Amanda Carter in the L.A.Z., life after zombies

by Jo Lee Auburne

  “Turn that frown upside down,” was a phrase that her mother had been prone to make, God rest her soul. She thought of that now and decided to smile an honest and genuine smile that left no room for doubt.

  When she looked down at her bucket of wash water, she was thankful to have the opportunity to bathe and freshen up. And Amanda had been kind enough to wash a set of clothes for her. My life is good, she decided, knowing that as rough as they had it, others had experienced much worse and were still going through the nightmare of survival in a much crueler fashion than she.

  Chapter 70

  “Don’t go down there,” Sam said, “Mom’s washing up.”

  “Oh, I needed to use the facilities before my watch,” Cole said, looking like he was experiencing some angst over it.

  “She won’t be long, she never is,” Sam said, completely unaffected by Cole’s apparent situation. “She’s always all about the work and doesn’t spend much time on herself.”

  Sam had set the coffee to perk and was currently rifling through the first-aid kit to find the pills for her father.

  “Not like you, I take it,” Cole said, eyeing the girl speculatively.

  “Not like me, what?” Sam asked, accidentally spilling the contents of the kit all over the ground.

  “Uh-oh, Mom’s going to be bent over that,” she said, bending to pick everything up.

  “You like spending time on yourself,” Cole said. “I kind of get that vibe about you.”

  “Yeah, so?” Sam said, clearly irritated, but Cole wasn’t sure it was at him or the items she had spilled.

  “No reason really,” Cole said, “I’m just trying to get to know everyone, is all.”

  “Well, either help me get this stuff cleaned up and repacked, or go and get to know someone else,” Sam said.

  Cole smiled and moved in to help Sam gather up the items and dust them off.

  “Fortunately, all these gauze rolls are still in their packages. The pill bottles are all tightly capped, and we can wash the scissors, tweezers, needles, and thread, so I think that you’ll be in the clear,” Cole said.

  “What happened?” Maryanne asked, looking at the two of them.

  “I just accidentally dropped the stuff in the kit,” Sam said, looking apologetically to her mother.

  “Cole’s right, we can fix it,” Maryanne said with a small shake of her head.

  “If you ladies don’t mind, I have to visit the facilities in a most urgent way,” Cole said, excusing himself.

  “Coffee’s ready,” Sam announced, leaving the mess only half cleaned up, in favor of going to give her father a cup.

  “For heaven’s sake,” Maryanne said, deciding that she had better be the one to make sure that the contents of the kit were cared for properly.

  “Good morning, Sky,” Sam said, giving her new friend a big smile. “Coffee’s ready.”

  “I’ve always drunk tea,” Sky said, “but I guess I could try some.”

  Sky looked like she was feeling much better than she had yesterday. There was a better color to her cheeks, and though there were bags under her eyes, her eyes did appear to twinkle more than they had the day before even.

  “Take your father a glass of water and his pill too, would you please, Sam,” Maryanne said, stopping Sam while she was in route.

  “Oh, yeah, sure,” Sam said, twirling around to get back to the kitchen area.

  “Did someone say coffee?” Roy asked, looking like he hadn’t quite woken up yet.

  “You had a late night on watch. You don’t need to be up yet,” Maryanne said, kindly scolding him.

  “Who can sleep in this heat once the sun comes up?” he asked.

  “Apparently, those three,” Sam said, speaking of Amanda, Cody, and Tammy.

  Roy liked his solitude in the mornings, and he especially looked like he wanted it this morning. Without saying a word, he took his coffee and went down the hill.

  Red was sitting just outside of the kitchen, looking expectantly for his breakfast. Boo was sprawled on Tammy’s dirty clothes that were piled beside her usual bed mat. The little dog appeared to be watching the goings-on for the morning but had as yet no desire to get up and interact with any of them.

  “You look nice this morning,” Jason said to his wife, “and I only peeked once with the binoculars,” he said, before laughing, as he accepted the two cups from his daughter.

  “Some people are just shameless,” Maryanne said but then laughed herself.

