The Survivor Chronicles: The Risen (19 page)

An old table sat in the middle of the large
room. A deck of cards sat on it along with an empty glass. Two old
brown sofas were pushed against the walls. Judging by the design
and material their best days had been in the seventies, but their
cushions and backing were still intact. In between the table and
chair was a metal wood-burning stove that still had a pile of wood
sitting beside it. A layer of dust covered everything within the
room but it appeared relatively clean otherwise.

Carl moved to the left and the others
followed behind him. He stepped into a kitchen with a small green
fridge, a white two-burner stove, and a steel basin sink. There
were four cabinets on the wall but only two on the ground, one on
either side of the sink.

Carl opened and closed all of the upper
cabinets but they were bare and nothing lurked within them. The
left bottom cabinet had a trashcan and the right a handful of
cleaning supplies, including bleach. She despised the smell of
bleach but judging by the smell of this place they were going to
need it.

Stepping back, she flicked on her flashlight
and pulled out her gun as she shone it into the room just to the
right of the kitchen. Two sets of bunk beds were within; she knelt
down before she entered the room and shone the light around the
small space beneath the beds. Holding her breath, she half expected
to see eyes reflecting back at her but dust bunnies were the only
things beneath the bed.

"Clear?" Carl inquired.

"Yes," she told him and rose up.

Carl stepped past her and into the narrow
room. He stood on his tiptoes to peer into the shadows above the
beds. Nodding, he dropped back down and walked to the end of the
room. Mary Ellen followed behind and opened up the drawers on the
dresser to the right while Carl went through the left one.

"They should be empty," Al said from the
doorway.

Mary Ellen closed the last drawer and
nodded. "They are."

She left the room and they all moved toward
the last two remaining rooms on the other side of the cabin. Riley
already stood in the doorway of a tiny bathroom. Mary Ellen spotted
the stand-in shower in the corner with a toilet beside it. She
frowned as she stared at the toilet paper holder; it took her a
minute to realize that it was a deer antler. Shaking her head, she
couldn't figure out if she was amused or repulsed by it.

Turning away, she looked into the other
bedroom that Xander and John were already searching. Just like the
other one, it had two sets of bunk beds and two dressers in it. The
mattress on the bottom bunk to her right had been torn apart,
springs and cushion were piled up around the hole. It must have
been the raccoon's nest, she realized.

She turned her attention back to Xander and
John as Xander toed open the closet at the end of the beds to her
left. Xander pointed the gun and flashlight into the closet. The
light reflected off the back wall of the empty closet but some of
the insulation from the ceiling had fallen down. "Is there an
attic?" Xander inquired.

"Just a crawl space," Al answered.

"This is where the raccoon got in."

"We'll have to find the hole and patch it,"
Carl said and left the room.

Mary Ellen turned back to the large main
room and stood there staring at it. She didn't know what to say or
do. She didn't know what was expected of her anymore.

"Now what?" Riley inquired.

It was a relief to know she wasn't the only
one who had no idea what to do now. They'd been running for weeks
now, with this one goal in mind. Now they had attained their goal
and she felt they should still be running, that moving was safer,
but it wasn't. It couldn't be. They'd lost people while on the
move, there were constant dangers lurking out there, constant
obstacles they had to overcome. Here they would be able to hunt;
they would be able to scour the area in search of food and gas.
They may even be able to start a garden next year if the weather
and sky continued to make their steady return back toward
normal.

She felt helpless now. Even more lost than
when all of this had started and she'd had no idea what was going
on, where to go, or how to escape. At least she had been
moving
then. When she'd been
moving, she hadn't had time to think. There was too much time now
and thinking was something she would prefer not to do.

"Now we make it a home," Al said. "We take
the boards down, we clean, we search the area; we set traps for
animals and for possible enemies. We see if we can make a stand
here, make a life."

