Finding Home - A Post Apocalyptic Novel (The Ravaged Land Series Book 2) (8 page)

“I’m Ms. Deezil, and I’ll be the one showing you around today. Please, if you would follow me,” she said walking out of the doorway. I tried to be polite and wait for the couple with their daughter to go, but they motioned for me to go first. I nodded and followed Deezil out into a large room where there were small groups of people gathered. There were board games, dart boards, a pool table and other games scattered about. The people who were using them seemed to be having a good time. They seemed rather expressionless, but no one seemed to be suffering or longing to escape. None of them seemed super happy or excited either, but everyone here probably had gone through some kind of ordeal to get here. Having shelter and food didn’t mean you’d suddenly be happy.

“This is the rec room,” she said and quickly led us down the hallway as if she was being timed. Maybe the employee who did the fastest tour of the month would get a plaque on the wall with their picture on it.

There was a door on the left she pointed out and informed us was the library. The door was closed, but I saw a few people in there through the window just sitting there and reading quietly. Further down the hall on the right was the cafeteria which was mostly empty. There were some people in the back working. They appeared to be cleaning up after the last meal.

I tried to look at as many faces as I could as we walked along, but I hadn’t seen Dean, Owen, Sienna or Ryan yet. This was an immense place— they could be almost anywhere. If they were still here. But just because I hadn’t seen them right away, didn’t mean they weren’t still here somewhere.

She showed us a few other rooms, but I had stopped paying attention. I couldn’t hear anything but a buzzing in my ears that kept getting louder with each passing face that wasn’t one of my friends. I wanted to have seen one of them by now, so that I could tell myself that this hadn’t been a huge mistake.

Deezil led us down several twisting hallways that were marked with signs along the way, similar to what might be in a hospital. Room numbers and arrows pointing this way and that. She slowed down and opened a door on the right.

“This is where you’ll stay, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, and you too of course, Claire. Go on, make yourselves at home. There is a binder on each bed, please go through it and if you have questions write them down and we’ll go over them in the morning.”

The family moved inside staying huddled together and closed the door behind them. Deezil smiled after them apparently oblivious to how scared and uncomfortable they were here. Or maybe she was just used to that reaction.

She stepped across the hall and opened another door. Deezil gestured for us to enter, and she took a step inside, watching as we checked over the room. It almost seemed as though she wanted to make sure it was to our liking. Or more accurately Penn’s liking. It was as if he could have told her that this room just wouldn’t do, and she would find us something else that better suited our needs.

“This will be your room, and you both have your binders you can go over as well. It should answer any question you might have about HOME. And if not, I’ll see you again bright and early tomorrow for orientation.”

“Thank you,” I said smiling at her.

She blinked again as if seeing me almost pulled her out of some kind of trance. She tilted her head, “Do I know you from somewhere? Gosh, you look awfully familiar.”

Penn forced a laugh that sounded noticeably uncomfortable to me. “That would be rather unlikely!” he said stiffly. “We’ve been in Anchorage since this whole thing went down.”

“Really? No way! What a small world. I’m originally from Anchorage! What part of town are you two from?” She looked like she was about to say something more but Penn boldly walked right up to her and smoothly slid his arm around her shoulders. He turned her towards the door and whispered to her for a few moments. She looked at him and tapped her hand on his forearm before nodding and leaving the room.

“Jesus Christ,” he said smiling although I could see the nervousness in his eyes. “That was close.”

“What did you say to her?”

“I told her what happened to my dad, and that you were still upset about it. I asked that she not talk about anything that might remind you of him… like asking you about our home or where we come from,” he said quietly as he walked over to his bed. He picked up the thick binder and held it as if he was weighing it.

“That was quick thinking,” I said squinting at him. He was just filled with all sorts of skills and tricks. But in this case I was thankful that he was.

“No kidding. I’m going to have to teach you what it was like growing up in Anchorage. Just in case it comes up again.”

“OK,” I said actually kind of interested in learning more about where and how Penn had spent his childhood. Maybe it would provide some insight into who he was. Maybe it would help me figure him out.

I grabbed my binder and flipped through the pages. It was filled with floor plans, schedules, menus, various jobs, things you could volunteer for, classes for younger kids. Anything you could fit in a real world city was crammed inside HOME. There were shops, churches, indoor playgrounds and swimming pools, anything you could imagine, they seemed to have it.

“Can we just get up and go do all this stuff whenever we want?” I asked not even sure Penn had seen everything they had to offer.

“I have no idea, but I have to say, so far this isn’t anything at all like you described.”

“We’ll see,” I said not sounding as confident as I once had. I reminded myself that I believed they killed people. No matter how good they made things seem for their zombies on the inside, out there they were killing people if they didn’t fall in line. Or at least that’s what I believed.

“I’m glad we get to stay together,” he said not even bothering to look at me.

“Me too.” It would have been awful to be in a room with someone I didn’t know. Or alone. Getting to stay with Penn was a huge relief.

Our room was spacious enough that I didn’t feel too claustrophobic. I would have liked to have a window, but otherwise it kind of just felt like a small apartment. We each had a full-sized bed on opposite sides of the room. Each side of the room had a desk with a little cup filled with pens and pencils. There was a small private bathroom at the back wall which somehow had a working shower.

“Should we go wandering?” I asked not completely sure we were allowed to just leave the room. Maybe we were supposed to be confined to our rooms until further notice? Maybe there was a curfew? Or alarms would go off if we tried to leave. I wish Deezil would have told us more about day-to-day life here at HOME. But that was probably all in our handy binders, or we’d find out tomorrow.

“I… I don’t know!” he said with a chuckle. Penn almost seemed giddy. I couldn’t understand what had happened to change him. He scanned the binder and pointed at something, “Orientation is at eight, maybe we should just try to get some rest?”

