Aftershock: A Collection of Survivors Tales (25 page)

I nodded an affirmative and Mike continued.

“Our primary objective is to keep alive the men, women, and children at the compound. I do not hold any aspirations as lofty as rebuilding civilization, hell, look at the state of it when everything went to shit. I don’t miss my cell phone or the fucking internet. At any rate, life is hard now, our responsibility, and yours if you choose, is to make sure it is no harder than necessary for those people.”

“How many?”

“You’ll find out in a few days.”

With that Mike and Rich led us into one of the small houses. Two people already quarantined waved from the top of a short staircase. They didn’t look anymore beat up than I did, well than William did anyway. Like they’d been through some shit, but these guys weren’t roughing them up.

“That’s Kim and her husband Pat,” Mike said as he nonchalantly ruffled through my duffle. “They’ve been here a couple of days now.”

Mike motioned for William’s backpack. William clutched it to his chest and looked at me. I nodded that it was okay and he reluctantly handed it over.

“I promise I won’t take anything from you, Kiddo. I just need to know what you have in there.”

William responded flatly, “Please do not call me ‘kiddo’”, paused a moment and add an overly formal “Sir.”

Mike gingerly opened William’s pack and made a show of gingerly peeking through the top. He handed it back to William who slung it over his shoulder and stared at the couple at the top of the stairs. I handed Mike my duffle without being asked, he shook it once or twice and handed it back without even undoing the latch.

“Formalities,” Mike said. “But then where would we be without them.” He chuckled and for a moment, just a moment, I thought I caught a glimpse of something under his grin.

Mike shook each of our hands, waved politely to Kim and Pat, turned on his heel and walked out the door.

Rich exited last. He nodded a polite goodbye as he closed the door. Again, that gut feeling that something wasn’t right here.

I decided to chalk it up to my nerves being fried, but as I heard the bolt slam shut, I was glad I hadn’t mentioned the Humvee.