End of the Line (Book 2): Stuck in the Middle (3 page)

             
“What’s going on?” Tanya asked when she saw us. “Where’s Jim and Grace?”

             
“They’re fine. We found a kid—a teenager,” I explained.

             
“He okay?”

             
“He’s a little weird,” Mike explained. “He might be crazy or just in shock.”

             
“He doesn’t seem violent, just terrified.” The more I thought about it, the more I didn’t want to leave Keith alone, even at a secure house. “We thought you might come back with us and meet him.”

Tanya looked startled which was unusual for her. Ever since Rachel’s death she’s become almost a different person. Before this she would have never shown any fear.

              “What do you think, Mike?”

             
“I’m not sure,” he said. “Like Annemarie said. He doesn’t seem violent, only scared.”

             
“And what about you, Annemarie.”

             
“I think he’s in shock. He didn’t attack us. He looked like a wounded animal.”

             
“Wounded animals attack.” This came from Dave. “Tanya, you better check him out. I don’t want a fucking nut job here. Remember that woman who infected that kid? This is a small space. We don’t got a place to keep him secure.”

             
“What does Jim think?”

             
“Jim’s an optimist,” Mike said. “On one hand Dave could be right, on the other hand it’s going on winter and he looks like he’s at wits end.”

             
“I’ll take him only if he gets an escort,” Tanya said. “And we can set him up in that big storeroom downstairs for now. It locks from the outside.”

             
“I’ll do it,” Dave volunteered.

             
“No,” I couldn’t believe what I was saying. “I’ll do it. He seems more open to talking to me.”

             
“Settled, then,” Dave looked relieved. He liked to act as security chief but I don’t think he really wanted the job. “Annemarie. You keep an eye on him. He start really acting crazy, you let me know. You don’t pretend you don’t hear it. Okay?”

             
“We don’t want any trouble,” Dave added even though Tanya was clear.

             
Keith was quiet on the ride to the boat. It took two trips to get all the supplies aboard. I don’t know about Mike, but I felt like a Popsicle.

             
Mike had already dropped off Jim, Grace and most of the supplies. Now we were bringing Keith and the last bag. This time Mike turned on the motor. It was getting colder as evening started to settle in. I don’t know how we were going to survive the winter. I imagined someone in the future finding our frozen corpses. It’s only early December. What’s it going to be like in the dead of winter?

             
We reached the boat and I saw Dave looking over wearing one of the ski jackets we liberated. He frowned either because of Keith and for using the motor but he had the luxury of going inside where it was practically balmy.

             
He threw down the ladder when we got there. Mike tied up the dinghy and tossed the last bag up to Dave. He motioned for me to climb. I grabbed the ladder and put my foot in the bottom rung when I slipped. I held on to the ladder for dear life.

             
“Shit,” I said holding up to the ladder. My boot and the bottom of my jeans dipped into ice water. I attempted to pull it up but was having trouble finding the rung.

             
I felt Mike grab my leg and right it.

             
“Thanks.”

             
“Just climb up,” he said, his voice annoyed.

             
I did what he asked. This time with no slipping. I got to the deck and inspected my boot. It felt cold at the edge and saw my pants bottoms were soaked. I was cold and wet and wanted a hot shower. We were allowed either a 2 minute shower 3 times a week or 5 minute shower two times a week. Hot showers don’t happen, only lukewarm, but it would have to do. The boat had two water tanks. One filled with rainwater for bathing, the other we filled with bottled water for drinking. The rainwater had a filter but it sometimes had a strange smell. I didn’t care. God knows what chemicals got released, what nuclear power plants melted down. The lack of cars made the air cleaner but the fires no one could put out just made it worse. We couldn’t win.

             
“Dave,” I said. “This is Keith.”

             
“Behave,” Dave said, pointing at him.

             
Keith raised his hands. “Not here to make trouble, sir.”

             
Dave seemed to like being called sir. I motioned Keith to come inside. Figured I’d drop him in front of Tanya and then get changed.

             
I spotted Dena on the bridge alone. Her 16 year old face looked pissed. Possibly she could no longer use the storeroom as a respite. I think she had planned to take over the space herself since it was getting too cold to sleep in the enclosed deck.

             
Tanya looked up but didn’t stand when we came in.

             
“Tanya, this is Keith.”

             
“Good to meet you ma’am.” Tanya laughed. It was the first time I seen her do it in a while.

             
“No need to call me that. Tanya’s fine.”

             
Behind us Jim and Mike came in with supplies and started stowing them.

             
“Not a lot of privacy here,” Tanya said. “So expect everyone to know your business, Keith. No secrets, got it?” I wonder if she realized I knew about her and Dave.

             
Keith looked startled but didn’t say anything.

             
“And we got two big rules and a bunch of little ones. The big ones are you work hard and you don’t be a pain in the ass. Work for you?”

             
“Yes, m—Tanya.” Keith seemed a little more coherent. Maybe being around other people was already helping him.

             
“Tanya, I’m going to shower and change and then I’ll show Keith around.”

             
“No problem, Keith and I will have a nice chat about the rules.”

             
I walked to the aft side of the boat to the small cabin I shared with Henry. He was there, using the remaining light of the day to read a manual. Keith reminded me a little of Henry who was gangly but taller. Keith seemed more awkward. 

