Authors: Doug Kelly
“Why
would people be so quick to avoid you?” asked Kevin.
“We
have a reputation.”
The
other captive smirked at his accomplice’s reply. Dylan immediately drove his
tightly clenched fist into the smirking man’s face. The man’s head snapped back
and struck the pile of tar-black railroad ties. The humor disappeared from the
man’s face as his unconscious body slumped over. A streak of red blood
contrasted with the black creosote-stained wood.
“What
should I do with you?” Dylan asked the other man.
“Let
me go! You said you weren’t going to kill us if we told you everything, but you
killed him.”
“Him?
I didn’t kill him,” Dylan replied sarcastically as he rose to his feet. “He’s
just taking a little nap.”
“Untie
me!”
“No,
that wasn’t part of the agreement. I said that I wouldn’t kill you, nothing
more. Maybe my new friend Dorothy has other plans for you. That’s up to her.
Have a good nap.” Dylan drove his fist into the second man’s face, knocking him
unconscious.
Dylan
and Kevin gave Dorothy and her son the .22 caliber rifle and the shotgun taken
from the gang members. Kevin let her know that the men were tied and out cold.
He did not care what she did to them, but it would not be a good idea to shoot
them. The noise might attract attention. Dylan explained that they would like
to help her back to the city, but they needed to hurry and find Kevin’s wife.
It was going to get dark soon and it looked like a storm was approaching.
Dorothy and her young son would slow them down, but the new weapons should
provide them some protection. She thanked them for what they had done and used
the rifle as a support to help her stand before she spoke to Dylan and Kevin
again.
“Why
are you putting on those awful red armbands?” Dorothy asked, with an expression
of disgust and curiosity.
Kevin
tied a red bandana on Dylan’s upper right arm and replied, “It’s camouflage so
people will avoid us.”
Dorothy
shook her head. “I’m not so sure about that, but good luck,” she said, as the
two men turned to leave.
Dylan
and Kevin made it past the railroad hub. The wind was blowing harder and it was
going to storm for sure. There was not much daylight left, but they were on the
right road to take them to Kevin’s apartment building, and hopefully to Kevin’s
wife.
Both
men decided that it was best to walk in the middle of the road. They wanted to
keep some distance from the corners of alleys because that would be an easy
place to set up an ambush. The few people they saw appeared to be starving and
weak, and as predicted, the people on the sidewalk saw the two men and turned
aside. The men did not know if it was Dylan’s rifle or the red armbands, but they
were pleased to have no confrontations, so far, on the road.
“How
much farther?” asked Dylan.
“Not
much, we’re going to beat the rain and—” suddenly, Kevin stopped walking and
quickly turned to look around.
“What
is it?”
“I
think we’re being followed.”
Dylan
gripped the rifle tightly. “Are you sure? I don’t see anyone.”
“Maybe
I’m being paranoid. Do you want to jog the rest of the way? It’s about a mile.
If we are being followed, that would make it harder for them to keep up.”
“Good
idea. Let’s get out of here.”
The
men soon arrived at the apartment building. It was a tall brick building. The
double glass doors on the front of the building were shattered and the front
lobby was dark inside. The men stopped at the entrance and looked back down the
road to see if they had been followed.
“See
anything?” asked Dylan.
“No,
but I still have the feeling that I’m being watched. Let’s get inside. The
apartment is on the second floor, number 210, at the end of the hallway. We can
see this road from up there.”
The
men stepped across the broken glass and into the dark lobby. The stainless
steel doors to an elevator were directly in front of them and the stairwell was
next to the elevator. As they stepped into the building, there was a horrible
stench in the air.
“Shall
we take the elevator?” Dylan asked, with an invisible smile in the darkness.
“That’s
funny, old man. Let’s take the stairs. You need the exercise,” Kevin replied,
facetiously. Kevin opened the door to the dark stairway and tripped, falling
completely to the ground, as he stepped inside. The stench of death was
overwhelming in the enclosed space.
