What's Left of My World (Book 1) Read online

  “Oh my god—what the hell?” John exclaimed. His expression showed nothing but utter disgust.

  Lee took a closer look. “Dude, are those really fingers?” Lee asked.

  John swallowed a few times to rid himself of the need to regurgitate. “Looks like an assortment of—trophies,” John said.

  “Trophies? No. Those are fingers, dude—human fingers. These Marauders are some sick bastards,” Lee said.

  A moment later, Norman appeared on the front porch and walked down the steps to where his sons both stood near one of the motorcycles. As soon as he approached, he too saw the grisly contents of the saddlebag. He turned his head away for a second, then looked back; morbid curiosity taking him over.

  “Mother of god,” Norman said, totally repulsed.

  John picked up a stick from off the driveway and used it to stir up the hideous contents of the saddlebag. “Looks like there’s some clothes in there too—looks like women’s underwear,” John said. “They’re pretty ripped up.”

  “I don’t want to know what these guys were up to,” Lee said. “But I have a pretty good idea.”

  “It doesn’t paint a pretty picture, that’s for sure,” Norman said.

  “It’s just a sign of the times,” John said grimly.

  The three stood silently for a moment.

  “What else did you guys find?” Norman asked his sons.

  “Some ammo, some MREs, and the other bike has a saddlebag full of coins and jewelry,” John said.

  Norman and his sons looked at each other a few times and then back at the motorcycles. It didn’t take long to register to them what the two dead men had been doing lately, and it sickened each of them.

  “Let’s get this area squared away and get back to the cabin. We need to make the girls aware of what happened here,” Norman said. “God knows, it won’t bring them any peace, but they need to know.”

  “Not just the girls—we need to inform everyone about this,” John said. “The whole community needs to know. What about the jewelry?”

  “Take it, I guess,” Norman replied. “It’s pretty useless to us, but it may have some barter value down the road. I’d like to get it back to the original owners but from the looks of things, they won’t have much use for it.”

  “What about the bodies? And the bikes?” Lee queried, “It would be amazing to have the motorcycles to use for getting around.”

  Norman thought for a moment, wanting to agree with his son but he couldn’t. “We’re going to have to hide the bodies in the woods, along with the bikes,” he began. “Eventually, someone is going to come looking for them and the guys that were riding them.” He pointed at the dead biker with the Vice President patch and said, “Especially that one.”

  “It’s hard to tell how many more of these guys are around. If they see this, they will be looking for some payback.”

  “This sucks,” Lee said as he kicked one of the tires. “I’ve always wanted a motorcycle.”

  “Have you always wanted to be dead?” John retorted at his brother.

  “No,” Lee relented.

  “We can walk the bikes over to the old abandoned cabin up the road and camouflage them. It’s pretty thick and overgrown there. As far as I’m concerned, the bodies can go there too,” Norman said. “We can come back another day and siphon the gas from the bikes.”

  “Agreed. God knows, these guys don’t deserve a burial,” John said. “We’ll let nature take care of that.”

  “What about Mr. Ackermann?” Lee asked.

  Norman kicked at his heels and looked at his son. “We’ll check in on him in a couple days. He’s got some things he needs to deal with on his own.”

  Chapter 5

  “The greatest faith is born in the hour of despair. When we can see no hope and no way out, then faith rises and brings the victory.”

  ― Lee Roberson

  The cabin

  Trout Run Valley

  Hardy County West Virginia

  Present day

  Sitting at the table across from Norman, Michelle took a sip of her tea and held the mug closely between her hands. Grace stood silently with her arms crossed, leaning against the kitchen counter. Her AR was still slung over her shoulder, and she was staring at the floor. Both women were silent. Norman, Lee, and John who were also seated at the table had just finished going over with them what had happened at the Ackermann’s, and what they had found. They were deeply saddened when they had heard that Mrs. Ackermann had been shot to death. Both worried about how Mr. Ackermann would be able to survive without his wife of so many years. When Norman began explaining to them about the Marauders and what they had found in their motorcycle saddlebags, the women became deeply disturbed. Grace was especially sickened by it and it showed on her countenance. Lee stood up and walked past Grace, reaching for a glass on the counter, and then filling it with filtered water from the bucket.

