by J. Rudolph
On the first day of trench building those of us with weapons were very busy. We had to build our trench outside of the complex walls to do any good and the sound of the tractor was almost like ringing the dinner bell for the undead. It felt like we were battling a hydra right out of Greek mythology. Whenever we took one down two more seemed to pop up in its place. The sooner we got through this the better.
With the sides built and zombies already falling into the hole proving its efficacy we were feeling rather successful. The back of the complex was going to be a bit of a trick. There was a storm drain back there that didn't have a lot of room to work with to continue the moat. It was going to have to be more narrow than the other sides. It was a trick to keep the backhoe balanced on the ledge but somehow Trent was able to keep it there to finish building the new protective barrier.
When he finished connecting the sides of the moat to the back side he left the tractor where it was. We decided that pulling the ladder over and creating a bridge from the tractor to the wall with it would be the best way to get Trent back over to our side of the wall. As he made his way over on the ladder he could see in the trench he had built, freshly trapped zombies. They reached up to him trying so hard to make their arms stretch over the several feet above their heads, their potential meal lost to them because of their height difference.
Once Trent was back on our side of the trench we tried one of the ideas that we had in building this thing in the beginning, to light the trench on fire when there were many of them. Tyreese produced some lighter fluid he had for the barbeque. He squirted a few of the zombies with the fluid, struck a match and dropped it on them. The flames shot up beautifully and the burning zombies moved around, igniting the other zombies in the trench. It really was a beautiful sight, even if it was a bit macabre. It definitely smelled ghastly.
Some of the other zombies in the immediate area stumbled closer and fell in as well, not seeming to realize this was a trench of doom. Other zombies wandered off realizing that there wasn't a meal in the works for them.
Alexus
A couple days after the trench was built we noticed a woman walking towards us. She seemed alive and healthy. She waved her hands when she saw us.
DaWayne was working the gate when a lone woman approached. She was asking to come in. There was something strangely familiar about her copper hair with blonde highlights and deeply tanned skin. Her high cheekbones and slightly sloped nose shone with sweat, drawing attention to her violet blue eyes. It took me a moment to place her. It finally clicked it was Daniel's ex-girlfriend. Daniel and Alexus had a very colorful history together ending up with him getting full custody of their kids.
Tesla was taking a rare walk with me up to the gate. I could see those eyes flashing as she tried to explain how she fit into all with this group. I greeted her and decided that with no immediate danger to her at the moment I told her to wait until I found Daniel. I took off for build where he and Trent were working on the drawbridge project. Tesla had other plans. She suddenly left my side and went to the wall, barking loudly. I ran to get her before every zombie in California knew we were there. She stopped barking when I picked her up but she was still tense and quivering in my arms on high alert. I heard zombies shuffling in the trench and figured that was what she was upset about. Poor dog. I thought the zombies smelled bad to me and I don't have the super sensitive nose she did.
I dropped the dog off with the kids and went to build. “Daniel?” I started, “Umm, well, Alexus is standing at the front gate asking to come in. I know things were psychotic with you two so this is your call. Do you want to let her in?”
Daniel looked up at me in shock and surprise. “Humph. Her drug connections must have been turned into zombies. She only remembered that her kids and I exist when she wasn't high as a kite. Argh. I didn't want to deal with her ever again. Why couldn't she have turned into a zombie like the rest of the world.” Daniel sighed heavily. “What the hell am I supposed to do? That’s the mother to my children. If I leave her out there like I want to how will I look those kids in the eye? It would be murder.”
I watched him really struggle with his options. “Fine. I'll go talk to her.” He finally decided. I wondered though if it was going to make things worse.
Daniel shoved his hands so deeply into his pockets I was sure that they were on the verge of being ripped through. We walked with him to the gate then backed off to give him privacy as he talked to her. I remembered when she lived with him and the screaming fights they had while she was high. The more she chose the drugs over her family the more stressed he was. When they finally broke up there was an all out screaming war. She disappeared right after. He had gone to court and got full custody of the kids. She went on her way to continue the drug lifestyle that she had gotten into.
We watched their exchange and while we were far enough to not hear the actual conversation we could read the body language like a book. He was tense and undecided while she looked to be pleading with him. She fished something from her pocket to show him. After a moment he walked back to us, leaving Alexus at the gate.
“She wants in.” His inflection was almost defeated, his indecision lined his face. “She told me that she had been missing me, that she was missing the girls. She showed me her chip from Narcotics Anonymous that was for 30 days. That was 30 days before the zombies hit. She said she realized that she was missing her family and that she hated what she let the drugs do to her.
“She also said that she'd been trying to get across town to get to her kids since the beginning of the outbreak. She said she kept thinking about the girls and how now more than ever they needed a mom. She kept jumping from one hiding spot to another, afraid to be exposed too long. Guys, I don't know what the hell is wrong with me. I really don't because right in the very moment, I want to take her back. It was the drugs that kept screwing everything up in the past and she was getting clean even before the zombies. That's like a month and three weeks of clean time. What should I do?”
