Chapter 26

A snap could be heard, and Iawn jumped a little in his spot. Turning around, Nate and Iawn spotted Pandora as he trudged up the hill to them.

"You guys see anything?" he asked, getting low to the ground and continuing his crawl towards them, "How does it look?"

"Empty," Spat Nate, "The entire thing is empty."

He turned around, furrowing his brow, "Just like the other places we've hit. It's clearly been inhabited but the whole thing is EMPTY!"

Pandora sighed, looking down at the empty colony. It wasn't the first they had found in the days in which they walked on, endlessly, but it did look like the most inhabited. Crude walls were constructed, as well as fences. Boarded up houses and scrapped up cars. The group feared the stripped-down vehicles meant there were none left, but Nate held onto hope that a few of them were kept and cared for.

"So, time to approach?" asked Pandora.

"I don't know, Beatle," said Nate, "I just don't know…"

"Yeah, yeah, like you keep saying," said Iawn, "Next you'll mumble, 'But let's keep movin' and we'll be on our way."

"You learn quick, Iawn," said Nate, "So let's load up and head in."

Nate stood, jogging down the hill with Pandora and Iawn in tow. They made their way to the road, then towards where Shatner, Kate, and Seth had set up a small bunker, watching over the road into the town. They ducked down as they came closer.

"I'm telling you, we've been watching it for hours and there isn't as much as a puff of smoke or a guard pissing," said Nate, "The place is like the rest. Deserted."

"Fine, then it's time to head in," said Shatner, "Iawn, go get the others."

"Right," said Iawn, running off into the other direction, going to where they had set up a little makeshift camp.

Nate nodded, smiling, "Now's out chance, go!"

Nate took off at a light jog, heading towards the town. Pandora, Shatner, and Seth were right behind them, with Kate watching their rear and staying a few paces back. It didn't take them long to reach the "front gates" into the city, and Nate passed them without a second thought. He immediately raised his rifle and scanned the area.

They had eventually found out how to un-jam Nate's rifle shortly after their reunion. When questioned about the events following Nate's fall, Nate dodged the questions hastily, only saying he was glad he had his pistol. Kevin brought up the fact Nate also had a shotgun tucked away into his bag, and Nate just stayed quiet on the subject afterwards.

Now he kept his shotgun closer-at hand, so that he didn't forget about it. Nate was quick on his feet, sweeping to house to roof to mailbox to window. The others slowed down behind him, sweeping the buildings carefully.

Seth and Kate went off to the right, peeking into house windows and heading off around corners. Pandora and Nate went to the left, kicking open garage doors and checking in barns. Shatner stayed on the middle street, eyeing the place. He frowned… dead, all of them, without any cause or care. Shatner shook his head.

Ever since the decision to find a vehicle, they had been finding settlements like this. Abandoned, or attacked, it was all the same story. Either there were burnt houses, signs of battles, and mass graves, or there were drawings in blood, mass suicides, or clues of abandonment. Letters to loved ones, cryptic messages, or warnings to grave robbers often littered the walls of the buildings left behind.

It wasn't long before they all came back together on the other side, and began heading back through, checking the garages and parking-lot like places. During this time, the others came running in, screaming battle cries and rolling on the ground like action stars.

"You guys a real smooth," said Seth, "If we were in an ambush, you guys would've thrown yourselves right into the fray."

"Yeah, let's kick but!" yelled Charles.

"Like an action movie!" said Andy, smiling.

"Where's Kevin?" asked Shatner, "I thought he was watching…"

Shatner trailed off as Kevin walked in, an upset look on his face.

"There is NO way I'm running that," said Kevin at the look Shatner gave him, "If you think I'd chase after these nutters into an obvious ambush scenario you're stock-mad!"

"Good boy," said Seth, smiling, "Did I ever mention I like him?"

"Look, there's an obvious motor pool over there," said Kate, "Now whoever was here before us was obviously using vehicles, and a lot of them. Now they couldn't've taken them all. Span out and look around, we HAVE to find these vehicles."

The group then spread out, kicking open doors into houses for clues and searching the few garages and back of houses there were for a vehicle. Nate, like a statue of a curious man, was just left in the street, staring off into nothingness. After a few minutes, Shatner noticed Nate's gazed, and approached him about it. Nate was just staring, he seemed vague. Shatner tried to see what he was staring at, but all he saw were the houses, the horizon, the clouds.

"What's the matter with you?" Shatner asked, waving his hand in front of Nate's face, "You ok?"

"That house, right there," said Nate, pointing, "What do you see?"

