Angered Seasons: The Worst Birthday Ever (Volume One)

by Chester, Mireille

  I grabbed the backpack and my rifle before running to the door and herding everyone inside.

  “Oh, my god! What the fuck is going on?” Pete was holding Marie to his chest, the baby cradled between them.

  Lane took a deep breath and shook his head. “Gabby, let’s see your arm. You’re bleeding.”

  I glanced down and saw the scratches long my forearm. “You know, I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that if these guys are sick, it’s not contagious. I’ve been bit and scratched and I’m still fine.” I winced as Lane brought a wet cloth back from the kitchen and wipe down the scratches before applying some Polysporin for good measure. I checked on Pete’s face while Lane went to make coffee.

  “What are you guys doing here?” I took the wet rag and wiped down the cut under his left eye.

  Pete swallowed hard. “We went out tonight. We were a couple of blocks from home when the babysitter called screaming that someone was breaking into the house.”

  Marie started to sob softly, her pretty face swollen and her blue eyes red from the tears she’d already shed. He went to sit by her and hugged her close, brushing her shoulder length blond hair behind her ear.

  “We got there and I grabbed the first thing within reach from in my tool box.” He gestured to the sledgehammer leaning against the couch. “I didn’t get there fast enough.” His whisper was hard to hear under Marie’s crying. “By the time I got them off of her, she was dead. I ran to Ashley’s room and grabbed her. I…” He blushed but met my eyes, his dark brown ones filled with tears he was refusing to let fall. “I didn’t know where else to go.”

  My heart tightened and I smiled. “You know we’re always here for you.”

  Lane confirmed my statement by putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing it. I had a brief flash back to the day we’d met him; young, cocky. Both of our crews were made up of kids that had been assigned to us as part of a community service project. Pete had been a gangly fifteen year old that had been arrested for breaking and entering. Max was a recovered drug addict with a violent disposition; Jason had been involved in numerous fights; the twins, a couple of honor roll students, had a bad habit of stealing cars and leading the police on wild chases just for the fun of it. The list went on and not all of them stayed on with us after their sentence had been carried out, but a few did. We knew life was tough. Lane’s mom had been a single working mom after she’d left his dad for beating her and I’d bounced around from foster home to foster home until I was old enough to get my own place.

  I took a deep breath. “Alright, so, I think we need some sort of a plan. We don’t have infinite ammo and we’ll definitely need food. We know they’re breaking into houses. We need to make this place as secure as possible.”

  Lane was shaking his head. “We have to leave. There are too many windows and any wood we have is at the shop. We can’t board them properly.”

  I frowned. “So what do you want to do?”

  “I think we need to get to the shop. The windows there can be boarded, there’s the fridges, the little deep freeze. We pack up all the food we have here, bring it there. I don’t know how bad this is going to get, but if we lose power, we have the generators there. They won’t last forever, but they’re better than nothing. We’ll pack clothes and blankets…”

  I raised an eyebrow at him and he stopped short.

  “Now, who looks like they think they’re in a zombie movie.” I smiled despite the horrifying situation we were in. I was glad to see his jaw relax and his eyes soften.

  Little Ashley made one of those adorable baby sounds and I found myself wondering if I was going to live long enough to have one of my own. Lane broke eye contact with me and headed back to the kitchen only to return with four cups of coffee and a Boston cream donut with a candle in it.

  He flashed me a lopsided grin and shrugged. “I might not get the chance to give it to you later. I’d hate to miss one year just because we’re stuck in a zombie apocalypse.” He placed the donut in my hand and pressed his lips to my forehead. “Happy birthday, Freckles.”

  I blew out the candle and cut the donut into four. “Do you remember when I turned sixteen and my foster mom beat me with a chair leg because she said she knew what sixteen year old girls did and I should be punished ahead of time so I’d think twice about sleeping around?”

  He nodded, his jaw clenched at the memory. “I climbed up to your room right after it happened.”

