Райан Уэстфилд - Finding Shelter

Slow, steady breaths. Her adrenaline was already spiking. She didn’t want to let it interfere if she had to shoot.

As far as she could tell, the man’s hands were empty. He turned them now, making a point of showing her his empty palms.

He was a thin man. He had the look of someone who had lost a lot of weight in a short time. Not too healthy looking.

“Don’t shoot!” he called out.

His voice was a little hoarse.

He didn’t sound like a bad guy. Nothing bad in his voice. But Sadie, even though she was young, had been through enough to know that it didn’t mean anything. Appearances could be deceiving.

Sadie was keenly aware that she might be walking into a trap. Her eyes didn’t leave the man for long, but they did dart around, looking to see if there were signs of anyone else present.

If there were someone else, they could easily be hidden. Behind a log. Behind a tree. Simply lying on the ground might make them invisible to Sadie. And, as she knew well from her mother, a man with a rifle and a scope could be quite far away and still in range.

But if that were the case, what was the point of setting up a trap like this? It wouldn’t have made sense.

If there were a rifleman that wanted to shoot her, he could have just shot her from a distance, without all the complications of having a man standing there with his hands in the air.

So it probably wasn’t that kind of trap.

But it still could have been a trap.

“Why aren’t you speaking?” shouted Sadie, her voice rising a little. She was keenly aware that her voice was that of a child, rather than an adult. “What do you want?”

“Nothing,” said the man, his voice cracking a little. He sounded hoarse, as if he hadn’t spoken in a long time, or as if he’d gone through some kind of extreme stress.

Sadie was stumped. She was silent. Thinking.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” shouted the man.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” said Sadie.

She took a few slow steps forward. Her idea was to get closer to the man. Better chance at a good shot, if she had to shoot him. And a better chance of seeing if he was up to something.

“Look,” said the man. “I’m just trying to get home to my family. I don’t want any trouble.”

“Why did you immediately surrender?” called out Sadie. She was still walking forward. She could see the man’s face more clearly. He looked weary and thin. Not to mention unhealthy. Especially compared to Max and John and the other adults at her camp. “And why didn’t you just stay hidden?”

The whole situation was weird to Sadie. She’d been involved in countless confrontations with strangers. But none of them had gone like this. It seemed that no one in their right mind would immediately surrender. And especially not to a child.

She was keenly aware that she was still a child. Even at a distance, the man towered above her. As she aimed her gun, she had to hold her arms up at an angle, so that she was aiming up, rather than straight across, as an adult would.

“I don’t know,” said the man. “I’m too tired and weak. I’m just…” His words trailed off into nothing.

“You’re what?”

“I’m just trying to get back to my family,” he said. It sounded as if he was on the verge of tears, almost choking on his words.

“Why don’t you answer the question?”

“I didn’t think I was strong enough to fight. You would have come across me eventually. I’m weak. I’ve been giving all my food to my family. I thought I’d find something on this trip, but I didn’t…”

Sadie was close enough to the man to really study his face. He did look weak and weary.

Maybe he was telling the truth.

And maybe he wasn’t.

Sadie didn’t know what to do. If Max were there, he would have known what to do. And her mother would have too.

Sadie tried to think back to other situations. How would Max or her mother have handled them?

Well, she couldn’t remember them coming across a situation quite like this.

“Who are you with?” said the man.

“Who am I with?”

“Yeah. You’re obviously from around here. Living around here, I mean. With a group. There’s no way you’re on your own. For one thing, you don’t have enough gear with you for a long journey.”

“I’m not telling you shit,” said Sadie. “Answer the questions yourself.”

“OK,” said the man. “Like I said, I have a family. A wife and a daughter. We live not far from here. A little house. A regular house. But it’s kind of out of the way. We’ve had a lot of trouble. But we’ve managed to survive somehow. Just barely.”

“You have a daughter?” said Sadie, her ears perking up at the mention of it.

Was it possible that this was the family she was looking for? The family with the daughter about her age?

Maybe she didn’t need to fear this man after all.

“Yeah. And you know what? She’s about your age.”

What were the chances that this was really the family she was looking for? They seemed to be getting greater.

Sadie didn’t want to give away too much information about herself. But she wanted to confirm the story somehow.

“There was a guy who came by our camp a while ago,” said Sadie. “And he told us about a family that lived nearby… He said that there was a little girl about my age. He must have spent some time with you, if you’re from the same family. Do you know his name?”

There was a smile on the man’s face. “It was a weird name,” he said. “He went by Holstead.”

Sadie felt relief pouring through her body.

She let her arms lower, the muzzle of her gun pointing now harmlessly at the ground.

Sadie was walking towards him. She didn’t feel scared anymore. And not only that, she felt relief.

She’d accidentally stumbled on the girl’s father. How lucky was that?

“So your daughter’s about my age?” said Sadie.

The man nodded. “I’d guess so,” said the man. “I bet you don’t get to play with a lot of girls your age, right?”

Sadie shook her head. “Not since the EMP.”

“My daughter’s always saying the same thing,” he said. “She misses her friends. It’s been really hard for her, not having anyone but her parents around. I’m afraid we’re just not always great company. And there are always all these problems. All these things that we have to deal with.”

Sadie nodded vigorously. The smile on her face was growing by the minute. “I don’t even know what happened to my friends,” she said. “And my brother, well, he’s a little bit older, but he doesn’t want to play any games with me.”

“And I bet talking to him isn’t the same as talking to your friends back at school, right?”

“Not at all,” said Sadie. She was feeling understood. Really understood. For the first time in a while.

She was getting really close to the man.

He still had his hands in the air. Almost as if he’d forgotten all about them.

Sadie studied his face again, now that she was closer.

He did look worn out. Weary.

There was a smile on his face. Almost a grin, really.

The smile made him seem even more trustworthy.

It seemed like he was a good guy after all. A dad. A dad who smiled when thinking about his daughter.

He was just a good guy on hard times. That’s what had put the marks of weariness and weakness on his face.

“Do you want to meet her, my daughter, I mean?” said the man.

Sadie was just about two feet from him now. “Of course,” she said, not knowing if she should mention that she’d been looking for this man’s daughter.

No, better not mention it. It sounded too improbable. Too strange.

She wanted to seem normal. As if this was just a happy accident.