Monster of the Apocalypse (15 page)

T
hey broke camp. The miles ahead beckoned in a way that none of them remembered feeling before.

Lecti wanted to drive and asked Eleon to share Jenny with her. The leather chaps and jacket were handed over to Deo. They fit well, other than a need to tighten the belt several notches. He grinned as he climbed on the motorcycle.

Leaning out of Jenny, looking at Deo, Lecti’s eyes sparkled.

“We’ll stop at the building where we got her,” indicating the three-wheeler. “Try to keep up.”

She smiled big and hit the accelerator hard. The rear tire raised a cloud of sand as the trike fishtailed. Hitting his own throttle, Deo leaped forward. Off the line, the bike had an edge on the heavier vehicle. He stayed ahead by taking up most of the road. Lecti took his lead away when they hit the intersection where they turned toward Carson. Slowing on the loose surface, Deo yelled a good-humored gibe as Lecti burned past him. Eleon gripped the sissy bar in front of him with white knuckles.

By now, Lecti and Deo were comfortable with their abilities at speed. They enjoyed finding drifts to jump and obstacles to dodge. Eleon sat in his seat and enjoyed what he could. As the miles went by, the kids calmed down enough that he began to feel better about Lecti’s driving.

Passing Lahontan, Silver Springs, and then Dayton, a huge bedroom community better described as a suburb of Carson, the three travelers once again entered the crossing that led to Virginia City. They stopped on the top of the low dune occupying the intersection. The windblown surface held no hint of the tracks they had left so few days ago. Along the way, Eleon had noted the traces of tracks that remained, some barely touched and others almost completely erased.

A short discussion ensued. The garage Jenny was housed in lost its charm as a destination. There were other options. The flats were mentioned as a campsite, but Lecti was anxious to return to Carson. They had made good time. The sun was just past its zenith. Eleon pointed out that morning might be the best time to approach Hal’s fortress. Lecti’s brow furrowed as she fidgeted in anticipation of moving on and resolving the situation. She was worried about the girl that confided in her and treated her like a friend in so short a time. Not really caring one way or another, Deo stayed out of the conversation for the most part. Finally, after Lecti mentioned the contents of the garage where the three-wheeler was stored, Eleon suggested they at least go into Carson.

Lecti felt some relief. They were closing in on their destination.

They pulled onto the open concrete area in front. The roll up door was still open and beckoned Eleon with hints of gleaming chrome and new tires. He jumped out as Jenny rolled to a
stop, and drawing his shotgun, he entered the doorway without waiting for the others.

By the time Lecti parked and waited for Deo to join her, Eleon had checked out the building for any trace of occupancy. He would have been surprised by any, but being in Carson and knowing that a man he intended to kill was in residence, he exercised what he felt was an appropriate caution. It was difficult to walk past the vehicles without stopping to admire, but he intended to spend plenty of time looking once he knew they were safe.

Lecti and Deo joined him at the open door. He looked around at the surrounding landscape and buildings once more. Judging the chance of being seen to be slim, he invited the kids in.

Chrome, paint, tires, and speed.
These machines screamed of power and wealth. It was a fix, an addiction, which contributed to the downfall of civilization and humanity. Bigger, faster, more expensive, and a reason to brag to others that prioritized the accumulation of wealth in order to buy more toys. All to stroke an already overly large ego, or alternatively, to compensate for a small penis. The reward of success was the ability to spend money on pride. Somehow, they never seemed to make the connection that the ability to collect expensive hardware didn’t mean they were interesting people.

Eleon recognized all of this and was still seduced.

He moved between the chariots of excess and pined for the past when he would have driven one. With all the years of anguish over the tragedies of the past, he could not help thinking about the misery and opportunity denied that this opulence represented, and yet he yearned for the testosterone rush of ownership, the adrenaline thrill of mind-numbing acceleration.

It would not do any good to express these thoughts to the young people he was with. They would understand, but telling them would not change the past or the future. Eleon kept his negativity to himself, and only spoke about the labor, imagination, and fun that these pieces of art expressed. Choosing to forget the down side, he began to enjoy himself.

Deo listened as stories of the past flowed from Eleon. Terms he had never heard before were questioned and explanations given. Four wheel drifts, double clutching, and torque curves were discussed. The information from a previous generation was expressed as Eleon shared stories that his father told him. It was a moment of time articulated in horsepower and burning rubber.

If Deo had been a woman, Lecti might have been jealous. She understood that it was a guy thing. She didn’t really feel left out, because she was less interested and enthusiastic than Deo. But she was feeling the passion of a new relationship, and it was difficult to step away as Eleon bonded with her brother. Holding herself in check, she listened.

