Exodus Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen
Returning What was Stolen

Owls dad wasn’t an imposing man. He was niether tall nor well muscled. He wasnt somebody you would expect to stare down anyone. But he surprised me by staring at Owl with a face full  of parental disapproval.

"Why were you trying to hunt in town boy? You ought to know better than that. What's eating your sense?"

Owl shifted uncomfortably.

"You going to answer me? Or you going to stare at the ground till you burn a hole through it? Weren’t you kids trying to get away from all of the bad stuff happening here in town?”

"I don't know okay! I mean, we’re planning on leaving town, but we just keep ending up back here. It’s like there’s no way to get away. I hate this place. It’s eating everything I love. But I guess it felt I was running away."

"And what's wrong with running away?"

"I don't know, but it felt bad!"

"That's your white boy showing. They been training you for so long to think that this whole city thing is normal. And they got so good at it, that even somebody like you still thinks this place ought to exist. And you hate this stuff so much I don't dare share my liquor with you. You got comfy with the idea of you not being part of the city, but you still believed them when they told you that the city ought to exist. And now that it's falling apart, you can't pretend that you running away doesn't mean leaving the city to fall apart on its own."

"Why do you think those people who think they're so smart called us indigenous? Its not just a fancy word. It means 'belonging to a place', and that's the thing. We used to belong to the place, the place didn't belong to us. Why are you trying to stay in a dead city? Do you think you're going to rebuild this? And then what? Wait until it falls again? You need to belong to the place you're in, and no city and no town ever belongs to a place, they try to make the place belong to them."

"So you're saying just leave, and let everyone else die?" Hawk said.

“Little girl, you know as much as any of us that people are going to die anyway. There ain’t enough of anything left in town to feed everyone who’s still here and people who try to stay here are either going to die or scavenge off the things that are dying. If you want a chance you got to do what I told my son to do way back before the avalanche. You got to run. Right now. the only place to run is to the woods.”

"Wolverine always found peace in the woods. Maybe we can too." Wolf Added.

"Some people are just bound and determined to go down with their stupid sinking ships boy. You can't make them save themselves. They can't imagine themselves without this big machine world behind them feeding them grapes and playing the TV for them whenever they want. My grandpa always said they made things too loud."

"You watch TV too dad."

"I also drink their alcohol. Whatever gets you through the day. That was the way thing ran in their world. No place you couldn't go that didn't have their claw marks. But you know what? I don't think they can reach so far anymore. I think you might actually be able to run for the hills."

"Me? What about you?"

"I'm a run down alcoholic boy. I'll run probably, but you have a chance to actually get somewhere and do something now that things are changing. But I'm touched. I think that's the first time I ever heard you worried about your old man."

"You're my dad, you’re the only family I have anymore."

"Not anymore, boy. I see what you're doing and I'm proud of you. You're building a tribe, and a tribe is family. It ain't blood, but it's still family- family by deed and not blood. And sometimes, that's more important."

"When did you start talking so much sense dad?"

"I ain't talking any different than I always did. You're just listening a wee bit closer than you used to. I can see what you're thinking and what you're planning to do. And I say good for you. But you've been raised in this world, and when you realize how bad it's lied to you. Then you'll learn what I learned. When you get it, when you understand, we'll talk. And if I've made it back out of this bottle, I might be able to help you."

"I don't understand."

"That's why I have to wait until you do. So why didn't you raid our cabin and then just head out?"

"A Bunch of jerks from Sumpter's ridge raided it, and almost hurt some of our group. A fire started in the fight and a propane tank exploded, There wasn't much usable after that."

"That's harsh."

"Yeah, so we thought we would raid the council's supplies, distract them by setting fire to their ammo, but we weren't able to get it to ignite."

“Sounds like a good idea. What went wrong?”

“We couldn't get the fire going fast enough.”

“That's it?” Owl's dad said, and he seemed to be thinking about something, “Then why don't you let your old man teach you the fine art of arson?”

“You'd help us do that?” Owl asked.

“Yeah, why not?” He asked.

“We haven't exactly had good luck with adults.” Hawk answered.

“Ask my boy. I have no loyalty to this thing. I have no reason to protect it. I will help you. I'll help you start a big distracting fire so you can get your supplies. We'll need to make it very hard for them to stop you from leaving. But you still need supplies to get started.”

“Yeah. We've learned that much from these last few days.”

