Users

by Andrea M. Alexander

  The sun was behind the forests that surrounded us, casting shadows across the property and making it seem later than it actually was. I heard a drone approaching. It was easy to pinpoint because the countryside was so quiet. I heard horses neighing. A motorcycle in the distance. Someone pounding on metal inside the barn. The sound of our shoes crunching across the gravel path. These were all strange noises, and I experienced a sudden nostalgia for Manhattan. The quiet here was almost eerie.

  Iggy finally let go of my hand, and I pulled my cell out to see if I’d missed a call or a text. I had, but the texts were from a couple of my friends and not from either of my parents. I was really worried. Yeah, mom had been a kick ass Marine, but that was fifteen years ago. She had an office job now. Dad was fit, but he was not the gung-ho hero type. Maybe they'd had to take care of some things where they worked and were delayed. After all, it couldn't be easy to leave their government jobs during a crisis. And their jobs were important. Secretive. I had to give them more time.

  My thoughts were sidetracked when we entered the barn and Wesley looked up from where he sat working on the motor of a Kawasaki. His eyes met mine for a brief moment and his shoulders tensed. Then he rose and greeted Iggy only.“Flint said the engine stalled on him a couple of times today. But it should be good now.”

  “Thanks, Wes. I appreciate that.”

  I followed her to a plastic garbage bin where she reached in and grabbed a milk jug-sized scoop of sweet-smelling oats and corn. I remembered this routine from my childhood visits, and I grabbed several large square pads of hay before following her to the first stall. We fed and watered the horses in silence while Wesley cleaned up and put away his tools.

  “I see you haven’t forgotten everything I taught you when we were kids,” Iggy said when we were done. She lifted her hand for a high five, and I smacked my palm against hers.

  “I would probably still ride if I hadn’t been thrown. Now, all I remember is hooves and pain.”

  “Yeah, well, you should have gotten right back on Blaze like I told you to. The quickest way to get over fear is to get right back on the horse.” She added with a smile, “Not go running off to your mommy.”

  "I didn't run off to my mommy," I defended.

  "Yeah, you did."

  Wesley snickered and slammed down the lid of his toolbox. Then he walked out of the barn.

  I shook my head. “Who is that guy and why does he live here?”

  “Wesley is a good friend of the family. We’ve known each other since we were eleven years old.”

  “Do his parents live here too?”

  “No. They died when he was thirteen. Car wreck.”

  I winced. “Oh. That’s horrible.”

  “He’s lived with us ever since.”

  “His parents and your parents were friends?”

  "Uh, no."

  “Then why did your parents take him in? He doesn’t have any other family?”

  “No. We’re it."

  "So your parents adopted him?"

  "He’s my best friend, and I wanted him here. I needed him to stay.”

  My forehead wrinkled. “Needed?”

  “Long story.”

  “He doesn’t seem like the friendly type. I'm surprised you're so close.”

  “He's had a rough life. We've been through a lot together, and I trust him completely.”

  That was a serious statement, and it got me thinking about my own friends. Cody was probably the only person I trusted to have my back in a bad situation. I said, “Well, then I’m glad he’s your friend.” I shuffled my feet, swallowed and asked, “Is he more than that?”

  I thought she might laugh at my question. But instead, Iggy shook her head and said, “No. We’re close, but not like that. What about you, Cael? You have a girlfriend back in the big city? Or wherever?” She looked down and toed her boot into the sawdust.

  “No. Not for about six months now.”

  “Does she go to NYU too?”

  “She did. She transferred to a university back in Ohio where she was from.” I expected Iggy to ask me more questions, but she didn’t. “Do you plan on going to college? You graduated last May, right?”

  “Yeah.” She wrinkled her nose. “But I don’t think college is for me.” She tilted her head and asked, “What will happen now that you left NYU? You just stopped going to classes, right?”

  “They ended up closing the campus. Too much violence. Classes are suspended indefinitely. And now Martial Law has been declared.”

