The Last Tribe (27 page)

Peter nodded as John filled him in
on finding Solange, on their dog, on their plans for New York City and Boston. 
“Those three kids need to come with you.  I don’t know how excited they will be
to leave me and Mel, we’ve been taking care of them for five months, but I
can’t do it anymore.  I’m too old, and they need kids their own age.  I guess I
should talk to Mel before I speak, she’s more their mother than I am their
father, but that’s my opinion.”

“How did you find each other?” 
Matt asked, curious to hear why he was sure the group of five were all that was
left of the D.C., Baltimore, and Annapolis area.

“You know the story, what happened
to the big cities, the curfews, the round-ups, particularly here.”  Peter
started.  “I was in the Navy.  I knew what it meant to get rounded up.  I saw
it in Vietnam.  Screw that.  I stayed with my wife, stayed with her until she
passed.  I mourned her, then I hid for a few weeks.  That damn disease was like
a brushfire.  It killed places in days, maybe a week, it didn’t take long for
the city to dwindle down to nothing.”  He looked towards the White House.

“When the President died, well,
that was it.  He lasted longer than his cabinet, two weeks longer than his wife
and daughters.  That man was a fighter.  When the radio broadcasts announced he
was gone and said the military was in charge?  That was September, and I was
like, what military?  Are there ten of you in a bunker somewhere broadcasting? 
I hadn’t seen a tank or jeep or motorcycle in days.”

“I stayed in my apartment eating dry
cereal and canned fruit.  The electricity didn’t go off until mid-October.  I
could cook things, and keep some food cold in my fridge.  I scavenged in my
neighborhood, but didn’t venture farther than a few houses.  I don’t eat much. 
It was easy to stay alive.  The streets were empty.  The trash smelled
horrible, the stench of death and rotting bodies was almost unbearable, but I
stayed in my row house in Georgetown.  The radio broadcasts went out, I waited
another week, and then I got in my car and started driving around.  I found the
Jones twins breaking into homes and eating out of trash cans.  I took them in,
gave them a hot meal, set them up in my guest room.  They’re great kids, a
little energetic, but they are smart and respectful.  The three of us drove
around for another week, and I suggested we take a trip to the ocean, go over
to Annapolis, try to find other people, maybe catch some crabs or fish.”

“We get over there, we’re downtown,
I wanted to go to the harbor and find a boat, maybe take the kids fishing, and
we run into Casey and a woman named Barbara Stevens.  She wasn’t Casey’s
mother, but a survivor who found the little girl wandering the streets. 
Barbara is late stage breast cancer, lost her chemo when everything went FUBAR
from the rapture.  She grimaced with pain at every step, every time she moved,
but she’d cared for that little 3 year old girl with everything she had.”  He
looked at the ground, he choked up for a minute before clearing his throat.

“Anyway, we meet, I tell her I can
help take care of Casey.  Barbara comes back to Georgetown with us, lives for
another week, making sure I’m not some sort of pedophile or horrible person,
that I really will take care of this sweet little girl.  I came into the
kitchen on the morning of the eighth day, and she was sitting at the table. 
She asks me to forgive her.  I nodded, I knew what she meant.  She weighed 80
pounds by then, she could barely move.  She took a bottle of pills and died
quietly in a house down the street.  Can you imagine?  You survive the rapture,
but you’ve got cancer and die anyway?”

Peter stopped for a moment, pulling
a handkerchief from his back pocket to wipe his eyes and blow his nose.

“Jake and Jackie knew the
situation, just 8 years old each of them, but they understood.  I’m old, I
can’t take care of Casey all the time.  The twins took on most of the
responsibility of caring for her.  I still cooked, but the twins kept the house
clean, they kept Casey entertained, they read to her.  They suggest I move a
third bed into their room so she can sleep with them.”  He looked over to the
RV.  “I hope they can play with your kids, get some of their childhood back,
whatever they can reclaim after this, this horror.”

John put his hand on Peter’s upper
arm.  “My son, Craig, is young.  I worry about the same things.  He ran away
for weeks after the rapture, after his mother died.  He plays with his two
younger cousins like it’s a long weekend from school.  He gets his work done,
he knows the score, what the world is right now, but he also plays.  The twins
will be okay, you did a great job with them, keeping them alive.”

