Surviving The Grid (Survival Series Book 1) Read online

  The truck looked new and expensive. It seemed such a waste of material to be left here, a mere carcass of a thing. The metal would have made good additions to their cave, but there was no way he ever was going to dismantle the truck. He made sure that Michelle stayed by the side of the truck as he peered into the driver’s seat and winced. The driver was there, slumped over the wheel. The front of the truck was crumpled. The driver’s lifeless eyes stared at him. Blood had dripped down and crusted on his face in dark lines. His mouth gaped open.

  “There’s no treasure in here,” Darren said, wishing that he could do something more for the man, but he wasn’t about to make Michelle watch while he buried a stranger.

  Darren turned his attention to the back of the truck, which was covered in a black tarp. He closed his eyes and prayed that it wouldn’t be anything disgusting underneath. He unlatched the tarp from the corners of the truck and pulled it back. To his surprise it was mostly empty, aside from something that made him smile.

  He had to hoist himself up to extend his reach, but then grabbed the toolbox. It was sturdy and long. He dragged it toward him, the metal box scraping against the truck bed.

  “What is it?” Michelle asked, curiously.

  “Treasure,” Darren replied with a wide grin.

  He opened the toolbox and saw an array of tools: hammers, screwdrivers, nails, but most importantly, a saw. Darren breathed a sigh of relief, and then felt guilty for stealing a dead man’s property. But, Darren told himself, he would get more use from it than the driver ever would. He clipped the toolbox shut again and then lifted it out of the truck, groaning as he did so.

  Because the toolbox weighed so much, he told Michelle she would have to walk beside him for a little while. She didn’t particularly like that, but he said it in his stern voice, the one that made it clear he wasn’t going to tolerate any arguments.

  He walked back with more of a spring in his step, eager to test out his new tools. The fact that he had taken them from the scene of a vehicle crash was morbid, but practicality had to take priority here. Darren couldn’t let good tools go to waste all for the sake of him feeling unnerved. These things were meant to be used, and if he didn’t take them, someone else would.

  Instead of being depressed about the thought of how many people had died over the course of the night, Darren pictured the cave being turned into a lair, with different rooms and cubby holes for everything they needed. He went back near the cave, away from the truck so that Michelle wouldn’t see the dead body, and began using the saw to cut away at some of the logs. It was back-breaking labor, and his muscles ached, but he was able to ignore it because the image of the bunker was strong in his mind.

  Sweat dripped down his brow and his clothes clung to his skin as he sliced his way through the logs. The smell of wood filled his nostrils, and he made sure that Michelle stayed close by, in his line of sight.

  Before he knew it he was famished and exhausted, and he knew that his arms couldn’t take any more. He had managed to cut a few chunks of wood, which he could lay in the bunker. It wasn’t quite enough for a wall yet, and they would need to be cut more to meet the required dimensions, but it was a start, and it felt as though he had accomplished something. While everyone else in the city would have been running around in a panic like headless chickens Darren had taken matters into his own hands and accomplished something.

  Stacie never would have believed him if he’d told her that one day he was going to do something like this.

  Upon their return to the cave, Darren shared some water and some more food. Michelle scampered around the cave, looking for Brent, imagining that he was playing hide and seek. Darren was concerned that Brent wasn’t back yet. He told himself that he shouldn’t be. Brent was the kind of boy who always would lose track of time. There had been countless evenings when he’d been so engrossed in his game that Darren practically had to drag him down for dinner, yet there was a niggling worry that something had gone wrong.

  It wasn’t as though Darren could go out looking for him either, since he would have to take Michelle with him. And if Brent was in danger, then Darren only would be leading Michelle to the same fate.

  No, it was useless to worry, wasted energy, because Darren couldn’t do anything. If it got dark and Brent still wasn’t back, then he would start making a plan. Brent was a teenage boy with a whole world to explore; he probably was relishing the chance to be alone.

  Darren occupied himself by measuring the dimensions of the cave. It was an arduous process since he didn’t have a tape measure, or paper on which to write things down. Really, it was just to keep him busy while he waited for Brent to return. More often than he would have liked, he turned to the mouth of the cave, looking out in hope of seeing Brent walking in. Dread dripped inside Darren. Thoughts nagged at his mind. He’d lost so much. He couldn’t afford to lose any more.

  It got to the point where Darren was tempted to go outside himself. The tension within him was impossible to ignore and he just couldn’t stay in the cave when there was a chance his son was in danger. His mind was so distracted that he wasn’t getting any work done. Michelle occupied herself with her imagination, but even she noticed Brent’s absence. Darren had to lie to her and say that Brent just was taking his time, but when he did Darren felt a knot in his stomach.

  He knew he wouldn’t be able to wait until darkness. The anxiety ate away at him. He closed his eyes, and was about to tell Michelle that they had to go for another walk when he heard something outside. He instantly went on alert and grabbed the machete, moving between Michelle and the mouth of the cave. There was a groan, the cry of pain as someone stumbled through the brambles, and then Brent’s face as he came inside, hugging the wall of the cave.

