The Resistance: Book 5 of the After The Event Series (9 page)

Ally

              The city was nothing more than miles upon miles of ruins.

              Entire blocks had been reduced to nothing more than rubble. Where buildings still stood very few were untouched. Most had gaping holes in the side or entire walls that were missing. The streets were covered in a thin layer of dust, with another layer of debris over top of that. And over it all was an eerie calm. Ally looked over at Adam and the man’s face was showing the same shock she felt. Even Tiger, who normally ran ahead of them, slowed down and marched side by side with them.

              They had searched everywhere. Their safe zone was one of many in the area and none of them contained the person or the information they were searching for. A few still had students who had attended USC but none of them knew Adam’s daughter or had any idea where the students had gone after the power went out. Yet still they searched and that searching was what led them to the wastelands formerly known as Los Angeles. While Los Angeles had once been a main battleground the majority of the fighting between the Army and the invaders had shifted north of them, near Bakersfield, and south of them, on the Californian and Mexican border. Once the city was all but destroyed there was nothing else to fight over, or hide behind. Still, the wasteland was supposed to be off limits. Shells still found their way to the city, and not all the soldiers had moved on to the new battlefields. And when the Army and the peacekeepers pushed the gangs out of the safe zones some of them returned to this city. That was why it was just Adam and her.  Gunfire erupted in the distance, far enough away to not be an immediate concern but still a reminder of what the city also contained. Adam glanced at her nervously but they pushed on.

              Pockets of good people were said to still be hunkered down in the ruins of the city and that is what they were looking for. While they were out Ally kept a lookout for supplies she could scavenge and bring back to the safe zone to trade. Their building, which had started as just a safe place for them to sleep, was turning into something closer to an actual home. They had cleaned it up, made some repairs and scavenged enough furniture to furnish it. Dena had even started sewing for the peacekeepers and the few soldiers that were still around in exchange for extra rations. Since Dena and Ally’s talk the woman had put on a better face but it was obvious she was still in pain.

              “In here?” Adam asked, motioning toward a three-story brick building.

              Tiger went in first with his nose in the air, while they followed behind. The hair on the dog’s back didn’t rise and he didn’t give any indication that anything was wrong; still, Ally kept her bow at the ready. They searched room by room and turned up nothing. No sign of people and no sign of anything useful. Most of a wall in one of the rooms on the top floor was missing and Adam stood before it looking out at the destroyed city.

              “So much destruction,” he said.

              Ally looked outside but didn’t see anything different from what she had been seeing. The only difference was that they were a little higher up. On the far side of the room was a dart board so Ally walked over and pulled out her throwing knives. The first throw went end over end and stuck in the wall next to the dart board. At first she couldn’t even get the knives to stick so she was making progress; now she just needed to teach herself how to aim.

              “You think we should stay here for the night and search more in the morning or just head back?” Adam asked.

              Ally threw another knife and this one hit the edge of the dartboard. “Doesn’t matter. We have enough food and water?”

              Adam rustled through his pack for a few seconds. “Enough for tonight and probably enough for lunch tomorrow.”

              The third one hit the wall again and Ally cursed in her head. “I have a couple of those really nasty Army granola bars in my bag, so we’re good.” She walked over and got her knives from near the dartboard and as she walked back to try again she saw him still staring off in the distance. “Do you think she is out there?”

              “I hope so,” he said, still staring out. “Maybe not out there but somewhere safe.”

              Ally thought of how far they had traveled and how big the world seemed to be. Finding one person seemed impossible. "Do you think we’ll find her?”

              “No,” Adam said and turned around. He noticed the look of shock on her face and gave her a weary smile. He walked over and sat down with the wall at his back.

              “Then…why are we doing this? Why are we searching?”

              “You do what you have to do for your family.”

              “That doesn’t make sense. If you don’t think we can find he-”

              “Maybe we will,” Adam said, letting out a sigh. “Maybe we will wake up in the morning and in a building just a few blocks from here she will walk out and I’ll see her again. We’ll hug and cry and then I can bring her back to her mother. Then Dena will be ok again.”

              “But you just said-”

              “I know how long it has been since the power went out. I know how far we have traveled since then and how many times we have gotten into spots where we almost didn’t survive. To think that she not only survived but decided to stay in the same place this whole time would be….naive.”

              “But you think she is still alive?”

              “I hope with every ounce of my heart she is. That she is alive and well.”

              Ally walked over and sat down in front of him. The man adjusted his glasses but his eyes were fixed squarely on the dirty floor in front of him. When she had first met Adam she thought he was weak and out of his depth, and in most ways she was right. The man barely knew how to take care of himself. He had lived in a world where his only concern had been to make money to buy stuff he wanted while never having to worry where his next meal was coming from. But she had been wrong about him being weak. After all that had happened he remained strong and did everything he could for his family.

