A. R. Shaw's Apocalyptic Sampler: Stories of hope when humanity is at its worst

by A. R. Shaw

  Graham smiled at him and nodded. “That’s great. Good find, buddy. I’ll take a look at them, but there’s a freezer here I need to get loaded into the new truck. Tell Macy to come give me a hand.”

  Tala came out to the garage to help Graham instead. Even though Graham had left the back door open, the smell caught her off guard and her eyes started to water.

  They pulled the spoiled meat from inside the freezer. The power was currently on, but it must have gone off for a time because the food inside looked like it had thawed and refrozen. Ice cream had melted onto the bottom and mixed with crystallized meat blood. They began dumping the cargo into one of the empty trashcans in the garage. Once the freezer was empty, Graham pulled the loaded trashcan outside and farther away from the house into the trees. They cleaned out the bottom with shop rags and then Tala used bleach and hot water from the laundry room sink to melt the refrozen liquids coating the bottom of the freezer and to sanitize it.

  “This will be great for the cougar we have in the fridge,” she said.

  Graham began to laugh. “Did you ever think you’d hear yourself using that phrase?” Tala caught the absurdity of it, and they both laughed again.

  They opened the garage door manually and manhandled the freezer, pushing and pulling it into the truck bed of the Chevy, then went back to shut and lock the garage doors.

  Apparently, the now dead homeowners had been avid Costco shoppers, as were many who lived this far from a major city. There were several cases of canned green beans, corn, peaches, pears, and chili. They also found unopened twenty-five pound bags of flour, sugar, and cornmeal. This would keep them baking through the winter months, at least.

  Upstairs it seemed the homeowner had thought ahead. He’d neatly laid out his two pistols and three hunting rifles onto the beige striped bedspread, along with boxes of ammunition. The walk-in closet held winter wear for both Tala and Graham. They left the pretty dresses and high heels, but took all that Tala and the girls could use, as well as all the men’s clothing and winter boots. In all, it was a great find, but it cast a dark pall on their mission. They had spoken openly downstairs, but upstairs they could only formulate whispers.

  In one of the children’s rooms they found little girl’s clothes, though too small for the twins, in a room painted a soft pink hue, but took the hairbrush sitting on the dresser. None of them wanted to disturb the stuffed animals displayed atop the white canopy bed, but they did because the blankets and pillows suited their needs, then replaced the stuffed animals carefully.

  In the boy’s blue room, they found several jackets, pairs of jeans, and shirts, as well as snow boots that both the twins and Bang could wear. There was a skateboard leaning against the wall, and a baseball bat and glove in the corner. They took the baseball bat—it might come in handy as a weapon—but as they had with the girl’s room, they left the other things as something of a memorial.

  Tala and the girls also gathered all the razors, soap, shampoo, and feminine hygiene products they could find. These last items were in great need; they could bide some time before Tala would have to help prepare the girls for a more organic way of dealing with their periods.

  “It’s too bad this place is too close to town, or we could just move here,” Tala said.

  “Yeah, but it is just not defendable, being so much in the open. At least with the cabin we have some warning if someone tries to get to us.”

  “We could hear them coming up the long drive,” said Macy. “Our tires crunched on the gravel. I bet footsteps would, too.”

  “That’s good thinking, Macy,” Tala said, looking as impressed by the girl’s statement as Graham appeared to be. “Because, really, that’s what it’s going to take for us all to survive here now. Thinking ahead and being cautious.”

  “Hurry up, now,” Graham said. “Let’s just take what we have and we’ll come back another time to get more if we need it. It looks like it’s going to rain, so let’s spread a tarp over the truck bed.” Graham went back into the garage, once again wincing at its powerful odor, in search of another sturdy tarp.

  He found not only a tarp but also several tools he knew he’d need someday. He picked up the hacksaw he used earlier, as well as an ax, a sledgehammer, and a box of nails. Several bungee cords lay in a tangle on the work bench, and he took those too. He bypassed all the electrical tools but noticed a small metal fishing boat hanging on the wall. That’ll have to wait till later, he thought, and hoped the locked doors would protect it until they could make it back here.

