Into the Outside: A POST APOCALYPTIC NOVEL Read online

  Isabella finished chewing a piece of tomato she had just put in her mouth, swallowed and paused yet another moment before answering. “I had a lot of reasons. I wanted to get out of my boring life. I am fascinated by the Outside and wanted to see it for myself. There are more important reasons as well… but honestly… the real reason I left was because I fell in love with Malcolm.”

  At that point, Isabella turned to face her husband seated next to her and although she was still answering Oberon’s question, her gaze was locked on the man she loved. “I just couldn’t see any future for me that didn’t include him.”

  Violet sighed and muttered something about young love. Both of her son’s, Lake and Oak, giggled and Violet bestowed a disapproving stare on them. The boys had wolfed down all the food they were going to fit inside their growing bodies and were clearly getting antsy at the table now.

  “Git! The two of you, git out!” she half-shouted at the four and five-year old boys. But she smiled lovingly as she said it.

  Shia asked Malcolm if she and Andra could go outside too and Malcolm nodded his consent. The only child to remain at the kitchen table was Davin.

  Violet asked the little boy, “Did you eat enough, Davin? There are more eggs if you’d like some. I’ll put some on your plate.”

  But Davin only shook his head and remained sitting quietly in the chair that was way too big for his little body.

  “It’s okay. You can stay here with the big people,” said Violet. The little boy smiled weakly and remained in his seat, watching and listening to the conversation.

  Malcolm finished his breakfast and put down his fork. Isabella could tell by his furrowed brow that he was considering something important. Perhaps he wanted to give the Telemark leader the warning now about the government’s future plans.

  But she was wrong. Malcolm said instead, “This is exactly the kind of place I’ve been wanting to find for my tribe. Would you accept us permanently if my tribe votes to stay?”

  Oberon nodded and gave an instant response. “Telemark is the best community you will find anywhere in this part of the world. Our lives aren’t always easy, of course. It takes a lot of hard work to maintain this village, but it’s a safe place for our kids. There is always food and shelter. If you are willing to contribute, then we hope you will choose to stay here.”

  “Hard work is not a problem for us,” replied Malcolm. “Isabella and I will discuss it, then talk to the rest of our tribe and let you know what everyone’s decision is.”

  Oberon looked puzzled. “You can’t decide for them?”

  “No,” replied Malcolm. “We vote on important matters like this.”

  Isabella smiled at Malcolm before eating the last bite of the herb-infused scrambled eggs. Democracy made her happy. If he was the type of person who autocratically made every decision, she never would have fallen in love with him.

  As she swallowed the last of the meal, it finally dawned on her that the basil and oregano she tasted in the eggs didn’t come from a re-supply vehicle like at home in her shelter. “Do you have an herb garden?” she asked Violet.

  “Yes, out in the backyard. Do you know much about gardening?”

  “Do I ever! We had a hydroponics garden at the shelter where I grew up and if I do say so myself, I was the best in my family with plants. Maybe I can be of some use to Telemark if we stay.”

  * * *

  By the middle of the next morning Luke came upon an abandoned campsite near a narrow stream. He walked the perimeter of the site, scouting around to verify that the campsite was indeed deserted. He didn’t see anyone or anything nearby, and what was left of a campfire was stone cold. Luke couldn’t tell how long the place had been abandoned.

  He settled himself down on the ground and unfolded his map on a stump to determine his location. Luke had carefully marked his progress on the map, starting at his family’s shelter in Allenville. As best he could tell, he was in a little town a couple miles north of home. If this was indeed the town of Chester, the only thing left in it was a few dilapidated houses. Tall trees had grown up everywhere, taking over civilization after the people had died. The canopy overhead begrudgingly let in a sliver of light where he sat.

  Luke examined the clearing in the woods. There were holes in the dirt around level, flat areas where tents must have been. He reasoned that if whoever had planted the tent stakes that made those holes had left the area more than a few days ago, the holes would have filled in from rain and mud. In the ashes of the cooking fire Luke found the discarded bones of an animal they had undoubtedly eaten. He wondered what type of animal it had been. Luke had never eaten meat.

  He was about to continue on his way when he noticed a narrow passage through the trees. Footprints went in both directions. A small set of prints embedded in the soil may have been from a child’s feet. Those prints lay alongside a set of larger, deeper prints that appeared to have been made by boots, along with a medium pair of what was clearly sneaker imprints. He knew that pattern of tread well – it looked just like his own shoe prints, only smaller. Isabella? But the boot prints confused him – did mutants wear boots? He had seen the naked savages in the pool and naturally assumed they were barely clothed when they were out of the water as well. But it looked like he was wrong – these were, without a doubt, deep-treaded hiking boots, like the ones his fictional hero Jon Bjork always wore, and apparently mutants did too. If these footprints were made by mutants, then it was a good bet that this was the tribe Isabella was traveling with. Those sneaker prints all but confirmed it in Luke’s mind.

  All the sneakers his family wore were identical. They came from the annual re-supply shipment the government sent them. Although it was possible that one of those shipments to another shelter had been diverted and stolen by some mutants, Luke thought it was rather clear that he was truly on Isabella’s trail. He hoped.

