“Oh. So what else do you guys do for food?”
She brings a large knife down, chopping some of the chicken into pieces. “We have neighbors that are long gone who had fruit orchards. Now that we have free run of their property, we pick all the fruit we can and dry it. The owner built his own industrial sized food dehydrator years ago and it’s worked out marvelously for us. There’s also a lake at the edge of our property full of fish. We make do. Now, get on out of here. Trey is waiting for ya’ll by the coop.”
It’s an abrupt dismissal, one I know to heed. Mary is definitely a no-nonsense kind of woman, and I don’t want to be on her bad side. I leave the kitchen to find the others, thinking about what kinds of fruit can possibly be harvested this late in the year. I know that apples can go pretty late, well into fall even, but I don’t know of anything else that can survive colder weather.
The others are waiting for me on the front porch. Daisy looks excited, eager to get out and help with the chickens. Hannah’s close to her side like usual, but she’s not as closed in on herself as she has been. “Ready to get this over with?” Reese asks.
“Be happy,” Daisy says. “We’re outside, getting some fresh air, and there are no zombies around. Look at this place, Reese. There’s life.”
He smiles, but I get the feeling it’s more because of Daisy’s happy attitude than the thought of doing chores. “Whatever you say, Daisy.” He looks around. “Well, we probably shouldn’t keep this guy waiting any longer.”
Reese leads the way, and we head around to the back of the house. The snow beneath our feet is growing thicker by the day, and I have no doubt the roads are going to be even more treacherous when we leave, slowing us down and taking away valuable time we can’t afford to lose. We hear the chickens before we can see them, and we follow the sound all the way to a large wooden chicken coop propped up away from the harsh snowy ground. A ramp leads from the front, allowing the chickens to come and go as they please, but there’s an actual door in the back that’s big enough for us.
Leaning against the back of the coop is a young man, probably my age or even younger. His hair is dark blonde in color, and coated in some kind of gel that lets him spike his hair on top. His eyes are dark brown, almost black in color, making the iris nearly indistinguishable from the pupil. His nose is crooked, probably from it having been broken and healed improperly, but it doesn’t really take away from his features any.
This must be Trey.
He sees us coming and pushes away from the coop, coming to meet us. “About time,” he says lightly. “I was starting to think ya’ll weren’t coming. Figured you might be trying to get out of some good ol’ manual labor.” He eyes us, looking us over one at a time, as if searching for any signs that we’re going to be a problem for him.
“No, we just had to get our stuff inside and set up a sleeping arrangement,” Aaron says, taking on the role of leader in Ryder’s absence. “We have no problem with doing work.” He glances at Todd. “Well, most of us have no problem with it.”
Madison and I both laugh, while Todd scowls at all of us before turning away, choosing to focus on the chickens instead of us. Trey chuckles and offers Aaron his hand, gripping it tightly but not shaking. “Name’s Trey. It’s just been me and Anders helping out around here, so it’ll be nice to have a little extra help for as long as you’re here.” He poses that last part as a sort of question.
“We’ll probably only be here until tomorrow morning,” Aaron says, sounding regretful. “You guys have a nice setup here, but we have somewhere we need to be and unfortunately it can’t wait.”
Trey nods. “Alright, I gotcha. Well you can help out while you’re here, however short a time it may be. Come on, I’ll show you guys what we’re gonna be doing today.”
“How long will it take?” Todd asks.
“Probably a lot longer than you’re hoping,” Trey admits. “We’re gonna gather any eggs since they haven’t completely stopped laying, then we’re gonna clean out the coop, and then finally put some fresh bedding in there for them to help against the cold. It’s definitely not an easy job. But I have no doubt you guys will be up to the challenge,” he says, winking at Daisy.
