Considerable Destruction Series (Book 1): Evasion (

by Hernandez, Erica

  “Yeah!” Then I rub the comfrey salve over his head, face, and throat with Jedaiah’s help. Then I do Reiki, feeling slightly overwhelmed. I rest my hands on his crown to start with, just like with Alex. I finish at the feet, asking the guides to help me draw the toxins down and out of his feet. Please God, guides, allow my hands to be your vessel. Please heal Nickolas. I’m always surprised that it’s so effective. Then I give him the homeopathic remedy that I used on Jonathan. I realize as I finish that Katie’s gone.

  I head back inside with Jedaiah, scrubbing our hands in the little bathroom. “Is daddy died?”

  “Oh, sweetie!” I pick him up, hugging him close. “No. He’s very sick but you saw Jonathan, right?” He nods.

  “He had it too and he’s okay now.” Holding Jedaiah on my hip, I look right in his eyes. “We’re going to do everything we can to make your daddy just as healthy, okay?”

  “Okay.” Jedaiah smiles briefly. “Why mama died?”

  “I’m so sorry we didn’t get there in time to help her.” I kiss his cheek. “There was no one to take care of her and help her get better.” I snuggle him close, whispering, “it’s okay to cry when you need to.”

  Jonathan is putting a fresh dressing on Faith’s wound.

  “How does it look?” Katie asks.

  I set Jedaiah down and he follows me like a shadow.

  Katie’s voice is animated, “It’s really remarkable how good her wound looks. When I first started helping you here, I was humoring you with the comfrey. I figured I’d try it, but these wounds look better than what I’m used to in the hospital. Their color is better and they’re healing faster. I’m really impressed with this salve.”

  “I’m glad you’re seeing what I see.” I tousle Jedaiah’s hair. “The stuff is amazing and it grows like a weed. I wish there was more we could harvest but it all has powdery mildew. If we get desperate for more over the winter, we’ll have to dig for roots. I have quite a bit of salve, though and have a fair amount of dried comfrey.”

  I head into the kitchen. “Have you thought about lunch?”

  “We’ve got it covered. You go ahead.” Dixie shoos me out of the kitchen.

  I head out back once again with Jedaiah’s hand in mine. I see Jonathan and Jessie tying up the goats in Bernadette’s yard. I appraise the molding comfrey, dying back for the winter. “This is one of the medicines we use to help your dad. We make a salve and rub it on his face and neck. We think it helps heal the illness,” I explain to Jedaiah. I browse the garden again, not finding much. I’m heading towards the house as I see Jonathan rolling in a chicken tractor with Jessie gimping beside him. It’s a small, enclosed, portable chicken house with a mesh bottom. “Do you guys need some more muscle on that?”

  “Yeah, come give us a hand,” Jessie urges.

  “Look at the chickens Jedaiah!” I bend down to his level. “How many chickens are there?”

  “One, two, three,..” Jedaiah counts.

  “Two of them are roosters, “ Jessie informs me.

  “That’s fantastic! I hope those roosters are young! Then we can get new chicks to keep us in eggs.” I turn to Jedaiah. “Wouldn’t that be fun? To have baby chicks! Jonathan, maybe we should ask Rob and Jose to extend the chicken yard so there’s room for these guys. We’d need more nesting space. Or maybe we could rotate them?” I brainstorm.

  Jonathan shakes his head. “What do you think Jessie?”

  “We might be able to.” Jessie wrinkles her forehead. “We’ll see if there’re enough supplies.” Jessie looks at our chickens. “Mixing them into your flock might work with the roosters. We’d have to watch the process. How far do you want to go with this?” Then she turns to Jedaiah. “I bet you could help, right? We might need some chicken-sitters!” She laughs.

  “I can help!” Jedaiah proclaims with a smile, but it disappears fast.

  “I bet you miss your mom. It’s okay to cry, sweetheart.” I bend down and touch his cheek, then stand. “Let’s move it all the way into the garden.” We work hard moving it. “There’s a section over there with no plants that we can put it in.” We settle the tractor in the northern section of the garden where it’s been cleared of summer crop and so far, has no plants.

