The Hunt Chronicles (Volume 1): Awakening (24 page)

I saw Leanne, one of the two lesbians, out back at their garden.  She was looking over some papers and going through some equipment.  I made my way over.  I hadn’t really talked to anyone since we had gotten there the previous day.  Getting to know some of the people there wouldn’t be a bad idea.  Even Fish said they were friends… sort of.

“Hi,” I said, walking up with Boomer at my side, “Leanne, right?  I’m Christian.”

“So, you’re the one who wrote these instructions,” she said with a smile.  “Lt. Campbell told me to try and fix this system up.  He said it was working great for you guys.”

“Yeah, but we didn’t design it.  The previous owners did.”  I didn’t like being reminded of Judy.

“Well, Campbell isn’t being realistic.  We can’t collect enough water for your system to work.”  She pointed over to the store.  “The only gutters on that building are over the entrances.  Other than that, the rain just falls off.”  She shook her head.  “I keep telling him we need to set it up properly.  Hell, we are rationing water as it is.”

I nodded.  “What are you going to do if a dry season hits?  To be honest, there are a lot of people here, and I don’t see you guys collecting enough water to drink, let alone grow vegetables.”

“Don’t I know it, son.  I tried talking to Kat about that, but she’s the ‘everything will work itself out’ type of lady, you know?”  She smiled which, again, was something I wasn’t used to.  “Not enough food, not enough water… and now we find out we’re not as safe as we thought.”

She looked down, lost in thought for a moment.  A sad look came over her face.  Whatever she was thinking, it wasn’t good.  I tried to cheer her up.

“Tell you what, I’ll help you set it up.  Maybe we can work something out?  Once you get enough water in these buckets and a decent size barrel feeding in, it can last awhile.  Nothing evaporates.”

She smiled again.  I could tell she appreciated the gesture.  “Thank you, son.  You know, for over twenty years Kat and I drove buses for the County Schools.  That’s where we met.  We never, for the life of us, figured something like this could happen.  The things we wish we could have known…” she trailed off and then collected her thoughts. 

“I guess the Lieutenant wants us all to meet up at the front of the store,” she said, nodding towards her girlfriend who was waving to us near the corner of the main building.  “You should come.”

“Maybe I’ll do that.”  I followed her around the building.  It was nice talking to other people.  Even if the moods swung up and down, it was still nice.  I knew Fish would want to leave today.  He had mentioned more than once over the past week how he didn’t want to get too attached to these people.

We rounded the corner and I saw most of the civilian adults standing around, with the exception of DJ.  He was sitting in a chair talking with Fish.  Leanne walked up to Kat and gave her a kiss on the cheek.  The rest were either talking or listening to one another.  Campbell, Chad and the lady named Cheryl were not there, along with all of the soldiers under the LT’s command.

I couldn’t hear what Fish and DJ were discussing, but the rest of the people talked about anything from the events of yesterday to fear of the new rationing of supplies.  I earned a few curious looks from them as I came closer, so I decided to stay just outside their semi-circle.  Boomer lay down at my feet just as Campbell, Chad, and a soldier I came to know as Specialist Combs walked out the front door.

Chad’s face was swollen and his nose was wrapped in two lines of tape.  He didn’t bother looking in DJ’s direction when he came out, and just focused on the concrete in front of him.  He was holding his side, and was in obvious pain. 
Good
, I thought at the time,
he deserves worse
. 

I feel bad describing Chad like this.  I wasn’t that understanding of the poor guy’s situation.  He was arrested at eighteen for doing something stupid and then thrown in prison for a decade.  How would I have turned out if that were me?

“Good morning everyone,” Campbell said as he peered over a notepad in his hand.  Everyone nodded or grunted a response.  There was a dark cloud that hung over the group.  He looked up and let out a breath.

“Look, I know yesterday was rough.  We lost two people.  Kayla and Jared.  The world is a bad place now.” Most people were looking at the ground, almost as if they wanted to pretend yesterday didn’t happen.  “All I can say is that we have to keep going.  We need to be strong and stick by each other.  That is the only way we are going to get through this alive.”

