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  We made our way back to Madge and Robert’s. It had been three days since we talked to them and figured their house should be built by now. If not, we would all pitch in and finish it. The sooner we left for Pig’s, the better. We had everything we needed. Sarah had a couple of rifles to go along with the weapons we already had. I was surprised no one had any bows and arrows. It seemed that in a place where bullets were probably scarce, a primitive weapon like a bow and arrow would come in handy. Next 360, I was going to get myself one. I took archery lessons in high school gym class. I could hit a target.

  Chapter 9

  Madge and Robert were waiting for us when we got there. Their house was finished and I could see chickens roaming freely around, pecking at the ground. Madge had baked more bread and sat us all down, including me, at a table that had been set up outside. It was weird eating with a chicken at my feet, begging for food but I didn’t dare say anything. Madge seemed to be accepting my presence and I didn’t want to jinx it. Perhaps Robert had talked to her while we were gone. Besides Barker was having fun chasing it away and we all laughed at his inability to catch it.

  “Madge wants to go with us,” said Robert as we polished off the fifth and final loaf of bread. “I think it’s a good idea. I told her what you planned to do and she wants to be a part of it.”

  “Damn straight,” she said. “I ain’t lettin’ my husband go up there without someone watchin’ his back.”

  “But we’ll be there,” explained Cornelius. I could tell he wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of bringing Madge along and I wondered if the two of them didn’t get along. “I, along with Emma Lee, Billy and Nicky will be guarding the flanks, ready to charge in if things go wrong. There’s no need for you to join us.”

  “I don’t see it that way. I can sit back there with the rest of you,” she said. “I just want to be there to watch over my husband is all.”

  “I understand your need to look after your husband but, and I say this with the greatest respect, it would be better for you to stay home and out of the way.” Cornelius gripped the edges of the table, ready for the anger he knew was coming. I didn’t know why he didn’t want Madge there but it was fun to watch her get all riled up at someone besides me.

  “Stay home! Why, you English swine!” Her face was red and full of rage. “Is that what you think a woman should do in times like this? Stay at home?”

  “Of course not,” he said trying to speak as calmly as he could. “We are allowing Emma, Nicky and Sarah to come are we not?”

  “Allowing?” Now Emma Lee was offended and I knew he had blown it. “Since when did you allow us to come? I believe it was us who asked you to join our group and I think I’m beginning to question our judgement.”

  “No!” He scratched his head and looked at Marshal. “Help me, mate.”

  “I-I...” Marshal stuffed another piece of bread in his mouth and gestured he couldn’t talk with his mouth full. I giggled behind my hand and Madge glared at me.

  “Think it’s funny, do you?” She scowled. “Think I should stay home too?”

  “What?” I couldn’t believe she had redirected her anger towards me! Everyone else at the table was laughing. Why’d she have to get mad at me for it? “Are you talking to me?”

  “You are laughing aren’t you?”

  “Look, lady,” I stood up from the table and all laughter stopped. “I don’t know what your problem is with me but get over it. No one else seems to have a problem with me. Maybe Cornelius said you shouldn’t come because no one would be here to look after your precious chickens. Ever think of that? Or, maybe, just maybe, he thought you’d have a temper tantrum and get us all in trouble.”

  “I don’t need to take any backtalk from a newcomer,” she crossed her arms and turned her head away from me.

  “Well this ‘newcomer’ is going to risk her life to get your friggin' water back,” I said. “Just because I’m new here doesn’t mean you or anyone else can treat me like shit!” I crossed my arms and sat back down.

  “Well,” said Cornelius. “Women talk very differently now, I see.”

  “Yes, we do,” I said, “and we don’t take crap!”

  “I see.” He leaned over to Billy and whispered. “Actually, I kind of like it.”

  “Now, Madge,” Robert tried to be the peacekeeper. “Nicole is a bright young girl and I think you’ve made your point that you have a hard time with newcomers but we have to get along or we will never be able to talk to Pig with any kind of confidence. Nicole seems strong and ready to fight. Let her. I, for one, am glad she’s on our side. You need to get over your prejudices or it will only wind up hurting all of us.”

