Innocence Lost Read online

  “But they won’t give you the chance.” Ben meant it as a question but it came out more as a statement.

  “If I know I can do it why do I need to prove it to them?” Rook asked.

  Ben didn’t know what to say.

  “Let me tell you a little story.” Rook spat on the ground again and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “Had a cousin, don’t really remember if he was a first or second cousin, but he was a cousin. Few years younger than me and the rest of the family members I usually hung out with, and he was always trying to prove himself. We used to climb trees at our family get-togethers and there was this one really tall, really old tree that none of us would climb. Well one year he gets it in his head that if he climbs that tree he will show us that how brave he is or some shit.” Rook paused and surveyed something in the distance for a moment. “Well the reason we never climbed that tree was because it was old and the limbs weren’t sturdy. Dumb shit got half-way up and a limb broke.”

  “What happened?” Ben asked.

  “Never walked again. I heard he died right around the time I was getting in high school.”

  “Didn’t you guys warn him about the tree?”

  “More times than I can fucking remember. Thing is, he took our warnings as signs we didn’t think he could do something. The more we would warn him the more he thought we doubted him. He was so busy trying to show that he could, he didn’t stop and think if he should.”

  Was Ben doing the same thing?

  “You don’t have to prove yourself to anybody.”

  Just then, Mason and the others came walking back towards them.

  “Sounds like we have a group of troublemakers here.” Zima said as he approached.

  “Our intel solid?” Rook asked.

  Mason leaned up against the Jeep. “Sounds that way. Around twenty to thirty holed up in the industrial district. Locals say they don’t really bother them much, from the looks of it that’s probably because they don’t have anything worth taking.”

  “But they got a rep for stealing what little there is and setting up road blocks like the one we just went through.” Zima finished.

  “Aren’t our orders to head to Kentucky?” Stevenson asked.

  Zima raised an eyebrow and looked to him. “Our orders are the same as they’ve ever been. We restore order. This group is disrupting it and once they have been pacified we can move on to our main objective.”

  Stevenson didn’t look happy but he didn’t say anything. The sound of an approaching truck broke up their conversation. Calmly the men grabbed their rifles but kept them hidden alongside the truck. Mason pushed Ben towards the back of the Jeep. Ben didn’t fight.

  The truck pulled up to the diner and stopped. The rumbling of the engine echoed throughout the empty streets. The truck rolled forward towards them until it was about twenty yards away. A single man stepped out. He had an assault rifle slung over his shoulder and a bandanna covering his head.

  “Something you looking for?” he asked.

  “Just passing through.” Mason said.

  The man glanced behind them. “From where?”

  “From back there,” Mason said gesturing behind them. “Don’t worry about that roadblock. We cleared that out for you.”

  Ben could see the man’s jaw clench and he started to lift up his rifle. Before he could even start he had four assault rifles pointed directly at him.

  “I wouldn’t do that, slick.” Zima said.

  “Who…..who the fuck are you all and what do you want?”

  “We’re with the United States government, and we’re here to maintain order.” Zima said matter-of-factly.”

  “The government is dead.”

  “No,” Mason said with a smile. “I can assure you we are alive and well.”

  “Here is what you are going to do, slick,” Zima said stepping forward. “Get in your truck and head back to the brick plant. Tell your group there they have 24 hours to pack their bags and head out of here. We, along with a few of our friends, are going to be passing through here regularly. And if we run into anymore of your roadblocks then we will terminate you with extreme prejudice.”

  “That translates to we’ll blow your fucking heads off.” Stevenson said, looking down the scope of his rifle.

  The man stood there for a few seconds and then quickly got back into his truck. “Fuck that,” he yelled from his truck. “I’m going back and getting the boys. If you all are still here when I get back we’ll blow your fucking heads off.”

  “Light him up.” Zima said.

  All four of the men let out a burst from their assault rifles into the truck. The three tires that were visible burst and the man let out a scream but didn’t reach for his gun.

  “Hopefully we’ve made ourselves clear?” Mason asked.

  “Jesus Christ,” the man said as he stumbled out of the truck. He started to reach back in for his gun and Mason let out another burst from his rifle into the truck door.

  “That stays here.”

  The man gave them a look of pure hatred and ran down the street.

  Rook dropped the muzzle of his rifle. “Think that worked?”

  “No way in hell.” Mason said. “We need to pick a building and hole up. If they haven’t cleared out by this time tomorrow, then we’ll start taking them out.”

  “Thirty well-armed men is a lot to take on.” Stevenson said.

  “Thirty untrained men.” Zima said. “And we’ll just do it one at a time.”

  Alec

  They all sat around the kitchen table, unsure where to start. Alec could see the uncertainty in everyone’s faces and that somehow put him more at ease.

  Around the table were Jack, Trevor, Freddie, and Malcolm. This was their self-appointed “council”. Jack and Malcolm had been the ones to push for a council to oversee the development of their new little community. Alec had to admit he didn’t really understand the reason they needed a council but if it made everyone feel more at ease he would go along with it.

