Amanda Carter in the L.A.Z., life after zombies

by Jo Lee Auburne

  “Not now, honey, you’re my little artist, remember? You’re supposed to be coloring me a picture,” Maryanne said, skillfully deflecting the question.

  “Oh, you wanted a picture, Mommy?” Tammy questioned. “I can do you a real good picture.”

  The girl trotted away, having to call to Boo to follow her because the little dog was more interested in finding out what was for lunch than she was in creating any more works of art.

  “I think I’ll go down and find a suitable outfit of mine to wash so that I can get out of your clothes. No offense, but I’m afraid I’ll lose these pants with every step that I take,” Amanda said, turning to the path that would lead her down the hill.

  “Oh, no, you don’t,” Maryanne said. “You’re going to sit right here in this nice folding chair and visit with Jason. You both need to rest and can help keep each other from getting stir crazy. I’ll send Sam down after your clothes.”

  Begrudgingly, Amanda did as she was instructed, hoping that soon she would be given the all-clear and be able to get back to her normal level of physical activity, because she wasn’t one to want to be doted on and scolded like a child.

  “So is lunch ready?” Sam asked on her way by carrying another battery for Roy. She deposited the battery at the far end of camp where Roy had begun setting up a workstation and then came back to where her mother and Cody were preparing the food.

  “Sam, dear, why don’t you run down the hill and bring Amanda’s clothes up along with one of those new five-gallon buckets? She’s a little tired of wearing my full-figure clothes,” Maryanne said.

  “Don’t worry, Mom,” Sam said, turning to go back down. “Amanda’s secretly jealous of your great set of boobs. She said so.”

  Maryanne began to laugh as she watched her daughter skip away.

  “You two did get close yesterday, didn’t you? If you had time to discuss my boobs.”

  “It’s a long story, but she’s not lying, I did say it,” Amanda said, beginning to laugh too, before she spotted the buzzards again and began to concentrate on what might be out there in the next canyon over.

  “My wife has always had the best figure,” Jason added, giving Maryanne a wink when she looked up at him.

  “That’s adorable,” Amanda said. “Maybe one day, I’ll find a type of love that can survive a zombie apocalypse.”

  Chapter 62

  Lunch consisted of canned peaches and pears in syrup, the leftover biscuits, with some canned peas on the side. For the dogs, Maryanne had made up some rice to mix in with the peas to give it some substance and make it last longer.

  “I can’t believe that we’re eating so well,” Jason said.

  He still looked thin, emaciated, and weak; he looked much older than his years. And now that he had dropped so much weight, the glasses that he wore looked too big for his face, like he was trying to be comical by wearing them. But his wife hoped that with the good food and rest, he would begin to look like his old self again, even if he would never be a few pounds overweight again.

  “I can’t believe that we’re eating anything at all,” Cole said. “When we left out of that raider camp, I wasn’t sure we were going to survive long, what with the heat and the raiders out looking for us and all.”

  “Most times around here, we’re lucky to get some food in us once a day, sometimes twice. But since Amanda and Sam came back with so much, it looks like we can have three solids for a little while,” Roy said, before appreciatively slurping up the fruity syrup in his bowl by tipping the bowl up to his mouth.

  “The food won’t last forever,” Amanda said, stating the obvious.

  “That’s why we’ve all got to chip in and get to work on the garden, which you and Sam brought the supplies for, and in figuring out our water situation. It’ll all work out,” Roy said, feeling more optimistic than he had since the outbreak had begun.

  “Here, Dad,” Sam said, holding out some books to him. “I thought you might want to do some reading, you know, while you’re healing up. We found these at an old guy’s house. I guess he was like a World War II veteran or something. He was real old and had turned. I felt bad for him, but I’m sure he would want someone to enjoy his books. At least they didn’t all get burnt up in the fire, like his old army uniforms did.”

