Land of the Dogs (Book 1)

by S. L. Rowland

  The second house offered green beans, carrots, beets, and a few blueberries. Simon saw a goat roaming the backyard.

  “You guys have livestock, too?” asked Simon.

  “A little. We have a few goats here and there. They’re good for milk and eating pretty much any trash we have. We have a shitload of chickens, though; all the eggs you can handle. And Ross and Peg just started breeding rabbits, so we may have some of those in the near future. Not horses or cattle, yet. And it doesn’t look too good that we’ll get any either. A horse would be nice to have. It would make all this loading and unloading a lot easier. I remember stopping by Old Man River’s farm. They had so many horses.”

  “Yeah. They are pretty much the only ones, too. At least as far as I’ve seen.”

  They made their way to several houses and soon the pallet was full. The weight of the produce was too heavy for either of them to pull alone, so Simon pulled while Dan pushed. Two more trips were made before Dan called it quits for the day. When they finished, they were both sweaty and dirty. Simon had blisters on his fingers.

  “I think that’s enough for now. Let’s go ahead and try to stock as much of this as possible,” said Dan.

  They each carried in a crate of produce and began placing the produce on the shelves.

  “What you want to do,” said Dan, “is place the new stuff at the back and bring the older produce to the front, so it doesn’t go bad.” He demonstrated with the tomatoes.

  “How is Violet?” asked Simon. He had wanted to broach the subject all day, but the timing never felt right.

  “She’s okay. She lost both her parents in the beginning. They were both doctors, you know, so they were on the front lines when people started turning. She’s dealt with it, though. As best you can anyways. She stays with Emma now.”

  “We were pretty good friends back in high school. I always thought she was so pretty. She still is,” said Simon.

  “That she is,” said Dan. “Why don’t you just go ahead and ask?”

  “Ask what?”

  “Don’t try to play me.” He smiled at Simon and gave him a gentle push on the shoulder. “You want to know if she has a boyfriend or anything.”

  Simon was a little embarrassed. After all he had been through in the past week, and he was thinking about a girl. Dan was right, though. “Does she?”

  “Not that I know of,” Dan laughed.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “You are. You haven’t changed one bit. You had everything in the world going for you. Good looks, star of the baseball team, and yet you still can’t talk to girls. It’s funny.”

  “Oh, and you can?” asked Simon.

  “I do alright for myself, when the opportunity arises. You about hungry yet?” he asked.

  “I could definitely go for some food.” The sugar had worn off long ago and he was ready for a real meal.

  “Let’s head over to Emma’s. We’ve been at this for hours. I’m thinking supper should be about ready soon.”

  Emma’s house was similar to the others, a two-story colonial, with the addition of ivy growing up the sides. A chicken coop was on one half of the front yard and potatoes were planted on the other side, white flowers blossoming from the leaves. A pathway went down the middle, leading to a bright red door. Dan used the metal knocker shaped like a lion to knock on the door. It gave a loud clang as metal hit metal. A few moments later, Violet opened the door.

  “Glad you guys could make it, come on in.” She smiled at Simon as he walked through the door. “Did you get the tour from Dan?”

  “More or less. I was his lackey while we packed and unloaded all the fruits and veggies,” said Simon.

  “Supper is almost ready. We’re having potato soup. It’s gonna be awesome!” The way she said awesome, like it was part of a song, made Simon smile. “Em is in the kitchen finishing it up.”

  In the kitchen, Emma was standing over a large pot sprinkling some spices into it. She wore a yellow apron over her jeans.

  “Hey, guys. Give me about five minutes and everything should be good. You can help Violet set up the table if you don't mind,” Emma said.

  “I would love to,” said Simon. He followed Violet into the dining room, where she was pulling bowls and spoons out of a cabinet and placing them on the table.

  “You can grab some glasses,” she told Simon, pointing to the cabinet.

  Simon grabbed four glasses and put them on the table. Dan was in the kitchen talking to Emma. Simon was thankful for the time alone.