  “First off,” Jack started and cleared his throat, “I want to thank you all for agreeing to be a part of this council. You may not realize it yet but by accepting this you are going to hear nothing but ridiculous complaints followed up by demands that cannot be met.”

  “That sounds fun.” Trevor said.

  “But,” Jack continued, “You will be able to help steer our settlement towards great things.”

  Alec noticed that Freddie looked the most uncomfortable of all of them. The man was from Centralia but had originally been part of the group that had killed Alec’s brother and father. With that said Freddie had not hesitated to show Alec where those people were and helped with removing them. Alec didn’t trust him 100% but he didn’t really trust anyone, except for maybe Trevor.

  “We’ve made great progress in the last couple of months thanks to Freddie and the men that Whitford let us borrow.”

  Alec couldn’t dispute that either. The once wide open fields around the property had been fenced off into several lots. Some of the fencing they managed to scavenge from other properties but the majority had been created by hand. In one of those fenced off lots were a dozen cows, or as Malcolm said a dozen head of cattle. Their intention was to also pick up a few of the now wild horses around the area but that was easier said than done. Jack and a few of the others had been leaving food for a nearby herd hoping to gain their trust, but to date nothing had come of it.

  “Speaking of which, Freddie, how much longer do you think Whitford will be able to spare the men?” Trevor asked.

  Freddie had been fidgeting with a pencil and placed it to the side and put his hands in his lap. “Uh, I’m not really sure. We have some maintenance work that needs to be done but we have plenty of time. Uh, I’ll take a ride and talk to him soon to find out.”

  “That brings up another issue,” Malcolm sighed, “Clive.”

  Nobody said anything but everyone knew exactly what he was talking about.

  Clive was one of t
he men who had come along to help and the man was beginning to create more problems than he was solving. Freddie said that Clive showed up in Centralia during the time that Alec was out searching for his sister. The man was in his late twenties, had side burns that nearly ran down his entire face, and didn’t seem to have a single trait that anyone could appreciate. He was crass, rude, and seemed to be constantly trying to start fights with any and every one. His only redeeming quality was that he was a hard worker.

  “What did he do now?” Freddie asked.

  “The same thing he has been doing since he got here, stirring up shit.” Malcolm spat out.

  Freddie ran his hand through his hair. “I can try to have him head back to Centralia to help out there. I don’t know if he’ll listen though, him and Whitford have been at each other’s throats lately, well always.”

  Alec’s interactions with the man had been few and far between. He knew the man was head strong and full of unwanted opinions, but he knew how to get things done.

  “I’ll talk to him.” Ale said. The council paused and every one turned their attention to him. “Best case, he stops acting up and we have a good worker to help out.”

  “And worse case?” asked Trevor.

  “He gets pissed off and takes off back to Centralia or elsewhere.”

  Malcolm’s forehead was still wrinkled and his frown was carved deep into his face, or course it was almost always like that. “I don’t know if that’s the worst case scenario but it’s worth a shot.”

  The rest of the council agreed, but that wasn’t the only thing that Alec wanted to bring up.

  “We need to be able to protect ourselves.” No one disagreed. Everyone there knew firsthand how dangerous the world was now. Alec turned to Jack. “What do we have?”

  “I haven’t done an extensive count or anything, but we still have the hunting rifle along with one of the assault rifles that Mason left behind.” Jack said the last part delicately as if the mention of Mason would send Alec over the edge. It did cause a ripple of anger to wash over him.

  “Ammo?” he asked.

  “Not much. Probably 30 shots or so for the rifle, a couple of clips for the assault.”

  “We have a few rifles we brought with us,” Malcolm said more to the others than to Alec. Alec was all too aware that they had a few guns. “When we were attacked some of the men left behind their guns when they fled. I’ll ask around about the ammo, not too sure how we’re doing there.”

  It was something.

  “We need to choose a handful of us to be prepared in case we’re needed. We need a group that is always here and prepared in case someone comes looking for trouble, and a few of us that can go out whenever needed and be prepared to protect ourselves as necessary.”

  “Like a police force and what, a scouting party?” Trevor asked.

  “Call it what you want. If we can provide for ourselves out here there is a chance word will spread, and people who can’t, will come looking.”

  Malcolm simply nodded and his eyes stared off in the distance, reliving a past that Alec was sure he wanted to forget.

  “Any disagreements?” Jack asked.

  There were none.

  Alec

  Clive was sitting up on a fence post chewing on a weed of some kind. The man’s raggedy sideburns obscured a large portion of his thin face and dirty clothes hung off his small frame. On the top of his head was a backwards baseball cap; whatever team or slogan that it had once contained had long since disappeared to age. Clive saw him coming and gave a small smile that showed the teeth of a man that must have smoked most of his life.

  “Well shit, what did I do now?”

  Alec came up next to him and leaned up against the fence. “Hopefully nothing.”

  Clive leaned back as if he was trying to give Alec a good look. “You trying to tell me you just decided to mosey on over and talk with me cause you wanted to?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  Clive shook his head and looked out toward the field. “Well shit. Must be something big if they got the king of the land to come out and talk with me.”

