“But it's not just him, is it?”
I drew a blank. I really had no idea where she was going with that.
She seemed a little embarrassed to continue, but fought through it and leaned in closer, her voice drying off towards the end in expectation of me to finish the thought. “You know... With everything that you did in Arrino...”
Still nothing.
“Come on, I've heard the rumors. I bet half the guys 'round here would probably kill for you in heartbeat if you asked 'em to. What'd you do to earn their respect like that?”
Oh boy...
To tell the truth or not to tell the truth? I still had no recollection of witnessing anything Isabel was describing, though I supposed it couldn't have been impossible that someone had seen the consequences of my actions and had somehow pieced the puzzle together. I gazed at her and could feel the words sit on the tip of my tongue.
I got their friends killed and I took it out on a pedophile by cutting off his fingers.
I shrugged. “No idea.”
She squinted at that, but didn't get any time to question it as Badger addressed us all at the front of the tent.
“Alright, folks, clock's ticking. Last chance to turn back now—no harm, no foul.” He looked at each one of us in turn for a second, ending with me, though nobody spoke up. “Well look at the lot of you goddamn tough mother fuckers. Let’s get this shit on the road.”
I followed the group outside and towards the beat down pickup truck that we would be using to get the Maryville. It was one of the last vehicles left in Tent City until the buses could pick up the next group of people. Jeremy and Olivia were already beside it, packing boxes of MRE's into the back. I joined them without saying a word and could see Jeremy stop to stare at me out of the corner of my eye.
“Tess, what are you doing?”
I didn't bother stopping or even look to give him an answer. “What do you think?”
I grabbed another box and was surprised to feel a hand against my arm as he turned me around and got closer, his voice already lower. “Hey, seriously. I don't wanna see you get hurt.”
Well boo-fucking-hoo.
Where the hell had he been when I had needed it most? Years ago, at sixteen years-old, I had been the most vulnerable as I was ever going to be and I had let an asshole break my heart. Nobody could have defended me then the same way anyone could shield me from my own decisions now. All I had wanted a few minutes ago was to have crazy, hot sex with Jeremy and as soon as that had fallen apart, I could only hold on to the next best thing—being angry at whatever the hell was standing in my way of getting laid. I threw my box of MRE's into his arms and glared.
I don't wanna see you get hurt? Really?
I scoffed at him. “Then don't look.”
I left him speechless at that and went around the back of the truck to jump inside when Olivia cut me off. We stared at each other for a moment and I wasn't sure if she would try to convince me to stay. I had to remind myself that she probably knew just how stubborn I could be. Still, her aptitude to understand always surprised me.
She took off her swords and handed them to me. “Stay close.”
I grabbed the heavy blades and she put a hand on my shoulder reassuringly before taking a seat at the front. I pulled myself up into the back of the truck and took a seat next to Isabel, Nick, Murphy, and one of Badger's men, all fully armed, the mood silent, yet slightly brazen. Our path would be taking us closer to the wildfire that now stretched itself across the horizon as a thin like of smoke. If anything happened, we would unequivocally be putting ourselves into a worse position than when we started, though none of us were being forced to go. We all knew the risks. We all wanted to help.
I got another nod of approval from Murphy as the engine turned over and we slowly started to make our way through flowing crowds, the ride already bumpy on the vehicle's worn shocks. I pressed Olivia's swords against my side and put both my hands on the rifle in-between my legs, the shape, weight, and length all too familiar and oddly soothing while I looked at the strangers that passed us by from the rear.
A multitude of faces glanced back at me, most of them glossed over with sleep deprived masks matched by slurred movements. It was too easy to tell who held the most vigor, if any at all. The stress from disassembling their new homes in the middle of the night and running for their lives didn’t spare anyone young or old; the terror was indiscriminate. It seeped down into their pores and soaked into the stillness of their bones, manifesting itself in the pearls of their eyes only to be contrasted by the dark shadows that bored holes deep within their cheeks.
