The Path of Ashes [Omnibus Edition]

by Parker, Brian

  While the nukes hadn’t hit the city, it hadn’t been spared the effects of the EMP. Abandoned, useless vehicles filled Highway 65 and they were forced to dismount their bikes to walk around massive pile-ups at many points. Once, they had to roll vehicles off of a bridge in order to get around the choke point. That involved breaking a few windows and forcing the cars into neutral, then pushing them into the median. One of the newer trucks wouldn’t go into gear without the keys, so they had to work around that newly-minted permanent addition to the bridge by moving several more cars than they’d planned, finally clearing the span after several hours.

  Ultimately, they made it to Aeric’s hometown and then to the street where he’d grown up. He was shocked at the transformation of the city. It had only been four or five weeks since the nukes went off, but people were already starving to death. Residents called after them as they rode by, offering to sell them anything they wanted in exchange for food. Women and girls—even a few men—huddled in heavy coats offered their services for bread or canned goods. It was evident that Springfield had been hit hard by its lack of preparedness. They were flashed on multiple occasions by the prostitutes, filling Aeric’s mind with promises of ecstasy in exchange for a simple can of soup.

  Neither of them wanted to contemplate what it would be like farther along in the winter; the prospect was grim. Before the war, his hometown had a population of more than three hundred thousand and the fact that they were isolated from the blasts meant that most of those people likely survived at first. All of those survivors had quickly depleted the food supply and now they were doing whatever they could to stay alive for one more day. What surprised him the most was their chance meeting with his ex-girlfriend, Kate.

  They’d become relatively immune to the constant barrage of humanity begging for mercy on their long trip to the heart of the city where his family lived. When they turned onto his street, they only saw one person on the lonely street standing in the cold, huddled against the windblown ash. Nichols Street was quiet, almost serene in comparison to the busier parts of the city that they’d rode through to get there. Gunshots and wails of anguish still echoed in the background, but his street, the avenue where he’d learned how to ride a bike, played roller hockey with the neighborhood kids and walked down every day on his way to school, was quiet. He couldn’t tell much about the person as they walked near them other than it was a woman, buried under a layer of blankets against the cold.

  They pedaled past her, trying to avoid catching her attention, but she yelled for them to stop. “Please, mister! I’ll let both of you fuck me if you have any food. My family is starving to death!”

  Aeric thought he recognized the voice, so he slowed down and glanced over. She saw him look and opened her coverings to reveal shriveling breasts and a stomach that was beginning to protrude slightly, either from pregnancy or starvation. He’d seen those breasts many times throughout high school and they’d always seemed so firm and well placed, now they were sunken inwards and at odd angles from one another. Her body was literally eating itself.

  Aeric squeezed his brakes and stopped. She misinterpreted his move and started over towards him, swaying her hips seductively. “Katie?”

  She stopped and looked him over. Kate took in his size and she tried to see his face through the mask, which was now covered with a short, curly beard. Her eyes widened in recognition and she pulled her blankets closed in embarrassment. “Aeric? Is that you?”

  He put the kickstand down on his bike and dismounted. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement as Tyler raised the sawn-off shotgun to his shoulder. Aeric flipped his own rifle off his shoulder and pointed in the direction that Tyler had. Three men stood a few yards off the road on the opposite side of where Kate had stood waiting for her next trick. The men had obviously intended to jump the two of them from behind while they were distracted by her. His head rotated rapidly back and forth between his former girlfriend and the would-be muggers.

  Kate held up her hands and the blankets fell open once more to reveal a patch of hair that she hadn’t had while the two of them dated. “No! It’s okay, I know him!” she yelled.

  If the message was intended to stop the three men, they hadn’t heard. The one in the center reached under his jacket and the roar of Tyler’s shotgun shattered the silence of Nichols Street. Two of the men went down immediately and as Kate screamed, Aeric pivoted around towards the fight. He sighted down the barrel at the torso of the third man who held a pistol. He squeezed the trigger and the man fell backward onto the ash with a rapidly expanding crimson stain across his chest.

  Aeric turned back to Kate with his rifle still pressed tight against his shoulder socket. She’d fallen to her knees, sobbing tears that her body couldn’t afford to lose. “What the fuck was that?” he demanded.

  She didn’t answer him. Instead, her hands clenched and unclenched in the filthy layers of ash. “Is this what you’ve become? You’re a whore who robs people?” he screamed as spittle flew against the inside of his mask’s face shield.

  “And you’re a murderer!” she screamed. “Why did you come back here? There’s nothing for you here except misery and death.”

  He dropped the rifle to his side as Tyler stalked forward to check the bodies to ensure that they were dead. It certainly wouldn’t do to be shot in the back while he played catch up with his crazy ex-girlfriend. “I came back to make sure everyone was alright.”

  She looked up at him and he saw her eyes pass over his shape again. “You came all the way back from Texas?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I came to see what I could do. Now I know that they have to leave this town and come back to Texas with me.”

  Kate sniffed hard and sat back on her heels. She used the back of her hand to wipe away the snot and tears from her cheek and twitched her shoulder so the blanket slipped down around her waist. “You seem to be doing well for yourself.”

