Crashing Down - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (The Ravaged Land Series Book 3) (17 page)

W
e followed
Mira down the row of what I assumed were occupied trailers until we reached the last one. It was standing on big chunks of cement and the whole thing looked as though it was slightly slanted. But it was a shelter, which of course was better than nothing at all.

The trailer was several yards from the fence but the closest to it of all of them. Only a tall, but flimsy looking wall of wood kept us on the inside of the camp. Well, that and the supposed minefield that surrounded the place. If it wasn’t for that, it probably would have been very easy for us to escape.

“We usually put about ten people per trailer, but I don’t think this baby would hold ten,” Mira said pressing her lips together as she patted the side of the trailer. “It could be worse. Come inside.”

The inside of the trailer was pretty beaten up. The faux wood paneling was peeling off and the flooring, whatever it was, was lumpy. There was a sofa, a couple of folding chairs, a one-person bathroom and a bedroom. It was going to be cramped. I had no idea how they were fitting ten people in the other trailers.

“We sleep on the floor?” Sienna asked keeping her face neutral.

“Or the sofa, or the bed in the back room. There are blankets in the closets,” Mira said standing in the doorway. I saw the tall man with glasses standing off in the distance as he waited for her. “We’ll talk more later. I have some things to attend to with Harvard. Someone will be around with food later,” she said and closed the door behind her.

Mira waited by our door for a few minutes and then I heard the steps creak slowly as she left. I wondered if she had been waiting to see if we said anything about the camp before she left.

“Harvard?” Sienna said raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah… that guy,” Dominick said peering out from behind the curtain watching them as they walked away.

“That’s his real name?” she asked.

“That’s where he went to school. Thinks he’s some kind of big shot,” Dominick said as he released the curtain. Either he didn’t want to see them anymore, or they were out of his view.

“Are they together?” I asked not sure if I wanted to know the answer. The dude seemed creepy as far as I was concerned. And Mira was actually fairly pretty. They didn’t make sense, but then again neither did Mira and Dominick. Or Dominick and anyone.

“Who cares,” Dominick said and walked off to the bedroom.

“Umm… guess we’ll take the bedroom then,” Dezzie said lowering his eyes as he rushed after Dominick.

“Yeah, OK. That sounds fair,” I said loudly after him. I had no doubt he heard me, but my words had been intended for Dominick. Just because he had been the leader of the old camp, that didn’t mean he was still in charge of me. Or any of us for that matter. He hadn’t ever been in charge of us.

Dean lightly nudged me with his elbow and looked down at me. His eyes both warning me to be careful, but also they seemed amused.

“Well, I just wanted him to know…,” I said under my breath.

There really wasn’t much to do. The trailer hadn’t been stocked with games or books, all we could do was stare out the window and wait. And that’s exactly what we did.

Penn and Dean spent most of their time at the windows. Penn at the window by the front door and Dean at the side window. They both had pulled up one of the folding chairs, sat down and watched people mill about the camp.

Sienna and I sat on the couch. I rested my head back and stared up at the moldy ceiling. It was very boring. Sienna was leaning forward with her head resting on her fists.

“It’s funny,” she said not moving.

“What is?” I said trying to make shapes out of the dots of mold.

“All of the things that could have killed me so far, and it’s the boredom of being trapped in here that’s going to get me.”

I smiled, but she couldn’t see it. With Dominick in the other room, I couldn’t bring up the topic of escaping. I figured the walls were far too thin for that. And they were so quiet in the other room that I thought either they had fallen asleep or they were waiting for us to start talking. Dominick was still Dominick. Having lost his camp and his brother hadn’t changed that.

When we arrived and there was no mention of Mack, Dominick must have been disappointed, but he hadn’t said anything. Maybe he had already assumed the worst.

Several hours passed by before there was a knock at the door. It was almost nice to have something to break up the monotony. Penn waved his hand at us as if trying to let us know it wasn’t anything we needed to worry about. But no matter what, or where we were, I would always be on edge and there wasn’t anything that could be done about that.

“It’s just Mira,” he whispered before he opened the door.

I heard footsteps coming down the hallway and turned away when I saw Dominick making his way towards the living room. Dezzie of course, only a few footsteps behind. His hair was wild as if he had been having a fitful rest.

