Two Days Journey

The pounding on the door startled Zachariah.

“well, you’re awfully early. Plus, I thought we were gonna meet by the gate?” he told Sarah.

“I wanted to get a jump on it. we’ve got quite the trek if we are going to make it to that warehouse and back in one day.”

Zachariah grabbed his bag and stepped out of the run-down RV and into the community. At this early in the morning, only the gardeners and guards were out.

“it’s so nice out today” Sarah said looking around. “what a shame there are only a handful of us that get to see the other side of that fence. people just don’t realize the beauty out there.”

“what you mean like the giant rats, rotting cows and rusted out cars?” Zachariah said sarcastically.

“well, there is that, plus those bandits, and other creatures I’ve heard about. But no, I’m talking about the mountains and trees and rivers.” Sarah replied as they were walking toward the front gate of the colony. “it would just be nice if we could spread out a little ya know? It just feels so …cramped in here. It would be nice to make some room in here.”

“did you hear about that colony over near Brimley Falls? I hear they’ve got four city blocks they secured and set up at. It’s got some library too. Rumor has it they are trying to build it back up and restore civilization properly.” Zachariah was trying to continue the conversation as they were waiting for the gate to open.

After following the war-torn road for miles, they were finally in sight of the warehouse.

“hold up” Zachariah said as he slowed his pace. “let’s get off the road and go around. “with a building like that, there are bound to be traps.”

As they set off into the woods, the barren trees did not provide much cover, but was more likely safer than a likely booby-trapped road.

“Smart move going around” Sarah said as they approached the side of the building. “this place just seems a little too quiet.”

Zachariah grabbed a crate nearby and jumped up on it to peer through the window. “Rats!” he said in frustration.

“What is it?” Sarah whispered in concern.

“literally. rats. This place is crawling with em there is no way we are getting in there.”

“don’t these kinds of places usually have tiny little side offices? Maybe we could check that out and see if there is anything in there.” Sarah said as she started heading toward the other side of the building.

“good thinking.” He replied. They started their way around, and sure enough on the back side by the road, was a small little office shack separated from the main building. Zachariah went up to the window to check it out.

“well good news and bad news.” He said as he walked back to Sarah. “good news is, no rats. Just another skeleton hard at work at his desk. Bad news, looks pretty cleared out.”

As they walked inside, only papers and dust covered the ground. All the filing cabinets, first aid cabinet, and desk drawers were empty. “hey, check it out” Sarah said as she grabbed a book off the desk that was under a pile of random papers under the skeleton. “this was some smart dude. Intermediate Mechanical Engineering 12^th edition. By Dr. John Neubert.” she opened up the book. “huh. Property of Brimley Falls Public Library. Isn’t that the one colony you were talking about this morning that has that civilized library thing?” she looked at Zacharia inquisitively as she passed him the book.

“Yeah, that’s the place. Ha poor guy. He must have quite the late fee stacked up.” He laughed as he flipped through the pages.

“What if we return it?” Sarah said after a long pause.

“ha-ha that would be something huh? Return an overdue library book to the library of civilization.” He started chuckling even harder.

“no, seriously. You said they were trying to rebuild civilization at that library. If they are trying to collect resources this could potentially be helpful.”

Zechariah realized she wasn’t joking.

“your serious? I said I heard a rumor that they were. We hear rumors like that all the time. Everybody is always looking for hope where they can.” He retorted. “besides, what are they going to do with a mechanical engineering book? Since the war, there has been no electricity or anything mechanical for that matter.”

“that’s all the more reason!” she was starting to get more and more excited about the idea. “if they are there, they need things like this to get that stuff back up and running. We certainly can’t do that with our limited resources, but maybe they can. It’s only a day or two away. What do you say? It won’t be so bad.”

“I don’t know.” Zachariah said trying not to disappoint her.” Travel that far for a rumor? That just can’t end well. I mean if it wer- “

The conversation stopped immediately as they heard gunshots and hollering. They quickly crouched down.

“uh-oh. Raiders.” he whispered tying to survey through the dust covered window. “well at least they are dealing with the rat problem. Let’s just hope they don’t decide to visit our ol’ pal Bob here.”

“it sounds like they are on the east side of the warehouse.” Sarah said looking at Zachariah for a course of action.

He sighed heavily. “looks like too many to go around. If we are going to make it out of here alive, then I guess heading west towards Brimley Falls it’s going to have to be.”

Sarah was trying to hide the smile on her face.

With the raiders distracted by the rats, they were able to move quite easily out of the area.

After a long walk, they both dreaded what they knew was soon to happen.

“we need to stop soon and set up a camp” Sarah said. Neither one of them wanted to hear it or say it, but they both knew it needed to happen. I’ll set up the shelter while you look for firewood. As evening came, they decided to sleep in shifts of 3 hours. One stay up on the lookout, while the other sleeps. Sarah volunteered to stay up first, having so much energy with the thrill of a journey like this. She had never been more than a day’s travel outside of where their colony sat.

“alright” Zachariah said halfway through the night. “time to switch. Try to get some sleep.”

