The Great Death Series
		Grappling with Survival
		Crumbly Writer All rights reserved © 2012
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11: Alice’s Friends, Part Deux

           

“So just who is it we’re picking up?” David asked, as they headed out to meet the mysterious Peter Alice had spoken to over the walkie-talkie earlier. They’d spent the morning helping Betty recover and reacclimate, including a mini ‘Welcome Back’ party, before finally putting her to bed under Tom’s watchful guard. That had taken a while, and then preparing to venture out had taken even longer, so by the time they managed to hit the road it was late morning, meaning whoever was waiting for them had been sitting on their hands for hours.

“Peter is a classmate of mine from Washington, DC,” Alice explained excitedly, leaning forward and peering out the windshield. “I don’t know how he got here, who he’s here with, or even how they managed to find us, but he said they came here looking for you, of all people.” David glanced at her in surprise, both by the fact that a classmate of hers could have found her after all this time, and that they’d be looking for him, not to mention that he’d survived at all. It was an incredible distance from DC to here, especially for a friend of Alice’s to manage.

David glanced in his rear-view mirror, confirming that the other two vehicles venturing out of the compound were still close behind. Curiosity about the new survivors had prompted the others to tag along. The three that had walked much of the way to David’s were interested in how Alice’s friends had gotten there; debating whether they’d walked as well. It was generally assumed they’d probably been driven by their surviving family members. Not knowing how many people they’d find, they took three separate vehicles, with David, Alice and Mattie leading the way in David’s old Suburban, Greg and Melissa in a spare SUV, and Monique and Debbie in a small panel truck they’d been using to transport scavenged finds. In a first for David, they’d actually stopped driving their dead truck since they’d cleaned up most of the streets. There were still plenty of dead animals in the woods, but those were harder to process.

Mattie remained silent in the back seat, but David could hear the steady click-click-click as the young girl loaded bullets into clips. “Do you know anything about the group?” David pressed, anxious to know what they were facing. “How many there are or what shape they’re in?”

“No,” Alice replied with a quirky grin, “if you’ll remember, we were a little distracted at the time. I simply told him we’d be by to see them and didn’t get into any details.”

David grunted, well aware of how unprepared they’d been for the distraction at the time, but still curious about whom they were meeting, a little nervous about it as well. “So what can you tell us about this Peter kid?” he finally prompted, still trying to fight off his exhaustion following the marathon with Betty over the past several days. His eyes still felt gritty—about all he’d had time to do was to scrub and disinfect himself, trying to rid himself of any contaminants remaining on him before they’d headed out. He felt sure he’d succeeded, but he’d been so nervous about it that his skin felt like it was burning, even now, as a result of how hard he’d scrubbed.

“Not much, really,” she said thoughtfully, trying to recall details about her friend. It seemed so long ago since she knew him. “He’s a kid from my school, but he wasn’t in my class. He was quiet, not real popular, but he seemed nice enough and did well in his classes, as much as I can remember. We never really interacted that much, but I know he lived near our neighborhood.” She shrugged, indicating there wasn’t much she could add to her limited description.

David grunted, frustrated at their lack of preparation. It showed the costs of his allowing himself and the others to get so distracted. There was no sense pushing for more information, though the others were busy guessing over the radio about what they might encounter.

Pulling up to the familiar police station that Peter had called from, they found it deserted. Climbing out, David, Alice and Greg held their guns at the ready, each scanning their surroundings, flinching at any imagined movements, suspecting the lack of anyone waiting might imply a potential ambush. Mattie remained by the cars with Monique, her gun at the ready, as well, to provide support or to defend the other women. Melissa remained alert behind the wheel, keeping the radio handy and prepared to take off at the first sign of trouble. However, still not seeing anything after reviewing their surroundings, and not being attacked as they’d feared, David finally turned to Alice expectantly.

Just as mystified as the others, Alice stepped forward, keeping her rifle pointing down but still holding it ready, scanning the quiet deserted building for any signs of movement. “Peter?” she called out, the sound echoing eerily off of the surrounding buildings. She called twice more before receiving any response.

A young boy stood, revealing himself from behind the cover of the long overgrown grass surrounding the public park near them. The boy, around Alice’s age, but standing about a few inches shorter and sporting longish brown hair cut in bangs straight over his eyebrows. He merely stood there, silently regarding David and his caravan without saying a word, eyeing them with suspicion.

Finally Alice broke the silence. “Peter?” she asked.

“Hey, Alice,” he responded, still sounding hesitant. “Is that you, Mr. Scott?” he added, addressing David directly, not taking his eyes off of him.