  “I’ll go ahead and pour us some water,” Violet said. She took the pitcher from the middle of the table and began pouring a little in each of the glasses. “It’s rain water. We collect it anytime there is a storm. We’ve been drinking it for over a year. So far, no one has gotten sick, so I’m guessing it’s pretty safe.”

  Dan walked through the door carrying the pot of soup and placed it on a mat on the table. It steamed as he scooped a healthy serving into his bowl. The smell had Simon’s mouth watering.

  “Go on, help yourself,” Emma told Simon.

  Simon scooped himself a bowl. The soup was delectable. It had hearty chunks of potato with carrots and onions, and there were some spices Simon couldn’t identify that gave it a savory deliciousness.

  “This is amazing,” said Simon.

  “Thanks. It’s an old recipe,” said Emma. “It’s good when you can still hang on to some things of the past.”

  “You just have to know which ones are worth hanging on to,” said Violet. For the first few minutes, all that could be heard was the slurping of soup leaving spoons and the occasional breath of someone blowing on their bowl in an attempt to cool it down.

  “So, Simon. We’re all curious, how do you just show up out of the blue two years after the world fades to black?” asked Emma.

  Simon waited for a moment, not sure what to say. “I ask myself the same question all the time. Sometimes I think this is all just going on in my head. I dove off of a dock at our lake house. That’s the last thing I remember of the old world. When I came back up, this was the world I was in. Two years passed in the blink of an eye and everything I knew and loved changed or disappeared. Dan is two years younger than me, and somehow we now look the same age. And it’s only been a week since I’ve been dealing with all this, and it feels like a lifetime. I’m already tired of it. I just want to be able to relax.”

  “We can come back here,” Dan reiterated. “It’s not like before, but it’s safe here. Here, you can have a purpose.”

  “He’s right,” said Violet.

  “Maybe, but we have to go get Claire first.” He hoped she had made it safely to the Farm.

  “We can leave first thing in the morning,” said Dan.

  “Simon, your story is the strangest I have heard by far,” said Emma, her eyes raised. Whether or not she believed him, he couldn’t tell.

  “I don’t know,” said Violet. “Do you remember the guy who said he talked to aliens in outer space? And he wore the tin foil hat so that they could give him directions to their base in D.C.”

  They laughed for a minute at the memory, Simon at the absurdity of it.

  “I almost forgot about that guy. I wonder where he is now,” said Emma.

  “How were you able to get this place started, Emma?” asked Simon. He wondered desperately what it took to start a colony. Often over the last days, the thought of leaving all this behind seemed like the best option.

  “Getting it started was the easy part. I worked in community involvement before all this. Keeping it going, that’s the hard part. Anyone can start a movement, you know. It’s what happens after the glamour wears off that really tests what you’re made of.” She paused. “A lot of people left in the beginning, before this was a place of safe haven, when we were all just regular people not understanding what was going on. I don’t know where they went, but nearly half of my neighbors just up and left. On foot, on bicycles. They couldn’t have gone far. The first few weeks we
stayed in our homes. We had a small garden out back already. Not knowing how long the power would be out or if help was coming, I decided to expand it. Tim and I dug up everything by hand. He made our entire backyard into a miniature farm. About a week later, the dead started showing up. That was so scary, to see people you once knew walking around like that. Tim and I went to everyone who was still living here and told them that we needed to bar the gates. So we did. There is only the one entrance, so we closed it and had someone take watch at all hours. I managed to convince everyone that we should start working together for survival. We combined all of our resources—food, water, weapons, anything that could be used—and we started to make rules. Every rule needed to be passed. Every decision concerning our well-being needed a majority vote. Fifty-one percent and it became law. That’s how decisions were made.” Emma stopped for a few seconds, as if reliving those days in her head. “One day, Tim was doing a perimeter check, and he tripped and twisted his ankle. One of the monsters came out of a bush and attacked him. He couldn’t run. We heard a few shots fired and that’s how we found him. He was a great man. I’ve been trying to keep things running ever since. We’ve had more people join our little community here. And slowly we evolved into what you see today. Every Tuesday, we have a council meeting, where we vote on any new developments and assign duties for the week. Everyone gets a vote, even newcomers, those who have been here longer than a year have two votes. And every vote is made public; it prevents back door dealings.”

