America The Dead Book Two: The Road To Somewhere (2 page)

A half dozen trips with Kate and Patty, and
late afternoon turned into early evening. Fires were burning to
smoke the meat. Two large roasts were spitted over a huge fire pit
made of field stone. A stew was bubbling in a pot that had been
suspended over the flames. Nearly everyone had found a reason to
stop by the area Janet Dove had set aside for cooking, most
arriving just as she had been about to send some others out looking
for everyone to round them up for dinner. The Dog was running
around in circles, happily racing from person to person, tail
wagging crazily. The smell of roasting meat hung heavy in the
still, cool air.

~Early Evening~

Everyone sat close together at several wooden
picnic tables that Janet had drafted a few volunteers to bring over
from the collapsed section of the motel. They had sat in a small
clearing not far from the building, untouched, while everything
around them had been leveled.

The temperature was in the low forties, but
with the early evening sun still shining, it felt much
warmer.

Mike sat next to Kate, Ronnie on his other
side. Across the table, Molly sat with Nell. They were both
laughing, involved in conversation with each other. It was the
happiest that Mike had seen Nell or Molly.

Canned potatoes, fresh beef and venison, a stew
that held a little bit of everything in it and a steaming platter
of peas dominated the table center. Everyone had heaped up their
plates. Too long eating thrown together meals or energy bars had
left them hungry for real food.

Their basic protein needs had been
met, but there was nothing like real food to make you...
Happy,
Mike decided. He
looked around the table at all the smiling faces. It was actually a
mood elevator, he decided.

“
What's on your mind, Baby?” Kate
asked. Her eyes smiled, but her mouth wore a question he had come
to know was more serious than her smile insinuated.

He bent forward and kissed her, making the
smile on her face spread wider still. “I was thinking how happy
everyone looked.” He turned his head and let his eyes sweep the
tables once more, then turned back to Kate whose eyes and face now
wore another look he was becoming familiar with. He bent forward
and kissed her once more. “I'm pretty sure I love you,” He told
her.

She laughed,
“Pretty sure!”
She slapped his arm
with one hand. “You better be more than pretty sure,
Mister.”

Mike laughed and kissed her again. “Positive,”
he said. “I'd be lost without you.” His eyes turned serious.
“That's the truth,” His voice dropped to a near whisper as he
leaned even closer. “I love you so much that I don't have words for
it. I only know it's real. I only know I need you.” He kissed her
once more and sat back up to catch Annie giggling and looking
away.

Kate laughed beside him. An easy laugh that
eased the seriousness of the conversation.

“
I hope we'll have some time later
on,” she said, her voice still low, husky.

“
I'll make sure of it,” Mike told
her.

“
I was looking at that garage
building,” Ronnie said from beside him.

Mike nodded.

“
It's one of those industrial
prefabricated jobs. I've put up a few, but I had no idea how well
engineered they were. They hold up pretty well, or at least this
one did. The buildings not really damaged at all.”

“
I noticed that too,” Mike agreed,
“What are you thinking?”

“
Well,” Ronnie
grinned, “When we get where we're going, it may not be a bad idea
for a dwelling... or
dwellings.
A
t least for a temporary dwelling until we
build...
if
we
build. Light weight, easy to put up. Easy to insulate. Not bad in
an earthquake, if that stuff's not completely done with
us.”

Mike was nodding his head. “I'm for it, but are
they hard to come by? I mean, where could we get one?”

“
Not as hard as it seems. There
are outlets where you can buy them in most larger cities. And there
are thousands already set up. We could take them apart pretty
easily, take them where we want them and put them back up. All the
structural supports are pretty much the same. You just add more or
take away to make the building the size you need. Very light
weight, so they'd be easy to transport. They'd go up or down pretty
fast,” Ronnie finished.

“
Has my vote,” Bob added. “Fast,
easy. They seem solid. It will save us a ton of time.”

“
I've seen them around. I think
it's a good idea. We wouldn't have to worry about wooden structures
falling down on us.” Mike looked around. “Almost all of the wooden
structures are down. Concrete seems okay, for the most part, steel.
But wooden structures just give too easily. Putting them up fast
would also be a plus,” he finished. He raised his eyes from the
ground - he had a habit of looking at the ground to visualize his
thoughts - and saw that Molly and Nell had been listening to their
conversation. They were nodding their heads in
agreement.

“
That garage is really solid,”
Molly agreed.

“
Cement's
cracked here and there, but the building itself held up really
well,” Nell agreed. “I don't even like walking into a wooden
building anymore. You can feel it move, hear the creaks and
groans...
pops.
”
She shook her head.

Mike and Ronnie both nodded.

”
It's a good plan,” Mike said. He
turned his head to Molly. “Where did you learn to turn wrenches?”
he asked her.

Molly smiled. “My dad had a race car. It
started out as a hobby but became something else. He'd work on it
all week long and then run it in races on the weekends.” She smiled
shyly. “When I was a little girl, as far back as I can remember, I
used to go out and watch.” She laughed. “Pretty soon I was fetching
wrenches, parts.” She laughed again. “The first time I came in with
greasy hands, I thought my Mother was going to die. When I was
fifteen, my Dad bought an old beat to shit Mustang. A sixty four.
It was a project car, he'd said. We'd work on it in our spare time
together, finish it up and sell it for a profit.” She smiled and
her eyes misted as she seemed to be looking back through the
years.

“
It took nearly a year of work.
That was also the time I was eligible to get my permit. The day I
got my license, he handed me the keys,” she finished, smiling
happily at the memory.