“Yes it is. Have we ever met?”

“No, sir, though my father knew you. He described you, and I’m pretty sure it’s you, but if you don’t mind, who were the kids who came to see you earlier?”

David had to smile. The kid was no dummy—when a bunch of people show up carrying guns, it only makes sense being cautious. “There was a bunch, but their names were Caitlyn, Sara, Amy, Julie and Erica,” he answered, motioning to the others to lower their guns.

With that simple assurance, Peter put two fingers to his lips and whistled loudly. At that, other figures started appearing. A tall thin girl with longer tangled blond hair dropped from a tree, a younger girl, equally blond, stood up from behind another patch of overgrown grass. A boy smaller than Peter with short cropped blond hair climbed out of a parked car, and finally an older girl, probably a teen ager, dropped from the roof of the police station. One by one, they moved to join Peter, standing beside him, still warily regarding David’s group.

“Nina, it’s good to see you again,” Alice called out, clearly recognizing one of the girls. The lanky blonde brightened, a broad smile splitting her dour face, but she didn’t shift from where she stood. Alice remained where she was, not moving or making any threatening gestures, not wanting to spook them. “Is that your sister, Wendy?”

“Yeah, it is,” the girl called back. “Man, it’s great to finally find you. We’ve been looking forever!”

She still didn’t move any closer, and neither did any of the kids, although they were clearly excited to have finally arrived. The smaller kids were dancing in place, yet they looked clearly nervous about approaching.

“We stayed behind because no one could reach us when Mrs. Scott took off searching for you,” Peter said, finally opening up, the words practically pouring from his mouth. “We helped our parents clean up the damages to our houses, and then they kept us indoors when people started getting sick.” The older girl with hair the same shade of his moved up behind him as if to protect him. Their similar colors and features make it pretty clear they were brother and sister. While he seemed to be about Alice’s age, his sister appeared to be older, somewhere in her mid- to late-teens.

“While they protected us by keeping us away from everyone else, our parents were talking to people every day. When my mother and a few others got sick, my father made a decision and started making plans with the other neighbors. They got us together and told us that we had to leave them behind, that they probably wouldn’t make it, and that if we stayed we’d only end up getting sick as well.” As the words tumbled out, tears appeared in his eyes and his voice trembled, but his sister, clearly yearning to hold and shelter him, remained behind him, not reaching out to touch him.

“He told us to stay away from anyone we met,” Nina interjected, the spindly girl taking up Peter’s story as the boy sniffed. “And to not ask for anything but to take whatever we needed from unoccupied houses, warning us that anyone we talked to would either try to hurt us or might infect us.”

All the kids looked thin and lean, as if they’d been struggling, both for food and physically working for the past couple of weeks. They had a certain hard look about them that signaled they’d been struggling on their own, and their clothes, while typical of kid’s clothes everywhere, looked worn and frayed.

“There used to be six of us,” Wendy added, sounding remorseful but refusing to let herself cry. The kids had clearly learned to face death every day, so they weren’t about to break down now, even though they were finally amongst friends at long last. “Another girl accompanied us. She was older, home for the summer from college, and she was supposed to watch out for us. But she was sick when we got up one morning and told us to take off without her, taking the car with us and abandoning her,” Wendy said, looking tearful as she said it, as if she’d been holding it in all this time, only now feeling free enough to admit such emotions before a group of strangers. Yet still, none of them actually broke down and actually cried.

“We didn’t want to leave her, but Jenny insisted,” Nina explained, pointing at the older girl shadowing Peter. “She shoved us into the car making us leave her behind.”

“It was our only choice,” Jenny said flatly, finally speaking for the first time. “It was rough, but as we watched the bodies continually increase, and more and more people getting sick, we knew it was for the best.”

“Well, you know who I am,” David said, pausing the kid’s story as he proceeded to introduce everyone with him. “Who are each of you?”

“My name is Jenny Thomas, I’m Peter’s sister,” the older girl behind Peter answered, not referring to anyone in a friendly manner, playing the role of senior matron; the one tough enough to order the others to abandon their companion. “The others are Wendy, Adam and Nina Foster.”

“How are you doing?” David asked, trying to shield his assault rifle behind his back and smiling to ease the kids’ minds, though he wasn’t having much luck with his rifle. “If you don’t mind, Monique here is a nurse and can check you out,” he added, waving to Monique, behind a protective Mattie standing in front of her holding her rifle proudly, though she kept it pointed well away from everyone. “We also have food if anyone is hungry.”

The kids all perked up at the mention of food, so seeing her chance Monique returned to the car and took out the bagged lunches, using them to purchase her acceptance into the group. As each one hungrily grabbed the sandwiches and began eating, she checked them over, gently asking about any accidents or injuries they’d had.

