Sorry, sweetie. I just pronounced a sentence of death on you. Caleb fished out the M4 from under the blanket and slowly raised it up, taking a slow, steady aim at the female. She stopped what she was doing and looked at him, unnerving him, just before she jumped back down and moved on.
Caleb tried to rest his head on his chest and close his eyes. Every time he did, he felt the draw of the others bringing him back to full alertness. The sky started to get a little blue and gray, then the entire clouds seemed to turn red as the sky turned baby blue. He was alone, watching the sunrise as those around the lake had already decided to leave him, and Ann was sound asleep at his feet. He wanted to get the hell out of the canoe and off the bar used as a seat that had made his butt numb at least five hours ago.
Chapter 20
White Tank Mountain Park, Arizona, April 4, 2029
Gloria awoke refreshed. The sun was pouring through the curtains in the RV and she just knew it was going to be a better day than the last few. Both German shepherds had joined Oliver and her in the bed during the night and looked at her expectantly. She began to smell both urine and waste. She was ready to scold both dogs when she felt the bed next to her was still wet. Oh Oliver, why didn’t you tell me you’re a bed wetter before I let you share my bed? Both dogs jumped up when they saw she was getting out of bed. “Okay, boys, first you go out and take care of business, then I’ll feed you.” She whispered as both dogs seemed to hang on her every word.
Both dogs ran for the door, their tails thumping hard on each other and anything in range of them. She gave each of them a scratch behind the ears before opening the door and watching them race for the nearest tree on the other side of the parking lot.
She strode to the kitchen and grabbed a cola to get her by until Oliver woke up, then she’d make breakfast. Sliding back the curtains from the windshield, she sat in the passenger seat and put her feet up on the dash. The early morning sun still felt too bright to her so she reached for the sunglasses in the cup holder. The cola was cold and tasted different, but still good.
The clock on the dash was showing 0800 so she forced herself from the seat and grabbed a couple bowls. Both dogs looked up at her from where they lay next to the door, their eyes zeroing in on the bowls in her hand. She dropped both bowls and opened the storage compartment where the bag of dog food lay. Two noses found their way into the compartment as she tried to pull out the bag. “Sit!” Both dogs immediately sat, allowing her to get the bag out and fill both bowls. They looked at her with pleading eyes, starting to whine. “Go get it, boys.” Their antics brought a smile to her face as she returned to the RV. Okay, let’s get the bed wetter up and I’ll throw the sheets in the wash and then make some pancakes.
“Come on, sweetie, time to get up. We have a lot to do today.” She reached for his head to tussle his hair when she felt he was ice cold. “NOOO! No no no!” Pulling off the covers, she saw his normally pale skin was almost blue. She stuck her fingers to his neck and at his wrist to find a pulse. “Noooo!’ she shrieked out in grief. “Not again!” She didn’t feel herself fall to the floor or grab the mattress, trying to bury her head in it as she sobbed.
“Oh, sweetie, what happened? Why didn’t you say anything?” Gloria took one last look at the boy in his kid sized uniform and noticed his dog tags were hanging out. Before sticking them back under his shirt, curiosity made her want look at what was on them. She smiled when she saw it was just name and phone number, and then she flipped it over and saw TYPE 1 DIABETES in red letters and a red caduceus. “Why didn’t you tell me, Oliver? I could have found you medicine, and definitely wouldn’t have given you soda and candy!” Gloria sobbed.
Taking a deep breath, Gloria stood up, went over to the other side of the bed, and put on her boots. Then she lifted the fitted sheet off the corner of the mattress and then the other three corners before wrapping Oliver in the sheets. “Baby, you don’t weigh anything, you’re light as a feather.” Picking up the boy, she carried him to the car and gently set him down in the back seat. Both dogs acted crazy as they sensed something wrong. Gloria opened the door so both dogs could climb in before she got in herself. Both lay atop the boy making crying sounds, breaking Gloria’s heart even further. She didn’t give any thought to her destination, just that he shouldn’t be alone on the side of a mountain. The car gave her a feeling of normalcy; she ignored the speed signs, taking each curve recklessly, enjoying the wind and the speed. Exiting the park, she opened up even faster on the flat straight roads, ignoring the fact she was going through intersections at 90 MPH.
