by Jack Hunt
Inside one of the huts they cooked on a fully functional cookstove.
“How in the hell are you able to do that?” I asked. “You’ve got power?”
“Come. I’ll show you,” Theo replied.
We chewed on small loaves of whole wheat bread as we followed him. He took us out and showed us a large thirty-kilowatt diesel generator with block heaters and battery chargers on board. It had two hundred gallons of fuel powering it. It ran in conjunction with battery backup and solar power. In addition to that they had over two thousand gallons of diesel stored in large vats beneath the ground.
“And here’s the beauty of it. You only have to run it for around one or two hours a day. Most of the time the solar panels charge our batteries, and we use that to power most of what we need here.”
He pointed to five large vertical solar panels located on top of one of the huts.
“And what happens when it’s out of fuel?”
“We have more than enough to last us for a few years. Most of the time we use the sun’s rays.”
He led us around to a small building that was dedicated to all the circuitry, and storage of batteries. At a glance there had to have been at least eighty batteries. All of the power was then used to drive lighting, refrigerators, freezers, stoves, and washing machines.
“When did you start this?”
He smiled. “Back when most thought we were insane. Over six years ago. The funding to develop the place came from each of the families. For years we used it as a preppers’ retreat.”
“So you were prepared for this shitfest,” Baja said, biting a large chunk off a corner of fresh bread.
“We were already living it. You see, we’ve been expecting this. Well, not this. But the worst-case scenario for years. When it kicked off we left everything behind and came here. We have enough food, water, and protection to last us for at least another two years, maybe more.”
“What about nuclear fallout? I couldn’t see this place holding up if this had been a solar event.”
He nodded. “That’s because you haven’t seen everything.” He continued his tour and showed us two manholes in the ground. They were covered in thick iron covers that when lifted led down into a bunker beneath the ground. “This doubles both as protection if we get overrun as well as external devastation.”
Stone steps led down to a small room with another steel door, behind that were more steps that took you into a circular living space that was about eight feet high and forty feet wide.
“We currently have five levels.”
“So, you live down here?” I asked.
“No. If we need to use it, it’s there. It’s a last resort. A temporary solution. No one wants to live underground for long.”
“And communications? I mean how will you know if the world has returned to normal?”
He led us into a small room that reminded me of a NASA control room, just a hell of lot smaller. They had communications equipment that could pick up shortwave, longwave, broadband, and X band. “If a message is being broadcast, we’ll pick it up.”
“Any signals?” Elijah asked.
“Nothing right now.” Theo chuckled. “Specs, you really should have invited these people to one of our retreats.”
“Do you remember this guy?” Dax asked Specs.
“No, but some of the families I do.”
Specs had spent a large chunk of his childhood going to prepper retreats. There were hundreds of preppers living across the United States. They discussed all manner of ways to survive, swapped ideas, ran through end of the world scenarios. But seriously what were the odds that anything was ever going to happen? Hell, we were more worried about running out of milk than surviving if the power grid went down.
Back on the surface he showed us how they stayed warm using a wood boiler that would pump warm air into each of the thirty-seven huts.
He pointed to the far end of the fortress, an area where the ground was raised up higher than the rest of the property. “We also have a way to get unlimited cold and hot water using six solar water pumping units that draw up the water and then use gravity to distribute to each of the homes as well as hydrants in different areas around the property. It can pump around three thousand gallons a day. That way we are covered for drinking water, fire protection, and showers.”
“Showers?” Benjamin asked.
“Yep.” As Theo continued his tour we looked at each other in astonishment. This place was like finding the Holy Grail. Who needed NORAD? We could live here. What better place to put roots down than in a fully functional community that knew how to survive? The fact they hadn’t attempted to kill us was an added bonus.
The sound of the forest around us, with the sun breaking through the trees, brought with it a new sense of hope. The chances of finding this place would have been slim to none, unless a person wanted to hike through miles and miles of dense forest. It had taken us the better part of two hours to reach it by foot. The question was, what were the women doing that far from the fortress? I had questions that needed answers. It looked promising on the surface if they would allow us to stay.
That evening as darkness enveloped the camp, several small fires had been started inside circles of rocks. Real livestock was cooked on a spit over them. The aroma was out of this world. I had to pinch myself. It didn’t seem real. I was sure this was some kind of dream and I would eventually awake and find myself bitten by a Z.
I think each of us was just pleased to be off the road, away from a city entrenched in Z’s and gangs. Overturned logs were used as seats. Specs sat on one with the girl that had recognized him. She was pretty. I don’t know what I expected to see. Maybe folks that did a lot of inbreeding but that wasn’t the case. Most of the men seemed to be ex-military. They had done tours in Afghanistan and understood the necessity of survival. Over the sound of wood crackling and popping, someone strummed guitar strings lightly. I was really hoping they didn’t break into a rendition of “Stairway to Heaven.” That was all I ever heard when I visited the local music store in Castle Rock. Kids playing the same licks, and going all Joe Satriani on an Ibanez.