  He loaded the tools and fixed the tarp over the bed of the truck and then went back into the house and let the cat out. He locked all the doors and took the house keys with him.

  By the time they were finished loading, a slight drizzle grew to a steadier rain. Graham drove the Chevy with Bang as passenger, and Tala drove the Scout with the girls.

  When they pulled up to the cabin Graham let Tala drive in first so as not to scare Ennis with an unfamiliar vehicle. On their approach, Ennis waited on the porch chair, with Sheriff and his rifle beside him. Smoke rose from the chimney, and Graham thought it looked like a scene from a distant past: an old man and a dog on the front porch of a cabin in the woods.

  30

  New Plans

  “Got a new truck, I see,” Ennis said as Graham stepped out.

  “Yep, everything okay here?” Graham asked.

  “Mostly,” Ennis said slowly, which caused Graham to raise his eyebrows.

  “It can wait till later,” Ennis said.

  Graham knew this wasn’t good news or Ennis would have spilled it right there.

  They unloaded both vehicles, and Graham set up the freezer in the bunkroom, by the only other outlet in the cabin besides the one in the kitchen. He ran an extension cord under Tala’s bunk to plug it in.

  His grandfather had run power to the cabin back in the 1950s when Graham’s dad was a boy, so the kitchen had power outlets for the refrigerator. In the past few years, his father had retrofitted the cabin with solar panels to augment the electricity and top up a large bank of storage batteries kept in a shed out back. Graham hoped the load of both appliances wouldn’t drain the reserve batteries too quickly. He still planned to drag the larger freezer outside during the winter.

  Tala said that the inside of the freezer was cooling nicely, so she shut the lid to let it get down to a freezing temperature before they transferred the cougar meat.

  With that settled, they filled every nook and cranny with the bounty they’d brought. The items of clothing was parceled out to those they most suited, with each person storing it under his or her bed. The extra coats went into a small hall closet, and the boots were lined up by the front door, largest to smallest.

  These things really didn’t belong to any individual; rather, they went on an as-needed basis, and that is how things would continue to be from this time forward with the exception of a few personal mementos.

  Graham could see the family photos he’d taken from the apartment for the twins nailed up between their beds. Bang kept his diary under his pillow. He’d seen the boy open it, looking intently at his mother’s reflection, touching her face with the pad of his small index finger. He wore his mother’s medallion around his neck at all times.

  Graham kept the photos from his father’s house in a tote under his bed. He hadn’t looked at them yet. He just couldn’t bear to, though he wasn’t sure why.

  Tala had a locket at the end of a leather cord around her neck with a picture of her husband on one side and her father on the other. As far as Graham knew, Ennis didn’t have any talisman from his past other than his pocketknife—and a handy tool it had turned out to be.

  Graham could hear and smell venison strips being fried in the kitchen by Tala. The twins talked and clanked dishes as they set the table while Sheriff and Bang enjoyed a scuffle over a sock.

  Anyone who looked in on this scene would believe this was a normal family drama played out daily in normal times. But these were n
ot normal times, and they’d fallen into this routine much too easily. It worried Graham; his subconscious warned him of hidden dangers. We’re becoming too complacent. It’s a trap we must not fall into, because there is nothing normal about our situation.

  “Mr. Graham,” Ennis called him from the front door.

  “Mr. Ennis?” Graham answered back, amused at the formal tone.

  “Get out here. I need to talk to you.”

  Ennis’s tone was more serious than Graham first anticipated, and he knew something grim was about to be discussed.

  Graham stepped through the doorway and leaned his rifle against the jamb, then stretched his arms toward for the blue sky above, glad the rain had ceased. Ennis sat in the old rocker he’d found in the house and had dragged outside so he could keep an eye on the world—for what that world was worth now.

  “Close the door,” Ennis said, and Graham complied.

