The Crash Box Set, page 25
part #1 of EMP Crash Series
Later in the evening, a guard came up to the group and ordered Mack to go with him, as Mr. Smith had something to say. Mack wasn't looking forward to seeing the man again, but he thought it at least gave him an opportunity to use the techniques he had put into practice so many times before. Mr. Smith was waiting for him outside his hut, looking out on the calm evening. The sound of the bonfire crackling was low, but still audible, as were the chatter of voices.
“It's good to see you again, Mack. It saddens me that we can't have more conversations like this.”
“Well, if you hadn't have stuck me in a box...”
“You know I had to make an example of you for what you did.”
“So you condone the abuse of a young man?”
Mr. Smith cocked an eyebrow. “My guards need to feel protected. After the incident, I had a word with him about his conduct and told him not to do it again. If you have any complaints you should make them orally, not with your fists. We are above such petty displays of violence.”
“Perhaps you should tell your men that when they're out in the field.”
“My men know exactly how to act and the extent to which they should use force to achieve their goals. But I didn't bring you here tonight to talk about that.”
“What did you bring me here for?”
Mr. Smith exhaled and folded his hands behind his back. “There are nights when I feel as though nobody in this camp understands what I'm trying to do here, and it pains me. You're a smart man, Mack. I know if you give it a chance we can be friends.”
“No, thanks,” Mack said bluntly.
“You have no idea how it pains me to here you say that.”
“So, you're pretty lonely?”
“Yes. It's not easy being the leader of a place like this. I have so many things to worry about, and as much as I appreciate the loyalty of my guards, I find they are not on the same wavelength as me. It takes a toll on the mind to have all these plans to myself.”
“Then maybe you should retire and let me run the place.”
Mr. Smith's thin lips curled into a smile. “I'm sure you would like that, but I don't believe you would implement my plans. I don't need someone to replace me, I need someone to stand beside me. Somebody I can trust. I thought my brother was going to be that person but I should have known better.”
“The two of you are quite different.”
“We always have been. Sometimes I think people were born into the wrong family, which is why I have to make a new one myself.”
“So you're trying to make an improvement on your old life?”
“Isn't that all any of us can do, Mack? We have to keep moving forward, no matter the cost.”
Mack and Mr. Smith spoke for a while longer, but Mr. Smith was canny and proved evasive when Mack tried finding out more information about him. In the end, Mack was escorted back to the others without having accomplished a great deal.
Chapter 14
The group had been captured for almost three weeks, and in that time, they had seen the true face of the camp. Depressed people went about their days and were sustained on small morsels of food, while Mr. Smith's trusted allies enjoyed a more varied diet. Mack watched with interest as scouting parties went out and returned with more food, and sometimes weapons, which swiftly were locked away in the armory.
There had been no new people brought into camp, but after one raid the man with no name had been carried back into camp, blood pouring out of his leg. Mack couldn't help but enjoy a wry smile, and he was glad somebody out there was fighting back. He only could hope they had managed to keep what was theirs and didn't feel the full wrath of Mr. Smith's guns. Seeing this inspired Mack, and he knew that he had to act sooner rather than later. Now that they had made some alliances within the camp he could begin formulating a plan.
The key to success was the weaponry. Their own makeshift weapons had been confiscated, but even if they still had them they would have been no match for the guns Mr. Smith's army had. The armory was the most heavily guarded part of the camp. Getting in there would not be an easy task, and neither would swiftly distributing the guns. As Mack was outlining this to the others, Grace looked unsure.
“I get where you're going with this, but you have to remember these people aren't fighters, and you can't think of them as an army.”
“I know, but they're going to be fighting for their freedom, for their very survival, and that will give them the strength they need. We need to create a distraction away from the armory at a time when a scouting party is out on patrol. If we can get enough people into the weapons and hand them out, we should be able to take over the camp with minimal casualties, but we're going to need everyone working together. I doubt we're going to get another chance at this.”
“Minimal casualties? I don't like the sound of that?” Luis said.
“In any war you have to accept that there are going to be losses. Mr. Smith and his people aren't going to give up without a fight, but neither are we,” Mack said.
Saul snorted.
“Care to say something?” Grace said, not even trying to hide the annoyance from creeping into her voice.
Ever since they had been brought back into camp Saul barely had said two words to them, even though they had shared the tent. He had eaten with them, slept with them, awoken with them, but during the day he had been doing his solitary tasks, and in conversations he had not joined in.
“This plan is doomed to fail. You don't think others have tried it? These people don't have any backbone. All you're going to do is get a lot of them killed, and probably yourself, too.”
“Shut up, Saul,” Luis said, much to the surprise of everyone in the tent.
“We wouldn't even be in this mess if it wasn't for you. You should have told us he was your brother from the onset, and you never should have gone after those bikes. And, all you've done since we've been here is sulk. If you don't want to help us, that's fine, but I, for one, don't want to keep living like this. Judging from the people I've spoken to, they don't want to either. So, either be a part of this or leave us be,” he snapped, and the heat started to fade from his eyes.