We were given plates with chunks of stripped meat. At least this time we could see what had been cooked. I shivered at the thought of the town we had passed through on our way to Salt Lake City.
I imagined they would give us water for drink, but that wasn’t the case. They had an entire area dedicated to alcohol. Most of it was moonshine. Stuff they had whipped up themselves using wild elderberries. The place was rich with them.
Even though Specs knew a few of the families, it still hadn’t made us feel at ease. When asked where we wanted to sleep that night, we chose to stick together. We had encountered enough lunatics to realize that most didn’t come across that way until they were ready.
We really hoped that wasn’t the case this time.
As I sat there tearing off some meat from a bone, I noticed Danielle glancing over at me from across the fire. For a moment I became somewhat self-conscious. I picked at my teeth wondering if I looked like a caveman? I mean we hadn’t eaten in three days so we were famished and probably scoffing down the food like rabid animals. It was kind of tricky to show restraint or eloquence when all you wanted to do was eat.
As my eyes flitted over to her I became aware of someone else watching. A tall guy got up and walked over to the Danielle, he crouched down and wrapped his arms around her, all the while keeping a close eye on me. Danielle reacted by glancing over her shoulder and saying something. He replied. None of which I could hear over the conversation and noise of fire popping. But I had a feeling it was something to do with me.
Benjamin had been talking with Theo most of the evening, while Elijah looked as if he was chatting up a group of girls who were showering him with attention. I’m sure he would have called it his gangster magnetism. We were still learning a lot about Elijah and Benjamin. They were men of few words, but you could tell that each of them had been through the wringer b
efore all of this. They both possessed survival and fighting skills. We had no doubt they would cover our backs if anything went wrong.
On our journey here Benjamin had shared about the day when all hell broke loose in the city. His team had been out raiding a known factory used for narcotics distribution. It had been an assignment they had been working on for months. After managing to get certain members to squeal for a lower sentence, they finally got a break. Large shipments of drugs were arriving for distribution in the city.
That night they were expecting the worst. SWAT vans swept into the factory on the outskirts of Salt Lake City and burst in ready for an all-out war with gangs. What they found instead wasn’t a drug deal that had gone wrong but a place swarming with the undead. He barely escaped with his life. He watched in horror as those he’d worked with his entire career were torn apart piece by piece. Back then he had no idea that a headshot would drop them. None of them did. That small snippet of insight could have saved lives. Instead the Z’s wiped out Salt Lake City’s finest SWAT team. He and two others survived and for a time managed to stay one step ahead of the Z’s. Eventually though, his two co-workers died while scavenging for supplies.
Weeks had passed until we showed up. Not long after leaving the city I’d asked him why he had a change of heart. What made him leave behind the safety of the store we found him in? His reply was simple, he lived by a code, principles that governed his decisions. He said he’d watched us from afar over those few days in the city. He saw what we had done for the president’s daughter. He said if there was any chance for humanity, then maybe, just maybe he would find it with us.
Of course Baja told him he was full of shit and he just wanted to get the hell out, to which Ben replied, “Yep.”
But I have to wonder if he did see something in us. What that was, I don’t know? Brotherhood? Community? Hope perhaps? What reasons do any of us align ourselves with others? Is it because we see good despite all the flaws? I’d like to think so.
I glanced over at Dax who was talking with a guy about weaponry, more specifically the crossbows. I finished up what I was eating, washed it down, and walked towards a hill that rose up within the fortress. The night sky was full of stars. Tiny pinpricks of light that flickered. For a moment I thought of Jess. What was she doing now? Was she looking up into the same sky, wondering when we would come? I glanced over my shoulder at the people laughing, kids rushing around playing a game. As much I didn’t want to leave, I knew we would have to. Even if we did return we had to get the others. I couldn’t leave them behind.
I ran a hand over my face, pressing the fingertips into my forehead.
“You look tired.”
I turned to see Danielle. She smiled.
“Yeah.” I turned back towards the forest.
“You can all rest now. It’s safe here.”
“Nowhere is safe.”
I glanced at her. She frowned. She didn’t know all the crap we had been through. The miles we had traveled. The hope that had dwindled or those we had to bury.
“Will you stay?” she asked.
I glanced to my side. “No, we have to leave soon, our friends are in Colorado.”
“Guys like you?”
I dropped my eyes. “My girlfriend.”
She nodded. Her eyes narrowed.
“Was that your boyfriend?” I asked.
“Oh, Liam? He thinks he is. We’ve known each other since we were kids. His family are preppers like ours. I think somewhere in his twisted mind he sees us as being together.”
“What were you doing when you came across me?” I asked.
She studied my face before replying. “We wanted to see if the roads were clear.”
“Is your father thinking of moving on?”
She chuckled. “No, he didn’t even know we were out there. He doesn’t like us to go far but…”
“You do it anyway.”
