Dystopia: The Long Road

by DJ Cooper

A few hours passed as they searched for them as the mood grew darker. Comments about scenarios and thoughts of kidnapping were beginning to look more plausible. Returning to regroup and look for anything that might indicate what happened to them, John and Dickie spotted them sitting on a log bench beside the porch.

  John approached them, not sure if he was concerned or angry, saying, “Where have you two been? We have been searching for you for hours.”

  Both of them looked at him like he was crazy, Renee saying, “We’ve been right here wondering where everyone went.”

  John was becoming angry because he knew they were not there earlier said, “You were not here earlier.”

  Kimmie said, “Oh, we were in the attic.”

  John looked puzzled, but also knew they were not in the house earlier, he had called into the attic himself. He asked, “What were you doing in the attic? No one has seen you both since yesterday.”

  Renee said, “We were just exploring the place and I guess we fell asleep up there.”

  John knew that they were lying, but he could not figure out why or where they actually went. The others started returning and asking questions, Mark was just happy they were ok. No one could really understand why it was Mark tolerated some of the things they did. Mark was a helpful, hardworking, honest man; and they both were secretive, vindictive and generally up to no good. John would often tell Amy before all the problems began how he could not understand why Mark put up with it, recalling that at one time, they almost got evicted because Renee was spending all the household money on shopping trips and parties while Mark was working.

  Shaking off the uneasy thoughts about these two, John announced, “We will have to stay another night here. It is too late in the day to start out. No one, and I mean No one is to leave the house without one of the guys to keep an eye out.”

  Laurie said to Amy, “We should use this extra time to get some of this food prepared and packed for travel. We may not be able to cook along the way.”

  John and Dickie prepared a watch rotation and headed out to walk the perimeter before the sun set. They walked a complete perimeter as far out as they could go and still see the building.

  John was quietly walking, looking at the ground when Dickie broke the silence, asking, “What is bothering you?”

  John said, “I really don’t know, something is nagging me as wrong, but I can’t figure out what it is.”

  Dickie replied, “I have felt like something is not right as well, especially after our driver was so cryptic when dropping us off.”

  John stopped, looking up at him like a light bulb was over his head and said, “I forgot about the note.”

  Dickie looked at him quizzically asking, “Note?”

  John said, “Remember, the note that only you and I were to read?”

  Dickie replied, “Right! Let have a look at it.”

  John pulled the crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and opened it so they could see what it said.

  The note was short, but spoke loud and clear. “You have a traitor in your camp. A small group of ruthless killers is following you. Someone in your group is leaving markers for them to follow.”

  John looked up from the note eyes wide and said, “Do you think?”

  Dickie responded, “Renee and Kimmie?”

  John said, “They have been disappearing.”

  Dickie nodded and looked back in the direction of the others and asked, “Why do you suppose they only trusted us?”

  John thought a moment and said, “I don’t know, but we should keep a very close eye on everyone. I know for a fact Amy is not a problem, and pretty sure Jules is clear too.”

  Dickie said, “Yeah, we should get them to keep an eye out as well.”

  John looked down and said, “This is bad, we could be bringing a shit storm to the others.”

  Dickie nodded, saying, “Well, we can stop the trail of breadcrumbs by making sure everyone stays together. Maybe they will lose the trail, so to speak.”

  John said, “I hope so.”

  They continued their perimeter walk and found nothing, on the way back John looked at Dickie saying, “We don’t even know what we are looking for. I don’t know what kind of bread crumbs are being left.”

  Dickie said, “I am sure the crumbs for this stop are already planted, we will have to be very aware though. We should observe and let them be left, but pick them up. Our traitor won’t know that their messages are not getting out.”

  John just looked at the ground, saying, “Yea, maybe.”

  Amy and Laurie prepared a large meal for the night and packed up the prepared food for travel. Roger and Ray examined the map and noticed that they were not at the Kentucky border, but some thirty miles into the state. This left them with a little over one hundred miles to go. It was cold that evening, which made it perfect for keeping everyone together. John had all the mattresses brought to the main living room and a fire was started in the fireplace. Initially they were worried about the smell of smoke, but after Dickie went outside and smelled fire, they knew the smell would not be an issue and once it got dark the smoke would not be seen.

  When morning arrived, they packed up and made their way to the power lines which would carry them another fifty or more miles closer to their destination. On the map was marked places where supplies would be cached for them. They were to be careful to follow the map, and avoid areas shaded in red no matter what. It was impressive how in only a few months this network had been established and was working so well.

  John asked one of the drivers how they managed to be so organized so soon after the collapse of things and was told that they belonged to the A.N.T.S. network before any of this happened. They had never heard of A.N.T.S. before and were told it meant Americans Networking to Survive. John wondered why he had not heard of this before and wished he had.

  They traveled a number of days, on foot. There were complaints from a few, mainly Kimmie and Renee. Danny was struggling to maintain the pace of ten miles per day. His leg was healing well, but he was still weak. Jules was getting sicker by the day. Even with the fresh insulin the pregnancy was taking its toll. Amy and Laurie told John that they could not continue this way.

