by JM Scott
Trent whistled from behind, “Bandita, you take my heart.”
I blushed with his attention at my appearance. I had no idea if he was being serious or not.
“I don’t think she’ll mind if you took them,” he said.
“They’re not very practical,” I said.
“Not right now, but you think it’s going to be like this forever. I don’t know you Bandita, but I know the good people are going to rebuild. And you will want a nice outfit for Mr. Right.”
He put his hands on my shoulders and squeezed. “Take these clothes for the future. I found us two packs. I hope you like unicorns.”
Trent presented two large packs. One was maroon canvas bag with a large unicorn sewn on the front. And the other was a beat up back pack with writing on it.
“Kids lived here?”
“Yeah, found these in the kids’ room. Seems like a nice little family. Mom, dad, boy, girl. He was failing school. I saw the progress report when I dumped his bag. So I guess he lucked out,” Trent said and gave me the unicorn bag.
“And get this someone just bought a huge pack of toothbrushes and deodorant. Someone liked shopping at Costco.”
I took off her clothes and folded them up as small as I could and put them on the bottom of my bag. There was blood in the kids’ rooms and blood in the living room. But no rats. We gathered everything we needed. I felt like an expert at this already. We found kitchen twine and tied two gallons of water on our bags.
“So you know how to get to Trexlertown?” I asked.
“Yeah don’t you?”
“I’ve never been out of the city.”
“Well there is first time for everything. I was thinking once we get out, we can find a working car and drive there or anywhere you want to go.”
“Yeah good,” I answered. Today felt like a good day.
We started down the alley. The sun was bright and the day was already warming up. I figured we should be in Trexlertown by sunset. It wasn’t that far away. We walked in stride and turned the corner to where we left our stuff. And it was still there. They followed us yesterday. Why would they leave all the stuff just in the alley? We stopped. I pulled out the gun. And the more I thought about it, the more I should have let Trent have the gun. I was no good with it. I wasn’t even sure I could shoot anyone. You always think that when the going gets tough, you do what you have to. In my case, I would run away. I’m just a scaredy cat at heart.
The crack of a gun broke me out of my stupor. The bullet whizzed by.
“Come out little runaway. We know you’re there. With a little friend.”
I didn’t know what to do. A bullet travels faster than I could run and where we would go? No, we should run. Then out of nowhere, someone hit me in the head and I fell to the ground like a discarded candy wrapper. There was a man behind Trent. The world was fuzzy. I fell on the water bottles and they burst under my weight. The world was fuzzy someone had my hair yanking me down the street. I opened my eyes, the blood started to dry. Trent struggled. My hands were tied behind my back. As they dragged me, the road scrapped fresh wounds.
The world was still fuzzy, and I felt sick to my stomach. I was on my knees. I leaned over and threw up the saltines and peanut butter Trent and I had for breakfast. Someone jerked my head up. We weren’t at the library or the shelter but somewhere else. I tried to focus my eyes. The Wild Cherry.
“Let us go, we’re leaving,” Trent said.
Shiny Boots stood in front of me. His boots looked particularly shiny. What did he do spend all his time polishing his boots?
“We are on our way to Trexlertown,” Trent said. Another man whacked him and hard and then held up his head. Blood poured from his nose.
“Sure, you’re leaving my city. Stealing from the good people.”
“Good people,” I said barely above a whisper.
“What is little Red Runaway saying?”
“I came to you. You shot at me. I’m just a girl.”
He bent down and looked me in the eyes, then stroked my cheek, “I remember you from before Red.” He ran his fingers through my hair, “I always had a thing for red heads. And you’re far from being a girl. A little street rat like you, you probably like it so dirty. I wanted you in the back of my cruiser begging me to let you go. You would do anything.”
Shiny Boots was as dirty as they come. When I would see him, I would go the other way. I heard what he did to others. He raped hookers, he pissed on homeless sleeping in alleys. He arrested dealers, took their drugs and sold them to the local crack heads. I was lucky to never run into him. I knew how to keep my p’s and q’s. And if a crime happened and he was around, it would never get solved.
Instead of speaking anymore to this piece of shit, I spit on his face. His face reddened and his hand connected with my face. The world went fuzzy again. Gunshots. A man fell on top of me. We fell to the side. His dead body lay over mine. I couldn’t tell where the shots came from. I looked to my left and Trent was looking somewhere else. Men were scattering. I realized the gun shots were coming from behind.
“I wouldn’t shoot back. I want to make a deal,” said a man emerging from the alleyway across the Wild Cherry. He was tall with long blonde hair and pale skin. He was muscular but not overpowering and he was heavily armed. Where ever he came from he must have raided a precinct. Another one because Shiny Boots and his pals were also heavily armed. There was a precinct down several blocks from the library.
“Unless you want me to send some of my guys down to your new little community and do a little eye for an eye. Let me ask which is your favorite woman?”
“I thought you were leaving Huck. You broke our deal.”
“I was leaving, and then I saw you were giving this girl and her man some trouble. They said they were leaving.”
“They were stealing. She’s a little street rat, stealing is all she does. He’s a worthless spic.”