“Can’t always do what your parents tell you. And anyway, I’m nearly nineteen.”
“Nearly?”
“In a month.”
“You are still keeping track of dates?”
“Yeah.” She shook her head as if finding my question strange. The truth was we had lost track of time. Sure a few of us still had watches but they meant very little now. The days had blurred into weeks, then into months. Just one continual long day, and none of it easy.
“And you?”
“Closing in on nineteen as well.”
She gave a wry smile. She was wearing makeup, which I found odd. Around her eyes, it looked dark and smoky. She had an intense icy blue to her eyes that made you want to stare into them for a long time.
Now there are moments when you feel something. Call it what you may, lust, desire, or a spark, but there was something I felt between us that evening. Of course like any guy who had spent far too long in the wild and hadn’t been with a woman in a while, I thought about the first thing that popped into my head. It was hard not to.
As we stood there in silence looking out, and a crescent moon bathed us in silvery light, we enjoyed each other’s company as two strangers brought together under terrible circumstances. That evening would mark one of the last times we would encounter or give kindness to a stranger.
SWARM
After much convincing by Specs that they weren’t going to slit our throats, eat us, or anally probe us for the pure fun of it, we all slept well that night. Now when I say we all slept well, I mean they slept while I kept one eye open. It wasn’t this new group I was worried about. It was the dead, and those who might attack the fortress. Eventually though, after days of pure mental and physical exhaustion, I drifted off.
The next morning, the sky was overcast. A rumble in the distance threatened a storm, keeping most of us inside until early afternoon. Later that day I asked Theo how they protected themselves. I discovered their approach was much like ours. They rotated shifts at night with four people on the walls. By day they would send out what they called watchers, whose job was to scope out potential threats within a half a mile radius. Preparation was everything. They had a system; it worked because all them were involved. Everyone knew how to fight from the youngest to the oldest. At least that’s what they told us. Learning and doing were two entirely different things.
All the beds in the place had mattresses, pillows, and covers. It was a luxury we could get used to. Though I had to wonder if being too comfortable was a good thing.
“Are you sure you can’t stay?” Theo asked as we sat around eating lunch that afternoon.
“I wish we could. Maybe if it’s okay with you, we’ll return.”
Theo got a faraway look in his eyes as if he had heard that before. It was tough to admit it, but there was a chance we wouldn’t make it back. Beyond the walls danger lurked around every corner. It wasn’t just the dead now, it was the living insane.
He nodded. I looked over at Danielle who came out that morning with a blanket wrapped around her. We exchanged a look, one that made me think about staying. She wandered off down one of the makeshift streets. Since leaving Castle Rock this had been one of the toughest decisions to make. This place had everything we could want in a safe zone. I had made it clear to the others if they wanted to stay, they should. No one was obligated to leave. We knew the risks. There was a good chance we wouldn’t survive.
“Nah, man, I don’t think it’s worth it. We should stay at least for a few days longer,” Baja said before tossing a piece of bread at me.
“But they’ll be waiting for us,” I replied.
“They are safe,” Dax said, also not seeing the urgency of leaving. “Right now we are all exhausted, we have been out in this shit for far too long. We need to rest.”
“Benjamin, Elijah?”
“Kid, as much I have got your back, your brother is right, the idea of venturing out and facing the dead as well as others who will try to kill us is not smart. It’s a death wish.” Elijah gave a wry smile.
“Ben?”
“You’re asking me? The guy who hunkered down in a store for weeks by himself? I’m all for saving people but not at the risk of losing our own lives. Plus, there is no guarantee they will even let us in if we make it there.”
“So you are all just going to give up? Specs?”
Specs was talking to Eva, he glanced over. “Johnny, I want to see them as much as you do, but what’s the harm in staying a few more days, maybe a week at most?”
I wrestled with their answers. They all had valid points. We had been out in this mess for longer than we hoped. We thought we would find safe zones in Salt Lake City but there were none. But here, there were walls, guys with military backgrounds, food, warm beds, and showers. It made sense. We were safe for now. At least that’s what we thought. Maybe we had been pushing it too hard. Taking risks when the most logical thing to do would be to stick around within a community that was self-sufficient. It didn’t mean we couldn’t venture out in a few days but right now all of us needed to feel some sense of peace. Living in a constant state of fear made you sick to your stomach. Most days I wasn’t sure if I wanted to throw up or spend all my time shitting.
Theo came over and placed his hand on my shoulder. “Stick around, we could use the extra help. Give it a few days. If you still want to head out, we’ll give you what you need but for now your group is welcome to stay.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
It wasn’t my place to push the others forward. I had made the decision of sending Izzy, Jess, and Ralphie on. Or at least I had made that decision for Jess. I regretted it. But there was nothing I could do to change that. Give it a few days, I thought.
* * *
Later that morning a group was going to head out to patrol the area and hunt deer. Danielle invited me to go. Specs gave me a nudge as if picking up on that maybe she liked me.