Several of his men were already hard at work gathering up what items they could use and checking the vehicles in the building above to see if they could get any of them running. Any gear they could gather during their journey would give them that much more of a head start when they finally settled somewhere as well as supplies to keep them moving forward between each facility.
He directed his people that they would be staying there for the evening and the others began setting up camp and various areas for sleeping. They were already such a well-organized group for the short period of time that they had been traveling together. He was proud of his achievements as their leader and knew that he would work just as hard with new comers to fit them in where ever they needed to be.
He only hoped that there would be new comers and that they wouldn’t be seeing this same scene at every facility they went to. The next facility was in oklahoma and they would head there at first light. The traveling had been arduous with lots of time lost moving cars and debris out of the road or finding another way around.
When they had come into the first small town near the pharmaceutical compound they had been staying in, Derek had seen clear signs that Maya had been that way. Several clean spots on shelves in the gas station indicated where she had taken some gas cans and bottles of motor oil. That girl sure was resourceful and he found himself missing her more with each passing day. Their relationship had been so good at one time. They had laughed together like friends and loved each other with a passion he had never known. He had felt her pulling away in the end when he had revealed his plans to release the virus in the compound. He really thought she would understand the logic behind it, but her womanly emotions had gotten the best of her and they were barely on speaking terms in the end. He always thought he would have the time to mend their relationship after the plan was in motion and she could see for herself how well it was all turning out. Never for a minute did he imagine that she would do something so bold as to run away by herself. Wasn’t she scared to be alone? Worried about how she would take care of herself? She had talked briefly about her time living in the mountains but he didn’t think that would have been enough for her to feel comfortable enough to venture out on her own.
Derek shook his head to clear the cobweb of thoughts and began walking around the makeshift camp, making sure everyone was completing their job satisfactorily. He felt Lisa come up beside him before she touched his arm. She had a strange energy about her that he didn’t quite trust but she had done all that he had asked up to this point so he had no real reason not to trust her.
“I’ve prepared you some dinner Derek.” He smiled at her kindly, fighting off his annoyance at her constant attempts to earn his affection. She had been relentless since Maya had left the compound. Constantly talking about how dare Maya leave such a wonderful man and if he was hers she would never let him go. Every night she attempted to put her bedroll next to his and he would find some reason to move his sleeping place elsewhere. So far she had not gotten what he felt was a clear message but he couldn’t be mean about it if he wanted to keep her loyalty.
“I appreciate it Lisa. I’ll be over in a few minutes.” She ran her hand down his arm in a not so subtle manner as she smiled up at him before heading back to the camp.
She was a nice looking woman and maybe he should take advantage of her feelings for him. It had been awhile since he and Maya had been intimate and a man has needs. He shook his head clear of those thoughts. No one could stack up to Maya. Even as angry as he was at her, she still surpassed any other women he knew at this point.
He walked over to his group of men that were hunched over a road map, plotting their next day of travel and forced his mind back to the task at hand.
Chapter 9 – A baby and mountains just don’t mix – Present Day
Maya awoke to the sun streaming in the living room window across her face. She loved waking up like this every morning. No alarms, no job to go to, no email to check! Even at the facility they had gone back to their structured living of waking up at a predetermined time so they could start their jobs. Her life now was how life should really be for everyone and she was treasuring every moment of it despite being alone and working herself to the bone every waking minute.
The last several weeks she had worked herself tirelessly building up her wood supply first and then scouting out several houses to gather supplies from to build her solar field. Her evenings were spent scouring the books she had about solar and electrical and she felt that she had a good handle on how to build the system.
She had amassed an impressive array of tools and the yard looked like a solar supply company had exploded. Now she just needed to apply what she had learned and get it all working. One piece that was still missing was a tankless hot water heater. The old tank that sat in the bathroom closet would be requiring electricity all of the time, even when it wasn’t being used and that wouldn’t work for this kind of setup. She had amassed batteries as well to store extra energy but she still wanted to be as efficient as possible with how she used the solar.
She had thrown herself into her work as much as possible so as to not think about the inevitable. She would either suffer a miscarriage or be having a baby sometime in the spring and despite all of her genetic research related to babies, she didn’t have a clue how to take care of one. All she knew was that if she had been strong enough to live this long and get this far, she could manage on her own with a baby. She knew by now that she was several months or more along and the slight swelling of her tummy reaffirmed that. Her thoughts wandered to a time many years ago when she had been here once before and she felt her mood shift to anger before she could stop the memories. She couldn’t allow herself to compare now with then. She was much older, more stable, and having a baby now didn’t scare her as much as it had back then. Ok, maybe a little.
The fall days were quickly getting colder and succumbing to the oncoming winter. She needed to really focus on the solar system if she wanted to be able to bathe at all this winter. Bundling up in all of her cold weather gear, she headed outside to begin building the panels back into a useable structure.
