Lucky

by Sage du Toit

  Just then Tom was motioning excitedly to her to come over by the box trailer. She looked at Maria and she had a kind of knowing look on her face. Sam ran over to where Tom was and he said, “You are not going to believe what this is!”

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  20 December 2020 (Continued)

  Douglasville, GA

  After Sam got back with the Cat tree she realized she was starving and glanced at her watch, 1:45 pm. She had wound the watch this morning and that was the last time she had looked at it. She realized she was not being as obsessed about the time anymore. Looking out the window she thought she must be close to the right time. She dumped a bowl of the leftover rice mixture in a pan to heat it up. She was going to add a little bit of water but decided it smelled good as it cooked and she wondered if it would taste like stir-fry. She opted to just drink water with lunch and checked her canteens to make sure they were full.

  She was trying to decide where to put the cat tree, it wouldn’t fit in the closet and once the kittens got big enough she didn’t want to keep them in there anyway. The big bags of cat food were still sitting in the middle of the bedroom floor and she moved them to the closet on the side opposite her clothes. The closet was pretty big for a walk-in closet and three times as long it was wide so there was plenty of room. It was bigger than the one in the Cattery. She sorted out and put away the rest of the cat stuff she had brought over and then opened the mini tent box.

  The tent was blue and she followed the directions and set it up. It looked just like a regular tent! It even had the zip up front door that could be tied back and a ground cover and weather cover for the top. The tent looked just those models in the camping stores or big retail stores that sold camping gear. It also had a very nice fleece covered bed for the bottom. She never had a tent with a cover like that! She took it into the closet and looked in on the kittens and Lucky. The little runt was off by herself again and she picked her up concerned for her. She seemed a little lethargic and Sam started to worry that Lucky might be rejecting her because she was so weak and small. Sam tucked the tiny baby in her sports bra, nestled in that little space between her breasts.

  She moved the Kitten tub out of the corner and put the tent in it’s spot. She took the hot water bottles that were still a little warm and put one under each side of the tent and then started transferring the babies. Lucky jumped out of the tub to see where she was putting the babies and sniffed around the tent, then tentatively climbed inside just as Sam was putting the last one in. Lucky sniffed around the inside and then licked a few of her babies and jumped back out, going to her food bowl. Sam decided to leave the tub with the blanket in the closet for a few days in case Lucky didn’t like the tent, she could move the babies back to the tub.

  Going to the stand that was sitting right outside of the closet she took a can of the KRM, Kitten Replacement Milk, and one of the tiny bottles out of the drawer. She read the directions on the can and considered how she could warm up the milk. She set her smallest pot of water on to heat and poured the milk into the tiny bottle. She decided it wouldn’t hurt to go ahead and pour the milk in the other bottles. She could set them in the window and with this cold they should stay chilled until she needed them. She could see steam coming from the pot so she poured a little into a mug and placed the bottle in to warm up. She checked the bottle after a short time and it felt warm so she shook it up and checked it again on her wrist, it was just right.

  She pulled the kitten out of her shirt and held it up to the light to see if she could tell the gender. It looked like the two openings were close together and if she remembered correctly that meant it was a girl. She would compare it to one of the gray striped ones later. She placed the kitten on her lap and slightly lifted her head and offered her the nipple to the bottle. She seemed confused and tried to rout around and when she opened her mouth to mew, Sam put the nipple inside. She pulled her head back confused and then started mouthing the bottle and soon she was suckling the nipple like a champ.

  Sam let her drink as much as she wanted and when she looked at the markings in the side of the bottle it showed she had drunk 2 ml. She tried to get her to drink more but she just wanted to sleep. Sam checked her watch and put her back in with Lucky and the other kittens, she would feed her again in two hours. As soon as she put her back in Lucky started licking her. Sam was glad to see that Lucky wasn’t pushing her off or ignoring her, but she would continue the feedings until she was catching up to the others. They might bully her around if she didn’t.