“Decided to bring you dinner myself,” she said passing over a foil-wrapped bundle. “Usually you’d come and get your own food, but since you are new here… well and I needed to update the camp on your arrival. Anyway, I’ll talk to you more tomorrow about how I run things around here.”

She stepped back down the stairs quickly as if she was afraid we might be contaminated with something and she didn’t want to catch it. Penn waved, and I assumed she must have started to walk away when he went to close the door.

“Hold on,” Dominick shouted after her, and thrust the door back open. He shoved Penn out of the way.

“Come on, man!” Penn said slamming the door once Dominick was out of the way.

“Where is he going anyway?” I said hoping it didn’t seem like I actually cared. Because I didn’t.

“Maybe to get some of our water?” Dezzie said but even he didn’t believe that. “Maybe I should make sure he can carry it all.”

Dezzie left the trailer almost looking as if he was worried. I didn’t know why he’d worry about Dominick. He could take care of himself. But maybe the look had been for Mira.

“Well that was weird,” Sienna said and pointed to the foil packet Mira had left for us. “What’s in there?”

Penn pulled back the corners, and I instantly smelled what was inside. It filled the whole room with its odor. I didn’t know what kind it was, but I knew it was fish.

My stomach grumbled and twisted. I tried not to breathe while I rubbed at my temples trying to disguise the fact that I wanted to pinch my nose closed. They looked at it like it was made out of gold. I hated fish. And there was only one thing worse than the taste of fish… it was the smell of fish.

They started picking at it hungrily. My stomach screamed at me to take some, so I did. I forced myself to eat it. It didn’t taste as bad as I thought it would, but it was still bad. To me, it was by far the worst thing I’ve had to eat since the storms.

“What’s wrong?” Sienna said noticing my apprehension.

“Umm… nothing,” I said not wanting them to know. I didn’t have a good reason for not telling them, I just didn’t want anyone to know. Beggars couldn’t be choosers. I should just be thankful to have something. “We should save some for Dezzie… and Dominick too I suppose.”

“I guess so,” Penn said, dividing the fish into pieces. He handed out a portion to each one of us, and I swear he gave me the largest piece.

It wasn’t long before they barged in. Dezzie was carrying two gallon jugs of water. He handed one of them to Penn and in return he gave him his portion of fish. Dominick put out his hand waiting to be served. And after Penn gave him his piece they went into the bedroom without a word.

I opened my mouth but closed it when I saw Dean, Penn and Sienna all looking at me. Penn shook his head. I pretended to zip my lip, but I could tell they were still worried whatever I was going to say might still slip out.

When the sun started to fall down below the horizon, I decided to get up and check the windows and doors to make sure they were locked. I didn’t know what good it would do, but for some reason I felt like five percent safer knowing everything was locked. Although, I wasn’t about to go into Dominick’s room to check his windows. Hopefully, Dezzie had already done that.

“I think I’m just going to go to sleep,” Sienna said with a yawn. She stretched out on the sofa.

Dean opened the closet and pulled out one of the blankets. It had brown stains and holes but he offered it to her anyway.

“I’m not cold, like at all,” she said waving her hands when she saw it.

Dean turned around and spread it out on the floor near the side window. He sighed and laid down on top of it. It was only slightly better than laying on the bare floor.

“Ahh so comfortable,” Dean said rolling his eyes.

“Right,” Penn said tapping my shoulder. “You want first watch or should I take it?”

“I will,” I answered sitting down in his folding chair. It was strange, but I wasn’t really tired. I didn’t know what it was, but I felt awake. I was bored out of my mind, but for some reason I was full of energy. Maybe just because we were in a new and unknown place. But I worried I’d have to go out for a jog to burn some of it before I could rest.

Penn nodded and spread out his own disgusting blanket to lay on. I wondered how many people had used these blankets. They probably hadn’t been washed. I almost gagged thinking about it. My stomach was fighting to keep the fish down.

After everyone had been asleep for about an hour or so, Dominick attempted to leave the trailer. But he hadn’t been expecting me to be sitting by the front door wide awake. He looked at me as if I had caught him doing something wrong.

I tilted my head at him, “Going somewhere?”

“Just stepping out for a bit. Hope that’s OK, mom,” he said opening the door and closing it silently. It was clear he hadn’t wanted wake to the others. He was sneaking off somewhere, but I didn’t know where.

