First Date- a Novella

by Thomas A. Watson

  Nodding, Ginger pushed the cart back as Daniel moved to the other offices. When she got back, all the lamps were broken down and spread along the table. “The flagpoles are ours, but we need to lay everything out to see what we have,” she told everyone, and all except Gary moved over and emptied the cart.

  Teresa grabbed the satellite phone, pulling it to her chest. “Can I please try my kids?”

  “Sure.” Ginger smiled as she unloaded the cart.

  Turning the phone on, Teresa dialed her house, and everyone stopped what they were doing when they heard the phone ring even with it pressed up against Teresa’s ear. “Hello,” a young boy’s voice answered real soft.

  “Ben, it’s Momma. Are you okay?”

  “Mom,” the boy said louder, and everyone heard someone in the background say, “Sshhh.”

  Almost whispering, the boy said, “Mom, are you coming home soon?”

  “Yes, baby, but are you and Carrie okay?”

  “We’re in the attic, Momma. Some sick-looking people broke in the house, and one of them is Mr. Goodwin from next door.”

  Teresa closed her eyes, dropping to her knees in relief. “Baby, I want you and Carrie to stay there. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  “When, Momma? You won’t believe what we saw some people doing to Violet on the street. They were eating her, Momma, as she screamed for them to stop,” Ben said, sobbing, and the phone was pulled from his hands.

  “Mom,” Carrie whispered. “When are you getting here?”

  Teresa looked over at Ginger, who looked at the table, shaking her head. “Tomorrow,” Ginger said, turning back to Teresa.

  Closing her eyes, Teresa nodded at Ginger. “Carrie, I should be home tomorrow, and I want you and Ben to stay in the attic till I get there. Understand?”

  “Can’t you get here sooner?”

  “I wish I could, baby, but this is everywhere.”

  “Mom, where do we use the bathroom?”

  “Pick a corner, and don’t leave the attic,” Teresa said, and Ginger held up a hand. “Hold on a second, baby,” Teresa said and covered the mouthpiece with her hand.

  “Teresa, we may not make it,” Ginger told her. “Tell them to wait for two days then head away from the city to any friend you know of.”

  Teresa bit her lip so she wouldn’t cry. “Carrie, if I’m not home in two days, I want you and Ben to sneak out and walk to Ronald’s.”

  “Mom, that’s like eighty miles,” Carrie said, and Ben shushed her.

  “I mean it, Carrie. If I’m not there in two days, I’m not coming,” Teresa said with tears on her face. “Momma’s going to try to be there tomorrow.”

  “Okay, Momma,” Carrie whispered. “I need to go. They can hear us and are beating the walls under us. Can I call this number?”

  “Yes, baby, I love you.”

  “We love you too, Momma,” Carrie said and hung up.

  Hanging up the phone, Teresa held it up, and Malik took it and dialed his house. Ginger moved over beside Teresa and pulled her up. Glancing around, Teresa saw everyone move away with Malik as he talked on the phone. “Ginger, I’m begging you, please help get me home. I’ll do anything. Please,” Teresa begged in a whisper as she clasped her hands together.

  “I’m in enough trouble as it is,” Ginger huffed but shook her head. “Ask Daniel. I’ll tell him I agree, but you have to convince him. Now I’m warning you, don’t ask where others can hear because we aren’t taking everyone home.”

  Teresa sighed with relief as Daniel walked in carrying more stuff. Dropping it on the table, he turned to a huge copy machine at the front of the room. Not saying anything, he turned around and went back to Mr. Barron’s office.

  Ginger followed with Teresa tagging along. They walked in to see him rake everything on a glass table onto the floor. Grabbing the table, Daniel flipped it over with the legs pointing up. The table had six legs with two in the middle, and Daniel pulled out a crescent wrench and started twisting bolts out.

  When he was done, he held up a heavy brass leg that ended in a wide Y. “Hold this,” he said, tossing it to Ginger and walking over to a massive fish tank. Like the oddity Mr. Barron was, it was a beautiful tank but held no fish.

  Sticking his hand to the bottom, Daniel grabbed a handful of black marbles. “You have a brass fork and marbles,” Ginger said, holding up the leg Daniel had taken off the table.

