From Within (14 page)

Marcus placed his hand on his breast pocket, feeling for the memory stick. The memory stick was now full of incomplete information. Before gathering a team he needed to change the message. How were they going to stop full-scale annihilation? He supposed it didn’t matter quite yet. He needed to pass this on immediately. A plan could be made from there.  The network the ARF seemed to have would most certainly include a military portion. Marcus relocked the items in his desk and took off for his Conex container.

*****

Marcus was again sitting in his dimly lit Conex container with his laptop perched on his legs. He typed as fast as his fingers allowed him. He tried to get every bit of information he could remember. He knew there had to be some sort of way to send pictures but he wasn’t the type to be able to figure it out without instruction. He added to the message that he had a picture of the document but didn’t know how to send it. He completed the encryption process and placed the memory stick back in his breast pocket. Marcus raced off back to the WWNL tent.

He hated the WWNL tent set up. He never remembered where he could find anyone when he needed them. He went from area to area asking for Blake. He could freely walk the office area and halls of the WWNL building with his eyes closed. He was way out of place in the much smaller workspace of the WWNL tent. He figured the smaller space should have been easier. He saw Kenneth approaching him.

“Hey Marcus, what are you up to today?” Kenneth said.

Marcus, not wanting to be assigned something from Kenneth decided to tell him his faux story of supply chain issues in the region. “I overheard something about supply chain issues this morning. I figured I’d get Blake and go check it out. It’d be good filler for while I’m out of town for a few days. Viewers won’t get the impression that Ava is running solo and I’m not around anymore. They might stop watching if they thought that.” He smiled at his own light joke.

“Supply chain issues?” Kenneth asked, not paying any attention to his joke. “What kind of issues? I haven’t heard anything about it.”

“Not quite sure,” Marcus said. “Just overheard something about it walking around camp this morning. I got cleared with General Bryce earlier to use a chopper or a vehicle to go investigate.”

“Now I’m curious,” Kenneth said. “Let’s go get Blake. I’ll come along with you. I don’t have anything else important today.”

No
, Marcus thought. His heart sunk. When was the last time Kenneth tagged along on an on-site investigation? There wasn’t even a solid story yet. Were they on to him? Had Kenneth been in the meeting with General Bryce? Did General Bryce tell him of their whole interaction? Was there no step in this uphill battle that didn’t include a possible hidden land mine? Was this his battle in this war? Hit after hit after hit. Why was it up to him alone to endure all of this?

“Everyone, drop your pistols,” the man said motioning towards the three women with his rifle.

A shot rang out, piercing the air and piercing their ears. Each of the three women dropped to the ground and covered their heads with their arms. They all wondered why the man shot and who had been hit. What sort of evil drove this group? They were threatening rape and now they killed one of them? Only seconds had passed, the three women slowly looked up. The man who had wanted the three of them was on his knees, slumped against a tree. The lights from the vehicles allowed them to see the dark liquid seeping down his face.

The other man raised his rifle, only aiming towards a general direction into the trees and started firing. Beth, realizing what was happening, scrambled for her pistol. She fired several shots at the man. The bullets pelted his body. He let go of his rifle and stumbled back a few steps and dropped to the ground. They heard yells coming from the convoy of vehicles. They must have heard the shots.

Will came running out of the trees.

“Don’t shoot,” Will said. “It’s me.”

“Oh, thank God,” Beth said as she lowered her pistol. “I thought he shot you.”

“He came close,” Will said. “I was pretty sure he couldn’t see me. I was going to come around the side to get him next.”

Lea was helping her mother up. Both of their faces were puffy from crying. Will put an arm around both of them in a wide hug.

“We need to get out of here,” Will said. “They definitely heard the shots. I’m sure they saw the truck parked down there on the road too. We need to get to Lewis’s. I didn’t imagine there’d be so many of them,” Will said as he looked over at their property. He sighed. “We probably can’t stay at Lewis’s either if they are going to be here. It’s too close. There’s no way we can fight a group that big.”

“I know,” Beth said solemnly.

“He’s still alive,” Lea said. She pointed to the man Beth shot.

They all went over to him. He had an arm across his chest, grasping his side. He was breathing heavily.

“Oh no,” Beth said as she put a hand to her mouth.

“Beth, is that Tanner?” Juana asked.

Beth nodded her head.

“The Tanner that you work with?” Will asked. He stepped forward and lowered his head towards Tanner trying to get a better look in the dark.

“Yes,” she answered.