  It was difficult these days to live as husband and wife. The LAZ had stolen most of their usual routines, had stolen most of the laughter, most of the teasing banter, and all their privacy. Maryanne felt a glow at times like this when circumstances felt less tense, more natural.

  “What’s shameless mean?” Tammy asked, suddenly sitting up from her slumber, reminding Maryanne again of just how little privacy they had.

  “It’s one of those big words that’s hard to understand till you get older,” Sam said, coming to stand over the girl.

  “Oh,” Tammy said, suddenly losing interest, “I have to go potty.”

  Maryanne stood, preparing to escort her daughter down the hill. Now that The Pit offered some privacy with their new outhouse, it would be possible for her take the child down now and wait for Cole to finish.

  “I’ll take her, Mom,” Sam said, extending her hand toward her little sister.

  “Oh,” Maryanne said, and for the second time this morning, Sam had shocked her.

  For a full minute, Maryanne began to wonder if Sam didn’t do things like that just for the shock value that it offered. She dismissed the idea when she saw the two of them walking down the hill, hand in hand. It occurred to her again that the run had changed Sam to some extent.

  “Are you ready to be relieved of duty?” Cole asked of Jason, having just returned up the hill.

  “I think so,” Jason said, before popping the pill in his mouth and drinking the full cup of water.

  “I’ll help you down,” Cole said, positioning himself so that he would be most effective at helping the man down off of the boulder without causing further injury to him.

  “I wanted to thank you for the outhouse,” Maryanne said, clamping the lid closed on the first-aid kit.

  “It’s not finished yet, but thanks,” Cole said. “I still need to finish piling the rocks around the boards that stick out on the bottom of the frame, and then I’ll bury the rocks with sand. That should help it from getting blown over in our next windstorm.”

  “It really made me smile when I saw it this morning,” Maryanne said, feeling like Cole might have missed the compliment part of what she had said previously.

  “Well, thank you,” Cole said, opting to just carry Jason over to his reclining chair.

  The man didn’t weigh much, and it seemed easier than risking the man falling off of the boulder onto his bum leg. He hoped that doing it this way didn’t offend Jason, though.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Jason said, picking up on his thought. “Roy ended up doing the same thing to get me up here last night.”

  By the time Cole had stood, Maryanne had already placed a cup of coffee into his right hand. He switched it to his left because he was actually left-handed.

  “This tastes good, like it’s tea on steroids,” Sky said, looking up from her cup.

  “Breakfast will be soon,” Maryanne said, already beginning the preparations to feed the crew before they would all get started on their daily activities. “And for future reference, I’m sure that we have some tea bags around here somewhere, if you care to look for them.”

  “I understand we have a group going to check on that water source that was mentioned in the book?” Sky asked of nobody in particular.

  “Yes, that’s right,” said Cole, looking to the woman.

  “I was wondering if I could tag along and learn to shoot something,” she said.

  After having the night to consider what they had talked about, Sky had decided that it was impo
rtant for her to learn to shoot, even if she never envisioned herself to be much of a marksman.

  “Good, good,” Cole said, looking somewhat surprised that she would take the interest in it. “I’m sure that we could arrange that.”

  “Tammy’s up here now,” Sam announced. “I’m going to get some target practice in before my watch.”

  Sam stooped to retrieve her bow and arrows and then took off down the hill before anyone could stop her.

  “She really likes that bow,” Cole said, as he hopped up on the boulder, binoculars in hand.

  “It’s not like there’s a lot of things to interest a teenage girl around here,” Maryanne said.

  “I’ll tell you, I’m pleased to see it, and I hope that she really has a knack for it, because that would sure come in handy,” Cole said, watching the girl stroll down the hill, with Red tagging along beside her. “And I guess that we don’t have to worry about her heading off by herself because of that wolf she’s got with her. I have a feeling he can protect them and keep her alerted to danger. After all, he apparently keeps finding rattlesnakes to bring back to you, and they’re deadly, if not handled correctly.”

