by Martha Woods
“Yeah,” She said, squeezing his hand gratefully, “What a surprise.”
“Jeremy.”
The temporary overseer of the camp turned at the voice, looking at the old soldier with something between impatience and anticipation. “Hank, what’s the word on your mission?”
“I haven’t managed to find anyone willing to be the one to make the plunge, and honestly I… I can’t blame them. It’s a big ask for anyone, and these are basically no bigger than pups, most of them are still thinking of building families soon, some already have.”
Jeremy sighed, almost grateful for the confirmation. “I suppose that it was too ambitious of a thought wasn’t it? We’ll just have to think of some other way to go about this war.” If it even gets that far, our food stocks aren’t looking good.
“If you don’t mind sir I… I believe that there’s one person that would be willing to make the journey, if the need demands it.” Hank got down on one knee, bowing his head and crossing her fist across his chest. “I’ve lived a long life, longer than I should have, my family is already grown and able to take care of themselves. I would be honored to take on the burden myself, to ensure that the rest of our kin can grow fat and old with those that they love.”
Jeremy looked down at him and felt his heart sink in his chest, both for the sight in front of him and the thought of what it could mean. He knew for a fact that he didn’t want to go through with this plan, not when it could mean something so horrible, but what other choices were there when the choices were between blood and death? And how could he possibly deny the wishes of someone who had already given so much for their clan in life, and only wishes to save it through death?
“The clan… the clan would be honored to have you make this final sacrifice for our greater good, but are you sure this is what you want Hank?” He knelt himself, pushing Hank’s chin up gently and matching the steely gaze. “There are so many ways that we could think around this, so many ways that we can still use your help, no one would blame you for wanting a life for yourself.”
Hank shook his head, sadly, but with determination in every wrinkled crevice of his skin. “Like I said, I’ve lived a long enough life, and there are many others who deserve the space that I take up now. If it’s not this, it’s going to be something else down the line, and if it’s all the same… I would rather go down as a warrior, not as some feeble old man in his bed.”
The time passed slowly between them, young and old both staring at each other and trying to figure out what was swimming behind the other’s eyes, to no avail. After considering the options, many of which were not within the realm of possibility, Jeremy let his head fall with a sigh, “Then ready yourself for your final mission soldier, and be prepared to fulfil your duty until the bitter end. I cannot tell you the debt that we owe you for this.”
“You already paid me back, every single one of you, by just allowing me to be a part of something so miraculous for so many years, through the hard and through the easy, the good and the bad. Even Jeremy before he turned against us… well, there’s no point in thinking about that, he’s with them now after all. But after all of this is said and done, I hope that we can all build something better out of this, it’s what our fathers and grandfathers would have wanted.”
Jeremy watched him rise, saw the set in his shoulders, and knew that he had prepared his entire life for this one moment, the moment where he would give his life for the cause. He was never going to go quietly, slowly, he was determined to go out in glory.
As he bid him farewell, waiting for the word that he was going to be marching off to his death, he still couldn’t figure out the glory in all this.
Chapter 8
Orson and Jennifer stood outside the house, warming their hands by the fire that had been set outside to acclimatize them before their journey back down south. Frank and Helga had been adamant that the fight could wait just one more day for their injuries to heal, and it had taken more than a little browbeating to ensure that they actually listened to them. The threats of additional bodily harm may have helped a little.
“How long do you think it’ll take us to get back down there?” Orson asked, rubbing his hands together and stuffing them into his pockets, “It’s one hell of a trek after all.”
“With all this food in our stomachs and the warm clothing? I reckon that we can make it back down there in a day, but we’ll have to lay low outside their range to be sure that we’re actually going to be able to prepare ourselves, once it pops off we’re going to have one hell of a fight on our hands.”
“I figured,” He sighed, staring up at the stars, “I hope that we don’t have to fight too many of them, but it’s likely that we will. They’re still my people, and yours, even if it’s just punching and not killing… I don’t want to have to do that.”
“They won’t give us a choice, but we’re doing this because we’re certain that it’s the right thing. If it’s not this war then starvation will get them, if it isn’t that it’ll be something else, it’s best for everyone that we just get them out now and let them hate us for the rest of our lives, even if it sucks to think about.” Jennifer tossed a pebble into the fire, watching the wood crackle and spark where it hit before reforming, swallowing the pebble completely. “If they would have just listened to us in the first place then it wouldn’t have come to this, but there’s no point in thinking about that now.”
“They’re stubborn,” Frank said, startling them out of their near-trance, “Almost as stubborn as the two of you are actually, can’t blame them for the same.”
“Yeah but…” Orson laughed, rubbing at his neck, “I guess you’re right, I can’t really argue with you there. I just hope that wherever this takes them is better for them than here, the only thing that’s been keeping us all on this land was thinking that we were actually making a difference.”
