by Eric Vall
“Oh, no, was he fussy?” Betty asked. “I didn’t hear any crying.”
“No,” the dark skinned woman chuckled. “Quite the opposite, he just wanted to play.”
“I’m sorry,” I told her. “I was up on the roof all night, you should have brought him up there.”
“That’s alright,” she told me with a sweet smile. “I wouldn’t want to intrude.”
“You’re never intruding,” I told her sincerely.
“Come here, darling,” Betty said, and she reached out for baby Anthony.
Kimmy handed over the smiling baby, and Betty cooed to him before she flipped him around to sit on her lap.
“Speaking of the roof,” the older woman continued. “Why don’t you help Tav bring some coffee up to the girls.”
“Sure,” Kimmy agreed. “Are you okay with Anthony?”
“He’s practically my grandson,” Betty said with a raised eyebrow. “I think we’ll be alright.”
“Okay,” the dark skinned woman laughed. “I’ll grab some cups.”
Kimmy got the cups and Rolly filled a small pitcher for me to carry. Technically, I didn’t need Kimmy’s assistance, and Betty knew that, but she also seemed to have picked up on Kimmy’s feelings of not being part of the group.
I knew that she had other responsibilities that the girls and I didn't have as far as being a mother, but I never wanted her to feel left out or like she couldn’t join us whenever she pleased. The girls all adored her, and I was obviously fond of her myself. She had no reason to feel as though she wasn’t part of the team.
Still, I understood being the new guy, and I would do my best to make Kimmy feel as comfortable as possible until she felt at home with all of us.
We climbed the stairs up to the roof, and I could hear people stirring on the different floors as we passed by.
Once we made it to the roof door, I pushed it open with my hip and saw Paige nearly jump out of her seat with surprise.
“Huh,” the brunette said as she looked around wildly.
“What’s going on?” Tara asked, her eyes still closed as she stretched out and yawned.
“I think we fell asleep last night,” Bailey said as she looked around with eyes still squinted from sleep.
“We must have,” Anna yawned. “Because I don’t remember being up here for long.”
“You weren’t,” I chuckled.
“Mmm, is that coffee?” Tara asked, and she held her hands out in front of her and grasped at the air.
“It is,” I said as I took a cup from Kimmy and filled it to hand to the platinum blonde.
“Thank you,” Tara said as she wrapped her hands around the mug and took a deep breath.
Kimmy and I poured the rest of the girls cups as well. Then I gestured for Kimmy to take the chair that had been mine the night before, and I retrieved another one to add to the group.
“It’s smokey out here,” Paige remarked as she looked up at the sky.
“It is,” Anna agreed with a nod. “I can’t get a breath that doesn’t smell like fire.”
“Did you see any flames last night?” Bailey asked.
“Not really,” I answered. “Just the smoke mostly.”
The light was slowly coming up over the horizon, and I stood up and looked over the northern edge once more to see if I could spot anything new.
Still no sign of orange flames, but the smoke cloud had grown to twice its original size overnight, and it was most certainly closer to us. There was no doubt about it, this fire was after us.
“We have the fire lines done,” Anna said. “What are we doing today?”
“I’m going to ask Rolly if he can think of anything else for us to do,” I said. “But this morning we’re going to fill up the water jugs and water the plants. We can’t have them drying out, and it’s been a couple of days since they’ve gotten water. With this heat, they could get damaged if we don’t keep them watered properly.”
“Okay,” Paige agreed. “Are we going to try to get it from Otter Creek?”
“For now, yes,” I answered. “I’m sure that we can get another fill up from the river before we have to search for a totally new water source.”
The girls nodded and sipped on their coffees solemnly. Where they’d been in such a good mood the night before, they were brought back to reality by my words.
“The wind must be in our favor,” Bailey said. “Paige said that if it came from the north we’d only have a day, and it’s been two already.”
“I know,” the brunette said with a shake of her head. “Maybe my calculations were wrong or something. I’m not sure. Now I wish I had been a forestry major.”
“You’re not an expert on fires,” Kimmy said softly. “And if anything, thinking it was coming sooner just made us work even harder.”
“Thanks,” Paige told her with a sweet smile.
“The wind picked up some last night,” I informed them.
“From where?” Tara asked.
“North,” I said grimly.
“That’s not good,” Bailey said with a frown.
“It doesn’t seem to be too windy right now, though,” Paige said, and she bit her lip.
“With how smokey it is now, it can’t be long, can it?” Anna asked, her green eyes filled with concern.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “It’s going to be here sooner rather than later, all we can do is try to make sure that we’re as prepared as possible.”
“I’m ready to get going, then,” Anna said, and she downed the last drink of her coffee. “Let’s get these plants watered so we can figure out what else we can do today.”
“I like your attitude,” I chuckled. “I’ll ask Betty to take over the watch for us.”
“I can do it,” Kimmy offered.
“Aren’t you coming with us?” Bailey asked.
“Oh,” the dark skinned woman said with surprise. “Well, if Betty is okay watching Anthony, then I suppose I can come as well.”