  A strange mixture of disgust and pity overcame him. “Cover up, Katie,” he muttered. A few faces had appeared in windows along the street as some of the survivors wanted to see what was going on outside. He didn’t like the attention that their gunfire had brought on them and felt the need to get off the street. They had a lot of food and an angry mob would quickly overwhelm them.

  She nodded her chin towards Tyler and squeezed her shrunken breasts together. “You’ve obviously been eating okay. I’ll do you both for some food.”

  “He’s not your type.”

  Kate stood up quickly and he started to raise the 30-30 again. She slid past the barrel and pressed closely up against him. “We were so good together, baby. You know, I never got over you.”

  “You had a funny way of showing it,” he retorted. “You practically turned the entire school against me. I was one of the stars of the state championship team and you were still able to do that to me.”

  Her hand slid down and cupped his dick. “I miss this,” she purred.

  “Katie, I—”

  “Take me with you!” she pleaded. “We can have sex every night. You’ll never have to worry about that. I’ll take care of you so well, baby!”

  “Who were those men that we killed?”

  “They were— They helped keep me safe out here.”

  He pushed her hand away from his crotch. “Did you make them the same type of promises?”

  She glared at him and said, “You have no idea what life here has been like, Aeric. I watched my mother get beaten to death for three cans of vegetables and some bottled water. They bashed her brains in with a tire iron. I still have a bruise on my side where they hit me.” She paused and pulled her blanket open to reveal a large greenish-brown patch of skin, obviously a bruise that was in the process of healing, further diverting calories away from her body. “I’ve done what I had to do to keep me and my sister alive.”

  “Julie,” he answered with a start, remembering the vibrant middle schooler that he’d known since she was born. “Where is she?”

  Kat
e smiled. “Oh, you’re gonna love this!” She stepped in and grabbed both of his ass cheeks to pull him in close and then leaned in to whisper into his ear, “When my mom was killed, we went to the only person that I knew who could help us. There was only one person in Springfield that I could trust.”

  The pit of his stomach dropped out. He already knew the answer, but asked anyways, “Katie, where do you and Julie live?”

  “With your mom! Isn’t that exciting? We can be one big family again and you can protect us!”

  Aeric sighed as he felt a massive headache forming behind his right eye and he turned towards his house at the end of the street.

  *****

  He walked stiffly up the stairs to the old, worn porch that he’d spent so much of his youth playing on. The paint on the cement floor was chipping once again and Aeric allowed himself a moment of nostalgia. He and his father used to scrape away the old paint every two or three years and then repaint it. They’d spend two days posted at the front door keeping the mailman off of the porch to let the paint dry completely. At the time, it had been tedious and boring, but Aeric would have given anything to have those days back again.

  His hand hovered inches away from the door to knock. It seemed strange to knock on the door to his parent’s home. The door had never seemed like a barrier to him before, now it stood as a symbol of the fact that he’d grown up, he no longer had the right to come and go as he pleased in someone else’s home.

  He looked over his shoulder to where Tyler and Kate stood. Tyler’s head was on a swivel watching the street. He knew that they were being watched and didn’t like it either. Tyler passed back to the left and he noticed Aeric looking at him. Their eyes locked and the big man smiled behind his mask. Kate was smiling too, but hers didn’t warm him the way that his friend’s did. When he saw her smile, the only thing it did was remind him of the story of the scorpion and the fox.

  His own smile faltered with that sobering thought. In the story of the scorpion and the fox, both animals are trapped on one side of a river. The fox begins to swim to the other side and the scorpion, who can’t swim, begs the fox to ride on his back across the river. The fox refuses because he’s afraid that the scorpion will sting him. The scorpion promises not to, so the fox agrees to carry the scorpion across the river. Halfway across, the scorpion stings the fox, dooming them both. The fox asks the scorpion why it had stung him and condemned them both to drowning. The scorpion’s answer is simply, “Because I am a scorpion.” The moral of the story is that a creature may be able to hide its true nature for a while, but it always comes out in the end.

  Kate was the scorpion. She was a poison that would derail his plans and their situation had become a lot more complicated because of her.

  Aeric turned back to the door and let his knuckles fall heavily onto the sturdy wood three times. The sound echoed along the silent street and Aeric was reminded that they needed to get their supplies hidden quickly. The peep hole darkened and a woman called out from inside, “Who is it?”

  “Mom, it’s me, Aeric!”

  “Aeric?” The curtains on small side windows parted and his mother’s face appeared. He took off his respirator and waved at her, feeling very much like a boy again.

  Her eyebrows shot up in recognition and the sound of furniture being pushed to the side sounded through the door. The muffled turning of the deadbolt and what sounded like several chain locks sliding out of place followed the sound of the furniture, making him wonder how much else had changed in his home. Everything.

  The door swung inward and his mother appeared. Her hands covered her mouth and tears ran down her cheeks. “Oh my God, Aeric. I… I can’t believe that you’re actually here. I thought… Never mind what I thought, you’re here!”

