by Walls, Annie
Months passed and life at the base became semi-normal, relaxing me somewhat. I spent weeks observing everyone around me, and I noticed all the camaraderie the soldiers had, except for Mac. He never entertained himself with them and stuck mostly to business. A few times I’d catch him drinking hard liquor and we’d play some cards. It seemed as though something plagued him. Either he was grieving something he’d lost and wasn’t taking it well, as some did, or his job wore on him. It could’ve been both for all I knew. Even so, my curiosity about him and what he did on a daily basis grew stronger each day.
Julie and I were in a constant state of impasse. She never brought up our engagement to me but made damn sure everyone else knew it. It would’ve bothered me if it didn’t keep other women away. With the work I put in at the greenhouse, I didn’t have time to deal with it. The only person I actually evaded was Julie, herself.
It worked for a couple of months—until my balls felt like they would fall off. Maybe this was more from hearing Mac get laid on a regular basis than anything else. The slightest touch from Julie made me achier, causing my dick to think for itself. It got to a point where no amount of jerking off kept my mind off of it for long, but sex with her was not something I wanted to do. Not because she would think more of it, but I probably would. It’s a pattern for us. For me.
“Rudy, you’re needed in my office.” Matt Gordon said to me on an early fall afternoon. Matt was a dipshit and somehow the head of several different facets that helped the base run smoothly. Maintenance was one of them, therefore, the construction of the greenhouse. I dealt with his absurd authority daily.
Sweat and sawdust clung to me like a second skin as I cut the Skil saw. The late September heat wasn’t letting up, but at least it wasn’t as humid as Louisiana would be right now.
Carrie was waiting for me in Matt’s office. She stood. “Hey, sorry to bother you.”
“No problem, what’s up?”
“I need you for a general maintenance problem. It’s been fixed before, but it was more like a Band-Aid. We finally got what we need to repair it.”
“What is it?”
“A leaky pipe.”
“I’m not a plumber,” I pointed out.
She sighed. “I know you seemed uncomfortable with the idea of doing resident maintenance, but you fixed a pipe in the main building. We don’t have anyone else that can do that right now. If it helps, it’s the water supply system underneath the house.”
“Fine.”
Upon knocking on the door of the house, the brown-haired Marie opened it. Her eyes widened in surprise. “You’re going to fix the pipe?”
“I’m going under there now. Just letting you know you won’t have water for a while.”
When I finally wedged myself into the crawlspace, it was all mud. I sloshed through the pit and it only got muddier. I found the source of mangled copper piping. It had been wrapped with thick plumbing tape.
“Leaky pipe my ass,” I griped to myself through my clenched jaw. Carrie was going to pay for this one. The source of puncture was still there. That had to be fixed, too, or else the new pipe would come to the same fate. Shutting off the water, I made my way back out of the crawlspace through the sludge. Contrary to popular belief, I didn’t like rolling around in mud.
It took a few hours after draining the pipes to remove the old pipe and cut and sweat the new one. The last minutes of daylight dimmed in the sky by the time I finished. I bet their water pressure used to be shit.
I asked Marie to check the water from the back door. Being covered in mud, I didn’t want to make a mess. I watched as she turned on the kitchen sink. Water blasted out at normal pressure. She smiled at me.
“Thank you,” she said, handing me a towel.
“How’s Michelle?” I heard her earlier, chatting away through the floorboards.
“Fine. At the playground with our roommates…” She trailed off. “Listen, I’m sorry for… everything.” She waved her hands around as if she didn’t know how to apologize. Even with the passing months, I still felt a slight irritation whenever I saw her. I opened my mouth to say something. “Come in, I’ll get you something to drink.”
“Thanks, but I’m covered in mud.” I backed away.
She peered at me in a way I immediately recognized. “You can take your pants off. I won’t mind.” She pulled me into the kitchen while my head battled with my little head. Marie noticed my resistance and sighed in frustration. “Is it Julie?”
