When the Dead (15 page)

“Pack it
all up. She doesn’t need to be here when this happens and it has to happen,” Isobel
said as she stood in the living room of Molly and Jill’s place with Edward and
Moira. She was trying to sound strong and say all she needed to before she
started to cry. “Pick up anything that belonged to the Coopers.”

            “We
can take it back upstairs to their apartment,” Edward said. “No point in
throwing it out when there is already a place for storing it.”

            “It’s
such a sad thing. They were on the verge of being a family and now they are
just boxes of stuff. I hope that isn’t our fate,” Moira said solemnly. She was
taking the time to fold the baby clothes individually as though another child
might use them someday.

            “A
mother’s love knows no bounds. That baby only lived days! Has it even been a
week since she was born?” Edward’s mind worked at processing the loss as his
body worked at breaking down the crib.

            “I
don’t think we should talk about it. We just need to clean up what is left and
think about how we are going to tell Molly.”

An hour later, the scavenging party returned. Rob hastily hoisted their
loot up to Isobel’s apartment on the second floor with a rope as the group
climbed the fire ladder. Molly ascended first.

“Isobel you don’t know how happy I am to see you!” Molly exclaimed as she
embraced Isobel in a tight hug. Isobel started to cry from the loving contact
of another. Molly pulled away to look at Isobel’s face.

“What’s wrong? Hey, don’t cry. We made it back safe and we got a lot of
food. Everything’s going to be ok. I even found some baby stuff for Annabella.”
Molly dug around in her backpack and produced a doll from an interior pocket.
Isobel took the doll from her. Edward cleared his throat. They had wanted to
wait to tell Molly. They wanted to give her a little bit of time to relax from
the trip she’d just had.

“Why is everyone so quiet? Where are they? Where are Jill and the baby?”
Molly’s voice escalated to a panicked yell. She ran out of Isobel’s apartment
and down the hall to 204. Isobel followed her out and found her standing in the
doorway taking in the emptiness of the apartment.

“She did it, didn’t she?” Molly asked quietly, though she didn’t need an
answer to know that it was true.

Isobel nodded anyway and they stood silently next to one another for a
while. Molly didn’t want to know the details, didn’t need to know them. She
could envision without aid the terrible event.

“Thank you for cleaning up her stuff. I don’t think I could have done
that.”

“Sure,” Isobel said. She gave Molly a quick hug, returned the doll to
her, and went back to her own apartment to sort food with Ben.

“Edward told me what happened. Do you think Molly will be ok?” Ben said
as he wiped off cans and sorted them by fruit, vegetable or protein.

“Who knows? We’ll all miss them but we can’t burden ourselves with this.
The blame lies with them. They wanted out and that got Austin killed,” Isobel
said.

“And Jill couldn’t live without him and that got her and the baby killed,”
Ben finished the summary of the Coopers’ final days. “You’re right. They
weren’t our responsibility. People will do what they want when it comes down to
it.”

            “Plus,
that’s two less mouths to feed,” Vaughn said as he and Rob came in from the
balcony, finally finished with hauling up the bins.

They
were well stocked once more. Molly, Ben and Vaughn had procured more cans and
boxes of non-perishables than they thought. Isobel stared at the food, neatly
sorted and stacked. They brought back albacore tuna, soups, granola bars,
sardines, corn, beans, and peas, rice and beans, fruit cups, nuts, powdered
milk, and oatmeal, chili, smoked salmon, crackers and more. She dreamed of
meals to come.

“Ben, I want your help to devise a rationing system,” Isobel said
quietly. “I don’t think we should involve the others in the decision making
process. Let’s just figure it out and make sure everyone abides by it.”

“Don’t you think we’re going to piss a few people off?”

“The only person I care about pissing off, other than you, is Vaughn and
he has his own food,” She replied.

Isobel thought about how much each can held and how many people that
meant it could feed.

