by Brad Manuel
“I already know where I’m going to live.” Rebecca told him. “But I’m happy to search for other places if you would like me to.” She had picked her street while in Hanover, and it was easy for her to find the best home from the few listings in that area. Rebecca did her research, as always, so the actual work was quick and easy.
Solange lifted her head. “Which one is for you and Greg?”
Rebecca held up a listing brochure for an estate in Hanalei. She handed it to Solange.
Paul checked the address, and put a red dot on the map with a marker he found on the table. “Okay, let’s see what’s near Rebecca’s house.”
John looked up. “So she picks and we work off of her?”
“Why not? We need a starting point. She’s the most versed on the island. I say we go with it.” Paul put down the marker.
Solange flipped through the listing. “It is a perfect estate. Our next step is to visit this house and see what our options are around it. I know it will not be a pleasant job, but we should clear out the occupied homes in the entire area.”
“So what you’re saying is, now that we have a house, we need to go up there and figure out all our other options. We have to find the nearest farms, fresh water, fishing spots, everything.” Dan was on board with going up to Hanalei. “I am all for book work when necessary, but it seems like an expedition would be more effective.”
Everyone put down the listings.
Rebecca asked a simple question. “Why don’t we take the farm listings, take the giant map, and see if everyone wants to head up to the new location? It is much cooler up there, and if we want a resort, Princeville is beautiful. We can fish just as easily on those shores.”
John picked up his walkie-talkie. “Hey, Matt, we’re done here. We’re going to the hotel, pick up our stuff, and move to the north.”
“We’re moving already? Rebecca found our spot?” Matt radioed back.
“Yes, we’ll get up there and find a trailer, come back for the animals today. Let’s make our move this morning. “ John smiled when Matt referenced Rebecca. As much as he tried to lead, she was the default oracle. John was a fantastic field general, but Rebecca was clearly in charge.
“We found a Walmart. We’re going to grab some stuff. We’ll see you back at the beach.” Matt replied.
John switched radio channels and had the identical conversation with Emily. When they arrived back at the beach, Craig and Antonio were sitting next to Peter and Todd. They were talking and laughing as Hubba lay in the sand at the old man’s feet.
“What’s with the laying around?” John asked.
“It’s like fishin’ with dynamite. We couldn’t get them off our lines fast enough. I bet we have four pounds of fish in the container, filleted and chunked.” Antonio pointed to the plastic bin.
“Seriously, it was like the fish wanted to get caught. They had six good sized fish in less than a half hour. Tony would cast, hook a fish, hand it to Craig to clean, and I would fillet. I couldn’t keep up.”
Todd explained with amazement how easy it was to catch the fish. “Even Peter was yanking them out like it was a cartoon.”
“I may have kept my angling skills a secret until now, so I wouldn’t have to walk that hill in Hanover every day. My wife and I had a condo in the Marathon, Florida for years.” Peter said coyly.
“You old dog.” Antonio chided him. “You sandbagged us, and stayed off fishing detail.”
Everyone smiled at the old codger. “Well pack up.” Dan announced. “We’re moving north. Now that we have lunch, our decision is that much easier. All we have to do is cage the chickens again.” He turned to Paul. “I hate catching those chickens.”
The plan was relayed to the fishing group, and they prepared for the trip. Instead of caging the chickens, Dan backed his SUV up to the door of the chicken room, and a few of the men went into the room and tossed the chickens directly into the back of the SUV. Dan and Paul volunteered to drive the truck north. A few cages tied to the headrests separated them from the free roaming fowl.
“You can listen to your loud dinosaur music with the chickens.” Rebecca told them.
The SUV already smelled. “Sunroof open, windows down, we’ll be fine.” Dan assured Paul.
As the tribe pulled away from the beach resort, the temperature was already climbing into the low 80’s. Matt’s group had the find of the morning, a large moving van acquired from a rental agency near the stores downtown.
Emily radioed Kelly with the news of their departure for Hanalei and the discovery of a van. “I can drive it.” She crackled back over the walkie-talkie.
Antonio and the van were dropped off at the airport rental lot. He sat in his Mustang convertible, and waved goodbye to the others.
Kelly herded the cattle into the back of the truck. She brought the cows during this trip, and would make two more with the hogs, and the bull. She drove the Kauai coast towards the lush green farmlands on the north shore. Antonio drove his convertible behind the truck. The convertible top was down so he could enjoy the sun and the salt air.
Forty-five minutes after shutting the doors at the airport, the van pulled into rich, fertile farmland at the top of the Hanalei wildlife preserve. John gave Kelly a map with a red circle around a farm. She stopped the van in a driveway and saw their goats munching happily on overgrown vegetation.
Fences surrounded the property. The goats stood in one section of a large pen area. A stream ran through the farm, and Kelly walked the livestock down the ramp of the truck and into a beautiful grazing field. Wild chickens and roosters ran about. Kelly saw birds flying in and out of the trees to the south.
“Welcome to your new home.” She said. The cows grazed immediately. Some drank from a large water trough filled from a hand pump tapping an underwater spring.
