Enduring Armageddon

by Parker, Brian

  She scribbled on a sheet of paper for a moment and then handed it to us along with two necklaces, each with a large washer for a pendant. “Water is still available from the town’s water tower, but its use is restricted to drinking and light bathing only. First time residents are allowed to take a shallow bath to clean the travel grime from their bodies, but after that, it’s all whore-baths with a bucket and washcloth. It’s recommended that you boil the water or decontaminate it somehow before you drink it since the tower is now being refilled by pumps running off generators. We can’t guarantee the cleanliness of the water down in the wells. If you have to use the restroom, flushing toilets are not permitted, so you’ll need to go outside or utilize the town’s outhouses over near the square. Anyone found violating the water policies will be expelled from the community, no questions asked.

  “The necklace is your meal card,” she continued. “Show that at any restaurant or food station in town and you can pick up your meal. We serve twice a day: Between six and seven a.m. and between six and seven p.m. Be in line somewhere when it’s time to eat and you’ll be given food and clean water. I’ve written the locations and times for your work call on the sheet of paper, but Chuck, you’ll meet at the Virden town square at seven tomorrow morning. Rebecca, you’ll meet at the elementary school administration office at seven-thirty. Any questions?”

  Becca and I looked at each other and each shook our heads. “No, I don’t think so,” I said.

  “Okay, make sure you are where you’re supposed to be when you’re supposed to be and everyone will get along fine. Next!” she shouted as she lifted her hand into the air indicating to the people in line that she was ready for another registrant.

  TWO

  After examining the town map we determined that the house on Holden Street was only three blocks away. As we exited the building we saw that it was fully dark now and the rain had ended, but the puddles of poisonous goo left over from the deluge remained in the street. We would need to take care to avoid them so we didn’t get a chemical burn.

  “Hey babe, can you get the flashlight out of my pack? Center pocket,” I said as I turned away from Rebecca and crouched in front of her so she could easily access my backpack.

  I heard the Velcro tabs separate and felt the gentle tug against my shoulders as she buried her hands into the pack looking for the light. “Got it,” she said with a slap to my back. I took that as a signal to stand up and she handed me the flashlight.

  “Thanks. Let’s find this house so we can turn in for the night,” I said as I powered on the light. “One of the first things we need to find is a supply of batteries for the flashlight. I’ve also been thinking about a few things we’ll need for our trip south.”

  “Jesus, Chuck! We haven’t even gotten a chance to take our shoes off in our new home and you’re already talking about leaving? What is wrong with this place? It’s safe. The people are nice. We have jobs. I—”

  I turned to her and held my hands up in defense. “Whoa,” I said. “Alright, you’re right. I’m sorry. We should check things out and take a few days like we agreed. I was just talking, saying it’s best to be prepared, that’s all.”

  “Fine. I’m tired, let’s just find our house and get inside so I can try to clean up and get some sleep.” I hadn’t been married to this woman for almost a decade without knowing how to sidestep an argument and defuse situations rapidly.

  “Sounds good to me,” I said as I lit up the nearest street sign with the flashlight. “Shit. I can’t see the sign without my glasses. Can you see what it says?”

  “Church and,” she paused as she shuffled to the side to get a better angle on the other part of the sign. “Jackson and Church. Where are your glasses?”

  “They’re in my backpack too. You know I don’t like to wear them unless I have to.” I’d always hated my glasses and I only wore them to drive at night or at the movies, two pastimes that I’d probably never do again. “People see a guy with glasses and they automatically think he’s weak. We can’t afford that in our new world.”

  “Okay, fine. Another point I disagree with, but let’s just go. Which way?” Rebecca asked.

  “We go left down Church Street for three blocks and then right on Holden and we’re right there on the corner.”

  We pulled up our hoods and set off into the night. I checked the street signs at every corner to make sure we were going in the right direction and that we didn’t miss it. In less than ten minutes we were standing in front of a small one story ranch-style house.