  Jason could not believe the intense swelling of pride that filled him as he reached out to accept the books. Not only had his eldest daughter survived a day in town that was clearly not for the weak or faint of heart, but she had come home much more appreciative and thoughtful than when she had left them. He felt a small spring of tears touch the lower rim of his eyes, but he fought it back.

  “Thanks, honey, I would be honored to read the man’s books, and you’re right, I do need something to do right now.”

  “I figure by the time you’ve finished all three of them, you’ll be back up on your feet. I know you. You’re a fast reader,” Sam said, before turning to go collect her bow again.

  “Not so fast, Sam,” her mother said, “you agreed to wash up today, and I want you to do it first before you go play at your archery again.”

  “It’s not playing, Mom, it’s totally serious,” Sam said, sounding agitated. “But okay, I wanted to get cleaned up anyway. I’m tired of smelling the fire.”

  Jason chuckled. He was thinking that his daughter had come back to them more grown up, but there were still times that he could see the teenage Sam. It seemed like not too long ago, when Sam had been as young as her sister. Only instead of being interested in artwork, Sam’s forte had been climbing trees, riding her bicycle too fast, and endlessly scraping her knees, until he and his wife had begun to worry that she would have permanent scars on them.

  “Are you laughing at me?” Sam asked her father, shooting him a foul look, including a scowl that accentuated her upturned nose.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it, dear,” Jason said. “I’m just happy to have the books, is all. Can’t a guy be happy once in a while, even if he is your dad?”

  “That’s cool, sorry,” she said. “I think I need to wash up, maybe it’ll put me in a better mood.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Maryanne said, finding it difficult not to laugh. “Why don’t you go and do that and leave your father alone to read?”

  Sam stomped off to grab a bucket, the soap, shampoo, and some water. This she took down the hill in order to have some privacy.

  “Is that what I have to look forward to next year?” Cole asked, thinking that Cody would be her age then.

  “I don’t think so,” Jason said. “Sam’s always been a bit strong willed and difficult, but it suits her. Cody’s apt to spend most of his life being agreeable, except when he’s barking out orders once he’s a doctor.”

  “Thanks,” Cole said, “even if it was a lie. I needed to hear that right now. It’s been tough for us. I think once Sam gets back, I’ll take Cody down there, and we’ll both wash up too. I’m thinking that Sam’s right. It might improve my mood to get cleaned up.”

  “I would like the doctor’s permission to be able to wash out my clothes in a bucket,” Amanda said, not wanting to be halted from the task by Maryanne.

  “I think if you’re feeling better, then it would be okay, as long as you promise to lie down afterward,” Maryanne said as she was preparing to wash up the lunch dishes with Cody’s help.

  “It sure is nice to have some help around here,” she said to Cody. “After we finish the dishes, do you want to learn how we sanitize water?”

  “Sure,” Cody said, unbelievably all grins. “I know how we’ve done it before, but it would be interesting to see how a doctor does it.”

  “Well, we have a lot of water to make safe for consumption and washing, and then we have a water tank to sanitize, so I hope that you’re up for the task.”

  “No problem,” Cody said. “As long as I don’t have to go around whacking creepers, it’s all cool.”

  Roy went to busy himself with the stack of solar equipment that he couldn’t wa
it to get started on. He supposed that it was probably more of a priority to begin with the garden, but that really wasn’t his thing, and he really wanted something that he was good at to occupy his time for a while. It seemed like a long time since he had been able to work on a project, as Sam would put it, as “cool” as the solar one.

  “I see where you guys dug out the basin for catching rainwater,” Cole said. “How about I outline the space for the garden, based on how far the soil that they brought back will stretch for? I guess I can start turning up some of the ground too, getting it ready.”

  “Excellent idea,” Jason said, looking up from the book that he had already started reading. “Remember, I’ll be with you in spirit.”

  For once, Jason was glad that he couldn’t pitch in. As it turned out, the book that he had started was quite fascinating, and he was looking forward to really getting into it. And with it as hot as it was, he had no desire to be exerting himself in the heat.

