In the Midst of Tribulation (5 page)

"I don't really care what you believe."
"Why didn't you do anything for these poor souls?" Doris demanded dramatically. "My sweet Eva stumbled across a corpse."
"I've found that they have a certain je nais se qai."
"Seriously, Jay." Susan pleaded.
"They are better than any no trespassing sign." She sighed. "Look, a building, no matter how run down, attracts squatters. However, not many people are going to stick around a building that is surrounded by the violently dead."
"That's pretty callous."
"What would you have me do? Offer them a proper burial? I don't owe them a damn thing."
Martha spoke up. "When was this?"
"Three years ago."
Piper and Martha exchanged glances. "Based on the state of the bodies, that's the right timeframe," Martha allowed. "I want your word that you weren't involved."
"Not in those deaths," she answered, stressing the word 'those.'
"Damn it, Jay. Don't split hairs," Susan responded.
"And I suppose you all survived this whole time with your hands lily white?"
"Don't try and make a joke of it. This isn't the time."
"I would have to disagree on that. In fact, I remember that you and I rarely agreed on what was funny. It was probably a contributing factor to why we didn't make it."
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Susan muttered, "Not now."
"That, on the other hand, I can agree with. Look, let's introduce ourselves and try and chat like civilized folk." She waggled the covered bowl. "I brought a salad."
"You don't think we're going to be able to able to eat knowing what's right there."
"You people lived in Oakland, right? And had to come through the blast zone of what was once Sacramento?" At the nods of agreement, she continued. "I find it hard to believe you haven't seen dead people before."
"We haven't eaten over them."
"No, you just steal from them." That last was a shot in the dark but she could tell it was a hit by the guilty glances. Grinning at their discomfort she asked, "So, it appears that none of us are without sin."
There was a short and uncomfortable silence. Jay finally sighed. "Believe me or not, you don't have to fear me. Now, you want to tell me who's who?"
Susan pointed to people as she named them. Cody and Carol hugged her before taking a seat at the table on either side of her. Piper, Susan and Martha sat across from her and kept their weapons at the ready. Doris dithered for a moment before sitting next to Cody and making Eva perch on the small amount of bench left.
Jay uncovered the bread. "Freshly made this morning," she said invitingly. "Susan can attest to the freshness of the rest as she helped make it." Jay tapped the bowl. "Are you really going to let this go to waste?"
The group slowly dug into the bowl of vegetables. Piper tore off hunks of bread and passed it around. No one spoke as they devoured the salad.
Jay took her time studying the group as they concentrated on the food. "Hungry much?" she asked when she caught Martha's eye.
"We haven't seen too much in the way of fresh food in the last few years."
"You grew all this?" Eva asked timidly. She spit an olive pit into her fist and looked at it in wonder
"The cheese comes from my neighbors on the next mountain over. They keep goats. The olives and oil come from the valley to the west. Everything else came from my garden."
"This is great."
"Thank you. There's more where this came from."
Martha leaned her elbows on the table. "We've come a long way and need a place to settle."
"I know we didn't get off on the right foot but you can't find a safer space."
"You have enough room for us?"
"Things might be a little tight and may even get a little tough this winter but I've got stores of food set aside. With a little work, we can make it."
"You're willing to have us join you?"
"I must say that I'm a little less willing now that you've drawn a weapon on me, but I'm trying not to take it personally." She bared her teeth at Piper and Martha, who had the grace to look abashed. "Seriously, I stand by the offer I made to Susan all those years ago and I include those she calls family and friends. There are a few ground rules, though."
"What do you want?"
"I want your agreement on some stuff before I take you up." Jay splayed her hands on the scarred surface of the table. "Mine isn't the only place on the mountain. I want your assurance that none of you will do anything to put any of us in danger."
"You mean more danger than we are already in?"
"Who are you again?"
"Doris. Doris Matlan."
"Yeah, right. We tend to keep a low profile, we don't tell anyone we're up here and we try not to do anything to tip anyone off to our presence. Can everyone agree to that?"
At the nods from around the table, she smiled. "Okay, the next thing is that out here, there is no free ride. I expect everybody to pull their weight."
