by Alex Gunwick
“Okay. Shit. Shit.”
“On three. One. Two. Three.”
She turned the door and pushed it open. She wasn’t prepared for what she found inside.
Liz’s eyes went wide as Derek stepped out of the kitchen. The thirty year old ex-Marine pointed a pistol at her.
“Derek?”
“Liz?” He lowered the gun.
“What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same since I know this isn’t your house.” Derek holstered his sidearm.
“You two know each other?” Edwin asked.
“He helped my daughter get to the cabin. She was at UC Irvine when the bombs dropped. As she was walking home, she ran into some terrible men. Derek rescued her and escorted her the rest of the way home.” She turned to Derek. “I thought your parents lived several canyons over.”
“They do. When I got to their place, I found them roasting marshmallows in the fire pit.” He chuckled. “Good ole mom, always trying to make lemonade from lemons. I’m glad to see your husband made it home.”
“Oh, no. This is Edwin, one of my neighbors.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Derek said.
“Likewise.”
“Are you doing okay?” she asked Derek.
“Mostly, but my dad’s had a terrible headache for the last few days. I’ve been searching for Aspirin. I don’t suppose you have any on you?”
“No, but I have some back at the house. I can spare some. We were planning on searching the rest of the houses, but we can do that later.” She glanced at Edwin who gave a slight nod.
“Thank you,” Derek said. “My father’s not one to complain, so I’m worried about him. His blood pressure hasn’t been great the last few years.”
“Is he on any medication for it?” Liz asked.
“He’s been on a low dose aspirin for the last year. The doctor wanted to put him on something stronger, but dad hates taking medication.”
“I don’t think I have low dose.”
“Anything will do at this point. He’s getting migraines more often than not. He only had a week’s worth of aspirin left when the bombs dropped. They didn’t make it into town before all the stores were ransacked. We ran out five days ago.”
“When did the headaches start?”
“Two days later.”
“Hopefully what I have will help.” Liz headed toward the front door. “Let me go out first. We have someone outside ready to shoot at the first sign of trouble.”
“Go right ahead,” Derek said.
After walking out onto the front porch, Liz waved both arms overhead until Harvey came out from behind an oak.
“We’ve got someone with us,” she said. “Don’t shoot.”
Harvey lowered the rifle as they approached. After a brief introduction, the group walked through the woods back to Liz’s house.
“How’s Sierra doing?” Derek asked.
“I’d like to strangle her with my bare hands some days.” After telling him about the trouble they’d been having with the preacher, she added, “If I catch her sneaking around again, I’ll probably lock her in the house until Luke gets back.”
“Have you heard from him?” Derek asked.
“Yes. He called a few days ago. He should be home within the next five days or so.” As long as he stays alive, she silently added.
“He’ll make it.”
“Thanks for saying that.”
“Watch your step,” Liz said as they cut a path through the woods toward her house. “I’ve got caltrops and tripwires spread out.”
“Remind me never to try to come over at night,” Derek said.
“Why would you come here at night?”
Liz stopped walking and turned to face him. Sure, he’d saved Sierra, but she still didn’t know him. She was only giving him some aspirin as a gesture of thanks for helping her daughter.
“I don’t plan on it.” Derek frowned. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. If I wanted to steal from you or attack your home, I would have done it already.”
“We caught you searching another house,” Harvey said.
“Only because I knew it was vacant,” Derek said. “I’ve been staking it out the last twenty-four hours. I wasn’t about to break into an occupied house. I’m not a thief.”
“Did you happen to check any of the other houses further up the canyon?” Harvey asked.
“Yeah. I almost lost a toe outside one. Whoever’s hiding out inside has a hell of an aim. I tried to talk to them, but they were only interested in shooting.”
“We were planning on checking the other houses to see if we can round up more people for our group,” Liz said. “We figure we’ll be stronger once we have better numbers.”
“Definitely skip the fourth house up on the right. The green one with white trim.”
“What about the others?” Liz asked.
“There are three other houses. Two were vacant.”
“What about the third?”
“I couldn’t tell. I spread dirt all over the front and back porch then went back a few days later to see if there were any footsteps. It looked as if someone may have walked up the back steps, but I couldn’t tell for sure. I need to check that one again.”
“Why didn’t you break in?” Liz asked.
“Like I said, I’m not a thief. If anyone’s living there, I’ll leave them alone. I only broke into the vacant ones.”
“Did you find anything useful in the other houses?”
“Not really.”
She noted his vague answer and decided to ask him again later when they were alone. He didn’t know Harvey or Edwin, so he probably didn’t trust them enough to share info about what he’d found. She didn’t blame him. If she’d found a cache of food or weapons, she wouldn’t tell anyone either.
When they reached the cabin, Justice came barreling down the steps. After a sharp woof at the strangers, he looked at Liz.
“Come here, boy.”
