Broken Mirror: Apophis 2029 (4 page)

  "Well, look at what the cat dragged in!  Thought I heard some shots, was that you Thorn?" the man with the dreads inquired.

  "Hmm, not a bad catch at that," the dark skinned girl turned to comment as the man sitting in front of the stove grinned in approval at her perverse sense of humor.

  "She was cornered outside, there was a pack of weepers down in the yard," Thorn mentioned as he stepped into the room behind me.  Upon this news, the older man stood up, clearly concerned at this report.

  "How many are you talking about; and how did you get her inside?" he pried, realizing they had did not come from the direction of ground floor stairwell, all of which had been thoroughly blockaded.  Thorn stumbled to his cot and grabbed a clean scarf from atop the blanket while he gestured for me to follow as he answered his companions.

  "Just a few strays I think; didn't see any more," he remarked, "everyone, this is..." he paused, realizing that in his lapse of seeing me naked outside on the balcony, that he had neglected to introduce himself or even ask my name, "what's your name?" he tried to whisper towards me, while trying not to seem too obvious about it to the others.

  "uh, Caitlin," I answered through shivering teeth.

"Caity," he blurted back to the group, trying to seem nonchalant as if he had known that all along, while he in turn introduced me to rabble that were his friends, so I assumed, "Cait, this is Haiti," as he proceeded without further formalities, motioning to the black man who gave a wry smirk with a flash of his white teeth, "and Serena," turning to the raven-haired girl who couldn't resist the earlier sexist remark.

  "Can I call her Cat?" Serena added with a hungry wink towards me as Thorn brushed aside the comment.

  "Felix, is our cook," he pointed over to the red haired man sitting in front of the tiny stove, which made his title appear a little pretentious. Behind him stood the older gentleman whose posture became a little more relaxed after his initial stance, "Killroy, here
,
is a little older and wiser than the rest of us," Thorn added as a flavorless compliment, "I helped her in just above the dock," Thorn finally answered Roy, "and just barely at that," my host finished as he turned back to me with a faint grin on his face as he gently nudged me from behind in Serena's direction.

  "And you are ...Thorn?" I had to inquire, which I thought was a slightly odd name.  He just nodded back to me as the dark skinned girl carefully took my arm to look at my cut hand.  She guided me back to the shower room down the hall where they had moved a tub around to catch rainwater through the cracks in the ceiling above.  I honestly didn't expect the showers themselves to work when the girl turned the knob and removed my makeshift robe, but water began to spurt, a little brown with rust at first, but cleared up after a minute.

  "Get yourself washed up, and I'll bring you some clothes, Kitten." which was her new pet name for me, I began to realize; guessing that she was either extremely friendly towards strangers, or completely bisexual. 

  Stripping me of my blanket, she left me there, but not without a long sultry glance back at my bare ass.  All I could do was hesitate; wondering if she was actually being serious as I felt the water splashing at my sore feet.  Stepping into the stream of the shower I could feel my muscles begin to relax, at least it wasn't as unpleasant as the bitter rainfall outside.  There must have been a water tank on the roof that fed these pipes that had retained its insulation. 

  Over the past few years, I had become accustomed to bathing in rivers and the open rain when needed, or gotten by with a soaked rag and pans of boiled water whenever the opportunity presented itself.  I had almost had forgotten how long it had been since I had a
real
hot shower, but this lukewarm bath was still an unexpected privilege; even more so when I found a half worn bar of soap laying on a tiled shelf which I had
assumed was for community use.  Turning off the knob when I was done, I stood there naked for a while and began to shiver again from the draft seeping into the room until Serena came back with something akin to a towel and an armful of clothes.

  "Take these; you're a bit taller than me, but they should fit," she offered while setting aside a small selection of outfits.  I could tell at first glance that she had grossly underestimated my height proportion to the offered clothes.  She was slight, and a bit more on the athletic side, and not at all unattractive; but I could tell there was an ingrained attitude about her that might rub me the wrong way if we were stuck together in the same room for too long.  Even so, I wasn't entirely ungrateful.

  "Thanks," I added as an afterthought, "when can I get my own gear back?"

  "Thorn said you got a bit of weeper blood on them, so they have to dry out completely for a full day before you can touch them again." she remarked. 

  Since my stuff was all in a pile out on a rain-swept balcony, I figured it would likely not be sooner than later.  I tried on a few things on she had left; at least to keep me warm, and hoped she wouldn't notice when I quietly put a few rips in the shirt to stretch it out so I could breathe.

  "Is that his real name?"  I inquired out of mild curiosity and to make light conversation; as it was becoming evermore obvious the girl was spending her attention watching me get dressed.

  "Hah," she chuckled back, "no, no, it's something more absurd like 'Jebediah,' or one of those funky Quaker names," she giggled, "We've been tagging along as a group for some time.  One night we found an abandoned liquor storage and we all had the insight to burn our ID's after having a few too many drinks while we crashed around a campfire," she sat down, rubbing her wrist in thought as her tone subsided into something a shade more sincere, "so we decided, 'what the hell,' no government anymore, we can be who we want to be; so we made up our own names." she sighed, and as she did so I could tell her mind was drifting a million miles away, "but my ID chip was implanted like most people.  All my medical records, credit data, work history, and family..." she ended with a faint whisper.

  "Yeah, I was going to get one of those," I added to break the awkward silence, knowing better at this point to not inquire about her family since they were likely dead.  It was a fresh scar I could see in her eyes now; but these
were memories we were not able to shed a tear for ...at least not in public.

  Her mood returned as dramatically as it had dissipated; which was likely a self-groomed reaction.  I followed her back as she took a small detour to recheck the security of the barred doors on our way back to the main room with the others.  There was a new makeshift cot waiting for me along with some cooking utensils and a pack of dried noodles.  Killroy saw that I was a bit confused at first as to this solitary arrangement, so he made sure I knew the rules.