The temperature was moderate. Livestock shelters were built up around the fields for relief from the sun. Some of the shelters were in disrepair, but with only a few cows, Kelly knew this farm would work perfectly. She pumped water into a trough in a different paddock, preparing for the arrival of the pigs later that day.
There was a farmhouse near the barn. Antonio sat in his car listening to music. Kelly pointed to the house, then to herself, letting him know she was going inside. He nodded and did not turn down his music.
Both the screen and storm front doors were unlocked. Kelly took a step inside and into a good sized first floor. The house was nice but not extravagant. A living room to the right was bright with sunlight from a bank of windows running the south side of the house. The air was stale and smelled of death. Kelly did not have to look, she knew there were bodies upstairs. She opened all of the windows on the first floor, and propped the storm door open for a breeze to flow in and out of the home.
Kelly found two fireplaces in the house, one in the kitchen and one in the living room.
“I could live here.” She said to herself. “I hope I don’t live alone, but if I do, I can make it work.” She opened a back door and walked onto a lanai on the field side of the house overlooking the farm. It had an outdoor shower that worked off a cistern next to the house. She pulled a chain and cold water rained out of a round showerhead.
Done exploring, she made her way back to Antonio.
“Is it going to work?” He asked her, yelling the question over his music.
“Yeah, once we get rid of the previous family.”
“Damn, I knew you were going to say that.” He shook his head in disgust. “I have a feeling we’ll be doing a lot of that over the next week.”
Kelly agreed and slid into the passenger’s seat. “Let’s see what this thing can do.”
Antonio grinned and hit the gas. Both of their heads shot back as the car flew down the dirt road. Antonio spun the wheel and turned them around towards the coastal highway.
As they passed the farm, Kelly waved to the grazing cows. The van was parked in the road. Antonio avoided an accident, but came closer than Kelly would have liked.
60
It was noon and a temperate 82 degrees. Soft puffy white clouds drifted across the blue sky as a stiff breeze blew from the ocean. Antonio screeched to a halt at a semi-circle driveway filled with six SUV’s in front of a seaside estate. A realtor’s sign stood next to the mailbox.
Kelly and Antonio walked through the front door into a gorgeous, fully furnished house.
“This is a nice place.” Kelly said to the young man. Antonio was struck dumb by the opulence.
Neither of them had been in a house of this expense or quality. They heard voices and continued through the home towards a beautiful lanai with a saltwater pool and panoramic views.
“You made it!” Bernie yelled. “Wash your hands before you eat. There is water! It comes from a natural spring, and solar cells power a pump. How crazy is that? You can wash your hands in a sink with a faucet and not from a rain barrel or bucket of icy snow water. There is even an electric on demand water heater, so, get ready, there is hot water.” Bernie gave Kelly a hug, grabbing Antonio’s shirt and pulling him towards them.
“Bernie, calm down. Where can I go wash my hands and eat. I’m starving, and I’m the one who caught the damn fish. Am I the only one who works around here? Tony, start the cars. Tony, catch the fish. Tony this, Tony that.”
Bernie gave him a stern look. “You need to watch your language around the children.” She pointed towards a half bath near the pool.
“I’m sorry.” Antonio replied. He walked towards the bathroom muttering under his breath about all of the work he was doing. When he returned, he went straight for the food. The ceviche was in a large serving bowl with a ladle to spoon out individual portions onto plates stacked on the table. A bag of tortilla chips and boxes of saltine and melba crackers we open to accompany the meal.
Todd added fresh avocado, mango, and cilantro to the fish.
A platter of sliced pineapple, star fruit, and bananas was also available. Antonio grabbed two bananas and a several slices of star fruit.
“Are we all going to live here?” Kelly asked. She was not up to speed on the living arrangements.
“Rebecca picked this place for herself.” Bernie told her. “We have to find our own slices of paradise.”
“What is she going to do with all this space?” Kelly looked around in wonder at the enormous home.
“Location, location, location.” Rebecca said to Kelly before enjoying a tortilla chip covered in fresh fish. “We are close to a bay for fishing. We are within a mile of the farmland. We are on springs for fresh water. There are a dozen homes on this road. We will stay close without crowding each other.” She ate another bite of food. “This is the place for us. This is where we should settle. I mean, why not?” She pointed towards the private beach.
“And you get this great house.” Kelly said to her, a knowing smile on her face.
“Well, I may have selfish reasons.” Rebecca was not embarrassed about her selection, and the other houses on the road were of similar grandeur.
“Okay.” Todd said behind them. “It’s lunch on day one. We’ve accomplished a lot already, but we have work to do. Dan, Hank, and I are going through the houses along this road for removal. We’ll do the same down at the farm houses. We will be busy for the rest of today and maybe tomorrow.” He took a drink of water. He enjoyed the water from the tap, a pre-rapture luxury taken for granted.
“We need to retrieve the supplies from the plane. We need to figure out a system of distributing food. We need to figure out how to split up the chickens or if we are going to keep the chickens in one location. I know there are only 24 of us, but this is also a society. We should decide how it is going to work.”
Kelly ate her food, and chimed into the conversation. “I need to eat, I’m famished, but then I am making a swing down to the plane. I need to get the hogs and the bull. You can have the truck when I have finished moving our animals.”
