Commune: Book One (Commune Series 1)

by Joshua Gayou

  “Well, we weren’t just going to leave you,” Billy said and cleared his throat.

  “Yeah, I know,” I said. “But you extended that same invitation to Jake at some point and then to Otis later. What is it that makes that seem normal to you? I’m not complaining but that wouldn’t have been anything you did before, right? People don’t just invite strangers they meet to come live with them.”

  “Well, they actually did,” Jake said from his spot on my left. “People used to put ads for roommates in the paper or online all the time, which was essentially inviting strangers to move in, just as you say.”

  “Aside from that,” Billy said. “It’s something I think I picked up from Jake.”

  “Me?” Jake asked.

  “Yap. I can’t say why I really invited you to come along for the ride outside of the fact that you made a good drinking buddy and generally weren’t a horse’s ass. I think I was also lonely too. But I didn’t set out to start collecting strays. The original plan when I left California was to avoid strangers at all costs. Just figured it was safer that way.”

  “So what changed?” I asked him.

  “Jake’s refusal to live in an evil world. He made it clear to me early on that he wasn’t willing to avoid people just on the chance that they could be dangerous. He simply wasn’t interested in living that way. When I explained that this was an excellent way to get killed, he said that was fine. I realized that he meant what he said. The point he was making was that he would choose how to live in the world on his own terms and, if the world had truly become a collection of evil people, he really had no interest in living in it, therefore choosing to die on his own terms.”

  I looked at Jake, not knowing what to say. I could think of nothing appropriate. He only looked out across the glen, at peace.

  “His attitude helped me to realize that there isn’t so very much worth holding onto anymore if we don’t hold onto that core aspect of ourselves. We’ve all lost nearly everyone; our friends, loved ones, and families. What we’re left with - what we have to look forward to is a life harder than anything we’ve ever known. What the hell would be the point of gutting it out if the only people left in the world are those you either won’t trust or must actively try to kill?”

  Billy took a pull from his coffee mug (which was absent any coffee). “I learned this from Jake and I agree. I’m not doing it.”

  “Guys,” Jake said, sitting forward in his chair.

  Far across the valley, we saw headlights emerge from the overlapping tree lines of the cleft entrance. The vehicle slowly rolled into the valley over the dirt road. When it had advanced fifty feet, a second set of headlights appeared behind it.

  Billy jumped up from his chair while pulling his keyring from his pocket. “Elizabeth, you come with me right now.” He looked at Jake and me as he passed. “You two get your rifles but keep them low.”

  Jake was already moving for the front door as Billy and Lizzy disappeared off the side of the porch. He came back with my rifle, his AK, and Billy’s shotgun. He laid each on the table and then handed me the Tavor. As I checked the chambers of first the rifle and then my pistol, I heard the roll up door of the garage cycle up and then back down again. Jake had gone back inside the house.

  Billy hurried back up onto the porch and picked up the shotgun to check it. He racked the pump to load a shell into the chamber, then pulled one off the sidesaddle and thumbed it into the tube magazine to top it off.

  “You locked the garage?” I asked.

  “Yeah. I left the keys inside with her. The locks can be opened from the inside without the key. She’s safe for now.”

  Jake emerged from the front door carrying the two protective vests. He handed one to me, which I pulled on hastily, and offered the other to Billy, who turned it down. “You wear it, Jake,” he said. “Shit happens to you more often anyway.”

  The vehicles were about halfway to the house by this point. The light had been low since before they entered the valley with the sunset hidden behind the rim; it was now downright dark.

  Billy looked over to me: “Get inside the house and see what kind of vantage you can get in the front room. Keep it dark in there and crack a window for your barrel.”

  I complied, grabbing my mag pouch hanging by the front door as I went and breathing deep to calm my nerves. I could feel my heart hammering away. I picked a window that gave me a wide viewing angle of the whole entryway and porch and then slid it open just far enough to give my rifle a good range of motion. I pulled over a footstool to sit on so that I wouldn’t have to shift around while crouched, which could cause movement that might be seen.

  “Think it’s the squatters?” I heard Jake ask through the window.

  “No way to tell but I’d say likely so,” Billy said.

  “How do you want to do this?”

  “Play it by ear,” answered Billy. “Keep that thing handy but keep it muzzle-down for now. No reason to think they’re not friendly until they prove otherwise.”

  “Very well,” said Jake and I heard him work the action on his rifle. The sound of slow footsteps across the planks of the porch told me he was spreading himself out from Billy’s position.

  Billy stood within my field of view off to the left, waiting. The vehicles (two full sized trucks) were just pulling up to a stop. They left the headlights on, bathing the porch and house in a harsh light that washed out all color. It was hard to see them when they got out but I counted seven as they came to stand in front of the trucks. Positioned in front of the light as they were, it was impossible to make out any feature, build, dress, or attitude. I could see that they were armed.

  Everyone regarded each other silently for a few moments before Billy said, “Well, hi there!”

  I heard the sound of someone scoffing from their general direction. A disembodied voice said, “Uh…evening.”

  Without missing a beat, Billy continued, “I’m guessing you were the fellas who came through this way about a week or so ago?”

