The Scott Pfeiffer Story (Book 2): Sheol

by Woods, Shane

  I eyed Dave for another ten seconds or so as he did the same to me, and we listened.

  Sounds like a ways west of here, the radio crackled. Command, please advise. Over.

  The responder was Rob’s voice, instructing them to hang tight. Listen to the action but draw no attention and don’t get involved, but to radio in ASAP if they got closer or if contact was made.

  The gunfire seemed to bring an impossibility to the first priority I’d spoken.

  Keep the people safe.

  People were a handful at the best of times. This was clearly not the best of times. And winter was approaching. Keeping them warm was also keeping them safe. There was another challenge.

  “Knew I’d find you up here., came Jennifer’s voice from behind me.

  “Hey!” I called. “Join the party. How’s Hannah?”

  “She’s a wreck, but, she’s asleep finally,” she responded. “I found melatonin in the cabinet and gave her some. That poor girl.”

  “Did you find anything out about her?” I wondered aloud.

  “She survived the end with her father,” Jennifer started. “Her mother never came home. Her dad kept scavenging for supplies, then, maybe a week ago she guesses, he just never came back home.”

  “Probably a lot of that going around,” I surmised. “How’d the scumbags find her?”

  “Said she heard someone breaking in and hid,” Jennifer continued. “Clearly not well enough, but the guy that found her convinced her he was a cop and going to take her somewhere safe.”

  “Sounds like a perfect setup for pieces of shit like them,” Dave offered.

  “Yeah,” I agreed, “pretend to be a cop, earn trust, break that trust. Probably all in short order, too. Though not much different than ‘real’ cops always did.”

  “We can’t save the world, though, Scott,” Jennifer opined.

  “No,” I stated flatly, “but we can save our part of it.”

  I brought Jennifer up to speed as the night carried on. Explained to her what I wanted to do for Hannah, and about the livestock. She expressed her admonitions about traveling so far away for something that may not even be there. Or, that, even worse would be there. I agreed, but it had to be done. We had mouths to feed and the number of mouths seemed to grow without influence.

  It hadn’t seemed like midnight was already there, but before long, a middle-eastern man I recognized as Mo had come up to relieve us.

  I didn’t think I’d ever get used to so many names and faces. I had my favorites, and my original crew, of course, and kind of kept my distance from the rest. Not out of any kind of contempt or anything else, but I was just simply as bad or worse with names and faces as I was with numbers. My two weaknesses. Usually, I’d forewarn someone. I’d explain that I may ‘meet’ them another half-dozen times, and it’s no offense to them, I’m just terrible with names and faces.

  Just as I was about to leave my post, I glanced over the edge again and saw what looked remarkably like Tony, holding hands with another, taller person. I couldn’t quite tell, given the provided low level of lighting, but it was almost certainly his figure. I’d known the man for over a decade. But I couldn’t recall having any women taller than him here though I could possibly be wrong.

  I led Jennifer down to our apartment, moving in utter silence as both Gwen and Hannah were asleep, last either of us knew.

  We crept through the apartment, and wordlessly switched into our night clothes. I drew Jennifer in and gave her a soft, quiet kiss and a tight hug before we lay down in bed.

  EIGHT

  The next morning came quickly, and before I was even awake enough to know what was happening, I was already dressed and seated at the kitchen table with my morning cup of coffee. I’d just started pulling on a clean pair of socks when I heard a soft rustle coming from the hallway.

  I lifted my eyes in time to catch Hannah feeling her way around her doorway.

  “Shit!” I said in a whisper, then a little louder, “Hannah? I’m coming, one second.”

  “Oh, okay!” she replied, slightly startled, I thought, then, “I have to pee.”

  I squeezed past her, instructing her to wait just a moment, and checked to make sure the camping toilet was clean. It was, so I returned and took her hand to lead her to the bathroom.

  “Here you go,” I instructed. “Seat’s down, lid’s up. It’s all ready. I’ll, uh, I’ll wait outside. Call me when you’re finished.”

