“You suit yourself if you think that’s what you need to do, but I’ll tell you just like Keith did; you’re putting that boy at much greater risk taking him to a refugee center than he’s in out here. How do you think they’re going to feed all of those people? And what will they feed them? What about the diseases that’ll spread like wildfire with a mob of thousands packed into close quarters like that? Do you think you’re going to get special treatment if you get sick? I’ve been living in Florida long enough that I’ve seen what happens with hurricane refugees in similar situations that only lasted a few days. Imagine the shape some of those folks they bring in there are going to be in after several months! It’ll be hell on earth; that’s what it’ll be, and there ain’t no way in hell you could drag me to a place like that!”
“This swamp is what I call hell! You can sit out here slapping mosquitoes day and night if you want to, but I’ve had enough of it. I don’t appreciate that you’re still trying to scare my son, either, Bart. You’ve been doing your best to make him paranoid and afraid of people, and I know it’s because you don’t really like most people, but that’s not the way we want to live. Things are going to get back to normal again, whether you like it or not, and living out in the woods isn’t what most people call normal.”
“I don’t want to go to some dumb refugee camp, Dad! It’ll probably be just like being in prison. We’ll be locked up and won’t be able to do anything! I’m not doing it, and you can’t make me!”
“We’ll see about that, Andrew! I am your father and you’ll go where I go.”
“And you’re just gonna leave, right before my stepmom and Megan get back? I guess you don’t care about them at all anymore, do you Dad?”
“You know better than that, Andrew. But we’ve been waiting for weeks! I tried to talk Shauna out of going. I told her it was insane for her to go off like that as dangerous as things are. She should have listened and let Megan’s father and Jonathan go alone. If anyone could handle it, they could, and they didn’t need her help. She knew the risks and she knew I was against it, but she went anyway. She also knows that I have a responsibility to look out for you and make sure you’re safe. Staying here any longer is completely irresponsible, especially now that we know there is a better place to go. Look, Andrew, your stepmom will come back if she’s able too, and when she does, I’m sure she’ll be able to find us, because everybody is going to be in those refugee centers. It totally makes sense and it has to happen that way in order for the government to reestablish order and start rebuilding and fixing all this insanity. We’re not leaving without her by choice. We’re doing what we’ve got to do, because wherever she is right now, she’s there because of her choice.”
It was hard to stay out of it, but Bart kept his opinions to himself for now. He hadn’t cared much for Daniel since he’d first met him and it just wasn’t because he’d replaced Eric as Shauna’s husband, although that irked Bart too. It was mainly the way he’d handled himself in the crisis they all faced, especially in the beginning, when Bart took the three of them in at his place on the Caloosahatchee. After Eric came along and they made the voyage here, Bart thought there might be a glimmer of hope for Daniel. He’d actually taken an interest in what was going on and had started pitching in where he could, but then he’d gone into some kind of depression again after Shauna left, and it got worse by the day the longer she was gone. Bart hadn’t seen the man smile in weeks until Keith came back with word of those refugee centers in Texas. Bart knew Daniel was serious when he said he planned to go there, and it would have been fine with him and Keith both if he did just that—other than the fact that he was determined to take Andrew with him. Bart hated to see the boy put through that, and he hated the thought of losing his new best buddy. Even though Andrew got on his nerves sometimes, it was going to be awful lonely out there on the bayou without him. Bart didn’t know when Daniel planned to leave or how he planned to do it, but for now, he intended to go about his business as usual, and that meant readying the skiff for another day of fishing. He would put Daniel off as long as possible and take Andrew with him while he still could.
Bart’s plans changed in an instant though, when Keith emerged from the cabin of the Miss Anita. Bart had expected him to sleep in a while, as he’d been out late the evening before trying to hunt down some looters that had killed a man at a house near Highway 77. But when he came out on deck, Keith was anything but groggy or sleepy looking. He couldn’t have disguised his excitement if he’d tried: “You don’t have the VHF on, do you Dad?”
“Nope! Didn’t see the need to fool with it this early! Why? What did you hear, son?”
“You aren’t going to believe this, but I just got a call from Greg on Channel 16. Jonathan is at his house! Do you want to take a ride with me?”
Eleven
DANIEL HARTFIELD STOOD AT the end of Keith’s driveway with Andrew, watching as Keith and Bart sped away up the gravel road in Greg’s patrol truck they’d been using ever since Keith’s had been stolen. Andrew had begged Keith to let the two of them go too, but Keith had said no. He didn’t know how long they would be gone, and besides there wouldn’t be enough room for all of them after they picked up Jonathan. Keith didn’t have many details because they were on an open frequency and he had adopted the policy of keeping all communications on the VHF band brief and vague. Greg relayed the news that Jonathan said they had found Megan, however, and that she and Shauna were somewhere nearby. There was no mention of Eric though, and that omission gave Daniel hope that maybe he wasn’t coming back.
