by J. Rudolph
“I think it makes you human.” I had nothing to add beyond that. My own folks died when I was three. I was taken in by an aunt who was not interested in becoming a mom. She kicked me out when I was 18, and I never looked back. I saw her obituary in the paper one day and I didn't have one tear to shed over the loss. Trent's mom was the closest thing I had to a mom but I still saw her as Trent's mom, even after 13 years of being a part of the family. It wasn't that I wasn't welcomed, I was, it just wasn't the same. Trent and Drew were my family. I couldn't fathom how I'd be without them. I wondered if that was how other people felt about their family of origin. I certainly couldn't fault him for that hope that he had. He just wanted them to be spared the fear that we were living in all the time. I couldn't see anyone thinking less of him and I would certainly hope that God would take into account the extenuating circumstances.
Tyreese choked back a round of tears that threatened to spill out by saying they had to get back to work. What was it with this man code thing that said that there was something wrong with feeling emotional pain like this?
By nightfall, everyone had their own little chunk of power, which was an amazing experience. We had forgotten how delightful it was to sit with our families and watch a DVD for the hundredth time because it's your kid's favorite. In that moment things felt a lot like they had in the past, when life made sense, when the dead stayed dead and the living went on their comfortable routines. For just a couple hours the apocalypse wasn't going on. It gave us hope that someday we might feel that way for a bit longer in a stretch.
Learning More
We had taken to eating breakfast as a group. We passed around the cinnamon rolls that morning and listened to DaWayne talk about his experiences on watch the night before. He had been watching out over the neighborhood when a cat had jumped on a car a couple streets over, which triggered the car's alarm. As the alarm wailed zombies came out from the woodwork to crowd around it to see if there was anybody there to eat.
“That's when it hit me. It's sound guys, not smell. They are drawn by the sounds. Every time they hit us was after the trucks had been out. The cars make all sorts of sound especially now. They move sorta slow so it takes them a minute to catch the sounds but when they do they followed the noises to here. It explains why the last run brought them in from both sides.” DaWayne's eyes flashed with pride as he explained the theory. It did make a whole lot more sense. We all murmured our agreement with the theory.
To test that idea we kept the noises down except for rare occasions. As a result we didn't see very many zombies after that. When we did we took care of them using the significantly more quiet cross bows. Things felt like they had stabilized for a bit.
We fell into our routine in the complex and things felt good for a while. Probably the longest while we had since this all began.
One nice afternoon Trent was on watch so to surprise him and Drew and I brought him lunch. While we were eating Trent suddenly jumped up and ran for the binoculars. Fearing an attack I jumped over to the alarm bell and waited for Trent to say the words that we were on alert. He didn't. What he did say though was an absolute surprise.
“Its a family!” He called out.
“A family? I didn't know zombies would stay together like that.” I replied.
“No, it's an alive family. There's a lady carrying a toddler and a boy about Drew's age is running right next to her. Cali, they're headed this way. How are we going to signal them?”
I looked over the roof top and realized the blanket we were sitting on was a deep blue, very easy to see. I told Drew to stand up. Once he got off of it I grabbed it and I started to wave it around, sending the water bottles that had been left on it rolling about the roof. Trent kept watching the family though the binoculars, not wanting to take his eyes off of them for even a moment.
“The kid sees you Cali! Keep waving so his mom can see what the kid is pointing at!” Trent's excitement over the family was contagious. I waved the blanket with even more fervor than before. The idea that there were other people out there and that they were alive and moving was such a novelty. I had begun to worry that there indeed had been no more people left in our town. I kept my eyes on the figures that were now running like mad. I hoped that they were running towards us and not away from a hoard of hungry zombies. As their path approached a bend in the road we lost sight of them for a moment. I didn't realize until they came out of the blind spot that I had been holding my breath in worry.
“Daniel! Be ready at the gate! Lady and couple kids coming towards us. They're alive!” I could barely contain my excitement over this development at this point. We were going to be able to rescue another survivor. I felt a surge of pride over our little oasis that we had going. Someone was coming to us and they were going to make it! We were going to be a place of hope!
The figures kept getting bigger and bigger until I saw them more clearly. I swore it looked like Drew's friend Kyle and his mom. I didn't want to say anything to Drew just in case it wasn't them. I heard the gate run open a little bit then close again. I climbed down the ladder quickly to check them out. They needed to be medically cleared of bites or scratches and if there was something wrong with them physically I wanted to get them treated immediately.
Indeed, it was Kyle and his mom. I ushered them back to the medical unit to look them over. They were hungry, dehydrated and the blisters on the mom's feet were the size of silver dollars but most importantly, they were bite and scratch free. I grabbed a couple waters out of the refrigerator and handed them out. I asked them to wait for just a minute then I called Drew over.
