by Joshua Dunning
The air was frigid and nipped away at our ears as we trudged through the snow. We were in desperate need of shelter and decent stores of food because our supplies had run low when Luke, the only teen among us, ate the last sandwich that was supposed to be rationed over time. Some of us began to lose our strength, and the two children we had with us were getting sick, hopefully nothing worse than a cold but we couldn’t be sure. The severity of the situation could have been reduced significantly if we each had managed to gather enough medical supplies as a precaution. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. Half of us had to flee from the only inhabitable home that we had ever known empty-handed before it was ravaged by savages whom we weren’t prepared to face. Our situation appeared to be very bleak at that point.
It was unclear whether we all would’ve survived before we found a decent place to call home for a limited time. This lack of certainty especially applied to the young children we had among us considering that their immune systems weren’t fully developed. Kyle, Richard’s son and the youngest among us, was showing signs of illness more so than Courtney, Linda’s daughter. He couldn’t seem to walk for more than a few feet at a time without collapsing in the snow; it happened so many times that his dad decided to keep him propped atop his shoulders and didn’t bother asking if he was able to walk on his own. We were hopeful that we would be able to make it to a safe location before anyone else died. After we lost his other son, Peter, two weeks earlier, morale had dropped immensely, and we likely wouldn’t have been able to handle that pain so soon afterward.
According to some of our relatives, life wasn’t always this brutal. The oldest of us spoke of times prior to the collapse in 2023, when people didn’t have to fend for themselves against the
harsh elements of nature unless they couldn’t avoid it. Sometimes they willingly chose to venture through the elements simply believing it would serve as an exhilarating experience to go on such adventures. There were apparently also entire global organizations whose primary goals included the protection of different communities of people who they didn’t always know or understand.
Today in 2081 if any of us decides to help a stranger, it’s only if we have our fingers close to a weapon trigger so that we won’t have any regrets if the encounter goes awry. Not to say that there aren’t still wholesome people out there. Occasionally we’ve come across groups, not too different from our own, who would casually say hello or offer to aid us in the form of antibiotics or food packets and for others we would do the same. There are even groups of well-armed individuals who cover themselves in metal plating with a red cross on the front to serve as makeshift armor and preach about how they aim to bring order back to the world one city at a time and that one day their faith would be rewarded. They called themselves the Militia, and every few weeks or so when members of our community would depart from our refuge to gather food, they would see some of those same people lying on the road, their corpses sprawled around on the cracked pavement, stripped of their crappy armor and useful weapons to serve those who understood exactly how the world functioned and enjoyed profiteering from it.
We simply referred to these profiteering individuals as bandits because we never interacted with them long enough to speak before they tried to kill us. These people are the sole reason for our current misfortunes. Before we all found ourselves trekking through this frigid wasteland with barely any supplies, we lived in a small, gated neighborhood by the name of Glendale for most of our lives and defended ourselves rather well but there were, of course, rare instances when people were injured or died. Miranda could attest to this statement because eleven years ago when she was fourteen, her parents were guards in our community who made
sure that people couldn’t get through the entrance without receiving passage or being gunned down for trying to fight their way in. They were among the few of us gravely wounded by a group of bandits that were too numerous for the meager defenses that we had at the time. We were able to scare them off after killing a portion of their group. Sometimes people who just wanted to steal from us were easier to scare away than their friends if you killed a few in their group. Despite that meager success, Miranda’s parents succumbed to their wounds and perished only twenty-four hours later.
This event had a large impact on all of us that lived there during that time, especially Miranda, who adopted an extremely pessimistic perspective of the world. As for the rest of the community, we were determined to prevent this tragedy from occurring ever again and it worked… for a while. We slowly began welcoming new members into our town and focused more effort into acquiring weapons, though after one or two instances where some of the new additions of the group proved themselves hindrances to our well-being, they were thrown out, and we shut off most outside contact and kept our gates sealed. This way of life managed to keep us effectively safe for eight years, enough to the point where some of us decided that it would be harmless to start shirking their responsibilities. Those who maintained this mindset were the first to die when a larger mass of invaders more armed than we had seen before managed to break through our gates and proceeded to injure or kill many of us in the process including Peter, who later died due to internal bleeding.
