Adaptive Instinct (Survival Instinct)

by Stittle, Kristal

  “Catch anything in your traps?” Mathias asked Riley as he passed the pancake plate to Danny. Danny Cole was Mathias’s younger brother; the Coles were the only ones with a relative present. Throughout the Day, Mathias had been desperate to locate his younger brother. It was by luck and chance that they had found one another.

  “Only one rabbit. It’s on the deck right now. I’ll probably show some of you how to skin it after breakfast.” Riley put just a small dabble of syrup on her pancakes. She knew syrup was something they would run out of eventually, and did her part to conserve what she could.

  “Are you sure after breakfast is a good time?” Tobias raised an eyebrow at her. “I mean, that might be something that brings breakfast back up.”

  Tobias Mackenzie was the tallest of the group, but beyond reaching high shelves, he had the least number of useful skills. He grew up a city boy who went camping only one weekend a year. When they had first arrived, he had been more useful. They had to set up the gas generator, the solar panels, and the small wind turbines, and Tobias knew a lot about wiring and electronics. Now that those were all up and running, Riley didn’t know what to do with him.

  She simply shrugged in response to his comment.

  “I don’t think I’m ready for rabbit skinning,” Abby admitted. “Mind if I take a pass today?”

  “Sure, but I’d like to be showing at least two of you today.” Riley understood that a lot of this stuff was new to them, and was still cutting them slack because of it. She had been trained since birth to survive in any given situation. Her family had always thought some sort of apocalyptic event was coming, and they had prepared for it as if it was a religion. Even Riley had given her parents flak from time to time for all the training, but here she was thanking them every day for their preparations. If she hadn’t been drilled as hard and as often as she had, she would never have gotten out of the hospital in time.

  “I’ll do it,” Danny volunteered. He was always so eager to learn and volunteered for everything. At fourteen, Danny was the youngest of their group by about seven years. He worked hard though, and always tried his best. Riley thought it was a defence mechanism, that he pushed himself into work to avoid thinking about things. Whenever they had down time, he would convince someone to play a game with him, or run around with the dogs. Riley was never good at psychology and had no idea if this was a good thing or not. Cender knew more about that stuff than she did. He had done a psych ward rotation, and he seemed fine with it, so Riley let it go.

  “I’ll watch,” Cender also volunteered. He would be fine with cutting open a rabbit, considering what he had gotten used to seeing every day in the ER. In fact, if he had to, he could probably already do it.

  “Tobias, if you don’t want to join them, I could use some help,” Abby turned to him. “The dirt in the greenhouse is a little hard, and I wanted to find some softer stuff to use as top soil. An extra pair of hands would be nice. If we could find some worms, it would be even better.” Abby Walker had been the most emotional person all week, especially when they removed the stitches from her arm yesterday, leaving behind a large scar, but she was damned useful. She might burst into tears at any time because of what happened, but she remained focused on whatever task she was doing. She also knew plants, Riley’s weakness. Abby was usually excused from lessons because she would spend all day in the greenhouse. Not only was she planting, growing, preparing soil, and all that other stuff, but also, she was reading every book on agriculture and plant life she found in the cabin. She spent a bit of time each day memorizing what they had in the storage space, and what the expiration dates were on the food down there. Abby had a near-perfect memory and could keep inventory of everything without having to write any of it down. Riley was teaching her how much everybody needed to eat each day, and once Abby had it down, Riley would put her in charge of rationing.

  “I’m down for a worm hunt,” Tobias nodded.

