The Dead Divide Us

by Vincent S. Tobia

  “There was no doubt that she was the better sibling of the house. She was so incredibly talented! There was nothing she couldn’t do naturally. Music, art, math, any type of school work. In just three months she learned to play the guitar better than I could after three years of lessons. I still can’t form a C-chord!” Paul said.

  Ruth giggled a little.

  “She was special Paul.” Ruth added.

  “Yes, she was.” Paul said. Again, they fell silent; both of them were thinking of the same thing. Their thoughts were on the unjust and untimely fatal sickness that befell Felicia Landry. Maybe somewhere deep inside Paul’s mind was a little voice that always told him to run away; to get as far away from the painful memories of home and that of the untimely demise of Felicia Landry.

  What are we but only animals that were meant to suffer? Thus is the endgame of all God’s creatures and Nature’s wonders. Suffer, and then die.

  “Mommy, Daddy are you okay?” Little Shawn Landry said from the doorway. His older brother Eddie was standing behind him. Both of them were holding their school backpacks; overloaded with clothing and toys. Paul had given them a limit to two toys each.

  “We’re fine honey, come here let me look at what you packed.” Ruth said to her young boy Shawn.

  “It looked like you were crying.” Shawn said, as he rushed over to Ruth and handed her his WWE themed backpack. Eddie followed and gave his green Jansport backpack to his dad.

  “Shut up Shawn.” Eddie barked out, trying to put his little brother in his place.

  “Hey! Mom, he just told me to shut up!” Shawn cried out, looking for a little parental justice.

  Paul shot Eddie a disapproving glance, took the backpack and looked inside.

  “Eddie, you know better than to pick on your brother. At a time like this no less. Jeeze, Eds. You didn’t pack too much clothing, and you forgot to throw in any toys. I told you both you could pick two toys to bring along as long as they fit in.” Paul said, confused.

  “I didn’t pack any toys. I’m keeping room in my backpack for serious stuff.” Eddie said.

  Paul frowned and Ruth followed suit. Eddie was still only 8 years old; but had this day changed him that much? No toys, for an 8 year old?

  “How long are we going to be staying at the cabin?” Shawn asked, with deep innocence.

  “We aren’t sure Shawn, it might be a while.” Ruth said to her son, stroking his hair back.

  “Your mom is right; we could be up in the mountains for a very long time. Between our house and Roy’s we are bringing along quite a bit of canned foods. Plus Roy is an excellent hunter. But we will be together, that’s what matters.” Paul said.

  Shawn looked down at his feet, his eyes were wide and his brow suggested that he was thinking hard.

  “Mommy, can I think of this as like going on a trip? Like a vacation?” Shawn asked; his innocence was now blinding both Ruth and Paul. Shawn didn’t know any better than to think of things that way.

  “Don’t be stupid. We are doing this to survive.” Eddie barked at Shawn.

  Paul and Ruth stood up from the bed, visibly angry at Eddie.

  “Mom!” Shawn yelled out.

  “Eddie, take it easy on your brother for Christ’s sake! You should know better, I already told you that.” Paul sternly told his son.

  Ruth turned around and snapped the lid closed on the large suitcase.

  “We need to sneak our things over to Roy’s garage.” Ruth said.

  Paul walked over to the open closet and started reaching around on the top rack, sifting through clothing and old shoes.

  “That won’t be a problem; we’ll take our packed bags and bring them over to Roy’s through the backyard. No one will see us.” Paul said with confidence.

  Then Paul found what he was looking for. He brought down his 9 mm pistol from the closet. He reached around again and found a full box of ammunition.

  “I almost forgot about that.” Ruth said, sighing and uneasy. Eddie and Shawn both looked at the gun with striking amazement.

  “You want to throw that in the suitcase?” Ruth added.

  Paul clicked loose the gun clip and filled it with bullets from the ammo box, then slid the clip back into place.

  Fully loaded now. Ready for war. Fully loaded now. Ready for more.

  Paul tossed the ammo box to Ruth.

  “You can pack that away, I’m keeping the gun on me.”

  While definitely making sure the safety was clicked on, Paul tucked the pistol into the waist band of his blue jeans.