Back home we relied on a group of elders and their trusted supporters to guide us on what choices we needed to make to stay healthy and safe. It’s unclear to us what happened to everyone at Glendale during that awful moment. A few of us claimed to have seen some of them murdered in savage fashions when they couldn’t run fast enough. The last sight of Glendale we caught was
of burning houses as they gave rise to plumes of smoke and flame. We weren’t sure if anyone escaped as we had but in watching those structures as they were incinerated, we chose to believe that our people were gone, just as our home was. Though we had lost interest in determining the fate of our leaders, the fact remained that not many among us were capable of making logical decisions that would ensure our survival. A few of us argued quite often because we didn’t always agree on what choices needed to be made to keep moving forward and sometimes it almost cost us our lives. After constantly debating over the subject of leadership, it was decided that someone had to be placed in charge to avoid the constant bickering.
Richard was the first option we considered given that he was the oldest among us and was one of the many children alive when Glendale was established fifty years ago. We couldn’t convince him, however, because he was so grief-stricken that he hadn’t really spoken to anyone except Kyle since Peter died. Miranda received a gunshot wound through her right shoulder during the attack and has been slightly hostile towards Luke. She claims that he allowed those bandits to bypass the gates back home but didn’t provide anything other than her word, so we were skeptical. The reemergence of traumatic memories of her parents were also influencing her behavior which caused most of us to worry. Linda didn’t care for the ceaseless bickering that a few of us had been partaking in and claimed that she didn’t care what we did as long as we kept Kyle and Courtney safe. We didn’t consider Luke to be the type to lead others not simply because of his age, but because of his personality. He was quite lazy and didn’t seem to consider others before he made choices, such as eating our last source of food. He wasn’t very capable of making good decisions in general. Given the circumstances, it seemed logical that I would enact the role of temporary leader, so I decided to speak.
“I guess that if none of you want to claim the role, then I’ll be happy to take it.” After observing the actions of my father as he took an active role in discussions amongst the elders, I figured that I was a sensible choice for the position, at least until a more suitable alternative was presented.
“Whatever you say, man” Luke groaned uncaringly.
Linda looked at me with concern in her eyes before she spoke.
“I’m trusting you to keep us together, Jason” she said in a calm tone while directing her gaze towards Kyle and her daughter. I looked at Richard once again ready to offer him the role once again, but he shrugged his arms and looked away from me. Miranda wasn’t very enthused about the decision and she made it known to all of us.
“I get why you all might consider this to be a wonderful idea given that you’re either so used to people instructing you in which direction you should point your noses,” she turned to face Richard directly, “or because you think that your grief is so enormous that you consider it to be an excuse to recede from reality and hope for the best.” Now her eyes were upon me. She appeared to be annoyed. “No offense to you, Jason, but just because your dad understood how things operated out here and was trusted by those paranoid old geezers who sat in their chairs all day arguing about whether it was safe to piss twenty feet away from the gate or whatever doesn’t qualify you over me. I’ve been in these conditions before and you’ve never even been more than a few yards outside of the gates, so I don’t know what gives you the impression that you’re capable of leading anyone.” Miranda did not appreciate the elders very much. She believed they were in part responsible for her parents’ death and so I guess that she also blamed by dad’s lack of initiative when he mentioned better security after her parents passed rather than doing so before.
Most of us had known Miranda since she was born. Both of us practically lived together considering how often our parents would interact with each other because of their positions as guards in the community but since they died, we haven’t maintained our bond that we had as teens. Because of our history, I understood how confrontational she could be on occasion, but I also understood that she wasn’t always the most perceptive individual when she was put into vulnerable situations. I responded to her complaint with humility because, in a sense, she wasn’t false in her assessment.
“I understand where you’re coming from Mira,” I said as I turned to face her directly. “It’s obvious that you have a bit more experience with these things than I do, but from my perspective, none of us are in the state of mind to be leading right now. I’m simply taking everyone’s personal setbacks into account, and given the circumstances, it makes sense for me to take charge. You should be more focused on avoiding extra exertion on your body until we can take care of your arm, so relax a little.”
