The Takers: Book One of the Oz Chronicles Read online

  Lou walked up and started to stroke Ryder's nose. I was a little more hesitant. "What are they for?" I asked.

  "Your trip," Wes said. "Got 'em off Frank Greeley's farm 'bout six miles north of here."

  "I can't ride a horse," I said.

  "Ain't nothing to it, sides these horses ain't really for ridin'. They's for pulling." He walked over and patted Phil's back. Phil blew air through his nose and mouth and stomped one of his back hooves. "Easy now. Easy now," Wes said.

  "Pulling what?"

  Wes laughed. "A wagon, what else?"

  "A wagon?"

  "Greeley had a couple but they're in need of repair something awful. I figure we could high tail it on over to Archie's Seed and Feed tomorrow and see if there's one in better condition."

  I maintained my distance from the horses. "I don't know the first thing about driving a wagon."

  Wes gave me a curious scowl. "The horses do all the work. You just nudge 'em in the right direction and give 'em a little slap with the reins. Off they go."

  I didn't want to come out and say I was afraid, but I think he was beginning to get the idea. Horses, especially these, were big animals that always seemed to me to have minds of their own. I wasn't all together confident that I would have any kind of control of them once I was behind the reins.

  "Look," Wes said. "It beats walkin', and it'll give poor ol' Phil and Ryder something to do. They's work horses who are just itchin' to pull a wagon."

  I wasn't thrilled with the idea, but I felt if I protested any further, Wes would start to get the idea that I was a sissy. I shrugged my shoulders and tried to look indifferent about his proposal. "Yeah, sure. I'll give it a try." I said it without an ounce of meaning.

  "I'm workin' on something else, too," Wes said.

  "What?" I asked.

  "Can't say just yet. Ain't sure it's going to work. I don't want to get your hopes up." He slapped Phil on the rump and headed for the grocery store. "Whatcha' want for dinner?"

  I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know."

  "I'm in the mood for something different," he said as he reached the entrance of the Kroger's. "I'll surprise ya'." With that he disappeared inside.

  A few minutes later he emerged with an armload of candy bars. "The candy man has arrived. Hope you like chocolate and caramel 'cause it feels like a Snickers night tonight." He stopped a few feet away from the horses and dropped the entire load of candy on the sidewalk. Dozens of Snickers bars in their brown wrappers decorated the concrete walk. He reached in both pockets and pulled out two red Macintosh apples. "Here." He handed one to me and one to Lou. "Give these to Phil and Ryder. You best make sure they like you 'cause they're going to be your feet for the next 500 miles or so."

  Lou and I took the apples from him and proceeded to feed the horses. Lou was more excited by it than I was, but I was surprised how gently Phil took the apple from my hand. I half expected him to gnaw my hand off in his attempt to grab the apple with his enormous teeth, but he very deftly snatched the fruit from my hand and gobbled it down.

  Wes sat on the sidewalk and tore open a Snickers bar and started eating it. Lou and I joined him. We ate the chewy chocolate bars and watched the sun dip down behind the horizon.

  "If it weren't for that fact the world was going to hell in a hand basket," Wes said. "This would be downright fun. Kind of nice not having to worry about money and such." He looked at us. "I guess you two wouldn't know anything about that. Paying bills is rough. I worked close to 60 hours a week trying to keep up with my mortgage, my credit card bills, my utilities, you name it. I pert near had to work my fingers to the bone tryin' to pay for it." He grabbed another candy bar and opened it.

  "Don't you miss your family?" I asked. I was nibbling on my Snickers bar.

  "My sister's the only one I had left. Everyone else passed. Louise was a special gal, but I didn't see much of her once she got married and started a family. Her husband didn't care much for me."

  Kimball sat beside me and started whining. He was ready for his dinner. I got up and went back in the mattress store where I opened another pouch of dog food and fed him. As I was headed back out to join Wes and Lou, I happened to glance out the back door and saw Ajax sitting along the back of the lot. He was holding his blanket and doll and rocking back and forth. I moved to the back door and crouched down in the doorway.

