Skully just smiled, and tried to remember the last time he had a big steaming plate of barbequed ribs.
And while he was thinking, he happened to notice the camera, mounted on the wall high over their heads, pointed in their direction.
“Come on. This is gonna take some planning. We need to come back and figure out how it’s laid out inside this wall and how many people there are in there.”
At the control center, the group watched as Skully and Smitty remounted their wheelers and disappeared down the road. Insulated deep within the center of the main building, they hadn’t heard the hog squeal, and had no idea of the conversation that had just taken place outside the compound’s walls.
John asked no one in particular, “Well, what do you think?”
Mark said, “I don’t know. Probably hunters scouting out a good place to set up a blind. Maybe they saw the road and got curious to see where it led. Maybe it’s nothing more sinister than that.”
“Yeah, maybe. In any event, it appears that your signs scared them off, so they probably won’t be back. But we need to be more vigilant the next few days, just to be on the safe side.”
Chapter 32
As luck would have it, Hannah just happened to be sitting at the security console, working her regular four hour shift. Frank Woodard’s voice came across the speaker on the ham radio beside her.
“This is Frank Furter with a message for Johnny Bravo. Johnny, I asked Robin your question about the bees. Robin’s a neighbor of ours who’s an expert on that kind of thing. She said bees are like roaches. If you see one or two you probably have hundreds. They probably just come in and out of your crops throughout the day, and even at night and pollinate them a little at a time. But she said if you want some more bees, she can capture a queen for me and I can bring a hive to you. Frank Furter out.”
It wasn’t easy, but Hannah somehow resisted the urge to pick up the microphone and ask Frank for Robin’s last name. Hannah had gone to Baylor University with a brilliant scientist named Robin Bell. Robin even attended her wedding. They lost touch after Robin moved her family to San Antonio to take a job with a government research facility. Hannah hoped beyond hope that her old friend had found a way to survive the disaster that Saris 7 brought with it.
But Hannah remembered John’s warnings about using the radio only for short messages. She didn’t understand why, exactly, but knew it had something to do with others using tracking equipment to zero in on their location.
So she waited a full hour before sending her own message.
“Frank Furter, this is Hannah Banana with a message from Johnny Bravo. He’ll pass your message about the bees and get back with you. Would you ask Robin if her last name is Bell, and whether she remembers an old friend named Hannah Jelinovic? Hannah Banana for Johnny Bravo out.”
Frank Woodard, on the other end, was headed out the door to help Tony water the corn crop when he heard Hannah’s question. He thought the very least he could do for all the help they’d given him was to help Hannah reconnect with her friend.
“Hey, Tony, I have a mission to go on. Can you start without me? I’ll be back in half an hour.”
Tony chuckled.
“No problem, Frank. Things always go faster when you’re not around anyway.”
Frank smiled, but offered no rebuttal.
He trudged four blocks over, to Royal Valley Drive. The end of that street, like his own, was barricaded with cars to keep the marauders out.
But Frank was well known by the survivors on this street, and he climbed over the barricade without being shot. He knew he’d be welcomed as a friend.
This block, like all the others, had been decimated. Only two families survived intact. They’d taken in the sole survivor of the next street over, and four people from the street beyond that.
And together they’d created a new community, which worked together to grow crops in the same manner as Frank and his group. In fact, Frank had delivered their seeds during one of his runs to spread hope among the neighborhood. He’d always be welcome here.
“Hello, Frank. How are you today?”
“I’m fine, Sal, thanks. Have you seen Robin lately?”
“Try her house. She said she was going to bake some bread.”
Frank knocked on Robin’s door.
“Hello, Frank. Come in, come in. How are you?”
“I’m fine and dandy, Robin. You’re looking as gorgeous as ever.”
He meant it. Robin was tall and thin, with a runway model’s beauty. And despite all the turmoil that had befallen the world over recent years, she was able to keep her beauty intact. Even when everyone else seemed to have aged twenty years.
She walked out onto her patio, where a camp oven stood perched above a bed of glowing charcoal, and removed a loaf of freshly baked bread.
She took the bread to the kitchen as she and Frank engaged in small talk about bees and corn crops and half a dozen other things.
“I really should wait until it cools a bit, but I just love the way it tastes when it’s fresh out of the oven.”
She sliced off the end of the loaf, placed it on a plate, and placed it on the counter in front of Frank.
“Thank you.”
“No thanks are needed, Frank. If you hadn’t shown us where the Symco place was, we wouldn’t have had the flour to make it. Fair is fair.”
He took a bite and closed his eyes as he savored the taste. It was that good.
“I wish I had some fresh butter to put on it. That makes it so much better.”
On Frank’s street, they were getting fresh milk from the milk cow each morning. They’d kept the cows a closely guarded secret from the rest of the neighborhood, but Frank made a mental note to try to find a butter churn so he could surprise Robin with a bowl of butter at a future visit.
