Fountain of the Dead Read Free Page A

her and Meredith. “Boys and their toys.”
    Micah turned hearing the soft steps approaching. He stood and hugged Sharon; the rifle strap rubbed against his cheek.
    “Excuse me a moment.” Catherine said and walked around the fire pit. The lawns in back of the pit were lined with gardens. The gardens had a ring of stones around them, scavenged from neighboring yards. The corn stalks were dried and piled to the side. Catherine absently crumpled a long brown leaf in her hand. The cabbage was still growing as were the potatoes and carrots. The next round of harvest would be radishes and green beans. What they didn’t keep would be traded in Boston for fuel and ammunition.
    “Shift over, Sharon?” Catherine asked returning to the fire pit. Sharon nodded and un-slung the rifle. She rested the stock on the ground while holding the barrel. “What’s on the menu?”
    “Everything is low, Catherine. I think we need a ‘shopping’ trip in the near future,” Sharon said.
    “Do we need to tighten our belts tonight?” Catherine asked. “I’m sure we’ll all survive if we miss a village meal and nibble on what’s in our houses.” Even though the “village” consisted of a dozen houses, almost everything was communal. Generators kept freezers and refrigerators running and the water flowing from the wells. There wasn’t much else in creature comforts. People adapted and learned to live without over the past several years.
    “I think that’d be best. Either that or the dry rations we found in that house bunker.” Sharon said. Catherine rolled her eyes and gagged. Dry rations meant biscuits from a box or dehydrated meals from the bag. Frank wandered back towards the car pulling the rag from his pocket, ready for round two with the Monte.
    “I think I’d rather eat peanut butter out of the jar then have dried rations,” Catherine said with a grimace.
    “That can be arranged,” Gerry tossed her a small jar of peanut butter. “Don’t have any bread, or jelly, but there’s enough left in there if you want. You’ll have to fight Sam’s hound off for that.” Beverly looked up sky and watched the big autumn moon. The sun was covered by clouds, staining them in reds and gold. It could have been a perfect autumn night, anywhere but there and then.
    “I have some left over jerky I’ll donate to the cause,” Frank said.
    “What flavor?” Micah scribbled on his board.
    “Squirrel, rabbit and deer.”
    “Just bring the deer!” Micah wrote.
    Tony stepped into the fire pit and covered the pavement beneath the logs with leaves and pine cones. He took a box of wooden matches out of his pocket, shook it to make sure something was still in there and then lit the leaves. The leaves crackled and turned brown; the bits of kindling started to smoke and soon flames danced across the logs.
    Catherine fished her finger around the inside of the jar, scooped out a gob of extra-crunchy peanut butter and passed the jar along. A basket of apples and pears appeared and made its way around the fire. More and more people came out as the flames got higher.
    “So what shall we chat about tonight?” Catherine asked reaching for an apple.
     
    * * * * *
     
    “ Why did you have me stop here? ” Frank asked. He looked through the passenger ’ s side window at the small road. A sign tacked to a tree read ‘ dead end. ’ He sat back in the driver ’ s seat and revved the car ’ s engine. Catherine sat next to him, fingers tapping on the dash board. She looked through the windshield, several undead staggered down the road towards the car.
    “ You run them over and you ’ ll kill this car, Frank. ”
    “ I run them over and I kill the car and them too. ”
    “We’ve been on the road too long, Frank. Do you think we can find another vehicle?”
    “They’re all over the road,” Frank said pointing through the glass. “Granted some have bodies baked inside and others are smashed up pretty bad. One of them has to