She blushes and looks away, ducking her face so we won’t see. Trey smiles at her reaction, and I almost sigh. Oh, this will be fun to deal with. I wonder if it came down to it, would Daisy want to stay here with Trey instead of coming to Detroit with us? I guess I couldn’t blame her, since it’d definitely be safer. But I don’t like the thought of our group splitting up, even if she does stay here, safe and taken care of…
Trey leads us into the chicken coop, which is surprisingly spacious inside. It’s obvious that this coop has been added onto, as evidenced by the change in wood from one wall to the next. It probably happened not too long ago, when they decided to start raising as many of their chickens as they could to boost their egg production.
“Alright, I need a couple of steady, soft hands to gather any eggs you find in the nests. We have to come out and collect them every few hours in this weather so they don’t freeze and turn all rubbery when we cook them. They’ve seriously slowed down their egg laying but a few of ‘em are still giving occasionally. After you collect the eggs and run them back up to the house, we can get started on raking out the shit. Shame you guys don’t have galoshes,” he says, eyeing our footwear with a grimace.
“Alright, who has the softest hands?” Aaron asks.
We all turn our hands over and examine them, looking for any calluses. I’m not sure how having soft hands is a must for collecting eggs, but I’m guessing Trey knows more about it than we do. We determine that I have the softest hands, surprisingly followed by Todd. He just looks at all of us and shrugs. “What? A guy can’t have nice skin?”
Trey shakes his head and hands each of us a basket. “Go down the rows and look for eggs. Don’t worry about getting pecked; they’re all out in the yard right now roaming around. Otherwise they’d just get in the way of cleaning out the coop. Gently place any you find in the basket and keep them covered so they don’t freeze.”
Todd grumbles something about filthy birds, but I try to keep a more upbeat outlook. This coop is filled to the brim with bird shit—which we’re going to have to clean out in a little bit—but at least we’re going to get fresh eggs for breakfast tomorrow. That thought is enough to take away some of the boring attitude while I search. In the end, I only come away with four, while Todd has seven. We double check to make sure that we haven’t missed any. When we’re sure we’ve gotten them all, Trey sends us back to the house to hand them off to Mary.
She looks disappointed to only see eleven eggs out of all the chickens they have out there, but it’s still enough for breakfast tomorrow so she doesn’t complain. And I won’t either. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into some real food later. She shoos us out of the kitchen after telling us lunch is ready, so we head back outside to get the others. Thankfully they haven’t started cleaning yet, and we relay the message.
“Score. Looks like we get to put this off until after lunch. We’ll head on inside now, get cleaned up, and eat some grub, then come back out and get started. Hopefully it’ll go faster on a full stomach.” Trey drops his shovel and we follow him back up to the house, where we find Mary waiting with a large bowl of chicken salad for sandwiches. She has freshly baked bread on the table, along with bowls of dried fruit. She shoos us away to go wash up, and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into this food.
Chapter Twenty-One
Ryder and Evan join us for lunch. With them is a young man a couple of years older than me, with dark brown skin, close-cropped black hair, and light brown eyes. He’s as tall as Ryder, and even more muscular, probably from helping out on a farm. His eyes are friendly but wary as he sits down opposite from us and begins to dig into his lunch. Trey and Evan sit beside him, while our group is huddled around our side of the table.
“So, how’s the chicken coop coming?” Evan asks Trey.
&
nbsp; “We didn’t get too many eggs today, but there’s a couple still laying. But with it getting colder and the snow here to stay, they’ll be done soon enough. And after lunch, we’re gonna head back out and start on the bedding. None of them have any good work boots, just their everyday ones, but we’ll see how it goes.”
“Think they can handle it?” Evan asks, smiling at us.
“Oh I’m sure they can,” Trey says, winking at Daisy again. “They’re a helpful bunch.”
She blushes and looks down into her chicken salad sandwich while we all try not to feel uncomfortable listening to the two of them flirting. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Daisy is seventeen, maybe even closer to eighteen. She gives off this aura of youth and innocence that’s really hard to overlook at times, but in reality she’s nearly a grown adult. Any of us has been through hell and being seen as a child is kind of an insult, but it’s hard with Daisy because it’s always so in our faces.