  I waited a few moments down the hallway until I heard her voice calling.

  “Mr. Scott?” she spoke through the door before opening it. She was wearing an oversized T-shirt that I could see. I didn’t even know if she had shorts on under it, and I wasn’t asking.

  “You’re going to need clothes for today,” I observed.

  “Got a big pile of stuff in her size we rounded up yesterday after I took her up here,” Jennifer called after me. “Everything she’d need.”

  “Okay cool,” I replied, then set to thinking. A pile? She can’t exactly see to figure out what’s what, and I didn’t like the thought of forcing her to dig through a pile of clothes and figure it out on her own. Then an idea struck me. It was perfect!

  I led Hannah back into her room and checked the dresser. It had been emptied. Great!

  I sorted through the pile and found what I figured would work. She was so thin, and although Jennifer just said they were all in her size, the clothes felt so tiny in my hands. Nevertheless, I rummaged and found her some brand new underwear, what appeared to be some kind of sports bra, jeans, a belt, and a long-sleeve T-shirt with the logo of some band I’d never heard of.

  “Okay hun,” I spoke, “we got you covered! I’m going to have you go back into the bathroom to change. I’ve got an idea for your clothes.”

  She thanked me, and I led her into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.

  I then returned to her room and began sorting. One clothing type per drawer, as to eliminate any confusion, and even a drawer for her shoes and a pair of new house slippers we had found. By the time I’d finished, she had finished as well, and found her way back to her room.

  “Mr. Scott?” she asked.

  “Just Scott is fine.” I smiled. “Here, check this out.”

  I took her by her hand yet again, the offered appendage so much smaller and softer than my own and helped her feel her way around the dresser as I explained what clothes were in which drawers, certain that she’d get the hang of it soon enough on her own.

  She thanked me, and after some brief small talk, I took her back into the kitchen so Jennifer could help her with getting some food. At this time, I turned and noticed that at some point during the night, Dave had gathered what I asked for and set it all just inside my apartment door. Nice!

  I grabbed the coils of long, thin rope, closer to paracord than rope, and set to work.

  Better than half the day had passed before I was finished. The entire length of the ninth floor, the conference room, and the stairwell to the roof were all lined with various lengths of the cording. Each end was secured with an eye hook, and just before each end was a specific number of knots. One for ‘home’, two for ‘roof’, three took her straight to the nearest bathroom, and so-on.

  For her benefit, the roped walls also all wore signs now as well. Each sign declaring that there should be no objects placed near or along that wall, as to eliminate any tripping hazards.

  Admittedly, I wasn’t quite sure if this was overboard, or just right, but it felt great to me to be helping someone that needed it in a way that didn’t deal quite so directly with how badly the outside world had gone to shit.

  I called her and Jennifer out, and took her hand to show her the new system. Almost immediately, tears formed at the corner of her pale blue eyes and she threw her arms around me.

  “Stop being awkward and hug her back,” my loving, dear wife instructed, to which I complied.

  After a moment, I explained that I’d be adding another rope that would lead
to a stash of snacks and water for her to access at a whim, as well, within the apartment.

  We continued talking, and I asked her what else we could do to help make her stay more comfortable. She kept declining to ask for much, and I didn’t push, but I had some more ideas.

  After a few more minutes, Jennifer offered to stay behind and introduce her to our daytime computer nerds, Rob and Ryan, and I departed for the first floor.

  As I broke into the outdoors, I immediately wished I’d brought a jacket. Inside, it wasn’t too terrible, but today seemed to be the coldest one yet, and the wind did little more than enhance the drop in temperature. Additionally, there was a light drizzle of rain coming from the low cloud cover. Fall was here. Or, at least, coming soon. Not cool.

  As if a sign, meant to assuage my worry about the coming cold season, two trucks pulled through the inner gate and into the central area.