  Chapter 14

  Brent looked completely drained. His clothes were torn, his face was red and scratched. His breath was heaving. He staggered into the cave, collapsing on the hard ground. Michelle was shocked, and stayed close to her father. Darren moved toward his son, picking up some water and food to give to him. Brent took the water and greedily gulped it down.

  “What happened to you?” Darren asked.

  Brent shook his head, still panting, catching his breath. Darren’s eyes flicked toward the mouth of the cave in case anyone had been chasing Brent. After all, the boy had been running from something.

  “It’s okay, Brent. You’re safe now,” Darren said. Brent nodded, and when he caught his breath he closed his eyes and started devouring his food.

  “That was not as easy as you said it was going to be,” he mumbled while he chewed on a mouthful of food.

  “Don’t talk with your mouth full. What happened?” Darren asked, glancing toward Michelle, reminding Brent not to say anything that would upset his little sister.

  “It was going fine, up to a point. Everything was quiet. It still was kinda difficult to walk in the mud, but it had started to harden, so it was a lot easier than it had been last night. I followed the direction you said and managed to find the stream. The water there is clear as anything. Tastes good too, very refreshing. I even ended up taking a bath, and I feel a lot better for it.”

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t look better for it.”

  Brent looked down at his torn clothes and rough appearance. He let out a small chuckle.

  “No, well, that’s what happened next. I heard a rustling, so I quickly ran away from the stream and took cover, getting dressed as I did so. I was pretty frightened, and I thought that if I moved, whoever it was might notice me, so I stayed as still as I could.”

  “Who was it?” Darren asked, his throat tightening.

  Could the Follower have tracked them to this location? Darren had hoped the man would have been scared off by the gun shots, but perhaps the Follower had other ideas. A family on the run was a valuable commodity. Vulnerable children, a parent willing to do anything to protect them…if the Follower gained the upper hand on him, he could force Darren to do anything by th
reatening Brent and Michelle.

  “A family, just like us,” Brent said. “Well, mostly like us.”

  “Did you talk with them?” Darren asked, his voice terse.

  “No, I stayed out of sight. I couldn’t hear much of what they were saying, but I think they were out here and were just confused about why their cellphones wouldn’t work. From what I overheard I think they were trying to make it back to the city. They just were stopping off to freshen up. There were four of them, two daughters. One of them looked at me.”

  “What happened?”

  “Nothing, she just stared at me for a few moments, but she didn’t say anything.”

  “So, they didn’t see you? They didn’t do anything?”

  “No, Dad, that’s what I’m trying to tell you. I don’t think that everyone out there is going to be after us. I just…I wanted to tell them not to go back to the city, but I know you wouldn’t have approved.”

  “No, because once they knew we existed they’d want us to offer them shelter, and we just don’t have enough food or enough space for other people. Plus, we don’t really know them. It’s better this way, trust me,” Darren said.

  “Not for them,” Brent muttered.

  Darren ignored his comment. It was all well and good, trying to help strangers, but at what point did it turn into spending too much time helping them and not enough time helping themselves? Darren didn’t want to stretch themselves so thin that they actually brought harm to their new home. The law of the jungle was the only thing that mattered now. People had to look out for themselves.

  “So, what happened to your clothes and face then?” Darren asked, curious to hear why Brent was in such a state if this family was so harmless.

  “Well, after the family left, I waited a little while before I came out of hiding, just in case they were hanging around. But they were out of sight. So, I went back to the stream and I decided to explore the area a little more. It’s like you said. It’s a good place and I wanted to see if I could find anything that could help us. So, I walked and walked for a little while, before I got turned around and had to figure out where I was using the compass. But I was so engrossed in finding my way back that I didn’t hear what was moving behind me.”

  “Who was it?”

  “Not who, what,” Brent said, curling his arms around himself as he thought about the frightening memory. “To be honest, I didn’t even get a good look at it to decide what it was. One glimpse was enough. It seemed huge to me, with big red eyes and sharp teeth.”

  Darren cleared his throat and gestured toward Michelle. Brent nodded in understanding. “It could have been a wolf or a coyote, or it could have just been a massive dog. As soon as I saw it, I turned and ran as fast as I could. I could hear it chasing after me. I was running so fast that I didn’t have a chance to check the compass, and I didn’t recognize anything around. It was fast. I didn’t think I’d make it back here in time.”

  Darren listened with tension in his heart. Even though he knew Brent obviously had made it back alive, the fact that he even had been in this situation in the first place was alarming. Darren couldn’t help but feel as though he should have been there to protect his son.

  “How did you escape?”

  “I don’t know, really. I mean, I don’t know what was going through my mind. I can’t remember what I was thinking about, only that I needed to run as quickly as I could. I ended up seeing the trees around me. I knew that eventually the animal would catch up with me if I didn’t do something, so I found a tree with a low branch and hauled myself up. There was a point I didn’t think I was going to make it because my arms were burning from yesterday, and the animal was snapping at my heels,” Brent said, rubbing his arms, “but I got out of reach. It stayed there, though, looking up at me, barking, waiting for me to fall.”

  “Maybe it wanted to play,” Michelle said.

