Resurrecting Home

by A. American

  “Do we have enough people for this?” Thad asked.

  I shook my head. “No, but Mike has some knowledge as well as Jamie. I think we can get their help.”

  “Will that really work? The back fire?” Mary asked.

  “It’s our only shot. Well, that or run,” I said.

  “I’m not running unless I have to. I’m done running,” Danny replied.

  “Tomorrow we’ll get a hold of Sarge and see what he thinks. Right now, though, we need to get Jeff and Tyler off the barricade,” I said, standing up from the table. “You guys have worked pretty hard today,” I said to Jess and Fred, and then looked at my girls. “You too. Guess it’s me and you, Danny.”

  “You guys go for four hours or so and then my shift starts,” Thad said. “And I’m with . . .” He trailed off as he ran his finger down the list. “Aric.”

  “You feel up to it?” Fred asked Aric.

  He nodded. “We just need to change the bandages. I’ll be good.”

  Fred looked over at me. “Morgan, I hate to bring up another problem, but we’re almost out of the bandages Doc gave us. Do you have anything we can use?”

  Chewing on a mouthful, I thought about it for a moment, then Thad stepped in and answered, “Reuse what you have. Boil the old ones and let them dry, then reuse them.”

  Fred wrinkled her nose. “That’s kind of gross.”

  “You got a better idea?” I asked.

  “I’ve heard you can use maxi pads as dressings?” Aric said, getting a laugh out of Lee Ann and Taylor.

  I snickered. “Have you seen the number of women around here? We need all of those we can get.”

  “All right, boiling and Betadine it is,” Fred said.

  “How’s the wound looking, anyway?” Thad asked.

  “Doc told us what infection would look like, and I don’t think there is any. It’s not red around the edges or anything,” Aric replied.

  “Good, let’s hope it stays that way.”

  Looking at Danny I said, “Let me get my NVGs and we’ll head down the road.”

  Mel stood up. “All right, girls, time to go.” She went to the screen door and called out, “Ashley! It’s time to go!”

  “Aww, come on, can’t we stay longer?”

  “They’ll be here tomorrow! Let’s go.”

  Reluctantly she came trotting up the hill, Jace and Edie hot on her heels. I thanked the ladies for dinner and we left. Walking back to the house, Mel was holding my hand. Little Bit had the other.

  “Daddy, is that fire going to burn our house down?” Little Bit asked.

  “I hope not, baby. We’re going to try and stop it.”

  “I hope we can. I like it here. I don’t want to leave again,” she replied.

  “Me too, monkey. Me too.”

  As the older girls ran in the house shouting something about playing Scrabble, I went in and found the NVGs. Grabbing a canteen, I filled it from the Berkey and stuck it in a pouch on the back of the vest.

  “How long are you going to be gone?” Mel asked.

  “Few hours. I’ll just be at the end of the road, though.”

  “I know, I just don’t like it when you’re not here at night.”

  I wrapped my arms around her. “Me too, can’t sleep unless you’re around nowadays.”

  She smiled and gave me a kiss. “Love you.”

  “Love you too. I’ll be back in a bit,” I said and walked back over to Danny’s.

  We took two of the four-wheelers and rode down to the barricade. The smoke was getting heavier, as was the ash, falling like light snow. Jeff and Tyler were happy to see us, and even happier to see the food we brought.

  “See anything?” Danny asked.

  “A few people came by. They looked pitiful. Remember the people we used to see walking the road, you know, in the beginning?” Jeff asked.

  I nodded. “Worse than that.”

  “A group came by earlier with a wagon that only had three wheels. I felt so bad for them. Just a look of utter defeat on their faces,” Tyler said.

  “I can understand. Think about it: they’ve made it this far, and probably had some sort of life reestablished, and now it’s all going to be burned up,” Danny said.

  “I hope that doesn’t happen to us,” Jeff said. “I’ve grown to really like it here.”

  I smiled. “Yeah, we’re like mold: we’ll grow on ya.”

