Withstanding The Odds (Survival Series Book 2) Read online

  “You could have just asked.”

  “I don’t think you would have let us in. Besides, we weren’t quite sure how many of you there were. We saw another family, and we didn’t know if the two of you were working together.”

  “Well, now you know.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “If you’re going to get this justice you think you deserve, then go ahead and do it. I’m tired of talking. Do what you like to me, just leave my kids out of it. They don’t deserve any of this. I was the one who killed your friends. I should be the one punished,” Darren said.

  “The thing is, that’s not really a punishment, is it? You’ll be dead, but you won’t really be hurt or scarred. On the other hand, if I take something you really care about…”

  Darren cursed at him and shook his whole body in an effort to get away, but it didn’t help. It only served to amuse Goatee. Darren stopped when he realized the only thing he was doing was entertaining Goatee.

  “You know, maybe there’s a reason I killed your friends,” Darren said. Now it was Goatee’s turn to scowl.

  “This is a new world. Everything has to change. Like you said, there’s a new pecking order, and I might not be top of the food chain, but at least I’m on the food chain. It seems to me like the weak are getting culled from the population and only the strong are going to be left to inherit the Earth. Your friends just weren’t strong enough, and sure, maybe I’m not either, but I very much doubt you are. There’s always a bigger fish, and it’s only a matter of time before one of them comes and gobbles you up. I think your friends were just too weak to live. They deserved to die, and right now all you’re doing is just wasting time, so get it over with and get on with your life. I’m okay with my place in the world. Are you?”

  Darren could see the anger simmering within Goatee. The man’s brow furrowed and his grip tightened on the gun.

  “They’re nothing now. Neither are you,” Darren added.

  That seemed to be the last straw for Goatee. He shoved the gun in the small of his back, preferring to assault Darren with his fists, enjoying the sheer brutality of it. He took a hold of Darren’s neck and began pummeling Darren’s face. Darren tried bracing himself for the pain, but there was no way to prepare himself for the shocking and savage attack. Goatee was using his face as a punching bag. Blood poured from Darren’s lips and nose. His vision went groggy, but it was better that he endured the pain rather than it being put onto his children.

  “No, stop!” Michelle said.

  Goatee didn’t even hear her. He punched Darren in the mouth and the stomach. Darren felt the air rush out of his lungs. He tried shifting his position to deflect the impact of the blows, but because he was restrained it was difficult to do so.

  “Michelle!” Brent called.

  Through his hazy vision Darren saw Michelle running up to Goatee. He groaned. She peppered his legs with blows from her tiny fists. It was like a mouse attacking a dragon. Goatee snarled at her and pushed her away. She fell onto her behind and started crying. Brent ran up and gathered her up. Darren exchanged a look with him. Brent seemed to know what it meant. He pulled Michelle out of harm’s way, but not before reaching behind Goatee and plucking the gun away.

  Goatee rolled up his sleeves. He was so focused on Darren that he hadn’t noticed Brent. He was blind to everything but the red mist falling before his eyes. His chest was heaving, and sweat glistened on his forehead.

  “Getting tired already?” Darren taunted. Then he coughed out blood.

  “You’ve got a smart mouth on you. I hope you haven’t taught your kids that because it’s going to get them into trouble.”

  “They know how to handle themselves.”

  “I hope so, for their sake, because I’m done with you. You’re more trouble than you’re worth. But before I kill you, I’m going to tell you exactly what I’m going to do with your kids, just so you can have the image in your mind before you die. After I kill you, I’m going to take your kids out in the wild and leave them there, just so they know they don’t deserve a place in this world. Then I’m going to make this my new home. I’m going to take all your food and all your equipment, and I’m going to keep it for myself. Then, I’m going to lie in wait for other people just like you and steal their stuff. I’m going to cause a lot of people a whole lot of pain, and it’s all thanks to you. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have this opportunity. So, I thank you, and now it’s time for you to die.”

  Goatee had a smug look on his face as he reached around to his lower back. That look evaporated when he realized the gun wasn’t there. Shock was etched on his face as he turned around and saw Brent holding the gun. The barrel was pointed straight at him. Goatee held his hands and changed his demeanor completely.

  “Now listen, son, we don’t need to do this. Let’s just take it easy. A kid like you shouldn’t be holding a weapon like that. Your dad and I were just having a little disagreement. I’m sure we can work something out.” He stepped forward, putting his hand out ready to take the gun, “I’m just teaching you all a lesson about what it takes to survive in this world. Put down the gun and I’ll--”

  He never had a chance to finish his sentence.

  “You hurt my sister,” Brent said.

  He pulled the trigger. The air cracked as three shots were fired, each of them finding their target in Goatee’s body. Goatee jerked as the shots impacted his chest. The first one found his shoulder, the next one was buried in his stomach, and the last found the middle of his chest. He doubled over and then fell to the ground with his dead friends. Blood sprayed over the walls, and he gurgled as he took his last breaths. His eyes were lodged open, staring up at the ceiling of the cave.

  Brent was in shock, his face white as a sheet. His hands trembled. Darren spat out blood and breathed a sigh of relief, leaning his head against the rock behind him.

