Surviving Home

by A. American

  Passing Reggie, I waved and was turning into my gate a moment later. As I pulled in, Thad’s bulk stepped out of the azaleas with his shotgun half-raised, lowering it when he realized it was me. I pulled the Polaris around behind the house and parked it. Thad came up as I was inspecting the hole in the door.

  “We’ll figure a way to patch that up tomorrow,” he said.

  I nodded as I threw a piece of Styrofoam on the ground. “Yeah, we’ll look at it tomorrow after we get all the bodies buried.”

  “How many?”

  “Too fucking many,” I said. “Probably seven people from the neighborhood, and maybe that many of the raiders.”

  I told him of our plan for the night and asked if he would stay. He agreed and we headed inside. The fire was almost burned out, but a handful of pine needles and a hunk of fatwood started it right back up. I was laying in a log when Thad asked where the dogs were.

  “Probably ran off when the shooting started. They’re both scared of guns or fireworks, anything loud.”

  “I hope they come back. It’s good to have ’em around.”

  • • •

  The next morning the dogs were on the porch. Thad and I climbed on the ATV and headed down to the stocks without eating breakfast. Pulling out onto the road in the early morning cool, I was shocked to see the stocks were empty.

  “What is it?” Thad asked over my shoulder.

  “No one’s here. Where’s the prisoner?”

  I turned and headed for Reggie’s. After a couple of knocks, he came to the door, .45 in hand, wearing long johns. “Where’s the prisoner?” I asked as a greeting.

  Reggie rubbed his head, then scratched at his beard. “Hell, I don’t know. Mark relieved me last night.”

  “Well, get your shit together and come down to Danny’s house. We have two to bury there.”

  He acknowledged me by waving a hand as he shut the door. When we pulled in at Mark’s house, I knew something was up. The gate was open, the Mule was there, but the Scout was gone. I told Thad to take a look around as I went up to the front door and knocked. After a couple of knocks the door cracked open and Mark’s wife peered out.

  “What do you want, Morgan?”

  “Is Mark here?”

  “No, he’s gone out.” She looked back over her shoulder, then back at me.

  “Everything all right?”

  “Yeah, it’s just early. I don’t know what he’s doing.”

  Mark’s dog, a big black mutt of some kind, was raising hell behind her. The dog rushed the door, knocking it open a few more inches. I was looking down at the dog and saw bags packed and sitting by the door. “Did he take that prisoner with him?”

  “I told you I don’t know. I’ve got things to do. Good-bye.” She shut the door in my face.

  I went to the ATV where Thad was waiting. I asked him if he had seen anything. He hadn’t, and told him what had just happened. We headed for Danny’s and found Jeff and Danny sitting on the front porch. Danny was drinking a cup of tea and Jeff some coffee. They greeted us by raising their cups.

  “Got any more coffee?” Thad asked.

  “On the stove in there, cups are over the sink,” Danny said.

  “Something’s going on with Mark,” I said. “We have to talk.”

  Chapter 29

  Colonel Fawcet followed Sarge into the barracks they had been assigned to. They had enjoyed a leisurely lunch, and though the menu was far from fine dining, it was certainly better than what most people were eating these days. The old two-story building was probably from the forties but was in decent repair and enjoyed the benefit of heat from the base’s central boiler.

  From the back of the one large open room they could hear arguing. Sarge headed back toward the latrine with the colonel in tow. Coming around the corner, Sarge found Mike and Ted standing in front of a shower, wrapped in towels.

  “I’m next, dammit!” Mike shouted at Ted.

  Sarge stopped in the door of the shower room, his hands resting on his hips.

  “Fuck you, I called it after Ronnie,” Ted fired back.

  “You two fucksticks done?” Sarge shouted over the sound of a running shower.

  Ted and Mike both spun to see Sarge, then the colonel. As soon as they saw the Colonel they both snapped to attention and saluted, and Ted’s towel fell to the floor as he did. Sarge stood there shaking his head, “Mike, you know damn well it’s Teddy’s turn to sleep on top. You two hurry up and get your makeup on.”

