This Shattered Land - 02 (4 page)

“Careful
now,” Sarah said, “It’s pretty heavy…”

She
trailed off as I squatted down and casually pulled it up to my chest, being
careful to lift with my legs. It had some weight to it, but I am not a weak
man. “It’s alright, I got it.” I said, and turned to carry it back to the fire.

Sarah
chuckled from behind me. “Okay, that works too.”

After
shrugging out of my pack and harness, I laid my rifle down on the ground next to
me and took a seat near the fire. The warmth felt good in the chill afternoon
air, and my stomach growled at the scent of meat sizzling on the grill. It had
been almost three months since I had eaten fresh venison. I didn’t like the
stuff before the Outbreak, but after eating it as a staple food for the last
two years I’d developed a taste for it.

 Brian
shoveled some hot coals into a smaller fire pit nearby, and then opened a few
cans of beans into an aluminum pot. Gabe helped him lash a few sticks together
from which to suspend the pot over the coals. While the food cooked, we talked
about the weather, how harsh the winter had been, and how strange the
unseasonably cold spring temperatures were. I shot Gabe a look at that one. We
knew why it was cold, but I wasn’t quite sure how to break the news to these
folks. Sarah caught the exchange, and her expression grew quizzical.

“So
where are you folks from, originally?” I asked, changing the subject.

They
grew silent for a moment.

“We
came here from Atlanta.” Tom said staring into the fire, a thin, grim line
replacing his smile.

“Jesus
Christ.” I breathed. “How did you get out of there?” 

Atlanta
was ground zero when the Outbreak hit. It spread outward from there, and in
less than a year, consumed nearly the entire world.

Tom
shrugged. “We ran. We packed up everything that we could fit in my Explorer,
and hit the road. I lived in Atlanta my whole life, so I knew the back roads
better than most other people did. Atlanta was one of those cities where half the
people who lived there were from somewhere else. I used to hate that, but in
the end, it worked to my advantage.”

I
nodded in understanding. Charlotte was the same way back before the end of the
world. After the big banks moved in and brought tens of thousands of jobs with
them, the mild weather and low cost of living attracted workers from all over
the country. By the time the Outbreak hit, it was a rare thing to meet anyone
born and raised in the city.

“We’ve
been moving slowly, one place to another for the last couple of years.” Tom
continued. “We headed straight for the mountain country when we left Atlanta.
Been working our way north on foot ever since.”

“But
why come here?” I asked.

Tom
pointed to his wife. “Sarah grew up near Morganton. She knows the country
around here. Figured this would be a good place to start over.”

I
turned to Sarah. “You’re from Morganton?”

She
nodded. “Yep. Grew up about ten miles south of where we sit right now.”

That
got a wry smile out of me. Small world. I thought about asking her if she had
ever been down to Alexis, but decided against it. That conversation could wait.

“How
did you end up in Atlanta?” I asked.

“I
worked in the FBI field office there.” She replied.

“You
were an FBI agent?”

Sarah
nodded. “Used to be. I left the Bureau after Brian was born. It was hard enough
just being married, but when he came along…it was tough. Work kept me away from
my family a lot.” She reached out a hand and stroked the back of Brian’s head.
“I put out some feelers and wound up getting an offer as a security manager for
a big retail chain. The number on the offer letter was twice my government
salary, so I turned in my badge and my gun and I never looked back.”

I
absorbed that for a moment, and then pointed at Tom. “So how did the two of you
meet?”

“I
ran my own contracting business.” Tom replied. “Mostly remodeling, roofing,
things like that.”

“He
had good reviews on Angie’s List, so I hired him to refurbish the kitchen in my
condo.” Sarah interjected.

Tom
grinned. “I was clean-cut and had a good bit more meat on my bones back then. I
noticed her giving me eyes a few times while I was working, so after I finished
the project ahead of schedule and under budget, I asked her out on a date.”

“And
the rest,” Sarah said, “is history.”

I
smiled at the two of them. After the pain and darkness I had seen over the last
couple of years, the obvious love between these people was like the beacon of a
lighthouse over a stormy sea. All doubts about whether or not I was in good
company faded from my mind, drifting up into the trees with the rich smoke of
the campfire.

