I turned to my new wards: "Let's go back and see if there are other survivors. Perhaps some escaped into the woods. How big was your clan?"
"Eight, 'sides us. Lil shoud'nt see whats done to t'others."
"Well she can sit in my truck until we return. There's no danger now."
I picked up the young girl. She was wearing an old parka and ragged jeans. She looked about ten. She had tangled, light, sandy hair and the prettiest blue eyes, searching deep into my own as I moved her. They seemed to express wonder more than fright. I placed her in the front seat, patted her on the head, told her to be brave and that we'd be back soon.
I took a look at the woman who was equally ragged and dishevelled, like two orphans. This had all the similarities of finding Amira and Beth so many years ago, history repeating itself. It put a lump in my throat.
The woman was right at least as far as concerned the little girl. As we approached a dilapidated farm house we could see one dead man before it and two more on the porch and a smashed rifle. Entering we encountered a bloodbath, each room with blood splattered across the walls, bodies scattered across the floors including a few limbs completely amputated. Two children were amongst the carnage. I asked the woman, now sobbing, if this was everyone. Holding her arm before her face she quickly glanced and seemed to count, quickly saying "one other". Sure enough, we found that other person, an older woman, outside the back door lying in the grass, still alive.
She was face down and had a bad gash to one of her arms and another to her calf but no bullet wounds. We turned her over and sat her up and I bound her two bleeding wounds with strips of my shirt. Then we walked her to the truck where I had a medical kit. It was a beautiful affair that Hanah had devised and insisted we take with us. It was the size of a large briefcase. On the one flap there were tools, knives, needles, bandages, forceps and a stapler for stitches. On the other, medicines in small bottles each tucked into a sewn strap holder, from Advil to morphine, topicals of all sorts, antihistamines, antibiotics, and a dozen other remedies for common mishaps, from snake bites to food poisoning, each vial carefully labelled with Hanah's immaculate calligraphy.
The woman seemed amazed by it as I cleaned her wounds, stapled them and bandaged her up properly. After that we drove off. None of wanted to be anywhere near that place and I'm sure the two women thought another demon would appear at any moment. By late afternoon we'd reached the campground I stayed in the night before. I set up my one man tent and with the help of the younger woman and the girl made a campfire and heated several cans of soup for dinner which we ate at the picnic table, drinking out of the cans for lack of bowls, none of them talking at all, which I attributed to the shock they must be in. Little did I know that this was their common state.
By dusk clouds had gathered and I knew rain was coming. The air grew chill. I spread the tent with all my blankets and coat where the two woman crowded in to sleep. This left the girl and me. I spread a tarp over the picnic table and placed all the warm rocks from around the campfire inside. Into this cave with my lantern and thermal sleeping bag we retreated, very tired and fully dressed.
It was a night of broken sleep, the two women near us often moaning for all the family they'd lost and the girl squirming against me in the tightness of our accommodations. In the morning I felt my leg all wet, though the rain had stopped.
"You peed your pants, didn't you," I told her.
"I couldn't get out. I was stuck." she answered. These were the first words I'd heard her speak.
"Well, you peed my pants too."
At this she giggled, which I took as a good sign, that she was a girl and not permanently traumatized.
"No matter" I said. "I'm not angry. There's a creek right by us where we can wash our clothes and dry them by the campfire which you're gonna help me build."
The two woman were still sound asleep after a long night of grieving, and we let them sleep.