He scrambled toward her and ran two circles around her legs before flopping onto his back in front of Edwin.
“You want belly rubs?” he asked.
“That’s one vicious guard dog you got there,” Derek said.
“Justice knows Edwin. Luke used to go camping and fishing with him. They took Justice on some of the camping trips. I’ll get the aspirin.”
The front door opened and Sierra stepped onto the porch.
“Who are all those—Derek!” She ran down the steps and gave him a hug. “How have you been? How are your parents?”
Liz went inside the cabin while they caught up. She pulled the medical kit from underneath the sink. Several single serving packets of aspirin lined the bottom of the kit. She pulled out ten packets, then added four more. No point in being stingy. They had a huge bottle of aspirin hidden in the shed. They wouldn’t run out anytime soon.
When she walked back outside, Harvey and Edwin waved her over.
“We’re heading home. I’ve got watch in a few hours,” Edwin said.
“And I need to get back to milk the goats,” Harvey said.
“Should we plan on checking the other cabins tomorrow?” she asked.
“Yeah.” Harvey’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Do you trust this guy?”
“I think so.”
“We should check the cabins anyway.”
“I agree.”
“We can discuss it more at tonight’s meeting,” Harvey said.
“Sounds good.”
As they headed toward Edwin’s house, Liz turned to find Sierra and Derek huddled together talking in low tones. She narrowed her gaze. What were they whispering about?
“Sierra was just telling me about how much she likes being grounded.” Derek grinned. “You’re lucky, Sierra. I probably would have tanned your hide if I was your parent.”
“I thought you were on my side.” Sierra put her hands on her hips and pouted.
“I don’t do sides.”
“I can spar
e these for now.” Liz handed him the medication.
“But you have more?”
“Maybe. What did you really find up at the other cabins?”
He stared at her for several seconds before a slow smile spread across his face.
“Nothing gets past you, does it?” he asked.
“I’d like to think so.” She glanced at Sierra who rolled her eyes and headed back inside the cabin.
“I found some food,” he said. “I didn’t want to say anything earlier because I don’t know those guys.”
“How much food?”
“Enough for three people for about a month. Not much, but I’ve been carrying it back to my parent’s home. They didn’t have much on hand. I’m worried about our food supply.”
“Eventually we’re going to have to try to find more. I’m going to plant a garden, but I can’t count on it. The weather’s been strange.”
“Cold.”
“Too cold for this time of year.”
“Do you think the fallout’s blocking out the sun?” he asked.
“Maybe. I don’t know. Edwin’s got a HAM, but information is spotty at best. No one really knows what’s going on.”
“We should get ready for winter. If we wait too long, we could be up shit creek without a paddle or a boat.”
“It’s too bad you live a few canyons over. We could use someone like you in the group,” she said.
“Let’s stay in touch. Even if we’re not neighbors, we might be able to help each other out.”
“Sounds good.”
After Derek left, Liz sat on the front porch. Gray light filtered through the clouds. Even if she managed to plant a garden, would enough sunlight get through to make it grow? She hated to contemplate another six months without power, but if they didn’t start planning for a colder than normal winter, then they could run out of food. She had enough for her family, but what about the others? When their food ran out, could she really turn them away?
She never wanted to be in a position in which she’d have to make that choice. At tonight’s meeting she’d broach the subject and see what the others thought. Maybe if they pooled their gardening resources, they could start a community garden. They needed to figure out how to divide up the harvest now before people got desperate. Although she didn’t want to set up a bunch of rigid rules, she couldn’t see any other way to make the community work. Hopefully everyone else would be on board.
8
Sierra cursed and dropped two buckets down on the side of the stream. That morning, the stupid water pump had stopped working at the cabin. Now she had to keep two 55 gallon drums full. Of course she’d been tasked with carrying buckets of water back and forth all morning. God forbid Kyle had to help. So what if he was only thirteen. He had arms. He could help.
She hated the buckets, the cabin, and the apocalypse. Why couldn’t everything go back to normal? Even Derek had been a jerk to her. She’d expected him to at least keep her complaints to himself, but he’d spewed to her mom the second she’d come back. Why didn’t anyone respect her privacy?
Footsteps sounded from the path on the other side of the river. Adam waved.
“Hey, I was hoping you’d be here. What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m on bucket duty.”
“Why?”
“The water pump’s broken.”
“That sucks.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Do you have to get back right now or can you talk for a minute?”
“I can talk,” she said. “Everyone’s pissed at me all the time anyway, so if I’m late, what difference does it make?”
“Why are people pissed?”
“Because I talked to you. Now they all think Elijah’s trying to kill us or something.”
“Well…”
“What?” She flipped a bucket over and sat on it. “He’s not trying to kill us, right?”
“I don’t know.”
“What does that mean?”
“Things are weird at the church.”
“Weird how?”
“I’ve been watching him.”
“Elijah?”
