A small, child sized, red wagon, still loaded with overflowing boxes of corn, sat off to one side. The mention of the market had brought a frown to Katie's face, but the small wagon made Katie smile when she saw it.
“I built the oversize barbecue,” James said. “I remembered that there was a little rib place down off the square. Wrong time of year to be cooking out of doors,” He looked up at the sky and smiled, “Well, used to be, but I remembered that place, and I remembered that they had always cooked outside on a huge grill all summer long. So I went and took the grill. I took a few other things too,” He held up a large pair of tongs that had been shoved in a side pocket. He re-pocketed the tongs. “So… the electronics are working again?” He looked embarrassed at the attention and relieved to be able to hand the conversation off to someone else.
“Might have been before,” Conner started. “Just didn’t think to check, but they’re sure working now. The hard part is finding vehicles that aren’t all smashed to hell. All of these have their war wounds, but it’s just scrapes and dents, nothing serious.”
James nodded and then went back to cutting up the venison, piling it onto two huge platters. One contained much smaller pieces.
The smaller pieces were long and thin. Janna and Sandy were stringing them over a second smokey fire that had been built just past the stone grill that James had built. A makeshift steel roof and sides kept the smoke and heat close to the ground and the meat that hung on the racks. Jake walked up to admire the work.
“It’s all from the Barbecue place,” James admitted. “I’m just using it a little differently, to smoke the meat instead of cook it.”
“You know how to do that?” Katie asked. She seemed impressed.
“Oh yeah,” Janna told her. “James taught me. He always makes his own jerky, cures his own hams. Knows his roots and herbs as well.” James seemed even more embarrassed than he had been a few moments before.
“It’s stuff The Nation taught when I was a child… to preserve our heritage. We pass it on to the next generation. The legends say the people will come back to the Earth Mother. There will come a time when the people will need the old knowledge again.” He grew serious. “Guess that’s now,” he finished. He began to place the thick roasts of Venison onto the grill rack beside the roasting ears of corn.
The group spent the afternoon into the early evening enjoying each other's company, eating and filling each other in on the details of their day. The sun sailed smoothly across the sky, sinking into the Northwest after about fifteen hours of sunlight.
For the first time in several nights the stars came out, glowing brightly in the cloudless sky. The moon seemed to be in the wrong area of the sky and almost totally eclipsed by the Earth's shadow.
“Think that was too long?” Amy asked Jake.
“We’ll have to wait and see when the sun comes up,” Jake told her. “But I’d be willing to bet it’s back closer to what it used to be. And we don’t know what normal will be now. Maybe longer days… maybe shorter days,” he finished.
“Yeah,” Aaron agreed. “It would seem a little too good to be true if it could stop, reverse, and come right back to something close to a twenty-four hour day.”
“Yeah. That probably isn’t going to happen,” James agreed.
“We’ll just have to see where it levels out,” Amy threw in.
Katie nodded, looked over at Conner, took his hand and smiled. “This was a pretty good day,” she said. “We have our own little community here. It’s nice.”
“I was thinking that also,” Conner said. He squeezed her hand lightly and pulled her close. The day had cooled off, evening had cooled off even more once the sun had dropped from the sky. It reminded everyone that, despite the weird weather, it was still late winter; spring was a month or more away.
Janna and Sandy kept the smokey fires burning under the drying meat, joining in the conversation when they had the time or opportunity. Lilly and Jake were involved in some sort of heavy conversation, while James, Aaron and Amy were talking about hunting, herbs, folk remedies and what kinds of structures they would like to build for a home. Katie laid her head against Conner's shoulder and looked up at him. “I’m tired, man of mine.” Conner smiled at her.
“I think I have to put my woman to bed. We have watch in a few hours, so,” He bowed in each direction. “We will make our leave,” Conner said to Amy who sat closest to him. Aaron laughed and Amy smiled at him. Dustin sat on the other side of Aaron, his eyes heavy lidded. Everyone said their good-nights.
As Katie and Conner got to their feet, Dustin trailed along behind them, following them into the factory, leaving the rest of the group to their quiet conversations. The stars shone above. The sky was clear and inky black.
Late Evening
The moon was high in the sky. Conner leaned up against the rock face of the cliffs, sitting on a small pile of pallets. He and Katie were a few hundred yards down from the entrance into the cave. Conner had watch. Katie had come with him.
Conner found himself constantly surprised that Katie was with him.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Conner asked Katie. She seemed so quiet.
She laughed. “You don't have a penny.”
Conner dug into his pocket. “Huh,” he said as he pulled out a penny. “Last one.”
Katie took it, looked it over, and then slipped it into her own pocket. “Leaving,” she said. “My mind is on leaving.” She saw his smile falter as she finished, and quickly amended her statement. “Not without you. I mean us leaving. We can't stay here, Conner.”
Conner nodded. “James and Jana's plan of living in the middle of nowhere?”
“Well, it's not so bad, but I don't know if I want to live like a,” she screwed her face up.
“A native?”
“I don't mean I wouldn't. I mean, we're living in a factory for Christ's sake. A Tee Pee would almost have to be an improvement, wouldn't it?”
