The First 400 Days (Book 1): We Are What Remain

by Taja Kartio

  I was sure he could have tried to keep going, but Scott seemed to be in a corner. He miffed and turned his back, clicking his tongue and pointing behind him as an indication to Hollie to stand up and get out of the way of the van doors he proceeded to shut. Hollie stepped by me, a very small and quiet laugh left her lips with just enough ill-manner to make my teeth grind together. Even if Beckett had soiled Scott's argument, she was going to hold onto the fact that she could shoot a gun and I didn't know how.

  Everett, now satisfied that everyone was done, led the group toward the front doors. Beckett and Kale hung with me at the back of the group.

  "You know anything about guns?" Kale asked.

  I shrugged, holding the gun up casually, "Point and shoot. Here's the safety, and I'm assuming this is the button that releases the mag inside?"

  Kale once again, looked a little stunned at my knowledge, "Ya, that's the basis... How do you know all that?"

  "I didn't think that the basic notions of a gun were as difficult as Nasa engineering," I shrugged, "Besides... if you remember, I have shot a gun before."

  "No, you haven't."

  I squinted at him, "Hello? Remember the gas station?"

  Kale pursed his lips. Now he remembered, "Smart-ass."

  Dumb-ass. I thought to myself. Probably best if I didn't say anything more.

  My boots crunched shattered bits of glass, crushing them against the cement and then on tile flooring as we all stepped through the front doors. The sun brought some light inside. Not enough to light the store but at least it was enough to show us the atmosphere just inside the doors. The bodies hit me first. They all lay in jumbled knots on the once white-tiled floor. A whole lot of them. Bloody, limbs at awkward angles. The smell hit me a moment after. This whole area was like an unrefrigerated meat-locker. Sour. Putrid. The only ones taking joy in this were the swarming black flies. I covered my mouth with the collar of my shirt, hoping to cut off even a small fragment of the smell.

  "Shot," Beckett reported, eyeing a few of the individual's bodies up close, "They've all been shot."

  "Good," Scott lightly kicked on of the corpse's legs, "We don't have to worry about them now."

  Alex's nose wrinkled and he coughed, looking like he was fighting a wave of nausea, "It smells awful."

  "Decomposition," Kale held a sarcastic thumbs up, "Well done."

  Alright," Everett started before another argument broke out. He was clearly irritated with this run already, "Beckett, take Alex and your sister to the pharmacy and see what you can scrounge up over there. Scott, Hollie, Riley can comb through grocery. Kale, you're with me."

  By default, Everett was kind of the head man. He was head of his group. Kale was up there in the same rank, as kind of the top-dog for Beckett, Alex, and I so it was the two of them most of the time that were together, making decisions and what-not. I didn't mind being with Beckett, I was fine with that, I just didn't like our small trio to be separated.

  "You brought a few flashlights, right Riley?" Everett asked. Riley nodded and kneeled, swinging his backpack to the ground. He had four of them. One for each group plus an extra which of whom he kept for himself.

  We spread out, tiptoeing over the corpses and avoiding the gore.

  "How long ago do you think this was?" Alex's question was muffled by the cloth he also held over his mouth and nose.

  Beckett tilted his head thoughtfully, "Well, I mean, I'm not much of a coroner or anything but I don't think they're too old. Maybe three or four days?"

  "So quite recently," Everett concluded.

  Beckett "mhmm"ed an agreement, "Majority of the blood is dried up, even with as much as there is right now, it would take a little over a day for all of that to dry. And then depending on temperature and exposure, the bodies would start to emit an odor usually-"

  There was a hard pressure on my back and I was suddenly flying forward. I dropped the baseball bat out of shock and my hands flew in front of me as I fell to the floor, landing in something cold and... kind of rubbery. It squished under my palms and even if it took me a few moments, I knew exactly what I'd fallen into. I didn't scream or yell. I just sort of froze, staring at the slippery tendrils. Flashlights swarmed in my direction and with the added light, I could see the details of my landing. I'd somehow managed to fall right into the one person whose entrails were sprawled across the floor.

