Legion of Despair: Book Three in The Borrowed World Series (6 page)

Once breakfast was prepared, Gary had everyone sit in the kitchen so that they could discuss their situation together. They’d never had a family meeting before.

“I want you all to know that being back here with you is beyond words. This is all I thought about while I walked across the state. I missed you all more than I can ever tell you.” He took a breath. His emotions were flaring up and he felt his eyes watering.

“I’m more than a little concerned about what our neighborhood is turning into. I think we might need to literally circle the wagons,” he said. “There’s no way we can defend three homes with the few people we have. I think we all need to move into this house until things are safer.”

Sara frowned. Her reaction didn’t surprise Gary. Sara’s house was new and she’d just finished getting things the way she wanted them. Of course she didn’t want to move out of it. “Why your house, Dad? I just got moved.”

“Simple. Our house is brick,” Gary said. “The other houses are vinyl siding over wood. Brick offers some degree of ballistic protection. Vinyl does not.”

This was a solid argument. Gary expected debate as to why they needed
ballistic protection
but there was none. They were all reasonable enough to see that this might truly become the case. Just because no one had fired on the house yet didn’t mean that it wouldn’t happen at some point. The fact that they were already having to carry guns around on a regular basis meant that conditions were escalated, to say the least.

“The wolf couldn’t blow down the brick house when the pigs hid there,” Lana offered, looking up from the toy she was playing with.

“Exactly right, Lana,” Gary said, stroking her head. “I think you all should spend the morning gathering what resources you have and shuttling them over here so we can consolidate things. Bring sleeping gear, batteries, flashlights, weapons and ammo, food, all of your emergency stuff,” Gary continued. Then, with a glance down at Lana he had a thought. “We can take turns watching the kids so everyone can get packed up without having the kids try to help. That would be more efficient.”

“How long will we have to stay like this?” Charlotte asked. “I like my house.”

“I know you like your house, baby,” Gary said. “We have to think differently now. You have to leave behind your everyday mindset and adopt a survival mindset. This is not about comfort, it’s about staying safe. There’s no way I can tell you how long we’ll have to alter our lives. Just remember that stuff doesn’t matter. What matters is in this room right now.”

“But we
will
get to go back to our regular lives, right?” Charlotte asked. “Things will get back to normal, won’t they?”

Gary was silent for a moment. They were not up to speed on the situation in the world. They did not realize the full implications. They had not seen what he’d seen. He had to be gentle about this. That was the problem Jim always had in communicating the seriousness of the situation to people who weren’t getting it. He had no subtlety. He had been the perfect example of how not to have this conversation.

“I would love to pat you on the head and tell you it’s going to be all right. As your father, I would like nothing more than to be able to offer you that reassurance. We have to be realistic, though. It could be years before everything is completely normal again,” Gary said. “We don’t know the extent of everything that’s gone on yet. There is physical damage that has to be fixed. There are communication channels that have to be repaired before we can coordinate a recovery effort on a national level. There are a lot of things that have to happen. If it’s sooner than a year, I’d be surprised.”

There was a collective moan from the group.

“A year?
Really
?” Charlotte asked. “What about my job? What about school for the kids?”

Gary shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. My role right now, as I see it, is to keep all of you alive and not to maintain some illusion for you. You are all adults and will have to accept the reality of this situation the same as I do. I cannot tell you the…horror of what I saw out there. I do not want that horror to become part of our lives. At the same time, you all will have to accept that there will be inconveniences. There may be struggling. There may even be suffering. I will do my best to minimize that and try to make sure that we thrive. I have prepared for that, but there are no guarantees.”

Gary’s wife cleared her throat and the room became silent. Everyone turned to her. “I have complete faith in you, Gary,” she said. “I did when I married you and I still do now. Do we have what we need to thrive and stay safe here in this house? If we all move in here together, can we weather this disturbance and stay safe? I know you made preparations, but are they enough?”

Gary was silent. This was going to be difficult. They would probably not like this answer. “I’m not sure if we can or not,” he said honestly. “By the time I became concerned about societal collapse and began making preparations, we were already invested in this location. We had already built this house and established ourselves here. I thought about us moving to a more sustainable location but I just wasn’t sure I could go through that whole process again. Building a home is so emotionally exhausting. I have discovered there are shortcomings to this property that we might not be able to overcome if this is truly a long-term disaster.”

Debra sighed as if preparing herself for a blow. “Such as?”

“Water for one,” Gary said. “There is no water source up here. Town water was available when we built so we didn’t have to put in a well. That was a plus at the time because it saved us money on building the house, but it’s not so much of a plus now. There’s not even a creek nearby. The closest spring water is on Kent’s Ridge Road and it’s about a mile from here. We could certainly drive up there and collect water if we had to, but do we want to use up all the fuel we have left just on getting water? How much water could we collect on a bike? Could we push a wagon or wheelbarrow two miles round trip each day to retrieve water? Would it even be safe to do so? Could any of us even pull a wagon of water up that steep hill coming up the driveway? I’m not sure I could.”

“That spring is also on private property,” Will said. “If water becomes a problem, who knows if there will even be free access to that spring anymore? They could close it off and start charging for water. I’m not sure if it was mine if I would just allow anyone and everyone to come on my property and take water.”

Sara glared at Will, obviously not appreciating her husband adding his gloomy insights to the conversation.

“Good point,” Gary said. “I’m just not sure that you all have any clue how much water we all use on a regular basis. My mother told me that when I was a baby their well dried up during a drought and they had to haul water from a spring two miles away. Even using a vehicle, they had to get water twice a day just to keep a baby clean and cloth diapers washed. If we run out of disposable diapers, how much water do you think it will take to keep three children bathed and in clean diapers? We’re talking lots of water, plus what we’ll all need for cooking, drinking, and bathing ourselves.”

