Monte Vista Village (The Survivor Diaries, Book 1)

by Lynn Lamb

  A round of ums, and ahs, sounded out.

  “I saw Jake earlier. Doctor Riley said that he is steadily improving,” I offered my worried family.

  “Oh, my God. I’m going up right now,” said Annie.

  “No, Annie,” I said. “Not yet. But he does look a lot better.”

  The girls both cried for a moment while Adam talked. “You hear that? That’s what I told you.”

  I decided to try and stay on track with my classes, so Bailey and I went home and helped to till soil and boil bottles for canning. All in all, it was a good day.

  August 28

  I was at the Hotel the first thing in the morning, accompanied by Annie, Billy and Mark.

  Annie and Billy are now inseparable, and I am really happy for them. Funny, they had been neighbors for over thirty five years and never met until, well, you know.

  Adam, Bri and Ammie emerged from the building in that order. They all looked gaunt, but much better than when they pulled up to our walls. They were clean, had new clothes (the stuff we had liberated from the mall) and had color in their cheeks.

  After more group hugs, I said, “Let’s take you home. You can rest there.”

  “Are you kidding?” said Bri. “We have been stuck inside that hotel for three days. We slept, ate and slept more. I think we need some exercise. We are still young, Aunt Laurie.”

  “Ha, that’s the kind of jabbing I missed from you, kiddo. Good, then I will give you the two-buck tour of the Village,” I offered.

  “Great,” said Ammie, as she took my arm around hers and guided me towards the Village. That was typical of her. How comforting it was now-a-days to have anything familiar happen.

  We walked to the wall that had come pretty far over the last few days. Jill stood in front of it, wearing a hard hat and directing the construction crew.

  “Jill,” I yelled out. She looked up with a huge smile. “Laura, Annie, I’m so happy for you. This gives me hope for my Marcy to come home one day through these very gates.”

  “Jill,” I said, guiding her over to the girls. “This is Brianna, Amanda, and Adam; my family.” Adam’s face grew red, but I didn’t care. He is family. Annie had told me on the way to the Hotel that his parents and siblings had not made it. He had found their bodies and buried them on their way here.

  Bri looked at the wall, admiringly. “It looks like a good barrier. Have you been having trouble with the Wanderers?”

  “Wanderers?” Mark asked in a concerned voice.

  “They are everywhere. And they are bad,” Adam said.

  Jill looked on with a worried expression. “We haven’t had any trouble, yet,” she said. “We are getting prepared, though. The Colonel is worried about our proximity to the highway, but we know it’s pretty destroyed, now. So, we are hoping that we don’t see any Wanderers.”

  Adam shook his head. “They will find their way; trust me. And they can be savage.”

  I was now very afraid of what it took for them to get here; what they must have seen and maybe even done.

  I walked them up to the MV Market, and we all peered through the new windows. There was still a team working on the shelves. “This is where we are storing our supplies. We are also using the ballroom and bakery, too.” They looked inside while their jaws dropped open.

  We walked past the MV Town Houses towards the Town Hall. “And this is where the previously homeless live,” I explained.

  “Homeless?” Bri asked with one eyebrow cocked.

  “Yes,” I said. “They are some of the hardest workers we’ve got. They are the ones on the wall with the hammers. They are all over fixing windows, gardening, cooking, you name it.”

  Recognizing my “don’t mess with me” voice, Bri didn’t argue.

  “How did you do all of this?” Adam asked, looking around like he was on his first trip to Disneyland.

  “We all did,” answered Annie. “But Laura led every aspect of it.” Annie was proud, and it showed.

  “Thanks, Annie. But you are right. It was everyone. We have 141 people now, if my count is correct. Sometimes I lose track of the number. Everyone contributes, and everyone eats. It’s still one small meal in the morning, and a three o’clock supper, but we are hoping to expand that soon,” I continued my tour.

  An hour and a half later, we had picked up Bailey, and were sitting in the living room in front of a warm fire.

  “I can’t believe you have a fire,” Ammie said.

  “The one thing we have more than enough of is wood,” said Mark.