  "Dani?" Kale's voice was one of initial alarm. His flashlight was bobbing toward me and soon, his and Beckett's hands were scooping underneath my armpits and hoisting me up and out of the pinkish coils, "Jesus, what happened?"

  My head spun. There wasn't anybody directly behind me but Hollie was the closest in my direct proximity. She looked like she was on the verge of laughing fit, covering her mouth with the back of her hand. How vially disgusting. I could throw a punch at someone for being a piece of trash but they would really have to screw up my day for me to decide to just push them into some dead person's organs.

  "Hollie fucking pushed me!"

  Her hand fell from her mouth and she immediately looked at her father, pleadingly, "I did not!"

  Scott's teeth grinded together profusely. He took his sweet time looking from me to her. I could tell he wasn't sure what to think. He didn't know me, for all he knew, I was just blaming his daughter for a clumsy self-act. But there was a certain look that said he could be thinking his daughter was just full of shit, kind of like a look where he didn't fully believe her. Scott looked to me, "You think she pushed you?"

  "She was the only one that was behind me and I felt her do it!"

  "Dani's right," Alex rose his hand tentatively, "Hollie pushed her. I watched her do it.”

  Scott cracked his neck and turned his glare back to Hollie. He snapped his finger to his side, "Come on," I could see his rage boiling and it looked like he was trying to keep his cool in front of all of us but I could see that Hollie was going to get it. I wish she would have looked back at me so I could have given her the most satisfied, snotty, 'that's what you get' smirk I could possibly muster up.

  "You alright?" Beckett asked. His concerned eyes were already scanning me for any injuries that may require his attention.

  I was fine, physically. No scratches or banged up marks but I did feel the need to make it obvious that I wasn't okay with what had just happened, and I really didn't care if I was being a bit exaggerant, "No! No, I'm not okay! I'm the opposite of that! I'm covered in someone's fucking guts!"

  "Well if it makes you feel any better, at least they weren't fresh guts," Kale chuckle was fake and borderline nervous. The statement didn't make me feel better, I actually felt worse. In fact, my brain seemed to finally click. I pushed away, stepping over the bodies as fast as I could over towards a checkout lane. My hand slapped against the counter and I bent over, hurling my own insides out onto the floor. Now, I tried imagining how I'd be feeling if the guts actually had in fact, been warm and fresh.

  Ya, it wasn't a pretty visual.

  After spewing everything I was sure my stomach contained, my contractions went dry and every time my fingers shifted, which were still covered in slimy bowel juices, my stomach ended up lurching. Over and over again.

  A gentle hand rubbed my back. The only man who could ever have such a mellow touch was Beckett. His flashlight lit up the ground I stood on and thankfully it was clear with the exception of a little dirt.

  "That must have been pretty gross."

  I knew Beckett wasn't absentminded and he certainly wasn't thick headed like Kale acted like sometimes. I wasn't sure if I should get angry over his lame attempt to make a joke or if I should laugh at how spot on the statement was. I decided that I really wasn't in the mood for a joke.

  "Well, maybe you should try falling into a pile of insides and shit and then tell me if you thought it was pretty gross or not," I grumbled, trying to recollect myself.

  He gave my back a good pat along with a low chuckle, "Well, you're taking it a lot better than I thought you would've."

&n
bsp; I tilted my head up, peeking at him with one eye, "What's that supposed to mean? You trying to say that you've thought about how I would react to something like this?"

  "No... No," There was a wry grin twitching on his face, "I don't know. I guess I would have taken you to be the kind of girl to scream bloody murder like you had just seen the world's hairiest spider."

  I couldn't help but break into a smirk similar to his, "Hey. Spiders are scary."

  "Here Dani," I heard Alex say, "Towel."

  "Thanks," I took it gratefully, wiping my hands vigorously. I felt my stomach jump a few more times but I was thankfully out of anything I could potentially throw up, "Did you actually see her push me?"

  Alex spurted a 'pssh' from his lips and started to laugh, "Nope."

  I grinned, "You are a... true friend."

