To the Barrens (Super Pulse Book 2) Read online

  As soon as Robert reached the top step Sarah saw him swing his club savagely. There was an unmistakable crack as it crashed into bone, probably a skull judging by the height of the swing. A body thudded to the floor just as Dewey thrust his spear. By then Sarah was there; she fired at whoever it was that had grabbed at the spear. There was a scream of pain, followed by another thud.

  “In there!” Robert yelled, waving his torch at a doorway. There were still two men alive in the main room, but Sarah could see by torchlight that they’d heard the shots and were trying only to hide. That was a relief to Sarah. If they had firepower, they’d be using it now instead of seeking cover.

  “Stay here and watch them!” she ordered Gygax, before following Robert and Dewey into the little room. There was only one of The Men in there, standing at the center of the room with a bunk bed on either side. The torchlight flashed on the knife in his hand as he lunged toward the top bunk. Sarah dropped him quickly with a body shot before he could do any damage. “Grab the kids!” she yelled at Robert, but he was already scooping them out of their beds and pushing them toward the door.

  “Sarah!” yelled Gygax. When she returned to the main room, the two men were edging toward the stairs. Sarah fired at one, who fell instantly. That was it for the magazine, she could tell, but the other man didn’t know that. He put his hands up and backed away. As the kids were being led out of the bunk room, Dewey swung his spear like a baseball bat at the lone survivor, missing but causing him to fall to the floor.

  “Let’s go!” Sarah shouted. She’d already ejected the empty magazine and jammed in another, this one more empty than the first. They thundered down the steps as fast as the little ones could go and bolted outside. Ethan shepherded the four little ones to the dock, where Kelly and Albert were already waiting in the rowboat. Meanwhile, two more of The Men had charged out of the second house. It was a simple matter for Sarah to take both of them out by torchlight, hitting pay dirt with two of three rounds fired. She knew by feel that she’d finished off another magazine, so she was down to the one left in her pocket.

  The raid was almost over, and so far it had been a tremendous success. Kelly, Albert and the four hostages were already away in one rowboat. Now, the rest of the team scrambled over to the dock and fell into the other one. Dewey managed to step completely over it and splash into the lake, but was able to quickly climb over the side and flop onto the floor of the boat just as Ethan was pushing off with the oars.

  “Dunk your torches!” Sarah yelled. More of The Men had rushed out of the other house, and were shouting at the lake. Two ran to the dock, only to find that the rest of the boats had been cut free hours ago and had disappeared. All they could do was stare into the darkness and listen as the sound of the oars slapping the water faded away.

  Twenty

  “Nick, you doing okay?” Penny asked one night at dinner in the middle school cafeteria. “We hardly see you anymore.” She looked around at the other Outhouse Coalition members gathered at the table. All looked exhausted and ready to sleep. “Now that I think about it, it’s the same for most of you. Will it always be this hard?”

  They were halfway through a plain but filling meal of water, an unidentifiable cranberry dish that reminded them somewhat of cranberry sauce, and venison. They’d all learned to look forward to the nights when the meat was fresh like this, rather than in jerky form. But regardless of how fine the food was or wasn’t, it was a relief to all that Food Supply was up and running. Nobody was starving; there were a lot of hungry people outside Southampton Middle School who couldn’t say the same.

  “I hate to say this,” Ellie said. “But I think the answer is yes. It will always be this hard.” She held up her hands, which were red, raw and chapped. “There’s just so much to do. We need more people. But of course, for Sanitation, more people creates even more work right?”

  “Ellie and I already talked about this,” Matt said. “Some subcommittees are different than others. Sanitation is going to need more people. It’s brute force work, and a ton of it. There will always be a ton of it. But, say, a subcommittee like mine is different. We’re already cranking out water. It doesn’t take that much labor to do it, except hauling the water around. I think we have too many members now. They’ll probably have to shift people around.”