“I don’t want to concern anyone, but we need to think about our next meals. Sure, we have food we can scavenge or that we brought, but I was thinking of throwing down some traps or trying to find something that we can cook.” Greg’s traps were in the airplane, but he thought about using his bow to snag a few of the chickens running around.
“You just want to get out of working in the hot sun unloading the plane. I can walk outside and kill a few of the chickens at sundown.” Matt eyed his brother with skepticism.
“You plan on catching, cleaning, plucking enough chickens to feed everyone as the sun goes down? If it was just you and me, sure, but we’ve got Craig, Jaclyn, Jacob.”
“Greg’s right. He’s on food for tonight, protein at least. Everyone else should go down to the plane, help with the animals, or help watch the kids.” John had no desire to go to the plane and unload, but it had to get done.
Melanie found Kelly. “Were the farm homes nice? I know my kids will want to live on the ocean, but I am excited to start a farm.”
“The one I put the animals next to is very nice. We’ll have to clean it out first.” Kelly made a face, “but it’s a beautiful home with a spectacular lanai. It might be a better home for you and the kids than just me.” She described the farm and home in detail.
“I doubt we’ll get our own places, do you?” Melanie was feeling the young veterinarian out. “I know Rebecca enjoys her space, but I don’t want to live on a farm by myself. If the house is as big as you say, I hope you would consider staying there. You don’t have to raise my children, but we’d love to include you as part of the family, even more than we already do.”
“If it doesn’t work,” Kelly told her. “I can always move.”
Kelly did not live alone before the rapture, and the few weeks she hid in her building were not pleasant. She did not hesitate to accept Melanie’s offer.
“I’ll make sure the men get those bodies out today or tomorrow.” Melanie gave her a wink.
Todd, Dan, and Hank assembled for a walk through the neighborhood homes. The afternoon would be spent opening houses and determining which ones were available for immediate occupancy, and which ones needed to be cleared. Tomorrow they would find a pickup truck or van to use for clean-up duty.
Melanie approached their strategy conversation. “The farmhouse needs to be taken care of. I’m not telling you to do it right now, I’m just telling you so you know it has to get done.”
“Noted.” Dan nodded.
“If you need any help, I can’t lift as much as you burly men, but I have a strong stomach from working at the hospital.” Melanie did not mind dead bodies. She had no love for the smell, but could handle the task.
“You take care of your kids, we’ll get your house cleaned. We are going to wrap the bodies in sheets and take the mattresses out too. Everything goes into a van or truck, and we’ll find a place to bury or burn it all.” Todd hoped to be as brave as he sounded when he encountered the bodies.
“Just thought I’d offer, but you have it under control. The kids and I will be down at the plane loading the supplies.” Melanie rubbed Todd’s back and walked towards the porch.
“Let’s start on the ocean side of the road, cross the street and come back the other way.” Dan pointed west, and the men walked off the back lanai towards the road. “Princeville is that way.” Dan pointed toward the town. “Let’s see how far we get.”
They each had a backpack filled with snacks and water. They wore yellow latex gloves and white mouth and nose shields.
“Let’s do it.” Hank walked between the two men as they approached the front door of the house neighboring Rebecca’s. “I put the over under at 3 homes with people.”
“Pretty low, what’s your theory?” Todd asked as he tried the front door. It was locked.
“These are expensive homes, probably second or third homes. The rapture hit in July. If you live in Hawaii, and there are a few months you decide to go somewhere else? It’s the summer. Maybe ski season, but really, if you have to go back to the continental U.S. it’s in the
summer. If this is your vacation home, you’re not coming in July. These places are empty.”
“I stayed at the Princeville resort for a few days. It was before I was married. Nice place.” Dan made a move towards the beach side of the home.
Most of the ocean view houses had open floor plans and large lanais. This house was no exception. The back lanai was open into the living room. There were plantation shutters, but they were not pulled shut. Todd jumped over the knee wall and into the house.
“I don’t smell anything.” He gave a thumbs up. “I’ll walk around to the front door and open it. Meet you up there to move to the next home.”
They spent two hours walking up and down the road, breaking into houses when necessary. They found one set of corpses on the entire street. From the pictures in the home, it was a retired couple, older, living alone. They were decomposing in a large bed in the master bedroom. An open bottle of pills on the nightstand led the men to theorize the one died of the rapture and the second committed suicide. The couple would receive a burial on the central part of the island.
The farmhouses were occupied by dead families. It was bad work, but the men used a pickup truck they found near the Princeville Resort to clear out the bodies. Instead of two days, they were done in one afternoon. Todd, Hank, and Dan agreed to meet at sunrise to bury the bodies.
“Let’s see how long the walk to the ocean is. If walking is our mode of transportation, it will be good to know how long it takes us to get fish.” Todd was tired, but knew he would be making this walk for the rest of his life, and he would often be tired while doing it.
It took them twelve minutes to get to the first house on Anini Road. They guessed it would take twenty minutes at a leisurely stroll, but the men were hungry and thirsty, and ready to dive into the water.