The Beginning at the End of the World: A Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopian Series (The Survivor Diaries Book 2) (18 page)

She sat down again and declared, “Oh my God, thank you. I have never had a better shower. And the hot water, oh My God.”

“I know,” I said with a smile. “One of the members of our group is an engineer. He rigged up tubs to heat up and boil the snow on the roofs of the RVs.”

“You guys seem legit,” Violet said. “But if you really are, you will let me talk to my daughter.”

“Bri, will you call over and see if Tracy is done with her shower?” I asked. “We told them to let her have a shower after you went into the bathroom.”

“Okay, here she is,” said Bri.

Violet took the walkie and looked at it.

“Oh, you hold this button to talk and let it go to listen,” explained Bri.

“Baby, it’s okay, I think,” she told her daughter. “For now, they seem harmless, but keep a close eye out. You never know.”

She looked at me and said, “I’m sorry, but in this world you have to be more than careful. It’s the only way that we have been able to stay alive this long.”

“I completely understand,” I told her. I would have probably fought harder not to be parted if it was me and any of my girls.

Violet looked so tired. She was fighting to stay awake. “Would you like to take a nap? There is a bunk right above you.”

“I don’t think I should yet,” she said. “If that’s okay with you?”

“Of course, just let us know,” I said.

“You have quite a set-up here,” she said, pointing at our Communications Center.

We spent the rest of the afternoon explaining how we had come together to stay alive and about our decision to move to the Valley. I had really wanted to listen to Thomas’ engineering class over the radio, but I felt that talking to Violet was more of a priority at the moment.

Like everyone who had joined us, Violet was impressed by how far we had come.

“As a mayor, I must say that you have done something that I failed at,” she said. “I had tried to get my constituents to come together, but the panic had taken too much of a hold during those last days. Things were crazy. Unbelievably, a group of over 110 surfers went down to the beach and surfed their way into death when the bombs hit. I could actually see them on the beach from the front steps of my house. We had to go inside when it finally started, but I saw them headed into the giant waves.

“People were convinced that it was over, and it was over for almost everyone. I lost my husband and my oldest son, who were together at my son’s house. Jack, my husband, thought that he could help my son’s family get their house together and make it back to our house in time. We found the bodies of my husband, son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter where their house once stood. We buried them, got some things together and started off in hopes of finding a community like yours. We expected that there would be one in Santa Cruz.”

I nodded. We didn’t say things like, “I am sorry for your loss” anymore. No one did.

∞

Violet either finally trusted us, or she was completely exhausted. She agreed to use the bunk to take a nap, and I returned to my work.

I knew that I was going to have to justify picking up the two ladies at our nightly meeting, so I got ready for it. It had gone very well this time, but there might be more rescues that won’t go as easily. I am glad we did it, though.

The next bathroom break was in the early afternoon.

I went to RV one and checked in on Tracy. She was also asleep. I knew that my mother was treating her well.

“Annie, is there anything I can take Violet to eat? I am sure she is still hungry.”

“Sure thing,” she said. She hugged me close. “But for the grace of God, go I.”

“I know, Mom.”

She handed me a small baguette of bread and an apple sauce cup.

“How is she?” I pointed at the sleeping figure in the bunk.

“About as good as can be expected; traumatized. I called for the doctor to check them out. He is very unhappy that they are not in quarantine,” said Annie.

“How could we have done that? We don’t exactly have a hotel to send them to. They are wearing masks,” I said.

As soon as I got the words out of my mouth, Doc Malcolm came into the RV. There was no way to make a break for it; I was caught.

“Let me check them both out first,” he said. “If they have been walking all the way from Santa Cruz and they haven’t gotten sick yet, we should be alright. But Laura, we need to have a plan if we are going to do this in the future.”

Both ladies checked out well, at least as well as could be expected. They had some frost bite and malnutrition. It was a wonder that they had survived the elements to this point.

