When Darkness Falls

Copyright © 2018 - This is an original work by Zeb Carter and is protected under copyright by U.S. copyright law. It is only submitted at Literotica.Com and any submission to any other site has not been authorized by the Author.

Author's Note: This is another short one with no sex. It's not really complete, it's more of a vignette, somewhere in the middle of the bigger picture. This short story inspired one much longer but without the high tech stuff. Enjoy.

I sat in the corner of the room hoping not to draw attention to myself as the flickering embers in the fireplace warmed the hearth. I was tired, so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open as I watched the others in the room around me. I did not want to deal with anyone just now and I did not want to be alone. I just wanted to sleep, sweet, peaceful sleep. Rudy, my dog, lay next to me, his heavy head on my thigh.

I closed my eyes as the crowd settled down. Susan sat at the table closest to me as she ate and drank. From experience, I knew the food was cold and the ale warm, a poor combination, but when you are hungry almost anything is palatable. Susan was now my guardian, as I had been hers earlier in the day. She would stay awake and make sure nobody bothered me while I slept.

These thoughts crowded my mind as the blackness of sleep floated me away from the harsh and tumulus times in which we now lived.

"Cap, Cappy wake the fuck up." I heard Susan say. It sounded like she was across the room, but when I opened my eyes her beautiful face floated before me. I don't know how long I had been asleep but it hadn't been long enough.

"Are you awake Cap?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm awake. How long was I asleep?" Rudy was nuzzling my neck as Susan helped me to my feet.

"Not long enough, twenty minutes."

"What's the problem?"

"We have to go! Ellison and his men are on the outskirts of town."

"Right." I gathered my things as Susan watched out the window.

Ellison had been on our tail for the past week and seemed to be able to find us no matter where we went. It was almost magical, except neither Sue nor I believed in magic. It was time to end this but this was not the place. Feeling myself at different points on my person helped me determine if I was missing anything. It felt like I had everything.

Turning I looked out the front window and not two hundred meters down the street was Ellison with his men. Sue shook her head and turned to the back door of the building we were in, a makeshift eatery. Pushing open the back door Sue led the way down the alley. Neither of us talked as we concentrated on making our way out of the alley, out into the wilderness where Ellison seemed to have a harder time catching up to us. Rudy sprinted past Sue to lead the way.

Ten minutes after leaving New Carbondale, we were deep into the Shawnee National Forest. Three miles from our current position was a cabin that not many people knew about. However, before we got there I had to find out how Ellison was tracking us.

"Sue, hold up a minute," I shouted. Sue turned looking at me quizzically. I caught up with her and put my arm around her shoulders. It was not very cold out but we were both glad for our fur parkas and parka pants. Rudy came sprinting back to check on us.

"Guard," I told him. He turned and disappeared into the woods.

I knelt down in the snow as I shrugged my pack off. Flipping the flap open, I rummaged around inside pulling out a sweeper. Extending the antenna, I pressed the button on the front panel. I waved the antenna in front of Sue. She raised her arms and started to turn slowly in front of me. She completed a turn without a telltale squeak from the sweeper.

I handed it to Sue who did the same to me, also no squeak. I took the thing from Sue and waved it over my pack. A squeal from the sweeper shocked both of us. Turning the dial on the sweeper, I swung the antenna in small arcs around my pack. Kicking it over, I swept the bottom. There on the bottom right corner was a circular tab of some foreign material that looked like some sort of a flattened mud ball. I pulled it free with little effort stood looking around the woods.

Not fifty feet from where we stood there was an opening in the ground. It probably led into some caverns, which ran under this area of what used to be Illinois. Walking over to the opening, I threw the tab down the hole. I went back and swept my pack again. Clean. Collapsing the antenna, I put the sweeper away. How Ellison had tagged me was now the question on my mind.

I picked up my pack and shouldered it nodding to Susan to go. She started in the direction of the cabin at a slow pace. I pulled a branch from a nearby tree and swept our tracks out of existence as I backed down the path Susan was following. After about a hundred yards, I threw the branch into the woods, turned and followed Sue.