The air outside was crisp and clean. She loved being in the mountains again and took a minute to close her eyes and breathe in the scents deeply, enjoying her newfound freedom. She hadn’t realized how imprisoned she had felt living in the facility. Making friends and working all of the time had helped her to not think about the situation. But now she was truly free and it was so wonderful, and soon she would have someone to share it with. That thought caused her eyes to pop open and for the first time she allowed herself to feel a little excited about the prospect of having a child. A smile formed across her face as she busied herself with screwing together another solar panel support. Thoughts of all they could do together floated through her mind as she worked and she began to wonder if it was a boy or a girl. Not that it mattered to her. All that mattered was that it would be half her genetics and that would be all she needed for a wonderful human being. Although if it did inherit some of Derek’s traits, that wouldn’t be so bad either, as long as they were only the good traits and not the ones that drove him to kill their friends. Maya blinked back tears at the memories of her friends screams as she had fled the facility. So many of them would have perished and she wondered how far the group had made it by now. She was glad that she had never been specific to Derek about her life in the mountains. He couldn’t possibly track her down all the way out here without more information.
She dragged another solar panel across the yard using a sled she had gotten just for that purpose. The panels weren’t light so she had built the supports angled enough so she could slide them up and then put a wedge under the bottom of them while she attached them into place. The thought of a hot bath without having to drag water in from outside and then heat it on the stove was such a motivating thought and kept her working until her hands started to shake.
Maya heated up some soup on the stove and made herself a cup o
f cowboy coffee and sat at the little kitchen table to enjoy her meal. She would be glad to not have to use the old wood fired stove once she had the solar panel up and running but it still had a certain charm about it and it really warmed up the place as well.
She recalled several other times throughout her life that she had sat at this table enjoying hot soup and coffee. It was her grandma’s favorite meal and had quickly become a favorite meal of hers and Matts as well. So many memories of great conversation with people that she loved and the pain she felt was physical as the feeling of loss set in. Why had she been so childish and run away from Matt and the love they shared? Better question yet, why hadn’t he come after her? But would she have returned to him if he had chased her or would she have thought less of him instead?
They had sat at this table to discuss their options when she had found out she was pregnant so many years ago. It had come as a shock to them both since she had been on birth control for so long but all it took was for her to miss a couple days of her pills.
They hadn’t fought about it at first. An attempt to calmly discuss the situation was made in the beginning but then they had both begun to panic and the situation had quickly gotten out of hand. They were young and the fear of what they would miss out on by having a child so young scared them both. It wasn’t until after all was said and done that she had realized how wonderful having a family with Matt would have been. Had he ever thought the same or had he been relieved when she left?
The memory of their last awful fight replayed itself in her head. She knew now that Matt was scared because he didn’t feel he could provide for a family yet but she hadn’t cared about that. She had the money they would need for quite some time and all she cared about was that he loved their child as much as she would. He had left the house angry saying he needed to get some fresh air and he had returned to her unconscious and bleeding on the bathroom floor. She could only imagine how that had made him feel. He probably blamed himself for the loss of the baby as much as she blamed herself.
After she had lost the baby, they found themselves unable to communicate anymore. She felt that their future no longer existed because the picture she had been creating in her head included a child. She realized now that his guilt is what kept him distant from her. And when she had left a few days later, neither of them knew what to say to the other. She should have hugged him, kissed him, never let him go. She should have grieved with him instead of hiding her tears.
All of these painful memories were making her lose her motivation and that was the last thing she needed. But she couldn’t get the picture out of her head of Matts face when she had told him goodbye. She hoped he had recovered from their relationship and had moved on to find someone that loved him and made him happy.
Chapter 10 – Cross country living – Present Day
Their numbers had strengthened as they made their way across the country, stopping at each of the facilities along the way. Most of the facilities had done as well for themselves as theirs had and a majority of the people were still alive, but those numbers were usually halved when the survivors were exposed to the virus. As expected, they had met with resistance at each facility in releasing the virus. People had formed bonds with each other and some were willing to forever live in their compound if it meant they could keep their loved ones alive. But Derek was relentless in his campaign and he and his loyal followers would follow through with their plan even if it meant that a few people had to die by a more violent means.
They had amassed a train of vehicles filled with people, weapons and supplies and he was determined to keep the group organized and on task.
The first time he came across children, he couldn’t contain his surprise. As far as he had known, no children had survived the virus and he had never seen a person below the age of 20. But his surprise had turned to understanding when they had forced the group into a room and released the virus. The children had quickly succumbed to the illness and the agonizing wails from the adults they were with told him that their parents had just managed to get them into a safe environment before they had been exposed to the virus. There was no time for sadness in this life. It was up to them to rebuild their world and they couldn’t do that by hiding underground the rest of their lives to protect the few that were too weak to survive.
He knew that the survivors would eventually come to understand his way of thinking and in the meantime, he kept guards on the group of people that had initially protested. He heard some of the whispers about his having become a tyrant, but he still felt that he was on track with his original plan and they would all benefit when all was said and done.