“Hmm…,” I said but what I really wanted to do was to comb every inch of the place until I found my friends.

He sat down next to me and put his arm around my shoulders just like he had with Deezil. I rolled my eyes, but he hadn’t seen me do it. “I get it. You’re anxious to find them, but we have to play it cool. We can’t be out there looking all suspicious. How do you think it would look if we find them, and you just walked up and talked to them as if you’ve known them all your life? It would stand out. Trust me.”

I nodded at his words. He was probably right. They likely had hidden cameras scattered about, and people watching them at all times. Someone would see the suspicious behavior and alert those in charge, putting all of us in danger. And I imagined they probably watched the new people even closer than they did the regulars. I wondered if there were cameras watching us right now. Maybe the room was bugged, and they had heard everything Penn had said to me.

“You’re probably right,” I said softly as I pulled at my jumpsuit almost as if I was afraid it would permanently attach to my skin. “Do we have to sleep in these?” I asked Penn as if he knew the answers.

He stood up and opened the closet which was lined with jumpsuits. One at a time he sifted through them running his fingers over his name that was already written on each one. He then opened the drawer of his nightstand and found a pair of lounge pants and a T-shirt in the same pale blue color of the jumpsuits. I opened my drawer to find a pair of cotton pajamas, in my size, also in the same pale blue color.

“Don’t people in prison wear this color?” I said turning my nose up at the pajamas as if they stunk. But they didn’t smell like anything.

“Maybe… but at least they aren’t orange. Or black and white stripes,” he said with a bright smile. I had to admit, when he smiled like that he was, well, hot, but I was with Ryan so none of that mattered. I wasn’t going to let anyone, or anything, deter me from my mission. The only thing I cared about was finding them, well that and not getting killed.

I went to the bathroom and took a thirty second shower because my nerves wouldn’t let me stay in there longer. But it felt absolutely amazing to take a warm shower. I couldn’t remember the last time I had felt this clean. Back in Ryan’s shelter perhaps. I slipped into the soft pajamas and when I came out Penn was lounging on his bed already changed.

Apparently he wouldn’t have cared if I just walked in on him in the middle of undressing. He was skimming through the binder and didn’t even seem to notice I had entered the room.

“Not going to take a shower?” I asked raising my eyebrows.

“Maybe later,” he said keeping his focus on the papers.

The bed creaked as I crawled onto it taking my binder with me. I flipped through looking for the maps. When I found them, I took my time and carefully studied them. One of them showed the whole campus, and I set to memorize it. I wanted to know this place forward and backward. There was a big square that represented the building we were in. The word ‘houses’ was written next to a scattering of a bunch of little squares that must have represented buildings. The houses surrounded the main base, the building we were in. North of the base was several rectangles that were labeled as apartments. Further west, set away from most of the squares and rectangles, was a larger rectangle marked simply as ‘offices.’ Behind the offices, were several triangles labeled as windmills which I assumed were used to power the buildings.

I spent the rest of the night memorizing that map until I drifted off. I alternated between a short deep sleep, and lengthy bouts of tossing and turning.

“Sleeeeeeeep,” Penn whispered through the darkness. The creaking of my bed must have been keeping him awake. He must have turned out the lights at some point because the room was pitch black except for a night-light in the wall near the door.

“I can’t,” I said lightly punching my pillow as if the pillow was at fault.

“You can do anything you put your mind to,” he said sounding mildly cranky before he flipped over onto his other side.

I didn’t feel safe. Or comfortable. I took a deep breath and bit my lip. Both my mind and body were incomprehensibly tired. I debated with myself for about half a second before the words just spilled out of my mouth, “Can I come in your bed?”

“Yes,” he said as he flipped back around and made room for me. I brought the blanket from my bed over as if that would somehow keep us separated. This was nothing more than two friends sharing a bed. Ryan would understand once I explained it to him. If he was even alive for me to give an explanation to.

“Thanks,” I said turning my back to him. Once I stopped moving and settled in, he put his arm around my waist. I must have fallen asleep fast because the next thing I knew I jolted upright and shook the whole bed. Someone was pounding on our door.

Chapter eight.

Penn climbed over me and went to the door. Before he answer it, she knocked again. It wasn’t anywhere near as loud as I thought it had been when it woke me. He glanced at me checking to make sure I was awake before he slowly opened it. He kept his body positioned on our side of the door in case he had to close it quickly using his body weight, or at least that’s what I imagined he was doing. Although I’m sure if someone barricaded themselves in their room, HOME had their ways of getting inside. It was their property. Everyone here, whether they knew it or not, was under their control.

“Good morning. Orientation is in an hour in classroom B,” the soft voice said. She spoke so quietly I could barely make out her words.

“OK,” Penn said as he cleared his throat.

“Sorry, most people miss the start time in the binder, if they even look it. This is just your friendly door-to-door reminder,” she said. I knew it hadn’t been Deezil, the voice wasn’t even close. Whoever she was must have walked away because I heard a small knock on the next door, probably the Johnson’s. Penn watched for a bit before almost soundlessly clicking the door closed.

Without a window in our room it stayed so dark inside that I thought it was still nighttime. And with how poorly I had slept, I wish it would have been. Penn sat down on the bed by my feet.

“Guess we should get ready,” I said, suddenly feeling awkward about having been in his bed all night. I’d never admit it to anyone, but after I crawled in with him it had been the best sleep I had in a long time. The last time I could remember sleeping this well was back before Seth burned our house down in his altered state. Too bad it hadn’t been nearly long enough for me to feel rested. It would take effort to keep my guard up being as tired as I was. But I had a feeling I couldn’t just say I was too tired to go. This orientation stuff felt mandatory.