"It's, just a house," said Shatner.

Nate had pointed to one of the houses in the center of the settlement. There wasn't anything special on it to his eyes. Porch, boarded up windows and door, peeling paint, holes in the roof. Shatner shrugged, turning to Nate.

"You see that flag?" said Nate.

Shatner turned, he did. There was a very small flag on the porch, one that could barely be seen. It's color was faded, and bullet holes were in it. Shatner shrugged.

"It's us," said Nate, "Look, it's an American Flag, Shatner. An American flag."

Shatner's eyes opened in amazement. Nate was right, the flag was American. The yellowed and pink strips could be seen where red and white once blazed and the blue had faded as well, the stars almost non-existent at all. Shatner smiled a little, nodding.

"Well, look at that," he said, nodding, "Didn't expect to see that out here."

"No… no you didn't," said Nate, nodding, "Let's go check it out."

"What? Why?" asked Shatner, "We have more important things then checking out a flag."

"Not the flag, the house," said Nate, "Let's check out the damn house, dude."

"What for, think there's a Chevy in there?" asked Shatner, "We need to be finding a vehicle, not checking out random houses."

"There's a frickin' American flag out here in the middle of… frickin… Europe land and we're just gonna leave it?" said Nate, almost laughing, "Hell no, dude. I'm checking it out."

Nate began walking towards the house, almost as if in a slight daze. Shatner rolled his eyes, sighing.

"Fine, go check it out. But you're wasting time," said Shatner, "Aren't you always trying to keep us moving or some stupid crap… Gosh!"

Nate ignored him as he continued towards the house.

Shatner rolled his eyes, and decided to follow Nate inside. Nate was just starting up onto the small wooden porch, and he examined the flag, before raising his rifle and walking inside.

Inside, Nate was un-impressed. It didn't look any different from some other houses. An old yellowed couch sat in the living room, which was the first room in the house. An old TV was sitting in the corner, pushed aside with time and used as a shelf. There were old pictures on the wall, and tools and a few empty weapon racks were the only things that felt out of place.

Nate's face furrowed, and he approached The end of the room. A body was lying on the staircase at the end of the room. Dried out, and dusty, Nate could plainly see four bullet holes in the bloody shirt of the victim. The victim looked like an older, middle-aged man. Nate didn't say anything, even as he heard Shatner walk up behind him, gasping at the body.

"This is the only body we've found yet," said Shatner.

"He was shot," said Nate.

"Way to pick out the obvious," said Seth from behind them.

Shatner turned around, the others were now making their way in, looking around the house. Shatner questioned each one with his gaze, but it was Kate who frowned, and shook her head, signaling their loss at another settlement.

"Ok," said Shatner, "So, now what? Onto the next one?"

"We can't keep this up," said Fred, "We're wasting time to save time!"

"And what happens if we DO find a settlement with people," said Seth.

"Or one with a working vehicle," Iawn said, as he jumped on the couch.

"Or both," said Kate, "When ve finally find one, and there are people there, will we be able to take 'nein' as an answer? Or will we become no better then those raiders."

"We're not raiders," said Shatner.

"But you know the same as I," argued Kevin, "When we find a working vehicle, we're not going to want to let it go."

"So… we'll work around it," said Shatner, "Let's not lose hope, not now."

"He was murdered," said Nate, breaking the conversation, "Shot in the back, four times. He had a pistol, in his hand, there."

Everyone turned to see what he was talking about, and Nate stood up.

"So… now he lies here… alone," said Nate, sighing.

Suddenly, Pandora gasped, and held his hand to his mouth. Everyone looked at him, and his eyes widened.

"Oh no…" he said, slowly turning to Nate, "I am… so sorry."

Nate was confused, and he looked to Shatner. Shatner walked to Pandora, as if to ask him a question quietly. Before he had time, Pandora pointed into a side room Nate had missed on his way in, and Shatner's own eyes scanned the room, before he sighed himself.

"This… is not good," he said, looking at Nate.

The entire room looked into the secret room, before turning to Nate. Nate finally could not take it, and he walked over to the room.

"What?" Nate said, as he rounded the corner and stared into the room, getting a little angry that everyone was looking at him.

Nate examined the room, before his eyes slowly widened, and his mouth slit open, in awe. Nate, very slowly, allowed his hands to drop to his side, his rifle falling to the ground. Shatner walked forward to pat Nate's shoulder, but Nate shrugged it off, walking into the room.

