Travellers

by Tim Yingling

  I shook Debbie’s hands and said, “I know you are, sweetie. But we need to get back. Come on.”

  We didn’t follow the creek bed this time. Instead, we stuck to the roads. Surprisingly, we didn’t see another living soul as we walked. It took less time to get back to my old house. Thankfully, everyone (especially Sara) was still asleep. Debbie went right to sleep as we got to the house. I decided sleep wasn’t going to come, so I caught up on keeping my journal.

  None of you have any idea how hard it was to remember all of this.

  * * * *

  Wednesday, 6 July 2016 (Evening)

  Peebles, OH

  227 Miles to Pilgrim, Indiana

  People stirred around the time I was getting to Pennsylvania in my journal. It still took another thirty minutes for everyone to get up. The last person to wake up was Tayvon. He probably wouldn’t have woken up for another hour if it wasn’t for what Sara did.

  She woke up to find Debbie wasn’t in the room anymore. Even through two floors everyone could hear the shrill shriek she let out. Sara came clumping down the stairs as fast she could. At one point, she stumbled on the steps. She had to be going quick for that to happen. It also didn’t help that the stairs coming from the second to the first floor were a button hook around a wall.

  We were in the kitchen eating over the island. Nothing spectacular; just some canned food. She pounded through the house to the kitchen yelling the entire time.

  “WHERE IS SHE? WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER?”

  I could have addressed her sooner, but I didn’t want to. Was it mean of me to do that? Most likely. If you knew our history, you would understand why I did.

  When she got into the kitchen she was out of breath. The fury in her eyes made it hard for me to tell where she was looking. I had to follow the movements of her head as she scanned the room. She finally stopped on Debbie, who was at the far end of the island standing in between myself and Phil.

  “She’s okay, Sara,” I said to her in a soothing voice. “She woke up in the middle of the night and came downstairs. She and I talked for a little bit until she fell back asleep.”

  Sara didn’t like what I had to say. The redness of her eyes became a darker, more blood-like red.

  “You don’t get to make that choice. You should have sent her back up to me the second she came down here.”

  I took a scoop out of the beans I was eating. While I chewed, I pushed the food to the left side of my mouth so I could continue to eat while I talked. “No, I don’t think I should have.” Sara was about to speak, but I stopped her by continuing on. “You and Tayvon should probably eat. Those of us who have a full belly and are ready to go will be leaving in fifteen minutes. And Debbie looks to be ready to go.”

  “She won’t be –”

  “End of discussion.”

  “No, it’s not the end of the discussion.”

  Tayvon pushed pass her to get some food for himself. “I don’t think he was asking if that was the end of the discussion, babe. I think he was telling you it was.”

  Sara looked from him to me and back again. She knew right there she had lost this battle. But she wasn’t going to let it go. No way of that ever happening. The grudges she held for years were outstanding. I don’t think she would ever let one go.

  She ate as quickly as she could, then gathered her things. By the time she made it out the door with her bags in tow, we had the horses ready and were on their backs. Tayvon assisted her onto the back of the horse they would be riding on together.

  Before we took off, I asked, “Is the bridge still up between Ashland and Ironton?”

  Tayvon gave me a quizzical look before turning to Sara, then back to me. “Do you mean the rail bridge?”

  “Yup?”

  He shook his head a little. “As far as I know, that bridge will always be up. There is no reason for it to come down.”

  “Then that is where we’ll cross.”

  “Why don’t we just go through Commerce? It will be so much easier that way. And we won’t have to go out of our way to get into Ohio.”

  Sara tried to hide the anger in her voice. She failed miserably at it. I don’t even understand why she is so angry. She has no idea how quickly I could dispose of her and Tayvon and just move on. Make it as though she and Tayvon left, without little question in the answer. Debbie would know something is up, but she wouldn’t be able to prove anything.

  In the end, I still wouldn’t do anything to Sara. Tayvon isn’t a problem anymore, so I don’t have to worry about him.

  I looked at Kate real quick. My thoughts looked be going through her head as well as she stroked the butt of her pistol. Kate’s eyes were locked on Sara. When I looked back at Sara, she was still looking at me. It was as if she finally understood the dangers of the situation, but not how close she has come to being shot by more than one person in the group.

  Finally, I answered her. “Because of what happened to Tayvon and me last night. We don’t know where those guys are, let alone who they are. I am not going to take this group through the city without scouting it first. I remember how to get to the rail bridge. A way that most likely won’t put us in any danger of running into other people. The only real problem comes with moving along sixty-four.”

  “Why do we have to go into Ohio in the first place? It would be much easier to travel all the way along sixty-four to Evansville and go north from there.”

  “I do understand what you’re getting at, but Bobby lives in Cincinnati now. I just want to ride by and check in on him and his family. See if they are still there or not.”

  Sara didn’t have an argument for that. No one did. It seemed Debbie and I were the last two with family still out there.

