“No Alex,” he said.
“No?”
“You can’t go out there and find them. I can tell that’s what you’re thinking right now.”
“You don’t know what I’m thinking. Those kids are like my kids….I can’t….” Alex trailed off.
“Those are your kids too,” Marcus pointed at Billie and Henry, sitting on the RV couch, comforting one and another. “If you go back into that forest, those children will be left alone too. Possibly surrounded by that horde if they find their way here.”
“Damnit Jonathan, get out of my face,” Alex exploded as she climbed to her feet. Marcus rocked back on his heels, waiting for her to cool off.
“Those kids, they trusted me. They wouldn’t have gone out into that forest without me. They are my responsibility. They are MINE!” Alex cried.
“Alex, you need to keep it down, before you bring that horde to our door,” Margaret said quietly. Alex knew she was right, so she spun toward the RV wall, and rested her head against it. She breathed deeply trying to control the panic and manic ideas that were flying through her mind.
“I think it’s too late for that,” Marcus said from a window. Alex turned to see what he was looking at. The forest was beginning to come alive with infected moving their direction. Alex stood for a moment, staring at her babies. If the RV was surrounded, they would be trapped. Her heart broke as she made the decision that had to be made. They were going to have to go.
“Get the RV started,” Alex said, throwing the keys to Marcus.
“What are you doing? You can’t fight them all! And you’re still bleeding!” Marcus exclaimed.
“Yes, I’m aware I’m still bleeding. I’m not going out there. We’re going. But I won’t leave Easton and Candace without something,” Alex said, as she started pulling items from cabinets. She grabbed two of her go bags, both packed with basic survival items. She stuffed MRE’s into both of the packs, hoping it was enough for the children. The last item, the second road atlas she had. Easton knew their path, and Alex had highlighted it. It would lead the kids directly to the Montana compound.
“If they are alive. If they find their way here,” Alex thought to herself, but she quickly pushed those thoughts from her mind.
She took the keys for the Bronco from Margaret, and a can of spray paint that was in the vehicle kit. At the bronco, she threw both backpacks in the back of the truck, not visible from the outside. She hid the keys in the front fender, hoping Easton would remember stories she had told him. But to be sure he checked, she painted “East” on that fender. It would bring his attention to it, but others wouldn’t understand what the word meant.
As she was setting things up at the truck, she heard the RV start behind her. Alex knew the sound would bring the infected faster. After everything was placed as necessary, she stood back from the truck and tried to stick to her plan. Turning and going to the RV physically hurt her.
“Please be alive. Please find your way. Find us. I’m so sorry,” Alex thought of herself as she turned back to the RV.
Alex let Marcus drive. Every rule she had written was being broken, because she was closed in the bathroom, inconsolable. Sobs shook her body, hot tears fell off her cheeks. She tried to keep her sorrow quiet, not wishing to upset her kids any more than they already were. Confronting Blake’s death with the kids, and losing Easton and Candace in the span of one day. She had to walk away from the new children in her life, leave them behind. Even if their condition wasn’t known, she blamed herself for it all. Alex just knew she wouldn’t survive this.
Pulling her shirt over her head, Alex did inventory on her wounds. Her side was turning into a mass of blue and purple, with the gash still bleeding fairly freely. She managed to cover the gash with two butterfly band aids for now, until she could figure out how to stitch it up. The door to the bathroom opened and Marcus stepped into the small space. He seemed to suck up all the air in the bathroom, and had Alex pushing forward toward the sink.
“What the hell Marcus?”
“You need stitches,” he replied simply.
Chapter 23
Noticing the silver scars on Alex’s shoulder, Marcus touched them as he moved her to sit on the toilet seat.
“Not your first stitches rodeo huh?” He asked.
“No. Those weren’t the first, but they were the worst,” Alex replied.
“How did it happen?” Marcus asked, as he put down a case Alex didn’t see him carrying. He opened it to reveal a sewing kit with first aid items.
“Do you know what you’re doing here?” Alex asked.
“Sisters, remember? My mom taught us all to sew. I’m thinking sewing you up is going to be about the same as mending the holes in my jeans when I was 13,” he replied.
“Great,” Alex replied sarcastically.
“So, how did the shoulder happen?” He asked, repeating his question.
“It was during a nice little nature survival test my father pulled on me.”
“Your father let you get hurt like that?” Marcus said, again studying the silver scars down her shoulder and upper arm. Alex found herself thinking back, to when she had gotten those marks. Taking a deep sigh, she dove into the story.
Mitch worked hard to ingrain his lessons into his children’s heads. And often Alex was his test subject, as she was the oldest. It didn’t matter to Mitch that she wasn’t interested in his lessons, or that she was a girl. He was always determined to make her learn what he taught, even through the roughest, harshest circumstances.
Feeling alone in the situation she was in, brought her back to being 11 years old, and Mitch deciding it was time for her to learn to fend for herself. Without warning, he had come into Alex’s room early one Saturday morning. Shaking her awake he told her gruffly to get up and get her bug out bag. Alex hadn’t taken the situation too seriously, because Mitch was always running drills with them and evacuating the house at random times.