Cans crunched under Nate's feet, and he continued, awkwardly, into the room. It was an old kitchen, an open refrigerator, yellowed cabinets, an old gas stove oven in one corner. The light hanging up on the ceiling was removed years back. None of this, though, could hold Nate's eye for a second.

Everywhere he looked, there were cans. Big cans, small cans, crushed cans, and new cans. They littered the floor, piled up on the counters and in the fridge. Nate crushed them as he walked into, and around the room. Each one was open, each one old and loosing its color, and each and every one was green. Nate knocked over a tower of them when he snatched one from the bottom, staring at it in a dreamlike state. On the side of the can, the words "Mountain Dew" still shined brightly.

"Ok," whispered Shatner, "Now… now it's bad."

Nate looked around, allowing the can in his hand to drop to the ground. He nodded his head, looking around again. Slowly, he began to get more animated. He began to grab cans, shaking them, confirming they were empty, before throwing them to the ground. Soon, he became more frantic, thrashing about, knocking over entire stacks of cans, stomping on the on the ground and kicking them.

Nate's anger grew as he mumbled and stuttered with strange jumbled up words, and he eventually just thrashed about, having some sort of temper tantrum. Shatner sighed, and just allowed him to have his moment, the others looking on in horror.

Nate's eyes lit with fire as he finally slowed down enough to look around, his anger about to pop, his face turned a deep, deep red.

"Empty," he said, almost spitting it through his teeth, "Empty… Empty! They are all… EMPTY! EMPTY! Mother… F***in' EMPTY!"

Nate pulled out his revolver, shooting into a pile of cans, sending them everywhere. The gunshot made the group in the next room to jump in surprise, and they jumped as he shot another pile, then he began to fire randomly into the mass amount of cans on the floor, stomping around and eventually jumping on the ground, crushing all the cans he could.

"I don't believe it!" he continued to yell, "Empty! Empty! EMPTY!"

He eventually just stood there, pulling the trigger wildly on an empty revolver. Shatner sighed once more, watching as Nate slowly broke in himself, and he calmed back down, a few tears running down his face. He quietly mumbled the word "empty" to himself over and over.

"Feel better?" yelled Andy from the porch, where he had decided to take refuge.

"I… don't… believe it!" Nate spat, walking out of the kitchen, absolutely shocked, "I just can't… believe this… this is TERRIBLE!"

"It's only a drink," scoffed Leo, "No need for a fuss."

His playful laughter was silenced by a murderous glare from Nate, and he sat on the couch once more, next to a few others. Nate paced in the living room, his anger not diminishing with time.

"That sucks," said Pandora, "I'm… sorry?"

"Well, now what," said Seth, "No vehicle, and now one of ours has lost it."

"I didn't lose anything," yelled Nate, "I never had the damn soda to BEGIN with. Not a single… DROP left!"

Nate's anger boiled to a point again, and he lashed out with his foot, his boot making a firm contact with the television screen in the corner. It didn't break, but he had hit it with anough force to knock over a vase of withered flowers. It his the floor, hard, and smashed.

"Damn…. TV," spat Nate.

"Feel better?" asked Shatner, crossing his arms, "Now grow up. It's just some soda. You don't honestly think that-"

"Look in there, Shatner!" yelled Nate, "Look with your EYES! Obviously there's a chance that I might once again sip the Dew of the holy mountain."

"Seriously," mumbled Fred.

"Hey," said Nate, pointing at him, "Don't judge me, dude. I will… punch you in the face!"

"How mature," said Shatner in a sigh.

Iawn raised a remote control he had found on the couch and pointed it at the TV, hitting the power button. Suddenly, the old screen came to life, the tubes firing up and the speakers fizzing to life. This actually made Nate and Kate, the two closest to the TV, jump away from it slightly in surprise. Iawn smiled, as if he had found some lost treasure, and glowed in pride.

"It works," he announced.

After some fuzzing, something began to appear on the screen, and an old video began to play. An old man with graying hair, combed backwards (showing some minor balding) appeared on the screen, wearing a button down shirt and some suspenders. He sat in an old chair, a pair of glasses on his head. He sat straight, looking into the camera. Nate knelt down at Shatner's pushing, they gazed at the screen.

"A video?" asked Shatner quietly, not really asking it to anyone in-particular.

"Hello," said the man on the screen, adjusting his legs so they were crossed in a respectable manner, "If you are viewing this, then I am dead, and my house quiet possibly burnt down or heavily damaged."

"Hey, that's the dead guy," said Kevin, pointing at the body by the stairs.

"Well, he was right about one thing," said Nate, "But his house is fine."