  I scanned the faces. Only Kate looked ready. Phil, who most likely was still more than a little heartbroken, tried to look ready, but probably wasn’t. The kids looked scared. That didn’t surprise me. Tayvon looked stupid. I don’t think that look will ever leave his face. And Sara was just there.

  Without a word, I set out. They followed right behind. We had no problem on sixty-four, crossing into Kentucky. The back roads and the bridge were still where they had always been.

  Going through Ohio was just as easy. It seemed that my luck with running into dangerous people was gone. We made it all the way to a little town called Peebles. I wanted to find a spot to stop on the Appalachian Highway (why they called it that in Ohio is beyond my compression), but Phil suggested we go into the town a little ways. I followed his suggestion.

  We stayed in another high school that night. It didn’t dawn on me until I laid down to go to sleep that we didn’t see another soul the entire day. Hell, we barely talked amongst ourselves since setting out. I had no reason to think the next day was going to be any different.

  * * * *

  Thursday, 7 July 2016

  Cincinnati, OH

  162 Miles to Pilgrim, Indiana

  Why in the fuck did I have to believe this day was going to be the same as the day before? Besides Sara’s constant arguing and second-guessing of me, the day went by without a hitch. We made it a good sixty miles on the horses with no fanfare. No real arguments except about where we were going to sleep felt good for once.

  And then this day begins.

  It wasn’t that bad to begin with. Of course, I was the first to rise. I managed to get the food for the group with no sound of waking the others. Slowly, over the next hour or so, everybody woke up. Sara didn’t even give me an argument right off the bat. That didn’t come until much later in the day.

  Our breakfast was peaceful. Getting the horses ready was peaceful. The first two hours of riding was peaceful. The day wasn’t too hot, at least not for the summer time in my most hated state. The temperature stood at a good mid-nineties. We stayed in the shade as much as we could and that kept us cooler only by five degrees or so.

  About an hour after we started out, we came across a horse ranch. There were still some horses there, and even some people to tend
to the horses. Talking to the people, we came to find out they didn’t want to leave their ranch. There was no way I was going to force someone to leave their home. They also didn’t want to have all but two of their horses there. That I could understand. There was only the husband and wife, they didn’t want more than they could handle. I wasn’t going to leave the couple without something in return though.

  We offered them some of our provisions. They said they didn’t want anything in return. Just us taking three horses off their hands was enough.

  In the end, we agreed to take the horses without giving them anything in return. At least, that’s what I told my group we were going to do. I waited until we were at the end of the ranch while still being on the roadway. If the couple was telling the truth and they were from the area, then they would know every nook along the side of their driveway. They would also know if something was out of place or something was new. I left a couple hundred rounds of various ammunition. I didn’t know if they even had weapons for the ammo, but at least they could trade those off if need be.

  We traveled for another hour before anyone spoke. Even when she did, it was in a whisper.

  “Do you see the guy to our left and in front of us?” Kate asked me when she came to my side.

  I nodded. “There’s another three on our right side. They’ve been with us for the last twenty minutes. The guy on our left has been with us for less.”

  Phil noticed the conversation we were having. His inquiry caught the attention of Tayvon and Sara. Luckily, the kids were in front of us and couldn’t hear. They didn’t know anything was going on yet.

  Sara almost ruined the situation for us, though. Unlike Kate, she didn’t keep her voice low.

  “So what are we going to do?” Sara asked in her most natural tone of speaking.

  I shushed her without turning. The audible intake of breath told me she didn’t like that I did.

  “What we’re going to do is: Phil will take the left side, five yards in front of the kids. Kate will take the right of equal distance. I will stay in the rear.”

  “And myself and Tayvon?” The annoyance was back in her voice. I wished I could have shot her right then and there.

  “The kids will get in a line across the road; not down the road. Tayvon will be in front of them and Sara will be behind them. I will be behind Sara by five meters.”

  “Why?”

  I wouldn’t mind the guys stalking us so much. But her constantly asking me why I am doing what I am doing is the thing that was getting to me.

  “No questions, just move into position.”

  Everyone moved except one person. Did I have any thought she would move when I told her to? No, I didn’t. I did believe she would move right next to me and continue to question my methods and strategies. Guess what. That’s exactly what she did.

  “Are you doing this because you plan to kill these men?” she asked harshly.

  I didn’t turn to her as I answered. I didn’t even move my lips when I talked because the men on our right moved alongside us. As a matter of fact, I haven’t even moved my lips since I first noticed the assholes were guiding us somewhere.

  “I don’t ever plan on killing anybody. If it comes down to another person’s life or the life of one of the people in this group – not to include myself in that scenario – I will take the other person’s life in a heartbeat. And don’t you sit there and give me that patronizing look. I will explain my methods at a later time.”

  She stopped looking at me to look forward. Before she moved, she said one last thing. “We can talk these men out of doing what they are doing and that is what we are going to do. They will allow us to leave. I believe that to my soul. It’s human nature.”

