On the Move

By JCRogers

Kajok sat in the seat behind Raptor. Raptor was keeping the bus close behind Mallik’s Hummer. There were only ten working vehicles in Johnston, most others being damaged in the war or breaking down beyond repair over the last ten years. Luckily, Johnston had its own underground fuel storage, so there was no shortage of gasoline (or, in the case of the bus, diesel). Those cars that broke down usually sacrificed their parts to keep other cars in working order.

Before the bus had even started rolling, Kajok had pulled out his mapping equipment and started sketching a grid. Just ten minutes into the trip, they were farther from Johnston than most had gone since the war. For the most part, the weapons used were fairly clean so the area wasn’t contaminated much. The people of Johnston just seemed to prefer the security of the shelters, whether they needed them or not.

Kajok began tracing the path of the river. There were no roads, but the smoothest ground was near the river. Mallik said that was alright because they were meant to go to the ocean anyway.

Up ahead, Kajok could see the first few trees that signified the borders of the California Forest. The spreading forest had jumped the river in the last year, although it had slowed slightly. It seemed mainly to be spreading east, without going too far north or south. And, even considering the river, the spread seemed to have been slowing down for the last year or so. Maybe the soil here wasn’t as fertile, or perhaps the trees weren’t adapted for the low-precipitation climate.

They passed one of the trees and it seemed to Kajok to be the largest oak he’d ever seen. Kajok couldn’t identify the species, as it seemed to be a hybrid of many different oaks. Odd that they would choose Oak, a slow-growing tree, to perform their fast-growth experiments on.

~ ~ ~

Nearly ten miles from the limits of Johnston, they came upon a small man-made lake with a building in the center. Mallik pulled around to the lake and backed up to a concrete boat ramp. As he was lowering the boat, Raptor stopped the bus near the ramp, and Bo’s van pulled up beside the bus. Both Raptor and Bo got out of their vehicles and approached Mallik.

Mallik began releasing the boat and it slipped free of the trailer. It went quickly and drifted offshore about ten feet too far.

Raptor jumped into the air and landed neatly inside the boat. He picked up a coil of rope that was sitting between two boxes of MRE’s, and tossed one end to Bo. Bo and Raptor each pulled their end of the rope and the boat floated back to shore. Mallik and Bo got in, and Mallik started up the outboard.

Mallik drove the boat over to the building in the center of the lake and stopped at the concrete dock. He used the rope that Bo and Raptor had just used, and tethered the boat to a mooring cleat on the dock. Then all three of them went to the large door.

The building was some kind of warehouse, built in the center of a lake for protection from thieves. The clan used it to store supplies of food and fuel.

Raptor took hold of the handle and threw the door upwards, sending it rolling noisily open. Raptor had thrown it too hard and it hit the stops at the end of its tracks and bounced half-way back down.

“Showoff,” Bo said, then grabbed the chain inside the door and opened it fully. Mallik went inside and started climbing the ladder to get to the upper loft.

“You want to see showoff?” Raptor said, curling his reptilian snout into a smile (far too many teeth that were far too sharp, Bo thought). At this, he stepped beside the ladder, squatted low, and launched himself twenty feet into the air, landing on the loft in time to offer Mallik a hand on the last few rungs of the ladder.

“Holy shit!” Bo said. He’d known Raptor was agile and strong, but he’d never put on a display like that before.

“Heads up!” Mallik said. Bo looked up to see a box already falling toward him. Bo caught it—barely. He began walking it to the boat and heard a thud behind him. Raptor had jumped back down with a box under each arm.

~ ~ ~

After twenty minutes’ work, the boat was completely full. One of them would have to ride on the bow back to shore. That ended up being Bo, but he didn’t complain.

Mallik guided the boat back into the trailer, and Bo hopped off the front to begin ratcheting it back in.

Raptor had already begun carrying boxes to the rear of the bus, and Mallik joined him. They had enough supplies now for two or three months.

When they were finished, Raptor got back into the driver seat of the bus and Mallik and Bo headed back into their respective vehicles.

“Did you know he could do that?” Bo asked Mallik.

“Nope. I guess he’s been holding back.”

“What’d he do?” Nerrik asked through the open window of the Hummer.

“You okay, Bo?” Mallik asked. For the third time, Bo had grabbed at his right shoulder and winced, drawing air sharply through his teeth.

“Fine, just… hurts for some reason,” Bo seemed ashamed to admit it. “It’s never done that before.”

“Is it going to be alright?”