Mack let Luis' words settle in. Ever since Luis had been at the camp Mack had noticed him changing. His body was filling out with muscle as he had been chopping wood every day, and his attitude was changing. The fear that had been a part of him slowly was being eroded. When they first had met Saul, Luis never would have told him to shut up like that.
“We need to be patient. This isn't going to be easy and there is a big risk that any one of us may not make it out alive. However, I, for one, am willing to take this chance because this cannot be allowed to continue. There's a whole world out there and I want to see what's happened to it. I'm tired of staying in this damn forest!” Grace and Luis nodded while Saul returned to sulking in the corner.
After his little speech, they started settling down for the night, but Grace sought out Luis. “That was brave of you to talk to Saul like that,” she said.
“I just got tired of his act. There's too much negativity around here, and I can't deal with it anymore,” he replied.
“You've changed,” she said, almost noticing it for the first time.
“I guess chopping wood every day will do that to a man,” he joked.
“No, I'm serious. I can see it in your eyes. You're more confident, more assertive.”
“And maybe a little meaner, too. I'm not sure it's a change for the better. I feel like I lost something along the way. I think this camp is going to change us all.”
“Isn't that what we always were going to have to do in this new world, adapt or die? I'm looking forward to getting to know the new Luis,” she said, squeezing his arm and letting it linger for a little longer than usual.
Luis looked down at the gesture with a surprised look on his face. He started realizing that even in the darkest times there were still moments of light that shone through.
Chapter 15
Word soon spread among the people they thought they could trust. They made sure to warn those they told that this plan had to be kept secret, or else there would be no chance for success. Most they told were ready, although a little scared. Talking about a rebellion was far different than actually putting one into action. As Mack, Grace, and Luis talked to people they could see the fear in their eyes. However, in some there was a fierce determination, such as Danny. He was devoted to the cause and wanted to make Mr. Smith pay for what they had made his younger brother become a part of.
Soon Mack had a good idea of who he could count on for the rebellion, and he hoped the rest of them would rally by his side once they saw the tide starting to turn. It still was going to take some time, however, and Mack wanted more information. Mr. Smith still sent for him to discuss various matters, and it was this seeming need for an equal that Mack wanted to exploit, although so far Mr. Smith had been difficult to manipulate. He still didn't fully trust Mack, and wasn't giving him any more responsibility around the camp; Mack was still a prisoner, and he wasn't sure if he ever would be taken fully into Mr. Smith's confidence. However, he had the leader's ear and he was determined to make use of that privileged position.
On this occasion, Mr. Smith was taking a walk around the perimeter with Mack. There were no walls surrounding the camp, but there were guards posted intermittently along the perimeter to ensure nobody ran away. Furthermore, the trees in this area were thin. So if anyone did try running, they still would be visible. Since Mr. Smith's group had horses, bikes, and wagons they had the advantage over anyone who attempted to flee. It made Saul's efforts even more impressive, as by the way he told his story he had managed to evade capture for a few days. However, since he had lied to Mack about being Mr. Smith's brother, Mack wasn't sure how much of what Saul said he could trust.
Mr. Smith had spent a while talking about his vision for a new world, which seemed to be his favorite topic. Mack had to feign interest as he had tired of the subject a long time ago. He nodded along and pretended like he was paying attention, when really he was noting how far apart the guards stood and how many of them were along the camp’s outer rim. As they walked along, Mack nodded to people inside the camp, many of whom were a part of his planned rebellion. They nodded back, waiting for the time when he gave his signal to rise and defeat the enemy.
“So you really didn't like the old world?” Mack said after Mr. Smith had been passionately talking about his vision for a while.
“It was a bloated mess of broken promises and worthless dreams. Everything we were told was a lie. The world never was going to become a better place. No, what happened was for the best. It was a cleansing, a way for us to begin again and avoid the mistakes of the past.”
Mack nodded, deciding not to argue with Mr. Smith as that would have been a futile endeavor. The man was so convinced of his own rhetoric that nothing could sway him from his ideology. Mack wouldn't have been able to persuade him to take a different course of action. Instead, he wanted more information, specifically about Saul.
“Tell me a little more about your old life. We haven't really spoken about Saul yet...the two of you seem so different,” Mack said. He had heard Saul's side of the story and now he wanted to hear Mr. Smith's.
“We are… We always have been… As I mentioned before, I think somewhere the cosmic forces that guide our life made a mistake and I was born into the wrong family. You've seen what he's like. My parents were no better. They were people of no ambition who were content to settle for their small house, numbing their minds with beer and television and sports. They didn't really care what I wanted to be; they didn't try to encourage my mind. Saul was the same. He was big and strong, and that gave him an advantage when it came to the social side of things, but I was more popular. He was jealous and kept humiliating me to stop me from having friends. I think I would have been much better suited to being an only child.”
“That's funny, he told me he stopped you from being bullied,” Mack said. Anger flashed in Mr. Smith's eyes.