  Jeff laughed. “You’re an idiot.”

  They got on the four-wheelers and headed down the road. Danny and I went out to the barricade and leaned on the top log.

  “Like déjà vu,” Danny said.

  “Yeah, the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same.”

  We watched as the sun began to drop for the horizon. The smoke acted as a filter and gave it a strange, ominous look, like a large red ball kissing the horizon. As soon as the sun dipped from view, the skeeters emerged with a vengeance.

  “Holy shit, these things are thick,” I said, slapping the back of my neck.

  “This’ll help,” Danny said with a grin. He pulled a can of OFF! out of his vest, and my eyes just about rolled out of my head.

  “Oh, thank the Lord. How much of that do you have?”

  “Couple of cans, not much,” Danny replied as he began spraying his arms.

  With the sun finally down I walked out into the road and looked north. Just above the horizon, the fire seemed to flicker and dance, changing colors as it did. Danny walked out and we stood there in silence for a moment.

  “Man, that looks like it could burn the entire world,” Danny said.

  “I guess it’ll stop about Key West,” I said with a snort.

  “You really think the back fire plan will work?”

  “In theory. That’s all I can say.”

  “I hope your theory proves right.”

  “Me too, man. Hey, look at the bright side. Hurricane season’s going to start soon. That’ll put the fire out for sure.”

  Danny laughed. “Oh yeah, that makes it better.”

  We stood in the road for a long time watching the glow. As it got darker the sinister glow got brighter, extending as far to both sides as we could see. I pictured a map of Florida in my mind, trying to think of what was out there. If it went too far to the west it could potentially hit Ocala. All the pastureland surrounding it on the west side might slow it, and the city was pretty spread out and would probably be spared. But there were countless little towns scattered all over the forest that would surely be burned to the ground.

  Between us and the blaze was nothing but forest at this point. This thing looked like it was hundreds of square miles. If we managed to stop it from burning through here, to turn it with the back burn, the fire would burn all the way down to the St. Johns and destroy countless more lives. As awful as it sounded, though, I knew I couldn’t worry about those lives. I just wanted to protect the ones here. If it didn’t jump the river, it would burn itself out, and if it did, Deland would be the next to go—and we wouldn’t be too far behind.

  Thinking about the cities that would be affected, DeBary popped into my head. Mom and Dad lived there. Their place was down on the river—the other side, thankfully. I had no idea if they were still there, or even still alive for that matter. I wished I could go find out, but the trip by truck would probably be impossible. I could make it via the St. Johns, going down the Alexander Run to where it dumped into the big backward-flowing river, but that would take days and I had no idea what the river was like. Surely there were a lot of people roaming it. I just had to put faith in the fact that they were surviving just as we were. And if I knew my parents, they were probably even better off than I was. My dad was a tough guy, even more prepared than me. The thought brought a smile to face. I could just see him in his kayak out on the river fishing. He loved to fish and even being forced to do it out of need would never dampen his enthusiasm for the sport.

  Danny wandered back over to the barricade and I followed him. It was full-on d
ark now, the skeeters testing the limits of the OFF! I climbed up on the barricade and sat on the top log. Danny came up beside me and we sat there in the silence. Even though it had been months now, the silence of this new era always struck me. The night was so quiet—the days were too, for that matter—but after the sun went down it took on another level. With no man-made sound, the world was a very quiet place.

  From time to time I would take the NVGs out and scan the road. Toward the end of our shift, we heard some shouts. Both of us dropped off the log and jogged out into the road. The shouts were far off to the north, and while we couldn’t make out the words, it sounded angry. A single gunshot rang out, followed by the piercing scream of a woman. The shouting stopped, but the wails of the woman continued.

  “Somebody’s having a bad day,” Danny said.

  “Sounds like it,” I said as I looked through the NVGs.

  “See anything?”

  “No, there’s what might be a small fire, but it’s way up there.”

