The Resistance: Book 5 of the After The Event Series (4 page)

              “Don’t mention it. I know you’re a rook but if you want to keep breathing out here the last thing you can do is stand still when someone starts firing. Make sense?”

              Ben felt his face starting to turn red so he looked down at the ground. “Yeah.”

              Ghost was quiet for a moment. “Look, none of these guys would admit it, but if they had just witnessed someone’s head getting blown off they would have hesitated too. Don’t beat yourself up, just learn from it.”

              “Thanks.”

              Ghost got up and went to talk to the others while Ben just sat there not knowing what to say or what to think.

Ally

              She listened to the sound of the horse’s hooves as they walked across the muddy ground. It reminded her of when she used to play with suction cups on their old hardwood floor when she was growing up. They had hunkered in an old house all of yesterday to allow a large storm to blow past and now they were following its wet, muddy path. Traveling on the road would have been easier but the roads had become increasingly busy the closer to the west coast they got. Everything from normal cars and trucks to Humvees. So for safety’s sake they stayed off the road, which was why they found themselves slogging through the mud.

              Dena led the pack quietly, only stopping to check the map while Adam and Coby rode alongside Ally. Adam tried from time to time to interact with Dena but the woman lived inside her head, barely saying more than a few words at a time. The only person who could bring her out of her shell was Coby but the young boy didn’t want to be around her. For some reason he seemed upset with her, for what Ally didn’t know.

              Ally scanned the area as she rode, hoping to see something that would make a good meal. In the distance she could see the tops of dozens of roofs and beyond that another large city. They would avoid it, as it was safer that way, but Ally couldn’t help but think of all the squirrels and rabbits that had probably made their homes in the empty buildings. As she brought her attention back to where they were going she caught track of a set of muddy footprints leading off toward the woods. She pulled back, slowing down her horse, and looked closer and was certain they were footprints.

              “What is it?” Adam said from beside her. While Dena was obvious about her intentions of smothering her, Adam was much slyer. He tried to keep his distance but as soon as Ally paused or noticed something wrong he was always right there.

              “Footprints,” she said, nodding toward the muddy tracks.

              “So what?” Coby said from the back of Adam’s horse.

              Ally looked closer and noticed something else. She swung off her horse effortlessly and bent down near the closest set of tracks and confirmed what she had suspected.

              Blood.

              She slowly followed the tracks and noticed more drops of blood ever few feet.

              “Is that-” Adam started to ask.             

              “Yes,” Ally answered.

              “It has to be fresh, right?” Adam asked. “I mean, if it had been awhile it would have dried by now.”

              He was right. Ally followed the tracks until they got to the edge of the woods. The person was hurt and had taken refuge in the woods. She pulled out her bow as another question popped into her head. Who had hurt the person? If the blood was fresh then whatever happened had occurred recently. She heard Dena ride back toward them and stop.

              “They found footprints and blood,” Coby explained to Dena. The woman didn’t respond.

              “Should we follow it?” Adam asked.

              Ally wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or not but she answered. “They’re hurt.”

              Adam didn’t need to hear any more and steered his horse into the woods as Ally got back on her horse. He had a harder time following the tracks in the woods and Ally made her way around him and picked up the tracks. The farther they got the more blood there was. She glanced once over at Dena, who followed them with a look of irritation clearly on her face. Ally understood and wasn’t even sure if they should be following the tracks. It was possible the person who was hurt was actually a bad person and simply got what they deserved, but part of her just wanted to know.

              After a few minutes the woods gave way to a clearing and in the middle was a worn down mobile home sitting all alone. The blood led toward the trailer and just outside the door was the body. Ally was off her horse before she knew it, with an arrow pointed right at the body.

              “Ally,” Adam whispered but stopped.

              She circled around the body. It didn’t look like the person was breathing and a pool of blood had formed around it. She glanced around but there wasn’t any sign of anyone else. Someone had made a fire pit near the trailer and a pile of burnt logs sat in the middle. A collection of lawn chairs were scattered about. Adam came up beside her and carefully made his way toward the body. Ally stood there waiting for the body to move.

              “We’re not here to hurt you. We know that you’re hurt and wanted to see if we could help,” Adam said as he approached. The body didn’t move. Adam nudged the body with his leg. Nothing happened. He bent down over the man and shook his head. “He’s gone.”

