It took nearly a month for Liz to get to feeling like herself. She got up one morning and was up and dressed before she realized she was anxious to face the day. She slid her hand over the slight swelling in her lower abdomen and smiled. Brian would be happy. She, like Will, had decided this baby would be a boy. Brian, like all other men, always wanted a son and they had talked about another child, but Claire had been so young.
Liz took a deep cleansing breath, opened the door, and left the room. She had gained almost six pounds according to Cassie at her last check-up. With the return to health, Liz began spending mornings in the garden while taking over some of the office tasks in the afternoon. There was a constant influx of scavenged materials and needs to be control and monitor storage and distribution. There were color codes, letter codes and even numeric codes. It all depended on who made the request, the current inventory and the trips planned outside the compound. The result was a large metal building nearly bursting at the seams. She was working on a supply wish list when an alarm sounded inside the house. There was someone at the drawbridge. Liz rushed to the front window where Cassie looked toward the gathering in the distance. “What do you see?” Liz asked.
Cassie passed Liz the field glasses she had been using. “It’s a pretty large group. Maybe three dozen people, men, women, and children. Some of the vehicles are pretty old and ratty looking..”
Liz pressed the glasses to her eyes. She adjusted the sight then watched as Will and eight men and four women roll up to the bridge in four pickups. Each of the residents were well armed with rifles and handguns as they exited the vehicles and took a defensive position behind their trucks.
The majority of the visitors had parked two hundred yards from the draw-bridge, while a single truck approached the opposite side of the arroyo.
“What do you want?” Will called out from behind the hood of his truck.
A large man with his left arm in a sling stepped out from the truck and stood clear of the vehicle with one arm raised. “I want to speak to the man in charge.”
“You got him.” Will yelled back impatiently.
“My name is Ben Nascha. We come to help build a community here.”
With a snort, Will answered. “Why would you think we would be doing that?”
“A man who lived at the Eagle Pass Reservation. A man known to Pablo Hernandez.”
“You know Pablo?”
“No,” Ben answered.
“If this man knows about this place why isn’t he talking to me?” Will snapped in response.
“He died. We were attacked by the cartel when they started moving north. They killed everyone and looted everything useable in their path. We had left only a few days before they made it to Eagle Pass.”
“I hate to hear that, but I still don’t know you.”
“Pablo will know of me. I am the brother of the man who died.”
“Maybe, but right now the best we can offer is a place to camp.” Will pointed at the trees in the distance.
“That’s understandable,” Ben answered.
Will started to walk away then turned back to add, “Living here is not a free ride, and we don’t take in the infected.”
Charlotte Hoaks. . . .(C. A. Hoaks) 