Running Away - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (The Ravaged Land Series Book 4) (17 page)

“Here. I found mine. Stupid,” the voice said, close enough to the door that I heard every word. Then it sounded as though a key was being inserted into the doorknob, and I watched the knob turn as the door began to open.

T
he door flung
open and two boys stood there staring in at us. At first they looked confused, as if maybe they had walked into the wrong house, but it didn’t take them long to realize they were in the right place and that we were the ones that didn’t belong.

Their eyes darted around the room as they tried to take in what they were seeing. I was just happy they weren’t shooting at us.

“Who are you?” the taller of the two said as he raised his shotgun. He was alternating who he pointed it at between Carter and I. He ignored Sienna and Alice even though they were starting to wake up.

“And what are you doing in our house?” the shorter one said squinting. He tried to look at us, but kept squinting as though we were too bright for him.

The shorter one copied the taller and raised up his gun. It looked as though he had it pointed at the wall behind me. Neither of them looked particularly comfortable holding a gun, but I wasn’t going to risk being wrong about it.

I couldn’t speak. When I heard someone coming down the stairs, I wasn’t sure if I should be worried or relieved. I couldn’t even look up to see who it was.

“Ahh! You guys are back!” Lucy squealed as she ran down the stairs. “I thought he sent you away forever and ever!”

Lucy gave the tall one a hug first and then moved over to the shorter one. They both looked at her as if she had been caught throwing a party while her parents were away.

“What’s going on Lucy? Where’s mom and dad?” the tall one asked and then shifted his eyes towards us. “And who are they?”

“These are my friends. They were out there and just happened to find our house. And it’s good they did because I helped them,” she said wrapping her arm around the taller guy’s bicep.

“Did dad let them in?”

“No….” Lucy sniffed and then burst into tears. She couldn’t hold it in even if she wanted to.

“Oh crap,” the shorter one said raising his gun back up at us. “What did they do?”

“They didn’t do anything,” Lucy said, wiping at her tears.

Penn and Dean must have heard voices they didn’t recognize because they quickly descended the stairs. Penn gestured for Alice and Sienna to stand behind him.

They both did as they were told, but they moved slowly. I wasn’t sure they even knew what was going on. They were somewhere between their dreams and reality.

Dean spotted me by the kitchen and slowly made his way over to me. He secretly passed me a gun. I assumed it was the one that only had a single bullet left.

“Where’s our dad?” the taller one asked between clenched teeth.

Lucy just shook her head as if she couldn’t say the words. She pressed her face into his arm.

“Who let you out, Lucy? Was it them?” the shorter one asked.

“What do you even care? You left me! You left all of us!” Lucy fired back and then clapped her hand over her mouth as though she couldn’t believe what she’d said.

Penn stepped to the side as if he was looking to see if we could squeeze out around them if things got bad. I was pretty sure we wouldn’t be able to leave out of the kitchen, or we’d walk into an angry pack of dog-beasts.

I knew Penn was worried about what they were going to do once they found out what had happened to their parents. Even though we had nothing to do with it, they probably weren’t likely to believe it.

“Dad?” the shorter one called out and waited for his dad to answer. Which I knew he wouldn’t.

“He’s dead!” Lucy screamed as she stepped away from them, hugging herself. “And mom is too!”

The taller one raised his gun and pointed it at Carter, probably because he saw that he was armed. If they made any kind of move Penn didn’t like, and if he had two bullets left, this whole thing would come to an end. Lucy would not only lose her mom and dad… she would also lose her brothers.

“They did this? And you let them stay here? Lucy how stupid are you?” the taller one asked.

“No, of course not. But they found them. It was dad’s dumb dogs that did it,” Lucy said as the tears still streamed down her cheeks. There were so many tears the little droplets dripped down off of her jaw.

The taller one grinned, it almost seemed as though he was happy about the news. But I could tell by the look in his icy blue eyes that he didn’t believe we had just found either of them that way. As far as he was concerned we were already guilty.

“I think it’s time for your friends to leave,” the tall one said gesturing at the shorter one. They stepped aside, opening a path between them to the front door. I was surprised when the dogs didn’t race inside and feast on us all.

Lucy grabbed the taller one’s arm and pulled on it, “There are too many of those dogs out there!”

“I don’t care. It’s time for them to go. They’ve overstayed their welcome,” he said flicking the barrel of his gun once towards the door.

