by Brett, Cal
“What?” Kelly asked.
“Exactly,” Robbie said. “Nothing. The loading dock where we came in is below us. I can’t see it but I don’t hear the pounding any more. The undies must have wandered off.”
“Or they got in and are making their way up here after us,” Kelly groaned.
“Thanks, Suzie Sunshine,” Robbie shot back. “Well, we’re safe in here at least for tonight.”
He said this as he looked over at the exposed and decrepit body of the blonde realtor laying on the deck. He contemplated just dumping her over the railing but then decided, after all she had been through, she deserved better. He went back in and found a sheet in one of the closets to cover her. Then he piled the cushions back on top to hold it in place. ‘Not very dignified,’ he thought, ‘but maybe it will be ok until morning.’
They stole fancy blankets from the bedrooms and stretched out on the long couches in the living room. Kelly fell asleep almost immediately. Robbie lay in the dark listening to the sounds of the building. A few times he got up to check that the doors and windows remained locked. Looking out over the river he admired the sparkle of moonlight on the water. At night the city almost disappeared and just became dark boxy silhouettes against the darker sky. He considered staying up and on watch, but the silence of the night finally convinced him to close his eyes and he was quickly asleep.
Early the next morning, Kelly’s insides began to roil, waking her suddenly from sleep. She jumped from the couch and dashed out to the balcony just in time to puke her guts up again. Leaning on the railing, she gasped as her stomach jerked and churned through several rounds of spasms. Just as she thought she might be through it; another bout would twist through her body until she could only spit bile out into the morning air.
When the sickness had finally passed, she shook and gulped lungsful of fresh air as her body recollected itself. Leaning her head on the cool railing felt good against her hot skin. She spent minutes appreciating that simple pleasure while staring down at her bare feet on the balcony’s concrete floor. Glancing over, she saw that several of the outdoor cushions had fallen over, exposing strands of the dead realtor’s blonde hair. It flitted in the morning breeze. Kelly thought she might get sick again but somehow the sight of the corpse did not trouble her this time.
“Sorry about that.” Kelly whispered, feeling guilty that she had somehow disturbed the dead woman’s resting place.
She wandered back inside and found Robbie, still stretched out, sleeping on the couch. Moving to the kitchen she grabbed a bottle of water from their stash and washed her mouth out. Spitting into the sink, she tried to recall where they had put the bag with the toothpaste. Before she could remember, a narrow shaft of sunlight broke through the curtains and into her eyes.
“Ow.” She stepped back from the blinding ray. It drew a line down the wall of cabinets behind her. Rubbing her eyes, she turned and absently opened the nearest cabinet marked by the light. It was empty, but the rising sun had begun pushing the shadows from the dusty shelves. She started going through the cupboards to see if they had missed anything in their hasty initial search.
Behind one of the carboard displays she found an ornate wooden coffee and tea caddy with an assortment of individually packaged “gourmet” brews. Behind it were several unopened boxes of coffee, tea and “fancy” single serve snack cookies. She opened one of the boxes and the smell of fresh tea washed over her and flooded her senses. She couldn’t believe it. It had been so long since she had had a cup of tea, she felt her eyes start to well up at the thought of it. Before she knew it, tears were rolling down her cheeks and she leaned on the kitchen counter sobbing.
“Are you ok!?” Robbie suddenly appeared at her side. “What happened?”
“I’m fine,” she sobbed. “Stupid. It’s just…I’m sorry. I never thought I’d have tea again.”
“Oh…” Robbie said uncertainly. “You’re crying about tea?”
“Yes,” Kelly stood, wiped her eyes and sniffed. “Do you think we could start a fire and boil some water? I’d really like a cup.”
Robbie wasn’t sure if the fireplace worked so he went out and got a small fire going in the grill on the balcony. He was surprised to find that the fancy looking tea pot on the stove wasn’t just an ornament, but a sturdy and practical device. He boiled the water and Kelly made them tea. They opened the curtains and spent that first morning sampling the dark mixtures from the condo’s collection of fine china cups. As the sun rise over the river, Kelly’s heart swelled, and she felt for the first time as if they had found a safe place t call home.