Conner shrugged. “Maybe.” He fell quiet himself.
“Anyway, I didn't mean to make you worry. I guess we have some time, but before summer is too far along. Once winter is done?” Katie asked.
Conner nodded. “South or west, then we won't have to worry about freezing to death in the winter.”
Katie shrugged. “Depends if the climate is still the same. Everything is so changed.”
Silence held for a while. The moonlight was bright.
“Hold me, Conner,” Katie said.
He pulled her close and held her as the moon traveled slowly across the sky.
FOUR
March 20th
Harlem NY: Adam
Adam
Adam pulled Tosh's tattered notebook from his pocket and read it once more in starts and fits as he thought about the last few days. Eyes rising to the factory walls, the entrance, and then back down to the notebook. Occasionally a fat tear drop rolled down his cheek unseen, and fell to the cold, concrete floor.
Tarps overhung the shattered factory entrance. The building itself was solid. He had checked it with a flashlight. Why it had survived the earthquakes he did not know, but he was glad it had.
It was even stocked with canned goods. Someone had gone through the trouble of building a fireplace. Rock from the nearby river, most likely, Adam thought. The fireplace occupied a central part of the floor. Wood piled by it. He had almost passed on it, thinking that whoever had set this up would be back, but the fire was cold, the tarp had blown partly off the door, and there were too many gangs now, wandering the streets and alleyways. They seemed to stay away during the daylight hours, but at night they roamed freely. He needed the protection of a solid building and a fire.
He had heard the screams of their victims more than once over the last several nights as he huddled in this doorway or that. Gunshots, calls for help. He had found a second floor factory to call home for two nights, but there were too many ways in to it, too many entrances to guard. The gangs had found him on the second night and he had only
escaped because they were unable to chase him. He knew the area better than they did. Still, it had been close, and he had nearly run out of ammunition during the fight. He had stocked back up just yesterday.
He had found a shallow cave a few days before along the cliffs that faced the river. He had fled to it, hoping that no one else had claimed that small space. It had been empty and he had spent the night snapping awake every time there was a strange sound. The next morning he had found the factory. The windows bricked up long ago, the entrance a crumbled ruin, but that was the only way in. He had learned that first night that the gangs were drawn to fire. He had secured the entrance better so no light escaped, and simply let the smoke drift upwards past the factory floors, finding its own way out of the roof. Too dissipated by then to be recognizable as smoke.
He had built the fire in the pit low, and had managed to get his first night of sleep when they did not come near the factory. He paused, thinking back, and then began to write out his own story.
Adam's Notebook.
I’ve heard gunshots more than once. And the nights are alive. Screams, gangs searching out survivors that have hidden. I’ve heard dogs barking too, but I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Everything is so quiet during the day; it could be anywhere. The sound of the river drowns things out.
I have no idea what has happened, even here in Manhattan. It doesn’t really matter either, except to tell you my point of view.
It looks like our own government lied to us. Did us in. I was in Central Park a few weeks back when this began, and they sprayed us down with something. I didn't kill us or even seem to affect us, but there had to be a purpose.
I guess it is not an amazing thing to anyone that our own government would try to harm us. I think they lied about the meteor. I think there were earthquakes after too, but I'm not sure. I know the days have changed, they're longer, and the sun is in a different part of the sky. It's crazy.
I know vehicles stopped working, and then suddenly they worked again. I have seen ash falling from the sky for hours, days, only to be washed away. Millions are dead right here. You can smell it. The whole city smells dead. And I think the dead ones might be the lucky ones, because the gangs are preying on the living.
Harlem seems over run with them. Parts of Central Park. Other parts of Manhattan, but Harlem seems to be coalescing; getting their shit together, and that scares me. It's all gangs. I have seen the old people and men shot dead in the streets because they have no need for them. Children too.
Jersey is on fire. It seems to be all of Jersey, and Harlem became even more of a scare to me. Somehow Harlem has the lights back on. I watched yesterday as they began to close it off. Pulling buses across the streets. There are armed men and women behind those buses and they shoot anyone that comes near, whether they come to join, surrender or fight.
That's what I know, the rest would be speculation, but I'm going to start looking for people. I think there are dozens of people close by, but they're all hiding; afraid. I'm going to walk down by the river, all those lofts, warehouses. I figure that if anyone is still here that is where they would be. Hiding in all of those buildings.
I’m warm. I’m dry. I’m pretty much okay. My fingers are sore and I’m tired, so I’ll pick this up another time.
On the Road: Billy and Beth
Billy angled the truck off into a grassy median they had been traveling along Arizona 188, and followed a dirt road into the forested park area. About a half mile in they came to a wide calm lake. The area was completely deserted. No cars, no trucks, and only a few empty, rustic buildings close by the water. A quick search confirmed the buildings were empty. They worked together to gather some dead-fall to build a small fire.
