Dystopia: The Long Road (12 page)

“Negative emotions like loneliness, envy, and guilt have an important role to play in a happy life; they’re big, flashing signs that something needs to change.”

-Gretchen Rubin

              The sun rose slowly in the eastern sky, seemingly taking forever to give its light.  By Dawn they had the camp completely dismantled and packed up.  Breakfast was cooking and they would be ready to go within the hour.  No one knew what might be ahead, but Roger and Ray had scouted a route and thought they could make good time this day.

              Cindy and Morgan were handed their backpacks and told to leave.  The one thing that really bothered John letting them go was that Morgan knew where they were going.  She and Matt were friends, although for the life of him; John couldn’t figure out why.

              She was not an attractive woman and would be considered as coming from what was once called ‘the wrong side of the tracks.’  With stringy shoulder length brown hair, it always had a look like it needed washing.  She was a brash and vulgar woman that most in the area considered trashy.

              She constantly cheated on Kevin which made John wonder even more why Matt would have anything to do with her.  John never liked her and was frankly glad to be rid of her; although he did feel bad for Rita.  A few eye opening moments had shown him, maybe she was not entirely to blame in the mess between herself and Matt.

              He thought of Dez and how much he thought Matt had jumped above his station in life.  She was older than Matt but quite well off, owning her home and the one hundred fifty acres.  She was quite beautiful and John asked him more than once how he managed to gain her favor.  He would simply shrug and with a sly look say, “I guess when you got it, you got it.”

              Preparing to leave, they loaded the vehicles and prepared to pull out of the pine grove, but before they could Matty began to scream and call out for his mother.  John and Amy told him what happened that night, but the feeling of leaving her there was overwhelming him.

              They paused so that he could go to the river and look for her one last time.  Roger assured him they would be following the river for a ways and would make regular stops to look for her when they could.  The river flowed into Quaker Lake and they planned to stop and look in the areas where the river slowed and opened into it.

              Most of the day they drove and stopped, looking for some sign of her, but they found nothing, not a shoe, a footprint, nothing that would even indicate if she were alive or dead.  Finally, they had to move on, Matty cried the whole day.

              Matty cursed Morgan saying, “I will do to her what she did to Kevin and for hurting my mom.”

              Shocked Amy asked, “Matty, did you see what happened to Kevin?”

              Matty nodded his head and said, “Yes, I told my mom what happened and Morgan killed her too.”

              Becoming more and more angry, he said, “She told me she would kill anyone I told. It is all my fault, what happened to my mom.  I shouldn’t have told her, they did it just like she said her and my dad are going to do to….”

              He stopped talking and looked out the window and asked, “Do you think it is my fault my mom is gone?”

              Amy hugged him saying, “Oh no Matty it isn’t your fault at all.  Why would you think that?”

              Crying, he looked at her, “Because I told.”

              She said, “No, it’s not because of that.”

              Amy wasn’t sure what he almost said earlier that his dad and Morgan were going to do, but she didn’t want to press him.  He would tell her in his own time, but she didn’t want him telling anyone else what he told her for his own safety.  She didn’t trust everyone, especially not Kimmie and Renee.  They both were spending a lot of time talking with Morgan and Cindy and she was worried they might know something.

              The trip to Fallen Timber that should have taken an afternoon, seemed like it was going to take a whole lot longer, after the time they spent searching the river and the lake. It was getting dark already and they had only gone forty-five miles in total.

              Staying on the lake a final night seemed like the best idea.  They had water and could do some fishing, there was really no one around it felt safe and could offer one more night of rest for their injured friends.

              Again, they found a pine grove to set up in, the pine needles many said helped make the sleeping nicer.  Laurie started the fire and prepared to make some supper.

              Announcing, “It will be biscuits, with corn chowder… and of course… Spam.”

              John groaned loudly saying, “Spam again, can’t we have something else already.”

              Laurie laughed and said, “Sure, we can have Spam and beans.”

              Everyone laughed as John grabbed his fishing pole and stomped off to the lake saying, “I think we need to make this a fish chowder instead.”

              Roger and Dickie grabbed some poles and followed him while Mark helped Ray set up tents and try to get the perimeter secured. 

              While he was setting up one of the tents he said to Ray, “I don’t know how Matt could have anything to do with that Morgan and worse yet Renee and Kimmie complained the whole time about how we left them.”

              Shrugging, he continued, “Am I missing something with these women?”

              Ray shrugged and said, “I didn’t like leaving them either.”

              Mark looked shocked and said, “You didn’t?”

              Ray said, “No, we knew she killed Rita and we’re pretty sure she killed Kevin, her own husband.  Who’s next? I would have taken the law into my own hands if Amy hadn’t argued for them.”

              Mark looked at him, “Really?”

              “Yep, I said we should string them up.” He replied.

              Mark asked, “Do you think we will hear from them again?”

              Ray said, “If we do, I’m not waiting for a committee.  I’ll shoot both them bitches on sight.”

              Mark replied, “Well, I for one hope we don’t.”

              The evening was quiet and there were no fish for dinner, but a great big pot of Spam and corn chowder with tons of biscuits.  Watches were in twos, each pair taking a four hour shift.

