Grants Pass (13 page)

Afterword

I wrote this story about the
Chateau de Mons because I lived on an estate very much like it in Belgium,
while my father was stationed at SHAPE, Belgium. Our home was referred to as
“the Chateau de Mons” and was over 300 years old. It had a rich history of being
a place of sanctuary in times of need. I was told, back when the Mons was a
small village, if danger threatened, the estate bell would be rung and the
villagers who could make it, would camp behind the protected stone walls on the
chateau’s grounds until the danger passed.

Being an American on foreign soil,
the military required my family to be prepared for all dangers. We had our
stores of extra food and water, as well as instructions on what to do in
certain situations. As I thought about the
Grants Pass
anthology, I
wondered what I would do if the End came while I was in another country, and
unable to go to my chosen place of sanctuary. This story immediately sprang
forth. My own memories of living abroad mixed well with the concept of a post
apocalyptic world, and the chateau of my childhood would be an excellent place
to gather people together and to start again.

The Few That are
Good

Scott Almes

Since when did you smoke?” I
asked, watching my brother light up a cigar.

“
It’s a
special occasion,” Brett replied. He coughed a few times before he finally got
the end to glow red. He was nineteen, a good seven years older than me. He was
about six inches taller and was able to grow a beard. I always told him that I
would be able to grow a bigger beard than him someday.

The two of us leaned on Brett’s
truck. We were supposed to retrieve supplies from one of our father’s friends.
Our father was part of a gang called the Ravens. This would be the first time
Brett got to be involved without our father’s supervision. In the last two
months, the three of us have hardly left each others’ sides. Ever since the
world fell apart, our father told us it would forever be the three of us. Of
course, when Brett came into my tent telling me that he was allowed to drive
the truck by himself, I couldn’t help but tag along. Besides, I’m sure dad
would be proud of us.

In the distance, one of the other
Raven trucks started to roll over the hill. I could hear the engine whine as it
climbed the steep road.

I glanced over at Brett. He was pale
and sweating badly. I guess he was nervous. I would be too. This was a big
opportunity. Still, it seemed a little unnerving that Father was not with us.
But, I knew Brett wanted to be a man, and I supposed doing this alone was the
next step.

 “
Don’t be
afraid, Ryan,” Brett said softly.

 “
I’m not,”
I said. In truth, I wasn’t scared. I felt perfectly safe with my brother
around.

The Raven truck finally pulled up in
front of us. The back was loaded with boxes that never looked more beautiful.
Jimmy came out of the side door, smiling widely. He was always laughing about
something, and was Dad’s best friend.

 “
I’m
surprised to see you here, Brett,” Jimmy said. The smile seemed to change.
There was something I didn’t like about it.

 “
I came to
bring the supplies back to camp,” Brett replied, almost twitching.

 “
Really?
After your dad’s old job?” Jimmy’s smile got even worse. “Why don’t you just
hit the road?”

 “
Our family
is supposed to pick up the supplies.”

 “
Look,
kid,” Jimmy said sternly, no longer smiling. “You don’t need to get anything.
Now, beat it. All right?” Jimmy then turned away and started to step back into
his truck.

Brett reached deep into his pocket.
It didn’t take me long to figure out what he was pulling out.

“
Brett, no!”
I shouted.

It was too late. My brother had
Father’s pistol in his hand and fired off three rounds. The first one ruptured
a cone of blood out of Jimmy’s leg. The man tried to turn and draw his own
weapon, but then the second bullet landed in his chest. The third bullet hit
Jimmy right between his eyes, letting loose a small stream of crimson.

“
What are
you doing?” I shouted, feeling my breathing quicken. “What did you just do?”

“
Just hold
on a minute, Ryan,” Brett responded calmly, holding a hand up in the air. He
stuck our father’s gun into his waist belt with his other hand.

“
No! You
just killed Jimmy! Do you know what you just did?”

“
I know
exactly what I did! Jimmy deserved it!”

“
Not Jimmy!
He was our friend. He was Dad’s friend.”

“
No he wasn’t!
He killed our father, Ryan! Dad is dead. It’s just us now! The Ravens betrayed
him. It’s just me and you left.”

“
What?
That’s not true!”

“
Yes it is.
You have to believe me. That’s why Dad isn’t with us right now. He was killed
last night. He wanted to take his own supplies and take off. We were going to
go someplace safer. People are fighting here, and he didn’t want us to be in
danger. He was trying to protect us.”

“
What are we
going to do?” I gasped. I felt a rain of tears come out with every word.

“
You are
going to get into my truck and drive to the bridge. There are no more
deliveries today, so there won’t be anybody crossing it.” He started to walk
towards Jimmy’s truck. “Though, to be safe, park under the overhang.”

“
But—”

“
No, Ryan,
you have to do this. My truck is an automatic, so you’ll be able to drive it.
It’s just like when dad used to let you drive the car up at camp. Okay?”

“
Okay,” I
said meekly.

“
I’ll be
back soon, so don’t worry,” he said. He lingered a moment, as if trying to make
a big decision. Then, he simply nodded, and hopped into Jimmy’s truck. I saw
him drive off into the distance. I sat for a moment, fighting off an army of
tears. I wasn’t as strong as my brother. He was both older and braver. I could
only hope to grow up to be as courageous as he was.

****

A few minutes later, I was
driving myself to the bridge.

It took Brett two hours to get to
the bridge. I was close to having an asthma attack waiting for him. At first I
thought he could have been another Raven, since he was driving Jimmy’s truck.
But he was shouting my name as he drove up next to me, so I stopped worrying.

“
Ryan, are
you ok?” he asked when he finally pulled up along side me.

“
Yeah,” I
replied.

