Haven (The Breadwinner Trilogy) (3 page)

V

Each furnished condominium was elegant and spacious with its own balcony and breathtaking view of the emerald coast.  The largest unit on the 24th floor was used for stocking all that Gary had previously scavenged from the building.  One bedroom for food and water, another for shoes and clothing.  The third was set up as a disorganized medical facility and Gary used the fourth for his own personal sleeping space.  Samson wanted everyone to stay close together so they took the two units to the left.  Each of them found clothes that would fit from Gary’s homemade walk in closet and took turns bathing themselves in his seemingly endless supply of gulf water. 

As Veronica dressed in the room she’d chosen she felt like an alien.  This was not her home, and after weeks of death, violence, running and hiding, she didn’t feel normal sleeping in a bed, in some tower and pretending that everything was alright.  She walked to the huge sliding glass door and pulled hard on the handle.  The door slid open, sunshine greeting her face and the sound of soft waves touching the sands filling her ears.  Samson was already out on the balcony, staring out over the water.

“It’s a lot to take in, isn’t it?”  He squinted at her over his shoulder as she stepped out of her room.  The large balcony ran the length of the entire unit and each room had their own private access doors.

“Yeah.”  She stepped up next to him and leaned on the rail.  The breeze flowing through her long dark hair.

“You ok?”

She thought about his question.  What it actually meant.  Was he referring to what happened in Franklin Woods or what happened at The Dockside Bar & Grill?  Or did he want to know how she was in general, in light of the world ending.  “I’m not ok with any of it.  But I’m alive, so I guess I gotta be doin’ pretty well.”

Samson’s mouth was a tight line.  His eyes still squinted in the sun, still staring off into the water.  He watched as The Dockside gently bobbed in the waves.  “I’d say you’re doin’ alright by today’s standards.” 

“Are you ok?”  She looked at him but he didn’t turn to look at her.

“Today’s standards, Veronica.”  He tapped the railing with his wedding band and stopped immediately, looking down at it, the white gold shining in the light of the afternoon sun.  Veronica cringed as Samson pulled the ring off his finger, a white tan line taking its place.  “We made it this far.”  Samson didn’t throw the wedding ring from the balcony; that would have allowed Veronica to see that he had some sort of left over emotion attached to the inanimate
object.  He simply let go of the ring, not as if he were defeated by it but as if he simply had no more reason to hold on.  “Just gotta keep reminding ourselves that we made it this far.”  He squeezed her shoulder as he passed her.  “Gary’s waiting for us, you comin’?”  She nodded and followed him back inside.

The rest of the group was already in the living room.  Gary had arranged the furniture so they could all sit in a circle.

“Welcome, welcome!”  Gary greeted them cheerfully.  “Head to the kitchen before you sit, there’s bottled water and soda, everything’s warm but I’m sure you’re used to it.  Some snacks and food, take a can.  Help yourself to whatever you’d like.”  Veronica’s eyes lit up when she spotted the chocolate chip cookies sitting on the kitchen counter and took the whole bag with her to the couch. 

Everyone giggled, it was surprisingly delightful to be able to watch a teenager stuff her face with cookies at a time like this.  “What?”  She said through a full mouth.  “He said help yourself.”

“That I did.”  Gary smiled and clapped his hands together.  “So, now that we’re all here.  Let’s get some food in our bellies and get down to business.”  He leaned back in the light green arm chair.  “As one man, I can’t possibly stake claim to this entire building.  It wouldn’t be right for me to sit here and tell you this is all mine, but I will say that I’ve been a busy lad.  Ever since the breach and I lost everyone, I’ve made sure the dead stay out of the remaining building.  I gathered every useful item from every single floor and I have spent hours upon hours trudging back and forth from the beach to stock up on sea water.  I got bored sitting and waiting for someone to show up and so I scouted the area, not too far, I’m only one person.  But with it just being me, it made it very easy for me to get around, explore and scavenge the other businesses and homes on this block.”  He scratched lightly at his dark beard.  “So like I said, I’ve been busy.  But I wouldn’t have invited you here to share this all with you if I didn’t need you.  I told you on the boat that I needed your help going out in the area for supplies, but I also need your help to clear out the central building.”

“Clear out a building?”  Andrew set his Coke can down on the coffee table.  “Isn’t that the building ya’ll got attacked in?”

