The Weak Shall Die: Complete Collection (Four Volume Set)

by Taylor Michaels

  John was pleasant, but still on guard. He had been fooled by the cannibal Sarah and wasn't about to be fooled again. It didn't hurt to be cautious. It had paid off in the past.

  "We're not sure. Both our parents were from Lebanon. Came here when they were young. We thought it might have something to do with genes. Kevin is an electrician and an amateur machinist. He has a shop in the basement and teaches, taught, electrician and machine shop classes at the local Community College."

  "How about food? It's been two months since the stores shut down."

  Kevin's hand tightened around his firearm. "That's what he's after, Kate. Our stock of food. He wants to take our stock of food."

  "Kevin, be nice." She patted his upper arm.

  "Kevin is partially right, as I said outside. We are scavenging for food. That's why we are in this neighborhood."

  "I thought you said you had a farm?" said Paul.

  "We have fields of corn and beans and tomatoes and many other things. But, that's still a month or two away. We started farming just before the panic, when we first heard of the Chinese virus. We didn't have enough time to stock up completely. Maybe we could have done better, but we didn't. So, now we're scavenging. We won't try to take your food. We're not killers."

  "You killed those guys shooting at us," said Paul.

  "I admit we've killed a few. But, it was always for self preservation or to protect some innocent."

  "If you killed us and took our food, it would help preserve you, wouldn't it? That would be self preservation."

  John noticed the way Kevin was gripping his rifle and took the defensive, hoping to dispel his fears. "That's one way of looking at it, Paul. I think I'm going to be leaving, now. I hope you folks do all right. Sorry to have intruded."

  John walked to the door, half looking back, half looking forward. As he walked back to his group, he heard Kate calling.

  "John, we talked about it. We'd like to join your group."

  John turned again and walked back to the house. Outside the door, he said, "I'll have to put it to a vote of my people, back at the farm. Do you have anything else to offer? We're short of food and you have four mouths to feed. I'm sorry if I implied we were scouting for new members for the group. We're not. Everybody we now have has a skill and has a place in our group."

  "I'm a nurse and a good cook," Kate quickly replied. "I can preserve food. I have over a hundred quarts of food left in the basement along with over one hundred cans. We have a small garden in the back. We think we can make it for the rest of the year, but we can't make it forever. Kevin does a lot of DIY. He's a gunsmith in his spare time. He's an electrician, which might do you some good. He installed our solar panels. And he has the machine shop equipment in the basement. The children are strong."

  "They seem a bit antagonistic," John said, looking at Paul. "Are you sure they will help? Everybody has to work. We've had others who didn't pull their weight and they had to leave. Everyone has to work in the kitchen, chop wood, take care of the garden, do house maintenance or provide any menial task needed. Everybody has to do something useful."

  "They're just teenagers."

  "They would still have to work." John looked at Paul. "Are you willing to chop wood all day? Weed the garden? Dig ditches?"

  "I can handle it," Paul said, puffing himself up and trying to look macho.

  "No video games. No skateboarding. No playing."

  "Hey! I said I could handle it!"

  "Kenneth, be nice," Kate said.

  "I'll talk to the rest of the group. That much food would last another, maybe fifteen or twenty days. It wouldn't pull us out of the hole we're in."

  "But it would help, wouldn't it?" Kate continued, pleading their case. "Maybe you could find another batch like ours that would fill in the other days. I can tell you where we have scavenged around here. That would keep you from wasting your time."

  John cast his eyes toward the outside and his band of comrades and then back at Kate and Kevin. "I'll be back with you in a couple days, if we decide to bring you in. In any case, we saved you from those guys."

  "Yes, of course, thank you. We're grateful. I'm sorry it didn't appear that way"

  John walked back to the group -- slowly -- thinking.

  "So, what's the story, John? What's going on?"