  Luke made his way carefully down the narrow path and came upon another extinguished campfire circle. This one was ringed with rocks and the rocks were still warm. The fire had only been out a few hours. Maybe this fire was burning last night, Luke contemplated. Could it be that he was only a day behind the tribe? Maybe he would catch up to Izz today and in a couple of days they could both be safely back in the compound!

  The trail continued past the campfire and Luke instinctively leapt behind a bush when he heard coughing. Someone was there, and it sounded like they were just a few yards ahead of him on the trail. Luke held still and remained hidden. Through the branches of the trees ahead of him, he saw movement. It appeared to be a girl. She was about his age, maybe a little younger, but he could already tell it wasn’t Isabella. This girl was short and stocky, with long stringy chestnut hair. She also was either choking or very ill. The coughing continued; a nasty, rattling, hacking sound that shook her body with each successive cough. The girl fell to her knees, convulsing and throwing up.

  When it ended, she somehow pushed herself off the ground and stumbled to the entrance of a small cave. Luke followed, keeping out of sight. He was aware that never having been exposed to diseases, his immune system probably couldn’t handle anything out here in the Outside world. What if I’ve already caught it? What have I done? he wondered. I’m gonna die chasing after my idiot sister!

  Luke was startled when he heard a very strange noise at his feet. Meow! Meow! He looked down and before he could figure out what it was, a small, furry, black creature rubbed up against his legs. He jumped back in surprise. It was only a cat! He had read about them, but actually seeing one just now almost shocked him out of his shorts. The distraction of the cat had momentarily taken his mind off the coughing girl.

  “Who are you?” demanded a voice from behind him.

  Luke jumped back again, nearly losing his balance and darted ten feet away from her, positioning a large tree between them. The young girl stood her ground, and placing her hands on her hips, asked again, “I asked who you are! Answer me!”

  “M…m…my name is Luke,” he managed
to stammer. “Stay back! I don’t want to catch whatever you’ve got.” Maybe he should have said please, but this was only a mutant.

  “I don’t want to give it to your or anyone else. Why do you think I’m alone in the woods? I have the wasting disease. I didn’t expect to see anyone else out here after I sent my children away and you surprised me. Where is the rest of your tribe?”

  “Tribe? You mean my family? I’m traveling alone. I live in an underground shelter. How can you have kids? You can’t be any older than me!” asked Luke. There was no way this sick young girl could be any older than his own sixteen years. Maybe she just might be old enough to have a baby, but she had said “children.” She had more than one, and they weren’t infants.

  “I have two children,” the girl explained, “but I didn’t want them to be left alone when I die, so I sent them away with a passing tribe. Are you really from a shelter?”

  Luke nodded, trying to digest not only how she could have two kids, but how she could just give them away to some tribe passing through.

  “I thought those were just campfire stories told by old women. So you people really do exist. I never actually believed those stories but it really doesn’t matter anymore. It doesn’t change the fact that I’m still going to die. We really shouldn’t talk anymore. I might spread the wasting disease to you. Take care shelter-boy.” She turned and began walking back to her cave.

  Luke headed back toward the path he had been following along the narrow stream but then stopped suddenly. “Wait, just a minute,” he shouted to the girl before she disappeared. “I need to ask you an important question. Was there a girl with long brown, wavy hair with that tribe? A shelter-girl?”

  “I didn’t realize she was a shelter-girl, but yes, there was a girl with the tribe who had said she wasn’t a mutant. Her name was Isabella. She promised to take care of my Andra and Davin.”

  “She’s my sister! Tell me which way they went. It’s important that I find her. She’s in danger. I have to find them.”

  The sick young woman pointed to her right. “They went northeast, toward Dover. It’s an old city. Be careful, Luke. There are many dangers out here. Eaters. Tigers. Your sister knows what waits. I warned their leader. Now I’m warning you.”

  Luke wondered if he should tell the mutant girl about the rest of the dangers. About the plan the government had for the mutants. But she probably didn’t even know what a government was. And if she knew the truth, she might want to come along to save her children. It was best he kept his information secret.

  “Who are the Eaters? And why are there tigers in New Jersey?” Luke sat down near the extinguished fire pit, but he kept a cautious distance from the sick girl, while she answered all his questions from the other side of the ring of rocks.

  “Back in the old time, before the wars, people kept all kinds of animals for pets. In their homes, in zoo cages and in some kind of parks – the old woman in our tribe called them ‘safaris.’ People took care of them, but after the Final War, most of the animals died from chemicals or starvation, except a few that broke out of their cages and survived. Our storyteller said tigers survived because they are extraordinarily adaptable creatures. Since then, they’ve multiplied and now roam the woods,” explained the mutant girl.

  Tigers roaming wild in the woods of New Jersey! Luke had some trouble digesting that information but finally asked, “And the Eaters? Who or what are they?”

  “Vicious creatures. Some say they were human once, but not anymore. They eat people! They are old and blind. One person alone in the woods might be safe, but groups they can smell. That’s what happened to my tribe – they smelled us coming. And there were too many of them and not enough of us. We fought and fought, but they were unkillable. Now my tribe is gone, I’ve voluntarily sent my children away and I’m dying.”

