Caleo leaned back and did as he was told and floated in the water, looking up at the cloudy night sky. Minutes went by and nothing happened.
“What am I supposed to be doing?” Caleo stood up and looked around to find that Nolan had disappeared. “Nolan?” Caleo scanned the water’s edge, his heart racing as his mind went back to the encounter in the woods. There was a splash no more than three feet behind him. Caleo swung around to see what it was when he noticed Nolan emerging from under the water.
“What?”
“This is doing nothing,” Caleo said, slapping at the water in frustration.
“It would help if you gave it time. It’s called meditation.”
“I don’t see how doing nothing is going to help teach me how to defend myself.”
“Ah, so you want to do something.” Nolan rubbed his hands together and leaned forward like a wrestler. “Okay, let's start.” Nolan grabbed Caleo’s wrist and twisted it behind his back. Slowly he pushed it up, forcing Caleo to lean forward, his face inches from the water.
Caleo struggled to get free but couldn’t. “Let go!”
“You need to escape. This is your hand-to-hand combat training. The trick is not to be afraid of getting hurt, to save yourself.” When Caleo opened his mouth to protest, Nolan raised Caleo’s arm, forcing his head under the water.
Caleo struggled hard for air, desperately trying to rise to the surface, but Nolan’s grip was firm. Just as he thought his lungs couldn’t take it anymore, Nolan released him and he sprung to the surface gasping for air.
“What the hell!” Caleo screamed.
“You better get ready. I’m coming at you again.” Nolan was back in the wrestler stance and walking towards Caleo.
“No, I’m not doing this!” Caleo yelled, backing away from Nolan who playfully slapped Caleo in the face. Caleo blocked the second blow with his arm, then retaliated by jumping at Nolan’s waist and planting his shoulder into his gut. Nolan grabbed Caleo around the waist and picked him up, easily throwing Caleo over his shoulder where he landed a few feet away with a splash. The fight continued for hours with Caleo attacking and Nolan thwarting his plans of attack. Every so often Nolan would stop Caleo long enough to show him a better technique, or how to attack or counter an attack.
“Okay, that’s enough.” Nolan stepped away from Caleo, both hands held up in the stop position.
Caleo paused for a moment, wondering if it was a trick, but Nolan just lay back in the water and floated with his face to the sky.
“How long do you think this will last?” Caleo asked, closing his eyes.
“You'll never be done training, it’s one of those things if you don’t practice you'll get slow and rusty.”
“No, how long do you think we can stay here before someone finds us?” Caleo turned his head to look at Nolan and wondered if he missed seeing things like the stars or the moon.
“I don’t know. It could be a couple days. It could be a couple years. Hell, they could be in the woods waiting to ambush us right now.” Nolan suddenly jolted to his feet and looked towards the woods.
“What do you see?” Caleo stood up and looked in the same direction as Nolan.
Nolan released a loud, wet fart, still facing towards the woods. “Nothing, like always … I think I heard one of those barking tree frogs though,” Nolan said, and turning to Caleo a big grin spread across his face.
“You jackass!” Caleo splashed a wave of water at Nolan.
“It’s getting close to morning, let’s get dressed and tend to the fire.” Nolan walked out of the water and Caleo paused right behind him, smiling when he noticed that, although he hadn't realized it at the time, Nolan had been naked the whole time they were training.
A week went by without any trouble. Jack was healing nicely. By the third day he was helping collect firewood. Caleo would sleep most of the day, then he and Nolan would train in the stream during the night. Nolan taught Caleo more hand-to-hand combat moves and one night they even fought with sticks as swords. Nolan told him that most fights would occur when he had no weapon at all so the majority of the lessons were still hand-to-hand.
On the seventh night, right after Nolan had just countered Caleo’s attack for the third time, he held up his hands to stop and said to Caleo, “We need to think about what we can do to make this place a more permanent home.”
“Permanent, you mean we'll live here?”
“You got a better place?”
Caleo thought about it for a while, but couldn't come up with a response, so he shrugged. “Not really.”
“Today, we need to go to the store.”