But the Doc was right. We needed a plan.

∞

When the caravan stopped for the day, just before dark, we hadn’t gotten very far. It was disappointing.

I went over to Mark, who stood there with open arms.

“I think I fucked up,” I told him. “Those ladies didn’t have proper quarantine. I risked everyone’s health and security.”

Mark was one of the people on our private channel, and I know that he was listening to everything.

“It’s okay. Doc, could you join us?” he asked Malcolm who was passing us.

The doctor came over and Mark continued. “I have an idea on how to fix the Wanderer problem in the future. We need to have a quarantine car. We could use the van and have someone who has already had the Sneaker Wave driving it, wearing gloves and a mask. Of course, we would still take precautions. Maybe even Doc Riley, because she never came down with it and was inoculated with Jackson’s drugs.”

“That could work,” said Malcolm.

“Thank God,” I said selfishly. I had no idea how I was going to get this one by the Council. I am lucky Mark is so smart.

∞

Doc Malcolm asked the two women to set up the tent that they were carrying and to stay in it while we figured out some new quarantine procedures. I think we all missed the Hotel facilities already. Both ladies were very understanding and even grateful when I delivered their supper. They had been talking and told me that they hoped that they could join our group permanently.

Very few people could vouch for themselves as well as the mayor; after all, she had been a public figure. Even if she hadn’t been a mayor, there was just something that told me that they weren’t out to hurt anyone; call it my gut instinct. Mrs. Ingram had told me to let it be my guide, and I was.

∞

Tent time was actually quite humorous, at least to this camping virgin it was. Mark had never put up a tent like this either, even in the army.

There were poles and cords and zippers and none of them worked intuitively; at least, not according to my intuition. After about thirty minutes of working on it and making absolutely no progress, Sampson came over and showed us how to do it. Sampson is the sweetest guy.

We ate our dinner with Bailey and Ammie, our two tent mates for the evening. Before they joined us, I asked the Doc if it was safe for them to sleep with me because I was in contact with the two newcomers. He said that he wasn’t worried just as long as we were more careful from here on out.

The girls told us about their day. Bailey talked about her best friend, Hayden, getting in an argument with Zander, who was apparently just a “stupid-head.”

“I am sure he’s not a stupid-head,” Ammie told her, suppressing a smile.

“Yes,” said Bailey, her little head bobbing up and down with conviction. “He really is. Oh, wait. Laura, I made you this.”

She pulled out a picture from her little pink backpack. Colored with markers, it was a pink heart with wings.

“Miss Holly asked us to draw a picture for someone you love using symbols,” she explained. “It is a heart, because I love you, and the wings are because you are flying us to safety.”

Tears filled in my eyes. Bailey scooted into my lap and put her arms around my neck. “Don’t cry, Laura,” she said, putting her forehead against mine. This child’s love is healing.

I laughed and sniffed. “They are good tears, Bailey Bug.”

“So, Ammie, how was your first day in the think-tank?” Mark asked.

“I like being with all of those intelligent people,” she told us. “I would love for Bri to spend some time with us. I think that she could add a lot to the discussion.”

“I’ll try to make that happen then,” I said. “If Jackson is willing to free up some of her time, that is.”

“Do we always have to talk about Jackson? What are you talking about between classes, Ammie?” asked Mark.

“One of the things that we want to make a reality is working electricity in every home in the Village,” she informed us. That is exactly why I wanted those brilliant people together. I knew that they would feed each other’s imaginations.

“Go team think-tank,” I said. All four of us did a fake cheering and applause.

“When I grow up, can I be on team think-tank?” asked Bailey.

“Are you kidding?” asked Ammie. “You are going to be the president of it.”

We brought our dirty dishes back to RV one. Annie was looking tired, and I ordered her to bed.

I was afraid that this trip was going to be too taxing on the oldest and youngest members of our group.

