The Resolution (11 page)

“I’m pretty sure Henry has resorted to extreme measures. I’m also pretty sure he will never tell me what he has had to do. He’s just that kind of man. No matter what he has to go through for us, he will—and he will bear the burden alone.”

As she finished her sentence, they heard the sound of the boxes placed above the hidden entrance to the storm cellar being pushed aside, along with Henry’s familiar knock. This was to let her know it was him and that the coast was clear.

Henry walked down the steps, shotgun still in hand and at the ready. As he reached the bottom, he looked deep into Ed’s eyes and said, “We don’t make a habit of inviting strangers inside. Especially strangers in prison jumpsuits. If I hadn’t seen those commie bastards directly attack you, I might have shot you myself. You’ve got five minutes to convince me not to do that now.”

“Henry!” Meredith said with a scowl on her face.

“Well... let’s hear it,” he said insistently.

“Yes, sir,” replied Ed as he began to tell the tale of his former affiliations with the state of Ohio, how both he and Nate ended up at the Homefront with the others, and how they were on a simple supply run when they got caught with weapons that may have implicated them in militia activity, leading to their arrest and detention.

“So you’re not militia?” Henry asked.

“No, sir. We met some members of the Blue Ridge Militia early on during our supply run, but we’re not affiliated with them. But in the spirit of openness and honesty, I would be glad to call any patriot currently serving in a civil militia, my friend. I’m not sure how many, but militiamen lost their lives tonight rescuing us from Camp Twenty-one. I’ll forever owe them a debt, and my service where I can give it.”

Gazing into Ed’s eyes as if looking deep into his soul, Henry turned and leaned his shotgun against the wall and said, “Damn fine answer. You are both welcome to stay here until you can get back on your feet.”

“Speaking of feet,” Meredith said, interrupting the intense conversation. “We need to find them some shoes for their feet and some clothes, too. When they are fit to travel, we can’t just send them away barefoot and in orange prison jumpsuits.”

“I’ll see what I can scrounge up tomorrow,” Henry replied. “We need to lie low tonight. I’m sure those commie bastards will be on the ground in the area soon to check out their handy work.”

Chapter Nineteen: A Weakened State

Hearing his children play in the other room, Molly’s arms wrapped around him, Evan smiled and snuggled in next to her, enjoying the moment. Hearing his own stomach growl, he nudged her and asked softly, “Hey baby. What’s for breakfast?”

Molly answered, whispering into his ear, “You are. Wake up.”

Evan’s eyes opened immediately, seeing a coyote standing merely feet in front of him, as if it was sizing him up for a possible meal. He knew that coyotes are pack animals; where there is one, there are more. He slowly reached for his rifle, clicking off the safety lever with his hand before picking it up. “Easy now,” he whispered as he sat up ever so slowly, trying not to induce an attack. As he began to raise the weapon, the animal lunged, causing him to flinch, discharging the rifle with a blinding flash of light and a thunderous crack from the high-velocity 5.45x39 round, redirecting the hungry coyote as it darted off into the woods. The bullet whizzed right in front of Evan’s own face, as he was not prepared or aimed to fire. Momentarily blinded by the contrast of the bright flash of light on the dark night, Evan panicked, reestablishing his grip on the rifle in preparation for a continued attack. They could come from any direction and he knew that they were surely lingering in the darkness, waiting for an opportunity to take him down as injured prey.

They must have smelled the blood and the wound from a distance,
he thought as he squinted and blinked his eyes, trying to recover his night vision. Seeing spots and hearing nothing but the ringing in his ears, Evan stood and turned around, desperately scanning the darkness, hoping his senses would soon return.

After several minutes of watching and waiting, Evan yelled into the darkness, “And stay the hell away from me, you damn filthy dogs!” as if his threat would carry a perceivable warning to the hungry wild animals. Feeling light-headed, Evan leaned against a tree and continued to scan the darkness for any signs of movement.

Ah, I feel like shit
, he admitted to himself as aches and pain shot through his body. Shivering and feeling weak, Evan slid himself down the tree with his back dragging against it until he was seated on the ground.
At least they won’t be able to jump me directly from behind with me up against the tree,
he reasoned as he struggled to come up with a better plan than simply waiting.

Hearing the eerie howl of a coyote directly in front of him in the darkness, perhaps twenty yards or so, he knew the threat was not gone, but had merely fallen back to regroup. Evan shouted blindly into the darkness, “Jason, if you are there, say something.”

