Lake Yixa (11 page)

     
Jeremy didn't say
anything, but
he
move
d
forward a little bit at the ready.

     
"Get the kids
inside," Jeremy finally said. Sarah nodded, and then she moved the kids
along the forest line and toward the back of the house and around to the front.
Sarah
quickly got them inside and followed in after. She set down
her axe by the door and went into Liam's room and grabbed the rifle.

     
It wasn't long
before she was back outside with the door closed behind her, leaving the kids
inside, scared.

     
She watched as
Jeremy slowly moved closer and closer. The raccoon never seemed to notice him.
Then, just before he swung, it stopped, turned, and let out a screech that made
Jeremy jump back and swing. The raccoon easily moved out of the way.

     
"Shoot
it!" Jeremy said, backing away from it
, while still swinging the bat
the best he could.
He hit it in the side, but it shrugged off the blow and
continued its weird clawing and hissing attack.

     
Sarah pointed the
gun at it and pulled the trigger. Nothing. She tried again. Still nothing
happened. Jeremy looked at her.

     
"You don't
know how to use a gun, do you?"

     
"Um, no, not
really," she said with a half-smile. Jeremy hit the raccoon
,
this time in
the side of its head. It staggered to one side and fell over. Jeremy wasted no
time in finishing it off.
 
He looked down
at the poor creature
,
sighed
,
and turned to Sarah.

     
"Sorry, I
only found it when I got here," she said.
Jeremy didn't look amused with
her. Sarah felt a hard lump form in her throat. She had pointed it at him and
felt bad about that.
He walked over and pointed to
a small switch on the gun
.

     
"That is the
safety. Flip it to turn it off."

     
"Thanks,"
Sarah replied. Jeremy smiled back at her. "You wouldn't happen to know how
to load it, would you?" she added.

     
He looked at her
with a face that made her feel embarrassed.

     
"Did you just
try and shoot it empty?" he asked.

     
"I don't
know."

     
"Mind if I
take a look at it?" he asked. Sarah didn't even hesitate. He knew she
didn't know how to work it. If he wanted to kill her or hurt her, he could have
by now.

     
Jeremy double
checked the safety and pulled back the bolt action. He could see a few rounds
in it.

     
"Well, the
good news is there are rounds in it," Jeremy replied as he started to pop
the rounds out. They both heard another hiss. A second raccoon was standing by
the edge of the forest. Jeremy pushed the last round into the chamber, aimed,
and fired.

     
Sarah jumped at
the loud sound of it going off. The raccoon fell over dead. It was a clean shot
to the head from what Sarah could tell.

     
"So are you a
hunter?" Sarah asked, looking at him.

     
"No, I hate
killing animals," he said. He flipped the safety on and handed back the
gun and then the ammo. He left her standing there while he got a shovel from
the shed and began to bury the two animals.

     
Sarah returned to
the house and put the rifle above the door. The two kids were sitting on the
couch, looking over the back of it at the door. She gave them a small smile.

     
"Everything
is okay. Your dad will be in soon," Sarah said before going into the
bedroom. She grabbed the backpack by the door and sat down with it on the bed.
She pulled out the two boxes of ammo and matched the bullets up.
T
he box read
308 win
.
She smiled at it. She was happy she knew which ammo
was for the rifle even if she didn't know how to load or shoot it. At least if
she was out looking for supplies and came across a box of it, she would know
what she found.

     
A soft knock came
from the door, followed by Jeremy's voice.
                                                 

     
"Sarah? Can I
come in?" he asked.

     
"Yeah."

     
"I wanted to
talk to you about the rifle," he said, standing in the doorway.

     
"Oh,"
was all she said.

     
"I want to
teach you how to use it. With all that has happened in the world, you will need
to know.
"

     
"Sure,"
she said with a smile and then added, "We only have a half empty box of
ammo though."

     
"Well, I guess
your aim is going to be shit. But at least you will know how to load it, clean
it, and fire it."

     
"What about
after dinner? You can show me how to clean it," she asked like a little
kid.

     
"Sure,"
Jeremy replied and then turned and left. Sarah’s head began to hurt, and she
lay down in bed for a few hours.

     
When she finally
got up and went out into the living room, Jeremy was making dinner.

     
"What's for
dinner?" Sarah asked.

     
"Corn—not the
creamed kind," he said with a smile before adding, "And green beans."

     
"So you
caught on about the creamed corn," she said sheepishly. She had done her
best to make sure
the Bakers
had been eating
the
corn
.

     
"Yeah."

     
She pulled out a
bowl for each of them and set them around the table. Soon Jeremy started to
dish out food to each bowl.

     
"Matt, Zoe,
dinner time," he said as he set the pot on the stove. Sarah sat down
across from Jeremy, the kids taking up the other spots.