  "Did she actually push you then?" Beckett asked, "Or did you make that up?"

  I shook my head, "No. Someone pushed me and the only person it could have been was her."

  "Huh," Beckett's lips bent downwards, "Alright. Well, you good now?"

  I nodded, "Ya. I'm fine."

  "Alright. Let's get going then. We got a lot of stuff to find."

  Thirty Four

  "You got me Spider-man?" Hayden held the shirt up in front of his face with an open jaw, like he couldn't believe it.

  "You do like Spider-man... right?" I honestly couldn't tell if his open jaw was out of excitement or complete and utter shock. I was either going to be the coolest person in his world or I was betraying him or something along those lines.

  "I..." Hayden let go of one of the shoulders of the shirt and thrusted himself forward, right into my arms. I felt like I'd just been hit by a train, "... love Spider-man! How did you know?"

  "Lucky guess," I grunted, catching my breath.

  The Wal-mart had been pretty picked over for pharmaceuticals but it was like the clothes hadn't been touched. So other than a few products for myself, and the other ladies of the group's self-use, I picked out a lot of clothes for Hayden and I. Now we both had a few extra outfits so we weren't always wearing the same shirt and pants for days on ends.

  "What else did you find me?" Hayden peered longingly at the duffel bag beside me.

  "More clothes," I dug in the bag and showed them to him one by one, "Another one with Spider-Man, one with all Avenger superheroes, a red striped shirt, and a black shirt. Then here are some sweatpants, and here's a pair of jeans, and another pair of sweatpants, and some socks, and.., underwear!"

  Hayden grabbed the package of little boy underwear from my hand and buried it quickly under the pile of clothes before him, then looked back up at me with a grin, "Thanks, Dani."

  "No problem bud," I zipped the duffel bag back up and stood.

  "Can Ben and Toby come over?"

  An innocent question, which I was fine with but it was kind of odd having him ask me questions like that. I felt like his mother in a way. I was probably the lead mother-figure in his life now but it was something I had to get used to. I wondered if this is what it felt like to be Kale and Beckett when I was a lot younger, asking them for permission.

  "Sure," I shrugged, "I don't mind."

  "Great!" He grabbed his stuffed lion on the bed and started for the door, "I wanna play Crash Team Racing with them!"

  I called for him to wait for me before stepping outside but he was already long gone. He already knew to wait so I wasn't too incredibly worried about him.

  My brothers were out in the living room landing with the TV turned on the news channel. Kale watched it every day. Over the past week, since getting out of Minneapolis, several cities in the U.S had been steadily declining. Madison, Springfield, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Detroit had been the most recent I'd heard of, gone maybe two days ago. The whole East coast was pretty much gone, same with the West.

  On today's news cast, a shaky camera was trying to capture a burning skyline. The headline said it was Chicago but I didn't recognize the buildings behind the growing flames. Apparently, the last source of news from the inner city was gone now that the streets were completely overrun. The quarantine zone set up there had been completely overwhelmed. If there were any survivors, they should stay in a closed off shelter until this time and try to get out of the city and try traveling north to Milwaukee and don't blah, blah, blah, and instead do blah, blah, blah.

  Kale shut the TV off, muttering why the hell we even bothered to check the news anymore.

  Thirty Five

  Ben and Toby were both clearly brothers. Not identical but they had similar facial features and their matching chocolate hair and dark green eyes were a bit of a giveaway. Hayden rushed out from behind me and went straight to the boys, embracing both their hips just like I'd watched him do the day before when he asked me to let both of them over for video games?

  "Hey, buddy." Toby ruffled the boy's blonde hair.

  Hayden looked up with a large grin, "You guys wanna go play Crash Team Racing again?"

  A whole five minutes inside the house and all the boys were set for the evening. Perfect. Now there was just the matter of the girl who'd been standing behind them.

  "Hollie," I said bitterly. It was the best greeting she was going to get out of me. Not that it seemed like she cared. Her lips permanently sat downwards, in a pissy frown, and her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she walked past me towards the basement door to follow all the boys.

  "She literally has no reason to be bitchy with me," I muttered, "Why do I have to babysit her?"