“Should be fine, I think. It’ll get annoying if it keeps up, though.”

“What’d he do?”—A little more impatiently.

Mallik made no reply to Nerrik’s inquiry.

Nerrik assumed a slouching pose, brows furrowed—typical of one who is sulking. His father saw this, but said nothing. He could tell him later. Or maybe Raptor would show him.

Mallik got into the Hummer and Bo walked back to his van.

~ ~ ~

The convoy of vehicles passed near the banks of the river, leaving its course only when the trees grew too close to the edge. The forest became so thick that the vehicles were forced to go slower and slower. At one point, they had to go five miles out from the river’s course to find a safe path.

They were coming now to the territory of the Dark Druids. The Dark Druids, though not true Druids in the original sense, had taken the name as well as many of the original Druidic practices.

Most of the Dark Druids were not fond of contacting outsiders, but one, Thomas, had contacted Mallik regularly. And only Mallik. None of the other clansmen (except Nerrik) had met Thomas, or any other Druids, for that matter. Though they had been sighted from a distance many times.

And now Mallik said Thomas had conveyed a prophecy of destruction. A kind of cleansing to scour the earth of evil.

“ ‘Mankind has learned nothing from this last war and still pushes forward with new ways to make war,’ he said.” Mallik retold all he could remember to Bo and Kajok. Kajok always listened intently, as if he were collecting information to put in one of his maps. Though his responses were always half-jokes. Bo, on the other hand, always reacted with a kind of incredulity, dismissing immediately whatever portents of the future came through Mallik from Thomas.

“More hocus-pocus bullshit,” he’d been known to say on more than one occasion. “If they’re so magical, why can’t they stop it?”

Mallik always replied: “Maybe they choose not to. Maybe they think the earth needs a good cleansing.” Followed by one of Mallik’s lighthearted smiles.

Just as their path rejoined the path of the river, Mallik saw a figure standing on a boulder near the bank. As he lowered the hood of his dark brown robe, Mallik recognized Thomas and brought his Hummer—and, consequently, the rest of the convoy—to a halt and got out.

“Come to tell me that the apocalypse has been postponed?” Mallik asked, again with that smile.

Thomas gave a “hmph” of laughter. “No, Mallik, I’ve come to ask you a favor.”

“I don’t have much to give, Thomas, but I’d be happy to try.” By this time Bo had also gotten out, and rolled his eyes at Mallik’s reply.

“All I ask, Mallik, is to accompany you and your clan on your journey.”

~ ~ ~

Kajok watched from his seat in the bus as the Druid stepped down from the large stone and approached Mallik. Mallik seemed to introduce the Druid to Bo, and they shook hands (though Kajok knew it was reluctantly—at least for Bo’s part).

Then the Druid got into Mallik’s Hummer, and the convoy was back underway.

~ ~ ~

They continued along the path of the river, which would take them to another, larger lake. As they came into the clearing around the lake, they saw a ferry tethered to a small pier. Mallik parked his hummer near the pier and started toward the boat. Bo followed.

“What’s wrong, Mak?” Bo said. Mallik had stopped short; Bo nearly ran into his back.

“Look,” he said, jerking his jaw toward another boat.

“We didn’t order two.”

“No.” Nor would they have ordered something as impractical as the houseboat that had, until now, been hidden from view behind the larger ferry.

“You think someone’s here?” Bo asked, already taking a defensive position next to Mallik.

Thomas the Druid and Nerrik had gotten out and had approached as well. Some other clansmen were getting out of their cars and milling about, waiting for the okay to start driving onto the ferry.

“Nerrik, go send Raptor up here, and then tell everyone else to get back into their cars. Tell them we may not be safe. When you’ve done that, get back into the car yourself, okay?”

Nerrik did as he was told, first sending Raptor to Bo and Mallik, then relaying the message to the others.

As Raptor approached Mallik and Bo, the houseboat came into view and he immediately shifted his eyes to the woods.

“What’s going on, Mallik?” he asked.

“Don’t know yet. You smell anything?”

“No, nothing.”

“Someone had to have been here,” Bo said.

“Whoever it was must’ve heard us coming and left.”

“Or hid,” Mallik added.

“Or hid,” Raptor agreed. “But still, I can’t smell anyone. Which is weird. Even if they left, their scent should still be around.”

“Well,” Bo said, shrugging, “let’s stop chatting and go check it out.”

Mallik, Bo, Raptor, and Thomas headed toward the houseboat.

~ ~ ~