They diligently practice pell work. Lisa is still weak, but wants to learn. Her swings are weak but that's okay for now. The pell work, swinging the sword, is about developing motion and memory muscle. She and Lena continue that for hours. It is amazing that when all technology is gone, all the distractions – kids can focus. Charlotte splits her time between weapon practice and keeping a look out on the roof.
Rondo sits around. Dad wonders when the dog will just run off crazy and get killed. Oddly, the dog never does. Rondo wags his tail at Dad, who begrudgingly sits on a bench by the dog and brushes its fur for the umpteenth time. Lena is a good teacher, working with Lisa on the pell. They know to whisper when talking.
Dad shows them the naginata, the ninja halberd and the spears he fashioned. He has the girls practice with them, jabbing into the pell, twisting, and backing out. The only way they can fight is if there is a gate or fence holding the zombies back. He talks a lot about these tactics, about how they must be brave and keep up the fight. Charlotte listens from the roof. She watches the driveway but then returns to listen. They are in a war for their lives and they must fight to survive. This is his squad.
In a war, Dad realizes he needs an army. He must find others to join them and stop being a rogue knight racing around the city. His thoughts of building an army of fighting people race through his mind. He sits silent on the roof in the evenings, watching the city. There are dotted fires here and there, on rooftops of apartments and the distant skyscrapers. Some seem to be using Morse code to communicate. He does not know that code to intercept what they are saying. Or maybe it's just folks trying to communicate.
On occasion, he will hear gunfire, a series of rapid shots. Probably too rapid, as someone expends all of the bullets in their magazine. It never sounds as if they get to reload. The gunfire never seems to last very long. Dad shivers thinking the time is counting down, the amount of survivors is waning and the zombies are increasing. He feels compelled to make a difference. It keeps him up at night.
Lisa's strength is returning. They are giggling too much, talking in whispers then laughing. He must remind them to be quiet. He is up front with Charlotte on the roof in the dark of night. It is amazing. Such wonderful stars can now be seen. She can't get over how wonderful they are. He tells her, in the Bible, it says God stretches out the heavens. It doesn't ever say he placed them, but stretched them out. He tries to explain to her the 'red shift' readings and the idea that they are billions of light years away and still ever expanding. We see their light from billions of years ago but if God stretched out the heavens in a day, then the concept of billions and an ever expanding universe and the relativity of time make sense from a Biblical perspective.
She doesn't get it. He doesn't explain it well. It's okay. He sees zombies meandering down their street. They are just rambling slowly along. Charlotte pulls out her 22, aims. She shoots the first one. The second circles but doesn't seem to focus on where the sound came from. Charlotte finishes it off. Dad nods.
For his next adventure out, he considers taking the girls to the school. It’s close. They have fences and blockades to take advantage of. Will Lisa be ready or should he just take Lena? Charlotte can watch from the roof and be their sniper. She has a good view of the playground and parking lot. She can hit any zombies coming in if there is a problem.
Days pass. Mom has fitted Lisa with the samurai armor. Lena is a bit jealous. The samurai armor looks good on her. “Maybe for the next suit mom, can you make it fit me? You know, if Dad can find some new stuff.”
“Sure Lena, sure.”
Lisa has the shield and a short sword like Lena. They practice the same tactic, allowing Dad to jump at their shields. They take a low basketball stance, then swing down at the leg, cutting it quickly, and slicing through. Just slicing the flesh of the calf or tendons is enough to make a zombie fall and lose its speed. Once they're down, if they're a barking kind, it's easier to slice their heads off.
Both are big girls with strong legs, not dainty or lazy at all. At school, they worked out every day on weights or at the track, going up and down the bleachers. And of course, they played competitive high school basketball. Lisa's strength returns quickly. Dad is anxious to go. Lena is ready. After saving Dad, Lena's confident in fighting.
