As I reach the house, I pull around to the back. I glance over to the back door and notice that it has been broken down. I rush out the car. “Claire!” I shout as I run into the kitchen. The house has been trashed. I make my way up the stairs. My heart is pounding in my chest. I round the top.
To my relief I spot Claire sitting.
“Are you alright?” I ask as I cautiously enter the room of the old farmhouse. The floor creaks beneath each slow step I take. I see her there—the sun glowing against her shoulder length bleached blonde hair and her hazel eyes are illuminated like glowing gems. She is sitting motionless. Her eyes are fixed to the view of the window. She does not reply. She does not even acknowledge my presence.
There is a gun in her hand. The faint smell of smoke hangs in the air. Spent bullet casings line the hardwood floor around her. As I slowly enter the room, I spot a trail of blood that leads to a large, heavy set man. He is shirtless, wearing a pair of overalls. A large red axe with a wooden handle rests against the floor beside him. What remains of his head is a sight that I will never forget as very little of it is there, save for a mess of blood and scattered brain matter.
This is when I realize that things are actually getting a lot worse than I could have ever expected. Every moment, everything I have gone through—does not compare to this. I am in no way prepared for this. It is out of pure necessity and care for Claire that I can even continue. It all seems so pointless, however I am so relieved to see that she is still alive—after all, I would not have made it this far, nor would I make it any further, without her.
“Claire…” I whisper as approach her.
She continues to stare vacantly out of the window. I take the handgun from her. Her hands begin to tremble. Tears stream down from her eyes.
“Claire…” I say softly as I wipe away her tears. “Are you alright?”
Claire finally snaps out if it, as though she was trapped in some kind of terrible nightmare. She begins to cry once more. “He was… so angry.”
“Are you hurt in any way,” I say as I check her arms for any kind of cuts.
“He was just… uncontrollably angry. He knew I was here… I knew he was coming. I could feel it. We’re all kind of… connected. He wouldn’t calm down.”
“He was in that state of mind, the one I told you about,” I say as I place my arms tightly around her. “Thank god you’re still alive. You could have been killed.”
“He was after you,” Claire says as she runs her hands through my hair. “He wanted to kill you. He was so angry with you for no reason at all—he would not even listen to me when I said that you were not here.”
“How do you know he was after me?”
“I could feel it,” Claire says. “I don’t think he was going to hurt me… but I couldn’t let him hurt you.”
“Thank you, Claire,” I say as I hold onto her tightly and bury my head against her shoulder.
“…I’m… your caregiver.”
“That’s pretty accurate,” I say as I place the gun into my pocket. “Are more around?”
“I don’t feel any around,” Claire says as she looks out the window once more.
“We need to leave,” I say as I begin to grab a few things from the dresser. The metal case, some of the things I’ve brought in from the car—I open up one of the boxes of ammo and refill the clip. “We’re not safe here anymore.”
“Where will we go?”
“I don’t know,” I say as I shake my head. “I guess we should just keep heading west.”
“I used to live… west,” Claire says as she takes a moment to pause. “California? That’s a place?”
“That it is,” I say.
“We used to have a mansion—very safe,” Claire adds. “Only we could get in… they used me to get my… parents out…”
“Don’t think right now, Claire,” I say as I notice she is becoming deeply saddened once more. “I need you with me. We’ll head to California—I need you to concentrate for now though. I need you present.”
“Right,” Claire says as she wipes away a tear from her eye. “You aren’t safe here.”
We load up the car as evening approaches. I take a lot of the canned goods from the basement. I plan on staying in any vacant houses we can find along the way—but who knows if we will ever find a place that is even remotely as well stockpiled.
As Claire and I are making one last run through of the house, I hear an urgent knock upon the door. Claire backs away and heads into the bedroom. Another loud knock sends her to the floor as she begins to rock back and forth. “I don’t like that noise…”
“Stay here,” I say as I ready my rifle and head down the stairs. I open the door just as one of the larger men is about to attempt to break through. He rushes in and falls to the floor.
“Dammit William,” Eli says as he steps over the large man and enters into the living room. “I told you to give it a few more minutes.”
“Well we don’t exactly got a few more minutes do we?” The large man named William says as he slowly gets up from the floor.
“S’pose not,” Eli says as he reaches over and grabs my shoulder. “Benjamin, the town… we’ve lost the town.”
“What happened?” I ask as I look at the small group of seven men. I recognize Tom from earlier. The others are all dressed in army style jackets and are heavily armed.
“These men… are all that remains of the militia,” Eli says as he points to the others—this is John, other Tom, Nicholas…”
“We don’t really have time for this,” Tom from earlier says as he pushes his way into the living room. “Almost all of the Unstables went Aggro—all at once. Didn’t even know that was possible… We managed to take about half of them down, but they’re still out there. We tried to run, but they seem like they’re following our tracks.”
“They’re on their way here?” I ask, “Is this because of earlier?”
“Seems like it… to both questions,” Tom answers as he nods. “You and your girlfriend should both get out of here—they can’t be more than half an hour behind us.”
“I say we make a stand,” Eli says as he nervously eyes the view of the driveway from the door.
“Don’t be a fool, old man,” Tom says as he shakes his head. “We run.”
“William,” Eli says as he pats the large man on the back. “You got all your construction shit in the back of your truck?”
“Yeah…” William says as he shrugs his large shoulders.
“Go get as many boards, nails, and hammers as you can—we’ll lock this place up tight and take them out one at a time if they try and break through,” Eli says as he nods. “The problem we had in town is that we were fighting out in the open. Here we’ll have the advantage.”
“I’m in,” John says as he checks the clip on his assault rifle.
“We take care of our own…” Another man says.
“Fuck,” Tom says as he kicks at the ground. “Get your shit William, other Tom, give his fat ass a hand.”
I help them put up the back door, William and John nail it down with as many two by fours as it can accommodate. I go down into the basement and lock up the cellar door. I begin to place a board up on the door to the basement, however Tom stops me.
“It might make a good trap. Get a few down there and toss a grenade down—will save us on ammo. “
I nod and place the board back down. I watch as they board up the front door. Then we go around systematically covering all the windows as swiftly as we can.
“Alright…” Tom says—content that we have done enough in twenty minutes. “William and John—you take the living room. You have short range assault rifles, so make your shots count… aim for the head, don’t let any through. Nicholas and Eric, you guys watch the back door… same deal, assault weapons when necessary. If you hear noises in the basement—blow those fuckers up, but don’t do it too many times, we don’t want the foundation collapsing on us. Eli, myself, Benjamin and other Tom, will cover upstairs with our rifles and guns. We’ll try and snipe them off before they reach the house… we’ll each take a different window.”