I then gave my brother a quick
look-over. He was splattered with patches of blood. I wasn’t sure how much of
it was his. He had a bandage over his left forearm that was soaked red. I found
myself staring at it for a moment.

“
It’s okay,”
he said. “The bullet only grazed me. I was able to stop the bleeding.”

“
What did
you do?” I asked, wide-eyed.

“
Something
for Dad,” he said simply. “Now, quickly. We’re going to siphon the gas out of
that truck. I have a few extra cans in the back. It’s more efficient to only
take one vehicle.”

I nodded my head and climbed out of
my vehicle. As I dug the can out of the back of Jimmy’s truck, I realized that
we had a lot more supplies than before. Brett had almost quadrupled our stock.

The two of us canned the gasoline
and threw it into the back. I crawled into the passenger’s seat.

“
You ready?”

“
I suppose
so,” I said, almost a whisper. “Where are we going?”

“
Away from
here,” he gave me a weak smile. “Don’t worry. I’m going to take care of you.”
He reached into the glove compartment and took out another cigar. He put it
into his mouth, lit it, and drove across the bridge and into the beyond.

****

“
Did you
grab our stuff?” I asked after thirty minutes of driving.

“
Yeah, I
took everything that was in the tent,” Brett replied.

“
Including
my books?”

“
What were
they in?”

“
The brown
chest, the one that Dad made for us to keep our toys in.”

“
That thing
was full of books? No wonder it was so heavy. I thought it was more weapons.”

“
No, just my
books. But I like my books, Brett.”

“
I don’t
understand that. I never liked to read. There were always a thousand better
things to do.”

“
It was just
good to get away sometimes.”

“
Away from
what?”

“
Everything.”

“
You believe
a book can make the world disappear?” Brett asked, half-sarcastically. He
noticed me frowning at the statement and instantly changed his tone. “I guess
they could. Like I said, I was never much of a reader, so I wouldn’t know. I’ll
tell you what: I’ll make sure I trade for any books I see along to way.”

“
Ok, Brett,”
I smiled. “That sounds good to me.”

****

We journeyed for a good two weeks
before seeing another person. It was an old man, riding in a broken down jeep.
The vehicle seemed to have lost all of its suspension, as it bounced like a
jack-in-the-box with every bump. Brett had me lean out the side of the truck to
wave the geezer down.

“
Hello,”
the old man greeted us as the vehicles pulled side by side.

“
Hi,” Brett
replied. “Are you willing to trade?”

“
Certainly.
That is, if you have something that suits my fancy. Can I see your stock?”

Brett nodded and got out of the
truck. I noticed that he still had the pistol in his belt. The old man also got
out of his vehicle, following Brett to the truck’s bed. Brett waved to me to
stay in the passenger’s seat.

I couldn’t understand what the two
of them were talking about. They were discussing something intimately. Brett
seemed really excited about it, but I couldn’t tell what they were talking
about. Unfortunately, the excited motions had stopped by the time I had the
guts to roll down the window.

“
You have a
nice stock,” the old man said. “Is it just the two of you?”

“
Yeah, for
now,” Brett replied. “What are you interested in trading?”

“
Well,” the
old man started, licking his lips. “I think I’ll take the whole lot.”

“
What? What
do you have? Gold?”

“
I have
this!” The old man was now holding a gun to my brother’s cheek. “Your truck is
a lot better equipped than mine. I think I’ll just take it. Now, hand over the
keys or I’ll be forced to take them myself.”

“
Shut it,
old man. You’re not taking anything.”

“
Really
now?” the man asked. There was a click as he pulled back the hammer.

My brother amazed me. He looked
right into the eyes of the old man without flinching. He was a lot braver than
I was. Then, with astonishing reflexes, he knocked the gun away from the old
man’s grip. In an instant my brother had our father’s pistol in his hand and
fired twice into the old man’s chest.

I swear I could see a tear in my
brother’s eye as he walked back to the car.

****

We set up camp right by the two
vehicles. Brett rummaged through the old man’s supplies. It was mostly
ammunition and alcohol. We had enough stuff to feed a group of ten for three
months, and I didn’t think Brett found a scrap of anything edible in the old
man’s truck.

I lit the fire and Brett cooked
dinner. The two of us ate in silence. After dinner, we continued to sit
quietly. There had been very few words spoken between us in the last two weeks.
It had been as if Brett was in a different place. His eyes would look forward,
but I knew his mind was elsewhere.

I tried reading to pass the time,
but even the tales of dragons and elves weren’t able to distract me. This world
just seemed cold, and it seemed to be affecting Brett.

After looking into the fire for an
hour, Brett dug for another cigar. He realized that he had left them in the
truck, and decided he was too lazy to get up for them. Instead, he took a
bottle of whiskey from the crate he was sitting on. He wordlessly began to
drink straight from the container. It wasn’t for another half hour, after Brett
was a little woozy, that I had the courage to speak.

“
What are we
going to do, Brett?” I asked, hardly loud enough for him to hear me.

“
I’m going
to take care of you, little brother,” he said, slightly slurring the words. I
don’t think he’d ever had much to drink before.

“
I mean,
where are we going to go?”

“
Oh, I do
know that one. We’re going to Grants Pass.”

“
Where?”

“
It’s about
a hundred miles north of here. The old man told me about it. Supposedly, there
is a gathering there. It’s supposed to be a safe haven.”

“
We’re going
to join with other people?”

“
No, no,
Ryan. We’re not going to join the people in Grants Pass. We’re going to get
supplies from them.”

“
How? What
are we going to trade them? I can drive the jeep if you need me to. We could
surely trade it.”

“
No, that
won’t be necessary. We are just going to take the supplies we need.”