  “I would prefer that she stayed out of the fights, but that’s just me,” Maryanne said, setting a large pot of water to boil. “If she had her way, she’d be in the thick of things all the time. I am pleased that Red’s taken to following her around. She can get herself into trouble sometimes, just because she’s so darn headstrong.”

  “I’ve known the type,” Cole said, sounding as if he had recalled some distant memory. “I think it’s a good thing, given how things are now and all.”

  “If you say so,” Maryanne said.

  “Sam’s a real cool big sister, Mom,” Tammy said. “Can I learn to shoot that thing too?”

  “Not right now, dear,” Maryanne said dismissively because she was focusing on their breakfast preparations.

  “I’ll teach you,” Cole said, “if that’s all right with your parents, that is,” he added, while waiting for a response from one of them.

  “That would be a fine idea,” Jason said before Maryanne could issue a protest.

  “Yay,” Tammy announced with obvious glee. “Can we go right now?”

  “No, not right now, I have the watch now, and then we have to eat,” he said. “How about tomorrow?”

  “Okay,” the girl said, “I’m going to go practice with my colors now.”

  Tammy shuffled away, with a big grin on her face.

  “Does Sam take much of an interest in the girl?” Cole asked, watching the child wander off to find her coloring book.

  “She is more so recently,” Jason answered, knowing that his wife was busy.

  Cole nodded, before placing the binoculars to his eyes.

  “I’m going to take my leave, visit that new outhouse I keep hearing about, and then I’ll get started in the garden,” Sky said, taking the rest of her coffee with her.

  “How come nobody woke me?” Cody asked, rushing up to the kitchen area.

  Cody’s cheeks and forehead were a bright pink from sunburn. He looked frantic and disheveled, like he had overslept and was arriving late for work.

  “I figured that you needed your sleep, honey. We put in a lot of hard work yesterday,” Maryanne said, not failing to notice how burned the boy was. “Where’s that ball cap that Amanda promised you?” she asked.

  “I dunno,” Cody said with a shrug, immediately jumping in to help.

  “Where’s Sam?” the boy asked. “I feel like I haven’t talked to her in ages, she’s been so busy and all.”

  “She’s practicing with the bow and arrows. Why don’t you two take a break after breakfast and catch up,” Maryanne said, before smiling, realizing that time was perceived differently by children than it was by adults, and his perception of it seemed rather comical to her.

  So far, all their party was awake and accounted for, except for Amanda. Maryanne decided to let her sleep, because yesterday must have been quite exhausting for her when she was still trying to recover from the horrendous run they had gone out on.

  Chapter 71

  “Where’s Amanda?” Sam asked, having come up the hill a little breathless from her bow practice.

  “She’s still sleeping, dear, leave her alone for now, I’ll wake her for breakfast,” Maryanne answered.

  “That’s not right,” Sam said, before twisting up her mouth into an odd expression that accentuated her naturally upturned nose. “She never sleeps in like this. Are you sure we shouldn’t check on her?”

  “Oh my, in all the commotion, I forgot to change the dressing on her arm and see how the wound is looking,” Maryanne said, sounding frazzled by the error.

  “See, you should check on her,” Sam said, as if scolding her mother.

  “Breakfast is mere minutes away, kiddo, why don’t you give me a couple more minutes, okay?”

  “Listen to your mother,” Jason said, looking up from his book.

  “Sure, whatev,” Sam said, plopping herself down in the dirt.

  Sam was very much looking forward to breakfast because she had worked up quite an appetite shooting the arrows and then having to go and retrieve them. As it turns out, she thought, the LAZ is the perfect cure for obesity. She remembered all the weight loss commercials that used to play on the TV and the radio, how people had to sneak in trips to the gym and always go around “watching what they eat.” Gone are those days, she considered.

  “Honey, you want to go get Sky, and tell her that breakfast is ready. I don’t want to yell over there and wake Amanda just yet,” Maryanne said.

  “Sure,” Sam said, jumping to her feet, suddenly very agreeable.