After giving his warning, he counted to five, closed his eyes to protect his returning night vision, and fired off three rounds in the direction he thought he heard the howl.

Hearing rustling through the brush off in the distance growing louder, Evan prepared himself for another attack; he gripped his rifle, shouldered it, and heard, “Evan! Evan, are you okay? Evan!”

“Jason! Over here, man. There are goddamn coyotes out there all around me. One nearly had me while I was sleeping.”

“Just stop shooting unless you have one in your sights,” Jason said as he sprinted towards Evan.

As Jason appeared in the moonlight, Evan said, “Oh, thank God you’re back.”

“Did you say coyotes?” asked Jason as he bent over and placed his hands on his knees, breathing heavily from his run through the woods.

“Yeah. I wasn’t seeing things. The bastard was within five feet of me when I woke up. I’m damn lucky I woke up,” he said, remembering that it was Molly who woke him in his dream as chills ran through his spine. “Did you find them... the radios and stuff?”

“Yeah. I was working my way back to you when I heard the gunshots. I dropped them and took off running at the sound of the first shot. I had no idea what was going on.”

“Well, screw going back for them in the dark with those bastards running around out there, acting like they are not afraid of man. Coyote attacks on humans are rare, but they happen. With man’s presence being reduced these days, those sneaky bastards may be getting braver. If they’ve come across weak and weary travelers in the recent past, they may have found that humans can make an easy meal. I think we need to just hang tight till the sun comes up and then go back for the radio equipment.”

“Damn, man. You’re really shook up.”

“You would be too, brother. You would be, too. Especially if you smelled like a wounded and sick animal, like I do. They can probably smell this festering mess for miles away. Speaking of which, I think it’s getting infected. I don’t feel so good. When I stood up earlier, I felt shaky and I feel like I have the chills or something. I suppose it could be the cold air, but I just don’t feel right. I know something’s not right.”

