Chapter Seventeen: New Beginnings (pt 5)
"You okay?" Danny asked her cautiously.
She sighed heavily before standing up, "Yeah. José called because he was worried, said that he saw LaGrange be overrun on the news."
"I see."
Juno hadn't really thought to check the news stations this morning... not when she was busy juggling toddlers and the Morrison siblings. Besides... Juno honestly never watched the news in the first place.
"José told me he was getting close to Georgia. I told him to avoid the shelters and, you know, just keep in communication with me."
Hyun-Bin patted her back, a gentle and understanding expression on his face as he took in the worry on her own, "Let's get moving and clear out the rest of the houses. Do you know if any of the houses here have their own generators?"
Juno ran her fingers through her hair, "The Rec Center has a generator, that's where everyone gathered after that big storm took out the power grid... and the Morgon's got one installed when we did."
"Hank." Eun-Hyool added, "Hank's got a generator too."
A sardonic smirk tugged on the corners of John's lips. "Aint that for one stunning coincidence."
"Tell me 'bout it. Houses right next to each other." Danny contemplated as he looked down the street, "We could get all the ice boxes into one of the houses with generators and use it as a storage space instead of hauling everything up into the preschool."
"Why not both?" John commented, "It wouldn't hurt to have more than one place with food."
"Sounds good to me." Danny stated bluntly.
"We should use the Rec Center to store the food." Juno brought up after a moment, "The game room has a bunch of dedicated outlets to sustain the arcade games. The door also locks from the outside, it's perfect for holding the refrigerators."
"Juno ya know the most random shee-it." John teased as they made their way into another house. The Morrison's had lived next to the Burgess family, the least she could do for the three siblings under her care was retrieve their belongings. That is, after collecting all the perishables and canned goods.
She shot him a wry smile, "Maybe you just don't know shit 'bout anything, ever thought of that?"
"Naw girl, yer the one that makes those fake babies an' sell 'em online."
Fuck.
Of course, John was going to bring up how she made some extra cash. It was partly her own fault for laughing and holding John's initial reaction to the reborn dolls she made and sold over his head. Each doll sold between six hundred to a thousand dollars depending on how rare the kit was... and it was honestly really profitable. Juno had made a name for herself in the 'reborning' community for how lifelike her creations were... It's why she couldn't really fault John for his initial reaction. The poor man had completely freaked out-thinking that Juno somehow had a room filled to the brim with dead babies and had even threatened to call the cops on her between bouts of hysterical -and extremely unmanly- shouts.
It had been a truly hilarious sight. What with John clutching his then-infant son to his chest and one arm raised in front of them-as if to protect Elijah from her 'evil clutches.' In fact, Juno couldn't even look at John for over a month without remembering his panicked, wild eyes and cracking voice... and then promptly bursting into cackles. Much to the man's eternal annoyance and embarrassment.
Juno had been making the dolls since... perhaps her first year in college after her roommate introduced her to the world of reborning and the extremely realistic-looking dolls. It had only been after Clara revealed that she'd spent more than five hundred dollars to purchase her doll that Juno decided to do her own research into the girl's hobby. Bringing these dolls to "life" was one of the most lucrative decisions Juno had ever made... Even if that meant that her art room had a small crib full of fake babies waiting to be shipped out to their new "mommies" and doll parts drying around in weird places.
"What?" Danny asked in confusion as he did a double take- looking between her and John with wide eyes.
They had already entered the kitchen and were beginning to loot the room... so she had a built-in excuse to quickly look away. In fact, Juno was actively searching, not only for a way out of the conversation but for a way to help transport their goods. Maybe she could ask one of the Kims to grab a shopping cart from Mary's craft store.
"Fake babies?"
She sighed, rubbing her face in mild embarrassment when she realized that the three men not-in-the-know had stopped what they were doing to stare at her... and were completely unwilling to let John's comment go. Juno might as well get the conversation over with, "I sell- well used to sell I guess, these realistic looking baby dolls over the internet. With my history with art and painting... well, I was really good at it and made a pretty penny."
"I-I-I don' think I'm followin' what's happening..." Danny mumbled as he began piling some dry foods onto the dining room table.
John snorted, "Just wait till she shows ya one. Never been so creeped out in my fuckin' life."
"Shut up, John." she shot back in annoyance. Thankfully, the conversation ended there as they all split up and began searching through the different rooms of the house. Juno could hear Danny and John arguing in the hallway over what linen to bring back to the daycare as she looked at the contents of the fridge.