The next few days were spent clearing the rest of the building. As they walked through the vacant rooms, they became more and more convinced that it must have been locked up tight before the fall, with just the two realtors inside. They found that only construction on the upper floors and lower public areas had been completed. The condos on the very top floor were staged with furniture and decorated as if the editors of some style magazine might drop in for an inspection. The lower floors were fully decorated to impress potential buyers. While the middle floors were mostly stark open spaces of concrete, drywall and metal studs.
Robbie pointed out the locations where the construction crews had left their tools, materials and equipment; expecting to return the next day. “I suppose it’s a good thing we will never have to go far in search of a ladder or a hammer.”
“True,” Kelly agreed and pointed to the end of a hall, where several rooms had been roughly boxed in with sheets of drywall. “Did you see that?”
“What?” Robbie asked, looking up from the tools.
“I thought I saw something move.” Kelly whispered.
The two instinctively raised their weapons and stiffened. Kelly nodded ahead and they carefully slipped down the hall towards the room. It had no door and sunlight shined through its window creating a rectangle of light on the opposite wall. When they were close Kelly tapped her staff on the concrete floor. The sound was enough to attract the interest of any undead creatures nearby, but none appeared.
After a moment, Robbie slipped ahead and peeked into the room. “Shit!” He said as he jumped back.
“What?!” Kelly hefted her staff and prepared to fight. “What is it?!”
“Bees!” Robbie cried stepping backwards away from the doorway.
“Bees?” Kelly lowered her staff, confused.
“Yea,” Robbie went on with a shudder, “bees, hornets, wasps, I don’t know.”
Kelly raised an eyebrow. “Bees. Really?”
“Look.” Robbie pointed.
Kelly walked up to the doorway. Sure enough, in the far corner near the window, a section of drywall was missing, creating a narrow gap between metal framing. She could see rows of yellow hexagonal comb just inside. A cloud of small yellow and black insects buzzed around the combs. Groups of them whisked busily in and out of the room through a triangle shaped section that had broken from the window. The room was alive with their activity as they bounced around in the sunlight. She realized she must have seen their shadows reflected on the outside wall.
“Bees, right?” Robbie asked remaining a few feet back.
“Honeybees I think.” Kelly said.
“Like, honey, honeybees?” Robbie asked.
“Yes.” Kelly answered. “Honey, honeybees. We might be able to collect honey. I bet the Baldwins would trade for that.”
“Yea, maybe” Robbie said, “but how do we get it without getting stung all to hell?”
“I don’t know,” Kelly said thoughtfully, “we might have to make a trip to the public library to find out.”
“That big old spooky building downtown?” Robbie whined.
“Robbie Bruce.” Kelly chided. “You don’t mind fighting the undead but you’re afraid of going to the library?”
“I’m not afraid,” Robbie replied. “It’s just a big old building. No telling what’s in there.”
Kelly snickered as she started to walk away. “C’m
on Shaggy lets finish clearing the building before Mr. Smithers shows up in a monster suit.”
“Ok.” Robbie hurried past the room with the bees to catch up with her. “If I’m shaggy, are you Velma or Daphne?”
“I’m always hanging out with you so I must be Scooby,” Kelly laughed.
The next day they buried the two realtors in a Japanese style meditation garden just off the pool deck. Kelly reasoned that the area was respectful of the dead women and had too many rocks to be useful for any gardening she and Robbie might later do. They marked the graves with stakes and since neither could think of any prayers, they stood there silently for a few moments.
“I’ve been thinking.” Robbie said finally, leaning on the shovel with sweat dripping down his face.
“About what?” Kelly said, stepping under a palm tree to get out of the sun.
“About Roy.”
“Oh?”