This couldn’t be good, not only because of Julie but because of Michelle, too. I shook my head. “I don’t want to complicate things, nor can I give you anything more.”
She scoffed. “I don’t want anything from you. It’ll be our secret. Plus, I haven’t thanked you properly.” She dropped to her knees in front me. Her fingers skimmed my lower abdomen as she grabbed my jeans. We were both consenting adults. She knew about Julie and our fucked up relationship. But Marie was the lesser of the two evils. If she wanted to thank me, I wasn’t going to stop her. Resigned, I let out a breath, getting excited for some fun—some time to forget everything else going on and to relieve a little stress.
Unfortunately, the front door opened with a bang and laughter. Marie stood with a flushed face, and I shifted myself, uncomfortably, as quick as possible. Michelle skipped into the kitchen with a woman and two other children I recognized from around the base.
“Hey, Rudy!” Michelle greeted me. I smiled, trying to switch gears.
Marie spun and pushed me out the backdoor. “Come back on your lunch break tomorrow. To check the pipes.” The door closed in my face, but I laughed to myself. To check the pipes indeed.
I got back to my own house and heard Mac and Carrie’s commotion. Anger surged through me, and I wanted to explode in more ways than one. Deciding now would be a fantastic time to give Carrie a piece of my mind, I opened his bedroom door. It smacked against the wall, and they both startled. Carrie’s legs were spread out like a gymnast, but Mac kept his rhythm. Impressive. “That was not just a leaky pipe! You knew that crawlspace was a mud pit, didn’t you?”
Her already flushed face turned bright red as she tried to cover herself with a sheet. Mac laughed and said, “Dude, you’re tracking mud.”
I grabbed the door handle. “I volunteer Carrie to clean it.” She looked like she wanted to crawl in a hole and die. Mac continued laughing when I shut the door. I chuckled myself, shaking my head. Yep, paybacks could be hell in the form of humility.
Then
Weeks later, we were cutting the glass for the large greenhouse into panes. Two idiots fucked up and cut three of the top panes wrong before I caught the mistake. We had the exact amount of glass for the greenhouse to begin with, landing us in a big mess and three panes short.
I took the fall for it and sat in an office with Matt Gordon.
He paced the office for the better part of the day brainstorming on how to get more glass. I learned weeks back to keep my mouth shut because he’d lean on me when he exhausted all other options from his mind. If I threw in my opinion before he wanted me to, he’d ditch it to try and prove a point.
So there I sat, calling on the patience I’d gained from knowing Julie most of my life—excluding the days following the outbreak. Those didn’t count where patience was concerned. Matt wanted to still use the glass panes, and normally would be okay, but with a greenhouse this size, it should be precise. One storm could blast through with the right wind and we’d be replacing it anyway.
The door burst opened. Mac stalked in the office to the side of the desk, his gaze locking with mine. What was he doing? The palms of his hands flattened on the desk as he leaned down. “What the fuck is taking so long?”
My mouth opened to say something, but I was baffled speechless. Then I saw it. A flash of amusement crossed his face before whipping around to stare at Matt in all seriousness.
Matt was just as mystified so I answered Mac. “Waiting for Matt to figure out how to get more glass for the green
house.”
Mac considered me and shrugged. “How would you get it?”
“I’d go get some. I’m sure I could find some glass panes at any home improvement store.”
Matt stepped forward. “Wait just a damn minute. You know there is a process for that kind of thing. I don’t have the manpower.”
Mac moved forward toe to toe and looked up—Mac was always looking up. Hell, Julie might even be taller than him if she were in heels. He looked up at Matt with his arms crossed. “That process is shit. There’s no fucking need for it. Structure won’t be coming anytime soon, so take your lazy ass to a Home Depot and get the glass. No one will be the wiser.”
Matt’s eyes narrowed into slits and without looking at me, he said, “Rudy, tell your best men. You can go tomorrow.”
“Rudy isn’t going anywhere. Swallow your pride and ask for your own goddamned manpower.” Mac placed a cigarette in his mouth, flashing me a mischievous grin under the radar.
