The Ones Who Lived

by Ashley Nemer

  "Here let me show you." Natalie gestured for the two of them to follow her and that's what they did.

  She led them towards the back where the construction job trailers were located. There she opened the lock and asked them to come inside. When they crossed the threshold they were amazed by how much she truly did own. There were stock piles of water and Gatorade. She had rechargeable batteries and solar chargers. Flashlights, blankets, canned food and more.

  "How did you get all this stuff?" Anthony asked.

  "I've been traveling job site to job site looking for these items. I figured what we didn't use I would be able to trade off."

  "Where are the others with you, obviously they aren't living here."

  She shook her head, "No, they are living in a house across the street. We didn't want to stay on site incase trouble happened."

  "Smart. Okay well I think it is safe if your doctor friend agrees. Two skilled workers in exchange for 6 others to tag along. You all will have to share a house though. And you will be given a garden to maintain for the community. In addition to mechanical and doctor like tasks. Your own yard may contain whatever you like. We suggest to everyone that they maintain their own private garden as well."

  Natalie confirmed, "That seems like fair terms. Maybe I can help your sister with the filtration system too, or reinforcing the towers. I am really good at that type of work as well."

  John's eyebrows raised up in excitement when Natalie said that. Anthony could see the future clear as day as if it was written on the wall. Pretty soon everyone would need a boyfriend or a girlfriend. He supposed that seemed about right. It was the apocalypse, why not have a special friend to go through it with.

  "You know this is all well and good, but we still need that forklift to start up, so we can fix the cistern." Anthony said, as he brought the room back to reality.

  "Oh, that's easy, I disassembled the starter plug."

  "I thought you said it needed a prime or whatever."

  "Yeah I lied, I didn't know you two then. We use that forklift to move around and get things we want. It is in top order. As are most of the machines at that site."

  "John, are you thinking what I am thinking?"

  He nodded, "I think so Anthony."

  "And what's that, boys?"

  Anthony replied matter of factually, "If we took all of these pieces of equipment back to our home we could reinforce our walls better and make our subdivision more secure."

  "That's not what I was thinking!" John laughed, "I was thinking if we took these back with us clean up would be a hell of a lot easier on everyone!"

  Anthony chuckled and grinned at John, "Well that is clearly true, but I was thinking long term."

  "Sure, we can take them. We can go get the others and caravan to your neighborhood."

  "Sounds like a plan." Anthony pushed his arm out towards her and grinned, "Now you have yourself a deal."

  Amelia and Sarah had spent all morning rebuilding their water filtration system for the children's play area. They had to improvise since some of the parts had been broken beyond repair. After more than three hours sitting on the ground and working on the rebuild they both were exhausted.

  "So, my brother huh?" Amelia had said as she finished fixing her last part.

  "Seems that way." Sarah shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know what we're doing exactly, but it’s fun."

  "He seems to think you two are an item and well onto your way of spending the rest of the apocalypse together."

  This comment made Sarah laugh, "It's safe to say that right now we are getting to know each other on a deeper level and we are enjoying each other's company, yes."

  "There are not many available guys." Amelia stated.

  "Is that what's going on with you and Sam, availability?"

  "That's totally different." She said back in a curt manner.

  "How so?" Sarah had a gleam in her eye, she was enjoying torturing Amelia.

  "For starters we had been dancing around this for a while now. He's my brother's best friend it wasn't something I was going to just wake up and do, ya know."

  "Sure, I know, but you did, wake up and do it. So now what?"

  It was Amelia's turn to shrug.

  Sarah looked her friend in the eye, "Do you love him?" She asked softly.

  Amelia made the yes motion with her head, "I really do."

  "Then you'll marry him."

  "What?" Amelia asked disbelievingly. "We are way too young to get married."

  "How so? Best any of us can tell no one over eighteen survived the event. That makes us all adults. That's what adults do, they get married and have kids." She started humming the song, Here Comes the Bride teasing Amelia.

  "I am not ready to jump into that. And Sam has never mentioned anything of that to me."

  "You all live in the same house, you've kidding me, right?"

  "I am not, we don't even have sex." Amelia stopped in her statement and looked at Sarah with a hard and stern expression. "Do you and my brother?"

  "What Anthony and I do is our business, but no." She said grinning at her friend.

  Amelia burst into laughter and clapped her hands together, "Oh boy you had me scared there for a second I thought you were going to tell me you two were discussing long term future goals."

  "Oh, we do discuss the future."

  "Really?"

  Sarah nodded up and down, "Yes, just usually it involves whatever crazy scheme he wants to add to the community. Lately he has been trying to figure out a way to make the telephones work again. Don't ask me why he thinks we need them."

  "Oh," Amelia wasn't sure what she should say. The whole discussion had taking an odd turn she wasn't really prepared to stomach so she let the subject matter drop.

  After Sarah and Amelia were done cleaning up their work area they began walking back to their own homes. As Amelia opened her front door she was stopped at the sight of Sunny and Sam playing a card game. She recognized it was a game of Go Fish and that warmed her heart. He was extremely attentive to his little cousin and she found that very endearing.

