Chapter 21: A Risky Idea

 

Warm sunlight from the open door was heating up the cramped motel room as the two stood facing each other in tense silence. A layer of balmy sweat collected on the back of Eli's neck, soaking into the collar of his shirt. Sophia looked at his bandaged wrist and ankle, then cocked her head toward the chairs by the window. Eli nodded his appreciation for her consideration and limped to the chairs, sitting down on the seat closest to the door. Sophia eyed him suspiciously while slowly lowering herself onto the other chair, the SMG resting atop her lap, the barrel pointing in Eli's general direction.

"So..." She said. "...what are you doing out here?"

"Before we get into that, I have a question for you. Have you ever heard of the JSU?" Eli asked, studying her face for any tell-tale signs of recognition.

"JSU?" Her eyebrows scrunched together, and her head tilted slightly to the left, but she never broke eye contact. "No, never heard of it."

"Alright. Well, to answer your question, my family is here because we're refugees from Lancaster." He said, leaning back in his chair.

"Family? How many people are with you? And where are they?" She cautiously looked around the shadowy motel room as she spoke.

"It's just three of us, and my mother and sister are across the street searching the truck stop." He said, pointing behind him with his thumb.

"Okay, and what do you mean you're 'refugees' from Lancaster?" 

"Well, a military force invaded Lancaster two days ago. A couple hundred soldiers broke through the gate and massacred nearly half the citizens in town. Later that night a secondary force arrived with another couple hundred soldiers and a huge truck filled with weapons and supplies. A flag painted on the truck identified them as the JSU, but we don't know what that means. We're almost certain they're part of a much larger force from the east, and we think they're actively expanding their influence by occupying any settlements they find."

Sophia chewed on her bottom lip and tapped a finger nervously against the grip of her gun. "So, your home was raided and you just ran?"

Eli wasn't normally the type of person to be easily provoked, but he was in pain from the earlier wolf attack, so he was already grumpy and on edge. "No." He growled. "We didn't just run. My mother and I returned from a sweeping mission and the raid had already happened. There was a mountain of corpses in the middle of town, and survivors were being taken into the mines. We went in after dark and rescued my sister, but we were massively outnumbered and outgunned, especially after the secondary force arrived, so we fled the town heading west." In his frustration, Eli ended up squeezing the arm of the chair so tightly he could hear the wood creaking in his grasp.

Sophia sighed and leaned back, crossing one long leg over the other. "Alright. Let's say I believe your story, for now. What's your plan?"

"I don't have a solid plan yet. We need to find a safe place to stay while we decide what to do next. We were hoping to catch Lauren's caravan here and follow it back to Mist Harbor."

"Hmm. And how did you know to wait here for us?" She asked.

"Lauren told my sister about this place." He said, waving a hand at the small room.

Sophia released a long breath and stood up. "I need to radio the caravan and see if Lauren will vouch for you. What's your sister's name?"

"Her name's Vivi. And my mother's name is Julie." He said.

Sophia unclipped a hand-held radio from her belt and moved to the other side of the room. The old radio crackled and hissed when she turned it on and extended the antennae. She turned away from him and held the device close to her face as she contacted her sister in a hushed voice, holding one hand beside her mouth to block her voice from reaching Eli. It was a mostly-useless effort, however, since they were in a small enclosed room. After a quick exchange with a woman on the other end of the radio, Sophia turned to face Eli.

"What did you say your family name is?" She asked.

"Hawkins." He answered.

Sophia returned to her hushed radio conversation, occasionally glancing at Eli before responding to the other person. She nodded her head in reply to something the other person said, voiced her understanding, then clicked the radio off and clipped it onto her belt.

"Okay." She said as she returned to her seat. "My sister vouched for your family. She said you're honest people. The caravan should be here in a couple hours."

"Great." Eli relaxed the tension from his shoulders.

"I think your family is back." Sophia shad as she tilted her head as if she heard something outside.

Eli stood and shuffled to the open door. Julie and Vivi were crossing the derelict parking area on their return from searching the truck stop across the street. He waved to them and called out.

"We have company." He said. "She's with Lauren's caravan."

The two blonde women jogged the remaining few meters to the motel room. Eli stepped back from the doorway so they could enter. Julie crossed the threshold first, followed closely by Vivi, and Eli pointed their attention to where Sophia sat by the window. Julie leaned her shotgun against the wall by the door and moved to stand in front of Sophia, holding a hand out for introductions. As Sophia shook her hand, Vivi flopped down on the edge of the bed, dropping the rifle beside her.

"I'm Julie, and that's Vivi." Julie inclined her head toward her daughter.

"Sophia." The long-eared woman returned the greeting as Julie took a step back to sit beside Vivi.

"Well then, Sophia, has Eli already explained what's going on?" Julie asked, removing her pistol from her thigh and placing it on the bed to her right.

"Yeah, he told me what happened. I already contacted the caravan, and Lauren vouched for you all. They should be here before nightfall."

"Ah, about that." Eli said. "How many people are in the caravan?"

"Six people, including me."

"Well, there might be an issue with the room next door. We had a run-in with a giant wolf last night, and now the room is a complete mess, so sleeping arrangements might be uncomfortable tonight." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"I saw the battered door. I'll go take a look at the state of the room real quick." Sophia said, then swiftly walked to the next room.

