Blue Amps, Crimson Volts
Chapter 7: Growing Hope
Turns out, the girl lived in the massive building by ground zero. It was mangled and leaning dangerously to one side, but that was just anything pretty much above the second and third floors. She went into the building and left the door open for me. I walked in a few seconds later and she shut the door behind me.
"Did you get wet, Cole?" She asked.
"My feet yeah, but that was unavoidable." I stated. I lowered the rain jacket, keeping the wet side away from me. She took the jacket into the building and walked down the hall. I followed her. Now that there wasn't a water issue, I followed a bit closer.
"Nobody else really lives here." The girl stated.
"No I would think not." I stated. "This building is practically falling down."
The girl shrugged. "It was the last place I could find. I didn't really want to live on the street if you know what I'm saying."
I nodded. I knew what it was like to have a place to call home. Shame I didn't have it anymore.
The girl shoved open a door and walked inside. It was a relatively big apartment for her alone, but the amount of junk she had collected made it seem a lot smaller.
"What's all this?" I asked, gesturing to the piles of what I thought of as trash stuffed into corners.
"I'm trying to salvage as much as I can." She stated. She hung up the wet jacket on the back of a rickety old chair. "You never know when you might need it."
"I don't know what you could do with five busted televisions, but okay."
She laughed. "I was thinking about salvaging them for parts. You know, in electronics there's usually a bit of gold in it."
I nodded. "That's true." I kicked off my shoes and pulled off my socks. My electricity wasn't going berserk, but I wasn't taking any chances. The bottoms of my pants were a little bit wet, but it wasn't bothering me much either.
The girl pulled off my sweater. "I'll hang this up for you."
I nodded. She hung the sweater over another chair, making sure it could dry properly. I kicked my shoes over into the same general area.
She laughed. "Throw your socks on there as well."
I smirked and spread my socks out on the seat of the chair. "Thanks." I said without really thinking about it.
"Oh, no problem." She said with a smile. "Can I get you something to drink? Are you hungry?"
"Aren't we all hungry?" I asked.
She smirked. "Yeah I guess so. I'll take that as a yes?"
I shrugged.
"I was going to eat too anyway, so don't feel bad for asking for food." She stated. "After all...Aren't we all hungry?"
I gave her a slightly annoyed look.
She laughed. "Just take a seat anywhere. Make yourself at home. I'll be right back."
She left the room and I sat down on the couch that was filled with holes. Some of it was charred in places too. I couldn't believe it hadn't disintegrated from the Blast. Then again, it had this mega-tough building to protect it. You know a building is tough when it splits right down the middle and balances itself at a twenty-degree angle on the last few remaining pieces of concrete and rebar.
The girl came back in with two plastic glasses of water and set them on the small table beside the couch.
"Do you want a straw, or will you be okay drinking from a glass?" She asked with a wry grin.
"Okay, enough of the water jokes." I stated. "Yes, I'll be fine. A little water doesn't matter. Just as long as I don't get drenched, I'm fine."
She nodded and left the room again. When she came back in, she handed me a smashed up apple and sat on the couch beside me. She had one that was equally as smashed up, so I figured we were even.
I bit into the apple and tried to ignore the horrible taste. Just as long as the apple wasn't black, it was edible. It may have been brown and gross, but I had to eat something. A quick glance at the girl told me she was having the same problem.
I reached over and grabbed one of the glasses, holding it out to her by the rim.
She looked at me and snapped up the cup quickly, washing the bad apple down with warm water.
"Thank you." She sighed. "I don't suppose you could reverse apple rot?"
"I wish." I stated. I took another tentative bite out of the apple and nearly threw up. I had bitten into a black area in the middle. I spat it out into my hand and gagged.
"Sorry, Cole! If I had known the apple was bad I wouldn't have given it to you!" The girl stated.
I shook my head. "It's not your fault. If yours is still completely good, I'd be stunned. Pretty soon all of the food is going to be rotten."
The girl sighed. "Yeah. I know."
"Still, I think these apples would make a swanky apple sauce."
She laughed. "Swanky?"
"Got a knife somewhere?"
She nodded and headed for what I assumed was the kitchen. She came back with a knife and handed it to me.
"Thanks." I began to cut the apple, figuring out just how much rot there was inside. Thankfully there wasn't much. It was just a small area of it. I cut the rot out and proceeded to continue slicing the apple. Small bites worked wonders. That's all I really knew.
"That's not a bad idea, actually." She got back up again and came back with a second knife. She began attempting to cut her own apple.
"You're going to cut yourself if you do it like that." I told her.
