When they reached the first house on the corner, there were another two men waiting on them. Neither man held a weapon, but each had a pistol affixed to their side, and one of the men also had a large knife on his hip. Karl rolled down his window as he pulled up beside the two men.
“What’s your business here?” the man with the large knife asked.
“Here to see Adam and hoping to do some trading.”
The man looked into the van, scanning the faces of the four people inside before shifting his gaze to the items in the back.
“All right,” the man said. “Go up the road and take a right onto Calvin. You’ll see a group of people outside, and Adam’s place is 345.”
“Thanks,” Karl said.
The man tapped on the window seal and backed away from the van.
The houses they passed appeared empty and no one stood outside. Strangely, it looked like this neighborhood had seen little action. Either nothing had happened here, or the survivors living in the area had done a good job of cleaning up.
Karl hung a right on Calvin.
Several people loitered in the street and yards, turning to watch the van approach as it came around the corner.
Spencer said, “I don’t like this.”
“It’ll be fine,” Charlie said.
“How do you know, man?”
“No, he’s right,” Will said. “If they wanted to kill us, they could’ve already.”
Karl pulled the vehicle forward, and everyone outside just stared at them. He drove until he had no choice but to stop, as no one in the road had moved. He saw the number ‘345’ posted on a mailbox behind the group.
“Hang here,” Karl said. He stepped out of the vehicle and approached the group.
“This just doesn’t feel right, man,” Spencer said again.
Even though Will had said it was fine, he had his own doubts. He wished that he hadn’t agreed to turn over his weapons at the gate. In fact, it seemed like a really stupid decision in this moment.
Karl walked up to the group and spoke to a man. They shook hands, and the man thumbed over his shoulder toward 345 Calvin Street—Adam’s house. The man shouted at someone else, and a teenage boy hurried through Adam’s yard and knocked on his door.
The door opened, and a man appeared in the doorway. They spoke for a moment, and then the man looked over the teen’s shoulder and waved at Karl. The two men met halfway across Adam’s yard, and it was as if they’d known each other since grade school. They hugged, shook hands, and chatted for a moment before Karl looked back and waved to the van.
“I guess we’re safe to get out,” Charlie said.
Will opened his door and stepped out of the vehicle. The air had a cool tinge to it, and the breeze blew down the center of the open street. He shut his door and, when he turned to face the group, everyone in the street stared at him. He glanced to the houses, and the eyes of people standing in the yards and on porches stared him down. Standing still, he looked down at his clothes. They were covered in blood. He had wiped his face off as best he could, but could still feel the dirt and dried blood on his cheeks and in his hair.
He found a cloud on the horizon to focus on, looking past the crowd. Even so, he could still feel all their eyes on him as he approached Adam’s house.
***
There was a half-bath located on the first floor of Adam’s home. He allowed Will to use it to clean himself up, providing him with a couple of hand towels. The house had no running water, but Adam had been kind enough to give him a couple of bottled waters to rinse off with. Will wondered if he would have to pay for the bottles later in a trade.
A vanilla-scented candle illuminated the space. Will got as much of the crud out of his hair as he could, and then he used the remaining water to clean off his face. As he looked in the mirror, even in the dim light he could see how much he’d aged in such a short period of time. The stubble on his face would grow thicker, which would help keep him warm in the oncoming winter. New lines had formed on his face. The dark ones under his eyes didn’t wipe away with the blood and dirt.
Once he’d used all the water, Will dried off his face with the second towel, blew out the candle, and exited the half-bath.
The door opened up to the living room, where Charlie, Karl, and Spencer sat on a long, three-piece sofa. Adam sat across the room in a recliner, gesturing with several hand motions as he spoke. He was tall, around six-foot-three, and was balding on top. Like Will, he had a new beard growing in, though Adam’s was a little more mature. He wore a hooded sweatshirt with a hole in the front pocket. He looked over to Will and smiled.
“Feel better?” Adam asked.
“Much,” Will said. “Thank you.”
“Karl here was telling me what happened. You’re really lucky.”
You don’t know the half of it,
Will thought, chuckling. “Yeah, I was.”
“Please, have a seat,” Karl said, signaling toward another chair on the other side of the room.
Will went to the chair and eased into it. A fresh bottle of water sat on a nearby table, and Will opened the top and took a swig.
“Thanks,” Will said, pointing the top of the water bottle toward Adam.
“Not a problem,” Adam replied.
“You guys have been here since people fell?” Charlie asked.
Finishing his own sip of water, Adam nodded. “Pretty much everyone who lives here now was here before. We have a couple of stragglers, but we’re so hidden back here that we haven’t had to worry about much. The population in this area is dense. This was the first of several subdivisions being developed in these parts, but then, well...”
“Yeah,” Charlie said.
“We’ve met a few other people when we’ve ventured out into the world. No one since we met you,” Adam said, signaling toward Karl. “We’re pretty well stocked here, so we’ve been fortunate enough not to have to leave too often. But from what I’ve heard, we’ve been pretty lucky.”
“How many people fell?” Will asked.
“Seven,” Adam said.
Will’s eyes widened. “That’s it? You guys made out very well. When it happened, I was the only person alive where I was. I had to kill more than seven to get out, and that was in a 50,000 square foot building.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Adam said. “We do know that we’re very fortunate. The truth is, this neighborhood isn’t even finished, so there weren’t a lot of folks here to begin with. And the construction was a blessing in itself. We’ve got enough lumber to last us maybe twelve winters.” He took another swig of water. “With that, maybe we should get down to business.”
