An Unkind Winter (Alone Book 2) (5 page)

     “And you said that’s one of the things you came to talk about?”

     “Yes. There were two things, actually, First, I wanted to find out how you and your neighbors are doing. And see whether anybody is hurting for water.”

     “You have water to give?”

     “Yes. I figure I can spare about a hundred gallons without putting myself in a bind.”

     Frank spoke up again.

     “Holy Moley! You’ve stockpiled so much water you can afford to spare a hundred gallons?”

     “Yes. But I have some stipulations. I need the containers to take back, so I can pour a portion of the bottles I keep into them. I’m trying to keep my water supply from freezing and bursting when the first freeze comes.”

     “That’s not a problem, Dave. I’ll just tell the neighbors they have to save the empties and either take them to you or set them aside for you to come after.”

     “That’s just it, Frank. I’ve been very careful about my security so far. It’s going to take me several trips to get that much water over here. I don’t want the word to get out, and one of your neighbors get nosy enough to follow me back home on one of the trips and find out where I live.”

     “So that’s the other stipulation. I want to bring you all one hundred gallons, before any of your neighbors even know I’m bringing it. After you have it all, you can distribute it however you like.”

     Eva looked at Frank.

     “Oh, my. Do we even have someplace to store a hundred gallons of water?”

     “Yes, dear. We’ll find a way. We have two rain barrels out back that are empty, and a third that’s partially so. And we can use one of the bathtubs too if we need to.”

     Frank turned back to Dave.

     “That’s very generous of you, Dave. And our neighbors surely do need it. I will offer to help you lug it all over here, but I suspect I already know your answer.”

     “Don’t take it personal, Frank. Maybe when I get to know you better…”

     “Hey, don’t worry about it. When you do get to know me better you’ll realize I mean you no harm. Until that time, I’m not the type to look a gift horse in the mouth. Bring your water. We’ll store it until it’s all here and then once it is we’ll pass it out to whoever needs it. You have my word on that.”

     “Thank you, Frank. What I’d like to do, to avoid having to knock on your door or shout out to you every night, is just to leave a couple dozen bottles in the bushes in front of your house every night for the next few nights. You can empty them at your leisure, and leave the empty bottles for me the next night.”

     “Okay. No problem with that. What was the second thing you wanted to ask about?”

     “Well, I’ve already told you about Sarah. She and my daughters are in Kansas City. I pray they’re alive, but I just don’t know. And I have to find out.

     “Once I’m sure winter is done, I’m striking out for Kansas City. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone, but God willing I’ll return and bring them with me.

     “The problem is, I need someone to look after the rabbits while I’m gone.”

     Frank looked at Eva and asked, “How about it, honey? Would you have any objection to having a yard full of furballs?”

     “No. As long as you don’t ask me to kill or skin any of them.”

     “You’ll have to give me some training, Dave. I’ve never raised anything other than dogs and cats.”

     “They’re easy to raise. All you have to do is make sure they have enough green stuff to eat. In the wintertime they can eat dead grass, but they need more of it to survive. They’ll eat all the dead grass in your yard, right down to the dirt. Is there a vacant house close by where you can get more grass if you need it?”

     Frank laughed.

     “Hell, there’s a city park right behind us. And it ain’t been mowed since the blackout. The grass and weeds back there are waist high now. I can just pull it up by the root as I need it. And the house next door is vacant too.”

     “Would you have any qualms about dismantling the fence in the yard next door?”

     Frank looked puzzled.

     “No qualms at all, if it’ll help feed the neighborhood. But why?”

     “Because the rabbits like to dig. If they dig a burrow in the middle of your yard, it shouldn’t be a problem. But if they dig it close to your fence, they may make a back door outside the fence. Then they’d be all over the neighborhood.”

     “And I know from experience they can be hell to catch.”

     “Okay. So how did you solve that problem?”

     “I buried chicken wire about a foot below the ground, all the way around my fence line. They still dig, but then they hit the wire, they give up and go elsewhere.”

     “Well, I don’t have any chicken wire. But I see where you’re going with this. I reckon the wooden slats from the fence next door would do the same thing. I was planning on using them for firewood this winter, but I reckon I can use the two by fours and fence posts instead.”

     “Are the homeowners coming back?”

     “Nope. They’re all dead. Suicide, three or four days after the blackout started.”

     “If you need to, start dismantling their house for firewood. They won’t need it any more.”

     “Good point.”

     “So here’s the deal. I’ll be gone for several months, starting in the spring. I’m going to rig a watering system in my back yard to keep a small water trough filled. The rabbits will have plenty of water to drink while I’m gone. They’ll be able to eat the grass as it starts to grow, and I’ve got a boatload of dead corn and wheat plants I’ll leave behind if they deplete the grass faster than it grows.

     Here’s the deal, though. Rabbits multiply incredibly fast. I’m afraid to leave more than two males and two females at my own house while I’m gone. Any more than that and there will be hundreds before I return and they’ll eat all the food and starve to death.

     “I want to bring the rest to you. Like I said, they’re easy to keep. You can eat your fill and share the rest with the other people in the neighborhood.

     “All I ask is that you return some of the rabbits to me when I get back in the late spring or early summer.

