by Shane Woods
Turning away from a now satisfied Gwen, the toddler’s face a thoroughly disgusting mess of food, Jennifer gave her opinion, “We’ll need water. I mean, the river is right there, but is it safe to drink?”
“Once the wall is built, I can build a still for purifying the water,” Rich suggested, and I liked that idea.
“Large scale operation?” I asked him, and he nodded in the positive.
“Oh yeah,” Rich grinned. “We can rebuild swimming pools and tanks on the rooftops to store it and collect rainwater. I can start putting it together whenever you’re ready.”
“We’re going to need vehicles, too,” Jennifer added. “We have a lot of shit to start collecting.”
“Henry’s a mechanic,” I offered. “If he’s down for it, we could start checking the underground parking, maybe set him up a motor pool.”
“That’d suit me just fine my brother,” Henry said, smiling ear to ear.
“We need a way to keep track of everything we see out there,” I said, motioning to the landscape. “That way we can build a map of what’s where, and start planning scavenging routes. Make things real efficient, ya know?”
“I can start setting up the command floor with maps and I can help keep track of things!” Jennifer said assuredly.
“If you’re restoring power,” Rob, adding his input, “I can run a separate power bank and we could run security monitors and cameras. Maybe even a desktop you can load digital camera images taken from scouting runs onto and build a database.”
“You can do that shit?” Dave asked with no small amount of skepticism.
“Uhhh yeah,” Rob smiled. “I’m a computer tech. Well, I was, but it’s not like I would forget simple things like that. I did it for 17 years before it all went bad here.”
“Dude!” Anthony began, “I like it man. Let’s do it!”
“We found a bunch of all of that in the buildings,” Jennifer added. “TV’s, cameras, computers and laptops, the apartment buildings already have security cameras. We could find more and just add to it.”
The talk continued on for a few hours, long into and through the evening. Everyone adding their own input, and Jennifer dutifully adding it all into her notebook. It was agreed that the first three things we would do, after the wall was finished, would be to start up a small power grid, start scouting, and locate some construction equipment to begin Rich’s dry moat.
All of this was great, but it meant something more to me. I had no clue if anybody else noticed it, but the planning and banter had brought everybody together. It made us a community, right there at that roof top dinner table. It also gave us purpose, and a way to forget just a little bit of what was really out there behind our nearly finished wall.
One after another, people began to break off from the impromptu meeting and head down to their quarters for bed. Before much longer, the rest of us followed. After wishing each other a good night, we retired for bed.
“Night bye!” little Gwen chirped as I tucked her in. She reached out for her stuffed animal, a dinosaur of mine I’d somehow kept over the years and passed down to her. Being one of the few things of hers we departed home with, it stayed in her new bedroom so as not to get lost.
“I love you, baby,” I said and kissed her on the forehead as I covered her up and left the room.
Jennifer was already in our room, and under the covers. I stripped down to my boxer shorts and slid under the sheets next to her; she laid her head on my chest, and we were asleep without even a chance to wish each other a good night.
EIGHTEEN
I heard the commotion and started groaning and mumbling for whomever it was to go the fuck away. They weren’t listening. It was Tony. He never listened.
“Dude wake the fuck up!” he yelled as he pounded on the bedroom door.
“What the hell, man!” I yelled back, then another voice joined Tony’s.
“Hey man, it’s Dave, we have people at the gate!” Dave shouted through the closed door.
“Dave?” I replied, my sleep-addled mind still not grasping the latter of his statement. “Dave’s not here!”
“Baby!” Jennifer scolded. “Wake your ass up and go see what’s happening!”
Okay. I can ignore my friends, but, when the wife says move, I have to comply.
I rolled out from under the sheets and began sliding on a pair of pants, and, after a moment of thought, grabbed the Sig Sauer P226 off of my night stand and slid it into my front pocket.
The knocking and voices on my door continued, and I finally opened the door and pushed my way between them.
“What time is it?” I muttered, still not fully awake.
