New Title 3 (14 page)

“
Where’s Jake, Joel?” Sara asked. She looked up from her hand, munching on a saltine cracker.

“
I don’t know. Where should he be? Is he on duty again?” I studied the schedule posted on the wall.

“
No. It’s just that he hasn’t been around for the last... well, I think the last time I saw him was yesterday!”

“
Is he not upstairs?

“
No need to worry,” declared Jake as he entered the kitchen. “I’m not lost. Not anymore.” He smiled strangely at me as he helped himself to a slice of bread and peanut butter from the cupboard.

“
Where have you been, Jake?” Julia asked.

“
I was meditating in the yard, just beyond the shack. There’s a spot there that’s got all of the light. I’ll have to show you guys. It’s beautiful, really. My fortress of solitude. It can be all of ours if you like.”

“
Light? What light? What’s he talking about, Joel?” Julia, still uneasy around Jake despite his recent rejuvenation, turned to me.

“
There’s no light, Julia, there’s nothing outside.” I faced Jake again. “In the future, we’d like it if you could just let somebody know when you’re going to be out. You had the girls worried.”

“
My apologies,” he said, although he sounded far from contrite. “It won’t happen again.” He then took his leave.

“
Well, that’s that, I guess. All’s well that ends well,” commented Kevin. I followed him out and stopped him in the hallway.

“
Say, Kev, are you done those paintings yet?”

“
Well, I was sort of working on all of them at the same time so no, they’re not done just yet.” He leaned in closer. “Just out of curiousity, have you or Connor seen the angel again? It’s just that I find it all very inspirational, for my art and for our future.”

I wished I could tell him we had, but the truth was that
I hadn’t ever really seen anything, and Connor would likely have told me if he’d witnessed the apparition again. I just shrugged.

“
Alright. No harm in asking, right?” Kev seemed so hyper, jittery. Maybe he had been into the pot. Not a terrible idea, really.

*****

The following week proved productive, as we’d successfully grown the seedlings in the hydroponics lab and a trip into town netted more food and supplies. I left a bowl of water and some dog food out in the garage for Stinky. I cherished a strong connection to that skunk, and felt obliged to support him.

Days were still virtually as dark as the nights but there was a different feeling pervading the group now. We were no longer helpless, no longer required to stay indoors and wait for God to fix things. No, now we were able to try and improve our lot on our own steam.

Mom’s hardware store was in the town to the west of us, and we all agreed that the time had come to make the journey there and see what we could scavenge.

“
So who’s coming?” I asked as we gathered at the foot of the driveway.

“
I’ll come,” volunteered Kevin, throwing his semi-automatic over his shoulder.

“
Me too, count me in!” Earl, armed to the teeth like some teenaged Rambo, raised his fist.

“
Okay, I got Kev and Earl. I have room for one more in the Caddy.”

“
I’d like to come. Julia and Sonny are on garden duty today so…” But despite his offer, Connor seemed strangely apprehensive about volunteering.

“
Alright man, you sure?” Then it hit me: he knew we were going to Mom’s store. His brother had worked there, maybe even died there. “It’s cool if you want to hang back, Connor.”

“
No, no, I want to. I have to.”

“
Say no more- get in.”

The drive was longer than I remembered. It never took more then twenty five or thirty minutes, but today, what with pitch darkness and slippery roads, the short trip became a marathon. This road was much more widely travelled than our route home from the lake had been, and we passed dozens of abandoned vehicles and one transport truck that had veered into a ditch. When we reached our destination, we beheld mirror images of the carnage in our own main street. Downed lamp posts, windows blown out, blackened brick, rusted fencing; all signs of a great fire that swallowed much of its resources.

The grocery store here appeared to have been thoroughly looted, as did the army surplus outlet where Connor had acquired so many of his accessories in the past. That was alarming, so caution ruled the day. I cruised along the main drag, passing one sacked shop after another, while Earl and Kevin gripped their guns and scanned the empty sidewalks and alleys. Clumps of filthy clothing concealed the dead, who’d been dragged into the streets from their homes and businesses. Some were charred, burned to discourage an imagined outbreak of some ancient plague. So there it was – proof, proof that there were others who survived the initial weeks of ash and rain. Were they still here? Were they still occupying this looted wasteland, lying in wait to overpower us and take what little we had? Whatever the case, we were prepared.

The storefront came into view on our approach to Third Street. Like the other buildings on the block, it was a smashed, hollowed-out shell. My throat tightened as memories assailed me. Four months ago, Mom and Connor’s brother Duncan had requested my assistance with the inventory count. Despite my complaining, I always ended up with clipboard in hand, jotting down the numbers. Shit, I’d have given my left arm to be holding that clipboard right now.

I pulled into the parking lot slowly, rumbling over the downed chain link fence. Earl was the first to enter the premises through the fire entrance, whose battered door swung from one hinge. Kevin remained outside, standing guard while we staked out the interior.

Connor’s anxiety bubbled through his otherwise calm exterior. I asked him if he wanted to stay with Kevin.

“
No, Duncan’s not here.” He said it with such certainty that I just took his word for it. “He didn’t die here.”

“
Okay,” I said. “Okay, let’s get on with it.” A slap on the shoulder offered some encouragement. We split up, covering the three aisles at a slow and steady pace.

“
Looks as empty as the rest of this ghost town,” Earl commented when we regrouped.

“
Someone’s been here, but they’ve long since gone,” I added.

“
Where do we hit first?” Earl looked about the store, although there appeared to be little left that we could use.

“
The back room should still have boxes of seeds for the barn garden, and I think we’ll find tools and stuff behind the counter.”

