Chapter 20: Our New life.
"Do you believe this? We lost our rights when the head honcho ripped his wife a new breathing tube, give me a break." Josh growled as he pushed past the other morose people that filed from the Gymnasium.
"This can't be all bad, I mean it sucks, but it can't be all bad." Christa crossed her arms and slouched onto Callie who shrugged her off.
"What are we supposed to do? Just go along living this little life that we've been forced into and forget everything we built and everything we were building towards?" Callie growled, throwing her hands out and looking between all of us for an answer we couldn't give.
From behind her McKenzie placed a soft hand on her shoulder and gave her a small sad smile. "We have to try… I guess." She shrugged, not able to offer anything else.
"Hello guys! I see you finished the Orientation, I heard it was a little…. intense… I apologize about that." A random and cheery male voice sounded behind us.
We all whipped around to see a pleasant looking young man in work clothes more commonly seen in the oil field. He was holding a clip board and a nice smile. He adjusted his worn baseball cap with some trucking company's logo, and gave a nod. "I didn't mean to give ya'll a fright, my name's Bradley I am here to show each of you where you'll be working. First off, who is planning on applying for a license to create or join a Scavenging guild?" He said in the same friendly tone as he looked over his clipboard at our sad looking lot.
Of course, Callie, Patrick, Jordan, Josh and I all raised our hands, there was no way we were going from doing that all the time to suddenly working hard labor or cleaning or whatever. Sorry, this was just what we're good at.
"Okay, okay good. It's been awhile since we got a group who were interested in leaving once they were put behind our safe walls." He said with a pleasant smile before looking down to his clipboard and jotting a few things down.
"Hey- hey what are you writing? Why do we even need you? Also, what- other than applying, will we need to do in order to get these 'licenses'?" Josh stood forward and placed his hands on his hips.
"Whoa buddy, no rush, I'll get to that point, don't worry, all yer questions will be answered but let's get the others out of the way first okay?" The man put his hands up in surrender. The clipboard was raised where we could easily see his writing but his penmanship was too illegible to obtain any information of worth.
Josh seemed ready to attack with more questions and frustration-filled accusations but instead he looked between the rest of us who all stared back with looks that told him to calm down and follow along. He shrugged and nodded before taking a step back to Dani's side.
"Okay, so I've got the five who want to go through creating a scavenge guild all written down. That's good, ya'll even have enough to make your own, that saves us from having to find one to place you in, that's like pulling teeth with some of these guilds. They're all close-knit, not willing to allow newcomers in." He nodded as he looked down and double checked his clipboard before turning and leading on.
"Okay, as you all should know by now Ms. Marla is employed with our hospital as a full-time nurse-"
McKenzie and Christa opened their mouths at the same time to inquire about Aubrey and Jaxon but Bradley was quicker.
"Yes, the children were immediately enrolled in the school system upon arrival. Aubrey was immediately put into Kindergarten, and Jaxon is at our Daycare which is in the same building. Aubrey will get out at three where she will be walked to the afterschool children's rec area. That is where you two ladies come in!" He looked directly at McKenzie and Christa with a nice smile. "We were informed by Ms. Marla that you two are used to taking care of the kids so we- well, mostly I, since I am ya'lls employment agent, found it would be perfect to place you two with the afterschool kids daycare, rec center. All ya'll gotta do is play with the kids and make sure they do their homework for a few hours every day until their parents get off and pick them up. If you have any other questions about your duties in that employment then your supervisor, Mrs. Amelia, is right through here…" He led our group up to the front door to the building that we'd been shown earlier as the large building that was once full of offices but was now the nursery-12 grade classrooms and apparently also the after school Children's rec center. "The rec center is all the way at the back of the building on the first floor, there is a small fenced in area out the backdoor where the children are able to play outside, there are plenty of fun activities for them to enjoy thanks to the fallen angels." He smiled as he led us down a dimly lit hallway.
Not to our surprise, the floor was pretty quiet. The whole first floor, aside from the Children's rec center was the nursery through Kindergarten floor. Out of the 13 rooms on the first floor only five rooms, aside from the rec center, were being used. As we passed a few of the rooms I took the liberty of peeking in and finding that it was nap time for the nursery-pre kindergarteners.
"What are the fallen angels?" I asked, turning my head from an old woman who waved and smiled at me through the long rectangular door window while holding and rocking a little baby.