  We walked across the road and sat in the grass. Using the goggles I looked up at the stars. The smoke in the air blocked out a number of them, but there was still an amazing variety to see. Looking at the Big Dipper, movement caught my eye. It looked like a star was slowly moving across the sky.

  “I see a satellite,” I said.

  “No shit, where?” Danny asked, grabbing for my goggles.

  I handed them over. “Over there. Look at the end of the Big Dipper.”

  Danny held them up and searched the sky for a moment. “I see it. Hauling ass, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, wonder what kind it is.”

  “I wonder who it belongs to,” Danny quipped. He scanned the sky again for a bit. “Remember that night we saw the space station?”

  “Yeah, wonder if it’s still up there?”

  “If it is, I feel for the poor bastards who are on it.”

  “Man, that would suck. Run out of O2 or maybe food and water,” I said, shaking my head.

  “I guess they have an escape pod or something.”

  “Yeah, coming down in the middle of the ocean would sure suck, though.”

  Danny grunted. “Be better than being stuck in space.”

  I laughed. “Got a point there.”

  Danny dropped the goggles, looking down the road. “People.”

  I leaned forward to look down the road. “Where?”

  “Walking right down the middle of the road,” he replied, handing me the goggles.

  Sure enough there was a couple walking down the road. They didn’t appear to have much with them, no wagon or cart, as was the norm with passing refugees. I couldn’t even see a pack on them.

  “What do you want to do?” I asked.

  “Let’s sit here. Maybe they’ll just walk by.”

  I dropped down, propping myself up on an elbow, and stared into the darkness. Every now and then I would raise the goggles and see where they were.

  “They’re getting pretty close,” I said.

  “Yeah, I can hear them talking,” Danny replied in a whisper.

  We sat quietly as the pair drew near. Soon they were close enough that we could actually make out what they were saying.

  “. . . should have just given it up,” a man’s voice said.

  “You didn’t have to shoot him,” a woman replied angrily.

  “It’s not like I had a choice! He should have just given it up.”

  “He had children!” she practically shouted.

  “He wasn’t dead. He was still alive when we left, and we can eat tonight.”

  Danny looked over at me, eyebrows raised. I knew he was thinking the same thing I was: whether or not we should do something. But without knowing exactly what had happened, it didn’t seem worth interfering. The two continued to talk as they approached. The woman asked where they were going to sleep for the night.

  “I don’t know. Let’s get some distance behind us.”

  As they were passing our little road, the woman asked, “What about here? Let’s just go find a house and sleep there. Not like they’ll come looking in all of the houses.”

  The two stopped and looked around. “I don’t know. I’d rather get farther down the road,” the man said nervously.

  “But I’m tired! My feet hurt. We’ve been walking all day. It’s not my fault you lost your damn mind.”

  “You need to keep moving,” Danny said in a stern voice, surprising me. Hearing his voice, they both spun around, the man shoving a hand into his pocket. I jumped up, as did Danny. We both lit them up with the lights on our carbines.

  “Just keep walking. We don’t need your kind here,” Danny said.

  “Don’t shoot, please don’t shoot!” the woman cried.

  “Sounds like you didn’t have a problem with shooting a minute ago,” Danny said.

  I called out, “Take your hand out of your pocket real, real slow, mister.”

  Seeing he was outnumbered, he slowly withdrew his hand. “We’re not looking for any trouble. We’ll be on our way.”

  “What was worth killing a man over?” Danny asked.

  The woman looked at the man, the fear on her face obvious. Neither of them answered so Danny shouted the question again, causing them both to jump and the woman to cry.

  “Show him, just show him!” she pleaded with the man.

  He slowly took a pack off his back and unzipped it. Reaching in, he withdrew a can and held it out.

  “You killed a man over a can of corn?” I asked.

  “We didn’t mean to!” the woman cried.

  “You killed a man with kids to take that?” Danny asked.

  “I didn’t want to. It just . . . sort of happened,” the man muttered.

  “Get on your knees!” Danny shouted. “Hands on your head!”

