The day continued on in a similar fashion.
Marcus went back down into the basement. He found Maya and Sam still hard at work. After another two hours of hard labor, hauling up most of the rest of the stuff down there, Sam had to go take over watchtower duty, since Alan was finished. While they worked, Marcus and Maya talked, and Marcus got a better idea of the soldier.
"After Afghanistan, everything was a little...different," Maya said. They'd been talking about their hometowns, families, friends.
"What do you mean?" Marcus asked, carefully grabbing one side of a particularly large and heavy box that would require both of them to move.
"It was my first deployment. I spent a lot of time out in one of the bigger cities. Legally, they needed female troops to search female civilians. I did that a lot. I got into a few firefights. Saw some of my friends from basic die, another few of them lose limbs from IEDs."
"IEDS?"
"Improvised explosive device. It's nuts what those assholes come up with. I was there for six months before I got rotated out. First back stateside for another six months, then the past year in Iraq. A lot quieter, since the war's finished there and the terrorist cells have largely moved on. I got promoted this last year. Corporal. But about things changing...I tried to go back home, to KC, but...I don't know." She shrugged.
They brought the box up, set it with the others, then began heading back down into the basement. Marcus took a look at the sky. It was sometime around six PM, they'd have several more hours of light. He was getting hungry, but he reveled in the fact that they were going to be done very soon. Only a few more boxes and a big dresser.
"It just wasn't the same. It was too...hectic. I was paranoid, all the time. Always looking over my shoulder. You get that way when you're in a warzone. It doesn't just...turn off, when you go back home. My mom talked me into therapy for a little while, but it wasn't helping. I guess it'll serve me well now, huh?" she asked.
"Yeah...I guess so," Marcus murmured. "So you were up here hunting?" he asked.
"Yeah, with Colton and Strand. They were my friends. We'd spent a lot of time together. They were certainly best friends. I kind of wanted just Colton to come along. You know, just the two of us. We've always been close, ever since we met, but nothing like that. I kind of wanted more, he was a good guy and he got me. But he was also kind of dense. I mean, I thought he'd leap at the chance to be alone with a girl in the woods where anything could happen...but he mentioned it to Strand, who just had to come along." She shook her head. "I guess I should have been more direct, but I was kind of scared of fucking up the friendship. I wanted it to be more natural..." She paused again. "I'm not, like, freaking you out or anything by telling you all this am I?"
"Oh...no, not at all," Marcus replied, grabbing another box.
"Good. I'm kind of blunt. I say what's on my mind. I usually don't beat around the bush. It turns a lot of people off, I guess," Maya said, also grabbing a box.
They carried both boxes upstairs, dropped them off and came back down.
"I think this new world of zombies and lawlessness is going to require a lot of blunt, decisive conversation," Marcus replied.
Maya laughed. "Well, I guess I'm pretty well suited to it. No friends left, no family within five hundred miles, I can run and gun...okay, it looks like it's just this dresser," she said.
"Great, I can't wait to be out of this damned place. I've found and killed probably like fifty spiders so far."
"Arachnophobe?"
"No, not really. I just don't like them. They're ugly and dangerous."
"Not most of them. Come on, help me get this."
Marcus knelt, grabbed the base of the dresser and lifted with Maya. They carefully maneuvered the dresser up the stairs and set it down next to the massive pile of other stuff. Marcus let out an explosive breath and sat down on a desk.
"And I'm done for the day," he said.
"Oh no you aren't," Maya replied. "We've still got to go down there and sweep, clean those windows, mop up."
"Oh, come on..." Marcus moaned.
"God, where's your work ethic?" she asked, though there was no malice in her voice, just a sort of playfulness.
"Dead and buried in that basement," Marcus replied.
Maya laughed. "Fine. Let's get dinner and then you can help me finish up down there. We need to make it into a workable living environment."
"What are you thinking about putting in down there?"
"I don't know. If we can clean it up enough, maybe the infirmary. It'd be safer, at least, hopefully cleaner," Maya replied. "Come on."
They stood and made their way back into the church. Alan stood in the kitchen, leaning up against the cabinets, eating a can of beans.
"Hey, Maya," he said, and Marcus noted an unusual amount of interest in his voice. "How's the project going down there?"
"Fine," Maya replied curtly, raiding the cabinets for food. Marcus joined her. An uncomfortable silence settled over the kitchen.
"Well, thanks. It's nice to have someone around here who actually does something for once," Alan said.
Maya made a non-committal grunt. She grabbed a bottle of water and a can of something and headed into the main room. Marcus looked through the cans for a little while before grabbing a can of corn, a bottle of water and a bag of Funyuns. He followed Maya out and found her, Pastor Will and Lily eating dinner in the main room. They all sat on foldout chairs. Marcus found one, collapsed into it and started eating.
"We're done moving all the crap out of there," Maya said.
"Wow, really?" Lily asked. "Holy crap, you guys work fast."
"Benefit of a military lifestyle," Maya replied.
"Not to mention trying to keep busy to block out the fact that civilization has fallen and zombies are all over the place," Marcus replied.
"I've often found that prayer helps with that, too," Will said.
