Ground Zero (4 page)

“What about the new arrivals?”

“What? The ‘Spring Collection’ you mean?”

“No,” Neil said, and snorted out a laugh. “I meant the new arrivals at the farm, doofus. Fashion wasn’t a concern of mine even when it might have mattered to someone, much less now when there’s no one to impress. I was thinking that the kids in particular might be outgrowing some of their clothes sometime soon. Never mind shoes. We could grab a few boxes of cross-trainers from SportChek. They might have some sporting goods that would be useful, too.”

“Hmm. Maybe. If we’re quiet, and constantly checking to make sure we haven’t attracted any visitors, we should be able to grab some boys’ and girls’ clothes. Pyjamas and underwear, too. Katherine’s got the whole puberty thing going on, so I’ll get some bras for her in different sizes. Seeing as it’ll take a few trips to get stuff, that gives us the opportunity to keep watching for unwanted company. We just have to make sure we do everything together.”

“Alright,” Neil said, giving a nod.

“Let’s get the cameras first then, just in case. We can keep going back in for other stuff, but we get only the truly necessary stuff first. And, of course, I’m pretty sure there’s a book store in here, too.”

“Alright, fine. Let’s go before all my hair falls out from old age.”

“You’re right. We should go. I’m pretty sure it’s already thinning,” Mac said with a smirk, laughing outright when he growled at her. She slipped out of the truck with a smile on her face, reaching behind her seat for the metal pry-bar. She closed the door as softly as she could, and once Neil had done the same she stood there listening for a few moments.

“Sounds clear,” she said softly. Putting her free hand on the grip of her Glock, she headed toward the second set of broken doors, Neil walking softly beside her. Once they had stepped through the metal framework of the doors, they both paused to listen again. There was nothing. Not even wild animals had come foraging in the mall, apparently, which meant the humans had cleaned out every scrap of food, including anything in the garbage bins that was fit to eat.

She glanced questioningly at Neil, who nodded back at her, and without speaking they headed straight for the electronics store. It had originally been a Radio Shack, but they’d been bought out long ago by a big chain conglomerate. The roll-down security bars had been bent, but surprisingly they hadn’t been forced open. Mac figured it was likely people were more concerned with food than diodes, headphones, or circuit boards by that point. Without power to run any of the items, they were nothing more than paperweights to people who were starving.

The pry-bar made short work of the lock that latched into the floor, though it made a terrible screeching sound that Mac was sure would bring people running. She motioned for Neil to turn off his headlamp, and turned her own off to wait for any response to the noise she’d made. When no one appeared, they cautiously pushed up the roll-down bars and then spent a few minutes listening again, hardly daring to breathe. The silence stretched endlessly, with no echoing footsteps or shuffling feet to intrude upon it.

When nothing changed, even in the air currents, to indicate that anyone else might be present, Mac stepped past the threshold of the store and turned her headlamp back on. Neil followed suit. The storage room in the back was unlocked, and though there was very little inventory in there, they found plenty of empty boxes they could use to pack things in for carrying. They had a couple in the truck, but they needed those for their trip to the library later.

“We should grab some circuit boards and electronic components, too,” Neil said.

“Yeah, it would be good to have extras to repair things. I’m no great shakes at electronics, but I’m sure someone else will find the time to mess around with stuff like that. I’ve got some books already for anyone who wants to learn, too.”

“Those kids’ starter kits would be a good thing. We don’t have much stuff for Chuck and Kayla’s kids with regard to education. They’ve gone the last few months without any sort of classroom learning.”

“You’re right. Now I feel like a hypocrite. I’ve always gone on about how important it is to keep learning throughout life, and now there are kids I’m responsible for who aren’t getting an education,” Mac said, disgusted with herself.

“Jesus, honey. It wasn’t a judgment against you in any way. You’re trying to help a bunch of people survive that you weren’t counting on. It’s not your responsibility to make sure anyone gets an education, or even that they have food to eat. It’s up to Chuck and Kayla to deal with their kids. I just thought they’d like to have the stuff, that’s all.”

“Alright, alright. Now that you mention it, though, it’s one more reason to make sure we go to the library. Those kids need books to read. I don’t have anything appropriate for Katherine even, much less Chris or Amelia. Now I’m wishing I had a lot more boxes … and a lot more room in the truck and trailer.”