“Oh, yeah,” Karl said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He opened it and handed it over to Adam.
Adam leaned over and grabbed a set of reading glasses from a table next to him. He put them on, and then looked at the note.
“Hmm,” he mumbled.
“What?” Will asked.
“You guys sure need a lot of medical supplies,” he said.
“Do you have them?” Will asked.
He continued scanning the list for a sec, and then nodded. “Yeah, I believe we have most of this. We were able to raid a pharmacy up the road right after everything happened. So we have quite a few prescriptions. I can tell you that these aren’t going to be cheap.”
“That’s fine,” Will said sharply.
Adam looked up from the paper and lowered his glasses down his nose. He eyed Will for a moment curiously.
“You got a painkiller addiction or something?”
Charlie butted in. “We have a badly injured child with us. He’s resting in a house back with Karl’s group. Those painkillers and antibiotics are for him.”
“Must be a pretty serious injury,” Karl said.
Will’s attitude had changed on a dime. What had once been a pleasant conversation was now just annoying him. He hated negotiations. Especially now, when bartering over supplies could mean the difference between life and death. Seeing that Will was becoming frustrated, Charlie took the liberty of explaining to Karl what had happened to Dylan. When he finished, Adam’s expression soured.
“Jesus Christ,” he said. He rubbed his forehead, sinking back into the recliner.
“We need those things so that he can recover,” Will said. “Without them, he’s going to be in a lot of constant pain, and we could risk infection.”
“All right,” Adam said. He pushed himself out of the chair and stood. “Let’s go see what you’ve got to trade.”
***
Outside, many of the same people still loitered. A small group of adults stood in the middle of the road, circled around three children playing with a jump rope. One child stood at either end while the third jumped. They counted with each leap, and the girl jumping had just passed twenty skips.
Karl led the others across the yard, down to the van. He opened the back doors and Adam peeked inside. Again, he used his reading glasses to get a better look at everything.
Ignoring all the canned food, Adam put his hands on the generator.
“It work?” he asked, looking back.
“Sure does,” Karl said. “Just needs gasoline.”
Adam looked inside the van again, and began rummaging through the weapons. He put his hands on a shotgun. “Do you have any shells to go with this Remington?”
“Your gatekeepers took all the ammunition, but we’ve got it. There’s also a few other things in that box next to the generator.”
Karl picked up the box and looked inside to see two knives and a pistol.
“All right,” Adam said. “So are you willing to part with all of it?”
“All of it?” Spencer asked, sounding surprised.
“What are we going to get in return?” Karl asked.
“You’re not actually considering this, are you?” Spencer asked Karl. “We just brought all this so that they’d have options. Now you wanna give it all away?”
“You’ll get everything on your list. Since you have a hurt child, I’ll throw in extra quantities on the stuff that he needs.”
“We have some things we can trade,” Will said.
Adam shook his head. “Just consider them a gift from me.”
“Can you throw in a little bit of lumber for us? Just anything you might have that we could fit in here and take with us.” Karl pointed his head toward the generator. “She runs like a champ. And I’m sure it’s going to be worth a hell of a lot more than what we’re asking, the further into this mess we all get.”
Adam considered it for a moment, and then he stuck his hand out. “You’ve got a deal.”
Spencer grabbed Karl by the shoulder and turned him towards himself. “You can’t do this.”
Ignoring Spencer, Karl turned back to Adam. “Show me the items that we’re asking for, and then you’ve got a deal.”
Smiling, Adam shook Karl’s hand and said, “Fair enough.”
“I can’t fucking believe this,” Spencer said. He shook his head and stepped away from the van, walking down the street in the direction from which they’d come.
“You sure we got a deal?” Adam asked, still gripping Karl’s hand.
“Yeah,” Karl said. “He’ll be fine.”
Will stepped in as the two men broke their handshake and said, “Thank you.” He offered his own hand and Adam took it.
“I had a son of my own,” Adam said. “He and his mother died in a car accident six years ago. I would’ve done anything to save him.”
“I’m so sorry,” Will said.
Adam shook his head. “It’s fine, really. Honestly not sure if I could deal with him living in this world. In a strange way, what happened to him might have been better.”
It stunned Will to hear the comment, but he decided not to reply.
“Come on,” Adam said. “Let’s go get your things.”
***
They finished the trade by helping Adam carry the generator into one of the nearby yards. As promised, he had been able to provide them with all the medications and supplies on their list. With everything loaded, they set the generator down next to the weaponry they’d traded away. Karl had also brought a small selection of canned goods, but Adam had told him the guns, ammunition, and generator would be enough payment.
Will extended his hand to Adam. “Thank you, again.”
Accepting the handshake, Adam said, “It’s no problem. You just take care of that boy, you hear?”
“Will do.”
Will, Charlie, and Karl were ready to head back, but Spencer had yet to return.
“Where the hell could he have run off to?” Charlie asked.
Sighing in frustration, Karl said, “I’ll go find him.”
“No,” Will said. “Stay here and have the van ready to go. I’ll go find him.”
“All right,” Karl said.
Will left the van and headed down the street. He passed residents along the way, exchanging waves. Everyone smiled now as opposed to just staring. It probably helped that Will had cleaned himself up and no longer looked like he’d spent his entire day slaughtering cattle.
When he reached the end of the road, he came to trees. To his left was the exit out of the neighborhood. And to his right was a chain link fence, stretched across the road, and several lots where houses were supposed to have been under construction. He’d started to go left to see if Spencer had headed back toward the fence when he heard a scream straight ahead. It had come from the trees.