2136: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel

by Matthew Thrush

  ‘What did your father do before the war?’ I asked.

  ‘He was an Army Ranger.’

  ‘So he was a solider?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes, but he never saw battle. He was on a special assignment in the States. He was stationed up north in one of the government’s secret facilities.’

  ‘Did he ever tell you what he was doing there?’

  Parker shook his head.

  ‘Did you ever ask?’

  ‘Didn’t need to. I knew whatever he was doing that kept him away from his family for years at a time was probably something I didn’t want to meddle with.’

  ‘Did you?’ I asked. ‘Ever meddle, I mean.’

  Parker glanced at me.

  ‘What do you think?’ he asked.

  ‘What do I think?’ I repeated. ‘I think that there’s more to your story than you’re telling me. And I think you’re not telling me because you’re used to being alone with your secrets. But you’re not alone any more. You have me.’

  It felt weird to say that. Why was I willing to be so open and forgiving with him? Just two days before he had admitted to killing my parents. So why was I so accepting? Why the sudden change of heart? Maybe because there was obviously more to his words than he was letting on.

  ‘Seems like you got me all figured out then,’ he said.

  ‘Not quite. I’m still working out the edges,’ I said with a smile. And deciding if I can trust you, I thought to myself.

  ‘Well, don’t look too long or you might just find what you’re looking for.’

  ‘Oh, I intend to,’ I said. ‘I always find what I’m looking for.’

  ‘I believe it,’ he said.

  ‘Hey! What does that mean?’ I said defensively.

  ‘Well, let’s think. You’ve survived this long on your own. You’ve educated yourself. Oh! And you created that!’ He pointed the stick he had been twisting in the dirt over by the tree stump where I had buried my baby tree.

  ‘That doesn’t count,’ I said.

  ‘No? Why wouldn’t it? If there was anything that would count I think it would be that. It’s not every day someone invents a way to make water out of this dry, dusty air and create life from nothing.’

  ‘Yeah, well…I got lucky.’

  ‘Luck has nothing to do with it! You’re a genius.’

  My face felt hot again and it wasn’t because of the fire. It was much too small for that and much too cold. I looked at my boots instinctively to hide my reaction.

  ‘There’s no need to be modest,’ he said. ‘There’s no shame in being proud of what you are, who you are.’

  ‘Who am I then?’ I challenged.

  I looked up with a hard gaze. Our eyes met. Parker didn’t blink.

  ‘You’re the savior of the world,’ he said.

  I couldn’t keep a straight face at that. I bust out laughing.

  ‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘kind of like I’m not supposed to get old?’ I winked.

  Parker’s face stayed serious. I felt uncomfortable immediately and changed the subject.

  ‘Can you teach me how to track?’ I asked.

  Parker looked at me for a few seconds longer as if he was going to say something, then turned away.

  ‘Sure,’ he said. ‘What would you like to know about tracking?’

  ‘Umm…everything! Like, how to see what footprints are for what. Who made them? How long ago they were there? Things like that.’

  ‘Okay,’ he said.

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Sure. It’ll come in handy having you know how to track. It could save your life one day.’

  ‘Awesome! Thank you, Parker.’

  ‘Sure.’

  He positioned a few more sticks on the fire and moved the coals around before lying on his back.

  ‘Best we get some sleep,’ he said. ‘We have a long day tomorrow.’

  I sat for a while longer and soon I heard the gentle wisps of Parker snoring. Unlike Roxx’s loud chaos where it sounded like his throat was impaling itself, Parker actually sounded human.

  I placed my pack between my hands and lay down. I watched the wood burn and listened to the branches pop until I fell asleep.

  ≈ Chapter 34 ≈

  Something kicked me in the side and I jolted awake. Parker stood over me with a grin on his face.

  ‘Ouch,’ I said. ‘That hurt.’

  ‘Sometimes life hurts,’ he said. ‘Get up, we need to get moving.’