“Great,” I said. “Let’s get ready, and we’ll meet at the trucks in five minutes.”
“Deal,” Tara said, and she took her coffee cup and headed inside.
The rest of us followed, but I didn’t bother to change clothes. I knew that I was going to get anything I wore filthy, so I figured I didn’t need to dirty anything else. Instead, I headed downstairs to the living room to find Rolly and Betty again.
“Back so soon?” Betty asked.
“I have a couple of questions,” I said.
“Shoot,” the old woman told me as she gave baby Anthony a piece of canned fruit to chew on.
“Could you watch Anthony and take over roof duty while the girls and I go water the crops?” I asked.
“Of course,” Betty answered, as if she were almost insulted that I’d ask.
“Thank you,” I told her with a small smile, then I turned my attention to Rolly. “Also, is there anything else you can think of that we can do around here to fortify the place? The farm is as well protected as we can get it, but I’m concerned about campus.”
“There might be a few more things we can do,” the old man said with a nod. “I’ll get working on them while you guys go watering.”
“I’d appreciate that,” I told him. “But don’t do anything by yourself, everyone should be up soon, I heard them stirring in their rooms.”
“Deal,” Rolly agreed with a nod.
“When are you all leaving?” Betty asked.
“I told everyone to meet me down here in five,” I said.
“Okay,” the older woman said with a frown. “You all will have to grab breakfast when you get back, then. I’ll have Jenny whip something up.”
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” I told her. “Everyone can just grab power bars again.”
“We’ve loaded up a lot of the non perishables,” Betty informed me. “It’ll be easier to cook some meat and fresh eggs.”
“Good point,” I said. “We’ll get some when we get back, then.”<
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At that moment, I heard footsteps on the stairs and I turned to see the girls make their way down to the landing. They were all freshly dressed for the day, I couldn’t help but stare slightly as they approached.
Anna’s long red hair was down around her shoulders rather than in its usual braid. It framed her face beautifully, and I wanted to reach out and touch it, but I restrained myself. The redhead wore a pair of black athletic capris, a bright green tank top, and her usual running shoes. Her toned body was easily seen through the thin material of her clothes, and I took a second to rake my eyes over her as she sauntered toward me.
Paige had also opted for an athletic outfit, but hers consisted of a pair of light blue shorts and a dark blue jogging hoodie over a black tank top. The brunette had her long hair pulled up into its usual messy bun, but some small wisps framed her face delicately and drew attention to her thick rimmed glasses. She was absolutely adorable.
Bailey had on a pair of gray shorts along with a white tank top under a dark black zip up hoodie. The morning was cool, and she also had a dark blue beanie on that I knew would come off in just a couple of hours as the day began to heat up exponentially. The blonde hippie looked like she belonged in a rock band or something, which was almost enough to make me laugh out loud. She was gorgeous, but the outfit didn’t seem to fit her delicate personality at all.
Tara, ever the supermodel of the group, had managed to touch up her mascara, pull her bright blonde hair back into a high ponytail, and change into a pair of overall shorts with a red crop top underneath. She looked like she belonged on a farm, but only for a photoshoot, not to actually work.
Kimmy was freshly dressed also. She had on a pair of tight fitting black volleyball shorts and a red tank top. Her curly hair was pulled up into two buns on either side of her head. Her legs and cleavage were on display, and I tried not to stare as she bounced her way over to me.
“Oh, Betty,” Kimmy said as she sat on the arm of the couch.
“Tav already asked,” the older woman said with a wave of her hand. “I’m happy to watch the baby.”
“Thank you,” the dark skinned woman said softly, and she walked over and gave baby Anthony a kiss on the cheek.
“Of course, dear,” Betty told her with a smile. “In fact, I’m about to head up there now.”
“We should get going as well,” I said, and I stopped to grab my rifle before I led the girls out the door and to the two military trucks that had the water barrels on them.
“Anna,” I said, “you take the second one.”
“Roger that,” the redhead replied.
“I call riding with Tav!” Tara exclaimed.
The girls split up between Anna and I so that Tara and Kimmy rode with me and Bailey and Paige rode with Anna.
I started up the vehicle and moved slowly down our driveway until we were on the main highway. Then I turned toward the creek and parked near where ours and Henry’s boats were tied up in the water.
I could see from their position that the creek was even lower now, but I shut off the truck and hopped out to get a better view.
Once I saw how low the water really was, I let out a low breath as I placed my hands on my hips and just stared.
“Oh, shit,” Tara whispered as she stood next to me.
“The boats are nearly touching the bottom,” Kimmy added in a low voice.
“We’ll get what we can,” I said. “We need to get the boats out of the water today.”’
I had expected that the situation wouldn’t have improved much, and that the water level would have gone down some, but not this much. This was much more significant than what I had expected, and part of me couldn’t believe that it had gotten so low.
We’d had absolutely no rainfall, though, and it was already hot from the summer time. With the added heat from the fire, that was a recipe for disaster. I figured that our little stream behind campus probably connected to Otter Creek somewhere, and if that was the case, then it was probably even lower than this was at the moment. We were going to run out of water completely if we didn’t get some rain soon.
