From Within (9 page)

Lea sat in an old vanity chair that she had turned away from the mirror to face the bed. The chair’s frame was made of a worn brass. The seat’s padding had been compressed too many times over the years to expand back to it’s intended shape. The chair paired with an old wooden vanity. The corners were worn down from years of use and being moved from location to location and perhaps people brushing against it. The mirror had a few nicks scattered around which made it look like missing pixels on an old computer screen. The set was most certainly an heirloom that had been passed for two or three generations. Juana lay in a deep sleep. Although her mother’s wound seemed to be closing up as best as it could only a few days after the incident, the toll of the experience had exhausted her. She was also taking some fairly powerful pain medications which amplified the exhaustion. The medication made her appear at peace while sleeping. It was a different story during her waking hours. Her face would hold a constant look of pain and agony.

The doctor at the emergency center had held off on using antibiotics. She said in her opinion, they arrived quick enough for the staff to clean the wound hastily enough after the cut happened and apply a topical anti-bacterial ointment that it should be sufficient to prevent infection. The wound was stitched and wrapped in a clean bandage. The doctor didn’t like to give antibiotics for preemptive use. She had explained that decades ago antibiotics were prescribed in an almost careless manner which had resulted in many strains of antibiotic resistant bacteria. She further explained that rate of mortality for children and the elderly had skyrocketed for nearly a decade. Regardless, she said they should not hesitate to return for a prescription at any signs of infection.

Lea had severely heightened levels of stress over the last few days after seeing the pool of blood outside the grocery store where her parent’s car had been parked. Her screams and tears that day were not just the fear of the unknown. They were the screams of a grieving daughter who lost her mother too early in life. Her mind had immediately gone to the worst. There was little Will could say or do to calm her down.

Alejandro and Juana’s neighbor, Mike, had waited around for a few minutes for Lea to return before curiosity got the best of him. He wandered to the back of the parking lot to see the group that accompanied the large convoy of vehicles parked in the back. He kept his distance knowing what happened to Juana. He turned back to watch for Lea as often as he could. He could see the group stealing food from people as they returned to their cars from the store. They were also smashing car windows to get anything else they wanted. It was a scream from behind him that made him realize he hadn’t looked back in a minute or two. He saw Lea and another person standing by the spot Alejandro and Juana had sped off from. He bolted back across the lot towards them. He relayed the story of what happened and it helped to calm Lea down some. She was still worried knowing that her mother had been hurt.

Now Lea sat watching her mother sleep in the spare bedroom at Beth and Will’s place while she drowned in her own anxiety. Her mother was beginning to develop signs of an infection. There was an expanding swelling and redness now visible beyond the bandage on her arm. She had a slightly elevated temperature. They called the doctor that morning to tell her the news and she said there was no need to bring Juana in, just to send someone for the prescription of antibiotics.

Will and Lea’s father, Alejandro, had taken on the task. Their absence that morning paired with the news they had been hearing the last few days added to Lea’s anxiety. Every news report from every channel was filled with stories of violence and death. It seemed that a panic settled in over most people which led to widespread chaos. There were more and more scenes of raiding and looting in grocery store parking lots nationwide. Mobs of people ventured away from parking lots and started raiding homes. Much fighting and blood and death followed. Looters would be killed trying to enter homes and looters would kill to gain entry into homes. Fires were started in a mob’s blind rage and there was no one to put it out. Rescue crews were either too busy trying to keep up with the many emergencies or had left to take care of their own families. News reports estimated that hundreds of thousands of people had died in the short few days.

Their power flickered throughout the days but remained mostly steady. No doubt due to all the fires. They were sure to affect the lines. Beth’s home had some alternatives to the standard grid. They had the option to be powered by wind and solar. It would be a great reduction in capacity if they needed to use it solely, but it would be better than nothing at all. Their phone service remained mostly non-existent. Occasionally, someone’s phone would pick up service for a few moments and a message would come through with a chime to notify them. By the time the phone was picked up, the service would be gone. They kept their phones charged out of habit at this point.

The moment Lea heard Will’s Jeep return, she popped up out of the chair. She tip-toed as quickly and as quietly as she could out of the room. The sound of that Jeep had given her a boost of energy and hope. She threw the front door open and nearly hit her father who was reaching for the door handle. She apologized and hugged him and then hugged Will more tightly than her father. Alejandro noticed and lowered an eyebrow at Will. He tried to hold the gaze but couldn't help but laugh.

“That was quick,” Lea said trying to catch her breath from the sprint through the house. “There was no trouble getting the antibiotics? Does it look bad anywhere?”

“Surprisingly, no,” Will answered. “We even stopped by the grocery store again to see if we could get anything else. Not much there right now. It’s a bit of a mess actually.”

“It looks pretty much like the pictures you’d see in history class of the Soviet Union grocery stores,” Alejandro added. “It’s mostly empty shelves with a few things that no one wants scattered around. Picked clean.”

“I went and talked to Mary and she told us that most food is now being diverted to those big camps that they talked about on the news,” Will said.

Lea jumped in before Will could finish, “Are we going to have to go to one of those camps if we can’t get food? I don’t want to live in one of those.”

“No way,” Will said with a chuckle. “I have no desire whatsoever to be in one of those. I imagine sickness is going to spread like a wildfire in there. Let alone, the whole thing being way too weird. It’s like we just had a coup in the government and now they want everyone to gather together at these fenced-in camps. Not for me,” Will shook his head back and forth and paused for a moment. “Anyways, Mary said the empty store was temporary. It was done to initially stock all of the camps and she said they are expecting a delivery up to a week from now. I think they said on the news that the camps are meant for people from big cities.”

