by Holly Ardent
Vivian's Fury
The Retreat #2
(Post-Apocalyptic MILF)
Holly Ardent
Text copyright © 2018, Holly Ardent
All Rights Reserved
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Ted was awake when his phone buzzed with an incoming text. He couldn't get to it right then though, he was juggling the water and feed for his dozen pullets, chickens who were just about at the age to start laying eggs.
He let himself outside and went to their coop. When he opened it, the chickens came spilling out. They'd obviously been awake already and just waiting for him to open their door. He filled their feeder and put the fresh water inside where they knew to look for it. Then he leaned in and looked in their nesting boxes.
Aha! he thought. Six eggs today already. These gals are definitely worth the effort it takes to raise them. Not that there's that much of it really. As long as I let them out every day and refresh their food and water, they're good. It's not their fault that I spend more time with them than that. They're just fun to play with and cuddle.
He stepped into their run and caught one of the young hens. She made it easy for him. Ever since they'd reached laying age they'd squat down when he reached for them just like this one had. He picked her up, feeling the silky softness of her feathers and the warmth of her body as he held her close. He grabbed a handful of scratch, which was like candy for chickens, and offered it to her.
With her claws braced against him, the hen pecked up the scratch from his hand furiously Once he knew she'd had a good bit of it, he set her back down in the run. He scattered the remaining scratch, plus another handful of it, where they could get to it easily, then left the run.
With the eggs in hand he went back inside and made himself breakfast. He'd been having eggs every morning since the chickens started laying. The taste difference between his fresh eggs and the ones he used to get from the store was insane and he still hadn't tired of them.
Once he'd eaten and put the dishes into the dishwasher, he picked up his phone. When he saw that the text was from Bill he opened it quickly, cursing as he read through it.
Aw, shit! You must be kidding me Bill, a pandemic? Really?
Ted sat down at his computer and opened the browser. He had a few sources of information that the other guys in his group weren't aware of. Forums he'd been on for a while so the people on them trusted him enough to include him in some private threads.
Son of a bitch! How did I not see these messages the past couple of days? I guess I was too busy with the chickens to spend much time online. Ironic that I get chickens to ensure a food source if things go south, then when they do go south I'm not paying attention to see it because of the chickens.
He quickly texted Bill back, saying it would probably be a day or two before he could get to the retreat.
I've got to build something to transport the chickens in or they're liable to break their fool necks when I try to take them in the car. Plus I'm not going to blow off work today, I'll want to warn Albert and maybe suggest he stock up on the masks people like to buy when there's a nasty flu going around.
Bill's text had mentioned a pandemic and the private threads he'd scanned were from foreign countries which had confirmed Bill's message. He hadn't heard about it in the US yet, but he was sure it was coming. One of the private threads had mentioned a person who just died from this flu having recently traveled through a couple of international airports on his way home.
Which means it's going to be worldwide if their estimates on the transmission rate are even close to correct, he thought. I think I'd better get to work early and pick up some masks and gloves myself, just to be on the safe side.
* * *
“Hey Bossman!” Ted said, walking into the hardware store office.
“What do you want this time Ted?” Albert asked. “You always call me Al, except when you want something.”
“I'm wounded. That isn't the case at all. I call you Bossman when I've got a tip for you too.”
He'd already clued Al in on a few profitable ventures over the past couple of years. When backyard chickens were catching on in the area, he'd mentioned that Al might want to start carrying chicken feed and the like. Al had stared daggers at him for a couple of months after he went ahead and ordered several tons which just sat there, but then it had started selling steadily and still did to this day.
“So, what is it this time? Llama feed?” Albert asked jokingly.
“No boss, this is serious. I think there's a big flu coming through, a really nasty one, so you might want to stock up on N95 masks and the sterile gloves. You know, the medical grade masks people like to wear during flu season?”
Albert raised a single eyebrow.
“I haven't heard anything about it on the news.”
Albert was a news junkie, Ted knew it and knew that Albert preferred watching the big name channels as opposed to looking for things himself.
“That's because it hasn't hit here yet. Right now it's mostly in foreign countries, but there were reports about a couple of people dying from it after they'd recently been through international airports. It's suppose to be easy to transmit, airborne style, so you can be pretty sure it'll make it here.”
Albert paused for a moment, lost in thought. He knew that Ted was normally pretty up on the news also, but that Ted's sources were different from his own.
“Sure, that works. Even if you're wrong, and I'm not saying you are, that just means they sit in the stockroom until the regular flu season gets here. How many do you think I should order?”
“Boss, how many can you get your hands on in the next two or three days? I think...”
The discussion lasted several more minutes before Ted clocked in and got to work. The first thing he did was buy out the remaining N95 masks in the store along with a box of nitrile gloves. He'd already let Albert know that he intended to wear them on shift. The only problem with that had been Albert insisting that they leave one package of each in back for all the employees to wear when on shift.
