Ground Zero (14 page)

“Gilles, Chuck, Billy, I think we need to discuss what we’re going to do with this guy. He’s a bit of a complication, and I’d like to hear your opinions, so why don’t we leave him under guard with John for now, and go talk about it,” she said. Mike immediately started toward her, though she never found out his intentions. John swung his rifle up before Mike had even gone two steps, the barrel jamming into Mike’s forehead.

“I wouldn’t, if I were you. You’d be making things so much simpler for us if you gave me a reason to shoot you,” he said. Cam gave an evil smile.

“Thanks, John. Yes, that’s definitely an option, Mike, so you might want to relax and behave yourself. I don’t
think
any of us are going to suggest killing you outright, but you never know. Your first, second, and now third, impressions haven’t gone so well.” She turned and headed straight back to the house. She wasn’t surprised when Gilles was the first to speak.

“That guy is bad news. I think we’re all in agreement on that, but we really can’t kill him just because we think he’s going to be a problem in the future. I sure as fuck don’t want him around here, though.”

“You won’t get any argument from me,” Chuck put in. “He’s given every female here the once-over, including Katherine. What do you wanna bet he really was trying to fuck with that niece of his?”

“I’ve seen the same thing with the women here. And Katherine’s still a kid, for fuck’s sake! It doesn’t seem to matter how young or old. He’s a pig,” said Billy. Chuck nodded along. Cam was pretty sure there was relief on his face, too, after hearing Billy say his daughter was still a kid. With Katherine’s crush on Billy, he’d probably been wondering if Billy would think she was fair game.

“Okay, and I agree with all of you,” Cam said. “But that doesn’t fix the problem. Sending him away from here without some way for him to survive on his own is basically the same thing as a death sentence. And when he gets desperate he’ll just come back here. He won’t care anymore about hurting any of us, because we didn’t care about his survival. Not to mention the fact that I’d feel like a piece of shit for doing it. I don’t want us to start becoming judge, jury, and executioner of everyone who shows up here, or getting into that whole lynch mob mentality. We’re just trying to survive here, that’s all.

“We need to find out how he got here, too. If they needed half a tank of fuel to get where they were going, assuming they were telling the truth about that and they used up all the fuel, how many kilometres are we talking about? A couple hundred?” She looked around at the others.

“What kind of van was it? Minivan or full size monster from back in the seventies? Because that makes a difference,” Gilles said. “When you gave them the fuel, did you keep track of how much fuel went into their tank? Was it treated?”

“It was a newer full-size van, that’s all I know,” Cam answered.

“I was the one who gave them the fuel. I dumped two of the ten-litre jerry cans into their tank, if I remember right,” Billy said. “All of Mac’s fuel was treated. Ours, too, for that matter. The van was one of those newer Dodge cargo vans. The really tall, squared-off ones. I can’t remember the name of them.”

“Probably a Sprinter then,” Gilles said with a nod.

“Yeah, I think that was it,” said Billy.

“I don’t think we should count on anything he said being the truth. For all we know, his wife’s parents could live a mile from here. I can’t remember whether it was him or her asking for the fuel last summer, and even if she was the one asking, he might have had her lie for him. Besides, he could have siphoned the fuel from the van and dumped it into a car or motorcycle. They didn’t need much cargo space once they left the ferrets here,” Cam said. Gilles’ shoulders slumped. Apparently he’d already been busily calculating mileage, and was enjoying the mental exercise.

“Well, damn. Look who’s the smart cookie,” Gilles mocked, though the tone was friendly and teasing, not jeering.

“Very funny. Anyway, if he’s got a vehicle hidden around here, I think it would be a very good thing to get him as far away from it as possible. Now that you’ve managed to convert one of the trucks over to vegetable oil – and I guess that also makes you a smart cookie, Gilles – there’s no reason we can’t just use up our remaining gasoline to take this guy as far away as possible, and then give him enough supplies to get him started somewhere else. If he doesn’t make it from there, it’s his own fault. Does that sound feasible?”

When the other three nodded, they quickly worked out what they would have to give him so that he could survive. The only thing left was to figure out where to take him.

“How much gasoline do we still have? All the car tanks were full, as well as the storage tanks and jerrycans, except for the ones mom and Neil used when they went to Sault Ste. Marie. We haven’t really used any since then, have we? Annette and Kelly’s cars were both filled after they got here, along with Kirk and Leigh’s rental,” she said, pausing to try and think.

“Dad’s car was full, too,” Billy put in.

