Innocence Lost (4 page)

              “How is it out there?” Whitford asked.

              Alec had been lost in his own mind and didn’t realize that the man was talking to him. By the time he did it was too late, Whitford took his silence to mean the rest of the world had rendered him speechless.

              “Damn, I was afraid of that.”

              Whitford, much like everyone Alec had known shortly after the world went dark, had aged considerably. His face was ragged and worry lines had been carved into nearly every inch of his face, with the only thing covering them up being a dirty scruffy beard.

              The town had changed as well, but not necessarily for the worse. Sure there were buildings and houses that had been boarded up but there was an order to everything else. Whitford and the rest of the people had shrunk the city into the town square. Here there were trading posts, fire pits and other forms of entertainment. Even the houses just off the town square appeared to have been recently renovated and outside of grass that badly needed to be cut it looked like the world had never ended.

              “Some of us here went out looking for him as well.” Alec turned his attention back to Whitford. “Wherever the soldier went, it’s nowhere close to here.”

              Alec had already known that. He had been out searching for Alec for nearly two weeks and found the same thing he had found when he went out looking for his sister, nothing. Just like Ally, Ben was gone. Ally had been taken from them, Ben had chosen to leave. Alec still had not decided how much of the blame he was going to put on Ben and how much he was going to accept. But he had not come into town to talk about his brother.

              “So do you all have room here?” he asked.

              “Room we have plenty of,” answered Whitford. “It’s the supplies that are scarce. We’ve got our hunters and a few decent size gardens but we still come up short from time to time.”

              Alec had figured as much.

              “The people I’m with have seeds and gardening know how. They had been totally self-sufficient since everything collapsed. They’re old but they can help.”

              Whitford ran a hand through his beard. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you no; wouldn’t matter if I did. The majority of this town is nothing more than abandoned buildings; they could squat here without us knowing for quite a while.”

              There was only so much space they had at his home. Jack had every room in his house doubled up. They filled up Trent’s old house, and even a few more that were a couple miles away, but still they had people needing a place to call home. Yet Alec knew that finding a roof over their heads wasn’t going to be the hard part.

              “I understand on the outskirts there were plenty of farms and people with livestock?”

              Whitford nodded.

              “Have you all searched them all?”

              “For the most part. Before last winter we went out and hit every place within a few miles distance from here.”

“What about the livestock?”

The realization dawned on Whitford’s face. “Those that survived are running wild but they’re out there.”

“I have plenty of land, if we can gather up the cattle and even a few horses then we can start large scale farming and even have some meat for winter.”

“It’s sure as hell possible. A lot of damn work, but possible.”

“The work isn’t an issue, we have plenty of helping hands.”

Whitford laughed. “Good to have you back. Tell you want I have a few able-bodied men who can help you with fence building and wrangling up the animals.”

“I’ll take all the help I can get.”

Jack and Trevor came out from one of the buildings and approached. Trevor had been helping the town’s doctor and Jack had just been along for the ride. Alec still couldn’t meet the man’s gaze. It was mostly an irrational anger but in the back of his mind he couldn’t stop thinking that the old man could have done more.

“Everything good in there?” Whitford asked.

“Yeah, you all have more medical supplies than I was expecting to see, not nearly enough for a group this big, but more than I expected.” Trevor answered.

“That’s this town’s motto,” grumbled Whitford. “Appreciate you helping out the Doc, he’s not as young as he used to be.”

Jack respectfully stood a few feet from Alec. He had not talked to Alec since the day he returned. He seemed to understand Alec’s anger and was giving him time to work through it, and Alec didn’t know how long that would take.

Whitford began discussing what they had decided so Alec let his mind wander. They could provide houses, they could hunt for food and they could learn to grow enough food for everyone, but what then? Once their community was settled was he just going to continue living there and pretend his brother and sister weren’t out in a world that nearly killed him? But if he left, where would he go? As Whitford droned on Alec tried to convince himself to focus on one problem at a time, but his mind kept slipping back to his scattered family.

Ally

              Ally didn’t like this part.

              She placed her bow beside a large tree and placed her arrows next to it. She grabbed some of the nearby brush and placed it on top rendering her most valuable possessions nearly invisible. She ran her hand through her hair trying to get out the large knots that had formed since the last time she had bothered to try this. Once done, she wiped down her clothing until she felt as presentable as she was going to get.

              “Alright Tiger, remember - stay close.” And with that she walked down the hill towards the town.

              The place was once a much larger city and technically still was but people only lived in part of it. As she approached, the sound of people and the smells of cooking filled her nose. Even though she had already eaten, it still caused her mouth to salivate, and Tiger licked his lips beside her. She walked down a side alley but no one even glanced at her. The people, all in their worn out and partially stitched up clothing, went about their daily lives. Trading, farming, herding: they only seemed to come together in this area if they needed something, then they went back their own way. Ally still didn’t want to take any chances, especially since she didn’t have her bow with her. She learned early on that the sight of a small girl with her own small bow was enough to get people to pause from their daily routines.

              The sidewalks had been overgrown by nature and very few people here had cars, so everyone just walked in the road as if it were a giant sidewalk. Some of the store fronts of the buildings had been taken over by people trading, others set up wooden stands that served as trading booths. Ally walked past all of them and made sure Tiger stayed close.

