Dark Road

by David C. Waldron

  That last thought snapped Dan out of his good mood rather quickly and got him to brooding about protecting his family on their trip. He still didn’t know how to use either the gun he’d already gotten or anything else in the safe and really didn’t have any way of learning without everyone knowing what he was doing. It was the most emasculating, pathetic feeling in the world to feel like you couldn’t protect your family. Forget the fact that Rissa could do it, that wasn’t the point. The point was that he couldn’t.

  If something happened to her, then they were all as good as dead. She had to sleep sometime and they were supposed to be a team, help-meets, and each other’s better halves. She would protect him, but he couldn’t return the favor or protect the kids. He would try, heaven knows he would probably even die doing so if that’s what it took, but it shouldn’t have to come to that. It was just so depressing.

  There, Dan thought, now you look like everyone else. Beaten, broken, worn out, and scared to death. He shook his head and rode the rest of the way home trying not to think any more about the trip for at least a few minutes.

  …

  Marissa had spent the day packing. It had started with getting things organized to make the move downstairs and as far as the girls knew that’s all that was going on. Eventually she found herself making piles of clothing or blankets or various items that would be making the trip and setting them aside to be folded and packed into plastic bags and backpacks. She was finally making some headway when there was a knock on the front door.

  “Please don’t be another thinly-veiled attempt at a search party,” Marissa muttered under her breath as she set aside what she was sorting in the living room and went to the door.

  It either wasn’t a search party, or Carey was conducting this one on his own, and she’d be damned if he was coming into the house while she was home alone. Marissa opened the door but didn’t invite him in. “Morning, Carey, what can I do for you?”

  “I’m looking for Dan, he was going to make some rounds today and I wondered if he could start a little early.” Carey explained, stealing a glance into the house. “One of the boys is complaining about his arm again and I figured I’d come and see if he was here.”

  Marissa didn’t bother trying to hide anything because it wouldn’t do any good and she had a perfectly good explanation for the sorting going on behind her. “He isn’t here right now. He’s been going stir crazy for the last couple of weeks with the same old routine and just had to get out of the house. He took the bike and went for a ride. He said he wouldn’t go too far and I made him promise not to work too hard because none of us are able to get that much to eat, you included, Mr.” she pointed at Carey to indicate that she wasn’t implying that he was skimming off the top—whether he was or not.

  Marissa went on, “He did say he’d be back in time for rounds, though. That’s one responsibility he takes very seriously, you know that.”

  Carey nodded his head. “That I do, and I appreciate it.” Carey glanced over her shoulder at the ‘mess’ in the living room again and asked, “If you don’t mind me asking, what have you got going on in there?”

  I knew it, Marissa thought, glad we have a reason for it. “We’re moving everything downstairs because it’s just too much work to keep going back and forth, up and down, all day long.” Marissa said. “I’m sorting everything to determine what we need to keep where before we move the mattresses down here. We don’t have room for all the clothes and everything so I need to sort it all first. It’ll be a little bit more work at first but it’s going to save a lot of energy in the long run.”

  “Good idea, maybe we should all think about doing that. With rations so short every little bit helps.”

  “That’s what Dan and I figured.” Marissa said.

  “Well, I’ll leave you to it, then. If Dan gets home sooner rather than later,” Carey started.

  “I’ll send him to check in early. No problem.”

  Carey nodded, turned, and waved, and Marissa closed the door with a slightly uneasy feeling that the encounter hadn’t been entirely organic. Things had kind of always been that way with Carey but this just hadn’t felt right. At least in this case she hadn’t truly lied, she simply hadn’t told the whole truth—and after all, wasn’t that the best type of lie…the lie of omission?

  …

  About twenty minutes later, Dan got home and was about to show Marissa what he’d found.

  “What’s up? Something’s eating at you. You have that look.” Dan said, after hugging his wife.

