A Lawless Land

Guarded And Sheltered

In the midst of the ungoverned chaos, there was a small town with a wall built around it. One man had taken great care to protect his friends and neighbors from the terrible reality beyond their town.

His name was Leo Sheffield, a former deputy officer of the local Sheriff Department. He had a small group of men patrolling the wall, and had trained them himself. They accepted and revered him as their leader, but he had created a council to evenly and equally divide up responsibilities so the town would know who could help them with what.

As he was making his daily rounds, one of his men came running up to him, "Leo! We saw a big cloud of smoke about eight miles north of here. Should we send some people to scout it out?"

"What kind of smoke?" Leo asked cautiously.

"Very thick smoke, people are saying they heard something that sounded like an explosion."

Leo went up to the watchtower and looked in the direction of the smoke. It was thick. He wondered how something like that occurred. He saw a figure in the distance, he picked up some binoculars and looked through them. He zoomed in on a woman, then noticed a short distance behind her, a dog was following her.

Queen saw the wall and rolled her eyes. If someone really wanted to get in, they would. She kept walking past it, but something made her stop. She glanced up at the tower and saw him standing there, watching her.

She looked straight at him, "don't worry, I don't want what you have. That is why you're watching me, isn't it?"

He said nothing. She turned slightly and the sunlight reflected off of something on her chest. He looked through his binoculars again and was surprised to see dog tags hanging from her neck.

Queen got tired of waiting and started walking again. She didn't seem to notice the dog following her. Leo climbed down and turned to one of the watchmen.

"I'm going to step out for a minute, get someone back up in that tower. I'll be right back," he went through the gates and went after her, "excuse me ma'am, do you know what caused that smoke back there? Are there casualties?"

Queen glanced over her shoulder, "yes. What is it to you though?"

"Because I want to know if there are people who need help or not" Leo answered seriously.

She suddenly turned to face him, "you'd go out of your way to help complete strangers? Even if they're horrible people?"

"Yeah, wouldn't you?"

She knew she had, but she couldn't tell him that, "not everyone can be saved, choices have to be made. In the grander scheme of things, sometimes you just have to let go."

"You were a soldier once, weren't you?" He asked her as she tried leaving again.

"What gave you that idea?"

"I saw the dog tags. Are they yours? Or did you take them from someone?" He asked warily.

She grabbed them protectively, still keeping her back turned, "it doesn't matter... Even if it did, I don't know you, and it's none of your business."

The dog growled at him from the side. It made Queen look over at him, "you again? Why are you still following me? Go on, get out of here!"

The dog disappeared into the woods along the side of the road, then she walked off. Leo stroked his chin, bewildered at what he had just witnessed. Why was a random dog following such a cold woman?

He returned behind the walls of his town again, deep in thought as he finished his rounds. His thinking was interrupted by one of the town's women. Her name was Pauline, her brother was one of the watchmen. Apparently she was coming back from bringing him lunch.

"Leo, I have extra food here, are you hungry?" She asked cheerfully.

He smiled politely, "no thank you, I'm going to walk to the lake and check things out. If anyone asks, that's where I'll be."

He walked around the lake, there was something about that woman, he couldn't put his finger on it though. Pauline watched him from a hidden spot. She watched him crouch down next to the lake and splash some water in his face.

She had been trying a long time to get him to look at her. He never took notice though. A few days later, he was at the lake again. She was in her same spot, watching him. He suddenly stood up as one of the watchmen came running toward him.

"Leo! There are people at the gates, they want to talk to the one in charge!" He shouted to Leo.

Leo ran to his house and strapped on his gun beneath his vest. He wasn't sure what kind of people were there, so he figured he couldn't be too careful. He, and a few other council members stood on top of the wall and looked down at the visitors.

"State your business," Leo said firmly.

The man in front stared up at him and smirked, "we were just wondering if you've seen a woman pass through here, and perhaps she had a dog with her?"

Leo examined his face carefully, "I don't recall, maybe if I knew the reason for your inquiry, I might remember something."

"So that's how it is? Alright boys, you know what to do," he sneered.

One of them pulled out some lighter fluid and started spraying it on the walls. Leo pulled his gun out and pointed it at him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you" he snarled.

The one in front started laughing, "that little gun isn't going to help you."

They opened their shirts and revealed body armor, then pulled out their own guns. Leo could feel the panic rising in his chest.

"Last warning, which way did she go?"

"Whoa, hold up. What makes you think we even saw a woman like that?" Leo asked as he pointed his gun up.

"Because if you didn't, we wouldn't be playing this game right now" the man stated as he watched Leo's reaction.

These were dangerous men, that much he could tell. He couldn't let them bring harm to his community.

He took a deep breath and pointed his arm to the woods, "a woman walked that way a few days ago, there was a dog following her."

"Did she have a scar on her forehead?" The man went on to ask.

"I don't know, I didn't notice anything like that. Will you leave us alone now?" Leo said hopefully.