“What
happened!” exclaimed Dylan.
As
Kevin got up, he realized that it had been a dead body that he had fallen over.
“Hold
it. There’s a body here. Prop the door open to let the odor out,” said Kevin.
Dylan
propped the door open and carefully stepped over the body. It was very dark in
the stairwell and they were lucky to only have to go to the next level up.
Exiting the stairwell onto the second floor provided no relief from the smell.
It was on that floor, too.
“What
is that smell? Is it everywhere in this building?” asked Dylan, as he held his
nose. After he spoke, Dylan immediately noticed a small single hung window at
the end of the hall. He immediately went to the window and opened it, hoping
the wind could blow in some fresh air.
Kevin
followed him down the hall and stared at the door to the apartment they were
next to. It was apartment 210.
“You
made it.”
“I’ve
thought about this moment every day since we left Montana. It has kept me
going. I wondered what I’d do when I got here. Maybe I would run to the door
and pound on it, or scream at the window from the street.” With a quick laugh
he said, “I guess I kept it simple. Here we go.”
Kevin
knocked on the door.
“Why
don’t you just open the door? It’s your apartment.”
Kevin
replied, embarrassed, “I lost the key.”
Dylan
rolled his eyes and slapped his forehead. He then turned to the window for
fresh air as Kevin continued to knock.
“Honey,
it’s me, Kevin. I’m back. Open the door.”
“Where
else could she be, Kevin?”
“I
don’t know, but I’m not leaving without her. You don’t have to stick around. If
you want to leave that’s fine, but she’s my wife and I am not leaving without
her.”
“I’m
not leaving, either. Let’s find your wife. What do we do now? Where would she
go?”
“Let’s
go out back and look around,” said Kevin.
“If
you don’t mind, I’d prefer to avoid walking through that stench again. Go have
a look and come back. I’ll wait here.”
Kevin
scrambled down the hallway to the stairwell, and was gone. Dylan stepped out of
the main hall, around the corner, and sat on the floor with his back to the
wall, watching the rain come through the window. The raindrops were reflecting
the small bit of golden light left from the setting sun. The hallway was dark
and quiet. The sound of the raindrops was hypnotic. Dylan closed his eyes and
listened. He began to fade away into sleep as he sat on the floor. In his
dream, he heard gentle footsteps. They got gradually louder, and then he heard
a metallic noise. It was the sound of a turning doorknob and squeaky hinges.
The sounds were real and not from a dream, he realized. Dylan jumped up. He
grabbed his rifle, turned around the corner, and was staring at a thin woman
with long black hair standing in the open doorway to apartment 210. When she
saw Dylan jump around the corner with the rifle, the woman began to scream
hysterically in fear.
“Please
don’t kill me! Please, please don’t kill me! I’m begging you!” pleaded the
woman, as she collapsed to her knees and begged for mercy.
“No,
no, this isn’t what you think!” said Dylan, as he dropped the rifle and held up
his hands. Dylan took a step toward the woman and she screamed even louder.
Kevin
heard the screams through the open window and ran back inside. He leaped through
the stairwell doors, darted up the steps, and started down the hall toward the
apartment. He stopped halfway down the hall when he saw his wife; she was
wearing a loose fitting sundress. He immediately recognized his Mary.
Dylan
looked down the hall where Kevin was and saw the dark figure that Mary was
looking at. As Kevin began to slowly walk toward them, he realized her terror.
She saw an unrecognizable man with long hair, a beard, and a pistol walking
toward her, and both of the men were wearing red bandanas on their arms.
“Mary,
it’s Kevin!” Dylan gently explained, as he pointed to the slowly advancing
figure in the dark hallway. Dylan quickly removed his red armband, wadded it up,
and threw it on the hallway floor. “We’re not a part of that. Those armbands
aren’t ours.”
