by P X Duke
—Yes. I’ve seen them before, but not like that. A single occupant, the driver. Oh, and he was unarmed when he got out.
—You have a keen eye for observation. It occurred to me that he was careless because he knew that there was no one to threaten him. I’m thinking that every last soul has been evacuated into relief centers.
—Or worse.
I ignored Caitrin’s comment. I wasn’t comfortable even considering it. It might be selfish, but I had more pressing things to consider.
Having an extra person to help with some projects I had planned would be good. Until now, I never considered having a helper. It might just end up doing us both good. I eased into the subject.
—Would you like to see my workshop?
I was in the process of constructing a solar- and battery-powered pump. I’d need it to provide the gasoline for the generator. The only way to get more would be to scrounge from the thousands of abandoned vehicles littering the streets.
Already I had a makeshift trailer built for the bike to cart the system. Empty twenty-gallon containers sat beside the pump and the solar panel in the garage.
—You’ve been busy.
—When you feel more comfortable being around me, I’d like to have your help.
She stepped back and studied me, hands on hips, brow furrowed.
—So you need a mule, do you?
—No, I can do it all myself. But now that we’ve been formally introduced, I think it would be good for both of us.
—How so?
—Obviously, you’ve been scouting out your own resources. I’m not looking to steal your secrets. I could use a little help with my own. That generator alone will gobble up a lot of fuel when the nights start to get longer and colder.
—Thus the portable pump. I can understand that.
—I’ve got a chain saw, too. I’ll have to feed that fireplace when the weather turns.
Caitrin gestured in the direction of the park behind the house. It seemed she knew the area, too.
—You won’t have far to go for trees.
—I can’t start cutting down the trees in this neighborhood. That could draw too much attention the next time a lost truck driver climbs out and starts looking around.
Caitrin walked to the door. Before opening it, she looked through the peep-hole.
—It’s too late for me to get home. I won’t have enough daylight. I don’t want to be out in the dark.
—You can stay here if you want. You’ll be safe.
She picked up her belt with the k-bar and strapped it on.
—You’re right. I will be.
She didn’t want any of the spare rooms. I left a blanket and a pillow on the sofa.
—As far as the help you want goes, we’ll go fifty-fifty on it. After you’re finished, you can start helping me with a few things.
I wasn’t expecting that so soon.
—Thank you. It’s a deal.
She stuck out her hand and this time she shook mine. I wasn’t expecting that, either. I walked down the narrow hallway to my bedroom. She could sleep anywhere she darn well pleased.
I propped a chair against my own door.
I slept happy knowing I’d have company to look forward to in the morning. That the company was a woman, and a good-looking one at that, was a bonus.
It turned into a tossup whether I dreamed I could smell coffee or bacon. The hum in the same dream turned out to be the generator at the end of the hall. It was then that I remembered I had company. Caitrin must have fired it up for another shower.
I threw on a t-shirt and a pair of jeans and ventured out, anxious to know what I’d find in the kitchen. I wasn’t expecting a woman in a short, brightly-colored sun dress standing barefoot in front of the stove. I couldn’t help wondering if she had come prepared.
—You make everything in this place look cheap by comparison.
Surprised, Caitrin whirled and the thin dress hesitated before doing the same. I managed to get a good look at a pair of long, tanned legs before the skirt settled back down to surround them.
—I hope that’s a compliment. If it isn’t, I can still skin you alive.
She picked up the k-bar.
—That won’t be necessary until after I’ve eaten the breakfast you’re making. I know when to hide my true intentions.
Caitrin put her hands on her hips and glared.
—Sit down, shut up, and eat before I change my mind.
Humbled, I did as I was told. No doubt, Caitrin could cook. The bacon was just the way I liked it, crisp but not too. Even the fake eggs tasted almost as good as real. I had to ask.
—What did you do to the eggs?
She made a show of picking up her k-bar and brandishing it in my direction.
—Is that a prelude to a complaint?
—Only if you want it to be. What did you put in the fake eggs?
—Nothing I’m going to be telling you about. My secret ingredients cannot be revealed.
I couldn’t remember the last time I had a good-looking woman across the breakfast table from me. Especially one that hadn’t spent the night in my bed. I wouldn’t be telling her that, though.
—Do you have any plans for the rest of the day?
—Besides getting home before it gets dark? Not especially. Why?
—I want to do some scouting. If you want to, you could help me. If you have the time, that is.
—Will I have to change?
—Only if you want to be able to wear that dress for me again.
Caitrin got up, grabbed her bag and walked to my room at the end of the hall.
While I waited I stretched out on the sofa. I closed my eyes for what I thought was only a minute. The barrel of Caitrin’s shotgun jabbed me and I opened my eyes to the sight of her standing over me. Startled, I jumped up. I almost knocked her over.
She beat a retreat and sat down in front of the fireplace. At least she hadn’t pulled the trigger in fright.
