Lamp Black: Second Edition, Disaster, Preparedness, Survival, Awakening (The Gatekeeper Book 2) (7 page)

John handed the lantern back to Adam and said, “Please put this on the kitchen table.” Adam reached for the lantern and John said, before handing it over, “And please blow out the candle.” Adam nodded and left.

John pulled out his painting supply box and removed a pair of disposable painters’ coveralls. He examined the white coveralls through the bag and checked to see that he held the 2XL sized over-garment. He also grabbed a pair of goggles, and the twin-filter respirator.

Adam leaned his head into the garage just as John was reaching for the door handle. He asked his dad if he wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and John graciously accepted his offer. He was too busy to stop and make one for himself. He really wanted to get the generator running before it got too late. Jenna needed the power, and he was worried about the food in the fridge, that it would start to thaw if he didn’t get the power back up.

After putting on the coveralls, and the other protective equipment, John grabbed the two oil lamps and went to the kitchen. He found everyone eating lunch, but doing it quickly. Nobody wanted to sit down and eat because there was too much work to be done. Everyone stared at him, unsure of how to respond to his appearance. “I’m going outside,” he said, with an exaggerated shrug.

“Now?” asked Jenna.

“Yes. I need to start the generator. It needs to run for a few hours if we want to keep the food frozen,” replied John.

“What’s your plan?” asked Jenna.

“It’s simple, really. I’m going to treat it like any other day, except I’ll wear all this stuff,” said John with a hand gesture down the equipment. He didn’t want Jenna and the kids to worry about him going outside, but he knew the physical encounter with Darrel would make that difficult. Going outside the house was now a dangerous thing to do, and that’s why he planned to go tactical, with his pistol, vest and helmet.

Jenna, knowing John was making light of the danger, asked, “You’re not going out without your gun, right?”

“No. Of course not. I also need everyone’s help. I don’t want to take any chances out there,” said John. He then spent the next several minutes laying out the plan for his first excursion into the ash and the shop. He told them he was going out alone, but not without cover, and backup. “Jenna, love, I need you to cover the doorway with the shotgun,” said John.

“But I thought you wanted
me
to cover the doorway, dad?” asked Adam, clearly concerned that he was being left out of the plan again.

“No. I decided I want you to cover me from your bedroom window . . . with my rifle . . . the one equipped with the night sight. You might be able to cover me all the way to the shop. Can you handle that?” asked John. Adam nodded and was unable to suppress his grin of excitement at the thought of using John’s rifle, even if it was for observation purposes only.

“Abby, I want you to be the lookout for the front of the house, and holler if you see anyone or anything in the yard. Can you do that?”

“Yes, daddy. But what if I see something?” she asked.

“You stick with the emergency action drills like we talked about. OK?”

“OK.”

“So if you see something just call it out. But Adam,” said John, as he turned to face his son, “Don’t leave your post. I need you to stay at your bedroom window until I call for you. I don’t care if Abby say’s there’s
thirty zombies approaching the house in the front, you stay where you are until mom or I call for you. Do you understand?” Adam nodded. John could see his mind working over the possibility that missing an opportunity to shoot zombies would really suck.

“Good. It’ll take me a few more minutes to suit up, so let’s meet back here in fifteen minutes and we’ll start. Any questions?”

With Adam’s help, John was completely suited up in less than ten minutes. He propped a boot against a bar chair so Adam could run a strip of duct tape around the cuff of his coveralls. Adam did the same for John’s sleeves. After John pulled the coverall hood over his head, he situated the respirator at his neck and lowered the goggles around his neck. Just as Adam was helping John into his body armor vest, the girls entered the kitchen. John saw Jenna hesitate to comment, and he didn’t ask what it was. He guessed she was surprised to see him in all his tactical kit, for her look went from scared, to concerned, and then settled back on worried.

