It seemed to me a pretty good life philosophy, actually.
Especially with the state of the world ruined as it was.
“Can you tie the stem in a knot?” he asked me. “There was this stripper named Bingo I met at Emerald’s. She could tie a cherry stem in a knot around the handle of a plastic sword! All with her tongue!”
I shook my head no.
“But she had these buck teeth so maybe that was her secret weapon.”
The ice cream was getting soft. I looked at the clock.
“When are they coming? Can I go get them?” Max asked.
It was eight thirty.
Where were they?
Suddenly I realized that the store was completely quiet.
We could hear no distant voices.
No early-morning quarrels among the little ones.
No husky laughing from Jake or Brayden.
No movement.
I started to run.
“What is it? Where are they?” Max yelled as he followed me.
The Train was completely empty.
I spun around.
Max ran up to me.
“Where is everybody?” he cried.
“Shhhhh!” I said.
And I heard, faintly, sounds coming from the storage room.
“They’re in the back,” I told Max. “Come on.”
* * *
Just as we reached the doors, Alex came out.
“Dean,” he said. “I was coming for you. There’s people at the door!”
I pushed my way through the little kids to the front of the group, near the intercom.
The screen was a dull gray, with two shapes standing a bit off.
Niko: “They could be dangerous!”
Josie: “They need our help!”
Jake: “We can not trust them!”
Brayden: “But they know Mrs. Wooly!”
It was the last one that caught my attention.
“What?” I yelled. “They know Mrs. Wooly?”
“We’re going to vote,” Niko declared.
“WAIT!” I shouted. “Somebody tell me what’s going on!”
“We were taking the trash to the Dump when Henry heard a voice,” Josie told me. “I came back here and a man was asking us to let him in. Craig Appleton is his name.”
“And he has a friend,” Niko interrupted. “There’s two of them.”
“The friend knew Mrs. Wooly,” Brayden added. “He’s the maintenance guy from the grammar school.”
“Yeah,” said Chloe. “He fixed the buses and snowblower and stuff.”
“How did they get through the guy?” I asked Niko. He looked at me blankly. “The guy guarding the store.”
Now the little kids started asking what guy guarding the store and Niko shrugged.
“I didn’t ask.”
“Well, shoot,” Jake said. “Let’s ask them now.”
So Niko stepped up to the intercom.
“Excuse me, sir, we have a question for you.”
One of the shapes stepped up to the intercom. His face was wrapped in layers of some kind of plaid material. Maybe a wool throw rug?
“Yes, Niko, what’s the question?”
“Well … There was a man. Who was deranged from the compounds. As we understood it, he had sort of decided the store was his and he wasn’t letting anyone get—”
“Yes,” said Craig Appleton. “We had to shoot him.”
* * *
Niko told Josie to take the little kids, including Sahalia and Alex, back to the Living Room. Josie refused.
“I’m not going to be left out of this decision,” she argued.
“Me either,” said Sahalia.
Niko took a deep breath.
“I tell you what, Sahalia,” Niko said. “If you take the kids to the Living Room and play with them, I will stop considering you a little kid. You’ll have full big-kid status and all the privileges of a big kid.”
“Oh, now I’m a big kid? You guys treat me like dirt but when you need something—”
“Sahalia!” Niko shouted. “I. Need. Your. Help!”
“Fine,” she spat. “But I want my vote counted.”
“And what’s your vote?” Niko asked.
“Let them in. Maybe they can tell us what the hell’s going on out there. Come on, guys,” she said, rounding up the little kids.
“Let them in! Let them in!” shouted Chloe through the ruckus of little kids’ voices.
“Hey, Sahalia,” I called as she herded the kids off. “We set up a sundae bar…”
“For breakfast?” she said, disapproving.
“Mr. Appleton, you’ll need to wait for a moment,” Niko said into the intercom. “We need to discuss this and take a vote.”
The man’s muffled face came close to the monitor.
