Alone

by Jennifer Reynolds

  “If you want we can speak to Raven for you and let her send you the survivors she finds. You are closer to them than we are,” Amber said.

  “That would be fine. How do you think they got so many survivors up there?” Eve asked.

  “Raven never said. You should know that there is something off about them. They are extremely secretive.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I cannot explain it. It isn’t anything bad, I don’t guess. They like their privacy. It seems as if they had found each other right way. They aren’t rude to newcomers. They simply explain that there is already too many of them and they cannot take care of anyone else. I think they’ve formed some strange religious cult. Most people who come here wouldn’t have stayed with them anyway, so they say.”

  “How is the group in Oregon?”

  “They are faring well. There are nearly twenty of them at last count. A set of twins who had been traveling north from California to Washington to see if some of their family was still alive brought the city together. They ran across a coastal town that had been left empty after the earthquake that destroyed California. The town had lacked supplies but it was apparent that someone was trying to rebuild the town before the sickness because the government had installed one of the new hydro-dams that pretty much runs itself. They have power and everything. They decided it was a good place to settle, because of the lack of bodies. Shortly afterwards a group of three traveling south from Canada heard a radio transmission they were sending out and joined them.”

  Eve noticed that she was purposely not telling her the names of the Oregon group. This must be something they had asked her to do.

  “I could never figure out how to do that. I have been attracting people with a signal fire.”

  “I never thought about that. Huh. Chandler and I met in Hyannis. They have a larger hardware store than we have. He knew how to work the radio station, because he had worked as a DJ in college.”

  “How do you have electricity?”

  “Chandler and a few others in town. I’m not sure what they did, but about two years ago, they got the power station going. What about you guys?”

  “I live near one of the new hydro dams as well. So far everything it still working, and we have yet to lose power. Wes and William go up to the plant every so often to check on things, and so far so good.”

  As they talked, Eve found out that the Oregon group had run-ins with a rebel group and had stopped broadcasting their location. It was unsure if the rebel group that had found the Oregon group was the same one that they had saved Claire and Amanda from, but this just made her more determined to close their borders.

  Eve learned that the Nebraska group had also had one birth and one miscarriage. They were sure that it didn’t necessarily matter that both parents were immune, but it seemed to up the chances of survival of the child if they were. The Oregon group had had three successful births and only one still born. The Maine group had no pregnancies that they knew of.

  V – Again

  One day that mid-October, when Eve had gone with William and Wendy to do a little clean up in Kingston, Wes went to Lydia and Vera. He explained to them that he wanted to ask Eve to marry him. He wanted to know about her past relationships, especially her marriage to Kyle. He wasn’t jealous of Doyle or Kyle, he explained, he just wanted to do things differently than they had. He wanted to avoid anything that would remind her of them.

  Eve had told him a great deal about her past, but he knew she withheld things from him. Not that he blamed her. After their excitement died down, Vera and Lydia told him all that they knew about Kyle and Eve’s relationship, which wasn’t much. They knew even less about Doyle. Eve wasn’t the type of person to speak about her personal life, and was even more guarded about her relationships. Afterwards, they gave him their opinion about the situation.

  “I’m not sure now is a good time. I mean I know you love her, and I’m sure she feels the same for you, but this might be too soon,” Lydia said worriedly.

  “Do you agree with her?” Wes asked Vera a little dismayed.

  “Yes and no. I think she loves you, but she’s just too afraid to admit it. If you truly feel that this is something you want to do, then go for it. If she says no, don’t get discouraged, just wait another six months or so and ask again.”

  -----

  A week later, he met Eve at the library. She spent a lot of her extra time, which wasn’t much, there reading or reorganizing the shelves to fit all of the books coming in.

  As the town had begun to fill, Eve had had the bright idea to start collecting the books from homes and stores and shelve them in the library. This wasn’t something that they held in high priority, but Eve took up the task as a way to escape the growing crowd. When the cleanup crews thought about it or when Eve ventured to explore a house for useful things, she would try to collect all of the books she could and bring them to the library to shelve. Sometimes she would have very few books to shelve and other times she would have more boxes than she could count. In an age where digital books were more popular than paperbacks, the number of books she got on any given day surprised her.

  On that night, a crew working the Wal-Mart brought three full boxes. The crew there was stocking shelves and racks with things they found in houses and other stores, stuff that they considered public domain. They were bringing unused clothes, bedding, bath and kitchen supplies, and pretty much anything in good condition that could be useful, so that people didn’t have to go searching the houses or the multitude of stores to find what they needed.

  They understood that it would be a long time before they actually ran out of anything other than food, but it was still something to do, something to occupy time when the gardens didn’t need tending or dead bodies didn’t need to be burned. They didn’t worry as much about the bodies those days as the clean parameter had grown once Eve had help.

  Eve was in the process of reworking the “K” section of the paperback fiction shelves when Wes came in to check on her. He normally gave her about an hour and a half of alone time in here before disturbing her if he needed her, unless it was an emergency.