At the base, she slowed down, then stopped to untwist the chains to get on base. She knew now where she had to take Oliver. The signs of bodies and additional destruction to the buildings didn’t register with her as she sped to the opposite side of the base, to base housing. Pulling into the driveway of Oliver’s home, she left him in the car as the dogs whined but refused to leave his side. There was a shovel in the garage as she had hoped, then took it out front and began to dig. Okay, that’s plenty deep, let’s see if there any lumber in the garage for a cross. A couple pieces of wood and a couple nails and she had a cross for a marker. She went back to the car and partially uncovered him until she could remove one dog tag and then nailed it to the cross.
Gloria set Oliver into the grave, sobbing softly as she buried the boy. Both dogs whined until she was done. She lost her courage and couldn’t find any words. Instead, she dropped the shovel and ran for the car, both dogs following.
What the hell are you doing, girl? Pull the hell over and think. The whole world ended a couple days ago, killing everyone you know, yet that child you knew for less than a day tears you up? What is wrong with your head? Pull it together and make a plan. She sat there, parked in the center of Interstate 10 as the dogs sniffed along the side of the road.
“Hey, you okay there?” Gloria looked up at a couple of teenagers. The tall, thin, pale white boy was wearing a black hoodie and skinny black jeans over black combat boots and a red bandana around his neck. The girl was the same height, but heavyset, with her hair dyed bright red and cut into a tight buzz cut. Her bright blue lips curled in a smile that also could be a sneer. She wore a white muscle shirt that showed her fat bulging where the shirt tucked into a pair of chic designer camouflage pants over bright white high-top sneakers. The boy carried a pitchfork and the girl, a length of pipe.
Gloria sat there in shock as the pair approached her. She looked around desperately before realizing she’d left her weapons back in the RV. “Uh, sure, I just had to bury a friend. But that’s sorta the norm lately. What brings the two of you here?” I have to have something, maybe the dogs?
“We were leaving California when the rising of the night citizens occurred. We were on a protest bus to Phoenix to protest the racist, misogynists that were deporting our brothers and sisters. The night citizens on the bus rose up as we were outside of Yuma on the highway. We felt their pain but it wasn’t our cause, so we left the bus to continue on our own. We were the only ones to get off the bus. Now with our oppressive government destroyed, we have a chance to build a new world. A world that is not inclusive, where we can protect ourselves from hate speech and silence those who would stop us from achieving our goals of a perfect communist society.”
Don’t argue with crazy people; just get the hell away from these idiots. “Enjoy your revolution. I’m sure the two of you will enjoy your workers’ paradise. If you continue on I10, you’ll see the exit for Litchfield Road. Follow that north and there’s plenty of really good acreage for farming to start out your new society. You wouldn’t want to go hungry.” Gloria whistled for the dogs who came running, ignoring the strangers as they jumped over Gloria through the open door.
“We’re not farmers, we’re revolutionaries. We will guide the people on their course.” The boy spat out.
“Okay, good luck with finding people that are rebuilding who will let you into their community, then turn over all they’ve done to you for your leade
rship. Hopefully, you’ll do better than Mao or Stalin; they weren’t very good at farming, I hear.”
“Stop, sister! The revolution needs all the people of color to come to our cause.” Gloria froze for a second, debating what to say next, feeling strong anger at a couple of white kids with no life experience, or an education, thinking they were better than she was.
“I’ll look you up if I ever decide I’m tired of personal freedom.” Gloria started the car, anxious to get away from the two nuts.
