1. Waiting

I sat on a bench in front of an abandon McDonalds, staring out into the vast Mexican desert. It wasn’t always a desert land, if fact in some places it had been green and luscious. Not to far away from Albuquerque were the red rocked Sandia Mountains which loomed over the town.

The sound of a car driving by startled me. It wasn’t that I’d never seen a car, but gasoline was scarce. Not only that, but expensive too.

Looking up I saw a once blue 2008 Honda Civic Sedan. Now it was covered in a decade’s time of rust. It shot down the road going about fifty-five miles per hour. I watched in fascination, as well as the other pedestrians around me.

“Would’ya look at that?” an older man said, staring at the car as it went past the McDonalds and took the corner sharply. The tires screeched loudly as the car turned onto the cracked street of San Pedro NE.

We watched the car until it disappeared behind Tingley Coliseum. I sighed as I looked up at the Friday afternoon sun, my eyes hidden behind a pair of white sunglasses. It still shone down on Earth, bathing it in immense heat. My skin was tanned; I looked at my watch. It was 2:28 PM. Reid should’ve been here by now.

“Hey kid,” Mr. Valentina said sitting down next to me. Mr. Valentina was an older man, with a kind face. He was Mexican, and was missing some of his black hair on the top of his head, and part of his left index finger. “Father not back yet?”

I shook my head. Reid was my father, and he had gone out several weeks ago with several other men from Albuquerque and went out on a raid for more food and other necessities. I hated it when he was gone. He was all I had left.

Mr. Valentina put his arm around me. “Don’t worry; he’ll be back safe and sound. I’m sure of it.”

“Thanks,” I said, folding my arms, pouting a little.

There was a long period of silence then: “You coming over for dinner tonight?” Mr. Valentina asked. “The boys like it when you come over.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m not doing anything else tonight. What’s for dinner?”

Mr. Valentina chuckled a friendly laugh, a guffaw that started from the bottom of his throat and crawled up to his mouth. “The misses is making some type meal with beans on tortillas.”

Great… beans. I hated beans. “Sound great. I’ll come around seven.”

He smiled. “Thanks kid,” he stood up and stretched his back. “Well, I’ll see you later.”

I watched him walk down the torn up sidewalk, and remained sitting there on the bench. What else was there to do? Suddenly the sound of people shouting and cheering caught my attention.

“They’re back! The raiders are back!”

In a flash I was off of the bench and running in the direction of I-40 off-ramp. There was a tattered off white Ford E-250 van and a Chevy pickup. The Ford had been modified and removed of all of its chairs in the back to make up for room. The back of the Chevy pickup had been filled with provisions that were covered with a brown tarp. A man hopped out of the Chevy pickup driver’s seat and closed the door. He had light brown hair, a short beard, and wore a black cap on his head. He smiled when he saw me.

“Kat!” he cried out, holding his arms out in a welcoming way.

I ran to my father and hugged him. Reid had called me my nickname. My real name was Kathryn. I planted my face into the jacket he wore and cried. He smelled of sweat.

Reid held me back and looked at me sternly in the face. “Hey, what’s the matter?” he asked. “I’m home…” he stared at what I was wearing; short jean shorts and a white tank-top. “I leave you alone for a couple of weeks and this is what I come home to? Kat…”

“Dad, the world’s not getting any cooler. I was hot today.”

He headed to the back of the Chevy and pulled back the tarp with another man I recognized as Stephen Milton. Underneath the tarp were several wooden crates I knew would have food inside. But something else caught my attention; there was an ammunition crate in the Chevy as well.

“We got weapons?” I inquired.

“Yeah, we got lucky,” Stephen announced. “There was some weapon dealer on the outskirts of Phoenix.”

I found a Ithaca Model 37 Slide Action Shotgun on the side of the trunk. Holding it carefully I examined the weapon. The pump action wood felt just as smooth as my skin. I ran my fingers across the muzzle of gun.

Then I realized what this meant. “We’re gonna strike back?”

“Soon,” Stephen said, hefting a large crate out of the pickup. “And we’re gonna get them hard. There’s a couple of dogs just north of here; about a hundred miles out. I think they’re heading west toward California.”

“What’s there?” I asked, lifting a smaller crate out of the pickup. Most of all the coastal cities had been flooded when the polar caps melted.

“Who knows?” Reid said, following behind us, carrying a crate as well. “Could be somethin’ to do with the cold ones; they’ve always hated each other.”

I cringed at those two words as if it I was shivering. “What do the cold ones look like?” I asked.

“Heard that they look just like humans, but a little paler,” Stephen answered, opening a door that led into a store. I walked in and went to a counter. “But don’t get near them—they’re bloodsucking monsters; and won’t give you a chance to run.”

I winced again. I knew why I flinched every time I heard about the cold ones, or even thought about them. When I was younger I was lucky enough to watch one of the last news reports in the world about a massacre in a city in Canada. The cold ones left no survivors. Well in a way they did—just not any remnant survivors.

Stephen set his crate down and looked around. Inside the old store were several men and women working. Other people brought in more crates behind us.

“Well, I gotta get going,” he said, nodding to me and Reid. “Evelyn’s probably worried sick about me now, and that baby’s due any time now.”

He turned around and headed back out the way we came. I noticed a pistol was stuck down the back of the jeans he wore. Once Stephen was out of the store Reid turned to me.

“I’m sorry Kat,” he said taking me into his strong hairy arms. “Stephen doesn’t know about your past…”

I broke into tears into his chest; that news report had taken its toll. Reid wrapped his arms around me and held me there.

After I had finished crying he looked at me and wiped a lone tear away on my right cheek. “You mm’k now?” he asked.

