Rebirth (17 page)

Chapter Thirty Four

I had managed to keep far enough ahead of the growing storm clouds to pull over and change out of my wet clothes. The artificial wind in my face caused my teeth to chatter and my skin to tighten. It was a chilling experience, like being tossed into a lake in early spring. I noticed Leif could use a change as well and pulled over. I dug through the contents of the giant bag secured to the bike’s back rack, pulling out a new onesie and a full set of pajamas. I had become masterfully quick at the process of changing the baby. He was usually happy to accommodate me too. He appreciated the luxury of a clean diaper and fresh clothes.

Once we were both dry and dressed, I climbed back onto the three-wheeler and pushed on, looking over my shoulder constantly. My anxiety increased as the clouds advanced behind us.

I squinted against the speed-induced wind as an alarming thought struck. What if I were to come across the mass grave Earl, Sonny and Freddy claimed to have stumbled upon months before? I would see it long before I came to it. The roads now were straight and flat, the hills on the horizon always a distant marker. I couldn’t even be sure whether I was on the same highway. All I knew for sure was my direction: north. The compass on the bike offered that small reassurance.

*****

Three hours into my journey, the storm clouds a distant memory and the sky above me only blue, the bike’s fuel light began to blink wildly. Ten minutes later I was pushing the bike into a ditch.

My bag resting on its wheels, the handle extended and my baby strapped to my torso, I once again felt terribly vulnerable as I grasped the bag and moved forward on unsteady legs. I walked roughly three more hours before coming to a deep valley. The angle of decline was extreme but I continued onward, digging my heels into the asphalt. My bag kept clipping at my ankles so I pulled it out in front of me, its weight pulling me off center. ‘Don’t fall, don’t fall, don’t fall…’ I repeated aloud. It took an enormous amount of concentration to finally arrive safely at the bottom of the valley. But it was at the base that I felt the most insecure. Looking down at my feet, I saw that I was standing in a small stream. The water was still, the banks had flooded from what must have been a torrential downpour similar to that which chased me from my well. A ripple hit my ankle, approaching from my right. Then a second later, another. My heart lodged in my throat. There was absolutely no wind in the valley. It could be another animal, I surmised, perhaps a frog, or small fish that had survived in this muck? But my gut told me it was something else, someone else.

Not wanting to look up and confirm my fear, I kept my eyes on the water. The ripples became more frequent, followed by the sound of legs dragging in knee-high water. I reached into my waistband slowly, fingers wrapping around the handle of the pistol and gingerly pulling it free. I looked to my right, straining to see what the fates had thrown at me this time. The sound suddenly increased in volume and speed. I turned to face the noise with my pistol raised and ready.

Two men mere moments from tackling me stopped dead in their tracks, their arms raised over their heads automatically. One was much older than the other. He looked eighty-five but probably was no more than sixty. The other man, who appeared to be in his early twenties gestured wildly in surrender, backing away. The old man produced a long knife from his sleeve and turned it in his fingers.

“Now, now, pretty lady. All we want is what you have.” He inched closer. The young man eyed him.

“What I have is my own,” I retorted. “You come any closer and I’ll shoot you!”

“Now, now,” he continued as he slowly stepped up onto the road. “You don’t want to shoot me. You’re a nice little girl.” At that I cocked the hammer and again he froze in place.

“I’ve killed men before.” I cleared my throat so as not to seem so terrified. “I’ve killed before and I will kill you where you stand.” Trying not to let my hands shake, I thrust the gun further in front of me.

His head cocked and his brows rose. “Oh, I don’t believe that.” His mouth widened to a smile under his unkempt beard. “I doubt there are even any bullets in your gun. Mine hasn’t seen a bullet in over a year.”

“I’m not kidding. I will shoot you!” I shouted. My voice was shaky. Had I changed the magazine after I took down the clown? All this time I’d just assumed the gun had been loaded. My heart pounded angrily in my chest, my face flushed, my eyes narrowed to slivers.

“I think you’re mistaken,” he said, resuming his approach.

“Only one way to find out,” I said with what confidence I could muster. The man’s eyes widened and he lunged towards me, arm shooting up to bring the knife down. I fired twice. To my attacker’s amazement, he fell backwards as each bullet caught him in his midsection. He landed with a splash in the knee-high water beside the road and sank to its filthy bottom. I trained the gun on his young friend next.

“Dad!” He yelped before running to pull him out of his watery grave. He looked wildly up at me. “You killed him!”

“What did you think I would do?” I shouted back, shaking. “I have a baby!” It was a horrible thing - a son watching his father die - but I was someone’s mother now. Leif’s mother. And I would not let anyone harm him.

“You bitch!” His voice gave out and he sank to his knees beside his father’s shallow grave. It had occurred to me that I ought to shoot him too, so he would not follow me and attack us in the night.

“You stay,” I told him as I grabbed the handle of my bag and moved backwards. “You just stay where you are and you’ll be fine.” He didn’t respond for a time. I was half way up the other side of the valley highway before he realized I’d gone.

“You!” he screamed as he spotted me. My gun, returned to my waistband for the trip up, slipped through my loose pants and tumbled down the hill as I struggled to retrieve it. Knowing that my only chance was to outrun him, I dropped my bag and raced the rest of the way up the steep hill, Leif crying at my chest. Looking back, I saw to my horror that he was tearing up the hill after me, with my gun in hand. Reaching the top of the valley, I ran headfirst into the waiting arms of a stranger.

