by Crist, J. D.
Ronald had tried to save as many as he could, but not one of them made it. Emily closed the ledger and returned both of the books to the shelf. She folded the map and left it on the corner of the desk for the next day. She glanced up at the clock to see that it was seven-thirty and decided it was time for some lighter material. She headed back to the agriculture books and grabbed the same one from yesterday. She then headed to the living room and turned to the sections she had skipped the night before. It only took her about an hour to read it, and she felt her eyes growing heavy as she closed the book. She was tempted just to set it on the table and head to bed but forced herself to return it to the shelf.
Emily then made her way to the kitchen, where she opened the back door for Marley and then set to putting the dishes away. Once Marley was back inside and the house locked down, Emily climbed the staircase and forced herself into the shower. This day was beginning to wear on her, and she knew that sleep would not be hard to find tonight. Once clean and dressed for bed, she locked the bedroom door and laid down next to Marley. Tonight, she was asleep before he began to snore.
Emily woke the following day again feeling the pain in her muscles from the work she had done the day before. She forced herself out of bed and to get dressed for the day. She knew that her body would adjust, and the farm would require her attention every day. Farmers don't get a day off. She and Marley made their way through their morning routine much like the day before but with no laundry load today. Emily gathered the map, and soon they were out the door. Emily considered leaving the truck because of the noise and saving gas, but her muscles warned her that they were not up to the walk and the work they had to do. She climbed into the cab with Marley and soon arrived at the farm.
Emily started with the chickens, checked the eggs laid as the book had told her, and loaded the ones that were not fertilized into the truck's cab. She then made her way to the barn where her horse friend and another were waiting.
"Good morning, you two," Emily spoke as she and Marley entered.
The horses watched as Emily cleaned the muck added to the floor since the day before and refilled the water. She knew she needed to try to milk the cows and maybe the goats; the book had made it seem like it was pretty tricky to milk the goats. Based on the pictures in the book, the sheep were not ready to be sheared yet, and it may be spring until they were. Emily decided to fill the hay troughs in the barn to see if that may draw the animals inside. She grabbed the wheelbarrow and headed to the other barn. It took her a while to figure out how to load the hay.
The process of going back and forth was taxing. Emily had considered using the truck, but she did not want to pack the animal's food next to a rotting corpse. It just seemed wrong and twisted to her. She would be dropping the corpse off in the undeveloped part of the town later today so that she would not have to do this again.
As Emily made the trips, she noticed each time that there were more and more animals in the barn. They seemed to have seen what she was doing and were coming for the food. Emily had put hay in each of the troughs in the barn, and though they were not full, her body would not allow her to do anymore. She headed over and grabbed the stool and bucket she had found the day before while cleaning and walked towards one of the cows. She may have read about this, but that didn't mean she knew what she was doing. The cow didn't seem upset by her presence and continued to enjoy her meal. Emily had read that to keep bacteria out of the milk she was supposed to wash the utters first. She headed to the house and got a bucket of soapy water, a washcloth, and a towel. She was grateful to see when she returned that the cow was still eating. She sat next to the cow and talked to her while working. The cow paid no attention as she washed and dried it.
Emily placed the bucket under the cow, just as she had seen done in movies, and attempted to milk it as the book had said. Emily tried for several minutes and was about to give up, believing that the cow had gone dry. Emily nearly squealed with glee as milk shot into the bucket. When she had finished milking the cow, she moved on to repeat the process with the others. By the time she had finished, the pail was nearly full. She was sure that this wasn't an average amount considering how many there were, but she would take it. Emily carried the bucket to the front of the barn and set it on the ground. She wasn't sure if cow's milk could sour due to non-milking, and the book had not said anything. But she had decided not to try to keep the first few milkings to be safe. However, it felt wrong to pour out the milk in front of the cows, so she would do it where they could not see.
Emily headed inside and put away the stool and the bucket she had used to wash the cows. She would take the clothes home to clean and would return them later. She could not help but feel proud as she turned to leave the barn. As she walked towards the door, her horse friend came close and began to nuzzle her once again. Emily stopped and ran her hand down the horse's neck.
"You just want attention, don't you?" Emily spoke to the horse. "I think I'm going to call you Buttercup." Emily continued to pet the horse as she talked. "I have to go, for now, Buttercup, but I will be back tomorrow." Buttercup stomped her hoof as if she didn't accept this response.
"I know, you probably want to go for a ride but look at me. Even if I knew how to put a saddle on you, I couldn't ride you if I wanted to. But soon, I will be able to. I promise I'll read and learn how to." Emily patted Buttercup and walked towards the door and the horse did not stop her this time. "I'll see you in the morning," Emily called back as she shut the door.
Marley sat outside watching Emily and seemed less chipper than usual.