Tanner was normally a clean-shaven man. Now he had an overgrown beard. He was in his mid-thirties and was always kind to everyone while Beth worked with him. The bad economy had come down hard on Tanner. He was a computer programmer that had been laid off and was forever trying to re-enter the field. The only job he could find in Oakhurst was at the gift shop with Beth. He couldn’t afford to move to find work. Now in this new world, it appeared he joined the mob that pillaged his own hometown.

“We can’t leave him for the others to talk to him,” Will said. “We’ve already mentioned that we are going to Lewis’s.”

Beth knelt down to Tanner. She noticed he smelled foul. “Tanner, I’m so sorry,” she said as her eyes welled up with tears. “I didn’t realize it was you.”

Tanner answered, barely audible, “No, Beth...I’m sorry.” He was struggling to breathe.

“Mom,” Will said, “Tanner probably brought this whole group up here. This is the group that attacked Juana. They weren’t from around here. He joined them. We need to go. They are coming this way now.”

“We can’t just let him die,” Beth said through tears. “He’s my friend.”

“Beth, we need to go,” Lea said pleadingly.

Will aimed his pistol at Tanner. Beth noticed and backed away. Will fired. They were temporarily deafened by the shot. Tanner’s heavy breathing had stopped. Lea’s jaw dropped open in surprise at what Will had just done. Will looked around at everyone. Juana, having a deep disdain for this group, nodded approvingly at Will.

“We need to go,” Will said.

Will picked up the weapons from the two men and headed off into the woods. The others followed. Beth remained silent, tears still flowing down her face. Lea walked alongside Beth, keeping an arm around her shoulder.

The first words that anyone spoke came after about a mile of walking. The walk was much more difficult through the woods than that morning when they did the walk on the road. It was pitch dark now, with only slight streams of moonlight shining through the trees. The rocky terrain would rise and fall. There were constantly tripping over unseen rocks and fallen trees.

“Will,” Beth called out. “Will...how could you kill him so easily?”

Will, still about ten paces ahead of the others, stopped. He stood facing the direction of Lewis’s farm and waited for his mother to catch up. She stopped next to him. She could see his eyebrows furrowed in anger as he continued looking ahead. Juana and Lea stopped behind them, remaining silent.

“How could you kill him?” Beth asked again. The question and thought of her friend being dead caused her to begin crying again.

Will finally turned to his mother. “He brought them all here. He must have. Look what they were about to do to you and Juana and Lea. You haven’t been to town. I have. There are bodies everywhere. They are killing anyone they want. There is no police. There’s been no one stopping them. They’ve burnt down nearly the whole town.” Will paused from his angry rant, processing his thoughts. “Look, Mom, I liked Tanner too. We have to think about us now. Because of him, we could have all been dead...tonight. It could’ve been worse. They could have wanted to keep you three. Who knows what they would be doing to you.”

“We could have helped him,” Beth said through her tears. “We could have brought him with us.”

“Mom, are you mad that I finished him or are you mad that you shot him first?” Will asked the question before thinking it through.

Will knew the question would pierce his mother deeply. He knew she had to be upset because she had shot a good friend of hers. She shot him to the point that it was inevitable that he would succumb to the wounds. Will wondered if he shot Tanner because it needed to be done or if he subconsciously wanted to take that burden from his mother.

“He would have slowed us down too much,” Will continued. “We couldn’t have brought him with us and he knows where Lewis lives. We said we were going to Lewis’s. If they had time to talk to him then they could have gotten to us tonight. They might still find Lewis’s tonight. It had to be done. He brought this on himself.”

Will was now cold in his tone. He didn’t like being this way to his mother. He didn’t like being this way in front of Lea. He knew it was a different world now. They had to bring their own justice. He wanted the others to understand what he understood.

“We need to keep moving,” Will said. “We still don’t know for sure if Alejandro was going to get Lewis and bring him back to where we were hiding or if they were going to stay there.”

Beth was silent again. She began walking ahead of the others and Juana started to follow. Will looked at Lea with pleading eyes as they both still stood there. He figured Juana was on his side, but he needed Lea on his side more than anyone. He held out his hand to her, wanting her to take it. She began walking, ignoring his hand. He dropped his arm to his side as a feeling something like defeat came over him. He sighed deeply and followed behind.

As Will could tell they were nearing Lewis’s, he decided to catch up to Lea to talk with her for the last section of the walk.

“Lea, what’s wrong?” Will asked. “Why are you mad at me?”

“You just killed those two guys...like...it wasn’t anything to you,” Lea answered. “And then you were so harsh to your Mom. That was her friend.”