Grabbing her bag, she threw on jeans and a sweatshirt. Mitch was waiting for her, with his Jeep engine already running.
“That was a little slow girl,” Mitch said.
“Daddy, it’s only 4 AM. I’m barely awake,” Alex replied.
“Emergencies can happen any time of the day or night. I’ve told you this. You must always be prepared and ready to go. Do you understand?” Mitch demanded.
Alex’s answer had been a grumble, as she slouched in the seat of the Jeep. Mitch drove for about an hour from the compound. When he stopped, Alex didn’t recognize the area, and was sure it wasn’t a place she and her siblings had explored yet. Alex may not have appreciated all the survival lessons, and feeling like time was being wasted, but she did love the outdoors. Her favorite lessons were ones in which Mitch took his family into the woods. And to a point she did pay attention to the parts of how to camp and live off of the land.
Mitch exited the Jeep and signaled Alex to follow him. She shouldered her bug out bag and followed his trail, assuming this was some new survival lesson. About 30 yards from the vehicle, Mitch stopped and looked around a small clearing. He looked over at Alex and watched her for a moment before speaking.
“I need to grab something from the Jeep. Just wait here,” he said to her. His strange behaviors weren’t unexpected to Alex, so she just nodded and looked around the area. She heard his footsteps fade away. A few moments later she swore she heard an engine echo her way, but that didn’t make any sense, as they weren’t on any formal trail.
Alex waited a full 30 minutes for her father to return. When she looked around again and he hadn’t come back, she began to worry something had happened to him between her and the Jeep. The trail they took to the clearing was easy enough to find, so she followed it back to where she knew they had parked the Jeep. Except the Jeep was nowhere to be found. Standing in the middle of the woods, turning circles looking for her father, Alex started to have a very sick feeling.
Common sense tried to win out in Alex’s mind. Her father wouldn’t have left he
r right? She must have followed the wrong trail to where she thought the Jeep was. Maybe he couldn’t find her again either, after he went back to the Jeep. That thought seemed ludicrous as soon as she thought it. Mitch was one of the best trackers in their Montana county. There was no way he wouldn’t be able to follow their trail, especially since they weren’t trying to hide it. Alex took a deep breath and tried to think rationally, or really irrationally, because that’s how Mitch’s mind worked.
She saw the water bottle then. Propped against a rock, near where the Jeep had been parked, a full water bottle sat. Alex’s stomach plummeted when she saw the bottle, because she knew immediately what it meant. Her father had left her. The sound of an engine, wasn’t someone else coming into the woods, it was the Jeep starting and leaving the woods.
Picking up the water bottle, Alex saw there was a piece of paper tied to it. Untying it, she found her father’s clear block letters on the inside of the fold.
Alex - It’s time for you to take your training seriously. I have left you here to find your way home, utilizing what you have packed in your bug out bag, as well as what you find in the woods. I believe you will be prepared. - Dad
For a moment Alex’s mind was blank. The silence of the unfamiliar woods was closing in on her and for a split second she wanted to laugh. She thought maybe if she laughed her father would come out of hiding, and would join her in the fun. But she looked back at his note left with one bottle of water. Alex crumpled the letter in her hand, anger beginning to course through her veins.
He had left her. Her own father had left her in the middle of the woods. The woods she had never been in. Mitch knew Alex well, like any single father, he was very involved in her daily activities. He had a hand in building the woman she would be growing into. Alex was sure he was aware she wasn’t paying close attention as they drove to this spot. She only knew for sure they had driven approximately an hour from their home. Depending on the speed that could be up to 50 miles from home. Doing the math, Alex knew she was looking at close to 16 to 18 hours of walking. And that’s if she was following the road he took. She wasn’t sure where that was, or the direction to go.
Leaving her in the middle of the woods meant one thing, Mitch meant for his daughter to suffer. He felt she wasn’t taking things serious enough, if she were to listen to his note. And he was right on that account. Alex was an eleven year old girl who wanted to hang out with her friends, maybe talk about boys and read books that weren’t about surviving without modern amenities. Mitch wouldn’t hear of any of these for his daughters. While Alex struggled against what Mitch watched, Max was always a good student to him. And he hadn’t left Max in the middle of the woods.
“Get a grip Alex,” she said to herself. Her voice was a lone sound among the trees. She heard birds and wind, but nothing human was nearby. And that was how her father wanted it. Alex imagined he wanted her to fail, so he could prove some master point. She could see him showing up at this spot in a day and hauling her back home. Probably making her live in the outside shelter he had in the backyard until he thought she had learned her lesson.
Tossing her bag down, she decided she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Alex thought back to the steps of survival in the wilderness that her father had taught her and her siblings. Shelter, high ground, water, direction. All important things. First thing was first, Alex surveyed the area she was left in, she needed to review her bug out bag contents and be sure of what she had. That made her cringe. Alex didn’t take things as seriously as she should, so she was sure she was missing some essentials in her bag already. Another fact she was sure her father was aware of.
