Ravaged Land - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (12 page)

I watched him from the hallway, he kept himself hidden as he peered out the openings that remained between the boards. He looked all around and kept searching for the source of what I thought was thunder. He came back after making sure the back door was secure. “It doesn’t appear to be storming, no rain, clear skies as far as I can tell. I’m not sure what you could have—”

And there it was again a big boom-like thunder, but now I had been paying better attention I knew it wasn’t thunder. Ryan ran to the front window, “Blow out the candle!”

Whatever it was, he spotted it, because he stared and didn’t move, heck, I don’t think he was even breathing while he peeked out between the slits.

“What is it?” Seth asked quietly.

“Should I wake the others?” I asked nervously.

“Shh!” Ryan said waving us silent.

I sneaked up to the window next to Ryan and peered out, at first I didn’t see them, but when I did they were too close for comfort. About a mile down the road, out in a field, I couldn’t tell how many were out there, but there they were, out in a field blowing up fireworks. Not just puny fireworks you can get at those little firework stands that pop up randomly around the fourth of July, but real, big, fireworks. They were booming and echoing like thunder. It would take them about ten or fifteen minutes to light one and then reset for the next. You could hear a faint cheer after the firework exploded and lit up the skies.

“Do you think they know we’re here?” I whispered.

“I don’t think so,” he whispered back, his breath lightly dancing across my neck.

“I would have much preferred a rain storm,” Seth said not noticing or acknowledging the new tension between me and Ryan. “Might have cooled things down.” He was too busy thinking about the temperature.

After some time there hadn’t been any more fireworks, I figured they must have run out. A car with bright lights was slowly coming down the road. Outside of the passenger window someone was holding a big flood light some people use to shine for deer. They were using it to scan the fields. But I didn’t know what they were looking for. People? Items they could use? Animals? They were passing it back and forth from the passenger side to the driver side slowly scanning. The light brushed across the house briefly, this time they didn’t pass the light back to the passenger side. There were definitely going to scan the house.

“Do they have a candle lit upstairs?” Ryan asked.

“I’m not sure I was….” Before I could finish he was running up the stairs to make sure it was absolutely dark. I stayed at the window watching them get closer and closer. “They are almost here,” I updated Seth as I heard Ryan creeping back downstairs much quieter than he had gone up them.

The car was going painfully slow but now they were almost directly across from the window, they lit up the house with the bright spotlight. Ryan pulled me behind the wall so no part of me could be seen through the crack of the window. Or so I didn’t make any kind of unusual shadow. We could hear the car taking its good old time passing. The flood light lit up the whole living room even from as far back as the road. The light shined through the cracks between the planks of wood making strange shadows on the walls.

The car sped up, turned the light off and drove down the road. Thankfully they weren’t looking for a home of their own and were likely getting their supplies from town, they didn’t have much of a reason to stop at this random home. Did they notice the windows boarded up? Would that be a clue someone was here? Maybe they’d just assume the windows were boarded up because of the storms. Maybe they hadn’t noticed. Unless they’d been around here before and saw that the windows hadn’t been boarded up until now. I really wished it would have just been a passing thunderstorm.

Ryan stood watching until he couldn’t see the car any more. They were gone. “We really need to get weapons,” Ryan said finally taking a noticeable breath, “and something other than baseball bats.”

“Do we know they had weapons? All we know is that they had a car, a flood light and some fireworks,” I said.

“Hopefully we’ll never have to use the guns, but we need them for protection. Even if it’s only to scare people off,” Ryan said shaking his head, “It’s not like only the good people in the world survived. I’d guess only the toughest, smartest and luckiest did. And even good people can turn bad in the worst kind of situations. Situations like this.”

Seth had drifted back to sleep, he was just so worn out that any activity was too much. It being eighty-five degrees in the house, even in the middle of the night surely didn’t help matters. There was no break, no chance to cool down.

“Let him sleep,” I said nodding towards the bedrooms, “He needs the rest.”

We decided to leave the candle out, we’d have to test where we could put candles in the house so that they wouldn’t be seen if you were outside. Maybe find some curtains or blankets we could put up to hide the light better. It would be morning in a few more hours, and there would be enough light to see your way around, or I so imagined. Even in the day with the windows boarded up it would still be dark. We would probably need to use the candles when it was light out and we assumed a candle inside wouldn’t be spotted by an outsider during the day. The sunlight would drown out any light from the candle.

I turned to go into my bedroom. Ryan grabbed my hand stopping me in the doorway. His face was twisted, I couldn’t read it.

“Will you be all right?” he asked

“Yeeesss,” I said smiling at him. “I’m a big girl Ryan, I can take care of myself,” I added trying to sound tough, when in fact I didn’t know if I was OK. Heck, I didn’t even know if I could take care of myself. The only reason I was even here now was because of them, I was one of the lucky. If I’d been by myself like the kid across the street, I surely wouldn’t have survived to even join up with the circus gang. I hate to think what would have happened to me if I had been alone. But he didn’t need to know that. It was better for both of us, all of us, if we all thought I was smarter and tougher than I really was.

“I don’t know if any of us can really just take care of ourselves anymore,” he said looking at his feet, “we all need each other.”

“I’ll be fine, good night.” I squeezed his hand and gently pulled mine away before it got to the point where I wouldn’t be able to pull it away. Or that I wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep.

“If you need anything, I’ll be right here, anything at all!” He was being protective, perhaps overly so, but at the same time it was really sweet. I’d never really had anyone, except maybe my own mother care that much for me before. He reached down and lightly brushed my dirty blond hair out of my face, the backs of his fingers lightly brushing against my cheek. That simple gesture overpowered the logical part of my brain instantly, the softness, the gentleness, my eyes lightly closed and I leaned into his hand. He turned his hand and slid his fingertips along the side of my neck, towards the back causing the hair on my arms to tingle.