“So, what brings you over here, Frank? I know you didn’t walk all this way just because you smelled my bread baking.”
“That’s exactly why. The smell wafted all the way over to Buena Vista Drive, grabbed my nose, and dragged me over here.”
“Yeah. Sure it did.”
“Actually, I passed your message about the bees to my friends up north of town. The girl I talked to said she’d check with her gardening expert to find out if they need some bees brought up. I personally hope they don’t, simply because I don’t want to have to transport them. I’ve never liked bees, and they like me even less.”
“Don’t worry, Frank. If we send some up there, I’ll make sure you do it safely. In fact, I’ll even go up there with you so I can show them how to handle a hive without getting stung.”
“The girl I spoke with, her name was Hannah. She said she thinks she might know you. If you went to Baylor, that is. Her last name is Jello… or something.”
Robin’s eyes began to tear up.
“Hannah… Jelinovic?”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“Oh, my God, Hannah has survived.”
She was in a state somewhere between happiness and shock.
Hannah was finishing her shift at the security desk and getting ready to hand over the reins to David, when Frank’s voice came over the ham radio again.
“This is Frank Furter to Hannah Banana. Robin asked me to tell you she’s glad you made it. And that she and her family has survived and that Adam and Arika send their love.”
It was the best news Hannah had received from the outside world since the crisis began seven years earlier.
She sat back down in her chair and began to cry.
Chapter 33
Skully and Smitty approached Salt Mountain again, but this time they opted to stay off of Highway 83. The camera they’d seen mounted on the high wall outside the compound made them wonder. Maybe they had other cameras as well. Cameras that looked out on the entire area. They had seen a tall wind turbine between the compound and Salt Mountain. It was hard to miss, with its forty foot blades making a shushing sound as they tore through the air.
But i
t occurred to Skully that if another camera was mounted on the top of that turbine it would offer a great view of the highway below. And it would take away the element of surprise.
So this time, they were driving their quad runners through the woods.
It was slow going. They had to slow to a crawl to drive through a seemingly endless number of arroyos, and repeatedly had to alter their path to go around thickets and stands of mesquite trees.
But eventually they made it to the base of Salt Mountain, where they dismounted and climbed on foot to the summit.
By doing so, they accomplished two things. They’d given themselves a bird’s eye view of the compound and everything in it. And they’d managed to do so undetected.
They brought two pairs of high powered binoculars with them. They’d come from the prison. In another time the binoculars had been used by prison guards in the towers above the exercise yard. The guards had used them to zoom in on convicts they suspected of passing drugs or other contraband.
But they worked equally well to watch Hannah and Little Markie as they walked hand in hand to the chicken coop to gather eggs.
Skully watched Hannah through the binoculars as she walked. The way the breeze tossed her hair around and rippled the skirt of her snow white sun dress awaked something inside him.
“I just want it on record that that tasty treat is mine, before anybody else gets a shot at her.”
But something else had caught Smitty’s eye.
“To hell with that. Look inside the doorway to that second barn. Skully, they’ve got cows too.”
Skully turned his binoculars away from Hannah and toward the west barn. The doors were open on each end to let the breeze come through. And, sure enough, Skully could make out several head of cattle in their pens.
“Well, I’ll be damned.”
Inside the compound, at the security console, Brad was diligently watching the monitors, completely unaware that his own group was being watched as well. Skully and Smitty had managed to stumble across a flaw in the compound’s security system. A blind spot from which they could see without being seen. And it had the potential to mean disaster for the people in the compound.
Smitty wanted to leave immediately. To return and tell the others, and to start formulating their plan to take over the compound.
But Skully’s primal urges had been awakened. Hannah and Markie had been walking away from him before, on their way to gather eggs. He had seen her from behind, but hadn’t been able to see her face.
He refused to leave until he knew what she looked like.
The two made small talk while Skully waited, wondering how this group had managed to keep livestock alive during the long freeze.
And looking forward to the day when they’d bite into a big juicy steak, with fresh mashed potatoes instead of that crap that came in a box.
Twenty minutes later, Hannah and Markie emerged from the chicken coop with a basket of eggs.
Smitty said, “Those look like eggs. That means they have chickens too.”
But Skully didn’t notice the eggs. His attention was focused on Hannah’s pretty face. He was lost in his own thoughts, looking forward to the time when he’d be face to face with her, and the things he planned to do to her.
Chapter 34
As it turned out, the bees weren’t an issue. They were slow to migrate to the higher elevation and cooler temperatures around Salt Mountain. But they were there in sufficient numbers to pollinate the crops.
Karen had made a habit of leaving the east and west doors open to the greenhouse during the day, to allow the bees access to the greenhouse plants as well.
Everything was growing quite nicely.
And Karen was able to keep it a secret that her strawberries were starting to ripen, until the day she carried half a bushel into the kitchen. Helen used her grandmother’s old recipe to create a red sugar glaze, and they served a strawberry pie topped with Redi-Whip for dessert that night.
