James Hunt - Broken Roads

The two girls were holding each other’s hands. That’s all Kalen could focus on. Then there was a slight buzzing in her ears. Her eyes shifted from the two small hands laced together to her mother mouthing words at her, until finally the sound broke through the humming in her mind.

“Kalen!” Anne said.

“What?” Kalen asked.

“Grab the antibiotics out of Grandpa’s bag and a bottle of water out of the kitchen and give them to Ray.”

“Okay.”

Kalen tried to focus on the task. She made herself walk to the bag, search it until she heard the sound of pills rattling in a bottle, then put one foot in front of the other to grab a bottle of water from the cabinet.

On the walk back a third girl was staring at her. She was around Kalen’s age, a little bit taller than she was though, and had the same dirt smudged face as the younger girls. The three of them looked alike.

Kalen twisted the top of the bottle off. Ray’s face was dripping with sweat. She could feel the heat coming off of his body just standing next to him. She shut her eyes, hard. Her thoughts felt jumbled. She tried focusing on the task at hand.

Tilt his head up. Give him the pill. Have him drink the water.

She recited it a few more times in her head, making sure she had it correctly. She opened her eyes and tilted Ray’s head up. His mouth opened and she placed the pill on his tongue. She placed the bottle of the rim to his lips. She slowly tilted the water into his mouth. Most of it went down his chin and onto his shirt, but enough made it into his mouth for him to swallow the pill.

She fell onto the floor, her butt landing hard against the wooden planks. Her thoughts became jumbled again. She felt a hand pulling her up, then pushing her down the hallway. She felt the hand guide her into bed where she collapsed into a dreamless sleep she desperately needed.

The room was dark when Kalen opened her eyes. The sunlight that had come through the window earlier in the day had been replaced by the silver glow of the moon. The pills had worn off. She started to remember again. She reached for the drawer of the nightstand.

The familiar rattle of pills was gone. She pulled the drawer open further, her hand running along the bare sides and bottom. Nothing.

A glow of light from under her door caught her attention. The glow faded, as if moving down the hall. When she opened the door she saw a girl, around her age, her face lit by candlelight. She looked familiar.

“Hi,” Mary said.

“Hi.”

“I didn’t mean to wake you up. I was just getting some water.”

“You came in with my grandfather earlier today didn’t you?”

“Yeah. He found us in town and brought us up here.”

“I’m Kalen.”

“Mary.”

The two girls shook hands. Kalen could feel the dryness in her mouth. She followed Mary to the kitchen for some water.

Kalen tipped the bottle back and downed half of it immediately. She didn’t realize how thirsty she was until the water hit her lips. Her stomach growled.

“I think there was still some meat left over from dinner,” Mary said.

Anne had cooked some of the canned chicken from the supplies downstairs. Mary had saved some for a snack later, but gave it to Kalen instead.

Kalen wolfed the food down. The fork scraped the sides of the bowl until there was nothing left, and placed it on the counter. She wiped her mouth with the corners of her sleeve.

“Are you okay?” Mary asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“It’s just I don’t’ see how someone who has an entire basement stock piled with food act like they haven’t eaten in days.”

That’s because she hadn’t eaten in days. Her last mean had been in their old house. A house she watched go up in flames with her father inside.

“Who were the girls with you?” Kalen asked.

“My sisters.”

“What about your parents?”

Kalen recognized the look on Mary’s face. It was the same look she’d been wearing for the past three days. Kalen changed the subject.

“Where are you from?” Kalen asked.

“California.”

“What are you doing in Ohio?”

“We were on vacation. My dad wanted to have his daughters experience the world of the small town. We’ve been on a road trip all summer. We were planning on heading back the day everything turned off.”

Kalen watched Mary’s eyes drift down when she mentioned her father. She had said “dad” very softly.

“What about you?” Mary asked.

“Pennsylvania.”

“Were you guys here when everything went out?”

“No, we were back home in Pittsburgh.”

“You walked all the way from Pittsburgh to here?”

“We drove.”

Mary laughed.

“I’m serious,” Kalen said. “The Jeep out front works. That’s what we came here in,” she said.

“You’re telling me that you have a working car?”

“Yeah.”

Mary’s smile faded. Her face turned serious. She rushed over seizing Kalen by her shoulders.

“We have to get out of here,” Mary said.

Kalen felt Mary’s fingers digging into her shoulders. She squeezed hard, pulling her closer.

“Why? We came here because it was safe. My grandfather brought you here because it’s safe,” Kalen said.

“You don’t understand. That town, Carrollton, that’s just a few miles from here, is overrun. There’s this gang there. You want to know what happened to my parents? They killed my dad and raped my mom in front of me.”

When the words hit Kalen’s ears she didn’t have the reaction she thought she would. She’d been scared of facing what had happened to her in the woods. She didn’t want to give it a name. She couldn’t force the words from her lips. It wasn’t until Mary had said the words did she finally feel something about what had happened.

She felt angry.

“They raped her?” Kalen asked.

Mary didn’t cry. She kept the same rushed tone as before. She spoke not out of remorse for what happened to her mother, but of the fact that she didn’t want it to happen to her sisters.

“One of them burst down the door of the room we were in. My dad tried to stop them, but the guy pulled a knife on him. After he stabbed my dad he pulled a gun on me, my mom, and my sisters.”

Kalen felt herself being drawn into Mary’s story, her anger rising with every word leaving Mary’s mouth.

“He grabbed my arm and threw me on the bed. Before he could do anything to me my mom stepped in. She took her clothes off and let him…”

“Rape her,” Kalen said.

It was the first time those words left Kalen’s mouth. The man who had tried to rape her shared the same face in her mind as the man who raped Mary’s mom. They were the same person. She never asked what her grandfather did to that man in the woods, but she had imagined a few scenarios. The satisfaction of revenge on her assailant by her hands could no longer come to fruition, but maybe she could do something about the man who hurt Mary’s mom.

“He’s still alive?” Kalen asked.

“I think so. I mean I don’t know what happened afterwards. I just grabbed my sisters and we ran. We hid in the fields for almost two days.”

Kalen’s grip on the water bottle tightened, causing the plastic to crack and crumple from the pressure.

“How many?” Kalen asked.

“How many?” Mary repeated.

“How many gang members were there?”

“I’m not sure. I only saw around ten, but there could be more, that’s why we have to get out of here. We need to get in that Jeep and drive as far away from this place as fast as we can.”

“And go where?”

“Someplace safe.”

“There isn’t anyplace safe anymore.”

“We can’t just stay here forever.”