  "I don't know, Fred. Good and bad. I may not be objective. I really didn't like those people. Not one of them. I felt they were hiding something. A lot, actually. They want to join our group. They have one hundred quarts of canned goods and over a hundred cans. I didn't actually see any of it. They also have two teenagers who are at a difficult age. I really don't trust the teens or the parents."

  "That's still a decent amount of food," said Fred.

  "If they came to live with us, that would mean our food supply would be stretched maybe two weeks. And I hate to say this, but if we ran out of our food, we could just come here and take theirs. I don't see any advantage to bringing them onboard, at least not right now."

  Fred glanced at the window where two figures stood. "One thing though," said Fred. "In a few weeks somebody else may find them and they may have a quieter conscience than you."

  "That's true. It could be now or never."

  "Your instincts have gotten us this far. Why distrust them now?"

  John brushed a hand against his forehead. "The guy is an electrician and a machinist. She said he was an amateur gunsmith. He has a machine shop in the basement. He installed some solar panels. If we take these people, we get him, the food, the machine shop and the solar panels. No way he would come without his family."

  "Don't forget the night vision goggles," Charles said. "They could have blasted us. Those could help us in the future."

  "The Dark Demon has infrared. Almost as good."

  "If you have an infrared camera, and most video cameras are sensitive to infrared, you see those illuminators like giant search lights. Night vision would be an improvement. More stealthy. Could also be used on the motorcycle. Right now, riding the motorcycles at night is dangerous, more than in the daylight."

  "We'll consider all of our alternatives. Right now we need to explore some more."

  They all climbed back inside the Dark Demon and left the neighborhood. A mile away was another upscale neighborhood, lying on the hilltops overlooking the town golf course. They searched each house feverishly and efficiently, hoping not to run into any more unwelcome guests. All they found were bodies, dead as John's covert reports about the virus, and a total of two boxes of canned food.

  * * *

  The next morning after breakfast, John asked everyone to stay behind for a meeting about the previous night's foraging.

  "What's up John?" said Tom. "What happened last night? We saw the cans."

  "I have two major points I'd like to discuss with you. I'm not sure about my own judgment in this situation and I trust your judgment." He extended his hands to all of the group. "First, we found around fifty cans of food. That's a couple days of food. So, the trip could be considered a success. Not a big one, but it moves us ahead."

  "Get to big story, John."

  "The big story, according to Cho, is that we interrupted a gun fight where two guys were trying to take a house from four people, two adults and two teens. We killed the two guys and I talked to the people in the house. They were suspicious of us and I was suspicious of them. I was the only one to go into their house for a talk. They claim to have one hundred quarts of canned food and one hundred cans and a small garden. I didn't see any of it. I didn't really invite them. I went in because I was curious. Hell, I don't know why I went to talk to them. They thought we wanted to kill them and take their food. Later, they said they wanted to join our group. The people seemed somewhat strange and I'm worried about bringing them here." He glanced at each member of the group, wondering what they might say they would resolve his worries.

  "Why are they strange?" said Elspeth. "Any outsider would say we are all strange. I'm not an outsider and
I think we're strange. You have to be strange to live this life. It's a difficult life. If anybody weren't strange before they came here, they'd be strange after a few weeks."

  "You're right Elspeth, but as Cho said to me last night, it was a wealthy neighborhood. This was a big house. This guy didn't make enough money at the community college to buy that house."

  Fred lifted a finger. "Maybe they scavenged it after the plague. Could have killed the owners. Or the owners were out of town on vacation and died out of town. These people knew about it and moved in. Could even have been housesitting. People used to do that when friends went on vacation."

  John nodded. "Maybe. What about the machine tools. He seemed to be comfortable with them."

  "I don't know, John. Maybe the guy who owned the house was his boss and he had a machine shop. Or a coworker. Maybe it was her parents' house."

  "Could be, Fred. The ladies in those big houses aren't homebodies. I don't think she canned a hundred quarts of food, either. I suspect she went around the neighborhood, who knows how far, and collected them. They've been foraging, just like us. Maybe you're right, Fred. Maybe they scavenged the house."