  Michelle stirred. She set her mug down on the table and cleared her throat. “I’m not surprised at this,” she said nervously while staring down at the table. “I’m not surprised at all. I knew it would only be a matter of time before we ran into another group of takers.”

  Grace was becoming very flustered. Her method of dealing with stress was never subtle. “I’m not surprised either, but this is fucking freaking me out,” she asserted. “I mean—where did they fucking come from? We barricaded the road at Wolf Gap. I don’t remember ever hearing engine noise on the road recently, so they had to have come from the south. With the road blocked, how in the fuck did they get here?”

  “I guess it’s possible they made it across somehow. Either that or they’ve been here all along,” Norman said as he interlaced his fingers and placed his hands on the back of his head, leaning back in his chair.

  “I’m sorry—made it across?” Grace barked. “How is that even possible? We blew the fucking road up.”

  “That’s true, Grace. But to my knowledge, no one has been up to the barricade in a while,” John said. “I won’t say it’s impossible that it hasn’t been breached because I don’t know that for sure.” He paused as Grace met his eyes with hers. “If someone had the equipment and wanted to open it up, it’s completely possible.”

  “Well, who has that kind of equipment?” Grace asked.

  “Grace, you know what’s going on over there,” Norman said. “The populated areas are like war zones. If the feds are involved like we assume they are it’s easily explainable. They have those kind of resources.”

  “I thought we were dealing with a motorcycle gang, Norman. Not a convoy of black DHS Humvees and shit,” Grace retorted. “I’m confused.”

  “I know—and for what it’s worth, it makes no sense to me either,” Norman said.

  “If the barricade is compromised, we need to do something about it ASAP,” Michelle said. “It’s the only way we can keep most of the craziness in Virginia out of our valley.”

  Everyone nodded in agreement. Lee said nothing and raised his glass to his mouth and began taking large gulps of water.

  “I suggest that we bring this up with everyone on Sunday at the community meeting,” Norman said. “Whatever is going on here, we need to make sure that everyone in this community is aware. If the barricade is an issue, we need to find out now and do something about it.”

  “We should probably not fail to mention the killer motorcycle gang,” Grace interjected. Norman looked at her and nodded, somewhat getting a kick out of her insistence.

  “We could blow the bridge,” Lee finally opened up. “The bridge at the bottom of the hill that crosses Trout Run.”

  Michelle gave Lee an odd look. The rest of the group followed suit.

  “Wonder what our neighbors would think about that?” Michelle said. “I’m not sure they’d like it very much.”

  “They don’t even have cars that work,” Lee said. “Everyone is either on foot, or has horses or ATVs or bicycles—all of which can clear the creek. You don’t need a bridge, unless you have a
vehicle that needs it to cross.”

  “I don’t think that’s an option, retard,” John said to his brother. Lee lifted his middle finger at him as he continued. “We need to verify what’s going on with the barricade. We also need to be ready because when these two dickheads don’t come back to their roost, their buddies will come looking for him. My guess is they won’t be looking for an explanation when they do. They’ll be looking for blood—and there’s no way of knowing how many of them there are.”

  “This is insane,” Grace said as she shook her head nervously, “as if we don’t already have enough to worry about.”

  Michelle took a sip of her tea and again placed the mug back on the table. “Ok—let’s not let this get us off track. We all still have jobs to do. We have a ton of things to get done in order to prepare for the winter, so let’s get it done. What happened today doesn’t change that. In the meantime, we need to be on high alert, and I do mean high.”

  “Agreed,” Norman said as John and Lee both nodded. “We’ll bring it up Sunday and let the community decide what to do about the biker dudes as well as the barricade. I would like to offer one suggestion—you ladies are not to be alone from here on out. Ever.”

  “I’m perfectly fine with that,” Grace said as she held up her hand. “And by the way, Norman—tomorrow is Sunday.”

  Everyone looked at each other and smiled, some with raised eyebrows.

  “That’s a pretty important point,” Norman said jokingly.

