Jason Morrow - Anywhere but Here

Out of sight, out of mind, I thought.

Once the fire was started, I poured a can of beans into a pot and cooked it over the flames. I sat in a chair next to Lucas and smiled.

“What?” he asked, smiling back.

I shook my head. “Nothing,” I said. “It’s just… I’m really happy to be in here right now.”

“Even with Mr. Miller behind us?”

“Mr. Miller isn’t here,” I said. “He’s out of town.”

“You grab the gun from his hand?”

“Nope. We don’t need it.”

Lucas looked back at the fire and raised his hands to warm his palms, but I continued to stare at him.

“I’m really glad to be with you,” I said.

He looked at me, this time his face much more serious. “The roads have been long, but I would choose to travel them with no one else.” He leaned his head in and kissed my lips tenderly. “I have something for you,” he whispered. He stood and pulled out a silver chain from his pocket. On the end, glittering in the firelight, was Hattie’s ring. “I got this chain off a… from someone,” he said with a smile. “I thought it could be a symbol of our connection together. You and me.”

I could feel the sting in my eyes as they began to water. “But it’s your mother’s ring.”

“And who would she want to have it more than you?” he said.

“It’s an engagement ring.”

He reached out for my hand and pressed the ring in my palm, the chain dangling off the side of my hand. “With it, I want to make you a vow.” His hands were still clutching mine. “I vow to protect you. To put your needs before my own. I promise to survive this whole disaster with you.”

“But how can you promise that?” I asked, looking down at the ring.

He took it from my hand and undid the chain. I leaned my head forward as he hooked it around my neck. “I just can,” he said. “We love each other. What greater force is there in the world?”

It has been two days and I have yet to be taken away from Crestwood. So far, I’ve been locked in a room with no windows and only a bed, and a tiny closet-of-a-nook with a toilet and sink… basically a prison cell. I can’t help but wonder why they haven’t sent me on my way yet. Even Gabe hasn’t come around, though I’m sure it’s because he’s afraid to face me after Paxton’s declaration of my murderous actions.

I spend my hours listening throughout the city. I really have been able to hone my sense of hearing. I map out the town in my mind and it feels like I can almost walk through the streets, listening to whatever I wish. I eavesdrop here and there, but I have yet to find any information about why I haven’t been taken away. I did hear about a new group coming in, though I’m not sure how many of them there are. It makes me think of my first time coming in. I wish I could have heard their entrance questioning, but by the time I found out they were here, they had already been inside a full day. I can picture Paxton now.

What’s your name? Why are you here? Why are you alone? Why are you in a group? How did you hear about Crestwood? Do you have any special abilities? Seriously what kind of question is the last one? Even to this day I can’t guess how he might have pegged me or if it’s just something he asks everyone.

Then there is this whole Elkhorn thing. What if he set me up just so I would go on some wild goose chase to find his daughter because he already knew I was from The Epicenter? Perhaps I had known her during my time there? Truth was, I did know her…or at least knew someone named Jessi Paxton. The girl I knew had been pregnant at the time. I asked Paxton if Jessi was pregnant when he last saw her and he said no, and he sure hoped she wasn’t. I was confused by this but quickly remembered that the reason he hadn’t seen her a year prior to the outbreak was because of the fight over her boyfriend.

Paxton explained that her boyfriend was no good for her and that he would leave her the moment things got serious. She was convinced they were in love — they were high school sweethearts after all. They had been so much at odds that Jessi told him that she hated him, and he told her that he didn’t want anything to do with her. He even told her that if she ever got pregnant, not to ever bring the child to him. She said she wouldn’t think of it.

As I sat there listening to Paxton explain the situation with tears in his eyes, he seemed like a much different person than the one that had just banished me. I don’t know what it was. He seemed…human. I didn’t like the fact that I was interested in his story. I don’t like the fact that his story makes me want to go search for her even more. There is a part of me that finds the idea intriguing that he would condemn a woman (me) to death, only to use said woman to go out and bring his baby girl back to him. Only, his baby girl and his baby girl’s baby were probably greyskin food by now.

Of course he didn’t have a photo of her. I would have been able to confirm if she were the same Jessi that I had met in college. The pregnant girl. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that Paxton has given me an impossible task. I already know that it will be a dead end probably leading to my untimely deadly end.

This situation sucks, there’s no doubt about it, but for once I’m trying to look on the bright side of things. Since the outbreak, I’ve never had a goal outside of my own survival. It is kind of exciting to have a mission even though it means traveling outside the safety of walls again. If they are going to banish me, better to give me a purpose than to say, good luck, hope you don’t die!

I close my eyes and scan Crestwood again with my advanced hearing ability. I check my apartment and hear nothing. I listen in on conversations of families or groups that might be eating together. I get bored with that quickly. I listen at the front wall for about the twentieth time today, but this time it sounds different. There seems to be a big commotion. I hear a lot of shouting, a lot of reasoning. Eventually, I hear Paxton at the wall asking questions.

“What do you want?” he asks over the wall.

A gruff voice answers him. “You have something of mine,” he says. “People that are staying here.”

“You’re nothing but bandits,” Paxton says. “You have exactly ten seconds to get out of here before I order my men to open fire.”

I hear the sound of twenty or more guns clicking into readiness, probably all pointed at the raider (or raiders) below them. Then, the raider says something that sends a jolt to my heart. “I don’t think Shadowface would find that appealing, do you? Why don’t you let me in and we can discuss what you have of mine.”

There is a long silence. I can picture Paxton just standing on the wall thinking to himself. I know he doesn’t want all his men to start asking questions about Shadowface and I know this raider’s words are enough to gain him entrance for as long as he wants. It would seem that the next little while will give me some entertainment as I listen to their conversation.

I follow Paxton until he reaches the second floor of the headquarters building. A few of the guards accompany him, and only one of the raiders is allowed an audience. Once they are settled at Paxton’s desk, he tells his guards to leave.

“Mighty fine of you to speak to me in private,” the bandit says.

“The only reason you aren’t dead right now is because you mentioned Shadowface,” Paxton fumes. “Which, I might add, is not a name I like thrown around Crestwood. Most of my men had never heard of such a person, and now it’s present in their minds.”