  2

  Paul was right.

  They had no problem getting their few packed bags and belongings over to the Benton’s house. One large suitcase filled with Paul and Ruth’s extra clothing and a very healthy amount of canned fruits and vegetables, two backpacks filled with Eddie and Shawn’s extra clothing along with a few toys and more canned goods. Paul had made sure they literally cleaned out their entire kitchen. Ruth cried at the sight of bare cupboards, her home and her kitchen looked ravaged and raped. When the last of their belongings had made its way over to Roy’s garage, Ruth asked Paul if they should lock up their house. Paul told his wife “Yes”, citing reasons about thieves and looters. They even armed their Briggs home security system; even though Paul knew that arming the system was frivolous.

  Roy Benton had met them immediately in his own garage. The Benton family’s second vehicle was a 2011 Honda Odyssey. Other than using the van for the obvious routine and mundane chores of the modern workweek, the large van was bought in hopes of taking the crew on weekends trips to the city, perhaps catching an early Saturday evening Seattle Mariners game. Both Roy and Paul never imagined they’d be literally running to the hills in the Japanese made family van.

  The back of the Odyssey was now stacked high with bags and boxes. Roy wouldn’t be able to see out of the back through the rearview mirror while driving, but that wasn’t a problem they could afford to pay any attention to.

  Roy had found two and a half cases of bottled water in his basement, unused from last month’s Christmas party. They were stacked neatly on top of the pile of their survival belongings.

  “Wow, you found some bottled water.” Paul said.

  “Yeah, I figure we’ll use the clean bottled water until we scout out the freshwater streams up in the mountains. We’ll have to make sure that nothing died upstream from where we’ll be taking water.” Roy said. This struck Paul as an amazing thought; he never even considered that drinking water would be a problem. Roy knew his shit; that was for sure.

  Paul stood by his family, Ruth, Shawn and Eddie. Kirsten and Alexis then came through the garage door and joined them.

  “Well, here we are. Are we ready to try and hit the road?” Kirsten asked. She looked awfully pale and sick. Ruth could tell that they were both struggling with the thought of forever leaving their home.

  “I wouldn’t feel safe heading out now, Paul and I need to head down to Gus’s Hardware and pick up some things. Gus has my order of ammunition rounds. We will need those.” Roy said.

  “Are your guns packed in the back of the van too?” Paul asked "I didn't see them back there."

  “No, I’ve got them in their cases under the middle seats. Shotgun and hunting rifle. My pistol is on me now. You got yours?” Roy asked.

  Paul lifted his shirt and showed Roy his pistol.

  “My daddy made sure to put the safety on!” Shawn said out loud, proudly.

  Roy laughed a little.

  “That’s a good thing Shawn; you always have to keep the safety on. We don’t need your dad shooting himself in the foot.” Roy said. Shawn was the only one inside the garage who laughed. The cold gray cement inside the Benton’s garage gave off a sterile smell, it made everything seem much more depressing that it already was. Ruth was so very sick to her stomach.

  “Come on Paul, we’ll take the Nissan. It’s still parked out front.” Roy said.

  “I want to go with!” Shawn said, eagerly.
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br />   “No honey you are going to stay here with us.” Ruth said.

  Roy looked at Shawn and back up to Paul.

  “Wait a minute. Maybe Shawn and Eddie should ride along with us.” Roy said.

  “Yes!” Shawn exclaimed.

  “Why?” Paul had to ask.

  “Warren and Glen are still guarding this neighborhood; we’re going to have to tell them we are just going out for supplies to use here at our homes. Sheriff Baxter might give us trouble too. If we bring your boys along, it won’t seem to be anything suspicious. They‘re presence would give us an innocent image.”

  Roy was fucking smart.

  “Yeah Sheriff Baxter and Mayor Schacht don’t want you leaving Roy.” Ruth added.

  “True and I bet Stan Hadley will question us too. I think he knows we are up to something. He was looking at our house a little while ago. He’s one weird guy.” Paul said.

  “Yeah I never liked him.” Roy said.

  “Let’s go guys.” Paul said and then headed out of the garage behind Roy with his two sons.