  “Yeah, that was us.”

  “Thought so.” Billy shifted his weight over to his other leg. He was holding his shotgun out in front of him though it wasn’t pointed at anyone in particular. I couldn’t see Jake at all. I swept my rifle barrel over the entire group to make sure I could get all of them from my position (it required me swinging the butt of the weapon rather than moving the muzzle) and then put the red dot on the one in the middle. “Didn’t know if you guys would be coming back or not. Been a while.”

  “We were out hunting up supplies. Didn’t occur to us that someone would find their way back here and make themselves at home. We figured it was well hidden.”

  “Well, as to that,” Billy said apologetically, “I knew this place was here because it’s actually my home.”

  “Say what, now?”

  “This is my home. From before. I bought the land and built the place from the ground up. Been working on it for years. I was planning on retiring here. You guys must have just stumbled across it.”

  “Hey, what the fuck is this?” another voice from the group spoke up. It was hard to tell where from but he sounded like he was on my left. “Any asshole could claim that shit – how do we know this particular asshole…”

  The original speaker of their group interrupted, “Hold on, Doug. Just calm down. Ain’t no call to go there just yet.” Addressing Billy, he said, “My rude friend does have a point, though, right? You could just be some random couple of guys, couldn’t you?”

  “You fellas have spent some time in the house, haven’t you?”

  “Yes, yes we have.”

  “Get a good look at any of the pictures in there?”

  “Gawd damn!” a third voice said from the right of the group. “I knew I recognized him; he’s that guy that was in the picture with the Terminator!” A few other voices muttered at this, betraying recognition.

  The first speaker was silent a while before he said, “Emmet, kill those lights.” They did so, placing the p
orch in sudden darkness. Off to the left, Jake turned on an electric lantern we had hanging off a nail from one of the eaves. Everyone was bathed in a soft, muted glow and the men before us were suddenly a lot less menacing. They looked like a group of regular people that had been living hard on the road, just like us, with various layers of all-weather clothing and a motley assortment of firearms. Some of them didn’t even have decent rifles; they stood there with revolvers or whatever else they had managed to pick up on the road.

  “Well…shit,” said the original speaker, who I could now confirm was in the middle of the group. “Look, what’s your name?”

  “Billy. This is Jake.”

  The man nodded and gave a small wave to both. “I’m Howard. Look, uh, I’m not quite sure where to go from here. We never really counted on the original owner of this place coming back for it, you know? The problem is we were all counting on this place for our survival. It’s not just the house; the location was a big piece of this. Being set back and hidden the way it is in this valley, I figure it will escape the notice of any passersby.”

  “Yap, I getcha,” said Billy but offered no more.

  “Yeah, well, right now things are kind of quiet with the exception of the odd evil asshole you run into on the road but I have a feeling things aren’t going to stay that way. Just look at my group, here.”

  “You guys are a bunch of evil…?”

  “No, no, that’s not what I mean,” said Howard, waving his hands. “What I meant is that we all sort of gravitated to each other over time, see? I was on my own when this whole thing kicked off. Then I ran into Emmet, Trey, and Paul. Later after that we picked up Doug and his boys. Point is, people were scattered for a bit but they’re going to start collecting back into groups again, building up their strength and such, like we did. I have a feeling we have some serious Mad Max shit in store when some of these groups get bigger. All depends on who ends up in charge.”

  “And your point is you’d just as soon wait the whole process out in a secluded area to see if your theory is right or not,” Billy finished for him.

  “Well, yes. More or less.”

  There was a beat of silence as Billy processed this and I noticed something during this space of time. There was a subtle gap of space in the group of men down by the trucks, as though there were actually two groups instead of one. The group on the right were standing behind Howard and the group on the left seemed to be crowded around who I assumed was Doug. I also noticed that, as Howard discussed their reasons for choosing the valley with Billy, the people in Doug’s group fidgeted, sighed, and rolled their eyes. These people had a rift and it looked like blossoming into something ugly.

  On top of this, I disliked the fact that there were no women with them. With a woman in their company, I would have been better able to gauge what kind of men they were; if the woman or women looked healthy, relatively happy, and unharmed, there was a good chance that the men were okay. Without that indicator, I wasn’t excited about Lizzy and I suddenly becoming the only females in such a large group of strange men, some of whom appeared hostile. I prayed silently that Billy could see all this and that he had reached the same conclusions as me.

  Billy finally said, “The thing is this: you all seem well enough but we don’t actually know you. I get where you’re going; you’re suggesting we partner up. We’re not opposed to that but I don’t think we’ll be jumping in head first without looking either. I think it’s best if we get to know each other.”

  More sullen muttering from Doug and his group.

  “I understand,” Howard said. “What do you suggest?”

  “This isn’t the only house in Jackson,” Billy said. “There are hundreds out here in these hills that are open to any who happen by, many of them nicer than my place – I wasn’t the only guy interested in retiring in this backcountry. Why don’t you boys go set up at one of these places for the next little while? I can mark a few nice ones out on a map for you. We’ll meet back here next morning, maybe have some breakfast, and talk it over some more. Kind of work things out over time and see what happens.”

