Counting Down (30 page)

“Distractions. I know.” She pouted
good naturedly
, huffed a little before plopping back into her own bed.

He laughed again, held her gaze for a moment. “I’m gonna get dressed. See you in the main room.” He smiled, flipped his curtain closed with his hand.

Abby quickly shifted the drape open again with her mind.

He was in the middle of pulling on a fresh shirt, stopped with it just over his lower arms. “What?”

She smiled and let her eyes wander over him, along his spiraling tattoos, and across his chest as she focused her thoughts on everything she
felt for him. She thought about how she wanted to show him how she felt and let herself soak in the deliciousness of those images for a moment.
She blew him a kiss and sent the
pictures
from her mind along with it.

He sucked in his breath sharply and closed his eyes with a quiet groan. “That’s not playing fair.”

She only grinned, closed her curtain and started getting dressed. He did the same, finishing quickly and jumping from his bed. She sensed his presence just outside her bunk.

“This means war,” he whispered playfully through the fabric between them.

She laughed out loud, pausing as she pulled on some jeans. “You started it.”

His finger pulled back the cloth enough for him to peak in. She lay stretched out, just about to hike her jeans up over her hips.

His eyes wandered briefly, tightened as a pained expression crossed his face. “I plan to finish it too.”

Her curtain fell back to place and she heard him padding down the hall in his bare feet.

Abby couldn’t keep the smile from raising her
chee
ks. She finished dressing then joined Kyle and the rest of the group in the front room.

Everyone was pulling on coats and shoving shoes on their feet as she walked in. Abby joined them, listening to the fri
endly chatter of Evie and Hanna.

“Okay,” Kyle began. “We’re just going up to take a look around, make a mental list of what needs doing. It’s still too cold so we’ll take no more than two hours. Make sure your skin is covered as best you can and don’t wander off alone.” He took a deep breath and blew it out forcefully, puffing his cheeks. “There are some bodies up there. Let’s avoid them for now. The ground is too frozen to burry anything and this doesn’t need to be any harder than it already is. Hopefully they’re too covered in ash to see anyway.”

Kyle had quickly resumed his role as leader, taking it upon himself to care for each of their safety as though it was what he was born to do. He even watched out for David, though the other man didn’t seem to appreciate it in the least. Abby had come to think that David was resentful of Kyle’s resurrection and would’ve liked nothing more
than
for Kyle to have stayed dead.

Abby zipped up her last boot and pulled her jacket up on her shoulders. Kyle stepped in front of her, zipped up her coat and pulled the hood up over her hair.

“Gloves too,” he said, handing her his pair. “When we get up there, keep yourself open. See if we get anything.”

She nodded and tried not to appear as anxious as she felt. She had managed to avoid looking too carefully at the devastation before, but now they were going above ground specifically to examine it. She inhaled through her nose and let air slowly out her mouth.

Kyle wore a sweatshirt under his jacket, the hood up and hanging loosely around his features. He bent slightly, looked into her face. “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

All of them walked in single file up the narrow hatch passageway until they surfaced from the stillness of the bunker. The wind whipped, beating into them as snow and ash flew through the air.

“Try not to breath in the ash.” Kyle yelled to the group above the wind, pulled a section of his hood across the lower half of his face.

They moved into the center of the farm as a unit. Abby looked up to the Blue House, noting the sections of roof that had fallen in, the siding that had been ripped off or melted out of shape in the heat. The porch was in shambles, the railing broken into three pieces and scattered out into the bushes with the tattered spindles, mingling with bricks from the now non-existent chimney.

She stole a glance around, swinging her eyes in a circle around the property. Jim’s house was in no better shape than Kyle’s.
The chicken coop had collapsed to a pile of kindling, the corral now two misshapen posts sticking out of the ground.
The crops were scorched to the earth and covered in layers of snowy ash.

Kyle looked up at the eight people encircling him, spoke through the fabric over his face. “We should split up into two groups, cover more ground. David, Hanna, and Evie, come with me. Abby you’ve got the others.”

Abby nodded, pulled the high neck of her coat from her mouth before adding, “Everybody pay special attention to repairs we need to make to housing, the energy systems, etcetera. Those are the priorities.”

Kyle brought his bare hands together, rubbed them against each other briskly. “Okay, let’s get moving before we freeze.” He brushed fingers over Abby’s gloved hand and the two groups started off in different directions.

Kyle’s group made it to the chicken
coop and inspected the hen house to find the birds frozen in the stillness of death. Eggs splattered around the bodies as though they had been dropped from the sky.

He stopped amid the death at his feet, removed the hood from his mouth before turning to the others. “Remind me to grab one of these birds before we go back to the bunker.”

Even through the scarf around her face, Hanna’s disgusted expression was evident. “Okay. Gross.”

“You’ll see why. Let’s head to my house next. Check out the damage there.”