“We understand that you need time to decide,” he said. “There’s a lot of very scary people out here. But you can trust Robbie and me. That’s why Mrs. Wooly told Robbie about where you were. She and Robbie are good friends.
“But now I am injured and we’re out of supplies. Food and water are very scarce out here. If you could just help us stock up, we can give you the only thing we really have to trade.”
“What’s that?” Niko asked.
“Information,” he said.
* * *
It was as heated a debate as we’d ever had. Niko and Jake made a good case for not letting them in.
Niko was really concerned that they had shot the O monster. They could use their gun (or guns) against us. We could end up their prisoners. They might take over and try to rule the Greenway.
“My job is to keep you safe,” Niko said, his arms crossed. “They have guns and they are adults. They can take care of themselves.”
“If they try to take over it’ll be a total downer,” Jake drawled. His eyes were glassy and strange. “They should just go on their way. We don’t want strangers in here, telling us what to do.”
Brayden shook Jake’s arm.
“Dude, are you insane?” Brayden said. “They can tell us what’s going on out there! We need to know! And we got tons of stuff. We trade stuff for information.”
“I agree with Brayden. We should be generous and share what we have. We need to know what’s going on outside. It’s worth the risk,” Josie said.
Alex was opposed to adding any variables into what was a stable environment.
What tipped it was the rules Brayden proposed.
And my vote.
* * *
Niko turned to all of us.
“I just want it on the record that I am against this. I am only doing it because I’ve been outvoted. I think it’s a bad idea.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Brayden said. “Do you want to tell them or should I?”
Niko turned, sighing and pressed his finger onto the Talk button.
“We’ll let you in,” said Niko into the intercom. “On the following conditions. One, you give us your guns for the duration of your stay. Two, you agree to leave tomorrow morning, no matter what. Three, you promise to take no more than we give you, and four, you swear you will abide by our rules.”
“Agreed,” said Mr. Appleton, without consulting Robbie. “Now how can we help you open up this door?” he asked.
“We can’t open it,” Niko answered. “We’ll throw you a ladder down from the roof.”
* * *
I was banished from the storeroom, as were Niko and Brayden.
“You, too, Josie,” Niko said.
“But we don’t even know what type I am!” she protested.
“Exactly,” said Niko.
Alex and Jake would be the ones to let the men in.
Jake and Alex got bundled up in layers of clothing as a preventative measure. Niko handed Jake the home security ladder and then Jake and Alex went up the metal staircase and worked on opening the hatch.
After the woman had been attacked, Niko had wanted the hatch to be really easy to open (though still airtight) in case w
e had another emergency.
I guess he’d made the hatch really darn easy because by the time we got back with baby wipes, two gallons of spring water, and fresh clothes for the two men, we could hear adult voices through the storeroom doors.
They sounded friendly.…
* * *
Josie, Niko, Brayden, and I waited impatiently outside the storeroom doors.
Eventually Alex came out holding two handguns. He held each by the grip, barrel facing down, held out away from his body. He held them the way you might hold a couple of dead rats. He also had a fanny pack filled with ammo looped around one shoulder.
“Guess what?” he said after he unwound a scarf from his face. “They have a dog! A nice one.”
“I’ll take the guns,” Niko said. He held out a two-gallon Ziploc bag and Alex placed the guns and ammo into it. Niko wrapped it up neatly and headed off toward the Accessories Department. To hide them, I guess.
I gave Alex the clothes and cleaning supplies to take back into the storeroom.
“What are they like?” I asked Alex.
He shrugged.
“They’re acting nice,” he said. Then he looked at me. “Wouldn’t you?”
Sahalia brought the kids over.
“I couldn’t keep them away any longer,” she said. “They’re all hopped up on the idiotic amounts of sugar you set out for them.”
They were pretty wired. They were buzzing around and laughing and shouting and pushing each other and bopping up and down.
Then the timbre of Mr. Appleton’s voice came through the doors and they stopped talking.
