Grid Attack (Cyber War #2) (3 page)

Slipping on my shoes, I tip-toed as quiet as I could down the stairs, trying not to wake the guys. I wasn’t sure how late they’d stayed up planning our route and wanted to let them sleep as long as possible.

As I pulled back the makeshift curtain that we used to block off the upstairs, I could hear both of them snoring softly.

I crept quietly around and down to the basement stairs, trying to make sure to miss those spots in the floor that creaked when you stepped on them.

The chickens were up and cooing softly as I talked to them and checked for eggs.

We had made an indoor cage that worked quite well to allow them to have plenty of room to move around, but by doing so, the poop that accumulated had to be cleaned daily or else the house would smell.

I gave the girls a few handfuls of black oil sunflower seeds that they gobbled up like it was their last meal. We still had plenty of organic feed and at least there was some small amount of light coming in through the glass block windows so it didn’t feel like a cave.

We noticed the egg production dropped considerably since they had been moved indoors. I figured it was from lack of outdoor light and sunshine, so I built a shallow cage that I could use to move the girls outside to get some sunshine, but still be able to move them back into the house quickly if needed.

I was afraid to leave them out for long. If someone heard them, then we would have people showing up to claim them and we just didn’t need that kind of attention.

But I also didn’t want the chickens to be forced to stay inside all the time. I knew that was how commercial farms did it and with enough light we could get eggs, but the girls were more like pets than they were livestock.

I took two of the girls and put them in a cat carrier and quietly went out the outside basement door. Looking around and listening, I didn’t see or hear anyone so I went up and let them out into the small makeshift run.

Even with the coolness of the breeze, the sun made a huge difference in how warm it felt. They were excited to get out and began scratching at the brown grass for bugs and worms. I loved watching them do what came natural as I got lost in daydreaming about living on a farm outside of the city.

I would soon find out that my lack of awareness was a huge mistake.

Chapter 5 - Anthony

A single gunshot woke me as I tried to gather my senses from the deep sleep I was in. Carl shot up as well and we both looked at each other as we tried to figure out what had happened.

“Kat? Katherine?!” I yelled out.

Since I wasn’t sure where the shot had come from, I was worried that maybe she had done something to herself that would make me hate the world. My mind went into a million different directions as I sprang up the stairs, only to find the bedroom empty.

I heard the noise of the chickens coming from the back yard and realized that she must have been outside.

“Kat? Are you okay?” I asked out the window, not able to see if she was even out there. Later, I would think about that action and realize it wasn’t a smart thing to do. You never know what the situation is and having stealth becomes an advantage.

“Anthony? Help…” I heard her soft voice come up from outside.

I rushed back down and out the back door.

She was standing with her pistol in her hand and pointed across the yard. She was shaking and trying to catch her breath. I instinctually drew my pistol as I made my way over to her.

I looked over to where her gun was pointing. There was a skinny black man lying on the ground. He didn’t appear to be moving.

Reaching over, I gently eased her arms downward so that her muzzle was to the ground, then walked over to see if the man was still alive.

His eyes were wide open and he taking short breaths. He tried to speak but nothing came out other than gurgling coughs. Her bullet had hit him right in the neck and through the carotid artery. There was a large pool of blood that had surrounded him and the wound was gaping and pulsing as blood shot out of his neck.

It was the same guy that had come by a month earlier asking about the chickens. I guess he figured my story didn’t seem as believable as I had hoped.

If he had been checking us out when he passed, he would have been able to see or possibly hear when Kat would bring the chickens outside.

I knew it was only going to be a few more seconds before he passed from this life. I’m not sure why I did what I did, but I squatted down and reached for the mans hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.

I felt him squeeze back right before the life left his body. I closed my eyes and asked God to forgive any sins the man had.

Standing up, I walked back over to Katherine. She was just staring over at him, wide eyed and having a hard time forming words. I could tell she was struggling with what had just happened.

“Knife. He had a knife. I told him to stop. He kept coming.” She said.

“Babe, come on, let’s go inside.” I said as I carefully removed the gun from her hand and took her through the back door.

I led her into the living room and sat her down on the couch. She was shivering from the adrenalin, so I took and wrapped her up in a blanket.

“You stay here. Carl and I will take care of this.” I said, as I lifted her chin up until her eyes met mine. I needed her to understand what I was saying.

She nodded as Carl and I went back into the back yard to assess the situation.

“Damn, Tony. I didn’t know she had it in her.” Carl said.

“Me neither. But I imagine this will give her nightmares for a while. We need to do something with the body.” I said, not exactly knowing what we should do.

It wasn’t like we could call someone to come and get it. And even if we could, I wasn’t sure I wanted anyone to really know what happened.

