“Yeah, if they only knew the things you’ve gotten away with,” Logan corrected her.
“I feel like enough of a failure already,” I said. “Maybe we can save this for another time.”
“There isn’t anything to tell,” Katie replied. “Dad, you know I always tell you everything I do.”
“Everything?” Logan asked.
“Everything!” Katie replied.
“How about that guy on the school bus that you clobbered?” Logan asked.
“I heard about him,” I said. “I don’t think he’ll grab anyone else’s butt.”
“He’ll probably never be able to talk to another girl again for the rest of his life,” Emma laughed.
“I wonder what happened to him?” Logan replied. “I never saw him on our bus after that day.”
“He decided to walk to school instead of taking the bus,” Katie laughed.
“If you got a note at school from a girl’s father saying that he knows about you harassing his daughter and that he knows where you live, what would you have done?” Emma laughed.
“So that’s what happened to him.” Logan chuckled.
“It’s why all the boys in school avoided walking down our block,” Emma laughed again.
“Ghee, I thought it was because he was afraid of me,” Katie added.
“Oh, I’m sure he was afraid alright,” Emma added.
“I wondered why the boys at school always smiled at me but seemed to turn and run when I got close to them. I hope someday, Dad, that I’ll be allowed to at least talk to a boy, without him having to fear for his life,” Katie smirked.
Emma laughed, “Brian, maybe someday you can send a note to school that says you won’t shoot any boy that talks to Katie as long as he doesn’t get within ten feet of your little girl.”
“No, I don’t think so,” I laughed. “But maybe waving at her might be OK as long as they stay twenty feet away.”
“I guess that would be better than locking her in her room until she turns forty,” Emma said.
“I’m still think that would be a good idea,” I replied.
“Now you’re getting silly,” Katie protested. “You wouldn’t do that, would you?”
“Of course not,” I replied. “As much as I would like to, I know the day will come when you aren’t going to listen to me anymore and I won’t have a choice but to let you go. In the mean time all I can do is to help you learn about the world and prepare you to make good decisions. That and keep the boys away as long as I can.”
“Dad, I will never stop listening to you and telling you about everything I do,” Katie said, “because you always know what’s right for me. I know that I have a lot to learn, but I’m also not made out of sugar.”
“Katie, no matter how old you get, you are always going to be Daddy’s little girl,” Emma laughed. “You’ll just have to learn to live with that whether you like it or not, but someday you will understand how lucky you were to have a dad that cares so much about you.”
“I’ll try not to disappoint you, Dad,” Katie replied, “and I do know how lucky I am.”
“I felt that way at one time too, then I met your dad,” Emma said. “I thought my dad was going to die when he met your father and I was twenty-one at the time.”
“Grandpa didn’t like Dad?” Katie asked. “Why would he feel that way, what’s not to like about Dad?”
“He said that your father had a look in his eyes that he didn’t trust,” Emma replied. “The kind of look that your father doesn’t want to see getting anywhere near you.”
“Oh!” Katie laughed. “How did you get him to like Dad?”
“I married him,” Emma replied. “Then he didn’t have a choice.”
“Let’s change the subject, I don’t think you should be putting any ideas in her head,” I said. “In fact, I think we should keep it down, the light up ahead is getting brighter, we must be getting closer to another grate.”
“What about me? I guess no one is worried about me,” Logan said.
“I worry about you all the time,” Emma said. “In fact, I….”
“Your mother can talk to you later about that,” I interrupted. “We’re almost to the next grate.”
I smiled to myself, the way I worried about Katie was way different than the reasons Emma worried about Logan. While she felt if I had my way, that I would put Katie in a convent, Emma couldn’t understand why Logan wasn’t sneaking out of the house every night to visit a different girl each night. I’ve heard that men have double standards when it comes to their sons and daughters, but if you ask me, they are picking on the wrong gender.
But I had to admit that it did feel good to be having a humorous family discussion with the kids again, it had been a long time since we had done that. The way things had been going over the last month, I was beginning to wonder if we would ever be able to do anything like that again.
The struggle to just stay alive had left little time to talk about personal problems or the little things in life that were really the important part of being a family.
As we got closer to the light, there was something different about how the light was shining into the pipe. The light seemed to be straight ahead instead of reflecting down into the pipe from above as it had done at the last two grates.
As we moved closer, the light began to look circular, then I realized why.
“OK, be real quiet now,” I said. “I think we are at the end of the pipe. If I’m right, there isn’t another grate up ahead, just an open pipe. If there is anything waiting for us up ahead, we won’t have anything to protect us, they will be able to just crawl into the pipe after us.”
All I could hear behind me now was three people breathing heavy and the sound of fabric sliding against the concrete pipe.
I could feel the excitement building inside me as we got closer to the end of the pipe, but the feeling of dread was a close second as my imagination churned out images of the dead waiting outside the pipe.