She gave an agitated expression and responded quite fiercely, “I’m sorry but do I look like the type of person to be put out of commission just because of an arm injury?” she inquired sarcastically, “Considering that I have the most experience it should be obvious to you people that I’m clearly the best option right now. Hell, you just admitted it yourself.” I attempted to counter her once again but just then Luke made himself known and exclaimed loudly,
“Can you both shut the hell up? I don’t care which one of you walks in front or whatever it is you’re arguing about but I’m pretty sure we’re gonna freeze to death if we don’t come up with a plan soon! So, where the hell are we supposed to go?” Miranda gave me an inquisitive look, almost as if she expected me to give an unsatisfactory response so I answered confidently,
“We’re going to the rest stop. Hopefully, there aren’t any hostiles waiting for us, but if there are, you’ll need to be prepared to take cover. Richard, since you’ve got your son to worry about, give me your gun. Luke, since all you’ve got is a bow you should walk behind me in case we get charged head-on.” Richard didn’t say anything but simply handed his hunting rifle over to me.
“All right then,” Luke sighed in relief. “Lead the way, Jay.”
Miranda sighed as well, though hers seemed to be out of annoyance. She then glared at me and gave a demanding tone, “Don’t get us killed, Jason!” After that, she proceeded to walk with the group.
With the decision made we headed in the direction of the rest stop that our old scavenging crews would occasionally hunker down in whenever their searches became more extensive than initially planned. Members from that crew informed us that occasionally, they would find items that other scavengers might have forgotten or generously placed for anyone in need who might pass by; they rarely ever crossed paths with hostile groups while they were there but claimed that there was always the possibility. When looking back on that choice now, I’m not sure that any of us will stop regretting the decision that I made that day.
After traveling for a total of two days, occasionally assembling and resting in a cramped tent that I thought to keep prepared for unexpected travels like this, we finally arrived at our destination. We were desperate to find anything that people might have recently left behind especially medicine since it seemed that Kyle’s condition was worsening. We made sure to check if there was anyone else in the area before we decided to rush in and find some degree of insulation. Only a few of us were truly hopeful at that point, but regardless we searched every corner of the rest area that seemed untouched or that had some trace of forgotten medicine so
that we could give Kyle a better chance of survival. Eventually, Courtney discovered a travel bag labeled with the names of some of the scavengers from Glendale in the trash can of the women’s bathroom; it led us to believe that they didn’t make it out of that massacre either, otherwise they would have come back for it. The contents of the bag included a few cans of soup, beans, and meat, as well as painkillers, four bottles of water and antibiotics.
“Great job, Courtney!” Linda praised. “Now go give that medicine to Mr. Morgan’s son. I’m sure he really needs it right now.” The kind child simply replied with a, “Yes ma’am” and ran to the main room to give them to Richard.
Linda sighed and gave a look a worry, “Poor man. I can only imagine what type of pain he’s experiencing right now, I couldn’t bear to lose my little girl in such a horrible way and the threat of losing another one so soon after…” she paused and shifted her tone, “Well, whatever the case I’m sure that he’ll be fine in no time. We just have to hold out here as long as we can until he recovers.” As she said that a surprised look came across my face.
“That’s quite a statement, Linda. You know that it’s not guaranteed that he’ll get better anytime soon and it’s dangerous for us to stay here, don’t you?”
“Of course, I do,” she replied, her face expressionless, “however, it’s important for us to stay hopeful in situations like this, don’t you think?”
“Hopeful thoughts only take us so far, Linda. I learned that a while ago. We have to take actions to ensure that we survive when things take a turn for the worse, that’s one of the things my dad tried to teach everyone responsible for guarding the neighborhood before any of this happened.”
