Darkness upon the Land

And it was evening and it was morning, the first day.

That verse surfaced in Reuben’s mind as he watched the sky begin to brighten with predawn as opposed to the aurora’s light. He had been on the watch for intruders in their camp pretty much all night even though Alexia took a roughly three-hour shift in the middle. What little sleep he had gotten was plagued with several interruptions when every small noise caused him to stir. Luckily, unless he wanted to accuse a couple of crickets of trespassing, there was nothing to justify his vigilance.

He glanced toward the tent where she was sleeping. At least she seemed to be getting her rest, and she needed it. After the harrowing events of yesterday, and especially after her outburst, she literally had to “recharge” her body’s system. He’d felt a little guilty about awakening the girl for her shift, but he knew he did have to try to keep his own strength up. Besides, she would have gotten annoyed with him if he didn’t share some of the responsibility. And Alexia’s wrath was literally a force to be reckoned with.

His thoughts drifted back to the few dreams he managed to have. There hadn’t been anything out of the ordinary this time. He did have a bit of a nightmare about trying to get out of a crumbling building while unknown persons were determined to keep him in. That one wasn’t hard to decipher.

Yesterday morning, however, Reuben had awakened with the immediate realization he’d had that recurring dream again. For as far back as his memory could reach, without any sense of a pattern that corresponded to time or place, he occasionally dreamed about standing in the desert and watching a massive military force advance to its position. The first time he could recall having that dream was the night before his sister was born, when he was four years old. When his parents called yesterday morning immediately after the news broke, he had no trouble attaching a significant event to this occurrence.

What little starlight had shone through had already faded. He winced slightly as he walked away from the prepared fire ring and a little deeper into the woods. Besides his muscle soreness and tender back and sensitive burns, his lungs felt like somebody had reached into his chest and wrung them out. He felt the urge to cough, but managed to suppress it.

After watering a palmetto bush, he returned to the fire ring and used a magnesium stick from his gear bag to generate a spark in the tinder before adding more wood. Then he stood and turned toward the east because there were many good reasons to face that direction while offering his morning prayer.

In a voice just barely loud enough for him to hear, he recited the fifteenth psalm in Hebrew. He decided to learn the language in elementary school since he was already familiar with much of the vocabulary. And using a language that wasn’t native to him made Reuben actually consider the words he spoke instead of simply repeating them by rote.

“‘Lord, who may sojourn in your tent....’”

It was a short psalm, and it didn’t take long for him to come to a verse that gave him a moment’s pause.

“‘Who has never done harm to his fellow....’”

He wished he could have avoided shooting that man in the stomach. But once he hit the ground there was an immediate urgency to keep Baldy from jumping on top of him. Otherwise he wouldn’t get up again anytime soon. Right now the hospitals would be crippled and overwhelmed. Baldy’s chances for survival were ... slim. A man might die because of him. He decided he’d better stick to one prayer at a time.

In only a few more verses he paused again.

“‘Who stands by his oath even to his hurt....’”

The level of confrontation yesterday could have been reduced if he hadn’t been so determined not to lose their bags. He had promised her mom Liana that he would get her home. Although Reuben was pretty confident he could survive in the wilderness with no more than a knife to get him started, Alexia’s condition made her much more vulnerable. She was simultaneously the most powerful and the most fragile person he’d ever met. That remarkable ability of hers literally burned calories, which was one of the reasons she had become even thinner in the three and a half years he had known her. She didn’t look underweight – yet – but the girl struggled to keep on the pounds she did have.

Her unique biochemistry was not only the root of her “talent,” it was another reason food was so important for her. But since she was susceptible to additives, preservatives, colorings ... anything that wasn’t in its purely natural state could potentially sicken or even kill her. For Alexia, the word “starvation” took on a new and more sinister meaning. And ever since the day he discovered the real reason she was consulting with Dr. Vaughn, he became responsible for her.

He finished the psalm and turned back toward camp. As he took a drink from his filter bottle, a warbler must have realized it really was dawn and began its territorial call. He finished the water and arranged the wood in the fire pit so the coals would become more uniformly spread. He had a small wire grill that just fit on the surface of the pit, and after nursing the fire for a few more minutes, he set an already filled pot of water on the grill. By then birdsong began to emanate all around them.

He saw Alexia roll toward the fire and open her eyes while he was dabbing his toothbrush with baking soda.