“Okay, man. We’ll just sit tight until sunrise. Try to get back to sleep. I’ll stay up and keep the critters away,” Jason said as he leaned back on a tree, rifle in hand. “If you’re starting to get sick on me, you need to get your rest. Tomorrow morning we’ll try to push on through after we retrieve the gear. If you feel up to it, of course.”

~~~~

As the sun came up over the ridge, with rays of light finding their way through the thick vegetation of the woods, Jason leaned over and felt Evan’s forehead. “Damn, man. You’re burning up,” he said quietly, not knowing if Evan was awake.

“I feel like I’m freezing to death,” Evan said without even opening his eyes. “I’ve got to get home quick before things really start to go south.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Jason replied, pulling the map from his shirt. “Screw the radios and repeaters. I can get one of the other guys to come back with me and get them. I’ve gotta get you home and get you to Doc Rachel for some of those cow antibiotics she gives people, before you get much worse. We’re ditching one of the rifles, too. I can’t carry everything and you can’t even carry yourself. Here, take a drink of water,” Jason said as he put his water bottle up to Evan’s lips.

Taking a sip of water, Evan said, “Thanks, man.”

“You’re gonna have to drink more than that,” Jason said, shoving the bottle back in his face.

Getting another drink and pushing the bottle away, Evan asked, “So what’s the plan?”

“On the steep stuff, I’m gonna have to have you hoof it. In the fast moving terrain, I’ll carry you on my back.”

“You can’t carry me all the way home. That just won’t work,” Evan insisted.

“Hey, listen to me,” Jason insisted. “We’ve not got that far to go. We can move better now that the sun is up. We just have to make sure we don’t expose ourselves more than necessary as we make our way through the woods. We will stop when we need to stop, but at this point, you need to shut the hell up and get yourself up and about. If you have to piss, do it now so that we can get moving.”

Jason tossed Evan’s rifle and pack into a thick mass of vegetation for concealment. “I’ll get this stuff when I come back for the radios.”

Evan stood up and leaned against a tree, looking down at the ground and shivering. Jason noticed how pale he looked and was concerned for his injured friend. Turning around and getting down on one knee, Jason said, “Hop up.”

Evan reluctantly put his arms around Jason’s neck as Jason stood up, grabbing his legs, and Jason immediately started walking in their planned direction of travel. “I guess pedaling those bikes all this time was a good thing. Building up my leg muscles to carry your broke ass, that is.”

“Yep. I sure did whip you into shape,” Evan said, attempting to keep up his sense of humor during the bleak situation. Unable to maintain his jovial mood, Evan closed his eyes and laid his head on Jason’s back as Jason marched steadily on.

With Evan on his back in place of his pack, Jason had his rifle slung around his neck, hanging in front of himself. He took two of the loaded magazines, placing one in each of his side cargo pockets, leaving the rest behind with Evan’s gear in order to lighten the load.
I sure as hell hope I don’t need that stuff along the way,
he thought, knowing that he could not sustain a firefight for long with three magazines total. One in the rifle and the two in his pockets. He knew the tradeoff in firepower was necessary, though, as he was already operating at his maximum capacity and had a long way yet to go.

Chapter Twenty: Wisdom

Ed awoke beside his friend Nate, lying on the floor, wrapped up in several blankets in front of the sofa. With no access to outside light from the cellar, he had no idea how long he had been asleep. A candle placed on the small table in the middle of the room flickered as the wick floated in the pool of melted wax, with very little of the candle remaining in solid form.

“Hello,” Ed said quietly, unsure if Henry or Meredith were in the room. He sat up as his eyes adjusted to the low light and looked around the best he could. As he began to stand, he flinched with pain as his back and his right hip tightened up, causing him to momentarily drop back to his knees to recover. “Damn it. Damn it. Damn it,” he whispered. “Oh, I took a beating last night.”

Taking it slowly, Ed stood up fully erect and stretched as best he could in an attempt to work out the stiffness and the pain. “Mr. and Mrs... um... Henry and Meredith?” he asked again, wondering if they were in the cellar with him, still unable to see as the faint light of the candle finally extinguished itself in the puddle of wax. “Damn,” he said aloud.

Not having another light source readily available, Ed wondered how he could possibly get some light so he could check on Nate’s condition.

Just then, the door to the closet overhead opened, casting light down the stairs. Ed’s heart felt as if it skipped a beat as he wondered who was walking down the stairs to join them in the cellar. Seeing Meredith’s legs appear, he breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Meredith... is that you?”

“Yes. Yes, it’s me. How is your friend?”

“I was just about to try and figure that out, when the candle went out,” he replied.

“Oh, I’m so sorry about that. I didn’t think I would be gone that long. Here, I made you some breakfast,” she said as she handed him a towel wrapped around a glass bowl.

Opening it to look inside, Ed was elated to see homemade biscuits, some sort of potted meat, and grape jelly on the side. “Thank you so much, ma’am. This is amazing.”

“I’m sorry there aren’t any acceptable breakfast meats to give you. We are down to canned meats at this point, so that’s the best I could do.”

“No need for apologies, ma’am. None at all,” Ed said as he picked up one of the hot, freshly baked biscuits and took a bite, savoring the flavor as he chewed.

“It’s nice to have someone to cook for. Henry and I don’t get to see many people on a friendly basis these days.”

“Where is he?” Ed asked.

“He’s shopping.”

Looking at her with a confused expression, Ed said, “Shopping?”

“Oh, that’s what we call it when we scavenge from the other homes in the area. There isn’t any food left, but it’s still possible to find clothes and things of that nature here and there.”

“Oh, okay,” Ed replied, now realizing what she meant. “So what time is it? How long did I sleep?”

“We don’t keep track of time these days. There’s not much need for it. I would guess the sun has been up for several hours,” she said as she walked over to Nate with a handheld oil lamp lighting her way. “Pull that table over here next to him,” she said.