“One group will wait for the signal and then raid their supplies- dried food and camp gear, that sort of thing. The other group will act as a distraction. I’ll help you start a proper fires. I taught you how to light a fire with a bow drill. I’ll teach you how to light a fire with gun powder.”

“Alright gang, how about it?” Owl asked, “Shall we take another crack at getting out of town away from all the crazy, or do we want to keep trying to hide here?”

The crowd of kids nodded and quickly the consensus was clear. Owl was back in charge and we back in the attempted arson game.

"Okay, so me and my boy are quiet like ninjas. So we go on the sabotage run. And Rabbit, I hunted with you- you're quiet enough too." Owl's father looked around, and then he looked back at Owl, "Hey, this is your show not mine. I should waiting on your decisions."

Owl nodded and looked around, "Mouse, Lion, Hawk. You guys can all fight and you're big enough, but you're too loud. I'll teach you that later. That means you're on guard duty for the supply run."

"You've never even seen me fight," Hawk said.

"No, but I've seen Lion fight, and I know Lion respects you for what you can do in a fight. Raven, your family gardens and you can cook. You need to be in the supply run side so we know what to grab."

"Viper should come with us too," Hawk said.

"Why?" Viper said looking over in surprise.

"You're the second in command aren't you?" Hawk asked, "We should keep our command team separated. You know, like the President and the Vice President never travel together. And you're the brain of the group. We need somebody to herd these cats. They don't know what to do on their own."

Viper bit her lip and furrowed her brow.

"Fine, I'm not very quiet anyway. I was the loudest on the hunt with Owl's dad."

"You'll get better," Owl's Dad said with a grin.

"I'm not super quiet, but you'll need some muscle- and all I do is muscle." Wolf said looking at Owl.

"I won't argue with that. You're quiet enough."

"I'm not quiet or good in a fight," Sparrow announced, "But I'm clever, and I bet I can help pick what we need and what we don't- so I volunteer to go with Raven and Viper's team."

"I won't argue with that." Owl answered, "Actually, I think the sabotage team should be a small as possible. Dad, do you want anyone else, or do we have enough already?"

"This is probably good, and the more folks you have on Viper's team, the more supplies you can haul out."

As we headed out, Owl began questioning his father.

"So what's the plan, Dad?"

"What we need is heat. If you want to cause a discharge of the ammunition with a fast cook-off you need a fire. And from what you told me last time, you didn't have the proper equipment to get the fire up and roaring last time. So you need to accelerate the fire. Like with alcohol or gasoline. You have to bring the casing up to the proper temperature first if you want to make the propellant discharge."

"Gas and alcohol. Those aren't exactly common commodities anymore Dad."

"you remember when you saw me drinking, and asked how I got it? And I said I had hidden it?"

"Yeah."

"I lied. I got given that alcohol. And then, after I got given it, I hid most of it. I mean, I drank some- but I promised you I'd try to quit and I thought I'd need it to help me get dry slower. Ease the crash, you know. But, if you need an accelerant, then that hard home brew liquor they gave me is just the thing."

"Who would give you alcohol in the center? Dad, that makes no sense."

"I guess somebody felt like they owed me something.I used to help a lot people when I was dry. Some people remember if you help them when they're down."

Wolf looked up sharply at the comment, and then looked away, but didn't say anything. I watched Wolf's face. He didn't say anything. Wolf didn't show huge amounts of emotion most of the time, but I could see conflicting emotions on his face. Finally, he spoke.

"You're talking about my dad, aren't you."

"I got deer for lots of people, why do think it's your dad?"

"I'm right aren't I? He hates alcohol, but he never talks badly about you. He still feels like he owes you, and so he got you your alcohol even if he disagreed. Didn't he?"

"It isn't my place to speak about why people do what they do."

Wolf shook his head and looked away.

"Are we doing the right thing here buds? I mean should we maybe try and work with them and reason with them or something?"

"That doesn't sound like the Wolf I know," Owl said.

"People are complicated you know. You can see somebody every day and think you know them, and think they're awful and cold and hard and just kind of jerks; and then it's easy to forget that they can do good things too." Wolf paused, clearly searching for words, "I mean, Ra's Al-Ghul loves his daughter, and he even goes easy on Batman because of that every now and then."

I looked at Wolf, "And he murders people left and right as eh tries to conquer the world and institute his brand of order. Just because you pet your dog and love your daughter, doesn't mean you don't lock up people who disagree, starve people who won't obey and beat up people who speak out. Darth Vader saved Luke Skywalker's life at the end of Return of the Jedi. He still Destroyed whole planets with the Death Star."

