Apocalypsis 04 - Haven

everything he needed to manage our garden.
    “So what’s next?” Jamal asked, leaning on his shovel, sweat pouring down his face.
    “We have to move the ashes to the grave,” said Ronald. “And it ain’t gonna be pretty either.”
    “Do we have time to do this today?” I asked, looking at the sky. Dark clouds were gathering in the distance, and a rumble came several seconds after a flash of lightning.
    “It’s going to rain,” said Yokci, following my gaze. “Maybe we’d better do it tomorrow.”
    “Tomorrow works for me,” said Flick, climbing out of the hole we’d dug. It had several feet of water in it and smelled very swampy. Flick was covered in muck and didn’t smell much better than I did.
    Derek walked over and stood next to me. “What do you think? Try and beat the rain or give up for today?”
    “I say we give up for the day.” I was riper than ripe now and wanted to take advantage of whatever downpour we might get to shower. “Let’s set up some water collection before the rain comes.”
    “I think Peter’s already on that,” said Jamal, pointing to a small group of kids off in the distance. They were crouched over something on the ground, and a large tarp had been positioned near a downspout coming from the roof.
    I smiled. I could always depend on Peter. “Good.” I faced the digging crew. “Okay, everyone. Let’s call it a day.”
    Sighs of happiness came from everyone standing around and a couple diggers laid down on their backs. I walked over to the nearest one and nudged him on his arm with my toe. “Rob, did you guys bring anything that could be used as a shower thing?”
    “Nah,” he replied, staring up at the sky. “We didn’t have time. We had to get the hell out of there before we got our asses beat any worse.”
    I sat down next to him. “So what exactly happened, anyway? I probably should have asked before now, but I’ve been so busy worrying about these damn corpses I couldn’t deal with anything else and not lose my mind.”
    “Well, they jumped us, basically. Some of us stayed and fought, but the rest just scattered into the swamp. I know most of them were running to the ranches, setting up to defend the cattle and stuff. I don’t think the canners had enough manpower to deal with the whole group of us, though. I think our people will be okay at the ranch. At least for a while. Some of them will probably go back to the swamp after the canners have cleared out, but it’s hard to say.”
    “But can they stay there indefinitely? At the ranch I mean?” I had never been to the ranch and had no idea what it even looked like.
    “Maybe. There are three of them, and they’re all basically out in the open. We’d set up some small towers so we can look out and try and keep an eye on any people approaching, but if the canners come at night, those towers are useless. The dogs are a little help with warnings and stuff, but it’s not like here.”
    “So what are they going to do?” I was stressing now about the idea of my friends losing their lives and also the cattle being turned into barbecue dinners. The idiot canners didn’t seem to realize that food could be renewable if they just left some of it alone. They were like eating machines.
    “I have no idea. We told them to come here. I think that’s what they’ll eventually do if they can.” He sighed heavily, looking over at me. “I think we need to go back … to see what happened and do what we can to get people over here.”
    I felt sick. “You’re right. We need to do that. And sooner rather than later.”
    Rob sat up. “You mean that?”
    “Of course I mean it. What kind of an asshole do you think I am.”
    Rob smiled humorlessly. “No one would blame you one bit if you told everyone out there to go to hell.”
    “Don’t be stupid. Just because Kowi and Trip had to make a hard decision I didn’t agree with, it doesn’t mean that we’re suddenly enemies. This world is too nuts to draw lines in the sand like that.”
    “You’re more generous than most would be, I think.” Rob stood and offered me his hand. “I’d probably tell them to suck it if they came back to me after rejecting me.”
    I took his hand and got on my feet. “No you wouldn’t. You’d forgive them too. My dad always told me that true friends were hard to come by, but even true friends make mistakes sometimes.”
    Rob walked with me back to the lobby. “Your dad sounds cool.”
    “The coolest,” I said,