  “I can have Sam lend you a hand when she comes back up,” Maryanne said.

  “That’s okay,” Cole said. “Let her go and practice her bow. She’s right, it is important that one of us gets proficient with it, and since she’s the one that’s so interested in it, it ought to be her.”

  Besides, Cole was thinking, there is only so much teenage attitude that I can handle in this heat.

  “I can help when I’m done here,” Amanda said, tossing her clothes from yesterday into the soapy water.

  “Oh, no, you don’t,” Maryanne said. “After that, you are going to lie down, and that’s an order. And besides, you made me a promise.”

  “Fine, sure,” Amanda said, looking a little miffed with her friend. “I feel great, really.”

  “I know that’s a lie,” Maryanne said. “Anybody with a burn like that is not feeling great. Just wait until I stop giving you the pain pills.”

  “Message received,” said Amanda, beginning to swoosh the clothes around, noticing how instantly black the water had become.

  There was a good chance that even after she had washed these clothes, they would never look clean again. But at least, she figured, they would smell better and fit better than Maryanne’s clothes did on her.

  Amanda had set up one bucket with soapy water and one with clean water for washing and rinsing the clothes. She had a small pile of her laundry sitting next to the soap bucket, but after having washed the soot- and gas-soaked items, she knew that she would need to change the water before washing anything else. And there was, at the time, only a limited amount of water left that had been sanitized. She knew that Cole and Cody wanted to get washed up and get their clothes washed too. She decided that she would have to settle for only having these few still-filthy–looking items to wear for now.

  The water would be of no use to any of them, so she dumped it, letting it wash down the hill a little before soaking into the sand. The wind was mild today, unlike yesterday, so she felt comfortable laying her clothes out to dry on one of the large boulders that were soaking up the sun. She estimated that within half an hour, her clothes would be dry, and she would be able to get out of Maryanne’s. It would have been nice to be able to wash some of her friend’s clothing too for her, but again, she would need to wait for more water to be cleansed. Early on, they had made a pact to not use the river water for anything until it could be disinfected, just in case the infection could somehow be transmittable in that way.

  From her vantage point on the boulder, she could see the smoke rising up from the town and lazily traveling across the desert. It did not look as ominous as it had yesterday when she and Sam had first spied it on their way into town. The winds were soft today, and without them to drive the fire outward, it would eventually die out. But that wouldn’t help the damage that had already been done. If they were lucky, there might still be something salvageable; but others would be looking through the debris too, and that would limit the chance that they would find anything more of use there.

  Amanda was thankful that she and Sam had managed to collect as much as they had, but it was sad to see the rest of it go. She sighed a long, drawn-out sound, before her attention was once again drawn to the buzzards that circled not too far away. Ever since she could remember, she would have instinctual feelings about things, and this was one of those times. Her gut was telling her that they needed to go and check on whatever might be drawing the vultures into that canyon.

  She hopped off of the boulder, feeling the pain through her arm as she made the small leap. She winced but stayed the course to go and speak with Cole about it.

  “Cole, I know that you’re busy working on the layout for the garden, but I think we should send you and Roy over to the next canyon, where the vultures are circling, to check it out. We need to know why they’re here. I think it’s important.”

  Cole, covered in sweat and looking determined as he used the shovel to dig an outline for where they should plant the garden, stopped and looked to her.

  “What?” he asked, as if he hadn’t heard her.

  “Over there?” Amanda said, pointing to the circling birds. “We need to send you and Roy over there to check it out,” she said. “Or I could go and do it myself and risk the wrath of the doctor.”

  Cole turned and shielded his eyes from the glare of the sun to see what she was talking about.

  “Oh, birds,” he said, looking like he was about to return to his task.

  “Those aren’t just ordinary birds. They are attracted to death and the dying. If they’re circling, then it means that something isn’t dead yet, and I think we should know what it is, don’t you?”

