It's a new story. It's full of angst and sad stuff. Game on, Steph.
Un-beta'ed, so quibble away.
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Loyal to No One
Charlie and Danny are getting water when it happens. Charlie grabs her little brother's hand and rushes back to the campsite, half-full bottles of water bouncing against her back and ribs. Danny is clutching his bottle tightly, eyes wide in fright. Even though he's only a baby—he insists he's a grown-up since he's almost seven now—he knows what the loud, repeated bangs mean. He and his older sister, and their daddy, know that it means someone's been badly hurt.
The nine-year-old girl skids to a halt at the campsite. There are large men surrounding her daddy. Daddy's lying on the ground, one hand outstretched. She claps her hands over her mouth to keep from screaming as she watches one of the scary men kick her daddy in the face. Daddy's nose crumples and there's blood, blood everywhere. Danny doesn't know what's going on and begins crying, loudly.
He's a baby. He's six, almost seven. Charlie grabs him by the scruff of his neck and turns in the opposite direction, away from camp. They can go back later to get whatever the bad men have left behind. Right now, she and Danny have to run, as far and as fast as they can. Danny's still crying, sobbing loudly because he's so scared.
Charlie grabs her little brother around the chest and tosses him bodily over a fallen tree. She jumps over the log and presses herself against him, one hand over his mouth. The girl can hear the bad men thumping around like elephants—the ones in her picture book that daddy let her bring with her when they had to leave Chicago. She doesn't know how long she and Danny hide under the log, but it's a long time. When she finally deems it safe to get up, it's dark outside and cold, and they're both wet and shivering. Charlie has bugs in her hair, which is gross.
Danny is wiping snot away from his nose and staring up at her with wide blue eyes. Charlie feels guilt for the first time in her young life.
"I…want…daddy," Danny hiccups, sounding a lot younger than his six—almost seven—years. "Can…can we go find daddy, Charlie?"
Charlie bites her lip, twisting her hands around the neck of her big green water bottle. "Um…yeah. Let's go find daddy, Danny." She doesn't want to take her little brother back to the campsite. They both know daddy's dead. If the loud noise happens, then someone isn't going to get back up. Charlie thinks that's what happened to mommy, just like the man mommy killed five years ago.
The two children make their way back to their camp, stumbling over branches and rocks in the rapidly darkening forest. They take a long time to get back to the camp. They didn't have to bother. There's not much left. A half a bottle of iodine pills, a package of crackers, a tin of soup, and daddy's crossbow are all that's left. The bolts for the crossbow are scattered around on the ground, but Charlie doesn't want to pick them up now. She's tired and hungry and thirsty, and so is Danny. The water needs to be cleaned before she and her brother can drink it.
Charlie crawls around the ravaged camp on her hands and knees, looking for the big pot daddy used to clean the water in. She finds a small book of matches, miraculously unbroken, and another package of crackers. The pot is next to daddy. There's a hole near the bottom, but Charlie knows how to deal with that too. She almost throws up when she sees that daddy's eyes are still open, staring at nothing. The little girl controls herself, although she can't stop the tears pouring down her cheeks from her eyes, and closes her daddy's eyes so he only looks like he's sleeping.
And, because it seems right, she takes daddy's special necklace too. It looks like a big, fat, silver raindrop or, Charlie decides as she redoes the clasp around her neck, a tear. Danny is curled up next to the fire pit, clutching his stomach and wheezing. He breathes his way through an asthma attack, sobbing when it goes away because his chest and tummy hurt and he wants daddy.
Charlie doesn't let herself cry. She purifies the water, because they need to have something to drink. She can't open the can of soup, so she puts that in her pocket for later—maybe she can trade it for something.
Dinner is two packages of yucky stale crackers and water. She and Danny go to bed with their tummies growling. Danny eats less than she does because his asthma acted up. Charlie rolls the tops of the cracker packages down and puts them in her pockets too. Who knows when she and Danny will have something to eat again? Charlie wishes daddy was still alive.
She digs a big hole with her hands and the water pot the next day. Danny helps her. They bury daddy with his coat over his face, and his name tucked into one of the cracker packages. The package is tucked into his coat pocket, so if anyone finds him, they'll know who he is.
Charlie grabs her brother's hand and drags him away. She doesn't cry. She just slings the crossbow over her shoulder, and holds the case with the bolts in her arms. Danny trudges along beside her, clutching their precious bottles of water and the even more precious bottle of iodine pills.
Mommy died a year ago. Daddy died yesterday. Charlie and Danny don't have anyone but each other now.
At least they have that much.
Orphans aren't wanted anywhere, as they learn through trial and error and lots of kicks and slaps. Charlie leads her brother from town to town. She learns to skin and cook small animals. Danny learns to steal apples and pick pockets. It's not what their mommy and daddy taught them to do, but they're hungry. Charlie learns how to cook after the first few nearly inedible meals of charred squirrel and half-rotted apples.
It takes a while, but Danny gets better at figuring out which plants will help them. They bury the lady who was so nice to them a few days after Danny's eighth birthday. Maggie knew how to make Danny's asthma stop. She looked after them as best as she could, but even she wasn't big or strong enough to make the scary men stay away.
Charlie and Danny lose everything again. Charlie learns how to make poisons, and she tips her crossbow bolts with them. Danny learns how to heal, and keeps Maggie's bagful of medicines with him. It isn't much, and mommy and daddy wouldn't be happy with how Charlie and Danny are looking after themselves, but they're surviving.
They have each other. And that's enough for them.
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So, what did you think? Good? Bad? Do Charlie and Danny need serious hugs or what? Drop a line and let me know.