I nodded. “Just don’t leave me behind anymore.”

“I won’t,” he said quickly. I was surprised by his answer; usually he told me that I needed to act more grown up. “You’re going on the next raid Kat.”

Surprise washed over me when I heard his reply. Me? On a raid? “Really?” was I all could say.

He wrapped his right arm around my shoulder and pulled me out of the store. Reid took me to the Chevy and grinned like a fool. That was his smile, and I liked it. He looked so funny when he smiled like that.

“Close your eyes,” he said, opening the passenger’s side door. “I got somethin’ for you.”

I obeyed innocently, and raised my brows. I heard the door slam shut and Reid took my hands.

“Can I look now?” I asked.

“I have expected of you to have been peeking the entire time,” Reid said disappointed.

Opening my eyes, I saw his surprise. In his hands he held an dull green, off gray colored duffel. It was one of the ugliest things I had ever seen. There was a long leather brown strap attached to it, several pockets on the side and a zipper going across the top.

“Open it up,” he said gleefully, as if it were Christmas.

I took the ugly duffel and unzipped it. Inside was a portable CD player, including headphones. Several cracked jewel cases lay scattered across the bottom of the duffel including some extra batteries. When I looked back up at Reid, he was grinning his smile.

“Thanks dad!” I said. Finally I had something to fill up my boring afternoons. I took a jewel case and looked at it. I didn’t know the artist or any of the songs that were listed on the back.

He wrapped his arm around me again started to lead me towards home. I continued to look through the CDs. I found two artists that I recognized: Anberlin and My Chemical Romance. I wasn’t much of a fan of the latter one.

“So,” Reid said looking down at the jewel case that I held. “What are we gonna do tonight?” he asked, reaching into the duffel pulling out a CD, and looked at it.

“We are going to the Valentina’s for dinner. Mrs. Valentina is fixing beans and tortillas.”

Reid replaced the CD and gripped his stomach. “Suddenly, I don’t feel so good,” he joked. I laughed and poked his side.

“Sure dad; me neither.”

“Sounds like we’re having pizza instead,” he announced.

“No,” I objected. “Mr. Valentina would like it if we came. You haven’t talked to him for a long time.”

Reid agreed with me. “’K, we’ll go to the Valentina’s…” he muttered. “But I’m not eating any of that stuff.”

That night we walked to the Valentina’s, we walked everywhere. The Valentina’s house was on Osuna Road NE. It was a fairly small house, but bigger than our own. The walls were large masses of plastic sheets, which windows covered by towels. The door was actually a port-a-john, with the back and toilet removed from it.

Reid knocked on the door, and seconds later the sounds of two little boys cried out. “It’s Kat! It’s Kat!” they heard the boys shout.

A female’s voice hushed them as footsteps echoed nearer to the door. The red LOCKED switched to green and the door opened. Mrs. Valentina stood in the doorway, smiling sweetly. She was short and plumb, with her black hair tied up in a bun on the top of her head. Mrs. Valentina wiped her hands on the pretty pink apron with flowers all over it that she was wearing.

“Come in, come in,” she said, beckoning us in with her hands. “Dinner’s not quiet ready yet, so just take a seat and it’ll be done soon.”

Reid and I stepped in. I handed her a plate of cookies that we had brought for dinner. She smiled her sweet smile again and took the plate into the kitchen.

We stepped out of the port-a-john entrance and came into a living room, which connected to the kitchen where a frying pan sat on the top of a stove. There was a couch in the living room, along with two boys sitting on the floor, trying to act well. When they saw me, they jumped up and took a hold of my arms.

“Kat!” the youngest one said. His name was Matt. He was ten-years old, had short black hair like his parents, and very small fingers.

Abraham was the other boy, and he was thirteen. He had shiny black hair, that always looked greasy, and it was much longer than Matt’s; it reached down to his chin. “Kat, look what we did!”

On the floor was a five-hundred piece jigsaw puzzle. There was a picture of a city at night with bright lights all over it. The scene looked amazing.

“Dad says that’s Las Vegas!” Matt said excitedly.

“It only took us twenty minutes to do the puzzle!” Abraham exclaimed proudly. “I think we’re getting good at this stuff, Matt.”

I grinned. What else was there to do in this town but puzzles? The boys did them incessantly. “That’s amazing!” I commented. “It looks great.”

Mr. Valentina walked in from the hallway that ran into the living room. He looked at me and the boys then at Reid. He smiled.

“Reid!” he walked towards Reid and took him into his arms, embracing him. “You get back today?”

“This afternoon,” Reid said returning the hug. “How are you?”

It was like two best friends seeing each other after a long time. The two talked about the raid while I helped Matt and Abraham with a smaller puzzle. I wasn’t so good at puzzles myself.

When Mrs. Valentina announced dinner time I was placing the last piece of the puzzle on the ground. The picture showed a mountain on the Great Plains; clouds over the mountain were little wisps in the sky. A pair of coyotes stood at the base of the mountain looking around as if watching for something.

Matt and Abraham pulled me up and took me to the round table. They sat on either side of me, and took a hold of my hands. Mrs. Valentina sat next Matt, Mr. Valentina next to Abraham, and Reid between Mr. and Mrs. Valentina.

We lowered our heads and Mr. Valentina began to offer up a prayer. As he prayed my thoughts ran wildly through my head. Why God would you punish us in this cursed world? Why couldn’t you have just destroyed it, or caused a flood again?

“Amen.” Everyone said at the same time; except me. My hands were released as Mr. Valentina said, “Dig in.” He used both hands to point at the food in front of us.