Burn District 1 (11 page)

Looking out the window, I could see Steve was keeping the boys away from the trailer. Kelly and Mike were helping him with a large, gasoline-powered posthole digger and it looked like they were preparing to erect some kind of fence. It wouldn’t help if
they
dropped a bomb on us, but decided the illusion of protection might be all they were looking for. The sound of the digger hitting rock and then groaning past it as Steve dug each hole echoed through the trailer.

Kelly outside, away from the mess she introduced into our lives made me angry. Why wasn’t
she
in here, doing the dirty work?

“Mom, could you give me a hand?” Elise called from the bathroom. “I just need you to help me walk him out.” She opened the door and a clean, albeit suffering Chris was standing, holding on to the sink.

“Where should we put him?” I asked.

“My room,” she replied. “Carin already said the two of us can camp in the living room. He needs privacy and quiet.” She led him out of the bathroom until I could get on his other side to help.

“Thank you both so much,” Chris said in a weak voice. “I think the pain medication is starting to work. I feel better.” We got him into bed, but Elise was going to dress his wounds with the special gauze.

“Do you need my help?” I asked, praying she’d say no.

“I’m okay,” she said, smiling at me. I could feel her sense of accomplishment. “The burns are the worst around his shoulders and neck. Just keep the door open so I can call if I need you. How much longer is that racket going to be going on?”

“I’ll find out,” I said, leaving her. I went to the front door and could see they were working together, Kelly and Mike talking and gesturing to my dad, Randy and the boys bringing a wheelbarrow full of wood over to them. I felt wonderfully disconnected suddenly. No one needed me for a few moments. I found myself hoping Carol would take care of dinner again that night.

Walking out to join my family, Kelly noticed me first and said something to Mike. I felt like she did it on purpose. My distrust of her flaring up again. “Hey beautiful, what do you think of this?” He indicated the first portion of fencing going up, old ratty looking stockade fencing my father had salvaged from only god knew where. Randy and the boys were removing wood that needed replacing and sorting through what they’d found in his pile behind the trailer. For the first time, I appreciated my father’s pack rat mentality.

“Very nice!” I said. “I feel more protected already.” I could see the wisdom of what they were doing, enclosing our camp, pulling the vehicles inside the enclosure.

Mike came toward me, kissing me on the lips. It was not his usual greeting, but I could see he might be doing it for Kelly’s benefit and it made me angry. Were we going to have to keep showing her? Or maybe it wasn’t for her. I watched Mike carefully. He might have been a little too jovial. I told him about Elise, how proud I was of her care of Chris.

“You’ll never guess what I found in your father’s crap pile.” I shook my head.

“Not a clue.”

“A commode. I’ll clean it up and bring it inside for Chris.” It was not funny because I knew my daughter would be the person having to empty it, but I smiled. I could hear the sound of a car in the driveway, and my dad stepped out to meet it before it got too close. I saw him talking to the driver, nodding his head. As the car backed up, he waved and waited to return to us until it was on the road again.

“Evidently, the crops are fair game. I don’t care to go, but if you think we should, I will,” he said to me. But I shook my head; all they had across the street was lettuce, acre after acre. “We need canned goods, meat and stuff that will last, like flour and corn meal. Or root vegetables and potatoes.” My dad took me by my arm and lead me away from the others.

“Later, you and Kelly and I will go into town and join the looters,” he said. “There’s a small grocery store going into Welton we can check out, too.

***

Carol made dinner as I hoped. Ned and Mike Junior were exhausted from working; they’d both proved to be team players, choosing reclaimed fence boards to replace the rotten ones Steve tore out as they went along. Randy told me how proud he was of them, Ned functioning beyond his eight years, Junior leading him patiently. I hoped my son would find something he enjoyed doing that would help him become useful. I didn’t know what my future would be, but I knew it probably meant dying before Mike Junior. The thought of him being left behind frightened me, especially now that alternative care for him was non-existent. I knew my daughters would take care of him if I died, or Ned even, but I still worried.

“I need a bath,” Mike Junior said, wrinkling his nose.

“We all do, son,” my dad said, laughing.

