Lucky
Page 8
When she was done eating she took her dishes to the bathroom and washed them with some dish soap she had found in the kitchen. She left them on a towel next to the sink to dry. She then took the canned cat food out of the bag and stacked it on the floor under the table. She took a clean bowl and filled it up with the dry cat food and put that and the large plastic canister in the closet so Lucky would have something to eat when she had to be shut in for the day. She refilled Lucky’s water bowl and scooped out the litter box with a metal scoop she had found in the kitchen.
She went back in the bedroom and looked at the bed, she decided she would strip everything off and put clean sheets on. She had put a sheet over the covers that were already on the bed but since she was staying for a while she might as well make the bed cozy. She grabbed the lantern and went to the laundry room with the old bedding and found some replacement sheets and a big thick down comforter that was on the top shelf. The nights were starting to get cold again and she was glad she had noticed the thick heavy comforter.
After making the bed she crawled between the clean sheets and sighed. She was physically tired but she didn’t feel sleepy yet. It was nice to just lay in the bed and chill. Lucky jumped up on the bed and investigated the new comforter. Sam moved her foot to a new position and Lucky pounced on it. She started alternating moving first one foot and then the other, each time Lucky pounced, sometimes doing that cute cat butt wiggle before pouncing. She played with her for a while laughing at her antics. She then called her up to her and Lucky came and laid on her chest while she petted her. She hadn’t felt this safe since she left Fort Jackson.
Sam didn’t want to think about Fort Jackson or Tom and it was late so she gave Lucky one last pet and then rolled over and turned off the lantern, casting the room into pitch black. Pulling the covers up to her neck she buried her head in the pillow to sleep.
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Chapter 7
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12 July 2020 N-day +2
Fort Jackson, SC
All the soldiers fell into the new routine without too many problems. Everyone was stressed and tempers were high, there were a few screaming fights, but nothing physical...yet. Plus, they had too much time on their hands in-between KP and guard duty. They had some cards, dice, and dominoes and one group of soldiers had started a very detailed game of Dungeons and Dragons. Even the Drill Sgts’ tried to keep them busy and they tried to do training, but a lot of the soldiers didn’t want to do it, they said it was useless since they wouldn’t be graduating basic anyway. Since SSgt Fisher was Sam's team leader, she was often around him and she heard him tell Drill Sgt. Davis that they should focus on teaching some of the survival skills that they would need to survive this new hell. After that they started having classes that were a lot more interesting. Covering topics from knot tying, First Aid, Shelter, where to find food, water safety, decontamination, and martial arts training.
Their space was limited but they still did Physical Training (PT) twice a day, well those that wanted to, the Drills didn’t think they could force anyone now. Each of the Team Leaders took turns leading the exercises. Sam liked it best when the Green Berets did it, they didn’t just do the normal push-ups, sit-ups and running in place. They did a much wider variety of exercises including squats and leg lifts and martial arts moves. Even some of the civilians had started doing PT with them. One of the big problems they were starting to have was hygiene, it had only been a couple days but they each only had one set of clothes except for the Green Berets but they didn’t have enough to share with everyone. Also, some of the people weren’t even bothering to wash, saying they didn’t like cold showers and they were starting to get very ripe.
The job that Rebecca had ended up doing with Drill Sgt. Davis was searching the employee lockers and the nutritionist and managers offices. They were looking for anything useful and that is where they found the cards and dominoes. Rebecca had gathered all of the tampons and pads they found and the key for the machine in the bathroom that had feminine supplies in it too. The women were fine in that aspect, but they still needed to wash their bodies and wash their clothes, especially their under clothes.
Two days had passed since N-day, they started calling it that because of the Nerve gas and N-day sounded like “End Day". Sam was carrying her tray to a table to sit next to Rebecca and she had a big glass of sweet tea balanced on the corner of the tray next to her plate of spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread and a salad with blue cheese dressing. When suddenly, a fight broke out between two male soldiers just as she walked by. Her tray was hit by a backward blow of a fist and the tray smashed into her face and knocked her down on the floor with her food and the tea splashing all down her front side. The fight was broken up and the soldiers sent off to some tedious punishment after one of the Green Berets checked them over and determined they didn’t need any first aid. But the same couldn’t be said for Sam. Her uniform was covered in food and she could feel the sweet tea soaking down into her pants and between her legs. There was a large circle of people around her as she lay on the floor dazed. Front and center leaning over her was the Green-eyed beret. Sam reached up and touched her nose, it hurt like hell and didn’t feel right and when she looked at her hand, she saw that it was covered in blood.