“You
guys are so lame.” Brian said, shaking his head.

Sarah
pounced on him and dug her fingers into a ticklish spot on his ribs. The boy
squawked and twisted, falling out of his chair. Sarah stepped away grinning as
she pointed a finger at him.

“Let
that be a lesson to you, calling your parents lame.”

Tom
shook his head and gestured at Brian with a metal spatula. “When you’re done
rolling around in the dirt and getting your clothes filthy, how about you make
yourself useful and go set up the table.”

Brian
picked himself up from the ground and brushed off a newly acquired layer of
pine needles and bark. “I’m on it.” He said, and ran off toward the tent
shelter.

Sarah
walked over to check on the beans. “These are about done, honey.” She said,
looking up at Tom. “How much longer on the venison?”

“It’s
ready.”

Brian
came out from under the tent with a white plastic folding table. He set it up
on a flat part of the clearing before ducking back inside to fetch a stack of
multi-colored plastic plates. Gabe helped me move our log stools over while
Sarah placed three folding chairs for her family around the table. Tom pulled
the venison off the grill and brought it over on a large metal pizza pan.

“You
fellas have one of these at your place?” Tom asked, noticing my furrowed brow
as I looked at the pan.

“No,
we don’t.”

“You
should scrounge one up, they’re great to have around. I use it as a serving
platter, a cutting board, a table—hell, I even used it as a griddle once.”

“Huh.
I might have to do that.”

“I’m
afraid this isn’t going to be very fancy.” Sarah said as she took her seat, “We
don’t have much in the way of silverware.”

“No
problem, we brought our own.” I replied.

Gabe
and I dug our mess kits out of our packs to retrieve our aluminum cups and
forks. Once everyone sat down at the table, Tom used a hunting knife to carve
up the roast tenderloin and laid out a thick portion on each plate. It was all
I could do not to tear into it right away. To avoid looking like a starved pig,
I waited until Tom finished serving up the meat and Sarah had finished doling
out scoops of beans.

“Alright,
everybody, dig in.” Tom said.

He
didn’t have to tell me twice. I used the knife on my multi-tool to cut up the
steaks into bite-sized pieces. When my teeth sank into the first morsel, I had
to suppress a moan of pleasure. It was tender, juicy, and cooked to perfection.
It had a bit of gaminess to it, but I didn’t care. After spending the whole
winter subsisting on jerky, smoked fish, canned food, and MRE’s, fresh meat
slow-roasted over an open fire was freaking orgasmic. I inhaled about half of
what was on my plate before I leaned back to take a breath. Tom and Sarah were
looking at Gabe and me with matching smirks on their faces.

“I
can tell you hate it.” Tom joked.

I
chuckled, and shoved another piece in my mouth. “Yeah, it’s awful. In fact, you
guys should put your steaks on my plate and let me eat them for you. I don’t
want you to have to suffer through this.”

Everybody
got a laugh out of that, except Gabe. He was too busy carving up slices of
venison with his Bowie knife and shoving them in his pie-hole. I don’t even
think he heard us.

“Hey
Gabe?”

 “Hngh?”
He grunted, a small stream of juice dribbling down his beard.

“You
know, should probably chew some of that buddy.” I said.

That
elicited another round of laughs. Gabe had the good grace to look embarrassed,
and swallowed while wiping his mouth on his sleeve.

“Sorry
‘bout that.” He said, smiling sheepishly.

“Don’t
worry, sweetie, you’re not offending anybody at this table.” Sarah said as she
reached over to pat him on the arm.

“Hey,
I’m just glad you like it.” Tom said. “Can’t tell you the last time we got to
sit down and have a meal like civilized folks.”

 Brian
held his empty plate up to his father. “Dad, can you cut me another piece?”

I
looked down, amazed at how quickly the kid cleaned his plate. Tom had served
him a huge portion, but the boy made it disappear in short order. He ate faster
than even Gabe, and that was saying something. 

Tom
stood and picked up his knife. “Sure son, how much do you want?”

