We finished cleaning up the Inn and re-fortifying it rather quickly. Whatever the military had been doing here, they’d left the place in pretty good shape. By the time the sun set all 23 women and girls were settled in.
While we were clearing the Christmas Tree Inn out, they’d been clearing out and organizing the crazy hoarders house where I’d found the pig. They found a huge stockpile of rum and several cases of wine and beer bottles in a crawlspace in the cellar.
Brave girls. No way in hell would ever investigate a crawlspace. No way. Not for anything. I suppressed the shudders and goose bumps that the image of being stuck in such a tiny space with a zombie produced with copious amounts of hot rum toddies.
Sitting on a cushion in front of a roaring fire in a nicely decorated room was a little surreal. But nice. The fire and the alcohol and Annie’s tiny body on my lap all conspired to lull me to sleep. I started to drift off, content to listen to the sound of human voices in hushed conversations all around me.
“No…no he REALLY did! Didn’t he Liz?” Billy’s insistent voice yanked me out of the beginnings of a very pleasant dream so I glared at him a little muzzily, trying to be as threatening as possible. It probably didn’t work. He just grinned at me.
“Who did what Billy?” I growled at him. Or at least I tried to. Even I could tell that I just sounded sleepy and cranky rather than scary. Annie burbled and squirmed in her sleep, making me smile.
“He had a metal plate in his head!” Billy’s voice practically dripped amusement all over the damn place. “He had a metal plate in his head and Liz was just freaking the fuck out, screaming like a scared little girl.” He laughed, the women laughed, Jason snickered and even Sarge chuckled a little.
“Oh please. You damn pissed your pants.” I rolled my eyes and hunched my shoulders. Shooting Billy a disgruntled glance I reached out for the diaper bag and plotted my revenge.
“And it was not funny.”
Just as the entire room erupted into laughter, at my expense, I handed a screaming and stinky Annie to Billy with a scowl. It really was funny. Even I had to admit that it made a damn good story. But there was no way in hell I was just gonna let him make fun of me without some form of vengeance.
Bright yellow-green slimy liquidy diapers were just about perfect for minor vengeance. It was my turn to smile while Billy swore and made faces. He was almost done changing her diaper when Annie smiled up at him, all angelic and cute. And then peed all over him.
This time when the entire room erupted in laughter it was at Billy’s expense. Ha. Life wasn’t so bad.
Breakfast the morning was surprisingly good. Jason and Molly supervised the cooking and handing out of food. Powdered eggs, real bacon (real bacon!) and hot coffee with lots of sugar and creamer. Yum. Just plain yum.
I took the time to enjoy the meal, lingering over my cup of coffee until it was cold. Only one cup per person per day. But it was so good. I tried to make it last as long as I could.
Sarge joined me at the tiny table for two. He spent a few minutes looking out the small slit in the boarded up window at the ocean before he dropped a bomb on me.
“They’re all dead I expect.” Sarge’s gravelly voice was low, almost inaudible. “The people on Squirrel Island. They’re all dead. Or gone. When the Colonel pulled out of here, he went there to round up survivors. There was a refugee camp in Round Pond. “
“Huh?”
“The soldiers that were here. They left and rounded up everyone they could find. There hasn’t been any word. No chatter on the radio. They’re all dead.” Sarge didn’t look at me. “You need to pick 4 people to go with you to Round Pond and find out what happened. We need to know if it was the Dead. Or something else.” Sarge’s voice was so low I had to lean forward to hear him.
“Sarge…Round Pond is pretty far away now. What used to be a 20 minute drive could take us days. And…” I stopped and looked over at Annie in the baby swing we’d found. She was kicking her heels and blowing enthusiastic spit bubbles at The Pooh on the top of the swing.
“Liz there are almost two dozen women here who can look after her. You’re going. You’ve got 2 hours to pack and pick a team. You need to leave before the storm rolls in.” Sarge picked up his own coffee and left me sitting there, stunned.