  "Hey guys, room for a third?" She asked them smiling.

  "Yes! Sunny here is killing me, I could use the help." Sam winked at her and patted the ground next to where he was sitting.

  "Sam is letting me win, but yes please join in." Sunny moved her lips up in the form of a smile at her and Sam as she spoke.

  "I'm not letting you win, you're just really good."

  Amelia laughed at the two of them and waited patiently to be dealt into the next game. She was looking at the situation differently now. Looking at Sam differently. What would happen in the next five years? Were they going to be expected to get married? Would Sam even want that? She knew her mom would have a fit if she even heard this mental conversation going on right now, but possibly Sarah was right. They needed to think about these things.

  "What are you thinking about?" Sam asked her.

  "Sarah and I were just talking about the future, so I was just trying to picture things in five years."

  "Oh, that sounds like a deep convo, glad I wasn't involved."

  His response pretty much answered her own questions she hadn't had a chance to even mentally voice to herself. He wasn't thinking of the future at all. What did that mean for them and the community?

  "So, you don't think about the future at all?" Amelia questioned.

  "In some regard of course," he paused to look at Sunny and smiled, "got to make sure we have rain water to survive, right kiddo."

  "That's right," Sunny winked at her cousin as she said it.

  Amelia loved how much Sam took care of Sunny. He didn't make it seem like a burden or something he was angry about. That was one of the things she did love about him, how he took care of family. But she couldn't help thinking that they were far too young to even begin thinking about a future together as a couple. Getting through these uncertain times needed to be the priority and she was determined to see that it was done correct
ly.

  "Hey Sam," Amelia said.

  "Yeah sweetie?" His reply was soft and caring.

  "How about we go out tonight, just you and me."

  "Sure, where do you want to go?"

  "I want to find a church." She wasn't even sure why that came out of her mouth, but it did. And it felt right.

  "Weird, but okay. Once John and Anthony get back we can go out together."

  "What about me?" Sunny whined.

  "What about you, ya little monster." Sam teased his cousin.

  "No one takes me out, I'm always left alone."

  "Tomorrow night I'll take you out, just you and me kid, I promise." Sam reached his hand out towards Sunny in an attempt to get her to shake hands.

  She looked at his hand like she was analyzing it, "Deal." She shook his hand in return and then pulled the next card from the deck and smiled. "Another pair, I think I've won Sam."

  They all looked at the ground where Sunny had over twenty pairs displayed, and poor Sam only had three. "Yeah Sunny, I think you did." Amelia held back a laugh as she spoke. "Poor, poor Sam."

  When the go-Fish game came to a close Sunny packed her cards up and ran upstairs to her room. Everyone in the house had grown accustom to Sunny spending most of her free time up there. It was something about the peace and quiet of her own space that recharged her inner spark. No one talked about it, it was just something they all acknowledged.

  "What about the future had you thinking so hard?" Sam asked, as he tapped his finger on his leg nervously.

  Sarah had sparked ideas in Amelia's head and she didn't want to over analyze or put too much pressure on Sam.

  "Just stuff, you know, the usual." She said simply.

  "Nothing about the current here and now is usual. That could literally mean anything. Do you not want to talk?"

  Did she want to talk? She could be upfront and honest with him and risk losing what they have. Or the exact opposite could happen. "Not that I don't want to..." she said.

  "That was a lot of negatives. I am sure Mrs. Reed back in English II would have a cow at that sentence. Isn't that a double negative or something?"

  Amelia shook her head, "No it wasn't. That would be like, 'not never I don't want' or something like that."

  "Guess this is why Anthony made the A's in English and not us, ain't it?"

  "Isn't it," Amelia corrected.

  "You're dodging my question, just spit it out." Sam was sitting cross legged looking directly at her now. It was obvious his full attention was devoted on whatever Amelia was going to say.

  She felt regret building up before she even spoke, with a heavy sigh she spit it out, "She asked me if we were going to get married and have kids."

  "You told her yes, right?" Sam's facial features hadn't changed a bit. He was still staring at her with his intense facial features glued to her.

  Amelia couldn't believe what she had heard. Her mouth gaped open before responding. "No, I told her we weren't thinking about the future."

  "Yes, we are." Sam moved his arm out and let his hand rest on hers. "I think about it all the time with you."

  "But we don't talk about it, ever."

  Sam smiled at her, "Isn't it kind of a given. I mean, we've been dancing around us forever."

  "Now that I did tell her, glad we agree on one thing." Amelia was smiling at her boyfriend. A true genuine smile. "But we are kids, we aren't in any place to think about that kind of future."

  "Why aren't we? We're the oldest ones left alive. Back in the old days we would be married and having babies at our age. We're almost twenty now."

  "No, we aren't, we are barely nineteen." Amelia amended.

  "Whichever, you would have been married at thirteen in some cultures. So, it is normal for us to think about it. Hell, I have known I wanted to marry you for years. You took my breath away a long time ago."

  "How would that even work, we live with my brother and your cousin?"

  "You don't think Anthony is going to want to marry Sarah?" Sam picked up her hand and brought his head down closer, so he could place a kiss on the back of it.