I didn't know any of them, yet I could see kids, teenagers, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, friends and other relatives, and I knew that I had made the right choice. They would have their own fight ahead of them. Tent City was already a vague resemblance of its former self. It had lost a convoy's worth of inhabitants and it was about to lose nine more. I only hoped that I would eventually see it all back in its full and former glory—plus the eight that were as dumb as I was to give a damn.
I should have known better.
Wind-wrapped sheets of rain whipped against Zach's truck as he carefully drove us down yet another muddy, darkened road. The trip to the only town near his cabin proved to be much more difficult than originally planned. The series of storms that had passed through the area before had knocked down power lines and trees twice as thick as my waist, cutting us off at almost every turn. We had mapped out one of the longest detours imaginable to try and save time from turning back, though in the end it had taken us even longer. It was already night by the time we turned onto the last road and my stomach began to flutter again.
I glanced down at the map in my lap, an old print illuminated by the soft glow of my cellphone, and then strained to look back up through the front windshield. I could barely make anything out past the whir of the wipers and the waterfall that washed down the glass in front of us, though I knew we had to be close. We could have only made so many wrong turns before my mind had been forced to learn how to navigate while being restricted to see ten feet in any direction. “This is it.”
I watched Zach lean over and flick the air conditioning back on to full blast in an effort to combat the glass fogging up and it immediately began to smell like mold again. I had no idea how he had managed to get us so far without being able to see anything and still remain so confident.
He checked the review mirror to look at Oliver in the back seat. “How you holdin' up, dad?”
Oliver scoffed at that. “Are we getting shot at?”
“No... but—”
“Then I'm fine.”
Zach gave me a look and readjusted his grip on the steering wheel. I knew Oliver had been injured when he had served in the military. As a consequence, he couldn't keep still in the same position for too long without the pain in his legs flaring up every so often. It seemed that he was still brash enough to tough it out, though at the expense of a deteriorating demeanor.
I couldn't help but wonder over the past few weeks of how Zach's life could have been different from my own, especially growing up. Without his mother in the picture, he only had strict expectations to meet as laid down by his father, though I was sure he must have met and exceeded every single one. Maybe he was better off for it. He was definitely better than me.
A sudden jolt of the truck brought me back to earth and knocked us all forward as the car began to skid. I could feel the wheels slip across the dirt until we ended up on the side of the road with another bump to come to a complete stop, the commotion ending as soon as it started.
“Everyone alright?” asked Zach.
I nodded and stuck my tongue over my teeth. I had accidentally bitten my lip, but otherwise I was fine. I glanced through the back windows only to see the pitch black silhouette of trees swaying in the distance. “What happened?”
“I think we hit a branch or something.” He tried accelerating, the engine revving up and forcing the wheels to spin and whir against something unseen, but we didn't move. We were stuck. He put the truck into reverse and tried again when I spotted a yellow flashing light cross down the street in front of us.
I pointed ahead and smacked a hand against his chest. “Check it out.”
Zach turned to catch a glimpse just as the mysterious source disappeared and I fully expected him to ask me if I had even seen anything at all. We sat in silence for a moment, the rain continuing to relentlessly pelt the roof of the car while the only remaining light subtly glowed at us from the dashboard and the headlights beaming out onto the road.
I started to double guess myself and wondered if I had made up the sight entirely. We were stuck on the side of the road, surrounded by trees on a dark and stormy night, and I couldn't help but recognize the familiarity of the situation. It was the beginning of every horror story that I had ever read. Thoughts of UFO's and aliens effortlessly pervaded my mind and I fully expected to see a tall, thin, pale shape stumble out of the woods and knock its sickly body against the side of my window.
I nearly jumped as Zach shifted the truck back into park and turned in his seat to look at the both of us. He kept his eyes on me for a moment, lost in thought, before passing on to Oliver. “Dad, stay in the car. Me and Tess will go and get some help.”