“Daniel, that's a call only you can make. Do you want her here?” Trent asked.
“I think we owe it to her to give it a shot. They are her kids too. If she acts stupid we can always send her right back out, right?” Daniel responded. “Besides. The zombie apocalypse happened. Where is she going to get the drugs now?”
I made a mental note to make sure I kept medical locked at all times and that I needed to tell Trisha that if she is ever the last one inside that she needs to lock the doors before leaving.
With that, Alexus was our newest member of the complex. She moved in with Daniel. Her oldest daughter remembered her mom. She would say to everyone, “This is my momma. My momma did not turned into the bad guy. I thought my momma was gone and never come back. My momma is home and she said she never going to go away again.” Her younger sister didn't seem to have a memory base to pull from so Alexus was a stranger to her. She hid behind her dad's leg for a while, scared to peek out at this lady for a little bit. The young toddler watched her older sister dart around playing with their mother and after a bit, joined in on the play. It wasn't very long before she started babbling “Mom mom mom mom.” Alexus beamed being with her kids again.
She seemed to be interested in how the complex worked and said she wanted to be a part of the daily routine. Daniel was giving the tour, and he explained everything including watch rotations and the distribution of food and water. Alexus took it all in. Daniel took her up to the roof to be able to see the view of the city. It was a lovely view. I always felt a sense of pride in the complex when I saw how we were functioning well in a madly wild world. We worked hard to keep this space safe. I looked up at her from the ground to see a satisfied smile on her face. It looked like getting clean had been helping Alexus want to be a part of something bigger.
When Alexus asked what she could do to help contribute I was pleasantly surprised. This was an entirely different Alexus than I had remembered. She was a doting mother, something that I didn't know she w
as capable of. She was kind to Daniel, and now she wanted to be a contributing member of our little society. It confirmed my faith in people in general, something those marauders had shaken. I felt silly that I allowed one band of morons shake my faith.
I told her I would ask the council members and find out what area needed the most amount of help. Alexus nodded happily. She turned to go find her girls and settle into some play time.
“Hey, Alexus?” I called. “I'm glad to see you here. I know it's dumb to say but I wanted to tell you I'm proud of you. As you know apartment walls are thin and so I overheard probably more than I should have. I know you were going through a whole mess of a rough patch there. I'm proud of you for having turned it around. I'm even more impressed that you had started getting your life together before the zombies hit. Daniel told us that you got clean and were going to meetings for a little while before all this went down. You've really done well.”
Alexus stared at me for a minute. Her expression wasn't readable. She took in a breath to say something when Jody trotted up calling my name. Alexus' face relaxed into a happy expression and excused herself. I wondered what she had meant to say and wondered what her expression meant. There was something that shook inside of me for a half second, almost like there was something I should be seeing but was just elusive enough to be right out of my grasp.
Jody's Test
Jody had something on her mind. She looked like she wasn't feeling well and had a touch of anxiety over it.
“Cali? When you guys were at the pharmacy or maybe in another unit did you, well, uh, find a pregnancy test by chance?” Jody sighed, the weight of her question settled all around her. “Please, Cal, please don't say anything to anyone but I'm late. The only time I've ever been late in the past was when I was pregnant with my kids. I think that maybe I am but I can't run down to the corner store and get a test so I'm really hoping you have one.”
“OK hon, why don’t we go on over to the medical unit and I'll see what I have. Don’t worry though. I promise I won't tell a soul. It's not my business to. Come on sweetie.”
We walked quietly to the medical unit. I unlocked the door to let us in and flipped the light switch out of habit. I remembered that the switches didn't work anymore so instead I walked over to the blinds and cracked them open, letting the sunlight to spill in. I invited Jody to sit on the couch while I went to the cabinet that I had set up with testing supplies. Indeed I had grabbed a few pregnancy tests in our pharmacy run. I handed one to Jody and asked if she was ready to take the test.
“I don’t know if I'll ever be ready to take it. This is scaring the crap out of me. Before getting pregnant was an exciting thing. I looked forward to each one. I thought I was totally done with the baby making though when my husband died in Iraq, I never thought I would meet anyone that I would want to be intimate with. Then zombies took over and I got to meet Joey and everything changed.”
I handed her the box with the test in it. She sat turning it over in her hands, reading the back of it some. Her face held the worry deep into her facial muscles. “Is this a betrayal to my dead husband? Is having another man's baby a disgrace to his memory?”
“No, Jode, I don’t think it is. I think it's fine. You were widowed young. You told me that Abigail was right at a year old when he died. That was five years ago. You fell in love again. There's no betrayal in that. There is no disgrace. I think he'd probably have wanted you to be happy.”
Jody wiped the tears that were streaming down her cheeks. She took a steadying breath and stood up. “Let's get this here test over with. I'll be right back.” She went into the bathroom and emerged a minute or so later. She was looking at that plastic display in shock. There were two pink lines. Jody was definitely pregnant.
