The Returners (17 page)

"You ready to go home kid?"               

Andrew responded to the question with a very exasperated, "Yes."

It was mid afternoon, Jacob and the others continued to move along at a slow but steady pace. They were actually making excellent progress despite everything that had happened this morning. If they kept this pace up, they would more than likely make it to Greenstone today.

They hadn't heard any more vehicles or gunshots since early this morning. Everything had quieted down and become calm once again. The woods were alive with the sounds of nature, which was a great sign there were no Returners in the immediate area. When Returners were close by the woods were often quiet and still. That was why it was so important to always keep your ears open. The sun had come out a few hours ago and was casting a soothing warmth upon them. It was helping lift the group’s spirits and everyone was chatting in low voices. Jacob was glad to hear the group talking again and not just the silence that had accompanied so much of the journey today.

Jacob had been thinking a lot as usual, going over all the different scenarios that might confront them when they got closer to Greenstone. Travel would have to be on the back roads that led into the town. That wasn't an issue, but once they were off the woods road they would be coming into an area where people had been living. That would possibly put them at risk of having to deal with large amounts of Returners. Not that those areas were heavily populated, but there had been enough people it could create a problem. Who knew if any Returners had wandered out from town? All he wanted to do was make sure he got everyone there safely.

Jessica had told him it was three or four miles after they got to the paved road before they would make it to her house. They'd all been surviving in the woods for so long, he wondered how much had changed in the outside world in that time period. Had it gotten worse or had the Returners thinned out? Maybe they weren't as prevalent as they had been before? He stopped as he could see the trees starting to thin out ahead of them.

"I think that's the road into Greenstone," He said. Pointing to where it was starting to open up. "We have to figure out a couple of things before we choose to move any further today or not. So why don't we all sit down and take a break." He took off his backpack, setting it down next to his feet and leaning his gun against a tree.

Everyone was more than glad to stop and rest. They hadn't stopped since this morning and it had been about five hours of solid walking since. Truthfully none of them had wanted to stop or slow down after what had gone on earlier. Now that the chance presented itself, they welcomed it with open arms. There wasn't much to sit on so everyone sat upon the ground. It was still a bit damp, but no one really cared, it just felt good to get off their feet.

Briella passed around the canteen she'd filled up in one of the streams they'd passed. The water was still ice cold and refreshing. There was also a small amount of smoked meat Jessica had brought from the cabin. They hadn't eaten this morning and the small amount of food was more than welcome. Jacob let everyone including himself enjoy a few moments of reprieve. He could see even though everyone was in a pleasant mood that fatigue from the journey was starting to set in.

After everyone had a few moments to relax, he decided it was time to figure out their next step.

"We aren't far away from Jessica and Emily's house if that's the road we need to get on. Three or four miles from what Jessica's told me. That's going to put us awfully close to dark, but I think we can do it. We'll just have to be on extra guard, the Returners are going to be more prevalent once we get into areas people lived. You all know they're attracted to noise, we need to be quiet and try and avoid confrontation unless it's absolutely necessary."

Jessica passed him the canteen, he stopped and took a drink from it before passing it to Briella.

"Or we can camp out one last night. This gives us the option to start early in the morning fully rested and plenty of time to assess the situation once we get into town." He looked at everyone waiting for someone to speak up, but no one did.

"Raise your hand if you think we should go now." No one rushed to raise their hand, the only one's who did were Joe and Emily and they did so hesitantly. 

Jessica stood up and brushed off the dirt and pine needles that clung to her clothes from sitting down on the ground.

"I think we should stay put Jacob. This has been a long few days and I think everyone could use some extra rest. We don't know what we're going to be walking into once we get into town. My house is on the outskirts, but it's still close enough it could be crazy there. It won't be good if it is and we're tripping over ourselves from exhaustion." She looked at him, her eyes pleading to let them rest. "But we'll do whatever you decide, you've gotten us this far." 

Part of him wanted to go and part of him wanted to rest, his body was beginning to feel it. He'd probably spent more time traveling through the woods than the others since this had begun. If he felt like this than he could only imagine how rough it must be on them. One more night wasn't going to hurt anything, but there was still a sense of uncertainty creeping around inside him. There was always a sense of fear and apprehension when you had to spend a night out in the open, no matter how well protected you might be.

"Alright, we'll stay put. We'll have to go further into the woods if we want to have a fire or anything. I don't dare do it this close to the road because it would only attract trouble. Let’s rest for another half hour then we'll get going. That way we can get camp set up before it gets too dark."

The wave of relief that came over everyone's faces told him he'd made the right decision. Jessica hugged him and whispered,
"thank you"
into his ear before sitting back down.

Jacob sat down, putting his back against the tree he had leaned his gun against. He closed his eyes for just a moment, and before realizing it drifted off to sleep. Joe, Briella, Jessica and Emily saw Jacob fall asleep. Knowing how hard he had pushed himself mentally and physically during this trip they let him rest. It was a good time to make small talk and discuss the next part of the trip.

"When we get to my house Briella I wanna show you my room," Emily said excitedly.               

"That sounds good, you can show me your stuff." She was glad to see Emily excited about this, and it gave her something to look forward to. The kid’s personality was infectious and you couldn't help but smile and laugh when you were around her. She really was a good kid. Matter of fact she reminded her a lot of herself before she'd been at odds with her father. When that had begun it seemed to strip away her joyful innocence.

