Earth's Survivors: box set

by Wendell Sweet

  Her body was a mass of bruises. Blacks, blues, yellows and everything in between. One shoulder hurt to move. Her thigh was once again weeping blood, split open, red and raw. Her headache was at a dull roar, she could feel each individual pulse beat in her temple. She marveled at it, thankful it wasn't worse than it was. After all, she told herself, she might well be dead as opposed to sitting naked on the grassy verge of the roadway examining her weapons as her clothing dried. The thought made her smile and she allowed the smile to stay for a bit. Billy entered her mind a few moments later and the smile slipped away. She pushed the thought and worry away and went back to cleaning her guns.

  The stiff breeze dried her clothes within an hour, she re-dressed and then sat off carefully in the direction of downtown.

  The Outrunners

  Adam, Beth and Billy had found Pearl later that afternoon. Billy had driven aimlessly through the streets that were cleared, following the routes she might take for supplies. He had seen a shadow by the mouth of an alleyway and slowed the truck a block away, unwilling to get ambushed if it was not her; shot mistakenly if it was her. He and Adam had walked around the block and nearly gotten themselves shot anyway as they approached her. She had returned her pistols to their holsters and sagged back against the alleyway wall as Billy had frozen on the sidewalk.

  Billy had sprinted to the alleyway; fallen to his knees and she had collapsed into his arms. Adam and Beth had left them for some time to themselves. When they had come from the alleyway a few long minutes later they had all hugged with emotion, tears unchecked.

  They drove the truck out of the city and into the barn where they had left it initially. Adam pulled the doors and they sat in the dim light cast by the holes in the roof, watching dust motes disturbed by the air swirling in the shafts of light: Enjoying the silence for a time.

  Billy had begun to work on Pearl, disinfecting her wounds, bandaging her thigh and her head. She dressed in cleans clothes that belonged to Beth. They could pick up others somewhere down the road. The thing that had him worried was the infection that was obvious in her thigh wound. He had gotten some antibiotics in her, and he would keep her on them. She had demolished two bottles of vitamin water and several handfuls of peanuts, but she had eaten nothing else. Billy had let it go. It was a start. The silence came back and held for a few moments before Adam spoke.

  His voice was heavy with emotion, his eyes leaking slowly. “They came in the late afternoon. They captured us immediately. My stupidity. They held us prisoner. I don't even know how many days. I fell for the old, we won't kill you or imprison you routine.”

  “We had no choice,“ Beth added. “They outnumbered us. It was that simple. We had to give up our weapons and look for a way out.” She took a deep breath and tears began to spill faster from her eyes. Adam pulled her to him.

  “We waited for them to fuck up and they did. I think they saw Billy coming through the air venting. I think that tipped the scale. They had no way to know he was just one man, after all I had made a point of telling Weston there were more on the way.”

  Beth pulled away, scrubbing at her eyes with her hand. “Internally they were all opposed to each other, falling apart. It was on the edge when we got there, and Billy just tipped the scale and it blew up... Some of them came and dragged me out of my cell... They took me, not for any good purpose,” she looked down and gathered herself in. When her eyes rose they were clear, red tinged, but determination rode there. “The faction that took me had already been through a war of their own. They were deserting.”

  “I kept looking for ways to slow them down... Trip purposely, or not so purposely. They bound my hand and I fell the last time and hurt it.” She held it up now, the wrist swollen and red.

  “I guess that's where I came in,” Adam said as Beth paused. “I had finally realized that it was up to me to escape. I had made my way out and I was searching for her. I had heard them take her, but I had to work at my own escape: Once I got out I knew I couldn't be far behind. I got a rifle from one of the ones they had killed, caught them in the tunnel and we faced off there.”

  “And then Billy came out of nowhere. There was a short fight. It ended badly for them,” Beth added.

  Billy worked free a plastic box from one of his wide side pockets.

  “They got both, Pearl,” Billy told her.

