I let my eyes quickly glance to Avian where he sat poised with his rifle at the front of the trailer. What about a life with Avian? Would life be so different? We would share a tent, never have another awkward moment of wondering who to sit by at nights, at dinner. But how would things change? How could Avian make me feel? Being with him like that?
I didn’t think I could find out unless I was certain it was him that I was going to choose. I couldn’t do that to him.
My chest suddenly ached for Sarah. I wanted to talk to her, to tell her every little thing I was feeling and let her analyze them all for me. I wanted someone to help me figure this out.
It was then that I missed our old way of life as well. I wanted the days of simple scouting back, days of tracking through the woods with my team of Bill and Graye. I missed going on raids, when it was always dangerous but still possible to go into the city. I missed having the sweat roll down my back as I helped the others pull the weeds in the garden that was overflowing with our harvest.
You never realize what you’ve got until it’s gone.
Thankfully, nothing happened that night. We gassed up in a small town that looked like it had been dying before the Fall even happened. Avian poured two more of the blue bottles into the tank and we drove another hour before stopping in more desert for the day.
I didn’t let anyone know but I was panicked that day. Avian told everyone that we only had maybe two more days of traveling until we got to our destination. That should have been a relief but I still had no idea what my decision was going to be. I need more time. But I also had to decide, now.
I pretended to sleep that day but didn’t. I stared up at the tan canvas above my head, my mind empty, my eyes seeing nothing. It was nice to have a few hours to clear my head of all the confusion.
We left that night with a mix of anticipation, both nervous and excited. We were all ready to get to our new home but for most, the unexpected and unknown was frightening. What would we be finding?
I didn’t like that I had so many questions lately with no answers.
TWENTY-NINE
Everyone had just started falling asleep when Avian’s attention perked up. He stood in his place on the trailer, his eyes narrowing at something ahead of us.
“What is it?” I asked quietly in an attempt to not wake anyone. I took the safety off my shotgun.
“Stop the truck,” Avian told Tuck. As he did, Avian hopped out, myself in close pursuit. He walked up to an old road sign and only then did I notice that there was something different about this one.
“What are those?” I asked as I looked closely at the white dots beneath the words leading to somewhere that now meant nothing.
“Morse code,” Avian whispered as he ran his fingers over the dots.
“What does it say?” I said as my eyes swept the area again. No threats in this desert forsaken place.
Avian shook his head, his eyes frustrated looking. “I don’t know. I hadn’t learned it yet in my training.”
Without hesitation I walked back over to the trailer. “Wake up!” I said loudly. A few bodies stirred. “Come on. Wake up.”
Some of them eyed the gun in my hands warily, others simply rubbed the sleep out of their eyes. “Does anyone know how to read Morse code?”
West yawned as he raised his hand. “Come on,” I said, waving him toward the sign. “Sorry to wake everyone. You can go back to sleep now.”
I heard a few grumbles as we walked toward the sign. Most of them lay back down but a few of them watched what we were doing with curiosity. I didn’t blame them. I would want to know what was going on too.
“You know Morse code?” Avian asked as we walked up.
“My grandpa thought it was a fun game when I was little,” West said as he rubbed his eyes again. “That’s a scientist’s version of fun for you.”
“What does it say?” Avian asked as he looked back at the sign. “This isn’t the regular paint that was used for signs. It’s too irregular and the paint doesn’t look that worn. This was put there in the last few years. After the infection.”
West squinted through the dark to read the sign. As he did, he stepped around it, looked at the back, then looked at the edge of it. “It just says ‘look underneath’.”
Avian furrowed his brow at West, then looked back at the sign. That was when we all saw the slightly bent form of the metal sign in the bottom right corner.
With a hefty tug, the three loose screws at the top of the sign were ripped out and I let the metal sign fall to the ground with a thud in the dust.
Our eyes grew wide as we took in what had been hidden under the old road sign. Words were crammed onto the wood board beneath, and detailed but obviously hand drawn map spread over most of it. There had unquestionably been people here, trying to leave a message for anyone who might find it.
“Holy…” both Avian and West breathed.
“Where is the map leading?” I asked, my eyes following the hand drawn lines.
“Right to the middle of one of the biggest cities there was before everything fell apart,” Avian said quietly.
If you’re reading this, congratulations on surviving. To be brief, there is a group of us, hiding in the city. We have unlimited supplies of food, water, other necessities. We also have electricity and can offer you protection. A life. If you can reach us. Here is the map to our location. Travel only at night and travel silently. Good luck.
Below that, in another person’s handwriting was written: May the force be with you.
“Do you think it’s a trap?” I asked as I reread everything.
Avian chuckled as his eyes trailed over the words. “I don’t think so. A Fallen would never write that last line.”
“What does that even mean?” I asked. May the force be with you. It sounded like gibberish to me.
Avian chuckled again. “It was a line from a very famous movie.” When he saw my confusion at the word movie he just shook his head and laughed again. “Never mind. Just know that it is a very human thing to say.”
“How is that even possible?” West asked, fully awake now. “For a group of people to be living in a city?”
“I can’t imagine anyone is that careful,” I said quietly.
“But if they were…” West said wistfully. “Can you even imagine? Having actual electricity, living indoors?”
“No,” I said, furrowing my brow at him. “I can’t imagine what it would be like. It would be too dangerous. Avian said that was one of the biggest cities. It is going to be flooded with Fallen. We couldn’t even get fifty miles outside the perimeter.”
“But they must have a way of getting people in if they’ve left this message,” West continued. “They said to travel at night and to travel silently. Why would they have us walk into a death trap?”
“This could have been left a few years ago,” I said, my voice rising. “They could all be infected by now, dead. There could be no one left in the city anymore.”
“But if there are people there…” Avian said, his voice sounding wishful. “They could have access to anything if they can get around that city.”
“You can’t be serious about this?” I demanded as I turned my eyes on him. “We cannot take this risk. We have a mission to complete. Find a new, safe location for Eden and settle. Lead the others to us.”
“We could change our course,” Avian said as he walked back to the truck. He grabbed Bill’s maps out of the trailer and walked back to us. He opened it up and quickly found our location. “We were going here,” he said as he pointed to a place that was due south of our current location. “We could get there by dawn if we can get the truck to drive fast enough. But we could go here,” he said as he drug his finger across the page to a place that was due west of our location. “Frankly it will be a nicer location. We’ll have access to more water, there will be more natural resources. And it is close to the ocean so there will also be more options for fishing. Temperatures shouldn’t be much different.”