  “Then can you help me with the bunnies?” Jessie looks pointedly at Jonathan. “Would you like to see my bunnies?” She asks Jedaiah.

  “I wanna see the bunnies,” Jedaiah says. “Mama don’t let me have bunnies.”

  “Let’s go see them.” I smile at Jedaiah, noticing a tear in his eye. “Are their hutches easy to move?” I pick Jedaiah up, snuggling him close to me.

  “I want a bunny!” He yells, covering up his pain.

  “There are four of them,” Jessie explains. “They’re movable but they’re kind of heavy. Do you want us to put them in the yard with the goats?” Then she rubs Jedaiah’s back. “Would you like to pick a bunny?”

  “I want all the bunnies!” He’s screaming now.

  I put up a finger in a just-a-minute motion, walking away to our chicken coup, carrying Jedaiah while he throws a tantrum. We have a chair inside the shed part of the chicken coup. I sit, holding him on my lap, hugging him close to me. “It hurts so bad to lose a mom. I know how painful it is. I bet your chest and stomach hurt. I bet you feel weird all over.” I can barely hear myself, but I’m talking right into Jedaiah’s ear so he can hear me. His screams transform to heartbreak. “Maybe you feel heavy.” I pause, thinking about how I feel sometimes. “No one can ever replace your mom. You’ll hurt for a long time, but you won’t hurt all the time. Gracie and Eli’s oldest brother died before you were born and I still hurt sometimes. I’ll miss him forever.” He’s whimpering now, hiccupping, then sobbing, then whimpering some more. “I’m so sorry sweetie.” I gently press his head to my shoulder, rubbing his back in graduating circles. “When you need a mommy figure, I’ll do everything I can. There are lots of people who care about you. None of us will try to replace your mom.” His whimpering gradually abates and he leans back, looking at me with sad eyes.

  “Can I really have a bunny?” He asks.

  “You betcha!” He slides down off my lap, running back to the garden with me behind him.

  “I want a bunny! Which one can I have?” He races right up to Jessie where Jonathan is placing the bunny cages in the vegetable garden.

  “Well, I guess you figured it out! This is exactly what I was going to suggest.” I’m laughing. “When we have baby plants to put there, we can just move them. It’ll be great to have them poop directly in the garden.” I process.

  “I like the floppy bunny!” Jedaiah points to one with floppy ears.

  “Floppy is yours then!” She pokes him gently in the belly and he giggles. “Sounds like a plan,” Jessie says as she and Jonathan head to the gate for the last of the bunnies while I head back inside with Jedaiah.

  “Is he really mine?” He asks.

  “He is. You can help feed him and give him vegetables, okay?” I ask.

  “Oh, goodie!” He’s bouncing across the yard now, yanking a leaf off the kale. He races back offering it to Floppy, who munches it straight out of his hand as giggling erupts.

  “We can get him out sometimes and bring him inside where you can hold him too!”

  “Lunch is just about ready.” Gracie tells us as we walk in.

  “I get a bunny!” Jedaiah tells Gracie.

  “You do?!” She bends down to look him in the eye. “What’s his name?”

  “Floppy!” Jedaiah sticks his hands up by his ears, bent at the knuckles. “He has floppy ears!” He wiggles his fingers like floppy ears.

  People are coming in with the last of the food and medicine. Much of it is going out to be stored in the garage and cellar.

  “Did the canned and dried goods end up in the cellar,” I ask Katie as she comes into the kitchen.

  “Some of this needs to go in here if it will fit. There are milk, eggs, cheese, stuff like that from Nick’s and Jessie’s houses,” Katie ex
plains.

  “The sandwiches are almost done,” Dixie shares, adding tomatoes and lettuce. We work to put things away while Jedaiah dances around telling everyone who will listen about his bunny.

  “We may have to put some upstairs and next door,” I explain to Katie.

  Finally, we’re all at the table eating.

  “With seventeen of us here, we really have to think about whether we all want to sleep in the same house,” Rob lays it out.

  “Is there anyone here that feels comfortable moving into one of the houses next door? They’re both empty. The one to the North has three bedrooms. The one to the South has two,” I explain.

  “They’re both accessible from the back door and the fence goes all the way around the backyards. Rob and I have taken out the sections that divided the yards to create a fence around the front yard,” Jose explains, just joining us.