When
Mary heard her name, she was shocked into silence. She stared at Dylan’s face
in the dark of twilight, but did not recognize him.
“Who
are you? How do you know my name?” As Mary demanded an answer from Dylan, her
fear and panic was transitioning into anger.
“My
name is Dylan; you don’t know me. I am your husband’s friend.” Dylan extended
his arm and pointed to Kevin’s shadowy figure slowly moving toward them.
Mary
was still on the floor and on her knees. She straightened her torso, and with
clenched fists at her side, yelled at Dylan. “My husband is dead! Everyone I
know is dead! Damn you to hell!”
At
Mary’s exclamation, Kevin’s shocked silence disappeared. He took a step forward
to stand next to his kneeling wife in the dark hallway. “Mary, it’s me. I made
it back. I came back for you and the baby.” She recognized his voice. Kevin
dropped to his knees to look directly into his wife’s face. Lightning from the
storm flashed, shining through the little window and illuminating the hallway.
In that brief instant, Mary could see him clearly. The sun had burnt Kevin’s
face, and he had a beard now. His hair was long and as ragged as his clothes.
She thought to herself that his eyes were the same. She had fallen in love with
those same kind blue eyes. This was her husband, and he was alive! She grabbed
him, holding tightly, and began to cry.
Dylan
stepped softly around the embracing couple and went into the dark apartment to
give them privacy. Inside the apartment, he stood next to a window overlooking
the road outside and stared cautiously through it. He remembered Kevin’s
earlier suspicion of being followed. He believed Kevin, and was worried.
Kevin
grabbed his wife’s face and kissed her on the forehead. “Where were you? We
were looking for you.”
“I
was on the roof. When it rains, I put buckets out to collect water.” Mary stood
up and used the loose clothing of her sundress to wipe away her tears. “Where
have you been all these months? How did you get back here?”
“It’s
a long story. I’ll explain later.”
She
turned to go into the apartment. “Honey, come in quickly and lock the door. I’ll
light a candle.” She looked at Dylan and invited him in too. Dylan accepted the
invitation, and, in his haste to find a place to rest his weary body, was the
first to enter.
Kevin
stepped inside and saw Dylan’s figure in the darkness, looking alertly out the
window. In the room was a large couch with a coffee table and a few chairs.
Dylan moved to a chair in the corner of the room and, by moving away, allowed a
little more moonlight to come through the window. Kevin sat in the middle of
the couch and placed the backpack on the coffee table. There was a faint smell
of sulfur from the match as Mary lit a candle. The orange glow grew brighter as
the large candle that Mary brought into the room came closer. Mary was holding
the candle directly in front of her when she crossed the room and stood next to
Kevin. She sat the candle on the edge of the coffee table, and began to cry
when she saw the expression on her husband’s face. She could see that he had just
realized what she had not told him yet. She was not pregnant any longer. She
had lost their baby.
Without
a spoken word, Dylan realized the horror Kevin was now experiencing. Dylan
subconsciously pushed back with his feet to move his chair further into the
corner, but there was no escaping the tragedy filling the room.
A
broken man slowly and weakly stood up from the couch. Kevin then went to the
room that they had prepared for the child. Dylan heard him cry from the baby’s
room, closed his eyes, and tried to keep his own demons from returning. They
were telling him that his children were in trouble and that he could not help
them. He understood that there was nothing he can do. All he could do was
remind himself to survive one day at a time and not give up hope.
Mary
turned away from the candlelight and entered the nursery to be with her
husband.
“I’m
sorry, Kevin. It’s been horrible here. Since the grid went down my life has
been a nightmare. I’m so sorry—”
“I’m
not blaming you for anything.” Kevin had turned away from his wife and leaning
over the crib. He gently pushed the mobile hanging at the head of the empty
crib.
“Kevin,
when I saw the red armbands that you and your friend were wearing, I panicked.
Men with red armbands attacked me and my friend.” She began to cry again. “It
wasn’t my fault.”