“I don’t know how well I can with all of these ungodly noises.” Sarah replied. Zachariah couldn’t tell if she was trembling from the cold, or from terror. Who knew what was outside of the border of fire they put up around the camp? But whatever it was, made grotesque shrieks gurgles, and growls that no one should ever have to hear in their lifetime. Especially that close.

Before they knew it, morning came safe and sound. The noises were gone, the fire was only embers, and the swift sun hit them fast.

As they continued to stride along the car riddled road, they were soon met by a large sign

“BRIMLEY FALLS 5 MILES”

“check it out” said Sarah, almost skipping with delight “we are almost there!”

As they continued to get closer and closer to the city, they saw more and more rusty cars. Suddenly, they were greeted by the noise of whistling.

“well, howdy there folks.” A crazed dirty man with a long beard and hardly any clothes popped out from behind one of the cars. “got any food on ya? I won’t bite. I’m just hungry”

“sorry partner, we are empty ourselves. Wish we could help.” Zechariah said defensively.

“oh... d-don’t worry there buddy, this ain’t one of them raider ambushes, I’m out here by my lonesome.” Said the old man as he held his hands up in the air to show he was harmless. “where you folks headed?”

“Brimley Falls” Sarah said. Zachariah looked at her with frustration.

“mind if I join ya’ll?” said the man “it’s pretty lonely out here. An old man by his lonesome.”

“well, I don- “

“sure!” Sarah interrupted Zachariah before he could finish. The old man skipped over to them.

“great my name’s Ben. What’s yours?” he put out his hand to shake theirs, but before they knew it, with his other hand, he grabbed a knife from his pocket and stabbed Sarah in the chest. “now I believe ya. Ya know, about not having any foods, but what else ya got mister? Show me what’s in that bag, or you’ll get what she got.”

Zachariah slowly removed his pack and set it on the ground. As he opened the top, the old man came closer. When he got close enough, Zachariah jumped up, grabbed his arm, and twisted it. the knife fell to the ground. Zachariah grabbed it and stabbed the old man, killing him quickly. He ran over to Sarah who was struggling to stay alive.

“let me lift you! If we get to the colony they can help!” he said trying not to cry.

“it’s no use.” She tried her hardest to speak but the words came out slowly. “I’ll…. bleed….out….by…...” she pointed at her bag. “book…. the boo…” and Sarah breathed her last breath.

Zachariah fell to the ground and tried his hardest not to yell in case there were others nearby that were just as crazy as the old man. After the tears stopped, he sat there motionless, not knowing what to do. "I should head back home" he thought. "But we've come so far we are almost there. She would want me to take the book" the struggle went on for quite a while until he decided to finish the journey for her. Zachariah picked up Sarah's body and moved her off the road. He closed her eyelids, grabbed the book from her bag, and set forth to Brimley Falls.

As Zachariah got closer to the city, he questioned his goal with every step. "Why am I even bothering?" he debated. "These rumors are never true. If i'm lucky, there will just be empty streets and rubble. That city is probably full of feral dogs, and even more feral bandits." He almost turned around. "No. I have to do this for Sarah. I mean what if the rumor is true? Then at least I would know for sure."

After another couple hours of walking, he was met by a large gated fence in between two tall buildings and a tower guards with guns drawn. "Is this Brimley Falls?" Zachariah yelled to the guards; but there was no response. “I’m a friendly” he said with his arms raised in the air. “I have a book. And I heard a rumor you take those sorts of things here.”

After a long silent stare-down, the guard in the tower yelled down “Open the Gate!” the large gate opened. Zachariah walked in and was immediately met by two guards who patted him down and searched his bag. They took his machete and handed him the bag back.

“See that big dome building? That’s where you need to go. We will let them know you are coming.” Said one of the guards.

Zachariah walked through the overpopulated city until he finally reached the building. He was greeted at the door by a man with a large grey moustache. “you must be the man with the book. My name is Arthur. Please come inside.” Zachariah followed him in. The building was the cleanest place he had ever seen. The shelves were filled with books, old toys, and all sorts of other memorabilia. His mouth hanged open in shock and surprise that the place really did exist. “Please let’s sit down and have some tea and a meal. You look hungry my friend. What is it that you brought?”

"My name is Zachariah, I come from a small colony about two days journey from here. My friend –" He paused. Arthur could tell he was grieving. “well anyway. I came to return this.”

As he handed Arthur the book, Zachariah was relieved to see the astonishment in Arthur’s face. He was also relieved that the journey was not made in vain. Arthur held the book and flipped it open. With a mixture between pure joy, and pure fascination, Arthur finally spoke again.

“My friend…. you have no idea how grateful I am.” Zachariah looked quite confused. “This book here, while it doesn't seem like much to others, means a great deal to what we are trying to accomplish here. With this book, we will be able to make many things that we have not had since the war.” Arthur eyes were growing wet. “Zachariah, thank you for returning this book.” Zachariah took one more sip of tea and stood up.

“Where are you going my friend?” Arthur said in curiosity.

“Time to go back home and bury my friend.” Zachariah said. He slipped his backpack over his shoulder and headed out the door.