Roman Cesaro: Fallen Into Darkness

The evening wind began to shift and a small gust blew smoke toward Robert’s face. He turned away from the fire and stepped back, wafting the smoke away with his hands. Standing there, he cast his eyes from the supplies in the rafts to his two companions and back again. He did not know how they were going to be able to carry everything with them to his house. They were walking now, not floating all the supplies.

“Any ideas on how we move all this stuff down the road?” asked Robert.

Kyle and Alexis turned their gaze toward the rafts. Each was silent in their contemplation.

“You don’t think we could carry it all?” Kyle finally asked.

Robert shook his head and looked at Kyle’s right hand. It was getting better, but it was not totally healed. Kyle saw what he was looking at and subconsciously clenched his fist to test his grip. He knew that Robert was right.

“How far is it from here?” asked Alexis.

“My house? That would be at least thirty miles.”

Kyle groaned and slid into his raft pulling the tarp across himself. “I’ll sleep on it. We’ll figure it out.”

Alexis leaned forward. The crucifix on her necklace hung straight down away from her body. It turned in the breeze sending reflections from the fire in small flashes of light. She knelt to the ground and closed her eyes, holding her hands together with the shiny golden cross held tightly between her palms. Robert heard the faint whispers of her prayers. The words were indiscernible. After making the sign on the cross, she kissed the crucifix and sat back on the log.

“What did you do?” asked Robert.

“I prayed for help.”

Robert looked around. “Nothing happened.”

Alexis snapped her head around and stared into his eyes. She did not blink. Sternly, Alexis said, “I am a Christian, and accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.”

There was an awkward silence. Robert said nothing in response. She never looked away from him.

“I don’t question my faith,” Alexis continued, “and I have a personal relationship with God. I pray when I need help and God speaks to me.”

“What does God’s voice sound like?”

Robert saw that she had grasped the cross hanging from her necklace again. The firelight revealed that her grip was so tight that her knuckles were blanched. Now Alexis’s eyes narrowed to slits. Her body language was screaming at him.

“I will pray for you,” Alexis said, scornfully, through clenched teeth.

Robert grabbed the rifle by his side and stood up. “Good night, Alexis.” He turned away and walked toward the raft that he would sleep in one last time.

When he turned to walk away, Alexis spoke loudly. She wanted Robert to hear her. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

Robert stopped and turned around to face Alexis again. He held up his rifle and said to her, “You fear no evil because of this. Pray for more bullets, Alexis.”

He went to the raft, covered himself with a dirty blanket, and went to sleep.

At the break of dawn, Robert felt someone shaking him. “Hey, wake up.” He sat up and rubbed his face, trying to wake himself further.

“What is it?”

“I went over there to take a crap by those bushes, and found two bodies,” said Kyle, trying not to gag as he remembered the smell.

Robert stood up and looked around. “There is nothing around here. Where’d they come from?”

“I don’t know.” Kyle paused, his empty stomach beginning to churn as the revolting image of the rotting corpses entered his mind. “It looked like a woman and a baby.”

Robert closed his eyes and thought of his children again. He was repressing the frenzy of anxiety trying to explode from his viscera. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes.

“Did they have anything with them? A backpack, supplies, anything?”

“I didn’t notice anything,” said Kyle, trying to suppress the image. He had seen a corpse with long blonde hair. It appeared to be wearing women’s clothing and was bloated and insect infested. Her arms were holding an infant in the same state of decay.

Robert grabbed his rifle. “Let’s look around.”

Kyle took him to the clump of bushes that concealed the bodies. Behind a large bush, Kyle pointed to the bloated corpses. Robert saw the baby and gagged. He turned away, bent at the waist, and almost vomited. After a few moments, he wiped the saliva from the corner of his mouth and circled the bush to get the wind to his back. The smell was horrible. As he rotated his position around the bush, he noticed something lying in the tall grass. It was a bicycle with an infant trailer attached. She had tried to conceal it from the road, behind a large bush. The grass had grown taller since the bike had been hidden there. No tracks were visible in the prairie grass. He looked back at the dead woman and noticed a bicycle helmet nearby.

Kyle went to the bike and began to inspect it.

“Let’s take it. Maybe we can use it,” said Robert.

Kyle had already lifted the bike upright and was pushing his thumb down on the tread. It went down to the metal rim.

“Flat tire,” said Kyle.

“Damn it!” said Robert. “Look for a patch kit. I see a pouch hanging from the seat.”

“There is a bag inside the little baby trailer. I’ll look through that, too,” said Kyle.

The small pouch had a folding tool for a bicycle, but no patch kit. The bag in the trailer had an empty water bottle, one diaper, and a small hand air pump.

“We’ll figure something out. Let’s get it back to our camp,” said Robert.

Alexis was awake by the time they got back. She was turned away from the men, putting some wood on the fire.

“Hey, look what we found,” said Kyle to his wife.

Alexis turned around to look.

“There were two dead bodies near it. It looked like a mother and her baby, really sad,” said Kyle, pointing in the direction of the distant bushes. “She hid the bike. It looks like she got a flat tire, couldn’t fix it, and died hiding.”

While Kyle spoke, Robert wasted no time. He was already removing the front tire to inspect the damage. He turned the wheel in his hands, closely inspecting the tread. “I see it.” Robert put the tread closer to his face. “It looks like a thorn from a locust tree.” He pulled the sharp thorn out. “Damn locust trees,” said Robert, as he tossed the thorn into the fire.

“Any ideas?” asked Kyle.

“I’m thinking.” Robert was sitting on the ground with his knees pulled toward his chest. He closed his eyes and lowered his face to his knees. His mind was racing for a solution. If they could get the bike to roll on the road, they could use it to carry what was on the rafts. Still deep in thought, he looked up and noticed that Alexis was standing several feet away, staring at him. She was tapping the cross on her chest. He wondered if she was trying to say something with the gesture, but he ignored it and continued to think.

Robert used the bicycle tool, shimmed the tire from the rim, and removed the flat inner tube. He stared at the hole in the tube. It looked so small.

“Tree sap. Could we put tree sap on it and plug the hole?” asked Kyle.

“I don’t think so. It’ll have to hold a lot of pressure,” said Robert.

“What are you talking about?” Alexis stood by them to see what the tire looked like. “That’s it?” asked Alexis. “I’ve never fixed a tire, but can’t you put superglue on the hole and cover it with a piece of plastic.”

Robert looked at her with wide eyes. “You have superglue?”

“One small bottle. I’ll get it.”

Robert placed the inner tube flat on the ground. He put one large drop of glue directly on the small puncture in the tube. Then he placed a small piece of plastic that he cut from the tarp over the hole and pressed with the heel of his hand. After several minutes he let go, placed the inner tube back on the rim, and shimmed the tire tread back on the wheel. He put the wheel’s front axle back on the fork and pushed the quick release lever down, locking the wheel to the frame. Using the hand pump, he slowly inflated the tire.