“I did what I could.”  Peter
responded, choked up again.  “I did what needed to be done.”  Peter cleared his
throat and continued.  “A week after Barbara left us, we decided to look for
other people.  We headed over to Baltimore, and I am driving around in my car. 
I installed a car seat for Casey.  We have movies going for the kids.  I turn a
corner and we almost run over Melanie.  She’s walking in the middle of the
road, crossing the street.  I almost mow her down.  It was a fine way to
introduce myself, driving like a maniac.  She’s coming back from Johns Hopkins,
where she’s been trying to keep a baby alive in the NICU.  She’s a doctor.  The
baby boy was immune, and in the old world, would have made it, but didn’t have
the lungs to keep himself alive.  Mel is walking around like a zombie, having
hand pumped the babies’ lungs for 14 hours before she collapsed from
exhaustion.  The power was out, the generators at the hospital finally failed, and
she had to move the little boy from the electric ventilator to a hand
ventilator.  She couldn’t do it alone.  She woke up in a chair with the little
boy dead in her arms.  She was pretty rattled up by it.”  Peter shook his head.

“I stop the car and she gets in. 
We introduce ourselves, talk about plans, and she comes back to D.C. to help me
with the kids, and see what the winter brings.  Casey sat on her lap, and I saw
a tear roll down Mel’s face.” 

“We made additional swings through
Baltimore and Annapolis, but we haven’t found anyone else.  If there are other
people in D.C., we can’t find them.  We burned signal fires, we blew horns, no
one until you drove up.”

“Mel had the great idea to move to
here, near the White House, as these building were cleared by the military
during the rapture siege.  There isn’t rotting corpse smell, you don’t run into
bodies when you look for food.  It is a clean zone.  It’s also how we saw you
pull up to the White House.”

He rubbed his hands and blew into
them to warm them up.  His ears were getting red as the temperature dropped.

“So that’s it, that’s our story,
the abbreviated version.  We’ve had our ups and downs.  We’ve struggled in some
areas, but we’ve kept those kids alive, we’ve kept them fed, and Mel has done a
nice job trying to get them to read and write.”

“You’re cold.”  John said, “and I
hate for you to miss out on my brother’s meatballs, if there are any left. 
Let’s go into the RV and get you some food.” 

Matt put his arm on the old man’s
shoulder and led him into the RV.  “Again, welcome to the group.  Where did you
grow up?  Are you a native of Washington D.C?”  Matt opened the door for
Peter.  The spring shut the door behind them.

John turned and saw Solange
standing firm by his side during the conversation.  “He is a nice man.”  She
said.  “He reminds me of my grandfather.”

“I didn’t realize you were still
out here.  Aren’t you cold?  You said you hated the cold.”  John was surprised
she stayed outside instead of going in with Emily, Todd, and the new people.

“I wanted to hear his story, and I
wanted to make sure you were not left alone outside.  It is okay to trust
people, but I do not trust people 100%.  Four people standing outside is less
of a target than three.  If he was part of a larger group, a scout sent to see
our weaknesses, having three of us with him was a sign that he or his group
could not get us into situations where we might be vulnerable, when there would
only be one of us.”

“Thank you.”  He said, glad another
person was thinking of security and weary of survivors.

“You are welcome.”  She said,
flashing a smile, the first John had seen her make.  She looked down at the
ground for a second, almost as if embarrassed to smile at him.  “I hope there
is still some food.  I did not eat very much, and I am hungry.”

John opened the door for her. 
“Let’s find out.”  He put his hand on her back, an instinctive gesture to help
her into the RV.  She turned and smiled at him again before going inside.

John could hear children’s laughter
from the RV.  The group was talking loudly.  The two tribes were merging into
one.

Sleeping arrangements were
complicated.  Jackie and Jake wanted to sleep with their new friends on the
floor of the RV.  Casey was scared to sleep without Melanie.  Melanie did not
want to sleep on the floor or on a couch.  Jay said he would go back to Melanie
and Peter’s apartment and sleepover with Casey, but Todd and Emily would not
let him go alone. 