  Pearl drew in a sharp breath as he opened the plastic lid and showed her the vials and canisters inside. “God, Billy, we have it.” She reached forward and liberated one of the silver canisters.

  Adam continued. “It was almost too late. That was earlier today... We didn't find out until later all that happened. We killed a half dozen, half of those who were still alive there. They were holding a half dozen others,” he shook his head. “They killed them before we could get them,” he shrugged.

  Beth swiped at her eyes. “The guy that ran the base ordered them killed, us too.” She let out a pent up breath. “He's done for too though,” she laughed bitterly. “Got bit on the way out by one of the dead... One of his own dead. By now they are probably everywhere in there. They had already found their way into the air passages.“

  “You saw him then?” Pearl asked.

  “We made our way out and bought him with us as we came,” She rose to her feet as she spoke, pulled a flashlight from her waist and held it with her teeth. She reached down and grasped pearls hand, pulling her to her feet. “Still alive, what a wonder,” She shook her head as she walked into the shadowed interior. She flicked the flashlight on a few seconds later.

  Weston lay, chained to an old beam end. Curled on his side. His breathing was ragged and tortured. A mass of small black lines ran across the back of his neck toward his face.

  “Nothing we can do for him. He's a goner. They had shot him a half dozen times, twice in the stomach.” She squatted before him and Pearl joined her. “Shot the one that got him in the head. He's not coming back... Hadn't planned it, just didn't prepare to meet dead in the passageways.”

  Pearl made to pull her weapon. “He'll turn.”

  “No... Wait and listen, Pearl.” Adam walked over along with Billy. “We want to dose him with Rex, so if it's true... If we got what we went for, he can't come back.” Adam pulled a silver canister and a small vial from his own pocket. “One for them, one for us... I just need to know which is which: If it is what it is supposed to be we'll know soon enough after we hit him with it.”

  “Think so?” Pearl asked. She looked up at the sunlight playing through the holes in the roof far above, and then back down at Weston: The shadows were deepening already. She looked back down at Weston. He sighed, his eyes flickered, but he said nothing. A few seconds later he was pulling ragged breaths once more.

  “The vial,” Pearl said. “The canister is the one that can change us.”

  “Just a drop on him? How do I do it?” Adam asked.

  “A drop will do, that is how I saw them do it, but a microscopic amount is all that it needs. It will work its way into him... Any dead that come into contact with him... That is how it takes the others down. Contact. They remain social as we are, it is designed to spread because of that social need they have. With him it will most likely go in the ground with him and die there, but it will also stop him coming back.”

  Adam stood, silent for a moment, then twisted the top on the vial and tipped the bottle. They all watched as the thick liquid came to the edge of the opening, built up and then slipped over. A fat drop landed on Weston's face and then smoothed, sinking into the skin of his face as they watched. In a few seconds it was gone, nothing to show it had ever been there at all.

  “Leave him to die?” Beth asked.

  “No... We wait and see... It's too important not to, we don't have to worry about the dead here. It couldn't be a better place to wait,” Adam said.

  Billy shook his head as he looked at Pearl.

  “Yeah?“ she said as she looked back up and met his eyes. “Something?”

  “Several somethings
... I love you... I have been worried sick. I wish I hadn't left you.” Billy told her.

  Beth looked away.

  “That cave got me too complacent,” Pearl said. “Nearly got me killed. Doesn't matter now. I love you too.” She pulled his arm and dragged him down to her level. She wrapped her arms around him and let the tears come. Adam and Beth walked quietly away to give them some privacy.

  “A few days then... See what happens with Weston. Get our shit together... Some gear... Maps... And then we'll lite out.” Adam spoke quietly as he leaned back against the wall, dug his tobacco out, and began to roll a cigarette. He handed it to Beth without being asked and rolled a second one.

  They stood silently, smoked, and watched the sunlight play in the motes of swirling dust and smoke.