“Well,” she said with a forming smile on her face, “perhaps the action that we should take is to ensure that this place can be a safe place for all of us as long as we need it to be. For
starters, we should all eat to get our strength back, and tomorrow you could send Luke out to hunt some of those deer that we saw in the park when we got here. He used to boast about his skill with that bow of his all the time to the girls back home, plus he needs to make up for eating the last of everyone’s food without consent. Just something for you to think on, leader.”
And with that, she went out to find Courtney and got Richard to help her start a fire at the rear entrance using some of the broken tables that were scattered about the front room. I didn’t know Linda very well during our time at Glendale considering that she hadn’t started teaching from the basement of her house until I was thirteen and she was primarily a kindergarten teacher, but I would always see her around whenever I walked around town and I noticed that she was always helping other people with their own personal duties. She even helped me carry firewood to some of the residents once. I wasn’t entirely sure I agreed with her idea to stay cooped up in the rest area for an extended amount of time, but she did have a valid point about ensuring our safety for that moment. We probably wouldn’t have been able to keep pressing forward if our group began to crumble because of the grief and distrust Kyle’s death might’ve caused. If he did die, Richard likely would’ve abandoned the group because I don’t think he trusted us in the first place. It was a form of relief to have someone with a positive perspective to guide critical decisions such as that one. After taking the idea into consideration for a while longer, I decided that we would take the risk of staying just until Kyle began to show signs of improvement, and after we ate, we slept and dreamed of better days to come.
The following day, those of us who were capable of physical exertion set out to ensure that we could remain here as long as possible. The first thing that we all decided was a priority was finding a source of food as Linda advised the previous night, I sent Luke to hunt any of the animals that he could spot and resupply our meat supply for a week or so.
“Make sure you don’t scare all of them off when you shoot that bow. I’m still pissed at you for eating that entire sandwich by yourself so hopefully, your aim is as good as you claimed it to be back home.” I tossed him one of the two-way radios I kept in my bag which he barely managed to catch. “Use that if you manage to kill something bigger than a dog. Either Richard or I will come and help you bring it back.”
“You sure you don’t wanna come with me now?” He asked in a sarcastic tone, “I’d hate to screw up yet again and disappoint my leader.”
“Actually, I don’t. I’m going to stay here in case I’m needed, so I’ll save my bullets and trust that you’d rather come back with more food than continue being an ass.”
“I said I was sorry, so give me a break.” With a curl of his lip, he looked at me and exclaimed, “I’ll get the damn food, so get off my back!”
“Try not to do anything stupid. I’ll check on you occasionally.”
“Whatever, man.” With that, he exited through the side entrance of the building, taking a half-empty water bottle with him.
Not many of us liked Luke very much. Even when we were all still living at Glendale people were constantly making complaints about what a nuisance he was. However, since his grandmother was on the board of elders and he contributed by doing his job, people tolerated him whenever he came around. Miranda especially gave the impression that she hated him because anytime his name was mentioned her expression soured more than usual. She seemed very certain that he opened the gate without checking to see who was approaching and allowed those bandits another entrance point. I was sure that Luke wasn’t that stupid, but if it was true then I knew he wasn’t going to admit to it anytime soon. My primary concern was whether or not he would be able to focus on the bigger picture and avoid making himself a liability. While he
us managed to find tasks that kept us busy such as Richard and Linda who were occupied with entertaining Courtney and simultaneously preparing soup for Kyle to remedy his cold. He was already improving by a decent amount because he was able to stand without assistance though he did get tired eventually. Miranda managed to find a map amongst a pile of papers that had begun yellowing and began reading what decipherable text was still there in an attempt to find more suitable places to stay because she thought this place was too vulnerable for comfort. I took the time to survey the area for the second time since the light of the sun offered a more reliable image of our surroundings than our initial arrival allowed. I ascended the building by using the ladder that was attached to its side, being careful not to shake it loose, and as I stepped onto the roof, I saw something I didn’t expect: A Militia woman was lying unconscious underneath a broken air-conditioning unit and a voice was coming from her radio, inquiring about her location.