"We boarded the upstairs of the house off when we were there before. That's where we stayed most of the time unless we needed something. We didn't go down often because those things always seemed to be wandering around,” Emily said.

Jessica wanted to make sure Briella and Joe knew a little about the place and surrounding area. That way they would at least have some knowledge about it in case something happened to her before they got there.

"There are four rooms upstairs. Two bedrooms and what used to be my husband’s office as well as the bathroom. There's also the attic, which isn't very big, but it's extra space. It was mostly used to store supplies after everything started."

"Are there a lot of houses around yours?" Joe asked. He was curious what the layout of the area was. It was good information to have, you never knew when it might come in handy.

"There are seven houses in a small cluster near ours, and a bunch more spread out up and down the road. All together probably twenty-five houses total. I think we were the last people alive on the road. The only reason we fled was because our supplies were running short and winter had hit. With just the two of us it was getting dangerous to go out for supplies. We had to go further and further to find any," Jessica said.

For some reason she found talking about all that trivial information to be therapeutic. It had been a long time since she'd talked about the old neighborhood and her house. She had lived there for close to Ten years, it was her home. Talking about it also made her realize how much she missed it, or at least how it used to be.

"That's good to know, gives us a rough idea of the layout of the area." Joe was beginning to like their chances even more with the new found information Jessica had provided.

For the next forty minutes the group went over more details about the house and the area. They talked about different things pertaining to the rest of the trip, as well as random questions anyone had. For the most part the conversation steered clear of anything too serious. The conversation had all but ended when Emily suggested they wake Jacob up so they could find a good camping spot.

Jessica went over and woke him up, he was a bit groggy, but thanked her for letting him rest. Standing up he threw his pack on and grabbed his gun. He didn't have to say anything to the rest of the group, they had already gathered their things and were ready to go.

After walking for about an hour they came upon a wide stream running through a small hollow that had steep hills on both sides of it. The forest was fairly thick in this spot, it made for a perfect campsite. It would allow them to have a fire for warmth and cooking, and not be noticeable. Which was always something in the back of their minds.

It didn't take them long to get the campsite set up. Emily and Joe built a small fire pit while Briella and Jessica gathered wood for the fire. Jacob broke some fir boughs off the trees and made bedding for everyone. The boughs would keep them off the ground and fairly dry. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing. The camp was completely set up and ready to go within an hour, giving everyone time to mill around and relax.

Briella, Emily and Jessica had gone off to answer nature’s call while Joe and Jacob sat around the campsite taking time to enjoy the break from travel. 

"I'm glad we decided to do this. After pushing ourselves the last few days it's going to be nice to relax. Truthfully as much as I wanted to go tonight, I think this was the right decision," Jacob said.

"Yeah, I agree. I think everyone needs the extra rest. Do you mind if once the girls are back Briella and I go take a look around the area? We won’t go far, I'm just curious to see what's out here." Always the explorer, Joe liked to scope out what was around his camping area. It was something he'd always done when he would go on trips with his family before everything had happened. He guessed old habits died hard.

"I don't see it being a problem, just don’t go too far. We've only got a few hours of good daylight left." There was nothing wrong with scouting out the area, he actually thought it was a great idea. He was more worried about them wandering too far and getting lost.

Briella, Jessica and Emily walked back into the campsite right as he stopped speaking. Joe stood up and walked over to Briella.

"I'm going to go explore a little, you want to come with me?"               

"Sure." She was up for it. It was too early to sleep and she didn't feel like sitting around right now even though they'd been walking all day.

"We won’t be long, be back in a few," Joe said as he and Briella began following the stream.

Jessica looked at Jacob with a smile on her face and began to laugh. "It must be nice to be young and full of energy. All I want to do is sleep." 

Jacob laughed and nodded his head in agreement. "Yep, same here." They looked over to Emily waiting for her to say something, but she laying down and had already dozed off. 

Jessica walked over and sat down next to Jacob, giving him a quick kiss before taking his hand. Sitting there quietly they took in the beauty of their surroundings. They forgot for a moment about all the bad things that had been going on. It was little moments like these that made it worth not giving up, worth fighting to survive when it seemed like there was no hope. Soon they were lost in each others company as they made small talk and enjoyed their moment alone.

Joe and Briella had been walking for about fifteen minutes. So far they hadn't come across anything they could use or eat, but they were enjoying each others company. They talked about the times they'd spent together at the camps and even laughed about some of it. Rounding a small bend they came upon an area where the water had pooled up off to the side of the stream. It was about fifteen feet wide and looked to be about four maybe five feet deep. The water moved through it just enough so it wasn't muddy and stagnant, it looked fairly clean. They stopped beside it and Briella knelt down, putting her hand in the water.

"The waters pretty warm, I'm kind of surprised," She said as she stood up and looked at Joe.

"Yeah it's probably because it's not moving too fast, plus the sun's hitting it through that opening in the trees." He bent down and put his hand in. "Looks pretty clean as well."

He stared  into the water looking for any fish that might have gotten trapped, but he didn't see any. Standing up he turned to speak to Briella who had stepped behind him, his jaw dropping as she stood before him completely nude. 

She leaned forward and kissed him. "I need to get cleaned up, I'm dirty after all this traveling...you wanna join me?"