“Store! Don’t you remember last week at all? We aren’t on a camping trip here. The stores were destroyed,” Caleo said.
“We need more supplies. We only have a few days of food left. Maybe they didn’t destroy every store. We have to make an attempt to get more supplies before we all starve.”
“Why today? We just stayed up all night. Can’t we sleep?” Caleo pleaded.
“If we're going to hide from the Blessed, we have to live like we're going to be here a long time. That takes planning and preparation so we don’t starve or freeze to death when winter comes.” Nolan walked out of the water and headed for their usual sitting rock, Caleo following right behind him. “The more we get done today, the better tomorrow will be, and so on.”
“I guess.” Caleo slid out of his wet shorts and put on the clean clothes his grandmother had sent up with him. After the third day of wearing the camouflage clothes, Jack handed Caleo a clean set of clothes and told him they would share until they could find Caleo some of his own.
After Caleo was dressed, Nolan motioned for him to follow and they went to the edge of the cliff and sat, legs dangling over the edge.
“So, say we're going to be living here a while,” Nolan said, “what do you think would make this place easier to live in?”
“Besides electricity and a house?” Caleo was getting used to Nolan not replying to his smart mouthed remarks, so when Nolan didn't answer it didn’t surprise him. He thought about it for a moment, scanning the ground that was becoming more visible with the rising sun. “Well maybe if we had some camping gear, you know like stuff for cooking over the fire, maybe we can get more blankets and hang a few over the cave entrance to keep the heat in at night and the cool in during the day.”
“Okay, anything else?” Nolan asked.
“Well,” Caleo thought for a moment then added. “If we had something to help wash clothes, and maybe a clothes line to help dry them, that would help.”
“And what about protection? We are in hiding,” Nolan suggested, seeming to stare off into the distance. Caleo knew that Nolan didn’t actually have to be facing him to see what he was doing, but it still felt strange some times.
“Yeah, and guns, we need lots of guns,” Caleo said.
“Guns are good, but they make a lot noise, which will draw attention.”
“How about bows and knives?” Caleo made a motion as if drawing back a bow string ready to fire.
“Have you ever used a bow?” Nolan asked. Caleo could see the corner of Nolan’s mouth brought up in a smile.
“We used some in Gym class a few years ago. They had rubber tips on the end and Jared Hill thought it would be funny to shoot at me instead of the target. I hit the target with two arrows before I became the target myself. They didn’t allow us to do archery in school again after that.”
“So the extent of your training is two arrows?”
“Yeah.”
Nolan ran his hand through his hair, sending droplets of water down his still bare back. “I guess we can work on that next.”
“Maybe you can teach a few others how to shoot as well. That way they can help protect the camp.”
Nolan smiled over at Caleo. “You want me to show Jack?”
“Jack already knows how to shoot a bow. Jack’s dad used to take him bow hunting as a kid. Every year Jack and a fe
w other guys from school still go.”
“And he never tried to show you?” Nolan asked, and Caleo couldn’t decide if there was more to the question then what was asked.
“He offered a long time ago, but the others showed up so I went back to the Inn.”
“The others being the other guys from school?”
Caleo nodded.
“So what else do you think we need?” Nolan said, changing the subject.
Caleo and Nolan discussed everything that would be needed and things that would just be nice to have, until people started to emerge from the cave. When everyone was out Caleo and Nolan went down and joined the others. They told them what they had discussed. Grandma added a few items to the list. When Nolan asked who was going to come with them, the Hispanic man, Jillian, and Jack stepped forward.
“No, Jillian, I need you here,” Grandma said.
“I can do this,” Jillian moaned.
“Jillian, I said I need you here,” Grandma snapped sternly with an expression of don’t argue or else.
“Fine, I'll stay,” Jillian said reluctantly, stomping away and disappearing back into the cave; the kitten following close at her heels.
“Jillian!” Grandma yelled, frustrated, then turned to Jack and Caleo and kissed them both on the cheek. “You boys be careful, and listen to Nolan.” She walked off after Jillian.