"If that is the case, listen closely," said the man, "My name is Lonnardo De Fetch. Despite my name, I am an American, born and raised. My annesestry does go back to Italian, but it's not important. Most folks just call me 'Lon' anyway. I, at one point, was a very powerful man."

"I never heard of you," said Nate, "Can't be too powerful."

"Shhh!" hushed Kate, "Damn Americans, always talking during movies."

"Anyway, after the bombs fell and the guns stopped firing, most of the world tried to resettle down. I, on the other hand, was stuck, here, in Croatia during one of my business meetings," continued the older man, "And helped build, what I assume to be, one of the last pockets of human civilization in the world. But these… blasted individuals I'm stuck with. They just don't GET it. They're barbarians, they're foolish, they're young, and they're very ungrateful! All I've ever tried to do was build this community up. Make it stronger, make it more modern, make it survive. All these… miserable people want is to fight and steal and play and party. The fools…"

"Ten bucks he was killed by one of these Ukrainians," said Nate.

"We're not in the Ukraine," said Shatner, "How could he-"

"Shhh," hushed Kate, "What the hell."

"Anyway, a young man who I've grown fond of… he's rising up against me. I fear I don't have much time left. I've done a very radical, and upsetting, move to try and save humanity, to save us," Continued the man, "Recently, I've accepted the fact that I will very well die here, and by their hand. So, my last few orders as leader have been radical, but have been followed to the 'T'. I have confiscated all the weapons I could, even the ones from our guards, and have hidden them. I looks whatever we had, and we had a lot. Machine guns, pistols, grenades, rockets, mines, dynamite… I hid them all."

"Whoa," said a few of the group, and everyone leaned forward.

"Yeah?" mumbled Nate, "You got my attention."

"The others… they think I've just horded them in this house of mine for myself," said the man, "They think I'm going insane, and that I am power hungry. No… I'm the most sane man on the planet. Guns and bombs… they've destroyed this world… I won't let it happen again."

"Oh, no," said Seth, "He didn't destroy them did he?"

"As fellow Americans, and I hope that is what you are, I leave them in your care, but on one condition," Said the man, "I want them used as protection, and to better our world, not destroy another. God knows what other… creatures have formed out there since this recording. So… I, Lon De Fetch, leave the secret to its location to true Americans. So… all true Americans are movie buffs, so you should know this: Below my house is an elaborate and very, very high-tech safe I had installed pre-war. Since the explosion, I have filled it with everything I considered valuable. My personal effects, clothes, pieces of history, treasure and money. Most importantly, though, this is where I have stashed the weapons of my colony."

"Great," said Nate, jumping up, "Let's find the basement, that wasn't too hard."

"Do not move, Eager McBeaver," said the man on the television, Nate blushing as if he was being chastised, "I am no fool. I have build a series of mechanisms to code and safeguard the vault. So, I hope you know your movies, Americans. Here's my clue to you: This is the Last Crusade, my friends, and if you want to rebuild this world, all weapons much be cleansed from it."

"What?" said Kevin, "That's not a clue!"

"Now what…" mumbled Leo.

"And, screw you, you Croatian Sons of bitches!" yelled the old man, shaking his fist, "All I wanted to do was help you, and you never liked anything I did. If you will finally listen to me, you'll survive without guns. If not: Adios, muchachos! Haha!"

The screen began to wave, and fuzzed out on an old man, waving and smiling in to the camera. The TV shut off, and the group was left, staring at a dark screen.

"Well now," said Iawn, "He was quiet crazy."

"We need those guns," burst Fred, his eyes wide.

"Whoa, look who's finally looking for violence," said Nate.

"I'm done running through towns with a stick or a knife," Fred continued, "I was a gun."

"Me too," said Charles, "My crossbow won't do crap!"

"We could all use better weaponry," said Nate, "But let's… think about this… there's truth in his words."

"Let's all calm down," said Shatner, "What's to say the other colonists didn't already just open the vault and retake their weapons?"

"They aren't here," said Pandora.

"But the old man was shot," said Seth, "So, they might be gone."

"Oh… my… Gosh," said Nate, suddenly wide-eyed and holding out his hands.

"What?" asked Shatner.

Nate ran his fingers along the brim of his fedora, and he smiled a cocky smile at the group, standing a little straighter.

"This, is the Last Crusade," repeated Nate, "It's 'The Last Crusade'. Indiana Jones Three! I know it!"

"Oh… Indiana Jones," said Kevin, "I get it, and you have the hat…"

"Ok, so what do you think?" said Shatner.

"I can get in," said Nate, "Now let's go find that vault! We got some guns to get!"