  “And so do you. You have got to learn to keep whatever it is under a little bit better lock and key than that or you’re going to blow the whole thing!” Marissa was only slightly kidding at this point. It was the first time she’d seen Dan really smile since…in several weeks.

  “Ok, I know, you have a point and I’m sorry. I’ll do better but you obviously have something on your mind, go ahead.” Dan’s smile was gone and he was growing concerned now.

  “Carey came by while you were gone, a little less than half an hour ago, I guess. He was making some noise about one of the boy’s arms hurting, but, well…” Marissa kind of trailed off and hugged herself, even though it was fairly warm in the house.

  “There was more to it, but you don’t know what, right?” Dan prompted.

  “Yeah, pretty much. It just didn’t feel right; it felt so phony…like he was trying to case the house from the front door.” Marissa looked around the living room that was still mostly cluttered with piles of clothes, blankets, toys, and odds-and-ends.

  “He never tried to push his way in or anything but he didn’t really try to hide the fact that he was looking over my shoulder into the house, either. I guess that bothers me more than just about anything.” Marissa looked at Dan and he could see a bit of fire in her eyes. “Who does he think he is to feel like he has the right to do that? It’s not right!”

  “Which is just another reason we need to get out of here now, while we still can.” Dan said. “I know what you mean about Carey ‘not feeling right’, though. I’ve been thinking about the morning I got the pistol from the Taylor’s safe and something about the encounter still just doesn’t feel right, but I don’t know what it is.”

  “Well, I can’t dwell on it anymore, and I promised I’d send you over early once you got home—but I want to see what you found since it obviously put you in a better mood. I’m guessing it wasn’t chocolate.”

  “No, sorry, it wasn’t chocolate. It was, however,” Dan pulled Wildwood Wisdom out of his backpack, “this!”

  Marissa stared at it for several seconds and then grabbed it and sat down on the couch. Then she looked around at the windows and got up and closed the blinds on the window across from the loveseat and sat down there. Unless someone made a concerted effort, and was obvious about it, they couldn’t look in and see what she was reading without being seen themselves.

  “I take it you’ve found a potential new favorite book?” Dan asked.

  “We’ll see; I won’t know until I finish it.” Marissa said with a smile as she looked up at her husband, the sorting forgotten for the time being.

  …

  Dan walked to the makeshift hospital after switching to his EMT backpack—one of three different backpacks he used daily. Carey was outside the house they were using as a hospital, talking to one of the neighborhood moms. Dan couldn’t remember her name but he thought her daughter had gotten sick drinking water directly from the river a month or so ago. The daughter was fine now, but he seemed to remember her having at least one other child.

  Carey saw Dan walking up, excused himself from the conversation, and made to intercept Dan before he could enter the house.

  “So, Dan, where were you this morning?”

  Nice. No pretense, no falsehood, just “where were you.” Dan really wasn’t in the mood, though. “I’m sorry? I didn’t realize I had to check in and out of my house.”

  “Well, that’s not what I meant, Dan. I hope it d
idn’t come across that way.” Carey said. “What I meant was I came over earlier because the Spencer boy has been complaining about his arm again and it’s looking real angry. Then your wife said you were out trying to get some air and some exercise and I was just wondering where you went, that’s all.”

  Right, that’s all it was. Instead, Dan said, “Sorry, I guess we’re all getting more on edge the longer this thing goes on. The lack of food, poor nutrition, people dying. It’s just getting to me. That’s why I had to get out and try to do something different. I guess it didn’t help as much as I hoped it would.” And for some reason I just don’t trust you. I can’t put my finger on it but I just…don’t…trust you. That and it’s none of your business.

  Dan started walking into the house-hospital again without giving Carey an answer, “Well, let’s take a look at that arm and see what else has happened in my absence.”

  …

  “Two weeks,” Marissa said to Dan as soon as he closed their front door. “I think I can have us as ready as we can be in two weeks.”

