Sierra’s sister got up and headed toward the exit.
***
Sierra opened the basement door. She entered cautiously, knowing that there might be guards waiting or Nick himself might be armed. But when she entered, there was no one around. Could he have run away?
She took a few more steps inside the basement. Suddenly, she heard a noise of a door opening. She quickly took cover behind a metal cabinet.
“You won’t take me alive!” Nick yelled, from a wardrobe. He then started firing at her with a revolver. He fired all six bullets at her, yelling like a fanatic. But all the bullets went in the cabinet.
After knowing for sure that he ran out of ammo, Sierra came from behind the cabinet and approached him. He kneeled in front of her.
“Please, don’t kill me! Forgive me, I’m begging you. Please!”
Sierra punched him in the face, got him up on his feet, and pushed him toward the door.
“Let’s go! Move it!”
Sierra pushed Nick outside. When the crowd saw him, everybody booed and cursed him. Some even ran to him and hit him.
“Where are you taking me? What’s going to happen to me?” Nick asked, shaking.
“Shut up and keep moving!” Sierra told him, while pushing him with her gun.
They reached in front of a tall tree, next to which there was a rope used on one of his victims.
“Take off your clothes!” Sierra said.
“Excuse me?!” Nick asked.
“Now!” Sierra said, pointing her gun at him.
“Look, people,” Nick said, with tears in his eyes, “I admit I made a few mistakes about you. I realize I wasn’t the leader you wanted me to be. And I apologize for the malicious treatments I subjected you to. I’m begging you to forgive me. Please. But at the same time, let me ask you a question: what leader in the world history was perfect? Who, in the entire history of humanity, was always right and never wrong in his actions? I am only human. All the leaders of humanity were only human. So, please, judge me as a human.”
“Stop your fucking whining and take your damn clothes off! You have twenty seconds before we start filling you with lead,” someone in the crowd said.
Nick had no choice but to comply. He took off all his clothes. He was standing naked in front of everybody.
Sierra took the rope and tied Nick’s hands with one end and the tree with the other.
“Okay, ladies,” Matt said, “it’s your turn.”
“What’s going on? What are you doing to me?” Nick asked, shaking to the bones.
Suddenly, parts of the crowd were starting to make room for someone. Two women, ex-slaves of Nick, approached him. One was holding an incandescent iron in her hand and the other had a scissors in hers.
“What are you doing? What’s happening?” Nick asked when the two women reached next to him.
“Bend over!” the one with the incandescent iron, Sierra’s sister, told him.
Nick realized what was going to happen to him.
“Oh God! Please no! I’m begging you, no! Please!”
“Please is what we were saying,” Sierra’s sister said, “but you had no mercy on us. So I don’t see why we should have mercy on you. Now bend over!”
Sierra pointed her gun at his head.
“What’s wrong with you…”
Sierra hit him in the gut, causing him to fall on his knees. Taking advantage of his position, Sierra’s sister went behind him and shoved the incandescent iron up his anus. Nick yelled so hard, you could swear his lungs were going to collapse any minute.
“This is how I was feeling every time you were raping me, motherfucker,” Sierra’s sister said.
The pain caused Nick to faint. Someone poured a bucket of cold water on him to wake him up. Blood started dripping from his anus.
“We’re not done with you, asshole,” the one who poured water on him said.
The girl with the scissors approached him and faced him upwards.
“What are you going to do to me?” Nick asked her slowly, almost whispering.
She waved the scissors in front of him.
“Guess!”
“Oh, God, no! Please, no! I’m begging you, no!”
She grabbed his penis and started cutting it off with the scissors. Nick started yelling like a mad man, while she was slicing his manhood. When she finished cutting it, she threw it on the ground and stepped on it.
“Shock and bleeding will do the rest,” Sierra said. “Now let’s go home. We’ve seen enough for today.”
The crowd spread out, leaving Nick in a pile of pain and blood. Three hours later, Sierra’s prophecy came to a fulfillment. The shock and the bleeding caused Nick to die just as he deserved: slow and painfully.
***
Thomas and Julie stayed up all night. It wasn’t just the sound of gun fire that kept them awake, but also the deep concern that their parents might not make it. The thought that he will become Julie’s next parent at only seventeen even gave Thomas some tears in his eyes at one time, thinking that, although he loved his little sister, he was only seventeen. He wasn’t prepared to become a parent. He wasn’t prepared for such responsibilities. And it wasn’t just about that. He loved his parents and he didn’t want to see them dying before their time. He couldn’t conceive to see them dying of anything else but old age.
They fell asleep at one time and awoke just when the sun was starting to rise up on the sky, at three o’clock. And they woke up just in time to see the flare announcing them that their parents were still alive. The joy that gripped them was indescribable.
“Come on, Julie,” Thomas said, “let’s greet Mom and Dad.”
The gates opened, showing Bill and Sophie standing in front of them. Next to them, Sierra was proudly standing as well.
When they saw them, Thomas and Julie ran toward them and hugged them tightly.
“Mommy! Daddy!” Julie screamed, excited.