If surrounded or there are too many, their goal is to cut their legs and back off. Charlotte can shoot them. Or when there is a lull, they can race up and kill them one at a time, hacking down into heads. They work on these moves in the backyard. Dad makes them repeat the moves. They get annoyed.
“Would your coach at school accept that? Or make you do more?”
They do more.
Dad wishes he could use the power drill. He quietly hand screws wood together to make various pells. One is a ground pell for them to strike downward at, as if it’s a limping or lumbering zombie reaching up. They do a great job cutting away at the pells. He makes more. He is still bumming that he can not use the drill. He has an electric knife sharpener that works much better than the hand held kitchen one. He tells Charlotte he wishes he could use that too. They both smile as they patiently sharpen the blades.
“Why can't you use it, Dad?”
“Because it needs electricity, silly. We don't have any.”
“Why not?”
“Because it's the end of the world. I mean, they aren’t making any electricity right now so there's none coming through the sockets.”
“Can we make electricity?”
“No. Well, if we had like one of those turbines that they run, burning coal or whatever to spin it. I think that makes electricity. Or if we had those solar panels. Oh man, if we had those solar panels, we could totally have electricity.”
“You mean like the ones on top of Ollie's house?”
….
….
….
“Dad, where you going?”
Dad is standing, peering from the roof. Charlotte's never seen her Dad move so fast, through the house, up into the attic. Were zombies attacking? She feels a sense of dread. Why doesn't he warn her or the family? She is huffing for once to keep up with him. She gets beside him and looks at the solar panels at old Ollie's house up the street. Two houses are between Dad's and Ollie's. The panels sparkle through the leaf thinning trees.
“Oh my gosh, Charlotte. Oh my gosh!”
“What Dad? Electricity?”
“I think so. Oh my gosh, electricity, I think so!”
Dad was suited up before they knew it.
“You going to the school?”
“Ah heck no. Suit up!”
“What, why, where are we going?” Lena rubs her eyes.
“Electricity!”
“What?”
“Oh my gosh, movies, music, lights, the microwave, radio, if anything, is out there, lights. Oh, maybe we could have a hot shower? No, that's gas, but we could figure out some heating thing. Maybe we can heat water in a pot, plastic, yeah no metal. Heat it, and then pour it through something, slowly, with holes in it, or just have a warm sponge bath, at least whatever. Get ready!”
“Dad, what are you talking about?”
“Ollie's house, the old guy, the solar panels.”
“Oh yeah, Lisa, Lisa, get up. We're going. Whoop!”
“Shhhh!”
“Honey, what are you doing now?”
“Ollie's solar panels, we can plug into that. It should be working, still generating electricity.”
“Well, is he home?”
“D'uhhh? I dunno. He's always out on work somewhere. No idea.”
Ollie works on movies. He's a sound guy, always getting out-of-state gigs. He is old, divorced, and usually gone. But he has solar panels.
Dad finds his long electric cords. He has three of them: a one hundred foot one, and two fifty foot cords. He gets duct tape too, just in case.
Lisa and Lena are suiting up to go out. They are nervous but excited. Charlotte is already picking out movies.
“Charlotte, what are yo
u doing?”
“Dad said we can watch movies. Right Dad?”
“Yep, if we get electricity, we can watch movies. But quietly, and only on the little blu-ray player for now. Quietly.”
“Oh man, I haven't seen 'Love and Basketball' in so long,” Lena says. Dad rolls his eyes.
Dad decides they need to run the cord over the fences or better yet, through them. It's easy enough to push the cord through his chain link fence and the neighbor's wooden boards. Years ago, he helped the neighbor secure the pre-made fencing to the chain link fence with wires. He knows their yard well. An old lady and her adult daughter live there now. At least, they did.
He pushes the cord through and sets up a ladder to climb over. In steel armor, it’s a bit awkward. He drops heavily onto the cement driveway. It was definitely risky. He limps a bit to walk off the joint stress of landing. He looks around. No zombies. He sees their toppled garbage bins. He pulls one over.
