by Siara Brandt
He looked at Lise over his glass of lemonade. When he left, if she didn’t come with him, he would worry about her. He would worry a lot.
He looked over at Gillie when he realized he had asked him a question.
Gillie repeated his question. “You said this morning that you had a new project?”
“I was thinking we might expand the greenhouse,” Jes said. “Food is just going to become scarcer and scarcer.”
Across the table, Lise couldn’t help note the we.
“People will eventually set up a bartering system,” Jes went on. “But self-reliance will still be the main way to survive. The only thing available is going to be local. Even if you could make it through the cities, there won’t be much there that hasn’t already been grabbed up.”
“Are you sure about that?” Mirin asked as she held her fork poised before her.
“Pretty sure,” Jes answered, looking over at her.
“I wanted to go home,” Mirin piped up as she resumed eating. “To see for myself what was happening there and not rely on other people’s versions of the truth.”
Yes, everyone knew how disappointed Mirin was that they had to be here. Even after what they had encountered on the road, she still believed that they shouldn’t have given up, that there was a better world waiting out there for her.
“Maybe we should have chosen a closer city,” she said thoughtfully and then looked at her brother. “I don’t know why you didn’t think of that yourself, Lin.”
Linwood obviously didn’t want to argue with her so he said nothing and concentrated on his food.
Jes, however, couldn’t help adding his own comment. “Most people have already realized by now that the smart thing to do is to get out of the city.”
“Maybe that was your experience, Mr. Rawlins. It can’t possibly be the same everywhere.”
“It was the same everywhere I went,” he told her.
“Are you sure you’re not exaggerating?”
“Honestly? I’ve dialed back on the gory details.”
“Well, don’t do us any favors, Mr. Rawlins,” Mirin retorted, her lips curving into a barely-concealed, derisive smile. “We’re equipped to handle realities in this family.”
“The reality, as it stands now,” he said. “Is wholesale migration out of the cities, mostly on foot.”
“Isolating oneself from civilization hardly insures safety,” Mirin said with a condescending lift of her chin.
“Apparently you don’t get it yet,” Jes said, not hesitating to meet her challenge. “Every place in this world is far from civilization. What you call civilized society doesn’t exist anymore. There are no schools, no law, no organized structures of any kind, and because of that, it didn’t take people long to begin to die off from starvation and a lack of medical care. They’re still dying. It’s not just the food. Most water supplies in the cities ran dry within days because they require power to pump the water.”
“Had we made it,” Mirin continued to argue. “I’m sure that somewhere we would have found people beginning to re-build. When we try again, I’m certain that- ”
Jes stared back at her in frowning amazement. “I would strongly advise against that. I just came from the city,” he reminded her.
“And?” Mirin prompted peevishly and then scoffed. “I suppose you are about to tell us more horror stories.”
“If it would do any good, I would tell them. By some miracle, if you had somehow made it back home, I’m pretty certain you would all be dead by now.”
Mirin rolled her eyes. “Fear tactics won’t work on me.”
“How about truth tactics? I’m telling you, I’ve just come from there. Cities are death traps.”
“And that fire we had to run from wasn’t?”
“Fires in the city are even more dangerous than they are here.”
“So you say. How do we know anything you’re saying is real?”
“Mirin!” Lise broke in sharply. Was her sister really implying that the man was a liar?
“How’s this for reality?” Jes finally answered Mirin’s question. “The government has collapsed. That means no one is doing anything about the bodies already littering the streets. The rotting bodies. And even if there was anyone left to give a damn, there’s too many of them and nowhere to put them all. Not to mention that anyone brave or stupid enough to try would have to dodge bullets from the gun fights continually being waged in the streets by armed gangs who have taken this as an opportunity to take over entire sections of the cities for themselves.”
“That can’t last. There has to be some kind of relief effort.”
“It’s lasted this long. The truth is that things happened too fast and everyone was too busy trying to save their own asses for there to be any kind of relief effort.”
“Just like you were able to save your own- ass, Mr. Rawlins?”
Lise couldn’t believe Mirin had just said that. She seemed to be purposely goading the man.
“I did do that,” he said grimly. “And it was a fight all the way.”
“Alone?”
“Not alone. We acquired about thirty people along the way.”
“Acquired. So you were part of one of the gangs you were talking about.”
“If you want to consider that most of them were women and children, then sure, we were a gang.”
Mirin didn’t look like she knew how to reply to that. Finally she said, “But you’re alone now. Did any of the others make it out alive?”
“Yeah, we all made it out alive. There are rescue stations, but not in the cities, not successful ones at least.”
“Maybe where you were, but I lived in one of the better neighborhoods and I refuse to believe that there isn’t some kind of organized relief effort somewhere.”