“Thank God you’re alive,” Thomas said.
“We were constantly thinking about you,” Sophie said.
“Is he dead?” Thomas asked.
“Yes,” Bill answered. “And he died just the way he deserved.”
“And I have some good news for you too, Julie,” Sophie said. “The teacher who hurt you is receiving a dose of her own medicine as we speak.”
“Finally, she is punished,” Julie said.
Sierra approached them and said:
“Well, what can I say…” Sierra said. ”You are always welcomed here. Do not hesitate to ask for our help if you need it.”
“Thank you. We will,” Bill said.
“Are you the new leader?” Thomas asked.
“No. The new leader is being appointed right now.
***
The people were staying in front of the stage, yelling in approval.
“I swear,” Matt said, “to be the leader that you deserve. I swear I will respect your rights, your dignity, and your opinions as citizens of this fine town. I swear…”
Thomas, Julie, Bill, Sophie, and Sierra were standing next to each other, watching Matt’s speech.
“You were right,” Thomas told Sierra. “I do like you now.”
Sierra smiled at him.
“I’m glad to see that I was right.”
“We would love to see the whole ceremony,” Bill said, “but it will be dark soon and we wanna hit the road before that happens.”
“Sure. No problem,” Sierra said. “Follow me to the gates.”
“Farewell and thank you for the supplies,” Bill said.
“Farewell and no problem,” Sierra said.
After saying goodbye, the four family members turned their backs on Sierra and started walking on the road. They could hear the gates closing behind them.
CHAPTER FOUR
The long road was ahead of them again. But at least this time, they had the supplies to confront it. Sierra had given them vegetables, canned beans, fruits and water. She cleaned their clothes and even gave
them new weapons and ammunition. Sophie was now carrying an M-16, Bill was carrying a Kalashnikov, and Thomas was carrying a revolver.
They walked for about an hour until they found an old house next to the road. Behind it, there were woods. In front of it, there were two old cars. One had a broken window and the other was missing a wheel.
They approached the house cautiously, to make sure there is no one inside. After peeking through the windows, Sophie said:
“This is where we will spend the day.”
***
The four gathered some fire wood from the woods behind the house and were standing around the fire they lit in the center of the room upstairs. They were eating beans from the cans Sierra gave them. Next to them was a toppled wooden cabinet. Thomas finished eating his portion and went to search inside it. He opened its doors and all he found inside were some pictures tied together with a purple, silk string. He untied the string and started looking at the photos. They all showed a blonde boy, aged about thirteen, a brunette man, aged about forty, and a blonde woman, aged around thirty. Some of the photos showed them together, while some of them showed them separated. Some of them showed them in the car, others in the house, and others were showing them enjoying the outdoors.
“These must be the people who lived here before The Alignment,” Thomas said. “They look like a pretty decent family.”
“Appearances can be deceiving,” Bill said.
“I wonder where they are now,” Thomas said.
“Either dead or killing someone for loot,” Bill said.
“Or maybe thriving in another community,” Sophie said.
“Yes, there is that possibility.”
“What was life before The Alignment like, Mommy?” Julie asked.
“In a way, a lot better,” Sophie said. “People were just as mean, but at least we didn’t have to kill each other for food. We had more than we could carry.”
“And what exactly happened during The Alignment?” Julie asked again.
“You wouldn’t understand. You’re too young to,” Thomas said.
“Try me.”
“Okay,” Thomas said. He started drawing in the dirt with his finger, while explaining:
“All right, Julie. This is our solar system. It has the Sun and nine planets: Mercury, Mars, Earth, Venus, Neptune, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto. This here is Earth, our planet, where we live. Understood so far?”
“Yes.”
“This is the Milky Way, our galaxy. The solar system that I just showed you is a part of it. Understood?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Now, our planet, just like all the others in our solar system, is spinning not only around its own axis, but also around the Sun. Now, normally, they spin in such a way that they never align with each other. Well, almost never. However, one day, eleven years ago, they happened to spin in such a way that they aligned not only with each other, but also with the center of our galaxy, which resulted in a great catastrophe. Fifty thousand extremely strong earthquakes hit the planet in just one day, causing, basically, the collapse of civilization. And the shortening of the day.”
“The shortening of the day? You mean the day was not this short before The Alignment?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. Before The Alignment, the day and the night were both twelve hours long. But the earthquakes caused by The Alignment shortened the day to three hours and prolonged the night to twenty-one hours.”
“Wow. That’s amazing.”
“There are a lot of things you would have enjoyed if you were born before The Alignment, Julie,” Sophie said. “You would have loved the theme parks, the cartoons, the company of other kids.”
“Cartoons? What are those?” Julie asked.
“You remember those comic books we found in Peekskill a year ago?” Thomas asked her.
“Of course I do. How can I forget them?”
“Well, they are basically comic books, with the difference that the pictures are moving. And mom is right. You would have loved them.”
Bill said:
“Alright, everyone. It’s dark outside. I suggest we try and get some sleep. We’ll need the rest.”
“Couldn’t agree more,” Sophie said. “Okay, gang. Time to go to sleep.”