Lena climbs over and onto the garbage bin. Dad holds it steady. She slides off it easily. Lisa tosses the bundle of electrical cords over. Then she climbs over. She slips a little coming down but Lena and Dad steady her. No zombies appear.
He finishes pulling the cord through the fencing and runs it along the first yard. He carries the pair of fifty-foot cords. Lena and Lisa are like guard dogs. They sneak up to the driveway gate. It is broken down, from the previous zombie attack. The back door of this house is broken in. There is only a sad tale inside.
“Dad, should we go in?”
“Nahhh, maybe later. I want electricity.”
Lena and Lisa look at each other and shrug.
Dad crosses the yard to the next backyard fencing. He lays the cord along this house's grass to that house. Near the other fence, the hundred foot cord runs out. He attaches one of the fifty-foot cords. He pushes it through the wood slats. There used to be a dog there, but no sound now.
Lena and Lisa come up.
“Get those deck chairs. We'll climb over with them.”
Lena and Lisa go over and bring the nice solid wooden deck chairs. Dad thinks he can stand on it and tests it. It feels solid but the ground gives a little. Still, he jigs his heavy body up. Then he realizes it's not steady enough for his massive weight.
He looks at the fence and decides to pry the wooden beams apart. The fence slats give. He cracks at it to make an opening. The fence is weaker than it looks and he has four beams off with minimal cracking. He steps through and looks around.
He ponders doing a boo to the girls, but realizes he's thinking idiotic. He waves for them to come through. They bring the extra cord and are breathing heavily. He realizes they are very nervous, especially Lisa.
“Okay, calm down. Lena and I have done this before. If anything goes bad, you run back to the house and get up into the attic. Go through the side fence, on this side of our house. It's easy to get in and hard for zombies to get through that small area. Okay?”
They nod and breathe a little easier.
The yard is big, with a huge avocado tree right in the middle raising the ground. The leaves aren't plush green but still alive. He sees avocados. He wonders. The place is littered with them. Awhile back someone died here. The front gate is broken in and the back guest house was attacked. Whomever was there, was taken out. He never really knew these residents. That's Hollywood for you.
He is amazed to see avocados everywhere. He bends down and picks one up. It’s soft, not super soft but soft. It gives. Oh my gosh, he thinks ‘avocados, yum’. He looks at Lena and Lisa.
“We got a double win here: electricity and avocados!”
“We can make guacamole!” they chime.
“No, nope, not really, not without salsa, but still, at least we can eat this.”
“Can't you get some from the store?” Lisa asks.
Dad really doesn't think things through very well. “Oh yeah, I guess I, we could, well, maybe just me, for now, but heck yah. After the electricity, that is.”
Dad plops a few avocados in his bag and makes his way to the next fence. Just above, he can see the bright reflective glory of the solar panels.
Years ago, Ollie showed Dad his solar array with an inverter back up. If there was a blackout, the inverter would still provide some electricity during the day. He didn't get the pricey and toxic battery back-up so there wasn't going to be any night power. Something like that. Dad did not have a long conversation with him about it.
Dad finds this fence in even less upkeep than the previous. It is grey and mottled. Many areas have typical termite deterioration. In some spots, he can feel the wood give like dried husks. He quietly pushes and tugs till he can crouch and go through. He runs the fifty-foot extension cord in.
Ollie's backyard is smaller, filled with leaves and weeds. He creeps through, letting Lena and Lisa follow. Dad notices the lemon tree.
“These would go nice with the avocados methinks, oh and scurvy, yeah.”
“What's that?” Lena asks.
“Scurvy? Ah! Well back on boats, sailors would get it, basically get sick. Then they realized it was from a lack of something. Well, today we know it was from a lack of vitamin C. Back then they knew that lemons stopped the scurvy so they brought them on ships. We should definitely harvest these. We haven't had fresh fruit in awhile.”