  “Sam, what do you think?” Rob looks pointedly at her. “If no one else wants to, we could go to one of the houses.”

  Everyone else is noticeably quiet. “It’s okay with me,” Sam finally agrees. “Dixie? Simon? How do you guys feel?”

  “I guess so.” Dixie doesn’t sound convinced. “I’d rather stay here with Gracie, but I guess it’s okay.” The afternoon is spent working on fences, preparing neighboring houses, and canning. The work never ends.

  After dinner and group clean up, Sam, Rob, Simon, and Dixie move to the three-bedroom south house.

  “Goodnight,” I say, hugging them.

  “Don’t think you’re getting rid of me!” Sam jokes.

  “Did you find anything useful when you were cleaning?” I ask her.

  “Some. We got most of it before.” She rubs my shoulder. They head out back with a walkie talkie.

  “I’ll go check Nick, you wanna check Faith?” Jonathan asks. He and Katie head to check on them.

  “Hey, Jon, did you take more medicine?” He stops at the medicine cabinet in the kitchen, nods his thanks at me, and continues on, pill in hand. I follow Katie to the couch. “Faith, can you hear me?” Katie asks.

  Her eyes open. “It hurts.” Her voice is low, raspy.

  “The wound on your leg is pretty deep. I repaired it the best I could and sewed it up. We’ve been putting comfrey on to help it heal. You could have more pain medicine if you want. It might put you back to sleep,” Katie explains

  “Do you want something to drink first?” I ask her. “Tea or juice?”

  “Juice.” I head into the kitchen for the juice. I also make a relaxing lemon lavender mint tea, but I add comfrey to help her and Nick heal from the inside out. I take her some tea in a water bottle along with the juice.

  “Here, Faith.” I say, finding Morgan at my heels.

  “How is she?” she asks.

  “She’s awake and that’s a good sign,” Katie informs Morgan. “The wound looks good, a healthy pink.”

  I leave them to check on Nick in grandma’s old room. “How’s he doing?” Jedaiah is holding my hand.

  “His fever is rising, 104.2,” Jonathan tells me. “I’ve gotten some of that in him.” He waves his hand over the tea, syrup, etc.

  “You don’t let my daddy die, right?” Jedaiah asks.

  “We’re doing everything we can, okay?” Jonathan squats down. “Just like they did for me. Did you know that I used to be as sick as your daddy?”

  Jedaiah nods, then touches Jonathan’s face. “You were that sick?”

  “I was.” Jonathan takes his hand, holding it for a minute.

  “Do you want me to rub him with salve?” I offer.

  “I’ll do it. Could you crush some Seroquel, maybe 100 milligrams in syrup? I want to give it to him before I go to sleep to make sure he doesn’t wake up violent and paranoid at night. How long did it take me to get to that point?”

  “It was well into the next day after your fever was this high,” I assure him.

  “I guess I’d rather play it safe. I’ll be taking some in an hour or so also,” Jonathan says, laying a cool cloth over Nick’s forehead.

  Jedaiah has climbed up on Nick’s bed, his scrub shirt pulled tight by his knees.

  When we head back inside Eli asks in his game show host voice, “Anyone up for a rousing game of Cards Against Humanity?”

  “I’m in,” I say as most of the group funnel into the living room to play. “But let’s get Jedaiah to bed first.” Cards Against Humanity is guaranteed laughs which we all need.

  “I’ll take him,” Nadir offers. “Come with Bubbabosorg.” Nadir scoops him up. “You need a good night’s sleep to hold Floppy tomorrow!” The rest of the gang settle in the front room.

  “What’s my secret power?” Katie introduces the black card.

  The laughter begins, giggles, guffaws, a variety of sounds while the group picks their selections. She tosses some cards right out. “What’s my secret power? Whipping it out!” Hysterical laughter ensues! “What’s my secret power? Estrogen. Cute. An erection that lasts longer than four hours!” More hysterics. “That’s hilarious! That’s the winner. Whose card is that?”

  Alex nods.

  “I should have known!” Katie laughs.

  We play for a couple hours, gaining needed medicine in comedy relief. Inside I’m thanking the gang that made Cards Against Humanity which helps us stay sane in a world with little humor.

