Early the next morning, Dave and Emma's two cousins walked up the driveway, past the painted "Bazaar is Closed due to Death In The Family" sign posted at the bottom of the driveway. They walked behind the young man they called Ralph, who they were accusing of killing Emma. Ralph never spoke and Dave had given him the name from the name sewn in on the front of his blue blood stained work shirt. All three men carried guns in their hand in case Ralph decided to make a run for it.
They put the bikes down near the bottom of the driveway and untied Ralph's hands from his handlebars and took his bike. They had all rode back with Ralph ahead of them, riding with his hands tied to the handlebars of one of the stolen bicycles they had. He walked slowly up the driveway with his head down and never looked at anyone. Dan stepped outside the house to look at him, followed by Darius, James and their wives. They would give him water and food and put him in the basement under guard until after Emma's funeral.
James led Dave downstairs with Ralph where he was given water and a chance to use a bucket, and Dave tied his hands behind his back around a post. Dave told him that if he tried to escape or escaped they would feed him to the wolves at night. Ralph never said a word, no one had even heard his voice.
Dave went back up the stairs and outside and sat down with Emma's brothers and her cousins. Paul described the evidence to his uncle while everyone listened. He described a camp they had set up away from the road where they could not be seen. At this camp they had five tents, three of them rolled up and unused, several pairs of shoes and boots, clothes, guns, food, and six bicycles and several large bottles of water. From looking at the site and the fire pit they had been there for several days. They had another tent set up near the road with no fire pit and enough garbage such as opened cans and packaging to suggest they had that set up for several days as well. He said that it would be almost impossible for them to argue that they were not doing ambushes on people that had gone by on the road, except for the fact the Emma's body was the only one they had seen. They couldn't find any other bodies.
Dave said that if they had stolen everything from anyone, killing their victims would have been a necessity. They had spent some time looking for bodies, but they couldn't find any. He thought the bodies to be at the bottom of a nearby pond or just somewhere downwind, where he couldn't smell or find them. "If he had let anyone go after stealing all their survival gear they would be forced to come back and take it back and possibly kill one of them in the process.". he said "Much too risky. A human would be a lot more dangerous than a pack of dogs." he added, after some thought.
Paul explained that the man that Susan had shot was about forty years old, it was difficult to say for sure because the body had been left at the side of the road in the sun for hours before they had a chance to really look at it. He buried it. Ralph looked to be in his late teens or early twenties. Jake said that they looked like a father and son but couldn't tell for sure. They didn't have wallets or identification that he could find.
Darius said "Dad, are you ready? Are you OK?" he responded "I'm burying my daughter today Darius. How can I ever be ready?" Darius said that James and Paul would get Emma and that he and the others should go up the hill when he is ready. He said "We have all day dad. Take your time." James and Paul left the room.
Dan asked everyone to sit down for a few minutes and he went outside. Susan followed him and sat beside him outside on the porch. The rest stayed quiet and could see them talking through the window. Dave went downstairs to quickly check on Ralph and his guard, one of the neighbors who volunteered.
After a few more minutes Dave came up from the basement, Susan came back in and told them Dan was ready. They all went outside and walked behind Dan, Darius and Susan as they walked up the hill to their small family graveyard. Susan was crying, she had not seen her two sons and never would again and Dan was aware of this and felt pain for Susan as well as his own. He put his arm around Susan as they walked to where Emma laid. Dan saw that for Susan it was a funeral for all she had lost.
Emma laid in a hastily but solidly built pine box and was gently lowered into her grave, beside her mothers. James had given them a traditional Protestant funeral and they quietly left. They followed James into the forest to the entrance of their shelter. He stopped when they reached a large rock, told them to wait, walked up a hill and looked around and waved.
Darius reached into a tree trunk and the rock opened on hinges. There were two flights of stairs leading down to a door. Darius went down and opened the steel door, Dan and Susan went in first, followed by the rest. James came in and the giant rock hatch closed behind him.
Inside they sat down in a room with chairs around the perimeter, James and Darius' wives set up a table and served them all water and some hot roast beef, potatoes and vegetables. The room stayed mostly quiet.
Lisa asked them why Emma was of adult age and did not have the body of a woman and if she had been OK or if she had a medical condition. Dan said that she may have been a little slow in development but it was mostly because she was away from city influences such as pornography and had spent most of her time with family rather than with boys she didn't know. Dan said that he and Catherine didn't want her developing certain desires before her mind had a chance to properly develop.
Lisa began talking about Emma and how she had tasted cider for the first time and how funny it was to see her try to be an adult. She asked them about the bible that had gotten thrown in someones' eye. James said that had happened a long time ago when Emma was just a little kid and they were teenagers, he was surprised that she had remembered that. Lisa asked about the deer poop incident and Paul said that had been the result of an argument about Plato, and in the Greek tradition, James had the proverbial "crock of shit" poured on his head when they were young. Lisa said that Emma had told them a few stories about the stone and about hunting trips.
Dan said that the stone was about serious business and sometimes passions got the better of them but it was really a place of thought and they had debates there but they mainly met there to discuss aspects of what the government had been doing and would be doing as well as other family matters. They had their own church services and Dan mostly discussed the meanings of the biblical passages and how they pertained to law. It was a place for family only and he said that Lisa, Dave and Susan would be welcome to join them but that was for tomorrow when they had business to attend to. He said that they were letting some people outside the family come to the stone as well but only since the power went out.
They talked about kids and how they grew up to be adults and all the stupid and amazing things that Emma had done as she grew up. Darius' and James' wives brought out bottles of wine and they drank and talked more about Emma as Dave, Lisa and Susan listened.
Dan looked over at Susan "Lets go for a walk." The two of them left the shelter leaving everyone else behind.
Susan asked what had happened to Catherine after they were out of earshot of the group, he said "She couldn't handle it after Emma didn't come home, we thought she would be OK and we would see her any time but after a week we started to realize she wouldn't be coming home, we knew she was in the city. My wife was on the computer and had just checked her location before the power went out. We were expecting her to be back in three or four days. She had emergency cash and could have bought a bike. Catherine was already sick from diabetes and we couldn't get insulin. She just didn't wake up one afternoon when she took a nap.".
The others stayed in the shelter and continued talking about the trading and the economy and future of the country and how the world had changed. James said "We are short of kids around here and have been for some time. I wish Emma had more kids her own age to talk with. I want my kids to know other kids when we have them.". He said there were a lot of empty houses where they were. Lisa explained that there were a few people she knew that would like to live in them. She said that Dave knew an older guy, Richard, who had two boys and there was Bob an
d Jennifer.
James went on to explain that they wanted the empty houses that surrounded them filled with people they knew and could trust. He added "People with skills like farming, engineering and trades are ones we will need soon. We don't have a doctor either.".
Dan and Susan came back to join them a few hours later. Everyone slept in the shelter that night, there were rooms to spare.
Dan gave them a tour of the complex when the alarm woke them up a little while before dawn. He wanted to give Dave, Lisa and Susan the unabridged tour before going back outside. They could all see that Dan needed to get his mind off things and ground himself back into reason. Times were changing fast, every day brought something new.