Dee knew they probably had only one more days’ worth of food left, at best. They had exhausted the supplies they’d managed to scrounge from the immediate neighbourhood. No one was willing to venture out any farther than they had already. A few close calls with the Variants had scared everyone. Now they had no choice. If they were going to eat, they would have to go out into the mess the virus had caused.
Looking up from the book she was reading, The Chrysalids, she nudged Boss with her foot. “Hey.”
Boss was surrounded by electronic bits and pieces, remnants of an old ham radio her dad had given her. Without looking up, he replied, “Yeah?”
“Any luck?” Dee whispered.
“Nope, it’s dead. An ex radio. Expired. No longer with us.” Boss was now grinning.
Playing along, Dee said, “It was all right when it left the shop.” She sighed. “But seriously, could you fix it?”
“Not without the right parts. Then, yeah, maybe.”
Dee leant forwards in her chair, shuffling closer to Boss. The smell of the dusty radio parts evoked fond memories of her childhood, of watching her father patiently assemble the old ham radio, trying to get it to work. He had explained what he was doing to Dee, but it had all sounded the same to her. She’d just loved hearing his voice.
Blinking away the memory, she furrowed her eyebrows at Boss. “So, did your father teach you how to do that?”
Boss paused. Putting down the small screwdriver, he shifted his weight, stretching out a leg. “Yeah, well, sort of. He taught me how to use the radio. He loved to chat to people all around the country, and the world too, I suppose. I don’t know, really. He wasn’t around much.”
Dee watched as Boss shuffled around, turning away from her. He leant back down and picked up some pieces of the radio. He glanced around the room, his blue eyes flickering to her.
Dee placed a hand on his shoulder. “Boss, what happened? To him, to your mum?”
Wetting his lips, Boss said, “They happened, Dee. They!” He gestured wildly towards outside.
Dee patted his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pried.”
Boss sighed, rubbing his hands through his hair. He stared at Dee. “Dad worked as an IT consultant, hardware stuff. He mainly worked for that big animal breeding place. It wasn’t long after the news broke, a couple of days maybe, that Dad came home sick. We thought he had a fever. He still insisted on going to work the next day, and then he never came back. As it got worse out there, Mum and I hid in the attic storage area. That’s where Dad’s radio was. So, when it was quiet, I warmed her up and reached out.”
Dee rubbed the nape of her neck. “Is that when you talked to the American?”
“Yeah. It was difficult to hear him. He said something about Variants attacking them, and to hunker down.”
Tilting her head in the direction of the others, Dee asked, “What about them? How’d you end up together?”
Boss picked up a piece of the radio. It was shaped like a small light bulb. Dee watched as he peered through it. He put it down next to the others and turned around to face her. His eyes glistened, and he blinked rapidly. “He came back, Dee. He came back.”
Her heart thumped against her chest and nerves tingled down her arms, her blood ran cold. She shivered. She hoped that what he was going to say next wasn’t what she was expecting. Why did I press him?
“After a few days, he came back. But he wasn’t Dad any more. He was one of them, Dee!” His voice caught on the last words and tears welled up in his eyes.
“I ran, Dee. I ran, and left Mum to him.” Boss sniffed and wiped his eyes. Gesturing towards Matt and Alice, he added, “They helped me. We hid in their shed. The other two were already there. But they found us. Then we met you.” Boss sniffed again, and a smile escaped his lips.
Dee moved forwards off her chair. She swept a few of the scattered parts away with her foot and crouched down, joining Boss on the floor. She drew him into a tight embrace. “I’m really glad you did, Boss. We’re going to survive this, okay?”
Boss tightened his arms around her, returning the hug. “Yeah. We better.”
She held on to him for a while longer, savouring the comfort.
Dee thought about how to approach the next subject, that of the drastically dwindling food supply. She knew the average male needed three thousand calories a day to survive, and they were all on a thousand at best. The time had come. Judgement day.
She broke the embrace with Boss and sat back up on her chair. Not for the first time, she wished her dad was still alive. He’d always treated her with a love and affection that had sometimes bewildered her. She’d always known he’d really wanted a son. He’d taken her on several hunting trips and shown her how to live off the land. Firing hunting rifles and shotguns, fishing and camping had all been a big part of her life growing up. Dee cursed her luck at the Hemorrhage Virus arriving when the guns he’d left her were being serviced. His death had hit her hard, and she’d foolishly let the guns sit in the basement gathering dust. After Jack had shown some interest in learning how to use them, she had taken them in for servicing. Now they were lost to her too.
What should they do? Move on and maybe get torn apart and eaten, or stay put and starve to death, and maybe get discovered and eaten?
Where are you, Jack? I need you now, more than ever.
Shifting her weight, Dee nudged Boss again. “Boss.”
“Yeah, what?”
“We need to talk to the others.”
Slightly perplexed, Boss looked up from his task. “Why?”
“We need to figure out what we’re going to do, that’s why.”
“Food?”
“Yes, food, and we need to move on. There are more and more Variants every day.”
Getting up off the floor so he could sit next to her, Boss gave Dee a quizzical look. “Have you noticed how you don’t see them in the middle of the day?”
Nodding, Dee murmured, “Yeah. I think that’s our best chance to go. We need to find water, food and weapons. Real weapons, like guns. Jack and I have this cabin up in the valley, isolated. I think we should head there.”
“What about a truck? Like a concrete truck?”
Smiling, Dee said, “We need to be practical, Boss. It’s not Mad Max.”
Stifling a laugh, Boss nodded. “All right. I’ll gather the troops.”
— 16 —
Dee smiled at Alice as she walked over. “We need to have a meeting, guys.”
“Okay,” Alice said, smiling back. “Over by the books?”
Dee nodded and listened as Boss talked to Mike.
“Hey, we’re having a pow wow.”
Mike turned his head away from the ventilation grate. “Why?”
“Same old, same old. Food, guns. Lack thereof,” Boss whispered, tension creeping into his tone.
“Fine,” Mike said, sighing. “What about the watch?”
“I’m just doing as Dee asked,” Boss said, turning his back and shrugging his shoulders.
Grumbling and muttering, Mike went over to Vicki, and together they joined the others.
At a small table, Dee had spread out an old map of the city, and next to it, one of the surrounding countryside.
“What museum did you raid?” Boss smirked.
Dee gave Boss an over-the-glasses librarian look. She waited for a cheeky response, but he just looked at his feet and kept silent. Satisfied that Boss knew it was serious, Dee glanced at the others gathered round.
“So, we need to decide what to do. Do we continue scrounging through houses for food? Or do we make a run for it? Get somewhere more isolated? Fewer Variants?”
Dee pressed on. “If we stay, we just keep scavenging in ever-increasing circles, hoping for food. We could try a food wholesalers. And we need guns desperately. Or, and this is what I vote for, we take my car and try to reach this valley,” she said, pointing at the map. “Jack and I have a cabin there.”