“It wasn’t nothing to me,” he said. “It wasn’t easy. I thought of Tanner as a friend as well.” He looked ahead to keep track of Juana and his mother, their moving figures just visible due to the moonlight. “It’s just this whole night,” he said in a frustrated tone. “I’ve always been into planning and prepping and now that hardly did anything for us. All this work we’ve done to survive is going to be gone. Our town is gone. Who knows how many of our friends. I can only hope they made it to those camps. I was scared for you. I came back down the hill and heard what that guy was saying. I know what he was going to do. So do you.”

“I don’t know,” Lea said. “This whole life, it’s so different. It’s not what I wanted. I know those men were bad. I don’t know. I don’t know what to say.”

Will could tell she was struggling with this new way of life. He wasn’t sure if he had noticed before. Maybe it wasn’t until the reality of it landed at their gate.

“I know it’s difficult, Lea,” Will said. “I know having to kill someone or watching it isn’t the life we would have chosen for ourselves before all of this happened. That is the world we live in now. I’ve read tons on this type of stuff from military experts and survival experts. When societies crumble, the system of justice is placed in the individual’s hands. There’s no police or courts. And where is the military? We just have to make sure we are making the right decisions. I think what happened earlier was clear cut. I know Tanner was a friend, but he was the aggressor.”

“You still didn’t have to be so harsh to your Mom,” Lea said.

Will had hoped for some response to what he had said about justice being in their hands.

“Maybe I was being too defensive,” he said. “I know she was upset that she had shot Tanner. I know she was upset that I shot him too. Like I said, there was just so much that happened tonight. We are losing all the work we’ve done. We are losing our home,” he said and then paused. “What do you think about the stuff I said about justice being up to us?” He looked at her in the dark, trying to see if he could discern any reaction on her face.

“I don’t know,” Lea said. “Like I was saying, this way of life still seems foreign. I can’t wrap my head around any of us having to kill anyone. It still seems weird to me that my Dad shot the guy that cut my Mom. Anyone that did these types of things before always seemed to be criminals.”

“We are protecting ourselves from criminals now,” Will said.

“I know,” she said. “I don’t know how to explain it.” She paused for a moment. “You’ve been reading and preparing for something like this for a while. You had the food stored. You have survival gear. I’ve never read anything about this. I’ve never done any preparing. You’ve had plans and scenarios in your head for years. Every single thing about our lives now seems new and scary. I’m sure I’ve seen movies that demonstrate this type of situation, but I think of them as just movies. I don’t watch them for education on the subject. They are entertainment.”

“I guess I have to remember that,” Will said. “I have to remember that for you and everyone else. I might be the only one out of our group that basically studied this type of stuff. Lewis knows tons about working the land which is great for survival in situations like these. But, my Mom is probably going to be similar in thought to what you just told me.”

Their conversation ended as they approached the edge of Lewis’s farm. Beth and Juana were waiting for Will and Lea, staying in the trees. Once they were all together, they all stood silent for a few moments, listening for any indication of vehicles or members of the intruding group.

Beth broke the silence. “I think we should approach Lewis’s house from the back. Maybe only one of us.”

“I’ll go,” Will immediately offered.

Beth and Will looked at each other, still remaining silent on the subject of Tanner. Beth nodded to Will.

“Alright,” Will said, “you all stay here and stay down. Keep an eye on the direction we came from as well. I tried to as we were walking. Someone could have followed. I never saw any indication of it, though.”

They all nodded to Will in acknowledgment. Will hunkered down low and took several steps into the planted field. He scanned around the house across the field and the whole surrounding tree line. He saw no movement. He dashed quickly about half way across the field, still bent low as he ran. He stopped again and knelt. He scanned the whole area again, searching for any new movement. He thought he had been doing a lot of ducking and crawling around this evening. He wished he had a way to signal Alejandro and Lewis. He didn’t want them to be spooked by his arrival and for himself to get fired upon for the second time tonight.

He turned back to where he left the others. He couldn’t see them anymore which meant they were hiding well like he wanted them too. He wished he had said more to his mother. He kept replaying his handling of the situation, the things he had said. He wished he could start again. He wished he had at least hugged Lea before dashing off on another mission tonight. He did one last sweeping scan of the area and moved again towards the rear of the house. He stopped about twenty feet back from Lewis’s back porch. After looking from side to side, he considered taking a detour before approaching the house any further and try to get a better view of the front side of the house and possibly the drive heading down the hill.

He decided to do just that. It had been a long day and exhaustion was beginning to overtake him. He had to be as careful as possible. He turned to his right and ran, staying bent over still, until he was abeam the side of the house. He was surprised to see Lewis and Alejandro standing near Lewis’s truck. It appeared Alejandro was keeping watch down the hill along the driveway while Lewis was loading items into the bed of the truck. A sense of safety came over Will and he stood and called out to them.