by Lee Wise
“Thank God for you.” Rose wept.
“I…I don’t want this.” Mrs. Ford said handing the gun to John. “I knew these people. They were former students.” She started to cry.
“We need to leave.” Mike announced. “The fire is spreading quickly.”
“I know just the place.” Robert responded.
“Booger’s!” John and Robert replied together.
“Let’s just go!” Cathy agreed. “Quickly!”
We hurried out. Not everyone decided to join us. John, myself, Cathy, Robert, Jacob and the kids were going of course. Joining us was Gary Reynolds (the fourth grade teacher), Ben and RoseCarabiner, Mrs. Ford, Mike and Jill Alberts and their kids and Sammie Smith (another firefighter). We were now a group of twelve adults, two teens and four kids. A total of sixteen people and one dog. We drove in the direction of our house.
“The cats!” Megan said.
“I let them out when I was in the house last.” John said.
“We have to get them daddy!” Sarah exclaimed.
“I…” John began.
“The kids have nothing left.” I whispered. “We can at least try.”
We drove up the driveway quickly. “Stay in the car and lock the doors!” I told the kids.
The other cars followed up the driveway. “What’s going on?” Jacob asked.
“Meet us at Booger’s.” John replied.
“Why? What are you doing?” Robert asked.
“Trying to find the cats.” John replied.
“Are you serious? They’re terrified. They aren’t going to come out. We need to get out of here. Now!” Jacob announced.
John and I looked at each other but walked a little ways away from the group. We heard a weak meow. We ran to the sound. The cat the girls had named Peanut Butter was sitting looking at us. He looked like he had a hurt foot. Lying close to him was our other cat Jelly, she was dead. I picked up Peanut Butter. “Let’s go!” I shouted.
“Amen to that!” Robert added and we all drove to Booger’s house.
We arrived at Booger’s house a little before 11:00 p.m. Everyone was extremely tired after such an eventful day, but we knew that there was still work to be done. We tucked the kids and teens into beds. Jenny and the girls slept in Booger’s king sized bed and we took a full sized mattress from the spare room and put it in the same room for Greg and Nate. Robert made a threat to Greg to behave, but it was obvious that he was still heartbroken. After that, the adults met in the living room.
“We need to discuss what we have for provisions as well as a way to protect ourselves from these things.” Ben announced. We all agreed.
Rose, who was a nurse and was wrapping Peanut Butter’s paw while Mr. Doggleton watched, spoke up. “I definitely could use more medical supplies.”
“The school has medical supplies.” Gary stated.
“Some of the group can go there in the morning, while some of us check out what’s here and at nearby houses and the rest can figure out a way to keep us safe here.” Mike said.
John and Robert looked at each other. “What was that look?” Ben asked.
“How many of you knew Booger?” Besides John, Robert Cathy and I, only Mrs. Ford’s hand went up.
“Well,” John began. “We didn’t just pick this place because it has beautiful scenery.”
“Okay?” Mike said.
“Booger was a survivalist.” Robert announced.
“Really? What does he have?” Jill asked.
“Everything!” John stated.
“What’s everything?” Mrs. Ford asked.
“Weapons, food, water, probably medical supplies.” John said.
“How many people know that he has this?” Sammie asked.
“He’s been doing this for years.” I said.
“So, what are the chances that more people will come for his stuff?” Sammie asked.
We sighed. She had a point. “Well, let’s sleep on it. Some people can take turns keeping watch for the night. There’s not much else we can do tonight, and even if we could, I doubt that anyone has the energy.” Ben said.
We all agreed. I went to sleep beside the girls. Peanut Butter curled up on Sarah and Mr. Doggleton layed at Jenny’s feet. He growled a couple times in the night but didn’t get up. He was turning out to be quite the watchdog after all. The night was quick and uneventful. I woke to the smell of bacon. Sarah, Megan and Jenny were the only ones left with me in the room. I let them keep sleeping and went downstairs.
