by M. D. Massey
“Clothes, clothes. More clothes.” He stopped searching for a moment. “Hey, nice jacket. Don’t mind if I do.”
Raleigh continued rattling around the room, tearing through drawers and searching the place thoroughly for anything of use. I remained completely still and waited patiently for him to finish and leave. Soon I heard his footsteps heading toward the door, and nearly sighed in relief.
“Oops, almost forgot.” He turned on his heels and plodded toward the bed.
You have to be freaking kidding me! Just my luck to get the one kid who was the most thorough scav in all the Outlands. I slid my pistol from the holster and held it ready.
He walked over to the bed and knelt down, drawing the sheets back that I’d pulled down to hide my presence. The first thing he saw was the muzzle of my pistol a few inches from his chubby, freckled face. Shock and panic registered in his expression, and his eyes widened along with his pupils. I prepared myself to slide out and tackle him if he screamed or ran.
“Yell, and I pull the trigger. Then I’ll kill your sister too.” I was just bluffing, but he didn’t know that.
Raleigh gulped and stayed very still. Then, his eyes narrowed, and he gently pushed the gun a few inches to the left so he could get a good look at me. What the hell was up with this doofus? Was he stupid, or just crazy?
He tilted his head as he looked me over. “Huh. You’re just a kid like us. You ain’t gonna shoot me.”
“I will. I just killed two men, right before I came here.”
I tried to sound as mean and dangerous as I could, which was difficult considering how high my voice was at the moment. Even though I was pissed at being found, I was pretty keyed up still from what had happened at Cinnamon’s and the werewolf attack.
Raleigh screwed his mouth up and squinted. “Maybe. But if you were going to shoot me, you already would have.” His blue eyes lit up, and he reached around to the satchel at his waist. “You hungry?”
I moved the barrel of the gun back in his face. “Careful! What are you reaching for in that bag? Pull it out, slow now.”
He gulped again, and drew a pack of black licorice from the bag. “I found it in the cabinets in there.” He nodded toward the kitchen. “Good haul we got, but I don’t like licorice. You can have it.”
I stared at him, not sure to make of this middle-school aged boy who couldn’t help but be kind to someone who pointed a gun in his face. I honestly didn’t know whether he was just slow, or the nicest person I’d ever met. One thing I did know, though, was that people like him didn’t last long. Stupidity and kindness would get you killed. At least, that’s what Uncle Tony always said.
He tried to hand me the licorice, and then set it gently on the floor when I didn’t take it. He licked his lips, and his eyes darted back over his shoulder to the kitchen where his sister waited.
“Look, you can’t stay here. It’s too dangerous,” he whispered. “We got walls and men who can fight, not far from here at my pop’s farm. You stay here, and you’re going to get taken by the Boogey Man. Sure as shit, you will.”
I smirked and chuckled. “The ‘boogey man’? Are you serious?”
His eyes got wide again, this time more out of excitement than fear. “For real! This ain’t no regular deader, and it ain’t a rev’ nor a vamp. It’s worse. Been stealing kids from Austin to San Antonio, all up and down the settlements closest to the Corridor. Going on about two weeks now. We had to sneak out to do this run, because our dad don’t want us out alone. Gets boring, though, so Vi and I took the first chance we got to slip away for a little while.”
He seemed to be telling the truth, but I didn’t trust him. I wanted to tie him up and leave him with a sharp piece of glass nearby, so I’d have enough time to put some miles between us before he could tell anyone about me. But then I’d have to deal with his sister; it was too risky.
He stared at me while I decided what to do. I really didn’t have much choice but to let him go and trust that he could keep his mouth shut. Just then, his sister called out from the front of the house and made the decision for me.
“Raleigh! C’mon, let’s go! Dad’s going to be back from the fields soon, and he’ll be pissed if we’re gone. Get your butt in here before we get in trouble.”