The woman had a gallon of milk in her fridge along with butter, American cheese, apple juice, ground meat, some frozen chicken breast and thighs, yogurt, fresh pasta, and six containers of leftover food that Mrs. Morrison had packed away for a later date. The dairy products would have to be consumed soon, so those would probably have to be moved into the preschool so that they wouldn't go to waste and spoil on them. They weren't living in a world where they could snub at food anymore.
"Hey!" Eun-Hyool shouted as he barged back into the house, the man was pulling a shopping cart behind him, "Hyung told me that it'd be a good idea to use these as a way to bring shit over to the daycare."
Juno smiled, "I was just about to say that we should go to Mary's and use her shopping carts."
"Hyung?" John questioned as he helped Danny begin to transfer their goods into the cart, "That a nickname for Hyun-Bin or somethin'?"
"Means 'big brother' in Korean." Eun-Hyool replied disinterestedly as he started opening cabinets. "Jackpot!" he exclaimed when he opened one of them to discover Mrs. Morrison's medicine cabinet. "Marie told me to start collecting all the pill bottles I could find. Said she wants to establish a med bay with Alice."
"Smart." Danny grunted, "There any more shoppin' carts? This'll be finished a lot faster if we 'ave more of these. We still gotta look at the other houses too."
"Yeah, there's more. Marie was collecting a bunch of jars at the craft store, said Marcy needed 'em for something and that she would come join us in a few." Eun-Hyool stated, the man was stuffing all of the medications inside the cupboard into the knapsack he had on his back until the shelves were empty. "Marie asked me to go through all the houses before nightfall and loot the medical supplies, so I'm going to go ahead of you guys and meet up with you when I'm done. Ya'll good here?"
Danny patted the younger man's back in a reassuring manner, "We're fine, you should grab one of the kids' backpacks in the hallway to help carry the stuff you find."
"We'll holler if we find any meds." John promised as he continued searching the kitchen.
"Thanks man, gonna check the bathrooms 'fore I go." Eun-Hyool smiled as he began to turn away.
"Eun-Hyool, before you go, where'd your brother go?" Juno asked him.
"Went back to the daycare. He's with Kathy searching the basement, lookin' for a trolley to help carry the ice boxes." Eun-Hyool responded as he made his way up the stairs.
The next two hours went by fast as they carted all of the food from the Morrison house and brought it over to the school. Juno had made sure to grab the Morrison siblings some clothes and their bathroom-related items and bring them up to her apartment... making the mental note to bring them with her as soon as the streets were completely clean and safe so that they could grab anything they wanted from the house.
By that point, the kids in the daycare were getting more than a bit restless and cranky from being away from their parents for so long. It was, however, rather easy to distract them from their loss with all the new faces going in and out of the school. The toddlers were fascinated with the new adults and kids in their environment and were happy to simply sit beside them during activities.
Johnny -whom she learned actually preferred to go by his nickname Zippo, derived from his middle name Zephier- and Juan were currently watching the kids, along with the Evan siblings, play in the playground while the other adults sorted out their new goods. Marcy, who had always been a bit of a neat freak, was making lists of everything they had acquired as well as the expiration date for a bunch of the food now in their possession. Alice and Marie were meticulously going over their medical supplies and cataloging them as they asked around their fellow survivors to find out if any of them suffered from anything medical-related. Danny and John were discussing boarding up the empty houses in the town that weren't going to be in use for much longer, so as to prevent animals from getting in or to prevent any weather-related damage from inflicting the structures before they were useful once more.
Juno knew that Juan and Zippo were considering moving into the older teen's old home when things died down, but the boys were both seemingly content with their place in the daycare for now... and were honestly proving to be rather useful members. As were the older kids, the Smith girls and the older Morrison siblings-they weren't afraid of work and didn't seem to mind helping the teachers entertain the toddlers in the preschool. The two younger Evan siblings were content to help around with anything the others requested and held the same work ethic their parents had.
The Kim men were forever helpful and had even collected the bodies of the shamblers they'd disposed of on their property and in the park before cremating them with the other bodies in the parking lot of the Brigade building. The day continued to progress in a similar manner of hard work as the remaining living residents of Pogonip, old and new, coexisted beside one another... the firm goal of survival burning bright within all of them.
Words 1944