  “Yep,” he said. Picking one out, he held it between his thumb and index finger, smiling. “This will do nicely.”

  Watching Daniel study the marble, Ginger looked at the table leg then up to the wide fork and grinned. “You’re missing a very important piece,” she said as Teresa walked over to a small garbage can then brought it to Daniel.

  “Thank you,” he said, dumped the marbles in, and continued pulling more out. “I know where to get it,” he said, glancing over at Ginger, and winked.

  Ginger smiled and stepped closer. “When do you think we should try to make a run for it?”

  “This evening,” he said, dumping a handful of marbles. “We have a date, but I think I’m going to have to make you dinner. Restaurants don’t usually open during an apocalypse.”

  “I’ll make you a deal; I’ll cook dinner, and we can leave tomorrow. We have too much to do and are leaving in a few hours, and we,” she stressed, “won’t be ready.”

  “Hey, I’m just keeping my word,” he said, dumping another handful.

  “An apocalypse is an excellent excuse for moving a date back one night,” she smiled. “Besides, if you get hurt and we can’t have our date, I’ll rip your nipples off with pliers.”

  “Whoa,” Daniel grinned. “Kinky.”

  Glancing at the small trash can and seeing it was halfway full, Daniel dropped one more handful in. “Let’s get started then.”

  He walked in to see everyone watching a TV showing footage of other major cities, and all of them looked like Chicago. Dropping another armload on the table, Daniel cleared his throat. “Alright, Don, Ken, and Joe, from now on, I’m calling you Larry, Moe, and Curly,” he said, pointing at them respectfully.

  “The stooges,” Don, or Larry now, gasped. “Come on, man, how about the musketeers or something.”

  “I have every movie and show they ever made along with the Little Rascals. Don’t downgrade them,” Daniel said as Malik chuckled.

  Joe, or Curly now, grinned. “Hey, I like it,” he grinned.

  “Listen up; we have a lot to do,” Daniel said, cutting the zip ties off the fire hose. “Larry, Moe, Curly, get note pads, and go to Mr. Barron’s office. He has a telescope, and I want two of you to study the infected that are running around. The other I want to watch that TV in there to see what anyone is reporting. I want to know how fast they move, and are any of the…” He paused, not knowing what to call them. “Sick people, or sierra papas, or SPs, using intelligence. From what we’ve seen so far, they seem pretty stupid thankfully. You have two hours.”

  He looked at the others. “You have to cut this fire hose in half, giving us a one-inch-wide canvas strap. Cut along the side crease, and do it neatly because this is what you are using to get down.”

  “I’m going to need Malik and another to help with the batons and spears,” Ginger said.

  “Okay,” Daniel said, and everyone moved as he unrolled the fire hose out on the floor. Four of them grabbed scissors, and two moved to each end, where one from each pair started cutting. When they were several yards down, the other person on their end started cutting, making two separate straps.

  Looking at the two rolls of para cord, Daniel shook his head. “It’s not enough.”

  Ginger looked over at him and grinned, remembering Mr. Barron’s memo. “If it wasn’t for you, we would have yarn,” she said, pulling out the mouse pads and grabbing a roll of duct tape.

  Looking around, Daniel stopped at the metal blinds. Walking around the table, he went to the two leads that hung down. Each ended at a metal loop that he could stick his han
d through. Looking at the cord that formed the lead, he saw it was a little bigger than para cord.

  Moving the blinds as he looked up in the tract, he saw the cord running back and forth, connected to each blind. Closing the blinds and pulling his knife out, Daniel grabbed a chair and reached up, cutting the cords where they connected to the tract housing.

  Pulling the one that rotated the blinds open, he was shocked as he kept pulling and pulling until the end came out. He looked down at the pile and figured it was close to thirty yards. Pulling the other one out, he found it was half as long. Moving the chair, he cut the cord for the second blind.

  “There are the blinds in the other offices,” Teresa said, coming over and rubbing her hands. The scissors weren’t really made for cutting thick canvas.

  “We’ll get them if we need them,” Daniel said, coiling up the cord and looking around the room. Everyone, even Gary, was working.

  Stepping closer, Teresa lowered her voice. “Daniel, I’m begging you; will you please get me home to my kids? Ginger said she didn’t care but you had to agree.”

