The Complex: (The Reanimates) (24 page)

             
A week later our wall guests were back. It was time to get started on the gathering video and setting up the sting. We had been setting up the equipment when Jody came to the door. Joey let her in and she sat down. I had to smile over the growing baby bump and couldn’t imagine that so much time had already passed. She had to be about 18 weeks along already.

             
She began to speak, which broke my thoughts on her pregnancy. “So,” she began, “Christmas is about a month away and I was thinking we need to figure out a plan.”

             
Wow. Had it really gotten to be almost Christmas already? What on earth were we going to be able to do for the kids that would make it a neat thing? Life had been so upended by the apocalypse that what to do for the kids to make Christmas feel like Christmas was hard to imagine.

             
“I heard the kids talking during break time at school yesterday. Abigail is sure that Santa is a zombie too. Kyle and Drew think that Christmas is canceled forever now. It breaks my heart that they are growing up too quickly and they are losing hope in the happy stuff in life. We have to come up with something.”

             
Tears sprung up in my eyes. Ten-year-old boys shouldn’t believe that Christmas will never happen again. Six-year-old girls shouldn't think that Santa is a zombie. They are supposed to believe that there will be a day of magic. I felt like crap that it took my son's teacher to spell out that Christmas was fast approaching. I had been so wrapped up in catching Alexus in the act of wrong doing that I was oblivious.

             
Trent choked up as well. “Well, no kid under this complex is going to feel that way if I have anything to say about it.”

             
Silence fell in the room while we all thought about what we could do to make this Christmas a good thing.

             
Tyreese came up with an awesome idea. “A couple blocks away is that video game store. I always thought it was a weird place to put one because there are no other electronic stores or toy stores around. It looked empty all the time, like no one remembered it was even there. I am really wondering if it got hit in the initial looting. I bet it wasn't. About a mile more up the road is that organic grocery store. Now the food in that store is probably all bad by now since they didn't do preservatives, but they may have water there. If we set up a new water run, after all there is always a need for water, we could hit up that game store as well and the kids won't have a clue. We could get the portable systems like a Game Boy and PSP and a ton of games for them.”

             
My eyes lit up. That was an awesome idea. “Know what we could do?” I asked, getting enthusiastic over the idea. “We could totally get the teens all one system, like a PSP for each of them and the 3DS or whatever for the preteens. We need to still get something for the young kids, but that could be really cool. The games could be exchanged among the age groups that way.”

             
“I love it.” Jody's eyes were lit up with excitement. “If there are enough I'd like to throw Abigail in with the preteen grouping just because she would love the DS as well. What should we do though for the little ones? Daniel's girls definitely need to get something, I don't know why but I feel almost responsible for them. Alexus really isn't who I thought she was.” Jody seemed to drift off in thought, then back to the present. “Maybe I'm being neurotic. Everyone copes with the world different I guess.” The rest of us exchanged looks. Jody saw our glances and started to say something but changed her mind. “OK well, I'm going to let you guys get back to what you're working on. Recess time is about over anyway.” With that Jody got up and left.

             
“Guys? I think we should put all this stuff on hold until after we get Christmas figured out. I think once we get this stuff started then it's going to take a life of its own and I don't want some crazy lady to derail the kids.” I said and everyone agreed.

The Christmas Run

             
All the parents were brought in to the school for a chat on what we decided to call Operation Christmas under the guise of a back to school night. Daniel and Anna were as excited as the rest of us. Alexus even looked happy over the idea of making Christmas happen. We set up the cover story that Tyreese and Trent were going on a water run so all the adults would be on the same page. Joey decided to stay behind to help keep an eye on everyone. It would have been too easy for the marauders to take over if they thought we were unprotected. Joey had offered to take watch to be incredibly visible to all. I thought that it looked like Alexus was a bit put off that there would be someone to take watch, but that easily could have been my imagination.

             
We prepared a list of things we wanted to get from the game store. We needed to find three PSP systems for DaWayne, Trisha, and Erin. We needed four of the 3DS systems for Kyle, Liam, Drew, and Abigail. It still left needing to find something for Annali, Tomisha, and Dalynn. The little girls would be easy enough since they were so young. Dalynn had recently turned two and Tomisha and Annali were both three. A couple stuffed animals would work if all else failed.

             
I kissed Trent goodbye and wished him luck. Tanya did the same to Tyreese. Our giddy hope overrode the worry that we all had every time someone had to leave the complex. I lowered the bridge and they drove off in the truck. When they were clear I raised the bridge again.

             
A couple hours later there was the sound of the truck came rumbling up the road. I made sure it was them before I lowered the bridge by looking through the binoculars. My heart lifted as I saw their animated happy faces. Daniel was standing near by so I turned to him and said that it looked successful. He looked excited too. I lowered the bridge and they drove in. Trent unrolled the window to the truck and said that he was going to pull into the parking spot next to the unit we process run stuff. He told me to get the parents over to help. There were many bottles of water in the bed of the truck as well as a neat assortment of canned goods which made our cover story look fantastic.

             
Daniel ran the bridge back up so I could find the parents. I ran into DaWayne on the way and asked him to relieve Joey and have him meet us. We all got there and started carrying in stuff. Trent and Tyreese slung back packs over their shoulders when they got out. They took those in nice and subtle like with arms loaded with canned stuff. Tyreese came back to the cab where he grabbed a large duffel bag and slid that inside.

