Sometimes We Ran (Book 4): Survival Read online

  Having enough food was a blessing. We all knew what it was like to be hungry.

  My short walk brought me to the roundabout and the main buildings of Cannon Fields. Because it was still early, it was populated by only a few residents getting ready for the day ahead. A celebratory cookout was planned in the next few days, and we were setting up. Tables and chairs, grills, and our extra tents were going up in the roundabout. I exchanged a few good mornings and handshakes. Everyone was smiling and in good humor. As summer dawned, things were going well so far, and I could only hope they stayed that way. I climbed the wooden stairs to the front door of the community building, and entered the lobby to take a meeting with our leader.

  It took a minute for my eyes to adjust to the darker interior from the bright morning sun outside. Someone had opened a few windows to get a cross-ventilation thing going. The morning breeze rustled the faded yellow curtains as I crossed into the lobby and approached the main desk. A shapely, dark-haired lady was there showing some residents how to use a rabbit trap. She held up the small snare and showed the finer points of trapping the enemy to our gardens. As a bonus, the rabbits could be used for stew or soup.

  The pretty lady at the desk saw me walk up and smiled at me. It nearly lit up the whole room. I leaned against the nearest wall and removed my gloves. My heart swelled with excitement and love at the sight of her. The nice lady behind the desk was named Karen, and she was my wife — my second wife. I lost my first wife, Gia, in the outbreak years ago. I waited patiently as she finished her lecture about the rabbit trap.

  Her talk finished, the residents left and Karen came from behind the desk. She put her arms around my waist, and we shared a kiss right there in the lobby. “Good morning. How did it go with the kids today?” Karen asked after we finished our greeting.

  “It went okay,” I said. “Amy got me in the back cornfield.”

  “Ouch, I see.” Karen tried to wipe the dust and pollen off my shirt, and then off her own clothes. “You're very dirty this morning,” she said, through another wonderful smile.

  “Just playing around.” I nodded to the demo snare on the desk. “Rabbits becoming a problem again?”

  Karen sighed. “Fuzzy bastards are all over the place eating our food. Guess I'll have to check my garden as well.” Karen had a green thumb. The front, back, and some of the side yard of our house was full of healthy vegetable plants and flowers. She was also the lead general in the war against the dreaded rabbits. So far, we were keeping the marauding bunnies at bay, but they had numbers on their side.

  I gave my wife another peck on the cheek. “I'm here to see the bosses. Is Michael in?”

  “Let's just see.” Karen took my hand and led me down the short hallway to the offices. Denise’s smallish office was at the end.

  We stopped at the door, and Karen gave it a sharp knock. Michael was seated at Denise’s desk, arms folded over his chest, looking sour. Louis, one of our young scouts, was seated in a ratty chair in front of the desk facing Michael. It might have been the elevated temperature in the tiny office, but Louis looked sweaty and uncomfortable.

  “Michael? John is here. Can you see him now?” Karen asked.

  A slight grin broke out on Michael’s face. He waved at the other empty chair in the office. “Sure. Come on in.” He moved some papers and the office cat Chester Junior to make some space. The fat cat gave an annoyed meow when his paws hit the floor.

  As I slid past Karen into the room, she brought her full lips to my ear and whispered, “He’s smiling. Maybe you're not in as much trouble as you think.”

  After a reassuring peck on the cheek, she returned to her post at the desk. “Door open or closed?” I asked.

  “Open, please. Too damn hot to close it.” Michael finished cleaning the debris off the desk.

  I took a seat in the other worn-out chair next to Louis. He still looked like death, pale and sweating. No one said anything at first, and Michael went back to his usual scowl. Maybe Louis was in the process of being chewed out. He was a good kid and not a bad scout, but sometimes he could be scatterbrained and forget things. Once, he led a whole swarm of Red-Eyes right to the gate when he got too close. Michael yelled at him for a total of forty-five minutes after that. So now Louis always looked nervous when he was called to the office.

  “Is everything okay?” I glanced at Louis, and leaned in to talk to Michael. “Did Louis screw up again?” I said.