"He's a human being, but that's not enough." Owl said, "There are so many people on the planet. And because those supply lines are breaking and because of the systems are falling apart, most of them- I bet- have less food than we do here. A people all over the place are going to starve, and die in riots over food like my mom. And people who think it's okay to act like kings are people I don't think we need- do you? Do you have loyalty to a false king?"

"He scares me." Wolf said, "The avalanche didn't scare me. Having no food doesn't scare me. Most of the time, when people get scared I don't have any idea what they're feeling and I feel weird watching them be so afraid of things that don't bother me. But he scares me, and when people aren't afraid of them, I wonder what wrong with them."

"Fear isn't loyalty." I said.

"It is to him."

"And that's why he's wrong. So let's break his ability to make people afraid."

Owl's dad led us back to his trailer. He headed to his ill tended garden, and I noticed that the soil in the garden all looked freshly tilled, despite the snow everywhere else.

"You buried it in your garden?" Owl said in surprise.

"Gardens don't look suspicious if there's a pile of turned earth in them, now do they?"

"Yeah I guess not. I'm glad you didn't hide it in the cabin."

"Shame about that moonshine though," Owl's dad said as he dug into the frosty earth, "That was Joe Duck's best stuff."

"You don't need any more, Dad."

"I might."

"Dad, please. You don't need it, please."

Owl's father sighed.

"I spent a lot of time letting a bottle carry the weight for me. You know how exhausting it is to carry that weight alone again?"

"What makes you think you're carrying it alone?" Owl answered.

His dad didn't say anything in response. We loaded up the alcohol and headed out. As we got close, we noticed that there were more of Them around the school yard this time, almost double in fact.

"They've beefed up security." Owl said.

"Well, what did you expect. You guys got spotted last time, and they couldn't catch you. They'd be fools to think you wouldn't try again."

"There are no more deer around the school." I noted.

"I wouldn't think so." Owl answered.

"It's just weird. It's like we're in a different world." I said.

Owl's father tapped my forehead, "The world isn't the ground beneath your feet boys. It's the ideas that run things, make people get up in the morning, tell them how to act, what's right and what's wrong, and let's them make sense of the world."

"So it's not a new world yet," Owl said. "It the same old world- we're just watching it die."

"Let's just make sure we don't die with it." I said.

Owl's father watched Them from a distance, watching and pointing out their patterns, looking at what they noticed and what surprised them.

"They have guns and body armor." Owl's dad whispered, "But they ain't that alert."

“They're acting weird. Jumpy.” Wolf said as we watched Them patrol the school grounds.

“Well they ain't looking very hard for us.” Owl's dad said, “But you'r right about jumpy. And they're not thinking right. Look at them jumping at shadows. I don't like this. I can see them being cautious, but why would they be this edgy?”

Then we got close enough to two of Them to here them talking.

“There are people running through town, did you here?”

“Doing what?”

“No idea, they're keeping out of sight. But the spot patrols are hearing what sounds like a group. It's probably the same kids as last time.”

“It's Viper's group,” Owl whispered, “They've been spotted.”

“Then we need to set up our distraction or else their going to be screwed.” I said.

“Let's move then,” Owl whispered and took a step. There was a loud crackle from where Owl's foot landed, and we all looked down in horror to see a pine conepoking out from where it had lain hidden under the fallen leaves.

The guards swung back around and levelled their rifles at us.

“We know you’re in there! I don’t care if you are kids; you’re going to come out with your hands up or we're going to start shooting.”

“Well that’s kind of definitive.” I said.

“It’s also wrong. It’s not just us kids.” Owl said.

“What do you mean?” Wolf asked.

“I’m going to count to three!” The guard yelled.

“Dad, I need to trust you. Can I trust you?” Owl asked, looking his Dad in the eyes and not blinking.

“One!”

“Why? What are you thinking?” Owl's dad asked.

“No time. Dad, can I trust you?”

“Two!”

“Yeah, you can trust me.” He said.

“Good. I love you dad. Now light this place up. We’ll buy you time. Meet us where we bagged the deer on our hunt, okay?”

And then Owl stood up.

“I’m right here.” He said.

“You aren’t alone. You little monsters travel in packs.”

I looked at Wolf and he shrugged, and I nodded.

“You kids don’t have to do this.” Owl’s Dad whispered.

“He’s our bud, so yeah, we do. Take away their toys, sir.” And with that Wolf and I stood up.

“We’re here.” I said.