No Other Way

No Other Way by Charles Powers

“Arden, stop staring and give me a hand”.

Arden looked up at her father. The rifle slung over his shoulder, he had bent down to grab hold of their kill. He wanted to start the journey home immediately.

Arden didn’t wait for her father to ask again. She got a firm hold and lifted. They hurried, quickly and quietly.

“Heavy, huh?” Arden said. No reply. But her father’s labored breathing soon confirmed it.

Arden was short for her age, but she was strong. She could handle this weight. Besides, heavy was good. They’d been out hunting for days with no sign of life until suddenly she’d spotted a dark brown figure in the distance. It was a good shot. Steady. Clean.

The relief was overwhelming. The food meant their family could survive another few weeks.

What a prize it was. It was wrong to call it that, of course. It was wrong to feel joy about this. But she couldn’t help it. She wanted to look again but her father would be angry if they stopped. Even with his breath growing heavier, they marched through the forest. Quietly as they could.

Arden’s eyes were better, so she led the way. She wasn’t afraid of getting lost in these dark woods. This trail was familiar. Her mother and father had come into some money and had bought property next to these woods years ago. They had built a small log cabin for vacations. Arden had loved coming here. It made her happy to be surrounded by nature. She would wander into the woods and close her eyes, hearing the forest hum and sign with life.

Then one day, the sky turned black and the ash fell. And the forest that was once teeming with life grew quiet.

But her family had survived. Their cabin had a well and a cellar for cold storage. They’d worked through the contents of the pantry quickly. They had lived off deer for a time, drying it to make it last. The meat never spoiled but it ran out too. They’d hunted smaller game until it was gone. Fished the river until it stopped flowing.

They had grown desperate. And in that desperation, they had started going on longer hunting trips. Venturing far from their cabin in search of food, for the game that had survived.

They were passing through a clearing when Arden felt a tug. Her father had dropped their prize. Lost his grip, perhaps.

“Do you need to take a break, father?” Arden said back over her shoulder.

When Arden had put down the legs and turned, she found her father on his knees. Eyes bulging. He looked scared and confused. His arms were twisting behind him, as if he were reaching for something. He looked at Arden for help. His body tensed one last time, and then he went limp. When he fell forward, Arden could see 2 dark bolts stuck in his back.

Arden wanted to scream. But screaming was dangerous. Even with her father dying in front of her, she covered her mouth to stifle any sound. She rushed to him, turning him over. His eyes were open, but he was already gone.

Arden grabber her father’s hand. For a moment, she closed her eyes. Arden wanted to cry for her father. But she couldn’t.

She heard a rustle and looked up. From the edge of the tree-line, a tall man walked slowly towards her with a crossbow drawn. Arden gasped and stumbled backwards, raising her hands to her face. From that range, she knew it would be practically impossible to miss. She anticipated the bolt, but nothing came.

She lowered her hands to see that another man had appeared. He had a wool cap and a large beard, and had laid his hand atop the crossbow.

“Christ, it’s only a child.” He said.

“We are hunting.” The tall man insisted, trying to raise the crossbow.

“No. No, this one is innocent.”

The tall man silently relented and lowered his weapon.

“Stay where you are, kid.” Said the bearded man.

Arden did as she was told. Even if they didn’t have a weapon, she doubt she could outrun these two. She sat and watched as the tall man walked over to her father’s body. He ripped the bolts out with ease and began hastily checking her father for anything of value. Besides a small knife and her father’s black notebook, he wouldn’t find much.

The bearded man slowly walked over to the other body, to Arden’s prize. As he approached, he removed his wool cap. He knelt and looked upon the face of the dead man. He whispered something softly that Arden couldn’t hear. He grasped the dead man’s hand. For a moment, he closed his eyes.

“Was that man your father?” The bearded man said, his eyes still shut.

“Yes”

The bearded man slowly put the dead man’s hand down and looked up at Arden. “I’m sorry kid.”

“Jake.” The tall man had removed the rifle from her father and held it outright. When the bearded man looked up, the tall man threw it to him.

Jake caught the rifle and inspected it.

“Is this what your father used to kill my brother?”

Arden’s eyes grew wide. She looked down at the body and back at Jake. After a moment, she nodded slowly.

Jake nodded and looked back down at the rifle. “I’m surprised this antique still works at all.”

There was a long silence.

“Were you going to eat him?”

Arden wrapped her arms around herself. There was no point in hiding it. They already knew. Eyes cast downwards, she nodded.

“We came out here looking for what was making our people disappear,” said Jake. “To hunt the hunter.”

