Northern Exposure: The Divided Read online

  Chapter 9

  It was a cold morning, colder than any day I had experienced since being down in the bunker, well at least since I was awake. I could feel the tension in the bunker lingering around like an unwanted presence. Sharif and Smith sat in the corner conversing and Sky was not far from them with the children, who were clearly agitated with the damp confined space they had to spend their days cooped up in. As I rose from the mattress, I could feel there was something even more peculiar about this day than most. Then the tension which was building and building eventually reached its limits and was released in the form of an aggressive argument.

  ”You don’t understand Smith”. I heard Sharif raise his voice then silently regained his composure and reduced his tone gradually; he then started speaking again in a calmer manner. I walked towards them and took a knee were they sat.”Morning boy, glad you could finally join us.”

  ”What’s going on Smith?”.

  Our fierce leader had a worrying look upon his face; I knew it was something big; this was not your typical morning squabble. ”Supplies are down boy, we need to start scouting the surface for new stock and the closest reliable source of food to our current location is the SS mart about 15miles down the street.” Super Supplier Mart was a huge wholesaler, they stocked everything. There were racks upon racks of products from food to clothes, garden utensil and even live ammunition and hunting fire arms.

  ” We need to restock; and SS mart would be our best bet simple as that.” Sharif was not too pleased with Smiths plan though, his intentions were clear about travelling such a long distance top side. ”It’s too far Smith, this man-hole is the only one we know of which hasn’t been blocked up, that leaves us too vulnerable when we top side, with a 15mile walk exposed on the surface is nothing less than suicide!”

  Smith threw his tin dish against the wall in an outburst, oats splattered across the concrete. “Opposed to what Sharif?” “We stay here with no food, no gas, you’ll watch your children die in front of you rather than take a chance?”

  Fire burnt in the Arabs eyes.”Don’t you ever doubt my loyalty to my children! ”The tension was so thick you could slice through it, this was not one fight I would like to be part of! I hated when they fought, but honestly this was the worst they had ever fought since I was awake, I knew in a matter of seconds a punch was going to fly from either side, so I did the unthinkable.

  ”I’ll go “Both men took their attention off one other and focused on me.”Look guys I know the street I used to walk past the SS Mart to work every single day.’”I can do it” Smith shook his head,” No way there’s no way I’m letting you go. “”you may know the way but you don’t know the reapers well enough.”I’m not sending you to the slaughter kid” Smith wanted the family to go as a unit, we needed all three adults on the walk and as much man power as possible, and that would mean having to take the girls with us as well, they could not stay down there by themselves for such a long period.

  Then spontaneously she spoke up,” Smith I’ll take him, he’ll lead the way I’ll watch his back.”Sky was fearless she knew she had to risk it all to survive the new world but somehow I felt the reason she was so willing to lay her life on the line was for the girls. She had helped raise those kids and even though she was so young she had taken the responsibility of mother and protector over them, like any good mother she’d die for her children.

  Smith was now upright marching back and forth waving his hands in the air as he shouted, ”Both of you are clearly insane if you think I’m going to let you go.”This is a job for the entire group, not the two of you alone, are you insane to think that Il let you go by yourself, look no offence boy I’ve come to love you like a son, but do you even know how to hold a gun?” I sat in quiet shame, as Smith continued “Exactly what I thought, there is no way I’ll send you so far.”Smith had no interest in listening to our reasons his mind was made up.”Its final tomorrow afternoon Sharif and I will discuss the matter further, and then find the appropriate plan of action. Sky backed off, but in her eyes I could see she was not going to give up so easily.

  Night came and we all lie in bed, none asleep but ever so quiet, the only sounds heard were the chatters of the children as they lay next to each other quietly playing hand games, while trying to ease the hunger pains. The sounds of their giggles usually helped me fall asleep, it was the one thing which was a constant reminder of our humanity, it gave us reason to keep going every morning and not give up, and the innocence of a child was not all but lost in these rank dark times. Soon the giggles turned to snores and I got up went over towards them, brushed Zara’s hair out of Shahkierah’s face and covered them both with their blanket.

