Amanda Carter in the L.A.Z., life after zombies (41 page)

Chapter 67

A
manda couldn’t believe that she had actually fallen asleep after having gone to rest. First, she heard the rattle of dishes, before she had even opened her eyes. Next, she felt the itching in her arm again. It didn’t hurt and had begun to itch again, very uncomfortably. She had to force herself not to scratch at it.

The other thing that she found hard to believe was how extraordinarily hungry she was. In fact, she could not remember a time in her entire life when she had felt this hungry. Her stomach growled loudly as she pushed herself onto her feet. She had felt so strong and capable earlier, but now she could feel the weight of the heat on her like it was a large stone, weighing her down, making it hard to walk even. She could tell that she was not running a fever, and by all accounts, she would have been if she had become infected. But it was strange, how she was feeling now. She wanted to talk to Maryanne about it, but her friend was currently so busy and looked very tired.

“Is it almost time to eat?” Amanda asked, walking up to the kitchen area.

She felt a little awkward asking about when the food would be ready because she certainly didn’t want to make it seem like she was trying to rush them with the preparations. Additionally, she realized that she had never asked about when it would be time to eat before. It seemed like recently, there had been a lot of first times for her.

“It’s almost ready, if you could just hold on a few more minutes,” Maryanne said, sounding a little frazzled.

“Sorry,” mumbled Amanda, before plopping down in one of the folding chairs.

“Look at this,” Tammy said, running up to her and practically jumping into her lap.

Boo barked, as if to say that she wanted up too. But then when it was clear that no one was going to pick her up, she just sat there, staring up at the both of them.

The little girl was proudly holding one of the pages from the coloring book.

“I did this one for Mom,” she said, holding it up and then snatching it back down before Amanda could really see much of anything.

“Can I hold it?” Amanda asked and watched as the girl proudly handed over the work of art.

“It’s very nice, pretty,” Amanda said, noticing that the girl had stayed meticulously within in the lines.

“It took me all day, but I did it,” Tammy said. “Do you want me to do one for you?”

“Sure,” Amanda said. “I would love to have one of your pictures, but only if you sign it by putting your name on it. Then I could say that I have a Tammy Albrecht original, and I could prove it.”

“Okay,” Tammy said, bounding out of her lap to dash off to get to work on her next piece of art.

“Where’s Sam and Red?” Amanda asked, feeling like she had missed a lot of the goings-on around the camp when she had been asleep.

“She and Cole are down, working to make us an outhouse. They’ve been down there for hours. I suppose I ought to call them up to eat,” Maryanne said.

“Send Cody, after all, he’s your assistant, and you look tired,” Amanda said, knowing that she would normally have been the one to offer to go, but she just didn’t feel strong enough to do that simple task at this time.

“Sure, I’ll go,” said Cody, looking red in the face from all his work in the sun, and now that the dirt was off of his face, he would burn easily.

“Remind me after dinner, I have a ball cap for you. It looks like you need it,” Amanda said, again realizing that she felt too tired to go to her pack that was sitting by her bed mat and grab the extra cap that she kept there.

“Oh my,” Maryanne said, after Cody had dashed off to go and call them to dinner, “I was going to check on your arm, but then the fridge thing happened, and well, I quite forgot.”

“That’s okay. It feels pretty good, besides the itching,” Amanda said, still struggling to not scratch at it.

“I don’t know why it would be itching and not all out hurting,” Maryanne said. “Remind me after dinner, and I’ll take a look at it.”

“Okay, if I don’t forget too,” Amanda said, knowing that if it kept on itching, then she would certainly not forget about it.

“The coloring book has been a big hit,” Maryanne said, beginning to dish up a bowl of something. “I want to thank you again for getting that for her. I know it cost you a lot to do that, but at least, it’s been greatly appreciated. I feel bad that she won’t have anything even close to what I would have considered a normal childhood, but at least it’s things like that that help. It’s a lot better than having to watch her draw things in the dirt. That breaks my heart.”

Maryanne handed her a bowl of warm stew that had a spoon sticking out of it.

“Oh, great,” Amanda said, feeling an enormous sense of relief that she would be eating soon. “What is it?” she asked, already loading up the spoon.

“Cody and I made rattlesnake stew. Red disappeared for a while, and when he came back, he had brought us another snake. I don’t know how far he had to go to get it, but it’s very appreciated. We added some mashed potatoes and a can of green beans to it to give it more consistency and help it spread out a little farther. There’s a lot more of us now, and that one little snake wasn’t going to cut it.”