“We drove as long as we could, sleeping in the woods at night after we hid the car,” Peter continued speaking around a mouthful of food. “People would come by, and we saw them attacking and hurting others, so we were glad our father warned us, and we stayed away from others that much more.”

“We learned what to do through trial and error,” the younger boy named Adam related. “Whenever we came upon a house that was quiet we’d watch it, then Wendy would approach and call out. We figured if anyone would try anything, they’d do it if they only saw her, since she’s the youngest. If we saw any movement we’d run away, but if we didn’t, we’d wrap our shirts over our faces and Jenny would go in, grabbing whatever food she could while trying to avoid the bodies.”

“How long did the car last?” David asked, guessing why it had taken so long.

“It was rough. The roads were bad and abandoned cars blocked the roads, so we had to drive around obstructions.” Jenny resumed the tale. She was busy peeling open a treasured package of chips, but hesitated when Wendy Foster looked beseechingly at her. She reluctantly handed it to her, smiling as she continued. “We were stopped by a flat tire, rather than running out of gas. The other girl and I changed the first tire, but when we got a second flat we had no more tires. We ended up taking one off of another vehicle, but it didn’t match the car. It made it wobble and drive funny. When the next tire blew out, we knew the car couldn’t help us anymore, so we decided to walk.” Turning to the other girls she started issuing orders. “Nina, Wendy, grab our backpacks.” The other girls hurried to do her bidding while she wolfed down the rest of her sandwich.

“We walked until we found some bicycles in an abandoned house in a housing complex. We eventually found some for everyone. That was better, since the bicycles are better for getting around the rough roads and being silent, are easier to hide. We’d ride along the roads at night, then hide the bikes and sleep during the day with someone keeping watch, usually me.”

She paused, taking a deep breath. “We saw some horrible things, but we managed to avoid most of it, and since we never talked to or interacted with anyone, we never managed to get sick. But it took forever to get here as a result.”

“Peter and Jenny managed to repair our bikes whenever we’d get a flat, but we had to trade them in for newer ones every so often,” Wendy added as she dropped two backpacks beside Jenny, sounding as if the simple task of changing a bicycle tire was a vital service helping them all survive.

“If you’re interested, we’ve got hot food back at the house,” Alice suggested.

The kids’ heads shot up at this news. “You’ve got charcoal grills?” Wendy asked, her mouth practically salivating she looked so intrigued by the concept.

Alice couldn’t help herself, breaking into a big grin. “Even better, we have full electricity. We have music, TV, heat and air conditioning.”

“No way,” Adam exclaimed. “I didn’t think anyone had electricity any longer.”

Getting another wicked grin, Alice pulled something from her jacket and tossed it to the smaller Wendy, who jerked defensively at the sudden movement but still managed to catch it. She examined the MP3 player she now held in her hands before looking back at Alice.

“Does it work?”

“Yep. It’s got music and discussions about how to stay safe and survive in the weeks and months ahead,” Alice explained. “We broadcast over the radio to anyone who…,” Alice tried to continue, but Wendy was hurriedly putting the earphones in her ears, turning it on as the other kids clustered around her, astounded by Alice’s simple gift.

“Sorry about not trusting you initially,” Peter apologized while the other kids each tried to get a chance with the magical device. “When we saw the bodies in the trees, we were afraid maybe you’d been killed by bad guys. When we called, Alice sounded so weird, I was sure she was being held against her will and couldn’t talk freely.”

“Yeah, I was … uh, a bit distracted,” Alice tried to explain without getting into what the distraction had been.

“Is your place … safe?” Jenny asked, still looking out for the others.

“That’s a complex question,” David said, speaking before the others could respond. Though he wanted the kids to trust them, he also wanted to ensure they knew what they were getting into before they joined them. It may hurt them if they didn’t join them, but he could tell from looking at them that they were used to making difficult decisions on the fly, so he’d decided to level with them.

“Some of us are like you, never having been exposed. However Alice, Mattie and I, and another girl back at the house, got all the diseases but survived, so now we’re immune to them. However you can’t touch us because we have a weakened version of it, meaning we can still infect someone if there’s enough contact.”

The kids all looked at each other, and then Jenny waved them over. Suddenly their meal was forgotten as they crowded together and discussed what to do, their voices low as they’d cast an occasional glances at the caravan.

“It’s really quite—” Alice started to tell them, hoping to assuage their fears before David waved her off again.

“This is something they have to decide for themselves,” he told her quietly. “Once they do we’ll explain how it works.”