  In addition to the chair, an old bench for taking off dirty boots leaned against the cabin wall. Graham planted his tired carcass upon it and leaned back.

  “Something happened out by the lake while you were gone,” Ennis said.

  “What?”

  “There’s trouble across the lake.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Saw two no-gooders earlier,” Ennis said.

  Graham sat straighter, automatically checking the position of his gun. “Where’d you come across them?”

  “At the lake. They went by in a canoe. Saw me, too, and waved like they were sayin’, ‘We know you’re there.’”

  Graham leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “Well, did you wave back?”

  “No! I ain’t no fool, you know!” Ennis glared at Graham.

  Graham held up his hands. “I know, Ennis, I know. But tell me more. Those two guys in a canoe paddled by and waved—to you, right?”

  “Yep.”

  “But you didn’t wave back because . . . ?”

  “Because I figure they did it as a kind of warning. They mean trouble. I’m sure of it. Like sayin’, ‘Hey, we know you’re there, and we’ll be back,’”

  “Could you tell where they were going?” Graham asked.

  “They was coming from this side and going to the other, about midway in the lake, when I saw ’em.”

  “Could have shot you from that distance?”

  “Yeah, they could’ve,” Ennis said.

  “But they just waved?” Graham asked a second time because it didn’t make sense to him.

  “I already tol’ you that!” Ennis said, sounding more than a little annoyed. “After you been a cop for as long as I have, you learn to read folks. These guys, they’s up to no good.”

  “I know, Ennis, I’m just trying to figure it out,” Graham said. “You think we’re going to see more of them, then?”

  “We got things they would want, ya know? We got food, cars, fuel—and women, too,” Ennis said, looking more worried about the women than anything else.

  The thought made Graham run his hands down his tired face. He scratched at his beard and said thoughtfully, “Inside earlier, I listened to the rest making a commotion getting dinner ready. It sounds like a real family in there. It worries me. We’ve adjusted well, but maybe not in the right way.”

  “I know. We got a mom and dad with three kids, a pops, and a dog, too, though none of us is related except them twins.” Ennis let go a faintly amused smile, then added, “It could get us all killed, being too relaxed in these times, you know.”

  Graham nodded. “That’s what I’ve been thinking. We need to start keeping watch. It’s probably good training for these kids anyway, to keep them a little on edge and more vigilant.”

  “If it was me,” Ennis said, “I would put an adult with one of them kids on watch in rotation night and day. One at each entrance to this place, by the lake trail, and hidden down by the drive.”

  Graham agreed. “It gets damn cold at night now. We should build a deer stand, hidden at each site to be safer from roaming predators, and come up with some warning calls.”

  “We have any radios?” Ennis asked.

  “No, and the last time I checked my cell phone, there was no signal so the towers must all be out by now.” Graham met Ennis’s gaze, and continued. “Something else happened when we were out. I didn’t tell the rest, but when we stopped at the campground building, the door had been kicked in. There were bloody handprints, like someone was dragged out of there. There was a dead body, too, but I don’t think it had been there very long.”

  Ennis raised his shaggy white eyebrows at Graham. “That don’t sound too good. Hope these two things aren’t related.”

  “No, it doesn’t sound good at all. As we drove away there were several more homes in succession that also had their doors kicked in.”

  “Sure hope it ain’t them guys I saw.” Ennis’s brows drew together in a frown.

  “Well, in any case, we are not alone here, that’s for sure,” Graham said. “So we need to take better precautions and stop treating this like a damn family vacation or we’ll get ourselves killed in our sleep.”

  “Those children in there need a chance to grow up. We have to make it so they can,” Ennis said, and Graham was glad they agreed on the important things.

  Bang opened the door and told the two men that dinner was ready. “I’ll keep watch,” Ennis said to Graham. “You already put in a hard day’s work, scavengin’ and unloadin’.”

  Graham nodded. “I’ll eat quickly, relay the news to the others, and then come relieve you.”