  As I lay in my bed with Smith by my side, I wondered if they had let us go, would we have succeeded. What if we did run into reapers would we manage to handle the situations? All these heavy thoughts put me to sleep.

  “Get up, get up...Cairo, Wake up...”As I turned to my side and wiped the sand from my eyes I saw Sky bent over, trying to quietly waken me.”Its time...you and I are going to the SS mart.”

  I knew it! I knew she would never give up that easily. She had the whole thing planned from the beginning of the conversation. I sprung up, grabbed my jacket, slipped on my boots and slowly made my way to the pile. I reached in and with the steadiest hand dug into the weapons pile. I pulled out the first thing I felt; it was an axe, long and sturdy, heavy though. Sky did an ammo check then placed her revolver into its holster around her hip.

  ”Let’s move” she signalled. Quietly we made for the man hole. Avoiding the tired bodies around us as we tiptoed past the children, I caught a glimpse of Zara’s innocent face and almost instantly all my fears were replaced with responsibility. These kids were no longer only Sharif’s kids, No, they belonged to all of us now and I had to do my best to ensure they stayed as healthy as possible. I dreaded thinking about what went through these poor girls’ head the day the rocks fell. Even though it’s been five years, I’m sure the image of their decapitated mother still haunts them.

  Shahiedah, Sharif’s wife was so pretty, a pity her head was left lying across the floor from her body. Once the rocks started hitting the building and the tremors became more violent, the metal fan which was attached to their ceiling became dislodged and spun across the room, until it found Shahiedah’s neck. Now it was up to us to honour her and I believed the best way in doing so would be to look after her girls as best we could.

  As we walked down the passage I did not say a word, not only for the fact that I was scared our echoes would wake the others, but because I could not come to find the right words to say to this intimidating yet beautiful women. For now I would not have to worry about impressing Sky, we reached the top of the man hole and all of our attention was turned to the unnerving task which lay ahead; slowly she removed the heavy lid. It was still dark outside and far in the distance the sun began to rise. As day broke the sun took its time lighting our way, ever so slowly creeping up from the shadows. We had a long walk ahead of us, and time was of the essence. The further we walked the more torn down the city looked. In the dark it was hard to see exactly what destruction was surrounding us but as the sun rose we saw the new baron wasteland we now lived in. By the time the sun had completely rose, we were about 5 miles down the road. With enough light to properly see our city, I could now assess the devastation which lay around me.

  The roads had been covered with dust and through the cracks tuffs of grass burst out, welcoming themselves to the new world. Weeds grew through abandoned cars windshields, wrapped themselves around their tyres, leaving most vehicles a cannoned shell of shrubbery and flowers. Street lamps had been rendered useless, not a single one functioning, they now stood like tall eerie reminders of our perpetual struggle to find light in this new dark world. From left to right, as far as the eye could see stood buildings destroyed; tall proud structures had now been reduced to rubble. The ones strong enough to withstand the brunt of the falling rocks were n
ow dusty and useless to their new environment.

  For me though the strangest site of all was seeing the foreign rocks scattered across the city. They came in all sizes; I looked from side to side at the array of different meteors, some as big as trucks, others as minuscule as a golf ball, hardly visible in its alien surroundings. The most bone chilling site though, was not the rocks, neither the torn down buildings, or deserted streets. The worst site was the hundreds of skeletons which covered the streets, like a blanket of decomposed bodies covering New York. I tried hard not to look down as I slowly stepped over them. It gave me complete shivers seeing the obvious terror plastered on their fleshless faces.

  We walked past an old structure which was very familiar to me; the building was the hub of the areas economical trade. I remember the bank so well, some days Id stand in those damn lines for hours waiting to do the restaurants daily cash up, drifting away into the scenery of aquamarine painted walls and the most annoying instrumental tunes playing lightly in the background.