  It must have been nice growing up in a shell like Sara’s parents had on her. I would love to believe her on the matter. I would love to be able to tell my children there are no monsters in the world. And I’m not talking about the movie monsters, even though one set of those monsters are real now. I’m talking about the real monsters out there. The ones like Hitler, the Unabomber, the D.C. Sniper, the ones who want to go and shoot up schools, and the ones who are just plain crazy believing they are doing what is right.

  Then you have the types of monsters who were guiding us. The psycho ones. You could never tell what these types were going to do. I had a general thought of what they would do to us if I allowed them to. Most likely, they would kill me, Phil, and Tayvon. They would leave Ernie alive so they could mold the young mind into what they wanted. I believe you could guess what they would want with the women. That is the thing that scares me the most. We had two young girls in the group. I would not allow them to be subjected to that type of treatment. Sara could be pissed at me all she wanted, but I would do what I have to do to make sure those types of things would not happen.

  My train of thought was broken by Phil saying, “I see a cut off ahead on the right. Should we take it?”

  Sara answered before I could. “Yes, let’s get out of this situation as fast as possible. We can outrun them on the horses.”

  I had to contradict her on that one.

  “Stay on the road. Just because we only see four of them, and those four do have weapons, doesn’t mean there aren’t any more out there. Just allow them to guide us.” I thought a little more and came to another decision. “Phil, I want you to talk to the person when we get to them. Okay?”

  “Sure thing.”

  Sara turned on her horse as best she could to speak to me. “Why don’t I talk to whoever that person is? I can keep a much cooler head on the matter.”

  Kate was the one who answered her. “Oh yeah, you proved that yesterday morning when your daughter got scared and decided to move to the person who could protect her best. Do you honestly just spew out this bullshit without thinking?”

  Before Sara could answer, Phil said, “I see something up ahead.”

  I didn’t necessarily ask Phil, but it was more open to the ones in front.

  “What’s it look like up there?”

  Tayvon answered, “It looks like there are cars blocking the road from the field side of the ditch all the way to the woods on the left. Even if we had a vehicle, we wouldn’t be able to get past them. I count five…No, wait, six men. One just climbed out of a car. That’s ten total that we know of.”

  “Can you tell if they are armed?”

  He must have eagle eyes. He didn’t even squint to look closer. “Yes, they are.”

  He paused waiting for me to ask another question. I wouldn’t be able to ask until we were closer.

  For the next two minutes, the only sounds came from the men moving through the woods on either side of us and the hooves on the road. There was one more sound. It sounded like a person hyperventilating, but it wasn’t that. Sara was trying to keep her voice in. She didn’t want to do anything to cause us any harm. At least she got that part right.

  When we got close enough for me to get a good look, the look I got wasn’t one I wanted. These men looked to be strong bucks. They weren’t missing any meals, that was for sure. Well, I haven’t missed any meals either, but these men looked to be eating better than we were. Their clothes were clean and their hair looked kept. They weren’t suffering in this apocalypse, that was for sure.

  The man standing in the middle of the six put his hand up for us to stop. I had to maneuver my horse so I could see around everyone. He was a tall one. Taller than me at least. Measuring him up, I had to make sure I would get the upper hand fast. Of course, that is if the situation arose for me to actually have to do that.

  The four men who were guiding us finally came out of the woods. They met in a line behind us. They did indeed have weapons, which does include the six in front of us. Were the weapons of good quality? I didn’t want to find out.

  Phil was smart. He didn’t even look around to see what I would allow. He just jumped right into getting down to the brass tacks of what needed to be said.

  “Would you be as kind as
to let the eight of us pass you by? We have a destination in mind and this isn’t it.”

  I couldn’t see his face, but I could swear I heard a smile in Phil’s voice. I wouldn’t put it past him to have one.

  The one in charge had a booming voice. The guy could definitely have been a voice-over actor. It also matched his look.

  “I don’t think we’ll be moving,” he said. “You see, ya’ll have things my clan needs. And we will take them from you, no question about that.”

  I could have stepped in here, but Phil seemed to have it well under control.

  “You’re right, there is no question about the matter. You’re not going to get anything of ours, and we will not take anything of yours. We just want to pass by quietly, with no problems.”

  “You must not have that good of an education. We have you outnumbered and outgunned. Not to mention the strategic advantage on you.”

  This is where I had to step in. It’s not that Phil was doing a bad job, he wasn’t, but he wouldn’t have been able to talk about strategies in the first place.

  “You don’t have a strategic advantage,” I said, making my voice sound deeper.

  “What’s that?” the man asked from the front. “Did someone whom I was not speaking to speak to me without being addressed?”

  I walked my horse to the front of the pack. The man in charge was still a good ten yards in front of me. The closer I got the bigger and more intimidating he became. I could not show any fear. I do believe everyone else was already in the process of doing just that.

  I motioned to his men that have now encompassed us in a circle. “You obviously don’t have any military or police procedural training. I want you to look at your men closely.” He turned his head from side to side to look at them then shrugged. “They’re all facing each other. Right now, while we’re on the horses, they could possibly get away with shooting us safely, but say we did this?” – I dismounted my horse – “Now, your men would not only be shooting at me down here, but also at each other.”