  “We need to arm ourselves to the teeth, also,” John said. “Everyone carries a rifle, a sidearm and extra magazines at all times. We need to have a guard outside at all times, not just at night.”

  Once all of the details were worked out, the group small talked for a few minutes and traded jabs at each other in an effort to add levity to an uncomfortable conversation. At a point where the conversation died down, John mentioned the fact that Lauren had been away for what seemed like a very long time today. Instead of allowing the group to jump to conclusions, Michelle mentioned the time that Lauren had accidentally made a mistake in distance and ended up spending a night by herself in unfamiliar territory by accident. Everyone offered their thoughts concerning how worried they had each been that night, and remembered seeing Lauren trudge up to the front porch the next morning as if nothing had happened, even though the conditions for her overnight stay were less than cozy. Michelle specifically mentioned how she hadn’t gotten a single wink of sleep that night, not that it was different than any other night for her.

  At the conclusion of the discussion, Norman retrieved a scoped rifle from the gun safe, donned a pack and went hunting as he had offered to do earlier that morning. A sentry at heart, John offered to stand guard outside on the porch and watch the property as had been decided. Grace and Lee gathered themselves and their weapons and went to the cellar to begin inventorying supplies. It was nearing mid-afternoon and Michelle began putting a few food items together to develop a plan for dinner.

  Grace was counting the buckets of beans and rice and other assorted canned foods while Lee was going through the stockpile of ammunition they had stored underneath the staircase to the cellar. They had brought a lantern down with them and it was barely enough to illuminate their surroundings. Lee had donned a headlamp in order to better see what he was doing.

  “We have so much ammo, it’s not even funny,” Lee said as he fumbled through an open .50 caliber ammo can full of assorted rounds.

  “Good,” Grace said, “we can use it to kill all those fucking, sick assholes who like raping, stealing, and cutting peoples’ fingers off.” She paused. “I mean, what kind of person does something like that?”

  “Yeah,” Lee said. “Trust me, it was pretty gross seeing that.”

  “I don’t need another mental picture, Lee,” Grace said, “the one I have is bad enough.”

  “Sorry,” Lee said. “It’s not like we couldn’t tell you guys.”

  “I know. I get it. It just sucks that we all have to go into defensive mode again. I was actually starting to feel safe here. Now I feel like we’re back where we started…or last summer—or back in Woodstock or Dad’s old neighborhood or whatever. No matter what, we just can’t be left alone anymore.”

  “I agree this new world sucks,” Lee offered. “But it’s all we got, Grace. We are all we have.”

  “Fingers. Absolutely unbelievable.” Grace hissed.

  A few moments went by without a word being spoken.

  “By the way,” Lee said, “it’s been awhile since I’ve heard you mention your dad.”

  “So?”

  “I didn’t mean anything by it…just an observation.”

  “I miss him, Lee. What else do you want me to say?” Grace barked. “I came to visit him and got to see him for all of a couple hours, then the next day he never came home.” She paused. “It really sucks.”

  “What about your other dad?” Lee asked.

  “My adopted father? He’s not my dad. It’s that simple. Alan has always been my real dad. Our relationship didn’t start until I was damn near a teenager, but he did everything he could to make up for lost time. As soon as that happened, my adopted father decided it was time to disappear from my life.”

  “Guess he got a dose of butt-hurt,” Lee said with a smile. Grace looked over at him and shielded her eyes from his headlamp. Lee noticed the beam was aimed at her and turned it away. He could see that she was smiling, and that was a good thing for her. After a few seconds, Grace turned her head and went back to what she was doing.

  “Did you guys find anything else on those guys or was it all just jewelry, fingers, and granny panties?” Grace asked with a smirk.

  “Actually—we did find a few things worth mentioning,” Lee said. He stopped separating ammunition and turned to face Grace. She noticed him walking up to her.

  “What?” she asked. “What did you find?”

  “Beer,” Lee said quietly.

  Grace’s eyes opened wide and she produced a look of disbelief before saying, “Are you kidding me?”

  Lee smiled. “Nope. Four cans of Budweiser.”