  “Maybe,” Brent replied with a wry smile, which was all for the benefit of his sister. Darren could tell that Brent had been shaken by the ordeal.

  “How did you get rid of it?” Darren asked.

  “I didn’t…I looked around for some pebbles or something to throw at it, but I had nothing on the branch. I knew that if I left it would have me, and I’m sure it knew that. So, I just waited and waited, hating the thought of night coming in and falling asleep. It wasn’t like the branch was very big. All I wanted was to get a hold of you, but I couldn’t.”

  Brent looked down at the ground and his voice grew small. Even though he was fourteen now, he was still Darren’s little boy, and despite all the growing up he had had to do over the last year with the responsibility that had been thrust upon him, he was still so young.

  Darren placed a fatherly hand on Brent’s shoulder, squeezing slightly. He told Michelle to go tidy up the cans of food and sort them by color, just to keep her busy while he and Brent had a father-to-son chat.

  “How did you get down?” Darren asked.

  “I don’t know if it just got bored of waiting or if it smelled some easier prey, but it ran away. I couldn’t move for a long time afterward, so afraid that it was just a ploy to get me to come down. Eventually, I did, though, and I ran straight back here as fast as I could. I’m so afraid that it’s going to come after me. I can’t believe how stupid I was, getting afraid because of some animal,” Brent said in a harsh tone.

  “Hey, it’s not stupid at all. It’s okay to be afraid. It’s just human.”

  “No, it’s not. Heroes don’t get afraid. They just do what they need to do,” Brent said.

  “Heroes aren’t heroes because they don’t get scared, Brent. They’re heroes because they get scared, but they do the things they do anyway. It happens to all of us, and from what you’ve told me you handled things about as well as you could have done. You showed some quick thinking by climbing that tree.”

  “I was stupid. I didn’t even think about the knife at the time,” he said.

  “It’s probably better that you didn’t try to fight it off with a knife. You’d have been playing right into its hands, getting close like that.”

  “When we were walking through the woods last night I thought I could handle this world, but at the first sign of trouble I just crumble. I don’t know how to read a compass, and as soon as I saw danger I ran.”

  “Sometimes that’s the best play. It won’t always happen. I’m sure that I would have done the same as you in your situation. Brent, please don’t be too hard on yourself. Life is a process of growth. It’s full of experiences that you learn from. I know that I’ve asked a lot of you over the past year or so, and in some ways you’ve grown up more quickly than you should have, but you’re still young. Don’t give yourself a hard time because of it.”

  “It’s easy for you to say. You know exactly what you’re doing,” Brent said. Darren’s eyebrow rose in surprise.

  “I might give that impression, but one of the secrets about adulthood is that none of us really know what’s going on. We just try doing our best. I’m scared all the time. I was scared for you when you were out there alone, and I’m scared now, thinking that somebody could be creeping around outside. And I will tell you the most scared I’ve ever been was when you were born.”

  “Why?” Brent asked, perplexed.

  “Because I was bringing a new life into the world. I was going to be responsible for you, and it was a hell of a thing to think about. I just kept imagining all the things that could have gone wrong, all the mistakes I could have made. When you were born, you were so small, so vulnerable, and the world seemed so big. Anything could have happened to you, and I didn’t know how I was going to cope.”

  “How did you cope?”

  “By taking it day by day. It’s just one of those things where when you look at the whole part, and it’s overwhelming, so you have to ignore that and just focus on what you’re doing in the here and now. It’s like this whole situation. Thinking about everything that can go wrong is too much. So, we just have to focus on the l
ittle things we can do, and as long as we stay focused and calm, we should be able to get through it. You should be proud of the way you handled things today. It showed real intelligence.”

  Brent smiled at Darren’s praise, but he still seemed troubled.

  “What else is on your mind?” Darren asked, knowing that Brent wouldn’t divulge it unless he was asked.

  “It’s about the family I saw,” he said.

  “I know that was scary too, but I’m sure they’re doing fine.”

  “I’m not. Look, I get why you don’t want us to go out and talk to strangers. But when it’s people like that…I don’t know, I just feel bad for letting them go back into the city after what you told me.”

  “I know. It’s a hard decision to make, but we have to think about how everything is going to affect us. People are going to be desperate. They’re going to do whatever they can to get ahead, and I don’t want the two of you placed in harm’s way because of it.”

  “But what if we were in their shoes? Wouldn’t you want someone to warn us?” Darren didn’t have a response for that, so Brent continued speaking. “Sometimes I’m just afraid that we’re going to be so focused on ourselves that we forget there are other people around. There is a whole world out there, and not everyone is going to be our enemy.”

  “I know that, and I promise that once we get more settled here I’ll be more open to meeting new people. But for the time being I think it’s safer if we keep to ourselves and focus on the essentials. If we come across anyone else, maybe we’ll tell them what’s happened, if they don’t seem like a threat, but I don’t want them to learn about this place. Not yet. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Brent mumbled.

  For now, Darren’s word was law, but Brent was finding his own voice, challenging Darren. If it got worse, Darren could have a mutiny on his hands. He would have to ensure that the family was kept together, and if that meant that he had to be a little more flexible in his views, then so be it.