     “You see, I’m going to be gone for quite awhile. I’ll do everything I can to make sure the rabbits in my own yard make it, but I know that anything can happen in my absence.

     “Someone might break in and steal them all. I might underestimate the amount of water and food they need, and they might run out. Or they might dig their way out and escape.

     “I just want an insurance policy, if you will. In case I come back and have no more rabbits, I can get some from you to start breeding them again.”

     Frank smiled.

     “Well, after everything you’ve done for the neighborhood, and continue to do, the very least I can do is agree to that.”

-8-

     Dave had been planning to change his sleep schedule for awhile. Since the crops were all in now, and since winter would be coming soon, he’d need to sleep during the daytime, and be up at night to do his chores. He was a night person by nature anyway, and his logic was sound.

     He could only burn the fireplace in the hours of darkness. Otherwise his neighbors and passing looters would see the smoke coming from his chimney and would know the house was occupied.

     And he didn’t want to sleep at night with the fire burning. It was just too risky. Especially since his safe room was built of plywood walls. The plywood was much more flammable than sheetrock, and a stray ember floating through the air and attaching itself to the plywood walls could easily start a fire.

     He’d always enjoyed being up in the wee hours of the morning. There was something very… relaxing, about looking up at the stars and smelling the night air as the rest of the world slept around him.

     Farming at night would have been impossible. But in the wintertime there was no farming to be done. The only thing he really had to do outdoors in the wintertime was to make sure the rabbits had water and to gather firewood. He could do those at daybreak each day.

     So the answer was simple. He’d shift from being up during the day to being up all night. Just for the wintertime.

     During the daylight hours, he’d crawl into his winter sleeping bag and sleep the day away.

     The bag was made for two people. The original plan was for he and Sarah to sleep in it together on the coldest of days to help keep each other warm by sharing body heat. They also hoped to be able to very discretely make love in the bag occasionally after they were sure their daughters were sound asleep.

     That possibility was gone, at least for this winter. Perhaps the following winter they could make that happen.

     But the following winter was a long time away, and Dave had to survive this one first.

     The double sleeping bag was rated for fifteen degrees. He didn’t expect the air temperatures to drop below that very often, if at all.

     But just in case, he had another single bag he could use to double up if need be. The single bag was also rated at fifteen degrees.

     Dave never was very good at math. He had no clue what the temperature rating would be for one extreme cold weather bag placed inside another extreme cold weather bag.

     And he didn’t really care. He just knew it would keep him darn toasty.

     He looked at his watch. It was just before midnight. He figured he had time for three trips back to Frank and Eva’s house. The next night he’d make four trips. But tonight he’d already burned some time off the clock.

     Dave took his black backpack and shoved four two liter bottles of water inside it. He zipped it closed and noted that it was a snug fit. That was good. The bottles wouldn’t roll around in the bag and make noise while he was trying to be stealthy.

     But he planned to take much more.

     He took two pieces of rope about three feet long and tied a small noose on each end.

     He laughed as he remembered his best friend from high school, Rodney Pierce. Rodney was the one who taught him how to tie a noose on the night a new principal cancelled the prom because of a cheating scandal.

     Neither Rodney nor Dave had planned to go to the prom. In their minds, only nerds did things like that. And they weren’t involved in the cheating scandal either. Those were seniors trying to better their SAT scores. Dave wasn’t an overachiever. As long as his score was good enough to get him into a local college, he was good with it. He wound up going to college for only a year before deciding he wanted to join the Marine Corps and travel the world.

     But even though Rodney and Dave had nothing to do with the cheating, and had no intention of going to the prom, that still didn’t prevent the pair from hanging the principal in effigy. Then they doused the dummy in gasoline and set it on fire.

     His girlfriend at the time asked Dave why he did it, and he just shrugged his shoulders.

     “Something to do,” he’d said.

     It was just one in a long series of stupid things he and Rodney did in high school.

     And all these years later, Dave could still tie a mean noose.

      It’s funny, he thought to himself, the things one remembers.

     Dave took the pieces of rope with the double nooses and tightened each noose around the neck of another bottle of water.

     When he was done, he had four more bottles, at the end of the ropes, the ropes thrown over his shoulders.

     Out of curiosity, he carried the gear into the garage, where an old fashioned scale sat on the floor in the corner by the overhead door.

     He weighed himself with the backpack on and the bottles over his shoulders, then took off the water and weighed himself again.

     He was impressed. The water, according to his math, weighed just over fifty two pounds. Yet he knew he could carry it with ease.

     At least for the first trip.

     After the third trip, he might feel differently.

     He was glad of two things. First, that it was only two blocks to Frank’s house. And second, that he had all night to get this done. He could stop and rest between each trip if he wanted to.

     Secretly, he was hoping he wore himself out carrying water. Shifting his sleep schedule from nights to days would require him to stay up until mid morning and then sleep the day away, even though he was used to being up during the days. The only way he’d be able to do that was by being completely drained, both physically and emotionally.

     He made it back to the Castro house after his last trip just before the first rays of the sun peeked over the horizon. He’d cut it too close and almost been caught out in the daylight.