Daniel’s thoughts had been in a dark place for weeks now and the news that Shauna and Megan were both alive didn’t immediately change his outlook for the better. His anger and resentment over what Shauna had done had grown intense, keeping him in a bad mood and amplifying the discomfort of an already bad situation that seemed to get worse by the day. Shauna had completely disregarded his feelings to go off with her ex-husband, and Daniel couldn’t imagine things between them ever being the same again, whether Eric was around or not. Yeah, he got that she wanted to find her daughter, but it didn’t make sense for her to go off with Eric the way she did, on a dangerous expedition across the country that would almost surely result in more gun battles and no telling what else. It was plain stupid as far as Daniel was concerned, and it really made him distrust her, even though he’d tried to suppress those feelings at first.
The days had dragged by after she left, and as they did, Daniel began to doubt that Shauna’s motivation was simply finding Megan. Daniel saw the way that she looked at him when Eric first showed up at Bart’s place in Florida, and although he’d heard her repeat the same old stories of why she’d left him for years, he could tell that she didn’t hate the man as much as she said she did. The thought of the two of them out there together on that boat or on the road camping every night along the way was really getting to him. It didn't matter that Jonathan was there with them too. Daniel knew that they could find a way to be together if that was what they wanted. And why wouldn’t they? They’d been married a lot longer than she and Daniel, and now they were on a quest to find the daughter they’d had together. Daniel felt abandoned and betrayed, despite how much Shauna had tried to reassure him he had nothing to worry about before they left. She’d made an extra special effort to prove that to him that last night they were alone together at Vic’s place, but when it was over, and Shauna was gone with Eric the next day, Daniel’s doubts came back in full force.
What if they got out there and found Megan and decided they didn't want to come back to Louisiana? Maybe the journey would be too difficult or too dangerous and Eric and Shauna would deem it too risky to even try. They could stay out there indefinitely, and all that time Daniel would be waiting here with his son, twiddling his thumbs and doing nothing, while thinking they were on their way back. For all he knew they could be a happy little family again already. The thought of it disgusted him, and Daniel often worked himself into a rage over it, e
specially when he was alone while Bart and Andrew were off fishing and Keith was somewhere doing his duties. And the one thing that his newfound knowledge of guns did for Daniel was empower him to fantasize about doing something about that rage. He always had them near him, and sometimes when he woke in the night from bad dreams about his situation, the first thing he did was reach for a gun, just hoping there would be somebody out there in the dark to give him a reason to pull the trigger. So far, it hadn’t happened, but if things went on the way they were going, he was sure it eventually would. Daniel didn't like feeling like a powder keg about to explode, but he just couldn't help it. Until Keith mentioned the new security forces and refugee centers in Texas, he’d thought the only cure for what was eating at him was to go back to Florida and hope for the best. He’d been ready to say to hell with Shauna and her ex-husband, Eric Branson, but now with this news today, he didn’t know what to think.
If what Keith had heard from the other deputy on the VHF was true, then by some miracle or good fortune Shauna had succeeded in going all the way to Colorado and bringing Megan back. How she could have accomplished it, Daniel had no idea, but their return wasn’t going to change his mind about what he planned to do. He’d spent enough time out here in the middle of nowhere, doing without every modern convenience known to man, and Daniel Hartfield was over it. No matter what Keith and Bart said about the refugee centers, they had to be better than this, and the fact that they were building them at all meant that something was happening over in Texas, unlike out here, where every day was the same, consisting of more wasted time doing nothing of any consequence.
Daniel had never been a patient man, and he had no real inclination to change now. He had always done quite well in the world of business, and it had been exceptionally good for a few years before the collapse of the economy and the shutdown of the banking system, when all that he had worked for was suddenly gone in a matter of weeks. It didn't often occur to him that he was lucky just to be alive and that he and his son had shelter and protection and food to eat when so many these days didn’t, because instead of being grateful, Daniel dwelt on all he’d lost. And until today, he’d been convinced that he had also lost his wife to the man she’d left with simply because in this screwed up nightmare of looting and killing and terror, Eric Branson was everything that Daniel was not. That asshole was literally in his element in a world where problems were solved with bullets instead of negotiation and business acumen, while Daniel had never even fired a weapon before the collapse. Daniel had no reason to be interested in guns before, much less to want them around him or his son in his own home. He’d begrudgingly accepted that Shauna was unwilling to part with her Glock when she came into his life, but he’d always insisted she keep it out of his sight and especially out of Andrew’s sight.
Daniel had been forced to change his attitude about weapons and self-defense by now, of course, but that didn’t mean he’d embraced the idea. He was doing what he had to do to get by and for now, going along with the gun toting fanatics that were Shauna’s former in-laws was just a way to survive. One day, he would be back in that other world he dreamed of though; the world of business and commerce, where he’d be comfortably seated in behind a desk in an air-conditioned Florida high-rise, with a view of the Atlantic right outside his windows. While it was only a dream for him now, it was the one thing that kept him going, because as far as Daniel was concerned, anything less wasn’t really a life worth living.
