by Ashley Nemer
John's sister Sarah had been in the same classes as Amelia in school. She questioned the sanitary conditions of the water. The two girls decided to create a water filtration system with homemade filters. So far most of the children enjoyed the playground. They built on the foundations of the previous homes. With John and the other guys using the construction equipment they were able to tear up the concrete slabs while reusing the pipes in the homes for the irrigation systems.
It almost seemed like a dream to all of them. That life somehow would snap back to their old reality one day. Sam would make comments about how he expected it to be like the zombie apocalypse era that grew in popularity, but it did not live up to the hype. They never found looters or stragglers. They just stayed to themselves.
Initially Anthony and Sam wanted Amelia to stay to their home and not worry about the community, but that didn't last. Her organization and obsessive-compulsive nature with crop rotation took over. She quickly claimed manager of the gardens. Everyone agreed that each plot of land would garden a specific crop. They would then rotate tilling the land. The homes that maintained people however would only hold gardens for those families. That way if they wanted something just for themselves they could. But everything harvested on the community home land would be split evenly between houses. She even developed a crop rotation schedule. They were now working through planting their third crop of fruits and vegetables.
With that same logic, Sam added water meters to each of the pipes leading into the homes where people lived. They implemented a daily limit of how much water would be consumed that way they would hopefully avoid a drought. The water flow would automatically shut off once the limit was reached and wouldn't re-open until the next day.
Sam and Anthony were glad they created their own water storage system in their back yard because of this. That way if they needed extra it was available.
Everyone, now a year older, had a life pattern that worked. They established a clear hierarchy and managed to get along with their small socialistic community. Sam and Sunny came up with a plan that if the weather didn't naturally deliver enough rain to them each week that she would supplement them at night while everyone slept. She felt nervous that someone would catch on, and none of them wanted that. Sometimes she would only make it rain in their own back yard.
The amount of control she gained with her power begun to make her want more.
Amelia had taken Sunny to the library every few weeks, so they could research psychic abilities and even witchcraft. No one knew exactly what Sunny had, but they all knew that it was special, and they wanted to protect that.
In the mist of the community development and camaraderie, John and Sam had developed a friendship. It was through this friendship that the community ended up having to develop a way to store meats, because both John and Sam both liked to hunt and fish together. They came up with a routine, that every third day the two of them would leave for twenty-four hours, to bring back as much animal meat or fish that they could. Anthony took the responsibility of ensuring enough freezers to keep the meat through winter. Even though they were in Florida that didn't mean animals would roam by daily during the cooler months.
It wasn't until the second Thanksgiving after the event, the reference the group had started referring to it as, happened that Anthony finally felt comfortable with Sam and Amelia being a couple. The community had decided to celebrate together, the guys created a make shift dining hall in the middle of the street. They had acquired tents, tables, chairs and decorated the whole area. The ladies took command of the food and prepared a feast fit for a king.
Anthony had stood back in the shadow and intently watched Amelia and Sam interact. He noticed how she would smile as he spoke and how Sam would hold her tenderly. He was happy for his sister and best friend, but at the same time he also felt stabs of jealousy.
"Penny for your thoughts?"
Anthony's head abruptly turned toward the direction of the voice and when it landed on Sarah he stiffened up.
"No, just minding my own business." He said.
"Not what it looks like," Sarah teased at him.
"Oh, what would you know what it looks like anyway?" He said in a harsher tone than he intended.
"You don't think I know that look? How long have we all gone to school together?"
"Long enough" Anthony grumbled.
Sarah nodded, "Yeah, long enough. I just can't figure out if that face you’re making is aimed at her or him. I assume you're not mad at your BFF for having a girl now to hang with. But I suppose you could be mad that said girl is your twin. Or maybe that's it, you're mad your twin is now hanging with your BFF. Maybe you're scared of being replaced?"
"Leave me alone." He snapped.
"Yep that's it, I hit a nerve."
Sarah took a hand full of olives off the table she stood next to and started eating them. One by one she put them in her mouth. She made enough of a distraction that eventually Anthony could only focus on her mouth and what she was doing with it. He had a vague feeling that she was speaking to him, but he wasn't listening.
"Hello!" She said a little louder. "Earth to Anthony." She was now waiving her hand in front of his face and snapping her fingers.
"Sorry." He said, shaking his head back and forth, "I was distracted."
Sarah laughed, and smiled at him. "Distracted, yeah I would say so."
Anthony gave her a sideways smile as he moved his head around his neck in a moment of discomfort.
"You know you could get back at them instead of just staying angry right."
"What are you talking about Sarah?"
She smiled at him and walked closer, closing the space between them. "You could get back at them. Show them that they aren't the only ones who can find love after the event happened."
"And how do you suppose I do that?" He inquired.
"Like this." Sarah walked up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, she leaned in towards his head. Anthony quickly placed his hands on her hips and met her half way, leaning in for the kiss.