  “Yeah,” Nick said. “Except nobody on the almighty Committee ever asks us little people what we think. When I thought of adding those people I found in the woods, Roethke nearly took my head off.” He smiled, his fork dangling in mid-air above his plastic plate. “Of course, they ended up doing just what a suggested. Go figure.”

  “How’s it working out?” Penny asked.

  “It took a while for them to get back into shape,” Nick said. “They weren’t in very good condition when we found them. But it was worth it. Those people are machines. They never stop working, and they never complain. Just like how I knew it would be.”

  “A genius, you are!” Tom said. He and Nick shared a high five across the table. Nick knew there was no way Tom had forgotten how Nick had nearly deserted him and his family back at Crestview. If that had happened, they all knew that not all of the sizable Hellikson clan would even be alive now. It wasn’t something Nick was proud of, and he appreciated that both Tom and Penny had chosen not to dwell on it.

  “My job’s getting easier,” Tom said. “The inmates are running the asylum. Of course, Me and Penny supplied a lot of the inmates. They don’t have much to do, but they always seem to find something. We just count them every once in a while to make sure we didn’t lose any.”

  Matt laughed. “I saw you out at the camp the other day. Those kids definitely looked like they were in charge, all right.”

  “That field trip was tough,” Tom admitted. “No way I could keep up with any of them. Good thing I’m not on my own.” He put his fork down and patted his shoulder. “You wouldn’t think this would make walking hurt so much. But I guess it’s like that old song. The head bone’s connected to the neck bone, or whatever it is.” He chuckled. “Not exactly Beethoven, huh?”

  “That’s partly why we hardly see each other,” Penny said. “Besides being so busy, a lot of us are working out at the camp more. At least that’ll change once we all move down there.”

  Nearly all the kids had taken to sitting together at their own tables rather than with their parents as they got to know each other. Ellie gazed over at one of them as she sipped water. “So Tom,” she asked. “How are Sarah’s girls doing? They seem okay when they’re with us, but they’re mostly eating or sleeping then. That makes it too easy to fake it.”

  Tom shook his head. “No change, really. Ashley does great with the younger kids. She’s got plenty of friends. She’s a lot tougher than her sister.”

  “Not so good for Jenny?” Nick asked.

  “Not so good,” agreed Tom. “It’s more complicated for the older kids. They’re setting themselves up in little groups, but so far Jenny’s not connecting with any of them. She’s alone most of the time. I tried the old “can you try to include Jenny?” on a few of the others, but it doesn’t work. The last thing teenagers want is for an adult to tell them who to be friends with, right?”

  “It really crushed her when Sarah left,” Ellie said. “I still don’t see how she could have done that. It was selfish.” Nick wanted to argue, but stifled his words. Maybe Ellie was right.

  “I see marks on her arms,” Ellie continued. “I’m no expert, but I think she’s cutting herself. They looked more like burns, but I don’t know how she could do that.”

  Nick’s head bobbed as he swallowed some venison. “Funny you should mention that. I remember the first day I met her she had a cigarette lighter in her pocket. I asked her about it and she said she found it at the park during the girl scout bike ride.”

  “Uh oh,” Tom said. “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “We better keep an eye on that,” Penny said. “You know, not every kid likes summer camp, which is what Tom’
s group is. I still think Jenny would be better off doing something else.”

  There was a pause, before Ellie spoke. “She told me one day when I was cleaning up somebody’s cut that she wanted to be a nurse. What if we found a way to get her on the medical team? She could be like an intern. I’m sure they could find something for her to do. I think she’d feel better about herself.”

  Penny nodded. “That’s a great idea. And it’s not like there’s any chance she could be any worse off than she is right now. Who do we talk to about it?”

  “Jenny herself, first,” Nick said. “Shouldn’t it be up to her?”

  “I don’t think she’s the type that wants to be coddled,” Matt said. “It might look better to her if Medical needed her. Know what I mean?”

  “Yep, I get it,” Nick said. “We should make this happen. I can’t imagine anything worse than having to hang out with kids when you just don’t feel like it. Maybe if she has a job she’ll feel like she belongs.”

