Chapter 3
"What i wouldn't do for some fresh meat!"
"Find a wild chicken out there and I'll kill and prep it for you"
"If we found them we shouldn't eat them right away. We should breed them first. That way we'd always have chicken. And eggs. Oh man, eggs sound great too."
I look at the three figures huddling around the table, faces glowing in the candlelight. It's the same conversation they have every night, although the meat source in question changes depending on the day.
Food. Water. Shelter. You didn't survive unless you had all three.
Our house was far enough outside the town that the water lines didn't reach us. Luckily, we lived in the northwest. My dad had paid to have a well be built out back. Even on the mountainside the ground was so moist that the well did not have to be dug very deep. We would never run out of water as long as we stayed put.
Us boys would sneak outside as kids and open the hatch at the mouth of the well. We would entertain ourselves for hours throwing various things down the dark hole and hearing the splash far below. One day mom had caught us throwing firecrackers down the well. We did the yard work for a month after that stunt. She was the disciplinary in our family. She was also the teacher, taxi driver, medic, and cook of the family. She did everything. Although I can hardly remember my dad being around, my mom was right there in every memory of my childhood. When I was 12, my mom lost her sister and dad in a fishing accident. They were all she had left of her family. Sinking into depression and using alcohol as her flotation device, she rarely left her room after that. I stepped into the role of parent to my three brothers. She had packed and left by the time I had gotten home on the day of the quarantine. We hadn't heard from her since.
"Finish up your food guys. We've got a long day tomorrow and still have to lock up tonight." I prod them to finish their scanty meal of canned tuna and homemade biscuits and start to make my way though the dark house. I methodically check all of the boarded windows as I make my way through each room. I click the deadbolts on the back door and make my way back to the boys to make sure they are getting ready for the night. I smile at the thought of me, the parent.
Before all of this I was the quiet older brother who would drive them to and from school and make them dinner. Other than that interaction, I was pretty detached from my three brothers. I was four when the twins, Tanner and Ammon, were born. They were Identical in every way physically, although in recent years they became very distinguishable due to personality. Tanner was the wild one. He was loud, hilarious, and at times more courageous than I was. Ammon was more of an introvert. He was the reader in the family. He would happily lay aside all of his toys as a kid and lose himself in a book instead. The twins were best friends, regardless of their differences in personality. Bryce came along a year after the twins. He was the most like me- a thinker. Bryce could beat anyone in a game of chess or checkers. Anyone but me. We had an ability to think through things. We were always thinking three or four steps ahead, anticipating the consequences of each action and the different paths each choice could lead us to. We planned meticulously. Bryce was only 13 but, like the rest of us, had hit a growth spurt early on and was the same height as me.
I find the three of them in the basement getting ready for bed. The basement has been the safest spot for us. We could survive weeks down here if needed. My dad had never gotten around to finishing the basement. It was a large empty room with the occasional beam holding up the floor above. The only finished room was a small bathroom underneath the stairs leading down from the main floor. For some reason my father had built the basement with only one window. We had covered the window well with bars to prevent anyone or anything from falling into it.
Over the last month we had managed to stockpile canned foods, bagged grains, and bottled water from various trips to town. We had pulled cots from our camper trailer and blankets from our room and had arranged all of that in a corner where we slept. A mess of radio parts, police scanners, walkie talkies, and phones take up a table on the far wall. All attempts to contact the world outside of our small town had been in vain.
Ammon had begged and begged until I had ran into town and grabbed a carload full of books from our small one roomed library. Those sit next to our old couch in the center of the room- A feeble attempt at making our shelter feel a bit more warm. The large room is pretty much empty other than that.
After checking in on the boys, I head upstairs and out the front door to the porch. With my dads old hunting rifle in my lap, I sit on the porch swing and look out into the darkness. You used to be able to see the town lights glowing far below, see the headlights from cars as they drove through town and down the highway. The ocean stretches off in the distance, a dark mirror to the clear skies above it. Everything is so peaceful and still. Although it is the middle of November, it is still warm enough outside for me to go without a jacket. Sitting in the swing and feeling this peace, I start nodding off, dreaming about better days.