  “Wait here until I check the place out,” I said to Becca and then walked up to the porch. I took off my backpack and put it on the ground outside the door in case I needed to maneuver or fight inside the house. I set the bat on my shoulder so I’d be able to swing it as hard and quick as I could if someone was inside. The door was unlocked, just like the girl had said it would be, and the knob turned freely in my hand. I glanced over my shoulder one last time at my wife then I entered the house with a little bit of trepidation.

  I searched the entire place, every room and closet, behind every shower curtain, in every cabinet and under all the beds. As it turns out, our fears of a squatter or a zombie inside the house were unfounded. I went back to the front door and called Rebecca in.

  “Geez, I was starting to get worried about you. So, what do you think of the place?” she asked me as she stomped her feet on the old welcome mat.

  “It’s a nice little home, standard ranch-style layout. More importantly, it’s empty,” I said as I closed and locked the door behind her. I shone the light against a framed photograph on the wall and then swept it across several others on the mantle. “There are a lot of pictures of the original family up everywhere, that’s kind of creepy.”

  “I wonder what happened to them,” she asked vacantly. We might never know, but I hoped that they were on vacation when the bombs fell and now they were stuck in a garden paradise somewhere in the Caribbean.

  We wandered around the house looking at the other people’s stuff and tried to get comfortable with our new surroundings. The pantry had been picked clean by whatever gatherers the town had sent over here before we moved in, but the closets yielded a lot of clothes that appeared to fit both of us, but we were out of luck with new shoes.

  Finally, it was time to take a bath. It’d been more than three weeks since we were able to properly wash ourselves. Two weeks on the road and about a week before we left our apartment, when the water had finally stopped working. We definitely smelled rank, but the funny thing about everyone being so foul is that you really don’t notice the smell after the first few days.

  I ran the water for a few seconds before I realized that it wasn’t going to warm up and plugged the drain. “I’m sorry honey, but you’re gonna have to make due with a cold bath. I forgot for a moment that we didn’t have any power,” I shouted towards the bedroom closet where Rebecca was still trying to see if any of the shoes could fit her feet.

  “Oh, that’s okay,” she replied from right behind me. I jumped and almost dropped my flashlight into the water.

  “Dammit!” I cursed involuntarily.

  “Chuck, don’t ruin this for me,” she warned and a small flame appeared in the darkness as she ignited a lighter. The light dimmed for a moment and I realized she was holding something above the flame.

  “I found a candle,” she said excitedly as the wick caught and the light cast dancing shadows on the wall.

  “Good find,” I remarked while I pointed to the candle. “It’s amazing how quickly everything has changed, isn’t it?”

  “Mmm hmm,” she murmured as she slipped off her mask and then her clothes. I’d seen her naked body earlier today when the guards were searching us, but that was under different circumstances in a high-stress situation. Now in the soft candlelight I was reminded how much she turned me on as I watched her undress.

  Her normally pale skin had lightened even further in the past few weeks since we hadn’t really be
en exposed to the sun at all and she had dirty splotches at various intervals where her clothing had trapped the ash from the air and rubbed it into her skin. I could look beyond those things, we’d been together too long for little stuff like that to bother me.

  She noticed me and smiled. “Do you want to bathe with me? We’ll be able to get more water that way and, well, you know,” she said shyly.

  “I’d love to,” I said excitedly. We hadn’t been together intimately in a long time, certainly not since we’d left Chicago. I carefully placed my mask on the counter and then I tore off my clothes so fast that I got off-balance, fell into the wall and landed on my rear. Rebecca started laughing and before long, I joined in. We each laughed for a good minute and the simple therapy of humor had us both feeling better than we had in several weeks.

  I tugged my jeans off the rest of the way and sat up. Rebecca leaned down to kiss me and her breasts swayed invitingly near my cheek. “Let’s get cleaned up so we can enjoy ourselves later,” she said as she straightened up and turned towards the bath so that her nipples rubbed across my lips as she spun.