  Both of them held the salute and Sarge looked over his shoulder to Colonel Fawcet. “You wanna release these two?”

  Fawcet offered a slight salute. “As you were, gentlemen,” he said, then quickly added, “Strike that, I think ‘at ease’ would be more appropriate, at least until the First Sergeant and I clear out.”

  Mike and Ted both dropped their salutes.

  “Colonel, you know he’s just kidding—” Mike started to say.

  Colonel Fawcet raised his hands in mock surrender, shaking his head as he backed out the door.

  “Aw, come on, Sarge, tell him yer just bullshittin’!” Mike called out.

  “On the bottom, Mikey, on the bottom,” Sarge said as he turned to follow Fawcet out the door.

  “That’s fucked up, Sarge!” Mike shouted.

  Fawcet headed for the door, wiping tears from the corners of his eyes. “I needed that. Everyone has been so damn uptight, it’s nice to see someone normal enough to mess around with.”

  “Colonel, I wouldn’t call us normal, but those are some good men back there. We’ll get to work pretty soon and do the best we can,” Sarge replied.

  Fawcet paused at the door and turned to Sarge. “Linus, you need anything let me know. Things are kind of limited right now, but I’ll do what I can for you.” Fawcet stuck his hand out.

  Sarge gripped his hand. “You just give me what you promised and we’ll come up with the rest.” The two men shook and Fawcet headed for the door.

  “Good luck, First Sergeant.”

  • • •

  Mel and Bobbie had a large pot of oatmeal prepared for breakfast. The girls weren’t real happy about that, though. They wanted to know why we couldn’t have scrambled eggs or something. Mel explained to them that we needed to start mixing things up a little, and that we couldn’t always eat what they wanted.

  I took the girls aside to explain things to them. “Listen up, ladies. We’ve had it pretty good at our house, and lots of people don’t have it half so good. And when you make a face at Bobbie’s oatmeal, how is she supposed to feel about that? She’s gonna feel bad, because Danny and Bobbie don’t have enough to share with us. If they had eggs and waffles and ice cream, do you think they wouldn’t give you some? I’m not mad, but you need to understand the new polite: if someone offers you food, you say thank you like it’s your favorite thing. You get me?”

  They looked embarrassed enough and said, “Yes, Daddy,” so I let them go eat.

  Danny, Thad and Jeff had no issues with oatmeal and were quickly doctoring bowls of the hot goop with honey, raisins and powdered milk. I like a little pinch of salt with mine and quickly made up a bowl of my own.

  Little Bit saw me add the salt and climbed up on a stool at the bar beside me, peering over the edge of the bowl. “You wanna bite?” I asked.

  She scrunched her face up. “I guess.”

  I scooped out a spoonful and held it out to her. She blew on it for a second then took a little bite. Her face lit up and I smiled at her. “Want some?” She nodded her head. I slid my bowl over to her and told her to eat it, that I would get another for myself. Lee Ann and Taylor were eating and showed no sign of disappointment.

  While we ate, we discussed the events of the previous night, what we needed to get done and trying to come up with a plan. Burying the bodies was the first priority. Getting some gas
would be our next priority. We agreed that we would load gas cans on the four wheelers and go down to the Kangaroo to see if we could make a trade. Once breakfast was done, we headed out to get to work.

  Danny and Jeff went out to the shop where we had left the two bodies. They were going to drag them out to the woods where we were going to bury them. In the meantime, I went to look for Reggie and his tractor.

  I found Reggie at one of the houses that had burned the night before. He was wading through the wreckage of the house, trying to drag one of the three bodies out. There was a small audience gathered watching him. They were leaning on the fence in front of the house, just watching. Meanwhile, Reggie was standing knee-deep in ashes trying to wrench a burned corpse from what remained of the house.

  I stopped as I came through the gate, and I was pissed. “Why don’t some of you go help him?” I shouted to the gawkers.

