Dystopia: The Long Road (19 page)

John nodded and thanked them, as they walked away Dickie looked at John quizzically and they both shrugged and went inside to eat.

Mark was visibly unsettled and John asked him what was wrong.  Mark replied, “I am not sure, something is somehow off about things.”

John said, “I agree, we will keep a good eye out and start off early.”

“The flaw in being civilized is that it permit’s the uncivilized among us to perpetrate horrific crimes against us in the name of freedom and equality.”

-M. J. Croan

November 9th

The morning came too soon for John, he felt as though he’d been beaten and tortured, his wounds aching and bruised from the impact of the bear claws the night before.  John, Mark, Dickie, Ray, Danny and Roger sat at a table scrutinizing the map, hovering around it like a scene from an old war movie; while Amy, Laurie, Melinda and Jenny cooked for the day’s travels.  Matty and Georgia sat with Jules and talked of missing their new friends.  Everyone seemed occupied and it almost felt normal for a few moments.

Mark looked around saying, “Where is Renee and Kimmie?”

No one could recall seeing them that morning, Mark hurried to the rooms looking for them.  John asked if any of the night’s sentries had seen them leaving, and no one could recall anyone leaving or even seeing them since they first arrived.

A few hours passed as they searched for them as the mood grew darker.  Comments about scenarios and thoughts of kidnapping were beginning to look more plausible.     Returning to regroup and look for anything that might indicate what happened to them, John and Dickie spotted them sitting on a log bench beside the porch.

John approached them, not sure if he was concerned or angry, saying, “Where have you two been?  We have been searching for you for hours.”

Both of them looked at him like he was crazy, Renee saying, “We’ve been right here wondering where everyone went.”

John was becoming angry because he knew they were not there earlier said, “You were not here earlier.”

Kimmie said, “Oh, we were in the attic.”

John looked puzzled, but also knew they were not in the house earlier, he had called into the attic himself.  He asked, “What were you doing in the attic? No one has seen you both since yesterday.”

Renee said, “We were just exploring the place and I guess we fell asleep up there.”

John knew that they were lying, but he could not figure out why or where they actually went.  The others started returning and asking questions, Mark was just happy they were ok.  No one could really understand why it was Mark tolerated some of the things they did.  Mark was a helpful, hardworking, honest man; and they both were secretive, vindictive and generally up to no good.  John would often tell Amy before all the problems began how he could not understand why Mark put up with it, recalling that at one time, they almost got evicted because Renee was spending all the household money on shopping trips and parties while Mark was working.

Shaking off the uneasy thoughts about these two, John announced, “We will have to stay another night here.  It is too late in the day to start out.  No one, and I mean No one is to leave the house without one of the guys to keep an eye out.”

Laurie said to Amy, “We should use this extra time to get some of this food prepared and packed for travel.  We may not be able to cook along the way.”

John and Dickie prepared a watch rotation and headed out to walk the perimeter before the sun set.  They walked a complete perimeter as far out as they could go and still see the building.

John was quietly walking, looking at the ground when Dickie broke the silence, asking, “What is bothering you?”

John said, “I really don’t know, something is nagging me as wrong, but I can’t figure out what it is.”

Dickie replied, “I have felt like something is not right as well, especially after our driver was so cryptic when dropping us off.”

John stopped, looking up at him like a light bulb was over his head and said, “I forgot about the note.”

Dickie looked at him quizzically asking, “Note?”

John said, “Remember, the note that only you and I were to read?”

Dickie replied, “Right!  Let have a look at it.”

John pulled the crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and opened it so they could see what it said.

The note was short, but spoke loud and clear.  “
You have a traitor in your camp.  A small group of ruthless killers is following you
.
Someone in your group is leaving markers for them to follow.”

John looked up from the note eyes wide and said, “Do you think?”

Dickie responded, “Renee and Kimmie?”

John said, “They have been disappearing.”

Dickie nodded and looked back in the direction of the others and asked, “Why do you suppose they only trusted us?”

John thought a moment and said, “I don’t know, but we should keep a very close eye on everyone.  I know for a fact Amy is not a problem, and pretty sure Jules is clear too.”

Dickie said, “Yeah, we should get them to keep an eye out as well.”

John looked down and said, “This is bad, we could be bringing a shit storm to the others.”

Dickie nodded, saying, “Well, we can stop the trail of breadcrumbs by making sure everyone stays together.  Maybe they will lose the trail, so to speak.”

John said, “I hope so.”

They continued their perimeter walk and found nothing, on the way back John looked at Dickie saying, “We don’t even know what we are looking for. I don’t know what kind of bread crumbs are being left.”

Dickie said, “I am sure the crumbs for this stop are already planted, we will have to be very aware though.  We should observe and let them be left, but pick them up.  Our traitor won’t know that their messages are not getting out.”

John just looked at the ground, saying, “Yea, maybe.”

Amy and Laurie prepared a large meal for the night and packed up the prepared food for travel.  Roger and Ray   examined the map and noticed that they were not at the Kentucky border, but some thirty miles into the state.  This left them with a little over one hundred miles to go.  It was cold that evening, which made it perfect for keeping everyone together.  John had all the mattresses brought to the main living room and a fire was started in the fireplace.  Initially they were worried about the smell of smoke, but after Dickie went outside and smelled fire, they knew the smell would not be an issue and once it got dark the smoke would not be seen.

When morning arrived, they packed up and made their way to the power lines which would carry them another fifty or more miles closer to their destination.  On the map was marked places where supplies would be cached for them.  They were to be careful to follow the map, and avoid areas shaded in red no matter what.  It was impressive how in only a few months this network had been established and was working so well.