They all put their heads on the floor and started slowly falling asleep. Julie did so trying to imagine what she didn’t get to experience: the cartoons and the longer duration of the light in a day.
***
After eight hours of sleep, everybody woke up at seven o’clock. Sophie told Thomas:
“Tom, you stay here with Julie. Your dad and I are going hunting.”
“Okay!”
Bill and Sophie then got out and started exploring the woods behind the house. They were treading carefully not to make the leafs rustle. They were walking extremely slow and they whispered every time they had to talk.
Eventually, after about two hours of walking through the woods, they saw a deer. Sophie signaled Bill to stay put and be quiet. She then pointed her weapon at the deer. But just when she was about to shoot, something moved in the bush next to the deer. The deer tried to run, but, from another bush, a huge wolf jumped at his neck, putting him down instantly. Then, from the bushes around, eight more wolves jumped out and came to feast.
“Well,” Bill whispered, “I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”
“I guess so,” Sophie approved.
They turned around, wanting to leave. But after taking two steps, Sophie stepped on a stick. The wolves immediately rose their heads up and saw them. Unwilling to share their breakfast with anyone else, the nine wolves started growling at the two human intruders, while approaching them.
“I think it’s a good idea to run,” Bill said.
“I think so too,” Sophie said.
The two started running, while the wolves chased them. One of the wolves caught up with them and tried to jump on Sophie.
“Sophie, look out!” Bill warned her.
Just as the wolf jumped, Sophie ducked, and the wolf landed in front of her. Sophie then put three bullets in him. He went down with a yelp.
Another wolf tried to jump on Bill, but he caught him by the neck and then bashed his head on a tree, killing him instantly.
A third wolf tried to jump at Bill’s neck, but he punched him in mid-air and shot him when he hit the ground.
Then, Sophie was the one targeted by the fourth wolf. He jumped at her, but she caught him in the arms and slammed him to the ground. Then, while holding his neck, she stabbed him in the gut.
The fifth wolf jumped at Bill. He managed to put him down, but he couldn’t bite his neck, since Bill was holding his hand under the wolf’s head, preventing him to reach it. Sophie saved him, shooting the wolf after defending herself in her turn.
Wolf number six jumped at Sophie, but she managed to stab him in mid-air.
Wolf number seven jumped at Bill. Bill crouched down, hit the wolf with the weapon in the gut and put six bullets in him while throwing him behind him.
The two remaining wolves were then shot while approaching Bill and Sophie. After about two minutes, while the adrenaline was still rushing through their veins, Bill told Sophie:
“What a day.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Sophie approved.
“Looks like we’re going home empty-handed.”
“Yeah. Pretty much.”
The two then put their weapons on their shoulders and headed toward their temporary shelter, where the kids were waiting.
When they reached the house and they opened the door, Thomas was sitting on the stairs, with his gun aimed at them. He holstered it quickly after recognizing those who opened the door.
“Oh, it’s you.”
“Of course it’s us,” Bill said. “Put that god damn gun away, before you heart someone or worse.”
“No luck hunting?” Thomas asked.
“No. Unfortunately not.”
Thomas got closer to them.
> “Then what’s with the blood on your clothes?”
Sophie and Bill looked down on their clothes. Indeed, they were bloodied.
“Don’t worry, it’s not ours,” Bill said.
“Whose is it, then?”
“Some wolves,” Sophie said.
“Wolves?! Jesus Christ, you could have been killed.”
“But we weren’t.”
“Now come on,” Bill said. “Let’s go upstairs and eat a veggie breakfast. And then, we’ll hit the big road again.”
***
After eating the rest of the beans they had left, the gang hit the road again, feeling surprisingly full after the breakfast. In eleven years since they started walking, they never headed toward a specific direction. They were simply going where their feet and eyes were taking them. As long as they were getting food, water and other supplies in the communities they encountered, a direction was as good as the other.
Despite the hour, the dark was still present. Thomas, Bill and Sophie were holding improvised torches in their hands, to illuminate their path. Julie was holding Thomas’s hand and she also had Diana in her other hand to give her comfort.
There was no one else around. Their only companions were the usual broken, rusty, abandoned cars lying on the road. From time to time, they would encounter areas full of trash, consisting of bottles, cans, broken carts, clothes or even condoms. Those were signs that they weren’t the only ones walking on that road.
“Dad,” Thomas suddenly said, “I don’t understand why we didn’t stay at that house.”
“Are we going to have this conversation again?” Bill asked.
“There was no one around us,” Thomas continued. “We had no reasons to be afraid.”
“Sooner or later, we would have had. We’re not the only ones walking on this road, Thomas. It would have been just a matter of time before someone else would have found that house and probably wanted to take it from us by force.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Look, boy, ever since Buffalo, your mother and I made the decision not to endanger this family again. This means that we don’t settle in a place for more than a week. Whether it’s a community, a house in the middle of nowhere, or a hollow in a tree, we don’t stay in it for more than a week. End of discussion.”
Dark Apocalypse: A Post-Apocalyptic Family Saga Page 6