Caitrin was dressed for the hunt. The k-bar was back in place on her belt. She had her double-barreled shotgun across her front, breach open. The strap crossed between her breasts, emphasizing them. I tried not to stare for too long.
—You’re ready. Give me a couple and I will be, too.
—You were having a nightmare.
She heard me tossing and turning. I couldn’t deny it. I was still sweaty from the dream.
—I was. Yesterday was quite a shock to my system, what with you showing up in person this time, and our visitor at the end of the street. Today will be a better day.
—I hope so. What’s the plan?
—We’re going hunting.
She looked surprised.
—Really? For what?
With two of us to do the work, I’d be able to cover a lot more ground than I had been able to by myself. I explained the collapsible dipstick, the paint can and the markings to be left on each vehicle we’d be checking.
The extra weight of a passenger, even one as light as Caitrin, slowed the pace of the electric bike, but not by much. At the first car I showed her how to slide the measuring stick into the gas tank. She marked the fuel door to indicate how much remained, and then we’d move on to the next.
Once she had the hang of it, we split up and covered twice the territory. We’d meet back at the intersection where we started, and I’d mark the map with the separate routes we took and the quantities of fuel left behind.
Before long, I was riding ahead to open a line of tanks for her. She’d walk the line, measure and cap and then mark the results. We did about a hundred cars and trucks and discovered more fuel than I had storage for.
—It’s getting late in the day. I think it’s time to get you home.
—I’m ready. I’m exhausted from getting on and off the bike.
—Do you trust me enough to take you, or do you want to find your way from here?
—I’ve already made my decision about that. You’re going to take me home.
—Mi
ne, or yours?
My huge grin only encouraged Caitrin to roll her eyes.
—All right then. Climb on for the last time.
Caitrin was all smiles when she threw a leg over for her ride. Even the shotgun digging into my back couldn’t take away from the day’s accomplishments.
—I really liked having you along. Maybe we can do it again soon.
I could only hope.
—It’s nice having someone else to talk to after all these months.
Someone else? I allowed the slip-up to pass unnoticed.
—If you want, I can pick you up and we can roam around looking for whatever it is you need to make your place more livable.
—That would be good. There’s lots I need for the winter coming up.
I knew she wouldn’t let me take her all the way home. It didn’t surprise me when she asked me to pull over. She started to explain, but I held up my hand.
—It’s not necessary. I understand. If it was the other way around, I’d do the same.
—Thank you, Russel.
She kissed me on the cheek.
—It’s been a great day.
—For both of us, I’d say.
Caitrin blushed. She turned and fast-trotted in the direction of an alley. She turned and waved. I pointed the bike in the direction of my own home.
I had plenty to think about. It had been a shock to come upon Caitrin waiting patiently at my door. When the truck arrived and she disappeared, I thought she had left for good. That she took a chance and ran indoors to avoid detection surprised me.
It pleased me that she trusted me enough to spend the night. I still had no idea whether we’d make a team. For now, I’d run with it and see what might develop.
Once home, I unlocked the door and went around checking that the curtains were closed before firing up the generator.
I washed off the day’s accumulated grime. I put a potato in the oven and threw some chicken into a batch of spices before putting it on the stove to simmer. I stretched out on the sofa and forgot all about a shower.
The explosions in my dream turned into pounding. Something was pounding on the roof. Wait. No. Not the roof.
Confused, I rolled over and fell off the sofa. That forced me to recognize the sound.
In the dark, late at night, I refused to turn on the lights. Instead, I opened the door. I didn’t even have a shotgun within easy reach. Caitrin must have heard me turn the lock. She burst through the open door. In her haste, she almost knocked me down.
I reacted to her panic and quickly swung the door shut and locked it.
—You scared the bejesus out of me. What’s going on?
She couldn’t talk. She couldn’t catch her breath. Huffing and puffing, she must have ran all the way from her place. I left her to calm down and return to some semblance of sanity while I went to check on dinner. She followed, and watched while I set another place at the table.
Caitrin still hadn’t said a word.
—It looks and sounds like you need a dose of reality. Sit down and take your time. While I wait, perhaps you can fill your stomach and figure out what it is that you want me to know.
SEVEN
Russell and Caitrin
Caitrin paced back and forth and slowly began to catch her breath. The panicked look on her face changed to one of relief. She pushed the plate away and replaced it with her shotgun. The breach was closed. I didn’t ask if it was loaded. I figured, given the circumstances, that a measure of trust might be in order.
—Go wash up and then you can eat.
She didn’t move. She continued to sit and stare at me.
—I’ll still be here when you get back. Go.
She disappeared down the hall, moving like an automaton. She left or maybe forgot her shotgun on the table. Perhaps after our day spent together she had developed some trust. When she returned, her hand covered the handle of the knife on her belt.
—It’s your shotgun. I have no use for it, Caitrin.
