Nathan Jones - First Winter

He was just glad Alvin didn’t seem to blame him for what had happened. He would’ve understood, but he already felt enough guilt about it.

“Hey Alvin!” he abruptly called. At his side Deb jumped, startled. As the others turned to look at him he grinned. “We’ve been here for almost ten minutes and you haven’t made any bad jokes yet.”

The young man shrugged. “I’ve got plenty of garbage puns, but they’re all offal.”

Wes groaned. “Did you have to get him started?”

“I don’t get it,” Linda said with a small frown.

Before Alvin could explain the joke there was a commotion from up the slope north of the road, in the direction Eve and Harry had wandered off. Everyone turned, alarmed at the shouting even though it sounded excited rather than fearful.

It turned out the racket came from Harry, barreling down the hillside holding a dirty AK-47 over his head in both hands, while his older sister stumbled to keep up while also yelling in excitement.

“Look at this!” the boy yelled, waving it wildly towards them. “I mean seriously, look at this!”

Trev was looking, and while the find was certainly exciting, he couldn’t help but notice that the rifle had a magazine attached. If it had been discarded while loaded, with the safety off, the kid might accidentally shoot someone.

Lewis apparently had the same thought, and he was closest to the approaching siblings. He hurriedly strode over and yanked the weapon out of Harry’s hands, although he tried not to show he’d been alarmed. “I can’t believe scavengers didn’t snatch this up,” he said, inspecting the dirty mechanisms while unobtrusively flicking on the safety. “Where did you find it?”

Trev and the others were all gathering around for a closer look, and the boy puffed out his chest proudly. “There was a spot where the ground was all torn up, like a bomb went off. I was poking around there and stepped on it, all buried in the dirt. The explosion must’ve covered it up.”

“How about that.” Lewis used his sleeve to polish along the barrel. “It’s been pretty dry since the blockheads left, and not that long either. With a bit of cleaning this’ll probably be good as new.”

“How many cakes is it worth?” Eve asked excitedly. Her brother nodded eagerly at the question.

Lewis laughed. “This is worth more than snacks… it’s a real treasure. You’ll want to take it home to your parents. It’ll make their day, not to mention making life easier for your family no matter what they decide to do with it. They might even want you to keep it for yourself and start practicing how to use it.”

Harry’s eyes went huge. “Really?”

“After you’ve had some safety training,” Jane said sternly. “Like not running around waving a loaded weapon with the safety off.”

The boy flushed in embarrassment. “Right, sorry.”

Lewis slung the new weapon over his shoulder alongside his own and patted Harry on the shoulder. “It’s an important thing to learn. I can give you a few pointers about gun safety and targeting as we go.” He abruptly clapped his hands. “But in the meantime let’s get back to work, people! I see a lot of empty bags around here.”

Everyone was more than eager to get back to searching, although Trev couldn’t help but notice there wasn’t much stooping to pick up brass going on. Actually most of the group made a beeline for the site of the explosion, and once there began digging around in the loose dirt hoping to find more stuff.

“Come on, guys,” Trev called good-naturedly. “Finding an AK-47 was pretty awesome, and it’s possible there’s more stuff out there. But this place has been combed by thousands of soldiers and scavengers, so it’s not too likely. You can keep looking anyway, or you can pick up casings that you know are going to get you something.”

Eve, Harry, and Jim continued poking around, while everyone else made their way back to the road to continue scavenging brass.

The next half hour was spent in busy silence as everyone focused on the work. There were thousands and thousands of shells around waiting to be picked up, but even moving fast a person could only pick up so many at a time. Lewis wouldn’t just be giving away those treats, and if anything Trev thought his cousin might not be rewarding the kids well enough for their efforts.

Deb must’ve been thinking the same thing, because she’d abandoned her gathering and started exploring the area searching for more disturbed earth that might hide valuables others had overlooked. Trev was torn between joining her and keeping going on casings, since after all he was Lewis’s partner in this.

Before he could make up his mind he became aware of distant sounds, nearly drowned out by the crunch of feet and conversation of the rest of the group.

He paused, straining to listen. After a few seconds he identified the noise as coming from down the road, distant popping and what might’ve been voices. Hearing them made the hairs on the back of his neck stiffen.

He’d heard those kinds of sounds before plenty of times while fighting the blockheads. Gunshots and people screaming in pain and terror, coming from the direction the refugee group had gone.

“Trev!” Lewis shouted, already bolting for the bikes.

Trev was right behind him. “Deb, Jane, get the kids packed up and ready to go, then find any cover you can hide behind! We’ll see what’s going on and radio a warning if there’s danger.”

Everyone else was staring at them like they’d lost their minds, but Jane was quick to start chivvying the others into action. Lewis grabbed his wife’s bike since his own was attached to the trailer, only taking a moment to toss the AK-47 Harry had found into the trailer as he passed. He was already ten feet down the road by the time Trev started pedaling furiously after him.

The noises were distant, miles away, which meant there probably wasn’t a need for caution just yet. Even so they didn’t travel as fast as they could’ve on the downhill road, and constantly scanned the way ahead for any sign of activity.

It took them almost fifteen minutes to get there. Trev felt a bit relieved at the distance, since it meant the rest of the group back at the battle front were well away from danger. But as they rounded a final corner and came into view of the scene a few hundred yards farther down the road, any relief he felt vanished into horror as he took out his binoculars for a closer look.

He soon wished he hadn’t.

It was the refugee group, all right, and they’d been attacked. Soldiers and civilians, men and women, old and young, all gunned down without mercy as they tried to flee in all directions. Their bodies littered the road and the slopes to either side, horribly motionless and with wounds suggesting that the attackers had coldly executed anyone they found still alive. None of the bodies looked to be from the enemy, suggesting the attack had been carried out by people who knew what they were doing.

Trev stared at the carnage, a sick feeling in his gut.

“Bandits?” Lewis asked quietly, peering through his own binoculars. His face was pale. “A big group, to take on an armed refugee caravan.”

“No,” Trev said immediately. “The refugee group had more than twice as many people as there are bodies here, and it doesn’t look like any managed to get away. Also look at the bodies themselves.”

His cousin saw it quickly. “All too young or too old. Same as Deb and countless others have described it.”

Trev nodded, fear warring with sickness in his gut. “This was blockheads, and they took prisoners.”

“Slaves,” Lewis corrected grimly. He abruptly turned, grabbing Trev’s arm. “Listen. You remember Matt telling us about using back roads to get to your cache last winter?”