Finding Home - A Post Apocalyptic Novel (The Ravaged Land Series Book 2) (7 page)

“OK, how about this, Mel… Jones? Yes? Yeah, that works. What about you?”

“They don’t know me,” he said with a smirk. “I don’t need a fake name.” He watched me as I sat back down and lightly rocked myself back and forth. My nerves or, maybe it was my fears, that wouldn’t let my body rest.

“All right. This is really going to happen,” I said feeling a rush of nervous excitement jolt through my veins. I was more than ready to see my friends again, but I was scared to death of going into HOME. And completely untrusting of those that worked there. I told myself over and over again that it would be OK. That this was the only way. I had to do it. They would do the same for me. I stood back up and started to pace again.

“Tomorrow,” Penn said clapping his hands together as if he were in charge of this mission. This had been what I’d been working towards since I found this little house and he just waltzes in and starts taking over the operation. I shot him a look, “If that works for you,” he said understanding the message I was trying to send with the look.

“Well I don’t know. I mean….” I stopped talking knowing how indecisive I sounded.

“You’re ready. Together, we can do this.” He was trying to sound motivational, not bossy.

Maybe he was right. If I sat around waiting for the perfect moment, it may never happen. I had to just bite the bullet and do it. No excuses. I wanted to find them more than anything in the world, and the only way to do that was to actually do it.

“OK, tomorrow.”

* * *

In the morning I walked downstairs to find Penn still asleep on the couch. I had spent the night alternating between packing, pacing and lying down trying to get some sleep. It was hard to focus on anything for very long. My thoughts would switch between the reunion with my friends to all of the things that could go wrong. But here he was sound asleep without a single worry. I guess I must have failed at making HOME sound as awful as I should have. And really I didn’t know how horrendous they actually were. I just had my suspicions and theories based on what had happened. And how they had taken Ryan away from me.

I knew Slade was awful when he banished me. But I knew something was off about the whole place the minute we pulled up to that checkpoint. They were awful, I just wasn’t exactly sure what it was that made them so deplorable. I was convinced they didn’t have any qualms about killing people, but I didn’t have any real evidence of that. Only the oddly timed gunshot I heard after they had taken Ryan and what I had felt in my gut.

I let him sleep and grabbed a random granola bar from a box in the cupboard. The flavor didn’t matter. I sat down at the kitchen table and nibbled at the stale bar as my stomach felt like it was on a roller coaster. I looked out the window at the sunlit ground and out of the corner of my eye I saw a few drops of water fall from an icicle. Perhaps it was a sign of spring and the snow would melt soon.

“Morning,” Penn said, his voice rough. He cleared his throat as he walked into the kitchen wearing nothing but a pair of large sweatpants that hung low on his hips.

“Good morning,” I said as I watched him walk around the kitchen as if he had as much stake in the cabin as I did. Which I guess, technically, maybe he did. The only claim I had to this house was that I was here first, which maybe was good enough. It seemed a little odd to me how comfortable he had made himself in my home, but I guess that was probably a good thing. If we found the others, what would they think of him?

“Why didn’t you wake me?” he asked as he pulled out the chair next to me and sat down.

“I don’t know… guess maybe I wanted a little more time to mentally prepare.”

“It’ll be fine. For all you know they’ll let us go in, you’ll find your friends, and we can all leave if we want to.”

I snorted at his words, “Of course we will want to. I know you don’t believe me, but I really think this place is bad news.”

“The key word is ‘think’… you don’t know. I don’t know. We don’t know. What if your friends are safe and happy? Then what? You’ll just leave them behind so you can be out here on your own struggling?”

“Better than in there struggling,” I snapped, but I shook my head once his words registered. “Assuming they are even there, I don’t know what I’ll do if they want to stay. It will depend on what happened to Ryan too.”

I tried not to think about it. First step was to even get inside. Second step was to make sure they were still there. I’d worry about the rest later.

Penn took a big bite of a toaster pastry and didn’t say anything more on the subject. He usually stopped talking after I mentioned Ryan. It was one of the reasons I rarely talked about him to Penn. Truthfully he didn’t really like talking about any of them very much. Maybe he was worried about what would happen to him once I was reunited with them.

After we spent a little time getting warm by the fire, Penn picked up the lightly packed bag we had decided to take with us, and flung it over his shoulder. I took a deep breath and stepped closer to the fire. This was far more difficult for me than I thought it would be, but I guess maybe it was because I believed if HOME recognized me, they would kill me. I worried I was walking right into a trap. And I wasn’t ready to die. After I had worked so hard to live. I didn’t want it to come to an end. Not like this. And not at HOME.

“Ready?” Penn said grabbing the little fireplace shovel. He started moving the ash around and the flames died down. I was pretty sure he’d drag me out of here by my ankles if I didn’t go willingly. He knew how badly I wanted to find my friends. I didn’t know why he cared so much. I guessed it was because he felt like he owed me something for saving him, but as far as I was concerned I did what any normal human being would do. He didn’t owe me anything.

“No,” I said, taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly between my slightly parted lips. I looked around the little house and its plain, simple decor I had become so familiar with. My hand clenched the house key tightly. I couldn’t take it with me because if I did they’d just take it when they stripped us down. Instead, I was going to hide it in the SUV and hope no one found it, but if someone wanted to get into the house, they’d just break in. They wouldn’t need a key. In all my time here, Penn was the only one that had come this way. I had to hope no one else would randomly be wandering around out here while we were gone. This felt like my house more than any of the other places I had stayed. I had found this place by myself and made it my own. Leaving it was almost like leaving a good friend behind.