∞

We went into my RV and waited for the Council, minus Annie, to make their way inside. I was glad that Jackson no longer attended the meetings. He would have given me such crap about my decision today. Bri was there, so even if he hadn’t bugged the RV, he would know everything that happened. I guess I can’t win them all.

I started the meeting off on the topic of picking up strangers. It went exactly how I thought it would. I was admonished about the safety concerns, and we decided that using the van and separate tents as quarantine was a good idea.

We also decided that only people wearing gloves and masks can handle food prep from here on out. I know that Annie and her team have been very careful, using hand sanitizers and other precautions, but the Sneaker Wave had us all feeling the need for extra diligence still. Thankfully, the hospital staff sent us off with lots of supplies from their underground warehouse.

I am about to head to our tent for bed. It’s my first night in a sleeping bag and in a tent, yikes.

I am no longer wondering why I have never been camping before. Maybe some people were cut out for it, but not me. The weatherproof tent was warm enough, and now that we had all lost so much weight, we fit in with space to spare with Hershey at our feet. But I could feel the hard, snow-packed earth beneath me. I also think I was sleeping on a rock. This is going to take some time to get used to, but if I have learned anything in the post-apocalypse, it’s that you need to adjust quickly if you are going to make it.

I told Mark to go and check Bailey in at the school RV and that I would take the tent down myself.

“Heh, heh, heh,” I heard from my spot under the collapsed tent. “We don’t have time for playing, Laura.”

I found my way to the edge of it, stuck my head out, and said, “Shut up, Jackson. Go away.”

“Well, I was going to help you with this, but if you have it under control…” Jackson said.

“Just help me,” I told him.

We finally got on the road, about half an hour behind schedule.

Going through my diary and video footage for editing, I recalled how certain I was that we were not going to live through the initial bombs and our inside confinement. Then, I was very sure that we would all either die of the radiation or from starvation in the first few weeks of being outside.

I don’t really know when I realized that it was possible that we were going to live. Maybe the awareness came slowly to all of us; this understanding that our lives were truly in our own hands in a way that they had never been before. Now I know that as long as we have it in us to evolve in this new landscape, we will survive. After all, that’s how humankind had gotten to where we were before the Last War.

Strangely enough, I think that we are becoming stronger now, physically, emotionally and intellectually. Physically, we are thinner and fitter than ever, having learned to walk in the snow banks to make it to our jobs. More of us were swinging hammers, carrying materials, and walking the perimeters of the Village.

Emotionally, we have seen death and absolute destruction everywhere we look, and amazingly we have become determined to not let it take us down. We have grown harder shells, and yet, almost everyone is more sensitive to others. We have learned that only by working together will we grow into what we need to become— what we must become.

Intellectually we have had to learn what survival really means. We have become inventors, herbalists, permaculturists (ecological designers and engineers), tailors, medical professionals and leaders, and that’s just what I can think of off the top of my head.

Looking back at all that we have accomplished, I think that our advancements in the last months might have taken a lifetime in the old world.

We are growing.

∞

After writing my last diary entry this morning, I was feeling really good; however, the great checks and balances in the universe have conspired against us again. Or maybe it is just basic physics; for every action (like feeling good and committing it to paper) there is an equal and opposite reaction (Steven Rolette).

Tiffany entered RV two to use the restroom during the first break. She didn’t look good; and I guessed that it was morning sickness. I waited for her to come out and pulled her aside as people bustled along, picking up their breakfasts and using the restrooms.

“I don’t want to take you away from your breakfast,” I told her. “But I did want to catch up with you.”

“That’s alright, I am not feeling very well,” she said.

“Steven told me about your, um, condition,” I whispered as a few people walked by, laughing and chatting with each other.

She bent her head and nodded.

“Is it his?” I boldly asked. In the old world, I would never have said a word.

