Commune: Book One (Commune Series 1)

by Joshua Gayou

  “We have to run right now.”

  As we came out of the motorhome, the stranger was outside hoisting Hugo off the ground with both hands, one under the belt and one at the collar of his shirt. He was holding Hugo like James had held Elizabeth when he threw her. I felt a black wave of rage wash over me. “Get going,” he said and jerked his head towards where his friend was, now concealed again, out in the Utah desert.

  Lizzy and I ran. I don’t remember how far we ran or how long. It seemed like it wasn’t very long at all before we saw the top half of an older man raise up from the ground and wave at us. He was wearing a blue chino work shirt; the kind my father used to wear.

  “C’mon, Little Sis!” he said, waving his hands at us in a “let’s go!” motion. “C’mere and belly down on the ground here!”

  He got back down on his stomach and I saw him put his cheek down on the black stock of a bolt action rifle. He looked through a scope and adjusted his grip on the weapon as Lizzy and I lay down beside him and looked back at the motorhomes, now far away. I couldn’t see anything outside. The form of Richard was just barely visible on the top of the camper. His chair stood empty and undisturbed.

  “Are either of you hurt?” the man asked.

  “No, we’re okay. A little shaky,” I said.

  “Good. That’s good. My name’s Billy,” he said, and offered me some binoculars. Slightly surprised, I took them and said, “Amanda.”

  “Pleasure. How about the little girl?”

  “You go anywhere near her and I’ll fucking kill you, do you understand?”

  He pulled his face off the rifle to look at me. “God damn,” he said in dismay. “We were afraid you might have had it rough. I’m sorry, Amanda. And don’t worry. Nobody’s going near your girl.”

  He took his right hand off the trigger long enough to reach around behind himself. When his hand came back, it held a small revolver. He handed this to me as well, grip first.

  “Here,” he said. “You just hold onto that for me, okay?”

  I reached out slowly and took it, afraid I was being tricked in some way that I couldn’t imagine. My hand closed around the grip. His didn’t let go.

  “Do me a favor, Little Sis. Don’t shoot me.”

  He let go and put his face back to the rifle.

  I fumbled with the revolver, trying to figure out how to open it. “Push the tab on the left side forward,” he offered. “Drops the cylinder right out.”

  I did as he suggested and saw six rounds. They all said “.38 SPL” on the back of the cartridge.

  “Anyone gets too close to you or the girl, you unload that thing in their face,” Billy said.

  I put the pistol in front of me and lifted the binoculars to look at the motorhomes. Richard suddenly jumped into focus. He was sprawled out on top with his feet towards us. I looked all about the rest of the site and saw no one. There was no sign of the other man.

  “Where is he?” I asked, not bothering to clarify who I meant.

  “Jake,” Billy said. “He’s inside one of those RV’s. He’ll be waiting for the rest to come back.”

  Something occurred to me suddenly. “He knew there were four men?”

  “Yap. We been watching you all a couple of days. Wasn’t sure what to make of it. We knew that one of the men was a bit of an asshole but we had kind of a hard time figuring out if they were abrasive, dangerous, or just evil. We knew you were there with ‘em; didn’t know about your little girl.”

  He was quiet for a moment.

  “I...uh, well I wanted to move on,” he said apologetically. “Jake insisted on finding out for sure.”

  “Finding what out for sure?”

  “Erm...finding out if everyone actually wanted to be there,” he answered. He seemed to become uncomfortable at this simple statement.

  “Oh. Here they come,” he said as he looked through the scope again. He sounded relieved.

  “Are you going to shoot them?” Lizzy asked?

  “Should I shoot them?” Billy replied.

  “Yes,” I confirmed. “Shoot the large one several times.”

  “Okay, if I can get a clear shot and a definite kill, I’ll do it. I’m terrible at hitting moving targets, though, so they’ll have to…”

  Out in the distance, Dwight and James ran full-tilt at the campers, yelling out for Richard and Hugo as they came. Without slowing down, they yanked the door of the rear RV open and piled in. The sound of gunfire followed immediately after, sounding small and muffled in the distance.