  "Since you were exposed, you will have to cook your own food for the next few day
s
or so," he informed while keeping a few steps distance, "and will ask that you don't touch anyone or their stuff during that time, Miss." 

  Meaning they were keeping an eye on me, which was an understandable precaution.  That is when I finally grasped that Serena's gifts of clothing were actually hand-me-downs she never expect to get back.  I could see Thorn's gloves propped on sticks to dry by the propane fire, and turned to see him tucking in the little boy still asleep in the back of the room.  It humbled me to realize that the score of events stretching nearly the past full decade of just how hard this must have been on the children, who would grow up only thinking this was how life was; and never to experience how the world used to be. 

They would to grow up calloused by the blunt hardships of the world, only to be cursed to having to hide it all inside.  I imagined it
must be like living within a bleak emotional tundra; never being able to explore the colors hidden in a world locked deep beneath a sheet of impenetrable ice.  Thorn finally got up and came over to talk with me, though still keeping a notable distance.

  "Who's that?" I inquired quietly, nodding over to the sleeping child.  Thorn turned a moment towards the boy with a heavy sigh, as if my innocent question had just lit the slow fuse to a very long tale.

  "It was about six months or so, I would guess, that we found him out by the edge of a city while making our way south.  He was on the edge of a small abandoned camper," Thorn stated with a look of pity as he turned back towards me, "he was just sitting there alone on the stoop, as if he was waiting for someone to come home."

  "No sign of the parents?"  I inquired, though it seemed like a redundant question.  Thorn just shrugged.

  "Nope, don't know what happened to them either.  He hasn't talked since we met, and it was obviously he had been starving for quite some time," he added, "a few of us were worried that he might have been infected, the symptoms you know were a bit similar, but he didn't show any physical signs besides his detached behavior."

  "Maybe he's deaf, or a mute, or just can't speak?" I suggested.

  "I don't think so, just seems like he's in shock and doesn't know how to handle it.  I've seen people act like that before ...just not for this long," Thorn replied, "we checked out the trailer, but there weren't any photographs or anything to let us know his name, so we just call him, 'Kid.'  He kind of picked up the nickname from Roy who yells '
hey, Kid, over here
!' at him all the time," he finished intimidating Killroy's deep voice as Thorn gave a childish smirk while he motioned over to the older man.

  "How did you find this place?" I asked while eyeing the dried noodles, the grumble from my stomach admitting I was sorely hungry.  Noticing that, Thorn backed up, giving me a few feet within the zone of my courtesy quarantine, which would last at least until tomorrow.  He motioned for me to take the metal pot over to the stove and he cordially set down a canteen of water next to it for my convenience.  Felix also stepped aside to make some room for me to cook as Thorn continued his story.

  "We were all stragglers who happened upon each other down the road in one hairy situation or another," he smiled as if to welcome me to the club, "some of us have been together longer than others, and other survivors we've known have already parted and gone their separate ways.  We came upon this facility a few weeks back, and it seemed like a good place to hold up through the winter storms." he managed to add, but with a certain lack of conviction in his breath.

  "What was this place?"  I asked as I finished stirring my soup while warming my fingers over the edge of the burners as the tiny blue flames licked their way up the sides of the pot.

  "Ah, it looks to be an industrial building of some sort," Haiti added from the other side of the fire, inviting himself into the conversation, "though the office area seems to have seen better days," he noted, referring to the collapsed portion outside.  It made sense; that is probably why there were so many commerce trucks and a loading dock below, and communal shower facilities for the drivers. Of course, this place did not look like a Country Club, but I was just as interested what it had been used for.

  "Don't worry about it though, we scouted the property and blocked up all the doorways so we're relatively safe here," Thorn assured me, "just try not to expose yourself in the day by standing in the windows, or with any lights in the outer area at night.  It's better that nobody knows we're here or to attract any unwanted attention," he added with a note of warning; and it was good advice as I had also learned over the years, "...but what's your story
,
Caity?" Thorn asked, and seemed authentically interested to know.

  "Yes Kitten, where are you from?" Serena chimed in from across the room.  My sad story wasn't as complicated as most, and was a tale that was all too familiar. 

  In my early twenties I had taken off from the boring little town I had grown up in to go to college out west.  I had rushed around looking for a good job and a decent place to live in the rat race my life had become after leaving the security of my large family.  Basically I was just striving for my own independence like every other child who breaks away from their family, only to have mild regrets from time to time. 

  I was on my own at the time, had a long distance lover I saw a few times a year, as I never had the desperate need for a steady date or having to constantly be responsible for placating myself to someone else's feelings on a daily basis.  It was a lifestyle I had become accustomed too, because, in all honesty, I would find it far too mentally exhausting if I ever woke up to find that I was tethered to somebody else that I had to answer too over every petty little thing.  It just wasn't my style.  I considered the weight of a real affair to be too much work since I always had something else on my mind to take up the time.  Plus, looking around at how our society devalued relationships as it was, I did not feel like I was all too alone in that club.

  When the flyby of the asteroid was going to happen, every government and media assured us it was just going to be a harmless spectacle like Haley's comet, though it was promised to be a tad more impressive; being an only a 1 in every 800 year event of its kind.  Well, that it certainly was.  The approach of the asteroid was broadcast worldwide on Holo-Cable, but it was still considered a minor distraction as the media was still overwhelmed with coverage of several petty incursions fueled by insanely volatile mixtures of political and religious wars, international tension
,
foreign invasions, terrorism, forced occupations, etc.  The list just went on and on.  It seemed like there were just too many people on the planet and not enough space for the human race to keep from bumping shoulders.