At the moment, though, we had to focus on the crops. We’d filled up all the water bottles we had on campus and they were packed and ready to go, but we couldn’t allow those crops to die. That was our livelihood for winter, and without it there was no guarantee that we’d find enough supplies to make it through without having to leave our home.
“What’s going on?” Anna asked as she and the girls hopped out of their truck and made their way over to us.
“Oh,” Bailey said, and she looked at me and bit her lip. Her grayish-blue eyes were filled with concern.
“If this is almost drained, then the stream behind campus must be, too,” Paige said.
“I was thinking the same thing,” I agreed.
“What do we do?” Anna asked.
“For now, we do what we came here to do,” I said. “We get water for the crops.”
“Alright,” the redhead agreed. I was sure that everyone could tell I was frustrated, and questions weren’t what I needed right then. There was only so much we could do in this situation. We were at the whims of mother nature, and we just had to do our best to make the most of what we’d been given.
The girls and I got the hoses out and started to fill up the water barrels.
We were all fairly quiet as the water slowly filled up and we watched the creek get even lower. It was still so early into the summer, and the fact that the water level was so low was incredibly alarming. We needed to figure out a new water source, especially since we had no way of telling how this year was going to pan out as far as the weather went. If we could get some rain, then that would solve our problem for a time, but there was no guarantee that we would get so much as a sprinkle any time soon. Like I had told the civilians, though, we knew that the stream was there at least from fall through spring, so as long as we could make it through the summer then we would be alright. Unfortunately, summer was the one season that we needed the most water for our crops to survive.
We’d need to continue to water our crops in the fall, especially our squashes and things, but that amount of usage wouldn’t compare to what we needed throughout the summer.
Once the water barrels were full, we headed to Betty’s farm to water the crops. It would take us some time considering it was just the girls and I, but I thought that it would be better to leave the civilians with Rolly for the day. I was sure that the old man could think of a few things to do around campus that might help us out if the fire made its way to us.
It would also give me an opportunity to walk the perimeter and make sure that all the lines were laid out as best as they could be.
“You know what’s weird?” Tara asked as we drove to the farm.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“I never really paid attention to wildfires before,” the platinum blonde said.
“Didn’t you see things about them on the news or facebook?” Kimmy asked, seeming somewhat surprised at Tara’s musings.
“I mean, I saw things from time to time,” Tara confirmed. “I just didn’t really care that much about them. I lived in the city so we didn’t really have wildfires there.”
“I suppose if they didn’t affect you then it would make sense that you would kind of gloss over them,” I said.
“Yeah,” Tara agreed, and she pursed her lips. “But it kind of makes me feel like a dick now.”
“Why’s that?” Kimmy chuckled.
“Well, I’m sure that fires affected a lot of people, even before the EMP,” the platinum blonde explained.
“They did,” I agreed. “A lot of people would lose their houses from wildfires.”
“Yeah,” Tara said with a frown. “That’s so sad.”
“What could you have done?” Kimmy asked. “The world is full of things like that going on every day, or at least it used to be. There’s really nothing you could do about it, and keeping up with it would probably just mak
e you depressed.”
“That’s true,” the platinum blonde agreed. “Still, sometimes I realize how selfish I was before all of this happened.”
“You don’t seem selfish now,” Kimmy said with a shrug.
“Thanks,” Tara told her with a sweet smile. “I kinda still am, though. I’m working on it.”
Anna often teased the platinum blonde about her wealthy background, and while it was funny and playful, I knew that sometimes Tara still struggled with her own shortcomings. Before now, I’d only really heard her open up to me about it, but she appeared comfortable with Kimmy, and I was glad to see her confiding in someone else.
We pulled into Betty’s driveway and made the long drive up. Once we arrived at the top, I parked as close to the crops as I could, and Anna followed my lead. There were plenty of jugs stacked by the house for us to fill up so we could water more easily, but it would still take some time with how many crops we had going.
I surveyed the area as Anna finished parking, and I found that the crops still looked to be in good condition. None seemed too yellow or like they were dying from the lack of water over the past couple of days while we worked. A few of them did appear a bit droopy, but I figured that they would perk right up once they got a good drink.
The girls and I set to work filling jugs and watering different plots of crops. We each had a couple of rows to do, and the mundane act of refilling and pouring the water jugs allowed my mind to get a small reprieve from the havoc that was going on around us. The day continued to heat up as we worked, but I could barely see the sun through the smoke that was in the air. We’d all need masks soon if it didn’t let up, and I suspected it wouldn’t.
When the watering was nearly completed I left the girls and walked along the perimeter. The trees and debris were cleaned up as much as humanly possible, and the lines that Rolly had laid looked good. I sighed to myself as I realized that we’d done everything in our power to stop the fire from devouring the farm, but even still it might not be enough.
Mother nature always has the final say.
By the time we had finished, it was almost noon, based on the sun’s position in the sky, and we were all sweaty and worn out already.