She frowned slightly. “Have you been up this whole time?”

“Just up to no good.”

She shook her head, sat up, and yawned while stretching. As she got up to stand in front of the tent, she commented, “I forgot how the woods are full of roosters.”

“Really?” Reuben stuck the toothbrush into his mouth. “The irony is they’re all yelling at each other to shut up.”

She slipped on the flip flops. “I’ll assume since you’re a smart aleck already this morning, you’re feeling okay.”

“And I’ll assume since you’ve started calling me names already, you’re feeling all right, too.”

She wagged an index finger at him as she walked by. He knew she was heading to the area with the palmetto bush, so he ambled in the opposite direction while brushing his teeth.

Usually whenever she called him a smart aleck, he would respond that it took one to know one. Nearly three years ago, while they were eating in the dining hall, the two of them began comparing their respective subcultures. Alexia teased that he was obviously more of a rube than she was. So he quipped that if she was going to call him a Rube, he got to call her a Smart Alex. The nicknames stuck.

His thoughts drifted to Jodi.

He prayed she was making it all right. She originally lived in the Shreveport area, and hopefully she managed to get out of Baton Rouge before the power went out. At least she was also backwoods savvy, and when Reuben spoke with her on the phone yesterday morning, Jodi assured him she was prepared if she should get stranded on the road. His main concern was the fact she could be travelling alone. Although she was quite tough and athletic, getting ganged up on proved to be a distinct disadvantage.

There was a part of him that felt like he was a bit in mourning. He wasn’t sure he would ever see her again, and before all the lights went out he’d actually started to entertain ideas how the two of them might try to keep in touch after he returned to Missouri.

When his parents acquiesced to his insistence that he could manage on his own at the research university, one of the laws they laid down was that he was not to develop any relationships into “romantic involvement.” At the time he was thirteen and didn’t see what the big deal was, but over the years he had grown more appreciative of their sapience. In spite of most people’s assumptions that he was older than he actually was, youth and distance doomed any pretense of flirtation he might have entertained. It still proved increasingly harder to remain “just friends” with Jodi.

Reuben paused at the edge of the highway and spat into the gravel that lined its shoulder. There was no use reevaluating his assessment of staying alone at the university rather than cause his family to be uprooted. He had missed them even more than he’d anticipated, thus cherishing the few weeks at a time he got to stay home during some of the breaks at the university. Although he wasn’t exactly worried about them, there was no denying they would all be better off if he returned. They would need his strength and resourcefulness to help with running the dairy farm.

And quite frankly, he needed them.

His time in Louisiana had been enriching even before Alexia showed up. But until he discovered her real purpose for consulting with Dr. Vaughn, most of his free time was spent in studious pursuits of theology, the swamps he’d developed a fascination for, and playing the banjo.

He heard her cough as she returned to the fire, which seemed to trigger his own reflex to do the same. Reuben hacked until he managed to dislodge whatever seemed to be clogging his bronchial tubes and spat that onto the gravel as well. At least the mucous wad wasn’t some septic shade of green, and it didn’t start to quiver and twitch and take off down the highway by its own volition. He strolled back toward the fire to join her while she squatted next to it and pulled her tee shirt on over the tank top.

“So how are you feeling?” He asked while returning the toothbrush to his gear bag.

“Not as cheeky as you.”

He smirked briefly as he looked through the bundled collection. “I may beg to differ with you on that.”

“I’d better look at your back this morning.” Alexia rummaged through the duffel bag and pulled out her own toothbrush.

“Not until after we eat.”

“Why? You think it’s going to be all gross and I’ll lose my appetite?”

Reuben briefly redirected his attention to her. “We need to discuss your bedside manner.”

He didn’t like how low their food supply was. It was no use wishing her pack hadn’t been the bullseye for a shredded projectile; they were going to have to do some foraging. Luckily late March in southern Louisiana offered more choices in wild edibles than in the northerly regions. And it was a good excuse for them to stay off the road. Enough time had passed since the outage that meeting other travelers might prove to be dangerous.

While she strayed back toward the palmetto bush to brush her teeth, he procured a treat from the gear bag: a small strainer bag of dried sage. He deposited it in the water that had been boiling for a while, and when she returned he handed her a bag of almonds and a strip of beef jerky. After they each said their own grace, he added dried apples to the offering.

