Bastille

Valeria was numb as she and Wesley carried their deceased father to the red Mazda of Wesley’s. Cassandra had unearthed a knit blanket from the back of the Tahoe that they wrapped David in cocooning his body in the warm fabric. They buried their father under a tree on a grassy knoll outside of the town, a large brick marking the grave as his own. Valeria sat for a long moment on her scratched knees staring at the disturbed earth where Wesley had dug. Her brother waited by the car for his sister, enjoying the quiet moment to himself. He wiped rogue tears from his stubble-covered cheeks as Valeria game over the hill carrying one of their shovels. She gripped his bicep tightly before letting go sliding into the passenger seat. Wesley joined her in the car revving the engine momentarily before speeding back towards where they had left the other half of their family. Cassie and Lisa hadn’t wanted to watch David be buried so they set their sights on collecting supplies.

“Do we just keep going?” Wesley asked quietly as his female companions loaded up the red car deciding on leaving the Tahoe behind. Wesley sucked at the hose in the gas tank, coughing at the fumes and the unpleasant taste of gas. He spit repeatedly trying to get the lingering essence off of his tongue. The hose was placed into the red car’s tank draining gas from the other vehicle. Wesley himself didn’t know where he had learned this skill, instead blaming it on all the television and video games he played. Now wasn’t the time to ignore his talents however for gas was necessary in their trek across the country. A tank of gas would only last so long.

“I saw a sign for a state park. Maybe they have a radio?” Valeria spoke from her perch on the bumper. Wesley shrugged at the suggestion. It was worth a shot. The family got into the Mazda with Valeria at the wheel heading east. The sign for the State Park was just half a mile down the expanse of road leading them through a forest before the asphalt finally turned to dirt road. The car bounced as they traveled sending dust flying all around them in a cloud. The tires made way easily over the wooden boards of a covered bridge before they were in front of a large glass fronted cabin. Valeria put the car into park and sat still for a moment, looking back at her siblings in the back seat then her mother beside her.

“It looks pretty vacant?” Cassie said opening her car door first. Her feet hit the dusty cement circle drive. “Are y’all coming or not?”

“I think I’m going to check around the perimeter and keep watch.” Wesley was quick to say, strapping his father’s gun to his belt and heading over to the bridge-covered creek hands in his pockets. Valeria slammed the car door closed and stood with her hip cocked looking up at the looming building. The trio of women walked up the flight of steps to the second story deck. Lisa knocked lightly on one of the strong oak doors, which made Cassie roll her eyes. “Mom, nobody is here. We can walk in.”

She pushed the doors standing in the threshold, as they swung open with a creak of protest. Valeria bit back a gasp of surprise. This was like no cabin she had ever seen. There was definite wow factor as thy walked in, the entranceway sporting a large loft with a set of stairs that matched the wood of the double doors. Valeria ran a hand over the banister of the stairs as she passed. They entered a large sitting area with plush leather couches and armchairs. “Holy shit.” Cassie said loudly making Lisa send her a stern look. She took the younger girl by the arm and led her into the other kitchen, telling her how inappropriate her language was for a woman.

Valeria was left to continue down the long hallway where to her left was two doors, one revealed a big bathroom with a waterfall shower in the center of the room surrounded by nothing but air. Double sinks lined the wall with a long mirror across them. Valeria shut the door and felt for the next knob. The door flung open to show an office with several different cubicles each housing a computer. Papers littered the floor which Valeria’s stepped carelessly upon. Window lined the walls revealing the spacious yard. Valeria stood and stared out the windows seeing a set of several smaller buildings out in the distance.

“What the hell is this place?” She said to herself with a shake of her curls. She turned mid step and made her way back to the leather couches of the entranceway room. Cassie had made herself at home on a black couch, her dark head burrows into a deer printed throw pillow, “Why are you making yourself at home, Cass?” Valeria teased, tapping her knees with a hand. Cassie kicked half-heartedly at the motion.

“Are you kidding? We couldn’t do any better than this place!” she said sitting up abruptly startling her sister. “They have a huge kitchen. Running water and a bathroom, Val, with an actual toilet. I for one am tired of peeing in the bushes.”

