But the Children Survived

by A. L. Jambor

  When he turned eighteen, his dad told him it was time to join the Plumber’s Union, and as soon as he graduated high school, he was apprenticed with his father’s employer. He liked being a plumber. The money was good and he could work alone.

  "How did you end up here?” Mindy asked.

  "My dad died. I just kind of got sad, you know? My mom told me to take a vacation. I came down here and liked it. Then I saw an ad for plumbers at Wilmer and March, and I applied. They hired me.” That was all he would say.

  At noon, Mindy and Pat went to the cafeteria for lunch. The girls asked Mindy where she had been and she said she was helping Pat. Pat had joined them for lunch. They all stopped talking when Mark walked in and actually sat down to eat at a table - by himself of course.

  "What’s up?” asked Pat.

  "That’s Mark,” Katie said. “He's a snob.”

  "He’s mean,” Mindy elaborated.

  "He’s just quiet,” Maria Elena said.

  Alyssa, as usual, said nothing, and just gazed dreamily in Mark’s direction.

  "So, we have a handsome, quiet snob with mean tendencies who has the power to stop a conversation in mid-sentence,” said Pat. “He wasn't happy when we picked him up either.”

  "Where did you find him?” Mindy looked at Pat expectantly.

  "Down by the beach near St. Pete. He had a really nice house. Ang, I mean Andrew, wanted to leave him there, but you never know. I mean, we really don’t know how long you kids can survive out there all alone. So in the end, Andrew gave in and we took him. But the kid wasn't happy. He fought us all the way.”

  Mindy pondered what Pat had said. If she hadn't been knocked out, she would have fought too.

  "Why didn’t you just knock him out?” Mindy had a hard look on her face.

  "We ran out of chloroform.” Pat looked at his food and wouldn’t look at Mindy. He remembered the day they picked her up and a wave of guilt washed over him. But it was his idea to take Baby Girl, so the guilt passed quickly.

  When they finished, Pat and Mindy stopped by her house to get Baby Girl. After the little dog did her business by the side of the house and ate her jerky, they all headed for the field. Before they got there, Mindy looked up at Pat.

  "I know how you can pay me,” she said.

  "Oh yeah, and how is that?”

  "You can cut my hair.”

  Chapter 12

  Andrew and Simon got into the truck. It would be strange leaving Pat and George, but there would be more room for supplies. They drove down the dirt road that led to Highway 19, turned left onto 19 and drove south towards St. Petersburg.

  Along the way they passed the piles and piles of bodies that the crew had stacked in the weeks preceding this morning. The bodies were decaying fast in the Florida sun, leaving bones and rotting clothing. One good hurricane would finish the job by scattering the bones to the wind.

  Andrew and Simon tried to keep their eyes ahead. They’d had their fill of death and decay. All they wanted to do today was fill the truck and get back to the biosphere. They knew they would have to do it several times, but at least it was clean work. Even Pat could do this without heaving up his guts.

  They passed a shopping center where they had parked most of the abandoned cars found on 19. Some of the cars had bodies in them that had to be removed. Now the cars were neatly lined up in the mall parking lot. Andrew and Simon would stop there twice today to fill the truck with gas from their tanks.

  They turned into a strip mall with two restaurants and a convenience store. There was also a bowling alley. The convenience store had canned goods and sodas, beer, etc. It also had candy, snacks, and cigarettes. The little girl with the dog had asked Andrew to get some dog food. He found ten cans and put them in a bag.

  Old man Wilmer strictly forbade smoking in the facility and having a hazmat suit on made it impossible to smoke on the road. Residents of the Wilmer Biosphere who wanted to had to smoke behind the last door near the field. That way they could hide the smell as well as the actual smoke. So Simon filled a bag with cigarettes.

  The bowling alley had snacks and canned drinks. The two restaurants, one Italian and one Chinese, had big cans of tomato sauce, sacks of flour, big cans of chicken broth, corn starch, and lots of packaged fried noodles. Simon also grabbed the little packets of duck sauce and soy sauce, anything to make the food more interesting. Everything else was rotted.