  She decided the only place she could put the cat tree was on the wall next to the chest of drawers, it was really the only space available in the room. She opened the box and took out all of the pieces, laying them out on the floor in the order the instructions showed they were needed. Lucky came out of the closet to see what was going on and sniffed around the carpeted poles and then jumped in the big box. Sam rolled her eyes thinking “Typical cat”. Sam took out a pack of Twizzlers to snack on while she put the tree together. It wasn’t too hard but there were a lot of parts. She carefully worked through the instructions, there were 7 total platforms and 12 tubes covered in a pretty blue carpet. There were two hammocks that went off the sides and one underneath the top platform. There was also a cloth tube for them to climb up, a soft cushion for the top and two hanging toys for them to bat around. There was also a ladder up to the middle tier for climbing. As soon as she got the first platform on and was working on the next level Lucky was trying to crawl on the platform and was trying to scratch the side post. She didn’t want to discourage her from using it so she just worked around her.

  It took her over two hours to assemble the whole thing and get the hammocks and toys hung up. She had to use the step ladder to put the top on. The cat tree towered over her head, it had to be over 6’ tall! Lucky was already all over it exploring every inch. She even climbed into one of the hammocks and laid for a minute before jumping down. She seemed to really like it and Sam hoped she didn’t think she could bring her kittens to it. Lucky was heading back to the closet and Sam followed her. She was just eating. Sam gave her some more of the dry kitten food and gently extracted the little runt from the litter of kittens. She mewed and Sam put her in her shirt again while she went to heat up her bottle. She seemed warmer this time, so maybe the tent was warmer, which made since because it had a cover to hold in the warmth. This time the little runt ate 3 ml. She put her back in with the others after feeding and was glad she had spent all of her spare time at Nancy’s. Her mom never minded the extra help and Sam loved helping to feed the little ones that weren’t thriving or just needed some extra milk. She remembered that they always kept a chart of the feedings and the weight of the kittens to make sure they were growing.

  She remembered seeing a food scale on the counter in the kitchen, but it was probably knocked out by the EMP. She checked the scale, putting new batteries in it and it worked. She didn’t understand why some electronics worked and others didn’t. She found a spiral school notebook in the boy’s room and also a pencil. She opened the book and found it was half full of school work and notes in a messy handwriting. She pulled the used pages out and threw them away. She didn’t know what today’s date was. She thought it might be close to December or even later. So she thought back to how old the kittens were. Today was her 5th day here. She thought, that’s all? 5 days? She felt so settled in and at ease, it made it feel longer.

  She was about to write black runt and then decided she should name her, first thing that came to mind was Mew. She was the only kitten she had heard making that sound. She made a chart for feedings:

  Mew, black female runt

  Age | Time | ml | Weight

  5 days |14:00| 2 |

  |16:00| 3 |

  She hated to disturb her again but she wanted to weigh her. She took the scale into the closet and pulled Mew out of the tent where she was asleep. She put a cloth on the scale and zeroed it out and put her on it, 3.5 oz, she wrote it next to the last feeding.
Sam loved making charts and felt oddly satisfied. But Mew was really small and it worried her. She knew she should weight more than that at 5 days. She put Mew back in with the other kittens and checked the tent. It seemed to be maintaining a warmer temperature inside but the Hot water bottles were due to be reheated.

  After she replaced the hot water bottles under the kitten tent and put one in her bed. She warmed leftover rice again and decided Pinto beans for tomorrow night. She put a ½ cup of beans in a pot and realized what a waste of fuel that would be, it would take just a long to cook all the beans as ½ cup. She could divide the leftovers and eat them like she did the rice. So, she poured the whole bag into a big pot and covered them with water and put them on the table for tomorrow. Lucky was laying on the top of the scratching post cleaning herself and she seemed happy to have a spot away from the kittens. Sam changed into the flannel pajamas and crawled into the warm bed.