  "That's not bad, is it? To have someone good at foraging?"

  "No, Elspeth, not bad." John made a short tsking noise. "The teens, or at least the boy, seemed antagonistic. Like he thought they were better off without us. The big problem I have is that the guy is a gunsmith and a machinist. We will need both of those in the future."

  "I don't see a problem," said Elspeth. "We trust you. If you don't trust them, then forget them. You are making something complicated out of something simple."

  Elspeth was feeding one side of his thinking, but John needed the others to help him make a decision. Much could be gained, but at what risk?

  "What I'm thinking, folks, is that with this Kevin, we would be better off than without. Also, they had some solar panels. We can always use more electricity. I'm not sure what we could use the machine tools for, but we talked about making steam engines, even though any steam engine we could build would be inefficient. Others have built gasifier systems to use wood to power a car engine. Maybe this guy could help us with that."

  Cho interrupted, "House on edge of mountain. Good view. Bad farm."

  "Yes, that's true. They couldn't produce much and their future is questionable. It's a bit of a dilemma for me. They wanted to join the group. That amount of food would help some, but not a lot."

  "I understand your concern, John," said Elspeth. "So, why are you talking to us? We've trusted you before. We trust you now. Make a decision, man."

  John couldn't help noticing Elspeth's lack of concern. "It's a mix of good and bad and I'm not sure how it falls out."

  Elspeth stood up and went to the refrigerator for a refill of cold water. "It sounds like you think you need more information. Whenever you don't know what to do, you find more information."

  "Elspeth right. John always do that."

  "Yes," said George. "The ladies are right. That is what you do. If you need a second opinion on these people, take one of us the next time."

  "OK, OK. I know what I always do. I was just hoping to make this simpler."

  Elspeth sunk into her chair, taking a sip of her cold water and cringing. "Water is for bathing, not for drinking. Nothing about this life is simple. Why should this be different? We should go back and interview them. We will look at their food and their tools and solar panels. You wouldn't hire someone without an interview. How is this different?"

  "And who, Elspeth, would do this interview?"

  "Cho and I could talk to the woman. You and Fred to the man. Harry could talk to the teens. Charles could scout around the place. We could go just after dark."

  John mulled over what Elspeth had said. Like she said, several people's eyes and gut feelings were better than one. Finally, he said, "Only four can fit into the Dark Defender, maybe five."

  "We could take the cycles," said Charles. "Just before dark. Fred could take one and I another. They wouldn't know I was around because the noise from Fred's cycle would cover the noise from mine. I could scout around the place while you kept them occupied inside."

  "When do we go?"

  "Let's wait a few days," said Fred. "That will give the car time to be charged and time for us to think about it a bit more."

  Chapter 44 - The K's

  John's mind wrestled with the thought of inviting the Karams to join them. It was as if two people were fighting inside his head, each having great arguments and neither able to silence the other. He finally gave up. Elspeth was right. He needed more intel. He would have to know them better to decide whether he could trust them. He thought something about them was wrong. But what?

  The next day, as the sun set behind the Blue Ridge mountains, John, Cho, Harry and Elspeth drove the Dark Defeater to the wealthy part of town, to the Karam house. They walked from the car, waving a white flag. Fred and Charles followed by cycle and arrived a few minutes later. Fred joined them while Charles parked his cycle a block away between two darkened houses.

  "John, you're back. With friends," Kate said, surprise written on her face. She opened the door and led them to the living room, illuminated by two white candles.

  "Yes, Kate, we called, but nobody answered." With a sweep of his hand, he said, "I'd like you to meet Cho and Elspeth. I'd like you to talk to them and show them your food storage area. Harry here will talk to Kay and Paul. Fred and I will go downstairs and talk to Kevin about his skills and his equipment."

  "Sure, I'll show Harry to Kay's room and I'll send Kenneth in. Kevin, show these gentlemen downstairs."