A grown-up’s voice. Grown-ups were among us.
Caroline and Henry were holding hands, and I saw Max and Ulysses grab on to each other.
The door swung open but it was just Alex again.
“They’re changing their clothes and tidying up,” he told us. “And guess what, you guys? They have a surprise!”
“What is it?” “What is it?” “What’s the surprise?” “Are they staying forever?” “Are they here to rescue us?” “Is it anyone we know?” came the questions.
Josie motioned for the kids to follow her and she took them just a little ways back from the door.
“The two men are here to trade with us,” she said. “We are going to give them food and water and let them spend the night here. In exchange, they are going to tell us how things are going outside.”
“But … but…,” stammered Henry. He started to bawl. “I want to go home! I want my mommy! I’m tired of waiting and waiting!”
Josie hugged him and picked him up.
“I know, Henry,” she said. “You and Caroline have been so patient. But maybe these guys can tell us how much longer we will have to wait. Come on, guys,” she said to the little kids. “You can each pick out a welcome gift for the outsiders.”
Off they went, chatting and chirping like a little flock of birds.
There was manly laughter from behind the doors. Meanwhile, for those of us on the other side, it felt like time had stood still.
“Aaaaaargh,” Niko said under his breath. “I hope this wasn’t a huge mistake.”
“It’ll be okay,” I said. “Mrs. Wooly wouldn’t have told them about us if she didn’t trust them.”
Niko sighed and ran his hands through his dark, straight hair.
“I will never forgive myself if something happens to one of us,” he said. “Never.”
“Lighten up, Scouty,” Brayden said. “It’ll be fine.”
Chloe came back with two Snickers bars. Max and Ulysses lugged one big bottle of Gatorade each. Caroline and Henry had picked out some greeting cards. Batiste had two new bibles.
“Well, the Welcome Wagon’s ready,” Josie said.
And finally the doors swung open.
Mr. Appleton was tall, maybe six feet tall, and dressed now in a pair of khakis, a plaid flannel shirt, and a gray pullover sweater. The kind with patches on the elbows. His eyes had red rims, and his nose also was red around the nostrils. Besides that he looked pale and shaky. He had salt-and-pepper hair that was cut short and stood up pretty much straight. It was dirty—there was only so much you could do with a gallon of water and baby wipes, but it probably looked a lot better than it had before.
He was limping and there was already some new blood seeping through the khakis.
We should have brought medical supplies, I thought to myself.
Robbie was a good foot shorter. He was Latino and had a deeply tanned face with crinkle marks around his eyes. Smile lines. His eyes and nose were also red but he was grinning at us. And he held in his arms an old dog.
It was wet, and though Robbie had an awkward grip on it, the dog seemed patient and resigned to the indignity of being held. The dog was of no particular breed. A grayish-brownish-colored mutt with a scrunched-up face, white around the muzzle. It had one of those smushed-in faces dogs sometimes have, with one bottom tooth that stuck out over its upper lip. Ugly, but definitely lovable.
The kids cheered and oohed and aahed at the dog.
The dog woofed and wagged its stumpy tail politely.
“Everyone,” Jake said. “This is Mr. Appleton and this is Robbie.”
Robbie held the dog up.
“And this here is Luna,” he said cheerfully.
Robbie let the dog down. She came forward to smell our feet. Luna had a length of twine as a leash.
We’d soon fix that. Luna would have every pet luxury a Greenway could provide.
The little kids pressed forward all at once, offering their gifts.
Mr. Appleton duly shook hands and tousled hair and accepted the offerings, then he seemed to sway and Robbie held out his arm to support him.
“Let’s get you to the Pharmacy,” said Niko.