He paused a moment and allowed his face to soften, then nodded toward Preacher.

“Preacher will be saying a few words this afternoon.  I’m going to ask everyone to come that isn’t on duty.  I feel it’s important we remember…”  Campbell’s voice trailed off.  I wasn’t sure if he had meant to say more or just decided to stop there.

The Lieutenant looked tired and worn.  He probably viewed everyone here as though they were under his command.  I didn’t think about that until then.  He felt responsible for both Kayla and Jared’s deaths, as many commanders do during war. 

When I met with him back at our place, I didn’t really understand how DJ let some snot-nosed green Lieutenant take charge when he seemed more of a natural leader.  Being the boss wasn’t fun.  You had to be part leader, part administrator, and part parent to everyone under your charge.  DJ took his scavenging runs seriously.  But would he even want, let alone have the patience, to lead this group?  I knew I wouldn’t.  Fish had to feel that way too, which must have been why he made sure to show respect to the Lieutenant in front of the rest of the people.  No one wanted his job.

“We are going to make it through this,” he continued confidently.  “This afternoon, some of us are going to try to develop a better strategy for our defenses.  They won’t be perfect and I’m sure there will be a learning curve, but we will do everything in our power to make sure we’re all safe.  We started yesterday with thirty-one, today, we’re twenty-nine.  Let’s see what we can do to keep it that way.”

It wasn’t the most inspirational speech, but the general mood did seem to have a positive change.

“You’re still thirty-one,” a voice said from across the semi-circle.  Fish, who was on his knee next to DJ, stood up.  “Well, thirty-one plus a dog,” he said and winked in my direction.

I couldn’t help but smile.  Fish had expressed more than once that it was just him and me against the world.  As messed up as our relationship was, I wouldn’t leave him for anyone.  It was a love, hate, hate some more, curse his name type of relationship, but we had bonded.  If he said “let’s go”, I wouldn’t have hesitated to leave.

The Lieutenant seemed shocked to hear that as well.  “Well, that’s some good news.  Everyone, I’d like to welcome Master Sergeant Fischer and Christian to the fold.  You will be a much needed addition to our community.”

Campbell continued talking, going over basic things like food and water distribution and rationing, sleeping arrangements, and other administrative matters.  Occasionally, someone would speak up, expressing their opinion or answering a question he would ask.  Kat and Chuck both expressed concerns over the security and the LT told them provisions were going to be made to make sure the compound was more secure, though I knew he wasn’t sure how to do that.

“Alright everyone, if there isn’t anything else,” he paused, waiting to see if there were any more questions, “we will adjourn.  DJ, Specialist Combs, Master Sergeant, and Kat, please meet me in the office in fifteen.”

Campbell and the specialist walked back into the building.  The group dispersed and Fish made his way over to me.

“That was a shocker,” I said to him, forming a grin.

“Grow up,” he growled,  “and don’t look too happy, kid.  We still have to move our things here.  And my plan hasn’t changed.”

“I don’t understand.”  Our original plan was to move, and then he said we’re sticking to that after he just told the LT we’re joining them? 

“You will,” he said.  “You’re coming with me to this little pow-wow.  Leave the pooch.”

Fifteen minutes later, we were in the back office of the store.  It was more of a break room than an office, though.  They had solar driveway lamps lining the office but it was still pretty dark until Campbell turned on a lantern. 

At first, the Lieutenant seemed annoyed when I walked in behind Fish.  I clearly wasn’t invited, but he didn’t openly protest.  There were only five seats surrounding a round table, so I stood behind Fish.  Kat was to my left and DJ to the right.  Specialist Combs sat next to Campbell.

“Let’s get started with you Kat, what’s our food situation?” the LT asked.

“Well,” she said, clearing her throat, “Even at rationing down to two meals a day, we only have about a week’s worth of food left.  The water situation isn’t much better.  Maybe two weeks if we stop brushing our teeth,” she said dryly. 