“
Pretty nice,” Kate
said.

“
Yeah, except it got smashed flat
when this,” she lifted her hands and gestured helplessly,
“happened. But once we're where we're going to be, I think I'll try
to find another one, or maybe a two door sixty two Chevy Impala.
I've always liked the way those Chevy’s look.” She shrugged,
“Crazy, I guess, but I really think I'm gonna do it. There must be
one somewhere.”

“
I can see that,” Patty said. “Or
something else worth rebuilding.”

More than a few heads nodded in
agreement.

“
Sometimes,” Patty added as an
afterthought. “The thing you find is better than the thing you
thought you wanted.”

Nell looked at Molly. Molly smiled, and Nell
leaned closer and kissed her.

“
You
two?
” Kate asked.

“
Nell tempted me,” Molly
said.

“
It's like Patty said, sometimes
the thing you find is better than the thing you thought you would
find... or want. I hadn't expected this much out of life in the old
world let alone this one,” Nell said smiling, but serious. She
worked her hand into Molly's and leaned closer to her.

Mike's eyes swept across Pattie's face,
expecting to see a smile but finding a distracted, sadness on her
face instead. Patty swept it away so quickly though that he wasn't
sure just a second later that it had really been there at all.
Maybe, he decided, he had imagined it. After all, Patty had found
the better thing she hadn't known she would find in Ronnie. There
would be no reason for that sadness to be on her face. He found his
own hand holding Kate's, and she leaned into him for a
kiss.

“
Get a room, you guys,” Tim said
as he and Annie passed by. Annie was blushing but had a huge smile
on her face.

“
Horn
dogs,”
Tim told her as they walked away,
laughing with each other and holding hands as they
went.

“
Horn dogs?” Mike
asked.

“
I don't know about you but I am
no horn dog,” Janet Dove joked as she passed by.

The thought of prim and proper Janet Dove
making a statement like that caused everyone to crack up. Janet
stopped, a shocked look on her face.

“
Good one, Jan,” Kate
said.

“
I can't believe I said that,”
Janet said.

Everyone cracked up then, including Janet
Dove.

~Evening~

Kate lay in the crook of Mike's arm as they
talked quietly.

“
Gotta go in about five minutes,”
Mike told her. “My watch.”

“
No,” Kate said. “You can't go if
you can't get out of bed. Besides, we paid for the room for the
night,” she finished and laughed.

Mike chuckled. “This
is
nice. Privacy, first
we've had in... well, forever.”

“
When we leave, we'll be back to
getting none at all again,” Kate told him. She snuggled against his
side, one hand resting against the flat of his stomach, her index
finger drawing small circles. “But,” she lifted her eyes to his. “I
guess I have to let you go. Just think about that alone time for
later.” She kissed him softly. “Something to keep you thinking
about it.” She turned away, swung her feet to the floor and began
to get dressed.

“
You do give me things to think
about,” Mike told her. He trailed his fingers down her back, bent
forward and kissed her shoulder.

Kate looked back at him. “Do you want to make
that watch?”

Mike laughed. “No, but I have no choice at
all.” He leaned forward and kissed her mouth. “Later,” he
said.

“
Later,” She agreed.

~

The room had not been in bad shape. It was
funny how fate could be, Mike had thought. One wing flattened, one
untouched. From sleeping in a cave a day ago, to sleeping in a real
bed the next.

The room was dusty, a slight musty, unused
odor, but dry. The roof had held up. The walls seemed
untouched.

“
Where are you going?” Mike
asked.

“
With you.”

“
You're not on, Babe,” Mike
grinned.

“
Correction.
I
wasn't
on. You
had Patty on, but she wanted to spend time with Ronnie, so we
switched. That way, when we're done, we can come back here
again...” She cocked her eyebrows. “And take our
time?”

“
What, not be rushed?” Mike
asked.

She stood and turned into him as he was getting
ready to leave. A beautiful woman wearing only a pair of white
socks, which was all she had managed to get on. She stretched up
onto her tip toes and kissed him. His hands pulled her close. She
pulled away with a smile.

“
I thought you were coming with
me,” Mike said.

“
I am,” She giggled.

He reached for her once more, but she skipped
away. “We'll never get there, Baby,” she told him.

“
As it is, I'll probably be
thinking about you throughout the whole watch and waiting to get
back here. God, Kate, you're so beautiful.”

She looked at him seriously. “Keep that up and
we'll never get out of this room.” She crossed the short distance
between them and kissed him once more. “Say it just once
more?”

“
You're beautiful,” Mike told her
as he pulled her close.

~

It was about an hour and a half past sunset
when Mike took over one of the perimeter guard posts from Susan. It
was simply the far corner of the garage complex that overlooked a
field and the highway beyond it.

“
Quiet?” He asked.

“
Pretty much. The dog... what's
that dog's name anyway?” she asked.

“
He doesn't have
one,” Mike admitted. “We, uh... we just call him
The Dog,
you know. He
survived. He got through it same as us; he made it, you know.
He's
The Dog
.”
Mike finished lamely.

“
Oh. Sounds like a little guilt
there, Mike. Maybe we should all get together and name it,” Susan
suggested.

Mike nodded.

“
Well,
anyway...
The Dog
kept looking off towards the highway. He didn't, like, bark
or anything. I thought maybe deer, cows, something else. But with
the meat drying, it could have drawn anything at all. The fires and
so many people should be enough to keep anything away. Even if it's
wolves, they'll probably stay away, right? I just thought you
should know about it.”