She was right, but James wasn’t sure what else to do. These lions had survived in this urban layout for who knew how long. They may have developed some tricks and knowledge about the place that the group was unaware of. As James looked to one side, he thought he caught a glimpse of one of the golden cats crouched just beyond the peak of a bungalow’s roof. How it might have gotten up there, he couldn’t say.
“We need to get into a garage,” Lindsay suggested.
James mentally smacked his own forehead for not thinking of that sooner.
“Is anyone familiar with these houses? Do we know if they have doors inside that connect into the garages?”
“I can’t say I’ve been in any of these houses specifically,” Aaron spoke up. He had probably travelled more than the rest of them. “But I’m going to say that there isn’t. In similar areas I’ve been to, there’s only been the garage doors in front, and a regular door that leads outside in the back.”
“Meaning we’ll have to find one that’s unlocked,” James translated. If there had been a door from inside the house, they could have gone through a window to get to it.
“Back door or front?” White asked.
“Front,” James recommended. “We don’t want to be going down the narrow spaces between the houses.” Especially if he really had seen a lion on a roof.
Moving together, they made their way up the nearest driveway and pulled on the garage door.
“Locked, move on,” White ordered.
They checked two more garages with the same result.
“The lions are getting bolder,” Samson pointed out.
They were revealing their positions more and more. After the group checked the fourth locked garage, one lion started to follow them right out in the open.
“They’re probably going to start probing for weaknesses soon,” warned Katrina.
They tried another garage, and had a brief moment of hope when it started to lift, but then the blasted thing jammed on them. Although they tried, it was impossible to open it any more than a couple of inches.
Watching the door partly rise had momentarily caused James to lower his eyes to the ground. The distraction had just about caused him to be scalped. It was only Soot’s startled reaction that had saved him from the lion’s swiping paw. It turned out he had seen one on a roof earlier, and that it wasn’t the only roof they knew how to reach.
Marissa, who carried a fairly long spear, stabbed up at the lion. She managed to draw blood and a pained yowl from the animal. It quickly turned and retreated over to the far side of the roof.
“Thanks,” James said, his heart racing in his throat.
From then on, Marissa and Samson kept their eyes on the roofs of the houses they approached, for they both had spears long enough to reach the eaves. James kept himself and Soot a few steps farther away from them.
After another two houses, the lion that had been boldly following them decided to test the strength of their group.
“Here she comes!” Belle shouted.
“Hold together, and watch out for any others that may try to flank us!” White reminded everyone.
Samson and Marissa had been standing on either side of the ring. As the lioness trotted toward the group, they all carefully shuffled so that the two spear bearers were together and facing her.
The lioness growled as the sharpened points waved and jabbed at her face. She swiped at them, but Marissa and Samson held firm. They were unable to land a proper blow, as the lioness kept just outside of their range. As the animal moved left around the ring, they shuffled again in order to keep the spears pointed at her. James kept himself and Soot moving as well, always on the far side of the ring. In the middle, Spark whinnied nervously, and stomped his feet. Eventually, the lioness retreated.
“Let’s hurry. She’s probably going to have company next time,” Katrina warned. Her rifle was constantly held at the ready, always pointed toward the nearest lion, but she’d rather not waste a bullet if she didn’t need to.
The next garage was locked, and James was starting to lose hope that this plan would work. As they moved on, he spotted the big male standing between two houses. He made sure to point him out to the others.
They approached the next garage, with Marissa and Samson holding their spears up, and Katrina facing across the street with her rifle. This time, there was a satisfying rattle as the garage door opened. They had finally found one.
“It’s going to be a tight fit for the horses,” White warned.
James didn’t care. He rode Soot through the opening, squeezing the big horse between some tool benches and a large workbench that held an incomplete cabinet lying on its back. James had to duck down, lying across Soot’s neck. Spark didn’t seem too happy about following, but the young horse wasn’t about to let the old one leave him behind. He crowded in right against Soot’s rump. James twisted himself over the cabinet to watch through the open garage door. Everyone squeezed in, spears and assorted blades all pointed outward. On the street, a trio of lions had gathered together and were pacing around one another. The male lion was walking over to join them. Then the garage door was yanked down and everything became darkness.
***
The night was spent very uncomfortably in the packed garage. People had crawled into every available space they could find. James found himself lying on the cabinet, grateful that at least the door on one side was complete, providing him with a surface to lie on. Also, the handles hadn’t been installed, so it was only the carved bevelling of the design he hadn’t been able to make out in the dark that caused him discomfort. Beside him, Soot made the occasional complaint. Being almost deaf made him like the total darkness even less. James spent most of the time that he was awake petting his steed’s neck. Somewhere on the tool bench, White was doing the same for Spark. If Spark bit Soot’s rump out of agitation, Soot might then start kicking, which was dangerous for everyone. Neither of the horses were comfortable with their cramped confinement, but fortunately they had had practice lately, having had to spend their nights in chock-full containers with the new horses that had come with Evans’ party, thanks to the rats. Still, James thought it would be nice if they had some sedatives for the animals.