“Bradley, you stay behind and keep the others safe,” Nolan said, patting him on the back before starting down the stream. “Okay, let’s go!” he called back and the group followed; Jack and Caleo brought up the rear.
When they came to a road Nolan turned to the group and asked, “Okay, which way to the nearest store?”
“It was seven miles to the right.” Caleo pointed
Nolan sighed impatiently. “And the nearest store besides the one that we know is no longer standing?”
Jack stuck his thumb to the left and said, “It’s about fifteen miles away though.”
“Okay.” Nolan turned and started off in that direction.
“It’s fifteen miles away,” Jack repeated, crossing his arms over his chest. “Do you have a car stashed somewhere?”
“Every journey begins with one step,” Nolan said, not even turning around, “and now I have seven down.”
“Every journey begins with a single step,” Jack muttered, pushing Caleo forward playfully.
Hours went by. Jack and Caleo talked amongst themselves. Nolan and the Hispanic man walked silently in front until Jack, out of the blue, burst into song. At first it was soft and Caleo had to strain to catch what Jack was singing. Once Caleo recognized the song as ‘Joy to The World’ by Hoyt Axton, he joined in. After a few lines the Hispanic man caught on and sang along. They all tried to egg Nolan into joining in, but he just trudged on silently.
They went through three more songs before Nolan interrupted and said, “There's a lake up ahead. We can rest for a little while.” He turned his head in Caleo’s direction. “As long as the singing stops.”
“I guess we're not stopping then, he never stops singing.” Caleo pushed Jack.
“A lake, maybe we can do some swimming to cool off,” Jack said, squinting at the road up ahead. “The lake is still a ways ahead, almost a mile. Have you been this way before?”
“No, I can hear the water, it sounds like it’s over this hill,” Nolan said, and Jack tilted his head as if listening for it.
Caleo turned his head to hide his smile when Jack said, “I don’t hear it.”
“Maybe you would if you were a little quieter.” Nolan turned to Jack with a raised eyebrow.
As they reached the top of the hill Jack’s eyes lit up as he finally saw it. “Race you,” Jack said, slapping Caleo across the chest with the back of his hand and running ahead.
Nolan ran after Jack, both looking like little kids eager to get to the water; the Hispanic man right on their heels.
Just before they reached the lake, Caleo watched Nolan pass Jack. Once he reached the edge of the water he stripped, throwing his clothes over his shoulder as if the most important thing in the world was getting in the water, and he dove in. Jack and the other man followed suit, throwing their clothes next to Nolan’s before wading in.
When Caleo made it to the shore, the others were already in the middle of the pond swimming around the water. Caleo dropped his pants, then started removing his shirt when he noticed the Hispanic man was watching him. What’s he looking at? Nervous, Caleo lowered his shirt to hide both his pale skin and his mark. I never thought to check him. What if he's a Leech? What if he's a Blessed? Caleo decided to leave his shirt and underwear on to help hide his mark as he slowly made his way into the water.
When Caleo was chest deep, Nolan turned to face him, a look of concern on his face. “What’s wrong?”
He must have noticed my shirt in the water, Caleo thought smiling. “Nothing, just don’t want to get sun burned.” Caleo hated to lie, but he couldn’t very well just say, ‘I think that guy is a Blessed agent’.
“That’s a load of bull; you’ve never had sunburn in your life!” Jack yelled laughing. “He's just shy and doesn’t want—”
Caleo dove under the water to avoid more of the conversation. When he emerged from the water, he expected to hear Jack still making fun of him, but was surprised when he heard nothing. Confused, Caleo wiped the water away from his face and looked around to find everyone watching something on the shore where they had left their clothes, and by the look on Jack’s face it wasn’t good.
Damn it, I knew this was a dumb idea. Caleo turned, expecting to see a group of Blessed soldiers lined up on the bank, guns aimed at them, but gasped when he saw what looked like a giant werewolf sniffing through their clothes. Caleo slowly swam beside Nolan, touching his arm to let him know where he was. Nolan nodded, whispering out of the side of his mouth, “Hold still and don’t say a word.”