“Yeah, I saw that, too. Relief. Or at least an attempt at it. I saw one particular instance of relief that I can’t forget. Hundreds of terrified people were herded into the university shortly after this all started. It didn’t take long for them to be overrun by the undead and they found themselves trapped inside. A few managed to fight their way out, but only a few. As for the ones who didn’t, you could hear them screaming for help from the windows, begging for someone to come rescue them. By the time we reached them it was too late. We did our best to protect the handful of survivors, some of whom were dragging wounded family members with them. I can’t tell you how many made it out and how many didn’t. Let’s just say there weren’t a lot of survivors.
“And we haven’t faced the worst of it,” he went on. “What’s left of the food supply will continue to dwindle. When winter comes, people will freeze to death. Which means that only the strongest and the most ruthless, or the most prepared, will survive. Because in case you haven’t noticed, we’re not - you’re not - at the top of the food chain anymore. But if you refuse to believe all that reality, then by all means keep believing that the city is your salvation.”
He looked at Mirin thoughtfully for a moment. “So tell me. If you can’t outrun the handful of flesh-eating ghouls out here, what makes you think you would have better luck in the city where there are hordes of them?”
“And just what makes you so sure I can’t outrun them?” she asked.
He looked down and ran a cool, critical gaze over her footwear. “The high heels are a big clue.”
“And what do you think I should be wearing?” she flashed back at him. “Combat boots?”
“It would be a big improvement. You’ll need something more suitable for tomorrow at least.”
“Tomorrow?” she echoed. “What’s happening tomorrow?”
“We’re going on a supply run.”
They ventured out farther than they had ever gone before, searching every house they came to for supplies, once they knew the people who lived there had turned or moved on and would have no need of those things. The first house had been an experience in how to “sweep” a house as Jes called it. Luckily, it had been empty. The next few houses had
been occupied by one or more of the dead, but everyone was fast learning how to deal with them with a minimum of risk to themselves.
A lot of food was spoiled and beyond salvaging. Anything frozen or refrigerated was a total loss. Even still, they soon accumulated a good supply of provisions, along with medical supplies and other necessities. Be that as it may, Lise finally had to face the fact that someone was stealing food from her own pantry. It was just small amounts at a time. Whoever it was probably thought it wouldn’t be noticed. So she was forced to take measures to stop the theft.
“Who’s idea was this?” Mirin demanded to know.
“My idea, Mirin,” Lise answered while she went on arranging and rotating food packages on the shelves. Not only had she put a lock on the pantry, but she kept the key in her pocket at all times.
“And if something happens to you, then what?” Mirin wanted to know. “What are we supposed to do then?”
“If something happens to me, then you have my permission to bust the lock off. Or take the key off my dead body.”
“You realize you’re accusing your own family members of being thieves, you know.”
“Someone has been stealing food, Mirin. It has nothing to do with me accusing anyone. It has all to do with reality.”
“Or you miscounted.”
“I didn’t miscount.”
Bayley walked into the kitchen. “I told you she took the key,” he said to his mother.
“Rationing is the only way we’re going to survive,” Lise said. “We’ve already discussed this. I need to assure that we conserve what we have.”
“We risk all our lives getting what we have,” Bayley said. “Who are you to tell us what we can eat and what we can’t eat?”
“I’m the one who is trying to insure that we continue to have enough food to eat and don’t starve.” She closed the pantry door and locked it. Turning, she said, “I’m not going to argue with either one of you about this. Almost all of the food was mine to begin with, which I have generously shared with all of you.”
The fact that the only one in the house who looked like they hadn’t lost any weight was Bayley wasn’t lost on Lise. Quite the opposite. He actually looked like he was gaining weight. She didn’t have any proof that he was the one taking the food, so she wasn’t ready for an outright accusation, but something had to be done and now she’d done it. Their very survival depended on their food supplies lasting until the crops were ready. The only way to do that was by rationing and, apparently, by keeping it under lock and key.
“With all the work we have been doing, we need to eat more,” Bayley continued to argue.
“Bayles,” Mirin said in a suppressed voice. “We’ll get this straightened out.”
“And what am I supposed to do in the meantime when I’m hungry all the time?” he asked while glaring at Lise.
Vonley walked into the kitchen with a question about how to stake up the tomato plants in the garden where he had been working. Obviously he didn’t know what he was walking into. Bayley was getting angrier by the minute and it was easy to see that Mirin was seething, too.
Mirin had played her part in making Vonley what he was, an insecure, self-doubting man who had been trained to ask permission for everything he did. And while Mirin would never consciously admit it, she found him lacking in comparison to Jes Rawlins, who was the exact opposite of those things. It had turned her into a veritable shrew without her knowing why.
“I’m not sure how I should- ” Vonley said.
Mirin turned on him before he could finish. “Oh, Vonley, just put a stick in the ground and tie them up. What could be so hard about that?”