Raleigh looked at me with remorse. “I gotta go. But if you want a place to stay, come to the farm six miles due west of here, the one with the windmill. I can hide you in the barn—you’ll be safe in there and Dad’ll know what to do with you.” He turned to go, then thought better of it and gave me one final look.
“But seriously, don’t get caught out at night round these parts. The Boogey Man is for real. I’m not shitting you.”
I held the gun on him as he backed away from the bed.
I cleared my throat and whispered at him. “Gabby. That’s my name. Please don’t tell anyone I’m here, Raleigh. People are looking for me—bad people.”
He looked at me in confusion, then he smiled. “Oh, alright. Your secret is safe with me. But you know where to find us if you need a place to hide for the night.”
“Raleigh, right now, damn it!” his sister whispered loudly from the kitchen.
Raleigh rolled his eyes. “I gotta go, Gabby. See ya later, I hope!”
Then he was gone. I was left wondering what the heck this “boogey man” could be, and how anyone could be that nice after living in this shit-hole of a post-apocalyptic world all their life.
EIGHTEEN
FLOW
After the kids left the house, I sat alone in the silence for a moment, considering what Raleigh had said. I thought it sounded a bit far-fetched, that there could be a paranormal creature that Tony and Lorena had never told me about. Then again, they’d never told me about that thing that Lorena had been looking at the other night. I was starting to realize that there was a lot they hadn’t told me, from the fact that I had cancer as a kid to why Lorena never even hinted at dating or sleeping with a man, to what she and Tony had planned for this Scratch guy.
After giving it some thought, I realized that maybe Tony and Lorena hadn’t told me about this boogey man because they didn’t know about it either. I’d lived most of my life working on the assumption that they knew everything there was to know about the SNEs. But I was starting to think that they didn’t know it all, and that maybe what they didn’t tell me had a lot to do with what they didn’t know.
Adults. They were always trying to hide things from kids, like the fact that they didn’t control the universe. As if we couldn’t figure that out on our own.
Another possibility that I thought of was that Raleigh’s boogey man was just a rumor, or a figment of someone’s imagination. Or maybe it was just a rev’ or a nos’ stealing kids. Maybe one of them had gotten a taste for young blood. If punters could be that sick, then surely the PNEs could be just as twisted, or even more twisted than us humans.
Well, one thing I knew was that I was hungry and lost. I didn’t think it would hurt to check things out and see if Raleigh could sneak me a hot meal. I bet he could also help me get an idea of where I was, too. Stupid that I hadn’t asked him while I’d had him at gun point, but I hadn’t exactly been thinking at the time.
Exhaustion, hunger, and the fact that I was lost helped me make up my mind. First, I’d track Violet and Raleigh back to their farm. Then I’d find Raleigh, get him to sneak me some real food, figure out where I was, and take off for the Facility. With any luck, if I traveled all night I could get there by morning.
I gathered my things, filled my water bottle by tapping the house’s water heater, and headed after them.
The kids weren’t exactly careless, but they were pretty easy to track. I followed them closely while staying unseen until they reached their farm. Once or twice they nearly caught the attention of some deaders, mostly due to Raleigh’s talkativeness. Violet constantly told him to be quiet, and I started to like her more and more. Yet I couldn’t help but admire Raleigh’s childlike enthusiasm, not to
mention his bright and sunny outlook.
Sure, he’d be in deep shit if he didn’t change his ways. But kindness was such a rare thing in my world, I couldn’t help but be fascinated by his attitude. I wondered if that was what it was like to be a regular kid: carefree, not living in fear, and sure that things would always turn out okay. It sounded like a pretty nice way to live.
But I still thought living that way would get you killed.
I hung back in the trees as I watched the two approach the farm. The place was a standard two-story farmhouse, not much to look at. It sat behind a barricade made from concrete highway barriers stacked high and topped with barbed wire. It must’ve taken a lot of work to get all those chunks of concrete and rebar in place, and I imagined that it had to have been done right after the bombs fell, when gasoline and diesel fuel could still be found.
