The Untold Future

To Market, To Market

After the man led us back to the quad he said, "D'yuh have a name?"

I paused, not knowing if I should give it to him. Names are only to be given to the trusted, so, naturally, I lied and said, "Lorelei, you?"

"Robert, but a great many people 'round here call me Roberto and my dad calls me Bob," he paused. "D'yuh mind me askin' what yer doin' here? I mean, yuh must be lookin' fer something. People only come up here for trade not vacation."

"I guess you could say I'm here for a little bit of both. I'm looking supplies, food, water, booze, saws, knives, shovels, a couple sleeping bags, and a couple ponchos."

"What d'yuh need a shovel fer?"

"To make hole to do your business in and bury it afterwards."

"Ohhh, well, my bad. I guess that was pretty obvious. Anyhow, you're in luck my pa runs the shop down the road. Uhh, I mean... my pa ran the shop down the road. I run it now. It sells almost everything."

"People?"

"I said, 'almost everything'. Come on I'll take yuh. Yuh can bring that with yuh too," Robert said gesturing at the quad. "We've got a garage you can put it in and a lock and chains so no one will steal it or your gear." We started the quad up and Robert ran down the street. We followed on the quad. He opened the garage and I parked it inside. Robert helped me chain it up along with the gas cans and my backpack. He then locked the garage doors and pushed us into the main house.

We entered a living room. It was nice, dirty but nice. Somehow, you could tell that this place had hardly ever seen a woman's or an OCD man's touch. (Author's note: See? I'm not sexist! I don't know why this was necessary to add, it just was.) It was clean in the obvious places but dirty in those that a messy person wouldn't look or notice. The shelves were organized and dusted, except for the corners and the floors were clean. The floors were a dark colored brown and were hardwood. A great many of the things in the house were brown, beige, tan, or shade of red making the room feel cozy and warm. A delicious aroma came from the kitchen. The one thing that made this house feel safe were the guns. There was a basket by every door and window that had guns, mostly rifles with ammo by the basket. There was a pistol on all the coffee tables along with loaded clips. I thought I couldn't but think that they probably had guns hidden in the cushions of the couch. (Author's note: It's kind of depressing how many tries I needed to spell 'cushions' the right way.) The house itself somehow looked tired. As the dust drifted by the window, you could see the rays of the sun come through and it just made the house look tired. Faded and tired, but still standing and still letting the golden light come in and bless what was left of the family.

"Honey, I'm home!" Robert yelled taking off his hat and wiping his boots on the rug by the door before entering.

"Robert!" someone yelled. Thud! "Oh, god dammit!" He also had a western accent but it was less pronounced than Robert's. There was some more cursing as metal things jangled together, clothes rustled, and feet stumbled. "God dammit, Robert!" The person came around the corner. "Why do yuh have to that, you little jackass!" He was rubbing his forehead. He put hand down when he noticed us. "Oh, sorry, ladies."

"Did yuh get her figged?" Robert asked.

"Almost, until you came in, you gotta stop messin' with me like that," the boy replied.

"Aww, Tommy. Did you try tuh head butt the machine you were workin' on again?" Robert teased.

"I swear to God, you'll be the death of me."

"Well, luckily we got company to keep me from killin' yuh," Robert said. "This here's Lorelei and that's... s'cuse me, little darlin', I don't think I got your name." He said looking at Faith.

No response.

"Does she not talk?" Robert asked.

"Not to me or anyone she's met yet," I replied. "Her name's Faith."

"How'd she tell you that?" I held up the locket in response. "Oh..." There was a pause. "Well, these two need to go to the shop." Robert broke the ice with this statement.

"I'm Tommy," the other boy said. We shook hands. "Come on, we'll take you to the shop." They took us to a trap door under a rug that led to a basement. I had already almost been kidnapped once today, so I wasn't looking forward to stepping into someone's basement.

"Y'all go, I'll stay up here," Robert said. He must've noticed the look of concern on my face because he said, "People been tryin' to steal our goods so we moved our goods in the basement. It's easier to defend. We can preserve food down there too."

We went into the basement. It... was... huge! There were goods on the ceiling being held up by nets. The walls had built in shelves with all kinds of things on them. We were standing on a wood floor and the entire place was lit up by candles. There was a hole in the floor that Tommy went down. He waved us down with him. There were shelves that lined the walls. There was only one thing that broke that line and that was a long wood desk. He got behind the desk and asked, "What do yuh need?"

"Sleeping bags, ponchos, food, water, knives, shovels, sporks, cooking pots, booze, bandages, bandaids, saws, and duct tape," I said.

"What'll yuh trade fer all that?"

"Labor." Tommy had a confused look on his face after I said that so I added, "Services. I'll work around the house."

"Wow," he said, "I was going to say, 'Really?' but now that I look back, an extra pair of hands is probably one of the few things we do actually need. You got it!"

He went around and grabbed all the gear. He knew where everything was and I knew that, despite the messiness of the shelves, there was a system of sorts in play. A sort of method to their madness.

"There's a catch," I said.

"Well, shit," he began. "You couldn't've told me about this before I got all this shit out fer you?"

"I just remembered," I said. I paused assuring myself that I was making the right choice to tell him.

"Well, don't keep me in suspense! Shoot."

"We need a hiding place. Until that convoy passes."

"Convoy? What convoy?"

"There's one heading up the road."

"Please tell me yer pullin' my leg."

"Unfortunately, I'm not."

"Shit!" He rushed from behind the counter and hurried out of the basement. "Robert!"

"What?" Robert said back.

"We got a major problem," Tommy said back.

"Let me guess, we gotta bring Roy and Sonya back."

"How'd you know?"

"I can see your problem at the base of the mountain."