“I heard people awake downstairs, I woke you up, sue me. Day’s gotta start at some point,” Cody said, though really to himself. “You guys nab anything good out there?”
“Nope,” Jeremy said. “Just old shit.”
“Sounds delicious,” Cody joked. No one laughed. There was hardly even a smile.
Jeremy got up, and walked through the childishly tense kitchen. He grabbed the cup out of Derrick’s hand, sluggishly making his way to the fridge. He pulled out an old carton of orange juice. It was almost empty.
“Hey! We’re almost out of that, you know! It’s not all for you!” Derrick scolded angrily. More pissy than angry, Jeremy supposed. Really, that ought to have been the name of Derrick’s autobiography.
“And it’s old as shit; you’re gonna get sick if you drink too much of that,” Chris added, picking again at his raggedy clothing, trying to get as little grime on himself as possible. Jeremy rolled his eyes.
“That’s why I’m only getting a little bit, you dumb asses,” he countered.
He poured a seemingly miniscule amount into the cup and sipped from it, sitting down at the table. Derrick, flustered, swiftly recapped the orange juice, returned it to the fridge, and angrily moved over to the kitchen counter. Chris simply grimaced in disgust.
“There’s gonna be no one left to drink the damn orange juice, we keep acting like this…” Chris muttered, scratching at his greasy orange hair uncomfortably, moving to sit down at the table as well. Nolan moved over to the counter a ways away from Derrick, still upset.
Luke remained in the archway off to the side, arms crossed, and still looking rather tired. Too tired to have ended the squabbling before it really began, which it surely had before Jeremy and Chris came back from their journey.
Jeremy instinctively opened his notebook again, and slid the pencil out from the pages it hid in. No matter what he put in there– random thoughts or important information– it was the only kind of coping mechanism he felt he could really use to stay sane. The others didn’t question it; he’d been doing it about a month after the storm, and that was ages ago.
He kept notes of almost every day; he’d admittedly already gone through a couple notebooks, luckily Luke had extra at the house. Most days were the same: Wake up, do chores, scavenge food occasionally, sit writing, maybe eat, maybe talk to Chris, watch for anything “unnatural” roaming around outside, go to bed. There were only a few times that pattern changed over some 428 days, and he didn’t particularly like looking back on those passages.
“So, what are we sitting around here for? We’ve gotta start eventually, right?” Derrick asked impatiently. “The whole point of survival’s that we have to actually work for it, isn’t it?”
“We can give it a minute or two…” Luke said. Everyone just sat in silence, rather uncomfortably, as they all now stood in the kitchen. If it weren’t for the notebook, Jeremy would have been cringing.
“Cody, do that again tomorrow morning, and I’m gonna burn this place down…” Zack threatened, still upset. He scratched his short, poorly cut, dark blonde hair as he made his way further into the kitchen, and leant on an adjacent counter to the others.
“Hey,” Luke sternly warned. The others all glanced away in painful remembrance, and Zack showed a hint of remorse on his face. He never apologized, though.
“Oh come on, it’s time to wake up! You weren’t gonna do it if it wasn’t for me! I’m like uh, what do you call it… your alarm clock!” Cody ignored, and said excitedly. “In today’s forecast, bleak skies, and sunshine where no one can see it! More in just a bit,” he announced, doing his best radio broadcaster impersonation.
Zack groaned, and the others all appeared equally annoyed, aside from Luke, who suppressed a small grin.
“Cody, just don’t bang around so much next time, it is kind of annoying,” Luke said, feeling for Zack and the others.
“If it’s really that annoying… I can at least limit it,” Cody agreed. Luke nodded his head in approval. Zack just shook his own tiredly.
Jeremy despised Cody’s energy sometimes, but at the same time, he was remarkably level-headed, and when times got tough– so long as he had friends nearby– he could get a lot tougher. Jeremy had to give credit where credit was due: the group would likely have never found the confidence to leave the basement after the storm were it not for Cody.
Jeremy looked to Luke, and moved subjects. “Luke, what is on the list today? We might as well get started now, rather than later. Derrick has a point.”