When his work day ended, he spent some time picking out the materials he'd need to make transport cages for his chickens then headed home. It was dark when he got there, so the cages had to wait.
In the morning, he texted Bill again and was told that Andy had made it to the retreat, along with Scott's mom. Scott had requested that she take her place since he was stuck out of town and didn't know if he'd make it back. Bill had agreed and she'd made it there. From the tone of his text, it sounded like Bill wasn't very happy with her though.
Ted shrugged.
Not my business, he thought, at least not until I get there. Which means I need to get these cages made.
He settled in to making the cages and fitting them to the bed of his truck. He had his short shift later on today, his normal schedule being three twelve hour shifts and one four hour shift per week. He had three days off after his short day though and by then they'd know how hard the country was going to get hit by the flu. He'd kind of hinted that if it was bad he wasn't going to be in next week, but Albert had outright said that if it was as bad as Ted suggested, he'd be closing the store until it passed.
The day passed pretty quickly up until he had to go to work. While working, he was hypersensitive to anyone in the store coughing or sneezing, and there were quite a few people who were doing so. Albert had managed to tack on a whole bunch of the N95 masks to the order that was coming in this afternoon and as soon as Ted stocked them, they started disappearing off the shelves.
“You know Ted, you were right. I'll admit it,” Albert said. “Last night some of the channels were reporting on this flu, but others didn't mention
it at all. That tells me that they're trying to keep a lid on it, but some of the media wouldn't fully co-operate.”
“Just keep your head down and play it safe,” Ted said. “Better safe than sorry.”
Albert had been speaking to him through his own mask and was wearing a pair of gloves as well. So Ted wasn't going to worry about him, now he was just worried about finishing out his shift and trying to get to the retreat.
Once he was done with work, he braced Albert again.
“Hey Boss? Can I get a favor from you?”
Albert sighed.
“What this time?”
“I just wondered if you could dock my pay for a shit ton of chicken feed and some scratch.”
Albert looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
“Just trying to get some of it stockpiled. Just in case, you know?”
Albert nodded.
“So, you really do think this is going to be that bad?”
“Don't you? At least now, after what the news showed you, or didn't show you?”
“How much do you need?”
“Let me get a half ton of the feed, so twenty bags, and maybe five bags of the scratch?”
“Come on, pull your truck to the loading dock and I'll help you load it up,” Albert said.
After loading the truck Ted caught himself driving towards his favorite fast food joint.
Oh no, don't want to do that. It doesn't do any good to wear the mask and gloves if I eat something prepared by someone who wasn't.
He turned his truck around and headed for home. Partway there, his attention was drawn by a commotion on the sidewalk in front of the hospital. A taller woman, an RN by the look of her uniform, was being harassed by a guy who looked like middle management. What had caught his attention was that she was masked and gloved, but the guy yelling at her wasn't.
Hey wait, isn't that Amy's mom? he thought.
Amy was a girl he'd had a few dates with back before he graduated high school. He'd been at her house a couple of times and he was pretty sure she'd said that her mother was a nurse.
What was her last name again?
He pulled over to the curb and got out of his truck.
“Excuse me, Mrs. Gillan? Is this man harassing you?” he asked.
The middle management type looked up and caught sight of Ted. His eyes took in the mask and gloves, then went back to the woman's mask and gloves. His look hardened.
“I don't care. You cannot do your rounds while wearing those, you'll create a panic. If you won't do them without the mask and gloves then you're fired.”
She raised her voice, practically shouting and now sure to be heard by anyone anywhere nearby.
“Then I guess I'm fired, because I refuse to risk the safety and health of my patients by potentially spreading a fatal flu to them. Never mind the risk to myself.”
“I already told you, there is no such flu currently.”
“Fool yourself all you want, I know better. If you really believe what you're saying, then maybe you ought to look a bit harder. No great loss if you catch it and die, but I'd feel responsible if I didn't warn you in advance. Now I have though so I'm washing my hands of you.”
She turned and caught sight of Ted who was staring at the other man.
“Wow, I didn't know a face could turn that shade of purple,” Ted said.
The man looked apoplectic, his face as purple as a grape. It looked like he was angry enough to start foaming at the mouth too.
“I know you, don't I?” Mrs. Gillan asked. “You're the one Amy thought was too weird to keep dating, at least that's what she said. Tim was it?”
“Ted, Theodore to be precise, but Amy introduced me to you as Ted.”
“That's right, you're the nice young man she brought home a few times before deciding that you were loopy because of your hobbies, aren't you?”
Ted winced. Another look at the man who'd been harassing her and he thought perhaps a departure would be in order.
“Yes, I am. But I think we ought to get out of here. I don't know what's up with him, but it looks like he wants to take a swing at you. I'd prefer not to come into contact with him in order to stop him, so can I walk you to your car?”