Penn watched me as I looked around saying goodbye to the walls. I didn’t know if he understood, but I didn’t care. He didn’t rush me. Tears welled up in my eyes and I quickly wiped them away.

“Let’s go.”

Chapter seven.

As we walked up to the checkpoint, the guards manning the area pointed their guns at us and shouted for us to stop. The two men stationed at the checkpoint were different from the last time I had been here. I wasn’t even sure why I had expected to see the same two guards as the first time. Otherwise everything else about the checkpoint seemed the same. I wouldn’t have to worry about getting recognized. At least not yet.

They asked questions about us and what we had inside our backpack. The one closer to me asked if it was OK if he frisked me, or if I preferred they call a woman down to do it. I told him it didn’t matter and he quickly and nervously glided his shaking hands down my body. This guy had done such a poor job of checking me that I could have easily gotten the gun past him. But it didn’t matter, because I already knew that if it was missed at the checkpoint, there was no way it would get through d-con.

I couldn’t stop looking at the doors to the building where I had last seen Ryan. All of my memories of him being taken away flooded back, and it took everything I had not to freak out and demand they let me inside. Or that they tell me what they did to him.

“Keep it together,” Penn whispered when we were alone. We had been instructed to stand near the building and wait for a transport. They hadn’t told us where we’d be going, but I already knew. And I knew what they would do once we got there.

That’s when I remembered the blood sample they had taken the first time. I was angry at myself for not remembering it sooner. If they had the capability, they would be able to match my blood samples to one another. Maybe they wouldn’t find out right away, but they would know once they matched the sample to the one they already had on file. Would they do that? Could they do that?

I was too afraid to talk to Penn about it. Even though it seemed like we were alone, I didn’t feel alone. I had to hope I hadn’t made a big mistake forgetting about the blood sample.

After what had felt like an eternity, a beat-up golf cart drove up to the guards. They talked for a few minutes before he drove over to us. “Let’s go,” the driver shouted, and we hopped into the backseat. He drove off down the familiar road towards the d-con building.

Once inside d-con it was the same procedure as last time. When they separated me and Penn, I felt the same anxiety. Maybe even worse because last time I had been with Sienna. This time I was truly alone. Soon they’d take my blood. I wondered how soon after that they would be able to match it to my last sample.

I followed along just as if this had been my first time going through their system. No one seemed suspicious of me in any way that I could tell. After they had taken my blood, they didn’t jump and scream ‘get her’ while pointing at me. Alarms hadn’t sounded. I was still alive… for now.

Penn and I held hands while we waited for Deezil to come and do her little orientation speech, but she didn’t come. Instead a short, round man with glasses and a big mole on his forehead that was staring at me walked in the room. Did he have me all figured out? He gave us a very brief, uninformative rundown before leading us to the helicopter which I already knew would be flying us to HOME.

On the flight to HOME Penn held on so tightly his knuckles were white. It was the first time I think I saw fear in his eyes. The guy who could disarm someone like a ninja and had killed at least three people was afraid of flying. I couldn’t help but smile at him, but he didn’t notice. He was too busy grinding his teeth.

When the helicopter landed, Penn couldn’t get out and onto the ground fast enough. I clenched my hands into tight fists as we walked to the main base, where we were swiftly greeted by two guards. Both of which seemed younger than I was. They looked us both up and down and then exchanged looks with one another as if waiting for the other to do whatever it was they were supposed to do.

The one with the name Watson sewn on his jumpsuit spoke first, “Names?”

“Mel,” I said quickly, but feared the name had come out too awkwardly. I was still getting used to the false name and I hoped it wasn’t obvious. It still felt strange coming out of my mouth, almost as if my mouth formed ‘Ros’ but the sound that came out was completely different. I told myself that the more I used it, the easier it would be.

“Penn,” he said with a small nod. He was wringing his hands as if he was trying to circulate life back into them. Then Watson waved us inside. I almost laughed at how easy it had been to get in. I imagined myself turning around and yelling ‘suckers’ as I flipped them off. Penn must have sensed the change in my mood because he shoved his elbow into my arm. Or maybe he had the same vision of me.

Once inside, we were directed to sit down on a nearby bench that folded down from the wall. There were already three others sitting there. They appeared to be a married couple with their six, maybe seven-year-old child. The little girl smiled at me but she looked sad with her dark, sunken eyes. Her dad wrapped his arm around his wife and daughter as we moved closer to them. It was like he was worried we might be a threat. He appeared to have the same suspicions about this place that I had. Or maybe he was just paranoid about everyone.

I sat down leaving enough distance so the family wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. The small square room we sat in was painted in primary blue. Even the fold down benches had been painted blue. There was a bench on our side of the wall and one across from us that was empty. I wondered if they had ever had a full waiting room. Was there really that many people trying to get inside HOME at any given time that they needed all these benches? There were only five of us in here now, but maybe months ago this room had been filled.

Off to my right was an open doorway, but I couldn’t see anything. If I had to spend too much time in this room, I would lose my mind. Then again, that might apply to any room in HOME, and not just the blue room.

About five minutes had passed before Deezil walked in carrying a clipboard. She scanned us briefly, paused at me, blinked several times and moved on to Penn where her eyes stopped. The corners of her mouth turned up ever so slightly. This chick had a serious thing for younger men. The first time it had been Dean, and now she was eyeing up Penn.

It appeared as though she hadn’t recognized me. Or if she had, she wasn’t about to say anything. Either was fine with me, although I preferred the former because even if she hadn’t said anything now, she could at any point. But I still felt as though the first time coming through, Deezil had been trying to tell me something. I didn’t trust her further than I could throw her, but I didn’t think she was happy here either. That was until a hot, young man showed up and made her get all goofy.