Opening the bag, she began to sort contents. She was relieved that she had placed her MREs in the bag, and had enough for 72 hours. She didn’t expect this little expedition to take her that long, but she would conserve on the food and stretch the MREs as far as possible. She also had other essentials such as waterproof matches, flint fire starter kit, rope, duct tape, bowie knife, Swiss army tool, compass, full first aid kit and camping blanket. As she reviewed all the items she was angry with herself for forgetting her water filtration kit and any warmer clothing.
Packing everything back into the bag, except the compass, she decided to start plotting her trail. Alex did know, Mitch wouldn’t have left her here, if there wasn’t a way back for her to find. He was about lessons, not unavoidable failures. He would have planned the situation well in advance, all Alex had to do, was figure out what that plan was. She positioned the compass in the shade where she could see and began to make an estimation of where her home was located versus where Mitch had left her.
With her bearing decided, she set out for the tallest tree in that direction. This was another trick Mitch had taught his children. Always focus on one far point to get to, once reached, find your bearing again and find a new point. That would prevent you from going in circles, or heading too far off of your path. Alex also had another plan for the tall tree, climbing it, to figure out where exactly she was. And she hoped to find some sort of landmarks that would tell her which direction home really was.
She was kicking herself for not paying attention to where her father was driving her that morning. Mitch was eccentric, but Alex never feared being with him. She wondered if that would change after this experience. Or would Mitch decide she had learned her lesson. Alex guessed in the end, Mitch might not even see it as a test or lesson, just experience she had to have to be prepared. Prepared for what, Alex didn’t have any clue.
As she walked she sipped some of the water he had left her, glad she had one bottle at least for now. Since she forgot her filtration kit, any water she found would have to be boiled. Luckily she had her standard mess kit with her, and she could use the aluminum cup to boil water as she went. It would take time, but she had to stay hydrated.
Alex reached her tree marker and looked up the branches. It was sturdy, and she thought a climb would be nice to take her mind off of things. She looked at her watch, glad she slept with it on and saw it was close to noon. She would need to figure out her path and decide on shelter in 5 hours or so, it would get dark quickly out there. She cursed herself again, as she didn’t have any plastic sheeting or tent in her bug out bag like she was supposed to. So shelter was going to be a very lengthy task.
Propping her bag in the lower branches, to keep it from anything that might wander through, Alex pulled herself up the branches of the tree. One limb after another, Alex felt lighter as she went up the large trunk. When she got to the best vantage point, she pulled out her compass again and began looking around. Giving herself a moment to absorb what she was seeing, Alex took some deep breaths to steady herself. She recognized the mountains in the distance, knowing they were a certain direction from her home. Matching that with the smaller cliff face she could see to the other side, she used her compass to get her bearing. She was pleased with herself, to find the bearing she initially started was basically the same.
Sliding back down to her bag, Alex decided to eat lunch in the tree. She found a very comfortable V in some branches and opened a MRE. The flavor of this one was some sort of southern rice and bean meal. She didn’t bother to warm up her lunch, she would take that time with dinner. Alex ate slowly, allowing her stomach to feel settled as she planned how much longer she would walk that day. She plotted for the next large tree she could see in the distance, and got walking again.
During her walk, Alex found herself thinking about her father, his lessons, and his general craziness. Who leaves their eleven year old daughter 50 miles from home in unfamiliar woods? Only Mitch Duncan. Alex allowed her mind to wander as she watched her step, keeping her landmark in view. Checking her watch again she saw another two hours had passed. She estimated she should make camp at her landmark, when she reached it. Finding water would be her next task.
The woods were peaceful, which made Alex happy. She didn’t feel scared being alone, though she was sure Mitch wanted her to feel fear. Stopping for a moment,
she took a swig from her water bottle, and listened. She was sure she heard the gurgle of water. Peering through the trees she saw what looked like a break in the foliage, and decided to head that way, always keeping her landmark in sight. When she came upon the stream, she smiled wide.
Setting her bag aside, she found a flat area where she could easily build a small fire. Once the fire was going, she placed stones inside the fire, to create a place to put the cup of water for boil. As she waited for the boiling to start, she used the stream to clean her face and neck. The water was cold and refreshing. She was sure because it was in constant motion, the water was probably clean to drink. But she wouldn’t allow Mitch to win because she showed up home sick with some disease.
The boiling completed, Alex found two rocks near the surface of the creek and put the cup on them to cool. As she waited she surveyed the area. Water was liquid gold in a survival situation. Looking up at her landmark, she realized the creek ran just to the right of it, so she could follow it until she reached that point. She filled her bottle and continued her walk. The sun was reaching the peak of the mountains when she arrived at her second landmark, so it was time to build a shelter.
Alex found a fallen tree that would be good for the back part of a shelter, and began to build something to lay under. She doubted rain would come, as she looked at the cloudless sky. But she should be prepared just in case. She cut low branches from nearby pine trees and laid them in a pile inside her shelter for a bed. Her last step was building a good sized fire, for light, cooking and boiling more water for the next day.
During her preparations, Alex stopped a number of times, sure she was being watched. It was an ominous feeling as she knew she was alone in the middle of nowhere. At one point she even wondered if her father was following her, and she looked around for a long while. She couldn’t find evidence of anyone else nearby, so she finished getting ready for her night.
Sundown Series (Book 1): Prepared Page 23