  “And you helped me run away.” I took a deep breath. “That’s always been my number one worst birthday. Until today. I think that today officially takes the award for the worst birthday ever.”

  “I got a hold of Max and Lizzy. They’ll meet us at the shop. Jason, John, Brent and Grant are all MIA. No one’s answering their phones.” Pete looked like he was going to be sick. We were more than a company; we were a family.

  “What about the four community service kids? Did you try them?” Lane stuffed our last blanket into a bag.

  Pete nodded. “Nothing.”

  “We’ll try again when we’re at the shop.” I slung a backpack stuffed with canned goods over my shoulder and opened the door so we could pack out last load into the trucks. When we were done, I did a once over of the house and met Lane at the door as he came to see what was taking me so long.

  “Wait!”

  Lane bumped into me as I turned back toward him.

  “What about Iggy?” We both looked at our iguana.

  “I gave him lots of food and water. We can come check on him in a couple of days.” Lane gripped my shoulder. “We can’t bring him, Gabs.”

  I took a deep breath and swallowed the lump in my throat. “I know. I just…”

  Lane waited until I looked up at him. “He’ll be fine.”

  I gave a small nod and gave the massive terrarium one last look before running to the truck and smiling reassuringly at the questioning look Pete was giving me from his half ton. Lane climbed into the one ton. My heart sank as we left our driveway. I glanced at Lane who looked exactly how I felt. Bewildered, terrified, yet determined. He caught my look and gave my hand a squeeze.

  We drove ten minutes through the city and another ten out of town without any more sightings of the Yellow Eyes. We kept the radio on the local station for the first part of the drive, though they weren’t reporting anything new. Everyone was advised to stay indoors and to lock their doors. I reached over and changed the station so that the satellite radio would come through. Every station had stopped playing their usual programming and was giving the same warnings as the local stations.

  “This is unreal.”

  Lane nodded his agreement, but stayed quiet as he focused on the wet highway. He pulled onto the gravel drive that led to the yard. He drove up to the shop and shut the truck off as Pete pulled up beside us and did the same. We all gazed around, looking for anything that seemed out of the usual.

  Everyone piled out of the trucks and I ran to the shop door to unlock it. I was pushed back as the door opened on its own. My heart jumped into my throat and my adrenaline pumped. My fists flew without my thinking about it, self-preservation kicking in of its own accord. Whoever was standing there grunted with the impact, but quickly managed grab my arms and hold me still. I struggled until I realized Lane had taken a hold of me and was holding me to his chest.

  “Shush, Gabby. Take a deep breath.”

  I did as I was told and tried to relax against him.

  “Christ, Gabs, what the fuck?”

  I looked up to see all six and a half feet of Jason filling the doorway, rubbing his chest where I’d pummeled him. His face was pale in contrast to his black hair and made his dark brown eyes stand out of his face like saucers. I left the safety of Lane’s arms and launched myself at Jason who staggered back to catch me. Tears welled in my eyes and I was powerless to keep them in.

  “Oh, my god, thank god! We thought something had happened to you. We tried phoning.” I pulled back and wiped my arm across my face. I felt li
ke a tool for losing control when I was sure these kids needed someone to be strong right now. Not that they were kids by any means. They’d come to us as troubled teenagers, but were developing into adults any parent would be proud of. Jason had been with us the longest. He’d been one of the first of our community service kids when we’d volunteered for the program. He’d graduated to having his own crew a year ago and was stepping up to the challenge fantastically. At twenty four, he was also the oldest of our ‘kids’.

  Lane handed me a bag and we started to unload the trucks.

  “I was out with friends,” explained Jason while we moved from the truck to the shop. “The bartender announced they were shutting down do to what was happening so we jumped back into Rick’s car. They decided they were going to drive around and see if they could find any of those mob kids; they were going to teach them a lesson, Rick said. I told them to drop me off here. I think my cell phone is in his car, still.”

  We were rushing from the trucks to the shop, trying to get everything in as quickly as possible.

  “Why here?” Marie asked from the corner of the room where she’d settled down to breastfeed little Ashley.