  “Gross. I mean—it’s beer so I’ll deal, but still. Budweiser?”

  “They’re bikers, Grace,” Lee pointed out. “What else do they drink?”

  “I guess that’s true,” she said, “and I probably shouldn’t judge.”

  Lee walked up the staircase and could be heard rummaging around upstairs. He returned after a minute with the four unopened beer cans still dangling from the plastic six-pack beer rings. He was attempting to hide them under his shirt, in an effort to surprise her. He pulled them out as she studied what he held for a second before reaching out and pulling one of the cans from the rings. She cracked it open and almost immediately, foam shot out from the top. Placing it to her mouth, she took several long gulps of the frothy beverage. She pulled it away from her mouth and swallowed one last time, this time letting out a burp.

  “Holy shit,” she said, wiping her mouth with her sleeve. “I never thought I’d say this about Budweiser—but this is heaven.” She then offered the open can to Lee and he held his hand up in refusal. He then pulled a can off the ring and set the others down on the floor. He cracked it open and it began to foam over a bit. Grace offered hers up and he toasted with her, then took a long pull from the beverage. Grace did the same.

  “It’s warm, but it’s damn good,” Lee said.

  “It is absolutely grand,” Grace said taking another sip.

  “I should probably feel guilty, drinking this without dad or John,” Lee said. “But for some reason, I really don’t at the moment.”

  “Courtesy, I think goes right out the window here, Lee,” Grace stated. “I gotta say that this was something I needed desperately. Besides it’s ok to be selfish—sometimes.”

  Lee smiled and took another sip. He then said, “We found other stuff, too.”

  Grace looked at him, her curiosity showing.

  “What else did you guys f
ind?” she asked. “No way it could be better than this—unless it’s moonshine, that is.” She finished her statement with a slight giggle.

  “It depends on what you consider to be better.”

  “Well then, do tell,” Grace said.

  “One of the guys had a small bag of weed on him,” Lee explained as Grace’s eyes grew wide. “He also had a full bag of pills. Pain killers.”

  “Oh, wow. Well, the pain killers we should definitely hold onto for…“

  “Pain?” Lee interrupted. “Yeah, I’m not trying to get addicted to that shit. But the weed however…”

  “Lee, I think you just became the best post-apocalypse friend I have,” Grace said with a deep smile.

  The two stood there and spoke for a while, as if nothing bad was happening around them and the danger to their livelihood didn’t exist. Once they finished their beers, they opened the last two and took a seat on the edge of Grace’s bed, sipping on them and enjoying what was a rare occurrence in these times, a temporary escape from reality.

  Their reprieve was interrupted when they both overheard a loud whistle from upstairs. It was one they had heard before, and they both knew it was John alerting those inside the cabin that they had company. They stood up and quickly ran up the staircase almost running into Michelle, who had her pistol in her hand. Grace immediately noticed that both she and Lee had forgotten their weapons in the cellar. Michelle noticed too, but said nothing and continued on to the front door. She opened it and walked outside to the porch, immediately seeing a group of people standing in the driveway. It was their closest neighbors, Fred Mason, his wife Kim, and their sons, Chad and Mark. John was already off the porch and was in the process of shaking their hands as Michelle, Grace, and Lee walked out. Michelle quickly holstered her weapon upon recognizing their visitors. She couldn’t help but be a bit on edge.

  The Mason family lived directly across the road from the cabin. Both homes were about a half-mile from the old St. James Church where the weekly community meetings were held. It was well-known throughout the community that Fred was an avid survivalist, prepper, and firearm enthusiast. He held a Federal Firearms license and at one time, was the area’s main source for firearm and ammunition purchases. He ran his business from his own basement, which was completely legal and way cheaper than having a separate storefront. It was a very lucrative business for him and his family, and in addition to Fred’s pension, it afforded them many benefits of life that other families in this area could not afford, up to and including a rather sizable home and large plot of land spanning several hundred acres. They owned a fair share of vehicles that still ran, including an armored M35 Deuce and a Half, as well as two military surplus Humvees, each complete with gun turrets for mounting a belt-fed weapon.