  “Find some extra ones for the fishing gear,” Alec spoke up from his place slightly away from the table. “Maybe you guys can finally get that canoe into the water.” Alec McGregor was confined to a wheelchair, which didn’t allow him to pull right up to the crowded table. It also meant he didn’t get to help as much as he would have liked. Despite his own thoughts on the matter, Riley thought he was extremely helpful. In fact, if he could have used his legs, he would have been the most useful of the bunch. The man was a trained sniper and knew all about surviving harsh terrain. Riley didn’t have to teach him anything. Alec even gave her a few pointers on shooting, and he was often the one teaching everybody else how to work a rifle. Since being confined to his chair, he had worked as a mechanic, and was a great help in putting the small windmills together. It was just too bad he could rarely leave the deck outside. Although, Riley had to admit to herself that she liked having him confined there. He would wheel around the deck with his M110 SASS sniper rifle in his lap. The deck went all the way around the cabin and gave him a 360-degree vantage point of the surrounding area. If something showed up, Alec would know, and, if it was dangerous, he could easily blow its head off. It was nice to know that somebody was watching over them.

  “I’ll put the canoe in the water,” Mathias offered. “I already know how to skin a rabbit.” Like Alec, Mathias had also been in the military. He was a Ranger until he got dishonourably discharged for punching his superior three times. Although he didn’t know as much as Alec and Riley, he knew quite a bit. He was also their only source of information about the hybrid virus. Mathias had worked as a mercenary for the Marble Keystone Corporation, a massive company that had started out in pharmaceuticals, and branched out into… well, pretty much everything. They had created the hybrid virus and set it loose, deliberately from what they’d heard. Mathias didn’t know much about the thing, but he knew more than anyone else in their group did. When they had gotten to the cabin, Riley had given him a notebook and pen and asked him to write down everything he remembered about it. If he ever remembered something new, he was supposed to write it down in the book, even if the information seemed useless.

  “I’m done. Anyone else?” Misha stood up from the table, even though there was still food on his plate.

  “Here.” Alec lifted his plate slightly. Misha walked over to him and scraped off the half-pancake that was left onto his own plate. He looked around the table again, but everyone was finishing their portions. As Misha carried the plate into the main room, Rifle and Shoes began circling him. Making sure the dogs got portions according to their relative size; Misha fed them the leftover pancakes. Riley thought Misha could stand to gain some weight and told Abby to give him portions larger than he needed, but after every meal, he had leftovers, which he always fed to the dogs. The twenty-something year old was practically all bone, but no one could force him to eat. At least it meant they didn’t have to feed the dogs as much, since they were always getting scraps.

  It was nice to have Rifle and Shoes with them. Not only were they good at comforting, they could also work. Rifle would often chase rabbits, and had managed to catch one just the other day. He was also big for his breed and could pull the sled. Right now, they were still getting him used to the weight of the sled alone, hooking it up to the harness that he always wore, but soon enough, they would have him hauling wood. Riley planned to bring him on hunts. If they bagged something big, like an elk or a reindeer, having him help pull the sled would be great. Shoes was handy in a much different way. The old basset hound had been trained as a cadaver dog, and it was hard to break his habits, however, they had been learning how to use those same habits. He would wander out into the woods and find animals that had died of one thing or another. Once he found an animal, Riley and Josh would look it over and decide if it was safe to eat, or to use its fur or its feathers for things. Not being animal doctors, meant this was an imprecise decision, and so far, they had always decided on ‘no.’ This didn’t mean the carcass couldn’t be used as fertilizer for the greenhouse though. Both of the dogs cou
ld smell the infected—Shoes especially—and became their first line of defence, the warning system, if one were to show up. That was Riley’s biggest fear; that the zombies would find them and swarm them.

  When everybody was finished with breakfast, the dishes were gathered up and placed in the sink.

  “Whose turn is it to wash?” Mathias asked the group.

  “Yours,” Abby answered him, “and it’s my turn to dry.”

  “Damn.” Mathias picked up a large, red bucket from next to the sink. The cabin didn’t have running water, so to wash dishes, they would fill the bucket with lake water, haul it up to the sink, and dump the water into the sink along with soap.

  “I’ll help dry,” Tobias offered.

  Everybody dispersed to their tasks.