Vivi chuckled when she heard Sophia open the door and gag at the stench of rotting blood and viscera. The door to the adjacent room slammed closed and Sophia's boots thumped against the asphalt as she stomped back into the room, a look of disgust on her pretty face. She brushed past Eli and dropped down onto her chair, then bent over with her elbows on her knees, shaking her head.

"Okay, I don't think anyone'll want to stay in that room tonight." She said dejectedly.

"Yeah, it'll be a while before the smell goes away." Eli commented. "Anyway, did you find anything useful during your search?" He asked Julie.

"There was some rusty cookware and piles of crumbling bricks, but nothing really useful." She shrugged.

An awkward silence fell among the four people in the dingy motel room. Vivi stared at Sophia like she was trying to figure her out, probably wondering if she was going to try flirting with her like Lauren did, and Eli absentmindedly scratched a fingernail against his chair's armrest. Julie had retrieved the whet stone from a luggage case and was in the process of sharpening a dull spot on the blade from its use against a wolf earlier in the day. The uncomfortable quiet finally became too much for Vivi, so she leaned forward to talk to Sophia.

"Can you tell us about Mist Harbor?" She asked, and Julie paused her sharpening to hear what Sophia had to say.

"Well, it's nowhere near the size of Lancaster. The entire population is only about three hundred people, and there's only twenty-three men in the settlement, but ten of them are young boys. It's largely a farming community, but we also have a sawmill for lumber production, and there's a few small fishing boats that regularly go out on the lake." Sophia crossed her legs and hummed in thought for a moment.

"What about the leadership? Who runs the settlement?" Eli asked.

"The Governor's in charge, and the position's always held by the eldest male in the settlement." Sophia grumbled. "The current Governor took power two years ago. He's a really kind old man, but a terrible leader. He's too indecisive, too weak, and other settlements have been taking advantage of him by driving down the trade value of our lumber and crops."

"Hmm." Eli mused. "What about defenses? Is the town walled-off?"

Sophia scoffed. "Of course it's walled-off. You said you saw a wolf, right? Well, the forest around Mist Haven is full of wolves, bears, mountain lions, Ferals, and all kinds of other dangerous creatures."

"That might actually be a good thing." Eli said as he rubbed his jaw. "A forest full of vicious animals should be a nice deterrent against an invading army from the Wastes who don't have any experience dealing with dangerous wildlife. It'll slow the JSU down, at least."

"You think they'll come for Mist Haven?" Sophia asked.

"Yeah. They will." Vivi answered. "Those people are fucking crazy. The way they talked, I'm pretty sure they force anyone who survives their raids to join them, and kill anyone who opposes them. They won't stop conquering settlements until they're pushed back by another army."

Eli chuckled to himself at the way Vivi repeated his hypothesis as if it were her own. "She's right. I don't know when, but they'll make their way to Mist Haven eventually. They were interrogating survivors after the raid, so it's only a matter of time before they learn about all the settlements we traded with."

Sophia tapped her foot nervously, "Shit. If they send a force as bis as you described, then Mist Haven doesn't stand a chance against them."

"I've been thinking about how to push back against the JSU." Eli mused. "We'll have to form a militarized union of our own. But we may not need to fight an extended war if we can rally a force as large as theirs. However, there's three major issues at the moment." He held up a single finger, adding another with each point he made. "First, we don't know how large their full force actually is. Second, we don't know how much time we have before they move further west. And third, we don't know if they're expanding in all directions, they could double their size by the time we get a collective army formed."

Sophia looked at Eli appreciatively, a smirk on her full lips. "You're surprising, all the men I know are cowards or fools, and would have suggested sending a representative to try negotiating a peace deal."

"Negotiating would be stupid until we have some form of leverage." Eli huffed. "The only thing people like the JSU understand is power. We'll reach the negotiation stage eventually, but not until they see us as equals." Eli sighed. "And there will definitely be plenty of fighting before any peace talks happen."

"Hmm." Sophia tapped her chin. "There's a Trade Coalition in place between a few forest settlements. Seven, to be exact. You could try to set up a meeting with all the representatives, but the leaders will want hard evidence of the threat the JSU poses before they agree to anything."

"Fuck, I guess that makes sense." Eli lamented. It's too bad phones didn't survive the centuries. We could have just shown people a video of the army in Lancaster to gain support.

"What kind of evidence?" Julie asked.

"I don't know." Sophia shook her head and frowned. "You'd have to ask the Governor what it would take to convince the Coalition. He'll probably send messengers to all the leaders, too, asking what they would need to see."

"That would take too damn long." Eli grunted and rubbed his jaw. He let out a long sigh and ran a hand through his shaggy hair. "Shit. I think I have an idea, but it's risky. Really risky."

Vivi raised an eyebrow at her brother and leaned forward, a murderous glint in her pretty gray-blue eyes. "What is it? Those assholes killed my friends, our family, I'm willing to take risks if it helps us fight back."

Eli linked his fingers together and rested his elbows on his knees as he leaned-in conspiratorially, then spoke in a low, serious tone. "We could capture some people from one of their scouting parties."