“Diapers would have been something good to purchase in advance,” Charlotte said. “Both disposable and cloth. Too late now. You should have mentioned that earlier.”

“I didn’t mention it because I took care of it. I have plenty,” Gary said, smiling. “I probably have several hundred disposable diapers stored in one of the outbuildings and a few dozen cloth ones. Just in case.”

Charlotte didn’t appear relieved by that. She was probably picturing herself scrubbing cloth diapers in a washtub and was not thrilled by the image. “I’m guessing you have a washboard stored out there somewhere?”

“Better,” Gary said. “I have a prepper washing machine.”

“What’s that?” Charlotte asked, not sure she wanted to know.

“A five gallon bucket with a hole drilled in the lid,” he said. “You put water, soap, and dirty clothes in it. You stick a plunger handle through the hole in the bucket lid, then put the lid on the bucket. You agitate it like you’re churning butter. It’s not perfect but it’s easier than a washboard.”

“A clean plunger, I hope,” Sara said.

“It’s a new one,” Gary said. “Never used. Don’t worry.”

“Is that it?” Debra asked impatiently. “Is water the big problem?”

“Water is probably the biggest, but not the only problem,” Gary admitted. “Security would be running a close second.”

“But we’re up here on this hill all by ourselves?” Sara said. “Isn’t that secure enough?”

“Was it secure last night?” Gary asked. “It didn’t seem like it to me. We only heard those folks because they were on noisy machines. What about all the folks who might just walk in here on foot? How many folks have already been in here creeping around at night and you’ve just not heard them?”

“I don’t think that’s likely,” Charlotte said.

“I do,” Gary said. “Someone stole the generator last night while we were all distracted. I didn’t hear them take it.”

The group look surprised.

“How did they find it?” Debra said. “It was hidden around the side of the house.”

“They probably heard it running at some point,” Gary said. “Then they just watched until they found it.”

“Now you’re saying that people have been watching us?” Sara asked.

“Probably,” Gary replied. “There could be people watching us right now.”

“What people?” Sara asked. “That’s just creepy.”

“There’s an entire public housing project close by,” Gary said. “Hundreds of apartments of people who are probably already out of food and water. People who need what we have.”

“That’s nearly two miles away,” Sara pointed out. “They have closer neighbors than us. Wouldn’t they just steal from them first?”

“By road it’s two miles, yes,” Gary agreed, then gestured toward the back of their property. “If you walk over that hill there, you come out in the middle of the complex. It’s probably not even three hundred yards away.”

“I never realized that,” Charlotte said. “I guess I never thought about it.”

“It was a lot smaller when we built this house,” Gary said. “They’ve added four new buildings since then. We have to take all of that into account when trying to assess the long-term viability of this location. Just as those people came in last night, there could be more people walking in. We need to be on guard against visitors from all sides.”

“This is making me sad,” Charlotte said.

Gary couldn’t help but smile, seeing her pout just like she did when she was a little girl. “I’m sorry, sweetie. The good news is that in an hour you’ll be way too busy to dwell on it. Let’s just be glad that we’re all alive, we’re all safe, and we’re together. There are many families that aren’t.”

*

True to his word, Gary soon had his family distracted enough by the task at hand that they could no longer dwell on the unpleasant possibilities that they might be facing. They started at Sara and Will’s house, which was the farthest from Gary’s. Gary hooked a utility trailer to his lawn tractor, his most fuel efficient vehicle, and they used that to shuttle loads back and forth. It wasn’t like they were going a long distance and couldn’t ever return home, so they prioritized the loads with the items they would need the soonest and most often. As with any parents of small children, that meant starting with baby stuff: diapers, formula, baby medicines, clothes, toys, a playpen, and highchair.

“Surely that will be enough to hold a baby for a day,” Gary said. “I don’t think your mother and I ever had this much stuff when we raised you girls.”

“Sorry, Dad,” Sara said. “They just make more stuff now.”

“Then they shame you into buying it,” Gary said.

“Hey, we didn’t buy all this,” Sara said. “I remember
you
buying a lot of this.”

Gary grinned. “First grandchild. I couldn’t help it.”

“It’s okay,” Sara said, hugging him. “It will all get used and worn out before we girls are done having babies.”

“I hope we’re never done with babies,” Gary admitted.

Sara patted him on the back. “Dad, get moving,” she said. “I’ll have another load on the front porch by the time you guys get back.”

While Will and Gary shuttled the first load to Gary’s house, Sara started working in the kitchen. She and Will did not have a generator like her parents so they’d not been able to keep the refrigerator and freezer going long enough to save their food. They’d eaten what they could and taken some things to her mom’s house. They’d still been forced to clean out the refrigerator several days ago when everything started reeking. There were probably things that needed to be thrown away anyway, like the leftover mustard from a cookout that no one was ever going to eat, the horseradish from a failed coleslaw experiment, and the bottle of wine they’d received as a housewarming present that had tasted like crap when they tried drinking it. Now the refrigerator door was propped open to prevent mildew and the inside was clean and bare.

Sara made a quick pass through the kitchen and boxed up the contents of her pantry. She considered for a moment that she might need to leave some food for the point in time that she and Will returned to living in their own house, but if they were going to pool their resources she needed to be all in. She would take everything worth taking out of this kitchen and they could deal with restocking it when that time came. As much as she hated to admit it, there was also the possibility that they might not be able to return home anytime soon. She would not think about that now, though. She was more practical and realistic than Charlotte.