  November 10th

  The Nation

  Craige stepped back from the house and Cindy wrapped her arms around him.

  “I like it,” she told him.

  “I've never built anything with my own hands before,” Craige said.

  The house was at the end of the big valley, where it swung back around to meet the El of the second valley. It was built into the cliff face at the very apex of the long valley and the notch in the steep sided hill that lead to the second valley.

  He and Cindy had worked on it for nearly a month, starting with a small natural cave about forty feet from the valley floor. A deep fissure had lead from there down below ground level. No more than a foot wide in places, but up to five or six feet wide in others places in the soft limestone.

  The limestone hadn't exactly been easy to carve, but it hadn't been as hard as they had thought that it might be. And while digging back to widen the fissure it had suddenly opened up into a large domed cavern. The cavern was dry, whatever water source had formed it, long since dried up and gone.

  Craige had helped bring the field harvests in, and worked near the main power plant where a mill had been set up to grind flour. The hardest part of that had been shaping a rock to near perfect roundness and flatness to grind the flour. In the end they had realized that simply running the two surfaces together would both flatten them and conform them to each other. A few days of running the stone surfaces together with water had helped them to fit perfectly with one another.

  From that project he had moved to the sawmill project which was now up and running as well. All three projects were powered by the water they had originally been dammed to run the power plant. They had flooded a low rocky area in the first valley. They had left a small stream that skirted the channel they had made to deliver the water for the three plants. That stream allowed them to regulate the amount of water that flowed through the channel down to nearly nothing if they needed to.

  The snows of October had melted away nearly the same day, and an Indian summer had come. For the last half of this month the weather had been warm and Cindy had talked Craige into a trip to the lake to bring fish, crabs and crayfish to stock her pond. They had left and returned the same day with five big chests full of live fish, crabs and crayfish. It had seemed to be such a small amount as they dumped the chests into the pond, which had spread from its original plan and finally stabilized at just under ten acres. But they agreed it was a start, and the fish could easily find their way back to the lake to winter. Hopefully they would make their way back in the spring.

  All of their spare time had been spent on the house. The large domed area was converted into living space, and a spiral staircase lead to the original small cave higher up which afforded a fantastic view of the valley.

  Chloe and Debbie had stopped by and helped to clear a large area to use as gardens in the spring. Tom and Lilly, who was already getting around and back to school teaching; like she had never carried the blond haired, blue eyed little boy that seemed constantly glued to her hip inside her own body, had been over to help the last several days. Jake and Craige wrestled one of the huge iron cook-stoves into the kitchen area, while Lilly and Cindy entertained little Jake and worked at laying out a flagstone pathway to the cave. Today they had finished.

  The bed, tables, chairs, fireplace mantel, the desk on the top floor that Chloe and Debbie had helped to build. It was all done. No more sleeping bags on the stone floor of the third cave: As of tonight they would be sleeping in their own bed. They were outside now looking at the house, standing on the new flagstone walk.

  “I like it,” Cindy said, “I really do.”

  Craige pulled her to him, smiled and kissed her.

  “I like it too, but I bet we'll find a million more things to do as we go along,” he said.

  “Oh yeah, like some way to get running water up here. Electric this far out, but that's all stuff for another day, week, year, I don't care. We have a place that we can say is ours. A place to live and raise our children,” Cindy told him.

  Craige nodded and pulled her to him once more. She twisted her head and looked up at him. “A place to raise our children,” she said again.

  “Yeah, that'll be...” He looked down at her. “No!” He said.

  “Yes,” she told him and squeezed his hand.

  “How did it happen,” he asked.

  “Well, you know,” she said with a giggle, “the same way it happens for anyone.”

  He laughed. “Well, I know that, I mean, we were trying and nothing. It didn't happen right away, and Jessie said it might take some time, and now bang! All at once.” He smiled and then turned serious for the briefest of seconds. “I thought, well, maybe something was wrong with me,” he admitted.

