Fear of the Dead (6 page)

In the past month since we’ve been together, I’ve done what I can to try and help Atton cope with the problems that are facing him. I only wish the others were a little more forthcoming. Linus keeps to himself more often than I feel is healthy, and Eli is difficult to talk to. Still, I believe that I can help them all, even him. But I’ll start with the girl that you have just now brought into our welcome care. I will do whatever it is you ask of me dear Lord, to help her, and to make her see your light. All I ask in turn is time, and your heavenly blessing.

Help us do what’s right dear Lord. Sometimes we might not know what that is, and for that reason we all need to be reminded once in every while. We need to know what it is you will of us. I pray that you help us keep sight of what that is always. Help us, so that we may better serve you.

In Jesus’ name we pray

Amen
6:39 PM
It’d been three hours since they rescued the girl. She was still unconscious; still fast asleep. After taking care of the demons that were on her tail, Grace and the others had carried her back to the store where they lived, an abandoned Costco located not two blocks away from where the woman had her accident.

She had the woman laid on a mattress on the floor, same as where most of them slept. With the exception being Linus and Eli, she and Carl and now the young girl had mattress beds on the camping aisle of the store, with enough room to house a few tents and a playground set.

Her breathing was slow and steady. Healthy, in other words. She touched Vanessa’s neck to feel her pulse. She was still going strong.

Grace let Vanessa heal while she went to see how Linus was doing. It was close to seven at night, which meant that the light in the store was quickly fading. They wouldn’t have much light left to go on.

Ever since the breakout four months ago, there had been no running electricity to power California let alone the store that they found themselves in now. When it was dark outside, it was even darker inside. When it was day out, there was light amidst shadows.

But not now. Now it was getting harder and harder to see. Grace’s eyes weren’t what they used to be when she was young, and so she had to feel the sides in order to be certain of where she was headed. But nevertheless, she was still able enough to see in order to rescind the need for a flashlight, which she kept in her pocket regardless.

Grace Minien was 65, though being of oriental persuasion both in blood and dietary lifestyle, she had aged well enough to make people think she was still in her early forties.

Grace stepped inside the office, where Linus toggled with the radio he’d taken from a military base three weeks ago. The machine blew static, and Linus kept on changing the frequency.

Out of everything in the store, the radio was one of the few electronically devices that they’d kept working since it ran on a separate power generator, which itself operated on a handful of batteries that Costco kept in ample supply. Grace didn’t know what the batteries were called, but they were big, and box-shaped. And they seemed to last a good while despite the fact that Linus would usually run them 24-7.

The office was dark, but the lamp on his table was both close and bright enough to reveal the dilation in his eyes.

“
Linus, you okay?”

He nodded.

“
I’m fine.”

He wasn’t, which was obvious. Though much less so was knowing the right thing to say.

“
Do you want some tea?”

He stopped to consider it, then nodded.

“
Sure. A bit of tea would help.”

Grace returned to the kitchen, where a grill awaited past the rows of unattended cash registers and fast food tables. What she and the others used for cooking since their stay was an old-fashioned barbecue grill which ran entirely on charcoal. Grace used it now to boil up a fresh pot of water, and poured the end product into two separate cups with vanilla flavored tea bags. Once the hot beverage was ready, she returned to Linus.

“
Thank you,” he said, and took one of the two cups in her hands, the one that was closest his way. Grace took the chair behind the desk opposite of Linus. Curled in between her fingers were two paper coasters. She gave Linus one. He took it and smiled.

“
You think the guy who owns this desk is going to worry about ring stains?”

“
One doesn’t need a reason to practice good habits.”

“
I suppose not.” He set the tea on the coaster.

“
No luck?” she asked, casting her gaze on the radio.

“
You could say that. But truth be told, I don’t know if there’s even anyone left out there to be sending and receiving messages anyhow.”

“
Don’t give up. We found a woman today after all this time. There are more people living out there. We just have to give it a chance.”

Linus took a cautious sip from his cup, then blinked awake.

“
Yeah. You’re probably right. In any case you should probably get some sleep.”

“
Me?” she scoffed. “You look much more exhausted than me.”

“
Why? My eyes are red?”

“
Very,” she said, though upon consideration she wondered if they were more than simple marks of fatigue. Had he been crying?

“
I suppose in that case I really should catch some shut eye.”

There was a roll-up bed on the corner of the office space. Linus had been living here ever since they arrived. He kept himself secluded, and focused entirely on that radio of his, seldom stepping out save for reasons of necessity, and to stretch his legs. It wasn’t healthy living the way he did, which was why Grace had frequently invited him outside whenever a valid reason came her way. She wanted to help him but without ever coming across as imposing.

Lately, her method of getting him out of his room centered around preparing dinner. Linus was a chef by profession, though nowadays he’d been much too preoccupied to do any cooking on his own. What Linus needed from time to time was a distraction. And it was for that reason that for nearly a week now, she would ask Linus to help her out in the kitchen.

“
Would you mind helping me prepare dinner tonight?” she asked, the same as she’d gotten used to asking. “I don’t know what I should make.”

“
Yeah. Of course.”

There was a trace of hesitation in his voice. But Linus was glad to help. He was a good man. As private as he was, he was always there to offer help whenever help was needed.