There wasn’t any movement outside our trailer as I watched out between the edge of the curtain and the window frame. Everyone was inside their trailers, probably fast asleep. Although it looked like a few of them had lights on. Candles maybe, or lanterns. Maybe after you were here for a while you could get more items. Maybe the others had books or games… things to do besides stare out the window.

I looked up at the stars above. It seemed so strange to see them twinkling up there. Everything down here on Earth was drastically different, but everything up there was still the same.

The night out here in the middle of nowhere was so quiet. So quiet that I could hear the two distinct voices as they came closer to the trailer. I couldn’t make out their words, but I was pretty sure that one of them was Dominick. I stood up and pressed my ear against the thin, fake wood door.

It didn’t take long to figure out that he was with Mira. They stopped talking, and I almost pulled my ear away thinking Dominick was about to open the door, but then he started talking again.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he said, his voice barely recognizable as the one I had come to know. It was soft and sincere. There was a long pause, I looked out the window but I couldn’t see them.

The pauses were so long I wondered if they were kissing, maybe they were getting back together. Or maybe she had stormed off, but I hadn’t seen her walking away. And Dominick would have opened the door and bowled me over if that would have been the case.

“So the dogs got inside and then after that a fire? What else happened Dom? You have to tell me everything… I mean, what if they come looking around here next? Do they know about this place?” Mira said in a terse voice. It was hard and sharp like a blade.

“That’s all that happened. Then we came here… everyone was gone in the fire except—”

“Where’s Mack?”

“The only survivors that I’m aware of are right here in this trailer,” Dominick said with a sniff. “Do you hear me when I tell you how much I’ve missed you? I’ve thought about you every day… I wish you wouldn’t have ever left.”

It sounded as if she snorted, “You know why I left Dom.”

“It’s like you aren’t even listening to me… I love you Mira. I can’t live without you,” Dominick said in a sad, pathetic voice. For a minute I almost felt bad for him. I didn’t know why they had parted ways, but I did know what Dominick was like. Although maybe he hadn’t been that way before. Maybe she had seen a different Dominick than I had.

“Get off of me!” she yelled, and I could tell she was both angry and nervous. I put my hand on the doorknob worried I might have to go out there. “Dominick, I said NO!”

I silently started to turn the knob.

T
here was another long pause
, but this time it ended with a sound I almost couldn’t figure out. But when I realized what it was, I knew she had slapped him.

“Stop it! It is so not going to happen,” Mira said, and for a split second I thought I saw a shadow move as if someone was trying to get away.

I may have imagined it but then it looked as though one shadow moved towards the other or was reaching out for it. “Mira!” he said, the desperation clear.

“Don’t touch me, don’t follow me and definitely do not try anything again or you’ll be out of this camp so fast—”

“Really? Who’s going to make me leave? You? Ha. Your boy Harvard? Right… unlikely,” Dominick said, his voice reverting back to the one I more easily recognized.

“Try me,” she said, and I could see Mira walking through the shadows of the camp back towards her trailer. She moved quickly as if she couldn’t get away fast enough.

I sat down knowing Dominick would be coming back inside and I didn’t want it to look like I had been eavesdropping. Although I had no idea how I was going to hide it. He had to know how thin these trailer walls were. In fact, I was surprised the ordeal hadn’t woken any of the others, but then again maybe it hadn’t really been as loud as I thought it was.

The doorknob slowly turned and he tried to soundlessly open the door. But when he saw me and I wasn’t sleeping, he knew.

“So you heard everything then, huh?” Dominick said not looking embarrassed, or like he was going to kill me. It wasn’t like I had much of a choice. They were the ones to decide to have a conversation right outside the trailer.

“I didn’t mean to… it’s just that—”

“Messy breakup,” he said hastily as if that would explain everything. He walked off towards the bedroom without another word. I barely heard the bedroom door close behind him. It seemed as though he had managed not to wake Dezzie with any of it.

I was relieved it ended with everyone alive. Any other day, maybe, he would have killed both Mira and me. Her for refusing him and me for witnessing it. He certainly was capable of it.

* * *

T
he next morning
, after everyone was up, we followed Dominick outside. I stood there staring out at the trailers while Dominick and Dezzie whispered to each other. After several minutes Dezzie led the way over to the trailer next to the one we had met Mira in.

There were four people working together to package up the food they were serving for breakfast. They were putting it into plastic bags and setting them aside on a fold-out table. It seemed so weird that they were bothering with plastic bags and foil, but maybe they had stockpiled up on it. Those type of items probably hadn’t been flying off the shelves.