“Yeah,” Alejandro said. “They don’t want tons of people moving to small towns that don’t have the infrastructure to keep them there. They are supposed to go to the tent cities...if they don’t all kill each other before they can get out,” he paused for a moment. “Is your mom awake yet? The doctor said to start the antibiotics as soon as we can.”

“Not yet. I was in there watching over her until I heard you guys get back,” Lea said. She turned to Will, “Your mom was making breakfast. It might be ready by now.”

They all made their way inside and Will and Alejandro leaned the rifles they brought with them to town against the wall near the front door. Alejandro went straight to the spare bedroom he and Juana were using. She was stirring and he anticipated she would be waking up any moment now. He took the bottle of pain medication from on top of the dresser and removed a pill. He pulled the new bottle of antibiotics out of his pocket and removed a pill and placed both of them next to her glass of water on the nightstand. He stood over her for a moment considering waking her and then decided against it.

Alejandro was carefully and quietly shutting the door as Lea approached from down the hall. He relayed in whispers that he wanted Juana to continue sleeping as long as she could. Lea let him know that food was already set aside for her for whenever she woke up and that breakfast was ready for the rest of them to eat.

*****

The coming days brought much improvement for Juana’s recovery. The redness receded and she no longer had a fever. Her spirits were on the rise. The exhaustion no longer dominated her day, however, the group still wanted her to take it easy.

Alejandro and Will were contemplating what work could be done around the property to make it safer. They didn’t anticipate much traffic around their location, however, they still wanted to take some precautions. They knew it would be difficult to keep a constant watch with only five people and they kept Juana out of their plans for the time being bringing their number of able bodies down to four.

“Do you think we need to keep watch day and night?” Alejandro asked Will and Beth. “We’ll be working on things around here and will be starting a garden soon enough. We’ll be outside a lot. If anyone is on watch at night then they’ll be sleeping for a portion of the day. That’s less work to be done gardening or hunting for food.”

Alejandro, Lea, Will, and Beth stood outside the house. Juana had settled down on the couch in the living room for a nap. They went out to keep the house quiet for her. They were enjoying the sunny day with milder temperatures. The week before, when life as everyone knew it changed, the weather had been bitter cold. They were happy with the reprieve, however temporary.

“We might not need to keep watch all the time,” Will answered. “I just worry about all the looting we see on the news. Maybe it’s my imagination getting the best of me. I mean, I know the house can’t be seen from the road, but I just wonder if that group that you ran into at the grocery store is sticking around this area. I hope they moved on. What if there’s more like them from Fresno that come up here to loot?”

“The news said there’s a CMA camp accepting people in the Fresno area,” Lea chimed in. “Looters might have less opposition in Fresno if a lot of those people move to the camp. They might have free reign of thousands of homes in Fresno. Or, hopefully, the would-be looters go to the camp and have no reason to go out and do that. Sorry, is that wrong to say? Wanting them to stay in Fresno and loot there. I don’t really want them to loot there. I just don’t want them here.”

Beth laughed. “We know what you mean, honey. I think we are all in agreement on that.”

“Those are all good points, Lea,” Will said. “I hope having a camp located there helps us out here. We’ll just have to keep our eyes open. Luckily the house is set back from the road. There is quite a bit of work we should get done, especially if we are going to get a big garden going. I hope Mary is correct that the grocery store should be kept stocked. It emptied so quickly last week that I don’t want to bank on them. We’ll have to make a run to the store in the next couple of days to see if they have anything yet.”

“What kinds of things need to get done?” Lea asked.

“For starters,” Will said, “I want to put a roadblock up on the end of the drive. I think people are less likely to come up here to attempt to steal anything if they have to haul it all the way down the drive. I’ve read signs can be a big deterrent in situations like this.”

“Signs?” the other three asked in unison. They all laughed at doing so.

“Yeah, signs that say, ‘Trespassers will be shot on sight’ and ‘Beware of dog’ or ‘Beware of the angry bull’. I’ve read in some prepper blogs that when people see signs like those, they’d rather not deal with a fight. They are looking to take the easy route and not have any opposition.”

Alejandro laughed. “I like it. The only problem would be if they are looking for a fresh cut of beef.”

Will smiled at the joke. “Good point. If things get bad enough then we’ll take down that sign.”

“What else do you think we need to do?” Beth asked.

“Oh,” Will began and paused. He scratched his head and looked past them in thought, “I’d like to check all the fencing along the road. We could also start breaking up the ground where we want the garden to go. There’s a good chance we’ll have some larger rocks to get out of the way.”

“We get the most precipitation in the fall, winter, and spring,” Alejandro said. “We might want to try to find a way to collect as much of it as possible. Maybe use tarps funneling to barrels? The summer months can get pretty dry and we’ll want to water the garden during those hot dry months.”

“Good idea. I didn’t think of that,” Will said. “We could tap into the downspouts from the gutters as well. We might be able to build something that directs the water straight to storage right at the garden. That way we don’t have to collect and carry a lot of large barrels.”

“Looks like we have our work cut out for us,” Beth said with a chuckle. “What should we start with? Blocking the driveway?”

“That’s as good as any,” Will said.

“We still want to be able to get out,” Beth said. “We should probably build a gate.”

“We could do a gate,” Will said. “I think between my stock of supplies and what we have around here, we shouldn’t need to go into town to buy anything.”

“Do you think we should be worried about anyone trying to ram through it?” Lea asked.

“That’s something to keep in mind while we build it,” Will answered. “Maybe we’ll use some whole logs in the construction so no one will want to attempt to ram it,” he said laughing. “In all seriousness, I bet we could make a spike strip as well. Lay it right on the inside of the gate and keep it camouflaged with branches or dirt or something.”