Tent City (4 page)

I’m about to protest, but I can tell she’s not going to budge and besides, I’m shot. I grab a dry sleeping bag off her wheeler, take Brody by the hand and we head for the woods.

Surprisingly, he doesn’t fight me on the nap. He cuddles in right beside me and I take in the sweet scent of the baby shampoo Mom still uses on him.

I’m struck by how homesick I am. As I drift off, I wonder to myself if I’m actually dreaming right now and when I wake up, this will all be over.

I wake up startled because it’s dark, which means we’ve been sleeping for hours. I crawl out carefully so I don’t wake Brody.

“Kit, why didn’t you wake me?”

“It’s useless, Dani. I don’t know what we’re gonna do. I almost feel like we should just head back home. We are only a little over an hour away by four-wheeler and we could all ride back if we left some of the gear here.”

“No! Kit, we can’t. Maybe you and I could manage, but we can’t let Brody be taken to one of those camps. It makes me sick just thinking about it. We gotta find a way. We’ll think of something.” We are silent for a while as we both rack our brains for the solution.

“I think I’ll go for a run, if you don’t mind watching Brody.”

“Now? It’s gotta be 4:00 a.m. How ya even gonna see?”

“Mom packed one of those head lamps. I’ll stay by this creek-slash-river thing,” I say, already changing into shorts and a tank top.

“Normally, I would say no way, because it doesn’t seem safe at all, but you need to get yourself right. Where you gonna shower when you’re done, Sweaty Betty?” She’s always ribbing me, but she’s right. Within 10 minutes, I will be soaked.

Whoever said girls don’t sweat, they ‘glisten’, never met me. I don’t care though. It’s like the anxiety evaporates with every lost drop.

“I’ll figure it out. Maybe I’ll jump back into the river, on purpose this time.”

Right away, I’m already seeing beauty, even in the darkness. It looks like there are hundreds of fireflies swarming around by the riverbank. Cicadas are buzzing in courtship. The moon is huge tonight and it’s helping me out with some light. I think if I stare at the sky long enough, I might almost forget what I’m doing out here.

Within minutes, I’m already feeling better. My head is starting to clear. I know we’re in a tough spot here with one of the wheelers being down, but as I pick up the pace, I know the answer will come to me. Just as I am starting to get the hang of my footing on the banks here, I have to slow down.

I can’t be sure, but it looks like there might be some light up ahead, much too large for a firefly. My heartbeat switches from a quick patter to a heavy thud, making my throat feel thick. I don’t know if I should turn around and go back, or keep going to see what it is. Maybe it’s just a reflection off something.

Common sense tells me I should turn around and go back, but somehow I’m drawn in like a bug to a zapper. I am almost on top of it before I realize what it is. It’s a lantern.

Why would someone just leave a lantern out here in the middle of the night? I look a little further back to see a fishing pole propped up in one of those holders by an empty chair. Whoever’s here must not be far. Just as I’m about to pass, a figure steps out of the shadows of the trees.

“You.” Apparently, this was all I could think of to say.

“What are you doing here?” Jack asks. He’s holding some fishing line and he’s trying to unknot it.

“I was about to ask you the same thing.”

“Well, it would appear I’m doing some fishing,” he says, motioning to the pole with his elbow. Just then, the little bell he has hooked up to his pole begins to ring.

“Fish on,” he says. I forget I should worry about whether he’s safe or not and now I’m just interested in seeing what he’s got. It brings me back to fishing with my dad and I’m overwhelmed with the desire to be sitting on the boat with him.

“Just a small catfish,” he says, “but I think I’ll keep him. He and his friend I caught are going to make a good breakfast.”

“So what are you doing around here anyway? I’ve never seen you before. Are you just a drifter?”

“What would it mean if I were?” he asks.

“Well it would probably mean you were a beggar or a thief.”

“I’m no beggar and I’m no thief, but I suppose you will think whatever you want to about me. I was under the impression you guys were on your way out of here. What are ya still doing around?” He strings a leash through the fish’s mouth and tosses it back in the river, never making eye contact with me.

“Four-wheeler won’t start.” At this he laughs, which irritates me.

“Well, there’s no wonder, it was practically submerged. What are ya gonna do?” I don’t know if it was the last question that triggered it, but instantly I feel my eyes glass over and I do everything I can to fight it off.

“I don’t know.”
 

“Well, I can take a look at it when the sun comes up, if you want.”

I think about this for a minute. I feel like I can hear my dad saying to stay away and figure something out on my own. But I feel stuck. If he was smart enough to figure out how to get the wheeler out of the river, then maybe he could help with this too.

“On one condition,” I say.

“Doesn’t seem like you’re in a position to make conditions,” he says as he shoots me a look of annoyance. “Do you want my help or not?”

“Yes, but no charity. If you can get it running, we’ll make a trade. Your services for some of my food supplies. You must be low if you are out here trying to catch your breakfast. Then it’ll be fair and I don’t owe you anything.”

“Deal. Now get out of here. You’re scaring off the fish.”

And with that I’m off, but instantly I feel regret about my decision. I probably made a mistake and I feel nervous about having him around Brody. I come back to find Kit asleep.