  Iggy shook her head, her long, wavy ponytail swinging from side to side behind her shoulders. “It seems like everything is falling apart. I mean, here in our little corner of nowhere, I’m kind of sheltered. I don’t really understand what it was like for you to make your way down here. It's probably scarier in real life than what I see on the news.”

  “It was the most frightening experience I’ve ever had. That’s why I’m worried about my parents.”

  “Like my dad said, he can pull some favors to find them. If need be, we’ll go get them ourselves.”

  My eyebrows drew together as I stared down at her. “I wouldn’t ask you to go out there to help me find my parents. It’s a crazy world right now. Too dangerous.”

  Her head tipped to the side. “It’s not like zombies have taken over. Come on. This is America. Besides, you wouldn’t have to ask. Aunt Ava and Uncle Daniel are my family. You couldn’t make me stay.” Iggy licked her lips and tossed me a smile that seemed edged with nervousness. “But it won’t come to that anyway. They’ll be here any second now.” She grabbed my arm and pulled. “Come on. It’s probably dinner time.”

  Iggy’s dad came trotting out of the house in uniform as we approached. Iggy asked where he was going.

  “Got three gas stations on fire in town and a grocery store being robbed.”

  “But you’re off for the night.”

  He gave his daughter a worried look and touched her cheek. “We don’t have enough officers on duty to cover all the crimes that have been reported.” He planted a kiss on her forehead. “Be safe. Watch that gate and keep the patrols going.” Then he was gone.

  “You really think people will trespass? Try to steal stuff?” I asked her.

  “With all the food, guns, and gas we have? Hell yeah. Maybe not soon, but eventually they will come. We have a reputation in this town. People know we’re prepared. There are a lot of families out there like us; they’re prepared to live off what they’ve stored, live off the land, survive for a long time without any outside help. I think people might get desperate enough to try and take what we’ve got. And what our friends have.”

  A car drove through the gate and pulled up next to four other ones on the lot adjacent to the house in front of the woods. Three people got out, arguing and shouting. Iggy jogged toward them. “Martha! What happened?”

  A lady with a mix of red and gray hair met Iggy halfway and they hugged. Martha said, “They shut down the Cracker Barrel. I’m officially unemployed.”

  The older man I assumed was her husband said, “We knew this was gonna happen, Martha. Stop freaking out.”

  “Shut up, Frank! Don’t tell me what to do.”

  The kid behind them, who was perhaps about thirteen, threw his hands up in the air and stormed into the house. Iggy patted the woman’s back and soothed, “We got this, Martha. It’s gonna be fine. And we really need your help around here now. If you don’t mind, Dad and Kim think we need to patrol all the fences regularly, and we would really appreciate your help with that.”

  Martha brightened. “Of course I’ll help.”

  Iggy put an arm around the woman’s waist and guided her toward the house. “Jamie made his famous chili. Let’s have dinner and just relax for a while. I’m sure it’s been a rough day.”

  Frank said, “We brought some supplies to add to the basement store.”

  Iggy clapped a hand over his shoulder. “Appreciate it, Frank. Yo
u need some help unloading?”

  He nodded.

  I volunteered, “I’ll help him.” I extended an arm and introduced myself. Frank shook my hand, thanked me, and we got to work.

  Cael

  Dinner was an informal jumble of people helping themselves to a food buffet and carrying on multiple conversations. People came and went in the same manner as those staying at a hotel, sharing the same lobby for a continental breakfast. I watched Wesley and Iggy chat quietly together at the opposite end of the table from me and Cody. Wesley didn’t say much to anyone else, including Aunt Kim, even though she sat next to him. That’s why I was surprised when he smiled, and I wondered what Iggy said that cracked his shell.

  Cody leaned into me and said, “You’re staring.”

  I blinked at him. “What are you talking about?”

  “You’re staring at Iggy.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “I’m not judging, bro. Just pointing it out.”

  I turned to my bowl of chili and dug in, grabbing a handful of saltines. Cody reached for a pot in the center of the table and whispered to me, “What’s this stuff?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Looks like a bunch of slimy weeds.”