“I’m thinking that once we get settled in here,” Rob said. “I’d like to go out and spend a few days looking for him.”
“Robbie…” Kelly sighed.
“You could stay here.” He explained. “I can do it by myself.”
She looked at him doubtfully, with raised eyebrows.
“No, really.” He went on. “We have been on the run since the day he disappeared. We’ve never really been able to do a real search. I don’t think I can let it go until I know we have done everything we can to find him.”
“Robbie.” She said again, forcing herself to sound calm. “I miss him too. Every day. I want him back, but it’s been… years. If he was still out there. Still alive. Don’t you think we would know by now? And if he’s not alive? Then, what?”
“That’s just it,” Rob countered. “I want to know either way, and I don’t think he would give up on us.”
“I wish and pray for him every day,” Kelly argued, “but even if he is still alive, we have no idea where he is. We can’t just go wandering around out there. You know that. It’s too dangerous with those things.”
“I can handle myself,” Robbie said. “Those creatures are slow, and I know how to keep away from them.”
She squinted from the sun, even in the shade. “It’s not just the undead and you know it! Fort Garcon is falling apart around us. You get out there and hurt yourself! Fall through a roof, slice yourself open on some broken glass, twist an ankle, get trapped in a flooded basement, and then what?”
He looked at the ground.
“Look.” She went on. “We aren’t giving up. If he is out there, and alive, we will find him, or he will find us. We just can’t keep risking our lives for it. We have to think of ourselves first now, ok?”
“I guess.” He nodded and kicked at the ground in frustration. “I just…”
“Robbie,” she blurted, “I need you right now, ok? I can’t risk losing you. Not now! You’re not going out there on your own and that’s final!”
“Kelly,” Robbie continued. “I keep dreaming about him being out there. I think if I don’t at least go looking for him it’ll drive me crazy.”
“I can’t talk about this right now, ok. It’s too hot out here.” Kelly wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. “Can we not do this, right now?”
“C’mon Kelly,” Robbie pushed.
“Not now!” She began to walk towards the doorway and stumbled as the blood seemed to rush from her head.
Robbie dropped the shovel and grabbed her arm.
“I need to go back inside,” she said. “This heat is making me dizzy.”
“You’ve been sick a lot lately.” Robbie said. “Are you ok?”
“Yes.” Kelly blurted. “I’m fine. This heat. Its just a too much. Can you help me upstairs?”
They had decided to stay in the large “La Valencia” model, with 1237 written in fancy brass numbers on the door, as it was the most spacious and well apportioned. With all the other doors on the floor propped open, they had their choice of bedrooms and décor, but more importantly, they could keep an eye on everything. With one side of the building facing the river and the other facing downtown, they had great views in all directions. All they had to do was keep a low profile so nothing on the streets below got interested enough to come up and visit.
It took another week to explore most of the building. Some areas were locked off and a few of the lower levels just seemed too dark and foreboding so they chose to put that off. On the roof, rather than the rocks and tar they encountered on most buildings, they found that this one really was “green.” The entire roof top was a garden of tall grass. Around the edges, arranged like awnings were arrays of solar panels.
“Well I’ll be damned,” Robbie said. “I guess we need to go check out some books on solar panels.”
“And gardening. Is your library card up to date?” Kelly called back as she dug in the dirt. She found that it went down several inches before hitting something hard that felt like concrete. Pulling at it she found several layers of some sort of netting holding the dirt in place and giving the grass roots something to hold onto.
“Can we grow food up here?” Robbie asked as he inspected an electrical panel on the end of the solar array. A big switch was turned to “ON” and padlocked in place. Stickers on the box warned of danger and high voltage.
“Not sure,” Kelly replied. “It’s not very deep. I don’t think it’s intended for anything other than this grass but there is a lot of silt built up over the years. We might try some tomatoes. The Baldwins said they would give us some seeds.”