“It’s morning now, fuck face,” Dave replied, then stopped when he saw the lack of amusement in my face.
I left the apartment to find Rich and Carolyn in the hallway.
“You,” I said, pointing to Carolyn, “please go help Jennifer with Gwen, and get some coffee going. Hopefully we won’t be long. Rich, come with us. You got a gun?”
“I got my upgrade I found in the gun room, hope that’s alright,” Rich replied and flashed the .454 Casul Ruger I brought from home.
“Take good care of her, or I’ll take good care of you,” I growled, making a mental note that guns should be checked out through inventory from here on.
Rich fell in with the rest of us, and we made our way down to the front gate. Standing there was a group of what I counted to be eight people, a few with long guns, and a fairly even mix of men, women, and children. A fairly heavyset brunette with a face full of freckles was the first one to speak up.
“Well, are you guys going to let us in?” she demanded, and a man in a cowboy hat standing behind her put his hand on her shoulder.
“I’m sorry, what was your name?” I asked.
“Katie,” she said, folding her arms over her chest, “but I don’t know why that’s important. You’re already treating us like criminals. We aren’t bad, just let us in! It’s not safe out here!”
“Yeah,” I replied sarcastically. “That’s why we built a fence. Drop the attitude. We’re just trying to stay safe, too.”
“Look, mister,” cowboy hat started, “I’m sorry for my wife. She hasn’t been in the best of temperaments lately with all that’s gone on. She’s just upset. I’m Wayne, by the way. Wayne Howard, sir.”
“Well, Wayne,” I started. “We have a protocol here for new arrivals. Problem is, we’re so newly established that we don’t know what they are yet, so bear with me. I’ve got friends and family here, as well as other kids, so we’re going to take this nice and easy.”
Just blank stares, and a few slight nods. Great. I’ve been awake exactly four minutes, and I’m in the spotlight.
“Any felons? Criminals of any type?” I started. “Drug or alcohol dependencies? Medical conditions? Pregnancy? Bites?”
Katie scoffed, and the rest of them shook their heads. Negative.
“Dave, go get a few more men down here, and have Shannon and Bri meet us on the second floor,” I instructed, and Dave turned to leave. I called after him, “Let’s be quick, too, so we can get these people inside of the wire.”
While we waited, I tried making some small talk to get a feel for the group.
“You in the lead of this party, Wayne?” I asked.
“Yes sir, it seems so, at least,” he replied.
“How’d you find us?” I asked in return.
“We saw the wall you built, and your man on the rooftop.” He motioned to Henry. I immediately regretted having someone up there. Henry was clear as day against the morning sky. Patrols would be kept to the ninth floor balconies from now on. And maybe some guard towers would be a good idea.
“Well, I’m going to start out giving y’all the benefit of the doubt for a start,” I opined.
“I appreciate that, sir. Awfully understanding, you are.” The last two words, in his southern drawl coming out as ‘yar’.
“I figure you aren’t here with ill intent.
You’ve seen the wall. Showing up at dawn tells me you’ve at least known about us for a night, minimum,” I observed. “Which, in turn, means you probably saw that our wall isn’t finished. But you still came to the front gate and waited.”
Just as I’d finished speaking, Dave came down with Rob, James, and Chris. I drew Tony and Rich in close to me, whispered a location, and they left the area to check. With the rest of the guard detail fanned out around me, I motioned for Dave to open the gate and let the group inside. He closed the gate behind them, latching it and driving a steel bar through the catch and into the ground.
Wayne opened his mouth to say something, and I motioned for him to wait a moment. I pulled a pack of cigarettes out of Dave’s shirt pocket, lit one for myself, and waited as I took a long drag from it.
Within a minute tops, three shapes emerged from the front entrance of the empty South Building. Rich and Tony took up the rear and pushed forward a lanky man dressed in jeans and a denim jacket. When they reached us, Tony unslung a new rifle from his shoulder, a Ruger bolt action with a long eye relief scope attached to it. I grabbed the guy by the shoulder and helped him on his way to stand with the group of arrivals.