Penn lifted his arms and took a step towards the door. It felt like we had no choice. We could have tried to fight them, but they had guns too. It wasn’t worth risking a bullet hole in one of us. We’d have to let the basement filled with food, water and supplies go. At least for now.

Maybe we should have fought. Maybe Penn could have taken them all out, but it just didn’t feel right. It would be hard to continue on if we fought, and it led to one of us dying.

Leaving everything behind was hard. Who knew if we’d ever find anything this good again? But if one of us got killed, it wouldn’t be worth it. There were more supplies out there, we would just have to find them.

“Wait!” Lucy said and ran to the kitchen. She came back carrying a jug of water and shoved it towards Penn. “Take this. There is another farmhouse just up the road. I used to see cars go up that way at night but I haven’t in a long time. Maybe there is help there!”

“What about our things?” I asked her, but her brother must have overheard.

“Ours now. And don’t give them our water, Lucy!” the taller one scolded.

“Shut up, Thomas!” she screeched as she stomped her foot. “You left me here. This is my water and I’ll do what I want with it. Why are you back anyway? I heard dad tell you to leave and never come back!”

The taller one, Thomas, just shook his head at her. “OK you got your water, now get off our property.”

They must have come back because like everyone else out there they were struggling to survive. At least they had somewhere to come back to. We didn’t have anything.

“All right, we’re going,” Penn said opening the door and stepping to the side to let us out while he covered us. Sienna, Alice and I walked out single file with Dean and Carter behind us. Penn watched them for any sudden movements as he came out last.

We stared at them looking out at us. Waiting to see if they’d say anything more, but they didn’t. The door slammed shut, and I heard the lock click into place. Carter reached into his pocket and held up the key. He smiled, but the key was practically useless. Sure, we could have used it to sneak in at night, but then if we didn’t kill them, we’d always have to be watching our backs.

“Should I keep it?” Carter asked looking at Penn.

“Might as well,” Penn said looking out at the horizon. I didn’t know if he was looking for the neighboring farmhouse or looking for dog-beasts. “But we’re going to keep moving. Michigan right?”

I smiled, even though I was thinking about all the supplies in the basement. At least we knew they were there.

I heard yelling inside the house. One of the boys, probably Thomas, was telling her how stupid she was for letting strangers in. And then the voices faded and I couldn’t hear anything. Either they had made their peace, or they had brought her back upstairs and locked her up once again.

“Let’s get out of here before the dog-beasts realize where we are,” Penn said leading us away from the house. We had had a long way to go before we were out of sight of the house and the dog-beasts.

“How much ammo do we have left?” I asked tucking my gun into my waistband.

“Three in Dean’s, one in mine and one in yours. Plus whatever Carter has,” Penn said with a heavy sigh. It wasn’t enough. I didn’t know if it could ever be enough.

“And how many dog-beasts were left?” Carter asked adjusting his gun on his shoulder in case he had to use it. He turned around and walked backwards to keep us safe from behind.

“There were far more dogs than we have bullets,” Penn said looking over his shoulder towards the house. “I think they are fenced in, although they could probably jump it. Let’s go find that farmhouse.”

The fence explained why the dog-beasts hadn’t been roaming around in the front of the house. No one had even bothered to check, we just assumed they were everywhere.

“And let’s hope that if anyone is there, they are super afraid of empty guns… well nearly empty anyway,” I said combing my fingers through my knotted hair.

Sienna laughed, but it quickly turned into a coughing fit. She held up her palm when she saw me watching her. We had a jug of water, but we couldn’t all drink from it. At least not without risking our health.

Penn gripped the jug of water tighter, as if he had the same thought. He didn’t immediately head in the direction of the farmhouse, first we had to get out of sight. It was bad enough there were still so many of those dog-beasts left. Although, now there were fewer after Penn’s experiment had worked. But if you asked me, one of those things was too many.

We walked for two hours before we found a farmhouse. Even though Alice and Sienna hadn’t asked for a drink, our water was half gone. I wasn’t sure if this place was even the one Lucy had been referring to, but at least we had found somewhere to stay.

If it was safe, we could spend the night, maybe two. Or perhaps, since Alice looked like a ghost, we could stay even longer. Just until Sienna and Alice were well again, although we’d have to find a water source and food, because the more we walked the more they coughed.