  He looked at me and pointed to himself and then hunched his shoulders with his hands balled in fists as he shook them back and forth. I didn't need the book to interpret what he was saying. "Me cold." I stood and quickly moved to my bed and picked up the book. Back at the door, I looked up the sign for "inside" and invited Ajax into the mattress store.

  He grunted and moved his hands in front of himself as if he were protecting himself. According to the book it meant "afraid."

  I made the sign for friend again.

  He gave me the same grunt, waved his hand in front of his hand, and then motioned both hands down in front of him. "Stranger."

  I repeated the friend sign.

  He repeated the stranger sign.

  I shook my head and pushed my hand out in front of me with my fingers together, "your," and then spread the fingers on my left hand and acted as if I were picking things from my fingers with the index finger and thumb of my right hand, "choice." "Your choice."

  He waved his hand at me and turned away. I didn't need the book to tell me that meant leave me alone. I laughed and walked away.

  Later as Lou, Wes, Nate, Kimball, and I lay in our respective beds (Lou's still being on the floor behind the adjustable bed), Ajax quietly entered and maneuvered through the maze of mattresses. Kimball was the first to notice him. He sat up and watched the great ape with a keen interest. I smiled as Ajax hopped on a mattress next to mine. He sighed and collapsed with his back to me, still shaking from the cold.

  Wes lifted his head up and chuckled. "I'll be damned," he said. "A go-rilla."

  With that I could hear Lou start to giggle. I followed, and unless my mind was playing tricks on me, I even saw little Nate smile at the prospect of a 400-pound silverback lying in the bed next to us. Kimball jumped off my mattress and jumped up on Ajax's mattress, and as if the two had been best buddies forever, he lay next to the gorilla to help keep him warm.

  ***

  Lou was the first one awake the next morning. She woke me to let me know she was taking Nate from me to change and feed him. I was happy to let her do it. She was growing really attached to the kid, which worked out great for me. I hadn't changed a diaper since the first day I arrived. I looked over to my left and saw that Ajax and Kimball were still asleep. In fact, Ajax was snoring so loudly I'm surprised I was able to sleep at all.

  I stood and stretched. My head ached from the over-consumption of candy bars the night before. It was a tasty indulgence that I deeply regretted at that moment.

  I made my way to the bathroom in the back of the store and washed my face in the sink. When I walked back into the showroom, Wes was just waking up. He stretched, groaned, and yawned.

  "I swear," he said. "I ain't never slept so good." He sat on the edge of the bed. "We best get movin' on to Archie's and see if we can find a wagon. I think I remember him having an old farmer's wagon." He stood and moved to the bathroom. "Just give me a minute to do my mornin' business." He stepped inside and closed the door.

  I walked over to Lou. "I wish he would forget about those horses."

  "They're beautiful."

  "Yeah, well they're big and smelly, too." I looked out the window at them. "I don't know anything about taking care of a horse."

  She smiled. "Sounds like you're afraid of them more than anything else."

  "What do you know?" I snapped.

  "I know we'll make it to Charleston a lot faster on a wagon pulled by horses than we will on foot." She had Nate cradled in her arm feeding him his formula.

  I looked at her. "What do you mean 'we'?"

  "We," she said. "Me, you, Nate, Kimball, and I'm gue
ssing Ajax. I don't think Wes will come."

  I looked at Kimball and Ajax sound asleep in their bed. "I got enough to do looking after Nate. I don't need you or… that gorilla making it any harder on me."

  "I thought you told Ajax you were his friend." She gave me a look of disdain.

  "I did, but…"

  "But you didn't mean it?"

  "No," I said. "I was just trying to get him to come out."

  "Why?"

  "Because…" I couldn't come up with an answer. "Just because. You're not coming and that's that."

  I started to walk away when I heard her say, "Protect baby from take."

  I turned to her. "What did you say?"

  "Protect baby from take. That's what Ajax said to you yesterday."

  Ajax stirred on his bed.

  "How do you know that?" I asked.

  "I looked it up in the book. I could tell you were lying yesterday, so I wanted to see for myself."

  "You should learn to keep out of other people's property."

  "That book's not your property," she said. "You took it from Dr. Fine."

  "Dr. Fine doesn't exist any more, so I couldn't have taken it from her."