“Come on boys; let’s get ready for the evening. I have a special movie for us to watch,” Carol said, a copy of
Back to the Future
ready to entertain. I could hear their laughter as she herded Junior to the bathroom first, giving instructions as she led Ned to the bedroom to pick out his pajamas. The sound of water turned on in the bathroom was evidence my son was taking care of himself.

Elise made Chris chicken noodle soup from a can and took it back into her room to feed him. Everyone watched her working quietly, impressed with her proficiency.

“At least we know if anyone gets sick Elise will take care of us,” Carin said.

I asked her if she’d keep an eye on things. It was important to me that Carin knew she was important to the family, too.

“Grandpa Steve, Kelly and me are going scavenger hunting,” I told her. Daddy will be here, but I’ll feel safer if I know you’ll be listening out for the boys.

“Of course,” Carin replied. “Will you look for a sewing machine?”

“We brought one with us,” I said, frowning. It was one of the first things she’d put in the trailer.

“I know, but you can’t be too cautious. I’d like a backup,” she said. “I really hope we can find a treadle machine.” I nodded. She was already thinking like a pioneer. This was the last thing I had ever expected my children would experience, and they were handling it better than the adults were. I started to think about Kelly again. What did
she
have to do to keep herself busy besides flirting with the men?

While everyone was occupied, Steve came to me and whispered that it was time to go. He wanted to get there before we had to turn the headlights on.

“Pull the shades,” he told everyone. “Keep lights at a minimum.”

“I guess that means no campfire,” Mike stated.

“Let’s build a roof over our fire area first. I don’t think we should have an exposed fire at night.” Mike nodded, understanding that it would be a bulls-eye target if our fears were real. They
were
real, but we were still in denial. We couldn’t even sit out around a fire now without worry.

“I have rafters we can use as a pergola, and sheet metal to cover it with. We just need to find posts that are tall enough. It won’t seem that much different, you’ll see.” My father was trying to allay our disappointment. He was fighting for our lives and we were whining about a campfire.

We left the trailer, excited but frightened at the same time. What would we find? My father had a shotgun leaning against the seat. Kelly was in front with him and I was in back.

“I can still smell Chris,” I said, complaining.

“Burning flesh is a cloying smell you don’t soon forget,” Steve said. “It works its way into your sinuses.” Kelly rummaged through her pockets and handed something over the seat to me.

“Take a drop. It’s peppermint essential oil. You can put it on your collarbones. Don’t rub your eyes or pick your nose with it on your hands. It burns.”

I did as she said and the peppermint oil helped. My dad wove the truck through the streets, avoiding abandoned cars here and there. Occasionally, we’d pass a living person or group of people and they’d look up at us with grim faces. Someone might wave, but we were usually ignored.

“I might come back later and get a couple of these cars. We can surround our compound with cars.”

“Dad, like a junk yard?”

“You’d think after what we’ve been through today your snobbery would have diminished.” We laughed about it, but he’d hit a nerve. What did I have to be proud of? Stripped of anything we’d worked for besides our children and marriage and there was no one to flaunt that in front of….except Kelly.

“Were you flirting with Mike today?” I blurted out. She turned to look at me, surprised.

“Not that I remember. Mike isn’t easily flirted with. Don’t you remember Easter, two thousand twelve?” She snickered.

“Well, I just thought I’d remind you,” I said. “Just in case boredom sets in.”

“For your information, I’m trying to woo her,” my dad said.

“Oh god,” I blurted out. “Do you mind, Dad?”

Kelly started to laugh. “I always wanted to be part of your family,” she said. “Maybe your evil stepmother?”

“I’ll pass,” I said. We drove for twenty minutes, through wilderness. The area was a national preserve, part of it Indian Reservation. As a child, I used to ride my bike down the deserted road, wild burros grazing on the scrub and cactus. It made me so sad.

“Where are we going anyway?” I was sorry I said I’d go along now, sorry I’d invited Kelly in the first place.

“We’ll start here,” Steve said, turning into a neighborhood with burned out shells of small adobe homes, some in worse condition than others. Two men were sorting through debris. My dad pulled his truck over to the side of the road.