  I crawled to my feet and wiped the sleep from my eyes. The fire had burned down to white coals and was still smoking.

  ‘Why are we getting up so early?’ I said. ‘The sun hasn’t even come up yet.’

  The sky was just beginning to burn red.

  ‘You said you wanted to learn how to track, right?’

  ‘Well, yeah.’

  ‘Your learning starts now.’

  ‘Can’t we sleep a little longer? I just managed to fall asleep.’

  ‘No time,’ he said. ‘The best tracking happens in the dark, before anything else wakes up. Besides, the next solar spark is due soon and we need to make sure we’re somewhere with shelter before that happens. Now get your things together and let’s move.’

  ‘Fine,’ I grimaced. ‘I’m beginning to think I don’t want to learn how to track.’

  Parker laughed to himself while he kicked dirt over the fire. The hot coals hissed as the cold dirt snuffed them out.

  ‘It’s always hard at first. But you’ll learn quickly. I’m sure of it.’

  ‘I hope you’re right,’ I said. I stuffed my blanket into my pack and took a long sip from the water bottle and then jammed it into the sack along with all of my other nifty survival necessities. I had never had this many useful things in my whole life. And who would have thought it was all right under my nose while I worked on my experiments in the fairgrounds? Had I known the secret tunneling system and the multiple open caverns had been there all along I would have went exploring sooner.

  Parker started marching off without me. I hurried to lace up my boots and strap my pack on my back.

  So that’s how it’s going to be, huh?

  I ran to catch up.

  ‘You trying to leave me out here?’ I asked with a hint of seriousness behind my words. ‘Because I got news for you, I’m not going anywhere.’

  I couldn’t see his face, but from his tone he had to be smiling.

  ‘I wouldn’t dream of it, princess.’

  I fell in line behind him and mimicked his steps, his zigzags, and even tried to imagine what he must be thinking when he paused to listen.

  I was so focused on matching his every move that I didn’t even notice he had stopped until I had just about plowed right into him.

  ‘Oh!’

  He had an awkward expression on his face.

  ‘What are you doing?’ he asked.

  ‘I’m tracking,’ I said proudly.

  ‘This is your idea of tracking?’ he said, and mimicked me trouping from tree to tree, pausing and acting like he was listening to something.

  ‘Hey now,’ I said. ‘Be nice. I’m just trying to learn. I was just copying you. I assumed—’

  He burst out laughing.

  ‘Oh, Willow. You remind me so much of your mother sometimes.’

  ‘Was I doing it wrong?’ I asked.

  ‘Wrong?’ he said. ‘That depends on your perception of it. If that’s your style of tracking, then go for it. But, we haven’t even begun the real hunt yet.’

  ‘I thought this whole time we were…’ I paused. I felt like an idiot.

  ‘Tracking?’ he finished for me.

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Nope. We aren’t tracking yet. Just walking through a burned forest,’ he said.

  ‘If we aren’t tracking, then why do you keep stopping and listening?’

  He looked like he was trying to figure out what I meant.

  ‘You keep zigzagging between trees and shielding yourself behind them.’

  ‘Oh, I was j
ust avoiding the fallen debris. And when I stopped, I was just catching my breath and making sure I was going the right direction.’

  ‘So that’s not tracking?’

  ‘Afraid not. That, my girl, is hiking.’

  He patted me on the shoulder.

  ‘The two are easily confused,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry; we’ll get to tracking soon enough. There’s plenty of time for that.’

  The sun was nearly to the center of the sky when Parker suddenly motioned for me to stop. I almost ran right into him again, lost in my own thoughts. I’d spent the last few miles thinking about what my mother must have been like when she was my age. Parker kept saying I reminded him of my mother. What about me reminded him of her?

  Parker held his finger to his lips for me to be quiet and waved me forward.

  ‘Be very quiet,’ he said in a whisper.

  ‘Are there Pavers?’ I asked.

  He shook his head.

  ‘Come have a look.’