             
We were so excited to see what they got, it almost felt like Christmas was already here, a preview of coming attractions. Indeed there had been enough of the PSP and 3DS systems to be able to cover everyone. There were so many little game cartridges. There were a couple duplicates of the games that were really hot and many other games to trade among themselves. I was very curious what was in the duffel. As it turned out, there had been a dollar store next to the game store that had planned on doing the grand opening thing last June. They never got to open but they had gotten quite a bit of stock for their shelves. Trent and Tyreese had gotten most of the water and canned food from there, but the best thing they had found was a neat collection of dolls and doll accessories like strollers and bottles.

             
Christmas was going to be awesome. Jody, Anna, and I divided up the 3DS games based on the kid's personality and interests. Daniel picked out the dolls that he knew the girls would like and Anna was more than happy with the ones that were left for Annali. Jody said to Tyreese and Tanya that they should take whatever games they wanted for their kids and that Erin would be more than happy with the rest and that she trusted them to be fair. Alexus was notably absent after the gifts were shown off from the run. We did not care that she wasn’t there. The flow of separating the gifts went so nicely. We were so excited that we were going to be able to do anything. Things felt good. We stashed the toys into backpacks to sneak them into our own homes.

             
We realized that if we were getting that close to Christmas we were really close to Thanksgiving. I went over to Mercedes' place after I hid the backpack in the apartment. As always, Mercedes was a few steps ahead of me. She had been planning a special dinner and shooed me out of the food unit with a laugh. I said that there were more cans of food to give the unit and she said to leave it in the processing unit, we'd get to that in two days. I gave her a quizzical look. I hadn't connected that Thanksgiving was on the next day until that moment.

             
Thanksgiving dinner was amazing. It wasn’t so much what we had to eat as it was being together. We all ate in the common area picnic style. There was a moment of silent reflection on what we had to be thankful for. We had all survived together and we were making it work. We had all formed a special bond. There were definitely times that we argued but we were family now.

With all the feeling of being thankful part of me felt a bit guilty that we had survived like this when so many didn't. I thought about all the people who lost someone to the zombies. I felt bad for Martha who lost her son. I felt bad for Anna who had no clue how her husband had met his end, even if she didn't believe that he had been attacked. I felt bad for Steven's family, if they were even still alive. They didn't know he met his end trying to make sure we had our best shot. I felt bad that Alexus was under scrutiny over the marauder situation. In the middle of all those feelings I looked over at Trent and Drew, sitting together laughing at something and I realized I didn’t really care about feeling bad over Alexus. Today was a celebration of life and honoring those that were gone. I would not spare even one more thought today on her.

Christmas Is Coming

             
The next day we set up cameras around the complex. We decided that we needed to get several instances of her interacting with the marauders. We watched the rock camera to keep an eye on the activity on the other side of the wall. On a small screen we saw that indeed it was that group hanging out there. They set up a mini camp on the ledge between us and the trench, totally taking advantage of the work that Trent did.

             
We saw Alexus give them food. We saw her give them water. We had set up cameras to record if anyone entered where food and water were stored. We saw her go into both of them.

             
We gathered data and decided that a month of this would be enough to take to everyone. We decided we would call a council meeting on the 26
th
of December.
If things stayed the way they were with no one getting hurt then waiting seemed to be the best way. If it looked like things were going to change for the worse then of course we would call the meeting sooner.

             
In the mean time, it was time to get ready for the holidays. Those of us that had an artificial tree put those up and we searched through the patio closets of the units that were left for more trees. Including ours, there were a total of five of those artificial trees. Mercedes volunteered her house to be treeless but did request to have a nativity if one could be found. All of her Christmas stuff was in an off site storage unit. Martha too decided that she would be fine to be without a tree. She grumbled that they were a pain anyway and if she couldn’t have a real tree that she didn’t want one at all. I laughed inwardly over her protest of the trees. I think she was putting on a gripe face to convince everyone that she was actually better off than those with a tree but I would have put money on her wanting to make sure that the homes with kids had the trees. I think Martha was actually a good, kind person in that shell, she just refused to let the good side show.

             
It looked like any apartment complex would at Christmas with the exception of Christmas lights. No one wanted to waste power on lights since the shorter days of winter meant less charged batteries on the solar array. We ran the gas generator in food more often whenever we got a rabbit that came through the complex if we didn’t eat it right away, but leaving fresh meat for long was just about unheard of.

The week before Christmas seemed to have an air of sadness. Drew wouldn’t say a word but he looked rather down. He did show a spark of happiness though after school let out on December 23
rd
. Jody had devoted the day to making a Christmas present for the parents. After he made the present his spirits seemed to lift. He had finally confided to me on Christmas Eve day that the idea that he couldn’t give us a present was really hurting him. I said to him that he is the gift. He rolled his eyes at me in the usual kid way.

             
Trent had made him a truck in build that we wrapped up to put under the tree. I made Trent a clock for his workspace in build. There was a wrapped present for me that Trent had made with Drew's help. We all went to bed and I swear that Drew was crying for a little bit though he denied that he was sad. He fell asleep wrapped in my arms. I sent Trent to set up the major gift.

That morning when he got up he had no hope of Santa having dropped something off. He had gotten up to give us his gift but when he saw that 3DS and the games he was thrown. He started to cry big happy tears. He held the 3DS close.