“There she is!” Jill announced when I walked into the kitchen. Jill, Cathy and Mrs. Ford were doing various food prep for breakfast.
“The bacon smells so good!” I sighed. “Where is everyone else?”
“Everywhere!” Mrs. Ford said and smiled.
“First, they went to see Booger’s supplies.” Cathy said. “He didn’t have too many medical suppies so John, Robert, Jacob, Ben and Rose went to the school to see what they could find. The others are loading all the supplies that Booger had into the vehicles. There was a lot, but we figure he must have had another storage spot somewhere else since he didn’t have as much as we would have thought.”
“The vehicles?” I asked.
“What?” Cathy asked.
“You said they are loading things up into the vehicles.” I stated
“Oh yeah. Too many people know of this place.” Jill answered. “We can’t take the chance that they will fight us over everything.”
“So, where will we go?” I asked.
“Sammie has a cousin who lives in a house surrounded by fences. It’s in the middle of nowhere. We’re going to go there.” Cathy said.
“Is everyone going?” I asked.
“Gary almost decided not to, but he went to check on his sister and she was dead. He came back to us a short while ago.” Jill replied.
“How long has everyone been awake?” I asked, shocked that I had missed out on so much.
“Many of us barely slept. I’m sure that we will on the drive.” Mrs. Ford stated.
“The drive? How far away is it?” I asked.
“Three hours away. In Northern Maine.” Jill responded.
“Wow! Do we have enough gas to spare?” I asked.
“Plenty.” Mike said coming into the kitchen. “That was one of the things that was stockpiled. How’s breakfast doing? I’m starving.” He gave Jill a kiss.
“Me too!” Nate agreed, following his dad into the kitchen.
“And Mr. Doggleton said that he wants some bacon!” Mary, Sarah’s best friend and Mike and Jill’s daughter, declared.
“I think we can spare some bacon for him!” Cathy announced.
“Aleisha?” Mike started. He nodded his head in the direction of the entryway. I followed him.
“Peanut Butter didn’t make it.” He said quietly.
“What? He looked okay last night.” I sighed.
“Greg woke up this morning and saw Peanut Butter on the floor. He went to pat him and the cat was cold. He brought him in to Rose, but there was nothing she could do. He died a short while ago. Greg is outside making a box for him. He’s taking it really hard with all the losses he has had recently.” Mike replied.
Tears came to my eyes. “I will go talk to him.” I said. “Thank you.” He nodded.
I went out back and found Greg holding a little wooden box. Sammie was talking to him. I walked over to him. “I tried everything that I could.” Greg began as tears fell from his eyes. “There was nothing I could do…” I hugged Greg and told him that just being with Peanut Butter in his last moments was perfect and that I really appreciated him making a box for the cat to be buried.
“I wish that I could have buried my mom.” He said quietly. “I know that she’s in a better place now.” He added. He turned to Sammie. “I need to find a shovel.” He walked off with the box.
“I’m not the most comforting person.” Sammie began. “But, he seems better now than when I first saw him this morning. He really liked the idea o
f making a box for the cat and burying it.”
“Thank you for that.” I responded. She nodded.
“I better get back to packing the cars.” Sammie announced. “It’s a long drive.”
“I think breakfast is just about ready.” I informed her. “Can you tell Gary and Greg?”
“Sure thing.” She said and walked off.
I sighed and went back in the house. The kids were in the living room with Mrs. Ford. All of them were awake now. “Keep playing.” She requested. “I’ll be right back.”
I walked with Mrs. Ford into the hall. “They asked about Peanut Butter and before I could say anything, Nate told them. Sarah cried for a bit, but unfortunately I think they are getting used to death.”
“Breakfast is ready.” We heard Jill call from the other room.