  He maneuvered to the side to let me have a better look at what he was talking about.

  We were still in the burned forest. The black trunks seemed to suck up the sun’s rays and mutate the light into grey streaks of haze. I didn’t much mind. It made things a little cooler.

  I leaned against one of the tree trunks, its ashy body streaking black across my cheek in the process, to have a look.

  ‘What am I looking for?’ I asked.

  Parker stood over my shoulder and whispered in my ear, pointing with his hand in the direction of what had him all excited.

  I felt his warm breath on my neck when he spoke.

  ‘Over there,’ he said. ‘Do you see it? It’s just behind that tree…’

  ‘I don’t see…’ I started to say then I saw a white tail flicking from behind one of the trees.

  ‘What’s that?’ I asked.

  ‘Just watch.’

  I locked my eyes on the white tail and tried not to blink, afraid that if I did I would miss something.

  ‘Breathe…’ Parker whispered.

  Was I holding my breath again? I guess that’s what I do when I get nervous. I forced myself to take a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  A head poked out from behind the tree and I nearly screamed with joy.

  ‘Do you see it?’ I exclaimed as quietly as I could. My heart was racing.

  ‘Keeping looking,’ he urged.

  I did so with a renewed excitement. The doe moved from behind the tree and came into complete focus. The brownish grey coat made her nearly invisible within the trees. Had I not been for Parker telling me where to look, I would have missed her entirely.

  ‘How did you know it was there?’ I asked with genuine admiration.

  ‘Tracking,’ he said.

  ‘What are we going to do?’

  Just as I said that three more deer materialized, seemingly from nowhere.

  ‘It’s okay to gasp,’ he said. I heard him chuckle softly behind me.

  I closed my mouth instinctively. How long had my mouth been hanging open like that?

  ‘How many do you think there are?’ I asked.

  ‘I’ve counted six so far,’ he said.

  ‘Six? I only see four. Where are the other two?’

  He shifted his finger to the left about twenty or thirty feet.

  ‘Watch that patch of debris and underbrush very closely.’

  It wasn’t until the deer moved that I saw his antlers. I thought they were part of the fallen tree’s branches.

  ‘Wow!’ I said. ‘They blend in well.’

  ‘Yes, they do,’ he said.

  ‘Do you think we could catch one?’ I asked.

  My stomach started aching almost on cue. All I had eaten the last few days were MREs. I needed something hardier. And venison would certainly be a treat. I hadn’t had deer meat since, well, since I was a girl and my father and Roxx had come back with a small buck.

  That had been a wonderful surprise. We rarely got anything more than a small rodent, squirrel, or rabbit. So when they came back with deer, even though he was pretty scrawny and withered, it was delicious and lifted our spirits for the next few weeks.

  It was small gifts like those that kept us all going. Parker backed away from me slowly. The barrel of his rifle replaced his face and hovered by my ear.

  ‘Do you think you can shoot one?’ I asked.

  ‘I’m going to try,’ he said. ‘Move behind me as slowly as you can.’

  I backpedaled, being sure not to make any sudden movements. Parker’s left hand guided me until I was standing behind him.

  ‘Stay here,’ he said. ‘I’m going to try to get a little closer.’

  I pressed myself against one of the trees while Parker squatted low to the ground and inched his way towards the deer.

  He had gone only three feet when gunshots shattered the silence. He dropped to his stomach.

  ‘Get down!’ he said.

  I fell to my stomach. I crawled towards Parker and lay behind a fallen tree. We peered through a break in the woods to see two men come rushing into the opening where the deer had been just seconds prior.

  They were all gone now. My stomach groaned its disappointment.

  One of the men knelt down to examine the ground.

  ‘Did you get it?’ the other said.

  ‘It couldn’t have gone far. It’s bleeding.’

  He stayed hunched low to the ground, examining the forest floor, the trees, and debris.

  He stood up and leveled his rifle.

  ‘This way,’ he said and both men ran off in the direction of the deer.