“Yeah. He’ll say one thing, then do the opposite of what he said when people aren’t watching.”
“So you’ve been spying on him?”
“Yeah.” Adam chewed on the edge of his lip. “I keep seeing women who aren’t his wife go into his office with him. They close the door. I think…”
“What?”
“I think he’s having sex with them.”
“Seriously? What a creeper.”
“I also found out what’s in the shed.”
“The one behind the church?”
“They’ve got guns. A lot of guns.”
“How many?” Her heart thudded at the implications.
“I couldn’t tell.”
“More than ten?”
“At least twenty. Maybe more.”
“Why do they need so many guns?” she asked.
“I don’t know, but I think we have another problem too.”
“What?”
“At the last few meals, we haven’t been given as much food. We’re eating mostly soup. We used to get several pieces of meat in each bowl, now we’re lucky to get one piece. I tried to ask my mom about it, but she said not to worry. I think she’s just trying to protect me.”
“Have you checked the food supply? Does everyone have their own stockpile, or is it all together?”
“It’s all together in the church’s kitchen. Mom goes in to bake, but she’s not allowed to let anyone else in there to help her. It’s weird. I don’t understand why other people can’t help.”
“That is odd. Do you think they’re going to run out of food?”
“I don’t know. I’m going to follow Turner for a while. He’s head of security and Elijah talks to him the most. If anything’s going on, he’ll know.”
“Why don’t you just ask him?”
“He’s not very friendly.”
“What will you do if you run out? Do you have any hidden at your house?” she asked.
“No. After the bombs dropped, Elijah made everyone bring their food to the church. He said we’d be in better shape if we combined everything. Some families had more than others. They’re going to be pissed when they find out we’re running low.”
“Do you have a garden?”
“A small one, but not enough to feed everyone.”
She was tempted to tell him about the huge stockpile of food they had in the shed, but what if he told Elijah? She couldn’t afford to risk their food supply, no matter how much she liked Adam. However, they had so much, it couldn’t hurt to share a few cans.
“I can bring you a little bit of food,” she said.
“You can?”
When his eyes widened, a shimmy of desire wriggled in her belly. He was so much cuter than the guys at school. Of course she’d try to help him out. So far he hadn’t mentioned a girlfriend. Maybe he was single, but how could she ask without being obvious?
“If I give you food,” she said. “You can’t share it with anyone.”
“Not even my mom?”
“Of course you can share with her, but not like… your girlfriend.”
“I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Really?” She learned forward.
“I had one but she broke up with me when she left for college.”
“That sucks,” she said, while celebrating in her head.
“What about you?”
“Nope.”
An awkward silence hung between them for several seconds.
“I should head back,” he said. “I don’t want Elijah wondering where I went.”
“He’s pretty controlling.”
“He’s obsessed with knowing where everyone is at all times. He says it’s so that he can keep us safe.”
“Be careful. Don’t let him catch you sneaking around.”
“I will.”
“Come back
tomorrow and I’ll bring food.”
Instead of turning to leave, he took a few steps closer.
“I’m glad I ran into you,” he said softly. “Sometimes I feel like I don’t have anyone I can talk to.”
“I feel like that too.”
He pulled her into a quick hug then jumped back. He turned and jogged into the forest, leaving her to deal with a rush of longing. She had to find a way to help him. Based on what he’d described, the church was running out of food. How much could she afford to bring him?
After filling the buckets, she walked back to the porch behind the cabin. She carefully dumped water into the opening at the top of the 55 gallon drums. She set down the empty buckets and peeked inside the house. With her mom asleep in bed and her brother on patrol, she could check their food supply. No one would miss a couple of cans. Maybe she could get some beans too.
She opened the shed and stepped inside. Pale slices of light cut through the space between the boards in one wall. She stepped in front of the canned food shelf and searched until she found peas, carrots, and spinach. She hated spinach. Screw Popeye. She grabbed an extra can and set it on a workbench.
After finding a plastic bag, she put all four cans inside. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. If he still didn’t have any food in a few days, she might be able to sneak some beans and rice. There were several unopened bags sitting in buckets, but she couldn’t get to them without her mom knowing. She’d have to take the beans and rice from the jars inside the house, or wait until her mom opened a fresh bag.
If her mom caught her, she’d be in big trouble. But how could she let Adam starve? It wasn’t right. Maybe she could talk to her mom and see if Adam and his mom could move in with them. They didn’t have a lot of space at the cabin, but they’d figure out a way to make it work. They could sleep in the living room.
She immediately shook off the idea. Her mom would freak. For now, she’d have to be satisfied with sneaking them some food. Later, she could find a permanent solution.
Elijah strolled through the picnic benches in the church parking lot. Forty-two souls depended on him to provide both spiritual and physical sustenance. Tonight, however, the lack of food on their dinner plates indicated a problem. He walked to where his wife, Patrice, stood next to a cooking fire.