She looked up at me for a second and changed her grip, using her knee as a cutting board instead of attempting to copy my technique. I nearly laughed, thinking that as soon as she cut it, both halves would go AWOL before she could blink. She seemed to pick up on this and held onto the top of the apple while she finished the cut.
"Why are you so good at that?" She asked.
I shrugged. "My dad was a cook."
"Cool. Where is he now?"
I stuck a small piece of apple in my mouth. "Somewhere else." I stated.
She frowned.
"Not in Empire City, that's for sure."
"Where is he then?"
I shrugged. "Probably somewhere in America with my mom. They had gone out on a trip before the quarantine was set up."
"Oh." She returned her attention to her apple and continued hacking it as best as her inexperienced hands could. Then she stopped. "Why didn't they take you with them?"
"I didn't want to go."
"Why not?"
I rolled my eyes. "I didn't really want to go to Mexico." There was more to it than that. In fact, I had been planning a camping trip with Trish, Amy and Zeke around that time. That was why I didn't want to go.
We never ended up going.
She laughed. "Why not?"
Okay now I had to tell her why not. "I was planning on going camping with a few friends."
She nodded.
"Not to mention I didn't feel like baking on a beach."
She laughed.
We continued to eat our horrid apples in silence. I ate every part of it, even the seeds. She did the same thing. When I was done, I washed the horrible piece of crap down with the water I still hadn't touched. I could feel her eyes on me as I took a drink. It only made me amused because I could just see her train of thought. It was like she was waiting for my head to explode or something. I was tempted to fake electrocution, but that wouldn't have been nice. Besides, I might've spilled the water doing so.
"My name's Nita." She said suddenly.
I glanced at her and nodded. Nita. Finally I had a name for the face.
...
The rain didn't let up into the night. The rain had slowed considerably, but it fell constantly. I knew I was stuck with Nita until the rain stopped, so I tried to do my best to pass the time.
I got one of the televisions working. She was absolutely stunned when I did so. All I really had to do was hold onto the wire and hey presto, we had power. Nita hooked it up to the cable and we both sat on the rickety dining room chairs and watched some of it. Everything on it was totally lame. She tuned into the news and we both found entertainment in that.
"Well," I said suddenly, watching footage from the war in Afghanistan. "Now I know why we're not getting any help here."
Nita looked at me. "They're too busy focusing on the war?"
I nodded. "They don't have time for a small city." I continued to watch the television. "They're only worried about protecting the whole country in general. After 9/11, they've been doing everything in their power to keep those bastards out of the country."
Nita nodded. "Understandable." She paused. "But we don't need them, Cole. The government..."
I looked at her.
"Empire City has you."
I looked back at the television. "Yeah. I guess." I sighed. "But I'm one man. I can't save everybody no matter how hard I try."
"You're doing a good job, Cole."
I sighed and ran a hand over my head.
"You gave the people hope." Nita stated. "I was stuck in the Warren after the Blast. The Dust Men had the run of the place, and nobody wanted to do anything to stop them.
"But when you came through, you gave the people hope. You made them realize they weren't alone anymore, and there was someone out there who was trying to make a difference. It inspired them to fight back against the Dust Men."
I thought about that for a moment. I could remember citizens throwing rocks at the Dust Men while I fought them.
"You know it too, Cole. I know you do."
I stayed silent. I didn't know how to answer that.
The news began to talk about the weather at that moment. I could only sigh as they announced rain for the next several days.
Nita laughed. "Looks like you're stuck with me, Cole."
"Yep. Looks like it."
She laughed again.
...
As it turned out, powering that television drained electricity from me. I only realized it when the television suddenly flickered and went out. I attempted to call upon my power, but all I got were a few pathetic sparks.
"Cole! You're out of juice!" Nita laughed.
"Yeah." I glanced around the house. "Guess that means no television."
Nita shrugged. "Doesn't matter. There's nothing good on anyway." She sighed. "I'm sick of hearing about that news reporter talking about how much the government is doing for this city. In reality, they're doing shit."
I nodded. "Nobody's really come to ask just how things are going here. They're taking the governments phony words for it. The governments abandoned us."
Nita looked spacey for a moment. "When Empire City returns to normal I...I think I'm going to write a book on this."
I looked at her. "A book?"
She nodded. "I've been keeping a journal, logging every little thing I could. I've taken pictures with a camera. I keep everything in a fireproof box."
"It's a good idea." I told her. "Once the quarantine is down, I'm sure many of us are going to be telling our stories."
She nodded sadly.