  Jason shrugged and turned a red. “I didn’t want to go to my apartment by myself. I knew Lane and Gabby were out for her birthday. I figured, if anything, I had less of a chance that any of those freaks would find me out of town.”

  We hauled the last of our provisions into the shop and I locked the door behind us. Everyone let out a sigh of relief though we didn’t have any time to relax.

  “Let’s board the windows.” Lane went to get some two by fours.

  “What are you doing?” Jason grabbed a couple more and followed him.

  “We’re going to build frames three quarter of the height of the windows. I don’t want to board them completely. That way, we can still see out.” He pulled a tape measurer out of his tool belt that hung on a hook with all the others before heading to the windows and called out the measurements for the frames. Jason measured out the cuts on the two by fours and handed them to Lane.

  I pulled the air nailer out of its case and hooked it to the compressor. Pete plugged the table saw in before dragging a sheet of plywood over to it. He paused before turning on the saw.

  “Um, Lane?”

  Lane looked up from where he’d been about to cut through a two by four with the skill saw.

  “Does this have to look good?”

  Lane smiled and shook his head. “It just has to be solid.”

  Pete nodded and was about to cut the sheet in half when he stopped, walked to his apron, grabbed his tape measurer and chalk line, and marked out his cuts. He caught me looking at him and he shrugged.

  “It feels wrong not doing it right.”

  I grinned and started to nail the frames together as Lane handed me the cut two by fours. I put the two extra pieces into the middle so that it looked like I was building a miniature wall. No one was going to punch through this baby if I could help it. Pete screwed the doubled up plywood to my frame and handed it to Jason who took it and headed to the window, impact driver in hand.

  “What do you think?” Pete stood, broom in hand, looking at the windows.

  Lane took a deep breath and slowly blew it out of his nose. “I think that if they try to get in here, they might think twice about it once they start.”

  “What about the door?” Marie was eyeing the object in question, fear clear on her face. She set Ashley into her car seat and covered her with a baby blanket.

  “Don’t worry, Marie.” Jason opened it and took a quick look around before popping the casing off. Pete was there in a flash, drill in hand. It didn’t take long for them to flip the frame around so that the door swung in instead of out.

  I glanced at Lane as he replaced the rest of the screws on the hinges of the back door then screwed three two by fours across it so it couldn’t be pushed open. He blew the dark bangs out of his eyes. Dark blue eyes met mine.

  He frowned. “What?”

  I shrugged. I had so many thoughts racing through my head, I couldn’t settle on just one. Was Iggy going to be alright? Were the others going to make it here on time? Was this all for nothing; were we all about to die? My heart dropped. Had I been wrong about not telling Lane how I felt?

  “Hey, what’s wrong? You look like you just lost your best friend.” Lane grinned.

  “You’re not funny.” I tried not to smile back.

  “Yes, I am. It’s one of the things you love about me.”

  “You’re a nerd.”

  His grin widened. “Another thing you love about me.”

  I started to laugh. “Stop it. We shouldn’t be laughing. This whole situation is horrible.”

  His smile softened. “That’s why it’s the perfect time to be laughing.”

  I inhaled deeply. “How are you so calm?”

  He grunted. “I’m not. I am freaking out.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him. “Yeah, right.”

  “No, really.” He took my hand and put it over his heart. I could feel it pounding in his chest.

  “Wow.” I looked up at him and smiled. “You’re not kidding.”

  His grin returned. “I told you.”

  “I’m scared, Lane.” I let him pull me to his chest and closed my eyes as his arms wrapped around me.

  “We’ll be ok.”

  “This isn’t one of those Zombie movies. We’re not going to find some weird person with a key to the end of this epidemic. If anything, we’re probably bunched in with those that are the first to die.”

  “No way.” He pressed his lips to my forehead. “Look. We have the guy who has a girlfriend and a kid, the single handsome guy, when the others get here we’ll have the jokers, the one that panics, and the girl who goes off and get herself killed.” He frowned. “Only we’ll make sure Lizzy doesn’t go off on her own.” He nodded, satisfied with his analogy. “We have all the key elements of the main cast of characters.”