Penn took out his gun with the single bullet as we approached the house. This house was much smaller than Lucy’s family’s house had been. There was a small fenced in area that had a tiny building next to it that looked as though it had been for chickens. If only those chickens were still there.

We walked right up to the door and didn’t waste any time going inside. I was happy to be indoors since the whole walk I couldn’t stop looking in all directions, expecting a dog-beast to pounce on me and maul me to death. My eyes were strained and needed a break before they refused to continue working.

I wasn’t sure, but I thought it would be better to face armed strangers over the wild dog-beasts. At least you could try to reason with people, whereas the dogs didn’t care about that. They only cared about killing you, ripping you from limb to limb and filling their bellies.

Looking around the square living room I could tell how far into the country we were by how the home had been decorated. There were afghans draped over the furniture, and pictures of roosters and strange looking cow figurines. The room looked as though it hadn’t been touched in months, with a thick dust coating everything.

It was as if I could tell the house was empty by how the air felt around me. If something jumped out at me, it would have been enough to give me a heart attack because I was so positive there wasn’t anyone in the house. Well, and my heart probably wasn’t very strong the way it was… it wouldn’t take much.

“You guys stay here,” Penn whispered pointing down at the floor in front of my feet. Then he pointed at Dean and then towards the kitchen, “Dean… you’re with me.”

We stood there barely moving and barely breathing as Dean and Penn started in the kitchen and moved around the house, carefully checking the rooms, closets and locks on the doors and windows. I wondered if everyone else had the same feelings I had about the house being empty. But even if there wasn’t anyone inside of it now, that didn’t mean it would stay that way.

After they finished checking the upstairs, Penn and Dean came back down. Dean collapsed into a chair and Penn let out a huge sigh.

“House is empty,” Penn announced as he turned towards the kitchen. “I’m going to search for food, medicine, water… anything I can find.”

“Do you need any help?” I asked taking a step towards him.

“No, no. Stay here. Rest.” He flapped his hand downward. It seemed as though maybe he wanted to be alone, so I didn’t press. I’d give him some time before harassing him to get his own rest.

Alice practically fell onto the sofa and Sienna curled up on the loveseat. There was another recliner, but instead I just flopped down on the floor and stretched out my arms and legs.

I breathed in and slowly let the air leave my lungs. My eyelids were already threatening to close, and I didn’t think I was going to fight them. I gave in to sleep. I let it wash over me from my toes all the way to the top of my head. It may not have been the smartest or the safest thing to do, but my body had reached its limit.

It was a deep sleep, and I didn’t wake up until sometime in the middle of the night. I could hear someone was up and they were very sick.

P
enn must have found
some candles while I’d been asleep because there was a single candle on the dining room table. I wasn’t sure if he still had his junky lighter or if he’d found a new one, but the candle was flickering its light on the ceiling and walls. There must have been a second candle too, because there was a glow coming from the bathroom.

I looked around the room and saw Alice was laying on the sofa. Dean’s head was cranked to the side while he slept in the recliner and Penn was lying on the floor near the dining room table.

The candlelight waved back and forth in his opened eyes. He stared back at me, but I couldn’t figure out what he was thinking, his face was hidden by the darkness.

“You should be resting,” I said softly, but shook my head. That hadn’t been what I’d wanted to ask. “What’s going on in there?”

“It’s Sienna… Carter’s with her,” Penn said making sure his voice was barely audible. He didn’t want to wake anyone up. Although, they’d probably wake soon from the noises coming from the bathroom.

Carter started talking to her once she finished dry-heaving. I wondered what had happened to make her throw up. Maybe that’s how it started… or maybe Sienna had it worse. Much worse.

“You have to get better… you will get better… for me. I need you,” Carter said his voice quiet, but still he said it with such force. He wanted her to believe his words as if that would somehow help her overcome the illness.

I couldn’t understand what Sienna was trying to say, at least not at first, but after she cleared her throat and stopped sobbing for a minute, I was able to make it out.

“I love you.” She started sobbing again. Sienna sobbed so hard it made her cough, “I don’t even care that it’s too soon to say that… I just do.”

She broke out into another coughing fit followed by more dry-heaves. I saw the jug of water sitting on the table near the candle. There was even less of it now, but I wondered if I should bring it to her. Surely I could find a cup in the kitchen so she wouldn’t spread the germs on the whole jug.

“Did you find any more water?” I asked and Penn shook his head side-to-side.