  They went back to the facility to drop off their booty, and Christie beckoned Andrew to come to the window. She told him that Pat had a request. She took out a slip of paper. He wanted them to go to a beauty store and pick up a pair of hair cutting scissors, a hair cutting razor, a skinny comb and good quality brush. He also wanted a hand-held mirror. As he heard each item read, Andrew’s frown deepened.

  "What the hell does he want that stuff for?”

  Christie just shrugged and asked him to do his best. Andrew shook his head, ran his hand up and down his face, and shook his head again. Then he nodded at Christie and put his head gear back on.

  Andrew and Simon had developed an easy friendship. Though they had little in common with regard to their work at the Facility – Andrew was a computer expert and Simon a plumber, they got along famously and would rather spend their time together talking football and women than anything else.

  They worked well together too, with little friction. Simon didn't mind letting Andrew decide where they would go. Simon would close his eyes and put his head back while Andrew drove the gruesome miles to the next “shopping” location.

  When Gerald gave them orders to pick up a child he had located, it was Andrew who took the lead. Children liked Andrew, and he was easy to trust. Lately though, especially with Mark, Andrew was becoming less inclined to do Gerald’s bidding. The kids weren't in danger. There were no people that they knew of who would hurt them. Why not just leave them were they were and check up on them once a week, maybe put a few together in a house and see how they fared?

  Kids should be outside, and these kids were special. If they hadn't died in the first wave, why did Gerald think they would die now? Andrew would rant on and on while Simon would grunt now and then in response. Their partnership worked well.

  They were halfway on their run when Andrew saw a sign for Maureen’s Beauty Barn. They pulled into the lot and got out of the truck. The store was locked, so they broke the window out and climbed in. There was no electricity, so no alarm sounded. Andrew turned on his flashlight. Fortunately, there were no bodies in the store. He found the scissors and combs, and those things girls liked to use to hold their hair back.

  The razors were behind a locked glass door. He broke the door and grabbed three razors. Simon managed to find a mirror, and he also grabbed all the shampoo and conditioners he could bag. For good measure, they threw in some tweezers, nail polish, and lipstick. They thought Christie might like that. There were also some plastic safety razors that they grabbed for the men.

  When they left the store, Simon asked Andrew how he knew what scissors to take when there were so many different kinds. Andrew told him that when he was a kid, his mother had rehabilitated used Barbie dolls. She would fix their hair, give them a “boil perm,” and cut the hair when necessary.

  "And you used to watch this?” Simon said.

  "Only the part where she would stick their heads in the boiling hot water.”

  "And why would she do that?” Simon asked.

  "Because dolls' hair is plastic and the boiled water would curl it. It had to be put on a thing, you know, wrapped around this plastic and stuck in really hot water to bend the hair.”

  "Jeez, who the hell thought of that?” Simon said just before he dozed off.

  The rest of the afternoon went by quickly. They found a Granger's, which was full of food. They could come back tomorrow to fill up again. It was getting dark, and they didn't like being out in the dark. Dark these days meant pitch black dark, no street lights or lights from businesses. They felt very lonely out there in the dar
k.

  When Pat saw all the goodies they had brought him, he almost wept. It reminded him of his mom’s shop and the idea of his mom made Pat ache inside. The last time he had heard her voice was just before the biosphere sealed. He missed her so much.

  That evening, after all the everyone had finished eating, Pat found a wooden box in the back room behind the field and put it in the cafeteria. He then placed a chair on the box. He told Mindy to go wash her hair at home and come back with it wrapped in a towel. When she arrived in the cafeteria dripping wet, he put her on the chair on the box and worked his magic on her unruly locks.

  Pat had never actually cut anyone’s hair, but he had watched his mother do it hundreds of times. So when he lifted the comb to Mindy’s hair and started to carefully disentangle the waves, he felt a surge of energy rush through him. The scissors took on a life of their own as he cut strand after strand of hair.

  Pat asked Mindy how short she wanted to go. She took her fingers and went from the back of her head around to the front pointing to just under her ears. So Pat followed the line her fingers had drawn, and for good measure he thinned out the thick hair to a manageable fullness.