“I need to know if I should prune them, too,” he said, straightening, half indignant, half angry. “I’ve been reading about the pros and cons of that and wanted to get Lise’s opinion. They are her tomato plants we’re talking about here.”
It was the first time Lise had ever heard Vonley dare to make an attempt to stand up to Mirin. There was a first time for everything, apparently, no matter how enraged Mirin might look at the moment.
“People and zombies aren’t the only things you have to worry about,” Jes told Lise. “We need to rodent-proof all the food storage areas. If mice get into your supplies, they’ll have a field day. Who knows what diseases they can carry these days. We can start by sealing the cracks under the doors and then make absolutely sure there’s no openings or any way anything can get inside. That might mean reinforcing some of the walls. A mouse can fit through an opening the size of a nickle,” he went on as he placed a hand on the pantry door to test it. It brought his body in close proximity to hers. The effect on her was immediate, and completely unexpected. Every nerve in her body instantly came to life.
Lise was determined, however, that the man wouldn’t realize the effect he was having on her. She did that by looking around at the supplies that lined the shelves, taking mental inventory, agreeing about the mice.
As for Jes, he felt like he’d been sucker punched in the gut. The moment he placed his hand on the door frame, instinct took over and his body responded to hers like a wild fire driven by a tornado.
What was that she had just said? Something about mice? He was at a complete loss.
The smart thing to do would be to go back to talking about the mice, but his brain, and his body, seemed to be stuck on a single track. A track that was drawing him straight to her.
“I have better containers,” he heard.
“Uh, containers,” he repeated inanely.
“I have got some stored in the attic.”
Yeah, attic.
He about lost it when her hand reached up and lightly touched his chest. It was barely a touch, but it had all the force of an RPG on impact. It was all he could think about. Every thought of mice or food containers completely evaporated.
Sweet mercy, don’t do that, he was thinking, while another part of his brain was saying, yeah, yeah, touch me all you want.
“You’ve lost another button,” she said. “Bring your shirt to me later and I’ll sew one on for you.”
He couldn’t have answered her if his life depended on it. And he didn’t get a chance to answer her anyway. They came apart abruptly when someone let out a blood-curdling scream.
Chapter 16
“It’s risky,” Kel said.
“We don’t have any choice,” Noby reminded him.
Yeah, Kel already knew that. He puffed out an audible breath. “You’re right. We can’t keep living on the streets like this not knowing where our next meal is coming from. We’ve been lucky so far, but- ” His voice trailed off as he left the thought unspoken. Hell, no one these days wanted to put all their thoughts into words. It was bad enough thinking them. Right now, they were surviving by moving from one place to another and scrounging up whatever food they could find. And that was only on the good days. You couldn’t afford to have too many bad days. Everyone knew that, even if they didn’t say it.
“There might be food in there,” Noby said.
“If someone hasn’t gotten to it first.”
You had to be vigilant at all times, day and night. The undead could be anywhere and it just took a single moment of not being aware for disaster to strike. The constant state of high alert was taking its toll on them. They needed to find a more a more permanent, safer place to stay. Food, of course, along with water, was always a consideration. And soon, keeping from freezing to death in cold weather would be added to their challenges.
At first, Kel had survived by shutting himself down emotionally. It was the only way he could cope with the loss of his wife. But now-
Now he had been through so much with the two kids that his need to isolate was changing. Together, they had come to know the ins and outs of most of the buildings. Which ones were occupied and which ones weren’t, both by the living and the undead. Which ones to avoid. Which ones were relatively safe. They were also learning more about the undead, what they were capable of, and what it took to
kill them. Still, there had been too many close calls lately. Way too many. His need to protect these kids was an instinct, one that ran deep, one that he was certain Luce would have felt, too.
None of them had gotten a vaccine, which was probably why they were all still among the living. If they hadn’t turned by now, Kel figured they would probably stay healthy.
There was one place they hadn’t looked for food or shelter yet. The three of them stared at the school on the other side of the fence. If they could just get past the undead staggering around in the fenced-in playground, they could make it to the doors. The place looked abandoned, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. They had gone into plenty of seemingly-abandoned buildings, and had learned only one thing. You never knew what was inside so you could never let your guard down.
As a joke, someone had written on the sign out front: Zombie pep rally on Saturday. Birds were nesting in the chimney. Kel looked up, watching them swoop undisturbed in and out of the tall brick stack. Nothing moved around the few cars in the parking lot which was overgrown with weeds that had taken hold in the cracks.
“You ready?”
Noby gave the same answer he always gave. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
Two of the undead were inside the yard. Floris threw a heavy glazed flower pot - a blue one - overhand and hit one of them in the head. Then she spun around and ran for her life.
The flower pot didn’t stop the zombie, but it did slow it down. The other one kept coming.
Floris was headed straight for the house. Mirin appeared on the porch at the same time that Floris came crashing up the steps, yelling, “They’re inside!”
