Thinking maybe if I let him be, he’d go to sleep, I turned to leave the room and Hannah was there. I jumped.
“You scared me.”
“Sorry. You left his binky downstairs. That’ll calm him.” She rushed by me to the bassinette and leaned over. “Hey there little guy. Here you go.”
He let out a few short screams, fighting any satisfaction he may get from the pacifier. Then he finally gave in. He was quiet except for the sucking noise.
“There. All better,” Hannah said with a smile.
“Hannah, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Have a really loud and fussy baby all the time, that’s for sure. Come on, Calvin. Mama Mavis is making tea.”
I stepped out of her way as she dashed by me. “Okay then.” After taking another peek at Edward, I went downstairs.
In my pass through the living room, I paused at the sofa table and looked at all the photographs that were set out. The photos spanned her entire life. From a young hot wife to the loveable looking woman she had become. She had children, lots of them. Five from what I counted. Many grandchildren too. It made me sad to think of her losses.
Hearing the clanking of cups and the chattering between her and Hannah, I realized the way to get to know her wasn’t just by the photographs, but by talking to her as well.
Tea sounded good and I joined them in the kitchen.
Mama Mavis was a wonderful woman, at least to us. She missed her family dearly and was definitely a ‘Pleasantville’ version of an apocalypse survivor.
She cooked a wonderful stew of fresh applesauce and biscuits. I was happy with the pie; we arrived so late, the dinner was a welcome surprise.
I had washed up and she gave me a clean shirt and jeans and I thanked her for them. “Best I felt in days.”
“You don’t look it,” Mavis said. “Here.” She rattled a brown pill bottle and placed it in front of me. “Antibiotics. Take them. The whole bottle. They’ll help. You don’t have far to go to Sanctuary City, they won’t let you in if you’re sick. Right now, you just took a beating, couple days you’ll look better.”
“Thank you again.” I clutched the bottle.
“Supper’s on the table, Hannah. Come eat,’ Mavis said.
Hannah stared out the backdoor. “George is chasing something out there.”
“Probably a mouse. We have many back there. He’ll get one,” Mavis said. “Then he’ll calm down. It doesn’t take much to calm them down. Few bites. They really don’t ingest it. They just chew. I guess it seems kinda sadistic to keep them. Because he was my husband I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill him”
“Calvin is gonna shoot his wife in the head first chance he feels ready for it.”
“Oh stop. I did not say that,” I said.
“What happened to him?” Hannah asked. “How did George get like that?”
“He got bit,” Mavis responded. “Was helping a neighbor down the road. Trying to pack them up and get them going. Their boy was sick. He bit him. George turned within a couple days. I guess I’m just waiting for the good Lord to take him.”
“I see you have a stable. Did you have horses?” I asked.
“At one time. I don’t anymore.”
“Did George eat them?” Hannah asked.
“Hannah!” I scolded.
Mavis smiled and shook her head. “No. That would be way too much for George to eat, now wouldn’t it. No. I bartered them. A man named Jason came up with the idea to start a transportation service from different places in the area to Sanctuary Sixteen and Thirteen. They pay him with stuff and he takes them. I bartered for goods in our deal, I gave him the horses and cart and made a nice deal with him for what people paid him. He’s a good man. Stays true to his word. Drops off supplies on his way there every single trip. Usually him and his traveling folks spend the night. Then they go on their way. He’s been doing it for several weeks now. He’s about due. Takes a different road back up north and this one down.”
Hannah gushed with excitement. “Oh, Mama Mavis, we would’ve met anyhow. I was waiting on the next transport. He was taking a while.”
“Sometimes he hangs out at the sanctuary to rest up. Plus it’s been raining a lot.”
Hannah asked, “What’s it like? Do you know? Did Jason tell you? What’s Sanctuary City like?”
“Well, little one, they’re safe there. He said they’re like tent cities. He said sometimes they get kind of rough. They clean the rift raff out of there. Get rid of the rowsers pretty fast, I hear.
“Did you ever think to go with him?” I inquired.
“No, heavens no.” Mavis shook her head. “Have you looked around my place? I have it made. My own water, garden, food supply, and even if the bartering doesn’t last, I have enough. It’s safe from those things. Very few come up this way. That hill is a trudge.”
“Then why the explosives?” I asked.
“Amongst other things I spent seventeen years in the service back in my heyday. I’m pretty good.” She winked. “The traps aren’t for the infected, they’re for the people that try to get my stuff. I know when they’re coming. I have battery operated sensors out on the road. Been hit enough. Jason taught me those lessons. Gotta love that man.”
Hannah paused in eating, then a dreamy look came over her. “You’re so pretty and smart. Just like my grandma.”
Mavis sighed out with an ‘ah,’ laying her hand on Hannah’s face. “You are welcome to stay here. You know that?” Then she looked at me. “You as well. I can use the help with the wood during the winter.”
“Wow, thank you. I’ll think about it. Part of me wants to make it to sanctuary. Like a goal, but if the invitation will stay open.”
“Absolutely,” she said.
“Hannah,” I said. “If you want to stay…”
“Not without you, Calvin,” she said. “You need me. You saved me.”
