The Long Dark

of ammunition at the same time. They had superior firepower. Even if they couldn’t see us, they could put enough shots in our direction that it didn’t matter.
Having completely given up, Tish slid down the embankment, extricating herself from the fight. I didn’t say anything because I was hopeless at that point myself. There was no way to fire an aimed shot. They had us pinned. We resorted to blind fire, which was barely a deterrent, much less actually hitting one of them. Worse, we were almost out of ammunition.
“Behind us,” Sam yelled.
A deep growl penetrated the night and alerted us that a vehicle was entering the fray. Sam and I exchanged worried looks as we tried to see what the next unfortunate event had in store for us. Then I caught a glimpse of the beautiful machine that sped by just a couple feet from us.
In a manner of seconds, the night was still again. The only sounds evident were the hard breaths caused by fear and the hum of the Ripsaw. I pawed the ground for purchase as I scrambled up the bank, Sam and Tish following suit. Titouan was standing on the treads, looking at the broken bodies, Avery, of all people, had run over. They had saved us. I gave Titouan a nod, and Avery, a semi-exuberant thumbs up.
“Let’s get goin,” Sam said, trying to help Tish onto the treads.  She angrily jerked away. Sam looked towards me. Not knowing what to say, I just shook my head. He put his head down and got into the cab without saying a word.
I took a moment to look over the dead shooters. They were both wore uniforms. Uniforms that had the same camouflage patterns as the radar dish. I bent down and picked up one of the rifles. It was damaged heavily. The other gun, however, seemed functional. I pocketed a few of the extra magazines.
Tish had come to stand close to me. “Why aren’t you in the truck?”
“We need to go,” she said, curtly. When I hadn’t replied quickly enough, she further freaked out. “We fucking need to go!”
“Okay. Okay, we’ll go.” I smacked something with the side of my foot. Holy shit, I thought. Another phone. I grabbed it with the same hand that held a spent magazine I had just retrieved off the ground. I did it smoothly enough, surprising, given how cold my hands were, that she hadn’t seen me do it. I shoved both in my pocket and then said, “Let’s go.”
She waited for me to walk in front of her before finally settling in behind me as I walked towards the Ripsaw.
Once inside, I thanked Titouan and Avery profusely. Avery was still in the driver’s seat, Sam in the passenger seat. Tish and I were in the second row of captain’s chairs, Titouan in the back.
Sam and Avery began bickering almost immediately. Something about “hands at ten and damn two.” The back of my head hit the padding of the headrest as we sped away. I heard Sam tell Avery to “Just drive in the direction I tell ya.”
I sighed deeply and then turned my head towards Tish. “Are you okay?”
I shouldn’t have asked. “You almost got us killed back there, and for what?”
I really didn’t want to get into a confrontation with her. I knew she was mad at me for what had happened back at Miley’s, but she was starting to wear my patience thin. I vowed to myself that I would stay calm, though. “For one, I got this rifle and extra ammunition. For two, we learned that we don’t have any help in the form of the military in Barrow. For three, I learned that we are in potentially much deeper shit than any of us thought. The thing that was on fire we saw was a dish of some sort, and it had Russian lettering on it.” I didn’t tell them about hearing the men speaking Russian.
“Really, William?”
“Really, what?”
“Russia and North Korea? How about China or maybe Iran?”
“We know North Korea is involved--”
“No, we don’t.”
“Didn’t you listen to William just hours ago, Tish?” Titouan asked. “Bob and Kelley said as much.”
“How do you know they didn’t lie?”
Titouan began laughing. “I guess they learned Korean on the side, just for fun?”
“Alright. Enough, dammit,” I said. “This bickering is pointless. Does it really matter who is responsible?”
“Apparently it does to you. You’re spouting off like you know exactly what’s happening.”
“Come on, girl, I thank you need ta chill a little…”
“You’re following him, Sam. You could’ve said no back there, but you didn’t. You’re just as bad as he is. He’s going to get us all killed.”
My patience was teetering in the direction of losing my shit. I thought it better that we had a quick change of discussion before I said something rash that would further the discord. “I take it we’re going to the place you were talking about before we left the Patch.”
He didn’t speak immediately. I was getting ready to ask him if he had heard me before he gruffly said, “Yeah.”
I refused to allow myself to dwell on Tish and Sam’s palpable anger towards me. I had more significant issues on my plate. I patted the side of my coat pocket, making sure the phone I picked up was still in there. Nothing was making sense. The Order; the EMP; the Grays; and now the Russians. My stomach ached and churned, and my head felt like it might explode. I needed to switch off for a few minutes but wasn’t sure I could. Everything was darting through my mind at supersonic speed. All the questions. More than anything, it was the repercussions of the issues that were so troubling. How Isolated was this attack? For all the irrational, or maybe not irrational, thoughts racing through my mind, I couldn’t allow myself to believe the US might fall – or that it had already fallen. Fallen. It was unfathomable. But here we were. Jesus, I