Zombpocalypse (Book 1): Contingency

by Mariah Lynde

  “So what exactly do you want me looking for?” The words were asked on a long suffering sigh that sounded like a small whistle of rapidly moving air. Had that come from anybody else on any other day, I may have ignored it. Sadly, considering my recent history with the guy in question and the way this day had already begun I arched my brow as I replied.

  “I’m sorry. Is this task beneath you? I’m so sorry to impede on your time like this. Would you like a sucker and to go wait out in the car?” For your death. I finished silently in my own mind.

  Despite the fact I had only mentally finished my little insult, Cal seemed to be perfectly aware of what I had been thinking. His lips pulled down in a frown and he shook his head a little before mumbling a soft reply.

  “No, it’s not that, I swear. I’ve just…I’ve never…I don’t exactly know what I should be looking for. This is all new to me, remember? I mean, am I looking for only one type of tomato? Or am I looking for several? How many of them should I be picking up?” That last question almost sounded like I imagined Christian would sound when he tried to avoid getting in trouble by asking for specifics on a chore he’d been given. Unfortunately, Cal was a grown adult so it just came across as annoying.

  “This is about our survival, so my answer to you is a majority of them. Leave a few for others and grab a decent amount of what’s available. Also, we’re looking for any and all fruits and vegetable seeds we can manage.” Scowling at him, I huffed and pointed to the far end of the aisle, “You start down there, Christian and I will start here.”

  It may have been petty, even I admit that. Sending Cal down to the other end of the aisle and deliberately as far from us as I could actively manage served no purpose other than a selfish one. I wanted him to be aware of just how far gone my attitude about his presence near me and with my group was at that moment.

  In some ways, I knew I should have felt bad about what I was doing. For some reason, I just couldn’t manage it. The world around us would be coming to an end and those that survived had to look out for their own survival, yes. However, in doing so they had to show a certain kind of awareness and concern in helping others around them. If you focused solely on yourself, you were a detriment to the people around you. That kind of selfishness also led to bonehead moves which would get people killed in the long run. Thus far, I’d seen nothing from Cal that said he would be beneficial in the long run anyway.

  “So I’m looking for more than just the small tomato things.” He said softly and I scowled a little at his apparent need to state the obvious.

  “Yes. You’re looking for more than just the small tomato plant things. We need to get a hold of any and everything that we can manage.” Grimacing before I pointed towards the end of the aisle. “Let’s go, the sooner we get this done, the sooner that we can head back home.”

  Not that I needed to point that fact out, but I felt the need to do so. While I had felt a sense of urgency before, today it was different. With a child in tow, any inclination I had felt to hurry along this outing had intensified tenfold. I wanted to get Christian out of the open and back into an environment I could readily control.

  As Cal made his way to the other end of the aisle, I turned my head to look at the shelf in front of me. Scrunching my nose as I saw the seeds that were laid out in nice little rows before me, I was mentally trying to figure out which ones I could feasibly make work.

  While I stared at a packet of cucumber seeds, my mind had already begun turning over just how little I knew about gardening and raising plants. That would be a lot of research to look into and I knew it. While I didn’t mind it, I knew that meant committing the time to it and figuring out just how we could plant all these things when the time was right in order to be sure we could make it work.

  Sighing, my eyes narrowed on the packet in front of me. My mind continued twisting around the how’s and the why’s of this scenario and made me completely oblivious to the present. Fortunately, Christian’s voice suddenly broke through the haze and had me focusing once again.

  “Angiel, why you look so mad? Is he still being a bad man?” He pointed to the other end of the aisle where Cal stood cradling packets upon packets of seed on one arm.

  “No, little man. He’s not still being bad. I’m just thinking about a couple of problems that I need to solve.” Smiling down at him to try and reassure the little guy, I moved to grab several packets of the cucumber seeds.

  “Other than chicken and little tomatoes, what other kind of foods do you like?” Looking for any kind of mundane subject to focus on at that point, I settled on trying to learn a little bit more about the boy that had been entrusted to my care.

  “I likes all sorta stuff. Momma normally says I can’t have ‘em though.” A small frown crossed the little one’s features that had me chuckling in amusement.

  “Like what?”I asked.

  “Doughnuts an’ candy bars an’ pop tarts an’shrimpies.” One by one he named different foods. Some of which I should have expected but the last one had me doing a double take.

  “Shrimpies?”

  “Yeah. Shrimpies. They made with popcorn and they taste really good with ketchups and fries.” The four year old then gave me what could only be considered as a solemn nod, at least from him.

  “You mean, popcorn shrimp?” Trying to piece together the information he’d given me and make sense of the psychology of a four year old. (This is not as easy as it seems.)

  “Yeah!” Small arms were thrown up in the typical sign for a score or touchdown and again I could only chuckle at Christian’s exuberance. Such a simple thing being understood had brought him joy and I seriously wished I could find myself back in a state of that kind of childlike wonder. I’d long ago become jaded. Now that I thought about it, maybe I had become too much so.