“Pretty soon, Roy ought to be able to make himself a pair of boots with those skins,” Amanda said, with a full mouth.

Amanda was embarrassed to realize that she had finished her entire bowl before anybody else had received their portion. She set the empty bowl down, hoping that nobody would notice.

“Wow, you sure finished that off,” Maryanne said. “I’ve never known you to be a fast eater.”

Amanda shrugged, not knowing what to say about that.

“It was very good,” she finally decided to say, when Maryanne wouldn’t stop looking at her.

The others had all arrived, and for the first time today, every member of their party was arranged closely together.

“So, Sky, I’ve been so anxious all day to hear your story,” Maryanne said. “We’re all together now, if you don’t mind sharing with us a little about how you came to be so close to us.”

Sky had already begun to daintily sip upon her stew and looked up, like a deer caught in the headlights. She had been expecting this, but with so many people gathered, she felt like she was being put on the spot. She swallowed and then cleared her throat.

“Um,” she began, “I really have spent an extraordinary amount of time on my own these days. I guess, to some extent, even before all this happened, I was not a very social person. So forgive me if I feel a little strange in such a big group.”

“We’re like family here, you don’t have to worry about us,” Maryanne said, obviously brimming with curiosity about the newcomer.

“It’s okay if you don’t feel like sharing,” Jason said kindly.

Amanda looked around the group to see that Maryanne wasn’t the only one that was looking forward to hearing what the woman had to say. Everyone had leaned in closer and appeared to be anxious to hear that she would continue.

“No, no, I can do it,” Sky said. “You have all been so very kind to me, and I really want to. I just don’t even know where to start.”

“How about you start with when the infection started, where you were, and then you can go from there,” Cole said, deeply curious himself.

“I came to Blythe to retire. I grew up in the state of New York. My parents had been hippies, until my dad trained for a sales job to support us. That’s why they named me Sky. They thought it would be a good fit with my father’s last name of Ryder. Most people ask me about my name,” she said, feeling the need to explain herself.

Nobody said anything, but everyone had been wondering how she had come to have such an unusual name.

“When I moved here, I had a root cellar put in, you know, because I had been used to having one. I had solar panels installed too so that I could generate my own power. Well, when the infections started, I set the solar up to run to the root cellar. I set out buckets to collect the rainwater, weighing them down with stones. I used UV lighting to grow some tomato, bell pepper, and cucumbers in some wooden crates that I filled with soil. I used my food stores to live off of until the plants started producing. I had filled a lot of water jugs and a big barrel, but I had to ration water like crazy and hope for rain,” she said, stopping to take a bite of the stew.

“I would go out and run the car for twenty minutes, in the garage, a couple of times a week to make sure that the battery wouldn’t die. But I started with a full tank six months ago, and it was under half when the fire started down the street. I almost didn’t notice the fire, because sometimes, I didn’t leave the cellar for days. By the time I noticed, I had to load up what I had and leave out of there. It’s much hotter out of the cellar. I left near dark and drove out into this desert, got lost, and then ran out of gas. The water ran out, and I curled up where you guys found me. That might not be a very exciting story, but it’s the truth,” she said, before returning to her soup.

“Cool, so you stayed underground the whole time?” Sam asked.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“You didn’t have to kill any of them to survive?” Sam continued.

“Only two of them once when I went out to start the car, and they surprised me, tried to jump at me. Fortunately, I always took a big shovel with me. I killed them with it, and even though they were going to kill me if I hadn’t of killed them, it was still sad for me,” she said, looking genuinely remorseful about it.

“Unbelievable,” Cole said. “All this time, you just locked yourself away and didn’t have to deal with all the garbage that’s gone along with this disease,” he said, shaking his head.

“Yes, I can only imagine what it’s taken you guys to survive it all. I knew that people would be at their worst. I saw enough of that on the tube, or television,” she said, realizing that she had used a term that some of the members here would not have understood.

“Well, glad to have you,” Jason said. “We needed some help in the garden too. You came just in time, before we all messed that up somehow.”

“Thank you,” Sky said, before going back to her stew.

“There’s something else that I wanted to talk about while we were all here,” Jason said, and all eyes turned toward him.

“Go on,” Roy said. “Is this about the security measures?”

“No, not exactly,” Jason said, “I could wait if we need to talk about that.”