“I think most of us followed Mac’s advice and made sure our tanks were full before we came here, and we added preservative to all the tanks right away. So, basically we could take this guy across the country if only we had a tank big enough for it, or some way to strap enough storage tanks to a car,” Gilles said.

“Okay, I don’t think we need to go quite that crazy. Just far enough that we can be sure he won’t want to walk back,” she said, and waited for the others to say something.

“It takes two or three weeks to starve if you’ve got no food, and he might be able to carry a week’s supply in a pack or something, so any place it would take a month to walk to would probably be good,” Chuck suggested.

“How far can a person walk in a day?” Cam asked, frowning.

“Depends. A normal pace for a human is
maybe
five klicks an hour, but that’s pretty tough to maintain. And if you’re starving you’re not going to move very fast, either,” Chuck said.

“Yeah, but at that rate a person could do fifty kilometres a day. He could come back from Toronto in a week. Look at Mitch. He made it here from Hamilton, which is even farther. I don’t think distance is going to be what we need here. Maybe we should just blindfold him and drop him off in the bushes somewhere, so he has no idea how to get back,” Cam finally said.

“Mitch had a bicycle,” Billy reminded her. “But you’re probably right. If he doesn’t know where he is, he won’t know where to go, and there are plenty of places with big forests in this province. If we can find a hunting cabin or something, he’d be set up pretty well. He’ll have chickens for eggs, and seeds to grow vegetables for later. We have some plastic bottles he can use for carrying water and stuff. It’ll be really rugged for him, but it serves him right.”

“We can give him a couple of books if he doesn’t know what he’s doing. We have a couple of duplicates, like the SAS Survival Guide. I don’t really like the idea of giving him live animals, but there’s no other way he’ll survive. Thankfully there weren’t any signs of abuse in the ferrets that came from his wife’s shelter,” Cam said.

She looked around at the three men to be sure they were all in agreement, and after a few more minutes of discussion led the way back out to the yard to give Mike her decision.

“This is how it’s going to be,” she began, as soon as they reached him. Then she laid it out for him. He wasn’t happy.

“You’re just going to leave me to rot in some strange place?”

“Pretty much, unless you decide to do something to help yourself with the tools we intend to give you. You’re not going empty-handed, so stop whining. You’ve already stolen from us, and now we’re giving you more free stuff that you’ve never done anything to earn, so count yourself lucky we don’t go medieval on your ass and chop off one of your hands,” Cam snarled.

She didn’t bother to continue reassuring him. Cameron had too many things to do at the moment, including making arrangements for his departure. They needed to box up the three hens and a rooster they no longer planned to use for breeding, since he’d already been bred to a couple of the chickens. The hens were young, and had plenty of laying left in them. He could have a good thing going for himself if he was smart about it. He would need seeds, feed for the hens, and a way to contain them.

She would have to talk to Carol. She still had keys for the hardware store she managed before the shit hit the fan, so maybe they could get some stuff from there, and they wouldn’t have to part with their own things. And it would be good to see what they could scavenge from there at the same time. They could do with a lot more building materials. Some of the stuff they’d been planning to use in the main house had ended up being used to put the cabins together, so the house still needed some finishing touches.

Gilles had already suggested a place to take Mike. He’d gone hunting there as a kid. Even when civilization was still in full swing, it only had road access during the summer and fall, so they would use the four-by-four that ran on gas to get him in there, just in case the potholes were too big for one of the cars. Gilles had said he didn’t think it would be a problem with the small amount of snow and frost, but that it was possible there was damage from previous years that hadn’t been repaired.

Cam was just heading to the ferret building to delve into their seed storage, when her dad fell into step beside her.

“Hey, Cam. How ya doin’?”

“Dad! Where the hell have you been? I haven’t seen you since mom left with Neil.”

“Just on walkabout,” he said vaguely, making Cam roll her eyes. Apparently he’d taken in a little too much Crocodile Dundee for his own good.

“Dad, seriously, what have you been doing? Things are kind of crazy here, and I don’t need to be worrying about you at the same time. In fact, we really needed your help.” She explained about the intruder, and their plans to take him somewhere else.

“Then what did you need me for? You’re doing just fine, kiddo,” he said jovially, not taking things seriously, as usual. It frustrated her to no end. If he was given a specific task to do, he did it without argument, but he didn’t bother to think ahead or make plans for anything either. Cam could completely understand why her mother had ended her relationship with him. It was like talking to someone who never intended to grow up. It wasn’t that her mother had wanted to be with someone particularly ambitious. Just someone who believed in a little bit of personal growth, which was the exact opposite of Cam’s dad.

