Stryker: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale (17 page)

Stryker moved back
into the trees and circled the right side of the structure until he reached the
shoreline of the lake. He again examined the house and saw nothing that set off
alarms. He slung the M-4 over his shoulder and entered the water, swimming
slowly toward the front porch of the house. He swam under the dock and around
the side of a canoe tied to it. He pulled out of the water and glanced at the
front of the structure, then ducked back down.

There was a corpse
of what had been an elderly man sitting in a lawn chair, with an empty water
glass sitting on the table. Next to the tumbler was a pill bottle. Stryker
couldn’t see if it was empty as well, but he suspected it was. Apparently, the
judge decided not to wait for the plague to kill him.

The remainder of
the front of the house was the same as the back. He detected no movement, the
window and doors were all shut, and there were no shadows on the corners of the
house. He rose from the water and approached the house with the carbine again
at the low ready. He walked up the stairs and past the corpse and pinched his nose
shut with a forefinger and thumb. The sliding door opened easily, and he walked
into a great room with the same sort of furnishings he saw in the judge’s
office: heavy, expensive leather furniture. Another massive desk sat in the
middle of the room facing the lake and river.

Stryker passed
through the great room and entered the dining room that had a crystal
chandelier over a twelve-chair table, and a sideboard on one side of the room.
He then cleared the remainder the house. He entered the den and saw a desk that
dwarfed the one in the great room.

Stryker walked to
the back door of the house and waved for Elle and Haley to come in. They
approached at a slow jog and joined him on the patio.

“The house is
clear,” Stryker said. “If you want to look at it, go ahead. I’m going to get
the body off the front porch and check out the energy systems.”

“Body?” Haley
asked.

“It’s on the porch.
I’ll take care of it.” Stryker left the room and came back with a bedspread,
walked by the women and out to the porch. He laid the blanket flat, dumped the
body into it by tilting the lawn chair up, folded the bedspread around it, and
dragged it to the lake, holding his breath the entire way. He dumped it into
the water from the front of the dock. He walked back into the house and saw
that the women were not present, apparently checking out the bedrooms and
bathrooms.

“This would be
perfect for us,” Elle said, emerging from a bedroom and stopping in front of
Stryker.

“This really works
for me,” Haley said, after she entered the room from a nearby bedroom. “It has
private baths and is really nicely laid out. We have a cool common area and all
the privacy we want in the bedrooms. The kitchen has restaurant-grade
appliances.

“It looks good to
me, too,” Stryker said, after thinking it over. “I have to check the well but
it is a definite possibility.” He walked over to the sink, turned on the
faucet, and was surprised when dirty water poured out.

“That’s
disgusting,” Elle said as she watched the black sludge spewing from the faucet.

“It will run clear
in a few minutes. Just let it run,” Stryker replied as he hit the “on” switch
on a coffee maker that sat on the countertop and smiled when the red indicator light
came on. “Well, that’s a good start. But I still need to look at the pump and
motor and check the panels and batteries. Why don’t you guys get the Jeep, park
it on the side of the house, and unload it.” He handed the keys to Haley and
went outside to start the inspection. A half hour later, Stryker entered the
house with a look of satisfaction on his face.

“Is everything
working right?” Haley asked.

“Better than right.
This guy knew what he was doing. It’s all top-of-the-line equipment and it’s
pretty new. Even the batteries are wet cell. They should last another ten
years, at least.” When the women looked confused, he added, “wet cell batteries
last a lot longer.” They both shrugged. “I also turned on the water heater so
we can have showers in the morning. He had it on a timer so it only heated two
hours a day. Like I said, he knew what he was doing.”

“So, this is a good
possibility?”

“Very good. This
setup will generate three times the power of mine, and it’s all newer. The
house is 100 percent brick and would be easy to defend. The clearing is large
and we have fields of fire that are totally open.”

“Whatever that
means,” Elle said.

“Would you guys go
through all the rooms on the main floor and see if there is any bottled water
around? I can’t test the water to see if it’s safe to drink, but if it’s the
only source of water, then we know it’s probably good.” Stryker went to the
garage and found fishing poles and tackle, a fileting knife, and a net. He took
three bass jigs out of the tackle box and tied them to the lines, then picked
up the net and knife and walked back into the house. When Elle saw the gear,
her eyes lit up.

“My God! We get to
eat fish?”

“You bet. This lake
has good fishing. At least it did. I’m guessing that it’s going to be excellent
because there haven’t been many fishermen using the lake.”

“So we don’t need
to look at the other two houses?” Haley asked.

“Nope. We’re not
going to find anything better than this. The judge must have been a very
wealthy man to build this place and equip it the way he did.” He paused for a
moment, then added, “He also must have had a lot of pull to get this place
permitted. There are no other houses within a mile. If you noticed, there’s
about three acres of this lot that are completely surrounded by barbed wire. It
would be easy to raise cattle and other farm animals here. No garden, but I’d
rather create that than all the other stuff we would have to build at the
ranch.”

They drifted into
the kitchen and gazed at a gigantic refrigerator and a massive, six-burner
Viking range.

“This guy must have
been loaded,” Haley said. “The stove and fridge alone must have cost a
fortune.” Stryker opened the door of the fridge and glanced inside.

“He was definitely
a bachelor,” Stryker said wryly.

“Why?” Haley asked.
Stryker opened the door fully so they could see the contents. It was filled
with unopened bottles of wine, beer, and soft drinks. There was not a scrap of
food.

“Anybody want a
beer?” Stryker asked.

“Sure,” they
replied. Stryker didn’t recognize the brands, so he shrugged, picked three
bottles, and opened them with a church key that hung from a peg on the wall. He
passed them each a beer and toasted with his. They all took a deep pull and
smacked their lips.