  I watched her nice little ass from behind until she’d stepped into the tub. “Holy shit this is freezing!” she exclaimed as she sank down into the water.

  I searched under the sink until I found some bubble bath and a few towels then walked over to the tub to join her. I liberally poured the soap into the tub and stepped in. The water was chilly, but I thought she was being a baby about the temperature. I started to sit down and shot straight back up when my testicles touched the freezing water. “Goddamn, that is cold!” I yelled in surprise. My wife laughed again and kept at it while I repeated the process a few times until my body was finally submersed in the frigid water.

  The registration office workers instructions about the water restrictions and bathing echoed in our heads during the bath. We were only authorized an actual bath on our first night in the town and after that we’d have to use a bucket and washcloth, so we spent a long time in that bath. I think we both scrubbed each other down completely at least five times. The water warmed up from our body heat, but Rebecca’s erect nipples and my shriveled testicles gave away the fact that the bath was still nowhere near what we would have considered lukewarm before the apocalypse.

  After we decided that we were as clean as we could get from this bath we decided to step out and dry off. Unconsciously I bent to unplug the drain but Rebecca placed her hand on my arm. “Don’t!” she said. “I want to shave my legs before we go into the bedroom.”

  “Babe, you’re being silly. I don’t care that your legs aren’t shaved.”

  “Men really just don’t understand women,” she stated. “It’s not for you. I know you love me and that you’re probably so horny that you don’t care at all. It’s for me. I want to feel sexy and I can’t do that with a month’s worth of hair on my legs. Just hand me a razor and shaving cream and give me a few minutes.”

  I recognized her logic, but I didn’t understand it. I’d been married to her long enough to know that she was either going to shave her legs and we’d have wild sex or she was going to go to bed and I’d be left frustrated. I wisely handed her a can of shaving cream and a disposable razor from under the sink.

  I lay on the bed and waited for her to finish getting ready for bed. She made the wait worthwhile for me.

  * * *

  My watch alarm woke us in the morning and before we could get out of bed Rebecca grabbed me and made love to me again. When we were finished, she said, “I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I’m so freakin’ horny right now, I could go again.”

  “Well, hold those feelings until tonight after work, we’ve got to get some food and to our jobs before we get kicked out of town on our first day,” I replied.

  We dressed in the former occupants’ clothes and Rebecca even found a pair of hiking boots that almost fit her when she shoved a sock in the toe of each one. Besides the rain jackets and our masks, we felt almost human again.

  The food line had dwindled by the time we got to the town square where I had to meet my work crew earlier than Rebecca would meet hers. The process was extremely easy, we both just showed our necklaces and the person in charge of the distribution line wrote down our names then handed us each a can of soup with a pull-tab lid. Since it was our first day in the community, he gave us each a spoon, but told us that we had to bring our own from now on. I added that to my mental list of essential supplies.

  We found a seat under the large tent that they’d set up in the square to keep the ash and toxic rain off of people and shared our cold soups. If we hadn’t taken the early morning to have sex, then we would have had time to heat them up, but I didn’t mind at all. Rebecca said she was just happy to be here with me and that she felt safer than she had since the day the bombs fell.

  As we were finishing our meal, we noticed a large group of people begin gathering on the far side of the tent. I looked at my watch, it was 6:57. “That must be my gathering group over there,” I said gesturing with my spoon.

  “Yeah, looks like it,” Rebecca replied.

  “Guess it’s time to go then,” I sighed as I stood up. Before I reported to work I leaned over and gave her a kiss on her clean forehead. It was nice to be able to do that again. While we were on the road I’d given up and thought the feeling of cleanliness may have been lost forever. She smiled at me and waved goodbye.

  I walked slowly towards the group and settled in near the back. I leaned over to a man standing near me and asked, “I’m new here, is this where the gathering group is supposed to report?”

  “Yeah,” he replied. “You’re in the right place. Make sure you’ve got your mask, coat and weapons.”