“What was I thinking? I should have known,” Cam said, allowing her anger and frustration to show.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you aren’t living like you’re a part of this whole thing we’ve got going here, when everyone else is. We’ve got a new person here that you may or may not know, we’ve got an intruder to deal with, we have to go on a scavenging trip to the hardware store, and probably a zillion other things. It would be really nice if you bothered to pay attention to the fact that I’m completely stressed out, and you’re supposed to be my dad!

“Mom is doing what she has to do to save the life of a friend, which is more important than what’s happening here. She’s got enough on her plate without worrying about us. She got hurt part of the way there, too, and you don’t even know about that. I could have used a shoulder, or at least someone to talk to who wasn’t going to use it as an opportunity to judge me for my ability to keep things going here.

“Everyone else here is joining in to share in the work and concerns. People are coming up with ideas for things, and ways to help. Everything that’s happened in the last week has been dealt with by me, Billy, Gilles, and Chuck, with additional help from everyone but you. You do your day of chores, but that’s it. Of course, you’re barely here to eat the food, so maybe I shouldn’t complain,” she said, winding down from her rant.

“Your mom was hurt? What happened?” His concern was genuine, so Cam filled him in on that, too.

“You haven’t been telling her anything that’s been happening here?”

“No, because she can’t help, she’ll worry, and it would be stupid for her to turn around and come home when they’re almost there. Or they should be by now. I’ll tell her when she gets back,” she said with a sigh, already knowing her mother’s reaction.

“She’s not gonna be happy you kept it from her,” her dad warned.

“Believe me, I know.” It didn’t escape Cam’s notice that her dad still hadn’t told her what he’d been up to.

13 ~ Hitchhikers

There was a wild and hungry look on the faces of the two young males coming toward them, and Mac was prepared for just about anything. Bella growled beside Ian.

“Stop right there. I can give you a little bit of food and help you get more. Then we’re leaving,” she said.

“Wha’d’ya mean you’ll help us get more? Ain’t no food left in this city. They don’t drop it no more,” the one on the left said, his voice shaky and panicked. He had a bit of an accent, but she couldn’t place it.

Instead of arguing while they were starving, Mac reached into her pack to pull out the last two granola bars she had with her. She threw one to the ground in front of each of them, and waited until they had finished inhaling them to explain what she meant.

“My friend here can teach you how to fish, if you want. It might keep you alive until you can figure out how to grow some food. What do you say?” They were already shaking their heads, and the one on the left spoke again.

“We ain’t even spose’ta be here. We come to Cleveland ‘cuz they got the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but we couldn’t get no gas to get back home. We mostly hid when the people went crazy, and they were killing each other all over the place, but then they started dropping the food so people calmed down. Then they just stopped, so people got crazy again. I don’t know how you got this food, but we could sure use some more, and we need to get out of here. Without no car, we got no way to get back to my folks.” His ‘tos’ all came out sounding like ‘tuh,’ but she still couldn’t figure out where he was from.

The words had all come out in a panicked rush, and when he finished his breath started hitching. Mac felt bad for them, but had no idea how to help them without knowing more about their situation.

“Where are you from then?”

“My folks got a small farm in Westland, just outside Detroit. If we could find a way back there we’d be okay, but we can’t walk there with no food.”

“Be a lot faster on bikes,” Ian put in. Mac couldn’t see his face, since she was keeping an eye on the young men, but she could hear from his tone that he wasn’t too keen on the idea of helping them, beyond offering some suggestions. She knew he was naturally suspicious, and she couldn’t blame him. Things were a bit different in American cities from what she was used to in Canada. He had every reason to think these two young men would just as soon rob them as look at them, but Mac knew they had the advantage here.

“If you’re telling us the truth, there may be a way for us to help you get home. It’s better than you starving to death in this city if you’re really from where you say you’re from. Why don’t we get to know each other a little bit better first, and then we can talk about helping you, okay? I’m Mac, the guy who suggested bicycles was Ian, and the tall, dark, and silent one is my husband, Neil.”

“I’m Vigo, and this is my cousin, Denny,” he said.

“Hey,” Denny said, nodding.

“Your mom’s a fan of Viggo Mortensen, I’m guessing,” Mac said with a smile, but Vigo shook his head, embarrassed.