              Ally dropped her bow and allowed herself to look around more. There was a weed-filled garden near the trailer and a clothesline had been set up between two smaller trees nearby. This person had been there for a while.

              “What happened?” Dena asked.

              Adam looked to Coby. “Stay over there near the horses.” Coby huffed and stomped back over toward the horses. Adam turned back to Dena. “There are stab wounds all over him,” he whispered.

              Ally walked past the body, making a point not to look at it.

              “Honey, where are you going?” Dena asked.

              “There is a garden over there,” Ally said, pointing towards it. “Go see if there is anything left.” Then she walked inside the dark trailer.

              Her nose was filled with the smell of mildew. As her eyes adjusted she could make out sunlight coming from a few spots on the roof and could hear the sound of dripping water. Water stains lined the walls all around her. Ally made her way through the trailer and stopped in the kitchen, where seven cans of food sat alone on a shelf. Just below it was a package of bottled water. Ally went to grab the goods when her eyes caught something laying on the counter. She looked closer and realized they were pictures. The first showed a man sitting down on a bright green lawn and on his lap was a little girl, probably around five or six years old, with a huge smile on her face. The second was the same man and little girl but this time they were running through a sprinkler, each of them laughing as if it was the greatest thing they had ever experienced. The rest of the pictures were a variation of this. The pictures were worn, with creases throughout them and tears in a couple of places. Next to the pictures was a yellowed piece of worn paper. Written in crayon was a message:
I love you daddy. See you soon
. Ally grabbed the food and water and carried them outside.

              Adam was standing there and grabbed the food and water from her. “Anyone else in there?” She shook her head no. “You okay?”

              Ally looked down at the body of the man. He had been someone’s father. She looked back up and Adam had a look of concern in his eyes. “Yeah, I’m good. We need to get going.”

              Adam took a deep breath and pushed his glasses further back on his nose. “Ok.”

              They got back on their horses and followed the muddy tracks back to where they had come. Ally glanced back one single time before the trailer disappeared in the trees. She wasn’t sure what she was feeling. She should be sad or mad or angry. Instead she felt numb. Ally turned back around and didn’t look back again.

Alec

              Time moves differently when you’re happy compared to when you’re miserable.  The first week was all about getting the routine figured out.  They would wake up in the morning and eat.  Usually it was the same tasteless corn porridge but from time to time they would include a fruit or vegetable, almost always rotten and something the soldiers wouldn’t have eaten.  From there it was back into the woods, where they would cut down trees and load up wood until the sun began to set.  Once that happened they went to back to the camp, had another bowl of porridge and then slept.  After a couple of weeks Alec’s body began to get used to the rigors of cutting down trees and loading wood. It never got easy but it got easier.  His body, however, was not able to get used to the small amount of food they were given.  The ache of hunger was with him constantly, always whispering in his ear, just on the edge of his consciousness. Some moments it was nothing more than a dull ache, other times it was all he could do to not double over in pain as his stomach seemed to be eating itself.

              Simon was in charge of their camp but he was far from a leader.  The man made sure that everyone got to where they were going, mostly in order to avoid getting in trouble himself.  He barely said more than two words a day and the rest of the camp was the same way.  Alec had tried several times to talk to the other members but he was either met with blank stares or their backs.  When the soldiers weren’t around he could sometimes hear whispering in their building at night, but it was never loud enough for him to make out what was being said or who was saying it.  Alec felt all alone in hell.

              Even worse, winter had arrived.  The trees had already began to change colors when he had first arrived and the cold winds arrived shortly thereafter.  The only clothing he had were the clothes he had on his back when he arrived, clothing that had now stiffened due to weeks’-worth of dried sweat and dirt.  They were barely enough to block out the cold winds.  At night he had a single thin blanket that did nothing more than cover him up.  It was hard to sleep on the cold nights and he knew it was only going to get worse the colder it got.

              This day was cold and overcast and he was once again in the middle of the woods loading wood onto a large trailer.  At first Alec thought about home and all the things he was going to do when he escaped but that became too painful, so instead he tried to shut down his mind when he worked, but that made it worse.  Lately he shifted his focus to food.  Each piece of wood he picked up brought him one step closer to a meal.  A tasteless, never big enough meal, but a meal nonetheless.

