The Broken and the Dead

I crawled out of bed and started to get dressed and I saw Lucy sitting on her bed holding Ronald Bear.

“What’s up Luce?” I asked.

She had what mom used to call her ’angry eyes’ but she grudgingly answered my question,

“Mr. Tucker is going away again and he won’t be here to protect Ronald.”

I said “but Lucy, you said you hated him and didn’t want him to stay around anymore.”

She rolled her eyes like she was so frustrated that she had to explain everything to me because I was so stupid.

“I hated him THEN, I didn’t want him to stay THEN, but NOW I don’t want him to go.”

I sat on the bed next to her and tried to get her to see the truth.

“Lucy you were right about OMT, he is mean and a liar and it isn’t good for him to stay with us anymore.”

She looked at me like I had just told her that we were having Easter Bunny for dinner tonight. She stood up and backed towards the door, reaching behind her without taking her eyes off of me she opened it and finally spoke in a quiet little voice

“We need him.”

I finished getting dressed and followed her downstairs, people were all around getting ready for the day, Darnell and some of the others were going to clear some trees right next to the house so if we had to we could climb out a 2nd story window and get right into the MRAPS. They were going to park one at either end of the lodge with the stairwell being the divider for who goes to which MRAP in an emergency. I noticed that Mrs. Driscol was standing next to him and that he was holding her hand while they discussed the new plan. I thought she looked young and shy; I shook my head in disgust. I heard Elaine in the kitchen talking to Mrs. Franks, she and Mr. and Mrs. Livingston was trying to find a piece of sanity in our big bucket-o-crazy. Good luck with that.

I grabbed a box of granola from the shelf and poured myself a bowl of dry cereal, Mrs. Livingston looked up at me and said there was some fresh powdered milk in the ice box. It took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about but I got it. I adjusted the rifle slung over my shoulder and took my breakfast out onto the porch. I sat in the big wooden swing and watched the goings on. OMT, the Staff Sergeant and Rico were going over some stuff in the back of the Humvee. I had just taken a big bite of ‘crunchy sticks and rocks’ as my dad used to call granola when I nearly choked. From the far side of the Humvee Janey appeared and she was carrying her rifle and a back pack. She stepped by the men who didn’t even seem to think anything was wrong and she placed her backpack into the rear of the Humvee.

“No, she can’t go with them.” I whispered.

I sat my bowl down I got up and in a single leap skipped the 5 stairs that led to the front porch and I whirled around to the back of the Humvee, cleverly avoiding the men and I grabbed Janey by the arm.

“What are you doing?”

She looked at me like she couldn’t understand me, then I realized what I had actually said was “waf nar oo ning?” so I forced down the cereal and repeated myself.

She laughed and said simply that she was going with the Sergeant and OMT, that they could use a third set of eyes and a third rifle if necessary. I pulled her further behind the Humvee,

“Don’t go with them.” I begged.

“Why not?” she said with her hands on her hips “don’t think I can do it?”

I shook my head

“No, no, no, that’s not it at all!”

I lowered my voice and looked around to make sure no one else was listening.

“OMT isn’t right; he kills people, not just monsters.”

She looked at me like she was waiting for the punch line.

“Janey I am not kidding here, he is a killer.”

She looked at me through the corner of her eyes and said

“Johnny, I know he killed people but he doesn’t do it unless he has to.”

I shook my head how she could be so blind was beyond me.

“Janey, he threatened your friend remember? And he killed all those people who were here before us and ...”

I had trouble choking this out but it had to be said

“…and he killed my mother.”

Her eyes softened but she shook her head

“Johnny, I heard about your mother from Amy. She was in pain and was dying, she begged him to do it.”

“Liar!” I snapped, even though I knew it was true.

I stepped away

“Fine, you want to travel with a monster you go right ahead, see if I care.”

I growled through gritted teeth.

“Johnny?” she said as she started to reach out to me but I didn’t want any part of this or her, I turned and ran.

I watched them from our window, Lucy at my side, Ronald Bear at hers. Janey was a fool to trust the killer, I had tried to warn her but she wouldn’t listen. I looked at Lucy, she seemed oddly satisfied, but then again she was little and easily confused. The Humvee turned over and slowly pulled around the circle drive and then down the driveway towards the highway.

“Lucy, we are all better off with him gone.”

She didn’t look up but she did answer me;

“Mr. Tucker gave me a map and one of the radios. He said he will call me every day and let me know where they are.”

I shook my head, great, just great; he’s found a way to fool my sister again.

I left her standing there with her teddy bear and went back downstairs. I felt left out, everyone had something to do except me. Some of the people were going up the hill behind the lodge to make a garden, one of several I found out. They were not going to make them very large and they were going to scatter them about in case of animal, human, or Z depredations. I finally saw Mrs. Livingston, she and Karen were heading into the lodge so I asked them if they needed any help and Mrs. Livingston said that indeed they did.

Once in the kitchen I found that there were six large cardboard boxes that were filled with empty jars, empty jars and more empty jars.

“What is all this for?” I asked.

“We have to be ready for canning whatever we can before the winter sets in.”

I agreed with that but really didn’t know what we were going to do but that only lasted a moment because apparently Mrs. Livingston didn’t like anyone to be idle because of the Devil or a playground, I really don’t know which. We started in washing the jars, the lids, and the little rubber rings that fit inside them. I actually thought this was crazy, it was going to be 3 months before we got anything from the gardens and even that is not very likely. That was when Darnell and Deputy Weir entered the kitchen with bushel baskets of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and zucchini squash. It seemed that the Livingston’s had a garden back at their place and she had sent Darnell and Weir back to gather what they could.

So, I learned how to can things, Mrs. Livingston was patient and kind, she never raised her voice or lost her temper. If Karen or I did something wrong she just helped us do it again. For a little while I forgot it was the end of the world and worked and laughed with an ancient black lady and a pretty girl. When Karen started to sing softly some country songs that I recognized I joined her. It’s funny but that afternoon was the best day I could remember since the day of the outbreak. I noticed that Mrs. Livingston’s eyes were quick and sparkled and that she didn’t miss much. I noticed that Karen’s were big and brown and made me think of a doe in the forest. I noticed that mine kept traveling back to look at Karen’s.