"Grandma!" He screamed as he crossed that back yard as fast as he could. She rushed down the steps and they met in a huge embrace. Louise fell to her knees with Drew in her arms. She held on to him tightly, never wanting to let him go, and he did the same. He really missed his grandma more than he let on. Trent walked up to where his mom and his son sat and crouched down to give his mom a hug. They sat in a pile together in the middle of the back yard.
Derek, Mike, and Nathan came out of the house to greet us. I gave Derek a hug and then Mike. My little nephew had grown a lot since I last saw him, but that was no reason to not bend over and pick him up to plant kisses on him. He squirmed and said, "Eww! Aunt Cali! Kisses are gross!" I laughed at him and kissed his cheeks again anyway before I put him down. He was giggling as he ran off.
I walked over to the bus where the others stood and said, "Come on everyone, let me introduce you!"
My neighbors turned family were introduced and Louise hugged each one of them as though they were all long lost family that she was being reunited with. The kids were the first to break the tension as they went running off to let off some steam. Lacey was holding JJ, giving him a bottle. His eyes tracked Kristen and Louise as they made goofy faces at him. Every once in a while JJ rewarded their efforts with a wide smile and a quick baby laugh around the bottle nipple. When he finished eating Louise begged to hold him. She took the burp cloth that Lacey handed her and then she took the baby. She bounced him gently as she patted JJ's back to burp him. He quickly fell asleep on her.
There was a moment of awkwardness that Kristen broke when she exclaimed that she was so happy to see more people. I think that the others felt out of place in this family reunion even though they were family too. Sometimes you have family you've never met before. "I tell you, if I have to hear one more story about Mike's high school years I was going to have to throw myself to the zombies!" Mike feigned shocked hurt over that, clutching his chest as though a dagger had been run through his heart. Everyone giggled.
"Oh we have stories, don't you worry about that!" Lucas laughed.
"Come on in, guys, let me show you the lay of the house! Let me warn you ahead of time that this is going to be tight with everyone but we can make it work." Kristen invited.
"Is it safe for the kids to play outside?" I asked Kristen.
"Oh, totally. That fence has been through a lot and hasn't wiggled once. Those boards were as big as both stories of the house and were sunk deep into the ground into concrete. There are beams every ten feet that were intended to be support beams in houses. They are six inches wide and four inches deep. The inside slats are horizontal and the outside are vertical to increase strength. I think Mike and dad went a little overboard on this project. I let Nathan out there so he can burn off energy before he makes me too crazy. I am so happy that he is finally going to have other kids to play with." It hit me, the overboard thing might be hereditary. Trent's trench came to mind.
I called out for Drew, "Sweetie, we're going inside with Aunt Kristen. You can stay out and play if you want." Drew nodded back and went off to follow Nathan.
We followed her inside. I kept my hand tucked into Trent's, and squeezed it tightly in joy. The house was warm and inviting. The kitchen was large with a dining room table tucked inside of it. The large panes in the glass windows let a ton of natural sunlight in. The counters were made of wood and copper pans hung from the ceiling over an island in the center of the kitchen. Lacey let out a sigh of appreciation to be in a real kitchen. She leaned over to Erin and told her that she used to imagine a kitchen like this when she was about 15.
"We have running water here. We decided a few years ago that we were tired of paying for water that came all chemical laden when a well was a viable alternative. We had a drill company tap the property and do some water tests. The water here is cleaner than the bottled water at the store. We put in two, one for outside water use and one for inside so the pump wouldn't get bogged down. The well people thought that I was being obsessive when I asked for two to be placed on our property, but that was what we were paying for. The pump is run by a windmill on the side of the house. We have windmills on both to keep the pressure up. We also have a bank of solar panels to keep some electricity, though we have to go light on it. The batteries drain much too quickly. Mike was putting together another windmill to try to supplement it. I never guessed that my hippie geek-self wanting to live off the grid would have come in so handy!