  Bailey stood in front of Amanda, and looked at her thoughtfully. “Why do they call you Ammie?” she asked.

  Everyone “in the know” laughed. “Ask Laura,” Ammie said.

  “Well, when Amanda was small, she walked around with a little plastic bat. She loved the cartoon The Flintstones, so she would walk up to her sister and hit her over the head yelling ‘Bam, Bam,’ and somehow it turned into Am, Am, and then it became Ammie,” I said.

  “See, the thing you need to know, Bailey, is that Laura and the girls have this thing. They have a story and nickname for everything,” said Adam to the wide eyed girl.

  Bailey nodded, “Kind of like the story about why I wear braids, right Laura?” she asked. We all laughed as I tugged on one of her neat, little braids.

  “Can we see Dad now?” asked Bri, doing a 180 on that subject.

  ~~~

  The seven of us walked up to the hospital, but Bailey stayed behind to work with Charlotte in the garden. It wasn’t even class time, but Charlotte spent most of her time in our backyard.

  We walked through the forest in silence as everyone drank in the scene of the hospital ahead.

  When we got to the door of Jake’s room, Doctor Riley caught us before we went inside. I did the introductions, and she updated us on his status.

  We reverently went into the room. This time we did not need to wear protective gear. Jake was awake and no longer needed the oxygen mask. He looked way better than he had when I saw him on the bed for the first time.

  “Hey,” he said, as he watched us all file into the room. I let Annie and the girls go to his bedside and greet him. I enjoyed watching on as each of their faces came to the realization that he was indeed getting better.

  When we were kicked out of the room by a surly nurse named Mable, I slipped Jake my walkie. “To talk to your girls,” I told him.

  We walked home through the forest in a much lighter mood. That was until Jackson huffed up to me and handed me a shiny new walkie. How did he always know?

  He turned on his heels, and yelled over his shoulder as he walked the way he came. “And don’t give that away again, it’s solar,” he commanded. “And don’t any of you eat too much at Supper. You are all coming to my house for dinner at seven.”

  Mark and I looked at each other.

  Seriously, how did he already know about the walkie?

  I could hear Jackson’s patented “heh, heh” from the distance he had already made from us.

  ~~~

  On the way to the Town Hall, I saw one of my favorite Villagers sitting in her driveway under the still soiled and burnt skies, watching as life continued on around her.

  “Hey, come with me,” I told my little group.

  “Hello, Mrs. Ingram,” I said. “May I introduce my family?”

  “Why, of course, dear,” she said.

  “This is my mother, Annie, my nieces, Brianna and Amanda, my nephew, Adam, and my husband, Mark,” I said.

  “Oh, what a strong looking family. I am very pleased to meet you all,” she said. “I do hope that you will all take my sewing class like Laura, here.”

  I saw the surprised reactions to the news that I was taking sewing lessons.

  “Why don’t you all start down, and I’ll catch up,” I pressed them on. I wanted a private moment with Mrs. Ingram.

  “I wanted to thank you for the other day. Your advice helped so much,” I said.

  “How is your brother, dear?”<
br />
  “He is getting stronger every day.”