I glanced out the window to see basically nothing. I could faintly see rain pouring down in areas lit up by street lamps, but other than that, most of the scenery was pitch black. I sat down on the couch and closed my eyes. I could use as much rest as I could get at this point in time. I was drained, and it was going to be raining for the next several days.
It only took me a couple seconds to completely conk out.
...
When I fazed back into consciousness, I realized someone had thrown a blanket over me.
Nita, I thought. I glanced around for her but she was nowhere to be seen. I flopped myself down onto the couch and pulled the blanket up to my chin. I had to admit, the gesture made me feel pretty good.
...
I faded in and out of consciousness for I didn't know how long. It didn't matter much either. All I really cared about was sleeping. I had never felt so damn comfortable in my life. It was the first time in a long time I slept on something legitimately soft.
What can I say? My body took advantage of it and slept like a log.
When I finally woke up for good, I glanced around the house. I could hear rattling in another room. I glanced out the window to see that the sky had lightened considerably, but I could still tell it was wet outside.
I pushed the blanket off and stepped onto the floor. The moment I stood up straight, the only thing I thought was I had never felt better. I held up my hand and watched the lightning jump energetically from finger to finger. Wow. I had restored my energy just by sleeping. I closed my eyes for a second. I could barely feel the electricity coursing through me. So I was still drained. I just had better control over it now that I was rested.
I walked towards the sounds coming from the other room. I looked through the door and saw Nita moving stuff around. I realized a second later what she was doing. She was pouring water into water bottles. She had so many of them too. I didn't understand why until I saw the rain catchers. Nifty.
I didn't want to startle her by speaking up. She probably didn't even know I was here right now. I had a feeling that if I made a sound, she would jump and spill that precious water she had been collecting.
Nita grabbed the four water bottles she had just filled and turned. She saw me and she gasped, practically jumping out of her skin, one of the bottles slipping from her hands.
"Cole!" She gasped. "You're awake!" She blinked a few times and picked up the bottle. "You scared me." She placed the water bottles with the massive collection she had. There looked to be over a hundred of them.
"Sorry." I said. "That's a lot of water."
Nita nodded. "Yeah. Can't have too much water these days. You never know when the next rain storm is going to come, you know?"
I nodded slowly. "Do you share this with anyone?"
Nita sighed. "No. Not really."
"Why not?"
"Because..." She whispered. "There's not enough for everybody."
"But there's not enough for you?"
"No! You don't understand!" She cried. "I can't just give water to some people and not give water to others! It's not fair, Cole!"
I leaned against the doorframe.
"I feel guilty about the amount of water I have. Really I do, Cole." She sighed. "But I'm trying to save as much of it as I can."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because I'm going to start growing food." She stated. "I'm going to grow it here. I've built a small greenhouse. I don't have very many seeds right now, but as I grow this food, I'm going to collect the seeds and eventually..." She turned towards me, a look of determination in her eyes. "Eventually I'm going to build a bigger one. And a bigger one, until everyone in this city is fed." She looked away. "Slowly but surely. The city will prosper again. I swear it, Cole."
"Where's your greenhouse?" I asked.
She walked out of the room. I followed her down the hall. She opened a door and I gasped. An entire room, facing south, had the roof replaced with glass. She had used the massive crack in the building to her advantage, allowing as much light as possible to filter in. She had a second door into the greenhouse to hold the warmth in. She pushed it open, and I followed her inside.
"This is my greenhouse." She stated.
"How long have you had this?" I asked.
"Since I took up residence here." She sighed. "I can only grow enough to feed myself right now, Cole."
I looked around at the plants that were growing very, very well. I saw tomato plants, bean plants, carrot plants, potato plants, any vegetable you could grow in your own garden, she had them growing in her greenhouse.
"This is the first harvest." She stated. "I know how to process the seeds. My mom used to do it. She was a gardener, and she owned her own nursery." She looked at me again. "I call it the Hope Garden."
I looked around at the plants and nodded. "All right. It's for the city."
Nita nodded. "For the city."
I walked through her greenhouse, examining all of the healthy plants that were growing there. She was really doing a good job, but I knew that these plants weren't big enough to feed a lot of people. More plants were needed. So to start, she kept the plants to herself. A thing like this, I understood. She had to be selfish. Even just a little bit. To make sure the garden was successful, she had to keep the produce to herself.
"Cole."
I looked towards her. She was holding a small pot with what looked like a tiny tree growing from it.
"This is my apple tree." She said with a smile. "I hope to grow many of them so we don't have to eat rotten apples again."
"That'll take many years, won't it?" I asked.
She nodded and set the plant down lovingly. "Hopefully Empire City will have come back by then."