“Hey kiddo. Why don't you come on in and say hi.” Drew looked up at me with great skepticism. He was never fond of meeting people. He was embarrassed by his shyness. He knew I knew that he was shy so he wondered what could have been worth his mom putting him in an awkward social situation. The whole zombie thing had taught him to buck up and do what needed to be done so he bit the bullet and came over. When he walked into the unit and saw his best friend Drew cried tears of joy. All that worry he had over Kyle melted away. Kyle was crying as well.
“See, mom? I told you that this was the best way to go. I told you that Drew's apartments would be a good place to start.” Kyle proudly stated. His mom nodded.
“Yes you did baby. I'm so proud of you for helping me on this idea.” Kyle's mom beamed with pride at him. She looked up at me and said “I'd be lost without him.”
It had been a while since I'd seen Kyle's mom, and I felt bad that her name had totally escaped my brain. I introduced myself to her, half figuring and half hoping that she'd forgotten mine as well. Her name was Anna, her daughter was Annali. Anna had been on her own for days when her husband had gone out for food. No one knew what happened. She had tried to stick it out in her house, just like the emergency alert system told her to, as did her neighbors. Supplies ran down to the point that there was no way she was going to be able to sustain the kids. She had been eating very little herself so the kids could have more. She had done everything she could to wait for her husband to return to her. As it turned out, the very little food was the least of her concerns.
“Cali,” Anna whispered, “There are some really bad people out there.” She gave a darting look at Kyle and Annali, then back at me. She wanted to say something but she didn't want to scare her kids in the process. I suggested that Drew take Kyle and his sister outside to meet the other kids and to show them around. Kyle looked at me with a little reservation, not really wanting to leave his mom alone for long. I suggested that if they stopped by food and asked Ms. Mercedes, they probably could talk her into some cookies, if they asked nicely. That was enough to send them through the door.
“Are you talking about the zombies, Anna?” I asked.
She shook her head violently. “No. These are people. Really bad people. They saw our neighbor yesterday through a window, broke in, and killed her before taking all of her stuff. That's part of why we ran. Zombies are just hungry, they
can be outwitted even if they are brutal hunters. These guys are worse.”
“Anna, I need to grab Joey, Tyreese and Trent. Trent is my husband. Joey and Tyreese are our security gurus. They need to hear all this too. I'll be right back.” I sprinted to where Trent was talking to Tyreese about the new people were and told them to meet me in medical. Then I ran to where Joey was chatting to Jody and asked him to come too.
When we were all together in the medical unit and the introductions were made, I asked Anna to tell the story again about the other people.
“They just take. They robbed our neighbor and killed her. I saw the whole thing. I think if they had known that we were there they'd have come to kill us as well. I don't understand it. There were dozens of empty houses that they could have looted but they must have seen Mrs. Jones in a window or something and that was who they targeted. They ignored the empty homes. They weren't infected and Mrs. Jones would have given them the shirt off her back if she was asked for it. There was no reason for this. She was a kind lady.”
Joey sighed. “I was wondering when the roving band of jackals were going to show up. Every disaster situation will have a band of marauders. It was just a matter of time. Anna, you and the kids are going to be safe here. We have good defenses and plans for upgrades. No one and no thing is going to get in here. We have room and you can stay if you like.”
Anna started to cry in that moment. Her relief was visible. “You have no idea how hard it has been since my husband went. I don't think I've slept for more than 20 minutes in a shot having been so worried about him being gone out there with the zombies and the marauders made it so much worse. You guys are amazing. I know that there has to be a lot of work to be done around here and I'll do it. I will scrub every toilet in this place with my toothbrush if that is what you need me to do. I am so beyond appreciative.” Anna was crying especially hard at this point.
“Hon, don't worry about that right now. You need to take care of yourself first. You are dehydrated, malnourished, and you are in serious need of rest. We'll set you up with one of the units. I have the perfect one in mind but we need to clean it out and then we'll have you all ready to go. There are a ton of beds around here so your family has a place to sleep comfortably when the unit is ready. Until then you can sleep in our place. Shouldn't take more than a day to get all set.” She cried harder in absolute joy. “Right now though, just stretch out right here on the sofa. We'll leave the windows open so a breeze will reach you.”
We left her to rest. I had Steven's place in mind since it was the only remaining interior facing apartment. When I approached the idea to the others they totally agreed and set to work making it a place for them. It was hard going through his things and putting them in an empty unit. It was so finalizing, as though the funeral had just been a blip. It helped that Mercedes was glad to have a neighbor again. I was sure that they would get along just perfect.
Creature Comforts
The next day we were able to move Anna and her family into the unit and she seemed to be settling in very well. She lent a hand where ever she could. She had been a homemaker before the zombies hit. She had married right out of school to her high school sweetheart.
“I'd never really been self conscious about my lack of training before. I was always so satisfied just being a mom, taking care of the house and laundry. I feel self conscious now, I don't really know how to do anything. I just want to be contributing somehow and I don't know what I can really bring to the table. You all seem to have some special skill set and I can see how you all contribute. I want to contribute too but I don't know how.”