  “Michelle, come and untie me,” he said.

  Michelle looked scared too. She was holding Applejack tightly to her chest, and it took him repeating the command for her to listen to him, but she eventually came over. Her small hands struggled with the tight knot, but eventually Darren felt it loosen, and he pulled his hands away.

  “Brent, you did so good,” Darren said, rushing to his son and taking the gun away from his shaking hands.

  “You both did,” Darren said, looking down at Michelle. He hugged and kissed them both. It had been quite an ordeal, and Darren wasn’t sure how the kids were going to deal with it.

  “I’m proud of you both. I couldn’t have done this without you. You really showed that you have what it takes to make it through this world. You’re both strong, brave, and I’m so proud of you. I love you. That was a difficult situation. I know it was hard for you. It was hard for me too, but we made it through. We did it, guys. We defended our home,” Darren said. He knew he had to try putting a positive spin on it for their sake.

  Michelle reached out a hand, tentatively touching the bruises and welts on his face.

  “Does it hurt?” she asked.

  “Yes, it does,” Darren said, smiling at the naïveté of the question. He licked his lips and felt the broken, cracked skin. He was glad there wasn’t a mirror hanging on the wall, for he was sure he must have been a gruesome sight. “But I’ll be okay. He didn’t hurt me too badly.”

  Darren hated lying to his kids, but sometimes it was necessary. This had been traumatic enough. He didn’t need to make it any worse. As far as he could tell nothing was seriously damaged. He was bruised and battered, but as he tested his body, he didn’t think anything was broken, it just would ache when he moved, which had been happening anyway.

  He glanced toward Brent, who still hadn’t said anything. The teenager just was staring at Goatee’s body. Darren told Michelle to go guard the entrance to the cave. He was confident nobody else was out there, so it wasn’t a dangerous job, and he needed some time alone with his son.

  As soon as she was out of earshot Darren placed his hand on Brent’s shoulder and moved into his field of vision, making it so he couldn’t stare at Goatee’s body. Brent was still as white as a sheet and looked paralyzed. Darren wasn’t sure if Brent really had listened to anything he had said.

  “Brent, look at me. Brent, is anyone in there?” Darren said playfully. It took a few moments, but eventually Brent’s eyes blinked and he looked Darren squarely in the eye.

  “I can’t take it back, Dad. I can’t take it back.”

  Darren felt Brent’s weight sink to the ground. Darren caught him and held him close, embracing him tightly. “It’s okay, Son, I know it’s hard, but you did the right thing. He was going to hurt us. He was going to hurt the family. You did what you had to do and I’m proud of you for that.”

  “I killed a man, Dad…” Brent said in a faltering voice.

  Darren lowered him to the ground so they both were sitting down. The two of them stared at Goatee’s fallen body. While he had been walking through the city, Darren had been asking himself how far he would go to protect his kids. When they had been followed and he had fired in the air he knew he was prepared to kill in self-defense, but Brent hadn’t asked himself the same questions. It was unfair to ask someone so young to carry that burden.

  But the deed had been done, and there was nothing Darren could do now other than take care of his son as best he could and try helping him through this trauma.

  “We’ll get through this, Son, together.”

  “How, Dad?” Brent asked.

  There were a lot of times when his kids had asked him questions that he didn’t know the answer to, but this one was perhaps the most difficult.

  “Brent, I know that we’ve taught you certain values in life, and one of those is that killing is wrong. The world we live in now, howeve
r, has different laws. There are going to be people like this who want to harm us just because they can, and it’s up to us to defend ourselves. I’m sorry you had to do that. I wish I could have done something more, but I’m really proud of you. When you needed to act, you did. You kept the promise you made so long ago, do you remember, when Michelle was born?”

  “To protect her.”

  “Exactly, and you protected me as well. I know it’s confusing that some things can be both right and wrong in different situations, and it’s good that you’re feeling terrible about it because killing someone never should be done lightly. It means you’re a responsible, good person. You were put into a horrible situation and you did the only thing you could. You protected the people you love. I couldn’t ask for any more from you. Just remember that when you feel bad, okay? And you’ve got me and Michelle here. I’m here to talk about anything if you need to. But if you don’t, then that’s okay too.”

  Brent nodded. Darren kissed him on the forehead and brought him in for another hug. Then he called Michelle over and the three of them embraced each other tightly. This world certainly took no prisoners, and innocence was one of the first things to go.

  Darren thought grimly about the extent of his efforts to keep the idea of Santa Claus alive for his children. It was darkly humorous that Michelle still believed, even though she had to witness three men dying, and her father tied up and beaten. The rules for parenting had gone out the window, and he wasn’t entirely sure how to cope with it. All he could do was the same thing he had done after Stacie had left; hold his kids close and tell them that he loved them as often as he could.

  Chapter Three

  The mood in the cave was glum and tense. Darren didn’t know how long they had been sitting on the ground, but it was about time they started moving again. They all had been through a lot, but it was important to keep busy so they didn’t have to dwell on the night’s events, and there were many things to take care of.