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  15 July 2020 (Continued)

  Fort Jackson, SC

  Sam was looking at Tom like he must be joking. They had lowered a set of steps that went into the end door of the box trailer and she was following him inside. Maria was behind her and had a pleased look on her face at Sam’s shocked reaction. The trailer was a portable decontamination unit. There were two stages of showering with dirty and clean areas and a small toilet room and changing area with lockers. It had its own diesel-powered generator and on demand water heater with 500 gallon clean and gray water tanks. It was completely self-contained. There were even showers on the outside for running large groups through. Maria explained they had just gotten them in two weeks ago. They had been a special custom order due to a chemical attack that had happened over seas and they were supposed to be sent over there with some troops soon. The tanks were all full, including the fuel. She said the unit could also be hooked up to a water supply and sewer connection if it was going to be stationary for a while. She even pointed out that the units had filtered exhaust fans. Tom looked at her and said them? She nodded and said they had three of them.

  Maria said she needed to go check on something and left them there to look at the trailer. Tom and Sam looked at each other and shrugged and took one last look at the trailer and closed it up. Tom was telling her that he was going to have someone drive the truck with the decontamination trailer over to Dozier hall now so they could set it up there when Maria called them over to the warehouse.

  Rick was coming out of the warehouse with a new pallet on the forklift. There were already a lot of pallets sitting outside and Sam wondered what was in all of them and wondered how they were going to fit all of them on the truck and then get them inside of Dozier Hall. Rick sat the pallet down and Maria pulled out a box cutter and expertly opened the pallet plastic just enough to pull out a box. She showed it to all of them. She said it was a solar powered exhaust fan with a micro particle filter with no back-draft and backup rechargeable battery. They had been ordered the same time as the trailers and could be use anywhere. They could even be used in tents or existing building and could be installed following simple instructions that were in the box.

  Tom asked her to put as many as they could inside of the decontamination trailer and asked Tyrone if he was familiar with the decontamination trailer and how everything worked. Tyrone said he was the one that set it up last week. Tom asked if he could drive the trailer straight to Dozier Hall ASAP. He said Jerry would be thrilled with all of this. Tom took something out of his pocket and handed it to Tyrone and told him to give that to Jerry and tell him that Tom said, “Make it happen”, he would know what it means. Tyrone held the item out in his hand and Sam could see it was an Air Assault coin. Tom also told Maria if there was anything else she could think of that would assist them he would greatly appreciate it and if there was anything at all he could do for her in the future he would gladly do it.

  Sam started up the bus and followed behind Tom who was driving the 2 ½ ton truck. She was a little nervous at first driving the big bus but it proved to be easier than the Motor home. Plus, there wasn’t any traffic to deal with. Per their prearranged plans she pulled the bus up to the front of the mess hall where the other bus had been. They had gotten a large group together before they left and pushed the bus out of the way. Tom took the truck to the back loading dock. Sam jumped out of the bus and ran to the back to lower the tail gate and help Tom back the truck up by giving him hand signals. The truck fit perfectly against the loading dock.

  Everyone at the mess hall had been anxiously waiting since Tom left to go check on them at the Logistics Center. They were all at the window’s cheering when Sam pulled up in the bus. By the time they got the truck backed up to the loading dock the roll-up door was already opening. Sam handed through the eight gas masks they were short on and someone rushed them inside. People were already pouring out already dressed in their gas masks and covered in garbage bags that were taped up and covering their uniforms. They were carrying out boxes and cans and loading up the back of the truck. They had been waiting all morning and were ready to go! Those not loading the truck had already unsealed and opened the front doors and were loading up into the bus. Everything seemed to be going like clockwork. Sam hoped it would stay this way but she had read enough Post-Apocalyptic books to wonder. In what Sam felt was record time everything was loaded, including the kits belong to the people that were out on assignments.