It seemed that the afternoon would never wind down. Finally, Lecti looked outside and suggested they find a place to spend the night.

Eleon closed the door and made sure it was latched.

Moving slowly toward the center of town, the trio considered the possibilities. There was a large area of several houses that were burned to the ground to the south. Neither of the siblings had noticed it as they drove past the first time. They were too busy concentrating on the new ride. On the other side of the highway a group of apartment buildings replaced houses that Eleon remembered being there long ago. They ended up backtracking and as they started to climb the hill, turned left into a group of condominiums. The units made the most of the hillside and the view. As they reached the highest street, Eleon asked Lecti to stop. A condo where he could overlook the access road and the city appealed to him. Lecti pulled her wrecking bar from her belt.

Soon they were sitting in lawn chairs on a compact balcony. A barbecue grill and small
table added to their ease.

The high-end unit had a solar backup for critical utilities. After a while, Eleon went inside to glean what he could. The refrigerator worked and held a case of beer. Eleon longed for a beer, but he knew that the contents of the containers would be disappointing. A stale, nasty, foul tasting sip of something he had once enjoyed seemed like a bad idea.

He looked around for something better. The freezer was full. All the packaged meals were opened quickly and proved to be burned by frost. A package of peas looked interesting but was damaged as well. Blocks of frozen spinach, marketed by a health food store, looked better. After opening them into a pan, Eleon thought they might be worth a try.

In the back of the freezer a mystery container revealed a banded stack of paper money. Eleon had not seen paper money for several years before the plagues. He wondered if it would still have been good when the devastation hit. There was no way to know now, and he tossed it aside.

Moving to a pantry next to the fridge and not expecting much, Eleon was pleasantly surprised by an intact container of pickled okra. It was a find. The jar must have been kept from freezing by being close to the heat from the working refrigerator. Maybe the heating system still worked. Possible, but a long shot. In any case, Eleon brought the jar out and opened it for the kids.

The first bite of the tangy vegetable made Lecti’s lips pucker and her eyes squinch. She was familiar with pickles. They were one of the more reliable finds when they rooted around for edible food. These veggies were similar, but this bottle was packed with some hot peppers and had some zing. The crunch was different too. She and Deo both liked it. The okra disappeared.

After waiting for the spinach to melt, they found it too nasty to eat. The last packet of freeze-dried camping food made their evening meal.

Sitting on the balcony, watching the sun go down, Lecti moved close to Eleon. Once again, he was torn between being grateful and embarrassed.

The okra brought up the subject of food and the subject of food brought up fresh vegetables. Lecti wondered about the garden on top of the hospital.

Deo asked Eleon to tell them about before. He wondered what people ate in the past. Eleon was having a good time, and since he was a geneticist, he had an intimate knowledge of the subject. It was hard to talk about before, but he owed them a short description at least.

He spoke as a scientist, but in simple terms.

“Thousands of varieties of plants were used for food in the past. Well over thirty thousand species. There were over a hundred and fifty types of wheat grown in the Pacific Northwest in the last two hundred years alone. As the masses of population grew, the industrial giants were only interested in plant species that made the most profit and were easy to store and deliver. The demands of population were used to justify genetic engineering in the food industry. Over ninety-eight percent of crop diversity was lost, and only two or three types of wheat remained in common use. With all edible plants, there were fewer and fewer varieties, and eventually food became so homogenized that most people gave up cooking in favor of factory prepared foods. The choices got worse and worse because people were satisfied with anything cheap and filling. Huge numbers of perfectly good types of fruits and vegetables became obsolete, and some even extinct.”

As the sun dipped below the horizon, Eleon continued.

“If you ever find seeds, you need to learn to grow them. You need to hoard them. The food that’s left over from the past will only go so far. Good food will become more and
more scarce. More than likely, the seed you find will be genetically engineered. That means that the seed from what you manage to grow will not be any good. If it produces seed at all, it will either lack viability and simply not sprout, or it will produce inedible fruit. Inedible because it will taste terrible. This is intentional. The seed producers planned it that way. Even the large retailers got into the act. They began to sell old, unviable, and genetically altered seed. They didn’t want the seed they sold to compete with their grocery sales.”

“Humanity was lucky that no major disease infected the food supply. There were so few varieties, and they were so closely related, that a major famine was inevitable. Any problem was lucky to be controlled, and we averted major famines several times. We were just lucky.
Several times.”