  Cole stopped and planted the shovel deeply into the dirt with one powerful downward thrust, leaving it to stand upright by itself.

  “What about the birds?” Sam asked, having come up from down the hill, freshly scrubbed.

  “I was telling Cole that he and Roy need to check it out,” Amanda said, realizing that this was becoming more difficult than she had imagined it would be and wondering if it would be better if she just left to do it on her own.

  “I’ll go,” Sam said, itching to have another chance at an adventure that didn’t involve menial chores around the camp.

  Amanda frowned.

  “I see what you mean,” Cole said, still studying the birds. “Vultures, right?”

  “For a city boy, you sure catch on quick,” Amanda said sarcastically.

  Cole went to talk to Roy, with Sam trailing close behind.

  Amanda opted to go and sit on her bedroll because despite how much better she was feeling, she had begun to feel a little woozy with the small amount of exertion. She didn’t want to risk another embarrassing fainting spell. “It could be from the pain pills,” she told herself.

  Roy walked up. She could see his legs first because she had had her head tucked down a little to help with the airiness she felt in her head.

  “Cole, Sam, and I are going over to the next canyon,” Roy said. “I think you’re right. We should check it out. Are you all okay here?” he said, resting the shotgun beside her. “Just in case,” he said.

  Amanda nodded. It wasn’t like they could be too careful these days.

  “Give Jason one of the pistols. He’s a pretty fair shot,” Amanda said, believing him to be more capable than Maryanne would be in the event that they needed to use them to defend themselves.

  Roy nodded.

  “Are you sure that Sam should be going?” Amanda asked in a lowered voice. Amanda didn’t want Sam to overhear her.

  “Sure, I think after what you two managed to pull off yesterday, she can handle herself just fine,” Roy said, swiveling his head a little to look toward the girl.

  “Okay then, I’ll guard the fort,” Amanda said, wishing that her intuition would be more specific about things because she hadn’t a clue as to what they might encounter and would feel terrible if any of them got hurt while checking it out.

  Amanda watched Roy hand Cole a pistol and then took one to Jason. Maryan
ne looked worried as she inquired as to what was going on. Cody appeared to have some curiosity about the subject but did not ask to go along. Sam and her new friend were an odd couple, polar opposites in most ways. It was different for Amanda to be a spectator to these events, when she would have normally been in the lead at getting to the bottom of things. But she considered, With any luck, I’ll be fever-free by tomorrow and back to my old self, and this would have been a temporary situation. Amanda took comfort in this as she watched the three of them depart down the hill to get a vehicle.

  “What do you make of this?” Maryanne said, walking up to her, looking a little concerned.

  “It’s probably nothing,” Amanda said, knowing that that wasn’t what her gut was telling her but wanting to ease her friend’s mind.

  “Well, I hope you’re right. When Roy passed out the weapons, it scared me a little. I didn’t know what was going on around here.”

  Chapter 63

  Sam was protesting that no one had given her a weapon when Roy handed her the baseball bat.

  “Okay,” she said, taking a practice swing. “This’ll work.”

  “That thing’s seen some action,” Cole said, eyeing the dents and smeared red-brown streaks on it.

  “Yep,” Sam said proudly.

  “Let’s take the Jeep,” Roy said, already beginning to move a small pile of supplies that were stacked behind it. “It’ll use less gas. I know we don’t have to go far, but these days, every drop counts.”

  “You know, you’re good for my son,” Cole said to Sam. “He’s not good at the fighting-and-taking-care-of-himself thing that comes along with living in the LAZ. Maybe a little bit of the things you do will interest him.”

  “Thanks, maybe they’ll interest him, but maybe he’s just different from us, you know,” said Sam, managing to make a very astute observation sound simple.

  “You drive because you need the practice,” Roy said while he watched Sam grin. Roy passed the keys off to her.