  “I tell you what,” Matt said. “I get along pretty well with Sue Stocker and Crystal Monroe. How about I ask her what—“

  “Crystal Monroe?” Tom interrupted. “Also known as Mrs. Grover Monroe? If she’s not on the Committee, then who is, right?”

  Exactly,” Matt said. “I think I should put in a word about this with her, and see what happens.”

  “Speaking of Medical,” Tom said, “anybody been over there lately? I have to go every day to get my shoulder checked out. The place is getting more crowded every day. And most of it’s for stuff that isn’t a big deal. Toothaches, headaches. Yesterday somebody was in there with poison ivy.”

  “That was one of our guys,” Nick said. “Sitting down’s gonna’ be a problem for him now. Next time I’ll bet he’ll use the authorized bathroom zone out at camp.”

  “This is what it’s going to be like for a while, I guess,” Ellie said. “Maybe forever. No more running to the medicine cabinet for a bottle of aspirin, or calamine lotion, or whatever.”

  “I heard we’ll be getting a dentist soon,” Tom said. “That’s what they told the guy with the rotten tooth.”

  “Ouch,” Matt said.

  “Sometimes they just have to turn people away,” Tom said. “It seems like every day there’s somebody who comes in because he ran out of his blood pressure meds. Nothing they can do about that.”

  “I liked that session we had on home remedies,” Penny said. “I think we need to crank that up. Maybe it should be its own subcommittee.”

  “We need a suggestion box around here,” Matt said. “Am I right?”

  “Yeah, but who has the guts to suggest the suggestion box?” Tom asked.

  A few minutes passed of silence passed, as everybody went back to their meals. Nick was still feeling the sting of Ellie’s remark about Sarah’s selfishness. Where had that come from, and why did he feel so defensive about it? “You guys think Sarah and Dewey are okay out there?” he asked.

  Nobody said anything, but there were a lot of worried shrugs. That summed up his own feelings about it. Whatever Sarah and Dewey had going on at the moment, they were up against it. More and more upset as the days and even weeks went by with no word from them, he decided to do something about it. It couldn’t be worse than sitting around hoping they’d show up.

  ~~~

  Nick wandered the halls looking for Roethke or Grover, but changed direction and followed Mark and Ricky Roman when he saw them pass. It occurred to Nick as he ran to catch up that he’d never seen them here before, except for meetings. They must have been living at Tabernacle all along.

  “Hey, guys,” Nick said. The brothers turned to face him. There were no traces of dread in their eyes, something he’d learned to look for. Reading people was a skill that was invaluable to him, especially now that he was among so many he wasn’t familiar with. “Were you guys in the cafeteria? I didn’t see you, or I would have come over.”

  “Are you kidding?” Ricky asked. “No way! They got nothing but blueberries and Slim Jims in there! We’re not eating that stuff. We eat out every night. Tonight we had seafood.”

  Mark laughed weakly. He always had patience for his brother’s humor. “Ricky’s kind of right. We’ve been living out at camp for a while, so we just eat there with your friends from the woods. Usually we get the same food you do, if you’re wondering. But tonight we had fish from the lake.”

  “The refugees seem okay, I think,” Nick said. “From what I’ve seen. Right?”

  “Yup,” Mark agreed. “And I’m glad to have them on the job.”

  “You haven’t seen Grover or Roethke around here, have you?” Nick asked. “I have something I need to talk with them about.”

  Mark stopped and turned to face Nick. “You’re going to talk to Grover?” he asked. “Directly?”

  “Sure,” Nick answered. “Why not? I do it all the time.”

  “Yeah, so I’ve heard,” Mark said.

  “We’re going there right now,” Ricky said. “Well, this big shot is, at least,” he added, jabbing his brother. “A meeting of the big-wigs. You have to give the secret handshake or they don’t let you in.”

  “You have a Committee meeting tonight?” Nick asked. “Well that’s perfect. I’ll just tag along. I’m sure they’ll let me in.”

  “I ain’t gonna’ mince my words, Nick,” Mark said. “They’re not gonna’ let you in. You’re on thin ice with them. I’m gonna’ go ahead and guess that you have something new you want to complain about, right? It’s not a good idea.”

  “Why is everybody so afraid of this guy?” Nick said in exasperation. “What, the common people aren’t allowed to approach him?”

  “What do you want to ask him about?” Mark said. “Just tell me now, and I’ll bring it up at the meeting myself. That’s the way it’s supposed to work anyway. You pass it up through the chain of command.”

  Nick scowled. “Seriously? We have, what, a hundred and fifty people here? We’re not at the point where the king doesn’t have time for the peasants yet.”

  “Trust me, it’s better this way,” Mark said. “Tell me what you want.”

  Nick knew he wasn’t going to win this, and he did trust Mark. Better to play the game, at least for now. “Okay. When we were on the bus coming here, two of our members jumped out. They left. She was near her house in Medford and wanted to look for her husband. I’m not sure why Dewey went with her. So—“

  “I know all about it,” Mark said.

  “I didn’t!” Ricky said.

  “Everybody on the Committee does,” Mark said. “We’re running out of time here. What’s the question?”

  “We know the general direction they went,” Nick said. “Can we get one of those security vans and a few soldiers, and go look for them?”

  Mark snorted. “You seriously think they’re gonna’ even consider that?” He shook his head. It’s a good thing you ran it by me first. No way, Nick.”

  “Why not? Sarah’s probably the best shooter we have. And her two daughters are still here, with no parent. And Dewey’s pretty smart. We can use him, too.”

  “We talked about your two friends at the first meeting,” Mark said. “There wasn’t a lot of sympathy for them. They ain’t gonna’ be feeling any different about it now.”

  “Can you just ask about it for me? If they say no, I’ll go back tomorrow and ask them myself,” Nick said.

  “I’m sure you will,” Mark said. “I have no doubts about that. But okay, I’ll ask.”