“We were making a difference, we were killing it slowly.” Frank looked back at his house, pursing his lips as he thought things over. “This place didn’t do it, the land around here is relatively healthy actually, but back down south… that campsite was only spreading out more and stripping the trees and the grass, we had to keep moving and consuming because we just couldn’t sustain ourselves after that war, and God knows that we poisoned everything enough in that shitshow. All those bodies… how healthy do you think the ground is where those big battles took place?”
Jennifer shuddered, “Trust me, you don’t want to see some of the ones in our territory. It’s like the ground was stained black, and it stayed that way long after we got all the bodies out of there. It’s like there was evil in the soil now.”
“Probably was, that war was a profoundly evil thing, brought about by our greed and our shortsightedness, on both of our sides. We could have remained peaceful, cooperated to ensure that our mission to keep the land safe was accomplished, but that old school turf war bullshit just had to take over sometime.” Taking his seat next to them, he stretched out his legs and let his body slump. “I’m tired of having to just constantly watch my back when I’m supposed to just be able to live my life, I think I was tired of all of this a long time ago.”
“You’re definitely going to move on then?”
“Absolutely, we’ll come back here every now and then, this is our home after all, but living here forever? No, those days are long gone, we’re going to find some place out west, maybe more north, seems like cold is going to be more common these days so we should probably get used to it.”
“That’s a depressing thought,” Jennifer said, popping her lips and staring into the trees, “I don’t mind the cold, but I don’t want it to be the norm, you know?”
“Well there’s still plenty of desert in this country, I doubt that it’s going to become a tundra in Nevada anytime soon. I don’t know if anything will kill that heat.”
“We’ll see,” Orson said, looking over at him, “Megan should be there, or at least around there, it wouldn’t hurt to visit there soon.”
“If you do, make sure that you pack plenty of water, it’s gonna be a bitch out there.” Frank looked up at the house as the door clicked shut, Helga smiling down at him with her arms filled with packs. “Looks like that’s my cue.”
Jennifer looked between them, connecting the dots between the packs and their heavy coats. “You guys are leaving?”
“Absolutely, we don’t want to be anywhere near all of this once it goes down, that’s a nuclear bomb and we are smack bang right in the middle of the blast zone.” Helga tossed a pack between them, nodding down at it as Orson picked it up. “The food that was left over from the dinners, it’s been dried so you won’t have to worry about cooking it. Just focus on walking and keeping your energy levels up when you leave and you’ll get there just fine.”
“You’ve got the house for another day, I strongly suggest that you take it alright?” Frank walked up to them, holding his hand out and smiling gently. “It’s been an honor to know you both, I really hope this isn’t the last time that we see each other.”
“It won’t be,” Orson said, taking his hand and pulling him into a hug, “You two be careful out there, ok? Don’t worry about us, just focus on keeping yourselves safe.”
“That’s supposed to be my line…” Frank stayed in the embrace for a few more moments, exhaling slowly before he separated and nodded his head. “When you get out, call us on these numbers ok? If you ever need help then just tell us and we’ll come out to wherever it is that you need us, you’re still our friends, and that means something to the both of us.”
“So dramatic,” Helga said, rolling her eyes with a good-natured grin, “We also have these, so if you need to get in contact with any of them, or if you just want to hear their voices, you can. Just… be careful with Megan’s one ok? She really wasn’t joking when she said that we had just one shot if it came to that.”
Orson took the slips of paper with a shaky hand, four sets of numbers written in neat handwriting that were his absolute lifelines from now until forever. The fact that he was holding the key to hearing his families voices again was… a little much to take in right away, but when he did it felt like a weight was lifting off his chest that had been there for years now. “Thank you,” He said, wrapping her in his arms and squeezing tightly, “We’ll let you know that we’re alive after this, I promise. I’m so sorry that it came to this.”
“It’s not your fault, not anyone’s fault really. It’s just… one of those things.” Patting him on the back, she took a moment to herself before she too pulled back and stood by Frank’s side, each of them shaking Jennifer’s hand firmly and giving their nods of approval. “Of all the wolves that we could have met, I’m glad that it was you. I hope this isn’t the last that we see of you.”
“Oh trust me, after this you’ll probably see so much of me that you’ll get sick of seeing my face,” Jennifer laughed, pushing them away lightly before she could get too emotional, “Go on, get out of here. Everything’s about to get a whole lot more complicated soon.”
They nodded, taking a few hesitant steps backwards before they squared their shoulders and turned away, giving one last wave back before they finally disappeared into the trees, the sounds of the forest dying to that of the crackling fire and the chirping of the night birds. She hadn’t realized just how lonely it was out here now that it was just the two of them, and with a sigh and a shared look they decided that perhaps it was best to enjoy the inside of the house one last time while they could.
“You think they’ll be ok?” Jennifer asked, “It really is going to be dangerous out there, even without the war on the rise, it’s a pretty dangerous world now.”
