Unlike when we had rolled onto my street, it looked like there had been very little chaos in the gated, senior living community.
I expected bungalows. What we saw were beautiful homes with gardens and lawns that had, at one time, been well maintained. There was no litter in the streets. No strange FEMA markings on the doors, no bodies.
We pulled up to his grandparents’ home. The drapes were closed and there wasn’t a car in the carport. That didn’t mean anything though—someone else could have taken the car. We had done so.
The house was a cute one-story home. We checked all the doors only to find they were locked. No hidden keys like in the movies. Fleck had to break in through the kitchen door. I stood ready with my weapon.
Once we got the back door open, we made more noise and waited.
Nothing.
No infected came for us.
There was a musty humid smell to the house, but there was no smell of death. No blood, no signs of sickness or a struggle.
The kitchen was impeccably in order. Unlike my own home which had been turned into a mess in our desperation to leave.
“It’s so neat in here,” I said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if my grandmother was like”—Fleck proceeded to do what I thought was a Jewish grandmother imitation—“oh, it’s the end of the world, I have to make sure the house is clean. I don’t want people coming in here and saying that I lived in filth.”
I giggled and turned to the fridge. It was speckled with perfect flower refrigerator magnets. One held a business card for air-conditioning repairs, another a doctor appointment reminder.
There was a photo. A family picture taken on a boat. Fleck was in it. He had to be about fifteen or sixteen. He stood between what I guessed were his parents and grandparents. They looked so happy.
“Is this your dad?” I asked, pointing to the dark-haired man.
“Yeah, it is.”
“Wow, you look just like him. And your grandparents.” I referenced the older couple that looked as if they were in a commercial. Perfect sailing clothes with bright smiles. “They look very, how can I put it…proper.”
Fleck laughed. “They weren’t. They just looked the part. My grandfather was a professor. He taught engineering. Really smart guy. Smart enough to build a bridge. But smart enough to survive the apocalypse? I don’t know.”
“He looks like he knows what to do. Hey…Fleck is this you?” I lifted the school picture of a smiling, toothless little boy with a crew cut.
“Yeah, second grade.”
“Oh my God. How precious.” I placed it in my pocket.
“What are you doing?”
“One day you’ll thank me for taking that.”
I watched as he took an obviously nervous breath. “I’m going to go check the bedroom and see if they’re…”
“Yeah, go on.”
I figured while he did that, I’d look for more memorabilia for Fleck to take. Men tended not to think like that. I walked to the living room. There was a huge fireplace. As a person from the north, the fireplace didn’t make sense being in a Florida house. A painting of a little girl hung over an oddly empty mantel.
I looked everywhere in the living room and dining room. There were no pictures. Only the ones on the fridge.
There was no noise coming from the bedrooms, and I took that as a good sign. I really didn’t think Fleck would find his grandparents in the house. I returned to the kitchen and opened the first cabinet…glasses. The second…dishes. The next…empty.
It was empty? Nothing was in there. Certainly, if salvagers had come, they were the neatest salvagers I had seen. The contents of the fourth cabinet surprised me.
Perched on the lower shelf was a single bowl. In it a can of soup, a small package of crackers and a bottle of apple juice. Almost as if it had been deliberately left there for someone coming and looking for food.
I heard the scuffling of footsteps approaching and I turned. “Fleck, I…”
“Nothing,” he said. “No bodies.”
“They’re not here,” I said and pointed to the cabinet. “They packed up and left. Took everything but left this in case someone came to find food.”
“Holy shit.”
“Looks to me like your grandparents survived the outbreak.”
Fleck agreed. We searched the house for more evidence they’d left. Although we wouldn’t know clothing items that were missing. There wasn’t any medication in the house at all. Not even an aspirin. We were certain of our conclusion.
At the time of the outbreak, they were smart, thinking ahead…and most importantly, alive.
<><><><>
By the time Fleck and I returned, Lev and Ben had our new place nearly ready. The campground wasn’t bad. Not much to clean up. About three quarters of the RV spots were empty. I half expected us to be in one big RV. Instead, they had lay claim to the four cabins in the center area near the office. They were really cute: all white with white square pillars that graced the porches and small patches of grass around them. The center common area between them was a masonry patio with a fire pit surrounded by neatly set up lawn chairs.
I complimented them on a job well done and gave a smug comment to Lev about how it was decked out compared to Big Bear.
“Yes, well.” Lev pointed to the small fenced-in pool area a hundred feet away. “At least the Big Bear pool was set away from everything.’
“True.”
“Are these the only cabins?” I asked.
“No,” Ben said. “There are groups of small ones on the south end in a really nice secluded area. By the river, too, for fishing.”
“Not saying this isn’t great, but…why didn’t we use those?”
“Taken,” Lev replied. “There’s a large group of people down there. We introduced ourselves and got their names.” He winked.
“Wow, and they weren’t protective about strangers moving in? They were okay?”
Lev looked at Ben before answering.
“Ah, Lev, tell me you didn’t kill them,” I said.
“What? No. Nila, you of all people.” He shook his head. “They weren’t happy at first until I told them Ben was a doctor. He’s already given someone stiches.”