We both began to object and Zach only raised a hand to shut the both of us up. It actually would have been funny if I wasn't scared half to death of the dark. “Look, we're not going anywhere. If we're close, then we can get someone to come back and pull us out of here.” He turned back to his father again, as stern as can be. “But I need you to stay here in case someone drives by.”
I could see a scowl evolve on the Oliver's face, even in the relative darkness of the cabin. Zach had petitioned a good argument, though I was pretty sure that we all knew it was only a front to keep his dad inside. As much pain as Oliver might have been in, having to help him trudge his way outside through the dark would probably do more harm than good. I had half a mind to tell Zach that my legs hurt, myself.
But Oliver eventually gave in to the matter. “Fine. But if you take too long, I'm coming to get you.”
Zach gave that half a grin. “I wouldn't expect any less.” He opened his door and dove outside to expose himself to the elements, and I had to mentally prepare myself to do the same.
I grabbed my door when I felt a hand on my shoulder and I turned around to see Oliver leaning up close toward me.
“Be careful, Jessica. Keep him safe.”
Yeah...
I thought it was weird. He obviously didn't know who he was talking to if he wanted me to keep his son safe and not the other way around, but I gave him a quick nod. I opened the door and jumped out into the darkness and took one step to instantly learn how we had gotten stuck so quickly. My feet sank almost ankle deep into a limitless amount of muck and I had to grab my legs to pull them out without leaving my shoes behind.
I met Zach at the back and watched him open the trunk to swing a backpack over his shoulders and open up a rifle bag that I had not even known existed until then. He pulled out a rifle, very similar to the AR-15 that we had shot earlier, though even against the limited glare of the rear hazard lights I could tell that it was different.
“What's that for?”
He slung it over his shoulders and let it rest on his back before closing the trunk. “Just in case.” The notion was unsettling. He gave the side of the truck one last tap to let Oliver know we were good and we set off down the muddy road while the rain continued to pour down on us.
It didn't take long to escape the beam of the headlights, and by then we were already soaked to the bone. Every single step was a challenge and work in it of itself. Whenever it didn't feel like someone had grabbed my ankles and tried to pull me down into hell, the soles of my shoes would slip laterally on the mud and force me to lose my balance. I found myself holding on to Zach's arm to use him as an anchor, one of my first dependencies on him out of many that I wouldn't come to realize until well after he was gone.
We continued to trudge onward until the same, repetitive, flashing light began to poke through the trees and light up the rippling pools of water on the road. Every step we took got us closer to the source, as well sending my imagination spurring to meet the sinking feeling in my gut. I could start to distinguish individual flashes from each other, now clearly in a harsh yellow color similar to the ones I had seen on tow trucks or snowplows back home, and the fears immediately swept forward from the darkest recesses of my mind.
What if my family had been involved in a car accident? My feet automatically began to pick up the pace at the thought of it. I was already outside, vulnerable and exposed to a situation I had not been expecting, how much further of a stretch would it be to see emergency vehicles surrounding a crash site? The vivid imagery of my mother, father, or sister pinned between the front of a mangled car and the bent bark of a tree began to set me off. I had absolutely no evidence to believe that they were in trouble, but it didn't matter. My mind filled in the blanks. I fully expected to see my entire family dead and lined up along the middle of the road, soaking wet, covered in mud and cold to the touch. I needed to find them to dispel my unfounded misery.
I fell into a flat out run as soon as I laid eyes on the start of the town. I could hear Zach call for me, but I paid him no attention. My soles splashed against the ground while I struggled to take in the sights amidst the pouring rain. An entire row of military style canvas-covered trucks were parked along the main street, each with their own pair of flashing emergency lights that pierced my eyes and caught the streams of water like crystal as they fell from the air.
I didn't even know what to think when I got close enough. A mud-filled staging area filled with lines of huddled crowds were surrounded by men in matte black combat gear armed with assault rifles. The first member of every line was escorted into the back of a truck like a giant human assembly line, but not before they were processed by an armed guard. One by one and in alarmingly quick succession, the inhabitants of the town were being taken at gunpoint. I couldn't believe it.