“You sound like the white guy we talked to earlier. He invited us to join his group. He said they have electricity and security; they plan to put down crops too. He said to join him and his people at a high school by the White Tank Mountains. You see that group of hills there?” The boy pointed to the north of them. “That’s the White Tank Mountains. Anyway, they had the wrong ideas and approach to setting up a new community…” Gloria, for the first time, burned rubber in her car to get away from the pair before her. For the first time, she felt a glimmer of hope. She knew where the school was, and in the past had heard friends joke that the schools had better security than any base or prison. They also had small solar panel farms that produced more than enough electricity for their requirements.
Driving north on Loop 303, doubt began to rear its ugly head. What if they’re racists, or a cult? What if they take people to be slaves? What if they’re just normal people that just banded together to be safe? Gloria exited the 303, heading west on Olive Ave. I’ll go back to the RV, get my guns, then visit the school. If I don’t like what I see, no one is going to keep me there against my will.
Do I really want to surround myself with people? I have a nice spot in the mountains, no neighbors, my own waterfall. I should be able to reconnect the solar panels from buildings in the park to power my RV. I should check it out before I make any decisions. The winding road seemed nicer than earlier, especially since she wasn’t driving a huge ass RV. Turning off towards the RV, a truck parked near it. A man and two children sat at one of the concrete picnic tables, eating lunch. All three appeared nervous when they saw her approach.
“Good afternoon, everyone. If I had known I was going to have visitors, I would have had something nicer than MREs out.” The man with a head of red hair was obviously the father of the two young girls, each with a face full of freckles and long red hair. A tan M17 was partly stuck out of his belt. “I’m Gloria, what are your names?”
“Hi, I’m Aileen, that’s my sister Brianna. I’m sorry we were eating your food, we thought the camper was abandoned or that the monsters got the people who lived here. This is the first thing we ate in days after our stepmother made us leave our apartment. That’s our dad. His name is Donny, but everyone calls him Don, except for our stepmother.” The girl spoke like she was being rushed, between mouthfuls of food, yet anxious to be able to talk to Gloria.
“Donny, while the girls are eating, can I show you around my RV?” Gloria asked pleasantly.
“Girls, don’t wander off. We’ll be back in a little bit. Thank you, Miss Gloria, for not being mad at us for eating your food.” Gloria held out her hand as the man stood up His face turned red as he pulled the automatic from his belt and handed it to Gloria, barrel up. She pulled back the slide and checked the chamber before shoving the pistol into her belt. She glanced over at the truck and was relieved to notice none of her other things were there. He noticed her looking at the truck.
“The food and the one pistol is all I took. My girls were hungry and…”
“I don’t want to hear it. If you want an RV, go to any of the dealers and grab one. I took chances to get mine, just as I did to get that food. You can keep that case of MREs. I buried a boy today, you can have his bag of clothes. They should fit your girls, and his rifle. If you’re looking for a place to live, there’s a high school very close to here where folks are establishing a community. I hear they have electricity, and safe walls. That’s all I know.” Gloria handed over the boy’s bag and the rifle, trying not to choke up as she did.
“I’d suggest checking out the school to see if it’ll work for you. If not, you and the girls can spend one night here.” She could sense the man was relieved by the news and the gifts.
“If you want, you and the girls can take showers before you go, then at least the girls can put on clean clothes. I’m sure that’d make them feel a little better. Sorry I don’t have anything your size to give you.
“You’ve been a princess, Miss Gloria, thank you again for everything. What are your plans? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“I don’t know, for the next couple days I’m going to try to figure out how to set up everything on this RV and debate just living up here and going into the city to scrounge when needed.”
“Well, while the girls are showering, how about if I show you how to work your generator, cooking gas, water and wastewater?” Donny offered.
“Why, Donny, you just know how to sweet talk a girl though, don’t you. And call me Grits.”