  “Nope, nothing is wrong with either of us, but if you want we could practice some more.” She hooked her arms around his head, pulled him down to her level and kissed him. “I'm for that,” he said huskily. He picked her up in his arms.

  “Craige, what are you doing?” She asked.

  “Taking you home, Baby,” he told her. He kissed her and then carried her through the open door, caught the edge of the door with one foot and kicked it closed.

  ~

  Chloe rolled over onto one elbow and let her hand rest on Debbie's stomach. Debbie traced the outline of Chloe's breast with her index finger.

  “What?” She asked.

  “I don't want to get pregnant. Not now, not this year anyway. I think I want us to build our house first, like Cindy and Craige did, or Brad and Jessie.” She looked around at the stone walls of the cave. They were in the mineral pool room. It was fairly safe, the middle of the day, everyone was working. They had so little privacy in the cave that they had to make time when they could.

  “Did you think that would upset me?” Debbie asked.

  “I didn't know,” Chloe told her. She allowed her fingers to run lightly over Debbie's stomach and down one thigh. Then, just as lightly, she traced her way back and then started all over again.

  Debbie pushed Chloe back onto the rock ledge which was warmed by the heat of the water. “I want you,” she said. “All the rest? We'll work it out as it comes along, Chloe. If you want a house we'll do that: I want something too. I want to be able to touch you whenever I want to. I don't want to slip off like this so we can have time together.” Her mouth closed over one nipple and she gently teased it with her tongue.

  “Okay,” Chloe sighed. “We'll start tomorrow.” Her own hands had started to explore Debbie's inner thigh. Fingertips brushing lightly.

  “Whatever you want,” Debbie told her.

  “For a house?” Chloe asked as Debbie's mouth moved down across her stomach, leaving a trail of kisses as it went.

  “That too,” Debbie said.

  ~

  “God, Aim, I feel exactly like one of those big old hogs that James keeps down in the barn. I would never have believed that I could get any bigger and still be able to move,” Katie said.

  Amy ran one hand over her own protruding stomach. It was big also, but Kate's was like a small mountain. She lay on her side on the bed.

  “Maybe it's triplets,” Amy said, half joking.

  “Com
e here, Aim,” Katie said.

  Amy leaned over and Katie swatted her on one arm. “You're lucky I can't move or you'd get more,” she told her.

  Amy laughed.

  “Seriously, Aim, I'm turning into another country here. Look at these boobs. I'm wearing a D-cup now and it's tight. I've never been out of a B-cup, sometimes an A-cup if I'm dieting,” she complained.

  “You'll lose the size, Janna says. You'll be back to an A-cup after you're done nursing,” she told her. How long does Jessie say?” Amy asked.

  “About a month, and thank God. I couldn't do this much longer. Even thinking about another month is hard. It seems like forever.”

  “I'm about a month and a half, give or take,” Amy said.

  “Look how small Lilly is already,” Katie said.

  “Jake is a moose. That was all baby,” Amy said. “Just like you.”

  “You think?”

  Amy nodded. “You'll see, it'll go after you pop... But you truly are the Mother Ship right now,” she teased.

  “Come here, Aim,” Katie said.

  “Now, you don't get me that easy twice,” Amy laughed.

  “Oooh, I'll get you, Aim, I'll get you,” Katie told her. “Someday... When I can move.” They both laughed.

  ~

  Aaron finished wiring the outdoor sodium arc light, put the small rubber gasket and the cover on the junction box and tightened the screws. “Ready,” he said.

  Together he and Jake walked the pole skyward and the base dropped into the hole they had made for it. They put their backs into it and with a final shove it dropped fully down into the hole and the pole was up.

  The conduit enclosing the wire ran straight down the pole and into the ground. Aaron scraped dirt away from the bottom of the pole, found the end of the conduit and the wire, and with a few connectors and another waterproof junction box, joined the pole and its light into the line that fed the other pole lights.