  “And what about us? You left us out.”

  “Well, obviously, I’m the mature and brave one that will keep everyone from panicking.” He grinned. “And you’ll be the one that ends up rocking in a corner after you lose your mind.”

  “Bah! I will not! I’m the super awesome one that will kick ass.”

  His chuckle sounded against my ear. “I don’t doubt it.”

  There was a honk outside and I reluctantly let go of him to see who had made it to join us. Max and Lizzy were pale as they ran into the building. Lizzy scanned the room quickly and threw her arms around me when she spotted me. Her short black hair was held back with a pale pink bandana that matched her tank top. Her black jeans hugged her slightly thicker frame all the way down her legs where they tucked into calf high black leather boots with a one inch heel. She pulled back, wiped her hands over her face to get rid of the tears spilling from her dark brown eyes, and smiled.

  “Sorry. I promised myself I wouldn’t cry.”

  I smiled and gave her another hug. “Don’t worry about it.” I gave Max a hug. He was dressed in his usual blue jeans, work boots, and t-shirt. He ran a hand through his blond hair and I could see the fear in his light green eyes even though he tried to hide it. He put an arm around Lizzy’s shoulders and pulled her close.

  Everyone jumped at the sound of the overhead door being opened. I ran to Lane’s side.

  “Are you crazy?”

  He shook his head and ran out to the truck. I watched as he drove into the shop and was followed by Pete in his half ton. Jason pulled the door shut as quickly as he could.

  “Why the hell would you do that?” I tried to keep my voice from shaking.

  “In case we need to make a quick escape.” Lane was pulling blankets out of the bags we had brought and was handing them out to everyone. “If they come out this far and find us and start to break in, we can jump in the trucks and drive out of here.” He looked at me as he handed me my favorite blanket and pillow. “Gabs, it’s ok. We made sure there w
eren’t any out there first.”

  I noticed everyone was looking at us. Marie whispered something to Pete. Lane didn’t seem to notice.

  “Pete, you and Marie can take the office. Max and Lizzy, you guys can sleep in the upstairs storage. Jason…”

  “I’ll take the one ton.” Jason took his blankets and went off without another word.

  Marie elbowed Peter who rolled his eyes. “I spilled a bunch of pop on the bench in my truck.”

  “That’s alright.” Lane waved off the inconvenience. “Gabs, you can take the back room. I’m going to stay up.”

  I glanced up at the clock over the door. Two in the morning. I made my way to the coffee pot and started it up while everyone headed off to their designated sleeping areas.

  “What are you doing?” Lane handed me two cups.

  “I don’t think I can sleep.” I put cream and sugar into mine. “Those kids are acting weird.”

  Lane grunted. “They’ve been through a lot tonight.” We went to sit on the couch we’d set up in one corner of the shop. That and a table and a few chairs made up our break area. “How are you doing?”

  I shrugged, reached over to the small television, and grabbed the remote. “It’s been a weird night.” I took a sip of my coffee and lay down so my head was on his lap. “What channel should we try?”

  “Go to CTV. Maybe they have an update for here.” His hand smoothed my hair then rested on the top of my head. The regular programming was on though there was a warning scrolling across the bottom of the screen: Authorities are strongly advising to stay indoors. Lock your doors. Stay tuned for updates that may occur.

  A rerun of the Simpsons came on and Lane chuckled as Homer tried to choke the life out of Bart. It was such a small thing, but the familiarity of me lying on his lap while we watched TV was enough to take the edge off of our situation. As the adrenaline started to wear off, I found myself drifting off to sleep.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  I stretched with a yawn and was glad that Lane tightened his hold around my waist to keep me from falling off the couch. I pulled the covers up and gazed around the shop. I could hear voices coming from the office and snores coming from the open window of the one ton. The smell of fresh coffee made its way to me and my stomach grumbled.