Fight for Power (13 page)

“Look, we're not going to hurt you. I'm Adam, and this is my friend Brett. What are your names?”

“Penny,” the girl said between her sobs. “And this is my brother, Leonard.”

“Good to meet you. You weren't shooting at us, were you?” I asked.

“No,” the boy said, shaking his head. “We were just shooting at the deer. We didn't even know you were here.”

“Are you saying you didn't hear me fire my gun?” Brett asked.

“I heard something, but I thought it was just an echo of my gun, bouncing off the other side of the ravine when I hit the deer.”

“
You
hit it?” Brett questioned. “
I
shot the deer.”

“It was right in my sight. I shot it,” the boy said. “It's
our
deer.”

“Kid, you're crazy. I shot it, and there's no way I'm letting you have our kill,” Brett said.

Brett was back to looking angry and scary. I needed to calm this down again.

“Look,” I said. “I don't know who shot
this
deer, but I know who shot the other.”

Brett looked suitably surprised.

“I shot one, back there, down the path, so there's two,” I explained. “We could take one and these guys can take one.”

Brett smiled at me. “Good work, buddy.” He paused and his expression changed. “Or
we
could take two. After all, we have the guns. What are they going to do, cry some more?”

“We're not taking both,” I said. “We're not. Fair is fair.”

“Fair is that you shot one and I shot the other and both deer are ours.”

“You didn't shoot it—I shot it!” Leonard yelled. He was angry but still brushing back tears. I had to give the kid credit. At his age I just would have run away as fast as my legs could carry me.

“Shut up or I'll—”

“Just stop!” I yelled, interrupting Brett. “Let's just talk. I don't think anybody will argue that I shot the second deer. It's ours, right?”

Everybody nodded.

“And since the other might have been shot by both of you, how about if we split that second deer?”

“Split it?” the boy asked.

“You get half and we get half.”

“That would be good,” Penny said. “Half would be good. There'd be enough for us to eat for a long time.”

“But they'd have even more than us,” Leonard complained.

“You should just be grateful we give you anything,” Brett snapped. “We have hundreds of people to feed.”

“Yeah, hundreds,” the boy snickered.

“We do. We're trying to feed everybody in our neighborhood. It's just the other side of Sawmill Creek.”

“Behind the wall?” Penny asked.

“That's us,” I said. “How many of you are there?”

“There are five of us in our family,” Penny said.

“So you don't need as much,” I reasoned. “It would even go bad before you could eat a whole deer.”

“But we can trade meat to other people for things we need,” Leonard said.

“You'd be in a much better position to argue that if you had a gun,” Brett snapped.

“And besides half the deer, we'll also give you back your rifle,” I said. Brett looked like he was going to object. “It's their gun, and we don't take anything from anybody.”

He laughed. “Like the scavenging teams don't take anything?”

“Scavenging isn't stealing.” I felt like I was dealing with three kids. I turned back to the two who really were children. “Where do you two live?”

Neither answered.

“Look, I just want to know how far you're going to have to carry the meat.”

“It's not that far. We're living in the middle of the—”

“We can carry the meat,” Leonard said, cutting off his sister. “Don't worry about us.”

“I am a little worried,” I said. “Okay, you know where we live. Tomorrow at noon you have to come to the fence and tell them you've come to see me, Adam.”

“Why would we do that?” Leonard questioned.

“So you can pick up your share of the meat.”

“What?”

“We're going to take the two deer with us, have them butchered, and you'll get your share of the meat tomorrow.”

“Do you think we're stupid?” the boy questioned.

“Look, I'm not trying to trick you,” I said. “There's no way to divide it out here. We'll have it done back at the grocery store and package half of it for you. What do you think?”

“I think you're not going to give us anything.”

“Look, Leonard, if I wanted to take it all we could take it all,” I said.

“You
are
taking it all,” he snapped.

“And I'm giving it back to you. Tomorrow. You have to trust me.”

“Yeah, right, like I should—”

“I trust him,” Penny said.

“Good. You come tomorrow. I'll even tell the sentries to expect you.”

“And what about our gun?” Leonard asked. “Are you going to give us back that tomorrow, too?”

“No, you get that today.”

“There's no way I'm giving them back the gun so that they can shoot at us as we walk away,” Brett said. “Now you must be thinking that we're stupid, too.”

“Nobody is going to shoot anybody,” I said. “I want the two of you to walk up there to the top of the ravine and have a seat. We're going to leave the rifle right here in this tree and the bullets right over there by that big rock. You wait right up there until we've left with the deer. Deal?”

Leonard didn't answer.

“Look, the alternative is we just take the rifle with us,” I said. “How about we shake on this one instead?” I held out my hand.

Reluctantly, Leonard held out his hand and we shook.

“You're really going to give us the meat?” Leonard said. “You're not just tricking us?”

“I don't need to trick you,” I said. “If I wanted to I could just take it all. I gave you my word and I'm going to keep my word,” I said. “Tomorrow around noon the meat will be waiting for you.”

“Thanks. We really do need the food … We don't have much left,” Leonard said.

“It's not easy anywhere right now, but I'm sure this will help some.”

“And I really wasn't trying to shoot anybody,” he said. “I wouldn't do that. I didn't see either of you.”

“I believe you,” I said—even if Brett didn't.

“We're just trying to get by, and that deer, our rifle—we need those to get by,” Leonard said.

“I know. Now you two go up there and wait. Just sit down at the top where I can see you.”

Penny took her brother's hand and they started toward the hill. We watched as they struggled up the slope.

“That was pretty smart,” Brett said. “We get the meat without having to make a scene.”