“Fishing, anyone?”
Stryker asked. They nodded and picked up the poles and carbines and headed to
the dock. Stryker walked ahead of them to make sure the body was gone and was
relieved to see the current had carried it into the lake and away from the
dock. “Okay,” Stryker said, “two can fish and one stands guard. We’ll take
turns.”

Two hours later,
after gutting and cooking the fish they caught on a gas barbeque grill on the
patio, they all relaxed and watched the sunset as they ate. Elle had found some
canned peas and carrots and heated them on the stove. Haley cooked some pasta
and covered it with canned tomato sauce.

“I’m in heaven,”
Elle said as she took another fish and tore into it. Stryker was amazed at how
they ate. Normally slow and dainty eaters, they tore into the food like two
lumberjacks, washing it down with long pulls of wine. They were on the second
bottle and clearly not feeling any pain.

Stryker tuned out
their conversation, which had something to do with designer clothing, and
thought of the coming day. They would be back at the ranch by noon after
stopping at the trading post. He still had six gold coins and whatever they
could find in the judge’s house tomorrow.

Everyone fell
silent until Elle said, “I guess we’d better clear the table and do the
dishes.” They all got up reluctantly and moved inside. Stryker turned on a
single table lamp that emitted enough light to allow them to see, but not
enough to be seen from a distance. He moved through the house, checking all the
windows and doors, before moving back to the kitchen. He locked the patio door
and snagged a beer from the fridge.

The women were
sitting on bar stools on the other side of the island in the kitchen, each with
another full glass of wine. Stryker joined them and they chatted for a few
minutes before he went to bed in the first of three adjacent bedrooms. He woke
up at the sound of footsteps down the hallway. They were giggling as they
passed his bedroom. He rolled over, got up, checked the doors and windows
again, and went back to bed.

Stryker rose the
following morning before sunup and went to the kitchen after pulling on his
pants. He padded barefoot down the hall, opened cupboards until he found a jar
of freeze-dried coffee, and put a pot of water on the stove to boil. He made
his cup of coffee and walked onto the patio. There was still mist over the lake
and he watched as the sun seemed to glance off the horizon as it rose. He
finished the first cup, made a second, and walked down the hallway to where the
women slept. The first bedroom was empty so he walked to the second and quietly
opened the door. A gentle light filtered into the room through the closed
drapes. Haley and Elle were still sleeping, and had kicked off the sheets
during the night, revealing their nudeness. It had been a hot evening; with the
windows closed and locked.

Both had breasts
that spilled away from their torsos as they slept on their sides facing one
another. Both wore contented expressions and looked the way women only look
once during their lifetimes. It was that odd mixture of girlishness and
maturity. They seemed like sculptures chiseled by some ancient Greek or Roman
artist. Stryker stared at them for a while, mesmerized by the beauty of the
scene, then stepped quietly back and softly closed the door.

“I don’t know if I
should feel like a pervert or just be grateful for the view,” he muttered as he
walked back to the kitchen. Then he thought about how important these young
women were to him. He had lived without purpose for so long that having someone
to care for gave his life meaning again. He vowed to do everything he could to
protect them and attempt to give them a shot at something resembling a normal
life. As he walked through the house, a realization came to him: he and Sarge
needed these woman as much, or more, than they needed them. It was a troubling
thought, not because Stryker hated needing anyone for anything, but because it
made his own motives questionable. Was he taking care of them because he was
doing the right and honorable thing? Or was it because he needed something to look
after, the way widows often get pets once they’re alone?

He walked out to
the patio and continued sipping his coffee. A few minutes later, he heard a
door slam, and presumed it was the bathroom door to the bedroom they slept in, but
picked up his M-4 and moved into the house in case he was mistaken.

“Good morning,”
Haley said cheerfully as she moved to heat the water. She was wearing a t-shirt
and panties.

“Morning,” he
replied.

She stood over the
stove for a moment and made her coffee. “Elle will be out in a minute,” she
said.

“I’m on the patio.”
He moved back out the sliding glass door and sat at the table sipping his
coffee. A few minutes later, they joined him, both carrying coffee mugs, fully
clothed, and looking cheerful.

“Sleep well?”
Stryker asked.

“It was too hot,”
Elle replied.

“Yeah, I didn’t
want to run the AC until I know the batteries can take the load. So I thought
it best to leave it shut down.” They glanced at each other and then Elle spoke.

“We heard you open
the door earlier, and it didn’t close for quite a while.”

Stryker wasn’t sure
how to answer, so he thought about it and said, “You’re both beautiful young
women and I enjoyed the view. I’m not a robot and I’m not ashamed of admiring
beauty. So shoot me for being a man who likes looking at women.” He went back
to sipping his coffee and studying the sunrise. A pause that seemed awkward to
Stryker ensued and finally Haley spoke.

“You know, we’re
both twenty-two and have been locked in a dorm room with two gay guys for close
to two years. We had no attention from men in forever and I guess I like the
fact you liked looking at us.”

“I did. I didn’t
know the two guys were gay,” Stryker replied.

“So you think we’re
pretty?”

“Understatement.
You’re pretty with your clothes on. You’re devastating without them.” They both
smiled and glanced at each other.

“So when are you
making your move on Erin?” Haley asked.

“When I know I can
love her and not the idea of her. When I can think of a woman and not see my
wife. It’s going to be awhile,” Stryker replied without hesitation. “We all
need to be honest about these things and I’m not going to lie about it. I feel
an attraction to your sister, but I can’t just act on my feelings without
knowing my acts will follow. Only the greedy and stupid do that.”