She nodded again. “But he doesn’t really know that, not for sure. When everyone was under orders not to have sexual relations, he told all of the Warriors that we were safe, that God would not let the true believers die. He promised. He told us that we needed to repopulate the earth with more of God’s Warriors. He told us that he needed to make sure he has descendants because he was our leader. He said that God had told him this. He was given access to any of our women he wanted.”

She broke into sobs and I hugged her. This poor woman had been taken advantage of by someone she trusted, and she was realizing it now.

When Tiffany began to speak again, her words came out in a flood. “God’s Warriors kept meeting when everyone was under home confinement, and that’s why so many of them died. I lost my husband and my boys. And that’s why we are the only two of God’s Warriors left. Some of the members just stopped showing up and did stay in their homes. They lived. He killed my family, didn’t he?”
I held her while she trembled.

“I am going to take you to Doc’s RV, and you are to stay there for the rest of the day,” I told her. “What truck were you in?”

“I was in Steven’s truck,” she said, apprehensively. “He told me not to listen, that you were only trying to keep us apart.”

“Okay, I’ll take care of it.”

I walked her to RV one, and went to face off with Rolette.

“Tiffany is going to be in the sick bay,” I told him, knowing there was no such place. I walked away before he could get a word in edgewise. He followed.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Is it the baby?”

“Nope, it’s not the baby,” I said in a loud voice that drew attention. And that’s what I was going for because I needed some brawny backup. “She just needs some rest in her condition. Oh, and you are not to override my driving schedule. You will stay in the truck assigned to you, and Tiffany will be in the one she was assigned to.”

Mark came up and stood in front of Rolette, whose chest was puffed up by then.

Mark spoke quietly, but I was close enough to hear. “You touch her and you die painfully, really, really, painfully. And it will probably be at her hands, but I hope she saves a little for me. Stay away from my wife because she might be small, but she is powerful.”

I knew that I didn’t need Mark to protect me. I just needed someone to slow Rolette down while I took care of things. And that’s exactly what I got.

I called for Bri on the walkie to meet me at the gas tanker which was the final vehicle in the lineup. I knew that Jackson would know that we were coming to talk to him, and he would be sure to make it there before we did.

I was right. Bri and I hoisted ourselves up to the cab. Inside were gages, gears and buttons I had no idea how to use.

“I thought that you were never talking to me ‘in private’ again,” Jackson said sarcastically, using the quotation fingers he knew I hated.

“I never said that, and I need a security matter tended to,” I told him.

“Rolette?” he asked.

“Yep.”

“Yeah, I caught that show while I was going to the head,” he said in his usual crass way.

“Well, it looks like Tiffany is carrying that SOB’s kid, not her dead husband’s,” I said.

“I could kill him,” Jackson said. “Any person who could lie and take advantage of scared people like that should be castrated.”

“So, are you the pot or the kettle?” I asked. “Seriously, though, he was trying to get all of the GWs women pregnant, did you know that?”

“I never heard it in the walkie conversations,” said Jackson.

“Okay, where do we go from here?” I asked. “I think that Tiffany is in danger, but I have no evidence of it, just my gut feeling. I told him that he would be kicked out if he caused a problem on the road, but technically, these problems happened in the Village.”

I swear that I heard Mrs. Ingram’s wheelchair roll up and her voice saying, “You’re doing well, girl. Follow it.” Day two and I already missed her.

Bri looked at me as if she were unsure if she should be contributing to the conversation. I nodded to let her know that she should tell us what she was thinking.

“I know that it would kill you to throw anyone out into the harshness here, even Rolette,” she assessed, accurately. “How about we let him come with us to the Valley? We have a small tent that sleeps one that he can use, and he can drive alone in the truck. When we get there we can ask him to leave, unless he redeems himself, which is doubtful.”

“That wouldn’t be a bad idea, if he could actually do something redeeming,” said Jackson. “As you have seen, he does what he wants, and none of it has been for the good of the Village.”