“So, if you don’t mind me asking, what is it you folks are doing out this way? You’re definitely not from around here,” Evan says, not unkindly.
We all look to Ryder to determine how much we should say. He finishes his sandwich and brushes crumbs back onto the plate to buy himself some time to think. When he’s ready, he clears his throat. “We’re actually on our way to Detroit.”
“Detroit?” Mary asks, eyes going wide. “Good heavens, boy! Why? Don’t you have any idea how dangerous that place is gonna be?”
Ryder nods. “Yes, we understand the dangers. But it’s something we have to do. I’d like to leave it at that for now.”
Evan shakes his head in bewilderment. “Your business is your business and I’ll try not to pry, but I hope for your sakes you have one hell of a plan. It’ll be damn near impossible to get in, let alone getting back out.”
“We know the dangers,” Ryder says confidently. “Not all of us will be going though.” He looks at Daisy and Hannah. “Those two will be staying at a nearby settlement, where they’ll be out of harm’s way and we won’t have to worry about them. The rest of us are a lot more capable than we look.”
“You look capable,” Anders says, casting a doubtful glance our way. “But some of you don’t, that’s for sure. I don’t know what your plans are, but you’d be much better off staying in the area and giving us a helping hand around the farm. Evan’s leg is getting worse, especially with the cold coming, and we’re gonna need all the help we can get.”
“He’s right,” Evan says. “You’d be more than welcome to stay here and pitch in to earn your keep. We can make accommodations for you.”
“That’s very kind of you, but this is something we have to do,” Ryder says again. “We’ve come a very long way for this, and there’ll be no talking us out of it now. We’ll just rest here for the night, and be on our way first thing tomorrow.”
“If the weather permits,” Mary says quietly. “There’s a storm coming. I can feel it. There’s a good chance of us getting snowed in tonight. If that’s the case, you’d all be better off staying here for another day or two and getting some real rest. Braving the roads in that kind of condition would be suicide.”
I chew on a handful of dried apricots, savoring the delicious taste. I’m not sure how well we can trust Mary’s gut feeling about a storm coming, but if she’s right, it would be a disaster to try and leave in the middle of a blizzard. We could end up making it a mile or two and getting stuck somewhere with no heat or shelter to protect us from the elements. And I’m not okay with freezing to death just to get to Detroit a day or two sooner. The lab isn’t going anywhere, so we may as well take an extra day or two and get some real rest, like Mary said.
Ryder’s thinking the same thing. I can tell by the unhappy glint in his eyes. He wants to get us on the road and get this nightmare over with as soon as possible, and being delayed by a blizzard is not a part of his plans. But he can’t fight the weather, and we’ll just have to wait and see if Mary’s gut feeling is right, or if we’ll be able to leave bright and early tomorrow. I almost hope we end up getting snowed in, because a day or two of rest with some good people sounds like something we need, even though I don’t like the idea of being a burden to them.
Evan sighs. “Well, if Mary says it’s gonna storm tonight, then it’s gonna storm. You’ll have to hurry up and get that chicken coop cleaned out and the fresh bedding down so they’ll be warm out there. Be a little more generous with the bedding than normal just to be on the safe side. After you’re done, you all come on inside for some hot chocolate to warm up.”
“How’s the fence coming along?” Mary asks, changing the subject.
“It’s going good so far,” Evan says, smiling proudly at Ryder. “Turns out this city boy has got some farmer in him after all. He’s a good help.”
Ryder chuckles. “Thanks, but I’m not a city boy. We’re actually from Texas originally. We’ve got a little experience working on a farm, though it isn’t much.”
Evan’s eyes light up. “I’ve been to Texas back in my younger days. Wonderful place. I wish I could have gone back and seen it now.”
“When was the last time you were there?”