“Seems like you’ve given this some thought.” Valeria said with a laugh sitting at her sister’s feet. She bounced slightly on the dusty leather surface.

“There is a gas-powered stove,” Lisa spoke up softly barely being heard above Cassie’s overbearing voice, “We just need some matches. Maybe a future gas tank to replace it when it’s empty.”
“I guess we should get Wesley so we can vote stay or go?” Valeria offered, getting to her feet with her sister following close behind. Lisa, Valeria, and Cassandra walked back out the double doors and down the side deck steps. Wesley was still on watch standing with his face towards the dirt road. His face looked like it had aged into a man’s in the course of the past few hours. The boyish look he usually had was replaced with one of harshness. His eyebrows pressed down in a stern look, his jaw set as if we was gritting his teeth. He turned when the women approached, the look slipping from his face revealing the inner boy who hid there.

“Is it as nice inside as outside?” Wesley asked with a half-smile peering up through dark lashes at the wrap around deck and big glass windows, “We’re going to have to cover those if we stay.”

Valeria blinked away her surprise, “Oh, well that is what I was going to ask you about. I guess you’re okay with staying?”

“Oh definitely,” he said in excitement sweeping his hand to the fast churning river that swept under the covered bridge, “You see that river? It joins into another around the back of the property so it makes a ring around the cabin. This place is like the greatest bunker. The drones can’t get through the current; it’s much too swift. The water would just swallow them up. They would end up downstream by where Tim and Barb were docked. This place is awesome.”

“It is pretty great,” Cassie offered up her two cents telling Wesley about the running water and gas-stove top. He rubbed his hands in glee. Valeria could feel the tension in the group dissolve and for a second she smiled to herself.

“I think we just found a solid shelter, folks.” She wrapped an arm around Wesley’s middle and the other around Cassie’s shoulders. She dragged them with her towards the godsend of a shelter, “Let’s go explore.”

The trio of children found themselves in the cabin looking through the various rooms, which seemed to never end. Cassie herself was extremely taken with the bathroom saying she didn’t mind a few cold showers with the cool showerhead, “It will just be like standing under a waterfall, or in the rain.”
Upstairs right above the living space was a bunkroom with more bunks than Valeria could count. They were all made up with thick blankets and clean sheets, hotel style pillows at the head of them all. She let herself fall to the cloud like surface of one. It was like being in heaven. She definitely could get used to being here.

“Holy crap, Val. Come here!” she heard Wesley call out attracting the stretched out girl’s attention. She let out a groan of protest, her muscles aching even more after her brief break on the cushioned surface. She followed her brother’s voice down the hall to the loft that was easily seen from below in the entranceway. It was a bigger version of an office obviously for the head honcho of the place to sit and work. It sported a big mahogany L shaped desk with a state of the art computer. Valeria pined for a lingering moment for a computer. She missed the Internet more than she probably should. Wesley was standing in front of a glass case that stood taller than the gangly boy.

“Holy shit is right.” Valeria said in awe, trying to pull open one of the doors to no avail. She turned for the desk and opened the drawers trying to find the keys. By the time she had turned around Wesley had broken through the glass with a large marble sculpture of a running deer. Glass fell to the floor in a shower of shimmering shards.

“Well, that’s one way to do it.”

Valeria didn’t waste time taking the first of the two bows out of the case. It was red and black with a large sticker that said dominator in all capital letters. She pulled the bowstring back feeling the resistance strong against her bare fingers. She needed to work on her arm strength if she wanted to use that any time soon. The bow in Wesley’s hands was easily recognizable as a crossbow, but she had no idea what type of bow she held in her own. She shifted the durable weapon to her other hand before turning to Wesley, “Know what kind of bow this is?”

Wesley handed over the cross-bow in exchange for the one his sister had grabbed. He was surprised by the weight of it in his grip, “I have honestly never seen one like this. It looks like a compound bow. A weird compound bow.”

“I like a challenge.” She said taking the red weapon from her brother. She spotted the black quiver of arrows before Wesley did. Valeria took the bag from the wooden cabinet carefully to avoid the glass built up on the bottom shelf with a few boxes of ammunition. A second deer hide quiver hid behind the first, this one going to her brother. She turned to the boy and pulled back the string on her bow playfully, “Wanna practice?”