“Alright,” Luke said, pulling out a notepad from the same kitchen drawer Jeremy grabbed his own notebook from. “Well to start, Jeremy, you and Chris are on laundry duty. Nolan, you and Adam are on wood chopping–”
“But Adam isn’t even awake yet!” Nolan interjected, motioning upstairs with his arm. “What if something was out there!?”
“Nothing’s ever out there. Stop bitching about it,” Zack said. Nolan glared at him, and then looked back to Luke.
“Still, I don’t wanna have to do all that on my own!” Nolan said.
“Then you’d better push it today. Unless, that is, you want to wake Adam up yourself,” Luke suggested, raising his eyebrows at Nolan questioningly. The others all glanced curiously at him as well.
Nolan paused, but just made a disgruntled expression and sighed, falling his upper half onto the counter in exhausted defeat.
“Okay,” Luke continued, refocusing. “Cody, you and Zack have got checking and stocking food–”
“Ugh, why? It’s not like it’s ever any different; all we’ve got is canned shit! We’re not even doing anything!” Zack whined, once more interrupting Luke in the process.
“Because shit gets expired!” Chris snapped back at him. “If we eat that, we get sick, and die!”
“Plus, we did get some new shit this morning,” Jeremy said.
“They have a point, but either way let’s add dishes to the list, so you have something to do,” Luke decided. Zack groaned again, and Cody shot him a disappointed look.
“Derrick, that leaves you and I with general house management. Cleaning messes, making sure everything that can run still runs; you know the works,” Luke finished up.
All the guys now groaned, unhappy to have to work, especially so early in the morning; not that it was any different from any other day, aside from the early start. Still, Luke noticed.
“Hey look guys I hate this just as much as you but we’ve got to do it. This is–” he tried to explain.
“This is how people survive,” they all recited, impersonating him, and cutting him off once again. Luke grimaced at them.
Jeremy knew he was only trying to make things seem a bit better, but everyone still looked just as annoyed and disgruntled; seemingly not wanting to stray from the behavioral course of the past several months. Suddenly though, Luke seemed to light up a bit.
“Okay, I’ve got an idea,” he grinned. Luke moved into the living room, and over to his family’s old CD rack. After some pause, he selected one, and slid it into the CD player.
“Ugh, come on, not this! All your song choices suck!” Derrick spouted, still being pissy.
“Yeah, and it’s technically my turn!” Nolan shouted along in protest. “This doesn’t override mine!”
“Oh shut the hell up and have fun! It’s my house!” Luke yelled from the living room, hitting the play button.
Nobody But Me by The Human Beinz started to play, and Luke contently got to work. Jeremy and the others all sighed from the kitchen, and slowly got up to join him in their daily duties.
Luke and Derrick moved throughout the living room sweeping things. Luke danced a little, and eventually Derrick somewhat reluctantly, and still rather lightly moved around too. They readjusted things, took stock of their weapons, and fiddled with working electronics, those that still ran, anyhow; which by now, was practically none.
Meanwhile, Cody and Zack were in the kitchen. Cody was nodding his head along to the beat of t
he song, and grabbed canned food, putting them in the cabinets from the counter one by one after taking stock of their numbers and expiration dates. He did so as happily as he could, which for Cody, was actually fairly contently. Zack cleaned the dishes in the sink; the pitcher of water he had in place of a working tap dripped out lightly; he couldn’t have been more miserable.
Nolan stood, alone, cutting wood with an axe outside the house, near a window into the kitchen. Zack and Cody were in his view. Sweat already dripped from his short blonde hair down past his pale, clean-shaven face. He somewhat cut along to the beat, though he wouldn’t let anyone know it if he could.
Suddenly, he heard what was unmistakably the sound of something sprinting through the woods. Its movements were quick, but heavy; maybe even scared. Nolan darted his gaze backward, and just caught a glimpse of what looked like a long, plated tail careening through the trees and off into the distance. It stopped his heart for a few moments, and he stood silently firm in both fear and wonderment over what that could had been. They’d never heard about anything like that on the tv’s.