It all sounded so good but she remained
standing with the others, her shoulders pressed against Riley's and
Carl's. Outside of the open doorway she could see Nancy, Donald,
Claire, Josh, Freddie, and Rochelle gathered on the porch and at
the bottom of the stairs. Rochelle held Spooky in her arms as she
stared at the lake. Mary Ellen couldn't bring herself to move
toward them and let them know it was safe to come inside.

"There is still plenty to do," Al said.
"We're not safe here, not yet."

"Should we go back and lock the gate?" John
asked.

"That's the only road in or out; barricading
it probably isn't the best idea. We can work on cutting another
road out over time. There's a shed in the woods with an ax in there
and I'm sure we'll find some more axes and chainsaws on the other
properties in the area," Al told them.

"Let's hope for the chainsaws," John
said.

"Where do we start first?" Mary Ellen
asked.

"We'll split the tasks. For now we should
start on making this place ready for us to stay in. We should set
up a security system around the perimeter so we can know if someone
is coming. Are there any hunting stands near this cabin?" Carl
inquired. "They might be useful as lookout points."

"There are," Al answered. "I'll show them to
you."

"Are you coming with us, John?"

"Yeah."

"I'd like to go," Mary Ellen inserted. She'd
assumed cleaning this place would be the thing she'd want to dive
into, but a walk through the woods,
movement,
seemed like a much better option right
now.

Carl nodded his agreement. "That's fine. We
should go now. Night will be here soon."

"I'm going to give Victor another dose,"
Riley said. "And bring him inside."

"How many doses have you given him?" Carl
asked.

"This will be number four."

"How many do you plan to give him?" John
asked.

"Until the bottle runs out. The medicine
does nothing for us and it doesn't seem to be harming him. I don't
see any reason to stop."

"Neither do I," Carl agreed. "Come on, let's
go."

Walking out to the porch gave Mary Ellen a
purpose again. The others turned toward them as they descended the
steps of the porch. "It's safe to go in," Carl informed them.
"We'll get these boards off the windows, the cabin cleaned up, and
the supplies inside before the sun sets. We're going to check some
things out but we'll be back soon."

"Got it," Donald said and hurried into the
cabin.

"Be safe," Rochelle said to her.

"I will," she promised and kissed the top of
her daughter's head. "Stay close to the others."

Rochelle nodded and hurried over to join
Riley by the car. "Winter up here can be brutal," Al informed them
as they moved further into the woods. Mary Ellen searched the large
pines and oaks surrounding them as the fading light of the setting
sun filtered through the heavy cover over her head. "If we're able
to stay here that long we're going to have to figure out a way to
stay heated and cook without producing much smoke."

"That shouldn't be too difficult," John
muttered.

"The sick people are still human, if winter
is bad there's a good chance they won't survive it," Carl said.

"Well at least we won't be alone then," John
said. "Those things are too damn smart to freeze to death, they'll
go south or they'll burn something. Hopefully it's not our frozen
bodies they decide to use for fuel."

Carl scowled at him. "Frozen bodies probably
wouldn't burn well and I think they prefer to use us for food."

"That's looking on the bright side."

If John hadn't always been a sarcastic SOB
Mary Ellen might have actually been concerned about him after the
events of last night. However, she knew this was just the way he
normally handled things. Carl didn't seem at all worried about him
as he told John to go screw himself in not so nice of words.

"We don't even know if we'll have a winter
with this crazy weather and events we've had lately." Al stopped
beneath a large maple and pointed up. "Here's one."

Mary Ellen eyed the wooden boards nailed
into the tree about a foot apart until they reached a square wooden
platform about thirty feet up. Her stomach dropped as she eyed the
cracks in most of the boards used as a ladder and a broken board in
the base of the stand. She'd prefer to take the polar plunge naked
then climb up there.

Carl lit a cigarette before he grabbed hold
of the bottom board and tested his weight on it. He cautiously
climbed up the steps, pulling on each board a little before putting
his weight on it. Mary Ellen held her breath as he made it to the
square hole in the bottom of the stand. Placing his hands on each
side of the stand, he tested the security of it before gingerly
pulling himself onto it.