A bright flash brightens the inside of my eyelids and I snap up out of my seat. As I locate the source of the light- an explosion down in town- The boom rings throughout the area, echoing off the mountains. In the darkness I cannot tell which building in town is on fire, but as I look through the rifle's hunting scope I see two dark figures making their way across the street in front of the building. They move slow, one figure visibly hunched over and leaning against another. They make their way to a pickup truck across the street and speed off, taillights disappearing in the trees to the north of town. I do not take my eyes from the scope and the fire below, but hear my brothers come out of the house behind me. They soon join in and watch as the fire grows, engulfing the building.
Tanner grabs the rifle from my hands and looks through the scope, "What happened? Did you see anyone down there?"
"Yeah, I saw a couple people driving away after it happened. One of them looked hurt. They headed north," I reply, quenching all of their fears that they were coming our way.
"Every sleeper for miles around would have heard that," Ammon starts as he heads inside, "Ten bucks says that the town is crawling in corpses by tomorrow morning."
"I wonder if it was someone we knew? Maybe we'd be able to find them and join up?" Bryce. Always the optimistic one.
"Yeah we'll see. Can't do anything about it tonight though. We'll make a run into town tomorrow to see what's up. Lets get some rest guys." I usher them in with these words and lock the door behind me.
Experience has taught me not to get my hopes up, to stay cautious. People have changed since the quarantine. Humanity has taken quite the ugly turn in the last months. We worry about the dead now but many times forget that the living can be just as, if not more, dangerous.
I lay down in my cot with the rifle on the floor next to me.
The image of the burning building in town is still burned in my mind as I start to drift into unconsciousness. I fall asleep replaying the scene in my mind, seeing those two get into the truck and drive away.
After checking in on the boys, I head upstairs and out the front door to the porch. With my dads old hunting rifle in my lap, I sit on the porch swing and look out into the darkness. You used to be able to see the town lights glowing far below, see the headlights from cars as they drove through town and down the highway. The ocean stretches off in the distance, a dark mirror to the clear skies above it. Everything is so peaceful and still. Although it is the middle of November, it is still warm enough outside for me to go without a jacket. Sitting in the swing and feeling this peace, I start nodding off, dreaming about better days.
A bright flash brightens the inside of my eyelids and I snap up out of my seat. As I locate the source of the light- an explosion down in town- The boom rings throughout the area, echoing off the mountains. In the darkness I cannot tell which building in town is on fire, but as I look through the rifle's hunting scope I see two dark figures making their way across the street in front of the building. They move slow, one figure visibly hunched over and leaning against another. They make their way to a pickup truck across the street and speed off, taillights disappearing in the trees to the north of town. I do not take my eyes from the scope and the fire below, but hear my brothers come out of the house behind me. They soon join in and watch as the fire grows, engulfing the building.
Tanner grabs the rifle from my hands and looks through the scope, "What happened? Did you see anyone down there?"
"Yeah, I saw a couple people driving away after it happened. One of them looked hurt. They headed north," I reply, quenching all of their fears that they were coming our way.
"Every sleeper for miles around would have heard that," Ammon starts as he heads inside, "Ten bucks says that the town is crawling in corpses by tomorrow morning."
"I wonder if it was someone we knew? Maybe we'd be able to find them and join up?" Bryce. Always the optimistic one.
"Yeah we'll see. Can't do anything about it tonight though. We'll make a run into town tomorrow to see what's up. Lets get some rest guys." I usher them in with these words and lock the door behind me.
Experience has taught me not to get my hopes up, to stay cautious. People have changed since the quarantine. Humanity has taken quite the ugly turn in the last months. We worry about the dead now but many times forget that the living can be just as, if not more, dangerous.
I lay down in my cot with the rifle on the floor next to me.
The image of the burning building in town is still burned in my mind as I start to drift into unconsciousness. I fall asleep replaying the scene in my mind, seeing those two get into the truck and drive away.
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