“Everything will be fine,” said John, as he looked at her. “I’ll go out, enter the shop, start the generator, run two extension cords to the house, and be back inside in under twenty minutes. It’ll be a walk in the park.” John saw she didn’t look convinced, that his optimism wasn’t reaching her. “I’ve done this before, Jenna. I’m just dressed a little differently now. You know I can handle myself. Besides, we need the power. The water isn’t running, and two of the toilets need to be flushed.” John scanned the faces of Adam and Abby and added, “Everything will be fine if we stay alert and keep our eyes open.”

“We’re ready,” said Jenna, and she approached and tried to give John a hug, but then settled for a kiss instead. She couldn’t get her arms around him with all his gear on.

“Yeah, dad, we’ll be fine. We’ll cover you,” said Adam.

“I’ve got the front covered, daddy. I’ll yell if I see anything. But if I see any zombies I don’t think I can sit by myself,” replied Abby, with a frown.

“Well, if you see any zombies you can join Adam. Deal?”

“Deal . . . thanks Daddy,” replied Abby, as she stood on her toes to reach up and give her dad a kiss on the cheek.

John grabbed his flashlight from the kitchen counter and attached it to the Velcro patch on the right side of his helmet. With the helmet tucked under his arm, he said, “Alright, let’s get started.”

John raised the curtain and scanned the yard through the side door window. It appeared as if the ash had stopped falling, but he couldn’t tell from inside with the lantern light reflecting off the glass. He studied the view for a moment and saw that everything looked flat, dark, and featureless. He knew the sun should be shining through the window, or at least be visible in the sky, but nothing penetrated the dark gray gloom, where the sky was the same shade of gray as the ground. He was curious about the local weather - if there was any local weather - but he couldn’t check with phone service out, or the emergency radio only producing static.

He let the curtain fall over the window and turned to study Jenna’s face. The lantern didn’t provide a very flattering backdrop for her beautiful face, but it was more than enough to see how concerned she was. She gave John a thumbs-up sign when they made eye contact. John really loved her at times like this. He loved her all the time, but in times of stress, of difficulty, his love for her seemed to overflow, especially when she displayed uncommon strength. John didn’t understand why she affected him like she did, but at that moment, before he was about to step out into the ash, his love for her almost subdued him. It made him not want to leave her. He drew in a deep breath, smiled in return, and said, “OK, love. I’ll slip out and stand on the other side of the door until you lock it up. Be alert, OK. I don’t know how long it will take me to get things running, but don’t open the door until I give you the correct sign.”

Jenna nodded and said, “You be careful, John Anderson.” Once again, John was struck by the romantic quality of the moment, as if
they were caught up in some kind of black and white movie, or mushy romance novel. He smiled again and they embraced, as best they could in the tight space and John’s bulky outfit. “You look like some kind of weird space Soldier,” added Jenna.

John kissed her forehead, and then slipped the mask down over his nose and mouth, and placed the clear goggles over his eyes. When he finished adjusting the helmet chin strap, he attached the flashlight to the Velcro patch without turning it on. He didn’t want to announce his movement in the darkness. Besides, he wasn’t sure how effective the flashlight would be in the ash. He just knew that he would need it once he reached the shop, and that it was always better to have and not need it, than need it and not have it.

Jenna sat her lantern on the floor, and took up her position on the bench by the door. John lifted the long security hasp and opened the deadbolt. As soon as he opened the door he stepped out into the ash. Jenna quickly closed and locked the door behind him, and then briefly pulled the curtain aside to give John another thumbs-up. He signaled back and turned to survey the side yard from the top step. The ash had drifted up against the door, but didn’t collapse into the mud room when he opened the door.

He quickly stepped over the ash dune, and as soon as the door was closed he used his feet to push the pile of ash aside. He paused on the top step and waited for his eyes to adjust to the dark. It wasn’t totally black. There was about as much illumination as he would expect to find on a very foggy night, with the street lights out, in a sandstorm, if such a condition was even possible. As for confidence, John was perfectly fine in the dark. He had spent a lot of time working in the dark, both literally and figuratively, thanks to the army. But he knew his property well enough to walk it blindfolded.