  “You mean...” She looked at her husband and saw his resolve. “I should...”

  “Yes, you should,” he smiled at her. “If you break down your walls maybe you’ll even like her.”

  “But, she’s so brass, so forward,” she said. I felt like screaming at her again. She was talking about me like I wasn’t even there but Robert was right; we should try to get along. At least until we settled this thing with Pig.

  “Yes, but that’s only because the world she came from is much different than the world you came from,” he said. “1929 is so far from...”

  “2012,” I told him.

  “2012.” He sat back and actually sighed. “Right, 2012 is probably very different. Women, obviously, have come a long way. You should be happy about that. All the ladies here should be happy about that. Isn’t that what you all wanted? To be equal with us men.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s not as great as it sounds,” I said. “Women still get raped and beat up while being underpaid and overused except, now, we have the the privilege of opening our own doors and paying for our own meals on dates. Yahoo for equality!”

  “Sounds exciting,” said Madge sarcastically and I smiled.

  “I think women are probably more respected here, in this world, than back home,” I said. “At least you don’t have anorexic models staring at you from magazines making you feel like a complete dweeb.”

  “I don’t get it,” said Emma Lee, “what are these words, anorexic and dweeb?”

  “They’re not good,” said Sarah and I was glad someone from more recent times was here.

  “Can we agree to a truce, then?” said Cornelius, happy that the anger was not directed at him anymore.

  “Okay, okay, I will try to be nicer to Nicky,” said Madge and Robert squeezed her hand. “But I’m still going with you.”

  “But, dear, the chickens...”

  “We can move the chickens back underground for the time being,” she said. “We’ll set up the chicken wire so they won’t get into anything and I’ll leave enough food and water for a few days. We can do it and I’ll feel much better if I’m with you or, at least, lurking in the trees with my bow.”

  “You have a bow?” Finally, someone with some sense I thought.

  “Yes, do you have a problem...?”

  “Madge...”

  “No, I don’t have a problem,” I said. “I was actually wondering why no one had bows. I mean guns are good but you must run out of bullets, right? A bow seems much more practical.”

  “You know how to shoot a bow?” Madge seemed impressed by this.

  “Kind of, I took archery in gym last year,” I said.

  “I have a beautiful bow. Made it myself,” she said proudly. “Would you like to see it?”

  “Sure!” I was excited by this and the rest of the group gave a sigh of relief as Madge and I were finally getting along. Barker barked as he cornered a brown chicken then yelped as it pecked his nose. We all laughed as he ran to me with his tail between his legs.

  THE NEXT MORNING WE set off to see Pig, or some of us would see Pig. The rest of us, including me, were going to hide in the trees and wait to see if we would have to storm in to the rescue. Pig’s camp was in the tall evergreens at the foot of the mountains. It wasn’t too far, about a four hour hike cross-country. We walked in groups;
Marshal, Sarah and Robert stayed together to strategize their negotiations and Cornelius, Emma Lee, Madge and I lagged behind making small talk. Billy went back and forth between the two groups. We stopped twice to rest and eat but kept the time brief. We wanted to get to the camp before noon.

  There were about thirty in Pig’s camp I was told, men and women, and they stuck close together. There were lookouts posted around the camp but they didn’t take their jobs too seriously. No one had ever thought of approaching Pig at his camp, it was too dangerous. Still, we weren’t taking any chances and kept silent as we neared the camp.

  Emma Lee and Cornelius were going to sneak up behind the base and up the side of the mountain. They would be able to see everything from there. Madge and I were going to wait in the trees on the way in. We didn’t want to take the chance that Barker would bark if we crossed paths with anything or if a snap of a stick would set him off. He was actually being pretty good in my opinion. He kept by my side and if he started to growl, I would just have to tell him to keep quiet and he would stop. I think the truth of the matter was that Madge and I were the same; both of us hot-tempered. If we heard any sort of argument, we’d both rush in, guns blasting, no questions asked. It would be safer for everyone if we stayed back.