John asked one of the drivers how they managed to be so organized so soon after the collapse of things and was told that they belonged to the A.N.T.S. network before any of this happened.  They had never heard of A.N.T.S. before and were told it meant Americans Networking to Survive.  John wondered why he had not heard of this before and wished he had.

They traveled a number of days, on foot.  There were complaints from a few, mainly Kimmie and Renee.  Danny was struggling to maintain the pace of ten miles per day.  His leg was healing well, but he was still weak.  Jules was getting sicker by the day.  Even with the fresh insulin the pregnancy was taking its toll.  Amy and Laurie told John that they could not continue this way.

The pace had to slow no matter what John had hoped, he knew they could not continue as such. Another few days passed and they were only making half what they started out with now at five miles per day.  He knew they would have to have a day or two of rest, his hopes were too optimistic. John wanted to push through, only another five or so days at this pace and they would be more than half way there, they were nearly to the area of the map where the power lines intersected with the railroad tracks that they would follow for a time.

At this intersection the location of the cache was an old barn long forgotten by those who built it.  Inside the barn there were two men who stepped out as the group approached.   Quickly they identified themselves as A.N.T.S. and told them to come inside, they had news from their friends.

One man introduced himself simply as Red, the other said nothing. Shaking hands all around, he told them that there was a hot meal ready on the other side of the barn and that they would spend the night inside.

Red said, “I need to talk to John, which one of you are John?”

John stepped forward with his hand out and said, “Right here.” Taking his hand in a handshake.

Red replied, “Good to meet you, let's step outside and chat a moment.”

John nodded affirmation toward Dickie and followed the man out the door. 

Once outside, Red said, “I was instructed to tell you that you need to be more careful when packing up camp.  You still have the group tailing you.”

John nodded and said, “We were hoping we managed to lose them without the trail of breadcrumbs.”

Red said, “They are struggling to follow now, but they are still on you.”

John looked off a moment and said, “I will personally check the camp when leaving.  Was that all?”

Red said, “No, I have news from Arthur.”

John was excited asking, “Is everything ok? What is the news?”

Red laughed, saying, “Yes, everything is fine.  Your friends will be moving soon, but you are to stay on course.  They are part of a much larger group that will take over for us once you get closer.”

John was full of questions asking all at once, “Why are they moving? Where to? Is everyone ok?”

Red put his hands up for him to calm down, saying, “Everything is fine, I have not been given any of the details.  I was supposed to check on you and give you that information.”

John nodded, and shaking his hand said, “I’m sorry, thank you for everything.”

Red replied, “No problem, I would be excited too, sorry I didn’t have more news.”

John smiled, saying, “It’s good to hear any news.  This trip has taken far longer than I ever would have thought and it helps being reminded of our friends.”

Danny and Jules were both in rough shape.  Danny’s wound had mostly healed, but the massive infection took its toll on his recovery.  His leg was getting stronger with the help of Amy and Laurie getting him to stretch it each night, but he was becoming frustrated at his limitations.  Jules was getting worse each day, at this point everyone knew there was something terribly wrong and it was making the others uncomfortable not knowing.

John looked at Dickie as he stood looking at her and said, “It is time to tell the others what is going on with her.”

Dickie looked down and said, “Yeah I know.”

John replied, “It might ease the burden on Amy and Laurie as well as you.

Dickie had tears he was holding back when he said, “They don’t know if she is going to hold on long enough.”

John looked horrified, saying, “We might lose them both?”

Dickie looked at him almost pleading for guidance and asked, “Was it wrong to let her keep the baby?”

John put a hand on his shoulder and said, “My friend, if things don’t start righting themselves, you would have lost her either way.  She is type one diabetic and insulin dependent, the supply would have run out eventually.  No my friend I don’t believe it was wrong.”

Dickie, tears rolling down his cheeks said, “We talked long ago and she knew I wanted a son, the doctors told us no more children, that her body couldn’t handle it. John, she knew this before she got pregnant.  I don’t know how I’ll go on without her.”

John became stern saying, “You will go on.  You have a daughter to care for and God willing, a newborn. You need to get it together.”

Dickie nodded and said, “Thanks mate, not only for this, but for everything you have done.  We never would have made it to Dez if it were not for you.”

John began to shuffle his feet, saying, “Aww shucks.”

They both laughed, Dickie regained his composure and they walked over to where the food was laid out and began making a plate.  John and Dickie sat with Roger and Jenny chatting about how much further they had to go, when Amy came over and sat down.

John looked at her saying, “To what do I owe the pleasure of the company of such a fine lady as you?”

Amy smiled slightly and said, “I wanted to talk to you.”

John said, “What’s up sweetheart?”

Amy replied, “Take a walk with me?”

John stood, saying, “a change to go walking with a beautiful lady? Sure thing.”

Once they were outside the barn, John could see she was troubled about something and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Amy looked troubled, saying, “We can’t keep up this pace, at least not without at least a few days’ rest.”

John was agitated, saying, “But we are so close.”

Amy scolded him, “What good is it if we can’t all arrive together?”

John stopped and looked at her, brushing his hand through his longer than usual hair and said, “What do you mean?”

Amy wrung her hands and said, “Its Jules, she is too weak to go on right now.  She needs some rest.”

John hung his head in thought for a moment, recalling the conversation he and Dickie had only a short while ago and said, “This is a good place, we have shelter and good defensibility.  We will stay here, it will be good to get our bearings and prepare things for the next leg of our journey anyway.”