Gary put his hands up, “Hold on, hold on.  Don’t get the wrong idea.  Yes, we lost the building.  I lost everyone.  But I need the building back.  We need the building back.”  He put an emphasis on the word ‘we’ as he spoke to Andrew.  “You see this little guy I’ve got strapped to me here?”  He patted his gun.  “That’s all I’ve got left, and I don’t see you lot with an armory anywhere do I?”

“We had a lot more.  A whole lot more.  But some asshole locked us out of where we were holed up at.”  Clyde joined the conversation.  Samson made a face.  Veronica stole a glance at him from the corner of her eye.

“So you see?  You need weapons.  We had a ton of them stockpiled.  Nothing fancy, mind you, but plenty of guns and ammunition.  Knives and other weaponry, all useful in a time like this.”

“And all this is in the building that happens to be filled with hungry ass dead folk?”  Clyde dramatically folded his arms across his chest.

“Well, I wouldn’t say filled.  That would be the east wing.  But nothing could have wandered into that building and nothing would have been able to wander out.  East wing is too high risk, there is no way we’d be able just shoo them on in there.  We need them dead and there’s no better time like the present.  I’m taking back what’s mine.”  He looked at the faces in the group expectantly.

Ben cracked his knuckles and nodded at Gary.  “If that’s what we gotta do to stay, then that’s what we gotta do.”

“Alright, that’s the spirit!  What about the rest of you lot?” 

“Yeah, yeah.  Let’s do this.”  Clyde put his hand out and Ben slapped him five nonchalantly. 

Juliette looked nervous as Andrew also agreed to the plan.  He reassured her with a kiss to her forehead.  “This will be good for us.  It’s safe here.”

“Samson?”  Gary’s pleasant demeanor was overwhelming.

He leaned forward on the couch and propped himself up on his elbows, “I suppose I don’t have a choice.”

VI

“This is stupid and I’m pissed off.”  Veronica glared at Samson on the breezeway outside of Gary’s condo. 

“I know you are.  I agree with Andrew though, Juliette can’t be left alone and it would be best for you to stay up here with her.”

“And so what if you all go in there like a bunch of over confident jerks and end up getting killed?  I’m stuck taking care of Mrs. Boohoo in there?  That sounds perfect!”  She threw her arms up and began shouting at him.  “You know perfectly well I can handle myself and exactly what I’m capable of.  I can’t believe you!” 

Samson sighed.  He couldn’t remember a moment in his life where he enjoyed temper tantrums.  He looked up when Ben exited their unit and joined them.

“What’s the matter with her?”  He threw a thumb in Veronica’s direction and smirked, exacerbating the situation.  Samson shook his head.

“Are you kidding me?”  She turned to him, hands on her hips.

“Chill out.  We’re gonna be gone for like an hour.  Juliette will probably sleep through the whole thing and you won’t even know we’re gone.  What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Great question.”  Samson walked off toward the stairwell door.  “I’ll meet you downstairs.  Hurry up, we need to be done before it starts getting dark.”

Ben coughed and spit over the railing.  “Look, I know for a fact you’re tougher than any of us.  But there are those of us who aren’t and need taking care of.”  Veronica stood silently, picking at her nails.  “This’ll be good for ya.  We got a good thing here, take advantage of it and relax for a change.  Alright?” 

She shrugged and looked up at him, he grinned at her.  “Whatever.” 

He tapped his baseball bat twice on the ground and nudged her chin before walking off.  She watched him disappear and waited for the door to slam before going back inside.  Juliette sat on the couch with her knees pulled in to her chest, she didn’t raise her head or speak when Veronica walked in.  Veronica stood there for a moment, just staring at the skinny blonde, wondering what she could even talk to her about.  A few weeks ago the two women were completely different people.  Veronica would have sat down across from her and cheerfully babbled about running track and ask Juliette what kind of music she listened to.  Juliette would have invited Veronica to the gym she worked at, offering a free fitness consultation and inquire about which colleges Veronica was thinking about going to.  But now Juliette was lost in her own mind, incapable of dealing with her current situation and Veronica felt useless holed up in the luxurious condo.

Ben exited the stairwell on the 11th floor and joined the rest of the men on the sky bridge that connected their building with the central tower. 