  Billy stayed with us. Although he had been down here for a long time, he still had the nervous excitability of a ten year old and would probably make Pig nervous. He was a little put out at first but I knew a way to cure that. I know boys so I asked him to climb as high as he could in a tree to be our lookout. He was happy to do it and it made him feel important. Madge said her goodbyes to Robert and I turned away at their intimacy. We would stay back, hidden in the trees and ready to jump at any sign of trouble. Madge had her bow and I had the old pistol I had used to kill Butcher. I made my way to a fallen tree and sat down.

  “How long do you think it’ll take them to get there?” I asked.

  “Not long, about fifteen minutes,” she answered and came and sat further down the tree.

  “Do you think Cornelius and Emma Lee made it far enough up the mountain?”

  “Probably; Cornelius is pretty stealthy,” she said as she took out a huge hunting knife from the back of her old jeans and started stripping a branch of its leaves. “He’s been around a long time. You don’t do that if you’re not stealthy.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “You know, I never came out here when I lived up there.” That sounded confusing. “I mean, I was such a city girl. The most I ever saw of the great outdoors was in a movie theatre watching a movie with woodsy scenes like Twilight.”

  “Twilight?” she asked.

  “A vampire movie,” I said.

  “Vampires,” she laughed. “People still believe in them?”

  “Yeah, well the movie kind,” I said. “Did they when you lived up there?”

  “Kind of. There was a book, Dracula, I believe it’s called,” she said. “Made a lot of people think creatures like that existed. I never put much stock in it.”

  “Bram Stoker,” I thought out loud.

  “Who?”

  “The guy who wrote Dracula; Bram Stoker,” I said. “Never read it. Not much for reading. Why read when they make it all into movies? Makes it much easier to understand.”

  “You don’t read?” she asked. “People up there are gettin’ kind of lazy aren’t they?”

  “Maybe.” I was offended by what she said but I knew it was true. “We can use our computers pretty good. We have all sorts of technical gadgets that are really advanced. Did you know we can play video games just by moving our bodies now? It’s really cool, you just move your hands and legs and then everything on the screen moves with you.”

  “Video games?” I rolled my eyes and decided it would be too hard to explain it all to her. She was like an alien to my world and I was an alien to hers. The only place we were on an even level was here in this land beneath the real world. I felt a sudden yearning to go home and tried to push it away. Going home seemed impossible now. Instead, Madge and I talked about little things like our houses and gardens, what the winters would be like and how we would prepare for the next 360. That seemed to be their Christmas down here. We talked and talked and before we knew it, thirty minutes had passed.

  Barker had fallen asleep by my feet about ten minutes ago. Then, off in the distance, we heard a loud bang. We both stood and listened for anymore noise. Barker raised his head, perked up his ears and a low growl I had never heard before came from deep in his throat. A couple of huge pine cones fell out of the tree Billy had climbed up earlier and I looked to Madge. She grabbed her bow and propped an arrow in its frame. I grabbed the gun and whispered to Barker to keep quiet. We stood there, tense, waiting for any noise.

  “They’re coming,” said Billy as he jumped from the tree. “Marshal and Robert are running this way.”

  We waited. Marshal and Robert; but where was Sarah? Did she get hurt? If they were running, then things must not have gone well. Madge brought her bow up, ready to shoot anything that came through the trees. I pushed Billy behind me and prepared the gun. My hands were sweaty and shaking but I knew I could shoot straight if I had to. Barker lowered himself down to his belly and kept a slow growl going. I let him as long as he didn’t bark; he wasn’t hurting anyone by growling.

  “Run! Don’t look back, just run!” Robert shouted as he grabbed his wife and flew through the trees. Marshal was right behind him and I saw a look of panic on his face.

