Andrea opened the door to the van to put their bags in. Eve glanced inside and saw that someone had thought to bring a car seat. She felt stupid because she hadn’t thought about needing one. Caleb had been in a vehicle only about a handful of times in his life, which meant that she hadn’t gotten into the habit of using one.
Ty had gone around to the back of the van and Kyle and Ella followed.
“What are they doing?” Eve asked Andrea as she began to follow them.
“Putting on their gear.”
Kyle came back around carrying a hunter-green duffle bag with Eve and Caleb’s name handwritten on it in black sharpie. “You will want to put this on over your clothes,” he informed her.
Eve opened the bag to find a pair of dark green coveralls, black boots, and gloves. After the clothes, she pulled out something that she was sure was an oxygen mask.
“You won’t need that. At least not right now,” Kyle told her, coming back from behind the van, again, zipping up his own suit.
She understood his meaning. She wouldn’t need it until Caleb passed away.
“There should be some things in there for little man, also.” Kyle nodded at the bag while Eve put aside the mask and pulled out a cute little hunter-green onesie.
“I thought he might like to be dressed like the rest of us,” he said, leaning against the van.
“Is it really so bad out there that we have to wear this,” she asked, lying the onesie back down in the bag and picking up the mask and her coveralls.
“Some days are worse than others. Hopefully yours will never be that bad. All right people, hurry up.” He turned and walked back to the rest of the group who were almost ready.
Eve hurried her coveralls on and changed Caleb. With the extra clothing on, she quickly began to sweat despite the cool air of the morning. It was April in the south, which meant as the day progressed it was going to get too hot to wear the outfit.
Eve had just finished tying up her boots when Kyle grabbed his clipboard and said, “Everyone gather around.”
He geared the statement toward the group though he meant it for Eve because she was the one lagging behind, but he wanted to avoid embarrassing her on her first day. She knew she was the one holding them up, and she knew that everyone else knew. She was thankful that they didn’t verbally point it out with so many other groups still lingering in the deck.
“It looks like we will be in town today. This is a repeat mission, so it should be an easy day. Who wants the truck?”
Ty and Ella raised their hands.
“Of course. Here is our location. We will follow you.”
On their way out of the parking deck, they dropped Ty and Ella off at their assigned truck. Kyle informed them, as the other man climbed in the vehicle that he had to stop at a gas station before they got going.
Five minutes later, while Kyle was pumping gas, Andrea told Eve that if they took anything from any of the stores, they had to log the items down on a form.
“Why? The owners are all gone. Most places have already been ransacked by looters.” Eve pointed at the near-empty racks the two passed by as they were wandering the isles of the gas station.
“Looters have mostly taken the beer and cigarettes. The military wants it all written down to keep up appearances. They claim to still believe that once this thing stops killing people the world will start moving all over again just as it used to. They claim to want to know how much to compensate the companies for what we take.”
Not finding anything worth taking, they went back to the van.
“Do they realize that the American dollar no longer has any value? Neither does any other currency in the world? And that the owners of these businesses are dead,” Eve said rhetorically.
“I guess not,” Andrea agreed, climbing into the truck.
“They know,” Kyle said as they walked by him. “They are just saying things like that to keep some kind of normality going on around here. If they act as if everything is normal then the average everyday American idiot will believe it is and not lose their damn minds. This world is never going to be what we would call normal ever again. Eventually we are all going to die from this thing, so all we are doing now is trying to keep ourselves occupied until that time comes.”
“The nozzle clicked,” Andrea said pointedly to Kyle, stopping the conversation there. She didn’t want to go down that depressing path.
“Explain to me exactly what it is we are doing and why we are doing it,” Eve said, changing the subject for her.
“We do it for a number of reasons. One, summer is coming. Imagine what this place will smell like in the coming months with all those bodies rotting in the heat. Two, there are the diseases those rotting bodies are going to cause. Three, how can our government pretend everything is all right if everywhere people look they see dead bodies?”
“What do they say about the fact that everywhere we look there is nothing and no one?” Eve asked.
Andrea shrugged her shoulders.
“Okay. Then what are we doing?”
“Today we are on a repeat mission,” Kyle said. “That means that the section of town we are working in has already been covered once.”
“Then why do it again?”
“People hide. People wander around,” Kyle said, getting back into the truck. “People come looking for lost family members.
“We may go through this neighborhood and find nothing but then again we may find a house full of bodies. A house full of people who have come looking for family and who have died before they could move on.
“Andrea, I need you to put down Texaco number 36 at twenty gallons of unleaded.”
Eve watched as Andrea flipped through the clipboard propped in her lap to a page titled expenses. “We turn this in at the end of every week. They send it off to someone else,” she said, answering Eve’s quizzical gaze.
“So they claim. I bet those forms are piling up on a desk somewhere, because there is no one to send them to,” Kyle interrupted.
“I can believe that. I have a good idea as to what purpose the garbage trucks hold but why don’t you explain it to me.”