Silence fell over the room. Marcus got another few spoonfuls of corn in his mouth, frowning at the taste but making himself eat it anyway, before Maya spoke up.
"We found some good supplies down in the basement," she said. "That big canvas tent, another bunk bed setup. Also a pair of big dry erase boards that I think would be very useful."
"Useful like how?" Will asked.
"You guys have done a great job running this place, but...we need some more discipline if we're going to make it for a longer haul. We need a list of stuff that needs to be done, we need organization, more people, more supplies, to figure out who is good at what, a schedule of who sleeps when and who gets on the watchtower for how long, a full inventory of how much food and water we have, how many bullets, how many guns and which ones are in good shape, which ones are in bad shape. We need to know who's still alive in this town, in the valley, what their intentions are, their skills, if we want them with us or if we want them to stay away," Maya said, her voice becoming sharper and more decisive as she continued.
"Well...I can't argue with that," Lily murmured.
"Me neither," Will said.
"I can," Alan said. They all glanced over. He stood in the doorway.
"What a surprise," Marcus muttered.
"I'm the one who's held this place together. I'm the one with experience. I'm the only real law enforcement official left on duty in this town. I had fifteen years on the beat. And you guys just show up out of nowhere and think you can take over," Alan said.
"Oh give it a rest, Alan!" Lily cried suddenly, standing up. "Fifteen years on the beat my ass! Law enforcement official? You're a goddamned park ranger! You failed out of the police academy, what does that say about your leadership skills, Ranger Gunderson?"
"You'd all be dead if it wasn't for me!" Alan snarled.
"Maybe, but that doesn't mean we should just bow down and listen to everything you say, Alan. You don't want to advance, Alan, you just want to maintain the status quo. We can't maintain it forever!" Lily yelled.
"Okay!" Maya said, stepping forward. "Alan, you've apparently done a good job up until now, but if we're talking about rank, my authority supersedes yours. A Corporal in the United States Army overrides a park ranger." She looked at the others. "But I'm not going to make the argument that you should all listen to me because I'm military. I'm going to make the argument that you should listen to me because I've been trained to handle disasters, I'm level-headed and I know what I'm talking about. If your goal is survival, you should listen to me."
Another silence fell over the main room.
"I'm with Maya," Marcus said. "And my vote counts for Ed, too."
"Me too," Lily said.
"I don't like conflict but...Maya does make sense," Will said tentatively.
"So, what, you all just expect me to roll over and do whatever she says?" Alan asked.
"No," Maya replied. "I'm not looking to be a team leader here, not really. If anyone has advice, I want to hear it. But your plans...aren't working. You would have turned us away, and Marcus and I are clearly valuable assets to the continued survival of the community. We're both fit, we can shoot, we're brave. Sure, Ed is sick and immobile, but the two of us more than make up for that, and it's not a permanent thing. Ed will get better. That's one mistake. Then you abandoned Sam and Marcus in the field, that is a huge no go. You do not abandon your allies."
"They wanted to get a damned car!"
"So that they didn't have to abandon half the meds!" Maya yelled. "I don't know if you've noticed, but meds are in scarce supply! A little risk of drawing some unwanted attention is worth those meds! Not to mention, as I understand it, Lily needs some of those meds. So, not only were you willing to risk Marcus' and Sam's lives, you were willing to risk Lily's and your own. What if you had run into a pack? What if they did? Logically, you'd have the largest chance to stay alive together, car or no. So I'm calling your decision-making and leadership skills into question, Alan."
Alan stared around the room at the others, looking defensive and pissed off. Marcus was surprised his head hadn't blown up or something. He had an idea that nobody had straight-up yelled at him like this for decades, maybe longer.
"Fine," he said suddenly. "Do whatever you want. I'm going on watchtower duty."
He stomped out of the room.
"Wow," Lily said after a long moment. "I didn't think anyone had the guts to do that."
"It needed to be done," Maya replied. "So, white boards? Chores? Schedule?"
"I think it sounds like a great idea," Lily said. "We can set them up over there," she pointed to the wall behind where the preacher's podium was.
"Great. We'll establish a routine schedule on one, a big list of chores on the other. Also..." Maya walked over to the map Lily had established. "We should re-check these houses that have been marked off. I imagine the scavenging runs so far have been reduced to the basics: food, water, meds, guns. But we'll need other things. Gasoline, tools, tents, spare lumber, building materials, spare parts for cars, guns, structures."
"Sounds like fun," Marcus said.
"It won't be so bad," Maya replied. "Now, finish up. We've still got a few hours of light left. We need to finish getting that basement cleaned up. We'll need a mop and bucket, broom, a lot of bleach if we can find it."
"I can help," Will said. "I've had my rest, it'd be nice to get some exercise, wake myself up. And I know where all that stuff is...by the way, what are we planning on doing with the basement?"
"I want to turn it into an infirmary and maybe a storage area. We also found that big canvas tent you mentioned. I want to get that set up. We can use it as an extra bedroom. Which reminds me. Lily, I'd like a list of everyone you know who is alive and kicking in this valley and whether or not they should be rooming with us."
"Okay, I can do that," Lily replied, heading back to her desk.
"Let's get to work."