  Dan nodded in agreement. “I think that’s about as long as we have before things reach a breaking point. I don’t know if Carey’s become newly paranoid about the neighborhood in general or just us in particular, but he certainly seems to have taken an interest in me recently. In fact, I hope we have even that long.”

  Dan ushered Marissa to the couch, which she had moved to form an “L” with the loveseat and block off the unusable fireplace and thus give them more usable room in the living room. “I’m getting worried about the health situation here. I mean, seriously concerned.” Dan swallowed for multiple reasons; he had to push back tears, but he was also going to bring up a painful subject for both of them. He didn’t want to cause a fight but was aware that it was a distinct possibility.

  “Rissa, there are two kids in the hospital with fevers that won’t go down and they’ve both started wheezing. One of them is so lethargic she’s almost catatonic.”

  Dan didn’t know what he was expecting so he wasn’t entirely surprised when she just looked at him for a couple of seconds and said nothing. The look on her face didn’t change; she didn’t blink, and at first she didn’t seem to have even heard him. Then Dan saw her pupils dilate, her eyes start to glisten, and he realized she was holding her breath.

  He reached out to take her hand and she flinched back as if his hand were hot. “Rissa,” he said.

  She held up her hand to stop him and looked away, wiping her eyes with her other hand. After taking a deep breath she looked back at her husband and said “I know. I just can’t right now, Dan. Not yet. Believe me when I say I haven’t forgotten. How can I when I say his name a hundred times a day, when I see him in your eyes? But I just can’t talk about it right now, ok?”

  Dan reached for her again and this time she didn’t pull away. “Ok. Thank you.”

  Marissa only nodded.

  Chapter Six

  Promised Land – August 20, 2012

  “You feeling alright this morning?” Joel asked his wife as they were getting dressed in their well-broken-in but clean Government Issue fatigues.

  “Yeah, pretty much, why?” Rachael replied.

  “Well, you were gone when I woke up the first time and then back a few minutes later.” Joel answered.

  “I had to use the facilities, if it’s any of your business what a lady does in the wee hours of the morning.”

  “Oh, and again fifteen minutes later when we both ‘woke up’?” Joel asked.

  “Ok, fine, I had to go throw up! Happy?” Rachael snapped.

  “Yes, no, yes. Can I get back to you on that?” Joel said. “Yes, I’m happy that you’re finally being honest with me. No, I’m not happy that you threw up—because puking is no fun…I assume morning sickness is no fun. If that’s what it is you could be anywhere from the six weeks you said last night to almost ten weeks along.”

  “I know, and thank you for not offering me a saltine.” Rachael gave him a wan smile. She really wasn’t feeling well. Usually she did fine with pregnancy but the first trimester could go either way for her and she had lost a couple within the first ten weeks before. Sometimes she was fine, others she was a bedridden mess.

  “Hey, I remember the time you were all sweetness and light as you promised to cram an entire box of them down my throat the next time I offered you one after you got sick. If I remember correctly, there was no mention of unwrapping them first either. I’m no rocket scientist but I don’t need to be beaten over the head to learn a lesson, or choked to death for that matter.” Joel smiled sympathetically at his wife.

  “Do you think you’ll be ok for breakfast or should we sit it out this morning?” Joel asked.

  “I think I’ll be ok. It’s not the sight of food that makes me sick, so I can come with you, at least. You need to eat, if nothing else, and I need to take my vitamins.” Rachael said.

  On the way out of their walled tent, they collected their children, Josh and Maya, and headed towards the newly constructed mess hall, one of the few completely wooden buildings in camp.

  …

  At breakfast, all anyone could talk about was last night’s meeting and the fact that the military had finally had some contact with higher authority—apparently approved by the President. This ARCLiTE wasn’t just approval for the military to do what the Nashville National Guard had been doing, but an order; work with the civilian population, integrate with them, set up a working society, and keep civilization going.