“Oh, let’s see. It was about thirty years or so ago, when I was just a young buck. Just graduated high school and wanted to get as far away as I could, but I wanted to be nice and warm, so down south it was. But I ended up only staying about a year or so before coming back home and helping with the family farm again. Still, it was a nice learning experience, and I got to get out and see someplace new, even if it seemed like it wasn’t for nearly long enough.”
“It never does,” Mary says, her face softening. “I ran away to New York after I graduated high school. Didn’t last long before I was broke and had to come home, but it was one hell of a fun time. Learned a lot about myself in those short few months.”
“We had been planning to do some traveling once we hit our golden years,” Evan says, “but my leg started to get worse and we decided to just stay home and make a life for ourselves. We got our exploring done in our younger days—we didn’t need to be too greedy. Figured we’d leave it up to you young folks.”
“Well we’ve certainly done a fair bit of traveling,” I say. “From Kentucky to Michigan, and from there to Colorado, and then on to Montana. Now we’re hoping to make it to Detroit and finally be able to settle down in peace.”
“What’s in Detroit?” Trey asks, glancing away from Daisy just long enough to skewer me with his piercing eyes.
“Our future,” Ryder says quickly. “If we can get there, it’ll change our lives for the better.”
Evan nods. “Well. Then I truly hope you all make it there safe and sound. We all deserve peace in these trying times. Hopefully the peace will give way to a miracle, and this nightmare can finally end.”
Ryder and I share a quick and discreet glance before returning to our food. It isn’t long until we’re all finished with lunch and forced to go back outside into the snow and finish our chores. Trey shows us how to muck out the chicken crap from the bottom of the coop, before stepping back and handing us the reins while he supervises. I’m a little annoyed by his actions, but it’s not like one more person is going to make that much of a difference when there are five of us already in here.
Instead of helping us, Daisy hangs out near the entrance of the coop and talks quietly with Trey. I wish I could hear what they’re saying, because their sudden and obvious interest in one another is starting to make me just a little bit uncomfortable. There’s nothing really wrong with falling in love at the end of the world—I fell in love with Ryder way too fast—but such a quick and intense infatuation with someone she doesn’t even know can only cause problems at some point down the road.
What’s she gonna be like when it’s time to leave and Trey can’t come with us? Her mind will be in the worst possible place it can be while we’re on the road. I hope she doesn’t end up getting hurt.
While we muck out the chicken crap, I wince every time m
y boots slide through it. I can see the others having the same problems as me, and I really hope I’ll be able to wash my boots off and have them dry before it’s time to leave. Because I am definitely not tracking chicken crap with me all over the place, and I don’t have any other boots to wear at the moment. I can’t help save the world in just a pair of crusty socks.
Some time later, we finally manage to muck out the last of the chicken crap. Trey takes over and puts out a fresh layer of bedding, enough to help keep the chickens warm during the snow filled nights. I feel bad that these animals will have to sleep outside during the middle of the winter, but I guess it’s not exactly practical to bring a small herd of chickens indoors with you, no matter how much you depend on them to survive. I know many animals are perfectly capable of adapting to harsh conditions, as they’ve done it for many, many years.
Trey leads us around to the back of the house and instructs us to wait. Daisy stares wistfully after him, and I almost smile. Even though I’m not sure if things will end well with this, I’m glad that Daisy is getting a chance to be happy, even if it’s only for a short while. We all deserve that happiness in some way or another—whether it comes from within, or from another person. Ryder and I have it, as do Todd and Madison. I like to think that Aaron and Reese both have their own form of happiness, but from time to time I wonder if they’re lonely without someone to love at the end of it all.
Trey comes back with a bucket of soapy water and a large bristled brush. He hands it to Reese. “Use this to scrape off your boots as best as you can. Mary says not to come inside until you’re clean, because if you track chicken shit across her kitchen floor, she’ll beat you with a wooden spoon. And believe me, she’ll enjoy it,” he says tightly, eyes narrowing just a bit.
“Got a personal experience with that, huh?” Todd asks, waiting behind Reese for his turn with the bristled brush.
Zombie World (Zombie Apocalypse #3) Page 29