“Believe me, if anyone is equipped to take care of themselves out there it’s those two, they’re the most capable people that I know, even more so than myself or my family.” He sat down on the sofa, eyes misted as he reached for the glass of juice that he’d poured himself earlier. Home grown orange juice, something that he hadn’t had in so long and likely would go for a long time without again, he was going to savor it. “Frank has been my best friend since… well, I guess since I knew what friends were. We grew up alongside Helga as well, the three of us got up to some trouble way back when.”
“You all seem so close, if I didn’t know better I’d say that they were your actual family.”
“Honestly? They may as well be, we’ve stuck our necks out for each other enough. That was actually how we met Helga, scrapping it out with one of the bigger kids, so we jumped in right next to her and decided to make it even.”
“Was it?”
“No, he was way bigger than us, he kicked our asses when his friends showed up too. But it was the principle of the thing, you know?” He chuckled, relaxing even further into the plush fabric, “Helga and I actually dated for all of one week when we were like… thirteen? But we knew there was nothing happening there pretty much instantly, we broke things off so quickly that pretty much no one except Frank and Megan know it even happened. It was so obvious that her and Frank were meant to be anyway, years before it actually happened.”
Jennifer just laughed along, sliding herself next to him and laying down with her head in his lap. “You’ll see them again, I know that much.”
“You know… if we didn’t, if this was the last time that we saw them, I think I’d be ok with that. The last couple of days, spending all this time together, it was nice, nicer than everything’s been for months now, not a bad way to go out.”
“Well, we’re just going to have to find a better one then, aren’t we?” Reaching up, she poked him in the nose and smirked. “Come on, get some sleep, we’ve got one hell of a walk ahead of us tomorrow.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice…” He mumbled, placing the empty glass down and letting his head slump back, fingers scratching along Jennifer’s scalp as she hummed contentedly, before the both of them slipped into sleep.
“This sucks.”
Jennifer laughed, looking back at him as they crested the hill where they’d first met. “You can’t be telling me that you’re not at least a little happy to be back.”
“Under the circumstances? Not really.” He stopped next to her, gazing across the sunset and marveling the way the beams reflected off the frosty ground and lanced through the branches in impossibly beautiful beams of light. “Though… I guess that view is always amazing.”
They unpacked their small collection of materials for the night, two sleeping bags was all they were going to allow themselves for the time being, and a handful of the dried meat to help them regain their energy. The trek had indeed been long, and had definitely not been a pleasant experience with the amount of running that it had taken to carry them all the way back, but they were still planning to push out the next morning when the regular hunting packs rolled out. A short window of time between now and then was all they had to be certain that they were actually going to be able to move the way they needed to, and they wasted none of it with standing around.
“We’ve got five hours to get ready, why exactly do they go hunting at three in the morning?”
“The animals are starting to wake up, so there’s still some sport in it, but they’re too tired still to actually be much of a challenge. We normally didn’t like doing it that way, but as the situation got more dire we didn’t really have much of a choice, you know?”
“Fair enough, I’m not going to judge any of you there.” Orson adjusted himself on his sleeping bag, counting the stars starting to make themselves visible as the sun crept lower into the horizon. “You still sure that you want to do this?”
She was tempted to answer right away like she always was, but this was a situation that warranted another second of thought. This was her family after all, her home, was she really ok with doing something like this?
When she thought about what the alternative was… “Absolutely.”
“Alright then,” Orson said, breathing a small sigh of relief that her answer still remained the same, �
�Get some food in you, then get some sleep. We’ll be pushing out in no time.”
Back in the bear camp, in between moments of pacing in Orson’s destroyed home, Jeremy was fixating on not tearing the hair out of his scalp from sheer stress. Things were advancing in a way that he was not certain that he wanted, a war on the horizon no matter how things worked out, yet he couldn’t think of a single other solution other than the one right in front of him. Not for the first time, he didn’t envy Orson the responsibility that he’d been forced to shoulder for so long, no wonder he had looked so miserable all the time.
“What choice do we have?” He asked himself, sitting in one of the wooden seats that had somehow remained undamaged in the fight that had taken place, fingers drumming along his thighs in an endless rhythm until he was snapped out of it by the sound of knocking on the door. “Yes? Who is it?”
“It’s Hank, sir.” The old soldier stepped in, taking stock of the room and noting the busted-out window in the kitchen. “He always was a slippery one wasn’t he? Not really surprised that he got away, not really surprised that he beat our boy either, he’s probably still alive out there as we speak.”
“Are you sure about that?” Jeremy asked, more to himself than to Hank, “He was apparently pretty injured, and the forest has been very harsh lately. He could have just fallen a few miles out there and we’ll never find him.”
“He could have, but I always got the feeling that he was hardier than that, you saw the way that he used to fight after all… and then he still goes over to their side like that…” Hank shrugged. “Doesn’t matter, if he’s out there we’ll deal with him the same way we’ll deal with these wolves, that’ll all come in good time though.”
“Why are you here Hank?” Jeremy asked, beginning to lose patience with the way everyone saw fit to refer to Orson as a traitor. Or maybe he just didn’t want to think about how that little detail was purely his fault. “If you need someone to talk to then I’m sure there’s others…”