  "Whatever," she said. "The point is Ajax knows something. He knows what our purpose is."

  "What purpose?"

  "The reason they didn't take us. It's Nate."

  I looked at the baby in her arms. "Nate?"

  "He's special."

  "A special pain in the ass, maybe…"

  "No, listen, he's our purpose. We have to protect him."

  "There you go with that we stuff again…"

  We heard the toilet flush and ended our conversation as Wes exited the bathroom. "I wouldn't go in there for a while," he said, smiling from ear to ear.

  Ajax sat up and looked at Wes.

  "Hello, Mr. Go-rilla," Wes said. "How 'bout we head on down to the Kroger's and get us a bunch of bananas."

  Ajax grunted in agreement and climbed off the bed.

  "Don't that beat everything," Wes said. "He really does understand what I'm saying." He laughed as he followed the lumbering ape out of the mattress store. Kimball took off after them. Wes turned to Lou and me. "Two weeks ago, I would've thought you were crazy if you told me that I was going to have breakfast with a go-rilla and a dog one day. But I'll be damned if that ain't just what I'm doing."

  When he was out of earshot, I turned back to Lou. "You can't come."

  "I can and I will," she said. "And Ajax is coming, too."

  I sighed. "I don't see why you're so set on it."

  She looked at me, tears forming in her eyes. "Because," she said. "It's my mission."

  ***

  What Wes didn't tell me about going to Archie's Seed and Feed is that in order to bring the wagon back with us, we would have to ride the horses, a prospect that did not sit well with me. I argued until I was blue in the face that I could walk the horse, but Wes didn't see how that made sense. He was right. It didn't make sense. It was apparent that my mode of transportation to Charleston was going to be a horse-drawn wagon. I might as well get used to the animals.

  After several aborted attempts to mount Ryder, Wes finally was successful at setting me on top of the huge, snorting beast. My legs spread across the animal's back so wide that there were times I felt as if I were being pulled apart. Wes easily mounted Phil and we set out.

  After a mile or so, my anxiety started to wane. Ryder was a gentle old horse that moved slowly and smoothly across the paved terrain. There were times I even thought I could detect just a hint of gratitude from the old horse. He seemed to enjoy having me on his back.

  As we journeyed on, I couldn't help but look at my surroundings with a measured level of sadness. Manchester was dead. The buildings remained intact and the roads were in good condition, but the heart of the little town had been ripped out. The cool October wind blew through its winding streets and alleys without notice. There was no one there to comment on the cold day or the coming holidays. It was a shell with nothing inside.

  When we arrived at Archie's Seed and Feed the first thing I noticed was the odor. There was the sharp pungent smell of rot. The building was surrounded by it. We stepped inside and stood among the rows of sacks full of seed and feed. The smell grew stronger. Wes led me to the counter and stepped behind it. He looked on the floor and recoiled "Stay back," he said, trepidation in his voice. He covered his mouth with his hand and opened a drawer. He frantically rifled through it and pulled out a key. As quick as he could, he stepped from behind the counter and headed for the door.

  I couldn't resist. I stepped around the counter and saw what made him draw back, the bloated, decaying body of an old man. The skin was gray turning brown. The eyes were milky and blank, and the belly looked as though it would pop. I fought the urge to retch and ran out of the building.

  Once outside I placed my hands on my knees and doubled over. "What was that?" I said, fighting hyperventilation.

  "Archie," he answered. He was breathing in deeply trying to flush out the odor of death. "I told you to stay back."

  "I thought…" I was struggling to breathe. "They killed him."

  "They didn't kill him," he said. "Old man probably dropped dead of a heart attack. They got no use for a dead man."

  I stood up straight. We moved to the back of the building. Wes used the key he retrieved from the drawer to open up a large shed near a huge silo. He pulled back the double doors and, just as he had surmised, there was a medium-sized farm wagon. He smiled. "This will do. Old-timers used to use it to haul hay. Let's hook Phil and Ryder to it and get the hell out of here."

  "What about…" I looked at the seed and feed store. "Shouldn't we bury him?"

  "What the hell for?" Wes snapped.