             
I rarely see our people
reading fiction but I still do, to escape to a better
world.

             
“Hey, Annie,” he said, a nickname he gave me that I didn’t really like but never corrected. I was surprised he didn’t come with us today since he was prone to sea sickness.

             
“Getting changed,” I said, showing off the wet cuff on my jeans. “Got my leg wet.”

             
“No worries,” he said. He didn’t seem to notice that I hadn’t been sleeping next to him as much or we were having less sex. We never talked about having a relationship. I told him I wanted sex and someone warm to be with. He thought that was cool. Everything to him was cool.

             
I didn’t mind changing in front of him. I took off my boots and put them in the tiny closet. I took off my jeans and the leggings underneath. The area that got wet was red and cold to the touch, but didn’t look like frostbite. It hadn’t been in the water long. I hoped to get another day of use out of the jeans and leggings. We washed our clothes in rainwater but we tried to wear things for as long as possible. I put the pants to dry in the cargo net above the bed. Maybe I could wear them again without washing.

             
I took my shirt, bra and panties off. I put on a man’s blue robe and went to the shower in the master suite. Brie was playing checkers with Simon.

             
“Hi Annemarie,” Simon said. “Who’s the new guy?” Simon had been a quiet kid because he witnessed his family got murdered by his zombie mother, and then he lost Eli, Rosa and Maddie who acted as surrogate parents. Finally Mike and Hannah had given some kind of stability and he began talking more. He was 10 but acted younger, with sandy hair and large haunting green eyes. He was a good kid, did what was asked but he always seemed terrified.

             
“New guy!” Brie yelled. She got up and ran to me. “Anniemarie! Did you get candy?” Unlike Annie, I didn’t mind Brie calling me Anniemarie. It was adorable. Brie was five and unlike Simon was fearless. She used to be shy and withdrawn but as she moved from toddler to child, she started being more brazen. She had lovely brown eyes and a tan complexion, probably Hispanic, but we wouldn’t know. Abe found her when she was three wandering the streets in dirty clothes.

             
“We got plenty already, but we did get you a coat.”

             
Brie looked disappointed. We took a ton of candy from Costking, and the kids got a couple of pieces a day, so I don’t know what she pouted about.

             
“Is the new guy cute?” she asked instead. I don’t know where she learned that, probably Dena.

             
“He’s name is Keith. He’s a little scared but he seems friendly. You should both be nice to him.” I gave a big smile to both kids. Brie smiled in returned.

             
“I’m glad,” Simon said, his voice low. He didn’t smile but at least now he talked.

             
I went into the bathroom. We only used this one even though the boat had three because it was the biggest and easiest to maintain. It even had a tub. It never got used except when I found Dena in it, curled up in a sleeping bag.

I put on hot but not cold. All I would get was lukewarm. The solar panel kept limited electricity running including the water heater, but it was on the lowest setting to conserve energy.

I walked in, let the warm water cover me, I smelled chlorine, but ignored it. I added a little soap. I counted to 100 then rinsed. I didn’t want to leave but I knew I had to. The shower time wasn’t enforced. I’m sure some people took less time, most probably took a few seconds more, but never that much. We knew we all had to ration and sacrifice to survive. We were all good soldiers.

             
Sometimes, I wanted off this boat. I didn’t want to be alone, but I couldn’t imagine living here forever. If we lived in a house we could have a field of basins to collect water. We can set up solar panels. We could heat bathwater. This boat wasn’t meant to be off the grid for so long especially in winter.

             
I dried off, hung the towel over the shower doors. We used everything until it stank. I hadn’t washed my hair, just soaped up and warmed my body a little. I put my robe back on. Didn’t want speak again to Simon and Brie on the way out but Brie called out. “See you later, Anniemarie.”

             
I tried to put on a smile. “Bye kids.”

             
Henry gave up reading because the sun was going down. He had lit a lantern but he was lying back with his eyes closed. The boat was rocking gently. I knew the anchor was out and we were in for the night.

             
“You feeling okay?”

             
“Yeah,” he said. “A little nauseous, but no big deal.”

             
“I have to deal with Keith, show him around.”

             
“Sounds cool.”

             
As I said, everything was cool with him.

             
I got dressed in my night clothes: thermals, pajama pants, a tee-shirt and a flannel night gown over it. I looked like a deranged Victorian. I brushed my ginger hair. Jim cut the ends once a month. I used to hate ginger jokes but now I missed them, I missed the internet and everything, good and bad—well maybe not bad.

             
I walked back to the salon. I knew the way without lights but dim lanterns illuminated the floor.

             
Jim sat at the table, talking to Keith. I was surprised that Tanya was no longer at the table. He had a mug of something hot in front of him but Keith didn’t. Three lanterns were lit and on the table. We had a lot of lanterns and flashlights. The solar panel in the back of the ship could turn on flood lights at night if needed but we didn’t sail at night.

             
“Hi Keith. Jim getting you up to date about the workings here?”

             
“Yeah,” he said. “I don’t know if I have any skills.”

             
“Don’t worry. There’s a lot of down time. Jim will make you a schedule. You’ll learn how to sail and maybe shoot. You can help cooking and cleaning.”