Ravaged Land - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (28 page)

“What?” I said as I was getting ushered away by someone dressed in orange. “Wait, what? What did you say?” I yelled back at her.

“I said, welcome HOME!” she shouted but her eyes were serious and I knew that wasn’t what she said.

“No, no!” I said getting pulled further and further away. “Wait, I—”

“Sorry ma’am we have to go now,” the man in orange said. “Everything you could possibly want or need is at HOME. You’ll see,” he grinned. I wasn’t even sure his smile was authentic. There was no one I could trust except for Owen, Dean and Sienna. I just felt like they were trying to tell me something but that they couldn’t. And maybe the reason they couldn’t, was because they were being watched, maybe we all were. Maybe that’s what they were trying to tell me, that we were always being watched. Or maybe I was being paranoid.

* * *

The helicopter ride was disorienting. I assumed that was done intentionally. Right when I was starting to feel nauseated from the bumpy-twisty-turny ride, I saw what appeared to be an old modified military base being used as the location for HOME. I couldn’t be sure but I think we traveled mostly west and somewhat north from where we had been. The pilot had made numerous strange turns that didn’t make sense and threw me off from trying to memorize the route.

We watched the land get closer as the helicopter swooped down and landed abruptly. The pilot told us to exit the helicopter, and once we were far enough away it flew off. There was no one outside waiting for us, just a single path with bright orange arrows painted on it. We followed the markings to the entrance of a huge facility.

“I don’t like this,” I said so quietly I wasn’t even sure any of them heard me.

But Owen had. “Me either,” he said feeling it too.

“Just think of Ryan,” Dean said to try to keep us focused. “We can’t leave without him, so this is it. Be smart, say as little as possible and for Christ’s sake try to fit in,” he reminded us, but I think it was mostly directed at me. We had to keep it together, me especially, and stay here for Ryan. It was the best place to be if we wanted to get him back, or in my mind, find out what happened to him. Although I was pretty confident I knew what had happened to him, but I wasn’t going to give up hope completely until I knew I was one hundred percent sure.

I hadn’t even been away from Ryan for a full twenty-four hours and I missed him terribly. A small part of me had faith he was alive, and that he was being taken care of, getting the treatment he needed and he’d be fine. But then I’d think back to that moment, the one where I had heard the gunshot. And I’d convince myself all over again that the bullet had been for Ryan. Maybe that was the only cure for the poison in him. Either that or fire, like Seth chose. Both resulting in the same final outcome. Death.

The door opened and two guards stepped out. They were dressed the same, and they were both armed. They each had a name patch on their chest, just like the ones on our jumpers. One was named Arnold, a first name I assumed, and the other was Slade. It took me a minute, but I knew Slade. He looked slightly different from the last time I saw him, but I knew his eyes. When his eyes locked with mine I knew he recognized me too. He was the guy I should have helped back when the storms had started. The one I had left behind to follow Ryan to his grandpa’s shelter. And no thanks to me he had survived and had joined up with the circus freak gang who had taken our gear. Now here he was at the HOME. I figured he must have been here for a while to be working the door since that seemed like it would be an important job to hold. Would he be high enough up on the chain to know where Ryan was? Maybe he could help us?

They looked us over one by one and frisked us to make sure we weren’t bringing anything into HOME we weren’t supposed to. First they checked Owen and let him in, then Sienna and then Dean. When they got to me, Slade whispered something to the one named Arnold and then they checked me.

“She’s got a knife!” Slade said pointing his gun at me.

“No I don’t!” I said.

“Don’t move!” he shouted, and I raised my arms up. The one named Arnold secretly placed, then removed a knife from by my ankle. There was nothing I could do. Slade had set me up. My friends were inside, and I was alone on the outside being accused of concealing a weapon.

“Dean!” I screamed, uselessly reaching out for him as Slade grabbed at my flailing arms and pulled them behind me. “Dean help me!”

He appeared in the doorway briefly. Confusion instantly washed over his face, “Ros?” When he noticed my expression, he knew something was wrong. He tried to come to me, a look of panic on his face. But before I could say anything, someone roughly shuffled him along.

“They set me up Dean! DEAN! Oh God, Dean!” I screamed. I heard a small scuffle and then nothing more. He was gone. I didn’t even know if he could hear me any more. In fact, I was fairly certain he couldn’t.

Slade nodded and Arnold went back to the door. He pressed a button on the intercom and called for a return flight, a ‘code W,’ I think he had said. Slade kept his gun on me the whole time staring at me, “You don’t deserve to be here,” he said to me under his breath.

“I don’t know why you are doing this to me,” I said.

“Really? You don’t?”

“If this is about the storms, it’s not like I abandoned you on purpose,” I said looking him straight in the eye. “In fact, I tried to go back for you, but they pulled me away.”

“Ahhh! So you do know why. I’m sure you put tons of effort into trying to help me,” Slade said with a sneer.

“I tried,” I said, knowing he wasn’t going to believe me or care what I had to say. He would always perceive things his way. The way he experienced them. I didn’t think there would be anything I could do to change his mind.

“You don’t know how easy you had it,” he said.

“And you don’t know what I had and what I didn’t have.”

“I know Ryan’s family had a bomb shelter, I remember when the builders were there putting it in. I’d bet you had it pretty good and I know you all could have taken me with.”

“Of course we would have if we could have!” I said frustrated with him.

He spit on the ground near my feet and laughed, “You know, the whole neighborhood laughed at that bomb shelter, made jokes, thought the family was crazy… not me.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say! I’m sorry!” I felt my tears start to fill my eyes, and the last thing I wanted was to shed a single tear near either of these two. There was no way I could let them know how bothered I was by all this.