“No, that’s fine,” said Cole. “Go ahead, Jason, what’s on your mind?”

“I’ve been reading this book that Sam brought me, about the days that General Patton had spent training his troops out here, and it talks about a pipe that was cored into a mountain near one of his temporary operational bases. This pipe was drilled into an aquifer and was used to collect water. There’s a picture in the book. And at the time, the book was published in 1985, the pipe was still actively delivering water, a drizzle just keeps pouring out, it claims. And I was wondering if anybody here knew where that would be. They don’t give any exact coordinates, but I’m thinking it must not be too far away,” Jason said, looking to the group hopefully.

“Don’t look at me,” Cole said. “I’m not even from around here.”

“Let me see the picture,” Amanda asked, and Jason handed the book over.

Amanda took her time examining the photo of where the pipe was, along with an additional photo that showed the spot from a little distance away.

“I know where this is,” Amanda said excitedly. “I always called the area Patton’s Landing. If you go a mile up the mountain from this location, there’s an old turquoise mine. I’ve done some hiking around there and apparently just missed the pipe. If it’s still there, we could send a team out once a week to wait around until they had collected more than a hundred gallons to bring back. And you’re right, it is close, maybe four miles away to the northwest of us.”

“I thought so,” Jason said, before smiling. “I might be an invalid right now, but I can still help.”

“I like the idea,” Roy said. “How about tomorrow we send a group with you, Amanda, and we’ll see what’s what.”

“Love to,” Amanda said and was pleased when Maryanne didn’t put a stop to it.

She took that as a sign that she had received the all-clear from the doctor.

Before she had eaten, she had begun to sweat, and it seemed like she had suddenly noticed the heat again, but now that the food was in her system, she had stopped sweating, and she had a lot of energy again. Amanda could certainly say that her body was behaving very strangely of late; but she was just thankful that the infection had not taken a hold of her. It seemed like everything else, she could deal with.

Chapter 68

“
B
efore everybody goes their separate ways,” Cole said after clearing his throat to get everybody’s attention, “I would like to address a few items regarding our security measures here. I think that it’s important, with the raider camp much nearer now and with them on the lookout for us, that we take a few precautions and set some things in motion that would ensure our survival should we come under attack by them or some horde of creepers.”

“You have my attention,” Jason said, reaching to pick Tammy up to set her in his lap.

“What is security measures?” Tammy asked, wanting to be a part of the conversation, but not really knowing what was being discussed.

“It’s about our safety, honey, just listen,” Jason said, kindly shushing her so that Cole could continue.

It was hard to tell if Red was sitting at attention because he too was sensing the vibe of the conversation or if he just had some latent hopes that someone would set down some more stew for him. Boo climbed under Jason’s reclining chair and curled up, resigning herself to the fact that she would be friendless for a little while.

“What did you have in mind?” Amanda asked.

“I don’t know if this has anything to do with me. I’ve never been much of a fighter,” Maryanne said. “Perhaps I should just start clearing up these dishes and get back to work on the water situation.”

“I don’t know how to fight either,” Sky said, looking lost. “I could help you with the dishes, though.”

“If I could just keep everybody’s attention for a little while, I would greatly appreciate it,” Cole said, and he appeared to be losing his patience, judging by the tone of his voice and the hardened look to his eyes.

“Don’t worry,” Roy said, “they’ll listen.”

The previously jovial atmosphere of the group sobered, as all eyes turned to Cole, and everyone became hushed, even the youngest member of the group.

“Thank you,” Cole said, sounding a bit too exacerbated to be sincere. “We have a very small group, compared to our enemies, and we need to make use of everyone, except the youngest member, to the best of our abilities. We will need to be smart and use those smarts to outfox anyone that tries to interfere with the life that we are making for ourselves out here. From what I’ve seen of the many states that Cody and I have traveled since the outbreak, you all have something special going here, and I would like to help facilitate your ability to keep it.”

“Sounds good to me,” Roy said, understanding what Cole had said to be a sincere compliment.

“Like I said, what do you have in mind?” Amanda asked, growing possibly as weary as Cole with how things had been going.

“If anybody still has a watch that tells accurate time, I’d like to use it for us to set up four-hour watches from this boulder over here,” Cole said, indicating the tallest boulder in the camp. “With the binoculars, a lookout that’s paying attention will be able to see all around for miles. Fortunately for all of us, this location is highly defensible by a small group of people, once we put a few measures in place.”

