Vaxdemic Book 2: Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Seth and Harold left with promises to come back in a few weeks with Mr. Chou to talk about the dam and other projects. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. I’m not sure what they expect me to do or know. Until I met Seth, I didn’t even register there was a dam near the city. I knew about the lake of course. Once again, I find myself missing the internet. I tried using my map of the city. It registers a corner of the lake but says nothing about the dam. The map is also over twenty years old.
Regardless of what the map says I’ve got extra work to do getting ready for company. Seth told me to expect at least ten people since no one travels alone anymore. This means I have to prep some of the houses I haven’t scavenged for guests. Most of the houses around my own have been picked clean if not taken down entirely when I was building my wall. There are a few near the end of my street that are still intact, as far as structure. I was gathering things to ready these houses when Claire took an interest. She’s been climbing to the top of the wall and target shooting almost every morning since the Mennonites left. I could tell she didn’t like my explanation, but she didn’t say anything at first. I’ve caught her spending more time in her old room lately. I’m not sure what she’s doing in there, but she always seems to be coming out of it when I walk inside. Finally, three days after my explanation she brought the subject up at dinner.
“Have you got the houses ready yet?” I was never the best at reading people, but Claire would be an advanced level. The year she spent in the wild gives her an almost unnatural control over her face, and her tendency to be quiet often makes me forget how sneaky she can be.
“Not yet, Seth told me how many people to prepare for. I’ve got seven beds set up so far, and some lanterns and two gas stoves ready for them to use…”
“I think you should set up some windmills for them,” Claire blurted out.
I was surprised at the idea. I had enough built to replace those around the house at least once with a few left over. I had even improved the design a bit, but to use them for strangers? “I’m not sure I should use all our spares down there. What if one breaks up here?”
Claire grimaced and looked me in the eye. “It’s important they see what you can do. They’re bringing a guy who’s in charge of a lot of survivors, right? We need to make a good impression. They need to respect your abilities.”
This didn’t sound like the Claire I had gotten to know. The Claire who had been terrified at the prospect of outsiders. The Claire who up until recently hated being outside. “I’m not against being respected, but I’m not sure what setting up more power would accomplish.”
Claire looked out the window for a moment. I’m not sure but I think she was trying to remember something. “When this Chou guy comes, he’s not going to be alone. The people with him will talk about what they see here. It’s important they see us as strong and resourceful or someone may make us a target.”
Suddenly Claire’s recent outings to the wall made more sense. She was still worried about these outsiders, about who may still be out there. She was also right, if they saw us a capable, we were less likely to be a target. I heaved a sign at the thought of all the extra work I would have to do to make this happen. “This will be a good chance for me to test the new regulator design I guess.” Claire gave me one of her fake smiles. I know they’re fake, but somehow her making the effort makes it rewarding.
Before Seth and Harold left, they helped me reseed the fields so my morning duties weren’t so heavy. I have little to do other than turn on the irrigation and feed the animals. I was right about my love for the geese. They are much bigger now and keep me from mowing the grass too often. I still have to do it on occasion, but their soft honks as they go about doing my least favorite chore is comforting. Claire trained Lump to keep them out of the gardens. I watch as the burly black dog walks along with the birds every morning until they pick a spot and he lays down to watch them. I rarely see Bip and Bop out of the house. The twin dogs follow Claire everywhere, acting like a second set of hands. Rusty still spends most of his day on Ruth’s grave, but somedays he comes with me and Abby to the guest houses I’m preparing.
I have to admit, I jealous of Claire when it comes to the dogs helping her. Abby will follow me everywhere I go, but I can’t train her to do much aside from “lay down” and “get out of my way”. The set up on the houses is taking all of my free time. I managed to get six windmills set up on the roofs, and the regulator and some batteries installed. The lights work and the fridge runs, but there will be no heating or a/c. Which isn’t too big a problem in May. I also got the idea to hook up some water.
I can’t get another tank since I’m out of fuel. But I can run some hoses from my clean tank to a hook up I rigged. The water pressure is actually better at the guest houses. I guess because the water is traveling downhill. After some tinkering, I even got the water heater working, but I had to turn the temperature down so it wouldn’t drain the batteries. I dread the day my own water heater breaks since I know little about replacing it.