  “So, if we can find a way to get some popcorn shrimp I know exactly who to come to.” Smiling down at the boy, I moved to lay down the seed packets beside him on the trolley. Turning back towards the shelf, I heard him shifting around on the cart before he spoke again.

  “Angiel! We need to get pickle seeds! I likes the pickles.” Christian’s sing song voice rang through the air with sharp clarity. I couldn’t help but giggle in amusement at his request when the cucumber seeds beside him were exactly what he had asked for. However, at four years old, I doubted the intricacies of how such things came to be were a little bit beyond his understanding.

  “What kinda pickles we need, buddy?” Curious now about what exactly he preferred, I turned to look at Christian in curiosity.

  “I likes the ones that Momma gots me on my burgers.” He made the statement with a degree of levity that had me tilting my head as I peered at him. This was one of the moments where Christian carried himself for all the world like an adult well beyond his years.

  “I see. Well then, pickles will have to be something else we should consider having around then.” One hand reached down and poked Christian in the belly gently before my fingers wiggled, moving to tease him with a small, tickling motion. As expected, it had the result I wanted as the little boy moved to kick out and squirm while giggling in playful abandon.

  “Really?” Wide hazel eyes looked up at me as if I’d just promised him the world. Again, I could only smile at how easy it seemed to be to make this little boy happy.

  “Yes, really.” I moved to hold my arms out for him, “You want to help me pick out some stuff to grow?”

  “Can I?” A smile lit up Christian’s face as he launched himself up, plush toy and all to hop into my arms. Less than a couple of hours and I already found myself gravitating towards a mindset centered around this little one. His safety and happiness were quickly becoming as much of a priority for me as my own. While I could not predict the future, I did know that for now he was in my care.

  As long as that fact remained true, I would do everything in my power to be sure all he needed was available to him. While I could not guarantee that things he wanted would be easily acquired or g
iven to him, I could try.

  “You most certainly can, little man.” Smiling down at him, I balanced Christian on my hip and moved to the shelves once more. There were a slew of different seeds in front of me. Some of them I recognized, some of them I didn’t. It occurred to me that this would prove to be another one of those circumstances where I had jumped feet first into the deep end of a situation without realizing the particulars and what they would cost.

  “Wow, you can grows all this stuff, Angiel?” One small hand slapped onto the top of a pile of pumpkin seed packets. “Do the punkins grow with the patterns for Halloween?”

  Snickering at the idea of pre-patterned pumpkins I shook my head as I replied to Christian while trying to keep a straight face.

  “No, buddy. You draw the patterns on after they’re fully grown. Pumpkins grow on their own and people decide on the patterns they want later, then they make them into the jack-o-lantern’s that you see at Halloween.” Smiling as I peered at him, I grabbed a few of those packets and tossed them onto the platform of the trolley. “I think we should try to grow some of our own. What do you think?”

  “We can make lots of Halloween punkins then!” Small hands clapped together in glee at the idea and all I could do was smile in reply.

  “Yes, we can. But things like this take time to grow, little man.” I explained softly. While the child seemed excited for the moment, I doubted very much that he realized this was not an instant gratification endeavor. It would take time for him to understand that a process like growing fruits or vegetables took months and not hours.

  “It’s okays. I’ll helps make them grow big and strong.” He nodded solemnly and then gave me another nice, bright smile.

  “I’m sure you will.” Smirking a bit, I turned to throw a few more packets down on the metallic platform. Not really paying attention to what all I had grabbed in light of focusing on the little one balanced on my hip.

  “I think I grabbed all the different types of tomatoes they had. Do we want the packets they have for herbs and stuff that are down there?” Cal’s voice came out as a booming echo that caught the attention of Christian and I both.

  In tandem, the pair of us turned our heads to look over at Cal where he stood fidgeting like a school kid under scrutiny. Both arms were crossed in front of his chest and filled with an overwhelming number of packets that stuck out in haphazard angles. For all intents and purposes, it looked as if his arms were overflowing and those packets were about to descend onto the floor in a wave of chaos.

  “What kind of herbs?” I asked curiously. That had not been something that I had considered at all.

  “Um, I think I saw rosemary, basil, and a few others.” He frowned and then scowled at me, “Guess I should have grabbed some of them.”

  I could have made him squirm, a part of me really wanted to.The task of getting what we had come for and making it home took precedence over my personal wish to gloat. Considering the almost helpless look on his face at the moment, it would have been too much like kicking a helpless puppy to really enjoy stringing him along.

  “I never thought about it, but yeah we should grab a good amount of those as well. There’s no telling what exactly we’ll be looking at in the future, but having a little something will be better than nothing.” Shrugging my shoulders, my arms tightened gently on Christian as I turned my gaze towards him, “What do you think, buddy?”