“Alright,” Gary started, “the layout of Central is different than the other two buildings.  The stairs run up the middle and everything is completely enclosed.  No breezeways and no doors to the stairs so that means these bastards could be roaming anywhere.  There’s no need to check the rooms unless the doors are open but there aren’t a lot of windows in the halls so be extra careful and make sure you don’t lose these.”  He passed out LED flashlights to everyone.  “Try to keep gunfire to a minimum, you don’t want to end up cornered and you don’t want to end up deaf.”  He motioned for the guys to follow him as he set a trash can aside and grabbed a hefty set of keys from under it.  “Once I unlock this door, these keys go under the trash can on the other side and we lock ourselves in.  Keep your wits about you and we meet back here.

“Wait, so we’re splitting up?”  Samson asked nervously.  “Isn’t that what always gets everybody killed in movies?”

Gary chuckled.  “Well it’s unfortunate, but this isn’t a movie and we’ve got ground to cover.  We all know how to handle ourselves.  Everybody ready?”  They all looked at each other and nodded.  Gary turned the key in the lock and it clicked loudly.  He pulled open the heavy glass door and the putrid smell of rot slowly met their noses.  “Ah, yeah, forgot to mention the smell.  We should probably air the place out once we’re done.”  He stepped aside and let everyone through and then locked the doors behind them.  Everyone jumped as he put his hand up to his mouth and whistled loudly.

“What the fuck?”  Clyde shoved Gary hard and pointed his gun down the hallway. 

“Had to wake them up mate, get them moving.  I don’t know about you but I’m not in the mood for hide and seek.” 

Clyde grunted and moved forward slowly, stopping when he heard the faint wail of an eater on a floor below them.  “I’m headin’ upstairs, who’s with me?”  Ben raised his bat in the air. 

“Alright, I’m going to need the other two then.  Got the recreational rooms and lobby downstairs to deal with.  My best guess is they’re all congregating down there.”  Gary lead the way to the steps, Clyde and Andrew clapped each other on the shoulders and the men silently parted ways.

Samson and Andrew followed Gary and repeated the same process on each floor.  They were lucky that each level had no more than about three to four eaters at a time, a simple number for the three men to take on.  Some floors had none at all.  They were more worried about being cornered than anything else.  They finally made it down to the recreation level on the second floor. A fitness center and an indoor pool were off to the left and a small theatre and arcade were on the right. 

Gary whistled again, trying to draw the eaters out.  Low moans began to rise from the right and the men circled around, preparing themselves for the attack.

“I don’t understand.”  Gary remained standing still while Samson and Andrew went to work on the eaters that had emerged from the theater. 

“A little help would be nice!”  Andrew shouted as he swung his club at one eater while dodging the attack of another.  Gary just stood staring at them, bewildered by something that the other two men didn’t understand.  Samson pulled his knife from the back of one eater’s head and grabbed the other eater trying to take a bite out of Andrew, slamming it to the ground.  A once chubby old lady, her glasses still somehow on her face, writhed underneath his weight, her jaws snapping nonstop.  Samson buried his diving knife in the center of her forehead and her eyes rolled off to one side, movement ceasing.  Samson was back up on his feet and face to face with another eater for barely a second before Andrew caved the side of its hideous face in and the thing dropped like a pile of bricks.

“Last one, you take the honors”  Andrew tossed the gold club to Samson and in one fluid motion Samson took a bow followed by his best golf swing, one that the pros would have been proud of.  He smashed the club so hard into the final eater’s head that they heard its neck break.

They two men looked around, panting, astonished that Gary had simply stood there and not helped them whatsoever.  “What’s the deal man?”  Andrew stood directly in Gary’s line of sight but Gary still didn’t look at him.  “Yo!  I’m talkin’ to you, what’s your problem?” 

Gary suddenly shoved him back.  “This is my fucking problem!”  He pointed to the minimal amount of eaters that they had just put down.  “Where are the rest of them?!  You two weren’t exactly quiet just then, were you?  So that means there aren’t any in the lobby, if there were they would have been up here by now.”

“Maybe they’re just that damn slow, Gary.”  Samson cleaned his knife off as he spoke.

“Jesus Christ, don’t you get what I’m saying?  We’ve put down what, twenty of the bastards?  Half the lower levels were empty.  That means I was wrong.  For whatever reason the majority of them went back up, not down.”  A string of muffled shots rang out somewhere above them.

“Ah shit!  Clyde!”  Andrew went running for the stairs in a panic.  Samson and Gary followed close behind him, guns now drawn.