  “D’ah, shit…” Billy groaned, and was up running before I knew what was happening. He could move pretty fast for his size, even in those cowboy boots he always wore. Even so, he was very big and I judged I could catch up to him easily if I wanted to. I decided to stay put with Elizabeth. I thought momentarily about leaving but decided not to. Something about Billy’s manner put me at ease in a way that I never was when I was with Dwight, Richard, Hugo, and James - even before they turned out to be a bunch of fucking bastards. There was also the fact that he handed me a loaded gun. The others had made a point of disarming me. Billy didn’t know who I was - certainly didn’t know if I was safe or not. He just handed me a gun because he thought it would make me feel better. That counted for a lot as far as I was concerned.

  The sound of gunfire stopped almost as quickly as it started. That seemed to increase the urgency for Billy, who actually sped up as he went rather than slowing down, his head and arms pumping maniacally as he ran. When he arrived at the RV, I looked through the binoculars and saw him take a deep breath, shoulders heaving. He then set the rifle into his shoulder, pulled open the door, and slowly climbed in. Following this, the scene remained quiet for several minutes. I was starting to fidget and wondering if I should make my way over there or take Lizzy and run when the RV door opened up again. At first, all I saw was a hand and I literally felt my bowels go soft as I waited to see who it would be.

  Billy stepped out and waved in my direction. I didn’t realize I was holding my breath but it escaped me that moment in a gasp. He made a sweeping “come on over” gesture with his arm.

  I patted Lizzy on the shoulder, grabbed the revolver in front of me, and began to walk over. I had misgivings about bringing Lizzy back to that place with me but there was no way I was leaving her alone out there.

  When we made it back, Billy was still outside waiting for us. “The girl stays outside. Jake would like to see you inside.”

  I drew up short at this. I felt whatever trust he had managed to establish begin to evaporate. He seemed to sense this. He held up his hands and said, “You don’t want her to see. Trust me.”

  Giving him a look that said “don’t try me, asshole,” I stepped into the RV. Dwight’s body was in a pile and bleeding directly on the other side of the door, obviously dead. Deeper into the living area, James was on the floor, also bleeding from the leg. He was on his stomach with his hands bound behind him. It looked like heavy-duty zip ties around his wrists. Dust and debris hung in the air, giving the interior a cloudy, dream-like quality. There were bullet holes all throughout the cabinetry and some of the windows were shot out as well.

  Jake was sitting behind him on the couch. His nose was mashed in and there was blood all down his face and his front. His shirt was unbuttoned and I could see a black vest underneath. There were scuffs and tears on it from bullet impacts.

  “I ran out of bullets,” said Jake, making it sound like an excuse or an apology for not finishing James off. His voice was clogged and nasal like he had the world’s worst cold. His nose was clearly broken. “So, now that I’m not actively trying to keep them from killing me,” he continued, “it seemed right to me to give you some say in what happens to this one here.”

  “Fuck you. Fuck this bitch. Keep that bitch away from me, you hear?” James was practically growling and spitting from his position on the floor. He kept trying to crane his head up to look at us. I could see that his lips and part of his face had swollen up consid
erably.

  “What?” I said, stupidly.

  “Look,” he said, and groaned as he got up off the couch. “I have an idea of what’s been going on here. Billy and I have been watching the site the last couple of days and we’re aware that it wasn’t all friendly games with these guys. I think I understand what this has been for you.”

  He picked up a roll of duct tape off the table and moved to the back of the RV, towards the bedroom. He started rummaging in drawers as he continued speaking. “My plan initially was just to kill them all clean and avoid having to deal with this kind of…dilemma. I’m not terribly excited about execution as a rule.”

  He pulled out a pair of socks, nodded, and made his way back towards James.