Chapter Thirty Five

I heard my gun go off before I was immediately hustled into the back of a parked truck. I remember telling the men that I had a baby, and needed help. They understood that all too well, shooting down my assailant as he appeared at the crest of the hill. He was cut down by the gun mounted to the roof of a jeep. The man whose body I had plowed into jumped into the back of the truck with me. He, like his companions, wore a face mask and combat fatigues. I guessed that this was the military. This was the rescue we’d all hoped for in the beginning. I felt I’d come full circle. There were six of them in total.

“Let me see your neck and your torso,” ordered the hollow voice behind the mask.

“My torso?” I wondered whether I was really safe after all.

“We need to inspect you. Are you feverish? How’s your eyesight?”

“I-I’m fine,” I stammered. “My eyesight is fine. What do you need to see on my torso?” It was difficult shouting back and forth with the baby crying.

“Precautions. We check all unknowns for the plague before they are admitted.”

“Admitted to what?”

“The base. Now remove your shirt.”

“I have a baby strapped to my chest. Could you please relax?” I slowly pulled Leif out of his worn sling and placed him lovingly down on the metallic truck bed. I then pulled off my top layers, my bra catching on the last of them and a sliver of my white breast popping out. My elbow instinctively snapped into a defensive position, covering the nipple.

“You look fine,” he concluded, sensing my embarrassment. “I mean, free of spots. The plague.” He struggled with his words.

My brows raised. Never seen a nipple before? “Okay, now what?”

“Let me see your baby.” He reached out. I picked Leif up and reluctantly handed him over to the soldier. An intense anxiety overcame me. I gathered up my tops and held them in a bunch in front of me.

After undressing him, he gave Leif a thorough visual inspection. “How old?”

“About two months.” I answered.

“Little small for two months, isn’t he?”

“He was a month or two premature.”

He handed Leif back to me and I dressed him quickly.

“What now?” I asked again.

He lowered his mask. “Now we can take you to the base.” He gave us a broad and reassuring smile. I couldn’t help noticing that he was incredibly handsome. “I’m Sergeant Jones, by the way.”

“I’m Sara, and this is Leif.” I felt suddenly hot and ran my hands over my rib cage feeling uncomfortably aware of my state of undress.

“Good to meet you both,” he grinned, his eyes wandering a moment to my chest, and then to the baby. “I’ll see to it you are well cared for upon our return.” He stepped down from the truck bed.

“I guess I should thank you for saving my life,” I smiled back. He turned and nodded, then tapped the side of the truck and it roared to life.

“I’ll follow you back.”

Part Two
Chapter Thirty Six

The base was a modern marvel. It used wind and solar power for virtually all of its energy needs. There were fifteen windmills jutting up into the sky some sixty feet from a central point along with hundreds of solar panels attached to the roofs of the common buildings.

In a way, the base was an upgrade to what we had had at Joel’s house. There, we had run power off the generator that ran on fuel and had our own well, but that was it. Joel’s cold storage, though essential to our survival, was a miniature version of what the base had hidden beneath the floors of the kitchen: massive freezers and clean rooms that were stocked with dried meat, fruit, vegetables, canned and boxed goods. Enough to last two hundred people for fifty years, they told me. When I arrived at the base, there were only eighty-six people.

One of my favorite things about the base was the animals. I had missed animals, hugging them, playing with them. The base had a large metal barn that housed some twenty cattle, fourteen goats, probably fifty chickens and a couple of pigs. But when the pigs refused to mate, they instead became pets. One day we’ll just eat them, the Sergeant said once, but his children loved the pigs and he could never put them on a plate in front of them.

The base also drew its water from underground wells. The water was then treated with ultraviolet light, charcoal filters and a variety of other filters before it ever made it to our mouths. They had a brilliant grey water recycling system as well. Rain water was collected and used for the toilets and for washing. It was literally a Shangri-la in the midst of a terrible desert.

The walls, which reached a height of twenty feet in places, were outfitted with watch towers. There was also a stockade, family housing, a mess hall, hospital and the central training and parade grounds. This base even included a greenhouse.

Our daily lives consisted of keeping the base running smoothly. Everyone’s unique skills were put to good use, and I had been employed in many capacities, the last three years dedicating all of my time to the hospital.

Eight years had passed since I first drove through the gates in the back of that truck, my heart in my throat. This was where my son grew up. It was more a home to me than anything I’d known since the Reaper struck and the only home Leif had ever known. Though the grey on grey treatment to the buildings interiors was bleak, and the military precision as to how things were run felt a little claustrophobic at times, the alternative to living here was not an alternative at all.

We had been given a shower, disinfected, administered shot after shot and issued five sets of clothes each, all within our first hour inside the base. Leif had been doted over by the women here, many of the nurses becoming my close friends within the first month, the doctor a source of great comfort.

I counted my blessings and lived each day grateful for the abundance of food, water, and people. I hadn’t realized just how much I missed meeting new people.

Leif attended a school daily and grew up happy, oblivious to the world I had grown up in. It was just as well, as this world was still a mess. There were still no leaves on the trees, no grass in the fields. No nothing. My hope for a future was waning for Leif, but I remained outwardly positive.

I watched him run into our bunkroom and jump up onto his bed. He reminded me so much of his father. The way he smiled at me. His eyes were the same, and I imagined that when he got older, he would have Joel’s lean muscular physique. But there was something about my son that went beyond physical features in their similarities. An eerie recognition. Often a cloud of anxiety overtook me when he stared at me. He’d lie on his bed and stare across the room at me while I read.

“What is it, baby?” I would ask, looking up from my book.

“Nothing, Mom,” was his reply. It was as though he was trying to work out some great mystery in his head. He looked so thoughtful. Sometimes he didn’t even realize I was staring back.

“Mom,” he asked once, “was I born here?”