Admittedly, that was a dangerously stupid move– or lack thereof– for Nolan to make. They’d never really come across any of the things they’d seen on the tv before, they were extremely hesitant to even venture far past the house to the convenience store down the way, and never farther. Still, his stillness could have cost him, if whatever that was had noticed him. He was lucky.
After another few moments spent cautiously waiting, it seemed clear the creature was gone, and Nolan hesitantly got back to work, listening again to the ever-playing music.
“Never anything out here… my ass…” Nolan muttered shakily to himself.
Upstairs, Adam laid in a heap on the ground with the curtains closed. Though with some light managing to pour through the cracks, along with the ever-growing music and bustle coming from downstairs, it was inevitably able to force him to wake up. He groaned, and placed his pillow over his head, only to annoyedly rub it against himself a moment later, dirtying his own dark brown hair, as well as his scraggly beard, and angrily throwing it off. He slammed his large, calloused hands onto the ground, and slowly, reluctantly, got up.
“Every morning with the music. Every goddamn morning,” he grunted. Adam got up, changed, and stormed down the stairs while putting his hat on. He marched his way right out the front door, past Jeremy and Derrick in the next room doing laundry. They focused so intently on their work however, that Jeremy hardly even noticed him leave. Not that he was pining to say hello to the guy. He could be friendly, sure– hell maybe even fun– but more often he was just a steaming asshole.
Jeremy dipped everyone’s dirty clothes in soap-soaked water, put them on a pulley-system of sorts made of string, and pulled them out to Chris, who took the dry clothes and placed them into a basket outside, he inspecting every article of clothing with extreme precision before dropping it in. The clothes were still always relatively dirty, but this at least helped somewhat, and Chris wanted to be sure it met what low standards he could keep up.
Admittedly, they were dancing to the music as well; it was the only small joy they tried to derive out of their work anymore.
They all switched off on who played music during working hours, but since they were stuck with older CDs, and it was Luke’s family’s vacation home, there were limited options for the others to choose from that they actually enjoyed. Sometimes though, they’d all end up getting into it anyway, dancing along, sometimes even singing together. Those were the best of mornings. Jeremy thought so anyway, even if he didn’t say it.
Not much later, already strained and now profusely sweating from his work, Nolan took a break from chopping, and as he was looking down, he shot his gaze up, having heard something in the distance. Something out of place. He paused for a moment to make sure he was right, and was quickly assured in his thoughts.
“Car,” he blurted, still staring out. Adam glanced at him, taking a break from his own cutting then as well.
“What?” Adam asked.
“Luke turn off the music!” Nolan ordered, turning to the window.
The music quickly shut off, and a car could be faintly heard speeding off in the distance. Adam and Nolan looked at each other worriedly, and a bit excitedly as well.
“Car! Car!” Adam shouted. “Everyone grab shit! Get ready!”
Adam and Nolan ran to the back of the house, where Adam boosted Nolan up onto the roof, and Nolan crawled to the top; Chris having ran inside all the while.
Everyone inside grabbed their bats and knives. Luke grabbed the pistol from the top of the kitchen cabinets and cocked it; that being their only serious means of defense.
They all hoped for the best, and in fact couldn’t help but smile just the littlest bit, but even still they had to prepare for the worst, just in case. They cautiously stared out the windows, while Adam hid behind the house, checking the corner he was on back and forth.
“Nolan! You see anything? Something coming?” Adam asked excitedly, gazing up.
Nolan peered from the top of the roof, lying on his stomach. He looked outward, and in his view, he could see quite far. Off in the distance, on a long, desolate, winding road, beyond the vines and weeds that now lay waste to the asphalt, a single car drove, or rather, sped down… away from them. Nolan waited for it to be completely out of sight before sighing, and eventually speaking up.
“Nope, just another loner booking it to God knows where. False alarm,” Nolan said. “Damn…” he muttered under his breath.
Adam looked down with his hand on the wall in disappointment, and after a brief moment, he regretfully moved over to the window in the kitchen.