Her breath exploded from her as he rose to
his full height close to the trunk of the tree. "What do you see?"
John called quietly up to him.

"Trees," Carl answered. "Lots of them."

"Maybe if you move closer to the edge," John
suggested.

"You come up here and get closer to the
edge," Carl retorted.

"Can you see the cabin or anything around
us?" Al asked.

Carl shook his head, stomped on his
cigarette, and climbed back down the tree. "This one won't be of
any help to us," he told them when he stepped onto the ground.
"Maybe in the fall, when the leaves drop we'll be able to see
better, but not now. Where's the next one?"

"This way," Al said and led them through the
woods on a perpendicular angle to the cabin. "This one was my
friend's stand. I never used it but it might have a better view of
the cabin and surrounding area."

The twigs and leaves crunched beneath their
feet as they continued through the woods. The scent of rotten
leaves and pine needles assailed her, bringing forth memories of
fall and Halloweens spent trick-or-treating with Rochelle through
the neighborhood. She'd always loved the smell of fall, the leaves
as they changed color, the pumpkin themed everything that popped up
everywhere, and warm apple cider. What she wouldn't give for some
warm apple cider right now, but that wasn't going to happen today.
Maybe they'd be able to find an apple tree and make some cider of
their own in the future.

Al stopped beneath a large oak and nodded
toward the metal ladder that had been nailed to the tree. It didn't
look any more stable than the wooden boards on the other tree, but
the stand above appeared to be fully intact. John seized hold of
Carl's arm when he went to grab the ladder.

"I'll go this time," John offered.

Carl nodded and stepped aside. John grabbed
a rung and began to carefully climb up the rickety ladder. Mary
Ellen hissed out a breath as the metal bowed and creaked beneath
his weight but held firm. John pulled himself onto the stand and
like Carl stayed close to trunk of the tree. He shaded his eyes as
he searched the forest.

He gave a brief nod before climbing down the
ladder again. He'd almost reached the bottom when one of the rungs
beneath his feet gave way. Mary Ellen gasped loudly, Al and Carl
lurched forward as John's feet fell out from underneath him. John's
chin bouncing off of one of the rungs caused her to wince, but he
kept his hold on the ladder and eventually got his feet onto
another step.

"You ok?" Mary Ellen asked when John jumped
off and landed on the ground nearby.

He rubbed his reddened chin as he nodded.
"Yeah."

"Will it be useful?" Carl asked.

"I could see the cabin from up there and
part of the road."

"Good, are there anymore stands Al?"

"There's one more that could be of help," Al
answered. "The others are further into the woods."

They fell into step behind Al as he walked
at an angle that took them further away from the cabin, but brought
them closer to the lake. The sun had almost completely set by the
time they arrived at the final stand and Carl climbed into the tree
above. Mary Ellen glanced nervously around the woods as silence
descended with the twilight.

She'd been so eager to escape the cabin, now
all she wanted was to get back to the shelter. She pulled her
flashlight out and held it before her. Carl climbed back down the
ladder and landed almost silently on the ground beside her. He
grabbed hold of her hand before she could turn on the light and
shook his head. "Not unless it becomes necessary."

"Did you see something up there?" she asked
nervously.

"No, but that doesn't mean we're alone. This
stand will be helpful too."

In the distance the forlorn hoot of an owl
drifted through the trees. Even if he hadn't seen anything while he
was up there, the hair on Mary Ellen's neck stood on end. The woods
took on an ominous aura that made it feel as if they had come
alive.

"Let's get back," Carl said.

Mary Ellen tried to be as noiseless as
possible while they headed back toward the cabin but every step
seemed to echo loudly through the trees. She knew it was only her
imagination but she felt like Big Foot stomping through the woods
in search of food.

Relief filled her when the cabin finally
came into view again. The boards had been taken down from the
windows; the dim beam of a flashlight could be seen through the
glass. The welcoming glow of the light drew her hurriedly onward.
As she approached the right side of the cabin, she could hear the
murmur of voices drifting out and for the first time she got the
real sense of a home.