  “King of the land?”

  “All this shit is yours right?” Clive waved his hand towards the field. “You the king of this kingdom.”

  “No, this isn’t all mine. It was my fathers, or actually my grandfathers. We just came here to get away from the world.”

  “How did that work out for ya?”

  Alec felt the anger start to bubble up. Clive sat there trying to look innocent but the man knew what had happened here.

  The man spit out the side of his mouth. “So this land was your grandfather’s, and was passed down to your father and now to you? I’m not a smart man but I think that means you went from a prince to a king and these are your lands.”

  “With the way things are now, what exactly is giving me rights over this land? You think if a bunch of people with guns showed up right now, I could show them the deed to the land and they would just walk away?”

  Clive laughed and gave him a yellow smile. “Now you getting the hang of it. I was wondering if any of you understood that stuff don’t matter no more, but nope there you go playing government.”

  “How are we playing government?” Alec asked.

  “With all your rules and your little congress that you formed. There isn’t a government anymore and you all don’t need to be trying to create a new one.”

  “Having rules doesn’t mean we are trying to create a government. It’s a means to survive.”

  “Whatever you say.”

  “I’m sure there are places out there that don’t have rules, you’re free to go there if you want. But if you would like to stay here than those rules need to be followed.”

  Clive hopped off the fence and took a few steps toward Alec with a wiry smile on his face. “Don’t worry your majesty, I won’t step out of line. I’ll be a good little peasant while you all play house for as long as you can.”

  They stood there for a few beats in silence, Clive trying to bait Alec and Alec refusing to bite.

  “Everything going ok?” Freddie asked as he approached.

  Clive didn’t take his eyes off of Alec. “Oh yes sir, just talking about the rules of the land.”

  Freddie stepped between them. “That’s good to hear Clive. I know how much we’d hate to lose you around here.”

  Clive turned on Freddie. “That right? Who exactly is going to make me leave?”

  Alec stepped up before Freddie could respond. “We - I don’t want you to leave, that is why I’m here.”

  Clive stepped back and stared blankly at him. It was if the man couldn’t decide whether or not Alec was full of shit.

  “Alright man,” he said finally. “I’ma straighten up and fly right. You boys don’t have to worry ‘bout me no more.”

  Both Freddie and Alec remained quiet.

  “I’ll keep my head to the ground, mouth shut, and get my work done.” With that said Clive turned around and strolled off.

  They waited until the man was out of earshot.

  “You believe him?” Freddie asked.

  “Not for a damn second.” Alec answered.

  “Good, you’re a smart man.”

  Ally

  Ally enjoyed the night.

  The heat from the day stepped aside for the cool night breeze if only for a brief moment. The stars twinkled in the night sky and the moon gave its meager supply of light to the world around her. The crickets and frogs made sure there was always something to listen to while the fireflies seem to teleport all across the empty fields.

  Tiger jumped up in the air and managed to snatch a firefly in mid-illumination, shattering Ally’s peace. She threw a stick out the dog, who dodged it and continued smacking his lips as he downed the insect snack.

  “You’re nasty Tiger.” Ally said, trying to hide a smile.

  Her belly was still full from the squirrel she had earlier but sleep didn’t seem to be anywhere near. She went in
side the shed and came back out with her bow and arrows. She still hadn’t tested the arrows she had made by supergluing razor blades to her arrows but they seemed sturdy. She had found hundreds of razor blades in an abandoned warehouse a few months back, apparently razor blades weren’t in high demand. But for her purposes they were sharper than the sharpest stick she was ever able to carve.

  “Come on Tiger, let’s go on a walk.”

  There had been a time where Ally had not liked the dark, she hadn’t been afraid of it necessarily but she hadn’t enjoyed it, but that had changed the first night after her family moved to the country. It seemed so long ago but she could still remember how bright the stars were and how quiet everything was. She could remember nights just sitting on the back porch with Alec and Joseph staring up at the night sky or just watching the fireflies.

  It seemed like she had lived multiple lives. She remembered her family when her mother was still around, even if she was having a hard time remembering what her mother looked like. She remembered her mom was always very nice; she used to tell Ally that she should stop picking on Joseph but Ally never remembered picking on him. She remembered when her mom got sick. She would always go in a different room when it was really bad and before she died Alec would always be there turning Ally away if her mother started getting really bad. Then one day she was gone.

  The second life was when her dad returned and all the lights went out. Things were fun then. She got to play outside all the time with Joseph, there was plenty of room and she didn’t have to go to school. Alec and her dad didn’t seem to always get along but her dad was always nice to her. She had enjoyed that life. Then it was taken away.

  The third life was when she left with Jess. The woman was strange at first. She always seemed to talk to herself and would go crazy sometimes but she was always nice to Ally. Driving everywhere and then walking all over the place wasn’t fun. And Ally remembered being really sad because everyone was gone but Jess helped her get better. Then they had met Gruff and it felt like she had a family all over again. Gruff made her a bow and taught her to hunt and provide for herself. Jess was a good second mom and Gruff would have been a good second dad, but then the bad soldiers took them away too.