2nd Earth: Shortfall (4 page)

4

In the morning, the young men of our family and several of the girls tell Tim and me that the predators were looking around the building during the night, but no one tried to get in or anything. While we are eating breakfast one of the young ladies from the new family comes over and tells Dayna and me that there are some people outside the building looking around. We go to look and we recognize one of the young men who we took from the predators yesterday. Dayna and I go down and invite them up to our home. It is easy to see they are unsure of whether or not they should be here. The young man who we talked to yesterday starts saying that we offered for them to join us, they are curious to know if the offer still stands. We assure them it does, we invite them to join us and they are more than happy to do that. Tim and I want to go for more food today. Dayna refuses to stay home so we take some of the young men along with us and go looking for stores that we have not been to yet.

Dayna and Charity tell us which directions they have lived because most of the food is already gone from the stores in that area. Of course they don’t remember much about canned goods because they didn’t know how to open them without ruining them. Apparently these are kind of nomads moving from place to place in the city wherever they can find food and shelter. It is beginning to sound like our fears are well founded. Even though there are not as many people using the food eventually it will run out and in the city there is not much chance to grow more. We don’t even know what month it is, heck we don’t even know what year this is. We decide to visit a couple of the stores from the area they used to live in just to see if there is anything salvageable. In the first store we find a couple dozen cans that are still sealed and in the second store there are about fifty. I ask if we should leave some for others, but the new members of our family assure me that most of the families or groups kind of stay in the same area. I ask them why they haven’t joined forces before this and they say they were always afraid to trust anyone before this.

Dayna says that the predators have tried to join some of the other families pretending to be alone. She says she knows of one whole family that was wiped out by the predators after doing that. They all say that now they have seen that Tim and I are not afraid of the predators, and that the predators are actually afraid of us, so they want to be safe with us. We decide to look for some stores farther west of where we have been looking. Dayna tells me she has not come this far west before because she was over this way once and saw a mutant. I should have known this is going too easily, besides every science fiction movie I ever saw had some kind of mutant in it. There was even one really stupid movie that had killer tomatoes in it. I wouldn’t mind finding a giant mutated tomato. Actually it wouldn’t do much good because we don’t have any bread or mayonnaise to go with it. We find one store that hasn’t been wiped out yet, there are a few hundred jars of food and it looks like a couple thousand cans.

We are loading the wagons with what we can carry, I am a little ways off from the others when I get hit from behind by what feels like a ton of bricks. Whatever or whoever it was hit me across the shoulders knocking me forward. I manage to stay on my feet and turn to see what hit me. Now I know what Dayna was talking about. I am facing a man who is at least a foot taller than me and must weigh a hundred pounds more. He looks a little surprised that he didn’t at least knock me down. If the predators are who he is used to fighting, I can see why he would be surprised. I am looking for a way out without going through him, but the aisle is blocked behind me so the only way out is either through him or to climb over the shelves. I take a step toward him telling him I don’t want any trouble. I will leave if this is his store. He seems to be thinking about it, but he is still not moving so I take another step, braced to kick if I have to. I’m not going to waste a punch on that massive body of his and I doubt if I could get close enough to hit his face or head.

I take one more step closer. He raises his hand as if he is getting ready to strike out again. I am ready to kick at his knee hoping to put him down long enough to get past him. I could shoot him, but I don’t want to kill someone over a misunderstanding. He pulls his arm back and just as I start to raise my leg for the kick we hear a frightened voice saying please don’t hurt him. I’m not sure if she is talking to him or me. Dayna follows the lady who spoke into the aisle where we are. She tells me this is the mutant she told me about. The other lady says he isn’t a mutant, he’s just big and people are afraid of him so they chase them away all the time. It looks like the threat of getting hit with that gigantic fist again is over, for the moment. I ask him why he hit me. He speaks well with a voice that sounds like thunder coming from deep within that huge body of his.

“I am here to get food for my mother, my sister, and myself. I have never seen anyone here so I was surprised when I saw you and thought you may be one of the predators. They have tried to take my mother and sister before. I should have known you don’t look like them. Please accept my apologies. I hope I didn’t hurt you.”

I assure him I will be okay in a month or two, at least he smiles. Dayna is now talking to the mother and the sister, they don’t go anywhere without him being close. Tim comes down the aisle and says he doesn’t blame them. He asks me if I have gotten suicidal on him, starting a fight with someone that big. He tells me I really better go to some anger management classes before I hurt myself. Even our new super size friend laughs about that. Dayna and Charity have already invited them to come with us. Dayna tells them that we are living in a very nice place high up so we can see around us and we have lights and can cook right in the house. They are not sure they believe all that, but they are curious enough to come and see for themselves. We actually find two shopping carts in the market so we load them and the wagons and take them back to the house. When we get there we find that the other families, of the young men we rescued yesterday, have asked to join our group. It is getting crowded so we decide to let the women, which there are a lot more of than the men, stay on the third floor. We men and our wives will stay on the second floor so that if anyone tries to get to the women they have to go through us. Billy and his mother and sister want to stay on the second floor as well. I’m not going to be the one to tell him they can’t.

After supper when everyone seems to be getting to know each other better Tim, Billy, and I talk about teaching the men and young men how to defend themselves and the others. Dayna and Charity as well as Billy’s sister Bobbi, all say they want to learn to fight just as much as the boys do. From what I have seen they may be better at it than the boys are. I also tell Tim that I saw a house today that I would really like to take a look in either tomorrow or soon. Tim says he saw what appeared to be an antenna on one of the roofs we passed today and he would like to investigate that to see if we can find a short wave radio. There may be other cities that weren’t as devastated as this one. I ask Dayna if there is a library near here. She doesn’t know what I am talking about. I tell her that it will be a building full of books. There are some books in the office we are using for a home so I show her a couple. Then she knows what I am talking about.

