“Which is?”
“That I can’t stay here much longer. There’s a lot of people around here angry with me, they thought I got off way too easy. I heard you talking, don’t deny it.”
“Yes, that’s certainly true. But give them time, Hannah, they’ll forgive you.”
“No, no they won’t. Something like that ... there is no forgiveness, ever. Carol, you’re going to have to accept the fact that I have go. You have to.”
Carol had nothing left to say but began crying. Hannah reached out and took her friend in her arms.
That night Hannah told the judge she would be going the next morning and thanked the kindly woman for giving her a bit more time with her friends.
Early that next morning, just as she said, Hannah was ready to go. She was carrying her rifle and pack because she was avoiding wearing them on her back as long as she could.
She said her good-byes to all the friends she made since arriving last year, Vira and Nancy being amongst her closest. Carol came out the front door and had a surprise for the girl. She made a loud whistle and that flatbed truck rolled around from the back of the house.
It stopped right in front of Carol and Hannah; a soldier was driving and three more armed guards were in back. All the windows were gone but it had been cleaned up and without the blood and mud looked like an entirely new truck, or at least a different one.
Carol opened the passenger side door for the girl, “Step in.”
“Are we going in this?”
“Yes, we are. If you have to go, you’re going in style. This might be the last running truck within five hundred miles.” Carol put the girl’s gun and bag behind the cab and got in after her.
They pulled out toward the road and Hannah waved good-bye to all of her friends one last time.
As they slowly made their way down the long drive, Carol finally spoke again. “Hannah, do you know where you’re going?”
“I have no idea, I’m going to leave it in God’s hands.”
“Can I make a suggestion?”
“Sure ...”
“You should head south; I’ve heard there’s a large settlement just west of Zenas. I’ve heard they’re nice people down there.”
The girl thought about it a moment, “Oh, okay, if you think I should.”
“I do. So that’s the way you want to go?”
“Yes ...”
Carol spoke to the driver, “Tony, head south when we get to the main highway.”
The driver nodded.
As they approached the main road, they could see another crowd. This one didn’t look friendly at all.
When the truck got close, the mob started throwing stones and branches at it. Carol put her back to the open passenger window and covered the girl’s head. “Get down, Hannah.”
The crowd continued to throw things and curse and spit as they passed by, but made no attempt to stop them.
The driver turned south on the main road.
Carol was ashamed for her ex-friends, “I’m sorry, Hannah.”
“Don’t be, this is how it is.”
“Well it shouldn’t be. You were punished, more than you deserve. They should just forget it now.”
“There’s no forgetting, Carol. Even if I could somehow stay, those people would never let me forget, and I shouldn’t. I hurt a lot of people. I only pray I have the chance to make up for what I’ve done.”
Carol took Hannah by her small hand. “You already have, as far as I’m concerned, and a lot of people around here feel the same way too.” The woman’s expression abruptly changed, it was obvious there was something important she needed to say. “I’ve been trying to find a way to tell you ... ever since you were sentenced. I didn’t know if I should, though, you’ve got so many other things to worry about. But last night I decided to tell you, you deserved to know.”
Hannah could see the gravity in her friend’s face and hear it in her voice, “What is it, Carol?”
“I want you to know, Hannah, that I considered going with you. But I just can’t.” The tears started to form in Carol’s eyes.
“What’s wrong, tell me.”
“I’m pregnant.”
“You’re sure?”
“Oh yeah, I’m almost three months along, Frank didn’t even know. I wasn’t sure at the time; I wanted to be completely certain before I told him, now it’s too late.” Carol’s crying only worsened as she leaned heavily on her friend. “That’s why I can’t go with you. To be forty-two and pregnant, that’s risky enough. But living like a refugee, I’d lose Frank’s baby, I know I would. I can’t take that chance. I’m sorry, Hannah, otherwise I would go. I wouldn’t send you out there alone.” She pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped her eyes. “I feel like I’m abandoning you. I love you, you’re my best friend.”
The girl reached out and put an arm around her sobbing friend. “It’s okay, Carol, this is all part of God’s plan. Do you believe in God?”
She looked right at the girl with swollen eyes, “You know I do.”
“So this is God’s plan for both of us. I have to go and you have to stay. You’re an important part of this community, they need you here. Me, I’m needed elsewhere.”
Suddenly Tony spoke up; both women forgot he was even there. “The county line is coming up. You said to tell you when we got there.”
The truck slowed then turned around in the road and came to a stop.
Carol opened the door and stepped out with Hannah right behind her. Carol helped the girl put on her pack as gently as she could, finally handing the girl her rifle. “Well, I guess this is it.” She wiped her eyes again.
“Yeah ... I guess this is it.” Hannah was trying hard not to cry herself.
“You remember what I told you about Zenas, you check them out first. I don’t know anything about them but I’ve heard there’s some good people there.”
“All right ...”
They both looked at each other for one long awkward moment.
Reluctantly Hannah spoke again, “I guess I should go. I can do a lot of walking before the sun goes down.”
“Yeah ... you’re right.” Carol blotted her eyes a last time.
They both looked at each other for a few moments more and suddenly Carol bounded to her friend taking the girl in her arms. “I love you, Hannah.”
“I love you too.” The girl returned her friend’s embrace.
After a while, Carol finally broke their hold, “You should go. Be safe, be happy. You have to find your place in this world, girl.”
Hannah rolled her eyes and sighed.
“I mean ... woman.”
They both laughed.
Hannah waved one more good-bye and turned, pulled the compass from her pocket, and when she had her bearings started walking and never looked back.
Late that day, Hannah saw an old farmhouse there on the horizon and changed directions marching straight for it. Even at a distance you could tell it had been abandoned; the windows were shattered, the doors were swinging in the wind.
She stepped up on the porch, knocked, and then announced herself although it was apparent that not a soul had been inside for years.
Hannah walked from one end of the quiet house to the other, the only sound the wind that blew through. The furniture was overturned and broken, drawers were pulled out, cabinets open, the house had been thoroughly searched by someone.
No one lived here now except the spiders and the mice, but still askew on the walls were photos of the happy family of five that once called this their home.
She exited out the back ready to resume her journey and noticed an old-fashioned well there in the yard. Walking up to it, she threw the bucket in, it landed at the bottom with a dry hollow echo.
Hannah took a light from her pack and shined it down into the void. At the bottom was a dense collection of human bones all in a tangled pile.
Among the bones were five skulls of different ages and it appeared they all died exactly the same way.
As she stared down on one child’s skull, a single bullet hole in the back, Hannah couldn’t help but recall her last conversation with Rob, and what he said this world was coming to.
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