Since electricity was gone, there was no refrigeration in the store. Without refrigeration, there was little to make most of what was in the store last their due date, let alone for four months after the fact. By the time Grace and the others had found the store, most of its stock of organic food had already gone bad, though the meat more so than the rest. The dairy didn’t fare much better, though diary was never meant to last long in the first place. The eggs and the juices sharing the same glass closets were better preserved by the fact that they were kept inside enclosed, refrigeration units. Air didn’t vent in or out, so what little cold was in when the power went out saw the food through. More so with the salads and fruits, which had its own freezer.

Grace used to shop in Costco back in the 1980s, when she had a family to support. Today it seemed a lifetime ago. She remembered dreading going inside the vegetable aisle, complaining about the shot of cold air whenever she went inside the freezer.

The room was warm now, though faint traces of its original temperature still loomed in the air. Grace grabbed a packet of assorted lettuces, pre-cut, and packed with a bag of croutons. She and Linus closed the door, keeping the room sealed and in so doing the food.

They returned to the kitchen and prepared a light spaghetti dinner with salad on the side.

Eli and Atton were still out, which meant that for the time being it was just her, Linus, and the unconscious Vanessa. They ate on the red and white fast-food table in the food court, congratulating one another for the well-made meal.

“
How long do you think they’ll be out?” Grace asked. “It’s getting awful dark.”

Linus wasn’t worried, and his response said only as much.

“
They’re fine. They’ve been out longer than this before. Since it’s already night outside they’ll probably find a place to crash. I expect they’ll show up sometime tomorrow morning. Maybe even later. There’s no need to be concerned. They can take care of themselves.”

Linus was right, and deep inside Grace knew it. It wasn’t uncommon for them to be gone a day. But she still didn’t like it when the boys went out and put their lives at such senseless risk. Anytime anyone left the store, Grace was always predisposed to worrying. It was a dangerous world out there. That was what she used to tell her son.

Now it was more true than ever.

Nonetheless, boys were boys, as they always said. And like her son, both Eli and Atton did whatever they wanted to do regardless of what she had to say. In Tatsuki’s case, that meant moving out before she’d wanted him to, and living on his own, becoming his own man. In the case of Eli and Atton, it was enjoying a world that was filled with property, and no one left to claim them.

They were scavengers. Thieves.

“
It isn’t right what they do.”

“
What? Why not?”

“
They’re going out there and taking things that don’t belong to them.”

Linus cocked his brow.

“
So are we,” he said pointing his eyes at the food, and then the rest of the store itself.

“
It isn’t the same. We only take the things we need. We don’t indulge in deliberate robbing.”

“
They’re not robbing anyone,” Linus replied. “And besides, it would do us some good to have a few people out there. They could find more survivors. Maybe even someone who knows what’s going on.”

The point couldn’t be denied. Ever since the infection struck California, there had been no effective means of communicating with the outside world, though only because as far as they could tell there’d been no outside world left. The entire state was overrun.

Grace remembered how it was back then. And she knew full well how it was today, confused all-the-same as the day the infection started. Going by with no knowledge of what was going on in the world around them, or what had happened to their own government.

As much as she wanted to disagree, Linus was right. They needed to know what was going on out there. Grace needed answers just as much as Linus, as Atton and Eli, and anyone else that might still have been alive.

8:22 PM

Dear Lord,

Today was a good day. Linus and I made dinner. Now we’re waiting for Atton and Eli to return. It’s getting dark though. The food is already cold. I don’t know how long it will be until they come back. But I’m sure they will.

Linus tells me that I shouldn’t worry about them. And in a way he’s right. They’ve been going in and out of that door since practically the moment we met. I know that if anyone can take care of themselves out there, it’s them.

I worry though, the same as I always have and always will. And there isn’t anything that anyone can say or do that will make me change. Except of course, for if the boys decided not to wander around so much.

Wishful thinking I’m afraid.

I pray that you take care of them, especially when they’re outside, looking for what they need the most. Bless them dear Lord, and bless us. Take care of our newest sister Vanessa, and make sure that no harm comes her way.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.

8:45 PM

As she returned to her bed, Grace turned off the flashlight. Darkness engulfed the store.

Linus slept in the office the same as he always did. With Atton and Eli out, Grace had little choice but to sleep alone in the dank, hollow confines of the Costco camping aisle alongside a woman who wasn’t yet able to talk.

Had this been four months ago, Grace would have been scared.
At the start of the infection, Grace used to be afraid of being alone in the dark. With all the demons walking and running around, every hint of sound was reason enough for suspicion. Every tiny bit of noise spawned the fear that there might be more of them lurking in the shadows, hiding somewhere. For the first three weeks, she hardly ever slept on her own. Too much could go wrong. Too many places they could come from. Too many unlit corners.

It wasn’t until she finally listened to God that she was able to let herself go. After having proven to herself that God was watching over her, Grace found it easier to dull the passing noises around her. Now she didn’t worry about the tapping in the distance, or the crinkling that she heard coming from the roof.

God was watching her. He was watching all his children. And as long as they believed in him, God would be there to protect them no matter what.

Chapter Six

Day Five