     
"Sarah, do
you mind if we say grace?" Jeremy asked. Sarah took a moment to reply. She
had never heard them say grace before.
Sarah
wasn't much for religion
herself. She was sure some people saw the end of the world as God’s doing, but
she would just say it was mankind's own fault.

     
"Sure,"
she finally said.

     
Jeremy then said
grace and made the proper hand signs before saying amen. They ate in silence
for a while. Sarah was wondering if there was a God when Jeremy snapped her out
of her thoughts.

     
"Huh?
What?" Sarah said.

     
"I said I
think we should think about moving on," Jeremy said. Sarah stopped mid
spoonful, the feeling of
déjà vu
washing over her. A lump
formed in her throat.

     
"Why?"
was all she could get out.

     
"All the
houses in the area had been looted for any type of food, and it would take half
a day at least to get anywhere else. Plus,
we are just going to have to
keep going farther from the house every time we go
to find supplies."
Sarah knew Jeremy had a point. When she was making her way here, she had found
very little. She knew this day would come; she just hoped she would have been
here longer, but adding three more mouths made things run out much faster.

     
"Yeah."

     
"Do you think
we should leave tomorrow? Or the next day?" he asked, looking at her.

     
"So
soon?" she said, setting down her spoon and looking at him.

     
"Well, I
don't think we should wait until the food runs out. We probably have four days’
worth left."

     
"Oh,"
Sarah said before adding, "Can we leave in two days?"

     
"Sure,"
Jeremy said.

     
"Thanks
,
"
Sarah
replied. She thought about the short time she spent getting to know Liam. Sarah
decided that later tonight she would look through his bedroom for a few more
photos. She wished she had more time to get to know Liam.
                                                                                                                                        

     
The kids
finished their dinner first and returned to the living room to play. Jeremy was
second and followed soon after to join them. Sarah was last. She said good
night and headed into the bedroom.

     
Sarah took the
small photo of Liam and his family and lay down on the bed, looking at the
photo in the candlelight. Liam's wife was very pretty.
Huh,
she kind of has the same eyes as my
grandmother
, Sarah thought.
She looked at the small boy between them. That's when
her eye caught sight of the small object the boy was holding. She sat up and
moved closer to the candle.
What is it?
she asked herself as she stared
at it
.
It was a toy of some kind. It looked like an elephant, maybe.
An elephant like the one she had as a child. It was her brother's stuffed
animal. Her grandmother had given it to her when she was young.

     
A knock from the
door startled her, and she dropped the photo. Jeremy’s voice came from the
other side
, asking if she wanted to clean the rifle
.

     
Sarah
spent the rest
of the evening
with Jeremy,
learning how to clean the
gun.
She
let the photo and the elephant slip from her mind. The next day, Jeremy
worked on the bike and rigged up a way to carry more things. Sarah spent the
day
carefully
looking through Liam's house. He had another pack, a
bedroll, and a sleeping bag.

     
She also went
through the rest of the food and made sure they were all good to eat. The kids
even helped out, filling up the water bottles from the back rain barrel that
was now half empty.

     
Jeremy made sure
always to keep an eye out and listen for any noises. He finished up a small
two-wheeled cart that he hooked to the bike. It looked homemade for sure, but it
would work.

     
They awoke early
the next morning and ate their meals, not talking a lot. The night before, they
had decided to head toward the west, away from Moosetan. The towns would be
larger, and they hoped to find a refugee camp. Sarah wasn't too thrilled about
the idea. She still didn't like the idea of meeting other survivors, but Jeremy
had reassured her that it would be okay and he wouldn't risk the lives of his
kids or her.

     
"Let's get
the stuff packed up and get going," Jeremy said. Sarah nodded and finished
up her little bit of food. It was a good thing they were leaving. Even with the
stuff she had packed, there wasn't much food left. Hopefully they would find
some before running out.
                                                                                        

     
Sarah
picked up a few blankets and a bag of canned goods and followed after Jeremy,
who already had his hands full of things.
After he put his stuff on
the cart, she handed her stuff over before returning inside. It only took two
trips to get everything. Most of it was blankets and pill
ows
. The backpacks
were only half full, so Sarah had taken a few things of Liam's to remember him
by: the family photo, a cigar box with a few metals, and other random wartime
things.

     
"Tux,"
Sarah said as she sat down on the bed. "I'm sorry, but we are going to be
leaving. It will be just you. I will leave the food for you out and a window
open just enough for you to get out when you want." Tux just sat there
looking at her, making her feel bad for leaving him behind, but she didn't
think it was possible to travel with a cat and without a cage. She patted him
one last time and got up.

     
Sarah locked the
front door and put the key back where she had found it. She walked over to
where Jeremy was standing with Matt and Zoe.

     
"Ready?"

     
"Yeah,"
Sarah said, looking at the small house she had grown to call home.