“What?” I laughed.
“Calvin’s a hero?” Mavis questioned.
“Yep.” Hannah nodded.
“Oh, I am not a hero. Never was and probably never will be. I don’t have it in me. I’m an accountant. Besides, you…” I pointed my fork at her. “You saved me. You saved Edward.”
“That’s how you saved me,” Hannah said. “Them men, they weren’t nice men. Not at all. They were at Pastor Jim’s. Pastor Jim sent me with them to Mr. Mills.” Then oddly, she grew sad and spoke in a serious way like I hadn’t heard her do. “The night with you and Edward. Two of them had me. Said they wanted to have fun. Then Edward kept fussing.” She looked at Mavis. “He was doing that scream thing he does. Over and over. The men stopped ’cause they said they wanted to go get him. Kill him. Crush his skull. Kill Calvin. They left me and I followed. They didn’t touch me. So you see, Calvin, you being there saved me.”
Mavis laid her hand on Hannah’s. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“That’s the way it is, right?” She shrugged. “It was tried before so I went to Mr. Mills. Always was told to go to an adult. Well, he just said, ‘Girl, deal with it, you wanna live here, live anywhere, you’ll do what it takes.’ When them men got me, I guess I thought I had to do what it takes.”
At that instant, I got sick. I jumped up with an “excuse me” and darted out the door, trying my hardest not to get sick. I grabbed the back porch railing, trying to catch my breath, stop the gagging. Then when I spotted George eating that mouse, I lost it.
Every bit of my stew left my body. My stomach wretched. I was so focused on getting to sanctuary, my survival, Edward’s, even Leah’s, I never paid attention to what was happening in the world around me. That poor girl lost everyone and still was getting hit hard. It sickened me, physically sickened me.
I got my bearings and went back into the house.
“You alright?” Mavis asked.
“You okay, Calvin?”
I nodded and crouched down before Hannah. “I am so sorry for everything you have gone through. Everything. I can’t do an
ything about what happened, but I can about what’s gonna happen. You are a kid, Hannah. A kid and you should never have to do what it takes, not in this world, not in any world. As long as you are with me, you’ll be a kid, never more than a kid and I’ll try my damndest to make sure you never have to do… what it takes. Got that?”
She nodded a couple times and wrapped her arms around my neck.
I had seen Hannah as a child, but sadly it never registered. It would from now on. I made a promise to myself. I may not have been the strongest man or the bravest, but I would do what I could to protect Hannah as much as I did my son. They were our future. Not me, not Mavis and not those things out there… the children were.
Unfortunately, there weren’t many left.
19
À La Carte
September 7
Hannah’s twelfth birthday was not forgotten. Not by me and not by Mavis. She made her some applesauce to go, and we sang 'Happy Birthday' over a pancake. Hannah was thrilled, her eyes lit up and she smiled.
Mavis also gave Hannah a necklace of fake pearls and just because she wanted it so badly, and since Leah was calm, I put one of Mavis’ house dresses on her.
We were packed up and ready to go and I actually felt bad taking Hannah. It was a good place, a safe place for her. Mavis was a motherly type that would take good care of her. Hannah insisted she didn’t want to stay without me.
“If I don’t go with you, who’s gonna feed Edward?” Hannah asked.
“Me,” I replied.
“No offense, but I don’t think you do it right. He always eats for me and gets quiet.”
“I guess he does.”
“Mama Mavis said we can come back. If Sanctuary City sucks, can we do that?”
“Yes, without a doubt we will do that.”
We hugged Mavis goodbye and took that back road that would cross the highway. I knew once we crossed that highway, we’d stop again and be even closer to Sanctuary City Sixteen. I couldn’t figure out why Hannah wanted to stay with me, why she picked walking a beaten path to a tent city instead of staying in a clean and warm farmhouse.
I felt guilty taking her even though she wanted to come. More than likely, she had developed a trust in me.
She was the best company. I felt better, my body was less sore. I had already taken three doses of antibiotics and I swore they were working and making me stronger. Plus, I rested and ate really well.
Hannah commented on how much better I was doing, then she had to comment on Leah.
“Don’t she look pretty in that dress?” Hannah asked. “It’s big, but she looks pretty. Don’t you think?”
Leah didn’t look quite as ‘pretty’ as Hannah said. It had been five days since she had died. When I would see a Vee, to me they all looked the same. With Leah, I noticed everything that was happening to her. She had taken on a greenish appearance, with the exception of her legs, which were purple and black. Sheaths of maggots covered sections of her body. So many that they looked like patches of sheep’s fur. Some sort of dark red foam seeped from her nose and mouth and she started moving differently, more rigid.
I thought about Mavis’ husband George. How the photos of him in the living room showed a robust man. His clothing was huge on me. Yet, in the turnaround, he was thin, his skin looked more like a leather covering. As if all his body fluid, fat and tissue had left him and all he had was skin covering his bones.
“Calvin?” Hannah called for me. “Don’t you think?”
“For her state, yes.”
“Bet she was really pretty before all this.”
“As a matter of fact, Leah was beautiful,” I said.