Beth piled the dry wood next to a large stone fireplace, and Billy carefully arranged some wood inside the fireplace, over some smaller twigs and crumpled pieces of paper, while Beth opened the rear of the truck and pulled out the sleeping bags, as well as some metal camp utensils they had picked up earlier when they had passed through a small town. They debated on leaving the tent, but decided to set it up instead, close to the fireplace. The buildings were dark and deserted-looking, and not the least bit inviting to either of them. The tent would not offer anywhere near as much protection as the empty buildings, but to them it was much more appealing.
Once Billy got the fire going he began to set up the tent as Beth started dinner.
“What are you making?” Billy asked, as he walked back to the fireplace.
A large steel pot sat directly over the metal grating of the outdoor fireplace, and the aroma from it was all he could smell as he finished setting up the tent. His stomach was growling.
“Well,” she asked, “how does it smell?”
“Pretty damn good,” Billy replied, “in fact about the best thing I've smelled in a long time. I mean I lived alone, strictly fast food. Burgers, tacos, you know. What is it?” he asked again.
“Well, it's nothing great, beans and corned beef,” she looked at him and shrugged her shoulders as if to say, who knows? “Smells good though, huh?”
Billy nodded his head in agreement, and said aloud. “It's got fast food beat, that's for sure... It's going to be a few minutes, right?” Billy asked.
“Probably more like an hour,” she replied, “That's why I've got it off the heat, simmering. Why?”
“Well,” Billy said, “that lake looks pretty good. I'm thinking seriously about jumping in it and washing some of this road grime off.”
Before he could say more Beth jumped up and said, "Race ya!" Billy stood dumb founded as she raced away towards the lake.
He caught up with her next to the water, slightly out of breath, and laughing. When she started to remove her clothes, he nearly choked on the laughter though. Beth seemed not to notice, and after she had stripped down to her bra and panties she dove gracefully into the water and swam out into the lake toward a wooden raft that was anchored about fifty feet off shore.
Billy got over his initial shock, stripped down to his briefs, and also dove into the water. The coldness of the water shocked him, but it helped in a way to. He hadn't realized just how beautiful she was, and his body had begun unconsciously to respond. The cold water ended that though, and he turned over on his back and floated as he kicked with his feet towards the raft. When he turned back over as he sensed he was nearing the raft he saw her sitting, looking back at him as he swam towards her. She smiled, and he couldn't help but smile back. Cold water or not, he thought, she is a beautiful woman.
He had guessed she must be in her early twenties when he had first met her, but now he thought he might be wrong. Maybe it had been the dingy apartment building, which had contributed to his observation. The streets, the bar, all the places that added their own cast to his perceptions. Whatever it had been, he was pretty sure he was wrong. She looked like maybe she was only in her late teens, maybe, he thought, a few years younger than I am. It was more the way she looked now, he realized, that made him think she was probably a lot younger than he had initially thought.
In the apartment building, she had been wary and tired-looking. She seemed more alive to him now though, and the smile went a long way towards smoothing out the lines that had seemed to be embedded in her forehead. He supposed that to her he must seem awful young at twenty-two, maybe even immature. The few women he had gone out with in L.A. had been much younger than himself, girls really. He had been in a common law marriage in Mexico that ended badly, and that was his extent of knowledge when it came to women.
Beth sat on the wooden surface of the small raft and watched Billy turn back over on his back, as he continued to float towards the raft.
She had liked Billy almost from the first. When he had convinced her to open the door to herself, lower the wall she was so careful with, it had been a big deal to her. It was something she would normally never do at all, under any circumstances, but she had opened the door and let him into her heart. It didn't mean love, but it
did mean vulnerability. He seemed honest, she had told herself. In many ways he reminded her of herself. She had started life honest anyway, it was just that she couldn't be as honest as she wanted too, she reminded herself. Life was just that way, she decided.
Billy was different. She knew it was stupid, here she was entertaining what she had told him to forget. Even as the thought entered her head she knew it wouldn't work, it was comfort she needed. It was sexual attraction. He didn't move her inside like she wanted to be moved. She wondered if she could be moved that way by any man and the thought caused her smile to slip away. She stood, dove into the cool water, and made her way back to the shore. Glad the coolness of the water had made her think clearly. Saved again, she told herself. It might not always be so.
The meal was excellent. Billy's mind was not entirely impaled upon the world and what it had become. He thought they both just wanted to be part of the whole again.
He realized, on an unconscious level, that it was even more than that. He wanted some sort of security again. Some kind of normalcy, same old, same old, he thought. The thought made him laugh.
“What?” Beth asked.
“Well first, this is so good. And second I was thinking that as much as I used to hate the same old, same old of the world, I find myself wishing I had it back again. Ironic, I know.”
Beth nodded. She felt the same way. In a world that was constantly cruel to her, she had held out hope that it would not always be that way. That somehow, someday, it would all change for her. And it had, and for her this was even better than she had dreamed. She didn't have to pretend about her past, it didn't matter anymore. She didn't have to be anything, or anyone, other than who she had always wanted to be, herself, the woman that she had buried deep within her. She was happier than she could ever recall being in her entire life. It was as if she had been blind, and now through some unimaginable miracle could see. It was so much and so many feelings that it threatened to overwhelm her sometimes when she allowed herself to examine it too deeply.
Earth's Survivors Box Set [Books 1-7] Page 31