  “It’s very impressive. I’ve been to a few different places in the past week. And this one has the most promise, the greatest potential,” said Simon.

  “Thanks for saying that. Violet tells me you used to play baseball? Is that why you carry that bat around?” she asked.

  “Once upon a time. Not that it matters much now. Nothing ever felt as right as holding a bat in my hands,” said Simon. “This was the first thing I found after I started my way back to town. I never thought about the significance of it. I’ve just been trying to stay alive.”

  “You never know. There could be baseball games again one day, even if things never go back to normal,” said Violet.

  “I remember going to your games,” said Dan. “You were amazing to watch. When you would hit a ball, it sounded like thunder and everyone knew it was going out of the park. I guess you still have the record for longest homerun at Graystone High.” Simon remembered that home run. Maximilian the Third was the name of the bat he had used. They kept it on display in the gymnasium after he hit the record.

  Everyone had finished eating and Violet started picking up the bowls from the table.

  “Don’t worry about it, Violet. I’ll take care of dishes tonight. Hang out with your friends,” said Emma.

  “Thanks, Em.” She gave Emma a hug and then walked over to Simon and Dan.

  “I’ll help clean, Emma,” said Dan. He started gathering up plates and hurried to the kitchen, giving Simon a wink before turning the corner.

  “You want to go on a walk or something?” Violet asked Simon.

  Simon looked at Violet and was unable to hold back a smile. “I would love to.”

  Outside, the sun was starting to set. The sky was a pinkish orange in the distance, but overhead, the clouds were dark gray.

  “Did you ever watch the sun set before all this?” she asked Simon. “I can maybe count on one hand the times I did, before. But now, I watch every single one. There’s a quiet beauty in it.”

  “Yeah, it’s sad it took all of this for us to appreciate some of the small things.”

  They walked down the empty street, listening to the wind blow through the trees. An owl hooted somewhere and thunder cracked in the distance. Violet reached for Simon’s hand. Simon was grateful for the warmth radiating from her skin. She is perfect, he thought. Simon stopped walking and looked deep into Violet’s eyes.

  “You have the most beautiful eyes,” he said.

  She kissed him. Violet put her hands around Simon’s neck and pulled him in. She kissed him long and passionately. Simon never tried to pull away. He only held her tighter. Minutes passed and they were lost to the moment. Rain started to pour down around them.

  Violet pushed him away and took off running. “Follow me,” she said, a slight giggle in her voice.

  Simon followed her down the street and into the pool-house. She ran past the produce arranged carefully against the wall and through a door that led to a room with several couches and a pool table.

  When Simon finally caught up to her, she pulled him in again and kissed him hard, her lips wet from the rain.

  “Why didn’t you ever ask me out in high school?” she asked.

  “I was too nervous,” Simon said before he could stop himself.

  She laughed. “You could have had any girl you wanted. But I saw the way you looked at me. All you had to do was ask.” She kissed him again. He lifted her up and placed her on the pool table. He pressed himself close to her, surprised by his own boldness. Simon had never felt another person so close to himself. The warmth from her body was mesmerizing. Violet pulled his shirt off and slowly kissed his body from his neck to his chest. His body tingled all over with each kiss and a small moan escaped his lips.

  The rain had Violet’s shirt hugging the curves of her body. Simon took her shirt in his hands and pulled it over her head. Beneath it, Simon’s gaze lingered on her pink bra and her perfect breasts that overflowed beneath it. He fumbled with the bra before he was able to unhook it. Violet giggled, but then gasped as he took her left breast in his hand. He kissed her neck, her cheek, her nipples. He had never done any of it before, but it felt right as he explored her body and she, in turn, explored his.

