“How long was he here?”
“I think you’d better be heading on your way.”
“Come on. You seem like an honest guy. I’m looking for my brother here. This isn’t some conspiracy or anything. He’s my family, and I’ve got to find him.”
John had a good read on the guy, and he knew the guy was struggling—some internal conflict. It seemed like the guy wanted to help John, but felt like he had some other obligation he needed to uphold.
“It’d really help me out if I could find any information about where he was headed. If you don’t know, maybe we could visit your community and ask around?”
The man shook his head. “That’s not a good idea. Trust me on this one.”
Something had happened. Something wasn’t right.
“Well, what can you tell me then?”
“OK,” said the guy, stepping closer to John and Cynthia. His hand didn’t move towards his holster. “Trust me when I say you don’t want to visit the compound. Things are different now than they were before. We were supposed to be a democracy. Now we’re under martial law. It’s not a fun place.”
“Why don’t you leave then?” said Cynthia.
It was a good question. Now that he’d stepped closer, John could see the obvious pain on the man’s face. Not physical pain. Something else. Something stronger.
“I can’t. I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
John nodded. “What can you tell me about Max? What happened? Did he have something to do with this… new situation?”
“I shouldn’t tell you much, but yeah. One of our leaders—I won’t say her name—convinced everyone that we needed more women in the group. You know, to procreate. I was one of the few who voted against detaining them all. It was just me and a couple others. Everyone else was duped.”
“Detaining?” said Cynthia. “What do you mean?”
“You mean like keeping them prisoners?”
“Exactly. Prisoners for life. Not a good situation.”
“That’s disgusting,” said Cynthia.
The man nodded. “I’m with you. And Max was too. The short version of the story is that he and the others escaped. They lost one of their own, and we lost six men. The compound hasn’t been the same since. And since I voted against the movement, I’ve been punished with the worst duties anyone could think of.”
This was a lot to take in for John.
“Who were the others Max was with?”
The guy shrugged. “No idea. Three women. One of them was just a teenager, though.”
“Who died?”
“Big fellow. Really overweight. Always seemed out of it. Don’t know his name. I didn’t speak to any of them personally.”
“Chad,” muttered John. It must have been Chad.
“And where were they headed? Before they escaped, I mean.”
“I sat near them in the mess hall, and some of them were talking about Kentucky. Some land out there or something. They were talking like they didn’t want anyone to hear.”
The puzzle was just getting stranger. Kentucky? What did Max want to go to Kentucky for? John knew they didn’t have any familial connection to Kentucky, and he didn’t think Max had ever been there before. Maybe someone in his group had family out there.
“Listen,” said the guy, glancing over his shoulder. “If I were you two, I’d get the hell out of here. They’re still looking for women.” He glanced meaningfully at Cynthia.
“Got it,” said John, turning around. “Thanks, by the way.”
The guy nodded, turned, and started walking in the opposite direction.
John and Cynthia walked quickly back towards Dale and Kiki.
“You don’t think he’ll tell anyone we’re here, do you?” whispered Cynthia.
“Let’s hope not. They sound like a dangerous bunch.”
“What’s the word?” said Dale.
They told him the story.
“Kentucky, eh?”
“That’s what he said.”
“What do we do now?” said Cynthia.
“I don’t know,” said John. “Kentucky’s a way’s away.”
“That’s for damn sure,” said Dale. “And who knows what lies in between here and there.”
“Well,” said John, glancing at Cynthia. “I think the thing to do is to head out there. There’s a chance it’d be better. What do you say, Cynthia?”
Cynthia shrugged. “I say we go for it. If we don’t make it, at least we’ll get a nice walk in.”
Dale laughed, but John remained serious, his lips tightened in a grim expression.
“What are you going to do, Dale, if we continue west?”
Dale shrugged. “Head back, I guess. I don’t see myself heading all the way out to Kentucky, even if you two are good company.”
Cynthia chuckled.
“You’ve come far enough already with us,” said John. “And I appreciate it.”
“Me too,” said Cynthia.
“It was nothing,” said Dale, flashing a smile. “Gave Kiki some exercise. She was putting on a little extra weight, so she needed it.”
“You’ve done so much for us. You introduced us to your friend. Without him, we wouldn’t have been able to find this community.”
“Didn’t do you much good, though, unfortunately.”
“Well, at least we know where Max is headed.”
“Hopefully,” said Cynthia.
“What do you mean?”
“We don’t know if he’s telling the truth.”
“He seemed like an honest guy.”
“You can never know. Remember Drew?”
“Yeah, but I had a bad feeling about him.”
Cynthia shrugged.
“So how can we repay you, Dale?”
Dale laughed. “Keep your hats on.” John didn’t know that expression, but he got the gist. “No need to thank me. You know me better than that. Like I said, it gave me a chance to get out a little. Gave Kiki some exercise.”
That was an understatement if John had ever heard one. They’d been walking for a solid week, camping during the night in the cold darkness. But Dale was a strange guy. Good and honest. But strange.
“I’ll camp with you tonight,” said Dale. “Then I’ll head back my way. I doubt you want to get moving yet. It’ll be dark in a few hours.”
“Sounds good, but let’s get away from this area. If we saw one guy, we might see more.”
The three of them hiked through the trail-less woods for twenty minutes before they found an area that they thought would be suitable for camping.
“You think we can risk a fire?”
Dale laughed. “Not a normal fire. But I’ve got a couple tricks up my sleeve that I still haven’t shown you. Give me a hand and we’ll get a little pit dug right about here. No one will be able to see the flames.”
John and Cynthia were both exhausted from the days of walking, but they got to work with Dale, digging a pit for the fire. They used a small collapsible shovel that Dale had carried with him in his pack, as well as rocks and sticks taken from the surrounding area.
“So the idea is to keep the flames below ground?” said Cynthia.
Dale nodded.
“Won’t people still be able to see the smoke?” said John.
Dale chuckled. “That’s where the real trick comes in.” Dale explained how they were going to build a small tunnel that led into the pit. The tunnel provided additional air flow for the fire. “And this extra airflow makes the fire burn so hot that there’s hardly any smoke.”
“I wish we’d known about that,” said Cynthia.
Dale really knew what he was doing, and less than twenty minutes later, the fire was roaring in the little pit. Sure enough, there wasn’t much smoke, and the flames weren’t visible to anyone who wasn’t right next to it.
They ate a meal of dried meat and dried fruit that Dale had brought from his food stores.
Soon, the light was beginning to fade. Dale started telling some stories from his trucker days, and Cynthia laughed along with him.