“You’re going to eat more than that, aren’t you?” She looked pointedly at the single strip of jerky he grasped.

“I had a big ol’ drink of water before you got up. I’m not terribly hungry.”

“Terribly?” Alexia frowned. “Rube, you know we both need you to keep your strength up.”

He was a little surprised by her comment. She wasn’t usually so candid about her shortcomings.

“I’m saving up for tonight.” He decided to divert her attention without being obvious about it. “We might try to set up camp a little earlier this evening so that we can actually cook a meal. Maybe I’ll be able to catch some fish.”

“I hope you’re not going noodling.”

Reuben smiled. “I’ve got some fishing gear.”

She glanced at the camouflage pack. “That thing’s turning out to be quite a little bag of tricks you’ve got there.”

“I’ll wait until tomorrow night before I pull out the rabbit.”

When the tea had steeped long enough, he poured some of it into a collapsible insulated cup, which was the only hot beverage container they had. He offered it to Alexia, and then had to cajole her into drinking first by explaining he could sip at it while she tended his back. The warm, flavorful beverage was heartening, and it did help him to feel more topped off.

After she reapplied some of his bandaging and he pulled his shirts back on, they wasted no time in replenishing the water and getting packed back up. Their clothes from yesterday were still slightly damp, so they sort of fastened them to the bags where they could hang and finish drying. As they headed back to the road she commented how they looked like the laundry brigade.

At least today was a refreshing change of pace from yesterday. Nothing blew up or tried to fall on them, and they avoided the occasional house along the roadside by diverting even farther from the highway. They also kept distance from any vehicle that appeared deserted.

All the avoidance slowed their progress, and although Alexia complained a little about their pace, she never mentioned the brush or bramble or overgrowth that periodically got in their way. She was also quite diligent in her assistance with spotting and gathering any edible greens they stored in one of the water bottles. At one point she referred to his avoidance of homes and cars as overblown paranoia, and then all complaints came to an end. Reuben suspected it was a girl thing. She probably remembered about his paranoid schizophrenic grandmother as soon as the words came out of her mouth, and decided to spare his feelings by dropping the topic altogether.

He didn’t have any strong feelings about his dad’s mother because he’d never known her. But Alexia seemed to believe the woman’s suicide was supposed to be a sensitive issue for him, and it was easier to just let her keep thinking that.

It was still early in the evening when they reached an area where the road curved south and a large stretch of land ran alongside a considerable length of the bayou. He picked out a site near a stand of trees for their camp, and after they got set up he asked her to finish foraging for some plants while he tried to catch some fish.

First Reuben scrounged up some earthworms by searching under large, fallen branches and through the understory litter. He stashed them in a plastic cup he found lying beside the highway shortly before they reached their campsite, and then took out his fishing gear. It was nothing more than a line he could wrap around a bottle, with some hooks, weights, and a piece of foam to act as a bobber. But that was all he needed.

Back home where the rivers were clear and swift flowing, he could wade in the shallows and toss the baited hooks into whatever fish holes he came across. Down here where alligators could hide in the murk and vegetation, wading might mean he could wind up on the same link of the food chain as the pragmatic earthworms. So he stayed alert while scouting along the bank and tested several promising spots. His experience and optimism paid off when he was able to catch a couple bass that were large enough to eat.

They would have a whole fish each. This was going to be a feast.

Alexia had also done well with procuring food. The greens she gathered were a mix of dandelion, dock, lamb’s quarter and sorrel, and even some wild onion for a little extra flavor. Greens without vinegar and bacon grease could only benefit from the onion. She also dragged in more firewood to add to their pile.

“Well, it’s beginning to look like home.” He smiled as he squatted beside the fire pit and prepared to light the tinder.

She had already filled the pot with greens for their first boiling. “I hope not.”

“I’d thought you’d appreciate a fire and some fresh cooked food.”

“I do.” She quickly glanced around and then looked at him. “But I’d prefer home to have a bathtub and flush toilet.”

“Sorry. After the kitchen sink, I ran out of room.”

His spirit was feeling more lifted as he noticed his soreness was almost gone and the hunger that had been growing more persistent would soon become abated. As he gutted and skewered the fish to roast them over the fire, he savored the renewed confidence they were going to get through this turn of events with minimal trouble.

Reuben’s optimism faltered when he heard a shout in the distance and looked up to see a couple of people from the road striding toward their camp.