William woke Ryan a couple hours later, it wasn’t an easy awakening. Ryan bolted upright when he woke, aware of the presence of another living body in his personal space, heart racing and hand reaching for his revolver. William grabbed Ryan’s hand and tried to soothe his stressed brother “Bro, it’s just me, we’re heading out in a few.” It took a couple of seconds for Ryan to calm down. It was clear that his near death experience of the prior day had left its mark. He was plagued by bad dreams, skittish and more prone to react violently. Ryan usually analysed his psyche and now his conclusion was that he wasn’t certain if he’d ever be the same, and that the change wasn’t for the better.
Grabbing his gear Ryan joined William, Lucy and the others in the living room, the subdued glow of a candle providing a modicum of light to the group. Given Ryan’s experience at the police station and their observations during the prior days they had decided to quickly move out of town, head around the back of the damn along the hiking trails and use the railway line to hit the road to a nearby mine that moved past the back entrance to John’s plot of land. Their route should provide a minimal chance of encountering other people and was near identical to the one Alexis’ group had used a few days prior. It should also be traversable by bike even in moonlight.
They left through the small back gate which William locked with a padlock, moving down river to the road. The silence was eerie, they had cleared the greater area of pets and nobody in this part of town was moving around openly anymore, especially after dark. They moved along quietly, keeping noise to a minimum. A couple of tense moments passed as they stopped when they heard loud voices from a property they were passing, but nobody challenged them and they continued moving out. Near everyone was armed, handguns in easy reach, but it had been decided that firing a gun was to be a last resort, they didn’t want to attract any attention if possible.
Once they hit the road they moved quickly, the quiet susurration of the knobbly mountain bike tires on the tar road barely audible. The hilly terrain had them out of breath fairly quickly, but everyone kept a good pace. By the time they reached the gravel road heading to the eastern garden refuse dump the group was starting to relax some more. They had encountered not a single soul and were now out of immediate danger, danger posed by fellow humans that was, Ryan thought to himself.
Riding along the rocky footpath past the dam and then the railway line under the starlit sky was a serene experience, everyone by now was calm and focused on their path. Their progress had slowed down considerably due to the slower pace needed to avoid unnecessary spills due to the uncertain light and uneven terrain. Dawn was approaching by the time the group hit the road to the mine and had a short break to stretch their backs. Cycling with a heavy backpack was definitely not one of Ryan’s favourite experiences. Five minutes later they saddled back up and continued along the road in comfortable silence, secure in their knowledge that they were unlikely to encounter any humans from here on out.
What they didn’t and couldn’t reasonable have expected was the ambush by a small sounder of warthogs. The dark grey animals must have heard them moving along the tarmac and had hidden in the bushes next to the road, out of sight of the group and well camouflaged in the uncertain light of early morning. Bursting out when the group was near parallel to their position the warthogs charged at the group of cyclists. Obviously no-one was prepared and chaos naturally ensued, everyone trying to dodge the pigs, getting into each other’s way or getting hit by the charge and wiped off their bikes, most of the group falling in a confused tumble.
Ryan had managed to dodge the charge, dropping off his bike quickly thereafter and drawing his revolver. Everyone was rising quickly, urgently grabbing for their firearms. The first shots were fired at the sounder that had turned back to the group and again charged as a unit. The confusion of the groups’ members however didn’t allow for a coordinated response, the chance of friendly fire high and everyone trying to get into a position to shoot. The two pigs struggling under some bikes only adding to the chaos. Ryan, at an angle to the main group, quickly sighted and joined in the fire, trying to track the path of the charging animals and preparing to dodge again. Several animals dropped but the boar headed straight at William, who had picked up Michelle and tried to hoist her over his shoulder, protecting the girl who was wounded but leaving himself vulnerable.
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Emptying his drum at the boar Ryan charged towards his brother, knocking him and Michelle out of the way and to the ground, the searing pain in his thigh barely registering as he too went down. Ryan turned on his side, backpack facing towards the charge he expected to come and tried to fumble for some ammo in his vest’s pocket. By the time he had managed to grab the ammo and reload the revolver the surroundings were comparatively quiet, no more shots fired and only the heavy breathing, sobbing and moaning of the wounded audible.
Ryan sat up, the fiery pain in his thigh forcing a deep groan. The blood was seeping out of the gaping wound, the razor sharp tusks of the boar had gone through his muscle like a hot knife through butter. Then the pain really started to register, but still Ryan was more happy than not, the slow seep of blood was comforting, not the spurting gush of a ruptured femoral that he had expected. The wound was not as deep as it could have been and Ryan thanked his guardian angel, who’d definitely done some overtime there.
William’s “Thanks bro” as he approached interrupted the contemplation of his wound, and the worries on how on earth he was supposed to get to John’s plot with one functioning leg. As it turned out, he wasn’t the only immobile wounded, Michelle’s calf had been gored to the bone and Roland was out cold, unconscious after falling down and hitting his head. Most had gotten lucky, only a few bruises and abrasions as a result of their fall. The charging boars hitting mostly their bikes and not their bodies the main reason why almost everyone got away without serious injury.
The sounder was dead, and William had confirmed that the animals had been a low level, identified as Charging Hogs. Lizzy distributed pain killers to Ryan and Michelle and the bandaged them up as best as she could. Next they moved everyone off the road into the bush, towards a small hill covered by thick vegetation William had scouted out in the meantime. By that stage Michelle had also recovered sufficiently enough to contact John and requested an evacuation of the wounded, his camping trailer for the bike being the most promising option of transporting them to the base.
Now all they could do was wait and everyone settled down. Soon quiet conversation could be heard. Ryan followed the quiet conversations while remaining silent himself. It appeared that everyone was thoroughly shaken up by the experience, most probably contemplating their own mortality. Although Ryan was the second-most severely wounded, it seemed to him that he had nonetheless handled the experience better than the rest, analysing the fight calmly and not feeling the amount of shock the others displayed. He assumed that his recent brush with death in addition to his greater age contributed to his calm demeanour.
Eventually Ryan called over William, who joined him after a short moment. In a quiet whisper he informed William that they would need to take the group for a hunt again as soon as possible, preferably where they could safely eliminate their prey. He reasoned that they would need to build their confidence again, and inure them to the violent realities of their new lives, where progress would never be safe and always be violent. If they couldn’t handle it, it would be better to know sooner rather than later, he argued.
William just nodded along, apparently he had had the same thoughts. Once Ryan was done talking, William informed him that he had discussed precisely this course of action with John previously and that they had come to the same conclusion. In order to survive in this world they would need to be prepared to commit violence and the sooner every member of their group was exposed to it the better. Those that were not cut out to be fighters would need to find other roles, roles that would also support the group as a whole. The two had also quietly decided that they would not tolerate people who refused to contribute, but hadn’t discussed a way to handle such a scenario.
William just mentioned that they would need to have a meeting with the group and set down some ground rules for conduct. So far everything had worked out, but it was early days yet and everyone was doing their utmost to ensure survival, which so far had been beneficial to group cohesion. That might change in the future when they were better established and the groups way forward needed to be addressed sooner rather than later. They left it at that, William heading out to have another scout of the surroundings, clearly worried about the potential for more conflict with wildlife.
Ryan was dozing in the sparse shade provided by their cover, the high heat and burning pain of his wounds preventing proper sleep although he was exhausted. It was somewhat later during the morning and he roused when he heard a couple of loud shouts, once again immediately going for his revolver before he groggily realised that there was no tone of alarm in the voices, that the shouts were greetings. It appeared that John’s group had finally arrived and that he was about to be rescued from his uncomfortable position under the tree.