“Well, we’ve still got the back seat and the cargo bed to fill, and there’s space for a row of boxes on top of the mattresses in the trailer, so I think we’re covered. And we’ll take extra boxes from the mall here. We don’t want to be at this for the rest of the night anyway. So, let’s get it done, and get what we can.”

“Yeah, yeah. Time to shut up and get to work, I know.” Mackenzie snagged a box and headed back out to the display part of the store. She took a minute to listen again for human presence, but there was nothing.

As she stacked cameras, small boxes of diodes and triodes, and various computer components, she couldn’t help feeling like she was stealing. It didn’t matter that the company no longer existed, or that most likely no one associated with the company was still alive. It just felt weird. It had been the same at the house where they had scavenged the photovoltaic panels.

“Why does this feel like theft to me?”

“I know,” Neil said in agreement. “We both know it’s stupid, but it’s so ingrained in us to think of stealing as wrong. Yet, when I think about corporate greed, and the theft from their own employees and all that, I don’t feel quite so bad about it. In fact, I kind of feel like taking every damn thing in here, except that there might be someone else who needs it.”

“You’re right,” Mac said with a laugh. “Now I feel a whole lot better.”

Fifteen minutes later they were taking a pair of large boxes out to the truck, walking cautiously through the main aisle of the mall. They paused at the broken entry doors, but found nothing to alarm them, so they put their boxes in the back seat and went back for the other two from the electronics store. They didn’t bother with boxes for the clothing they looted from Winners. They just took stuff from the children’s section right off the racks, ensuring a good sizing selection. If stuff didn’t fit now, it might later, or if someone added children to the mix.

An hour later Mac called a halt.

“That’s enough for the time being. We’ve only got three kids on the farm. We already grabbed stuff for them to do from the electronics store, including some toys and instruments, so I think they’re set. And I’m exhausted.”

“Okay, let’s head to the docks for batteries, and then hit the library, so we can get our asses back to the farm to play mother and father bountiful. You’re not the only one who’s tired.”

“Are you okay?” Mac’s tone was worried. She knew it, but couldn’t help it. Neil getting shot had been a terrifying ordeal, and she was concerned that his one lung might have been permanently affected.

“I’m fine,” Neil said, his exasperation obvious from his curt tone. “We’ve had at least three hours’ aerobic exercise thus far, and that would tire anyone out. You have to stop worrying about me.”

“Maybe,” she said, as she climbed into the driver’s seat. She waited for him to buckle up in the passenger seat before continuing.

“It’s just that there have been other signs to indicate that you might not be quite up to par just yet,” she said cautiously, waiting with bated breath for his response.

“And those signs would be?” He gave her a direct look, with one brow raised, as though daring her to say it. She started the truck and started pulling out of the mall parking lot to give herself a moment to figure out how to phrase it. Then she decided blunt honesty was her best bet, even if it wasn’t as diplomatic or tactful as she might have liked.

“Sex. We’re not having sex anywhere near as often as before. Of course, I didn’t expect us to continue banging each other six times a day or anything. I figured that was because we were just starting out together. And then we couldn’t while you were recovering. But now, if you’re recovered, why are we only having sex once a week? I’m gonna run out of batteries,” she joked.

“Well, you probably should have picked up more at the electronics store anyway, but aside from that there’s a very good reason we haven’t been making love. You keep running away from me.”

“What? What the fuck are you talking about? The last thing I’d do is run away from you if you were wanting to have a bit of fun.”

“It might be the last thing you want to do, but that’s exactly what you’re doing. You’ve been pulling away from me, and I’m pretty sure it’s subconscious. I know it’s not a chemistry thing, because I can see you react to me every time I touch you. I think it’s more that you’re worried and don’t want to risk it. Every time we
have
managed to have sex, you’ve pretty much taken over the whole business so I’m not doing any of the work. I think part of you is terrified that it’ll be too much for me.”

“Fuck.” Mackenzie thought about it as she pulled across the town bridge, parking on Main Street.

“It needs to change, Mac. You have to stop looking at me like I’m the infirm, because I gotta say, when it comes to you I’m about as firm as it gets.”

“Very punny. Jerk.”

“Come on, honey. There are a few boats down there, so let’s do what we came to do. We can take care of that other business later.” Mackenzie’s breath left her in a rush at his words. Nope, there was definitely no problem with the chemistry between them. Just the thought of him taking care of business, as he put it, was enough to get her all riled up. She shook her head to clear it, making him laugh knowingly.

“Yeah, yeah. Yuk it up. Now stop distracting me. We can’t afford that right now,” she chastised. He sobered instantly.