  The pace had to slow no matter what John had hoped, he knew they could not continue as such. Another few days passed and they were only making half what they started out with now at five miles per day. He knew they would have to have a day or two of rest, his hopes were too optimistic. John wanted to push through, only another five or so days at this pace and they would be more than half way there, they were nearly to the area of the map where the power lines intersected with the railroad tracks that they would follow for a time.

  At this intersection the location of the cache was an old barn long forgotten by those who built it. Inside the barn there were two men who stepped out as the group approached. Quickly they identified themselves as A.N.T.S. and told them to come inside, they had news from their friends.

  One man introduced himself simply as Red, the other said nothing. Shaking hands all around, he told them that there was a hot meal ready on the other side of the barn and that they would spend the night inside.

  Red said, “I need to talk to John, which one of you are John?”

  John stepped forward with his hand out and said, “Right here.” Taking his hand in a handshake.

  Red replied, “Good to meet you, let's step outside and chat a moment.”

  John nodded affirmation toward Dickie and followed the man out the door.

  Once outside, Red said, “I was instructed to tell you that you need to be more careful when packing up camp. You still have the group tailing you.”

  John nodded and said, “We were hoping we managed to lose them without the trail of breadcrumbs.”

  Red said, “They are struggling to follow now, but they are still on you.”

  John looked off a moment and said, “I will personally check the camp when leaving. Was that all?”

  Red said, “No
, I have news from Arthur.”

  John was excited asking, “Is everything ok? What is the news?”

  Red laughed, saying, “Yes, everything is fine. Your friends will be moving soon, but you are to stay on course. They are part of a much larger group that will take over for us once you get closer.”

  John was full of questions asking all at once, “Why are they moving? Where to? Is everyone ok?”

  Red put his hands up for him to calm down, saying, “Everything is fine, I have not been given any of the details. I was supposed to check on you and give you that information.”

  John nodded, and shaking his hand said, “I’m sorry, thank you for everything.”

  Red replied, “No problem, I would be excited too, sorry I didn’t have more news.”

  John smiled, saying, “It’s good to hear any news. This trip has taken far longer than I ever would have thought and it helps being reminded of our friends.”

  Danny and Jules were both in rough shape. Danny’s wound had mostly healed, but the massive infection took its toll on his recovery. His leg was getting stronger with the help of Amy and Laurie getting him to stretch it each night, but he was becoming frustrated at his limitations. Jules was getting worse each day, at this point everyone knew there was something terribly wrong and it was making the others uncomfortable not knowing.

  John looked at Dickie as he stood looking at her and said, “It is time to tell the others what is going on with her.”

  Dickie looked down and said, “Yeah I know.”

  John replied, “It might ease the burden on Amy and Laurie as well as you.

  Dickie had tears he was holding back when he said, “They don’t know if she is going to hold on long enough.”

  John looked horrified, saying, “We might lose them both?”

  Dickie looked at him almost pleading for guidance and asked, “Was it wrong to let her keep the baby?”

  John put a hand on his shoulder and said, “My friend, if things don’t start righting themselves, you would have lost her either way. She is type one diabetic and insulin dependent, the supply would have run out eventually. No my friend I don’t believe it was wrong.”

  Dickie, tears rolling down his cheeks said, “We talked long ago and she knew I wanted a son, the doctors told us no more children, that her body couldn’t handle it. John, she knew this before she got pregnant. I don’t know how I’ll go on without her.”

  John became stern saying, “You will go on. You have a daughter to care for and God willing, a newborn. You need to get it together.”

  Dickie nodded and said, “Thanks mate, not only for this, but for everything you have done. We never would have made it to Dez if it were not for you.”

  John began to shuffle his feet, saying, “Aww shucks.”

  They both laughed, Dickie regained his composure and they walked over to where the food was laid out and began making a plate. John and Dickie sat with Roger and Jenny chatting about how much further they had to go, when Amy came over and sat down.

  John looked at her saying, “To what do I owe the pleasure of the company of such a fine lady as you?”

  Amy smiled slightly and said, “I wanted to talk to you.”

  John said, “What’s up sweetheart?”

  Amy replied, “Take a walk with me?”

  John stood, saying, “a change to go walking with a beautiful lady? Sure thing.”

  Once they were outside the barn, John could see she was troubled about something and asked, “What’s wrong?”

  Amy looked troubled, saying, “We can’t keep up this pace, at least not without at least a few days’ rest.”

  John was agitated, saying, “But we are so close.”

  Amy scolded him, “What good is it if we can’t all arrive together?”

  John stopped and looked at her, brushing his hand through his longer than usual hair and said, “What do you mean?”

  Amy wrung her hands and said, “Its Jules, she is too weak to go on right now. She needs some rest.”

  John hung his head in thought for a moment, recalling the conversation he and Dickie had only a short while ago and said, “This is a good place, we have shelter and good defensibility. We will stay here, it will be good to get our bearings and prepare things for the next leg of our journey anyway.”