“What did she do? Did she have a job? Or did she stay home?”
“She was a first grade teacher.”
“Oh, then she loved kids, huh?”
I nodded. “She did.”
“Was she excited about the baby?”
“I don’t think anyone was more excited about this baby than Leah. We really wanted a child. We had a couple babies that just didn’t work out and she lost them. So she was thrilled and scared about Edward.”
“Did you ever think that might be why she’s following you?” Hannah asked. “For the baby?”
“Maybe.” I looked back at her. “I think it’s just instinct, that’s all.”
“What’s that noise?”
“I’m sorry, what?” My head spun when she changed subjects.
“That noise? Listen.”
I stopped walking to hone in.
There were three distinctive sounds. A clicking, a buzzing and a fluttering sound.
It was coming from up ahead of us and I picked up the pace to see what it was.
The entire trip on that back road, up to that point was uneventful. We had walked steadily, stopped periodically, but saw no one. The noise just echoed.
About a quarter mile up the hill and around the bend, we spotted the source of the multiple sounds.
On the side of the road, a horse-drawn cart was tilted in the depression between the road and grassy hillside. A single horse lay on the road, he struggled with the reigns, shaking his head, he tried to get up when he saw us, but his legs gave in and he fell back down.
“Stay back,” I told Hannah, and lifted the carrier from my chest and handed Edward to her. “Let me check it out.”
“Is the horse alright?”
“I don’t know. Stay here.”
As I moved closer to the cart, I not only smelled the rotting odor, I heard the buzzing, then I saw the flies. That told me, something had died. Then I saw him, or rather it. The body of a man slumped in a laying position over the driver’s bench seat of the cart. If it wasn’t for the gray hair, I wouldn't have been able to tell if he were old or young. His body was bloated and purple.
It was a simple cart. One bench and an open area in back. No top on in and the dead man had been exposed to the elements. The horse peered at me as if asking for help.
“What going on, Calvin?” Hannah asked. “Oh no.”
I looked, she was right behind me. “I told you to stay back.”
“I know you did. I thought I recognized the cart.”
“Jason?” I asked.
Hannah nodded.
“This would explain why he was taking so long. He was on his way back. I’m guessing.”
“Mavis is gonna be so sad. She really liked Jason. What happened to him?”
Covering my nose and mouth, I stepped closer. “I don’t see any injuries. No gunshot wounds. No bites. How old was he? Do you remember?”
“About my grandpa’s age.”
“He probably had a heart attack. Veered off the road and died.”
“That’s so sad. He died alone.”
“Yeah, it is kind of sad. At least he died peacefully. No Vee have been around. The horse is still here.”
“What about the other ones? He had more than one horse.”
I took a closer look. I knew horses from the races, but I could only speculate on what had happened. No blood, no carcasses. “The reigns are broke.” I showed her the straps. “The others got away. I’m guessing. This one…” I moved closer. The horse jolted. “Easy boy. Easy. His leg is caught up. He couldn’t get free. Mavis said it was raining, that’s probably the only reason he’s still alive.”
“How long have they been out here?”
“This happened several days ago. I’m guessing. Looking at…” I pointed at Leah, then at him.
“What are we gonna do? We can’t just leave them here.”
“No, we won’t. First we’re gonna help this horse. Untangle him, get him some water. Feed him a couple of those apples you have,” I said. “He needs to get his strength back.”
“Then what?”
“Then once he’s better and strong, we get this cart back on the road.”
“With Jason?” she asked.
“No, not with Jason. We move him from the cart.”
“You’re gonna bury him, right Calvin? You h
ave to bury him. No one gets buried anymore.”
“We don’t have time to bury him.”
“Why not?”
“Why… why not? I don’t know. It will take some time to bury him. We’re already near stopping time.”
“Not like we have an appointment,” she said. “You don’t like dead people, do you?’
“What?” I nearly laughed in my reaction.
“First you let your wife run about naked and now you wanna toss Jason off to the side of the road, then you have…”
“He’s already on the side of the road,” I said.
“It just seems disrespectful. He was helping people.”
“I hardly call rendering a profit from transporting people helping.”
“Calvin. Please.”
“Look. We help this horse first. Okay. Life first. Then we will discuss Jason. Fair?” I asked.
“Fair enough,” Hannah said.
“Fine. Give me the apples, then just hang back with Edward. Okay. Don't get too close to Leah.”
Hannah opened her Barbie pack and handed me an apple before she backed up.
The horse was beautiful, but I could tell he needed help. He wasn’t going to just stand right up and trot off anywhere. Not yet.
The situation about Jason the transport man was unfortunate… for him. We had lucked out. That horse and cart would get us to Sanctuary Sixteen and get us there faster. I honestly didn’t know how much more Edward could take. He needed to get to sanctuary. He needed medical attention. Finding the horse and cart was a blessing. I was fearful because nothing easy ever is free and something told me, somewhere, somehow, I would have a price to pay.
20
Rise and Shine
Once again, my life had become a living example of Oregon Trail. My wagon was the cart and the oxen was the one single horse that Hannah named Mary.
No Man's Land Page 11