“Yay! Breakfast!” Mary, Nate and Megan cheered and ran into the kitchen. Sarah came over to give me a hug. “I’m glad we got one last night with Peanut Butter.” She mumbled and went into the kitchen. My eyes teared up. My kids had become desensitized to death. In the past, when we had lost a pet, they had cried for hours. Now, it was all around them. Mrs. Ford hugged me and reassured me that everything would soon get better. I composed myself and walked into the kitchen. A feast was on the table. Jill saw the look on my face.
“There’s no refrigeration right now, so we eat it or it goes bad.” She announced.
“Sounds good to me!” Mike said and started making a plate of food. I made plates for the girls and myself and sat down to eat. Gary, Greg and Sammie came in to eat also.
A few minutes into eating, John rushed in. “We need to leave. Now!”
“What’s going on?” Gary asked.
“We narrowly escaped the school. There’s a gang out there that…” Jacob began.
“Wait! A gang of those crazy things?” Mike interrupted.
“No! This isn’t those things. This is regular people. With a lot of guns. There was a teacher at the school who we tried talking into coming with us, but he chose not to. We had just gotten to the back of the school to get into our vehicles when we heard the commotion. We took off out of there.” Robert recounted. He exchanged looks with the others who had been there but they didn’t explain what the looks were for.
“Were you followed?” I asked.
They shrugged. “We took a bunch of turns with our vehicles just in case, but the school isn’t far from here.” Ben stated.
I handed John a plate of food. “We don’t have time.” John argued.
“Eat quickly.” I demanded. “You need your strength.”
Everyone finished eating in less than five minutes. With Greg’s insistence we took an extra minute to bury Peanut Butter in the spot where he had already dug a hole. We all packed into the five vehicles which were now loaded with provisions and left for our three hour drive.
We got about a half hour away with barely any incidents. “I have to go pee!” Megan whined. We all sighed.
“I can’t believe that I forgot to check that before we left.” I mumbled.
“You always have to go to the bathroom!” Sarah complained.
I informed the other cars over the walkie-talkie about the problem.
“I know a place we can stop.” Gary announced from another car. “There’s a place that couples used to go parking when I was a teen that’s only a few minutes away.”
“Lead the way.” Jacob said from his car.
The spot was beautiful. It was a tiny parking lot at the bottom of some hiking trails. We were surrounded by trees. It was so quiet except for the sound of birds singing. If I just closed my eyes, I could almost pretend that it was a normal day and John, Sarah, Megan and I were just there to go hiking. The smell was that of pine trees and all the outdoors smells that I loved.
“I could just stay here!” Sammie sighed. We all agreed. The nice thing was that there was an outhouse on the side of the parking lot so we all took turns using it so we wouldn’t have to make anymore stops. “See!” Megan giggled. “Everyone had to go to the bathroom.” We all laughed.
We heard a rustle in the woods. “Definitely time to go!” I announced. Suddenly a beautiful chocolate lab came limping out of the woods and Mr. Doggleton ran to greet her. The dog’s tail was wagging like crazy. Close behind the dog was an older man. He was also limping. The guys raised their guns.
“Please don’t shoot!” He pleaded, raising his hands in the air. “We were hiking the trail and someone came after us! I maced him and Molly bit him good but he grabbed her leg before I got a chance to mace him. She’s hurt.” He added.
“Looks like you are also.” Robert stated.
“I tripped on a root when we were running away. The guy still tried chasing me even though he had mace in his eyes. I tried calling the police but my phone isn’t working.” He looked around. “My car! It’s gone. Can I borrow your phone?”
“So, how long have you been hiking?” Ben questioned the old man.
“We’ve been camping for a few days and hiking the trails. We hiked to the top of the mountain and were on our way back down when we met up with that guy. I’m not sure what drugs he was on, but there was definitely something wrong with him!” The old man responded.
“So, it was just you and Molly hiking?” Jill asked.
“It’s just me and Molly now. My wife died last year and my son, Max died in a motorcycle accident twenty years ago. Molly and I try to stay in shape.” He patted his stomach and sighed. “I guess that hiking in the woods just isn’t safe anymore like it used to be.”