  Chapter 10

  “What happened?” I asked. “Where’s Sarah?”

  “No time, Nicky.” Marshal picked up Billy. “Cornelius and Emma Lee blew the dam and shot Pig. Now, run!”

  What the hell? I thought they were just supposed to be lookouts. How the hell did they blow up the dam? Was this the plan all along? Pretend to negotiate while blowing up the dammed river. Good plan but it would have been nice if someone would have told me. I felt anger building inside but there was no time for it. I turned and ran after Marshal, Barker at my heels. I had no idea where I was going; I just made sure to keep close enough to Marshal so I wouldn’t get lost. I gripped the gun in my hand but knew it would be useless if I was caught from behind. There was a commotion up ahead and then I tripped over something and fell flat on my face.

  “Madge?” She must have fallen before me. “Madge are you okay?”

  “Oh, God,” she cried. “Just go! I can’t keep up; my legs won’t run that fast.”

  “No, darling, come on! I’ll help you.” It was Robert coaxing his wife to keep going, a sense of urgency in his voice.

  “I’ll help,” I said. “Come on, Madge, hang on to me.” We both grabbed her under her arms and pulled her up. She must have twisted her ankle when she fell because she cried out in pain as she put weight on it. Barker grabbed a piece of her shirt and pulled her along. She smiled at the dog and seemed to take strength from him. She started to stumble forward, arms around both Robert and me.

  “You are strong,” she said to me. “Robert was right about you.” I took this as a compliment and urged her faster.

  “What happened up there?” I asked Robert as we made our way through the thick trees.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “We were talking to Pig then, all of a sudden, there was a huge explosion. Pig turned to see what had happened and a bullet went right through his head. Cornelius and Emma Lee must have had their own plans.”

  “But how could they?” I asked. “They would have said something.”

  “I don’t know,” he said, “but Marshal was just as surprised as I was by the whole thing. He took off faster than me.”

  “And what about Sarah?” I asked. “Where is she?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “Just before the explosion she excused herself to use the bathroom. I haven’t seen her since.”

  “So, you think Cornelius and Emma knew this was going to happen?” Why would they make plans like this without telling us? “I’m confused!”

  “You and me both,
sweetie,” said Madge. “No wonder that English bastard didn’t want me to come. He must’ve been scared I’d figure out their plan and put a stop to it. This was really stupid. All they’ve done is start a war with Pig’s men.”

  “Well, I suggest we stop talking and keep moving,” said Robert. “They have horses. It won’t be long before they catch up to us, that is, if they get over the shock of losing Pig. I’m not sure they’ll know what to do without him. He’s always been their leader and I don’t think they have anyone strong enough to replace him.”

  We kept going until the woods ended and we were faced with an open field. Marshal and Billy were nowhere in sight and I saw no signs of Cornelius or Emma Lee either. It all seemed so bizarre, like a plan had developed among the others without our knowledge. It made no sense not to tell us, though. It must have been some sort of plan B if the negotiations failed or, maybe, Cornelius and Emma Lee just saw an opportunity and took it. The only sure way to know was to find the others and ask them.

  “Where should we go?” I asked.

  “Well, well, well,” a voice came from the trees to the left and I jumped. “What do we have here? Going for a walk?”

  “Yes, that’s right.” Robert stepped in front of us before we could say anything. I quickly tucked the gun into the back of my jeans and pulled my hoodie down before they could see it. In our rush to get away we had left the rest of our stuff by the fallen tree including Madge’s bow and her knife. Robert never did have a gun; it would have made it hard to negotiate peacefully with a loaded rifle in his hands. “We were out collecting strawberries when we heard an explosion. Scared the hell out of us. My wife tripped and twisted her ankle. Is everything okay?”

  “Is that right?” There were four of them, all dressed like extras from a cheap western movie. They ranged in age from about twenty to forty and they were all men. I knew, without asking, that they were Pig’s men, probably his lookouts. “Seems to me that you all’re runnin’ from something.”