              She made her way to one of the only trading booths she ever went to. A lady, who looked to be around her mother’s age, sat behind the old wooden structure with a gentle smile on her face. Her clothing was worn but clearly washed and her stitching somehow seemed cleaner than the others Ally had seen. The lady was using a Ping-Pong racquet with a large piece of cardboard attached to it as a fan. When she saw Ally approaching, she smiled.

              “Well hey again! Ally, is it?”

              Ally nodded.

              “Haven’t seen you in a while. See you still have your guardian with you?” she asked, nodding at Tiger.

              Ally again nodded as she took off her backpack and began to rummage through it.

              The woman looked around. “For some reason I can never remember your mother. Have I met her before?”

              “Yep, whenever we first came here. She likes you that’s why I can come to your booth by

myself.” Ally lied.

              This seemed to please the woman. “Well, in this day and age that is quite a compliment. Tell your mother thank you. You looking for anything in particular or you just looking for some more oranges?”

                Ally started to say something when she caught sight of the woman’s handmade fan. “How did you do that?”

              “Oh, this old thing? Just traded someone for the paddle and glued some paper to it, nothing fancy.”

              “Do you have any more?”

              “No, darling. Sorry, this is my only fan.”

              “No, not the fan,” Ally said. “Glue.”

              The woman looked the girl up and down approvingly. “Don’t think I’ve ever had anyone ask for that yet. Why yes I do. Have some super glue that I found shortly after everything got messed up.”

              Ally pulled out two of the candles she had found. The lilac one she had left in her room; it would help get rid of Tiger’s smell whenever he got wet. She placed the two candles on the table and the lady’s eyes lit up.

              “Well I’ll be. I haven’t seen scented candles in who knows how long. Can I?” she asked, gesturing towards them. Ally nodded and the woman bent down and took in two long whiffs of the candles. Her eyes rolled back and she gave off a long sigh. “Honey, that’s just a piece of heaven right there. What do you want for them?”

              “The glue.”

              The lady thought about it for a brief moment then shrugged her shoulders. “I guess it is useful here and there but the candles bring me back to a time long gone.”

              “And some oranges.” Ally said quickly.

              “Of course honey. I can’t have your mommy think that I swindled you; otherwise, I’ll never get to see your pretty face again.”

              Ally took the tube of superglue from the woman and placed it in her backpack along with as many oranges as she could fit in there.

              “Thank you very much Ally. If you find any more of these you better bring them here first you hear me?”

‘Yes ma’am.” Ally answered and headed back the way she came.

              The weight of the backpack caused her to walk a little more slowly than usual but she didn’t mind. All she could think about was peeling and then taking a big bite out of one of the juicy oranges. She didn’t remember liking oranges this much when everything was normal, but now it was like a dessert to her. Of course if there was still ice cream she would have preferred that.

              As she made her way down one of the alleys, she was still thinking about the oranges when she ran into the back of Tiger.

              “Tiger watch i-” she started, until she saw why the dog had stopped.

              A man was sitting on the ground next to an old dumpster. His head was completely shaved and a thin layer of facial hair covered his face. He had on a ratty pair of shorts that only partially covered up his hairy legs, which were covered in dirt and grime. When he saw them, he looked up and gave a relaxed smile.

              “Why hello, hello. Hope I’m not in your way.”

              Ally took a step back. “You’re not, I just went down the wrong alley.”

              The man gave himself a quick once-over. “Yeah I guess I look a little rough, sorry. Nice dog you have there, what is his name?”

              “Tiger.” Ally answered as she put her hand in her pocket to make sure her small knife was in there. She would much rather have had her bow, but it would do if needed.

              The man smirked. “You named your dog Tiger? Course I used to have a dog and I named him Murphy. I reckon that’s not a whole lot different than Tiger. You named yours off a cat and I named mine off a human.”

              Ally took another step back.

              “No need to go the long way, I’m not gonna bite. Tell you what I’ll go inside here if it’ll make you feel more comfortable.”

              Ally thought about it for a second. The man seemed harmless but that didn’t mean he was. At the same time she didn’t want to go walking through the main part of the town.

              “Alright, I’ll go inside. Last thing I need is thinking I caused a little girl to have to walk in this heat longer than she had to.”

              “No,” Ally said. “You can stay there, I’ll go through.”

              “Well alright then. My name’s Ethan.”

              Ally began walking towards the man, making sure to keep Tiger between the two of them and keeping as much distance as possible. “I’m Ally.”

              “Now I gotta say, Ally, is probably the most beautiful name I have heard in quite some time.”

              Just as Ally was walking past, the man stood up, causing Ally to jump slightly and Tiger to growl.

              “My bad. Didn’t mean to scare ya. You ever need anything Ally, you just let me know. This here is my place and if you knock, and I’m home, I’ll let ya on in. Matter fact, I have some ice cold water inside if your throat is parched. Want to come in and get a glass?”

              Ally turned and walked as quickly as she could.

              “Well, maybe next time then.”

Tiger followed but glanced behind her several times. It wasn’t until they had made their way back to the woods and Ally had her bow in hand that her heart finally stopped racing. There had been something about the man’s eyes she had not liked. Ally glanced back down the hill at the town in the distance and didn’t see anyone near. She was alone again.