  When he was done he backed away and looked at Mindy. During the process of cutting, the kids had started to come into the cafeteria to watch. Katie and Alyssa were standing in front of Mindy.

  "Oooo, Mindy, it looks really good,” Alyssa said.

  "Yeah, it looks okay,” Katie said.

  "You look like a princess,” said Maria Elena.

  Pat held up the mirror for Mindy to see. She inspected the sides carefully. Pat handed her two barrettes and she put them on each side of her hair to hold it away from her face. Mindy thought she looked pretty. She smiled at Pat and when he took her off the box, she hugged him.

  "Anybody else?” Pat asked the kids.

  "Oh, me, please.” Alyssa was holding up her hand.

  "Why do you want to do that?” Katie was holding her sister back.

  "Because he made her look soooo beautiful.”

  Pat told Alyssa to go wash her hair. He said he could do five more of them tonight. Three boys came forward and a girl. He told them all to go wash their hair and told the others to come by at breakfast and he would schedule “appointments” for the rest of the week. They would have to show up for their appointment with washed hair.

  He asked one of the boys to run to the kitchen and find a broom and garbage bag. When the boy returned, Pat swept up Mindy’s hair and put it in the bag.

  Pat gave each of the boys Mohawks. Most of the girls got a trim, but Alyssa got the full treatment. She wanted her hair real short. She didn't like to mess with it, but it still had to be girlie. Pat managed to give her a sweet pixie cut. Katie was furious. They no longer looked exactly alike, and Katie didn't want a pixie cut. She left the cafeteria in a huff.

  When all the kids' hair had been cut, Pat took the box and put it near the side wall for the next time. He felt really good and really tired at the same time. He had worked all day long and it was time for bed.

  Simon caught him as he was leaving the cafeteria and asked him how things went with the sprinklers. He told Simon that he had finished the whole field. He left out the part about Mindy helping him. Simon seemed impressed.

  "Then we'll give it a dry run tomorrow before we leave.”

  "Do I have to go tomorrow?” Pat was hoping for one more day off.

  "Yeah, Gerald wants us finish clearing 19. We have to leave after breakfast.”

  Pat’s heart fell. He just hated moving bodies. It always made him hurl. And then he had to wear the vomit in his suit until they got back to base.

  But Pat couldn't say no because the other guys had to go too. The only one who got a pass was Calvin. Before the destruction, Calvin’s job had been truck mechanic, but now it was tending the field, and he was too valuable to send outside.

  So Pat the plumber was picked as part of the crew sent out daily to clear the roads and collect supplies, and he really hated it.

  Chapter 13

  Mindy felt light and airy. Her neck felt liberated. She opened the door to her house and Baby Girl greeted her suspiciously.

  "It’s me, Baby Girl! I got a haircut! And, I’ve got some dog food for you.”

  Baby Girl rolled over on her back and Mindy rubbed her belly. The little dog loved it and kept rolling over begging Mindy to rub and rub. Mindy got on the floor, hugged the little dog and the Baby Girl licked her face over and over. Mindy felt so happy for the first time in a long time. She was rolling around with Baby Girl when she heard a knock on her door.

  Mindy thought it might be Maria Elena come to visit. She didn't look out the window to see who it was, she just opened the door. Mark was on the other side. He had a look of surprise when he saw Mindy.

  "Who butchered you?” he asked.

  "What do you want?” Mindy couldn't help her sarcastic tone. He was just so rude.

  "Can I come in?”

  Mindy thought for one second of saying NO and slamming the door, but she was dying to know why he had come over to her house, so she let him in. Mark came and looked around at her house. He seemed unimpressed by what he saw.

  "All these places look alike. No imagination.” He sat down on the one guest chair she had and waited for her to speak.

  "What do you want, Mark? Why did you come over here?” Mindy was getting impatient.

  "I saw you go to that place today with the skinny guy. I just wondered what you were doing there, that’s all.”