“False alarm. It’s nothing,” he said, disappointed. “Son of a bitch…” he muttered angrily to himself.
Everyone relaxed, but also seemed to express a shared feeling of defeat, and return of hopelessness. Jeremy threw his bat to the ground in protest, and grabbed his notebook from the couch where he had left it, beginning to jot down what just happened disappointedly. Even Cody couldn’t help but sulk melancholily.
“Guys, come on! Someday, it could be for us! You never know!” Luke insisted reassuringly, trying to sound as though he believed it enough for them to as well.
“Luke, I get what you’re trying to say, but not right now, alright?” Chris stopped him, not wanting to deal with the false enthusiasm.
Luke sighed, and scratched the back of his dark brunette head, clearly unsure what to do. The others all started to leave, dejected. They knew that this– that nothing– was a likely possibility; it wasn’t the first time, but it still never hurt any less. At least, for most of them. Zack, in stark contrast to the others, just stood still and chuckled.
“What’s so funny to you, asshole?” Jeremy questioned, stopping in his tracks and looking up from his writing. The others all stopped moving, and gazed upon at their friend as well. He just continued to snicker at them.
“Nothing. Just that you guys are morons. Especially you, Luke. I don’t know how or why you guys can’t just see this for what it is,” Zack explained. Nolan and Adam walked through the front door, joining in on the conversation in the living room.
“And that would be, what, exactly?” Luke asked, bothered by Zack’s tone.
“That nobody’s coming for us,” Zack announced, silencing the room. “We’re on our own, and sooner or later, we’re gonna bite the bullet ourselves. Maybe literally for some,” he noted, looking down at the gun in Luke’s hand.
“Hey you don’t know that!” Derrick shouted, then looking around at the others. “He doesn’t know that!” Zack paced around the room.
“Really?” he asked. “When’s the last time any of us used our phones, huh? The last time we spoke to anyone outside of the eight of us? The last time we had any food that wasn’t old, canned shit, or drinks that weren’t months past expired?”
“Shut up dude! You’re just mad because you never do anything around here, but that’s just be
cause you’re so damn lazy!” Jeremy yelled, getting even more heated than he was before.
“Shut the hell up, Jeremy! I don’t want to hear this stupid argument again!” Zack snapped, getting very suddenly angry himself. “I do my fair share, I’ve made that clear! I pull my weight! Just because I don’t take part in your stupid little musicals doesn’t mean I don’t do as much work!”
“Alright Zack, just calm down–” Nolan said, until Zack interrupted him.
“Oh calm down? Well speaking of calming down, Nolan, why don’t you start calming down, and try to stop crying every night over your ‘horrible, horrible life,’ huh? Like you’re any different than us. We lost them too,” he spat back bitterly, making Nolan recoil a bit as he did.
“Zack, cut the shit!” Adam yelled angrily, pointing a finger at him demandingly and taking an aggressive step forward. Zack stepped back, but his attitude stood firm.
“Why!? So we can do more chores!? More busy work!? Remember what happened the last time we worked too much? Remember what happened to the girls–?”
“Zack, enough!” Luke shouted loudly, cutting Zack off, and silencing the others from speaking up. Jeremy and the others glanced at Luke, some back to Nolan, who was glaring down at the ground in pain; his vision locked onto the floor, his stance shaky. The girls hadn’t been brought up like that in months; Jeremy could only imagine it was like a sucker punch to the chest for Nolan and Luke. It was for him.
Zack paused, momentarily hesitant. But then, in front of Luke, he chuckled, and quickly swiped the gun from his hand, immediately putting the rest of the room back on edge.
Everyone shouted wildly at the suddenness and severity in the situation, and Luke locked his gaze onto Zack. He backed up against a wall, and pointed the pistol, now cocked, at all of the others, while they nervously backed away from him. Jeremy dropped his notebook onto the couch to free his hands.
“Zack…” Luke warned, trying to gesture him to stop as slowly and clearly as possible. “What are you doing…?”
The Way Back (Book 1): The Way Back Page 2