I whistled once and Rudy came bounding out of the woods, past Susan, to take up the lead. For the next twenty minutes, I kept watch over my shoulder, wondering if Ellison would finally catch up with us. After thirty minutes and no Ellison, I relaxed and plodded ahead through the snow.

Several times on our trek, Rudy came trotting back to check on Sue and me. Then he was off into the woods. After an hour and a half, Susan and I stood in the woods that surrounded the cabin. Rudy had circled around through the woods and was swiftly running up to the cabin on the blind side, where the chimney was.

There was no smoke from the chimney and no light from within the cabin, which was not remarkable in itself. The snow around the cabin marred only by animal tracks. Looking through my binoculars I checked the tell tails I had left last time we were here. All were in place. Susan and I watched as Rudy circled the cabin finishing on the porch by the front door. He sat patiently waiting for us to come in from the cold.

As Rudy was satisfied with the safety of the cabin, I had no choice but to accept his decision. I led Sue to the porch and disarming the security devices, opened the door. Rudy flashed past me into the cabin. A sudden growl from him and I was on my belly. I had pushed Susan back off the porch where she lay belly up in the snow.

I heard a squeal of surprise and pain, not from a human throat, but that of another animal. As I got to my feet and entered the cabin, I saw Rudy had a small wild boar by the throat, under the table. As I watched the life went out of the eyes of the boar.

"Outside Rudy," I commanded.

Rudy dragged the dead boar out the door stopping on the porch where he dropped the animal. Susan gasped from her sitting position in the snow.

"Dinner, provide to you by Rudy," I told her laughing.

I stepped off the porch and helped her to her feet. She threw her arms around me and hugged me. I kissed her cheek as she let go.

"Why don't you go in and start a fire while I butcher the hog."

"Okay."

"Good boy," I said to Rudy as I stepped back onto the porch. "Protect."

Rudy bounded off the porch and into the woods to watch for anyone who might get nosy. Pulling my knife, I started in on the hog.

Dinner had been good. Roast hog was always a favorite of mine. Rudy enjoyed it too. We had also found some legumes that got left in the cupboard and roasted those too. Once we finished dinner, had the dishes cleaned up, the leftovers stored in the chill box, Sue, and I doused the fire and prepared for bed.

I set the security devices and turned the fusion generator to one quarter. That was enough to heat the single room cabin, yet low enough not to be detected unless you were right on top of the cabin. Susan stripped down to her long john's and slipped between the sheets. I followed suit and was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I woke to the sun shining through the windows. Sue, snuggled up to me under the covers, my arm was across her, holding her close to me. She sighed in her sleep as I moved slightly. She turned toward me, opened her big brown eyes and smiled at me.

"Morning," she said.

"Morning beautiful," I replied, smiling back at her.

Today was a rest day in our journey. There was nothing we needed to do as long as Ellison didn't show up to bother us. I rolled onto my back and stared at the rafters above, wondering how and where that tracker had been placed on my pack. There had been several times in our travels that my pack had been out of my sight, but I thought it had been well hidden. Moreover, if Ellison or someone from his organization had been close enough to tag me, then why hadn't they just taken me?

"Hold me, dear," Sue whispered. I rolled to my side and wrapped my arms around her petite form. "What are we going to do today?"

"Nothing much, just rest for the next leg of our trek. Unless Ellison shows up, then I'll have to take care of him once and for all. He has messed up too many of our plans to be left wandering around fucking things up."

"Now, now dear, remember you're in the company of a lady."

"Humpf. Lady? You must have forgotten you're married and not to me?"

"Oh shush. You seem to forget you're also married and not to me?"

"I haven't forgotten."

"Neither have I, neither have I. I miss him dearly, I really do, but you have...never mind."

"I know Suzie, I know. I have the same turmoil going on in my mind too."

"I'm hungry."

"Me too. Eggs and ham sound good?"

"You bet," Sue replied scrambling out of bed and climbing into her pants and tunic.

I followed her just throwing on my tunic. Then I went to the fireplace, scooped some burning embers out with the shovel, and placed them in the firebox of the stove. I added some kindling and some paper, which burst into flames immediately. I then added some quarter logs to get the stove hot.

