Breathless, we stood in the corn, awaiting the strangers’ approach. We could hear them more than see them. Brit and I were about 20 feet into the field, so they weren’t going to be able to spot us unless they came in. And then they’d have to know where in the 100-plus acre field we were. It was obvious from what they were saying they had seen us though.
“They were right about here I think. Maybe ten feet or so either way of here, but we’re close.” It was a male voice, a deep dark sounding voice. I wasn’t interested in meeting its owner.
“How many did you think you saw?” Another male.
“Two or three,” the leader spoke again. “Probably just two, but I could have sworn there was a third.” I could hear him pushing corn around to look further in, but it was too dense. It seems they had mistaken Buddy for a person. Buddy, who was again absent. I held my index finger up to my lips. Brit needed to keep quiet. We moved slowly, deeper into the field following the row we were already in. There was enough wind to mask our movements.
“Maybe we should give up and find easier prey.” A third male voice joined the conversation. It was higher pitched and much more nasal than the first two. “You know, like that family we came across yesterday. They were plenty giving. I wish now we’d taken all their food and left them with nothing. Maybe I wouldn’t be starving now.” The two others laughed at him.
“If we hadn’t threatened Dad, I’m not sure he would have offered anything. All we had to do was lick our lips at the missus and bingo, ‘Here’s your food, boys.’” They all laughed now. “Stupid shit, out here with no weapon except a pocketknife. They’ll be dead before they get to Michigan.” Brit’s grasp of my right arm was getting vice-like the more they spoke. I again looked her in the eyes reminding her to keep quiet.
The group moved further into the corn. We moved deeper in response, away from them. I felt we were about 30 feet ahead of them at all times. We stopped, and I listened carefully for them. Any sign would help, but now everything was silent. I looked around for any movement, nothing. Brit and I held tight. Finally after quite a while of cat and mouse, I heard them leaving the field.
“Screw it. I’m not about to get lost in a cornfield looking for some guy that may or may not have any food. If we go back down towards 8, I bet we find easier pickins.”
Brit and I knelt, holding our current position. This could be a ruse. Quietly I spoke to the frightened teen. “Just like I thought, they’re after food. That’s what people are looking for now.” Brit was shaking slightly, so I gave her a quick smile. She leaned next to me for something more. As much as she had tried to avoid all human contact so far, as much as she tried to keep me at arm’s length to avoid getting attached to me, as much as it was against her sole survival instinct, she let me wrap my right arm around her tiny shoulders. She needed it, there was no denying that any longer. It was only then that I felt her shake ever so slightly. I looked down and confirmed what I had suspected. Brit had been reduced to tears. She was dependent on me for her safety. I wasn’t sure that was a very good idea.
“Okay, now listen,” I gave her a few minutes to compose herself before speaking. “We’re going to sneak out to the edge of the corn in a few minutes and see if they’re gone.” She shook her head violently, disagreeing. I looked at her firmly. “Yes, we are. We’re not going to sit in this corn all night. We’re going to get moving again.” She was still shaking. She wiped away the last few tears and nodded briefly.
We carefully stepped into the ditch and looked east, or maybe south. I wasn’t sure anymore which way the road we were on ran. Either way, we had given the three amigos plenty of time to disappear. They were gone. Slowly I stepped onto the shoulder of the road and signaled for Brit to follow. She still seemed reluctant.
“Where’s Buddy?” she whispered from the edge of the corn as she looked up and down the road, as best as a 5-3 girl can see scanning from the safety of the corn. I looked for him as well.
“He’ll find us. He just wandered off somewhere. He’ll pick up our scent and follow along.”
Brit shook her head. “We need him, for protection.”
I gave her a sideways glance. “Brit, he’s licked the hand of every person I’ve come across so far. He’s not that much protection. Come on, it’s getting late. We need to get moving.” Finally, she followed me as I started down the road.
We walked another ten minutes before trouble struck again. It seemed to have its sights set on us now. As we rounded a small corner, we could see a large group of people ahead. There seemed to be some type of disturbance. I couldn’t tell exactly what was going on, but it looked like trouble. I hung my head and sighed. As I looked back to say something, I noticed Brit was halfway to the corn already. She signaled for me to follow.
“This is awful. We aren’t making any progress,” I muttered mostly to myself.
Brit turned and whispered to me, “Better safe in the corn than sorry on the road. Let’s just sit tight for a while, okay?” She was still frightened from the last encounter. I agreed, it was best for her sanity at least.