  Jamie, who was sitting on Cody’s other side, smacked his hand playfully. “Put down the bowl then, boy. Those aren’t weeds. Those are collards. And I make the best collards this side of the Mississippi. Don’t eat them if you’re not gonna appreciate them.”

  “What the hell are collards?”

  “Boy!” He waggled a finger at Cody. “Where are you from? How can you not know what collards are?”

  “What are the chunks in it?”

  “Ham,” Jamie snipped.

  Several of us laughed. Kim said, “Take it easy, Jamie. He’s a Yankee.”

  “A New Yorker,” I clarified.

  Jamie huffed, “That explains it.” Then he slopped a spoonful of collard greens onto Cody’s plate. “Try them.”

  Cody poked at the blob with his fork until he hooked a leaf. Under Jamie’s watchful eye, he stuffed the green thing into his mouth and chewed carefully. His facial expression changed from wary to impressed.

  “Well?” Jamie prodded.

  “They’re actually good,” Cody admitted.

  “Of course they’re good!”

  A few minutes later, several phones beeped loudly. Iggy, Kim, Wesley, and two other people whose names I didn’t know dug out their cell phones and looked.

  “Granger,” Wesley announced, bringing scowls to everyone's faces. They all rose at the same time.

  “Where’s everyone going?” Cody asked.

  “Front gate,” Jamie told him and scraped his chair back. “So much for a peaceful dinner.”

  I jumped up and followed them as they paused at the foyer gun closet before jogging out the door. I reached for a gun too. Cody stood in the door way. “What are we supposed to do? Help?”

  “I’m going out there.”

  Cody shrugged and retrieved a weapon, and the two of us followed everyone up to the gate. The bars slid open to reveal a black pickup truck with several armed people standing in the bed. Floodlights mounted over the truck’s roof were aimed down so that we were in their spotlight just as they were in ours. A man with shaggy brown hair and a beard stood beside the driver’s door holding a Browning shotgun. He looked vaguely familiar. A younger guy who looked similar except without the beard, came up alongside him, also holding a shotgun. This place was like a weapons convention.

  “What do you want, Granger?” Kim stayed behind the fence line with Iggy and Wesley on either side, but she kept the barrel of her weapon aimed at the ground.

  The man said, “How come you can’t never invite us in like you used to? You ain’t never civil anymore. We used to be friends.”

  “Yeah, well, that was a long time ago. We’re eating dinner, so tell me what you want.”

  The younger man smiled at Iggy and said ‘hello.’ This caused Wesley to turn in his direction.

  “Hey, Austin,” Iggy replied on an exhale, her gaze softening before turning back to the older man, who was probably his father.

  “I wanted to see about buying some gas off ya,” Granger said.

  Iggy asked, “Why don’t you buy it in town like everyone else?”

  “Why don’t you shut up and let the grown-ups talk?”

  “Why don’t you fuck off,” she snapped.

  Granger grabbed his crotch and said, “I can teach you a thing or two about fuckin’ off, little girl.”

  Kim raised and cocked her weapon. Wesley stepped forward, took a low aim, and said, “And I can hurt you so bad that you’ll never be able to fuck again.”

  Granger spit on the ground and scowled at Iggy. “That’s a woman for ya. Gotta hide behind her freak watchdog.”

  Cody leaned toward me and whispered, “Shit, man. This is serious.”

  I moved up, edging around people until I was standing just behind Iggy, who was taking shallow breaths and staring.

  “Get the fuck out of here, Granger,” Kim shouted.

  “I’m willing to offer ya twenty-five bucks a gallon. Town’s a little dry right now.”

  “No deal.”

  “No deal, huh? Because I insulted your daughter? She ain’t got no respect for her elders. You need to put personal feelings aside so you can do business.”

  “You’re not an elder, Granger. You’re an asshole,” Kim told him. “And you ain’t got the sense God gave a rock if you think I’m gonna do business with you.”

  “Thirty a gallon,” he offered.

  “What part of ‘fuck off’ do you not understand?”