“Nah, she liked the name from that
Ghostbusters
movie with the painting. She’s kin-uh weird, my mom, but I’d really like to see her again anyway.”

“I was named after Denzel Washington,” Denny piped up, making them all laugh.

“God, how old are you two?” The question came from Neil.

“I’m seventeen, and Denny here is sixteen. I learned to drive last year, and we saved up the gas money to come out to Cleveland last summer. Worst mistake of my life,” Vigo muttered.

“Ian, can you check and see if either one of these boys is armed? I’d really like to stop holding a gun on them if possible.”

Ian gave them both a thorough pat-down, which caused Denny to yelp when he felt a hand at his crotch.

“Sorry kid, but people store weapons in some of the strangest places,” Ian apologized, and patted him on the shoulder. He stepped back over to Mac’s side.

“They don’t have anything. Damned if I know how they survived like that in Cleveland,” he said quietly.

“Doesn’t look like they would have for much longer,” Mac replied, holstering her gun. Then she pulled out a couple of chocolate bars and gave one to each of the boys.

“I didn’t want to give these to you on an empty stomach, but these should add a few calories now that the granola bars have settled a bit. Why don’t you tell me about your parents’ farm, Vigo? You don’t have to tell me exactly where it is or anything. In fact, you shouldn’t give that information to anybody. You don’t want to cause your folks any problems. Just tell me what they grow, and the kind of work they get you to do. Young boy like you must be a big help on a farm,” she flattered him. She wasn’t trying to get him to like her or anything, though he seemed to glow at her words. At the moment she was just trying to find out if he was telling the truth about the farm.

“We got a lot of turkeys there. Organic. I mean, we got vegetables, too, but turkeys is how my folks make money. The rest is just for food. Mostly potatoes, carrots, that kin-uh thing,” he said with a shrug.

“You eat a lot of turkey eggs for breakfast?” Mac watched him while she waited for his answer.

“Nah. We eat chicken eggs like everyone else. We keep the turkey eggs to get more turkeys, ‘cuz we get more money that way,” Vigo replied. Mac relaxed a little bit. She didn’t figure a seventeen-year-old kid would know that much about turkeys, if they weren’t dealing with them as a way of life.

“If we could get you to Detroit, do you think you’d be able to get the rest of the way?” The question came from Neil. Apparently he’d been thinking the same thing she was.

“You guys are peas in a pod,” Ian said, shaking his head. Mac frowned at him.

“What are you complaining about? We got here to help you didn’t we?”

“Okay, okay. Don’t get all riled up. I’m just saying you guys are pretty damn trusting. Must be a Canadian thing.”

“You guys are from Canada? Cool! Do you guys have snow all year?” Denny’s question had her laughing. Apparently the American school system hadn’t done these kids any favours.

“Our weather isn’t much different from yours. In some places it’s warmer. I used to live in Hamilton, which is south of most of the Canadian border, and it got way too hot there for me. We barely got any snow in the winter, and the last few years were even worse. We live further north now, and even then we barely got snow this year. A couple of inches for about two months. That heat is the reason everyone lost their power,” she finished.

“Everyone? You mean it wasn’t jus’ Cleveland?” This time Denny’s question made her sad.

“As far as we know, the whole planet went dark. The extreme heat overloaded every major system, because everyone had their air conditioning running, which contributed even more to the problem. Sorry to say, you boys may be going back to a place with no more PlayStation or Xbox. Unless Vigo’s parents have another power source.” She looked questioningly at Vigo, who nodded his head.

“Yeah, we do. We got a big gas generator.”

“Well, I don’t know how much fuel they’ll have left in it, but when they run out they won’t be able to get gas for that, any more than you could get it for your car. Anyway, Neil asked if you could get home from Detroit okay. How far is it, do you think?”

“What part of Detroit could you take us to?”

“Anywhere on Detroit River, basically. I don’t know where Westland is, or I might have a better idea where on the river,” she said.

“Probably a twenty-minute drive on the other side of the city,” Vigo replied.

“About twenty miles, then,” Ian put in. “Could take up to a day. Long walk for a couple of kids. Do you even know how to get there from the river?”

“I think so, yeah. Just gotta get on Marquette, other side of the city. Ain’t far off that. I’m pretty good at navigatin’ anyway. Made it to Cleveland without getting lost. Found all the places we wanted to get to, no problem,” Vigo boasted.

“Yeah, but you don’t have Google Maps anymore. You can’t print directions out on your computer, because there’s no internet or electricity,” Neil reminded him.

