Ravaged Land - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (14 page)

“I can do—.” I started to offer since I was the reason the bags were out there, but was quickly cut off by Owen’s simple yet effective hand gesture.

“He needs the air.” Owen took a deep breath and sighed trying to change the atmosphere. The rest of us were still holding our breath and our bodies were motionless.

“But it was my mess, I should take care of it,” I said upset with myself. I should have thought things through before I cleaned out the fridge. The smell inside the fridge had been so putrid, it had only been a matter of time before it smelled up the whole house. At the time I hadn’t considered the generator, but then again it wasn’t like they were going to let it run all day and night. That would guzzle too much fuel and add too much noise. Right or wrong I still should have been the one to deal with it. I considered going out to help Ryan, but I was probably the last person he wanted to see, or at least the second to last.

“More importantly,” he turned to Dean, “What’s going on with you and Ryan? You guys were fine this morning. You both better get it together.”

Dean sat back down and returned to busying himself with his bow, “Nothing man, it’s all good.” Dean glanced up at me just ever so quickly. It was so fast I wasn’t sure it had even happened. He wasn’t about to get on Owen’s bad side, he and Owen were friends before all this happened. He trusted Owen and knew when to stop testing his limits. If Owen wanted him to cool it, he’d do it.

“Let’s go upstairs and see if we can find good places to shoot from if we should need to defend our fortress,” Owen joked attempting to lighten the mood. Dean followed him upstairs. Owen probably was just going to try to get him alone so he could find out what was going on. What I would give to be a fly on that wall.

Ryan came back and went straight to the basement. I debated about whether or not I should go after him, tell him I was sorry about leaving the bags outside in such a noticeable spot, but he was stomping back up before I could decide. He had been looking for a fan for Seth and found one. He plugged it in and aimed the slightly cool wind in his direction. I freshened up the washcloth on his forehead and it wasn’t long before Seth was thanking Ryan.

“I feel better already,” he said, “so much better.”

“You should eat something,” I told him. “Let me get you something.”

I brought him a cereal bar and some water. He ate and drank slowly but he did seem to be improving. His eyes were open and his breathing more relaxed. “Too bad I won’t be able to leave this spot,” he teased but with a dash of truth mixed in.

“Aw Seth! You’ll see once you recharge you’ll be much better!” I smiled at him and went to the kitchen to put what water we had in the fridge so we could have it cold. I tried the stove top and was surprised when the burner started working, I’d be able to boil water if we could get some from the sink, rain or other sources. My mind went to worrying about whether anyone passing by would hear the generator and what that would mean for us.

After I’d grabbed something to eat I went to my room to read my book. It was getting dark and any light that filtered through the wooden boards was vanishing. I lit my candle and closed the curtains to help ensure the light stayed inside. I was sick of being in sweaty clothes so I darted out to grab one of the new T-shirts assuming they were for whoever needed one.

Back in my room, I undressed and put on the T-shirt that thankfully was an extra-large size. I may be swimming it in but it kept me covered, and it felt great to be in a clean shirt. My only wish was that I could have washed my hair. Maybe now that I can boil water I’d actually get to have a warm bath soon instead of just cleaning with a washcloth. I fantasized about soap, everything about it, the lather, the scent, and how clean I’d feel after rinsing it away. The thought made me smile.

I settled in bed and spent the rest of the night reading, daydreaming, and eventually falling asleep.

Chapter eleven.

As the weeks passed, the boys, and always just the boys, gathered more and more supplies of all kinds. We had started to clean out space in the basement to store and organizing all of our goods. Ryan would get gas cans and fill them whenever he could for the generator which we stored in the shed out back. We’d only run the generator at night and only for a few hours or if someone needed to cool down with the fan. The heat hadn’t let up, we just got better at managing how we handled it and maybe a little more used to it too.

Seth was somewhat back to normal although he continued to be affected by the heat when he overworked himself. On the nights we decided to run the generator, he would be the one sitting by the fan in the living room. But at least he’d been able to be up and help out more often. He’d spent a lot of time in the basement building shelving for our supplies because it was cooler down there and he could accomplish more. I could tell he felt useful when he was down there helping with the shelving and organizing. His shelving design always had me feeling like I was in a little store when I went down to get something, everything organized, facing outward, shelves always stocked, it was actually quite amazing. People would kill for it.

They’d brought home a DVD player and were constantly bringing movies back which it turned out were pretty easy to find, it was something no one who was out there trying to survive wanted. We had all the newest movies, well newest back when there were people who were actually making movies. A few times a week we’d have movie night, everyone all together. Just like we had done at the shelter. Seth, Owen and Dean sat on the couch, Ryan in one chair and me in the other. Sienna always lounged on the floor. She’d lay there on her stomach with her face propped up on her hands. I’d pop popcorn on the stove for everyone and once in a while a rare treat of soda on ice. It was a night everyone looked forward to, even Ryan. After a while, repeating our daily schedule week after week, we all sort of fell into a nice comfortable routine, just as we had back in Ryan’s shelter. Everyone did their job and everyone pitched in with something, we all wanted to, no one had to be forced. I think, at least for me, it kept me sane to stay busy and do things that helped.

Ryan had distanced himself from me, not that he had ever really been near me. I never said anything about any of it and assumed I had imagined the whole thing. He’d only tell me things he felt he needed to tell me, which wasn’t much. Anything he needed me to know, the others needed to know too, and he’d tell us all at the same time. I would spend any free time I had reading by candlelight, and I really came to enjoy it since it helped me escape this dreadful world.