              Today members of Camp Rambo had come over to help them load wood.  The soldiers yelled that they were falling behind, or more accurately, that they were “slow”. It seemed to be the only word of English some of them knew.  Alec hadn’t been there long enough to know if they had been getting slower but he could tell they moved at a snail’s pace now.  When cutting a tree several members had to switch out in order to accomplish the goal; of course once you switched out you couldn’t stop and rest, otherwise the soldiers would yell and threaten to beat you. Instead you had to walk over and load wood for whomever took your place.

              Alec continued picking up large pieces of wood and throwing them into the back of a trailer when the large man from Camp Rambo came over to his area and began to help.  Alec had given up trying to communicate with the others so he was caught by surprise when the large man smiled and nodded at him.  They continued placing the wood into the trailer when the large man glanced around and stepped closer to him.

              “Hey, the name’s Walt.” He whispered.

              Alec stood there dumbfounded for a brief second, first because he was caught off guard that someone had dared to talk and second that this large statue of a man had the simple name of
Walt
.

              “Uh,” Alec had to clear his throat. “My name is Alec.”

              “Nice to meet you,” Walt said quietly and continued working.

              Alec took his turn cutting down trees for what felt like hours until his shoulders screamed in agony and he was able to switch out with someone else.  He staggered over to the nearest pile of wood and slowly began to do the same thing he had been doing hours before. Once again Walt was near him.

              “You been here what, a month?” Walt asked.

             
Three weeks and five days.
Alec knew the exact amount of time but just nodded.

              “You made it past the hump. People who aren’t mentally strong don’t make it that long, so congratulations.”

              Alec was too tired to smile or thank him so instead he just continued to pick up wood. After a few minutes he noticed how Walt moved like a machine.  The man had turned this work into a routine.  He would walk over to a piece of wood, bend down and take a step forward as he lifted it and in one smooth motion throw it into the back of the trailer.  He would then exaggerate the throwing motion, leaving him an extra five seconds or so just standing there while also looking like he was working.  He would then bring his lead foot back toward him, slowly turn around, without it looking like he was moving slowly, locate another piece of wood and begin again.  It looked like he was working his ass off when he was actually going at a very leisurely pace.  Walt saw Alec watching him and gave a little wink.

              The man, like the others in his own camp, was skinny and in bad need of a meal but none of them looked like a stiff breeze could blow them over like Alec’s group.

              “Walt, do you mind if I ask you a question?”

              Walt fake-stretched, looking around, and then nodded.

              “How is it your group looks better fed?”

              Walt paused for a brief second and looked at Alec as if he was pondering something, then immediately got back to work. “You want to get out of here?”

              “Of course,” Alec said as a jolt of excitement ran through him.

              “Then you need to stay as healthy and as strong as you can.”

              The feeling of excitement subsided. “Ok.”

              “That means doing what you have to do in order to survive,” Walt said, eyeing him. “There isn’t a lot in this camp but one thing we have a lot of are mice and, if you’re lucky, rats.”

              For a brief moment Alec wasn’t sure what he was saying then it hit him.

              Walt noticed and continued, “There are sometimes entire kernels of corn in the porridge. Keep those. When you’re eating push them to the side and at the end put them in your mouth to hide them.  Use those when you go to your room to attract the mice.”

              Alec’s empty stomach felt queasy. “I really…I really don’t think I can do that.”

              “I was the same way,” Walt said. “It took me several months of starving before I realized what they’re giving us wasn’t going to cut it.  Do what I did, start small.  There are still plenty of crickets and grasshoppers around. They don’t have much of a taste but you’ll need the protein.”

              Alec paused for too long and one of the soldiers yelled at him, spurring him back to work.  Walt and Alec were quiet for a long time, until the soldiers lost interest in them.  “And that works?”

              “Well,” Walt started with a sly smile on his face, “don’t expect to start packing on the pounds but it will help.”

              “So that’s why you all are in so much better shape?”

              “Well, we do work with the livestock and farm.  The kernels of corn are all over the place there and taking an egg from one of the chickens once every month or so helps out.”

              Alec nodded.  So that was why.

              “People have been caught doing that and beaten or worse so we don’t do it often.  Most of us stick to mice and bugs.”

              “Wait.” Alec’s mind turned to the mice. “How do you cook them?”

              “You don’t.”