  Henry was already out directing them and had ordered both vehicles to be backed up against the first ground-floor apartment in the building. They did so, and after a few haphazard attempts to back into place, they succeeded. Not having anything better to do today, I decided to pitch in and approached the scene.

  “Brother Scott!” Henry offered, extending his hand to take mine in a half-handshake, half-hug. “Good to see you my friend!”

  “You too, man!” I returned. “What do you have going on here?”

  “A thing of beauty!” he exclaimed. “These people were kind enough to rustle up a couple of woodburning furnaces, and as much seasoned firewood as them there trucks can carry. We’re getting set up before mother nature dips her cold-ass hands into our home.”

  “It’s like you read my mind, Henry.” I grinned. “I’ll help.”

  I nearly regretted my words as they removed the tarps from the heating units. They were both huge, easily the size of the biggest double-door refrigerators I’d ever seen. Each wood-burning furnace stood taller than me, and wider.

  “Oh baby!” Henry exclaimed, rubbing his rough hands together, and in moments they were both unstrapped and ready to move once the various firewood and pallets were pulled free and stacked inside the far apartment. We had perhaps two-dozen people and made a pair of human conveyor belts into the barren far apartment.

  “Now, I can’t guarantee we ain’t about to be bringing all kinds of bugs and such inside,” he noted, “but, that’s on my list. They grabbed these from the local hardware store, brand-new, and a slew of home pest control. We all the way good, my friend.”

  I concurred, nearly as excited as he was, but before I could even finish my statement, he was already issuing orders. We were to take them in on their sides and bring them into the first apartment through the sliding door, where he’d begin setting things up today to run the ductwork and ‘all matter of other bullshit we gotta do to get these puppies working’, as he put it.

  It was a beautiful feeling, and, damn it sure took a load off my shoulders.

  As Henry had informed me, these units wouldn’t be enough to make the entire building jacket-free, but it would keep the place well above freezing. And, over the next few days, he intended to get more furnaces. Maybe one more for the main building, at the opposite end, but definitely two or three more for the south structure, as well. We had people living all through that one as well, plus, that’s where Carolyn and now a couple of other ladies had the daycare section. Nice and safe, and away from the hustle and bustle that painted a larger target on the North Building.

  “Mr. Pfeiffer?” spoke a younger guy I didn’t completely recognize.

  “Scott’s fine man, what’s up?” I queried.

  “We hit a local library on the way. I was told to give you these,” he stated as he swung a large blue storage tote from the backseat of the black crew cab pickup. It was stocked to the brim with what appeared to be mostly audiobooks of nearly every kind imaginable.

  “No shit?” I asked, eyeing him carefully.

  “No shit, sir. Scott. I’m sorry,” he stated, almost visibly sweating as he pushed his glasses back up over his nose. His dark skin nearly shone with it.

  “Loosen up, man, you’re cool!” I chuckled, then, “Hey, you look like a pretty smart kid. You want to get a couple of friends together on a special project for me?”

  “Sure!” he beamed. “What is it?”

  “Take these,” I handed the tote back to him, “Find somewhere quiet. Use one of the books you found on braille, and find a way to label them for me, please?”

  “There’s, uh, there’s no need to, sir. Scott, I mean,” he said in return.

  “Sorry?” I questioned.

  “Check them out!” he glowed again. “The library had a standard practice of labeling all audiobooks in braille already. I guess they’re popular with the blind?”

  “And they will be yet again,” I congratulated. “Thanks. Hey, what’s your name by the way?”

  “Harrison,” he stated firmly and shook my hand.

  “You did amazing work, Harrison,” I acknowledged. “The world isn’t kind, and y’all are out here kicking ass in it. Keep it up, be proud of yourself.”

  The kid, who I assumed to be possibly only 18, glowed at this.

  He returned the tote of compact discs to me, and I immediately took them into the building and began lugging them up the stairwell to the Eighth Floor.

  Okay, this time I was out of breath. As much as I preferred to call on Bri by name, I didn’t have it in me. I’m also, possibly, getting too old for this shit, but we’ll see.