  He glanced around and saw everyone was too far away to hear and turned to her as he continued to wrap the cord. In all reality, Daniel had to admit he liked Teresa as a friend and knew she loved her kids more than anything. Glancing at the table, he saw a map of Chicago laid out with several X-es placed with names of people. “What’s with the map?”

  “Malik asked where everyone lived so we could figure out how to get them close to home,” she said, and Daniel saw an X to the south with Teresa’s name. He and Ginger lived to the south, and it wasn’t really out of the way.

  “We’ll get you home, and then you’re on your own,” he said, tying the coil of cord off. Letting out a huge sigh, Teresa smiled and hugged him.

  “Thank you,” she said and went back to the group cutting the fire hose. Not even halfway done, three scissors were on the floor because they couldn’t cut the hose anymore.

  Finished wrapping the cord, Daniel grabbed a crowbar from the cart and moved over to the huge copy machine at the back of the room. Tossing the paper drawers on the floor, he started popping out flat pieces of metal until he could reach inside.

  “Man, if this shit ends, your ass is fired,” Malik said, helping Ginger wrap cut-up mouse pads around one end of the brass poles from the lamp. The mouse pads made good grips and shock absorbers on the batons they were making.

  “I quit,” Daniel said, pulling out a black loop. “I sold my soul to work in a place that didn’t allow me to carry my gun, and this is my punishment.”

  Watching Daniel put his thumbs inside the loop, Malik furrowed his brow as Daniel grunted, stretching it out. “You need to keep your punishment to yourself then,” Malik said, wondering why Daniel was grinning with a big ass rubber band.

  “How in the fuck did you know that was there?” Ginger asked, wrapping duct tape around a baton to hold the mouse pad.

  “My first week here, the repairman was here to see why it quit working and replaced this; this is the main drive belt.”

  Grabbing scissors, Ginger cut a strip off another mouse pad and wrapped it around another baton, taping it down. “Not to say it isn’t a good idea, but think it’s strong enough? We are talking about a human skull.”

  “I took the old belt and made one and could shoot metal ball bearings through half-inch plywood at fifteen yards.”

  “Marbles aren’t ball bearings,” Ginger said, going to another baton.

  “I know; they’re lighter and will move much faster. I used to hunt with them and could blow through a rabbit,” he said, walking over to the table. Laying the belt down, he grabbed a roll of duct tape, ripped off a small piece, and wrapped it around the middle, pinching the belt together.

  Shaking his head, totally lost, Malik went back to work. “You Special Forces boys are improvisers. I’ll give you that.”

  “Had to be or you couldn’t graduate,” Daniel said, putting the two ends of the belt on the Y of the table leg he pulled off. When Malik looked up, he grinned, finally understanding.

  “A slingshot from hell, huh,” he said, chuckling as Daniel used tape to hold the loops on the Y.

  “A slingshot can’t hurt nothing,” Gary spat out, wiping the sweat off his face.

  Not saying anything, Daniel kept working until he held up a slingshot that had a three-foot-long handle. He pulled a marble out of the can and put it in the pouch he had made in the middle of the loop with tape. Aiming it at the wall, Daniel pulled back, grunting hard from the strength of the band.

  Letting it go, pop rang out as the marble hit the wall, and everyone saw the round hole through the polished wood. Oscar stepped over and peered in the hole. “I can see the hallway,” he cried out.

  Daniel turned to Gary as he grabbed another marble. “Can I try it out on you, Gary?”

  Grabbing some scissors, Gary went back to cutting the hose. Looking down the table, Daniel pictured the other weapons and nodded. Then he went over to a large dry erase board and started drawing the floor plan to the north fire escape. Following the halls, it was over half a mile away.

  Finished and his mind clear, Daniel moved back to the table and started unwinding one of the rolls of para cord. Grabbing one of the two-foot sections from the lamp, he laid it on the table. Laying five feet of para cord out, he cut it then cut a dozen more, laying them together.

  “You really like Ginger, don’t you?” Holly asked, coming over and rubbing cramps out of her hands from cutting the hose.

  “She’s my kind of girl,” Daniel said and grinned but never stopped working as he dug in his backpack and pulled out a lighter, burning the ends of the para cord.

  Holly smiled and looked down at Ginger as she and Malik continued to work. “You seem to like Teresa also,” she said in a small voice.