Sue had pulled some eggs from the chill box and sliced some meat from the hog carcass. I took a frying pan down from the hook by the stove and set it on top to heat. I took a spoonful of grease from the can on the stove and put it in the pan. Sue came and stood next to me, wrapping her arm around my waist as we waited for the pan to get hot.

Soon the grease was sizzling and I placed the slices of meat in it to warm. The meat browned on both sides within minutes. I then removed the pan from the stovetop to allow it to cool slightly. Then being careful I cracked four eggs into the pan. They sizzled and spit as they hit the bottom of the pan.

Putting the pan back on the stove I watched the grease heat up and cook the eggs. The eggs were floating on the grease and I gently flipped them over and watched them cook on the other side. After a few minutes, I scooped them out and put them on the plates that Susan had prepared for us.

We ate in silence looking at each other. Rudy was sitting at Susan's side waiting patiently for any tidbit she might offer him. As I was looking at him, his ears perked up and his head turned toward the fireplace. Just as he moved toward the door, the security screen lit up with a thermal view of the exterior of the cabin.

I jumped up and pressed the lockdown button just before whoever was outside turned the doorknob. We heard a yell of agony and a thud as the body hit the porch. A muffled 'God damn it!' could be heard through the door. Rudy growled deep in his throat and sat facing the door. The screen on the door lit up and showed Ellison's face. He looked extremely pissed off. He pulled his hand back to bang on the door then froze as he thought better of that course of action.

Sue and I just kept eating. Sue tossed a piece of hog to Rudy who gobbled it up still staring at the door.

"Cappy, I know you're in there. Now open up and surrender peacefully."

I shook my head. How had he found us here? Getting up I went to the security console and typed in some commands. A list of items scrolled up the screen. That is how he had stumbled onto this place and put some electronic devices of his own outside the security perimeter. I had the security system scan for more people. No one but Ellison showed up on the scan.

"Rudy, scout," I said as I opened the trap door in the floor.

Rudy scuttled down the shaft under the cabin floor. He would come out fifty yards in the woods to the north. I went back to the security console and watched the screens. The heat image that was Rudy popped up out of the ground, then lay still for a moment. I could see him turn his head this way and that, searching for intruders.

He froze then slowly crept to his right. His head disappeared from view. The heat signature of a man appeared from behind whatever was blocking his body temperature. Rudy was biting and growling as the man screamed. Then Rudy was gone. The security camera picked him up again fifty yards away dragging a screaming man from behind the obstruction hiding him. Then Rudy was gone again.

I quickly walked to the cabin door throwing it open. I reached outside and dragged Ellison inside, knocking his weapon from his hand. Rudy was right behind him and leaped over his sprawled body. Sue stood over his head with his weapon, a nine-millimeter automatic, in her hand pointing at his head.

He rolled over and froze, looking up at the muzzle of his own gun. Susan just smiled as she calmly stood over him.

"Now you be very careful there little lady, I sure wouldn't want for you to have an accident," Ellison drawled slowly moving away from Sue.

"You mean like this," she said squeezing the trigger. The report from the muzzle was made all the louder by the confined space of the cabin. Ellison froze as a small hole appeared in the floor next to his head.

"I wouldn't move again if I were you, Ellison," I said walking over to stand over him.

Squatting down next to him, I patted him down. I found two extra magazines for his automatic, a couple of maps and an envelope. I stood handing the magazines to Sue. Rudy was now sitting to the right of Ellison's head, growling low in his chest.

"If I were you I would be perfectly still or he might get the wrong idea and rip your throat out. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Then why can't you get it through your thick head that I and my people are just trying to help the country get back on its feet without outside interference?"

"I understand that it's just what you're doing is illegal."

"By whose law?"

"By the duly elected officials of the Midwestern States of North America, that's who."

"A puppet government set up by socialists and communists. Are you either of those Ellison? Are you a Communist? Are you a Socialist?"

"No."

I stood silent opening the envelope I had retrieved from Ellison. What I read was outrageous.