"Now, don't you go getting jealous. I make Buttercup sleep in a barn, and I take you home with me every night." Marley stood from his spot and ran towards the truck. "I guess you're over it then," Emily laughed as she followed him. It wasn't quite lunchtime yet, and Emily decided to drive the truck to the other side of town. She needed to try to find a spot to put the bodies. It would probably be better to take them outside to burn them, but she did not want to risk opening the gates. Emily watched the sides of the road as she drove. She saw a few dead in the streets, but they did not seem to be moving. But neither did the one in the back of the truck until Emily had walked past it. Maybe they went dormant if there was nothing to eat and woke when something alive crossed their path. She didn't know if there may be something in Robert's journal about this or not but would keep an eye out for it.
It wasn't hard for her to find the construction area, and she drove until she found a bit of space with nothing around it. Here she shut off the truck and climbed onto the bed. She pushed the corpse off the back of the truck onto the ground. She knew she should probably dig a hole to put the bodies in for burning, but that would have to wait until she figured out how to use the equipment. Until then, this was far enough away from town that she would not have to smell it. She then climbed down and back into the cab. She drove the truck back to the main street to park and enjoy her lunch. She did not have an aversion to the bread crust today, but Marley patiently waited for her to share. She gave it and watched as he enjoyed his treat.
When they had finished, she pulled out the map and decided to start on the farm side of town. She started with the streets she had done the day before and was careful not to let her mind wander. She and Marley made quick work of it and found five dead. Emily did not know if they were in hibernation or just dead but move quickly on each and damaged the brain before they had the chance to move. None of them had responded to her calling out in each house. Perhaps sound did not wake them if they were hibernating, or maybe they were just dead. As she killed each, she wrapped it in a blanket and drug it outside. Once she had finished the streets and returned to the farm, she returned to the truck and drove it up and down to collect the dead. It was hard work to drag each of them on the truck, but she powered her way through it. She then returned to where she had dumped the other and added these five. The dead she had passed earlier had not moved an inch and were still in the same spot.
Emily
then returned to the farm road, gathered blankets from a nearby house, and wrapped the two men and child in the street. The men were hefty, but she got them up and had to force herself not to cry as she loaded the child. She then returned to the main street and gathered up the two men and the woman there. She was about to leave again when she remembered that she had left Ronald's body up top. Emily drove close to the wall and climbed the stairs with a blanket. She did not know why but she felt sorry for him as she wrapped his body.
"Sorry about this, Ronald," she heard herself say, "But there is no other way for me to get you down." Emily pulled the blanket and winced as the body struck each of the stairs. She pulled Ronald's body up onto the truck and drove back to the spot. She checked again as she went, and the dead had still not moved. At first, they had made her feel uneasy, but it bothered her less and less each time she passed.
She pushed each of the bodies off to join the others. She lifted the girl and placed her on the ground. When she reached Ronald, she couldn't just add him to the others. Instead, she put back down her makeshift ramp and pulled him off the truck to a different spot. She then loaded up and headed back home.
Once inside, it was through her nightly routine again. Marley was picking it up very quickly, and soon they had both had supper, and the dishes were done. Emily then headed to the study and began to look through the books to decide which one she would study tonight. She had promised Buttercup that she would learn to saddle a horse, but she was months away from needing that skill. Instead, she found herself standing in front of the books that Robert had written and thought about him. When she first saw his body, it was just another corpse. But the longer she was here, the more she learned about him and felt like she knew him. It was the closest she has been to a human being since the flash, and she couldn’t help but to morn him.
He had been a part of whatever the flash was but did not know what he was being used for until it was too late. He had built this place and tried to save hundreds of people. He didn't have enough time because it happened sooner than he thought, but what he created and the information he left behind gave her and her child a chance to survive. The numbers ran through her head again, fifty-seven adults and seventeen children. Today she had driven seven adults and one child to the construction zone. That left forty-nine adults and sixteen children unaccounted for at this point. Emily felt herself hoping that some of them had made it out, but she knew that likely that they had not. She had worked her way towards the bottom of the bookcase and, for the first time, realized that the journals here were blank. Robert had probably planned to use them in the future, a chance he would never get.
Emily grabbed one of them and walked over to the desk. She opened the journal to the first page and wrote "The Journal of Emily." She then turned the page and wrote December 27th on the top. She then watched as she started from the night of the flash and all the events she had witnessed. She wrote about the town and all she had learned and done so far. She watched herself write about Robert and the good he tried to do with this place. She didn't stop to think and instead just turned the pages and allowed the pen to continue to move. She wrote that she knows nothing about the other dead, and to try to give them a proper burial just seemed pointless. However, she knew about Robert and what he tried to do here, and it felt wrong to let him become another faceless corpse. She decided that she would go between the walls and find an area to designate as a cemetery. Here she will bury him.