It also happened to be Karen’s birthday. She’d tried to keep it a secret, but Helen managed to find out somehow. And Helen pulled her own surprise by producing a second dessert. A succulent three layer white birthday cake, beautifully iced with flowers and hearts.
For a group that had survived on so little for so long, it was a joyous night.
But they weren’t the only ones with something to celebrate.
On Buena Vista Drive, Tony and Frank were finishing up the watering of their crops when Tony’s wife Sally came running from her house, screaming incoherently.
Tony thought something dreadful had happened, until she turned and he could see the smile on her face.
He went running to her and said, “Honey, calm down! What’s the matter? What’s happened?”
She could barely contain her excitement.
“Lights! We have lights!”
At that same moment, Jesse’s son Bobby came running out of his own house.
“Hey everybody! The power’s back on!”
To prove it, he ran back in and turned on the family’s stereo. Then he put on Santana’s Supernatural CD.
Then he cranked up the volume, and out into the street came the chords of, appropriately enough, the song Put Your Lights On.
Eva came outside as well, grinning ear to ear, grabbed her husband and began to dance in the middle of the street with him. It was possibly the only time ever that anyone tried to dance to that particular song. They were a spectacle, but they didn’t care.
That night, Frank couldn’t sleep, but he couldn’t figure out why. Then it dawned on him that the light coming in the bedroom window from the streetlights outside were keeping him awake. Even when his eyes were closed, there was enough light penetrating his eyelids to keep him from falling asleep. For almost seven years, he’d been accustomed to falling asleep in total darkness. It would take him a few nights to adjust to the change.
But for now, he needed his sleep. He closed the drapes and crawled back into bed, snuggling with a sleeping Eva. He was out within minutes.
Two days later, a sound truck drove slowly down the neighborhood streets. Like Buena Vista Drive, many of the other streets were barricaded to keep out marauders, but the volume was turned up loud enough for everyone to hear.
May I have your attention, please. This is an announcement from the Mayor of San Antonio, Artie Cisneros. Now that power has been restored, the city water plant is expected to come on line within seventy two hours. When your water starts to run, it is important that you flush your pipes by running the water for at least five minutes. After that the water will be safe to drink. Please tune to AM Radio Station 950 for further details.
Although San Antonio had begun to normalize, it would be a long time before it would recover from the meteorite. It had lost more than ninety percent of its population. There were still thousands of homes that had decaying human bodies inside. And the survivors would have to grow their own food for several more years, until factories and distribution systems could come back on line.
But the lights and water would go a long way to make the survivors feel human again.
Chapter 35
In Eden, Skully and his crew were laying out their plans in the fire station’s old conference room.
Skully drew a rough diagram of the compound on a whiteboard, and a circle to depict Salt Mountain.
“Before we start scaling the walls I want to put a sniper up here on the mountain. He can take out anybody who comes out of the building to return fire. Smitty, you claim to be a good shot. You can go up there early in the morning, just like we did before. From that vantage point, you can keep them inside the building, and tell us when it’s clear to come over the wall.
Mark, whose real name was Albert, but who was called Marky Mark because he looked just like the rapper, asked “How in hell are we going to get over the wall?”
“It looked to be about twelve feet. We’ll hit the local hardware store on our way out of town. They’ve got extension ladders that go to
sixteen feet. We’ll climb up the ladders and drop down on the other side. Twelve feet’s not too far to drop.”
Smitty added, “I saw some ladders on the inside of the walls, leaning up against the wall, one ladder on each side. If we put our ladders up at the same place, we can climb down their ladders after we clear the wall.”
Skully was surprised.
“I didn’t see no ladders leaning against the walls.”
“That’s because you were too busy watching that woman.”
Skully laughed.
“Well, you got that right. She belongs to me until I get done with her. I’m gonna break her in right, and then you guys can have her too.”
Mark said, “Screw trying to line up the ladders. Skully’s right. Twelve feet ain’t too far to drop. And it’ll be a lot faster getting in.”
“Okay. We’ll need two vehicles. The warden’s Humvee should carry four or five of us. Mason, see if you can get one of the pickups running. We’ll put two guys in the front and the rest in the back.”
“When are we going?”
“Let’s try for tomorrow. If you can get the pickup running, go find three extension ladders and get them back here. If we can get everything ready tonight, we’ll send Smitty out first thing in the morning. Then we’ll follow him two hours later.”
Skully looked at Smitty.
“Will that give you enough time to get up that mountain and into position?”
“Yeah. No problem.”
Chapter 36
“Damn it all to hell!”
Skully wasn’t happy. He’d spent a good portion of the night dreaming about the woman he’d seen in the compound, and all the things he planned to do with her after they’d captured the place.
He woke up ready and raring to go.
Then he looked out the window and saw the heavy rains pouring down.
He went to the central dining room and found Smitty and Marky Mark cooking their usual breakfast of Ramen noodles.
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