Thump.
“Sorry,” Katrina whispered.
“It’s okay, I wasn’t asleep,” James whispered back.
Katrina was spending the night curled up in the cabinet’s largest opening. She said that she was fine not having room to stretch out, but she still bumped into the sides or the door under James every now and again. Other members of the group were underneath the workbench and the tool bench, on the floor up against the garage door, curled around heaps of various junk at the back, and Belle, the smallest of them, was wedged into a tiny space between another cabinet and the ceiling. There had been a lot of crashing and banging as they moved about to find themselves space, and no one was comfortable. James wondered if all the noise would have drawn the dead, and if it had, would they have scared off the lions?
When morning came, James could see the faint light coming through a heavily clouded window set in the door at the rear of the garage. He got the sense that he wasn’t the only one lying exhausted yet awake. It felt like the morning after an all night party, where everyone knew that as soon as one person got up, they were all getting up, and no one wanted to be the first.
A young man named Jack was the one to finally break the morning silence.
“I really have to take a piss,” he whispered into the dim light, which seemed bright only when compared to the all-consuming darkness that had been their night. He was lying under the tool bench, beneath White. “Do you think the lions are still out there?”
“Only one way to find out,” James whispered back. “We’ll go together.”
It didn’t take long for a pair of flashlights to blink into being. They weren’t very bright, as they were the kind you had to shake to build up a charge, but they provided ample light for everyone’s dark-adjusted e
yes.
Over his wounded foot, James pulled on a boot he had found that was a few sizes too big, and so could accommodate his bandages, as well as a pair of padded insoles he had found in one of the containers. It wasn’t ideal, but it helped protect the injury during the times he had to put weight on it.
Leaving the horses alone didn’t feel right, but everyone needed to empty their bladder and it was safer if they all went together. Scrambling over the layers of junk, they all made their way toward the rear door. There was much groaning and complaining, since everyone was stiff. James heard a number of joints pop, and several of them weren’t his.
Lucy went out first, as she was the closest to the door. She opened it slowly, ready to shut it the moment she saw even a hint of tawny fur. When nothing attacked her, she stepped outside, closely followed by Marissa and Samson with their spears.
Soot snorted as the light and a puff of fresh air reached him.
“You’ll be out soon. Just be good for a few more minutes,” James whispered to the horse before following the others out. He grabbed a chunk of two-by-four before exiting, placing it as a door jamb. The door had a pneumatic hinge and he didn’t want it to somehow lock behind them, but even more so, he wanted the horses to get that little bit of light and air that crept through the opening.
The moment James stepped outside, he breathed deeply. The garage air had gotten both stale and rank. The horses had no choice but to relieve themselves where they stood, which was more than unpleasant for everybody. Outside, the only smells that James could pick out were created by the greenery.
Huddled together, the group made their way to the middle of the large backyard, stepping high through the long grass. James winced with every step, his foot flaring with pain. He shouldn’t be walking on it yet, the doctors had said so, but they understood that sometimes there was no choice. James figured that when he got old—if he got old—there would be plenty of other people with whom he could commiserate about bad joints and improperly healed injuries.
Out in the open, the group broke into two. The girls took one side, the guys took the other. Watching each other’s backs, they all emptied their bladders while giving each other just that tiny amount of privacy. James figured you could tell who had spent the most time outside of communities based on how comfortable they were with urinating—or even more so with shifting their bowels—among other people.
After everyone finished, they retreated back toward the house. So far, no lions had been spotted. James and Katrina went back into the garage to prepare the horses, while the others walked around the side to the front in order to reach the roll up door. For just a few seconds, James worried about them being attacked out there, about them discovering that the lions weren’t gone, only waiting. If that happened, he and Katrina would be trapped inside that cramped space with Soot and Spark for what could amount to days. But then the door slid open, allowing the garage to be flooded with an abundance of light and air. There were no lions behind them.
James bent over flat on Soot’s back again, grateful to be off his foot. Once Katrina had guided Spark out, he gently pulled back on Soot’s reins, guiding the old horse toward its freedom. Of course, the moment they were outside, the reins were taken from James. The horses needed to eat, so Soot’s bit had to be taken out. Everyone breakfasted on the driveway except James and Katrina. James ate while remaining seated on Soot’s back, and Katrina fed herself while standing. She stayed near Spark as he cropped the grass of the unmown lawn, just in case they suddenly needed to move in a hurry.
While James had fully expected to discover that the lions weren’t gone, that they had waited, not one was spotted the entire time they ate their breakfast. The beasts must have left in search of another animal, one that wouldn’t jab at them with spears or hide behind doors.
When it was time to leave, the group walked a little closer together than they originally had. White didn’t go as far ahead, and everyone looked over their shoulder more frequently.