The helicopter landed and Slade ushered me towards the helicopter with his gun pressed between my shoulder blades. I knew it wouldn’t matter what I did or said he wasn’t going to understand and he wasn’t going to change his mind. What’s done is done. I felt helpless. There was nothing I could do but get on the helicopter and go back to d-con for the car. Then what would I do, just drive right past the infirmary were Ryan was? Leave him and the others here and just keep going? What could I do? What choice did I have? Where was I going to go? I was truly alone, and this was what Slade wanted. He wanted me to suffer as he had. For him it was a challenge, but for me it was a death sentence.

The ride back was absolutely terrifying. I was scared about what they would do to me. My hands shook uncontrollably. I didn’t think they would let me go easily. The only people I could trust were inside HOME, they were gone and I had no way to communicate with them.

When I got out of the helicopter, Deezil was waiting for me. She quickly stuffed the keys in my hand, “Take these and go, do not look back.” She wasn’t joking around. I thought that she might be breaking protocol.

“OK.” I took the keys and held them tight. I wanted ask her all sorts of questions but I knew she wouldn’t answer, and I knew I needed to get out of here.

“I don’t know how to say this, but they don’t like when people have even a general idea of how to get to the main base. Go and don’t stop until you are completely out of this area. Go far and go fast,” she said waving me towards the SUV. When I didn’t move she yelled, “Go!”

I hesitated for one second. I was tempted to ask her to come with me but based on the anxious look on her face I knew she couldn’t, or wouldn’t. But my guess was that she would have liked to. Dean’s sweatshirt that he wore when he slept was draped over the passenger seat. I grabbed it, and covered up my jumpsuit. It smelled like Dean. One day this jumpsuit might come in handy. It may be the only way I’d ever find my friends and Ryan again. I pulled my gun out of the back pocket of the passenger seat and set it in the cup holder. I left the safety on and locked the doors before I sped off. The tires squealed against the pavement as I turned down the winding road and away from this hell.

Chapter twenty-three.

As I sped down the road I imagined the SUV getting shot at but it didn’t happen. I think I passed through quickly enough, before they had even been alerted to my departure, likely thanks to Deezil. She probably walked back inside as slowly as she could, gave me some time and then radioed it in. At least that is what I imagined. For all I knew they really did just let the rejected probationary people go. They probably figured I was as good as dead on my own, and sadly, I probably was. How was I going to survive by myself?

I didn’t know exactly where I would go or where I would find food or water in this world. With no help. No one to watch my back. I was a girl, alone, in this broken down world with potentially dangerous people everywhere. I knew this would not be easy. I didn’t even know how I wasn’t bawling my eyes out at this moment, but somehow I stayed focused and kept my thoughts on Ryan.

I thought that if he was still alive, he would need me. Maybe I was his only hope because I was on the outside. I made up my mind as I drove away from the HOME putting more and more distance between the people I loved, the people I considered my family, that I would find a shelter. I would search for something as close as I could but far enough away that I wouldn’t be in any more danger then I already was in. But I couldn’t get too far from Ryan, Dean, Owen and Sienna. Dean had gotten a glimpse of what had happened, he knew I wasn’t on the inside. I knew he wouldn’t give up on me and he would tell the others. If they got out they’d come looking for me. I couldn’t go too far, they’d have to know I wouldn’t. There was no way I would just lie down and die no matter how much easier that would have been. Not now, not after everything I’ve been through.

I’d find a way to leave a message for them and post it as many places as I could, hoping they’d see it. I’d find a shelter, secure it as we’d done before, although it would take longer on my own and it was clearly more risky, but I knew what to do. At least it was a plan. It was the best I could think of doing, and a plan was better than no plan at all. I’d build another fortress. I had the weapons, ammunition, a small stock of food and water. As long as I could find somewhere to hide myself, I would be all right.

I remembered the seed packets I’d saved in my backpack, there was life around here, things were growing. I’d start a garden. Of course I didn’t know if the seeds I had would grow here, but with the change in climate maybe no one would know what would or wouldn’t grow. At least I had the seeds so I could try.

There hadn’t been any traffic as I drove away, and very little when we had driven up this way only a short time ago. I’d find somewhere far off the main roads but still close enough to the HOME that the cars coming and going from HOME wouldn’t see me. Or so I hoped. I’d find the perfect place, something small, something hidden away, maybe this could actually work. I felt determination set in, and it felt good.

Once I was far enough away from the checkpoint, I stopped at the first rest stop I came upon. I ripped a piece of paper out of Sienna’s notebook, something with a drawing that hopefully they’d recognize, surely Sienna would, and wrote, “I’m still here - R.” I only wished I knew the exact date. I put down the year and my best guess at the month.

* * *

It was three weeks later, sometime in October I guessed. I had started keeping track since remembering about the calendar I saw in the doctor’s — or whatever she was — office. It was a way to measure time even if I wasn’t sure how accurate my estimate was.

I’d secured a small home near a little but beautiful stream with drinkable water, although I always boiled it first. I had been lucky enough to find a home with a fireplace. It even had a little metal stand and a pot next to it that I could use to boil the water and heat up canned food that had been left in the cabinets. This place must have been used as some kind of hunting or fishing cabin. Or maybe just some place someone went to get away from society.

The little house had a fair sized basement that was more than adequate for storing my supplies. It also had a second floor with a small bedroom, and a closet. From the windows in that upstairs bedroom I had a good view of all directions. I’d see someone coming as long as I was paying attention. But no one had come this way. I was secluded which meant if the others had left HOME and were out looking for me, they probably wouldn’t find me. I was completely alone. Isolated from everything, which is exactly what I wanted, that was, until I could come up with a plan to find my friends.