Most of the heavy work these days relied on technology from the Middle Ages. Lorena had taught me that. She’d made sure I knew history, math, reading, and even some science, because she said that knowledge would be lost if it wasn’t passed down. It was a sure bet that Raleigh and Violet’s dad had a mule or two to help him plow the fields and stuff. No way they could run a farm without large animals to help them out.
The sentry on the wall pretended that she didn’t see them as they slipped through a small grate that was in the wall so water and sewage could flow out of the enclosure. That was a dangerous gap in their security, and I couldn’t believe the guards allowed them to use it as a way to sneak in and out. If Tony was in charge of this place, he’d have that crap locked down in a heartbeat.
Yeah, Uncle Tony. I tried to put him out of my mind, and also I tried not to feel guilty for wasting time here. I couldn’t do anything about it now; I needed directions to get back to the Facility so I could get him some help. I waited until nightfall and snuck into their enclosure, the exact same way the kids had. The only difference was that the guard on duty never saw me.
Once inside I took a look around the place. It was bigger than it had looked from the direction we’d approached. Besides the house, there were other living quarters scattered inside the walls, including a trailer home and several converted metal shipping containers. I estimated there had to be a few dozen people living inside the place, making it more of a small village than a farm.
There were also several barns and outbuildings that helped make up the outer walls, with metal bars and roof panels welded on top to extend their walls higher for added security. These were also topped with barbed wire, and they had guards watching at opposite corners of the long, rectangular-shaped area.
It wasn’t ideal, but it was adequate. Still, it wouldn’t keep out a determined nos’, at least not based on what Tony had taught me. And if I could sneak in unseen, you could bet your ass that any pinche vamp could too.
Stupid farmers. How we would ever survive as a species was beyond me.
I stayed hidden behind some bushes that should’ve been cut back before they got big enough to hide someone, and I listened for the kids. Minutes later, my patience was rewarded when I heard Raleigh leaving the back of the house.
“Sure thing, Dad. I’m just going to go slop the pigs, and I’ll be back to help with the dishes,” he said loudly. I snuck along the wall until I saw him head out to the barn at the back of the property. I followed him from the shadows and snuck up on him as he opened the barn door.
“Raleigh,” I whispered, from just a few feet behind him.
“Gah!” he cried as he jumped in the air, kicking the slop bucket over and nearly dropping the lantern in his other hand. He turned around and breathed a sigh of relief when he recognized me.
“Oh thank God, you made it. I was really getting worried about you, being out by yourself after dark.”
I didn’t quite know what to make of that, so I said nothing for a moment and waited for him to speak.
“You hungry?” he asked, after a few moments of painful silence.
“Sure, I could eat. I also need to know where I am.”
He nodded. “I told Vi you were lost! I knew it. She said there was no way a kid our age could get lost out there, so close to the Corridor, and said you had to be a runaway from the punter camps. But I said no, no way, she don’t look like no punter. Vi still said you were, though.”
“Wait—you told your sister about me? I asked you not to tell anyone about me!”
He shrugged. “Don’t worry, Vi won’t tell anyone. Besides, we tell each other everything. Wait till I tell her your hiding in our barn!”
I groaned with frustration. “Look, Raleigh, I appreciate the help and all, but I honestly don’t think it’s a good idea if your sister knows I’m here.”
A girl’s voice spoke from behind me. “Too late for that, I’m afraid.”
NINETEEN
CALM
I turned and saw that Raleigh’s sister had snuck up behind us while I chatted with him. I hadn’t been paying attention, because I’d assumed no one would follow Raleigh. Stupid move.
At first I thought she had a gun pointed at me, then I realized it was a black plastic spoon. She held it out to me along with the bowl she had in her other hand.
“Here, I brought you something to eat. Raleigh said that he invited you to stay with us, so I figured that when he offered to slop the pigs, he was really coming out here to see if you came.”
I was more than a little stunned by their hospitality and generosity, and wasn’t sure how to respond. When I didn’t say anything, Violet stepped forward and pushed the bowl into my hands.