We all looked at each other. He had no idea! “There’s something that you should know…” John began. He told the older man what was going on.
“Are…are you pulling my leg?” He asked.
“They burned down our house.” Sarah interrupted. “What’s your name? I’m Sarah.”
“Well, hello Sarah. I’m Reginald and that over there is Molly. She seems to like that other dog quite a bit!”
“We’re going up north. You can join us if you want.” Sarah announced.
“Sarah, I’m sure that Reginald already has plans.” John remarked.
“Well, do you think that you can give me a lift to my place? It’s not too far from here, but I have seemed to scraped up and twisted my leg wrong.” Reginald asked.
We agreed and Molly and Reginald climbed in with the Carabiners. We arrived to the place where his house once stood and got out of the car. “No!” We heard Reginald say. “Everything is gone! I don’t understand how this could happen!” He fell to his knees and Molly began to lick his face. Tears ran down his cheeks.
Just then we heard a siren. A cop car was rushing by but slammed on its brakes. An officer got out. He had his gun drawn.
“Don’t shoot!” Cathy called to him.
“Just had to make sure that you were the good guys.” The officer apologized. “Is everybody okay?” Reginald looked up. “Mr. Anderson, I am so sorry about your place. There’s been fires everywhere and not enough manpower to put them out.”
“Well Frank, it’s all I had left. Now it’s just Molly and I.” Reginald sighed.
“You have us.” Megan proclaimed. Reginald looked up.
“That’s right. You do. You’re welcome to join us.” I declared.
“Really? That’s so kind, but I don’t want to slow anyone down.” Reginald said.
“We would be happy to have you join us. Besides, I think that Mr. Doggleton really likes Molly.” Cathy responded. We all laughed.
“Well, thank you. I think that I will take you up on your offer. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything to offer you guys.” Reginald sighed.
“We…” Rose began. She was interrupted by screaming.
“That’s my cue.” Frank the officer groaned. “Get out of here as fast as you can. They’re everywhere around here. I would suggest not making any more stops in this town. It’s too dangerous.” He ran to his car and sped away. We didn’t hesitate! We all piled into the cars and drov
e away. This town seemed too dangerous to visit.
CHAPTER 4
We didn’t make any more stops and in a little over two hours we arrived at our destination. Sammie’s car was in the lead. She went to open the gate.
“Freeze!” We heard someone say. We looked in the direction of the voice and a lady on a horse was there with a shotgun. “Sammie?”
“Angela!” Sammie cheered.
“What are you doing here?” Angela got off her horse and began to open the gate.
“Where else would I go when the apocalypse has arrived?” Sammie asked.
“Mama, what’s the apocalypse?” Megan asked.
Angela looked at us. “You brought friends too?” She asked smiling.
“I did!” Sammie replied.
Angela laughed. “Well, come in quickly. It will be nice to have others to help guard the place and to talk to!”
“Where’s Janet?” Sammie asked Angela.
“We broke up last month. Get with the program girl! I’ll meet you up at the house.” She rode off on her horse.
We drove up the long driveway. Her house was immense. We got out and I walked over to Sammie. “She lives here alone?” I asked.
“Not alone. There’s Mae and April and Friday. There’s Bob and Samuel. A lot of friends. Hopefully the two of them will get along with my friends.” Angela said motioning to the dogs. “Come on in.”
“Friends?” I asked Sammie.
“You’ll see.” Sammie smirked.
We walked into the house and it was gorgeous inside. It was an old farmhouse, but it was in pristine shape. I noticed a fat black cat staring at me on a shelf and a fluffy orange cat on the stairs.
“Oh!” I said. “Friends.”
Mr. Doggleton smelled the cats and they just hugged him. Molly looked at the cats but went to lay down.
“Old girl, you’re sore huh?” Reginald asked Molly and rubbed behind her ears.
“What happened to her?” Angela asked.