  She reached out to hug him and he stepped back. He placed both hands on her shoulders and leaned down to kiss her. She looked hurt at his actions. “I’m sorry, mom,” he said. “I’m covered in radiation. I don’t want you to hug me until I can take these outer layers off.”

  “Oh… Radiation?”

  “That’s what all this ash is. There was a nuclear war and the cities burned, some of them are probably still burning.”

  She glanced past him at Kate and Tyler. “I see that you found Kate. Where are her goons?”

  “Dead,” he replied. It was better to let her know up front what kind of person he’d become. He and Tyler wouldn’t hesitate to kill someone if they were threatening them or anyone that they cared about.

  “Did you do that?” she asked.

  “Yes, momma. We killed them. They tried to jump us.”

  His mother nodded her head. “Good, those men were evil. They used her, they did awful things to us. I’m glad that they’re dead. Thank you.”

  “Can we come in?”

  “Yes, of course!”

  She turned to go inside and he stopped her. “Mom, we need to bring the bikes inside too.”

  “Can’t you leave them outside on the porch, son?”

  “Mom, we need to bring the bikes inside,” he repeated with emphasis.

  She seemed to take his meaning, “Oh, okay then. Bring them inside.”

  It took a little bit of maneuvering to get the bikes and their carts full of supplies up the five concrete steps, but they eventually made it and wheeled them inside. He locked the deadbolt and then noticed the five chain locks screwed into the doorjamb at various points along its length. Those were all new additions. Once the chains were in place, he and Tyler pushed the hallway cabinet back in front of the door.

  Aeric appraised his boyhood home. Everything seemed like it was in shambles compared to the way he remembered it. The front windows were blocked by the grandfather clock and the china cabinet from the dining room and all the pictures were gone from the walls. A small, meager fire burned in the fireplace and there were mattresses on the floor near it. The couch cushions were lined up along the wall where the couch had been, but there was no sign of the furniture itself.

  He walked back towards the kitchen as his mother trailed him hesitantly. The island was covered with dishes stacked high to the ceiling and little Julie stood there holding a crowbar. A clawed hammer and thick flathead screwdriver rested on the counter underneath the partially demolished upper cabinet. They’d been burning the cabinets for wood, simply prolonging the inevitable. This place wasn’t his home. They needed to leave. The only thing for them in Springfield was a slow death.

  Julie’s eyes widened in surprise when she recognized him. “Aeric? Holy crap!” The twelve year old ran over to him and started to hug him. He stopped her by holding up both of his hands and took off his overcoat, letting it drop to the floor. Then he wrapped the little girl in an embrace.

  “I’m so glad you’re here!” she cried into his shoulder.

  “Everything will be okay now, sweetie,” he lied.

  Finally, Julie let him go and he hugged his mother. “Oh, I’ve missed you so much, Aeric,” she cried into his shoulder.

  After a few moments, he leaned back and said, “Mom, where’s dad?”

  She stared at her feet for a moment and then up at him. Once again, tears glistened on her cheeks. “When he heard about the dorm fires at the university, he bought a plane ticket and went down to look for you.”

  “He’s in Austin?” Aeric asked. That was more than ironic, it was a cruel twist of fate.

  “No, honey, your father is dead. His plane crashed.”

  The sense of happiness at completing the first leg of his journey crashed away and he felt like he’d been punched in the gut. His father was gone because he’d been trying to find him. If Aeric had only stayed local for college, then he wouldn’t have gotten mixed up with the dorm fires and his father would still be alive.

  And Aeric wouldn’t have met Tyler and likely would have ended up either dead or some type of thug, robbing people to keep his family fed. His father wasn’t dead because of him. His father was dead because of the Vultures. The world was dying because o
f the Vultures. He hated them. They were the true evil in this world and he knew that at least one of them was in Austin. He’d find that sick bastard and make him pay for everything that he’d done.

  “I’m sorry, son.” His mother brought him back from his thoughts. “You’ve come all this way and everything is different than what you were expecting.”

  “I’m fine. Of course I’m sad, but… I’m fine. I’m glad that you’re alive.”

  His mother squeezed him tight and then asked, “Who’s your friend?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Mom, this is Ty.”

  His mother took Tyler’s hand and he said, “Nice to finally meet you, Mrs. Gaines.”

  “Please, call me Beth,” she said.

  Aeric introduced Julie and then formally introduced Kate to Tyler. “So, you guys want some dinner?” he asked.

  “We don’t have anything to eat, Aeric,” his mother moaned. “Those druggies followed Kate one day and forced their way in. They’ve eaten or sold all of the food that your father and I had.”

  The sadness in his mother’s voice filled him with despair. From the little that she’d said on the front porch and now, he was certain that they should have taken much longer to kill those men. They deserved so much more than the quick death that he and Tyler had given them. “It’s okay, mom. It’s over, we’re here now. Those men will never bother you again.”

  She began to cry again and Aeric wrapped his arms around her. “Mom, it’s okay. Tyler and I have a lot of food. We can make you lunch today and then we’re leaving Springfield first thing tomorrow morning.”

  Kate slid up close to him and put her arms around his waist. “I’m so glad that you came back to us, baby!”