Chapter 6

Rebecca was in the lead and she walked to the road and then followed the road for a couple miles watching where she put her feet. I had caught up with them by the time they stopped to rest but hadn’t shown myself. The three stopped. Roy said, “Do you think that was Riley?”

Rebecca said, “Yes. I hope he catches up with us soon. Until he does, I going to do what he taught me to do. Keep moving and try to leave no sign that I was there. At the first sign of dawn, we will leave the road and hide.”

Roy said, “You told me going to them and then with them was a mistake but I wouldn’t listen. They sounded nice. I thought we would be safe.”

Rebecca said, “I left some signs for Riley to follow. I didn’t want to go but they could easily have made me join them. Fortunately, none of us said anything about Riley.

“Roy, we were lucky this time. Next time, it’s going to be immediate choice of fight or flee. Most men without dependents are not going to care for others. Riley is a rare, good man. I hope I get the chance to tell him that.”

They started moving again. Gauging their speed, I moved ahead of them and found a spot to wait. I did and they stopped there seeing that dawn was soon to come. Rebecca said, “I hope we’ve gone far enough. It’s time to get off the road. It will be light soon. I’ve been taught that roads are dangerous in the daytime.”

I slowly stood and said, “They are.”

The three all jumped. Rebecca ran to me and pulled me into a tight embrace. “Riley, I’m so glad. You got us free back there.” She kissed me passionately. She had never kissed my lips before much less been passionate. She had her body plastered against mine like she was trying to burrow inside my skin.

After a bit, I said, “Okay. It’s okay but we need to get off the road and pick a spot to hide that’s safe. We will probably have searchers looking for you three or for me. We don’t want to leave a big heat source for the aliens to find either.”

We moved off the road and found a thicket that we could crawl into and be covered from searchers around us and above us. I made sure our tracks from entering were erased carefully. We now had no arms except my rifle and my pistol. The other group had taken all theirs for safety. It’s hard to shoot someone when you don’t have a gun!

We lay down in the leaves to sleep. I noticed that the ground cloth and blankets were also missing. I figured the men had helped carry them and “forgot” to give them back. I laid my things out and we all slept jumbled together with Leslie and Rebecca between Roy and me. I only woke when the warmth of the sun made me hot. I opened my eyes and saw Rebecca sleeping next to me closely. Leslie was tight to Rebecca and Roy had enveloped his daughter and even had a hand on Rebecca’s shoulder. I moved very slowly and gently to extricate the parts of my body in contact with the others, though that was mostly Rebecca. As I did that, I looked around to be sure we had no company. Once I felt comfortable with that, I started moving around still looking and listening for anything that might represent a threat or even a potential disturbance.

Looking at my watch, I realized that it was just after twelve noon. I took a sip of water and moved away and looked and listened even more. Finally, I stood in the shadow of a tree and looked around some more. It remained quiet.

Then I heard it. One of the aliens’ ships was flying over. On the road ahead of our path, I heard explosions. I hoped that the raiders that had found us were being hit or, perhaps, some new raiders we would never meet were the target.

Staying off the road as usual, we started walking. I knew we needed to stock up on supplies of all kinds. We came to a row of houses that looked deserted. The first house was empty and had been raided for its food. We looked in the closets for clothes and packs. Rebecca had her pack but Roy and Leslie did not. We only found a school backpack that would work for Leslie. There were clothes for her as well. The man’s clothes in the house didn’t fit Roy or me. Rebecca found a couple of shirts that she could use. There were no guns.

The next house was a treasure trove. The home’s owner was a hunter with a gun cabinet in a closet. We broke into it and retrieved a rifle and two pistols with ammunition. We also found a pack for Roy and clothes that would fit him. In a pantry, we found bottled water and canned food. There were also sleeping bags and blankets. We loaded up and left the way we entered, through the back door. We went back into the woods making an effort to leave no trace of our passing. We went a good hundred feet into the tree line. We stopped so I could look around and the others could rest.

I heard a noise on the road and went to check on it. It was the group from last night. They were together walking down the road. I figured they would want to pilfer the houses as we had. I went back and said softly, “Time to go. We have company coming. It’s the group from last night.”

Roy balked. “You took out the bad one. The rest are okay.”

I said, “Okay, Roy. Have a good life. I had given Rebecca the rifle leaving Leslie and he with pistols. “Rebecca, we need to go right now if you’re coming with me.”

She nodded and loaded her little pack, slung her rifle, and stood by me. “Good luck, Roy, and good bye. Just tell them that we left you while you were asleep.”

We started to head out when Leslie said, “Wait! Don’t leave me. Those men were after me, too. Dad, go with them and good luck. I’m staying with Riley and Rebecca if they will permit it.” She shouldered her little pack and walked to stand next to Rebecca.

Roy said, “You can’t go. I’m your father.”

“Dad, you’re wrong again. I will not go with you. If Riley and Rebecca won’t have me, I will go away on my own. If you come with Riley and he will let you, you have to agree to obey him completely.” She stood there upset but determined.

“I won’t permit it.” Roy said and then started to pull his pistol. Before he could, I had my rifle in the pit of his stomach. That stopped him.

I said, “Rebecca, tie his hands. Leslie may come with us but Roy can stay here for his friends. I don’t trust him.” Rebecca tied his hands together. “Now tie his feet in a hobble and gag him. It will be a struggle but he can stand and stumble to his friends. By then, we will be long gone.”

Roy was crying. “You can’t take my daughter. She’s mine.”

Rebecca gagged him. She said, “She’s not yours to handed over to those guys so they can gang rape her.”

I pulled him around to face the others with his back to a tree. I pointed further into the woods and the three of us ran. I took the trailing position and tried to hide the more obvious signs of our passage. We kept moving for an hour. I then bent our path back toward the way we came and slowed us down. We kept moving until Leslie was exhausted. Rebecca was tired, too. I stopped us and found some tight brambles that we crawled under to hide us. There was a small hollow to give us some shelter and a couple of trees to give us minimal cover from an air search. I had us lie down with some separation because our cover from the air was minimal. I explained my thinking. I covered our traces from any pursuers.