I suddenly felt like I was floating on a cloud and not trapped in the bland darkness of God-knows-whose house. He tilted my head and slowly moved towards my face stopping only millimeters away, “is this all right?” he whispered. I nodded. His other hand found his way to the other side of my neck within seconds, and I waited for the kiss.

“Ahh… umm.” Dean coughed.

Ryan dropped me like a hot potato and I stumbled backwards a half step. I glared at the back of his head. “What is it?” he sounded like an annoyed father. I left the scene and went back to bed, I turned my back to the door, but tried to listen to what they were talking about. Dean was asking what was going on outside and Ryan updated him about the fireworks and the car. Then I heard someone use the bathroom, and Dean going back upstairs. I sensed Ryan pause at my doorway, but I pretended I was asleep. I breathed slowly and held still until I heard the door creak as he partially closed it. Then I heard the creaking of his bedsprings as he climbed into bed.

I was frustrated with how he’d reacted when Dean saw us, I didn’t even know how much Dean saw, just that he saw us close to each other. It was so dark there was no way he could have figured out what was going on, but the way he interrupted made it sound like he knew he was interrupting something. But for Ryan to just practically jump out of his skin to get away from me, well, it was insulting. For all I knew Dean just thought we were discussing what happened with the car because who would think something else would be going on?

This is what happens when you start letting yourself fall for someone. You get hurt, annoyed and just can’t concentrate on the real things that need the attention, such as survival. It was time to forget about any kind of silly relationship and focus on what we needed to live. Survival of the fittest, isn’t that what they say? Well, a relationship right now wouldn’t really work now would it? Over it. The end. There was nothing to be over because nothing ever was. Thanks to Dean nothing happened. I continued repeating those things trying to convince myself until I fell asleep.

Chapter ten.

I peeked out of the window and guessed the time based on where the sun was in the sky. I estimated it had to be somewhere between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. when I woke up. I must have had some sleep I needed to catch up on. When I walked out to the living room the others were already gathered around the kitchen table discussing the plans for the day without waiting for me. I was annoyed they hadn’t waited for me. And now that I was annoyed about that, I was reminded about how annoyed I was with Ryan last night when he pushed away from me, which doubled my annoyance factor for the day. Not good considering it’s still morning. This is what they mean when they say ‘you woke up on the wrong side of the bed’ I guess. It didn’t matter which side I would have picked, either way it would have been the wrong side.

“Good morning sleepy-head,” Dean said with a wink. Who winks? Yeah, I decided that was annoying too.

A troll-like grunt went along with the scowl I was now wearing, “So what are you all discussing?” I said trying to make it painfully obvious I was annoyed they were having this conversation without me.

“Not much, just listing what we need to accomplish today,” Seth said. He didn’t look much better than yesterday but he was sitting at the table participating so he had to be doing somewhat better.

“Right.” Ryan jumped in not making eye contact with me, “First we need to make a run to town for gas for the generator, build up our food and water supplies but most importantly, number one on today’s list, find weapons.”

I nodded as if it mattered. “So who’s going?”

Owen stepped forward, “Me for sure.”

“First does anyone here know anything about guns?” I asked looking at them.

“I already asked that,” Ryan said trying not to sound like a jackass but failing miserably.

“Yeah, I hunted with my dad,” Owen said, “So I can shoot, although, in all honesty I’m not a great shot, and I’ve only ever shot at deer with a rifle. It goes without saying never at people with a handgun.”

“We took archery at camp,” Dean said gesturing at Sienna, and she beamed thinking she might have a skill that could come in handy.

“Oh,” I said sounding disappointed. I wasn’t really all that disappointed, but I felt left out and useless. Everything had already been taken care of and everyone seemed to have familiarity of some kind with a weapon. Except for me of course. Yet again, I was the weak link.

If the others picked up on my defeated body language, they ignored it. No one went out of their way to make me feel included or bring my spirits up. I walked to my backpack and took out a bottle of water and chugged it. Water was going fast, at least mine was.

“Yeah, we need more water,” Ryan said seeing me gazing at my empty bottle, “and soon, so we should go?” He motioned at Owen and they both started emptying their packs on the floor. “Hey Ros maybe you and Sienna could find a way to organize our stuff?” he added before taking Dean’s pack and emptying it into the pile inconsiderately. He could have at least not made such a mess of things if he expected me and Sienna to clean it up.

“Uhh….” I rolled my eyes as big as I could manage, “Sure.” I sighed and flopped down into the recliner. This is how I’d be useful, by being the housemaid. I guess I should have just been pleased I was being included in something.

“Maybe I should come too,” Dean offered. “I’ll know the bows, and I can come back with a pack of food and water while you guys find gas.”

“Yeah sounds good, except I’m not sure you coming back here alone is a great idea,” Ryan said scratching his head.

Dean grinned, “Well I’d have my new friend with me, I think I would be all right.”

“Hmm… well, OK, I guess. If you’re sure?”

“I’m sure.”

The boys got ready quickly. Owen was going to carry two packs, Ryan one pack plus the gas can and Dean emptied Sienna’s pack into the pile. They’d get a good haul of items as long as they could find the stores with supplies still left. Hopefully nothing too far away— they planned to be back before night.

“Don’t forget you have the baseball bats, and your knife. Carry it with you at all times, you know, just in case someone should come poking around,” Ryan said putting on a baseball cap and a pair of sunglasses he’d found in a drawer. “And lock this door once we are out. Don’t go outside and don’t open the door for anyone.”