I pulled the canvas tight and pushed two stakes into the ground through the two loops on the other end of the tent.
I got up and stood back to admire my work.
I now had a six by eight piece of canvas stretched out, one side three feet off the ground with the other side angling down until it met the ground.
“How is that?” I asked. “We can all fit under there now.”
“There aren’t any walls,” Katie complained. “How am I going to change clothes? Everyone will see me.”
“It will keep the rain and sun off our heads while we’re here,” I said then sighed as my family continued to frown at the lean-to. “You guys relax, I’ll go ask Hank if he has anything bigger.”
I left my grumbling family and walked back to the main door of the building where I was met by the two soldiers who guarded the entrance.
“Can we help you?” one guard asked.
“I’d like to speak with Hank,” I said.
“Sorry, he isn’t available right now,” the soldier replied. “Can I help you?”
“I was wondering if I could trade in the small two-man tent that he gave me for something larger that would accommodate my entire family?” I asked.
“Sorry,” the guard replied. “That is the only size of tent we have. Look around, you won’t see anything bigger.”
“Would you have a large tarp then?” I asked.
“Sorry, we didn’t have time to move a whole lot of supplies here, we all have to make do with what we have,” the guard replied.
“Thanks anyhow,” I replied, turned and started walking back to my family.
I didn’t expect much when we got on the helicopter this morning and I could see that was good I felt that way because I realized that I wouldn’t be getting much here at the safe zone. I guess I shouldn’t have felt too disappointed, but it gave me strange feeling in my gut.
The main thing I did expect was that we would be coming to a place of safety, the lack of luxuries I could tolerate as long as I knew we would be safe and could somehow manage to survive this ordeal.
I was having my doubts about this place and about the men running it, but so far there hadn’t been anything that seriously worried me.
The place was being run by government employees, so I knew there would be a lot of screw ups, but what I saw as I looked out across the yard now made me think.
As I looked across the yard, I saw a dozen of the dead clinging to and clawing at the fence.
That in itself wasn’t too concerning because I knew that they could not get through that fence, but off in the distance I could see more staggering bodies coming our way.
Were the dead coming this way because they knew the living was here?
If they were, how did they know?
Could the dead somehow sense large groups of the living even over long distances?
How did the dead coming from out west know? Could the dead communicate, were they somehow spreading the word?
If all the dead we had seen going through Rapid City were coming here, could that fence keep them out?
And how many more were coming?
As sturdy as that fence appeared, even something as sturdy as those iron bars looked, I knew it had its limit.
Only time would tell, but now I had something else that I felt was serious enough to worry about. I could only hope that the swarm of the dead we had flown over would disburse before they got this far. That and the coming swarm would not as large as we had been led to believe it possibly could be.
I looked up into the sky and tried to clear my mind.
“Don’t let all the ‘what ifs’ drive you crazy,” I thought. “Play it one day at a time. Give it a chance, because there isn’t much else I could do.”
I walked back to where my family was waiting.
“For now, we have to make do with what we have,” I said. “Let’s finish getting set up, then I think we should take a walk and meet some of our neighbors and check out this place,” I smiled. “I think once we get around and find out what all the others have been through and how they feel about being here, we will all feel better about this place.”
I looked at my family and smiled, trying to make them feel better about being here, to reassure them somehow.
Finally, they started to relax and smile back at me.
“I have dibs on the spot on the left side of the tent,” Logan finally said.
“I claim the spot next to the building on the other side of the lean-to, far away from Logan” Katie smiled, grabbed her blanket and ducked under the lean-to. “Dad, you can have the place next to me.”
“Well, I guess I get what’s left,” Emma grinned. “At least I’m next to you and I didn’t have to find out by a text message.”
“If Katie talks as much in her sleep as she does when she’s awake, I’m moving her next to you,” I smiled.
Chapter 4
Our arrival at the safe zone had gone smoothly, even though I have to admit that I had expected more.
The tent they had given us would barely give us shelter from much more than the sunshine. If we were here for any length of time, I’m sure when we encountered any substantial amount of rain, especially with us having to sleep on the bare ground, things could become very uncomfortable or down right miserable.
Blankets and a lean-to would just not cut it if we were still here in winter when the cold weather began to move in.
I had envisioned when we decided to come to the safe zone that we would be staying in a building. I didn’t expect the accommodations would be fancy by any means, but I had expected a lot more than a blanket on the hard ground.
But I tried to maintain a happy front for the sake of my family, because I didn’t want to discourage them before we learned more about this place and had given it a chance.
For better or worse, I thought we were stuck here and would just have to make the best of it.
We were told if we were unhappy at the safe zone that we would be taken back to our house, but I somehow had my doubts that would be an option for us now.
The atmosphere here seemed tense, the people in the yard appeared listless and miserable and I wasn’t sure why.