When we finally reached the pipe, I turned my head to look back at my family. The light was bright here at the end of the pipe and I could easily see the look of anticipation on their dirty faces.
I held my finger up to my lips, then turned my attention back to what was outside.
I listened intently for a few minutes, hearing nothing but the breeze as it blew past the end of the pipe.
I crawled over to the very end of the pipe.
Directly in front of me I could see water, this had to be one of the retention ponds I had been told about.
The pond extended out about a hundred feet from my position, the question now was whether the pipe extended out over the water or if it ended up on the angled bank that appeared to run around the pond.
I slowly stuck my head out of the end of the pipe to find out what our next move would be.
As my head moved past the end of the pipe, I could see that we would be crawling out into a concrete trench that was there to guide the water that would come out of the pipe down over the embankment and into the pond.
From where I was, I couldn’t see up over the embankment, so I couldn’t yet tell what surrounded the pond.
I slid back into the pipe and turned to face Emma and the kids.
“Stay here and be quiet,” I said. “The pipe empties out into a retaining pond, but I can’t see beyond the top of the rim around the pond. I’m going out to see if there is anything around the pond.”
Emma looked worried.
“If you hear me shout, turn around and go back the way we came and I’ll try to catch up with you,” I said.
“This pipe is too small for me to turn around,” Logan replied.
“I think I can turn around in here,” Katie said. “My gym teacher said I was the most flexible student she ever saw, but if I get stuck, then what?”
“Then don’t try to turn around in here, get out of the pipe and get back inside as fast as you can,” I said. “If you hear me shouting, I’ll try to keep them bus
y so they won’t see you getting out and back in, just do it quickly so I won’t have to keep their attention on me for too long.”
“Maybe we all should get out,” Emma suggested.
“If there are many of them out there, I don’t want to take a chance that they will see that you are here,” I replied. “If you hear me yelling ‘NO’, just stay in the pipe and start moving backwards the best you can.”
“If we have to go back down that pipe, we’re not going without you Dad,” Katie said. “So you might as well let us come with you.”
“I don’t plan on staying behind,” I whispered then thought about it for a second. “OK, after I get out, you three get out and wait by the end of the pipe. I guess we wouldn’t make very good time with you guys trying to crawl backwards. Just let me get out and make sure it’s at least safe outside by the end of the pipe first. OK?”
“Just don’t take any chances,” Emma said again.
“I think we are going to be fine,” I smiled. “I couldn’t hear a thing when I stuck my head out of the pipe. I think we are due for a break.”
“We’re due for a lot of breaks,” Emma added.
I slowly moved over to the end of the pipe and listened again, then I slid out of the pipe as quietly as I could.
I signaled for Emma to come out next, she stepped out of the pipe, followed by Katie and Logan.
“The sunshine feels great,” Katie whispered. “I hope we can stay out here at least long enough for my clothes to dry. I feel like I wet my pants, but don’t worry Dad, I’ll try not to embarrass you this time, I think I can handle changing my pants on my own today.”
“Quiet!” I mouthed the word, rolled my eyes, shook my head and smiled at Katie, then I started to climb up the small embankment.
When I neared the top, I got down on my stomach and crawled the last few feet.
When I reached the top, I was surprised to see that the area around the pond was quiet and empty.
The pond was enclosed in a cyclone fence, the land outside the fence was rocky and barren. There was an unpaved road that went around the fence and disappeared up into the hills behind the pond.
To my left, the landscape was flat, the paved road that went in that direction I knew led back to the safe zone. I glanced in that direction, chills ran down my spine when I thought I could see the old base far off in the distance.
But even worse, I thought I could make out a large dark formation between us and the base. I figured it was the dead trying to follow us, I was just surprised that we had been able to put as much distance between us and them as we had. We had a little time to decide what to do, but the clock was ticking and we needed act as fast as we could before they got much closer.
I turned mt attention back to the unpaved road that came down the hill towards the pond, following it with my eyes to see where it would lead.
I followed it around until I saw that it led to the pond behind me. Over the rise behind me, the road ended at an open gate in the fence. Right inside the gate I saw a yellow pickup truck parked in the dirt, the driver’s side door was hanging open and two mangled bodies laid face down in the dirt. I didn’t need to waste much time trying to figure out what had happened there.
I quickly scanned the rest of the area, then I turned and walked down to where Emma and the kids were waiting.
“Well?” Emma asked.
“It’s quiet all around the pond, I think we lucked out, it looks like we have the place to ourselves at least for the moment,” I grinned, “and if we’re really lucky that pickup truck out back might start and get us out of here.”
“A truck?” Emma asked.
“Yeah, it looked like some utility workers were doing something in the shed back near the gate,” I replied. “Unfortunately for them, and hopefully fortunate for us, the dead found them before they could drive away in the truck. Their bodies are laying in the dirt next to the truck.”
“That’s terrible,” Emma said. “Let’s go see if the truck still works.”