Monique walked back behind David and Alice, respecting their roles as the lead negotiators, while Greg and Melissa stood off to the side waiting for the kids to make their decision. Mattie, still holding her rifle proudly, looked like she’d like nothing better than to run and join the new kids, some her own age, but knew she’d need to be careful because of her potential to infect them.

“Is it OK if we don’t join you?” Jenny asked, speaking over the heads of the others.

“Absolutely,” David answered. “In fact, if you decide to keep going, we’ll equip you with food, a car with gasoline, and some weapons you can protect yourselves with.”

They just stared at him for a second, and then hurriedly resumed their private conversation once more, spending several more minutes in intense discussion. Finally they broke apart and turned to address them as one.

“In that case, we’ll trust you,” Jenny said, speaking authoritatively for the group, but then paused, looking into David’s eyes cagily. “We’ll come along and see how safe it is, then decide whether we want to stay.”

“You won’t regret it,” Alice assured them. “Aside from the electricity and food, we’ve got animals, a nice secluded spot and an amazing house.”

“You’re overselling it,” David whispered, making no motions to alert the others they weren’t the entire focus of his attention. He treated them as edgy creatures likely to take flight at the slightest wrong move. “We’ve already made the sale. Let them decide what we have to offer on their own.”

“It’ll be good to get a hot meal,” Wendy said, breaking into a big grin having established their position. She grunted as she hoisted her backpack, and each of the kids grabbed their kits, eager to get on with it now that they’d committed to it.

“And a shower,” Nina added, wiping her forehead after adjusted her backpack. The long minutes spent reaching a consensus while debating how much they trusted these people were more than a little stressful. “You do have working water, don’t you?” When Alice nodded, Nina’s smile beamed across the expanse.

“I’d love to sleep in a real bed again,” Peter exclaimed, a sentiment his sister agreed wholeheartedly with, if her enthusiastic nod was any indication.

David waved them towards the convoy. “Well come on. Let’s get you back, fed and cleaned up.” He turned back towards the Suburban without watching whether anyone followed. He wanted to show they were free to come on their own and that he wasn’t going to treat them as helpless children after surviving on their own for so long. He thought they’d respond better to that than any other approach. The sound of the kids running after him assured him they were convinced.

________________________

On the way back, David was anxious to answer one question that had been bothering him for some time. He’d split the kids up, letting Monique and Debbie drive the three Foster kids since they had a whole vehicle to themselves, while he drove Peter and Jenny. In order to not risk infecting them, Mattie and Alice shared the front seat with him. It made the front seat crowded, but they were both small and didn’t mind being that close now that they could do so without worry. Glancing back in the rearview window, David addressed Peter’s older sister.

“Jenny, whatever happened to Betts? Did she ever make it home?” he asked, a slight quiver flavoring his question.

“Betts?” Jenny asked, sounding lost.

“Mrs. Bennett,” Alice explained, reminding them who they were speaking of since not everyone was familiar with the more personal nickname. “Sara’s mother.”

“Oh, no, after she left with your mother and everyone else we never saw her again. Did something happen to her?” Jenny asked worriedly, despite the devastation they’d all witnessed in the intervening weeks.

Steeling himself for her possible response, his muscles tensing in anticipation, David whispered what had occurred. “None of them made it, but Betts decided to go back to try to bring some more of you out here. After she left, we never heard from her again, and we’ve always wondered what happened to her.”

“That probably wasn’t a very smart thing to do,” Jenny responded sympathetically. “The roads were a mess, and not only weren’t they cleaned up, they weren’t patrolled either. People would stop cars at makeshift roadblocks, killing people at random. It was pretty bad,” she reflected with an involuntary shudder as she recalled what they’d experience on the road, unwilling to voice all she’d witnessed.

“Yeah, we encountered that kind of thing ourselves,” David told her. “Did you happen to notice the warning when you exited the highway? We put a quick end to that here.” While David had no way of knowing whether his grisly warning had in fact stopped anyone else, he wanted to reassure the kids that they were now safer than they had been.

“We noticed; that’s partially why we were so nervous when you arrived, especially when you showed up with multiple cars loaded for bear.”

“Our parents said that you’d be prepared,” Peter said, blurting out the words as he changed the subject. “Mrs. Scott described how you had everything, and she drew a map about how to get here, so we didn’t have to ask anyone for directions. But her map wasn’t very detailed, so every time we turned off the trail we had to search until we got back on the same route again.”

“We finally broke into a store someone had robbed and found a map, that helped a lot,” Jenny added.