I walked over slowly, not wanting to startle her without being close enough to restrain her should she draw a weapon. The person speaking on her radio seemed very concerned about her status because they kept demanding an update. At first, I considered stepping over her to see if she had anything worth taking because there were so many bruises and bloodstains all over her body. I thought she would die eventually but decided to wake her in hopes that the voice, which I determined to be a female ally of hers, would be grateful enough to offer to help us out of our current dilemma.
“Hey!” I shouted, hoping that she might wake up. “Hey, someone’s looking for you! Can you move?” She slowly opened her eyes in shock and tried to crawl away from me but didn’t make much progress.
“Get the hell away from me, asshole!” she screamed. “You’re not getting any information out of me!” She reached for her coat pocket and pulled out a pistol which I kicked away instantly, causing a bullet to fire off into the distance.
“Do not try that again lady!” I was flowing with adrenaline from almost being shot. “I just need to know what you’re doing up here and how this happened. Are the people that did this going to come back? It’s going to be a problem for me and my group downstairs if that’s the case.”
“Cut the shit, I know you’re with those bandits that ambushed me and my team two days ago!”
“If that were true I wouldn’t be letting you talk right now. If your team was ambushed here, how come you’re the only one I’ve seen so far?” After hearing that question a sense of relief must have come over her, because she had stopped tensing up. I assumed that she believed me.
“That’s because we weren’t attacked here. We were ambushed in the woods and they outnumbered us twelve to four. They wanted to know where our base was because the team before ours didn’t give them any information either.”
I wasn’t very surprised to hear any of this because, despite the lack of craftsmanship put into their armor, they always seemed to be well equipped with high-grade assault weapons whenever our scavengers saw them. It makes sense that bandits would want to find out where they keep their stash. That’s when it dawned on me: Luke hadn’t returned from the woods or contacted me on my radio. Just as the thought came to me, I heard him speak.
“Hey, Jason, you there?” he asked with concern in his voice.
“Yes, are you okay?
“I’m fine but I think I found some of those crazy Militia guys or whoever that Miranda always talks about seeing and it looks like someone came through here and messed them up good. You want me to bring some of their stuff back with me?”
“No, Luke!” I exclaimed with worry. “You need to come back to the rest area now!”
“What the hell is your problem? I haven’t even gotten enough food yet, but relax, I’m on—”
BANG!
The sound of a distant gunshot rang out in the direction where Luke had entered the woods.
“Hello?” I call out half-expecting a response, “Luke?” There was no answer. I heard someone climbing the ladder behind me and I quickly drew the rifle that Richard gave me but as the sound grew louder I saw that it was just Miranda coming to investigate the gunshot from earlier.
“Hey, Jason, are you shooting at someone up her because it sounds like…” she raised her head after ensuring that she was sturdy enough to keep climbing, “Jesus Christ! Lower that damn gun before you do something stupid!”
“Oh, thank God, I thought you were someone else.” I exhaled slightly more relieved, “We need to go right now!” She stared at me in confusion.
“What do you mean we need to go? Who were you shooting at and is that one of the Militia?”
“Bandits ambushed her team and I think they killed Luke. Tell Linda and Richard to get the kids ready.”
“No, wait,” begged the woman. “Please don’t leave me up here.”
“Lady, we’d like to help you, but—”
“No, we would not.” Miranda interrupted with haste. “We have to think about our own survival and get as far away from you as we can.”
“I understand that, but instead of running you could wait for my people to send reinforcements our way. It wouldn’t take long and if you did help, then I’m sure there would be a place for all of you back at our encampment. I have my assault rifle hidden inside this AC unit and a few smoke grenades that you can use while we hold out should you choose to say yes. So, what’s your answer?” Both of us took the offer we had been given into serious consideration at that moment. We knew that the opportunity to find a suitable place to call home wouldn’t come this often if at all. More so we knew that there would be a better chance for the children to survive if we succeeded. We looked each other in the eyes and simultaneously accepted her request.
“That’s good to hear,” she said. “Guess you should tell your friends about this so take the rifle with you, I’ll support you from up here so just be ready when they come.” With that, we left her on the roof and proceeded to inform Richard and Linda of the current situation. The news about our decision did not sit very well for Richard because for the first time in a while he spoke directly to all of us.