“Cool,” Robbie said as he followed the cables from the solar panels over to where they ran down the full length of the building. He looked over, he called back, “The batteries for the solar panels must be in the basement.”
“Great,” Kelly said sifting the dirt through her fingers. “More dark and spooky places to explore.”
“Yea but imagine if we can get the power on?!” Robbie said excitedly. “Hot showers!”
“That would be nice,” she agreed, “but don’t get your hopes up.”
“Umm,” Robbie considered. “True.”
Kelly wiped the dirt from her hands and looked out across the city scape. “Before we worry about that we need to make a run back to the other building and pick up the rest of the supplies and food.”
Chapter 16
Three days later, they dropped their packs full of the last of their supplies onto the floor and collapsed onto the couch in their condo.
“Holy crap that was close,” Robbie said propping his muddy boots up onto the glass coffee table. “I thought that fat one was going to…”
“Get your dirty feet off the furniture!” Kelly admonished him while slapping his leg.
“Jeesh!” Robbie said lowering his feet. “Since when do you care about furniture?”
“We’ve got a really nice place here Robbie,” she said. “I just want to take care of it. I’d think you would too. I mean we might be here a while.”
“Yea, I guess.” Robbie agreed reluctantly. He had learned in the last few years not to get too attached to a place. To him it was a safe place to sleep for the moment. He had had to rush out of too many others in the middle of the night, and the middle of the afternoon, and early in the morning and all hours of the day and night. It was against his experience to get start thinking of anything as permanent. Others they had traveled with had done that and it caused them to hesitate when it was time to get out. It caused them to get dead, and as images of those times and people flashed through his head Robbie knew he didn’t want any of that. “What’s the big deal? There’s a table exactly like this in every other unit on this floor here if we need another.”
“Yes,” Kelly sighed. “But this one is here now and we should take care of it. As a matter of fact we need to take our boots off. We’re tracking mud all over the carpet.”
Robbie raised his eyebrow and gave her a look that said – ‘have you lost your mind?’
As she unstrapped her boot laces, Kel
ly glared at him as only a women can. “Take your boots off! We’re going to take care of this place! It’s going to be our home. Ok?!”
It wasn’t a question. It was a statement, with no alternatives or argument.
“Ok, Kel,” Robbie raised his hands in surrender and then reached down to take off his boots. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea to get too attached, you know? That hasn’t worked well for us in the past.”
“I understand” she growled, “but this place is different. We’ve never been in a place like this. We’re going to make it safe. It’s going to be safe here. It’s going to be our home.”
“Yes, dear,” Robbie said sarcastically.
“Don’t you ‘yes dear’ me, Robert Bruce!” Kelly said sternly then stood and took her boots to the front door where she dropped them. She then stormed away into the back hallway towards the master bedroom.
“Jeesh,” Robbie said under his breath as he watched her stalk away. They had had fights before but never out of the blue like that, and never over anything like this, that he considered so stupid. He finished taking off his boots and looked around for someplace to put them that wouldn’t draw more of Kelly’s ire. He finally decided the back patio would work best and set them down outside the sliding glass door.
Grabbing his bag, he went into the guest bedroom and changed into a pair of loose shorts and a t-shirt. It felt odd being so casually dressed after years of sleeping in his tactical clothes, ready to fight or bolt in an instant. But they felt safe in the condo and had begun to let their guard down once they had locked everything up for the night. The condominiums outer doors were secure, the stairwells were closed, and the traps they had set up would alert them of anything got inside, long before it found them.
Unsure what to do next, Robbie walked out and sat down on the sofa again, feeling like a scolded puppy who has been punished but doesn’t know why. He tried to enjoy being alone but found himself worrying about what Kelly was doing. His eyes stared at a large clock on the wall. The hands had stopped at 6:45 and the second hand hung straight down, and still, but he imagined it ticking the seconds away. Once he had imagined it, the ticking sound seemed stuck in his head. Finally, the anticipation got to him and he rose to go check on her.