Huck smiled. “Aren’t we all stealing nowadays?”
“I’m rebuilding Allentown. It will be good. The people are good. Their kind is not welcome. We can’t rebuild without law and order.”
“So true, but these kids didn’t know about the law. You never told them.”
“We don’t have time for juries. I am the judge and jury. So get on your way.”
“I said I want to make a deal. I think it will be beneficial for you.”
“What is it?”
“I will trade you the keys to the ambulance, which has a full tank of gas and in perfect condition for these two.”
“Why would you do that? They aren’t worth it.”
“To me, they are. I see potential.”
“Fine you can have them but the lot of you better be out of my city before nightfall.”
“Their bags. I am sure you can part with their bags. And her gun, give it back to her.”
Shiny Boots tossed the bags at us and slid the gun over to me. Other men and one woman came from the alley. Huck bent down and untied my hands. He gathered my bag and gun and scooped me up. I didn’t deserve any of this. Shiny Boots was right in a way. I did steal but not that often. I always had a little money from working. I didn’t want to be in Huck’s arms being carried like a baby. I wasn’t a baby. I didn’t need him, but I guess I did. He carried me several blocks until we met up with other people. They were huddled around an ambulance station.
He plopped me down on the steps and a woman came over to look at my injuries.
She started cleaning me up. “You are so lucky to be alive. A girl as small as you shouldn’t have made it through the beatings he gave you.”
“I guess I’m used to it.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said.
Trent and I washed in the cold shower. Blood swirled on the white tile. I watched him as he washed himself. I never saw a naked man before well at least not in real life. I wanted to hide behind my hands. I turned away from him and let the coldness wash over me. We didn’t speak. I didn’t know what to say. I d
idn’t know what he was thinking.
After dressing, he rebandaged some of the cuts on my head. He smiled at me as he snipped the gauze.
“Well if this is what you call a first date, then I’m not so sure if I want a second.”
I cracked a smile. “Not a date.”
“Sure about that? We showered together that normally tells me we had a date.”
“We didn’t shower together we were under two separate showers.”
“Yeah we were naked though.”
They waited for us in the garage. The group had twelve people. Two women and ten men. They appeared to older than me but not by much. Huck definitely had to be thirty.
“So, you coming with us?” Huck asked and offered water and dried meat.
“To where?” Trent asked.
“Ipswich, New York.”
“Shouldn’t we go to the National Guard base in Trexlertown?” I said.
He came over and dropped to his knees and held my hands. Why did people always touch me since this happened? And although Huck saved my life, this moment felt weird.
“Listen Baby Girl, you don’t want to go there. There’s no one there. They combined forces with Philly. Ipswich is my home. It is a small town and we can go there. We can rebuild. You want that don’t you? To rebuild your life? To make something new of yourself?”
In a way a did. I couldn’t help but to think the world was at my taking. I could have any clothes I wanted. I could do anything I wanted. It’s like all the stuff before didn’t matter. It was a clean slate for me. And it probably was a clean slate for a lot of people, Huck and the others.
“You don’t have to. We can get you and your boyfriend out of the city. Then you and him are on your own. And do you think there aren’t more people like old Charlie? The end times are now Baby Girl, and you need people to have your back. We’ll have your back. Will you have ours? Come with us to Ipswich.”
It felt romantic or at least what romance was like. Except I hated his pet name. I hated how he was on his knees, begging for us to come with him. Why would it matter anyway? Trent and I we could do it on our own. But Trent was different than me. He was laughing and fitting in with the others. He needed people. I needed myself, but I felt like I owed something to Trent and to Huck. He did save my life. And there is honor in that.
“Yes.”
“What?”
“I want to make a new life,” I said.
He reached out and stroked my hair, which is another thing I hated. “I’m glad you said that Baby Girl. You can be anything now. Anything you want. This world gave you a nice big reset button.” Then he cupped my face and kissed the top of my forehead. I wanted to feel that thrill of a man’s touch like when Trent touched me, but instead I felt sick. What did Huck really want from me?
Part II- Home
Chapter Ten
Ipswich, New York has been home for the last six months. Once we left Allentown on foot, we found vehicles and drove here. When we left Allentown there were fourteen of us. Now there were thirty. There are ten women including myself. We either gathered them on our way up or they came to us. For the first time in two years, I had an apartment. I didn’t have to pay rent money to Huck, who made himself the boss around here. You contributed. And that was the buzz word, contribute. We were assigned jobs. Women for the most part stayed back in town doing womanly things.
We lived in the Beedermen building. Before the event it was a small complex that housed the elderly above several store fronts. We cleaned and scrubbed every room and building in town. Huck assured us the town was ours and we had to secure it. He let me choose my apartment. I chose that had a view of trees on the top floor. I always had this thing of living in a penthouse. Well I didn’t see any penthouses around so it was the next best thing. And even though, we had plenty of apartments in the Beederman, I lived with Trent. It was fine because most of the time I wasn’t home.
I had a lot of jobs in Ipswich. I never felt like I contributed enough, and I didn’t know what else to do. There was a large reservoir a mile from downtown. We built a water pump. Since there was still no electricity someone had to pump it into the distiller and bring the distilled water to town. That was my job. I liked being in the woods and listening to the birds. It was calm there.