  "Excuse you, I'm babysitting all of you too," Alex looked at me with about as much excitement as I was putting off right now. That was true. I guess it was on my side of luck that his leg was bothering him again.

  "It's just for a few hours while all of us head to Home Depot and get material for the wall," Beckett reminded me, "Scott said he talked to her so hopefully she won't pull anything like she did yesterday."

  This was such an awful idea, "That doesn't mean I won't be getting her witchy glare the entire afternoon. Why can't Scott bring her?"

  Beckett zipped up his backpack and swung it over his shoulders, "He just decided not to. Now, play nice. We'll see you later."

  Kale stood behind him and waited for Beckett to be out of earshot before leaning over and saying, "You can definitely swing a fist or two at this chick if it comes down to it."

  "No, she can't!" Beckett swung around, glaring at the eldest. I guess he wasn't far enough away, just by the front door with it already halfway open, "Stop enforcing that!"

  Kale exaggerated his shrug, "What? She'd probably deserve what's coming to her!"

  "Dani needs to learn to handle those situations like an adult."

  "Awh, come on Beck! You gotta admit that it's pretty funny when Dani KO's somebody."

  "Aren't you old enough to use your upstairs brain? I don't think you should be-" Beckett kept talking as he shut the door behind him and Kale, leaving Alex and me to fend for ourselves for the evening.

  "Well, this is going to be interesting," Alex stated with a large sigh.

  I turned for the basement door and opened it to let Alex by. The slight limp he'd had yesterday looked a little more serious now, "I don't care what Beckett thinks. If she messes with us, I'm going to knock her out."

  Alex laughed at that, "I hope to see that at least once in my life."

  "You probably won't have to wait long."

  At the bottom of the steps, I heard Hayden screaming in between a series of uncontrollable laughter. Ben had Hayden pinned to the ground with his shirt halfway up, and Toby was torturing the poor kid with tickles to his sides, his belly, and his armpits.

  Hayden noticed me watching, "Dani! Help me!"

  I shook my head with a smile, "Sorry squirt. You're on your own."

  "Why would you want help? I know you missed this!" Ben said. Toby continued his antics.

  "No! No, I didn't!" Hayden continued to laugh despite all efforts to push Ben away.

  "Then say i
t!"

  "Never!"

  "Then you'll have to be tickled to death."

  I wasn't sure what was supposed to be said, but I still enjoyed the scene before me. Ben and Toby were obviously close to Hayden.

  "I hate it when you guys do that! It's so annoying."

  I turned to hear that grumpy voice from Hollie behind me. She stood by the bar with her arms crossed.

  "Don't be a buzzkill, Princess," Ben muttered, releasing Hayden who had a disappointed expression from the interruption.

  Hollie brushed past me in a huff, "I've told you not to call me that."

  Ben eyed his brother, who smiled and said, "You're right. I liked calling you Barbie instead."

  They'd obviously done this before, call her names, especially that one. Hollie uncrossed her arms and let them fall down to her sides. Her fingers closed into fists and I swore there was steam shooting from her ears, "I told you not to call me that either!"

  Actually, it was a pretty fitting nickname, at least for her looks. Poker-straight blonde hair that was hardly a shade lighter than her perfect fair skin. Her eyes were the same color as the deepest blue in the ocean and she had little freckles that lay over her nose and upper cheeks. The description was pretty, and I admitted she had good looks. Too bad her personality was as rotten as hell.

  Both boys exchanged another set of amused looks and went back to exactly what they were doing, which pissed her off of course. She held her hands over her ears to try and block out Hayden's shrieking.

  I liked Ben and Toby.

  Thirty Six

  This game of Life sucked. One, because I was in college debt and had a lousy job, therefore I was unable to pay for anything nice. Two, Hollie wasn't making it very fun. No surprise there.

  "A trailer home, an apartment, and a cabin? I don't want any of these houses." She dropped the cards like they were used tissues.

  "Well, you can't keep going until you buy a house," Alex muttered, tapping his finger on the gameboard crossly.