  “Okay, check, check, and check,” I answered. I had made a habit of not going anywhere without my baseball bat and I was glad that I hadn’t let the safety of the town make me complacent when I grabbed it this morning. “My name’s Chuck, what’s yours?”

  “Robert. Nice to meet you,” he said as he stuck out his hand. I shook it. “The team chief is Jesse, that big black dude up front. He comes off as a dick at first, but once you get to know him, he’s alright. That’s him up there.” Robert pointed towards a very large man up in front of the group leaning against the tent frame.

  “Okay, thanks, Robert. I’ll go let him know I’m here and then come back.”

  I skirted around the side of the formation and made my way up front. As I stepped up near Jesse he looked up suddenly. “What the fuck do you want?” he demanded.

  His manner startled me. “I’m… I’m new here and I got assigned to the gathering group.” He continued to stare at me like I’d kicked his dog. “My name is Chuck Brouss—”

  “Why the hell should I care? You’ll probably be dead before the week is over.”

  “Well, I, um…”

  His scowl changed to a smile. “Look, I’m just fucking with you man! Nice to meet you,” he said as he crushed my hand in his grip. “Name’s Jesse and that’s D’Andre, my second in charge out in the field.” I followed his outstretched arm towards a skinny, mousy-looking guy who smiled and waved.

  “Wow, you really had me going there for a minute. I thought you were serious,” I said.

  “I am serious. It’s a dangerous fucking place out there man. We lost four dudes last week to the zombies. Whatcha packin’?”

  “Um, I have my baseball bat here,” I said as I lifted my trusty wooden bat. “And I’ve got a folding knife, but that’s about it.”

  “Shit. Okay. Hey, D’Andre,” he said gesturing towards his executive to come over. “When we get back tonight, take Chuck over to the weapons shop and get him something with a blade on it. They’re making all sorts of medieval-type shit over there. Make sure he has overnight gear and a sturdy pack too.”

  “You got it boss,” he said with another smile.

  “Alright, get back with the group, we’re gonna be leaving in a few minutes,” Jesse said.

  “Okay, thanks,”
I said as I turned to go back to where Robert was standing.

  I settled in at the rear just as Jesse began talking to the group. “Okay guys, we’re going to shoot back over to Taylorville today and finish gathering supplies from the warehouse over there. We should have taken more trucks and stayed overnight yesterday, but we didn’t know the warehouse was that full. Lesson learned.

  “We’ll be unloading and organizing tomorrow,” he continued. “The day after that, we’re going to Jacksonville. We’ll take every truck we have and we’ll stay until they’re all full, even if we have to stay overnight to do it. We’ll meet up at the normal time but you need to be prepared to stay two or three days, so bring extra water and draw an extra meal.”

  He pointed directly at me in the back, “This is Chuck, he’s our newest member, so keep an eye on him and pass along any tips that you’ve learned in your time here. We don’t need any more dead guys…” he paused to let the words sink in and I half-waved to the group like a frightened schoolgirl on the first day of class while they glared back at me. Unfriendly lot, I thought to myself.

  “Alright, let’s get in the trucks and head over to Taylorville,” Jesse said as he circled an open hand above his head. I was certain I’d seen that move in several action movies and even though I wasn’t certain about its exact meaning, I filed it away as probably meaning to move out or load up.

  I followed everyone out the tent flap and cast a glance over at Rebecca. She was still sitting where I’d left her, talking with another woman. I waved at her but she didn’t see me so I continued on to whatever awaited me through the door.

  We rode in the back of a large rental truck like Mexicans crossing the border. Fuck, there is no border anymore! I reminded myself. The trip only took about ten or fifteen minutes. I’m not entirely sure because I dozed off. That’s another of my peculiarities, anytime I get in a moving vehicle when I’m not driving, I tend to fall asleep. It was a godsend in Chicago. I’d sleep on the El every day to and from work. It allowed me to stay up later at home and read everything I could about the market from the day and the forecasts for the next day. My clients made a lot of money from all my hard work. I made more.