When they reached the door, Kyle had to remind himself to stay calm. He had helped build the house with his own two hands, laid up the drywall, built the porch nail by nail. His heart and soul had gone into every detail. Seeing it nearly destroyed was like being gutted.

He climbed the stairs carefully after instructing the others to cover the ground floor, being sure to remind them to take note of the kitchen appliances and other electrical things. Getting the stove to work would be a major advantage.

He went to the spare room first to find it in good shape. It was almost exactly as he’d left it. He stopped in his room next, frowning as he caught sight of the bed. It was covered in debris where the roof had collapsed then layered in a grey mixture of ash and snow. The mess of wood and shingles continued along the floor to a gash in the interior wall that led to his bathroom.

“Damn it,” he muttered and kicked a stray shingle across the room.

He heard the sound of footfalls moving up the stairs, looked over his shoulder as David approached.

“Everything okay downstairs?” Kyle asked.

“Yeah.” David hesitated, eyed Kyle. “Um… the stove will probably work again. Maybe even the fridge.”

“That’s good news.”

Kyle stepped through the doorway, pulled his keys off the dresser where he’d left them and shoved them in his jeans pocket.
It was then that he heard the crunching sound above him. He glanced up, watching as the last of the roof started to fall.

There was no time to get out of the way, no time to find cover. He transitioned to yellow light instinctually, throwing up his hands to stop the weight of wood, shingles, snow, and ash from coming down on his head. The mass stopped inches from his skull, so close that Kyle could’ve touched it with his finger tips.

He glanced to the doorway to see that David was no longer there. “Hello?” He struggled with the weight, felt his legs starting to buckle at the knees. “Anyone?”

Though he wasn’t sure his strength would hold up, he had no choice but to call out to Abby with his mind. He only hoped it was possible with his light glowing a pure hue of yellow.

“Help. Blue House.” He said the words between clenched teeth, willing her to hear him.

* * *

Abby and the four men made their way
across the farm to the wind turbines, miraculously still spinning in the frost filled air.

“Do they look like they’re turning a little slow?” Jim asked.

“I think some of the blades are bent out of shape,” Abby replied. “We won’t get as much power from them that way.” She turned to Jake and Sam. “You guys think you can straighten them out?”

Jake’s eyes lit up like a little kid on his birthday. “No problem.”

Abby stood back, watched as the two brothers lifted their hands and worked together to straighten the blades of the windmills.

She heard Kyle’s voice over the wind, a touch of panic lacing his tone. “Help. Blue House.”

Instantly she shot her sight across the farm and found herself standing next to Kyle as he held the falling roof above his head. She knew right away he wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer.

“I’m coming,” she said before snapping back to the turbines and turning to the men. “Kyle’s in trouble.”

That was all she said – all she needed to say – before she ran off with the four of them following behind her.

When the five of them reached Kyle’s house, Abby bounded the stairs two by two. Her entourage wasn’t far behind.

“What’s going on?” Evie asked from the kitchen, looking up from inspecting the freezer.

No one answered. They were already up the stairs.

Abby found Kyle where she’d left him in her vision, still holding the roof up with his yellow light. He was getting weaker by the second. He’s not strong enough yet, she thought.

“Kyle, can you get out from under it?” she called.

He struggled to speak, holding his breath with the effort of his task. “No. It’ll fall.”

She was about to go yellow when the two brothers peered in over her, nudged her out of the way, and stood shoulder to shoulder with each other in the doorway. Within seconds the combined power of Sam and Jake had the remnants of the roof flying up and over the back of the house with a crash.

Abby went to Kyle. “You okay?”

He nodded, looked up to Sam and Jake. “Thanks. I don’t know where David went off to.”

David was suddenly at the bottom of the stairs. “Everything okay up there?”

Jim looked down from the landing. “Didn’t you hear the roof collapse?”

David shrugged. “We were busy down here. Didn’t hear a thing.”

Jim opened his mouth to speak but Kyle cut him off. “It’s okay Jim. Oddly, there were only a few creeks before it started falling.”

He looked to Abby, sent a thought into her mind: As though someone had carefully lifted it and started pushing it down over my head.

Abby cocked her head to the side, eyes widening in realization. Glancing to the others, she forced a smile. “At least you’re okay. That’s all that matters now.”

As a group they started down the stairs, Kyle and Abby pulling up the rear.

“You’re always saving me lately,” he said “That’s seems backwards, doesn’t it?”

Abby was serious, her brows still tight with worry. “Well I can play damsel next time if you want.”

“No.” His brows came together as well, mirroring her concern. “I like it better this way.”

Tuesday, January 22nd 2013, 9:32pm

I
t was only Tuesday, but Alex announced it was poker night anyway. The entire group gathered in the front room, dealing cards and carefully calculating whether or not a can of tomato soup was worth as much as a stack of chocolate chip cookies.

“No way,” Jake said. “Tomatoes and cookies are completely different animals. There’s no way to even compare the two.”

“I like tomatoes,” Hanna said.

“Would you give up chocolate for them?” Jake asked.