  Michael grinned. “No, nothing like that.” He turned to our young scout, who had finally got some color back in his face. “Tell John what you saw on your patrol.”

  Louis began his report. “I finished my sweep and was headed home to the gate. So far, it had been a pretty quiet patrol. Only saw one Red-Eye, bad one, crawling across the road dragging one of its legs. Other than that, not much to report.” He paused and shrugged his shoulders.

  “Didn't mess with the crawler?” I said. I always told the scouts to leave the messed-up zombies alone if they can. Waste of ammunition.

  “Nah,” Louis continued. “I crouched behind a van in case he had a few friends around. Nothing showed up, and I let him go into the grass. After that, I decided to check out that small strip mall. You know, the gas station and the animal doctor, those buildings.”

  I knew it well. It was a short trip down the road from Cannon Fields towards the state road. “See anything?”

  Louis shook his head. “Whole lotta nothing. All the buildings stripped to the bone. Someone even took the chairs out of the veterinarian’s waiting room.”

  Anything not nailed down these days was always stolen by someone. “You moved on?” I asked.

  “Yeah.” Louis grabbed a pen off of the desk and twirled it in his fingers. “I decided to check out the library. I knew it was shut down and barricaded, but I wanted to see if anything had changed. So, I carefully walked up the driveway until I could see the front door.” Louis put the pen down, paused, and leaned in to make sure I heard what he said. Michael leaned in as well. “The front door was clear. All the doors were uncovered.”

  “Torn down?” I asked.

  “No. Looks like someone just moved them out of the way and leaned everything against the building. Almost looked like the library was open for business,” Louis said.

  “Did you see anyone coming in or out?” Michael asked.

  Louis shook his head. “No. It was quiet. I hid with a good view of the door. No movement. Just the wind and me.”

  Michael turned to me. “What do you think, John? Should we check it out? It might be the last library in the area that hasn't been scrounged yet.”

  I leaned back in my chair. Everyone in the room was looking at me, waiting on my decision. Everything our community learned to do came from libraries. From how to plant corn, raise goats, or how to fix a handgun, materials from local libraries was like gold to survivors. In the past, we sent scrounging parties on “information runs” to libraries as far away as the former great cities of Huntsville and Birmingham. We also searched the local libraries and schools for more info. The search parties brought it all back, encyclopedias, books, magazines, and any other scrap of paper that might help us survive, and deposited in the Cannon Field's archive. It was so valuable to us, we put a guard on it to keep out potential troublemakers. The nearby library that Louis had scouted had been skipped. A group had set up housekeeping years ago, so we left them alone. Better that, than going in and maybe fighting it out with another bunch of survivors.

  “I think maybe we can check it out. It's the last one in the area,” I said. “Always kind of bothered me we couldn't get inside.”

  Michael leaned back. The dry spring on the chair creaked in protest. “I agree. Let's check it out. John, take Louis here and see Sydney to get a vehicle. Maybe you can get a few others to go.”

  “Shouldn't take too long. It's right down the road. Come on, Louis,” I said.

  “Sounds like a plan,” said Michael. “Oh John, just a minute.” He shot a look to Louis and the young scout left the office to go to the lobby.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Have you thought about a candidate for your second in command yet?” Michael asked. A second in command for my security job was Michael’s latest idea. I had a few people in mind but didn’t know if anyone wanted the job. I offered it to Ben a few weeks ago but he turned it down. Deep down I think Michael thought I was getting too old. “Still working on it.” I said.

  “All right,” Michael said. “ I need a name soon.”

  I left Michael in Denise's diminutive office crossed the lobby, stopping at the desk to tell my wife of my new afternoon plans. She kissed me, told us to be careful, and jokingly told Louis to take care of me. We all got a good laugh out of that. Louis and I pulled on our gloves — gloves were one of the anti-zombie preparations to prevent bites — and stepped outside into the bright light of a summer morning. The temperature was already climbing. The preparations for the barbecue were reaching a fever pitch in the roundabout. The tables and chairs were set up and our grills were at the ready. It was going to be quite a party.