"You mean who are the Fallen Angels." Bradley smiled and looked over his shoulder at me with a small friendly wink. "The Fallen Angels are an all-female scavenging guild that was once mother's and wives but have lost everything. They scavenge for goods to sell to merchants just like any other guild, but what they're known most for is their charity work. They like to scavenge for things like all the toys you'll see around the rec and donate them for the children or clothes for women and children and need, they're pretty amazing." He said with a small sigh and twinkle in his eye that said more than what he spoke. Perhaps he was dating someone apart of the guild or had a family member in it.
I nodded in agreement and gave a smile. "Yeah, they sound pretty amazing."
"Yeah, well anyway, McKenzie and Christa, you're right through this door!" He said cheerfully and opened the brightly painted red and blue door that said "Children's Rec" across it in green and orange letters to see a less dimly lit room that was adorned with toys, furniture, and books all over the place.
"Oh thank God you girls are here!" A woman who suddenly popped up from behind a couch smiled and laughed as she stood to reveal yellow-gloved hands covered in suds. "Apparently one of the kids snuck a few too many snacks in yesterday and puked over here by the couch. I guess my other two girls who help out didn't see it cause it was here all night…eh, well, welcome! I am Amelia! It's a pleasure to meet you girls!" She said with an air of carefree and fun about her as she slid the gloves off of her tired and wrinkled hands and threw her long wispy grey-blond hair over her shoulder and hugged both McKenzie and Christa as they stepped out to greet their new boss.
"The Children should be here within the next hour and a half so we better get going but I know Ms. Amelia will take care of you, she'll let you know the ropes around here, your pay, and hours. I was also informed by Marla that you two were seniors when the infection began. Since it was only a year ago that everything happened, you will be required to finish out this semester here as 12th graders so be here, outside the doors a little after sunrise. There will be counselors for every grade waiting out to welcome in all the new students and they will show you to your classrooms and once school lets out just come down to the Children's Rec, okay? Alright Ms. Amelia I think you got it from here! Have a good one!" Bradley said happily as he led the way back out through the door and into the hallway.
Callie and I snuck a quick hug to or sisters before turning and following the others out of the building.
"Okay, so moving on! Next is Dani, Upon seeing you I couldn't help but of course, notice your fiery red hair, may I say it is beautiful and just taking a shot in the dark here what do you think about bartending?" Bradley shot a smile over his shoulder and Josh made an annoyed sound in response. The rest of us all ignored Josh and looked to Dani with goofy grins and shrugs, allowing her to make the decision.
"It's great money, fun atmosphere, and when off the clock you get free drinks!" He waggled his eyebrows in anticipation, trying to reel her in on the deal. Apparently the bar was in dire need of a good looking woman behind the counter.
Josh scoffed, "oh yeah and let's not forget to mention the possibly tiny outfit she'll be forced to parade around in and all the men pawing at her like a piece of meat." He crossed his arms and gave Dani a look that told her the bartending idea was a bad one.
Dani looked at Josh and raised her eyebrow. "I'll take it, sounds like fun and I think the money will benefit the family." She spoke to Bradley, never taking her eyes from Josh.
"Awesome! Right this way, Tucker will want to show you the ropes as soon as possible, it's Friday so the place will be packed tonight well- it's the only bar in New Barksdale so it's often packed but Fridays it's especially packed!" He laughed and walked us up to a small one story building that I recognized as what used to be a small venue with a bar and a dance floor that the base would rent out to people that wanted to host parties or meetings before everything fell to shit. A small pang of longing and sadness struck me upon walking through the French doors at the back of the building as a memory of years ago, struck me. My friend Kendra had her 18th birthday party there. It was fun, a memory I vowed to never forget that was full of laughter, and dancing and, drinking coke out a tap and thinking we were cool because of it.
I sighed as we passed the dart board on the wall that now had old blood stains that I couldn't tell if it was from the initial infected attack or last Friday. We passed the two pool tables that were now scuffed and being held even with books and broken cardboard boxes under the legs but, was still set up and ready for that night, then past an opening in the wall that separated the pool and dart area with the bar and dance floor area where a large handsome man named Tucker looked up from wiping down the bar and smiled.
"Bradley! Good to see you! Did you bring me the bartender I've been requesting for weeks?" He laughed and walked up to Bradley, and hugged him like a best friend.
"I sure did, right here." Bradley smiled and gestured to Dani who smiled and gave a small nervous finger wave.
Tucker let out a whistle as he looked her up and down. "Well, I'll be- darling you're gonna rake in the tips looking like that." He said and Josh huffed and stepped in front of her before she could respond.
