The snow whirled and lashed their faces as Gwendolyn and Chloe were forced to march in a column with others who were also now hostage.
Chloe clung to her mother and the relentless frigid wind made her little body shiver violently.
“Mommy, where are we going?”
Gwendolyn answered by holding her tighter, giving what little body warmth she had of her own left to her little girl.
Instead of hearing the familiar, soothing voice of her mother’s for answer, one of the boys hissed to Chloe, “you’re gonna die, that’s what’s happening.”
Of all the responses Gwendolyn felt she could scream at the boy, she kept silent and eyes ahead as not to instigate any kind of vicious response from any of the boys.
Finally, however, Gwendolyn could no longer resist. She turned to the boy who spoke to her daughter and asked calmly, “why are you boys doing this? Why aren’t you home with your parents? Why do you have firearms on us?” Then looking away, Gwendolyn noticed the town hall approaching, with its tall, dark windows, a bonfire now roaring on the grounds, revealing graffiti of all kinds over its red bricks.
The boy answered, “I killed my parents.” Then pointing to another boy, he added, “and he killed his parents.”
Gwendolyn shuddered with horror as her eyes rolled from the approaching town hall, and to the boy.
And pointing to another boy, he revealed, “and he shot both his parents in their kneecaps and set his old home ablaze. Everytime he walks passed the charred ruins of his home now, he’ll spit towards it saying, NO REGRETS.”
By that point, Gwendolyn knew she had to keep him speaking if she wanted to know what lay ahead. If there was any chance of survival. So, without pushing the boy too hard, she asked simply, “what’s you name?”
The boy didn’t turn to look at Gwendolyn, rather he scoffed and answered, “what does it matter, lady?”
“I suppose it doesn’t. Seeing as my daughter and I are about to die. And my husband…” Here Gwendolyn choked, “and my husband is probably dead.”
“Well look lady…”
Here Gwendolyn interrupted him, “Gwen. My name’s Gwen. And this here is my daughter Chloe. It was her birthday not too long ago.”
Out of the corner of Gwendolyn’s eye, she noticed a tear stream run down the boys face, then he hurried ahead of them. Out of speaking distance. And Gwendolyn’s head drooped and she herself broke composure in front of Chloe and cried.
To Gwendolyn’s relief, the continued passed the town hall without setting foot on the grounds. But many of the boys standing around the bonfire stared at them. One boy bursted out in laughter as he pointed to them, and others followed in hideous laughter.
The firelight was not enough to warm her spirits, and she did not look back at any of them. And on they passed until that bonfire dimmed from their faces, and back into the unforgiving dark of nuclear winter.
The boy had gradually fell back until he was shoulder to shoulder with Gwendolyn again.
“So, Gwen, tell me about your husband.”
“He’s a Staff Sergeant in the Marine Corps. With that being said, what is your name, boy?”
Again he scoffed, however, he answered, “Eric.”
“And why have you joined the bad boys?”
Here he paused before answering, “so, Gwen, my parent’s never meant a thing to me. No matter how much my dad drank and would pass out at the kitchen table. No matter how much my mom would run off after my dad was passed out for the night with whomever she was meeting up with, and…”
“And? Eric?” Gwendolyn whispered.
“And my older sister who always put me down, no matter what!” Eric raised his voice as he cocked his rifle.
“You know, Eric, I had a horrible family growing up and so did my husband, Chloe’s father. Life is short when your young yet, life is so much longer when you can grow up and make your own family. Living then in happiness, Eric.”
“Maybe you’re right, Gwen. Maybe you’re right. But with this war, the game of life has changed completely.”
With a gasp, Gwendolyn retorted, “it doesn’t have to forever, young Eric!”
Eric turned to Gwendolyn and she noticed tear streams running down both sides of his sooty face. “So, now my daughter and I must die? Do you believe that will make your painful past die?”
Without answer, Eric turned face forward again, and wiped the tears from his face, smudging the soot all over. “Just keep walking, Gwen. We’re almost there.”
“Almost where, Eric?”
“Almost to the field, Gwen.”
“Where we will all be shot? Only to collapse into the snow till our bodies skeletonize?”
Eric raised his gloved hand to cover his mouth as if he were trying to hide something that he wanted to confess but chose in the last moment not to.
Gwendolyn shivered both physically and mentally when she asked, “oh, the field of scavengers… where we become the real scavengers…”
Gwendolyn noticed Eric peering down at a shivering Chloe before mentioning, “we’ll see Gwen… we’ll see…”
To Be Continued…