  The woman jumped at the shout but quickly complied, crying all the while. The man hesitated. I was just as enraged as Danny and shouted at him, “On your knees or I’ll put you in the ground!”

  He slowly went to his knees and put his hands on his head. “Cover me,” Danny said. “If he moves, shoot his ass.”

  As Danny started toward them I stepped forward, my carbine centered on his chest. The man’s eyes followed Danny as he circled behind him. Once behind the man, Danny jammed the muzzle of his rifle in his back. “You blink and you’re a dead man.”

  Reaching into the man’s pocket, he pulled out a small silver revolver. He quickly patted the rest of his pockets and produced a small handful of bullets. Tucking the pistol in his belt, Danny backed around them and returned to where I was standing. He opened the cylinder of the pistol and inspected it, then extracted one fired case.

  “We should just shoot your ass,” Danny said.

  “Please don’t kill us!” the woman cried.

  “I didn’t mean to,” the man replied, looking at the ground. “He should have just given it to me.” His shoulders slumped. “Just do it if you’re going to do it.”

  “Awful brave all of a sudden,” Danny said.

  “You’re not even worth killing. You’re the scum of the earth. Just get the hell out of here and never come back,” I said.

  “You can’t send us out without a gun. We’ll get killed,” the man said.

  “Maybe. Maybe you’ll come across someone just like yourself. Maybe they’ll kill you for something, or for nothing. I don’t care,” Danny added.

  The man looked at the woman with him. Her hair was long but matted and in her face. “Think of my wife. How can I protect her?” He paused. “There are worse things than death.”

  “You think about that while you walk. Think about some woman and kids you just left down the road with a dead man you just shot.”

  “Go, now,” Danny said.

  Apprehensively the woman rose to her feet. The man stood as well but made no indication he was going to leave.

  “Mister, if you don’t start walking I’m going to shoot you,” Danny said.

  The man shook his head. “This ain�
��t right,” he said, then he suddenly made a rush at us. Danny pulled the trigger an instant before I did, both bullets striking the man in the chest. The woman let out a bloodcurdling scream and rushed toward him.

  She rolled him over and I could hear the gurgle of blood in the man’s throat. She wrapped her hands around his face and wailed as he said something to her that I couldn’t understand. Her head dropped onto his chest as she lost control of herself. At the same time, the sound of ATVs starting to gain speed drifted through the night. I could see the headlights of the two machines bouncing along the dirt road. Thad was surely on one of them.

  The woman looked up, her eyes full of tears and snot dripping from both nostrils. “What am I going to do now?” she screamed, her body wracked with sobs.

  I felt for her in a way. She’d just lost someone she obviously loved, but how could they kill someone over a damn can of corn, and then try to attempt to hurt us, even after we said they could go?

  The two ATVs came flying up and skidded to a stop. Jeff and Thad were on them and both were off and looking around before the machines even stopped, it seemed.

  “What happened?” Thad asked, looking at the woman.

  Danny relayed the story to them. As he did, Jeff walked over and picked up the can lying on the pavement. “How can you kill someone over a can of corn?”

  “Believe me, we’ve been thinking the same thing,” I replied.

  Thad looked down the dark road, and I could tell by the look on his face that he was beyond himself with the thought of such an injustice done to a family. “We should probably go down there and check on the family, see if we can give them shelter for the night,” he finally said.

  “You think it’s safe?” Danny asked.

  “No more or less than standing here, probably,” I replied. “Besides, if some poor gal is sitting on the side of the road with a couple of kids and a dead man, we should try and help.”

  “What about her? What are we going to do with her?” Jeff asked, pointing at the woman lying in the road.

  “I don’t know,” I said, looking at Danny.

  “We can’t just leave her out here,” Danny said, glaring down at her pitiful form. “It’s not like she did it.”

  I looked down at her again, really unsure of what do about her. In the end, though, she wasn’t my problem. I didn’t create the situation. I really couldn’t care less what happened to her. “You need to move on. You can’t stay here.”