Beside the Dying Fire

I sat on the front porch of my old home, lost in thought. Even at only ten in the morning, the sweltering heat formed beads of sweat upon my forehead. The small mercury thermometer, hung just beside my front door, read a warm 85 degrees Fahrenheit. It was going to be a hot one, you could count on it. Summertime in Georgia could be scorching, and the humidity only made it worse. Around this time of the year, air conditioning was the luxury I missed the most.

I sat wondering how the supply trip to town was going and thanked the Lord that I hadn’t been assigned to go this time around. The heat would only make the trip that much more difficult and twice as miserable. Instead, my job this time was to watch over the others who hadn’t been assigned to forage for supplies and were still inhabiting the town. Because quite a few people were missing, we were much more vulnerable. With the help of a few others, I was to make sure that there was no apparent threats to any of us while the others were away. It wasn’t a job I was particularly fond of, but it was a whole hell of a lot easier and safer than the trips to town. At least most of the time. Of course, there were occasional dangers. Most of the time it was only little things like a wild animal, a small fire, a dispute between town citizens, or a sudden bought of a small illness. But, sporadically, there were incidents of a larger degree. Walkers, thieves, and downright bad people would sometimes make their way to our small town. Those were the reasons we were to always be on high alert. If anyone were to need us, we would be right there.

At the same time, the people on watch were there to take in anyone who may need our help. If someone needed shelter or just simple sustenance, we were there to provide it. Though we didn’t have much supplies of our own, we (or at least most of us) had always been willing to save some rations for those who might end up wandering through the town. It didn’t happen often out here in the middle of nowhere, but it happened enough.

On account of the heat, I thought for sure that something would happen to make this day even more stressful. But it was quite on the contrary. For the majority of the day, nothing happened. We all went about life as usual. It wasn’t until about seven-thirty in the evening that Walt (another person assigned to keep watch) wandered over to my home to give me some news, just a half hour after the group came back from the supply run.

“Hey, honey,” he spoke - a word of endearment he used quite frequently.

“Hey, Walt. How’s it going?” I asked, observing the old man I had only known for a few months. Already, I enjoyed his company more than most of the others. He reminded me of my father in a variety of ways.

“Oh, good. Other than the fact that I’m sweating like a pig.” He looked down to his sweat-drenched apparel. I, too, had a sticky, sweaty sheen to my skin that had continued to make the day uncomfortable.

“I feel your pain.”

Walt laughed. “Have you heard the news, honey?”

My brows furrowed. “What news?”

“You really haven’t heard?”

“No, Walt. I’ve been up here all day, looking over everything,” I said, gesturing to the town. My house was conveniently positioned at the top of a small hill, overlooking the majority of town and the forest to the southeast of it. “Haven’t had any visitors besides you,” I continued.

“Well, after the group came home, Peyton and Matthew approached me and told me all about what they saw on their way home.”

“And what might that be, Walt?”

“They said that they seen a campfire just on the top of the hill on the other end of that there forest,” he said, pointing. The area he was talking about, just so happened to be conveniently out of my eyesight. It was on the far end of the forest, just out of view. Probably a couple miles away. “They were just about in the trees, I suppose. But they didn’t do any investigatin’, ‘cause they didn’t particularly want to end up in any trouble, comin’ back with those supplies. But they all reckon that we’ll be having some visitors soon. And it seemed like there were quite a few of them.”

The thought of visitors scared me, quite frankly. It seemed that more and more frequently, we were coming across the wrong kind of visitors. The kind of visitors that wanted what we had for themselves - thieves, mostly. It was becoming less likely that anyone who approached us wanted help or lodging. Nowadays, they only wanted possession of our materials, our homes, or our people. The world was becoming much nastier than it already was. It seemed that the worst in everyone was beginning to show.

“Is that so?” I asked, trying to hide my concern.

“Oh yeah. They’re not sure whether they’ll be makin’ their way here tonight or tomorrow though, if at all.”

“I’m sure they’ll be stopping by sometime or another. One of the roads to the city leads right past here. It’d be hard to miss if you were traveling along that road. I just hope they mean well.”

“I suppose you’re right, honey. Sorry if I spooked ya. Would you like me to find someone to stay up in the house with you tonight?” Walt asked.

“Nah, I think I’ll be alright. I’ve been up here on my own since this all started. I’m sure I can last another night.”

“Alright. Well, you keep your walkie on you all night, honey. If you need anything, just holler.” With that, Walt was off on his way back down to the rest of the town. Now I was lost in thoughts of a whole different kind. Occasionally, we had had people wander into our town. But never have we ever had a large group make it’s way here. To be quite honest, it made me a little nervous. But I wasn’t going to tell Walt that. I didn’t want him to worry.

For the rest of the night, I kept my eye trained on that spot, the spot in which I figured the group would be. It seemed as though they weren’t moving, so I guessed that we wouldn’t meet up with them this evening. I kept repeating that thought for the rest of the night, in efforts to keep my mind from wandering to more grim thoughts. Finally, my nerves subsided and I was able to get to sleep at a decent time.

But when I awoke hours later startled, I knew I had thought wrong.