They only had one more facility to make their way to and then they could focus on deciding where they wanted to rebuild their society. He had saved this facility for last for a specific reason. It was in Colorado and after rounding up those survivors, he would scour the state under the guise of looking for a suitable town to rebuild in but with the real intention of finding Maya. And once he found her, he would convince her to rejoin them and to be with him, because if he couldn’t have her, no one could.
Chapter 11 – We never truly appreciated the gift of a warm shower – Present Day
Every morning Maya luxuriated in a hot shower. The fruits of her hard labor had provided her with hot water, lights, a regular stove and refrigerator and working plugs in the wall for a tv and dvd player she had picked up on one of her supplies hunts. She had finally taken to staying in the first bedroom and had a ceramic heater in there so she could keep warm all night.
Getting the solar system up and running had been laborious and Maya had taken her time to make sure it was done right. It had all been worth it.
She was heavy with pregnancy now and the snow had been softly coating the landscape for several months. She had managed to fill the cupboards with edible goods and had even found some produce to make soup for freezing. She had been on an outing going through houses in a particular neighborhood not too far out when she came across a farm that had been growing and selling vegetables and fruits. Left to its own devices, the greenhouses had become overgrown and nearly unmanageable with growth but she had hacked her way into a few of the buildings and found some of the heartier vegetable plants had been growing year after year and reseeding the soil as each batch would spoil and die. Tomatoes, cauliflower, lettuce, cucumber, potatoes and carrots made up the bulk of the living plants and a few spices were sprinkled in there as well. She had gathered up all she could find that still appeared edible and used them to make and freeze as much soup as possible. She set her fridge as cold as possible and filled the shelves with the homemade soups.
The second bedroom had been outfitted for the baby courtesy of a few neighbors as well. With each passing day that the baby continued to grow inside her, her hope rose a little bit more and she slowly filled the second bedroom with a crib, rocking chair, diapers, changing table and a plethora of neutral colored baby clothes. A small crib sat in wait next to her bed for when the baby was first born. She knew she was overdoing it with all of the heavy lifting and long days but she had no one else to rely on. She had grown strong over the months of hard work and would have had an incredible body if she didn’t have a baby protruding out her front.
The days were short and she guessed they were coming into the spring months but that wouldn’t matter much in the mountains since the heaviest snowfall came in the spring months.
Her evenings were spent watching some of the movies she had amassed on her trips out and reading the books she had been gathering. The house was quickly becoming cluttered but it felt homey and lived in and she was so comfortable here. Without a doubt she could make it through the rest of the cold months as long as everything continued to work as it was and she was able to live through the labor of her child.
She tried not to think about the labor. She knew it was going to be painful but she wouldn’t have the luxury of drugs or another person to help if she passed out. She would have to be tough and
make it through or all of her hard work would be for nothing.
Chapter 12 – Someone’s been watching you – Present Day
Dennis trudged through the snow back to his cabin. He had seen the smoke curling out of the chimney and saw the light go out so she had retired for the evening and everything still seemed to be okay. But she was getting close to having the baby and someone would need to come soon to help. He didn’t know the first thing about birthing a baby and didn’t want an education on it now. He was too old to learn new tricks!
At 62, Dennis was in incredible shape. But this life had demanded that in order to survive. He still didn’t know how he had survived the virus and he had begged for it to take him to finally relieve him of his loneliness from losing his wife several years earlier. But that was not to be and the day he was found by his savior, he knew his life was changed forever.
He was stationed here in these mountains to watch over the lady and he reported back to his leader every few days of her progress. His cabin was quite a ways from hers and there was no driveway to get to his place so she wouldn’t accidentally come across it while out on one of her supplies hunts. The cabin had been outfitted with everything he needed to survive for a long time to come but he didn’t get to have a woodstove because the smoke curling into the sky would surely be noticed by her. At first he was disgruntled that he would be living in a cabin in the mountains and not get to have wood fires but now he was grateful that he didn’t have to worry about chopping wood and hauling it inside every night. These daily hikes through the woods were enough for him to handle and he had one of those fake electric fires to sit in front of each night.
Dennis finally reached his cabin and banged his way inside the front door. He loved this cabin and only wished he could have shared it with his lovely wife. Although she wasn’t too fond of the cold weather so she may not have appreciated it as much as he did. It wasn’t anything fancy and only had a loft that he slept in and no actual bedroom but he loved that it was open with high ceilings and logs everywhere. The big expanse of windows across the front had been covered over for now. But soon he would be able to pull those covers off and enjoy the view since the lady would know soon enough that she wasn’t really alone anymore so there would no longer be a threat of her stumbling across his cabin and seeing lights through the windows. Although he doubted there would be the threat of that now in her condition. She didn’t venture outside much anymore for her usual hikes and didn’t go nearly as far as she used to.
After Days Page 5