Earl and I looted the main part of the store, collecting whatever batteries, cables, flashlights, and light bulbs remained. Connor slipped into the back room to gather up the seeds. We were carrying our second load to the car when I realized that Connor was still in the back. Going in, I found him immersed in another of his trance-like states.

“
You alright, old man?” I asked.

“
Sorry. Yeah. I got stopped in the moment. Another déja-vu.”

“
No shit. That one lasted forever.”

“
I didn’t let it break. I let it run its natural course.” He smiled slightly. “It was... educational.”

I started to feel uncomfortable, and looked for an out. “Well, maybe you’ll share it with me some time, but right now Earl’s doing all of the work and Kevin is starting to freak a little. I think we should get going.” I picked up a box of seeds, and Connor followed.

Kevin was getting a bit antsy outside, complaining that there was too much going on for a ghost town. Several shadows moved on account of a cool wind that had picked up from the north, pushing its way through the lifeless trees that lined the perimeter of the lot.

“
Are you almost done in there?” he called. “I really think we ought to go.”

“
Chill out, buddy,” Earl chided him gently. “We’ve got another couple loads to bring out. Stay sharp!”

I approached with my car keys, not trusting Kevin to stay calm for much longer. “Kev, do me favour and start up the Caddy.”

“
Sure, Joel!” Relieved, Kevin hopped into the driver’s side and turned the engine on. Behind the wheel, he visibly relaxed. He sat there, scanning the environment, until we finished loading up. Then he yielded the driver’s seat to me and joined Earl in the back.

As we passed a bank on the way home, Earl commented, “Hey, we should rob it.”

“
What would be the point?” replied Kevin. What indeed?

It was then we first saw the flag, a symbol that would again change the way we lived, the way we viewed our existence in this sad new world. It went up like a rocket in the distance, beyond a blackened gas station. A chant arose, so loudly that we could hear it over the hum of my motor. None of us could make out what they were chanting, but we recognized the flag emblem, and it scared the shit out of us.

Drawing closer, we saw that they’d blocked the road. We stared at each other, breathing heavily, the sweat of fear dotting our faces. Then I slammed my foot down on the pedal and sped past them, scattering them and destroying their piece-of-shit barricade. If this was supposed to be an ambush, then it was a pathetic attempt.

“
What the hell was that!?” shouted Kevin.

“
I don’t know.” My eyes were locked on the road ahead. “But I sure as hell wasn’t going to stick around to ask.”

“
Those were people, man!” Earl exclaimed. “People!”

“
What do you want to do… go back and introduce ourselves?” I asked. “Didn’t you hear them and see that flag? You want to mix up with that?”

“
No, but…. I don’t know... all I know is that those were people! Shit! Just when I was starting to think that we were it! Man, people.” He fell silent, but you could see a thousand different emotions playing themselves out in his mind, each attached to a thousand different scenarios.

It took the remainder of the trip for the colour to return to my face. I felt a little embarrassed, but damn! That was a shot of adrenaline. Nothing more was said. Our thoughts were our own, each of us experiencing his own brand of possibilities. I wondered when we’d encounter this cult again. The scenarios that played themselves out in my mind weren’t good.

B
ack at the house, we told the group what had happened, and Kevin drew the flag on the addition wall. Its wheel-shaped emblem was yellow and black, stark colour against a cruel, ruinous background.

I wondered what priorities the flag-bearers set above ours, and what rules, if any, they lived by. Could they possibly be friends who mistook us for enemies? Or was it better to simply view them as the enemy and deal with them accordingly? What would we do if they were to show up on the property? Would we let them get that far? We had as yet believed in violence as the failure to communicate. At least that was my stand. Earl saw things a little differently, but he would follow my lead should things escalate to an actual encounter. Adrenaline had taken over in town, and diplomacy might have been lost on them given the circumstances they had presented us with. But should we believe that they would always be hostile, or should we still assume that people are inherently good and give them the benefit of the doubt? “Give them that and we lose our opportunity. We lose surprise,” Earl would say. And he was right. That was reality, but that was cruel wasn’t it? Shouldn’t they be offered a chance to move on, to live? Maybe they were prepared to kill us that day. Maybe we shouldn’t allow them a second chance. They would not have given one to us. We could not hesitate for a moment: this was war.

“
Joel!” Connor called from outside at the generator, breaking my train of thought. “We’ve got a problem!”

“
What’s the problem?” I asked, knowing full well what it had to be. When I arrived, he shifted aside, allowing me to view the meter.

“
You see that? Shit’s not going to last much longer.”

“
Looks like we’ll have to make another trip,” I said. “We knew this was coming.” Dad had designed the house with a huge underground tank, but in spite of our efforts to conserve the fuel, it was nearly dry. “The generator at the farm is running on empty too, right?”

“
Right. That’s why I came to check the house supply. We can’t really afford to pull any from here though.” Connor closed the gate on the generator shed and walked with me down to the garbage pit.

The facts were the facts. We needed fuel or in the next week we’d be completely out. The comfortable lifestyle we’d become accustomed to would disappear. With the generator, battery cells, pump, and septic tank working, this house was a bio-bubble, but without large quantities of fossil fuels it was a dead fish, good for nothing more then keeping the elements out. Oil was no problem, but we hadn’t had any use for the furnace. The septic seeped into the soil as well as into the tank and only needed to be pumped once every five years or so. The pump and electricity worked off the generator and the generator worked off gasoline. Therefore we needed fuel.

I’d had the attendant at ‘Joe’s Gas and Snacks’ fill our tank with the black gold before the lake weekend and it had just about run its course. Next I’d have to find a station that hadn’t been devastated by the fallout, and where on earth would that be? North, I thought, it would be north.

“
We’ll have to go north,” I decided.

Connor agreed. “There are a couple stations just northeast of us that should have something left to offer. I don’t think we ought to go back to, well, you know.”