The Children of Joven

A little note here. This is basically a continuation of a previous story, Car Trouble. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. I wanted to revisit Car Trouble, and a line from a song that's been stuck in my head all week sort of enabled and inspired this take on the North Woods world that these two stories inhabit.


The Children of Joven


The children sat around the campfire salivating as the smell of the roasting meat wafted through the air, and the tiny bits of fat and grease that dripped into the fire spat and crackled. A tiny child, no more than 3 years old, sat playing with a set of deer antlers that had just been removed that afternoon. A deer skin was strung up between a couple smaller pine trees. The Elder child, Joven, kept watch over the fire and the meat skewered and roasting over it. As he slowly rotated the spit, he gazed wearily across the expanse of water formerly known as Little Mantrap Lake. Now, it was just a nameless body of water, one of thousands in the territory. The Children had moved their encampment into an abandoned former fishing lodge and resort. Fishing camps, summer resorts, and vacation homes in the area were common, and likely to be uninhabited. After the Blast, there was no need for recreation. Everyone left alive was too busy attempting just to survive. Most grabbed hold of civilization and held on to it tightly, afraid it would abandon them. Some relinquished themselves to the chaos, and abandoned civil life and the laws of men zealously; eager to become one with the death and chaos that now freely walked the lands.

The Children didn’t fall into either category neatly. They just were. Their leader, Joven, was born into the civilized world. His parents were killed in a raid by the Soulless on his hometown when he was just five years old; he was adopted by the remaining townsfolk. They took care of him as best they could over the next couple years, but he was largely left to his own. When the Soulless returned to finish the job they started, he was able to escape with two of the younger children in town, and they headed west. Miranda and Cody were pale, ghostly white twins who rarely spoke let alone made any noise at all. At the time of the raid on their hometown, they were just three years old. They had been the ones that gave Joven his new name. He had been Justin when he was born, but the twins had trouble pronouncing his name, and it always came out as Joven. Now, 5 years later, they still followed him, and they had gathered thirteen other children with them. Children that were abandoned, unwanted, or like Joven’s parents, murdered by the Soulless. They survived as best they knew how. Sometimes in a larger town, they could rely on a handout, and the entire group of Children would panhandle or attempt to solicit handouts. Most times, they relied on theft or salvaging what they could from the abandoned or destroyed towns. They’d wandered across the northern half of the territory, with no exact location as their goal. Their only aim was to survive as best they knew how.

As the sun began to set, the four oldest children aside from Joven went to gather their spears and hunting gear. Joven relinquished cooking duty to Cody, and went to a cabin to grab his rifle. As the four eldest stripped down to their underclothes, and donned their animal skins and deer skull headpieces, Joven walked out of cabin #4 with his rifle in one hand, and a rope in the other. At the end of the rope was a man, roughly in his 50’s, bound and gagged, face bloodied. Joven dragged him next to the fire, into the circle of Children. With the sun setting, the shadows of the fire elongated and danced across the faces of the Children. As the man looked around, he saw a body, stripped naked, laying just outside the circle. One of the legs was missing, and the person had been shot in the head. Joven stepped forward towards the man and ungagged him. It was then that the the four eldest started to chant. “Elslay Efra Joven”. Over and over, louder and louder. The rest of the children began to join in. As Joven moved away, he trained his rifle on the man. The four eldest moved in with their spears. The man glanced around, hoping for anything he could use to defend himself. It was then that he saw the spit, and the body’s missing leg, slowly being turned and roasted on a spit by a cherubic looking pale child. Cody grinned at him, and mouthed something, but no sound came out. The man collapsed to his knees, and began to scream.