Jacqueline Druga - No Man's Land

Hannah nearly shrieked with joy.

I brought the cart to a stop, jumped out and ran. Sure enough, the basket was still nestled up on top of the grade against the overpass, right where I put him.

They never touched him.

The basket hadn’t been moved.

I lifted him out and hugged him close to my chest with such an enormous amount of gratitude. I was fortunate and blessed. “You are one tough kid,” I said to him. “One really special tough boy.”

It seemed every stop was another lesson, and I was learning from them. Once I finished holding Edward, I brought him to the cart and handed him to Hannah. I knew we had to move, but I had to take care of Hannah first.

Using the jug of water, I took a shirt and brought it to Hannah. I climbed up on the bench and made her face me.

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.” I wiped her bloody mouth and nose. Her cheek was swollen and brush burned. “I’m sorry this happened to you. I am so sorry.”

She clutched my hand and for the first time, I watched a tear roll down her check. She released a single sob and her forehead fell to my hand and I brought her into my chest, holding her.

“Calvin.” She peeped out.

“Yeah.”

“You told Mama Mavis you ain’t no hero. Never say that again. You’re the bravest man I know. You’re a hero to me, okay?”

“Okay.” I kissed the top of her head.

“Promise you won’t leave me, Calvin. Promise me you’ll stay with me.”

“I promise I won’t leave you.”

We had our moment, now it was time to move on. We had to. Hannah held Edward, and with one arm holding her to me, I used the other to control the cart and we left the underpass slowly, but we left it alive and all together.

It started to rain just before the sun came up and it was a blessing more than a curse. There were no signs of the Trent camp people following us. I couldn’t count on that always being that way. I just needed to get us to Sixteen before they got us.

There was a chance they wouldn’t come. Maybe they suffered so much of their own losses, we were an afterthought. I certainly hoped so.

I suspected they’d expect us to take the interstate. Instead, with only a tiny lighter size flashlight, I was able to see that Aden Road, would take us to another back road and eventually to Old Highway 60. Only four miles extra out of the way. I felt it was a safe route for us.

That journey on those roads took hours, Mary wasn’t moving very fast and I didn’t want to push her. The tree-lined road gave us little protection from the rain and fallen leaves made the road slick. The wheels of the cart kept sliding every once in a while.

By the time we made it to an interchange town called Counts Crossroads, we had enough of a head start to stop. It was on my original itinerary and I was bit leery of stopping, but we had to. Just a couple hours, just enough to rest, and then we’d push forward. I had no plans to stop for the night, not anymore. Even if the sun went down, we’d forge ahead. It was ten in the morning, we’d be there soon enough.

We were so close. Twenty-one miles. I knew from experience it wasn’t good to push a horse more than fifteen miles on concrete, but knowing that Jason had made the trip in five days, told me he pushed it to the limits.

It was the most cautious I had ever felt on the journey, looking out, peering around. There were no Vee that I could see and there were no people. There was a vast amount of abandoned cars, doors left open, some off to the side of the road. From Counts Crossroads to Sanctuary Sixteen it was possibly a one day walk for someone with stamina. Hell, people in the military walked that much a lot.

Our supplies were drenched, and the three places in town that had supplies were wiped clean, I should have expected as much.

It was cold and I found the ideal place to stop.

Just outside of town, part of the high school system was a career and technical institute. I remember when I was in high school, even though I excelled in math, I was a poor student, hated school and did afternoon classes at one of those tech schools.

I had hoped they had a mechanic course, which would mean a garage. It looked like it might. A small administrative-style building with a huge warehouse structure attached to the back. After following the driveway, I found the triple wide sliding garage door.

It was locked.

I checked out the exterior of the grounds, saw no Vee, but the front doors were glass. I left the cart behind the building.

“I’ll be back,” I told Hannah.

She nodded. She looked tired as if she didn’t feel well. I knew she didn’t.

I looked around the grounds on my way to the front and found a large stone. I kept thinking how did anyone miss this place? How was it untouched? Maybe people were so focused on the obvious supply places, they didn’t think of a technical school, or they realized how close they were to Sanctuary and didn’t care.

An easy throw of the rock shattered the glass and I kicked it clean with my foot. The lobby was dusty and smelled of dust, no one had been in the building a while and the air was stale.

After checking out the fire exit map on the wall, I walked my way through the small classroom building, checking every room to make sure it was safe. I arrived to where the garage would be. It wasn’t mechanical, it was carpentry.

The smell of wood filled the air, only a small window let in a little light. Sheets of plywood were stacked up against the wall and I opened the huge garage door.

The area was large, and I led the horse and cart inside and closed the door.

We were hidden and safe. It was more than I could ask for.

The technical school was a gold mine. The carpentry area had flashlights and battery operated lanterns. The first thing I did was secure our safety. I grabbed the plywood and I sealed up the front of the building and the broken window. I was confident no one would know we were in there and the building was far enough away that no one would hear Edward.

By the time I finished securing the front and all the doors, nearly two hours had passed.

Hannah followed me around even after I advised her not to.

“I don’t understand, Calvin, you said we were only staying a couple hours.”

“I think we’ll stay a little longer. You need to rest. I want to clean those bruises, bandage you, and have you lay down on a real bed.”

She snickered. “Calvin, how you gonna do all that?”

“This way.” I took her arm and led her to the back. “Here. The medical teaching room.”

She peeked inside and smiled when she saw the examining bed. “There are people in them.”

“They’re mannequins.”

“I knew that.” She looked at me. “Okay. I’m gonna lay down. Wake me if you need me to feed Edward. I mean, I just did, so he should be good until we go.”

“I appreciate that. Now, let me bandage you up then you sleep. When you feel ready to go, we’ll go.”

I found what I needed in that teaching hall. I cleaned her bruises, put on ointment, even made her take some ibuprofen. It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep and I made the most of my time.

I went through our supplies to determine what was salvageable and what was not, then I hit the vending machines and took what I could.

I was most productive in the garage. In fact, I was inventive. Using two by fours, I made four posts around the cart and used a tarp I found to create a cover. Then after finding two sheets of tin in the metal shop, I rigged two of the spotlights to the front posts on the cart to create my own version of headlights. I did the best I could to shield the lights with the tin, to protect from the rain, but I didn’t see that lasting long.