She vaguely recalled seeing SSgt Fisher physically pick up one of the soldiers that was fighting and throw him across the room after she was knocked to the floor. She looked him in the face from her position on the floor and said, “Wrong place wrong time, does it look bad?” At least that is what she tried to say.... Fisher didn’t seem to understand her. The Green Beret Medic, SSgt. Timmons was checking her neck and asked her if she hit the back of her head. She said no and then tried to shake her head which turned out to be a horrible mistake because it made her nose hurt more. She moaned in pain and the medic helped her sit up while holding some paper towels in front of her nose to help catch the blood. The medic was asking her questions and she was answering them as best she could but she couldn’t take her eyes off Fisher, he was sitting in front of her and looking her in the eyes with such an intense stare. She heard Timmons say this is going to hurt and she broke eye contact with Fisher and lamented, “Say what?! It already hurts!”
Fisher looked at Timmons and stated, “Let's take her into the office with the couch before you do this, she is going to need to keep her head propped up afterward.”
A little confused and still in shock, Sam tried to stand up but lost her balance and almost fell over on her face. Fisher scooped her up before that could happen and walked off carrying her in his arms like she weighed nothing.
“That was close, don’t need you getting blood all over the place, and your nose is already broken so you don’t want to hit it again!”, he joked.
He sat her down on a leather couch that was in the nutritionist's office. He had her lean back against the cushion and tilt her head back slightly. Fisher sat down next to her and grabbed her hand. She could see that Timmons had followed them in and he was standing in front of her and Drill Sgt. Davis was standing in the doorway.
Sgt Timmons asked Drill Sgt. Davis, “Could you find us some more lights?”, the office was not as bright as the dining room area.
Fisher compassionately said, “Samantha listen closely, your nose is broken, very askew on your face as a matter of fact and we don’t want that pretty face all messed up like this. I want you to hold my hand very tight, you can squeeze it with both hands if you want to. Sgt Timmons needs to set your nose now...before it starts to swell.”
Sam looked at Fisher and then at Timmons and said, “OK.” She knew it was going to hurt like a bitch but didn’t see any choice. Drill Sgt. Davis came back in with several flashlights and set them facing up toward the ceiling. Sgt Timmons was digging around in his medical bag and came out with a glass bottle and a syringe. He started gently wiping her face with what smelt like alcohol and he told her he was going to inject some lidocaine a
round different areas in her nose and face to deaden the area and reduce the pain. He said it was still going to hurt, but this would help to ease some of the pain. He filled the syringe and started injecting it. Timmons kept telling her she was doing a great job and assured her this was not the first nose he had set, then he started lining some scary looking tools up on a white towel on the desk.
The whole time Fisher was still holding her hand. She suddenly realized that he had said she was pretty and called her Samantha and not Spc Dunn. She didn’t even know he knew her first name and she didn’t know his at all. The lidocaine was starting to work and the pain was easing up.
Sam looked at Fisher and said, “Sam, everyone calls me Sam.” but it came out sounding more like “Tham”.
The Green-eyed Beret smirked and responded, “Ok Tham and you can call me Tom.”
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18 December 2020 – Kittens 3 days old
Douglasville, GA
In the morning Sam made another pot of coffee and some of the instant oatmeal. She fed Lucky a can of cat food and checked her dry food and water bowl. The closet was starting to stink again from the dirt litter box. She would have to make another trip over to the cat lady’s house to look for some litter soon but first she wanted to do some things around the house. Sam thought how normal that sounded in this new abnormal world and wondered again how long she could stay here safely.
She thought she should probably check the water again for safety, she remembered that Tom had checked their water every few days, just in case the source had become contaminated, better to be safe than sorry. The water was fine. She filled up a big pot with water and put it on to boil, she wanted to fill the CamelBak up with drinking water.
She checked her boots and they were still a bit damp so she looked over the woman’s shoes in the closet to see if they fit her. There was a pair of Nikes running shoes that looked fairly new, they were a little loose but with an extra pair of socks they fit fine. She went to the kitchen and got some of the medium sized bowls with lids to keep in the room for leftovers. She also took two hot pads from a drawer next to the oven and she saw there was large oval pocket like pad and wondered what it was when she remembered that her grandmother had something similar that she would put over the kettle. Sam realized a kettle would come in handy for heating the water better than a pot and searched the cabinets again looking for the kettle, reasoning that they must have a kettle if they had a cover. Sure enough, in the small cabinet over the stove there was an old-style metal kettle. As she was getting ready to leave the kitchen she noticed the spinning spice rack next to the stove. She hadn’t thought about taking it before because it wasn’t a food item. But now she thought about how nice it would be to season her cooking!
Her cooking table was starting to get over crowded. The vanity table with a single drawer in the middle looked to be the same height as her cooking table, so she cleared all of the make-up and lotions off the top and out of the drawer and dumped them in the bathroom cabinet. There was also a large jewelry box and out of curiosity she looked through it before moving it. The wooden box was full of the standard women's jewelry, most of which was cheap costume jewelry but in one of the larger open compartments she found an old wind up women's watch. She turned the knob on the side of the watch and she could hear a slight tick as the second hand slowly started moving. She really had no idea what time it was but she finished winding the watch and set the hands to 7:30. She would adjust it throughout the day until she was satisfied with the approximate time. It would help her keep track of how much daylight she had left and she was very happy with the find.
