Darkness upon the Land

He released her hand while simultaneously opening the sheath on his hip, and with seemingly one motion had the slingshot out, loaded, and drawn.

“Stop right there!” Reuben barked. “We’re armed!”

She caught her breath as the two men hesitated. Baldy and Ponytail glanced at each other, grinned, and lunged toward them again.

He released the ammo-loaded pouch and Ponytail suddenly bellowed and grabbed at his right knee just before crashing to the concrete as though somebody had yanked a rug out from under him. As Alexia stepped back she saw Reuben drop the gear bag and slip another pellet into the pouch from a fistful he had palmed. He was drawing with his left hand this time. Because he was ambidextrous, he was never consistent about which hand he shot with.

But as quick as he was, Baldy was nearly upon them when he had the slingshot drawn again. This time he fired at point blank range but apparently didn’t have the chance to really aim. Their attacker roared and his left arm jerked, but with his right arm he swiped at Reuben. The younger man jumped back, but the looter spun toward Alexia and grabbed the front of her shirt with his next swipe.

She screamed, and it happened.

The two glass windows of the building they were actually behind shattered into shards of glass that sprayed into the interior of the structure. Baldy’s contorted face twisted from rage to surprise as he stumbled back, dragging her with him. Obviously he felt the force of her outburst but would have no idea what it was or where it came from. Reuben had described the sensation as standing in front of super-sized speakers cranked up to full blast and suddenly switched on, only without all the noise. As she grabbed at her assailant’s hand to try to rip it off her shirt, Reuben lunged at the thug and slammed his left elbow into Baldy’s right ear.

The man cursed, released her, and swung back at Reuben – who ducked. With his right hand still grasping the slingshot, he slugged Baldy’s bloody, left upper arm.

Alexia’s legs became wobbly and her head light as she heard her assailant howl. She never felt more than a slight tingling from the energetic power that erupted from her during an outburst, but the drain she experienced afterwards was in direct correlation to how large a reaction she had. And this had been a big one.

Baldy tried again to slug Reuben, but missed because his target darted back. She slowly dropped to her knees and allowed the duffel bag that had been slung over her shoulder to rest on the concrete. Then she saw Ponytail stagger to his feet. Swearing the whole time, he lurched toward Reuben’s gear bag that was behind the dueling men.

“Rube! Your bag!” Her yell was weak.

Reuben, still in motion away from Baldy, swung around and was upon Ponytail just as the man grabbed the bag. She was shocked to see him kick that person forcibly in the ribs, but that succeeded in knocking the thief away. And Baldy was still charging while Reuben’s back was turned. She didn’t even have time to scream a warning.

While Reuben was still in the process of snatching the bag, Baldy’s fist slammed into the right side of his torso. An audible grunt escaped as he dropped the camouflage bundle he’d just hooked with his left hand. The ruffian grabbed his right upper arm and twisted the young man around, and punched him in the face. As Reuben recoiled from the blow his feet flew out from under him, but the fall tore him free from Baldy’s grasp. He landed on the concrete with his head up and drawing back on the slingshot he still gripped in his right hand.

The aggressor sprang toward him and Reuben shot. He rolled and leapt to his feet as Baldy shrieked and crashed to his knees at the barely vacated spot.

Alexia placed her left hand on the concrete to steady herself as she watched Reuben grab the gear bag and sling it over his left shoulder. He dashed over to her while Baldy, gasping and cursing, kneeled on the ground with one hand on the pavement and the other clasping at his stomach. Ponytail staggered back to his feet.

“You all right?” He gasped as he crouched at her side, a trickle of blood at the left corner of his mouth.

“I will be.”

Ponytail gawked at Baldy before looking toward Reuben, who grabbed the pouch of the slingshot again. She saw him slip in the last pellet. But the rioter, still staggering as he favored his bleeding knee, backed away to leave. His scraggly-haired buddy, who had watched everything from the platform, apparently decided his armload of loot was good enough for him, and he ran down the steps and away into the neighborhood behind the businesses.

“Hang on,” Reuben gasped again as he palmed the pellet once more and grasped her left arm to pull it around the back of his neck. Then he slipped his right arm around her ribs. She secured the duffel bag over her shoulder as he lifted her to her feet.

Her knees were still weak and she was trembling, but all the physical discomforts had been brought on by the outburst. She was exhausted and famished and yearning for something to drink, and barely had the strength to keep in step with him as he practically carried her back on their intended path.

Ponytail continued to curse them as he retreated, but Baldy’s pitch began to rise as his epithets became more hysterical. Reuben cut a wide detour around him, but the attacker didn’t seem interested in pursuing them as he stared at the blood seeping out from under his hand.

Alexia didn’t know how he could keep up this pace, and it was about to wear her out even though he was doing most of the work. Block after block he escorted her, sometimes muttering encouragement and occasionally snapping at anybody who actually paid attention to them. He would have startled her with his uncharacteristic surly behavior, except she was focused on keeping herself conscious. She was hardly aware of anything more than just the two of them, and Reuben actually felt more like just an extension of her.

At some point he finally came to a halt and carefully lowered her so she could sit on the soft grass. They were in the shade of a concrete pillar. He pulled her duffel bag toward him, rummaged through it, and handed her a sandwich-sized plastic bag that was half full of homemade pemmican.