Brian
held up a hand with his thumb and forefinger about an inch apart. Tom sliced
off the appropriate sized portion and deposited it on his son’s plate.

“There
you go buddy, eat up.”

“Thanks.”
Brian said as he tore into it.

Sarah
smiled at Tom as he sat back down. “This is great, honey. I’m glad you went
hunting this morning.”

He
smiled back, his eyes happy and haunted at the same time. I could only imagine
how nice it must be for him, putting a meal like this on the table for his
family. If their loose-fitting clothes and gaunt faces were any indication,
they must have suffered more than their share of hardship and hunger.

“So
have you guys run across any other survivors lately?” I asked, breaking the
silence.

Tom
and Sarah came back to themselves with a slight start. They exchanged a brief
smile and squeezed each other’s hands before resuming their meal.

“We
ran into a guy who was building a trading post just outside of Black Mountain
about a month ago.” Sarah said.

“A
trading post? Is he nuts?” I asked.

Tom
shrugged. “I thought he was crazy too. The post was on a stretch of highway
that connected a few groups of survivors he said he’d made contact with. If
what he said about the other people was true, maybe he was onto something.”

I
considered that. “We have a HAM radio back at our cabin,” I said, “we’ve
managed to make contact with a few scattered communities out west.”

They
both looked up at that.

“Really?
Where?” Sarah asked.

“All
over the place.” Gabe said, jumping in. “I’ve spoken with people as close as
Tennessee, and as far away as California. There’s more out there, but not all
of them have power or radio equipment.”

“You
have power?” Brian said, perking up.

Gabe
smiled across the table at him. “Yep. Solar panels. We don’t use them for much,
but they’re nice to have around.”

“I’ll
bet.” Sarah said, her eyes wistful. “Do you have a water heater?”

I
nodded “Yeah, actually we do.” 

She
dropped a hand on the table. “You have to let me us it sometime. I’d strangle a
dolphin for a soak in a hot bath.”

I
deliberately put that particular mental image out of my head.

“Well,
I don’t think that’ll be necessary.” I said. “You don’t even need the water
heater. We could just heat some water over our stove and pour it in a bathtub
for you.”

“Honey,
I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves.” Tom said. “We just met these fellas.
I don’t think we should go imposing on them just yet.”

Sarah
frowned, cutting her eyes at him. “Speak for yourself.” 

 “Really,
it’s no trouble at all.” I said. “We’re not going to need the place for much
longer.”

“What
do you mean?” Tom asked. 

“Gabe
and I are leaving for Colorado soon.”

“Colorado?”
Sarah asked, exchanging a glance with her husband. “Why go all the way out
there?”

I
hesitated for a moment, unsure how to approach the subject.

“How
much do you know about what happened to the rest of the country after the
Outbreak?” I asked.

Gabe
stared at me from across the table, his expression a mixture of sadness and
caution. I held up a hand in a placating gesture. “Dude, they need to know.”

Gabe
nodded, placing his knife on the table beside his plate and heaving a sigh. Tom
looked back and forth between us.

“We
haven’t heard much.” He said. “Just hearsay from what few other survivors we’ve
met. You know something I don’t?” 

I
sighed. “Yeah,” I said, “I guess we do.”

Over
the next half hour, Gabe and I laid out the situation. I told them how I met a
group of survivors in the nearby town of Alexis who had established a fortified
community in a warehouse at an abandoned textile mill. I glossed over most of
that story, the important part being at the end. A unit from the remnants of
the U.S. Army at Fort Bragg found us and stopped to make contact. From them, we
learned that the Outbreak had forced what was left of the federal government to
retreat high into the Rocky Mountains. The military abandoned their efforts
outside of the Rockies and consolidated what was left of their forces at
Colorado Springs. The President, the first family, the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
the Speaker of the House, and a few other high-level government officials took
shelter in the old NORAD facility at Cheyenne Mountain while the military
worked to clear the city outside of infected. At some point, the powers in
charge discovered the network of HAM radio operators still kicking around and
jumped at the chance to establish contact. Initially their goal was to build a
communications network, and coordinate reclamation efforts all across the
country.