Presently, he rose and looked at the woman. She was breathing deeply now, and he was certain that the exhausted woman was asleep. He picked up his mummy bag and tiptoed over to her. Carefully, he removed her club from her open fingers. If she suddenly awoke, he did not want her to strike him accidentally, or on purpose. She did not awaken. He regretted the need to awaken her, but the night was going to be cold, so he had no choice.
Taking a firm grasp on her blankets, he yanked them away from her. With a cry of alarm, she woke. She saw him with her blankets, and more importantly, he was holding her club. Incoherent cries came from her mouth as she shrank away from him, pressing against the trees behind her. Her hands curled into claws as she awaited his attack.
Jacob tossed his mummy bag at her feet, and he walked away. He placed the club by his backpack, and then he laid one of her blankets on the ground. He lay down on that blanket, and he wrapped himself in the other blanket.
After a while, Lily realized that he was not going to attack her, at least not yet. The pounding of her heart slowed, and she regained her senses. Relief was followed by tears. She put her head between her legs, and she silently wept. She wept from fear. She wept out of anger. She wept because she was so tired and so alone. She wept for her friends who had died naturally and for those who had been murdered.
After a long time, she collected herself. She saw the mummy bag. This is another bribe. Having no other choice, she crawled into the bag and slept. Lily awoke to the smell of food cooking. The sun was just over the horizon. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. The young man was roasting a fat grouse over the fire. He looked at her when she stirred.
“It’s ready,” he said.
She got out of the bag. It was a sunny day. A yellow faced warbler flew down from the green canopy, snatched something on the ground, and fled back to the sky. Lily stood there trying to decide what to do. Finally, she walked to the fire and sat down. The young man tore a piece off of the bird. No, he’s an older teenager, she remembered.
“It’s hot,” he warned, as he handed the meat to her.
Gingerly she took the hot piece and ate it. He handed her another piece, and she ate that too. Soon, she realized that she had eaten all of the bird. She looked at Jacob who was peeling a hardboiled egg.
“Want some?” he asked.
Lily shook her head, no. Jacob fished another piece of bread from his pack, and he offered it to her. She accepted and ate it. When they were finished eating, Jacob rolled up her blankets and tied them with a piece of dried vine. Then to her surprise, he handed the club to her. He pointed down the trail in the direction she had been traveling.
“That way,” he said, and started down the path without looking back.
What should I do? Do I follow him? If I don’t, will he follow me again? She decided to follow him for the moment. She could decide later if she should sneak away.
They walked until she was tired. She was about to ask him to stop when he paused. He sat down, and she did the same. He waited for ten minutes, and then he stood and resumed their journey with her following close behind. After a few hours, she was tired again. Before she could ask, he stopped and they rested again. At noon they stopped, while he hunted. He caught another bird and roasted it. They ate, and then they resumed their journey. They walked and then they stopped and rested, and this pattern continued for the rest of the day.
When night drew near, Jacob found the stump of a dead tree that had been hit by lightning. It was hollow, but there was no way in, until Jacob made one with his knife and with his boot. They crawled through the hole that he had made. Jacob shared his food with Lily, and afterwards he started to unroll the bedding.
Lily tensed. All day she had been dreading this moment. What will he do? His bribes had been generous, she had to grant. She was beginning to understand why other women at the Retreat had gradually succumbed to the subtle and to the not so subtle pressure from the men. She imagined a woman from the far distant past talking to her.
“This is the way it is,” the woman would say. “A man finds you. He decides that he wants you. He feeds you and he shelters you and he protects you. In return, he expects to use your body for his pleasure.”
“I won’t have sex with you willingly,” Lily said abruptly. “You’ll have to force me.”
Chapter Ten
LILY
Jacob glanced at her as he continued his task. “I’m not going to have sex with you,” he said.
His words startled Lily.
“Why not?” she asked, and then she furiously berated herself. You idiot, Lily. What does it matter? It looks like you might be safe for another night.
“For one thing, I don’t think it would be all that comfortable to have sex right here,” Jacob said as he finished untying his bag. “For another thing, I’m not allowed to have sex before I’m sixteen. I won’t be sixteen until August. But mainly, I’m not going to have sex with you, because you don’t want me to have sex with you.”
For some reason, Lily’s mind focused on his second reason. He’s not allowed to have sex before he’s sixteen? Lily looked at him. He was young. He was much younger than she had originally guessed. He must be fifteen.
“Who are you?” she asked. She found it unbelievable that she had not asked him this until now. “Where are you from?”
“I’m Jacob,” the boy replied. “I’m from a camp about five days away from here.”
Lily thought about that. “What kind of camp?” she asked.
“It was supposed to be a camp about birth control for kids,” replied Jacob. “There are kids there from all over California and some from Nevada, too. But then the Fog came. The adults all left except for one lady. Then she was killed by some bad guys.”
Lily gaped at him. “You come from a camp of kids? There are no adults there?”
“There are two adults. Hector is a man from a logging camp who found us and stayed with us. Jean is a Forest Ranger,” Jacob replied. He frowned. “I guess you could count Mrs. Brown as the third adult. She lives on a farm not far from us.”
Lily’s mind was reeling. “What do you mean, the Fog came?”
Abruptly Jacob stopped what he was doing and stared at her.
“You don’t know about the Fog?” he asked. Lily shook her head.
“Something has happened to the world,” Jacob said. “I guess it’s all over the world. Some kind of fog is surrounding us. The only land that’s not covered, is above six thousand seven hundred feet.”
Lily looked at him as if he was addled. “A fog,” she said. “A fog that covers the whole world up to almost seven thousand feet.”
“Yes. What did you think happened?” Jacob asked.
“I saw what happened,” she insisted. “Some men took over the Eagle’s Retreat where I was staying. That was last year. They started mistreating people. They killed some people. They started raping women, and they intimidated other women into having sex with them. They control the phones, they disconnected the TV’s, and somehow they’re blocking the satellite cable, and they did it all so they could set up their own little kingdom, here in the mountains.”
“How’s their food situation?” Jacob asked.