The man's mouth curved up into a wicked smile, "I might've considered it if you had just told me about the woman to begin with." He turned to the man with the lighter fluid once more, "burn it to the ground."

"Wait, I gave you the information you wanted. You're obligated to leave us alone!" Leo shouted frantically.

"This obligation you speak of may have been a thing before, but this is the new world. We don't abide by the same rules as before. In other words, I have no use for you or your community anymore, and we do as we please" the man answered coldly.

They finished spraying the lighter fluid, then another guy pulled out a matchbook. He lit it and paused for a moment to get his thrill at the idea of burning a town to the ground.

Leo waved for everyone to get as far away as they could. He pointed his gun at the man with the match and shot him. They called to Leo to run, but he wouldn't listen. He was firing shots at all of them, but had to duck down when they started firing at him. He kept reaching his gun-wielding arm over to take more shots at them.

They were running to his aid, but he put his hand up, "no, take cover! Don't jump in!"

He was too distracted, one of their bullets got him in the arm. He screamed out in pain and tightly grasped his wound. The wall was burning, and he couldn't move, no one could get to him. Suddenly, more shots were fired, but they weren't from the men at the gates. They came from the woods.

The townspeople saw a woman run out from the trees with an automatic. She shot them down, all dead. Quickly, she grappled the wall and appeared at Leo's side.

She put his arm around her and found a safe place to climb down, "what are you waiting for?! Put that fire out!"

She set Leo down on the ground and pressed a torn piece of fabric against his arm to stop the bleeding. She cursed herself, she didn't know why she was constantly compelled to help people.

After hours of throwing buckets of water on the fire, they finally put it out. They approached her.

"Who are you?" They asked her.

She hesitated, she didn't want to tell them her real name, "I've been given the name Queen. Though I'm not really sure why."

Pauline's brother, Brent, couldn't believe she was there. He had heard stories from people passing through, but he never thought he'd actually come face to face with someone like her.

"How's Leo doing? Is he going to be okay?" Pauline asked hysterically.

Queen examined his arm carefully, "it looks like the bullet went straight through, so I won't have to dig anything out, but he needs serious medical help. Do you have a doctor here?"

"No, unfortunately. When we're hurt or sick, we just suck it up and do what we have to do" Brent answered.

"Then I'm going to need a few things" she spouted off a list to them and watched them scatter to fetch them.

Once she had everything, she sealed the wound, bandaged it up and improvised a sling out of an old cloth. They all watched in awe.

Leo had been unconscious throughout the ordeal. When he finally came to, he found her sitting next to him, wringing water out of a wet cloth.

"You. What are you doing here?" He looked around, he was in his house, lying on the sofa.

He tried to sit up, but she put a hand on his chest and pushed him down, "don't get up or you'll regret it."

"Are you threatening me?" He sat up anyway and pain shot through his body. He fell back and groaned.

"Told you so" she snipped, then put the cool, damp cloth on his forehead.

He looked down at himself and found himself shirtless, covered in bandages, "I remember my arm getting shot, but what are these other bandages?"

"You had some burns, but you'll live."

He looked over and saw she had some burns too, "you saved my life, didn't you? But why? I thought you would've been long gone by now, why'd you come back?"

She stood up and started cleaning things up, "I had a bad feeling. Seriously though, don't read too much into this. The only reason I did anything was because those guys put you in the middle. They were after me and they should've kept it that way."

"Why were they after you?" He felt entitled to know why.

Queen sighed irritably, "I unintentionally stuck my nose into their business. That's really all there is to it."

"That's really all you're going to tell me? After they almost killed me?" Leo tried to guilt her into telling him.

Queen glared at him, "it's not my fault you're an i***t. You did a careless thing by thinking you were protecting me. You put yourself and your people at risk, that's pretty stupid from my point of view. You didn't even know why they were after me in the first place, for all you know, I could be the bad guy."

"If that were true, why bother helping me then?"

"Because you have people who depend on you. You committed yourself to take care of them. They've been telling me a lot about you, Officer Sheffield. But a word of advice; if you continue to keep them guarded and sheltered like this, they will be weak and unprepared when they are forced to face what's beyond those walls. You're not doing them any real favors by keeping them here" she lectured.

Leo grimaced as he sat up to look her in the eye, "they shouldn't have to face what's out there. If I can protect them, I'll spend the rest of my life doing so."

"Look, I'm sure your intentions are noble and honorable, but that doesn't change the facts. Look at what happened today, your front wall was severely damaged, and you could've died. What good are you to them now? There's no use for foolishness in this world, grow up and stop being so naive" saying what she needed to say, she left.

Leo tried to get up, but it hurt too much, he had to lie down again. Deep down, he knew she was right. She must've gone through a lot to come to that realization. What peeved him most was that it made him even more curious about who she was. What had she seen? What had she done? Those were the types of questions he wanted to ask her.