  With no more effort than a cat uses to look up as someone enters a room, one of them turned his head slightly and said, “They ain’t our problem.”

  “Well, they damn sure aren’t his either. He isn’t related to anyone here!”

  “He’s got the tractor. I ain’t got a tractor.” The gawker turned his attention back to Reggie, resting his chin on his forearms.

  Now I was really pissed. I jumped off the ATV, raising my carbine to my shoulder. “Then get the fuck out of here, you lazy fuckers!”

  They didn’t even bother raising their heads to my shouts. The round I fired into the ground in front of them did get their attention, though. The four men and boy leaning on the fence jumped back, looking at me. “I said fucking get! Now!” They raised their hands and started to back off.

  Reggie had stopped his labors and watched, shielding his eyes with his hand against the eastern sun. Once I was sure the onlookers were going to leave, I climbed back on the ATV and headed for the house. I left the carbine on the ATV and pulled a pair of gloves out of my cargo pocket, putting them on and wading into the ash and soot. Reggie smiled as I walked up to him, sticking a gloved hand out as I approached. “Thanks, brother.”

  I was still mad. “Fucking people. It’s not enough that we defended their goddamn homes last night. Now we gotta clean up the mess too.”

  “I tried to get those assholes to help me, but they wouldn’t. We can’t just leave these bodies lying around or we’ll all get sick.”

  “I know, man, there are some serious clingers around here.”

  Reggie and I worked together to drag the three bodies out. I hadn’t known the family, but from the size of the bodies it appeared there were two adults and one teen. We tried to show respect to the bodies as we fought to free them from the house, but bodies burned as badly as these don’t always hold together. We placed the bodies, all the pieces, one at a time into the bucket of Reggie’s tractor, and he drove them over to the hole he had dug.

  We used whatever we could find to wrap the bodies in: old tarps, pieces of plastic, whatever, to keep them together. We put them in the hole and covered them up without ceremony. I wasn’t religious, but it made me think that having a preacher around would be a good thing. There was so much to take care of and so much to worry about, we didn’t have the energy to think about how to send the departed off properly.

  As soon as we were done we headed for Danny’s. We found Danny, Jeff and Thad out behind the house in the wood. They were sitting or leaning on the ATVs, the three bodies lying sprawled on the ground like discarded meat.

  Reggie immediately went to work on the spot Danny pointed out, quickly digging a hole four or so feet deep. We didn’t handle these bodies nearly as delicately. Thad pushed two of them into the hole with his foot and Jeff pulled the third over to the hole by a leg and simply let it slide in on top of the other two. Reggie filled the hole, running the tractor over the fresh dirt to pack it down.

  With this part of the job done, we went to the house for a break. Bobbie brought a pitcher of tea and glasses out to the back porch for us. The five of us sat around on the chaise lounges and chairs scattered around and enjoyed the cool tea. Lee Ann and Taylor came out to sit with us. They asked what we had done with the bodies. We told them we had buried them. They asked where and Danny said they didn’t need to worry about it.

  Reggie said he would go check the other houses to see if there were any bodies there and take care of them if there were. He asked that we try to get some gas for him and I said that any we got would be for all of us to use. Danny went into the house to get some things to trade. He came out with a couple of bricks of .22 ammo. I told him I would get some things from the house when we got there.

  Mel came out and said she wanted to go to the house, she had things she wanted to do. Lee Ann said she wanted to go too, and Taylor and Little Bit wanted to stay with Bobbie. We decided to go and try and trade for gas. We would make sure Mel got home with the Suburban and then the four of us would take the four-wheelers with as many gas cans as we could haul to the store and see what we could get. Jeff wanted to take his bike. He said, “I ain’t gonna ride bitch behind Thad.”

  I looked at him with a grin. “What, you skeered to wrap your arms around him?”

  Thad said, “You can sit in front if you want, lil’ fella. I can reach around you and still grab the handlebars.”