“One of yours?” I asked Wayne. He just smiled.
“Third floor, the room with the sliding door open. Just like you said,” Rich offered.
“That’s Fred,” Wayne said. “He was just watching our backs.”
“Sure,” I replied. “Okay. Disarm, we’ll lead you in to be screened and searched before we lay down the ground rules here. Follow Dave.”
“You’re not putting a hand on me,” Katie said indignantly.
“You ain’t my type, anyway, sweetheart. Shannon or Bri will check the women and children out,” I shot back at her, then added, “I’m essentially letting you into my home for as long as you choose, you should be more civil.”
She scoffed again. This was fast becoming a trademark of hers, and I was already getting tired of it.
Their group disarmed and handed over their weapons and bags. We led them up to the second floor and they waited in the hallway as one person at a time went into an apartment with someone who matched their gender to be checked for more weapons and bites, or anything else that would be harmful to our group.
As the others began checking them out, I disappeared, heading back upstairs to my apartment, and a cup of coffee.
Shuffling through my door, I found Jennifer and the baby awake, already starting breakfast. Carolyn was at the counter apparently putting together something for her to eat as well.
I sat heavily at the kitchen table, a cold brewed cup of coffee already sitting in what I’d nonverbally claimed as my spot. Carolyn was good. I’ve got no idea how she made coffee without heat, but it did the trick.
“Well?” Jennifer asked.
“Eleven new people,” I replied, rubbing my eyes. “Well, ten and a bitch with an attitude. Shannon and Bri have them down on Floor Two checking them out for any bites or medical issues.”
“Are you going to let them stay?” Jennifer asked, apparently trying to force more details from me.
“I don’t really see why not, so long as nobody’s dangerous in any way,” I lamented. “There’s safety in numbers, there’s also more hands to help build this place up real sweet. Plus, there’s kids. Four of them.”
“Where were they staying?” Carolyn asked, joining the interrogation.
“Fuck if I know. They’re dirty, but they seem to have been eating,” I observed.
We continued making small talk until Shannon and Rich showed up to announce that everybody seemed alright. I instructed them to gather all the residents, new and old, and to bring everybody up to the roof.
I picked Gwen out of her seat, wiping off a bit of food from her cheek as she babbled to me, and motioned for Carolyn and Jennifer to follow. We made it to the rooftop ahead of everybody else and grabbed some seats. Since the tables and chairs were still set up from our dinner, there should be seating for just about everybody.
Within moments, people began trickling through the doorway and into the morning sunlight illuminating the open space. Some still looked as if they were asleep, others, like Dave and Tony, were wide awake. After about ten minutes, the final person made their way up, and we began a bit of morning planning and discussion.
“Morning!” I said, trying to sound cheery. It fell on deaf ears and was met with mostly little more than grunts. “Yeah, fuck mornings. I suggest you all learn from Carolyn here. She makes coffee. It’s cold, but it works. Alright. You’ve obviously noticed there’s some new faces that have joined us this morning. Welcome them, but that brings us to the first thing on my mind for this morning.”
Everybody made their own introductions. I missed two of the names, but the other younger couple, aside from Wayne and Katie, had two boys of their own. I’d caught Max and Aiden for the kids, and Zack and Ashley for the couple. Both were about mid-twenties. Zack was tall and lean, with an honest attempt at a beard going on his chin and cheeks and a mop of scraggly brown hair. Ashley was short, pretty overall but with hair dye that hadn’t lasted the end of the world too well without maintenance.
Once everyone had made their introductions, the attention turned back to our impromptu meeting.
“This group was kind enough to come to our front gate,” I explained, “but they had a sniper of sorts inside already. So, Henry…”
“I need some people,” Henry said, catching my intentions. “We’ll have the wall finished up before lunch, I suppose.”
“We need to start looking for supplies,” Tony interrupted.