  "Well, maybe it's none of your business.” Mindy had her arms folded over her chest and she was looking down at Mark. “You are the meanest boy I’ve ever known!” Mindy began flailing her arms around while she yelled at Mark. “Why don’t you just go away?”

  Mark sat back in the chair and sighed. "I just wanted to know what you were doing with him down there. I watched you for about an hour.”

  This made Mindy even more furious. She balled up her hands and yelled “grrrrrr” at him. Mark started to laugh at the sight of Mindy. She looked so angry and red in the face.

  "Stop! Stop laughing at me!”

  Mindy started punching Mark with both her fists. Mark put his hands up to protect his face. He managed to get up out of the chair and go to the other side of the room. She went for him again, and he pushed her on the ground and sat on top of her.

  "You have to calm down. You're really acting silly.” Mark just sat there while Mindy kicked her legs up and down and punched him with her fist. After a while, she got tired and stopped.

  "Got that out of your system?” Mark got up off Mindy.

  Mindy stayed on the floor, humiliated by her behavior and Mark’s indifference. She was glad she hadn't cried. Mark sat back in the chair.

  "Now, can we talk?” Mark sat there looking at Mindy. He was like some mini-man, not a child at all. Mindy was confused by him. Maybe he was a little person disguised as a child.

  "How come you talk like that?” Mindy asked him.

  "Like what? I just talk.” He was looking at Baby Girl. The whole time he was sitting on Mindy, Baby Girl had been pulling at the hem of his pants. Now she was sitting by Mindy growling at Mark in a low tone. “Nice dog. I like her. What’s her name?”

  "Baby Girl. She belongs to my Grammy.” Mindy sat up and got on her sofa bed. She felt drained of all her energy. She wished Mark would leave.

  "Why don’t you just go home,” she said in a tired voice.

  "I really want to know about that place. You spent a lot of time down there. Please tell me what it was like.” Mark looked so cute. Mindy hated herself for thinking about his looks.

  "It’s a big farm. We were making sure all the sprinklers were working so they could turn them on and Calvin wouldn't have to water anymore.”

  "Who’s Calvin?” Mark asked.

  "He’s a black man who lives by the field. He takes care of it. He's very nice and he wanted Pat to make sure I had breaks and ate.” Mindy was looking at the ceiling, try
ing to avoid Mark's eyes.

  "What do you mean he lives down there?”

  "I don’t know. I guess he does. I've never seen him up here. I think I saw him go into a door in the side wall. Maybe he has a room there.”

  Mark was thinking hard. “What else did you see there?”

  "Just a room in the back where they keep tools and stuff. It has a door in back like the ones in the front where you come in.”

  "Doors like the ones up front, with three or four compartments?” Mark sounded excited.

  "Yeah.” Mindy began to see where Mark was going. “You want to leave. You’re trying to find a way out.”

  "I can’t stand it here. I was fine where I was. I had a house, I had electricity. I had food. They could have left me there and I would’ve been fine.” Mark was angry now.

  Mindy felt a pang in her heart for Mark. She knew how it felt to be ripped from your home against your will and taken to a strange place. She knew how it felt to lose all your people. She also knew how lonely it could be out there all alone.

  "I know what that feels like.” Mindy was watching Mark. “I was alone a long time. I didn’t want to leave my house either. But the one thing I have here that I didn’t have there is friends. If you leave here, you'll be all alone again. Do you really want to be alone?” Mindy stopped talking. The silence hung in the air. Mindy could see Mark’s hard facade crumbling.

  "I buried my parents. When they died I wrapped them in tarpaulins we had in our shed and took them out to our boat. I put them in the boat, started the motor, and when I got a little ways out I dropped them in the ocean. I asked God to keep them. But I don’t know if I believe in God anymore”

  Mark slowly began to cry. First the tears rolled quietly. Then the sobs began full on as he cried harder and harder. All the months of holding it in came upon him all at once. He turned his face into the chair.

  He cried for a long time before Mindy got off her bed and walked over to him. She knelt down next to him and put her hand on his hand. He turned and looked at her and put his arms around her neck still crying. Mindy put her arms around him and cried too.