Though walking in the darkness didn’t worry him, he was inclined to respect his footing under the ash. The ash reached the top of the steps, but because he was unsure how far he would sink into the ash, he stepped tentatively onto the first descending step. When his foot
went effortlessly to the concrete surface of the step, he thought of Neil Armstrong. He said aloud, “One small step for man,” and sighed. He never imagined that his own yard would one day look like the surface of the moon.

When he reached the bottom step he saw that the ash was half way to his knees. It looked like it had stopped falling, but it was hard to tell because there was a lot of ash suspended in the relatively still air around him. He glanced skyward, and turned in a slow circle as he tried to get his bearing on the sun’s location. He had no idea where it was, but he knew where his shop was, so he moved off in that direction.

The ash swirled around him as he pushed and pulled with his legs, creating little eddies and avalanches of movement while he plowed through. It felt a little like moving through heavy wet snow. He noticed ash was still falling, but it seemed to be filtering down from the roof and trees around him. Thinking about the weight of the ash, and the load it exerted on surfaces, John decided to detour close to the pool cover and see how it was holding up - if it was still holding up. John knew that a cubic foot of snow could weigh anywhere from seven to twenty pounds, depending on its moisture content and density. But no matter how you sliced it, volcanic ash was twice as heavy as dry snow, and twice that again if wet. That information concerned him, so he turned on his flashlight and shuffled his feet through the ash as he continued to plow through the alien surface that was once his backyard.

He stopped and scanned the yard with his flashlight. It killed his night vision, but he wanted to see the pool cover, and give Adam a chance to see his location. He couldn’t, see the cover, so he turned off the flashlight and waited, once again, for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. He knew where he was, but considered running a safety line from the house to the shop. If the wind picked up the flying ash would reduce visibility to zero. John figured a single strand of 550 cord would probably do the trick. Also called “para-cord,” the 550 represented the tensile strength of a single strand of the line. Namely that it could bear
the weight of 550 pounds before being at risk of breaking. It meant 550 cord was very strong for its size, and was very useful in a number of survival applications. It was a survivalist multi-purpose utility line of choice. Next to duct tape and zip-ties, 550 cord was John’s next favorite survival supply.

John tripped, and barely caught himself before falling face first into the ash. Using the toe of his boot, he worked around the hazard. It felt like a brick. He must have kicked it loose from the edging around one of Jenna’s tree trunk flowerbeds. John stepped over the flowerbed and put his hand against the tree as he paused to reestablish his bearings. He turned and looked around, but couldn’t make out the shape of the house, or the shop. He figured he was somewhere between the two. With only the trail behind him as a directional guide, John faced about and continued to plow forward.

“Yup, I’ll have to run a safety line,” he said aloud. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw movement and squatted in the ash. He willed them to penetrate the darkness, to identify the movement, but his eyes revealed nothing. Darkness had a way of playing tricks on the eye, as well as the mind, but the ash filled environment was different from anything he had ever experienced before. For John, it was kind of like walking at the bottom of a giant ashtray. It kind of smelled like an ashtray too.

After a minute of silent survey, he was satisfied that it was only the darkness playing tricks on him. So he rose to his feet and resumed his journey. He knew he was taking longer than he planned, but he couldn’t help it. The job still had to be done.

Another tree appeared to his left and he gave it a wide birth. He continued to move in what he thought was the right direction, but his goggles were almost entirely coated in ash. He wiped at them with his gloved hands, and saw that the ash continued to stick to the lenses. It was apparently electrostatically charged, and wiping at the lenses seemed only to make it worse. John continued walking, having lost count of the number of steps he had taken, but thinking it couldn’t be
many more before he reached his destination. He was just about ready to shift his direction of travel when his outstretched hand hit the side of the shop. With both hands on the wall, John worked his way to the right, hoping to find the door. When his right hand fell away from the wall, he stopped. Realizing that he reached the corner of the shop, he began to move back to his left. With his right hand on the wall, he soon made his way to the side door. He noticed the door was just two feet from where he made initial contact with the shop, which actually pleased him despite his minor detour.