  "I don't know," Amelia sighed. "Like I told her, I've never really given it any thought. Besides, they are still new, we at least have a little mileage under us."

  The two of them sat in silence on the floor for a few minutes. Their hands entwined together as the moments ticked by. Amelia was too scared to speak. She hadn't meant to dive into this train of thought just yet. What he and Sarah were saying made sense, about their age and marriage. But she still felt like a child.

  As luck would have it, she didn't have to say anything else because Anthony walked in the door. "Guys, do I have a surprise for you!"

  Chapter Nine - Times Are Changing

  ANTHONY WALKED INTO the house followed closely by John and then Natalie. He wasn't sure what he had just walked in on with his sister and friend, but it had looked serious. Good he didn't want them getting too serious.

  "Amelia, I have someone you're going to want to meet." He waited for his sister to stand up and then he introduced them. "This is Natalie and she is a mechanic. Her friend Jody is a doctor."

  Amelia extended her hand and shook Natalie's when she grabbed it. With a confused look she said, "It's nice to meet you. But how do you have a doctor friend?"

  "Hi Amelia, your brother talked about you the whole way here. And as I explained to him already she was the daughter of two doctors and had received her CNA license before all hell broke loose. So, she is like a doctor."

  "Ahh. That makes more sense. Either way we are glad to have your skills here in our group. I am sure we can find a small house you two could use."

  John smiled, and Anthony shook his head. "They are going to need the McGwire’s old place."

  Amelia gave her brother another puzzled look, "Why, that is like a six-bedroom mini mansion two people don't need all that space."

  "We actually have eight total." Natalie politely stated.

  "Eight!" Amelia exclaimed.

  Before she could say anything, else Sam shot up and interjected, "Hi, I'm Sam. I live here in this place with them. It's nice to meet you."

  Natalie grinned, "I am glad to meet you too."

  Anthony regained control of the conversation, "Yes they have eight people. John and I explained how our community works, and in exchange for her mechanical skills and the medical skills we are accepting their six others as part of our group. It seems like a fair trade since I know you and Sarah have issues manning all the mechanical stuff. I thought you would be happy."

  Amelia regained her composure she always tried to use when dealing with people outside of her family. "Well, yeah that does seem very fair and you're right I hate dealing with all of that. Did you explain the water rations?"

  "Water rations?" Natalie inquired.

  It was Sam's turn to explain, "Yes we have water lines running to each of our houses and gardens. Each house is allotted so much water a day. If you hit the limit the meter automatically shuts off. It is very useful in keeping things even and no one taking advantage of anyone else's hard work."

  "Wow that sounds fair. I hadn't realized when you said cistern earlier Anthony it was because you all had water piped into the houses. That is kind of amazing."

  Anthony, Sam and Amelia all three beamed with pride. They had done amazing things in order to make their community work.

  Anthony spoke next, "Like I told you earlier, you're responsible for whatever you want in your own garden. We have planted our favorite items and we have a miniature cistern we maintain that way we can do extra laundry or take longer bathes if we want. You're welcome to do that as well."

  John stepped in, "We only ask that if you build something that isn't for the community just yourselves then you collect the resources for that item from material that you scavenge. That way you're not taking it away from the group as a whole."

  "That seems fair," Natalie nodded her head again.

  "Tomorrow we can introduce the rest
of your group to everyone. For now, I am going to take you over to the McGwire’s place and get you all settled in." Anthony looked at Sam, "It's all set up right piped for water and electric?"

  "Yes sir, everything is piped and ready just have to turn the switch on."

  "Sounds good," Anthony signaled with his hand for Natalie to follow him, he turned to his sister and friend, "Flip the switch will ya? I will see you in the morning, I am staying at Sarah's tonight." And with that command he walked out of the house with John and Natalie following behind him.

  "Well that was quite a turn of events wouldn't you say." Sam looked at Amelia.

  "Yeah, it really was. Let's go flip the switch and then we can come back and relax." Amelia didn't appear like she wanted to relax. She looked like she was ready to scream, probably because of all the drama that had just transpired in the last ten minutes.

  The two of them walked from their house over to the cistern, and Amelia waited on the ground as Sam climbed his way to the top. She had no way of following him because the standing area wasn't large enough. She gazed up at the top of the tower with her hand over her eyes trying to focus on the body she saw now moving along the small walkway.

  "Everything okay?" She called out to him from the ground. She saw him turn slightly and look in her direction from about thirty feet in the air.

  "Yeah it's going good just finding which valve it is. I have to decode my system."

  Amelia took the time alone on the ground to think about what she wanted to say to him when they went back to the house to relax. She knew she loved him, she could feel it inside her bones. She knew that especially for what they were living through she had it really well and trusted Sam completely. This mental strain she felt was on her end and not his. She saw his eyes when he looked at her, it had love in them.

  She was so entrapped in her thoughts that she didn't even notice Sam walking back towards her.

  "Penny for your thoughts Amelia?"

  The sound of his voice made her jump in her spot and she used her hand to reach for her heart to calm her nerves, "Sam, I didn't see..." She stopped talking when she saw the look in his eye. He almost looked mischievous.