WWIV - In The Beginning

After almost an hour of steady walking, we came to the southernmost outskirts of Luck. Brit was quiet most of the way keeping her eyes on the road in front of our position. I knew she’d want to hit the ditch at the first sign of more trouble. I couldn’t blame her. We were getting too close to our destination to take any stupid chances. I also noticed she had developed a slight limp on her right side the last half hour. I asked if she was all right.

  She waved me off. “My feet are just sore. I’m not used to being on them so much.”

  Onward we walked. I looked at her footwear. She had on a pair of those open sided hiking sandals that are so popular these days. The type with an opening to let in air and allow water to flow right through. They seemed sensible enough. Perhaps her feet were just sore.

  As we got closer to Luck, we saw a few more young people on the road. Some were headed north, like us, but most were headed south. I must admit that something bothered me about the people headed in the southerly direction. They looked miserable, unhappy. A few said things like, “I wouldn’t go that way” and “Turn around if you know what’s good for you.” But no one stopped and explained what might be going on to our north.

  Brit stopped at a crossroad and looked west. “That building down there is a store. Maybe they’re open. Can we see?”

  I didn’t think anything was open anymore, even in the town of Luck. “I don’t think so. I don’t see anyone there. We should stick to the road and stay on course.”

  She was already heading west, ignoring me. “Come on. I could kill for a treat.” Reluctantly I followed.

  We stood together in the parking lot and stared at the dark interior. It was a store, just as Brit had said. But it didn’t look open. Brit walked over and pulled on the door. To my surprise, it opened. She smiled and nodded for me to follow.

  “Brit, let’s be careful.”

  She was looking inside. “Are you open?” She spoke to someone I couldn’t see.

  I heard a woman’s voice reply. “Sure sweetie. Come on in.” Okay, they were open.

  Inside the store was dark, I expected as much. The shelves looked somewhat picked over, but there was still a number of items remaining. Maybe this was a good thing. I gazed at the woman behind the counter. She seemed to be alone.

  “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but I find it odd that you’re open,” I said. “I would have thought you’d be all locked up or at least looted to the bare walls. But you still have some stuff left.”

  She smiled nicely. “Most travelers don’t know we’re here. They think it’s just another empty building. I’ve stayed open to help the community.” She stood and walked over by the counter. “Joshua has me well protected over there.” She pointed to a single man sitting on a stool in the far corner of the store. Cradled in his arms was a shotgun. She was protected alright. “You and your daughter don’t look like you intend to do me any harm. I saw you coming. So Joshua can just stay put. If you were a single man or a large group, you would have been met by him at the door.” Her explanation made sense.

  “It’s nice to see someone again with a sense of community. It warms my heart.”

  She seemed indifferent to my compliment. Perhaps we’d find out just how large her sense of community was when we went to pay for our items.

  “Where are you two headed?” She was back on her stool behind the counter. If I had to guess I would put her age at 70, maybe an old 65. She was rail thin with short silver hair. She lit a cigarette as she chatted.

  “Up north of Luck. Another three or four miles. Almost to Frederic. Roads clear?”

  She frowned when I said north. Something told me she had bad news. Brit approached with a bag of chips, a sleeve of cookies, and a warm can of pop.

  “Can I get these, Dad?” She stared at me as she spoke. She’d heard the storekeeper’s mistake and got the fact that I hadn’t corrected her.

  I smiled at her. “Sure.” I grabbed a half dozen or so granola bars. I also grabbed a warm can of orange pop. We carefully approached the counter.

  The woman came forward. “There’s trouble just north of here. Word has it Centuria has burned to the ground. Pretty much the whole darn town.” Centuria was maybe eight miles back to the south. “A lot of people came north hoping they could get refuge in town. The first ones found Luck’s citizens receptive. But then too many showed up.” She wrote numbers on the pad of paper on the counter as she spoke. “So they put up barricades to keep strangers out. Not too popular. So, a lot of angry people turned south back towards Balsam Lake and St. Croix Falls. Some have decided to stay and fight, though.” She added the short column of numbers.

  “Can we get through town?” I didn’t want to waste any more time going around if I could just push through. The storeowner finally looked up at us.

  “If you were alone I’d say maybe.” She shook her head at me in particular. “But with your little girl here, you’d be safer going around. She’s too cute to slip through. Might bring extra unwanted attention to the pair of you.” She looked down at her paper again. “That’ll be ten dollars, including tax.”

  I smiled. She was the last honest sole on earth. I handed her a twenty. “Keep the change.”

  She gave me a happy look and stuffed the money in an old cigar box.

  “You think the government will be coming anytime soon to collect their sales tax?”

  Her brown eyes twinkled as she looked up. “If they do, I’ll have a good record for them. The last thing I want is for the power to come back on and have them hounding me for their money.” She was almost too good to be true.

  “So what do you recommend for a route around Luck then?” I set my map on the counter.