“I’m not blind! I've been following you for the last three miles. I was just getting each of your scents, so I can track each of you down when you run,” the werewolf growled. His voice sounded like he had sandpaper in his throat and it caused him pain to speak.
“What do you want?” Nolan yelled.
“The boy,” the wolf man growled.
“What do you want with him?”
“He's to be recycled for the good of the Rebels.” The werewolf’s excitement seemed to cause drool to fall out of his mouth.
“Under whose orders? Thorn has ordered his protection!” Nolan yelled, sounding extremely confident for a man skinny dipping without a gun.
“Thorn is no longer in charge, that old fool would never have allowed our attack to obtain ascension.”
“Who is in charge?” Nolan asked, but instead of getting an answer, the werewolf jumped, landing in the lake eight feet from the shore and started swimming towards them.
“Run!” Nolan yelled.
The four of them turned in unison and started to swim for the other side of the shore as fast as they could. Jack was the first out of the water, followed by Nolan who yelled to Jack, “Run!” as he helped pull the Hispanic man out of the water. “Run! Run and get to the woods and keep running!” Nolan turned back to Caleo and yelled, “Let’s go!”
Caleo glanced over his shoulder to see that the werewolf was only a body’s length away from him. Caleo dove forward, pushing as hard as he could to put distance between him and the werewolf.
When he reached where his feet could touch, Caleo pushed forward with his feet and noticed that Nolan had vanished. He left me? Caleo panicked and frantically searched the woods for any sign of Nolan as he emerged from the water. Not paying attention to his footing, he slipped on the loose gravel falling forward, his arms out in front of him to stop his fall. His hands hit the sharp gravel slicing them open in a few places. A growl reminded him that he had no time to worry about the blood dripping from his hands or the pain. Caleo pushed off, trying to climb to his feet but couldn’t, something was holding him, pinning him to the ground.<
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“Help!” Caleo screamed, kicking his feet, trying desperately to find some footing to help get some leverage. “Help!”
“Would you shut up? I haven’t even started eating you yet,” the werewolf screamed, agony clear in its gravelly voice.
It was at that moment that Caleo noticed that it wasn’t the werewolf that was holding him down. Its voice was further away, and not in his ear like he thought. Caleo looked back surprised, and saw that the whole lake had frozen over into a solid block of ice. The werewolf was still about four feet behind him, but only its head was visible above the ice.
“When I get out of here, I’m going to tear you apart!”
Caleo desperately struggled to free himself but something was holding him down. If the wolf thing is behind me what could be holding me? Pushing off the ground with all his might a ripping sound caught his attention. He tried to roll over, but couldn’t. “Damn it!” Caleo swore, when he realized that it was his clothes frozen into the ice that were pinning him to the lake.
“The little Leech has trapped himself,” the werewolf laughed.
“Shut up!” Caleo yelled. “You’re trapped too.”
“I’m not trapped,” the wolf cackled as the ice around him bowed, sinking in and sending spider webs of cracking ice in all directions. In an explosion of ice the wolf burst through, landing next to Caleo. Slowly the werewolf knelt down and crawled the remaining few feet to Caleo on all fours, licking his lips and savoring every moment of tormenting his prey.
“I think I'll start with your toes and then I’m going to chew on your arm until you pass out from the pain.” The werewolf slowly ran a claw up Caleo’s bare leg, splitting the skin and leaving a deep gash.
Screaming in pain, Caleo grabbed the werewolf’s leg. A howl of pain filled the air as the hair on the wolf’s leg frosted over, and it retaliated by snapping down on Caleo’s arm and ripping it free of his leg.
“Noooo!” Caleo bawled, as the wolf chewed into his arm.
The wolf ground in his teeth and Caleo screamed in pain as he felt his bones splinter and break under the power of the wolf’s jaws. The wolf let Caleo’s mutilated arm fall limply to the ice. “You have more power than I thought. I can feel the temperature has dropped well below freezing. It’s going to take a lot more than that with my fur … I’m going to enjoy this even more,” the werewolf said, drooling as it hovered over Caleo’s head.
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