  The building was now covered in cracks and over run by vegetation. The large bronze sign which once hung proudly outside was now covered entirely with rust. Money, lay scattered across the doorway, my instincts still drew me toward the cash, even though I knew it was worthless I felt such a need to gather as much as possible. I guess it was still embedded in our nature, after so many years we still lust for the small green notes. Sky cleared her throat, with the intention of snapping me out of my trace.

  She walked in front of me, her every being unintentionally taunting my manhood. From time to time I would have to redirect my eyes from her ass as her hips swayed left to right and her long auburn hair tumbled bouncing off her back, sweat run down the blades of her shoulders and shimmered in the light. I could walk behind her for days and just relish in the erotic images that imprinted my mind. Sky was no fool she knew what I was doing, she must have been used to guys staring, constantly chasing after her back in the old world. I personally would never have the courage to approach her back then, I got lucky with a girl as pretty as Layla, but Sky was harder she would not have been as easily actuated with my courage as Layla was.

  These days it was not as if there were any guys to chase after her, other than us. I often wondered if she suppressed her urges as I did, it was a constant battle trying to hold back from making inappropriate advances at Sky. I wondered how she felt towards me though. Surly she sometimes must have looked across the room, and thought about how it would be having me come and keep her warm under her blankets, to feel my skin on hers. To feel the warmth of a man’s touch, I mean after all I was the only one who was around her age and could not picture her having romantic feelings towards Sharif or Smith.

  “So where exactly are you from?” I tried making the faintest bit of small talk, in an attempt to keep my mind from wondering too far into the abyss, out here crazy was an easy thing to stumble upon and in no time your mind could get utterly lost in the thin line between reality and disillusion.”I’m from the east coast.”She was direct; to the point as if she was hoping I got the message and left her alone .It was only then that I realised the large gap between the two of us, we hardly spoke in the bunker, and to be honest I knew absolutely nothing about this quiet, yet so dangerous women. However I pushed on with the conversation, trying to bridge the gap between the two of us, not only that but I needed a sort of retreat from the eerie scenery which surrounded us.

  “What about family, what happened to them?”She turned to me and moved up close. I stumbled back in shock of her sudden response to my question.

  ”Listen, I know it seems like a good idea to make little chit chat, try settle your nerves, try ask the pretty vulnerable girl about her past, But there’s no time for your shit, stay focused and keep your emotions in check, or ill leave your ass here to become a reaper snack pack, you got that!”Like a scolded school boy I nodded, recomposed myself and continued walking in silence. I knew she was right, and her intensity was for a reason, she had been in reaper territory before and knew the dangers of being so exposed.

  The Supermarket was in site, the top of the store; all three floors were painted a bright green colour which was near to impossible to miss. Large glass panes ran around the entire ground level of the supermarket. Most the windows had been smashed by the rocks, and the few that were left had been painted dark grey from the years of accumulating dust. Outside the door which sat in the middle of the row of large windows was the old slop sided SS mart Sign hanging on for dear life, there were shopping carts and wrecked cars scattered throughout the abandoned lot. The paving had cracks going on for miles.

  Slowly we approached the doors which were now just frames as their shattered glass lie everywhere, nothing, not a sound, the silence brought relief to my ears. Such a contrast to the usual bustling of the busy supermarket I was familiar with. As we entered the door we were met by row upon row, isle upon isle of clothing, food, equipment, everything was there; it was like an apocalypse jackpot, a guide to survive the end of the world. I stood in awe of the bounty we had stumbled upon and even though the air was thick from the smell of rotting food and decaying corpse, it still felt like the closest thing to paradise I had felt in a while.

  Sky pulled out a little piece of crinkled up paper and began deliberating her orders” Listen Cairo, here is a list of all the items I need you to gather, make sure you burrow through all the shit lying around until you find every single item on the list!” be quick and be quiet, and don’t come back until you have found everything ON....THE...LIST!.”Am I getting through to you or do you need me to repeat myself?”

  I shook my head like a little school boy, scolded by his teacher. “What about you Sky, where you headed?”She turned to face me; her response was simple, she had a strange excited look on her face, “Guns!”