Even though it was in self-defense, our world was different now and who knows how things like this were being handled.

“I guess we need to bury him or something.” I said, looking around my back yard and evaluating whether I wanted to bury someone in it.

“Why don’t we bury him over there?” Carl said, pointing the the back yard of Alice and Ernie. “And while we are at it, we should go ahead and bury Alice and Ernie as well.”

I took a deep breath and sighed. Nodding my head, I told Carl to pull one of the older tarps out of my shed so we could wrap this guy in it.

We made sure to look around at the neighbors back yards that butted up against us. We knew a few of them, but hadn’t seen them since the whole collapse started and had no idea if they were even there.

Perhaps it was a good idea to find out, but it would have to wait.

“I think maybe it would be wise to take turns, so one of us can be on watch while the other digs.” Carl said, and I agreed.

I went inside to check on Katherine. She was calmer now and had come out of her dazed state.

I sat on the coffee table opposite of her and brushed her hair out of her face.

“You doing okay, baby girl?”

“I think so. I just…I never killed anyone. Didn’t know it would feel like this. I didn’t want to shoot him.” She said as she looked up at me, eyes in need of approval.

“I know you didn’t babe. It’s okay. It was self-defense. And I’m sorry you had to do that.” I said.

“Carl and I are going to dig a few graves out behind the neighbors garage. WE will be at it for a while. Why don’t you stay here and just rest.” I added.

She nodded and stared back at the fire going in the fireplace.

I knew from things that I had read that traumatic events can cause people to disconnect if they can’t figure out how to deal. I also knew Kat was pretty strong and figured she would be okay.

At least, that was the hope.

Carl and I grabbed gloves and shovels and we took turns digging three shallow graves. The exercise felt good, even if we didn’t really need it.

The sunshine warmed us up and we were grateful that it wasn’t raining or snowing, and that the ground wasn’t so waterlogged that it would be like digging up clay.

We didn’t waste time as we lowered in the body of the stranger and covered it up.

Next was the grueling task of burying the bodies of Alice and Ernie. Even with the cold, the bodies had begun to decompose and the smell was overpowering.

I went in through the broken house and opened the garage door. Both Carl and I had to walk away and catch our breath as the odor made us gag.

We guessed that it was the smell that had kept looters from ransacking their house since there was still a big tree across the living room.

Carl and I were glad we had dug the graves prior to opening the garage, because we couldn’t move fast enough to get both bodies in the ground and get them covered.

We both quickly covered them with dirt and I took a bucket of rainwater and some bleach and poured it on the blood that was in the garage and closed the door.

This was a task I didn’t want to have to repeat any time soon.

I made the conscious decision that in the future either bodies would need to buried or burned immediately to prevent this type of thing. Not only would it be safer and cleaner, but if this had been in the summer the smell would have not allowed us to sleep.

Of course, my goal was not to have to bury anyone else in the near future. I just didn’t know if that goal would be realistic or if I was just trying to be hopeful.

Only time would tell.

Chapter 6 - Katherine

I watched out the back window at the guys digging up those graves. I couldn’t stop shaking.

Why did that man have to start running towards me? I didn’t have time to even think about it. I just saw the knife and drew my weapon and fired.

I had never shot anything before. Hell, I couldn’t even bear to slaughter our chickens for meat.

When we originally got chickens the plan was to have them for eggs for a year and then slaughter them for the freezer. When the year rolled around, I couldn’t bear to kill them. They were my “girls” by then.

I knew their personalities and when I would sit out on the bench near their coop, they would come and hop on my lap and chirp and chatter as I talked back to them.

The funny thing was, I still ate chicken and bought chicken at the store. Of course, I had made the decision years ago to only buy humanely raised chicken, but still there was that disconnect between us and our food.

For that first year of having the chickens I was in a real quandary with my feelings about eating chicken. Of course, my hunger would always outweigh my decisions. So I figured out how to deal with it internally and not worry about it.

I guess in a way, I was sticking my head in the sand about where our food comes from.

As I watched the guys trying to deal with the smell from the bodies of our dead neighbors, I thought back to a story I had read about how people who lived in the country didn’t name their animals because it made it to hard for them when it came to slaughtering.

When you give an animal a name, it becomes a pet. And we don’t eat our pets here in America.

As the adrenalin finally started to release, I couldn’t hold back the tears. I had to let it out and let myself cry for several minutes before forcing myself to stop for fear of another headache.

The daily life was becoming unbearable and I couldn’t get out of the city fast enough. The hope of seeing my mom and being in a smaller, close-knit community gave me another reason to keep on trying.

I gave the logs in the fire a stir, trying to get what happened to stop replaying over and over in my mind.