  Howard was nodding his head at this like it made sense but Doug wasn’t having any of it, apparently. Unable to contain himself, he finally burst forth.

  “Can anyone explain to me why we’re standing around discussing this bullshit? It’s late. We’ve been driving all fucking day…”

  “God damn it, Doug, will you shut your fucking mouth for once?” Howard shouted.

  “Hey, fuck you, Howie. I’m about over this. I’m in no God damned mood to go out looking for another bed in the middle of the motherfucking night when I know good and God damned well that we have some right here.” The divide between the two groups of men began to widen during this exchange. “Now, I see two assholes on that porch and seven of us. Someone explain that fucking math to me. Someone explain to me why we don’t just subtract these dickheads right now.”

  “God damn it, Doug, you fuckwit…”

  Jake chose this time to break his silence. “I really think it best if you all head out of here.”

  One of the men in Doug’s group swiveled and pointed a handgun toward the house off to my left and said, “Hey, put that fucking rifle up, asshole!”

  Billy levelled his shotgun at the man holding the pistol. In response, the rest of the men had their guns up with the muzzles jerking between Billy and Jake…all of them except Howard.

  “GOD DAMN IT, STOP!” he shouted, standing between his group and ours with his palms extended out towards both. “We don’t have to do this! You just be patient for a bit and no one has to get shot up.”

  “Been plenty patient with you so far,” said someone next to Doug in a deep voice. “Not much to show for it.” This seemed to puff Doug up even more.

  “What does it end up being tomorrow, huh, Howie? We have to go out to collect food for these pricks to offer up in tribute so we can join their secret fucking faggot society? There’re only…fucking…two of them.”

  “I said to lower that fucking rifle!” a man barked, sounding as though he was on the edge of panic.

  My heart was slamming against my chest. I had held out hope that the situation would either stay calm or get back under control but things didn’t look like getting calm any time soon. The fatal flaw in this whole group appeared to be a weak leader…a weak leader that was going to be relieved of command within the next few seconds if someone didn’t do something fast.

  Intuiting this fact for himself, Billy lowered his shotgun and said, “Okay, look, let’s all calm down, guys…”

  “Oh, fuck all of this,” said Doug. He shot Howard in the back of the head.

  Gunfire erupted instantly from all directions. Doug was the first man in the group that I killed; I had kept my dot on his chest as soon as I understood how the balance of power was distributed among them. I put several rounds in his chest but I can’t remember the exact number anymore; at least three. I killed another man standing next to him as well before the group realized that they were dealing with more than two men and started to scatter.

  At some point during my shooting, I heard and felt two grunting explosions from Billy’s shotgun, one of which caved in a man’s chest; the other blew his neighbor’s leg off at the knee. The shotgun ceased firing abruptly after that and I saw Billy slump, falling backward into the front door, which rattled it on its hinges. Gunfire of varying intensities continued, belching clouds of smoke out into the air and obscuring the view in the light of the lantern. Out on the edges of the smoke, I saw the shadowed form of two men running off in opposite directions around either side of the house. The sound of Jake’s AK-47 followed after them and then ceased.

  Presently, I heard his footsteps rush across the porch and low, urgent talking, all of which sounded like it was coming to me through packed cotton. I realized my ears were ringing. Slapping sounded at the front door and I could hear Jake call, “Let us in, Amanda! Hurry!”

  I rushed to the door, unlocked the
bolt, and wrenched it open. I was met with the sight of Jake’s back, so slender in those early days, bent over Billy’s huge burden of a body and straining as he struggled to haul him back into the house. As he pulled him back over the threshold, I saw Billy’s hands were clutching at his abdomen and covered in dark black blood. They were shaking and I thought he might be going into shock. I noticed he also had wounds in his right thigh and shoulder.

  Jake dropped him onto the entry rug and ripped off his own over shirt while I slammed and locked the door behind him. He pulled out his Ka-Bar from behind his back, cut the shirt in half down the middle, and wadded one half up to jam into Billy’s gut. Billy half groaned/half growled at this and snarled, “God damned rednecks…”

  Jake looked up at me with wide eyes. “I have to keep this packed on him; he’s not strong enough to hold it. There are two left. They ran around the back of the house.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said. I shouldered my rifle and had a moment’s hesitation. The right hallway leading to the bedrooms all had windows that could be accessed from outside, but so did the rear living area of the house; the dining area even had a sliding glass door that opened out to the rear of the property. There was no way to get to the rear common area through the bedroom hallway; the hallway went to a dead end at Billy’s library. I could choose one direction or the other but not both easily.

  I heard a noise from the rear of the house, which made my decision for me. “Keep an eye on that hallway,” I said. He nodded to me as I made my way toward the kitchen. When I reached the entryway, I looked all around but saw no obvious movement anywhere. The curtains were drawn across all but the sliding door and there was no light out back; any available moon or star light being obscured by the tree cover at the rear of the home. There was no way to see any silhouetted shadow moving behind those curtains.

  I debated opening the slider and stepping outside but soon discarded the idea. It sounded like an excellent way to broadcast my position and provide a target to whoever was out there. I finally settled on taking up a position crouched behind the kitchen island and waiting.