I couldn’t tell what they were putting inside the rationed bags and, as long as it wasn’t fish, I didn’t care. We were the first ones there other than the ones that were there doing the prep-work.

“Good morning,” Mira said sounding dreadfully unfriendly. It had probably been mostly directed at Dominick. “Hungry?”

I couldn’t help but wonder if she thought since we had arrived at the camp with him that we supported him. If it ever came up, I’d set her straight. After what I’d heard and seen last night, she would understand.

“Always,” Sienna said flashing her a friendly smile even though she had to have sensed the tone. Mira ignored it. The smile vanished from Sienna’s face.

“After you take your ration, I’ll show you around. If you plan on staying, you’ll have to help out,” she said glancing at Dominick. It was like she already knew he wouldn’t want to help out. It was going to be very difficult for him to go from being the leader of about one hundred people to being a follower. And not just any follower, he would be led by his ex-girlfriend. The one who not only rejected him once, but at least twice.

This was going to be unpleasant. I couldn’t even guess why Dominick would want to stay here. Maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe we’d leave for the next camp and that’s when we could escape. Both Dominick and Dezzie had guns but if it was just the six of us, we could wait until they weren’t paying attention. We could make our move and finally get far away from these resistance groups.

One of the people packaging up the food handed us each a plastic bag. He didn’t smile at us. He didn’t even look up at us. His eyes were glued to each bag of food as if he was saying goodbye to something he wanted to keep for himself.

It was true that everyone was starving, but I couldn’t help but wonder if this man was further along in the starving process based on how he looked at the food. The more people that came into the camp, the smaller his portion would be. I almost felt guilty.

“Follow me,” Mira said as she turned and quickly moved past Dominick. I couldn’t tell if she seemed afraid of him or just disgusted by him. Maybe both.

She gave us a quick rundown of day-to-day life as she pointed out things she thought we’d need to know. It didn’t seem as though she ran things much differently than Dominick had. She listed off all the things we could help out with. Then she warned us not to leave without someone who knew the area because of the mines.

“No one is really assigned roles here, you’ll just jump in and help out wherever it’s needed. We all help one another,” she said, and once again I knew she was directing her comment at Dominick. Even though for the most part she was ignoring that he was even there.

She definitely had a different leader-style than Dominick. His ship was tight and efficient whereas hers was relaxed and the efficiency was yet to be determined. We were fed, and we had a shelter, so it was at the very least, good enough. Most importantly, I didn’t fear that she was going to kill me if I said or did the wrong thing.

There were two things I was almost positive Mira didn’t have that Dominick had at his camp. One, I was almost sure she wouldn’t have an underground prison where she put people to forget about them, or leave them to die. And two, a stage where she’d hang people she suspected to be from HOME.

I hadn’t seen a stage anywhere, certainly it wasn’t in the middle of her camp. I had to believe that was something very specific to the way Dominick had chosen to do things. But I did wonder what Mira did with HOME intruders. Maybe they never made it past the minefield.

The rest of the day we were pretty much allowed to wander, meet people and start to help out where needed. Mira thought it might take a little time for the others to warm up to us, and she was probably right. Every time we walked past anyone their eyes would be on us and it almost seemed they’d take a step away from us. They didn’t bother to hide the fact that they stared at us either. I almost felt as though they were looking at us like we might be food.

“What’s that?” I said pointing to a bucket filled with green-colored leaves.

The woman next to the bucket quickly covered it as if she was worried I might just walk over there and steal her most prized possession. “It’s for everyone!” she said in a high-pitched witchy voice.

“OK… but
what
is it?” I said squinting at her. It felt as though maybe I wasn’t asking the right question. If I just changed the way I asked it maybe she’d understand.

“Wild spinach… now off you go,” she said waving at me like I was an annoying fly.

“Bye!” I said trying to feign a friendly tone but I think it came off more like I actually meant it. Kind of bitchy. I probably should have felt bad about it, but I hated how everyone made me feel so unwanted. It wasn’t like I even wanted to be here.

When we got closer to our trailer, instead of going inside Dominick leaned against the side of it. He looked out over the camp as if he was studying it. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, and I probably didn’t want to know.