"And if we do so?"
"Like Engel's wrote, 'From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.'"
Doris spoke up again. "Who decides?"
"Well, me, of course." The smile on Jay's face never made it to her eyes. "It's my house, my rules. I'll share all I have but only to those who work as hard as I do."
"I don't think that's very fair."
"Shut up, Doris." Martha leaned across the table. "We don't expect something for nothing. We're all willing to work and we'll all chip in."
Pointing at the skeletons, Doris spit out, "If we don't, are you going to do us like you did those people?"
"First off, I didn't kill them, although I would have had they endangered me or mine." Her voice cold and remote, Jay made eye contact with everyone around the table. "Secondly, if you don't agree, you go no farther up the mountain and neither do your friends." There was an uncomfortable silence. "We've made it this long without the kind of trouble that is common down below and we're not about to sacrifice it all for folks we don't know."
"You know Susan and her children."
"Yes, I do. I also know Martha. Susan vouched for the rest of you and I'm willing to risk it but not without your assurance."
"You'll just take our word for it?"
"Well," Jay said, pulling a knife out her sleeve and flicking her thumb against the blade. "It will be more official in blood."
Leaping up, Doris shouted to Martha "Stop her! She's going to kill us."
"Not funny, Jay. Put it away." Susan rubbed her temples. "That isn't helping," she scolded.
"Sorry." Jay slid it back into the sheath on her forearm.
Doris was still furious. "Sorry isn't good enough."
"Doris, knock it off. She was trying to be funny and the operative word is trying." Martha was close to losing her temper. She addressed Jay, "All you want is our word?"
"Yes. Tell me that our safety is your safety."
"You have it."
Jay looked around the table and got agreement from all of them. She had to wait the longest before Doris finally threw up her hands and nodded.
"Excellent. Are y'all ready to head up?" Her soft southern accent still in place after two decades on the West Coast, Jay stood up and started to clear the table.
"Um, Jay?" Susan began. "How are we going to get the cart up the trail?"
"That is the first secret that I will be trusting you with," she replied slyly. "Help me clear away all trace of our meal and I'll show you."
Chapter Four - The Sheltering Rock
There is a Rock in a weary land,
Its shadow falls on the burning sand,
Inviting pilgrims as they pass,
To seek a shade in the wilderness.
Then why will ye die?
O why will ye die?
When the sheltering Rock is so near by,
O why will ye die?
Words & Music: William E. Penn, 1887
With a lazy grin, Jay waved for them to follow her up to the path. "We decided from the beginning that we needed to camouflage our presence. So many people only see what they're expecting to see. Starting with this chain here. We soaked the lock in battery acid so it would rust quickly. Strangers see it and think the road is abandoned." She pulled one of the stakes out of the ground and lowered the chain to the ground.
Jay returned the stake to its upright position once the group had pulled the cart past. Still talking, she walked past the small group. "There are four homes sharing this mountain and none of us want unexpected visitors."
At the pipe, she asked which two of them were willing to get damp. Martha and Piper volunteered. She indicated that they should enter the dark pipe after her. "Come to the center and feel around for metal rod," she called out, her voice echoing in the dark.
They both looked dubiously from her to the water covering the bottom of the pipe. "Go on," she encouraged.
Piper reached down and felt around until she found the rod. "What now?"
"Lift up and turn it enough so that it can't reseat itself in the indention." After Piper did so, she directed them back out of the pipe to the other side.
She poked her head out and looked at the women with Susan. "You guys push on the left side." She got out on the other side and told Martha and Piper to push on their left side. With almost comical ease, the pipe rotated, leaving plenty of room for the cart to pass. Once they pulled it past, she had them replace the pipe and the rod in their previous position.
"Can I borrow your canteen?" she asked Martha. Taking it, she said, "Remember to return the water to its previous level," as she poured out the contents to cover the rod.
Stepping out, she waved the group on. "Ever forward and choose the middle ground," she intoned.
"What?"
Susan shook her head and smiled at her friend. "Up ahead, there is a fork in the road. We take the center path."
"Where do the other paths go?"