  She began coughing again and Luke hurried to get away from her. He didn’t know what to do for her anyway. All he could do was say, “Take care of yourself and good luck. I’ve got to get on my way and find them,” as he headed urgently back to the main trail.

  As Luke settled his heavy backpack on his shoulders and started out for Dover, he ran all the things the girl told him through his head. An hour later, it occurred to him that he hadn’t even asked her name.

  He had a lot to think about. Izz was with a mutant tribe and they had taken on two young children – the sick girl’s kids. What kind of weird world had fifteen-year-old parents? She must have been very young when she had them. He tried to imagine himself a father. No way! He had never even had a girlfriend, not even kissed a girl. Mom and Granmama don’t count, he thought. But he would like to kiss a girl.

  As he walked along he thought, Someday, when I get back home, the government will send me to live with another shelter family and I’ll finally get a girl.

  But first he had to find Isabella and get them both back home to safety. If Isabella got caught up in the government’s plan for the mutants, she would wind up dead. He couldn’t let that happen, even if their grandfather didn’t care. And he must not care – if he did, he would have gone after her. Luke still had trouble believing his own grandfather would allow Izz to come to harm. All he had done, his whole life, was take care of his family; keep them safe. He reminded them all the time. And Izz was his favorite. But when it came time to face real danger to keep one of them safe, he didn’t have the guts. His grandfather was just a coward. Just an old coward.

  “Right! Hiding in a shelter your whole life isn’t very brave, is it? Is it Granpapa?” he shouted his question into the woods, marginally aware that shouting at trees wasn’t very useful.

  Sixteen

  Once breakfast was over, Violet and Oberon escorted their guests to the front porch. There were six fairly comfortable wooden chairs there and the four of them each took a seat, Isabella holding Davin in her lap. She hoped that she could convince the little boy to join the other children once he saw them having fun playing in the yard.

  As they talked, Isabella discovered that not only did Violet have an herb garden, but most of the houses in Telemark did. And for those who weren’t very good at growing herbs, they could trade for them on market day.

  “What’s market day?” asked Malcolm, always eager to learn.

  “Oh, I read about market day in a book about the Amish,” said Isabella excitedly. Finally, some of her book knowledge was coming to use out here!

  “You can read?” asked Oberon, his eyes glimmering and softening up his scary reptilian face.

  “Of course she can!” said Malcolm proudly. “She reads to us every evening. She’s very good at it.”

  Now everyone was talking at once. Isabella had wanted to learn about Telemark but instead found that the conversation had turned to focus on herself.

  The four children were playing a game of tag in the grass right below the porch. Suddenly they all ran up the steps following Shia. Apparently Shia was “it.”

  Violet’s younger son stopped chasing Malcolm’s daughter and asked excitedly, “Can you read to us?”

  “Please Isabella?” interjected their older boy.

  Violet said, “If you could teach me how to read I can read to all the children.”

  The requests came at her rapid fire. Even Isabella’s ‘own’ children chimed in with requests for reading lessons, something they hadn’t shown an interest in until now. Of course, they hadn’t been anywhere they could sit long enough to even start learning until Telemark.

  Isabella didn’t know who to answer first and wasn’t sure what to say anyway. She sat there with her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open.

  At that point, Oberon stepped in and quieted everyone. As village leader, he had mastered the skill of reading people and their emotions and Isabella knew he understood how overwhelmed she suddenly felt. “I’m sorry Isabella. We got carried away. We’ve never met anyone who could actually read. We’ve got people here from all over, even Violet who traveled all the way from Virginia as a child, yet after mee
ting so many people in my life, I’ve begun to believe that the skill of reading was lost forever. We have a carefully guarded collection of hundreds of books in Telemark but no one can read them. But they have been stored and displayed in a building we turned into a library, in hopes that one day they could be deciphered and we could learn what’s in them.”

  Now that the clamoring had settled down and Isabella wasn’t being besieged with questions, she was able to think and answer their questions. “I’ve never been a teacher and it takes time to learn to read. It took me years and years to learn when I was just a little kid. I could try to teach you all how to read. If we stay for a while that is.”

  Oberon replied, “Maybe you could start a school, or at least a classroom, to teach a small group of people.”

  Isabella considered his idea and said, “I don’t know how long we’ll be here. I’ll be happy to read to you what I can while we are here, and then we can see about teaching a few people; Maybe a small classroom of children.”

  Violet’s eyes sparkled in the delightfully friendly manner she had and she replied for all of them. “Thank you Isabella.”

  At that point Oberon sent his two boys into the kitchen to clean up the breakfast mess. At four and five years old, these boys were more akin to eight or ten year old shelter children. Dishes were a natural chore for them.

  Malcolm said, “Girls, go with Lake and Oak and help out. You can do your share while we are guests here.”

  Shia replied, “Yes Papa.” She and Andra went in the house, and Isabella was surprised that Davin jumped off her lap and went indoors with the other children. She didn’t think a two year old could help clean up a kitchen, but she was pleased that he at least wanted to be with the other children.