She shook her head.
“I carpool to work. My neighbor works here also.”
“Then in that case, let me give you a ride home. But I still think we should leave quickly.”
He gestured towards the man, who was still on the sidewalk and now starting to take a step towards them. She glanced back and then to Ted again.
“Is this your truck?” she asked, pointing to his still idling vehicle.
He nodded and opened the door for her. She slipped into the truck and Ted sped his way around to the other side, hopping into the driver's seat.
He pulled out into traffic, leaving the furious man back on the curb.
“So why was he so angry?” Ted asked.
“Because I was furious when I yelled, so I made sure I was loud enough that they'd hear me even inside the front of the hospital where there were numerous patients exhibiting symptoms of the flu. I wanted to make sure everyone was aware that the hospital was risking their lives because they won't believe the severity of it.”
“They wouldn't even let you wear a mask and gloves while doing your rounds? Are they stupid?”
“No, or maybe, but the top administration of the hospital was wearing respirators and gloves. It's just the middle management flunkies that weren't. I believe they were afraid it might hurt the bottom line of the hospital if it were to be made known that sick people were there.”
He glanced over at her and saw her straight face.
Does she even realize what she just said? he wondered.
A moment later, she couldn't take it any longer and started laughing.
“Idiots, that's what they are. It's a horrible thing to say, but I find myself not regretting the fact that he wouldn't listen to me. So he won't take precautions and, since he works in a hospital where all the people who get sick with it will go, he's sure to catch it.”
“I'm not about to argue with you Mrs. Gillan.”
“Please, call me Vivian. Whenever I hear Mrs. Gillan I look around for my late husband's mother.”
“Alright Vivian. Do you still live where you used to a few years back?”
“Yes, but there's no rush. There's no-one there, not even a pet any more. I couldn't keep a pet, not with the hours the hospital required of me.”
“Ah, well, I kind of need to get something finished up tonight before it gets dark.”
“Oh, I'm sorry. I don't mean to impose.”
“That's fine, I just need to finish building a crate for my chickens before dark. I need to transport them tomorrow morning.”
“You have chickens?”
He nodded, realized that she might not be able to see him and answered out loud instead.
“Yes, a dozen hens. They've just gotten to the age where they've started laying too.”
“Would you like some help building your crate? I can hold things steady for you, or hand you tools if you need.”
He took his eyes off the road for a moment to look at her.
“Why would you want to do that?” he asked.
She smiled and raised a finger.
“Several reasons. The first is that I really don't have anyone to go home to and I'd like to see to your chickens. Until recently I always had a pet, but once I was the only one home and working long shifts, I couldn't bring myself to keep one any more since they'd be neglected.”
She raised a second finger to join the first.
“The second is that I have absolutely nothing else to do right now. I was scheduled for a twelve hour shift at the hospital and was less than an hour into it.”
A third finger joined the first two.
“And finally, I remember what hobbies it was that Amy complained about. She complained that you were spending more time building 'disaster insurance', as she put it, than yo
u were with her. I'm guessing that you haven't abandoned that hobby in the intervening years? Since I see you wearing an N95 mask and gloves.”
Ted's mind was reeling. She'd sounded utterly sincere, and lonely. He wasn't sure if she could be of help, but he also couldn't resist showing off his chickens. He'd told several people about them, but no-one had come to see them except his friend Andy.
Although her last reason there might actually be the most important one, but it didn't really sound any more important to her than the other two.
He shrugged mentally.
“Sure, we'll head back to my place. It's not much, but it's home.”
* * *
Ted pulled into the dirt driveway that led to his home, a single-wide trailer. It wasn't much, but he had it on the two acres of land he'd purchased for a home. He'd always thought that maybe he could save enough to build a proper house there, but after only a couple of years he hadn't saved nearly enough money to do so.
He put the truck in park and shut it down. Vivian slid out of her side and made a beeline for the chickens. Ted wondered how he knew they were there until he left the truck himself. Then he could hear the chickens clucking excitedly as well.
Oh yeah, they like to greet me when I get home. It slipped my mind since I'm so used to it, but she's just following the noise.
Around back of the house he found Vivian sticking a finger through the chicken wire he'd made their run out of. One of the hens was tentatively pecking at it, looking to see if there were a treat there. Vivian giggled.
She giggled? That's a sound I'd expect to come from her daughter maybe, but not her. Although, it kind of suits her. She sounded so serious before, it's nice to hear her lighten up some.
“Here,” he said, walking over to the gate he'd made in the chicken run.
He grabbed a handful of scratch and opened the gate, holding the scratch out. When the first hen left the run, he closed the gate, quickly, behind it. Most of the scratch went into the run for the other birds, but then he moved his hand down and let the one who was out peck at it. He scooped the hen up with his other hand before straightening and turning to Vivian.