“Eat this.”

She gladly accepted the food and began to nibble at the high-energy treat. The key to her recovery was calories, but they also needed to be nutritionally packed. The density of those requirements was well provided in the dried meat, fruit and fat mixture, making it a standby for her. If only her unique biochemical makeup didn’t so strictly limit what sustenance she could consume, she would have been one of those people who could “eat anything” and never gain an ounce.

Reuben pulled out a plastic water bottle and dumped some of the liquid into a handkerchief he held before handing the bottle to her. “And be sure you drink all of what’s in there.”

Alexia frowned slightly as she took the container. “How much water do we have?”

“I’ve got filters.” He scrubbed at his right hand with the cloth. “Water won’t be an issue for us.”

No wonder he had been so determined not to lose that bag.

“Are you all right?” She murmured just before taking a long drink.

“I’m fine.” He watched her as she swallowed several mouthfuls of water. “The real question is how are you?”

She had to stop drinking in order to reply. “Probably better than you.” Then she dabbed at the corner of her mouth with the tip of her index finger. “You’ve got blood here.”

“I know. I’ve been tasting it.” He reached into the gear bag and pulled out a second bottle. This one had a straw sticking out the top, and Alexia recognized the filter he had referred to.

“Does it hurt?” She asked.

“My jaw is sore.”

“What about your side where he punched you?”

“My ribs are sore.”

“Is anything else of yours sore?”

He seemed to consider her question for a few seconds before replying. “My pride?”

She had to smile a little. It was reassuring to see a glimpse of the Reuben she knew.

“You don’t have any pride.” She took another drink.

“Must be something else, then.” He rummaged through her duffel bag again and pulled out a bag of store-bought but all natural beef jerky. “Here, have some of this now. And you’ve got some dried berries. We’ve got to try to make that pemmican last at least four days.”

Alexia stared at him. “Four days?”

“Maybe five.”

It seemed incredible that it would take four to five days to walk the same distance that could be covered by a car in an hour and a half. “Maybe we should run part of the way.”

His expression as he regarded her was half incredulous and half amused. “Only if something’s chasing us.” Reuben’s attention diverted to the now blood-stained handkerchief, and a hint of disgust entered his face. He glanced around as though hoping to find a nearby trash can in which to deposit the cloth.

Another chill rippled through her as she recalled the recent fight. “And those men who attacked us? What about the one you shot in the stomach? That was awfully close range.”

His brow furrowed. “I know.” Then his gaze drifted to whatever lay beyond her and the pillar she leaned against. “I couldn’t aim.” His voice seemed as distant as his observation. “All I could do was shoot. I knew if he got me on the ground....” And then his regard shot back to her. “I couldn’t leave you alone with them.”

She stared at him as the significance of that conflict settled upon her. And as the realization deepened she also became more cognizant of their location. They were almost to the interstate. The concrete pillar that gave them shade was part of the supporting framework of the road interchanges leading to the bridges she could now see. To her left she could still hear disturbing yells on the street, but to her right most of what she heard was just voices.

It took Alexia about fifteen minutes to feel well enough to travel again, and by that time the morning had grown warm enough both of them removed their outer shirts. The purple in the tee shirt Reuben had on was confined to the sleeves and neckline of an otherwise sage green garment.

The interstate was calmer than the street, but she could tell he was still wary. The lanes leading into town, which they crossed, had more stalled vehicles than the lanes leading out of town, which they used. People were everywhere. Some stood around their cars, either individually or in groups, and others were on the move. Some were walking into town and some were leaving.

Maybe she was getting paranoid, but it seemed that several people glanced at them with particular interest in their bags. She and Reuben weren’t the only ones hauling some kind of gear, but the bags did conceal what they had. That might make them even more intriguing for somebody unprepared for this event.

The good news was she’d already had an outburst, and since it seemed to take her body a while to “recharge,” especially after a big one, she didn’t have to guard her emotions so closely for a while. And he didn’t seem compelled to hold hands anymore. The bad news was she was still in a weakened state, so Alexia wasn’t sure how much good she could be if somebody tried to plunder them again.

She was relieved when they reached the bridge for outgoing traffic that spanned the Mississippi River. People were on the move in both directions on both overcrossings, and she didn’t know why Reuben chose to take the farther structure when traffic flow was no longer a concern.

Alexia looked to her right and saw the downtown area with its tall buildings and numerous businesses. To her left was the industrial area where multiple refineries and chemical complexes lined the eastern bank of the wide river, and holding tanks were lined up almost all the way to the highway.

Until today she never fully appreciated just how wide the Mississippi was. Normally it took only about a minute to cross this bridge, but now she realized it was going to be more like fifteen to twenty minutes.

She and Reuben winded their way between other people and the defunct vehicles as they proceeded along the span. When they were about halfway across, a boom that was not particularly distant echoed to her left. At first she thought another plane had come down, but immediately realized that couldn’t be so. Yelling and even screaming started up again as people pointed or gaped at the source of the noise.

Down toward the end of the row of holding tanks that lined the riverbank, billowing smoke rose from lashing flame. In only a few seconds two more tanks nearby the fire exploded, spewing debris and smoke and fire like the first.

There was no mistaking the gleam in Reuben’s eyes as he spun toward Alexia and snatched the duffel bag from her shoulder.

“Run!”