“Apparently, I’m gonna set up in the office,” Ben said. “They already contacted the Marco radio lady about me.”
“Hey, at least we’re welcome now.”
“And we have fish.” Ben clapped his hands together. “Which I will cook for us tonight.”
“I can cook,” I said.
“No.” Ben shook his head. “Just…no.”
He did cook the meal, and we enjoyed it in the common area. The baby was quiet and went to bed early, so did Katie and Bella. I guess they were tired from traveling.
When Ben turned in, Fleck, Lev and I sat around a small fire. Which I thought was redundant because it was hot. I guess we needed light.
“This is a lot like the cabin,” Lev said. “I feel comfortable here.”
“It’s like home,” I said. “For the time being, right?”
“Nila, you need to think about this need to move. We were on the road for six weeks. I really want to stop for a while. Katie and Chris need to stop. Even Bella, she acts strong, but she’s still a kid.”
“I know.” I sipped my drink. “I also know you would be happy going back to the cabin and never leaving.”
“I didn’t want to leave in the first place.”
“Can I…” Fleck lifted his hand. “Can I say something?”
Lev and I gave him our attention.
“Lev, you talk all the time about never leaving the cabin. In my opinion, we did kind of need to leave,” Fleck said. “It was nice. It was self-sufficient. But it was just the seven of us.”
“And what’s wrong with that?” Lev asked.
“Life has to go on, dude,” Fleck said. “We need to interact with people. Meet people. Maybe even find someone. Someone who makes us want to keep going. I get that you don’t
get that. I mean, why would you. You guys have each other. You’re a couple.”
“We’re not a couple,” Lev said.
“Yeah, but you…” Fleck pointed to the cabin. “You have your little set up in there.”
“But we’re not a couple.”
“Um…” I hummed out. “In a way…yeah, he’s right, we’re a couple.”
“We are?”
“Yeah, if you look at it in a non-technical way,” I said. “We’re a couple, we just don’t, you know…have sex.”
“You don’t?” Fleck asked.
“Nila,” Lev nearly scolded.
“Just saying.” I shrugged. “We’re a couple in all ways but that way. We don’t have sex. We probably will never have sex.”
“You won’t?” Fleck asked.
“Why…why are you saying this?” Lev stuttered his words.
“It’s true.” I looked at Fleck. “It’s probably true…”
“Why wouldn’t you sleep with him?” Fleck asked.
“Do we need to discuss this?” Lev questioned. “Because I don’t really want to know.”
I ignored Lev and answered Fleck. “We have known each other forever. We’ve been friends forever. I love Lev. And you know, if I wasn’t his friend, yeah…he’s hot. But…what if it’s bad?”
“Dude.”
I faced Lev, his mouth agape. “Lev, seriously, what if it’s bad? Then things will never be the same with us. We’ll both be like, uh, what can I say to get out of doing it again? I can’t claim my period all the time. Yeah, I can see it.” I took a drink. “Both of us on our backs, lying in bed in that awkward after silence. You’re thinking, I can’t believe that happened. That’s never happened to me before.”
“Dude,” Fleck laughed the word.
“I mean…” Before I could say anymore, Lev had stood and walked away.
“You did that to him on purpose, didn’t you?” Fleck asked.
“Yeah, yeah, I did.” I looked to our cabin and could see Lev moving about inside. Sitting back, I brought my drink to my lips. “I think I’m gonna like it here.”
ELEVEN
FROM LEV’S SIDE
May 13
“I hate it here,” Nila said to me.
I knew it though.
I knew it was coming. When I returned from getting supplies, she barreled out of our cabin toward me.
Here it comes, I thought.
I don’t know where she got it from, but since the outbreak she had been so unsettled.
“Nila, it’s only been four days.”
“I know.”
“It’s nice here. It really is.”
And it was. Those who lived in the southern part of the campgrounds called Meadow Area were nice. There was a little boy Katie’s age that came to play with her. He was a larger boy, and I would look at them and think how much they reminded me of Nila and myself.
Other than the boy, they didn’t really socialize with us, but would give us a morning fishing report.
Ben wanted to fish in the ocean and had already found a boat.
“Tell me what it is about this place that you don’t like?” I asked her.
“Um for one…” She pointed to the cabin.
“You don’t like the cabin? It is very nice.”
“It’s small, Lev. There’s no real kitchen.”
“I can build you a kitchen, Nila. Not that you’ll use it.”
“Hey now.”
“Anything else?”
She pointed again to the cabin. “The porch. The top step.” She walked over and sat on it. “You can’t fit with me.”
“We can sit on the patio.”
“I don’t want to sit on the patio, Lev, I like sitting on the steps of a porch.”
“Then we’ll build a bigger porch.”
“You have an answer for everything.”
“No, Nila, I don’t,” I said. “I just don’t think your reasons are valid. Katie seems content. Everyone is weary from traveling. Do you want to look for somewhere else in this town?”
Nila sighed out. “It will all suck.”
“Nila, I’m sorry you aren’t happy. What can I do to help?”