  Amy was shocked he didn’t put up more of a fight and asked, “You’re not going to argue this with me?”

  John looked sad and said, “No, I guess I knew we couldn’t keep up that pace. How is Jules?”

  Amy looked sad saying, “I don’t really know, she stopped telling us what was going on with her but I know it is bad. Her color is off and she is not eating much, honestly, I don’t know how she keeps going.”

  Amy continued, “At some point her kidneys are going to quit working all together and we are going to have to do something. I have been reading up on C-sections and I’m really worried about the baby as well. I just don’t know that much about diabetic kidney failure and the implications for the baby. Eventually Jules will fall into a coma and die, there is nothing we can do about that. My concern is knowing the right time to take the baby. The longer we can wait the better she is only twenty six weeks and there is a chance this premature we will lose them both.”

  John looked pained as he said, “We will stay put as long as we need to.” Then kissed her on her forehead and sent her back into the barn.

  A few moments later Dickie came out with Roger and asked if everything was ok. John said that they would be taking a break here for a few days and that they should prepare a watch rotation and get the group settled in.

  Two days they remained in the barn, by now everyone knew that Jules was not doing very well. She did not get any better with rest, but instead progressively got worse. Amy told Dickie he was off watches and all other duties because she needed him to pay constant attention to Jules right now. Amy and Laurie knew Jules was fading, but didn’t know how to help her.

  On the fourth day Amy awakened to Dickie shouting, “Jules, Jules…. Please baby wake up!”

  Amy came over to him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder saying, “I’ll tend to her, will you please make us some coffee?”

  Dickie looked quizzically at her saying, “Coffee? We haven’t had coffee in weeks.”

  Gently Amy spoke, “There is some coffee in the duffle bag near the cart. I’ve been saving it for when we had snow, thinking it might lift spirits. Let’s have some, shall we?”

  Dickie knew today would be the worst day of his life as he walked to the cart his wife had been riding in. He found the coffee right away along with a perk coffee pot. It didn’t take long for the smell of coffee to arouse everyone. Amy had Georgia and Matty read a story to Jules so the adults could talk.

  She sat in the midst of everyone and sighed as she spoke, “We need to take the baby. Laurie, Melinda and I have been preparing for this, it is important that everyone knows their role here.”

  Dickie let out a small sob asking, “What do I need to do?”

  Amy said, “For now? Be with your wife, when we are ready, I need you to stay close to Georgia. Matty will help you.”

  Then she began handing out assignments. John and Ray were to go to the creek and get lots of water, filling every container they had. Roger, Ray and Mark were needed to set up a perimeter to keep watch. Jenny would assist Dickie with the kids while Laurie and Melinda would assist with the C-section. Kimmie, Renee and Danny would keep the fires going to boil the water. They all agreed without any complaints and every hurried to their task.

  Jules never moved or woke up while preparations were made. Dickie was grief stricken and nearly immobilized with sadness. Georgia and Matty did not really understand what was going on but Amy feared Dickie’s grief would upset Georgia. Jenny took the kids outside to help gather firewood for the fire. They were admonished by John to stay in an area where he could see them at all times.

  The preparations made, it was time to deliver the baby. Following the pr
ocedure set forth in all the readings the ladies began the terrifying task. They were not at all sure of themselves and were noticeably shaky.

  Dickie reached out for Amy’s hand, saying, “The best you can do is more than we hoped for.”

  Somewhere during his moment Dickie had found some clarity and was now the rock Amy needed to steady her hand. Following the procedure like a textbook operation, they successfully delivered the baby and stitched up Amy. She was still not awake, but the baby, a little girl, Dickie named Kayleigh after his favorite song by Marillion back in the eighties, lay next to her. She was small and struggled to breathe, what he really needed was an incubator, but she was holding her own… for now. Dickie and Georgia spent the remainder of the day with Jules and the baby, they slept that night all cuddled up as a family.

  Chapter 24

  “Bittersweet arrival”

  “If this is victory, then our hands are too small to hold it.”

  -J.R.R. Tolkien

  During the night Jules quietly died, her family huddled around her. The sadness of this morning was palatable, everyone was silently going about the tasks at hand preparing for the inevitable funeral they would soon need to attend. Jenny cared for the children while others prepared a grave. Dickie was silent, never uttering a word to anyone as he stoically helped dig the hole that would become his wife’s final resting place. This worried John, fearful his friend would retreat into his grief and be unable to carry on.

  Amy further worried about Kayleigh, she was still struggling to breathe and he was so tiny he could practically fit in the palm of her hand. They had plenty of formula and he was being fed every hour hoping to quickly boost his weight. Only time would tell if this little miracle would survive in the new and harsh world.

  They stayed another night in the barn, but knew it was time to move on. In the morning they would pack up and head for their new home. Dickie was still quiet and reserved, barely even acknowledging anyone and refusing to hold or feed Kayleigh. Jenny kept Kayleigh with her, holding the baby girl against her skin to help keep him warm, hoping her father would soon take up the task.