  The cave’s door had splintered upon impact but was intact enough that it could be salvaged and used for something else. The blood on the walls and ground was gruesome, and needed to be cleaned. The bodies had to be moved as well before they started rotting, and the stench of death filled the cave. If there had been other options, Darren would have suggested they move and find somewhere else to stay, but the unknown was terrifying. He doubted they would find anywhere as safe as the cave anyway. Although, as he looked down at the dead bodies he wondered how safe this place truly was.

  Clapping his hands as he stood up, he ignored the pain flaring through his body and set his kids to work. Brent was less eager than Michelle, still shaken from having killed a man. Darren hoped it was just a matter of time before he was able to return to being as close to Brent as he always had been. He’d never be the Brent he was before, though. It was impossible to do something like that and come out as the same person on the other side. But Darren had faith in his son, and faith in his skills as a parent too. Faith that Brent would be able to cope with this, and would grow into a strong and determined young man.

  The next few days would be difficult, though. Darren would have to keep a closer eye on him than usual.

  Hauling the bodies outside was a morbid task. Darren closed the men’s eyes, so they weren’t looking up at him and Brent, and dragged the three outside, with Brent’s help. Darren made sure to drag Goatee’s body out himself, knowing that it would be too traumatic for Brent to do so.

  Darren strained to drag the bodies outside. The men were incredibly heavy, and it took a great deal of effort to take them out to the entrance. They couldn’t be left there, though.

  “Do we bury them?” Brent asked.

  “With what?” Darren replied.

  He wished he had picked up a shovel from the store, but it hadn’t occurred to him at that moment. He supposed he could make coffins, but that would take a lot of labor, and it wouldn’t deal with the problem of the bodies decomposing. Aside from being horrible to look at, it also would affect their health and safety.

  Once the three bodies were outside, Darren told Brent to go back inside and help Michelle clean up the place. Darren didn’t want his kids around the corpses. The sooner they put this behind them the better, if they ever would be able to forget about this.

  Darren planted his hands on his hips as he looked down at the three bodies. He shook his head.

  “I hope you’re happy,” he muttered. This all seemed such a waste. If they hadn’t been so hell bent on causing violence, none of this would have happened. “Why couldn’t you have just left me alone?”

  Darren pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried thinking about what to do with them. In the end, there seemed to be only one option. Before he did anything else, though, Darren searched the bodies. They didn’t have much in the way of anything useful on them. There were some wallets with some worthless cash, tobacco, and one of them had a flask. One whiff of that told Darren that it was some incredibly strong liquor.

  The only thing of note that he found was a picture of Long Hair and a young girl, who Darren presumed to be his daughter. He thought about all the other families who had been torn apart in this world. Darren didn’t have any love lost for the men, but he did pity the girl, who probably was wondering what had happened to her father.

  She never would know.

  While Darren stood over them he couldn’t help but feel pride in himself and his family for what they had accomplished. They had dealt with a dangerous threat, and he was left feeling confident they could deal with anything else this world could throw at them. They already had survived this long, no doubt longer than many other people. And as long as they took it one day at a time, Darren was confident they would continue to thrive. The more days they spent in this world, the less scary it became.

  For a few moments Darren considered just how he was going to get the bodies to the stream, as that was the only place he could think to deposit them safely. He didn’t want just to leave them for anyone or any predators to find. He wanted to get them as far away as possible so he and his family could forget about this dark chapter of their lives.

  As much as killing Goatee had affected Brent, killing the other two had affected Darren as well. He heard the words he said to Brent and believed them, but it was another thing to accept that he had killed two men. There was a hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach, and he felt remorse that it had come to this. He kept telling himself that they had made the first move by invading his home and he only was defending himself. Still, three men were dead, and that wasn’t something to be celebrated.

  The emotions that surged through him were tumultuous and confusing. On the one hand he was proud, on the other he was remorseful, and the only way any of them could move on would be to get these bodies out of sight and out of mind. To that end, Darren went back into the cave and got the splintered door and the rope.

  “Do you need any help, Dad?” Brent asked.

  “I’ll be okay, Son. You just stay here and look after your sister,” he said.

  Brent nodded mutely. The wood they had used for the door had been damaged, but it was wide enough to hold all three bodies if he positioned them correctly. Darren rolled them onto the wood. It was not exactly dignified, but considering the kind of men they were it didn’t seem wrong to pay them so little respect.

  He ended up stacking them in a mini-pyramid, with Goatee face down on top of the other two. Then, he fastened the rope to a convenient hole in the wood and tied a knot securely to hold it in place. He pulled the rope over his shoulder and began heaving, grunting hard as he dragged the bodies away from the cave.

  Darren sweated profusely, for the bodies were extremely heavy. His tired and wounded body was hurting all over, but he couldn’t leave this duty to Brent. He sucked up the pain as his limbs shook and told himself that soon it all would be over. Just one more step, that was all it took, just one more step.

  Darren dragged the bodies through the forest. It seemed a much longer journey to the stream when dragging these bodies behind him than it actually was. Each minute seemed to last a lifetime, and there were a few moments when it felt as though his arms were going to be wrenched from their sockets, but in the end he managed to make it to the stream.