  Waiting for Tom to pull the truck around from the back, Sam watched everyone in the bus in the big rear-view mirror. It was hard to believe that it hadn’t even been a week since N-day. She felt like a lifetime had passed and she knew it wasn’t over yet. They would have to struggle to rebuild once they could go outside again. The preserved foods would only last so long. Tom was coming around the side of the building and Sam put the bus in gear. She had offered to let someone else drive, like one of the Green Berets but they joked and said they didn’t want to have to move the seat back. As she started to pull out everyone on the bus started cheering and saying “hooah”. They were happy to be leaving the mess hall.

  Sam followed Tom to Dozier Hall. The people on the bus were very excited and some of them were talking loud through their gas masks to be heard. It made a kind of funny droning noise, almost like bees. Bees...she wondered if they survived. They hadn’t seen many insects except for roaches of course. And a few flies, but not like what you would expect around a bunch of dead bodies. She was sure the flies would be back in no time at all, and of course the damn mosquitoes.

  They were pulling up to the red brick building of Dozier Hall and she was amazed at what she saw. Tyrone had made it here with the decontamination trailer. Even Austin was already here with the 18-wheeler and somehow, they had also brought one of the forklifts with them. She wondered how they got it on the trailer, but then saw that the back of the trailer had a lift on it that was lowered to the ground.

  Dozier Hall entrance had a Y shaped awning with 2 legs meeting and going into the main building entrance, with one long leg that lead straight to the entrance and the other short leg that came in at 45 degrees to the entrance. The decontamination trailer was backed up next to the short leg entrance. But the most amazing thing was there was a large tent that was connected to the end of the long leg of the entrance, it filled the parking lot all the way to the road. They were unloading the pallets into the tent, making it look like a field warehouse and it looked like the tent was already almost full. Then she noticed another semi with a trailer in the parking lot that was already empty. She wondered who drove that rig.

  Everyone on the bus was quiet as they looked over the scene. Jerry, Paul Vaughn and Miguel Hernandez, who had been soldiers in her squad, and Sara Green had covered the entrance awning with plywood boards. They had wedged the boards under the side of the awning and taped the seams. There were rocks and large stones lined up along the outside edge. She wondered where they got the boards and then she saw a Lowe’s box truck out to the side of the parking lot and thought, ‘What the hell? Where the he
ll did that come from?’ But she could see that the back had more plywood boards in it and other stuff. She couldn’t see the outside of the awning but she had a feeling it was enclosed like a tunnel.

  Tom had stopped his truck in the road by the tent and now he was pulling it up and backing up near the tent for unloading. Sam pulled the bus to the back of the parking lot where it would be out of the way of the trucks. The people in the bus only had a few personal items and they could walk. After everyone was off the bus, Sam was shutting the door when she heard a loud boom that made her jump. She looked back and off to the West there were dark clouds moving in fast and she could see the lighting streak across the sky in the distance. Everyone hurried toward the tent and Sam wondered if maybe they should just stand in the rain to wash off. She wasn’t sure that would work. They were unloading the last pallet and Jerry was getting ready to close the side of the tent up. She ran over to see if he needed help since the wind was starting to pick.

  She saw John over by the truck with Tom helping unload and there was a woman with him in a gas mask and improvised garbage bag suit, she guessed that must be his wife. At least she hoped so, because the woman kept touching him any time she had a chance, like she was making sure he was real.

  They had put the last pallet inside and there was still room for the forklift. She helped Jerry tie down the side of the tent and secure it to the ground cover then there was an inside liner that was rolled down and placed over that and secured to the ground cover on the top side. She could hear the wind picking up outside and headed over to the truck where they were still unloading to see if she could help. She looked around the tent as she went. She was amazed at how fast they must have put this tent up. But then again, many hands make light work, that was one of her Dads favorite sayings. The tent felt secure and it had a lot of light from the lanterns that were hanging everywhere. There were probably two dozen pallets inside and a large stack of items coming from the mess were being stacked on more empty pallets.