The four travelled on foot throughout
the night, Will leading the way, Ed walking trail about 10 yards behind. The
women walked in between them; Mary’s left hand held her daughter Lucy’s, and in her right hand she carried a
.357 Magnum.
The group made frequent stops to
watch and listen as they neared each danger area – at the tree line before
crossing a field, or before they crossed a road, a field, or a hedge. As the
sun came up they reached a banged up Jeep hidden in a blackberry thicket and covered in camouflage netting.
As Will stood guard, Ed uncovered
the Jeep, then took a small garden trowel from his pack and dug up the battery,
which he had buried under a nearby rock to keep thieves from easily hot-wiring the
vehicle. He replaced the battery and then unlocked the burglar bar from the
steering wheel.
From the back of the Jeep he
removed a heavy satchel from a steel storage locker. He passed it to Mary: it
was full of bread, fruit, cheese, and a bundle of jerky. Before he sat down to
eat he whistled a good impression of a whippoorwill. In a short time Will
came back to join the group.
Ed began tending the fire in the base
of a chimney kettle. The air flowed up through the jacket steamer, which
allowed it to boil water in a couple of minutes, and it kept the fire hot and
nearly smokeless. Though they had been quiet throughout the night, more
concerned with safety than anything else, it was Mary who spoke first.
“How is he?” Mary asked as she
nibbled an apple slice. She looked near death. Both of her lips were busted
in several places, and her mouth looked raw and tender. She had two black eyes
which were beginning to heal, and it looked as if a handful of hair was missing from the
left side of her head. Her other injuries, the more terrible and enduring ones,
Ed knew, were concealed.
He smiled and said, “I think we could all use
a little coffee first, don’t you Mary?”
“Is he dead?” she asked bluntly as she passed
a slice of apple over to Lucy.
Ed exhaled and then shook his head.
“No, but Matt’s hurt pretty badly. I’ll be honest –
if he’s alive when we get back, it’ll be a miracle. I’m sorry to tell you that,
but you know the odds as well as I do.”
Lucy said nothing at first, but her
face, battered as it was from the assaults of the raiders, looked even more tortured,
if such as thing were possible. She grimaced, sobbed, and then swiped at her
tears. Eventually she said in a weak voice as she stared her lap, “How long until we can get back
there? I want to see my daddy.”
Will was slicing apples with his
buck knife. He looked uncomfortable and mostly stared at his lap too, but he tried to help. He gestured at the
forest behind them and said, “It took us two days to make the distance, but we
were moving pretty carefully then. Couldn’t be more than a day going back,
maybe less. Dad?”
Ed nodded in agreement. “Roads are
bad and getting worse every day. Farms are getting picked off all the time and
we’ve got to be careful or we’ll get ambushed on the main roads. Still, we can
make it by sundown today, I figure, even if we use the back roads and trails.”
Mary reached over and put her hand
on Ed’s arm. She was a strong woman, and possessed an honest beauty Ed had
always admired, even today, under all the bruises. Though she had a fierce look to
her because of the injuries, it softened as she spoke.
“Ed, Will, we can’t thank you two
enough for what you did. Lucy and I both owe you – “
Ed broke in quickly and said, “Mary,
don’t. Don’t say a thing. We are glad we could help. I’m just sorry we couldn’t
get in there sooner.” His voice cracked a little, and he paused, collected
himself, and then started again. “We had to wait until they were all passed out
. . . there was no other way.”
Mary smiled weakly. He could see by
the morning light that she’d been worked over pretty badly, with blood between
her teeth, and layers of bruising on her cheek and forehead.
“Ed, you saved us. You too, Will. They
would have . . . killed us . . . eventually.” Seeing the look on Will’s young
face, she added almost in a whisper, “You both did what you had to do." Then she looked at Lucy and squeezed
her hand. “We all did.”
Ed took the chimney kettle and poured water from it into two canteen cups. He poured in a bit of instant coffee and added creamer and sugar from a few condiment packs. He passed one cup to Mary and the other to Will.
Mary stopped and wiped tears from
her battered face, but then a change seemed to come over her. When she looked
up Ed could see a firm set to her jaw. She sipped from the coffee cup, and took
a deep breath, as if to savor the morning air, and the hot coffee.
“But that’s all in the past, . . . all
in the past. It can’t be changed anyhow. We are alive this morning, thanks to
you men. And that’s enough,” she said.
She then looked over at Lucy, who
was nearly as beaten and battered as she, and said, “And all wounds heal . . . over
time.”
Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter at @liamkfisher. Please leave comments below and tell me what you think. I'd love to hear from you!
Pretty good, but what happened to cause this state?
ReplyDeleteChris
See the prologue.
DeleteVery good. Looking forward to more.
ReplyDeletesdf
ReplyDelete