We found a bare spot about 75 yards into the corn. We sat on a rock that the farmer had to plant around, so it gave us an open spot to spread things out a little more. Brit seemed more comfortable there than on the road. I stared at her for a while as she rubbed her fingers against the rock.
“We might have to think about nighttime travel,” I said. “I don’t understand where all these people are coming from. I didn’t see this many people with Jake the whole time.” Brit seemed almost uninterested in what I had to say. I looked at her more. She didn’t look back. “Did you hear me Brit?” She shrugged. For a girl that was in a hurry to get to Grandpa’s earlier she seemed awfully content to sit and wait things out now. “What’s wrong?” She still looked down.
“I just don’t want to walk into any more trouble. That’s all.” She looked at me. “I don’t think I really understood what could have happened to me this morning at the time. You know, when I left my dad’s house alone.” I listened and tried to agree. She needed to talk. “I don’t want any trouble, Bill. I’m scared. I want to play it safe. Is that okay?”
I smiled slightly. “Sure. I understand. I’d rather be safe than sorry, too.” She gave me a small smile, but quickly looked down again. “We just need to make time when we can. We only have a limited amount of supplies, so we can’t take forever to cover the next six miles. Right?” She nodded unconvincingly. Something was wrong, beside the obvious end of the world stuff. “What wrong, Brit?”
She looked at me, scared. “I don’t want anyone to touch me out there. You know, you know what I mean.” She looked down and pursed her lips. “I don’t want to be left like that on the side of the road to die. I just don’t want to die that way.” She looked at me, her face streaked with tears. I understood.
“Then we’ll just take it easy and not let trouble find us.” I spoke more somberly than I intended. She nodded slightly and tried to make a smile, but couldn’t. As much as she had tried, she was only able to wear her brave face so long. With each new encounter, she lost a little more bravery. Finally at 3:59 p.m., it ran out. She was simply a scared teenaged girl who wasn’t ready to die. I broke the long silence. “You hungry?”
She looked up trying to dry her tears. “Yeah, for a chocolate bar or a bag of chips. You got any of those in that bag of yours?”
I laughed. “No. We got one can of fruit cocktail, one can of pork and beans, two sleeves of saltines and one very warm bottle of water. Any of that strike your fancy?”
She scrunched her nose and shook her head. “No thanks.” She looked at the corn around us and then at me; I was doing the same. “Are we going to die out here? You can be honest. We’re not going to make it to Luck even, are we?” Her face was void of all expression. I looked at her closely.
“Listen to me, Britney McMahon. We’re going to be just fine. Even if we have to crawl through the corn in the middle of the night all the way to Luck, we are going to make i
t. I’m not going to let you down. That you can count on.” I stood on the rock and looked towards the road. “We just need to figure out a way to get around these hunyucks.” She laughed at my slang.
We sat until the sun went down. If the breeze blew just right, we could hear the commotion just up the road from time to time. Finally about dusk the breeze and the noise died away. We crept back towards the road, carefully. Brit decided she would hold the cord on the bottom of my backpack to assure she didn’t get lost. There was no way I could object to her request. She was holding onto dear life, and her last bit of sanity.
I couldn’t see anyone, so we carefully moved forward. It was plenty dark, and the going was slow. We couldn’t take a chance of accidently walking up on somebody, anybody ahead on the road. I was afraid that might cause Brit to lose her last straw. That was a chance I couldn’t take.
Walking so slowly, we heard every sound around us. Every rustle of the breeze through the corn sounded like a group of people in attack mode. Every bird chirp could be a sign from someone that fresh meat was approaching. Every animal sound made poor Brit jump. The going was way too slow. This was impossible. Finally, I gave up and turned to my travel mate who ran into me in the dark.
“We have to stop for the night. This is way too slow. Sorry.” I could see her staring at me in the darkness. “I see a grove of trees up ahead. They appear to be off the road enough to be safe. Is that okay with you?” I saw her head nod. I chuckled. “Brit, I can hardly see your reactions in the dark. Are you okay with stopping and making camp?”
A small voice came from the darkness. “Yes. Can we have a little fire, though? It’s so dark out here tonight. I don’t like the dark.” She sounded on the verge of tears again.
I sighed. “Yeah, sure. Just a small one though. We don’t want to attract any attention.” I felt her take my hand as we carefully made our way to the trees. Her steps were so tentative there was no way I could have walked quickly into any danger. She took the small steps of a frightened child. I needed to keep reminding myself she was still a child in many ways. Sure, she was 14, but so lost and afraid.
Chapter 26