But even if the life he really wanted back would have to wait, Daniel still felt the need to be doing something productive. No, he couldn't help with the rebuilding or re-organizing of the infrastructure, but he had to think that there must be something a man with his knowledge of corporate management and finance could do. Maybe he could help the banks get reorganized and up and running? There was only one way to find out though, and to do so, he had to get back to civilization, either in Texas or back to Florida. The problem though, was how? He could take one of Keith’s vehicles, because although most people couldn’t get gas at all, Keith had plenty in his underground storage tank. But the bigger problem than the fuel shortage was the fact that the roads weren’t safe. Most of the people that had been killed since all this started had been killed on the road, so how could he and Andrew make it that far on their own? Texas was a lot closer than south Florida but driving even that relatively short distance was still risky.
Some days he was so desperate to find a way that he considered the schooner that brought them there, and aboard which they were now living. Daniel didn't like sailing; it was way too slow and way too complicated for his taste, but he now understood that such a boat was actually useful in the current conditions. It could definitely make the trip, but it would take more than just Andrew’s help to get it back down to the coast and across the Gulf of Mexico. And even if the two of them could sail it, it would be impossible to steal it out from under Keith and Bart, even when they were away for the day, because Keith could run down the river in his patrol boat in a fraction of the time it would take the slow cruiser to reach open water.
Every time he thought this through and realized the boat would do him no good, Daniel’s mind came back to Eric Branson’s ridiculous idea of sailing to some faraway island. When he thought of how readily Shauna had bought into this notion, Daniel’s rage became directed at the schooner itself. Sometimes, he wished he could just blow it out of the water, and he knew if he looked hard enough, he could probably find some hand grenades Eric had left aboard and do just that. It was a satisfying thought, even if it wasn’t something he would actually carry out. The longer he was stuck there though, with all of those thoughts churning in his mind, the closer Daniel came to crossing the delicate line between the rational and the irrational.
“Now we don’t have to worry about going to one of those stupid refugee centers,” Andrew said, after Keith’s truck disappeared in a cloud of dust and the two of them walked back across the yard.
“Why do you say that? If Shauna and Megan are really back, that’s all the more reason we should go to one. You heard what Keith said. Greg didn’t mention Eric, so either something happened to him or he decided to stay out there and get involved in the fighting. That’s all he’s ever done, so I’m sure he’s enjoying it if he did.”
“He’ll be back. He’s the reason they found Megan and you know it. So, if he’s not with them right now, Shauna will tell us why. And when he gets here, we can sail away to an island, just like he promised!”
“That’s not going to happen, Andrew. I’ll bet you anything that Shauna and Megan are sick of traveling after all they’ve been through. They’ll be ready to go somewhere where they don’t have to hide, or carry guns, or worry about where they’re going to find food.”
“Bart said you’re just dreaming, Dad. He said things ain’t never gonna be like they were before, and that you might as well forget it.”
“I think you’ve spent way too much time with Bart, Andrew. Listen to yourself. You’re even talking like him. Do you really want people to think you’re one of these backwoods yahoos that grew up around here?”
“I don’t care what other people think. Folks around here are a lot smarter than people think they are. At least they know what to do when the grid goes down. They know how to hunt and fish, and out here in the swamp, a person that knows that ain’t never gotta worry about going hungry!”
“You won’t have to worry about going hungry in the refugee center either, and I’m sure they’ll have some sort of school system established there where you’ll meet lots of other kids and be able to get back to your studies.”
“Uncle Bart said there ain’t gonna be no more school. He said it don’t matter either, because everything is different now."
“See, that’s just what I'm talking about, Andrew. I know you’re just doing it because you think it’s funny and you know how much it aggravates me, but your grammar has gotten horrible since you’ve been hanging around that old man and before you re
alize it, it’ll become a permanent habit.”
"So what? I don’t need grammar to be a good fisherman, and that’s what I want to be. It seems like a pretty good way for me to live and I can do it when we sail to the islands too. Like Bart said, this is how everybody used to live for thousands and thousands of years. He said modern people got too smart for their own good, and then look what happened! All our technology and civilization came crashing down so fast they didn’t know what hit ’em! But people like him who already knew how to live off the grid weren’t bothered too much. Just look at the difference! Look at how Bart can manage; and look at Jonathan! They’ve been doing just fine, and you and I would both be dead if it weren’t for their help!”
“Coming here with them served a purpose at the time, but now that time is coming to an end. I’ve been telling you ever since we got to Bart’s house in Florida not to pay attention to all of his predictions. He’s been blowing this out of proportion since the beginning. Yes, things were really bad in south Florida when we left, and they’ve been bad here, but both places got hit by a major hurricane too. Things are obviously a lot better outside the hurricane-damaged regions, or else Keith wouldn’t have gotten that call this morning. You heard what he said, Andrew. Shauna and Jonathan made it back and they found Megan too. They couldn’t have done that if it was as bad out west as it’s been here. And besides that, we know what they’re doing in Texas, taking in refugees. Keith and Bart don’t want to do the logical thing and go there, because they’re afraid of giving up their guns and losing control. Can’t you see they’re both just paranoid, Andrew? They’re more afraid of being told what to do than they are of all the real risks of being out here in the middle of nowhere with no law and order. We’ve got to trust the authorities, Andrew, and that means giving up some control and freedom.”
Feral Nation Series (Book 7): Feral Nation [Sabotage] Page 11