  I rang the bell on the desk in her hallway and received no answer. After a second try, I still got nothing in return. Finally, I had gathered my lungs just enough to speak.

  “Bri?” I inquired down the hallway, and still got no reply. Figuring she was busy, and not wanting to bother her with something so mundane, I pushed past her desk and retrieved the notebook she had tucked neatly into a cubby and found the location of the section she’d titled ‘Electronics, portable’.

  Her organization was so on point that barely a full minute later I had retrieved an old-school CD player, an MP3 player labeled ‘full, modern music’, and a handful of batteries.

  There was also a small bundle on her desk that read:

  Headphones- give to Scott

  I took those as well and left my own note in its place, listing everything I had taken and where I was taking it, in case that mattered to her.

  I put my haul in the top of the blue tote and took it all up one last floor where I found Jennifer and Hannah together on the bed in Hannah’s room, talking.

  “Check it out!” I stated proudly, placing the tote on the bed. “I didn’t think they’d get this so quickly but damn those boys are good!”

  Jennifer noticed the contents of the box, and her eyes widened, and her jaw dropped before forming a beaming smile.

  I gently took Hannah’s hand and ran her fingers over the tiny bumps on one cover, and she slowly repeated what she had read with her touch.

  “Run,” she stated, loud, slow, and clear, “by Rich Restucci. These are books? It’s a CD, an audiobook?”

  “A whole tote of them!” I grabbed her with one arm in a hug, not even thinking with my excitement, and she shied away at the quick grasp but then embraced it for a moment.

  I also showed her the CD player and MP3, unsure of how to help her work them, but she assured us she would figure it out and thanked me again.

  This, I thought, this is one of those moments that makes surviving worth it.

  No, I couldn’t reach into the past and bring her parents back. I couldn’t undo the horrible things that had been done to this girl already, but I could make her here and now the best I could. And I could do my level best to shield this young girl from any more wrongdoings in the future. And, I tell ya, to see that smile on her face? Like seeing a happy child at Christmas time. It made it work, somehow. A bit of paradise in Hell.

  I left Jennifer and Hannah again, but this time I didn’t go far. Just to the next r
oom, where Gwen played, home with mommy today since mommy was here for our new friend.

  “What’re you doing, turd?” I asked her, cheerfully.

  “Nothing, dork!” she returned in toddler. She still wasn’t fluent in English, but these days it seemed like she was advancing daily, at an astonishing rate for someone her age.

  “Got your blocks again, huh?”

  “Yeahhh, got blocks,” she confirmed, holding one in front of my face.

  “That’s very nice, baby,” I agreed. You always agree that it’s a nice block with a young one, no matter how many tooth marks are in the damn thing.

  “Love you daddy,” she spoke in her endearing tongue.

  “Aww, love you too baby,” I returned and squeezed her in a big hug.

  Just then the radio broke our moment to inform all that there had been injured. I urged Jennifer to get out of the apartment, I’d stay with the girls, as she was more medically useful than I.

  “Okay, I’ll let you know how bad,” she said before kissing me and rushing out the door.

  I led Hannah and Gwen to the couch in the living room so I could watch the windows. Hannah followed, her new audiobook already playing in one ear, the other left free so she could use her most important sense. I had a feeling she’d never leave herself totally unguarded after what she’d been through.

  Gwen took out a pad and retrieved several crayons and began scribbling at my feet on the floor.

  While I watched the rain come down, Hannah curled up against the opposite end of the couch, engrossed in her new story. Her pale grey eyes looked out over the balcony into the weather, despite not seeing a bit of it.

  The radio came to life again; it was Jennifer informing me that she was coming back up, it was a work incident and not completely severe. Head injury from falling sheets of plywood, just some stitches.

  I had fallen asleep before I heard any more of it.

  A burst of full-auto gunfire shook me awake. From inside the compound, no less.

  “What the fuck?” I exclaimed, jumping up before my eyes could even focus. “What the fuck was that?”