"The gas that powered the hot water heater and the stove quit running about a month after the zombies finally hit here. When the news broke we didn't see anything for a while. Everything was reporting California and New York, so we knew it would come here, too. It was just a matter of time. We spent every penny we had, knowing that money was going to stop mattering soon, to make sure we had as many things we could think of to make living long term as safe as possible. Seems to be working. Our neighbors thought we were weird for having been focused on building the fence. They stocked up on bottled water and some food, just like everyone else in Burley was, thinking that the government would have figured out some sort of solution. We hoped for something like that but we didn't want to trust them 100% and be sorry that we did.
"For now, unless you want a really cold shower we have to heat some water over a fire. When it's cold out we use the fireplace to boil the water. On hotter days we use the brick oven outside to heat water. Since our stoves were run on gas and are now just a decoration, Dad made some metal plates that go into the fire part way and transfer heat out to the hearth for cooking. The brick oven has been awesome, we have fresh bread that we've cooked in it, and on days that it's really hot we can cook out there to keep inside nicer."
I was impressed with their set up. I stood by the window to check on Drew and the other kids. They were playing on a tire swing, just being kids for a moment. I got misty eyed.
Kristen continued the tour. "That room off the kitchen is one of the rooms that can be turned into a bedroom. Currently it's an art room so it will take a little bit to get it cleaned up." We were shown the living room and a den with a ton of books in it. She took us upstairs where there were five bedrooms. "What I'm thinking on the sleeping arrangements is this; we turned the attic into a play room a long time ago. The attic is huge. We could turn that into a dorm for all of the kids. That way the adults can have a space too. That would open up Nathan's room for a couple to move into and we have the 2 guest rooms. I saw there were a few teens as well? I bet that we could put together something in the basement that would break it up into smaller rooms so they don't get thrown into the attic with little ones driving them nuts." I laughed at that. The teens had actually been saints on the trip with being pestered repeatedly, but I knew that they would be super happy to have a kid free space. "We hadn't figured out anything else to do with the basement. Nathan thinks there are monsters in there. I figured that the scared of the basement issue would have gone away with the existence of zombies. No such luck. Dividing it up into rooms for the teens wouldn't be a trick at all."
"How many adult groups are there?" Louise asked.
"Well, there is Trent and myself, Tanya and Tyreese, Lucas and Lacey, and Matt." I replied.
"Cool, so that would totally work with the art room conversion." Kristen grinned. She opened the doors to the guest rooms and to Nathans room to show us what they looked like. "Take your picks on them."
We grouped up to talk about the rooms. One room was done in a lavender color scheme and Lacey swooned over it. Lucas laughed and said, "If there are no objections we'll take this one." Everyone laughed. Tanya and Tyreese took the other guest room and Trent and I took Nathan's room after Matt said that he would prefer the room off the kitchen.
"One last thing to show you." Kristen led us back outside and towards the side yard. "Remember when I went on that organic food kick when Nathan was born? I didn't really get over it." When we turned the corner we found a large garden. It was Tanya's turn to swoon now. There were many plants that were sprouting and it looked like there was going to be many different vegetables. "On the other side of the house are a couple fruit trees. Last year we had so many plums we didn't know what to do with them all. We learned a lot about making jelly and how to preserve them. While we were tired of them in the summer they were very nice in the winter when food was tight. With how cold it got there were stretches that going outside to hunt and scavenge was not a great idea. Kept food in the house at least."
Tanya asked about how she was managing pest control and they wandered over to look closer at the garden. Tanya and Kristen were going to be good friends with that bonding point.
"We'll need to do a run into town for bedding for everyone." Derek commented. "I don't think there are enough blankets to go around."
"We have some." Trent replied. "In fact, we have gifts in the bus. Let us show you." Trent was smiling a huge smile. This was what Trent and I were looking forward to when we continued to raid places after we left our home.