“They carry the bodies. They probably won’t do much for us today, but on regular missions, we pile the bodies in them, take them over to Jackson to the dump, and burn them. Don’t worry though you won’t be doing any of that. Not with Caleb.”
After that, they drove for about fifteen minutes, talking about anything but the job. The neighborhood they were assigned was nice and new. They parked on the side of the road in front of a white two-story home. Ty didn’t bother parking the truck on the side of the road. He just stopped his big monstrosity in the middle of the street.
“It’s almost eight. This neighborhood should be full of screaming parents rushing to get their griping children off to school.” Eve said this mostly to herself, as she looked up and down the empty street.
“A bit creepy isn’t? Unfortunately you never get used to it,” Ella said, coming up beside Eve, sharing her sad traumatized look.
“Okay, people, we are splitting into two groups. First group takes the inside, second takes the outside. Eve and Caleb are automatically on the outside group. What do the rest of you want?” Kyle asked.
“I’ll take inside,” Ty announced half-raising his hand while walking toward the house. Ella said the same and followed him.
“I’ll go with them. Inside is a harder job. The more people the easier it is,” Andrea volunteered.
“That’s fine. Just remember to check every room, every closet. Don’t shut off the power until you leave, if it’s still on.”
“We know the drill, Captain,” Ty hollered back, mock-saluting him.
“Why turn the power off?” Eve asked a little confused.
“To conserve electricity. To cut down on all of the fires we’ve been having. People don’t exactly turn off their stoves, televisions, curling irons, and the other thousand and one things plugged into their wall sockets as they suddenly
drop dead.
“Also, there is no one working up at the new hydro power plant. So the less the turbines have to work to produce electricity the less likely a problem will develop.”
“I see.” Eve strapped Caleb into the carrier and the carrier to her chest, facing him away from her so he could see the world.
“I guess it is just the three of us then. The first thing we do is check the street, make sure it is clear of any vehicles. Since this is a repeat mission, there will probably be no cars…and there isn’t,” Kyle said, looking up toward the other end of the street.
“The next thing we do is start walking the grounds. Sometimes there are bodies right out in the open. Other times, they are hidden behind bushes, trees, under porches where wild animals have dragged them off. We also check garages, storage buildings any place a person may have holed up to die.”
“What do we do if we find a body?”
“Check it for identification. Bag it and dump it in the back of the truck. The IDs go back to the office where they are kept for filing. If they don’t have an ID we log in their description and where we found them in hopes of later identifying them.”
“There is no one left to identify them,” Eve muttered, more to herself than to Kyle.
“I know it. They know it. But we still do it.”
They searched everywhere. Inside cars, garages, sheds, pool houses. They covered quite a few blocks but never found a thing. Kyle and Eve talked while they searched. Eve asked about the relationship between Ty and Ella. He told her that about a month ago, before the town had really emptied, Ty had been trying to escape a group of people who thought he had stolen something of theirs.
“Ty swears he didn’t take anything. He says he was walking passed their house in a daze because he had just found his mother dead. It was dark. The night is when all the crazies seem to come out.
“Anyway, he broke into Ella’s house through the back door to hide from the people. He assumed the house was empty. She almost blew his head off. He said it took nearly a half an hour to convince her that he wasn’t going to hurt her. They spent the whole night hiding in the attic because those guys kept searching and researching the neighborhood for him. The next morning, Ty convinced her to come with him, told her he would protect her. After that they’ve been inseparable.”
The more they walked, the hotter she got in the coveralls. Finally she stopped in the middle of a backyard, took Caleb off her back where she had shifted him an hour earlier, unzipped herself down to her waist, then tied the arms around her middle.
“Sorry, but it is too hot for this thing. I understand why we have to wear them, but we have been at this for three hours and we haven’t found a single dead thing.”
“It’s all right. Let’s rest for a minute and cool off.”
They rested in the shade of someone’s back porch. Kyle pulled out three bottles of water and he poured one into a baby bottle as she laid out a blanket for Caleb to lie on for a bit.
“Next time I think I’m going to bring a stroller. He is getting too heavy to carry around like that for so long. Do you think anyone will mind if I break into to the Wal-Mart and take one?” Eve asked.
“I don’t think anyone will ever notice. If you want I can take you by there after work.”
“That would be great. Thank you.”
Their break lasted about thirty minutes. Just long enough for Caleb to cool off, eat, and get a diaper change.
“Do you want me to carry him for a while?” he asked, helping her pack away their things.
“No, that’s all right. He’s my responsibility.”
“I really don’t mind. It’ll give you a little break.”
“I really doubt he’ll let you. He isn’t used to having anyone around but me. He barely lets Andrea play with him while I’m holding him and she spent the whole night with us.”
Kyle begged a little, so she handed the baby off. Caleb was fine for about two seconds then he screamed and screamed and screamed. Eve took him back and he instantly shut up.
“He isn’t spoiled, I promise. He’s just not comfortable with you because he hasn’t been around many people.”