“Well, one of the things we’ll do is teach you how to shoot a weapon, whether you stay with us or not,” David told them. He paused as he navigated around a large pothole and a couple abandoned vehicles, and then added, “And just so you know, we expect everyone to chip in.”

“There’s no such thing as childhood anymore,” Alice told them. “After you’ve seen everything we have, it tends to make you grow up pretty damn fast, so we all chip in to assure that everyone can survive.”

David reflected on Alice’s heartfelt thoughts, observing just how true it really was, as well as noting how strongly she felt about it.

Peter and Jenny both nodded at the wisdom of that simple observation, as did Mattie, who’d been silent up until that time, quietly watching the interaction between the others. The two kids, picking up on her silence, tried to draw her out, but she kept her answers short, not willing to reveal too much for fear she’d end up describing what she’d been though, thinking it would be too much for them to handle at this initial stage.

________________________

The kids were excited upon entering the house. They had to be warned not to touch the animals outside until learning which were contagious and which weren’t. They were thrilled by the house, the electricity, the technical equipment, how secure it was, the hot water and the nonthreatening people. But they were the most impressed with the fresh fruits and vegetables after living off cold packaged food for the last several weeks.

Greg and the girls had visited the nearby farms while David was indisposed, reaping the latest crops—at least the ones they knew how to process. The way the kids went through the fresh fruit, David knew it wouldn’t last long. He figured they’d need to institute a rationing system, but couldn’t deny them after they’d done without for so long.

While they were gawking at everything, Betty wandered out, feeling better and wanting to see what was happening.

“How are you feeling?” David asked after making introductions. “Should you be up?” he pressed, subtly suggesting she shouldn’t be up and about while they were courting new additions.

“I’m actually feeling better.” She glanced around for a place to sit, but thought better of it after considering the newcomers’ responses. “Tom says the fever is back to normal. I’m still weak, but as long as I move slowly, I’m fine.”

That statement riveted the attention of the newcomers. “Uh, is she sick?” Wendy backed up, afraid to even broach the question.

“She’s got the plague!” Nina dragged her sister and brother farther away, pointing. “See the marks on her face?” she emphasized, as if protecting them from a rabid dog.

Jenny slapped her hand over her face, rushing back against the cabinet. “Should she be here? Isn’t she a threat to each of us?” She yanked Peter after her, almost tripping over Wendy in her haste.

David stepped between everyone. “Relax. “I was getting to that. We’ve got an emergency treatment that, so far, allows people to survive the Great Death. Alice, Mattie and I, and now Betty, have all survived each of the GD variants, so we’re now immune. However, we each bear the faint marks of the diseases and carry a severely weakened case of it. It’s not easy to catch, but remember to be careful about touching us. Being near us is fine. It doesn’t seem to be spread via the air.”

“Are you sure?” Peter asked, unsure himself. None of them looked very convinced, and Betty looked stricken, finally realizing they hadn’t been warned about her and she had created a scene.

“Yes, we’re sure,” Tom insisted, striding forward trying to both defend Betty and to set the record straight. “I’ve been living here in close proximity to them and I haven’t contracted it. Mattie has been here and had been fine until she decided to curl up in David’s lap,” he added, choosing to simplify what had happened rather than telling them she’d slept with him, knowing how that would sound in this new lawless world.

“Wait, you’re telling us you have a cure?” Jenny asked, finally getting their message and taking it to the next logical level. “You can cure everyone with the disease?” she shouted excitedly. “Man, this is major. You can single handedly save millions of people!”

“Hold on, it’s not that simple,” David struggled to explain to the suddenly excited group, hoping to tamp down their suddenly bubbling excitement at this new revelation. “This isn’t a cure; it’s a last gasp procedure that we’ve only tried a couple of times. We don’t know how successful it is, and we have to infect you with each disease. You suffer as if you were going to die from it, only it seems to prevent it from actually killing you. But we don’t know exactly how much it reduces the risk of death. So far we’ve all survived, but given how close we all came to death, it’s no panacea. Personally, I don’t think we’ll ever use it unless we’re forced to, and then we’ll have to seriously question doing it.”

“Actually, having just gone through it, I have to admit I’d never have done it if I’d known what it would entail,” Betty admitted. “I’ve never suffered through worse pain than I have the last several days. I thought I could deal with it, but all I wanted was to die and be done with it.”

“I agree with you,” Mattie added, while the new kids were busy staring at each of them. “I wouldn’t do it either. I would have warned you, but I didn’t think you’d listen to me, and I wasn’t really strong enough to argue the point.”

“I tried to warn you, but until you’ve gone through it yourself, it’s impossible to imagine just how awful it is,” David reflected.