  “I’m ready to call it a night. Eli, will you lock up the chickens?” I am grateful for the goat’s milk we had at dinner, at least there’s enough to flavor everyone’s coffee and chai.

  “Yeah, I guess papá can’t.” He’s more mature than before this crisis, something else I’m grateful for.

  Nineteen

  Simon

  Obsession

  I’m not telling a soul I’m a little apprehensive about moving next door, Simon ponders. I’ve got dad on my side, mom and Dixie are strong, ass kicking women. Thank fucking Christ for all the drugs we got at the hospital, making my shoulder pain quiet enough to sleep.

  I’m not sleeping, though, with images of Morgan flitting through my head, Simon thinks, unable to get her hot body out of his head. His urges and their close quarters are irritating him. He’d like to flirt with her in privacy. He’d like to ask her out on a date, but there’s no dating in this world! They can’t do anything without the risk of crazies. This world is nuts, fucking nuts, he laments.

  Not sleeping, he gets up and goes to the front window. It’s pitch, black outside with no streetlights nor moon. He wonders of the street lights are all out. After a while, his eyes adjust to the darkness and he notices movement across the street. He’s guessing it’s Bud, waking from his drug induced slumber with increasing restlessness. Bud paces around the yard, stabbing at the bushes as if he’s angry at them. He’s not crossing the street so Simon loses interest. He thinks it’s fucking bullshit that the doctors couldn’t have just medicated all those recuperating from the flu. There wouldn’t be crazies all over town. From what Jessie said, it sounded like there weren’t enough doctors to handle the need.

  Twenty

  Eliana

  Ominous

  I wake up with a strange ache inside, making me aware, as I meditate, that I miss having someone to snuggle with. Gracie sleeps with me but she rarely snuggles. I visualize a world of safety around our community, lush, productive, gardens with enough food all year round. I imagine skills emerging, enabling us to thrive despite the Mortiferum Virus. I offer up to the spirit world many things that I am grateful for. Then I lay quietly opening myself up to listen to the spirit world, getting a strange vision of a crown with darkness around it. I feel anxious in my chest as there is something ominous in the vision. I ask for more clues and offer to stay open to more guidance, but nothing comes. I try to clear my mind, shaking off the dark feeling through yoga.

  “Good morning,” I greet the group. “Good morning cutie pie!” Jedaiah runs at me, grabbing my legs.

  “Buenas.” Jose greets me with a chorus of others’ good mornings.

&n
bsp; Morgan adds, “I collected eggs and Jessie showed me how to milk the goat!”

  “That’s so cool Morgan, thank you!” I take Jedaiah’s hand, leading him to the kitchen. “Katie, have you checked Faith’s leg?”

  “Yes.” She turns from the table. “It’s not bad looking. Not great though. She’s awake. I think she’d like to try to come to the table but she needs help changing her clothes.”

  “I can help,” Both Morgan and I say together. We head back into Gracie’s room.

  “Can you guys help me change?” Faith sounds weak but at least she’s awake.

  “Sure.” Morgan picks up Faith’s bag. We help her put on some loose, fitting pajamas, rather than her skinny jeans. Her leg around the bandage looks a little angry to me as Katie indicated.

  “I miss my mom and dad!” Faith wails and tears streak down her cheeks.

  “I do, too!” Morgan agrees. “And my sister. I wonder where she is, or if she’s dead?” They’re hugging and crying.

  I sit down next to them, wrapping my arms around them both. “Loss is heart wrenching. My son died ten years ago and it still hurts.” I rub their backs as my chest aches. “I hope you’ll both take time to draw or write, or weed out grief.” Faith looks at me with sad eyes.

  Jedaiah joins the hug, snuggling in, beginning to cry.

  Eventually, they all wipe their eyes. “Are you ready to join the group?” I ask Faith. She nods and we help her move to the couch. Jedaiah holds my pajama pants. Jessie is awake and makes room for her.

  “How are you feeling?” Jessie asks.

  “I can’t tolerate any weight on my leg, but I’ve had enough sleep.” She sounds less sarcastic. “I don’t really want to be isolated. I’d rather be here.”