"What are these?" I asked shaking the papers in his face.

"Those are my travel orders and warrants for your arrest and anyone found to be helping you."

"Travel orders? So they've taken away our freedom to travel where we want in our own country?"

"No, you just need to apply for paper..."

"And why are they written in Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic? Isn't English good enough anymore?"

Ellison remained mute as I read the documents. I finished them and indicated for him to get up and sit in a chair at the table. He rose slowly as Rudy growled a warning before he moved. Susan backed away with the gun still pointed at his head. He calmly sat with his hands in his lap. Rudy sat beside him staring at him intensely.

"Wally, how long have we known each other? What is it? Seven years?

"Yeah."

"And what has made you want to turn against the country you grew up in?"

"You know as well as I do."

"No, tell me," I said scowling at him.

"Fine, but you know you won't like it. Our government was a big bloated, bureaucratic wasteland. The only thing the politicians were after was lining their pockets with gold and power. The people were suffering and the bureaucrats were getting wealthy. Soon there was only about one percent of the population earning an income high enough to tax. The system fell apart from the inside out.

"There was so little tax money coming in that the fed just started printing more to use to pay its workers and welfare recipients. The more money they printed the worse things got. Fiat money was flooding the markets around the world.

"Soon other countries' economies were in just as bad shape as ours, all except Japan's. Slowly, the world was going into the deepest recession it had ever seen. Businesses closed up shop, followed soon after, by governments, city, county, state government just stopped doing anything. Finally, the fed just folded. The collapse of the country soon followed.

"But you know all this. When everything collapsed people died, people were enslaved. The strong or the quick were the ones that survived. People like you fought those who would take from the weak, the weak, the ones who would never survive anyway."

"You mean like your kids? Your wife?"

Ellison shut up and glared at me at those questions. They were rhetorical, as I knew the answers to them already.

"Without me they would be dead, killed by the very people you now work for and you know it. By the way, Beth says hello and Billy and Mary are doing just fine."

"Where are they you sick son of a bitch?" he demanded, standing quickly. Rudy's bark halted any action on his part. He slowly sat down, glaring at me the whole time.

"They are safe and waiting for you..."

"Take me to them," he demanded again.

"Sure, but you will be going there alone. No followers, nobody to help you, alone."

He looked nervous as he thought it over. His eyes shifted to Susan and then back to me. He then looked down at his boots then back up almost as quickly. He was about to answer when I waved him to silence. I rose and quickly retrieved my pack. I pulled the sweeper out and activated it.

"You are too easy to read Ellison," I told him as I swept his boots. The squeal of a bug echoed in the cabin. "Off with the boots."

Ellison, scowling at me, unlaced his boots and kicked them off.

"Stand up," he complied and I swept the rest of him. One more squeal from a device in his pocket and we were done. "Sit."

I took his boots and swept them again, the tracking device was easy to find tied to one of the laces and tucked inside the boot at the base of the tongue. Taking it, not even bothering to detach it, I hit it with the butt of my knife. It broke into a thousand pieces scattering everywhere. The look on Ellison's face was priceless.

"You thought that was real, didn't you? Well, it wasn't, it emitted a low-level carrier but that was all. However, the material it was made of when together could be tracked by satellite as it is a radioactive isotope, beryllium I believe."

"Will they be able to track the pieces you just scattered around the place?" Sue asked.

"Probably not, but we won't be taking any chances."

I took Ellison's boots over to a box next to the fireplace. The box, lined with lead, currently held some items we did not want anyone detecting. I opened the box and brushed the material from the boots. I then grabbed a broom and dustpan and swept up the rest of the shards of material. Ellison sat smirking as he watched me clean up. Sue noticed his smirk and clouted him in the head with the pistol she held. That wiped the smirk from his face but fast.

You could just barely hear the pounding on the door. I had been keeping an eye on the four men that had come running up onto the porch after I dragged Ellison inside. They had a log, which they were trying to break down the front door with. They all yelled each time the log hit the electronic shield surrounding the house. There was no way they were going to get in unless I let them in. And that thought never entered my mind.