Alone: Book 1: Facing Armageddon (16 page)

     And he wondered if it got easier in time.

     He looked at his watch. The water had been boiling for three minutes now. Seven more to go.

     And it was while
he was waiting those other seven minutes that he decided to pay a visit to the house next door.

     The family that had lived there had seemed nice enough. Sarah and Dave had been careful not to allow themselves to get too close to any of the neighbors. They knew the solar storms were coming, and didn’t want to feel any guilt when they holed themselves up and left the neighbors to fend for themselves.

     But the Castro family always seemed to have smiles on their faces, and always waved to Dave and Sarah when they found themselves outside at the same time.

     For a moment Dave wondered if he should have done something to help the
Castros after the blackout. Perhaps given them some of his water. Or shared some of his knowledge.

     Then he decided, no. The
whole world had the chance to prepare just as he and Sarah had. The signs were all over the place. All of the cable channels had been running shows about a coming apocalypse. The news ran stories daily about how the earth was warming, and predicted bad things ahead.

     Anyone who didn’t prepare to at least some degree was foolish.

     Dave felt bad for caring so little about a nice family. And he wished them well and would continue to pray for them when he did his nightly prayers. But in the end, he owed them nothing more than that.

     And he knew that wherever they’d gone, they would be doing whatever they needed to
do to survive, just like the rest of the world was doing. If they needed food, or water, or shelter, they’d beg for it, or barter whatever they had. And if they had nothing, they’d find houses to break into. Because that’s the type of world they all lived in now.

     And it was that knowledge that drove Dave, without apprehension or remorse, to decide to break into the
Castro home and take whatever he could use.

     It had been weeks now since he saw them walk away, and he knew they hadn’t returned.

     He had no idea where they went or why. Probably to the home of a relative they knew was better prepared than they were. He hoped they made it there safely and were still alive. But whether they were alive or not, he was fairly confident they wouldn’t be back.

     He went to the garage and retrieved his keyhole saw.

     Then, after checking his boiling water, he went to the fence on the east side of his yard and made the first cut.

-35
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     After the third cut, He went back into the garage to get several sliding bolts, and paused long enough to take the second pot of rainwater off the fire. He put the third pot on, and would come back in a few minutes to check on its progress.

    
Twenty minutes later, with the second pot of water boiling vigorously, Dave finished the project. The hidden gate was the same size as the one leading into the Hansen yard, and would give him ready access to the house next door anytime he needed it.

     He checked his watch.
The first pot had been cooling for about fifty minutes now. He wondered if that was enough.

     H
e stuck his finger into the first pot of water. It was still pretty warm, taking longer than he expected to cool off. He might have to turn the burner off after the fourth pot, and take a break. He was afraid that if he poured water into the bottles while it was too hot, it might leech too many chemicals from the plastic and become a health risk.

     Then he laughe
d out loud at his own stupidity. Here he was, seemingly alone in the world, surrounded by hundreds, maybe thousands of dead bodies, and hearing gunshots near and far each and every night.

     And he was worried about getting cancer someday.

     He took the first empty water bottle and placed a small yellow funnel into its top. Then he very slowly and carefully lifted the pot and poured a small stream of water into the funnel.

     He was cautious not to spill any of the liquid, which he realized was more precious now than gold.

     Each bottle got a bit easier to fill, as he got better with the process and the heavy stew pot got lighter. When he filled the last bottle, he took a count. Seventeen bottles of water. Enough for two to three days, more or less. He’d hoped there would be more than that. But by the end of the day, he wouldn’t have any problems filling enough bottles to last him a month or more.

     And he’d better get used to the process. This would likely be a
regular chore that he’d have to perform for the rest of his life.

     He filled the first stew pot back up and put it back on the fire. While it was heating, he’d sneak next door and check out the
Castro place.

     There were two curious rabbits nearby as he unbolted the section of fence and prepared to set it aside. He shooed them away
, so they wouldn’t follow him into the neighbor’s yard and have to be chased down.

     Once on the other side, he took another slide bolt and a Phillips screwdriver
from his pocket. He held the fence section in place with one hand while he pressed the small screws into the soft fir of the fence slats.

     He’d only need one bolt on this side. It wasn’t meant to secure the fence. Its sole purpose was to keep the section from falling back into Dave’s yard while he was in the
Castro house, and letting all the rabbits out.

     Once the fence section was bolted into place, Dave went to the sliding back door.

     He was almost positive that the house was empty, but he knocked anyway. He didn’t know why, exactly. An old habit, maybe.

     Or maybe it just wasn’t right to enter another family’s home without announcing yourself. Even if you knew the family was long gone.

     He tried the sliding door, also out of habit, although he didn’t really expect it to be unlocked.

     But it was.

     And since it was, he was now suspicious that looters had either been here and gone, or were still here.