  It was refreshing to have the last two months of hard work by everyone, both the Guard unit and the civilians that had become part of the community, validated by someone on the outside.

  Rachael, Sheri Hines, and Karen Gharity were really beginning to feel the pressure to get their initial assignment—for lack of a better word—presented and voted on by the community. The Major, who’d been the First Sergeant at the time, had tasked them with putting together a code of laws for the mixed group, since it would be unfair and frankly unjust to expect civilians and military folks to abide by each other’s code of ethics, as it were. The three women had taken it to the next level and combined The Constitution and a number of the Amendments to form what they referred to as The Framework, and were now hammering out a unified set of laws that would govern the entire population—civilian and military alike.

  “Eric,” Sheri yelled from her place in line as the newly reactivated and promoted Captain Eric Trip was leaving the mess hall. She waved as he turned, looking for whoever had yelled his name, and came over to where she was waiting for her turn.

  “Congratulations on the promotion!” She said. “I didn’t get a chance to say anything last night after the meeting and it was a pretty closely guarded secret beforehand.”

  “Thank you,” Eric said. “I’m still not sure I want it but Mallory, Major Jensen, needs a staff and she couldn’t gut the enlisted ranks. I can’t just call her Mal anymore, that’s going to take some getting used to.”

  Sheri grinned. “You’ll be fine. You haven’t been out that long—only what, about eight months now?”

  Eric nodded. “About that, at least I’ll be able to call her ma’am without her getting mad at me now.” Eric dipped his head at her tray. “Where’s Chuck?”

  “He ate already.” She said. “He’s working with the crews on rewiring some of the generators to see if we can’t set up a mini-grid here and extend it down to Gratefille.” Sheri made a face. “I think they want to rename that town but they haven’t come up with anything else yet.”

  “I can understand that,” Eric said, trying to think of a way to change the subject. Sheri was sensitive about the town and the fact that it was now under the protection of the Guard unit ever since her kidnapping and detention there. She and Chuck had finally realized they were meant to be a couple when he’d been the one to go in and rescue her; it’s just too bad it had taken such a tragic event to make them see it.

  “It’s ok, Eric,” she said. “Quit looking
for a window to jump out of—we’re on the ground floor and I’m a grown woman. I’m not totally over it, but it’s over. The people responsible, with very few exceptions, are either dead or not in the town anymore. I try not to go into the town and when,” she took a deep breath, “and when he comes onto the base I just stay away from him.” “Him” being the sole remaining person from the Meet and Greet that had led to Sheri’s abduction. “He didn’t lift a finger to help me, but he didn’t kidnap me either. Pete did, and he’s dead.”

  “Ok,” Eric said. “Point being that the whole mini-grid thing, which I do know about, is for us…the town is just going to benefit from it.”

  …

  “Everyone benefits,” Chuck said. “We can run half the number of generators we are currently running as dedicated units in parallel, and we can use the others as spares or to grow the system. Everything is diesel so they can run on a mix of the soy and petro-diesel we have now.”

  “What are we going to need that we don’t have now to make the system work?” Blake Lewis, one of the volunteers for the project, asked.

  “Well,” Chuck said, “there’re a lot of things we’re going to need. We still have to make some decisions, too. We have to decide whether or not we’re going to stick with AC power or switch to DC. Everyone thinks we relied on AC for everything, but probably well over half of what you used on a daily basis actually ran on DC.”

  Most of the group that was with Chuck made a questioning face so he explained. “Well, first of all, anything that used a battery ran on DC power—end of story. Next, is just about any type of computer equipment. The power supply in a computer converts AC to DC internally. After that comes the wall wart—that huge square plug for your cordless phone charger or cable modem. Those converted AC to DC too.”

  “About the only things in the house that really had to run on AC were the big appliances that used a lot of current.” Chuck said. “The refrigerator, dryer, air conditioner, that sort of thing—and we aren’t running those anymore for the most part.”