It wasn’t until she stopped writing that she realized she was crying. As much as she wanted to blame it on her hormones, she knew that she couldn’t. Though he was dead, Robert was the closest thing she had to a friend, well, a human friend, in a long time. Emily closed the journal and returned it to the shelf. She had no idea how long she had been writing but was tired. She went to let Marley out and put away the dishes. Soon she is showered and crawls into bed. She allowed her thoughts to drift to Robert and the type of man he must have been and thank Ronald just before drifting off to sleep.
Chapter 18
Emily woke the next day and went about her usual routine. She and Marley were out the door without incident and found Buttercup waiting for them inside the barn. Emily made her way through cleaning the floor and used the truck to haul the hay back to fill the troughs. The other animals seemed to be picking up on the new routine and slowly started to make their way inside. The weather was quite cool but not cold enough that it could cause any of them harm. Emily worked her way through the cows and was pleased that they seemed to be producing more milk as she came up with two buckets. The book had said that when they were regularly producing, they would need to be milked twice a day, something that Emily decided she would need to build into her schedule soon.
Emily quickly made it through her chores and still had time left before she headed back into town. Today she was going to work her way through the section of town behind her house, and tomorrow would be the main street and the far side. She planned to repeat this pattern until she found everyone that was supposed to be here. As Emily headed for the door, Buttercup came to get attention once more. Emily ran her hand over the horse and felt the coarse hair under her hand. She then walked over and grabbed a horse brush.
"You would probably appreciate this," she stated as she walked back to Buttercup and started running the brush over the hair. Emily brushed until her arm started to hurt. She knew that she would have to haul some bodies onto the bed of the truck today, so she could not use all of her strength. With one last pass, she stepped back and looked at Buttercup. The horse seemed utterly different from the little Emily had been able to do. The other horses stood watching and appeared to be waiting for their turn as well.
"I will get to all of you, and we will even tackle those tangled tails one day," Emily mused as she returned the brush to the shelf. "But for now, I have to go. I will see all of you in the morning." With that, Emily left her animal friends and headed to the truck. It was still pretty early, but she had not explored the back half of the town at all yet. She pulled out her map and looked at the layout of the streets. She decided to start close to the farm and work her way over. Emily drove the truck to the first section and worked her way through the houses one by one with Marley. She found the corpses did not move when she entered, and she did not give them a chance to wake up. She ensured that each was dead, wrapped it in a blanket, and dragged it out to the street. She would bring the truck later to collect all of them.
Emily worked her way through the streets one by one and found only adults, which she found comforting for now. She had ten bodies to collect, and then she would stop for lunch. Emily walked back to the truck and began the process of hauling them up. Once they were all loaded, she decided to drive through these unfamiliar streets to the dumping area to see if anything stood out. Emily had almost worked her way back to the main street on this section and saw, not far from her house, a building that she had not noticed before. She stopped the truck and checked the map. The building was marked as "SL," and now that she sat in front of it, she knew what it meant, school. Emily stared at the building and tried hard not to cry. She had only found one of the children that were supposed to be here. What if the others went to hide in the school when things went crazy.
Emily knew that she would have to go in there, especially with it being so close to where she lived. However, the fear of having to put down all of those children at once was more than she could bear. Emily put the truck in drive and drove back onto the main road. That was something to deal with when she made it that far. Emily stopped near the pile of corpses and added the new ones she had collected. She drove over to the buildings that seemed to hold all of the supplies and did a check to ensure she was alone. It didn't take her long to find the gasoline, and she took one of the cans out to the truck and poured it in. The truck had not dropped much in gas level, but in truth, she wanted to stall out her work now so she wouldn’t make it to the school today.
Once the can was empty, Emily placed it bac
k inside and shut the door. She then climbed back into the cab of the truck and shared her lunch with Marley. She ate as slow as she could but soon, she had no more excuses, and it was back on the road. The school would be one of her last sections of the day if she made it that far. She pushed it from her mind and tried not to look at it as she drove past, but something moving on the playground caught her eye. One of the swings with a small boy was moving back and forth as if the boy was playing. Emily had not seen anyone out here before, and she immediately stopped the truck to watch. The boy's back was turned to her, but he was playing on the swing. Could it be possible that he had been hiding here all along? Were there others here with him? Emily tried to steady herself enough to get the door to the truck open, but her hand kept missing the handle. Finally, she felt the cool metal in her grasp, and the door flung open. Emily ran towards the chain-link around the school and searched for a way through.
Despite all of the noise, she was sure she made with the truck, the boy had not moved. He just continued to swing back and forth. Emily watched the boy and heard Marley let out a low growl next to her. She knew what he was trying to say but did not want to believe it.