“Let me check around,” he said grabbing his shotgun. “You stay here.” Kelly nodded at him. Steve approached the closest house, stopping to talk to the men. We watched him as the men gestured, Steve shaking his head, whatever they were saying to him was upsetting him, clear from his body language. Soon, he returned to the truck.

“This might be too much for you,” he said softly, looking at me in back. “Bodies are still recognizable, some burned to ash but you can still see that it was a human. Are you up for this?”

It had just happened, so if there were freezers intact, we might be able to take the contents. I thought of our meager fresh food supplies. “I wish we could get a freezer,” I said, shocking myself. He’d said there were bodies and I was already over it, planning how I could take their freezer.

“Let’s see what we can find.” Kelly and I got out of the truck and followed my dad to the group of men. He introduced us to Roger and Brian.

“We have acreage over the California state line and we’re scavenging for stuff to take back with us,” Brian pointed to his truck with a trailer attached.

“We should go back and get the trailer,” Kelly said, ears perking up hearing California. “My mother lives in San Diego. Have you heard anything about that area?”

“Unless she lives north, in Pacific Beach or further, it’s not good from what we hear.”

“She’s near La Jolla,” Kelly said, voice shaking.

“She should be okay then,” Roger said, turning to leave. “Well, we better get moving. I hate hanging around these places, in case raiders come along.”

“Wait!” Steve said. “What’s a raider?” Roger waved a bug away from his face.

“They’re bands of looters,” Roger explained. “It’s pretty safe down here in the desert, but you can’t tell who will show up looking for loot. Resale of looted stuff is big business in the populated areas.” He looked at Kelly and me.

“You know we’re at war, right?” Brian said, smirking.

“What are you talking about?” Kelly asked.

Steve took her arm. “I’ll tell you later,” he said gently.

To Brian, he asked, “Isn’t it illegal to take other people’s stuff?”

“Not if you don’t get caught. There’s no one around to care. Just a word of caution, we’ve heard of raiders finding victims alive.”

“By the way, don’t go into Yuma unless you’re armed,” Roger said. Steve nodded his head, unconsciously pulling Kelly and me closer. The men walked to their truck and got inside, we watched them pull away saluting us.

“Hurry up,” Steve said softly. “I’ll come back with Mike later. I don’t feel safe here.”

“Let’s just check it out,” Kelly said. “We came this far, we should see what there is to see.” Reluctantly, Steve looked around.

“I don’t want to find any
living victims
, please. One is enough for now.” I didn’t miss the look Steve gave Kelly, and she snickered.

“Sorry, Steve. Get over it. What was I going to do? Leave him in the road?”

“Yeah, Kelly, I wasn’t going to say anything, but since you brought it up, thanks for taking a detour with my girls in the car.” She swung around and looked at me, mouth gaping open.

“You really aren’t going to go there
now
, are you?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact I am. We invited you to come along with us to safety. Endangering my kids wasn’t in the plan.” She stopped in her tracks, and when Steve tried to pull her along, she shook him off.

“That’s low,” Kelly said. “I didn’t do it intentionally.”

“No, because you don’t have kids, you’re obviously clueless about how to protect them. Taking a side trip down a burned out road wasn’t the wisest thing you could have done.”

“Well, I am sorry, Laura. It wasn’t something I planned. We saw it and I turned the car. I was thinking adventure, not recovery.”

“You should have joined in the adventure of taking care of him, bathing him and dressing his wounds, instead of just assuming we would do it, cleaning up your mess.” Kelly looked at me, shocked. I hoped I’d struck a nerve.

“Stop it you two or we’re going back,” Steve said. “If you want to look for food, shut up and look.” We trudged up the first driveway, littered with trash and debris from the house. A pot handle torn from a saucepan and dish clothes, still neatly folded, were on the ground before us.

“Why is junk out here that was from indoors?” Kelly asked.

“The wind that’s created by the blast must be incredible. If it’s loose, it will fly around.” We followed him to the side door of a garage that was mostly intact except for blown out windows.

Steve pulled the door open with effort. “A car,” he said excitedly. He went around to the driver’s side. The door was unlocked and he pulled the visor down to see if the keys were there, but they were not. “I’m going to look inside the house,” he said. He pointed to a five-gallon gasoline can.