Peter described their three bedroom
apartment, and there appeared to be more than enough room for a few children
and at least two adults. 

Todd and Emily went with Jay,
Casey, Melanie, and Peter to sleep at the apartment.  Jake, Jackie, Brian, and
Craig slept in sleeping bags on the floor of the RV.  Matt slept on the couch. 
Solange slept in the large bed in the bedroom of the RV.  John slept on the
pullout. 

Before they split up for the
evening, Peter and Melanie agreed to travel to Hanover.  Peter was a man who
made decisions quickly, and after eating his meal and seeing how well the
children played together, he took Melanie aside and asked her if she was
willing to join the new group. 

“I don’t like being cold, Peter. 
You know that, but you’re right, this is the best scenario for us and the
children.  I want to bring our own vehicle so we have options, but staying with
this family seems like a good idea.  I like them, and I trust them after just
one meal.”

Peter announced his decision to
join the Dixon tribe, and suggested they leave for New York as soon as the next
day.

Emily protested immediately.  “If
you think I am leaving before I tour the White House and show my kids
Washington D.C., well you are mistaken.  Part of this trip is creating
memories.”

“You know what?”  Peter admitted. 
“I’ve never toured the White House.  I’d like to do that before I leave.  It’s
also been a few years since I walked the Wall.  I would like to say goodbye.” 
Peter typically avoided the Vietnam Memorial as he knew too many names etched
into the black stone. 

“Part of our plan is to take the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution with us, if we can.  We are
also open to art, so if you see anything or remember anything from the National
Gallery, or during your White House tour, grab it.”

Melanie had not considered taking
art with her.  She loved art, and was a patron at most of the museums in town. 
“We should take these things, preserve as much of the world as we can.”  She
turned to Peter.  “With new people come new ideas.” 

The tribe agreed on at least one
week of site seeing and playing before departing for the next city, Philadelphia.

John spoke with Emily and Todd
before splitting up for the night.  “What do you think?” 

“What do I think about what?  The
people?  They are smart, hard working, honest people who want to join us. 
There is no downside to this scenario.”  Emily told him bluntly.  She had no
time for conspiracy theories or distrust. 

“I agree, I’m very comfortable with
all of them, but I don’t want Craig, Jay, or Brian left alone with anyone.” 
John replied.

“John, that’s just parenting
etiquette.  Do you really think I am going to ask Peter to look after my young
kids?”  Todd was annoyed with his brother.  “Look, I appreciate that you are
looking after us, but I don’t think there is anything sinister happening here. 
If there is, I trust that you have it under control.” 

“Okay, okay, I’ll lighten up, but
please try to elevate your senses a little.  We’re not in Raleigh, a place you
combed for survivors.  We’re in a huge metro area, there could be a bad person or
people.”

“You’re right, and that is a
reasonable statement.  I don’t think the new people are bad, but there could be
another person out there.  I’ll keep a gun with me, and I will have my walkie
talkie turned on all the time.”  Todd conceded John’s fears as he and Emily prepared
for their evening away.

“We’ll see you back here tomorrow
morning.  Make sure you have eggs and milk ready for us when we get back.” 
Emily patted John on the back.

“If we are here for a week, we are
setting the pizza oven up first thing tomorrow morning.  It’s only been two
days, but I’m already jones’ing for some fresh bread.”  John gave Todd a hug.

“I will make fresh dough in the
morning.  You, Matt, and I will get it set up after breakfast.”

The parties split up for the
night.  Solange was the only person who protested her sleeping arrangements. 
“I am new to the group.  Why do I deserve the big bed?”

John calmed her protests.  “Sol,
there will be plenty of time for you to sleep uncomfortably.  Take the high
points when you can get them.”  She relented and went to sleep, happy in her
big bed.  She was ecstatic to sleep with people for the first time in 6 months.

The morning was chaotic.  The Jones
twins woke up early, very early, waking the rest of the RV in the process.  It
was only 6am, and still dark outside.  John would not let the kids play on the
White House lawn.  He put a movie on the television, and made himself coffee. 

Matt, kicked off his couch by the
kids watching television, moved to the converted third row bed in the
Suburban.  He mumbled something about needing more rest, put on a winter cap,
and stormed out of the RV.