down and give way to proper grieving, having lost a close family friend and mentor, someone he knew longer than anyone except his mother. A man Jacob worked side by side with for five years, and planned to continue working next to until Jasper retired, but one he had to pretend to barely know right now.
Jacob worried that he was walking the thin line between reality and uncertainty. Perhaps Jasper and his father crossed far over that line into a realm of insanity, conjuring up conspiracies until it drove them crazy and they took their own lives. What if Jasper did kill himself, my father too, he could have cut his own harness.
He refused to believe either could have done such a thing. In his mind, they were onto something. They were completely sane. And he felt someone was watching him now. Or listening. Waiting for Jacob to slip up and give them a reason to eliminate him too. Paranoia, I can’t shake it. Was my whole life one big lie?
Jacob flashed back to his schooling, specifically his Constitution recital. He replayed Article III over and over in his head. No citizen shall take up arms in a dispute against another. Someone had broken that law.
But who? And how? Why? Will anyone repor t it or better yet will anyone get punished? What was the gain to be had? The questions flowed like water from a faucet, but the answers were nowhere to be found. Nothing added up, no matter how many times he tried to sort it all out. Med Tech Rogers stopped his train of thought, “Mr. Niles, this will hurt a little.”
I pray to Mother Earth that it ’s only a little, that I don’t end up like Jasper. Med Tech Rogers proceeded to stick needles in each arm. One was connected to an empty bag, the other a large tank full of clean blood. Or so Jacob hoped, there was no telling. He was at the mercy of the Med Tech. Jacob could feel the blood loss, as the new blood did not enter him as quickly as the old left.
Light headed, but otherwise fine, Jacob lay back and tried to relax, continuing his downplaying of Jasper’s death. He was not sure if Medical was involved with all of this, but for now he was assuming everyone was. He wasn’t even sure what ‘all of this’ was, whether it was real or just imagined nonsense of men who performed mundane tasks over and over, driving them past the point of sanity into a world of lunacy.
As he lost more and more blood, his head felt lighter and lighter and the lights became brighter and brighter. He tried in vain to fight the drowsiness. As he started to lose consciousness, his true colors started to show as he lost control of his emotions and began blurting incoherent gibberish. Then Jacob felt a pillow pressed down with force upon his face before his whole world faded to black. Just before slipping into unconsciousness, he prayed to Mother Earth that it would not be for the last time.
CHAPTER 10 (Ella Storm)
Ella Storm , the voice repeated over and over in her head, a smile spread across her face as it did. Ella preferred this name to her previous ones; it fit her personality so well. Her camp plodded through the wasteland, two campers flanked Ella as they led the procession. The old Stone camp trudged along slowly pulling heavy sleds, which were nothing more than wooden pallets coupled together with wire and rope. The heavy skids gouged the wasteland, carving a path from their old camp to their new, permanent dwelling.
Ammunition boxes held down clothes that would have otherwise blown away in the heavy winds that whipped toxic dust a ll around. An assortment of knives and other hand held weapons, stayed wrapped in cloth. Large boxes held tools, food, coal and anything else they could pack in them.
The journey had been rough and the recent days long. The dismantling and packing of the c amp was hard enough, but the hauling of it all, even worse. The slightest hill made for tough sledding, the lack of water and clogging air filters only added to the toll.
Ella wasn ’t sure how many
Jacob worried that he was walking the thin line between reality and uncertainty. Perhaps Jasper and his father crossed far over that line into a realm of insanity, conjuring up conspiracies until it drove them crazy and they took their own lives. What if Jasper did kill himself, my father too, he could have cut his own harness.
He refused to believe either could have done such a thing. In his mind, they were onto something. They were completely sane. And he felt someone was watching him now. Or listening. Waiting for Jacob to slip up and give them a reason to eliminate him too. Paranoia, I can’t shake it. Was my whole life one big lie?
Jacob flashed back to his schooling, specifically his Constitution recital. He replayed Article III over and over in his head. No citizen shall take up arms in a dispute against another. Someone had broken that law.
But who? And how? Why? Will anyone repor t it or better yet will anyone get punished? What was the gain to be had? The questions flowed like water from a faucet, but the answers were nowhere to be found. Nothing added up, no matter how many times he tried to sort it all out. Med Tech Rogers stopped his train of thought, “Mr. Niles, this will hurt a little.”
I pray to Mother Earth that it ’s only a little, that I don’t end up like Jasper. Med Tech Rogers proceeded to stick needles in each arm. One was connected to an empty bag, the other a large tank full of clean blood. Or so Jacob hoped, there was no telling. He was at the mercy of the Med Tech. Jacob could feel the blood loss, as the new blood did not enter him as quickly as the old left.
Light headed, but otherwise fine, Jacob lay back and tried to relax, continuing his downplaying of Jasper’s death. He was not sure if Medical was involved with all of this, but for now he was assuming everyone was. He wasn’t even sure what ‘all of this’ was, whether it was real or just imagined nonsense of men who performed mundane tasks over and over, driving them past the point of sanity into a world of lunacy.
As he lost more and more blood, his head felt lighter and lighter and the lights became brighter and brighter. He tried in vain to fight the drowsiness. As he started to lose consciousness, his true colors started to show as he lost control of his emotions and began blurting incoherent gibberish. Then Jacob felt a pillow pressed down with force upon his face before his whole world faded to black. Just before slipping into unconsciousness, he prayed to Mother Earth that it would not be for the last time.
CHAPTER 10 (Ella Storm)
Ella Storm , the voice repeated over and over in her head, a smile spread across her face as it did. Ella preferred this name to her previous ones; it fit her personality so well. Her camp plodded through the wasteland, two campers flanked Ella as they led the procession. The old Stone camp trudged along slowly pulling heavy sleds, which were nothing more than wooden pallets coupled together with wire and rope. The heavy skids gouged the wasteland, carving a path from their old camp to their new, permanent dwelling.
Ammunition boxes held down clothes that would have otherwise blown away in the heavy winds that whipped toxic dust a ll around. An assortment of knives and other hand held weapons, stayed wrapped in cloth. Large boxes held tools, food, coal and anything else they could pack in them.
The journey had been rough and the recent days long. The dismantling and packing of the c amp was hard enough, but the hauling of it all, even worse. The slightest hill made for tough sledding, the lack of water and clogging air filters only added to the toll.
Ella wasn ’t sure how many
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