangin’ brothers just because they can?”
“No, they probably are. I imagine a lot of people are taking advantage of this situation…true natures showing up and exposing people for what they really are in a twisted Lord of the Flies sort of way,” Catie replied, making sure to keep her focus on the eyes of both her so-called escorts. “Some folks say this has brought out the worst in humanity…I think it has simply shown people for what they are deep down.”
“Oh yeah?” Jordan challenged. “And what might that be?”
“Monsters.” Catie shrugged her shoulders and noticed that, of the two, only Latricia winced. “Deep down, we have always been about survive and conquer…survival of the fittest…and most ruthless. Good people are a rarity these days.”
“What’s that say about you?” Jordan continued to press.
Catie was silent, but she gave a smile to the man trying to push her buttons that caused him to take an involuntary step back. She used that moment to take a step closer to the man and was actually surprised when he took a second step back.
“I’ve done what I had to do to stay alive,” Catie finally said in a whisper. “I have discovered that there is a whole world outside of protective barriers that will eat you up and spit you out. I have discovered…” Catie paused and shook her head as a realization hit. “I have discovered that you need others to make surviving this whole nightmare worth the time and constant energy. Not just people above and below you in some chain of command. No…you need friends that you care about and that care about you. Otherwise, you are not really any different than those things walking around out there.”
Jordan recovered and suddenly seemed to realize that he had taken a couple of steps back from this woman about half his size. Standing up straight and throwing his chest out, he took a step forward and stared down at Catie with a leer.
“I discovered that maybe it was time for a change…maybe it was time that the people everybody ignored got their chance to make this a better world.” Jordan continued to stare down at Catie who refused to back down or flinch.
“What did you do for a living before all of this?” Catie asked out of the blue. When the man did not answer, Catie repeated the question.
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Jordan finally said with a dismissive wave as he walked over and flopped down in the chair by the door.
Catie glanced
over to see that Latricia had perked up at the question. Not only that, but there was something in her eyes that looked an awful lot like sadness. Something in what was being said had made the woman think; about what, Catie had no idea, but it was obviously unpleasant.
“Just curious.” Catie turned her full attention back to Jordan.
“I worked here at the college.”
“You were a professor?” Catie asked. The look in his eyes gave him away. When he remained silent, Catie decided to press the issue. “Janitor?”
“Why a janitor? Is that because I’m black, so obviously I must have been the janitor here?” Jordan snarled.
“I asked first if you were a professor,” Catie reminded.
“Ain’t none of your damn business what I was, and it don’t matter now anyways.” With that, Jordan pushed up from his chair. “Now, you’ve seen the doc. We got a room you can stay in ‘til he gets back with your test results.”
Latricia and Jordan escorted her down the hall and out to another building. Once again, Catie was scanning and coming up empty. How could a place with so many people seem so deserted? She was now certain that something was going on here.
The room turned out to be an office that had obviously belonged to a cluster of math teachers based on the books still on the shelves that were on the wall. At least all the desks and other furniture had been removed.
A row of cots against one wall each had a single pillow and blanket. At least there was a window (which Catie noticed immediately was covered on the outside with some sort of heavy duty metal mesh). She could see outside, but the view consisted of nothing more than the wall of another building about ten feet away and the dirt path between them.
“Wait!” Catie turned as Latricia and Jordan started to leave. “Am I a prisoner here?”
“You have your weapons, everything you came with. It’s just that we don’t really know you. Surely you cannot expect us to simply allow you free run of our compound,” Latricia said matter-of-factly. “The doctor will have everything ready for you in the morning. If I don’t see you then, best of luck to you.”