Grid Attack (Cyber War #1) (8 page)

After calming the chicken she came back and sat down.

“I think we need to build a shelter in the basement.” She said.

“What? The basement? I don’t know babe. Keeping the chickens inside? Do you really think that’s a good idea?” I asked.

I didn’t really want hens in the house. I mean, they are birds and I wasn’t sure how clean it would be if they were inside. I just didn’t want to expose ourselves to anything that might make us sick.

It was then I noticed what sounded life footsteps coming up the driveway. I couldn’t see from where I was at, but I could hear the crunching of the leaves that we had yet to rake up.

Then a man appeared over by the gate which was the one spot that you could see into our back yard from the front.

Kat quickly hopped up and went inside.

Shit, I should have had my pistol on me. I had hoped that she was grabbing the gun just in case there was trouble.

“Hey man, wat you gonna do wit does chickns?”

I had not seen this guy before and didn’t want a confrontation. We had a mixed neighborhood and I knew most of the people around here. But this was a skinny black dude without many teeth, and I got the impression he wouldn’t have any trouble coming in the dark of night and taking whatever he wanted.

My heart was racing a mile a minute. Then it struck me what I needed to say. I walked over and stayed calm and friendly.

“Hey man, our vet told us yesterday that they all needed to be destroyed and buried. We found out just before the power went out.”

He gave me a side-eyed look, like he wasn’t sure I was telling the truth or not.

“They all have that H1N1 virus and if anyone eats them, they will get sick and die. So we were just trying to figure out the best way to do it without exposing anyone to the virus.”

“Oh, sorry man, that sucks.” He said as he backed away from the fence, a look of fear on his face.

“Yeah, I know. Would have been nice to have a big bbq, ya know?” I said with a chuckle, hoping it would seem like I would have shared in that.

“Cool man, good luck.” He said as he took off down the road.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully, that would get the word spread and would keep anyone else away. But it would only work for a day or so before someone figured out we still had live chickens.

We had to come up with a better plan. Maybe keeping them inside wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

Chatper 11 - Katherine

I hurried to find the pistol and then I stood at the back door listening, my gut tied up in knots. Anthony was pretty good at dealing with people. Much better than I was. I was always much more suspicious than he was.

He genuinely felt that people were good at heart and that their intentions were good. I was much more cynical. I usually figured people were bad at heart and had to prove themselves to me before I trusted them. That wasn’t always the best way to think of people, but after years of being taken advantage of in corporate, I had become hardened towards people in general.

Funny how our life experiences can make us believe one way or another.

We actually balanced each other out in that regard. I was much more critical and logical. He was more laid back and charismatic. We were actually the opposite of most couples.

Usually, it is the woman who is more emotional and trusting. Not me. I didn’t trust anyone. And some times I wish Tony was less trusting.

As I stood and listened, I heard what Tony said to the guy. Pretty smart thinking on his part. But I knew, we had to come up with some kind of solution.

Realizing I had been holding my breath, I waited until the guy left before coming back outside. Tony walked over to me and quietly said "It's OK babe, I handled it."

My adrenalin was still pumping and I was a bit shaky. I nodded my head in acknowledgment. "You did good babe." I said as I smiled and winked at him, trying not to look as concerned as I really was. I hated the feeling of insecurity.

Handing him his pistol, I suggested he get in the habit of keeping it on him at all times.

“Have you ever seen him before? Do you know who he was?” I asked.

Tony shook his head. “No, and I didn’t get the feeling he was here to make friends.”

He probably shouldn’t have said that to me, but I didn’t let it show that I was more than concerned that the guy might come back. I took a deep breath as I went back into the kitchen, Tony following me inside, locking the back door behind him.

"We need to figure out a way to hide the chickens. I think the basement is the best idea. Come, let me show you what I think." I said.

We went down to the basement and I showed him the area that I thought we should cordon off to keep the birds. It would make a good place for them if we put some grass or sod, or even straw on the floor.

There was also some sunlight that would come in through the glass block windows. That would give them the feeling that they still had some sunlight coming in.

Chickens need light. Otherwise, they would stop laying because it was dark all the time and they would think it was nighttime so they would just sleep.

"I figured we can rig some kind of ventilation through the laundry chute, so that any of the smell will go up and outside of the house through the attic." I said.

Tony looked at the laundry chute and tried to peer up inside of the dark abyss. "Yeah, it might work," He said. "I'm just not sure where that laundry chute ends."

He grabbed a flashlight and shined it up into the tube.

"Well, let's get the ladder and go up into the attic and see if we can find where it ends." I suggested.

Tony went outside and grabbed the 8-foot ladder bringing it inside and up the stairs to the attic opening.

Fortunately, the laundry chute went all the way up to the attic. It stopped there so we would have to open the top of the laundry chute to allow the smells to ventilate through the attic.

Grabbing a large screwdriver and some pliers, Tony pulled off the top of the laundry chute. Hopefully, the natural convection would pull the smells up and out through the attic.