  “Yes!” While I’m pretty sure he had no clue what exactly the subject Cal and I were discussing was, he seemed more than happy to side with me in the matter. Mentally, I cheered at my small little acquired ally − if for no other reason than the fact that he would help me outvote Cal at any and every turn, at least for right now.

  It appeared that Cal had just realized the same thing I had about Christian’s presence. To say he seemed displeased would have been an understatement since he scowled fiercely in my direction. While it may have only been a child, any time in a situation where impending doom is on the horizon, you do not want to find yourself outnumbered.

  Much to the dismay of Cal Mitty, he now found himself in exactly that kind of situation. It didn’t matter that one of the votes came from a tyke, for the good of the whole group even his voice counted. So for right now, having Christian on my side would be beneficial, at least for a while. Or until Cal had his fill and struck off on his own; personally, I thought either scenario happened to be acceptable.

  “Well, you heard our friend here.” I spoke softly and motioned my head at the toddler balanced on my hip. “We need some of those herbs. While you grab those, we’ll keep grabbing some of the stuff down here…whatever…butternut squash is.” Whatever it was, it looked questionable to me. On the plus side the zucchini beside it looked awesome enough.

  “Yes, ma’am.” Cal replied, and I did not miss the small inflection of snarkiness that seemed to be dripping off every word. Arching a brow, I watched Cal walk off as I shook my head then looked down at Christian.

  “How about we get some more of these vegetables?” Giving Christian a small nod I moved to step towards the shelf in front of us. Small hands moved to the packets in front of us and started grabbing at any and everything they could reach. While under normal circumstances I would have told him to stop, I saw no harm in it now. All of these would be things that would be needed later and the whole point of this trip had been to stockpile them.

  I paid no attention to what he grabbed to throw on the trolley. At this moment, knowing that the child was happy in just picking up packets of seeds like it had become a grand game, pleased me. I also know that moments like this would become important in the next few days.

  As wonderful as the world seemed to Christian right now, soon enough that novelty would wear off. There would come a time when everything would snap into crystal clarity and he would want his mother. No matter what I did, or how hard I tried, when the realization that his mother would not be coming back for him hit, the boy at my side would become someone altogether different.

  While I could only guess as to how this whole scenario would play out, one thing I could say with absolute certainty was that it would change Christian in some way. How it would change him was something I couldn’t even begin to fathom, but that would be a concern on another day.

  For right now, I had an objective. True, I’d been given this mission before becoming an impromptu legal guardian, but that did not change my obligation. Still, having Christian with me did change things. While I knew acquiring the seeds and different tools needed to cultivate said plants would be important and beneficial later on down the road, I disliked dragging the child with me into the open.

  A public environment had a tendency to be unpredictable. That single fact happened to be problematic under normal circumstances based on the sheer principal that human elements were involved. Whenever you added other people into a situation there were certain things you could never account for that made things frustrating when you were out on your own.

  Worst part is, all of that had been when things were normal.

  Now?

  Now, people were running around infected with some kind of contagion that caused them to go all zombie. Being out in public by yourself, or even with another adult you ran the risk of getting yourself killed. With a child…?

  That scared the pure hell out of me. I could barely keep up with everyone of Christian’s movements when I watched him inside my own apartment. How the hell could I keep him safe out in public? Ever since Maya had brought her son to me, my whole way of thinking about how and why I would accomplish things had changed drastically. Well, maybe not completely on the why, it had just been redefined. Things were no longer solely about my own survival, but his as well.

  That particular happenstance seemed to be exactly why being out in public with him at this moment made my skin start to crawl. I couldn’t ignore it – for some reason I just knew this would not be a simple trip. Something lurked at the edges of my consciousness and while I couldn’t define
exactly what it might be, I was aware we’d be finding out soon enough.

  Watching as Christian grabbed pack after pack of seedlings to drop on the trolley, it occurred to me that my planning was not the only thing I needed to rearrange. For one thing, if I had Christian now, that meant the back seat of the Explorer had to remain upright, so I had less space to work with in transporting goods.

  If Cal survived our little exodus to meet the others, his small sporty little car wouldn’t hold all that much either. In the last forty-eight hours I had acquired enough to fill my car twice over in supplies and incidentals for the upcoming months. There would have been no way to pack all that into my car even if it had only been me to consider. Now, I had to think of the little boy that had been passed into my care while still finding a way to take those much needed supplies with me.

  I suppose there were a variety of ways to handle this situation. In my mind the easiest of these was to wait until after the initial wave of destruction had ended and venture out to find a larger vehicle. However, that could also be problematic in its own way and I could admit that.

  “Dis enough, Angiel?” Christian’s soft voice broke my train of thought as I offered him a tremulous smile.

  “I do believe so.” I moved to take the packets from him and dump them onto the others already settled on the trolley. Moving to lower Christian back onto the metal surface to sit, I had not even released him from my hold when I heard the screech of tires come from outside.