August 25, 2010
Shane spends the week after his brush with dying of infection trying his best not to give Sophia any reason to worry. Waking up with an entire day missing and her curled up asleep against him, makes him riddled with guilt. Instead of protecting her, he endangered her, because he never told her he would turn if he died.
When he rectified his mistake, she didn't quite meet his eyes, but wasn't angry. Her quiet admission that she probably wouldn't have put him down still makes his blood run cold.
Instead of stewing in guilt, he turns to giving her the skills to survive without him, should the worst ever happen. The trip from bedroom to living room and kitchen seems like a mile the first two days, but he makes it. He teaches her to cook from a kitchen chair, to look after her gun at the coffee table, and to develop an exercise routine with and without the home gym equipment.
This morning is the first morning he can run a mile on the treadmill. His chest isn't healed, because that will probably take months. But it's no longer a gaping puncture wound.
He eyes the wound in the mirror as he prepares to apply the fresh bandage after his shower. It doesn't look like any scab he's ever seen, but he thinks it legitimately qualifies as a scab now. He isn't ready to leave it uncovered, because catching the delicate protective scab on anything sounds terrifying.
Not to mention Sophia might actually shoot him if he's careless with what she went through hell to help heal.
Pulling a shirt on, he rubs a hand across the nearly two weeks' growth of beard, debating shaving, but decides against it. The less he looks like his old self, the easier it is to face the mirror. He'll trim it up later.
"You ready, Fee?" he calls out as he readies his gear into pockets and on his belt.
When she appears in his doorway, he thinks no one would ever recognize Sophia as the timid girl from the quarry.
Her shaggy punk haircut is covered by an Atlanta Braves cap. She's wearing neat cargo pants, a denim long-sleeve shirt he recognizes as one of his over a gray JROTC T-shirt, and the sturdy leather work boots from the first farm. Most importantly, she's got her little Walther in its holster on her belt on one side and her hunting knife on the other.
"Gotta get you some extra magazines for that," he tells her.
She shrugs and pats one of her pockets. "Got a pouch of extra ammo in the meantime."
"You ain't gonna leave me much to teach you at this rate." He sorts through the pocket knives that are collected up in his nightstand drawer.
"I think there's still a lot to learn."
She's smiling when he passes her two of the small knives. "One for your pocket. Other for your boot. Use the clip on the second to hook to the top of the boot, under your pant leg."
Sophia kneels and settles the knife, looking up at him for confirmation. He nods before motioning her over to the gun safe half hidden under the bed.
"Didn't take everything with me because we were supposed to be going to a government installation. Code is 0410. That ever fails, there's a key hidden in the base of the lamp on the other side of the bed. Got it?"
"Got it. 0410 and lamp base."
"Smart girl." He keys in the code. The safe is more of a vault model than the simpler ones he knows most people use.
Three slots for handguns, two of which are still occupied. He leaves the heavier Glock 22, taking the small Ruger LCP he bought for ankle carry until a deputy's negligent discharge of an ankle gun got them banned off department policy.
"This is a .380. You could probably fire it pretty easy, and we'll practice all the guns when we get the chance." For now, he slides it into the ankle holster attached to his right boot.
"It wouldn't fit my ankle, would it?"
"Probably not comfortably, and you'd need different pants to cover it." She's taller than Carl, but a bit delicate in build, and still at least eight inches shorter than Shane is. "But we'll try it out sometime."
Even giving her a boot knife isn't truly useful yet, but it's a backup she should always have. He stops by the big gun safe and takes his rifle and replenishes ammo for all three guns he's carrying. He makes sure she knows the code is the same for the cabinet as the bedroom safe and where the emergency key is hidden.
He follows her to the kitchen where she's got a backpack ready. They aren't going far, but poor prior planning makes him wary of going out without water or a good first aid kit.
"Are we taking the car to your friend's house?"
Shane shakes his head. "Boat. Until we know how clear her property is, water access is safer and less likely to lead anything back here."
She shoulders the backpack he can't carry and waits patiently. "Should we lock up?"
"Honestly, locks don't really stop anyone wanting in, so no sense tempting anything being broken." They've seen no sign of people so far, and he hopes that luck holds for now.
Sophia follows him down the stairs and then to the boat. He'll need to be conservative in movement today, since he's not up to full strength by any stretch of the imagination.
"Should have asked before now, but can you swim, kiddo?" Carl's life jacket should fit either way, but best to know if she can handle the water.
"No, I can't." She sets aside the backpack and buckles on the life jacket while he checks the boat's still in working order after months idle. The motor starts up just fine, and despite not being able to swim, she hops into the boat confidently.
"Take the seat by the motor, kiddo. Gonna teach you to drive it."
It's one of the ideas that plagued him, how trapped she was with him sidelined. Teaching her to drive the Bug will take longer, but the boat? That's a lot easier.
Like most of the times he's offered to teach her, she grins and plunks the backpack down between her feet as she sits. He walks her through the controls and snags his own life jacket as he unties the boat and steps in.
"Alright. Give it a try."
It's jerky and erratic, but she manages to pull away from the dock.
"Head out into the lake. Gloria's dock is up that way, to the east, but we'll get you some practice first."
After ten minutes spent navigating the oxbow, he directs her back east. "Hers is easy to remember. Last one before the creek. Creek's deep enough to get to the river, but we won't try the river just yet."
"But we will eventually?"
"Good fishing out there, so yeah. But running the boat on the river is different than the lake."
She takes the idea of needing more practice with an easy acceptance. He doesn't even have to tell her to ease off the throttle when they near the dock. He ties off the boat and climbs out, offering her a hand once she shuts off the motor.
