The Crucible (Part 5)

I woke up the next morning to find Hobbs had snuggled up tightly next to me. As I sit all the way up, I see Landon is still in his sleeping bag, a low snore emitting as he inhales. Just as I notice Rosie is nowhere to be seen, she climbs back up into the treehouse.

“Morning sleepyheads,” Rosie says, her voice rouses Landon from his slumber. “While you two were sleeping in, I went out and rounded up some breakfast.”

Rosie places a satchel down on the table and pulls back the top to reveal a treasure trove of blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries.

“Right on, sis,” Landon says as he scoops up a handful of the berries.

“Thanks,” I add. “ Where did you find all of this?

“Up on the left side of the main house. It looks like what was a garden area before the world went down the toilet,” Rosie replies. “Nothing else looked to be growing, but the berry bushes seemed to be doing fine growing on their own.”

We haven’t had a chance to really get to know each other with all that has been going on. Rosie and Landon were the most curious about how I got to be so good with a bow. I got a little choked up as I told them how my dad and I used to participate in archery competitions.

We take stock of what we have in the way of food and supplies in order to help us make a decision as to what we should do next. The first decision we all came to easily, was to head in the opposite direction of Crucible. As hard as it will be on me, I convince Rosie and Landon to make a trek back to my old home so I can replenish some of my arrow stockpile.

As we set out, I know it will take a couple of days of walking to get there so I start thinking of where we might find a good place to shelter when we stop for the night. The ever looming threat of the people of Crucible hangs over our heads and we proceed very aware of our surroundings. I couldn’t wrap my mind around why these people acted in such a vile way. I had a lot of questions that I just didn’t know the answers to and I thought that since Rosie and Landon spent some time there they might be able to enlighten me.

I broached the topic carefully, “Who are these people of Crucible and what are they trying to do?”

Rosie weighed in first, “As far as I could gather they were all part of some militia group together before the Fall happened and afterward they had their opening to create this anarchy they always dreamed of.”

“Why call it Crucible?” I ask.

“That was their big idea,” Landon takes over. “They see Crucible as a test to determine who is worthy enough for this new world we live in now. If you can pass the test, this crucible, they put you through, then you can join their group.”

I let that sink in and we continue on in silence. I haven’t seen Hobbs since we set out, but I know he is out there scouting the area around us. We pause around midday and eat some berries and open a can of Spam that I had in my pack. The three of us split that and some beef jerky that Rosie had stashed away.

A few hours after our lunch break Hobbs emerges ahead of us and lays down in our path and lets out a little chirp sound. I rush up to where he rests. “That is his signal to me that he wants to show me something?” I call back over my shoulder to the others.

Hobbs leads us off through the trees off to the right of the path we had been traveling. We wound our way through the thick tangle of trees for a few hundred feet and then Hobbs led us across a small stream and up to a cliff face. Hobbs leads us along the rocks until we come to a cave and then he laid down and chirped again.

The three of us look at each other with the same thought- Who is going to crawl up into the cave to see what Hobbs wants us to find?

Landon jokingly chimes in, “Your cat, your cave.”

I shrug and decide to check it out, I felt like there would be nothing to be worried about because I knew Hobbs wouldn’t be leading me into any known danger. I take a flashlight from my pack and crawl into the cave entrance. Just a few feet into the small opening of the cave it opened up into a large room. I begin to shine my light around the room when I get the shock of my life.

There at the end of the light huddled together are four young children. They look scared, but none of them move or make a sound.

“It’s ok,” I say in a calm voice, “I won’t hurt you.” I call back out to Rosie and Landon to come into the cave and bring some food.

The two curiously crawl in and are just as surprised as I was at the discovery. The four kids, two boys and two girls, who looked to all be between the ages of five to ten, still hadn’t spoken or moved. Rosie compassionately walked over and put her arms around the little group. They seemed to trust her immediately and just melted into her embrace.

We decided not to prod the kids for answers until after they had a chance to eat. After letting them eat some of the berries and washing them down with water, Rosie asks the oldest girl what happened and how they ended up in this cave.

Her tale starts to sound familiar. The kids were traveling with two older people, teenagers the way she described them, and started to be chased by a group of people. The older kids hid them in the cave before they were caught by the people.

We are all thinking the same thing… Crucible.