  "I still don't trust you," said Kevin, opening the door to the basement and leading the way.

  "We don't blame you," Fred said. "As John likes to say, trust is harder and harder to come by. We never had a machinist in the group. We have one guy who is pretty good at fixing things. Another person who knows about electrical equipment would be good, but not necessary."

  John looked at Kevin and asked himself, why don't I trust this guy? Not being sure, he thought of a question, a question that if Kevin was what he pretended to be, he could answer easily. "One thing we've thought about is converting a car engine to steam. How hard would that be?"

  Kevin stopped walking down the stairs for a moment. "Difficult. And not a good idea. To have any kind of decent power with steam, you need high pressures. You'd need a good welder and good material for the boiler. A small, single cylinder gasoline engine would be possible to convert, but would be inefficient and wouldn't last long. The problem is in the valves and in the oil. High pressure steam would force the valves open and steam would condense in the crankcase. It would get into the oil. If you recall the old rail engines, they didn't have a crankcase."

  Kevin's response seemed sound, so John's trust began to build.

  After, the group spent an hour looking over the house and talking to the K's, they left and drove off in the Dark Demon. As they passed by the house where Charles had parked his ride, he started his engine and joined the parade. When they arrived at the compound, the group reconvened in the great room and John asked everybody to think about their experiences and not just the facts, but also their intuition. He was anxious to find out if he was right in not trusting the K's.

  "What was your impression, Harry? Would Paul and Kay fit in? Would they help us? Would they be willing to work? Or would they always be getting into trouble?"

  "Slow down, John. It's hard to say. I liked Kay. She said she helped in the kitchen. She prepared a number of meals each week by herself. And, she helps in the garden. She doesn't like pulling weeds, but who does? She knows that's important and she does it. Paul had a bit of attitude. You noticed that, but we can probably push him to do some work. I think he'd like hunting. I vote to bring them in."

  "What do you say, Fred? Would Kevin be of any help to us?"

  "I'm not sure. He's a machinist, which could be good, but we've gotten by so far. From what he said about
the steam engine, I'm thinking that a steam engine is not in our future, anyway. So, I'm on the fence."

  "And Elspeth, what was your impression of Kate?"

  "Kate only cooks when she must. That's why Kay fixes the meals. Those jars of food in the basement were not prepared by her. Some even had other people's names on them. And the variety of canned food made it appear they were taken from other homes. When most people go to the store, they buy the same brands from week to week. She had many brands of the same things. Obviously, she is not a homemaker."

  "So they've been scavenging. Nothing wrong with that, on its own."

  "The point is, John, what does she do? Scavenging is all we see. We have no need for someone who plans parties and who goes to other people's parties. I say she's not what she says and probably not worth bringing aboard. I vote against them."

  "Thanks, Elspeth. Do you have anything to add, Cho?"

  "Not like Kate. Not honest. Hiding something. Cho vote against, too."

  Last, John turned to Charles.

  "Charles, do you have anything to say? You scouted around outside."

  "They had some electronic surveillance. Cameras. I'd be surprised if they don't find out I was around. If they review the tapes they will probably see something. I made sure I wore black with a ski mask. They may not notice, but I wouldn't bet on it. Otherwise, I'm negative. They might be useful, but could be trouble. In short, too much risk."

  "In summary, it sounds like we still don't have a compelling case. Let's sleep on it and we'll talk about it again tomorrow. Thanks everybody."

  Everybody headed to the dining room for a late dinner, but Charles hung behind. He drew John aside, intentionally keeping his voice low.

  "John, I did find some suspicious things."

  "What?"

  "Cho was right about them not having much land for a garden. Most of the land behind the house has a steep downward slope. All the land in back, a strip about ten feet wide, had been dug. Some plants, vegetables, are growing. Some spots had been dug and no plants were growing. May have been graves. About that size. I could take a shovel back and see what they were up to."