  “We won’t be long at all. Go through our house and make sure we can’t use anything else, do a dummy check.” Roy asked his wife Kirsten. Roy then pulled out his pistol and handed it to her.

  “You won’t need to use this, but you know how to in case something happens.” Roy said.

  “We’ll be fine. Just be careful, please.” Kirsten said.

  “Be back soon. Lock the doors when you go inside.” Roy said.

  3

  Roy and Paul had no problem giving Warren Blakely the slip. As they slowly drove out of Roy’s driveway, Warren had approached them with his rifle in his hands. Roy told Warren that they were just heading down to the hardware store for extra supplies. He didn’t have to lie about that. But Roy did mislead Warren in suggesting that these “extra supplies” would be used there in Green Falls. Warren took Roy Benton’s word for honesty, like he always had, and noticed Eddie and Shawn sitting in the back seat.

  “You two take care of your dads now! Don’t let um’ git in any troubles.” Warren said, leaning into Roy’s SUV.

  “We will Mr. Blakely.” Eddie said sharply, which took Paul by surprise.

  “Whoa, don’t go calling me Mister now. What did I do to tick you off?” Warren said in a playfully sarcastic tone. He didn’t like being called Mister or Sir or Gentleman. Warren thought those titles were only reserved for wealthy old scum-bags who wore expense dark three-piece suits.

  “Take it easy and be on the lookout Warren.” Roy said as he released his foot off of the brake.

  “Will do, get back here quick.” Warren said, and then moved away from the SUV.

  Roy rolled up his window; the light mist was still continuing to fall. Roy and Paul both shared a distraught look.

  “We gotta get those supplies and just leave this place. I can’t stand lying to these people anymore.” Roy said.

  “I agree.” Paul confirmed.

  The short ride down to the hardware store was filled with ambient sounds of a quiet vehicle. Some of the homes they passed along the way had neighbors joining forces on their front lawns whereas other homes looked either abandoned or the inhabitants were locked away inside fending for themselves. In the front window of one of those homes, Paul thought he saw someone staring out of the crack in the curtains. Perhaps his mind was playing tricks on him.

  Gus’s Hardware store was packed to the brim. It looked like every household in town had sent a representative to charge full-on at Gus’s little supply store. All ten parking spots to the establishment were taken up; someone in a rusted out Blazer was even illegally parked in the sole handicap spot.

  “Oh man, would you look at this?” Paul said.

  “We aren’t the only ones stocking up.” Roy said.

  Paul surveyed the vehicles in the parking lot, no sign of Sherriff Baxter’s police cruiser. That was a very good thing.

  “Gus usually has my package waiting in the back room. Luckily, for this recent order I doubled up on all ammo rounds; this won’t take long at all. Paul do you think we should we lock Eddie and Shawn in the car while we go inside?” Roy said.

  Paul thought about it for a second, and then decided against it.

  “No I’d feel safer if they were by my side.” Paul said.

  “True, true. Come on guys let’s go get our stuff.” Roy said as he parked his vehicle on the far end of Gus’s parking lot, blocking an alleyway and a big green dumpster.

  Eddie and Shawn jumped out and Paul went to them immediately.

  “Both of you stay by my side at all times. No looking around in there, we aren’t here to browse around.” Paul said to his two boys.

  “Ok, Daddy.” Shawn said. Paul hadn’t noticed that Shawn had brought along his smaller version of the John Cena wrestling buddy doll.

  “Ok Eddie?” Paul asked.

  “Of course Dad.” Eddie said.

  Inside the store, a long line of boisterous townspeople started at the register counter in the back of the store and led right up to the front doors. As Paul entered through the glass doors they were immediately standing in line. Most of the shelves in the store were already bare. Only random things remained; ball pein hammers, fly-traps, tiny fishing lures, a few Tiki torches, and packs of mouse traps. All the really useful supplies had been bought up. Duct tape, large hammers, nails, screws. They passed someone in the parking lot that was loading up the back of their truck with large planks of plywood and other wooden blocks. In the window display sat a blue shiny snow blower with a nine hundred dollar price tag on it. No need for that during the apocalypse. Paul also noticed that everyone in line ahead of them had their arms full of things they wanted to buy.