“Yeah, we need to divide our parties up smartly,” I suggested. “An outside crew, an inside crew, and a scavenging crew. We have about thirty people, but seven are kids, Carolyn to watch them, so, seven-ish per party, give or take?”
“Sounds right,” Rich offered.
“Well,” I started, “let’s start with scavengers. Y’all know these things are fast and dangerous. I need at least eight people who are motherfuckers with a weapon. Tony, Dave, Rich, Chris, James. Who else?”
“I’ll volunteer myself,” Wayne said, stepping forward. “Fred’s a pretty nice shot, too.”
“And Clara,” Frank added and was met with a barely concealed scowl from Clara.
“That’s eight,” I observed. “Nine including me. Head down to the Command Floor, we’ll get a plan going after I’m done up here. Grab your favorite guns and some ammo.”
“You heard him!” Tony said, grinning. “Let’s get ready for some fun!”
“I’ll carry your ammo so you don’t get winded, sugar,” Dave said, patting Tony on the back.
“Why thank you, sweetness!” Tony said back, then, “but you’re too skinny for the extra weight. I’ll be fine.”
As they left, laughing and joking, Wayne looked my way with an expression of pure uncertainty.
“Don’t worry,” I chuckled, “they’re straight, they’ve just known each other for too long.”
Wayne nodded, and followed the rest of the group through the door and down the steps.
Turning to everybody else, I began again.
“Henry needs people for two jobs today.”
“Two?” Henry questioned.
“Two,” I confirmed. “Priority is getting the wall finished. Afterwards, go look at the parking lot and underground parking. You’re our mechanic, you can have the area as your motor pool. Think survival. Scavenging, defense, fighting, and working. We have a basket of keys down in supply, find out what you need and what runs.”
“Oh, brother I’m sure I’ll find a use for all of it!” Henry said, his eyes gleaming with excitement “Or at least a purpose, I suppose.”
“Good shit, man,” I replied, happy that he was happy. “Take notes. Anything you need, make a note. It’s all free now, so long as it can be found. Give your list to Jennifer or Shannon, and we’ll add it to scavenge orders.”
“Will do, my friend!” Henry said, enthusiasm in
his voice.
“He needs five or six people to help him with labor down there,” I instructed, motioning over the edge of the roof. “Half armed, work in two hour shifts and switch.”
A handful of the people gathered around volunteered, so some of them were volun-told to fill out Henry’s requirements.
“Zack, was it?” I asked. “What did you do for a living?”
“Yeah, it’s Zack,” he replied. “I was a cook, then a manager of the restaurant.”
“You’re with Henry. So is Frank, and Bri. Henry that should give you seven, correct?”
“Yes sir, that should do it,” Henry said. “Let’s go then people, we have a wall to finish!”
As Henry’s group began filing off of the roof, some grumbling, I turned to the rest of the group.
“I…I can watch the kids,” Parker suggested.
“No,” I replied. This guy really thinks he’ll avoid any lifting or work and watch the kids?
“Carolyn has been watching them,” Shannon suggested. “She’s really good with them!”
Carolyn smiled and said, “It’s not a problem! I don’t mind.”
“Cool. It’s settled,” I agreed. “The rest of you will help Jennifer. We need a command floor put together, and let’s get the supply floor started if you have time.”
“We can also lay out a plan for the second floor,” Shannon supplied.
“What? Why?” I asked, a bit confused.
“For intaking new people,” she replied. “At least as a good place to take them to check them out and interview them! That Ashley girl said she was a medical assistant, she could be some help.”
“I like it,” I said thoughtfully. “Maybe do a medical and a quarantine or containment floor once we get the south building secured. Good shit! An extra ration of rum for the pocket-sized lady!”
Yeah, I dipped the fuck out before she could do anything damaging to my manhood in exchange for the short joke. I might be tough, but, at the end of the day, having a set of balls is usually what saves me. Though those are figurative, I don’t want to find out what happens to them if some small lady removes the physical set.