“Large cans of vegetables and fruit will be divided between 2-3 people.
When we have the right ingredients we can make a large pot of a stew or soup
and share it with the whole group.”

“And no second serving until everyone has eaten,” Ben suggested.

“Right. Also, we should make a sign out sheet for when people don’t eat
with the group. They can mark off what they took and what meal they took it
for.”

“I don’t think anyone will like doing that. It’s one step short of having
meal tickets,” Ben said, thinking deeply. “We could just give food out in two
day increments and have one or two meals a week that are group meals.”

“Maybe a few more group meals would be better to conserve the propane for
the camp stoves.”

“Oh shit!” Ben said, a light going off in his head.

“What?” Isobel asked.

“We spent all this time stacking the food and we didn’t organize the new
stuff by expiration date.”

“It’s late. We can do it tomorrow,” she sighed.

Markus
and Jeff, both normally clean and well-groomed, had started to notice that the
other was looking particularly bear like. It wasn’t the hair that was the
problem for two men living together in abnormal conditions, it was the body
odor.

            “You
smell like death,” Markus told Jeff as they drank reconstituted powdered milk
mixed with chocolate breakfast shake powder.

            Jeff
lifted his arm and sniffed. “It’s the scent of the wild; the essence of man.
I’m returning to my roots.”

            “Well
it’s making me sick. Can you evolve a little and go take a shower on the roof?”
Markus asked over his glass.

            “Hey
now, I just have to take this moment to mention that you also smell like death,
and
look
a little like it too. Care to join me?” Jeff shot back.

            “I’ll
heat up some water,” Markus said through an overly pouted lip. He knew he
smelled disgusting. He could feel the thick layer of muck on his skin.

            Fifteen
minutes later, a bucket of warm water in tow, the two men climbed the stairs to
the roof.

            “This
is going to feel great!” Jeff said as he tossed a bar of soap into the air and
caught it as it fell. He saw a flick of movement near the camp shower and he
tensed. “You don’t think one of those things could get up here, do you?”

            “Don’t
be silly. We barely made it up the last flight of stairs.”

            “I
just saw . . . ” Jeff stopped as his eyes rested on the source of the movement.

            “Hey!”
Molly yelled. She was completely naked and soapy and barely hidden behind the
curtain they’d poorly rigged for privacy.

            “Sorry
about that! We didn’t know anyone was up here!” Markus yelled back as he
covered Jeff’s eyes playfully.

            “We’ll
wait over here,” Jeff pointed back towards the door to the stairs. “Take your
time.”

            Markus
and Jeff sat down on the cool rooftop and watched as their bucket of warm water
lost heat to the fall air. Not five minutes passed before the door squeaked
open.

            “Oh
hi guys!” Rob said happily. He and Gabe had emerged from the roof access door
with towels, shampoo, and their own bucket of steaming water.

            “Doesn’t
anyone use baby wipes for a bath anymore?” Jeff asked concerned about the line
that was forming for the camp shower.

            “I’m
not a baby!” Gabe yelled and then quickly went to hide behind his father.

            “We
know that Gabe,” Rob consoled his son. “Hey, I think Thursday might be the
official shower day.”

            “Is
it Thursday?” Jeff asked as he looked at his watch. The battery had died a week
ago and he’d been meaning to ask Vaughn to find him a replacement.

            “I
don’t know. It just feels like a Thursday. So, who prompted the shower
excursion?” Rob asked the two of them.

            “Markus
reeks,” Jeff said, laughing.

            Markus
sneered at him. “He who smelt it dealt it. What about you guys? You look clean
enough.”

            “I
found Gabe in our bathroom covered head to toe in hand sanitizer. He had the
right idea but that gel didn’t do much. He was so dirty I think all it did was
move the dirt around.”

            “He
does look a shade or two darker, now that you mention it,” Jeff said.

            “It’s
my Indian tan,” Gabe said proudly.

            “Love
it while it lasts. You are going to be pale as a ghost after you are clean,”
Rob teased.