Matt managed to look incredulous and angry at the same time. “You can’t smoke in here.”
Mac clapped him on the back. “Calm down old man, I’m leaving and taking Rudy with me. We have business.” I stood, trying not to laugh as Mac turned back toward Matt. “Oh yeah, you see that clock?” He points to the clock on the wall. “It’s 6:30. Your guys work till 5.”
Matt’s stare burned holes into me as the door closed behind us. Fantastic.
As we left the building, Mac headed toward our house and lit his cigarette. “What was that all about?” I asked him.
Smoke flowed from his mouth. “I was bored and my brain had the audacity to wonder where you were.” Keeping the cigarette in his mouth, he ran a hand through his growing hair. I finally figured out the unruliness of it wasn’t from a lack of a brush—it was just naturally curly. Why didn’t he buzz it like all the other soldiers? “Plus, that the guy is a douche.” He smirked as if he found irritating Matt enjoyable.
“Nah, that would require him being inside a pussy.”
He started to laugh at my lewd joke but paused with sudden abruptness. “Shit,” he said with resignation.
“What?”
“Just hate it when people are right, and I’m wrong.” He shook his head, tilting his head to look at the sky. “All those times I’ve been called a douche—”
I knew he was just being funny, but I stopped him by changing the subject. “What exactly do you do here?”
Glancing over at me, he shoved his hands in his pockets. “You’re all right, Rudy. Even though you drink my beer, I don’t mind it because you keep to yourself and mind your own business. Evidence of your character aside, I still can’t believe it took you four months to ask me that.”
We arrived at our house and he still hadn’t answered my question. I suspect he was trying to think of what to tell me. Watching as Mac flicked his cigarette out into the damp grass, I felt bad for Billy, the groundkeeper of this area, because he was always picking up Mac’s cigarette butts. Mac went in and straight to the cabinet where he kept some bourbon and brought out two glasses.
“You know how the leads are trying to regain some structure?” he asked me, pouring us each a sizable glass.
I nodded. “I don’t know the details.”
“And you won’t. Not what you’d want to know. After the estimated body count came in, all branches of the military became one. Right now, there’s still some head bumping going on and honestly, things that aren’t agreed on get shoved to the backburner.” He took a long gulp of his bourbon, hissing through his teeth after. “You can see how that could be a problem.” I nodded, storing this information to contemplate later. “Anyway, I was selected to be part of a specialized unit and am currently going through extensive training to be out in the field all the time.” With that, he downed the rest of his glass and so did I.
“All the time?”
“Yeah, I don’t know what I’ll be doing exactly yet.” His hand trembled as he poured himself more bourbon. “But lately, with the direction of my training, I have a theory. I think it has to do with non-quarantined survivors.”
“Direction of your training?”
He gave me a tight nod. “Yeah, at first it was like being in boot camp all over again, then it turned toward medical and still is.” Shaking his head, he went on, “Soon, I’ll be gone for up to a week at a time.”
Mac went into his bedroom and came back out with a handful of arrows. “You can have these.”
The arrows all had nasty looking points on them. “You made these?”
He nodded. “I had to choose a ‘hobby’.” He quoted with his fingers. “Congratulations, you were my inspiration.” Mac smiled with wide, excited eyes. “Want to help set up a target range?”
13
Then
Two weeks later, I was hand washing my clothes. Otherwise, I’d have to wait my turn to use the industrial washer and dryers. Not having many clothes, I had no choice in the matter. A knock on the front door penetrated through the house.
Pausing, I thought about ignoring it, but obviously ignoring things wouldn’t make them go away. Marie pushed her way in when I opened the door. She was aggressive and not in a good way.
“What is your problem?”
I raised my brows at her and shrugged, not having much to say on the situation. Except I knew exactly what my problem was.
I had sat there after eating the sandwich from my meager sack lunch. Barbara said cafeteria food was always unhealthy and tasteless, but at least it came in abundance. My stomach grumbled. My knees dug uncomfortably into the table from where my long, lanky body was folded underneath it. The jumbled cacophony didn’t cover the snickering from behind me.