  This was her town, everyone knew it, and even though she insisted on not being in charge, everyone tended to look to her for advice. She was getting better at giving orders and delegating the town duties, but she felt guilty most of the time, because a few of the townspeople were older than her, and she felt they should be the ones giving the orders, not her.

  “Hey sweetie, how are you doing in here?” Wes asked, coming into the room.

  Eve didn’t jump at the sound of his voice because she had heard him enter the building.

  “It’s going fine. I have a lot of books to go through tonight. Luckily, it is mostly plain fiction and romance. What are you doing here?”

  “I just came to see you. I know this is your alone time, now that you have five women who congregate at the house to scrapbook with you, and I’m sorry to break your peace, but I wanted to see you.”

  “You’re fine. I’m glad you came down to my dungeon. How is Caleb?”

  “He’s fine. Will has him out in the backyard teaching him how to string a fishing pole and how to bait the hook. Will made the mistake of mentioning to Caleb that it was nearly bed time, and Caleb being Caleb sidetracked him by acting interested in the tackle box and lines Will had been working on, which turned the conversation into a how-to lesson, and Caleb’s bedtime was extended at least an hour.”

  Eve laughed at this.

  “William knows it is a trick, yet he gets suckered into it all of the time,” Wes said.

  “I know. I really hope the new baby isn’t a boy because Caleb is going to be so jealous. He and Delia fight over Will as it is. Could you imagine if another boy came into the picture?”

  “God help them. Do you ever think of having a baby?” That hadn’t been a very subtle segue to his topic, but he was nervous.

  “Sometimes, but losing Kyle’s baby was so traumati
zing that I’m not sure I could handle it if it happened a second time. I know that the chances of it having the sickness are very slim if both parents are immune but they are not one hundred percent. We’ve already had two babies die here and the stories coming from other survivors don’t seem promising.” Realizing that she was rambling a bit and talking about having another man’s baby, she quickly shut up and looked at the floor sheepishly.

  Amanda had been pregnant when they found her, but she had not known it. She miscarried a week later. No one was sure if it was from the sickness or from the stress and the trauma she had suffered through. They had kept her on suicide watch for a long time. As long as Claire was near her, she did just fine. Her recovery from the loss of both her husband and baby was slow, but she was getting better.

  “Delia survived all right and we have heard of and seen a number of other babies since the sickness,” he said, breaking the silence.

  “I know, maybe someday when the time is right I might consider it. Come on, we should probably head back to the house,” she said, getting off the floor.

  “Yeah, I guess it is getting pretty late, and we have an early flight tomorrow.” He gave her a quizzical look, but followed her out. She was uncomfortable with the topic of children. He hadn’t thought she would be.

  “Where are you guys headed to now?”

  “Canada, somewhere around Toronto, Ontario.”

  “Why Canada?”

  “Antonio thought it might be a good idea. He is talking about trying Mexico next. None of us are quite ready to go across the pond yet, but we have gone through the U.S. pretty thoroughly. I mean there are still a lot of cities we haven’t been to, but a change of scenery might be nice.”

  “Just be real careful.” This was all she could say but the tone of her voice said so much more. Wes noticed this so he moved in close to her as they walked and put his arm around her.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. For some reason I’ve started to get nervous every time you leave. I get this feeling deep down in my stomach every time I see you off now. I feel like it is going to be the last time I will ever see you. I know it’s stupid, but I cannot shake the feeling. It gets worse and worse the longer we continue to do whatever it is we’re doing.”

  “What do you mean ‘whatever we’re doing?’ In the old world, we called this dating. And we would’ve called this a proposal.”

  Before she had time to register what he had said, he stopped her dead in the middle of the street, got down on one knee, pulled out a little, black box, opened it up in front of her, and proposed.

  -----

  Lydia and Vera were waiting for Eve when she got home from the library. She was so flustered by what had just happened that she didn’t see them sitting in the swing on the front porch. Wes had told Vera what he had planned to do when he left the house earlier that evening. Vera had in turn told Lydia, so both women were sitting on Eve’s front porch waiting for her to come home.

  They had been talking freely amongst themselves about some of their new arrivals, but when Lydia saw Eve coming up the street, toward the house, she put her hands to her lips in a “shushing” jester and they began to whisper to each other. They were unable to judge by Eve’s actions what exactly had happened. She was walking with her head down, not purposely hiding her face from the two women.

  The moment Eve’s feet hit the bottom step Vera asked, “So did you say yes?”

  Eve yelped with surprise at the sound of Vera’s voice. “Huh?” Night had fallen and Eve had to squint in the dark to see the two of them sitting on the porch.

  The women hadn’t purposefully sat down in the dark. When they had come out here to wait on Eve, the day hadn’t set and neither one of them had really noticed how dark it was on the porch to bother turning on the outside light.

  “Did you say yes?” she asked again.

  “No,” Eve replied, coming up the rest of the steps of the porch and sitting down on a wooden bench next to the swing.

