The Crucible (Part 2)

Come to Crucible…safety is there.

These signs are showing up everywhere I go, but the weird thing is that they don’t tell you how to find this Crucible place. The other thing is that I never have seen people putting the signs up.

Avoiding people is what Hobbs and I have mutually come to the decision to do. I pretty quickly went through the supplies that I grabbed when I first set out from home. We do scavenge some from abandoned homes, choosing only ones that are secluded and offer a quick get away if someone shows up. The people who were left after The Fall usually are acting as if there are no laws governing what they do and I guess there really aren’t.

Besides being a companion to keep me from getting too lonely, Hobbs is doing his part to help keep us fed. I remember reading in a book once in school that a long time ago in the Middle East and in India people used cheetahs to hunt. Sharing my can of chili with him that first night brought me some good will. Hobbs has brought in plenty of Black-tailed jackrabbits for us to eat.

The plan, if I can ever find one, is to try and bring down a deer with my bow. So far it has just been Hobbs bringing in the jackrabbits and what we can appropriate from canned food scavenged up. It isn’t a comfortable living but we are surviving.

At night I say my prayers and thank God for getting us through another day and a big thank you for sending the cheetah my way. I miss my family and that is a void that will never be filled. I go on living to represent them.

A week after the first signs started to appear I came across a man putting up one of the Crucible signs on the side of the church where our family used to go. He is wearing green camouflage, tan boots, and a black baseball cap. I am some distance away and manage to stay out of sight while the man goes about hanging the sign.

Hobbs and I have really formed a bond and he seems to know what I am thinking as we watch the man finish and start walking back into the woods. Is he some kind of military person and is trying to help people get to a place where the government can help. We could follow this man back to check out Crucible.

If these last weeks have taught me anything it is to be cautious. We shadow the man from as far back as we can. The man doesn’t seem to do anything sinister, kick squirrels or start a forest fire, but still caution is the path of life in The Fall.

We trail him for what feels like an hour and watch curiously as he gets to the top of a ridge and whistles loudly twice. Almost immediately two whistles answer him back from somewhere ahead of him. Giving him a few minute head start after we see him disappear out of sight we quietly approach the ridgeline and drop down to crawl.

Peaking over the top we see an array of about thirty tents scattered around in a clearing. Crates are stacked up all around, whoever these people are they are well supplied, and by looking at how every person I see is toting a gun, well armed. In the center of camp there looks to be a large pit, but before I can study it any longer I feel Hobbs tense up next to me.

“What is it boy?” I whisper to him, “Is there a big old bunny out there you want to go get.”

Hobbs immediately stalks off. His posture warns me that something more seems to be going on. I slide back down from the crest of the hill to collect my thoughts about what I just saw at this camp when from out of the woods a rock flies in and hits me square in the chest.

Pain flares through me, but I also know danger has found me and I have no time to nurse this injury. I roll off to my right to get behind a large tree and hear the sound of impact as another projectile hits the tree I am hiding behind.

I slide an arrow out of the quiver and set it on the bow string. I keep the bow loose and don’t want to waste strength on the draw when the wait could throw my aim off. A quick peek around and I see some movement in some brush twenty yards away.

Further to the right I see Hobbs stalking toward the area my attacker is hiding. I can’t see who is trying to get me but maybe I can flush them toward Hobbs who can dispense with them. I let loose an arrow and it thuds into a tree to the left. Sure enough my attacker scrambles through the brush and right into the path of Hobbs who leaps up and knocks the person to the ground.

I notch another arrow and run to where Hobbs has pinned the attacker to the ground. It is just a kid, a girl, and not much younger than me. She squirms beneath Hobbs but doesn’t make a sound.

“Hobbs, it’s ok,” I say to him and give a push to move him off the girl.

He moves off and lays down warily eyeing this new intruder into our life. I reach out and offer my hand to pull the girl up. She is very skinny and her clothes are not in the best shape.

She ignores my hand and stands up on her own. A slingshot lays on the ground near her. I walk over and pick it up, tucking it into my back pocket. I offer my hand again, this time for a shake to show there are no hard feelings for her shooting me with that rock.

“My name is Cassian Graves,” I say to her, unsure if I will get an answer back.

You can tell she is thinking but she doesn’t reach out to shake. “Rosie,” she replies.

“What are you doing out here?” I ask her.

She nods in the direction of the camp, “Those people are bad. They have my brother Landon.”