I also was Huck’s secretary, if you want to call it that. I always had a radio and he would call me to deliver messages or ask for something. Sometime in September, Ginny found out she was pregnant. So I took on her duties. But then she lost the baby, and I was the one called to help clean her up.
Huck had a thing for babies. He encouraged all of us to shack up and make babies. Everyone except me. It seemed like they were obsessed with babies because soon people moved around and they try again with another partner. Maybe we were supposed to have babies. Whatever happened in April is still happening. Sometimes, Huck would tell me that he and I would make lovely babies.
I didn’t think so. I never had sex before. It’s not like I didn’t think about it. It just didn’t seem right to hook up with one of the many available guys in Ipswich to make a baby. I wasn’t even sure if I want a baby now or ever. My mother was not a good mother. What if I turned out like her? I didn’t think I could have a kid and make them miserable. Yet, here in Ipswich, it didn’t seem like it would matter because there is some other person jumping at the chance to have babies, they would raise any baby as their own. I could feel their eyes on me, the town looking at me, wondering if there was something wrong with me. I tried to shake it but sometimes old habits die hard. I liked being on my own. I was happy with my work and my freedom. I went to the library and stayed there until my candle burnt down. I wanted love because who didn’t. And maybe since it was the end of the world, I shouldn’t be too choosy but there I was being choosy.
The only one I could imagine doing anything with was Trent. But he knew me. He knew me like no one else and he stayed. Maybe there was something there, I didn’t know. I never pushed it with him. I was sure he was interested in someone prettier. Huck constantly watched me. I always felt his eyes on me. I could feel them taking off my clothes. But he never tried anything.
I got up before Trent and started the coffee on the propane camp stove. We all have camp stoves, lanterns and heaters that ran on propane. We started sleeping in the same bed for warmth. We normally slept separate from each other. I didn’t like running the heaters while we slept. I always felt that we would catch the place on fire. I also didn’t like wasting propane. Trent never argued with me. I knew I was safe but I was still thrifty. You just never know anymore. And after April, you never know when you would need stuff.
Wind howled against the window and I think saw snowflakes. It would be a bitch pumping water today. Trent came out, rubbing his hands together. He flicked on the heater and stood by the stove rubbing his hands.
“Sleep okay?” He asked. Since we shared a bed for the last month that was his new question. Most of the time, we wound up intertwined with each other under dozens of blankets and quilts. It was comfortable.
I nodded.
“It’s going to snow. You want help pumping water?” When he didn’t have an assignment he would come with me to pumper.
“Sure you can come. You can always come.” I poured us coffee in our two mugs. His had a fish and mine was blue. Just blue. He brought me another mug a couple of months ago while he was on a run. It had a mermaid on it and said “I’ll sea you in OC” I keep it the table beside my bed because it was a gift he gave me. It is the last thing I look at before I go to sleep. Now that things were getting normal, I dreamt about the beach.
The radio crackled. “Holly Berry, you awake?” Huck asked. Holly Berry was his nickname for me when there were others around. When we were alone it was always Baby Girl. I didn’t mind Holly Berry as much as Baby Girl. I still hated that nickname. But I knew that it wasn’t worth losing all of this. Huck was the boss. He could have left me in Allentown, where no doubt, I would be rat food. I sometimes, find myself
wondering about the library people.
I picked up the radio and answered.
“I want Trent to go a run. I have it mapped out. Tell him to come by the office in twenty.”
“No problem, Boss,” I replied. I think he liked when I called him boss. No one else did. I never gave people nicknames. And Boss seemed to fit. His real name is James Canterbury, but goes by Huck. He tells people he is like the modern Huckleberry Finn. I didn’t know what he meant, so I got the book from the library. I read when I can.
“And Holly Berry, I need you to bring the book into the office” he said.
The book was a ledger of all the people in our town. It was my job to write down a person’s name, age, birth date, who they lost in the event, and where they came from. Huck said as his assistant that town record keeping was my job. Sometimes, I was never sure of why I was his assistant when there were so many other people probably could do it better. I kept the book in my apartment as were the directions. I wondered if we were getting some new people. I loved the people I lived with, but it would be nice to meet some other people. Maybe a friend.
Trent gave me a cup of coffee and squeezed my shoulders, in a way that married people do in the mornings. I kind of wished he kissed my cheek. Of course, I wasn’t sure how I would feel about that. I finally understood the phrase “first word problems.” When I was on the streets, love didn’t enter my thoughts. Sex, on the other hand did, not because I wanted it. I didn’t want it, and I made sure I kept it that way. Sex on the streets is dangerous from disease to assholes who beat women, I knew there was nothing but trouble. But things here were different. Life was good. And for me it was better than it ever was. No one hit me here. People were kind. They didn’t go out of there way to be friendly with me, but they didn’t treat me poorly. I was safe. I had a home. I had a kitchen full of food (because I was still in thrift mode. Once a day eating. Though Trent ate on the road). I had the freedom to roam all over town. I had peace and quiet at the reservoir. Trent taught me to drive.