I stood at the font of the entrance to what once must have been a marketplace, only now to be nothing more than an armed brigade of fleshy wares being herded like cattle. I unwittingly stumbled towards a road block like a zombie and a sentry raised his hand at me, though I couldn't hear anything he was saying. I only stared at the organized mob laid out in front of me, all of the guard's words drowning out from the sound of the rain when it hit me—my family could have been down there among them.
I bolted out towards the dwindling crowds and shouted out for Sarah. A guard easily kept me back by the chest, but I couldn't stop. I screamed out for my parents in an effort to try and break through the sound of running water. I screamed for my family.
Then I heard it—my little sister, calling out my name in distress, alone and distant, somewhere among the strangers being forced onto the trucks. She was there. She needed me.
I pushed off against the hands around my waist with new-found energy and it took another man to keep me from escaping, all of us sliding in the mud. “That's my sister!” I fought on. The same words left my lips again and again while I struggled to move towards the sound of her voice. Suddenly, I fell forward just as the arms keeping me back turned around to face their new threat.
“GUN!” The sentries had spotted the rifle on Zach's back. They drew their weapons on him and shouted at him to put his hands on his head and drop to the ground as they crept closer.
I could feel the crack in my gut force me to hesitate, but it wouldn't matter. If it had happened a million times over, I would always choose to leave him behind. It was my only chance to make a move. It was my only chance to get to Sarah. I got back up and sprinted through the roadblock as fast as I could towards the only remaining crowd that continued to bob in confusion.
A small shape etched its why towards me and shouted. The diction of the word was all too familiar for me to doubt it any longer. “Tess!”
“Sarah!” I pushed onward towards the sound of her voice, then at the sight of her face, her hair completely soaked underneath the downpour, yet I knew she had been crying. I dove into the crowd and she pushed herself towards me, but it had not been soon enough. An innumerable amount of armed guards immediately surrounded us and began to pull us back from each other.
I fought against the bodies at my side and reached out as far my arm would go, my feet all the while losing traction and slowly sliding away from her. I could just feel the tips of Sarah's fingers as we neared each other, the water flowing down my wrist and across our hands. I pushed as hard as I could to get anything—an arm, a leg, an embrace around her body. The guards slid in the mud and I only had enough room to claw a hand past her shoulder. My fingers ran through her hair to pull out whatever she had used to fix it together.
They pulled us both back and I screamed for her, the whole time yelling the same phrase over and over again, but they wouldn't listen. They wouldn't give in. They separated us and I watched them force her head still as a man brought a small electronic gun up to her face and scanned her eye before pushing her up into the back of another truck.
I fought on as the convoy began to move against the harsh smell of diesel. Each one quickly shifted into gear and the entire train rolled out of the town, past me and past my only chance to get at them, the emergency lights bouncing off of every reflective surface until finally disappearing behind the darkness of the trees.
The guards threw me into the mud.
I was paralyzed. I cried my heart out, numb to the cold that started to creep over my body, but nobody cared. I watched them turn and walk away and I spotted what they belonged to, each one dressed in a matte black load-bearing vest with the same white letters stamped on their backs. I hated the name with every fiber of my being as soon as I laid my eyes on it.
NEPCO.
The marks burned themselves into my memory as my mind whirled to comprehend who was responsible for tearing my family away from me. I glanced down at the feeling in my hand to see a light blue ribbon tangled up in my palm. It was all I had managed to save of Sarah. It was all I had left of my little sister.
I pressed my fists into the mud, hunching over the only shred of evidence I had left of my family, and I screamed for them. I could feel the anger explode into life within my chest. Someone needed to pay. Someone needed to feel exactly as I had and I couldn't think of anything more fitting than a molten hot piece of metal burrowing itself deep into their gut. I rose up onto my knees and pulled out the hidden revolver that had been tucked up against my back. I pointed it at the nearest body, a man in a simple coat assisted by another who kept an umbrella over his head.