“But I did find a van in the garage. As soon as the sun comes out we are out of here,” Penn said softly as he crossed his arms over his chest like he was lying in a coffin. His gun was in his hand.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? She seems pretty sick,” I said watching the light dance on the wall near the bathroom.

“There isn’t anything here for us, so yeah, I think it’s the right thing to do. We have a shelter, but we are almost out of water. At the very least we have to find water.”

“Then you better get some rest. Go ahead… I’m awake now. I’ll wake you if something happens,” I said as I sat up and crossed my legs and rested my chin in my palm. I started drawing patterns in the carpet with my finger.

He didn’t respond. Sleep probably found him quickly when he gave in to it. Since I’d known him, out of all of us, he’d gotten the least amount of sleep. I’m sure it hadn’t been good for his body or his mind, but at the same time I understood it. I think he felt as though he had to protect us, that he still wanted to prove he wasn’t part of HOME, and if he went to sleep, he wasn’t doing his job.

Carter guided Sienna back into the living room holding most of her weight. He glanced at me, but quickly ignored my presence as he turned his attentions back to Sienna. He helped her back down on the loveseat.

“Are you OK?” I whispered. Sienna didn’t answer me and instead gently nodded her head. They had left the candle in the bathroom so I couldn’t help but think there was a possibility they’d have to rush back.

He laid down next to her and cradled her in his arm. Carter was letting her use him as a pillow, and at that moment she looked as comfortable as possible. He lightly kissed her forehead, and I looked away when he started gently moving the strands of hair out of her face.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but I was having trouble staying awake. Even though I was sitting up, my eyes would close, and I’d startle myself awake.

If Alice hadn’t started moaning and whimpering, I wouldn’t have been able to keep my eyes open. I couldn’t tell if she was awake or not, her body would move a little and then she’d make a noise. It almost seemed as though she was in pain… she sounded as though she was in misery.

“Alice?” I whispered softly, not wanting to wake her if she was asleep. At least I didn’t think I did.

“Whhaaa?” she groaned. She tried to finish the word, but it seemed as though she couldn’t.

“Do you need some water?” I asked crawling towards the sofa on my hands and knees.

“Yessss,” she said stretching out the word. She was having difficulty talking, and I didn’t think water was going to be able to help with that.

I bolted up to get her a glass from the kitchen. It was dark but the flickering candlelight provided me enough illumination to find a plastic cup. I poured out a small amount of water from the jug and hopped over Penn to get back to Alice.

By the time I returned, she was still. I hadn’t been gone that long, but she had fallen back asleep.

“Alice,” I said gently moving her shoulder back and forth. “I have your water.”

As I moved her something felt off. Something was different about the way her body moved as I tried to shake her awake.

“Alice?” I whispered, moving her to the side so I could see her eyes. “Alice, wake up!”

I heard someone behind me moving around, but I didn’t bother to look. The room seemed to grow brighter… was it morning?

“Alllliiiiccceeee,” I sang out, but I knew something was wrong. I rolled her even further on to her side, trying to hold her body up so she didn’t fall off of the sofa.

I looked into her empty, wide-open eyes. And I knew it. I gripped her shoulders and shook as if that would somehow help.

“Alice!” I cried out as I shook her limp body. “I have your water!”

There was a hand on my shoulder and my whole body jerked away as if I thought it was death coming for me too. Alice’s body rolled down onto the floor next to me. Her eyes were on me, but they stared right through.

Her lips were blueish and her skin was so white. Only hours ago she was walking and talking. Now here she was laying on the floor.

Tears fell down my cheeks even though I hadn’t known her for long. Penn kneeled down in the middle of the floor ignoring her body. He looked at me as if he was concerned about me.

I had seen far too much death. We all had. But when I noticed Carter staring at his sister’s body on the floor, the look on his face almost broke me. It showed that he too had seen his share of death, but this body, this was the body of his sister. This one had to be different.

He let out a heart-wrenching cry and buried his face into his hands. Sienna barely moved, but she wrapped her arms around his middle.

A shiver ran through every inch of my body. It felt as though I was vibrating from the chill. I sat there rocking back and forth with my hands over my ears. I tried not to look at Alice’s body while blocking out Carter’s painful cries.

Penn moved over to Carter and put his hand on his shoulder. He bowed his head, “You want me to move her from the room? We could bury her? What do you think she’d want?”