The first fifty-foot extension cord runs a few feet into the final yard. Dad attaches the second and believes it's enough to make it into the house and attach to the inverter's outlet. They will then have solar powered electricity running to their home.
Dad goes to the back door. He has to pry it open with his crowbar. It takes some work but finally gives.
The moment of truth, he finds the back switch and flicks it on. The lights go on.
The girls go, “Aaaahhhh and Oooooohh!“
“We have light!” Dad says in a loud excited whisper. He sees the inverter box to the solar array in the back room blinking a green light. It's working. He plugs in the cord. It is now connected to their home.
Dad finds Ollie's plastic garbage bags in the kitchen. What a clean nice house he thinks. Ollie lived a very spartan life. As an old guy, he was no hoarder at all but lived with only a few essentials. A nice, strange fellow that Dad knew he'd never see again.
He brings out the bags and hands them to Lisa and Lena. “Fill these up with lemons and avocados. Let's go.”
They fill them up and off they go, quietly back to their home. No zombies, no horror, no fighting, and just a wonderful surprise. They have avocados, lemons and electricity, and a lot of all three.
Dad tapes the cord down and out of the way. It ends in their kitchen. He pulls out several power strips and lays them down. They have one indoor cord extension. It isn't long enough to go to the opening in the master bedroom so Dad pokes a hole in the kitchen ceiling and runs the cord right up.
In the attic with such a dry interior, Dad is mindful about fire risk so he tapes the power strip to a metal pan. His wife places small lamps and the dual heater/fan up there. Charlotte plops down the portable blu-ray player and boxes of dvds and blu-rays to watch.
Lena and Lisa quickly remove their armor and are up in the attic. Everyone is excited. It has been weeks since they watched anything.
An argument ensues on what to watch. The girls want to watch 'Love and Basketball', something Dad can not stand to watch. The wife wants a comedy. Charlotte wants a superhero movie. Dad wants, oddly, anything and nothing. He knows his choice isn't going to make it. Now that he has light and some luxury, he is at peace.
As they are watching movies, he ponders setting up the computer to play a game. But with the world as it is, he still doesn't feel like entertainment. He still feels he must provide. He watches movies with them, one after the other, but his mind is off, pondering the world, the next move, the next advance of a plan, the school, others, an army.
As the girls sink into their Dorito-guacomole infested relaxation, Dad is downstairs with his wife. They are busy bodies.
“What are you doing honey?”
“I'm working on more pieces,” she says. She is a workaholic, and probably has the same mindset as her husband. She wants a future, a family, things to return to normal in some way. And the way to do it, is to work and fight for it. Stacked and spread across the dining room are starting piles of armor: for arms, legs, and chest. She is doing whatever she can to put things together. They are in medium to large sizes, adjustable with ties, strings, and straps.
“This is great. We should get the girls down here to help you.”
“No, not yet, I'm still trying things. Let them enjoy the movies.”
“It's weird. I thought I wanted to watch movies, but I don't. I want to do something. Start our next move.”
“Then why don't you? I'll have more suits ready soon, if you can save others.”
“I know why I don't. The Horde. I fear it.”
His wife stops fiddling with her next piece. She looks up at him.
“They are unstoppable. I feel that if I go out there, again and again, eventually, it will come back here. And there is no way to stop it. I don't know what to do or where it is. A few zombies that I'm fighting could trigger it. Where will I be? Where will you be? I saw it take down houses and apartments and the people within. I mean, I can lead it away again. At least I think I can. But man, what if, what if...”
“Then the school, it's strong enough. It should be able to withstand it.”
“I don't know, I guess. But if we had a lot of people there, it will definitely come. Would the doors of metal and windows with grills work? It's pretty solid concrete. They built it like a fortress. But that Horde, it swarms like a flood over everything.”
Knight of the Dead (Book 1): Knight of the Dead Page 21