“Wait, so you’ve got a ‘cure’ that gives people a much worse case of the plague than they’d catch on their own?” Jenny asked. “Isn’t that kinda … counterproductive?”

“It’s really not meant as a cure,” David tried to explain. “Both Alice and I survived after being exposed to a whole mess of different Great Death variants. Since we’re related, everyone assumed it was based on our particular genetics. Mattie decided she wanted some cuddling, and thinking we were immune, she did and accidentally got infected. Due to our own immunity to it, Tom suggested using our blood, our plasma, to boost Mattie’s immune response, only it backfired, infecting her.

“The key is it’s not a traditional vaccine. The virus in our plasma isn’t a weakened version of the disease that primes the immune system. Instead we inject the actual disease into people’s bloodstream. So far both people we’ve tried it on survived, though they suffered horribly. We have no assurances it won’t kill the next person we use it on.”

“It looks like it does exactly as David described. It somehow allows you to survive, but doesn’t lessen the illness at all,” Tom explained. “We hoped continuing the plasma transfer throughout the treatment would help combat it, allowing her to recover sooner. But the extra plasma had no effect. She got sicker than anyone else.”

“So you’re all infectious?” Wendy asked, still unsure about the whole situation.

“We have a weakened version of it. We’re carriers, but our immune systems weakened it so it isn’t as contagious as normal.” David hoped their explanations would help ease their concerns, but didn’t expect it to do so.

“Has anyone else been infected?” Jenny asked, finally sounding like she was ready to address it rationally.

“No,” Monique told her, “though the others haven’t been here that long. But Tom has been here for a while, and most of our assumptions are based on him.”

“Look, you’ll have to consider whether you’re willing to stay or not,” David told the kids. “I hadn’t wanted to force this on you yet, but take your time coming to a decision. If you’re nervous, just keep your distance. Whatever you decide, we’ll support you, but right now I’d like to address the issue with those who belong to the household, and you may not want to be here for this. After all, I hadn’t really wanted to reveal this much information until you were up to speed on the rest.”

The kids just watched him for a moment, unsure how to respond, then they went into a quick huddle. They talked a few moments, then agreed and walked into the next room, leaving David and the others to discuss the situation they found themselves in.

“OK, this leaves us to finally thrash this problem out.” David sank into a chair, weary from defending himself and those around him from the justified concerns of those he was trying to help. “Right now, we have four infectious people, seven who’ve somehow never gotten sick, and two who’ve recovered from a single plague. This is a problem, and we’ve got to iron out some rules.”

“How do you propose we deal with it then?” Greg asked.

“Yeah, I’d thought we’d worked out a decent working compromise,” Tom responded.

David buried his face in his hands, mumbling through his fingers. “It’s only worked because no one has gotten sick yet. But as soon as someone does, then it all goes to hell. I’d rather avoid that before it happens.”

“Frankly, I surprised there are so many who haven’t gotten sick yet,” Alice commented. “I assumed the Death had run its course and only left those who survived it. Instead it looks like we’re still midway through the process.”

“That’s exactly the point,” Monique reflected. “We’re only part way through this. If we can’t find a solution, there won’t be anyone left. It looks like we’ve found a way to survive it, but it’s not an easy solution, and we can only do it a single person at a time.”

“I think a discussion about how best to save the world should be shelved until another time,” David interrupted, getting upset that people were still talking about it as if it were a valid treatment. Frankly, he was convinced it was a bad idea originally, and it had been proven to be a terrible one.

“Right now we need to figure out what to do with everyone,” he continued, outlining his own solution to the immediate problem. “We’ve got this place, which is a handy refuge to house everything, and we’ve got three houses with power people can use. Beyond that we need people on the two farms, and we’ve got plenty of other houses they can use, but it’ll be harder to get them power.”

“I don’t think the kids will appreciate living on a farm on their own,” Monique commented dryly. “And frankly, they seem to like this place.”

“We’ll see about that,” David said. “From the looks of it, I suspect they’re debating running off the first chance they get. I’d rather provide them with a decent option where they can remain here in a safe environment, which means they need to be kept safe from us as well.”

“Well, we don’t have a problem staying here, but it is getting a bit crowded,” Greg admitted. “I’m willing to move to one of the other houses. I don’t know about Melissa, but if she joined me, we could watch over the kids, either in the same house or from nearby.”

“You don’t think someone should parent the kids?” David asked, seriously thinking it a valid question.

“Get real, Dad,” Alice told him with more than a touch of exasperation in her suddenly strident voice. “Think about it. How much did the girls and I grow up after what happened? These kids have been living on their own, surviving by their wits on a daily basis, watching the worst of humanity running amok. I think you need to stop thinking of them as typical kids.”