"The lower road eventually hits the far side of my property before leading to one of the neighbors. The upper leads to the house of my, I mean our nearest neighbor." She led them through the trees and to the brick blocked driveway. She showed them how removing two bricks allowed the center section to be pushed out of the way.
Once the group walked through with the cart, Jay pushed the wall back into place. Carefully, she brushed away the telltale marks of its movement before she returned to lead the group forward.
Approaching the house, she whistled for the dogs. When they bounded up, she made them sit. "Can you come up one at a time and meet my gals?" she asked.
As they did so, she introduced the refugees to the dogs as friends. Once the animals had sniffed each hand and gotten a scratch behind their ears, she directed everyone the short distance remaining to the house.
Dropping the cart to the ground, they looked around the yard in amazement. They were on a fairly large plateau and could see for miles in all directions except for where the mountain rose at their backs.
Sitting to one side of the two acre clearing, the house was grey stone with black, slate shingles. To their right was a small pond with a short pier. On it was an upside down canoe. There were several cords of wood stacked under the nearest trees. Beyond the pond there was a small greenhouse, almost hidden at the edge of the forest.
Jay watched the group as they took their first looks at their new home. She wanted to laugh at the wonder in their expressions but the tension was still too high for them to find any humor in the situation.
Instead, she spoke gently. "Welcome, to my, and now, your home. Come inside and let me show you around."
Almost stumbling because their eyes were not on where they were walking, they followed her through the front door. Piper noticed the heavy shutters on the windows and the thickness of the door. At her raised eyebrow, Jay shrugged. "I could tell you the winters are really bad here but, the truth is, I wasn't just interested in their weather stopping ability."
She waved everyone in around her. "I designed this place to have the highest R-value possible. The walls are insulated concrete forms that extend from basement to eaves. They have an additional layer of stone on the outside. Not only could they withstand a 200 mile an hour wind, they can withstand anything short of an amour piercing round."
"You get many of those?" Martha asked.
"Nope, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared." Jay continued, "I don't know whether you noticed the solar cells on the roof?" At their nods, she said, "I went for a system of photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight into direct current electricity." She grinned at their blank looks, "I'll explain it when we get to it, suffice to say we have power."
"You're kidding? Power?"
"I wouldn't kid about something like that. All the appliances were the best of their time, with high efficiency ratings and low power requirements." At their excited looks, she shook her head. "Calm down, you can't run everything at once but then again, I planned this place to not require much."
"During construction, I did everything I could to get off the grid. I didn't want to be at the mercy of the greedy bastards in charge of the utilities. I hadn't considered the greedy bastards of the Confederacy. Since the bombing, we've been self-sustaining by default."
"Self-sustaining?"
"Yep. Water comes from an artesian well and the septic system I have will last for decades. The real work is to collect food and wood."
Carol stepped forward and hugged her. "I already feel better for being here."
"I am glad you are here and grateful that you made the journey in safety. It gives me hope." She snapped her jaws shut over anything else she might have said. Taking a deep breath, she shrugged off their curious looks. "Anyway, let me give you the five dollar tour."
"I thought tours only cost a nickel?" Susan asked.
"For guests that aren't expected to pull their weight, yeah. However, you guys are family and, since I'll be putting you to work tomorrow, I think it best I show you everything."
Pointing behind the group, she indicated the two doors on the same wall as front entrance. "Right by the front door is a closet that mainly has coats, weapons and ammunition. Next to it is the door leading downstairs."
She opened the door and directed everyone inside. "Let's start with the basement." They walked down a flight of stairs and stopped around a pool table. "Down here is guest room with bathroom." She opened the door and they peered in at two single beds separated by a nightstand. The room had a line of narrow windows near the ceiling that brought in a surprising amount of light. "We can discuss later where everyone will stay."
She opened up another door that led to the storage area. She flipped on a light and everyone gasped at the flickering bulb. Ignoring that, Jay went on. "As you can see, we are pretty well stocked in staples." Filling the center floor to ceiling racks were canning jars filled with vegetables. Other racks along the walls contained sacks of flour, rice, pasta, and sugar. There were cans of olive oil on the floor and stacks of things they could hardly identify in the darkness.