  When the men were out of earshot, I asked, ‘Pavers?’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘I don’t know who they were, but whoever they are, we should keep our distance.’

  He looped his rifle over his shoulder.

  ‘Let’s go before they come back this way.’

  ‘What about the deer?’ I asked.

  ‘Sorry. No deer today. Maybe we’ll get lucky another time.’

  He didn’t sound too confident. We both knew seeing deer was rare and any chance of having fresh meat had vanished the moment those two men showed up. I found myself hating them even though I didn’t know who they were, where they came from, and what they had gone through to survive this long.

  ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘The compound isn’t much farther from here.’

  ‘What compound?’ I asked. ‘You didn’t say anything about going to a compound.’

  ‘It’s one of SIND’s old research silos,’ he said.

  ‘Why would they have Roxx in a science facility?’ I asked.

  He didn’t answer.

  ‘Parker!’

  He turned to face me.

  ‘What’s in this silo? Are we even trying to find Roxx?’

  I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. His blue eyes were cold stone, relinquishing nothing of their secrets.

  ‘You don’t want to know the answers to your questions,’ he said.

  ‘Yes, I do.’

  His eyes darted to the sky and he finally conceded.

  ‘All right, I’ll tell you everything you want to know when we get to the compound. But right now, we need to get away from here before those men decide to backtrack. Okay?’

  I weighed the truthfulness of his expression and decided I had no other choice.

  ‘All right. But when we get there, you’re answering all of my questions.’

  He didn’t respond and started marching off at a quick pace.

  ≈ Chapter 35 ≈

  The white, sandy beach came out of nowhere.

  One second I was in the thick grave of burned trees, the next I was tumbling face first in the sand. I spat the sand out of my mouth as I got back to my feet. The terrain had taken a sudden nosedive without any warning.

  I saw Parker twenty feet farther down, picking himself back up as well. At least I wasn’t the only one surprised by the sudden drop. Seeing him crawl back to his feet and brush the sand from his eyes m
ade me feel better. Even though he acted as though he knew what was going on, he clearly didn’t know everything. I couldn’t decide if that made me feel better or worse.

  I slid down the sandy slope, leaving the burned forest behind me and crashed to a halt beside him.

  ‘You could have warned me about the cliff we were about to dive headfirst off,’ I said with a bit of flare in my tone.

  He finished wiping his face and shook his head. Hundreds of tiny particles of sand flew in all directions. I blocked my own face with the palm of my hand to shield myself from the assault.

  ‘Watch it!’ I said.

  He spat the last remnants of the sand from his lips. Our eyes met momentarily. He looked just as surprised as I was to find the beach.

  ‘You didn’t know this was here, did you?’ I asked

  He turned his gaze from me and took in our surroundings.

  ‘You didn’t,’ I said for him. ‘I thought you said you knew where you were going.’

  ‘I never said that.’

  ‘You told me you knew where to find Roxx.’

  ‘Exactly.’

  He knelt and placed his pack in the sand. He rummaged through it and pulled out a compass. He held it up in front of him and rotated his body.

  He stuffed the compass into the pack and thrust it on his back.

  ‘Yes, you’re right,’ he continued. ‘I did say I knew where your uncle was, but I never said I knew how to get there.’

  ‘Then how did you know to come this way?’

  ‘A hunch,’ he said.

  ‘You took me away from the only thing that I knew and dragged me across the heat and the cold, almost got me eaten by a beast, or shot by two strange men all on a hunch?’

  He tightened the straps around his waist.

  ‘Yup. That pretty much sums it.’

  All the built up anger and frustration was boiling. I pulled my hair back, staring off into the ocean a few hundred feet away.

  ‘Before you say anything,’ he said, ‘just know that I would never place you in harm’s way unless I knew it was absolutely necessary.’

  ‘Wow, Parker! Thanks for that. Is that supposed to make me feel better? You sure know how to make a girl feel safe.’