I do take a dip in the river to clean myself off and then rinse my running clothes out. Brody stirs just as the sun is about to come up and I decide it’s time to wake Kit.

She looks peaceful wrapped up in her bag beside Brody. Her blond hair falls around her, and her usually animated face looks serene and still. The sun is glowing pink and orange, and I just want to pause it for a while.

I imagine I’m somewhere else. Maybe I’m on a beach where there are plenty of coconuts to eat, fresh water to drink. Mom, Dad, and Brody are playing in the sand and I’m on my towel and the only thing I have to worry about is working on my tan.

I guess we haven’t had it so bad here in the Midwest. There are other parts of the world, lots of parts actually, where they are still starving and worried about clean water. Mom says when she was a kid that went on then too, but it was places far away like Africa, and other ‘third world’ countries as she called it.

The big question now is how it had happened so fast. Things have only really been bad for seven years. I can still remember the times when we went into town and had McDonald’s, or Subway, if Mom was worried about saturated fats.

It all started with locusts. Swarms of them so thick, they blocked out the sun for days. While we hid under the veil of darkness, they fed. They devoured until everything was gone. It’s so strange that so much could disappear so fast.  Acres upon acres of corn, wheat, and soybeans in the Midwest disappeared.

The southern regions lost all of their goods, yet to be harvested. Whole farms were wiped out in a matter of hours. Locusts are a small threat alone, but in hoards they are deadly, at least for all the crops.

The Council tried to kill the locusts with big vats of arsenic tainted water, but after the locusts disappeared, we were still left with all the poison. Some of that leaked into the water supply and many got sick from the contamination. The water problem has supposedly been fixed, but it left its own ripple of deaths.

Farmers in the Midwest did better than most of the rest of the county because around here everyone has cellars with shelves and shelves of canned fruits and vegetables. I can’t imagine what it was like for everyone else who went to the grocery stores only to find them raided and ransacked in people’s panic of the end of the world.  

The swarms happened everywhere. Then, what little food that was left was tainted, or unfit to eat. Those who were hungry enough not to care ate it anyway and most of them died.

A lot of people think it has something to do with the end of the world. Some think it was overuse of natural resources and the gluttony of humankind, but I don’t care to think about it at all. I just want to figure out a way out of this mess so I can get my old life back.

“What’s for breakfast?” Kit asks in her hoarse morning voice.

“Why is it always about food with you?” I ask with a smile.

“Because I’m always hungry, duh.”

Just as I’m digging through the packs for perishable items we should eat first, Jack comes walking up with fish in hand. He’s wearing torn jeans and a flannel and an overloaded backpack. He should look like an ordinary boy, but those gray eyes and dark hair make him easy on the eyes. He looks almost exactly like this picture my mom had of an old time actor named Tom Cruise, or something. Except for the eyes. The eyes were all his. I’ve never seen anything like them before.

It makes me self-conscious all of a sudden of my own looks. I sneak a quick peek at the mirror in the wheeler. Of course, my dark hair is a mess and I don’t have a stitch of make-up on. As well as a full rats-nest for hair, there are black rings under my hazel eyes, and I probably resemble a zombie more than a living person.

“Good morning!” he says.

“What are you doing here, Stranger?” Kit drawls out.

“Well, I was hoping someone could help me eat these fish.”

At the sight of the fish Brody perks up, and immediately starts asking questions about what kind of fish they are and if we are really going to eat them. Kit gives me a questioning glance and I ignore her.

“Well, little man, how about you help me clean them and I’ll tell you all about them,” Jack offers.

“You can do it here, but you need to hurry up. We’ve gotta get on the road. We’re kinda in a hurry. Brody stay by me,” I say.

Jack nods and gets to work on the fish. I am amazed how quickly he works, and also a little nervous, as my mind races at all the things he could do with that knife, just inches away from Brody. He’s given me no reason not to trust him, but I still don’t.

He could be what stands in the way of us getting out of here safely. I should have never invited him over, but what was I to do? If he can fix the wheeler, then we can be on our way and I can forget about him and those gray eyes.

Kit’s already quick to work frying the catfish and bass in the small frying pan Mom packed. She sautés it in oil and sprinkles it with salt and pepper.

I plate it up with some crackers I found and we eat in silence. I didn’t realize how hungry I was. I can’t help but think we are wasting time and that we’ll never make it by Tuesday.

As I study the map, I sneak glances at Jack tinkering with the four-wheeler. He seems to know what he is doing. He does a complete check of all things unknown to me, takes something out, dries it and puts it back.

“Spark plug was wet,” he states. “Should work now. Where ya headed anyway? I never did find out why you guys were out here. You must have family?”

I feel a pang of guilt. Even if he’s a drifter, he will be relocated too. I feel like I should tell him and then he can be on his way and do what he wants with the information.

“The Council is relocating all us kids, so we’re getting the hell out of here.” Kit beats me to the punch. He raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t look that surprised.

As if saying “The Council” out loud brings them in, we see a government van passing on the road. I feel like we’re hidden in the trees, but still my stomach churns in anxiety. It’s got some surveillance equipment on it and I can’t help but feel like they are watching us.