How I Spent the Apocalypse (14 page)

 Now it was cold and the ice was probably safe, but I couldn’t be sure because the water was still running under that sheet of ice, and springs and warm pockets can make ice treacherous. The last thing we needed was me and Lucy and the four wheeler wet in this cold.

I stopped the four-wheeler and got off. “Lucy, I’m going to have to check the ice. You stay here.”

She nodded.

“I mean it Lucy, stay with the four wheeler.”

“I will,” Lucy said hotly, and this time she was cold, so I mean she was mad.

“Come on, Lucy, you don’t really think I’m going to make you screw me?”

She laughed. “I’m mad because you talk to me like I’m a child, Katy.”

The ice was sound and we drove across, me wondering if later on I might be able to convince Lucy that a promise was a promise and she had said she would if I let her go with me.

Roy and the other survivors had done a good job. The pulpit was now a TV stand and the choir pews were now set up like a movie house. The rest of the pews they had stacked against the west wall to hold the mattresses they’d covered the windows with in place. They had stacked mattresses three high for people to sleep on and separated couples and family groups with sheets and blankets strung on ropes. They had plenty of wood. They had built a nice outhouse and had even fashioned a hallway of sorts to it from the building so that you didn’t have to go out in the snow to get to it. They had plenty of water, but when I got there they still had several number three tubs—new so I guessed they got them from the wreckage of the general store—sitting around the wood stove with snow in them.

“We use it for washing and then we flush the toilet,” Roy JR explained. “Mind you, the adults take the long cold walk to take a dump, but we all pee in here, and the kids… Well, we have one sick as it is.”

Now there were thirty-four survivors and twelve of them were kids and twelve of them were women. Only ten men, which was good. No, I didn’t say that because I’m a man hater. I have two sons. I’m not a man hater, but men burn twice as many calories as women and kids.

“No other wounded?” I asked Roy.

“No… people tried to get their families out, especially those with injured. They wanted to get to the hospitals.” Roy shrugged. “Weren’t many of them, Katy. The twister, it wasn’t natural. A bunch of folks, well they were at a prayer meeting at the Assembly of God church, my folks included, and they just kept praying. Dad tried to get me to take Belinda and our two kids and come there with them. Said it was the only place we’d be safe. But I remembered all the things you said, Katy, and I didn’t dismiss you the way he did. That twister killed everyone in that church, and me and mine were safe holed-up in our storm shelter.”

“Hum,” I said, “Must have been a real shocker for them when judgment day came and they weren’t all lifted into heaven… But then again, maybe they were.”

“Katy, for God’s sake,” Lucy said in a rebuking tone at my shoulder.

“Let’s get the stuff in and then let’s look at that sick kid.”

The kid was running a real bad fever and looked jaundiced. I gave her a good look over and found a tender spot on her ribs and around her liver. “Does it hurt here?”

“Yes,” Karma said. I thought her name was kind of ironic since she was the only one sick and both her parents had been killed.

“What about here?”

“Yes.” A tear came to her eye.

I covered the child back up and turned to Roy, his wife, and Lucy. “Now mind you I’m not a doctor, but I am an EMT.” Roy nodded like he remembered that about me, yet another job I did to get paid for training. “But I’d say she’s bruised her liver and has an internal infection.”

“I didn’t know you were an EMT,” Lucy said.

“Two years,” I answered Lucy.

“Is that bad?” Roy’s wife asked in a whisper.

“Well it isn’t good, but I think we can give her a vitamin D supplement for a couple of days, and I’ll give her a shot of antibiotics and leave you a script. Do we know if she’s allergic to amoxicillin?” They shook their heads no. “Then I’ll have a pen ready to go.”

“Pen?” Roy asked.

“Adrenalin to counteract anaphylactic shock,” I said.

I got in my EMT bag and pulled out a bag with some mullein leaves in it. I handed them to Roy’s wife. “Take those, wrap them in a small towel, dunk the towel into some hot water, and then bring it all back.” She nodded and took off. See, I believe in mixing the new with the old. Some of those old remedies work better than the pills doctors loved to shove down people’s throats.

“So, Karma, do you know what you want from Santa?” I asked as I readied the shot.

“No,” she said.

“How about I tell him you want a doll. Would you like a doll?”

Lucy chuckled. “God you’re such a sexist pig. Maybe she’d like a truck; wouldn’t you have liked a truck when you were a little girl?”

I glared at Lucy. First off I was never a little “girl.” I was a little what-ever-the-hell I am. Second off, hell yes I wanted a truck, but I always got a fucking doll.

“I’d like a doll or maybe…” She smiled, forgetting about the approaching shot and how sick she was for a moment, “…a teddy bear. I like Teddy bears.”

“Alright I’ll tell the big guy.”

“You know Santa?” She obviously thought I was full of shit, though at the time I didn’t know why.

“No, but I’m sure the old fat fart listens to the radio and I’ll broadcast out a list of what you and all the other kids want,” I said. I showed her the needle. “Pull down your pants and let’s get this shot over with.” Lucy pulled the covers down and then helped the kid roll onto her belly.