  Snorting, he said, “She’s the first MILF I’ve ever thought I could be friends with.”

  “MILF?” Holly asked, cocking her eyebrow.

  “It’s an acronym for Mother I’d Like to Fu—”

  “Daniel,” Ginger snapped. “Holly is in high school.”

  “Then shit, she should know it already. I had to ask my nine-year-old nephew what it meant,” he said, never looking up as he started braiding the para cord in an intricate, tight weave.

  “That’s what it means,” Holly gasped. “I’ve heard it used, but I didn’t know what it meant.”

  “Well now you do,” Daniel said as Malik chuckled and walked over to the blinds, climbing up on a chair. Malik pulled down a long pole that hung in front of the blinds and dropped it. Moving to the ends, he pulled off the heavy curtains that pulled over the blinds for video presentations.

  He carried over the twenty-foot-long pole then grabbed a hacksaw and tape measure from the maintenance cart. Measuring out six feet, he cut the thick, wooden pole. Holly watched in wonder as they made weapons from so many different things and realized Malik had made a staff. “Ah, Mr. Daniel,” she said in a low voice. “Thank you for saving us,” she said and walked away.

  As she walked away, Daniel looked up then turned to Ginger, who tossed down the last baton for six sets of two and half long batons. “So she’s the first MILF you liked?” she said, walking over to stand by him.

  “Yeah,” Daniel shrugged. “Most of the ones I’ve met are stuck up from hell,” he said, going back to braiding the para cord.

  “I can do this,” Ginger said, nudging him aside with her hips. “My dad was in the Navy; I know my knots and weaves.”

  Not arguing, Daniel stood and walked to the cart as Malik cut another six-foot-long pole. Daniel grabbed his slingshot and drew a line about eighteen inches from the bottom of the Y. “Malik, can you cut this off here for me?”

  “Sure,” Malik said as he pulled the pole up. He left it at eight feet. When Malik started sawing, Daniel grabbed the cordless drill from the cart. He saw the battery pack had a full charge and took it off. He grabbed the spare, put it in, and saw it was fully charged as
well. Putting the other battery pack in his back pocket, he grabbed a set of drill bits and pulled out the largest one, tossing the box of bits on the table. Chucking the bit up, he grabbed the paperweight with the scorpion suspended in heavy duty resin that Daniel knew was much stronger than glass. Daniel flipped the sphere over to the small, flat bottom and pressed the trigger.

  Hearing the drill, everyone turned to look up, and Ginger chuckled as she braided the para cord. “Damn, he can think of shit.”

  Tossing down her scissors, Teresa stepped away, rubbing her hand as Oscar replaced her. Walking over to Ginger, Teresa saw her look up at Daniel at the end of the table drilling into the glass sphere. “I’m getting laid,” Ginger mumbled, and Teresa snorted. Hearing the snort, Ginger looked over.

  “Sorry,” Teresa said, moving beside her. “But I can’t fault you for that.”

  “Gentleman or not, he better give up the sex,” Ginger said, continuing the braid. “I’ll break his ankles if he doesn’t; he doesn’t need those to work for hot monkey sex.”

  Chuckling, Teresa patted Ginger’s shoulder. “He said okay about you getting me home,” she said quietly.

  “When you get there, you get your kids, and run for the hills,” Ginger said, looking up at the TV on the far wall. It was muted and showing images of Miami. “Any city or town is a death trap and is only going to get worse.”

  “I will,” Teresa said, wondering what Ginger was doing.

  “Pretty good,” Daniel said, walking up with the sphere. Taking the end furthest from Ginger, he threaded the braided cord through the resin. In wonder, Teresa watched as Daniel left some cord dangling as he weaved a ball in the cord then ran the loose ends around the sphere and weaved them into the braid so the sphere was held on the braided cord.

  As Daniel ripped duct tape off and wrapped it several feet away from the sphere, Ginger threaded the braided cord through the pipe until she had half a foot hanging out the bottom. Looking at the top of the pipe, Teresa saw that’s where Daniel had wrapped tape around the cord.

  Ripping off more tape, Daniel wrapped the cord where it met the sphere, and Ginger weaved a ball at the end of the pipe. “How can you weave a ball?” Teresa asked.