“I have an idea!” I yelled up to him. “Stay there. I’m going to light a piece of newspaper and see if the smoke will rise up through the chute. You let me know if you can smell it.”

Running down into the basement again, I grabbed a lighter and some newspaper.

I lit the newspaper and put it on the concrete floor. The smoke wiggled around then made its way up the chute.

“Looks like it’s working. Can you smell it?” I yelled up to Tony.

“Yeah, I can smell it.” He yelled back down.

“Okay, that will have to do for now. Let’s get something built down here.” I said.

We worked throughout the morning moving boxes and tools and setting up an area so that we could create a little mini farm in the basement.

Taking some 2 x 4's and some chicken wire we created panels that would meet up with the corners of the wall. It wasn't perfect, but it would have to do for now until we can figure out something better later on.

We decided to go ahead and let the chickens finish their day outside, choosing to wait until dark to bring them in the house. I didn’t want them staying in the outdoor coop any longer. It was just too risky.

Just because that guy acted like he wasn’t interested, doesn’t mean he won’t take his chances. When people get hungry enough, they will do things they normally wouldn’t do in regular times. And we hadn’t really gotten hungry yet. I just knew that it would only take a few days without food for people to go violent. It was a reality that none of us wanted to know.

Tony went to check on Annette to see how she was doing from the night before. She had decided she wanted to leave the city. She was packing her things and loading up her car. Tony helped her with anything she needed and wished her good luck.

When he got back home, He told me she was really scared. She said she had heard that this was a terrorist attack and that power would probably not come back for a year.

I looked at Tony, hoping he could read my thoughts. I still wanted to leave as well. It was only the second day and things were already going to shit because people were panicking and not planning for what lie ahead.

“I think we should leave as well, babe. Why don’t we just pack up and go now. Instead of waiting for the hell to come to us, like it did at the grocery store.” I said, not thinking.

Oops. I shouldn’t have mentioned that.

“What do you mean?” he asked, not knowing what I was talking about.

Busted. Now I had to tell him what happened. I was a horrible liar and he would be able to tell if I was hiding something. So I decided to go ahead and come clean about the rioting mob of people.

“When I was at the store, things got really crazy. A bunch of people were gathering outside the store. I waited and watched as they mobbed the place, sending people running out into the parking lot.” I explained, hoping he wouldn’t push for more.

He folded his arms and waited…brows stitched together.

“There were gunshots. And I took off and came back here right away.” I said as I continued to re-stack boxes. “Don’t worry babe, I wasn’t in any danger.”

As I turned my back towards him, I felt the stink of his hand as it landed hard on my ass. I gasped and turned back around reaching back to touch the stinging.

“What did you do that for?!” I yelled, feeling the sting through my jeans.

He shook his head and paced back and forth once, running his hands through is hair.

“For someone so smart, that was a stupid move. You should have left as soon as things started to get crazy.” He said.

Tony never laid a hand on me so the one smack surprised me. He was obviously furious with me, even though I knew I was fine and could handle myself.

I chose not to argue at the moment as I didn’t want to bring any wrath that wasn’t necessary. The stress of what was happening was making us all do things that were out of character.

“I…I’m sorry.” I said, looking down at my feet. I wasn’t one for crying, but I felt horrible for making him worry. I choked back the tears that began to prick at my eyes.

He came over and pulled me into his arms, giving me a deep hug.

“I couldn’t live if something happened to you.” He said. I could feel him choking up a little. “Please, don’t do stuff that will put you in danger like that.”

He pulled away, and I nodded.

“Did Annette say where she was going?” I asked, trying to change the subject.

“Apparently, she has a sister down in Texas, so she is heading there. She has no clue if her sister is even there right now. Her sister had been traveling some. She said Dudley told her he thought it was the Chinese that had attacked.” He said.

“The Chinese? Why would they attack our grid? That doesn’t make any sense. We owe them so much money for taking on our debt.” I reminded him.

“Do we know for SURE that it was the Chinese or are we guessing? I don’t want to put anyone on the chopping block if we don’t know for sure.” I said. Now I was starting to sound sympathetic, which wasn’t like me.

I just didn’t want us to all go around accusing someone of something that they may not have had anything to do with. It was important to make sure we knew who attacked us.

We both shrugged it off and decided to get back to work setting up what we could while there was still light outside.

We managed to get a pen set up for the chickens, and by nightfall brought them into their new home.

After getting them in and quiet, I decided to fix us some chili that I had pre-cooked and in the freezer. It would be an easy meal to fix since I just had to put it in the pot and heat it up.

The smell of chili powder and cumin filled the house as I dug around the pantry for any leftover saltines. Eying them carefully, I decided to put them in a couple of zipper bags and hide them for myself for later.

Every time my monthly cycle would kick in, about the only thing I could eat was saltines. I figured it would be worth having them more later than now. We would just eat some leftover corn chips instead.