The idea of a pregnant woman in the complex scared me more than I let on. My words squealed with excitement, thrilled to death that it would seem life would find a way while inside I ran through all the possible complications of having to deal with a birth.
“Do you think Joey has any idea that you are pregnant?”
“Well, he was there at conception. I think he knows something about the birds and the bees and that sex is linked to pregnancy.” Her eyes had a bit of spark to them as she said this. A smile crept across her face.
“Funny, wise butt.” I started laughing and she quickly joined in. “Well, how are you going to break the news to him?”
“I think I'll put the test some place he is sure to notice. He was planning on having dinner at my place so I think that I could put it next to the dinner plate.” She was trying to picture his reaction. She thought it could be a positive response but really is there a positive reaction out there for having a baby in a zombie apocalypse?
I had a suggestion for her. “You might want to put the instructions on how to read the test right under it. I remember handing my test over to Trent when I got pregnant with Drew and Trent had no clue that the two lines were a positive. I wished they had the digital read out ones back then. Would have been nice to show him the word 'pregnant' instead of having him try to decipher the line system. Men.”
I went through the vitamin cupboard and found her a bottle of prenatal vitamins. We needed to do everything we could to make sure that baby came out healthy. I didn't have a clue what we were going to do if she delivered a sickly baby. Given that she thought that her last cycle was in the middle of May, we figured the baby would be due sometime in February. A valentine's baby would be very cool.
Jody had decided to forgo the mysterious object next to the dinner plate and instead took the test with her and went out to find him. I locked up the medical unit and sat on the stairs next to the unit that led up to my place. I watched her go over to where he was talking to the guys. She pulled Joey aside and showed him the test. You could see her nerves on edge as he looked at the test. When he raised his head I could see even in just his profile a huge smile across his face. He picked her up, arms around her waist, and spun her around a few times before he gently put her down.
It would seem that her worry about his reception of the news was for nothing. She was absolutely glowing over her upcoming baby.
Life finds a way is how the saying went. It had, and I couldn't think of a better couple for it to happen to. I felt a tad guilty though for thinking I was glad that it was her and not me to carry the first baby of the complex.
Return of the Marauders
Things fell into a nice routine. The garden was growing well and people got along. I kept an extra eye on Jody and her pregnancy and everything seemed to be going well. Alexus and Anna continued to seem to be fitting in fine. Alexus seemed to really enjoy spending time in the garden area and she worked really hard. The solitary work seemed to suit her. Anna continued to take in the kid's laundry and the mending.
The marauders came back around. They looked over our trench and how we were getting along. They didn't say anything, they just stared at the gate with their arms folded over their chest. It had been 20 days since the last time they came by. We thought they had moved on, that they had lost interest in our little group.
I was definitely more apprehensive with this maneuver. I would much rather them screaming obscenities at us. This standing in front like that felt calculating.
Joey, Trent, and I stood on our side of the gate, hands resting on our guns ready in case something fell apart. They stared at us for a bit longer then the one who did all the talking put two fingers on one hand, pointed them at his eyes and then pointed at us, in the 'we're watching you' gesture. He then put the two fingers at his chest level and shook his hand up and down indicating 'deuces'. That gesture was made popular by a Chris Brown song in which the singer was saying good bye to someone who he was breaking up with. After that wordless exchange they walked off. The last one to leave looked past us to further in the complex. None of us broke visual contact to determine what he was looking at.
We decided that it was not in our best interest to leave that gate as something that
was totally a window to the outside world. While the drawbridge was being finished we put up sheets to restrict visibility. I didn't like the idea that they could see what our routine was any time they wanted to.
We got together for dinner towards the end of the day, various projects throughout the complex were put aside, discarded until the morning. This was one of my favorite parts of complex life. After dinner it was family time. We ate together then went home and spent time with our loved ones. The only time that this was deviated from was during a direct attack. Since the trench went in the direct attack problem was happening less frequently. Tonight's dinner had Drew very happy, it was goulash. He scarfed it down as though it would be the last time he would ever eat that meal again and wanted safe in his belly.
Dinner conversation wasn't the usual banter of how are the projects going, nor was it a chat of how lovely the garden seemed to grow. It was focused on the marauder visit instead.
Anna was very distressed over the placing of sheets over the gates. "How will people know there are alive people in here!" She wailed. "How will survivors like my husband or the government know we are here?"
"The government!" Martha crowed, "The government is over, chickadee. The president himself has been dining on his voters, in the literal sense. The military was meals on wheels driving into the hard hit zones. And survivors? Child, they are why we put those sheets up. No one is going to just be walking down the road without an agenda. Alexus had her agenda in playing her kids as a meal ticket in here and..."
Martha's little tirade was cut short with a sound of a smack. Alexus was standing over her having just slapped Martha across the face, index finger now pointing at her, inches from Martha's nose. "Bitch. I know I'm supposed to be respecting my elders and all but you have gone too far. You and your wrinkled ass may not question my motives on getting here. So you can just shut the hell up." She turned and stalked off to the apartment she shared with Daniel.