He waited patiently for Carter to respond, “I was surprised she’d fought it for as long as she had. Oh Christ! What should I do? I don’t even know what she’d want. We never talked about it.”

We had to do something. If we just put her out somewhere the dogs would get her, and I was pretty sure that was the last thing anyone would have wanted for her.

“I guess I think we should bury her,” Penn said trying to persuade him. Maybe he had already considered what the dog-beasts would do if they got their paws on her.

“OK,” Carter said, gently moving Sienna as he tried to stand up. He took a sharp breath in as his shoulders slumped forward, and I wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to get off of the sofa.

“I’ll look for a shovel… just wait here. Or in the kitchen,” Penn said waving his hand at Dean.

“I don’t think I want to do this. Or see this,” Carter said looking at me with his sad, red eyes.

I choked back my sob and went to him. It wasn’t like I’d be good at providing any comfort, but my body carried me towards him and away from Alice’s body.

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do,” I said leaning against the armrest of the loveseat. My fingers moved against one another nervously. “No one is going to judge you.”

“I’ll stay here and take care of Sienna. She needs me,” he said looking down at her. Sienna rested her head back in his lap and looked up at him. She had a sparkle in her tired eyes that only he could bring out.

He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her cradling her. Carter tilted his face down and to the side, hiding it from both of us. I looked away.

I went over to the sofa and yanked off the afghan. My eyes started to fill up with tears again as I draped the blanket over Alice’s body before I swallowed hard and left the room.

I sat down at the kitchen table and put my head down into my arms. It felt as though the weight on my shoulders was too heavy. I couldn’t carry it any longer. This world was becoming too much for me and I hadn’t been the one to lose someone. I wasn’t cut out for this world.

After a few minutes I was able to calm my breathing, and I stood up. Dean and Penn came back inside from the garage and I put my hand on Penn’s arm to stop him. I quietly told them that Carter didn’t want to watch and Penn nodded.

“We should take her out of there,” Dean suggested.

I followed them into the living room and stood in the way, hoping to block Carter’s view of Dean and Penn taking her body out of the living room. They planned to just move it to the kitchen while they went out back to start digging a hole.

When they were outside, I started scrounging around the kitchen for anything that I could eat. Food should have been the last thing on my mind, but sadly it wasn’t. Maybe it hadn’t been the illness that had taken Alice, maybe it had been the lack of food and water. I felt more desperate for food than ever before.

I found some cans of food and an old, metal can opener. After opening the cans, I stuck a spoon into the goopy thickness and brought two of the cans to the living room and two of them outside.

There were enough cans for everyone but it still wasn’t enough food. We wouldn’t ever have enough food. I stood outside watching Dean and Penn take turns digging the hole.

I scraped the sides of the can making sure I didn’t miss a single molecule of the soup. Even though it was cold, it tasted fine, maybe even good, but then again anything would have tasted good at this point. Maybe even fish.

“We’re all going to catch it,” I said sniffing back the tears that were threatening to flood out.

“Let’s hope not,” Penn said as he rested on the shovel.

I sucked in air, “We are all just too weak. There is no way we’ll be able to fight it off.”

“You sound like you’re giving up,” Penn said looking at Dean. But he didn’t say anything, he just scooped out a big spoonful of his congealed soup and sucked it down before grabbing the shovel from Penn.

After an hour or so Dean pulled himself up and out of the hole, “I’m done. This is good enough don’t you think?”

I looked down into the hole and put my hand on my stomach. The whole thing felt sickening. I wanted to make sure I could keep my soup down.

Penn stepped up to the edge and looked down. He put his hands on his hips and nodded. They both looked sweaty, dirty and tired.

“It’ll do,” Penn said and looked towards the house. “He’s sure?”

“Want me to ask him again?” I said taking a step towards the house. Penn nodded, and I went back inside reluctantly. I didn’t want to have to be the one to bring it up, but it was his sister. Maybe he’d changed his mind and wanted to say goodbye.

When I opened the back door, Carter was in the kitchen crouched down by Alice’s body. He had his head down on his arm and his other hand place lightly on top of the afghan.

“Are they ready for her?” he asked knowing it was me without even looking.

“Yeah… you want to come out?”

“No.”

He put his mouth down close to where her head would have been under the blanket and whispered something only for her, even though she couldn’t hear him anymore. Carter stood up, keeping his back towards me as he walked towards the living room.

“Goodbye, Alice.”