  ~~~

  Not knowing where the Committee held its meetings, Nick wandered the corridors of the school for hours after that, hoping to get some news about how it had gone. Finally, when all was quiet and the security men started giving him nasty looks, he gave up and went back to his room. Apparently the Committee was so important that nobody could even know where they held their meetings, he thought bitterly as he turned out the lights and crawled under the blanket on his cot.

  ~~~

  He got his answer the n
ext morning when he arrived at Tabernacle, and it wasn’t what he wanted to hear. The position of Grover, Roethke, and the Committee hadn’t changed since that first day when Nick had reported what happened. No search party would be sent out, and Sarah and Dewey were not welcome to return even if they found their way back on their own. When Mark began describing the anger he’d seen on Grover’s face, Nick held up his hand to cut him off. Hearing that would only make it harder for him when he tracked Grover down himself and asked him about it face to face.

  Twenty-one

  They gathered on the other side of the lake and counted heads, which was difficult because all the older siblings were hugging the younger siblings, who still looked dumbstruck. “Are they all here?” Sarah asked.

  “And, like, are we all here?” Dewey added. It turned out that everybody was there. Given that the enemy was stuck on the other side of the lake, Sarah decided they had a couple of minutes to rest before moving on. Robert and Albert went back to the boats and retrieved the bundles of dried fish they’d taken from the kitchen earlier. It was a lot more than she’d thought they’d said they had. That was something they were going to need. The Men needed it, too, unfortunately.

  “Will they try to follow us?” Sarah asked.

  “I hope so,” Ethan said. Of all the teens, he was the one who spoke the least, so Sarah hadn’t been able to get a read on him. But she could hear the anger in those three words. “We made a good start tonight, but we haven’t killed them all yet.”

  “Word,” said Robert. “They killed my dad.”

  “They killed all of our dads,” Kelly said. “And I know what they’d do to me if I was wearing my own clothes. I’m with Ethan and Robert.” Sarah was surprised at the intensity of their anger. Until then she’d thought only Robert felt this way.