  Sky was heading straight to the hunting and fishing department of the store. She had her own list of items to collect, from hunting rifles to fishing rods she was doubtful she could find what she was looking for and if she did who’s to say any of the items would still be intact?, However she could barely control her overflowing excitement in hopes of finding even one gun which had not been wrecked or scavenged. She was truly in her element around guns and couldn’t get to the hunting section any faster. As I watched her disappear down the aisle I slowly unravelled the crinkled up piece of paper, So many items so little time.

  Grabbing a lopsided trolley I made my way down the ominous silence which was soon broken by the sound of the trolley wheel, to think even in the damn apocalypse nothing was more irritating than the sound of a squeaky SS Mart shopping cart.

  As I walked past shelf upon shelf I thought to myself how the hell am I going to find all this stuff in such bad lighting? Even with the sun shining bright in the sky, the shop was still as dark as night, if it wasn’t for my flash light Id be as lost as a mole in the daylight. But I figured the most practical way to get all this shopping done, was to separate all the items into groups and gather them together until I had found every last one, or heaven forbid; Sky would rein hell on me.

  ”Hmm let’s see, food should be the first priority.” I knew most the food we’d be eating would be in the tinned section, thank goodness for preservatives, without them we would have starved ages ago!’’ Shelves lay broken, tins scattered through the aisle; I was in the right place! A large rock from the fall, sat in the middle of the aisle, great! Now I’d have to climb this behemoth. As I dropped on the other side of the large rock I knew it would take some creative shopping to gather all these items. I got down low and started searching the floor for the goods Sky had written on the list. Everything was specific, except for the food that is, all Sky had written was canned food, I panicked, what if I brought the wrong food? If I messed up it would be the whole group that suffered. I started grabbing cans, looking for the items which were furthest from there expiry dates. I had to trust in myself and make the decision of what to take, there was no time to procrastinate, and every s
econd we waited was another second we put our lives in jeopardy. So I began grabbing what I could and tossed each item over the large rock into the trolley. Tinned soups, peas, sweat corn, noodles, soya mini hot dogs, pilchards, beans, corned beef and lastly a tin of spaghetti O’s. I could not overdo it had to ration what I took back, we would be the only ones carrying all the goods back so I had to make sure I was realistic in how much we could carry.

  Wiping my sweaty forehead, and thinking to myself, “Who knew shopping could be so challenging?”

  After loading up on food it was onto the next isle, Hygiene products and most importantly soap. I stored up on as many bars as possible; no one wanted to stay in the bunker with Smith after he hadn’t washed for a few days, “talk about ripe!”I also loaded up on toothpaste, body spray, body lotion, powder, antidandruff 2 in 1 Shampoo and Conditioner, both male and female razors, shaving cream and most importantly for our female companions as many different tampons I could get my hands on, poor little Shahkierah was spotting for the first time, and I could only imagine how awkward and uncomfortable she felt in our current living conditions. This time Shy was precise with what she wanted, I had to make sure I got every single thing she wrote, down, “If only she told me what size and type of tampons she wanted, as I stared at one of the pink boxes it was complete gibberish to me.

  Lastly was the medicine isle, and once again she was exact in what she wanted me to gather. She began with Gauze, definitely something we’d need; both gauze and bandages. Secondly Allergy medication, she wrote this in bold print, Sky and Smith were both prone to severe allergic attacks, mostly caused by all the dust in the sewer, they constantly battled and at night I would hear Smith swallowing countless times as phlegm dripped from his sinus cavity into his throat. The next item to me was honestly the most important in an environment where bacteria thrived, antibacterial creams would be a necessity, a small cut could soon become infected and end your life. The rest were fairly easy to find, flu medication for those cold winter nights, Kiddies vitamins for the girls and lastly laxatives for Smith, some nights it would sound like a pig being slaughtered outside when he went to relieve himself, the poor man’s stomach still hadn’t adapted to our precarious diet.