              “But, how do you-”

              “They would see the smoke.  You peel away the skin and scoop out the innards,” Walt said and smiled when he saw the disgusted look on Alec’s face. “If you can get your hands on some salt it goes down a little easier.”

              Alec bit back the bile that was making its way up his throat.  He wasn’t hungry enough for that, yet.  His growling stomach disagreed with him.  Alec focused on loading the wood and his mind drifted to something else. “What about escape?”

              Walt’s face got tight. “Don’t try it.” He noticed Alec’s gaze didn’t waver. “Even if you managed to slip away without being noticed, we’re nearly a hundred miles away from any kind of civilization. None of us has the energy or the reserves to make it. Plus there are nothing but woods all around. Woods full of animals that are nearly as hungry as we are.”

              “Where are we?”

              “Ohio. Some place that used to be called the Century Mine…before the shit hit the fan, that is.  Only reason we know is because you can still find some of the old signs and paperwork laying around out here.”

              “Anyone ever try…you know….to escape?”

              “I was here when someone tried.” Walt paused just briefly. “They caught him within a few hours. Xu….Xu strung him up in the middle of the camp. Took him days to die.”

              Alec glanced at one of the soldiers who was leaning against a tree, letting out a long yawn. “How long have they been here?”

              “No clue.  I’ve been here since the end of last winter and there are only a few people that have been here longer than me.  I think Simon has been here the longest and I doubt he’s even been here a full year. Good luck getting him to tell you.  Of course it could be worse; we could be up past that hill in the mine.”

              “Why is that worse?”

              “You think they work you hard here?” Walt shook his head slowly. “If someone gets too hurt or run down they sometimes switch them over here to our camps and they’re always worse off than we are.  Last guy that came through here from the mine said people only last a couple months down there.  That’s why most of the people they bring in go over there.”

              Alec’s mind flashed back to when he first arrived. “There was a woman who got here the same time I did. I haven’t seen her since.”

              Walt paused what he was doing but didn’t meet Alec’s eyes. “You won’t see her again.”

              Alec knew before he asked, but he had to ask. “Where is she?”

              Walt went back to picking up wood, but noticeably slower than before. “She’s the soldiers’ now.”

              Alec balled up his fist and looked to the nearest soldier.  They were all the same.  Monsters taking advantage of other people’s weaknesses.  Just like the men who killed his brother and father.

              “Let it go,” Walt said softly.

              The anger melted away, mainly due to the fact that he didn’t have enough energy to sustain it for long.  The world was full of evil people and Alec was tired of being surrounded by them. 

              When their workday ended Alec and the others made their way back to the camp and waited in line for dinner.  Normally the food was ready as soon as they got to camp but this time the soldiers stood around waiting, soon Alec saw who they were waiting for.  Xu strolled past them nonchalantly and stood at the front of the line.

              “Workers from Rambo camp had to help Yankee because they are not able to do their job. Only workers who are able to do their job get to eat.”

              Someone from Yankee camp fell to the ground and began to sob.  Panic rose in Alec. They had to feed them; they wouldn’t make it without food.

              Xu smiled. “In future if you want food you will do your job.”

              A few of the members of Yankee camp began walking back toward their sleeping quarters but others remained, including Alec. The anger that he had felt previously returned. They worked all day, with the meager amount of food they got at night being the only thing to look forward to, and now they were trying to take that away.

              “No,” Alec said, stepping forward. “We will work harder so that Rambo doesn’t need to help, but we are not going to bed tonight without food.”

              Xu’s eyes fell on him and sat there.  A few of the soldiers glanced at him and shifted in place, waiting for his response.  Xu slowly walked down the line of prisoners, all of them looking down as he approached or taking a step to the side.  Xu got within reach of Alec and stopped in front of him.  “You think that you can stand up and say something and I will change my mind?”

              Alec stiffened his back and met the man’s eyes. Fear threatened to take him over but he focused on what Walt had told him.  They used women, they forced people to work until they fell over dead and the man in front of him murdered Bruce and watched him bleed out. He used his anger to push away the fear.

              The corner of Xu’s mouth turned upwards. “You think you are a hero? Are you an American hero like on the movies? Standing up against bad guys and saving the day? Americans think everything is like your movies but this not a movie.” Xu stepped back and said something in Chinese.