“You’re right. Sorry. Let’s go.”

The batteries only took a few minutes, and then they were heading over to Minerva for the books. She parked facing the wrong way, with the truck parallel to the wheelchair ramp. The library was locked up tight, so Mac used her knife’s glass-break point to punch out a small portion of the thick safety glass in one of the doors to reach in for the lock. She had taped over the section so it would make as little noise as possible, but they still waited for a few minutes to be sure no one came running. It didn’t take long to discover that the library was empty. They hadn’t really expected anyone to be in it anyway. It wasn’t as though there was a shortage of available shelter, and the doors had still been secure.

Mac went back to the truck with Neil to grab a couple of the boxes they’d snagged from the mall, and headed back into the library to fill them. She found plenty of books on boats and sailing, in addition to books on diesel mechanics, and was carting out a filled box within minutes.

“No sign of anyone yet?”

“Nope. I sure hope those assholes who wanted to eat us aren’t the only people still alive in this town, though. That would really suck,” he said. Mackenzie was in wholehearted agreement.

“Well, there’s always the likelihood they’ll end up eating each other, which will solve that particular problem. There will only be one left at the end, and eventually that one will die of starvation after a while.”

“There can be only one,” he quipped in a Scottish burr.

“This isn’t The Highlander. Though I guess it amounts to the same thing since it involves killing off other people. Alright. I’ve got the other box packed, so I’d better go get it. Then I need to go into the children’s section and pack up at least one more box there. The trick will be finding something that doesn’t glorify mental illness and unhealthy relationships, that will still be interesting reading for a teenager.”

“So Twilight is out then, I guess?” His question made her laugh.

“It’s so nice to be married to an intelligent man.”

“Remember that the next time you’re losing an argument with me.”

With a smile she went back into the library to get the rest of the books. As she was carting out the last box, however, she stopped smiling. She was hearing an unfamiliar voice through the partially-broken door glass.

4 ~ Misery and Company

Mac waited by the door, attempting to listen to what was being said. From what she could make out, the person speaking was a woman, though her voice was rough and hard to make out. It sounded as though she was begging for food. Mac put down the box, freeing up her hands just in case, and headed cautiously through the door.

Neil didn’t acknowledge her as she came up behind the woman, who was facing away from Mackenzie. She was leaning to the side, holding a child against her hip who couldn’t have been more than a year old.

“It’s alright. We’ve got some food we can give you. We brought some with us in case we ran into anyone who needed some right away. We’ll have to dig it out first, so why don’t you talk to my wife while I get it?” He nodded toward Mac when he made the suggestion.

The woman gasped and turned around, fear turning her body rigid. The baby in her arms didn’t cry, even though he looked scared and upset. Mac frowned, unintentionally frightening the woman even more.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” she said softly. “My face tends to do its own thing. It’s even worse when I’m not thinking about anything. I think they call it resting bitch face.” She tried out a smile to put the young woman at ease, but it didn’t seem to work.

“I didn’t hear you come up behind me. Normally I hear everything!” Mac was starting to get the picture.

“I take it you have reason to be paranoid, then. I wondered when your baby didn’t cry. It’s okay. We’re not part of the roving band of cannibals, if that’s what’s worrying you. We don’t want anything from you. We’ve got plenty of our own, non-human-flesh food. How have you been surviving on your own here in town, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I moved back here to live with my mom when Jake was born. She had a vegetable garden, and did a lot of canning. I don’t know the first thing about gardening. Or canning for that matter. We haven’t been eating people, though, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

“I wouldn’t necessarily blame you if you’d had to resort to that. It’s just that we ran into a group that seemed to prefer human flesh to other sources of food, so I had to ask. What happened to your mom?”

“She died within a week of the power failing. She was on dialysis,” the young woman said, her expression bleak. Mackenzie’s heart dropped like a stone inside her chest. If they’d known, they could have saved her mother’s life by providing power for a dialysis machine.

“I’m really sorry. I would imagine anyone who had kidney problems fared about the same as your mother. Most diabetics, too. My name’s Mackenzie Thane, by the way, and my husband there is Neil McKinnon, if he hasn’t already introduced himself.” She held out her hand to the woman, who probably wasn’t any more than twenty years old.

“I’m Lisa Johnstone, and like I said, this is Jake. His last name is Johnstone, too. His father never bothered to claim him, so I never bothered to give him his last name.”