  ***

  “And that’s how you skin and prepare a rabbit,” Riley finished. The rabbit now lay in pieces on the tarp before her. Technically, she still wasn’t done. She still needed to tan and stretch the fur for use, but they didn’t need to learn that now. She used to do this kind of thing in the dirt, but she didn’t feel comfortable down there, so she had spread out a tarp on the deck.

  “Gross,” Cender commented without emotion. Riley kept reminding herself to call him Josh as everybody else did. Josh, Josh, Joshua Cender. She was determined to think of him with that name. “I guess I now know why surgery wanted you so badly. You’re a little too good with that knife.”

  “What do you do with the guts?” Danny wondered.

  “Well, we can use them as compost if Abby and Tobias have found more worms.” Using her gloved hands, Riley scooped up the guts and put them into a bucket next to her. She had other buckets for the bones and meat of the rabbit.

  “Are you going to tan the hide?” Misha asked from a fair distance away. Riley wasn’t even aware he was there.

  “I am. Did you watch?” Riley glanced briefly at him before returning to putting things into the buckets.

  “I did, but I didn’t need to,” Misha told her. “When I lived back in Russia, my dad would take me hunting from time to time. I never shot anything—never wanted to—but my dad usually made me do the skinning and gutting.”

  Misha always spoke with a slight Russian accent, and when he got stressed or was half-asleep, like that morning, he would slip into full Russian. He had come to Canada to go to school.

  “That’s good,” Riley nodded, “one less person to teach.”

  “I was wondering if I could use the phone.” Misha revealed his real reason for hanging around.

  “Wouldn’t it be, like, late at night over there?” Danny wondered.

  “I like to try different times. Maybe someone will pick up this time. So, can I?” Misha turned his gaze back to Riley. Riley always felt slightly uncomfortable when he looked at her. Misha’s eyes were such a pale blue that they were almost white. Combined with his black, shaggy hair, and ghostly pale skin, as well as his ability just to appear when you weren’t paying attention, made him a bit creepy.

  “Sure, why not,” Riley gave in. “Josh, I assume you’ll want to try as well?”

  “Please,” he smiled.

  “All right, let’s round everybody up.” Riley snapped the lids onto the buckets and stood up. “Anybody that wants to try today is going to try now.”

  Misha wandered off toward the stairs, perhaps to get Mathias from the lake’s edge. Riley and Danny helped Josh get up on his feet and get his crutches under him. On the Day, he had broken his leg and would be wearing a clunky cast for at least another week. The cast had actually been put on by Abby and the crazy woman, Jessica, neither of whom knew how to do it. Although Josh had talked them through it, he had still been somewhat drugged from the surgery he had undergone. Riley was fairly certain the cast wasn’t put on properly, and that when it came off, Joshua Cender would have a slight, barely noticeable bend to his leg that would make it weaker than the other one.

  Once he was up, they all split up to gather everyone together.

  ***

  “Who wants to make the first phone call?” Riley held a satellite phone in her hands. Everybody had gathered around her on the deck, where the phone got the best reception. Riley often wondered how long the phone would last before even the satellites no longer worked.

  “Misha should go first; it was his idea,” Alec suggested.

  “All right. Here you go.” Riley handed the skinny boy the large phone. “Make it quick.”

  Misha flipped up the aerial and dialled the number. Everyone had at least one person they wanted to get into contact with, and so they had all learned to use the phone. So far, Misha and Tobias had been the only ones to get through, probably because they were calling people the farthest away from the outbreak. Misha though, had yet to connect with his family. No one ever seemed to pick up the home phone, and twice now, he had called government agencies to try to help him. They, of course, just told him they had bigger problems to deal with and hung up. Today seemed to be no different. Misha gave up and handed the phone back to Riley. His face carried no expression.

  Tobias took the phone next. His family lived in Vancouver, and he had been able to get through to them the first time he tried. They had seen the news and were so relieved to hear his voice. Tobias convinced them to head to his aunt and uncle’s house situated in the Rockies; they would be safer there than in the city. He hadn’t been able to get through since; the phone lines were probably jammed or even down.