  James began to twist and struggle. “The fuck you mean ‘execution’, motherfucker? You just want to think about what you’re do-UNGH!!!” Jake stuffed the socks into James’ mouth quick and rough to avoid being bitten and started wrapping duct tape around his whole head, making several complete circuits. I could see that the knuckles on both of his hands were bleeding as he did this. By the time he was done, the only things exposed on James’s head were his eyes, nose, ears, and the top of his head. He was still grunting and jerking around but he could make very little noise at all now. Strings of snot flared from his nostrils at each frantic breath.

  He stood up and looked back at me. “It occurred to me,” he continued in a reasonable, professor’s voice, “that you should have a say in what happens next. Strictly speaking, you’re probably the most aggrieved person involved in this whole situation. I’m content to make this your call.”

  He stepped over James to come closer to me. The process of him stepping over James felt as though it carried weight. He did it slowly and deliberately, as though he had to make a conscious decision of will to take that step. “Billy gave you a gun, yes?”

  I nodded, frozen in place by a gaze completely lacking in all expression – a reptile’s gaze. Jake reached behind his back and pulled out a large, black knife - what I would eventually learn is called a Ka-Bar. He offered it to me, handle first.

  As my hand closed around the grip, he said to me, “Make sure whatever you do is something you can live with, whether it’s quick or not. If you can’t live with either, come and get me and I’ll put him down fast.”

  He moved past me towards the door and stopped to look back. “Whatever you end up doing: fast, slow, or not at all - no one’s going to hold it against you. Do what you have to do. I’ll give you ten minutes.”

  He stepped out of the RV and shut the door while James bucked and kicked behind me, grunting and screaming through his nose wordlessly.

  I walked towards him and kneeled down. He instantly went still and became deathly quiet. I held up the gun on one side of his face and the knife on the other, both pointed at the ceiling. I looked between the two weapons and back to his face. His gaze was doing the exact same thing.

  I thought of him with his hands tangled up in my hair in the middle of the night. I thought of him bending me over the table and spitting between my legs.

  I thought of him throwing Elizabeth through the door of the motorhome out into space; the sound she made as she struggled to recover her breath. I felt a wave of heat start in the pit of my stomach, washing up my body and over my face.

  I put the gun down on the dining table overhead and switched the knife to my right hand.

  I took all from him that I wanted.

  6 – Companions

  Amanda

  “I have some land up in Wyoming,” Billy said as we loaded the last of the supplies into the truck. “Jake and I were heading up that way. There’s more than enough room for two more.”

  “Oh?” I said. “How much land are we talking about?” I reached my right hand down to feel the butt of my recovered rifle, which Billy had informed me was an M16A4. It was becoming a real habit; I had to keep convincing myself it was still there even though I could clearly feel the weight of it on my shoulder.

  “Around 150 acres,” he said, “but that doesn’t matter so much anymore, I guess. Land just goes for as long as you need it to, these days.”

  “Uh huh. And if I say ‘no’?”

  Billy looked at me out of the side of his eyes, sighed, and lifted a plastic crate full of water jugs into the bed of Jake’s truck, the available space of which was rapidly diminishing. “Look,” he began, turning to face me as he leaned against the truck, “no one is going to force you to go anywhere. I certainly don’t want you around if you don’t want to be around. Be too much like having my ex-wife back.” He shuddered and lumbered off to grab something else to load.

  Despite my urge to smile at his antics, I called behind him with a steady voice, “So if I decide to take Lizzy and just go, that’s it, huh?”

  “No,” Jake’s voice materialized from behind me. I jumped about a foot and spun around, heart hammering in my chest. I know there are some things that I’ve done that aren’t so pretty and some of them I’m not exactly proud of but Jake used to scare the hell out of me in those early days. It seems like he’s loosened up a little by now but when I first met him, it was like nothing was going on behind his eyes. I felt like I was dealing with some kind of robot instead of a person. He rarely talked and spent a lot of time inside his own head. He’d sneak up on you without trying to sneak up on you. His natural, unconscious state was that of someone who appeared where you didn’t expect him. He was even grimmer at this instant, with blood still seeping from his nose and both eyes beginning to blacken angrily. Billy had done his best to set Jake’s bridge back in place a while ago, which had produced an outraged howl. Even so, it always had a flattened, mashed in appearance. He’s often indicated troubles breathing for as long as I’ve known him.

