“Kill him!” a man yelled. “Do it so he can’t get a good look at us and tell anyone what we did.”
“No!” a short woman stepped forward and uttered. “If we kill him then we’re no better than the ones we escaped from. All we need is the supplies.”
Levi looked to me, frozen with fear.
“I think we can reason with them,” I whispered to Levi from the cover of a bush.
I motioned for Levi to get in position behind a tree. On my instruction he would fire an arrow at their feet. I made sure he knew not to give away his position too early otherwise we would all be dead.
I stepped out of hiding and into the sunlight that was partially masked by the tree canopy. I instructed them not to move as I aimed my pistol at their matriarch’s head. She was apparently in her late thirties and had a rough face; she appeared tired. From behind her stepped her daughter who was around Levi’s age.
I took them by surprise. Unfortunately, that was as far as my end of the plan went.
“Don’t shoot!” The woman yelled to her group. “He will not harm us. He only has one arm.”
I took note of my stump and retorted: “I’m still capable!”
“Is this man part of your group?” She asked Benny, pointing to me.
“No.” I answered hastily before Benny could say anything.
“Yes he is!” Levi shouted from behind the tree.
“There’s more of you?” A man from the other group asked startled.
“I have an army at my disposal.” It was just a matter of time before they called my bluff.
“We just want the supplies. Give us them and we’ll be on our way,” the woman said persuasively. Her face showed sympathy; she didn’t look like she wanted a fight.
I kept the pistol trained on the woman and gripped the handle tightly.
“We need them,” I said back.
“So do we,” a man from the other group said threateningly.
“Stay back!” I commanded. “If you kill me, I’ll have my people kill all of you.”
I raised my arm into the air and heard the string of the bow retract as the arrow left it and landed in the ground near the stranger’s feet. Their faces began showing panicked expressions. It wasn’t the show of power I was hoping for, though.
There were seven of them: The woman and her daughter, another woman who looked about twenty, and four men between the ages of twenty and fifty. The men and the younger woman raised their guns to me. My plan was exhausted and so was I. I had a strong feeling they would kill me. Perhaps my threat was holding strong; maybe they believed I had more people than just Levi.
We reached a standstill.
“We can work together,” I suggested. “Nobody wants to die.”
“We’re carrying something far too valuable,” the woman replied.
Benny began making noises from under the duct tape. He was trying to say something. The woman walked over and uncovered his mouth.
“We have something valuable too,” Benny stated. “He wasn’t lying when he said he had an army at his disposal. You folks ever heard of the Hyenas? Take a good look at my friend there.” Benny motioned with his head toward me.
“You’re saying he’s Marley?” the woman asked in disbelief. “We heard he died during an attack on the Hyena headquarters.”
“Well, we have proof that says otherwise,” Benny said back. “And he needs immediate medical attention.” Benny was no stranger of pulling a successful bluff.
“We have problems of our own,” a man from the other group asserted.
“No, if we get you medical supplies, will you help us?” the woman asked us earnestly.
“Lower the gun, Stumpy,” Benny said to me.
“We’ll help you,” I replied to the woman’s question.
“I’m glad we could work this out,” the woman said. “Come with me. We have antibiotics.”
We fit into the group and began mingling. It was later in the day when the woman- Emily- finally told me what was so important that they were carrying. We were around the campfire when she pulled me aside.
“Marley,” she said to me. “What is it that you’ve been doing out here? Isn’t there some kind of base you three should be at? You know it’s not safe out here.”
“I don’t know what we’re doing, to be honest. I’m glad we found your group, though. It’s good to know there’s good people left.” I lifted my head to look her in the eyes.
“Earlier, when we said we had something important, we were just bluffing.” She let out a big breath, letting her stomach finally come to rest.
“I appreciate you telling me that. We were bluffing about everything also. Well, save for me being Marley. I guess that’s important,” I said, laughing a little. She laughed along with me.
She moved her body awkwardly, looking like she was preparing to say something but would not let it out. Finally, she said: “We’ve been on the run for so long now. They’ve been killing us off little by little. We’ve seen too many good people get killed. The truth is, we’re just average people trying to survive.”
“I know,” I replied. “We can help now.”
“No. The Highwaymen are close.”
“Then we’ll avoid the Highways.”
“You don’t know who they are, do you? They’re going to find us and when they do, they’ll kill us,” Emily stated with terror. Her eyes grew wide.
“How will they find us?” I cocked my head slightly.
“Normally they just stick to the roads and set up traps for anyone still driving a car. They usually ambush military vehicles for supplies. But they know which way we ran and they’re following us.”
“How close do you think they are?” I asked.
Emily replied: “They’re most likely already in the woods.”