              “So,” she began and he looked up at her. “You keep looking even though you think she has moved on somewhere else?”

              “I don’t want to think that I’ll never see her again. Chances are I won’t, but there is still a chance I might.”

              Ally felt tears forming in her eyes. She thought of Joseph and the last time she had seen him. She thought of her dad and Ben and Alec. If she thought they were still out there she knew there wouldn’t be anything in the world that would stop her from searching for them. “I’ll keep looking with you. No matter how long it takes.”

              Adam smiled at her. “Are you sure you want to spend your life with us searching for someone we may never find?”

              “You already said it. You do what you have to do for your family.”

              Tiger let out a low growl and Ally hopped to her feet and readied her bow. The dog looked out at the opening in the wall and she followed his gaze. Several blocks away were five men, all armed, walking down the street away from them. They were too far away for her to be able to make out whether they were good or bad soldiers or simply civilians, but she could make out the rifles they carried.

              “How many? Five?” Adam asked as he peeked through the opening.

              Ally nodded her head and said yes.

              “I say we lock this door and hunker down here for the night,” Adam offered.

              “I’ll watch them and see where they go.” Ally watched as the men got smaller and smaller until they disappeared behind one of the buildings.

              “Are we safe?” Adam whispered as he crouched down next to her.

              Ally looked back out toward the destroyed city and said nothing. As long as they were out here he already knew the answer.

Alec

              The people they dragged out of the transport trucks looked like they had been through hell, but Alec knew their suffering had just begun. The seven men stood before Xu getting the same lecture that Alec had gotten when he first arrived. They stood in a line squinting against the bright sun and looking at Alec and the others as if they were horrific specters haunting them.  One of the soldiers lifted up the flap on the second transport truck and Alec saw over a dozen people tied up in the back. The soldier glanced around, closed the flap and then hit the side and the transport drove toward the mine.  Xu walked away as his lecture ended and four of the seven men headed toward Yankee camp while the others went over to Rambo and then their day began.

              With winter behind them the need for firewood had lessened so the soldiers had them out in the open field digging large holes, what for, Alec was not sure and he knew better then to ask. So instead he simply dug the holes as he was told. One of the new members went through the motions. His shovel would hit the ground weakly, barely disturbing the dirt, and then he would lift it again and do the same, all the while crying and sniffling to himself.  The soldiers hadn’t noticed yet, but they would.

              Alec moved over to his direction. “Pick it up.” The man looked up and Alec realized he was much younger than he had first thought. Still more of a man than a boy, but if he wasn’t the same age as Alec he was close. Tears filled his eyes as he looked up Alec. “If they notice you not working they will beat you and you won’t eat.”

              The young man nodded as he wiped the tears from his eyes and then began to use his shovel properly.  Alec worked beside him and for a time it was quiet.

              “How long have you been here?”

              Alec didn’t look up. “Does it matter?”

              The young man didn’t say anything for a beat. “I’m Jon.”

              Alec threw a shovel full of dirt to the side and wiped sweat from his brow. “Alec.”

              “I don’t want to die,” Jon said as a sob wracked his body.

              Alec looked at him and his gaze held no sympathy. “If you want to live then work. If you don’t want to die then stay strong.” Jon’s back stiffened and his face hardened. Alec took a deep breath. Jon wouldn’t survive more than a week feeling sorry for himself and Alec was having a hard enough time surviving. “Look,” he started, his voice softening, “watch what we do, follow our lead. It’s not going to be easy but if you sit around feeling sorry for yourself then you won’t last long.”

              “Thank you.”

              As they worked the sky darkened, the wind cooled and soon the heavens opened up, dumping rain all over them. Alec stopped what he was doing and held his head up toward the sky. The cool rain ran over his dirty skin and it felt like he was being reborn. He looked around and the rest of Yankee Camp was stopped with their faces toward the sky and the soldiers didn’t say anything. They stood and watched them with a blank expression on their faces. Alec wasn’t sure if it was pity or kindness that stayed their hand but he didn’t question it.  He dropped his shovel and ran his hands over his face, rubbing off months of dirt and grime in just a few swipes. They were only allowed to enjoy the rain for a few minutes and the rain continued for nearly an hour afterwards, but those brief few moments made Alec feel like a new man.

              At the end of the day they made their way back toward the camp and Alec noticed that despite their rough conversation Jon hadn’t left his side. As they approached the building where the food was handed out they noticed a single soldier standing outside--Xu. Everyone’s steps shortened and a dark gloom settled over all of them.  The man stood next to the building and on his other side were two flatbed trailers filled with wood that had not yet been placed in the storage.

              Jon noticed and whispered to Alec. “That’s the guy who said something when we first got here. Is he in charge?”

              Alec kept his focus forward. “Yeah, he’s the one in charge.”