              In the morning they broke camp and made for Mandy’s Parents.  Both she and Aaron were quiet, no one even at times aware of their presence.  Amy asked her if everything was ok, she just said they didn’t want to be a burden. Amy reassured her that they were not a burden, and said it was their pleasure.

              Patting her hand, she said, “We don’t mind, we’re going that way anyway.”

              Mandy thanked her and said, “Once we get there my parents have a lot of stuff stored.  I’ll make sure you are supplied for your journey. “

              Winking she continued, “And I’ll see if we can find something other than Spam.”

              They both laughed as they got into the vehicles and prepared to leave their camping area.  Matty was already in the back silently staring out the window at the water.

Amy felt bad, “A boy so young should not carry the thoughts of guilt he has.” She whispered to Mandy.

              Mandy replied, “Maybe when he gets to his father it will be better.”

              Matty spoke just a single word saying, “Dez”

              Amy was shocked and asked, “What did you say buddy?”

              Matty replied, “Dez, I wanna see Dez.”

              Amy looked at him, he had tears in his eyes as he stared blankly out the window at nothing but trees as they whizzed past. 

              Reaching into the back seat she brushed a lock of hair from his eye and said, “I know buddy, we are going there.  Pretty soon you will see them both.”

              Sitting forward, she turned and looked at John, then shaking her head she choked back tears.  John reached over and took her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze he nodded in understanding.

              Mandy leaned forward and whispered, “Who is Dez?  Is that someone in his family?”

              Amy turned and said, “No, that is his father’s girlfriend Destiny.  That is where we are going, to her place in Kentucky.”

              Mandy nodding in understanding said, “Oh, okay.  I have heard the name a few times but didn’t know who it was.  He seems very fond of her.”

              John looked back saying, “She really is good to him.”

              Matty tears full flowing turned and looked at everyone with angry eyes and said, “I need to get there to keep her safe!”

              Amy reached back for him and asked, “Safe from what buddy?”

              He looked down and said, “Bad people.”

              Amy reassured him they would get there as soon as they could and that she would be safe until he got there to protect her.  Not satisfied with the response he insisted she was in danger and they needed to hurry.  John told him they would do their very best to get him there soon.

              Travel that day was quiet, sticking to only smaller roads they avoided many of the towns and cities along their path.

              Stopping in a parking lot of an abandoned office they paused for lunch.  John sat by himself absent minded he munched on his sandwich as he watched the bright red maple leaves fall from the trees.

              Mesmerized, he watched as the breeze shook them from their perch high in the air.  Considering the journey that lay ahead of them and what was behind.  He wondered as they fell into blood red piles on the ground, if it were an omen speaking towards what they would face.  Like tiny embers from a fire rising, the blazing colors of fall illuminated by the sunlight reminded him of the world that was quickly fading into the ashes of what was once considered a civilized country.

              Packed and ready to move on the group pushed for Mandy’s family.  Hoping they would be safe for the night and given something other than Spam for food as Mandy promised, looking forward to some rest and a change in diet before continuing their trek southward kept spirits a little brighter.

              All of them except Matty, who retreated further away from even Amy, as the miles faded into memory; he seemed to fade with them.  She worried he would retreat so far into his own misguided guilt they would never be able to bring him back.

              The smells of burning debris and smoke filled the air each time they drew near a town.  Left… right… left… right… they would turn as though they were mice in a maze, trying to get to the end of the road while avoiding hazards along the way.

              Dickie and Ray were in the lead with the Jeep with Jules and Georgia to help with the mapping.  Since the shooting at the warehouse, Dickie refused to let Jules and Georgia out of his sight.

              Approaching an intersection Dickie’s arm could be seen held upward closed fist out the window.  Everyone stopped, then frantically, his arm began to wave for them to pull off the road.  The road was narrow with trees on either side, the shoulder was level and grassy with only a slight cement ditch that was easily crossed.

              The Jeep and the two trucks could easily pass into the woods with the four wheel drive on but the cars could not.  Quickly they emptied what they could from the cars and ran into the woods to hide with the trucks.

              It was only minutes until they saw why the cover.  A large group of motorcycles pulled up to where the cars were parked and began to scavenge what they could use from them.  Holes were drilled in the gas tanks for the fuel and the food left in the trunk along with two sleeping bags and some other items.

              The speed at which they picked over the carcass of the vehicles was astounding.  Each person going here and there like a choreographed routine, John whispered to Danny,              “They must be doing this up and down the roadways.”

              Danny nodded and motioned off to the left, where a guy was standing and leaning into a tree. 

              One of the other members of the gang shouted at him, “Jim, c’mon man let’s go.”                            He shouted back, “Hold on, can’t you see I’m trying to take a piss?”

              Zipping up his zipper he looked in their direction, the expression was quizzical, like he wondered if he’d seen something, but shrugged it off and returned to the gang.

              John didn’t realize he was holding his breath and let out a long sigh when they began to leave.  Leaning over to Ray he asked,

“Do you think we should camp or keep moving?”

              Ray said, “I’m not sure, but either way we are too close to the road right here.”

              John waved for Dickie to join them, they came over with Jules spreading the map out for everyone to look at.

              Pointing at two intersecting roads that didn’t even have names on the map she said, “We are here. Those guys came from the north and left to the east.  We are only about thirty miles from Mandy’s family.”