She says that there are such buildings around the city. Many of the books have been used for fires. However, there are still a lot of them left. She says if we want to we can go tomorrow morning. Tim and I make a list of the topics we would like to research. I ask Dayna and the others if any of them know how to read. Billy’s mom does and a few others say a little. They have never had anyone show them more than a little. We tell everyone that starting tomorrow they will be learning how to read and write. They don’t know why they need to, but they are willing. I try to explain to Dayna why reading is so important. She just says if I want her to be able to read then she will learn. That is as long as we take time out for the important stuff, like the forbidden fruit. I told her what Ma Horton said and she says she would have loved to have met her. It made her feel good when I told her Ma would have loved her as much as I do.

In the morning we do go to a library or what is left of one. It was not a large library when it was being used as one and now there is a very limited selection to choose from. We do find some very good books for the others to learn to read and I manage to find a couple of the topics I am looking for. I am sure there will be other opportunities to find the books I want, for now we will do what we can with what we have. We stop at the building where Tim saw the antenna yesterday and go looking for a short wave radio. We don’t find a radio, but we take the antenna down and take it with us in case we find a radio. The last stop for today is a house that I saw where there is a sign out front saying they used to sell guns and ammo here. The place has been ransacked and all there is left is some loose ammunition on the floor. Tim says we are about twenty years too late judging by the way the place looks.

I expected to see exactly what we are seeing. I also expect to see something that maybe the others didn’t see. Sure enough when I go into one of the rooms toward the back of the house the room doesn’t look near deep enough from the inside. I mention this to Tim and he tells me I’m imagining it. There is a window almost in the corner of the room, I tell Tim to look out the window toward the back of the house. The outside wall goes a good four feet beyond where the wall ends in here. I am looking for some kind of trigger or device to open a trap door when Dayna finds it beside the window. The door barely moves, but it opens just enough for us to get our fingers in and pry it open. There is a set of stairs heading downward. Following them we come to a small room that is totally sealed except for this way in. On the walls are what I expected to find, rifles and handguns of every description. Many of them are military weapons from World War II, Korea and even Viet Nam. There is also enough ammunition to start a small war. I am looking for specific guns and ammunition. I find a .307 with a snipers scope on it. That one I definitely want. There are a couple .243 caliber rifles with scopes, those are coming with us. Tim picks out an M16 military rifle and there are several cases of ammunition for that. Tim moves a couple cases of ammunition on a table and finds a short wave radio. We are glad we have as many people with us as we do. We load up the wagons with everything we can carry. Tim points out that this guy must have been a survivalist because he also has several cases of military rations from the Viet Nam war era.

We decide to lock everything up, to look as natural as possible, and plan to come back to clean the place out. On the way home Tim asks me how I knew we would find a hidden cache like this. I tell him I didn’t for sure, but Gunny knew several gun dealers that worked out of their homes and every one of them had a similar setup. Even many gun shops have hidden rooms where the more expensive, and sometimes less legal weapons, are kept for special customers. Dayna is so proud that we are bringing home what are considered rare treasures to these people. To me they are survival tools if we are going to make any kind of life for us and our new found family. Even her dad is excited for a change, he says he knows how to read and is happy to help the others learn as well. First though Tim, Billy, and I want to at least start teaching our young men how to fight.

The days turn for the worse weather wise and it’s better to stay inside and work with the young men for a few hours a day. After that we work with everyone learning to read. I have never seen more willing students. They seem to hang on every word that we tell them. I say we are teaching the young men how to fight, and it really did start out that way, but after the first half hour we have just about everyone in the family down here with us. We cleaned up the first floor of our home to be similar to a dojo. When the weather gets better again we are going looking for some weights and other equipment to help get these young people in shape. One of the young ladies, who joined our family, has a very nice bell that looks like she found it at a fire house or it may have even been one of those bells that people play and make music with sometimes. Either way she brought it down with her to practice and when we want to get everyone’s attention if they don’t respond she shakes that bell and that definitely gets their attention.

I must be conditioned because whenever I hear it I think back to the hours, days, and weeks of SEAL training. When someone had enough and wanted to drop out they would ring the bell signifying they were quitting. There were some great guys in that class, but not everyone is cut out to be a SEAL. The training is extremely physically demanding, but it’s the mental toughness that usually separates those who drop out and those who stay. That’s not to say those that drop out aren’t mentally strong, in most cases it’s a question of priorities in their lives. Being a part of any Special Forces group like that is a total commitment. For me it was what Gunny had talked about since I was seven years old and I just never even thought about doing anything else. I am starting to realize that if I had someone like Dayna in my life back then, I may have rung the bell myself. There is no way to know for sure, but I know when you are worried about staying alive more than completing a mission, it can cost the whole team their lives. Even a moment’s hesitation at the wrong time can be fatal for everyone. It’s not that I didn’t want to live before, it’s just that I didn’t worry about dying as much as I would now that I have someone who loves me.

As big and as strong as Billy is he doesn’t really know much about fighting. With his size and strength he doesn’t need to. So rather than embarrass him we act like we are letting Billy demonstrate with one of us while we talk them through the moves. He really seems to be enjoying himself. He told me last evening that we are the first people who have treated him as an equal. Tim and I joke around with him like we do each other and he seems to really enjoy that as well. I know we should probably treat him better than that, but if he wants to be one of us, that’s what he gets. Believe me he is very sharp witted and has at least as many comebacks and harassing things to say as we do and we have had a lot of practice. Those of us who can read spend most of our free time teaching the others. They are all excited about learning and will work as hard and as long as we are willing to teach them.