I also expected to see a lot bigger military presence here, so far, I had only seen one helicopter and five soldiers.
As I said, I was starting to feel that something wasn’t right here. Maybe it was time to go find out if I should be concerned or if I was just disappointed that this place didn’t meet my initial expectations.
“What do you say we take a walk and meet some of the others?” I asked. “Maybe we can even make a few new friends.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Emma smiled. “That might make us all feel better.”
“I wonder if there are many guys my age here?” Logan asked. “It would be nice if there are enough that we could maybe pick up teams and play football or baseball to pass the time.”
“That would be nice,” Emma smiled. “Katie, maybe you will find some girls your age to talk to.”
“Maybe, but I think I would rather play football with the boys,” Katie stopped and looked at me out of the corner of her eyes as a grin spread across her face, “Yeah, that would be nice Mom.”
That remark reminded me that it was about time I had a talk with Katie, she had been acting strangely since we got on the helicopter and I needed to find out what was going on inside her head. But the talk could wait until after our walk and I could see what other subjects I needed to deal with.
Katie crawled out from under the lean-to and came over beside me as Logan walked next to Emma.
We walked around the corner of the building and followed the path past the front of the building.
“Where should we start?” Emma asked.
“Why don’t we walk down to the restrooms,” I replied. “On the way down, we can look over the people and see if there is anyone that looks friendly.”
“We don’t have to use those stinky trenches, do we?�
�� Katie asked.
“Not right now, but I think we should see what they look like,” I grinned, “because sooner or later we will have to go to the bathroom and that appears to be the only place we can go unless you want to go out in the middle of the yard in front of everyone.”
“Hump,” Katie’s replied. “Do you think the soldiers will let me go in the building?”
“No,” I said. “They have guards posted to keep everyone out of the building except for the soldiers. They can’t make an exception for one person without getting everyone else riled up. So, unless you’ve decided to give up going to the bathroom you should just make up your mind to grin and bear it.”
Yeah Katie,” Logan grinned, “you’ll just have to grin and ‘bare’ it.”
Shut up Logan,” Katie growled.
“When we reached the bathrooms, I said. “I’m going in to take a look. Stay here if you want, but I’d recommend you go in and check it out. It will make it easier when you do have to use the facilities, it won’t be as much of a shock.”
I headed for the men’s tent, Logan followed me as the girls walked reluctantly to the women’s tent.
Logan and I walked into the men’s tent and we were immediately assaulted by the smell that hit us.
There was a guy in the far corner crouched over the end of the trench, he appeared noticeably uncomfortable when we walked in.
“To be honest, the smell isn’t much worse than how things smell outside,” I said. “I had expected worse.”
“But the bottom of these trenches looks gross,” Logan said.
“Try not to look,” I replied.
“They need to have a post with a magazine or something to read on it like they do in public restrooms,” Logan laughed.
We both decided to make use of the facilities and located a place along the trench where we could urinate and not feel like we were on public display.
Logan finished first and said, “I’ll wait for you outside.”
He quickly left the tent.
I noticed out of the corner of my eyes that the guy that had been crouched over the far end of the trench stood up and secured his pants.
As I finished, he walked up behind me.
“Buddy,” he whispered.
I turned to see he was standing a few feet behind me, I nodded.
“Be careful who you talk to,” he whispered. “They are watching us, and they don’t like it when they see us talking among ourselves.”
“Who is watching?” I asked. “The soldiers?”
“No,” he whispered but quickly became quiet when he heard footsteps outside the tent. “Not now.”
The man quickly left the tent.
I waited a few seconds, then I walked outside the tent.
As I left, two young men walked past me and went inside the tent.
Emma, Katie and Logan were waiting together between the tents.
I walked over to where they were standing.
“Did you see where the guy went that came out of the tent right before me?” I asked quietly.
“He went across the field,” Emma replied. “He seemed to be in a hurry and looked worried. Why?”
“I’ll tell you later,” I whispered to Emma.
“Do you want to go over and talk to him?” she asked.
“No, not now,” I replied. “Let’s keep walking. I just thought he was acting strange.”
“Talking about something strange, did you see those two that went into the tent as you were leaving?” Emma asked.
“I saw them,” I replied, “but I didn’t pay much attention, why do you say they were strange?”
“It was just the way they looked at us and all the tattoos they had all over them,” Emma whispered. “Especially the way they ogled Katie, my God, it was disgusting. I’ve seen guys like that before and if you asked me, those two are trouble.”
I nodded.
“Oh Mom, don’t tell me you’re going to start acting like Dad?” Katie smirked rolling her eyes. “They were just being guys, guys do that sort of thing all the time.”
“Well, I hope you don’t always smile at them like you were doing here,” Emma growled. “It just encourages that kind of behavior.”
“Did you check out the tent?” I asked Katie.