“Why do you want to stay here?” I asked him when I was sure none of the others would be able to hear us. Maybe I’d get an honest answer if it was just the two of us.

“I don’t know. It’s safer here than out there,” he said answering rather quickly. He glanced at me and then looked down at his feet, “And if Mack made it… he’ll come here first.”

And that’s when I knew Dominick wouldn’t ever be leaving this camp. The only way he might consider it is if someone brought his brother’s corpse here to prove that he was actually deceased.

“Right,” I said turning when I noticed Dominick looking at something. Mira was approaching us. This time she had Harvard with her. I wondered if she had forgotten to tell us something or if maybe she was going to ask us to leave for some reason. Maybe because it seemed like no one wanted us here.

Before they reached us, the ground started to shake, just as it had during the thunderstorm before we arrived here. It wasn’t much, only just enough to notice the difference. The door of the trailer rattled ever so slightly in the frame.

Mira stopped in her tracks and looked around the camp before she settled her wide eyes on Harvard. When it ended she walked right up to Dominick and me.

Her people must have felt the tremors, but those who were out and about didn’t seem concerned. They just went back to whatever it was they were doing before the earth had started shaking. It seemed weird they weren’t looking to Mira for answers.

“We’ve been feeling the tremors for a few weeks now,” Mira said mostly to me. It was obvious she’d rather look at anyone other than Dominick.

“Oh?” Dominick said sounding surprised.

“They are all weak, much like that one. Don’t last long. I think it’s HOME,” she said looking me over as if waiting to judge how I would react to the information. But I wasn’t sure what kind of reaction she was looking for from me. It wouldn’t surprise me if it were HOME. It seemed like the most logical explanation to me.

“More weapons testing perhaps,” Harvard said as he slipped his thin hands into his pockets.

“Is that right?” Dominick said looking back and forth between the two of them.

“We’re safe here,” she said, trying to sound reassuring. “We are very safe here,” she said louder, wanting anyone close enough to hear her too.

Dominick laughed. He looked at me as his odd laugh continued and then over at the others before he set his eyes on Mira. He shook his head side to side before he lifted his finger to point at them.

“Are you both fucking morons? Are you kidding me right now? A few weeks? This has to be some kind of joke!” Dominick said taking a bold step towards them. I reached my hand out as if I was going to reel him back, but then I thought better of it. It was almost as if I could hear Dean’s words being telepathically transmitted into my mind.

“I uhh…,” Mira said softly.

“You have to report that kind of shit like right away, Mira! You know that. What you’ve done is stupid and just careless. I can’t believe you are in charge of all of these people.”

I hadn’t noticed at first but a crowd had started to gather. The louder Dominick got the more people that came around to see what was going on.

“Just look at them,” Dominick continued, “half of them look like they are already dead. Not only are you trying to kill everyone in your camp, but now, by not reporting this, you are trying to take out all the other camps too. Whose side are you actually on?” He was practically screaming at her. It was almost as if he was trying to imply she was secretly working for HOME. But I didn’t think he actually believed that. Dominick sighed and tried to quiet his voice, but the aggressive tone was the same, “You’re a failure.”

Mira rubbed her hands together. I could tell she was trying hard not to cry. But she managed to keep her face stiff. The skin was stretched so tightly I thought it was going to split down the middle.

“I was going to report it if it got worse, or if something changed, but it hadn’t,” she said in a soft, but controlled robotic voice. Harvard put his hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off.

Dominick crossed his arms in front of his chest and shook his head. The look on his face said it all. He was angry and disappointed. And everyone saw it, which is exactly what I thought he wanted.

Everything Dominick did was thought out… planned… calculated. Did Mira know that about him? She must have.

“You aren’t cut out for this Mira,” he said barely above a whisper. I was certain the only ones who heard him were Mira and I. And maybe Harvard. But that had been his intention. He was trying to get to her, while making sure no one thought anything bad about him.

Mira opened her mouth to speak, but instead turned on her heel and walked away. Her arms dropped down to her sides and didn’t move as she walked. Her fists were clenched into tight balls pressing against her thighs. She was forcing herself to hold it together.

“See!” Dominick shouted after her. He raised his hand up at her wearing a phony baffled expression. “What kind of leader just walks away when confronted with a problem?”

But Mira ignored him and kept walking. Her pace remained steady even though I knew she had heard him. Dominick glanced at me as if he thought I would agree with him, but I shook my head and walked away.