     He took his 9 mm handgun from its holster and very slowly slid the door open.

     He’d already announced his presence when he knocked. If anyone was inside, they had two choices. They could confront him, or they could go out the front door.

     He slid the door closed behind him.

     He spoke in a loud, firm voice. “I mean you no harm. I’m only here for supplies. I am armed and will defend myself, but I’d rather just look around and go in peace.”

     There was no answer.

     He went cautiously from room to room on the lower floor. Then he crept up the stairs and went from room to room.

     Once he was convinced the house was empty, he returned to the first floor and looked around a bit
more thoroughly.

     The front door was also unlocked. He found that doubly odd.

     The house was immaculate, which led him to believe that looters hadn’t been there. He had no way of knowing for sure, but he guessed that when looters went through a house  they weren’t very neat about the way they searched for things. And in this house, nothing looked out of place.

     He went to the kitchen, and wasn’t surprised to see that most of the food was gone. There was no water at all, which also didn’t surprise him.

     On the dining room table he found a handwritten note, which seemed to explain it all.

    
With heavy heart, we are leaving our home, and do not expect to return. We have gone to live with friends. They are what we once called “preppers.” We used to tease them. We used to say they were wasting their time. Now it appears they were smarter than all of us. And thankfully they’re good people, for despite our teasing they have asked us to join them.

     We leave behind everything except a few clothes and family heirlooms. It no longer seems to have the value it once did. Feel free to make use of whatever you need. It’s no longer doing us any good.

     May God have mercy on us all.

Jack and Eva Castro

     Dave was suddenly sad that he hadn’t gotten to know this family better. They must have been good people, to donate their possessions to others so willingly.

     He was glad that they had a safe place to go, and hoped that they would survive.

-36-

     Hi, honey.

     It’s been a long day, but I got several things accomplished.

     You always said I couldn’t boil water, but today I proved you wrong. I boiled a total of nine pots of water, and filled up enough water bottles to keep me going for at least a month.

     Let me tell you, I dreaded that first drink of rain
water. I thought that even after boiling, it would taste nasty. But I was pleasantly surprised. It actually tasted better than the tap water did before the blackout. I suppose because it doesn’t have the fluoride or other chemicals. I’m a fan already.

     I also finally went over to the
Castros’ house. They left a note behind when they bugged out and invited whoever dropped in to help themselves. They even left both doors unlocked. They said they had a safe place to go to ride out the crisis, with some friends of theirs who are preppers.

     I wish we’d have gotten to know them better. If they ever come back, I think I’d like to. They seem, in hindsight, as nice people.

     They didn’t have much food left over there. A few bags of dried beans, Ramen noodles, and lasagna noodles. Things that require water to cook. There wasn’t a drop of water in the whole place. I think they only left the food behind because they thought it was worthless if they couldn’t cook it. They could have eaten it dry, instead of letting it go to waste. But then they’d have been thirstier, and maybe they were just too low on water to do that.

     In any event, I spent an hour or so going through the place, gathering up what I could use. Guess what! They were apparently recyclers. In the garage I found a couple of large plastic bags full of aluminum can, which I left behind. But I also found three bags full of empty soda, water and milk jugs.
I didn’t count them, but I’m guessing as many as a hundred more.

     I also grabbed all of the pitchers and pots from their kitchen, and the trash cans, hardware and tools from their garage. Lastly, I cleaned them out of toilet paper, got some books and magazines to help pass my time, and a boatload of candles. It appeared they were a very religious family. Most of the candles were the type that Catholic families burn, with pictures of saints and stuff on them. I hope I don’t go to hell for taking them, but I figure I might as well make use of them.

     While I was in their garage, I found an old piece of rain gutter leaning up against the wall in the corner. Sure enough, I pulled aside the curtain in their front room and peeked out, and they do indeed have a gutter system that runs along the front of their house.

     It’s funny how you never notice such things.

     Anyway, I’m going to see if there’s a moon out tonight. If there isn’t, and if it’s cloudy or overcast, I’m going to haul my ladder over there and see how hard it would be to take the gutter down. I already examined the fascia and sub fascia on the back side of the house. The wood is old, and rather soft. I shouldn’t have any trouble forcing screws into it, even without a drill. It sure would be nice to be able to get the storm runoff from their house as well.

     I have the corn crop planted, and I’ve started the wheat crop.
I’ve been thinking, and I don’t like the idea of leaving a work row between rows of plants. I know I have to get in there to water them, but it seems like such a waste of space.

     Since you weren’t here, I tried something different on my own. I hope it works. When I planted the wheat, I
planted the second row just ten inches from the first one, but the seeds are staggered. Then I did a work row and planted two rows of wheat on the other side. I made them staggered so I could still reach every plant when I went through to water them, but that way I only needed one work row for four rows of wheat instead of two.