I took the rifle from him. “I'm going to keep my word.” I took the bullets out of the rifle and then hung it by the handle on a low-lying branch.

“No, seriously.”

“Seriously. We'll take what's ours, but we can't be stealing, especially not from a couple of kids,” I said.

“Kids who took a shot at us.”

“He didn't see us.”

“I don't believe that,” Brett said.

“Did you see them before they fired?” I questioned.

“Well … no.”

“I think it was the same for them. He took a shot at a deer—maybe he even hit it,” I said.

“I shot it.”

“I guess we'll tell when they butcher it,” I said. “It'll be easy to know for sure if they find a twenty-two-caliber bullet from their rifle or a forty-five slug from your gun.”

Brett didn't look so confident all of a sudden.

“How about if we just get the two deer back and worry about that later?” I said. “Maybe we should get some help.”

“We can do it. Come here.”

We walked over to the deer carcass. It was on its side, head at a strange angle, eyes open, an entrance wound on the side. “This one isn't big. It can't weigh much more than a hundred and fifty pounds.” He lifted it up and wrapped it around my shoulders, the front legs dangling over one side of my head, the back legs over the other. I sagged under the weight.

“Now show me where the second one is,” he said.

 

12

I stumbled under the weight of the deer carcass once again but managed to regain my balance before I fell flat on my face. I heard Brett chuckle. I was struggling, but he didn't seem to be having any problem with the weight on his back. He wasn't just big but also strong. I could have kidded myself into thinking I was having more problems because my deer was the larger of the two, but I knew it wasn't. If anything, it was smaller, which of course meant my kill—the one Brett was carrying—was larger. That should have given me some satisfaction, although it was hard to feel any satisfaction struggling uphill, through the brush, with a dead deer around my neck and its blood dripping down my side. At first when I felt the trickles I thought it was because I was sweating like a pig, but when I looked I was pretty sure I didn't sweat red.

“How you doing, buddy?” Brett asked.

I wished he'd quit calling me that. I mumbled out an answer. I needed my air for walking, not talking.

His words had sounded concerned, but I didn't think he really was. If anything he was hoping I'd drop it—and his hope was close to reality. If I could just hold on a little bit longer, we could make it without having that happen. I knew the neighborhood was just ahead, the fences almost in sight.

“Makes you think it would have been better if we'd field-dressed the deer before we took them,” he said.

“What?”

“Butchered them in the woods. If you were serious about giving the kids their share, then you would have only had to carry half of it. I could have done it with my knife.”

“I was serious … I am serious about giving them their share,” I puffed. My legs were shaking even worse than before.

“
We
should be keeping all the meat,” he said.

“We're not keeping it.”

“It really isn't your decision to make,” he said.

“It
is
my decision.”

“No it's not. You're the one who keeps talking about the committee making the decisions, so shouldn't they make this one?”

“I gave the kid my word.”

“You didn't have the right to
give
him
anything
, especially not the meat.”

He had a point. It would be up to the committee, but I'd talk to Herb and my mother first. If I could convince them, I could convince the committee.

“Look, I know you just want to do what you think is fair, but it's like I said, sometimes you have to do what's right for yourself, not necessarily what's right for other people,” Brett said. “Besides, bringing in those captives means we have almost fifty more mouths to feed. This is at least a few meals in that direction.”

“You're right, the committee will have to decide. I'm not in charge of anything … except what's going to happen to the one deer. You can keep all of the second, but I'm giving them half of what I shot. I'm going to ask the committee to let me keep my word.”

We broke through the brush, and the creek was right in front of us. A few kids were standing on the rocks, collecting water. Behind them was the fence. A couple of sentries, rifles in hand, were watching over them.

One of the kids saw us, and he pointed. Others stopped and watched as we approached. Brett went down the slope and stepped onto the first big rock in the little creek. He then lifted the deer up over his head like it was a trophy. People cheered. He was like a conquering hero returning home. I just stood there, watching, my legs shaking, my back aching. Brett waved for me to join him.

I started down the little slope, and once gravity got ahold of me I almost tumbled over. Falling flat on my face wasn't the entrance I was hoping for. The kids surrounded me as well, and then the two sentries came off the wall and out the gate to help pull the deer off my neck. I felt so light, I was practically floating. I wasn't sure they should have left their posts to help, but I was just grateful that they had.

“Please, could you take them up to the grocery store?” I huffed, still struggling to get my breath. “Give them to Ernie and tell him I'll be up in a while.”

Four men carrying the two deer started off. They were as excited as the kids at the creek.

“Time for a well-earned breakfast,” Brett said. “I've worked up such an appetite that even that porridge will taste good today.”

“I'm hungry, but I don't think anything could make that porridge taste good. It's like eating glue,” I said.

“Believe me, sprinkle in a little venison and it will taste really good.”

I nodded. “First, I want to get changed out of these clothes and into something that doesn't have blood on it.”

“Maybe you should wear it like a badge of honor. We did good out there. We could do even more good with me going out over the fence each night. No telling what things I can scavenge out there. Be sure to tell that to the committee the next time they meet.”

“Like I said, the committee makes the decisions.”

“Then tell your mother, or better yet, we should both tell Herb. That should be enough.”

Actually, he was right, that might be enough.

*   *   *

After I'd cleaned up and eaten some porridge—which actually did taste better than usual—I headed up to the store. My mother was already gone, so I couldn't talk to her about what I had promised to do with the deer, but I did tell Rachel and Danny. Rachel thought it was nice that I was going to share it. Danny thought it was stupid. It didn't matter what either of them thought. I'd have to talk to Herb, and I was in luck. As I walked up Herb came out of the grocery store, saw me, and waved me over.