  “Have you ever done this before?” he asked.

  “A few times. But don’t worry, you’re doing fine.”

  Simon laid Violet down on the pool table and guided her pants down her legs, admiring them as he did so. She used her hands to guide his kisses up and down her body. She reached into her pants pocket and pulled out a condom.

  “This is my last one. I promised myself I would wait for the right moment.” She pressed it into Simon’s hand.

  The first day was slow going. Debra and Cindy were in no shape to make a three-day trip, already mentally fatigued from losing Kirk. Many times, Claire would look back only to see Debra crying silently as she held Cindy’s hand and pressed onward. Her shamble was not that different from the dead they were trying to avoid. They didn’t speak more than a few sentences that whole day. By nightfall, Hope still hadn’t returned. Maybe he followed Simon, Claire thought.

  Claire did not regret splitting up with Simon. True, she had promised to stick together back before they left Town Hall, but in the heat of the moment, she felt that sending Simon to the next camp was best. Losing a week while they took Cindy and Debra to David’s was time they didn’t have. Claire was ready for the searching to be over.

  Besides, Simon had proven that he had what it took to survive and there was no way in hell that the next camp would be as bad as Justice’s. I hope not. She tried to push those thoughts away. The die was cast and it wouldn’t do to dwell on what might happen when they were apart. In a week, they would meet up at Town Hall and that was that.

  It was on the second day that Claire knew it would take longer than three days to reach the Farm. Their water was nearly empty and they hadn’t eaten at all.

  “We’ll need to stop and look for food at some point,” Claire said. Debra nodded in response. Cindy hadn’t spoken a word since leaving the High School. She must be in shock, thought Claire. “The next house we see, we’ll go look.”

  The next house appeared half a mile down the highway. It was a single-story ranch style house. Cars were still parked in front. The wind began to pick up as they journeyed down the driveway.

  Claire set her bag down on the steps. “You guys wait here; I’ll make sure it’s safe.” She took her spear in one hand and twisted the doorknob with the other. It was lock
ed so Claire used her spear to break the glass panes in the upper half. They shattered on the floor below and echoed through the empty house. Carefully, she reached her arm through the window and unlocked the door. Inside, the house was dusty and dark. No one has been here in a while. She called to Debra, “Come on in, this place is empty. Watch your step, there is glass at the entrance.” Debra and Cindy followed her inside.

  Wood paneling covered every wall. A plaid couch and a recliner faced an old tube TV nestled in the corner. The room seemed to be dropped out of a different era. “Let’s check the kitchen and get back on the road.”

  The kitchen hadn’t been updated since the eighties. White linoleum floors were nearly brown from the dirt and dust, the white cabinets hadn’t fared much better. Claire opened a cabinet. It was empty. Each cabinet they opened offered nothing but emptiness.

  “I should have known better. They travel this route every time they go to the Farm,” said Claire.

  Debra opened the bottom cabinet under the sink. “I think I found something,” she whispered.

  “What is it?” asked Claire.

  Debra picked up two unopened cans from inside the cabinet. “It’s dog food.”

  The thought made Claire’s stomach turn. “That is disgusting.”

  “Yeah, but we have to eat. I don’t see any other options. It’s probably not the worst thing we’ve eaten in our lives.”

  “You’re probably right.” Claire opened drawers until she found a can opener and three spoons. She opened the can and handed it to Debra. “Dig in.”

  They ate the dog food, choking back gags, until it was finished. Cindy didn’t seem to have a problem with the taste and never complained. Claire wondered momentarily about Hope.

  “We’ll need to find water soon,” said Claire. She held up her gallon jug; it barely made a sloshing sound.

  “I have an idea” said Debra. She left and went back through the house. “Come here,” she called.

  Claire found Debra in the bathroom, with the lid lifted off the back of the toilet. It was still full of water.