“Yeah, I checked out the tent,” Katie replied. “I hope you’re happy, I couldn’t wait any longer. I felt like a pervert sticking out my butt and mooning people. I don’t know why they couldn’t have hung a few blankets or something to give you some privacy. It felt like I was in the shower room after gym class, but instead of taking showers, all the girls were mooning each other.
Girls can get pretty gross at times in the shower room, remember I showed you some of the pictures the girls took in the showers after gym class one day and were texting them to their boyfriends.
But I guess the experience wasn’t as bad as I expected, at least I don’t have to worry about someone talking a picture of my butt and texting it to anyone here.”
I laughed, “I didn’t think of that, but I’m glad you managed to adjust.”
“Yep, I just grinned and bared it,” Katie smiled.
“I’m also glad you are able to find some humor in our situation,” I replied. “Like I said, this is not going to be easy and we will all have to do a lot of things that we wouldn’t normally do and put up with a lot that we never dreamed we would have to put up with.”
“You mean like mooning people in the bathroom,” Katie laughed.
“Something like that,” I smiled.
“OK, so are we going to go talk to some people now?” Katie asked and again laughed. “Hopefully it won’t be with anyone that I just mooned in the tent.”
“Why, not, after mooning each other you should all be good friends now,” I smiled.
“You know it doesn’t work that way with girls,” Katie replied. “Girls are catty, if you moon a girl and you have a nicer butt than she does, she gets jealous and tends to hold a grudge. Maybe it would be better if I used the men’s tent next time.”
I looked at Katie and saw her looking up at me with a big grin on her face.
“You know I’m just teasing you,” she said. “I know how much you worry about me and are always so protective, but I just don’t understand why? I’m a good girl and I tell you everything I do.”
“Someday you’ll understand,” I replied.
“I know, it’s like a lot of other things that you’ll explain to me someday when I’m older,” Katie grinned. “I think I should be old enough by now.”
“What are you two talking about?” Emma asked as she turned her attention our way.
“Katie was just telling me about mooning people in the restroom,” I replied.
“She did seem to be having a good time in there,” Emma replied. “I got the impression that wasn’t her first time.”
“She said she would like to use the men’s tent next time,” I added.
“Right,” Emma laughed. “The only way that would happen would be over your dead body.”
“That’s it, talk about me like I’m not here,” Katie smiled. “I wonder what you say about me when I’m not around?”
“OK, let’s quit talking about Daddy’s little girl and go meet some people,” Emma said.
“Let’s just walk down to the end of the yard and then go back to our tent,” I replied. “I don’t think we should talk to anyone right now. Just keep your eyes open, I want to compare notes about what we see when we get back.”
“We’re not going to talk to anyone?” Emma asked. “This was all your idea to start with, why did you change your mind all of a sudden?”
“I’ll tell you when we get back,” I replied.
“Does it have to do with that guy that was acting strange in the restroom tent?” Emma asked.
“A little, we’ll talk when we get back,” I replied again. “Right now. Let’s just see what we make of this place.”
“OK,” Emma nodded as she looked at me with a co
ncerned look on her face.
Emma took my right arm, Katie took my left arm, Logan was a few feet to the right of his mother as we began to walk.
We walked around the restroom tents and followed the fence until we came to the end of the yard where the fence turned and went across to the other corner of the yard.
We then turned around and followed the fence back to the building and restrooms, then walked back to our meg-shift lean-to.
When we returned to our tent, I told everyone to get their blanket, spread them out in front of our lean-to so we could sit and talk about what we just saw.
We all sat on our blankets in a small circle, so we were facing each other.
After we sat down, Emma asked, “Now can you tell us why we didn’t try to talk with anyone?”
“The guy that came out of the restroom right before me that I said was acting strange,” I replied. “Well, before he left the tent he said something strange, he said to be careful who you talk to. He said that they don’t like it when we talk among ourselves and they are watching us.”
“Who is watching?” Emma asked.
“I asked him if it was the soldiers, but he said no,” I continued. “But before he said anything more, those two guys showed up and he ran out of the tent.”
“Maybe he was crazy,” Katie said.
“Maybe, but that is why I wanted to look this place over before we tried to talk to anyone,” I replied. “I wanted to get your impressions about what you saw on our walk.”
“That guy might not have been crazy,” Emma said. “Now that I think of it, I didn’t see a lot of people talking, not until we got to the end of the yard and then I only saw people in the last two groups talking.”
“I noticed that too,” I added. “Those last two groups were talking and laughing while everyone else seemed to be just sitting quietly looking like they were depressed or something.”
“I think I saw those two guys that went in to the restroom when you were coming out walk over and sit down with those two groups,” Emma said. “They were staring at us as we walked by too. Now that I think about it, they were the only people that looked our way.”
Just Trying To Stay Alive: A Prepper's Tale Page 22