  “It’s rice and beans,” she announced as Cody began to dish up plates. “I thought that would be in order, since we all have a very busy day ahead of us.”

  “Sounds terrific,” Jason said, setting the book down in the sand.

  “I can’t remember a time when I’ve had so much to eat since the world went wrong,” Cole said, sounding appreciative from his little perch on the boulder.

  “Wait till I tell Amanda that we have an outhouse now!” Sam said, coming back to the kitchen area. “She’s going to be sooo excited. Can I go wake her now?”

  “I’ll do it,” Maryanne said, knowing that Amanda might appreciate being awoken with a little softer touch than Sam would offer her. “I need to change that dressing and check out the burn anyway.”

  “Cool,” Sam said when Cody handed her a plate piled with food.

  “Thought you could use some extra, is all,” Cody said. “Maybe we can hang out or something after breakfast?”

  “Maybe, we’ll see,” said Sam, already loading up her fork.

  “Can I go change the dressing with you?” Cody asked. “I was the one to put it on, you know.”

  “Sure, honey, I don’t see why not,” Maryanne said, excusing herself from the group and leaving Sky to dish Cole up a plate, as well as one for herself.

  As Maryanne walked up to Amanda, she could see that Amanda was in a REM stage of sleep, with her eyes moving back and forth beneath the lids. She hesitated. If Amanda were deep in a dream state, she would really hate to wake her. But the desert was heating up, and Roy had yet to come and set up the tent stakes for the tarps. Amanda was passed out there with the sun bearing down on her, and that could be bad. She moved forward and knelt by her friend, extending a hand out to gently nudge her.

  Amanda didn’t respond. There wasn’t so much as a change in her deep breathing. She nudged her a little harder, again getting no response. She frowned, thinking, This isn’t right.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Cody asked, already realizing that Amanda was in an unusually deep slumber.

  “I don’t know,” Maryanne said falteringly as she put a hand on Amanda’s forehead.

  There was a pause. To Maryanne, time stood still for just a moment. She couldn’t move, frozen in place by the terror that had clutched her.

  “
Cody, get back,” she finally said.

  “What is it?” Cody said, leaning in closer.

  “I want you to get back now!” Maryanne said, feeling fear grab a hold of her and run its ice like paws down her spine.

  “What is it?” Cody asked again, but he had not walked but jumped back a few feet.

  “Go and get Roy for me please,” Maryanne said slowly while trying to stay calm.

  Cody ran, sensing that there must be an emergency, even if he didn’t know what it was. He ran past the group that was eating their breakfast.

  “Where are you going in such a hurry?” Sam asked.

  Their breakfast conversation had been loud and compelling, and they had missed the entire exchange that had gone on between Cody and Maryanne.

  “Something’s wrong with Amanda!” Cody said, not bothering to stop.

  Sam jumped up, spilling her breakfast in the sandy dirt and ran to her mother.

  “Get back, Sam, she’s got the fever, and I don’t know how long she’s had it,” Maryanne said, realizing that it was possible that Amanda could turn at any moment, and if that happened, she didn’t want any of the children nearby.

  Red growled. He had locked his gaze on Amanda, hackles up, not liking what he was sensing. This succeeded in nearly panicking Maryanne, who had in some small portion of her mind been holding out some hope that this wasn’t what it seemed to be.

  “She’s right, kids, get back,” said Cole, pulling the .45 APC out from behind his back, where he had kept it tucked in.

  “I thought you were supposed to be on watch,” Sam said defiantly to him. “I won’t let you shoot my friend.”

  The recently turned creepers were fast and undeniably more dangerous than the older ones. But worse than that was the thought of her friend, who had been here God knows how long with this fever, and no one had noticed. Maryanne felt sick in the pit of her stomach, just thinking about how she had neglected to check her out more thoroughly the day before, how she had allowed Amanda to carry up those heavy five-gallon loads of water when she should have been resting. Maryanne felt sick all over. She began to shake, as she slowly removed her hand from her friend’s forehead. Now, she did not want to wake her, for fear of what she might have become.