They wouldn’t ever let me or Sienna go on runs. Ryan or Owen would tell us maybe we could go on the next one and then quickly change the subject and ask if I needed anything and to make a list.

On their runs they had picked out our clothing, and they were horrible at it. They never brought back anything that was my style, but they picked out things that were clean and durable and that’s all I needed or cared about. Sometimes I’d just look down at myself and laugh, thinking they had to be doing it on purpose but I couldn’t call them out on it, in case they weren’t and I’d hurt their feelings. So I’d just wear it and be happy I had something that was new.

We had enough water saved that we could take very shallow baths. You’d want to plug the drain, soap yourself up and splash yourself clean. It wasn’t fun or relaxing, but it worked. And with the heat, it didn’t matter the water from the basement was cold, in fact it felt better when it was cold. You’d come out feeling refreshed and cool for a while until your body rewarmed which happened too quickly.

Everything was going relatively smooth albeit boring. Everyone seemed happy, well happy enough considering. Ryan and Owen even brought me home a new book to read on their last trip which I was excited to dive into. They’d bring me books whenever they’d come across one, books were pretty easy to find too, but less so, and many were damaged. Once they brought me one from a run that I really liked, I read it in two days. All except for the last twenty pages or so that had been smeared from some sort of liquid. I made up my own ending but still thoroughly enjoyed the story.

It was about dinner time when I heard the noisy car pull up in front of the house. A panicked look spread across the faces of the others the second they heard it too. We were prepared for something like this, but at the same time, we weren’t prepared for something like this.

The noisy engine was cut and the car doors slammed shut as whoever it was exited their car.

Chapter twelve.

Dean dashed upstairs in what sounded like three bounding steps. He didn’t come back down. I imagined he had his arrow pointed at someone. It was almost as if he had done drills where he trained for this and knew exactly what he would do. He had been prepared, I wished I could have said the same for myself.

Owen grabbed his weapon off the counter from where he usually kept it when he was downstairs. He always took it with him when he went up to bed for the night. Ryan pulled his out of the back of his pants, which was where he most often kept his for easy access. Seth took a baseball bat as Owen still hadn’t shown us how to shoot. Ryan didn’t want him to risk it, the noise would bring too much attention and maybe he was right but it left the two of us sort of defenseless. Owen had given us a brief lesson on how to use the gun, but we never actually got to practice shooting or aiming. Right now I wished we would have, then maybe I wouldn’t feel as terrified as I did.

I felt like a ninja as I silently sprinted for my knife which I hid under my mattress.

“Shhh!” Ryan said waving his hands at us.

I needed to know what was going on so I went up to the window beside him and looked out from where I thought I wouldn’t be seen.

Ryan motioned for Sienna to go upstairs but she was frozen just standing there in the middle of the living room. “Get down,” he whispered aggressively, but she didn’t move. He soundlessly dove towards her and yanked her back into the hallway where they were both completely out of site. If they came up to the windows and peeked in, they wouldn’t see anyone. I hoped.

Seth was standing on the side of the door ready to swing his bat should anyone get through, which was unlikely, it was boarded up securely. I was pushed against the wall on the other side of the window behind the chair I usually sat in during movies. I wasn’t exactly sure were Owen was but I was certain he was around and ready.

I peeked out of the window again, and I swear I heard Ryan sigh. In my quick glance I saw that it was four, possibly five people wandering in the front yard. One of them may have been a girl with her head shaved all except for her purple and black mohawk ponytail. They looked like they were in a punk rock band. They wore leather jackets and had dreadful hairstyles, dark eye makeup, and of course guns of their own. The one that I thought might have been a girl had her gun on her hip and followed a male with spiky hair as he approached the door.

Bang bang bang!

The door rattled but didn’t budge even though he pounded hard, as if he was hoping to accidentally pound it down by sheer brute force. He pounded again, and I curled up behind the chair watching the door jiggle with each knock. I couldn’t stop seeing a scenario play out in my head in which the door was ripped into shreds and popped open with a kick.

“Anyone home?” he said followed by the laughter of his hyena minions. Did they already know that we were in here? Had they seen Ryan and Owen and followed them? The boys were way too smart for that, they’d have never led anyone back here at least not intentionally. I suppose it was possible they could have been followed without them knowing and tracked back here or was it purely a coincidence? Maybe it’s just what this group did, going door to door searching for people or supplies. Or maybe they smelled the trash bags I’d filled. I never did find out if Ryan had ever buried them.

Bang, bang!

He pounded a third time. I saw them move to investigate the house. I knew they were circling around because they were dragging something, a stick or maybe their own baseball bat, along the window and it made a screeching noise against the glass. Then it scratched against the exterior wall where I sat. I hugged myself and buried my face into my arms holding my fear inside as tightly as I could. The scratching got fainter as they moved around towards the bathroom then my room and then I didn’t hear it again until it was at the back of the house.

That’s when I noticed the curtain hadn’t been closed all the way and they’d see me and Seth clear as day. “Seth!” I whispered. He didn’t hear me he was following the noise with his eyes, “Seth, the curtain! Move… NOW!” I whispered again only a hair louder. At the last second he crouched behind a chair that was barely bigger than him and I made myself into the smallest ball behind my chair. The bearded man looked inside, and I was terrified at seeing a stranger so close to our new home that I began to shake. I was worried I was shaking so hard the floorboards were moving and shaking everything in the house. And I worried that if I could see him, wouldn’t he be able to see me? If he had, he ignored me and moved along the kitchen continuing to drag his scratchy thing. When they got back to the front of the house I could hear them discussing something, but I couldn’t understand the mumbles. Only by tone could I tell they were trying to decide what they should do.