It took a week and a half to finish my preparations on the houses, and I brought Claire down to show her. She smiled at the water and power, but the smile vanished upon seeing my taste in furnishings and bedding. Apparently, I have horrible taste in decoration, because the next day she made me come with her with a huge pile of linens, curtains, and cleaning supplies to “prepare better”. I thought it was going to be a one-day thing. I was wrong.
For the next three days we were changing sheets, removing the more colorful of my choices in decorating. I think we removed half the seating I brought in, and for some reason dining room chairs all have to match, and you can’t use two different curtains on the same rod, pillow covers and sheets should match on the same bed, and on it went. I’m a little offended, but I’ve been reading the book Ruth wrote for me on stuff she thought I should know. I call them Ruth’s Rules. One of them says, “never argue with a pregnant woman.” Funny, even with her gone I get the feeling she saw this coming.
It was two days after we finished the work that Seth reappeared, and he was certainly not alone. There were two other carts besides his own. Seth was driving the first cart with a woman next to him I could only assume was his wife. Behind him came Seth with a stout little woman next to him. In the third cart was the most sever man I have ever seen in my life. I guess he was in his sixties a craggy leathery face. Next to him was a girl I could only guess was in her late teens. I would find out later this was one of his daughters. The older man was the first to hop off his cart and greet me, introducing himself as Pastor Mark Roth. He smiled when I told him Seth had mentioned him. The smile was warm but didn’t really suit his face. After all the introductions were made, I escorted our guests to the houses we had prepared.
It turned out they had brought a number of gifts. Blankest and food mostly, and a large wooden chest. They had also brought a large amount of their own food. The women immediately set upon Claire and drug her back to our home to prepare dinner. Claire looked immensely uncomfortable at the prospect. We had just found a spot for the horses to sleep When two SUVs started up the road. Seth told me this must be Matt Chou and company.
The two SUVs parked in front of the guest houses. Four men got out, the driver of the first car saw Seth and myself and immediately rushed over. The other three started to pull stuff from the back of the SUVs. The man I would later come to know at Matt Chou was slightly taller than myself. My immediate impression was that one of his parents or grandparents was from an island. Had he been bald with no facial hair he would have looked like any other white guy, but his hair gave him away. He looked upset as he approached.
“Seth, we need to get our guns. We were followed.” Matt said.
“By who?” Seth asked starting to look just as distrait as Matt.
“I think it’s him,” Matt said as one of the men who came with him handed him a rifle. Then the man ran back to his SUV. I went with Seth and grabbed my own gun from inside the house. When we got back two trucks were pulling up the road. The Mennonites and Chou’s group were standing in the street guns at the ready. The trucks slowed and parked about fifty yards from the group. Everyone around me was tense.
The trucks were large pickups, shiny and clean like they had just been driven off a car lot. The passenger door on the first one opened and a huge well-dressed black man stepped out and casually walked to the middle of the street. He looked like he didn’t have a care in the world with his hands in his pockets, smiling at the armed men glowering at him. Pastor Roth was the first to speak. “You’re a long way from home, what do you want?”
The man laughed a little to himself. “Is all this hostility just for me? I came here for the same reason you did. I heard there’s new talent to meet. So, I brought some of my friends to meet him, and this is the welcome I get.” The man’s voice was like honey over thunder, strong and deep. The tone would have put great politicians to shame.
Roth scowled. “I find it hard to believe you were just in the area. It was agreed we would handle this, and you wouldn’t interfere.”
“It’s a hard world out here. We all need to come together to make things work. Just because I like you so much Pastor, I’ll have my friend leave our weapons in the car, but I’m afraid you can’t deny us a chance to meet him. I assume that’s the gentleman in the back with the dog?”
Roth looked, if possible, even more upset, “It is, what do you want with him.”
The man smiled, looked away, and lightly scratched the side of his head. “I just want to introduce myself and see if we can help each other out.” He then turned his eyes on me and said, “I’m Dean Saugus, I run the iron works to the south, and you are?”
Bob Stackey
June 10, 2023