Gloria's boat is still docked, a similar enough model to his that he reminds himself they should take it back if the motor will start. They both leave their life jackets behind, taking only the backpack.
"Her place is only fenced around the gardens, so keep a close eye out."
"Do you know what happened to her?"
"She died at the hospital, early on. Lived alone, so if we encounter any walkers, it'll be roamers. Maybe other neighbors."
He's not sure what everyone else's status is out of the six other homes on the road. He told the two neighbors he saw on the way in to grab some of his things to head to Atlanta.
It's a higher climb to Gloria's place, because she's high enough off the water to not need the pilings that the three houses west of her do. The trail winds up a hillside before levelling off.
"Wow. That's a lot of vegetables."
Shane laughs. "Told you she sold at the farmer markets."
While Gloria's place isn't big farm, certainly not on the scale of the peanut farm, she did a decent little business in the ten acres between her house and the lake.
"Doubt it's all still good, but some will be, right?"
"Yeah, some will be. We'll clear the house and then check out the gardens. Take what we can use and come back as we need."
Although they stay alert, there's no movement anywhere on the place. The doors to the chicken coop and pen are open and no chickens appear, so he assumes someone set the birds free or took them. He fishes the hidden key from its hiding place and unlocks the back door after raps at the kitchen window don't summon anything.
The house is bigger than his, a sprawling old brick structure too big for the sole occupant. But Gloria raised her family and sent them on with lives that didn't include rural King County. They clear each room, upstairs and down.
"No electricity here."
"She had a diesel generator. Probably never even turned on since no one was here when the power failed." Her GMC pickup is still in the garage, since Gloria went to the hospital by ambulance.
"So don't open the fridge. Got it."
"She's got a basement of stuff she's canned from the garden. We'll come back another day and load all of it up, but you can look and see if anything is needed sooner."
He does check the basement first with her, before returning to the kitchen. The other farms, those were easy to explore. This one has the same echoes as Rick's home. He keeps expecting Gloria to pop into the kitchen, claiming he'll waste away to nothing if he just doesn't take the extra pie she just 'happened' to make.
"You okay, Shane?"
Sophia's back, a couple of jars in her arms and a length of onions twistes in pantyhose over one arm. She looks worried as she spots him by the sink.
"Just a little weird being here with Gloria gone." He opens a drawer and hands her a few dish towels to wrap the jars in. "Pickles, I understand. Sauerkraut?"
"Same reason as pickles. Plus I like sauerkraut."
That's a good enough reason for him. He's got no strong feelings either way on the food.
"She has a cat flap."
That reminds Shane of the damned demon cat. "He might be hiding somewhere. Name's Lucius, if you see him. Massive black tom cat with no tail."
"Like the Harry Potter character?"
Shane snorts. "Anything's possible. He came with the name from the shelter when she adopted him. Mean bastard would be better named Lucifer."
Sophia giggles as she finishes packing away the jars along with several cans of evaporated milk from the pantry. She pulls out two of the cloth shopping bags to use in the garden. "Maybe that means he's okay. Cats can climb and hide, and they can hunt to fees themselves."
"Likely so." They head back outside and he relocks the door, but pockets the key. "Let's go check out the gardens."
Not all of it is vegetable gardens. A good portion is blueberry bushes, and those are past harvest. But Sophia collects a few remaining fruits from the row of peach trees while Shane keeps an eye out.
When they move on to the garden, she collects more okra, tomatoes, and zucchini easily, ignoring the spiders running free in the garden with ease. She avoids the hot peppers in favor of big bell peppers and adds a cabbage to her bag with more glee than any kid should favor a vegetable.
It's when she kneels to select a cantelope that Shane's life gets infinitely more complicated.
"Hi, kitty!"
This is where Shane's not a stupid man. He's spent his entire adult life observing the weird, inevitable partnership of women and cats. So, he knows they're taking that asshole cat home even before Sophia's ball cap pops back above the plants.
She rounds the row of plants, shopping bags of fresh vegetables over both shoulders and her arms full of fifteen pounds of purring American Bobtail cat.
"We can't leave him by himself with his owner gone," she says. Those blue eyes plead skillfully, and even if he were inclined to argue that this particular cat is a bad idea, he can't go against her wish to save any living being at this point.
"You'll be a good boy, right, Lucy?" she cajoles further. The cat yawns, licking his chops, and watching Shane through narrow yellow eyes.
He sighs, as there's no point in fighting the inevitable. "Let's go get his damned cat food then."
After a trip to the garage, Shane follows girl and cat down to the boats. When the cat seems willing to plop his fluffy ass in Shane's own boat and stay, Shane checks over Gloria's boat and the engine comes to life easily. Sophia gets his own boat underway and he follows her slow and steady pace back home.
At the dock, the cat leaps out and darts off to explore, leaving Shane to shake his head while Sophia giggles. She watches him tie off the second boat and copies the process on Shane's.
Sophia kneels and trails her fingers in the water. "Would you teach me to swim?"
He considers the time left in the season versus his chest healing. "Once it's safe for me to go in the water, yeah. Water's only about five feet deep until you get twenty feet out from the dock."
They're halfway to the house when Sophia groans. "What about a litter box?"
Shane laughs, but he appreciates she thought of it before they were all the way home. "He's been trained to go outside. That's why Gloria had that cat flap. These two bags of dry food will last for a while because he's used to hunting and we can feed him scrap meat from fishing."
Satisfied that her new pet's necessities are covered, she hops ahead, seeming carefree for the first time since he found her in the cabin. She calls out for the cat and it romps up, behaving far more like a housecat than menace. If he's lucky, that attitude will stick, but he doubts it.
Doesn't really matter. Cat makes Sophia happy, so he stays.