He had forgotten all together that they were standing in the tent where the whole community would be able to see, until he heard someone making kissing sounds at them. Sarah pulled away from Anthony and he looked past her shoulder to see Sunny as the culprit. The brat.
"Happy Thanksgiving Anthony. I hope we can do that again." Sarah popped another olive in her mouth, and smiled at him before returning to the table where she had her plate of food waiting on her. Next to her brother John. Who was now staring at Anthony in the same tone that he had been previously staring at Sam not five minutes before.
Anthony felt his neck start to redden, he attempted to brush off the teasing from the seven-year-old and walked back to his seat. Sam and Amelia didn't comment but his sister did smile at him. Maybe Sarah was right, he could do this.
Two weeks later the group's resilience was put to the test. They had taken for granted previously the idea that the news and government sent out warnings before hurricanes hit. But they learned quickly that only applied when you had Doppler technology and a meteorologist who could predict what was going to happen. The winds that sprung up were so strong that the cistern at the front of the complex was the first to come down. The guys hadn't finished reinforcing the frame and now they were going to have to rebuild it completely.
Throughout their neighborhood debris was moving across the streets. There had never been a high priority for trash removal since the group typically burned all the waste they produced. Consequently, they never cleaned up the remains of the homes that burned and the trash from all the construction.
"Everyone needs to take shelter!" Anthony yelled out on the bull horn, as he ran down the streets alerting everyone to the danger.
Everywhere he stepped there was some hazard. What scared him the most was the rebar that was lose around the neighborhood. He didn't know how strong the wind would need to travel to pick the rebar up. But if that happened it would be a deadly weapon.
Water started to pour down in sheets. The rain had started mid-morning on a Tuesday. There was no build up with sprinkles or light showers. Mother Nature dropped a full-on down pour just eighteen hours after the winds had hit shore.
The onslaught lasted for two days straight with no let up. Sunny stayed in her room crying which they were convinced was making the hurricane more intense. Truthfully, they didn't know if it was a hurricane or a tropical storm but with the amount of rain that flooded the roads and the wind speed they believed it was a hurricane.
"Sunny, sweetie you have to stop crying." Amelia tried coaxing and soothing techniques to calm the young girl, but nothing seemed to work.
"She will stop when she is ready. Maybe the storm is making her do it. We don't know how her ability works." Anthony said.
"I am not used to you being so level headed." Amelia playfully teased her brother.
"Two weeks with Sarah and he's cool as a cucumber. It's a miracle." Sam grinned at Anthony as he stated his little barb.
"Knock it off you two it isn't that at all. It's the fact that I have faith in our little Sunny."
She heard him and turned her head in the direction of his voice. Anthony smiled at her reassuringly. "Yeah Sunny, that's right. I have faith in you. I know that when it's time you will stop this storm. You're not making it worse."
Sam and Amelia exchanged glances with one another then looked at Sunny. Her facial coloring had begun to lighten. It was bright red at the peak of her tears and she had been almost feverish. Amelia reached her hand out to feel for the temperature and even that had already begun to lessen.
"You're right Anthony, I am not trying to." She wiped her eyes and walked over to him.
"I know you're not. But it’s okay, you cry as much as you need to." Anthony and Sunny stayed in her room watching the weather. Her tears had slowed from nonstop to light streams running down her face.
Sam pulled on Amelia's hand to move them out of the room and whispered to her on the way out, "When did aliens abduct your brother?"
"Hey, I heard that!" Anthony hollered out.
"Good!" Sam shot back.
Shortly after the light family banter the rain had stopped, and the clouds began to clear up. No one wanted to go outside and assess the damage. They were all scared to see what would require to be rebuilt. Anthony feared it all would be gone.
After some of the water drained off, and the sun was completely out, it was safe to venture outside. A silent hush fell over the neighborhood and individually each of the families walked out of their homes and began assessing damage. All in all, they lost one garden completely, half of two, the one cistern and some miscellaneous other structural items. It could have been a lot worse. It was going to take at least a week for the land to dry out before they could start rebuilding structural items on them.
The younger kids still looked frightened only a few hours after the storm. Their playground had been washed away and were feeling distraught over that. They all understood how the younger kids were feeling and no one commented. As a group, they decided after walking around and assessing damage, the best thing to do would be go back to their homes and wait until morning. The men would fix everything, and the women would take care of the young children inside.
A tide had shifted with the group. Amelia couldn't place her finger on it but something important had changed. She just didn't know if that something was for the better, or not.
Chapter Eight - When You Rebuild, They Will Come
WITH ANTHONY AND JOHN leading the pack the two of them set out towards more construction sites looking for gear. When they encountered their first issue was when they realized it was harder the second time around.
"I don't understand, why is this forklift not starting? It has diesel in it and everything." Anthony stated in an exasperated tone.