  “What? Why not?” Vera was shocked. She was sure Eve loved him. Sure she would say yes.

  “Well, I didn’t exactly say no either. I didn’t say anything. I just sort of ran away. I was surprised and confused.”

  “You did what?” This time it was Lydia’s turn to be shocked.

  “I sort of left him standing back there in the middle of the street. I couldn’t say anything.”

  Lydia shook her head at Eve and said nothing.

  “Don’t you love him?” Vera asked.

  “I think I do. I mean, yes, I do but...”

  “But what?”

  “I don’t know. I’m so confused and scared.”

  “Honey, you need to calm down a bit. Clear your head. Breathe in and out, deeply. Stop your mind from racing.”

  “Do you want to marry him?” Lydia asked.

  “I don’t know. I think so. It is just weird to think about. But I think I do.”

  “Then why did you run away?”

  “I didn’t run exactly. I walked away. Swiftly. In the opposite direction.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m not sure he really wants to marry me.”

  “Why do you think that? He asked, didn’t he?”

  “He did, but…I’m not sure he fully understands the package I come with. Then there is the sex issue. We haven’t slept together, and I’m afraid he’s only asking so I will sleep with him.”

  “Sweetie, you worry too much. Wes completely understands that when he marries you he also gets Caleb. He loves that boy, and the sex issue I’m sure is a non-issue.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Since the boys flew in we have added six new additions to our humble abode, a couple of them single women, women that have had their eyes super-glued to Wes’ ass since the day they got here. He hasn’t given them the slightest bit of anything to lead them on or to make them think that he is interested in any one of them.

  “If all he wanted was sex, sweetie, he could have gotten it. Trust me.”

  “Especially from Claire,” Lydia added. “She has been practically trying to hand ‘IT’ to him on a gold platter.”

  “Now are you ready to go to that boy and accept his proposal?”

  “Yes, I think so.”

  “Don’t think so. Know so.”

  “Okay. Yes, I want to marry him.”

  “Then go to him before I go and tell Claire that you turned him down.”

  Eve glared at her in mock anger and sprinted off the porch.

  ----------

  It was well past sunset when Eve had run from Wes’ question. Now the night was pitch-black. There were no lights on in front of his home. This discouraged Eve a little. Fear that he may have run to Claire’s bed began to creep into her mind. Pushing those thoughts as far back as she could, she decided to go around back to see if his bedroom light was on.

  It wasn’t.

  Standing in the middle of his backyard looking up at his dark window, she was at a loss as to what she should do. They were flying out in the morning, and she didn’t want him leaving without her giving him an answer.

  Amongst her pacing, she spotted the ladder Loui had been using to fix the shingles on the roof that had come off during a bad thunderstorm they had a few weeks back. Carrying the ladder while trying not to make any noise was the hardest thing she had ever tried to do. She set it right underneath his window and climbed onto the roof. His window was locked so she had no choice but to knock on it. After a few seconds, his light turned on. She moved over and sat leaning up against the side of the roof by his window. He didn’t say anything when he saw her. He just climbed out and sat down beside her.

  “I’m sorry I ran away,” Eve began.

  “Don’t be. I completely understand,” he said, taking her hand in his.

  “I got scared.”

  “I understand.”

  “Are you sure you want to do this. I mean I’m trying to raise Caleb. I have a city to
run. I have been married once before. Just because no one has died in a few years doesn’t mean this thing is over. I could get sick tomorrow and…”

  He stopped her rambling by slipping what she would find out later was his grandmother’s wedding ring onto her finger. The three-stone emerald cut ring was beautiful, and Eve could not look up from it. For a second she felt sad, felt like she was betraying Kyle and even Doyle by accepting this ring. She didn’t let that sadness, that feeling of betrayal engulf her, though. Those two were no longer here. Wes was here. He loved her and she loved him.

  “Just say yes and shut up.”

  “Yes.”

  -----

  On November tenth, Wes and Eve were married. Caleb escorted her down the aisle, again, of the local Catholic Cathedral, but this time he did it all by himself. Eve wanted a completely different wedding than the one she had before. This time she had an actual wedding party, with Vera, Lydia, and Wendy as bridesmaids and Loui and Antonio as groomsmen. Everything from her house to the church, the black limo, the reception hall, was decorated in white ribbons, flowers, candles, balloons, and garland.

  William performed the ceremony, while Lydia played a list of songs they had requested on the piano.

  Her gown was fuller, strapless with off white sequins ornamenting the bodice. She chose short, white, straight-line dresses for Vera and Wendy that tied around the middle with an off-white sash. The men wore white tuxedos and the newcomers chose to go with the theme and wear white as well.

  Vera caught her bouquet and Antonio caught the garter. Well actually, Wes pelted him in the head with it when Antonio made a snide comment about bedding the bride before the groom does. Eve caught Vera’s eye right after she caught the flowers. The other woman had been eyeing Loui with hope in her expression.