              Yankee camp gathered on one side of Xu while Rambo gathered on the other side. Neither said anything.  Xu watched them gather around and swept his cold gaze over all of them slowly.

              “You all work very hard today. You deserve to be rewarded.”

              Alec saw Jon stand up straighter and he didn’t have the heart to tell him that nothing good was going to come out of Xu’s mouth.

              The man must have noticed the hopeful look on some of the newer prisoners’ faces because a smirk formed on the side of his mouth. “Yes, a big reward.” Xu nodded toward the two trailers of wood next to him. “First team to empty trailers into the storage buildings will get two bowls of food and special roll of bread.”

              The other soldiers rolled out two wheelbarrows and sat one next to each trailer. The building where they were supposed to store the wood was only twenty yards away but the ground leading to it had been turned into a muddy mess thanks to the rain that had just fallen.

              Xu walked over to the nearest table and sat down in a chair, already beginning to look bored. “You have five minutes before start.”

              Rambo camp immediately gathered over near their trailer and began to talk, while Yankee stood about looking at each other. Finally Simon took a step forward. The rain had washed away most of the grime leaving only the wildly growing hair on his face and his sunken cheek bones.

              “We can take turns throwing the wood into the wheelbarrow and pushing it into storage,” he said listlessly.

              No one else said anything. No agreement, no disagreement, no alternative. Jon looked to Alec, clearly expecting more. Alec’s stomach growled and he could feel the extra bowl of food sliding down his throat into his stomach, and he could nearly taste the warm bread.

              “No,” he said and everyone’s eyes were on him. “They outnumber us and they are stronger than us.”

              “If we don’t participate then Xu will have us beaten or killed,” Simon said.

              “I’m not talking about participating, I’m talking about winning,” Alec said through clenched teeth. “There are a little over a dozen of us. We will create a line leading from the trailer to storage, a man every few yards. Two men will be on the trailer and will toss wood to the first man in line and that man will toss it to the next until the last throws it into the building.”

              Jon smiled. “That’ll work.”

              Simon looked to Alec and something different shone in his eyes. “There are still more of them than us. We will still lose.”

              “We may but we’ll make them earn it,” Alec said.

              Simon smiled and it was the first time Alec had actually seen the man show any kind of emotion. Simon shook his head and everyone got into position.  A few of the members of Rambo camp watched them, confused, while a few others simply laughed. Alec saw Walt standing near his camp’s wheelbarrow and the man looked over what they were doing and tipped an imaginary hat in Alec’s direction.

              “Begin,” Xu yelled from his seat of comfort.

              Alec was the first man in line and the first piece of wood tossed from the trailer hit his arms hard and he felt the bark cut into his skin, but he turned and tossed it to the next man and prepared for the next. Piece after piece came and with each toss the pressure on the small of his back increased and the bark continued to cut into his skin. Soon his back felt like it was on fire and he could feel the warmth from his blood running down his arms, but he continued.

              Catch, turn, toss. Catch, turn, toss.  His breath came out in rugged gasps, his sides burned but he continued.

              “Switch,” Jon, who was one of the men on the trailer, yelled down at him. Before Alec could say anything Jon had jumped down and was pushing Alec back onto the trailer.

              Alec didn’t argue and climbed onto the trailer, which was nearly empty. He looked over to Rambo camp and saw their trailer was still over half full. Walt and another man were struggling to push their wheelbarrow through the deep mud toward the storage building and they were failing. Alec got his second wind and went back to work. He fought through the pain until the last piece of wood left his hands and was sent down the line.

              One of the soldiers yelled out when the last piece of wood was thrown into the building. Alec turned to Rambo’s trailer and realized they had done it. They had won.  Jon yelled and pumped his fist, while several of the other members in Yankee smiled and fell to the ground in exhaustion.

              Xu walked over toward them and the look of surprise on his face was evident. “Yankee wins. Rambo doesn’t eat until they empty trailer and organize wood.” Then he turned and walked away.

              The feeling of happiness slowly fled Alec’s body as he watched the members of the other camp, covered in dirt and obviously exhausted, go back to unloading the trailer. Walt stopped what he was doing and walked over to him.

              “Don’t.”

              “Don’t what?” Alec asked.

              “Xu did this, not you.” Walt wiped dirt from his forehead. “Now go enjoy your food before that creature changes his mind.”             

              Alec stood there, not knowing what to say. He knew what it felt like to be on the other side and he didn’t wish that on anyone, especially Walt, who seemed to be his only real friend still alive in the camp. “Thanks.” Though he wasn’t sure what for.

              “Don’t mention it, brother.”

              When Alec turned Jon and Simon were standing there next to him. Jon’s face was covered in a goofy smile and while he wasn’t smiling, Simon’s face was lit up.

              “Come on,” Jon said, slapping him on the shoulder, “I’m starving.”