“Or perhaps you could bring some bandages here,” Mr. Appleton said as he slumped to the floor.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
BREAKFAST WITH OUTSIDERS
My first impression was that Mr. Appleton was an ex-army guy. We had a lot of them in the area. He had that very good posture of the army men, and also the haircut. His haircut was the way army men let their hair grow out. They didn’t quite want the buzz—maybe they felt they didn’t deserve to wear a buzz anymore, but they didn’t want their hair flopping over either.
Mr. Appleton seemed to tolerate the little kids, but I didn’t have the sense he liked them one bit.
Robbie, on the other hand, was a family guy, you could see that straightaway. He looked like he was in heaven, surrounded by all the little kids. But it was the way he handled Ulysses that won me over.
After Niko went for medical supplies, the kids gathered around Robbie and Luna on the ground. Robbie was learning the names of the kids and introducing them to Luna. I saw him watching Ulysses, waiting for it to be Ulysses’s turn to introduce himself.
And Ulysses said, “Soy Ulysses,” and Robbie just reached out and grabbed him and hugged him. Spanish words poured out of the two of them and soon Ulysses was crying and Robbie was crying, too, and just holding him in a one-armed hug while the other arm held on to Luna, who decided she should begin washing their two faces with her tongue.
Ulysses, apparently, had had a lot to say this whole time. And only hadn’t said much because none of us could understand him.
Why I had chosen to study French in high school I will never understand.
Niko returned with the supplies. He knelt down in front of Mr. Appleton and cut a slit on the cuff of his new chinos. Niko began splitting them up the leg.
There were two wounds on Mr. Appleton’s leg. Near the ankle there was a horrible gash. I had never seen anything like it.
“Josie, maybe we should take the kids away?” I suggested feebly.
The wound looked like the guts of a fish, if that makes any sense. A big slash with pieces of flesh hanging out of it—green-and-yellow oozing flesh. It wasn’t bleeding, but you could see lines of red running under the skin, going up the leg, following th
e course of his veins. The lines were red and also a bruised kind of green in places.
The blood was coming from a different wound. This one above the knee. It looked like a bite, kind of. There was a chunk of flesh missing.
“What happened to you?” Chloe demanded.
“Razor wire,” Mr. Appleton said.
Niko poured hydrogen peroxide on the ankle wound and it hissed. Out loud.
“Come on, guys,” I said, feeling a little woozy. “Let’s give Niko some space to work. Everyone come help me in the Kitchen.”
There were protests and awws, but the stink coming out of that ankle gash was pretty ripe and eventually me, Josie, Sahalia, and Alex got the little kids rounded up and led them to the kitchen.
They were like a bunch of crickets, hopping and jumping all around, so excited by the arrival of GROWN-UPS and a DOG!
* * *
“Batiste,” I said, calling him over to me. “We need to fix something special.”
“Two breakfasts?” he asked.
“Well, the first one was sundaes, for God’s sake.”
“Don’t-take-the-Lord’s-name-in-vain,” he said quickly. Then “Yes! We’ll make a feast of thanksgiving, but for breakfast.”
Batiste ran ahead to the Food aisles. Chloe went with him to help. I guess they were starting to get along, somewhat.
I told Alex and Sahalia to throw away all the sundae stuff.
I got the other little kids busy making banana nut muffins under Josie’s supervision while Batiste and I cranked in the Kitchen.
In just under forty-five minutes, Batiste and I prepared roasted vegetable quiches, hash browns, a kind of a fruit salad Batiste told me was called ambrosia, and the last four packages of bacon.
Niko led the men into the Kitchen, just as the coffee finished brewing. Mr. Appleton was now equipped with crutches, which I hadn’t known we even had.
“Ay Dios!” Robbie exclaimed. “Look at all of this food!”
“And we made muffins for you!” shouted Max.
“And mine is the biggest!” shouted Chloe.
The little kids were a-boppin’ again, all yelling at the same time. And then Luna started barking.
“Shhh, you guys!” Josie said.
But they didn’t listen.
“Quiet! QUIET!” Mr. Appleton shouted.
The kids shut up immediately.
The silence was tense.
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