Apocalypsis 03 - Exodus

he said in his haughtiest voice.
    “Anyone else?” I asked.
    Everyone shook their heads.
    “Maybe tomorrow,” I said, yawning. “For now, I’m going to bed.”
    “This early?” asked Jamal.
    “Yeah. I’m exhausted.” I looked at the guys. “Are we going to do lookouts or guards?”
    “Buster will be our guard,” said Peter, lying down and pulling him close. “G’night guys.”
    Everyone settled in, and I indulged in a nice long kiss with Bodo.
    “I’m glad we finally made it here togedder,” he whispered.
    “Me too.”
    “And you luff me now.”
    “Yeah. I do.”
    “Good. You are Mrs. Bodo den.”
    “Whatever you say, Mr. Bryn.”
    “I’b aboud do gag on the sugar, guys,” said Winky.
    I kicked her gently with my foot. “Shush. I’m trying to sleep.”
    The last thing I remember thinking before I fell into a thankfully dreamless sleep was the fact that we’d finally found our safe haven.
    ***
    I sat up straight, yawning as I took in my surroundings. The lobby had a shimmer of light coming in from the rising sun. Everyone was still asleep, a couple of them snoring lightly.
    “Wake up, everyone!” I said cheerily. “The first day of the town of Haven has begun!”
    Peter sat up and rubbed his head. “Haven? I thought we were calling it Derek Mathis whatever.”
    “I thought about it and decided that Haven was more accurate. And easier to say and remember.”
    “What’s she saying?” said Jamal, sitting up and pushing on his brother. “Get up, Ronnie. Time to do the dirty work.”
    “She’s renaming the town again,” said Bianca. “But I like it, so I’m not complaining.”
    “Haven works,” said Gretchen, standing and stretching her long frame. She was bone-thin and much taller than I had realized before. She was no longer slouching or looking cowed, and it make me smile.
    She caught me staring and reached up to touch her hair. “It’s my hair isn’t it? I know, it’s terrible. This was Bianca’s brilliant idea.”
    “No, it wasn’t,” she complained, standing up too. She was a couple inches shorter than her friend. “It was Jenny’s idea and I just seconded it.”
    “Oh sure, blame it on the unconscious girl,” said Jamal.
    “I’m not unconscious,” came a soft voice. “Just resting my eyes.”
    I stood and nudged Bodo with my foot. “Come on, sleepy head. Let’s get this over with.”
    “Food first,” said Peter, dragging a backpack over to him. He pulled out a loaf of hard, stale bread. “Someone hand me a knife.”
    Winky sat up, moaning and holding her face gingerly. She took one hand away from her nose and reached into her boot, pulling out a knife and handing it over to Peter without looking.
    “Thank you,” he said, taking it and trying to slice the bread.
    “Give that to me before you cut your leg open,” said Ronald taking the bread and knife away. He put it on the blanket and sawed pieces off for all of us.
    We stood around crunching our old bread, smiling at each other.
    “Lap of luxury,” said Peter.
    “High style,” agreed Gretchen.
    “Better than caviar,” said Jamal. “I think. I’ve never had caviar before, actually.”
    We all laughed. It felt like a great start to a new day and a new life.
    After we all did our business outside, we came back together in the lobby and decided to travel as a group. Peter volunteered to stay behind with Jenny and all of our supplies. I made him take a gun and keep it in his lap.
    “You don’t need to kill anyone who comes to the gate. Remember, they can’t get over,” I said, looking at him closely, making sure he was paying attention to me.
    “But if they shoot at you, then you shoot back,” said Winky, her voice back to normal, now that the swelling in her nose was down a bit. Her face looked awful, but I was pretty sure her nose had been saved.
    “Yeah, yeah, okay. I got it. Just go see what you can find,” he said, waving us off.
    We started in the hallway to the left of the front desk area. In the beginning, we had to use keys, but most of the doors after the front section were open. They were the bar-type, the kind used to keep prisoners in their area. We passed room after room of sterile-looking spaces, all of them painted a weird green color, some of them empty and some with desks and chairs. A couple looked like waiting rooms. None of them had windows. The ones that looked like offices had thick wired glass separating them from the hallways.
    We went through a triple set of