“That may very well be true, but as long as they’re liable to make bad judgments based on their age and inexperience, they’re still considered kids. Someone needs to make sure they’re OK and help them adjust to what they’ve been through. They also need to ensure they haven’t ‘matured’ too much and are having sex with each other. The last thing we need is a bunch of pregnant kids.”

“Again, you’re thinking of a bygone world, Dad,” Alice told him bluntly, leaning forward in her seat and taking a slightly different – though no less challenging—tack. “Would it be so bad if they did get pregnant? We need to start the whole repopulation process. Right now you’re wondering if there are enough animals left to provide enough genetic diversity. Well, the same applies to humans.”

David sighed before responding. “They may need to have kids eventually, but I don’t think they need to do it right this moment,” he said with a somewhat crooked smile, though his humor vanished when he added, “What’s more, we’re still trying to adjust to the Death. What happens if they get pregnant, injure themselves having a baby too young, and then end up dying, leaving the babies without parents? What then?”

“Then we pick up and go on,” Mattie answered with a blunt finality to her words. “They’re older than I am, and I’m pretty aware of what’s going on. I don’t think they’re as innocent as you seem to think they are. What’s more, there’s nothing to say we can’t all pitch in and raise children. I think the idea of two parents raising children is just as outdated as all of our previous lives. I think from now on, we’ll all need to rely on each other.”

David stared at these two formerly innocent and carefree children speaking so frankly and with such conviction—especially so soon after having lost their own families. “Look,” he said slowly, “let’s just focus here and figure out what we’re—Ouch!” David responded after Alice elbowed him in the side a little harder than she’d intended. When he turned, she nodded to the door. Glancing up, he noticed the very kids they were discussing actively listening just inside the door. When they noticed him watching, they retreated, blushing, but they didn’t go very far.

“OK, it looks like we need to finish up,” David concluded, “and we need to do it without a lot of discussion.”

“I think I agree with Greg,” Melissa said. “I suggest the two of us move into one of the spare houses together, put the kids up in a separate one where they can be on their own, but still have some level of supervision. That way there’s still another house for Monique and Debbie if they need it. I don’t think Tom is willing to leave his little lab here.”

“You got that right,” Tom assured them. “I’m staying right here, and I think all this talk of shuffling people off for their own welfare is just plain stupid.”

“OK, that sounds good,” David agreed, ignoring Tom’s response. “Though I’m disappointed we still don’t have any potential farmers among us.”

“Face it,” Melissa told him, wanting to settle the issue, “we don’t even know if we’ll be able to grow anything after this coming winter. If things turn out OK, we’ll consider occupying the farm come spring, but for now we want to stick close by so that if things get as bad as you’re predicting we won’t be stuck off on our own.”

“Good point. So we’re decided?” David asked. He got nods all around, so he turned to the door. “OK kids, I think we’re ready to talk now,” he called out, but it appeared he was a little slow.

Jenny and Nina stormed out, trailed by the others. “Listen here, we don’t appreciate you making all our decisions for us without us playing a part in it,” Jenny, used to making life and death decisions for everyone on a daily basis for a long time, stated hotly. “If there are decisions to be made, we’re perfectly capable of making our own choices.”

“Fine, do you want to live here where you can contract the Death, or would you rather live in a nice house in relative safety?” David countered.

“Look, we don’t mind the suggestion, but we don’t appreciate having you making the decision after sending us out of the room. We deserve a vote here, even if you eventually make the final decision. If we’re going to stay here at all, we need to have a role in what happens,” Jenny insisted.

“OK, I’m sorry. That was stupid,” David said, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Would you like to stay here, sleeping on the floor or in Alice’s room, would you like to live in your own house, or try your luck on the road?”

“That’s a little unfair,” Betty observed.

“Yeah, that’s hardly a choice,” Mattie replied.

“The fact of the matter is, the safest bet for right now is to keep everyone close together,” Greg said. “The end of the road isn’t bad, but if we have heavy snowfalls that might mean a death sentence if they can’t get back here. I think we’ll have to play this by ear until we know just how bad things get.”

“OK, that makes sense,” David responded before he addressed the kids. “So what do you think? What do you want to do?”

“Well, we don’t want to leave,” Jenny responded. “We barely managed to get by on our own out on the road, and we were lucky as hell we didn’t contract anything while we were out there.”

“Yeah,” Peter said, agreeing with his sister. “We’ll stay here. We’ll move to the house if you don’t have room for us, but as the others say, living away from here is riskier, and if we move out now it may be harder getting back in.”