“Not having the ‘net is really gonna suck, man. What the hell we gonna do for school projects when we get back?”

It was obvious Vigo was having a hard time grasping what was really going on in the world. School wasn’t going to be a big problem for him. Mac was really starting to worry about them, because she had no idea if his parents would even be alive after all this.

“What about you Denny? Your parents in the same area?” Neil asked. Denny shook his head, and let Vigo answer for him.

“Denny’s folks got killed a coupla years back in a drive-by. He came to live with us then. After that we became like best friends. We didn’t hardly know each other before that, ‘cuz my parents didn’t wanna go to that part of Detroit too much, and his folks didn’t have no car to come see us.” Denny smiled at his cousin, though there were tears in his eyes. Then he looked away, obviously trying to pretend there was nothing wrong. Mac made her decision.

“Okay, here’s the deal. We’ve got a boat. We can get you to Detroit if you really want to go there.”

“For real, lady?
Yeah
, we wanna go. It’s all we talked about since the lights went out. Even when they was droppin’ those big crates of food, all we wanted was to get back home. My folks gotta be goin’ crazy, wondering what happened to us. We were supposed to go back the next day. I went to fill up on gas, and the guy at the station said the pumps wasn’t workin’, but it didn’t matter anyway, ‘cuz they didn’t deliver the gas like they was spose’ta. Then I didn’t know what to do. I promised I’d take care of Denny, here, but I didn’t do a very good job of it.”

“Vigo, you obviously did a perfectly fine job. The two of you are alive, when a lot of people aren’t. When trouble came you kept your heads down, and when there was food you made sure he got something to eat. Your parents will be very proud of you,” Neil assured him.

“Okay, we might as well get back to the boat and get started. We’ll get some more food into you as soon as we’re on board. We don’t want to send you back to your parents all skin and bones,” Mac said with a smile.

“Uh, Mac, could I talk to you for a second?” Ian walked off to the side a bit, waiting for her to follow. She knew what was coming, but she let him say his piece.

“These kids could be playing you, Mac. Whatever you do, don’t let them leave your sight for a second before we get to the boat. They didn’t have any guns on them, but they may have some stashed around here, just waiting for the right moment to get the jump on us.”

“Did you know that about turkey eggs, Ian?”

“Well, I know I don’t eat any for breakfast, if that’s what you mean.”

“No, I mean about it being more profitable to breed them, rather than eat the eggs. Did you know that was the reason we don’t eat turkey eggs?”

“Never thought about it, to be honest, but I see your point. I still think there’s a possibility these kids are a lot more dangerous than they might appear, and I don’t particularly want to leave my life in their hands,” he finished stubbornly.

“We’ll make sure they don’t have any opportunity to retrieve weapons. The three of us will be the only ones carrying. And you’re a jiu-jitsu master, are you not? Trained in hand-to-hand, and foot-to-face? I’m pretty sure you could kick their asses if it became necessary,” Mac said with a smirk, laughing a little at his paranoia.

“Not if they manage to grab one of our guns, I wouldn’t. They could shove us off the boat in the middle of the lake, and just leave us to drown,” he said, refusing to let the matter drop.

“To what end? What good does a boat do anyone right now, except to get them somewhere else. We’re already taking them somewhere else, willingly. They don’t need to point a gun at us for that. If they were just looking for a boat to hole up on, they could have picked any of the thirty or forty at the yacht club. Yes, this happens to be a working boat, but a lot of those boats will have some form of solar power, too. They could have lights, entertainment, whatever they want. So, obviously they want to go somewhere. Probably somewhere with food,” she said.

“Okay, okay. I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were getting into. Kids here in Cleveland probably aren’t what you’re used to up in that Utopia you call Canada,” he teased.

“Yeah, we’re just basking in sunlight, drinking wine and dining on ambrosia. The goats and chickens all look after themselves. Weirdo,” Mac said, nudging him with her elbow.

“You come all the way to Cleveland just to get little old me, and I’m the weirdo?”

“Well, yeah. What are friends for? By the way, it’s good to finally meet you in person. Where’s my hug? I think I at least deserve one of those for all the trouble you’ve put me through,” she demanded. He laughed and wrapped her in a bear hug until she was gasping and begging him to let her breathe.

“Hey, I thought you said you wanted a hug. Jeez, Louise! Wimpy Canadian.”

“I think someone needs to teach you the difference between a hug and a vise. I’ve got no boobs left! And I think you broke at least three ribs. Bloody American,” she muttered, making him laugh.