Something had definitely spooked her since I dropped her off near her place.
—I’m sorry. When I opened my door I got quite a shock.
—Sit down and eat. You can tell me as you fill up, all right?
She took two bites and couldn’t stop talking. The words came out in a rush. I listened, mouth agape, and put down my own fork.
She had approached her place like she always did. Cautious. On the lookout for anything and everything. All of her watch-out signs and warnings were in place. None had been disturbed. No one had violated her privacy. Or so it seemed, until she unlocked her door and walked into the mess that up to now had been her fortress.
She didn’t take the time to grab anything. Instead, she turned right around without taking even one more step inside. She locked the door and hot-footed it, zig-zagging, careful to check to see if anyone followed.
She stopped, waited, listened, peered around corners, backtracked and carried on, never moving in a straight line. Always she watched her back. Always she expected to be surprised at any moment.
It took hours to get anywhere close to my place.
Nothing and no one appeared to follow her. As she got closer, she began to relax just a bit. When it came time to pound on my door in the dark, she went on heightened alert. Caitrin knew I’d be on high alert, too. When I opened the door without so much as a word, it shocked her into a panic attack.
She knew she’d be safe once inside. She still had an inkling in the back of her mind that she was taking a chance that I would even go to the door without knowing who was there.
Her story had come out in a mad spatter of words, hurried, as if she stopped to take a breath she’d forget what came next. I had a solution for that. I opened a bottle of brandy and poured her a shot. Caitrin gulped it down and asked for another. I obliged, and she downed that in an instant, too.
—That’s enough. Go on over to the sofa and try to relax. I’m going to clean up.
She collapsed on the sofa. When I came back she was asleep, quietly snoring. I covered her with a blanket and sat beside her. Whether on purpose or not, she fell over and her head ended up resting against my shoulder.
I arranged the blanket to cover both of us and watched the fire die.
It was the sound of water running in the bathroom that woke me. I was unaccustomed to waking up so late in the day. I also wasn’t accustomed to having company two days in a row.
Caitrin must have fired up the generator on her own. The only sounds I’d grown used to hearing were my own, and they didn’t include a hairdryer doing its job on Caitrin’s long, dark hair.
For some reason, that simple act on her part, that starting up the generator, pleased me. I began to think that there might be some hope for us to work together more often.
She must have rummaged around my room, because she came out wearing an old t-shirt. A pair of great-looking, long legs hung out from the bottom of the thigh-length shirt. She caught me looking for longer than I probably should have.
—Don’t you be getting any ideas. It’s been too long since I last relaxed in safety. That’s all I want to do today.
—That’s all right with me. Whatever the look you were trying to achieve, you’ve captured it. I’ve missed that, too. I’ll tell you what. I’ll wash my sheets for you, and tonight you can crash in my bed.
She raised an eyebrow.
—Will I be alone in there?
—That’s up to you.
—Then there’s no sense in washing anything.
I would have grinned like someone who had just won the lottery, but for the fact that there was no place to spend the money. Instead, I grinned like a fool. I didn’t even try to hide it.
—And stop grinning.
I couldn’t. Instead, I put on the coffee.
I rummaged around in the back of a closet and came up with a couple of board games that the previous occupants must have had for their kids. For the rest of the day and well into the night, we competed for the best pr
operties and tried to stay out of jail.
Strip poker was out of the question, because by now, purposely or not, it was evident Caitrin had absolutely nothing else on under the t-shirt.
When we tired of the board games, we talked. We talked long into the night and well into the morning. We realized there would be no going back to the world we knew before the purges. We knew too that there was bound to be more people just like us, whether single or living in groups.
There had to be, otherwise Caitrin’s place would have remained untouched.
We also knew that they might not be law-abiding. Knew that they might not be friendly. That they might not be so willing to help others in the same situation. That they might want to loot and steal everything we had collected up to now and take it for their own.
It took us until just before sunup to talk it out and come up with a partial solution. We were just about dead in our tracks from fatigue and nervous exhaustion.
Neither of us slept on the sofa.
I didn’t do the laundry for a couple of days.
We agreed to work together to expand our cache of houses and goods to as many as we could manage to fill over the next months. We planned on an additional three or four places in different neighborhoods. If we outfitted them just like mine, we’d be able to go on the run at a moment’s notice.
By the time we finished developing a basic plan, we knew it would take months to get everything set up. And that was if we could find the right locations already equipped with fresh water reserves. If we didn’t locate those places right off, it would take us even longer.
It didn’t take much convincing to agree on the need for two trucks, radios to stay in contact, and maybe even a dog with a good nose to sniff out danger. At least we were thinking of danger, even if we weren’t prepared for it beyond a couple of shotguns and a knife.
Caitrin climbed on the motorcycle and we took off. We began slowly working our way to her place. To throw anyone off who might be watching, we worked the streets off the main drags and zig-sagged as though we were scouting more gasoline reserves.