After a moment, Arden asked: “What are you going to do with me?” She glanced over to her father’s body.

“We aren’t going to kill you. Your father killed one of ours. That sin has a price.”

“What then?”

“Well,” Jake put his cap back on and stood. “I don’t much like the idea of leaving a child out in the woods to die alone. You could come back with us. We have food and an underground bunker. It’s an older military facility. We even have a working—"

Jake was interrupted by a low growl. She looked over at the tall man who was still hunched over her father. He was holding up his father’s hand to his nose and looking at Arden. He rose and strode towards her, menacing rage pouring from his eyes.

“Hey! What did I say?” Jake shouted. “We agreed that children are innocent.”

The tall man ignored him. Jake tried to move and get between them, but the tall man was too quick. The tall man was on her before she could run. Arden tried to push him away. Jake was behind him shouting and trying to pull him back, but the tall man was strong. He grabbed her by the wrist and lifted her right hand to his nose.

“Gunpowder.” He growled.

Jake took a step back. He looked at Arden. Disbelief turned to disappointment. “Well shit kid.” He took his cap off again and rubbed his head. He then turned to the tall man. “Make it quick.”

The tall man, still holding Arden’s wrist, wheeled around quickly. His grip was so strong, she thought it might break her arm. Kicking and clawing with all her might, he dragged her back towards the bodies. He retrieved a length of rope from his pack and started making towards the tree line.

“No. Please wait. Please!”

The tall man threw the length of rope over a branch. Despite her thrashing, he started wrapping a knot hastily around her neck.

“Let me go. Please. Let me go home to my family. My sister and my mother, they need me. If I don’t come home, they’ll die. Please stop. Wait. “

“Stop!”

The tall man listened.

“Tie her up,” said Jake. “And then let’s talk”

---

Arden sat, tied to the tree for what felt like ages. She watched the two men argue from a distance, out of earshot. She thought she heard a few words from Jake: justice, innocent, mercy. She was certain she heard one word from the tall man: murderer.

After a while, the bearded man walked up to her.

“Here’s the deal, kid. You are going to tell us where your mother and sister are.”

Arden was surprised. “Why? No.”

“Hear me out first. We are going to find them, and we will take them home with us.” Jake looked back at the tall man who was watching from a distance. “At the very least, it’s two fewer marauders we have to look out for.”

“You won’t kill them?”

“No. I’ll offer them the same deal I offered you.”

Arden considered for a moment. “How do I know you aren’t just taking them back to…to kill them later? To keep them fresh?”

Jake stared at Arden, his mouth slightly agape. He shook his head. “We don’t…We aren’t…”

“You don’t eat people?”

“No”

Arden felt shame. And confusion. There had been so many terrible decisions to make when the world turned grey.

“You’ll have to trust us,” said Jake. “Not sure how that’s possible, but that’s up to you.”

She couldn’t know. There was no way for her to be certain. Behind every door was pain.

Heavy. The body of the man she had shot was heavy. He was well fed. It was a body of someone who hadn’t been pushed. Pushed to survive by using the most terrible last resort.

And then she looked into Jake’s eyes and knew: they were different. They hadn’t opened that door yet.

---

“My family used to come here. You know, before.”

Jake nodded and gathered in the view. From atop this hill, you could see most of her family’s forest. There were mountains in the distance and a river that ran dry. Spanning the river was an old bridge that her family used to access their property. Despite all the death and decay that filled the world, the bridge had stood the test of time.

“We waited,” Arden said to Jake. “We ate every scrap piece of food we had. We hunted until all the animals were dead. There was nothing to farm. Nothing to forage. We waited for as long as we could. We waited until we felt the specter at our door. I swear it. I swear we waited as long as….”

In the distance, Arden saw the party come out of the woods and make their way cross the bridge. In their midst were two frail figures. One, small, peered over the railing into the water. Even after everything, her sister had a curious mind. Her mother stood near, making sure she didn’t lean too far.

“What will you tell them?” Arden asked.

Jake rubbed his head. “Well, my wife will make something clever up. About how we found you and your father dead and dying. With the trees dying, every hill has the potential for a landslide. When we found you, you begged us to find them. To save them. And not being evil bastards, we honored your dying wish.” Jake looked at Arden and then quickly looked away. "Poor choice of words. I know you’re not—"

“Thank you,” Arden said.

Jake looked away. “Don’t mention it. “

“I’m sorry.”

Jake looked back at her. “I know kid. I know you’re sorry. “

Jake wrapped the rope around his hands.

“I’m sorry too. “

He pulled on the rope until Arden stopped moving. He buried her on the hillside facing the bridge.