  Eventually I was done, after an hour of gathering all our essentials I had scavenged everything Sky had written down. I started making my way back to the entrance of the store, where I would meet Sky before heading back to the sewer. But I thought to myself, “Wait, when will I be coming back here?” “When Will I get the opportunity I have now, I had to take it with both hands and make sure I did what’s best for the group.” So I headed over to the kids section as fast as I could, how could I go home without getting gifts for everybody? The more time we kept occupied and out one another’s hair the better our relationships would cope. I had Sky’s stern voice running through my head, she would definitely not be too impressed but I had to do this. Clearly she felt different, “Just essentials!”

  First and foremost was the girls, as I searched through all the broken toys I looked for something in relatively good enough playing condition, Then I spotted her, she was standing ever so proud, with the long blonde hair, and the cutest sparkly evening gown, still in her box tightly sealed. I grabbed the Barbie doll in such haste you could swear it was black Friday and I was a narcotic soccer mom trying to get her baby the last doll on the shelf! This would be great for Zara, but Shahkierah was more into academic material, opposed to your plastic play things. The little girl loved to stimulate her mind so I knew I was definitely in the wrong section if I wanted to find something she would like. Or was I, under all the broken doll heads, red fire trucks and soccer balls I saw a box, with a game I knew she’d love. I kicked away the other toys and lifted the scrabble box from the floor. This was awesome, not only would she enjoy it, but it would give everyone a bit of relief and more importantly a good helping of mental exercise. Next were gifts for Smith and Sharif, the presents I had in mind were on opposite sides of the store so now I’d really have to hustle if I wanted to make it back on time, or Sky would have my head.

  What would be more fitting than a brand new machete for Smith, I diced over to the gardening section and found a bunch of then, I grabbed the large steel blade and threw it in the shopping cart with the rest of the stuff” for Sharif, I chose a book, he had told me about the author many times and how he used to sit on Saturdays with a jug of ice tea and read his novels back to back. So I searched the large book section of the store until I found the criminal law section and eventually there it was Joe Williamson, Lost lawyer “fictional advocate series, the latest edition.’’

  Now all I had to do was get a gift for Sky, she too had read all the literature in the bunker, so I thought a book would be a good gift for her as well. I searched high and low, but there was nothing I presumed she would like which was still in well enough reading condition. Then in the corner of my eye I saw the most gorgeous bracelet glimmering from underneath a heap of rubble and books. I knew I had to get it for her; even though she was so tough on the outside, she was still a woman on the inside, and appreciates the finer things in life, such as beautiful jewellery.

  Slowly I swept the dust with the palm of my hand and tossed away the books which concluded it. As I pulled the bracelet what followed startled me. An arm with no body attached. I dropped it in shock. Standing there just staring I knew I’d have to man up and unclip it, so I held my breath, Why I have no idea, there was not even the faintest of smell. So I grabbed the arm which looked as if it had been gnawed clean off just under the elbow, and unclipped the beautiful bracelet. In excitement I punched the air like a young kid then realised,” O shit I’m late’’.

  Thankfully I had not kept Sky waiting; she too was on her way to the exit as we met in the middle of the store. Sky had her own separate trolley; however hers wasn’t filled with canned food and toiletries. No she was pushing around a small arsenal, like an overly excited kid she began explaining her little wagon of destruction. She pulled each gun out and handed it to me for a feel. I had no clue how to handle most of them but tried to not make a complete fool of myself. ”twelve gauge pump action, this baby can stop a reaper dead in his tracks, separate its head from its body if you want to. 9mm berretta, special with scope, for those modern day hunters who are too lazy to use a cross bow or rifle, I got two of these babies, lastly but by far definitely not least we have here an Ultimate .308 long range hunting rifle, cameo pattern baby, Woop Woop!.”

  Wow this girl clearly knew what she was talking about. By far this was the most emotion I had seen Sky show since we had met, she was smiling from ear to ear and I could see a sparkle in her eyes.”So that’s a shotgun, two hand guns and a huge hunting rifle, not forgetting the boxes and boxes of ammo as well I’d say she done pretty well, considering this place must have been looted a hundred times already.”