  She drew a new route. “Go back down to 240th Avenue. Take that west one mile to 170th Street. Then turn north. Take 170th two miles north to 260th Avenue. Do not turn east on 250th. That will bring you right back into the mess up town. Turn east, left, on 260th for a mile. That brings you back to 35 on the north side of town. You’ll be safe that way. Probably won’t see anyone.” She winked at Brit.

  “If we could go straight through town, 260th is about a mile and a half up, right?” She nodded. “Going around?”

  She tried to smile but didn’t. “Four, four and a half miles. But, your daughter will be much safer that way.” I got her point loud and clear. I think Brit did as well. “How far up you headed on 35?”

  “280th, we think. Can’t remember exactly. Been a while since we’ve been there. We’ll know when we get there.”

  She went and sat back on her stool. “Well, you got a little more than six miles to cover then. If you hustle, you should be there in three hours. Good luck.” She picked up the magazine she had been reading before we arrived. This was our cue to leave. We put our extra items in the backpack once outside and headed south, the direction we had just come from.

  Backtracking only took a little more than fifteen minutes, and we stood at the corner of 240th. We headed west on our new path. As predicted, we didn’t see many people once we got off the main road. Occasionally we would walk by a house plopped on a lot in the middle of the country and see people milling about. Strangely, everyone seemed to keep to themself. There was the occasional wave of a hand or nod of a head, but no one came and approached us to talk. That was fine with me. Brit’s quietness told me it was fine with her, too. After a while I looked at my travel companion.

  “You okay?” She nodded but only just a little. Her focus was on the road ahead. “You’re just kind of quiet all of a sudden. Something spook you?”

  She stopped and looked down the road. Finally she turned and looked up. “I don’t like the talk of fighting. I don’t understand it. I don’t get what’s going on. It doesn’t make any sense to me. It’s like a bunch of people have turned into big assholes like my dad. My other dad, not you.” She stared at me.

  Maybe she needed a simple explanation on the second part of her comment. “I didn’t correct her because I didn’t want to have to explai
n about us. Some people might get funny about a single man traveling with a teenage girl who wasn’t his daughter. Start asking all kinds of stupid questions that I may or may not have decent answers for. Especially when one side has a gun, makes me kind of nervous.” Brit expression was unchanged. “What was I supposed to say? Oh, she’s not my daughter. She’s a complete stranger I met 24 hours ago.” I looked to Brit for some kind of sign this was sinking in.

  She stared down the road again. “Not that. That’s fine, I get it. I even played along. Did you catch that?” She smiled up at me, finally. She seemed proud to have been paying attention to something that others may have missed. “I want to know what’s wrong with people.”

  For that, I had no easy explanation ready. “I think people are mostly scared now. It’s been three weeks. Money’s gone, food’s gone, fresh water is in short supply, I suppose. There seems to be no protection out here. People are scared. Scared for their lives.”

  Brit took a deep breath before she spoke again. “I’m scared Bill. I’m really scared.”

  “What scares you most, Brit?”

  She continued the eye contact.

  “I’m scared of someone killing you and raping me. Someone using me and I end up dead or pregnant. Who’s going to take care of me then? I don’t want to be 14 and pregnant like my mom. And I don’t want to die. I don’t think I want you to die either.” Tears started to flow from her narrowed eyes. “Three weeks ago, I was just a kid looking to have fun. Now, every minute of every day I’m scared. I’m sick of being scared. How long is this going to last?” She started to cry in earnest. I stepped closer to her, but she pushed me away. I watched her tiny body leaped with sobs. She’d been brave long enough. Her real emotions came to the surface.

  I watched carefully as Brit tried to compose herself. It had not occurred to me that she was a child in a young adult’s wrapping. But that’s exactly what she was. Old enough to understand the real dangers we were facing, and young enough to want to keep on living. The only problem was the life she had been living was gone. And I had no idea when it may come back, if ever.

  “I’m scared too, Britney. I’m scared I’ll never see my family again. I’m scared the future will be even worse. I’m scared because we’re low on food, low on water. I’m scared I’ll be dead before I get to Milwaukee. I’m scared this is all for nothing. That I drop you off with your grandparents and end up dead ten minutes later.” Her sobs subsided.

  She stepped closer to me and felt for my hand, a human touch. “I didn’t know. I thought I was the only one scared. I thought everyone else was being so brave.” She spoke, still clutching my hand tightly. “I’m sorry.”

  I laughed, at myself mostly. “Don’t be sorry. There’s nothing to be sorry for.” Finally, she nodded and let go of my hand. When people are scared, human contact helps. We were both very human at this moment. “We’ll make it, Brit. We’ll get there. I’ll get you there all in one piece. Okay?”

  She smiled and wiped away the last of her tears. “I believe you. You know that right?”

  I nodded slightly. We started walking down the road.

  “I’ve never believed anything my mom or dad told me,” she said, “but I believe you, Bill.”

  I felt her take my hand again and squeeze it tightly. She wasn’t letting go anytime soon. That was okay.

  Chapter 28