Apocalypsis 04 - Haven

CHAPTER ONE

    SEEING THE HUGE GROUP OF stragglers coming into Haven was so overwhelming, I was grateful that Bodo carried me out and sat me down off to the side. I needed a few minutes to gather my wits and wrap my head around the idea that I was now responsible for five times as many people as I had been before.
    Maybe I shouldn’t have felt so pressured. We were all responsible for ourselves, really. But I knew they were looking to me for direction. I had to accept the fact that for at least the next few weeks, I was going to be in charge here - the mayor of Haven, kind of. Hopefully we’d get some form of government put in place soon that didn’t involve me being a dictator or a chiefesse as Fohi liked to call it.
    “Are you ready to go back out dare now?” Bodo asked, searching my eyes, probably worried I’d finally gone completely over the edge.
    “Yes, I’m ready. Bring it on.” I stood, leaning on Bodo a little, not quite ready to be without his strength.
    Peter stepped into the small alcove where Bodo and I had been resting. “Hey, Bryn. How are you feeling?” He rubbed my arm and searched my face like Bodo had.
    “I’m good. Don’t worry about me. I just needed a little breather, that’s all. Let’s do this.” All those people were out there waiting, and I didn’t want them wondering what the heck was going on with me. All I needed was a group of people doubting my ability to hold it together when we were just in the beginning stages of a massive reconstruction of our lives. They had to know they could count on me to hold it together, even when the doo was hitting the fan. Each minute that ticked by, I had more and more respect for the Amazon chicks that we’d met back by the coast. They were already at least ten steps ahead of where we were in this abandoned prison surrounded by barbed wire and fences.
    “What do you want to do first?” asked Peter.
    I sighed heavily. “I don’t know. Talk to everyone? Start making plans for moving those corpses out of the fridge? Hand out new clothes? Set up showers? Plant a garden?” The sheer immensity of our task was already blowing my mind.
    Peter snapped his fingers in my face in a zig zag pattern. “No. No. No. No. You are not going down to crazytown right now. Baby steps, and I only need step one right now. Give me step eighty-five tomorrow.”
    I had to smile. “Am I really that bad?”
    “Yes, you really are. Stop acting like this is all on you, okay? You have me and Bodo and everyone else out there ready to not just lend a hand but to decide what needs to be done.”
    Bodo frowned. “You are talkingk about dat ruling by committee stuff, und I can tell you dat it doesn’t work very good. It will be taking too much time to make any decisions.”
    “No, I’m not talking about ruling by committee. I think for now Bryn should be the ultimate decision-maker.”
    “I agree,” I said, “but within a couple weeks, I want to have a more formal arrangement that doesn’t have me at the helm. At least not alone.”
    “You have to be da one,” said Bodo, pushing gently on my shoulder to angle me towards him. “Efreyone dat came here did it to be with you. They are counting on you. Dat’s a lot of pressure, but like Peter said. We are helping.”
    Even this was too much to figure out right now. “Whatever. What should I do now, helpers? Because I feel like putting a list of everything we need to do on the wall and then throwing a dart at it.”
    “Do we have darts?” asked Peter.
    I rolled my eyes up to the ceiling. “I smell. I’m cranky. And I will come over there and smother you with love if I have to.”
    Peter held up a hand in surrender. “Say no more. I live to do your bidding. Just please, no love smothering.”
    “If you want to know what I think, I will say we shouldt move dose bodies out really fast. Maybe dey have diseases or da virus, and we don’t want dat to be a problem here with all dese peoples.”
    Peter nodded. “He’s right. And maybe a couple kids from the new group will be able to help us move the bodies out, too.”
    “I doubt that,” I said, moving to leave the alcove. “Did you see them? They’re barely alive, some of them.”
    We came around the corner, and I almost bumped into Ronald.
    “Oh, hey, Bryn. You okay? I was just coming back to see what I could do to help.” He flashed me his pearly whites. I was so jealous of that smile. My teeth felt totally furry right now.
    I put my hands on his