Campbell looked at DJ.  “Did Daniel tell you when you’ll be ready for some more runs?”

“I can still drive,” DJ said, “I just won’t be much good at loading goods up.”

“That’s not what I asked,” the Lieutenant returned.

DJ frowned.  “A week, maybe two.”  I could tell he was in pain, though he tried not to show it.

“Then you’re off of the runs until he clears you,” Specialist Combs chimed in.

“That’s bullshit,” the big man said in frustration.  “I have a wife and kid that need to eat too.”

“He’s the best driver we have,” Kat added.

The arguing continued and rolled into a fight about security.  Combs said they should add trip wires so that if another scab snuck in, it would set off an alarm.  DJ said that would just alert any dead-heads in the area.  The whole time, Fish and I sat quietly and listened.

“Hey, let’s slow down,” Campbell said after about twenty minutes.  He glared around the table and settled on Fish.  “Do you have any input, Master Sergeant?”

“Retired,” Fish corrected.

“Excuse me?” Campbell asked.

“I’m retired.  Call me Fish.”

Campbell seemed to consider that for a moment.  I knew what he was trying to do.  If he could get Fish back into the military mindset, he would have a level of control over him.  It wasn’t exactly a scheme to gain power, but rather to maintain it.

“Alright, Fish,” he finally said, “what are your thoughts?”

“I want to hear what the kid has to say first,” he said, jerking his thumb back toward me.

Campbell glowered at me, then back to Fish.  “Okay, go ahead Christian.”

I really didn’t appreciate being put on the spot like that, not that Fish would care what I thought.  I wasn’t quite sure what angle he was playing, so I decided it was best to just be honest. 

“To-to be honest,” I stammered, “this isn’t the best location.”

That earned ugly looks from everyone in the room except Kat.  She seemed to agree.  I wondered if she had voiced that opinion before.  Little did she know, but her look of approval gave me confidence, so I continued.

“I mean, well, there isn’t any real water supply.  Even if we put a duct system up on the roof, it would only take a week without rain for us to run out with this many people.”

“We know about this,” Specialist Combs said.  “We plan on digging some wells outside the camp and piping them over.”

“I take it you’re not from Florida,” I said a little too quickly, earning an ugly look.  “The water in the ground here is nasty.  We could purify it, but it would take some know-how that I don’t have.”

“No offense, Christian, but we can figure that out easily enough,” the Lieutenant snidely remarked.  “Besides, we’ll soon have sufficient enough power to have long range comms.”

“I’m not sure what you guys are waiting for.  Sir,” I said to Campbell while trying to maintain my composure, “you said yourself that there hasn’t been any word from the government in weeks.  And this ‘wall’ you have to defend the camp is crap.  You get enough of these dead-heads pressing or tearing on the fence, and it’s coming down.”

“We spent a lot of time and sweat on that fence,” DJ said.  “I know it’s not perfect, but we can make it stronger.”

“But-” I started to say, but was cut off.

“Have you ever been deployed to a hot zone?” Fish interrupted, glaring at the Lieutenant.

Campbell must have known where that was going, and shrunk back in his chair.  Fish continued.

“This kid has,” Fish stated.  “He may be green and never left the wire, but he sat in a compound long enough to know what security is.  All you have here is a pantry waiting to be cleaned out by the Zulus.”  He sat back and locked eyes with Campbell.  I wasn’t sure if a big argument was about to break out or if the Lieutenant was going to ask us to leave the compound.  Finally, Campbell broke the silence.

“Okay.  You say we’re too vulnerable here.  What’s your solution?”  His eyes never left Fish’s, continuing the staring contest.

“I don’t have all the answers, LT,” Fish responded.  “But I do see the problems.  You guys have made a decent place here, but we need to think ahead.  Food,
fresh food
, is an issue as is fresh water.  We need natural barriers.  Sure we’re surrounded by a thin line of woods here, but just across that tree line are five thousand homes with a bunch of hungry old tenants waiting for a dinner bell.  All it will take is one large herd of those fucks to move through here and we’re nothing but a feast.”