“I’m reading you,” Roy said, sounding serious.

“Yeah, I’m getting what you’re throwing down,” Sam said, gesticulating with her hands and arms, looking comical.

Cole shot her a harsh glance, and she became quiet again.

“Let the man talk,” Maryanne said to her oldest daughter.

“The Trench should be only the first line of defense, but a resourceful bunch will do just like we do and lay some planks down to cross it or just go on foot. We can’t rely on that stopping anybody entirely, though it will buy us some time either way, and hopefully by then, the lookout would have spotted them approaching,” Cole said, being sure to speak quickly because he was afraid that he was going to lose the group again.

“I agree,” Amanda said, knowing that they had been living a little too carefree around camp, trusting in The Trench to provide them with security, but she knew that it was a false sense of security.

Amanda hated to admit that she thought Cole was right, but he was. The last thing that she wanted to have happen was for her friends to be killed by ruthless people because they had been lax in their security measures. She had to admit that she had wanted to do something like this sooner, but whenever she had broached the subject, the rest of the group had preferred to bask in their false sense of security and hush away whatever she had had to say about it. Right about now, she was feeling that she should have pushed the issue harder, as she had been their unannounced group leader, until Cole had shown up.

“I’ve already begun driving some nails through several sheets of plywood that we can rest in the sand just on this side of The Trench. If we bury the wood with the sand, then if someone does cross with a vehicle, they’ll have some flat tires. If they cross on foot, it’s likely that a few of them will get some big fat nails through their feet for their efforts. But that’s just the beginning. Of course, we would have to remember that it’s there and not drive over it ourselves,” Cole said, stopping because he had become really passionate and winded.

“Also, everyone except for Tammy needs to brush up on their weapon skills. All the adults and almost-adults should be carrying a gun at all times. Or if Sam prefers, she can carry her bow,” Cole said, surprised that he still had everybody’s attention.

“Isn’t that overreacting a little bit?” Maryanne asked. “Guns, I hate having to carry one of those things, especially when we’re so far out here and don’t need to.”

“Just wait till twenty-eight or more very hungry and angry raiders come to storm the place, and then let’s see what you think about using a gun,” Cole said, and this time, there could be no mistaking the flash of anger in his eyes that her comment had elicited.

“No need to get too graphic,” Jason said, clearly resenting the implications of Cole’s remark.

“Look, you all can keep burying your head in the sand, but that won’t help this operation to survive now, will it?” he said, but now he sounded more weary, as if he could not make a connection with the group and felt like he was wasting his time trying to help them to understand his position They all went silent for a full minute or more.

“He’s right,” Amanda said. “Let’s work with him on this. You all mean too much to me for me to lose a single one of you due to our unwillingness to face the facts. We are living in a little loving, sharing, and caring community that is an oasis in a sea of rot, let’s be willing to fight to keep it.”

“Yeah, like she said,” Sam quipped and was surprised to see that no one chastised her for it.

“Are we all onboard then?” Cole asked, searching the faces for answers.

“Yes,” Maryanne said, sounding contrite. “I’ll do it, for the children and our future. I understand your point. I would just rather choose to believe that we are safer than that here, but you’re right, we aren’t. I don’t think that there are any safe places left anymore,” she said, as her voice trailed away, while she thought about how life had become for them, as opposed to how it had been.

“I’ll do it too,” Sky said. “But I’m not sure that I’ll have much skill with a gun. Just the same, you can count me in.”

“Good,” Cole said, “and, Cody, that means you too. I’ve taken an inventory of the weapons. Roy’s cleaned them and loaded them. There are enough guns for each of us to have one, leaving the shotgun as a backup, fail-safe type of weapon. Of course, it’s a more up close and personal type of weapon, and let’s hope that we don’t let them that close to us.”

“Count me in,” Jason said. “I know how to shoot, even though I’m not an ace at it.”

“The good news is that when it comes to the raiders, you don’t have to have a head shot to put them down. Hitting a living human anywhere will at least incapacitate them somewhat and could even kill them. I say we aim for the torso if it’s not a creeper, is everybody agreed?”

“Agreed,” Roy said.

“Agreed,” said Sam.

“Yes,” said Maryanne and then let out a sigh.

“Absolutely,” Amanda said.

“Agreed,” Jason answered.

“I’ll do my best,” Sky said, looking like she sincerely hoped that it would never come to that.

