She helped with the chores, but when nothing was required of her she sat by herself near the mouth of the cave, quietly thinking. I wished there was something we could do for her but I had no idea what. And sadly, I didn’t really have enough time to think about it.
The next morning, Grandpa decided to go out again, to try again to find some fresh water. He took a couple containers and left. I wished I could go with him. I hated just laying around, but I knew it was best for the baby.
About midday we heard something at the entrance. Joey tiptoed to the entrance, and we all stayed as quiet as possible. We didn’t even know what to do if there was an intruder. I thought about getting the gun, but before I had a chance to act on it Joey called back that it was Ian and Dad. We all breathed a sigh of relief. We had been concerned something happened to them, but our need for food and water had drained us of even the energy we needed to worry.
They had gotten turned around and when they finally found the supplies it was more work to carry them back than they had expected. They had also noticed enemy airplanes flying overhead, which required them to hide. They had figured out on the way there that the planes only flew over once a day, just before noon time. They made sure they were completely hidden on the way back, and felt that they had in no way revealed our location.
Ian pulled me aside to speak with me privately. He asked how I was doing, noticing that I seemed pale and wan. With very fair skin and dark hair I always seemed pale, but when I was ill it was even worse. I could see the concern in his eyes as he cupped my face in his hands. He softly kissed me and then proceeded to tell me what he had discovered.
On their trip Ian had detoured to a nearby city to see if he could see anything. He had discovered that there was a virus. He said it looked like something out of a horror movie. Those affected were quarantined and buildings had images in red spray paint warning others from coming in. The place was completely abandoned except for those who were infected. And the bodies of those that had succumbed. He said they were piled so high in some areas it was unreal. Some were piled in trenches, others just one on top of the other off the side of the road. He had no idea where the others had fled.
If there were others.
As they unloaded what they had returned with, the wood, matches, water, and canned food look painfully sparse. I looked at my husband, realizing he knew we needed to make some big changes if we were going to get through this.
Later that evening, Grandpa made his way back. He had found a very small stream, and didn’t have time to follow it. He seemed surprised to see Ian and my dad, alive and well, but he told them about the discovery and spoke with them about other plans.
The days turned into weeks, and we had a pretty good thing going. A stream with fresh water was pretty close, and Ian was sure that if he followed it there would be a bigger tributary where we might find fish. I was still on bed rest. It was thirty weeks into my pregnancy, but I didn’t seem nearly as big as I should be. I chalked it up to the fact that we hadn’t been eating very good since the strike.
The boys were still kept inside; we didn’t want to risk any kind of contamination. They had grown used to playing in the caves, and had begun exploring their depths. That was another area that gave me anxiety. We had not fully explored the tunnels, and the boys played in them every day. I made them call out to me every few minutes so I knew they were safe.
Another issue that had come up was the smell that was starting to fill this place. With the animals, all these unwashed bodies, and our homemade outhouse, I knew we were going to have to do something about it soon.
At the two month mark the men had a conference and decided to open the cave. We could make short trips outside, and since they had marked the flyovers, we would be sure to be hidden out of sight when they came. It was mid-November, I was thirty-two weeks pregnant, and once again, our supplies were running ridiculously low.
CHAPTER TWO
One bit of good news among all of this was that the rabbit gave birth to a litter. Supposedly she could breed again in six weeks. We decided as soon as we could tell their sex we would move out another male and female for breeding.
My Grandpa, a short Italian whose parents had immigrated, started showing Mom which herbs and roots were good for food. I was surprised to learn about the things growing all around us that were edible. He had found blackberry bushes that had no berries right now, but there were many other things, including mushrooms on the forest floor and in another area there were lots of dandelions, whose leaves and flowers actually tasted good.
When we took the boys out, we showed them also. Their excitement was palpable when we let them out of the cave. After the initial shock of what had happened, they seemed to be handling it all pretty well; I should have expected it. They seemed to feel like we were on some grand adventure.
Grandpa had also found a section of earth where the sun shone for more than six hours a day, so he started planting some seeds for garlic, peas, beans, and onions. He planted a mere two or three seeds a day, in a random pattern, so as not to attract the attention of anybody from above.
The chickens were not laying as frequently as before, probably because of the waning winter light. We needed to make another area to put the chickens that we fertilized, once we got around to doing that, so we could have some chicks. So far we were eating up all the eggs right away, and they were our only source of protein, except for a few cans of beans we had, but nonetheless, we needed to think about the future.
I watched my husband stay busy around the cave. He was continuously working on something. He stacked wood for fires, dug new bathroom holes, moved things around and finally decided to start building some traps. I would see him watching me, those blue eyes looking at me with love and concern. He was about 5’10”, and had brown hair he kept short. He played soccer all through high school and was in pretty good shape when we got married. He had put on a few pounds over the last couple of years, but two months out here and he had lost it all already. His nose was crooked because it had been broken two times, and he was always making jokes about something.
He saw me smiling at him and I motioned for him to come and sit down with me. I wanted a kiss, and I wanted to talk over a few things we needed to take care of, and soon. I began running down a list I had in my head: a birthing plan, an alternate source of fire/heat, some more protein, and an alternative bathroom area. Speaking of baths, we all needed one.
We hashed out how things would go when I went into labor. As for the second item on the list, I was concerned about fire because if anything ever happened to our matches, or we ran out, we would be screwed. He said he would figure something out. We still hadn’t found a fishing spot, so Ian suggested we set some traps around for rabbits or squirrels while reassuring me they would soon find a fishing spot.
Nobody had seen a razor in the last two months. It hadn’t really seemed like a priority to bring one along. Being Italian, my mom, sister, and I looked like we hadn’t seen a razor in years. My sister’s mustache was growing in strong; back home she waxed every other week.
My brother had a full freakin’ beard, all black and shaggy; he looked like a terrorist. My grandpa looked like a Semitic priest of some kind, and my husband, being Irish, had a patchy, red beard that looked absolutely ridiculous.
Ian started trying to find ways to make fire. He got a string and a stick and did some rubbing thing a few different ways, but it didn’t seem to be working. Another thing he did was hit different types of rocks together. Still no results. The third thing he tried was a piece of glass and a pile of dry grass. It started smoking a few times but he couldn’t get it to catch. Frustrated, he set it aside and worked on something else.