“I wouldn’t have either. In fact, I didn’t. My daughter has my last name. Depending on what we decide here, you might be meeting her. I take it you’re not set up very well for survival at this point, if you’re looking for food.”

“Not at all. I’m still breastfeeding Jake, so he’s okay so long as I get enough food to produce milk, but I haven’t got any left. I’ve been going through houses, trying to find something, but they all ran out of food and starved long ago. It’s been something of a horror-show for me, because damn near all the houses have bodies in them. I’m just glad Jake is too young to understand what they are, because I couldn’t leave him on his own.”

“He’s awfully quiet for a baby,” Mackenzie noted.

“He never really cried a lot, but after this happened I had to use a technique from a romance novel I read one time. Every time he cried I’d blow into his face to stop him. It was a book set in the 1800s, with Native Americans and all that, and they trained their babies not to cry so their enemies couldn’t find them. I figured I’d better give it a try and see if it worked. Thankfully it did, but I have to watch to make sure he eats when he needs to, and that I change him regularly enough.”

“Huh. Wish I’d known about that when my daughter was a baby. But then, she was colicky, so it might not have worked as well.”

“Here’s a granola bar, Lisa,” Neil said, as he handed her the bar. Lisa looked at it like it was manna from heaven.

“Oh thank you!”

“We’ve got more food with us in the truck. You just need to take it a bit slow if you haven’t eaten in a little while,” he cautioned her. She tore open the foiled-paper wrapping with her teeth, and when she bit into the bar she moaned. Mac had to laugh.

“We’ve got a pretty good set-up where we are, if you’re looking for a better situation,” Mac offered. Tears filled Lisa’s eyes.

“You’re kidding me!” Her mouth was still somewhat full, so it came out muffled, but Mac got the gist of what she was saying.

“Your mother didn’t happen to be Michelle Johnstone, did she?” Mackenzie wasn’t looking forward to the answer, but she had to know.

“Yeah, she was,” Lisa said, when she’d finally swallowed the last of the granola bar. “Did you know her?”

“I went to school with her. Man, I’m really sorry. She was a very decent person. I don’t think I saw her after high school, but we were sort of friends during our public school years. I veered off with a rougher crowd, so we parted ways, but it wasn’t because I didn’t like her.” Mac was depressed. Neil came up and put his arm around her shoulders. She could tell that he wanted to do the same for Lisa, but since he didn’t know her he wasn’t comfortable offering her the gesture.

“I guess I’d better grab that last box of books. Neil, we should empty out part of that back seat so there’s room for a car seat at least. Lisa can sit on the bench with us. I’m assuming you live nearby, Lisa. Centre Street?”

“Just past the dental clinic, yeah.”

“Okay, if you want to come back to the farm with us, take Jake back to your place to pack up a few things. We’ll finish up here, and then pull the truck over. Make sure you grab anything vital, because it’s going to be a long time before we come back here. I sure hope you’re using washable diapers, because we don’t have any disposables at the farm. The youngest kid there right now is seven years old.”

“You’ve got kids there, too?” Lisa’s eyes were alight with curiosity.

“Just three that could be classified as children. The oldest is fourteen, and all three are the kids of an old friend of mine. Chuck Forrest used to be a cop here in Huntsville, actually. You might recognize him when you see him. He’s kind of hard to miss, since he’s really tall. Anyway, let’s get going. We’ve been away a lot longer than we planned, so my daughter and Neil’s son might start getting worried soon. This is the first time any of us have really left the farm since shortly after the power went down.”

“How far is it?”

“We’re near Rosseau, but out in the boonies,” Mackenzie said. Lisa tilted her head to the side, apparently considering her situation.

“It’s not like I’ve got any better options right now, though I don’t like leaving my mother’s house empty like that.”

“When you do come back to it, I’m sure everything will be exactly as you left it. The only people we’ve seen in town were the ones in that small group, and they’re only interested in one thing. By the time you get back, hopefully they’ll all be dead and gone.” Mac turned back to grab the box from the library’s entrance. She heard Lisa turn away with her son to head back up Minerva toward Centre Street. By the time she brought the last box to the back of the trailer, Neil had already cleared a section of the back seat. Everything had been stuffed on top of the mattresses in the trailer.

“I wonder if she’s got a crib mattress and stuff,” Mac said, when she looked inside the trailer to see that there was still a bit of space on top.

“If she’s got her own mattress, we can probably fit that, too. We can grab that for her while she watches Jake. She doesn’t know us,” Neil continued. “She’s not going to want to leave him with either of us just yet.”