“It’s stew. I made it myself. I went a little heavy on the wild peppers, though. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Raleigh grinned at me. “Hurts worse the second time around.” Violet slapped his arm.
“Raleigh! Don’t be gross.” She gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry about that—he thinks he’s being cute when he says gross stuff.”
I took the pot from her and quickly sized her up. Unlike Raleigh, she was a Latina like me. Violet had dark hair and light eyes, maybe gray or blue; it was hard to tell in this light. She was shorter than me and sturdily built—not fat, more like stocky from hard work. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and she smiled as my eyes met hers. I liked her instantly.
“Are you adopted?” I asked.
She laughed. “To the point, huh? I can dig it. Yeah, my parents died when I was little. They were friends with Raleigh’s family, and helped start this place after the War. Raleigh’s dad adopted me, so he’s pretty much my dad now, too.”
I nodded. “I’m adopted.”
Violet grinned. “Hey, we have something in common! I like your bracelets, by the way.”
Embarrassed, I moved my hands behind my back. The bracelets were made from paracord, and were just something my uncle had taught me to do so I’d never be without cordage and other things I might need. I’d braided them together with colored yarn to make them prettier. He didn’t like it, but he let me wear them anyway.
“They’re nothing. Just something I did because I was bored.”
Violet frowned. “Geez, learn to take a compliment, why don’t you?”
I felt my face grow hot. “I do—I mean—it’s just—”
She laughed and Raleigh rescued me. “Violet’s just messing with you, Gabby. Don’t take her seriously. She’s razzing you because she likes you, that’s all.”
I’d never had much interaction with other kids since the War, and even though Violet and Raleigh were a several years younger than me, I still found their sense of humor confusing.
“Um, thanks then?”
Vi slapped me on the shoulder. “You’re alright, Gabby. By the way, there’s no way you’re going to be sleeping in the barn. Dad won’t have it. C’mon, let’s go get you settled in one of the guest rooms.”
I stepped back and held a hand up in protest. “Look, I don’t want to be any trouble or anything—”
Her forehead
creased and she shook her head. “Don’t be silly. Anyway, that food’s probably cold by now. We can dump that back in the pot and get you a fresh bowl.” She headed off toward the house without another word, and I looked at Raleigh for guidance.
He smirked. “Trust me, you might as well do as she says, because she won’t take no for an answer. Besides, Dad won’t mind. We have plenty of space right now because we lost two hands last week.” He pushed me gently after his sister. “Go on, I’ll be right in after I feed the pigs.”
Raleigh walked off and left me standing next to the barn by myself. With a sigh, I headed after his sister.
Their father was a stern-looking man, tall and lean with bright red hair—pretty much an older version of Raleigh. He asked me a few questions, and I stuck with the cover story Tony and I always used—that my uncle was a hunter, and I was his apprentice. I told them we had been traveling to a job near the Corridor when we’d gotten separated, that I was headed back home to wait for his return. It was close enough to the truth to be believable, which was how Tony had taught me to create a cover story on the fly.
Before the War that might have seemed like a tall tale, for an adult to take a kid into dangerous territory, or for me to just take off if we got separated. But people died all the time now, some to plague and disease, some to violence, and some to Them. It wouldn’t be at all strange for a hunter’s apprentice to assume the worst if she were separated from her boss and unable to locate him. The only thing to do in such a situation would be to head back to where they lived and wait to see if he returned. If not, if the apprentice was old enough, she would probably take over his workload, and likely see it as a lucky turn of events.
Harsh? Sure, but nobody said life was fair or kind in the apocalypse.
After asking a few more questions, their dad seemed satisfied with my answers and let me be. I did find out where I was, about twenty miles from the Corridor northwest of Canyon Lake. Turns out I’d run a lot farther than I’d thought, but I wasn’t all that far from the Facility, all things considered. I figured I’d spend the night and head out in the morning, and be home by noon if I ran the entire way. Piece of cake.