  “See, no magic, just strong DNA.”

  ~~~

  I gave Bailey a choice to join us at Jackson’s dinner party or to go to the Rajas to “play” with the older girls, Chandra and Gita. She picked the Raja’s house.

  On our way up the street to attend Jackson’s dinner, my taking sewing class was the butt of the joke. Bri got that ball rolling. The six of us must have been a sight, walking up the street laughing and kidding. Seeing Jake doing so well left us all feeling light. At that moment, it was almost like the war never happened.

  “Aunt Laurie, remember when you made Ammie that tutu, and it was like six sizes too big, and you had to safety pin it to her leotard to keep it on her?” Bri said.

  “Ahh, yeah. And it was awesome,” I poked back, knowing how ridiculous she had looked at her little ballet recital when she was five years old.

  “I looked like some punk rocker, ballet reject,” Ammie commented. “And I didn’t want to go out on the stage.”

  “No way,” I lightheartedly fought back as I rang Jackson’s doorbell. “You know that you just had stage fright.”

  When Jackson opened the door we were all still laughing, and he gave us a strange look. He led us into the bright light of his house. His electricity was a bit foreign since we had been using it so sparingly at the Town Hall and in our kitchen.

  “Where are you getting all the fuel for this?” I asked as I walked in. Bri shot me a look.

  “And welcome to my home,” Jackson said as he waved us in. “And it’s solar.”

  I was surprised that Lizzie was there, sitting on the couch with a glass of wine in her hand. She hadn’t mentioned she had been invited when I saw her in the office earlier.

  “Hey,” she greeted us all happily. “Look, I finally got that glass of fine wine.”

  “It couldn’t be better than the boxed stuff my wife stole,” Mark joked. Only Jackson, Lizzie and I laughed. My family’s faces looked on in shock.

  “Oh, stop you guys,” I said. “It was well after the war and anyone claiming ownership of a box of wine. And I even left two dollars on the counter before we left.”

  “You did? Heh, heh, heh,” laughed Jackson.

  “I think we missed something,” said Adam to Bri and Ammie.

  “Don’t worry,” said Annie. “I have no idea what they are talking about, either.”

  “Only that your daughter is a lightweight with sticky fingers,” said Jackson, handing me a large glass of red wine. I swirled it in the glass, checked the color and watched the legs slide slowly down the glass. I could tell it was the good stuff. One heavenly sip confirmed it. I’ll be dreaming about that glass of wine for a while.

  “Pretentious,” whispered Jackson loudly as he skirted by me to deliver the wine to his other guests.

  “No, thank you,” said Bri.

  “Yes, please,” said Ammie. Everyone laughed. “What? I want to taste some fine wine.”

  “Well, seeing as I am the Mayor, or whatever, and the under twenty one laws don’t really apply because, let’s face it, who’s going to uphold them, I say go for it,” I said looking at my beautiful Amanda, furtively. She returned the look.

  The table was set beautifully, like it took some effort on Jackson’s part. Maybe he was trying to impress Lizzie, I hoped.

  “Well come on, sit, eat,” he said. “We are having venison. I bagged a deer patrolling a few nights ago.”

  “I didn’t hear any gun shots,” said Annie.

  “I was sort of far,” he said. “Well, dig in. The potatoes are boxed, but they aren’t bad. The veggies are the frozen kind.”

  “Wow,” said Mark. “You have quite the setup here, Jackson.” I tried to remember when Mark had stopped calling him Colonel. I wondered how Mark had made it through ten years in the army. He never was much for “the chain of command.”

  “Yes, I do,” Jackson responded curtly. “I have been fixing this place up for my retirement, long before I actually moved in. The idea was to bring the place completely off the grid. I mean no electricity, no forced plumbing from the outside and a few other things.”

  “Sir, your home is amazing,” said Bri. “Thank you for inviting us. This is the best meal we have had since before…” she trailed off. Her face went grim with remembrance.

  I knew how she felt. We all do that now. When things start to feel like the time before the war, the guilt slips in. How can we be happy when everything beyond the Village walls was a gruesome reminder of our reality?

  “Dig in, solider,” he told her cheerfully, attempting to bring back the pleasant mood.

  “I’m sorry,” said Bri, lowly.

  “No worries, Specialist Patton,” said Jackson. “Everyone here gets it. So, what do you think of what your Aunt has done here?”

  “Unfreakin’ believable, sir,” said Bri with a smile. The military and their language, gotta love it.

  “Hoorah,” replied the Colonel. That made everyone laugh.

  “It’s remarkable,” said Ammie. She still had a small, “little girl” voice. “I can’t believe what you all have done. There is nothing out there like this. It’s only a wasteland now. But here you have life, and growth. I can’t wait to get to work in Grandma Annie’s garden.”