  And to make matters even worse, then store was fairly dark. Since the power was out, the only light reaching into the store was from outside. The far end of the hardware store was dim and surprisingly ominous.

  “Oh great. This looks bad. We might be waiting a while.” Paul said.

  Roy bounced around on his tip-toes to get a better look down the other end of the store; he couldn’t even see Gus at the counter, it was too dark and there were too many people in the way.

  “Daddy, it’s loud in here.” Shawn said.

  “I know, come on let’s get out of here.” Paul said to his boys.

  But then someone in line pointed out the presence of Roy Benton, aka unofficial town leader.

  “Hey Roy is here!” the voice shouted.

  Everyone standing in front of them, turned around to see Roy and Paul.

  “Yo Roy, you missed the clearance sale.” “You’re late to the party!” another voice rang out. That comment got a few chuckles too.

  Then Paul heard a familiar voice call out.

  “Roy, Jesus mighty get back here and help me out. Would ya?”

  It was Gus Frankly, he was hidden back there somewhere behind the large mob of people.

  “Yeah Roy, go do your duty. Help ol' Gus work the register!” another random voice called out.

  This was actually a golden opportunity for Roy, he’d be able to bypass the line of people and head straight back to grab his ammo package.

  “Come on guys.” Roy said to Paul and his boys.

  All four of them pushed their way through, down the middle aisle through a sea of paranoid townies. The scene looked like it was cut out of old footage from the great depression; so many people crammed in line awaiting their turn. As they approached the counter Paul was finally able to see Gus; he looked ragged and beat. The gray hairs that were left on his head were turning white, or at least it had seemed that way in the shadows.

  “Thank god.” Gus said at the sight of Roy Benton.

  Paul also noticed that the current lead customer was none other than the curious Stan Hadley. He was trying to buy…a tooth brush!? That’s it? One solitary toothbrush for the end of the world? Paul couldn’t believe this guy.

  “Oh good, our fearless and unappointed local leader is here to save the day.�
�� Stan Hadley said.

  “Don’t listen to him Roy. Can you work the counter for a while? I need to use the bathroom something fierce.” Gus pleaded to Roy.

  “Gus, I’m sorry but I’m actually just here for my ammo package.”

  Gus took off his work apron and put it on top the counter.

  “If you let me go to the shitter so I can avoid crapping my pants, I’ll grab your ammunition on the way back.” Gus said.

  Roy looked up at the massive group of people and then back to Paul.

  “Ok, go ahead.” Roy said to Gus.

  Gus took off running into the back of the store where a doorway behind the register counter had a brown cloth hanging down to act as the door. A sign hung above the threshold reading EMPLOYEES ONLY. The line of people pushed forward with some loud talking and grunting noises. They expected to be waited on and they were growing restless.

  “Ok, I assume this is cash only. Who’s next?” Roy asked.

  “I am, damn it!” Stan Hadley barked out, holding up his tooth brush.

  Paul felt a wave of unease wash over him. What on earth were they doing there? He shouldn’t be stuck in a dark musty hardware store while a fast spreading disease was bearing down on his existence; and with his two children by his side no less. Paul felt out of place, outsourced and completely useless. His stomach turned into tight knots and nausea came to him as the shouting complaints of the hardware store’s patrons battered his ears.

  “You ok Dad?” Eddie asked, bringing Paul back.

  “Yeah, I’m okay. Roy, we have to get out of here. I’m taking the boys back to your car.” Paul said. Roy was fumbling around Gus’s old style cash register, taking various wads of cash from people.

  “Go ahead, I shouldn’t be long. I’ll meet you out there…” Roy began, but he was cut off by the sound of the bells on the store’s glass doors. Someone really must have slammed into the door hard to make those old bells ring like that.

  “Sheriff Baxter!” a voice yelled out from the front of the store.

  Paul could see the Sheriff’s silhouette approaching. He was almost six inches taller than anyone in the store; he simply marched down through the crowd of people. As for the crowd, they were now silent and compliant. They still feared his authority, as Sheriff Baxter had always demanded control. Paul again thought how ridiculous that idea was.