She finished clearing the vanity off and moved it to the other wall, placing it between the folding table and corner that was next to the night stand. She looked at the window where she had pulled back the taped up covering so she could have light. She was trying to decide what she could put over the window that she could easily open and close and would block out the light at night. She moved the food and dishes over to the vanity and dumped the small condiment packets and cutlery into the single drawer that had previously been full of make-up. She put the spice rack next to the stove and neatly stacked her pots on the corner of the folding table and placed one of the hot pads down to set her coffee pot on. She made herself another cup of coffee and then put the kettle cover over the coffee pot. Might as well use it to keep the coffee warm!
Lucky had sat on the bed lazily watching Sam as she moved and rearranged everything to her satisfaction. Sam sat down next to her and opened one of the Reese’s packets to eat while she drank her coffee. When she was done, she looked at the watch and it showed 8:05. Lucky got up and stretched and then lazily strolled to the closet and Sam followed her in. Lucky stopped to drink some water and Sam went to the back to look in on the kittens. She gently picked up each kitten giving them a few light strokes, they were growing so round. Sam glanced back at Lucky who was still drinking water and she noticed that she didn’t seem to be gaining back her weight very fast. But with her nursing five kittens she really needed some extra calories. Sam remembered the bags of kitten food and dumped the dry food back into the plastic bin and filled the bowl up with the kitten food. Lucky sniffed it as soon as she sat it down and settled down to nibble on it.
Happy that Lucky was eating she went to look at the front door. She moved the recliner back into the living room and took all of the nails out of the door. She unlocked the doorknob and the dead bolt and started to open the door when she remembered safety first and looked through a small crack before opening it all of the way. She looked around outside and noticed some dark clouds off to the west. She jerked back and almost shut the door when she heard a noise. But she froze and looked up in the tree and realized it was a squirrel. She stood in the door and watched the squirrel for several minutes. She was so excited to see wildlife of any kind.
Going back inside she noticed a small box hanging on the wall just inside the door. The box was hinged and when she opened it, she saw a bunch keys hanging inside. She tried each key in the box, hoping to find one that fit the deadbolt and the doorknob. About halfway through the keys she found a single key on a pink flower key chain that fit both locks. She decided that she didn’t really need to block the front door off. She needed an easier way in and out and since she found the key, she could even lock it behind herself when she went out.
The hinged box hanging on the wall gave her an idea for the bedroom window. She went to the laundry room and searched through the draw that she saw the hinges in and found 8 various hinges. She compared them all and found 4 that were the same size. She took the hinges to the room and left them on the bed while she changed into jeans and boots, putting the gun holster on over the sweat shirt. She grabbed the empty backpack to make it easier to carry any small items she needed and headed out to the shed, taking the long way around from the front door. She knew she would be right back but just to be safe she locked the deadbolt. She looked up in the tree as she was leaving and saw the squirrel was still there. It must have made a nest in the tree.
In the shed she looked around for some smaller plywood boards or other boards that might fit over the inside window like shutters. She had made an approximate measure of the window by using her arms before coming out and she needed two boards that would cover the two windows that were side by side. The plywood boards were too big and she didn’t have a way to cut them easily. She found some thin paneling, behind the plywood, that looked like the boards used on the bedroom wall and she wondered if the family had done some remodeling and added the panels. It was thin paneling but would do fine to block out the light and since it was light weight it wouldn’t put too much pressure on the hinges. She looked for a hand saw but only found electric saws. She was hoping she wouldn’t need to cut them. She got a box of screws and the electric screwdriver and took everything inside the house.
Coming in the front door was easier than crawling through the window but she didn’t like having to come all of the way a
round the house to get inside, she felt more exposed and it took quite a bit of time to check the street and area for any movement. Before going back inside she looked at the sky and saw that the dark clouds were almost upon her. She could tell that the temperature was dropping and she wondered if it was going to freeze. Her watch showed 11:00, she couldn’t really see the sun with all of the clouds but she thought it was probably a bit latter than that so she moved the hand forward 30 min.
She placed everything she brought from the shed on the bed. She would work on that project when she got back from the neighbors. In the closet and found a rain jacket with a hood, put it on then the backpack and grabbed her gloves and gas mask and slipped them on as she was going out the door. She locked the door behind her and crouching down low she ran over to the neighbor’s house. Going in the front door, she barely glanced at the decaying body and headed to the kitchen. Sam had realized that she forgot to check the refrigerator yesterday and wanted to check it quick. She opened the door and was glad she couldn’t smell it. There was partially covered food that was covered in green fuzz and even open cans of cat food sitting on the shelves. Taking a glance in the door she saw a squeeze bottle of grape jelly that still had the seal on it that should still be good so she grabbed it. There was also a big plastic jar of powdered non-dairy creamer, she wasn't even sure why someone would put that in the fridge since it didn’t require refrigeration. She also put that in her bag and then headed toward the back of the house.