She pointed to the area they’d be coming from and explained the need for traps. She was terrified and again expressed her concern that we’d be unable to hold them off in a fight. Her group was running dangerously low on food and ammunition. Her people were weak and resorted to using melee weapons such as crowbars and bats.
“For a while, we actually started building a life for ourselves. There were many of us and we took refuge in scattered buildings in a small town. There was no government or rebels. There was no violence. We were happy,” Emily revealed.
“Nothing good ever lasts,” I said solemnly.
“No, it doesn’t,” she replied. She put her head down and appeared to be reflecting.
After a moment to give Emily to think, I asked: “Were you with the revolution at the beginning?”
“I was as fed up as everyone else,” Emily responded. “But no, I wasn’t with the revolution.”
“I was just wondering if we were friends or just doing this together because we have a common enemy.” I looked to her and smiled. It made her uneasy.
“Look, you’re obviously biased. We really need your help right now, though. You’re a strategist, right?”
I avoided the question and responded: “Tell me what your stake is in this. I just need to know why you’re helping me. You can imagine a person like myself has reason to worry about people that don’t have my best interests at heart.”
“It was the military,” she said with a hushed voice and somber expression. “When the government came in and rounded up what men were left in our town for conscription, my husband refused to go with them willingly. They took him away from my daughter and me by force. We spent the next few days hoping they would return him. We couldn’t help being naive. We didn’t know any better at the time. We finally got sick of waiting and knew we had to take action. We tracked down where the ones who refused to go and the dissenters were being taken. We didn’t know how to get him out but seeing him again was enough for my daughter and I that night. But the next day they were transported. They went to the middle of town... for public demonstrations... meaning shootings…” She
looked away from me. “When he was up... it just didn’t feel real.”
I shouldn’t have asked. The pain I’ve caused these people. The pain I’ve caused every person in this country. There’s no way I can compensate for this kind of injustice.
“I’m sorry, Emily.” I reached a hand out gently for her shoulder but quickly pulled it back. “I- I didn’t know. What was he like?”
“Always smiling. He was a great father and husband. He worked for a computer company and-” She started to choke up, something caught in her throat. Her eyes were filling up and she looked away. “And he loved spending time with us, with his family.”
Am I responsible for that too? When will this end? I stood fixed in place and concentrated on Emily. I listened while she spoke but I had nothing left to say. The guilt was too much.
I went back to camp after our conversation to tell Levi and Benny the ambush plan I had conceived with Emily. I finally agreed to swap Levi’s bow for a pistol. His joyful response wasn’t what I was hoping for. Benny grabbed my arm and took me aside. He asked what Emily and I discussed. I shook my head and told him we only talked about the plan for the Highwaymen. Benny expressed concern that what I’d been through was causing damage to my psyche. My expression showed no such burden.
“This is all getting to you, Stumpy. We don’t have the firepower to take on these Highwaymen. They’ll kill us all. We should just slip out during the night.”
“Benny, I assure you we have what it takes. We have to prove our worth to these people so they’ll let us stick around.” I gripped my lips together, concealing them in my mouth. “We’re safe with them.”
“No, we’re safe at the next Hyena outpost, Stumpy!” He was starting to raise his hands. He was getting to the point that he was hoping his arms would help convey how loud he meant his words to be.
“You mean on the road?!”
Levi burst in excitedly from our side. “What’s the plan, Dustin?”
“We’re gonna hide as long as we can and see if we can avoid these Highwaymen altogether,” I explained.
“They’re bad guys, so they need to die, right?” Levi responded. “Why don’t we just shoot them when we see them?” Stop thinking like that, Levi. What do I need to say to get it through to you? We’re the good guys because we don’t kill.
“There’s way more of them than us. You can’t be so eager to rush into a fight.” I lifted my arms and made a slight motion for Levi to move away from us.
“You’re just weak, Dustin,” Levi said sternly.
“You don’t know anything about this, Levi. There's way more to life than just being strong or brave enough to take on an army,” I replied hastily. I turned my back on him again and hoped I had said enough to convince him to leave.
He bursted back in furiously and yelled: “I killed that doctor to save your life!”
“You think that makes you a man?” I asked. “You think taking a life is what defines you? It’s how we live that defines us! Do you want to be defined as a murderer?!”
Benny stepped in and asked me to tone it down.
“No, Benny! I yelled to him. “There’s only one thing that will never change. Me and my brother! Me and Levi! You’re not in that picture, are you?! Remember that!”
I walked away from Benny abruptly and sat next to Emily by the fire.
“When do we start?” I asked.
She studied my face for a moment and replied with a glimmer of a smirk: “Immediately.”