“Keep your fingers crossed,” I said, “and stay right behind me.”
It crossed my mind briefly how quickly we had come to dismiss the death of two men so easily, thinking only about our own needs, but I could think more about that later.
I started back up over the embankment and could hear the sounds of feet stumbling up over the rocks behind me.
When we reached the top of the embankment, Katie said excitedly, “I can’t remember the last time I rode in a car.”
“Don’t get too excited yet,” I replied. “We don’t even know if it will run, it could be out of gas, the battery could be dead, there could be a million reasons why it won’t run. Maybe you should think more about us walking up over that dirt road behind us.”
“At least that hill isn’t in some drain pipe,” Katie smiled.
“I thought you promised not to complain anymore,” I replied.
“I’m not complaining,” Katie smiled. “I’m just happy that I don’t have to crawl around like a rat in the sewers anymore.”
“You’re still a rat,” Logan laughed. “A dirty rat with wet pants.”
“Watch it, creep,” Katie glared.
“Or what, you’ll have Dad write me a threatening letter,” Logan smiled. “I don’t think so.”
“Logan, quit picking on your sister,” I said as Katie sneered at Logan. “And Katie, behave yourself. I have enough to deal with right now.”
“Yes Sir,” they replied in unison.
“Some day you are going to have to tell me how you can do that,” Emma whispered.
“I have too much on them that they don’t dare cross me,” I smiled. “That makes it easy.”
“Maybe you should tell me some of their dirty little secrets,” Emma laughed.
“I couldn’t do that, I gave my word,” I smiled. “Besides, I don’t think you would ever sleep again knowing what I know, you might even begin to think that my convent idea isn’t so bad after all.”
We walked down towards the truck, when we got closer to the truck, the heads on the two bodies started turning.
The rotted faces, baked by the sun for who knows how long, turned and glared at us with their empty eye sockets as the jaws snapped, the teeth clicking together sounded like a rattlesnake warning us to stay away.
“They’re moving,” Katie shrieked.
“Don’t get any closer to them,” I said. “I don’t think they can get up, they are missing too much muscle tissue to be able to work the rest of their bodies, but they can still bite you if you get close enough to them.”
“Gross,” Katie replied.
“Stay here while I check out the truck,” I said, then I took a wide berth around the snapping skulls and walked over to the open door of the truck.
The keys were still in the ignition and as I got close enough to look inside the cab, I could hear the dinging sound that a car gives off whenever you get out and forget to remove the keys. The sound was weak, but it was still audible.
I reached inside and pulled out the keys and the weak sound stopped.
I walked around the truck, checking the tires to make sure they weren’t flat, just in case I could get the truck running.
The truck didn’t appear to be damaged in any way that would make it undrivable, the dents, scrapes and rust didn’t concern me as much as the battery did.
I should have just turned the key to see if the truck would have started instead of taking the keys out of the ignition, but the truth was I was afraid it wouldn’t start.
We had all struggled to survive for so long and we had lost everything we had, I didn’t want to suffer another disappointment just yet.
I looked back at my family, all bursting with anticipation, waiting for me to start the truck.
“Well Brian,” I said to myself, “there is only one way you’re going to know and that is to try it. If it doesn’t start it doesn’t start. You won’t be any worse off than you are now. It won’t be the end of the world.”
I smiled. “The end of the world was last month.”
I walked over to the door and hopped into the driver’s seat. I put the key in the ignition and the weak dinging sound started up again.
I held my breath and turned the key.
Click, Click, Click, Click, Click!
I turned off the ignition, I knew that sound only too well.
Last winter when my battery died, that sound greeted me when I tried to leave for work one cold morning. Needless to say I was late for work that morning.
I laid my forehead across the top of the steering wheel, disappointed that the truck wouldn’t start.
I tried to think of something I could try, the truck could mean the difference between life and death and I didn’t want to just walk away without trying something else.
But I had been trained as a financial analyst, not a mechanic and I didn’t have any idea what to do next.
As I thought, staring down at the speedometer and the gas gauge that showed half full, I heard footsteps approaching the side of the truck.
“Dad,” Logan said.
“I think the battery is dead,” I said.
“Can I try something,” Logan replied. “It’s a little trick Kenny showed me. You know he is always having problems with that old clunker of his, his battery is dead more than it is working. One day when he was going to drive me home after basketball practice, his car wouldn’t start because his battery was dead again. He showed me a trick he had picked up that works sometimes.”
“Give it a try,” I said. “I certainly can’t think of anything to try.”
“OK,” Logan said. “Dad, go over and open the passenger’s door.”
I got out and walked around the truck and opened the door.
“Now put your hands on the dash like this,” Logan said as he leaned in and placed both of his hands against the side of the dashboard.
“I don’t understand how this is going to help with a dead battery?” I asked.
Just Trying To Stay Alive: A Prepper's Tale Page 31