“You can start by…” With an irritated tone she smacked her own arm. “Finding me some bug spray. Fucking mosquitos.”
“We had mosquitos back home.”
“Not this monstrous and not this—” Suddenly, she inhaled sharply and loudly.
“What?”
“Oh my God.”
“What?” I repeated.
“Mosquitos.”
“Okay.”
“Lev. Lev.” She grabbed my arms. “What if the virus is carried by mosquitos? Fleck thinks it could be birds that are causing the outbreak to keep going. But what about mosquitos? Think about it…Zika?”
Out of every outlandish thing Nila had ever said to me, this theory was so plausible it caused me to pause.
“See?” Nila asked.
Not wanting her to know that I did find validity in her concerns, because it would make her worse, I tried to play it off. “No, I don’t see.”
“Lev, I’d be a goner if that mosquito had just bit an infected.”
“Then good thing for you we haven’t seen any infected.” I attempted to walk away, when I heard her subtle growl. “Nila, I am not combatting everything you say intentionally.”
“Yes, you are.”
“Alright, yes, I am. But I just want you to give it a chance here, okay? Give it more than a couple days. Please.”
She stared up at me, then her head turned suddenly to the sound of a screen porch door hitting and Katie laughing and running.
“See, Katie is happy.”
Nila nodded. “You’re right. You’re right. I promise to give it a chance. Who knows,” she said less convincingly. “Who knows what will happen.”
ELEVEN
GOES WITHOUT SAYING
May 24
The sand was warm, making its way between my toes. It felt good and was about the only positive thing I could think of at that moment. Not that I didn’t love Florida, but that was when there was a world with take-out restaurants and air conditioning.
It was hot, too hot for my liking. We were northerners. While we were used to humidity, the extreme heat of May was a lot.
There were reminders that we, at least those of us on the mend, remembered the world wasn’t always such a horrible place. Things like a baby’s laugh. Every time I got lost in thought, deep and depressing, like an emotional alarm clock, Christian would cry or laugh. Reiterating, like it or not, life goes on.
Standing on the beach, a good distance from the water’s edge, I looked over my shoulder to Bella. She sat on the sand, no towel, holding the baby’s hands as he tried to stand. She moved his arm in a wave. “Say hi to Nila.”
“You put sunscreen on him, right?” I asked. “Lev grabbed some from that hotel.”
“Yes, he’s lathered,” Bella answered.
“And you?”
She just stared at me.
“Okay, Okay.” I lifted my hand in a wave. The young woman had matured years in the short time I’d known her, and I was mothering her. It was a habit. I was what could be called a ‘helicopter mom.’ I turned to my right to look at Katie. She had wanted to go to the beach. I wouldn’t let her near the water; however she was inching awfully close.
“Katie, back up!” I hollered. “You’re too close.”
From a distance I heard Fleck’s voice as he yelled back, “She’s fine.” He had pulled the lifeguard chair back some and was sat there with the rifle perched across his lap.
“She’s not fine, she’s too close,” I spoke loudly, then turned back to Katie. “Katie! Back up.”
“She only has her feet in there.”
“Well, I worry about the riptide.”
“Christ, Nila. You have to be in the water for the riptide to get you, it doesn’t have arms that reach out and grab you.”
“She’s in the water.”
“Her toes only.”
Not wanting to scream so he could hear me, I made my way closer.
I don’t know how he did it. He was wearing jeans, a T-shirt and that bike bandana.
“Aren’t you hot?” I asked.
“Yeah, I hate this shit,” he answered.
“How are you gonna jump in and save someone if they drown?”
He peered down to me, then looked out to the ocean. “Who?”
“There are three of us here.”
“Bella is way back there, you’re here and Katie isn’t even getting wet. Besides, I’m not getting in the water. Lev has me here in case of trouble. You can save whoever drowns.”
“I don’t swim,” I replied.
“Then they all drown. Wait…” he said. “How did you spend every summer at that cabin and Big Bear without swimming?”
“I did swim, then Lev caused me to nearly drown and I instantly forgot how.”
“I’ll have to ask him about that,” Fleck replied. “Speaking of which.” He pointed to Lev.
My big friend was making his way toward us. He had buzzed his dark hair a little shorter, and he moved with a slight limp. I would never mention it though. Lev didn’t believe he had a limp. He was convinced he was at a hundred percent, and who was I to tell him any different.
What I didn’t understand was the need for him to wear not only jeans, but a long-sleeve shirt and work boots.
“Where’s Ben?” I asked as Lev approached.
“He’s cleaning fish. He had a good day.”
“Did you go fishing with him?” I asked. “Probably not.”
“No, I had other things. How is the day at the beach?”
“Boring. There isn’t much to do. Aren’t you hot?” I asked.
“Yes,” Lev answered. “Very.”
“Then why are you overdressed?”
“Because when night comes and it cools, I take off these clothes and feel much cooler.”
“Oh stop, that doesn’t work.” I laughed.
“She has a point,” Fleck added. “Plus, I would have thought you especially wouldn’t be able to handle the heat.”
“Why me especially?” Lev asked. “Because I am tall.”
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