I gave her a hug and said I understood what she was saying. I reminded her that raising kids was a full time job on its own sometimes and that I was sure there was something around here she could do. She thought quietly for a moment.
“Do you think maybe I could take in the kids laundry? That is something I am really good at. Silly to be proud of that, but I am. I could keep the kids in clean, mended clothes and maybe they'd feel like more was right in the world. I could do mending on the adults clothes as well if they wanted it.”
It had only been a little over a week since the zombies had struck and I don't know about anyone else but I knew Drew was going to be running out of clean underwear in the near future. I hadn't yet formed a plan on how to go about it. I totally agreed with her that the idea of clean clothes for the kids would probably go over really well. I just wished she had a washing machine. Doing the laundry for seven children was going to be a feat.
It hit me, like a lightning flash of creativity, that we totally could make a kind of washing machine. It wouldn't be super great in cleaning but any agitation had to be helpful and it had to work better than hand squishing a bunch of clothes in a bucket.
“Come on,” I said to Anna, with a gleam in my eye, “I have an idea.”
I think I was almost skipping over to the laundry room. I pulled out one of the washers and looked it over. I told Anna to hang out for a minute so I could grab tools. She nodded though I think she had to think I was a bit nuts. I got an assortment of screw drivers and set to work on removing the panels that housed the washer. After some doing I removed the washer drum and looked it over carefully. This was totally going to work. I went over to where we parked the bikes left behind in the evacuation and found the rustiest one. It was once a cheap kid sized bike that was just a single gear, the kind that you could run forwards and back. I couldn't imagine a better bike for the job.
“What we need to do,” I explained, “is to take this back wheel and remove the rim and tire. I want to keep that center bit where it is because its set up with the gearing and the chain. We can put a belt on that and hook it to the post on the drum of the washer here. When the pedals turn the washer will too. We need to create a stand for the bike and a stand for the washer drum but that should be easy enough, right?”
Anna actually looked excited over this idea. “It's going to start to feel like we are getting near normal. If laundry can be done we are a step closer to rebuilding life again!” She let a little clap go.
It occurred to me that a laundry area near the garden would be the ideal location for all of this. Once the clothes are done we could tip the water used directly into the garden so no one would be lugging around a bunch of buckets of gray water. We also needed to build a clothes line. If my mother in law was around she would be doing her running commentary about how domesticated I was becoming. She knew housework was not on my love to do list, yet still she had persisted in trying to turn me into a housewife sort of person.
I went over to build to gather the materials I needed like boards and nails and some more assorted tools. Trent gave me an odd look and asked what in the world I was up to. He knew I wasn't much of a builder. I grinned my just wait and see sort of grin and went over to the garden to meet up with Anna, to where she had moved the drum over. I handed her the wire cutters so she could remove the spokes on the wheel. We had pulled the wheel off to make it easier to get the spokes and rim off. I set to building a stand for the drum. I figured an angle would be the best set up so the clothes would really splash. It was a V shaped drum holder so it would stay in there.
I put the drum on the stand and took a strip of a sheet and looped it around the post. Anna had already put the center of the wheel back on the bike. I quickly made a stand for the bike and set the bike on it. I jumped up and down on the bike to make sure my stand would hold the weight and it worked. I looped the other end of the sheet onto the post and tied the ends together. I climbed onto the bike and turned the pedals around a few times. It worked! The drum spun! It stayed in the V shaped stand just like it was supposed to! I ran up the stairs to the apartment, grabbed a garbage sack and threw in some of Drew’s jeans to try it out. While up there I also grabbed some laundry detergent. I went over to the water spigot and filled the bucket that we kept under it with water then went over to our invention.
“Are we ready to give this a whirl?” I ask
ed.
She exclaimed, “Let's do this!” She seemed to be just as excited as I was, which I hadn't thought possible.
I felt a moment of absolute glee. It had to work, it just had to. Anna got on the bike and started to pedal slowly at first, then faster. The drum spun just like it was supposed to. I credit the stubs of bike spokes for how well it responded to the pedals, even reversing when she pedaled the other way. It had created great traction. She pedaled a bit longer and said “Alright then, now to see if this did any good.” We went over to the drum with anticipation.
The water that we dumped out was a gross black color. I knew Drew got dirty playing but I never expected that he collected that much dirt. It was amazing. Anna grabbed the bucket, went over to the spigot and filled it up. She took the jeans and splashed them in the bucket rinsing the soap out.
“Now we need a clothes line.” Anna reminded me. I wandered off to the maintenance shed, rummaged around and found some twine. When I came back I wrapped it around two trees. Worried that a single line would break I took the twine ball around a couple times and declared it good enough to try. Worst case it would break and we would come up with another idea. She hung Drew's jeans over the line which it held just fine. We would keep an eye on how much it seemed to bow with more weight as more laundry was washed, but for that moment we marveled over the accomplishment. We had just created clean laundry.