Once they got back to work, Eve asked about the grouping system. She wanted to know if they would be in the same group every day.
“Yeah, pretty much. With this kind of work, it is good to be familiar with the people you work with. In case someone new comes along, you will know that they aren’t part of your group. We have had people kidnapped and killed by someone not in the group. There are crazy people running around in the daylight, not just at night.”
“Am I the reason we are doing a repeat mission?”
“Yes and no. I’ve been doing this job longer than most, so I usually get to pick the kind of missions and sections my group goes into. Repeat missions help newcomers get into the swing of things and help those of us who have been here awhile get a break from the horrors we usually encounter.”
“Are we just looking for humans?”
“No, we are also supposed to clean up all the dead dogs, cats, birds, gerbils, fish, you name it. One of my roommates was working out on one of the farms outside of town and said they found all kinds of dead animals. They set up a big bonfire right in the middle of the pasture and burned them all there instead of carrying them over to Jackson to the dump. He said there wasn’t a single animal alive in the whole place.”
Kyle and Eve were just rounding the street corner about a block up from where they had parked earlier in the day when they saw the others in their group carrying a body in a black garbage bag out of a house. No one said anything about it when the two got to them. Ty came up to Kyle as they were walking back to the van, handed him something, told him they had found two bodies, and walked away. No one said anything else about it.
“Kyle, what color do we spray the door on a repeat mission?” Andrea asked.
“It depends on how many times the section has been done. How many Xs are there on the front door?”
“Just the red one we put on when we first checked the house.”
“Then spray a blue one on the door right below the red. We mark the doors in case we don’t finish a section that way we will know what was done the day before. If the section is done again, we spray a different color to indicate that it has been checked again,” he informed Eve.
Eve hadn’t asked for the information, but he gave it to her anyway. Most of this stuff was obvious, she thought, but was still grateful that he took the time to explain it all.
-----
The group was back at the courthouse, or base as they call it, earlier than any of the other groups, but they hadn’t dumped the two bodies they had found. Kyle took their reports for the day to one of the officers. Andrea told her that they might assign them a new section if they think they have time to start another one. Secretly, they were all praying they would release them for the day. When Kyle came back, he was still clenching a clipboard, something Eve took as a bad sign.
“Where’re we off to now, boss?” Ty asked. He and Ella had gotten out of the truck and were standing by the van talking to Eve and Andrea.
“Elm Street. About five minutes from here.”
“What are we doing on Elm?”
“Searching for someone. Three of our people didn’t show up today. Two of them live in the same house and the other one lives about three blocks over on King Street. Oh Eve, they told me that you could go home if you want. There isn’t much to do on this trip.”
“Nah, Caleb and I can stay with you guys if no one minds.” No one openly objected.
“Fine by me. Ty follow in the truck; we may need it.”
They found all three of the missing people still alive, but just barely. A wasp had stung one guy, and the whole left side of his body was swollen and taut. He looked as if he were going to pop, spewing blood and puss everywhere. They didn’t put him in the van or the truck, but in a car parked in front of the house. Kyle and Ty carried the bee sting guy’s room
mate out of the house a few minutes later. He looked fine from a distance but Andrea told Eve later that his eyes were infected, swollen shut, and bleeding.
The group picked up the third guy fifteen minutes later. He had stayed home with a summer cold that at that moment hadn’t seemed all that bad. Secretly they all knew that it was going to be fatal just as the other two guys’ problems were.
“Where’re we taking them?” Eve asked Andrea who was now behind the wheel of the van because Kyle was the one driving the car that the sick men were in.
“Back to the courthouse, the Military has set up an infirmary of sorts to take care of any of the sick people we find. That makes it easier to keep up with the dead.”
“Hey, Andrea, Ella and I are going to head on over to Jackson to drop off our load,” Ty announced.
“That’s fine. We’ll be heading back to base as soon as Kyle is ready. See you guys in the morning. God willing.”
Upon their arrival at the courthouse, four officers who helped carry the men inside met them. The day was still early when they got there and no other group had come back yet. Andrea dropped Eve and Caleb off in front of Kyle’s car while she went to park the van. Eve was holding Caleb so that he was standing on a blanket on the back of the car when Kyle came back out.
“Did Ty and Ella go on to Jackson?” he asked, looking around for the truck.
“Yeah, and Andrea is parking the van. I went ahead and put the car seat in the car, but I know Caleb is probably tired of being confined so I thought we would wait out here.”
“Do you still want to go and get a stroller?”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind.”
“No, it is fine. Ah. Here comes Andrea now.”
At the Wal-Mart some ten minutes later, Eve picked out a stroller, grabbed a few packs of diapers, baby food, and some other things she needed for Caleb, then they went back to her house for supper. Kyle offered to come by a little after six the next morning to pick them up for work.
“If I’m not here by six-thirty, then I’m not coming so go on without me. Drive, don’t walk,” he ordered them.
Alone Page 8