  Lizzie laughed, “Just wait to see what your Aunt Laura has in store for you. You might not have that much time to play in the dirt. All of you, I have the orders in my purse.” I gave her the “gee, thanks” look.

  Had Lizzie and Jackson set up this moment? I wondered.

  “Well, I guess we can talk about it,” I started, hoping there would be some kind of protest, but everyone looked on interestedly. Shit.

  “Okay,” I said swallowing down my first taste of venison ever; and it was good. What I wouldn’t have given to have just sat there and enjoyed it with no conversation at all. “Oh my gosh, this is great.

  “Well, I was going to wait until you three were ready,” I stopped and waited to see if I would be granted a last minute reprieve. Nope. “As you know, everyone in the Village has a job and has classes to teach them how to survive in this new world. For example, Jackson here will soon be teaching a class in building green, like he did here in this house.”

  Jackson coughed up the bite he had just taken, and Lizzie handed him a glass of water. That made Ammie giggle and take a sip of the wine. Her face scrunched up, and she shook her long, shiny brown locks as she tried another sip anyway. She would eventually come to like wine, I felt sure. How do I know? She is my niece.

  “Adam, I have you on the Out-bound team. I would like you to take the place of Billy as team leader. Billy has asked to be replaced because ‘it’s just too hard for him at his age.’ His words, not mine. I know you have been a collector of guns for a while, and you understand how to navigate out there, and that will be the key to getting us the supplies required for us to survive,” I said.

  “Laura, thank you. I appreciate your trust in me and will do my best not to let you down,” said Adam. I could see him swell with pride, not just for his new position on the Out-bound team, but for his new position in our family.

  “You are welcome. You can also pick your two classes tomorrow,” I finished up with him and moved on to my next victim. “As for you, Bri, the Colonel has graciously offered you a position directly under him.”

  Bri’s expression was priceless. “Are you kidding me?” she asked, putting down her glass of water. “And if you are, that’s just mean.”

  “No joking,” answered Jackson. “I will warn you now that this is going to make several higher ranking soldiers pretty pissed. However, they have never been deployed. Since you made it up here from Arizona, I would say that qualifies as a deployment with combat experience in theater.”

  “It was,” answered Ammie. “I should be a General.”

  “Well, your Aunt has other plans for you, little lady,” he said. Oh, Ammie does not like being called “little lady” any more than I do. J
ust wait until she knows Jackson better.

  “I am not going to let the other military members of my team have a chance to argue it. This is not an official military endeavor. We are Village Security, and they are just going to have to deal with it. You start tomorrow. Report at the wall at 04:30. I will give you your duty weapon before you leave tonight,” finished Jackson.

  Bri’s eyebrow went up, but she replied, “Yes, sir.”

  “One last thing, Bri,” I said. “You can pick one class to take because this position is going to be very time intensive, I presume.” Jackson only nodded, and kept shoveling potatoes into his mouth.

  “So, that leaves Ammie,” I said. “This was my hardest decision. I know that you were planning for a Law Degree before your education was interrupted, but I refuse to allow that brain go to waste. With your 4.7 high school GPA and nearly perfect SATs, there are several important roles you can play in our community; your community, now. We have several lawyers and one judge, and they are now learning new skills until we need them in a legal capacity. We don’t need anyone else in the area of the law, especially since those laws are sort of questionable now, if not obsolete.

  “We need more people in two different area, medicine and engineering. I know that you thought about these before deciding on the law. Here is what I am presenting you with. You will be the apprentice under Doc Malcom for two months. He has agreed to this, and will provide you with the books you need to study when you are not working with him. You will also arrange time with Charlotte to learn about growing herbal meds. Eventually, when the pharmacy drugs run out, they are going to become very important here,” I said and waited for a reply. I was afraid that this was going to be too much for her. Ammie has always been a bit physically fragile, but never weak. She is very hard on herself, and at this time, medicine is the most difficult field in the Village.

  “Um, what if I want to go into engineering?” she asked.

  “If, after two months you don’t feel that becoming a doctor is what you want, then you can roll over to engineering. Sound fair?” I asked.

  I held my breath as I waited for her to think. It’s a lot to ask.

  “I’m good to go,” she said. “When do I start and what are my hours?”