            “Jeff,
Markus, you guys are up,” Molly said as she walked quickly past the group of
men, a towel wrapped tightly around her head and one around her body. She
hadn’t shaved her legs in a long time and she didn’t want them to make jokes
about it. She was able to make it back into the stairwell without a sideways
glance at her unsightly lower limbs.

            “Gabe,
let’s go wait inside. It’s cold out here,” Rob said shivering.

            “I’ll
carry the bucket!” Gabe yelled.

            “It’s
heavier than you. I’ve got it.” Rob opened the door for his son, lifted the
bucket and followed him into the building.

“I love hot water,” Jeff said. As he showered he was reminded of his
wife. “You know, Sheila would always cut my showers short. I got seven minutes
exactly. She had a schedule for everything.”

            “You
can spend as much time as you want in there,” Markus said. He meant that,
especially because he could see Jeff’s nakedness through a rip in the plastic
curtain.
What would happen if I jumped in there right now?
He wondered.
The urge was strong but he didn’t want to force himself on Jeff.

            “Can
you believe this?” Jeff asked as he stepped out of the shower, flashing his
flaccid penis at Markus.

            “What?
Mine’s that small too when it’s soft,” Markus commented.

            “Not
my cock! Look at all this hair!” Jeff pointed to his pubic hair which,
unmanaged, had blossomed into a jungle.

            “Oh.
Yeah. That is kind of crazy,” Markus laughed.

            “It
looks like your beard,” Jeff played.

            “Did
you just compare my finely coifed facial fuzz to your deathtrap Amazon pubic
poof? Are there monkeys living in there?”

            Jeff
rushed at him and embraced him. He pressed his body against him; his lips into
Markus’s in a passionate kiss. He had wanted this to happen. He had lain awake
at night hoping for this closeness.

            “I
want this too,” Markus said as though reading Jeff’s thoughts. “But let me
shower first.”

Vaughn
was happy to be outside without anyone else to look out for. He had no
particular reason to be out there so he was just puttering from house to house,
finding more of the same thing. He had a good memory for how he’d left a house,
when he’d left it. Whether the door was locked, the blinds open or closed,
cupboards full or empty. Today he noticed that someone had drawn the curtains
of a house just two blocks from Willow Brook.

            “Exciting!”
he said to himself as he slowly opened the front door to find out who it was.

            The
first floor was empty but there were muddy shoe prints in the entry and leading
up the light carpet of the stairwell to the second floor. He walked carefully,
unsure of where any creaking floorboards might lie. The last thing he wanted to
do was alert the person to his presence. He came to a closed door; the only
closed one in the hallway. He wasn’t expecting to see what he saw after opening
the door. A young girl, a teen, was asleep on the bed; her belongings in a pile
next to it.

            He
watched her for a while. No one was around and that instantly aroused him. She
was here for the taking but, he had a better plan. He had to fight hard to keep
himself from touching her as he found a piece of paper to write a note that would
change both of their lives.

She woke
up just after noon. The room she was staying in was unfamiliar but even more so
now for there was a smell to it that hadn’t been there when she’d fallen
asleep; cigarettes and leather. It smelled like a man.

            She
jumped out of the bed and backed into the far corner from the door, tripping
over her bag as she moved. A piece of paper slid gently to the floor. Someone
had been here but, judging by the note, had already left. She relaxed a little
as she read:

            I
found you here and I didn’t want to disturb you. You looked like you could use
the sleep. There’s a whole group of survivors living just up the road, there is
even another kid but he is a lot younger than you. We have food and secure
shelter. There isn’t an easy way in though; you’ll have to get their attention.
They will be more likely to let you stay if you don’t mention this note. I live
on the third floor if you want to say hi when you get here. The place is called
Willow Brook.

-Tom

            She
smiled. Her luck hadn’t been this good and though she wasn’t looking forward to
going back outside she knew it was the only hope she had of survival.