“And you don’t have a problem living with people who are plague carriers?” David asked, pressing the point home.

“Well…,” Jenny responded, hesitating as she debated it with herself. “No one else seems to have a problem with it, so we’re willing to assume it’s relatively safe. As they said, if someone gets sick, then we’ll revisit it.”

“Actually, it would be great if they stayed here,” Alice ventured. “It would be like it was before, I’d have people my own age and you’d have someone to call you on it when you slip up, while we have someone to inspire us.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Mattie responded, without fully realizing what Alice had been referring to.

“I don’t think it’s quite the same situation,” David replied, trying to head off Alice’s argument while still diplomatically sidestepping the discussion that Alice was conflating with the previous situation. David knew bringing up that the kids had previously ‘called him’ on being sexually active with the other women in the house, but didn’t think it would comfort the newcomers to know that, since they might fear what that might portend for them. “For all we know, they may not need any inspiration.”

“Hey, I don’t like you continually telling everyone we’re sleeping around,” Jenny argued, partially figuring out what he was intimating, even if she didn’t know the background behind his references. “We may be street kids, but we’re not whores. These are our brothers, and the idea of sleeping with them is, well, frankly it’s a bit disgusting. Sorry Peter," she added a bit apologetically, "but you know what I mean. We never did anything with each other, and frankly we wouldn’t because we depend on each other too much to risk the infighting if we did.”

“OK, it looks like the kids are staying here in Alice’s room, sleeping bags and all,” David announced, surrendering to the collective opinion against his position. “Since Tom has taken over the living room with his noisy machinery and blinking lights, and he sleeps out here himself, that leaves only one spare room.”

“Wait, where do the rest of you … oh, never mind,” Nina replied after stopping to think about it.

“It’s not what you think,” David hurried to explain.

“It has to do with what we went through,” Alice explained. “After that you trust the people you went through it with completely, and you no longer want to be apart from them.”

“That’s right,” Mattie said. “Even before I went through it myself, I initially got ill because I wanted what Alice and David share. But since then, I not only understand it, but I depend on it.”

“Oh, so that means I get to sleep with you as well?” Betty asked challengingly, a wicked glimmer showing in her eyes as she stared at David.

“Hey, until you get better, all you’re doing is sleeping, you got that?” Alice insisted, turning to lay out the law for Betty. Betty straightened up right away, nodding affirmatively, not willing to fight the fiery teenager who was proving herself as strong willed and as protective as her father.

“Good, that’s settled,” David said, trying to settle that line of thought once and for all. “Now what about the rest of you? Who’s living where?”

“With all these people living here, I’m like Tom,” Monique responded. “I’m staying where I’m needed. With this many kids it’s only a matter of time before one of them breaks something, and if they’re down the street they’re too far away to get to fast enough. So you’re stuck with me.”

“If Monique is staying here, then so am I,” Debbie declared. “Besides, I like the idea of sticking with Alice and the other kids.”

“That only leaves the two of you, Greg, where do you stand?”

At this Melissa moved closer to Greg’s side. He glanced at her and seemed to come to a decision.

“It looks like it’s going to be pretty crowded here, so we’ll move out. We can function on our own, and traveling back and forth won’t be a problem for us. Besides, while Betty was with us we were afraid to try anything, but with her gone, and with no one else for us to fool around with, I think we’re going to try to make a go of it on our own.”

Melissa smiled sweetly at his words, and she hesitantly reached out, eventually taking his hand as if trusting herself to take that little risk was one of the hardest things she’d ever done. But when she did, and he grasped it firmly smiling back at her, her whole countenance brightened.

The others watching, particularly the kids, all held their breaths watching it unfold, knowing precisely what she was feeling, but feeling strangely conflicted now that she’d broken through her own emotional self-imprisonment.

“Well congratulations,” David said, smiling broadly and ignoring their difficulty in trusting each other. “It’s healthy that you’re not letting everything you’ve been through get you down. I wish you the best. But now that that’s decided, how about we get started on dinner? We can spend the rest of the day teaching everyone what they need to know and assigning tasks. I want to get some things accomplished that I haven’t been able to the last several days, so consider tomorrow already accounted for.”

He sat up in his seat, looking over the group. “Betty and Tom, you’ve already had some gun training, so we’ll leave you with the kids … I mean the newcomers,” he quickly corrected himself, even though they didn’t appear to have taken any offense at the still apt description, “to help get them started learning how to defend themselves. The rest of us will hit the road. I want to try visiting Harrisonburg, so we’ll leave in the morning.”

Continued …

           

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