“I heard he was born in marsh gunk.”
“That would explain why he can hardly walk on solid ground.”
“Dumb ass. He walks like that because he’s tall.” Sounds of agreement commenced.
“I heard he had duckweed growing on him.” More laughter sounded after that one. I had a hard time not laughing myself.
“Shut up!” Julie slammed her tray down across from me. I peered at her mish-mash of food with entree envy. “Fucking assholes,” she muttered as she sat down in the benched table with much more ease than me. Glancing at me, she gauged my reaction. “Duckweed? Seriously?” She slid her tray over to share.
I gave her a smile, and she seemed to brighten. “Kind of true.” I never cared what they said about me. It only pissed me off when it was directed toward her, too.
“You were not covered in duckweed!”
“Barbara says they don’t know any better. They’re unadvised, uneducated chitlins in need of prayer,” I said with a straight face. Julie blinked at me before we both burst into laughter.
“I miss it,” I told her when we calmed down, shrugging. I wished I had duckweed growing on me like an old gator who just wants to be left alone to protect his territory.
“Have they found out how long it will be this time?” she asked me.
“Mom’s lawyer called Barb on Friday. Has to serve a full six months.”
The thing I liked about Julie was she took everything in stride without an ounce of pity or even sympathy. Her lips pursed as she swiped a blond curl out of her face. She knew what this meant. I’d be living with Barbara for a solid six months—my old hag of an aunt. Seventeen years older than my mother, the baby of the family.
“Let’s go see a movie this weekend. A bloody one. I’ll get my dad to talk to Barbara.” Luckily for me, Barbara worked for Julie’s dad, Curtis, as a secretary for his company. It was how I met Julie the last time I was at Barb’s, but I still gave Julie a look of doubt. She smiled and her bright eyes twinkled at me. “Don’t worry about the old witch. My dad will keep her busy.”
It didn’t take me long after that to figure out that what Julie wanted, Julie got. True to her word, her dad kept Barbara plenty busy and the stint of six months went by fast. Curtis would take us to movies, skating, and out to restaurants I couldn�
�t normally eat at. Soon Jules and I were inseparable. Even though that particular stay brought Julie and me closer, Barbara never warmed to her.
It was two weeks before my mom was due out, and I couldn’t wait to get back home. Julie and I studied for an eighth-grade algebra exam at Barbara’s kitchen table, under watchful eye to make sure we wouldn’t “fornicate” in our adolescence.
Julie studied more than me. I’d pass with no qualms, but she always had a hard time grasping any mathematical concepts. When Barbara left the room and after a few minutes, Julie peered up at me from her studies. “I’m going to miss you,” she whispered, placing her hand on mine. It was the first time anyone said that to me besides my mom. It was also something I’d never forget.
Barbara had chosen this moment to return. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head off. His mother can’t keep her legs closed in order to earn a living. He’ll be back.” I was sure the blood drained from my face only to return with a vengeance. Julie knew the circumstances, but not the details.
My ears burned when I said, “Why would you say that?”
Barb’s eyes blinked in her wrinkled face as she regarded me as if it didn’t occur to her that she could embarrass me. “It’s the truth. And I guess you should know now when you do come back, you’re staying indefinitely.”
I recoiled and felt as if I’d vomit, but Julie only squeezed my hand. She sent me a reassuring smile. “Would that be so bad?”
Barb wasn’t a horrible person. She was just strict and hovered over me as if I’d become just like my mom. Her bigoted views were disgusting, but she only wanted what was best for me. It wouldn’t be so bad.
Two weeks later, Curtis and Julie were there for my send-off. My mother’s beat-up VW bug rumbled into Barb’s driveway and the next thing I knew I was enveloped into a whirlwind of flower smells, long soft hair and drifty material. “Oh my god!” She pulled back to look at me. “You hunk!” Even though she didn’t say it out loud, I could tell she was happy to see me.