“Girls, I want you both to take a quick shower, there’s fresh clothes in this bag for you.” Donny shouted, dropping the bag by the door for the girls. “You do have a motorhome with all the best bells and whistles. Here’s the master status panel for that displays the amount of different water you have, drinking and waste. That shows the amount of propane you have and that shows the amount of diesel you have for the engine and the generators. This display shows how much reserve electricity you have for operating things if you don’t run the generator or plug into an exterior power source.”
“Daaaad!”
“Excuse me, Grits, the world is even closer to the edge of oblivion, I think.” Gloria smiled at the remark and stepped into the shade. She could hear the girls hollering and arguing with their dad.
“But they’re boy clothes. That’s so gross. And…”
“Aaand you’ll wear those clothes or go naked. Now, you’re just wasting Miss Gloria’s time and mine!” He shouted over the girls, cutting them off.
“Sorry about that. I was looking around the public restroom over there at the end of the parking lot. The solar panels are connected to some type of battery system as well as a pump so it’s pumping water from underground. You can plug into it and keep the motorhome charging and your water tanks full. Especially after my daughters each take a ‘brief’ shower.”
Gloria watched the truck slowly go down the road and wondered what would be next with the way the day was such a rollercoaster type of day. I may as well just go over to the school now and check it out. I have just one last thing to do before I go. She laughed as she read the sign on the locked motorhome.
Caution! 2 Zombies locked in the RV, and they are extremely contagious. I will be back soon, I’m up on the hill hunting. If you break in and the Zombies don’t get you, I WILL!
The high school was as described. A series of fences surrounded the school, then even higher and stronger fences closer to the school. The eight buildings were all concrete block with tiny block-style windows too narrow to break through. The entire parking lot had solar panels providing the double duty of protecting cars from the sun while producing electricity. That looks like a good beginning.
Signs saying ‘Main Entrance’ led her to the north side of the building. She counted over fifty cars and trucks in addition to moving trucks and even some army heavy trucks. It looks like they’re eclectic from here. She got out of the car and was surprised to see three women exit the building, heading straight for her. Two appeared to be unarmed while a third carried either an AR-15 or a clone.
“Welcome to Sanctuary. I’m Pastor Rebecca Hilton and this is Mary and Consuela. Are you here to join us or is there some type of help we can give you?” She noticed the M4 and the fact Gloria was in uniform but said nothing.
“I was hoping to check out Sanctuary. I’ve only heard a little about it.” Rebecca dismissed her two friends and steered Gloria to a bench under the trees.
“Ahhh, this is nice, it won’t be
long until the heat is back. I’ll start from the beginning. On Day One of the apocalypse, those of us who survived to see the sunrise came here since we use the school on the first Sunday of each month to hold our services. Our congregation, Independent Christian Evangelicals, usually number about two hundred. On that day, we had twenty show up from our congregation. We had a brief service and felt it was our calling to save as many as we could. If not in spirit, then in body. We went out canvassing neighborhoods and anywhere we could to find survivors. The first day we brought in a hundred people. That night when the demons again came out after dark, they couldn’t get to us. The next day, after a night of demons, we brought in two hundred more. Many were children who lost their parents fighting the demons. We don’t care about your religion, only that you are willing to work alongside us to build a better life. We have electricity, running water, and we are safe behind our walls. Every day we go out to search for food and supplies. Soon we will open an annex in Buckeye. There are many farms there and we will need to feed people when the foods in the stores run out. At this time we have five dorms; one for families, one for women, one for men, one for young unaccompanied minors, and one that’s more of a clinic. We want to limit exposure to the sick. Do you want the nickel tour?”
“Sounds like you’re pretty well organized, I see you even have a couple army trucks in the parking lot. Do you have many military personnel?” Gloria asked.
“We have thirty military, including Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines and retirees. They provide our security for the sanctuary, and when we go out looking for supplies.” She nodded for them to open the first gate, and then closed it behind them. There was a narrow area between the buildings, fenced off again and, in the middle of all the buildings, was a campus area with grass and places to rest. More fences and gates surrounded it.
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