  Granger stopped chewing on whatever was in his mouth and spit again. “You don’t wanna make the mistake refusing to do business with me.”

  “I’ll give you to the count of three before we shoot.”

  Granger shook his head. “You stupid, fucking cu—” Suddenly he froze and clutched his chest. His eyes went wide and he grunted before falling to his knees, dropping his gun. Austin grabbed hold of him and asked what was wrong.

  Cody said, “He’s having a heart attack.”

  I strained to see. “Maybe he’s choking.”

  Kim lowered her weapon and turned to Iggy. So quietly that I almost didn’t hear, she said, “Iggy, stop.”

  Granger collapsed onto his back and clutched at his chest.

  Kim grabbed her stepdaughter’s arm and said more forcefully, “Iggy. Stop it.”

  Iggy blinked several times and focused on Kim, clapping a hand over her mouth. Wesley laid a hand on her shoulder, but Iggy turned away and jogged toward the house. Granger sucked in a deep breath and rolled over, his son helping him to his feet. Once he was standing, he massaged his chest and said, “You bunch of freaks!” But he got into his truck and started the engine.

  Kim closed the gate. Wesley ran to the house. Cody and I stood there for a few minutes exchanging looks of confusion.

  Chapter 5

  Cael

  More people sat at the breakfast table this morning, all them bleary-eyed and bent over mugs of coffee. Cody was still sleeping, and I didn’t know where Iggy or her parents were. I filled a mug with coffee, declined Jamie’s breakfast offer, and stepped out onto the veranda.

  It was cool outside, and I was glad I’d worn a sweatshirt. Birds were pecking at several feeders spread across the front lawn, and I was about to sit down and watch them when I heard hoof beats approaching from the back field. I walked down the steps and looked toward the barn where Iggy and Kim rode up on horseback. I watched as Iggy took her feet out of the stirrups, swung a leg over, and slid to the ground. She took both horses’ reigns and led them into the barn while Kim headed for the house.

  I walked toward them, carefully balancing my coffee. As we passed each other, Kim asked, “Where are you off to so early in the morning?”

  “I’m going to see the…um…hor
ses.”

  Kim grinned. “Right. Iggy told me how much you like Black Jack.” She patted my shoulder. “Maybe you can help her muck out the stalls.”

  We continued in opposite directions down the same path, and I entered the barn to find Iggy pulling the saddle off Black Jack. I gulped down some coffee and said, “Good morning, Iggy.”

  She turned and smiled. Her hair was parted down the middle and tied into two pigtails on either side of her neck. The cool air made her skin look paler but her cheeks and nose pinker. This was the first time I’d seen her in jeans, and her legs looked long and slender. The rest of her was covered in an over-sized Florida Gators sweatshirt. I walked over to Black Jack, determined not to let the horse keep me away.

  After Iggy deposited her saddle and blanket onto a triangular wooden rack, she walked up to me and took the mug out of my hands, drank half of my coffee, and handed it back to me. “Thanks.”

  “Sure. My coffee is your coffee.” I finished it off and set the mug out of the way.

  “Wanna to try brushing Black Jack?”

  I looked at the horse. He was tied to a post and appeared worn out. “Sure.” I picked up a brush and curry comb and went to work, paying careful attention to Black Jack’s every movement. Iggy unsaddled Kim’s gray mare and started brushing her down. I said, “You guys deal with a lot of drama here, don’t you? The CDC one day. This Granger guy the next. Makes me wonder who will show up today.”

  “You can’t say it’s dull around here.”

  “Did Uncle Chris come home yet?”

  “No, not yet. He called Kim to tell her they’d given up on assigning shifts. Too much is happening to say exactly when he will or won’t work. Any news from Aunt Ava or Uncle Daniel?”

  I brushed short, brisk strokes down Black Jack’s flank. “No. Nothing.” The horse’s tail flicked and swatted me. I jumped back, but he seemed oblivious to me so I resumed brushing. “I was thinking about what you said yesterday. If your dad can help in any way — maybe find out if my parents even got out of Bethesda, what direction they went, general location — I want to go and search for them.”