“Yeah, but let’s not leave the keys in the ignition, just in case.”

“You’re such a trusting soul, honey.”

“I was a complete fool with
you
, wasn’t I? Cameron should have smacked me silly for that, though it looks like everything worked out okay there,” she said with a smile.

“You’re human, and I have powers beyond the ken of mortal man. Or woman.” Neil grinned at her as he spoke.

“So far beyond that no one has ever seen them,” she retorted. “Come on. Let’s go get our new guests.” She shook her head at herself.

“Stop it,” Neil said.

“Stop what?”

“Stop calling yourself a fool for bringing someone else back to the farm. We both knew we wouldn’t be leaving anyone here if they needed a place to go. Or food. And no one at the farm has room to complain about it, since they’re alive because we did the same for them.”

It meant another thirty minutes to pack everything they could fit into the trailer, but then they were finally on their way back. It wasn’t until they climbed into the truck for the last time that Mac began to relax. She hadn’t even realized how tense she’d been until that moment, but she sighed in deep contentment when she plunked her ass down in the middle of the front bench.

Once they were on Aspdin Road and up to speed, Neil put his arm around her as he drove with his left hand. It reminded her a bit of her youth, and being snuggled up against whatever boyfriend she had at the time. Not that there had been many. Once she’d gotten married and then pregnant at sixteen, those sorts of boyfriends hadn’t been a priority. The dating scene changed dramatically for her once she’d had Cameron, too.

Neil stopped the truck when they reached the concealed entrance to the farm, and got out to press his thumb to the biometric scanner plate that was hidden in a hollow at the back of a tree. Lisa gasped beside Mac when the gate swung open.

“Holy crap! It’s like being in a spy movie,” she said wonderingly.

“A little bit, yeah. My daughter and I made sure this place was hidden. We were expecting things to go south.”

“What do you mean? Why didn’t you warn people?” Lisa sounded shocked to the core, as only a young person can.

“I did, actually. I warned people constantly. It’s just human nature to ignore things that require action. I was told by a guy I used to work for, who was a former Ontario Hydro executive, that the power outages would get worse, and that eventually the grid would come down. My friends called me paranoid for wanting to set up a place that was off the grid, but I didn’t care. I knew it needed to be done if my daughter and I were going to survive. When the shit hit the fan, a few people needed a place to go, so they sort of straggled in after-the-fact. And then there were the animals.”

“Animals? What animals?”

“She means the fifty ferrets, dozens of goats, and even more dozens of chickens,” Neil said with a bit of a laugh. “And a Doberman, along with some cats and other dogs that she rescued while I was recovering from being shot.” At the last bit he glared at Mac. That had been a bit of a sore point between them for a while.

“You don’t need to bombard her with everything just yet, thank you very much,” Mac said crisply.

“Ferrets? You have ferrets here? Wait a minute. Did he just say fifty ferrets? He was kidding, right?” Lisa sounded like she was choking.

“Fifty-two if you count the two I already had, though they don’t mix with the ones from the shelters.” Mackenzie waited to see if Lisa would call them rodents, but she just seemed really excited.

“I always wanted a ferret, but they didn’t have any around here. When I went to Nipissing University up in North Bay I couldn’t have pets, and then I got pregnant with Jake. My life was a bit too complicated at the time to have pets. I already had my BA, but I was still trying to get my teaching certificate. I was taking some of the courses through their distance learning program, and was just about to start my practical when the world sort of went to hell. Oh wow,” she finished, when she saw the open area before her.

Gilles stepped up to the truck when Neil rolled to a stop at the house. Mac’s heart started pounding.

“Oh, God. Something’s wrong. Let me out!”

It couldn’t have been more than five seconds before Mac was standing in front of Gilles, but it felt like a millennium.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Nobody’s dead or hurt, Mac. Relax. But we’ve got a situation to deal with,” Gilles said. He shoved his hands in his pockets, as though unsure how much to tell her.

“Gilles, spit it out. What the fuck is going on?”

“Well, you’re probably going to want to have a chat with your kid, because she could have gotten herself into some serious trouble. She’s fine, but she went off on her own to check it out when a sensor lit up. She played it pretty smart after she ran into the person who tripped the sensor, but she also got lucky. The worst part of it is, she ran into Brian Newman. Gerry’s father.” Gilles left it at that, giving her a few minutes to sift through the situation in her mind. As it was, Mackenzie was reeling.