"Hey there! Name's Josh, nice to meet you!" He grabbed the man's hand and shook firmly, throwing him off guard for a moment.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought he was pointing to the lady here, you're my new bartender? Well, you'll do, you're a little thin but I'm sure you can serve up a mean drin-" He started with a more disappointed look.
"No, no I am your new employee, that's just my boyfriend being weird." Dani interrupted and gave Josh a look.
Tucker seemed to instantly brighten back up. "Oh, good! No offense buddy but I'd been requesting a female for a while to draw in more customers. We get good crowds but lately all we've been getting is sad drunks who sit here and bitch and moan. I've been needing a pretty face or two to lift spirits." He said and clapped a very disapproving looking Josh on the shoulder before turning back to Dani. "Oh don't worry though, I won't let anyone harass ya' now, if ya'll don't mind I have a lot of drink combinations to teach her along with the schedule, cleaning routine and payment method to go over with my new employee." He said and opened the little wooden swinging door behind the bar for Dani before looking back at the rest of us and smiling at Bradley who said his goodbyes and led the continuation to our way towards getting scavenging licenses.
Once we were out of the building I strode a few steps ahead to catch up with Bradley. "Hey, speaking of payment method, how do we get paid around here? In the market place I noticed that a lot of people were using old school bargaining with trade."
"Yeah, we're not getting paid with cats and bags of grain are we?" Jordan asked with a half amused, half serious look across his face.
Bradley looked from his clipboard at us and nodded. "Oh yeah, we still use American currency just like before, you'll just notice that the value of the dollar bill isn't anywhere close to what it used to be around here. You'll find that you will get more by trading important items rather than buy with money, not that money is obsolete; it's still far from that. You'll see whenever you start scavenging how things work around here." Bradley said with a friendly smile and nod as we walked through the doors of one of the office buildings that commander dickhead had pointed out earlier to be only accessible through certain passes and people.
"This is the building where you'll be starting your classes for your scavenging licenses. Everything will be held on the 10th floor and I am sorry guys but elevator is of course, not running so you'll have to use the stairs. Your classes start early morning at sunrise, don't be late." He said as he scribbled each of our names under his signature and handed us each a copy of a page that had all been hand written with our room number, time, employment advisor and an empty space for a guild name.
"Alright, thank you. See you tomorrow, then." Jordan said and shook Bradley's hand then waited as we all did the same before he could take my hand in his and guide the rest of us out the doors and into the streets of New Barksdale.
"So, we need a guild name…?" Jordan looked from the scribbled across piece of paper to the rest of us.
Suddenly Callie smiled and gave a small giggle. "You know we're going to be the best-ass-kicking-est guild around. We should be called 'Bite the Pillow'." She said with a deep snort of laughter.
I immediately failed at suppressing a smile. "Are you also suggesting that our motto be 'we're going in dry.'?"
Jordan burst into laughter along with the rest of us at the idea of people knowing us by that. Would people laugh? Yeah probably, but after they see what we're made of they may also respect us too. Plus I had to admit, I like the idea of a silly name forcing a minute of laughter into a person's mind that was previously filled with nothing but sadness and loss.
"So it's settled? We're going to figuratively ass fuck the other guilds around here?" Josh said with a shake of his head and a laugh.
"Let's do it!" Callie cheered and threw her fist in the middle of us.
The rest of us all laughed and threw our fists around her, including Patrick who had been quiet the whole time, even he couldn't help but smile and throw his fist in with the rest of us.
"Okay on the count of three we'll say-" Josh began.
"What? What the hell are we possibly going to chant?" I blurted with a silly grin as my mind came up with a million crazy saying to go with our name.
Suddenly Jordan laughed again. "On the count of three, prepare your diddly hole."
I almost couldn't stand, I was laughing so hard. "Oh my god, okay okay." I tried to stand straight and control some of the laughter but I wasn't the only one struggling. I looked up from laughing at my dirty boots to see wide, bright smiles across my closest friend's faces. My heart fluttered at the sight, it was wonderful. It felt like it had been ages since we all seemed generally in high spirits. For once since arriving, I was excited for the next day to start. I had hope that things would now be great again, that we could become something important to more than just ourselves. I felt that we all could be, not just happy, but happy and well-off and a part of something bigger than ourselves.
Then, in a cloud of bright smiles and explosive laughter, I was brought out of my own personal daydream of the future and joined in with the sound the empty street was filled with; the optimistic chant of a small group of young adults.
"Prepare your Diddly Hole New Barksdale!"