We all went outside and began to empty our stash. We took the sleeping bags, blankets, and mattress out first. I figured that it could go into Matt's room. We started on the box of supplies that made the bed frame. We pulled out a couple air mattress boxes and a pump. We pulled out several boxes of food, which made Louise squeak happily knowing there were more supplies on hand. I unloaded some of the boxes of medications. I riffled through one of them until I found a bottle of blood pressure pills, which I tossed over to Louise. I grinned at her. "I kinda figured you've not been taking your meds. I'll check your blood pressure later and make sure you still need them since everyone's diet and levels of activity have had some major changes, but if you do, I have them." Kristen was surprised by the amount to things we had packed into such a small place. The gas cans were taken out of the SUV. "Wow. We aren't going to have to go out for a while!" Kristen said excitedly. Derek was looking over the box of ammo and smiled, happy to have a few refills for his guns.
Trent and Mike looked over the building tools and were discussing the best way to make bedrooms out of the basement. "We might have to make bunk beds and put siblings together for a little bit, but that shouldn't be so horrible." Trent commented.
I stepped around to check on Drew. He had located his bug out backpack while we were getting things out of the bus. He was sitting on the ground with his cousin. He opened his pack and pulled a truck out of it. It was the truck that Nathan loved to play with every time he came over to our apartment. Drew handed it over to Nathan. "Nate? I made sure I kept this safe for if we got to see each other again. When we had to leave our place I put this in my bag. I thought that we might find you." Nathan took the gift and held it close to his chest.
"You really are gonna give it to me? You remembered me?"
"Nate, you're my only cousin. Of course I remembered you." Drew leaned over to give Nathan a hug. Drew called over the other kids and started a game of building roads. Nathan asked Drew to watch his truck a second and ran into the house. He came back with his arms full of other trucks. They played road construction until dusk. Matt and Lucas wandered over to their game and offered real life tips on how to build the best roads. It was such a nice evening that we ate dinner outside. The fire from the brick oven was warm and offered a bit of light.
Everyone finally decided that it was time to shut down for the night. The kids had decided that a slumber party in the living room would be awesome since we hadn't set up the attic yet. They raced out to get their toys picked up before we all went inside.
Derek held back to see Trent. "I'm really glad to see you, son. I got really worried about things there. Now that you're here, I feel like everything is going to be okay. Not to mention, I have plans. With everyone here I think we can make it work."
"Plans?" I asked, with a touch of skepticism.
"Sure. I always wanted to build a castle, one that could fit a small country if needed. We could set up a metal shop, a wood shop, and with you here, Cali, an infirmary. We could find other survivors and help them set up their homes in the area. We'd have people to trade with and set up alliances and civilization. It would be a place of hope and new beginnings for anyone who wanted it. We could even set up something like a hotel for people who are passing through to be able to have a good night's sleep and want to trade for it."
Trent considered his dad's idea. I thought it was beautiful especially after Heartsvale. We would have traded with them for a place to stop for the night. To me, trade didn't have to always mean physical stuff. Trading knowledge would be just as valuable in some cases, like how to turn wool into yarn or something like that. It was the point behind the complex that each member of the whole would be able to contribute to the collective making everyone stronger. We were better together. "I'm in, Dad." Trent said after a bit.
"Me too. It sounds like a totally worthwhile project." I added.
Derek's eyes sparkled. "So, that leaves one last question. Have either of you ever been to Montana?"
...To Be Concluded
Acknowledgments
To Del, Thank you for listening to me go on and on again on this book. Thank you for keeping me sane when I got obsessive on stuff.
To Connor, Thank you for being the best kid ever. You keep me working on stuff when I think I just want to scrap the whole idea.
To Sarah, I owe you a great deal. Your patience with my comma silliness and grammatical FUBAR's has been beyond awesome. You rock.
And a very special thank you to everyone that read The Complex and asked for more. If it hadn't been for you guys I think I'd still be halfheartedly writing this. You rock.