  Louis looked troubled. He slowed as we walked away towards the motor pool to secure a vehicle for the day. “What's the matter?” I asked.

  “Did I do okay? I don't get a lot of feedback from Michael about my scouting.” We stopped walking. “I just want to know if I did okay.” Louis stood a few feet away. He wasn't going to move until I gave him some critique of his performance.

  I wasn’t exactly a fan of Michael's scouting program, but it did yield good results. He recruited some of our youngest residents, and sent them out on sweeps of the area. They traveled light, only carrying a few scraps of supplies and a handgun. The idea was to move fast, sneak around, and be the eyes and ears of Cannon Fields. We’d had a few losses, but the volunteers kept on coming. Louis was typical of our young people, always wanting to make a difference and help out where he could. For some reason, the young scouts always wanted to know if they were doing a good job. Our scouts didn’t have to ask me. Just volunteering to go outside made them brave enough.

  “You did fine,” I said.

  “Do you think Lisa would want to go with us?” asked Louis, his face turning red. “I could go find her.”

  One of the worst kept secrets around was that young Louis had the hots for Lisa. In fact, the boy was head over heels in love. “Yeah, go get her. We’ll bring her along. She was helping with the kids at the school,” I said.

  “I’ll go get her.” Without another word, he ran off at top speed to find Lisa in the maze of houses.

  I stood there at the edge of the street and watched him run off. Just the sight of him taking off made my ancient knees and ankles ache. For a fleeting moment, I wished I was nineteen years old again and could run like that. Louis soon disappeared from sight around a group of houses.

  A sigh escaped my lips, as I turned to finish my walk to the motor pool down the street. It was time to go back to work.

  Chapter 3: The Library

  “Hey John. Can I drive?”

  Lisa was putting her hair up in preparation for our trip outside. Red-Eyes had greedy hands and loved to grab onto hair to pull in their victims. A lot of our young lady scouts keep their hair short, but Lisa refused to cut her golden locks. Louis held her rifle as she prepared her hair.. “Really, I'd like to drive. Been a long time since I've been behind the wheel of a car.”

  “What do you think, Ben? Should we let her drive?” I turned to the stand of trees where Ben was catching a bit of shade from the summer sun. He stepped out into the sunlight, his trusty rifle and scope slung over his shoulder. He heard about our trip to the library and volunteered to go.

  “I don't know. Her license might be expired. Don't want anybody pulling us over,” Ben said.

  “Oh, that’s hilarious, guys. So, can I?” Lisa finished with her hair, and took her weapon from Louis.

  “You can drive,” I said. “Louis, you ride shotgun. Ben and I will be the lookouts from the back seat.”

  With the designated driver for our adventure outside the gate settled, we stepped into the shadow of the motor pool shed built on the remains of the tennis courts. Sydney, our resident mechanic, mad scientist, and smarty pants, was hovering over the bright white compact sedan that was our ride for today. He turned and pulled a fresh battery from the solar charging station, also designed and built by his group, near the door. It quickly went into the engine bay, and was bolted down. Meanwhile, one of his assistants topped off the gas tank with the homemade bio diesel Sydney made in another shed nearby. We got lucky with the cars. We stumbled upon a dealership that ordered a few new diesel cars for their inventory before the end came. A few were grabbed for the Cannon Fields motor pool. They had fuel-efficient, four-cylinder motors that ran quiet and cool. They had no problem with Sydney's homemade wonder fuel made from cooking oil and household cleaners and didn't attract much attention on the outside. They were always filthy, but we liked them that way. Easier to blend in with the apocalypse junkyard when we parked it in strange places.

  Sydney finished with the battery, and stood up. Reaching into his pocket, he produced a set of keys and threw them in my direction. Lisa snatched them out of the air before I could even raise my hand. She looked back and gave me an evil grin. “Too slow.”

  Sydney walked up with a small notebook in his hand. A checklist, I was guessing. “Nice catch, Lisa.”

  “What's the word, Syd? Is our car ready?” I asked, embarrassed at Lisa intercepting the keys with such ease. Twice today I had been upstaged by our young people. I really was old and ancient all of a sudden.