“Is it going to hurt?” Karma asked.

“Sure it is, but you aren’t a pussy are you?” I pulled her pants down a little and rubbed a fleshy spot with some alcohol.

“Katy for God’s sake!” Lucy scolded.

“Well you aren’t are you?” I asked the kid.

“I don’t know,” Karma said with tears in her voice.

I held the empty needle where she could see it. “All done.”

“Really?” she asked.

“Really,” I said. I had the pen ready just in case.

“That didn’t hurt at all,” she said.

“Then, see? You aren’t a pussy,” I said.

Roy
was just laughing.

When Roy’s wife walked in with the poultice I checked to see that it wasn’t too hot and then I lifted up Karma’s shirt and stuck the poultice where she said the pain was and covered her back up.

“How are you, Karma?” Roy’s wife asked.

“Better.” Kids will do that. They’ll be at death’s door—or think they are—and the minute you do something they’ll decide they’re healed and perk right up. Want to go outside and play. I didn’t know whether she’d make it or not, but I thought she had a good chance, and a little hope will go a long way towards making someone feel better.

“Were you good for Katy?” Belinda asked, and it was pretty obvious that she’d already decided to raise this one with her own.

“Yeah, I’m not a pussy,” Karma said, and of course Roy and I thought this was hysterical and Lucy and Belinda did not think it was funny at all.

I lined Belinda out on the medication and the vitamins, and then I went to unload the ice chests as everyone—adult and child—gathered around in anticipation of what I had. When they saw the milk, cheese, and the eggs they all actually let out a cheer. But I became everyone’s hero when I pulled out the bag of chocolate kisses.

“We have chocolate!” Lucy hissed in my ear as if I’d been making her eat dried turds.

“Yes, loads of it,” I said. “I’ll get you some when we get home. That is if you want to go home with me.” It was one of those things that you don’t want to do, but you know it’s the right thing to do. There were more people here, people who weren’t crazy, and they were warm and had food. If I were Lucy Powers I thought I’d probably rather stay there just to not have to put up with me.

“What do you mean?”

“You could stay here with them,” I said.

“Is that what you want, Katy?” she asked, looking right in my eyes.

“No,” I said, probably too quickly.

“Then I’m going home with you,” she said matter-of-factly.

I just nodded like it didn’t matter to me one way or the other, but it obviously did because… Well I’d just said so, hadn’t I?

Before we left I told Roy, “You get the kids to write letters to Santa. put up a tree, decorate a little. It would be good for everyone.”

“And what happens when there is nothing for them on Christmas morning?” Roy asked in a whisper. “That’s just going to make it worse.”

“No, because you’re going to radio me and tell me what each kid wants. I have bunches of toys at the house, and I’ll come back Christmas Day with some more supplies, and I’ll do my best to fill that list. Just try to steer them clear of stuff that needs batteries and electricity and the likes.”

“Why do you have toys?” Roy asked.

I looked at him like he was a moron and said, “Why not?”

On the way back we were making lots better time
because it wasn’t actually snowing and I was able to drive in our old tracks. I was still having trouble with my goggles fogging up, but it wasn’t too hard to follow the trail.

We were only about a mile from home when something came out of no where and hit me hard in the chest. I went flying off the four-wheeler, the wind knocked out of me, and I might have even blacked out for a second. I had no idea where I was much less where Lucy was. My ribs were burning as I tried to get to my feet, and something landed in my already-burning ribs knocking me onto my back. I looked up into the faces of Greg and Berry Burkholder, Rudy’s very own “military” survivalists.

Greg threw down the huge tree branch he’d no doubt used to launch me off my four-wheeler. They both had guns, and I knew I was fucked, probably both ways if you get my drift.

“So, Katy… Tell you what, you take us to your secret bunker and maybe we’ll let you live.”

“It’s not a secret bunker, fuck stick. Everyone knows where it is.” I was trying to think of a way to get my hand in my pocket and grab my revolver.

“You get us in then and…”

“So, let me guess, you dumbasses were ready for the military to come raining on your little Nazi parade and try to take all your stupid-assed guns, but you weren’t ready for Mother Nature to fuck you right up the ass.”

“Shut up, get up, and take us to the house.”

“You dumbasses hurt me pretty bad.” I groaned for effect. I was trying to kill time. I wondered where Lucy was, if she was alright, and if she was smart enough to not bring attention to herself. I figured if they tried anything with me they’d have to kill me to rape me and then… Well I wouldn’t really care. Lucy was another story. If she was smart and quiet she could get back to town. I was sure I could take at least one of these fuckers down with me.

“Just get up and…”

BOOM! Greg quit talking as his face exploded all over me and the snow around me. I didn’t wait; I pulled my gun and shot Berry three times in the forehead.

We were wearing the arctic gear with the facemasks and goggles, and mine was suddenly covered in blood, so I couldn’t see her face when she ran over to me.