  Danny spit tea out of his nose, I started to laugh and, of course, Thad started that deep baritone laugh of his. Jeff shook his head. “Fuck you, assholes, I’m going to get my bike.” He headed for the gate with all of us still laughing.

  The rest of us climbed onto our machines and I stopped to pick Jeff up. “Come on, I’ll take you to the house.” He gave me a look then hopped onto the rear rack, facing back.

  • • •

  At my house, I made sure Mel had her pistol. I had to make her put on a holster and wear it. I went to the shop and dropped a couple of canned hams and a couple cans of SPAM in my pack. Almost as an afterthought, I picked up a can of Coleman white gas. Back outside I could hear Jeff’s scooter coming down the road. He stopped at the gate and waited for us. The three of us got on our machines and headed out.

  As Thad passed through the gate, he slowed to say something to Jeff, I couldn’t hear because Jeff was gunning the throttle on the old Harley. He had his hand cupped to his ear and was shouting, “I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you!” I watched as Thad’s huge head rocked back on his shoulders, laughing as he pulled out of the gate. As Danny and I passed him, Jeff gunned the throttle, ensuring nothing was said.

  Jeff quickly passed the three of us and as he did I noticed the Mosin was in the scabbard as he went by. Rene’s dad John was at the barricade as we passed by. He waved and smiled at me. I was glad to see him out now and I thought things must have been getting better for him. I reminded myself to go check on Rene, and Miss Janice and Don, for that matter. The four of us pulled out on the road, turning left, heading for the store.

  I was surprised to see the number of people on the road. Traveling in ones, twos and what appeared to be family groups, they were all heading toward the forest. This made it even more curious. Why the forest? As we passed, some turned and looked at us as we went by—not for long, but they were certainly checking us out.

  I hadn’t been to the store in a while. Jeff was in the lead and stopped short of the store. We all stopped as we came to him, seeing the reason. The parking lot was full of people. There was what looked like a line, disorganized, forming at some tables. A couple of guys in uniforms were standing at the entrance off 19 and were looking at us looking at them.

  “What do you think?” Jeff asked as we pulled up.

  “Don’t know, let’s go see,” Danny replied.

  We started toward the store. Danny was in the lead and as he came up to the entrance, the men there held up a hand to stop us. One of them was just dripping in tacticool shit. He couldn’t have been more than five foot tall, yet he had to be carrying eighty pou
nds of crap. He was wearing a tac vest that was stuffed with magazines, a pistol in a drop-leg holster and a massive knife that would have brought out Rambo’s O face. The vest was adorned with all sort of morale patches, numbering nearly as many as the gadgets hanging from his AR. We all slowed as the mall ninja walked out. “What can we do for you?”

  “We want to trade,” Danny said.

  The guy looked us over. “Who you guys with?” he asked, looking at me.

  I pointed to Thad beside me on his quad. “I’m with them, they’re with me.”

  He wasn’t amused. “No, I mean who are guys with. We’re with the North Lake Militia.”

  I looked at Danny and shrugged. “We aren’t with any militia,” Danny said.

  While Danny was talking to the guy, another walked up. This one was different. He wasn’t as tacticool and was wearing what looked like a real uniform. He wasn’t looking at us so much as he was looking at what we were sitting on. He stopped and took a long look at the machines. I watched him. He looked up at me, holding his gaze for just a moment too long.

  “Can I help you?” I asked.

  Taking another look at the machines, he asked, “Where’d you get these ATVs?”

  “What’s it matter to you?”

  Danny was ignoring the little guy he was talking to. Thad and Jeff were both looking at the newcomer, Thad with far more interest than any of us.

  “Where you guys from?” the new guy asked.

  “Down the road,” I replied.

  “Down the road,” he repeated with a grin, dropping his head slightly. “What’s your name, there, friend?”

  Thad caught my eye and shook his head. I looked back to my questioner and said, “Haywood.”

  “Haywood what?” the questioner asked with a dour look.