“Sure, Dad,” Cody said, sounding regretful, like he couldn’t understand why people could be attacking other living people at a time like this.

“Good, thank you. Be thinking about what else we can do to make this place safer in the event of an attack, because the same thing that makes this box canyon defensible is also what makes it dangerous. Should we become overrun by anything, there is only one way out,” Cole said, and again, he looked around the group to make sure that everyone understood how serious the situation could become.

“I might have some ideas about that,” Roy said, “but let me think on it overnight, and I’ll get back to you.”

“Okay,” Cole said, nodding to Roy. “I would welcome anyone’s input. I know that I can sound hard and I lack tact, but I was good at my job. I’ve kept others safe before. I’ve been trained for that.”

“I believe that you were good at your job,” Amanda said, though she did so grudgingly.

“Do you think if the bad people come, they’ll take my coloring book?” Tammy asked, looking as if she might begin to cry.

“Trust me, Tammy,” Amanda said, “no one is going to take that coloring book. I won’t let them.”

“That’s good, because I waited a long time for that,” the girl said, holding back a sniffle.

“Let’s not scare the child anymore,” Maryanne said. “I need to get back to work.”

“Who’s going to take the first lookout, and does anybody have a watch that still keeps accurate time?” Cole asked.

“I have a watch,” Jason said, shifting Tammy to the side a little as he dug into his pocket to bring it out. “The band broke, but the watch still works. It’s digital and has a light if you push this button.”

“Any volunteers?”

“I’ll take the first watch,” both Roy and Amanda said, simultaneously.

“I figure, each of us, except Jason, takes a watch every four hours through the day and through the night. That will cover twenty-eight hours before the rotation begins again,” Cole said, obviously having thought this through. “The more people that volunteer to do it, the easier it will be on everybody.”

“I’ll take a watch,” Jason said.

“Don’t be silly,” his wife answered, “your leg, dear.”

“All I need is some help getting up there, but I can sit on the boulder as easily as I can sit here, and I need something to do,” Jason said.

“What say you, doc?” Cole asked.

“I suppose a night watch so that he doesn’t wear himself out in the sun and burn himself on that boulder that heats up,” Maryanne said, giving in.

“Then it’s settled,” Cole said. “We’ll have thirty-two hours of coverage between watches for people. That ought to make things easier on us.”

“I’ll take the first watch,” Amanda said, before Roy could speak again.

“I’ll relieve Amanda,” Roy said.

“I’ll take Roy’s place,” Jason said. “Roy can help me up there.”

“I’ll follow Jason,” Cole said.

“Me next,” said Sam, and out of everybody, she sounded like she might be really looking forward to it.

“I’ll do it after Sam,” Sky said, her voice quiet and melodious, like perhaps she had been a singer in the life before.

“I’ll relieve Sky,” Maryanne said.

“And then I’ll take Maryanne’s place,” Cody said, happy to be the one to relieve his new mentor.

“Thank you again for hearing me out. I know sometimes it’s difficult to hear the hard truths, but I think that we’ll all sleep a little easier now, knowing that we’ve taken measures to protect ourselves, I know I will,” Cole said as he looked around the group with a genuine expression of appreciation.

Amanda scooped the watch up from Jason and then kissed Tammy on the cheek.

“You can get back to your coloring, girlfriend, because that book is safe in camp,” Amanda said, reassuring the girl.

Tammy threw her little arms around Amanda’s neck and returned the peck on the cheek.

Amanda went and parked herself upon the big boulder, binoculars in hand, pocketing the watch after checking on the time. She felt a lot better now that she had eaten something. The sun had an hour or more before it would set, but again, the heat had ceased to bother her, even though the boulder was quite warm in addition to the sunlight.

She yawned and stretched, feeling like she had regained her energy and could easily last the four hours. And then she put the binoculars to her eyes, scrutinizing the desert. Of all the jobs around camp, she decided, I just might like this one the best. All was quiet in the area beyond their camp, and that was reassuring to her. Cole was right; it would be nice to sleep a little easier knowing for sure that no one was going to be sneaking up on them. She also felt a little schooled, in that she knew that they should have been doing something like this all along, considering the circumstances. It was good that Cole had come to them, she firmly decided. He was helping to create a nice balance in the way that they currently did things. He would most likely have more ideas as to how things should be done, ideas that would differ from hers. Amanda reminded herself, now, when all was quiet, that she would need to be understanding of that in the future.