  Sydney consulted his notebook and his two assistants. There were thumbs up all around. “It is ready. New battery, fluids checked, and extra food and survival gear in the trunk. Where you guys headed today?”

  I kicked the tires of our ride. No dry rot, and the air pressure looked spot on. Sydney had his work cut out for him. Tires were in short supply. “Just a ride to the library. Shouldn't be too bad.”

  Ben pointed to a black, crew cab truck parked near the shop. “When can we start using the Beast again?” Unlike our other vehicles, the paint was flawless and clean. The pick up was a donation from one of our new residents rescued from an apartment complex a few months ago. We released it from its dry storage prison, and Sydney was trying to make it dependable. The truck was enormous, with tall chunky tires and a powerful diesel motor under its acre-sized black hood. It was potentially the pride of our fleet, if Syd could get it going.

  “Fuel pump is having a hard time with our fuel. I'm cobbling together a new one from some spare parts.” Sydney pulled out a small rag to give his glasses a quick buff. “We'll get it going.”

  “Good,” said Ben. The Beast was Ben's favorite vehicle.

  It was time to go. The morning was slipping away, and I wanted to get this trip over with. Lisa was a bit impatient as well. “Come on, guys. Let's hit the road.” She handed her rifle to Louis again for safekeeping during the trip, opened the driver's door, and took her seat. Ben and I took our places in the backseat. We settled in for the trip, stowing weapons and getting comfortable. The inside was as dirty as the outside. I wiped the grime off my window so at least I could see. We might be taking this camouflage thing too far.

  I always forget how cramped these compact sedans were inside. It had four doors, but space was at a premium. Lisa pulled her seat up to drive giving me room to stretch out, but poor Ben was crammed behind Louis as he put his seat all the way back. “You want to change sides?” I asked Ben.

  “I'll be alright. It's a short trip,” he said, looking around at his fabric and plastic dungeon. “Hope I don't have to get out in a hurry.”

  “Everybody comfy?” asked Lisa, turning the key. The car sprang to life after a few grinding noises from the engine bay. The idle was unsteady at first, smoothing out as the engine warmed up.

  Sydney came up to Lisa's window. “You guys be careful.”

  Lisa finished adjusting the mirrors. “We will. Hopefully, we'll have some new reading material when we get back.” She put the car in gear, and started for the gate.

  Lisa had not been behind the wheel of a car in a long time, and it showed. Ben and I pushed imaginary brake pedals and hung on for dear life as she got reacquainted to driving a car. “Watch out for the curb,” said Louis, as we went across someone's front yard. “And those plants, too.”

  “I got it!” She steered the car from disaster, and headed us up the road towards the front entrance of Cannon Fields.

  On the short road to the gate, Lisa seemed to get the hang of controlling the car. By the grace of the automotive Gods above, we came to a stop at the guard house. Lisa honked the horn for attention.

  Elizabeth, Lisa's look-alike younger sister, appeared in the doorway. Like her big sister, Elizabeth sported the same golden-blond hair. She kept it shorter and was less prone to be grabbed by the dead if they attacked. She looked surprised to see Lisa in the driver's seat. “You’re driving today? Why isn't John driving?”

  Lisa glanced into the back seat. “Gave the old man a day off,” she said, setting off a round of laughs in the confines of the car. “We're headed to the library down the road.”

  Elizabeth roused the other guard for our gate opening procedure, then leaned into Lisa's window. “You guys are going to hate the way she drives. Never could get the hang of backing up.”

  “Shut up and let us out, will you?” said Lisa. Liz just laughed all the way back to the gate. I think they enjoyed teasing each other on a daily basis. Lisa and Elizabeth were lucky. Many people lost their siblings during the outbreak. Ben lost two brothers and my own sister was gone as well. Sometimes I wish she was around so I could tease her. I missed teasing my baby sister.

  Elizabeth and her guard companion opened the gate with rifles at the ready. When nothing horrible showed up, she waved us through. Lisa hit the pedal hard and the sedan's tires squealed on the broken pavement of the entrance.

  “Easy, Lisa. All the tire stores are closed,” I said.