"How would I know, I never worked the sites." John responded with as he opened the hood of the forklift and started looking around.
"Do you even know what you're doing?"
John shrugged his shoulders, "How hard could it be, fiddle with this and fiddle with that. It is bound to turn on."
"You don't want to make it worse, hey maybe it got flooded?" Anthony now was walking around the machine and looking at the tires, trying to determine if he could indicate a flood line.
"It wasn't flooded look how high off the ground this engine is. Water wasn't that high at our house."
The two of them continued to tinker when they heard someone approaching. Their heart rates picked up and anxiously they turned around to see a young woman looking back at them. Her hair was as red as fire and her hips were plump and round. She had the body of a goddess and she was coming right towards them.
"It needs primed." She stated flatly, while glaring at them.
"What's that?" Anthony asked.
"Primed, you know something they do to machines when they stop working."
"And do you know how to do that?" John said.
"Maybe. What's in it for me?" She was walking closer to them now and began to smile.
Both guys started to act nervous and as she approached they looked back and forth at each other. "What is it you want?" Anthony finally said. He didn't want to come across as a jerk, but he didn't want to give away too much before they knew more about her.
"My friends and I are looking for a place to stay. We've been living here. Where do you stay?"
John immediately started to respond when Anthony put his hand on his arm to silence him. "How many are there with you and your friends, and how old?"
"Well I am nineteen and then there is my sister who is eleven then my brother and I don't know maybe five or so others. Varying ages. You have room?"
"Give us a moment." John stated and then leaned in close to Anthony. "What should we do? We can't leave them out here in an old run-down construction job site."
"But we don't know them John, we can't just invite strangers into our home."
"That's what you did with me and the rest of the neighborhood." John said calmly.
"Not really, we all lived in the same place for years and we went to school together." Anthony looked the stranger up and down again and then turned back to John. "Why don't we see what all she can offer? You know how we live in our community. We all provide something."
John nodded in agreement and then spoke up, "What's your name?"
The woman smiled at them, "Natalie."
"Natalie, I'm John and this is my friend Anthony. We want to know, what could you and your friends offer our community?"
"What do you mean offer?"
Anthony spoke up, "You see, we have what you could call a socialistic neighborhood. We all pitch in and help. Then we share equally in the profits of whatever emerges from the effort."
"So, you are all Russian?" Natalie laughed.
The two guys shrugged their shoulders up and down, "I guess so, in the way we are operating."
"How long have you two been doing this?" She asked.
"Since shortly after the event happened basically." John stated as a matter of fact. "It works, Anthony is our leader there."
That made Anthony pause a second and look at his friend before responding, "Before we potentially endanger our families we want to make sure it's a good fit and that there aren't any freeloaders."
"I see," Natalia tapped her hand on her hip and stood there for a moment assessing them. "What kind of skills do you currently have?"
John spoke up first, "We have hunters, me and our buddy Sam, and we have crops ran by his sister. Water filtration my sister heads up. And..."
Anthony cut him off before he could disclose any more of their home. "I'll tell you what, why don't you tell me your skills and I will tell you if there is room for you. Okay?"
Natalie let out a laugh and nodded, "I get ya. Basically, my dad, his dad and my brother all were mechanics. So, I grew up in a shop. I know a lot of the basic maintenance stuff like oil changes and tire rotations. I was in the process of learnin
g about injector systems and flushing them when my family died. But I saved my dad's mechanic books and have been studying. I also can work on construction equipment." She pointed out the forklift that the two guys were still standing by. "Same concept different machines." She looked between the two of them. "Do you have any need for a mechanic? If you don't have vehicles the technical skills work on other things like mowers or AC units. Assuming you have electricity."
Anthony was interested, and he whispered to John, "Would a mechanic be worth giving up an entire house for and adding eight more mouths to care for?"
He replied in the same whispered tone, "I don't know. We really could use one, but that is a lot of responsibility to add."
While the two guys discussed more details alone, Natalie called out, "You know I'm not the only one with skills, we have a doctor."
Anthony's head shot up, "How do you have a doctor?"
"Well, not a doctor per say ... her folks were both doctors and she was a volunteer at the hospital. She is nineteen too and had just gotten her a license, whatever that stands for."
"You sure seem to have all your bases covered there don't you Natalie." John smirked at her as he spoke.
"Sure do, so what do you say?" Natalie walked closer and extended her hand in Anthony's direction. "Partnership?"
"Before we agree to anything you will need to first agree to the rules of our community. It's important that the status quo is maintained because we have twenty people relying on our choices."
"Well hit me with it Anthony, tell me what it's like."
The two of them took an hour to explain to Natalie all the different facets of their community. She appeared impressed with all they told her of how they divided up the tasks and created an infrastructure that almost withstood the hurricane entirely.
"I have lots of solar powered stuff." Natalie said, at the end of their explanation.
"How is that possible?" Anthony asked.