  All the others had been trying to contact people much closer. Alec had a brother-in-law whom he lived with in Leighton and hadn’t seen since the morning of the Day. Alec had gone out to run errands while his brother-in-law went to work in the mechanic’s shop that he owned. The two of them lived and worked together most days, and so they were very close. Alec’s sister had died during childbirth, the child as well, and so the two men had grown even closer.

  Abby was also trying to contact someone in Leighton: her girlfriend. Lauren had been at some makeup effects conference, and Abby hadn’t had time to try to reach her. Abby also had family out in the prairies, but bad things had happened between them. She called them once, and when one of her brothers picked up, she couldn’t bring herself to speak and disconnected the call. She hadn’t tried again.

  Josh had parents and a little sister living in Toronto. Because Toronto was roughly only six hours by car south of Leighton, they got hit pretty hard, not long after Leighton had been. The phone lines in Toronto, were as dead and as jammed as Leighton’s were.

  Danny used the phone less than everyone else did. He tried a few numbers in Leighton, hoping to reach the foster family he had lived with, but he didn’t have high hopes. He knew at least two of them had died and expected the worst for the others. He wished he could call his online friends, the ones who lived in the United States, but he couldn’t remember any of their numbers.

  Riley never tried the phone the way the others did. Instead, she carried it around between noon and 1 p.m. Her family knew the number and they would reach her if they could. It was part of their planning that, if they got separated, they would keep their phones on during that one hour of the day. Riley was afraid to call them, just in case they were in some tense situation; she didn’t want the ringer distracting them or drawing zombies to them.

  Mathias always made the most interesting calls. After determining that Riley’s phone was untraceable, he began calling Keystone numbers. He was trying to get information. When they had been heading north after the Day, everyone in the group had been rounded up by Keystone security and brought to a prison. They were told it was to keep them safe. Well, they had learned that there was a split faction within Keystone, a group of people working against them. The faction was small, but they had done two important things that the group knew of. The first was committed by a woman named Chant, who had warned the population via a radio broadcast about the zombies. She had told everybody everything she knew, and warned them to get out of the city. She had been killed for her efforts. The s
econd thing came from a man named James Brenner. He had actually been the one to round up Riley, Mathias, Alec, and Danny, but he also tried to help them. Well, in a small way he did. He warned them that Keystone wanted Mathias dead. They weren’t sure of the details, but it was probably because Mathias wanted to openly defect. James also told them about the tiny rebel faction and about tracker bugs in Mathias’s Keystone weapons. As far as they knew, James was still at the prison, trying to find a way to get everyone else in there, out. Supposedly, Marble Keystone had released the zombie virus to create a new world order. They were gathering up all the survivors they could find and moving them into places like the prison, and when things calmed down, those poor people would become the working slave force of this new world. So far, Mathias had no luck finding this small faction. The few times he had gotten through, he hung up quickly as they began to grill him, trying to find out who and where he was.

  Mathias was trying one last number for the day. The secretary who usually picked up had been the most accommodating and friendly so far. They hoped to get more phone numbers out of her. As he dialled, Riley heard a sound that didn’t belong. She quickly placed a hand over Mathias’s, stopping him from completing the number.

  “What-” Mathias stopped talking when Riley held a finger to her lips. Everybody stood perfectly still and listened.

  A mechanical buzz was getting louder and louder. It wasn’t coming from the greenhouse either, which was the only thing using electrical power for miles around. It dawned on Alec first what it was and he looked to the sky. Soon, everybody was looking up, trying to spot the plane.

  “There!” Danny saw it first and pointed it out.

  The plane, which was small, was coming toward them. It buzzed by, fairly low, and began to bank toward the lake. Riley recognized the plane as being a two-seater Osprey, which was a plane with water landing capabilities.