Free Life After: Episode 1 by JJ Holden Page B

there?
That’s nearly three hundred miles south of here.”
    “I didn’t walk the whole way,” the boy said. “There
was an army train heading north and I managed to hitch a ride on
that. I was at the rear end of it but then I realized where it was
going.”
    The man swallowed hard. “Where?”
    “One of the camps. It almost took me along all the
way there, but I managed to jump off when it slowed down. When I
ran from it, I heard screaming. Then I turned around and…”
    The man waited in anticipation. Though only a few
seconds passed, he couldn’t wait any longer to hear more of the
boy’s story. “And then what?”
    “I saw them.”
    “Who?”
    “The people in the cattle cars. Their arms were
stretched out through small windows in the cars. It was horrible. I
looked in the direction they were headed and saw only darkness in
the sky, though it was the middle of day.”
    “Probably smoke,” the man said.
    “Do you think it was another city on fire?”
    The man hesitated. “Probably.”
    “What happens in those camps?” the boy asked.
    The man turned to look at the inactive fireplace. He
thought of all the rumors he had heard before he lost contact with
everyone in the world. He turned back to the boy and shook his
head. “Horrible things. Beyond imagination.”
    “Like what?”
    The man stood up and slowly walked towards the center
of the room, like he was beginning to pace the floor. Then he
stopped, turned around, and looked at the boy. He saw a sliver of
innocence still left in him, and he didn’t want to be the one to
completely annihilate it.
    “Look,” the man said. “There are certain things that
you just shouldn’t know. I wish I didn’t know what I know. I’d
certainly sleep better at night.”
    “Okay,” the boy said.
    “I think it’s time to get some rest.”
    The boy stood up and looked at the man. “Where should
I sleep?”
    “I’ll give you some blankets and you can sleep on the
rug. There’s a little bit of padding.”
    “Okay. That will be much better than the last few
nights.”
    After a few minutes of rounding up some blankets, the
man laid them on the ground. The boy kept his oversized clothing on
as he fell asleep. The man walked around and blew out all of the
candles except for one. With the last remaining candle guiding the
way, he walked to his cot in the corner of the cabin, then blew it
out. On his back, his eyes remained open, though he could not see
anything but darkness. He listened to the howling wind and the rain
that kept pelting the roof. Before long, he was asleep, but the
howling continued in his dreams.
    Upon waking, the first thing the man noticed was that
the boy was already up and seated in the chair nearest to the
fireplace.
    The boy saw that he had awoken. “Good morning.”
    The man sat up and rubbed his eyes. “How did you
sleep?”
    “Pretty good.”
    “The storm is over,” the man said. “Hard to believe
that the rain lasted that long.”
    The boy shook his head. The man knew that he had
suffered greatly from the amount of rain that fell. To find
shelter, especially dry shelter, was difficult in the wilderness. A
cave could be home to many things that most boys would not want to
stumble upon. A bear. Or a newly minted cannibal.
    “Are you hungry?” the man asked.
    “Very.”
    The man thought about the cache of food in his
bunker, but knew that he should save it for emergencies only. Since
the wet weather had concluded, he knew it was a good time to leave
the cabin and forage. Meals could also be caught, but he had not
set traps in quite a while. He walked to the corner of the cabin
where he kept small traps used for trapping small animals. The
traps were unwieldy in his right hand, but he kept his left hand
available to pick up a small basket. He handed the basket to the
boy.
    “Carry this,” the man said. “We will gather whatever
berries we can. I’ll set these so hopefully we can catch something
for dinner.”
    The boy hung his