  “Sorry,” he said as I took a step back and muttered something like “It’s fine.”

  “Anyway, no, that’s not ‘it’ if you decide to go. We’ll stay long enough to get you set up with a vehicle and outfitted with supplies. Or we’ll leave if you don’t want our help. It’s up to you.”

  “I really advise against that, Little Sis,” Billy said from behind me. “Maybe you and your girl find a space where you can carve a spot out for yourselves, maybe not. Maybe you find some other people. But maybe the wrong people find you. Again.”

  I hadn’t told them that it was actually me who had flagged down James and his crew; I couldn’t bring myself to admit that at the time.

  “But there’s strength in numbers, Amanda. We can watch each other’s backs. We can accomplish different tasks, practice complementary skill sets.”

  What he was saying made good sense, of course. We weren’t doing very well at all when we were on our own before. We had run completely dry on water and I wasn’t finding any more in all of the places I knew. I began to wonder just how deep in we were, how much there was that we needed to learn to survive. Ancient cultures used to live off the land and thrive but as our knowledge had become more specialized and focused in the modern age, we had lost that entire accumulated general competency. I could figure out how to launch my own web blog in about an hour or set up a brand new TV but I didn’t know the first thing about growing a tomato or how water could be made safe to drink.

  I began to think about how much we’d lost and how much there was to do; how far we had to go to make up the ground that had been lost in just a few short months. I was beginning to realize that there really was no going back. The government wasn’t going to come in and save us, there were no work crews banging away on the grid to get the power turned back on, there was simply nothing left. As far as I could tell, nearly everyone had died off and those who had managed to survive through dumb luck didn’t know enough about how everything worked to turn the lights back on. If you had someone who knew how to write software, for example, you didn’t have anyone who knew how to build the circuit boards and components to run the software. If you had someone who could build those components, you didn’t have the people who knew how
to run the facilities to make those components. Even if you could find those people, you certainly weren’t going to find anyone who knew how to process the raw materials found in nature to make things like silicon boards, conductors, resistors, or any of the rest of it.

  Our whole society had evolved to a point where it couldn’t possibly function or produce literally anything unless all of the workers involved in the entire supply chain, from digging material out of the Earth to putting wrapped packages on shelves, specialized in a microscopic portion of that entire process. Our world was such that manufacturing a single shoe lace required an infrastructure and support network of thousands of people and interlocking parts all playing together nicely, all knowing their unique little piece of the puzzle and ignoring the details in any process not related directly to their own. We thrived through the process of extreme micro delegation.

  And then the Plague came along and wiped out nearly all of the people who played a part in every process imaginable. As a species, we were back to digging insects out of the dirt with sticks.

  Or, at least, we would be just as soon as all the “stuff” ran out. Everything we had - every item we scavenged; that was the last of that item that would ever be manufactured. Once exhausted, there was one less of that widget in the universe, never to be replaced. Any kind of comfort we could derive had an expiration date and that date was imminent.

  Contemplating this, I felt utterly defeated. Finally I said, “To what end? What would be the point, honestly?”

  As an answer, Billy pointed over at Elizabeth, who was sitting quietly in a chair by herself and sipping from a bottle of water. “Life,” he said, simply. “To rebuild. To thrive.” He took a long drink of water himself. “Look, I get that the universe doesn’t exactly give a damn about what happens and that this year has proven to be one elaborate illustration of that fact, but honestly? We’re still here. This was supposed to be our mass extinction event just like the dinosaurs had all those millions of years ago. We should all be dead and gone now but some of us aren’t. I believe that means something. I know I’m certainly not ready to go yet. There’s more life to be had for those of us with the resolve to just...try.”