“What if we have him go in front of the Council?” I asked. “It would be official. I know that he doesn’t want to travel this road alone. Even if he headed back to the Village, he might not make it.”

“If he does decide to stay, I will have a security member on him whenever we are not driving,” said Jackson.

Our decision was made.

∞

And all of that happened before eleven o’clock in the morning. My job never gets boring.

The next fun came when we arrived at a grove of trees that were too close to the trail. Thanks to Adam and the Out-bounders, we knew that this was coming, but I had no idea how much work it would be.

All of the vehicles got the “slow down and stop” call over the radio. Thanks to preplanning, all of the people involved with the tree cutting worked like a well-oiled machine.

The kids were able to get out and play in the fresh air, and Holly and Maria had made it clear that they had to stay within the boundaries that they created in the snow. I was happy and surprised that it worked. The children were used to getting lots of exercise during the day, and I was getting the feeling from Holly’s exasperated expression that they might be getting rambunctious. And I thought
my
job was hard.

Everyone who got out of their vehicles was asked to stay on the side of the caravan that was opposite of the work being done on the trees.

The tow truck was in place, and the tractor was being unhitched. Jackson was overseeing it all.

I spent a short amount of time watching and assessing the situation. Everything was going smoothly, and there wasn’t much I could help with, so I decided to give Holly and Maria a break.

I rounded up Mark and Adam, and we joined the group taking care of the kids. Holly was so relieved when I told her to take a break; I thought she was going to kiss me.

“Okay, kids,” said Mark, who was beckoning the children to us. “I come from the ‘Motherland’ and there we play a game that you all call soccer, but we call it football.”

Mark had often given this speech, so I let him take over and listened on, amused.

“You know,” he kept talking, tossing an old soccer ball from hand to hand. “We were so poor that all of us kids in my tribe had only one ball between us. And it wasn’t nice like this one. One of the moms made it out of a camel skin. Of course, the camel wasn’t killed to make our ball. It died of natural causes.”

Holly and Maria had stuck around, listening to Mark as he enchanted the group of children. When they were finally satisfied that we could keep the kids under control, they snuck away to get a well-earned break.

The teams were soon picked. Every kid wanted to be on Mark’s team, but Adam was able to persuade a group of kids to be on his team.

I was picked for Adam’s team, and I playfully chastised my husband about not choosing me. The kids all laughed and joined in.

“You know that Laura is our leader. You should have picked her. My mom says that Laura is a bad-bleep,” said Aiden.

I was flattered, and I smiled gloatingly at Mark.

“Well, your mother has never seen Laura playing sports,” said Mark teasingly.

Actually, he was right about that. I must have slipped in the snow trying to get the ball away from those little kids five or six times. And I never got it, but it made me laugh. I needed that.

Something wonderful happened during that game. The adults who were not part of the tree cutting crew joined us. We had two big teams, and we played with no rules. The kids loved playing with their parents. I guess that hasn’t happened in some time.

I have a feeling that this is going to end up being a great activity to do when we are stopped on the road. Even the adults needed the exercise and spontaneous fun that we have somehow forgotten over time.

I went to the side of the field and closed my eyes. The joyful sounds that came from that crazy game will stay with me, and I will try to remember to pull them out when I need them.

∞

It took me some time, but I was finally able to convince the Council to give Rolette one last chance at redemption. I explained to them that, after all, weren’t we all living out our own redemption?

Rolette stood before the Council and smirked. “Tiffany is my wife, so you can’t tell us that we have to be separated.”

This guy is completely insane
, I thought. He would rather be left to die than to be told what to do.

“Then you are free to leave us and make it on your own,” said Mark. “It is your decision.”

“Ms. Balous, you said that Tiffany and I would be given a time and place to worship on our own,” he continued to push.

“That was before you decided to take it upon yourself to change our driving assignments,” I told him. “Make up your mind, Rolette. Stay with us, follow our rules and make it to the Valley alive, or you may take off on your own.”