As Ed moved the table next to the sofa, Meredith set the small oil lamp on the table and began to look Nate over. “I cleaned him up last night after you fell asleep. The cut on his head seems to be clotted nicely under the bandage. It hasn’t bled any more from what I can see. Has he moved or made any sounds?”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know. I just woke up myself. I was out of it,” Ed said while rubbing his hands over his face and yawning.

“Well, that’s understandable, all things considered.”

Hearing footsteps through the house above, Meredith said, “It sounds like he’s back.”

“How can you tell that’s him without his signal?” Ed asked.

“When you’ve been together as long as we have—you just know,” she replied with a look of confidence.

Henry knocked and then came down the stairs to the cellar with a sack full of clothes. “Is he still not awake?” Henry asked, referring to Nate.

“Not yet. I’m gonna start an IV on him. It’s been too long since he would have drunk anything at this point and he’s gonna need some fluids. I’ll give him some anti-inflammatories as well. From the looks of it, he took a pretty good hit to the head, and my guess is he has had a pretty rough go of things lately.”

“Whatever you think. You’re the boss,” said Henry as he kissed her on the forehead.

Handing the bag to Ed, Henry said, “You should be able to find something that fits in here. There are two pairs of shoes in there. A ten and a half and a twelve.”

“I’m an eleven and a half, so the twelve will probably work just fine,” Ed replied, happy to finally have shoes to put on his feet for the first time since their detainment.

Henry looked at Nate, then turned to Ed and said, “I’m not a medical person, but Meredith will take good care of your friend. She was a trauma nurse when things couldn’t get any uglier. I’ve seen her work miracles. It’s been a few years, but she’s still the best you could hope for.”

“Sir, we are truly blessed to be here with you and your wife. We will be eternally grateful.”

“Don’t bother thanking us. We’re pretty blessed ourselves, so it’s the least we can do. Back to the other business at hand, though; I scouted the area this morning. There were several signs of human remains with the wreckage of the bus. There was another fellow in an orange jumpsuit who looks like he made it a little ways on foot before being shot in the back. My guess is you got out of there in the nick of time. They must have had ground troops in the area ready to secure the scene as soon as the airstrike went down. I really can’t tell you if anyone else got away. Let’s just hope they did.”

Looking down at the floor in dismay, Ed said, “Thank you, sir. Tommy, one of the other guys on the bus, was so happy that he might actually make it home for his kid’s birthday. Damn it; what the hell is wrong with this world?”

“I’ve been asking myself that question since 1953, son. I used to think the evils of the world was all the same crap, just on a different day. There was always some sort of tyrannical madman terrorizing his people somewhere on Earth. These days, though, it’s a whole lot of shit and it’s been a whole lot of days. These are the end times, if you ask me. I’m just gonna do the best I can until the Lord decides to take me, at which point I’ll know deep down inside that I did the best I could for my wife. I just stay focused on that and let this screwed-up world worry about itself.”

“That’s about as healthy of an attitude as I’ve heard since this whole mess started. I tried to stay out of everyone else’s business and just keep myself going up in Ohio. I had a small farm just outside of the Columbus area. I thought I had enough room and resources to let the world tear itself apart without my direct involvement. Unfortunately, that’s not how the world saw things. As the outside forces expanded their grip, my little oasis turned out to be just a little too close to the city to stay under the radar. Once the powers-that-be began injecting themselves into the people’s daily lives, confiscating firearms, food, and other resources, I knew it was time to head south to meet up with my friends who put themselves a good little situation together. They also had the manpower to defend it—where I didn’t. Unless you’re a backpacker in the Rocky Mountains or Alaska, staying on the move and out of civilization’s way, it will catch up with you eventually.”

“If I had it to do over,” Henry said, “I would have moved Meredith into a cabin in the mountains a long time ago. The human mind is an interesting thing. On the one hand, we can convince ourselves that our current situation is fragile and that we must prepare for a not-so-positive eventuality. Then we turn right around and convince ourselves that it’s okay to put it off because we have plenty of time.”

“A lot of people were guilty of that, sir. Myself included.”

“Well, that shouldn’t have happened with me. I’ve seen and done some things that should make no man trust any government. I firmly believe that deep down inside, government is the root of all evil. As individuals, humanity is a wonderful thing. As soon as a group of individuals form a tribal or local government, however, it all goes to hell. Take, for example, if a man was living in a cabin deep in the woods, minding his own business, not bothering a soul, then one day while out hunting, he stumbles across another man doing the same thing on the other side of the mountain. His first reaction may be cautionary, but once he figures the new man out, his instinct would not be to enslave the man and force him to do his work back on his own homestead, regardless of the other man’s skin color or ethnicity. His instinct would either be to avoid the man and remain autonomous, or befriend the man for possible barter, trade, and mutual protection. Now, fast forward a decade where more and more cabins and homesteads have popped up in the same woods. These new homesteads could be occupied by people with the same goals and values where everyone gets along just fine. Then someday, some asshole would say, ‘We need a leader’ and it would all start to unravel. As soon as one man or a committee of men see themselves above others, the inevitable oppression of mankind would begin. Wherever a majority has control over a minority, whether it’s real or perceived, mankind will suffer. An individual does not enslave another individual; it takes a ruling majority to make it okay for that to happen.”

“Wiser words have never been spoken, sir,” replied Ed, giving deep thought to what Henry had said.

“If I were wise, I would be in that cabin in the woods today, instead of hiding down here in a hole in the middle of it all,” Henry said with a chuckle. “It’s easy to be wise after the fact. The truly wise ones among us take the steps they need to take before it needs to be done.”