“Are you mad, boy?” Richard questioned me, “How about you, Miranda? For one who claims to be so perceptive, you seem to lack the proper judgment that our elders back at home possessed. Surely you are aware that leaving right now would serve as the best course of action to ensure the safety of our children!” Linda seemed to only be upset about the fact that Luke was probably dead because she merely suggested that he could have been so much more than he was.
I suppose that she believed that he would’ve come around and eventually become an asset rather than a pain in the ass.
“Let’s get something straight old man,” Miranda snapped, “for a grown man who wasn’t able to contribute more than a few head nods on occasion since we were all exiled from our home, you sure have a lot more to say than you need to! As for your precious elders, they’re likely dead just like everyone else we knew. I doubt that people stayed behind to try to help them escape so we’re the ones who matter right now.”
“Kyle is too sick to leave as I’m sure you’re aware,” I chimed in. “He’d probably die if we left in these conditions. What I need you to do is focus on what we can do right now to ensure that we don’t need to leave until it’s beneficial for all of us. Will you help or not?”
“Of course, I will. I wouldn’t be much of a father if I tried to escape with him alone so return my rifle at once. Perhaps since there are only twelve of them we might be able to maintain the element of surprise. Hopefully, that woman is capable of tossing those canisters when the time comes to do so.”
We established our positions quickly after he was done speaking. Miranda’s job was to use the binoculars to keep an eye out for any movement amongst the trees and the Militia woman, who introduced herself as Tonya, would blind them with smoke when they were close enough. This would give Richard the opportunity to pick off targets in the rear from the roof while I would focus on those leading the pack. We waited for at least forty minutes before Miranda noticed any signs of movement. Slowly they walked out of the trees, but to our surprise, there were more than twelve of them as Tonya had mentioned before, at least eleven more of them than that. They must have separated into different groups before they ambushed her squad but there was no turning back at this point. When Miranda had determined that they had moved
in range, Tonya tossed two out of five of the smoke canisters she was carrying which enveloped most of their group. With the opportunity presenting itself, Richard managed to kill five of their count immediately to which I responded by firing short bursts, dropping at least six more. It appeared that we would win before our reinforcements even got close, but just as the thought crossed my mind my weapon jammed, which left me with my less accurate pistol. The reduced fire rate gave our enemies an opportunity to advance forward which placed more of the load on Richard but as he was firing, one of their own riflemen spotted him and sent a bullet directly through his left eye leaving his lifeless body to slide from the roof, crashing onto the pavement. Tonya continued to throw smoke until she ran out. Things were beginning to look desperate for us as we were slowly overwhelmed, just like how it happened at Glendale.
I peeked from behind my cover once again to survey the area and saw that five of them were trying to enter the building from around the back of the rest stop and would’ve surely found Linda and the kids. I began to panic and fired all of my rounds at them as they approached. Most of my shots missed before I ran out, regardless, I was able to hit two and disable a third. After that, I picked up a nearby rock and after ensuring I wouldn’t be spotted I ran through the front and used all of my weight to bash in the rear of one guy’s skull before his friend hit me with the butt of his gun, knocking me to the ground. As he walked over me and placed his gun above my face, I thought that I was going to die right then. However, Linda threw the pot that we had cooked with the previous night and it made contact with the left of the bandit’s face. That was when Kyle and Courtney ran in and grabbed hold of both of his legs attempting to throw him off balance. He turned his upper body and pointed his gun towards Linda while trying to shake the kids off him which gave me an opportunity to get up and tackle him to the ground and gouge his eyes out. That was when we saw more of the Militia approach firing off rounds into the crowd
out front, eliminating all but three hostiles who preceded to flee into the trees. The squad leader that Tonya had contacted received her message and honored her promise to the rest of us. We lost two members of our group that day and Kyle lost the chance to be raised by his father and would always remember that trauma just as Miranda had. He was taken in by Linda once we had settled in our new location, though she would likely never fill that hole in his heart. There is something positive that can be said about our journey. We were able to establish a new home for ourselves in a secure facility and perhaps a better future for those that would come after us.