  "It doesn't seem right…"

  "You want to go back in there and drag his old rotting body out back and bury him, that's fine by me, but you can count me out." Wes moved past me to fetch Phil and Ryder from the front of the store.

  "I thought he was a friend of yours."

  "He was a cranky old man that would sooner spit on me than say a kind word to me."

  "Yeah, but…"

  "But nothing." He disappeared behind the front of the building.

  I went into the shed and found a shovel hanging from the wall. As I was exiting the shed, Wes was approaching with the horses. He stopped and looked at me.

  "You're going to do it, aren't ya'?"

  I didn't say anything. I found a spot of soft dirt next to the silo and started digging. It wasn't long before Wes joined me with another shovel. "You're some kind of stubborn, kid," he said.

  I smiled and we dug the hole together.

  ***

  By two o'clock in the afternoon, we were back at the shopping center. Phil and Ryder pulled the wagon like they'd been doing it their whole lives. We pulled up in front of the mattress store like we were cowboys in an old Western movie.

  We jumped off the wagon and walked inside the store. Ajax and Kimball were sitting near the front. They were playing tug of war with Ajax's blanket. They had become fast friends.

  Lou was sitting in the back with Nate in his sling around her shoulder. Her head was down and I could see that she was reading something. I didn't think much of it.

  I had worked up a hunger burying Archie, so I retrieved a package of Oreos from my supply wagon and started chomping on as many as I could fit in my mouth. It took a while to notice that something wasn't quite right. I looked at the garden wagon. Something was out of place. I went through the wagon and gasped when I realized what that something was. Stevie's comic book was missing.

  I stood in a panic. "Lou," I shouted. "Give that back!"

  She looked up from Stevie's comic book. "They're called the Takers," she said, her eyes red from crying.

  "Who's called the Takers?" Wes said entering the store. "And since when can you talk?"

  I ran over to Lou and took the comic book from her. "Don't say their name."

&n
bsp; "Where did you get that comic book?" she asked.

  I ignored her question and ran back to the wagon and grabbed J.J. They were coming.

  "What's got you all jumpy?" Wes asked. "And answer my question, little miss, since when can you talk?"

  Kimball was the first to sense them. He let go of Ajax's blanket and ran to the front door. The fur on his back stood up straight. Ajax was next. He stood next to Kimball and let out a short series of hoots. With the hair on his shoulders and back puffed out, he looked twice as big.

  Wes looked at the pair at the door and then me. "Damn." He pulled out his hunting knife. "I was beginning to think they was gone." His hand was trembling and sweat began to form on his brow. "Looks like I'm going to have to gut me another one of them suckers." He nervously chuckled.

  "We should hide," I said.

  Wes looked around the small mattress store. "Our choices are kind of limited here. Our best bet is to move down to the Kroger's."

  "Shut up!" Lou whispered frantically. "They can hear us talk."

  Wes and I looked at each other. She was right. I motioned for her to join me, and we all slowly made our way to the front door. Ajax and Kimball were firmly ensconced in their positions. It was hard to get their attention. "Kimball, go," I whispered. He darted out the door.

  Ajax looked at me with a wide-eyed look. "Protect baby from take," he signed.

  "I will," I whispered. I pointed to the Kroger's. "Hide." Still clutching his blanket, he turned back into the mattress store, ran to his bed, grabbed his doll and kissed it. He quickly moved past us and followed Kimball to the Kroger's.

  "Don't that beat everything," Wes said.

  Lou punched him in the stomach and shushed him.

  Wes exited the mattress store first, followed by Lou with Nate in his sling, and then me. We were huddled together. J.J. was at the ready and Wes had a firm grip on his hunting knife. We stepped slowly, expecting the Takers to appear at any moment.

  We were almost in a state of disbelief when we made it to the front door of the Kroger's without incident. Inside the grocery store, we scanned the area for out best vantage point.

  "Frozen foods," Wes whispered leading the way. I grabbed Lou's hand. She was shaking. I pulled her along, and we all ducked down behind a row of waist high open-air refrigerator units with hundreds of boxes of spoiled frozen foods stuffed inside them. Kimball paced with his tongue hanging from this mouth, and Ajax sat clinging tightly to his blanket and doll.