It was around lunchtime when they all finally started to relax a little, to believe that the lions were gone. James made sure to write down in his notebook the various street names that he saw, specifically indicating where they had encountered the lions. The container yard didn’t have nearly enough maps for everyone, including James, but he thought that when he next saw one, he could start trying to figure out the lions’ territory. They were awfully close to the container yard, and James worried about future scavenger teams. There was even the possibility that, once they had the capability again, they would need to kill the lions. The thought of killing a species that had been, and possibly still was, at some level of endangered didn’t sit well with James, but he knew they couldn’t expose the container yard inhabitants to the risk. He wondered what things were like in Africa, for both the lions and the humans still living there. He wondered if they’d ever manage to re-establish contact that far away during his lifetime.
James believed that they had gone far enough to swing north again and cross the river. He was just about to call ahead to White to ask his opinion on the matter, when the lioness came streaking out of some bushes and leapt at the scout.
6: Dakota
4 Days After the Bombing
At first, being trusted to finally cross Bitch Bridge completely on her own was great; the novelty of it quickly wore off. Dakota was tired of spending most of her time on Animal Island. She just wanted to sleep in her own bed. But Cameron said it wasn’t safe yet. Their container wasn’t secure enough from the rats for her to let Dakota spend the night there. Dakota wondered if that was actually true, or if Cameron just said that so she and Brunt could keep fucking. That’s what the fifteen-year-old assumed they were doing. It’s what she was certain they did whenever she slept over at Hope’s, especially when Cameron insisted that she spend the night.
Cameron was pretty cool though. She had been taking care of Dakota for something like five years now, ever since her last caretaker hadn’t made it off the cruise ship. Dakota had had a handful of caretakers after the Day, or at least she thought she had. She couldn’t keep them all straight in her memory. She couldn’t remember which face was her actual mother. But Cameron was cool. She hadn’t shied away from telling Dakota about all the intricacies surrounding sex, even before she had gotten her first period. If it weren’t for Cameron, Dakota would have been terrified to find blood on the toilet paper that first time, but because of the vet, she knew what to do and had been able to deal with it ever since. It was annoying, but survivable.
On Animal Island, Dakota had seen a number of the farm beasts going at it. Many of the younger children were confused by what was happening, and when they asked their parents or caretakers, they were told lies. Dakota didn’t think that was right, so she told them the truth later, when nearly all the adults had returned to the container yard for the day. All the kids liked Dakota for her honesty. Or at least, that was why Dakota thought they liked her. It might have just been the cowboy hat she wore all the time.
“What are you doing?” Hope asked, walking up behind Dakota.
“Nothing,” Dakota told her, which was pretty much true. All she was doing was poking at some rocks with a stick she had found along the shoreline.
Hope sat down beside her. “I’m bored too.”
“What are the others up to?” The others referred to Peter, Adam, and Becky, who were Hope’s best friends. They were Dakota’s friends too, but being older made her a bit more of an outsider. Dakota knew a lot of people, especially among the younger groups, and a fair number of them she’d call her friends, but she couldn’t say she had a best friend. There wasn’t one person she liked to be around more than any of the others. Hope was definitely the closest merely due to the fact that they were often forced to spend time together because of Cameron being Hope’s mom’s twin sister. They were basically cousins.
Hope shrugged in response to Dakota’s question. “They’re bored too. Peter is taking a nap, and Becky is helping with t
he chickens today.” All the kids were to take turns helping with the chickens at some point. All it meant was keeping track of which hens had laid eggs, and taking the eggs from the bigger pen that didn’t also have a rooster in it. “I don’t know where Adam is. He’s probably over in the container yard somewhere, since he said bye to his dad over there.”
“Where’s that new girl you’ve been hanging around lately?”
“Emma? I don’t know. Her parents took her with them to do something, but I don’t know what.”
Emma had come with the group of people who had tried to attack them. Some of the kids thought it was really weird that they were now living together, especially Adam. He thought that they should all be driven out, and encouraged others to think the same way. Despite his efforts, even he was becoming fast friends with Emma, who had a myriad of stories to tell them about her travels.
“Took her where?” Dakota didn’t think any kids had left the container yard, but maybe she was wrong.
“Somewhere over there,” Hope answered, gesturing across the water. So she hadn’t left.
“Did you try this morning’s toast?” Dakota asked. The cooks had been experimenting with unusual ingredients in an attempt to stretch their supplies.
“I couldn’t really taste anything beyond all the charring.”
“Yeah, it was really burnt.”
“I can’t wait till we start having proper food again.”
“Me, too.”
Right now they were mostly eating rationed preservatives, both their own and what the new people had been carrying with them. The only fresh food they had were eggs, but there weren’t nearly enough to go around every day, and so they drew lots. Those who won got to eat an egg that day, but then they weren’t allowed to draw a lot again until everyone had won once. Dakota hadn’t gotten an egg yet.
“Do you want to go find Adam? See what he’s up to?” Dakota eventually suggested.
Survival Instinct (Book 5): Social Instinct Page 8