“He didn't know what was going on. They just were playing a few jokes on me that was all. That's what friends do to each other. The older we became, the more we grew apart. I knew from an early age that my destiny lay away from that place. I didn't belong there, and I had seen too many people throw their lives away by staying at home. I wanted to be an explorer. I wanted to leave and see the world and discover new places. I thought if I just left I could start a new life and be the person I always had wanted to be.”
“But that didn't quite happen.”
“No, it didn't. The one thing I didn't count on was the ineptitude of people to see genius when it walked among them. They didn't understand me, and because I wasn't the tallest of people or the most handsome, they didn't pay me any mind. And because I had to pay bills and rent, I was subjugated like the rest of them. That's really how they controlled us. They prevented us from going after our dreams by making us pay to live in this world. I heard an old saying once. I can't remember it exactly, but it basically said humans were the only beings that paid to live on the Earth. Even then I wanted to break away and form my own society because I knew I could do a better job than the people in charge. But who was going to follow someone like me? In that world I was nothing, but here it's different.”
“Saul said you got in touch with him to bring him up here. Why would you do that if you didn't feel any affinity toward your family?”
Mr. Smith sighed and his head hung down as they walked. “It was a mixture of things, I suppose. My life hadn't turned out exactly the way I had imagined, and doubts were beginning to cloud my mind. I was living in a small town, and while I never have been averse to my own company, I was starting to feel a little lonely. My mother got in touch with me, as we still exchanged letters now and then. I thought that since they had so little going on in their lives they would appreciate hearing updates of mine.
“Anyway, she told me Saul was finding it difficult to get a job and wondered if I knew of anything going on here. She seemed to think a fresh start would be good for him. Personally, I never thought you could teach an old dog new tricks, but I did hear about the bridge being built, so I sent along the information. I wasn't too enthused at seeing him again but, in a way, I suppose I was excited. After all, our lives had taken much different paths ever since I had left home.”
“In what way?” Mack asked. Mr. Smith's head shot up.
“Oh, I suppose that's another thing he hid from you. It's funny, when we were younger my brother always used to go on about honor, but he never quite could live up to his own lofty ideals. Did he not tell you about his prison record?” Mr. Smith said, with a smug grin on his face.
“No, he didn't,” Mack said in a guarded tone.
“Ah yes, well, he was in prison multiple times for assault and petty theft. He fell in with a bad crowd and went along with them. One of the assaults was particularly brutal, if I remember correctly. It made me glad I had distanced myself from all that and hadn't fallen into the same traps. Not that I blame him entirely, given the influence around him. But you see, you can't treat anyone at face value. I'm sure he presented himself as a noble person, but he's a liar. I tried to bring him back into the fold, but he was never good at following orders, something which I'm sure you've learned. I'm not the bad guy here, Mack. I never have been. It's a shame my brother tried destroying my reputation. I never wanted to treat him this badly, he just leaves me no choice.”
Mack listened intently and tried parsing the truth of what Mr. Smith was saying. Perhaps if Mr. Smith had told them this when he first had arrived at camp, Mack may have believed him. But he had heard all about Mr. Smith's philosophy, and now suspected that being deceitful was a family trait. If Mr. Smith wasn't lying, and Saul had indeed been in prison, that was another truth he had omitted. So Mack had to wonder if he could trust Saul at all. One thing he was sure of was he couldn't trust Mr. Smith, but he had to pretend to agree with him to gain Mr. Smith's trust.
“You know, I was thinking, perhaps I could be given a little more responsibility around here? I know I haven't been the easiest person, but I'm sure you can understand why I would be averse to being kept prisoner? I can't say I fully agree with your methodology, but I'm getting tired of tending to the horses. I think I could do more.”
“What did you have in mind?”
“I don't know. Maybe I could go out on patrol with the others. It would be nice to get a lay of the land around here, and perhaps I could use a gentler touch than they normally do. Sometimes people respond better to the carrot than the stick,” he said.
Mr. Smith tossed his head from side to side, and Mack had to restrain himself from saying any more. When there were long silences such as these, people had a tendency to speak more, to try convincing the other person, when that actually showed desperation. In reality, Mack wanted to become part of the patrols to get access to the armory, but still, Mr. Smith seemed reluctant to give him access to the weapons.
“Perhaps in time you will become one of the most trusted members, but until you fully accept my way of thinking I'm afraid I always will have my doubts. Still, I do enjoy our little chats, Mack. I hope that they provide you with much to think about,” Mr. Smith said, and by that it was clear their conversation was over.
Later, as soon as Saul had returned from his own duties, Mack pulled him aside for a private conversation.
“I need to have a word with you,” he said.
“I suppose this has something to do with your little conversations with my brother?” Saul said.
“You've been spending a lot of time with him recently. I'm beginning to wonder if you're hating it here as much as you say.”
Mack glared at him and stepped into his personal space, making Saul back away against the back side of the tent. The aura of intimidation that Saul had when they first had met had disappeared completely and now Mack wasn't afraid of him at all. Whatever fight Saul had in him apparently had evaporated, presumably after being humbled by his brother.