“The way you talk about our needing to learn about seeds, it sounds as though you won’t be with us.” Lecti posed a dilemma that Eleon’s speech had brought to her mind.

“I’m a lot older than you. I’ll die, and you will be left with the aftermath. If you are lucky enough to find viable seed, it will probably not breed true. That means that eventually, anyone alive will be reduced to grubbing for wild roots and plants and eating a lot of meat.”

The dark of the night was not far off.

“Can’t we de-engineer them?” asked Deo.

“It took years and years and thousands of people to produce the crops that became prevalent. You simply don’t have the resources or the time.”

“But you’re a geneticist. You could do it. We could help.”

Eleon smiled a sad, patient smile.

“I haven’t been a geneticist for a long time. It would take equipment, too. It’s a nice idea, but truly, it’s impossible.”

Many questions were brought up and many answers were given before they got tired enough to bed down.

After Lecti and Deo bedded down, and their breathing became deep and regular, Eleon went out on the deck. He sat in a chair with his feet up on the rail and looked at the stars.

Sometime in the night, adjusting her position, Lecti woke for an instant.
Long enough to see the silhouette sitting outside. She rose and stepped outside onto the balcony. Eleon held out his hand and drew her to him. She curled up on his lap, snuggling in for his body heat.

“I’ve thought about what you said,” he growled in a low voice. “I’ll stay and see where this will go. But if I think it’s going wrong, or if you decide it’s not what you want, you have to be honest with me and honest enough with yourself to stop. You have to. And we’re going to take it slow.”

Sleepy but fully conscious of what Eleon had just said, Lecti cupped his face with a hand. She kissed his cheek, a light peck. Then she snuggled into his shoulder and went to sleep.

Eleon held her, feeling things that he had not felt for many years. She didn’t hear him when he spoke again.

“I’ll do whatever it takes to protect you. You and your brother. But I’ll leave in a heartbeat if it’s the right thing to do.”

All night Eleon continued to hold Lecti. He was getting used to the idea of staying on. He was an asset to these kids, and they were a comfort to him. He had been tempted before, though,
and always found a reason to continue wandering. At first, he thought it was because he wanted to see what was around the next corner. Before long, he realized that it was about running away from his guilt, and he decided that he was unworthy of anyone’s company. He was better off dead, but he was too much of a coward to take the long walk. So he became a hermit, a loner, and a man without a conscience. It served him well as he traveled.

Now, holding someone he had allowed himself to care about for the first time in twenty years, he began to evaluate his circumstances.

Lecti expected things of him. Had he led her on? Could he return to the fold of humanity and care, protect, even befriend those he would be with? He had his doubts. Lecti was not only expecting a companion, she was expecting a husband. It embarrassed him to think of what that meant. The age difference weighed on him. He had been brought up in a world with certain morals and ethics. He knew this world was not that one, it had been proven over time, brutally, violently, in every extreme way possible, but he was still a product of his upbringing.

As Eleon absorbed the warmth of Lecti’s body, he began to remember his wife, Kylee. She had been the love of his life, the main reason he had participated in the plan to cleanse the world of the curse of a too abundant humanity. The future of his children intensified his desire, because of his feelings for her. Now, Kylee came to him in his thoughts, like he hadn’t allowed since she had died.

Waking in the mornings had been his favorite time. Invariably he would wake before her. He would feel her warmth before he even opened his eyes. Kylee radiated heat. Moving his body in order to touch her, always in a different way so that he would know her entire body, he marveled in how soft she was. As she woke he would watch her face. It amazed him that he was lucky enough to have a woman that needed no make-up to be beautiful. How she ever thought him worthy of her, well, it never made sense to him.

Loving Kylee was easy.
Making love with her, extraordinary. He remembered the time she had kissed him as she left his apartment, after turning down his offer to spend the night. The kiss was a clear promise as she insinuated her body into his, and yet she still left.

The first time Kylee came was a surprise. As she learned to let go, she would laugh in a deep, organic, animal way, different from anything he had expected. Her expression of pleasure unnerved him, and yet comforted him in knowing that he was doing something well. That kind of laugh couldn’t be faked. Learning in mutual ways, they had both surprised the other with how tender and how frantic sex could be.

Eleon wasn’t sure he wanted that with any woman again. But Lecti would expect it. He knew she had a young lover before she left Roseburg, as part of her confession, but now this was too real. At the same time, he knew he would at least make an attempt at staying. Whether or not anything developed, he was ready to care again.

He lay Lecti down on her sleeping bag gently. The sky was lightening and it was time to make the world a safer place.