  “Sounds good to me.” Ennis pulled up his rifle and laid it across his knees. After seeing the cougar, Graham pitied anyone crossing Ennis’s barrel end.

  Graham walked in and unconsciously stomped his boots off even though he’d not gotten them dirty. He smelled the aroma of chicken-fried venison strips, instant mashed potatoes with gravy, canned green beans, and biscuits. His stomach complained, as if to tell him to hurry the hell up to the table.

  Macy passed him the biscuits, and even though they didn’t have butter they were good to dredge through the white pan gravy Tala had made. Graham had almost devoured one and reached for another when Macy asked, “Where’s Ennis?”

  “He’s keeping watch. I’ll eat now and then he’ll come in after,” Graham said, “So let’s save him a plate and several of the biscuits too. He’ll like them. They’re really good.”

  “Tala made them even though she didn’t have a recipe,” Macy said.

  “Thank you, Graham, glad you like them.” Tala turned to Macy and added, They’re not hard to make. I’ll show you how to do it. So we’re keeping watch now?” Tala asked, returning her gaze to Graham.

  “Yes. Ennis saw two men cross the lake in a canoe today, and we don’t know if they are good or bad. Not only that, but we ourselves saw several doors kicked in back in town. We need to be more vigilant. We have food, cars, and fuel that other people might want to take from us by force, so we really need to start being more careful around here. And that means each of us is going to start keeping watch, night and day.”

  They all stopped eating and stared at Graham with worried expressions.

  “This is the way things are now. Two people will keep watch, in teams. One young person and one adult. We are going to build stands at the front and lake entrances. Understand?” he asked.

  “All night, too?” Bang asked.

  “Yes, even at night. Those who do the night watch will sleep during the day,” Graham said.

  Marcy bit her bottom lip. “What if we see something?”

  “Ennis and I are trying to come up with some kind of alert system. We don’t have cell phone use anymore, and so far we haven’t come across any two-way radios,” Graham said.

  “There were some in that house, in the kitchen, above the fridge,” Macy said.

  “There were? Why didn’t you say so?” Graham asked.

  “I didn’t know we needed them.”

  “These days those are
a necessity. We’ll go back for them tomorrow.” Graham finished his hearty dinner so that he could switch off with Ennis before the old man’s food got too cold.

  Graham rose from the table and grabbed another biscuit, stuffing it into his mouth. “You”—he pointed to Tala—“must make these every day now,” he said with a smile. He grabbed another, along with his rifle, and headed back to the porch.

  Tala’s pleased laughter followed him. “Happy to provide some enjoyment.”

  “You’re relieved, Ennis,” Graham said, opening the door.

  The old man rose the way that old men rise—slowly, with soreness in their aged bones and muscles. Graham noticed the chill in the air and knew Ennis couldn’t handle the colder temperatures, and it wasn’t even winter yet.

  He knew he’d have to take on the brunt of the night watches, but even the daytime watches would soon get unbearable for Ennis. He wished Bang were a bit older, then reminded himself he needed to stop thinking of the girls as useless when it came to outside work. Macy could be tough, and she’d proven to be a really good shot.

  Graham settled down into the rocker and listened to the quiet around him. He could hear faint conversations at the dinner table. The deciduous trees scattered among the evergreens were turning brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and red. The wild grasses, having expended their chlorophyll for the season, now turned dry and brittle underfoot, paving the way for winter’s arrival. Soon the snow would cover this hidden oasis—or so Graham hoped.

  Tomorrow he would take Macy with him back to the supply house and retrieve the radios. With them he hoped they’d be able to practice better vigilance.

  That night, Graham and Macy took their first watch after Ennis and Bang took a shorter four-hour watch because he just didn’t think either could handle more than that. He positioned the girl behind the bushes, bundled her up in two coats. If she heard or saw anything alarming, she would sneak around to the cabin and alert the others. Graham positioned himself likewise and climbed up a scrawny tree to get a better view, and found watching to be boring and mundane at best but at least it gave him time to think.